Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

CHIPs stars Bruce Penhall. Erik Estrada and Tom Reilly mug for the camera. They get along well. CHiPshoot: Hangin' out with By Dale Brown Two-time World Speedway Champion Bruce Penhall sent a shock wave through the motorcycle world when he announced his retirement. Penhall made the announcement from the winner's circle of the Los Angeles Coliseum, where moments before he had clinched his second consecutive title. "You've just seen me ride my last race," he told the crowd of 30,000, "I'm becoming an actor." Four months later, Penhall hasn't exactly hung up his leathers. But these days they're cared for by the wardrobe department of Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios, where the NBC television series CHiPs is filmed. Penhall is the newest member of the cast, portraying Bruce Nelson, a California Highway Patrol cadet. His initial deal, according to manager Jeff Immediato, was for seven episodes. That quickly grew to nine, and when the series was picked up for the, entire year, so was Penhall. Although actors have become motorcycle racers - the late Steve McQueen being the most famous example - motorcycle competitors going into the film industry have done so in ihestunt business. J.N. Roberts, Bud Ekins, Doug Domokos, Lane and Debbie Leavitt stand out as examples. In landing the CHiPs part, Penhall became the first motorcycle racer that ~e're aware of to go from the track to'a featured role. Going from the track to the studio is no small step, something on the order of going from amateur scrambles to the Daytona 200. Everything is different, the stakes are higher and the checkered flag only comes out once a week - the legendary Nielson ratings. Shortly after Penhallmade his announcement, we contacted his manager with a proposition: Let's spend a day with Bruce Penhall on the CHiPs set, shoot a few photos, and turn it into a feature article. Fa"te stepped in and made it two days over several weeks, but it certainly did prove to be an interesting experience. It began before the sun did, arriving at Immediato's house in the predawn darkness. The first stop was a small Marina Del Rey apartment that Bruce uses during the week when he's filming. Bruce's first love, the beachfront family home 40 miles to the south in Balboa, is too far from the studio and he can only spend weekends there while the filming is going on. On the way over Immediato, like all persona-l managers I suppose, speaks enthusiastically about Bruce's progress. "Bruce's first episode, the one with the World Speedway Final footage, has been moved up to sweeps week." Sweeps is TV talk for staging the Superbowl of Motocross, the Daytona 200 and the San Jose Mile on the same day, and within 15 miles of each other. Sweeps (one in November, the other in February) determine advertising rates charged by the TV networks and affiliates. At his apartment, we find Penhall, and he tells us that the 7:30 a.m. makeup call has been set back an hour. Oh well. A seldom' used coffee pot is quickly plugged into action. While we're waiting around in the apartment, the scenario goes somet~ing like BP phone England. Penhall explains, "Our buddy Kenny Carter put Dennis (Sigalos) into the fence at the British League Riders Championship. Last night, Carter had to ride at Ipswitch (Sigalos' track) and I want to find out what happened." While he does (nothing much), he also gives directions to a friend in England about what to do with some of the furnishings in his house in England, which he was trying to sell. Earlier, Immediato told me that he and Penhall's Cradley Heath team owner had come to a settlement on Penhall's early retirement from the British League team. (The British press would later speculate that it was a $50,000 settlement.) Soon enough, though, we're at the studio. The MGM facility is mammoth, and stepping inside the gate makes a stranger feel like he's .iust stepped back into the 19405. Penhall heads for his dressing room, a small portable, well, uh...shed. Down the . alley is sound stage 10, where all the inlff'ior CHP station shots an! filmed. Right across from Penhall's trailer is the sound stage used for Dallas. The dressing room contains a small couch, table and chair, and a clothes closet. Fortunately, actors don't have to spend a lot of time in there (The two senior stars of CHiPs, Erik Estrada and Robert Pine, have motorhomes instead of trailers). Penhall quickly changes clothes, and then heads for the makeup trailer. The makeup man is Dick Cobos, a pleasant guy in his 50s. He puts the finishing touches on Bob Pine's makeup, and then Penhall takes his turn. The discussion that ensues points out one of the major changes in Penhall. Now that he's an actor, his face is much of his fortune, arid the makeup has been causing blemishes. Cobos, between dabs with pads and brushes, gives advice on counteracting the problem. Penhall's first scene of the day is with Pine, who plays Sergeant Gatraer. It will be spliced into an ear.lier episode to give the Bruce Nelson character episodic continuity after the shuffled airing of the World Speedway Final show. Pine, on his way to buy a newspaper, tells Penhall that he'll be back to go over the scene. In.the meantime, Penhall rehearses his lines with Danny Choda, his dialogue coach. Dressed in a blue cadet's uniform, Penhall looks somewhat silly going through his lines in the small trailer, especially when the writers give him gems for lines: "I ran him through the computer. .. he's been doing everything from dealing disco dust to making bathtub PCP..... Before Pine comes back, a harried young woman with a walkie talkie strapped to her waist directs us to the sound stage. Inside the behemoth of a building is what looks like a small lunch room with a wall of wooden flats leading off to one side. On the other side of those flats, however, is a reasonable facsimile of a California Highway Patrol office, complete with briefing room. All the CHiPs interior scenes are shot here, and the apartments of the two lead characters are nearby. What follows is an example of the amount of work needed to be performed for what will amount to only a few seconds of air time. First the scene is run through, and "marks" established for the actors. Stand-ins take the place of the actors while the lighting is checked and the camera set up. Then an overall view is shot. After that is successfully completed, close-up and reaction shots are taken. "Every actor has a set number of close-ups per episode," linmediato tells me. "It's in their contract. If they don't get that number, they're paid more." Penhall, who admits that his first shot way back in September required 17 takes before it was right, doesn't flub a line this morning. The veteran Pine does miss one or two. "This is the nerve center of the California Higl)way Patrol Cadet Nelson. It. ..it ...certainly is." But the scene is soon completed. However, it will be the last scene of the day. Word reaches the set that Erik Estrada has injured his back and will be unable to come to work. Since all of the scenes scheduled for the day involve Estrada, there is little choice but to send everyone home. Filming will virtually come to a stop for over a week. And I'm left in a bind. Union rules - and boy is Hollywood a unionized industry - won't allow me to shoot photos inside the sound stage unless there is a union photographer present, or clearance is given. The short morning doesn't give us a chance to get the clearance.· So it's back a few weeks later, to another pan of the

• Cover