When Richard Parker left for an internship with The Late Show with David Letterman, he had no idea how winding the road through the entertainment industry would be, or that it would eventually lead him back through his home town of Thomaston, in Marengo County. 

“I became a permanent resident of New York in August of 2001, just a month before 9-11,” Parker said, “It was quite a ‘welcome to New York’ moment.”

Twenty-four years later, he still lives there, but the Auburn graduate now owns RKP, an award-winning marketing and communications firm and full-service production company with offices in New York and Los Angeles. He also is the Head of Marketing and PR for Red Coral Universe, a view-on-demand streaming platform started by CEO and Oscar-winning producer of Sling Blade, Larry Meistrich. 

In 2018, a client called him with a story he felt needed attention. Nashville musician Robert Hunter and his wife Becky were hitting the road.

“They were doing a 50-state tour in 52 weeks,” Parker said, “They were camping every night at KOA campgrounds, living in a 300 square foot trailer. They had all the crazy stories from the road.”

Which sounds like enough for a reality show, Parker thought. When he found out their tour was not only promoting Hunter’s new album, but drew inspiration from 28-year-old Becky’s ongoing battle with breast cancer, he went to work.

Musician Rob Hunter and his wife Becky star in new reality documentary series FAME/LESS on Red Coral Universe.

“Right before Becky got sick, [Rob] had two songs that were charting in country music. He was really on the verge of a breakout, and then he dropped everything to take care of her,” Parker continued, “So the tour was not only a celebration of her life, but a push to reignite his career.” 

After rounding up a top-shelf crew of reality television veterans, the show began filming in April 2019, in Starkville, Mississippi. The tour made its way through Alabama, and filmed in Demopolis, Thomaston and other locations in the area.

“The footage we captured in Demopolis with the river as the backdrop was some of the nicest, most beautiful of the whole tour,” Parker added. 

After 600 shows and over 160,000 miles along as everything wrapped up, the COVID-19 pandemic put the documentary on hold.

Now, with Red Coral Universe, the limited series documentary FAME/LESS is available to stream in 2025. One episode featuring our local area aired on Feb. 3 while two other episodes are scheduled for Feb. 10 and 17.

The Red Coral Universe app is available for download on most streaming platforms. You can also watch the show online at  www.redcoraluniverse.com/fame-less. Viewers may also be glad to know that Becky is now cancer-free, “living her best life in Pennsylvania.”