Aine and August Schellengerg on set
One time, Diana Carew
requested a location two hours
out of town that I had never
been to. I arranged a visit
the next day and drove the
minivan. Betty in front with
me, Diane behind with Harold
(production designer). There
was an abysmal snowstorm.
Despite the weather, we
decided to go. There were
accidents on the highway on
both sides. Eventually, we
exited and I could feel the
tires losing their grip and
said, "Hold tight everyone,
this is shear black ice. We are
going to crash." The van slid
across the road into a snow
bank. I called a tow truck—at
least a two-hour wait given
the snowy conditions. Harold
said, "I was a Boy Scout. No
worries, I can get us out." My
door was jammed into the
snowbank. I said, "Harold,
it's black ice under the
snow, you'll end up on your
backside..."Nevertheless, he
opened the sliding door, put
his foot down and immediately
fell fl at on the ground, gliding
across the road as if on a luge
and into the other snowbank.
Then Betty decided she would
help Harold and as she put her
foot on the ground, she went
down and glided over toward
Harold. If you have ever seen
curling, they looked like two
rocks trying to outdo each
other. All we could do was
laugh. As Harold got some
evergreen branches off some
trees and tried to get a grip on
the ice, he and Betty slowly
made their way back to the
van, crawling on the bellies
with branches in their hands.
Harold put the branches under
the tires for traction. It worked
and we fi nally got back on the
road and slowly made our way
back to Toronto. It took hours
but we had a great afternoon
swapping stories and laughs
all the way. The next day,
I drove to the location and
made all the arrangements. It
all worked out.
Another pilot called ENG
(Electronic News Gathers), with
Jeff King as producer and Greg
Copeland as PM, I was visiting
LA and in a restaurant having
dinner when the waiter came
over and asked if I was "Aine,"
I say, "Yes, that's me" and it
was Greg calling from Toronto.
He found me though a number
of phone calls and asked if I
would be available to do the
show. I was fl ying back the next
day and Greg and I met for
dinner and money was really
tight but it was Jeff's birthday
and I said, "yes, I'd love to work
on it." Well, the opening scene
was a house on fi re and I had
to put on my thinking cap… I
tried fi nding deserted homes
that could be put on fi re, no
luck (we had two weeks' prep
for the whole show). I went to
