About two weeks ago my ladyfriend Crystal and I had the opportunity to go watch a couple days of shooting for the ABC Family Middleman pilot.

Les and Crystal meet the Middleman (Matt Keeslar)

    It was a fascinating experience. First of all, it was being shot in Vancouver, BC. I hadn’t been to Canada in about fourteen years, and I didn’t have a passport, but luckily one can still drive across the border with a picture ID and proof of citizenship. We managed the drive up in only about seven hours, checked into our hotel, and were soon carted a mile or two over to the location where the crew was shooting a scene set in Spanky’s gentlemen’s club. Those of you who have read “The Trade Paperback Imperative” will remember the scene where the Middleman and Wendy confront Spanky the mobster ape in his Scarface-inspired office; for the television show the scene has been transplanted into a seedy club Spanky is running (purists fear not: this is one of just three substantial changes in the entire show.)
I am told that the gun used in the scene is the same one Al Pacino used in Scarface, which I guess is kind of fun even though I’ve still never seen that movie.

    Our second day of the trip, we drove over to an industrial area a little outside the city where we were shooting the scenes inside the Simionics laboratory.  There was actually a big Simionics sign outside the building but the batteries in my camera died and I didn’t get a shot of it.  We spent the day inside an electrical research lab, where there were all sorts of exciting machines so the set designers didn’t really have to build too much.

The only thing that wasn’t already there is the blue siding (and the stuntpeople.)

    We got a couple pictures with the cast– here’s me and Javi with Matt Keeslar as the Middleman, gazing into the distance:

 

Matt is absolutely perfect for the role; it was kind of surreal to sit around chatting with a fictional character I designed.

Here’s Crystal and me with Natalie Morales as Wendy, though she’s wearing a heavy coat so we can’t really see the costume (it was kind of cold in the laboratory):

 

    We stayed for a few hours and watched quite a few scenes, including Wendy and the Middleman lowering themselves on harnesses down from the ceiling, Wendy being dragged off by Spanky (who is being played by a man in a Henson-made animatronic ape suit), and the big reveal of Dr. Gibbs, played by Mary Lynn Rajskub of tv’s 24  (and, more importantly to me, Mr. Show!)  Crystal spent a bit of time chatting with her in craft services and wants you all to know that she was very nice.

The shoot ended up lasting late into the night, and we left at about 1:00 or so because I had to drive us back to Portland pretty early the next morning.  Right before we left, we got a shot with Spanky, edited because Henson is pretty picky about how their puppets are portrayed.

Crystal poses with a terrifying beast.  Edited out is Spanky.

Reviewing these photos makes me realize just how fat I’m getting.  I’ll have to work on that.

Filed under: blather, middleman, press by Les