July 23, 2025 • 56 mins
TV icon Donny Most joins Raymond for a deep dive into the magic of classic television—from his breakout role as Ralph Malph on Happy Days to the cultural glue that shows like All in the Family, MASH*, and The Carol Burnett Showprovided. Donny reflects on why those series resonated so deeply with audiences across generations, and how the shift to live-audience tapings helped turn Happy Days into a runaway hit. He also shares the unexpected story behind his catchphrase “I still got it” and how it made its way from a backstage joke to a national mantra.
Raymond explores what today’s TV has lost in the process—especially when it comes to late-night. As CBS shutters The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Raymond looks back at Johnny Carson’s enduring appeal, the brilliance of reactive comedy, and why political posturing has turned late-night into a dying format. With genuine laughs and unscripted moments largely gone, is there any saving the genre?
Donny also opens up about life after Happy Days—his challenges breaking free from typecasting, his work with legends like Angela Lansbury and Robin Williams, and his leap into the world of jazz. Now a touring vocalist with two albums under his belt, Donny explains why the Great American Songbook still speaks to the heart, and how his passion for music began long before his acting career ever took off.
It’s a wide-ranging and heartfelt conversation about fame, reinvention, and what America really wants from its entertainers. Whether you're a fan of vintage TV, timeless music, or just a good story well told—this is one you won’t want to miss.
🔔 Subscribe for more inspiring conversations: Arroyo Grande, available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, and everywhere you listen, watch & stream.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Did you ever wonder why classic TV worked? And why
things are falling apart?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Today?
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Star of Happy Days, Donnie Most is here with his
thoughts and is late night going away? And is it justified?
I'll get into all of it on this edition of
The Arroyo Grande Show. Come on, I'm Raymond Arroyo. Welcome
(00:28):
to Arroyo Grande. Go subscribe to the show. Now turn
those notifications on. You will be so happy you did
in the weeks a hit. Let's start with a culture counter.
You gen zers don't know what you missed. There was
a time when we would all gather around the TV,
the whole family would watch a sitcom or certain personalities,
and they really became part of our families. It's what
(00:50):
people talked about at school to work the next day.
This was common ground that we all shared as a people,
a common experience, no matter your beliefs, where you came from.
It was a touchstone that brought us together. And I
mourned the passing in some ways of all of that.
I think we were better when we had that common
frame of reference, when we were watching a few of
(01:12):
the same things, the Carol Burnet Show, All in the Family,
Dallas Happy Days, which my guest Donnie Most starred in,
and of course The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Carson
was the king of Late Night for a very good reason,
which I'll get to in a moment. But now CBS's
Late Show with Stephen Colbert has been canceled by their
(01:34):
parent company, and my guess is the rest of Late
Night will soon follow. They say it's a financial decision,
and I believe them. The Late Show cost CBS one
hundred million dollars a year to produce one hundred million dollars,
and the network was losing forty to fifty million annually.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
According to something I read in The New.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
York Post, it's just not feasible to keep that kind
of bleed going. But there's another reality at play here.
The financial situation was directly tied to the show content. Colbert,
like Jimmy Kimmel, shattered the format that made Late Night go.
They turned a joyous entertainment into a nightly political harangue.
(02:17):
I'm the first to admit Late Night is a relic
of the nineteen fifties. Steve Allen and Jack Parr and
later Carson created this escapist format, and it was a
defined format, and it worked for a reason. Carson had
ten million people watching that show nightly, at times as
high as twenty million viewers a night. Part of it
(02:39):
was his cool demeanor and his in the moment what
he called reactive comedy style. It was humor that included
the audience. Look at this clip from the nineteen seventies
when Carson realized his sidekick Ed McMahon might be loaded
and not with cash.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Now, as you know, the San Diego Zoo is one
of the finest zoos in the world. In we've had
this young lady on the show very often in the past.
I guess seven or eight years. She's been appearing with.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Us nine years, but nine years.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Right, yeah, several plus several will be about nine.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
He said seven or eight.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
I said no, I didn't say seven or eight. I
said several. Then you said seven or eight, and I
said that's nine nine nine.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Good, thank you.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Some of the animals, some of the animals you had
as babies are now ten years old.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
That would be about right. Anyway.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
John Embry is here tonight and she's now thirty two.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Right.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Joan is an animal handler and a trainer, And you
really think you're fooling everybody.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
And she also best to help him. I know that.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
And she does her three horse shows a day. Did
you know that at the animal park? What an exciting idea?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Would you like? An army cutter or something?
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Maybe in gotta catch up on a little nappy poo.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Just my fatty right out of it. Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I love Joan.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
I'm the only one that went down to see jo
dog has never seen her.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
You've never seen her. I went to the wild animals.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
There was stanuine laughter, right, they were actually in a
human moment together.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
That wasn't scripted.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
He was really reacting to Ed McMahon and that happened
every night, even when the jokes didn't work. In fact,
the scripted parts of the show were often the worst parts.
The Carson Show was engaging and consistently entertaining, and let's
be honest, Today's Late Night has none of that. Carson
had a Karnak bit he did, which was corny, but
(04:50):
it was also hilarious. He played a soothsayer from the
East who could answer questions before he saw them.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Watch having trouble divining this week, Yeah, Sis Boomba.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Sis Boombaugh.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Described the sound made when a sheep explodes.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
That was back when laughs were real and politics were
for conventions. When David Letterman and Jay Leno took the
mantle of late night in the nineties, they kept the
comedy going and the silly characters and sketches continued. But
with the rise of cable, the late night audience fell
into the seven to five million range. Leno started to
(05:36):
beat Letterman, and I can tell you why. As the
years went on, Letterman became more, wait for it, blatantly political,
which was an audience turnoff, and I think one of
the reasons that Leno continued to dominate.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Frankly, it was really Letterman.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Who sowed the seeds of that rapid politics that would
run through Late Night like kudzu. It was Letterman, not Carson,
that Colbert and Kimmel ultimately emulated. Johnny hit both sides
and he never used his show to grand stand for
political parties. Can you imagine Carson doing a musical number
about Nixon or the age crisis. It would never happen,
(06:13):
and it didn't. Suddenly laughs were out and tears and
political hissy fits became routine.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
It was a terrible night for poor people.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
For the middle class, for seniors who reliance social security,
for our allies in Ukraine, for NATO or gobsuit.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
We get it.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
The country is a turdstorm. You said all of that
during the campaign. You can stop now. He knows he won,
right Putin must have told him just give it up.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
You know, Colbert is a very talented guy. I also
think personally he's a nice man. Though my pal Jerry
Lewis had a different take several years ago.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
What about Stephen Colbert?
Speaker 4 (07:00):
I don't like him.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Why not?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
I think he's a snub. I think he's elitist and snub.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Maybe that was part of the problem. Like so many
of these hosts, he carved up his audience along ideological lines.
You must believe what I believe when all the vast
audience really wanted was what Carson offered years ago, real
laughs and honest moments. You know, Carson was once asked
about this, about the drift into politics.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
You know what he said, here's Johnny.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Do you get sensitive about the fact that people say
he'll never take a serious controversy. Well, I have an
answer to that. I said, no, tell me the last
time that Jack Benny red Skelton, any comedian used his
show to do serious issues. That's not what I'm there
or can't they see that?
Speaker 4 (07:55):
But you and I do.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
They think that just because you have it Tonight's show
that you must deal in seriously. That's a danger. It's
a real danger. Once you start that, you start to
get that self important feeling that what you say has
great import and you know, strangely enough, you could use
that show as a form, you could sway people, and
I don't think you should as an entertainer.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
If you want to know why Late Night is really disappearing,
it's because they ignored the Carson recipe. Entertain and stop
being so damned self important. And that's probably while we'll
soon see the end of Late Night as we know it.
AD revenues across the board are down fifty percent in
the last seven years, which is sad because I think
a variety show can be well done for a heck
(08:39):
of a lot less than one hundred million a year,
and it's something the audience still craves. The country needs
a commonplace to laugh and gather together.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
If you permit me to close with a little Karnack.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Partisanship, what is the vessel Captains Colbert and Kimmel rammed
into Late Night.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I hope it's not sunk for good.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
And did you see the reaction to that canoodling Coldplay couple.
They went more viral than those awful AI talking babies
that I can't stand. Astrologer CEO Andy Byron and his
HR director Squeeze were captured at a Coldplay concert. Chris Martin,
the front man, said, either they're having an affair or
(09:30):
they're just shy. You think I love how Byron suddenly
hit the deck. Did you imagine his wife had snipers
in the arena? What was he ducking for? She's more
dangerous than any sniper. When he got home, I can
promise you he looked.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Like one of those guys Chris Hansen drops in on
have a seat.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I think there's something actually wonderful happening here if you
look at it properly. There was public outrage and ridicule
and shame in the aftermath, and that's a good thing.
Not that some in the media saw it that way.
The free press said the Coldplay couple did something bad.
The internet did something worse, really worse than getting caught
(10:12):
in an affair in a spectacular way, worse than bringing
disgrace on your company and your family, worse than humiliating
your wife and children. I don't think so. I think
the Internet acted appropriately here. Then the Washington Post hufft
a coldplay kiss cam goes viral as the morality police
(10:32):
weigh in, as opposed to the immorality police that usually
controls these reactions.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Okay, I understand.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Look, my sympathies lie with the wife and the family
who never asked for this public shaming. But let's not
miss the moment that this represents. It shows that people
still have a sense of right and wrong and still
place some value on the sacred bond of marriage. This
(10:58):
isn't extended data. It's a public bond that should be
respected by both parties. That's why this story exploded. It
was such a blatant offense, such a comic one to
that bond. The astronomer CEO must be living in outer
space if he thinks the public should have been silent. No,
(11:19):
if you're flaunting you're a fair in public, what did
you expect would happen? My next guest is one of
the most beloved actors of his generation. He was, of course,
in an iconic television show that remains popular even today.
For eleven seasons, he was Ralph Mouth on Happy Days.
Since that time, Donnie Most has continued to act in films,
(11:43):
other television shows, and even branch out into music, which
we'll talk about. But I started our conversation talking about
where we began with classic television, his Donnie Most, Why
do you think that era of sitcoms John Mash which
you appeared in company, the Jefferson's All in the Family,
Why did those shows resonate and reach so many generations
(12:07):
at once? Why did they become those gathering points for
American culture and families?
Speaker 4 (12:12):
You know, great great writing and and great you know
actors that were beautifully cast in those roles. And and
in our case, we had a brilliant director, Jerry Parris,
and and our cast, you know, it was amazing cast.
(12:32):
So that I think that applies to those other shows
that you were talking about. The writing, you know, it
was just excellent. Gary. Gary oversaw the writing staff, you know,
he was the creator of the show, exec producer and
a writer himself, so he oversaw them and picked the
(12:53):
writers and and and you know, so they did a
great job. You know, the other shows I can't. I
wasn't privy to what was going on, but I imagine
similar and especially what the shows you mentioned, except for
Mash Mash was a one camera show, but all the
Family and some of the others you mentioned were shot
(13:15):
in front of an audience. And then so what happened
with our show. We were one camera for the first
two seasons, and we were doing pretty well in the
first year, but in the second year the ratings were
not so great. It was starting to go down and
we were in danger of not getting picked up for
a third season. But then they decided, I think it
(13:36):
was Jerry's idea and Gary's that all the top shows,
all the big hit shows then comedies were in front
of an audience, and they thought we had a great
cast for that, and they said, let let's try that
in this you know. An ABC said okay, let's you know,
try it, and that's when the show really shot up
and became number one. So, you know, it was a
(13:59):
different energy, that kind of performance when you have the
audience and you're being filmed. And of course then they
also made the Fons character Henry Winkler pushed him up
to even the higher place because his character was getting
so popular, and then they put him in as that
Fonsie moved into the guest department above the Cunningham's garage
(14:24):
so they can get him in, you know, more involved,
not just with the teenage gang, but also with that family. Yeah,
and and then then we shot up to number one,
you know by the end, and stayed there for a while.
And so you know that that dynamic, that dynamic had
a lot to do with.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
It, and and the fac there was a closeness to
this to this crew as well. I mean, Happy Days
with one of the most successful sitcoms of all time.
Was that part of the success or was it also
the nostalgia for the fifties?
Speaker 2 (14:57):
How did you all channel that era?
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Well, that's a good question. You know, I grew up,
you know, in the fifties, although I wasn't a teenager
until the sixties, but you know, I still grew up
in it. You're exposed to it. I think it's somehow
you absorb it, you know. So and then probably seeing
seeing a movie like Graffiti and some other movies that
(15:23):
were made in the fifties, and I think that probably
was the same for the rest of the cask So
and that. You know, I think it definitely had a
part in the longevity of the show because we were
doing a show in the seventies, but it was about
the fifties. So I remember people, whether it was Ron
(15:47):
or Garry, saying, you know, it won't get dated because
it's it's about it takes place in that particular timespan,
and people will look back at that with nostalgia, and
so it's not going to get dated. And I think
that that's what was true. I think to a large.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Extent, you really touched generations and you left a mark
on the culture. I can remember gathering with my own
family waiting to watch Happy Days, and you know, it
was a time when these great TV shows were a
gathering spot for all of America. Tell me how you
first came to this series. You did not read for
the part of Ralph Mouth.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
No, No, I did not. Yeah, well, I had been
I was going to school back east at Lehigh University.
I grew up in Brooklyn, and I'd been pursuing, you know,
singing and acting from the time I was like fourteen,
and I was doing some work, started getting some work
(16:51):
in New York, a lot of commercials, some small theater
and then I went out to LA after my your
year during the summer to kind of lay some tracks
and make you networks so that after graduation a year later,
I could sort of hit the ground running. But when
(17:13):
I went out there, I was able to get an
agent pretty quick because of the work I've done in
New York and references. So they started sending me out
on auditions, and I landed a few guest spots pretty quickly,
and so I wound up My agent said, what after
(17:33):
the summer was over, said, you've got some real momentum.
Why don't you take six months off of school and
keep the momentum going. So I didn't even have to
blink That's what I'm doing, And so I didn't go
back for my senior year. I put it off and
then went right back to LA because I'd come back
(17:54):
to New York. Went back to LA and started getting
some other auditions and landed a couple of other parts.
And then it was I think it was in October
or late October that I got the call to come
in and read for this new show taking place in
the fifties. So I met with two of the executive producers,
(18:16):
Tom Miller and ed milkis I had a really good interview,
and then they called me back to read for Gary
Marshall and in a room with about ten other people
I think execs from Paramount Studios and maybe Network, I'm
not even sure. Then they called me back and I
(18:38):
was reading the role of Potzy. Then they called me
back for a screen test and again to do the
same scenes for Potsey. And then we see that Ron
Howard and Anson Williams are screen testing, and I knew
Ron was obviously everybody didn't know Anson. But then there
(19:01):
was rumor I found out that they had done they
had done a pilot a year and a half earlier.
Ron and Anson had done a pilot with Gary Marshall,
had a different title, but it took place in the
fifties and all that, but it didn't sell. So then
about a year and a half later, Greece becomes a
(19:22):
hit on Broadway, takes place in the fifties. American Graffiti
becomes a big hit in movie theaters during the summer,
again in the fifties. So the ABC execus were going,
wait a minute, maybe we should revisit this. So they
asked Gary to make another pilot, and they thought Ron
and Anson might be too old. The network. Gary didn't
(19:46):
think so, but their network made him screen test them
to make sure, along with a bunch of other hopefuls,
myself being one of them. So I'm, you know, do
my scenes, and then they had me do an improv
and then they had me do an interview on camera.
I mean, there's a whole whole long day, and they
(20:08):
were like six other actors for each role, you know.
But then so I get a call a few days
later from my agent saying it was a Friday, and
he said, Okay, you didn't get the role of Potzi,
but they want to put you in the show. The
executives really like your your screen test. They're going to
(20:31):
go with Answer and Ron again, but they want to
give you a different role. And and there's a small
part in the pilot of a guy named Ralph, and
you'll play that part, but it'll become you will guarantee
so many episodes, you know, and it'll be a regular role.
So that's how how how where it got changed, you know,
(20:54):
And and and that was it.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Did they ever tell you, don Did they ever tell
you what they saw there that they that I mean
to to create a new role for a character you
know that didn't exist. That's a that's a heavy lift
if you're in the middle of a production, are about
to start one.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Yeah, I don't know if I got specifics. All I
remembered them saying is they loved you know, they just
loved yours screen test. And and then I found out
later I was being interviewed. I did an interview for
TV Guide and they were doing a story about me.
So they so they interviewed the other producers, and when
(21:34):
I'm reading the article, Tom Miller was one of the
execut producers, was saying explaining how I got cast, and
he said the executive there was at one of the
top executives at Paramount at that time was Mike Eisner,
And it was Michael Eisner who was the one who
said put him in the show. So so I didn't
(21:55):
even know that until I read this in TV Guy.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Some TV guid always got the story, Where did your
catchphrase come from? Ralph Mouth often said, I still got it.
Where did that come from?
Speaker 4 (22:10):
That's a really great question because it was not in
the script. Really, it was not. There was an episode
that we were shooting where Ralph comes into Arnold's and
he says some wisecrack to Richie. And what happened was
our director who I mentioned, who was brilliant and who
(22:30):
we loved and who was like an uncle to me.
And and he his character was more a lot more
like Ralph Mouth than that I was in real life.
I was not really the jokes. But Jerry would crack
jokes all the time, and and and he'd love, you know,
when he'd score, and when he'd store with a good laugh.
(22:51):
That was he would say, I still got it. You know,
I still got it because he scored. So we heard
Jerry say this, I don't know countless times. So it
hit me one day while we were getting ready to
do the show, that's what I should say after I
cracked that joke. And so I went up to Ron
because I didn't want to throw him, because we're shooting
(23:12):
in front of an audience. I didn't want to throw him.
And I just said, Ron, when I say this, and
right after that, I'm going to say something. It's not
in the script. I just want you to be prepared
so you're not too thrown by it. He said, Oh, okay,
So that's what the cameras are rolling the audience is there,
come and I do the joke he laughs, and then
(23:32):
I delivered the line you know, I still got it,
and they they went crazy because because they you know,
Jerry went nuts. Everybody loved it. The audience laughed because
it was funny. They didn't know the whole story. So
from that point forward, the writers, you loved it, so
they started writing it into the script more and more,
and then it became my phrase. And then years later.
(23:56):
It took years, I guess it to reach the the
you know, the the innards of the lexic kunt of
our culture. But yeah, I'm hearing people on TV all
of some saying after they said a joke on IT live,
you know, like a variety show, the talk show, talk show,
and then they'd go, I still got it, you know,
And I was like, oh, that was wild. But because
(24:19):
you know, some years for it to I think percolate
or something.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yeah, well you all, I mean, you really set the zeitgeist.
And for those years there were so many cultural markers.
And I want to get to some of the big
ones in a moment. But did you ever feel like
it was a burden? Don You've spoken about how people
come up to you and look, I feel the same way.
They feel so connected to you because of that role.
(24:45):
I guess it's a blessing in the curse of TV.
You know, you're in their home. It's not like a
big screen you go out of your house for you're
literally in their home. Have you always embraced that or
was it.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
A burden at any time?
Speaker 4 (24:59):
It was? It was both, definitely both, because you know
you're I was twenty when I started the show You
Want To. For me, the what I loved about acting
was playing roles that were different than me and playing
all different kinds of roles. And then you're on the
(25:20):
show that there were only three networks and you're going
to show that that's bit that it's become so big
that it's inevitable. And everyone was saying, you know, the
danger that you'll get type casts people associate you with
with that role and I and it became clear after
a couple of years because like the parts that I
(25:42):
was getting before Happy Days, I auditioned and got parts
that were dramatic parts. I did a police story where
I played a sort of a psychopathic mad bomber, and
then I did Emergency where I played a kid who
got paralyzed in a car accident, and one and another
one that was dramatic. So but now I couldn't even
(26:06):
they wouldn't let me even audition, you know, three years
in they wouldn't let me come in an audition for
those kind of roles because everythinking of me as this jokester,
so that that became really frustrating. And you know, but
I kept sort of pecking away and and and and
doing some theater and then doing a role that was
(26:28):
a little different, and then another role. And that's one
of the reasons after the seventh season, when my contract
was up, why I decided not to renew, because the
show ran another four years, but Ron and I. Ron
and I left after the seventh season, and that was
and I knew that I needed to get out there
(26:48):
and start knocking down those barriers. You know.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
It became a limitation.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Yeah, it was tough. It was very tough.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Don tell me about the fifth season.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
People forget Gary Marshall decided to introduce an alien into
the show.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
I remember this vividly.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Tell me about that alien and what working with that
actor was.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
Like, Yeah, yeah, that was it was. It was funny
because we we we read this. We would read the
script the cast every Monday round a table and the
writers would be there and Jerry and some of the
producers and we're reading the script and we found out
(27:33):
that we're going what is this? It was like, it
seems so ridiculous, and we thought it was terrible. And
we found out that Gary Marshall's son, Scotty, they had
gone to see Star Wars or something like that. So
afterwards he said to Gary says, day you should do
a show on days, you know, with an alien, you know,
(27:55):
with some kind. So that's was the genesis of why
this to be. But we were thinking, oh my god,
this script. We thought it was the worst, one of
the worst, the worst script. And then they couldn't get
somebody to play the role of the alien. They wanted
a couple actors, but they turned it down. Then they
(28:16):
finally got somebody in and then I didn't even remember this.
Henry and Anson told me that he on Wednesday. By
Wednesday he quit. And then so now what are we
going to do because the show's on Friday, the big
rehearsal on Thursday with cameras and everything. So so somebody
was Gary's sister Ronnie and Almon and Arrow said we
(28:41):
saw a guy at the comedy store that would be perfect,
that would be perfect for this, and it's really and
they and they said, okay, well you brought him in.
He came in and red he blew everyone away. And
then and then I come in on Friday, not on
a Thursday. Yeah, for the camera blocking day. And my
(29:04):
scene was later so I didn't have to come in.
I go into the soundstage and there's this electricity. I
just feel it. Well, people are buzzing, and where do
you see this guy? Where do you see who they
got to play the alien guy? So I go up
and I'm looking at the sit in the bleaches and
(29:26):
I see Jerry cracking up, and then there's this guy
doing all this stuff. And of course it was Robin
Williams playing more for more, and that's how that happened,
and then the show became It went from being a
really not a good script because he started improvising and
coming up with some stuff of his own that he
(29:48):
used in his comedy routine, you know, the noises and
this and that, and and his mind was so quick
that you know, we were like looking at this guy
is from another planet, you know, that's what it seemed like.
And then and then the show went great. And then
a couple of days later, after the weekend, literally you
think it was a Monday or Tuesday, we come in
(30:11):
we find out, oh, Robin's got his own show. Now. Yeah,
like happened like.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
That, and that was more from work. Unbelievable. I mean,
it really is.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
I'd forgotten that it had its genesis on Happy Days.
But look, you've had such a varied and impressive career
in addition to Happy Days. What is it like to
receive that kind of worldwide acclaim. I mean, I've seen
people in England, in Australia they love Ralph melf and
they've loved this show.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
They've embraced it in the same way America did.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
It's huge in Italy, and I know, it's crazy. When
I'd see some of the stuff dubbed in Italian, I'd
watch It's funny yourself. Yeah, I mean it's hard. It's
hard to comprehend that. You know, it was hard for us,
for me and I think the other actors to comprehend
(31:02):
you know, how many people it was going out to
and how popular it was, because you know, you're on
a sound stage doing the show, and you don't. It's
impossible to take that in and understand they go for that.
You know, I still have trouble comprehending that. But of
course it's incredibly gratifying and rewarding feeling. I mean, it
(31:27):
seems like a dream sometimes to me.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Don How many people were watching that show every week?
Tens of millions, right, oh.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Yeah, yeah, huge audience.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
Yeah. I think at its height, I think it was
like sixty million people something like that.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yeah, I mean we can't comprehend this today. Look, I'm
on one of the biggest shows in prime time. They
got three million people, you know, four million people are
the top. I mean, you cannot imagine the cultural impact
of this. Two things I want to bring up in
that respect, how did Happy Days bring the country the
Heimlich maneuver? We might never have heard of it if
(32:02):
it weren't for Happy Days. Tell that story. I love this.
Speaker 4 (32:06):
Oh yeah, because Anson's uncle doctor Heimlek and and he
was visiting Anson and he had come up, you know,
with this this technique that he invented to help people
who are choking, as we all know, and but it
was it was not really known. You know, he invented it,
(32:27):
and he was trying. He was having trouble getting it
to be considered or to be taken to seriously on
a big scale. But but he's visiting Anson and Anson
was a book to do an appearance on the MERV
Griffin Show and you know, a talk show like Johnny Carson.
And he said to his uncle, you know, his uncle
(32:49):
came came to the to be in the audience and
watch the show. So before the show, when they're talking
about what they're gonna with the producers, what they're going
to be, he's going to do a song. Answer, I
was going to sing a song and this and that,
and then ANSWER's going, you know, my uncle's here and
he's come up. He's got something really really pretty big
(33:11):
and he's telling them about it and they go, yeah, well, no,
we don't have time for that. Now. You know, we've
already planned the show and we we just don't really
have time. So answer, okay, he does this song. He
comes out, MERV you know, greets him, has him sit down,
and he goes, okay, we're going to break for a commercial.
And during the commercial and swers talking to mrsaying, you know,
(33:36):
I have an uncle who's come up with this? And
he tells MERV the story and he said he and
he's said sitting and MERV is like, really really and
he's so go to the producers and he says, bring
him up, you know, bring And so they bring him
up during you know, the commercials still on, bring him up.
And then when the show starts, MERV starts asking him
(33:58):
about it, and he talks about it and he kind
of demonstrates or whatever. And then I think somebody from
Carson Sun so they wanted him on the show. And
then the whole thing took off.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
The han maneuver became the again touching the zeitgeist. And
I didn't realize Anson was Anson Pimelick. I guess that's
his name, right.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Yeah, And who knew? Wasn't for Anson doing what he did?
It might who knows? Who knows?
Speaker 1 (34:25):
This is another thing done a lot of young people.
My daughter the other day said, well, that jumped the
shark and that line has endured, but its origins are
lost on them. Tell them and the rest of us
where that came from. And the situation.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
Everyone was loving the fact that the show was getting
bigger and bigger, and of course Phonsie character was becoming
the biggest character on television, so they they wanted to
do more things with the fins, you know, come up.
And some of it was a little you know, come on,
making him like he's superhuman or something, and we thought,
but some of it was also very funny, you know,
(35:02):
a lot of it was. So they came up, the
writers came up, Okay, what what, Henry, what what are
you good at? What can we create around a storyline
with something that you were you know, sports or something.
And he talked about, well, he's he was good water ski.
He spent the summers upstate New York on this lake.
(35:25):
I knew because I spent my summers upstate very close
to there near it different differently, so I knew all
about that. But he said I could I'm good water
skier because he learned when he was young waterski, you know.
So they came up with this whole idea that that
Richie was going out to California. I can't remember. Some
scout had seen him and thought he'd be good for
(35:49):
some show, and so they come out to California with him,
and then you know, they're on the beach and then
there's this character called the California Kid, and they somehow
wind up talking and he challenges him to this thing
with water skiing and that there was a shark in
this area and that they would have to jump over
(36:11):
the shark. You know, So again a little bit far
fetched and pushing, pushing the bumble up a little. But
you know, the show it did well, you know, I
mean people it was a two part or a three part,
right or I know, but then you know, it was
a little crazy obviously. So so then these guys, I
don't know if they are in college or something, they
(36:33):
came up with that phrase to signify when a show
has gone up, and then it just kind of hit
hit his point and then it starts going down. And
that's the moment they said when a show jumps the
sharks based on what because because you know, some people say, okay,
(36:54):
the show is started. I don't disagree with that. And
that's another reason when I left it after the seventh season,
because I felt I didn't feel the shows. I felt,
you know, you reach a point after five years. It's tough,
but but you know, the Devil's Advocate, the other actors
on the show say, well, we ran four more years
(37:15):
after that, after that or five years, I can't remember
after that. So how do you say, jump the shark?
We still we didn't get canceled, right, you know, the
next year, you know.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
So anyway, that's that's where it Jumped the Shark came from.
And I guess the show began to jump the Shark
for you. How close were you to this cast? I mean,
I know you had real you had enduring friendships that
have persisted to this day.
Speaker 4 (37:40):
For all past Oh. Absolutely, we were very extremely close,
so tight. I mean, we became like family. And it
sounds cliche, but we were that that was a family,
and we did things together off the set. You know.
We'd go to Jerry Parris's house and place your raids
and we'd go here, and we'd go on trips, and
(38:03):
then we Gary started formed a baseball a softball team
for the Happy Days because he knew we had a
lot of ballplayers. He was he loved sports. And then
we started going around the country playing in Major League
stadiums before the regular games, so that bonded us even more,
you know. So we were incredibly close and I'm still
(38:25):
very close. Anson and I are best friends, and Henry
and Ron. We stay in touch. I don't see them
as often, but we still see each other. We were
actually all together about a month ago in.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Orlando anniversary of the show. Incredible.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
Yeah. So, and we even have a group text so
whenever we check in with each other, you know, in
a group text. So that shows, yes, we're still as
tight as you know, in many ways as we were.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
You know, when I talked to casts of these shows
that really touched America in a deep boy, the Carol
Burnett Show cast, the Mash cast, you guys, it seems
to be that that connectivity, that family spirit really is
the heart of what bonds, what makes it work.
Speaker 4 (39:16):
Yeah, I think so. I think that that it can't help,
but that to come through in some way in a
visceral way that people respond to, you know, it's it
goes beyond just the spoken lines. And even if the
lines are delivered, even if the lines are delivered with
with precision and with and with with you know, great
(39:40):
talent and and all that, it's still might not go
to this other level when I have that kind of
chemistry and that kind of affection and respect for each
other that we had, and we took it very seriously
the work. We took it very seriously, but we also
had had a great time, and so it was a
(40:01):
perfect blend.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
I want to I want to talk about your music
in a moment, but I just want to end with
this about the TV part of this. Uh, you guested
on so many incredible shows, Murder, she wrote, Fantasy Island, Glee,
Love Bote, What is the craziest memory from one of
those shows? And who did you learn from the most?
Don Who do I learn from the most? Yeah, I'm
(40:26):
doing these other guest roles and stuff.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Yeah, when you were on other shows.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
Well, that's tough because I did work with a lot
a lot of different people. You know, you mentioned you know,
Angela Lansbury and and then when I did what was
that show? Well, I did a Star Trek two parts,
Voyager and Glee and and and then some I did
some films early on with some wonderful people. The ones
(40:54):
that really stand out. It was the first movie I did.
It was, you know, a small film that Roger Corman's
company produced, but it had it was starring Chlorus Leachman
and and and Southern and Stuart Whitman and and we
worked really closely because it was like a road movie,
so we were all traveling together and the director it
(41:18):
was his second film. It was second film and his
name was Jonathan Demi, and we worked really close with him,
and he went on to direct Silence of the Lambs
Philadelphia one Academy Award, all kinds of stuff. So that
was a period where I really learned a lot, as
I did, of course on Happy Days, but you were
(41:39):
asking outside of Happy Days. Happy Days. I learned from
so much from Ron and Jerry Parrish and Gary and
Henry and Tom Bosley, you know, I mean, so great.
But then I had the good fortune to work in
a totally different situation like a you know, a feature
film where we were a road movie and absorbing all
(42:01):
this stuff. Flors was amazing. So that one really stands
out for me. But then there's so many others. You know,
it's hard to pick.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Well, I won't force you, I won't push you. I
want to move on to your music. I mean, we
saw you in the band in Happy Days. You was
saying you played piano. You were always involved in music though,
did you train?
Speaker 4 (42:24):
Yes, I was singing before I was acting bu Scot
and smiling at me when I was thirteen living in Brooklyn.
I would take the subway every Saturday into Manhattan go
to the school for acting, singing, dancing run by an
old vaudeville a guy named Charlie Lowe, And you know,
(42:48):
I was doing that for about a year and then
he would handpick students he produced like a nightclub review
comprised of seven of the students that agees fourteen to sixteen,
like a nightclub review, and I got picked after about
a year to be in that. So I spent the
summer I was fourteen at the beginning of the summer,
(43:11):
turning fifteenth singing in this nightclub review in all the
hotels and nightclubs in the Catskill Mountains, which was at
a big upstate resort, upstate New York that had a
lot of big name entertainment in its day. So yeah,
I was singing. We were doing four or five shows
a week, and I was like loving it, you know,
(43:32):
just loving it. But then I switched my focus the
next year into acting. It was a bit I put
the music aside, knowing that i'd come back to it
at some point, but I really became the laser focused
on acting. And then things started, you know, picking up,
and I was getting more and more things, and then
(43:53):
of course when Happy Days came along, and trying to
do the music that I loved singing was all the
Great Standards, the Jazz Standards, the Great American Songbook, and
in the seventies that was you know, it was hard
to kind of unless you were established like Tony Bennett
or somebody like that, doing it was hard to do,
(44:15):
especially I was young. They wanted me to do more
rock and roll or pop, but thank goodness, that style,
that genre had a big resurgence in the eighties nineties,
and to this day it's still going. It's big again.
And so then about ten years ago, I said, if
(44:36):
I'm ever going to do what I've always wanted to
do singing wise, and so, like I said, I trained
at that school, and then I also went to a
vocal teacher that taught opera, and so I was studying
with her and another teacher in La Voice. So I
did that, and then ten years ago I put together
(44:57):
an act. I met a a musical director I really liked,
and we found some musicians and we tried doing did
my first show at a jazz club in La It
was Vitello's and then and then it went great. It
went great. People were like, holy cow, you don't know
you could sing like this and you didn't do more
(45:18):
singing unhappy days. Why did Pazzi get to do all
the thing?
Speaker 1 (45:21):
You know?
Speaker 4 (45:22):
So I get that all the time. But they were shocked,
you know, But this is what I did you know
before is in my blood.
Speaker 1 (45:30):
I love Don that you focused on the great American
songbook d Mostly Swinging.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
That was such a great album.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
Now you've got a new album out New York High.
Tell me about this genre, why this genre, Don, What
drew you to this style, this era?
Speaker 2 (45:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (45:47):
People people ask me that a lot, And the only
thing that comes to mind is, you know, my mom
was a teenager doing the swing era and young adult
so she had albums and I think, you know, I
heard those growing up. And then for whatever, I mean,
who knows. I saw the movie. I was nine years
(46:09):
old and I saw the movie The Jolson Story about
the great Al Jolson, and I was like riveted, and
it just hit me and I was obsessed. It was
on million dollar movie in New York where they chose
a movie every night, twice a night during the week
and four time Saturday and four times Sunday. So I
(46:31):
saw it on a Tuesday night, I think, and I
went crazy over this movie Jolson's. It was Jolson singing,
so it was his talent coming through Larry Parks, who
did an amazing job playing Jolson. The storyline and the music,
the music. I mean, I just became so well, I
(46:52):
don't know, over possessed by it. And then I went
out and bought Joelson albums. So I think I saw
the movie like about ten times that week, maybe twelve,
and then I got albums, and then I started singing
along with it, and then that got me sort of
aware of that those genre, and I started listening to
(47:13):
radio at night in New York WNEW. William B. Williams
would play that music every night, all the great you
know Sinatra and that King Cole, not King Cole, and
you know Elfis Gerald and all that, and.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
Well William B. Williams, the great William B.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
William that's the guy who anointed Sinatra the chairman of
the board. By the way, and I saw Frank like
thirty times in concerts, So we are we are fellow
addicts on this music. The Great American Songbook there's something
about these songs, don They're so beautifully constructed, they're so heartfelt,
they're so true to the human condition, no matter where
you are. Tell me about the new album, New York High.
(47:55):
What's the concept here? Sounds great?
Speaker 4 (47:57):
By the way, YO, thank you. Well. You mentioned I
did Demost mostly Swinging a few years before that, and
it was with a wonderful arranger, producer Willie Murrio who
produced that CD, and incredible trumpet player and put together
an amazing big band, which I love the sound of
(48:18):
a big band and so exciting. And we did, you know,
mostly swinging jazz standards. And when I met with Tony Mantor,
the record producer who's based in Nashville, and he'd heard
some of my stuff and he really liked what I'm doing.
But he said, you know, I think we should do
something a little different where we could still do jazz standards,
(48:41):
but now with maybe the big band, maybe a more
contemporary jazz kind of cop bumbo, you know, just the
rhythm section and maybe some solos and you know a
little bit of punch of brass. But but you know,
he brought a different sensibility to it, a different a
little more trying to do like what Diana Crawl is
(49:05):
doing and some of the other people who are doing
jazz but not big band style. So I said, yeah,
I'm all for it because it's still going to be
that great music, but the approach is going to be
different and has going to have a different feel, and
why not. You know, I was totally open to it.
And it was a great collaboration and the musicians he
(49:27):
got together and the arranger and you know, it came
out great. And I even did a couple of songs
that from a different from the rhythm of Smokey Robinson's
song Yeah Baby Baby and smoke from a Distant Fire,
which was a Sandford Townsend band hit. So it's it's
(49:48):
really it's it's really good and and but different than
mostly swinging for sure.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
But your voice sounds incredible. I have to tell you
live and on the album. I mean, the new album
is fantastic. There's a question when I first saw you
at fifty four below. I think it's a question and
it's a challenge a lot of people go through. How
do you transition? How do you make the transition when
you are so known for one thing? This is a
(50:15):
big leap and look for those For those of you
who have never done live performance with a band, it
ain't for the faint of heart.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
How do you make that leap?
Speaker 1 (50:23):
What would you tell people about I guess the internal
confidence you have to have, the lack of thea to
just yeah, to do it.
Speaker 4 (50:33):
Yeah. And it certainly helped that I'd done it when
I was young, you know, Like I said, I would
do four or five shows a week for the two months,
so it was kind of like riding a bicycle. It
was easy to get back on. And I'd done some
music during that interim, musical theater and occasional singing at
(50:57):
a certain event. But the confidence is important. But the
confidence comes from loving something and then having that passion
and then just working at it because you love doing it.
So it's not that you know, you just have to
you have to build up that that base. There's a
(51:20):
base of of just working through things and and and
and not and having times when it's not working so great,
and then you figure out what it is and then
you can improve and and even now it's like maybe
it was meant to be now because I was so
busy with the acting stuff that I wasn't out there
(51:42):
doing gigs and and and you know, applying your trade
and really getting getting the chops. I was more on
the acting side. But then with the technology now today,
when I started doing deciding I wanted to do it,
I could go on my computer, get on garage band
and take all these songs and sing to them, you know,
(52:07):
and record them and just work it and work it
and work it. And I did it a lot. And
because I loved it, I couldn't believe this new toy
I had where I could take some of these great
songs I could remove the vocal and then just have
this great Sinatra arrangement, Bobby Darren arrangement, and I'm singing
to it. It was like wow. So I would do
(52:29):
this for hours and hours, you know, day after day
after day. I don't know how many. I recorded thousands
of times, and there's no short you know. That's what
gives you the You keep improving a bass, and then
you can improve and then doing it alive, you know,
then you learn a lot more too that way. But
(52:50):
I'm not giving People say what about the acting, No
way would I give it up.
Speaker 2 (52:54):
No, They're still working busy.
Speaker 4 (52:57):
I did like seven eight movies, you know, four year period,
and one of them is being released right now in theaters.
It started in Michigan where we shot it, and they're
rolling it out, you know, over the next few months. Yeah,
and a true story during Prohibition, very intense story. There's
(53:18):
a gang called the Purple Gang.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
Which a lot of people have forgotten about, but it's
an important and you're the head of this gang, the
Purple Gang.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
Let tell people the name of the movie.
Speaker 4 (53:27):
Yeah, it was a Jewish mob called the Purple Gang,
and I played the head of the mob. Very different role,
which I love, which I love. This is called Harson's
Island Revenge, and look for it. It's going to be
probably at a theater near some point the next few months.
Then it'll go streaming of course.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
Excellent.
Speaker 1 (53:46):
Okay, I have a there's a questionnaire don that I
ask everybody as we wrap up these interviews. It's my
royal grande questionnaire. Who is the person you most admire?
Speaker 4 (53:57):
My wife? Why she's she's been She was diagnosed with
Parkinson's twenty three years ago, Parkinson's disease, and she's and
she's doing pretty darn good. But courage and the incredible
attitude and strength. It blows my mind. So that's what
(54:24):
just popped into my head.
Speaker 1 (54:25):
And God bless her and you I know that's also
you know, I know, I know families who have somebody
suffering with Parkinson's and it, you know, the whole it's
a family effort, you know, yeah, to eat it and
combat it.
Speaker 4 (54:37):
So it is she's doing, she's doing well. She's going
to love it.
Speaker 2 (54:41):
What's your best feature, Don?
Speaker 4 (54:44):
My best feature? Gosh, oh god, that's a good one.
I think that maybe that I'm still very curious and
also can be with people, you know, be very give
and take listening and being able to give and take
(55:07):
with people.
Speaker 1 (55:08):
No, I can see that. I see it in your
work too. You still have an adventurous spirit. You know,
you're trying new music, You're trying new audiences. It's amazing
to watch, Don mos. I thank you so much for
the time, for your incredible music and your gift to
so many generations over so many years. Thank you, my friend,
my thanks to Don Most. I hope you'll come back
to Arroyo Grande soon. Why live a dry, constricted life
(55:30):
when if you fill it with good things, it can
flow into a broad Thriving Arroyo Grande.
Speaker 2 (55:36):
I'm Raymond Arroyo.
Speaker 1 (55:37):
Be sure to subscribe like this episode. Thank you for
diving in. We'll see you next time. Arroyo Grande is
produced in partnership with iHeart Podcasts and is available on
the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (56:00):
Concipentssiples Books, Persians
Did you ever wonder why classic TV worked? And why
things are falling apart?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Today?
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Star of Happy Days, Donnie Most is here with his
thoughts and is late night going away? And is it justified?
I'll get into all of it on this edition of
The Arroyo Grande Show. Come on, I'm Raymond Arroyo. Welcome
(00:28):
to Arroyo Grande. Go subscribe to the show. Now turn
those notifications on. You will be so happy you did
in the weeks a hit. Let's start with a culture counter.
You gen zers don't know what you missed. There was
a time when we would all gather around the TV,
the whole family would watch a sitcom or certain personalities,
and they really became part of our families. It's what
(00:50):
people talked about at school to work the next day.
This was common ground that we all shared as a people,
a common experience, no matter your beliefs, where you came from.
It was a touchstone that brought us together. And I
mourned the passing in some ways of all of that.
I think we were better when we had that common
frame of reference, when we were watching a few of
(01:12):
the same things, the Carol Burnet Show, All in the Family,
Dallas Happy Days, which my guest Donnie Most starred in,
and of course The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Carson
was the king of Late Night for a very good reason,
which I'll get to in a moment. But now CBS's
Late Show with Stephen Colbert has been canceled by their
(01:34):
parent company, and my guess is the rest of Late
Night will soon follow. They say it's a financial decision,
and I believe them. The Late Show cost CBS one
hundred million dollars a year to produce one hundred million dollars,
and the network was losing forty to fifty million annually.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
According to something I read in The New.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
York Post, it's just not feasible to keep that kind
of bleed going. But there's another reality at play here.
The financial situation was directly tied to the show content. Colbert,
like Jimmy Kimmel, shattered the format that made Late Night go.
They turned a joyous entertainment into a nightly political harangue.
(02:17):
I'm the first to admit Late Night is a relic
of the nineteen fifties. Steve Allen and Jack Parr and
later Carson created this escapist format, and it was a
defined format, and it worked for a reason. Carson had
ten million people watching that show nightly, at times as
high as twenty million viewers a night. Part of it
(02:39):
was his cool demeanor and his in the moment what
he called reactive comedy style. It was humor that included
the audience. Look at this clip from the nineteen seventies
when Carson realized his sidekick Ed McMahon might be loaded
and not with cash.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Now, as you know, the San Diego Zoo is one
of the finest zoos in the world. In we've had
this young lady on the show very often in the past.
I guess seven or eight years. She's been appearing with.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Us nine years, but nine years.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Right, yeah, several plus several will be about nine.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
He said seven or eight.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
I said no, I didn't say seven or eight. I
said several. Then you said seven or eight, and I
said that's nine nine nine.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Good, thank you.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Some of the animals, some of the animals you had
as babies are now ten years old.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
That would be about right. Anyway.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
John Embry is here tonight and she's now thirty two.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Right.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Joan is an animal handler and a trainer, And you
really think you're fooling everybody.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
And she also best to help him. I know that.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
And she does her three horse shows a day. Did
you know that at the animal park? What an exciting idea?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Would you like? An army cutter or something?
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Maybe in gotta catch up on a little nappy poo.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Just my fatty right out of it. Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I love Joan.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
I'm the only one that went down to see jo
dog has never seen her.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
You've never seen her. I went to the wild animals.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
There was stanuine laughter, right, they were actually in a
human moment together.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
That wasn't scripted.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
He was really reacting to Ed McMahon and that happened
every night, even when the jokes didn't work. In fact,
the scripted parts of the show were often the worst parts.
The Carson Show was engaging and consistently entertaining, and let's
be honest, Today's Late Night has none of that. Carson
had a Karnak bit he did, which was corny, but
(04:50):
it was also hilarious. He played a soothsayer from the
East who could answer questions before he saw them.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Watch having trouble divining this week, Yeah, Sis Boomba.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Sis Boombaugh.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Described the sound made when a sheep explodes.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
That was back when laughs were real and politics were
for conventions. When David Letterman and Jay Leno took the
mantle of late night in the nineties, they kept the
comedy going and the silly characters and sketches continued. But
with the rise of cable, the late night audience fell
into the seven to five million range. Leno started to
(05:36):
beat Letterman, and I can tell you why. As the
years went on, Letterman became more, wait for it, blatantly political,
which was an audience turnoff, and I think one of
the reasons that Leno continued to dominate.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Frankly, it was really Letterman.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Who sowed the seeds of that rapid politics that would
run through Late Night like kudzu. It was Letterman, not Carson,
that Colbert and Kimmel ultimately emulated. Johnny hit both sides
and he never used his show to grand stand for
political parties. Can you imagine Carson doing a musical number
about Nixon or the age crisis. It would never happen,
(06:13):
and it didn't. Suddenly laughs were out and tears and
political hissy fits became routine.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
It was a terrible night for poor people.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
For the middle class, for seniors who reliance social security,
for our allies in Ukraine, for NATO or gobsuit.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
We get it.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
The country is a turdstorm. You said all of that
during the campaign. You can stop now. He knows he won,
right Putin must have told him just give it up.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
You know, Colbert is a very talented guy. I also
think personally he's a nice man. Though my pal Jerry
Lewis had a different take several years ago.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
What about Stephen Colbert?
Speaker 4 (07:00):
I don't like him.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Why not?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
I think he's a snub. I think he's elitist and snub.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Maybe that was part of the problem. Like so many
of these hosts, he carved up his audience along ideological lines.
You must believe what I believe when all the vast
audience really wanted was what Carson offered years ago, real
laughs and honest moments. You know, Carson was once asked
about this, about the drift into politics.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
You know what he said, here's Johnny.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Do you get sensitive about the fact that people say
he'll never take a serious controversy. Well, I have an
answer to that. I said, no, tell me the last
time that Jack Benny red Skelton, any comedian used his
show to do serious issues. That's not what I'm there
or can't they see that?
Speaker 4 (07:55):
But you and I do.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
They think that just because you have it Tonight's show
that you must deal in seriously. That's a danger. It's
a real danger. Once you start that, you start to
get that self important feeling that what you say has
great import and you know, strangely enough, you could use
that show as a form, you could sway people, and
I don't think you should as an entertainer.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
If you want to know why Late Night is really disappearing,
it's because they ignored the Carson recipe. Entertain and stop
being so damned self important. And that's probably while we'll
soon see the end of Late Night as we know it.
AD revenues across the board are down fifty percent in
the last seven years, which is sad because I think
a variety show can be well done for a heck
(08:39):
of a lot less than one hundred million a year,
and it's something the audience still craves. The country needs
a commonplace to laugh and gather together.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
If you permit me to close with a little Karnack.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Partisanship, what is the vessel Captains Colbert and Kimmel rammed
into Late Night.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I hope it's not sunk for good.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
And did you see the reaction to that canoodling Coldplay couple.
They went more viral than those awful AI talking babies
that I can't stand. Astrologer CEO Andy Byron and his
HR director Squeeze were captured at a Coldplay concert. Chris Martin,
the front man, said, either they're having an affair or
(09:30):
they're just shy. You think I love how Byron suddenly
hit the deck. Did you imagine his wife had snipers
in the arena? What was he ducking for? She's more
dangerous than any sniper. When he got home, I can
promise you he looked.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Like one of those guys Chris Hansen drops in on
have a seat.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I think there's something actually wonderful happening here if you
look at it properly. There was public outrage and ridicule
and shame in the aftermath, and that's a good thing.
Not that some in the media saw it that way.
The free press said the Coldplay couple did something bad.
The internet did something worse, really worse than getting caught
(10:12):
in an affair in a spectacular way, worse than bringing
disgrace on your company and your family, worse than humiliating
your wife and children. I don't think so. I think
the Internet acted appropriately here. Then the Washington Post hufft
a coldplay kiss cam goes viral as the morality police
(10:32):
weigh in, as opposed to the immorality police that usually
controls these reactions.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Okay, I understand.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Look, my sympathies lie with the wife and the family
who never asked for this public shaming. But let's not
miss the moment that this represents. It shows that people
still have a sense of right and wrong and still
place some value on the sacred bond of marriage. This
(10:58):
isn't extended data. It's a public bond that should be
respected by both parties. That's why this story exploded. It
was such a blatant offense, such a comic one to
that bond. The astronomer CEO must be living in outer
space if he thinks the public should have been silent. No,
(11:19):
if you're flaunting you're a fair in public, what did
you expect would happen? My next guest is one of
the most beloved actors of his generation. He was, of course,
in an iconic television show that remains popular even today.
For eleven seasons, he was Ralph Mouth on Happy Days.
Since that time, Donnie Most has continued to act in films,
(11:43):
other television shows, and even branch out into music, which
we'll talk about. But I started our conversation talking about
where we began with classic television, his Donnie Most, Why
do you think that era of sitcoms John Mash which
you appeared in company, the Jefferson's All in the Family,
Why did those shows resonate and reach so many generations
(12:07):
at once? Why did they become those gathering points for
American culture and families?
Speaker 4 (12:12):
You know, great great writing and and great you know
actors that were beautifully cast in those roles. And and
in our case, we had a brilliant director, Jerry Parris,
and and our cast, you know, it was amazing cast.
(12:32):
So that I think that applies to those other shows
that you were talking about. The writing, you know, it
was just excellent. Gary. Gary oversaw the writing staff, you know,
he was the creator of the show, exec producer and
a writer himself, so he oversaw them and picked the
(12:53):
writers and and and you know, so they did a
great job. You know, the other shows I can't. I
wasn't privy to what was going on, but I imagine
similar and especially what the shows you mentioned, except for
Mash Mash was a one camera show, but all the
Family and some of the others you mentioned were shot
(13:15):
in front of an audience. And then so what happened
with our show. We were one camera for the first
two seasons, and we were doing pretty well in the
first year, but in the second year the ratings were
not so great. It was starting to go down and
we were in danger of not getting picked up for
a third season. But then they decided, I think it
(13:36):
was Jerry's idea and Gary's that all the top shows,
all the big hit shows then comedies were in front
of an audience, and they thought we had a great
cast for that, and they said, let let's try that
in this you know. An ABC said okay, let's you know,
try it, and that's when the show really shot up
and became number one. So, you know, it was a
(13:59):
different energy, that kind of performance when you have the
audience and you're being filmed. And of course then they
also made the Fons character Henry Winkler pushed him up
to even the higher place because his character was getting
so popular, and then they put him in as that
Fonsie moved into the guest department above the Cunningham's garage
(14:24):
so they can get him in, you know, more involved,
not just with the teenage gang, but also with that family. Yeah,
and and then then we shot up to number one,
you know by the end, and stayed there for a while.
And so you know that that dynamic, that dynamic had
a lot to do with.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
It, and and the fac there was a closeness to
this to this crew as well. I mean, Happy Days
with one of the most successful sitcoms of all time.
Was that part of the success or was it also
the nostalgia for the fifties?
Speaker 2 (14:57):
How did you all channel that era?
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Well, that's a good question. You know, I grew up,
you know, in the fifties, although I wasn't a teenager
until the sixties, but you know, I still grew up
in it. You're exposed to it. I think it's somehow
you absorb it, you know. So and then probably seeing
seeing a movie like Graffiti and some other movies that
(15:23):
were made in the fifties, and I think that probably
was the same for the rest of the cask So
and that. You know, I think it definitely had a
part in the longevity of the show because we were
doing a show in the seventies, but it was about
the fifties. So I remember people, whether it was Ron
(15:47):
or Garry, saying, you know, it won't get dated because
it's it's about it takes place in that particular timespan,
and people will look back at that with nostalgia, and
so it's not going to get dated. And I think
that that's what was true. I think to a large.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Extent, you really touched generations and you left a mark
on the culture. I can remember gathering with my own
family waiting to watch Happy Days, and you know, it
was a time when these great TV shows were a
gathering spot for all of America. Tell me how you
first came to this series. You did not read for
the part of Ralph Mouth.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
No, No, I did not. Yeah, well, I had been
I was going to school back east at Lehigh University.
I grew up in Brooklyn, and I'd been pursuing, you know,
singing and acting from the time I was like fourteen,
and I was doing some work, started getting some work
(16:51):
in New York, a lot of commercials, some small theater
and then I went out to LA after my your
year during the summer to kind of lay some tracks
and make you networks so that after graduation a year later,
I could sort of hit the ground running. But when
(17:13):
I went out there, I was able to get an
agent pretty quick because of the work I've done in
New York and references. So they started sending me out
on auditions, and I landed a few guest spots pretty quickly,
and so I wound up My agent said, what after
(17:33):
the summer was over, said, you've got some real momentum.
Why don't you take six months off of school and
keep the momentum going. So I didn't even have to
blink That's what I'm doing, And so I didn't go
back for my senior year. I put it off and
then went right back to LA because I'd come back
(17:54):
to New York. Went back to LA and started getting
some other auditions and landed a couple of other parts.
And then it was I think it was in October
or late October that I got the call to come
in and read for this new show taking place in
the fifties. So I met with two of the executive producers,
(18:16):
Tom Miller and ed milkis I had a really good interview,
and then they called me back to read for Gary
Marshall and in a room with about ten other people
I think execs from Paramount Studios and maybe Network, I'm
not even sure. Then they called me back and I
(18:38):
was reading the role of Potzy. Then they called me
back for a screen test and again to do the
same scenes for Potsey. And then we see that Ron
Howard and Anson Williams are screen testing, and I knew
Ron was obviously everybody didn't know Anson. But then there
(19:01):
was rumor I found out that they had done they
had done a pilot a year and a half earlier.
Ron and Anson had done a pilot with Gary Marshall,
had a different title, but it took place in the
fifties and all that, but it didn't sell. So then
about a year and a half later, Greece becomes a
(19:22):
hit on Broadway, takes place in the fifties. American Graffiti
becomes a big hit in movie theaters during the summer,
again in the fifties. So the ABC execus were going,
wait a minute, maybe we should revisit this. So they
asked Gary to make another pilot, and they thought Ron
and Anson might be too old. The network. Gary didn't
(19:46):
think so, but their network made him screen test them
to make sure, along with a bunch of other hopefuls,
myself being one of them. So I'm, you know, do
my scenes, and then they had me do an improv
and then they had me do an interview on camera.
I mean, there's a whole whole long day, and they
(20:08):
were like six other actors for each role, you know.
But then so I get a call a few days
later from my agent saying it was a Friday, and
he said, Okay, you didn't get the role of Potzi,
but they want to put you in the show. The
executives really like your your screen test. They're going to
(20:31):
go with Answer and Ron again, but they want to
give you a different role. And and there's a small
part in the pilot of a guy named Ralph, and
you'll play that part, but it'll become you will guarantee
so many episodes, you know, and it'll be a regular role.
So that's how how how where it got changed, you know,
(20:54):
And and and that was it.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Did they ever tell you, don Did they ever tell
you what they saw there that they that I mean
to to create a new role for a character you
know that didn't exist. That's a that's a heavy lift
if you're in the middle of a production, are about
to start one.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Yeah, I don't know if I got specifics. All I
remembered them saying is they loved you know, they just
loved yours screen test. And and then I found out
later I was being interviewed. I did an interview for
TV Guide and they were doing a story about me.
So they so they interviewed the other producers, and when
(21:34):
I'm reading the article, Tom Miller was one of the
execut producers, was saying explaining how I got cast, and
he said the executive there was at one of the
top executives at Paramount at that time was Mike Eisner,
And it was Michael Eisner who was the one who
said put him in the show. So so I didn't
(21:55):
even know that until I read this in TV Guy.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Some TV guid always got the story, Where did your
catchphrase come from? Ralph Mouth often said, I still got it.
Where did that come from?
Speaker 4 (22:10):
That's a really great question because it was not in
the script. Really, it was not. There was an episode
that we were shooting where Ralph comes into Arnold's and
he says some wisecrack to Richie. And what happened was
our director who I mentioned, who was brilliant and who
(22:30):
we loved and who was like an uncle to me.
And and he his character was more a lot more
like Ralph Mouth than that I was in real life.
I was not really the jokes. But Jerry would crack
jokes all the time, and and and he'd love, you know,
when he'd score, and when he'd store with a good laugh.
(22:51):
That was he would say, I still got it. You know,
I still got it because he scored. So we heard
Jerry say this, I don't know countless times. So it
hit me one day while we were getting ready to
do the show, that's what I should say after I
cracked that joke. And so I went up to Ron
because I didn't want to throw him, because we're shooting
(23:12):
in front of an audience. I didn't want to throw him.
And I just said, Ron, when I say this, and
right after that, I'm going to say something. It's not
in the script. I just want you to be prepared
so you're not too thrown by it. He said, Oh, okay,
So that's what the cameras are rolling the audience is there,
come and I do the joke he laughs, and then
(23:32):
I delivered the line you know, I still got it,
and they they went crazy because because they you know,
Jerry went nuts. Everybody loved it. The audience laughed because
it was funny. They didn't know the whole story. So
from that point forward, the writers, you loved it, so
they started writing it into the script more and more,
and then it became my phrase. And then years later.
(23:56):
It took years, I guess it to reach the the
you know, the the innards of the lexic kunt of
our culture. But yeah, I'm hearing people on TV all
of some saying after they said a joke on IT live,
you know, like a variety show, the talk show, talk show,
and then they'd go, I still got it, you know,
And I was like, oh, that was wild. But because
(24:19):
you know, some years for it to I think percolate
or something.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yeah, well you all, I mean, you really set the zeitgeist.
And for those years there were so many cultural markers.
And I want to get to some of the big
ones in a moment. But did you ever feel like
it was a burden? Don You've spoken about how people
come up to you and look, I feel the same way.
They feel so connected to you because of that role.
(24:45):
I guess it's a blessing in the curse of TV.
You know, you're in their home. It's not like a
big screen you go out of your house for you're
literally in their home. Have you always embraced that or
was it.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
A burden at any time?
Speaker 4 (24:59):
It was? It was both, definitely both, because you know
you're I was twenty when I started the show You
Want To. For me, the what I loved about acting
was playing roles that were different than me and playing
all different kinds of roles. And then you're on the
(25:20):
show that there were only three networks and you're going
to show that that's bit that it's become so big
that it's inevitable. And everyone was saying, you know, the
danger that you'll get type casts people associate you with
with that role and I and it became clear after
a couple of years because like the parts that I
(25:42):
was getting before Happy Days, I auditioned and got parts
that were dramatic parts. I did a police story where
I played a sort of a psychopathic mad bomber, and
then I did Emergency where I played a kid who
got paralyzed in a car accident, and one and another
one that was dramatic. So but now I couldn't even
(26:06):
they wouldn't let me even audition, you know, three years
in they wouldn't let me come in an audition for
those kind of roles because everythinking of me as this jokester,
so that that became really frustrating. And you know, but
I kept sort of pecking away and and and and
doing some theater and then doing a role that was
(26:28):
a little different, and then another role. And that's one
of the reasons after the seventh season, when my contract
was up, why I decided not to renew, because the
show ran another four years, but Ron and I. Ron
and I left after the seventh season, and that was
and I knew that I needed to get out there
(26:48):
and start knocking down those barriers. You know.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
It became a limitation.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Yeah, it was tough. It was very tough.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Don tell me about the fifth season.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
People forget Gary Marshall decided to introduce an alien into
the show.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
I remember this vividly.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Tell me about that alien and what working with that
actor was.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
Like, Yeah, yeah, that was it was. It was funny
because we we we read this. We would read the
script the cast every Monday round a table and the
writers would be there and Jerry and some of the
producers and we're reading the script and we found out
(27:33):
that we're going what is this? It was like, it
seems so ridiculous, and we thought it was terrible. And
we found out that Gary Marshall's son, Scotty, they had
gone to see Star Wars or something like that. So
afterwards he said to Gary says, day you should do
a show on days, you know, with an alien, you know,
(27:55):
with some kind. So that's was the genesis of why
this to be. But we were thinking, oh my god,
this script. We thought it was the worst, one of
the worst, the worst script. And then they couldn't get
somebody to play the role of the alien. They wanted
a couple actors, but they turned it down. Then they
(28:16):
finally got somebody in and then I didn't even remember this.
Henry and Anson told me that he on Wednesday. By
Wednesday he quit. And then so now what are we
going to do because the show's on Friday, the big
rehearsal on Thursday with cameras and everything. So so somebody
was Gary's sister Ronnie and Almon and Arrow said we
(28:41):
saw a guy at the comedy store that would be perfect,
that would be perfect for this, and it's really and
they and they said, okay, well you brought him in.
He came in and red he blew everyone away. And
then and then I come in on Friday, not on
a Thursday. Yeah, for the camera blocking day. And my
(29:04):
scene was later so I didn't have to come in.
I go into the soundstage and there's this electricity. I
just feel it. Well, people are buzzing, and where do
you see this guy? Where do you see who they
got to play the alien guy? So I go up
and I'm looking at the sit in the bleaches and
(29:26):
I see Jerry cracking up, and then there's this guy
doing all this stuff. And of course it was Robin
Williams playing more for more, and that's how that happened,
and then the show became It went from being a
really not a good script because he started improvising and
coming up with some stuff of his own that he
(29:48):
used in his comedy routine, you know, the noises and
this and that, and and his mind was so quick
that you know, we were like looking at this guy
is from another planet, you know, that's what it seemed like.
And then and then the show went great. And then
a couple of days later, after the weekend, literally you
think it was a Monday or Tuesday, we come in
(30:11):
we find out, oh, Robin's got his own show. Now. Yeah,
like happened like.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
That, and that was more from work. Unbelievable. I mean,
it really is.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
I'd forgotten that it had its genesis on Happy Days.
But look, you've had such a varied and impressive career
in addition to Happy Days. What is it like to
receive that kind of worldwide acclaim. I mean, I've seen
people in England, in Australia they love Ralph melf and
they've loved this show.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
They've embraced it in the same way America did.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
It's huge in Italy, and I know, it's crazy. When
I'd see some of the stuff dubbed in Italian, I'd
watch It's funny yourself. Yeah, I mean it's hard. It's
hard to comprehend that. You know, it was hard for us,
for me and I think the other actors to comprehend
(31:02):
you know, how many people it was going out to
and how popular it was, because you know, you're on
a sound stage doing the show, and you don't. It's
impossible to take that in and understand they go for that.
You know, I still have trouble comprehending that. But of
course it's incredibly gratifying and rewarding feeling. I mean, it
(31:27):
seems like a dream sometimes to me.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Don How many people were watching that show every week?
Tens of millions, right, oh.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Yeah, yeah, huge audience.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
Yeah. I think at its height, I think it was
like sixty million people something like that.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yeah, I mean we can't comprehend this today. Look, I'm
on one of the biggest shows in prime time. They
got three million people, you know, four million people are
the top. I mean, you cannot imagine the cultural impact
of this. Two things I want to bring up in
that respect, how did Happy Days bring the country the
Heimlich maneuver? We might never have heard of it if
(32:02):
it weren't for Happy Days. Tell that story. I love this.
Speaker 4 (32:06):
Oh yeah, because Anson's uncle doctor Heimlek and and he
was visiting Anson and he had come up, you know,
with this this technique that he invented to help people
who are choking, as we all know, and but it
was it was not really known. You know, he invented it,
(32:27):
and he was trying. He was having trouble getting it
to be considered or to be taken to seriously on
a big scale. But but he's visiting Anson and Anson
was a book to do an appearance on the MERV
Griffin Show and you know, a talk show like Johnny Carson.
And he said to his uncle, you know, his uncle
(32:49):
came came to the to be in the audience and
watch the show. So before the show, when they're talking
about what they're gonna with the producers, what they're going
to be, he's going to do a song. Answer, I
was going to sing a song and this and that,
and then ANSWER's going, you know, my uncle's here and
he's come up. He's got something really really pretty big
(33:11):
and he's telling them about it and they go, yeah, well, no,
we don't have time for that. Now. You know, we've
already planned the show and we we just don't really
have time. So answer, okay, he does this song. He
comes out, MERV you know, greets him, has him sit down,
and he goes, okay, we're going to break for a commercial.
And during the commercial and swers talking to mrsaying, you know,
(33:36):
I have an uncle who's come up with this? And
he tells MERV the story and he said he and
he's said sitting and MERV is like, really really and
he's so go to the producers and he says, bring
him up, you know, bring And so they bring him
up during you know, the commercials still on, bring him up.
And then when the show starts, MERV starts asking him
(33:58):
about it, and he talks about it and he kind
of demonstrates or whatever. And then I think somebody from
Carson Sun so they wanted him on the show. And
then the whole thing took off.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
The han maneuver became the again touching the zeitgeist. And
I didn't realize Anson was Anson Pimelick. I guess that's
his name, right.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Yeah, And who knew? Wasn't for Anson doing what he did?
It might who knows? Who knows?
Speaker 1 (34:25):
This is another thing done a lot of young people.
My daughter the other day said, well, that jumped the
shark and that line has endured, but its origins are
lost on them. Tell them and the rest of us
where that came from. And the situation.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
Everyone was loving the fact that the show was getting
bigger and bigger, and of course Phonsie character was becoming
the biggest character on television, so they they wanted to
do more things with the fins, you know, come up.
And some of it was a little you know, come on,
making him like he's superhuman or something, and we thought,
but some of it was also very funny, you know,
(35:02):
a lot of it was. So they came up, the
writers came up, Okay, what what, Henry, what what are
you good at? What can we create around a storyline
with something that you were you know, sports or something.
And he talked about, well, he's he was good water ski.
He spent the summers upstate New York on this lake.
(35:25):
I knew because I spent my summers upstate very close
to there near it different differently, so I knew all
about that. But he said I could I'm good water
skier because he learned when he was young waterski, you know.
So they came up with this whole idea that that
Richie was going out to California. I can't remember. Some
scout had seen him and thought he'd be good for
(35:49):
some show, and so they come out to California with him,
and then you know, they're on the beach and then
there's this character called the California Kid, and they somehow
wind up talking and he challenges him to this thing
with water skiing and that there was a shark in
this area and that they would have to jump over
(36:11):
the shark. You know, So again a little bit far
fetched and pushing, pushing the bumble up a little. But
you know, the show it did well, you know, I
mean people it was a two part or a three part,
right or I know, but then you know, it was
a little crazy obviously. So so then these guys, I
don't know if they are in college or something, they
(36:33):
came up with that phrase to signify when a show
has gone up, and then it just kind of hit
hit his point and then it starts going down. And
that's the moment they said when a show jumps the
sharks based on what because because you know, some people say, okay,
(36:54):
the show is started. I don't disagree with that. And
that's another reason when I left it after the seventh season,
because I felt I didn't feel the shows. I felt,
you know, you reach a point after five years. It's tough,
but but you know, the Devil's Advocate, the other actors
on the show say, well, we ran four more years
(37:15):
after that, after that or five years, I can't remember
after that. So how do you say, jump the shark?
We still we didn't get canceled, right, you know, the
next year, you know.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
So anyway, that's that's where it Jumped the Shark came from.
And I guess the show began to jump the Shark
for you. How close were you to this cast? I mean,
I know you had real you had enduring friendships that
have persisted to this day.
Speaker 4 (37:40):
For all past Oh. Absolutely, we were very extremely close,
so tight. I mean, we became like family. And it
sounds cliche, but we were that that was a family,
and we did things together off the set. You know.
We'd go to Jerry Parris's house and place your raids
and we'd go here, and we'd go on trips, and
(38:03):
then we Gary started formed a baseball a softball team
for the Happy Days because he knew we had a
lot of ballplayers. He was he loved sports. And then
we started going around the country playing in Major League
stadiums before the regular games, so that bonded us even more,
you know. So we were incredibly close and I'm still
(38:25):
very close. Anson and I are best friends, and Henry
and Ron. We stay in touch. I don't see them
as often, but we still see each other. We were
actually all together about a month ago in.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Orlando anniversary of the show. Incredible.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
Yeah. So, and we even have a group text so
whenever we check in with each other, you know, in
a group text. So that shows, yes, we're still as
tight as you know, in many ways as we were.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
You know, when I talked to casts of these shows
that really touched America in a deep boy, the Carol
Burnett Show cast, the Mash cast, you guys, it seems
to be that that connectivity, that family spirit really is
the heart of what bonds, what makes it work.
Speaker 4 (39:16):
Yeah, I think so. I think that that it can't help,
but that to come through in some way in a
visceral way that people respond to, you know, it's it
goes beyond just the spoken lines. And even if the
lines are delivered, even if the lines are delivered with
with precision and with and with with you know, great
(39:40):
talent and and all that, it's still might not go
to this other level when I have that kind of
chemistry and that kind of affection and respect for each
other that we had, and we took it very seriously
the work. We took it very seriously, but we also
had had a great time, and so it was a
(40:01):
perfect blend.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
I want to I want to talk about your music
in a moment, but I just want to end with
this about the TV part of this. Uh, you guested
on so many incredible shows, Murder, she wrote, Fantasy Island, Glee,
Love Bote, What is the craziest memory from one of
those shows? And who did you learn from the most?
Don Who do I learn from the most? Yeah, I'm
(40:26):
doing these other guest roles and stuff.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Yeah, when you were on other shows.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
Well, that's tough because I did work with a lot
a lot of different people. You know, you mentioned you know,
Angela Lansbury and and then when I did what was
that show? Well, I did a Star Trek two parts,
Voyager and Glee and and and then some I did
some films early on with some wonderful people. The ones
(40:54):
that really stand out. It was the first movie I did.
It was, you know, a small film that Roger Corman's
company produced, but it had it was starring Chlorus Leachman
and and and Southern and Stuart Whitman and and we
worked really closely because it was like a road movie,
so we were all traveling together and the director it
(41:18):
was his second film. It was second film and his
name was Jonathan Demi, and we worked really close with him,
and he went on to direct Silence of the Lambs
Philadelphia one Academy Award, all kinds of stuff. So that
was a period where I really learned a lot, as
I did, of course on Happy Days, but you were
(41:39):
asking outside of Happy Days. Happy Days. I learned from
so much from Ron and Jerry Parrish and Gary and
Henry and Tom Bosley, you know, I mean, so great.
But then I had the good fortune to work in
a totally different situation like a you know, a feature
film where we were a road movie and absorbing all
(42:01):
this stuff. Flors was amazing. So that one really stands
out for me. But then there's so many others. You know,
it's hard to pick.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Well, I won't force you, I won't push you. I
want to move on to your music. I mean, we
saw you in the band in Happy Days. You was
saying you played piano. You were always involved in music though,
did you train?
Speaker 4 (42:24):
Yes, I was singing before I was acting bu Scot
and smiling at me when I was thirteen living in Brooklyn.
I would take the subway every Saturday into Manhattan go
to the school for acting, singing, dancing run by an
old vaudeville a guy named Charlie Lowe, And you know,
(42:48):
I was doing that for about a year and then
he would handpick students he produced like a nightclub review
comprised of seven of the students that agees fourteen to sixteen,
like a nightclub review, and I got picked after about
a year to be in that. So I spent the
summer I was fourteen at the beginning of the summer,
(43:11):
turning fifteenth singing in this nightclub review in all the
hotels and nightclubs in the Catskill Mountains, which was at
a big upstate resort, upstate New York that had a
lot of big name entertainment in its day. So yeah,
I was singing. We were doing four or five shows
a week, and I was like loving it, you know,
(43:32):
just loving it. But then I switched my focus the
next year into acting. It was a bit I put
the music aside, knowing that i'd come back to it
at some point, but I really became the laser focused
on acting. And then things started, you know, picking up,
and I was getting more and more things, and then
(43:53):
of course when Happy Days came along, and trying to
do the music that I loved singing was all the
Great Standards, the Jazz Standards, the Great American Songbook, and
in the seventies that was you know, it was hard
to kind of unless you were established like Tony Bennett
or somebody like that, doing it was hard to do,
(44:15):
especially I was young. They wanted me to do more
rock and roll or pop, but thank goodness, that style,
that genre had a big resurgence in the eighties nineties,
and to this day it's still going. It's big again.
And so then about ten years ago, I said, if
(44:36):
I'm ever going to do what I've always wanted to
do singing wise, and so, like I said, I trained
at that school, and then I also went to a
vocal teacher that taught opera, and so I was studying
with her and another teacher in La Voice. So I
did that, and then ten years ago I put together
(44:57):
an act. I met a a musical director I really liked,
and we found some musicians and we tried doing did
my first show at a jazz club in La It
was Vitello's and then and then it went great. It
went great. People were like, holy cow, you don't know
you could sing like this and you didn't do more
(45:18):
singing unhappy days. Why did Pazzi get to do all
the thing?
Speaker 1 (45:21):
You know?
Speaker 4 (45:22):
So I get that all the time. But they were shocked,
you know, But this is what I did you know
before is in my blood.
Speaker 1 (45:30):
I love Don that you focused on the great American
songbook d Mostly Swinging.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
That was such a great album.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
Now you've got a new album out New York High.
Tell me about this genre, why this genre, Don, What
drew you to this style, this era?
Speaker 2 (45:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (45:47):
People people ask me that a lot, And the only
thing that comes to mind is, you know, my mom
was a teenager doing the swing era and young adult
so she had albums and I think, you know, I
heard those growing up. And then for whatever, I mean,
who knows. I saw the movie. I was nine years
(46:09):
old and I saw the movie The Jolson Story about
the great Al Jolson, and I was like riveted, and
it just hit me and I was obsessed. It was
on million dollar movie in New York where they chose
a movie every night, twice a night during the week
and four time Saturday and four times Sunday. So I
(46:31):
saw it on a Tuesday night, I think, and I
went crazy over this movie Jolson's. It was Jolson singing,
so it was his talent coming through Larry Parks, who
did an amazing job playing Jolson. The storyline and the music,
the music. I mean, I just became so well, I
(46:52):
don't know, over possessed by it. And then I went
out and bought Joelson albums. So I think I saw
the movie like about ten times that week, maybe twelve,
and then I got albums, and then I started singing
along with it, and then that got me sort of
aware of that those genre, and I started listening to
(47:13):
radio at night in New York WNEW. William B. Williams
would play that music every night, all the great you
know Sinatra and that King Cole, not King Cole, and
you know Elfis Gerald and all that, and.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
Well William B. Williams, the great William B.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
William that's the guy who anointed Sinatra the chairman of
the board. By the way, and I saw Frank like
thirty times in concerts, So we are we are fellow
addicts on this music. The Great American Songbook there's something
about these songs, don They're so beautifully constructed, they're so heartfelt,
they're so true to the human condition, no matter where
you are. Tell me about the new album, New York High.
(47:55):
What's the concept here? Sounds great?
Speaker 4 (47:57):
By the way, YO, thank you. Well. You mentioned I
did Demost mostly Swinging a few years before that, and
it was with a wonderful arranger, producer Willie Murrio who
produced that CD, and incredible trumpet player and put together
an amazing big band, which I love the sound of
(48:18):
a big band and so exciting. And we did, you know,
mostly swinging jazz standards. And when I met with Tony Mantor,
the record producer who's based in Nashville, and he'd heard
some of my stuff and he really liked what I'm doing.
But he said, you know, I think we should do
something a little different where we could still do jazz standards,
(48:41):
but now with maybe the big band, maybe a more
contemporary jazz kind of cop bumbo, you know, just the
rhythm section and maybe some solos and you know a
little bit of punch of brass. But but you know,
he brought a different sensibility to it, a different a
little more trying to do like what Diana Crawl is
(49:05):
doing and some of the other people who are doing
jazz but not big band style. So I said, yeah,
I'm all for it because it's still going to be
that great music, but the approach is going to be
different and has going to have a different feel, and
why not. You know, I was totally open to it.
And it was a great collaboration and the musicians he
(49:27):
got together and the arranger and you know, it came
out great. And I even did a couple of songs
that from a different from the rhythm of Smokey Robinson's
song Yeah Baby Baby and smoke from a Distant Fire,
which was a Sandford Townsend band hit. So it's it's
(49:48):
really it's it's really good and and but different than
mostly swinging for sure.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
But your voice sounds incredible. I have to tell you
live and on the album. I mean, the new album
is fantastic. There's a question when I first saw you
at fifty four below. I think it's a question and
it's a challenge a lot of people go through. How
do you transition? How do you make the transition when
you are so known for one thing? This is a
(50:15):
big leap and look for those For those of you
who have never done live performance with a band, it
ain't for the faint of heart.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
How do you make that leap?
Speaker 1 (50:23):
What would you tell people about I guess the internal
confidence you have to have, the lack of thea to
just yeah, to do it.
Speaker 4 (50:33):
Yeah. And it certainly helped that I'd done it when
I was young, you know, Like I said, I would
do four or five shows a week for the two months,
so it was kind of like riding a bicycle. It
was easy to get back on. And I'd done some
music during that interim, musical theater and occasional singing at
(50:57):
a certain event. But the confidence is important. But the
confidence comes from loving something and then having that passion
and then just working at it because you love doing it.
So it's not that you know, you just have to
you have to build up that that base. There's a
(51:20):
base of of just working through things and and and
and not and having times when it's not working so great,
and then you figure out what it is and then
you can improve and and even now it's like maybe
it was meant to be now because I was so
busy with the acting stuff that I wasn't out there
(51:42):
doing gigs and and and you know, applying your trade
and really getting getting the chops. I was more on
the acting side. But then with the technology now today,
when I started doing deciding I wanted to do it,
I could go on my computer, get on garage band
and take all these songs and sing to them, you know,
(52:07):
and record them and just work it and work it
and work it. And I did it a lot. And
because I loved it, I couldn't believe this new toy
I had where I could take some of these great
songs I could remove the vocal and then just have
this great Sinatra arrangement, Bobby Darren arrangement, and I'm singing
to it. It was like wow. So I would do
(52:29):
this for hours and hours, you know, day after day
after day. I don't know how many. I recorded thousands
of times, and there's no short you know. That's what
gives you the You keep improving a bass, and then
you can improve and then doing it alive, you know,
then you learn a lot more too that way. But
(52:50):
I'm not giving People say what about the acting, No
way would I give it up.
Speaker 2 (52:54):
No, They're still working busy.
Speaker 4 (52:57):
I did like seven eight movies, you know, four year period,
and one of them is being released right now in theaters.
It started in Michigan where we shot it, and they're
rolling it out, you know, over the next few months. Yeah,
and a true story during Prohibition, very intense story. There's
(53:18):
a gang called the Purple Gang.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
Which a lot of people have forgotten about, but it's
an important and you're the head of this gang, the
Purple Gang.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
Let tell people the name of the movie.
Speaker 4 (53:27):
Yeah, it was a Jewish mob called the Purple Gang,
and I played the head of the mob. Very different role,
which I love, which I love. This is called Harson's
Island Revenge, and look for it. It's going to be
probably at a theater near some point the next few months.
Then it'll go streaming of course.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
Excellent.
Speaker 1 (53:46):
Okay, I have a there's a questionnaire don that I
ask everybody as we wrap up these interviews. It's my
royal grande questionnaire. Who is the person you most admire?
Speaker 4 (53:57):
My wife? Why she's she's been She was diagnosed with
Parkinson's twenty three years ago, Parkinson's disease, and she's and
she's doing pretty darn good. But courage and the incredible
attitude and strength. It blows my mind. So that's what
(54:24):
just popped into my head.
Speaker 1 (54:25):
And God bless her and you I know that's also
you know, I know, I know families who have somebody
suffering with Parkinson's and it, you know, the whole it's
a family effort, you know, yeah, to eat it and
combat it.
Speaker 4 (54:37):
So it is she's doing, she's doing well. She's going
to love it.
Speaker 2 (54:41):
What's your best feature, Don?
Speaker 4 (54:44):
My best feature? Gosh, oh god, that's a good one.
I think that maybe that I'm still very curious and
also can be with people, you know, be very give
and take listening and being able to give and take
(55:07):
with people.
Speaker 1 (55:08):
No, I can see that. I see it in your
work too. You still have an adventurous spirit. You know,
you're trying new music, You're trying new audiences. It's amazing
to watch, Don mos. I thank you so much for
the time, for your incredible music and your gift to
so many generations over so many years. Thank you, my friend,
my thanks to Don Most. I hope you'll come back
to Arroyo Grande soon. Why live a dry, constricted life
(55:30):
when if you fill it with good things, it can
flow into a broad Thriving Arroyo Grande.
Speaker 2 (55:36):
I'm Raymond Arroyo.
Speaker 1 (55:37):
Be sure to subscribe like this episode. Thank you for
diving in. We'll see you next time. Arroyo Grande is
produced in partnership with iHeart Podcasts and is available on
the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (56:00):
Concipentssiples Books, Persians
Host
Raymond Arroyo
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