Detroit News

Photo courtesy NBC
On Nov. 7, crew for NBC's "Third Watch" blew up a diner in Queens for an episode of the show. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks impacted the show's cast and crew, who often film on the streets of New York. The show lost several technical advisors in the attacks.

Television Preview
TV's 'Third Watch' survives 9-11 attack
Art imitates life as cast and crew of NYC-based series deal with aftermath of terror

By Curt Schleier / Special to The Detroit News/ November 26, 2001

   NEW YORK --Director Brooke Kennedy yelled cut and everyone applauded the explosion -- in New York City. On the surface, at least, things were back to normal on the set of Third Watch, the NBC series that centers on New York City police, fire and emergency medical services. But beneath that surface, things have changed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. People on the set are still hurting.
   "There's definitely still a streak of melancholy out there," says T. Sean Ferguson, a first assistant director.
   The crew filmed that explosion on location earlier this month. That day they were busy creating the situation that would catapult actors into the storyline, blowing up a former diner at 94th Street and Astoria Boulevard in Queens, a part of New York City. The blast sent flames halfway across the street, engulfed a car, a couple of motorcycles and a school bus -- all part of the plan.
   A substantial portion of each script for Third Watch is filmed on location around the city. Cast and crew found a changed work environment when they returned to work after the attacks.
   Crew members were required to wear Warner Bros. I.D. badges. The propmaster kept a much stricter count of the fake guns and badges used on the show. Actors portraying police officers were only given badges at the beginning of a scene and had to return them immediately. Fearful that the actors would become targets, they were told not to wander far from the location unless they had jackets to cover their faux uniforms.
   But that was simple, compared to the emotional toll on the actors during their first days back. Third Watch cast and crew film so much of the show in the city that they have become New Yorkers by osmosis.
   "That first day back was strange," says Jason Wiles (Officer Maurice "Bosco'' Boscorelli). "I feel so associated with the police department. I know I'm not a cop. It's just fiction. Still -- it's just hard to explain."
   Real police, firefighters and emergency medical technicians, some serving as technical advisors and others as extras, surround those working on a Third Watch set.
   Three police officers and six firefighters who worked on Third Watch on a fairly regular basis, responded to the World Trade Center attack. They didn't made it back.
   "I saw these guys (the last day of shooting before Sept. 11) and then never saw them again," Ferguson says.
   Like many New Yorkers, the company sprang into action in the days following the attacks. Brooke Kennedy, who also serves as one of the show's executive producers, organized relief efforts. Catering facilities at the show's Brooklyn studios were revved up and hot food prepared and distributed to rescue workers. Lights used for night shooting were loaned to rescue teams. A reservoir of medical and fire supplies used during shooting were donated to the city.
   Three days after the blast, Kennedy also gathered many of the actors at ground zero, hoping to provide a measure of cheer and comfort for rescue workers.
   "I don't know how successful we were," says Coby Bell (officer Ty Davis Jr.). "It was definitely an experience. I kind of felt I was more in the way than helping out, handing out food and water."
   Skipp Sudduth (officer John "Sully' Sullivan), though, says the experience at ground zero was where they started to discover how to move forward.
   There was a question, though, of exactly how far forward the show would move.
   "It didn't seem as if there was anything we could do with these characters," Edward Bernero says. He's the show's executive producer and co-creator -- and a 10-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department. "My first thought was we weren't going to touch the event, and if you don't touch the event, how do you do the show?"
   He wasn't alone.
   "In the immediate days that followed (the tragedy), all we wanted to do was help," Bernero says. "And, yes, everyone had questions about whether we should or would do the show."
   But the feedback actors received at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, where supplies for the rescue effort were housed, and during visits to firehouses and police stations around the city, was that the program must go on.
   "At the Javits Center, they (cops) were shouting out my name, and it made me realize how important the show was to them," Sudduth says. "It became clear to me that we absolutely had to continue and take the show into the fabric of their lives."
   Executive producers and writers in Los Angeles agreed. They had, by Bernero's estimate, 30 hours of meetings the week after the attacks. Gradually, the magnitude of what they had to do emerged. The season premiere was delayed several weeks, and at least one of the episodes already filmed was thrown out. The decision was made to premiere the season with a tribute episode that aired Oct. 8.
   About 40 hours of interviews were shot in firehouses and police stations around the city. The interviews were so significant, so moving, that producers extended the first episode to two hours.
   The second episode of the season aired Oct. 15 and took place in the hours leading up to the terrorist attacks. The third took place in the weeks immediately following Sept. 11.
   They were difficult episodes. All kinds of emotions bubbled to the surface for everyone involved in the show: joy, relief, sadness and an overwhelming need to laugh. The cast broke out laughing one day when John Michael Bolger (Lt. Johnson) was talking about his character's children. When he got to the youngest, baby Andy, everyone cracked up.
   "There was no rational reason for it. Everyone just started to laugh, to break up," Bolger says.
   Other scenes turned in differing directions, though. In Bell's first scenes, he took his partner, played by Skipp Sudduth, to Atlantic City to be married. The story included a scene in a strip club.
   "I guess that broke us back to work really easy," Bell says. "But what was weird is that I was having trouble concentrating. I still sometimes have trouble keeping my focus in the middle of a scene."
   Skipp Sudduth says it was a sense of joy that he remembers at seeing of some the faces on the set -- firefighters, cops, the crew. There was a sense of coming together.
   His first scenes back, those shot in Atlantic City with Bell, were in civilian clothes. An early test came when he put on his character's uniform for the first time.
   "Putting on that uniform and going in front of the camera, I felt it in a more heightened way, all the shock of the last few weeks came up."
   But now things are slowly returning to normal, he says.
   "I can feel us gradually starting to feel less shock," Sudduth says. "I was talking about this in the (cast and crew transport) van just the other day. How strange it is that we're starting to get used to the new skyline."

Curt Schleier, a New Jersey-based freelance writer, is also an EMT and 28-year member of a volunteer ambulance corps.