This page houses all my set visits for the previous X-Files season. Visits are listed in chronological order starting from the most recent one. For current season visits, visit "Return of the Flammable Trucks!"
[Index of photos displayed on this page: Jody & me at Casey's Bar & Grille (the bar in XF:FTF), Me at Casey's, Jody at Casey's, GA at the set of "Trevor", House on Illif St. (location of "The Unnatural" shoot), Sign: "Milagra Set", First Congregational Church of Los Angeles ("Milagro" location), Hospital type building (location of "Alpha" shoot), Skateboarder lighting technician, 20th Century Fox truck]
Last Update: 9/16/99
fourteenth try
* First Unit.
* "Biogenesis"
* The Long and Short of It: When we first arrived all we saw was the parking lot with the trailers and GA's car (which we took as a good sign). The "Biogenesis" signs were confusing, as they seemed to point in all directions, and after getting lost for a while we finally found our way to the set, which was one of the UCLA buildings. As we approached we saw Mark Carter leading what must have been over a hundred people (extras) out of the building. We said hi, inquired after our autographs, and asked if we could follow them, he said sure. Turns out they were heading to "lunch" ("We're on a *different* schedule," Mark said, with a twinkle in his eye). We were offered "lunch," which smelled very enticing indeed, but we declined since we were, after all, not extras. But nevertheless we sat with them to eat, and we just happened to sit at the table where Steve and Brett were seated talking to each other (surprisingly, they weren't seated at the regular crew table). It was like sitting next to two DD's. After talking to one of the extras, we were told that sometimes they needed, um, extra extras; so we talked to Mark, who told us that there were more than enough extras, but we might be included in a big shot. Of course, we didn't have time for that, as we had to leave early. We did pass Rob Bowman on the sidewalk as were heading to our car, though. We kept staring at him thinking: Is that him?? 'Cause it was dusk and he wasn't as recognizable, as say DD or GA ;) Sarah and Jill, however, had more luck (ask them about it ;). |
twelfth try
* Failed attempt
* "The Unnatural"
* The Long and Short of It: Those of you who read ATXF have heard about my confusion. When we arrived at Lacy St., which had, in fact, a large production warehouse that housed several other productions (one of which was More Dogs Than Bones with Whoopi Goldberg--we saw the sign "M Dogs," and Jody thought it meant "Mulder's Dogs." Wishful thinking). A rather overly enthusiastic crew member (who forced us into admitting we were there for XF) told us that they were there to set up, but the actual crew would not arrive until Wednesday. Fine. Off we go, with Emile's directions, to Alta Dena. Apon arriving, we breathed a sigh of relief because we saw trucks labeled "TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX." It looked like they were wrapping up, so we asked a lady with a funny accent whether they'd be back tomorrow. She said yes, they were doing an interior shoot tomorrow. We were about to leave when Emile, on the phone, convinced us to make sure that it was indeed DD's ep, which we thought was a good idea. We asked one burly dude "What episode is this?" He quickly replied "The pilot," smiled mysteriously, then hurried off. Of course we thought he was kidding. Then we asked another guy, who looked rather confused at our questioning. Turns out that "Shades of Gray," the supposed title of DD's ep (re-titled "The Unnatural"), was actually a new series, and they were in fact filming the pilot episode. How weird is that? This is the cause of my confusion. *sigh* |
eleventh try
* Failed attempt
* "Three of a Kind" and "The Unnatural"
* The Long and Short of It: Okay, after much searching and getting lost, we finally got to the "set," which in fact was someone's house (You'll recognize it as the house that was in Byers's dream in "Three of a Kind"). Unfortunately, they had already wrapped there. We headed off to the second location, Cheviot Hills Park, but hadn't time to get there before we had to leave. :( |
tenth try
* Failed attempt
* "Three of a Kind"
* The Long and Short of It: Hehe I realized that this doesn't really count as a visit, but hey I decided to vent all my frustrations here. Turns out that Griffith Park was more on a national park scale than the wimpy urban park I had imagined it to be. Therefore I couldn't find C, nor was I able to find the sets (multiple sets) even though I talked to the park ranger. |
ninth try
* First unit
* "Three of a Kind"
* The Long and Short of It: Okay, so I've lived in LA for 3 years (and Jody has for her entire life) and I did NOT know Fox Studios was at the Avenue of the Stars? Whatta loser! hehe Well it was nice seeing the lot and all, but too bad we were blocked at the entrance. Zip-a-dee-doo-dah. |
 | eighth try
* First unit
* "Milagro"
* The Long and Short of It: The building's inside a gate, and this time they were pretty adamant about not letting us in, so we hovered at the perimeter the whole time. Well upon arriving I immediately approached Alberto (the guard I met yesterday). He offered us diet cokes and told us he'd ask his boss about letting us in. Later on his boss told us (apparently we couldn't go in) where DD and GA's trailer were, so for the most part we were there catching glimpses of them as they walked between the trailors and the building (the were filming inside on the 2nd floor). Their trailors were cool, they had their initials on them ;) It wasn't until night time and we could see clearer that we realized DD's TV had been on the whole time... Mark came and talked to us very often, and the first thing he said to us was: "Are you guys homeless people or something?" Then he proceeded to demonstrate to us how to act like a homeless person, since he said he was one in the movie Payback. He also quizzed us. "Which episode is this?" "Milagra" (we knew because of the large pink neon signs saying "Milagra" Crew) "What number?" "18." (He looked impressed.) "Who directs episode 20 do you guys know?" We proceeded to guess Carter, Bowman, and Manners because we had thought that 6x19 was the baseball ep and 6x20 was the season finale. Well finally it dawned on me that the answer was David, so I asked him what's episode 19 then? "Well it's the episode before episode 20!" Uhhh, thanks Mark ;) (Now I remember, it's the Unusual Suspects sequel ... duh!) We weren't sure, of course, that Mark was his name, so I asked him what his name was, to which his reply was: "Mark. *insert wry grin here* Mark CARTER.". At one point Steve came out next to us to ask directions from Alberto on how to get on the freeway. We were almost gonna tell him that we saw him on Leno ;) Anyhoo the best part was, we noticed GA signing an autograph of sorts, so we figured we'd ask Mark to get them for us, but we only had blank paper, so he offered to get nice photos for them to sign and he'd mail them to us! How nice!! THANK YOU MARK!! (Isn't that the BEST birthday gift Jody? :) Ya know what's sad though? A guard told us that THEY weren't allowed to ask for autographs or they'd get fired! Yes we only caught glimpses of Gill (smoking again) and David, but at one point Jody and I thought we saw them walking into the building together, talking to each other. Yes I know, no big deal, but last time we saw them they went to the set in separate vans and not once did we see them talk to each other. That made me feel good, since I do hope they get along on the set, even though it's none of my business, really. |
sixth try
*
* "Trevor"
* The Long and Short of It: Okay, now that I've finally calmed down enough to breathe ... the minute we got on the set (took us an hour and a half to drive there, mind you) we saw DD, so we rushed back to the car to get a camera and stuff for him to autograph .... when we went back, DD was gone, but his stand-in was there, which made us question our sanity ... Was that really DD I saw??" Pretty soon GA's doppleganger of a stand-in came too, and they sorta lounged around and talked to people. They both seemed pretty nice, although DD's stand-in seemed really quiet. He kept eating carrots. Then a guy wearing an LAPD shirt, we figure he's security, came over, waggled his eyebrows at us and asked, "You guys see any stars yet?" And we told him we didn't, and that we came all the way from the coast, he reached into his folder and pulled out two promos for us. He told us a couple of days ago when they were filming, dozens of high school kids followed them around, saying they were an X-Files Club from a nearby high school. LOL. Neat, eh? Later some teenagers who lived in the neighborhood came over and watched with us. One of them told us she got autographs and hugs from DD and GA (she said she asked for the hugs and she got them!), awwww. I also talked to an assistant director I had seen on my first set visit (see below). The skateboarder lighting dude was there again! But he didn't see us. One other interesting thing we noticed was that one of the props was a door with the words "I WANT WHAT'S MINE" painted on it. There were also a couple of police cars with "Jackson, Mississippi" painted on them. A crime scene set, apparently. Finally when DD came back, the 12 year old boy went right in front of him and waved at him. Well DD was on his cellphone and eating sunflower seeds (!!) at the time, so he simply nodded at him. He walked past us less than 3 feet away (the street was narrow)! Just when we thought we couldn't get luckier, GA arrived too (the 12 year old boy took a blurry picture of her for us)! They got into their respective chairs (no, we didn't see them talk to each other) and had their makeup done. Between rehearsals GA talked on her cellphone (with a smile I might add), talked to some guy, and smoked. DD and GA left shortly after to eat dinner, so we followed them to their |