In this day and age, I often take a skeptical approach to emails I receive from individuals I do not know personally.
You have to be skeptical.
I cannot tell you how many rich uncles from Nigeria have contacted me over the years, promising riches beyond my wildest dreams, if only I could send them 2-3 thousand American Dollars.
After about a half a dozen times, I finally caught on, so know I really mean business when I say I greet emails from strangers with skepticism.
So when I received an email from the producer of Jerry Seinfeld’s Netflix show Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee at the end of August not only telling me that they wanted to use a Bluesmobile for one of their shows in the upcoming season, but asking if I would be interested in letting them use mine, my immediate gut reaction was…
SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!!!!
But I took a chance and called her back. After a very nice conversation, I emailed some pictures and then did my recon work!
Turned out that she was the producer of the show, which is good. Feeling a little bit better now. Then the communication went silent!
At first I sent an email, and was informed no decision was made, they were looking at several cars. I understood completely, I mean the show films usually in California or New York. Out of the 72 episodes that have aired so far, only 1 show was filmed in Chicago (Steve Harvey).
Finally the third week of September, I get a call from an assistant to the producer. My car was chosen, hurry up and sign everything, we’re sending a truck, we need it in LA last week! CLICK.
Then I hyperventilate.
So I get the car ready for the day the truck is going to arrive. Clean out all of my car show stuff out of the drunks, wiped her down with detail spray, left cards all over the place, in hopes Jerry and / or guest would like to rent the Bluesmobile one day.
First the driver was supposed to arrive Tuesday afternoon. Then evening, after dinnertime. Then late night early morning, around midnight. Then they were going to arrive first thing Wednesday morning, then mid-morning, finally arriving early afternoon.
And since they were so late getting to me in the first place and that the producers were calling them every 30 minutes to find out where the were at, they were in an extreme hurry to get the car!
The funny part of all of this at this juncture is the fact that the driver, and 12PM Wednesday afternoon, was so confident in his skills that he guaranteed that the car would be in California the next day.
Since he was so late and I had to go to the office, my lovely wife handled the whole ordeal, quietly said. Yeah right…
And at 6:30PM PST Saturday Afternoon the car arrived safely in California!!!
Once I received confirmation that the car arrived safely in California, for obvious reasons, I was not given any details about the shoot, other than general location.
It wasn’t until Jerry and his guest where caught filming at a Hollywood Arby’s and it was posted on Instagram that I found out who he was interviewing in the Bluesmobile.
SETH ROGEN!!!!
Now I have to be honest with you, I was not expecting Seth Rogen. I love the guy, I enjoy many of his movies, I just could not find a correlation between him and the Bluesmobile.
I had convinced myself that it would be Dan Aykroyd as the guest, especially since Jerry interviewed Martin Short the day before.
My train of thought was Jerry was doing a series of interviews with former Second City talent, that moved onto Saturday Night Live, and then successful movie careers. Yeah that’s the ticket!
Seth Rogen completely bypassed the whole Second City and SNL thing, so whats the connection? Seth and Dan Aykroyd are Canadian, so they share that bond…
Ah forget it. I’m just happy that two comedians I love and respect were filming a TV show inside my Bluesmobile!
All in all the shoot went very well from what I was told. Almost immediately after they wrapped the Bluesmobile was getting put onto a truck to start it’s long journey back to Chicago.
The producer was most appreciative of me letting them use the car, especially on such short notice. And felt really bad to have to tell me that while on the first day of shooting the drivers side wheel bearing went kaput, forcing them to get a tow truck and they will get it into the show as a bit about the strength of vintage American Iron.
Then she told me that they had to scrape my decals off the back window, but to send them an invoice. I told her it wasn’t a problem, that it was either scrape them off or blur the footage, and I knew which was cheaper!
And finally, apparently the fact that the rear gas door was missing the “D” in the middle of the word Dodge (just like in the movie), Jerry Seinfeld was compelled to make a proper “D” for the spot. This too will be featured as a bit during the episode.
She rightly guessed that it was missing on purpose and asked for me to send her the bill for any paint work required to fix it.
I told her are you kidding me? I’m clear coating the panel in order to keep the “D” preserved as further proof that this was the Bluesmobile featured on the show.
I really wanted him to sign the dashboard, but I’ll settle for the “D”.
Unfortunately the only bad news I heard was the amount of time it will take before the episode will air, probably close to a whole year from now.
I am looking very forward to seeing The Chicago Bluesmobile on the show, as far as I know he has not driven a movie car prior. I’ve seen nearly every episode, and am watching some of the old ones I don’t recall.
This has been a really cool experience and one I would have never thought in a million years would be possible!
Thanks for reading, until next time.
Brian
