June 1, 2024 • 63 mins
On this edition of Live from Hollywood…It’s Paranormal Tonight! host Dan Harary will interview his longtime friend, actress Caryn Richman. Caryn is an actress and singer best known for her role as Gidget in the TV series, The New Gidget, which was produced by Columbia Pictures Television. That series evolved from the success of the 1985 TV movie Gidget's Summer Reunion, in which she also starred. The New Gidget series ran from 1986 – 1988. Dan worked closely with Caryn from 1986-87, when he was the Publicist for The New Gidget. Earlier, Caryn starred in a Broadway production of Grease, and used her singing ability on the TV show Texas. She portrayed the role of Nora Brady, wife to Brady Bunch Star Barry Williams, aka Greg Brady, in the TV movie A Very Brady Christmas in 1988. She also played the same role in the TV series, The Bradys, in 1990. Most recently, Caryn appeared in the horror film, The Puppetman. Dan will discuss her long career, along with some paranormal events that Caryn experienced following the passing of her beloved brother.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:21):
From Hollywood. It's Paranormal ten nights. I'm Mark Summers and now here's your
host, Jan Harari. That's me, Dan Hourrari. That's my name.
Don't wear it out, Mark Summers. Hello everyone, thank you very much
for joining us. This is myeighth show already live from Hollywood. It's
Paranormal tonight. I am Dan Harari. I am a veteran Hollywood publicist whatever
(00:47):
that means, forty plus years inHollywood. Actually, I'm broadcasting to you
live from beautiful downtown Beverly Hills.This is my office and my workplace of
insanity. And see my insanity onthe walls behind me there. I'm also
an author of two books, Flirtingwith Fame and after they came does are
(01:07):
right here? My mother always makessure that I have those prominently displayed or
else. She yells at me everyweek, why aren't you just selling your
books? I am selling my books, Mom. There you go. I
had a very interesting last few days. Today I had the privilege of spending
a day with my dear friend,Michelle Phillips, the singer from The Moms
(01:30):
and the Papa. She's a friendof mine and she agreed to be interviewed
by me for this Dopey show,and once we edit that down, we
will be presenting it. It mighteven be a two parter. She talks
about her whole career and sixties musicand the drug situation in the sixties.
It's a fascinating person. I waswith her all day today and that's going
(01:53):
to come up in the next fewmonths. By interview with Michelle Phillips.
Earlier this week, I spent sometime at a UFO hotspot in New Mexico.
I was invited by some people whoare on a property there, and
they have the most remarkable UFO activitythat they've captured on photographs and on videos,
(02:15):
thousands and thousands of images, andthey are having all of their data
scientifically vetted, forensically and to beproven that it's not fake, that it's
real stuff. The things that Isaw the last few days are just mind
boggling. You'll be hearing more aboutthat in the months ahead. I have
(02:35):
a little frog of my voice inmy throat, and hopefully he'll leave during
the course of this show. Soanyway, I want to introduce a very
dear friend of mine and a veryspecial guest that we have for tonight.
Karen Richmond is an actress and asinger, probably best known for her role
as Gidget in the TV series TheNew Gidget, which was produced by Columbia
(02:58):
Pictures Television. That series evolved fromthe success of the nineteen eighty five TV
movie Gidget Summer Reunion, in whichshe also starred. The New Gidget series
ran from nineteen eighty six to eightyeight. And I first met Karen in
nineteen eighty six when I was thepublicist for The New Gidget when I worked
(03:19):
at Columbia Pictures. Born in Brooklyn, New York, two months before me,
two months before me, I've alwayshad a crush on older women.
Karen graduated from Syracuse University and laterfrom UCLA. She began her professional acting
career in the nineteen seventies when shestarted in a Broadway production of Greece.
(03:40):
Then she joined a singing group calledTuxedo Junction, a three part vocal group
which sang forties music in disco style. Will We'll be talking to her about
those projects in a minute? Next? Karen showcased her singing abilities on the
TV show Texas, where she playeda successful singer named Elana Decker. From
(04:01):
nineteen eighty to eighty two, andKaren performed many songs on Texas and she
really has a lovely singing voice,something I didn't realize until just the other
day. Karen portrayed the role ofNora Brady, wife to Brady Bunch star
Barry Williams aka Greg Brady, inthe TV movie A Very Brady Christmas in
(04:24):
nineteen eighty eight, and she alsoplayed that same role in the TV series
The Brady's which was a revamping ofThe Brady Bunch obviously in nineteen ninety.
During her career, Karen has appearedon numerous TV shows, including The New
Mike Hammer, Matt Locke, Jakeand the Fat Man, Angel Fire,
(04:45):
hit Man, The Adventures of MisterClown, and many others. She played
the role of Jane Johnson in theTV series called Hollywood Safari. She played
the part of Victoria in the twentyfifth fourteen film The Black Water Vampire,
and a few years ago she appearedin the movie The Puppet Man. So
(05:06):
we're going to talk about all thosethings. Karen is available on Instagram.
Her user name is at Karen cA R y N. Richmond Like rich
Man, Let's bring in my dearfriend. Brace let's bring in my friend
Karen rich Man. There she is. Hey, Oh my god, I'm
so bright compared to you. Ifeel like they are more mysterious or something.
(05:30):
You want to light some candle candlesor something. I really am too,
way too uh oh, anyway,you look great, though, I'm
sorry you're not doing well. Ohyeah, it's okay. The show must
go on, Karen. That's whatthat, that's what I You know,
my mother was a I don't knowif I told you. My mother was
an actress and a singer and aplaywright and a director and a musician and
(05:50):
a poet and all those things.So she was in countless plays when I
was a kid, and there weretimes that she'd be sick, and she
did any This show must go onany So true, I must have the
same mother. Well, well,my parents were from Brooklyn, so yeah,
(06:11):
of course, find too. Thereyou go, Kindred spirits, all
right, So hopefully I didn't screwup anything in your bio. There.
I love to hear you repeat itback. Sometimes we don't realize we've done
stuff in our lives, right,that's right. Absolutely, we're busy living
there everyday lives, all right,So I have some questions for you.
Let's rock and rock and roll andlet's just see, let's see where this
(06:34):
goes. Here we go, it'san impro here we go, all right.
So tell us about growing up?How and when did you realize you
wanted to be a singer and anactress. So I grew up on Long
Island, nice Jewish girl, mostlyraised in mass People Park for those of
(06:55):
you who even know Long Island,and you know, I'm old enough to
say that in those days, itwas so hard to imagine like having a
career as an actor. It wasmore, oh my god, that's a
dream that's unattainable. And I literally, you know, wanted to be Barber
streisand in Funny Girl. And Iwould watch musicals and then I went to
(07:17):
my first you know, Broadway play, and I always dreamed of it,
but I never literally never thought thatit would be something that was attainable.
It was also something that nice girls, you know, we do. I
was like expected to go to collegeand you know, do a much more
traditional kind of life. So Ialways dreamed of it, never thinking it
(07:41):
was attainable. Was in you know, shows at Temple at High school at
camp and it really wasn't until Iwas in the middle of college. Then
I went to an open call onBroadway for the show Grease, which was
running, and this was nineteen seventy. Oh my gosh, I'm giving away
(08:01):
my age. But it doesn't mattera race. Well, hold on,
race, can we see? Therewe go? Slide number one. That's
you, Karen, Look at you? How old are you here in this
picture? You know? I reallycouldn't find a digitized picture of the actual
original Grease that I did. Thiswas a number of years later, still
must have been in my late twentieswith Rex Smith, who is such a
(08:26):
beautiful man. But we had somuch fun. So this wasn't my original.
This was from a tour. Actually, I repaced the role of Sandy
for years. I was in myforties, and I did it once with
Jack Wagner. So that was oneof those plays that you could be sort
of aiming towards being a geriatric personand still do the play if you could
move around a bit. So,well, how old so you were in
(08:48):
Sandy in Greece on Broadway. Well, we ended up getting the role of
Sandy. I did it on tour. I did it on Broadway and that
started my career. And at thatpoint I did a complete U turn.
I was majoring in social work andpsychology and and just said, hey,
I could potentially, you know,try this and maybe have this as my
(09:09):
career might be attainable after all.So did your parents accept what they saw
you on Broaday didn't? Most Isaid, oh, my god, a
little girl. You're a little girlso much so, she's so talented and
telling. I think my mom wasliving vicariously and my dad was horrified.
My parents were divorced. My dadwas an orthodox Jewish traditional man who couldn't
(09:35):
imagine the decisions I had just made. My mom just thought it was,
you know, fabulous. So Ihad a conflict there, which you know,
was an interesting dichotomy for me.It wasn't until I did. I
don't think Greece proved to them thatI was going to make a success of
it, but subsequently some of theother roles. It wasn't until Gidget,
(09:58):
the New Gidget was was There wasan article in the Jewish Journal as long
as we're on this theme of beingJewish, and I think at that point
my father felt, Okay, mydaughter's an actress. You know, I
may have gotten you that article.Come to think of it, I'm sure
you did. You you used tocome to the set with piles of articles.
(10:20):
How you even did that? Ihave no idea. Yeah, my
daughter says, Woo, Karen,see beauty little on Julie, Hi Angelie.
She is such a beauty and solovely. She's the one thing I
ever did. Right, Race,Let's see the slide number two, please,
my brother, Race, let's seeslide number two. All right,
now, look at you, Lookat these hot babes. You're in a
(10:43):
singing group called Tuxedo Junction. Whatis what's going on here? So I
came out to Los Angeles after doingGreece on tour, ended up at the
Pantagious Theater here in beautiful Hollywood.And this was a group that was similar
to Millie Vanilli. They had alreadydone one out album. They have done
an album and consequently had a hitsong on the charts, Chattannooga Chu Choo,
(11:05):
the disco version of Chattanooga Chu Choo. And at that point they realized,
oh, we have to put agroup together. It was studio singers
that had done that first album,so they literally we were acting as if
we were this recording group. Welearned three part harmonies, We performed on
all kinds of TV shows, DanceFever, we were on tour, we
(11:31):
played the Cobad Cavada in New York, and then we actually recorded the second
album. We didn't end up witha hit song on the charts at that
point, and it was also towardsthe end where disco was absolutely dying and
it was time to move on.But for that period of time, we
were in that world. And thatwas a world that I knew nothing about
(11:52):
because that had nothing to do withacting, right, it was. It
was everything you imagine the music businessto be in the seventies. It was
crazy, crazy. Where are thesetwo women now? Do you know?
So? Yes, Midge, whois the middle lovely woman, is one
of my best best friends. Andthat was, you know, for many
(12:13):
many years obviously, and sadly Lisha, the beauty and the gold has passed
on. So and there we areand we had you were you were,
You were like the monkeys. Youwere, You were created in the studio,
you were cast, put together.And then did you tour? Did
you tour? Rend? We touredall over the United States. We as
I say, we did all kindsof TV shows and disco shows. We
(12:39):
played Las Vegas with Wolfman, JackPeaches and Herb Frango Lee who had a
hit song come to Me. Wewere on this giant billboard like it was
a time, honestly in my lifewhere everything felt like it was just this,
like I was shot out of acannon. It was like this bad,
(13:00):
fee less period of my life whereI had such I had no expectation.
I didn't know where I was goingwith any of it. So it
was all just such a beautiful surpriseand so much fun and so crazy crazy.
Was your orthodox father plots? Washe plotzing I from you on plotzing
carrot and plotxing? I actually don'tremember his reaction during the text Sedar notion
(13:24):
days. I never knew your fatherwas Orthodox Jewish. I never knew that
well he was, you know,if he the synagogue then he went to
was Orthodox. He kept Kosher athome, but my mom, since I
was going back and forth again froma divorced home, it was very confusing,
Like we'd eat bacon in one homeand it was forbidden in other.
(13:45):
No wonder you've been bipolar all theseyears. I'm telling you, it's the
perfect It's really that little level oftorture serves actors very very well. They
tend to see things from two differentsides. Because I was constantly trying to
evaluate who needed what from me andtry to be that so it served me
well. That was my original training. I think I understand. My daughter
(14:07):
went through that from the age oftwo. I got divorced when she was
two, and her mother and Iare the most different people on the planet,
and every now and then she wasdad. How were you and mom
ever together? I go, Idon't know. I have no idea how
that happened. Well, because yougrew you were married at an early age
and then you Yes, I mether. Car name is Kim, very
(14:30):
lovely lady. I met her.I was twenty five, Kim was twenty
twenty. That's very very young.Yeah, we were together eleven eleven years,
and they were the eleven of thebest days of my life. That's
a whole another joke that I do. I don't book. Do you have
like an little drum beat in theresomewhere, but well, I have my
drums back there. I don't knowif you can see them. I do
(14:50):
Actually I didn't know. Listen,we've been friends for years and I'm learning
so much. You didn't know Iwas a drummer. I had no idea
how I've been a drummer all right. From seven to ten, I played
classical piano because both of my parentswere musicians. Seven to ten classical piano.
I was gifted and brilliant and doingrecitals. Okay, no doubt,
(15:11):
Okay. The Monkeys. The Monkeyscome on TV September nineteen sixty six,
and now we had a black owhite TV. We didn't even have color
anyway. The Monkeys came out.I sat there. I was like,
oh my god, the monkeys.Now I was a little on the young
side for the Beatles. I lovedthe Beatles, but I didn't connect to
them. The Monkeys are on TV. They're funny, they have long hair,
(15:31):
they have hit songs. And MickeyDolans is pretending to play the drums.
And I saw that Karen, andI said, oh my god,
Mom and Dad see that. I'mgoing to play the drums. Yeah,
sure, kid, you're gonna play. No, no, no, no,
you don't understand. I'm going toplay the drums. And I fought
and kicked and screamed. They gaveme lessons for years. I got a
drum set for my bar mitzvah.I've been in Bend since nineteen sixty eight.
(15:54):
You know I've been playing Did Inot know this? And have you
played anywhere like since since? Let'ssay, from New Gidget to them from
the eighties? Now just in myroom here because of my ears, it's
the whole thing with my hearing,and it's a whole thing. But no,
no, I mean, I'm avery good drummer. I've always been
a good drummer. And then mymiddle brother plays piano and keyboards. My
(16:17):
little brother plays guitar. My dadplayed the trombone. My parents were in
a big band together in the seventies. My mom was the lead singer,
my dad was the trompbonis. Iused to see my parents on stage.
I grew up with parents on stage. So for me, you know how
you wish to elevate yourself onto astage, I grew up with my parents
(16:37):
on stages my whole life. I'mlike, yeah, because your business is
just kind of part of my family. And all other relatives looked at my
parents like they were crazy. Theywere the only ones that they're kind my
parents. That's unusual, especially ifyou know for that time, I feel
like that's wonderful. And my dadwas an engineer for the army, and
he was building raiders and missiles andspy equipment and buying on Russia by day,
(17:02):
and then on weekends he's playing trombonein a big band and my mother
is singing, you know, SaintLouis blues. And my mother was very
good looking in these days. Andmy dad used to get jealous because all
the guys in the band will beflirting with my mother in front of him.
And he said, he's sitting rightthere. That's showbiz, baby,
that's yeah. Anyway, we'll talkmore about that next time. We got
(17:23):
a busho and friend, I lovethat, all right? Race Race number
three, number three, number three, all right. I pulled this off
the internet and now I watch this. Karen, you have a lovely,
lovely voice. I never heard yousing live, but this is you from
the show Texas. Tell Me About, Tell Me About Texas. So somewhere
(17:45):
as Texedo Junction and Disco was dyingabout in nineteen eighties, when I was
cast in a new soap opera thatNBC was doing. It was a spin
off of Another World. We startedon Another World and were you know,
we ran for three years, twoand a half years, and sadly,
(18:06):
it's interesting. I just did aninterview with someone who's writing a book about
Texas, which is kind of interestingbecause it was a bit of an obscure
soap opera. But if you werean NBC fan and watching Another World,
this was, you know, quitepopular. Sadly, we were up against
General Hospital, so we really didn'thave much of a chance at that point.
But I loved every second of it. First of all, it was
(18:30):
steady work. We were in NewYork, we were in the same studio
as Another World, so we reallywere in our little microcosmic soap opera universe.
A lot of amazing people. ChrisKnight from The Brady Bunch actually was
on Another World at the same time. That's where I first met him.
Rayleoda was on Another World. Weall it was heaven. And from an
(18:52):
acting point of view, again,anyone who's done soaps or watched soaps,
it's just endless hialogue and you've youbecome an actor. When I watched the
beginning of that show, I wasgod awful as far as I was concerned.
And I really learned how to bean actor on that show. And
(19:14):
thankfully, you know, once Igot in it and got my feet more
wet and got a bit more skilled, I improved. But it was just
another incredible experience that just sort ofkept unfolding for me at the time.
It was great and I got tosing. So I was doing Greece,
I did taxed Junction, and hereI was this country western singer and again,
(19:38):
you know, for me marrying everything, and I was really grateful for
Were you into country western music atall? Or probably not West country worst?
And I don't think I call itcountry worse anymore, but it was
all Yeah. My hit song onthat show was It's all Over Town?
That It's all over Now? Wasthat? Did that song make it to
the radio? It was still getletters or you know, we don't write
(20:02):
letters anymore, but you know,correspondence emails, whatever, saying can we
get that song? We loved thatsong? Wow, And I think that's
the song we were singing in thatlittle picture that you paid. Yeah,
that was really quite good. NowI watched it, I'm like, wow,
I've known Karen thirty whatever years andthat's the first time I ever heard
you sing. But you know,you really are a good singer. Read
(20:26):
it. Thank you, But listen. We sang on Gidget. Do you
remember that? Maybe you don't rememberthat, but we Moondagie and I did
some musical numbers. There was onedrag City where he it was a throwback
to like the fifties and moon Doggiewas racing. Were you singing live on
the on the set? Yeah,in the studio, And I said that
(20:48):
that's why, karens. You know, I don't call you seeing you sing
live before my very No, I'mjust thinking you were there for the whole,
for the whole kitchen. No,I was done. No, No,
I got fired in June eighty seven. I think he went another year.
(21:08):
Oh that's why. That's also why, because that didn't happen till the
last year. Oh. I justthought of something, and I wasn't.
This isn't in my nuts, butI just remembered this just this minute.
Do you remember? This is oneof my ALTI great Hollywood stories. It's
in my book Flirting with Fae.Okay, one day you were on the
set at Columbia Pictures were on theset, and you pulled me aside and
(21:30):
you said, Dan, Sally Fieldis at the next sound stage doing a
movie. Why don't you see ifshe might come over and take a picture
with me, you know, allthe original Gidget and the new Kitchet right.
And I said, Karen, it'sbrilliant, it's wonderful. I didn't
know she was there, so Karen, so I went over. I went
over to the other set. Thedoor opened, she was coming out of
(21:52):
the stage. She had a whiterobe. I think she had curlers in
her hair. She had a wholeentourage of women all around her, and
I think she had like fuzzy slippers, and I just, you know,
I just want right out to missField, this Field, and she's looking
at Yeah. I said, oh, hi, my name is Dan.
I'm with the new Gidget show nextdoor. She goes, yeah, you
(22:15):
know, I'm the publicist for theshow. Do you think do you think
you might take a minute to bekind enough to come over and meet Karen
Richmond the new Gidgets, so wecould take a photo of you with the
new Gidget together. She looks atme like, not in a million years,
she wanted Karen, She wanted meto die in a fire, not
(22:38):
in a million years. She waslike, go f fu, you lunatic.
No, that was steam was comingout of her curlers from her.
I wonder why she hated the showso much. I believe I think she
got screwed on the residu of theroyalties or the residuals from that show.
I think it was a money thing. She probably so wanted Gidget to be
(23:02):
in her past. And here's likethis schmunky Jewish publicist, Hivessfield, do
you want to be the new Gidgetas well? That was ballsy of you,
and as a publicist, you weredoing my job. Yeah, exactly,
she thinked me that she just Iactually I had an instance not that
long ago at the Director's Guild Awards. She was there and I had I
(23:26):
think I had had won too manymarchings. I was with some young people
and she was there and they wereegging me on, and I just sort
of, you know, talked myselfinto going over to her. She exact
same reaction, and I was anidiot. I was like, you know,
oh my god, I am Karen. I was you know, you
and I both we both got rebuffedby by Gidget, the real Gidget.
(23:51):
I still I love her so muchand I can understand she just you know,
when you're that level, you justget bombarded. Karen. She looked
at me like this, not ina million years, like what in what
world do you come to? Doyou have the balls? Just to look
on her face? Karen, I'mlike, oh, okay, And I
looked down at my shoes and sheleft. All right, Race number four?
(24:14):
Please? All right? So Karen, your big break came in eighty
five. You started Gidget Summer ReunionTV movie, which then became the New
Oh but I wouldn't give to havethat body? Yeah, look at that
body? Boy? Did you havesome figure? Such a figure she has.
I always was so self conscious,but now you know, a million
(24:38):
years later when I'm three times thesize I mean, Karen, for a
Jewish girl from Long Island to looklike that, please, oh gorge,
now kidding? You certainly had itman. So that's how we met.
We met when this movie became aseries. And so what are some of
your favorite memories of that time periodbesides meeting me? Of course, well,
(25:00):
meeting you was a gift. Butas far as the show, you
know, here's the thing that wasa show that was so focused on that
character me. So I remember feeling, you know, a thrilled. You
know how many times in a lifetimeI'm an actor. Are you lucky enough
(25:23):
to have a show where you're playingthe title character like that? But along
with that came what felt at thetime like a lot of responsibility, And
it was just a lot because ofthe nature. Karen, I'm so sorry
I have to interrupt you. Wehave to take a break. I'm so
enthralled with you. We have totake a break. Paytent bills, run
(25:45):
some commercials. We'll be right backwith Karen talking about the new gidget rock
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from Unexmedia Publishing at unexmedia dot com. Tests f and We're back with actress
(30:10):
Karen Richmond. Karen was telling usabout the responsibility of being the title character,
and you know, I never reallythought about that but yeah, I
mean the show revolved around you andyour little tight little body. There.
Oh my gosh, well, oh, there we go again. I don't
want want to cry or cry Ihad, I thought when you were on
(30:33):
the break, though. I dohave this memory of driving that looks like
some weird thing is sticking up behindmy head, doesn't it. It's a
culture, It's not some weird thingcoming out of my head. I remember
driving to the first day of workto Warner Brothers, which you have to
come over a hill sure in Burbank, California, and the sun was coming
(30:56):
up. It was about six pointthirty in the morning, and I was
driving a little white Rabbit convertible justlike Gidget did. And as I pulled
in the gate and my name wason the list, and I was like
part of the club for a minute, and they were like, hello,
miss Richmond, welcome, you know, and I drove onto that lot.
I was sobbing with joy. Likethat might be an exaggeration, but I
(31:18):
was really filled with a lot ofemotion that this was my you know,
what could have potentially been a veryvery big break. And also I'm starring
in a television series, my owntelevision series, and which was amazing,
but yeah, a lot of responsibilityand the energy, you know, gidgets
(31:40):
energy was so up and a lotof energy output, which you know,
obviously I was way younger, soit was much easier. But I did
feel a certain responsibility. And alsoI had watched Sally Field's Gidget. I
loved it, and so you know, I felt responsibility is too much on
(32:02):
it. I didn't feel responsible tocarry on the name necessarily, but I
did feel a responsibility to be agood Gidget, like like do it,
yeah, take it and take itseriously. Yeah, I wanted to do
it justice. It was iconic characterand there were many, you know,
iterations of that character. So Iwanted to be part of that club and
(32:27):
be and do it well if Icould. You did a great race.
Can we see number five or sixor seven? The next couple of there
we go. So there you arewith Dean and Sydney Penny Buggie and Sydney.
What happened to Sidney Penny? Whateverhappened to her? Yout married and
had a son and lives somewhere,don't remember exactly where, but she you
(32:50):
know, she worked a bunch afterGidget, and I think I'm not one
hundred percent sure, but the lasttime I was in touch with her,
she lives somewhere out of Hollywood andis having a wonderful life, being a
wonderful mommy and happily married. Yeah, and you're still friends with Dean.
I know. I'm really close withDean. We do a lot of things
together. We just actually last yeardid a musical show together where we sang
(33:15):
together. It was a it wasa sixties tribute and we had so much
fun. He's a dear friend,and we do a lot of you know,
we see you were dating. Youwere dating during this period. I
think I think it's been forty years. I think it's we can let that
cat out of the bit race.Can we do the next one? Please?
(33:35):
I think it's six. There wego and there's William Shaller right.
Yes, he was the father ofon the Patti Duke Show. I believe
he was the father of so manydifferent people. He was like the TV
it was the father. The greatestthing I really treasured my relationship with him,
And what I value most is thatafter the show we stayed close,
like we up until the year hedied. We would have lunch a few
(33:58):
times a year and we had thisI don't know what it was. I
think it was his energy and justwe were put in that position. But
he was I felt like he wasfamily. I felt like a little bit,
you know, very he was mydad, you know for a minute.
I mean, I know he wasn'tmy dad, but you know he
was. He was opposite, theopposite of your orthodox Jewish very much so.
(34:24):
But here's the great thing about WilliamShaller before he had such a body
sense of humor, which you wouldn'tnecessarily know because he comes off as just
this wholesome, really sweet man.But he would say the dirtiest things sometimes
before a take and we would beand it was literally like all right,
places, everyone ready, and hewould, you know, say something funny,
(34:45):
not always dirty. I don't want, you know, to have a
bad reputation. He was wonderful,wonderful man. But not that there's anything
wrong with me. But he wouldjust make me laugh constantly and really kept
it very very light. And wewere and we were working long hours.
You know, we were there beforethe sun came up, and we filmed
until the sun went down, andwe were it was a it was a
(35:08):
hard shoot. It looks like itwas all fun and games, but shooting
at the beach is not great.Those were long days. I remember Race
next one please, Yeah, samething again, not that perm cat.
Just sometimes I can't get over thestyles in the air. You look,
you look a little different in eachof the race next one as well?
Next one? There's one? Allright? So you and I met,
(35:30):
we met this day, all right. So I was at Columbia Pictures about
five months as a senior publicist thereand they said, Dan, you're going
to be the publicist for the newKidget. I said okay, and they
handed me this robe that please givethis to Karen Richmond. I go,
who the hell's cartridge? She's thenew Oh, she's the new kitdget Oh.
I had no idea what they're talkingabout. So they gave me this
(35:53):
robe and I'm thinking, you know, I don't want to get a dirty
you dirty fingernails. I don't wantto get these fingerprints on it. Pristine.
So you were on I think onthe stage and a dance and it
was in a school. I thinkit was in Burbank. Yeah, we
were. That was part of this. It was the show. I remember,
I do remember. I don't rememberthe name of the show, but
(36:13):
yeah, it was. This isthis was the this is the moment that
you and I met. You know, that is such a I love this
picture. I know I have thispicture, but what I love most is
it looks like I'm just completely flashingyou. I know, I know.
And when you did that, Isaid, Karen, will never tell anyone
what you're really doing. What didI have on underneath that? Obviously?
(36:34):
I had clothes like as we wereinside. I mean, just look out
young and right, young, carefreeand you know, before my divorce.
Let's reinact it. Let's do it. No, I still have that bathrow
by the way, do you.Yeah, I have a couple of things
from Gidget. It was a verylovely moment. And I had hair then,
so you'll see how long ago thatwas. But yeah, that was
(36:55):
a very sweet moment. That's themsecond I met you. Okay, Race,
Let's see what's what do we havenext here with the next one?
Okay, So, Karen, Ijust found this recently. I think your
publicist with Rogers and Cowan did thiswith you, right, that was actually
part of the show. Really,I never saw an that was after.
That's after I came and went.Then yes, because we did these things
(37:17):
before and within the framework of theshow. Gidget would talk straight to camera
as all these different characters Elvira forHalloween or you know. All this was
as an actor, this was adream. I got to do a million
different characters, you know, Victorianwriters with English accents or whatever. And
(37:37):
this was part of a they thiswas part of a show we did about
Hollywood, and they actually built thisand we got a picture of it.
It was a whole thing. I'mtrying. Yeah, you weren't there.
It was this thing where I daydreamabout becoming a star. And I remember
they took all of these photos ofme Karen Richmond and put them on fake
(38:01):
people magazine covers and house. Doyou have any of those props or anything?
Do I have them all? Oh? That's great. I wonder who
has I wonder who has these letters. I don't know how fabulous would that
be to just if that was inyour backyard. I put it in the
front yard. That was great.Yeah, I remember what was sex bomb?
(38:27):
You are up there, look atthat that picture your father's plots in
and dropping dead. I think atthat point he accepted it. I think
because that was that definitely was sortof, you know, a turning point.
Although I had done the things thatwe talked about before that, this
was you know, nobody knew ifGidget was going to be a hit or
not. And I always say thisas an actor, like getting a job
(38:51):
is difficult enough as it is,and then hoping that your show runs,
and like if Gidget, let's say, had been friends or you know,
I was signing, or everybody lovesRaymond or whatever, it's like, it's
not just enough to get a show'sand that show has to run. And
we were possibly going to go foranother year, but then there was a
(39:12):
whole takeover. But why I don'tremember you not being there? Isn't that
wird? You had such a strongpresence. I don't remember. Well,
I never knew exactly what happened.I was let off in June eighty seven.
I think I upset one of theexecutives. I think I said something
that was not meant to be heard. I think that's what happened. But
what happened was I then got anincredibly great job and I was representing Jay
(39:37):
Leno on The Tonight Show. Andtwo or three months later, after I
left. My whole department was eliminated. So by me getting fired early that
it gave me a boost to therest of my career. So it was
it was a blessing in disguise.Race Next one, next picture. Okay,
So, Karen, guess who tookthis one? You took this photo.
(40:00):
This is me in the in theskipper. This is in Hawaii.
You guys shot a week in Hawaii, the New Gidget in Hawaii and Alan
Hale Junior was a lovely guy.And I'm pretty sure Karen, that he
took that photo. I love that. I mean, it was first of
all, it's an amazing photo.Do you have that like Frank? Of
(40:21):
course, of course, yeah,can I have that photos something for sure?
I don't remember shooting with him inHawaii. Weirdly, I remember shooting
at Warner Brothers. Well, obviouslyBob Denver was supposed to didn't go to
Hawaii. I think he shot withGilligan in Burbank. But the skipper he
(40:42):
was this picture was in Hawaii withthe Gidget show. Now, I'm pretty
sure you took that picture. Youknow, maybe it was Dean, but
I like to think you just sayit was me. I like that better.
I'd like to see you all right, Race the next picture, now
this is my Okay, look atyou. Now, you don't know the
play to you, Karen, thecrush I had on you in this era.
(41:06):
I mean I was and I wasmarried, and I'm like, look
at her. Look at Karen.She's Jewish. She's Jewish. My mother,
my mother. If I brought youhome to my mother, my mother
would plots and just drop dead onthe floor. He finally I found a
nice Jewish girl. Finally, Butyour wife was Jewish? No she wasn't
(41:28):
she? No? Oh no,pull her opposite. At what point she
was a Jesus freaking we broke up. That's a whole nother story. But
anyway, is this a wonderful photo? Look at that? I love I
just love that. Yeah, wehad an instant friendship. We were friends
from the minute we met. You'restill learning, Okay, I don't want
(41:49):
to run out of time, solet's you know it's going fast. Oh
my god. Okay, raised numbertwelve, please number twelve. Okay,
you were and yeah, that's it. Next one out there. You were
in the Brady Bunch sequeled. TheTV show tell us some stories about the
Bradys. Oh my gosh. Also, you know an iconic television show.
(42:10):
Grew up watching The Brady Bunch.I was younger than the Brady Bunch,
I think because I saw them morein reruns. Maybe I mean I was
old older. I don't think Iwatched the original Brady Bunch. That's my
point. I'm having trouble knowing whendid The Brady Bunch originally air. I
would say seventy two, seventy sevenmaybe, yeah, So I was already
(42:34):
older and not necessarily watching The BradyBunch as a young person. I was
too old for that. I thinkI was already in college and off into
the world. But you know,I obviously saw in reruns and knew these
characters by that point, and soto be cast as Greg Brady's wife,
you know again like wow, it'sthe Brady Bunch. And I remember walking
(42:57):
onto that set and seeing that againiconic house. They rebuilt, you know,
the interior and modernized it. Stairwaywas still there. I had already
known Chris Knight from soap opera days, you know, but it was I
know, we're going to run outof time, So this is what I'll
say. It was a wonderful,incredible experience. It was very, very
(43:19):
interesting because we had these two sortof things going on. We had the
Brady Spouses, who were those ofus who were coming into this new and
we bonded instantly, Jerry hows Er, Martha Quinn. We had our own
little spinoff going on behind the scenes, the Brady Spouses, the Brady bunch
themselves. That cast was such awell oiled machine, and coming into it,
(43:42):
they were incredibly welcoming, but theyhad also worked with each other.
They grew those kids grew up witheach other. I think I'm talking fast
because I know we're running. Yeah, hey, race, can we see
the next one please? Thirteen?Yeah, here's another one. You're on
the far left there. Oh yeah, that wardrobe, all of this eight
he's a nineties wardrobe was cracking meup and very Barry William's mustache was hilarious.
(44:05):
Yeah, it almost looks like aporn stash. Everybody did though,
in those days. I think race, next one, fourteen, we're going,
we're moving along. Okay, Sohere you are singing with Florence Anderson
and Steve Plum right. Yeah,Alia Ayers was playing Marcia because Marcia did
not do the series, right right, and Martha Quinn. I'm pointing to
(44:28):
it, but nobody can. Oh, that's Martha Quinn on the phone.
Yes, to my right. Isthat before MTV? I guess right after
MTV? He had already done MTVand I we fell in love in stilling
she was. I still speak toher, but sadly not often enough.
But yeah, it's a cool picture. Next one race please fifteen? All
(44:52):
right? So what was Greg Bradya good kisser? I have to ask
you. I know that's really funnybecause I'm trying to We had one scene.
I think we're we kissed. Washe a good kisser? I don't
think we had like a real dealkiss. I remember seeing in front of
a fireplace. I do remember thinkingI'm being romantic with Greg Brady. He
doesn't have any lips. How that'strue. In that picture he looks like
(45:16):
a lizard. Maybe that's why themustad you know what. I just saw
him. I was lucky enough togo see him in the finale of Dancing
with the Stars. He was kindenough to extend that. And he's a
wonderful person. He's funny and wonderfuland I love that picture. This was
a Brady Bunch reunion. We didsome major reunion in New Jersey and it
(45:40):
was a room, you know,filled with hundreds of Brady Bunch fans,
and that was quite wonderful. Helooks like he looks like he has very
gentle, loving eyes, like agorgeous had like some good gossip to tell
you about kissing, And honestly,I could talk about like Dean Butler kissing.
Yeah, that would repulse me becauseI was so jealous. I was
(46:04):
so jealous. All right, solisten before we run out of time.
This is important. You know,my show is a paranormal show. Yeah,
all right, So race number sixteen, please number sixteen. Okay,
So, Karen, you told methat after this is you your dad and
your brother. Yes, And youtold me after your brother passed, some
interesting things happened. So tell usabout, you know, your paranormal stuff
(46:24):
with your brother. I actually Ihave something with my dad too. But
here's the thing. My brother sadlywas disabled, paranoid schizophrenic, and he
and I were literally tied at thehip. There was something just you know,
there was a very very deep connection. My brother also was very smart
(46:45):
and had such a wicked sense ofhumor. Sadly, he ended up dying
of cancer. I was by hisside when he died, and I was
very, very obviously distraught and heartbroken. I also had this sense instantly that
he was free of his body,and in the week after his death,
(47:07):
I felt him. I literally felthim. I couldn't explain it. I
didn't like even want to say itout loud, because you know these things.
I know you're doing a show aboutthis, but it's something that's quite
personal and everyone has their own opinionabout it. But they say that things
come through electricity, electric things,right, lamps and electric apparatuses and all
(47:32):
of that. And I had thisthing where out of nowhere, I had
some I heard some noise, andI went searching for it and what could
it be? And I couldn't figureit out. And it was my hair
dryer that had just turned on completelyby itself. I was nowhere near it,
(47:53):
and I just in that instant,I just thought, Oh my god,
that's that. I I really genuinelyfelt like that was my brother's way
of coming and leaving a message.I always had a thing about line.
Was it like, was it themiddle of the night or something, or
it actually wasn't in the middle ofthe night. It was daytime. But
(48:14):
I just there were a couple ofother things also, you know, I
just there was one time, thiswas in another home of mine, where
I woke up and every light inthe house went on and I did not
turn it on, and every sconceevery single light in the house went on.
(48:36):
And I remember being incredibly freaked out. And so is it, you
know, when I try to makesense of that, is that an electrical
short in the wall? Or isthat a message coming from my brother?
I choose to believe, weirdly thatsomehow it's connected. I also had I
(48:57):
know, again, we're going torun out of time. I had a
thing, you know how, youwhen you this was my dad. My
dad's name was Saul. Got outof the shower, you know how sometimes
you have like red marks when youget out of the shower. My hair's
you know, in a towel,and I look on my neck and literally
the letters S O L written inred on my neck, and I literally
(49:22):
like the I had chills, andI thought, oh, and no one
was In those days, we didn'thave a camera, like, we didn't
have our phones. I would havetaken a pick that is that shortly after
he passed. It was no,it was a number of years after he
had passed. But my I meanI I my mom also just recently passed,
(49:46):
and I was very, very connectedto her. She passed at ninety
five years old. I have felther and on her door when she passed,
they put a butterfly, which istelling the staff that this is somebody
that's transit. But I literally hadbutterflies in the backyard the entire week after
(50:06):
she passed. I don't mean hordesof them. It wasn't like a swarm,
but I think every day for abouta week, I saw a butterfly.
And I don't know, I don'tknow. I have to believe that
(50:29):
somehow the energy is there. Idon't know how or why or when or
where. And you, I wouldlove to hear more. And I wish
we had a longer time because obviouslyyou're doing a show about all of this
and it just has to exist,right Well it does it really does?
I mean, I think I toldyou if not. After my dad passed,
(50:52):
many things happened to remarkable things happenedafter my dad passed, among them
more minor one. Well, there'sso many things. Three days after he
died, I was out of townat a business trip in San Jose,
three days after he passed, andI'm in a hotel. I'm asleep.
(51:13):
It's three in the morning. I'msound asleep in the hotel. From underneath
my bed, Karen, I hearDanny Genie changed my will. And I
sat up. My heart's racing,I'm shaking. I looked around. I
said, Dad, my dad's wifewas second wife, was Genie. Danny
(51:34):
Genie changed my will, and mybed was vibrating the mattress. It turns
out months later, my brothers andI found out that his second white wife
changed his will. My dad toldme this three days after he died.
Okay, I literally heard his voice. I think I looked under the bed
because I was like Dad, becauseKaren, I thought he was in the
(51:57):
room. It was this loud.Danny Genie changed my will. It was
that loud the mattress would dreaming.You actually were No. No, no,
of course, And I told mybrothers and then they said we should
look into it. We called thelawyer in Florida, and she changed as
will and his insurance policies. Sothat happened he told me after he died.
(52:21):
And then he touched a light inmy bedroom a week later, in
the middle of the night. Itouch lamp. You know, a touch
lamp. You touched it on andwent on and off a few times.
I sat up and Dad. Andthen another time he had gotten me years
earlier, a little toy drum killa drum set, A little toy drum
set. I had it on mydresser in my bedroom, middle of the
(52:43):
night a few weeks after he dies. The symbols, the symbols are from
the little toy drums that are GlennGlen clanging and I set up. I
go, Dad, I go,please, If that's you, stop because
you're scarying the ship out. Ohmy gosh, I said. My dad
kept he kept coming coming. Soit's the electrical thing to me. You
(53:04):
know, it happens once, okay, but if it continues to happen,
it's it's not a coincidence. Hereyou saw with your dad. It's like
your dad took his finger on yourneck almost, It's like he wrote his
name on your neck. Yeah,it felt that way. I literally started
to cry. And the thing aboutit is, there's no time like in
(53:27):
my experience with this. It wasn'ttime to like consciously say to yourself,
oh that's my bar year. Ijust felt that, right, you know
what I mean, or that Iknow I don't want to see. No,
I've heard other people say, no, you knew who it was.
Yeah, that was the surprising thing. It wasn't like, oh, you
(53:49):
know those lights went on every lightin the house by itself. You know
that. Yeah, it's just fascinating. And I just well, my dad,
my dad. That was blatant.Anny Genie changed my will and she
did and she did, and hewas pissed. This is literally three days
after he died, and he saidit that loudly to me to wake me
(54:14):
up. Why didn't you come toyou and not your brothers. I was
the oldest. I was the oldest. I was the oldest. I think
he trusted me the most. WeI think we had the closest bond of
the three. We're getting really tightand I love you so much. And
there's other things, But can wetalk about aliens and UFOs. You've never
seen the UFO, I don't thinkhave you? You know, not that
(54:37):
I've recognized. I would love it. Here's the thing I cannot imagine we
are the only species in the universe. You just can't. Of course,
I can't be I don't know whatexists, but it defines my own sense
of logic. I don't know whatit looks like or what it you know,
(54:58):
but but how is that we are? You know? I don't know.
I asked myself that question. Imean, I know what you believe.
Have you studied? Have you studiedit? Because there's decades of research
and books and documents and documentaries.If your research with Karen you learned that
really these things are real. Alot everything is real, but a lot
(55:21):
of it is real, and thegovernment has been keeping it from us purposely
since the crash at Roswell of nineteenforty seven. The many there are many,
many documents that have been released thattalk about the Roswell crash. They
had four dead bodies and one livingalien who lived until nineteen fifty two.
His name was eb eb E.They didmed to eb and people on their
(55:45):
deathbeds who picked up debris from Roswellswore to their families on their deathbeds they
said, this was all real,this is all true. We were told
that if we told anybody they'd killus or throw us in jail, or
take away our pigeons. So Ihave partners in Washington, d C.
They're working on disclosure, capital ddisclosure disclosure beings. The president. Whoever
(56:08):
the President goes on TV, it'shis ladies and gentlemen. I have something
to tell you. Sit down,hold on tight. Extraterrestrial life is real.
They've been visiting us a long time. They've been here for a long
time. We've known about it.We've had to keep it from you.
It's national security. We didn't feelcomfortable, but now's the time, and
(56:29):
blah blah blah. There are major, major people, including Chuck Schuber,
who my partners are working with totry to move the ball forward, and
a lot of people think that's goingto happen this year. They think this
is the year for disclosure. SoI'm involved with that. I've been studying
this for twenty years. I've seenthree UFOs. I believe my dad worked
with reverse engineering on crashed UFOs.I'm quite convinced of it because I've researched
(56:52):
him after he died. What Ohyeah, yeah, I didn't tell you
that. That's a whole nother that'sa whole another. It's a whole another
story. It's so interesting I wouldlike to talk to you about I don't
whole enough. But there's a greatdeal to it if you look into it,
if you open your heart in yourmind to it, there's a lot
there. What do you have comingup in the near future and how can
(57:15):
people contact you? Uh? Youknow, I'm unfortunately social media wise,
I'm just sort of gaining speed.I'm not a great social media person,
but I'm really committed to being betterabout it. Uh Instagram, as you
said at Karen Richmond, my namec A R Y N R I c
H me old fashioned me is onFacebook, have a have a page there
(57:39):
that's a public page. And alsoyou know my own personal page. Have
a lot going on. I've becomethe queen of and I say this lovingly,
Hallmark Christmas type movies and Lifetime thrillers. I worked today and was smothered
with a plastic bag on my head. Up popular project yet, but had
(58:01):
a lot of takes of being smothered. You know what, I'm enjoying working
and continuing on this journey, andI'm grateful to just have the opportunity to
show up on a set and someoneyell action and I get to do it.
I love more than anything, soI also I know we're running out
of time. Had a very small, small, tiny role in Ray Romano's
(58:24):
newest movies Somewhere in Queens now streaming, just a bunch of stuff. I'm
just you've done. You've done somehorror films in the last few years,
The puppet Man. Do you havetime to talk about the public? Tell
us about the pup evand and thiswas an amazing movie. I have you
know, I've done little parts inhorror films, mostly the wholesome person who
gets killed off within the first fewminutes or whatever. But this was a
(58:46):
wonderful role and it's on shutter.I believe now I get to play.
I should have sent you a picturea psychic someone who contacts, you know,
spirit, and I had like thebest makeup and hair like rasta,
you know, and it was amazinggirl, amazing costumes, and I got
(59:07):
to be this woman, and thatwas helping these kids sort of get to
the bottom of why their friend waseverybody was dying off and ultimately I scared
the crap out of myself and werace. Do you have twenty two.
Do you have slide twenty two?It's our puppet band. There you go?
Is that it? I don't seeit, but oh yeah, oh
(59:29):
there it is. Oh my god, where'd you get that from? You
know, I'm very clever, Karen, you are? Oh my god.
Well Michael Parree, Michael Parra wasOh that's Michael Perey. I love him.
Yeah, he was the detective andthe poor young girl who is actually
in a trance and possessed at themoment, we're trying to get that spirit
(59:52):
out of her. Your hair looksgreat. There they did this amazing stuff
with hair and me. Yeah,your hair looks really awesome. Yeah,
thank you. Great movie. I'mscared the crap out of me when I
actually saw it. It's always funnywhen you do those kind of projects and
you don't really see all the deathscenes they were filmed. I wasn't involved
in those. And then when Ireactually had a screening of the movie,
(01:00:14):
I was like, horror fun someamazing depths in the movie those see Is
it fun to be in the horrorfilm? Is it fun? Or?
I loved it. We had thiswonderful director, Brandon Christians and he does
a lot of horror. He wouldcome to me after a take because you
know, here I am with mylittle gidget career and I play mostly up
(01:00:35):
you know, until recently, alot of wholesome, sweet characters. And
he would say, Karen, giveme horror eyes. It would literally be
like you would say something and thenit would be you know, he said,
give me the horror moment. Andhe really literally helped me, like
find it's a tiny bit of adifferent genre if you're playing it. You
(01:00:57):
know, it's not tongue in sheetby any means, but it's it's a
specific expectation I think as an actor, and he really helped me so beautifully
through it. You know, likethere's a phone call or the bird.
You see the bird. I rememberthere was a scene where the bird died
and I sort of first played itlike the bird died, and you know,
(01:01:20):
no, this is horror. Thisis a genre, and it's like,
you know, there's a way ofyou not to do it. It
expanded your chops, your acting childabsolutely, Like I'm so anxious to do
horror, more horror films, andI've done a few in the past.
Again, but I wasn't asked todo what I was little Gidget goes horror.
There you go, there you go? All right, Karen. I
love you, I always have it. I always will see you soon.
(01:01:43):
Thank you for doing this. Peoplewrite to Karen to Karen Richmond on Instagram.
I'm Dan Harari Dan Harari author dotcom. And if you're interested in
UFOs, check out Hollywood Disclosure Alliancedot org. It's my UFO group.
See you next week. Next week'sguest is Paul Heinick. Paul Heineck's father
(01:02:04):
was Jay Allen Heinick. Jay AllenHeinich was the head of Project blue Book
and was the science officer on theset of Close Encounters of the Third Kind
with Steven Spielberg. He knows allabout UFOs. Karen, I love you,
love you you bless you feel better. Thank you for having me.
Thank you see you next time.Thanks everyone, Take care, same
From Hollywood. It's Paranormal ten nights. I'm Mark Summers and now here's your
host, Jan Harari. That's me, Dan Hourrari. That's my name.
Don't wear it out, Mark Summers. Hello everyone, thank you very much
for joining us. This is myeighth show already live from Hollywood. It's
Paranormal tonight. I am Dan Harari. I am a veteran Hollywood publicist whatever
(00:47):
that means, forty plus years inHollywood. Actually, I'm broadcasting to you
live from beautiful downtown Beverly Hills.This is my office and my workplace of
insanity. And see my insanity onthe walls behind me there. I'm also
an author of two books, Flirtingwith Fame and after they came does are
(01:07):
right here? My mother always makessure that I have those prominently displayed or
else. She yells at me everyweek, why aren't you just selling your
books? I am selling my books, Mom. There you go. I
had a very interesting last few days. Today I had the privilege of spending
a day with my dear friend,Michelle Phillips, the singer from The Moms
(01:30):
and the Papa. She's a friendof mine and she agreed to be interviewed
by me for this Dopey show,and once we edit that down, we
will be presenting it. It mighteven be a two parter. She talks
about her whole career and sixties musicand the drug situation in the sixties.
It's a fascinating person. I waswith her all day today and that's going
(01:53):
to come up in the next fewmonths. By interview with Michelle Phillips.
Earlier this week, I spent sometime at a UFO hotspot in New Mexico.
I was invited by some people whoare on a property there, and
they have the most remarkable UFO activitythat they've captured on photographs and on videos,
(02:15):
thousands and thousands of images, andthey are having all of their data
scientifically vetted, forensically and to beproven that it's not fake, that it's
real stuff. The things that Isaw the last few days are just mind
boggling. You'll be hearing more aboutthat in the months ahead. I have
(02:35):
a little frog of my voice inmy throat, and hopefully he'll leave during
the course of this show. Soanyway, I want to introduce a very
dear friend of mine and a veryspecial guest that we have for tonight.
Karen Richmond is an actress and asinger, probably best known for her role
as Gidget in the TV series TheNew Gidget, which was produced by Columbia
(02:58):
Pictures Television. That series evolved fromthe success of the nineteen eighty five TV
movie Gidget Summer Reunion, in whichshe also starred. The New Gidget series
ran from nineteen eighty six to eightyeight. And I first met Karen in
nineteen eighty six when I was thepublicist for The New Gidget when I worked
(03:19):
at Columbia Pictures. Born in Brooklyn, New York, two months before me,
two months before me, I've alwayshad a crush on older women.
Karen graduated from Syracuse University and laterfrom UCLA. She began her professional acting
career in the nineteen seventies when shestarted in a Broadway production of Greece.
(03:40):
Then she joined a singing group calledTuxedo Junction, a three part vocal group
which sang forties music in disco style. Will We'll be talking to her about
those projects in a minute? Next? Karen showcased her singing abilities on the
TV show Texas, where she playeda successful singer named Elana Decker. From
(04:01):
nineteen eighty to eighty two, andKaren performed many songs on Texas and she
really has a lovely singing voice,something I didn't realize until just the other
day. Karen portrayed the role ofNora Brady, wife to Brady Bunch star
Barry Williams aka Greg Brady, inthe TV movie A Very Brady Christmas in
(04:24):
nineteen eighty eight, and she alsoplayed that same role in the TV series
The Brady's which was a revamping ofThe Brady Bunch obviously in nineteen ninety.
During her career, Karen has appearedon numerous TV shows, including The New
Mike Hammer, Matt Locke, Jakeand the Fat Man, Angel Fire,
(04:45):
hit Man, The Adventures of MisterClown, and many others. She played
the role of Jane Johnson in theTV series called Hollywood Safari. She played
the part of Victoria in the twentyfifth fourteen film The Black Water Vampire,
and a few years ago she appearedin the movie The Puppet Man. So
(05:06):
we're going to talk about all thosethings. Karen is available on Instagram.
Her user name is at Karen cA R y N. Richmond Like rich
Man, Let's bring in my dearfriend. Brace let's bring in my friend
Karen rich Man. There she is. Hey, Oh my god, I'm
so bright compared to you. Ifeel like they are more mysterious or something.
(05:30):
You want to light some candle candlesor something. I really am too,
way too uh oh, anyway,you look great, though, I'm
sorry you're not doing well. Ohyeah, it's okay. The show must
go on, Karen. That's whatthat, that's what I You know,
my mother was a I don't knowif I told you. My mother was
an actress and a singer and aplaywright and a director and a musician and
(05:50):
a poet and all those things.So she was in countless plays when I
was a kid, and there weretimes that she'd be sick, and she
did any This show must go onany So true, I must have the
same mother. Well, well,my parents were from Brooklyn, so yeah,
(06:11):
of course, find too. Thereyou go, Kindred spirits, all
right, So hopefully I didn't screwup anything in your bio. There.
I love to hear you repeat itback. Sometimes we don't realize we've done
stuff in our lives, right,that's right. Absolutely, we're busy living
there everyday lives, all right,So I have some questions for you.
Let's rock and rock and roll andlet's just see, let's see where this
(06:34):
goes. Here we go, it'san impro here we go, all right.
So tell us about growing up?How and when did you realize you
wanted to be a singer and anactress. So I grew up on Long
Island, nice Jewish girl, mostlyraised in mass People Park for those of
(06:55):
you who even know Long Island,and you know, I'm old enough to
say that in those days, itwas so hard to imagine like having a
career as an actor. It wasmore, oh my god, that's a
dream that's unattainable. And I literally, you know, wanted to be Barber
streisand in Funny Girl. And Iwould watch musicals and then I went to
(07:17):
my first you know, Broadway play, and I always dreamed of it,
but I never literally never thought thatit would be something that was attainable.
It was also something that nice girls, you know, we do. I
was like expected to go to collegeand you know, do a much more
traditional kind of life. So Ialways dreamed of it, never thinking it
(07:41):
was attainable. Was in you know, shows at Temple at High school at
camp and it really wasn't until Iwas in the middle of college. Then
I went to an open call onBroadway for the show Grease, which was
running, and this was nineteen seventy. Oh my gosh, I'm giving away
(08:01):
my age. But it doesn't mattera race. Well, hold on,
race, can we see? Therewe go? Slide number one. That's
you, Karen, Look at you? How old are you here in this
picture? You know? I reallycouldn't find a digitized picture of the actual
original Grease that I did. Thiswas a number of years later, still
must have been in my late twentieswith Rex Smith, who is such a
(08:26):
beautiful man. But we had somuch fun. So this wasn't my original.
This was from a tour. Actually, I repaced the role of Sandy
for years. I was in myforties, and I did it once with
Jack Wagner. So that was oneof those plays that you could be sort
of aiming towards being a geriatric personand still do the play if you could
move around a bit. So,well, how old so you were in
(08:48):
Sandy in Greece on Broadway. Well, we ended up getting the role of
Sandy. I did it on tour. I did it on Broadway and that
started my career. And at thatpoint I did a complete U turn.
I was majoring in social work andpsychology and and just said, hey,
I could potentially, you know,try this and maybe have this as my
(09:09):
career might be attainable after all.So did your parents accept what they saw
you on Broaday didn't? Most Isaid, oh, my god, a
little girl. You're a little girlso much so, she's so talented and
telling. I think my mom wasliving vicariously and my dad was horrified.
My parents were divorced. My dadwas an orthodox Jewish traditional man who couldn't
(09:35):
imagine the decisions I had just made. My mom just thought it was,
you know, fabulous. So Ihad a conflict there, which you know,
was an interesting dichotomy for me.It wasn't until I did. I
don't think Greece proved to them thatI was going to make a success of
it, but subsequently some of theother roles. It wasn't until Gidget,
(09:58):
the New Gidget was was There wasan article in the Jewish Journal as long
as we're on this theme of beingJewish, and I think at that point
my father felt, Okay, mydaughter's an actress. You know, I
may have gotten you that article.Come to think of it, I'm sure
you did. You you used tocome to the set with piles of articles.
(10:20):
How you even did that? Ihave no idea. Yeah, my
daughter says, Woo, Karen,see beauty little on Julie, Hi Angelie.
She is such a beauty and solovely. She's the one thing I
ever did. Right, Race,Let's see the slide number two, please,
my brother, Race, let's seeslide number two. All right,
now, look at you, Lookat these hot babes. You're in a
(10:43):
singing group called Tuxedo Junction. Whatis what's going on here? So I
came out to Los Angeles after doingGreece on tour, ended up at the
Pantagious Theater here in beautiful Hollywood.And this was a group that was similar
to Millie Vanilli. They had alreadydone one out album. They have done
an album and consequently had a hitsong on the charts, Chattannooga Chu Choo,
(11:05):
the disco version of Chattanooga Chu Choo. And at that point they realized,
oh, we have to put agroup together. It was studio singers
that had done that first album,so they literally we were acting as if
we were this recording group. Welearned three part harmonies, We performed on
all kinds of TV shows, DanceFever, we were on tour, we
(11:31):
played the Cobad Cavada in New York, and then we actually recorded the second
album. We didn't end up witha hit song on the charts at that
point, and it was also towardsthe end where disco was absolutely dying and
it was time to move on.But for that period of time, we
were in that world. And thatwas a world that I knew nothing about
(11:52):
because that had nothing to do withacting, right, it was. It
was everything you imagine the music businessto be in the seventies. It was
crazy, crazy. Where are thesetwo women now? Do you know?
So? Yes, Midge, whois the middle lovely woman, is one
of my best best friends. Andthat was, you know, for many
(12:13):
many years obviously, and sadly Lisha, the beauty and the gold has passed
on. So and there we areand we had you were you were,
You were like the monkeys. Youwere, You were created in the studio,
you were cast, put together.And then did you tour? Did
you tour? Rend? We touredall over the United States. We as
I say, we did all kindsof TV shows and disco shows. We
(12:39):
played Las Vegas with Wolfman, JackPeaches and Herb Frango Lee who had a
hit song come to Me. Wewere on this giant billboard like it was
a time, honestly in my lifewhere everything felt like it was just this,
like I was shot out of acannon. It was like this bad,
(13:00):
fee less period of my life whereI had such I had no expectation.
I didn't know where I was goingwith any of it. So it
was all just such a beautiful surpriseand so much fun and so crazy crazy.
Was your orthodox father plots? Washe plotzing I from you on plotzing
carrot and plotxing? I actually don'tremember his reaction during the text Sedar notion
(13:24):
days. I never knew your fatherwas Orthodox Jewish. I never knew that
well he was, you know,if he the synagogue then he went to
was Orthodox. He kept Kosher athome, but my mom, since I
was going back and forth again froma divorced home, it was very confusing,
Like we'd eat bacon in one homeand it was forbidden in other.
(13:45):
No wonder you've been bipolar all theseyears. I'm telling you, it's the
perfect It's really that little level oftorture serves actors very very well. They
tend to see things from two differentsides. Because I was constantly trying to
evaluate who needed what from me andtry to be that so it served me
well. That was my original training. I think I understand. My daughter
(14:07):
went through that from the age oftwo. I got divorced when she was
two, and her mother and Iare the most different people on the planet,
and every now and then she wasdad. How were you and mom
ever together? I go, Idon't know. I have no idea how
that happened. Well, because yougrew you were married at an early age
and then you Yes, I mether. Car name is Kim, very
(14:30):
lovely lady. I met her.I was twenty five, Kim was twenty
twenty. That's very very young.Yeah, we were together eleven eleven years,
and they were the eleven of thebest days of my life. That's
a whole another joke that I do. I don't book. Do you have
like an little drum beat in theresomewhere, but well, I have my
drums back there. I don't knowif you can see them. I do
(14:50):
Actually I didn't know. Listen,we've been friends for years and I'm learning
so much. You didn't know Iwas a drummer. I had no idea
how I've been a drummer all right. From seven to ten, I played
classical piano because both of my parentswere musicians. Seven to ten classical piano.
I was gifted and brilliant and doingrecitals. Okay, no doubt,
(15:11):
Okay. The Monkeys. The Monkeyscome on TV September nineteen sixty six,
and now we had a black owhite TV. We didn't even have color
anyway. The Monkeys came out.I sat there. I was like,
oh my god, the monkeys.Now I was a little on the young
side for the Beatles. I lovedthe Beatles, but I didn't connect to
them. The Monkeys are on TV. They're funny, they have long hair,
(15:31):
they have hit songs. And MickeyDolans is pretending to play the drums.
And I saw that Karen, andI said, oh my god,
Mom and Dad see that. I'mgoing to play the drums. Yeah,
sure, kid, you're gonna play. No, no, no, no,
you don't understand. I'm going toplay the drums. And I fought
and kicked and screamed. They gaveme lessons for years. I got a
drum set for my bar mitzvah.I've been in Bend since nineteen sixty eight.
(15:54):
You know I've been playing Did Inot know this? And have you
played anywhere like since since? Let'ssay, from New Gidget to them from
the eighties? Now just in myroom here because of my ears, it's
the whole thing with my hearing,and it's a whole thing. But no,
no, I mean, I'm avery good drummer. I've always been
a good drummer. And then mymiddle brother plays piano and keyboards. My
(16:17):
little brother plays guitar. My dadplayed the trombone. My parents were in
a big band together in the seventies. My mom was the lead singer,
my dad was the trompbonis. Iused to see my parents on stage.
I grew up with parents on stage. So for me, you know how
you wish to elevate yourself onto astage, I grew up with my parents
(16:37):
on stages my whole life. I'mlike, yeah, because your business is
just kind of part of my family. And all other relatives looked at my
parents like they were crazy. Theywere the only ones that they're kind my
parents. That's unusual, especially ifyou know for that time, I feel
like that's wonderful. And my dadwas an engineer for the army, and
he was building raiders and missiles andspy equipment and buying on Russia by day,
(17:02):
and then on weekends he's playing trombonein a big band and my mother
is singing, you know, SaintLouis blues. And my mother was very
good looking in these days. Andmy dad used to get jealous because all
the guys in the band will beflirting with my mother in front of him.
And he said, he's sitting rightthere. That's showbiz, baby,
that's yeah. Anyway, we'll talkmore about that next time. We got
(17:23):
a busho and friend, I lovethat, all right? Race Race number
three, number three, number three, all right. I pulled this off
the internet and now I watch this. Karen, you have a lovely,
lovely voice. I never heard yousing live, but this is you from
the show Texas. Tell Me About, Tell Me About Texas. So somewhere
(17:45):
as Texedo Junction and Disco was dyingabout in nineteen eighties, when I was
cast in a new soap opera thatNBC was doing. It was a spin
off of Another World. We startedon Another World and were you know,
we ran for three years, twoand a half years, and sadly,
(18:06):
it's interesting. I just did aninterview with someone who's writing a book about
Texas, which is kind of interestingbecause it was a bit of an obscure
soap opera. But if you werean NBC fan and watching Another World,
this was, you know, quitepopular. Sadly, we were up against
General Hospital, so we really didn'thave much of a chance at that point.
But I loved every second of it. First of all, it was
(18:30):
steady work. We were in NewYork, we were in the same studio
as Another World, so we reallywere in our little microcosmic soap opera universe.
A lot of amazing people. ChrisKnight from The Brady Bunch actually was
on Another World at the same time. That's where I first met him.
Rayleoda was on Another World. Weall it was heaven. And from an
(18:52):
acting point of view, again,anyone who's done soaps or watched soaps,
it's just endless hialogue and you've youbecome an actor. When I watched the
beginning of that show, I wasgod awful as far as I was concerned.
And I really learned how to bean actor on that show. And
(19:14):
thankfully, you know, once Igot in it and got my feet more
wet and got a bit more skilled, I improved. But it was just
another incredible experience that just sort ofkept unfolding for me at the time.
It was great and I got tosing. So I was doing Greece,
I did taxed Junction, and hereI was this country western singer and again,
(19:38):
you know, for me marrying everything, and I was really grateful for
Were you into country western music atall? Or probably not West country worst?
And I don't think I call itcountry worse anymore, but it was
all Yeah. My hit song onthat show was It's all Over Town?
That It's all over Now? Wasthat? Did that song make it to
the radio? It was still getletters or you know, we don't write
(20:02):
letters anymore, but you know,correspondence emails, whatever, saying can we
get that song? We loved thatsong? Wow, And I think that's
the song we were singing in thatlittle picture that you paid. Yeah,
that was really quite good. NowI watched it, I'm like, wow,
I've known Karen thirty whatever years andthat's the first time I ever heard
you sing. But you know,you really are a good singer. Read
(20:26):
it. Thank you, But listen. We sang on Gidget. Do you
remember that? Maybe you don't rememberthat, but we Moondagie and I did
some musical numbers. There was onedrag City where he it was a throwback
to like the fifties and moon Doggiewas racing. Were you singing live on
the on the set? Yeah,in the studio, And I said that
(20:48):
that's why, karens. You know, I don't call you seeing you sing
live before my very No, I'mjust thinking you were there for the whole,
for the whole kitchen. No,I was done. No, No,
I got fired in June eighty seven. I think he went another year.
(21:08):
Oh that's why. That's also why, because that didn't happen till the
last year. Oh. I justthought of something, and I wasn't.
This isn't in my nuts, butI just remembered this just this minute.
Do you remember? This is oneof my ALTI great Hollywood stories. It's
in my book Flirting with Fae.Okay, one day you were on the
set at Columbia Pictures were on theset, and you pulled me aside and
(21:30):
you said, Dan, Sally Fieldis at the next sound stage doing a
movie. Why don't you see ifshe might come over and take a picture
with me, you know, allthe original Gidget and the new Kitchet right.
And I said, Karen, it'sbrilliant, it's wonderful. I didn't
know she was there, so Karen, so I went over. I went
over to the other set. Thedoor opened, she was coming out of
(21:52):
the stage. She had a whiterobe. I think she had curlers in
her hair. She had a wholeentourage of women all around her, and
I think she had like fuzzy slippers, and I just, you know,
I just want right out to missField, this Field, and she's looking
at Yeah. I said, oh, hi, my name is Dan.
I'm with the new Gidget show nextdoor. She goes, yeah, you
(22:15):
know, I'm the publicist for theshow. Do you think do you think
you might take a minute to bekind enough to come over and meet Karen
Richmond the new Gidgets, so wecould take a photo of you with the
new Gidget together. She looks atme like, not in a million years,
she wanted Karen, She wanted meto die in a fire, not
(22:38):
in a million years. She waslike, go f fu, you lunatic.
No, that was steam was comingout of her curlers from her.
I wonder why she hated the showso much. I believe I think she
got screwed on the residu of theroyalties or the residuals from that show.
I think it was a money thing. She probably so wanted Gidget to be
(23:02):
in her past. And here's likethis schmunky Jewish publicist, Hivessfield, do
you want to be the new Gidgetas well? That was ballsy of you,
and as a publicist, you weredoing my job. Yeah, exactly,
she thinked me that she just Iactually I had an instance not that
long ago at the Director's Guild Awards. She was there and I had I
(23:26):
think I had had won too manymarchings. I was with some young people
and she was there and they wereegging me on, and I just sort
of, you know, talked myselfinto going over to her. She exact
same reaction, and I was anidiot. I was like, you know,
oh my god, I am Karen. I was you know, you
and I both we both got rebuffedby by Gidget, the real Gidget.
(23:51):
I still I love her so muchand I can understand she just you know,
when you're that level, you justget bombarded. Karen. She looked
at me like this, not ina million years, like what in what
world do you come to? Doyou have the balls? Just to look
on her face? Karen, I'mlike, oh, okay, And I
looked down at my shoes and sheleft. All right, Race number four?
(24:14):
Please? All right? So Karen, your big break came in eighty
five. You started Gidget Summer ReunionTV movie, which then became the New
Oh but I wouldn't give to havethat body? Yeah, look at that
body? Boy? Did you havesome figure? Such a figure she has.
I always was so self conscious,but now you know, a million
(24:38):
years later when I'm three times thesize I mean, Karen, for a
Jewish girl from Long Island to looklike that, please, oh gorge,
now kidding? You certainly had itman. So that's how we met.
We met when this movie became aseries. And so what are some of
your favorite memories of that time periodbesides meeting me? Of course, well,
(25:00):
meeting you was a gift. Butas far as the show, you
know, here's the thing that wasa show that was so focused on that
character me. So I remember feeling, you know, a thrilled. You
know how many times in a lifetimeI'm an actor. Are you lucky enough
(25:23):
to have a show where you're playingthe title character like that? But along
with that came what felt at thetime like a lot of responsibility, And
it was just a lot because ofthe nature. Karen, I'm so sorry
I have to interrupt you. Wehave to take a break. I'm so
enthralled with you. We have totake a break. Paytent bills, run
(25:45):
some commercials. We'll be right backwith Karen talking about the new gidget rock
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or visit onexmedia dot com for moreinformation on this book and more amazing selections
from Unexmedia Publishing at unexmedia dot com. Tests f and We're back with actress
(30:10):
Karen Richmond. Karen was telling usabout the responsibility of being the title character,
and you know, I never reallythought about that but yeah, I
mean the show revolved around you andyour little tight little body. There.
Oh my gosh, well, oh, there we go again. I don't
want want to cry or cry Ihad, I thought when you were on
(30:33):
the break, though. I dohave this memory of driving that looks like
some weird thing is sticking up behindmy head, doesn't it. It's a
culture, It's not some weird thingcoming out of my head. I remember
driving to the first day of workto Warner Brothers, which you have to
come over a hill sure in Burbank, California, and the sun was coming
(30:56):
up. It was about six pointthirty in the morning, and I was
driving a little white Rabbit convertible justlike Gidget did. And as I pulled
in the gate and my name wason the list, and I was like
part of the club for a minute, and they were like, hello,
miss Richmond, welcome, you know, and I drove onto that lot.
I was sobbing with joy. Likethat might be an exaggeration, but I
(31:18):
was really filled with a lot ofemotion that this was my you know,
what could have potentially been a veryvery big break. And also I'm starring
in a television series, my owntelevision series, and which was amazing,
but yeah, a lot of responsibilityand the energy, you know, gidgets
(31:40):
energy was so up and a lotof energy output, which you know,
obviously I was way younger, soit was much easier. But I did
feel a certain responsibility. And alsoI had watched Sally Field's Gidget. I
loved it, and so you know, I felt responsibility is too much on
(32:02):
it. I didn't feel responsible tocarry on the name necessarily, but I
did feel a responsibility to be agood Gidget, like like do it,
yeah, take it and take itseriously. Yeah, I wanted to do
it justice. It was iconic characterand there were many, you know,
iterations of that character. So Iwanted to be part of that club and
(32:27):
be and do it well if Icould. You did a great race.
Can we see number five or sixor seven? The next couple of there
we go. So there you arewith Dean and Sydney Penny Buggie and Sydney.
What happened to Sidney Penny? Whateverhappened to her? Yout married and
had a son and lives somewhere,don't remember exactly where, but she you
(32:50):
know, she worked a bunch afterGidget, and I think I'm not one
hundred percent sure, but the lasttime I was in touch with her,
she lives somewhere out of Hollywood andis having a wonderful life, being a
wonderful mommy and happily married. Yeah, and you're still friends with Dean.
I know. I'm really close withDean. We do a lot of things
together. We just actually last yeardid a musical show together where we sang
(33:15):
together. It was a it wasa sixties tribute and we had so much
fun. He's a dear friend,and we do a lot of you know,
we see you were dating. Youwere dating during this period. I
think I think it's been forty years. I think it's we can let that
cat out of the bit race.Can we do the next one? Please?
(33:35):
I think it's six. There wego and there's William Shaller right.
Yes, he was the father ofon the Patti Duke Show. I believe
he was the father of so manydifferent people. He was like the TV
it was the father. The greatestthing I really treasured my relationship with him,
And what I value most is thatafter the show we stayed close,
like we up until the year hedied. We would have lunch a few
(33:58):
times a year and we had thisI don't know what it was. I
think it was his energy and justwe were put in that position. But
he was I felt like he wasfamily. I felt like a little bit,
you know, very he was mydad, you know for a minute.
I mean, I know he wasn'tmy dad, but you know he
was. He was opposite, theopposite of your orthodox Jewish very much so.
(34:24):
But here's the great thing about WilliamShaller before he had such a body
sense of humor, which you wouldn'tnecessarily know because he comes off as just
this wholesome, really sweet man.But he would say the dirtiest things sometimes
before a take and we would beand it was literally like all right,
places, everyone ready, and hewould, you know, say something funny,
(34:45):
not always dirty. I don't want, you know, to have a
bad reputation. He was wonderful,wonderful man. But not that there's anything
wrong with me. But he wouldjust make me laugh constantly and really kept
it very very light. And wewere and we were working long hours.
You know, we were there beforethe sun came up, and we filmed
until the sun went down, andwe were it was a it was a
(35:08):
hard shoot. It looks like itwas all fun and games, but shooting
at the beach is not great.Those were long days. I remember Race
next one please, Yeah, samething again, not that perm cat.
Just sometimes I can't get over thestyles in the air. You look,
you look a little different in eachof the race next one as well?
Next one? There's one? Allright? So you and I met,
(35:30):
we met this day, all right. So I was at Columbia Pictures about
five months as a senior publicist thereand they said, Dan, you're going
to be the publicist for the newKidget. I said okay, and they
handed me this robe that please givethis to Karen Richmond. I go,
who the hell's cartridge? She's thenew Oh, she's the new kitdget Oh.
I had no idea what they're talkingabout. So they gave me this
(35:53):
robe and I'm thinking, you know, I don't want to get a dirty
you dirty fingernails. I don't wantto get these fingerprints on it. Pristine.
So you were on I think onthe stage and a dance and it
was in a school. I thinkit was in Burbank. Yeah, we
were. That was part of this. It was the show. I remember,
I do remember. I don't rememberthe name of the show, but
(36:13):
yeah, it was. This isthis was the this is the moment that
you and I met. You know, that is such a I love this
picture. I know I have thispicture, but what I love most is
it looks like I'm just completely flashingyou. I know, I know.
And when you did that, Isaid, Karen, will never tell anyone
what you're really doing. What didI have on underneath that? Obviously?
(36:34):
I had clothes like as we wereinside. I mean, just look out
young and right, young, carefreeand you know, before my divorce.
Let's reinact it. Let's do it. No, I still have that bathrow
by the way, do you.Yeah, I have a couple of things
from Gidget. It was a verylovely moment. And I had hair then,
so you'll see how long ago thatwas. But yeah, that was
(36:55):
a very sweet moment. That's themsecond I met you. Okay, Race,
Let's see what's what do we havenext here with the next one?
Okay, So, Karen, Ijust found this recently. I think your
publicist with Rogers and Cowan did thiswith you, right, that was actually
part of the show. Really,I never saw an that was after.
That's after I came and went.Then yes, because we did these things
(37:17):
before and within the framework of theshow. Gidget would talk straight to camera
as all these different characters Elvira forHalloween or you know. All this was
as an actor, this was adream. I got to do a million
different characters, you know, Victorianwriters with English accents or whatever. And
(37:37):
this was part of a they thiswas part of a show we did about
Hollywood, and they actually built thisand we got a picture of it.
It was a whole thing. I'mtrying. Yeah, you weren't there.
It was this thing where I daydreamabout becoming a star. And I remember
they took all of these photos ofme Karen Richmond and put them on fake
(38:01):
people magazine covers and house. Doyou have any of those props or anything?
Do I have them all? Oh? That's great. I wonder who
has I wonder who has these letters. I don't know how fabulous would that
be to just if that was inyour backyard. I put it in the
front yard. That was great.Yeah, I remember what was sex bomb?
(38:27):
You are up there, look atthat that picture your father's plots in
and dropping dead. I think atthat point he accepted it. I think
because that was that definitely was sortof, you know, a turning point.
Although I had done the things thatwe talked about before that, this
was you know, nobody knew ifGidget was going to be a hit or
not. And I always say thisas an actor, like getting a job
(38:51):
is difficult enough as it is,and then hoping that your show runs,
and like if Gidget, let's say, had been friends or you know,
I was signing, or everybody lovesRaymond or whatever, it's like, it's
not just enough to get a show'sand that show has to run. And
we were possibly going to go foranother year, but then there was a
(39:12):
whole takeover. But why I don'tremember you not being there? Isn't that
wird? You had such a strongpresence. I don't remember. Well,
I never knew exactly what happened.I was let off in June eighty seven.
I think I upset one of theexecutives. I think I said something
that was not meant to be heard. I think that's what happened. But
what happened was I then got anincredibly great job and I was representing Jay
(39:37):
Leno on The Tonight Show. Andtwo or three months later, after I
left. My whole department was eliminated. So by me getting fired early that
it gave me a boost to therest of my career. So it was
it was a blessing in disguise.Race Next one, next picture. Okay,
So, Karen, guess who tookthis one? You took this photo.
(40:00):
This is me in the in theskipper. This is in Hawaii.
You guys shot a week in Hawaii, the New Gidget in Hawaii and Alan
Hale Junior was a lovely guy.And I'm pretty sure Karen, that he
took that photo. I love that. I mean, it was first of
all, it's an amazing photo.Do you have that like Frank? Of
(40:21):
course, of course, yeah,can I have that photos something for sure?
I don't remember shooting with him inHawaii. Weirdly, I remember shooting
at Warner Brothers. Well, obviouslyBob Denver was supposed to didn't go to
Hawaii. I think he shot withGilligan in Burbank. But the skipper he
(40:42):
was this picture was in Hawaii withthe Gidget show. Now, I'm pretty
sure you took that picture. Youknow, maybe it was Dean, but
I like to think you just sayit was me. I like that better.
I'd like to see you all right, Race the next picture, now
this is my Okay, look atyou. Now, you don't know the
play to you, Karen, thecrush I had on you in this era.
(41:06):
I mean I was and I wasmarried, and I'm like, look
at her. Look at Karen.She's Jewish. She's Jewish. My mother,
my mother. If I brought youhome to my mother, my mother
would plots and just drop dead onthe floor. He finally I found a
nice Jewish girl. Finally, Butyour wife was Jewish? No she wasn't
(41:28):
she? No? Oh no,pull her opposite. At what point she
was a Jesus freaking we broke up. That's a whole nother story. But
anyway, is this a wonderful photo? Look at that? I love I
just love that. Yeah, wehad an instant friendship. We were friends
from the minute we met. You'restill learning, Okay, I don't want
(41:49):
to run out of time, solet's you know it's going fast. Oh
my god. Okay, raised numbertwelve, please number twelve. Okay,
you were and yeah, that's it. Next one out there. You were
in the Brady Bunch sequeled. TheTV show tell us some stories about the
Bradys. Oh my gosh. Also, you know an iconic television show.
(42:10):
Grew up watching The Brady Bunch.I was younger than the Brady Bunch,
I think because I saw them morein reruns. Maybe I mean I was
old older. I don't think Iwatched the original Brady Bunch. That's my
point. I'm having trouble knowing whendid The Brady Bunch originally air. I
would say seventy two, seventy sevenmaybe, yeah, So I was already
(42:34):
older and not necessarily watching The BradyBunch as a young person. I was
too old for that. I thinkI was already in college and off into
the world. But you know,I obviously saw in reruns and knew these
characters by that point, and soto be cast as Greg Brady's wife,
you know again like wow, it'sthe Brady Bunch. And I remember walking
(42:57):
onto that set and seeing that againiconic house. They rebuilt, you know,
the interior and modernized it. Stairwaywas still there. I had already
known Chris Knight from soap opera days, you know, but it was I
know, we're going to run outof time, So this is what I'll
say. It was a wonderful,incredible experience. It was very, very
(43:19):
interesting because we had these two sortof things going on. We had the
Brady Spouses, who were those ofus who were coming into this new and
we bonded instantly, Jerry hows Er, Martha Quinn. We had our own
little spinoff going on behind the scenes, the Brady Spouses, the Brady bunch
themselves. That cast was such awell oiled machine, and coming into it,
(43:42):
they were incredibly welcoming, but theyhad also worked with each other.
They grew those kids grew up witheach other. I think I'm talking fast
because I know we're running. Yeah, hey, race, can we see
the next one please? Thirteen?Yeah, here's another one. You're on
the far left there. Oh yeah, that wardrobe, all of this eight
he's a nineties wardrobe was cracking meup and very Barry William's mustache was hilarious.
(44:05):
Yeah, it almost looks like aporn stash. Everybody did though,
in those days. I think race, next one, fourteen, we're going,
we're moving along. Okay, Sohere you are singing with Florence Anderson
and Steve Plum right. Yeah,Alia Ayers was playing Marcia because Marcia did
not do the series, right right, and Martha Quinn. I'm pointing to
(44:28):
it, but nobody can. Oh, that's Martha Quinn on the phone.
Yes, to my right. Isthat before MTV? I guess right after
MTV? He had already done MTVand I we fell in love in stilling
she was. I still speak toher, but sadly not often enough.
But yeah, it's a cool picture. Next one race please fifteen? All
(44:52):
right? So what was Greg Bradya good kisser? I have to ask
you. I know that's really funnybecause I'm trying to We had one scene.
I think we're we kissed. Washe a good kisser? I don't
think we had like a real dealkiss. I remember seeing in front of
a fireplace. I do remember thinkingI'm being romantic with Greg Brady. He
doesn't have any lips. How that'strue. In that picture he looks like
(45:16):
a lizard. Maybe that's why themustad you know what. I just saw
him. I was lucky enough togo see him in the finale of Dancing
with the Stars. He was kindenough to extend that. And he's a
wonderful person. He's funny and wonderfuland I love that picture. This was
a Brady Bunch reunion. We didsome major reunion in New Jersey and it
(45:40):
was a room, you know,filled with hundreds of Brady Bunch fans,
and that was quite wonderful. Helooks like he looks like he has very
gentle, loving eyes, like agorgeous had like some good gossip to tell
you about kissing, And honestly,I could talk about like Dean Butler kissing.
Yeah, that would repulse me becauseI was so jealous. I was
(46:04):
so jealous. All right, solisten before we run out of time.
This is important. You know,my show is a paranormal show. Yeah,
all right, So race number sixteen, please number sixteen. Okay,
So, Karen, you told methat after this is you your dad and
your brother. Yes, And youtold me after your brother passed, some
interesting things happened. So tell usabout, you know, your paranormal stuff
(46:24):
with your brother. I actually Ihave something with my dad too. But
here's the thing. My brother sadlywas disabled, paranoid schizophrenic, and he
and I were literally tied at thehip. There was something just you know,
there was a very very deep connection. My brother also was very smart
(46:45):
and had such a wicked sense ofhumor. Sadly, he ended up dying
of cancer. I was by hisside when he died, and I was
very, very obviously distraught and heartbroken. I also had this sense instantly that
he was free of his body,and in the week after his death,
(47:07):
I felt him. I literally felthim. I couldn't explain it. I
didn't like even want to say itout loud, because you know these things.
I know you're doing a show aboutthis, but it's something that's quite
personal and everyone has their own opinionabout it. But they say that things
come through electricity, electric things,right, lamps and electric apparatuses and all
(47:32):
of that. And I had thisthing where out of nowhere, I had
some I heard some noise, andI went searching for it and what could
it be? And I couldn't figureit out. And it was my hair
dryer that had just turned on completelyby itself. I was nowhere near it,
(47:53):
and I just in that instant,I just thought, Oh my god,
that's that. I I really genuinelyfelt like that was my brother's way
of coming and leaving a message.I always had a thing about line.
Was it like, was it themiddle of the night or something, or
it actually wasn't in the middle ofthe night. It was daytime. But
(48:14):
I just there were a couple ofother things also, you know, I
just there was one time, thiswas in another home of mine, where
I woke up and every light inthe house went on and I did not
turn it on, and every sconceevery single light in the house went on.
(48:36):
And I remember being incredibly freaked out. And so is it, you
know, when I try to makesense of that, is that an electrical
short in the wall? Or isthat a message coming from my brother?
I choose to believe, weirdly thatsomehow it's connected. I also had I
(48:57):
know, again, we're going torun out of time. I had a
thing, you know how, youwhen you this was my dad. My
dad's name was Saul. Got outof the shower, you know how sometimes
you have like red marks when youget out of the shower. My hair's
you know, in a towel,and I look on my neck and literally
the letters S O L written inred on my neck, and I literally
(49:22):
like the I had chills, andI thought, oh, and no one
was In those days, we didn'thave a camera, like, we didn't
have our phones. I would havetaken a pick that is that shortly after
he passed. It was no,it was a number of years after he
had passed. But my I meanI I my mom also just recently passed,
(49:46):
and I was very, very connectedto her. She passed at ninety
five years old. I have felther and on her door when she passed,
they put a butterfly, which istelling the staff that this is somebody
that's transit. But I literally hadbutterflies in the backyard the entire week after
(50:06):
she passed. I don't mean hordesof them. It wasn't like a swarm,
but I think every day for abouta week, I saw a butterfly.
And I don't know, I don'tknow. I have to believe that
(50:29):
somehow the energy is there. Idon't know how or why or when or
where. And you, I wouldlove to hear more. And I wish
we had a longer time because obviouslyyou're doing a show about all of this
and it just has to exist,right Well it does it really does?
I mean, I think I toldyou if not. After my dad passed,
(50:52):
many things happened to remarkable things happenedafter my dad passed, among them
more minor one. Well, there'sso many things. Three days after he
died, I was out of townat a business trip in San Jose,
three days after he passed, andI'm in a hotel. I'm asleep.
(51:13):
It's three in the morning. I'msound asleep in the hotel. From underneath
my bed, Karen, I hearDanny Genie changed my will. And I
sat up. My heart's racing,I'm shaking. I looked around. I
said, Dad, my dad's wifewas second wife, was Genie. Danny
(51:34):
Genie changed my will, and mybed was vibrating the mattress. It turns
out months later, my brothers andI found out that his second white wife
changed his will. My dad toldme this three days after he died.
Okay, I literally heard his voice. I think I looked under the bed
because I was like Dad, becauseKaren, I thought he was in the
(51:57):
room. It was this loud.Danny Genie changed my will. It was
that loud the mattress would dreaming.You actually were No. No, no,
of course, And I told mybrothers and then they said we should
look into it. We called thelawyer in Florida, and she changed as
will and his insurance policies. Sothat happened he told me after he died.
(52:21):
And then he touched a light inmy bedroom a week later, in
the middle of the night. Itouch lamp. You know, a touch
lamp. You touched it on andwent on and off a few times.
I sat up and Dad. Andthen another time he had gotten me years
earlier, a little toy drum killa drum set, A little toy drum
set. I had it on mydresser in my bedroom, middle of the
(52:43):
night a few weeks after he dies. The symbols, the symbols are from
the little toy drums that are GlennGlen clanging and I set up. I
go, Dad, I go,please, If that's you, stop because
you're scarying the ship out. Ohmy gosh, I said. My dad
kept he kept coming coming. Soit's the electrical thing to me. You
(53:04):
know, it happens once, okay, but if it continues to happen,
it's it's not a coincidence. Hereyou saw with your dad. It's like
your dad took his finger on yourneck almost, It's like he wrote his
name on your neck. Yeah,it felt that way. I literally started
to cry. And the thing aboutit is, there's no time like in
(53:27):
my experience with this. It wasn'ttime to like consciously say to yourself,
oh that's my bar year. Ijust felt that, right, you know
what I mean, or that Iknow I don't want to see. No,
I've heard other people say, no, you knew who it was.
Yeah, that was the surprising thing. It wasn't like, oh, you
(53:49):
know those lights went on every lightin the house by itself. You know
that. Yeah, it's just fascinating. And I just well, my dad,
my dad. That was blatant.Anny Genie changed my will and she
did and she did, and hewas pissed. This is literally three days
after he died, and he saidit that loudly to me to wake me
(54:14):
up. Why didn't you come toyou and not your brothers. I was
the oldest. I was the oldest. I was the oldest. I think
he trusted me the most. WeI think we had the closest bond of
the three. We're getting really tightand I love you so much. And
there's other things, But can wetalk about aliens and UFOs. You've never
seen the UFO, I don't thinkhave you? You know, not that
(54:37):
I've recognized. I would love it. Here's the thing I cannot imagine we
are the only species in the universe. You just can't. Of course,
I can't be I don't know whatexists, but it defines my own sense
of logic. I don't know whatit looks like or what it you know,
(54:58):
but but how is that we are? You know? I don't know.
I asked myself that question. Imean, I know what you believe.
Have you studied? Have you studiedit? Because there's decades of research
and books and documents and documentaries.If your research with Karen you learned that
really these things are real. Alot everything is real, but a lot
(55:21):
of it is real, and thegovernment has been keeping it from us purposely
since the crash at Roswell of nineteenforty seven. The many there are many,
many documents that have been released thattalk about the Roswell crash. They
had four dead bodies and one livingalien who lived until nineteen fifty two.
His name was eb eb E.They didmed to eb and people on their
(55:45):
deathbeds who picked up debris from Roswellswore to their families on their deathbeds they
said, this was all real,this is all true. We were told
that if we told anybody they'd killus or throw us in jail, or
take away our pigeons. So Ihave partners in Washington, d C.
They're working on disclosure, capital ddisclosure disclosure beings. The president. Whoever
(56:08):
the President goes on TV, it'shis ladies and gentlemen. I have something
to tell you. Sit down,hold on tight. Extraterrestrial life is real.
They've been visiting us a long time. They've been here for a long
time. We've known about it.We've had to keep it from you.
It's national security. We didn't feelcomfortable, but now's the time, and
(56:29):
blah blah blah. There are major, major people, including Chuck Schuber,
who my partners are working with totry to move the ball forward, and
a lot of people think that's goingto happen this year. They think this
is the year for disclosure. SoI'm involved with that. I've been studying
this for twenty years. I've seenthree UFOs. I believe my dad worked
with reverse engineering on crashed UFOs.I'm quite convinced of it because I've researched
(56:52):
him after he died. What Ohyeah, yeah, I didn't tell you
that. That's a whole nother that'sa whole another. It's a whole another
story. It's so interesting I wouldlike to talk to you about I don't
whole enough. But there's a greatdeal to it if you look into it,
if you open your heart in yourmind to it, there's a lot
there. What do you have comingup in the near future and how can
(57:15):
people contact you? Uh? Youknow, I'm unfortunately social media wise,
I'm just sort of gaining speed.I'm not a great social media person,
but I'm really committed to being betterabout it. Uh Instagram, as you
said at Karen Richmond, my namec A R Y N R I c
H me old fashioned me is onFacebook, have a have a page there
(57:39):
that's a public page. And alsoyou know my own personal page. Have
a lot going on. I've becomethe queen of and I say this lovingly,
Hallmark Christmas type movies and Lifetime thrillers. I worked today and was smothered
with a plastic bag on my head. Up popular project yet, but had
(58:01):
a lot of takes of being smothered. You know what, I'm enjoying working
and continuing on this journey, andI'm grateful to just have the opportunity to
show up on a set and someoneyell action and I get to do it.
I love more than anything, soI also I know we're running out
of time. Had a very small, small, tiny role in Ray Romano's
(58:24):
newest movies Somewhere in Queens now streaming, just a bunch of stuff. I'm
just you've done. You've done somehorror films in the last few years,
The puppet Man. Do you havetime to talk about the public? Tell
us about the pup evand and thiswas an amazing movie. I have you
know, I've done little parts inhorror films, mostly the wholesome person who
gets killed off within the first fewminutes or whatever. But this was a
(58:46):
wonderful role and it's on shutter.I believe now I get to play.
I should have sent you a picturea psychic someone who contacts, you know,
spirit, and I had like thebest makeup and hair like rasta,
you know, and it was amazinggirl, amazing costumes, and I got
(59:07):
to be this woman, and thatwas helping these kids sort of get to
the bottom of why their friend waseverybody was dying off and ultimately I scared
the crap out of myself and werace. Do you have twenty two.
Do you have slide twenty two?It's our puppet band. There you go?
Is that it? I don't seeit, but oh yeah, oh
(59:29):
there it is. Oh my god, where'd you get that from? You
know, I'm very clever, Karen, you are? Oh my god.
Well Michael Parree, Michael Parra wasOh that's Michael Perey. I love him.
Yeah, he was the detective andthe poor young girl who is actually
in a trance and possessed at themoment, we're trying to get that spirit
(59:52):
out of her. Your hair looksgreat. There they did this amazing stuff
with hair and me. Yeah,your hair looks really awesome. Yeah,
thank you. Great movie. I'mscared the crap out of me when I
actually saw it. It's always funnywhen you do those kind of projects and
you don't really see all the deathscenes they were filmed. I wasn't involved
in those. And then when Ireactually had a screening of the movie,
(01:00:14):
I was like, horror fun someamazing depths in the movie those see Is
it fun to be in the horrorfilm? Is it fun? Or?
I loved it. We had thiswonderful director, Brandon Christians and he does
a lot of horror. He wouldcome to me after a take because you
know, here I am with mylittle gidget career and I play mostly up
(01:00:35):
you know, until recently, alot of wholesome, sweet characters. And
he would say, Karen, giveme horror eyes. It would literally be
like you would say something and thenit would be you know, he said,
give me the horror moment. Andhe really literally helped me, like
find it's a tiny bit of adifferent genre if you're playing it. You
(01:00:57):
know, it's not tongue in sheetby any means, but it's it's a
specific expectation I think as an actor, and he really helped me so beautifully
through it. You know, likethere's a phone call or the bird.
You see the bird. I rememberthere was a scene where the bird died
and I sort of first played itlike the bird died, and you know,
(01:01:20):
no, this is horror. Thisis a genre, and it's like,
you know, there's a way ofyou not to do it. It
expanded your chops, your acting childabsolutely, Like I'm so anxious to do
horror, more horror films, andI've done a few in the past.
Again, but I wasn't asked todo what I was little Gidget goes horror.
There you go, there you go? All right, Karen. I
love you, I always have it. I always will see you soon.
(01:01:43):
Thank you for doing this. Peoplewrite to Karen to Karen Richmond on Instagram.
I'm Dan Harari Dan Harari author dotcom. And if you're interested in
UFOs, check out Hollywood Disclosure Alliancedot org. It's my UFO group.
See you next week. Next week'sguest is Paul Heinick. Paul Heineck's father
(01:02:04):
was Jay Allen Heinick. Jay AllenHeinich was the head of Project blue Book
and was the science officer on theset of Close Encounters of the Third Kind
with Steven Spielberg. He knows allabout UFOs. Karen, I love you,
love you you bless you feel better. Thank you for having me.
Thank you see you next time.Thanks everyone, Take care, same
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