Inner-View; Interview with Suzanne Somers

Well look as you can tell it's a very serious program and we're going to hear a very serious person Suzanne Somers and just to give you an idea of the seriousness of the program. The main question I have for you is can you get a discounted alpha beta. I am would you want to. Thank not what the question answered. Actually we get our groceries free. I don't shop at Albertson's. No no we always talk at Alpha Beta and you get some free cases. Well it's all part of the deal but but every few months in the mail comes from this anonymous donor. These certificates for $100 to shop alpha beta and we've never questioned why or where they were coming from but we figure they must want us to shop at Alpha Beta and that's certainly a good incentive I think. Yeah yeah that's if I give you my address of your right hand day that's pretty good. Well that's about it I have nothing more that's OK. That's about as deep as I guess I am. That's an interesting problem because it seems to me that someone like you.

Comes across as cute and vivacious and everything. Normally we say particularly Chrissy and everything well dumb blonde. There's nothing there so I just you know no one's home. OK. Is there anyone who I am. What's to know. There is definitely someone home in there. I'm a real person I have thought Why doesn't anyone consider my thoughts. You have to go through them. Actually I think people do I think. You're just a part of the image that I have on television is of this dumb blonde and it's certainly the image that made me successful so it's something that I don't really it doesn't bother me that people think that but I think I've been in the business long enough and done enough talk shows and and I have a a large Tonight Show following me and I have a another whole following of people who read my poetry and I think over the

years people will have to understand that what I do is character work. I love playing the dun blonde you always get all the laughs and then it's if you're a comedian the best thing to do is be the one who's getting the laughs. So I feel a little by little the layers are revealed and people know who I am and if they don't. As long as they enjoy what I'm doing. You know my husband knows that somebody is home sometimes. We better start off and get get some things out of Three's Company because I'm sure we've all seen it more than once and what about the dumb blonde character this is that from a woman's point of view is that kind of how does that make you feel. I loved Ryan It made me happy I got some laughs out of it life is serious enough. And when I'd watch that. It was just that whole bunch of fun. No worries though about the Hey there. That's a typical girl that they're talking about does that make a reflection on me.

And he were like Yeah thanks mom more power to her. How did you feel about that dumb blonde character. I enjoyed it very much. Not intimidated by I don't know. I feel like she's a friend. Friend the kid the character really is not an intimidating character one of the nice things about when I was playing Chrissy was she was not the type of character that would never take anybody's husbands or boyfriends away she's real moral real honest she never ever told a lie and that would also often get her into trouble because they'd say did you and she know she couldn't tell a lie you know. But we're going to get out of this one. And everyone relates to that she really had a wonderful soul. I'm continuing the character in my next series because of the the soul that she had it. I mean I think it's an interesting role model someone who is completely honest and wants to do the right thing. She just has a very strange route to logic which happens to be funny.

One of the neat segments in your show of last year stage show was that whole kind of spoof tribute to characters theme songs from television series. Now of course this latest show you've eliminated it is it because of the tension the hard feelings the awkwardness of doing it. Not really I only dated the Christie segment because it seemed to just bring up something that I think most people are upset that Chrissy is not on that show anymore. And I found when I continue doing her onstage it sort of reminded people all you know we really liked her and I wish she was on television and I until I'm back on television with a similar character I decided to eliminate that. The elimination of the television theme songs is only because I wanted to add more dimensions to my act and grow and the logical extension of making your act better.

You change your frequently don't I. This is the third acts now in. This is my third year so I guess I'm change that's very severe and very expensive isn't very expensive. I make no money I don't have even idea of of how expensive it is. I don't I don't even necessarily figures but. But what you have to do to change an act. Well every time you add a song. A To have arrangements written for a song and to rehearse a song one song a ballad. You need a rehearsal pianist you need the rehearsal room you need to get the piano they're using that need to bring the drummer into it to keep it so he knows understands the timing of the capias feel that it runs into thousands of dollars just to add a song when you hear a song on the radio. Thank you I'd like to sing that. So in a nightclub act is very expensive but you know I feel that these are dues paying years for me even though I have had a lot of success in television the personal business is another whole career and I'm

paying my dues right now and that also means investing a lot of money hopefully in the long run I might make a little but I'm enjoying it. It's helping me grow and learn so much about how to work with a live audience how to how to use my voice more effectively. Let's go back to the Three's Company because I'm sure we're going to be remiss if we don't ask somebody of you. But I would like to ask I just heard you mention that you're basically doing the same character in your new series. Did you have any fears about being typed. Chris you're such a distinctive scatterbrain character. I saw you in a show the other night you're talking about Hilary Winkler talking about success and so forth. I get the feeling from watching you. Henry Winkler that he's tight that he's never going to go much beyond the phones you characterise film career never really took off and so forth. I'm curious why you would want to consider when to change roles grow in another direction do something serious and see if the public perception was that. Well I am broadening the base and on the level of going out and doing

nightclubs I mean that automatically people are starting to think of me in a different genre because oh she's on television also she's on stage on stage she's nothing like she is on television on talk shows I'm nothing like I am on a sitcom. But I looked around at successful women in television. And the real successful ones are Lucille Ball Mary Tyler Moore. Carol Burnett. Let's say those three. The one thing they gave us all the years that they were on television was consistency no matter what the show was when Mary Tyler Moore did it situation comedy. You knew who Mary Tyler Moore was going to be. And I feel that I really established a rapport with with the television. Maybe the sitcom audience whoever the people are who watch sitcoms. That I think that they they accepted me that way and if I came back this year as a brain surgeon I think I'm going I think they've put a kink in the neck like well what's he trying to do.

Because I think they would really like that. I plan to broaden my horizons in film I am doing a film this year called the puppet waltz which is very dramatic and I play definitely a woman in that character. I think people will accept me in a film as as as a dramatic actress. But I think on television they really expect to get a little bit of the wackiness in the kookiness. And I really want to give them what they want because that's the only way you can stay on the air right now. Your new series will replace that is will go into the timeslot right. That is a terrific timeslot Yes. That means if it works well you know the television changes but that the network is taking it seriously. Well when you put it in that timeslot OK now can you tell us a lot about that you're a little bit about the series and say well you know I don't know you. You must know when you do describe a situation comedy it always sounds funny. It you know it sounds a little trite I mean you have to know who the characters are but I continue the character not continue that I do a

similar character to what I did on Three's Company except her name now is Susie Mahoney which happens to be my real name. And I now have a little son. In fact you might have seen him he's the little boy in the French's mustard commercial that makes the mustard challenges as you know. He's so darling. Any spot of yours oh I can't even read yet so when we're you know giving him the script what he has to memorize the whole thing is he can't read. And I have the son I work as a secretary but I what I really want to do is get into show business and in in my office where I'm a secretary. I have a girlfriend and she's always covering up for me because I'm always sneaking out from the boss going to try out for this part that I just heard you know where you dress up as a muffin or something like that every week. So it's wacky it's if you're a chicken is your husband. Yeah the chicken will probably get in. But it gives me the opportunity to be the kind of mother that I've always thought would be really nice on television the kind of mother I was. I feel I am tuned to my son a

very. You know I kissed this little child a lot and I hug him and I squeeze and then he's so little but he's not self-conscious about it. He allow me to pick him up if he ad libbed in the middle of the sea or on one show we were doing. I picked him up I said OK like I said Can I have a good day at school and he said I love you mommy. That was an ad lib you know because he gets in it and believes that I'm his real mother for that moment divorcée or widow in divorcing. That's a that's a problem an ongoing situation. Situation comedy that you have to be on a charge because it allows other characters come in. But what does that say to audiences. How does that influence younger audiences watching because they never see or Normally they never see a husband and wife they always see somebody who's even divorced or getting divorced. It's interesting now is that used to be Ozzy and Harriet and the Father knows best I mean I would have had divorced you know right the program the reality of life

these days if you ask any kid in grammar school it's the statistics are over 50 percent of the class are are from broken homes and this is a show like yours perpetuate the problem by by giving us the feeling that we're less normal. If you know what this series is loosely based on my own life it's mine. I was an 18 year old mother with a with a small son. I was raising him alone I know a lot about it. So for me it was a real logical kind of series because I understand what being a single parent is it's it's rough especially if you have big dreams and suddenly you your whole life revolves around the essentials of food shelter and clothing because you have this little person who looks up at you. Do you know. What do you think is going to make that series different if the off topic ahead if you are the producer or the writer of a series like that what would make it different. Anyone like to make a stab at producing a show

at the moment. Well firstly it comes to mind is it's your basic television plots you can be listed in order but the freshness is with which the writers contribute to the situations that Miss Summers is what they do that's going to make that difference. If I could tell you that I'd be on the show you could tell me that I'd hire you. I am. Yeah I know that is a problem is that finding the best riders is hard. You know you don't go out you don't do a television show because you hope it won't be a good show you when you sit down at the networks and you start plotting out what you want your television series to be. Everybody's sitting there is trying to do the best so they possibly can. OK here comes the irony. Now that they have this television series which is around you therefore they're saying in the back room you know we're going to give her the best scripts and everything but it's going to be her show a make or break situation. And by God we got this top notch person and I'm going to do this. Now take that

now on the other side. The people of Three's Company if I understand all the manipulations in the negotiations and the horror of that particular thing in your life they were saying Who is this she is an important all we don't even know are on the other hand they're saying wow this is the import most important person we have been on the other hand is saying she ain't no importance at all. How do you deal with that kind of. You know you don't listen to either of them. You have to really. It's so simple. You really have to just believe in yourself. When I finally got 3 sg. company it had been after 10 years of literally tap dancing for every single person in Hollywood. And when I finally got the chance I just said to myself I want to go as far as I can go with this and that is I'll My goals are real. And maybe maybe that's good maybe it's bad I don't know what all I know is when I get to here I want to be here want to get to where I want to be there it's that very human

insatiable things. So for me on Three's Company it was time. Time to move on time to have more. More of the half hour or so I could do what I do and I've never stove of a little fear of that of worrying about oh it's all over for me. I haven't had those all over I've had a lot of fear about the series well they like it well they're not like I I really believe I belong on television I think that for some reason it works for me in comedy sort of a charge of jealousy or are you all feeling for the blonde who took your place hoping maybe that you know that you know such a thing. Do you think that would be a problem. I think I would hope that she fell down and say aha I told you so. You know to speak. I think that she would be capable of handling any feelings that might

arise. I don't think so. I don't think I'd like to ask you one question. When you're approached for an autograph are you grateful or are you annoyed. I'm always thrilled. My husband isn't always thrilled. The only time it's not wonderful because what they're really saying is I like you I enjoy my I mean it's a real compliment when I ask for your autograph. The only time it's hard is if you're in the middle of you know you got a mouthful. And I've had a lot of cold soup over the last seven years. And the other. In the new series what what kinds of men do you think would have to come into her life to make that show exciting.

What I think you're probably dead boyfriend's next door neighbors and and people like that Eric as you said your boss if you're Ivy said Aubrey It was always this has to be somebody who creates the Jeopardy somebody that I'm afraid of or somebody who's got rules that I might have broken because that's what college is about you have to have the Jeopardy. But I recall one when my son was little what it was like dating because we literally grew up together and as far as he you know he was the only man in my life and with these other men to come over. There. You know he would size them up and tell about make it a little difficult for the guy. And I it was always you know I was trying to keep everybody comfortable all the time so that will come into the series. John Carroll did a show like this is a nurse. Oh that's right. Milo Chamas Today show always running off to get an audition. That's 13 years. Yeah but does that worry you about being you maybe identify with

I think the main thing is I think the main reason they tune is they like the character and if they can't we're going to come back and we're going to talk about the character in a lot of other things right. Suzanne Somers We'll be right back. Thank you. The

whole business and the guest is Suzanne Somers. Much more as a question from the hall here about characters right. Well yeah I kind of amazed to hear some of the women in the audience say that they weren't bothered by that the dumb blonde character. I had a couple of friends that were gay and were very much upset by the character that Jack Ritter portrayed on the show felt it was very demeaning very derogatory wrong stereotype for gays. Television has a tremendous influence across the nation. How much do you see a performer's responsibility in terms of molding that character and the stereotypical person that they're throwing out to an audience that is very impressionable it seems.

I guess we're coming from two different directions because I always feel that they accept the character as a character but they know who the person is is playing the character. And the one thing I've always felt is there's just no way that I could alienate women by the character I play because they they have to if they know anything about my history I I am a self-made woman. I raise my child I took the responsibility I pursued my craft in very adverse conditions I've been broke I've been evicted my lights have been turned off my telephones been turned off all many times in the struggle to get to where I wanted to go. So when I when I if I ever I got any criticism. I think I would have to say if you had if you had been evicted if you had had your lights turned off if you didn't know how you're going to just make ends meet and somebody offered you a part on television where I think you know the money is very good to play a monkey I would have taken the part you know if it it.

I think as it goes on there is a responsibility can come into it but in the beginning it's really survival. There's no way I could have turned down three company. All I thought when they said we want you to play a dumb blonde. I thought I'd written a book and I've done things to where I live. I feel that I've made women look good and I've I've got to go play this dumb blonde How do I play a dumb blonde. Why don't make every woman in America hate me and that I feel I was very successful because I don't think the women in America dislike that character. I think they saw the softness in the femininity and and the honesty that would be nice of all of us could be that honest in this life now that we play a lot of games. Appearing with you Terry Anderson as you know Gary would you. Would you stand.

Now he's done other than me he just introduced himself and I want to comment on the dumb blonde I think one of my favorite people in history is Gracie Allen. And and and I don't see that there's there's something negative I think we're supposed to feel when we hear the words dumb blind eye that I'm not feeling. I think it's it's a it's a comedic tradition that goes all the way back to the Italian comedian and it's wonderful and there's I don't think I can think anything negative about it at all. OK you go backstage with her we want to know now what she really like backstage. Very quiet. But I have a glass up to the war I am having her we haven't spent got to spend much time here. We were both running around. You didn't hear the origin you know. A little bit of that you know about US state paper the Harry is a comic magician for those of you who have not seen him and he. And you're going to be on a series this fall.

Yeah I'm doing a show called Cheers. My show for NBC and I play a hustler and I cheat on the show and I don't. Again it just like with the deadline I don't I don't see that is that there being any problem and how that influences how people feel about that there are so many characters in theater that to say that one particular character is going to corrupt the youth or hopefully what that what kids will see is enough different people that they'll get an idea of the real world. You know there's a reason why on Sesame Street I have a baby who's 18 months old and so I've watched Sesame Street a lot lately. You know why is Oscar the Grouch on there and why is there a good monster that lives on cookies. You know the worst thing a kid could eat. Because it's there they're telling kids that their fantasies and their problems are OK and that other people have them too and they're presenting mean characters along with pleasant characters along with the you know intelligent and silly so sensitive at

this stage in her career she would have taken three's company no matter what almost no matter what they would have up because it was a great opportunity at the right time. Do you feel the same way about your stake in that role and three. That you feel the same way about you. Yeah I think the television is so powerful and it's such a it is when you want to reach people it's amazing how many people I've worked for years and years and years and in life. And I I reached more people on my first Saturday Night Live appearance than it would have seen me in 20 lifetimes of performing on stage and realizing that when I hit the stage and they said Relax are only 28 million people watching. They were joking with me but it just about knocked me to my knees to think of that number of people watching a performance and you're a performer because you want to be seen by people you want you have something you want to share with them. Television is like a. Is like a Christmas present. It's it's very very exciting thing and I would do.

I would eat the Big Macs in the world. If it if it meant that I got seen at my best six times a day you know I think sorry this is the whole reason I'm back of those specials that you're doing to us. Yes. Just light exposure the whole. Well I mean so you see you in different lighting different lighting and also doing a special. Is a bonus on television because doing a special is an hour they devote to anything that you would like to show the American audience about yourself or about guests that you happen to bring along and doing a special is probably one of the most fun experiences I've ever had in television plus the fact that you know between 50 and 60 million people see you on that one night and be on feelings when you see someone like her you know her you get to know her about on a situation comedy and then when you see a special you're kind of thrown around this isn't this isn't so much I want to see. You know I think it's more interesting seeing many aspects of her. I'm impressed.

With the brains behind beauty and I think it's very nice to know. But why aren't you surprised. It was I think to be an actor or an actress takes enormous amount of intelligence something we forget. Yeah I. Was an enormously brilliant woman and yet you play the dumb blonde. Yeah yeah yeah I mean one right for being the dumbest. Yeah what about how you got the role of Chrissy I mean were you in competition with 5000 other actresses and you know a long time it's an interesting story of the year that I got 3 sg. company I did nine television pilots do you know what a pilot is like oh you know. A demonstration to see if they're going to buy the show. I did nine of them and not one soul. And I I was feeling a little depressed and and I wasn't my husband then but my now husband took me on a

vacation. And on that vacation I had written a book because that during that time that was the only way I was really making any money was through art poetry books and I'd written this book and I finished the book and I really liked it. And I sat on the beach one day we're down the Caribbean and I thought you know maybe it's time just face the facts. It's been 10 years you did nine pilots they're not buying you maybe maybe you're not you're not supposed to be doing this and I've sat there and I thought well I could teach cooking lessons and I could write poetry books and I probably could eke out a decent living for the rest of my life doing two things I happen to enjoy doing. So I decided on that trip. I think it's time to face facts. And I was going to give up the never thought of giving up ever ever in my life. And we flew home we got in this little airplane. And it was an eight seater and are on this airplane. And it was the first time it ever snowed in the Caribbean. And we were

in a thunderstorm like you couldn't believe and lightning actually hit the wing of the plane and the it we were using air pockets and dropping hundreds of feet. And there were these two ladies who are sitting over here having babies and they're screaming. Work got it done. We're going to die. And I thought we were going to die too and I remember. I said the things you say to the person you love I said to my husband you know how much he meant I said my last words to him and the captain it was a small plane he was about right here. And he said put your head between your knees lot. You know. We had lost control. He did land on the runway on full and it was it was just an awful landing is terrible. The next day I went home to Los Angeles and I got this call. And my manager said they want you to go in for the show Three's Company they seem real interested in you and I said you know I almost died last night. I did nine pilots this year. I've decided I'm giving it up. I you know it just it I think this is meant to be I'm here for some reason I think I'm

going to cook and write poetry. She said Go on go go do it go do it just one more interview OK. So I went in and I got it. I must have walked in like. If you want me you know fine if you don't want me that's fine too I wasn't my usual desperate self I used to go on in every interview Go salesman do all the stuff. So I went in real calm and that afternoon they brought me over to ABC. And they had done. At this point now three pilots for Three's Company with three different Chrissy's and it hadn't sold and they had screened a thousand girls and then got it down to 250 girls I don't know why that was such a hard part to cast. And that afternoon they brought me to ABC and I always will remember this sea of gray suits in front of me they're all sitting there like this and they made me do a few scenes in front of them and I left the room. And before I even got out the door they buzzed me and said come to work Monday you're on a series that was meant to be.

But no question you did. No they got you and asked you about this series or how did they approach you in the new series. In the first year of Three's Company. My husband did something on precedent and I made a deal with another network that when I was finished with Three's Company that I would do a series for them. And that also included doing specials and movies for CBS. And so I always knew at the end of Three's Company at the end of six years actually that I could then immediately go into my own show and it was that's an interesting thing to have dangling out there especially when you've been doing a successful series for six years and you know it's a three star show and the bulk of the show because Jon was officially the star of the show that he would get the bulk of each show and I wanted to do more I wanted Christie to cry and I wanted her to have a bigger range of emotions my as mainly what I did on Three's Company as I'd walk

from the bedroom deliver a joke they'd laugh and walk into the kitchen I come out of the kitchen deliver a joke they'd laugh and go back into the bedroom. And I I wanted to stay in the living room a little longer so now now I'm in the living room you have this information in your hip pocket as it were. It was easier for you when this whole financial crisis came up you know it was it with. It was easy in the sense that something that I wanted at the same time it was a real poll. I loved doing Three's Company. When when I was doing that show the three of us were as close as anybody on a set has ever been and it was but not now a wonderful working experience. No it's not now. It's I liken it sort of to a divorce. You know when you're if you love somebody and you live with them and then you grow with them. And then you get a divorce you feel so betrayed there's a bitterness that happens even though you once loved them and I think that's what's happened between John and Joyce. We all feel betrayed by one another because we were so close and I think what we really need is time space and I think one day we'll all

as in this business happens well end up in one room together face to face and I think probably it will resolve itself at that time. She said You're response from the audience is good on stage. You're a reporter with the audience it's good that normally doesn't happen in Las Vegas or other places where the shows take place for instance. There are many television personalities who have attempted to make the transition to the live stage and have Bob and big Carol Burnett who get an audience in the same hotel where you work. Why. It's bizarre. I I think you know. If I had the answer all I know is that the main thing I work on. Because everybody sings and dances and everybody has great costumes. So that's an automatic I've got the production numbers I sing I dance and I've got great costumes. But I looked around I went to see every woman who's doing Las Vegas before I did. And the one thing I realize is that

very few of them can talk. And I know that I I can talk so over the last three years I think I've worked harder on my talk than I have on the production numbers and the costumes and the dance and I I work on my talk every night I change it almost every night. Maybe maybe just a word or something just just to get a better reaction just you know and and I have the freedom in my show that if if an opportunity for an ad lib is there my my show is structured so that I can bring the ADD lives into the show and it works. But also it helps me to communicate with them so I get them liking me when I come out there and I talk to them. To them I'm not down or down at the or. Say things that aren't honest. That's the main thing if you say if you give them all on stage the audience is so smart they know immediately and they just lose interest in you so I try to tell them the truth my stories and my vignettes and my addicts are all real. They all really happened and I have that question answer period where I'm free to just

say whatever I want to say and it helps develop a rapport. Do you see a danger in that though of any female entertainer on stage they could easily fall into the trap of talking too much. I don't know I think women do have to talk like you know that I don't know sometimes you know that does get a reporter going with the audience when you when you have a talk back and forth you know worried about that like there's too much talk Oh Stop talking and get on with your dances. But I haven't seen her show I'd love to know with Miss Summers I would not be afraid of that ever happening. Not a lot at home there. OK so the talk then has justified the answers the questions and answers. That's kind of fun. Yeah. Yes I noticed someone in the audience really taking down questions right and then people yell because it's it's the one opportunity I have. To use my natural wit and it's a real

challenge to sit there and in an instant to see even come up with something. But I had training in that. My background is The Tonight Show the first net the first television show I was ever on was The Tonight Show. I remember standing behind the curtain because I had written a book called Touch Me I remember standing behind the curtain about you've experienced this thinking I'm going to be the first person to ever throw up on The Tonight Show. I don't know if it's so terrifying but terrifying for a lot of reasons not the least of which is the fact that boy oh boy you're going to try out something in front of millions of people and it's not like trying out your stuff in a small club somewhere where no one's going to know. And you think of I mean when you're on The Tonight Show you think. That wakens watching. You know I mean the people who are watching there's no end of who's watching. But what happened on that show and I'm sure Harry's experience this too with Johnny Carson. It's set up joke set up joke maybe it's he sets you up or maybe you set him up but it The Tonight Show is not a show like the Barbara

Walters specials where you dig deep into your soul and really think about it there's no time you only have a few minutes for each slug they call it. So what the object is to either make Johnny look as funny as he can in those few minutes or make yourself look as funny as you can in those few minutes or both you get something going. So after I stopped counting after the 40th time I was on that show but doing it that many times I really learned that rhythm love ask a question think a funny answer. You know think of funny answer ask a funny question. Well when we come back we're going to ask you some questions and with your husband over to the financial end because we have a lot of rascals in this audience who know a lot about finance. We'll be right back. Oh. Thank you. It's all good everyone else or so I guess Suzanne Somers and now we got her husband who

is the we think the financial wizard behind all this but maybe not we'll going to find out. Would you welcome the planes into the. And I want to make sure that we pulled you out of where you were comfortably sitting off the side and you didn't expect this you're not dressed in everything so it's very nice and gracious of you to take the time you know. We could do something that would be a first on television if you could get a closeup of my leg you would see goosebumps or and you could hang meat in this studio. OK let's make it hot for you. Who's the financial brains in this mob here. It isn't me any problem of Svengali kind of stuff that he's going to manipulate your career and we're going to tell you what to do honey and you shut up because I know everything about finance. No you know I it's it's really a two person business. It's almost an impossible thing to do all your all yourself if you have to do it all yourself. You start

becoming notorious for your temper and your frustrations and ranting and raving because he handles the finances the wolves at the door with whatever all I have to do is go out on stage and tap dance and it relieves a lot of burden for me. I'm not good with money and ego problems with men is you know successful too. In this business we hear all the cliches about two people in the same business. It's never going to work. I think two actors is very difficult because if you're two actors are you trying to say that he's not an actor on his own. Marshals we had on this one. You know it's interesting when you're on television people automatically assume you're an actor I'm not an actor. What are you. I'm just a guy who's on television. OK. Yeah I'm not an actor. I mean you're on television. Are you an actor now. I'm I'm not an actor I just happen to do what I do and it happens to be on television every so often I get calls to do an acting job

and once in a while I do it but it's only because what I'm doing is only going to take an afternoon and it's something that I can do quite easily I peered on all my family and just before just before Jean Stapleton left the show and I did it because I wanted to work with Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton and it took an afternoon of my time and I played a guy who was very similar to who I am. I played somebody who's very similar to the Alpha Beta man. It must have been wonderful for the producer when you said you know I'll do the show but look I'm not an actor that wants to be one of those no matter fact whenever they call I always tell him I'm not an actor and I don't do it very much anymore really but if I do I always tell him I'm not an actor I don't act in that. Yeah he'll do X. That's true the Alpha Beta has been a very successful thing of course in your life and how long you've been doing that. This is about the. This is about the seventh or eighth year. That's odd isn't it that long association it is except that.

Every so often something works and you can't explain why it works and people have tried to analyze why things work on television you know your time I was listening to you before when you're talking about situation comedy. It's hard to know why something's going to work but when it works you hang on to it. And that's why we have all hung on to this. I mean the company and myself we've become very close and I feel that I'm very much a part of the company. And when something works that really that good you want to continue with it. OK but if you have made money and hang on to money is this a problem in which you stand please. I'd like you to meet a banker. Would you tell us about it. OK my name is mommy Miller I'm from Valley Bank in Las Vegas here. And I'm supposed to ask a question you know what. Let's see if we pick their brains about how they would you know that's a lot of money now we're not going to get into dollars and cents but but that's a lot of money the pressure is on you.

The pressure is on them to keep that money. The pressures of a lifestyle which is developed. The pressure is on the fact that maybe as you were describing you didn't come from money therefore it's something very new. That's a lot of pressure. How do you screen. You must have a lot of people coming after you for different types of investments havea screen those different types of those people. Well it's very simple we only have one kind of investment that's realistic. We don't have any other investments because I don't understand anything else besides real estate. It's the only thing I've ever understood I only understand something you can jump on and touch. And I've never understood the stock market. It alludes me and maybe I've purposely allowed it to elude me but I've never understood the stock market and no one has ever said to me I got rich in the stock market I only hear sad stories about people who say Gee if I'd only served yesterday you know and I'm hit all

the time with tax shelter deals and avocado groves cattle feeding programs the oil wells syndicated apartment buildings and condominiums. It goes on and on. What it boils down to is we are not partnered with anybody in any business with the exception of one little business we have that doesn't make any money. But it's a business we enjoy because it's a it's a food business we have a little bakery and we manufacture tarts and cookies and things and again we don't make any money doing it but it's a fun business and we enjoy it. And we're partnered with a friend of mine who's been my friend probably for 30 years. Other than that we don't have any partners and the only investments we make are in real estate in a little bakery as a hedge against a canceled series and. Absolutely absolutely. We're talking about diversification of investments on another program. And I was wondering does that bother you that your portfolio of investments is is only invested in real estate.

The only person that bothers is my accountant doesn't bother me at all. Real estate is something I really understand. I really understand real estate it's very simple it's very basic and the principle of buying something for a dollar and hanging on to it for a while and maybe improving it and selling it for a dollar and ten cents is something that I understand I don't understand any other form of investment and in terms of diversification. Most of the people I know who have been successful financially have been people who have invested in real estate. I mean in the last 10 years in the last 10 years I mean it's 10 or 12 year $20. I you know I recognize that you know 1976 77 were probably the high points over the last decade in terms of real estate and things are tough now but it's probably easier to make money now in real estate than it was in 76 and 77 because this is really a buyer's market isn't it. It is a buyer's market if you're if you're not buying and it's still relatively high compared

compared to what it was 20 years ago. I asked that question because I I'm an investment manager in one of the very basic programs that we have for a very very basic underlying rules of management of other people's assets is diversification as a food as an investment manager we can get a lot of trouble if we didn't diversify. But but I've also looked back in the economy over the last 100 years there's always been assets or investments that have done well. Sometimes real estate tangible assets. And there's been periods in our economic history where real States have been a very bad investment. This is kind of what you're going to use for your retirement when you when you finally want to settle down that real estate is going to be your nest day. Well I know retirement is not a word that is in our everyday vocabulary. We wouldn't give you idea of retiring I find abhorrent. You know the whole

business of someone turning 65 and being put out to pasture is such an antiquated idea and word started I don't know. I don't ever intend to retire I hope they drag me dead out of a TV studio. Thank you thank you very much. Talk about the emotions of what it means to have the years of the lights being turned off. And being evicted and then all of a sudden thousands of dollars a week. How do you how do you just handle that we know a lot of people who have not coped with it well. You know them more intimately than I. This is a problem. How do you handle that just emotionally. It's one I don't do it every one time I did it I played a state fair in the New York State Fair and they paid me in cash and it was mostly dollar bills because it was the money they were taking in from the ticket and I think gave us this brown paper sack with cash and we went back to the hotel room and I said

let's let's just you know like in the movies let's just do what was true in the air and all of that in everything was wonderful. But the first year of Three's Company I have to I mean I could it was it was wonderful. It was wonderful because the year before when I go across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco I never had the 50 cents and I'd leave a tube of lipstick as collateral. They had a box they said what do you do with all these lipstick more lipstick the money in the first year of Three's Company. The main thing I did was I went and bought. An entire new wardrobe. That's usually what women would do and he was understanding enough to realize that I really needed to do it I really needed to buy myself clothes and that's about the only year that I really was like a drunken sailor on Rodeo Avenue I mean they'd seen me in Beverly Hills I don't. So it is common. Talk of a strong leads but I've calmed down.

Yeah after a while how many of what ropes can you buy when you start moving into other things. You know the reality of making money it's all relative. It's really all relative. You know when she said that we don't make any money with the ACT she's not kidding. By the time we finished paying all our people and paying for the development of new material and paying agency commissions and paying state and federal income tax and paying legal and accounting so there's nothing left. Remember Joan Rivers saying 50 percent off the top. I mean usually other people I mean immediately I mean we the moment we get we get a dollar we immediately take 50 cents and you know put it away because that's going on. And then out of the other 50 cents probably depending on you know what we're doing but most of that is eroded too. So it's all really relative and again in terms of money you can only eat so much food and you can only sleep in one bed. And I'm not exactly. What you'd call certain splendor. I don't spend a lot of

money on clothes. It's all relative and you know you don't work for the money so much you work because you really enjoy it and the money is sort of a byproduct. You know you don't go into it and say I want to get into this to make money and be rich because the worst the worst business in the world to make money in is television. Because the people who make money in television represent maybe one half of one percent of everybody maybe probably obvious. Those are the superstars you know like Suzanne either the Nats most people I think the average income in television. Last year the Screen Actors Guild every year publishes a an average income for its membership and I think the average income was something like forty seven hundred dollars less than that. It's a stockbroker up here at Joel King. Now he just said he was going to buy anything. How does he how do you react to this or what would you say to some people like this in there. While the Vance thinks that his own idea is certainly very

difficult to break him out of that until that investment idea that he has maybe doesn't produce as much as he'd hoped for next time it's difficult. If it's performing well for him you gotta stay with it. Diversification is interesting I like cable-TV that's the hot thing right now as far as as an investment medium. We are getting involved quite heavily in. Why would you invest in your own business as it were. I would never invest money in my own business. Never. It's just not a good idea. It's just a policy we have people who invested money in the it's such a highly subjective business that when you clutter it with your own money it changes the way you feel about what you're doing. If I remember I once financed a television pilot myself many years ago. It's about 13 years ago. Up in San Francisco it was on location it was with film was for film cameras very expensive show. The fact that I was paying for it colored how I produced that show and as a result it was not successful because I was so

concerned with cutting financial corners and still trying to make it work that the show basically was a compromise. So as a result my rule is I don't invest in our business. I think it's you know every so often you'll hear that. Except of course getting the necessary things for her act. Well yeah but you in that sense yes in that sense certainly investing in the in the television series to come up. No no absolutely not. As a matter of fact. We took on a partner for the the television series that were doing tandem which is now embassy television. But the reason we brought them in is our partners rather than vice versa. Normally it's tandem that has the deal and they bring in the star. We have the the business arrangement of the network and we brought tandem in as our partners so that they could do all the deficit financing and they could handle all the expertise that was necessary to put together a TV series. And sure we gave away part of our potential profit.

But what we're getting in return is invaluable. I don't have to lay out five cents of my own money and I have the best company brains hopefully in the country working on the show. Reminds me of what happens on payment on a series like this. Deferred payments. Is that a possibility. On my own or even on your commercial contracts can you get back in the old days when when you know money was costing 5 percent or 6 percent deferments were there were occasionally you hear about deferments today with the high cost of money it really unless you make some kind of spectacular deal it really doesnt pay to do for money. I mean the best way to get your money today is to get it right after you finish doing the show. You have to get that smell as a matter of fact. That's a song I'll tell you something kind of interesting. The the personal appearance business is kind of interesting because that was the first business I mean that preceded television that preceded radio and everything else. And the

rules that were established I guess 100 or 200 years ago whenever people started performing on stage still apply. For example. When she does a date other than in Las Vegas of course but she does a date at a State Fair for example. She gets paid before she goes on. That's part of the deal. And she gets paid either in cash or certified check. Because in the early days some somebody would go along they'd sing and dance and do their stuff. And the show would be over they'd look around for the guy to pay them and he wouldn't be there. So some of those old rules still apply and it's interesting I enjoy that aspect of it you know I enjoy the fact that the moment you finish your job you leave because you got paid. When you were all around the dead of it. How do you advise people like this who have made a lot of money rapidly and and look like they're going to be making a lot of money in the next few years or at least as much or more. My only advice is just to be careful to take your normal common sense to see I told you we had

experts. So I went to school for some time. I'm sure there where their business is. We talk about the economy going up and down their lies faster than anything else I've ever seen. Who's on top today is on the bottom tomorrow and yeah they just need to make sure that they stay up even if their careers go down. Yeah this guy just up and down and posts the dangers of the real estate is. But I can see a reason. That's something you can touch and absolutely it's something you can touch you don't have to depend on anybody else you don't have to consult partners. You know I have a dear friend who's a lawyer who spends his time doing you know public offerings and and syndicated things and limited partnerships etc. and he makes a very nice living doing that. But he has yet to show me one of those deals that makes any money for its investors. They always get they always share their money everyone's under the impression that a tax shelter means you don't have to pay your taxes. That doesn't mean that at all. It simply means you defer paying your tax if you're lucky and most

of those those crazy tax shelters but the time you know by the time. A year or two years or three years rolls around and somebody from the IRS comes in and questions it you're going to have to go back and pay all that money and sometimes there are penalties and you have to pay a lot of accounting fees because now the accountants involved in dealing with the IRS and it's a big hassle you know and it complicates one's life and I believe that no matter what aspect of your life you're dealing with if it's simple it's the best way to deal with it. Come complexity in the life is really tough I see our children. Whose lives are very complex. I see all their books and our kids are cleaning out their rooms last week and they took everything out of the rooms and left it in the hallway. And I went down I slipped and Alison I thought my God there lives are complicated. You could just see from the books and from the sports equipment and the the all the stuff they had lying on the floor their lives are complicated. And I had a long talk with them about

simplifying their lives. You have the last word on our program today. Anything about simplifying your life in terms of creativity. Well it's nice talking to my son on the phone last night and he said you know what I'm going to put on your epitaph. So I thought for they talk about it. He said it's going to it's all balance because that's all the time. Just as you go through life remember balance there's balance and balance. If you're going to have a good time take a night to cool calm down if you think a balanced life. OK well thank you for that Allan thank you.