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October 08, 2004
Fillmore's on film in 'West Wing' TV scene
Its City Hall offers backdrop for Alda and NBC show
By Brett Johnson
Ventura County Star
"Let me ask you a question: What is public service?" the candidate's voice boomed from a mic-filled podium across the Central Park square in Fillmore late Thursday morning as the adoring throng cheered and waved cardboard campaign signs.
He announced his candidacy for president on a large podium beneath two huge red, white and blue banners that hung from Fillmore City Hall, one draped just below its signature dome at the top and the other resting along the crest of a bank of pillars just below.
The news media shouted out questions. "I'm a lifelong Republican," the man said. "I've always been a Republican!" The crowd cheered again.
With that, Alan Alda picked up a kid, hugged him and then walked through a crowd of supporters toward the fountain near the center of the square; they chanted "Vinick, Vinick, Vinick" after him. "Cut!" someone yelled, and the event was all over.
Alan Alda, actor and longtime liberal, announcing he's running for president of the United States as a Republican? In Fillmore? What's this "Vinick, Vinick" business? Wh-a-a-a-a-t?
The short answer to all this is that "The West Wing" rolled into town Thursday and put Fillmore on celluloid for a scene in its coming season. Alda has signed on to the critically acclaimed NBC show this year to play Republican Sen. Arnold Vinick of California, a man who has White House aspirations to take over for President Josiah Bartlet (played by Martin Sheen).
"We chose this because it is so beautiful and all-American looking," said Mike Leon, locations manager for Warner Bros. Television Production Inc., which shoots "The West Wing."
Look for the Fillmore scene in a December episode of the show, Leon said. He said it likely will be part of a scene in the White House where Bartlet's staffers are playing back TV news clips and sizing up the competitors in the presidential race.
"The West Wing," a four-time Emmy Award winner for best drama series, begins its sixth season on Oct. 20.
Alda's Sen. Vinick is among those seeking the White House on the show this season. Jimmy Smits, of "L.A. Law" and "NYPD Blue" fame, has signed on to play Matthew Santos, a congressman from Houston. And there's also the current vice president, Bob Russell, played by Gary Cole.
Thursday's scene, Leon explained, originally was supposed to be shot in a park above the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, but that fell through. The episode's director first saw Fillmore on Monday "and fell in love with it," Leon said as he gestured toward City Hall.
Crews began setting up wires, platforms, podiums, banners and the like on Wednesday. When the scene rolled Thursday morning, it looked authentic. And Alda -- best known to TV aficionados for his role as the wisecracking Capt. "Hawkeye" Pierce on the CBS show "M*A*S*H" -- looked almost presidential, decked out in a natty suit and sporting a regal silver-gray look at age 68.
"He's an old pro," Leon said. "He was holding his smile for the cameras, just like a politician does."
The whole thing was real enough to impress some locals.
"I thought they were going to have a presidential debate there until I found out it was a TV set," said Fillmore Police Sgt. Ralph Zermeno, who visited it on Wednesday. "It looks really neat."
Business as usual
For many residents, though, it was kind of business as usual. The city, with its charming downtown, old-time train station and rustic feel, has long been a Hollywood fave.
Just ask David Adams, an 18-year-old waiter-busboy at the Stone City Cafe, directly across Santa Clara Street from the shoot. In his tender, four-month career at the restaurant, Adams has already seen Hollywood come several times.
"Out of all the movies and stuff I've seen filmed out here, this was the biggest production by far," he said.
Adams likes Hollywood's temporary spotlight.
"It brings life to the town; we don't have too much to do here," he said, before a supervisor beckoned him with a look that said he needed to stop doing interviews and start waiting on folks who had sat down for lunch.
Mike Ford, a lawyer who has lived in Fillmore almost 35 years, wandered by as the shoot was winding down. He's seen it before, too.
"Oh yeah, you can't miss 'em," said Ford, 65. "They are fun to watch."
It's good for the city, Ford said, "because it makes money -- God knows we need it."
Fillmore typically gets about 30 or so shoots -- TV, film, car commercials -- a year, said Steve McClary, a management analyst who helps supervise the city's film permitting process.
'Film-friendly' city
The city is close to Hollywood and all its tentacles, and Fillmore's volunteer film commission also gets word out that "we are film-friendly," he said.
And, McClary added, "We've got that anytime, anywhere USA look, except for the palm trees, which they can usually cut out."
So Hollywood came calling again Thursday, be it ever so briefly. About 100 crew members and 100 extras were brought in by buses, trucks and vans for the scene, Leon said. They even brought in fake news vans. But within moments after Alda's stroll to the fountain ended in "cut" about 11:30 a.m., they started tearing things down and packing up.
Many were headed to another "West Wing" scene at a soundstage in Valencia, where a mock version of Air Force One is kept, Leon said; they had eight more hours of shooting planned. About 75 percent of "The West Wing" is shot on Warner Bros. lots in Burbank, where a replica Oval Office and other pseudo-White House digs featured in many key scenes in the show are located, he added.
By 11:55 a.m., the square outside City Hall resembled a ghost town where so many had been just a half-hour earlier. By 12:35 p.m., the last of the banners came down, and City Hall went back to its normal facade.
Ten minutes later, a white van with Alda in it pulled onto Central Avenue from Main Street, headed for a freeway to somewhere. The streets returned to normal, and there was almost no remnants of anything unusual.
It was almost as if a presidential candidate had left town.
Posted by Jo at October 8, 2004 04:55 PM