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| Doyle (centre), Gallagher (second from right) and the Endgame cast |
VANCOUVER, B.C.–Patrick Gallagher knows his burgers and Buckley’s.
I met the Chilliwack, B.C.-native for the first time today on the set of Endgame, a new thriller shot at Vancouver’s Bridge Studios. The Showcase series, set to debut in a March, stars Shawn Doyle as Arkady Balagan, a Russian chess master holed up in a B.C. hotel after the shocking murder of his fiance. Gallagher, last seen as the hilarious football coach on Glee, plays the head of security at the hotel who thinks it may be time for Balagan to check out.
The series is a new twist on procedural P.I. shows. Think of Balagan as the Chess Mentalist or as that other kind of Castle. It’s the brain child of executive producer Avrum Jacobson, a veteran Canadian writer and showrunner who elevated Republic of Doyle last season.
Gallagher bumped elbows Howie Mandel-style when we met on Stage 3 at the studio. He said he was fighting off a bug, I admitted I was just getting over one. “You gotta try Buckley’s,” he said, ducking into his trailer and tossing me his bottle.
Gallagher, far as I know, gets no kick back from Buckley’s for this service. He’s also not a pitchman for In-N-Out Burger but was happy to sing the praises of the California burger chain that still operated like a mom ‘n pop outfit.
The 42-year-old actor chides the burger joint for goosing its prices; he knows to the cent how much it has trickled up in the past year. Still, he wishes an In-N-Out Burger would open in Vancouver. If you find yourself in one, he says, order everything “animal style.”
Gallagher says there has been some talk coach Ken Tanaka might resurface on some future Gee episode (he hasn’t worked on the Fox series since the end of the first season). He takes pride in Tanaka’s fanny pack, saying the retro change purse was his idea. Gallagher has also worked Entourage, Men of a Certain Age and was the bartender in Sideways. For now he’s thrilled with Endgame, praising the script, cast and chance to work in Vancouver.
He hopes they’ll be another “Night at the Museum” movie and revealed he completely made up the language he used as Attila the Hun. A personal thrill, he says, was the opportunity to work on the first two flicks with the great Dick Van Dyke. “I’ve been a pretty lucky fellow,” says Gallagher.
