San Diegans saw stars when Reno rode into town
Thirty years ago, the “Renegade” TV series went on the air.
Produced by Stu Segall Productions here, “Renegade” was filmed largely on the streets around San Diego. The show ran for five seasons from 1992 to 1997.
From The San Diego Union-Tribune, Sunday, Dec. 6, 1992:
On “Falcon Crest” for two seasons, Lorenzo Lamas walked around a lot in a tuxedo, looked like a model and acted very rich. On “Renegade,” the actor wears his hair to his shoulders, can flash the real tattoos that had to be covered up on “Falcon Crest,” rides a Harley-Davidson and wears a motley scrap of leather around his neck that is nicknamed Roadkill.
No surprise: The fan mail is different, too.
“When I was on ‘Falcon Crest,’ because it was a kind of soap opera ... I was getting lots of letters from women,” Lamas was saying while relaxing in his trailer between shots recently. “Now I’m getting letters from kids, getting letters from guys asking me about karate and how to scrape together enough parts to build a motorcycle.”
Lamas likes the new audience. Not that his role as Reno, a San Diego cop-on-the-lam, diminishes his hunk status, a label that goes back at least to his “Falcon Crest” days in the early ’80s. Does it bug him?
“Nah, I got a kick out of it,” he says casually. “Everybody gets some kind of tag. Jeez, I’m still called hunk and I’ll be 35 this year. I guess I should be flattered.”
“Renegade” is an action-drama, an hourlong syndicated series being shot entirely in San Diego County by Stu Segall Productions. Now in its 22-episode debut season, the show is a hybrid of “Mod Squad,” “The Fugitive” and “Knight Rider.” (It can be seen here at 5 p.m. Saturdays on XETV, Channel 6, and at 8 p.m. on Los Angeles’ KTLA, Channel 5. Also at 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays on Chicago superstation WGN.)
Lamas co-stars with Kathleen Kinmont and Branscome Richmond as a trio of do-good bounty hunters. Kinmont is the female equivalent of Lamas’ hunk label. Richmond is an
American Indian actor and longtime stuntman.
CAMERA CHEMISTRY
“Branscome, Kathleen and I get along so well, we’re like family now and it has only been 14 weeks,” says Lamas. “There’s a chemistry that comes across on camera that you just can’t fake. It’s just a bonus that we get along so well.
“Boring for media, exciting for us.”
Even more than that, Lamas and Kinmont are husband and wife.
Both are veterans of the overseas action-adventure film market. They even co-starred last March in “Alexa” a CIA-karate film coming to home video in January. They’re both second-generation actors, too. Kinmont’s mother, Abby Dalton, co-starred with Lamas on “Falcon Crest.” His father, of course, was Fernando Lamas; his mother is Arlene Dahl.
According to Kinmont, on weekends they both like to frequent dives.
Oh, she was asked, downtown? In the Gaslamp? Kinmont’s eyes grew wide. She grinned.
“No! For lobster. Scuba diving.” She laughs sweetly.