Speaker 1: Writer, where you're you're in Kentucky. I'm in Kentucky and
Speaker 1: you're in a very beautiful house and colleges. Yeah, it's gorgeous.
Speaker 1: I have friends who moved during the pandemic, you know,
Speaker 1: like how everybody's sort of made big life decisions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so some of my some of our closest friends who
Speaker 1: like where our neighbors we used to do a nanny
Speaker 1: share with our our sons are like best friends. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: they moved all the way to Kentucky UM in the
Speaker 1: middle of the pandemic. So every summer now we've made
Speaker 1: it a point to get out here and visit them.
Speaker 1: So I was visiting Alex in New York UM, and
Speaker 1: then on our way back, we decided we'd stop off
Speaker 1: in Kentucky for a few days. And gosh, it's so
Speaker 1: gorgeous here. It's so green. L A is not a
Speaker 1: green news just back in Connecticut, same thing where you're
Speaker 1: just like, it's crazy, I just forget, like you know
Speaker 1: how much I need that, you know, I mean, I
Speaker 1: grew up around trees in northern California, and like, I
Speaker 1: you know, I obviously I love l A for so
Speaker 1: many reasons, mostly cultural, but like the landscape just doesn't
Speaker 1: have trees, and I just don't even think about it
Speaker 1: until I get someplace like here, and you know, my
Speaker 1: son Indias just like running through the grass and there's
Speaker 1: trees everywhere, and I'm just like obsessed with it. I'm
Speaker 1: kind of like looking around, going, oh, this feeds my
Speaker 1: soul in something like very real way, especially also coming
Speaker 1: from New York City, which, of course are you giving
Speaker 1: Are you giving India very good tick check every night?
Speaker 1: When when he comes in, that's a good call, that's
Speaker 1: a great call. Yeah, that's that's the East Coast thing.
Speaker 1: It's like, all right, check the socks, check everything, let's
Speaker 1: make sure we're good to go here. Another thing we
Speaker 1: do not have to think about here, and you know exactly,
Speaker 1: you just don't have to think about it at all. Well,
Speaker 1: I am really super excited about this episode. First of all,
Speaker 1: we had a wonderful talk and and reunion with Rusty
Speaker 1: last week. How great is here? I mean, he's incredible
Speaker 1: And I thought it was really interesting that last week
Speaker 1: in the episode we watched with Rusty, he made the
Speaker 1: point that Phoene can give different advice than Alan can
Speaker 1: because Phoenie doesn't have kids, and then the next episode
Speaker 1: was basically all about and I thought to Rusty, watch
Speaker 1: more than one watched this episode. No, I'm sure he
Speaker 1: just remembers that. That was like the central tension. You know,
Speaker 1: these first couple of episodes, you can tell they're so
Speaker 1: rusty heavy first of all, which is interesting, but then yeah,
Speaker 1: you can just tell that that, you know, one of
Speaker 1: the central pitches of the show was what would it
Speaker 1: be like if your teacher lived next door? Yes, which
Speaker 1: you know, obviously, because Phoenie became such a legendary character
Speaker 1: became such a huge part of our characters lives, we
Speaker 1: all kind of forgot that that central pitch. For an
Speaker 1: eleven year old boy like Corey, that's huge. And playing
Speaker 1: out that tension for its comedy value and it's educational
Speaker 1: value is super interested in and that's clearly what they
Speaker 1: were doing in the first couple of episodes. I mean,
Speaker 1: it really was Rusty, Bill and Ben for the first
Speaker 1: you know, a few episodes. It really, I mean huge
Speaker 1: and one of the things we should mention. We've but
Speaker 1: we talked about the original pilot where Rusty wasn't in
Speaker 1: and I wasn't need either. We we went back and
Speaker 1: kind of looked. So. While it was called the Untitled
Speaker 1: Ben Savage Project, it was also called eleven. Yeah, was
Speaker 1: the name of the show originally. I never remember that.
Speaker 1: I don't think I ever saw the original pilot. I
Speaker 1: was just there when we filmed. I got a copy
Speaker 1: for it was a horrible title, how do you maintain
Speaker 1: exactly next year? Exactly? So that's what it was. It
Speaker 1: was eleven a k that bet the Untitled Ben Savage Project.
Speaker 1: So I had forgotten that entirely, which was weird to see. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't want to make our guests today wait very long.
Speaker 1: We've been waiting long enough. Welcome to pod Meats World.
Speaker 1: I'm Daniel Fishel, I'm Wilfredell, and I'm right or Strong
Speaker 1: and today we are so incredibly overjoyed to welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast Bonnie Bartlett and Mr Bill Daniels. Is everybody
Speaker 1: on their best behavior because Mr Feenie's here? Oh, in
Speaker 1: matching colors too? Yeah? Isn't that interesting? That just happened? Really? First,
Speaker 1: then he came up and he said, I gotta wear this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you guys look fantastic. Is that is this? What is this?
Speaker 1: What happens when you've been married for seventy years? Yes,
Speaker 1: and you know what, June thirty, it'll be seventy one years.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, congratulations. Also, if if I'm I'm not mistaken,
Speaker 1: Bonnie was very recently. You just had a birthday yesterday,
Speaker 1: yesterday nine birthday? How happy birthday? And I'm nine now
Speaker 1: I'm ninety three. Unbelievable. Can I ask you, guys, what
Speaker 1: do you think the key to seventy one years of marriages? Billy?
Speaker 1: You know the answer to that well, respect, an honest communication. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that sounds sounds like a really good foundation
Speaker 1: for almost every relationship. You're right, Yes, it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: who the person is. If you have those two things,
Speaker 1: you could probably make it work well. And you have
Speaker 1: to be flexible, I mean you really do. You have
Speaker 1: to be willing to change. Yeah, something's not good. You
Speaker 1: have to be willing to make the changes both of you.
Speaker 1: If one person changes and the other person doesn't, it
Speaker 1: doesn't work. But if both people make changes to uh
Speaker 1: make it better, well, let me ask you. Let me
Speaker 1: ask you about this then, because I'm super fascinated. Do
Speaker 1: you mean, but you guys are both actors? Incredibly successful actors?
Speaker 1: How did that? I mean, would you have had it
Speaker 1: any other way? Uh? You know, in other words, you
Speaker 1: mustn't have known actors who married people outside of the industry.
Speaker 1: Are you know people who were industry couples like you two?
Speaker 1: I mean, how did that? How was that? How did
Speaker 1: that happen? Did you work together first and then fall
Speaker 1: in love? Or did you just happen to meet? And
Speaker 1: I want to hear more about that. We we met
Speaker 1: in a classroom at Northwestern. Oh. I didn't know her. Uh.
Speaker 1: We were auditioning for a play. And there were people
Speaker 1: sitting around, and you know, I've been on Broadway, so
Speaker 1: I was a cocky kid, right these kids, And I thought,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I'm not sure I want to be
Speaker 1: in this bomb. And then I heard somebody in the
Speaker 1: back of the room who was an actress, you could
Speaker 1: tell you. I looked around and there she was. So
Speaker 1: I waited at the door for her, and I said,
Speaker 1: how about a cup of coffee? And she said you're
Speaker 1: too short, And I said, come on, have a cup
Speaker 1: of coffee. She said, okay, coffee. And she's been following
Speaker 1: me around the campus. But known to me it was
Speaker 1: a good actress. I was a big I was a
Speaker 1: big fan or whatever. You got all our fans, you know,
Speaker 1: I was one of him. I fought so you were
Speaker 1: playing a cool Any celebrity, any celebrity that was in
Speaker 1: my site, I would follow, you know. Later on in
Speaker 1: New York, I followed Greta Garbo down Fifth Avenue, couple
Speaker 1: of Roosevelt. I followed her in New York. So anyway,
Speaker 1: I was that kind of person, just a shadow person,
Speaker 1: you know. So it never occurred to me that we
Speaker 1: would meet. It never occurred to me that we would
Speaker 1: become boyfriend girlfriend. Never occurred to me because he was
Speaker 1: out of my room, you know what I mean. He
Speaker 1: was like, he was like special, and he always had
Speaker 1: this little Italian girl with him, so that what who
Speaker 1: are we that that was one of the girls in school.
Speaker 1: You know. It's cool. When I would see him on
Speaker 1: the on the subway or whatever you call out the
Speaker 1: hell he was going down to a play, you know,
Speaker 1: on Chicago. The whole group. He was always with this
Speaker 1: little Italian girl. I'm a big blonde. Oh, I mean,
Speaker 1: I've never thought of me with him that way, but
Speaker 1: I was impressed. And he had a leather jacket. Also,
Speaker 1: I like tradition. That's azing. So anyway, that's and what
Speaker 1: I said, you're too short, what I meant was, oh no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm too big for you. You know, I'm I'm tall.
Speaker 1: Used to these big Swedish boys and the Swedish Swedish, yes,
Speaker 1: because Bullin was very Swedish. I know all that. And
Speaker 1: so I was dumbfounded that he would be interested in me.
Speaker 1: And so after that first cup of coffee, did you
Speaker 1: guys just continue Was that just the beginning of a
Speaker 1: seventy one year relationship? That's correct, we were we were together,
Speaker 1: tied at the hip from then on. Wow. And when
Speaker 1: did you guys first actually worked together in that play?
Speaker 1: You did that play? Oh my god, we did that play.
Speaker 1: It was Buried the Dead, Buried the Dead by I
Speaker 1: had a very dramatic party, killable, you know, very dramatic,
Speaker 1: and and he was the head of the onion. I think,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, he was ahead of you. Very dark play,
Speaker 1: very dark anti war play. Unbelievable. And so did you
Speaker 1: guys continue to consciously choose to work together or did
Speaker 1: you just kind of happen because people associated with As
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, we were both in positions I
Speaker 1: on the soap opera. But we never interfered with each
Speaker 1: other's We never said, oh I want my husband to
Speaker 1: be on this, Oh I want my wife. You never
Speaker 1: like demanded a contractor. And elsewhere, it just happened, just happened. Wow.
Speaker 1: Elsewhere when it was consciously done was when Michael Jacobs
Speaker 1: asked me to come in on that last year. Yes,
Speaker 1: well yeah, so for everyone listening, and just in case
Speaker 1: you didn't know, obviously, Bill Daniels is Mr Feenie and
Speaker 1: Bonnie came on and joined us, joined us for the
Speaker 1: last season where she played the Dean and Mr Feeney
Speaker 1: and the Dean fell in love and um, it's actually
Speaker 1: one of our fans most favorite things when they realize
Speaker 1: you guys are married in real life, and they go, wait,
Speaker 1: you know, I went to Chicago for a Golden Girl's
Speaker 1: convention because I played a villain on an episode of
Speaker 1: Golden Girls called Barbara Thorndyke, a real anti semi to
Speaker 1: terrible terrible girl terrible, And so I would and I'm finding,
Speaker 1: you know, autographs and enjoy things in this little girls
Speaker 1: about twelve fourteen maybe, And she came up and she
Speaker 1: looked at a picture down here and she looked up
Speaker 1: and she said, your Mrs Feenie, Mrs Baby she sight
Speaker 1: and I've never had that, it was never called Mrs Treedie.
Speaker 1: She connected it, and I thought that was so sweet. Oh, yesterday,
Speaker 1: that is so emotional about this show. Yeah, yeah, everybody does. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and especially for you, Bill. I imagine people must look
Speaker 1: up to you and immediately I feel like you're this
Speaker 1: great authority and vast wealth of knowledge that they can
Speaker 1: tap into. I don't know, I think, so, yeah, you're
Speaker 1: you're you're the teacher for many generations now, I mean
Speaker 1: it's it's it's moving from generation to generation of Mr
Speaker 1: Feenie was my teacher? Right? And then they asked, they asked.
Speaker 1: They say, oh, I want my children to watch, and
Speaker 1: then they have their children watched the show. Yes, I
Speaker 1: love the show. So Bill, how did Boy Meets World
Speaker 1: come to you? Did you have to audition? Was it offered?
Speaker 1: Do you what? What was the situation there was? Michael?
Speaker 1: I asked for a meeting because I turned it down.
Speaker 1: I wanted to know why. I said, Well, that's a
Speaker 1: funny name, and I don't really I don't really want
Speaker 1: to make fun of teachers. I I respect them, and
Speaker 1: they were underpaid and all that, and he said, and
Speaker 1: then he told me what my role was based on,
Speaker 1: which was a mentor of his when he was in
Speaker 1: high school. So a mentor of his. So I realized
Speaker 1: that the part would be treated with respect. Right. He
Speaker 1: rewrote something too, Yeah, the the he rewrote something, and
Speaker 1: the power is that he didn't want it, but he
Speaker 1: made them. He made him do it. And that's what
Speaker 1: sold you. That first episode we got was a lot
Speaker 1: of serious stuff. He gave him a lot of serious stuff.
Speaker 1: But Michael was willing to do that and capable of
Speaker 1: doing that, and he went against the work see to
Speaker 1: do it. Yeah, you know, if I remember correctly, it
Speaker 1: was actually after the table read that we we did
Speaker 1: have a table read, and and then then Bill was
Speaker 1: very upset um and the table read did not go well,
Speaker 1: if I remember, and over in general, and Bill was upset,
Speaker 1: the network was upset, and Michael was sort of stuck
Speaker 1: in between the two impulses and ended up rewriting the
Speaker 1: entire script that night, You're right, yeah, yeah, and then
Speaker 1: and then Bill was happy, and I remember Bill threatening
Speaker 1: to leave, or that's the story I heard at least.
Speaker 1: And it's because he didn't feel like Mr Finie was
Speaker 1: being like was he was being treated with respect that
Speaker 1: it might be Yeah, well that's that's that's very common
Speaker 1: in television, is is the teacher is kind of the
Speaker 1: buffoon and the kids are the kids are pulling one
Speaker 1: over on the teacher every time. And yeah, that that
Speaker 1: was just the television trope that you would always see. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's that's didn't want to do. Also after Saint Elsewhere,
Speaker 1: uh Uh, everybody wanted, as a matter of fact, both
Speaker 1: of us, they wanted us to do comedy. We Bill
Speaker 1: turned down one comedy after another because he didn't want
Speaker 1: to do it. But that's, you know, that's the natural
Speaker 1: thing to do after a serious thing, then you do
Speaker 1: a comedy. He didn't want to do a comedy, and
Speaker 1: I gosh, I went through a lot of times when
Speaker 1: I would like to have done it, but he said no.
Speaker 1: And so, uh then when this came up, he really
Speaker 1: didn't think it would would work and he didn't really
Speaker 1: think that he wanted to do it. Seven years later
Speaker 1: and he had a great time and he loved it.
Speaker 1: And I think that's due to Michael Jacobs. First of
Speaker 1: all and then all of you guys, he really did
Speaker 1: you know, respect you well. And it also brought him
Speaker 1: to a whole new fandom because I mean, you've got
Speaker 1: university seeing elsewhere is one kind of group of fans,
Speaker 1: and sev seventy six is one kind of group of fans.
Speaker 1: But now to be on a show where the fans
Speaker 1: grow up watching you, it's a completely different vibe when
Speaker 1: you when you've got somebody raised watching you on television,
Speaker 1: it's now so Bill when you when you look back
Speaker 1: on the shows that you do, is there one group
Speaker 1: of fans that that you tend to get recognized for
Speaker 1: something more than than something else? Definitely, not saying else
Speaker 1: or interesting, Um I think Mr Fannie, Yeah, definitely. It's
Speaker 1: the It's the thing that what do you call it,
Speaker 1: popular culture or something became the most iconic right because
Speaker 1: sane elsewe would probably be the most critically acclaimed of
Speaker 1: all the show followed by night Rider. I was night Rider,
Speaker 1: remember in Mayor on the street and a bus came by.
Speaker 1: I'm walking along and a bunch of kids got off
Speaker 1: the bus and they saw me and they said Mr Feeney,
Speaker 1: and they come running and I ran around the blow
Speaker 1: Peter from He said to me, sorry, I'll see you later,
Speaker 1: and they absolutely terrified him and they me in New
Speaker 1: York particularly, Uh when when Bill wrote a book and
Speaker 1: we went to a signing, they were voracious, chased us around,
Speaker 1: jumped on the car, did all kinds of things. Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they were fanatics. I'm calling it hashtags. I don't imagine
Speaker 1: fans of the Zoo Story on Broadway we're jumping on. Bill.
Speaker 1: What are your memories, What are your memories of meeting
Speaker 1: all of us for the first time, and what was
Speaker 1: that like to work with basically twelve year olds. Well,
Speaker 1: you will alway young and having fun and I was
Speaker 1: much more serious. Is so I would hang out in
Speaker 1: my dressing room away from you all as you fooled
Speaker 1: around qua the camera, and then they said Mr Daniels
Speaker 1: were ready for you, and then I go out. You
Speaker 1: guys were having a ball, and I taken it very seriously. Frankly,
Speaker 1: I wish I were one of you. Yes, he would
Speaker 1: like to and one of you guys nevered fun. Did
Speaker 1: you enjoy the live studio audience? Oh yes, I much
Speaker 1: prefer a live audience. Uh, and that's from my work
Speaker 1: on Broadway. Uh. You know when you know, when you
Speaker 1: start on something and they're rustling the papers and programs
Speaker 1: and so forth, and you stugged, and then when you
Speaker 1: can hear a pin drop, you know you were doing okay,
Speaker 1: you quite different. I remember, yeah, you. I remember you
Speaker 1: would sit in your dressing room and you would play
Speaker 1: chess against yourself. And then I asked you one day,
Speaker 1: I said, will you will you teach me how to play?
Speaker 1: And you went sure, and we did that for for
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks. You taught me how to play chess,
Speaker 1: and then I think you kind of went, I want
Speaker 1: to go back and play against myself again. I'm a
Speaker 1: I'm a much better player when I play against myself. Yes,
Speaker 1: that is how I recall it. Now, Bill, we've been
Speaker 1: we've been doing this Rewatch podcast for This is our
Speaker 1: third Rewatch episode, and these first three episodes have been
Speaker 1: so incredible and and there's always been at least one,
Speaker 1: if not to very Mr Feeney and Corey Matthew's scenes.
Speaker 1: This is now the second episode. I'd like to go
Speaker 1: on record saying the second episode where I fully welled up,
Speaker 1: I thought I was going to start having tears fall
Speaker 1: down my face was able to stop them before they
Speaker 1: fell down my cheeks. But you and Ben together are
Speaker 1: absolute magic in especially in these early episodes. What was
Speaker 1: that like working with Ben? Well, it was the same
Speaker 1: as working with you. It really was very pleasant. I
Speaker 1: I stayed away from being judgmental. I took whatever you
Speaker 1: gave me, and I tried to work with it, and
Speaker 1: it worked out very well. I didn't want to be
Speaker 1: somebody who was older and more knowledgeable and making remarks
Speaker 1: criticizing your work was suggesting I did none of that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you did not. I said that too. I said, don't
Speaker 1: do you help them? He said, no, they're on my
Speaker 1: level there, they're they're the same level. I am, I can't.
Speaker 1: I can't help. And we felt that we felt like
Speaker 1: we felt so respected in a way. I mean we've
Speaker 1: talked about that on on this set. I mean, having
Speaker 1: been on other sets as a kid, it wasn't always
Speaker 1: like In fact, most of the time it was not that.
Speaker 1: So to have that respect from the adults, especially the
Speaker 1: ones as as experienced and seasoned as you, was such
Speaker 1: an amazing feeling and it made us, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it made us all up our game. I think, Well,
Speaker 1: you also Bill. You you so you talk about in
Speaker 1: your book which is um, there I go again, How
Speaker 1: I came to be Mr Feenie, John Adams, Dr Craig
Speaker 1: kit and many others, which is a wonderful book that
Speaker 1: you wrote. You in the beginning you talk about how
Speaker 1: you were a child actor. Did that affect in any way,
Speaker 1: shape or form how you dealt with us? Yes, oh yes,
Speaker 1: I felt my I haven't mother that put my sister
Speaker 1: and I in the business. She was very judgment soul
Speaker 1: as an ambitious and she was She was a classic
Speaker 1: stage mom in that sense totally. Frankly, I really didn't
Speaker 1: have a normal childhood. I was over at NBC with
Speaker 1: the horn and heart of Children's Hour for years and
Speaker 1: I really kind of resented it, you know, until I realized, uh,
Speaker 1: the better aspects of the work, of what it could mean,
Speaker 1: uh to do your job as best you could, and
Speaker 1: that's there's an audience out there. So she was terrible,
Speaker 1: she was, and I think that and I loved her.
Speaker 1: She was a great grandma, but she was a terrible mother.
Speaker 1: But I think that those early scenes with Ben, I
Speaker 1: think that whether he knew it or not, he was
Speaker 1: then do you know what I mean Bill was then
Speaker 1: this sweet kid, that brand new, you know, as far
Speaker 1: as he knew, just starting to act and just using
Speaker 1: his instincts, no training or anything, just instinctively acting and
Speaker 1: the lovely personality. And I think that's connected Bill to him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: then all of you later. But that shows, I mean
Speaker 1: it certainly shows. Yeah, it shows. And so Bonnie, what
Speaker 1: kind of father? And now what kind of grandfather is Bill?
Speaker 1: What has he? We know Bill as as this, you know, um,
Speaker 1: we remember him being so incredibly professional on set with us.
Speaker 1: I remember him taking his lines very seriously, holding the
Speaker 1: script or his cards that he had where he had
Speaker 1: his lines written, and not wanting to mess up, being
Speaker 1: very hard on himself about being very hard, very hard
Speaker 1: on himself. I saw him once to go up one six.
Speaker 1: He went up where they gave him a new lyric
Speaker 1: and he blew it. He came into the dressing and
Speaker 1: went into the bathroom and wouldn't come out. He was
Speaker 1: crying in the bathroom. And this was as a grown man,
Speaker 1: you know, and everybody else was laughing. Yeah, no one,
Speaker 1: It wasn't a big deal to anyone of that. Like
Speaker 1: you guys would you'd laugh and somebody he just he
Speaker 1: would cry because he was still a little boy, and
Speaker 1: his mother saying, can't you get that that's so hard
Speaker 1: to get again? Do it again? And then he sit
Speaker 1: in the backseat of the card and do it correctly
Speaker 1: for her, darting to know what kind of father is he? He?
Speaker 1: You know, I was so worried. Well I was Alice
Speaker 1: actress anyway, but so I didn't want to have children,
Speaker 1: and Bill wanted to have children more than I did.
Speaker 1: But I thought, no, this wouldn't work because very frankly,
Speaker 1: he was an angry guy, and I thought he would
Speaker 1: be tough on kids, you know, I thought you would be.
Speaker 1: I was afraid. And then as it turned out, he
Speaker 1: was a terrific father. And he both the boys, I
Speaker 1: think they were very different, and he adjusted to each
Speaker 1: one h two so that they could be who they
Speaker 1: wanted to be and who they were. He didn't ever
Speaker 1: try to He never tried to make either of our
Speaker 1: voice like him or to do anything that special. Just
Speaker 1: grow up and they're very different, and they they they've
Speaker 1: turned out to be very wonderful men and fathers themselves.
Speaker 1: So he was a very good father. Well, that was
Speaker 1: one of the things that amazed me. Was what I
Speaker 1: like to call the two Bills, and I'm one of
Speaker 1: the few people that got to see that. Where you know,
Speaker 1: on set, Bill, you were the consummate professional. We just
Speaker 1: wanted to earn your approval and have scenes with you.
Speaker 1: We were all going to Michael at different times saying
Speaker 1: we can we please have a scene with Bill Daniels.
Speaker 1: This is all we wanted. And then you both very
Speaker 1: nicely invited me to come up to Santa Barbara because you, Bonnie,
Speaker 1: we were working with a ballet company and I had
Speaker 1: grown up going to the ballet and you said I'd
Speaker 1: like you to come up. And I got to to
Speaker 1: hang out with Bill off the set a little bit,
Speaker 1: and the first thing he did was walk up to
Speaker 1: me with a big smile on his face and throw
Speaker 1: his arms around me. And I looked around, going like,
Speaker 1: what's going on? Who is this guy? But it's because
Speaker 1: we weren't on set. It wasn't a professional atmosphere, and
Speaker 1: so he was on set. This is about work. This
Speaker 1: is what you do. This is your job. You take
Speaker 1: it very seriously. And then offset you can go and
Speaker 1: be the type of happy, go lucky person you want
Speaker 1: to be and That was one of the first times
Speaker 1: where I really realized that. That really struck me as, Oh,
Speaker 1: you're right, you're yes, we're having fun, and yes we're young,
Speaker 1: but this is our job. We've got to take it
Speaker 1: very seriously. And we all as young actors have talked
Speaker 1: about going to our next job after Boy Meets World
Speaker 1: and being on time, knowing our lines, making sure we
Speaker 1: had our marks down, being very professional, and looking at
Speaker 1: the other kids we were working with, going wow, they
Speaker 1: did not have William Daniels on the set with them
Speaker 1: when they were learning how to do because we all
Speaker 1: took away the professionalism. Um. So that's one of the
Speaker 1: things that I think, you know, meant the most to me,
Speaker 1: was just kind of oh, that this is how you're
Speaker 1: a professional. Um. He's very much more professional than I
Speaker 1: am too. I can be. Uh, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: love camera, I love to be on camera, I love
Speaker 1: all that, but I don't prepare the way he does.
Speaker 1: I prepare very differently and I might say a line
Speaker 1: differently than it's written or something like that, and he
Speaker 1: does not believe in that. And uh, he's not what
Speaker 1: can I say, He's never allowed himself to be um
Speaker 1: loose like Ed Bagley something like that. You know. He
Speaker 1: he doesn't allow that. He doesn't allow and he's really
Speaker 1: good at it because he's funny. He has he has
Speaker 1: a natural wit. And that's what improvisation needs, is that wit,
Speaker 1: and that it is very good in uh say elsewhere
Speaker 1: for instance, the wit. It's very important. He's always at that.
Speaker 1: He said, a serious play always needs humor, you know,
Speaker 1: because you've gotta have it. He will always look for
Speaker 1: the funny, the funny bit. And in that play, you
Speaker 1: missed the funny part. He says that to me all
Speaker 1: the time. Thousand Poles in a thousand comes as a
Speaker 1: line of where the guy says, you missed the funny part,
Speaker 1: and he uses all those lines today. Very he's very
Speaker 1: tough on me. I'm set, but I don't mind it,
Speaker 1: do you know what I mean? I just don't know it.
Speaker 1: But he's openly tough on me. Yes, And he can
Speaker 1: be a tough guy, very tough guy. I remember Bill,
Speaker 1: you telling me about opening night of the Zoo Story,
Speaker 1: the Great Edward I'll Be play that you started on Broadway,
Speaker 1: And I remember you telling me that when the first
Speaker 1: line came out, you were you were, I forget the
Speaker 1: character's name, but you're the sort of straight man on
Speaker 1: the bench, and the guy comes up behind you and says,
Speaker 1: I've been to the zoo, and you just looked up,
Speaker 1: and just by your look, the audience broken laughs, And
Speaker 1: I remember every and then I remember and then you said, Edward,
Speaker 1: I'll be freaked out the first night because he was like,
Speaker 1: why are they laughing? This isn't funny. This is supposed
Speaker 1: to be a very serious play. But you guys kept
Speaker 1: finding laughs. And I've always remembered that such a great play.
Speaker 1: Hey didn't he didn't know the right you know, even
Speaker 1: though he wrote it. And I didn't know it either.
Speaker 1: But all I did was look up. But you know,
Speaker 1: because that's a funny line. I've been to the zoo,
Speaker 1: you know. And we learned to accept it because it
Speaker 1: meant that the audience was with you right away. And
Speaker 1: I thought I was just this guy sitting on the bench.
Speaker 1: He had all the lines right. But they realized after
Speaker 1: a while that they saw the play through my eyes
Speaker 1: about him, who was a strange fellow, you know. I
Speaker 1: realized that wasn't just a sit there part. It was
Speaker 1: a very important important part of the play. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I mean it's in some ways. I mean also what
Speaker 1: you did with Mr Feeney, you get so many laughs
Speaker 1: without ever having to be very uh animated. You know,
Speaker 1: there's not a whole lot of like he didn't know,
Speaker 1: You're not comical here, You're you're kind of just a
Speaker 1: version of build in both right, just sort of and
Speaker 1: yet you are getting so many laughs constantly, you know,
Speaker 1: and I feel like the rest of us are hamming
Speaker 1: it up for hitting these beats and you never have
Speaker 1: to do a thing. You just kind of But that's
Speaker 1: exactly why Mr Feeney and Eric worked so well together,
Speaker 1: because they were such just opposites when it came to
Speaker 1: everything comedically that it did. Were it just worked. It
Speaker 1: was that the classic straight man, uh joker clown put together,
Speaker 1: and it's that's where you find the comedy. It's it's amazing.
Speaker 1: And well, I was one of the greatest compliments I
Speaker 1: ever got. We were about season six of Boy Mets
Speaker 1: World and Bill, you came up to me and you
Speaker 1: put your arm around me, and it said, it looks
Speaker 1: like you're my new ed Bagley and you and you
Speaker 1: walked away, and it was I remember just thinking, like
Speaker 1: that is the coolest thing. And I'm going to go
Speaker 1: buy a tesla Um and so yeah, very very neat,
Speaker 1: very Bill. You played Mr Braddock in The Grad to
Speaker 1: it an absolutely iconic movie and iconic role. What did
Speaker 1: you learn from Mike Nichols? Oh, well, Mike was a
Speaker 1: performer himself with Elaine Man. He would pick people carefully
Speaker 1: and then he would direct them only minimally. He didn't
Speaker 1: He let you alone unless he saw something that was wrong.
Speaker 1: But uh, he just let you alone. And I don't
Speaker 1: remember any actual direction that he gave me. Interesting, let
Speaker 1: me do it the way I was going to do it.
Speaker 1: It's more about the casting yeast place. And he fired
Speaker 1: people when he felt they were wrong, and he always
Speaker 1: stood was my mistake. I made the mistake. He fired
Speaker 1: a very very famous actor was retired. Now he was
Speaker 1: cast and and and he fired him. Oh gosh, he
Speaker 1: lives in Santa Fe. Uh, he retired. He was a
Speaker 1: great film actor, very big star of He thought that
Speaker 1: was the end of this his life. What Gene Ackman
Speaker 1: Jen Hackman oterally in The Graduate? No way, he got
Speaker 1: fired before they started filming. And uh, he was with Bill.
Speaker 1: He said to me, this is the end of my career,
Speaker 1: and uh, Bill said oh, and of course he went
Speaker 1: on to fame unfortune immediately. But anyway, Mike just said,
Speaker 1: I made a mistake. We got the cast together and
Speaker 1: the apologized about letting Jane go. He said it was
Speaker 1: my mistake. His Yeah, well, this isn't interesting. Something that
Speaker 1: I've often wondered about. It seems like because I I
Speaker 1: remember you telling us that you had no idea what
Speaker 1: the graduate was, that it would become such a big thing,
Speaker 1: and I feel like that's often the case as an actor.
Speaker 1: You never know, you know, you never was there ever
Speaker 1: a time where you were able to look around and say,
Speaker 1: oh I am a part of something really special, or
Speaker 1: you knew exactly how big something was going to be. Yes,
Speaker 1: I think it's a truism that no one knows what's
Speaker 1: gonna work and what isn't until they tried it and
Speaker 1: the graduate was born with them. You know, we didn't
Speaker 1: know this young man, I think Mike him, Yes he did.
Speaker 1: Mike Nichols knew. Yeah, he saw him off Broadway and
Speaker 1: they wanted Redford the Studio one and Robin, but typical
Speaker 1: good hand Mike said, no, I want this guy from
Speaker 1: New York and he was in a position to call
Speaker 1: all the shots at that point because he had been
Speaker 1: very successful and he did. He had already done. He
Speaker 1: was afraid of Virginia Woolf. Yeah, so it was an
Speaker 1: interesting experience. It was very funny. Mike. Oh god, he
Speaker 1: couldn't make anybody laugh at any given time. I remember, Uh,
Speaker 1: they were photographing dustin in the in the pool and
Speaker 1: he was going over it with the cinematographer because they
Speaker 1: had a guy underwater that was going to shoot up
Speaker 1: underwater from one point of view. And I came over
Speaker 1: to see how it was being done. And he's talking
Speaker 1: to his cinematographer and he senses I'm there, and he says,
Speaker 1: what to me? What I said, I just wanted to
Speaker 1: see how how you were going to shoot this. He
Speaker 1: turned to a spot, said why has he attacking me?
Speaker 1: He would he would call it if I asked the phone.
Speaker 1: He said, Bonnie. And then I said, oh, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: He said, did we we we ever married? I remember you?
Speaker 1: He said no, no, No, I never met you. He
Speaker 1: said yes. He said you were very big in my life.
Speaker 1: He said you were Strasburg secretary, and uh, you were
Speaker 1: very important. And I paid thirty dollars of them, and I, oh, no,
Speaker 1: I don't remember. And finally I said, well, if I
Speaker 1: had known you were going to be so famous, I
Speaker 1: would have remembered. I was so embarrassed I did not.
Speaker 1: How do you forget Mike Nichols? I had? So I
Speaker 1: have a question for you, Bill, your your career has
Speaker 1: been so prolific. Is there a role that you really
Speaker 1: wanted that you didn't get ever that you can remember?
Speaker 1: You know what? I can sort of answer that because
Speaker 1: he has been quoting Hamlet all of our married lives,
Speaker 1: and I think that, although he never expressed it even
Speaker 1: to himself, I think he identified with that part very
Speaker 1: much and would like to have played that. He was
Speaker 1: very good in Shakespeare. He was a Macbeth, very good
Speaker 1: Micbel especially in the later part. Uh, that was that
Speaker 1: Northwestern But I know, but you were good, and you
Speaker 1: were very good at older and you must have done
Speaker 1: Lady Macbeth bonny at point right. Yeah, I was good
Speaker 1: on a sleepwalking seem not so good in the first part.
Speaker 1: That's harder, the hard party, the letter, Yeah, tough to
Speaker 1: come on and do that well, and it was I
Speaker 1: would have I would have directed it totally differently than
Speaker 1: they do. I would have now, yeah, and you know something,
Speaker 1: it's maybe it's because it's Shakespeare, but it never is
Speaker 1: out of my head, come back all the time, and
Speaker 1: he does lines from from Shakespeare all the time, you know,
Speaker 1: just quietly sitting there. But I do think a little
Speaker 1: bit a terrific Hamlet it would have been. Bill. Do
Speaker 1: you remember the feeling you had or was there a
Speaker 1: specific moment when you knew that Boy Meets World was
Speaker 1: a hit. When did you know Boy Meets World was
Speaker 1: a hit? Gosh, I don't remember. I'm guessing it was
Speaker 1: before having to run away from all the people in
Speaker 1: New York. It was that it was that New York imperience. Yeah,
Speaker 1: ye see. I think I think none of us really
Speaker 1: quite realized how much of a hit the show was
Speaker 1: until after it was killed. But it wasn't like early huh.
Speaker 1: It wasn't really a hit. It was on, but we
Speaker 1: were never We never got any of the publicity that
Speaker 1: every other show got. We just didn't you or anything. No,
Speaker 1: just kept going. We were like Wings for kids. It
Speaker 1: was a show everyone's like. Wasn't Wings on for a season?
Speaker 1: It's like no, we was on for eight years. It
Speaker 1: was one of those who would ever have imagine how
Speaker 1: this has come back, How they love you all and
Speaker 1: they want to see you all and they wanted you know.
Speaker 1: It's it's kind of amazing. Okay, I have another question
Speaker 1: than Bill. Do you have a Mr. Feenie type in
Speaker 1: your life or an educator that you think back to
Speaker 1: that really like made such a huge impact on you.
Speaker 1: I was in a play on the roadway. Actually I
Speaker 1: was an understudy, but it was a play with four
Speaker 1: sons called Life with Fallow and I was the understudy
Speaker 1: and as the oldest, got to be eighteen and was drafted.
Speaker 1: That all move up and then I found myself at
Speaker 1: the bottom of the list. And but Mr Lindsay came
Speaker 1: back into the play after have him taken a year
Speaker 1: off of it Howard to play Howard Lindsay the play
Speaker 1: Graham for seven years. Wow, was a huge hit. So
Speaker 1: I know that I was going to be drafted. First
Speaker 1: of all, you got to rehearse with him, and that
Speaker 1: was the thing when he came back into the play,
Speaker 1: that's when you got together. Yes, oh yeah, he oh,
Speaker 1: he had a he had a moment with me where
Speaker 1: uh and we're in rehearsal because he came back to
Speaker 1: the play and he had to rehearse to get into it.
Speaker 1: The bill was already in it. Yeah, so uh, he said,
Speaker 1: at this point there'll be a huge laugh bill. He said,
Speaker 1: so just look in my eyes and it will tell
Speaker 1: you when to do your line. I thought, man, that's
Speaker 1: pretty strange, but it happened. He could release you with
Speaker 1: his eyes to say your line. But you had a
Speaker 1: way because it was a huge laugh and you know
Speaker 1: those laughs go up and then level him and just
Speaker 1: start to come down. That's when you come in with
Speaker 1: your line. And that's what he wanted from me. But
Speaker 1: he released me at that moment with his eyes, and
Speaker 1: she was amazing. Man. And then I said. I went
Speaker 1: to him in the dressing room and I said to him, um,
Speaker 1: Mr lindsay, you know I'm gonna be drafted, and when
Speaker 1: I get back, I wanna should I go? I was
Speaker 1: thinking of going to the what was it, the the
Speaker 1: Academy Acting in New York, very famous. Uh. And he said,
Speaker 1: he said, he was at his dressing table. He said
Speaker 1: close the door, and I closed the door and he said,
Speaker 1: don't go there that this. Yeah, he said, I'm on
Speaker 1: the board. Don't go there. He said, what you do
Speaker 1: is you write board of education for colleges that have
Speaker 1: good speech school and drama sections, which I did. I
Speaker 1: wrote the government and I got an board of education.
Speaker 1: I got an answer back and it was Yale uh
Speaker 1: U c l A Northwestern. And so I was out
Speaker 1: with my sister, the one where Walter Kurwest. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: Catholic University. So um, I was out with my sisters
Speaker 1: who were in a play with Walter Houston. My little
Speaker 1: sister was I don't know how old she was seven.
Speaker 1: She played. It was called Apple of his Eye. Walter Houston.
Speaker 1: I think he was a great man. And so I
Speaker 1: I went up there and they gave me a thing
Speaker 1: to test test and I had no ucation. That was
Speaker 1: what That's what Howard Lindsey said. You do that and
Speaker 1: you're going to get an education. He said, you you
Speaker 1: need to get an education. And that's why he said,
Speaker 1: go to college, don't go to the American Actors thing.
Speaker 1: And you all right, so in other words, don't just
Speaker 1: worry about your acting, worry about educating yourself. Education exactly.
Speaker 1: And he was the best. Parents never graduated from high school.
Speaker 1: They never even graduate they never went to high school.
Speaker 1: I have a funny story about that. I my sisters
Speaker 1: were in Chicago in a play with Walter Houston, and
Speaker 1: I was out visiting them, and my mother said, I
Speaker 1: think one of those schools up there somewhere is one
Speaker 1: of the schools that you wrote that was recommended. And
Speaker 1: so I went up with our own appointment, and I
Speaker 1: see this beautiful school on the on the the lake. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the campus and everything, you know, and I didn't
Speaker 1: have much of an education. We were acting as and
Speaker 1: you know we didn't. They were poor, poor Brooklyn, Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: poor Brooklyn, right, And so I went up there and uh,
Speaker 1: I walked around until I found the person who who
Speaker 1: would interview me. And you took the test? They said,
Speaker 1: you were in uniform and you've been on Broadway. I
Speaker 1: took this test and the room was filled with other
Speaker 1: people taking the tests, and I'm looking at it and
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, could be yes, could be well? And pretty
Speaker 1: soon I heard and I look up. It's the teacher
Speaker 1: and he said, are you finished? Well? I wasn't even
Speaker 1: halfway through it. Yeah, I guess so on paper. And
Speaker 1: I got on a train going back down to Chicago,
Speaker 1: and I thought, well, I've blew that, but they accepted me,
Speaker 1: and I think they accepted me because I've been on
Speaker 1: broad Oh yeah. But you know, when he started out,
Speaker 1: when I met Bill, his grades were A, B, C D.
Speaker 1: He had the two speech courses were A and B,
Speaker 1: and then he had the D where political science or
Speaker 1: something which he didn't often take a test or something.
Speaker 1: You know. By the time we ended, he got a
Speaker 1: full scholarship to do for a master's. He was a
Speaker 1: straight A plus plus plus plus because he was a natural,
Speaker 1: but he never I didn't know how to do it,
Speaker 1: and of course I was a professional student, and so
Speaker 1: I just helped him to learn how to be a student,
Speaker 1: and he was top, top up top. Now, Bill, I've
Speaker 1: heard you tell the story before, because you don't have
Speaker 1: a Brooklyn accent at all. You have actually a very
Speaker 1: refined America standard accent, which when I was a kid
Speaker 1: I completely thought was British. I remember asking you, are
Speaker 1: you from London and you just kind of sheepishly went, no,
Speaker 1: it sounds like that. But so you actually you actually
Speaker 1: trained yourself to get your accent from the play that
Speaker 1: you mentioned living with father, right, father, Yes, father, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I kind of picked it up naturally really from the
Speaker 1: other people in the cast, and the Brooklyn accent went
Speaker 1: and it was something like a New England accent, so
Speaker 1: very close to British accent. Uh, And I picked that
Speaker 1: up without realizing it. Uh, when he was It's hard.
Speaker 1: I've never understood it because I know his whole family
Speaker 1: and when he was a little boy, he didn't want
Speaker 1: to be in Brooklyn. He didn't want to go to
Speaker 1: the automat. He was like always, always different. He's totally
Speaker 1: different from his family, and I don't know, you're just
Speaker 1: born that way. I don't know where it comes from.
Speaker 1: But he's totally different from his Everything about him is
Speaker 1: different from his family, except his father was also a
Speaker 1: very angry man, and that the anger he got from
Speaker 1: his dad. What does it mean to you when when
Speaker 1: people come up to you and tell you that they
Speaker 1: themselves have become a teacher because of you and your
Speaker 1: role as Mr Feenie. Oh, well, I thank them and
Speaker 1: I wish them well. Uh, it doesn't happen that often. Oh,
Speaker 1: it happens all the time in the campy os that
Speaker 1: you do. And he's very That makes them very happy,
Speaker 1: because that's real on Bill's part. Education and teachers and
Speaker 1: he just it changed his life and he just loves
Speaker 1: people who become teachers. He does. I mean, Bill, if
Speaker 1: you don't hear it every single day, it is only
Speaker 1: because people end up feeling too shy to tell you,
Speaker 1: because we hear it all the time all the time.
Speaker 1: You have made such an impact for so many different
Speaker 1: reasons over the course of your career, but especially Mr
Speaker 1: Finie has made such an impact on generations of children
Speaker 1: because of the people who were so inspired by you
Speaker 1: that have now gone on to become teachers themselves, and
Speaker 1: they're using you and Mr Finnie as an example of
Speaker 1: what kind of teacher to be. All those all those
Speaker 1: students under those teachers are benefiting from you without even
Speaker 1: knowing it. Well, that's true and in all those parts, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that has come through and I think that's just Bill. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's just who he is, uh, and and the how
Speaker 1: he registers to people. And I don't know what you
Speaker 1: call that. You call it the ultimate definition of lead
Speaker 1: by example. Yes, is what it seems to be. Because
Speaker 1: again with Bill, he never taught us. It was just
Speaker 1: we learned by being around him. So it was that
Speaker 1: lead by example. This is look at what I can
Speaker 1: emulate if I just try a little harder. Um So,
Speaker 1: I think it was that as an actor, something comes
Speaker 1: through that is I think special. Yeah, absolutely, of course.
Speaker 1: Well they they talk about it or the X factor,
Speaker 1: those are those are words you hear all the time
Speaker 1: that well, how do you describe it? You can't you
Speaker 1: You point at it, and I think that's yeah. I
Speaker 1: think Bill's got it in spades. Yeah. Yeah. What are
Speaker 1: your Marie's of being on boy Meat's World? Well, it
Speaker 1: was so fun and easy. I had never been terribly
Speaker 1: comfortable on uh sitcom's. I I'm better as a dramatic actress,
Speaker 1: very dramatic and um uh so I had been on
Speaker 1: Barney Miller and it was very successful funny shows I
Speaker 1: did okay, and then I did that Golden Girls. I
Speaker 1: didn't think anything of it until much later, and then
Speaker 1: that character became the mean belong with Western you know,
Speaker 1: behind the scenes terrible lady, um which I knew how
Speaker 1: to do. But uh so, when Michael asked me to
Speaker 1: do it, I was kind of flattered. And he never
Speaker 1: asked me to do the only thing he ever asked
Speaker 1: me to do I couldn't do was put my we
Speaker 1: spend half an hour trying to get click fingers. Finally said,
Speaker 1: I give up. I can be funny in a different way,
Speaker 1: but it's not his way. It's it's totally different. But
Speaker 1: I don't have that. I don't have that funny bone. Well,
Speaker 1: but what you both do? You both you both have
Speaker 1: the set. It's just that you have different senses. If
Speaker 1: you mean funny you are an Emmy winner, yes, and
Speaker 1: very funny. You're also very funny. It's just it's it's
Speaker 1: I remember Bill telling me, well, yes, you're sure you are.
Speaker 1: It's just a different it comes out. Bill is very
Speaker 1: quick when it comes to that kind of kind of
Speaker 1: you know. We we will do conventions together and Bill
Speaker 1: might only say two or three things on stage, but
Speaker 1: they bring the house down. I mean, the timing is perfect,
Speaker 1: the line is perfect. Bill. I remember you telling me
Speaker 1: one story about a joke on st elsewhere that you
Speaker 1: thought was hysterical, where you were playing the piano and
Speaker 1: there was a a vase of flowers on the piano.
Speaker 1: Do you remember Do you remember this joke? This was
Speaker 1: Bruce Paltrow's and the Riders jokes. They always tried to
Speaker 1: fool the sensors. Yeah, to put in something very dirty
Speaker 1: and the sensors won't get it. Really is such such
Speaker 1: a great joke too. That was their big thing. And
Speaker 1: what was it? That's true? Two lips on the peatto,
Speaker 1: two lips on the organ, two lips on the organ.
Speaker 1: Bill was sitting there playing and he said, there's nothing
Speaker 1: better than two lips on the organ. He thought it
Speaker 1: was crap, he said, so he would say two lips
Speaker 1: on the organ, and they said no, no, no, two
Speaker 1: lips on the organ. No, no, Kes. It was a
Speaker 1: great joke. I remember you telling me that and just
Speaker 1: losing it for days. Tulips on the organ. Oh my gosh. Wow.
Speaker 1: Well are there any actors you wish you could work
Speaker 1: with again? Bill? I mean no pressure to say, us
Speaker 1: sitting here, you know, just wondering, like, of all the
Speaker 1: amazing actors you've worked with, are there any actors you'd
Speaker 1: love to work with again? They're all dead. We can't anybody. Yeah,
Speaker 1: process of elimination. I remember our show with just Affection.
Speaker 1: I really had a great time on the show and
Speaker 1: with your kids when you were kids, and it turned
Speaker 1: out very well. Is it as it turned out? So
Speaker 1: I remember it very well. We remember it very well too,
Speaker 1: and we are very fortunate as well mentioned that we
Speaker 1: get to do can meventions with you and we get
Speaker 1: to see you regularly. And I know how much that
Speaker 1: means to fans too, that they get to tell you
Speaker 1: how much you mean to them. You are very special
Speaker 1: in so many people's lives, and um, you know, I
Speaker 1: can very easily cry thinking about that last scene that
Speaker 1: we did with you at the end of our show,
Speaker 1: and for all the years we worked together, Um, there
Speaker 1: was something so gosh seeing you and being with you
Speaker 1: in that last scene in the classroom really nailed home
Speaker 1: for me that this was the end of an era.
Speaker 1: And it also was very much the end of my childhood.
Speaker 1: I had been on Boy Meat's World from twelve until
Speaker 1: I was nineteen years old, and knowing the show was
Speaker 1: over and saying goodbye to all of these people and
Speaker 1: saying goodbye to all of these experiences that had really shaped,
Speaker 1: you know, the majority of my life at this point. Um,
Speaker 1: you just you are very special to me and I
Speaker 1: will love you and appreciate you forever. And I'm so
Speaker 1: lucky that I still get to see you and talk
Speaker 1: to you regularly. And I went to your book signing
Speaker 1: I waited in line outside and um, when they found
Speaker 1: out I was outside, Bell was like, what are you
Speaker 1: doing waiting in line? You could have told me you
Speaker 1: were coming. I was like, I wanted I wanted the experience.
Speaker 1: I wanted to do it like everyone else. So just
Speaker 1: thank you for everything. You know. I think your show
Speaker 1: was one of the healthiest shows, the healthiest comedies. I
Speaker 1: think one of the reasons it. And you know, I
Speaker 1: say that we need that and people need that now,
Speaker 1: that kind of healthy thing that was part of that show.
Speaker 1: It really was. Yeah, Yeah, we love you, Bill. I
Speaker 1: don't know what else to say. We love you, Bonnie,
Speaker 1: thank you both. Thank you so much for everything. I
Speaker 1: cherish our memories and conversations. I'm so grateful all the time.
Speaker 1: And here's too many, many more of them, because we
Speaker 1: want to have you back, because we're just scraping the
Speaker 1: surface of Mr Feenie and Bill and Bond. I feel
Speaker 1: like you're afraid to cry. Well, but you're you're out
Speaker 1: of out of all of us, you are the closest
Speaker 1: to Bill and Bond. I don't cry ever, except that
Speaker 1: feed the birds when they sing that in Mary Poppins.
Speaker 1: Everything else is not sad. At all. Now we we
Speaker 1: we've got to know each other very well over the years,
Speaker 1: all of us, and it's, uh, it's it's just amazing
Speaker 1: that we've been able to share all these experiences. So
Speaker 1: thank you for coming, both of you. Thank you. We
Speaker 1: really appreciate it. We love you, guys, We love you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Wo oh man. They're so wonderful and so
Speaker 1: stories that man has, the life they have lived is
Speaker 1: just amazing. Watching their shorthand communication where Bill we'll start
Speaker 1: to get like he's telling a story and then he'll
Speaker 1: start to get distracted and think what was that? What
Speaker 1: was my point? And he'll just look at her and
Speaker 1: she'll go and then and she gives him like and
Speaker 1: he's like right, and like watching their shorthand together is
Speaker 1: just amazing. It's incredible. You know, it's fine. We we've
Speaker 1: talked a lot about that, you know, just recognizing how
Speaker 1: old everyone like when we were kids, everyone was just
Speaker 1: blanket adults. Like by the time they were on that
Speaker 1: we met them, I mean, the wealth of acting experience
Speaker 1: and like industry experience, Like I just I just can't
Speaker 1: believe I didn't take more advantage of it, you know,
Speaker 1: because I think in at the time. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is just part of being an adolescent. You think you
Speaker 1: know everything, and obviously, like I knew Bill had done
Speaker 1: a lot, but um, you know, I I just wish
Speaker 1: I had a tape recorder. I can go back in
Speaker 1: time and ask him about all those things. Just every
Speaker 1: dormce in a while he would just open up his
Speaker 1: mouth and tell the story like the Zoo story, Broadway
Speaker 1: and or working on the Graduate or any of them
Speaker 1: in every single one of them are their legendary. Uh
Speaker 1: So it's you know, it's it's one of those things
Speaker 1: like you you realize almost too late, always like oh,
Speaker 1: we should have been writing this now. Yeah, well again though,
Speaker 1: when you're a kid, you know your life is gonna
Speaker 1: last forever, and you you know, we were taking every
Speaker 1: day for granted that we were while we were on
Speaker 1: the set of Boy Throw. And you're not thinking about
Speaker 1: your craft when you're thirteen fourteen, I mean not at all,
Speaker 1: And you also think you also have this weird thing
Speaker 1: like I don't know at least I did where Um
Speaker 1: I guess, I guess I just didn't. You just don't
Speaker 1: think of your career beyond the one. The moment you're issure,
Speaker 1: you know, like the idea that like, well, boy, mean's
Speaker 1: world is gonna end and and then you might be
Speaker 1: on in like fifty other TV shows like Bill Daniels.
Speaker 1: That was just impossible to imagine, you know. But like
Speaker 1: at that point they had already they had a full
Speaker 1: the whole life of of acting and being in the business,
Speaker 1: which I just don't think you can recognize as a teenager.
Speaker 1: You just think that, like it's always just gonna be
Speaker 1: like this forever, not realizing that, like, first of all,
Speaker 1: the chances of you being a to continue working are
Speaker 1: so slim because you have to, you know, just get
Speaker 1: the jobs and then just to have the tenacity and
Speaker 1: the willpower to stick it out. It's so hard. It's
Speaker 1: so hard, and to be positive about to have a
Speaker 1: positive attitude. I mean, you know, there's a reason that
Speaker 1: most people stop acting in their twenties, especially when you
Speaker 1: were a child actor forced into the industry, which he was,
Speaker 1: I mean, if you read his book, he was there
Speaker 1: and he talked about it in the interview, but he,
Speaker 1: I mean forced into the industry. And we've talked about
Speaker 1: how easy it is to get that love of entertainment
Speaker 1: or love of acting, just beating out of you at
Speaker 1: at a young age, and for him to then take
Speaker 1: his own career by the reins and go, no, now
Speaker 1: I'm in charge. I'm gonna learn the craft and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go from there. It's so rare and just amazing
Speaker 1: to have that longevity in this industry and and hit
Speaker 1: every single version of the industry from Broadway to play
Speaker 1: to regular players to Broadway to understudying too. I mean
Speaker 1: he's hit every possible sitcom drop, you name it, he's
Speaker 1: done it. Yeah, I mean voiceover. I mean he was
Speaker 1: a kid, a night Rider he was. We didn't even
Speaker 1: talk about kids. We didn't even get any writer. I mean, well,
Speaker 1: that was a question. That's a question I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you guys, what was your knowledge of Bill Daniels
Speaker 1: when you met him or what did you know him
Speaker 1: from when you when when you met him on set?
Speaker 1: I had three very important things to me. Kid from
Speaker 1: night Rider was very important to me. Um obviously, UM
Speaker 1: the graduate, just as you know a someone who loved
Speaker 1: film quote unquote, but you know secretly so you already
Speaker 1: need a graduate. So I already absolutely need a graduate.
Speaker 1: But I also knew, Um it's not called death becomes
Speaker 1: or what's it called. There's a the Ferdel family has.
Speaker 1: We were big movie fans, but it was always kind
Speaker 1: of shlocky movies, like wait, I know which one you're
Speaker 1: gonna say, because this was my answer, which yes, yes,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that's how That's what I realized because
Speaker 1: I was sitting here because I I thought of this
Speaker 1: question and I was like, what was the name of
Speaker 1: that movie? Because it was the only thing I really
Speaker 1: knew Bill from. It's a movie with Tom sell He's
Speaker 1: like erotic thriller, Tom Selleck. Paulina Poraskova, who's who's a
Speaker 1: supermodel and she plays Tom Selleck's girl, like the girlfriend.
Speaker 1: And then there's Bill Daniels who's like his his his
Speaker 1: literary agent. He's a novelist's exactly. I mean it. It's
Speaker 1: definitely of that tradition like in the late eighties, early nineties,
Speaker 1: those sort of like tight thrillery. You know, it was
Speaker 1: a comedic thriller. You guys, this this is nuts. I
Speaker 1: didn't know he was in that movie. But that movie
Speaker 1: plays a very integral part in my childhood stories really
Speaker 1: because yes, because my parents had rented it from like
Speaker 1: Blockbuster and it was on the kitchen counter, and my
Speaker 1: brother walked by and said, what's her alibi? And it
Speaker 1: was just one of those moments where like one of
Speaker 1: those family jokes where everything was it's her relieb it's
Speaker 1: her relieving. And we've told that story a million times
Speaker 1: of Oh remember the time christ thott Alm I was
Speaker 1: a leading We should we should have brought this up
Speaker 1: to Bill, because I mean, I was his career, in
Speaker 1: his career, I'm so curious where her alibi falls. It
Speaker 1: must be so low on one important career, miles seriously,
Speaker 1: But for me, that's exactly what I knew him from me.
Speaker 1: And then it wasn't until we're filming our third or
Speaker 1: fourth episode and we were doing a note session with
Speaker 1: Michael Jacobs and Bill leaned forward and said, now, Michael, Michael,
Speaker 1: and I went, I know that voice. And I hadn't.
Speaker 1: I hadn't really grown up with TV, but I did
Speaker 1: know night Writer because of course everybody in school would
Speaker 1: talk about night Rider, and so I knew his voice
Speaker 1: the second I heard. And I remember going to Universal
Speaker 1: Studios as a kid, and you could go talk to
Speaker 1: kid and they had somebody doing an impersonation of those
Speaker 1: are the only two things I knew him from everything
Speaker 1: else I had to learn while working with him because
Speaker 1: he would never talk about stuff either, like you know,
Speaker 1: he would never brag. You would never And that's why
Speaker 1: getting Bonnie on the show was so fun because she
Speaker 1: would come in and in front of him start telling
Speaker 1: Bill Daniel stories. Yeah, and she was kind of like
Speaker 1: pulling the curtain back and and you could tell she
Speaker 1: loved to do that, and you could tell Bill did not,
Speaker 1: like it's an angry man exactly. I thought it was
Speaker 1: a horrible father. She's so honest and I love it.
Speaker 1: One of the first moments I can remember actually connecting
Speaker 1: with not connecting with Bill, but going up and saying,
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk to him, and jes see, I
Speaker 1: quoted him to him from her alibi and you went, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: like that was it because I I just it was.
Speaker 1: It was like okay, because that was what we did
Speaker 1: in our family. My family, we are huge movie quote people.
Speaker 1: So I was like, I'm gonna go quote it to
Speaker 1: the guy. And it didn't go over that. It's like
Speaker 1: ed balloon. That's so funny. Anyway, that was amazing. I'm
Speaker 1: so glad, I'm so glad they were here. Oh man,
Speaker 1: I could talk to him forever. Alright, So up next
Speaker 1: we are going to talk. Episode number one, oh three,
Speaker 1: Father Knows Less. It is directed by David Trainer. Originally
Speaker 1: aired October and Yeah, thank you for being here with us.
Speaker 1: You can follow us on Instagram at Pod Meets World Show,
Speaker 1: and you can also email us your questions or your
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Speaker 1: I guess he's I don't wear my hair on my shirt.
Speaker 1: I don't wear shirts. That's the riders like I don't
Speaker 1: wear shirts. He's too much much shirt much shirts. We
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