Our Latest Photo Feature (May 27, 1999)

Our latest photo feature is here at last! We finally finished the photo layout and design for Barb Nelson's photos she sent us. There's behind the scenes pictures of Don, Cheech, Jeff Perry and Jaime Gomez at work on the barge. Take a look and tell us what you think. Thanks again to Barb for sharing her photos.

Barb's Visit to San Francisco
 

Photos from Jonathan (May 27, 1999)

Jonathan Steffens of the Unofficial Jodi Lyn O'Keefe Website sent us these photos from his mid-April spring break visit to San Francisco. There's an aerial shot of Treasure Island from Jonathan's flight in from the East Coast, and a picture of Don's newly acquired restaurant in Ghirardelli Square. Thanks Jonathan. Visit the Unofficial Jodi Lyn O'Keefe site at: http://jodi.synical.net

HOLD ON! We're Not Done Yet - A New Photo Feature Coming! (May 15, 1999)

The season finale has just aired, but we're not leaving for the summer just yet. We're readying a new photo feature of candid photos of the cast at work on the SIU barge. There's Don, Cheech, Jeff Perry and Jaime Gomez working on the barge. We've got Don's private car and other behind the scenes stuff.

The photos were sent to us by Barb Nelson from her trip to San Francisco last year. Barb's a long time fan of Don Johnson, and she has generously agreed to share her photos with us. Look for our new photo feature to be up by the end of next week or so. Thanks for visiting us all season and catch up on those episodes you missed during the summer re-runs.
 

Postmortem on HOMICIDE (May 15, 1999)

As reported in a NashBIT of April 17th, HOMICIDE is no more. The final original episode airs May 21. NBC will announce HOMICIDE's cancellation on Monday, May 17th when the new fall NBC schedule is unveiled.

HOMICIDE ran for six seasons. Never a big ratings hit, things got darker for HOMICIDE when the CBS series NASH BRIDGES premiered in 1996 in the Friday night time slot. HOMICIDE began a steady decline, ending up third place in behind ABC's 20/20 and CBS's NASH BRIDGES. Let's see what NBC throws up against NASH next...
 

George Michalski, Musical Director for NASH BRIDGES (May 11, 1999)

The local SF TV show EVENING MAGAZINE of May 10th had a lead-off story on San Francisco's "Music Man" aka George Michalski, who picks local music for use on NASH BRIDGES. The music Michalski chooses are fresh new talent, virtually unheard of outside of San Francisco. For the last four years, Michalski has used about 50 San Francisco-based bands for music on NASH BRIDGES.

Michalski is the hippest of the hip, playing piano at the Cypress Club (a known Don Johnson hang out) on Monday nights. Michalski goes club-hopping, scoping out local musicians as they hand him their latest demo CDs. At the Maritime Hall, Michalski checks out a new band and also there were NASH BRIDGES cast members Jodi Lyn O'Keefe (who plays Cassidy) and Jaime Gomez (who plays Evan).

Twenty years ago, Michalski was in his own band playing in LA's famous Whiskey A Go-Go. In walked Don Johnson, in what Michalski described as a blond guy in a tennis outfit and "kinda prissy lookin'." They become fast friends and composed the opening theme song for NASH BRIDGES twenty years ago.

Michalski praised Don Johnson for letting him use unsigned acts on a network show. Michalski chooses bands which reflect the feel of the SF music scene. Michalski said he loves to give bands their big break "I'll get your song on NASH BRIDGES. Now it's up to you to tell the world." And it's reported that the payment is enough to buy a minivan, so figure about twenty thousand dollars.
 

More on the Wedding and the LA Times Article (May 11, 1999)

In the May 17th issue of PEOPLE WEEKLY, an article entitled "Lessons in Love: Don Johnson Weds a Teacher" reviewed once again the Don and Kelley wedding in detail.

New nuggets of info were that Don owns an island off the coast of Vietnam and that's where the couple went for their honeymoon on May 3rd. Guest Kevin Costner was completely unaware of the wedding plans. It was Robert Wagner that let the cat out of the bag when he commented that "I'm the best man for a very best man."

(A tidbit from the SF Chronicle reported that Mayor Willie Brown was also caught off-guard. The Mayor cancelled a scheduled neighborhood association meeting to perform the last minute ceremonial honors at the request of his friend Don Johnson on that fateful Thursday night, April 29th.)

PEOPLE WEEKLY also reported Don's criticism of that devastating LA Times article which Don thought was an attempt to portray him as "an arrogant buffoon." There was, however, no dispute with the facts of the LA Times article. PEOPLE WEEKLY recounted that Don drank two bottles of wine and picked up a blonde at a bar. PEOPLE WEEKLY also rattled off a list of Don's past girlfriends, including Jodi Lyn O'Keefe. PEOPLE WEEKLY described Don as "randy."
 

New Director of the SF Film Commission (May 11, 1999)

P.J. Johnston is the new head of the SF Film Commission. Johnston's job is to attract film and TV production to San Francisco. Cited as an example is NASH BRIDGES, which brought in 25 million dollars to The City last year.

Johnston said he like to attract more TV movies of the week to SF. A lot of this business has gone to Canada, which offer tax breaks and lower costs.

As this SF Chronicle article of May 10th points out, production companies come into a city and throw big money around - they use hotels, restaurants, and rent cars.
 

Season Finale Coming Up (May 8, 1999)

It's the 24th episode of this season coming up next, so now is the time to e-mail us with your comments and suggestions. It's been an interesting year and I've had a blast doing my Friday thing of writing into the night to have synopsis, commentary and NashBITS ready by Saturday (ah, usually). A lot of thanks goes to my webmaster, Spencer Low, for doing his Saturday uploadings.

We really like to have more interaction with fans, but it's just all we can do now to keep up. After all these years of doing NASH, we've arrived at a comfortable working level of doing the synopsis, commentary, and NashBITS with an occasional special feature. E-mail I answer when I can - sometimes people will notice, I answer stuff in batches.

A lot of fans mistake us for the NB production, or think we are in contact with the cast and crew. Also, we get a lot of really tough trivia questions which I am hard pressed to answer. Just because I do detailed synopsis of every episode, doesn't mean I store all that stuff in my head. Week after week, I just unload and move on.

So e-mail us with your comments and suggestions. Before we leave for the summer, I'll update the FAQ and the other portions of the site. Thanks to all our loyal readers, and we'll be there for the 100th episode of NASH BRIDGES!
 

Please Don't Use Our Images and Text Without Permission (May 8, 1999)

We've been surfing around to the other NB and related sites and it has left us in a quandary. Right from the start, we decided to run our website strictly legal in observing copyright. As our loyal followers may notice, we don't use image captures, broadcast material, or any logos from NASH BRIDGES. We use only original content and material (such as photos) we create ourselves, or photos are given to us by the original photographers and used with their permission.

Earlier, the TV show MILLENIUM shut down a number of growing sites devoted to their show for illegally using material from the show. As a word of warning, the same can happen to any TV website which uses "borrowed" images from around the web. It doesn't happen often because the producers of the TV shows figure the negative fallout from fans isn't worth the trouble to shut down sites. But sites can be shut down at any time for such reason. We wish to avoid being shut down, so we run legal. (This does not appear to be the case with the producers of NASH BRIDGES. The Official site has been web friendly to fan sites, so far. There was an earlier Mailing List, but they had other problems).

Just because you credit the source still does not give one the right to use "borrowed" material. Please respect our rights and not do the same to us. We've notice our exclusive moving 'Cuda on two other websites. They are using our material without our permission. One has replied to our message and both have since removed it. The same applies to our synopsis, commentary, and photo material. Please do not use without permission - your cooperation is appreciated.
 

Jodi Lyn O'Keefe Site Re-vamped (May 8, 1999)

Jonathan Steffen's website dedicated to actress Jodi Lyn O'Keefe has had a complete make-over including a name and URL change. His website is now known as the Jodi Lyn O'Keefe Unofficial Website and the new URL is:

http://jodi.synical.net

There's new pictures, including photos from Jonathan's San Francisco visit on his spring break.
 

The TRUEFAN: The SIU Homepage (May 8, 1999)

Chris Petescia from New Jersey has a website devoted to NASH BRIDGES. Fifteen year old Chris has a neat variation of our moving 'Cuda in a drawn form. Check out his site at:

http://welcome.to/TheSIU
 

KPIX News Reports on the Don and Kelley Wedding (May 1, 1999)

The CBS affiliate KPIX local news (on immediately after NASH BRIDGES) here in San Francisco mentioned Don and Kelley's wedding at the very end of their Friday newscast, amidst all the flurry of reports in the newspapers and other sources earlier in the day.

Newscaster Dana King lovingly mocked the detailed description of Kelley Phleger's wedding gown, putting on a British accent to suggest that this was all high society nonsense of the super-rich and famous.
 

ET Lead-Off Story is Don and Kelley's Wedding (May 1, 1999)

ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT claimed that they were the first to report that Don Johnson had gotten married Thursday (April 29th). Yesterday (April 30th) came more video coverage of the wedding, with shots of the front of the Getty mansion located in the exclusive Pacific Heights section of San Francisco. The ET cameras were apparently staked out there as famous guests started coming in.

Kevin Costner was kidded by reporters about coming dateless, to which Costner replied "I couldn't get anybody to come with me." Costner also said of Kelley "She's great. She's going to save his life, watch."

Don, surrounded by bodyguards, slipped in through a side door to the Getty mansion. Cheech Marin was chewing gum, in sunglasses and black tie (looking very Hollywood). SF Mayor Willie Brown was wearing one of his trademark fedora hats. Robert Wagner was cornered by reporters and said "I'm the best man for a very best man."

Florists and caterers were shown entering, and the cuisine was described by ET as eclectic Pacific Rim. Even the Getty's chef Alphonse was interviewed. Alphonse described the hors d'oeuvres as spicy, followed by soup, and a main dish of lobster.

Elliot Mintz, Don's publicist, explained that the 80 or so guests were not invited to a wedding. A shot of the actual invitation to the dinner party showed that the party was "To honour Kelley Phleger and Don Johnson." Cameras were not present at the ceremony, but Mintz said that Don and Kelley gazed deeply into each other's eyes for a long time.

After the wedding, Don departed with Kelley and his son Jesse. Don was back at work the next day (Friday) for the last day of shooting NASH BRIDGES. The ET report made a point of showing Don (though not in his NASH attire) on the set of NASH BRIDGES, apparently looking over a just-completed shot.

After the NB wrap party (reportedly on Saturday at Ghirardelli Square), it's off to the honeymoon on Sunday.
 

Don and Kelley's Wedding Makes the Front Page of the Chronicle (May 1, 1999)

The Don and Kelley wedding was big news in San Francisco, rating a front page mention (along with a smiling mug shot of Don) in the April 30th SF Chronicle. Society columnist (of "The Scene" column) Pat Steger got all the details.

Pat reports that Kelley "looked like a princess in a hand-embroidered off-white couture Chanel gown and empire-waist jacket with hand-sewn pastel flowers." (There is a photograph of the smiling couple at an SF opera opening last September). Apparently the impending nuptials were kept secret right until the end at the black-tie dinner party at the palatial home of Ann and Gordon Getty. Most guests were longtime friends and relatives. SF Mayor Willie Brown performed the ceremony at 8:25PM.

Ann Getty did a butterfly theme for the party. Don's chef, Kai, cooked up a Vietnamese menu. Pat revealed that Don owns a home in Vietnam, and that is where Don and Kelley may spend their honeymoon. Pat also revealed that word at the party was that Don just bought a home in Pacific Heights, and that the couple will split their time between here and Don's other home in Aspen, Colorado.

Cheech Marin was there, along with Kevin Costner from Los Angeles (there is a photograph of Costner surrounded by TV cameras and photographers). Robert Wagner was best man. Don's father Wayne and his children Jesse and Dakota were there. Dakota was a maid of honor, as was Kelley's sister Cameron.