When Mickey Liddell was a student at OU he never imagined that he was going to end up in Hollywood.

"Like most college students, I was just trying to get through each day," Liddell said. "I always kind of knew I wanted to do something special but I didn't know what that was."

What that something turned out to be for the Norman native was to become a movie producer and an executive producer for the new show "Everwood" on the WB network.

Liddell started his path to Hollywood by receiving a communications degree from OU in 1984.

After graduating, Liddell moved to Dallas to do what most people do when they finish their studies: work. But after some time, Liddell's inkling of doing something special made him decide to move to the Big Apple to pursue a masters.

While studying at Parsons School of Design in New York City, Liddell found work making sets for Broadway plays. That experience made Liddell see he wanted work in entertainment.

"Growing up in Norman, I just didn't really know much about (working in entertainment)," Liddell said. "I always loved movies but I just didn't know how they were made. Broadway gave me a little taste of that and I thought this is really something I'd like to do, so I moved to Los Angeles."

When Liddell arrived in L.A., he still was not sure of what he was going to do.

"I was writing and for about a year I was doing stand-up," Liddell said. "I traveled around the comedy circuit, performing at places like the Comedy Store and I did a thing for Comedy Central."

While Liddell was doing his comedian gig, his writing agent had decided to become a manager. Liddell recommended that the two start a production company. Liddell's agent would handle the management side and Liddell would do the production.

"When we started, we just had four or five clients," Liddell said. "But we just got bigger and bigger."

After some time, Liddell was working with the likes of Brandon Frasier, Elijah Wood, Bill Paxton, Ed Norton, Vin Diesel, and Mark Wahlberg.

"Working with those actors was really my introduction into the business," Liddell said. "Because we really had great clients, I said to them, let me produce your movies."

The first movie Liddell produced was "Travelers," starring Bill Paxton, Mark Wahlberg and Julianna Margulies in 1997.

"What I did was go out and get a script, find the actors and get money all through independent financing," Liddell said. "That was my first movie to produce and I realized that this is what I love and this is what I want to do."

Since "Travelers," Liddell has produced a movie each year. Films to his credit include "Under Heaven," "Go," and "The Broken Hearts Club."

Producing "The Broken Hearts Club" was how Liddell teamed up with Dawson's Creek writer Greg Berlanti and formed a company called Berlanti and Liddell.

"[Berlanti] had a television deal with Sony, so he wrote "Everwood," Liddell said. "When he finished it, I read it, I was like 'wow' and I said 'let's go make this.'"

Liddell and Berlanti made a pilot for "Everwood" and the WB network contracted Liddell and Berlanti to make 13 episodes.

With seven episodes now completed and the first episode having premiered Monday night, "Everwood" looks to be successful.

"We're really getting a lot of great buzz and great reviews," Liddell said.

Even though Liddell is a long way from Norman, what excites Liddell is that his work will be seen by people in his home town.

"I'm excited because all my family's in Norman and OKC," Liddell said. "It's like sending them something every week that they can watch and sort of know what I'm working on. It's very cool."
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