The Making of The Codfather
Part I and II
By Charlie Moore
I was up late one night watching one of my favorite movies - The Godfather. While
I was watching it, I thought, "Wow! How cool would it be to try to work in a
character like the Godfather into my show." All night long I started to write
down some notes regarding this new underground fishing crime boss. Right from the
beginning, I thought this would be a fun idea, because in all of my years of
fishing it's still funny to see the reaction you get when you ask someone else what
lures and what lake or part of the ocean they are on when they are catching all
of their big fish. They look at you like, "There is no way I am telling this
guy what I am doing and where." So I thought from the get-go that this idea would
be a homerun.
Over the next few weeks, I really started to fine-tune my new character with my
producer, Bob Sylvester. We had pretty much completed a script, but still had no
name for the new underground boss of the fishing world. Before the filming of the
first segment, Bob looked right at me and said, "I got it! You're the Codfather."
I was like, "Man, that's money. Absolutely perfect." It was at that point that
the Codfather was born.
Codfather Part I was a great lineup of guys. Geese was played by Larry Saggese and
Vito was played by former Boston Bruin Steve Leach. Both of these guys did a
tremendous job in playing the Codfather's henchmen. Billy the Bass, who was our
first victim, was played by Mike Genest.
The Codfather Part I ran about five minutes in length and was a great success. When
sitting down to write the Codfather Part II, it was very difficult. We wanted to
outdo ourselves in the sequel. Both Bob and I decided there would be a little bit
more of a story line and that we would stretch it a little in length. The
Codfather Part II again had many great characters. Larry Saggese (Geese) made a return
visit, along with his brother Nick Saggese (Nick the Slapman). Our victim for Part
II was Johnny Spinner (played by Chris Martins). Johnny Spinner didn't feel he had
to go along with the other heads of the fishing families, played by Bob Sylvester (the
Fly Fisherman), John Sloan, Jr. (the Saltwater Fisherman), and Jim Kevlik, Jr.
(Hunter Jim). But after a visit from the Codfather, Johnny Spinner is now seeing
things differently.
A huge part of both Codfather Part I and Codfather Part II was the lighting.
Videographer John Martin, who filmed both, did a tremendous job and spent a huge
portion of his time setting up the proper lights for the best possible effect.
Bob Sylvester, who edited both parts, did a masterful job of cutting all of the
difficult scenes together. In Hollywood terms, it was very tight and flowed
with ease.
Of course, the Codfather was played by me. It was very fun to portray the
Godfather in these segments. I felt like people would get a kick out of the
messages that we were trying to get across. The fact that The Godfather is one of
my all time favorite movies made it a lot more fun for me to do. In eight years
of doing television, filming the Codfather ranks right at the top. The Codfather
Part I and Part II are both available on VHS and DVD, and soon to be released is the
Making of the Codfather, which will include Codfather Parts I - III and behind-the-scenes footage.
Executive Producer/Host - Charlie Moore, The Mad Fisherman
Executive Producer/Editor - Bob Sylvester
Videographers - John Martin and Pat Gamere
Production Assistant/Boat & Road Crew - Jim Kevlik, Jr.
Camera Boat Assistant - Chris Martins
Marketing - Angela Moore
Theme Song - Dr. Humble (Gary Function)
Web Site - Web-sites.com
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