It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Thoston's new radio.
Al Thank you. I'm used to working with Al on Saturday nights where I have my own show from nine to midnight, and most of you already know that it's called The Morgan Show. I am here tonight until midnight and tomorrow eight until midnight's filling in for Dan Ray. Dan, We'll be back on Wednesday. I promise ever watch a TV show or movie and say to yourself, how did they do that? How did they do that? Stunt with Keanu Reeves in the John Wick series, where he's doing
a doughnut spinning around in the car. His door drivers side door is wide open and he's able to accurately shoot at the bad guys. Did they really do that in the middle of a town square? Actually, maybe they did. I have a gentleman who can answer that question and all others like it. He's a second generation stunt coordinator.
He gaffs almost.
Which is a way. A gaff is a term used in the movie and TV trade. Well, it means also taping down all the wires, but as well it means setting up a stunt so it looks believable and the finished product convinces the viewing audience. It's like, Wow, that poor guy fell. It looked like twenty twenty feet or more into that stained glass in the Poseidon Adventure. I've got Gary King here, and Gary, how did they do that one stunt where a guy falls into the stained glass?
Well, good evening, Morgan, it's great talk to you again. My dad was working on the Tower or on the Poseidon Adventure just prior or yeah, just prior to when I started in the movie business with him. I wasn't there on the set, but I know for a fact that they had a camera setting up above the ground level looking down onto the stage floor.
That's the view that we had, mm hmm.
And then they had they had a stunt man. Now I'm I was a special effects man, so I had to rig what the stunt guys were going to be doing. Uh, And so we we worked with the stuntman all the time. And I know that they had him fall through some breakaway glass, which my dad's shop at the time was at Fox Studios. They made the breakaway glass for the the windows that we're breaking, and they make breakaway furniture and railings and staircases stuff like that, a bottle.
The bar, the bottles that they hid each over the head.
With yes, yes, And so they made they made all of that glass out of it's a plastic, so it's real lightweight and it shatters fairly well where it's not sharp points at all. And they called it. He used to call it sugar glass back there, candy glass in early early twenties and thirties, but they've gone to a chemical blend. Uh. It's a solid plastic bead that melts at a high temperature and then it turns into a
clear liquid. And in my dad's shop, that's what I learned how to do, is to pour those breakaway windows and breakaway bottles. But anyway, the stuntman falls, it looked like it could have been maybe twenty feet.
Yeah that's what I.
Yeah, I think it was about that and and below. You know, they had they did have rear projection on in the studio business. Now they're using computer graphics CGI. So when they didn't have CGI, they had to rig everything mechanically using cables and pulleys and uh, well you name it. Anything the special effects guy needed to make, he either could buy it off of a buddy of
his or he had to design and make things like that. Uh, So they had this guy basically falling through the breakaway plastic windows and the framework was probably a real lightweight balsa wood that was painted to look like metal. Again, I wasn't done the show at the time, but what my dad had told me about it, that's that's one of the ways. And he basically falls into a big pile of cardboard boxes and foam pads that the stunt
people will set underneath him. So anytime you see a stuntman falling, if he doesn't hit a table flying off the stairway, he's going to be falling into boxes that they don't show on the screen. So it's a lot of safety safety factors involved in anything we did well.
Safety on the set, I am sure safety comes first they as they make sure that they're pre rigging and the pattern you wear and the object were you're supposed to go through it or it impacts your body is from step A to step double Z is triples and I understand that's the way it is. The reason I mentioned that stunt that gag. In the opening of The Fall Guy, they show a lot of famous stunts and that was in every opening, and the Fall Guy was a TV show based on the work of stuntmen and the.
Movie on that show.
All right, then give me a particular stunt that you gaffed.
Well special effects that I helped use. I was working for a couple of special effects guys in my training years, learning different techniques, and I had to log in so many hours. This one was we had Fall Guy happening at the UH at the st at Fox Studios, so every once in a while I was working in the shop that we built those gags. And well, let's see, I guess on Fall Guy, Oh, we had they had his truck crashed all the time. You know, the big roll, the row bars on the back.
Start right there, start right there. I got a break coming up in about a minute, but I want to mention this. Okay, there was an episode of Fall Guy where they showed identical trucks I think three trucks, yes, and I'm assuming that was real for the producers. Producers of that show, you had the three trucks out of necessity for scenes. Let me take my break and we
can talk more about that when we come back. If you want to call in and talk about special effects, stunt work, gags and gaffes and things that you're curious how they did it or maybe you know about one. Give us a call six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty eight eight, eight, nine, two, nine, ten thirty. My guest Gary King, second generation special effects slash stunt coordinator. You guys work for Fox. If I'm not mistaken, correct.
A lot of times, yes, many years.
Give us a call. Here at nights are time and Temperature two fifty two fifteen nine fifteen, nineteen degrees.
Now back to Dan Ray Live from the Window World Life Sense Studios on WBZ News Radio.
I'm Morgan. I've mentioned once or twice since eight o'clock Dan. We'll be back on Wednesday, and he'll have a lot of talking points over the past weekend to now five inch snowstorm in Boston. Oh yeah, we've got a new president. Trust me. Things that'll make the Dan Ray night side show pop, So be aware of that. I'm just keeping the microphone warm for him. And I've got my buddy Gary King on and tell me about those three identical trucks on fall Guy.
Well, the studios, like you said, they always have to have a backup truck. The truck that usually didn't get damaged and they would use it for close ups and interior shots. Was called a hero h E R Hero and the Hero truck. The Hero truck always looked in excellent conditions. Then they would have the stand in stunt truck and so Box Studios. Thence they ran I guess Fall Guy lasted what maybe four years?
Five years lasted four seasons correct.
So they had a stockpile of wrecked pieces of trucks all from that show, and we called that the boneyard. So every studio lot has a boneyard. And when we needed parts for vehicles in special effects or mechanics, we always got to have access to some of those cars that we could take parts from to make other things. And it really came in handy. That was another specialty
of my dad's prop shop, Action Prop miniature shop. Actually, they would take a brand new truck and put all of the shiny roll cages, big wheels, everything around it, and they would have times when that truck maybe would break down for some reason. They because they had to, you know, do quick starts and stops right, so they would pull in the second truck and use that. Now, if one of those trucks happens to crash unexpectedly. Then they did have another truck that they could bring in.
It would take a little while for him to do it. You know, somebody had to go rush and get the truck that they hadn't planned on using for that time. But anyway, that's that's how it works in the studios. The boneyards where you are like our Walmart. They're like a Walmart. You could go in and find any pieces that you needed, and a lot of them that you didn't.
You've got a silly question, because sure, the dukes of Hazards, that's the eight Dodge charger. They It looked to me beat the heck out of that car, and I'm sure it didn't survive as pristine as would look on an episode a jump. They were constantly doing fifteen twenty foot jumps with that vehicle. And I heard a rumor that they had to search the country for sixty eight part Dodge chargers. Yeah, either to have an extra one or
to be able to use it for parts. Were you that show in that circumstance.
I'm familiar with the show. I never got to work on it, but I'm familiar with it and it's it was just like fall Guy. We had so many vehicles at our disposal if we needed them, and so they they would have that, oh that car, I'm sure when it launches off it they would use have the special effects crew beef up all of the suspension, put heavy duty shocks, heavy duty shot absorbers, springs lifts, anything they
could think of to help that car survive. What would be Let's say you take a car and you drive it twenty miles an hour and you go up a little one foot high ramp. When that car hits the ground shortly, something's going to break. It's just that easy for cars to break when they're not built to do what they what they want them to do.
So we did.
We had to beef up I'm sorry.
On TV, any vehicle you see that was a regular vehicle, the train Sam that James Carner.
Drove, Yeah, fifty seventy Bird.
That Dantanna drove in Vegas, that was a regular vehicle. They had to do all kinds of things from driving through gates to long jumps, and we would be fools in the audience to believe that their car survived. And I'm sure for an example, the fire Kit. The Firebird. They must have had a teleo because the stuff kit shouldn't.
Be done exactly what they proved, They proved it on film. Many times they bring bringing a new one.
Bringing the stunt, the stunt car devil. Let me take I got a couple of phone calls lined up. Let's go to Brighton first and speak to Glenn. Glenn, welcome to night Side.
Yeah, Gary's my brother from another weather Okay, h listen, Yeah you know what, Yeah, yeah, listen. I've always been fascinating because, like like in these Star Wars movies, they cut off a way of the hands, legs, throw people into volcanic pits, and I'm just curious. I'm just curious what goes into that, I mean, and the empire strikes.
I can tell you. I'll tell you what if it was. If it was before computer graphics came out, which the first one was, I want to say in the early two thousands, that was the prequel. Maybe it was even it was the earlier. It was in the in the nineties, the early nineties, we had no how would I say computer, I'm just trying to find I'm trying to find a good good.
See, it was a good scene to talk about.
Yes, well, CD, Yes.
Go ahead. I was gonna help you, but go ahead.
Oh no, can you please repeat the question so I can get back on track.
You know, how do they assimilate cutting, chopping off whims, hands, arms, legs, is throwing people into volcanic pits.
It can help you with the first part. And they answered this question in one of the movies. A lightsaber is so hot? Now follow along. This is what the movie told us that it instantly characterizes the wound. So when Luke had no blind cut off in the first Star Wars movie, episode four, and Luke had his hand.
Tell us five it was five. The Empire stricks.
Okay, then an Empire strikes back. When he lost his hand, the heat from the lightsaber potterized the wound.
Mm hmm.
So that's why there was no blood. That's why it was a clean cut. Yeah. And the same with limbs and.
That that shot.
Oh that's new. I'm so I've heard that. I heard that they made him have a bi on a cand.
No, they put a hand on him after the fact.
Oh, yes, there's uh, you know, Glenn, it was one of those things that the the actor well before they had c g I we had to rig something mechanically, and to do that, they would make a body cast of the actor and make an arm section that would fit all his body style right, and they would they would with certain camera angles you couldn't tell that that wasn't his arm or his hand. We had to do a gag like that in in Iceland on a movie we called Icelandic Saga. We had to cut off like
a Viking warrior got his arm cut off. Well, they brought an actor in that was missing part of his arm, so we all we had to do was make an extension and put long clothing on him and you couldn't tell that it wasn't his arm. But we had blood skirting out on that gags. We had to make that happen. But basically they try to find riggings that look real, that are easy to rig and not you know, not cost as they want to keep.
That's the key. That's what CGI has helped, bigger budgets, cheaper, bigger, cheaper gags.
What I said for.
Computer graphics, well, what's.
The computer gee for the work graphics? I for the word illustrated.
That makes sense?
I believe that does that help you, Glan.
Yeah.
Now, the first time I understood I rigged the gag or that I worked on the show that had cg I was when we did Aliens Tree, I believe it was. It was called the Aliens Resurrection and CGI was coming out to where they needed us to rig a gag, underwater gag and it had to be ready by you know, within a couple of days. We had to have it ready so they could send it out country wide as a teaser for movie. And that's how they generated their
you know followers. Was they released this computer graphic version of the Aliens swimming underwater and blowing up.
That was Alien's three. Yes, Glenn, I hate to do it, but with the ABC News, I've got hard time. So you're saying good night to you and you learn something new. Now you know what's the GI means? Take care?
Yeah, thank you, thank you.
You're welcome, Glenn and King. I'm going to put you on hold and we'll come back to you. I've got Phil in Boston next who wants to speak to you. Phil, don't hang up. You've been put in Q so you'll get your chance to speak to Gary King. Roughly in a couple of minutes, so for everybody else, Gary will be here till ten, then Dixie will be here for two more hours. This is night Side. Your time nine to thirty. Your temperature nineteen degrees. It's cold outside. Now here's ABC.
It's night Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's news Radio nine.
Five in the evening. It was a very very busy day all across America. One o'clock in the afternoon, Donald Trump officially took office. He is now our president for the next four years. We had Martin Luther King Day, Martin Luther King Junior. He was born on the fifteenth of January, but they made it a Monday holiday that they've done a number of holidays in the United States. And Bruins and Celtics both beat up a California team. Celtics beat up Golden State and the Sharks lost to
the Bruins. I'm here, Philliam for Dan Ray. I'm Morgan Morgan White, Jr. My guest this hour is Gary King, and Gary is the second generation Special effects Guru. Is the word guru acceptable? Acceptable to you?
No sounds good to me? Man, That's fine, all right, I appreciate it.
Let's take Phil from Boston. Who wants to talk making special effects with you? Phil Hello.
In nineteen seventy when when they were filming Sense of Ohio, I was an extra several of the shows. I was in NOS station or filming the scene down. There's like one hundred of us in the inside North stations somewhere. At that time, the trains are still there, the huge stanchions in the on the ground. So they needed a blonde. They said, we need a blonde stunt double, and I said. The guy looked at me at yeah, be a stunt double. I thought I was gonna be a for the stuntman.
I was a stuntman. They took me outside of this car. I get into a car because I didn't must the Mustang right. I had no idea what I was doing. I had the young woman come in. The car is driving and I said to her, despite just my luck, I said. She said I was probably a stunt man. I said, by seatbalt done, and she said yeah, with the seatbalt on. She took off banging down the street towards the Camill Street and the car come on. Those park there with stage come out banging on us, and
we're heading right towards one of these stansions. I was unbelievable. They shouldn't have done that good. They paid me fifty minutes. I couldn't even killed. I was having a heart attack.
I'm sorry, you made dollars.
Fifty full pill tell you what I did expens for higher.
And there was a scene that was used in the opening where they had me no. This was next to old granary burial grounds at the in and the scene involved Spencer being shot at by quote unquote the bad guys. So I was one of several people who had to know had to scurry and flee because here we are in the middle of a gunfight. They shot that scene literally five or six times until the director was.
Happy with all of the action.
And I got fifty bucks from that. I didn't have to be in the car.
That to me, you can't make a guy guys in the Union. I should have got paid a lot of money. I should have had. I should have been on the thing. These are these the credits of the print out of Poles. I don't know, I mean, I don't know that. What's your opinion of the.
Well?
I tell you I had to be a stuntman on one show, and it was in Boston. I was working with the coordinator I think was Spencer for Horr was Brian Ritchie. Really good, good buddy of mine. And basically all I had to do was act like somebody getting arrested in the used to be the Big Dome where they had that candy candy factory in South Boston. I guess it was.
Yeah, I know of what you speak.
Yeah, we were filming inside. We were filming inside of this big dome structure. And all I had to do was be a bad guy that was thrown down on the ground and handcuffed and taking off the set fifty bucks. I didn't get paid. I didn't get paid fifty dollars for that.
I get paid.
I got paid. Thank you. I got to thank you for that one. They needed more guys. They need to get more.
Guys to to do that gag.
That time.
Oh yeah, well I'm not in the Actors Union. I was in the special effects. Uh yes, but you know what they did. They did pay quite well for some of the things that they asked people to do.
Thank you.
That's really fun. I hate to say it, that's that's hilarious that they.
Got in that car and you're a stuntman.
I had somebody, you know, But it was an interesting time and I'm glad I got you, and I'm sorry about yob situation. Well yeah, at least we're all in the same pack here, you know, all.
Right, I'm gonna I'm gonna bet. I know that what I am about to say is a fact. You've got a videotape copy of that.
How I know?
But I wasn't.
I knew that you would have to go through whatever you needed to go through to get a copy of that episode. And you can't see yourself.
When things like a joke and I had a real good pot acting different scene outside the Courthouse of Boston. But I never thought I could ever sided. They right down on the US and think what scene will you win? What was the title of the show. I hadn't know idea what I meant. I didn't care about that. I didn't know about that. It took me years, thirty years. I had to buy the whole copy now, the whole sheet of the DVD. But I know I can't figure.
About a season's run?
Can I ask? Can I ask your question? Certainly I wanted to find out when when you got on the set and they basically have the background extras in one area, marriage feedom and all, and then they would say, okay, we need so and so with who wears a hat? Right, who's got a jacket on? Who's got this? So they pick people out of the out of the extra background exactly. And sometimes sometimes you'll end up making an extra fifty bucks that you hadn't.
End on not getting killed.
But you.
Never know.
I wasn't thinking of a scene that was a film, but it was like a pilot for the tea of the state House. I was like in the state House on the on the front of the unbelievable it's possible scene, but it's they've never went off. But the bottom line is this is a luck shot.
But you know, if you get.
One word, one word of dialogue that bumps your salary to triple figures exactly exactly.
You're looking at a couple of hundred bucks real quick, right, But Tom So.
Has a book out. You never know. I mean sometimes that's what you were chasing, these dreams. You know they thinured? Oh well, guy, was you know who knows?
You know?
You want to know what you mentioned? Tom Selleck, Phil do you want to know his first major movie. His first major movie was coma that played a dead body.
I got an email to be a dead body. I didn't go I was a laugh, but you.
Told me on second Yeah he was a dead show.
Yeah I did. I did that. I did that show. And when when he came in, we had to make a a surgical uh like the interior guts or whatever that we would put on top of his back when he's laying face down, and they were you know, they were taking body parts. It was a factory.
I guess that was that was a concept.
Yeah, yeah, I wish I could sit down have a few busy you guys obviously, but uh, it's funny talking, he said, leaf all you all know what I'm talking about. But who had it?
Oh?
Absolutely yeah.
I did this for twenty eight years, twenty and my dad was in it for another ten ten years prior to me getting it.
No, I think you show a couple of years ago, correct her years ago.
I've had Lord. Yes, he wanted to know if he's been on with me in the past.
Yeah yeah, oh yeah, you know your stuff, and you've got a good humor. Thank you for listener to life.
Thank you, Thank you.
I appreciate you.
You're very welcome to you.
Thank you very Phil, Thank you.
All right. So if you have a son, I don't know if you have a child or not, but would you would you steer him into the business absolutely well, because no rules you have to be a male because I'm sure the stuff.
Oh yeah, you know. And there's also I mean for special effects, we had a team that was a husband and wife team. I worked for ultimate effects. It was John and Bev Hardikin. Another crew was Oh when we did Cherry two thousand was Art and Trisha Brewer and uh, these people made it a full time business where they had they had the budgets in two thousand.
Was that Melanie Griffiths in that movie?
Yes, it was. And what a great show. I really enjoyed that show. That was with Art Brewer, Art and his wife. When we filmed in Nevada. The whole show we started in Las Vegas and then went up to RYA LIGHTE and Baty and there was a few you know, futuristic show Hoover dam Oh, yeah, yeah, I thought it was. I enjoyed it. There was a lot of rigging for us.
I enjoyed watching it and let me ask this. I'm betting that was not the only time you worked on a movie or series that took place for the filming of it outside of Las Vegas. Done that more than one? You? Maybe?
Yes? Tell me Damnation All okay, there was a show called Damnation Alley. We did the show Vegas once in a while them they'd get some outside shots.
I started to ask you, how many red fifty sevent t birds did they have?
Well, all I can say is there were so many different types of vehicles in the boneyard you couldn't tell what show they had come from unless you worked on the show.
But that was a unique vehicle. It's almost like the sixty eight Dodge charger for Joseph Hazard. And I know, sure, sure there were not a lot of fifty seven red tea birds around.
If they could get a car that was close to that year within a year or two, they would do it. But they did have a guy in transportation that basically would go out and find whatever vehicles they needed for the shows. And he would have friends who had cars, and you know, it's just it was just when they needed a certain type of a vehicle, they needed a few of them. You know, not just one. How about that car when we did speaking of Cherry two thousand,
you remember the four by four Ford Mustang. Yes, that Melanie's character drove. That was the custom made car that we built in our shops. Had to had opened the top, had to make it a basically look like a big four wheel drive vehicle, put big tires on it, put the air would do the moonroof, and put the winch on the front of it. And that car we had to eventually hang it from a cable above Hoover Dam spillway.
It jumped something big in that movie.
It's basically listen, well, I know the gag we did.
We had to.
It was as if the bad guys had this big crane with a magnet and they picked this car up with the heroes in it, and they dangled it over the Davis Dam or Hoover Dam area, and they were going to drop it, but good guys came and they shot the crane operator and he dropped the vehicle down so far and then they lowered it with the winch of the car.
Isn't that always the way the good guys save the day? Let me let me take my last break and it's a hard hit for ABC. And I'll get back to you after we take our little break. Here. Time and temperature here on night side nine forty nine and it's about nineteen degrees. I'll be back after the break with Gary King here on night side.
This is a special report from ABC News. I'm Chuck Severerson. Short orders at the White House and some not so short All executive commands and big bounded caddies signed in bold black sharpie on inauguration night by President Trump in the Oval Office, fielding questions with running commentary on Russia's President Putin's.
Tell me he wants to make a deal. I mean he wants to many zelesk. He wants to make a deal. I don't know if Puton does, you might not. I don't know he should make a deal. I think he's destroying Russia.
Miss Trump also signing an order delaying the banning of TikTok for seventy five days, but it's not clear whether he can countermand the law passed by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court. Also signing orders commuting sentences or granting pardons for about fifteen hundred rioters from the January sixth, twenty twenty at Tech on the Capitol that injured one hundred and seventy four police officers. Some had assembled heavy
weaponry just outside DC. This is ABC News Now. Back to Dan ray Line from the Window World.
Lafe Side Studios on WBZ News Radio. I'm Morgan feeling if Dan will be back on Wednesday. I'm here till midnight, and Gary King is with me right now for another four or five minutes, maybe three. Gary, I got a silly question, have you ever requested to gaff a magician's trick?
I could say that as a technical advice here. I was a buddy of mine was a craft service guy named Johnny Wright. And Johnny Wright was a magician, but he was a craft service guy and he eventually became a cameraman on film. But Johnny Wright had a business of uh. He bought a property and I want to say it was in Louisiana and Mississippi. He bought Tennessee. He bought a piece of property and turns it into
a magic shop store not a story. He doesn't sell the things, but he would do his performances in that theater that he made. And he asked me a few times when I was still in the business, if I could help him design something that he wanted to create a certain gag, and it had to be it had to work smooth, it had to work quietly, it had to work very easy, and we kicked some ideas and I don't know what he applied eventually, but I lost contact with him after I retired, But he's doing quite
well in his business is magic business. So that's as close as I got to work and working with the magician.
It made sense to me to ask you that question, why have you gotten out of the business. You sound still young, healthy, vibrant that you could receive a phone call tomorrow to go to Tucson, Arizona and work on a film.
I would since I retired when I did. I retired when the business got real slow and I was living in Massachusetts in the late nineties, in the late I'm sorry, and yeah, I retired in like twenty in two thousand, I retired full time. But the last show I worked done was in nineteen ninety seven, and I've I've thought about it. When I quit, we just didn't have enough work for an income for my wife and I.
You know, I understand that, and I want to thank you for coming on, especially today. Wow, it's a tough day to do radio when oh yeahcident takes over the White House. But I want to thank you for living on. And you know I'm going to have you on again one day, so I can.
I ask you one thing? Can I ask you one thing? If you ever do a show on someone who's watching and looking at UFOs and and those drones. I'm the guy I've been looking at UFOs since I've moved here to Arizona. I will call you on next anyway, Thank you, Morgan. It's great to chat with me. I appreciate it.
We'll do it again time here on night side and temperature nine fifty eight and nineteen degrees