October 1, 2025 • 21 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back. It's another Bob and Tom extra. This is Christopher.
Not only is the Bob and Tom Show live every
weekday morning, but every afternoon. We'll give you a little
extra in case you missed anything on the Big Show today.
Billy Gardell, Drew Powell and Australia all coming up in
just a minute.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Everyone knows the legend of dB Cooper, But what if
I told you there's an even better story out there,
one with multiple aircraft hijackings, prison escapes, and so many
twists and turns. I'm talking about the hit podcast American Skyjacker,
which is now an action pack documentary coming to theaters
and streaming this fall. Find out more at www dot
(00:45):
Americanskyjacker dot com and listen to our bonus episode of
the podcast coming soon, American Skyjacker follow and listen on
your favorite platform.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Greg Han is our guest. I'm out with this one girl.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Can I say this?
Speaker 5 (00:58):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Get on to this. I'm on to day. I was
out of this girl right. Here's what she says. It's true.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
She says, Oh I did something she didn't like. She goes, oh,
you just lost some points. Whose points involved? That's a
point system? That the women have some points of men.
We don't know what's going on. All we know is
involves points, and all of a sudden we're down.
Speaker 5 (01:11):
You know what I.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Was doing, my impression of her mother? You just lost
some points. I'm like, really, how many did I start
out with? Don't ask any questions, you just gotta lose
more points. Well, transfer my account to your younger sister.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Don't sup again.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
You're talking to a guy that can blow through a
lot of points in a hurry. I like having girls
over to my place. That's how I like I like him.
I like having I think chivar for the man to
cook for the woman.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Let me tell you something. The chicks love oatmeal. I'll
just say that, that's what I'm talking about. We just
got a call from Tony the Odaly Shutland Pony.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
He can't be here tonight.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
He's a little horse. Come on, come on, just meay
some of this JOm. We're just waiting for the cast
and actually show up for work. Here's more Bob and
Tom extra.
Speaker 6 (02:07):
With us in the studio, comedian an actor Billy Gardell,
and also with us in the studio, The Man who
Wants portrayed Hoss cock.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Right, it's not cock right, cart right?
Speaker 6 (02:20):
Yeah, yeah, sorry, the benefits of the classical education, right,
thank you.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
He is Drew Powell.
Speaker 6 (02:29):
And didn't you didn't you? Uh my credit saying you
met your wife while playing Hoss.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
That's right.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
Yeah, she was a makeup artist on the show. And
uh that's a funny audition story too, because I went in.
This was a young hosscry was supposed to be seventeen,
I think. And I walk into the audition room and
it's no joke. It's it was like a bunch of
chubby twelve year olds and their moms and their little
hats and their vests and like, oh, I mean like children,
like this is not like and I was I got up.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
This is true story. I got it.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
I sat there for a minute, like you said, like
you know what I'm staying. I was like, I'm not staying.
This is ridiculous. Is this is some sessamesh?
Speaker 3 (03:01):
What is this?
Speaker 5 (03:01):
Non says I put my hand on the door and
Jackie Birch, the old casting remember her. Yeah, she's like
Joey's agent on Friends, Like, yeah, stop, I hope I'm
hand on it to stop and I turn around.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
He's like come here.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
And then they sit me down and she they she
and her assistant talk about me like I'm not there.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
It's like, well, lebba on his face.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
Next thing, you know, I got the job, and I
was I was on the phone with David Dortort, the
original creator, was ninety five years old, and learn that yeah. Yeah,
he was telling me stories about how he's like, well,
I put up a million dollars and Ford put up
a million dollars and we decided to color do the
first color show in television. I'm like, this is like
real history dripping out of his dude's mouth. Total class
act and he did like High Chaparral and all these classics,
(03:48):
and you filmed it in Australia. We shout, of course,
the classic American Western. The number of times we had
to stop for like cockatoos flying through Wallaby doing.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
To see my mother is dying.
Speaker 5 (04:01):
I'm weeping that cot kind of like what that was
great because I got there's a Wallabie in the back
of the.
Speaker 6 (04:05):
Shot of like, oh, well, of course we all know
that the Ponderosa was very big.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yes, I did. She covered most of Virginia and then
I truly gonna take that again.
Speaker 7 (04:16):
Paul Hulkan just walks on sharing did you doing it?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Wow?
Speaker 5 (04:26):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Funny funny story about that though. So let's take it
back to the pit.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Uh. Fiona Driff plays the doctor that has the the ankle.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
You know she's great. She just fought Chucky a couple
of times.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Yes, well, her dad was the voice of Chucky Braddorf
and also Billy Bibbott and one flew over the Cucka's
nest like a legendary actor.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
He was on the show.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
And the first time I met him, we're all staying
in this like townhouses and they're all in the kind
of a circle and I walk up and there's this
guy playing the dig redoo on the porch and it's
Brad Dorriff.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
He's like, hey, man, I.
Speaker 5 (05:01):
Said you played the digit Yeah. I learned it during
my first divorce.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
It really helps me clear my mind.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
He was the one that said I was at Woodstock.
He's like, yeah, man, they said don't take the brown acid.
I already took the brown of the digitido.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Wow. Yeah. Yeah. He was really good at it too.
I was impressive. What is is it like a bessoon
or something.
Speaker 8 (05:29):
It's a big tube it's almost like a made rode
right perhaps, no, no, it is wood, but it just
looks like it's incredible.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
I think I have the sound the sound of a Digiti. Dude. Oh,
ladies and gentlemen, there it is?
Speaker 7 (05:47):
That is it?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
That is beautiful?
Speaker 6 (05:50):
Should be good on an alien movie?
Speaker 2 (05:53):
That hurt?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
But the thing about it's a circular breathing, so they
never stopped, so they inhale, you know, through the nose
while they're breathing out. That's the tricky So I think
that's the the zen of it all is.
Speaker 6 (06:05):
That's why that's why parents they'll never want to get
one for their kids because it never stops.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
A wow.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
Yeah, but that was That was a hell of a job, Roonica.
My wife swore she'd never date an actor, and I
promised my agent I wouldn't fall in love. Literally the
last things like, don't fall in love when you got
down there. Never in Australia nine months, Yeah, yeah, and
it was. It was one of those deals, you know
this where it was we were going to shoot in
(06:32):
l A And then I get a call when I'm
back in Indiana visiting my and my sister's graduate high school, graduation.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
They're like, so a little change, we're going to Australia.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
I need you to pack for six weeks or six
months because we don't know what's gonna happen. And I
was there for nine So talk about a life.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
What happened to the movie which which was it was
the Bonanza movie on Regular Range It.
Speaker 5 (06:54):
Was no, it's a It was a series called The
Ponderosa and it was on packs TV, which was uh,
you know, we were on right after Billy's Gray Cyrus.
He played Doc, the country doctor in the City. So
it was a network that they tried to be like
this wholesome family network and then it kind of went away.
But yeah, we shot twenty episodes. Is it still floating
around out there? I think it's like there's DVDs, but
(07:17):
the DVD only has half the season and maybe there's
some I think on YouTube maybe you can see it.
And it was done by the woman that did Doctor
Quinn Medicine woman. You remember that she was really wholesome.
It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6 (07:28):
We always hear about residuals and I don't want to
make you guys give me any numbers, but a million
dollars I've read about there's some apparently some bar in
La with if you got a residual, that's.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Less residuals in the valley.
Speaker 7 (07:39):
So I'm venture, if you have a residual, I think
it was back then it was under two dollars, you
got a free drink up on the wallway Yeah, and
they put them on the wall.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Yeah. Do you still get the occasional obscure like check
for seventeen cents?
Speaker 5 (07:51):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I just got one the other day for one cent one.
Speaker 7 (07:57):
Like yeah, I've had a couple of those that you
look at and you're like, if the more to mail, Yeah,
that's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Absolutely do you cash it? Hell yeah, I was gonna
say I heard that penny. Right.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
That's the thing about residuals, though, is that most of
the time you I never I don't who can figure
out how it's structured. So it's just like money that
comes in the mailbox. And that's why the one thing
about the strike was you realize like that was all
gone for a big because you know it's leading up
to it's over. So I realized I didn't really think
much about how important that was until it was like, oh,
that's that's gone.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
That hurts.
Speaker 7 (08:31):
So you know, well, that's what happens when you allow
the nanny to go negotiate your contract. I never went
to college, but I think we should have sent a
lawyer your representation. This guy was number two on Magnum
in seventy eight.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
He's going to be talking.
Speaker 8 (08:49):
I just think they yeah, talks of stalled them, like, yeah,
they probably got tired of hearing.
Speaker 6 (08:54):
We just need a breakthrough, right, two great guests, the
distinguished actor and comedian Billy Gardell and Uh, an actor
that has been in front of the show for a while,
played hosscart Right.
Speaker 5 (09:07):
I will say, really briefly, my my, the buddy, the
guy that played my paid Adam cart Right, was a
friend of mine. He lived in Hollywood over on Franklin,
you know, right by bourgeois and all that. And he
had at the time a chopped off convertible like a
I don't know, sixty something Continental, And one morning he
gets into this car and in the back seat is
a VHS tape and he puts it in the vast
(09:28):
It's called the Pound Rosa.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Excellent exactly what a wonderful No.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
I don't.
Speaker 6 (09:42):
Are there, I'm assuming is there's Is there A, is
there a sphere of pornography that is based on sitcoms?
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Do they do like A? Uh, I'm sure yes, of
course there have to be like not the Brady's or
whatever there was there Mike and Molly one.
Speaker 7 (09:58):
No, I don't think anybody it was. I sent a
porn imagine hearing Lou and A.
Speaker 9 (10:06):
Oh yeah, that's it right there, that's perfect.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Nice.
Speaker 6 (10:14):
Let's talk with Billy for a second. Billy Gardell, we
talked a little bit about your early days doing stand
up and then did you always in the beginning think
I could be an actor?
Speaker 5 (10:23):
Was that?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Even on the It was? Actually that was one of
my goals.
Speaker 7 (10:26):
My first goal was to pay the rent was stand up,
and my second was to figure out how to get
into sitcoms because that was what I love to do.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
That's that's what I set out to do. Was in
the school play, that sort of thing.
Speaker 7 (10:37):
Oh yeah, I had a great drama teacher in high school.
You know, I was supposed to graduate in eighty seven,
had to take another lap and the only reason I
did was because my grandmother guilted me. And I just
want to see one of my grandkids walk across the staff.
Thanks for dumping at him. So I stuck around, and uh,
I got to be friends with the drama teacher, a
(10:58):
guy named Kid Haskett, and high school this guy was
they won the state festival in Florida every year. I mean,
this guy made us do real work, Like we did
the ballot of the sad Cafe, We did the book
of job we weren't doing like our time. And this guy,
even in eleventh grade, he was teaching us about Meisner
Stanislavsky like he really. I owe that guy because because
(11:19):
I would skip school a lot in high school and
he would say, look, if you're going to skip, just
come here and we'll talk about theater and we'll talk
about acting and you can help build sets. If you're
really going to do this, just come here. So I
spent like four hours a day with that guy, and
he really changed my life.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Drew, were you a high school drama guy? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (11:39):
And I was just thinking that as you said that,
how many of us have that story of the one
person that.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Really take you serious of what you wanted to be right?
And look, I was ham from a long time ago.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
Like in kindergarten, they had me around doing the night
before Christmas because I had it memorized. And but but
Carol Bellis God rest her soul. She was the music,
the choir and and drama teacher at Lebanon High School
in Indiana, and she just she saw, she knew that
I had the thing, and so she like our junior
year we did Fiddler on the Roof, which we had
(12:11):
no business doing that musical and Indiana.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
But were you on the Roof? Yeah? I was. I was.
You played really changed my way? Have the disease exactly? Yes?
Speaker 5 (12:22):
Oh, I loved it, and I got into I did
the research. I saw the touring show came through Iu.
We went and saw it. I did the I was
studying what it is pogram and and you know in Russia.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
So I really and then and then the.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
Performance then was like the best when you do the
homework and you're just out there just like every moment.
I was soaking it up. So and that was the
moment like, oh, I think I want to do this
for the rest of my I had no idea how
the heck.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
That you still remember some of the lines. Oh yeah,
all the songs I sing him all the time. Now
you're you wouldn't have to work.
Speaker 6 (13:01):
That's a good chance you saw Bob's brother Peter he played,
Is that right?
Speaker 7 (13:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (13:12):
It was great.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
That's amazing. Billieve you ever had to sing?
Speaker 7 (13:16):
I had to sing on Mike and Molly one time
we did. There was an open mic night and Anthony
Williams was he was the host of the open mic
Night and I did uh, I did Lean on Me
by Bill Withers. What was really cool was there was
a Rolling Stone article about him about three weeks after
we did that show, and they asked his wife what's
(13:38):
his favorite things to do and he said, well, he
loves to listen to music, do the crossword puzzle, and
watch Mike and Molly. So we put that up on
the bulletin board because we thought that was just a.
Speaker 6 (13:51):
Really how do you are you really good at memorizing liones?
Some people I know can read it once they've got
others really weird.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
It's musical to me. So once I hear it it's
in there.
Speaker 7 (14:04):
I don't know where my keys are or where my
glasses are, but for some reason, in that thing, it's
musical to me. Like once I hear the beat of
how it sounds, it sticks.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
Wow, that's great, right, And the truism is a Good
writing is easy to memorize.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Bad writing is impossible.
Speaker 7 (14:20):
That is that is an incredibly true statement. When it's
when it's just clunky, you're just like, oh god, because
you're already in your head anyway. But then when you
read a sour, when you're like, this is how you go?
Speaker 3 (14:30):
You go first, Billy, did your wife ever help you
run lines? Early on? Yeah, early on, in the early days.
And then did she direct?
Speaker 9 (14:38):
No?
Speaker 7 (14:38):
She She's so sweet because she would just read the
stage directions too, and I'm like, Mike crosses overgare you
don't got to read that?
Speaker 3 (14:49):
She was so patient, man. Yeah, she used to do
that with Tom.
Speaker 8 (14:51):
You know, Billy played a role and Tom Hanks also
played the same character, and I submit Billy's version is better.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Yeah, that's that's really kind.
Speaker 7 (15:04):
I I I actually got a little bit of that
online that people said that I played Colonel Tom Parker
in a short lived series called Sun Records.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
It was a really cool series. It was great.
Speaker 7 (15:14):
It was directed by Roland Joffey, and it was about
the million Dollar Quartet, Perkins and Cash and Elvis League,
and it was a great I think it's some of
the best acting I did. I think about eight people
saw it because it was on c MT, and then
they got the price tag and said we should probably
go back to the shows where people catch fish with.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Did you was the end of that? But it was
it was a joy to play that Bill.
Speaker 7 (15:38):
You were wonderful the crazy Tom Hanks accent for the No,
I didn't play him like that at all. My dad
was a huge Elvis fan. And I'm actually in the
Elvis Museum now across the street the Car Museum. There's
a poster of me as Colonel Parker. My dad like
when I when I got successful, I took all We
took my my wife, his parents, and my parents. We
(16:01):
gave everybody their bucketless dream wish, like where do you
want to go?
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Anywhere you want to go?
Speaker 7 (16:06):
So like her mom wanted to go to Hawaii and
my mom wanted to go to New York during the
Macy's Parade. And when we got to my dad, He's like,
I want to go to Graysland. I'm like, Dad, I
said anywhere. I said any But my dad was the
only guy. He loved Elvis so much. My dad was
the only guy I ever knew that hated the Beatles.
Speaker 9 (16:25):
Because and I quote, those hippies knocked Elvis off the throne.
All right, wow, all right, okay, all right, so but
I got to play him. But when I talked to
the they give us a lot of access, you know,
like sometimes you get a roll and people will go,
can talk to this guy.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
He was there.
Speaker 7 (16:40):
So we got to talk to some of the Memphis Mafia,
and we got to talk to the CEO of Graceland
and he said, look, when you play Colonel Parker, he
goes just remember he did a lot of awful things,
but he was so likable. It's the only way he
got away with it. So if you just play him dark,
nobody's gonna believe he could con you. He was a conments.
You got to play them with a twinkle in your eyes.
(17:01):
So ironically, here's a molcoming in the metal reference. The
two people that I based him on or mixed mixed
up the soup with was Foghorn Leghorn and Walter White.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Those two.
Speaker 7 (17:14):
Yeah, that's a good cocktail for this guy, and it
made him likable and devious.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
So it was really cool.
Speaker 6 (17:19):
I love that freaking when you guys, when you guys
are working on a contemporary show of some sort. Is
there a rule about cell phones that they have to
be off set.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Or should be? Well, it's funny you say that.
Speaker 5 (17:31):
Absolutely so on the pit John Wells and Scott Kimmel like,
you are not allowed a phone on a set smart
and you're not allowed sides on sets smart. So consequently
means that means the script, Yeah, Josh, sides are they
are part of the script. That so other lines not yours? Yes, yeah,
but that's good. They're set. You need you need to
(17:52):
be ready to work exactly. And consequently we were done
by dinner all the time. There was no late nights.
Sometimes they were done by by lunch.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
It's almost does if you guys were doing your job.
Isn't that crazy? Crazy talk? Now? Did you ever did
you ever ever blow any scenes in the in the pit?
Speaker 9 (18:10):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (18:11):
In the pit? I was pretty locked in because I
didn't you know, I had my moments, you know, because
that's the whole thing. You play sort of angry. Yeah,
a guy that comes in with you know, well, here's
the thing. Here's the thing about Doug Driscoll. He's misunderstood.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
He's like the colonel. Yeah exactly.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
He comes in with with with chest pain and he's, uh,
you know, he thinks he's going to die of a
heart attack. And then he's there for you know, nine hours,
and it's like, this is crazy, you know what what's
going on?
Speaker 3 (18:38):
So, you know, maybe.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
Maybe some bad choices, Yes, he does make some bad choices,
but my goal and and and I love it's so
fun to be here with a fellow thespian, somebody I've
I've really admired.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Me too, Pat, me too.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
I didn't say lesbian, but because there is this like camaraderie,
this club. It's insane what we did. This is a
dumb thing to do. It's insane. You're silly and dumb
if you want to drive across the country to LA
or New York and and be a professional actor. But
when you're doing it, it's the greatest thing in the world.
And the you know, the process of it, which I
(19:18):
know you really understand and appreciate is like, you know,
it's it's it's part of the fun. I'm on the
season finale of Tracker. Have you ever seen that show
on CBS? Yeah, yeah, it's a yeah, I think it's
a like number one string going anybody, come on, baby,
not I'll trade it all in for one MiCT the
(19:38):
top of the heat baby, And.
Speaker 7 (19:41):
I'm like, if they ever do a movie with me,
it'll be the last sitcom stock that was the last Yes,
it's true, last comic to get over the fence.
Speaker 5 (19:48):
Here's my audition appointment from uh. It says eleven to
eighteen November to audition to play Douglas in Bob Hart's Abashola.
Speaker 7 (19:58):
You would have been my brother. No, oh man, they
missed the boat on that we had. Who got that romance?
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Jones? Matt Jones got that friend he was I want
him to die? What was it he was on breaking? Yeah?
Now do you have your next gear or your next gig?
Is it lined up? And if so, yes or no,
we'll do if you can't.
Speaker 5 (20:20):
Uh No, That's why I was auditioning in my parents
uh in my parents living room, cloth would.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
In my parents' basement. It was the TV version of
Oak Calcutta.
Speaker 7 (20:34):
It is amazing too, how quickly you go right to
the back of the line. I mean, it's on. But
like I used to pull in the Warner Brothers and
guard they knew me and.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Your face was on the side.
Speaker 7 (20:44):
I literally had a poster on the wall and now
it's like I d please.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I was here for twelve years. I please. Who are
you here to see?
Speaker 1 (20:59):
That's it for another Bob and Tom Show Extra. Catch
us on iTunes, google Play, and Stitcher For Bob and
Tom Extra.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
This is Christopher. Take care, everybody,
Welcome back. It's another Bob and Tom extra. This is Christopher.
Not only is the Bob and Tom Show live every
weekday morning, but every afternoon. We'll give you a little
extra in case you missed anything on the Big Show today.
Billy Gardell, Drew Powell and Australia all coming up in
just a minute.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Everyone knows the legend of dB Cooper, But what if
I told you there's an even better story out there,
one with multiple aircraft hijackings, prison escapes, and so many
twists and turns. I'm talking about the hit podcast American Skyjacker,
which is now an action pack documentary coming to theaters
and streaming this fall. Find out more at www dot
(00:45):
Americanskyjacker dot com and listen to our bonus episode of
the podcast coming soon, American Skyjacker follow and listen on
your favorite platform.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Greg Han is our guest. I'm out with this one girl.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Can I say this?
Speaker 5 (00:58):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Get on to this. I'm on to day. I was
out of this girl right. Here's what she says. It's true.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
She says, Oh I did something she didn't like. She goes, oh,
you just lost some points. Whose points involved? That's a
point system? That the women have some points of men.
We don't know what's going on. All we know is
involves points, and all of a sudden we're down.
Speaker 5 (01:11):
You know what I.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Was doing, my impression of her mother? You just lost
some points. I'm like, really, how many did I start
out with? Don't ask any questions, you just gotta lose
more points. Well, transfer my account to your younger sister.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Don't sup again.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
You're talking to a guy that can blow through a
lot of points in a hurry. I like having girls
over to my place. That's how I like I like him.
I like having I think chivar for the man to
cook for the woman.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Let me tell you something. The chicks love oatmeal. I'll
just say that, that's what I'm talking about. We just
got a call from Tony the Odaly Shutland Pony.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
He can't be here tonight.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
He's a little horse. Come on, come on, just meay
some of this JOm. We're just waiting for the cast
and actually show up for work. Here's more Bob and
Tom extra.
Speaker 6 (02:07):
With us in the studio, comedian an actor Billy Gardell,
and also with us in the studio, The Man who
Wants portrayed Hoss cock.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Right, it's not cock right, cart right?
Speaker 6 (02:20):
Yeah, yeah, sorry, the benefits of the classical education, right,
thank you.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
He is Drew Powell.
Speaker 6 (02:29):
And didn't you didn't you? Uh my credit saying you
met your wife while playing Hoss.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
That's right.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
Yeah, she was a makeup artist on the show. And
uh that's a funny audition story too, because I went in.
This was a young hosscry was supposed to be seventeen,
I think. And I walk into the audition room and
it's no joke. It's it was like a bunch of
chubby twelve year olds and their moms and their little
hats and their vests and like, oh, I mean like children,
like this is not like and I was I got up.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
This is true story. I got it.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
I sat there for a minute, like you said, like
you know what I'm staying. I was like, I'm not staying.
This is ridiculous. Is this is some sessamesh?
Speaker 3 (03:01):
What is this?
Speaker 5 (03:01):
Non says I put my hand on the door and
Jackie Birch, the old casting remember her. Yeah, she's like
Joey's agent on Friends, Like, yeah, stop, I hope I'm
hand on it to stop and I turn around.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
He's like come here.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
And then they sit me down and she they she
and her assistant talk about me like I'm not there.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
It's like, well, lebba on his face.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
Next thing, you know, I got the job, and I
was I was on the phone with David Dortort, the
original creator, was ninety five years old, and learn that yeah. Yeah,
he was telling me stories about how he's like, well,
I put up a million dollars and Ford put up
a million dollars and we decided to color do the
first color show in television. I'm like, this is like
real history dripping out of his dude's mouth. Total class
act and he did like High Chaparral and all these classics,
(03:48):
and you filmed it in Australia. We shout, of course,
the classic American Western. The number of times we had
to stop for like cockatoos flying through Wallaby doing.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
To see my mother is dying.
Speaker 5 (04:01):
I'm weeping that cot kind of like what that was
great because I got there's a Wallabie in the back
of the.
Speaker 6 (04:05):
Shot of like, oh, well, of course we all know
that the Ponderosa was very big.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yes, I did. She covered most of Virginia and then
I truly gonna take that again.
Speaker 7 (04:16):
Paul Hulkan just walks on sharing did you doing it?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Wow?
Speaker 5 (04:26):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Funny funny story about that though. So let's take it
back to the pit.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Uh. Fiona Driff plays the doctor that has the the ankle.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
You know she's great. She just fought Chucky a couple
of times.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Yes, well, her dad was the voice of Chucky Braddorf
and also Billy Bibbott and one flew over the Cucka's
nest like a legendary actor.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
He was on the show.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
And the first time I met him, we're all staying
in this like townhouses and they're all in the kind
of a circle and I walk up and there's this
guy playing the dig redoo on the porch and it's
Brad Dorriff.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
He's like, hey, man, I.
Speaker 5 (05:01):
Said you played the digit Yeah. I learned it during
my first divorce.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
It really helps me clear my mind.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
He was the one that said I was at Woodstock.
He's like, yeah, man, they said don't take the brown acid.
I already took the brown of the digitido.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Wow. Yeah. Yeah. He was really good at it too.
I was impressive. What is is it like a bessoon
or something.
Speaker 8 (05:29):
It's a big tube it's almost like a made rode
right perhaps, no, no, it is wood, but it just
looks like it's incredible.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
I think I have the sound the sound of a Digiti. Dude. Oh,
ladies and gentlemen, there it is?
Speaker 7 (05:47):
That is it?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
That is beautiful?
Speaker 6 (05:50):
Should be good on an alien movie?
Speaker 2 (05:53):
That hurt?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
But the thing about it's a circular breathing, so they
never stopped, so they inhale, you know, through the nose
while they're breathing out. That's the tricky So I think
that's the the zen of it all is.
Speaker 6 (06:05):
That's why that's why parents they'll never want to get
one for their kids because it never stops.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
A wow.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
Yeah, but that was That was a hell of a job, Roonica.
My wife swore she'd never date an actor, and I
promised my agent I wouldn't fall in love. Literally the
last things like, don't fall in love when you got
down there. Never in Australia nine months, Yeah, yeah, and
it was. It was one of those deals, you know
this where it was we were going to shoot in
(06:32):
l A And then I get a call when I'm
back in Indiana visiting my and my sister's graduate high school, graduation.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
They're like, so a little change, we're going to Australia.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
I need you to pack for six weeks or six
months because we don't know what's gonna happen. And I
was there for nine So talk about a life.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
What happened to the movie which which was it was
the Bonanza movie on Regular Range It.
Speaker 5 (06:54):
Was no, it's a It was a series called The
Ponderosa and it was on packs TV, which was uh,
you know, we were on right after Billy's Gray Cyrus.
He played Doc, the country doctor in the City. So
it was a network that they tried to be like
this wholesome family network and then it kind of went away.
But yeah, we shot twenty episodes. Is it still floating
around out there? I think it's like there's DVDs, but
(07:17):
the DVD only has half the season and maybe there's
some I think on YouTube maybe you can see it.
And it was done by the woman that did Doctor
Quinn Medicine woman. You remember that she was really wholesome.
It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6 (07:28):
We always hear about residuals and I don't want to
make you guys give me any numbers, but a million
dollars I've read about there's some apparently some bar in
La with if you got a residual, that's.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Less residuals in the valley.
Speaker 7 (07:39):
So I'm venture, if you have a residual, I think
it was back then it was under two dollars, you
got a free drink up on the wallway Yeah, and
they put them on the wall.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Yeah. Do you still get the occasional obscure like check
for seventeen cents?
Speaker 5 (07:51):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I just got one the other day for one cent one.
Speaker 7 (07:57):
Like yeah, I've had a couple of those that you
look at and you're like, if the more to mail, Yeah,
that's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Absolutely do you cash it? Hell yeah, I was gonna
say I heard that penny. Right.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
That's the thing about residuals, though, is that most of
the time you I never I don't who can figure
out how it's structured. So it's just like money that
comes in the mailbox. And that's why the one thing
about the strike was you realize like that was all
gone for a big because you know it's leading up
to it's over. So I realized I didn't really think
much about how important that was until it was like, oh,
that's that's gone.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
That hurts.
Speaker 7 (08:31):
So you know, well, that's what happens when you allow
the nanny to go negotiate your contract. I never went
to college, but I think we should have sent a
lawyer your representation. This guy was number two on Magnum
in seventy eight.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
He's going to be talking.
Speaker 8 (08:49):
I just think they yeah, talks of stalled them, like, yeah,
they probably got tired of hearing.
Speaker 6 (08:54):
We just need a breakthrough, right, two great guests, the
distinguished actor and comedian Billy Gardell and Uh, an actor
that has been in front of the show for a while,
played hosscart Right.
Speaker 5 (09:07):
I will say, really briefly, my my, the buddy, the
guy that played my paid Adam cart Right, was a
friend of mine. He lived in Hollywood over on Franklin,
you know, right by bourgeois and all that. And he
had at the time a chopped off convertible like a
I don't know, sixty something Continental, And one morning he
gets into this car and in the back seat is
a VHS tape and he puts it in the vast
(09:28):
It's called the Pound Rosa.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Excellent exactly what a wonderful No.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
I don't.
Speaker 6 (09:42):
Are there, I'm assuming is there's Is there A, is
there a sphere of pornography that is based on sitcoms?
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Do they do like A? Uh, I'm sure yes, of
course there have to be like not the Brady's or
whatever there was there Mike and Molly one.
Speaker 7 (09:58):
No, I don't think anybody it was. I sent a
porn imagine hearing Lou and A.
Speaker 9 (10:06):
Oh yeah, that's it right there, that's perfect.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Nice.
Speaker 6 (10:14):
Let's talk with Billy for a second. Billy Gardell, we
talked a little bit about your early days doing stand
up and then did you always in the beginning think
I could be an actor?
Speaker 5 (10:23):
Was that?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Even on the It was? Actually that was one of
my goals.
Speaker 7 (10:26):
My first goal was to pay the rent was stand up,
and my second was to figure out how to get
into sitcoms because that was what I love to do.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
That's that's what I set out to do. Was in
the school play, that sort of thing.
Speaker 7 (10:37):
Oh yeah, I had a great drama teacher in high school.
You know, I was supposed to graduate in eighty seven,
had to take another lap and the only reason I
did was because my grandmother guilted me. And I just
want to see one of my grandkids walk across the staff.
Thanks for dumping at him. So I stuck around, and uh,
I got to be friends with the drama teacher, a
(10:58):
guy named Kid Haskett, and high school this guy was
they won the state festival in Florida every year. I mean,
this guy made us do real work, Like we did
the ballot of the sad Cafe, We did the book
of job we weren't doing like our time. And this guy,
even in eleventh grade, he was teaching us about Meisner
Stanislavsky like he really. I owe that guy because because
(11:19):
I would skip school a lot in high school and
he would say, look, if you're going to skip, just
come here and we'll talk about theater and we'll talk
about acting and you can help build sets. If you're
really going to do this, just come here. So I
spent like four hours a day with that guy, and
he really changed my life.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Drew, were you a high school drama guy? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (11:39):
And I was just thinking that as you said that,
how many of us have that story of the one
person that.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Really take you serious of what you wanted to be right?
And look, I was ham from a long time ago.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
Like in kindergarten, they had me around doing the night
before Christmas because I had it memorized. And but but
Carol Bellis God rest her soul. She was the music,
the choir and and drama teacher at Lebanon High School
in Indiana, and she just she saw, she knew that
I had the thing, and so she like our junior
year we did Fiddler on the Roof, which we had
(12:11):
no business doing that musical and Indiana.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
But were you on the Roof? Yeah? I was. I was.
You played really changed my way? Have the disease exactly? Yes?
Speaker 5 (12:22):
Oh, I loved it, and I got into I did
the research. I saw the touring show came through Iu.
We went and saw it. I did the I was
studying what it is pogram and and you know in Russia.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
So I really and then and then the.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
Performance then was like the best when you do the
homework and you're just out there just like every moment.
I was soaking it up. So and that was the
moment like, oh, I think I want to do this
for the rest of my I had no idea how
the heck.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
That you still remember some of the lines. Oh yeah,
all the songs I sing him all the time. Now
you're you wouldn't have to work.
Speaker 6 (13:01):
That's a good chance you saw Bob's brother Peter he played,
Is that right?
Speaker 7 (13:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (13:12):
It was great.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
That's amazing. Billieve you ever had to sing?
Speaker 7 (13:16):
I had to sing on Mike and Molly one time
we did. There was an open mic night and Anthony
Williams was he was the host of the open mic
Night and I did uh, I did Lean on Me
by Bill Withers. What was really cool was there was
a Rolling Stone article about him about three weeks after
we did that show, and they asked his wife what's
(13:38):
his favorite things to do and he said, well, he
loves to listen to music, do the crossword puzzle, and
watch Mike and Molly. So we put that up on
the bulletin board because we thought that was just a.
Speaker 6 (13:51):
Really how do you are you really good at memorizing liones?
Some people I know can read it once they've got
others really weird.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
It's musical to me. So once I hear it it's
in there.
Speaker 7 (14:04):
I don't know where my keys are or where my
glasses are, but for some reason, in that thing, it's
musical to me. Like once I hear the beat of
how it sounds, it sticks.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
Wow, that's great, right, And the truism is a Good
writing is easy to memorize.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Bad writing is impossible.
Speaker 7 (14:20):
That is that is an incredibly true statement. When it's
when it's just clunky, you're just like, oh god, because
you're already in your head anyway. But then when you
read a sour, when you're like, this is how you go?
Speaker 3 (14:30):
You go first, Billy, did your wife ever help you
run lines? Early on? Yeah, early on, in the early days.
And then did she direct?
Speaker 9 (14:38):
No?
Speaker 7 (14:38):
She She's so sweet because she would just read the
stage directions too, and I'm like, Mike crosses overgare you
don't got to read that?
Speaker 3 (14:49):
She was so patient, man. Yeah, she used to do
that with Tom.
Speaker 8 (14:51):
You know, Billy played a role and Tom Hanks also
played the same character, and I submit Billy's version is better.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Yeah, that's that's really kind.
Speaker 7 (15:04):
I I I actually got a little bit of that
online that people said that I played Colonel Tom Parker
in a short lived series called Sun Records.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
It was a really cool series. It was great.
Speaker 7 (15:14):
It was directed by Roland Joffey, and it was about
the million Dollar Quartet, Perkins and Cash and Elvis League,
and it was a great I think it's some of
the best acting I did. I think about eight people
saw it because it was on c MT, and then
they got the price tag and said we should probably
go back to the shows where people catch fish with.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Did you was the end of that? But it was
it was a joy to play that Bill.
Speaker 7 (15:38):
You were wonderful the crazy Tom Hanks accent for the No,
I didn't play him like that at all. My dad
was a huge Elvis fan. And I'm actually in the
Elvis Museum now across the street the Car Museum. There's
a poster of me as Colonel Parker. My dad like
when I when I got successful, I took all We
took my my wife, his parents, and my parents. We
(16:01):
gave everybody their bucketless dream wish, like where do you
want to go?
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Anywhere you want to go?
Speaker 7 (16:06):
So like her mom wanted to go to Hawaii and
my mom wanted to go to New York during the
Macy's Parade. And when we got to my dad, He's like,
I want to go to Graysland. I'm like, Dad, I
said anywhere. I said any But my dad was the
only guy. He loved Elvis so much. My dad was
the only guy I ever knew that hated the Beatles.
Speaker 9 (16:25):
Because and I quote, those hippies knocked Elvis off the throne.
All right, wow, all right, okay, all right, so but
I got to play him. But when I talked to
the they give us a lot of access, you know,
like sometimes you get a roll and people will go,
can talk to this guy.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
He was there.
Speaker 7 (16:40):
So we got to talk to some of the Memphis Mafia,
and we got to talk to the CEO of Graceland
and he said, look, when you play Colonel Parker, he
goes just remember he did a lot of awful things,
but he was so likable. It's the only way he
got away with it. So if you just play him dark,
nobody's gonna believe he could con you. He was a conments.
You got to play them with a twinkle in your eyes.
(17:01):
So ironically, here's a molcoming in the metal reference. The
two people that I based him on or mixed mixed
up the soup with was Foghorn Leghorn and Walter White.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Those two.
Speaker 7 (17:14):
Yeah, that's a good cocktail for this guy, and it
made him likable and devious.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
So it was really cool.
Speaker 6 (17:19):
I love that freaking when you guys, when you guys
are working on a contemporary show of some sort. Is
there a rule about cell phones that they have to
be off set.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Or should be? Well, it's funny you say that.
Speaker 5 (17:31):
Absolutely so on the pit John Wells and Scott Kimmel like,
you are not allowed a phone on a set smart
and you're not allowed sides on sets smart. So consequently
means that means the script, Yeah, Josh, sides are they
are part of the script. That so other lines not yours? Yes, yeah,
but that's good. They're set. You need you need to
(17:52):
be ready to work exactly. And consequently we were done
by dinner all the time. There was no late nights.
Sometimes they were done by by lunch.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
It's almost does if you guys were doing your job.
Isn't that crazy? Crazy talk? Now? Did you ever did
you ever ever blow any scenes in the in the pit?
Speaker 9 (18:10):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (18:11):
In the pit? I was pretty locked in because I
didn't you know, I had my moments, you know, because
that's the whole thing. You play sort of angry. Yeah,
a guy that comes in with you know, well, here's
the thing. Here's the thing about Doug Driscoll. He's misunderstood.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
He's like the colonel. Yeah exactly.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
He comes in with with with chest pain and he's, uh,
you know, he thinks he's going to die of a
heart attack. And then he's there for you know, nine hours,
and it's like, this is crazy, you know what what's
going on?
Speaker 3 (18:38):
So, you know, maybe.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
Maybe some bad choices, Yes, he does make some bad choices,
but my goal and and and I love it's so
fun to be here with a fellow thespian, somebody I've
I've really admired.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Me too, Pat, me too.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
I didn't say lesbian, but because there is this like camaraderie,
this club. It's insane what we did. This is a
dumb thing to do. It's insane. You're silly and dumb
if you want to drive across the country to LA
or New York and and be a professional actor. But
when you're doing it, it's the greatest thing in the world.
And the you know, the process of it, which I
(19:18):
know you really understand and appreciate is like, you know,
it's it's it's part of the fun. I'm on the
season finale of Tracker. Have you ever seen that show
on CBS? Yeah, yeah, it's a yeah, I think it's
a like number one string going anybody, come on, baby,
not I'll trade it all in for one MiCT the
(19:38):
top of the heat baby, And.
Speaker 7 (19:41):
I'm like, if they ever do a movie with me,
it'll be the last sitcom stock that was the last Yes,
it's true, last comic to get over the fence.
Speaker 5 (19:48):
Here's my audition appointment from uh. It says eleven to
eighteen November to audition to play Douglas in Bob Hart's Abashola.
Speaker 7 (19:58):
You would have been my brother. No, oh man, they
missed the boat on that we had. Who got that romance?
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Jones? Matt Jones got that friend he was I want
him to die? What was it he was on breaking? Yeah?
Now do you have your next gear or your next gig?
Is it lined up? And if so, yes or no,
we'll do if you can't.
Speaker 5 (20:20):
Uh No, That's why I was auditioning in my parents
uh in my parents living room, cloth would.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
In my parents' basement. It was the TV version of
Oak Calcutta.
Speaker 7 (20:34):
It is amazing too, how quickly you go right to
the back of the line. I mean, it's on. But
like I used to pull in the Warner Brothers and
guard they knew me and.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Your face was on the side.
Speaker 7 (20:44):
I literally had a poster on the wall and now
it's like I d please.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I was here for twelve years. I please. Who are
you here to see?
Speaker 1 (20:59):
That's it for another Bob and Tom Show Extra. Catch
us on iTunes, google Play, and Stitcher For Bob and
Tom Extra.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
This is Christopher. Take care, everybody,
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