Texas fights.mov

This was my first big stunt coordinating gig, on the long since canceled Soap Opera "Texas." It was shot on location at the Brooklyn zoo, in Prospect Park. I've forgotten the actor's names, (update: I was cued by a YouTube viewer, and their names are Phillip Clark (Ryan Connor)and Ned Schmidtke (Peter Parnell)but they were game, physical, and able. Look for me in a cowboy hat early in the clip, and the late Jim Monitor taking a "ten dollar bump" with empty soda cans back lit in a tunnel. I remember that the elephants were upset, and the rhino tossed the zoo keeper into the air prior to filming, who was trying to calm him feeding him by hand from a bucket of fruit. I also remember that I had my hand almost smashed by an elephant that day. I was rehearsing the fight in the cage, and had climbed the fence as part of the staging. As I turned back to talk to the actors, my right hand on the top bar, I felt pressure. Turning to look, I saw one of the elephants pressing her forehead against my hand, which, after all WAS in her cage, if only by inches. She could have crushed my right hand easily, ending my career, but only pressed, to send me a message, I presume, to cease, or exit her cage. I did. Her skin pattern remained on my hand for hours. That, plus I almost self immolated by tossing a cigarette out the car service window, who had run over a muffler in Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza, puncturing his gas tank, and who parked to let me off under a river of gasoline! My first big stunt coordinating gig was almost my last!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• safd
• The Brooklyn Zoo
• stage combat
• J. Allen Suddeth
• Texas
• Jim Monitor
• Phillip Clark
• Ryan Connor
• Ned Schmidtke
• Peter Parnell
• combat
• zoo
• NBC soaps
• soap fights
• stunts.

[JAllenSud]

Thank you for the names! I've updated my comments based on your email. They are indeed the actors I remember, I just needed a memory jog.

[cfs89]

Very interesting information on that location shoot.

This is from episode 293 of Texas and the two actors are Phillip Clark(Ryan Connor)and Ned Schmidtke(Peter Parnell).