July 9, 2024 • 39 mins
Gary Tanguay filled in on NightSide:
Comedian, actor, producer, and writer Mike O’Malley joined Gary on NightSide to talk about his journey from New England to Hollywood and all the projects he’s worked on during his successful career.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio!
Comedian, actor, producer, and writer Mike O’Malley joined Gary on NightSide to talk about his journey from New England to Hollywood and all the projects he’s worked on during his successful career.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray.I'm w Besy Coustin's news radio. When
you're on your first day, tryingto say as little as possible. This
guy behind me, you can't stoptalking about himself. Jack's gonna get his
ass handed to him. You wantto come after him. You know where
he is. I'm not coming afterhim. I'm already here. That's a
(00:23):
don't worry about it. I wasn'there to cover Dad's mouth when he said
that moss Wiler shifty little dodger.I can't wait to slap him with this
she's doing. Okay, that's great, Okay, thank you. Can I
get that? Can I get thatpicture with her? Mary Charles, not
the last days of It's a Cannesota, not an orgy. If it were
(00:44):
an orgy machine, I would paythe fifty cent. But it's just like
the older you get, you justsee it. Just none of it lasts.
Okay, you still have your dog. I think they're going to start
the game probably right after you saythe play balls. They're not dolls,
(01:06):
they're sports figurines. And I justwant to get that straight and around for
all my friends from the UAW.Really, no, if you were a
fan of yours. Here you rememberthis game song? And what's this show?
To put Michael Maley on the map? I mean the map map.
(01:26):
This was a big deal. Thiswas CBS or was it the wreck?
For us puckheadge it was probably thewreck. But with us right now is
Michael Mallley one of the great guysthat show business. And what we're going
to do is we're going to talkabout Mike's career because I think that it's
underrated, it's untold, and it'sfascinating. You guys know if you listen
to this show, I geek outon this stuff. But behind the camera,
(01:48):
in the writer's room and also infront of the camera, He's been
involved in one hundred and twenty onetitles. Michael Malley joins us from La
Mike Hawaria, Gary, my friend. It's great to talk to you,
but I have to say, firstoff, thank you for the introduction,
and thank you for whoever put togetherthat clip package. I feel like I'm
on you know, this is yourlife, but I'm intrigued about the full
(02:12):
body stink package that Mando. Isthis the what your you're one of your
sponsors? This is I was listeningto the ad as I was, I
was waiting to come on, andI I didn't know that there was a
full body theodorant for body. Youknow, like most people, I just
uh, you know, I putsomething underneath my arms. But apparently there's
(02:36):
a whole movement where this is uh, your whole body after you wash,
it needs to be deodorized. ToMike, we can send you some you
know, some free gifts, somefree parting use if you'd like. Yes,
well, my wife would be happyand my kids would be happy.
They don't let me put my armaround them anymore, and I can maybe
maybe it's because I don't have mando. But the problem, but the great
(02:57):
thing, Mike is about when youget to our age, we don't We
just don't care. No, wedon't care, do We just no?
Because our bodies are decomposing and theyjust slowly rotting away and there's nothing we
can do about it. And ourfamily should just be happy that we're still
alive. But what a thrill forme to be talking to you Gary on
wb Z, which I've of coursebeen listening to uh since I was a
(03:23):
kid growing up in Nashal, NewHampshire. I was born in in Boston.
My mom's from Belmont, my dad'sfrom Newton, and we grew up
in I grew up in Nashvilla.And the big celebrity who would come to
church on Sunday mornings for the folkmaths at Saint Christopher's was Guy Manilla.
(03:44):
Wow, and man when Guy Manillaused to show up everyoney like, hey,
that's Guy Manilla from calling all sports. There he is and uh,
I actually went to u n H, the University of Hampshire with his daughters
who are friends. And uh.But of course Maynard, Guy Manila,
Joe Green and the copter. It'sgreat to be talking to you tonight.
(04:04):
Yeah, it's a legendary radio station. I agree with you. I absolutely
agree with you, and we willget to Survivors Remorse. But you mentioned
you and H, and I reallyenjoyed the fact that that star basketball player
came out of you and H.That wasn't a stretch, That wasn't writer's
liberty at all. But maybe Iwas the only one that noticed it.
But I loved it. But Mike, I just think, and you know
(04:25):
me, Mike, I mean,people know when I do this show,
I love to talk about movies.I love to talk about acting. I
just find it fascinating. And youknow, you've done so much of it
in so many different ways. Andthe shows that I love that you've done
are a little off the beaten path, and I want to explore those two.
But I want to start with thisfirst one. Rob Let's roll.
Cut to the Mike O'Malley show roller, Rob, if you can when you're
(04:47):
on your first date. I'm tryingto say as little as possible. This
guy behind me can't stop talking abouthimself. He's a guy. I like
to call it the blah blah guy. He's like my workouts blah blah.
I look at my doctoral muscles blahblah, got a great ir blah blah.
Let me give you a stock chapblah blah blah blah. So Mike,
(05:09):
how old were you and how didthat happen? Well? I had,
I had, You know, mycareer really started in show business.
I had moved to New York afterI graduated from U n H in nineteen
eighty eight. I moved right downto New York and I started studying acting.
And then you know I was Iwould get cast in commercials and that
(05:30):
would pay the bills. But thenI got a job hosting a show on
Nickelodeon, which up to you knownow is a much more well known brand.
But back then, you know,adults didn't know it so much unless
you had kids. And I wasI was cast as a host of a
you know, a Jeopardy like concentrationfor those of your listeners who remember that,
(05:51):
that was an old, you know, a show we had to guess
like what the picture was, andthis was a show for kids, And
so I went, I got cappedin that, and I went down.
I did. I did one hundredand how many episodes to be doing that,
we must have done seventy five episodes. I think I was paid two
hundred and fifty dollars an episode.We'd shoot four in a day. Wow.
(06:11):
But that was on Nickelodeon. Kindof get my foot in the door.
And then I got cast in anothershow, hosting a show on Nickelodeon
called Nickelodeon Guts, which was likean action sports show for kids, kind
of like American Gladiators. Well you'relike twenty three then, like twenty two,
twenty three, yeah, I was, I was. I think it
was twenty three years Yeah, Iwas I just got out of school,
so it was ninety one, andso as a result of that, I
(06:36):
had a little bit of money inmy pocket, not a lot, because
it was you know, as Isaid, kids cable TV, but some
of you know, what was greatabout Nickelodeon at that time is that there
was a lot of young people thereproducing shows who were also trying to get
into show business and do other things. As a result of that, I
started writing I know you're a writertoo, a very good writer, and
(06:58):
I just was trying to get mystuff on. And so some friends and
I put on a play that Iwrote. It was called Three Years from
thirty, uh, and it wasjust about that time in your life where
you know, sort of you're you'reyou're leaving kind of the some of the
shenanigans of post college life behind.Some of your friends are making it,
some other people are having some strugglefiguring out what they're going to do next.
(07:20):
And really, I think it's certainlyin this country. Uh, it's
a time where you can have somewhatof a post collegiate uh. I don't
want to say adolescents, but justfun where you're focused on on, you
know, exploring some different ideas aboutwhat you want to do for work.
But then you get to be twentyseven to twenty eight, you better figure
(07:41):
out how you're going to pay thebills if you want to be somebody who
wants to settle down and have afamily, which is what I wanted to
do. And so as a resultof that, I wrote a play.
The play got published, and Ithen got cast. I got cast in
a pilot for David Letterman. Youknow, toelevision pilot for your listeners who
(08:01):
don't know, is sort of likea rough run at what a television show
could be. Sometimes they go onto be series, sometimes they don't.
This one did not get picked up, and for example, Everybody Loves Raymond
was a Letterman production, correct,and that went on to make everyone wildly
rich and successful. That is notwhat happened to me. But I did
(08:24):
get cast in another show for NBCcalled Life with Roger. I played a
character from Roger who was actually fromSouth Boston. That NBC. This is
in the height of mussy TV.It did not get picked up by NBC,
but there was an upstart network calledthe WB which later turned in to
the CW, and I got castin that show. We did twenty episodes,
(08:48):
and then I kind of had myfoot in the door in Los Angeles
because the Nickelodeon stuff was out ofNew York and it was shot in Orlando.
And then once I got and Iwas a host. Once you got
cast as a part, you're anchoringa sitcom. You know, whether or
not people watched it or not,you are cutting your teeth, You're getting
experience. And I think one ofthe things that took me a long time
(09:11):
to learn in show business, butI now when I look back on it,
is that you know, so manypeople are trying, you know,
they wake up every day trying tomake a great movie, trying to make
a great TV show, and thefailure rate is just, you know,
massive, and so people inside ofthe business who are trying to get stuff
going, they don't look upon thosefailures the same way as maybe people on
(09:33):
the outside do, or even howyou might look at it when you know
you're going through it, because everyoneis out there trying to make stuff work
and trying to command attention and getstuff done. So, you know,
as a result of that, Igot a deal to develop a pilot.
I wrote a pilot with Sam Simonwho was famously one of the co creators
(09:54):
of The Simpsons. That was anotherpilot that didn't go that was for Fox.
As a result of that, Igot to another deal for NBC to
write my own show, which wasThe Michael Mallee Show, and that got
picked up, but it only lastedtwo episodes. We made six, but
it got canceled after the second one. But the Michael Malllee Show, and
(10:16):
I went back and I looked atit because I did not recall, but
the fact that you had the nameon the show, whether it lasted or
not, that must have been ahuge break. Well, it's a huge
break. It's funny, Gary.You know, of course you're thinking to
yourself because you know all the stepsyou've taken. And by the time the
Michael Maley Show had come about,I was I think I was thirty two
(10:37):
when I made that deal, andso you know, you've you've gone through,
you know, ten eleven years inshow business and you've you know,
you've taken all these steps. Butpeople didn't know who I was. Now,
of course, a lot of peopledidn't know who many people were who
go on and have a show namedafter them, you know. The good
thing is that if it takes off, Hey, that's your and you're you
(11:00):
know, I don't want to sayyou're set, but you're you're well known,
you're established. If it doesn't dowell, then then you've attached your
name to a show that hasn't donewell, and then people are like,
well, you know, it hurtsa little bit more so if you're on
a show that gets canceled and it'snot your name, it's just some show
that nobody watched. You care aboutit, but not knowing really it's hit
(11:24):
a blip on the radar. Itone hundred percent made people aware of who
I was because you're getting promoted duringyou know, NBA finals and all that.
And as I said, this isback in the time when there was
only six networks that were making youknow, six broadcasts networks that are making
TV. There wasn't HBO hadn't exploded, Cable television had exploded. With original
(11:46):
television, of course, there's nostreaming. So to be on a show
that was one of the shows thatgot picked up, in one way,
it was great because you had youwould run that gauntlet and you had survived.
In another way, it's challenging becausethere's all these other people who are
trying to make shows, and they'relike, wait a minute, this thing
got picked up and said a thingI was working on, and so you
(12:09):
couldn't just you couldn't perform, youknow, sort of off to the side
and get your sea legs. Youyou're just out there and people are either
watching it or not. And thecompetition was fierce. So you get your
first crack really at thirty two,and that's how long it takes. Ten
years. Yeah, well, Imean my first crack at a really big,
(12:30):
big job, you know, likeI said, I was. I
was, you know, working forNickelodeon and those shows you know, were
successful for them. But you know, it's not the kind of money that
you can retire on. It's noteven the kind of money that you know,
can you know, once that job'sdone, you have to find your
next one. You know. Youcould obviously get through the year, but
it wasn't it wasn't leading to becauseI didn't want to ultimately be a host.
(12:54):
You know. It's interesting what Iwas doing yesteryear, which came six
months after The Michael Maley Show gotcanceled. That was a sitcom that was
on CBS and It ran for sixyears, and it's a show that you
know, much of the audience knowsme from because it was on that Monday
night CBS Lineup with King Queen.I mean, Mike, it was big.
(13:15):
I mean, heck, you guysare at the super Bowl. Yeah,
well you were in the super Bowl. Yeah. It's probably just because
Ray Romano and Kevin James didn't wantto be there. But no, I
mean, I'm not downplaying It wasa very successful show. Was written by
a really talented guy, Greg Garcia, who's created you know my Name is
Earl, and Raising Hope and othershows like The Guest Book that all have
(13:39):
done extremely well. It went intosyndication, it was on Nicket Night.
It was a it was a bigsuccess. And but I had, during
that time, had it been offeredto host the syndicated version of Who Wants
to Be a Millionaire? And youknow, in retrospect, I probably shouldn't
have taken it, but I didn'twant to. I just didn't want to
do the hosting thing anymore. Ijust wanted to be an actor and a
(14:03):
writer. Well, you have tomake a decision sometimes because if you are
hosting the syndicated version of who wantsto be a millionaire. Sure you would
have made more money, but itwould have taken your attention off the fastball
with what you really wanted to do. Mike, we have to take a
break. Coming up next the firstrole. When I recognized how great Michael
Maalley was. That's next on WBZ. Now back to Dan Ray Mine from
(14:28):
the Window World, Light Side Studioson WBZ News Radio, very tagway for
Dan rag talking about Michael O'Malley,the pride of Nashville. We have sh
and of course is that great thingsin Hollywood and film and television in front
of the camera, behind the camera. One hundred and twenty one titles,
and we are going through his careerbecause I don't think this guy's got his
due. And we talked about theearly days and now we're going to move
on a little bit. And thisis when I knew who Michael Malley was,
(14:54):
and so did the rest of thesports world. This is the rick.
But everybody calls me direct. Theseare my sports figurines. You know
something, A lot of people callthese dolls. They're not dolls. They're
sports figurines. And I just wantto get that straight. Okay, they're
not toys, and they're not dolls, they're figurines. Hey, Curtis,
(15:22):
it's Curtis Martin Patriots. Okay,Mike, how did this happen? Well,
I'll tell you. So those spotswere directed by Christopher Guests, famously
from you know, all of hismovies like a Mighty Wind and Jami's Husband.
Yes, exactly, and uh,you know, was you know,
(15:45):
drawing a blank now, the famousoh Spot, the Spinal Tap he was
in and Saturday Night Live. It'sjust an amazing director of those improvisational you
know movies, and he was directing, uh these and this was a campaign
that was created by a ad agencyowned by Court Crandall, who's from Winchester,
(16:08):
mass and lived two doors down forme in Hunter Hall at the University
of New Hampshire. He'd gone onto have a big advertising career in California,
and he and another guy, SteveO'Brien, they created this character and
this was this was in ninety eight, so this is right before I had
I had my own television show.And so I say, I think that
(16:30):
also helped, you know, ingetting me the deal, because these spots
were very popular and they were tryingto show a fan who was you know,
crazy and fanatical about you know,sports memorabilia, and how he would
say, you know, Bobby Orrwas walking through Volgan Airport and ate a
hot dog and he put the platedown in a napkin. He put it
(16:52):
in a piece of you know,he put it in the trash. This
guy, the Rick would go andtake the napkin out, put it in
a plastic bag and say, youknow this is this is Gaston Bobby or
DNA. I might be able toclone it. You don't know where you
know, medical technology is going,but you know, we could maybe clone
in twenty five years. You know, a bunch of different Bobby Ors Bruins
(17:15):
could have a whole you know teamof Bobby Ors and it would just you
know, the sports connects so emotionallywith people we have. You know,
I obviously grew up as a massiveBoston sports fan, Red Sox Patriots,
you know, and they and theywould just break your heart so oft and
obviously the Celtics and the Bruin lessBruins less so but and so I really,
(17:37):
you know what I love about sportsis just how it connects friends and
family and a community and a cityand a town and an area. And
I can tell you living out herein Los Angeles, where I've raised my
children to be New England sports fans. It's when you see somebody from out
here who's wearing a Sox hat ora Patriots jersey or a Celtics hat Bruins
jersey, it makes you feel likeyou're at home, and it really,
(18:02):
you know, connects people. AndI think that they were just trying to
show, not that all sports fanswere face painters and screamers, although you
know there's nothing wrong with that either. They just wanted to show the specificity
with which people are always trying toconnect with the sports teams that mean so
much to them. Well, plusthe humor is he's a little psycho.
(18:23):
I mean, it's brilliant. Youknow how much was that lib Well,
I mean a lot of it wasthat libbed and improvised, because that was
that was Christopher Guest. That's whathe'll have you talking for. At that
time, they were shooting it onfilm, and the film I think it
(18:44):
was like sixteen millimeter. You'd have, you know, a reel that would
last about twelve minutes, and sohe would just call action and Steve O'Brien,
the ad guy who had come upwith the character with Court. They
had decorated that room with all thisstuff, so they would just like walk
around, walk around and talk aboutthe stuff. I will I will actually
(19:04):
send you, I will send youa compilation of some of the outtakes and
some of the stuff that we do. But you know, they would just
put stuff all in the room andthen you just say, walk around and
walk around and pick it up andtalk about it. And there was one
of those like, uh, youknow, one of those ones that wasn't
scripted. It was like one ofthose ice cream little little mini helmets that
(19:25):
you get ice cream in, andthey was right. It was a Red
Sox one and and then I pickedit up and I would just you know,
I was like, I think there'sa little ice cream still lifting this
and it's like every and then Isaid, every year, I'd buy a
Yankees one. I smash it.And so it was just like that was
the kind of stuff where his opinion, Chris guests and I think that's what's
(19:47):
made him so successful at this isthat, you know, if you're really
trying to sell the joke, thenyou know, sometimes he can get tired.
But if you're doing something where youdon't you yourself were just commenting in
the character's voice on what's around him. Yeah, there's gonna be a lot
of junk that that doesn't turn intoa spot. But you're also gonna,
(20:10):
you know, you're gonna necessarily,you know, you're gonna trip over some
stuff that that's really gonna be.You wouldn't even have thought about it yourself.
But that was all due to hisyou know how they had set up
the character in that room. Therewas just so many things to talk about.
Well, I mean, spinal tapwas pretty much an outline, right,
I mean all of his movies areoutlines, yes, exactly. And
(20:30):
and you know, he had actuallylater on cast me in one of the
movies that I couldn't do because Iwas doing you know, I was doing
Survivor's Remorse, which was which reallybummed me out because I just love working
with him. He's he's just sogreat. And at one point he introduced
me as a as a great improviserto a friend of his, and to
hear that from him is like,wow, yes, that's like you know,
(20:51):
uh, you know, to me, Shakespeare introducing you as a great
actor. Yeah. I mean he'shung out with some pretty heavy duty people,
as we know, anybody who's inthat group, which obviously you are,
you know, whether it's Katherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy and so forth.
Yeah, and Fred Willard and JaneLynch and all those guys, Don Lake.
I mean, just all of thosemovies are hilarious. Do people still
(21:14):
recognize you as the Rick? Ohyeah, one hundred percent, you know,
especially guys. You know, it'svery funny of the different things that
I've done. You can kind oftell when somebody comes up to you what
they've watched, what they like.You know. You know, if if
you have some you know, youngerteenage girls, it's because they saw me
on Glee. If if it's likedudes that you see at the Red Sox
(21:37):
game, it's the Rick, orit's Yesteryear. Uh. You know,
some people will surprise you with Justified, where I played a gangster on that
show. And so it's it's alwaysinteresting the different people that come up to
you. You know a lot ofpeople now who are grown come up to
me and had watched me on Nickelodeon, and uh, it's funny. It's
it's it's always funny. But that'sa great thing about being at is that
(22:00):
the more jobs that you have andthe more things that you do, you
really get to reach everyone. Andthat's one of the thrills about it.
Do you think one of the reasonsyou've been you've been successful is because,
as far as I could tell andthe people that I've talked with, you
have never once been a jerk.U. Yeah, I mean, well,
(22:22):
I mean I can't say that I'venever been a jerk in my life.
I'm sure there's somebody who's well,Mike, let me say this is
your talented obviously, but when Ihad the pleasure of meeting you and Vic
out of your office, I wastalking to one of your writers, who
was actually from Massachusetts after you left, and I said, you know,
what's I like working with Mike.He goes, He's Mike from New Hampshire.
You've just been Mike from New Hampshire. And I credit your parents,
(22:45):
but you have been Mike from NewHampshire from day one and you have not
changed. Yeah. Well, Ithank you for noticing that. I do
think it has a lot to dowith my parents and the people that I
grew up with and around who supportedme. I also think that, you
know, when you have success andthen you have something like a show that
fails, you know quickly. Imean for me, you know, I
(23:07):
had that show and it got canceledand it wasn't like I had some Broadway
career to go back to, orI didn't have a movie career. I
even though some people think that I'ma stand up comedian, I had,
you know, I had gabbled inopen mic nights early on when I was
trying to kind of shake the I'ma kid's game show host thing. You
know, it's kind of easy togo into acting as a host if people
(23:30):
think that you as a comedian.But I never. I never. I
immediately started to get acting work,so I never, you know, went
to stand up route. So whenyou have then a failure like that,
then you're very quickly reminded about what'simportant because you see it. You know,
everyone's oh, this is great whenyou oh you got a show,
(23:52):
you know, the year gonna yeargone NBC. And you know what's funny
is that a lot of people sayto you, hey, don't you know,
don't don't forget where you came fromdon't don't forget, and and that's
you know, that's obviously it's something. What they're saying to you is that
they've heard a lot of stories orseen a lot of stories about people who
have gone on to Hollywood or anywhereand had success, and then they've you
know, forgotten what got them there. I think that, you know,
(24:15):
I it was actually it's funny yousay this, Gary, because I was
thinking about this today. I youknow, I had great family. I
have great, great brothers and sistersthat I've had great friends my whole life,
and they all supported me when Iwas writing plays down in New York.
People from you and h and Nashua, they come down and see my
plays and we're all very very supportive, and you know, I just I'm
(24:37):
very lucky. I had, youknow, loving parents and loving you know,
grandparents and an extended family. Andso I don't think that I was
searching necessarily for an identity or approvalany more than the average person was through
show business. I liked doing it. I had fun doing it. I
Mean, one of the reasons Ibecame an actor is because I I wasn't
(25:00):
playing sports anymore. I really wantto be the center fielder for the Boston
Red Sox. But you know thatwasn't gonna happen, and so then you've
got then you gotta find out somethingto do, which is why I've got
an acting because you know, it'sjust like, you know what it's like
if you're you know, if you'rea star athlete in high school, then
you certainly get a lot of attentionand uh, you know, girls certainly
(25:21):
pay attention to you. Well,what better way if that's not happening then
to get on an elevated stage wherethe lights are to go down in the
in the room and the and thelight is pointed at you and you get
to be funny and you get tohave fun and people are laughing and applauding
you, and so listen, itwas all just it's all just about meeting
girls, Garry. That's all aboutThat's what they all say, right,
(25:42):
It's all about meeting girls. That'swhat That's what everybody The reason I took
an acting classes because I wanted tomeet girls. But I'm glad you tell
that story because what I try totell people is, you know, not
everybody in Hollywood's a train wreck.Yeah, well, I mean and you
know what, they really there reallyaren't. I mean, there's just a
lot of people out here who arefrom places like Nashua, who you know,
(26:03):
just want to do this business.And you know, I was lucky
because I had, you know,support and great friends. I mean,
you also have to have to succeedin this business. You have to have
people, agents, casting people,other people who believe in you and also
are good people, right and whoyou know, And I've been very lucky
(26:25):
in that sense. I've had,you know, a great manager Mike Nylon,
and a great agent Joe Cohen,you know, in particular, who
I have been with since I firstgot out here. And they have,
you know, they have to puttheir reputation on the line. They have
to say, hey, listen,you should really see this guy when you're
first starting out, or you'd reallylike this person. He's somebody that you
can rely on. And so manyof you know, the relationships that I've
(26:51):
had, it's because somebody else,like Joe or Mike has called them up
and said, you know, you'reyou're really gonna like this guy and you're
going to get along with him,and he's going to be somebody that you
can rely on. Now then youhave to go and deliver. But that's
what a good agent does. Theyset you up to succeed. And I've
been lucky in that sense too.But I must say that I again,
(27:14):
my parents have so much to dowith why I've succeeded, because they really
did love me unconditionally. I didnot give them a you know, a
lot to not love. I wasn'ta bad kid. I wasn't somebody who
got in a lot of trouble.But it's not you know, I think
there's a lot of people who arewho they take the wrong path because they
(27:37):
don't know, you know, whatit's like. You know, they just
haven't been loved and so they're seekingit out in a different way. And
so I know that sounds sort ofelementary, but it's it is very true.
Well it's absolutely true because I rememberI took my first first acting class
in ports withth New Hampshire a hundredyears ago when I was doing morning radio
(27:59):
and Rogerson, the instructor, said, you're all here because of love.
And you know, there's there's there'ssomething when you act. I mean,
I love it, I just absolutelylove it, and there's something when you
do it. It just fills youup, and you can do that with
integrity, which you've done. Mike. We have to take a break.
I want to talk about your groundbreakingrole on Glee. I tell some people
(28:23):
coming up the actually I got MichaelMalley coming on tonight. They all pointed
to Glee. That was huge fora lot of people. That's next on
WBZ It's Night Side with Boston's NewsRadio. Do you realize that we haven't
had our Friday night dinner for threeweeks? You've been in DC. You
think I couldn't get in an earlierflight. Mostly the other congressmen are gone
(28:45):
on Thursday night. Okay, Idon't get it. So why have you
been skipping dinner? Because I don'twant you to go? Now, you
and me, we've been doing thisdance for over a decade, and Al
Starsky and Gay Hutch everybody warned methat when you were eight and you were
(29:06):
bugging the crap out of me,that one day I'd be begging for you
to wake me up at four amwith a nightmare, or you know,
rex your kitchen playing a restaurant.I was nine, Who knew was going
to be so complicated? So you'vebeen skipping dinners because you're sad there's not
going to be any more dinners.I'm confused. Oh you don't get it
(29:27):
yet, you know. I knowyou got a taste of it when you
lost your mom. But it's justlike the older you get, you just
see it. Just none of itlasts. Ah, Man, Mike you
break. I mean, my god, if anybody watch that with a dry
eye, they don't have a pulse. Michael Mally choics this here. That
is who's the role this bird homealong Lee, the father of Kurt,
(29:47):
played by the very talented Chris Coffer. What did that part mean to you?
Oh? Man, I mean thatthat that role which is written by
Ian Brennan and Ryan Murphy and BradFalchek Bratt, the Boston guy. I
had met them because I had donea pilot that didn't go the year prior,
and they just called me up andthey said, would you like to
(30:11):
be would you like to play thispart? That was gosh, I want
to say. It was like twothousand and nine. And what's interesting is,
you know they they wrote a greatpart, and I was on a
show that a lot of people werewatching and had a lot of critical attention.
(30:33):
And so I got an Emmy nominationbecause of that, and as a
result of that, I ended upbecoming a series regular on that show.
And it also led to you know, clearly, you know, when you
get an Emmy nomination, it's yourpeers who were I did not win the
Emmy. Neil Patrick Harris won theEmmy. And but just to you know,
(30:56):
it's true, it's just to getnominated, especially as a guest actor.
You know, they're signaling, singlingout your work amongst a lot of
different people. And so the starsreally aligned in that part. It allowed
me to get you know, therewas some humor in the role, but
it allowed me to play a dramaticrole, which is something that I had
(31:18):
done a little bit of. Ialways wanted to do more of it.
It's one of the reasons I didn'ttake another sitcom right after Yesteryear. But
that really opened up opportunities for meand to a whole new audience who didn't
you know, didn't maybe watch Yesteryear, didn't know the Rick, didn't know
the game shows. You know,to them, I was the guy who
was on this dramatic show playing thisdad of a kid who you know,
(31:45):
it was really groundbreaking. I mean, this is now fifteen years ago,
where you know, this young manwas struggling with his identity and I was
playing a somewhat stereotypical you know,dude, you know father from Can I
stop you there for a minute,because I want to give you a little
more credit than that. I don'tthink I understand what you're saying. I
(32:07):
don't think it was stereotypical. Oneof the great things I think you do
as an actor, and we sawit on Heels with Charlie Gully and people
should watch Heels, by the way, which is another great show that Mike
has done, is that you willchange your appearance or the persona of the
actor or of the character is differentfrom what you've played, but you use
your instrument the same. You didn'tchange your voice. You didn't all of
(32:30):
a sudden become a tough guy.Okay, so I thought. And you
did the same thing with Gully.I mean with Gully, you came in
and you used your own voice.You just had a different look, but
you use your instrument as the same. And I'm sorry for this all geeky
acting talk, folks, but youknow, don't apologize. I love it.
Gary I'm with your kid, I'mwith you. But you know,
like Gully Gully, somebody maybe wouldhave done a stupid accent or put on
(32:52):
it, and you did and yousold it, you know. And the
same thing with Glee is but youweren't the You walked a fine line mic
and it's so damn hard. It'slike that character could have been a caricature.
It could have been too far inmasculinity. Uh, it could have
(33:13):
been too far in being sympathetic.You played it right down the middle man,
and I think you were walking atight rope the whole way. Well,
thank you. You know a lotof the actors that I really admire,
whether it's Jimmy Stewart or Henry Fondaor you know, Tom Hanks,
Spencer Tracy, you know these guys, you know, they bring the essence
(33:36):
of themselves to their role. Thethe acting teacher who whose method I did
not work under this acting teacher.I worked under people who had been you
know, taught by him and taughtby you know, his method as a
guy by the name is Sandy Meiser. And way back in the group theater
days during the Depression in New YorkCity, where you know, on school
(34:00):
of acting that came out of thatwas the act method acting, and another
was was Sandy Meiser's style of acting, which was, you know, the
character is just you in the imaginarycircumstances of the character. And I think
that, you know, I alsothink that there are look everyone would love
(34:21):
to be like Sean Panner, MerylStreet or Daniel day Lewis. I mean,
you know, the reason why,especially when it's somebody like Daniel day
Lewis or Meryl Street that they youknow, every you see at the Oscars,
every single person gives them a standingovation when they win, is because
every actor wants to be as greatas those actors are. But you know,
not everyone has the technique, thetalent, the range to be able
(34:44):
to do that. Yeah, well, I mean yes, I mean that
is true. That the opportunity,you know, one of the things that
you find of very quickly in Hollywoodwhen you're first starting to to get work
is that if they need a guywho's got you know, a mole on
his left cheek and you know,walks with you know, with bow legs,
they're going to find that guy.You know, they don't necessarily have
(35:05):
to find a guy who acts likethat. And I think sometimes the you
know, overacting because you as anactor are bored that you're trying to do
something different to challenge yourself or interestyourself. Sometimes that can be distracting to
people. You know. One ofthe things I loved about George Clooney when
he did that great movie Perfect Storm, is that he didn't do the Boston
accent. Why well, he's ina movie with a bunch of people who
(35:29):
already know how you know, weall know when we're from the area that
people just talk like that. Youknow, they're not like you know,
it just comes out very freely inhow they're talking. They're not putting on
something. They don't even know thatthey're speaking with an accent until they go
somewhere and people don't understand what they'resaying. Right. You know, I
(35:50):
still have, you know, remnantsof it when I say to my kids,
like, go ask your mother.He's like, your mother, go
to your room. You go toyour room. You know, we're in
a hurry, you know, orI'm so tired, you know, really
get tired. So you know,it's it's so you just try to do
whatever you can to be in themoment and let the story do the work.
(36:15):
And I think sometimes all of thetechnical you know, pyrotechnics, I
should say, of acting, whenpeople are you know, trying to do
a little bit too much, itcan distract because it's calling attention to the
behavior and taking the story away fromthe characters and putting the attention on being
(36:36):
the visual actor, you know,doing a turn. And I think sometimes
that's called for and other times itisn't. Michael Malley is a guest.
Certainly not enough time. We haveto take a break. He's going to
come back from one segment and Iam going to play a cut. That
is my favorite Michael Mallley performance,my favorite. Coming up next on wb
(36:57):
Z, we go back to DanRay live from the Window World Nightside Studios.
I'm WBZ News Radio. We onlyhave a few minutes left with the
great Michael Maley. This is myfavorite Michael Malley line. It is from
The Morning Show, The Morning Showfor the past fifteen years, through every
major emergency, and I'm a hugefan. I watch your daughter grow up
(37:21):
on the show's great thank you.She's quite the grown woman these days.
Color me an empty nester, youknow, so, Tim, this is
an incredible act of heroism. Howmany dogs have you rescued? All together?
Now? At eighteen and two?Kiss she's doing, Okay, that's
great, Okay, thank you?Can I get that? Can I get
(37:44):
that picture with her? Or killsme every time? Can I get that
picture with her? After she hasa nervous breakdown on TV? Was that
line i'd lived? I don't recall. I mean, that's a really well
written show, so I probably itprobably was in there. I have listened.
If people let me add lib,I will add lib. But I
(38:05):
mean I listen, I don't.I don't know. I would have to
say that that line probably is thelast uh as sort of the last thing
in that scene was probably written thatway. You know, it's funny with
the Morning Show Gary, which Ithink is a part of the state of
television today, which is so manypeople have come up to me in the
(38:30):
last year and say I love youon the Morning Show. I shot that
five years ago, I know.And it's and and what's amazing is that
it's a great thing in the sensethat a lot of great shows are being
made and people are watching it,but it takes them a second to find
it. And you know, twoshows that I've been involved with, Uh,
(38:52):
we're just resurrected from the dead.You know, Heels, which is
show about wrestling, but it's reallya family drama in the vein of Friday
Night Lights. That's going to goon Netflix that we did two seasons of
that. I was the showrunner onthat, which means I did a lot
of the writing and the producing andI am also acting in it. You
referenced that that's going to go onNetflix in September. I'm really excited.
(39:16):
Yeah, we'll look forward to that. I'm sorry, I'm up against it.
Budh Yeah wait, wait, Trummonis in the in the DT Copter
Gulf Extended FA Extended, Famly ExtendedFA NBC Michael Man, I ain't the best
It's Night Side with Dan Ray.I'm w Besy Coustin's news radio. When
you're on your first day, tryingto say as little as possible. This
guy behind me, you can't stoptalking about himself. Jack's gonna get his
ass handed to him. You wantto come after him. You know where
he is. I'm not coming afterhim. I'm already here. That's a
(00:23):
don't worry about it. I wasn'there to cover Dad's mouth when he said
that moss Wiler shifty little dodger.I can't wait to slap him with this
she's doing. Okay, that's great, Okay, thank you. Can I
get that? Can I get thatpicture with her? Mary Charles, not
the last days of It's a Cannesota, not an orgy. If it were
(00:44):
an orgy machine, I would paythe fifty cent. But it's just like
the older you get, you justsee it. Just none of it lasts.
Okay, you still have your dog. I think they're going to start
the game probably right after you saythe play balls. They're not dolls,
(01:06):
they're sports figurines. And I justwant to get that straight and around for
all my friends from the UAW.Really, no, if you were a
fan of yours. Here you rememberthis game song? And what's this show?
To put Michael Maley on the map? I mean the map map.
(01:26):
This was a big deal. Thiswas CBS or was it the wreck?
For us puckheadge it was probably thewreck. But with us right now is
Michael Mallley one of the great guysthat show business. And what we're going
to do is we're going to talkabout Mike's career because I think that it's
underrated, it's untold, and it'sfascinating. You guys know if you listen
to this show, I geek outon this stuff. But behind the camera,
(01:48):
in the writer's room and also infront of the camera, He's been
involved in one hundred and twenty onetitles. Michael Malley joins us from La
Mike Hawaria, Gary, my friend. It's great to talk to you,
but I have to say, firstoff, thank you for the introduction,
and thank you for whoever put togetherthat clip package. I feel like I'm
on you know, this is yourlife, but I'm intrigued about the full
(02:12):
body stink package that Mando. Isthis the what your you're one of your
sponsors? This is I was listeningto the ad as I was, I
was waiting to come on, andI I didn't know that there was a
full body theodorant for body. Youknow, like most people, I just
uh, you know, I putsomething underneath my arms. But apparently there's
(02:36):
a whole movement where this is uh, your whole body after you wash,
it needs to be deodorized. ToMike, we can send you some you
know, some free gifts, somefree parting use if you'd like. Yes,
well, my wife would be happyand my kids would be happy.
They don't let me put my armaround them anymore, and I can maybe
maybe it's because I don't have mando. But the problem, but the great
(02:57):
thing, Mike is about when youget to our age, we don't We
just don't care. No, wedon't care, do We just no?
Because our bodies are decomposing and theyjust slowly rotting away and there's nothing we
can do about it. And ourfamily should just be happy that we're still
alive. But what a thrill forme to be talking to you Gary on
wb Z, which I've of coursebeen listening to uh since I was a
(03:23):
kid growing up in Nashal, NewHampshire. I was born in in Boston.
My mom's from Belmont, my dad'sfrom Newton, and we grew up
in I grew up in Nashvilla.And the big celebrity who would come to
church on Sunday mornings for the folkmaths at Saint Christopher's was Guy Manilla.
(03:44):
Wow, and man when Guy Manillaused to show up everyoney like, hey,
that's Guy Manilla from calling all sports. There he is and uh,
I actually went to u n H, the University of Hampshire with his daughters
who are friends. And uh.But of course Maynard, Guy Manila,
Joe Green and the copter. It'sgreat to be talking to you tonight.
(04:04):
Yeah, it's a legendary radio station. I agree with you. I absolutely
agree with you, and we willget to Survivors Remorse. But you mentioned
you and H, and I reallyenjoyed the fact that that star basketball player
came out of you and H.That wasn't a stretch, That wasn't writer's
liberty at all. But maybe Iwas the only one that noticed it.
But I loved it. But Mike, I just think, and you know
(04:25):
me, Mike, I mean,people know when I do this show,
I love to talk about movies.I love to talk about acting. I
just find it fascinating. And youknow, you've done so much of it
in so many different ways. Andthe shows that I love that you've done
are a little off the beaten path, and I want to explore those two.
But I want to start with thisfirst one. Rob Let's roll.
Cut to the Mike O'Malley show roller, Rob, if you can when you're
(04:47):
on your first date. I'm tryingto say as little as possible. This
guy behind me can't stop talking abouthimself. He's a guy. I like
to call it the blah blah guy. He's like my workouts blah blah.
I look at my doctoral muscles blahblah, got a great ir blah blah.
Let me give you a stock chapblah blah blah blah. So Mike,
(05:09):
how old were you and how didthat happen? Well? I had,
I had, You know, mycareer really started in show business.
I had moved to New York afterI graduated from U n H in nineteen
eighty eight. I moved right downto New York and I started studying acting.
And then you know I was Iwould get cast in commercials and that
(05:30):
would pay the bills. But thenI got a job hosting a show on
Nickelodeon, which up to you knownow is a much more well known brand.
But back then, you know,adults didn't know it so much unless
you had kids. And I wasI was cast as a host of a
you know, a Jeopardy like concentrationfor those of your listeners who remember that,
(05:51):
that was an old, you know, a show we had to guess
like what the picture was, andthis was a show for kids, And
so I went, I got cappedin that, and I went down.
I did. I did one hundredand how many episodes to be doing that,
we must have done seventy five episodes. I think I was paid two
hundred and fifty dollars an episode.We'd shoot four in a day. Wow.
(06:11):
But that was on Nickelodeon. Kindof get my foot in the door.
And then I got cast in anothershow, hosting a show on Nickelodeon
called Nickelodeon Guts, which was likean action sports show for kids, kind
of like American Gladiators. Well you'relike twenty three then, like twenty two,
twenty three, yeah, I was, I was. I think it
was twenty three years Yeah, Iwas I just got out of school,
so it was ninety one, andso as a result of that, I
(06:36):
had a little bit of money inmy pocket, not a lot, because
it was you know, as Isaid, kids cable TV, but some
of you know, what was greatabout Nickelodeon at that time is that there
was a lot of young people thereproducing shows who were also trying to get
into show business and do other things. As a result of that, I
started writing I know you're a writertoo, a very good writer, and
(06:58):
I just was trying to get mystuff on. And so some friends and
I put on a play that Iwrote. It was called Three Years from
thirty, uh, and it wasjust about that time in your life where
you know, sort of you're you'reyou're leaving kind of the some of the
shenanigans of post college life behind.Some of your friends are making it,
some other people are having some strugglefiguring out what they're going to do next.
(07:20):
And really, I think it's certainlyin this country. Uh, it's
a time where you can have somewhatof a post collegiate uh. I don't
want to say adolescents, but justfun where you're focused on on, you
know, exploring some different ideas aboutwhat you want to do for work.
But then you get to be twentyseven to twenty eight, you better figure
(07:41):
out how you're going to pay thebills if you want to be somebody who
wants to settle down and have afamily, which is what I wanted to
do. And so as a resultof that, I wrote a play.
The play got published, and Ithen got cast. I got cast in
a pilot for David Letterman. Youknow, toelevision pilot for your listeners who
(08:01):
don't know, is sort of likea rough run at what a television show
could be. Sometimes they go onto be series, sometimes they don't.
This one did not get picked up, and for example, Everybody Loves Raymond
was a Letterman production, correct,and that went on to make everyone wildly
rich and successful. That is notwhat happened to me. But I did
(08:24):
get cast in another show for NBCcalled Life with Roger. I played a
character from Roger who was actually fromSouth Boston. That NBC. This is
in the height of mussy TV.It did not get picked up by NBC,
but there was an upstart network calledthe WB which later turned in to
the CW, and I got castin that show. We did twenty episodes,
(08:48):
and then I kind of had myfoot in the door in Los Angeles
because the Nickelodeon stuff was out ofNew York and it was shot in Orlando.
And then once I got and Iwas a host. Once you got
cast as a part, you're anchoringa sitcom. You know, whether or
not people watched it or not,you are cutting your teeth, You're getting
experience. And I think one ofthe things that took me a long time
(09:11):
to learn in show business, butI now when I look back on it,
is that you know, so manypeople are trying, you know,
they wake up every day trying tomake a great movie, trying to make
a great TV show, and thefailure rate is just, you know,
massive, and so people inside ofthe business who are trying to get stuff
going, they don't look upon thosefailures the same way as maybe people on
(09:33):
the outside do, or even howyou might look at it when you know
you're going through it, because everyoneis out there trying to make stuff work
and trying to command attention and getstuff done. So, you know,
as a result of that, Igot a deal to develop a pilot.
I wrote a pilot with Sam Simonwho was famously one of the co creators
(09:54):
of The Simpsons. That was anotherpilot that didn't go that was for Fox.
As a result of that, Igot to another deal for NBC to
write my own show, which wasThe Michael Mallee Show, and that got
picked up, but it only lastedtwo episodes. We made six, but
it got canceled after the second one. But the Michael Malllee Show, and
(10:16):
I went back and I looked atit because I did not recall, but
the fact that you had the nameon the show, whether it lasted or
not, that must have been ahuge break. Well, it's a huge
break. It's funny, Gary.You know, of course you're thinking to
yourself because you know all the stepsyou've taken. And by the time the
Michael Maley Show had come about,I was I think I was thirty two
(10:37):
when I made that deal, andso you know, you've you've gone through,
you know, ten eleven years inshow business and you've you know,
you've taken all these steps. Butpeople didn't know who I was. Now,
of course, a lot of peopledidn't know who many people were who
go on and have a show namedafter them, you know. The good
thing is that if it takes off, Hey, that's your and you're you
(11:00):
know, I don't want to sayyou're set, but you're you're well known,
you're established. If it doesn't dowell, then then you've attached your
name to a show that hasn't donewell, and then people are like,
well, you know, it hurtsa little bit more so if you're on
a show that gets canceled and it'snot your name, it's just some show
that nobody watched. You care aboutit, but not knowing really it's hit
(11:24):
a blip on the radar. Itone hundred percent made people aware of who
I was because you're getting promoted duringyou know, NBA finals and all that.
And as I said, this isback in the time when there was
only six networks that were making youknow, six broadcasts networks that are making
TV. There wasn't HBO hadn't exploded, Cable television had exploded. With original
(11:46):
television, of course, there's nostreaming. So to be on a show
that was one of the shows thatgot picked up, in one way,
it was great because you had youwould run that gauntlet and you had survived.
In another way, it's challenging becausethere's all these other people who are
trying to make shows, and they'relike, wait a minute, this thing
got picked up and said a thingI was working on, and so you
(12:09):
couldn't just you couldn't perform, youknow, sort of off to the side
and get your sea legs. Youyou're just out there and people are either
watching it or not. And thecompetition was fierce. So you get your
first crack really at thirty two,and that's how long it takes. Ten
years. Yeah, well, Imean my first crack at a really big,
(12:30):
big job, you know, likeI said, I was. I
was, you know, working forNickelodeon and those shows you know, were
successful for them. But you know, it's not the kind of money that
you can retire on. It's noteven the kind of money that you know,
can you know, once that job'sdone, you have to find your
next one. You know. Youcould obviously get through the year, but
it wasn't it wasn't leading to becauseI didn't want to ultimately be a host.
(12:54):
You know. It's interesting what Iwas doing yesteryear, which came six
months after The Michael Maley Show gotcanceled. That was a sitcom that was
on CBS and It ran for sixyears, and it's a show that you
know, much of the audience knowsme from because it was on that Monday
night CBS Lineup with King Queen.I mean, Mike, it was big.
(13:15):
I mean, heck, you guysare at the super Bowl. Yeah,
well you were in the super Bowl. Yeah. It's probably just because
Ray Romano and Kevin James didn't wantto be there. But no, I
mean, I'm not downplaying It wasa very successful show. Was written by
a really talented guy, Greg Garcia, who's created you know my Name is
Earl, and Raising Hope and othershows like The Guest Book that all have
(13:39):
done extremely well. It went intosyndication, it was on Nicket Night.
It was a it was a bigsuccess. And but I had, during
that time, had it been offeredto host the syndicated version of Who Wants
to Be a Millionaire? And youknow, in retrospect, I probably shouldn't
have taken it, but I didn'twant to. I just didn't want to
do the hosting thing anymore. Ijust wanted to be an actor and a
(14:03):
writer. Well, you have tomake a decision sometimes because if you are
hosting the syndicated version of who wantsto be a millionaire. Sure you would
have made more money, but itwould have taken your attention off the fastball
with what you really wanted to do. Mike, we have to take a
break. Coming up next the firstrole. When I recognized how great Michael
Maalley was. That's next on WBZ. Now back to Dan Ray Mine from
(14:28):
the Window World, Light Side Studioson WBZ News Radio, very tagway for
Dan rag talking about Michael O'Malley,the pride of Nashville. We have sh
and of course is that great thingsin Hollywood and film and television in front
of the camera, behind the camera. One hundred and twenty one titles,
and we are going through his careerbecause I don't think this guy's got his
due. And we talked about theearly days and now we're going to move
on a little bit. And thisis when I knew who Michael Malley was,
(14:54):
and so did the rest of thesports world. This is the rick.
But everybody calls me direct. Theseare my sports figurines. You know
something, A lot of people callthese dolls. They're not dolls. They're
sports figurines. And I just wantto get that straight. Okay, they're
not toys, and they're not dolls, they're figurines. Hey, Curtis,
(15:22):
it's Curtis Martin Patriots. Okay,Mike, how did this happen? Well,
I'll tell you. So those spotswere directed by Christopher Guests, famously
from you know, all of hismovies like a Mighty Wind and Jami's Husband.
Yes, exactly, and uh,you know, was you know,
(15:45):
drawing a blank now, the famousoh Spot, the Spinal Tap he was
in and Saturday Night Live. It'sjust an amazing director of those improvisational you
know movies, and he was directing, uh these and this was a campaign
that was created by a ad agencyowned by Court Crandall, who's from Winchester,
(16:08):
mass and lived two doors down forme in Hunter Hall at the University
of New Hampshire. He'd gone onto have a big advertising career in California,
and he and another guy, SteveO'Brien, they created this character and
this was this was in ninety eight, so this is right before I had
I had my own television show.And so I say, I think that
(16:30):
also helped, you know, ingetting me the deal, because these spots
were very popular and they were tryingto show a fan who was you know,
crazy and fanatical about you know,sports memorabilia, and how he would
say, you know, Bobby Orrwas walking through Volgan Airport and ate a
hot dog and he put the platedown in a napkin. He put it
(16:52):
in a piece of you know,he put it in the trash. This
guy, the Rick would go andtake the napkin out, put it in
a plastic bag and say, youknow this is this is Gaston Bobby or
DNA. I might be able toclone it. You don't know where you
know, medical technology is going,but you know, we could maybe clone
in twenty five years. You know, a bunch of different Bobby Ors Bruins
(17:15):
could have a whole you know teamof Bobby Ors and it would just you
know, the sports connects so emotionallywith people we have. You know,
I obviously grew up as a massiveBoston sports fan, Red Sox Patriots,
you know, and they and theywould just break your heart so oft and
obviously the Celtics and the Bruin lessBruins less so but and so I really,
(17:37):
you know what I love about sportsis just how it connects friends and
family and a community and a cityand a town and an area. And
I can tell you living out herein Los Angeles, where I've raised my
children to be New England sports fans. It's when you see somebody from out
here who's wearing a Sox hat ora Patriots jersey or a Celtics hat Bruins
jersey, it makes you feel likeyou're at home, and it really,
(18:02):
you know, connects people. AndI think that they were just trying to
show, not that all sports fanswere face painters and screamers, although you
know there's nothing wrong with that either. They just wanted to show the specificity
with which people are always trying toconnect with the sports teams that mean so
much to them. Well, plusthe humor is he's a little psycho.
(18:23):
I mean, it's brilliant. Youknow how much was that lib Well,
I mean a lot of it wasthat libbed and improvised, because that was
that was Christopher Guest. That's whathe'll have you talking for. At that
time, they were shooting it onfilm, and the film I think it
(18:44):
was like sixteen millimeter. You'd have, you know, a reel that would
last about twelve minutes, and sohe would just call action and Steve O'Brien,
the ad guy who had come upwith the character with Court. They
had decorated that room with all thisstuff, so they would just like walk
around, walk around and talk aboutthe stuff. I will I will actually
(19:04):
send you, I will send youa compilation of some of the outtakes and
some of the stuff that we do. But you know, they would just
put stuff all in the room andthen you just say, walk around and
walk around and pick it up andtalk about it. And there was one
of those like, uh, youknow, one of those ones that wasn't
scripted. It was like one ofthose ice cream little little mini helmets that
(19:25):
you get ice cream in, andthey was right. It was a Red
Sox one and and then I pickedit up and I would just you know,
I was like, I think there'sa little ice cream still lifting this
and it's like every and then Isaid, every year, I'd buy a
Yankees one. I smash it.And so it was just like that was
the kind of stuff where his opinion, Chris guests and I think that's what's
(19:47):
made him so successful at this isthat, you know, if you're really
trying to sell the joke, thenyou know, sometimes he can get tired.
But if you're doing something where youdon't you yourself were just commenting in
the character's voice on what's around him. Yeah, there's gonna be a lot
of junk that that doesn't turn intoa spot. But you're also gonna,
(20:10):
you know, you're gonna necessarily,you know, you're gonna trip over some
stuff that that's really gonna be.You wouldn't even have thought about it yourself.
But that was all due to hisyou know how they had set up
the character in that room. Therewas just so many things to talk about.
Well, I mean, spinal tapwas pretty much an outline, right,
I mean all of his movies areoutlines, yes, exactly. And
(20:30):
and you know, he had actuallylater on cast me in one of the
movies that I couldn't do because Iwas doing you know, I was doing
Survivor's Remorse, which was which reallybummed me out because I just love working
with him. He's he's just sogreat. And at one point he introduced
me as a as a great improviserto a friend of his, and to
hear that from him is like,wow, yes, that's like you know,
(20:51):
uh, you know, to me, Shakespeare introducing you as a great
actor. Yeah. I mean he'shung out with some pretty heavy duty people,
as we know, anybody who's inthat group, which obviously you are,
you know, whether it's Katherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy and so forth.
Yeah, and Fred Willard and JaneLynch and all those guys, Don Lake.
I mean, just all of thosemovies are hilarious. Do people still
(21:14):
recognize you as the Rick? Ohyeah, one hundred percent, you know,
especially guys. You know, it'svery funny of the different things that
I've done. You can kind oftell when somebody comes up to you what
they've watched, what they like.You know. You know, if if
you have some you know, youngerteenage girls, it's because they saw me
on Glee. If if it's likedudes that you see at the Red Sox
(21:37):
game, it's the Rick, orit's Yesteryear. Uh. You know,
some people will surprise you with Justified, where I played a gangster on that
show. And so it's it's alwaysinteresting the different people that come up to
you. You know a lot ofpeople now who are grown come up to
me and had watched me on Nickelodeon, and uh, it's funny. It's
it's it's always funny. But that'sa great thing about being at is that
(22:00):
the more jobs that you have andthe more things that you do, you
really get to reach everyone. Andthat's one of the thrills about it.
Do you think one of the reasonsyou've been you've been successful is because,
as far as I could tell andthe people that I've talked with, you
have never once been a jerk.U. Yeah, I mean, well,
(22:22):
I mean I can't say that I'venever been a jerk in my life.
I'm sure there's somebody who's well,Mike, let me say this is
your talented obviously, but when Ihad the pleasure of meeting you and Vic
out of your office, I wastalking to one of your writers, who
was actually from Massachusetts after you left, and I said, you know,
what's I like working with Mike.He goes, He's Mike from New Hampshire.
You've just been Mike from New Hampshire. And I credit your parents,
(22:45):
but you have been Mike from NewHampshire from day one and you have not
changed. Yeah. Well, Ithank you for noticing that. I do
think it has a lot to dowith my parents and the people that I
grew up with and around who supportedme. I also think that, you
know, when you have success andthen you have something like a show that
fails, you know quickly. Imean for me, you know, I
(23:07):
had that show and it got canceledand it wasn't like I had some Broadway
career to go back to, orI didn't have a movie career. I
even though some people think that I'ma stand up comedian, I had,
you know, I had gabbled inopen mic nights early on when I was
trying to kind of shake the I'ma kid's game show host thing. You
know, it's kind of easy togo into acting as a host if people
(23:30):
think that you as a comedian.But I never. I never. I
immediately started to get acting work,so I never, you know, went
to stand up route. So whenyou have then a failure like that,
then you're very quickly reminded about what'simportant because you see it. You know,
everyone's oh, this is great whenyou oh you got a show,
(23:52):
you know, the year gonna yeargone NBC. And you know what's funny
is that a lot of people sayto you, hey, don't you know,
don't don't forget where you came fromdon't don't forget, and and that's
you know, that's obviously it's something. What they're saying to you is that
they've heard a lot of stories orseen a lot of stories about people who
have gone on to Hollywood or anywhereand had success, and then they've you
know, forgotten what got them there. I think that, you know,
(24:15):
I it was actually it's funny yousay this, Gary, because I was
thinking about this today. I youknow, I had great family. I
have great, great brothers and sistersthat I've had great friends my whole life,
and they all supported me when Iwas writing plays down in New York.
People from you and h and Nashua, they come down and see my
plays and we're all very very supportive, and you know, I just I'm
(24:37):
very lucky. I had, youknow, loving parents and loving you know,
grandparents and an extended family. Andso I don't think that I was
searching necessarily for an identity or approvalany more than the average person was through
show business. I liked doing it. I had fun doing it. I
Mean, one of the reasons Ibecame an actor is because I I wasn't
(25:00):
playing sports anymore. I really wantto be the center fielder for the Boston
Red Sox. But you know thatwasn't gonna happen, and so then you've
got then you gotta find out somethingto do, which is why I've got
an acting because you know, it'sjust like, you know what it's like
if you're you know, if you'rea star athlete in high school, then
you certainly get a lot of attentionand uh, you know, girls certainly
(25:21):
pay attention to you. Well,what better way if that's not happening then
to get on an elevated stage wherethe lights are to go down in the
in the room and the and thelight is pointed at you and you get
to be funny and you get tohave fun and people are laughing and applauding
you, and so listen, itwas all just it's all just about meeting
girls, Garry. That's all aboutThat's what they all say, right,
(25:42):
It's all about meeting girls. That'swhat That's what everybody The reason I took
an acting classes because I wanted tomeet girls. But I'm glad you tell
that story because what I try totell people is, you know, not
everybody in Hollywood's a train wreck.Yeah, well, I mean and you
know what, they really there reallyaren't. I mean, there's just a
lot of people out here who arefrom places like Nashua, who you know,
(26:03):
just want to do this business.And you know, I was lucky
because I had, you know,support and great friends. I mean,
you also have to have to succeedin this business. You have to have
people, agents, casting people,other people who believe in you and also
are good people, right and whoyou know, And I've been very lucky
(26:25):
in that sense. I've had,you know, a great manager Mike Nylon,
and a great agent Joe Cohen,you know, in particular, who
I have been with since I firstgot out here. And they have,
you know, they have to puttheir reputation on the line. They have
to say, hey, listen,you should really see this guy when you're
first starting out, or you'd reallylike this person. He's somebody that you
can rely on. And so manyof you know, the relationships that I've
(26:51):
had, it's because somebody else,like Joe or Mike has called them up
and said, you know, you'reyou're really gonna like this guy and you're
going to get along with him,and he's going to be somebody that you
can rely on. Now then youhave to go and deliver. But that's
what a good agent does. Theyset you up to succeed. And I've
been lucky in that sense too.But I must say that I again,
(27:14):
my parents have so much to dowith why I've succeeded, because they really
did love me unconditionally. I didnot give them a you know, a
lot to not love. I wasn'ta bad kid. I wasn't somebody who
got in a lot of trouble.But it's not you know, I think
there's a lot of people who arewho they take the wrong path because they
(27:37):
don't know, you know, whatit's like. You know, they just
haven't been loved and so they're seekingit out in a different way. And
so I know that sounds sort ofelementary, but it's it is very true.
Well it's absolutely true because I rememberI took my first first acting class
in ports withth New Hampshire a hundredyears ago when I was doing morning radio
(27:59):
and Rogerson, the instructor, said, you're all here because of love.
And you know, there's there's there'ssomething when you act. I mean,
I love it, I just absolutelylove it, and there's something when you
do it. It just fills youup, and you can do that with
integrity, which you've done. Mike. We have to take a break.
I want to talk about your groundbreakingrole on Glee. I tell some people
(28:23):
coming up the actually I got MichaelMalley coming on tonight. They all pointed
to Glee. That was huge fora lot of people. That's next on
WBZ It's Night Side with Boston's NewsRadio. Do you realize that we haven't
had our Friday night dinner for threeweeks? You've been in DC. You
think I couldn't get in an earlierflight. Mostly the other congressmen are gone
(28:45):
on Thursday night. Okay, Idon't get it. So why have you
been skipping dinner? Because I don'twant you to go? Now, you
and me, we've been doing thisdance for over a decade, and Al
Starsky and Gay Hutch everybody warned methat when you were eight and you were
(29:06):
bugging the crap out of me,that one day I'd be begging for you
to wake me up at four amwith a nightmare, or you know,
rex your kitchen playing a restaurant.I was nine, Who knew was going
to be so complicated? So you'vebeen skipping dinners because you're sad there's not
going to be any more dinners.I'm confused. Oh you don't get it
(29:27):
yet, you know. I knowyou got a taste of it when you
lost your mom. But it's justlike the older you get, you just
see it. Just none of itlasts. Ah, Man, Mike you
break. I mean, my god, if anybody watch that with a dry
eye, they don't have a pulse. Michael Mally choics this here. That
is who's the role this bird homealong Lee, the father of Kurt,
(29:47):
played by the very talented Chris Coffer. What did that part mean to you?
Oh? Man, I mean thatthat that role which is written by
Ian Brennan and Ryan Murphy and BradFalchek Bratt, the Boston guy. I
had met them because I had donea pilot that didn't go the year prior,
and they just called me up andthey said, would you like to
(30:11):
be would you like to play thispart? That was gosh, I want
to say. It was like twothousand and nine. And what's interesting is,
you know they they wrote a greatpart, and I was on a
show that a lot of people werewatching and had a lot of critical attention.
(30:33):
And so I got an Emmy nominationbecause of that, and as a
result of that, I ended upbecoming a series regular on that show.
And it also led to you know, clearly, you know, when you
get an Emmy nomination, it's yourpeers who were I did not win the
Emmy. Neil Patrick Harris won theEmmy. And but just to you know,
(30:56):
it's true, it's just to getnominated, especially as a guest actor.
You know, they're signaling, singlingout your work amongst a lot of
different people. And so the starsreally aligned in that part. It allowed
me to get you know, therewas some humor in the role, but
it allowed me to play a dramaticrole, which is something that I had
(31:18):
done a little bit of. Ialways wanted to do more of it.
It's one of the reasons I didn'ttake another sitcom right after Yesteryear. But
that really opened up opportunities for meand to a whole new audience who didn't
you know, didn't maybe watch Yesteryear, didn't know the Rick, didn't know
the game shows. You know,to them, I was the guy who
was on this dramatic show playing thisdad of a kid who you know,
(31:45):
it was really groundbreaking. I mean, this is now fifteen years ago,
where you know, this young manwas struggling with his identity and I was
playing a somewhat stereotypical you know,dude, you know father from Can I
stop you there for a minute,because I want to give you a little
more credit than that. I don'tthink I understand what you're saying. I
(32:07):
don't think it was stereotypical. Oneof the great things I think you do
as an actor, and we sawit on Heels with Charlie Gully and people
should watch Heels, by the way, which is another great show that Mike
has done, is that you willchange your appearance or the persona of the
actor or of the character is differentfrom what you've played, but you use
your instrument the same. You didn'tchange your voice. You didn't all of
(32:30):
a sudden become a tough guy.Okay, so I thought. And you
did the same thing with Gully.I mean with Gully, you came in
and you used your own voice.You just had a different look, but
you use your instrument as the same. And I'm sorry for this all geeky
acting talk, folks, but youknow, don't apologize. I love it.
Gary I'm with your kid, I'mwith you. But you know,
like Gully Gully, somebody maybe wouldhave done a stupid accent or put on
(32:52):
it, and you did and yousold it, you know. And the
same thing with Glee is but youweren't the You walked a fine line mic
and it's so damn hard. It'slike that character could have been a caricature.
It could have been too far inmasculinity. Uh, it could have
(33:13):
been too far in being sympathetic.You played it right down the middle man,
and I think you were walking atight rope the whole way. Well,
thank you. You know a lotof the actors that I really admire,
whether it's Jimmy Stewart or Henry Fondaor you know, Tom Hanks,
Spencer Tracy, you know these guys, you know, they bring the essence
(33:36):
of themselves to their role. Thethe acting teacher who whose method I did
not work under this acting teacher.I worked under people who had been you
know, taught by him and taughtby you know, his method as a
guy by the name is Sandy Meiser. And way back in the group theater
days during the Depression in New YorkCity, where you know, on school
(34:00):
of acting that came out of thatwas the act method acting, and another
was was Sandy Meiser's style of acting, which was, you know, the
character is just you in the imaginarycircumstances of the character. And I think
that, you know, I alsothink that there are look everyone would love
(34:21):
to be like Sean Panner, MerylStreet or Daniel day Lewis. I mean,
you know, the reason why,especially when it's somebody like Daniel day
Lewis or Meryl Street that they youknow, every you see at the Oscars,
every single person gives them a standingovation when they win, is because
every actor wants to be as greatas those actors are. But you know,
not everyone has the technique, thetalent, the range to be able
(34:44):
to do that. Yeah, well, I mean yes, I mean that
is true. That the opportunity,you know, one of the things that
you find of very quickly in Hollywoodwhen you're first starting to to get work
is that if they need a guywho's got you know, a mole on
his left cheek and you know,walks with you know, with bow legs,
they're going to find that guy.You know, they don't necessarily have
(35:05):
to find a guy who acts likethat. And I think sometimes the you
know, overacting because you as anactor are bored that you're trying to do
something different to challenge yourself or interestyourself. Sometimes that can be distracting to
people. You know. One ofthe things I loved about George Clooney when
he did that great movie Perfect Storm, is that he didn't do the Boston
accent. Why well, he's ina movie with a bunch of people who
(35:29):
already know how you know, weall know when we're from the area that
people just talk like that. Youknow, they're not like you know,
it just comes out very freely inhow they're talking. They're not putting on
something. They don't even know thatthey're speaking with an accent until they go
somewhere and people don't understand what they'resaying. Right. You know, I
(35:50):
still have, you know, remnantsof it when I say to my kids,
like, go ask your mother.He's like, your mother, go
to your room. You go toyour room. You know, we're in
a hurry, you know, orI'm so tired, you know, really
get tired. So you know,it's it's so you just try to do
whatever you can to be in themoment and let the story do the work.
(36:15):
And I think sometimes all of thetechnical you know, pyrotechnics, I
should say, of acting, whenpeople are you know, trying to do
a little bit too much, itcan distract because it's calling attention to the
behavior and taking the story away fromthe characters and putting the attention on being
(36:36):
the visual actor, you know,doing a turn. And I think sometimes
that's called for and other times itisn't. Michael Malley is a guest.
Certainly not enough time. We haveto take a break. He's going to
come back from one segment and Iam going to play a cut. That
is my favorite Michael Mallley performance,my favorite. Coming up next on wb
(36:57):
Z, we go back to DanRay live from the Window World Nightside Studios.
I'm WBZ News Radio. We onlyhave a few minutes left with the
great Michael Maley. This is myfavorite Michael Malley line. It is from
The Morning Show, The Morning Showfor the past fifteen years, through every
major emergency, and I'm a hugefan. I watch your daughter grow up
(37:21):
on the show's great thank you.She's quite the grown woman these days.
Color me an empty nester, youknow, so, Tim, this is
an incredible act of heroism. Howmany dogs have you rescued? All together?
Now? At eighteen and two?Kiss she's doing, Okay, that's
great, Okay, thank you?Can I get that? Can I get
(37:44):
that picture with her? Or killsme every time? Can I get that
picture with her? After she hasa nervous breakdown on TV? Was that
line i'd lived? I don't recall. I mean, that's a really well
written show, so I probably itprobably was in there. I have listened.
If people let me add lib,I will add lib. But I
(38:05):
mean I listen, I don't.I don't know. I would have to
say that that line probably is thelast uh as sort of the last thing
in that scene was probably written thatway. You know, it's funny with
the Morning Show Gary, which Ithink is a part of the state of
television today, which is so manypeople have come up to me in the
(38:30):
last year and say I love youon the Morning Show. I shot that
five years ago, I know.And it's and and what's amazing is that
it's a great thing in the sensethat a lot of great shows are being
made and people are watching it,but it takes them a second to find
it. And you know, twoshows that I've been involved with, Uh,
(38:52):
we're just resurrected from the dead.You know, Heels, which is
show about wrestling, but it's reallya family drama in the vein of Friday
Night Lights. That's going to goon Netflix that we did two seasons of
that. I was the showrunner onthat, which means I did a lot
of the writing and the producing andI am also acting in it. You
referenced that that's going to go onNetflix in September. I'm really excited.
(39:16):
Yeah, we'll look forward to that. I'm sorry, I'm up against it.
Budh Yeah wait, wait, Trummonis in the in the DT Copter
Gulf Extended FA Extended, Famly ExtendedFA NBC Michael Man, I ain't the best
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