Stories from the film set.

It was close to midnight at the Burt Reynolds Ranch film studios, and I was mighty tired.

We had been prepping a set for a TV episode called “Die Laughing.” The IMDB listing for that for that show’s season two show reads:

“When the life of a comedian is threatened, he asks for police protection. Local police don’t feel that’s a serious case, so they give the task to private detective B.L. Stryker (Burt Reynolds). Then people get killed.”

The night scene should have been shot the night before, but had to be rescheduled. After the first setup, someone must have accidentally turned on the rain machine, and it ran all night. It had ruined much of the set decoration including a large background sign I had painted.

Because they had pushed us way too fast to get done, I had to use less sturdy paints and materials (which dried faster). While we all slept that night after finishing the rain machine had pounded the set for hours and hours, making a real mess.

The art department crew (and me) had worked for 14 hours straight, right into the night to fix it all so that it could be shot the next night. The production office was breathing down our necks.

I was so beat, I was worried about driving the 45 minutes to get home.

We had lost a gaffer from the electrical department on the last show I worked on. After working a 20 hour day (as part of a non stop 8 days like that), he fell asleep and hit the side of a bridge on I-95.

As I started walking to the parking lot, I spied a large heavy set guy sitting on a bench by himself next to the ranch office in the semi dark.

The man was Dom DeLuise, the comedian and actor who was playing the lead character in this episode and very close friend of Burt Reynolds.

I remembered him from his heyday in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s when I saw him on TV as a kid. He had been in over a hundred movies, including Smokey and the Bandit 2 and Blazing Saddles. Anyone over 40 would know who he was and look back on his slapstick comedic humor.

As I walked past him at a distance, he looked up and waved me over.

I smiled and gave him a quick wave back. He waved again as to say “come over”.

Now, crew members are not encouraged to fraternize with actors, especially stars. There’s a line drawn between the “elites” and the “peasants.” My close friend and fellow signwriter/artist had caught some flak a couple of years before because Sylvester Stallone would drop by the paint department and hang out, watching him work and shooting the breeze.

But I looked around the dark set area, and there was no one else around but me and him. What an opportunity. So I went over to see why he waved.

Turns out he was staying somewhere nearby and couldn’t sleep. He figured this would be a place he could go and get away from the noise and turmoil of the hotel full of actors and TV network wonkies.

I introduced myself and he had me sit on the bench with him. It was very surreal. Was it real, or just the effects of 19 hours with no sleep?

We hung out for over an hour and just chatted about our families and stuff in general. His son Peter DeLuise had just become an actor and had landed on the TV series “21 Jump Street” along with another new actor Johnny Depp.

By then it was past 1 a.m., and I had to excuse myself and go home. He said he understood and we shook hands.

But I was wide awake at that point and I did make it home safe!

Thom Caraccio ([email protected]) is a retired musician and retired motion picture scenic artist living in West Palm Beach, Florida who hails from Columbus. He graduated from S.D. Lee High in 1968 and still considers Columbus his real hometown.

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