MovieChat Forums > Movin' On (1974) Discussion > Filmed in Mobile

Filmed in Mobile

posted 13 years ago by teambraswell
20 replies | jump to latest

I lost my father when I was 13. There are so many things I should have asked. One would have been what episode of Movin On he was an extra on. It was one of my very few memories when I was a small child, watching it in the studio. The episode was filmed in Mobile. He was a truck driver so of course he was not home often or for long, but that was one time I knew he would be home. If anyone has any idea what episode it might have been or anywhere online that would show them please let me know. I just wanna see it one time on Fathers Day.

[–] Hawke101 13 years ago

I believe there may have been up to 3 or 4 episodes filmed in Mobile. I too was a kid and went down to the battleship with my best friend and her mom to watch them shoot one of the episodes. I ran through the crowd and up to Claude Akins. He was super nice and took a moment to shake my hand and let me take a couple of pics, which I still have. That was in the fall of '75 and I believe that episode did not air till around Feb '76. I recorded (audio only, but still high tech for a kid at that time) parts of the episode and as of about 7 years ago the tape would still play though it had degraded of course. Also there was at least 1 more with "Tubs" from Miami Vice. He was supposed to be in a truck that ran off the Bayway bridge which was not completed at that time. Future friends of mine saw part of the filming of that scene. "Tubs" also goes to a truck stop on the causeway and for years many people I have asked remember it, but can't say exactly where it was. Recently a couple of friends and I found what we believe are the remains and it appears to be not much left and is occupied by homeless people.

The good news is as of a few days ago, MO is now back on the air on 5.3. at 2pm weekdays. It will probably be a month or so before they get to the Mobile episodes and I am waiting to see them to bring back some great memories of long ago.

So get out your DVR and get ready to capture a time when life was a simpler, happier place to be!

[–] bfan 13 years ago

I was a big fan of "Movin On" as well and was very happy to see that Retro TV has begun to air reruns. My fondest memories come from the fact that this show was my grandmother's favorite TV series. It surprised me that she would be a fan of a show about truck drivers, and I have a suspicion that she may have had a thing for Claude Akins. But hey, grandmothers are human, too. I also loved the theme song by Merle Haggard. In addition to the regular episodes, I hope Retro-TV also shows the program's 90-minute pilot movie.

[–] teambraswell 13 years ago

That is so great! I have to ask what channel 5.3 is. Thank you so much for your help. It really does meen alot to all his children.

[–] Hawke101 13 years ago

RTV Which is WKRG channel 5.3 (it's one of their digital sub channels). I recorded my second show today and noticed they are not playing them in order so cross your fingers they play the ones shot in Mobile.

[–] Hawke101 13 years ago

Just to let you know, they showed 1 of the Mobile shows today. Neat flood of good old memories when they got to the part that I saw them make. It made me remember a few more details too. Hope you get a chance to see it.

[–] teambraswell 13 years ago

Hawke, did you by any chance catch the episode name? What was it about? Direct Tv does not carry that channell and I have no way to record it off air tv. I ordered several series off ioffer and it never made it to my house. It is just so important to me. I guess it is because all my memories of my father are still like pictures and I want to see him move one more time. Thank you for all the tips and info. I did get a few episodes delivered, not the right ones but I loved watching them anyway.

[–] Hawke101 13 years ago

Home Is Not a House

Honestly it was one of the sillier episodes, but it was great to see our town the way it was back then, though some still looks the same way as it did in '75. Even had a Bicentennial parade. Be aware that the airdates you see listed are probably wrong. Why? 1) Because one site says it was delayed do to base ball playoffs. 2) you can see it was cold when they are talking in some shots. 3) Read in paper at least one of them was shot in Nov. 4) While I can't remember 1-3 to say for sure, I do remember getting frustrated about how long it took to air and I always remember it being around Feb of the next year (1976) because I recorded it.

Anyway:

Family moves to Mobile and tries to put their mobile home in the park in downtown mobile. City fights back but the guys and the family win in the end. Silly but the ending was rather nice. Does this sound like your show or is it the other one with Tubs? I believe I can hack my DVR and get the show off of it but not sure of the format. Describe what you know about your dad's part and I will look for it in this one and also the one with tubs as soon as they show it. I now know there were at least 2 done in Mobile. Weird but some people remember the show well while some people don't and think "Close Encounters" was the first tv/movie production in Mobile.

[–] ScotchRox 13 years ago

The ep. w/ Phillip Micheal Thomas (Tubbs) aired this afternoon.
It was titled "No More Sad Songs"...

[–] teambraswell 13 years ago

I was only about 4. I remembered a lot of truckers standing nent to their trucks. Noone else seems to remember this but it seems like they were on strike. I may be mixing shows but I could swear that is why my dad told me about trucker strikes. I do know it had alot of truckers and their trucks lined up. They didnt seem too happy looking.

I really appreciate everything.

[–] ScotchRox 13 years ago

Hi, There were many days when you could only
buy fuel on certain days in the early to mid 70's.
I do remember truckers striking & blocking freeways
& major streets to protest high fuel prices at the time...

$4-$5 per gallon now would have them spinning in their graves.

[–] teambraswell 13 years ago

If I remember right he told me they would get on the highways and go at a slow speed, riding next to each other so noone else could pass. It seems my father had gone on strike. Truckers were truely kings of the road !

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] Hawke101 13 years ago

I "may" know what part you are talking about. I know it has at least firemen and Marine police standing around. Let me look again and if I see it I will do a screen capture and post it somewhere so you can take a look. I have seen both Mobile shows now and I suspect he is in the one that I saw being filmed, not the one with "Tubs". Speaking of Tubs, I did do a couple of screen shots of him on the causeway if anyone would like to see them. I originally thought that was filmed more on the eastern shore side of the causeway, but now I am not so sure.

For the past few weeks I have been missing episodes because Comcast keeps screwing around with RTV/WKRG and PBS. I would come home and found my DVR would record something on PBS, not RTV. I would fix it, it would last a few days then Comcast would change it again. I finally had enough and told my DVR to use the Antenna to record RTV and have had no more problems.

[–] teambraswell 13 years ago

Oh thank you so very much. I am home from surgury now and am trying to get someone to put an antenea up for me so I can start watching it. you really made my face light up. Now I will be anxiously awaiting. My God bless you for the help you have given me. This meens so much to us.

[–] Hawke101 13 years ago

Well good news and some bad news:

MY computer at home died last night and I will be rebuilding my system this weekend - I guess with the storm on the way at least I won't be missing out on the long holiday weekend.

Anyway some good news:
Before my computer died last night I looked at the show in question and there is a very short scene with Sonny talking to a group of truckers standing around. The screen cap will not be high quality but maybe good enough to see if you dad is there.

Also as of last night I have confirmed that there are at least 3 shows shot in Mobile. Before my machine died, I was watching the latest episode. I noticed a tunnel that looked just like ours and when they get to the other side you can see the pascagoula sign and that pretty much confirmed it. Then they go to Prichard and later to a downtown old house. The next stop was Wintzell's . They had old Mr. Wintzell sitting in there next to Sonny and Will as well. His brother was my science teacher so kinda neat seeing that. After seeing that part I remember some vague recollection of someone talking about them filming there, but I can't remember any details. Maybe it was my science teacher, but really don't know. That's the last I saw when my computer started having problems. Anyway I have the show you want saved so even if I have to rebuild my system manually, I still will be able to do that screen shot.

Oh and a BTW- They did 2 neat tricks to make our tunnel seem much longer than it really is-made it seem like a mile long.

[–] teambraswell 13 years ago

I am so sorry to hear about your computer problems. My backlight went out on mine and I went crazy.. even tho I could get on my daughters when she went to bed. I hope for your sake you get it fixed soon and easy.

That is great news indeed. I finally got the tv hooked up for air tv and will be home many more weeks to watch but when I looked it up on the guide I did not realise it was Eastern time so I kept missing it. When you get a chance I would LOVE to see that screen shot. You have made a woman very happy. And to think a complete stranger is going through all this just so some woman can see a glimpse of her father. YOU ARE AWESOME!!

[–] Hawke101 13 years ago

Well sorry to say I lost most of my recordings when I restored my computer so it will probably a couple of months before they run that episode again and I can grab it. I found out the hard way that the backup software in Windows 7 will not back up tv recordings from Windows media center even if it's directly told to do so. I think it is some "copyright" thing. I should have moved the mobile shows to a safe place but I trusted Microsoft's backup to do a full backup of my system and it let me down. Sorry you will have to wait awhile longer but the show you want is titled " Home Is Not a House" and the part you want to see is at I believe around the 35 min mark. The night my computer died I saw it so I know it's there (not saying your dad is there, but the scene you described is there for sure). I do not know what show they played on Friday as my machine was down, but today they are showing yet another filmed here. That means that there were at least 4 shows filmed here. The childhood rumor I heard was 3-4 but I never knew for sure.

Anyway again I am sorry I lost the recordings-but I will get them again. I am going to see if I can fool the windows backup into backing up the 1 show I now have (todays) as I do not want to go through this again!

[–] teambraswell 13 years ago

Oh no do not be sorry. First you went beyond what any other stranger would do to try to get it for me and I am so greatful to you. Second you got me the name. I was not going to be able to spend $200 on the whole series but I am more than willing to buy the correct show for $20. It is well worth it to me and my lil brother. When it showed the truckers were they all lined up standing by their trucks? I believe they were mad about something (again I was only 3 or 4 so I didnt understand anything other than my daddy was making a funny face and he was standing in front of his truck)

Thank you so much my kind Movin On friend. May you be blessed as much as you blessed me. And I really mean it. You made my day.

[–] Hawke101 13 years ago

I don't blame you for not wanting to wait for it to be rerun, but I will still save a copy when it does. While I lost most of the series, I do have 2 behind the scenes photos when they were making your dad's episode if interested. One is a closeup of Claude that I took after I greeted him. The other is him walking with the crew. Pics are old and one is damaged but the fact that I still have them 35 years is a miracle considering how disorganized I am :)

I am starting to record again and I watched "Full Fathom Five" tonight. That one was about bayou batre. This was a good episode and is worth watching.

I think they may have done some Hollywood trickery and used Dog river as a stand in for bayou batre. Notice the old draw bridge in the background and there is a quick shot of the marina sign which says Beachcomber.

Oh and in case anyone is interested I believe I have finally located the area where the truck-stop/restaurant was located for the "Tubs" scenes. It was right in front the battleship (near pinto island) where they filmed Home Is Not a House. 2 different shows shot right next to each other-I guess they do this to save money and it worked as it sure fooled me and I live here.

With 4 confirmed shows filmed here, someone whether it was the producers,writers or maybe Claude really liked our hometown.

[–] teambraswell 12 years ago

You are an awesome person and you made this woman so happy.. I better clear that up. Last night was the showing of the A House Is Not A Home eppisode. OMG my father was right there. I saw him alive and looking good if I do say so myself. My first reaction was cry ... smile.. cry ... smile.. My second was to tell you thank you. Had you not have told me which episode it was then I might not have seen it. Thanks to you I made sure nothing stopped it from recording. Now we have a copy for all his children and other family. You really did make a strangers day so much brighter. I dont know how to ever thank you enough.. but I am sending you all the blessings a person can send. May your weekend be a happy as mine will be

Michelle