Character Profile: Jim Anderson

Basic Traits/First Impression

Jim has been the general manager of the TV station for thirty-four years and has no intentions of ever retiring. He knows the industry well and has little tolerance for anything less than his excellent standard. For the majority of his career, this has been a good quality and caused the station to do well.

After the death of his wife however, Jim started clinging to the station as the only meaningful thing left in his life. He began ranting and having angry outbursts at his employees even over minor issues. Some long-time employees like Allison have stuck it out, but others have moved on to other stations because they couldn’t take it his behavior anymore.

Crisis Situation

To Jim, this station is more than just a business—he has thirty-four years of memories wrapped up in it. He and his wife both worked there (she was the station’s accountant)—if it fails, he would be at a complete loss of what to do with the rest of his life. The harder he’s tried to cling to it however without any balance, the worse things have gotten. All of his strengths as a leader have been pushed to the point of becoming weaknesses, and he doesn’t immediately realize the consequences of his actions until much later.

There is also the aspect of his wife’s influence not being there anymore—she was the person that was encouraging him to attend church and was much more active in her faith than he was. He’s at a crossroads—and the purpose of his character is to represent people who can go either direction based on their decisions. He’s also meant to be relatable to people who have been laid-off or are in danger of being laid-off from their jobs after putting a lot of years and effort into their careers. Jim intended for this station to be his legacy, and by all indications he’s going to lose it.

Resolution/How Character Changes

Jim has let himself fall into a backslidden and neglected state in his faith because of grief over his wife and fear of losing the station. Jim learns that God is not through with him yet, and he still has a lot to offer with his gifts and abilities regardless to the fate of the station.

Possible Alteration of the Character

There is a hint in this storyline that Jim makes a lot of promises to people with good intentions but later does not follow through with them. He’s made promises to his employees that they would have security, and the station is struggling (and would have failed without Amy and Whitney’s financial help). He promises Amy he’s going to go back to church, which may or may not end up happening.

The careful thing to remember about him however is that although this flaw in him is unresolved by the end of this story, he shouldn’t be portrayed as being beyond all hope of being reached. Otherwise it sends the message of “why even bother trying to help him?”