National Geographic’s ‘Pond Stars’ reality series features local hosts

National Geographic’s WILD is bringing nature back with its new series “Pond Stars,” a show that plucked its title characters right out of Kane County.

In its first season, the show follows local water-feature specialists Greg Wittstock (“The Boss”), a Wayne resident and owner of St. Charles-based Aquascape – a supplier of water gardening supplies – and longtime co-workers Ed Beaulieu (“The Scientist”) of Sugar Grove and Brian Helfrich (“The Foreman”) of Downers Grove, as well as new guy Chris Hanson of Naperville.

Filmed locally, and in other U.S. cities, “Pond Stars” aims to reconnect a digital-dependent society with nature by transforming dreary backyards into tranquil retreats. Cameras capture individual projects carried out by the Aquascape team, including an oasis at Kaneland High School, a zoo habitat project, a backyard remodel for a football-team owner and a healing garden for a cancer survivor.

“Pond Stars” premieres at 9 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9, on Nat Geo WILD.

Shaw Media's Kara Silva got a chance to chat with “Pond Star” character Beaulieu about his role on the show, reconnecting with nature and his first foray in filming reality TV.

Kara Silva: Well, first off, congrats on the show. Are you pretty excited for it to premiere?

Ed Beaulieu: Yeah, you know what? I am. Because we've spent so much time filming over many, many months, talking about it, doing all the filming, traveling all over the place and, now, all of a sudden, we're actually going to see something.

I’m also a little bit nervous because you don’t know how it’s going to turn out. We don’t see all the footage and everything; we see little bits and pieces.

Silva: How did the idea for “Pond Stars” the TV show come about?

Beaulieu: It actually had started years ago.

[Aquascape’s] main business is the design, [building] and installation of water features throughout the Chicagoland area, but we also have another element of our business, which is the manufacturing and training of the people for the products that we install.

So, with that, we have always done training videos, books, magazines, articles, blogs, Facebook, Youtube [and] that went out to landscape contractors and professional installers throughout North America.

Somebody – a production company – had actually watched one of those videos; they found them on Youtube and liked what they saw. This happened years ago, and nothing happened.

This happened multiple times. And then finally about two years ago, another production company came to us with the same exact story.

We said, “Yeah, no problem, we’ve heard this before.”

We made another video with them, and – this time – the timing was right or they put it in the right person’s hands or whatever, and we ended up getting contacted by a network.

Silva: What do you want people to know about this show? What’s the premise?

Beaulieu: The premise of the show is pretty simple. What we're doing is we're trying to take ordinary people in typical suburbia and we're trying to give them a wildlife experience.

So, by adding that aquatic element, putting in some sort of a decorative water feature or small pond, you will bring in a lot of life from the surrounding area. It’s turning it into this little microworld in your backyard.

Silva: How did you land a spot on “Pond Stars”? Were you always in the running and always a part of it or did you have to audition?

Beaulieu: I was always in the running, and I think it's because I was one of the first people hired [at Aquascape] and I had designed and built over 1,500 water features throughout the world. So, between Greg, Brian and myself, we have the most experience in the company in doing this.

Silva: What is your role on the show?

Beaulieu: So, there are three main characters: Greg is the owner – he’s the boss guy; Brian is the foreman, so he is in charge of the installations; and, my degree is in zoology, so I have that wildlife background, and I specialize in aquatic biology.

So, I am known as the scientist on the show.

Silva: So, you’re the brains of the operation?

Beaulieu: [Laughs.] Yeah, well all three of us have a lot of brains, but I kind of take it to a science, nerdy level, I guess you could call it.

Silva: “Pond Stars” is a reality TV show. Were you a fan of reality TV before making your own show?

Beaulieu: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Reality TV is the norm, so there is such a diversity of programs on TV right now. You can literally find a TV show on anything that you're interested in, and because of my background in science and everything, I am a National Geographic junkie so I was thrilled when I found out we were with National Geographic.

Silva: Is the show scripted?

Beaulieu: It is not. It's not scripted at all.

Silva: What was the filming experience like? Was there anything that you learned about making reality TV that you didn’t initially realize before going into it?

Beaulieu: Oh my God, pretty much everything. I mean we had no clue. We're going into this with our basic understanding of how we would film one of our training videos. But when you have a full blown production company ... there are more of them on the job site than there are of us actually working and installing the features.

They’re trying to weave a full blown story out of what they see. We’ll have 100-plus hours of footage for one episode, so how they can condense all of that footage down to one episode – to me – is a daunting task.

Silva: Is any of the show filmed in the Kane County area?

Beaulieu: It is. There are multiple things filmed in Kane County. ... I would say out of any other place in the country, we have more filmed in Kane County than anywhere else.

Silva: Why do you think people will be interested in watching a show like this? What will they get out of it?

Beaulieu: In today's world everybody has a very hectic life, high stress jobs, and we're always running to take the kids to ball games, soccer practice, whatever. ... There are direct correlations between stress relief and having an aquatic element.

The other thing is, during the construction process in suburbia, we’ve had to  – unfortunately – destroy or move and displace a lot of local wildlife.

So, all of these animals that normally live in Kane County have been displaced and pushed out to the outer fringes.

So, by us doing these little backyard oases, we’re inviting some of that wildlife back in, which I think is very important.