AH, THE GLAMOUR of big-time television show business.
On a cold, rainy Wednesday, "Touched by an Angel" star Roma Downey spends half the morning in a makeshift bathroom constructed in the middle of the Jordan Valley School's gymnasium.As the morning wears on, it is becoming increasingly stuffy. And the smell from the fake cigarettes a young actor (Vicellous Reon Shannon) is smoking is becoming increasingly noxious.
Pretty glamorous, huh?
"Well, not really," says Downey with a rather weak smile.
And not that different from an average day for the made-in-Utah TV series - days that can last up to 15 or 16 hours. "Touched" shoots some scenes in the production company's recently remodeled studios on 900 South but still spends the majority of its time filming at various locations in and around Salt Lake City.
"It's all part of the job," says John Dye, who stars as Andrew, the kind-hearted angel of death.
This particular episode, titled "At Risk," is a little bit special, however. Executive producer Martha Williamson modeled it on a real-life program in Los Angeles in which delinquents volunteer to work with mentally and physically handicapped youths.
It's being filmed at a school for handicapped children, several of whom have small parts in the episode (which airs Sunday at 7 p.m. on CBS/Ch. 2). The stars are particularly thrilled to be interacting with the kids.
"Oooh, it's marvelous," Downey says.
"This is the most fun I've ever had," Dye says. "I had to call my mom on Monday night and tell her all about it."
The show is designed to promote the upcoming Presidents' Summit on America's Future, which is co-chaired by President Clinton and former Presidents Bush, Reagan, Carter and Ford. And the episode features wrap-around spots with retired Gen. Colin Powell, the chairman of the conference, plugging the event and the volunteer spirit. (His bit was filmed in Philadelphia, however.)
Television magic is not always so magical when you get a closer look at it. It takes literally hours to set up and shoot a scene that's going to last about a minute when the episode is finished.
On this particular morning, the crew has set up that fake bathroom. The wall on one end of the square is removed so that the scene can be shot from one side. Once those shots are completed, that wall is reattached and the wall at the other end is removed for opposite-angle shots.
(One of the youngsters brought in for the episode gets a look at all of this and says incredulously, "That's the bathroom? Come on, that's not really the bathroom.")
In the meantime, literally dozens of people are milling about the gym - more than 40 in all. Some are dragging cables, others setting lights, others battling with the enormous piece of blue canvas that, once it's hung on its frame, is going to look like the sky in the finished scene.
Lots of people, their work either completed or yet to come, are standing around chatting, joking and laughing. It's altogether an extremely jovial scene.
When one crew member on the CBS series asks director of photography Bob Seaman about the umbrella he's carrying - an umbrella emblazoned with a big ABC logo - Seaman replies, "Well, CBS has never given me an umbrella. If they'd give me one I'd use it."
His is just one of a variety of TV or movie-related gear being carried or worn. "Touched by an Angel" coats and hats dominate, but there are plenty of others. One crew member is even wearing a jacket embroidered with a logo from the horror flick "Halloween 6" - which is about as far from "Angel" as you can get.
But the fun and games end when an assistant director shouts, "OK, folks, let's settle, please. We'll get a rehearsal."
Downey comes in at this point. (Stars generally wait in their trailers until they're needed.) After exchanging greetings - even hugs - with a few crew members and director Victor Lobl, she's right to work, emoting her heart out as the always caring and concerned angel Monica.
(Della Reese, who's not on the set this day, is the show's leading hugger, however. She starts off all her work days by hugging everyone in sight and won't do an interview until she's hugged the interviewer.)
Stepping off to the side while they set up for the actual filming, Downey surprises a reporter by recalling the where, when and what of an interview that took place more than 2 1/2 years earlier.
"I'm terrible with names but I never forget a face," she says quite convincingly.
And the crew is obviously fond of the star. As Downey walks off to do an interview with another reporter, one man calls out, "You be good to her!"
When she returns, there are takes and retakes. This is where movie fiction and movie fact converge:
"We are rolling!"
"We got speed?"
"Speed!"
"Aaaaaand - action!"
Not everything is quite as odd as it seems, however. A number of crew members are wandering about wearing rather mysterious badges with blinking red lights.
But the mystery is easily solved. It turns out that those have nothing whatsoever to do with the show - they were brought back from a Las Vegas trade show by one of the crew members the day before.
While preparing to shoot a scene, various members of the production staff keep talking about bringing in shrubbery. But, oddly enough, "shrubbery" is not TV slang for some sort of equipment.
What they are talking about turns out to be actual pieces of bush and a tree set up "outside" the fake window in the fake wall.
(The fake breeze is provided by a crew member waving an enormous piece of cardboard.)
The bathroom scene finally completed, the crew quickly reconfigures those portable fake walls so that Dye can shoot a scene that has him opening a door, sticking his head in and discovering his young charge is missing. Well, quickly enough - a half hour or so.
Throughout, the cast and crew retain their amazingly good humor. Dye - who spent 16 hours on the set of the "Touched by an Angel" spinoff series, "Promised Land," the day before - is brought in to read a couple of lines his character will speak from off-camera. He does the first, then asks, "What's the next line?"
"I am an angel sent by God!" shouts a crew member to general laughter.
The scene and voice-overs are shot in just minutes. When they're finished, the gym turns into a veritable tornado of activity as the set is deconstructed and carted off. Crew members hurry out carrying walls, the toilet, the sink, the mirror, even the floor.
Then the process begins all over again as they set up for the next scene.
Having a network television show descend upon you may annoy some people across the valley, but nobody at Jordan Valley School is complaining. This despite the fact that their parking lot is filled with seven trucks full of equipment - four of them big tractor-trailers - a hair-and-makeup trailer, four star trailers, a catering truck and tent, and dozens of cars that belong to those affiliated with the show.
That's not to mention that a big chunk of the school has been taken over by the production team.
But on this, the second of a planned four-day shoot, everyone seems just thrilled.
Teachers are gushing over the stars. (The most commonly heard refrain is "this is my favorite show.") Students and their parents want to get close.
Downey and Dye may not really be angels, but they ought to be considered for sainthood on this particular day. On many TV sets, the stars do their bit and then rush back to their trailers. But both of them spend a lot of time - and demonstrate a great deal of patience - talking with fans, posing for pictures and signing autographs.
There's a seemingly endless line of people waiting to get autographed pictures from Downey - one of those lines that doesn't diminish but just keeps growing longer and longer as more people queue up. The actress is looking a bit tired, but she's unfailingly charming to everyone - asking their names and writing personal notes, not just scrawling her signature.
Dye is even down on the floor at one point signing an autograph. "I've done it in stranger places than this," he tells the little girl.
When the mother of one handicapped girl asks if she can take a video of her daughter and Dye, his immediate response is, "Sure!" Told that it's for her upcoming graduation, he enthusiastically responds, "Oh, excellent! Excellent!"
Some of the fans get a little carried away. One woman, accompanied by a youngster, gets an autograph from Dye, then asks, "Can we follow you?"
Dye politely begs off - he's on his way to change clothes for the next scene.
Even this isn't so unusual for the stars of "Touched by an Angel" when they're here in Utah.
"It's very flattering, but I have no privacy in Salt Lake," Dye said. "If I'm sitting in my favorite coffee shop in L.A., it's no big deal. So it's me and Jerry Seinfeld. If people are going to bother anyone, it's not going to be me.
"But there aren't a whole lot of other stars in Salt Lake."
For Downey, Dye and Reese, it's just part of the routine. Part of just another day for the "Touched by an Angel" team.