Lord And Ruler Don Johnson Wears Many Hats As He Directs, Edits And Acts In The Series ‘Nash Bridges’

Television viewers know Don Johnson as the ruggedly handsome, laid-back, wise-cracking title character in the CBS crime drama “Nash Bridges.”

Johnson, however, also is the show’s executive producer, which means at various times he’s a bit of a director, cameraman, editor, set decorator, wardrobe designer, casting director, lighting expert, script supervisor and bean counter.

But during this drizzly day on the Treasure Island set, he’d mostly like to be an air traffic controller.

“Dammit!” he mutters as a noisy jet rumbles overhead, ruining yet another shot.

He and sidekick Cheech Marin resume their places (they’re looking for a thug who tried to run them down in a monster truck) and the camera begins to roll again when - wrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! - another plane thunders through the gray clouds. “Cut!” yells director Robert Mandel. It’s the third consecutive aborted shot.

Johnson turns stern - obviously not in his “Relax, Bubba” mode. In the fast-paced world of TV production, time management is critical. This, he knows, is lousy time management.

“All right, Bob, that’s the last one of those you get,” he tells Mandel. And then he shoots an icy scowl at assistant director Steve Tramz.

“If you see a plane, DON’T roll!” he growls.

Tramz looks as if he wants to melt into the pavement. He glances at the passing airliner and murmurs, “It’s probably going to Tokyo, which is where I’ll be headed if I’m not careful.”

“You’ve got to be very flexible when you’re working with Don,” says a crew member. “You’ve got to be ready with quick answers when you’re questioned about the way you’re doing things. It may look like he’s overbearing - and he can be - but he’s rarely wrong. And that’s the bottom line: We want to get things right.”

Johnson is lord and ruler over all that is “Nash.” It’s a fairly unusual status because there aren’t many actors who also serve as executive producers of TV dramas. Those who do typically are part of a big committee. David Caruso, for example, is one of seven executive producers and co-exec producers listed on “Michael Hayes.”

Johnson, however, runs his own production company and is at the top of the “Nash” hierarchy. Nothing happens that doesn’t bear his stamp of approval.

Mandel offers an example, detailing how Johnson and his camera crew pioneered a way to shoot a car in motion. Normally, a camera would be attached to the side of a car and the car would be towed along as the scene is shot. On “Nash,” Johnson freely drives his vintage yellow Barracuda while a steadicam mounted on a portable crane shoots Johnson and Marin careening through the streets of San Francisco.

Johnson says his interest in the technical side of the business took hold at the age of 19, while he was acting in his first feature film in New York.

He went on to direct several episodes of his 1980s mega-hit “Miami Vice” and created a one-hour video for an album he recorded.

“I made the video completely without dialogue,” he says. “It was all visuals. It was the most disciplining exercise I’ve ever encountered as a filmmaker because I couldn’t rely on words.”

That fascination with the camera has intensified over the years. Whether you’re a “Nash” fan or not - and many TV critics are not - there’s no denying that the show has handsome production values. It’s tightly shot and tightly edited and has a rich look to it.

“Technically, this show is better than most feature films I’ve been involved with,” Marin insists. “Basically, we’re making a movie 9-1/2 months out of the year.”

But it’s a movie on an extraordinarily frenetic pace. There are 22 episodes of “Nash” on the schedule and each one is shot in seven days (post-production takes another seven days). In contrast, a typical two-hour feature film is shot over 11 weeks. To meet deadlines, the “Nash” crew typically works 12 to 14 hour days. Johnson has to keep things moving.

On this particular day, the crew is wrapping up work on an episode titled “Crossfire,” in which a killer is forced to remain in prison because Nash has opposed his parole.

The scene setup is this: Two ultimate fighters have separately entered the apartment trying to get to Nash. They discover he isn’t home and they turn on each other. They’re in the middle of a lusty brawl when Nash and Joe Dominguez (Marin) arrive. The cops kick back, watching the fight - even placing bets on who will win - before finally subduing the combatants. Guns are fired. Blood is shed. Furniture is busted.

Stuntmen Joe Hess and Keith Vitale, both former kickboxers, rehearse the scene in slow motion at first and Johnson is deeply involved in the choreography - overruling a couple of Mandel’s ideas.

“I want to see something different than just a clunk on the head,” he tells Hess. “You’re going to come at me in like a three-point football stance and I’ll give you an underhand rip with the gun.”

When Johnson has everything the way he wants it, he retires to his office to allow the crew to light the set and re-rehearse the brawl. He settles into a large desk in front of a big-screen TV. A long golf putting strip lies along one side of the desk and an elaborate refreshment center on the other. The large initials “DJ” are etched into the office’s frosted window.

“Over the years, I learned how to organize things and develop leadership skills - how to push people to their limits, while being sensitive to the fact that you can’t push them beyond their limits,” he says. “And I’ve tried to learn how to assist (the directors) without making it about ego. Apparently it’s working well because they all come back.”