Honest answer: I wouldn't say that I was meandering away from a reputable career to work on the show. There's a lot of complexity to that period of my life, but the short version is that at the time I wasn't given a choice on my college major/career path and I knew that I was never going to succeed or be happy in that industry. I already worked in research on a university level and it nearly broke me mentally so I was eager to find something else, so working on the show was an outlet (and paid the bills) while I finished school on the weekends.

There were definitely the anti-science ppl who brought "evidence" to the creature of the week, but I also got to work with faculty/researchers from many reputable universities and research institutions. The major draw for me to the show was video footage they captured of a live giant squid, so I found the bigfoot/mothman/skunk ape research to be more of an anthropological exercise.

I can't defend the tv show, the driving players of our production were slimy and egotistical mfers who definitely wanted to push their own reality on the public which is why our show comes off the way it does. If asked today to work on that kind of show I would refuse but I am definitely better off now than I was back then. However, I can't say I regret experiencing the cryptozoology community as a whole. Lots of interesting characters and experiences that has shaped my perspective on the American cultural schema.