Speaker 1: Still the Place with Laura Layton, Courtney Thorn Smith.
Speaker 2: And Daphne's Aniga and iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1: Hi guys, Hi, it's very exciting. We're very excited here today.
Speaker 2: We're gathering the three of us with a special guest.
Speaker 1: Very special guest because it is here. I'm so excited
Speaker 1: about this. During this morning, I've been giddy.
Speaker 3: I have been waiting for this moment.
Speaker 2: I pointed out when you walked and I go, this
Speaker 2: is the room in which you called in twice. That's
Speaker 2: probably trying to get on our show.
Speaker 3: I've been pestering everyone.
Speaker 1: You think you have an end because you're married to Laura,
Speaker 1: and yet you've been off working.
Speaker 4: And he's been busy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so unpretening to you walked in. Like when
Speaker 1: I watch the show and I'm in scenes with you,
Speaker 1: you can see how happy I am to be in
Speaker 1: scenes with you, and I feel that way today. I'm
Speaker 1: so excited.
Speaker 3: Oh that's also. I do remember laughing like uncontrollably in
Speaker 3: what is your Apartment? I mean, and we were supposed
Speaker 3: to be like it was part of the scene, but
Speaker 3: then it just went to the next level, like just giggling.
Speaker 5: Like you know what I remember Doug about you, but
Speaker 5: that I.
Speaker 2: Came on, you know, as we know, episode fifteen, like
Speaker 2: two episodes away, and Doug Savant came up to me
Speaker 2: and gave me a huge hug and was like welcome, welcome,
Speaker 2: and that you just wanted to just make me feel
Speaker 2: so welcome, and it really worked.
Speaker 5: I really that was my memory of you.
Speaker 3: I was so tired of all the other women, so
Speaker 3: I gretful, like you just showed up and I was,
Speaker 3: you know, I was transparent and you have.
Speaker 2: Been that like so great to all of us and
Speaker 2: just to have on the I just remember that vibe
Speaker 2: on the set, like you were just always so warming.
Speaker 5: You have a real heart energy.
Speaker 3: Oh thank you so much. And I will say that,
Speaker 3: and then Courtney doesn't know I'm going to say this. I,
Speaker 3: in my very big important career, later did an episode
Speaker 3: of According to Jim Oh Yes, and I came on
Speaker 3: and if anyone who knows me, who knows me well,
Speaker 3: knows four cameras probably not my thing. I'm not really
Speaker 3: good with the joke. I was nervous, and Courtney was
Speaker 3: as gracious and lovely and open and welcoming and made
Speaker 3: me immediately part of that family, and which was a
Speaker 3: big deal.
Speaker 1: Because you're surprised because I was such a bitch on.
Speaker 5: Did you even act? Did you act like you knew?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I did, but.
Speaker 1: There was no eye contact. But beyond eye contact, no,
Speaker 1: it was.
Speaker 3: Just the ones. I mean, she didn't talk to me
Speaker 3: the rest of the.
Speaker 4: Week, just the one hello. That's very friendly.
Speaker 5: What did you play on?
Speaker 3: According to Jim Oh, we did a very You have
Speaker 3: to go back to the Stone Age. Just when The
Speaker 3: Bachelor was a new show on ABC. So they were
Speaker 3: doing their Bachelor episode and I was the Bachelor and
Speaker 3: Kimberly Williams was going on this show. My god, you
Speaker 3: have any recollection of that?
Speaker 1: I remember being in a limousine scene with you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think was that a dream? I had no.
Speaker 1: Wed a prom together? What's happening?
Speaker 3: I don't give you a rose.
Speaker 5: That's amazing, but yeah, that was.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you were in I thought Kimberly
Speaker 3: was in the limo with me.
Speaker 1: I must have been there too for some unexplained Maybe
Speaker 1: I was there for more.
Speaker 4: You were just sitting a ride.
Speaker 1: I can't You're gonna be okay, Doug?
Speaker 4: Do you my help? Feeling comfortable?
Speaker 5: I'll be in the limo with you. That's so funny.
Speaker 2: But that tends to happen when you're in this business
Speaker 2: long enough, you will work with other people like you
Speaker 2: did and Desperate Housewives with another Melrose with Marcia.
Speaker 3: Yes, of course, yes, so that was just you were
Speaker 3: on that shocking and amazing yeah eight eight.
Speaker 5: And I didn't really watched the show. Did you guys
Speaker 5: have a lot together? You both your character?
Speaker 3: There was no, well, we weren't a married couple. I
Speaker 3: was married to FeliCa Huffman on the show. But and
Speaker 3: Marcia went through a few husbands on that show.
Speaker 4: She just want to do apparently went for a long
Speaker 4: time in her defense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and but we were with each other all the time,
Speaker 3: and mean we would be at dinner parties and what
Speaker 3: have you seens like that.
Speaker 1: But I remember seeing you on the upfronts because I
Speaker 1: was doing then and we were on the same network. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and they cared a lot more about you guys than us.
Speaker 1: And I remember being there for Moros and Alley and
Speaker 1: I was like, we're the queen of the ball. Then
Speaker 1: I was there you were Desperate Housewives. I was a
Speaker 1: growing year.
Speaker 3: I was like.
Speaker 1: Oh, this is what it's like to be the other show.
Speaker 3: But it happens very fast and went back when the
Speaker 3: year that I we started on Desperate Housewives, Gray's Anatomy
Speaker 3: was then a mid season replacement. They were mid season,
Speaker 3: so we were at the same upfront and then oh,
Speaker 3: I don't know, twenty two years later, they're still on
Speaker 3: the air. It's like what, yeah, So it turns very quickly.
Speaker 1: It does. It does as it does. It's not really
Speaker 1: about me. It's this show I happen to be on
Speaker 1: at any given time.
Speaker 3: It's weird. It's never been about me, so it's.
Speaker 5: Just before we go on.
Speaker 2: I think that's a real lesson for our listeners who
Speaker 2: may not be in the business.
Speaker 5: That is a truth and a.
Speaker 2: Hard pill that's hard to swallow because it often isn't
Speaker 2: about you, and yet they make you feel like it is.
Speaker 5: When you're on top, they make you feel like it is.
Speaker 5: You get this and.
Speaker 2: That, and you know limos in real life and dinner
Speaker 2: parties in real life. There and then you know, if
Speaker 2: the ratings drop or if you're like oh or whatever,
Speaker 2: another show comes up, like Here's Anatomy like that, it
Speaker 2: changes there. You have to hang in there and you
Speaker 2: realize like you were a big deal in the context
Speaker 2: of this.
Speaker 5: You know, it's hard for.
Speaker 2: Human being to really really it's not really about you
Speaker 2: on your own.
Speaker 1: I took my son to New York. So I did
Speaker 1: the upfront for years and years and years, and I
Speaker 1: took my son to New York and I was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: this is expensive. We will not be staying where we
Speaker 1: used to say, we know two bedroom sweets in our future.
Speaker 3: In New York. They stopped inviting us to upfronts after,
Speaker 3: like there were other shows that they were just to sell.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they'll invite limited cast, like just a couple of
Speaker 4: people or something.
Speaker 1: I remember one year, and I'm not going to name names,
Speaker 1: but one of your Desperate Housewives castmates, we were talking
Speaker 1: after the party and he was really drunk and looked
Speaker 1: very upset and he had already knew that was getting
Speaker 1: killed off. And I was like, Wow, he really seems upset.
Speaker 1: And then I saw the show and I was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: made him go to upfronts even now he knew he.
Speaker 3: Was going to get killed He knew knew that, Yeah,
Speaker 3: he knew that he was they choose him, but he
Speaker 3: had to show up to the upfronts because so that
Speaker 3: it appeared that we were all still.
Speaker 1: A yes, drunk and crying there.
Speaker 3: Found a way to find the bar.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, you remember, this is just a quick one
Speaker 1: about the upfronts when the cast of the practice, so
Speaker 1: the show had gotten picked up but with a much
Speaker 1: reduced cast, and they didn't know. So they flew the
Speaker 1: whole cast out to the upfronts and then there was
Speaker 1: just a blood bath and they didn't know, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we got picked up, Yeah, we got picked up. They
Speaker 1: come home from the upfront and like, hey, listen, one
Speaker 1: more thing, and like half of the cast.
Speaker 2: That is so and by the way, so that means
Speaker 2: again for our listeners, they used these cast members.
Speaker 5: These you know, public figures.
Speaker 2: They're actors that are bringing in all the numbers to
Speaker 2: sell the show. You know, it's like a couple of
Speaker 2: nights at a very fancy hotel and then they can them.
Speaker 5: Yeah, like it's so.
Speaker 1: We used to point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, no, I never recommended it.
Speaker 1: We used to think you were safe, Like I'm at
Speaker 1: the upfronts, I'm safe. I enjoyed the party.
Speaker 4: Do I take home the ship?
Speaker 1: This was my last time getting free shampoo?
Speaker 5: Or did you bring all the shampoo home.
Speaker 3: One hundred percent of people who go to upfronts with
Speaker 3: with their pilot and then uh, there's editing and recasting afterwards.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think there's a show where the cast
Speaker 4: was flown out and then they were told get back
Speaker 4: on the plane. In the meantime the show's not happening.
Speaker 4: But they did get the mileage, get back on the plane.
Speaker 4: They did get there once.
Speaker 1: You're not knowing they flew us out. We were on
Speaker 1: the bubble, all right, at the top of the world.
Speaker 1: You may know this, Laura, but we ask everybody your
Speaker 1: audition story from Melro's place. Do you remember?
Speaker 3: I thought you might ask me, Yes, I do, I
Speaker 3: actually remember, and h here's what I remember. The next day,
Speaker 3: I at that time in my life, I would work
Speaker 3: out in the morning with my what was my the
Speaker 3: person who was my stunt double Denny Pierce, fantastic guy
Speaker 3: just made an appearance in that episode that you guys
Speaker 3: did the rundown before. When I, yeah, it's my stunt
Speaker 3: double Denny. Yes, I had we met he was I mean, I.
Speaker 5: Was one star that I didn't know. I did not
Speaker 5: know this.
Speaker 4: I what do you mean.
Speaker 3: I've had the same stunt double for my career when
Speaker 3: I've been, when I've been in a position to be
Speaker 3: able to say yes, use my stunt double. That's and
Speaker 3: it's this fantastic stunt man named Denny Pearce. And so
Speaker 3: I went to the gym the next morning after the
Speaker 3: audition from Melroe's place, and he said, how was it?
Speaker 3: And I said to him, and he recalls this, I said,
Speaker 3: it was everything that I hate about Hollywood. It was, well,
Speaker 3: we auditioned at mister Spelling's office and there it was
Speaker 3: like out of a bad B movie. There were girls
Speaker 3: and skirts up to here and heels up to there
Speaker 3: and you know, crossing, and it was every sort of
Speaker 3: superfish thing about the business that I was fighting against.
Speaker 3: And so that's really I thought, this is awful. You know,
Speaker 3: I was in a position in my life where I
Speaker 3: really I needed I needed to work. So but as
Speaker 3: you as we all know, it did work out.
Speaker 5: It did work out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, But that was what my initial take was. I don't,
Speaker 3: I don't, I don't care for this.
Speaker 1: Was that your only audition, did you go straight to spelling?
Speaker 3: I went. I went straight to spelling with obviously Darren
Speaker 3: in the room, and then but then I had a
Speaker 3: network test. Yes, I did have a network test after
Speaker 3: that where we went to Fox and and Doug.
Speaker 5: Were you on shows?
Speaker 2: Obviously you were because you had a stunt double. Were
Speaker 2: you on shows beforehand? Were you kind of going from
Speaker 2: did you have a show or job?
Speaker 3: Thank you? Yeah? Yeah? No, No, I had done I
Speaker 3: had done about six or eight movies. I had had
Speaker 3: been through a three picture deal at MGM with Yeah No,
Speaker 3: I started a movie called Stumped three talking about here.
Speaker 3: I had started a movie called Masquerade with Rob Low,
Speaker 3: Meg Tilly, Dana Delaney John and they had that's where
Speaker 3: the deal was. I had done The Hanoi Hilton, a
Speaker 3: film about the American powis in Vietnam. I had done
Speaker 3: this movie where I met Danny Was. I'd done Sir
Speaker 3: Teen Wolf, blah blah, A bunch of a bunch of movies.
Speaker 3: Not as big as Space Boss, but these were.
Speaker 1: But you know, I had primarily say I had a
Speaker 1: stunt double.
Speaker 5: There you he a lovely guy with a cigar.
Speaker 1: He's a perfect Matt.
Speaker 5: Mustache. Hilarious anyway, But no, but my recollection is just that.
Speaker 3: And I didn't think I when I went to network,
Speaker 3: I did not think I was getting the job, but
Speaker 3: I actually got the job.
Speaker 1: And did you want when you read the script? Did
Speaker 1: you resonate most with Matt?
Speaker 3: No, everybody, every guy on that I know from our show.
Speaker 3: Everybody wanted to play Billy. Did you read for Milly
Speaker 3: or never read for Billy? I read from Matt, and
Speaker 3: I loved the character because he was exceptional, right, He's exceptional.
Speaker 3: He was the gay character, and I knew that that
Speaker 3: would be exceptional. So I was interested in being a
Speaker 3: character actor, and this is what I wanted to do
Speaker 3: with my life, and so I went and I did
Speaker 3: that well.
Speaker 1: And it's hard to imagine now, like people aren't our generation,
Speaker 1: how rare that was because we most of our listeners
Speaker 1: grew up with Will and Grace, Like they thought, well,
Speaker 1: the gay people are the stars of the show, but
Speaker 1: that wasn't true at that time. Yeah, and we're reading
Speaker 1: in that did people tell you not to take it? Like?
Speaker 1: Was your agent worried about you taking it? We're friends
Speaker 1: and family worried about you taking the job.
Speaker 3: I think the most shocking revelation was it came from
Speaker 3: when the when the calls coming from inside the house
Speaker 3: we were doing the show, and I wonder if you
Speaker 3: guys remember we had a publicist on our show by
Speaker 3: the name of Sam. We were represented by P m K,
Speaker 3: which was Pat Kingsley. Was I did get right right?
Speaker 3: She was an icon for our listeners and icon in
Speaker 3: the business. She was a very powerful woman who had
Speaker 3: this huge publicity agent and she represented mister Spelling. And
Speaker 3: when we were doing those promos on Meloe's on Melroe's Avenue,
Speaker 3: when we were shooting all those things and the trailers
Speaker 3: for our shows, I had said to Sam, our publicist,
Speaker 3: do you care to talk about how to handle how
Speaker 3: we're going to handle this going forward? That with this character,
Speaker 3: that there was a gay character. I knew it was
Speaker 3: exceptional and I thought people would be interested. She goes, well, no,
Speaker 3: it's not a big deal. You know, you're an actor.
Speaker 3: You're just playing. And I said, oh, clearly she doesn't
Speaker 3: get it, because I then went out and the point
Speaker 3: was that in publicity I never would acknowledge whether I
Speaker 3: was straight or gay or in real life with publicity
Speaker 3: and they asked and that was my choice. Well, when
Speaker 3: that became apparent to Spelling in the network, that was
Speaker 3: not okay with them, and so they called a meeting
Speaker 3: and I was being called in to Pat Kingsley's office
Speaker 3: with Darren and these people to sit with me and say, well,
Speaker 3: we don't see why, it's just not a big deal.
Speaker 3: Why you just want to say, well, yeah, it shouldn't matter,
Speaker 3: but I'm heterosexual, And I said no, I was not
Speaker 3: going to make my living playing a gay man. But
Speaker 3: then say, oh, but I'm but I would never be
Speaker 3: associated with that. This isn't me. And you have to
Speaker 3: remember at this time in life. Well, first of all,
Speaker 3: he was the only gay character at that time in television.
Speaker 3: We had had Billy Crystall and so, we had had
Speaker 3: the movie Loving, We were about to have Mitchell Anderson
Speaker 3: on Party of Five and Billy Brocktrump and a friend
Speaker 3: of mine from on NYPD Blewe but at the time
Speaker 3: that was the only one. So there was an enormous
Speaker 3: amount of interest. And they asked me to come out
Speaker 3: as straight, and I said no, including Darren, including because
Speaker 3: he was Darren because.
Speaker 2: He gay, as everybody knows, but he was a in
Speaker 2: the producer role and there with Aaron Spelling, and so
Speaker 2: they're thinking protect the show somehow.
Speaker 3: They are thinking protect the show, and they thought that
Speaker 3: that would be somehow more palatable to the American public
Speaker 3: if they could avail themselves of the reality that I
Speaker 3: was actually a straight man. And I thought that was
Speaker 3: morally reprehensible. And I said, you may not prostitute my
Speaker 3: personal life for the benefit of our show because you
Speaker 3: think it's somehow more politically correct. And so I went
Speaker 3: out and I was asked in every conceivable way whether
Speaker 3: I was straight or gay. And I would then say, well,
Speaker 3: it's interesting just that that's the assumption, because are we
Speaker 3: to assume does that mean no? One asked Andrew, well,
Speaker 3: you're playing Billy, does that mean you're straight? You know?
Speaker 3: And there were many of these things, and so I
Speaker 3: would literally say they would ask, well, what do you
Speaker 3: have in common with the character? Said, well, we're the
Speaker 3: same height, and we both have a sense of humor,
Speaker 3: you know. So it was an unusual time, and it's
Speaker 3: really hard for most of our listeners, I imagine today
Speaker 3: to imagine what it was. But I like to say
Speaker 3: that we were in the Lucy and Ricky times of
Speaker 3: Lucy Oball and.
Speaker 1: Yeahs bring up a more current reference.
Speaker 3: Well, well, because I love Lucy show. They had they
Speaker 3: were married a couple who had separate bats. Yes, but
Speaker 3: that's where we were in terms of Uh, this was
Speaker 3: a nineteen ninety two of gay culture, so we were
Speaker 3: entering in time of don't ask, don't tell, of that
Speaker 3: era in politics. You couldn't see me hold a man's
Speaker 3: hand on our show. And of course we ultimately had
Speaker 3: a kiss, and that was shot on the show, and
Speaker 3: that too was prostituted. I mean, because they knew very
Speaker 3: well when we shot that episode that they were not
Speaker 3: going to air the kiss.
Speaker 1: Do you think they knew?
Speaker 3: Oh, I know full well, Darren knew, but they had
Speaker 3: told them. The network had told them we're not doing
Speaker 3: don't shoot it, and he shot it anyway, and they
Speaker 3: shot it for the very fodder of publicity to be
Speaker 3: able to put in the Elks hand the La Times. Oh,
Speaker 3: they wouldn't show the kiss, and they shot the kiss
Speaker 3: and they wouldn't show it, and it ended up getting played.
Speaker 1: Yeah. But but.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they cut the actual kiss out of the show.
Speaker 2: You don't see it, but they imply it.
Speaker 3: Doug.
Speaker 5: I am blown away by what you're saying and.
Speaker 3: Who you stood up for.
Speaker 5: But who you stood up to at that young age
Speaker 5: and in a time when you were an actor who
Speaker 5: needed a job.
Speaker 2: I can't see myself doing that. I can't I can
Speaker 2: see I mean, were you where did that come from?
Speaker 3: First of all, well, I just felt I don't know,
Speaker 3: I felt the responsibility to it at the time. Also,
Speaker 3: Will Smith was about to appear come out in the
Speaker 3: John quere six Degrees of Separation. The character's gay, and
Speaker 3: he came out the time and said, well, I would
Speaker 3: never I would never kiss a guy on screen, and
Speaker 3: I would never do this, you know. And it's like
Speaker 3: he distanced himself every actor that had done this, and
Speaker 3: I just thought it was I just couldn't morally bring
Speaker 3: myself to say, oh, I'm gonna every week, I'm going
Speaker 3: to come to work and I'm going to play this character,
Speaker 3: but that you know, I should distance myself from it.
Speaker 3: My intention with Matt was to say, he is your son,
Speaker 3: he is your brother, he is your friend, he is
Speaker 3: every man, he's your neighbor. He's a regular guy who
Speaker 3: happens to be gay. And I will say this was
Speaker 3: one of the other really compelling, eye opening things about
Speaker 3: playing the role. Here's Matt. And I would get mainly
Speaker 3: positive feedback from the community about playing the role, but
Speaker 3: there were many gay men who were like, oh, Matt's
Speaker 3: not gay enough, and blah blah blah, people who would
Speaker 3: snipe at me as well. And what became painfully evident
Speaker 3: was not any one character is going to represent an
Speaker 3: entire the diversity of an entire community. So to think
Speaker 3: that Matt Fielding, as a lone gay character, could you know,
Speaker 3: shoulder the entire community's representation. It was an impossible, you
Speaker 3: know task. And so and we've now we see a
Speaker 3: much greater diversity of gay characters, and aren't we all
Speaker 3: glad that we're here?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I was thinking of happy endings? Have you seen happy endings?
Speaker 3: I haven't.
Speaker 1: This very very funny show. It's very it was it
Speaker 1: got canceled, which is such a bummer, but the gay
Speaker 1: characters like the schlubby sports loving guy, and it allowed it,
Speaker 1: like we had Will and Grace first and these very
Speaker 1: sort of some somewhat stereotypical with these amazing guys who
Speaker 1: also get to be you know, as you said, brothers
Speaker 1: and sons and friends and lovers and all this great stuff.
Speaker 1: And then you were in the beginning when but that's
Speaker 1: an important step, right, You need the character out there
Speaker 1: that's sort of almost closeted on screen like you the
Speaker 1: character wasn't, but the network wanted you to sort of
Speaker 1: keep it quiet and like, I will not like this
Speaker 1: person gets to be fully this character right and by.
Speaker 3: The way, I'd like to say, just to play the
Speaker 3: other side as well. I was on board. I understand
Speaker 3: logically at that time in our history of presenting a
Speaker 3: character that let the public fall in love with the guy.
Speaker 3: Let it. You know, I understood not wanting to do
Speaker 3: storylines that were too divisive in gay forward at that time,
Speaker 3: you know, let's make him so yeah. I understood when
Speaker 3: I was everyone's best friend and that it was okay
Speaker 3: just knowing, but just seeing that the character was accepted.
Speaker 3: And the greatest privilege of ever playing this role has
Speaker 3: been the nearly forty years since where to this day,
Speaker 3: when Laura was just at the con. It's happened to
Speaker 3: me in the theater in Connecticut. It happens to me
Speaker 3: on baseball fields in Oregon at our son's game, where
Speaker 3: I have men come up to me or send letters
Speaker 3: who say thank you that at that time you're all
Speaker 3: I had is your most ye or just got a letter.
Speaker 3: It was handed a letter in at the cont I
Speaker 3: got letters at the theater and at the time when
Speaker 3: I was in the nineties, I got letters from kids
Speaker 3: who were coming out to me, and only me. I
Speaker 3: would write them. It was a really emotional and touchy
Speaker 3: thing because I would write these kids back and say,
Speaker 3: you're okay, hang in there, but you know, coming out
Speaker 3: is a very very personal thing and they needed their
Speaker 3: privacy in their space.
Speaker 1: Isn't it amazing? Like they didn't know what they were
Speaker 1: choosing when they chose you. In fact, they wanted someone
Speaker 1: who would play the company game, yeah, the company. Isn't
Speaker 1: that amazing? How you snut through with your strong sense
Speaker 1: of morals and ethics and values and you get to
Speaker 1: be that person. Isn't that amazing?
Speaker 3: Thank you? I will say I will say this. One
Speaker 3: of the other elements was so I mentioned Mitchell Anderson,
Speaker 3: who was on Party of five, Billy brockchup on NYPD
Speaker 3: Blue there later.
Speaker 5: In our show he was this, he was a guest this,
Speaker 5: he was the guy who was naked. Mitchell Anderson Mitchell
Speaker 5: show I forgot.
Speaker 3: Yeah and I used to see each other all the
Speaker 3: time when we were young guys going out, as was
Speaker 3: Billy Moses.
Speaker 1: Who you just you and I were great friends before
Speaker 1: Merrow's place enduring.
Speaker 3: Yeah, awesome, Yes, And I was going to say you
Speaker 3: Billy Moses as someone I would see all the time too,
Speaker 3: who you just made out with all the time, And.
Speaker 1: That was just like we barely talk. You don't want
Speaker 1: to learn our lines.
Speaker 3: What was happening, but we there was. They were doing
Speaker 3: a piece in Out magazine on these these gay characters
Speaker 3: in network television after we had been on the air
Speaker 3: for a while, and they interviewed me first, and I said,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm not. I don't, I have never and
Speaker 3: I will not tell you whether I am straight or
Speaker 3: gay or not. And I won't. But what that did
Speaker 3: was allow and I got calls from Billy and I
Speaker 3: heard from Mitchell later that these were two guys who
Speaker 3: are who happened to be gay who have since come out.
Speaker 3: I I'm not outing there, they're out there. They're out there,
Speaker 3: out in real life. They're out in real life and
Speaker 3: who at the time, but they weren't yet comfortable coming out.
Speaker 3: They're playing gay characters and they and so they didn't
Speaker 3: have to answer the question. And I'm I'm proud of that,
Speaker 3: and that's great.
Speaker 4: I get it.
Speaker 2: So they don't have to if you don't, because I
Speaker 2: read Rupert Everett's book and when basically he was like
Speaker 2: on top of the world, his career was going uphill,
Speaker 2: and he came out or he was outed, I'm not sure,
Speaker 2: and that was that.
Speaker 5: You had a hard time ever since he wasn't cast
Speaker 5: for years and you're not questioned about it, and you're
Speaker 5: not in that space. You don't think about it.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, you don't. But ironically, now more
Speaker 3: than thirty years later, the tide has turned one hundred
Speaker 3: and eighty degrees because we've got fantastic, wonderful actors like
Speaker 3: Matt Boehmer who can do magic, Mike and does you know,
Speaker 3: huge gay roles, the boys in the band, the guys
Speaker 3: recently redid.
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 3: So there's all these but I cannot, I cannot and
Speaker 3: play a gay character anymore because we're in a new
Speaker 3: world and casting where if you are not the thing
Speaker 3: that it is, you're not allowed to do it.
Speaker 1: Well that there's a balance out. I think it's it's,
Speaker 1: you know, the pendulum swings. But I was thinking about
Speaker 1: Matt Boehmer because when he sort of he was already
Speaker 1: out in his life when he came out to the world.
Speaker 1: He just thanked his husband at an acceptance speech, and
Speaker 1: I had this wave of isn't it amazing that we're
Speaker 1: in a world where that's what he does? And everyone went, oh, interesting, okay,
Speaker 1: and it's just like went on with our day because
Speaker 1: so different from just different. Ninety one feels like yesterday, right,
Speaker 1: Like you feel like that was a couple of years ago, right, No,
Speaker 1: it was over thirty years ago. Things were so different, right,
Speaker 1: and you kill, Wow, we really have come a long
Speaker 1: way in this area. And I loved what you said too.
Speaker 1: You said you wanted to play a character. And what
Speaker 1: was good about it was it showed that nobody in
Speaker 1: the apartment building had an opinion, like we just all
Speaker 1: loved you, which was very and we didn't think about it,
Speaker 1: and that was very California and Los Angeles. But I
Speaker 1: think it was a great example to put out for
Speaker 1: the world, which is we are all friends who happened
Speaker 1: to have different things about it.
Speaker 5: Your character before? Did the other characters know? Were you.
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 3: And I know you just I think you've recently recapped
Speaker 3: the episode where Matt gets Gabe Ashton, and there's that
Speaker 3: and it's it's it's the Jake character who takes me
Speaker 3: to the hospital and we're there and someone says to him,
Speaker 3: you know, you take your boyfriend home? And I thought, oh,
Speaker 3: what did that have been? Great?
Speaker 1: I wish I think though, I was curious because when
Speaker 1: when Jake says at the moment, say take your boyfriendame
Speaker 1: Jaco's he's not my boyfriend. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's an interesting line. What did you think of that line,
Speaker 1: like at the time, and what did you think of
Speaker 1: when you watched it again.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't recall what I thought of at the
Speaker 3: at the moment, but I just loved that the assumption,
Speaker 3: the assumption from the interrogation. If two guys are here
Speaker 3: and he's saying he's gay, you're good. You're gay by association,
Speaker 3: it is.
Speaker 1: You didn't feel like because I wondered if the character
Speaker 1: was distancing himself. Oh, Jake, yeah, watching it this time,
Speaker 1: I thought, is that what that line? I like?
Speaker 5: How grand it though?
Speaker 2: Like he didn't move away, he just said, that's an assumption.
Speaker 2: You're wrong and I'm not so how my friend and I.
Speaker 3: Didn't judge it, And I think I think Matt was
Speaker 3: is and that we all should be like not easily offended,
Speaker 3: like he wasn't looking for Jake. Jake had done them
Speaker 3: the solid the fact he goes, we're not that's I'm
Speaker 3: not his boyfriend. That was like, you, no, he's not.
Speaker 3: That's the truth, And I'm not going to be offended.
Speaker 5: That's what you're going to say. I thought we all
Speaker 5: should be have a crush.
Speaker 4: On Jake's That's what I said.
Speaker 5: We all did, that's what we.
Speaker 3: Did.
Speaker 4: Just finish this recap for episode thirteen, and we started
Speaker 4: to talk about it. And when we were doing the recap,
Speaker 4: and in my defense, I was like suffering from the flu.
Speaker 4: I was completely twitterious last week. But we mentioned an article.
Speaker 4: There was an LA Times article that was written about
Speaker 4: this moment because episode thirteen was very important episode for
Speaker 4: our show Sweeps week, and an LA Times writer named
Speaker 4: Daniel Sarone wrote this article and here's what you don't know.
Speaker 4: And I failed to mention my delirium last week. He's
Speaker 4: a good friend of ours. We weren't friends back then,
Speaker 4: but like it's this weird full circle.
Speaker 5: Oh you weren't friends back then?
Speaker 4: No, it goes back back and we were having this
Speaker 4: conversation a few months back. I think I even mentioned
Speaker 4: it to you guys, like, oh my god, I have
Speaker 4: this great article from the nineties that I need to
Speaker 4: bring up when we get to that episode. And then
Speaker 4: here it was, and then I've forgotten that episode.
Speaker 1: But Laura's defense literally as she was going farther and
Speaker 1: farther down by the end of it, lying on the couch.
Speaker 4: You may not have seen it or heard it on
Speaker 4: the podcast.
Speaker 5: I was I realized what a fainting couch was, as
Speaker 5: go on, you're such a pro, I will do this
Speaker 5: from ning up.
Speaker 4: And yeah, but this he was talking about like they
Speaker 4: had not been writing for the character of Matt yet.
Speaker 4: And then when it was time for this episode that
Speaker 4: the that the most comfortable storyline the network could find
Speaker 4: that everybody could sign off on was this gay bashing.
Speaker 4: There were very limited storylines that that the network would
Speaker 4: be comfortable with because the advertisers were only comfortable sort
Speaker 4: of touching on certain things. And one of them was
Speaker 4: the gay bashing, and the other was, you know, a
Speaker 4: kid coming out to his parents and that awkward conversation whatever.
Speaker 4: And and Daniel at the time it was just, you know,
Speaker 4: he noticed it that this was, you know, something that
Speaker 4: wasn't being addressed and then here Melrose was doing it
Speaker 4: in this episode. Yeah, and were you Were you conscious
Speaker 4: of that, like when you started into that storyline where
Speaker 4: you're like, oh, this is like where you get interviews after?
Speaker 5: Did you get a questions?
Speaker 3: Yeah? We were. I was called doing press around around
Speaker 3: the around the episode, and and I kind of I knew.
Speaker 3: I just felt that that was going to be a
Speaker 3: storyline that was coming at some point. It was sort
Speaker 3: of an inevitability because it was a very real thing
Speaker 3: as well, and I think Daniel mentions that in the
Speaker 3: article as well. It's not that it wasn't real, it's
Speaker 3: just that that is what the networks felt safe dealing
Speaker 3: with that and coming out and parents and that. But
Speaker 3: we did some great things we did. You know, I
Speaker 3: ended up on the show. I think it's ironic that
Speaker 3: my my boyfriend on the show is Jason Bigey. But
Speaker 3: now it was like he's on Chicago, Jason like this
Speaker 3: the whole time. But so that's my shout out to Jason.
Speaker 1: Didn't show any affection on the show.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, never with him?
Speaker 5: Could you know?
Speaker 3: We we I think we surreptitiously we surreptitiously held hands
Speaker 3: underneath the table. I think there might have been a
Speaker 3: shot of us actually holding hands, but that had to
Speaker 3: be away from public consumption because by the way, he
Speaker 3: was in the military, and that was our storyline, right,
Speaker 3: it was don't ask, don't tell clever. Actually there were yeah, there, yeah,
Speaker 3: it was. It was always tricky. I will say there
Speaker 3: was an actor I was working with who wasn't as
Speaker 3: comfortable that he was playing someone who is uh gay,
Speaker 3: and I wanted in an effort to show that Matt
Speaker 3: was behaving with this with this character in a way
Speaker 3: that he wasn't like, against his better judgment. I wanted
Speaker 3: him to steal a kiss at work, like look around,
Speaker 3: make sure no one was looking, but kiss this guy
Speaker 3: in the cheek, just just a peck on the cheek.
Speaker 3: And this other actor was so uncomfortable with like that's
Speaker 3: not in the script, that we're not doing that, and
Speaker 3: he was so uncomfortable with it. I sort of found
Speaker 3: that that that that shocking. So it was a different
Speaker 3: It was a different time, and not everyone was as comfortable.
Speaker 2: With I mean famously, actors, especially like kind of macho actors,
Speaker 2: uh had to stay in the public syde macho and
Speaker 2: straight and even like womanizers, do you know what I mean? Like,
Speaker 2: there's no way they could be absolutely because is it
Speaker 2: because Aaron thought that the audience wouldn't buy it? Like
Speaker 2: I'm well now I remember it was it was different.
Speaker 3: It was no, it was to make It was about palatability.
Speaker 3: They wanted the character to be palatable, and so if
Speaker 3: they could say that, well, the actor is really straight,
Speaker 3: he's just acting, then it became less real to them.
Speaker 3: But in the defense of like the actor that I
Speaker 3: just said, and anyone that had any objection to me
Speaker 3: playing the role to begin with, it was a very
Speaker 3: real thing. The business didn't cut into it, and it
Speaker 3: was an issue for me going forward, and so much
Speaker 3: so that I had an executive who who told me, yeah,
Speaker 3: we need to let the gay thing go, you know,
Speaker 3: but we need a more time to let that gay thing,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 5: Oh, like they wouldn't see you for a part, they wouldn't.
Speaker 3: Hire you to He was the FX Network and that
Speaker 3: was his His advice to me was that I should
Speaker 3: go get one of those Sun Dance movies, like I
Speaker 3: could snap my fingers and do that.
Speaker 1: Ironically to pick up Jack till three.
Speaker 3: One of those independent movies. But ironically after the show,
Speaker 3: and it still took time because I immediately upon leaving
Speaker 3: the show, I went and did the movie Godzilla with
Speaker 3: Matthew Broderick and those and so it was a big
Speaker 3: feature film and I was a straight character, but coming
Speaker 3: into houses for five years every day saying Hi, I'm
Speaker 3: mad and I'm gay. Hi. I mean, that's what the
Speaker 3: you know, That's what I was left with. But as
Speaker 3: I said earlier and I will say again still thirty
Speaker 3: years later, it's a huge blessing in my life that
Speaker 3: I people still come up to me and reference it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and because of how you did it, Because you
Speaker 1: did it integrity of your heart. That's why that's amazing,
Speaker 1: And it's crazy to think about now, Like that's one
Speaker 1: of the things we keep as we look at issues
Speaker 1: that we dealt with and how we dealt with them, like, wow,
Speaker 1: that feels like yesterday, but things are so different. And
Speaker 1: that's an area where progress has been in the right directions,
Speaker 1: the two steps forward, one step back. But really we've
Speaker 1: come a long way, and we have.
Speaker 3: But I think you ladies dealt with it much more
Speaker 3: frequently than guys ever did because you know you were
Speaker 3: always either being victimized. You know, I'm sure as you
Speaker 3: go through the the episode, you remember how many people
Speaker 3: you know what you are.
Speaker 2: Thinkingting, Well, I say it because I've looked at all
Speaker 2: of them and over the last four years or whatever,
Speaker 2: I say it as this and maybe you guys have
Speaker 2: another take on it. The go to the default drama
Speaker 2: storyline is to hurt the woman, like threaten the woman,
Speaker 2: hurt the woman, overpower her and somehow or other, because
Speaker 2: all of our female characters were victimized somehow, right, So,
Speaker 2: whether it was physical, emotional.
Speaker 5: Threatened all of us women in jeopardy and women in Jeopardy.
Speaker 5: So I think that's changed.
Speaker 2: But like, aren't there any other storylines that can be
Speaker 2: dramatic and interesting?
Speaker 5: It was so common back then.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I think that was emblematic at the time.
Speaker 4: I think you were absolutely Yeah, And it was also
Speaker 4: I mean you sort of touched on it, but like
Speaker 4: it was, it was also a matter of the advertisers
Speaker 4: being comfortable with it because they had withdrawn from other shows.
Speaker 3: Oh, you make Law makes that one of the most
Speaker 3: salient points. What were what our audience, what the listening
Speaker 3: audience needs to remember is this was a time when
Speaker 3: there was something called the Christian Coalition and the Moral Majority,
Speaker 3: and they if you don't remember those two things, they
Speaker 3: would watch something on television and if they didn't like it,
Speaker 3: if it didn't meet what their moral agenda and standards
Speaker 3: were for the country, they would do letter writing campaigns
Speaker 3: to the advertisers, and all of a sudden, advertisers would
Speaker 3: pull their their ads from those shows. And that was
Speaker 3: the threat of Maloe's place. And that was and thank
Speaker 3: you for referencing this, because Darren mister Spelling. Fox Network
Speaker 3: should be applauded that they, in the face of that
Speaker 3: still went forward with this character in the in those
Speaker 3: times and took it head on.
Speaker 1: You know, we didn't call that cancel culture, but that's
Speaker 1: what that was.
Speaker 3: It really absolutely and wow, it was absolutely so that
Speaker 3: was very real. So all of these dynamics were at
Speaker 3: play and it was, uh, it made it treacherous for
Speaker 3: the network and they really did me in some way.
Speaker 3: But you know, really what happened with me, and you
Speaker 3: remember this is that really they you know, the fallout
Speaker 3: was they just don't use him. I just wasn't around much.
Speaker 1: Do you remember I told this to tell it again.
Speaker 1: One time Doug came to work and you had a
Speaker 1: paper sign around his neck and it said, Hi, I'm Doug.
Speaker 1: I play Matt.
Speaker 3: This was after Christia our Dolly Grip and everyone. They
Speaker 3: had taken tumbleweeds and put them in front of MAT's door.
Speaker 3: I did. I had Mara Wilson who played my Yeah,
Speaker 3: she was the nineties. Really was she. I adored her.
Speaker 3: I adored her mom who passed and uh, but she's uh.
Speaker 3: She's a lovely woman. Was an author, I believe, a
Speaker 3: successful author.
Speaker 2: And she was.
Speaker 3: She was a great kid.
Speaker 2: She's the child in Misdoubt Fires and many other and
Speaker 2: she's a child in an episode coming up in your storyline.
Speaker 4: I love that you counted her as a roommate. Well,
Speaker 4: I think you were her like guardian.
Speaker 5: She was her roommate.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I became her.
Speaker 1: If I thought of my son as a roommate, I've
Speaker 1: have much higher expectations for him doing dishes, boundaries, very uneaven,
Speaker 1: I do waigh too much of the cooking and by
Speaker 1: the way, all the laundry. How did that happen?
Speaker 4: You also sort of touched on it for a second
Speaker 4: that that the idea that it hasn't you haven't been
Speaker 4: able to shake it, like in your career and you
Speaker 4: personally like still to this day, people just make assumptions like, oh,
Speaker 4: Matt and Sydney or how does that what like Laura
Speaker 4: and Dougara May what I thought Matt was like that
Speaker 4: some is just still this many years later people, Well, people.
Speaker 3: Made that assumption about Laura too. Let me. I like, well, yeah,
Speaker 3: the story, well, yes, and.
Speaker 4: So I was having to do married the gay guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I was having an ankle surgery. It's having
Speaker 3: an ankle fusion, and we weren't yet married, and I don't,
Speaker 3: I don't, we might we were probably engaged. And uh
Speaker 3: so Laura was at the hospital waiting for me after
Speaker 3: surgery and in the room afterwards, and when I came
Speaker 3: to there was a nurse at my bench. I said, well,
Speaker 3: I wasn't going to leave you because I was going
Speaker 3: to leave you with her because she's going to do
Speaker 3: something evil.
Speaker 4: And I'm I'm right here, I'm in.
Speaker 5: That I'm doing in my pink with the matching pill box.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you think that's weird? What is weird about that?
Speaker 5: You were very convincing.
Speaker 1: I have to say, that's amazing that's like something from
Speaker 1: the movie Misery, Like that's brilliant.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she was really concerned I was going to do
Speaker 4: something bad boy. Yeah, but even more harmless assumptions like that,
Speaker 4: they're like, what like just seeing us at dinner, They're like, wow,
Speaker 4: you know, it's just something that for this many years,
Speaker 4: people are still associating assault with these characters.
Speaker 2: I mean people when they see you, if they don't
Speaker 2: know you, they think of the character that they think
Speaker 2: of you used to have. So that's kind of like
Speaker 2: you have done a lot of different things that I know, well,
Speaker 2: they still think of you as Melo's Place.
Speaker 3: You said.
Speaker 1: It's like if anybody says I know you from somewhere,
Speaker 1: I just say Melrose Place to cut. I used to
Speaker 1: like go the other way and list everything, but it
Speaker 1: was always it was always Melrose Place anyway, So I
Speaker 1: just go Melro's place, Oh all right, and then oh.
Speaker 3: I had a crew member. This has happened more than
Speaker 3: once where people go, oh, yeah, you were on that.
Speaker 3: Yeah you know, I really like that Sydney. I thought
Speaker 3: she was hot me too, that's my wife. And then uh, backstroke.
Speaker 1: I told the story like when I would have boyfriends
Speaker 1: on Zet and Andrew and I were dating in secret.
Speaker 1: They would say to him, I think Courtney has the
Speaker 1: hots for me, and he'd be like, really, say.
Speaker 3: Such a thing.
Speaker 1: You'd be surprised. Probably every guest are they brought on
Speaker 1: for me? Maybe I just sort of put Doug saying
Speaker 1: to Laura, I think Courtney has the hots for me.
Speaker 2: It's so funny, like watching the shows now and the
Speaker 2: episodes and hearing how what was going on behind the
Speaker 2: screen with these two with Andrew and Courtney versus what
Speaker 2: was going on with Billy and Alison, you know, with
Speaker 2: their dating and when they broke up, and.
Speaker 4: Right because she's really she's giving us a timeline. She's like,
Speaker 4: right about now.
Speaker 5: It's really fun.
Speaker 3: I just enjoyed remembering Andrew Shoe, who you know, it's
Speaker 3: always been just the most humble, gentle soul and uh
Speaker 3: coming to work and showing up in a Porsche at
Speaker 3: nine forty four, was it right? He got he got
Speaker 3: a Porsche, a used one, he was used, yeah, but
Speaker 3: yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: And by the way, when he's driving his Porsche, he
Speaker 1: still had he still had four roommates, so he was
Speaker 1: like to Glamour's life and I would go to his
Speaker 1: house with him and his four roommates, and it was
Speaker 1: just I was like, good, I never got to go
Speaker 1: to college.
Speaker 5: This is fun in his college door kind.
Speaker 1: Of like with like furniture they found and they were
Speaker 1: just bringing bad smells.
Speaker 5: They never have to be a car and they have
Speaker 5: beers in the fridge.
Speaker 1: It was fascinating.
Speaker 4: That's amazing. So we had fans ask about Desperate. So
Speaker 4: Desperate Housewives also ran for eight seasons, which is nuts
Speaker 4: because we think of Melrose as like, wow, we were
Speaker 4: so lucky to have a long running series for five seasons,
Speaker 4: and then the show went on for seven, and then
Speaker 4: Desperate went on for eight, and then you've had another.
Speaker 4: The Courtneys had an show for five seasons.
Speaker 3: Courtney's had.
Speaker 1: Too went Melrose went seven years. We just left it
Speaker 1: four right, five? Right, I'm sorry we left.
Speaker 5: And yeah, so Desperate Housewives came on. When did that
Speaker 5: come on?
Speaker 1: What were those years?
Speaker 5: Was it two thousands?
Speaker 3: It was two thousand and four to twenty and twelve, Yeah,
Speaker 3: two thousand and four to twenty twelve, And yeah, I loved.
Speaker 1: Was that as happy as set.
Speaker 3: Come on? I wanted to use I wanted to use it.
Speaker 3: Still the place so you expose all of the dirty
Speaker 3: laundry on Desperate.
Speaker 4: House consider the answer. I can't play.
Speaker 3: You know, I said it before we started. I'm a guy.
Speaker 3: I don't care. No, it wasn't always sometimes a very
Speaker 3: dysfunctional place, but never when I was there with Felicity Huffman,
Speaker 3: she and I we always had a brilliant time. I
Speaker 3: still adore her to this day. I hope she says
Speaker 3: the same about me. But Noah, I loved it. I
Speaker 3: have said I had difficult days. I had challenging days,
Speaker 3: but I never had a bad day on time.
Speaker 2: That's great on Desperate housewise, But we were trying to
Speaker 2: think because people always assume, because of our storylines on
Speaker 2: Maulow's Place, that we had a lot of back stage,
Speaker 2: behind the scenes drama, you know, like in our interviews
Speaker 2: in mine anyway, that's what they would ask, Well, what
Speaker 2: was behind and you know, I mean, we're I can't
Speaker 2: think of it, really, we can't think of it. We
Speaker 2: talk about how and why we wanted to do this podcast.
Speaker 5: Was like we realized, like we all really got long
Speaker 5: and there wasn't a lot of right.
Speaker 4: Maybe we like each other, we like going down that
Speaker 4: memory lane.
Speaker 2: I remember in the makeup uh trailer there, I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: I need to be in the makeup trailer.
Speaker 5: You know, Heather would come in and do hers and
Speaker 5: I'm like, can you use that color? What color is
Speaker 5: she using?
Speaker 2: But you know it's like a little bit like, oh,
Speaker 2: I want to be you know, because there's like five
Speaker 2: of us or six of us or seven of us women,
Speaker 2: and so I wanted to make sure I was getting
Speaker 2: enough of Like I come out in my hair is
Speaker 2: this high?
Speaker 5: I'm like, maybe it's too hot. But there wasn't real
Speaker 5: you know, Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't recall John on our set until Jack Wagner, right,
Speaker 3: My favorite.
Speaker 1: Guys about the makeup trailer because a lot of shows,
Speaker 1: when the shows get successful, people get makeup done in
Speaker 1: the room where they separate or like Heather came in.
Speaker 1: She was a very big star, like she could have
Speaker 1: separated herself. She walked right and waited her turn like
Speaker 1: we all hung out and talked.
Speaker 4: She was her favorite place to be for that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like we had favored nations in our trailers, like
Speaker 1: she didn't coming to the big Winnebago, although we all
Speaker 1: got better trailers than she came. Do you remember that
Speaker 1: she didn't say anything, but all of a sudden we
Speaker 1: all got this huge upgrade into these really nice trailers.
Speaker 3: One of my favorite backstage stories was that it's Jack
Speaker 3: Wagner's story. I'm probably gonna but I thought it was
Speaker 3: just so funny. Jack would tease Priscilla Pressley mercilessly about
Speaker 3: you know, wanting to date, about you know, and he would,
Speaker 3: you know, he was always and I don't know how
Speaker 3: much of it was real or how much of it was,
Speaker 3: you know, just an act, but he put it on.
Speaker 3: But Priscilla came to the set and said, listen, you
Speaker 3: came to work one day in the morning the trailer
Speaker 3: with Lona and said, listen, tell, listen, we have to
Speaker 3: tell everybody set up to Jack that I showed up
Speaker 3: at the bar and he never came. So she laid
Speaker 3: the groundwork for that and then Jack and everyone's like, God, Jack,
Speaker 3: you're such a I love.
Speaker 1: Her now, Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 3: I love you know. I read.
Speaker 5: In Elvis and Priscilla book. I read her book. This
Speaker 5: came out last year the year.
Speaker 2: Before, and I just read her granddaughters and daughter's book,
Speaker 2: Riley Keyo's Masa Murray's book. Anyway, I learned from there
Speaker 2: that Elvis was a big prankster, like all he did
Speaker 2: was pull you know. So you just reminded me like
Speaker 2: that sounds very much like something like Elvis would have
Speaker 2: done with his posse, you know what I mean, like, oh,
Speaker 2: tell someone, So he missed the rehearsal.
Speaker 3: Maybe maybe Jack knew that, and that's why he was
Speaker 3: using that card too with Priscilla.
Speaker 4: But he was a big jokes she got back, which
Speaker 4: he loved to teach.
Speaker 1: I just had a memory of one time when you know,
Speaker 1: Heather and Jack tease each other mercilessly, and they're both
Speaker 1: so incredibly funny, and she would always tease him about
Speaker 1: being vain. And one time when he asked for a
Speaker 1: touch up, like to look at the mirrorfore, do you remember,
Speaker 1: they brought out a full length mirror look at himself?
Speaker 1: You remember?
Speaker 3: I don't remember that.
Speaker 1: Jeffers, who was a makeup arty, brought out literally a
Speaker 1: full life.
Speaker 5: Remember, and he was grateful for it.
Speaker 1: He's like thank you, because he was like that's about right.
Speaker 1: A little bigger next, but that's about right.
Speaker 2: And he would always call her for yet her name,
Speaker 2: you know, Wendy Helen Where's Helen?
Speaker 3: Where Helen? He's a funny He's a very funny man. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: all those those good looks. You know. Didn't let him
Speaker 3: get his two.
Speaker 5: Projects with him after that. Oh yeah, we were.
Speaker 1: Josie's still doing those homework movies with him, Lucky here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's funny.
Speaker 2: It's always nice when you work with somebody you've already
Speaker 2: worked with. It just kind of like cuts the just
Speaker 2: like you know, I don't know, it just makes it
Speaker 2: so much more comfortable and just kind of pick up
Speaker 2: where you left off, makes the chemistry better.
Speaker 4: So I don't know if we've I think we forgot
Speaker 4: to mention this. Back when Thomas was on, he had
Speaker 4: mentioned that he'd done an episode of Colombo, a remake
Speaker 4: no way back the original Columba before doing Melrose.
Speaker 5: Because he's older than all of us.
Speaker 3: I did a two hour Colombo together with Doug.
Speaker 4: They were in the same Columbo episode too, before Melroe.
Speaker 1: Seven, so it wasn't the original original. It was when
Speaker 1: he came back and.
Speaker 3: Two hour movies he would do four year Peter. Yes, wow,
Speaker 3: one of my great the highlights of my careers really
Speaker 3: with Peter Falk because I adored my favorite movie, one
Speaker 3: of my favorite movies. I've tortured my kids with this,
Speaker 3: The in Laws, and he's like Serpentine shall Yeah, he
Speaker 3: and Alan Arkin are incredible.
Speaker 1: Did he do one hundred takes? I heard he used
Speaker 1: one hundred takes on Yeah.
Speaker 3: I don't remember him being anything less than a prince,
Speaker 3: A professional, well not.
Speaker 1: I'm professional, but he was trying to perfect it, so
Speaker 1: he would do it against he was always looking for more.
Speaker 3: Probably he was here's what I collect. So Thomas and I,
Speaker 3: Thomas and I played cops. Thomas Thomas was marrying Peter
Speaker 3: Fowx like niece. Okay, that that's and I was in
Speaker 3: the wedding and a crime that the bride gets abducted
Speaker 3: in the mur and so all the cops now have
Speaker 3: to go to work. So our photographs of the wedding
Speaker 3: we're going to be playing as evidence. So we took
Speaker 3: tons of photographs of the groomsman, stuff with Peter and stuff. Well,
Speaker 3: back in those days, we were having a wedding reception
Speaker 3: scene and this no longer happens in television, but like
Speaker 3: Peter's a star. They were giving him white wine, they
Speaker 3: were giving he was drinking. He was drinking. So we're
Speaker 3: having we're having a photo shoot and I'm I'm with
Speaker 3: this guy who I just adore, and so I finally
Speaker 3: we're done with the photos. We've been having shots where
Speaker 3: we're arm in arm and we're walking away from the
Speaker 3: photos and I say, I got it, mister fuck. I
Speaker 3: just got to tell you that The End Laws is
Speaker 3: one of my favorite movies of all time. And he goes,
Speaker 3: oh was it? And I said, oh God, are you
Speaker 3: kidding me? Serpentine shell, serpentine show. And he goes, do
Speaker 3: you think that was funny? Did you think that was funny?
Speaker 3: He said? He said, I didn't think that was funny
Speaker 3: at all. But Arkan he'd have come back tomorrow to
Speaker 3: do that scene again. He thought it was so funny.
Speaker 3: So yeah, there were so many, just so many great
Speaker 3: Peter Falk moments.
Speaker 5: So how many are how many episodes?
Speaker 3: Did you? I just did one two hour movie? But
Speaker 3: but Thomas Colabra was that was the groom he was,
Speaker 3: you know, he had this big park and so we
Speaker 3: had worked together before we both ended up on Melrose Place.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: See, you're you're around long enough.
Speaker 3: And someone literally a friend of mine just saw, like,
Speaker 3: whose mother watches nothing but these old Columbus and sent
Speaker 3: me like a screenshot of us. Oh you do, I do, Okay,
Speaker 3: I'll post it. We'll put this isn't.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. I read it. You are at
Speaker 5: UCLA and left early.
Speaker 3: I well, I left more than early. Like it is.
Speaker 3: It's it's when did you leave?
Speaker 5: Because I.
Speaker 3: Went to UCLA in the fall of nineteen eighty two
Speaker 3: and I stayed for one ten week semester, long enough
Speaker 3: to become a college dropout.
Speaker 1: That's so, are you two Ucla F I'm a very
Speaker 1: proud la drop You're close. You are not close.
Speaker 5: My father still wants me to go back and get
Speaker 5: an honorary degree or a degree.
Speaker 3: Oh, but you've come from educators is a professor?
Speaker 2: Your dad was literally I was working with Lucie Ball
Speaker 2: and he's like, can't you go back and get an
Speaker 2: honorary degree?
Speaker 5: I go, excuse me, I have to get on set because.
Speaker 3: Loci a bom waiting for me.
Speaker 1: Dad, is that not enough?
Speaker 2: And he's like, and then I was working on with
Speaker 2: also with Melbrooks on baseballs, and like, I had to
Speaker 2: leave because I started working Dad, and he was like,
Speaker 2: do you think you maybe could go back and get,
Speaker 2: you know, finish that last semester and get your degree.
Speaker 5: And I'm like, no for me. So lately I've been thinking,
Speaker 5: I wonder if there's online you know.
Speaker 4: I would need just like.
Speaker 1: I just walk you through it, because I've gone back
Speaker 1: to online school several times.
Speaker 3: You did, I have.
Speaker 1: I still don't have a degree, but I have gone.
Speaker 1: I can walk you through it. I can't walk you
Speaker 1: through the finish links. I haven't gotten there yet, but
Speaker 1: I can show you where to go. I can get
Speaker 1: you to the middle and can get you to degree.
Speaker 5: Okay, totally.
Speaker 1: If you have a college degree, all of us and
Speaker 1: they tell our kids wives a college, my kids a
Speaker 1: junior kids, the kids.
Speaker 4: Kids are neither of you.
Speaker 5: Anywhere. I did not finish.
Speaker 1: No, I did not.
Speaker 5: Did you start somewhere?
Speaker 4: I started at a couple of places, yes, And I
Speaker 4: went to the University of Iowa, and I also went
Speaker 4: to cal State Long Beach before you a semester, uh huh?
Speaker 4: Before I dropped out.
Speaker 3: To do you know?
Speaker 1: I signed up twice and didn't go one day at
Speaker 1: two different places at Allegheny and Pepperdine. All right, does
Speaker 1: that count if I didn't even signing up.
Speaker 4: That's the first stay I did.
Speaker 1: It's got on Campus on Pepperdine just because it's just
Speaker 1: in it's gorgeous. But then I got a movie and
Speaker 1: then yeah, yeah, it's really important to oh a movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah bye.
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh wow.
Speaker 5: Oh well so you so you started working that in
Speaker 5: eighty two if you left the nineteen.
Speaker 3: Eighty three is when I got my sad card. And yes,
Speaker 3: I started working in nineteen eighty three and I've been
Speaker 3: an actor for forty one years. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Are are we ready for Sea fan questions?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 4: We asked for fans to send in some questions, and
Speaker 4: a lot of them you've already touched on. And it's
Speaker 4: just naturally the things that people are interested in which
Speaker 4: we love.
Speaker 1: I like this one. Would you play Matt differently in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four and then Parenthesy if he wasn't dead
Speaker 1: and prienthe.
Speaker 3: Because he is. Matt is back and he's pissed. Uh No,
Speaker 3: I thought I thought in watching I have watched a
Speaker 3: number of the episodes, as you guys have gone through this,
Speaker 3: and I've gone back, and you know what, I was
Speaker 3: relieved that I'm not ashamed of anything that I've seen
Speaker 3: myself do yet. But I will say this. We were
Speaker 3: talking about Kathleen earlier, Princess who is our wardrobe She
Speaker 3: was our female wardrobe on set wardrobe person. Because, as
Speaker 3: you also referenced earlier, I kind of didn't care about
Speaker 3: I never watched the show. That's a different story, but
Speaker 3: I never watched the show. So there's an episode coming
Speaker 3: I don't know what season is where Matt is in
Speaker 3: jail and his parents have to come and bail the man.
Speaker 3: There's a scene at a when you know, one of
Speaker 3: those where there's plexiglass and you've got the phone on
Speaker 3: the other end, and and Matt's enraged at his parents
Speaker 3: about something or what the inference is about why he's
Speaker 3: in jail. And so because I didn't really care, and
Speaker 3: because it would make Kathleen laugh, I'd go, oh wait
Speaker 3: until you see what I do on this take. I'm
Speaker 3: just like they they'll never write anger for me again,
Speaker 3: because I am going to just go I'm going to explode.
Speaker 3: So I would you know, I would have this scene
Speaker 3: I take the phone and smacking on the plexiglass and
Speaker 3: like do my best Al Pacino impersonation, and just to
Speaker 3: make Kathleen laugh and Oh my god, I can't believe you.
Speaker 3: I don't care. I'll do it. I want to see
Speaker 3: what should I do this one?
Speaker 4: Like we're gonna take that again.
Speaker 3: The funny thing was, Oh god, it's really into it today.
Speaker 5: Oh that's great.
Speaker 3: Did you lie? I know.
Speaker 2: One of the fan questions was your camaraderie and working
Speaker 2: with Vanessa, who we just had on as a guest.
Speaker 3: I adore. Yeah. We got along so well and she
Speaker 3: is such it's just a funny human being that that.
Speaker 3: It was always a pleasure to be around her and
Speaker 3: I had it was great because I had to be
Speaker 3: around her a lot, so but we got along very well.
Speaker 3: Obviously to this day, still get along.
Speaker 5: So was it obvious to you too?
Speaker 2: And how did you feel about to me watching it
Speaker 2: was just like the Black Girl and the game you
Speaker 2: had that you guys were working off each other all
Speaker 2: the time.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, and you knew and we were aware that like, okay, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, we'll be over here in the yeah, we'll
Speaker 3: be here in the minority section. But they didn't stop
Speaker 3: us for having a good time. And then and then,
Speaker 3: you know, the only thing I'm ashamed of is that
Speaker 3: I had to dance anywhere near that.
Speaker 5: Size class.
Speaker 3: Yeah. The one clue that I wasn't really gay is
Speaker 3: that I was a terrible dancer.
Speaker 1: When she was on and you called in, were you
Speaker 1: guys facetiming? Yeah, how amazing shahs insane?
Speaker 3: Yeah, wow, amazing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and she was so happy to see you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's getting better, it's getting better. It's really mad.
Speaker 1: She looks amazing. Yeah, yeah, that was your killing fun
Speaker 1: to see her, Yeah, for sure, it was really fun
Speaker 1: to see her.
Speaker 4: All right. So a couple more questions. There are actually
Speaker 4: some questions about Fever Dreams. There were the play that
Speaker 4: you just did in Connecticut. We had some fans right
Speaker 4: in that they saw it and they loved it. So
Speaker 4: there's that well touring.
Speaker 5: They asked, Fever.
Speaker 3: Dreams a great play play, right, Jeffrey Leeber, who's a
Speaker 3: fantastic television writer, that I did with Lanna Young and
Speaker 3: my dearest friend Tim Decay.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: It was a huge success at Theater Works Hartford. I'd
Speaker 3: like to thank everyone there. But I had this amazing
Speaker 3: experience where on one during one of our performances, someone
Speaker 3: who worked at the theater. These two people had come
Speaker 3: to see the show and they said, could we please
Speaker 3: meet him afterwards. And the theater person thought, okay, these
Speaker 3: aren't they're not crazy, so I'll hold them out see
Speaker 3: if Doug will deign to speak to them, and yees.
Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, of course. They had been fans
Speaker 3: of melrose Place, these two, this young couple, they had
Speaker 3: watched melrose Place and then had just binge watched all
Speaker 3: of Desperate Housewives and said we just had to come.
Speaker 3: My wife called and said I got tickets and were going.
Speaker 3: So they came to see me in the theater. And
Speaker 3: I was just thinking, oh, that's so sweet, that's so
Speaker 3: good to you, and and they but the guy went
Speaker 3: on to say, this is the first time we've ever
Speaker 3: been to live theater. And I was like, what this like?
Speaker 3: Not dinner theater? You never saw a production of Fiddler
Speaker 3: on the Roof, You never went to your like high
Speaker 3: school musical or something. No, this was the first piece
Speaker 3: of theater. And I said, well, my goodness, do you
Speaker 3: think you'll be taking news is something you'll now do?
Speaker 3: And he said I don't think so, I don't. I
Speaker 3: don't think I will ever see anything as good as this.
Speaker 3: So there were some sweet, sweet people, and I just
Speaker 3: loved I loved my time at Theater Works Hartford, and yeah,
Speaker 3: it was. It's it's a really really compelling play.
Speaker 1: How long did it take to get your sea legs
Speaker 1: on stage again?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Oh boy, it's I'll tell you this that it's a
Speaker 3: lot of work that theater. They literally they literally they
Speaker 3: gave me the schedule on the first day and I
Speaker 3: was like, oh, well, rehearsal and they had like rehearsal
Speaker 3: blocked out on the weekend. I go, I don't. I
Speaker 3: don't work on Sunday. I mean, I knew that when
Speaker 3: we're up and running that we would have to do show. No, no,
Speaker 3: no no. But when you're in rehearsal, you still keep
Speaker 3: those You work Tuesday through Sunday, you go to work
Speaker 3: every day, you get Monday off. Yeah. Yeah, So that
Speaker 3: was that was a little eye opening, but all in
Speaker 3: all a really really deeply rewarding experience.
Speaker 1: Did you do matinee and night on Saturday and Sunday?
Speaker 3: Yes, So we had Laura and I would call double headers. Yeah,
Speaker 3: uh on Sataturday, and then our final weekend they out
Speaker 3: of performance. So we did to Saturday and to Sunday. Yeah,
Speaker 3: And it's a it's a it's a really compelling and difficult, challenging.
Speaker 5: And will you do another one?
Speaker 3: Or you're like, yeah, no, I'll take it. I'll take
Speaker 3: a day to day because you have to be in
Speaker 3: love with it. If you're going to be doing that
Speaker 3: much rehearsal and then performing every day, you've got it.
Speaker 3: Takes a level of commitment that in television and film
Speaker 3: we're not used to. I'll tell you this, I'm ready
Speaker 3: for a trailer. I'm ready for a trailer and.
Speaker 1: A bagel break.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 4: About the play was really like it was so far
Speaker 4: out of your comfort zone in the moment, but when
Speaker 4: it was with your friend Tim, with Tim de Kay,
Speaker 4: then that was like such an easier consideration to do
Speaker 4: something that felt really brave and.
Speaker 3: I would be remiss if I didn't Tim Dkay, who
Speaker 3: is a star of White Collar. We mentioned his co
Speaker 3: star Matt Bomer earlier White Collar Carnival. He's in Oppenheimer.
Speaker 3: He's done a million, such great work. He was utterly
Speaker 3: brilliant and he stole the show. I am. I was
Speaker 3: just honored to be on the stage with him. He's
Speaker 3: three characters, three three characters, yeah, three characters for.
Speaker 5: Well I'm so that's amazing.
Speaker 2: I'm in awe of you for hung off to do
Speaker 2: that for three characters, just one thing to go see
Speaker 2: a play at this age and.
Speaker 3: Already, yeah, there you go. That was at our age.
Speaker 5: Can we do that again?
Speaker 1: Please?
Speaker 3: Like yeah, I was.
Speaker 4: I was.
Speaker 3: I was really terrified of the life of the live stuff,
Speaker 3: and as it turns, I lived through it. I never
Speaker 3: had an enormous gaff or something. I think the most
Speaker 3: unprofessional thing I did was, you know, audiences, although they
Speaker 3: were warned forget to turn their cell phones, and one
Speaker 3: just rang the first time, and you just keep going,
Speaker 3: rang a second time, and rang the time, at which
Speaker 3: time I slammed my hand counter.
Speaker 4: It was sort of in character, sort of character, but clearly.
Speaker 3: Not apologizing to everyone, including stage managers.
Speaker 5: You didn't do a what do they do? Patty Lapone
Speaker 5: and what's his name? Hugh, what's his name? They just
Speaker 5: turned to the audience and they turn you yeah.
Speaker 4: Patty Lapone is yeah, I mean for having told they
Speaker 4: have been warned the audience.
Speaker 2: You know, it's not the first no, they've been worn
Speaker 2: by that voice of God. Please turn your phones off
Speaker 2: and unwrap your candies.
Speaker 3: Now, there was also a moment in the play where
Speaker 3: several times that the audience would talk back to us, which.
Speaker 4: Really yeah, very involved audience ary.
Speaker 3: Tim character asked me at some you know, two thirds
Speaker 3: of the way through the because who else would understand?
Speaker 3: And I look at them and I say yeah, And
Speaker 3: before I could get my line out, someone in the yeah.
Speaker 4: What he said, we all say, I do love, didn't you?
Speaker 2: How did you like that audience reaction, that immediate reaction
Speaker 2: in that play that you don't get in film or TV.
Speaker 3: I have to tell you and Courdi well, if you
Speaker 3: remember from my time on acording gym, I'm terrified of
Speaker 3: the audience. I don't ever need them. My my goal,
Speaker 3: I don't need them. My goal in doing this was
Speaker 3: like could it was? It was a personal test. Could
Speaker 3: I do it? Could I answer this? Could I answer it?
Speaker 3: Could I answer the emotional requirements of it? Every single
Speaker 3: night twice on Saturday and Sunday. And we reached a
Speaker 3: point in rehearsals where the director where my friend Tim
Speaker 3: Kay turned to the director and said, you know, I
Speaker 3: understand the note, but I need an audience now, I
Speaker 3: need an audience. And I thought, oh, I would be okay.
Speaker 3: Thing never, that's not.
Speaker 1: Why we keep this private.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what is so?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 3: And I had much to learn, And I had to learn.
Speaker 3: I had to learn to hold for last.
Speaker 4: Stuff like that, or to not react when the audience
Speaker 4: is interjecting that's my line.
Speaker 1: Was there a point where you got so comfortable with
Speaker 1: the lines that you just felt yourself in the moment,
Speaker 1: like you weren't thinking about your next line. You got
Speaker 1: to just completely let go of the reins.
Speaker 3: Well, that's obviously the goal every single day is to
Speaker 3: really be in the moment that that audience is the
Speaker 3: first should be the first time that's ever come out
Speaker 3: of your mouth, because the first time they're ever going
Speaker 3: to hear it. But and I did, And the more
Speaker 3: comfortable I didn't get was was not worrying about that
Speaker 3: so much. I'm really being able to be present, to
Speaker 3: to play uh freely with the other actors. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Wow, Well I do have one more I think by
Speaker 4: time for one more question. Fan questions from as much
Speaker 4: as this theater tag, but it's also good and yes,
Speaker 4: this seems this is a very important question. It's from
Speaker 4: a user whose user name begins with Lucy, and she says,
Speaker 4: who's your favorite child? Oh, yes, in case you need
Speaker 4: time to think about it. She sent a second question,
Speaker 4: also from a user whose user name begins with Lucy.
Speaker 4: Who is your favorite child? And why is it Lucy?
Speaker 3: Lucy my favorite child? Person? Ever, I will show you
Speaker 3: is that Lucy. Now, Lucy may have entered that, may
Speaker 3: have entered her own contact information on my phone, and
Speaker 3: she may also be in charge of my screensaver because
Speaker 3: there she is also my favorite child. It changes every day,
Speaker 3: just who's going to be the nicer?
Speaker 1: Who does question?
Speaker 5: We've noticed that Matt wore a lot of T shirts,
Speaker 5: Oh my God, with.
Speaker 4: Graphics on them, political.
Speaker 5: Statements, political statements, different things. Did you have say in that?
Speaker 5: Did you like that? Did you pick out fun ones?
Speaker 3: The only one I did wear was for the the
Speaker 3: California Age Ride, which was the celebrity spokesman for I
Speaker 3: remember that being there. There was God, there was a
Speaker 3: university back east that had.
Speaker 1: Wanted me to wear their stuff that I wren't would stuffin.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But then the rest of that was just all, you know, wardrobe, wardrobe.
Speaker 3: They just decided that that, yeah, that that's the way. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I did a little look in the beginning of the
Speaker 3: backward hats like like that that was I don't know,
Speaker 3: I've watched something where I had enormous clothes, like like
Speaker 3: I had a sure that was just like, you know,
Speaker 3: I could just take another person.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, well Andrew too, I mean except for you know,
Speaker 1: Jake had the shirt, but outside of him, all the
Speaker 1: guys had these huge, voluminous teas.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but yours had graphics on them and.
Speaker 4: Character, so we found unbelievable.
Speaker 3: That one's not that's not so bad. Of course, that's.
Speaker 1: Brilliant the very nineties. I like that. She did say
Speaker 1: do you want to word them for the episode? And
Speaker 1: you're like a second, yeah, okay, Hey, why don't I
Speaker 1: ask you another question? What did you think about the
Speaker 1: death of Matt in season seven? And why did they
Speaker 1: have to kill Matt off screen? Apparently this person wanted
Speaker 1: to see you die.
Speaker 4: In real.
Speaker 3: Person's not alone. Yeah, no, yeah, they wanted a story point,
Speaker 3: and I would to that person, I would Probably the
Speaker 3: most honest answer is that writers have a difficult time
Speaker 3: coming up with storylines, and you know, after seven years
Speaker 3: on a show like this, you know they're they're tapped out.
Speaker 3: So using Matt's death to as a device for something
Speaker 3: else in a character that was happening on screen. I
Speaker 3: think that's probably why they did that. I you know
Speaker 3: I would, I don't. I don't care.
Speaker 1: So you did seven seasons?
Speaker 3: No, I did five? I mean I did the five.
Speaker 3: I did episode one of you. I did episode the
Speaker 3: first episode of Year six, and they had written me
Speaker 3: off the story. Here's interestingly enough, as we all know,
Speaker 3: mister Spelling was incredible, you know, but also very controlling,
Speaker 3: and he was also very generous with us about like,
Speaker 3: as long as we've been in the hiatus, I can't
Speaker 3: tell you how many other Spelling shows that I did,
Speaker 3: because Uncle Aaron would would say, hey, come on, can't
Speaker 3: do this show. But he was not so keen on
Speaker 3: us going to do movies or things on our hiatus
Speaker 3: that were outside of our show. So after year five,
Speaker 3: I was coming back for just six episodes of Year six,
Speaker 3: That's what I was coming back to do. And I
Speaker 3: got Godzilla in the meantime, and there was going to
Speaker 3: be a three week overlap, and I needed to work
Speaker 3: that out with with Meloe's place, and I thought, there's
Speaker 3: no way this is happening. It's impossible. They are not
Speaker 3: going to do it. Mister Spelling doesn't do this. At
Speaker 3: that same time, Heather became pregnant and they lost their
Speaker 3: hiatus all together, and they weren't getting even have a
Speaker 3: height as they were just going to shoot right on through.
Speaker 3: So what they said was, oh god, we've got bigger
Speaker 3: fish to problems. Let well, we'll pay Doug for the
Speaker 3: six episodes, but he's got to come back, and he's
Speaker 3: got to do the first one. We'll write him out
Speaker 3: in one. They paid me, mister Spelling. Did that solid
Speaker 3: for me at a time in my life? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: And so I really really appreciated that.
Speaker 1: So they killed you, you weren't a part of the show.
Speaker 1: They do because I'm so curious. We tried to ask Thomas,
Speaker 1: but I'm so curious about that cast because we don't
Speaker 1: know any of them sing a cast picture and like,
Speaker 1: I don't know anybody in that well.
Speaker 4: We all had our exits because there was a turn
Speaker 4: there was a turning point at the end of season five.
Speaker 4: So we all had our various exits and some are
Speaker 4: remarkable than us, some were notable and memorable, but like,
Speaker 4: your character was killed as well. But so the literal answer,
Speaker 4: as far as a fan was asking, is also that
Speaker 4: was the turning point where that contract was up and
Speaker 4: you had the plan, and so that was just the
Speaker 4: that was what they wrote as your exit.
Speaker 3: No, so I didn't I don't even know. I know,
Speaker 3: I know. No, No, I didn't die.
Speaker 4: I didn't die.
Speaker 3: I didn't until you're seven.
Speaker 1: I just wouldn't.
Speaker 5: No, I went off to go.
Speaker 3: I went off to San Francisco to go.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Okay, So when Matt met his demise, I was not
Speaker 3: I was no longer on the show. But I really
Speaker 3: just assumed that the writers needed storyline to to fill
Speaker 3: out and so that they used that. But I was
Speaker 3: indeed disappointed that that's the way he went out. But
Speaker 3: but I understood it, and he Matt had gone off
Speaker 3: to San Francisco to pursue either fully becoming a doctor
Speaker 3: or his continued social work. I forgot, or maybe it's.
Speaker 1: Going to work in.
Speaker 2: Does anyone ever really die on Melroe's place? So I
Speaker 2: don't think, well, we're gonna come.
Speaker 4: I say now, I'm just going to say now, I
Speaker 4: don't know. And on that note, we are so glad
Speaker 4: you were finding her, and we're going to ask you
Speaker 4: the last question that we ask everybody else. Will you
Speaker 4: come back again. If we ask you to come back,
Speaker 4: will you come back? So thank you all for your questions,
Speaker 4: all our listeners, and we'll see you next week on
Speaker 4: Still the Place.
Speaker 3: You guys are amazing. Guys are amazing.
Speaker 5: Bye bye