Money to burn

Pictured here is the front and reverse of one of the faux bills used when filming a scene of the 1992-1997 syndicated television show Renegade. This show was mostly filmed in and around San Diego, California. As far as I can tell it was left behind as litter after filming the episode Ransom that originally aired on December 6, 1996.

A vacant book store on C Street in downtown San Diego was used to film the episode, which was about a series of bank robberies. Apparently the script called for an explosion of some sort to take place. I have never watched an episode of Renegade so I can't tell if explosions were a common occurrence but I suspect they were. When the bank inevitably exploded faux money and other movie magic debris was blown out onto the street providing, I assume, a scene where the bad guy watched his cash go up in flames while Lorenzo Lamas and his sidekick high-fived each other. While the crew did a decent job of cleaning up the area after the shoot completed a large number of these bills where dispersed through the air over the vicinity. I found the bill pictured above on B Street while coming to work the morning after the television shoot, a neat little piece of San Diego movie history.

On a side note it was interesting to observe people fight each other as they discovered a bill fluttering past them on the street. I imagine there was a short though brisk market for them as street-predators sold the fake bills to to an addled or unsuspecting victim for pennies on the dollar. Knowing cashiers as I do I also speculate that more than a few of the movie bills were successfully used in transactions at local businesses.