LAKE COUNTY — Busted?using a cell phone and pumping gas can cause an explosion. That”s just one of the myths the Discovery Channel TV show MythBusters hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman busted recently. Wednesday found the pair and the MythBusters crew at Lake County”s fairgrounds, filming a segment of a new episode that will air next season. An arena normally used for 4-H shows and Lake County”s Outlaw Go-Carts members transformed into a casual set for the TV show. No make-up artists were to be seen, and both hosts and crew planned shots and dialogue off-the-cuff. Cameras perched atop muddy tractors and railings pointed at the freshly-tilled earth of the all terrain vehicle (ATV) track. Producers instructed onlookers to turn off their cell phones and yelled, “Quiet, we”re rolling!”
The topic for the new episode is the electric car versus the gas car?determining which one is faster, said MythBusters Associate Producer Eric Haven. “A lot of people have a pre-conception that electric vehicles are slower than gas-powered vehicles. We”re going to bust that myth,” Haven said. “Today we”re testing ATV”s. We have a gas-powered one and an electric one. Tomorrow it”s go-carts, and then cars.”
Blair Aiken, who runs the Ukiah Speedway, had originally planned with the MythBusters team to prepare the Ukiah track for filming. But rain turned the un-covered area into a mud pit. “Lake County was plan B. It took us about four hours last night to prep the track,” Aiken said, gesturing to the looping dirt track wide enough for two ATV”s to race one another around hairpin turns and bumps.
“They wanted to get this done before the end of the year, so I said, ?we have this other facility in Lake County,”” Aiken said.
It was obvious plans were so last minute when the boom was lowered and cameras shut off while a question of location was answered. “Where are we again? Lake View?” a crew member asked. “No, Lake County!” Haven shouted back from the sidelines.
That”s life on the road for this team, who head off to Infineon Raceway in Sonoma on Thursday for additional filming. While fairgrounds CEO Richard Persons was happy to accommodate the crew, a snafu erupted early Wednesday. An area dealer fell through with providing a gas-powered Polaris 800 ATV, to match the Polaris electric ATV. “They had to go all the way to Colusa to get one,” Aiken said.
But filming started shortly after noon and lasted all day, as the hosts perfected their shots and raced each other around the track. The show is known for its unconventional, action-packed methods often involving explosions. Onlookers, fans of the show, said it was exciting to see how true the end-result is to actual production.
“I”m very, very excited,” Sara Humphrey, 9, of Lakeport said. She got out of school, along with several other children, once word got around that Mythbusters was in town. “I watch this show all the time with my dad and I”m really excited to see the quad and electric bike ride around the track,” Humphrey said, skipping off to take photos with the hosts and muster up some autographs.
The relaxed, Bohemian-style crew even let the 14-year-old son of an area sheriff”s deputy try out one of the bikes on the track. The hosts spoke casually with their unexpected audience, smiling for photographs with fans. One fan asked, “Did you ever think you would be famous for blowing stuff up?” “Never in my wildest dreams,” Hyneman said.
Contact Elizabeth Wilson at ewilson@record-bee.com
