A Great Conversation With Lee Majors About His Storied Career (Full Interview)

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The Michael Barry Show. The fallGuy is with us Lee Majors And what
birthday is this? Oh? Hi, Michael, pleasure to be here today.
But let me well, I'm kindof like that backward backward president we
got now, I can't remember muchand get just numbers turned around. But
I'm fifty eight fifty eight? Ohokay, all right, yeah, well

(00:22):
fifty eight you closing in on sixty? Yeah, having a good run?
Are you doing? I'm doing I'mdoing good. Thank you? Do you
do you feel any different on yourbirthday or you know, we go through
these phases where we're excited about Ikind of I feel like eighty five,
you know, at fifty five,at fifty eight, I feel like I'm

(00:42):
eighty five. Now, I don'tknow how does eighty five feel? Because
you look great? Thank you,sir. That was a question. How
does eighty five feel? Well?What how does that mean? I mean,
let you tell you know. Holdon a second, man, No,
just let me look at my cheatsheet. Okay, Oh you're reading

(01:02):
your script, Joe Biden. Ilike it. I want to call on
Michael Barry. Michael, where areyou? Oh? There you are?
Do you know you are four yearsolder than him and fifty years more lucid.
Not about that, It's true.And you look great. You you
look fantastic, jealous, pretty good. Between you and Pastorini, you both

(01:25):
make me feel awful because I'm no, you're not considerably younger. But I've
just oil in your mind your devilishgood looks. So you're eighty five and
you're you're in a movie that's comingout, The Fall Guy. I mean,
this is this is a blessing,right, People don't get I just
I've got two three more movies comingout, the one this summer with the

(01:47):
boys. Well, let me tellyou The Fall Guy. I guess you
want to mention that it does dropin all the theaters on May the third,
and I think it's going to bequite good. Ryan Gosling, I
think he was a god sent.He is wonderful. Emily Blunt is wonderful

(02:08):
in the movie. And you know, he adds some humor, which is
what I tried to put into TheFoar Guy. And nothing was ever written
in there about humor, but beinga stunt man and a bounty hunter,
you know, he was a prettyserious character. So I added to the
humor whenever I could and I thinkhe carried that off pretty well. How

(02:29):
was that being on a cast witha guy where they're looking you know,
you started as Heath Barkley, asthis kid, and now you're the senior
statesman. How was that when youwalked on to the set. Well,
it's you know, it's interesting.I honestly be honest with you, I
didn't have a scene with either ofthem because I'm in a different situation.

(02:50):
And you'll see if you see themovie. I'm actually not even supposed to
be talking about this that I'm evenin it, you know, because they
they the studio kind of. Iwanted it to be a surprise, So
you know, I think it's leakedout. We won't tell it pretty much.
We won't tell it now, soyou people out there listening, just
don't pass it on to too manypeople. Maybe a couple of million.
Yeah, So where does that rolefit in your life? When you think

(03:15):
of the Fall Guy, where youwere in your life, where you were
in your career. I was probablyat the happiest doing work of any series
I ever did, except maybe thefirst one, which was The Big Valley
back in the sixties, and ofcourse the sixty million dollar man, excuse
me. In the seventies. Itit was a lot of work. It

(03:38):
was tough. It was grueling everyday kind of running and jumping and shooting
in locations that were not very good, you know, empty factories, utility
buildings or empty or whatever they canfind to shoot in, and a lot

(03:58):
of military stuff, equipment, anduh, it was just boring. I
went. I went about two.I had two seasons in that, and
I finally said to the producers,you know, I'm gone through a bunch
of shows and I have not evenhad a love interest. You know,
I may be bionic, but hehas feelings, you know. And so

(04:21):
I am tired of looking at allthese Harry Leg crew guys standing around all
day. So anyway, we broughtin and we did. We wrote a
script for lind whoever it was goingto be. And uh, I even
I wrote a love song. It'scalled a love song for Jamie and and
it's in there. I got sangit in that one of the episodes.

(04:43):
I was talking to Jim Mudd,who's our creative director, and he is,
he is a super fan, superfan. I know everybody's your biggest
fan. He is, and hegoes back to the Big Valley and and
he was talking about all the ladiesthat that appeared on screen you and he
said, Lindsay Wagner. He said, I think that's the one that my
goodness, I think that's the onethat does me in. That was special.

(05:10):
Well, they she did a goodjob, and then and then we
kind of fell in love. Thenshe died. So the audience reaction to
the show was tremendous. So theybrought her back. But they brought her
back, she didn't remember me.She fell and then she fell in love
with a doctor who brought her back, and so she went off and did

(05:30):
her own series. I have seenhow people react to you when we're out
and about, and they go backto being a Kid's embarrassing. I mean
I had friends of mine that justacted silly in your presence. Does it
surprise you that here we are,you know, forty almost fifty years later
and they well no, But Imean when you talk about six million dollars

(05:53):
man, that people still they fallby, you know, a seventy year
old guy but comes ten years oldagain, does that surprise you? No?
No. When I was doing theshows, all any of these shows,
I never realized how big they are. I just keep my head down
and keep working, episode after episodeafter episode, year after year after year.

(06:15):
And suddenly you realize, though afterwhen I did the Big Valley in
the sixties, that took up thatdecade, and then I did the six
mill and the seventies, that tookup whole decade, and then I fall
guy in the eighties. And thething of it is, you got a
different generation of kids there. Youknow what I'm saying. Again, I
can do if I can call mecon, I can see who's next in

(06:38):
line is maybe a little nice,little gray haired lady. And oh,
so I show want that Heath Barkleypicture. Would you sign the Heath picture
for me? And you know,so on with the age gaps. But
now, for some reason, Iget a lot of a lot of the
sixty euros that really were into thefifty to sixty sixty fishly the six million

(07:03):
not a man, and they're nowand they're now sixty years old, right,
And they were saying I was,well, I had I was just
did one and hould that thought?Lee Majors is our guest on his eighty
fifth birthday. More with him comingup bizarre of talk Radio The Michael Berry

(07:23):
Show. I love you. Youknow I have heard that ever since that
that time. I always did itin that's studio. That's pretty Can I
get a Can I get a copy? You can get a copy of that?
Lee My gosh, but I justmentioned that. You guys pull that
up pretty damn quick. Team here. Wow, that's pretty mold to sing.

(07:46):
I mean, did you have abackground, I mean, I know
your theatrical background in Kentucky. No, not at all, not at all.
But you know when I when Iwhen when I saw the let's let
me just do this one thing becauseRyan Godsling, you know, he did
Barbie. Some people didn't think itwas their cup of tea. You know,

(08:07):
there was a lot of pink.And anyway, when he appeared on
the Academy Awards recently and did thatnumber, what a talented kid he is
singing and everything he did, Imean, he deserved that nomination, and
yet he got all the crap fromall of the you know, the people

(08:28):
about because none of the women evennominated. But he did high and above
everything that they did. To behonest with you, as an actor,
you know, he did it all. So how did it come about?
That you sang the theme song forthe Fog. Well, you know,
I Glenn Larson. I ran intohim at an airport back in I just

(08:56):
finished the six mill me a fewyears before and coming down escalator and he's
going up and he said, canI talk to you a minute? And
I said sure. So we metand he asked me if I want to
do another series. I said,well, what are you thinking about?

(09:16):
And he said, well, it'skind of like a stuntman that Moonlights is
a bounty hunter. I said,I'm in. You know why because he
already had six shows on the air, very successful writer. So we got
together and he had a place inHawaii, so we went over and I
was kind of over his shoulder mostof the time when he was writing it.
And we we cast Heather Thomas andthe young kid, Doug bar and

(09:43):
anyway, it was a great cast, good chemistry. But the song,
they said, you know you gotto do this because it's he's singing about
himself and you're it. You arehimself. So I said, well it
makes sense, you know, it'sit's said I. So I did it.
You know, I No, Iwasn't trained. I never was a

(10:05):
singer or anything, but I havedone it. But you know, I've
done some few things on some showshere and there. Who wrote it?
Which one, The Fall Guy waswritten by a friend of Glynn Larson's.
In fact, we sold the wholeseries on that song. We went to
the network, I think at ABC, and the guy said, okay,

(10:28):
what's it about? And he said, well, it's about a stunt man
Moonlight is a bounty hunter. Andhe played that song. He played the
song, but it had different names, and then you know, I had
older names and some people good.I'm just wondering. I opated the entire
thing and did it. But anyway, that's why it's in there, because
I felt I had to do it. Well. The fair Fawcet reference makes

(10:50):
it truly autobiographical. So I didn'tknow how involved you were, you know,
I put I put put the namein. Okay, I figured as
much. Yeah, was every namein there? I put in how much
of The Fall Guy was based onhow neat him? If at all?
On what on? How need him? The Great stunt Man? And then
actually nothing that I know of reallythat's I mean, you know, it

(11:15):
was just something Glenn thought of whichwould make let's do a stunt man.
You know, I tell you thebest stuntman of it. I mean,
how neat Im actually doubled Nick Berkleyin the Big Valley when we in the
pilot, when we've got dumped inthe river off that bridge, when we
met and and I can't recall mydevils, but how neat him doubled him.

(11:41):
So I've known him a long time. And of course he went on
to do all the Birch stuff,and what an amazing career. It's what's
incredible is punctured lung and broken backand all the things he did. Did
you know a lot of those stuntguys. I knew a lot of him.
And even when I started doing thefollow Guy, I tried to use

(12:01):
every stunt guy in the business onthe show at least once, and even
got to one that was about ninetyand all he had to do. I
said, come in. We downthe sports arena and it's a boxing thing.
Just stand right there with a bigbunch of bag of you know,
popcorns on a tray. I'm gonnacome by now. I'm gonna just bump
it popcorn. Let the popcorn go. Okay, okay, it's the biggest

(12:26):
thrill of his life. He gotto do he got to do this stunt
and he got us paid really goodfor it because it's scale at that point.
Yeah. Yeah, So eighty oneto eighty six, How does the
show come to an end? Wasit? Tom? Were you tired?
What? What? How did you? How did that? I don't know,
you know, it took We didthree TV movies before we went to

(12:50):
do a series, and each oneof them are pretty good. You know,
we got the chance to fiddle withstuff and make it even better because
the second one was it was ato James Bondi and I changed all that.
But anyway, we got it towhere we wanted it, and and
we went all those years. Butthe thing of it we went. We

(13:11):
went five years and then but thenafter they canceled it, we did three
more movies, three more Why didthey cancel it? Because people really liked
it, and so I remember wedid one in seventy four. They were
trying to make a new Bionic Girl, and we shot it up in Toronto,
and then we did this two hourmovie and everything, and of course

(13:35):
the network said, well that won'tgo to series because we don't think the
young girl can carry a series.It was Sandra Bullock. How little do
they know? Wow, Sandra Bullock. It was one of her first jobs.
So was that filmed in Canada?Was that filmed in Canada? Yeah?
In Toronto? Okay, because Itexted you with my ski guide buddy
and we were we were he wasa big fan and I said, he's

(13:58):
from Whistler and you said you hadfilmed something in Whistler. Do you remember
this? Yeah? But Toronto's wayon the other end. No, No,
I know, but I was justwondering because you made the Canada reference.
I can't remember what the movie wasthat you were in there. Oh,
it was probably Out Cold, that'sit. Yep, yep, yep.
And he had actually seen that moviebecause he was he was a nuts

(14:20):
face. They put me on anoutdoor toilet and sent me to sliding down
the hill. Well, you know, it's not all glamour and glory,
it's more The Fall Guy. Youtalk about the power of that franchise.
Forty years later, they didn't haveto call the movie The Fall Guy.
They could have just made a moviewith Ryan Gosley. Gosly, he can
carry a movie. The fact thatthey brought back that franchise as the label.

(14:43):
Let me give you what hold rightthere, we're up against a break.
Lee Majors is our guest on hiseighty fifth birthday. My question for
you coming out of the break isif you hadn't been one of the greatest
actors of all time, what wouldyou have been whole time? Two questions?
Well it is they did. You'reright, the early Majors is our
guests on his birthday. No less, he's eighty fifth. That's a big

(15:07):
one, he said. Ramoni saidduring the break, he said, how
about that watermelon Guy's got them linedup today four miles outside of center.
I bet you there's a long lineof people. Let's drive up there and
get them. You know, Iwas looking Lee, I didn't realize you
had been on The Virginian as RoyTate. I forgot it wasn't the Virginian

(15:31):
when I did it. It wasthe men from Shiloh. Yeah, you
know how that came about. I'lltell you really quick, if you want,
I would like Universal sign me toa contract to do my own series.
And then they couldn't come up withanything, so I said, you
know, would you mind going intothe Virginian for a season because I think
they needed one more badly for thispackage deal for reruns or something. So

(15:56):
I said, well, that's notmy own, like my own series.
He said, yeah, but yougoing to have your own character. Doug
McClure will do eight. It's arotating wheel of almost ninety minutes or something,
and you would do yours, andDoug McClure would do his, and
Jim Drury, who is the Virginia, will do his, and they won't

(16:17):
appear in yours, and you don'thave to appear in theirs. And then
I said, well, then whydoes mine have to be called the Virginian?
You know? So anyway they did, they changed they changed the name
of that show if they wanted meto do it. How cool is that?
Yeah, they changed it to TheMen from Shiloh, and Shilah was

(16:37):
the name of the ranch. Soanyway, that was kind of cool.
So about ten years ago, Ilook up on the screen, the call
screen and it says Jim Drury isthe caller, and I didn't think anything
of it, and Ramon said,hey, I think you want to take
call line one. He says,his name is Jim Drury, and you'll

(17:00):
know who that is, and Isaid, well, Jim Drury was the
Virginian and he's I said, buthe wouldn't be calling us. And he
goes back on. He says,you Jim Drury from the Virginian. I
sure am, and we put himon. You. Remember we talked for
the longest time. He lived herein Houston. He passed away a few
years ago, but he lived herein Houston. Think you Houston or Dallas.
I guess he was here at thetime. But he starts quoting the

(17:23):
show and that he listened to this, and he listened to that, and
I thought, well, that's thecoolest thing ever. I see you got
fans out there. Well, they'vegot fans that Lee Majors talking about the
watermelon Man. All Right. Weagreed that there would be certain things we
would not discuss because they're going tobe in your memoir. But I'm going
to discuss things that are not inthere in a moment. But first,

(17:44):
if you had not been an actor, what would you have liked to have
done. I would have been afootball coach, for sure. Yeah.
My whole life was sports, andI played for sports in high school and
then college football and everything. ButI wanted to coach football, really did.
And you even went after college.They tried to get you to try

(18:07):
out for the NFL. Well notso much, but you know I didn't.
I wasn't interested in going anywhere else. And then was it the Generals.
You were part of one of theUSFL teams, which which was the
La Express l Express. Yes,yeah, that started the whole thing with
the league USFL. And now they'vethe the USFL they have now is joined

(18:30):
with the other one and it's theUFL now. Yeah, but that USFL
y'all were doing, that was exciting. I mean that was Herschel Walker and
Jim. Yeah, and that wasone of the reasons that failed because well,
so the owner of the New Jerseywhat was it, the New Jersey

(18:51):
team. Yeah, there was supposedto be a salary cap, right,
you know, you can only paya player so much, and some of
the owners were slipping over that.You know, that's how they got Hergea
Walker up there, right. Andthat owner, who you don't want to
say, was not from so Ramond. I don't know if you remember.
We were at mar Alago and Trumpcomes bounding into our room where we're having
our dinner, and he says,you know, who do you have here?

(19:12):
And I tell him who all's hereand the whole thing, and oh,
we love Texas folks and all that. And I said, and I've
got Lee Major's right here, andhe just lit up. And it was
it was it was a moment.I mean it was you could tell there
was there was a lot of loveover the years. It took him back
to that place. I have've knownhim a long time because excuse me,

(19:33):
I lived in Florida for quite awhile after the oh guy, I took
took some time off and spent abouteight years in Florida. So another tax
free state. Right, Yep,you ended up in Houston. You're not
from Houston. How did you decideto stay here? Early Thomas who owned

(19:55):
the Rockets. At the time,I didn't know he owned the Rockets,
but I met him in Malibu.I had a house in Malibu and he
had one boat one also down theroad. And we met and became great
friends. And he said, whatdid you come to Houston? So my
wife and I Faith. We infact, I met Faith in Florida,
which is the best thing I evermet in my life. I honestly wouldn't

(20:19):
be here today if it wasn't forher to. And she's from palmbe she
was born there and raised by asingle mom. And I had two sisters,
one of which was unfortunately killed ina car wreck and up in Colorado,
you know the white out where allthese twenty cars file up in trucks,

(20:44):
two fatalities, and she was oneof them. And that's when I
was doing out cold. It wasin Whistler and got to call at midnight
and I have to break it toher and tell her how you know,
and try to get her back thereas quick as possible. So anyway,
that's it'll be in the book.I mean, I have I have heard
teal from friends of yours and friendsof Charlie Thomas's. The most people know

(21:10):
him as a car dealer and thenof course as the Rockets owner that if
you went to Charlie Thomas's ranch,Lee Majors was going to be there,
and that the poker games were legendary. Well they went really poker. It's
a little dice game that everybody couldplay. And so you have was rogue
dice. You know, it's itwas not a big deal, not a
big gamage. If you want twohundred bucks or lost two hundred bucks.

(21:32):
It was it, but it wasthe fun of the of the group,
you know how that is? Yeah, of course that that's that's the little
He had a little lake there onhis ranch out there. Plus's two hundred
plus cars that were in these warehousesout there. They were just beautiful home,
brand new. And he passed uhabout three years ago, and he

(21:53):
was eighty nine. He was wantingto make ninety so bad. Oh,
but you know, I think hemade it up there anyway, great man
and loved his Houston Rockets. Yeah, but you know, Charlie put together
that championship team. He got aLajat won, he got Ralph Sampson,
he got all those great players inthere. And then you know what,

(22:15):
he sold it and so the nextowner won it two years in a row.
Right, I said, Charlie,you did it again. He said
what I said, Well, youremember our houses we had in Malibu.
We both bought him around nineteen eighty. We sold them in eighty nine.
We bought them for the same price, and I think we sold them for
the same price. We thought wemade a little bit of money. And

(22:37):
then, of course, you know, forty years later the twenty million dollars
and it's the same stupid little house. Yes, but it was on the
beach its location, So Charlie,I said, you did it again when
he sold the rockets too early?Would he still go back to those games
the two championship seasons or was he? You know, I wasn't here then.

(22:57):
I mean I didn't come till likeI've been here twelve years now.
Okay, But he's the reason.He and his family, the Klay's family
are just wonderful. My second familymore or less, or my only family.
And you're cardiologists. Here are goodfriends, Dan, yeah, and
Duke and Lisa are they're best friends. And cardiology. It's always good to

(23:21):
drink wine with your cardiology. Yes, and here's a wine. Bill Floyd
will attest to that. Bill Floyd'slife was safe drinking wine with our cardiologist.
Lee Majors on his eighty fifth birthday, come out. It's Duck King
of Ding and this other guy,Michael Barry. In nineteen seventy, lisaid

(23:45):
he won't talk about it, butI'll tell the story again. I've told
her before. Jim Weatherley, agreat songwriter, called Lee Majors at home
in La and Farah Fawcett answered thephone and said, oh no, no,
sorry, Li said she's packing forthe Midnight playing to Houston. And
of course that song which Jim Weatherlyrecorded, ended up becoming Gladys Knight and

(24:10):
the Pips Midnight Trained to Georgia aftershe made some changes to the mode of
transportation and the destination, and ofcourse one of the biggest songs of all
time, another great Lee Majors song. He'll be in the book, right.
He always says he's not coming onthe show because I'll give away all
his secrets that are going to beon the book. But when this book

(24:30):
is, if I don't get thefirst interview, you know, I'm gonna
be very disappointed by the way I'mgetting some I got some folks calling Bull
on thee hundred dollars dice game.They said, I don't think a bunch
of rich guys got around, sataround and only played for one hundred dollars
a game, is that right?Uh huh? And then of course the

(24:56):
pot would double aver now. Butno, we were there for a couple
hours since just for fun, youknow, nobody was trying to make any
money on them. Nobody needed themoney. One of the you know,
I have the stories of getting toknow folks like you, and you've got
stories of getting to know folks overthe years. You told a story,

(25:17):
not to tell the whole story,but if you don't want to, but
I would love for you to ofSir Anthony, Hopkins and h and a
lunch y'all had one time when youlook back over your career and and and
guys like that, who are acouple of the folks that you go,
well, that that was that that'sa special one. You mean, just

(25:37):
that you really respect, that youadmire, whether they're the greatest actor or
not. Of course, Anthony,I was very fortunate to meet two or
three of my favorite, excuse me, most wonderful actors that I idlife growing
up more or less, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman. Oh well yeah,
and of course uh Eastwood was saying, because you know, he and I

(26:02):
piled around a little bit. Butbut McQueen, I spent a lot of
time with him, especially in thelast two years of his life in Malibu,
and we used to getting his oldpickup truck and go up towards his
Manacito and hit all the antique stories, by little stuff like those those little
steel toy cars and stuff, theheavy ones metal it's things like that.

(26:27):
And he would, in fact,when there is a book that his wife's
put out that's a big picture book, there's a picture of Steve and I
in it holding a beer by aplane, and that was the day that
he he so lowed on that byplane, like an old male plane,

(26:48):
you know. So and he alwaysdrank o Milwaukee beer. Of course.
I think I had a course andI don't know why, because we're getting
the pickup truck and that he hadthe worst parts. I mean all even
Steve McQueen's party had to be coolthough, because he's Steve McQueen. Yeah,

(27:11):
he was. He was a coolguy. We had had a lot
of fun on it. Unfortunately hepassed early to it's amazing. A friend
of mine emailed me during one ofthe first breaks and he said, man
Lee Majors was so cool to mefor so long that there's just like a
carryover effect. He would just alwaysbe cool. I would imagine Steve McQueen

(27:34):
till the end would just be still. There's still the essence. It's just
not necessarily it was not like beingcool. But it's just like, you
know, being yourself with someone youknow that's cool. I mean, if
you have to put some aside onit's not cool. You understand what I'm
saying. I do. I doanyway, And Paul Newman, you were

(27:56):
gonna have, well, Paul wasprobably always he was cool too. I
notice every time we got a picturemade, he'd always put his arm up
on my shoulder. And I don'tknow why. Maybe I was maybe a
couple inches taller than him. Yousaid, I was going to ask about
Florida Wild. So you've got amovie coming out in addition to The Fall

(28:18):
Guy, a movie we were talkingabout called Florida While that was filmed a
period piece from the eighteen eighties inFlorida. Tell me about that, Well,
first of all, let me tellyou about one in Gettysburg up in
Gettysburg, Presylvania. It's called GettysburgChristmas, which I did and it'll probably
be out sometime this next Christmas.And Florida whild is not not a spring

(28:41):
break picture as it may imply,but it's just it takes place in It's
in modern day Western but flashes backto the eighteen hundreds quite a bit.
The whole story takes place in theeighteen hundred, so I'd like to I'm
reading a journal at my place tosixty minutes, and so the interview takes

(29:04):
place and I started talking about readinghow the journal, and then he flies
back to what they were doing.Oh wow, it was like the reason
it's called Florida wild is it?Before there was a wild West? There
was a wild Floridas. You know, people always going west. They had
troubles and stuff. So did peoplecoming south, which they came south quicker
than they went to the West becauseof the weather. But they all had

(29:30):
the same trials and tribulations. Anyyou know, people coming to the new
in the New Country area. Soit's it's a good, good, good
little script. Nobody talks about Oklahoma, but the dust Bowl was pretty brutal
there for a long time. Justdoesn't make for great movie riding. Yeah,
anytime in Oklahoma. Only a honeythere. When I was in the

(29:51):
you know, in the seventies anda little bit of the eighties, heeded
Oklahoma the Grand National Quail Hunt.That was a fun thing I look forward
to every year. I even tookRoy Rogers back there. Once with me?
Is that right? I used totake a celebrity back with me every
time I go. That's cool.Yeah, you have been the celebrity that

(30:15):
has jump started the Houston film scene. You've done, You've mentored and been
a dear friend to my friend SeanWelling and have helped him get a lot
of movies made that that have broughtTom Sizemore to town, that have brought
some Lasarda to town. Yep,it's some of these great can Bernie's you

(30:36):
have. Why'd you do that?I think that's that's really good. It's
always good to help any young filmmakerin any situation. You know. I've
done a lot of stuff people don'tknow about there because there's smaller, smaller
roles and the smaller movies and theydon't have budgets, and I don't.
I mean, I'm available to dosome of those just for fun, you

(30:57):
know. But I've watched you onWelling films and you're not the guy,
you know, the guy who comesin and does his cameo and leaves.
You're rewriting the script, You're coachingother actors. I mean, you are.
You are engaged, and that's nota financial thing. That that's that's
obviously it's not financially no, ButI mean that that. I think that's

(31:18):
cool. I think that says moreabout you than any of the famous roles.
Thank you, thank you. ButI always was it that way.
In fact, my crew's the stakefor example, uh six mile and especially
fo guy am is uh. Youknow, if the coffee guy makes great
coffee and he's not, he justdoesn't fit in. He's belligerent and not

(31:42):
you know, not in part ofthe chemistry, he's gone. And because
we can teach you to make coffeeif you're if you're a great guy and
a team player, and that's whatit is. The crew has to be
a team player. You can't wastetime on people fiddling around not doing the
job, because we can find peoplewho can do the job. And I
think that's probably true for me.I made a lot of people directors.

(32:06):
I do give them a tech.Can you hold one more with us?
On his eighty fifth birthday, theGreat Lee Majors is our guests coming up.
If you have a question for him, email it through the website.
I'll do my best year. SouthernFried. Southern Fried to Michael Barry,
show seven months in cartersan prison.You know that seven months and the hell

(32:28):
ben Tell made Keith. The warhas been over for years, well,
not long enough to forget. Maybeyou don't want to forget, Jared,
Well, maybe you can tell mehow to forget maggotty food and putrid water
and floggings for complaining about it,or how to forget friends who died from
exposure and other friends who died becausemedical help was refused. I'm not saying
I could forget, but I wouldn'tbe out to murder Toddman. His name

(32:49):
is ben Tell, all right,ben Tell? But what will killing him
do besides get you hanged. Don'tstand there and defend him to me.
I'm not defending him. I'm protectingyou, Jared. There was seven hundred
and forty of us fighting in NewMexico. Almost half ended up in cartersan
less than one hundred walked out whenthe war was over. There's not a
jury in the state that would hangme. It's leave, majors the six

(33:16):
million dollars, Fan Senna. Isthere a back way out in this place?
Coursers leave, But this is onesenator for scoring out the front of
them, looking no matter of hillof beans, what happens to me,
The world couldn't afford it if anythinghappened to you. Now you stay putting.
Oh, that's very nice of yourleague, A league. You're being
a real good boy this year.Yes, you sure? Half congratulations.

(33:40):
You've just graduated from the most expensiveand therefore best school. There is discovery
there for the coman. Hello,mar John, Lee Majors. Will you
come away with me? Sure?I've gotta stop fantasizing about Lee Majors.
One morning? How we take over? Right up to your tail? Where

(34:06):
are you going? I want tothem arrivedtail, not yours anymore? You
lost it. That game was asquicking as the guy that was running it.
You can go back and tell yourboss. Our guest is Lee Majors,

(34:28):
on his eighty fifth birthday, thefirst person to use the word bastard
on live TV. That's uh,that's quite a record. I don't know.
Yeah, your mother would approve,But what did your mother think of
your acting career? They were quiteshocked and quite pleased with it. But
you know that that word was inthe original pilot. When I break into

(34:52):
the house and try to reclaim thatI am a Barkley and the whole family
is in the one room and I'mstanding there with a whiskey bottle holding them
back a little bit. And that'swhen I say, I mean, it's
in the script read I'm your father'sillegitimate son, and that's what they wanted

(35:13):
me to say. But it waswritten I'm your father's bastard son, which
is the word that was used backthen. It wasn't even yet. The
thing of it is, ABC didn'twant it to go on the air,
and so anyway, they finally gavein and so it was became that and
that was the first time. Youknow, I was pleased. I was
very lucky to only have three networksback in the day. So you know,

(35:37):
your audience is over locked in formany years. Yes, you know,
the three major networks, and Ithink that's true. We don't all
watch the same thing anymore. Butback then, well you didn't have many
you know, I had three options, and you know, so we captured
the audiences well. And I can'ttell you what's on prime time TV right

(35:59):
now. I've never watched I know, Parks and rec is one of the
shows. I've never watched any ofthese shows. Parks and what parks and
rec it's a it's a song.I did one of those. You didn't
want to Yeah, you'll leave itthere. Listen. I did probably every
show on if you looked up whatlittle ones I did, I guess it
on every one of those shows.Uh, we've we've talked. We've spent

(36:24):
time discussing the state of our union, the state of our nation, and
you care about it as much asanybody. Your thoughts on where we are
as a nation and politically, well, you know, if you just look
around, just look around, justyou know, the major media will not

(36:46):
cover a lot of the stuff that'sgoing on. That's that's so the majority
of people don't really get to seethe actual stuff. Now. I hate
to say it, but I haven'ta problem. Fox Watcher, Fox News
Channel, they give it to youstraight, they give it to you honestly,
and they give you the other side. I know that CNN and MSNBC

(37:09):
and those they only I would tuneover to them and they'd be on something
else. They don't cover what's goingon now. I mean, you know,
these colleges are going crazy, campusesand the border is wide open.
I mean, we don't know withall the Chinese nationals and all the people,

(37:29):
the getaways, millions of them.I tell you this administration will have
blood on their hands when the nextnine to eleven hits. That's for sure,
it's going to happen. And Ithink I would love to put forty
five back. Then that's forty seven. I agree, And I think we're

(37:50):
at that pivotal point where we can'tafford to get it wrong. Does you
know when I talk to guys likeyou, who are legends of the screen
and of music, there's this sortof frustration that the guys who've come in
their wake don't share the love ofthis country, their understanding. Does that
bother you? You see young Hollywoodand what most of them are. Yeah,

(38:13):
they don't. They don't care.They don't care. They weren't raised
the way we were raised. Youknow that. I mean my mother dragged
me to church Sunday school, hadto do that for an hour before I
go up into the here another hourof the main ceremony, you know,
which was to me it was alot of singing and long winded speech.

(38:34):
But as a seven six year old, you know that's what you get.
But I did discover in the basementabout Holy Communion because me and another little
kid we found where they kept thegrape Jess and the rich crackers. On
the Communion day, we had aball and then we went up there.
Oh my god, that's what thosewere for, right you? Uh yeah,

(38:54):
I better not. I bet Ibetter not even Uh yeah, I
don't go there. Lee. Itis a It is an absolute honor to
be with you on your eighty fifthbirthday. You have been very kind to
me and my wife and my kids, and it is a real deep honor

(39:16):
to get to call you a friend. It really is happy birthday, my
friend. Thank you, feel myfriend, h And we will have you
back for your memoir. And thereare lots of stories that you haven't allowed
me to tell yet, but thatwe will get to and I assure you
people will enjoy those a great deal. You're the best moment. Thank you

(39:42):
be at the basis that I getfrom the show that I don't seem to
get from other places, the MichaelBarry Show. Well, I'd love to
play the Beastie Boys, Lee Majorscome again, but I don't think that
I don't think that would pass thecensorsh exactly, but it's flattering. It's
still flattering to be mentioned in theBastie Boys title, even if well,

(40:07):
you know, well that was fun. That's not every day you get to
hang out with Lee Majors on hiseighty fifth birthday in studio. I mean,
whow we did. We did recordduring the first break, because I
wasn't sure how long Lee was goingto stay. We did record for a

(40:28):
few minutes. We'll play that nowand then this will be our last Lee
Majors segment, and then we'll moveon to the rest of the program.
Here's what we talked about during thatbreak, all right, you were telling
me Indianapolis Comic Con. Yeah,I mean in the green room waiting to
go do some sign autographs all dayfor the fans. And the promoter came

(40:49):
over to me and he said,look, I have a gentleman that when
you did a opening of a Toysr Us in Milwaukee back in somewhere in
the eighties. And he went therewith his dad and the line was out

(41:10):
the door, naturally, and aroundthe block, around another block, and
around another block. He waited andwaited and waited, and I was only
supposed to be there for two hours, and then I had booked a flight.
Richard Anderson was with me from thestart of the other star of the
show, so I had to catcha plane and we're trying to figure how
we're going to get out of here, and the police were kind of holding

(41:35):
him back a little bit, andwe ended up in a dead end place
and the chief got to call onhis radio and said, Chief, Chief,
you're not gonna believe this. They'reout there jumping up and down on
our new police car and they wereabout to riot out there. Yeah,
and anyway, we got out ofthere, but he said, this kid
didn't make it, and he's he'sbeen waiting fifty years to meet you,

(41:59):
and he's coming. He's going tobe here in any minute. And I
said, well, sure, bringhim in. So he came in,
this little fellow, and he hada T shirt on that said I waited
fifty years to meet Lee Majors.Oh wow, and this is my day.
And so I took pictures with him, signed his T shirt and everything.

(42:23):
But it's stories like that that yousuddenly realized that you've done something that's
meant something to a lot of people. I have people in line that are
waiting while I'm signing. They'll tellme, you know, I became this,
you know, and whether it wasmilitary aviation or you know, just
in prosthetics and stuff, I becamethis because of you and your character.

(42:49):
I mean, it wasn't really me. It was the character they are loved,
were that I was able to bringhim to life. To them,
who was that for you when youwere a kid, Well, you got
to go back to the fifties forme to go to movies, and that
was all black and white cowboy movies, westerns, Roy Rogers and Geene Archery,

(43:10):
Lone Ranger, and Durrango Kid.I don't know if you remember the
Durrango Kid. He did sixty sevenmovies as the Durrango Kid. Now many
people know that. I didn't realizeit was that minute. I watched the
documentary on Clint Eastwood this weekend,and I didn't realize he did eighteen spaghetti
westerns. That's a lot. Well, he started on you know Raw High,

(43:31):
right, Well, you know theyshot that series the same series as
I shot The Big Valley on andthey also did gun Smoke there for which
eighteen to twenty years. I gotkilled on that one. Anyway, you
know, Burton and Clint. Theygot released the same day, and they're

(43:52):
walking out of the studio and Clintsays to Bert, where they let you
go? Bert said, they saidI couldn't act, he said to Clint.
He said to Clinton, But wherethey let you go? Clint?
He said, they said my Adam'sapple was too big. Bert said,

(44:15):
well, I can learn to act. That's pretty good. So Eastwood,
in the middle of an interview inthis documentary, said that they told me
I had squeaty eyes, a pinchedface and my Adam's apple was too big.
That's true. And I thought,well, that's the dumbest thing ever.
I mean, this guy goes onto be, you know, to

(44:37):
do some amazing things. Your episodeon gun Smoke, How cool was that?
Because I got to think, havingbeen a fan of it, to
get to be on it would bespecial. Well, gosh, yeah,
let me tell you. I gotshot in front of the Long Branch Saloon
by supposedly Jim Arness Matt Dillon,but you know what, it was not

(45:00):
really Jim Warrenett. I never metJim Harness. He had done that show
for like almost nearly twenty years bythen, and he was over in Hawaii.
He couldn't be bothered, and hehad They had this perfect double who's
like six seven, same as heighthe was, and you couldn't tell the
difference, same outfit, and ifhe's a distance away, you couldn't tell.

(45:22):
So this guy killed me. Hisdouble killed me, and that was
it. Good times. I wasreading through some of your emails while the
interview was playing. Some good storiesin there. It's funny how people can
remember a very small detail. Oneperson I can't remember a man or a

(45:45):
woman. Their dad was Charlie Thomas'sboat captain, and he remembers taking Lee
Majors out on on on a boatoffshore the oasis I remember, I can't
remember the name of it. Butit's it's funny how people will remember the
smallest of details in such distinct details. One woman sent an email about her

(46:10):
dad working on set on the filmcrew at Paramount when The Big Valley was
being filmed, and she has storiesto tell about all that. When Lee
left after the segment, Ramone camein here and Emily had gotten him these

(46:32):
petaphores with Happy Birthday all over them. But he's you know, he's still
a vain actor at eighty five,he still wants to look good. He's
like, you know, I can'teat that, and I said, I
know. It was the thought.Doesn't it look cool? Though? Yes?
He said, why don't you sendthat to the kids. So Ramone
came in to scoop it all upso that he could take it home,

(46:53):
and he said, you do realizewe could sell this bottled water because has
Lee Major's DNA on it. AndI said, that's wait a second,
I wonder what that'd be worth.We could have got him to half eat
one of the petaphores, but butI think the water would be worth more

(47:15):
because a pedophre would go bad,whereas the water. You know, you
go to some rich dude's house,he's you know because the guy that buys
out he wears gold chains and goldnut from on this pray before your time.
But do you remember when guys wouldwear gold nugget jewelry. I mean
that would be a deal that havea I guarantee you some people listening right

(47:37):
now, I guarantee you Skip Hartley, He's honest. Skip Hartley has some
gold nugget jewelry like ring jewelry.And it was just it was it kind
of looked like gnarl Ti tree branches, but people wore that back then.
I was too young to be ableto afford one, or I would have
had one too, But it wasjust a little phase, just for a
few years there that people would weargold nugget jewelry. Yeah, well,

(48:00):
whoever that guy is, whoever ownsthat, is the guy that would probably
give us the highest dollar value andhave it in a case you go,
hey, what's this? Have drinkwater bottling? That's Lee Majors DNA and
and don't mess with that on trialand it frees it just in case.
If you like the Michael Berry Showand Podcast, please tell one friend,

(48:22):
and if you're so inclined, writea nice review of our podcast. Comments,
suggestions, questions, and interest inbeing a corporate sponsor and partner can
be communicated directly to the show atour email address, Michael at Michael Berryshow
dot com, or simply by clickingon our website Michael Berryshow dot com.

(48:45):
The Michael Berry Show and Podcast isproduced by Ramon Roeblis, The King of
Ding. Executive producer is Chad Knakanishi. Jim Mudd is the creative director voices
Jingles Tomfoolery and Shenanigans are provided byChance McLean. Director of Research is Sandy

(49:10):
Peterson. Emily Bull is our assistantlistener and superfan. Contributions are appreciated and
often incorporated into our production. Wherepossible, we give credit, where not,
we take all the credit for ourselves. God bless the memory of Rush
Limbaugh. Long live Elvis, bea simple man like Leonard Skinnard told you,

(49:37):
and God bless America. Finally,if you know a veteran suffering from
PTSD, call Camp Hope at eightseven seven seven one seven PTSD and a
combat veteran will answer the phone toprovide free counseling.