WEBVTT - Alan Hamel 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:12.120 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast. 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:16.520 My guest today is Alan Hamile, both husband and business 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:21.080 partner of Susie Anne Summers, a television presenter and all 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:24.600 around marketing mabn, Alan, good to have you here. Thank you. 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:27.520 I'm delighted to be here. I love your letter. Thank you. 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:32.560 So how did you meet Susanne? Fifty years ago? Okay, 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:34.920 actually fifty two years ago. I moved to l A 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:39.520 from Canada, and in Canada we had no agents, no managers, 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:41.040 there was none of that. You'd get a call from 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:43.440 the network and they'd say, we're doing a show, do 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:44.800 you want to come in and talk to us? And 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:46.199 we'd go in and talk to them and they give 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:49.120 us a job. So when I came here, I didn't 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:52.440 know about managers and agents. So I called ABC and 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.560 I said, who's the head guy? They said Elton Rule. 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:58.880 I said, put me through, so he takes my call. 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:01.400 I said, I am Ellen Hammond. I did a lot 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:04.080 of TV in Canada, and I did a late night 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:07.400 satirical show for five years, out of Control. I said, 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:10.160 there's nothing like that in the States. There's no uh, 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:13.160 there's nothing. There's no that that was the week that 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:16.920 was there's no laughing, there's no Saturday Night Live, there's 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:19.360 none of that. I'd like to show you a three 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:21.640 and a half minute clip. He said, great, he said, 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:25.280 can you be here tomorrow afternoon? Yes, you're calling him 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:29.319 from Toronto from l A. I'm in l A, okay, 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:33.680 and I'm thinking, now what, I don't have a job. Okay, 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:37.479 I've got some money, but i have no job. So 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:39.119 the following day I go up there and he's got 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:44.840 his two programming people there and he said, okay, he said, there, 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:46.560 where's the clip? So I handed to him and he 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:49.280 hands it to some an assistant and they put it 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:52.440 up and they play it back and the clip is 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:56.160 me on my late night show in Canada called Nightcap, 0:01:56.560 --> 0:02:00.040 interviewing a topless dancer in front of a live The 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:05.120 ins who's topless? And I'm interviewing her like man on 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:07.920 the streets. Okay, I'm not looking at her chest, no 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:13.840 lascivious remarks, just boring interviewer questions. So when it's all over, 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:16.720 they all looked at each other around the room like, 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:19.520 what the hell did we just see? Because the three 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:23.600 biggest shows in those days were my three Sons, Beverly Hillbillies, 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:27.520 and Green Acres. Okay, there was nothing else on. It 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:33.000 was all pablum. So they said, you know what, let's 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:38.000 do something together. So we negotiated a deal for me 0:02:38.040 --> 0:02:42.440 to do a ninety minute comedy special, and they housed 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:45.440 me around the corner in the Hollywood Palace. I had 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:48.799 offices in the Hollywood Palace. Jerry Lewis doing his show 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:53.960 there yet, no, not that I was aware of anyway, Okay, 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:59.919 and I'm thinking, I'm at Hollywood and Vine. I can't 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:02.960 leave it, okay, And every day at lunchtime, I'd stand 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:05.519 at the corner of Hollywood and Divide and think, I'm 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:09.080 at Hollywood and Vine and my offices are in the 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:15.360 Hollywood Palace. Okay. Anyway, we do the show and nobody 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:18.040 knew who I was, so ABC said I was producing 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:21.880 it and also starring in it. ABC said, nobody knows 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:23.760 who you are, so you need a big time guest. 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:27.560 So I called Robert Wagner, who had this huge TV 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:30.639 series and I can't remember what it was called. How 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:33.680 did you know Robert Wagner? I didn't know Robert, okay, 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:39.160 but I was cooking cold calling everybody, so I said, 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:41.880 here's what I want you to do. He laughed. I said, 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:44.200 and here's the money. He said. Forget the money, he said, 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:47.400 I live in Palm Springs, just getting me the world's 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:51.280 greatest golf cart. I said, done. So we do the show, 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:53.160 and we're ten minutes into the show, and I said 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:55.360 to the audience, I said, you know, every big time 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:58.160 special needs a big time guest. We have ours, Laises 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:00.960 and gentleman Mr Robert Wagner. And you know the way 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:04.280 he looked, I mean handsome, okay, with the cuff links 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:08.320 and the perfect shirt and hair, everything perfect, right. He 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:12.680 walked out a huge applause and whistling from the women. 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:15.960 He goes to center stage. He takes a deep bow, 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:20.520 it goes like that, thanking the audience, then walks down 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:24.839 three steps into the audience, up the aisle and out 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:28.240 the front door over here, and I said, okay, now 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:30.360 that we've met our big star, we can carry on 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:32.000 with the rest of them. So the whole show is 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:35.640 like that. Okay, we took on everybody. It was a 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:39.080 satirical show, but like today, it would be no big deal. 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:43.000 But those people were screaming, and we took on everybody. 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:47.080 We took on the Catholics, the Protestants, the Jews, the Poles, 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:50.280 the little whiny. We took on everybody, and I got 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:53.400 death threats. My favorite death threat came from a guy 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:59.039 in Libertyville, Illinois, and I said, the name of where 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:02.200 you live is sort of the antithesis of this letter 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:06.240 you've written to me. You want to do me in? Okay? 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:09.160 Because I don't. I assumed I had the liberty of 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:12.520 free speech in this country. Okay. So he wrote me 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:15.400 back and there were only two words in his letter, 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:21.360 and the second word was you. Okay. So where were we? Okay? 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:24.840 So you had a one in that ninety minutes special? Okay? 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:29.279 So that special aired? Okay, and then what happened to results? 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:33.320 People freaked. It was the second highest rated special all year, 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:36.600 next to Tom Jones. Okay, what's ther word? In what year? Again? 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:43.559 And the uh it's on ABC? It aired in prime time? 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:49.719 When did it air prime time? So? Um? The show aired. 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:53.559 The switchboards for ABC lit up across the country. People 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:55.960 were furious because they've never seen anything. You have to 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:58.320 ask in light of you know, they always talk about censorship. 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:01.440 You had this crazy show. They let you wear it. 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:04.359 They didn't say, hey, this a little too edgy. Okay, 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:07.440 they said to me when the script was written, okay, 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:09.880 they said, you're never going to get this passed. What 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:13.920 was her name, Grace Johnson? I said, who's Grace Johnson. 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:17.320 She's in charge of standards and practices. We didn't have 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:20.279 that in Canada. I said, what, what are standards and practices? 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:24.480 She decides what is not going to make air. So 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:27.360 I called her, I said, would you have lunch with me? 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:30.120 And I took it to a little place on Vine Street, 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:32.320 a little French place I can't remember the name of it. 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:35.440 I ordered the best bottle of wine and we sat 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:39.320 there with the script all afternoon, eating and drinking wine, 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:45.520 and every time she turned a page she would go, okay, 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:49.599 my mother used to do that, and I thought, I'm 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:52.600 dead I'm dead meat. Okay. We get to the final 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:55.840 page and we've knocked off the entire bottle of wine, 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:59.200 and we're getting along and she closes the script and 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:06.960 she said, let's do this really okay. So we did it, 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:11.200 and so now it airs and you're getting negative feedback, 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:15.440 you're also getting good, good pet feedback, getting good feedback, right, 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:18.360 good feedback from people actually, you know a lot of 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:22.480 Brits wrote because British comedy The Goon Show with Peter 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:24.680 Sellers and Spike Man. I mean that's been I was 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:28.360 raised with that. Okay. In Canada is a Commonwealth country, 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:31.720 so I was used to satire. I love satire, but 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:36.720 this country had never experienced satire. So they were in shock. Okay. 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:38.960 They turned on ABC to see I don't know what 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:42.720 show we replaced, okay, but we replaced some show and 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:47.440 it was obviously nothing like this. So we got great ratings. 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:52.600 And the Miami ABC guy called me and he said, 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:55.720 I own the affiliate station in Miami. He said, we 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:59.920 love the show. He said, if I financed this series, 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:02.640 would you do it? I said of course. He said, 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:04.960 I'm going to come to to l A. I'm going 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:07.560 to meet with the top guys at ABC, and I'm 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:11.560 going to make a proposal. And the proposal was, uh, 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:14.640 Miami will pay for the production of the show the 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:17.880 network and have two free runs as long as the 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:21.760 Miami station owns the back end syndication rights. And ABC 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:26.280 said we wouldn't consider it. And that was that. Okay. 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:30.440 So getting back to where I met Suzanne, I get 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:33.600 a call from ABC right after that, saying, um, you 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:36.040 did a lot of on camera in Canada, right, I said, yeah, 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:39.640 I said, I did from nineteen fifty five until nineteen 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:44.319 from fifty five until sixty Okay, so in the ninety 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:46.520 minutes specially, you were not on camera. No, I was. 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:48.800 I was on for the whole show, That's what I think. 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:51.280 So they saw you. Yeah, I was the guy, right, 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:53.199 so they saw you. What was the question? Okay? The 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.120 question was, would you like to host a game show 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:58.840 in ABC? I said great, So I go on and 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:01.560 talk to them, and that was They had the Newlywed Game, 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:07.000 the Dating Game, and my show was called the Anniversary Game. Okay. 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:10.960 So it was this troika and they said, we don't 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:12.920 have any studios in l A. Would you mind shooting 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:14.800 in San Francisco. I said great, So I go to 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:17.839 San Francisco and I'm up there for a couple of weeks. 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:20.120 In pre production, we're laying out what the set looks 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:22.440 like and who the people are, and we're hiring you know, 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:28.320 production people, etcetera. And first day of production, I'm standing 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:33.120 on the stage at ABC in San Francisco and on 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:35.200 the other side of the stage I see the most 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:41.360 beautiful girl woman I've ever seen in my whole life. 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:46.080 And I'm thinking I have to go over there. So 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:49.720 I start walking across the stage and I'm not good 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:53.640 with come onlines. Okay, I always thought Hi. If I 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:58.439 say hi, I'm Alan Hamill, the bullshit light starts flashing. Okay. 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:00.520 So I get right up to her, and I still 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:02.679 don't know what I'm going to say. So I said, 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:07.720 would you mind getting me a cup of coffee? And 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:13.720 she did and we've been together ever since fifty years. Okay. Yeah, Uh, 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:17.720 there's so much there. The average person became aware of 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:23.480 Suzanne when she was in American Graffitian. Okay, but you 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.440 never got credit on the on the she she was 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:30.679 not credited on that movie. You could go through the credits, 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:33.600 you will not see the name Susanne. Was that intentional? No, 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:37.199 it was that she had. She mouthed I love you, 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:40.560 that was it. She was like an extra. She couldn't 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:45.600 even say it out loud. And George Lucas Lucas, who 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:50.640 had seen her a few days before um I had 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:53.000 cast her. And then she her agent called her and said, 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:55.800 you got this thing, and it's a small part, and 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:57.720 what is it, well, you have to say I love you. 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:00.800 So Suzanne stayed up all night practicing how to say 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:03.240 I love you, and when she got there, he said, 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:07.760 just mouth it. So she was not credited and was interesting. 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:10.720 After she she was on Three's Company, which was from 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:16.840 seventy seven on ABC ran American Graffiti, and they promoted 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:23.240 it by saying, American Graffiti starring Susante Summers. Okay, so 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:26.640 you meet your in sixty nine or what you meet 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:32.480 her in sixty eight? Okay? So what happens between sixty 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:38.520 eight and seventy three? For her UM, she she had 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:43.080 won a scholarship to Lone Mountain College. I think it 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:49.840 was a girl's college, Catholic girls college, and UM because 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:52.480 she had done Guys and Dolls in high school. And 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:55.840 you're old enough to remember Walter Winchell. Of course, Walter 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:59.720 Winchell turned up for this production. In this San Bruno 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:02.079 would just a little blue collar used to be a 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:05.600 blue collar town in northern California to see the production 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:08.920 because he was represented in Guys and Dolls by one 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:11.120 of the characters, and I can't remember which one it is. 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:15.200 After the show, he came up on stage. We have 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:18.240 a picture of this, and he walked up to Suzanne 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:22.920 and he said, quote, you're going somewhere, sister, And that's 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:26.760 how she got a scholarship to Lone Mountain College. But 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:30.720 the first year she was there, she got pregnant. And 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:36.040 Catholic girl gets pregnant. Okay, church didn't like it. We're 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:37.920 not we don't like you very much because you got 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:41.040 pregnant you weren't married. So she got married and within 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:43.679 a year she was divorced. And then I came along 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:48.040 and I had just gotten a divorce as well, and 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:53.479 we realized that this was not just a a dating situation. 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:57.240 I had never felt this way before. And she called 0:12:57.240 --> 0:12:59.400 her mother that day and said the day we met 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:03.080 and said, I met the man, I'm going to marry. Okay, 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:06.280 So it was for real. I didn't know what I 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:09.800 was feeling. I just knew that this was serious, okay, 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:13.480 Because in Canada I had I had being on television 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:20.160 every day, I had access to a lot of attractive women, 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:24.360 and most of them didn't go anywhere. It was just 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:27.800 a I won't say what it was. It was just 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:32.800 a short relationship. This was very very serious for me, 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:36.120 and all they wanted to do was to be with 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:41.760 her constantly, So since we started living together in the 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:46.959 early seventies, I think around seventy. Okay, let's go back 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:49.680 to when you met her in sixty eight. What was 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:54.600 she doing every day? She was struggling. She Uh, she 0:13:55.000 --> 0:14:00.880 her family were, except for her mother, Uh, we're all drunk, 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:06.240 serious alcoholics. She had been raised in a house with 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:11.560 a physically violent, crazed alcoholic father whose job was to 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:16.880 put cases of beer on box cars. And they didn't 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:20.400 have coffee breaks, they had beer brakes. And he'd come 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:23.880 home every night ship face and uh, you know, bang 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:26.120 down a few shots of whiskey and some more beer, 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:29.960 and then he would start to hunt down the family. 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:35.440 So the family, uh, he slept most nights in a 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:40.680 little closet. Suzanne, her two brothers, her sister, and her mother, 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:43.280 and they had a lock on the inside of the 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:47.560 closet so he couldn't get to them. And that's where 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:51.040 they slept most nights. And this went on for years. 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:56.480 And one night, Uh, Susanne, I guess was fifteen or 0:14:56.520 --> 0:15:00.560 sixteen going to her first prom. Her mother aid her 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:04.640 dress and it was this beautiful dress. Susanne described it 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:07.760 to me, and she had it hanging in her room 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:09.640 so that she could lay in bed and look at 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:14.360 it and dream. And her father burst through the door 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:16.840 in the middle of the night, flipped on the light 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:20.160 and went right to the dress and ripped it up 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:23.520 and ripped it in half, and she started screaming and crying. 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:27.840 Her mother came in. What's going on here? The father 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:31.080 hit the mother in the breast. The mother went down. 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:34.960 Suzanne picked up her tennis rocket and heard her father 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:39.000 over the head and blood gushed out of his head. 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:42.040 They took him to emergency. When he came home, his 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:48.880 head was all bandaged up. From that time on. Um. 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:53.640 What Suzanne realized was her father was afraid of her, 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:57.720 because that was the first time anyone in the family 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:02.440 I have her fought back. Okay, so the family was 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:08.480 drunk for years. The father was this crazed, craze guy 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:12.240 who wanted to be my friend, and I had no 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:15.440 interest in being his friend. And the more I pushed 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:17.440 him away, the more he'd tried to be my friend. 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:22.480 And he was not stupid at all. He was he 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:24.840 was smart, and he was funny, funny guy. I think 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:30.160 that's where Suzanne got her comed againstincts. But it was 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:35.480 brutal growing up that way. And one day Suzanne Uh 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:41.040 said to announce to her family, one day, I'm going 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:42.760 to be a big star. This is when she was 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:45.800 in high school. I'm gonna be a big star, and 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:47.760 my mother is going to be sitting in the front row. 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:54.320 And guess what it happened. Opening at the MGM Grand 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:57.400 in Las Vegas for the first time, there's her mother 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:01.000 sitting in the front row. H Okay, what happened to 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:02.840 the rest of the kids in the family. They all 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:09.120 stopped drinking, including the father, really the mother. The mother 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:13.000 would clean up after the father every night. He had 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:16.240 this thing about going into the refrigerator and throwing food 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:20.480 all over the place, breaking dishes. Then he would pass 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:22.639 out and throw up on the floor with all the 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:27.080 broken dishes, and she would clean it up, clean him up, 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:30.280 and drag him off to bed. She went to Alanon 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:34.959 and alan On said, don't pick him up. Let him 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:38.240 wake up and realize what he had done. So she 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:40.840 started leaving him on the floor and that's when he 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:46.800 decided to go get sober. And her siblings are they 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:51.480 all okay today? Younger brother died when he was forty seven. 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:57.560 He was an alcoholic and a drug addict. And uh, 0:17:57.040 --> 0:18:04.200 the seven children and gone okay, and the other siblings. 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:08.159 The other siblings are in great shape. Her older brother 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:11.600 has a carpeting business which he's owned for most of 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:20.399 his life. Uh. The sister married her childhood sweetheart, the 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:23.360 only man she's ever been with. They celebrated their fiftieth 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:28.840 anniversary about five years ago, I guess. And those two 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:33.720 have produced a family of fifty one people between children. 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:38.360 Grandchildren are s Bruno and great grandchildren. They lived down 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:43.560 the street in U. It's an upscale community, Hills Hills. 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:46.439 I don't know that anyway. They live in a And 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:50.520 to what degree when Susie had becomes successful, are they 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:55.679 asking her for money? Not that I'm aware of, Not 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:59.560 that I'm aware of. She had written a book, um, 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:03.520 I think it was a nineteen in the late eighties 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:08.879 called Keeping Secrets. And we had all read books about 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:16.159 written by famous people, uh, who talked about they're usually 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:22.440 their father being an alcoholic. Keeping Secrets was about Suzanne, 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:27.639 who didn't drink, but how it affected her because when 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:31.239 you're living with an alcoholic, you become as sick as 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:35.760 the alcoholic, even if you don't drink, and her her 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:41.320 thing was not drugs or alcohol. Her craziness was spending 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:47.200 money she didn't have, creating a crisis, because crises were 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:51.119 familiar for her. Okay, when you spend every night hiding 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:54.080 from your father in a closet as a crisis, you're 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:57.680 living in constant fear and terror. So she was most 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:00.840 comfortable that way. And she said to me one day, 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:04.640 I could tell the mood my father was in by 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:08.560 looking at the back of his head. And she said, 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:13.960 I would then behave as is. In other words, she 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:17.919 wouldn't behave the way she felt she wanted to behave. 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.359 She would behave in a way that was resonant with him. 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:25.040 So to keep the cap on. Okay, but it never worked, 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:27.879 of course, Just to be clear, when she spent money 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:30.600 she didn't have. That was before she had money or 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:33.760 after she had money. No, before she had money. Okay, 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:36.880 I remember the book. So she has a child, she's 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:40.320 out of the college before she meets you. What is 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:42.320 she doing and how does she end up on the set? 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:48.640 She gets a call. She had a semi agent in California, 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:53.640 in San Francisco, and she got a call saying they're 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:56.560 looking for a prize model on this game show. She 0:20:56.640 --> 0:20:58.720 had never been on a TV studio in her life, 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:03.040 so she turned up. No one bothered giving her any direction, 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:05.239 Like when you open the refrigerator door, and you know, 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:07.320 you look at the camera with the red light. So 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:09.320 she opened the refrigerator door, but she didn't look at 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:11.040 the camera with the red lights. So they fired her 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:15.600 the first day. You know what, It's good they fired 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:19.040 her because if they didn't fire her, I don't know whether. 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:24.040 I don't know whether we would have had an evolved relationship. 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:29.720 So it were evolved mentally or evolved into that it happened. 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:35.520 I in all the years I did television in Canada, 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:38.840 I never messed around with any of the women who 0:21:38.880 --> 0:21:44.680 worked with me. Ever, Uh, it was too dangerous and 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:47.200 what happens if it doesn't work out? Now you're see 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:50.840 him every day. Absolutely, So I never did that. So 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:54.440 would I have done that with Suzanne if she had 0:21:54.480 --> 0:21:57.480 gotten the job and stayed on the show. Um, I 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:02.240 don't know. It was pretty pretty powerful action. Okay, so 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:09.080 you become involved with Suzanne. It's an instant romance. Um. Now, 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:12.679 you had a long career where you were in front. 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:14.719 Did you immediately say to yourself, I'm gonna put her 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:18.960 in front. I kept going back to Canada to do 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:26.680 television after I moved here, and from nineteen nineteen seventy 0:22:26.800 --> 0:22:33.320 four or five until I did the Alan Hamill Show, 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:38.440 which was like Carson. A matter of fact, the production 0:22:38.520 --> 0:22:42.720 people we hired we stole from Carson because we wanted 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:46.200 Carson's roller decks, so I had every guest Carson ever had. 0:22:47.720 --> 0:22:52.639 Um So I did that show and then her contract 0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:57.800 with three Company was up in night, and uh so 0:22:57.880 --> 0:23:01.680 it was time to renegotiate, which is normal in the industry. Okay, 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:05.159 how many years was the initial contract? Was? He was 0:23:05.240 --> 0:23:10.600 five usually and was everybody else on five? Yes, but 0:23:10.720 --> 0:23:14.080 they had renegoted. John and Joyce had already renegotiated because 0:23:14.119 --> 0:23:19.560 they had hired them before Suzanne. So I go to 0:23:19.640 --> 0:23:23.800 the negotiation and at ABC and the ABC lawyers there, 0:23:24.760 --> 0:23:28.960 one of the producers is there and some other guy, 0:23:29.160 --> 0:23:32.840 and within two minutes they told me she's fired. I said, 0:23:33.720 --> 0:23:39.960 fired for asking for what She's fired. That was it. 0:23:40.560 --> 0:23:44.080 There was no explanation, She's fired. So I got up 0:23:44.080 --> 0:23:49.720 and I left. Okay, Then I discovered that Laverne and 0:23:49.800 --> 0:23:55.520 Shirley had renegotiated their deal three weeks earlier, and it 0:23:55.600 --> 0:23:59.960 was a monumental deal. I mean, without Laverne and Shirley, 0:24:00.000 --> 0:24:05.800 there's no laverniture. Okay. So they scored big time, huge, 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:08.719 and the parent company of ABC and today, if if 0:24:08.760 --> 0:24:10.880 they decided to do this at a board meeting, they 0:24:10.920 --> 0:24:14.960 all be thrown in prison. The parent company of ABC decided, 0:24:15.359 --> 0:24:18.000 we have to stop women from asking to be paid 0:24:18.080 --> 0:24:22.160 parody with the men, So let's fire the biggest female 0:24:22.200 --> 0:24:25.800 star in television. And no other woman will ever ask 0:24:25.920 --> 0:24:30.080 to be paid parody with the men. So they did. 0:24:30.840 --> 0:24:33.119 It was the dumbest, you know. I ran into a 0:24:33.160 --> 0:24:36.919 guy from KATS, which is an independent distributor of TV shows, 0:24:37.560 --> 0:24:39.359 at one of those conventions, and he said to me 0:24:40.520 --> 0:24:45.040 her firing was known as the biggest self inflicted wound 0:24:45.280 --> 0:24:48.399 in the history of television. He said, we know that 0:24:48.480 --> 0:24:52.080 they lost over a billion in terms of license fees 0:24:52.119 --> 0:24:54.560 and back end. He said, by the time this show 0:24:54.640 --> 0:24:58.040 plays out, he said, will be more than that. Okay. 0:24:58.440 --> 0:25:01.879 On the street, the word was that she asked for 0:25:01.960 --> 0:25:04.840 too much. That wasn't a factor she actually asked for. 0:25:05.160 --> 0:25:08.840 I actually asked for half of what men were making. 0:25:09.080 --> 0:25:11.280 Whose shows were in the top twenty. Her show was 0:25:11.400 --> 0:25:15.160 number one. She had the highest demographics. See what what 0:25:15.200 --> 0:25:18.199 you're what you're saying to me right now is what 0:25:18.280 --> 0:25:22.520 the pr company for the producers did. They destroyed her 0:25:22.560 --> 0:25:25.720 after that, since she was this greedy bitch and she 0:25:26.320 --> 0:25:28.440 didn't deserve to have the job, and we gave her 0:25:28.440 --> 0:25:32.120 the job and all she wanted. She's a money grubber, etcetera, etcetera. 0:25:32.680 --> 0:25:35.120 I asked for fifty percent of what the men were 0:25:35.160 --> 0:25:38.000 making and a piece of the back end. Okay, it 0:25:38.000 --> 0:25:40.320 wouldn't have mattered if I had asked for a nickel. 0:25:40.640 --> 0:25:44.400 They had decided to fire Suzanne Summers, so it had 0:25:44.440 --> 0:25:48.760