Caged on Clark Street

The sound comes first: a stove igniter clicking twice, two burners catching flame in the dark. Then the image resolves of a bridge over the Chicago River at night, giant lights blazing down and a man in a chef’s apron crouching toward an enormous bear locked inside a steel and aluminum cage. He says almost nothing, “It’s okay. I know.” The bear lunges. He falls. Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto wakes up. 

John Madon, President of Madon Sheet Metal, poses with the cage the company fabricated for the opening scene of the pilot episode of “The Bear.”

That opening dream sequence from the first episode of “The Bear,” titled “System,” which premiered on  FX and Hulu in June 2022 and went on to win two Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, has been analyzed, written about and rewatched thousands of times for its layered symbolism about a chef trying to contain his own grief and rage. What almost none of those viewers knew, as the camera pulled tight on that cage on the Clark Street Bridge, was that the cage sitting at the center of one of the most discussed television scenes in years was built by a union sheet metal shop in the Chicagoland area.

Devon Madon co-owns Madon Sheet Metal alongside her husband, John, who serves as company President. Founded in 2019 and rooted in a family trade tradition that stretches back to John’s grandfather, Jim Madon, a World War II veteran and D-Day survivor who spent 26 years as a welder, fabricator and shop steward with Local 73, the company has built its reputation on certified welding, precision custom fabrication and a turnaround speed that has made them a go-to shop for contractors across the region. Their work runs from union-made rectangular ductwork and rooftop equipment accessories to industrial stainless fabrication, food-grade systems and curb adapters available through their proprietary KURBHUB ordering platform. They are AWS certified in coated and uncoated steel, stainless steel and aluminum — and they build to SMACNA standards.

The call that led to The Bear came not from Hollywood, but from a long-standing relationship with the Chicago TV production world.

FROM CHICAGO MED TO CHICAGO’S BIGGEST SHOW

Before “The Bear,” Madon Sheet Metal had been doing occasional work for “Chicago Med,” the long-running NBC drama. “We do work for that show occasionally — we’ve made mock elevator surrounds and things for them,” John says. “We’ve made a lot of stainless for them like the bumpers that are in the hallways of their hospital set and trim pieces throughout the years. We even did some work decorating the inside of one of their ambulances.”

That relationship proved to be the connection. Several crew members who worked on “Chicago Med” were later picked up to produce the pilot for “The Bear,” and they reached out to Madon with the project. “They had reached out to us to see if we would be able to make the bear cage for them,” Devon says.

At the time, the pitch from the production team was enthusiastic. “They were kind of giving me the hard sell,” she says. “Like, it’s going to be the first scene — a very prominent part of the show. And I was kind of like, ‘OK. But how many pilots do you hear of that never turn into a show or never see the light of day?’ We’ll see what happens when it happens.”

“I treated them pretty much like I would a normal customer,” Devon says. “It turned out to be the biggest show in Chicago for the last couple of years. It’s fun to have our name tied to that.”

What happened, of course, was that “The Bear” became a cultural phenomenon. Season after season, it returns as a major event — critically acclaimed, fan-obsessed and deeply Chicago. 

HOW YOU BUILD A PROP CAGE

The production’s art department handled the cage design “They gave us the 3D drawing,” Devon says. “They said they wanted it out of aluminum, with some sheet metal flashing and things on the side of it.”

John said the cage was built from an aluminum tube frame, with the rounded corners fabricated by copying and cutting the bends so the welds hit cleanly. The exterior was finished in aluminum sheet metal flashing throughout. One of the functional requirements from the production team was specific: the back of the cage had to be removable so a camera could be placed inside. 

The bear, for what it’s worth, was CGI. The cage was real.

The timeline was manageable. Unlike much of the television production work that lands on shops with brutal deadlines, this job came in with adequate lead time. “That wasn’t a rush job,” John says. “It was about a two-week job when you think about ordering all the material and everything. It really wasn’t that labor intensive. It was just something cool that fell in our lap.” Devon notes that pilot production timelines often allow for some flexibility since shoots are staged out of sequence. The cage was ready when filming needed it.

From a craft standpoint, the project was more artistic than engineering. “It really doesn’t have to work,” John says, meaning it didn’t need to function as a load-bearing structure or meet a building specification. It had to look exactly right on camera and hold up through the demands of a shoot. For a shop built around precision fabrication for industrial and commercial clients, that creative freedom is part of what makes the occasional film and TV work rewarding. 

The nature of the work also means it sits outside the typical prefabrication and production-run model. These are one-offs. There’s no assembly-line economy of scale. The value is in the artistry, the responsiveness, the craftsmanship and in the trust that a shop built on SMACNA standards will produce something that doesn’t just look right but holds together under production conditions.

“Production teams should not overlook the artistry and craftsmanship of trade fabricators,” John says. “We use the same attention to detail and quality control when making unique custom props and sets as we do when we work with engineers.”

John says industrial custom fabricators are natural partners for film and television production. The same certified welds, material expertise and problem-solving capability that goes into a stainless duct system can go into a prop cage for a critically acclaimed drama. 

And the bear cage has a particular kind of staying power. Every time a new season drops or someone mentions “The Bear,” Madon Sheet Metal workers get to say, “We built that.”

As Devon says, “It’s kind of fun to have our name tied to that.”