I love imdb for reminding me of great series/movies of the past. Cover Up was one of my favorite! shows during that time period! I guess I was nine then. Awesome 80's show! just now learing about the tragedy that took place behind the scenes. I had no idea. I'm so sorry for the family, friends, and co-workers of Jon Erik Hexum.
shareI loved this show back'n the day!!!
I remember hearing about the main character commiting suicide and that the show failed due to his absence from the show.
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It wasn't a suicide, it was a foolish mistake with a prop gun, he didn't realize the force the paper wadding could have when he pulled the trigger. Terribly sad, but changed prop gun laws in Hollywood.
shareIt was a really tragic accident.
The show was popular and beginning to build a following. I don't remember how long it was before they tried to continue with a new actor. Probably not his fault, but with the new actor the show never caught on and so was cancelled. Probably everyone involved was to shaken up after the death to realy do a good job.
I agree with you. They had only completed the pilot movie and six episodes of the series before the accident. Actually they still aired the last episode with Jon-Erik, but worked around his death using photo doubles, horrible voice dubbing and footage from an earlier episode. Then they threw Anthony Hamilton in there by the seventh episode.
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JEHRP: The scene where Jon-Erik actually shot the blank gun at Mykeltee Williamson (an exterior shot on a rocky beach) was shot prior to the scene where he loaded the gun in the hotel room. In the hotel room scene (Jon-Erik's last), Mac Harper (Jon-Erik) is seen sitting on the bed, switching the "real bullets" for blanks. Your character, "Ralph" (the villain's bodyguard) knocks on the door, and informs him that he wants to accompany him on the hit. Mac tells him he prefers to work alone, then begrudgingly picks up his duffel bag and they leave. The gun wasn't to be fired in the scene.
Bob Shayne: It's interesting what you say about the gun not needing to be fired in that scene. Maybe those blanks were used because he was loading them in that scene, although I think they could have gotten away with loading anything unless there was an extreme close-up. Oh, well.
…The reason I think I feel slightly responsible is that the scene wasn't in the original script. Then an asshole at the network (who came back to plague me yet again on a later series I did for the network with a whole bunch more of not necessarily good ideas which he would always insist on -- whether they were good or bad) insisted the script was too soft and needed to be more violent. (Of course, they never use that word. The code word is "action." It needed more "action." Bullshit. That meant "violence.") So I devised the whole con-within-the-con where Jon pretends to shoot Mikeltee. If the network asshole hadn't pressed me, that scene wouldn't have been in the script and the gun wouldn't have been in Jon-Erik's hand…By the way, there's a backstory to the script…