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Ebert's File/Interesting Stuff

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The below info was taken from posts made to the scifi.com Bboard made

by Eberts (Mike McCafferty) .

So when "I" appears in the posts its Eberts speaking, not me.

And all of the Eberts files are in order of episodes aired.

***

LIBERTY AND LARCENY

* Hey I'm back in the show! I will say that besides last week's episode (TDYK) where I had no lines or scenes, this

is the least I ever do. While it could have been only one line for me (or even one number), I chose to look at it as a

full sentence: "Eighty-seven thousand....".

* It was actually okay that I didn't have much to do. A finger in the eye during a basketball game turned my right eye

bloodshot red for a week. If you look closely at my close up, I'm trying hard to keep my head down and my gaze

to my left. This was the only angle where the redness was not seen. The director asked why I was doing this, then

I showed him and he agreed.

* In addition to Darien abusing his QS power with the handicap sequence, he also lifted a senator's wig off his head

during a rally. That part didn't make it through edit.

* We almost ran out of Quicksilver request forms for Darien to rip. First let me back up and say that the props

department is awesome! You never see it, but the form as files I have are all completely authentic looking. I always

marvel at the time and energy that props puts into things that will never been seen. Anyway, Darien rips up the QS

request form and takes off. Because it involved special effects, it took a lot of takes. At first the on set props guru,

Josh, was confident that we had enough, about 25. As the rehearsals and the numerous takes took their toll on the

request forms, Josh slowly began to sweat. We were down to 8 left when the hurried off looking for a suitable

replacement. Luckily, we stopped with about 4 left. Okay, maybe not the best story in the world, but I only had

one good eye that episode so it was fun to watch.

THE VALUE OF SECRETS

* Paul Ben-Victor really shot around in The Official's chair, didn't he! In fact, he did it so much in rehearsal that he

put a little dent in the wall. He also bowled over Eddie Jones on more than one occasion during taping.

* And at last we see the infamous picture of The Official with JFK. Originally it was in "The Catevari" with an

invisible Darien drawing a moustache on The Official. It was cut for time and Vince and the rest of us were looking

for a way to work it in ever since. David Jackson (A nice, nice guy) (the director of this episode) decided to finally

cross that barrier and it got a nice close up. It also shows The Official's past and the connections he once had.

* My relationships to everyone but The Official is pretty hazy. That started to change ever so slightly in this episode

with Hobbes (watch when I hand him the brochure) and becomes a lot cleared in "Separation Anxiety."

SEPARATION ANXIETY

* At last we know what The Official and Eberts do during their spare time. Lines often don't survive from first to

final draft in scripts, however, I was thrilled that the "That Bitch" line made it through.

* We also see a little bit of animosity between Hobbes and Eberts. Originally, the script call for Hobbes to call me a

"pencil-neck". I don't really have a pencil-neck so Paul embellished the script as only he could. Both Paul and I

were happy to find something to work with in our relationship.

* The TV was never plugged in. Mimi Leder, our wonderful script supervisor provided the voices on set. They were

later dubbed in.

* Also dubbed in were my lines on the phone. Originally we thought it would be funny if after I picked up the phone

I would simply listen, then hang up. Fortunately, somebody up the food-chain realized that didn't make any sense,

so I dubbed in those lines later.

* Paul had one tricky line that really proved to be a tounge-twister. Many a take he'd make it through effortlessly

only to stumble at the very last couple of words. It is a testament to his skill and talent that he did make it through

and got the line out perfectly. On the episode it was about 3 seconds long.

* I had to shoot the hallway scene about 5 days before Hobbes and Darien. The reasons I may reveal later.

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