This is a continuation from my previous article “A Chronological Tale of the Firing of Clayne Crawford.”
I have been in contact with a member of the Lethal Weapon crew named BTSinHollyWood on twitter who has given me deep insight into the inner workings of the cast and crew of the TV show Lethal Weapon.
In these chats with BTSinHollyWood, I learned about the failings of the shows Management which has caused over 70 people to lose their job including the Co-Star of the show Clayne Crawford.
The Majority of the leadership were often not available to the cast and crew. They would either never come to set or only be there when they were absolutely needed. The problem with this is that Leadership needs to be there for any issues that come up to be cleared up. Otherwise, you end up with a half fixed or completely unfixed problems.
One example of someone never being there is Executive Producer Dan Lin. The only time he ever spent any time on set was during the taping of the Pilot. His name was never even on the meeting memos.
McG Another Executive Producer was seen a handful of times stopping by for a meeting or PR thing. Whenever he was around he did drop by the set though. Apparently, he works on multiple projects at once and it took a lot of his time. Matt Miller and Jen Gwartz were supposed to handle the day to day problems and McG must have figured they had everything under control, they didn’t.
Matt Miller who is the Lethal Weapon Showrunner didn’t often spend much time on set either. 90% of his time was spent in the writer’s room. Generally, a Showrunner splits their time between the Set and the Writer’s room. The Cast and Crew often wanted Matt there because they wanted someone there to help smooth things out.
Executive Producer Jen Gwartz hardly ever came to the set. She would often go straight to the Production office for meetings but my source said that they can only recall 10 or so times she ever came to set.
Marc Alpert the Line Producer made it clear from the start that he does not visit the set.
To Quote Wikipedia the job of a Line Producer is:
” The line producer facilitates casting, location scouting, set building and decorating, offices and stages, wardrobe, props, stunts, physical and visual effects, camera, lighting, rigging, transportation, cast, crew and union relations, travel, cast and crew accommodation, contracting of legal permissions and agreements, safety and risk management, prep and shooting schedule. In short, the line producer oversees the joint planning, negotiations, implementation and accounting for production.”
So as you can see if a Line Producer is not on set it can cause some major problems. My source said that they only saw him three times on set in all of Season 2’s 22 episodes. In fact, when serious things went down he would often have to be yelled at to come to set.
Marc AlpertMarc Alpert didn’t get along with the Cast, he could almost always be found sitting at his desk with his feet up texting. He didn’t come to the set on the day of the Pool Incident, however, he did call the Pool Sets Management to complain about the kids getting in the pool when they weren’t supposed to. In that particular incident, it caused hours and hours of delays because the locations failed to properly handle their property.
Unit Production Manager Mark Bashaar often pushed the limits of the crew and would break WB Policy to save money. He would often not offer safety hotels to people too tired to drive on several occasions. He broke union rules by combining two separate units (with two separate crews) on one call sheet many times throughout the season to try to get away with paying some crew less than they were owed due to their union rules. He was actually called out for it once. He often only came to the set for food and to talk to his buddy he helped get hired and leave. When he did come to set he would often disappear not helping with anything. He never made decisions or helped fix issues when he was on set. He was also responsible for hiring the 2nd production coordinator during Season 2 who was incredibly problematic. He backed her no matter what she did.
Perhaps even more Problematic was Production Coordinator Jolene Hastings. She was known to argue with everyone over everything. This caused most of the cast and crew to completely avoid her at all times. The cast and crew would even use bathrooms farther away just in case they might have a run-in with her. When Jolene took over the Production Coordinator job, things drastically changed. That office ended up having an extremely high turnover rate. She went through 3 Assistant Production Office Coordinators and eight or nine Production Assistants quit because of her. She wrongfully fired two of her PA’s one of which was actually pretty popular with Damon and Clayne. She was reported to HR multiple times and not only was she not punished she was hired back for Season 3.
Lisa Lewis came to Set a handful of times around 5. Peter Roth was never seen around the set.
WBTV Exe. Peter Roth
WBTV Exe. Peter Roth
Both Lisa Lewis and Peter Roth are WBTV Executives and were supposed to hold the Producers, UPM and Production Coordinators accountable to do their jobs. The UPM, Producers and Production Coordinators are all coming back for Season 3. None of which were actually doing their jobs. It was shocking to the crew that these people that failed this show miserably by letting things get so out of hand which resulted in a crazy accusation, 40% of the cast and crew losing their jobs and one of the two main stars being let go.
It is unusual for Executive Producers, Line Producers and UPM’s not to come to set regularly. They were only on set between 5%-20% of the time. Typically they need to be on set between 40%-50% of the time. Despite all of this the Cast and Crew stood up and took the brunt of the work when management abandoned them. It was very Problematic. During the Shrapnel incident with Damon not a single one showed up and it was only a 30-second walk from their offices to the stage. During the pool incident when Clayne was finally fed up and shouted, not a single Executive Producer, Line Producer or UPM was there either. In fact, the Stunt Coordinator had to take over Direction because Director Eric Laneuville (suggested by Damon Wayans) abandoned the set. Eric Laneuville was asked back to direct again even though he abandoned them once.
The Producers, UPM and Production Coordinator would often spend an insane amount of time and money on food for themselves. They would constantly have to “cut budgets” for the show because they didn’t have any money.
70+ people or around 40% of the 200 members were fired. They used the excuse that they were “Diversifying” so as to avoid Union backfire.
To top all of that two of the First Assistant Directors would constantly yell at people on set. One simply had a Powertrip, and the other was constantly messing things up and yelling at others because of it. Clayne Crawford stood up to them when they ended up taking the yelling too far.
WBTV and Fox never gave the Cast and Crew any show swag which is quite rare for big companies. Generally, in celebration, they provide a wrap gift for everyone when a season is wrapped. In 2 seasons not once did they receive a wrap gift from the people who were making the most money from their labor.
Four Executive Producers did, however, gift out a holiday Jacket for both seasons and a wrap gift in season 2.
Everyone was a bit confused because they received nothing from the studio or network. That coupled with the lack of management accountability and actor accountability left the Cast and Crew wondering if the higher-ups even wanted the show to succeed.