<\/p>\n
For Apploff Entertainment President and CEO Jeff Apploff, the path to breaking into Hollywood was a \u201cweird road.\u201d<\/p>\n
After dropping out of school at 15 years old to help take care of his family, Apploff became a vice president of operations for Bageland, a franchise of 18 bagel shops in South Florida. He would go on to work at several different businesses in the restaurant industry, including his own chain called Promenade and a local supermarket, before deciding he wanted out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just left the whole business. That was it. I said, \u2018Enough. I don\u2019t want to smell like fish anymore. I don\u2019t want to smell like pastrami. I want to get out and do something\u2019,\u201d Apploff recalled in an interview with TheWrap\u2019s Office with a View. \u201cI knew there was something bigger for me and I was trying to figure out what it was.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t long after entering an open mic contest that he was bitten by the entertainment bug and became a stand-up comedian, touring the country for seven years. He would go onto create the Disciples of Comedy, who would sell shows on the radio while traveling from city to city. He also served as a producer of a local radio program, The Ron and Ron Show, for four years.<\/p>\n
Eventually, his passion for the entertainment industry took him to Beverly Hills, where he met \u201cBlind Date\u201d executive producer David Garfinkle while promoting an Eddie Griffin concert. That meeting would inspire Apploff to start creating and pitching shows to networks just as unscripted TV was starting to take off. Despite having no manager or agent, he successfully sold \u201cDon\u2019t Forget the Lyrics\u201d to Fox in 2006, which has gone on to surpass 100 episodes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I sold \u2018Don\u2019t Forget the Lyrics,\u2019 it was a big thing for me,\u201d Apploff said. \u201cI remember, we were taping the very first episode, and the girl that was the contestant had $105 in the bank. As it\u2019s going on, she keeps winning more money and more money and more money. At one point, she had won $350,000 and she decided that was it and the show\u2019s ending. She\u2019s on stage screaming and crying and I\u2019m in the control room screaming and crying. And for me, that was the moment where I went \u201cI changed her life\u201d and it changed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his contract, Apploff negotiated a company logo to air at the end of the episode, which would lead to the creation of Apploff Entertainment, named in honor of his father. From there on out, Apploff would be taken under the wing of former Fox executive Michael Darnell and would go on to create games shows including Jamie Foxx\u2019s \u201cBeat Shazam,\u201d Anthony Anderson\u2019s \u201cWe Are Family\u201d and Wayne Brady\u2019s \u201cGame of Talents,\u201d among others.<\/p>\n