About Lab Rats:

Lab Rats is the brainchild of Sean Carruthers and Andy Walker. When the two technology journalists saw that podcasts were taking the Internet by storm they figure it couldn't be that hard to make TV for the web. They were wrong. It was really hard, but after a month or so of messing about, they got to it and shot a pilot episode in October 2005 called episode zero. Again they got it all wrong.

There were shadows and bad audio and a bad couch. So they begged TV genius Matt Harris, who produced Andy's field segments while Andy co-hosted Call for Help, for some assistance. Harris, who was also the associate producer of Call for Help, said he'd help only if he didn't miss the Bruins play, so the first episode was shot between periods of a Bruins game (which they lost), but Lab Rats was summarily born.

In the middle of all of this, Sony kindly chipped in a couple of cameras and Canon fixed Sean's GL-1. Then Geo Perdis, long time pal of Andy's (both worked on MSN.ca years ago) offered lighting help and gear.

And then the deluge happened. People liked the show and downloaded it furiously. And here we are.

Incidentally, Andy's cats Biff and Boo were not slated for co-star status on the show originally, but they wouldn't get off the set, so they became the lab cats by default, and have since produced some of the funnier outtakes on the show.

Lab Rats Team:

Lab Rats is made possible by many talented people. Our infamous hosts: Andy Walker and Sean Carruthers, whose job it is to making technology simple and fun to use. Our remarkable production staff consists of Maurice Cacho, Gary Marriott and Geo Perdis. The site, T-shirts and opening credits were designed by the awesome Steve Huntriss. Our theme song was created and recorded by the great Dee Long. Our very capable systems manager is Ted Gallardo. Our very talented intern is Mike Britton. Special thanks to Cyberwalker affiliate manager Craig Worden, who has been indispensable. Thanks also to Eileen for her patience while Sean works long hours on this project.

Location Camera Crew:

Every year Lab Rats covers the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and several other events in the field. Camera operators/field producers Dave Ringer and Frank Linhares will be travelling with Sean and Andy this year to cover CES 2008.

Andy Walker — Host

Andy has been a technology journalist almost forever. He got his start with the Cyberwalker column years ago that got syndicated in dozens of newspapers and web sites and ended up creating Cyberwalker.com which gets millions of visitors a year. He's been published a zillion times around the world in several languages (including columns in Chilean and Jordanian in-flight magazines) and in publications like the Toronto Star, the National Post and more. He started a gadget magazine with publishing pioneer David Bunnell (founder of PC Magazine, PC World, and Macworld) and is the author of the Absolute Beginners Guide to Security, Spam, Spyware, and Viruses the Windows Vista Help Desk (due out Aug. 27, 2007) and So This is The Future? (due out in late 2007). Andy’s security book will also be updated to a 2nd edition under the title Windows Lockdown: Your XP and Vista Guide Against Hacks, Attacks and Other Internet Mayhem (November 2007). Andy is perhaps best known for his work as Leo Laporte's co-host on the internationally syndicated TV show Call for Help and for his food demos on the show. He is particularly notorious for putting green Jell-O on Amber MacArthur on the air - a move that sparked angry outrage from indignant fans and Jell-O activists everywhere. Learn more about Andy's storied (or is that sordid?) career at: www.andywalker.com.

Sean Carruthers — Host

Sean Carruthers accidentally found himself in the world of tech journalism in 1997 after years of selling CDs to underage prairie gangsters. Since that point, he's written for The Computer Paper, HUB Digital Living, The Globe and Mail, The Village Voice, Homefront, CE-Biz, onAir, TUXmagazine.com, and more. His record reviews have appeared at AllMusic.com, RollingStone.com, MSN.com and BarnesAndNoble.com. Sean met Andy on the set of Call for Help where he worked as a tech researcher and made occasional appearances as the Gadget Guy for the show. Sean is currently a tech researcher on The Lab with Leo Laporte, which is produced in Vancouver, British Columbia. Unlike Andy, he thinks beets are fantastic. Get more of Sean here: http://globalhermit.vox.com/.

Matt Harris — Producer

Matt Harris got his start in Television at OMNI Television in 2002. In 2004, he took on the role of Associate Producer at "Call forHelp", a show hosted by Leo Laporte, Amber MacArthur and Andy Walker, which aired in Canada, Australia and the United States. Harris is also the co-creator, producer and host of "Torrent", a one- hour program that profiled the best Internet shows, bringing them to mainstream television. In 2007, Matt moved to Vancouver to be the producer of "The Lab with Leo Laporte". Matt has also directed, shot and produced a number of successful online video shows including LabRats, Digital Underground TV and CommandN.

Maurice Cacho — Associate Producer

Maurice Cacho has become an integral part of the production team, shooting third camera, contributing great content ideas and duct-taping equipment to his head. He is a journalism student at Ryerson University and worked as a researcher with Andy on his first book at Cyberwalker Media. He was an intern at G4TechTV Canada in the summer of 2005. He also worked at CTV News, as well as an automotive magazine and his campus newspaper - where he's News Editor.

Geo Perdis — Contributing Producer

George Perdis is a man on a mission. He is out to define the world of new media (new media happened in the 90s; new new media is now) and so he has taken on a variety of challenges to make the world bit friendly. He consults with Apple, runs: MediaWorks.ca, and keeps his finger in a lot of digital pies. He is a fabulous photographer in his own right and a bashful, yet remarkable visionary. Geo steps in as contributing producer on the show on a regular basis.

Gary Marriott — Associate Producer

Gary is presently in charge of program development at Cyberwalker.com, and has been part of the team that developed LabRats.tv. He is a PHP and MySQL guru, with an honors degree in astrophysics. Gary has worked in the IT and telecoms industry for over 15 years. His experience spans many fields, from IC manufacturing to infrastructure protection. He works so far outside the box that he can no longer find it or remember what color it was painted.

Steve Huntriss — Graphic Designer

Steve is responsible for the design of the Lab Rats site, Steve has over ten years design and illustration expertise. He's been pushing pixels ever since he got his hands on his first computer - a Vic 20, in nineteen-eighty-something. He's moved on to be a diehard Mac user, though he's quite comfortable in front of a PC, too. You can view more examples of his work at stevehuntriss.com

Mike Britton — Webmaster

Mike has been working with Andy Walker since October 2005. He initially started as the web editor for LabRats. This allowed Andy and LabRats co-host Sean Carruthers to focus on production and advertisers to make the show profitable. Shortly thereafter, he was given the title of Web Production associate with Cyberwalker Media. Also, as Andy's senior researcher for his third book entitled "You Call This The Future?". Mike has a bachelor's degree in Business/Public Management from the State Institute of Technology at Utica/Rome. He currently resides in Upstate New York where he’s pursuing his Masters' of Business Administration.

Ted Gallardo — Systems Manager

Ted Gallardo has followed Call for Help (and The Screen Savers too) -- since they were produced in San Francisco, California. He began working with Andy as the forums master for our Tech Help Forums. He has since taken on the role of Systems Manager. For more information visit tedgallardo.com.

Frank Linhares — Camera

Frank Linhares is an accomplished podcast producer in his own right producing DigitalUnderground.tv and Techphile. In 2008, he’s field producing and is a camera operator with Sean and Andy at CES 2008.

David Ringer — Camera:

Dave Ringer is an experienced camera operator who works with Frank Linhares on DigitalUnderground.tv as well as on the show BreakfastTV on CityTV in Toronto. Ringer previously worked with Sean and Andy on Call for Help.

Production/Ownership:

Lab Rats is produced and distributed by Slurp Media, which is a partnership owned by Cyberwalker Media Inc. and Global Hermit Media.