TV Guidance Counselor
TV Guidance Counselor Episode 34: Julia Duffy
You have a TV? No. I just like to read the TV guide. Read the TV guide. You don't need a TV. Hello and welcome everybody. It is special edition time of TV Guiding's Counselor as you may have noticed by looking at the calendar. It is Friday, not Wednesday. So that means it's a very special episode of TV Guiding's Counselor today. I am incredibly excited to bring you this episode as my guest is the one and only Miss Juliet Duffy. Now if you're a regular listener of the show, you know that I am a huge fan of her work and that new heart especially comes up on the show very often. So it was great to talk to her. It was an absolute thrill for me. I think you'll enjoy this conversation and she is in Boston to do a play. She is here for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner at the Huntington Theatre and you can see her in person as well. From now to October 5th, the play is running. Malcolm Jamal Warner of The Cosby Show is also in the play. So definitely go to huntingtontheatre.org, get tickets and you can see her in that. Or you can hear her talk to me right now. So definitely check out this episode. I'm very excited to present it to you. So please listen to this special edition episode, a Friday episode of TV Guiding's Counselor with my guest, the one and only Miss Julia Duffy. And it is an honor to have us my guest this week, Miss Julia Duffy. Hello Ken. Hello. Thank you so much for doing the show. Thank you. This is really fun. I haven't looked at a TV guide in years. Yeah, I think you and a lot of other people. Yeah. It's such a weird outdated thing for many, for how everything's electronic now. I've had a lot of people on the show who have never actually even seen one and have to ask me how they look. Oh really? Yeah. It's just so incredibly familiar to me to look at this. Yes. Did you, so did you get TV guide when you were on TV? Oh yes. Yes. Was it weird to see yourself staring back at you in those sorts of things? I don't know. That's the kind of thing you just sort of get used to. Yeah. I do remember that I liked when the new one came when I had my daughter and I was breastfeeding because you could do that and hold the TV guide. Right. It was the right size. It's a one-hander. Right. Yeah. Excellent. And so you grew up in Minnesota. Yes, Minneapolis. Minneapolis, Minnesota. Maritalin, more country? Yes, indeed. It was. Did you watch that at the time? Absolutely. We all watched it. Everybody watched it. Yeah. I mean it was a huge show, but yeah. I mean to have an adult show on Saturday night was that was really good and clever. Right. And set and where you grew up seems unusual. Yeah, I didn't seem all that to us all that set in Minnesota. Right. Right. Right. Right. It wasn't the most Minnesotay show ever. They really weren't wearing enough clothes when they came in from outside. Yes. They didn't really show the tunnels and people's eyebrow eyes freezing shut if they're outside. Right. People in Minnesota. Yeah. So, but I still, I imagine that where most shows were set in New York or Los Angeles for the most part, especially in the time, it was sort of refreshing to see something that was supposed to be set in Minnesota at least. It was very fun for people. And there's some kind of a statue or something downtown. Yes. Honestly, I've never seen it. Yeah. Well, it's the good stuff. I know there should look. You don't, I mean I grew up in Boston and I don't see any of the touristy things. Like, I never, there's so many things here that people like, have you been to the Swan boats and this thing? And I'm like, I, you don't even think of it. Right. Because it's just here all the time. And do you, are you an only child or do you have siblings? Oh, I know. I have three older sisters. Okay. So, did they kind of control the television when you were going out? Um, you know, there wasn't that much on the world was not aiming itself at young people at that time. It was a whole different economic model when I was growing up. So, I would say for the most part, we would be interested in the same things because there weren't that many. They weren't conflicting with each other. Right. People weren't aiming it at kids. Right. It was such a broad range of young people show sort of, and that was just it. Right. And like four times a year, a movie would come out for young people to see or kids to see. It was like that then. So, were your older sisters interested in performing as well? Or is it just you? You were the only one. I'm just some sort of a freak in my family. Well, we all are in our families. That's why we do perform. So, did they stay in Minnesota? Uh, two of them are still in Minnesota. One of them divides her time between Arizona and Oregon. She's a restaurant owner. Okay. And I divide my time now between L.A. and New York. Right. We become Bicosto. Which is the, the active thing to do. It's something we've talked about for years. Our daughter lives in New York. Our son lives in L.A. It seemed to make a lot of sense. There you go. So, we decided to make it happen. So, when did you start acting? You moved to New York first to pursue acting. I did. I went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Okay. And, uh, because I read a book when I was about 11 years old, it was one of those novels. Right. A series of novels where you followed some twin girls and their adventures. Okay. Like the bobby twins. Yeah, it was like that, but a little bit older. And one of them went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Right. She wanted to be an actress. You sort of followed what they did after high school. Right. So, I sent in for a brochure and it came in the mail and I was very excited. I remember that I changed out of my school clothes into something else when it came in the mail. I don't know what. Just to have the right outfit. Just to read it. To have on the right outfit to read. And as if I were in the novel. Right. And sat in the front steps and read the brochure and decided that that's where I would go. Did you talk to, when you went there, did you talk to anyone else who had, who had just heard of it through the novel? No. I never met anyone who stumbled across that. How did you hear about us? The novel. So, was that the first time you'd been to New York when you went to visit that school? Well, I went to audition. Okay. Because you have to audition. So, I did that. Right. And what was that? That must have been very different from your experience in the Midwest. Well, I had been to auditions there because we've had a lot of community theater. Okay. It was actually pretty competitive and done at a rather high level. Right. In Minneapolis, it's a big theater town. Yep. Every single suburb had its own community theater. Oh, wow. It was, there's really a lot of it. It was amazing. The professional world of theater was impossible for locals to crack. Right. But there was a lot of that. So, I knew what I wanted to do when I had my monologues ready. Right. And it was just in the director's office. Right. Was as simple as that. And so, theater was what you wanted to do. Do you have any aspirations to be on television? Or were you just saying, I want to act. And it doesn't matter what it is. I never thought about being on television or in movies. I didn't know how to relate to that. Right. But I had done theater growing up. So, I could relate to that. Right. And I would see theater on TV sometimes. Which they showed a lot. They did. They would show it. They would do it for television or on some variety show or something. Yes. They would do a scene even from a straight drama. Yes. And I saw Julie Harris do Nora in a doll's house. I think I saw amazing things on TV. Yeah. It's something that's really kind of gone away. I mean, we had that. What was it? When the sound of music recently. I mean, it was a spectacle more than anything else. It wasn't sort of the filmed plays that used to be on throughout the 60s and 70s. And television people forget. I think that three camera sitcoms get sort of a bad rap now because people sort of look at them as antiquated. But I think people forget that the roots of it were in theater. And so that's sort of the hybrid. Multiple cameras sit come in front of a live audience feels much more like theater than any single camera show you would ever do. Right. Right. And I imagine it's produced pretty much exactly like theater. And you do it like a live show. You rehearse all week and there's rewrites. Right. Sometimes really a lot of rewrites all week. That's a little different from theater. And then you sort of have to split that difference. You are doing it for camera, but you have the audience there for reasons. So it's a unique skill. It's kind of not one thing on the other. It's sort of somewhere a little bit. It's a little bit its own art form. But I would say it's it feels more like theater than it feels like film. Right. Because there are people there watching you. Yes. And also the editor doesn't decide what's funny in a multiple camera show. The actors really have to make the scene work. Right. In real time. Whereas in a single camera comedy, the editor can really make everything funny with the right cutting to the right thing at the right time. Exactly. And you can add jokes that aren't there that are cut-ins or yes. I'm not saying those people aren't funny. It's cheating. But it's cheating. Yes. Absolutely. So you moved to New York. You went to actor school and what were some of your favorite shows growing up? You know, obviously Maritala Moore as we mentioned. But what were some of the things that you remember specifically watching? Well probably the thing that had the huge impact on me was the Dick Van Dyke show. Okay. It's Maritala Moore again. And Maritala Moore again. And it's funny that we're talking about it because where they've put me up here in Boston. I have some below basic cable package on the TV. Excellent. The hotel package. And I can barely find anything worth watching. It's just bizarre. You can get all the evangelists. Oh yeah. Well that's important. They're all there. Yeah. All those channels. And so I keep getting these same few channels over and over again. And the Dick Van Dyke show us on. And I watched two in a row the other night. And now, let me do realize how long it's been since I've seen one. And I look at it now with all the years I've done sitcoms and all the comedy writers that I've worked with and have known. And I see why it got mentioned over and over again in the writing room as a template. Yeah. I was so impressed. Certain things are dated but you're still so impressed when you understand sitcom land and those kind of scripts and how to develop those characters and a story. It was just beautifully done. I was laughing. Everything was real and made sense. And everybody's motivation followed a logical course. And it built and built and built. It's a very impressive show. Oh yeah. And their character laughs. They're not sort of shock jokes where once you know the joke if you see it again, it doesn't have the impact. And I think that that's something that especially that model of sitcom really relies on because it's more character sitcom than event things. I mean sometimes you get very broad slapstick things. Like I love Lucy often does that. And Dick Van Dyke himself is usually the purveyor of that sort of thing on the show. But the character stuff in the dialogue is so key to that show. And I think people forget that a lot. So that was one of your favorites. And you actually I think one of your first roles was on Lou Grant. Did you have a guest there? Oh I did. That might have been one of the very first things I did when I went to LA. I had an audition for the part of a nurse in the episode and said things like the doctor will see you now. And I for some reason was able to see the whole script which wasn't always the case. And then if you wanted to get ready for the audition pre-internet, you had to either go the day before and pick it up or get there very early and look at it. Right. Until you became sort of somebody that people liked. And they would send you things. And then they would send you something by messenger. But I was always running into town just to pick up a script. And I read the whole script and there was this valley girl working at the counter. Right. I had something to do with a murder. I don't know. But I have no idea what it was. And she was being interviewed and I thought it would be so funny to play her like she absolutely doesn't care. Right. And she finds this also lame and boring. The valley girl type was a new idea then. And so I read for the nurse but I asked the casting lady, the late great Fran Baskin. If I could read for the counter girl I said I have an idea and I have stuff with me and I want to go in the bathroom and change. Okay. But back to changing your clothes like when you got the brochure. Yeah. Back to changing my clothes. And she was one of the rare casting people who loved actors and was very creative. And she was very excited by the idea. So she told them that I was going to do this and I went in the bathroom and changed my whole look and read for the counter girl and got the part. So you always were you always inclined to do comedic roles because obviously that's what you excel at. It was that because some of your earlier stuff was in sort of some you did some soaps. I did. Yeah. What when I first started I sort of wanted I was I think I was like every other actor so I wanted to play Nina and the sequel. Right. But it seemed like I could compete in comedy. Right. It didn't matter very much what I looked like. Okay. In comedy because the person who made them laugh was the person who would get the job. Right. So even if she was described as spectacularly beautiful or you know large-breasted or some things that I just really couldn't quite go off. Right. Right. I don't care how good of an actor you are. They did a drama especially if there's any romance involved. They tended not to make any compromises in that way. Right. It's more looks than ability. Yes. And it's a visual medium I understand it. I didn't ever resent it. I got it. I understood it. But it became clear to me that I could compete. Right. Comedically no matter what I looked like for the role. Was that sort of a revelation to you? Were you always funny growing up and you were always the person who fit that role? Or was that sort of a new thing? No. No. I don't think I was the class clown or anything like that. But I grew up in an Irish Catholic family with lots of witty people. And you're the youngest. Humor was definitely a valued thing. And before I left New York I actually did a comedy on Broadway once in a lifetime of Men in Heart. That was very successful and I played a really extreme character. So I sort of went out to LA very confident that I was going to compete. Comedically. And hoped I could compete dramatically which I did somewhat. But my first couple of years there I really think half the town thought I was a dramatic actress and the other half thought I was a comedic actress depending on what auditions they've been present at. Right. Right. What clothes you were wearing at that time. And one cast that I was wearing. Yeah. And so yeah I have this I come from a very large Irish family as well. My mother's family all our uncles and it was definitely like if you couldn't compete with a with a quip when necessary you would just be destroyed. Like you had you had to have the very short quickness in the wit. Which was interesting when I was a huge sitcom fan growing up in New Harbor which we'll discuss in a moment is one of my favorites. But it never occurred to me as a kid that these things were written. Because you don't think there's people writing these things. So I like this kind of humor. I guess you just have to be really good at saying the right thing at the right time. And so I really worked you know I'm not consciously because I'm six seven eight nine ten years old at sort of trying to see the right moments to say the right thing and timing and that sort of thing. And that's really informed the way that I do comedy now. But I don't think that that is the best way to approach things when you realize there's a whole room of people writing these things. Yeah I'm trying to imagine comedy writers listening to this now and turning red in the face. Yes. When I'm poor kid you have no idea. They just make it up as they go along. It's just a documentary here that makes perfect sense. So you with the catalyst for moving out to LA that play that you had done that was very successful or were you just like I need to go out there. You just can't have done the business without going both places. It's very tricky. Right. It's always been tricky. Yeah. Now self tape auditions have become a big part of the landscape. So it's not so hard now to try to be in two places at the same time. But then you just had to decide where you were going to be. Right. And if you never went to LA you were missing out on some very big opportunities. Right. Other pilot season and all that sort of stuff. Yeah. So you did a lot of guest starring roles during your own love boat. Actually you were the only person I've spoken to that was on both incarnations of love boat. I believe you were on the 90s of revival. Yes there was a revival. I think I did three or maybe four. Except it was huge. Was that the biggest the first huge job you can remember? What was the first or the thing that really made you feel like all right it's it's happening. I'll let you know. Okay. When you get that job someday you get there. We never feel that comfortable. Yes. Yes. Now I sympathize with that. But I mean there was when there were so many less choices for people to watch. There were fewer channels. Sort of everybody watched these shows. So like love boat. Kind of everybody watched it. I mean that was a a cavalcade of stars to be on that show. Yeah but people in the industry didn't watch it. No. No. And that's probably if you're living there that's what matters. Yes. Did your family watch you on these things back home and? I don't remember. I doubt they would have changed their plans in order to watch me love boats before we had VCRs. Right. They're not like that. Oh really. So what was the first thing that they really were like oh okay she's she's really doing it. Was it the theater stuff or? I have to ask them. You don't know. We're all pretty equal in my family. Yes. Yeah. We're four professional women. Yeah. I don't think they ever miss Newhart. They absolutely loved it. Right. And loved it. So they have good taste. So but you know I remember when I was on a soap opera I do remember my mom saying yeah honey tell me when you have like a really good episode because I just I can't watch that thing every day. I can't watch everything. That seems realistic. I imagine. But the soap was probably very difficult because you're getting that that's probably like almost like improv theater from what I understand. Some people the people are good at it are amazing. They're just mind blowingly amazing because that's the hardest thing in the world. Yeah. You have no prep time basically. You have none and you're you you're not in that place actors like to be where you know the lines so well that they've become completely organic. Right. Spontaneous. You simply don't have time to get to that place. Right. In rehearsing for a play it takes you two or three weeks to get to that place. Right. Where the lines you're you're not trying to remember. You can concentrate on it. How you said it's a whole other level of memorization. So the first series regular series you got was it was it's in Warriors? Was it the? I think so. That would have I should have looked myself up to have my chronology. 1980 or so? Yes. I it wasn't the first pilot I did but it was the first series. I got picked up. Yes. That was a strange show. Yeah. CBS. That that show was so expensive. I was told CBS had never spent that much money. Okay. On anything. On one hour show before. And I think that might be where they put it on Friday night or something. I don't think they looked forward to it doing well. But it has this cult following now. Oh yeah. And it just actually recently came out on DVD for the first time. Oh did officially because it's unofficially. Oh there's been many unofficial things. Yeah. The Warner archives recently put it out about a month ago. But I think it was only about eight or ten episodes. Right. It didn't make. It was eight. Okay. But it was oh funny. It was very funny. I think that it was was pretty far ahead of its time. It really was. I mean long before moonlighting. Yeah. We were actually I don't know if I ever did my character. But the fourth wall was being broken. Right. Right. And especially in sort of a fantasy series which was odd to have on television at the time anyway. Yeah. A medieval sitcom. Yes. Yes. Like there was another in the late in the mid 80s called the Charmings. If you remember that show on ABC where it sounds vaguely. It was a very high concept. It was Snow White and Prince Charming in the 80s. They slept until 1988. It was actually up against New Heart. Oh okay. Maybe that's why it sounded. Yes. So Wizard of Warriors was a huge profile show but didn't last for it. Jeff Conway was the and you played Princess Ariel. Right. Before the Little Mermaid. And then after that I think New Heart was the next series that you got that was a regular. Yes. Wizard of Warriors was running and I actually and I did a guest shot on New Heart. Because you came in as a regular in season two. In season two. And I played Stephanie in the guest shot but she wasn't Stephanie. I mean that kind of character hadn't been developed. She was more of a you know a plot device. Right. It was funny. It was funny stuff. And I actually did find out on the same day that Wizards was canceled and they asked me to be a regular on New Heart. Oh well that worked out with the good news and the bad news. But I had a door doing Wizards and Warriors. Right. Don Rhea was the creator. He was so fun to work with. And the wonderful thing about single camera comedy is you do get to improvise a lot. Right. Which I love doing. Right. Because they're not worried about the audience sitting there and watching something be done over and over again. Not hitting. It's very easy to do. Right. Single camera. So we had a lot of fun and it was you know my kind it was my kind of thing. But so I was sorry to see it go. But then of course I got the dream job over time. Right. Did you watch New Heart before you were on it? Oh I did. I when his ultra went off the air I thought damn never going to get a chance to work with him. Right. It was barely on after I got to LA. I mean it was towards the end then. So I'd always hope that some guest role would come up. Right. That I could read for but it never happened until the new show. Because a lot of people forget that the first season of New Heart was very well not very different but pretty different from what people think of when they think of New Heart. It was shot on videotape. Yes. Characters people do not remember from the show. Right. Two characters that they lost. Kirk, the middle man owner. And I believe that the housekeeper was supposed to be your character's cousin or something introduced in season two. So by the time you came into that show it that's sort of the New Heart everybody remembers. And how much input did you have into what that character became? Because as you said it was a plot device when it first started. But I mean you you own that character and it's I think when people think of like a Julia Duffy character that's the sort of a Stephanie. Well my input was mostly about I didn't want it was very important to me that she was unaware of when she was being snobbish. Right. That it was never deliberate. Right. Because then I thought that's an entirely different kind of character. Right. And the people who do that well and are funny doing it are people like be Arthur. Right. But that a cervic kind. I did not think that people would think that a very young girl who was rich would be funny being snooty. Right. That world deliberately snooty. Right. And it had to be an unaware kind of snooty. And that was a something I kind of harped on in the first year with the writers. Because the difference to me was huge. Yeah. And I think to them sometimes when they were writing the jokes they didn't quite see the difference. But that was the place where I had input where I you know kind of. Right. Where she's coming from with her with her jokes. But they came up I mean they came up with so many things that you know I can't take any credit. They came up with the idea that she just assumed that she was so beautiful that it was difficult for other people. Right. To. Yeah. I mean that's the thing full. And you know I loved stuff like that. It's almost hilarious. People say the best villains think they're the good guy. They don't think of themselves as a villain. So in this case she thinks she's doing everything right and there's she's never insulting anybody. She always thought she was helping Joanna when she would point out how tacky she looked. Right. She was really trying to be helpful because she came from a place where she knew much better. Right. Exactly. Yeah. It's all helpful. My favorite Joanna Barb that Stephanie had was in the Halloween episode where George is dressed as the cowardly lion. And he goes guess what I am and you say Joanna. I didn't remember that. It's very very funny. So that show went for another eight seasons that you're on in it. It got increasingly more and more bizarre. I know people talk about that a lot. It didn't so much seem that way to me at the time. Right. But I guess it did. And I guess that sort of happens when you start feeling like you're repeating yourself. Right. Even if you aren't repeating yourself it feels that way. After all we were doing those scenes five days in a row. The audience is not right. We're doing it over and over and you start to feel that way. And then you start to want to put some sort of spin on it. Right. So it sort of mues yourself. You know we had some writers who were a little more wacky, a little more whimsical. Right. Like David Birkin came in towards the end. Yes. And then he's very out there. Right. Very funny writer. Very gross. And later went on the right floor. Get a life which was a very strange show. Oh yeah. And Marjorie goes and Marjorie. Marjorie. Yes. She was great. And they were all great. And I love doing that sometimes. But now I see why people say that. That's not very Bob really. Right. And but I think it's fine that it did that. Yeah. I mean I personally actually prefer New Heart to the Bob New Heart show because I enjoy the completely different vibe that it has to the New Heart show where by the time you came into the show they sort of figured out what's funny here is Bob being complete straight man and just everyone around him is insane. Right. And they kind of like his group. Right. But there was there was more of it. Yes. And our show because of the town. Right. And there were so many characters in the town. I mean it wasn't you didn't just have the patience. You're the entire town that he lived in. Right. And he also was in a position of power like when he's in a room with the patience he's sort of in charge of the crazies. Right. But he's sort of the victim of the insane people in the New Heart realm and universe. Right. And then he goes to work at the local TV station and they all think that he's lame. Oh yeah. Putting him down and it was hilarious. And then it gets very strange like when your character and Peter Scallari's character's baby is the owner of the television station for the last season. It's left to the baby and the baby's in charge technically of the station and it got there. Now these are things I'm not remembering. Yes. Yes. You may have blocked those out. But we did that episode and but this was early on of the world's smallest horse. Yes. Yes. And only in a small town at a local TV station would they start a competition to see who had the world's smallest horse. Yes. And ending with some town's person bringing to the station a basset hound with a saddle on this. Yes. It's his thing. It was a horse. Yeah. And it was it was very strange too to see a show set in a small town America. A rural sort of small town America. That wasn't sort of a southern show. That was sort of he hawing it. And it wasn't a New York or Chicago more LA show. Yeah. It was New England. Yes. And they had lots of attitude. Absolutely. And they didn't like this upstart from New York. And so all of that was great. I mean to me you couldn't use the town too much. Right. Right. Yeah. And it definitely expanded further and further and further as the series went on. Well you got you know the towns the mayor would come in and the police officer and you just have this. And the librarian Kathy Kinney who was hysterical. But the guys all would become tongue tied around her. Really? But it this was a running gag as if she was a babe. Oh yes. Yes. I remember she was kind of sex. And they would all do the same thing. Every time her name was mentioned they go oh. Which is a hilarious weird twist on it. You know it made no sense but she had this power of them. That's why it's why. And you never explained why it was so bizarre. Right. And I remember there's one joke about and uh something about have you ever seen her do the dance of the 17 veils? Yes. Yes. I think that's a jury duty episode. Was that it? Yeah. I've worked with Kathy since then and just she's always fun. I love so crazy about her. She's hilarious. Was it weird meeting Bob Newhart for the first time after you really sort of wanted to be on the original show and loved it growing up? It's a little hard for me to remember the first moment. Right. Now when I walked on the stage I met Tom first. I remember that. Who was showing me all around ushering me around. He was so sweet. Uh yes I'm sure I was very nervous about it because he was an icon. But I was dying to work with him because I completely got his I just completely got him. I got his timing and his tension and I got how a young girl would work with that. Completely fluster him. Right. Right. Which was per I mean the chemistry on that show is perfect. It's one of my absolute favorite ensemble cast shows and it holds up as well it should be holds up just as well. It's not better than the Jake Van Dyke show. I frequently watch the Lord still. And was there anyone that you worked with that really flustered you? That was sort of like I can't believe I'm meeting this person or have you been pretty unflappable with those people? Oh you know there were so many people we did we had Johnny Carson do some kind of a cameo on one show. I can't even remember what he did. Right. Towards the end. And he's actually sort of shy in person and you know that probably tongue tied me a bit. Right. Just because it's it's Carson. But you know when you have rickles hanging around. Yeah that's going to make things a little bit easier to take. Yeah. Anything less than rickles. You'll learn how to handle these people. Was he there frequently? Because he came to the show a lot on Friday nights. And oh my god that man is so funny. And he's as sweet as a pussy cat person you know. Right. He's just adorable. But he's so so funny. Yeah just never stops. It's just like unrelentingly. But very serious when he did a guest shot on the show. He's very serious about his role. And he did some very serious dramatic roles in the 60s. Which was. He takes it very seriously when he has an acting role. Yeah. I mean I remember he it's sort of it's a B Roger Corbin movie that man with the x-ray eyes. Which is Ray Milan movie. It's actually one of his better movies. But but rickles has a dramatic role in that. And he's very very very good. I'm not surprised. Yeah and a lot of people sort of overlook that aspect of him. He never got a sitcom that really took off. And he was in pilot after pilot after pilot. And for whatever reason. I know he would make a lot of remarks to Bob about you know the fact that he hadn't had a successful series. Right right. Bob has all the money. Yeah. So Bob at the time I think he did a guest spot on his 90s show George and Leo as well. With. There was a cameo episode that we were all in. Yes. Yeah. Probably 96 and 97. That was also set in New England. This was to be on my fears of Vineyard. I think it was him and. Jason Bate. Yes Jason Bateman for his son. And Alex Rieger of Taxi. I'm Judge. Judge Hirsch. Yes. Playing the two guys. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean Bob's had a sitcom in pretty much every decade since the 70s. I know. I know. So after that you you went to almost immediately you went to designing women. I think the year that New Heart ended 92. Wait a minute. I hope I remember this in the right order but your listeners can look it up. It's easy to find. Yes. I think I first I did baby talk. Right. And you did the second season of baby talk. Are you in the first season? I was in the first season. And they changed the cast the second season. Yes. They changed me. Yes. An added scot bail or a scot bail. Yes. George Clooney left. Yes. Somewhere in the beginning part of that season. And it was all a very difficult show. Yeah. And so we don't need to say anything more about that. Right. But then they when the new producers took over they graciously or maybe happily let me go in my way. Right. And it's better for new producers. If they're supposed to retool a show it's better for them. Yeah. They actually replaced me with an excellent actress Mary Paige Keller. Yes. It was probably better for the role. And they did pretty well with it the second season. And was Amy Heckerling involved in that? Yeah. She did the it wasn't an official adaptation of look who's talking. It was not. Because that's why they didn't use the title. I didn't know the story about that but I can't remember now what it was. Right. The legal part of it. Right. But anyway you know I did a blast working with George. I had wonderful actors. I had great twin babies but it was sometimes doesn't work out. It was a difficult situation in other ways. And so I asked to not come back and that was fine. And then I was offered designing women and I know people thought I left to do designing women. That wasn't true at all. Right. That's just how it happened. Yeah. I think because designing women was going through a lot of cast retooling at that point. And you came in as a very Stephanie Light character in my opinion which was good. And then you did one season of designing women. I think it was just the only season. And then after that the next regular show that I think you were on was probably blanking here to designing women. And then you moved on to both trying to remember. I know. The mommies. Is it the mommies? Yeah. Or was it? No. I think first I did social studies. Oh yes. But that was half a season. Yes. That was a mid-season show. So there were only whatever you do for mid-season. The eight or nine or something. Twelve. I can't remember. And then it didn't get picked up. It almost got picked up. I actually thought it was a pretty good show. Wonderful writers to work with. Really nice collaboration. And I enjoyed it a lot. At first I thought oh I'm gonna be working with a bunch of teenagers. Right. They don't know what they're doing. Like this. They were fabulous teenagers that I liked. And I had a lot of fun doing it. And I really thought it was well done and well conceived. But it was one of those things where which of the high school shows do we have. Right. We will pick up and in the end they didn't pick ours up. And that must be heartbreaking. Like when you're doing like I imagine a lot of actors do shows where they go yeah I'm getting a paycheck. It's not the best show. Whatever. But when it's a show that you really think is a great show. It really had a lot of potential. It was developing very well. And just a terrific head writer Nancy Lee Maya. But in the one that they did pick up instead. Is it Mr. Rhodes? I think it was the TV version of Clueless. Oh yes. Yeah. Yeah. So that was about 96. Yeah. But had probably a brand recognition to it because there was a movie attached to it. Right. So then you did the mommies where you were playing a character based on a real person I think. Right. There were the two women who started as stand-ups. Oh well Marilyn and Carol who are still my friends and I see them all the time. And they are wonderful. Did a stand-up act? Yeah. It's like a two two. Had a little more where they were from. Right. And it turned into this show. Which was kind of an amazing story. Fun show. I mean like a two hour show with music and dancing and talking about motherhood. Right. And that show was funny. Let me tell you I saw their live show a couple of times. It was fabulous. So they based the series on that. And they had a character come in I don't know a few episodes into the first season who was the perfect mother that made them feel like they were failing at everything. I think she was based on a compilation of people in their school or their neighborhood or something. But a character that we all have probably encountered. Yes. The mother who does it without a sweat and kids are perfect. Their story was amazing. They kind of came out of nowhere and all of a sudden had this pretty successful TV series for at least the season that it was on. Yeah two seasons. Two seasons. And then just kind of people sort of forget about that show now. But it was a funny show. Yeah it was. It had a different set of writers the second year. I got you. And I thought it was really developing well. So I don't really remember what happened. I guess the ratings just weren't where they had the expectation. Do you just build up a tolerance that sort of thing after a while or every time is it kind of devastating? Well it is when you like the people and you're having fun. Right. And you see some scope to the role. You can think of more things that can be done. It's very hard to get the chemistry right. Right. To be on a set that's really cooking. You know where people are really in sync with each other. Do you feel like new hearts spoiled you in that way? It did. Because that was sort of the first long-term series you had and it seems like everything was just great. I mean I really had some fun experiences after it that were different because I was you know maybe playing more of an adult role. I was working with people who were more my age. You know sort of a different dynamic. But that new heart was just perfect. It was very funny. So artistically we were being really stimulated and fulfilled and the characters were growing all the time. And the chemistry we had between us was I mean I don't know what to say. We're five very different people. Yeah it just worked though. It was like it was almost like a harmony where you have you know five different notes and it makes this thing that's sort of great in the sum of its parts. And the show was the rare thing where it did very well in the ratings and was critically very very well received. You just can't ask for more. Yeah. And you have a relaxed set because Bob is not going to do comedy. He's not having fun. Right. And Peter and I were really different people but I barely had to discuss anything with him. Right. Oh yeah the two of you seem so much like a real couple. We're just completely on the same wavelength when it came to comedy. Right. And we I've never discussed things so little with another actor. She's kind of look at them and go this way. Yes. Yeah. We were just on that wavelength. I gotta say probably everybody feels that way about working with Peter. Right. They probably all feel that it's as easy as falling off a log. Right. Because he always seems like he's improvising. Right. He just seems very natural. Even when doing very bizarre things on that show you know I'm a lounge singer now. I work in the issue store. Yeah. It's just so spontaneous. Yeah. And I loved him on Boos and Buddies. I mean I think that was a sort of underrated show as well that a lot of people don't necessarily know about these days. It was him and Tom Hanks for two seasons. I don't know if you saw him on that at the time. I imagine you weren't watching a lot of sitcoms when you know. I wasn't I didn't really see Boos and Buddies very much before then. But a very funny thing happened when they decided to make Peter a regular and we all sat down at the table for the first episode of Peter being a regular. Yeah. And we're about to start reading the script. Bob leaned over to the producers and said no I met the other guy on Boos and Buddies. That's very funny. That's very funny. That's Bob for us. Yes. That's very good. I love that. And so you you were in one episode of Cheers as well early speaking of Boston we're at today and it earned the first season I think. Yes. So that was another show that that also sort of had that same patina of Newhart where it was critically acclaimed and did very well. It took a little more time to develop. It took a little longer but it was definitely definitely an industry show. So it was a very hip show within our industry. So again leading to people in LA do watch it. It's sort of what the world is very different there from what the rest of America probably is paying attention to which is really different the rest of America. Which is why it's probably very surprising to people what shows do well and what shows don't who don't know how things are watched out there and pays attention to what. What do you watch now? Do you watch anything now? I do. It's been a while and you're asking me in September when everything's gonna be around so I have to think oh my husband and I are mad for episodes. Okay. Yep. That show is so so funny. I absolutely love it. I was a huge fan of Partie Down. Yes. Partie Down is very good. Perfect. Perfectly developed sitcom. And both of those shows I mean episodes is also as a UK co-production so it makes sense here. I have a very different model than American TV had where it's usually one writer maybe two writers and they do six to 13 episodes and that's it. Yeah. I mean it's like faulty towers which is legendary. You know they're not going to do it anymore if they can't think of something funny. Which is so different from the US model although it's changing now which is sort of nice. Yes. But which is why it's even more impressive that a show like Newhart was pumping out 10 seasons worth of quality episodes. I know. I mean we had some years there. Some years are always going to be better than other some seasons but there were seasons when we would say to each other my god these guys are hitting a home run you know about the scripts right every week. Yeah. Because we knew how hard that was to do. Oh. You just expect some turkeys that you're going to have to push. Yeah. If you're doing 24 episodes in a year they're not. We were going week after week with out any turkeys and it is impressive now when you look at it and I think the things that are funny now on TV have become narrower. Yes. Where you can get the joke from. Yes. It's narrowed down to a certain kind of hip thing. A certain vernacular that people expect in comedy. Well I think people watch television very differently now. I mean partly do technology obviously but also families don't necessarily sit down and watch things as a group. So things aren't presented to appeal to more than one type of person. They're very narrow casted. So they say this is a show for 13 year olds or we're doing a show for 22 year old women. And I think a lot of that is because they're able to get these demographics so much more you know minutia of who they want to go watch the show. And I feel like this may be a false sense having not obviously worked in the television industry now or when you were doing Newhart. But I feel like it was more like let's just do a good show and see if as many people can watch it as they will. And the other thing is Newhart always every writer all of them every show runner we had everybody wanted it to be funny 10 years from now. Right. Nobody wanted to do a current joke. Yeah. And sometimes a current joke was sort of presenting itself and there would be debate about it because it wasn't going to be funny in 10 years but it was right there to be done. It's an easy reference and we can grab it. Yeah. But that show is pretty timeless. I mean I think if you showed that to people now it'd be they'd be hard pressed to tell you what decade it was made in. Right. But I don't think since everybody loves Raymond has anyone tried that hard to do a timeless show. Raymond has nothing to do with anything current. Right. And it will always be funny as long as people have tension in their family. Right. Which will probably be forever. Yeah. I think people it's almost the opposite. They want the most timely show they can have and if it's big in the burst in one moment and then no one ever looks at it again that's what they wanted. It's sort of that instant gratification. But they'll hear the same joke done in different ways. Yes. On every sitcom. The Twitter work. It might be very well written and well done and come out of the character but you keep encountering the same jokes. Do you think we've run out of jokes or do you think that it's just people are trying to start? If we keep it narrow and we're keeping it hip and we're keeping it in some sort of current vernacular then yeah we're going to run out of jokes. Yeah. So you're going to have to reuse the same. I mean I think sort of as a culture we just seem to be recycling a lot of the same stuff anyway right now and that might just be you know my age or I'm kind of missing what the younger people are into. But it does seem like there's sort of less innovation when it comes to comedy at least on television necessarily. There's definitely some good shows but we seem to be in a drama golden age more so than a comedy in a traditional sense. It's true but then when something like episodes does come along and I don't know if you watch Key and Peel. Yes. Well I think these are the two funniest people on the planet. Yeah that's not sure anyone else can even come close to what these guys do. They blow my mind. Yeah. Every week when I watch it. I don't even recognize them sometimes what they do. Right. I did an episode of it. Oh I didn't see that one. They're such serious actors. Really? They're very good. No it hasn't been on yet. It'll be on September 24th. The first show of this new season. Do you like sketch comedy generally because you didn't do much of it. No I would have loved to have done more. I never really had that opportunity anywhere in my career. Right. It just didn't appear and there weren't improv places on every block when I was a young person and almost none in New York. Right. So that was just never part of anything but I love it and I've done a few. I did the league. Yep. And that's all completely improvised. Totally improvised. And this is written sketch comedy though and they improvise very little on that show. Do you prefer to do improvised comedy? Is that easier for you or is it easier for you? Well you have to understand that when I've improvised someone else wrote the story. Right. Right. Absolutely yeah. So you have something to work in. I can't compare myself to improv comedians who get up there with an audience suggestion of a single word. Right. Which my son has done a lot of. That's incredible to me. Right. And out of that they make a scenario and build. When I've done improv it's because they decided to improvise a scene but the story beats were all there. Right. It's already there and they've done it as scripted once and now let's try it. So I could say yeah I'm good at that but I understand. A little scaffold. Don't do that. So your son is a performer as well. Yes. He's done a lot of improv and a lot of writing and a lot of animation. Is that something you encouraged growing up? Did he watch things you were in? Did you not kind of let him discover this on his own? There was no mandatory watching of their parents and my house but. But some people have the opposite where you don't want them to watch kind of. Well I didn't care. I didn't want them to watch bad acting. That's a good idea. I didn't care what the rating was. Just wanted it to be good. We watched a lot of comedy and we watched whose line is it anyway constantly when they were growing up and they adored it and they both did improv in high school. They had big high school improv league there in LA that's done at a very high level and. Oh I'd imagine. They're taught by professionals so that was really good for them. Boy that'll make you get from A to B faster than a million acting classes you know. So he's had a lot of experience there and he's done some acting and and he has a show on Mondo Media called Crap Duck so I'll. It was an animated show and it's it's it's this sense of humor very different from you and your husband would say like did they do you kind of looking go I don't know where this has come from. Kind of because his sense of humor is so out there but I love that. Right. I mean the wackier it is my husband and I love stuff like that even though it's not what we've mostly done. Right. But we love it really wacky. Yeah. I love dark. Yeah. Well in some ways it's easier to enjoy that stuff if it's something you don't do because you can kind of appreciate that oh I can't do that or that's not in me so I'm enjoying it. Yeah I really do appreciate it. I've always loved it. It just somehow can't be too far out for me especially when it's sort of organic and felt. Right. What kind of dark things do you enjoy comedically? I mean key appeal gets pretty dark eyes. Key appeal gets very dark. The episode with the the insult comedian if you remember that one with the burn victim in the wheelchair. That was I was absolutely weeping and the line at the end the tears they burned. Yes. Yes. I couldn't take it. That was amazing. Those guys are something else. Yeah but it's interesting where I think in the comedically now and I see this a lot in stand-up there are people who confuse darkness for shock humor and I think that you can have the key appeal sketch as a great example of that's that's a pretty organic character sketch that has some really dark things in it but isn't you not just laughing at the shock value of the darkness I think. They do everything organically or they don't do it. Right. Sitting in the makeup room next to Jordan getting ready to do the sketch we were doing was like sitting next to an actor preparing to do Hamlet. Right. He was really getting into character and of course they did a whole makeup thing with him but you these guys couldn't be this successful if they weren't extraordinary actors. Right. Both of them. Right. And then they have these genius comic minds and they're so nice. Yeah. They're such nice guys. It all is I mean all of them. I really am. That's the best compliment anyone can imagine. I imagine. I'm not an all of a lot of people. You are an all of them. So did you pursue them being on the show because you like this one? No I don't know why I have no idea why they thought of me. I played their mom. Obviously. And Ernie Hudson played their dad. Right. And it was a family sketch. About two brothers. You'll have to watch it. I will definitely watch it. I will definitely watch it. Definitely watch it. And the millions of times it repeats. Yeah. The same shows over in the region. So you're watching that sort of stuff and you're you're here also doing a play. Do you do a lot of stage works to them? I'm doing a lot more stage work recently and they actually a lot of dramas. I worked at the Pasadena Playhouse. I did little foxes in the eras. So it's kind of coming full circle. It kind of is coming full circle. The roles are so much better on stage at this age. Right. And I don't want to miss out on that. And it just seems to be where I want to be. Yeah. So you're enjoying enjoying it more than you would have when you were first starting doing theater necessarily. Yeah. Also you know they shoot everything in HD now. So I thought okay I'm done. Oh that's nothing. I think I'll do theater. That's uh that's not true. That makes you want to move on at a certain age. Does it really mean yourself in HD? Yeah. Is it weird to see yourself generally though? Did you ever watch anything that you were on? I did. I always watched New Heart. I watched most things. Sometimes I'd wait a while to watch it. Because you need that distance. Sometimes I'd watch it and then I agonize and then I'd watch it again a couple weeks later. Because the first time through all you're doing is reacting to every thing you hate about what you're doing. You only see the negatives and you have you get nothing out of it if you don't watch it a second time. You don't learn anything. But was New Heart something it was easy for you to detach from where you could actually watch the show or were you so preoccupied with what you were doing. Because I feel like that would be that would be what a hell that would be to be on such a great show but not be able to enjoy watching it. No I did enjoy watching it and it was interesting always to see what worked on screen. Just visually the comedic aspect of it. You would learn from watching. Right so you feel like it's almost like watching football film to get better the next time you're so true. I have no idea. I don't either. The weirdest thing I'm not a sports fan at all but for some reason I always use sports references as metaphors. I have no idea why. Yeah I think we all do sometimes but I wouldn't even know how to use football. That's how little I know about football. Yeah I'm wishing. I do like basketball. I could use a basketball metaphor correctly. I don't know if they watch film and basketball. But I can't do my football one. Fair enough. Fair enough. We're on the same. But I will take your word for it if watching the tapes makes them play. I guess that's what I've heard. That's what I've heard when other people have referenced this. So finally what I do every episode is a TV guide is not just informative. It cheers and it cheers. I also want to mention you're the first guest we've had on exactly been on the cover of TV Guide which is which is pretty astounding. That would be odd because TV Guide at one point was the single most widely published magazine in the world. So and at the time when you were on it so you would see millions of carmenos everywhere. Was it weird to see your face on that? Well now I'm trying to remember what it was. So you've got this one here with just designing women. Yes but you definitely remember doing that and I know there was one for New Heart and I know there were three all together and I don't remember the third one. I think I remember what the New Heart one looks like. I do have it in a drawer somewhere. I don't know what the third one was. But there are three. We can find it. Yeah. But that must be odd to be on. That's odd because I you know it's not like I ever stopped going to the grocery store. You can't hold it. Right there you know when you're standing still at the checkout line. So that was a little odd. I wasn't quite used to that. Would people recognize you from? Oh yes. Yes. Constantly. What was the first thing someone recognized you from? Well when I was on a soap opera. The soap was in New York. So I was already used to that but that's different because they're very intense about the story. It's a very unique fan base that the soap opera has. Yeah that's a little different. Yes they think you're the character I think more likely than. Yeah. That's a whole thing when people come up to talk to you about a soap opera. So after that I don't remember when I was first recognized. Yeah but I imagine if you're standing in the checkout line and there's 25 copies of the magazine at face level. That's a little odd. Yeah it is. At least it's only out for a week that and just avoid shopping that week. Right. That's probably what I did. I don't remember. We don't need to go to the grocery store. I mean you know it's not like I was one of the Beatles and people were screaming down the street after. I need to go out the back. I could handle it. Right right. But would still probably I mean I it probably I imagine people would speak to you as if they knew you in a very in an overly familiar way. Which is probably a bit when you you're like how do I know this person. Well yeah because sometimes people would just go hi Julia. Yeah like you have a name tag. And then I think I know them and I'm not recognizing them. Right. So you start going through an internal row of decks. It's odd to say hi and use someone's name when you're speaking to someone you've never met. Right. That's an odd way to approach someone. But it happens a lot and then I never know how to respond. Right right because it might be someone that you do know from somewhere. It's like it's like a teacher from your kid's school or it's just someone who's a fan you have no idea. I know. Yeah well you deal with it well I'm sure. Oh I don't have to do that much. It's a it's a small part of things. Right. So as you know TV guide as I in every episode with it it's not just informative it has opinions and it cheers and it cheers. So I always ask my guests if you had a cheer for television and a jeer for television what would they be. Well my cheer for television would be when it's at its best it's better than anything. Yes. I think because of the ability they have to explore something. I don't think any movie or play could explore the nature of evil like Breaking Bad did. Right because they're a snapshot. Yes. They're not a lifetime. This unfolded in an insidious way and you didn't even quite realize at what moment at which well I know what the moment was. Right. In case somebody hasn't watched it yet I'm not going to say. They have the luxury of that amount of time to develop these sources. And when somebody takes advantage of what they've got on television as Vince Gilligan did and does that with it that's an art form that's up there with any art form you can name. Right. And even seeing that having the foresight to see an actor like Brian Cranston who is mostly known for comedic stuff and go this guy can do a pretty dark role. Right. Because but you had to have somebody who didn't seem like they could do a dark role. Right. And then of course the most brilliant thing I think was probably casting Aaron Paul. Right. Which a lot of people wouldn't have thought to cast him in that role and just incredible. So that's my cheer for television when it could do that. It's nothing is better medium wise than when television is at its best. And I imagine you probably have a lot of jeers as many of us do. I have a lot of jeers and my cheers have to do with what we were talking about. Being a little too hip, a little too current. Right. It's disposable. Using sex jokes because you can always get a laugh. Right. Instead of really doing some work. Do you think television is a real comedy? That is not even being approved. Right. I adore Richard. It's just lazy though. So it's lazy. Yeah. And I get tired of it. Yeah. I mean I see the same thing with Stand Up but you know it's like we all thought of that joke but we go mmm why I'm not gonna bother to say that. I could come up with something better. But it's quick and it gets the reaction sort of but at the expense of you know the rest of the show in many ways. Well someday television may be better and it sounds like your son is at the forefront of trying to make it better right now with his cartoon. Well I think so. He may go places. Has he asked you to do a voice on it? He has not. No. Hey. Would it be odd for him to try to direct you? He probably have no problem with it whatsoever. I think he's a natural but he's a lifetime of experience. We'll see if it keeps going maybe he will. Excellent. Excellent. Well thank you so much for doing the show. I appreciate it. I'm glad to be here. It was fun. A trip down memory lane. Absolutely. And there you have it. That was Miss Julia Duffy. It was such an honor to talk to her. She's so funny and I'm such a huge fan. It was an absolute thrill. If you guys enjoyed that episode even half as much as I did recording it then it may be your favorite episode of the show yet. She's great and so gracious and funny. It was just fantastic. So you can see her in person as I mentioned. If you're in the New England area or the Boston area you have till October 5th. The ghostie guess who's coming to dinner at the Huntington Theatre. Huntington Theatre dot org. If you're not in this area you could just listen to this episode again or or plan a trip. Also check out her son's cartoon on the web. Crackdock. That's very funny as well. Or you can see me on October 5th if the show is sold out for some reason. And you're in New York City. We are doing our live TV guidance counselor event as part of New York Super Week and my guest is Amy Sedera. So definitely check that out. And be back here Wednesday. We'll have an all new episode. Make sure you subscribe on iTunes. You never know when a surprise bonus episode like this one will come out. And if you subscribe you won't miss them. So thanks again. Be sure to email me at Canadaikenread.com. We love hearing from you. Go on our Facebook page and we'll see again next time on TV guidance counselor. Some town's person bringing to the station a bass at hound with a saddle on this. It's existing. It was a horse.