Scott Bakula | Ep. 13

uh this weekend uh I'm going to take it easy it's been quite a week hasn't it I mean we've uh this been an odd week for the show um you know we had uh someone someone had to reschedule so we had to sort of uh duck and dive a bit and uh dance some and and cranked out three and we cranked out three baby yeah and uh yeah we brought change of costumes that's right just to just to make it look real right exactly and uh but you know um you know we like to we like to be prepped for our people and it's it's you know it's it's it's been a week yeah yeah a good week some very good conversations and uh I think our our audience uh and uh our supporters are going to love who we've got coming on man I think so I mean so I mean I wish I could tell them all now but uh you wait and see yeah yeah it's nice to see that person yeah yeah no kidding yeah andless we forget we should never forget you should never forget this please everyone uh it's very important that you like and subscribe and uh if you can find it in your heart and your pocketbook as I always say please join us on patreon um it really makes an extraordinary difference uh and it will keep the lights on and keep this show going for as long as you will tune in you can really help us out there so the Decon chamber yeah YouTube and Instagram Twitter onx Facebook yes everywhere and I wonder audio now is and on Apple podcast and Spotify has begun set your phasers to fun you're guaranteed for a trip trip trip trip step into the Deon with con and it's the Deon chamber ladies and gentlemen boys and girls trekkies and trekers welcome back to another episode actually scratch that this is not just another episode this is truly a very very special episode of the Deon chamber if I might borrow and slightly embellish the iconic line from Mr Walt Whitman Oh Captain our captain uh Connor and I will forever be in this gentleman's debt for having given us frankly four of the most precious glorious funfilled memorable years of Our Lives yeah um it was I'm going to get emotional I thought I might uh you already are it's too late he was our Mentor he was our best mate uh he was a big brother he was a leader and uh he made those years absolutely joyous ladies and gentlemen a Golden Globe award winner uh a four prime time Emmy Award nominee a Tony Award nominee and and Les we forget the Canada Dry man himself finally Mr Scott bacula thank you for coming on the show mate it is such an an honor to see you here I I thought I was going to get emotional and I did we've walked down the memory lane with a few people in the last couple of years and uh the more we get into the weeds of of what that show meant to us and uh the longer the time goes by the more we understand uh just what a me you were mate and um well we were so lucky to have you well I'm I'm a little overwhelmed by the introduction but you're very kind and uh it's good to see you both it really is and it's it's I'm I'm I'm honored to be here sitting with you just as it was a joy spending four years knuckling around the way we did yeah um and creating something that I think we're all proud of and and still my understanding is it continues to grow in popularity and and uh uh you know if you're going to spend as much time as we spent together I was lucky to have it between you two guys and the rest of the game but it really it was it was special time and and I can see I can get choked up seeing get you seeing you get choked up gets me choked up because I I feel the same way no you never cried you're not a crier I can't cry had the Ducks removed that's right of all your casts we must have been the favorite of course of course but I was going to ask between my favorite cast members here today between the two of us who was your favorite I know the answer but you're still an incredibly busy man I mean you just got back from New York haven't you at the MCC yeah uh starring in uh a brand new piece called the connector yeah uh a couple of fans came up to my table at a convention in San Francisco just now and said they'd gone specially to see it and how wonderful it was and uh uh what do you get off with something like that that's that was what's his name Jason Robert brown brown who was like you know he's a big he's a big to- do isn't he I mean he's he's a real deal and uh and and and Daisy Prince yes direct also and Jonathan Sherman who wrote the book and uh yeah I did I did get offered it um which was a lovely thing it's something that I've been talking about for years that I wanted to go back to the theater I mean you guys heard me talk about it I'm sure over the but I always feel like I always felt like I wanted to end back on the theater and doing musicals because Connor loves musicals so much so much let me the only would have made it better if it was Sweeney Todd because that's absolutely his favorite musical ever he loves he loves actors singing on stage oh yeah I don't forget stuff you don't the fact and our best mate actually Dave tap here took us all out to go and see Aladdin last weekend I had not been to a big musical like that in a long time and I got to tell you it's uh we were front row and it's it's an experience yeah uh the chat playing Aladdin was fantastic and the guy playing the genie yes was mesmeric and uh what a voice yeah you still go you still you go to singing lessons every week still yeah you do don't you with Chelsea yeah yeah Chelsea and we have a we have actually a group now it's kind of like a class if you will but our our voice teacher as as life goes on um our first voice teachers that we had when we were together both of them passed away and their son who taught voice in New York Steve swetland um moved out to LA and he kind of took over he kind of retired but took over there their um their students and he just passed away also two years ago and uh we continued in his last year of his life we kind of he said I can't teach anymore but why don't you guys come over on a Friday and whoever wants to sing and one of the students plays a piano so we formed this kind of group and he passed in a very interesting way and um the last he passed on a Saturday the the last Friday we were all singing in his living room and he was in the bed in the back he couldn't get out of the bed anymore and we all went in said goodbye to him and he passed the next morning so so we've continued that group so we sing every every Friday you never walk alone there you you started singing uh quite young didn't you you have fairly musical family yeah there's a piano and uh dad was a concer pist wasn't he yeah yeah he played the yes and and a lawyer and a proper lawyer yeah yeah yeah but no we've a disappointment you tell that oh my God yes um but uh we got past that eventually the disappointment but uh no just my mom musical singer uh she taught drama in school when she was a school teacher um so um we were around that I was surrounded by it growing up and and I got some opportunities at a very young age to do some musical things musical um op operettas no one was at church one was at with a choir from school it was just just little different things and I had a rock and roll band and starting in the fourth grade and and I loved doing that and then started you know writing music and doing all that and and one thing led to doing musicals and then I and I love musicals my parents used to go to New York like once a year and they would bring back albums right in the in the day and they bring back here's Andre Lansbury D work at the at some easing club didn't he or something uh he went to Princeton and yeah that was right and he he sort of met and got an idea for it there yeah he went with the the guys that had money would take him into New York and he'd see shows and he loved that so my he and my mom would go back and they'd bring home albums and we would play the albums until they were you couldn't play them anymore and and I just you know that was kind of something I fell in love with never ever dreamed that I would be doing doing this I thought maybe well I never dreamed that I would be doing anything except you know probably being a lawyer and living in St Louis my whole life at what point did you get on stage the first time like going to say proper musical or proper play uh seventh grade doing I was a musical as an English chap wrote it um manati called Amal and the Night Visitors it's a famous Christmas show that's done all the time and usually it's done the young the young boy in it is usually played by a young girl because it's a boy soprano and they don't usually they can't usually find them it's easier to find a girl and make her look like a boy and they're British and they're yeah yes they've reversed the years of not letting women work so they just said we'll we'll let the women now take the young boys roles so anyway so I that was my first big was the hook sort of set then yeah yeah I had some great adults in the in the show with me they accepted my uh immaturity in terms of being an actor and they encouraged me and uh and then there was this uh national tour for Godspell wasn't there that that was the first time you were going to like I'm not going to college Dad yeah here come the bright lights yes I'm I'm leaving home and then that fell apart it fell apart yeah that was it was kind of a disaster lots of things fell things fell apart at the time but yeah I just I I'd done two years of going to the University of Kansas and partying pretty much the whole time the whole time yeah and uh and had some great buddies and had a great time but academically it wasn't pleasant to me or fulfilling and so the last semester I was there I switched to theater thinking well that's what I really want to do and my parents said sure switch to that you can still go back to being a lawyer or whatever when you know when you graduate because and I was like well I'll be a a um a trial lawyer so I can you know I get up and you you know I know that feeling too sounded good right rumold at the Bailey was was my that's what I was going to do then did you ever read any law I mean tedious oh no there it is the first one thank you dropping it uh no my brother became a lawyer though and and uh uh lost his eyesight you know in law school because he had to read sit in those stacks and just read those tiny little books and those tiny little print and but I I uh I dodged that so and I and I and I left school to to do this tour and the tour fell apart did it actually do did you do any dates or never even got to a it just was supposed to start in September school starts in August I had to make a decision I said I I'd like to try this get it out of my system if I like it then you know maybe it'll be something if not you know I'll go back to school and they said yeah and they said okay so that was kind of them and uh I don't know what I would have done done actually if they'd said no we think that's a terrible idea I probably would have gone back to school at that moment in time was was Mandy Patinkin there when you were there at KU no no no was he at KU yeah yeah apparently same yeah so you go to New York 76 when New York was like that was tough Town 76 rough it was rough I'd never been to New York either never been no I'd never been where did you live and uh uh I I started out I started out crashing on a friend my director uh had in St Louis that said you should go to New York and I said I don't want to go I I want I decided what what am I going to do I sit at home or I can go to and maybe I'll go to a real theater school no offense to the KU department but I was like oh well maybe I maybe I should apply to Carnegie melon or you know one of those places that I I didn't dream of like a Yale drama school or anything like that I didn't I didn't have those kinds of aspirations but I got back the curriculums and I was like I've been doing this stuff for so long what am I going to go and you know improvise with a comb for five minutes you know and you know and see what I can do with that and I just I just decided I would go to New York so I got I crashed on this girl's uh couch that I never met uh I got there on a Wednesday she said you got to go by Friday because my parents are coming to town I was like oh great that's a that's that's that's going to be an Awakening and uh I got a little place for I think it was 50 bucks a night maybe on uh in Hell's Kitchen the Washington Jefferson Hotel which is no longer there that block has been was totally demolished with a bathroom down the hall yeah and uh people screaming at each other all night long just the pay phone that you started a career from yeah yeah you have to explain what payones are to people yeah exactly and the answering service you called into and all of that all that crazy stuff but I had the enormous Good Fortune of the same guy that said Ira rasnik who suggested that I go to New York said there pick up a backstage when you get there because there you know there's that's how you get in Show Business yeah and uh and there's this new musical called shanoa that's got a lot of guy it's all guys so you should check that out so I went to New York I did that um uh the I got there on a Wednesday and it's said Friday auditions for a non-equity dinner theater tour in North Carolina and um auditions on Friday and I went on Friday and I called my parents at night they said I got a job I'm going to make a hundred bucks a week and room and board and on this little bus and truck thing I drove the truck from did you from yeah from Raleigh to to Charlotte and back uh when we were moving shows around and and you are sort of glorified removal men as well as you know oh who wants to drive the truck I was like yeah that's I I'll drive the truck so me and a couple other guys and so I had a job you know 3 days in and uh that turned into getting meet having friends because I didn't know anybody in New York either uh so I I made a bunch of friends in that company they were all really talented people and um uh one of the uh actors uncle was an agent came to see the last run through we did before we left New York and said call me when you come back to New York Joe who was that Jerry Hogan Jerry Hogan yeah right became your first agent in New York yeah yeah yeah yeah so I was kind of and this was a small world thing I saw you understudied in um is the Life After High School yeah and Harry Groner was in that show so you you came M because he worked with Harry Groner at the Gein and then Harry came on our show the PO season in that that Federation yeah Harry came on Quantum Leap with me and you I had a guy he did my Were You instrumental in bringing people like that along that You' met along the way you yeah I mean they brought me I mean I would you didn't need to bring Harry Groner along he was kind enough to come you know Harry you know I directed an episode at Quantum and I said I'm doing this thing will you come and you know will you play a part in it and so he he was very gracious about that because he already done cats y yep I saw him do that in New York and you know and and uh he did um uh uh the Revival of Oklahoma I'm blanking on the party you know I'm just a guy who can't the everything's up to date in Kansas City Will Parker I think that's yeah he did that he I'd seen him you know he was he was a real deal and I was you know I was not I was kind of I was doing okay in New York but I nothing like Harry Gro he's the kindest guy he a sweetheart and has wiped on I mean just the really good people and always very kind to me and when I was in UND you know I'm in an understudy and I I'm with all these other people that are um that are you know established big guys big men and women and in New York and um for some reason they they were they didn't totally just you know shun me right um because there weren't there were two understudy two guy understudies and two two women underst studies and it was a cast of 10 or something did you ever get to go on as another study no no I got close one of the guys who just came to New York and saw me Philip um he went to visit his girlfriend in Philadelphia on a day off and there was a snowstorm and uh they said Phil he's not going to make it back into New York tonight and this was in previews I had no costume I literally went back to my apartment at dinner and grabbed some a turtleneck and some other horrible things they had the other guy under study was going to do all the scenes and I was going to do all the songs so and we worked all day long we'd had no rehearsals no putins or anything and he walked in uh at five minutes to eight and went on covered in snow that would have been good if for in good effect I made it I walked all the way from ful down some assle slashed my tires SC like what knife what knife and then it's three guys nak from the way down gets you the big notices doesn't it and then you come out to California with that to the Pasadena Playhouse and uh and that really it was a big hit here wasn't it yeah well no that was just like a um it got me out to it got me got you to got me out to LA in a good way yeah you didn't come sort of here no I actually I actually had I did a different musical uh at the Tiffany when the Tiffany was around did my first job here at the Tiffany God bless Alie with Adam Faith how about yeah and that was my first gig in La crazy how about that yeah on Sunset for those who don't know it's been that's now something oh it's gone for a while it's gone for a while but yeah I was there doing a musical and um and I done a Sunday Disney Sunday night movie of the week if you remember those things the world of Disney and I did this one called I man which is an indestructible this guy's a taxi driver he's got a son and he uh he lives in Houston and there's an accident and and one of the N a truck is flipped on its side and he gets out of his cab and runs over and saves the guy but in that little van there's a canister of gas that's leaking and it's from outer space or somewhere and it gives me some interesting special powers in the eye it was called eyen for indestructible so the so I was kind of like the only that could kill me was Darkness oh I was kind of like a plant right so I got electrocuted I got I mean they did everything to me in this but it was a two-hour Sunday night movie of the week when you know all all of that hoopla watching those uh Sunday Disney movies yeah yeah and my agents had said for years don't go to La unless you have something right and I had that coming out in February and I coincidentally got this musical that I could start in January so I came out that was a huge hit and um and that kind of put me on the map just not that people came and saw it because I learned very early that nobody in La comes to see you but they would say oh nightclub confidential did you see it no no no but I heard it was great and I heard you were great so we wanted to meet you and that and that worked for me so that's how we got started I wanted to back up just for a minute when the experience of doing a Broadway show that goes for 17 performances oh yes must be heartbreaking what are you talking about oh you talking about my my experience I we we ran for N9 months when I was on way and 17 seems to be the magic number you you make 17 and you're either go in or you that's it what is it is that two weeks and a couple of matinees and they decided I have no idea I don't think anybody was counting but right uh you're done you're talking about Maryland and am American fable fable and which they based the show smash on uh the TV musical that's all based on the failure of the original Maryland and they were going to remake Maryland and that's so they got all of their their funny material about oh that's the original maryn was horrible and you know they did that and that but we're going to get it right this time and blah blah blah and they're now making that smash is into a musical all right and and I don't know what they're going to include full ccle full circle they haven't called me yet I was G but they but I I I don't think I'm too old for demaggio anymore but um uh yeah so that was that was an interesting time that's a that's a a long long story that journey of that how long was the the the connector did you do a nice run there we did 80 shows that's great yeah it's very preent piece isn't it about you know the um is it based Loosely on something like the Atlantic or the New Yorker exactly and people making up stories that they did in the mid 90s that uh yeah yeah it was it was very cool and very uh very relevant today just talking about the difference between truth and facts and all of that stuff and and what uh and how that works and who takes it in and how how it's perceived which on the face of it probably sounds a little odd for a musical uh but um it really it worked great and it was he very clever writer isn't he yeah Jason is amazing and the book was really I've said this about Jonathan's book but one of the best books for a musical that I've ever read because it was really it was really more I felt a play with music right because it was very heavy and it's very much about women in the workplace and yeah the women kind of reveal you know the guys I was an old time editor and this young guy comes in and and uh he's very very um fasile and smart and hip and and works knows how to work the room and he reminds me of myself at that age and aspiring and Brilliant and all this stuff so I take him under my wing and he completely dupes me and everybody else for a certain amount of time and then brings everybody down with him so uh and it's based on sadly many many stories there's a woman uh who wrote for the Washington Post who won the Pulitzer and had to give it back I mean there for basically for she created a story I believe about a young a young child on crack in DC do you remember d uh I something like that I and I'm this is me my wife were here she she'd say man no she'd say mansplaining um and she'd be right but because I don't remember all the details but there are many many stories similar to the one that we told and uh and um and then somehow Jason figured out I think originally they were going to do the book and three songs and it grew into a musical and uh great it was all Daisy Prince it was she conceived it and uh and started working on it in the early uh like 2003 or something and it finally came to so now that you're sort of an empty nester you can you and Chelsea can go and live in New York while you do that have lovely and fun yeah it was great it was winter New York which is uh my wife being a California girl is not necessarily her favorite uh thing to do she did everything she got the right place and found the right you know everything and for me it work it was fantastic but you know you can go home back to the sun yes and we did we ran we ran but also it wasn't a terrible winter in New York so um but I my place was 10 minutes I could walk to the theater every day uh and that was just great and I could go home between shows and you know New York's a lot like La now and the actors can't live in the city anymore you've got to live somewhere else you got to get on a train for an hour in anywhere Brooklyn or you know you just can't and these are people that have been around in the business for a long time but the young people especially I just it breaks my heart that we can't figure out a way to do we have all these cities that that are known for their art and their artists and developing and creating but the young people can't afford to live there anymore right you know unless they're six on in a room in a flat you know still that's not in New York that's in Brooklyn or that's you know across in Jersey or or whatever yeah in the late 90s I was I was living in Brooklyn I mean I couldn't afford New York I mean also I could actually have an apartment in Brooklyn and I couldn't in New York it' be the same thing you'd have you know five other strangers living in two bedrooms yeah so yeah it's awful it is it's tough I mean and I you know a couple of the younger folks on in the connector we were talking about stuff and you know how's it different and I said well you guys have not only only you know I just came to New York and I wanted to be in musicals and I wanted to do audition and I wanted to study as much as I could I wanted to go to classes and then figure a way to make a living you know so I could but you guys you have to do all of that stuff plus you have to have a website now and you got to have followers and you got to have a podcast and you got to have a you got and these guys are what are you doing on your day off well I'm teaching I'm do you know they're all they're hustling they're doing everything and you know it's just it's a failure of our of system uh here that we we don't take care of because there's some Inc you guys know this we've worked with a lot of them but these young people these days are really gifted yeah they're coming out of schools they've got great training way better than I I mean I you know I rolled in from nothing and you know you see some of the chops on Instagram reels or Facebook re they're fantastic kids playing the guitar or whatever instrument and talking of which your boy Owen is a a dancer right he he's he's the one of the will Wills I and a a a producer and a writer and he's got a band called foam booy they're out of Portland and uh they just released their second album couple couple of weeks ago it's doing really really well he'd be about 20 what now will is 28 cuz he was I mean I guess he was six seven something like that and Owen was maybe four five oh he was a baby yeah he was a baby is he a company member Owen Owen yeah he just finished his second season at South Carolina ballet wow and uh he's uh uh I gotta say that I should say it right they are uh very uh very serious U the heg for two years after he left High School two years in Louisville Ballet then two years in South Carolina B ballet um and back here now and uh deciding what he wants to do next well be sure to give them our best yeah please do I I have we very fun memories of both of them and and Cody coming to the set yeah Cody's here he's working he's a jeweler and uh uh Goldsmith and he works at Chrome for Chrome Hearts oh I just I just I know chrom Hearts I was sadly at a memorial service for a dear friend of mine passed away and she was very friendly with Lor from Chrome Heart oh my gosh so how about that I remember so clearly I Jasper hadn't showed up yet yeah and you would come to work it how old is Jasper Jasper's 18 he's he's graduating on June 1st holy from high school SM and what's he going to do he is going to do the CC route for a couple of years and he's interested in agriculture cool at the moment I think that would probably lead him maybe toward UC Davis they've got a great program but you get into the CC program it also it it makes it so much easier to get into you know the the CU the UC and the Cal State programs in um in California but I remember but he's great thank you for asking good good good you would come into work and I don't know how it would come up but you know you'd say I sleep at all last night you were incredible I mean I I don't know how you did it mate you know literally and Owen was quite a tricky ow he didn't sleep we've always joke that if if Owen were was not our last child he would have been that's why I have one because Jasper I would think about this all the time you know 5:00 in the morning having slept go trudging up and down the stairs just beg please go to sleep please go to sleep yeah you have to down STS yeah five years five years and um he'd be happy as a clam all day long and then uh just unable to go to sleep and uh I I would think about you and weep a little five years beat Owen Owen was about four and a half years God bless I remember four and a half years we got five I can think of maybe five nights where we slept all way through the night and I remember us celebrating your 50th birthday on the set in the fourth season yep and privately thinking to myself gee that's kind of old you were not private about any of that stuff you you didn't keep those kind of thoughts to yourself ever you old fart move over now what we wouldn't go give I'd give my back teeth to be 50 again would you a little bit yeah I mean uh you know I mean how are you you you went vegan didn't you yeah are you still maintaining 10 years was that Chelsea LED you down she's always been very conscientious hasn't she yeah she ended there because she had an emergency append appendectomy oh did she and almost died from it she had a week in the hospital went back and it was it was it was really a rough a rough Hall but one of the reason and they were talking about taking her gallbladder out and in addition to the appendix and and she ended up um getting some advice to you know stop with animal products no oil no anything like that to get you know to let everything come down and that was the beginning of it wow and I'd always wanted to do it you know and so she did it a year and then the rest of us were eating the way we always eat and so we were kind of making meals for you know yeah right this kid this kid this kid Chelsea gets this kind of meal I'm getting this kind of meal it's exhausting and then after like a year I said I think I'm going to join the story here so that she and I would eat the same thing and that's no fish even no uh I think uh we ate fish for about the first three years but unfortunately so much of the fish is crap now too exactly right yeah so I I we were kind of I especially I I loved oysters and and I was in New Orleans you know and so I had like I think I had maybey you were you were being vegan in New Orleans oh yeah but I think I had the first I think I had the first two years uh of being able to eat everything in town and I did so I tried everything I ate the alligator and I ate all you know I did all the stuff and then uh and then that was the end of it so I did uh you look great I mean I have to say you and Michael daor I did a couple of years do you remember I mean I it was Anthony Williams book uh that got me on that sort of route and yeah uh I'm I'm I'm mostly plant-based but yeah I I I will have to say I went to fish event and every now and again if Dave takes us out for a steak ah you know it's grass-fed once in a while hugged hugged hugged and grassed plant-based is the right phrase that's what that's what I was it a difficult transition yeah yeah yeah it was I mean you think about anything that you do 50 plus years you you're eating one way and then you then you change and your body's used to it right and and uh there just a whole there is isn't there reassembling kind of of your energy super skinny to start with no I never no not really I mean I I think I'm probably from 10 years ago I'm probably down probably between 15 and 18 pounds um and but that's kind of leveled off I got thinner I got really thin when I was training for marathons I was going to say do you still run the marathons no no no but I was thinking about running trying to get in shaped to run with could your knees do it I mean you no you talk you guys know this you know about knees I'm thinking about think about you all the time cuz Chelsea had knee surgery a few years ago and I remember you like well I'm going to get the knee surgery and well first you hobbled around for like a year and just and then and then you said I'm they're going to they're going to fix me up and I'll be ready to go in four weeks or something like that but I think I don't know if yours was that way or not but she tore her meniscus and then they said the same thing don't worry about it you're going to be fine I'm toring it again I I just literally had it done again oh my go and now I've got Sacro iliac stuff it's it's no fun this well that's why you want to go back to 50 that's why I look at none of those things happen then my back teeth 50 again I thought there was a tooth teeth these aren't even real hey I'm British for British these are pretty good teeth very good teeth A+ teeth I did um the second season of The Purge in New Orleans and the craft service lunches unbelievable grilled oysters yep Meats everywhere yeah and do you miss it I don't really you know what I I miss smells are you know kind of trigger me sometimes but like we were somewhere recently and and somebody sat down and they had a big they brought a big thing of bacon and and shrimp or something to the table next to us I almost had to we almost had to leave cuz it just it kind of made me sick and there's no I have no like I'm not there's no condemnation there at all it just I just can't handle you know we don't really I barbecue stuff for people still at the house you will we'll cook a well we haven't cooked a turkey in a long time for people at the at the Christmas but um still the kids like a you know can you grill a big salmon or something for a holiday so we'll do that still um so the kids have not followed suit especially uh Owen Owen is Owen did Owen did and will is very plant he's he's close to it he's had some health problems that he solved by by giving up cheese you know and giving up and and that that changed you know a big thing for him he was a he was a um uh pasta with butter and cheese that was his main you know white food he ate for right years right and then all of a sudden his body said no and he was about 14 yeah and uh his body you know he got he had some thrush around his mouth and he was going to high school and and his face was all red and everything poor and he had constant uh postnasal drip and like a cold and and um our guy said you know why not you just try and get him off the gluten and just start there and two days it was gone yeah everything was gone and it was like okay our our philosophy is we're giving kids in our kids have all the information and we have other family members one my I have a nephew who's got borderline cilc and and the same thing was get off you know get off the gluten and and and he so he has information so if he wants to go have a pizza and and and drink beer regular beer with his buddies he knows he's going to have problems with his stomach for a couple of days but he knows how to get out of it yeah you know and then you make your own choices you know from there and that's all that's all we all do right I do the same thing yeah you know I I I was probably gluten-free for eight 10 years and and but now it's like if you're going to have the best pizza in the world go ahead but you're going to pay for it yeah you know yeah a little bit Yeah Yeah Yeah well some people pay for it a lot you know I mean most of my family is now gluten-free yeah yeah I can't imagine Dean Stockwell was much of a vegan uh no no no no Dean wasn't he was uh he was a man's man wasn't he it was great when he came on our show I have to say yeah um I know you he just passed away didn't he a couple years backp we had a we had a real bad run in our with our family and friends for like like a solid year I just had a a brief yeah few months of about that it's it's it's it it get the walls close in don't they so it you start to you know you know start to look at your own time on the on the planet and how uh um precious it is and we just had Mr Shatner in the chair yeah uh as gungho as ever 93 years young he is amazing he amazing always has been amazing yeah he really is doesn't stop moving he has a he has something burning inside of him that you know wish he could we could he really does Market that thing and spread it around because he's just got he has a passion for for everything busier than ever I meit every I haven't seen him in a few years but the last time I saw him it was so I couldn't my head was spinning you know he was getting ready to open the Broadway show and he was doing the book and he had a thing and he was recording an album and right you know uh he he's uh and still riding pretty much every day he backed off he said he backed off a little bit that there's a small world connection your uh father-in-law bought a horse from him y I saw when we were doing some research on you um the lady in red yeah that's right right and uh will and that I didn't realize that Will was named after um um Chelsea's dad yeah that's why the one L cuz her dad was Will Will Fred right and uh for those who don't know um my in-laws were both British yes and came over after World War II through Canada into the states and uh so anyway our our will was born and we that's the name we came up with that would bring me rather sharply to a question that's been on my mind for you quite a long time the love of your life uh a glorious lady she's called Chelsea yes you named your first child Chelsea no no no different wife different but you Nam you named your first child your daughter Chelsea yes yes that's true my yes but you support Aston Villa what up with that who said I support Aston Villa you're making that up I'm I making that up toally making that I seem to remember you were a Birmingham boy no no no no no my relatives were from um uh West Brom so they were Al oh they were AL West Brom oh worse so getting h under the collar about this this is Lester lad am I right Lester yeah oh yeah we're coming back up you noce keep uh keep we won the championship two weeks yeah just literally two weeks ago yeah oh I've been out it back in the premion ship next season go yeah since we since we haven't seen each other we won the premiership do you remember I mean I don't know if the greatest sporting achievement of all time ladies and gentlemen let it be said this is like Modesto winning the World Series it was it was a yeah a feet like no other uh we're we're digressing oh no I I stopped paying attention yes that's all right that's all right I had a question we have been digressing though got well let's talk about talking about food and about Enterprise I've been told this I don't know where that um you you're a big John Wayne fan am I am I correct in no no not particular you know I grew up on John Wayne right I don't know that I'm a big fan of his tell me what the question was question may can maybe we can salvage this right well did you in some way well you didn't of course but I heard that you had had modeled Archer after um U sort of John Wayne's style I which I never saw by way would that I have thought that cleverly when and could have come up with an idea like that for myself so that's a no ladies and gentlemen that's um I I read that in the National Inquirer by the way I love people that that create those kinds of stories and um sometimes they're I mean that's that would have been an interesting idea I I you read the New York it wasn't it wasn't it wasn't did you model arer after anything other than just your impression of what a captain would be like no no I mean I did not model I didn't have somebody in my mind so you'd stay friendly with Gary Hart and Carrie mccluggage hadn't you and then they went to Paramount yeah and you've got a buddy Dave Fuller that had written this great script uh a Sci-Fi piece that you went to pitch and then how does that go from there you're in the room well I I've said we I want to do this this is the show I want to do next and da d da d da and they said sorry we're not really in Market in the market for that right now and then um they called me the next day and said but you know you want to come and do the next our next Star Trek the next version of Star Trek you know and uh and I said um and in the pause then I think Gary I think it was Gary who called me or maybe it was car said it's it's a hundred years before Kirk and in my head I said I'm in because that that was because initially you were and I didn't want to follow you know I didn't I didn't know I didn't know what that could would be and uh and being a huge fan of the franchise and uh the franchisees and especially the original show because I that was more my era um it it didn't like oh yes I you know because people will say you know you've ran into a lot of people that have done this franchise and so many of them will say that they always dreamed about wouldn't it be great to be you know if I could only be in a on Star Trek or on a and I never had that dream I mean where I grew up it was I I never dreamed about any of that stuff I was like I love the show it's great but I'm not g to ever be on television so I don't have to I didn't entertain a thought like even entertain a thought like that but immediately on 100 years before Kirk I just that was the hook yeah yeah I'll do that but you you walked into uh a pack of pretty green actors you know you'd had your show in England I'd done a few guest star spots and I think Linda had just gotten John was the most seasoned wasn't he Bingley yeah yeah yeah and uh but Joe was completely green really and Linda had done a couple of I mean I think it was her second audition God blesser yeah the first one she got which was Jurassic Park 3 don't you hate it her first two right the first one she got first audition she had in La was Jurassic Park 3 got that and then got this and then walked into into seven what was going to be seven years yeah yeah we were robbed do you feel robbed that we didn't do the seven how do you feel about that oh that's again a long long story that most people won't care about but we can we can always talk about do you know the N gry cuz we we've had we we interviewed Rick and we sort of got some sort of I would have Lov to know what Rick thought about it but I you know my the quickest version I can say is that um we were rushed into production for UPN yeah to and to give them uh an anchor Somebody To You know to to base their right um back when a network needed something like that yeah and they were a fledgeling network at best we instead of being um on um an established no what am I trying to say well all the other all the other guys were never on they weren't on regular syndicated syndicated thank that's the word so if we'd been syndicated we would have had seven no problem they would have just gone to seven our n we would have been we would have been great but because we were on regular television which no other franchise except now they now they're on regular television kind ofish but but no one has ever been on no franchises has would have survived I don't think on a regular Network so so the fact that we got four years was great and I'll I'll leave it at that and I'm grateful that we had those four years I'm so grateful we got the fourth season so we could kind of finish that whole zindy Arc and and bring that to a close I felt fortunate about that I I yes I in the back of my head I thought we would hopefully get seven but if you recall uh Dean got fired very early on uh there uh there was a change over at CBS letic over over there I forget the lady that came in to take thank you she came in Carri got let go John got let go up in the movie Department all the people that love Les M had no interest in the show whatsoever Le him yeah I mean well I I don't I don't necessarily agree about that but he but Les was you know he he he was a numbers guy and we were on a regular Network right and they never had anybody to pair us with think about who they they put us with they we never had anybody that was we were sympatico with in terms of programming so we were always an odd we were always the odd man out and it sounds like I'm crying over here about you know spilled milk but it was the changing face of TV really it was and we were kind of caught in the we were caught in the middle of it we were in that in that time when UPN was the beginning of what was really coming which was the all everybody owning their own side Network right and um but we were still you know that network was a a collection of stations across the United States that that that carry went around and just went and you know and and we get bumped in Texas every Friday night for high school buddy football I mean what I heard was that uh even in St Louis you know we we would be bumped for the local for the for the Cardinal plan sure yeah I would have bumped us for the Cardinal but uh it was sad for a lot of reasons but mainly because we were having a you know we were we got along yeah the workplace was a pretty darn good workplace we had great people such talented creative people we got to work with just the best in the business and um and that part of it was we weren't on location every Friday night till 6:00 in the morning and that's something that I appreciated and I know you guys can appreciate that too it was a great I wrote my that one year I lived in Larchmont I wrode my bike too I could see the water tower from our rented house really yeah and I would get my little coffee and my little I had that collapsible bike and I rode through the gate every for a year and I just thought this is you know it was it was Joy it was great it was it was it was great and was hard work but it was it was fun work and we had a good crew good good uh people to work with and uh and you were great mate I mean well you're you're very kind but you guys were great and and it's not always that way no that's all and and you can sit there and say that when till you're blue in the face but um you know you know when it is and you know when it is you certainly do it's the air will tell you you know I've worked on sets where you can't wait to get get in the car and drive away you I I I read that you you had in your contract that and if is true it's so smart that on Wednesdays you were done at 600 p.m and she could have dinner with your family yeah yeah that was that's not me that's Chelsea that well yeah but she you know she wanted thank goodness we live close to the studio too so she could bring the kids right but going into it you know she said how are we going to how are we going to work this you got you know young kids I had two other kids too you know I had we had four kids she was they were living with us most of the time you know off and on but most of the time we had four kids and she was like how are we going to maintain our relationship and do this series and she said we got to find some ways contractually to help that and I also had a deal on Friday nights too I forget what it was but not you were done like once once every three Friday nights or something I they could work me or something but otherwise I had I remember that episode The communic you and I started a scene at4 to 3 in the morning and we literally drove out of Paramount gates at like half past 7even yeah but how many times did that happen that once and I but I have to say mate and I've said this to him I've never been more proud of being a professional actor than than that night and and you've been there 16 hours yeah and you and you do a three and a half page scene and I watched it the other day in prep and it was like yeah that was yeah we also had such a crew that were so well oiled that you know the the 14 16 hour days were a rarity and you know 12 happened all the time I know we joke about that remember when when all the co stuff came in and said we're going to limit this the days to you know the 12 hours a day is that's it you know and you that includes signing in and signing out so you're only really going to be working 11 hours a day and and everybody's you know walking around like man we are really cut it down and everybody else in the world is like you're working still you're working 60 hours a week we only work 40 hours a week we were thinking this is we got a ma hour only 12 hours a day no but but Chelsea said let's just try and find some things contractually if we can if we can get that done and I happen to be in a position where we could say we could kind of push that cuz Quantum was tough on your first marriage wasn't yeah yeah it been tough on anybody's marriage I mean I was never home I mean you don't people don't get it but first shot to the last shot four and a half Seasons I was there every day except four like four days one I was flying on a plane to to do the Macy's day parade you know and on Wednesday that oh you don't have to work Wednesday because but I and I didn't know anything it was my first you know really kind of big job and they would work me till six on Saturday morning and I'd be first up on on Monday morning day and a half yeah and that's and I didn't I was like oh yeah we'll Force you okay I didn't know anything and there were there wasn't anybody else except Dean there weren't any of the regulars right so nobody else was was bound or like looking at me like let's not do that I mean if you know if we were doing something like that you guys this is stupid we're not going to do that or or we'll bring you guys in to do the first you know morning on on Monday morning right and then Scott shows up at 1 o00 so you get your 56 hours or whatever the hell that we didn't mind a force call we used to call it the sa course exactly right I remember you guys call all time I love that I use that quote often think about forcing you go right ahead you go you go right ahead forc but in our in our schedule that was an e easy thing to accept most of the time right right but yeah I was I was uh grateful for that I also was coaching a lot of sports for my kids then too for Will and so I would get I would try and work like Thursday practice off so I could get to the Saturday you know and and figure that off you were 50 and Mary and Brad and I was I was old and Mary and Brad would figure that stuff out you know and they were they were great were great they were great we had Mary on the show we had Mary on the show oh yeah Wonder she was Brad has literally given just walked away and like no I'm done yeah I don't want to talk about it anymore but think about who we inherited you know in that crew that had worked on Voyager there were 16 or 17 of them yeah and then when we went off the air I you know think about people that have worked there some of them are like well we've worked the last 25 years we've worked in this franchise yeah with Rick through all the you know all the way through and I when does that happen I me when felt for them you know that they I did I did did I I was it was um you know I actors you know we lose our job we get a job hopefully and but they had they had to raised their families together and yeah yeah um yeah I felt really bad for them yeah oh that's was the the the devastation of when jar we lost Jerry you know and that was just like oh dear that was really his wife do remember being at the memorial oh yeah I mean God bless she was bitter I mean and I I think I mean he gave his best years to that studio and yeah it was very sad Jerry Fleck our you know and the just the sweetest guy yeah remember we were out in the desert playing in the sand with him and dumping water on him and doing all that stuff he was just he a sweetheart he really was we didn't have too many of those kind of memories though no and I I've had a lot you know NCIS we lost a lot of people during that film was just yeah more than I can count really and it was just I just and I think back of the r four years and how that didn't happen yeah except for I mean I can't think of anybody else in did you shoot the entire show andcan in New Orleans or did you you did that you I thought they were going to try and you were going to bring it back to LA for the interior but no that was a conversation that didn't happen that I lost yeah really I lost every year I see remember the last time I bumped into you was at the golf range and you were You' done two years and you were said no I'm coming back to LA and I was oh great yeah and that didn't happen Scott we don't have a New Orleans street we have a New York Street Street yeah very easily but but that was nice Chelsea got to be on the show you at least orchestrated that and she got a great part on it and so I guess you went to live in I didn't actually you know I I put it out there and and people at the network would talk about it every time they'd see us at an event you know they say oh chelse we got to get Chelsea on the show and i' say yeah that'd be great but you know writers have to write it yeah yeah and Brad Kern wrote it and you know and uh he came in and he said I'm I'm going to right apart for and uh people say that a lot too uh in our business and they never do and it's not because they don't mean to it's just there's a lot go that goes into that stuff but they did and and uh I'm grateful to him and it turned out the last year especially with Co I would you know I wouldn't have been able to see her right um but the kids were gone and so she could come down and so it worked out great to get to work together and that was great scenes and it was would you then just stay in New Orleans that because you would fly back every I flew back every weekend for 6 years and uh cuz the kids were still around that's quite and um and that was Insanity that's insan I think back about it and I think how you know CU you know there were times I would leave the set at 5: in the morning and drive to the airport and get on a plane commercial yeah there were people just checking yeah oh yeah no commercial but U no Clinton Eastwood for you mate no no but uh I used to go to I learned to sleep really sleep on the planes and I uh I just became I was like a um a cocoon I just wrapped up my entire body and nobody knew who I was I had a hat on and I wrapped my whole head up and I went to sleep would you do another show if they were if one got off it another another long running episodic if it was something I wanted to do yeah you know I got very fortunate with NCIS that it allowed me the luxury of being able to um not have to work again and um have to work again so that's my that's my bar now it's like is there something I haven't done people I want to work with which is a really big thing people that I yes you too come up come up um did you enjoy the door I did I did it but it was hard work yeah it was a it was a it was hard work but uh grateful to CBS um for keeping us on uh and um again that we lost a lot of people during that run that affected how it went without getting into details but and the writing the writer staff in front of the camera too there were a couple of uh was that no we didn't lose anybody in front of the camera but we what we had lots of people uh uh in the producers we had we had people gotten me tooed I mean we had it all right that was the drama behind the it was it so it was a lot plus just the reality of living being being away from home and how Hands-On were you as a producer on that pretty hands on well uh I was a producer in name probably season I don't remember anym three and then executive producer probably for five six and seven it comes with a whole another yeah yeah yeah but there was a whole it was a whole it was a whole mcgilla but um but uh I learned a lot about producing but the long-distance aspect of it having the writers in post production here uh was really hard so they were all still up here right yeah and uh they would send the writer whoever wrote the episode would come down so we'd have that person on set and that and that was good but just you know it's just different when you've got your producers are upstairs and they can come down and yeah and talk to you about what the scene is or what we need to do or we got a problem let's work it let's figure it out and when you're shooting as many hours as I was shooting you know on that show all the time um then it's hard to connect with people on the on the west coast like well you know I got to call David staff and talk to him on the phone or well oh he's not you know it's I'm ready to talk at 8 in the morning he's not at work yet you know and now I'm going to be in in the swamp for the next eight hours and I can't talk at all so maybe I'll talk to him tonight and then you know you go you go to the gym you go work out you got to get your work done for the next day you got to look at 20 you audition tapes uh you know it's just it it it's a lot first time in my life I ever fell asleep a few times standing up oh and Chelsea was like you're not you're never doing this again yeah I said yeah I I hear what you're saying but I don't know how to I don't know how to do it any other way right did you direct it all I did not I was just I was like I can't I couldn't even begin to do that yeah there was just too much to do you did direct Quantum Le yeah I did a few I did three oh just three you like I asked I asked like the third year I said can I you know do you like it can I good uh I liked it uh and there is a director in the room but uh uh U but and I say this but I say this in front of other directors but the my favorite part of it was um I got rid of the director I was able to get rid of the director and just what do you want to do what what what feels right what do you want to do let's this is what I'm thinking let's and there are very few directors David is a is an actor's director uh Livingston who's off camera right now but I can talk about him since he's here but but a lot of the directors in the world today aren't really skilled at dealing with actors they're deal with SH and they're not necessarily interested in that and they've come up in a world and I I know lots of people that have come up in this world and I and I encourage them and promote their careers and and um we talk a lot at length about this but there's so many directors are are concerned about their shot list about the about the technicality ities of making the day about putting on a good image for the network so they can get the next job and um uh they're not as concerned they often feel and also we have a responsibility as actors because often we're like don't tell me what to do director I know my part I've been doing this for four years thank you you've got a good idea you know that I was that a line reading I think that was a line reading but but you know what I mean and and so so so in this particular case I could say this is what this is what I think the scene's about what do you guys what do you guys think it's about what do you want to do and not everybody can play that way not everybody wants to play that way some people are like I want you to tell me where to stand so I can say my lines and get in my car and go home right and then that's okay too but when you find when there are other people that want to work and kind of create and build when becomes fun you and that's a theater the theater guy in me that's what I I love that rehearsal process in the theater you guys know that you can you can you get to create together and that's the that's that's my only reason to want to be in this business ever was because in it started in the theater because you that's you get with some people and you kind of create something and you put it up somewhere lights go down and and and you make you make this little you walk yeah and you walk into this little magical bubble yeah and and then you get to um put put it away you you build relationships with your fellow actors in a different way because you're you you you know what you get find out what makes them tick and and and and what they like and don't like and you just get more intimate because you're spending you're asking more of each other right instead of just did you are your lines memorized great here's what I'm thinking you were there you stand there you stand there and I railed against it when I first came out from New York I was terrible I was like what why do I have to stand what's in on the Mark and then if you want to be in your light yeah we've lit you on this Mark so that's okay but I just I hated it because I wanted to be you know free to figure out what I wanted to do right within a framework as we you know you have a rehearsal space which in the beginning is do what you want to do usually and right we'll see what works so I like we always need the difference didn't we when the director would come on and uh they actually just let us block the scene ourselves naturally yeah and what came natur and then uh but the other ones were no well no you can't stand there yeah I've got I've got you here do we called it like going for a bag of nuts why am I going over there yeah yeah I need you to oh yeah I'm going to go grab a bag of nuts yeah yeah but we also I was kind of thinking about our our director pool that we had we were pretty lucky yes we were weren we and uh we had some great characters some great experience people you know I was looking up uh Jim James Whitmore you loved oh yeah I didn't realize his dad was James Whitmore of you know senior of everything everything for the younger generation you'll know him as Brooks from the Sha Shank Redemption what an amazing actor and I did not realize that that was his dad yeah until just coming up to this yeah Jimmy came down and directed I don't know 30 ncis's for me yeah because didn't you kind of bring him into the F on he directed a bunch of quantum leaves and uh uh and he's still a buddy I just spoke to him recently and uh he's he's just a unique guy but we had a bunch of great people like him and um that makes that also makes it we forget yeah no that's I'm I'm including him and all I just that's what makes it also made it special yeah you know because you can it's no fun if you're working with somebody that's directing that directs a lot that you don't like yeah or you don't feel uh is got gets the show or whatever and you're it's out of your control most of the time yeah yeah Marvin certainly used to let them know Well DPS are notoriously the worst when the when the newspaper would come out the newspaper those half milon glasses would come up and the newspaper would come out and you knew that it was oh this is going to be a five 5 Hour setup oh yeah y yeah you know they just they're not great they're not actors they're not good at masking their feelings going back to Judge Judy oh goly yeah but we didn't that didn't happen very often no uh you might did I read that you might be doing the man of lancha again yeah I am with Chelsea God Bless yeah and because of Jim Whitmore Junior no kidding tell us tell us that story how's this coming about Peter burough players is a theater small stock theater in Upstate New Hampshire all right Jimmy's dad and mom met there it's been the theater's been around over 100 I don't know how many years um I should know that but I think it's 10 like 15 years or something um for America that's very old you know it is for America yeah yeah it's a it's a week in England I understand Let It Go Let It Go um anyway he called me and he said uh we did a famous episode of of Quantum Leap where we were doing it I was a an act understudy in a production of man of lamancha that's right and and um I was under studying John Cullum who did the show and who was unbelievably great and a hero of mine and uh uh he said they're do they're doing Lanes the last show of the season and he said wouldn't that be great if you would go back up there and and you know he's like Scotty you gotta go it'd be so great the theater's in trouble because of covid and and if you could go and and get the misses you know she'll go with you and you guys can CH do Al Dan I love to see it I just love to see it and I said Jim I'm just leaving leing for New York right now to do this off Broadway musical I can't really think about it right now that's very sweet of you but I got to you know I haven't been on on or off Broadway in a long time I need to think about that and then as and he said yeah no problem no problem so at the end of it I I uh I reached out to the the um guy who's an interim artistic director up there and said so what do you think about the lamancha thing and Jim m talked to him and he said I think it'd be great and he came down and we met and and uh we sat in a room and sang a little bit and Chelsea came and sang a little bit and so we're going to do that in August the big song is The Impossible Dream isn't that is the most famous song from the show I don't know the show that well it Dale waserman is that who created it yeah didn't he always rail at the fact that this is not the Don kote story or I don't know I don't know historically it's one it's one of my favorite shows another great book of a musical based on all of sant's uh writing so um did you play it before you oh when I was 21 no kidding yeah wow College summer stock theater in outside in uh Missouri in the summer which was just does a 21 yearold have the the the life chops to play you know what you know how the guy got me to do it the same guy that said I should go to New York he said Keith Michelle right did it when he was 25 right oh who's a famous British actor and um and a great actor uh one of another great super great actor and somebody I'm a huge fan of and and I said oh okay so I I ignorantly said I can I can uh I can do that and that the part is amazing and I got to you know do it at home and in front of my family and um and then I went to New York I went to New York with black dyed black hair which I'm going to have to die again and and showed up all my 8 by10 and everything my first 8 by1 in New York City were with jet black cuz I didn't know what I didn't have somebody do it I just went I just went got a bottle and threw it in my hair and it I mean it was black black hair no highlight nothing just like hor and there's then it's like oh well you're going to New York you need some pictures then I look at the pictures like who's that who's that guy oh man you've had somewhat the similar experience with Shen andoa I mean you did that very young and then you went back to the was it the Ford yeah yeah and did Chen andoa again yeah um that was Full Circle the other part of that is the guy I saw do first Broadway show I saw and it was John Cullum playing for which the role he won a Tony Award for and then that kind of became my I call it my waiter job I did maybe six or seven shanid doas in the first five years I was in New York every time I was like oh I'm gonna have to go be a bartender like oh you want to pick up the last four weeks of the national tour and yeah I'll come there and you want to go to Paper Mill Playhouse and do it there John R's coming through sure yeah I'll do so that instead in of having to go do a waiter job I was I was you know meeting more people and getting you know getting more working with other other directors and stuff but anyway and then full circle I play Papa Charlie in 2006 so I started in 1976 wow and as a as the young Suitor and at then I Got My Equity card playing in the chorus and you know I mean I just did all these different versions of it I played three of the different three no only two brothers and and then I end up playing the dad the father of the family wow you know however many years later that is D it's a onean show can't do it can't do it there are too many kids but uh that story right can we get a Scot bacula type the ends of who was Scot bacula that's the Dean Stockwell story that is that is that a Dean stock he was he was getting ready to leave the business and um they were doing Paris Texas if you remember that movie and um he was somewhere yeah and they said no it was Harry said to him they're looking for a I heard they're looking for a Dean Stockwell type so he called went and called his people and said I'm I'm here I'm still alive I'd be happy to come over and and he went over and and he got that part and then and then that kind of that was his the launching of his third basically third career of his life it's such a great honor to meet him when he came on our set and he loved golf oh my God and he so we were very keen golfers at the time he we we just had us up a storm yeah well he had just gotten into golf at the beginning of when we started when you were talking to I think it was uh to Bill and the captains yeah he just started G addictive man he was crazed about it we couldn't pull him off the course sometimes he was just to come to work no he wouldn't I mean and he had the best job in Hollywood because he only worked with me not that that's the part best job part of the job but that he only had to work like maybe two days per episode and then and and but when he came in though he only ever worked with me so he didn't have to deal with anybody else anybody else any ever spoke to you didn't he yeah so I mean there were two episodes where we changed we changed positions and I was I went back and he became that silver jacket he wore oh everything everything he wore like the lead singer from DVA Jean Pierre Dak designed all of his his wardrobe and he just they had a ball and Dean Dean was a part of that too couldn't he come in and just look at his lines yeah go like he was he was a little photogenic he was it pissed me off just like really you tell or he and he would just and he he'd say he he taught me a lot he was like he knew how to save it and wait and and save it for his closeup and his famous story was you know I had two how many days did I work how many days do you think I worked on Blue Velvet people be like blue velvet I don't know a couple weeks or he said I think it was like two days and he said and the closeup the last closeup I I told him he had to go back I told David he had to go back and get that closeup and that's going to make it and he went back and got the closeup andan he had all those kinds of yeah kinds of stories you know what do what why would you take a part like that he said I took a part if I could steal the show if I knew I could either steal the scene or or you know steal the movie I would that's a part I would take and he did he did everywhere he went he did I mean he stole the whole Quantum Leap I used to we joked about all the time but I never knew what the hell he was doing behind me and it was always something way more aining what I was doing in the foreground you know like I'm sorry you lost your dog and I'll find him if I can and he's back there like popping on a cigar you know and like checking out somebody's boobs you know nothing you could do today you couldn't you couldn't really do that role today no I was watching some and some of it you couldn't but no it's complely wrong damn good law yeah I saw you were in uh that double episode the leap home when you when you age yourself to be yeah I guess about the your age now and yeah M he smoking 40 Lucky Strike a day what was that like that aging yourself at that age well in those days the aging process started at 11:30 p.m. right and ended at 7 a.m. for for the first shot and then I walked into the set and started shooting that that makeup then we took it off at lunch so I could shoot because you had to do the split screen stuff and so I had to we took it off at lunch and then um I would go back after lunch and shoot the other sides of the split screen and you'd lock the camera off and you'd in those days you draw the lines on the monitors so you could figure out who was sitting where and what line not to cross because you couldn't cross the line into the other guy screen and then I'd go home that night and 11:00 30 11:30 I'd sit in the thing and uh jerryd make me up all night long until and then well Jerry and Mike both these guys that won Academy Awards and stuff but uh it was crazy but I I always love that stuff some people I don't know if you would maybe fall into this category and it doesn't I mean how did your skin take it I I I I just I don't I got pissed off Irish skin and it just doesn't like the solvent and yeah I just can't see you sitting in a chair for from but I got better I meditate a lot now and uh and good why are you laughing Conor and uh he has gotten better good good but anyway I I always like that stuff and i' done a bunch of it prior to that i' done some other sci-fi stuff where I've been in full body cast and everything and all you have is you have two straws coming out of your nose yeah and you're in there in the old days until the the plaster set right and then they had to crack you out of it and do all that stuff and uh uh so I kind of started IM man I did all kinds of of of U effects and I was with like one of the original and I'm of course how blank on on his name now but one of the great makeup artists of all time at Disney and he did Bert Lancaster's makeup and his first name is Robert and I'm blanking on it but that was full on like I don't it wasn't cement but it was I'd never done anything like it and I get off a plane I go to the dis to Disney lot over here and I go down to his vault where he's got he's been he's an old-timer and he's got a hundred heads in the you know every movie star from Hollywood and he's you know touring showing me all the stuff and he said all now it's here's what we're going to do I'm going to put you in this plaster thing and you know you're going to be able to breathe but you know I think I've been to that very place he's got Jack Nicholson there and I mean yeah he's probably they're probably there bolf yeah anyway and uh and I remember him leaving at one point and I you know I'm in dark utter darkness and I got the you know I can breathe a little bit I think this it be a great way to kill somebody yeah you know you could just disappear this guy and just like what he went into the we're just going to the guy the guy goes crazy and all of a sudden he's you know getting rid of people and Twilight yeah and okay stop slow your breathing down cuz you only can breathe through these two little things here I can't yell for help I can't nobody knows something that's right you know um I don't know how we got on that um so when we so well I'd love to come we should come and make a a trip to come and see you in the man of Mana when's When's when rehearsal start August you know August 1 it's a long long way to go it's literally it's a barn that they converted it's 230 seats it's um I think it's going to be a blast um but it's that old I when I first went to New York That's What actors got to do you go out and do stock theater and you do five or six shows a summer uh different shows one a week and um you man you cut your teeth on that stuff and you felt like you could do anything yeah you know and uh and I that's why I used to do shann andoa we'd go start in SCA heagan main at the oldest inner at the oldest uh theater in the United States summer theater in the United States and you go to Cape Cod then You' get back to the Poconos Playhouse then you go over there you know and it was insane and you were young and it was The Best Time Ever cuz you were just there were doing what you love doing what you love and also getting paid a little bit and and and then just being an idiot when the show went down and you know you know the show goes down at 10:00 and there's night time ahead exactly you know I remember seeing Rocky Horror Picture Show for the first time at on Dennis at Dennis Massachusetts on the cape and think what's this going to be all about which uh we want to show that the Halloween that we celebrated we got to put that photo that'll make the cut I forgot about that your Franken F was fantastic and uh Golden Boy yes I was super jealous that I wasn't Golden Boy that's a good picture that's a good picture to put up and also forget it's online yes I'm sure it what isn't that's right what isn't but yeah that was we had we had fun on that show birthdays holidays you know we really you never Christmas parties anymore I did them in New Orleans for six years yeah let us know we didn't do the co party if you do it back here we we oh oh no I thought you talking about the the show Christmas parties no I'm talking about uh the Christmas parties started Nutcracker I know and that was the end of them because we didn't have our weekends free cuz I was stage managing Nutcracker at the Luckman theater out in in uh at the 10 at the the college out there and I had no weekends anymore it was always one of our favorites get togethers and uh you know we'd get to meet it was lovely meeting the likes of you know Ray Romano there and Andre Brown and yeah yeah you know all the other another one of my buddies that's what I say that's the that was all that same Year Dean and Bobby and my mother-in-law and my brother-in-law and it just and a couple of other mentors and things it was just a crazy year but yeah that was fun we we we actually this year we started talking about it again because we we have time to do it so we may do it again we may do it again well I'm so I'm chuff because you know as he knows I mean I we I'd lost touch with you telephonically as it were and I just delivered a letter underneath your yeah your garage great your door that was the greatest thing I love it CU I remembered where you lived and and I had Sarah drive me over there I don't know if you notice but I didn't want to fold it up and put in an envelope because I thought well it might miss that I stuffed it in a in one of those large sag residual envelopes that the foreign the foreign I was so thrown by that nicely done I thought he'd got a kick out of that he he said he did this and I was like you what you you literally went I know it under the door I could I couldn't figure out and we've had some weird male and so but you know you could have figured out a couple of ways to get to me but I that was that was classy though I there was one there was one way in you I could get to and I thought no I don't want to do that because well you could have called Jay you could have called you know you could have called a lot of people anyway but I'm glad I did it the way it was and God bless you you responded within two days and uh I thinkir I hope I responded F day and I mean it was I I got to tell you when I called him to say You' never guessed uh he's he's gotten back to us and he's coming on and um oh gosh it's a pleasure it's so nice you guys ask me to be on and thank you for coming yeah it it really I love you guys you know and and and I mean that and uh I I cherish the time we had together and it and the beauty of our business is it doesn't you know it doesn't go away speaking of exactly oh yeah next year is our 25th anniversary yeah what should we do about it you come well are we going to make some back photo money is it our 25 25 years 200 no it is I think next year's our 25th anniversary it is I thought we aired this fall of 2001 but I could be wrong one two's good at the ma four five I think you're right is it 26 all right you got a year okay good you can do L mancha and then you're coming back on the con scene and and and speaking of uh money we are going to pay you one more dollar than we paid Billingsley and that will be be a doll a dollar here's my 50 cents I'll get it to you oh yeah yeah you're good I know you're good for it yeah what your Veno yeah would you can you venmo 50 cents I don't think so cost more to venmo than 50 cents thank you bunny yeah man my pleasure hooking around the thing pleasure pleasure thank you for you very much yeah you can see our show on the YouTube channel the Decon chamber we air Sundays at 11:00 a.m. Pacific time please join us like like And subscribe it's very important and uh if you love what we're doing here please you have to play your part and join in join us on patreon please Apple podcast Spotify x uh uh formerly known as Twitter yeah check us out on Twitter SLX Instagram and of course Instagram where we post uh every Wednesday about the upcoming episode H wherever else you get your podcast [Music] some [Music] [Music]