Paramount Studios

On the Set of Three Rivers

The early days of Hollywood's Paramount Studios boasted an A list of names which included director Cecil B. DeMille, stars Rudolph Valentino, Mary Pickford and Clara Bow. Wings, Paramount's 1928 release, received the first ever Academy Award for best picture. To this day the sound stages, lots and even parking spots are still buzzing with movie-making crews and casts. Three Rivers, which made its debut on Sunday, October 4th 2009, on CBS is a show about transplant surgeons, organ donors and the recipients of those organs. I had a chance to be on the set for the making of episode six at Paramount Studios.

Four fifteen in the morning, no traffic in sight, can either be a tiresome and lonely journey on the freeways of Los Angeles or a surprising peaceful one. Gratefully, my son and I experienced the latter on our way to Paramount Studios in Hollywood. Call time was 7:00am. Parking was inside the famous Gower Structure across the street from the studios. We made it to Stage 19 for wardrobe by 6:15am. That left us ample time to join the crew and a kid named Drake (who was guest starring on Three Rivers) for breakfast.

The production company provided two teachers for the minors, my son included. School was in session by 7:30am inside of Stage 21. However, thirty minutes into their lessons the production assistant, Marcin Borkowski, interrupted and brought the kids to the set-a small parking lot inside Paramount Studios with the streets of New York just beyond. (Paramount has thirty sound stages, nine exterior sets and more than thirty production service departments.)

Two toddlers, two babies held by their make-believe parents, ten rowdy teenagers and a cast of extras were instantly transported to a small town county fair somewhere in Pennsylvania. Real popcorn, cotton candy, hot dogs and pretzels were devoured whenever the director shouted "rehearsal" and "action!" Hay stacks, trash on the ground, a Ferris wheel, a couple of carousels, and a roller coaster, added to the reality of a county fair.