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| At Lois' aborted wedding to Lex Luthor, Luthor's assistant, Mrs. Cox, has just been arrested and is in handcuffs. Mrs. Cox is played by former supermodel Beverly Johnson. |
| I'm the gray haired detective partially hidden at the right of the picture. |
I worked on "Lois and Clark" twice. The first time was on the pilot. At first I thought it was "Lewis and Clark", but learned quickly that it was about Superman. Lois and Clark were Lois Lane and Clark Kent, and the show focuses on their characters. The scenes I worked on were in a ballroom at a party hosted by Lex Luthor, a villain. I was a waiter and came to the set wearing black pants, shoes, and socks, and a white shirt. Wardrobe provided a black bow tie and a black waiter's jacket.
I recall working on three scenes. In the first scene I walked up a flight of stairs and shook hands with John Shea, who played Lex Luthor, as he descended the stairs. Another scene showed me standing in the background at a table with a couple of punch bowls. Finally I was walking through the room, carrying a tray full of drinks past the dance floor.
During set up of the scene where I was carrying a tray full of drinks, I accidentally dropped the tray and spilled drinks onto the evening gown of a female extra. The crew cleaned it up quickly, but I was embarrassed, and, needless to say, the woman wasn't too happy. Earlier I saw actor Michael Landes and said that he must be Jimmy Olsen, the copyboy at the Daily Planet. I knew the characters in Superman, but at that time didn't know what actors were in what roles. I guessed right about Jimmy Olsen. In a subsequent season Landes was replaced by another actor in that role.
The next time I worked on "Lois and Clark" I knew who all the characters were and who the actors who played them were. Scenes for this episode that I was in were shot both indoors and outdoors at a location in West Los Angeles. When I arrived I found that an extra named Art, who had been a fellow juror on "Body of Evidence", had a permanent job with the show as a regular extra, and also filled in occasionally as a production assistant signing in extras. I've seen him quite often since then in scenes of the newsroom at the Daily Planet.
During the day I worked on several scenes outdoors and going in and out of an office building. When the show aired I saw myself at a distance in one of those scenes. At that point it seemed to be a typical day. After lunch, a few more scenes were shot outside and then we were all transported to the building where we had first reported. The extras' holding area was a very large room. As evening approached, some extras were released. I asked to be released, but they said no, I had been cast as a detective and had to stay. As so often happened, I got my best parts after a long day when I was tired and wanted to go home.
The scene was a wedding between Lois Lane and Lex Luthor. The wedding was disrupted by police entering with a warrant for Luthor's arrest and some action scenes followed. In my scene, I entered the back of the church with another detective escorting an arrested Mrs. Cox into the room. Each of us had a hand around one of her arms and she was in handcuffs. Mrs. Cox was played by Beverly Johnson, who had had a career as a so called supermodel and was now doing some acting. As we chatted between takes of the scene, the other extra asked her if she was a model and she replied "I used to be". That scene ranks among my favorites as I had interaction with a lead character, and I was seen fairly prominently.
Before that scene, the extra who was to be the other detective turned out to have been dressed in a police uniform and couldn't be used. Another extra, who would have been a wedding guest, was chosen to replace him in the scene. This extra, whose name was Manny, had a travel business in addition to working as an extra and it turns out that he had been in business with a fellow that I had worked with and shared an office with in my real life career. It's a small world. I learned from Manny that my friend, Howard, had moved to Nashville, Tennessee with his wife and four children so his wife could pursue a career as a country singer.
During the evening at the craft service table, Manny was chatting with John Shea, who plays the role of Lex Luthor. Shea looked at me and said that I looked familiar and he thought he had seen me someplace before. I replied that I had shaken his hand in a scene in the pilot of "Lois and Clark". He replied that probably that was it. I was totally amazed that an actor remembered me from a previous show.
Also during the evening I spoke briefly with the medic, who was the same person I mentioned in Chapter 11 as an RN that had worked for the same medical clinic as my wife before becoming a film and TV medic. This time we didn't have time to talk as much. She merely said to me that I got a pretty good role on this show.
When the day was finally over and I was walking toward my car, I discovered that I hadn't turned in my Metropolis Police Department detective badge and that they hadn't noticed it when I checked out. I went back and turned it in. Since then, I wondered if I should have just kept it as a souvenir. It probably wouldn't have been missed. Thus ended a long and productive day.
This page was last updated on September 14, 2003
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