‘Simon & Simon’ on Location in San Diego--Briefly

It’s 7 in the morning at Balboa Park, and let’s see if you can figure out what’s wrong with this picture:

A) A lone, curly-mopped troubadour sits on stage and plays to the empty seats of the Spreckel’s organ pavilion.

B) A speed walker looks like he’s working too hard for the ground he’s covering; joggers pat-pat-pat in opposite directions, and a husband and wife walk his-and-hers full-size poodles past the art museum.

C) Two cops on horseback flush out the homeless from beneath the shrubs.

D) The sound of gunfire breaks the serenity of Marston Point, bringing an attractive blonde jogger to her knees, cowering in fear that someone just took a shot at her.

Hint: Rick and A.J. Simon come to the rescue of the sexy blonde.

Saturday concludes the annual weeklong field trip by the “Simon & Simon” production crew to San Diego, where they will have filmed enough at the train depot, Horton Plaza, Mission San Diego de Acala, Balboa Park and the Chamber Building to suggest that the entire “Simon & Simon” season is filmed here.

In fact, out of 22 shows, only two--maybe four, if they decide to return in February--will actually be filmed in the thematic home of the series. Stock footage of San Diego is spliced into the shows weekly and every once in a while, depending on need, a couple of local Simon and Simon look-alikes are filmed from a distance at various locations here by a mini-crew, thereby saving the entire 90-member production outfit from making the trek here from Universal City.

A day on the set:

- It’s cool and windy and there are a few spritzes. “Whenever we go anywhere and the weather’s bad, they always say, ‘Oh, this is such unusual weather for this time of year,’ ” sighs executive producer John Stephens.

- Guest star Jenilee Harrison, midway through a serious piece of dialogue, breaks out in laughter because the whine of a commercial jet a few hundred feet overhead has swamped her lines.

- One of the assistant directors, wanting to reshoot a scene from a different camera angle, first has to fetch Gerald McRaney, who’s having fun squirting around the park grass atop a four-wheel all-terrain vehicle.

- Jamison Parker, with a plastic bag, dutifully picks up after his dog, Max, who is his constant companion on the set. No gofers for that job.

- Twenty grade-school children, here from Murieta to visit Balboa Park, spend 30 minutes watching the filming from 30 yards away, although they can’t really see anything because of the crowd of production people that blocks their view. But heck, the kids back home don’t have to know that.

- Fifty or so real runners and joggers--including some of the biggest names in San Diego’s running community, are brought onto the set as extras, to run in the background and add authenticity to this particular episode about a marathon. “Hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait,” said Scott Allen, a local triathlete, about killing time between scenes. He earned $100 a day for his hurrying and waiting.

- It takes 11 hours at one location to complete about six minutes of the hourlong program (actually, 45 minutes, 33 seconds).

Virtually to a one, the crew members say they prefer filming the show in San Diego rather than Los Angeles because, as Stephens says, “Everyone in San Diego is so darn nice.”

The stunt coordinator says he wishes the show was filmed in San Diego in its entirety so he could just move here.

In contrast to shooting earlier in the week at Horton Plaza, the filming at Balboa Park’s Marston Point was unusual for the lack of spectators; some “Simon & Simon” fans got within a few feet of their heroes before being gently shooed away.

“If they don’t bother you, that means they’re not watching the show,” Stephens rationalizes.

McRaney said the Simon crew feels more relaxed and welcomed in San Diego than in Los Angeles. “Up there, they just get upset at you because you block traffic at rush hour,” he said. “This town’s got a whole different atmosphere. We get huge crowds at Horton Plaza, but they’re so well mannered. And just look at all those flags on those buildings downtown. This is like being in the Midwest, on the West Coast.”

Said Parker about gawkers, “You feel like an elephant man, a freak. People stare at you. But the difference between here and Los Angeles is that in L.A. you get to see people like Robert Redford and Paul Newman. L.A. gets to see bigger elephant men.”