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When
I was "recruited" (drafted, shanghaied, roped into, you get the
idea…) to work on the "E!" convention in 1998, my first assignment
was to make the travel arrangements for the cast & crew members who lived
out of state, among them Ron Pinkard ('Dr. Morton').
While discussing his travel arrangements one day, he brought up the list
of cast & crewmembers who, at that point, were scheduled to attend the
convention &, more importantly, who wasn't on the list.
I remember vividly the way he asked me, in great disbelief, "But,
where's Mickey Michaels? You can't have this without Mickey-he was the most important
person on the set after the director!
On
Convention Sunday, during the open house @ LACoFD Headquarters, I was fortunate
to be able to spend several hours with Mickey while he, Dick Friend, and several
of the show's technical advisors, including Bruce Mortimer, swapped stories
about their days working on "E!".
During the early pre-production days, Mickey did a number of ride-alongs
with the squads in service at the time, including some with Bob Beliveau, one of
the first 6 LACoFD PM's licensed in California.
Recently retired as a Chief with LACoFD, Chief Beliveau is also known to
"E!" fans as 'Craig Brice's' long-suffering partner 'Bob Bellingham'.
Chief Beliveau is also possessed with what can only be described as a
typical FF's sense of humor. Mickey
said that while doing ride-along's to capture stock footage of wildfires, one of
Chief Beliveau's favorite past-times was to wait until the camera crew was in
position with camera rolling & then call in a helicopter water drop on top
of them! (After making sure he was well out of splash range, of
course!) Mickey said they'd
be digging mud out of all the camera equipment for days!
On March 19, 1999, at approximately 1 pm, the phone in my office rang-it was Mickey. Though he told me where he was calling from, I can't quite recall where he said he was-it was either Premier or Wilcox, I'm pretty sure. We talked for well over an hour that day, mostly about the trip to LA I would be making in a little over 3 weeks (he was threatening to meet me at the Burbank Airport with a flower in his teeth!) & the Academy Awards which would be held the following Sunday. No matter how many times I asked, & how many different ways I tried, he wouldn't tell me whom he had voted for (Mickey was also a member of the infamous "Academy" Oscar winners thank while accepting their awards). I asked him if he was going to the Awards, since he was a member of the Academy, and he said absolutely not. He'd gone the times he was nominated (yup, he was nominated for several Academy Awards, as well as multiple Emmy Awards), but he said he enjoyed the whole thing much more from his living room. It wasn't as hot & the view was better! I was so looking forward to hearing Mickey's take on the Ceremony when we talked the following week, but, as many of you know, that wasn't to be. Rozane called the next day with the terrible news that Mickey was gone. On the flight from San Diego to Burbank 3 weeks later, I kept thinking about Mickey and a part of me kept hoping that, somehow, he'd be there, as threatened, at the airport with a flower clenched in his teeth. Throughout
his life Mickey was an avid photographer-Barbara says that if he saw a plane or
a boat anywhere, he'd have to take a picture of it.
Following his days on "E!", the same could be said about fires,
fire trucks, firefighters, or any combination thereof.
In the box of pictures she gave me there were literally hundreds of
pictures he had taken over the years of brushfires, structure fires, and a
multitude of LACoFD & LAFD responses. Included
in the box of pictures was what I think were the pictures from the last roll of
film he shot (based on the developing date).
While there were a couple pictures of Barbara, the majority of the shots
were of working fires-it struck me then just how strongly the "fire
bug" had bitten Mickey all those years ago when he was working on
"E!". The
pictures displayed here were taken on the set during filming of 2 episodes from
seasons 2 & 3-can you guess which ones?
I especially got a chuckle out of all the pictures of Randy working with
the Hurst Tool (aka The Jaws). By
the end of the sequence it seems like just about everyone on the set that day
was involved in "helping" him. During
those days, there was a regular softball league at Universal Studios with most
of the shows filming there fielding a team; according to Marco "We were the
reigning champions on the Universal lot".
If the pictures Mickey took are any indication, it does look like they
had a lot of fun, doesn't it?
Enjoy! Laura
J. Aguiar Rozane and I would also like to thank Barbara for being so generous and sharing these with the fans and Laura for arranging everything. But most especially Mickey (for just being Mickey). Here's where you can read Mickey's interview. If you enjoy these photos, please leave Barbara a note thanking her for sharing them.
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As
those of you who were there that day, or have seen the video tape or pictures
from it know, Special Effects artists from Universal Studios were on hand to rig
a group of junk cars to explode; various units from LACoFD, including
"Engine & Squad 51" would then "respond" to extinguish
the blaze.
One
of my clearest memories of the convention (which isn't saying much since I don't
remember most of it-my nerves over having to give that speech during the Awards
Ceremony saw to that, unfortunately) actually involves Barbara.
After
the convention, Rozane, Tangee, & I were privileged to stay in close contact
with Mickey; once or twice a week, I would pick up my phone & there he'd be,
calling from whichever set or production company he happened to be at
(generally, it was the one serving Krispy Kreme donuts at the time-he was nuts
about those!)
Before
you get to the good stuff, there are a few thank you's that must be said.
