The Big A Builds Revenue Without Filling the Seats : Film: Increase in use as a location for movie and television productions helps stadium soften the impact of budget losses.

During ABC’s telecast of the Super Bowl two weeks ago, actor Jason Alexander of television’s “Seinfeld” parachuted onto the middle of Miami’s Joe Robbie Stadium--or so it seemed.

Viewers quickly learned that the actor hadn’t really descended upon the big game between the San Francisco 49ers and the San Diego Chargers, but was performing a stunt for a Rold Gold pretzels commercial.

In fact, Alexander and his parachute never made it to Florida at all. The spot was actually filmed at Anaheim Stadium in December.

The Big A, which suffered a $1.8-million budget shortfall in 1994 because of the major league baseball strike and lackluster crowds for the departing Rams, has managed to soften the financial blow by making itself more available to Hollywood production companies.

“We have become more aggressive in going after these kinds of productions because we have had more open dates,” Stadium Manager Greg Smith said. “In the past, we’ve had about a dozen days of filming, but last year we had more than 25.”

The stadium was recently used, among other things, to film a popular series of commercials for the McDonald’s hamburger chain, featuring the humorous adventures of two buddies trying to get into the Super Bowl.

Other commercials filmed at the city-owned facility last year included spots for Nike, Dr Pepper, MasterCard and Miller Light.

“The pace in which they film these things is really frantic,” said Phil Larcus, the stadium’s operations manager. “The people who do these commercials do a fantastic job. They can make nothing turn into something great.”

For the Rold Gold pretzels commercial, the Big A was transformed into Joe Robbie Stadium by a 120-foot-long backdrop designed to simulate the Super Bowl.

“We didn’t think we’d be able to fool people as well as we did,” said David Emory, who produced the spot for Gartner Grasso, a production company in Los Angeles. “We really had a blast filming it.”

But that wasn’t the only time the stadium was made to look like another famous sporting venue. The Big A once substituted for Dodger Stadium during the filming of a Budweiser commercial.

“Our price was better than Dodger Stadium,” Larcus said. “The only problem was, our railings are orange and the Dodgers’ are blue. So, they asked if they could paint our railings Dodger blue, then paint them back to orange. I said, ‘Sure.’ ”

Smith said Anaheim has undercut the competition by offering a price of $12,000 per day to production companies. Dodger Stadium officials did not reply to inquiries about their prices.

But a good price isn’t the only consideration in choosing the Big A, some producers say.

“They make it pretty easy for you to shoot at the stadium,” said a producer for Pitka Productions, which filmed the McDonald’s commercials.

Said Emory: “They are very open to working with us. They offer their complete services and work well with film companies.”

Film and television series producers also have found Anaheim’s price and welcoming attitude appealing. Movies such as “My Stepmother Is an Alien” and “Angels in the Outfield” have been filmed partly at the Big A.

In addition to his pretzel commercial, actor Alexander also filmed a locker room scene for an episode of “Seinfeld.” Fox Television used the facility last summer to film portions of the series “Hardball,” which has since been canceled.

The football scenes from last month’s “The O.J. Simpson Story,” which aired on Fox Television, were shot in Anaheim as well.

“The actor who played O.J. had to keep running from the 20-yard line to the 10-yard line,” Larcus said. “After a while, he got pretty exhausted and they had to carry him off. The actress who played Nicole (Brown Simpson) was standing on the sidelines. It was strange.”

Larcus, who has been with the stadium since 1966, works closely with the production companies to set up the filming.

“To me, it’s a brand-new area and it’s fascinating to see what they can do,” he said. “They will send a script ahead of time so we can accommodate them and they send out an advance crew. Sometimes the director will come out beforehand to look things over.”

Both Larcus and Smith have found themselves star-struck at times. While filming his old “Mike Hammer” detective series, actor Stacy Keach invited Smith to have lunch with him and the crew one day.

Another time, Larcus struggled to keep from gawking when actress Joan Collins was filming only yards away from him.

“She came out of her trailer and she looked so young and beautiful,” Larcus recalled. “I didn’t say anything because I’m just a peon, but it was really something.”

While the occasional visits from film crews and Hollywood stars can be fun, they also can get embarrassing. Like the time actor Peter Falk, wearing his character’s famous trench coat, got an unexpected shower while filming an episode of “Columbo.”

“(Falk) was outside by the ticket booth, talking about an upcoming shot, when the automatic sprinklers went on and just drenched him,” said Smith, who watched helplessly from his stadium office. “There was nothing we could do except dry him off.”