STRICTLY ON BACKGROUND, PT. 30: "GOTHAM"

When last seen on Gotham (the final episode of the fourth season), I was one of the city's many residents trying to flee in the wake of the apocalyptic destruction wreaked by the Joker. 

The filthy, filthy, dirty hand of a
Gotham refugee.

Apparently, I didn't get very far, because at the beginning of this season, I was part of a group of Gotham refugees who were saved from certain death by Police Commissioner Jim Gordon, and brought to a makeshift homeless residence called Haven. 

We were grateful, not for the roof over our heads, but because Gotham's renewal hadn't been a sure thing; its loyal following apparently wasn't large enough to justify the series' expense. The last minute stay of execution came at a price: the fifth and final season would consist of only 10 episodes. My two year affair with Gotham would be coming to an end.

But not without a bang. My farewell consisted of at least a half dozen days of work throughout August 2018, with appearances on the first and third episodes. Unusually for me, my screentime wasn't confined to one scene, but staggered throughout each hour. If I was being shown the door, at least I could take my time walking through it.

Whatever I'm reacting to, it must be serious.

The first day of shooting, around the corner of the Barclay's Center, was inside what resembled a warehouse (doubling today as a soup kitchen) designed by Fritz Lang for Metropolis. The day's heat and humidity were multiplied by the warehouse's lack of air circulation, our wardrobe, and even our make-up, which made us look and feel even greasier than we were supposed to. 

Me in the middle, wondering how a non-union extra
wound up in such a state.

Our next two days of work were in the courtyard of the Riverview Garden Apartments in Yonkers (standing in for the exterior of the Haven shelter). The weather continued to be miserable, making our performances that much more realistic. The p.a.'s did their best to help us between takes, providing sunblock, spritzes of cool water, and bottles of Poland Spring, but August in Yonkers is not the ideal vacation spot.  

Hah! They'll never find me here!

Much of our time over those two days consisted of us just taking in our surroundings. The final afternoon provided some action, as the Penguin's goons tore in on motorcycles, and started a gunfight with the cops. Safety tip of the day: if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, hide behind a wooden chair. It worked for me!

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for my

5:00 a.m. call.

From there, it was onto our final days of work at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn. The unique thing about working on these episodes was that, unlike most other gigs, the men were encouraged not to shave -- the whole idea was to look as bedraggled as possible. Because these remaining days were spread out over two weeks, I shaved only when another gig became available, then let it grow again.

If that wasn't enough to make us look terrible, we had the occasional early call times -- like 5:00 a.m., which necessitated a 3:00 a.m. wake-up. The sight of extras catnapping in the hallways outside the set became pretty common.

"When you wake up, you will not remember
being onset..."

The magic of TV made it possible for me to be seen in a Yonkers courtyard (on the third day of shooting), and then immediately inside the shelter (actually Steiner Studios), filmed two weeks later.

I'm seen here in deep conversation with my occasional background colleague Eugene. I must have been sleepwalking, because it's the only scene in the show I have zero memory of shooting.

See the guy in between us in the back? You could have also seen the three of us together in our episode of God Friended Me a few weeks earlier. It makes me feel like we're pulling a fast one on viewers.


What I figured would be my best moment -- being violently shoved across the set by one of the goons as the Penguin approached us -- never made it to air. My loss was more than made up for my final two scenes on episode three. 

Who doesn't love a happy Penguin?

The first featured us hailing  the Penguin when he killed the leader of the goons (not to be confused with "The Leader of the Pack"). As we rhythmically repeated his name like a cheer, he beamed with understandable pride. There's a little good in every psychopathic criminal.

Forget about the goons -- where else am I going to get
paid for looking like a bum?

Our joy quickly  soured as we surrounded Commissioner Gordon and demanded to know how the goons got inside the shelter in the first place. You could tell we were angry because we were allowed to mumble disgustedly under our breaths. 

But it took a child to stick up for Gordon, forcing us to reluctantly admit he was doing his best to protect us. Maybe he should have built a wall around the shelter.

When one door closes, another one opens... to the craft table.

Encouraged by the kid, Jim Gordon gave us a final pep talk, giving us our cue to shuffle wherever we were told to go -- in my case, out of the room and into history.

I had made my very first Gotham appearance by entering through a doorway. Now here I was marking my final appearance by leaving through another. If my Gotham days had to end, at least they had nice bookends. 

Not all is necessarily lost, however. The CW Network has announced the creation of a new series, Pennyworth, about the adventures of Batman's butler during his earlier days as a dashing British spy. Maybe there'll be room for an aging, myopic guy with a fedora and cool glasses. No problem with early call times.

                                                            **************************

My farewell to Gotham. Ignore my reflection in the TV screen.