STRICTLY ON BACKGROUND, PT. 54: ODDS & ENDS

As you've probably gleaned by now, this background business, while not glamorous, can make for gratifying onscreen moments. Then there are the other 75% of the productions. It doesn't even come down to "don't blink or you'll miss it"; even if your eyes are pried open like Malcom McDowell's in A Clockwork Orange, you won't see me. Sometimes I won't, unless I rewind to the beginning of the scene and click through frame by frame. Pitiful? I should say so. And here's proof:

THE DETOUR: Worked September 22, 2016. My fourth gig; the screenshot unexpectedly appeared on my Kindle in one of those "On This Date" slideshows last March (the episode aired in 2017). The scene was a judo tournament in the Bronx. The only reason I recognized me in this split-second appearance was from my blue Hawaiian shirt. It now belongs to my daughter. May it bring her the same luck.

LAW & ORDER  Worked January 9, 2023. Lawyer outside the courthouse on Centre Street, far right in the shot, blah blah blah, you know the routine. The most memorable thing was the woman playing the cop at the bottom of the courthouse steps being continually mistaken for the real thing by the non-extras.

LAW & ORDER  Worked February 28, 2023, six weeks after my previous L&O gig, at the studio in Queens. Demoted from Lawyer to Courtroom Spectator, I got three scenes for my trouble, two where I'm clearly visible. In the first, I can be seen playing peek-a-boo with one the primary actors. At least I'm not sitting where the woman on the left is; otherwise, I'd have that "pause" symbol and the NBC logo on my face.

One commercial break later, and I'm on the other side of the room in the last row. This is my thoughtful look, as if I'm genuinely concerned about the young woman on the stand. What I'm really thinking about is when we're going to wrap. 

THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL: Worked April 6, 2022. Having missed the entire fourth season due to not qualifying for the covid vaccination yet, I was back for Maisel's fifth and final year. No longer playing a garment factory worker, my first day of work (last row, second to the right) would be on the third episode as an audience member for fictional talk show host Gordon Ford; I was excited because Ford's guest was John Coltrane, even though I knew the jazz legend was long dead and being portrayed by an actor. Too, I remember being on the left side of the set. When it aired, Coltrane was gone, and I was on the right side -- one of the few times I have no memory of working on a particular shot. That would change over my next three appearances...

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