Memories From The Set: Patrick Fischler

Nash Bridges
The role of Pepe, Nash and Dominguez's secretary, marked Fischler's very first recurring TV gig – and it came courtesy of a showrunner named Carlton Cuse, who would go on to give some guy Damon Lindelof one of his first jobs. (Apparently San Francisco is where Lost people find each other?) And those were just two of the destined-to-be-famous scribes on the show's staff. "You've got to look at their writers – Carlton, Damon, Shawn Ryan (The Shield), Glen Mazzara (The Walking Dead).... Some real biggies," Fischler remarks. "I met all these dudes and now I see them at places and we're like, 'Hey, remember Nash Bridges?'"

CSI
Though not pictured here, Fischler guest-starred as a Furry named "Wolfie," in a 2003 episode that drew some backlash from real-life Furrys (i.e. hobbyists who enjoy "anthropomorphic animal characters with human characteristics"). Airing as it did on the heels of a controversial Vanity Fair article about that community, "They didn't like it because [the case] got really sexual," Fischler remembers. "They were like, 'It's only a small part of our community that does that,' so I was like, 'This is a TV show, so of course they're going to focus on the weirdest part of it!'"

Mad Men
Appearing in a run of Season 2 episodes, Fischler says he modeled insult comic/Utz pitchman Jimmy Barrett to a small degree on Don Rickles, but with a "charming" splash of Joey Bishop. "There was also a bit of my father," he adds. "My dad owned a restaurant here in L.A for like 30 years, and he kind of insulted everybody who came in! I didn't realize it at the time, but there's a lot of my father in Jimmy Barrett." Between his turns on the acclaimed AMC drama and ABC's Lost, Fischler says the former is what he's most recognized from. "Our industry really loved that show, so to this day people talk to me about Mad Men."

Lost
Fischler can boast that he's been clocked by both Don Draper and James "Sawyer" Ford (and in fact is also on the receiving end of a slug in Once Upon a Time's Season 4 finale). On ABC's island drama, he played Phil, a Dharma stooge/ "uptight pain in the ass!" who repeatedly got in the way of Sawyer and Kate hiding out in the 1970s. Phil got his comeuppance during "The Incident," the two-part Season 5 finale that tweaked its shoot schedule to accommodate a blessed incident in the actor's life. "My wife Lauren [Bowles] was pregnant," he explains, "and I didn't want to miss my daughter being born.... That was a huge scene to move, and they couldn't have been more awesome."

Southland
The nature of his character's nickname – Detective Kenny "No-Gun" — was never explained, seeing as he was phased out by early Season 2, as the show transitioned from NBC to TNT and trimmed down its cast in the process. "We never, ever got to it. We never said it," says Fischler, who on the QT learned from a producer that Kenny once lost his firearm, yada yada yada. Being among the excised original actors, he says, "was sort of a bummer because I really loved that show, and the cast was great. "

Curb Your Enthusiasm
Fischler and wife Lauren Bowles, whom he met in college, both guest-starred in the same 2007 episode of Veronica Mars — though by accident, and sharing zero scenes together. ("I played a guidance counselor, and she was a secretary at the college — I think," he sorta recalls.) But for a 2011 episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Fischler says that series creator Larry David – whom they knew through Bowles' half-sister/ Seinfeld vet Julia Louis-Dreyfus – tapped the twosome to play husband and wife.

Californication
Toward the end of Season 5, Fischler booked a one-episode spot as Gabriel, NA sponsor to Jason Beghe's Richard Bates — to whom Gabriel wound up giving a blow job at a party of Hank's. Come Season 6, Gabriel resurfaced as the manager of Hank's rehab facility. "I had such a good time — it was the most relaxed group of people, just a mellow set, short shooting days, and [David] Duchovny was a pleasure to work with." Alas, Gabriel's days as a worthy rehab counselor were limited; in Fischler's very final appearance, his character had been yanked "completely, 100-percent" off the wagon, last seen "on my knees doing coke, watching Jason Beghe dance with his pants off!"

Once Upon a Time
In detailing Cruela de Vil's backstory and the Author's role in it, Fischler had the pleasure of working opposite (including cutting a rug with) Victoria Smurfit, in flashbacks to circa-1920s England. "The finale and that episode were my favorite ones that I did," the actor effuses. "She is just a total doll, and I loved working with her. We had such a blast."

Silicon Valley
Fischler recently kicked off a recurring run on the HBO series as Professor Bannerchek, a brilliant mind brought in to help Hooli catch up with Pied Pier. "[Richard, played by Thomas Middleditch] puts me and Big Head together to kind of bond and change XYZ, which is a different component...," the actor starts, before waving a white flag in the face of too much tech jargon. "Honestly," he admits with a laugh, "a lot of it goes over my head!"

(Screen grab via Wired.com)