Episode: Potato Boy

Potato Boy

Dana wrote: What in God's name is Ben eating in that jar?

It was instant coffee, because putridly self-loathing Ben Healy didn't feel up to boiling water for himself. I'll try to remember to ask Nick if it really WAS instant coffee he was forced to ingest, or if the masters of Prop World came up with a more palatable lookalike subtitute. I'll try to get that
info into my episode memories down the line...

Your only eats instant coffee with Diet Coke to wash it down AG PA, Craig


Hi all! Here's the scoop:

Potato Boy commenced to shootin' on Monday, August 28th, 1995. There was a 7am crew call.

The first scene(s) listed read as:

EXT. CHURCH/GRAVEYARD--Caleb hears three teens talk

Dredging in my memory brought up the following stuff--

Obviously, the character of Potato Boy (who we nicknamed 'Chip') is pivotal to the episode, and as such was a BIG project for AG Makeup King Jeff
Goodwin. Now, to have prep time for any big effect coming up, JG would begin working stuff out on the episode before. So in this case he began to design
PB's look during the shooting of Dead to the World. A young man named Andy was brought in for JG to apply an early version of the PB makeup to. It was very effective, and allowed Jeff to finetune the finished look for the real actor.

Speaking of that actor, his name was Max "Trip" Cogburn, and what a trouper he was! For this makeup, he allowed his shoulder length hair to be shaved ALMOST completely off--I say almost because AG hair stylist Michelle Johnson
left tufts of his real hair intact--to add to the effect of Potato Boy's look. So, because an actor has to maintain a look as drastic as this until the film is safely back from the lab--this teenager had to go around his hometown school with a mostly bald head for a week or so--tufts of hair poking out here and there, before he could shave it totally bald and let it start to grow back. Adding to my admiration, when put into the makeup, Trip was totally blind. Potato Boy was born without eyes, and JG sure made that looked real. So, for one VERY long day, Max had his eyes totally covered, and had to be led around (by me, mostly) and he never uttered ONE word of complaint. A fine young man.

One funny thing happened during this--the young actors playing the three teens were around the day Trip went into the makeup. Well, by the time they
arrived, JG had a big chunk of this 3-4 hour makeup job finished, and Trip was looking pretty rough. Well, I had worked with a couple of the teen boys before, and I told them that Trip was "special," and that JG was only "adding" to his look to finish it. And Jeff's makeup was so good, these poor guys went into the makeup trailer and totally believed that Trip really did have a lumpy, misshapen head. They handled it really well, and you should have seen the looks on their faces when I revealed the truth--that it was all makeup! LOL!

I had another accident during this episode, and as a result missed out on a chance to leave my vocal mark on this episode. We shot the scene where Lucas and Caleb go for a drive together on the 3rd day of this episode. We shot that scene at Greenfield Lake, very close to where the archery competition in Dead to the World was shot. The next day, we were scheduled to shoot the
scene at Ben's apartment where we see how pathetic his life is. And I was supposed to provide the bank commerical voice over heard on the radio during this scene. Well, when I woke up the next morning--I found that one of my eyes was swollen shut! I went into work briefly, but couldn't function very well with only one eye, and also was wondering what the heck was wrong with
me. So I left and went to the doctor. As it turned out, I had gotten poison ivy in my eye at Greenfield Lake the night before! Yow! My eye was swollen
shut for two or three days! Boy that sucked!

All through the show, we would always be hearing rumors and things about various factors of the next episode--like who had been cast in it, or things
like that. Well, we went through a VERY interesting possible guest star list for the next episode during this one. We knew the next episode was entitled Meet the Beetles, and the first thing we heard was that Samuel L. Jackson
was considering playing Lt. Drey! Wow! Then we heard that he was out, and Lance (Millenium) Henriksen was in! As a huge fan of his--this thrilled me even more! We then heard it would be Larry Drake (LA Law). Still a cool actor.
Finally the part was actually locked in and cast. And I could not have been happier when I heard it was to be Bruce Campbell! (By the way--in a side
note to this--we had heard during Dead to the World that Rev. Coombs in Potato Boy
was going to be played by Frank Gorshin (The Riddler from TV's Batman)! I was so thrilled, but it fell through, for whatever reason.)

And lastly, in the matter of what Ben was eating out of that jar--as I mentioned earlier, it was instant coffee. I just talked to Nick Searcy, and asked him what he really had to eat in take after take from different angles.
At first he made a lame attempt to convince me that he is a method actor and it really WAS instant coffee, but after spending more than a year around the guy I'm wise to his game. He finally owned up and admitted that it was a concoction of Ovaltine and wheat germ--but that it was (and I quote)
"...still pretty gross." So there's that!

And then I couldn't think of no more....

Hope this is of interest as always, and until next time, I am
Your likes 'em fried, boiled, mashed, scalloped, or au gratin AG PA, Craig


"Henceforth, please refer to me as Craig-Boy."