HumanVise wrote:
I've said it before, but this place gets beter all the time. Fantastic interview, thaks for sharing so much with us then and now Danny. Thanks Gary for bringing it to us.

Danny, if I'm not mistaken, you were one of the riders in the "CHiPS" BMX episode. I can't tell you how many times I kept an eye out for that episode. If that was indeed you, any stories you'd like to share about it?
You are quite welcome.

Yes, I was in the CHiPs - CHP-BMX - March 3, 1979 (Season 2,
Episode 21). It was an all day affair, a rather substantial
production, cast, crew, equipment, a few Team Mongoose racers,
and few Team Jag racers. There were so many nice people that
day that I got to meet and talk with. Watching the director,
the writer, and the script supervisor discuss and choreograph
the scenes prior to filming was fascinating. The way they
would film out of sequence was similar to filming a movie,
but because this was TV, the pace was much faster once they
had decided they were ready to film.

Getting to know a little about Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox
was fun in so many ways... Somehow, planned or unplanned, a
number of fans showed up outside the fenced area and were
exceptionally vocal from time to time, or so I thought, until
Erik and Larry casually moved in that general direction, and
then all at once, turned, smiled, and waved, and then the
noise was deafening! You could tell that those two were
having fun with that... and rightly so, they earned the
privilege of notoriety.

I was talking with someone on the crew when I was lassoed
(cowboy style, with an actual lasso) by Larry Wilcox, yes,
it startled me, and when Larry said, "hey Danny, come on over
here, I want to talk with you", I thought, excellent, Larry
Wilcox knows my name, DUH, my name was on my Mongoose
jersey!!! No, that wasn't the last time I got lassoed that
day, but it was all in fun. Talking with Erik, Larry, the
production crew, and other cast members, they all came across
as down to earth and friendly.

The scenes we were filming were pretty wild in their own
right. There was this one scene where John (the director)
came over and explained how he wanted us to act, (this is
the portion where you see Team Mongoose racers (yes, I'm in
there!) cheering while the big race is going on. Once John
felt he was done explaining, he walked back next to the
camera, and promptly yelled, "ACTION"! Well, after he yelled,
"CUT", you got the sense that it was not exactly what he was
looking for. John came back over and discussed the scene he
was looking for, going into a bit more detail. Just as John
was starting to walk back towards the camera, Bryan Curnel
(my Mongoose TeamMate, and good friend) said to me, "Danny,
wouldn't it be easier to have some riders on the track that
we can see", when I heard, "ACTION"! What you need to
understand is that we were standing in front of the camera
and crew, NO big race was going on, NO riders were on the
track, there was just a camera staring back at us, that's
Hollywood in all of its grandeur...

Another particularly memorable scene was when Anthony Sewell
lands in the mudhole... I mean, you had to be there to
believe it! I'm there with Anthony, when John and his people
are discussing how they would like to choreograph the scene,
and I'm thinking to myself, am I hearing this correctly. They
wanted Anthony to launch off this jump (a water hole jump),
and crash in the water, well, MUD! The 1st take looked good,
Anthony came off the jump and crashed in the mud, sounds good,
right, wrong... John wanted something with a bit more flair...
The final take was a sight to behold, Anthony (with a fresh
uniform) at speed, flew off the jump, and while separating from
his JAG bike, lands face first, superman style, in the MUD!
"CUT", "PRINT IT"... Anthony, you're my hero!!!

Cheers,
Danny