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‘Wipeout’ Wiped Out: Ah, Sable Ranch, I Knew Ye Well

‘Wipeout’ Wiped Out: Ah, Sable Ranch, I Knew Ye Well

Last updated on: July 24, 2016 at 9:10 pm by Kate O'Hare

‘Wipeout’ Wiped Out: Ah, Sable Ranch, I Knew Ye Well 2016-07-24T21:10:56-08:00 Kate O'Hare

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Obviously, in the general scheme of things, the destruction of Sable Ranch is low on the priority list for the still-raging Sand Fire in the Santa Clarita/Newhall area, north of Los Angeles, far behind the life lost, the homes destroyed and the families forced to evacuate.

Click here for a photogallery from the Los Angeles Times, and here’s an excerpt from a frequently updated local-news story on the fire:

The Sand Fire is approximately 22,000 acres and 10% contained. United States Forest Service, Los Angeles County Fire and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office are in “Unified Command.” Evacuations are in place. Over 1,673 firefighters are engaged in initial attack. Resources include 122 engines, 39 hand crews, 15 helicopters and 8 dozers. The Incident Command Post is located at Golden Valley High School.

But, I spent many happy hours at Sable Ranch — day and night — when it was home to the ABC obstacle-course competition series “Wipeout.” The property was also home to many TV productions, reality and scripted.

(Click on the photos to see larger versions.)

Now, it’s gone.

From Deadline.com:

Santa Clarita’s Sable Ranch, a popular Southern California location for film and TV shoots, burned to the ground Saturday in a wildfire that has consumed more than 20,000 acres. The ranch, near the Angeles National Forest and an ideal location for Westerns with its old Spanish-style hacienda, stables and various out buildings, has been used for countless films and series, from TV’s Maverick to The A-Team and 24, and such films as Chevy Chase’s Invisible Man and the cult horror pic Motel Hell, to name a very few.

…

A Sable Ranch brochure describes the spot as having “unequaled seclusion and privacy, unhampered by smog or coastal fog.”

“Sable Ranch, the Spanish location, has an adobe hacienda from the turn of the century, stables, stone accessory buildings, and a small landing strip,” reads the brochure. “There are parking facilities for hundreds of cars, and machinery, including a large bulldozer, backhoe, scraper/grader, tractors, water truck, dump-truck, and Jeeps, to take on any size project!”

It was on the road to the Angeles National Forest (I know this because I overshot the entrance one dark night and almost wound up in said forest). At the time, a lot of it was taken up with the huge, colorful “Wipeout” obstacles; acres of storage area, a maze of obstacle parts and raw materials (trying to navigate it in the dark, I nearly drove into a ditch); various buildings and farm equipment; and most memorable, a large fake elk up on a hillside.

In late 2008, another raging wildfire crested over the hills surrounding the set, but didn’t touch the set itself. Ironically, because hydrants were installed to supply the “Wipeout” tanks with water (they cushioned the fall for contestants who wiped out), the area was used as a supply depot and staging area for local fire crews.

This time, Sable Ranch wasn’t so lucky.

I sent a Facebook message to “Wipeout” executive producer Matt Kunitz to see how he felt about the loss of the location. Here’s what he had to say.

In January of 2001, we shot the very first episode of Fear Factor at Sable Ranch. I watched Joe Rogan coax contestants into eating sheep eyeballs in one of the barns, which has reportedly burned down. We continued to use Sable Ranch as a go-to location for Fear Factor over the next five years. The ranch was ideal because of its close proximity to Los Angeles and its beautiful and wide open spaces. Wipeout’s permanent home was on the ranch from 2008-2014. We also shot a season of 101 Ways to Leave a Gameshow at Sable. I created many great memories on the ranch and was saddened to hear about the effects of the devastating fire.

I wrote several stories for Zap2it.com from the set.

Here are some excerpts.

From Sept. 1, 2009:

Before contestants are given the opportunity to humiliate themselves attempting to navigate the fiendishly clever obstacles on ABC’s reality hit “Wipeout,” those obstacles must be tested.

After all, the goal is to provide spectacular and amusing wipeouts, not cause serious bodily injury or death, which would be no fun for anyone.

But testing the obstacles can be fun — just ask the female half of the show’s “Black and Blue” teams (we’ll meet the Black and Blue Boys in a future post).

Megan Stiner (below, left) and Michelle Dickson (right) met at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay, where they were working as combat correspondents, taking pictures and writing about Marine training and activities.

From Sept. 8, 2009 …

Last week, we met the female half of the “Black & Blue Team,” a quartet of energetic individuals that tests the “Wipeout” stunts to make sure they balance thrills and spills with health and safety.

This week, we’ll meet the male half, Kyle Wasserman (left) and Kenny Shackelford (right),who also took time off from their day to chat during production of the current season.

Shackelford had a cousin who worked on “Wipeout,” and who had worked on “Fear Factor,” and Wasserman was acquainted with the assistant to “Wipeout” executive producer Matt Kunitz.

For both of them, when presented with the opportunity to run around on an abandoned ranch and bounce off of giant red balls into cold water all day, it wasn’t a tough decision.

“They needed some people to run the courses and get hurt,” said Wasserman, “and I signed up as quick as I could. Here I am, still here!”

“It’s pretty much summer camp, for life,” said Shackelford.

“Super playground summer camp,” said Wasserman.

Asked about requirements for the job, Wasserman said, “Sturdiness.”

“High pain tolerance is crucial,” added Shackelford.

From May 31, 2010:

Early this year, I headed out to the rural location north of Los Angeles where “Wipeout” is filmed to visit with executive producer Matt Kunitz (and bring him the scratch-baked banana bread I had promised) and watch contestants and crew in action.

I got to spend some time in the control room, and if you think doing several seasons of “Wipeout” has made the producers and crew blase about it all, think again. They want the contestants to succeed, because the show can’t go on until the requisite number of contestants has cleared each round. As the day wears on and the light begins to dim, the situation starts to become a little desperate.

On this particular day, it was a nailbiter, as the producers were one contestant short of the number needed to proceed to the next round, and the day was fading fast. It was tense in the room (and not just because Kunitz was forced to share his precious banana bread), and when the final contestant made it through, raucous cheers and clapping broke out.

It’s also hard not to get drawn into the stories of the individual contestants, including one plus-size lady who struggled mightily but made it through the big-balls course by sheer determination and persistence.

From Jan. 11, 2011, during a visit to a winter-themed edition of nighttime “Wipeout Zone,” the final stage of each episode, during which the brightly lit ranch area could be seen from a mile or more away:

On impulse, I started to stick my tongue out to catch one (of the snowflakes), until Kunitz’s assistant reminded me they were actually soap flakes. For that, she got one of the homemade oatmeal cookies I’d brought with me … as you may remember a previous visit to “Wipeout” early in 2010, Kunitz expects baked goods. Another one went to Kunitz’s brother, who was there for a visit. But yes, there were plenty left for Kunitz to enjoy (and be forced to share with everyone in the control room).

Appropriately enough, it was cold that night (ironic, since a couple of weeks before, it had been blistering hot), so I had broken out the berber fleece jacket, hat, gloves and scarf — and I can’t even imagine what it was like when the contestants (wearing colorful vests that sagged unattractively when wet) plunged repeatedly into the foamy water. “Wipeout” normally shoots in the winter so the shows can be edited to air in the summer, and the pools are often not very warm, even on the balmiest of days.

After a visit to the control room to warm up and enjoy a grilled sandwich stuffed with turkey, dressing and cranberry sauce, I sat with Kunitz in his office for a chat about how he created his winter wonderland.

By the way, the set also got some REAL snow, a rare but not unheard-of occurrence in the area. These photos are from Kunitz.

From Jan. 12, 2011, in which Kunitz hinted there might have been a presidential visit (he did say he was someone very high up in the government) and confirmed one request he turned down:

“Did I tell you a Saudi prince’s staffer once called?” he wrote. They wanted to fly him and his friends in to play on the course. ‘Money was not an issue.’

“We turned him down just as we have every other request. We don’t have any downtime on the course when we are not either shooting or tearing it down to build a new course.”

Ah, the memories.

Image: Courtesy Kate O’Hare, Matt Kunitz

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