Speaker 1: It's nine.
Speaker 2: With Jenny Garth and Tory Spelling.
Speaker 3: He's best known for playing Patzi on Happy Days, but
Speaker 3: he has also had a fantastic career as a director.
Speaker 3: Anson Williams joins US Today to talk about his time
Speaker 3: on the side of Beverly Hills nine O two one.
Speaker 1: Oh, here's our friend who's a handsome man. Hello, God,
Speaker 1: how do you still make goodness?
Speaker 4: Stop it?
Speaker 1: That's so cool?
Speaker 4: You are you kidding me? He was, OK, filter, I
Speaker 4: have no filters.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, this is so great to see you.
Speaker 4: It's so good to see you guys too. Yeah.
Speaker 2: In that life, that o Hi life, well O high life.
Speaker 4: It's it's a quiet life up here, but it's it's nice.
Speaker 4: It's it's a beautiful place, you know. Yeah, it kind
Speaker 4: of time stops here. Yeah, and no one cares about
Speaker 4: who you are, which you know, and it's a it's
Speaker 4: a very it's a kind creative community.
Speaker 3: I don't believe even in Ohai people don't care who
Speaker 3: you are, like one of the most characters in TV history. Sorry,
Speaker 3: you're not getting away from that.
Speaker 4: Okay, all right, okay, fine, but you know, guys, can
Speaker 4: you believe how many years since line two. One. Oh right,
Speaker 4: how many years since Happy Days? I mean, seriously, we
Speaker 4: just had our fiftieth oh last January, this last January.
Speaker 1: Would you guys do.
Speaker 4: Not much? I thought there'd be a big event, but
Speaker 4: but the thing is, I think, like you guys, we
Speaker 4: have been close friends for decades, Henry don Ron myself.
Speaker 4: I mean we're literally a text way, you know, just
Speaker 4: and we never talked business, We never talk about you know,
Speaker 4: we just talk about you know, love and heart and family.
Speaker 4: And it's just been a wonderful friendship. And just to
Speaker 4: have that and on a show, to have that kind
Speaker 4: of friendship that many years, it's it's pretty unique. But
Speaker 4: that's a lot to do with Gary Marshall, our mentor,
Speaker 4: you know. And he was like a like a college professor,
Speaker 4: and he he really cared about us, not just as
Speaker 4: a showruner, but as young people because we didn't know much.
Speaker 4: And he really inspired us to educate ourselves in entertainment.
Speaker 4: To our many hats. He made sure that Paramount Studios
Speaker 4: was a college. He made it a meaning guys, you know,
Speaker 4: if you want to last in this business, you better
Speaker 4: wear quite a few hats and get it, get out,
Speaker 4: get don't get in the way of yourself. You're not
Speaker 4: that great, you know, you really aren't. He said, you know,
Speaker 4: shadow directors come to the writing sessions, go to the
Speaker 4: editing rooms, whatever you need. This is your school. And
Speaker 4: I think that's why all of us are still involved.
Speaker 1: And that's it.
Speaker 2: That's such a giving person. He liked to bring you
Speaker 2: in like that and let all of you learn the
Speaker 2: ropes in the ins and outs of not just acting
Speaker 2: but the business.
Speaker 1: Yes, I get so smart. I wish we had that.
Speaker 4: Well, and I tried as a director to to kind
Speaker 4: of pay that forward early on Gary, Here we are.
Speaker 4: He sat us down. I'll never get He sat us down.
Speaker 4: He said, you guys are gonna be famous. Don't deserve it.
Speaker 4: You're gonna be famous. There's gonna be a light on you.
Speaker 4: Your responsibility is take the light and put it on
Speaker 4: someone that does deserve it, help them out. And it
Speaker 4: really hit it hit home, and you know, we've all
Speaker 4: kind of live by that. And the other thing he did,
Speaker 4: which was incredible. They asked people ask us, oh, what's
Speaker 4: the greatest moments on the set of Happy Days? What's
Speaker 4: And I think I thought, well, it's not really the set.
Speaker 4: I mean we had fun times. It was the ball team.
Speaker 4: It was a softball team. And Gary was a sports fanatic,
Speaker 4: and he goes, I'd like us to go to every
Speaker 4: colleg I'd like to go to every major stadium in
Speaker 4: the United States. Let's put together a ball team. We're
Speaker 4: all ex athletes. The only one who wasn't was Henry,
Speaker 4: but Ron Howard and Clenn Howard's brother taught him how
Speaker 4: to pitch and he ended up being really, really good.
Speaker 4: So he really had a very good ball team. And
Speaker 4: Gary put this team together and we played in every
Speaker 4: major stadium in the United States, pregames, hardly ever lost.
Speaker 4: We went on USO Tours, playing against the Marines, the
Speaker 4: Army you know over the China Sea where the third
Speaker 4: Infantry Division Germany, and he said, he goes, and I
Speaker 4: put it together because, yeah, he goes, you always have
Speaker 4: the back of your teammate. I think it's going to
Speaker 4: come back to the set. I think it's going to
Speaker 4: stop a lot of egos. And sure enough, I mean
Speaker 4: for over a decade. Yeah, ball team, And those are
Speaker 4: the moments. I mean, we're we're in Germany. Uh what
Speaker 4: was the name of that? Oh gosh, the small third
Speaker 4: Infrey Division and what's the name of the town? I
Speaker 4: forgot But in that little town, it was very original,
Speaker 4: over a thousand years old, and there was a castle
Speaker 4: and it was the original suit of armors and everything
Speaker 4: else in there. But they turned it into a restaurant
Speaker 4: and an overlooked brine river and there's Ron Henry Donny
Speaker 4: myself where at the table. Instead of serving water, they
Speaker 4: had wine dispensers. You got a glass of wine, not water. Wow,
Speaker 4: we were feeling no pain. So we ended up going
Speaker 4: outside on this original terrorists that's one thousand and seven
Speaker 4: years old, singing splush blasts to the entire over the
Speaker 4: Rhine River, to the entire city of Wartzburg. Okay, you
Speaker 4: can't make those stories up, man, what.
Speaker 2: An incredibly I wish that we had that kind of
Speaker 2: somebody sit us down in the beginning and say, we
Speaker 2: are a team, we are together.
Speaker 3: You're so young, you don't know. You need someone to
Speaker 3: kind of guide. Wait, was the ball team called Happy
Speaker 3: Days or it.
Speaker 4: Was the Happy Day Team? And it's so great And
Speaker 4: if you wanted a line in Happy Days, it's an extra.
Speaker 4: Just be a good ballplayer, football player. Listen, we're taking
Speaker 4: you to Germany. I'll give you a line.
Speaker 2: That's how you recruited.
Speaker 4: I'm telling you. It was so basic, it was so tactile,
Speaker 4: the whole situation was, and it was so funny. Got
Speaker 4: to the point where Jerry Paris are amazing director, one
Speaker 4: of the greatest comedy directors in history. He did All
Speaker 4: the Dick Band, He played Jerry the dentist next door
Speaker 4: in Melbourk's. We had the most most brilliant comedy minds
Speaker 4: in the world on that set, which is incredible. But
Speaker 4: but it got to the point where people would come
Speaker 4: down and they thought we were nuts during rehearsal because
Speaker 4: you know, it was three camera at the time, so
Speaker 4: it's like a play, you know, which I think, by
Speaker 4: the way, really helped with the camaraderie, unlike nine on
Speaker 4: two one zero, where it's kind of piecemealed. It's a
Speaker 4: you know, it's like a movie. Here we're together every day.
Speaker 4: Every day, we're together rehearsing theater basically. But it got
Speaker 4: to the point he'd say, okay, here first rehearsal. Okay,
Speaker 4: your answers start here, you go there, Henry coming here, Okay,
Speaker 4: let's go. It's like going, well, hey, Richie ah, you
Speaker 4: never had to say words a grunt. You knew it
Speaker 4: wasn't funny, you knew the timing is all. You didn't
Speaker 4: have to say anything. You knew. So basically rehearsal was
Speaker 4: a bunch of grunts and people would say, what are they?
Speaker 4: Is that a language? What are they doing?
Speaker 2: It's yeah, oh that's so good when you know somebody
Speaker 2: so well grunts everything, uh huh.
Speaker 4: And I really do think, and I actually think for
Speaker 4: you guys, because honestly, the one thing directing nine or
Speaker 4: two and zero and all that, I don't remember the
Speaker 4: scripts that much. I remember you guys and the joy
Speaker 4: of working with you guys all individually different days. Just
Speaker 4: a wonderful group, no we goes, I mean really beautiful.
Speaker 4: And I really remember the times you reached starting to
Speaker 4: direct an episode and all our direct you'd ask questions
Speaker 4: and it was just a beautiful time on a set
Speaker 4: with a great and a wonderful cast and just so
Speaker 4: heartfelt uh so kind to me, you know, I mean,
Speaker 4: because you know you're the director, you're the odd person out.
Speaker 2: Well, what what made you want to pivot from being
Speaker 2: like this iconic character in television history to directing to
Speaker 2: going behind the scenes.
Speaker 4: Well, actually it actually started early in that I started
Speaker 4: writing and producing for directing. I never really meant to
Speaker 4: just stay at an actor at all. I actually thought
Speaker 4: I got a lot for not much. I thought I
Speaker 4: went about as far as I can go as an actor.
Speaker 4: I've always been more interested behind the camera, writing or whatever.
Speaker 4: So I did educate myself as on the paramount lot,
Speaker 4: just in terms of the craft and all that. And
Speaker 4: then in nineteen eighty Ron Howard had a deal at
Speaker 4: NBC for three movies of the Weeks, and the first
Speaker 4: two were like okay, And I told I said to Ron,
Speaker 4: you know, I said, you're too good. You got to
Speaker 4: do something substantial here. You got a movie of the week.
Speaker 4: Assess something something. So one night I visited my parents
Speaker 4: in Burbank, and I was driving back home and I
Speaker 4: passed the Burmac Airport and kind of a remote area
Speaker 4: of it, I saw this old plane and I saw
Speaker 4: someone in a wheelchair handing something to someone working on
Speaker 4: the plane. And I had been involved in with several
Speaker 4: palsy because my cousin had several palsy, so I was
Speaker 4: I did a lot of charity work. And I looked
Speaker 4: at that and I went, WHOA, and this idea came
Speaker 4: to be called Skyward. I said, you make this child
Speaker 4: in this always look up. You're always looking up, so
Speaker 4: they're always looking skyward and this so everything becomes free
Speaker 4: in the sky and basically, will I ever look down?
Speaker 4: Will they ever look up at me? And I thought,
Speaker 4: what if this person learned to fly? So created this
Speaker 4: film called Skywork. I visited to Ron, he said, I
Speaker 4: love this. We went to Brandon Tartakoff at NBC. He said,
Speaker 4: I love this. I looked. So they put it into
Speaker 4: the and we wrote a script and they he said, okay,
Speaker 4: that's great. Melissa su and is playing the lead. We
Speaker 4: have this deal with her, and Ron and I are going,
Speaker 4: you know, we really should have we found this disabled actress.
Speaker 4: It's fantastic. No one knows they're fantastic, and we really
Speaker 4: shouldn't be hypocritical. We should really give a shot to
Speaker 4: an actress who's disabled. And he's going on and on,
Speaker 4: and we're arguing, and he's going he goes, look, guys,
Speaker 4: this is business. We have a deal with Melissa Sue Anderson.
Speaker 4: We have to pay her play movie of the week.
Speaker 4: And we're going on and on and on finally, So
Speaker 4: we go finally, I said, okay, Ron, Ron does the
Speaker 4: scene with Susie Gilstrap, who's a paraplegic, and we're there
Speaker 4: and we put it together and we bring it back
Speaker 4: to Brandon. He's like so frustrated. Now he goes, all right,
Speaker 4: you got this other part, Billy an ex stump part
Speaker 4: of the Lady. Blah blah blah blah blah. You get me
Speaker 4: Bettie Davis, you got your girl. Well that's the pope
Speaker 4: at the time. All right, yeah, I mean it's like, really,
Speaker 4: I go, thanks a lot. We're walking out. I tell Ron, well,
Speaker 4: it's Melissa. We did our best. It's Melissa Swanners and
Speaker 4: we did our freaking best. That's it. So that night
Speaker 4: on Carson there's Betty Davis no on Curson Society. I'm
Speaker 4: tired of playing women's parts. I want to do something
Speaker 4: with action.
Speaker 1: Hey, that's pretty good action.
Speaker 4: I'm going stumpilot later. That's action, you know. So I go,
Speaker 4: I go, Ron, bro, let's get this script over I
Speaker 4: don't know the agent. I don't just find a regent.
Speaker 4: Let's get it over there. We get the script over there.
Speaker 4: Betty Davis trusts nobody in life especially buboynowns to us
Speaker 4: she reads everything submitted. We didn't think it ething get
Speaker 4: to her.
Speaker 1: She said yes, Oh my gosh, wow, she.
Speaker 4: Said yes, And we got Susie and we got and
Speaker 4: that was the film that got raw at the features.
Speaker 4: That's the film Alan Ladd Junior saw it. Okay, I'm
Speaker 4: for night Shifts. Oh. And that all came out of
Speaker 4: Happy Days, out of Gary Marshall. I just showing you
Speaker 4: how things happened. So produce that and I was exec producer,
Speaker 4: wrote the story, We wrote the script, blah blah blah,
Speaker 4: did a few others and then I was like, as
Speaker 4: I said, you know, this producing stuff's cold. I mean,
Speaker 4: you're not involved, You're kind of away. You're not you know.
Speaker 4: He goes, you should direct? I go, oh great, a
Speaker 4: third career, thanks, you know, he said. So. Basically, I
Speaker 4: had a show in development called No Greater Gift. It
Speaker 4: was an after school special co wrote with a partner
Speaker 4: and it was about it was really one based on
Speaker 4: a inspired by a true story about organ downership between
Speaker 4: these two kids. Anyway, No Greater Gift, and I was
Speaker 4: able to beg the network to let me direct language show.
Speaker 4: And that was the beginning of it, and that put
Speaker 4: me behind the camera, and from there it just progressed,
Speaker 4: thankfully through the years.
Speaker 1: You're a trifecta.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, wow, that's such a beautiful progression though, because as
Speaker 2: you ended that show on Happy Days, I would imagine
Speaker 2: I know that we probably felt this way pigeonholed into
Speaker 2: that stereotypical character. People didn't really want to see you
Speaker 2: as other characters. It was a little more challenging as
Speaker 2: an actor, but you could just kind of pivot. Yeah,
Speaker 2: when we found out you POTSI was directing our show,
Speaker 2: we were all freaking thinking out.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Really, I imagine every buddy who was directed by photos
Speaker 3: with you.
Speaker 1: Which never did with anyone who came on the show.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3: Then you ended up being like, we became friends with you,
Speaker 3: Like you're one of the few directors on nine that
Speaker 3: became like our buddy, our friend, like someone we trusted
Speaker 3: and we would have like great conversations outside of directing
Speaker 3: and acting.
Speaker 2: Because you were started as an actor, like you, he
Speaker 2: got us.
Speaker 4: Oh really got us totally. And it's acting is very
Speaker 4: sensitive area. I mean, we're all I mean, everyone has
Speaker 4: the background of why they go into into acting anyway,
Speaker 4: it's pretty complex, a lot of a lot of emotions,
Speaker 4: a lot of reasons. I'm like, you know, make up
Speaker 4: for loss whatever. But you know, and it's a and
Speaker 4: there's just I mean, and you know, trust and love
Speaker 4: and like comfort means everything, you know where and collaboration
Speaker 4: means everything. And I hated directors, honestly, God, they go,
Speaker 4: I'm the director. It's like a director is a storyteller.
Speaker 4: It's all you are. It's like whatever your psychologist, you ever,
Speaker 4: whatever you have to do to make it work. You know,
Speaker 4: you're not You're not that. What's important is what's printed.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of people involved in that, a lot
Speaker 4: of talent involved in that, a lot of sensitive situations
Speaker 4: in that, you know, And it's a big how do
Speaker 4: you collaborate everyone and get it done and get it
Speaker 4: done right? And everyone feels involved and everyone feels satisfied
Speaker 4: with their part.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the job.
Speaker 2: It's such a group like village mentality like it is.
Speaker 1: It's really and you guys.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, how you could you could? You guys
Speaker 4: couldn't be more popular? And how many it was it
Speaker 4: ten years or eleven? How many years? Ten years? And
Speaker 4: that was happy to its ten ten years the same thing.
Speaker 1: Really rarity, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 4: And here you guys still are still souper, are popular,
Speaker 4: but you all give back, you're all, you're all. You know,
Speaker 4: it's important to be you know, examples of you know,
Speaker 4: of doing the right thing and you know, and it's
Speaker 4: you know, not be a giver and not a taker.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: We've always realized and maintained that our fans are are everything,
Speaker 3: like we'd be nothing without them. Yes, so we'll forever
Speaker 3: be grateful. How often do people say potsy? Nowadays?
Speaker 4: A lot they still say, but it's so funny early
Speaker 4: on unhappy days, we're real popular and we're getting potsy
Speaker 4: potsy potsy and honestly being young, Ron Howard was there
Speaker 4: and I said, you know this Potzi stuff. Man, He goes, answering,
Speaker 4: you got to earn your name. They know you this character. Hey,
Speaker 4: how do you think I feel? I have two Opi
Speaker 4: and Richie. He goes, he got one. Shut up, I
Speaker 4: gotta new I that makes OPI is pretty good. Okay,
Speaker 4: I get it. Yeah, you have to earn our names
Speaker 4: to take this and do something bigger with it. That's
Speaker 4: where it's you and that's directing and writing whatever. And
Speaker 4: you earn your way, you know, you earn your way
Speaker 4: and that makes sense. That was a had a run
Speaker 4: had a big influence on me and Gary Marshall. But
Speaker 4: it's true. And now and then it gets what were
Speaker 4: you doing? They they know what you do now, they're
Speaker 4: probably know you're direct they know you're right, but they
Speaker 4: still love your character. You know, it's cool, it's great.
Speaker 4: I mean, Ron, I was just wrong. Ron had won
Speaker 4: the Oscar and they're calling him Richie. It's like, you go,
Speaker 4: this's great. Whatever makes forever.
Speaker 2: It's forever.
Speaker 4: The power of what you guys do. Seriously, Henry Winkler
Speaker 4: and I don't his popularity at the time, it was
Speaker 4: the Beatles times three. I mean, I don't know. I
Speaker 4: mean it was nuts and back then there were three networks.
Speaker 4: That was it. We had an average of sixty so
Speaker 4: million people watching sixty point two wet rating. If we
Speaker 4: get that, we figot into the fifties. Are disappointed? Okay? Three? Not? Well? Yeah,
Speaker 4: we talk about popularity, man, and you talk about plus
Speaker 4: they're syndicating during the day, and I mean, and Henry
Speaker 4: was like, just you could you could not be more popular?
Speaker 4: In life anyway, he always made a point to visit
Speaker 4: children's hospitals when in the town. He would go in,
Speaker 4: not as even as the character. He would just you know,
Speaker 4: but he would play the character. And he went in
Speaker 4: to this one room and I guess they were they
Speaker 4: were there was an autistic kid, and there's an old
Speaker 4: guess who's coming to visit you? And nothing. He's never
Speaker 4: never expressed nothing, no express nothing since birth. Nothing. Henry
Speaker 4: comes in, Henry comes into this room. Oh hey, this
Speaker 4: is I mean, he goes Henry goes hey, Ka goes hey.
Speaker 4: It's the first time, all of a sudden he was
Speaker 4: Everyone's breaking down, crying, the mother, nonverbal and anything anything,
Speaker 4: And it was the first time there was any sense
Speaker 4: there was a connection. That's that's the power of the
Speaker 4: media and it's the power of character. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So so we learned from you. I mean we learned
Speaker 2: I for one, learned from you like just having you,
Speaker 2: like the legendary you directing us being so like personable
Speaker 2: and chill and just talkative with everyone, just having a
Speaker 2: really cool, normal like energy about you. That was inspiring
Speaker 2: for me and like an example for how we should
Speaker 2: be as we get older. In this business like, you
Speaker 2: don't have to be like some affected person star you
Speaker 2: know all the things that people assume. You could be
Speaker 2: a real person and just light up so many people's
Speaker 2: worlds because of who they know you from and what
Speaker 2: they know you from.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because it's funny when they see someone like you,
Speaker 4: just the wall goes down and they go they're vulnerable
Speaker 4: and and you you put a little joy in there.
Speaker 4: It's it's it's it's very effective. Gary did. He gave
Speaker 4: us another great lesson and he said, you guys, you
Speaker 4: guys are in it, and in it means yeah, you
Speaker 4: got the fire and you want to be successful. You
Speaker 4: want to be this, you want to be known. You
Speaker 4: got Yeah, never be of it. It's not who you are.
Speaker 4: If you're of it, you're hiding behind it. You're running
Speaker 4: and that could be. It could be from hiding behind kids,
Speaker 4: hiding behind this, hiding behind drugs, hiding behind a VP. Whatever.
Speaker 4: Never you're in it, never ever be of it. You
Speaker 4: will never ever be happy as a human being. You know,
Speaker 4: you're hiding from yourself. Wow, that was it was That
Speaker 4: was a very important lesson he taught us. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, authenticity.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, so it's what we do so who we are?
Speaker 3: That's right, Yeah, they ask you a fun thing about
Speaker 3: happy days.
Speaker 1: Sure, so we.
Speaker 3: Always talk about this when we have people on OMG
Speaker 3: from nine oh two one oh and Iron was infamous
Speaker 3: for it. Is there anything you took from the set
Speaker 3: the very last day, like ten years are up the
Speaker 3: final scene, like Iron took the jukebox like I was.
Speaker 4: I didn't. I wasn't there the last day for the
Speaker 4: last and I didn't get a chance to take anything
Speaker 4: I wanted to complain about that. You're talking about happy days?
Speaker 1: Yeah, hap, happy days. Sorry.
Speaker 4: Sorry, Now you're going to see You're going to see
Speaker 4: how absolutely dumb and stupid this guy is.
Speaker 1: You got two right here. We took nothing, trust me,
Speaker 1: think of it.
Speaker 4: Listen to this. Oh no, who knew this stuff would
Speaker 4: be like you know, you know Kate Hut's Kingdom. I
Speaker 4: mean seriously, it's like, what check this out? Last Night
Speaker 4: of Happiness, last show. Mickey Gerard you might know and
Speaker 4: you know his his his niece is Jill, the one
Speaker 4: on Love Boat, your Dad's show, right, Joe Wheeling whatever, Yep,
Speaker 4: Well there's Mickey and Fonsie you know had three jackets.
Speaker 4: One went to Slsonian one he owned, and there's one
Speaker 4: extra one I'm walking by. Mickey goes, would you like
Speaker 4: this jacket? No?
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, what were you embarrassed to take it?
Speaker 1: Why didn't you take it?
Speaker 4: I know, I know. I was like no, No, I
Speaker 4: didn't think it was that important.
Speaker 1: Were you like, huh? I don't wear it?
Speaker 2: Wow? And now when I was in the Smithsonian.
Speaker 4: He gave it to Jill. Talk to Joe, she's got it.
Speaker 4: She didn't.
Speaker 1: How much would that go on? eBay the house?
Speaker 4: Right? Then then he goes wheeling the happy it is jukebox? Right?
Speaker 1: Where's that?
Speaker 4: I could have got it for a thousand dollars? I
Speaker 4: don't want it to I don't know.
Speaker 1: And here's the real good one, same as USh.
Speaker 4: The middle the middle you know, the middle booth of
Speaker 4: Arnold's right, Yes, everyone's a kind of iconic famous. There
Speaker 4: was a seat. There was one episode where Arnold's burned
Speaker 4: and they rebuilt the bats going. They said, hey, Hanson,
Speaker 4: before we burned this, you want would you like the
Speaker 4: center booth if you can figure out how to get
Speaker 4: out of here? Nay?
Speaker 1: Were you thinking, what the hell am I going to
Speaker 1: do with the booth?
Speaker 4: Exactly?
Speaker 3: So did they only ask you or you just happened
Speaker 3: to be there, so they really.
Speaker 4: I don't I don't know if they asked anything. No one
Speaker 4: else took it. Put it that way.
Speaker 1: What about your letterman jackets?
Speaker 4: I got that, okay, I got the jacket, sweater and
Speaker 4: I and now it's in a there's this guy that
Speaker 4: has the most Happy Days memorabilia according to the Guinness
Speaker 4: Work of Records. He has a little Happy in his
Speaker 4: museum in Italy. Oh, it's in that museum. Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 4: I mean we kept I kept so, I mean so little, right, Yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean.
Speaker 2: I didn't think it through.
Speaker 3: We weren't forward thinkers, and so we did the reboot.
Speaker 1: Iron's like remember where he went wrong before?
Speaker 3: And so I think ten like we took the menus
Speaker 3: from like the restaurant we had created on beach. Well
Speaker 3: that show was one season, so it's like by the
Speaker 3: time we figured it out, it was too late.
Speaker 4: Yeah oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Well back then, memorabilia wasn't
Speaker 4: that big a deal. It just wasn't that. Yeah, it wasn't,
Speaker 4: you know, there wasn't.
Speaker 1: It wasn't true.
Speaker 4: It really wasn't. Otherwise it's so funny. I directed a
Speaker 4: lot of Star treks, right. It's it's like it's like
Speaker 4: everything's locked up there. I mean it's like it's.
Speaker 1: Like they knew, Oh.
Speaker 4: Are you kidding, It's like they had it down with science.
Speaker 4: You got nothing, zippo. It was, I mean, every little
Speaker 4: prop was locked up.
Speaker 1: I don't know if this.
Speaker 2: Is an appropriate question, but I'm only asking because I
Speaker 2: think we might be in a similar situation. What happened
Speaker 2: with Happy Days and syndication and like residuals for you, oh,
Speaker 2: for your cast.
Speaker 4: Here's it's so interesting you brought that up because you
Speaker 4: know we're all sag after members, right, love, I don't
Speaker 4: know how we had I don't know how we had
Speaker 4: like almost three hundred episodes whatever, a lot of episodes, right,
Speaker 4: And even even if it plays once a day somewhere,
Speaker 4: it's like four dollars fight dollars, right, But there's no
Speaker 4: forensic accounting going on here. It is like, I'm really
Speaker 4: upset with the screen actors go in terms of that.
Speaker 4: It doesn't make sense to me because even because today,
Speaker 4: even today, and I'm sure nine oh two one oh,
Speaker 4: we're like on five eight ten platforms at CBS, you're
Speaker 4: on Pluto you're on.
Speaker 2: Our show has a channel that's just nine O two
Speaker 2: and oh all day.
Speaker 4: There you go, yeah, and you get and you go,
Speaker 4: you go ninety two dollars and three cents. It's great,
Speaker 4: you know, I mean it's it's it's like, it doesn't
Speaker 4: make sense.
Speaker 3: Ninety two dollars that's.
Speaker 1: A big one.
Speaker 2: We get like three cents?
Speaker 3: Yeah, are told? Never like you have to cash it,
Speaker 3: don't throw it away?
Speaker 1: Bad luck. You're like, are right?
Speaker 4: I love it when it's four d eight cents.
Speaker 2: It's like kid because you know, like Friends, the cast
Speaker 2: of Friends like something changed.
Speaker 4: Oh no, the reason is smart insiduals. They get ownership
Speaker 4: of the show. That's a difference. They own part of
Speaker 4: the syndication cell. How could we have the reason? He's
Speaker 4: so very he owns the show. So when when when
Speaker 4: a station buys it for so much money, they get
Speaker 4: a percentage of the sale. It's beyond guilt. That's a
Speaker 4: separate deal. That's why. That's why they get very rich.
Speaker 2: But they didn't offer that to us back then.
Speaker 1: No, no nobody.
Speaker 3: I wish we had taken a course or Gary Marshall
Speaker 3: had taught us like how to like ownership and just
Speaker 3: everything that goes along with it. So as we would
Speaker 3: get you know, restructure our deals, we would know like, hey,
Speaker 3: this is what I'm interested in. I want this, I
Speaker 3: want that, And like we just knew nothing. I mean,
Speaker 3: we were happy being a part of something that matter.
Speaker 4: But you don't you don't think that we're not you know,
Speaker 4: we didn't go to business school, you know, and we
Speaker 4: learned business as you go. Yeah, but actually so the
Speaker 4: next one you do them. You know, it's an education,
Speaker 4: that's way I see it. It's it's like there's I
Speaker 4: look I look through this going oh my god, but
Speaker 4: look at the but look at the positive.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, we wouldn't change anything.
Speaker 4: We're talking. Yeah, we're still That means a.
Speaker 2: Lot, it really does.
Speaker 3: We wouldn't change anything except we would have gotten some
Speaker 3: money from like the hair dryers, the perfume, all of
Speaker 3: the merch with our faces.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, oh yeah, well god, yess who knew?
Speaker 1: Who knows what was happening on those you know.
Speaker 4: But that's true, and that's that's the other side of licensing.
Speaker 2: Yes, well we're not dyeah, we're not crying about it.
Speaker 2: But but it's just as interesting how the business changed
Speaker 2: involved and people got smarter.
Speaker 4: Well, the next show, the next show you're starting in
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 1: Jen and are business woman show me?
Speaker 3: So it's you know, it's just that kick in the
Speaker 3: pants of not crying, but like, oh, wish what we
Speaker 3: know now?
Speaker 1: We could have applied then. But so is life.
Speaker 4: You always say it, but yet you're you're being able
Speaker 4: to apply something now, which is kind of nice.
Speaker 2: Wait, I need to know what's happening for you next.
Speaker 2: Let's tell us what is going on. I heard you're
Speaker 2: getting ready to shoot something.
Speaker 3: Are you You're in a movie with my TV husband?
Speaker 4: I you know something that is so funny because the
Speaker 4: director is a friend of mine. I haven't acted at all,
Speaker 4: and I never I've never had blood on my face.
Speaker 4: So I did a horror movie and yeah, so I
Speaker 4: did as a favor going in there, and it was
Speaker 4: so much fun. It's Killer Pigs, just a kind of
Speaker 4: a hoot, little horror movie. But there's Brian right, you know,
Speaker 4: and I didn't have a scene with him, but but
Speaker 4: it was just it was a lot of fun. And
Speaker 4: I'm out there. I'll tell you this. I'm out there
Speaker 4: and it's like one in the morning. It's like degrees
Speaker 4: on this phone. I'm going. Now I know why I'm
Speaker 4: not acting anymore.
Speaker 1: Exactly know.
Speaker 4: I said, this is a great reminder. I'm saying, if
Speaker 4: you're directing, you go, can I have another code? Please?
Speaker 4: Thank you? I'm comfortable action. I go, I'm too old
Speaker 4: for it, man, I said, I'm done with this. My
Speaker 4: foot off.
Speaker 2: You know, it's not as fun as it used to be.
Speaker 4: No, it's not. That's what. How about a sitcom? Yeah,
Speaker 4: Brad Pitt talked about that. He looks at scripts and
Speaker 4: I goes, ooh, nic shooting. Oh, I don't know that.
Speaker 1: You're gonna say he was gonna do a sitcom? I
Speaker 1: just whoa I did? Yeah, so it's called The Three
Speaker 1: Killer Pigs.
Speaker 4: Yeah. But one thing I am working on is very
Speaker 4: There's one thing that's very important. I'm gonna and I'll
Speaker 4: tell you why. And it's this right here. It's called
Speaker 4: it's called Crazy.
Speaker 2: Mama, Crazy Mama.
Speaker 4: Tell us it is a powerhouse. It's a play. It's
Speaker 4: a play that's going to premiere at the only equity
Speaker 4: equity theater in Materia, counting the Rubicon Theater in the March.
Speaker 4: And they're already talking off Broadway, possibly the Hell and
Speaker 4: h Theater or whatever. It stars Pearl. I don't know
Speaker 4: if you remember Linda Pearl, who you know, she was
Speaker 4: Unhappy days first and when she was on Matt Locke
Speaker 4: for eight years, tons of movies of the Week, and
Speaker 4: then she uh she was on played Carrel's girlfriend on
Speaker 4: the Office and all that you would not bring.
Speaker 1: She worked from my dad Little Ladies of I know.
Speaker 4: I directed her in Robin's.
Speaker 1: Hoods oh and then and then that yeah.
Speaker 4: That's yes, yeah, yeah, Robins. Anyway, it's a one woman's
Speaker 4: show with a blues man, meaning there's there's a certain
Speaker 4: song in there, like the Greek chorus, where as a
Speaker 4: one woman show like goes down and here it comes
Speaker 4: up on him. The song kind of plays the story forward.
Speaker 4: It's a true story about love and madness and it
Speaker 4: deals with mental illness in the most entertaining emotional tacto
Speaker 4: ever on stage. And my wife, Sharon Scott Williams, wrote
Speaker 4: it and what happened was and it's based on her life.
Speaker 4: She was eight years old, had a wonderful birthday on Sunday.
Speaker 4: It was Monday. One piece of birthday cake left. Oh honey,
Speaker 4: when you come home, it'll be here for you waiting right,
Speaker 4: and and she Monday comes gets off the bus and
Speaker 4: gets goes to the kitchen and her mother comes after
Speaker 4: with a knife, thinking someone's behind her. She had a
Speaker 4: psychotic breakdown. Oh and it's like, okay, that's the and
Speaker 4: it's a story. How does a family deal with it?
Speaker 4: Through humor to hope, through tears? Will I ever get
Speaker 4: her back? Will I ever get she's there? But she's
Speaker 4: not there? Will I ever get her back? I can't
Speaker 4: tell you the brilliant it's Paulish surprise when it is
Speaker 4: freaking brilliant, so brilliant that she writes it. And okay,
Speaker 4: I said, okay, now the audience is going to tell
Speaker 4: us everything. We're in. OHI, let's go to the underground.
Speaker 4: There's a little stage there. Let's rent it. Just whoever
Speaker 4: wants to come in. We'll just we had a local actress.
Speaker 4: Let's let's just see let's read it and see the
Speaker 4: effect of this play. Just kind of a stage reading
Speaker 4: standing ovation in her missioners mission. So here's what happens.
Speaker 4: So from that, it turned out the owner of the rape,
Speaker 4: you know, big industry paper of the rape, the owners
Speaker 4: happened to be there, writes the review of it, like
Speaker 4: to her, she got he wrote it to my wife
Speaker 4: said print this wherever you want. This is important. This
Speaker 4: is phenomenon. And another person happened in the audience that
Speaker 4: was huge, huge in theater. Wow, calls her director at
Speaker 4: the Rubicon says, you got to I know, you get
Speaker 4: a thousand places. I mean it's they do they five
Speaker 4: shows for their season, and Rubicon is very connected with
Speaker 4: New York and all that. It's like very been there
Speaker 4: twenty five years. It's just they've never bought a play
Speaker 4: at OHI ever, it's so all right. So she reads it,
Speaker 4: calls up here and I want lunch. This is a
Speaker 4: work of art, sits down and books it for the
Speaker 4: season and it's called Crazy Mama. It previews start March
Speaker 4: twenty six at the Rubicon. Okay, and the thing is
Speaker 4: about it, it's such a When we did the and
Speaker 4: we did a few more readings after that, it was
Speaker 4: maybe we changed five percent of the show. Maybe, And
Speaker 4: I'm gressing and people come up major crawling, like tears
Speaker 4: of relief. I'm not alone and these they come up
Speaker 4: and go, my mom didn't have a psychotic breakdown, but
Speaker 4: she had cancer. I'm looking to who was there is
Speaker 4: not there anymore. They all related to it in their
Speaker 4: own life somehow. It was mind blowing. But all of
Speaker 4: a sudden the walls went down. People talking, people conversing.
Speaker 4: But in this show, and it's all true. There is
Speaker 4: magic and there is hope. And I will not tell
Speaker 4: you the ending, but I'll tell you this. The last
Speaker 4: line of the show, I cried thinking about you will
Speaker 4: never ever forget ever, Well, you will take your heart solo.
Speaker 4: You guys have to. Honestly, it is. It is beyond special.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: You heard it from Anson Williams himself.
Speaker 1: The ten's birthday in April. We should make it a
Speaker 1: girls trip.
Speaker 4: Well it's it's March twenty. It starts March twenty six,
Speaker 4: Mark twenty ninth as the premiere, you know, opening thing,
Speaker 4: and it goes into like first couple of weeks of April.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I love it that you have all
Speaker 2: this passion like you don't. It doesn't stop for you.
Speaker 4: This is Gary Martin, No, this is this is taking,
Speaker 4: This is taking our talents. And by the way, Linda
Speaker 4: plays sixteen characters. Oh my gosh, no, I'm and I
Speaker 4: mean sixty, I mean full, I mean physicality voice.
Speaker 1: Real wow, and you're looking amazing.
Speaker 4: You think there's five people at the same time. Oh
Speaker 4: my god, I'm saying it is a tour.
Speaker 1: I smelled the Tony's Yeah.
Speaker 4: She she took over fronnessa Redgrave for your magical thinking
Speaker 4: that John Didion play, she did that woman show, One
Speaker 4: Woman Show. I mean, it's something, it's it's it's it's
Speaker 4: something she it is something you've never seen somebody, You've
Speaker 4: never seen this before. It is really what a collaboration
Speaker 4: of talent and set designer. You know and you and
Speaker 4: you would know this tory, the best set design, the
Speaker 4: best life. I mean, just this beautiful group to get
Speaker 4: coming together that are just just sensational and we're gonna
Speaker 4: create it. It's gonna be something. Not only is it
Speaker 4: hugely entertaining, but it's it's just it's so it's so positive.
Speaker 4: It's such a healing experience.
Speaker 2: How do people get their tickets for this?
Speaker 4: Like, just just go to the Rubicon Theater dot com?
Speaker 4: Are you b I co O N heater t h
Speaker 4: G A t R A Rubicon Theater dot com. Honestly, guys,
Speaker 4: really really really really important.
Speaker 2: Oh great, well we will check it out. I hope
Speaker 2: everyone shows up. That sounds like something we should all see.
Speaker 4: Yes we should, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2: And so happy for you and working with your wife.
Speaker 4: Isn't that great? That's amazing, And that's a whole new thing.
Speaker 4: And we've been you know, we well I won't go
Speaker 4: with all the personal stuff they got me here, but
Speaker 4: I was pretty much a broken guy whatever. And she
Speaker 4: had sold me my o High house fourteen years ago
Speaker 4: and at the time and but nothing, but it was
Speaker 4: the second home I was in another area with. Of
Speaker 4: course life's changed and I'm back to OHI and out
Speaker 4: of the the rest and the rest is history. It's amazing,
Speaker 4: She's It's just just I almost feel I earned this relationship.
Speaker 4: You go through so much, you know, you go through
Speaker 4: so much. If you earned something really cool, really good,
Speaker 4: that's nice.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: It makes us so happy to see you so happy
Speaker 2: and thriving and just loving life, loving your art.
Speaker 4: Like it's all this all good man, you say, going,
Speaker 4: keep going, keep creating, Hey, hey, keep it going, you know,
Speaker 4: really just to the last breath, man, that's you know,
Speaker 4: we have a lot to give still, all of us. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and a lot of fun to have. Really a lot,
Speaker 4: a lot of good times.
Speaker 2: You know well, we had good times with me with
Speaker 2: you that will never ever forget, ever back at you.
Speaker 2: So happy to have you on with us. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much for taking the time onsen you you.
Speaker 1: Are an unbelievable storyteller. You truly are.
Speaker 3: They got a knack, kid, Oh, thank you amongst many
Speaker 3: knacks that you have.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you well? Thank you, We love you, good.
Speaker 4: To see you by bye and