RERUN: Bruce Boxleitner: The Scarecrow and Ms. King Years, Part 1

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, eighties TV listeners, as we hope you know, Susan
and I are both in the middle of moving. So
for the next few episodes, we're going to revisit some
of our favorites. First up, Bruce Box Lightner Part one, Enjoy,
see you on the other side.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Weirding, Weird Medium, Eighties so Pretty Babies.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
To the City god.

Speaker 4 (00:36):
Man World.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Welcome to eighties TV Ladies, where we look back in
order to leap forward.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Here are your hosts, Susan Lambert had him and Sharon Johnson. Hello.
I'm Susan and I'm Sharon. I'm so excited for today's episode. Sharon.

Speaker 4 (00:56):
You know, I first became aware of our next guest
when I was like a young child watching the late
seventies television western very loosely based on the nineteen sixty
two cent around a film of the same name, A
little show called How the West was one. He played
a young Luke mccahan, and I thought he was cute, cute,
little cowboy.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
I never saw that mini series. Oh it was good. Well,
it was like a two hour pilot.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Oh okay. Then it was a mini series, and then
it was a show, and then it was canceled.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah, I never saw any of it. I wasn't watching
a lot of TV then I was in school. You're
talking about Bruce box Lightner, of course. And I first
remember him from Scarecrow, Missus King. Really yeah, I don't
remember seeing anything that he was in before that, So
Gambler I didn't apparently didn't watch that. But what a
great way to start learning, you know, seeing I mean

(01:49):
scro miss King is a pretty good start.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:52):
You and Melissa got to meet him in person, told
him that we'd love to get him on the show,
and he said, yes, he's been working in traveling, but
we were finally able to get Bruce box Lightner on
the line. Bruce box Lightner is a prolific actor, most
known for his hit television shows How the West Was Won,

(02:13):
Scarecromis Is King, Babylon Five, and The Gambler TV movies.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
He was also the title star of Disney's eighty sci
fi movie Tron, which has spawned a franchise of movies,
TV animation, and a Disney park ride. A Disney Park
ride that's crazy, A great Disney park ride, if I
must saying, I have.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
Not ridden on it yet because it's not out here
in California, all right. Mister box Lightler has been in
over one hundred and forty two movies and shows, more
recently playing presidents in Supergirl and The Orville and voicing
John Sheridan in the animated film Babylon five, The Road
Home John Sheridan being the role he played in Babylon

(02:57):
five TV show.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
He just guest star on Blue Ridge the series, and
what a treat it is to have him on the
show with us. Welcome to eighties TV ladies, mister Bruce Boxleitner.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Thank you, Sharon, Thank you for the Suizan. We are
so thrilled to have you. Thank you. We finally made it.
Yeah about this, I know, I so appreciate you taking
the time. So, Bruce, you were on the hit show.

Speaker 4 (03:23):
Yeah, playing Lee Stetson on Scare Chromis is King the
eighties hit show. What are some of your favorite memories
or moments at the time when you were making it
that you remember like, oh, this is great compared to
now looking back at.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
It, Oh my gosh, And how many years has that
been ns for forty one, nineteen eighty three, yes, right
through eighty seven. I personally think ed Katie not got nil.
I think we would have still had a couple at
least a few more seasons in there. They tended to
stay with you, and I think we never left the
top twenty five or thirty somewhere in between there. That

(03:58):
was very good for network television back in those days,
believe me. But some of my favorite memories is getting
the job that I haven't talked about too much. I
had done this show called Bring Them Back Alive the
year before Frank buck yeap freak Fuck, and we were
trying to ride on the coattails the television want to

(04:19):
ride the coattails of Raiders and Velost Dark fame those
type of shows because it used to be the movies,
the big movies, and then television would try to do
some kind of TV version of that. And always with
whatever the trend was, whether it was James Bond, you
had the Man from Uncle, and you had what was
the great one with Mayan a rig a British one,

(04:40):
the Avengers. Anyway, so I struggled mightily, had a wonderful
Cassa and when Cindy and I did more Tron together,
the original Tronto was the only of a year earlier.
They were looking for this an actress that it could
play that kind of nineteen thirties kind of gal could
fit that kind of look, you know, the dresses, the

(05:02):
order of the makeup, all of that sort of thing.
And I thought of Cindy, and so we had Cindy Aboard.
We got her and Clyde kazatsu Ron who played hh
his highness. Yes, he was great. It was silberbly, you know.

Speaker 5 (05:19):
Yeah, Yes, that show was so impressive. It was very
and we never went on a location. We only went
out of a place called Indian Dunes out here, which
was near where Magic Mountain theme Park hits now, but
that's where movies shot for Jungle Sequences. And and then
we also had the back lot of Columbia there.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
They had a pond, we had New York Street, we
turned into the old Singapore, and we had the Raffles
Hotel and all those things. So anyway, long story short,
we struggled mightily for the ratings, and I only came
in number two every Tuesday night. I was up against
another eighties great early eighties and late seventies, which was

(05:59):
the tenth season of Happy Days. To beat. It was
very hard to beat. You know, that was a family
show that I've been well entrenched in the American psyche,
you know, and doing habits. So anyway, I was on
the phone to Bud Grant, the head of CBS, at
least once a week, going, I know, we can get better, Brady,

(06:20):
I know, just give us one more, give us what.
He stuck it out as long as he could, and
eventually I just realized we went off in like eighteen
episodes or something like that, and that was a blow
to me. That was my first stepping out on my
own as a lead of a TV series. But Bud
did say this, He said, you know, since we did
this on a handshake, and that's how we did the

(06:42):
contract back then, how we did the deal in an
office with a handshake. Did people do that anymore? I
would always be careful if I have my hand after
I know, chok it. Anyway, Let's say, we'll find you
something better. And I went, well, that's wonderful thing, thank
you so much, and he said, no, we'll find something
five that works. Don't worry about it. So I don't

(07:06):
know the real time frame here, but I did get
two scripts. One was called The Yellow Rose and the
other one was this quirky title called Scarecrow and Miss
Is King the first time, and I found out that
former Charlie's Angel Kate Jackson was going to be starring
in it and the role was for her leading man.

(07:29):
And this other one was a contemporary sort of what
Yellowstone has turned into wouldn't not as violent, but and
it had Sybil Shepherd as the lead, Sam Elliott blah
blah blah, big ensemble piece. And of course I was
living on a horse ranch at the time. I was
very into that sort of thing, that lifestyle, and I thought, oh,

(07:51):
this is wonderful. And I kept looking at this pink script,
pink pages and blue and I kept going, and there
is something here to change up. I'd been already been
on How the West was one for three four years,
and so I looked at this script and I started
laughing from the first moment I started reading, and it

(08:12):
just captured me. And this is the magic that the
Brad and Eugenie brought to it. The writing was very quoky,
I thought, you know, just funny, and it was adventure
to it, mystery, and this wonderful relationship between a guy
that wanted nothing to do with this woman he just
he had used her in this paper and then never

(08:33):
thought he'd ever see her again. And there she was anyway,
and there slow the relationship, you know, was always it
was a thirty screwball comedy with some James Bond and
some whatever in there, and a great ensemble. You know,
I thought, you know, Martha, No, Stuart was the best.

(08:54):
I mean, I miss him so much, you know, I
wish he could be at these conventions. He would be
love every minute of this, I want to tell you.
But he made me laugh more than anybody I've ever
worked with since. And that was a daily basis. And
of course Bumberly Garland, oh my god, she was the
screen queen of the fifties man, I mean she and

(09:17):
she did everything, and she had this great settling effect
on the cast. So when everybody got a little hypertension,
come all right, calmed down, everybody, and they were just
Mom just talked right, Mom just chewed us all up. Anyway,
I met with Kate and I forget the guy's name that,

(09:38):
oh gosh, that directed the pilot, but he was renowned
for selling a lot of pilots. So we were in
an a team year. She and I had to work
on these scenes together, and we were to go before
the all the network heads, all the chiefs, all the
big mucket muncks. Was this first screen test? No, this

(10:01):
was a live performance. Nice. Yes, Now you have to
understand our audience were television executives, will have no imagination,
no sense of humor. And we brought in three scenes

(10:22):
and I just immediately knew with Kate that this was, oh,
this was something else, because Kate had that quality of
the great eating ladies of those golden age of Hollywood movies.
Hepburn and you know all of them that were just
boom boom boom. She could just motor off, called her
motor mouths. Anyway. Did you call Martha Smith chatty? That's

(10:46):
true too, Yes, So she was chatty and she was catty, Okay,
I mean it wasn't. It wasn't brand scene always. Yes,
I had an attitude, I mean did she not? Anyway,
So we did those three scenes and we had these
hardened television executives laughing openly, wow, grudgingly too. You know,

(11:15):
they don't want to row. We're very serious. People, were
professionals here. You can't make us, you can't make us laugh,
you know, I mean and we did it all and
we had such a joyous time. I was so high
off the experience. They said very nice to see, thank
you so much, blah blah blah. But then they don't
want to give away and say you're the guy, right,

(11:36):
you got to go through all the erasmetasm. But this
was a television city. Ceb has dond Beverly and I
literally walked out the wrong door onto the roof of
the building. I was in a daze. It was an
overwhelming experience because I was like, I failed, and then
I come in and we get this big win with

(11:57):
the same network that canceled me. And I literally walked
out on this roof and there's Beverly Boulevard and there's
Fairfax and I went whatt that? And the guy down
in the in the in the guard shack there goes, wait,
what are you doing up there? I don't know. It
was right out of it. It was right out of

(12:18):
a leashed stets and adventure right there. So they had
to come in because the doors didn't open from the outside.
It was one of those you know, the top of
a building. Anyway, I got back home and we waited
and waited, and then the word came uh. The pilot
was a go a green linnet and Kay night just

(12:43):
clicked right from there on. I think it shows right
in the pilot at some of my favorite stuff, the
stuff that did that Brad and Eugenie. They wrote such
great humor. It was quirky. I don't think this was
nineteen eighties television. Yet we stood like, right, Happy Days
was not quirky. Right, it was straight on sitcom, but

(13:06):
ours had you know. And then we shot on location
in the first in the pilot, and so some of
my fondest memories, to go back to your earliest question
was from that very first time. Because it was so new,
we would later even I think we even got better
as an ensemble. That's natural. We were given time to

(13:27):
really bond and really find each other and find each
other's rhythms. I always knew, and I have never had
this experience before. My theater experience was the only thing
I had. It was slightly close to Kate was able
to go off script and oftentimes she fires her passed
the material okay, which was wonderful. But then I found

(13:49):
out I could go with her. She'd start the lead
and off I'd go with her, and then pretty soon
we're doing stuff that is not on the written page.
Not a lot. I don't want to emphasize that it
was a lot, but it was just enough to make
those two. I think what you all loved about those
characters is those a little bit in between moments. I

(14:11):
called them the reach over to touch and then reluctant.
This was also the time of the couples. You know,
we already had heart to heart, and then Remington Steele
was on I think on already. I think it was
either a season before us, I'm not sure. And then
we had My worst day is when Moonlighting premiered. Big difference,

(14:37):
big difference that Kate saw that. Kate saw Cheryl or
what's her name, Syriel and this new guy, Bruce Willis,
and she wanted our show to be that way. I
did too. Yeah, we loved that, but it was a
nine or ten o'clock hour. We were an eight o'clock hour,
you know. Well, to be fair, I think Remington Steel

(14:58):
had the same problem. So yes he did. Yes, it did. No,
I think we all saw this and that was the
brilliance of their writer. I'm Karen. Our show had a
very solid audience, I'm sure. I can't tell you how
many times people have come up to me. And you know,
it was like one of those shows because it was
the eight o'clock hour, younger people sat with mom, my,

(15:22):
mom and dad. It was family television at its best,
I think. And we provided a delightful, funny hour and
we brought some adventure and we wrapped it up at
the end. You know. But we would have these conferences
about how long are we going to sustain this sexual tension?

(15:43):
And the fans were split and they were still going.
We didn't have you know, email at our x or
anything like that. Now are you happy about that or
sad about that? I'm actually happy about that. I don't
know how they do it now. Yeah, And they liked
the the opening numbers, the Nielsen ratings. What leads you

(16:04):
in is important. And then after your show, your numbers
to lead into the next one, right, or do people
just all of a sudden turn the channel. Right? That's
what you have sleepless nights about. But I think what
we worried about the most is that we wanted the
fans to continue to love Lee and Amanda. And we
would sit I mean, I got vividly in my mind's I.

(16:26):
Kate and I are sitting in our chairs going no, I
don't think they should. I think we need to sustain
this lart. No, no, they want us to kiss. And
I was always the one going no, no, I think
we need to sustain. I'm with you on that, Bruce.
I was. It was a tough one. Yeah, hold on,

(16:50):
I lost my ears. Hold on. This is so scarecrow,
isn't it. I think you should show me fuddling around
with technology. I think it's anyway, it is very scared crow, though.
I do think it's very scarecrow. Imagine you know, the
spinoff we could have done years later was now we

(17:12):
do have cell phones and internets and everything, and how
would they have adapted? Yeah to this world when the
boys are growing up and going, oh my god, dad, Dad,
let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.

Speaker 4 (17:30):
We're about to move to a new house, and we've
decided to gift ourselves in this move all new sheets
and towels.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
But the sheets.

Speaker 4 (17:38):
I'm going to use our twenty one percent off discount
at Cozy Earth to get some amazing soft bamboo sheets
for our new house. You can go to eighties TV
Ladies My Deals link in the show notes to see
all our eighties TV Ladies deals. Use promo code eighty
TV Ladies and get twenty one percent off Cozy Earth.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
We're back. Let's jump right in the good memories of
this Washington d C. We're driving around. I had a
sixty three or speedster that died every other take in
the middle of Washington d C traffic. Oh no, that's

(18:20):
why I'll reveal to you. That's why. When we got
a new stunt team in after the second sea I
think it was the second season, I still had that
when did I kill that car? Yes, you killed the car,
I believe in the second season. Yes, just like the
old cowboy movies, the star cowboy has to have a

(18:41):
fantastic horse and have a name, you know. So in
this Gary Davis, my stunt double who auditioned for me,
right in front of everybody, he took a motorcycle at
top speed and laid it down across the Columbia Studios
parking lot and got up and was Okay. He did

(19:03):
all my motorcycle driving, you know, all that stuff we
had to do like over in Europe and stuff. I mean,
he could literally go on camera and did a number
of times as me and you all probably didn't realize
it that it was him doing it. They didn't want
to have me, you know, go and get kped I killed.
So anyway, he said, you need a car. This was

(19:25):
the eighties. Cars are very important. Eighties Ladies was car
chases were very big. Come on every show had we
had the eighteen, We had all these things, Magnum, add Up, Ferrari,
all those guys. So Gary Davis says, we got the
perfect thing. It's all engine and fiberglass and it'll go.

(19:48):
And it's just that the fact was that I'm six
foot two and a half trying to fit that on
like a pair of pants. You think that poor spinster
was something. God, I'd have to drive up and jump
out right like I'm coming out of a pair of
fiberglass pants of some sort, trying to get one leg
out of the car. I had to master that. I

(20:09):
actually rehearsed that more than I did some scenes sometimes.
But anyway, I got that Corvette eighty four Corvette. My
brother had one of those. My brother had an a
Corvette and it, like you said, it was all engine,
And I mean we always had you know, a lot
of retired police as our security when we did stuff

(20:30):
out on the streets, like chase scenes and stuff like that.
And I delighted in doing eighty down a thirty mile
an hour thing with Cake so and I just put
the I loved because I went right by the cops,
go bat. You know, I'm stunned how many stunts they
let you guys do. Yeah, we did it a lot.

(20:52):
I did always the medium and the close ups of
all my fight scenes, and that means I had to
hit the ground too. That's why I'm a physical wreck
today in my seventies. I'm paying for all that youthful
vigor like James Garner did. Yes, James Garner, all those guys. Also,
I had two great guys, Gary Davis and a guy
named Tom Morgum. And Tom and I had this thing.

(21:15):
We called it the Old Switcher root. So Lee jumps
down on a roof and then he jumps down behind
a pile of packing crates, and then I come around
the other side. Now it has to be time, just perfect,
so that your mind links. He goes falling down, boom
boom through me, beat beat beat, I would come around right.

(21:36):
You have to have enough time. You can't just instantly
come jumping out, and we would do that with the
high walls, so they didn't let me go. Over all
the little tricks of the trade, you know, the fight
scenes which I had every week, we had to choreograph.
They were always done at the end of the day,
unless Katie had to be right in the middle of it.
She usually came in with the frying pan and hit

(21:57):
the bad guy in the head, just as I've just
had the crap kicked out of me for you know,
fifteen by. But we also had a gag meal of
Scarecrow losing his gun. It was a highly trained operative
United States Government, right I was in the agency. I
was trained. I was a marksman. I could hit anything,

(22:18):
I couldn't shoot. I could do everything, but somehow I
would have to lose the gun and the last thing.
So we could sort of do the bad guys with
a bad guy girl whatever without shooting them, without shooting them. Yes,
and Kate had used her house wipe fleet. Yes, I'll
just pull this and the hole the barrels will come

(22:40):
down on top. But it was so very clever, it
was choreographed. We did lovely. Yeah, and to think we
made a movie every seven days, right, eight days. Actually,
I'm going to reveal something on Warner Brothers books. Scarecrow
came in at a seven day shoot once once in

(23:02):
four years. They're a little scoopy, you know, very scoopy.
I don't work there anymore. Nobody I know works there anymore.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
You mentioned a few minutes ago briefly about shooting in
Europe that one season. What was that like for you?

Speaker 2 (23:20):
Oh, Sharon, that was that. That's one of the great
adventures of my life. Nineteen eighty four, the Olympics came
to Los Angeles. They're about to come again. Since we
shot in the La Area, in specifically the Valley, for
the most part, we would go to Europe. It was
amazing because that was my first time ever going to Europe.

(23:41):
We went specifically to Munich, Germany. I think we shut
four episode five episodes over there in the time. Yeah,
we also had a writer strike stop us, so we
were stuck in Munich, Germany because we were supposed to
move on to Salzburg, Austria. Munich was so much better.
And there we were and when you get let the children,

(24:03):
we have nothing to do but play. Yes, I know,
Munich very well. So apparently does Martha. Yes, Martha does
she does? Is she talk? Yes? We've had a few parties,
so I never know Martha was going to bring next.
But anyway, that's another story. It was fun if we

(24:24):
were young. We're in our thirties and you were on
the hit show. We're on a hit show. We were
in Europe with per diem money to spend because they
had to keep us there because this strike I think
it went two weeks or something. Oh my god, we
needed to go back to work. We were going to
be in a real bad shape. Other way, I was

(24:44):
out all nights. We were out all night. There were
places we went to, these night clubs and Martha and
I will we went well swimming with us, I'll be
the guest stars. We were in a place in Munich
that wasn't We walked into the bad place. Not a
bad place, but the punk rock scene in there was
very scary back in those days, very scary, and Martha

(25:09):
and I had to I had to grab Martha's hand
and get her out of there, and we ran for
a cab. I remember that. It was right out of Scarecrow.
I swear to god. Yeah, we had to there were
some nasty characters in there. I mean, it was crazy,
and of course they were. They well, they thought Martha
was great, but they all wanted to have Martha there

(25:31):
and anyway, she was loving it until she wasn't and
we got out of there. You had to rescue, like Scarecrow.
I did. I'll admit something. I had to hit a
guy to get him off of her. Oh wow, that
was like Scarecrow. Wow. And we ran like hell and

(25:52):
got out of there, and there were people that helped
us get out of there. Yeah, I doesn't remember that.
We were laughing so hard too, how we had walked
into this and got ourselves in there. Everybody wanted to dance, though,
and it was like banging where you're banging into each
other and that kind of oh my god, it wasn't
my style stuff and it was just deafening noise and

(26:20):
it was but she wanted to go so but I
know we had some other people there, but we all scattered.
I think Martha went to London or something like that.
She was dating a guy. I think she had boyfriends all. Yeah,
she had quite a wild time. She told us a
little bit wonderful And you worked with Geene Stapleton and

(26:42):
Jeane Stapleton. There we were in the Alps. Gosh, I
wish she could have stayed for more episodes. I think
she would have been I don't know what her deal
was professionally with with it. She had reoccurring but I
think every time she was on it was such a
fun episode. I remember the one where we turned the
house into a KGB.

Speaker 4 (27:02):
I love that, you guys were, Yes, that was a
very quintessential Scarecrow episode and she was fantastic because she
got to play the Russian agent and it was wonderful,
you guys us.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
She used going to Austria as well, I'm going to
you know what, what, how many days do I have off?
But we don't need to see we don't need you
for four days. And so we were tourists. I mean
we were in the car driving and going all over
all over the part of Europe. You know, while we
had the time off on the weekends, we always hit

(27:39):
the road. Of course, on when you're on location, you
work six days a week, so Sunday we raised hell.
You were working with Juanita Bartlett by this point, loved
Can you talk tell us more about working with her.
I'm a huge fan of as much as as much
as I loved at Eugenie. They left the show very

(28:01):
early on, okay, And I want to always say they
laughed all the way to the bank afterwards. So whatever
that I didn't get myself into the whatever was going
on politically within the studio and everything and that. Anyway,
he departed and we had this wonderful woman h and

(28:23):
her great writing staff, Steve Hadman, greatest story guy. They
all came from the Rocker Files, you know. Yes, And
she used to tell me, She used to say to me,
you're very much like Jim. Oh really, yes, Yeah, I
don't ever have to go along dialogue beanings, whatever you

(28:45):
handed me. It's always been my well I thing, And
it's sort of She said that Jim Garner told her this.
He said, my job is to do the dialogue that
you sat up all night doing, started with a little
germ of an idea, and then you went on and
created this. It's my job to do every word, every word.

(29:07):
I just suddenly start talking off script, which I'll refer
to what I earlier said. I was very much of
that school ety not so much. I mean that she
and this is not a bad thing. I'm just saying
that she had that great improvisational skill to be able
to end character leap right off the written word, and

(29:28):
I'd have to leap with her because otherwise it wouldn't
be any sense. But I always try to get us
right back to But Jim Garner said it that my job.
And if I just and if I can't do it,
if I just can't make it real, then I'm going
to ask, how can we make this real for me?
How does it work? Coming out of my mouth? I mean,
you know, those characters become you, ladies, they become the character,

(29:51):
the character becomes you. This is my personal view, but
I've said it before. I think the European episodes probably
some of the best because it just fit in Europe.
It just fit trying to get her. How do we
logically get her over to Europe to have all these misfits?
I mean there we were, you know, Buckingham Palace in England,

(30:11):
in London. We were in the real New Scotland Yard building.
We use that when I had to do this interrogation
of the mongooche. Never end. He was an expad American
actor over there. The legend Blas Skeysters. That's probably one
of my favorite episodes. That's a great episode. I had

(30:33):
to try to put Scarecrow in all my magnificent suits.
That Jimmy Lapitez. I want to give him credit too.
I did not like my wardrobe in the first seasons.
End of second season, we got a brand new guy
because they were having to do hers Martha's and it
just got overwhelming. And I forget his name, wonderful older gentleman.

(30:59):
I had been in the studio since you know, yeah,
I'll be World War two. I had these clunky sweaters
and punky. I looked too ivy leagueish. If you want
to make that guy who was running around Europe realistic,
he was going to be in nice European suits. I
had every suit when we went to Europe. The first
three days I was there, I was in Seville Row

(31:22):
in London. I was getting outfitted for everything with suits
made for me. Now, at least Utson would have had that. Yeah,
for sure. He was always a faker, you know that.
He always tried to come up silk cotton netal and
he was not. He was an army brat, you know,
raised in a Midwestern base anyway, you know that stuff,

(31:43):
that story. But that's when my wardrobe they went, no, no,
that's one of these weird shorts with you know, khaki
pants and an Ivy League sweater, and I looked like
and with the way I looked then, I looked like
I was a college boy. I mean, you know, yeah,
usually had to have the James Bond suits, right, and

(32:04):
I did, and the shoes. And then when we got
to Austros, same thing. It was. You know, I was
at the tailor. Everything was made for me and so
if you notice, I'm in better suits in the whole thing,
very continental looking, and that's way Lee would have dressed
over there. But yeah, those were those were my favorite
episodes because of the adventure of going over there my

(32:25):
wife and son oldest boy was now forty four years old.
That showed you how long ago that was. Gary Davis
had a daughter, Jennifer, and I had my son Sam,
who was only I think he wasn't even wasn't even
five or six years old. I'm not sure at the time. Anyway,
Kitty and he came over to visit as we got started,

(32:48):
and then they came to Munich. I enjoyed us and
my mother in law came with him to help, and
that was wonderful, a great little incident to him. They
were coming in Gary and I little Jennifer, Jennifer was
with him, came to the airport and Munich, We're gonna
pick my family up. And this time in Germany there

(33:11):
were a lot of extremist groups blowing up things. In reality,
our show was so timely because they had the Red
Brigade was running around Europe blowing up people and robbing
banks and carry on. And they looked a lot like
Martha Smith. Anyway, I was. And these two little ones.

(33:36):
Jennifer had been with her daddy now for a few weeks,
and you know, there were no little kids, and they
had a babysitter with her, and so they looked at
each other and here was my old wife and sam
little Sammy, and he's walking hold in her hand, and
they just stared across this big space. There's all these

(33:56):
guys with machine guns standing around, you know, the police
over there. They were serious dudes. Then they had ramatic weapons.
And in between that, these two little ones run into
each other, never ever having met, and grabble all each
other and are hugging. It was great. The whole airport
and that they all stopped going. Oh you know, I agreed.

(34:19):
We had peace in Germany here right at that moment.
So it was it was fun. I don't know why
i'd tell that story, that lovely memory, Oh my gosh,
with me. Yeah, they were with me throughout the rest
of the trip, you know, so we we It became
such a family affair, you know. So Europe was cool,
and then we came back and it was kind of

(34:41):
back to Burbank again.

Speaker 4 (34:45):
Can I ask about one other episode in particular? One
of my favorite episodes from season two is Burnout. I
think you do a fabulous job, as does with Jackson,
and it's sort of a little you know, Spio comes
in from the cold, like it's just got all the
all the best elements of Scarecromius King.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
And it also still under that's still under one. It's time.
I think it was she was.

Speaker 4 (35:09):
I think it was because it was season two and
I think she was on one and they did and two.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
But I'd love to ask you about a moment in
the bar. I don't know if you remember.

Speaker 4 (35:19):
It, where you owned it, the Amanda You're you're tapping
up Amanda's face you're trying to get her to leave,
and you actually slap her.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
Do you remember this? Yeah, I wish we had a
film to go to.

Speaker 4 (35:33):
I can go find it real quick and I can
show you because I would love to get Okay, I'll
go do that.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
You guys keep talking, healk, Sharon, you did, but you
liked the European episodes, Oh, the European like you.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
I thought the European episodes really terrific. And it clearly
you were shooting in Europe and at the time.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
And it lent itself to It was nineteen eighty four,
Cold War was still going. We were only miles and
sometimes we were only miles away from the Iron Curtain, right, yeah, seriously,
and we had all these wonderful German and English. I
realized there were a lot of actors living in Europe
doing you know, European films and television. They just expanded

(36:21):
my mind so much. Again me I felt I was
a better lease Stetson when I by the time I
got home, I actually was talking. I actually was living
some of the stuff that Lee would refer to. No,
I didn't know how to speak Urdu, but I certainly
could fake an Austrian German accent and those type of things,

(36:43):
because it was around it all the time. And you
got to understand that show did not play over there,
so the crew had no idea. It hadn't been on
European television. Yet it still happened that way.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
Yeah, it wasn't like it is now where you know
things were. Yeah, it takes a while for things to
make way around the world.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
Yeah, we have satellite too, you know we're getting it immediately.
I think we did a dog one good job. I
certainly knew how to come up in a kitchen window
and just as Beverly was about to turn around and
be down into the flower bed right from the get go.
That made me laugh. That was one of the first
things that made me laugh out loud when I read
the pilot script. Was just imagining that scene. Had you

(37:28):
done a lot of comedy before, you didn't scale them? No, no, no, no.
I did all those cop shows. I was a punk
and all those cop shows. Burretta. I did two Hawaii FIBs.
I did those kind of shows, you know, the Third
Guy and something you know, and so No, in television,
I never got to do comedy. Now on Broadway, I

(37:49):
did and I did a show for a couple of
years in Chicago, was in Washington, d C. And also
very briefly in Broadway in New York, and then back
to CHICAO and then a one way ticket to Los Angeles,
where I said, I'm going.

Speaker 4 (38:03):
To try LA and now did you have to decide
like New York, La, did you have that actor moment?

Speaker 2 (38:09):
I was in New York. I was there for about
a year. You know, my old my youngest son, Michael,
lives there and my wife and I just went to
a couple months back, went to New York just for
the weekend to see him in his off Broadway debut show.
Show is still well? No, No, it was one of

(38:30):
these small yeah on black box theaters or about ninety
nine hundred seat at that I know it well, I've
been there, Yes, Okay. It was just he had a
wonderful young actress. It was called Constellations. I think he
could probably find it, but he was wonderful. I've got
another actor I'm very proud of. But he loves New

(38:51):
York and he was older. He's older, he's twenty eight.
He I mean I was twenty. I turned twenty one
in New York City. Our oldest, our oldest owen is
in New York and they're having a great tis love.
You know, this is I get it. It was that was,
you know, leaving home. Chicago broke me in and then
New York. I thought, oh my god, this is like

(39:13):
Chicago and steroids, you know, whichacally made it even more gigantic.
But it was a wonderful place and you got to
be young there. Sorry, no you didn't. I couldn't do
it now, just too that's just me, too many people on.
All right, I found the scene. That's a yes. Okay,
all right, let me share, share my screen. Let's see
if I can pull this off. We have faith, I

(39:36):
know you it O my god.

Speaker 4 (39:39):
Okay, let me see you make sure this sounds up.
Oh yes, it's a cliffhanger. Clearly, we've got quite a
lot more to talk about with Bruce Box Lightner, So
we're gonna leave you here for this episode and pick
up next time with part two, where we will show
mister Bucks Lightner the scene I'm talking about. If you're

(40:00):
so inclined, this also gives you time to seek out
the scene for yourself. The episode is from season two
episode twenty one entitled Burnout, written by Lisa Sidman, directed
by Sigmund Newfield Junior, takes place about eighteen minutes into
the episode. So don't miss Part two with Bruce box Heightner,
where we will talk about that scene with the scarecrow

(40:22):
himself and then so much more.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
Join us for today's audiography.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
Find out more about Bruce box Lightner at Facebook dot com,
slash box Lightner Bruce and Instagram also at box Lightner Bruce.

Speaker 4 (40:42):
And he's on Cameo So Cameo dot com slash box
Lightner Bruce.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
Okay, I guess that's it for this episode. So as always,
we hope Eighties TV Ladies brings you joy and laughter
and lots of fabulous new and old shows to watch,
all of which will or toward being amazing ladies of
the twenty first century.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
Eighties das hand so Pretty, dept In through the City
and dream of Gadding God, Pull the money A man World.

Speaker 4 (41:20):
Eighties

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