Special Guest Post: Paul Howley on TV

Coming up on Saturday, October 25th, 48 Hours|Mystery will feature the unsolved murder of Dr. Linda Goudey. As explained a while ago, Carol and I helped CBS News with the background research. Paul Howley has that beat. He’s going to appear on a TV show:

We’ve had an interesting and fun few days with our daughter, Cassy. Cassy got a phone call from one of her agents, offering her a job, acting in an “infomercial.” For those who don’t watch much television, an infomercial is a commercial that is disguised as an actual entertainment program that contains a sales-pitch for some product…in this case it was for a hair straightening appliance.

Cassy accepted the assignment and thanked the agent for the job. Cassy mentioned that she hoped this was just the beginning of a good relationship with this agent. The agent expressed surprise that her office hadn’t gotten her any other jobs before and promised to be thinking of Cassy a bit more when possible acting jobs came up. About two minutes later, another employee from the same agency called and offered Cassy a job as an “extra” on the hit TV show “Burn Notice.” (“Burn Notice” is an action-adventure-spy show that stars Jeffrey Donovan and Bruce Campbell, broadcast on USA Network at 9 pm on Thursdays.) This show was filming in Miami on Monday and the infomercial was going to be filmed in Coral Springs the next day.

Since Cassy was required to be at the filming location (a public park in Miami) by 6:30 in the morning (and we live about 2 hours away) we decided that we’d book a hotel about one mile away from the location and after Cassy got out of work (she works at a restaurant) at 8pm on Sunday, we drove to Miami. Cassy’s husband, Tom, was happy that we could go with Cassy because he couldn’t get time off from his job to go with her.

When we arrived, Cassy checked in with the production guy. Mal and I explained to him that we reaaally enjoyed “Burn Notice” and we had hoped that we’d be allowed to watch as Cassy worked on the set. He told us to wait around for a few minutes and when he returned he asked if Mal and I would be interested in being “extras” also. We’d each get paid $100 and we’d be right in the same area as Cassy, so we agreed to do it. We certainly had no intention of asking to be hired as an “extra” so we wore our normal clothes. Mal looked nice (as usual) but I was wearing a dark t-shirt and blue jeans (also as usual). The wardrobe supervisor approved of Mal’s clothes but there was a definite restriction…no blue jeans or dark colored t-shirts. Since the TV show takes place in Miami, the producers want “Florida” colors. She sent me to the wardrobe trailer to get more a more appropriate shirt. She’d make an exception for me so I could wear my blue-jeans. They gave me a hideous, faded yellow t-shirt with a Jamaica Yacht Club logo and palm trees on it. Really not my style.

When the sun came up, the 12 hour day of being an extra began. Extras are people who are hired to fill-in backgrounds or foregrounds of scenes, but they have no real interaction with the real actors and they have no “lines” to say. In this first scene, there were 75 people hired as extras. Some were roller-blading, some were bicycling, most were placed in different parts of this big public park and they were required to walk from one point to another.

The production assistants would tell us all what we were supposed to do and then we’d practice it. He’d yell “reset” and we’d start again. After a few times the cameras would be set up and a “stand-in” for the principle actors would come in and the technicians would check the lighting and sound to get it ready for the real actors (so it wouldn’t waste the star’s time) We’d rehearse it a couple more times with the stand-ins and then the main actors would come in.

Now, keep in mind that Miami is really hot in September…it was about 87 degrees on this particular day…(and they didn’t want the stars to get all sweaty) so the actors would be sitting in the chairs or they were in their trailers until the time they were really needed. Then they came out, dressed in their pants and just a t-shirt. A wardrobe woman would rush over to them and help them slip on their clean shirts while a make-up professional would touch up their hair and make-up. At one point, Cassy saw some worker bring one star’s shoes out to them on a platter. Once they were all ready, the director would yell, “Rolling” then “Action” and then the extras would be told “Background.” That was our command to perform what we had practiced. This would be repeated several times (sometimes as many as five or six times). Sometimes the director would decide to try it from a different angle so the whole process would begin again.

Cassy’s role was to walk with two other women and by the end of her “scene” she walked right next to the main star, Jeffrey Donovan. Mal and I had it very easy…we were pretending that we were having a picnic in the park. We set up a blanket and we had a wooden picnic basket. So, in essence, Mal and I were getting paid to lay on a blanket in this nice park. Tough job, but we were up to the task. This scene took about four hours to film. I’m not kidding…I’m sure that when this is actually broadcast, the whole scene will be about 3 minutes long.

Then the production assistant put us into different places to shoot some more background scenes. This time I had to carry the wooden basket as Mal and I walked down and back up this hill. This went on for about an hour and then we all got a short break for water and snacks. We did the scene again for about another hour and then we got a break for lunch. The cast and crew had their own tent and a nice assortment of hot food stored in stainless-steel chaffing dishes. I was surprised to see Bruce Campbell (who plays Sam) and Gabrielle (who plays Fi) sitting under the tent eating with the other actors and crew. The main star, Jeffrey Donovan, must have been in his air-conditioned trailer because he was not around during this lunch break. All of us “extras” had a separate tent with disposable plastic forks and some decent food stored in foil containers…not as elegant as the actors and crew, but it was good enough to eat and it was nice to be out of the hot sun.

When the lunch break was over, all of the extras had to change into a different outfit for a new scene. With the exception of Mal and I, they had all brought several outfits as they were instructed. But since Mal and I had no intention of being “extras” we had no change of clothing. So, for the remaining four scenes that we filmed, we wore the exact same clothes. For two of these scenes, I had to carry the picnic basket again. During one of the scenes, it began to rain. The action stopped for the stars but not the extras. We rehearsed our movements several more times and then, when the rain stopped, the cameras were re-set and the actors returned to film the scene. Again, Cassy was asked to walk right by the main stars, so we’re pretty confident that she’ll be very visible on-screen. Mal and I will probably be blurred in a background scene or two.

At about 5 pm we changed locations by going to a nearby beach and while Cassy’s job was to sit in a beach chair under a shady palm tree, Mal and I had to walk back and forth in the hot sun (but thankfully with the picnic basket!) At about 6 pm we changed to a “market place” scene and after rehearsing our movements about 8 times, the actors came out and practiced the scene. It was interesting to me to see the main actors still working to memorize their lines right up to the few moments before filming would begin. In this final scene, the two stars, Jeffrey and Gabrielle, talk to each other and then get in Jeffrey’s vintage black Dodge Charger and drive off through the marketplace. As that scene begins, Mal and I are about ten feet away, walking away from Jeffrey. This will probably be my only “appearance” in the TV show…my backside. But it doesn’t matter because it was certainly an interesting and fun day for us.

When we were finally done, we drove up to Coral Springs and stayed in a hotel about 2 miles away from where Cassy would be shooting her infomercial the next day. Cassy enjoyed doing the infomercial but Mal and I just sat and read some books while Cassy worked.

I’ll try to let you know when the episode of “Burn Notice” is going to be broadcast. Most likely it will be sometime in late January…

…Paul (“I’ll be in my trailer”) Howley

Wow, Paul! Pretty cool. We’ll be on the lookout. We get USA-HD, so I can record it on the DVR in high-def.

Next time, instead of an action-adventure role, you should try a wry and witty comedy. How about something like the movie “High Fidelity,” but set in a comic book store? Catherine Zeta-Jones could play Mal!