Lights, Camera, Action on Greenwich Avenue

In the bright spring sunshine, Greenwich Avenue shone even brighter Tuesday as the stars and crew of Showtime’s television show ‘The Big C’ and extras shot scenes of the upcoming season’s episodes.

The down-home atmosphere of Sundown Saloon was transformed into a gay biker bar with the rear room made to look like a French bistro, according to crew members who did the work on Monday.

The show’s stars – Laura Linney and Oliver Platt – were seen walking from their trailers parked on Steamboat Road, beneath the I-95 and Metro North Railroad overpass, up to Sundown Saloon amid unsuspecting lunchtime passersby. Two off-duty Greenwich Police officers worked the security detail. Other equipment trailers were parked further up The Avenue on Fawcett Place.

‘The Big C’ is a comedy set in Minnesota about Cathy Jamison, a schoolteacher played by the Emmy Award-winning Linney, who has played by the rules, until she is diagnosed with terminal cancer. That diagnosis prompts her to live it up instead of giving up. Platt plays her husband, with John Benjamin Hickey as her brother; Gabourey Sidibe as one of her students, and Reid Scott as her doctor.

Sundown won't be the only Greenwich site familiar to fans of the show. Other scenes for the second season were shot during three days at Greenwich High School, and in Old Greenwich, according to crew and Greenwich Public School officials. The first season also included scenes shot in Old Greenwich. But primarily, the show is shot on a soundstage in a former factory building on West Avenue in Stamford, that’s now owned by the Connecticut Film Commission, according to the crew.

Set dresser Tara Kelly, of Franklin Square on Long Island, NY, said her work on Monday involved transforming Sundown’s down-home Western theme into a gay biker bar and a French bistro in the rear of the bar/restaurant.

In addition to some chairs, a pool table was installed in Sundown, Kelly said. Some crew were seen walking along Greenwich Avenue with gold six-point sheriff badges emblazoned with Sundown Saloon. A woman, who entered the bar for the cast call, waited outside, sporting a short, spiked white blond and green hairdo.

According to Mike Long of the Greenwich environmental health department, Monday’s shoot was one of about six to 10 film shoots his department approves every year.

The shoot for ‘The Big C’ was to end by midnight Tuesday. According to electrician John Hockenberry, of Astoria, Queens, NY, the shoot was to include an outdoor night scene.

Long said that his department requires the production to adhere to noise regulations, especially with the numerous generators and trucks used, and to notify nearby businesses of possible disruptions.

Long said the production had been “going fairly smoothly.” The Greenwich Police officers assigned to the detail reported a problem-free day.