Speaker 1: Oh gee is folks, it's showtime. People say, good money
Speaker 1: to see this movie.
Speaker 2: When they go out to a theater, they want clod sodas,
Speaker 2: hot popcorn, and no monsters in the projection booth.
Speaker 1: Everyone for tend podcasting isn't boring?
Speaker 2: Got it off?
Speaker 3: Hey, folks, welcome to a special bonus interview. This is
Speaker 3: the rest of the interview that we had with actor
Speaker 3: James A. Watson Junior. You can hear a little bit
Speaker 3: of that on our airplane to the sequel episode, but
Speaker 3: here it is in full. Had a wonderful time talking
Speaker 3: with mister Watson. I hope you have a great time
Speaker 3: listening to it. Thanks so much and enjoy the show.
Speaker 3: I would love to know a lot more about you,
Speaker 3: especially how did you even decide to get into acting.
Speaker 1: Whenever I would give the speeches or speak in front
Speaker 1: of a large organization or something, I'd always blame my
Speaker 1: mother because when I was little, she was a young
Speaker 1: mother with three kids that I was the oldest. But
Speaker 1: eventually there were five siblings, but at that time it
Speaker 1: was just three who lived in Washington, d c. And
Speaker 1: my father was in a hard working physician and doctor.
Speaker 1: He was gone all the time, so at night we
Speaker 1: would she would sneak in a babysitter and to watch
Speaker 1: my two sisters, and my mother and I would go
Speaker 1: out to the movie. And that was a very endearing
Speaker 1: experience for me. And the Spielberg's story, it's similar to
Speaker 1: what happened to him. I went to see several films,
Speaker 1: and I was bitten. At that point, starts following them
Speaker 1: and got more involved watching television. That's the right thing,
Speaker 1: I think. The first thing. I promised myself one day
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have that film and had that film or collected,
Speaker 1: not knowing that video would be what it is stream
Speaker 1: and so on. But that started. My mother put me
Speaker 1: in a couple of workshops during the summer to get
Speaker 1: me out of her hair, and again I was fun.
Speaker 1: In high school, I continued it. I went out for
Speaker 1: the football team and was working really hard. I started
Speaker 1: on the team, the C team, and then in the
Speaker 1: spring and I worked finally got to the B team.
Speaker 3: Fall.
Speaker 1: We came back for practice and I was coming through
Speaker 1: the auditorium and they were having auditions for Oklahoma, and
Speaker 1: I looked at what was happening, and I said, I
Speaker 1: can get the girls that way rather than getting myself
Speaker 1: killed on the football field, So that was the end
Speaker 1: of my football careod and I started doing theater in
Speaker 1: high school, and I continued in college. I went to
Speaker 1: the University of Redlands. I worked in their drama department
Speaker 1: and after the second year, but the second year or so,
Speaker 1: I wanted to do certain things, so I started producing
Speaker 1: my own theater there and we did our version of
Speaker 1: Golden Boy. It had been on stage when Sammy Davis
Speaker 1: Julie at the musical, so we did we modified it
Speaker 1: for our setting it and it was very successful. And
Speaker 1: there's a friend of mine who had been to Vietnam
Speaker 1: and he had written a play based on Cousin Zaki's
Speaker 1: book The Last Temptation of Christ, and ironically Cousin Zachis
Speaker 1: was going to come to our school and speak, but
Speaker 1: Mike came to me and said, I'd like to do
Speaker 1: this into the play. So we staged it and did it,
Speaker 1: and that too, was very successful, just before he arrived
Speaker 1: on campus. Finally, by the end of my senior year.
Speaker 1: Towards the end of the year, I got two important
Speaker 1: pieces of meal. One You're drafted Greetings Vietnam, and the
Speaker 1: second one was you have an opportunity to audition for
Speaker 1: the Royal Academy from London, so I within the same months.
Speaker 1: I used to drive my motorcycles from Redlands to Los
Speaker 1: Angeles and go to CBS Studios and my dorm moother.
Speaker 1: At school. Knew a director, guy named Doc Livingston, who
Speaker 1: directed me but Young and the Restlers or Days of
Speaker 1: our Lives something like that, and at the end of
Speaker 1: every Friday, at the end of his work day, he
Speaker 1: would work with me on my audition Saint. We did
Speaker 1: that for six weeks and then I flew to San
Speaker 1: Francisco at ACT did the audition. There were thousands of
Speaker 1: people all across the country and they were going to
Speaker 1: take twelve so I could. But within the same week
Speaker 1: I had gone to my physical and because I have asthma,
Speaker 1: I failed it and I didn't have to go. They
Speaker 1: didn't accept the fact that I was a cog subjective
Speaker 1: because of my faith and religiously I didn't want to
Speaker 1: kill me, but I didn't believe in the war. So
Speaker 1: this curse that I thought I had on my life
Speaker 1: of being attacked by asthma, which was modified because my
Speaker 1: father was a doctor, so he could care for me
Speaker 1: and carefully but I failed the physical and then I
Speaker 1: was accepted at the academy and I'm with there and
Speaker 1: with twelve thirteen other kids. They had gotten a contract
Speaker 1: in a relationship to stage what they call Royal Academy
Speaker 1: East or something, and it was in Michigan at a
Speaker 1: college called Oakland University.
Speaker 3: That's literally right down the street from me.
Speaker 1: Are you kidding? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Now that's where my wife went to. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's a small world. How about that. John Fernold,
Speaker 1: who's been the head of Brava in London, had a
Speaker 1: contract with them and was using their theater. They had
Speaker 1: a great theater. I don't know what's going on now.
Speaker 1: They had a beautiful stage and he talked classes with
Speaker 1: these young kids who had just come in. And then
Speaker 1: he had a stock company that did you know, shows,
Speaker 1: and every now and then we were spear carriers in
Speaker 1: those shows. So I did that for about a year.
Speaker 1: It was a two year contract or relationship. But after
Speaker 1: a year I came back to California for some family
Speaker 1: matters and auditioned that just one Saturday, while I was home,
Speaker 1: I went across the Bay back to act and audition.
Speaker 1: They open auditions every week and I auditioned for them,
Speaker 1: and they did a don't call us, we'll call you
Speaker 1: kind of thing, but it was nice seeing you, and
Speaker 1: a month later they did call me and I joined ACT.
Speaker 1: So I was at ACT and working with some great
Speaker 1: people there, and Michael Lerner and other John Bloom and
Speaker 1: all kinds of people that also have a film career
Speaker 1: later the while was there. The year I was there,
Speaker 1: the Great White Hope was winning all the awards on
Speaker 1: Broadway and the director I was a guest director at the Act,
Speaker 1: so he was a very foreign old guy and they'd
Speaker 1: been to the Marine sergeant or something. But I walked
Speaker 1: up to him and said, excuse me, I'd like to
Speaker 1: introduce myself and they maybe do an audition for you
Speaker 1: just in the future, maybe you might want to use
Speaker 1: me for something. So he said all right, He said,
Speaker 1: prepare two speeches, which I went back to my audition
Speaker 1: reachers and did them. He said, okay, I want you
Speaker 1: to come back next week and do it again. Came
Speaker 1: back the following week and did And there was another
Speaker 1: guy in the room who happened to meet Lynn Sallmaster,
Speaker 1: who was the biggest casting director in Hollywood in those days,
Speaker 1: and he cast me. He said, can you come to
Speaker 1: Los Angeles and meet the producers because the Miers brothers
Speaker 1: who did The West Side Story and The Apartment and
Speaker 1: you name it, In the Heat of the Night, those
Speaker 1: films which I was totally enamored with, especially West Side
Speaker 1: Story in the Heat of the Night, And he said,
Speaker 1: can you come. I came to Los Angeles met and
Speaker 1: the met a charming guy named Herbhershman was the line producer.
Speaker 1: And we met and he said that, okay, you see
Speaker 1: like a possibility. And our director and his wife were
Speaker 1: vacationing it back in San Francisco before they come to
Speaker 1: start work at the film back to Hollywood. So I'm
Speaker 1: going to contact them. They're at the hotel. You go
Speaker 1: there and meet them, so he said. As I was
Speaker 1: about to walk out, he wrote me and says, study
Speaker 1: what's your name again? I'll make a note And I said,
Speaker 1: James Watson. That's the name of the character in the script.
Speaker 1: And I said I was cocky then am I said, well,
Speaker 1: you see it's meant to be. I was twenty two
Speaker 1: years old, but I looked younger, and he said, could
Speaker 1: you play basketball? Because of my asthma and all that?
Speaker 1: I had danced, and so I could do that, but
Speaker 1: I hadn't. I couldn't run a lot. So that was
Speaker 1: one of the reasons I didn't. I gave up football
Speaker 1: and didn't do me. I didn't do anything extensive in basketball,
Speaker 1: but I wasn't going to lose the opportunity. So I
Speaker 1: quickly said, you ever met a black guy wouldn't play basketball?
Speaker 1: His well, I don't know where these things came from, young, stupid,
Speaker 1: and ever do And he was okay. So I flew
Speaker 1: back to after Oakland, San Francisco, and Paul Bogard, who
Speaker 1: was the director who went on to direct all in
Speaker 1: the family for many years. I went to his hotel
Speaker 1: room and his wife opened the door. She was at
Speaker 1: a bath robe. But I just at the right place, yes,
Speaker 1: coming in. Paul came in and he was in his
Speaker 1: bath row too, and I sat down and it was
Speaker 1: a little nervous for a second, and we talked in
Speaker 1: I don't remember if I read it or not, but
Speaker 1: we had a nice chat. I left and I was
Speaker 1: doing a play. Now at that time I was part
Speaker 1: of the company of act I went back in about
Speaker 1: a month later. They called and said, you've got this
Speaker 1: film and I came to Los Angeles. I was in
Speaker 1: sixty nine and my first film, Jeff Bridges and Rob
Speaker 1: Reiner among the cast, and ed Asthma and for the
Speaker 1: Mirage Company, I had a great experience for them by
Speaker 1: that and I had a very good lead role in
Speaker 1: the film, which opened the doors for me in television
Speaker 1: and other things. And they weren't many blacks working at
Speaker 1: that time. Lou Gotchett was around, and LOUI used to
Speaker 1: tell me every year, I have to get reinvent myself
Speaker 1: because they don't know what to do with us. And
Speaker 1: Sydney was the biggest star black, not only a black
Speaker 1: but period for about four or five years, even the
Speaker 1: box office champion. And I did the first film with
Speaker 1: Jeff for there, and it was called Paul's of Anger
Speaker 1: and was based on a story that had occurred in
Speaker 1: the Boston newspaper when they were integrating schools and so on,
Speaker 1: and that's what the film is about, integration, and Jeff
Speaker 1: and I were on opposite sides, of course, but that
Speaker 1: led to a year later an opportunity to do a
Speaker 1: film with Sydney Cordier, and once again I had to
Speaker 1: be unconventional because I had worked for the producers, the
Speaker 1: same producer, the Miers brothers. When my mother had taught
Speaker 1: meetings to always be professional and polite and all that
Speaker 1: which I was, and beyond time and pincher trade. He said,
Speaker 1: hit the mark and just say the words. And I
Speaker 1: didn't get casts initially in the film it was saying
Speaker 1: I saw my actually was casting it as well. So
Speaker 1: I called up Walter Marriage. I would never do that,
Speaker 1: BEEAs spake, but I called up Walter Marriage. And I
Speaker 1: had gotten along very well with him, and said his secretary,
Speaker 1: and he came on the phone and I went into
Speaker 1: it was supposed to be a young urban kid. And
Speaker 1: they didn't cast me because they thought I was too sophisticated,
Speaker 1: too polished, and not rough enough around the edges quote unquote,
Speaker 1: not ghetto. On a I put on an act and
Speaker 1: I said, I went in the character over the phone
Speaker 1: and used a couple of executives and said a couple
Speaker 1: of bass I don't swear, I don't do it. And
Speaker 1: I said, what's the matter with you? You think you know?
Speaker 1: And I said, you know a couple of things and
Speaker 1: challenged him, and there was a silence on the other man,
Speaker 1: and he said, oh, Okay, I'll tell our director to
Speaker 1: take a look at you. And I said, okay, I
Speaker 1: say you better. I hung up buddy, and I was,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I'll never work again. And I went
Speaker 1: to and they called me to go see the director. Director.
Speaker 1: It was Gon Medford and they were doing Sidney each
Speaker 1: was doing the second film in the trilogy of the
Speaker 1: Order from the Heat of the Night, where he played
Speaker 1: Virgil TIBs, and it's about drugs infiltraining the community and
Speaker 1: a group of young vigilanti people in the neighborhood had
Speaker 1: all been affected by it were challenging the police for
Speaker 1: not doing enough, and we dragged Sydney in to help us.
Speaker 1: If you've seen the film, But I went into the
Speaker 1: room to meet the director because I had learned my
Speaker 1: lessons at this point is that when you're meeting new
Speaker 1: people for the first time for certain arts or whatever,
Speaker 1: you got to walk in the room and be that guy.
Speaker 1: I can't walk in the room be ple items hawk
Speaker 1: and then for a transition to go into character. I'm
Speaker 1: still learning the tricks of the trade that and I
Speaker 1: walked in. I had my leather pants on and a
Speaker 1: tank topech my arms out all built up and I
Speaker 1: had a hat on, I had sunglasses on. I sleeped
Speaker 1: into the room and in the direct and I stood
Speaker 1: and looked at the director and then he said, I've
Speaker 1: heard very good things about you. Is there any thing
Speaker 1: I could look at that would give me some idea
Speaker 1: if you'd be right for this? I said no, because
Speaker 1: I ain't gone yet. He said, put me in this film,
Speaker 1: you see. And he looked at me, went oh, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: but you take the glasses off so I could see.
Speaker 1: So I pulled him down. I looked over him and
Speaker 1: I looked at him and I said, oh, you one
Speaker 1: of them. Huh. You're gonna look deep into my soul.
Speaker 1: That's it. I'm sweating bullets's but I'm acting. And he went, okay,
Speaker 1: nice meeting you, and I left. Two weeks later, I
Speaker 1: get the call, I got the film and said, can
Speaker 1: you get to the airport slide to San Francisco. I
Speaker 1: go to San Francisco. They were on the wharf up
Speaker 1: there shooting the first opening sequence to the film, and
Speaker 1: I walked in the first Dad took me over to
Speaker 1: meet Don, said he's here Don. He was James, And
Speaker 1: I walked up and I was this young kid again.
Speaker 1: I was like, Hi, how you doing.
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: This is great?
Speaker 2: What do we do it?
Speaker 1: And he looked at me with horror and said, where's
Speaker 1: the guy I hired? And I said, oh, I'm mean
Speaker 1: it's me. He said, you know where. I said, just
Speaker 1: say action and he said what I said, just say action?
Speaker 1: He said action and I went into character again and
Speaker 1: he laughed. He laughed, and we were best friends after that.
Speaker 1: He said, you got me Okay, cool, cool, go, let's
Speaker 1: go to work. We had a great time, and he
Speaker 1: just bought a new corvette and in certain days when
Speaker 1: I wasn't working, he would throw me the keys and say,
Speaker 1: just drive the car and hang out. So I'd drive
Speaker 1: all over San Francisco and this brand new corvette. So
Speaker 1: that's how it all started. But from there came back.
Speaker 1: By that time, I was established, I broken through the casting.
Speaker 1: People in Hollywood knew me more or less. I had
Speaker 1: a very good agent. I was able to upgrade from
Speaker 1: basically had he just a commercial agent when I got
Speaker 1: my first film to being at that time a version
Speaker 1: of CIA, and I was working with some of the
Speaker 1: top guys who worked all the stars, and I had
Speaker 1: access there for other roles and started doing that commercials
Speaker 1: and so on, and that was the role. That's forty
Speaker 1: something fifty years ago.
Speaker 3: It feels like once you started working, you didn't stop
Speaker 3: for a long time time.
Speaker 1: No, No, and I still haven't. No. I was blessed.
Speaker 1: I really was. I again the fact that I could
Speaker 1: be a little more cosmopolitan. I wasn't the angry young
Speaker 1: black man all that they saw. I was very professional.
Speaker 1: So directors would use me over again and I would.
Speaker 1: They would put me in different roles, and so back
Speaker 1: then I was doing Cannon and I did the first
Speaker 1: show of the TV show was The Virginian and with
Speaker 1: Doug McClure and James Durry and Doug and I became
Speaker 1: great trains until he passed away, and it just met
Speaker 1: Aaron Spelling and he took to me and so he
Speaker 1: put me in all these shows. I did the Odd
Speaker 1: Squad several times, Beloved Vote and all those kinds of things,
Speaker 1: and it just I was very fortunate that it built
Speaker 1: and I was in sake that and I was competent
Speaker 1: enough that they liked the products. One thing I noticed
Speaker 1: something in your little email you wrote yesterday related to
Speaker 1: the comedy. And after doing halls of Anger, which is
Speaker 1: a very serious, brooding kindel film. And then the second
Speaker 1: film was The Organization with Sydney, again another different kind
Speaker 1: of brooding kid. The canting directors wouldn't even though I
Speaker 1: had good agents, they wouldn't see me for the comedy
Speaker 1: shows or the situations, any of that stuff. And that
Speaker 1: went on for almost two and a half years. I
Speaker 1: couldn't do anything because they said, we know him, we'd
Speaker 1: see him, but he does rheumatic stuff. He's a theater guy.
Speaker 1: And I said, oh look, so I said, my agent's
Speaker 1: got me open audition for Love American Style. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you remember that show, oh yeah. And if
Speaker 1: In the show, the premise was you'd have two twenty
Speaker 1: minute fifteen to twenty minute little short stook comedy stories
Speaker 1: with top nine stars who you know, people that were
Speaker 1: very established, who would come in and do these little roles,
Speaker 1: and then Booken being around them, and in between the
Speaker 1: two acts they had what they called blackouts, and they
Speaker 1: were the ensemble of the six of us who would
Speaker 1: just come on and do stupid bug billion things, just
Speaker 1: boom stupid jokes, one liners and whatever, and wearing dog
Speaker 1: suits and all kinds of nonsense but we really talked
Speaker 1: about nothing subtle about it at all, and we were
Speaker 1: also if you got that part, you were also given
Speaker 1: one of the episodes to be it. I came back.
Speaker 1: I actually had been in New York visiting some friends,
Speaker 1: and I came back, went to the audition to Paramount
Speaker 1: and closed my eyes again and went into the room.
Speaker 1: And I because I had two sisters, I used to
Speaker 1: keep the company at babysit and so I would act
Speaker 1: stupid and they'd laugh. So I went in and as
Speaker 1: that guy and went in the room and just lit
Speaker 1: it up that way, and I got it. And once
Speaker 1: I started doing love American style, and that broke that
Speaker 1: down so that I could do other comedy shows that
Speaker 1: we led to, the Norman Lear shows, Jefferson's all the
Speaker 1: other different shows that he had, I think most of
Speaker 1: his shows, and it was anything it all today at
Speaker 1: that point I would do multiple different things again really good.
Speaker 1: So there was good thirty years of just saying more
Speaker 1: films in the airplane, all that sort of thing. I
Speaker 1: was blessed. Really when I think about it now and
Speaker 1: I look how competitive is now. There are more opportunities,
Speaker 1: which is good. There are more stations, there are more
Speaker 1: jobs and that sort of things in certain ways, but
Speaker 1: the competition is keener, and it's still political, both socially
Speaker 1: and business wise. Any but my daughter's a lovely young
Speaker 1: actress and she's trying to break in do things. And
Speaker 1: she always says to me, Dad, how it I'm so
Speaker 1: easy for you? Like then, like I'm having a hard time.
Speaker 1: I said, this is the work I was supposed to
Speaker 1: do and was my opportunity to reach certain people and
Speaker 1: try to be a good example to everybody. And I
Speaker 1: loved it because you know, and then and up to now,
Speaker 1: I always remained a fan as much as I was
Speaker 1: a working actor. Norman Spelling was doing a movie of
Speaker 1: the Week with Edward g Robinson starting at Me, and
Speaker 1: I was cast opposite him in that movie of the Week,
Speaker 1: and I couldn't believe it. I'd seen him when I
Speaker 1: was a kid on TV and all the different shows,
Speaker 1: and then of course every week every year on Ten
Speaker 1: Commandments and all these other different things. And there I
Speaker 1: was on the stage and I kicked his paramount again
Speaker 1: doing this movie of the Week with him, and we're exchanging,
Speaker 1: We're right there. It was just exciting. It was fine.
Speaker 1: Later on James Barner with Instro The Rockford Files. I
Speaker 1: went in there to do one episode and ended up
Speaker 1: working on several more of his shows. James Garner was
Speaker 1: probably the nicest speaker I ever met in the industry.
Speaker 1: He was so polite and professional and warm, and he
Speaker 1: made every actor working with him he embraced them, so
Speaker 1: it was a great experience working with them. So I
Speaker 1: was so pleased that when you meet people that you
Speaker 1: idolize that mean from afar, they turned out to be
Speaker 1: nice people and get to work with their diet. Another
Speaker 1: film with James Colburn and Leslie Caron was and a
Speaker 1: number of other people and Robert Kulp, and I was.
Speaker 1: Leslie was a few years older than me, but I
Speaker 1: was still by a young man compared to her, but
Speaker 1: I didn't let that stop. Yeah, I'd spent some time
Speaker 1: with her and was charmed by her, and she was
Speaker 1: just lovely. That's how it works, and has done has
Speaker 1: working in and I write as well, and I started
Speaker 1: writing almost the beginning of my career as well as acting.
Speaker 1: One of the key people that I met had influenced
Speaker 1: me in that regard was a woman named Renee Balente
Speaker 1: who had worked with David Sethkind in New York, and
Speaker 1: she had mentored a number of other stars, Burt Reynolds,
Speaker 1: and that created his career. And when I came to
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, she was the vice president of Columbia Studios
Speaker 1: and the head of talent, and they had all kinds
Speaker 1: of shows on over there, Police Story and all kinds
Speaker 1: of other things. So I we'd go over there almost
Speaker 1: every week auditioning for some show, and inevitably I met
Speaker 1: her and she took a liking, and she took me
Speaker 1: under her wing and we started spending time together. I
Speaker 1: met her husband, who was an amazing set designer and
Speaker 1: paid and I have a several paintings in my home
Speaker 1: that she gave me that he did. But she worked
Speaker 1: with me for the rest of my career, and we
Speaker 1: partnered up and tried to organize a number of productions,
Speaker 1: and she taught me. I went to classes and all
Speaker 1: that kind of thing, but she taught me really how
Speaker 1: to write because she had worked with everybody from Catherine
Speaker 1: Hepburn to you name it, and ended up working I
Speaker 1: ended up working with Burt Reynolds again because of her,
Speaker 1: and that's kept me going. And that's what I'm One
Speaker 1: of the things I'm focused on now is producing my
Speaker 1: own stuff. And I've done enough TV shows in terms
Speaker 1: of trying to challenge myself. And I also in the
Speaker 1: Leaves have a legacy of something that while those little
Speaker 1: shows that are all the Family and all those kind
Speaker 1: of you were fun, I'm working on a book and
Speaker 1: a couple of other screenplays that have a little more
Speaker 1: bite to them because I'm a politically social minded personally.
Speaker 1: Given what's happening in our country today and so on,
Speaker 1: I'm again trying to be an example of a certain
Speaker 1: point of view and support those images and that sort
Speaker 1: of thing.
Speaker 3: And I'm sure that being a good writer also helps
Speaker 3: when it comes to the acting as far as if
Speaker 3: you need to change a line and if you need that,
Speaker 3: because I know, like Jack Nicholson was always like I
Speaker 3: thought you as an actor, I'm a great writer.
Speaker 1: He and I had the same agent for a while,
Speaker 1: so I met him being very cool. Yeah, that did happen.
Speaker 1: I did a couple of years ago, even one of
Speaker 1: the most recent I did a mini series debts on
Speaker 1: Amazon right now, I think, well in someplace, it's one
Speaker 1: streaming someplace, but I played the head of the FBI
Speaker 1: and we got on a large day. The director was
Speaker 1: the first time director for something big like this, and
Speaker 1: he was lost, and they were writing as they went
Speaker 1: along and changing things and shaping it. And one of
Speaker 1: the producer they had a second unit director who ended
Speaker 1: up directing a number of the episodes, and I started
Speaker 1: working with him, and when I did, he at some
Speaker 1: point which to me, we knew something about this scene here,
Speaker 1: and I so if you got any ideas. So I
Speaker 1: ended up rewriting a number of the scenes that I
Speaker 1: ended up doing because they just weren't working. They were
Speaker 1: too stilted. There was not real, real enough. And I
Speaker 1: love it. I've always admired. Again, that's a greater voice
Speaker 1: for me is the writing, which is why, as I say,
Speaker 1: I'm working on a book that I'm hoping to do,
Speaker 1: and it does help me with the acting, and obviously
Speaker 1: to figure out what makes sense and how people behave
Speaker 1: from the beginning in school and college and everywhere there's
Speaker 1: a study of people, philosophy and psychology, to just give
Speaker 1: it into the heads of people that might be interesting
Speaker 1: if I ever had a chance to play some of
Speaker 1: their little quirks or some of their characteristics that I
Speaker 1: could usually give a little more depth some of my roles.
Speaker 1: It's a canvas that you have to pay when to
Speaker 1: make it interesting. You have to put your own style,
Speaker 1: your own brushstokes on it, within the framework and have
Speaker 1: it work with the powers that be. And after a
Speaker 1: while they would trust me with certain things. And again
Speaker 1: I didn't try to go too far. It's been very
Speaker 1: good experience. It's still challenging here. I go back to
Speaker 1: what lou said is every year, so I invent itself.
Speaker 1: Now when cable came in and then neither add and
Speaker 1: all these different things, and I'm three four generations of
Speaker 1: young actors that have come along, and new producers and
Speaker 1: groups of directors that don't a lot of those people
Speaker 1: don't do their homework, or they don't have time, or
Speaker 1: they don't know. So you walk into the room, they
Speaker 1: don't know your backstory or your resume that well, so
Speaker 1: you have to reinvent and re establish yourself with these people.
Speaker 1: It's it's a constant challenge, but it's paid off for
Speaker 1: me so far, and I'm sticking with it. I don't
Speaker 1: know what else to do at this point.
Speaker 3: I did want to ask you, what was your experience
Speaker 3: like working on Airplane too, especially working with Ken Finkleman.
Speaker 1: Bob Hayes was I got the opportunity because my agent
Speaker 1: also represented him, so the casting people saw me as well.
Speaker 1: And there again there was a group of people that
Speaker 1: didn't know me initially, and but I went in and
Speaker 1: I was cast in the role and we got to
Speaker 1: the point. And that was probably one of the most
Speaker 1: fun experience because it was a little bit like The
Speaker 1: Love American style. It was a little not quite as silly,
Speaker 1: but it was a very stylish kind of point of
Speaker 1: view of humor. Ken was very open. He would he
Speaker 1: said he wrote a script, we'd shoot what he wrote,
Speaker 1: and then he would say, let's do another take, and
Speaker 1: if anybody's got anything, if they want to bring into
Speaker 1: it or do, let's throw it in. So invariably I
Speaker 1: found some instinctive stick to do or do something, and
Speaker 1: it ended up in the film. He was very open
Speaker 1: to that. I don't know if you're here. There's a
Speaker 1: scene where I'm sitting in the cock that is the
Speaker 1: navigator and a guy comes in like he's cleaning the
Speaker 1: plane and he's vacuuming, and I'm looking at the command
Speaker 1: center and as he comes in he's a black guy
Speaker 1: and as he comes in, he's you know, I do
Speaker 1: the high five? That was I put that in and
Speaker 1: I just did that and I did that instinctively and
Speaker 1: it was It's fun. It is fun, especially when they
Speaker 1: let you loose and having a theater background, in stage background,
Speaker 1: working with those people, you learn your craft. And I
Speaker 1: always young actors come and they asked me, and I
Speaker 1: tell them two things. Never give up number one and
Speaker 1: number two, be prepared because so you never know when
Speaker 1: your opportunity will come, and you don't know, you got
Speaker 1: to be ready for it. When it does come, it's
Speaker 1: going to be something unlike what you expected, so you
Speaker 1: have to be able to stay on your toes and dance.
Speaker 1: Ken was an easy going guy. He made it very
Speaker 1: comfortable for all the actors. So we were like a
Speaker 1: stilly ensemble family of people that because they were all
Speaker 1: known as straight actors doing this stick, which was the
Speaker 1: whole joke. They too had backgrounds that made it work.
Speaker 1: On the contrasts of our styles and all that and
Speaker 1: the written word that they had worked out and it
Speaker 1: was good. It was a fun experience. The only thing
Speaker 1: there's this at the end and I exit the Copie
Speaker 1: and I they're the problem the fire, and we end
Speaker 1: up going out in the outer space to find out
Speaker 1: what happened, and ended up drifting into the atmosphere some place.
Speaker 1: So they put us on a belt and lifted us
Speaker 1: up in the ceiling or the studio. That was a
Speaker 1: little uncomfortable. They pinged on certain areas, but we're all
Speaker 1: laughing and making the best of it. But Kin was good.
Speaker 1: Ken was a nice guy, and the film obviously wash
Speaker 1: over seen.
Speaker 3: It's such a different style of humor where you're having
Speaker 3: to play it serious, but then at the same time
Speaker 3: you have to be goofy just to find that right balance.
Speaker 1: Comedy is, yeah, Comedy is, as they say, is the
Speaker 1: hardest thing because it's about timing and you have to
Speaker 1: have an instinctive thing. And I've had opportunities to do
Speaker 1: some of the roles I've talked about that are broad,
Speaker 1: like that one and a couple of other things, but
Speaker 1: they rely on you having an understanding and a sense
Speaker 1: of timing so that you can make those things work.
Speaker 1: And I normally was considered a straight man, and people
Speaker 1: would play off a man that too. I was the
Speaker 1: fact when I did the Love American style. One of
Speaker 1: my Ted Lange and I are woke from the Bay Area,
Speaker 1: and Ted and I were good friends, and the director
Speaker 1: was a guy named Norman Abbott, who was I think
Speaker 1: a cousin or something from lou Abbot, Abbott and Costello.
Speaker 1: And he called us to his house one Saturday and said,
Speaker 1: I have this notion that you and Ted could be
Speaker 1: the next Martin and Lewis and I could get I
Speaker 1: have contacts in Vegas, and I think we could put
Speaker 1: together an act and take you guys to Vegas and
Speaker 1: make some serious money. And that started. I was a
Speaker 1: young man with a young family land, but I was game.
Speaker 1: Ted had other things going and he didn't want to
Speaker 1: do it, so it didn't happen. But I was surprised
Speaker 1: from the beginning when I started my career that I
Speaker 1: had too much success doing comedy stuff as I did
Speaker 1: doing dramatic stuff. And it was very a lot of
Speaker 1: those things where I remember with great fondness because I
Speaker 1: was having fun. But the timing was there, the things,
Speaker 1: the instincts were there, and it worked. But again, going
Speaker 1: back to training and whatever gift you might have to
Speaker 1: shape it, but it's hard knowing not spectly there's different
Speaker 1: types of comedy, different levels of it, and you can't.
Speaker 1: You have to know where the boundaries are and what
Speaker 1: your instincts are telling you about what they want you
Speaker 1: to do. In the big picture, you can't. You have
Speaker 1: to fit in. You can't do some big thing or
Speaker 1: some broad thing that's going to end up on the
Speaker 1: cutting room floor because it's not consistent with the big picture.
Speaker 1: You're only part of the picture. And I think when
Speaker 1: I was doing the Organization, Sydney had just from the
Speaker 1: shooting Bucket the Preacher with Harry Bellefonte and Ruby d
Speaker 1: and he invited me to he was editing the film.
Speaker 1: He invited me to come and watch and edit the film,
Speaker 1: and I was really bitten when I saw how you
Speaker 1: could take pieces and put pieces together. And that really
Speaker 1: helped me with my acting too, because then I understood
Speaker 1: better what was going to be usable and what wasn't.
Speaker 1: And I did an episode of a show TV show
Speaker 1: and the editor and the director came up to me
Speaker 1: at one point and said, we really appreciate when because
Speaker 1: when I'm not having my own lines, I'm still at
Speaker 1: my stage background. You don't quit acting even if I'm
Speaker 1: off camera. You stay in character, and if it's a
Speaker 1: broad a wide take, I keep working. And he said,
Speaker 1: we always can cut to you for a reaction because
Speaker 1: you're still in the scene. You keep yourself in the scene.
Speaker 1: So I learned how to do that too, and sometimes
Speaker 1: I would insinuate myself very cleverly into a scene that
Speaker 1: on paper wasn't going to be established that way, but
Speaker 1: I was again a way of finding how to support
Speaker 1: the story and whatever was happening at that moment.
Speaker 3: So I know right around the time that you were
Speaker 3: in their plane, I think you just finished a run
Speaker 3: on Quincy where you had been in I want to say,
Speaker 3: ten episodes, pretty regular gig for that.
Speaker 1: There again and was so nice. I went in to
Speaker 1: play the District Attorney, was just one episode and going
Speaker 1: to work with Jack Klugman, who was a very formal
Speaker 1: new guy and very precise, and I'd heard things and
Speaker 1: be on your best behavior and blah blah blah. He
Speaker 1: doesn't suffer full no nonsense and all that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: He and I got along great. It was fine. And
Speaker 1: I think he comes from the stage, comes from Broadway
Speaker 1: and all kinds of things in the background, and people
Speaker 1: think of him as the odd couple or certain certain things,
Speaker 1: and they don't realize. Most actors if they if they've
Speaker 1: been around a long time, they come from a broad
Speaker 1: background and deep background. So when another to discover another
Speaker 1: person who has done the same thing and has the
Speaker 1: same respect for that, they respond to that. And I
Speaker 1: I was playing in the when I did the role
Speaker 1: with him that it's the first scene where he and
Speaker 1: I introduced. His boss brings me into the office and
Speaker 1: I'm DA and it's been a murderer and he's he's
Speaker 1: coming in to tell me that he thinks there's been
Speaker 1: a murderer and not it's not a regular thing. That
Speaker 1: was the Bregnis of the show. So we were being
Speaker 1: introduced for the first time, and the director there again
Speaker 1: gave me some room and some latitude. So I at
Speaker 1: one point when he walked in and started the guy
Speaker 1: introduced me, I kept working. I didn't paying attention to him,
Speaker 1: and he looked like, are we what's wrong? Are we
Speaker 1: going to stop? And then finally I looked at him
Speaker 1: very second hand like huh huh, and he went so
Speaker 1: he said, sir, but here's the thing, and I went
Speaker 1: what And I got up And then according to a
Speaker 1: chair in front of my desk, and he sat down
Speaker 1: and I walked around him, and when I sat in
Speaker 1: another chair opposite him, and I looked at him and
Speaker 1: I said, so you think there's something else going on?
Speaker 1: Him is at it? And he said yeah, I do,
Speaker 1: and I said yeah. I got up and I went
Speaker 1: back from my chair and I sat and looked at
Speaker 1: him and I said, prove it, and he went okay, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: And it was a totally different tone from what he
Speaker 1: and it was really alive and had a thing going on.
Speaker 1: And he liked it so much that he told the producid,
Speaker 1: I want that guy back. I want him to come back.
Speaker 1: So that's how I ended up becoming a semi regular
Speaker 1: on the show. Is he enjoyed me doing that, working
Speaker 1: with them, and gave the show a little more dimension,
Speaker 1: and it was really a good experience. It went on
Speaker 1: for two three years, three seasons of it. I had
Speaker 1: a little bump in the road with him because I
Speaker 1: was shooting a movie of the week and what what
Speaker 1: happen is that they would call my agent week ten
Speaker 1: days ahead and said we wanted James's schedule for this
Speaker 1: episode in two weeks or next week or something, and
Speaker 1: we want to make sure he's available and whatever. And
Speaker 1: so I was doing this movie of the week and
Speaker 1: I just signed with this young guy as a manager
Speaker 1: on only done that a couple of times ahead. And
Speaker 1: this manager and he was very eager and he was
Speaker 1: fullowing himself, and so they said that you're gonna they
Speaker 1: needed me. It was Thursday, they needed to have me
Speaker 1: them following Monday, and manager, unbeknownst to me, told the
Speaker 1: producer of the casting people, whoever it was that made
Speaker 1: the call, well, James's not available and he's busy doing
Speaker 1: this movie and if you want him to do the
Speaker 1: next episode, you need to push you a couple of
Speaker 1: days and then he'll fit it in. And of course
Speaker 1: it went back to Jack that that's what I said,
Speaker 1: which of course I didn't. So Jackson, of course, as
Speaker 1: mercurial as he was, he went from I love this
Speaker 1: guy too, Oh really, okay, just got him out, but
Speaker 1: we'll go to some point he said hell. And it
Speaker 1: took me about eight months until through some friends I
Speaker 1: managed to get a note to him and said I
Speaker 1: never said that. I found out the next week that
Speaker 1: he had done and I fired the guy right away.
Speaker 1: But I let him know the truth, and then when
Speaker 1: he realized that I hadn't said that, he rubbed me
Speaker 1: back into the show again, and I came back and
Speaker 1: we finished in the last year the show was on.
Speaker 1: So I was there were these like I said, you
Speaker 1: always have to be careful in this business, and you
Speaker 1: know how it works. It was a frustrating moment for
Speaker 1: me at that time to have somebody you know, it's
Speaker 1: bad enough or difficult enough to walk the line yourself,
Speaker 1: but somebody else invades it with their ego and everything,
Speaker 1: and they imposed to them and the misrepresent you, and
Speaker 1: so you got to be careful. It's a really pickable business.
Speaker 1: But Jack I enjoyed the show. He always liked to
Speaker 1: do timely things and make a little put a little
Speaker 1: something in the show that had a little grit to it,
Speaker 1: and I think that's one of the things he liked
Speaker 1: working with me. We could play tennis urbally and with
Speaker 1: our skills on the stage, and it made it. It
Speaker 1: was fun for him. So but it also came with
Speaker 1: certain issues. But we were there was something going on.
Speaker 1: I can't remember it was. There was a It wasn't
Speaker 1: It was not any event that unlike the fire much
Speaker 1: like the fire, something that happened that some tragedy or something,
Speaker 1: and a group of actors had gone out to support
Speaker 1: it and walked the line and get the press involved
Speaker 1: by sort of things. So I went with Jack and
Speaker 1: some other people and Jack was being interviewed by the press.
Speaker 1: Came on and said, so, what's going on? Why are
Speaker 1: you guys out here? And he said, you know, he
Speaker 1: explained why it was important to him and why we're
Speaker 1: not actors. We're people that are caring about other people.
Speaker 1: That's why thing. And he mentioned me and just threw
Speaker 1: me in and said, and we've got people like this and
Speaker 1: James won't care about this sort of thing, and we
Speaker 1: want to come here and show when supporting these people
Speaker 1: it's important. I loved him for that. I loved him
Speaker 1: for that kind of sensitivity, and so it's one of
Speaker 1: the most memorable experiences for me to have developed a
Speaker 1: relationship with someone like they said. I've always been a fan,
Speaker 1: and so when I finally meet these people and bond
Speaker 1: with them on a different level, good, bad, or ugly,
Speaker 1: most of the time it's been good. It's been more
Speaker 1: rewarding than certainly the money or the It's not for me,
Speaker 1: it's never about trying to trainers or anything like that.
Speaker 1: To me, it was about trying I love the craft,
Speaker 1: and I studied hard for it. I prepared for it,
Speaker 1: and I like the challenge of it. And that's why
Speaker 1: the writing or the editing and what I'm getting ready
Speaker 1: to do now. I may end up directing this next
Speaker 1: project that I'm working on right now or co directly.
Speaker 1: I'll probably bring somebody in because I'm going to be
Speaker 1: in it, so I don't want to wear too many hats.
Speaker 1: But we don't have a lot of money either, so
Speaker 1: we're going to have to be creative, much like I
Speaker 1: did when I was in college, and my last two
Speaker 1: years in college, I ended up leaving the drama department
Speaker 1: and producing my own shows. And it taught me that
Speaker 1: you can do that or the show. It's important. It's important.
Speaker 1: Jack was a good guy, and I'm missing.
Speaker 3: I was Peter Faull to work with when he did
Speaker 3: the Colombo Very Bain.
Speaker 1: I was such a fan of his from a number
Speaker 1: of things, but the film he did with Jack Lemon,
Speaker 1: The Great Race. I'm such a fan of that movie,
Speaker 1: and so when my Asian concidisins chanced, but I said,
Speaker 1: I jumped at it side of in fact that the
Speaker 1: show was such a big hit, and so I got
Speaker 1: on the set with him, and he was at that
Speaker 1: point er generations that happens in stire. So when I
Speaker 1: had when we had an opportunity, we were talking off
Speaker 1: set on off stage, and I brought it up and
Speaker 1: mentioned it. He appreciated the fact that, oh, you know that.
Speaker 1: Of course I know that you kidding, and we talked
Speaker 1: about it. So he warmed up really quickly, and it
Speaker 1: was he was easy going and in one again we
Speaker 1: we bonded well enough, had enough of a report that
Speaker 1: we could be created to do things. So there was
Speaker 1: one particular scene in it where we didn't a bit
Speaker 1: of comedy stick that that wasn't in the script, but
Speaker 1: that we just worked it out and they put it
Speaker 1: in the show because of the ability for us to
Speaker 1: find something that wasn't on the page to make it
Speaker 1: a little more dimensional and interesting. We were to take
Speaker 1: I was we were. I was a detective investigating the murder,
Speaker 1: and he was on the scene doing his thing. He
Speaker 1: again meeting those people. I never worked with him, but
Speaker 1: I met Tony Curtis at one point and when I
Speaker 1: was running around and he was a sweet guy. That's
Speaker 1: or anything. I've had nothing but really good experiences. Really,
Speaker 1: to be honest, you went to I believe in what
Speaker 1: you give is what you get. And then people in
Speaker 1: this industry, I respect what other people have done. I
Speaker 1: admire them for their hard work and what they've gone
Speaker 1: through with the bad and the ugly people responded that,
Speaker 1: I think it's the way you have to be just
Speaker 1: in life. It's the way my parents raised me. And
Speaker 1: so I've never stopped being that little kid that went
Speaker 1: to the movies with my mom, just sat there with
Speaker 1: big eyes and went, oh, and this is interesting, and
Speaker 1: oh that looks like fun and all that. And then
Speaker 1: meeting those people is like going to Disneyland. Oh look
Speaker 1: at this. That's going this ride. Oh look at that.
Speaker 1: I remember this. And when I worked with Renee, because
Speaker 1: she worked with everybody. She at one point she was
Speaker 1: producing a movie at Fox with Renee was the first
Speaker 1: woman to be then hit the President of the Producer's Skill.
Speaker 1: She won an Emmy on Showtime with Peter Falk in
Speaker 1: a TV movie that they did, And as I say,
Speaker 1: she'd worked with Georgey Scott and Katine Hepburn you name it,
Speaker 1: you look at the pictures are a wall. And so
Speaker 1: this is a woman with great depth. And she became
Speaker 1: like an aunt or or family member to me, and
Speaker 1: so she would drag me along. And she called me
Speaker 1: one day we were working on a project and she said,
Speaker 1: come up with the satin stage whatever. And I went
Speaker 1: in and had no idea what she was doing, and
Speaker 1: she said, oh, here's Gene Simmons. Want to introduce you
Speaker 1: to Gene Simmons. And of course, after Spartacles among other things,
Speaker 1: I could hardly speak, I was like, actually, oh again,
Speaker 1: I'm really I have never lost that kind of sense
Speaker 1: of it, which keeps it alive from me and makes
Speaker 1: the experience fun and real. My objectives are not to
Speaker 1: go after a power thing. You got to manage. You
Speaker 1: need power, you need to have it learned to get
Speaker 1: certain things done. There's things that I'm frustrated about that
Speaker 1: I didn't do earlier in my career, especially when I
Speaker 1: had more leverage and that sort of thing. But everything
Speaker 1: seems to work out in its own time, and my
Speaker 1: faith as such, I'm not worrying about it. Gives I've
Speaker 1: nothing complian about, so it's good. And I say with
Speaker 1: people you've worked with, your opportunities, I passed like great.
Speaker 1: She was producing Jerry Lewis used to do the show
Speaker 1: every year, so one year she was producing the California,
Speaker 1: the LA version of it. So she called me and said,
Speaker 1: come on down and work the phones with us. So
Speaker 1: there I'm sitting in a room with you name it,
Speaker 1: all these people, and there's Mary, Charlie Moore, and there's
Speaker 1: all these different people. And then later I worked with
Speaker 1: me Charla Moore on her the TV movie with her.
Speaker 1: And it's been a real gift to be able to
Speaker 1: learn from these people and to share a bit of
Speaker 1: my experience with them and have them appreciate what I'm
Speaker 1: trying to do to some degree. And so now my
Speaker 1: daughter's out there doing it and she's a beautiful young woman.
Speaker 1: And she when she started, she was she'd be around
Speaker 1: the house doing what Michael Jackson was first the Jackson five,
Speaker 1: and she was four and she was trying to her
Speaker 1: dance and do this, and she wasn't very coortinated, and
Speaker 1: she wanted to later on, she wanted to do doole acting.
Speaker 1: In high school, she did guys and dolls and stuff
Speaker 1: like that and was stiff and I'm like, oh goodness, okay.
Speaker 1: And then she tried a couple of other things, and
Speaker 1: then she went away to college for four years and
Speaker 1: she came back she said, I'm now I'm going to
Speaker 1: try to go and I said, what should I do that?
Speaker 1: So I gave us some advice and he said, join
Speaker 1: a theater group, so you can work with theater people.
Speaker 1: Learned the crack. Go take some classes through I to
Speaker 1: do this. But she struggled around and then she got
Speaker 1: this opportunity to do this independent film where she played
Speaker 1: the gmail leading and when it was finished that they
Speaker 1: had a pre preview or something, when the whole family
Speaker 1: and all her friends went to the theater and I
Speaker 1: sat there, Oh, guys, you know what's going to happen here?
Speaker 1: And she comes on and she was incredible in the film.
Speaker 1: She was I was like, holy because she worked so hard.
Speaker 1: She took whatever she had. She's smart, but she worked
Speaker 1: so hard, and she got to coach and she did
Speaker 1: all these things and she put a lot of chichens.
Speaker 1: So I was very proud of her. And so now
Speaker 1: she's she's up there. Now she's been doing it for
Speaker 1: a while. She still hasn't gotten what she wanted to
Speaker 1: be at that big shot. But there's another reason. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to produce a couple of things, because I want
Speaker 1: to give her an opportunity to be seato in some
Speaker 1: of this work everybody needs. I got my shot with
Speaker 1: those people. If I hadn't walked up to the director
Speaker 1: in the Grave White Hope been arrogant, if I hadn't
Speaker 1: gone to Walter Mirish and acted stupid, have to get
Speaker 1: out there certain things too. It's not going to come
Speaker 1: to you. We got to make it happen in some
Speaker 1: kind of way. It's not your agent that's going to
Speaker 1: make it happen to you.
Speaker 3: You know the book that you were talking about writing,
Speaker 3: is that fiction? Is that a memoir?
Speaker 1: What is that it's a historical novel? And what it is?
Speaker 1: I in the mid seventies. I wanted because I'm very
Speaker 1: politically minded as well, and so I wanted to do
Speaker 1: a story that teachured a black politician who was in
Speaker 1: the position of power. My family knew certain people that
Speaker 1: were in Congress and people that were My parents have
Speaker 1: been involved in the electing most of the mayors in
Speaker 1: Oakland and a sort of place, so I and I
Speaker 1: knew people that ran the state of California. So I
Speaker 1: think about on a first any basis, So I wanted
Speaker 1: to do this and the right that particular time, there
Speaker 1: was a major Jackson had been elected mayor of Atlanta,
Speaker 1: and so he was the first black person being of
Speaker 1: a large southern city. And there's just and I'll tell
Speaker 1: you but I ended up again totally blessing of so
Speaker 1: I'm on TV. I said that would be the guy
Speaker 1: I could learned, and I ended up going to his house.
Speaker 1: He knew who I was. I ended up lived staying
Speaker 1: with him for a month and going everywhere he went.
Speaker 1: And when I came home, I had so many notes
Speaker 1: that I said, this is not a movie, this is
Speaker 1: a book. Because while I was there, I learned that
Speaker 1: my mother was from Texas, my father was from Virginia.
Speaker 1: I grew up in Washington, d C. California, so I
Speaker 1: didn't know as much about the Southern culture and all
Speaker 1: lesser thing. And I also developed more of appreciation for
Speaker 1: what because I was around watching in them. Had an
Speaker 1: opportunity to meet Ralph ab Abneth who was working with
Speaker 1: Martin Luther Kinging and all those kinds of people, and
Speaker 1: Jesse Jackson. I knew the book is a boy the
Speaker 1: fictional family. It starts in nineteen thirty nine and it
Speaker 1: goes till up to the present. It said, it's going
Speaker 1: to be a big book, but it covers the life
Speaker 1: of this fictional character. When we meet these your volies
Speaker 1: of young black kid sharecropper, and as he grows and
Speaker 1: his life experience develops, and his family and all the
Speaker 1: people that are fictitious, they are integrated into the most
Speaker 1: significant or some well known, some not so well known
Speaker 1: historical events that happened in this country, whether they were
Speaker 1: the bussing, the floods, or the new name and all
Speaker 1: these different things. So the course of following the soap
Speaker 1: opera of the characters and the family and its growth,
Speaker 1: the reading can be educated about how this country developed
Speaker 1: and with its social background. And because a lot of
Speaker 1: people my family, I taught my kids to learn about
Speaker 1: what was happening historically into black kids, kids that integrated
Speaker 1: their mix. So the book is called Resurrection, and it's
Speaker 1: chance to tell the history of America and make it
Speaker 1: accessible by putting a frame in the fictitious in staking
Speaker 1: kind of characters that were a little more like the
Speaker 1: soak or more, but good. It's my version of roots,
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. Yeah, and so I met a
Speaker 1: woman who was a publisher in New York who read
Speaker 1: the first part of me and encouraged me. And I
Speaker 1: think I'm on the right track. So I've just got
Speaker 1: to finish it.
Speaker 3: Mister Watson, thank you so much for your time to
Speaker 3: see it's been so great talking with you.
Speaker 1: My pleasure, my pleasure. I look forward to the future,
Speaker 1: so we'll see what happened.
Speaker 3: Yeah, hopefully we can do this again. I took everything
Speaker 3: I had to not ask you more about Killdozer.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, okay, I've got a story for almost every
Speaker 1: one of those adventures. They were all really intriguing, fun
Speaker 1: or crazy. We could do part two later, but that's fine. Yeah, people,
Speaker 1: glad thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: So remember remember