When I was cast in this Five-O episode, Target-A Cop, I was acting in an outdoor Shakespeare show, “Twelf’ Nite O’ Wateva,” and in another one called “Flash Gordon Conquers The Planet Of Evil,” in rep, at night. In the episode, a sniper is targeting, and shooting, cops responding to domestic calls. I was playing one of two undercover cops who are to set up in an expensive condo and play a lot of loud music so the tenants will call the police, thereby luring the sniper so Five-O can nail him.

In the scene, which was shot in a high-rise condo twenty or so stories up, my partner and I are setting up a stereo system on the floor, and McGarrett and Dano, McGarrett’s second-in-command, are standing near us discussing the plan to lure the sniper. Then, I have a line, and in a voice honed by weeks of Shakespeare and Flash Gordon in an open, outdoor theatre, I say, from the floor, a bit loudly, perhaps, “What if he doesn’t buy it?” There’s a pause. Then, from his great height, Jack Lord looks down at me and says, “Just talk to me, kid.”  And we did another take.  Nailed it.

 A tip from a pro.  As basic as it gets.  I never forgot it.