[2][full citation needed] He chose this field of study because his father worked as a civil servant at Cheongju City Hall and advised him to pursue a similar career path if he didn't have any particular aspirations.
[3] During his college years, Na was active in the theater club of the University of Social Sciences, which the Department of Public Administration belongs to.
Beginning with minor roles, he gained diverse experiences as a supporting actor, staff member, and eventually even as a director.
[1][4] After completing his studies, Na saw an advertisement for a sitcom writer and applied for it, and entered a film company as an assistant director.
In 2002, he was assigned the role of assistant director to Lee Myung-han in the show "Declaration of Freedom Today is Saturday – The War Of Roses."
The initial lineup of High Five stars included comedian Jo Hye-ryun, entertainer Hyun Young, singer Chae Yeon, MC Park Kyung-lim, and actress Kim Min-sun.
Kang Ho-dong served as the host, and the cast included Lee Soo-geun, Eun Ji-won, Kim Jong-min, Noh Hong-chul, and Ji Sang-ryeol.
such as Kang Ho-dong, Lee Soo-geun, Eun Ji-won, Kim Jong-min, Noh Hong-chul, and Ji Sang-ryeol.
[16] Na and Lee Myung-han made their breakthrough in 2007 with 1 Night 2 Days, which introduced the road trip format to Korean reality programming, as a regular cast of comedians, singers and actors visit various towns across Korea and spend the eponymous one night and two days there, engaging in activities such as games, camping and sightseeing.
[17] Starring Kang Ho-dong, Lee Soo-geun, Eun Ji-won, Kim Jong-min, Noh Hong-chul, and Ji Sang-ryeol (Kim C, Lee Seung-gi, MC Mong, and Uhm Tae-woong later joined the cast),1 Night 2 Days quickly became the highest rated variety program on KBS and a national viewing pastime, reaching a peak viewership rating of 40%.
[26] In an increasingly youth-obsessed medium and culture, he surprised pundits by casting four actors in their seventies: Lee Soon-jae, Shin Goo, Park Geun-hyung and Baek Il-seob.
He said that by placing veteran actors (who are fixed in their habits) in exotic settings, it allowed for "unexpected" elements to unfold that made for great TV.
[30] tvN also leveraged the show's domestic popularity into international success, selling remake rights to the United States.
"[32] With the success of Grandpas Over Flowers following 2 Days & 1 Night, Na cemented his reputation as the most influential creator and producer in Korean reality television.
It featured singer-songwriters Yoon Sang, You Hee-yeol and Lee Juck in Peru, and Reply 1994 actors Yoo Yeon-seok, Son Ho-jun and Baro in Laos.
As a meta in-joke about his real-life alma mater, he played a boarder from Yonsei University in episode 2 of the nostalgic campus drama Reply 1994.
[47] Reply 1994's director Shin Won-ho and screenwriter Lee Woo-jung had previously worked with Na on 2 Days & 1 Night.
Though the concept seemed simple, Lee and Ok, both city dwellers, had difficulty cultivating the vegetable garden and harvesting from the farm animals and the sorghum field, such that they struggled to feed themselves (and weekly celebrity guests) to comical results.
The show's difficulty level was increased with an additional four-month project depicting the process of growing food, from cultivation to harvest (the cast was strictly prohibited from grocery shopping).
I wanted to show the audience how hard it is to harvest the materials for our daily meals that can now be easily purchased at supermarkets near our homes.
"[52][53][54] In 2015, Na produced the spin-off Three Meals a Day: Fishing Village, set on the remote island of Manjae, which takes six hours to reach by ferry from the mainland.
[56] Viewers were impressed with Cha's cooking skills amidst minimal ingredients and implements (hence his nickname "Chajumma"), and the show received a record-high 14.2% rating.
[66][67][68] New Journey to the West was the first project of tvN Go (the cable channel's digital content brand), and it was unprecedented for a variety show to be distributed solely through online streaming (on the web portals Naver TV Cast and QQ).
[69] Instead of the usual one-hour episode length, each uploaded video clip lasted from five to ten minutes, and the Internet provided freedom from broadcast television's restrictions, such as a ban on indirect advertising of certain brands and adult language (including references to the tax evasion and illegal gambling controversies Kang and Lee, respectively, had been involved in).
[71] The second season of the show was filmed in Chengdu, which included a new cast member Ahn Jae-hyun (replacing Lee Seung Gi who left for military conscription).
Ahn Jae-hyun was not shown in the seventh season due to his personal family issue, this season was all filmed in South Korea In 2017, Na decided to introduce a new program which focuses on a group of South Korean celebrities (Youn Yuh-jung, Lee Seo-jin, Park Seo-joon and Jung Yu-mi) operating a small Korean cuisine restaurant on a small island overseas.
[79] It also helped spread a social trend among young Koreans of trying to break away from a lifestyle devoted to work and money and embracing the motto YOLO ("You Only Live Once").
[80] Kang's Kitchen is a spin-off of Na's other program New Journey to the West, which features the cast running a pork cutlet restaurant on Jeju Island.
Na thus decided to create a documentary-formatted program which follows two celebrities' (So Ji-sub and Park Shin-hye) off-grid lives in a house in the middle of the woods in Jeju Island; out of reach of technology and people.
[83] There, the cast members are required to fill their day by completing missions and doing such basic chores as cooking, making a fire and chopping firewood.