The
First QL Convention: 3/1/92
From Quantum
Quarterly, Spring 1992
(Original article in Quantum
Quarterly was
transcribed by Kathy
Dunn with Christina Mavroudis)
(A video montage of Don's work is flashed on the
large screens. It ends with the scene
from the QL pilot episode where Sam talks with his father)
Don Bellisario: |
I just wanna thank you all for the
past four years. You're the people
who kept us on the air. They were
gonna cancel us at the end of the first
year, and now it looks like we're going on to the fifth. [A RIOT – A VERITABLE RIOT]. And I'm not supposed to forget this. [He chooses a name for a drawing for a
trip to Orlando which may be the location of the next convention – it goes to
Christie Keith of Sacramento, CA.] |
Don: |
I put that first episode on, and I
don't know how many of you even saw the first episode. I wanted to do that scene because that
scene is
very important to me. I just thought that typified what the show
was
going to be about, what the show has
been about. It couldn't have been performed any better by anyone. I wanna bring the actors out now, so let's bring out Scott and Dean. [The roar was deafening and the camera
flashes non-stop for several minutes.] |
Dean Stockwell: |
Thank you all for coming. |
Scott Bakula: |
Can you all hear us? HELLO, EVERYBODY! You havin' a good time? |
Don: |
Okay, fire away! |
Q: |
Scott, although '8 1/2 Months'
wasn't my favorite episode, I thought you did the best job at being
pregnant. What is your favorite character, one that meant the most to you? |
Scott: |
Oh, boy! See, that's how bad it is.
I didn't even do that on purpose! I think the first words my son is gonna
speak are "Oh, boy!" We're
teaching him. We're working on
that. There was an episode that we did very early on, actually during that first
year, the "Volare" episode that Don wrote, that was wonderfully
comedic. I loved that whole show.
There was also a show, "Play It Again, Seymour," which was really fun.
Those are two of my favorite comedic episodes. |
Q: |
Dean, what is it like talking to
the air as a hologram? |
Dean: |
Yeah, I have to talk to the air
sometimes when we do what's called blue screen to make the hologram walk
through things and stuff. When I'm in a blue screen, I'm the only one
there. The scene we've already shot I see on a screen. So that's the only time I ever talk to nobody, but Scott does it a lot, because whenever I'm
there and somebody else looks, I'm not there, so maybe we should get his
reaction to that. He's probably glad I'm not there! |
Scott: |
It's hard. You get used to it. Sometimes we are better at it than other
times. If we had more time to do it
really, really well, but I think all things
considered, with what we try and do in eight days of television making, with
new shows every week, I think it comes out really well. And Dean's really excellent at it! |
Q: |
This question's for Dean. [Note:
during this exchange, the little lady
asking the question gives Dean a HUGE birthday card, which he eventually opens and shows to the crowd.] |
Dean: |
Thank you. |
Q: |
Dean, are you an angel? |
Dean: |
Boy, this is some weekend for me! |
Scott: |
Can I answer that question? |
Dean: |
[reading the envelope] Handle with Care. |
Scott: |
You didn't answer the
question. |
Dean: |
What was the question? . . . No,
I'm a star! I want to share something with you, something also that was given
to me yesterday. It's unbelievable,
this thing. The fans that raised the
money for my star through recycling were of course all down on the boulevard,
and the top money earners came in from all over the country, the top 10. They had a luncheon and at the luncheon,
they were very sweet to me . . . [laughs himself] . . . I can't believe this,
they gave me a star, but they gave me a real star. A real one in the heavens [points upward]. They gave it to me, and I am so grateful
to them. [Top contributor, Lyndell
Netherton was responsible for the 'heavenly' star.] |
Q: |
Will Scott and Dean sign autographs
after the con? |
Scott: |
You know, let me say something
about that. I would love to sign
autographs for everybody all the time, but when we get into a situation like
this, and this is just me, if I can't sign autographs for everybody and I have
to stop at a certain time, then I'd rather not sign it for anybody. I don't mean that in a bad way, but I'd
rather do it for everybody. And
really, there's so many people here today, it's wonderful, but the timing how
it is we can't do that. So I
apologize for that. But again, if you send stuff to Universal,
we will sign it and get it back to you. |
Q: |
Love the show. Can I take a photo of you all? |
Don: |
You can go to the end of the runway
and take a picture, but if everybody starts doin' it, we'll never get done. |
Q: |
[British fan] We're only on the second season. Has your quest gotten deeper as you went
on? |
Scott: |
I do. I think Don is really a better person to field that, because he
has a better sense of the scope of the whole thing, but I think that as everyone
has had input into the show since we began, including Dean and myself, and
Don, and other writers, and people like yourselves from all over that mention
things and talk about things, I think the show changes focus. It moves.
It has the lovely quality of being different every week, so we can
experiment with things. We
experimented this year with some shows that were controversial, and I think
that was a step for us in many ways.
I think those shows came off wonderfully well. So I think the show continues to evolve,
and certainly continues to amaze me, what these wonderful writers can think up. |
Q: |
[Brad, from "Jimmy"]
Scott, the crew, the cast, every Quantum Leap I've seen, Don, Dean,
and the directors have put a lot of inspiration and wonderful moments into Quantum
Leap. You have here a lot of
devoted fans, and maybe you don't realize that each of you up there are the
most wonderful people I have seen . . . you guys are the most wonderful,
loving, caring, inspirations. You're
wonderful. |
Q: |
[Joyce Hatcher, who did the hundred
yard dash from one side of the auditorium to the other with the
microphone] Dean, I know how hard it
is to rap. How hard was it for you to
rap? |
|
[Scott laughs] |
Dean: |
It wasn't easy! It wasn't easy, and I gotta tell you why,
and
you can all have a good yock on this
one. I happen to be blessed with a
certain kind of memory configuration, and it works very well for me in the
business I'm in. I can remember
dialogue like that, big long speeches, whole plays, very quickly. So can Scott. But when I was doing that song, I was supposed to listen to the
music in my ear and everything – I couldn't remember the alphabet. We did like eight takes, 'cause I kept
forgetting the alphabet. |
Q: |
Scott, I think you're adorable. |
Dean: |
Am I chopped liver over here? |
Scott: |
More like liver pate! |
Q: |
Answering for each other's
character, how much are you guys like the characters? |
Dean: |
I'll tell you what. Scott is a bright, deep guy, but he's not
that complicated! |
Q: |
[A man speaks with his 'very
pregnant' wife next to him]. We're
here against doctor's orders. We're
having a baby any minute. [Gasp from
audience]. |
Dean: |
I hope there's a doctor here. |
Scott: |
I'm not a real doctor. |
Q: |
Since this is our first child, and
she's nine months pregnant, could you rub her tummy for luck? |
Scott: |
You gotta be nine months pregnant
to get this done. Now, nobody who
says, "I conceived yesterday . . . ." [The guys give the mommy-to-be and baby a good luck rub.] |
Q: |
I understand you're directing an
episode . . . . |
Scott: |
I did already. |
Q: |
Was it easier or harder than you
expected? |
Scott: |
The directing was wonderful except
for having to work with Dean. [The
ribbing doesn't stop – and is a source of amusement for everyone, audience
and guests alike]. |
Q: |
How come Al can't tell Sam about
Donna? |
Dean: |
Don is gonna tell me the answer and
then I'm gonna tell you. |
Don: |
What was the question? Why is he not supposed to tell Sam about
his wife? Because then we've blown
the series. No; if he told him, he would
be plagued by that knowledge and then going through the leap after leap as he
went from one leap to another he wouldn't be really a free agent to operate
as he needed to operate, to do what has to be done. So Al can't tell him.
That means that he can sometimes get involved with other ladies and
still be . . . most television series would never do that. We're the only one that had the
opportunity to get him married, then get him out of it and keep him married. |
Q: |
Scott, can you take off your coat
for my mother? [He does.] |
Don: |
We just finished an episode where
Scott stripped to his skivvy shorts! |
Q: |
Does Dean add environmental lines
to episodes? |
Dean: |
Yeah, I do. |
Q: |
Scott, you're very sexy. Did you really sing in "Glitter
Rock," and was it fun being a punk rocker? |
Scott: |
Yeah, I do all the singing on the
show. We had great music; Chris
Rupenthal wrote some wild lyrics [Scott gets Chris to stand up and take a
bow]. You know how he wrote those great
lyrics? He's got a geetar [sic]! I walked into the studio singing and we
had a really great time on that. |
Q: |
When is Scott gonna release an
album? |
Scott: |
Actually, if I get some time,
sometime, whenever, I may do that. I
released a couple of show albums from shows that I've done, but I haven't had
time individually. Universal's talked
about something for over a year, so maybe next year. We certainly have enough material now for
an album. |
Q: |
In addition to recycling halon and
battling CFCs, what else can we do? |
Dean: |
You can bring it up as often as you
can when you feel it's appropriate, and disseminate information to your
fellow citizens. It's shocking, but
there are a lot of people who don't know what you're talking about. There are a lot of people that didn't see
the last Time magazine with the ozone on the cover. It's an alteration of consciousness that's
going on, that has to go on wider and wider until it's on a vast global
scale, and that's taking the corporate consciousness along too, which is
difficult with an entrenched consciousness, it's difficult. But people like you and anybody else
that's conscious of it has to help people to realize that what we're talking
about when we're talking about environmental changes is REAL. |
Q: |
How long will we have to wait
before we see Quantum Leap: The Movie? |
Don: |
Funny you should say that. I honestly can tell you, I don't
know. Except I will tell you that I'm
having a meeting in the next few weeks to discuss just that. It would be something very special, where
we'd go into the future as well as the past.
To give Dean something to do! |
Q: |
How nervous are you in front of all
these people who obviously love you, and are there any taboos, things you
won't do? Also with all the
conspiracy things that are going around now, would Sam leap into Marilyn
Monroe? |
Dean: |
I wish he would leap into Marilyn
Monroe! |
Don: |
And all Dean could do is look! Again, it's really very difficult to leap
Sam, or Scott, the character Sam, into someone that is a known character
because, you know, the one rule in creating the show was that we are going to
alter history. Everybody that had
ever done a time-travel show said "You can't change history, you can't
change history," as part of the format, and we decided that you could
change history. So you have to leap
him into characters that all of you don't know, because then you don't know
what the real history is. If we
leaped into Jack Kennedy in November of 1963, there's no way we can ever
alter or change that. However, if I
leap him into an individual that you don't know, we can change the history
any way we want to. That's why we
don't leap into known characters, except maybe in a kiss with history, we
might do it then – or in the movie. |
Scott: |
I just wanted to complete
that. It feels really great to be
here in front of all of you, it's really wonderful. Dean's nervous; he's never been on . . . he came to me
backstage and said 'I don't know what they want!' It's really wonderful for a lot of the people on our staff, and
people that you know, and the writers and Joe Napolitano. They don't get to get out and meet you,
and I think it's wonderful that you get to see them too because they are
really terrific people. It's great to
work with them and being here in front of you all today. |
Scott: |
[While Dean gets a birthday
hug] I'm not sure whether everybody
knows this, but Donald P. Bellisario has been nominated by the Writer's Guild
for an episode of Quantum Leap, "The Leap Home." It's about time! |
Q: |
Do you ever ad-lib lines and if so,
what's your favorites? |
Scott: |
[pointing at Dean] If you ever ad-lib. If Mr. Ad-Lib ever ad-libs. I think it's safer to ask does Dean ever
say any of the lines that are in the script.
I think he does, but he doesn't remember them! Go ahead, Mr. Funny! Mr.
Never-Can-Finish-a-Scene-Straight-With-a-Straight-Face, Mr.
Never-Says-What-He's-S'pozed-To-Say-To-Me, Mr.
Hasta-Have-The-Last-Little-Funny-Thing-on-Camera. Go ahead, answer her question! |
Dean: |
It's so easy – it's so easy! I made
one ad-lib about Styrofoam once, that I think was my favorite. I said – what
did I say? |
Scott: |
You expect US to remember that? |
Dean: |
[ignoring him] "That comes straight from Hell!"
– we improvise! |
Q: |
Scott, will you ever be a
centerfold for Playgirl? |
Scott: |
[pointing at Dean] I will if he will! |
Q: |
What was your least favorite
costume? |
Scott: |
I think probably the pants in the
"Glitter Rock" episode, which weighed about 30 pounds. And ran, so they had holes in them the
entire time. But it looked fabulous! |
Q: |
[Young girl] Dean, how old are you? |
Dean: |
About 10 years older than Jack
Benny. Jack Benny always said his
whole lifetime, even when he was an old, old man they asked him how old he
was and he said 39. So I'm 10 years
older than him! |
Q: |
I need a clarification. Did I hear we've been renewed? |
Don: |
AH . . . . |
Audience: |
SAY IT! |
Don: |
I wish I could say it, I wish I
could say we've been renewed. All I
can tell you is that NBC wants the show again, and it looks like we're gonna
get renewal. I'll know something in
the next week or two weeks, but it looks positive. |
Q: |
With "The Leap Home," did
Don ever consider bringing Tom back rather than Donna? |
Don: |
We did that episode; it was very
controversial. |
Q: |
[She tries to clarify her
question.] |
Don: |
He saved his brother, right, and he
knows his brother's alive now. I
don't get what she's asking – and I wrote it! |
Scott: |
I don't think that would have been
a whole other way to go in that episode, I think. Really, the force of that episode was finding out that there
was indeed a woman back at home that I had not known about. I think if you got into bringing his
brother to New Mexico, why is he there at that time? I was only there for about a night, so it
would have been more than that episode . . . well, maybe next time it will be
a two-hour, and we'll get out. |
Q: |
How'd you get your parts? |
Scott: |
The old-fashioned way . . . . |
Q: |
A cattle call? |
Scott: |
It wasn't quite a cattle call; Don
doesn't do those much anymore. But
I'd never met Don before, I don't know, had you met? [gesturing at Don and Dean] |
Don: |
No, Dean and I had never met. And Scott came in and read for the part
and I immediately felt that, boy, this was Sam, and I didn't want to let my
enthusiasm get away because we hadn't made a deal yet. |
Scott: |
So he didn't! |
Don: |
So I kept quiet until he went out
the door, and then I went [yelling] "YEAH! THAT'S HIM!" And
Dean, I guess your agent called me and said you'd heard about the part. There were a number of fine actors that
wanted that part, and we took Dean . . . and we're very happy we did! |
Q: |
Congrats to all, especially Scott
on the Golden Globe. |
Scott: |
Thank you. |
Don: |
The Emmy's next! If anybody deserves it, he does. |
Q: |
[Lady from Montreal who mentions
that she speaks French] |
Scott: |
That's great, because Dean speaks
French, so ask him the question in French!
[He's teasing Dean.] |
Q: |
All Canada loves you! |
Scott: |
Thank you. We have great fans in Canada. I don't know if you all know, but we have
an incredible following in Canada. |
Q: |
When Sam looks at the sky and he's
talking, who's he talking to? |
Don: |
He looks up and talks to
someone? Well, he could be talking to
Time, Fate, God . . . . |
Scott: |
Dean says now that his star's up
there, I'm talking to him! |
Don: |
He's talking to whoever you really
want him to. |
Q: |
Scott, what was your favorite
episode in which you were undressed? |
Scott: |
The chimp episode. |
Don: |
Wait till we leap him in as a baby. |
Q: |
If Dean could leap Sam into
anything, what would it be? |
Dean: |
Well, now, it's funny. Even as you were composing that question,
I was already reflecting on that very possibility. Because Donald just said something about he's writing an episode
where he's a baby. And I think he'd
be great for it. He could probably
win the Emmy with this one, because that's what he really is – a big BABY! |
Don: |
Scott will get his revenge, because
the episode that I'm writing now, at the end of the season, he leaps into
Dean. |
Dean: |
And he better not mess it up! |
Q: |
[A very little questioner asks Dean
about being a hologram] |
Dean: |
I go through the door. When we're making the movie, I'm standing
there, the cameraman's there and Scott's there, and everyone's there. And the director says "freeze"
and everyone has to freeze. No matter
what they're doing, they stop like that.
I just go like this, and run off.
Then everybody says 'unfreeze' and everybody starts to move again. And then later on they just take that
little piece of film out, and they all freeze and I'm gone. And then they have to put the light and
the door in, and we have some really nice people that do that for us with
paintbrushes . . . . |
Q: |
That's weird! |
Dean: |
You guys are great, just great! |
Q: |
Will there be a last episode? |
Don: |
There will BE no last episode! |
Q: |
I wanted to thank you guys very
much for making the show, especially for my Special Ed. classes. Because we really got into when he jumped
into that young man Jimmy. When you
did that episode, we had a ton of discussions on that. And when you did "Another
Mother," we talked about the young by talking about his virginity the
way you handled it was beautiful.
Your episodes have taught my kids so much . . . thank you so much! |
Q: |
Why there aren't any recycling bins
around the convention? |
Dean: |
The convention organizers should
listen to the people who are here. It
just takes a little planning ahead to organize ahead of time to have some
separate containers. So I think
Creation should do that, and not have Styrofoam . . . . |
Scott: |
Wait, wait a second! Cameron Birnie, come back here for a
second! Come back here! Cameron Birnie, our art director on the
show, Cameron Birnie, he sets up everything you see on the show. He's great, whatever we need, he's done,
Cameron Birnie, every week! [Cameron
promises to come back in a minute.] |
Q: |
If you really had the ability to
quantum leap, would you? |
Don: |
If we actually had the ability to
do what we could do on the show . . . you play the character who leaps,
you're asking Dean if he'd like to be a hologram? He could use it a lot.
In ladies rooms . . . . I'll
tell ya, I'll answer for the writer and then I'll let Scott answer . . .
. I would love to do it because I
have parents who are dead, and I'd love to see them again. Scott, when he leaped back in "The
Leap Home," found that he couldn't change his home until of course he
got to Vietnam and saved his brother's life.
So there's real ambivalent feelings about it on my part, but I'd like
to try it. I don't know how Scott
would feel. |
Scott: |
I think there's a big part of me
that attracts me to a show like this.
I love the fantasy idea of the show.
I would love to walk out here into a little room and be in New York
without having to fly across the country.
Those kinds of things, if we could really do this would be
wonderful. You know, we could get
into a big discussion forever about fate and about . . . some can answer
it? Please step up, Deborah, please
come and answer this! |
Dean: |
Deborah Pratt, our co-executive
producer, and one of our fine writers. |
Deborah: |
I think that in a way, we do change
history. From the letters that we've
gotten from people, just like this woman was saying over here, to teach and
to share and a lot of people have gotten in touch with things from the
programs that we've been able to put on.
So, through Don's creation of this show, and Scott and Dean's
performance of it, I think we've had the opportunity to change history for
people. And I'm proud to say that I
hope we keep doing it. |
Q: |
How do Scott and Dean feel being in
front of the camera? |
Scott: |
I like it. Actually, I've gotten to like it more and
more. I feel very lucky to spend most
of my hours in front of a camera with that guy [indicating Dean] and I learn
so much from him. I'm really . . .
. My roots are from the theatre, and
it was very hard when I first came out here to stand still and I'm constantly
learning new things because we have a – everybody turns over in terms of cast
every eight days. I've been able to
work with a lot of wonderful actors in the last three and a half years. And if you look at the number of actors
we've had on our show in three and a half years, we've had some just
incredibly wonderful, gifted actors.
They give so much to us and to the show and to you, that I'm learning
all the time. |
Dean: |
I feel very comfortable, because
I've been around them so long, for so many years, so it's a very comfortable
situation for me. More so than
theatre, say, although I'm comfortable with that too. |
Q: |
Al's accomplishments – it's kinda a
full life for a single person. |
Dean: |
Well, I've been married five
times. Yeah, and I'm not tired – I
like a fast pace! Sometimes there are
problems when they come up, but then they get resolved. We have to figure out how to employ a new
wrinkle in the character's past, and we have to figure out how to work it
into what I've been doing all along.
But everything that's happened so far, I love. |
Don: |
And the writers have to sit down
and we have a bible, and Dean has about five pages in there on his life
history and everybody has to always check and say, "Where was he in
1968, and who was he married to and when?" to keep things straight. |
Dean: |
I can't remember them. |
Q: |
Are you a vet? And thank you for the positive image of
the vet. |
Don: |
I'm not a Vietnam vet. I was in the Marine Corps for four years
and it was right before the Vietnam conflict, so I was right in between. But many of my friends were, and because
of that, I adopted that theme. |
Q: |
Scott and Dean get along so well,
but does Dean ever get the chance to razz Scott about dressing as a woman? |
Dean: |
It's incessant. But not only me, the whole crew. It's like we have a cake for the run of
the show, and we just eat our fill, and take advantage of Scott, you know in
his dress and everything, the idea of it.
And I coined the phrase, 'hunk in a dress.' That right? Hunk in a
dress? And he hates it, of course, so
it's doubly enjoyable. |
Q: |
Any social issue too big to
tackle? I'm thinking particularly
about child abuse. |
Don: |
No, I don't think there's any
social issue that's too difficult to tackle.
Networks may not agree with that, but I think we can – especially
something like child abuse should be tackled. |
Q: |
I would like to see you do
something about it. I am a victim of
child abuse, and for the thousands and thousands of people out there who feel
so alone and stigmatized by that, I think it would be a really important thing
for you to do. [Panel is moved by this
statement.] |
Q: |
[Man, with clinging children, wants
to thank Don, Dean and Scott very, very much.] Wednesday night's been very special for my family of eight over
the past several years. [Asks about
Scott's background in dance and/or martial arts in light of the martial arts
stuff on Leap.] |
Scott: |
I have a wonderful instructor named
Pat Johnson, am I right? Yes. Pat Johnson, who has come in since, I
think the first time we ever used it was in a script called "Another
Mother." Is that right, Deborah? |
Deborah: |
Right. |
Scott: |
In Deborah's script, "Another
Mother." And he has worked with
me. He is most famous for all the Karate
Kid movies. Most recently, and
the Ninja Turtle stuff. He's a
wonderful man. And no, I do not study,
but it's something I'd like to do someday.
I attribute my kicks to playing soccer from the age of about five. |
Michael Bellisario: |
[To Scott] Are you going to do a "Bloopers and
Practical Jokes" on Dean? |
Scott: |
This is it! I wanted to steal his star yesterday, but
that would've been a great shock. You
never know, Michael, you never know what'll happen. And neither does he. I
owe him 10 pies in the face still. |
Q: |
Scott, I've found a way to get you
to sing. Can you sing "Happy
Birthday" to Dean? |
Scott: |
We'll all sing this . . .
ready? [Stares at Joyce Hatcher who
gives him a low note.] You're pickin'
that key? See, if we had a little crown
and some roses, he could walk down the runway. [We all sing]. |
Q: |
Which character have you learned
the most from? |
Scott: |
Gee, you know . . . this is really
terrible. I'm really a big fan of the
show, okay, so I really learn something almost every week about people or
situations in life or something that I have to do. So I am continually being educated and my horizons and my
envelope is being pushed out all the time.
Because now that I've been a woman.
I've been black. I've been all
these different things, I haven't really been it, but I'm forced to think like
that way. And think that if we all
spent a little more time thinking like the other guy thinks, it would be a
whole better place. |
Q: |
We know that Dean's interest is in
recycling and the environment. What
would Scott like fans to help with in terms of HIS social agenda? |
Scott: |
My social agenda? |
Q: |
Dean's is the environment, yours
is? |
Scott: |
Yeah, well, I am very much
following in Dean's footsteps. It's
just one of the wonderful things about being associated with him as long as I
have. He has compelled me to become
much more environmentally aware, which I thank him for, and I've been trying
to pass that on. I am unfortunately,
because of great association with a number of people, I'm professionally
involved in the whole AIDS issue, so anything you or anyone can do for those
folks. The only other thing we all
need to get re-involved politically with the people that we're electing these
days. |
Q: |
How old is Scott? |
Scott: |
[Immediately] 37. [Counts his fingers] Hey look, I'm telling the truth about my
age! "You're not 37," he
says. You mean me in real life or
Sam? |
Q: |
You. |
Scott: |
Me in real life. 37.
Sam is 39, I think. He was
born in '52. |
Audience: |
'53! |
Don: |
He got a little confused. He was conceived in '52. |
Q: |
What's happening with Tequila
And Bonetti? |
Don: |
It's back on the air on Friday
nights. The show has not
changed. It's the same show, just
refined a little bit. You know, this
show [QL] started out on Friday night and almost died on Friday night. And we got moved to Wednesday night, and I
think that show may need to move to Wednesday, too. |
Audience: |
Not at 10PM! |
Don: |
9 o'clock on Wednesday night! |
Q: |
Is Scott working on anything else? |
Scott: |
I don't have anything planned. [Moans from crowd.] I'm trying to get through these last three
episodes of the year, and then I may have to go and I say this word because
I'm hoping it's true, on this hiatus. |
Q: |
When's Dean gonna wear the dress? |
Dean: |
[Laughs] In a dress? |
Scott: |
Tommy, you leavin'? |
Tommy Thompson: |
No, I'm going to the bathroom! |
Scott: |
OK. Say goodbye to Tommy Thompson, on his way to the bathroom. All wave 'bye. |
Tommy: |
We're a very close family! |
Scott: |
The family that runs . . . . |
Q: |
I started watching late in the game
– how come sometimes Al pops in and sometimes he used the door? |
Don: |
The way it works is, if he's
leaving the Imaging Chamber, he uses the door, but he has the ability to pop
in and out of where he's out in our period of time with Scott. He can pop down the street someplace else
to see what's going on; in these cases, he just disappears and
reappears. But if he's leaving the
Imaging Chamber, he uses the door. |
Q: |
Which episode was the most
difficult emotionally? |
Dean: |
Well, I personally don't find
emotional difficulty as a performer.
I don't get involved in it in that way; it's not part of the craft in
acting. It's the real lives that we all
know that affects me emotionally.
Acting doesn't. Although I use
my emotions, the minute the acting is done, I'm not emotionally different
than before I did the scene or the show. |
Scott: |
I think, again, we're creating
situations, or we're recreating them.
As much as I can get involved, and this is where we can get into a
long story about how you act, but whenever we get into a situation where you
get a glimpse into somebody else's soul, another soul and oftentimes you get
it through the other actor you're working with in a scene, oftentimes it
comes from something that got me when I wasn't really prepared for, and
oftentimes it comes out of him, although he'll say that answer, but stuff
sneaks out. You don't know when it's
gonna happen. You don't know, you
could have the most emotional script with the most intense storyline, but if
it's not fulfilled in all the areas . . . .
Which makes this process so amazing.
If by some chance it were to be miscast, or if it was directed
incorrectly, or whatever, you can take a wonderful moment and kill it. And so you never know. It's like, you just find gems sometimes
that you're not even expecting, and those are quite often the most lovely
things. |
Q: |
Dean – what was it like to star
with Gregory Peck in Gentlemen's Agreement? Scott – what's your musical background? |
Scott: |
I had a lot of music in my
life. I played the piano very
young. I sang in a lot of different
organizations growing up, I had rock bands, church choir, all kinds of
different things that I was involved in before I was here. So I've had a lot of background. |
Dean: |
Gregory Peck is a man of great
stature. Of course we were young at
the time, but physically he's a commanding figure, and I was very
little. And the image and impression
we had of him was like a statue of someone of huge importance of some sort or
another. I realize now that it was
his stardom, the magnetism of a star.
I didn't realize it then.
Other than that, I had a rotten time in that movie, to tell the truth,
I really did. And I'll tell you
why. The man that directed it, a very
famous film director, Elia Kazan, he made many classic movies. He has a way of working with actors that
evolved from the famous Actor's Studio in New York and Lee Strasberg and
everything, which was the absolute opposite of the way I worked, because I
had a way of working even when I was six or seven. And so he was constantly trying to deal with me on this Actor's
Studio level, and saying "feel this; think that your dog is dead or
something, your mommy got hurt":
and I would have to sit and listen to him. The minute he would stop and I'm trying to give the impression
of "OK, OK" and go off onto something else, I would just do it the
way I would do it. I'd pull at the
corner of my eyes to make them tear and come in and play the scene. I didn't need to do all that stuff. So that was a very tough movie. He's the only Method director I ever
worked with. |
Q: |
Scott, how many women have you
kissed? |
Scott: |
Wow! We'll have done 75 hours of television at the end of this year,
and I kissed somewhere between 75 and 100 women in that time. |
Don: |
We'll only be able to take three
more questions. |
Q: |
Great family show, just wish it
were on a little earlier so kids could learn more from it. I'd also like to say that you have
extremely good taste in picking leading men! |
Q: |
[Little kid] I really like your jackets. |
Dean: |
Thank you. |
Q: |
What do you do with them after the
show? |
Don: |
He takes them home and puts them in
his closet. |
Dean: |
No, I don't. There is a whole section of wardrobe near
Jean-Pierre Dorleac, our wonderful designer who does all my stuff, he's got
this big voluminous cache of clothes there that we keep using. We've been mixing and matching different
pieces for upcoming shows. So most of
it stays there. |
Q: |
What's the scoop on syndication? |
Don: |
It's gonna be on USA Cable. |
Q: |
Other shows that have gone into
syndication have been canceled, and I hope that doesn't happen with Leap. |
Don: |
That's not going to happen. Cheers is in syndication. No, the show is going on cable, and I hope
that's going to even get more enthusiasm for the show. We've made some plans in the wings for
some episodes that are going to be very interesting which we're working
on. Deborah Pratt came up with an
idea of doing an episode that's animated.
And now I need you for one second – they need to take a photograph of
all of you. It's for Associated
Press. And if you'd just let us take
this photograph, we thank you. |
|
[The three guys walk to the end of
the runway, turn their backs and the photographers take a photo of Scott,
Dean, Don and fans.] |
Don: |
And on behalf of the show – we'll
see you next year! [End Convention.] |
The End