Fortsetzung:
AS: I hope you’re getting a theme here. (Laughs)
LHB: Oh my God…
AS: There’s a fan base of yours that wants to see your music released. I want to hear all this after reading all these questions!
LHB: I never listen to myself, I never watch my movies, and I forget stuff. It was like when we were talking about movies before I really had to think. I guess I think, “That’s done, that’s in the past” and I just don’t think about it often. But it’s nice; it’s very sweet to hear these letters.
Tommy Fairgate from Miami Beach, FL asks, Dear Lisa, You really hit big as the quintessential California blonde in Knots Landing, before that you made a lot of TV pilots and shows could you tell me a little about "Tabitha" which I loved but which never really caught on -was Elizabeth Montgomery ever involved, who was from the original show, anyone?
AS: When you lead into that question, why not give us a biographical roundup of how you got into the business?
LHB: I had as a child done commercials and local theatre in Houston. And I jumped to putting a band together at 15, 16, 17 years old. I was working in a club, a supper club, from 9 to 1 in the morning doing “Top 40” music. And a friend saw me who was a friend of Jeff Barry’s, who I spoke of earlier. My friend called him and he flew in and said, “I would like to sign you and make a record with you.” I couldn’t believe it. You know, at 18 or 19, that was big stuff. And that’s what brought me to L.A.
Then the next thing I knew, I was auditioning for a series called “Tabitha,” that was a spinoff of “Bewitched” on ABC. It came down to Pam Dawber and myself. I remember sitting across from her in the big ABC offices in L.A. And the joke I made was “she got the hit and I got the stiff.” She went on to do “Mork and Mindy” and I got cancelled. But that’s how I got “Tabitha,” that I remember really well.
And we did 13 of them. It was really interesting because the show came on at a time when “jiggle” TV was very popular. We were very conservative, you know, it was “Bewitched” in the late 70s. We also came on as a midseason replacement and we got preempted by “Frosty the Snowman” and “Rudolph” and that makes it hard on a new show. But they shut us down and said, you’re going to need new wardrobe, they were going to sex up the show. And they did. It still was very tame but we were competing with “Three’s Company” and “Charlie’s Angels” was coming on and jiggle was the big thing. It was like, “what does ‘jiggle’ mean? Oh, that’s what it means.” (Laughs)
Robert Urich was in it, Karen Morrow, so many great people, and as I said, Bill Asher did our pilot. We had great guest stars; we had some of the people from “Bewitched.”
AS: Did you ever have Elizabeth Montgomery?
LHB: No. We could not get her on the show.
AS: Because of her ex-husband?
LHB: I don’t know quite honestly. She didn’t want anything to do; it was part of her past. I don’t think it was anything real negative; she just didn’t want to revisit that. But think about it: she made a huge transition from comedy, playing a witch, to dramatic television. And I think that’s what it was.
Brett Shelton from Yakima, Washington asks, Hi Lisa, I want to start off by saying I enjoyed your singing on Knots Landing, especially the songs “Open Arms” and “I’ve got a Hole in my Heart” (I’m not sure if that’s the title, but I did enjoy it). I also enjoyed “When I said I do” and “Easy for me to say,” which you sang with your husband Clint Black. My question is what was it like singing with your husband on those songs, and what do you think of pop music versus country music? I thought you were great at both!
LHB: Hi Brett. Thank you for listening. I’ve always loved all kinds of music, country, pop, classical. My favorite music has always been “Motown.” I love The Supremes and Smokey Robinson, and it still is my favorite. I actually have a Diana Ross CD in my car.
Singing with my husband is hard to describe. It almost didn’t happen because I was chicken.
AS: Why?
LHB: I just hadn’t sung in a long time and had really turned a corner. I’d done a lot of TV movies after coming off Knots. I had been blessed in a tough business. I hadn’t sung in so long and I said, “You’re Clint Black, I can’t sing on your album!” But he had written a song for us, literally four days before he turned the album into the label. And, I don’t know, he got to me. I thought, well it’ll be part of the album and it’s fun.
But then he called me in and said, “It’s the first single off the album,” and I said, “What?” And he said, “We’re going to do Jay Leno next week.” And then it was climbing and climbing and it went all the way to number one. Then it dropped from there and went back to number one. Then we were nominated for a Grammy. We were nominated and won at ACMs (Academy of Country Music). Then we were nominated and won Vocal Event at the Music City News awards. I mean, if I hadn’t done it, how much I would have missed out on. It was just so great to be accepted into country music. I’ve never had hit records, so to have them fall in love with this record and for it to be with my husband was the greatest.
And so many people responded to this record. People have gotten married to it, remarried; you can’t believe the email and letters we’ve gotten. The impact that it has made has been glorious for me.
AS: Plans to do it again?
LHB: Yeah, I believe we will do it again. It’s just a matter of him writing that song and saying, “Hey this is the one.” You know, writers amaze me. Clint can book Friday at 1 o’clock and he can sit and write. Or he’ll wake up in the middle of the night and doodle around with the guitar. He’ll come out of the shower, anywhere. “When I Said I Do,” I remember he came into the kitchen and said, “I have this song.”
AS: So why the six-year gap between your last movie and your new one?
LHB: The truth is, when we decided to have a child, it wasn’t easy. And we went through a lot and we finally got lucky. We actually thought we might adopt. And then I got pregnant and stayed pregnant. We almost lost her, but we didn’t. So she’s our little miracle child. I just knew I would have one and didn’t want to go back to work when she was six months old. I was in L.A. this past summer and took an apartment with Lily and Clint was touring on the West Coast. And then I got this offer from Hallmark. I liked the script and the character and everybody involved and I thought, “I want to do this.” It felt really good to go back to work and my agent knows I’m serious and want to get back in. And I’m OK with it now. She’s started preschool.
AS: What’s the movie about?
LHB: The movie, simply put, has Rue McClanahan playing my mother and Dale Midkiff playing my love interest. I’m a big-city doctor from a small town and I go home to mend some fences in the family with Mom and it takes a lot of turns. There are a lot of little surprises, it’s very emotional, and it’s a beautiful little movie. I’m very proud of it.
AS: And it’s going to be in February on Hallmark?
LHB: February, yes. It’s funny because this is so Hollywood, I was in the beauty shop and I go to Jose Eber, and I’ve known Jose for 20 years, and I was getting a haircut and he also does Jaclyn Smith. And I got the call to do this movie while he was doing my hair, and he went, “Jaclyn’s doing a movie for Hallmark too!” And I said, “Rue McClanahan’s playing my mother.” And he said, “Well, one of the ‘Golden Girls’ is playing her mother!” And I said, “Is Dick Sargent going to be in it?” No, I didn’t say that. (Laughs) It was just so perfectly Hollywood, very funny to me.
Cosmic Steeple from Weatherford, Texas asks Would you consider doing a "Knots Landing" reunion if you were asked? Oh, and do you still keep in touch with any of your KL cast mates?
LHB: Thank you for asking. Yeah, I would absolutely consider it. Although I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think it’s been too long. And I run into somebody here and there. Now that we’re in Nashville it’s not likely. When I’m in L.A. I tend to run into Donna Mills or Joan Van Ark or Michele Lee.
AS: What might be an example of “running into someone?”
LHB: I was sitting at a light and I knew Joanie’s license plate and I started blowing the horn and we jumped out.
AS: Well that’s a cool story.
LHB: It was a great cast. There were no egos. The egos were healthy, everybody got along.
AS: So there’s nothing we don’t know about Knots Landing that hasn’t come out yet?
LHB: Oh, I can’t say that. (Laughs) I have to say, you put all those characters together. And I’m talking the real-life people. Bill Devane is a character and those women, are characters. They’re great ladies and terrific actresses and to this day, I’m very appreciative that they were very committed, and very professional. It wasn’t a glam job, where they came in and got in the limo. Uh-uh. It was serious work and they wanted a great show.
AS: You said you knew that you weren’t going to be on the show for its whole run. How did you know?
LHB: Well, when they originally talked to me about appearing on the show, it was going to be seven episodes. Then it grew and grew. And after a few years we were mutually ready, I think, for me to move on. They thought the character had done what it can do, and so did I. I think if I wanted to stay they would have kept me there, at home. But it just seemed like the right thing to do.
AS: My assessment of your character was that she was really going gangbusters until the middle of the fourth year you were on and then all of a sudden it was like the air came out.
LHB: I remember saying to them, “I don’t think I can babysit for the twins again.”
AS: It was kind of cool how they ended the character. Nice-guy Ben had an affair with you and he went off on tour with you, and you left for good. It was almost like his character was going to go for good, too. The Cathy character had come full circle in a way; she was luring married Ben away from housewife Val and was becoming a little devilish in the process.
LHB: But this goes back to what we were talking about earlier, and I don’t know if they had this planned, but that I didn’t want to sleep with all the men in town. That’s not a fun job. I mean, I loved all the men but as a character showing up every day and getting into bed, wearing a nighty isn’t interesting. Not to me, anyway.
AS: You wouldn’t have liked it on “Melrose Place” I guess.
LHB: Uh-uh. That’s another reason I haven’t worked in a while. I’m like, “I can’t do this! I don’t want to sleep with him.” There’s a lot of that in television.
AS: Do you mean you morally don’t want to play those kind of parts or that a certain chemistry is missing?
LHB: No. It’s all in the writing. When it’s this mushy love story and I’m supposed to sink my teeth into the role, I really can’t. It’s not interesting to me.
AS: But you almost returned to the soap world with “2000 Malibu Road.” That was one of those great “never was” shows. Tell me a little bit about that.
LHB: I got a call from my agent that Joel Schumacher and Aaron Spelling were interested in me. And I was told I was their first choice. Jennifer Beals and Drew Barrymore came in, and Tuesday Knight. We were working with this feature director and my character, Jade, had this incredible mansion out in Malibu. We just had a great time.
We premiered and got huge ratings and I’ll never forget, I was on the tour bus with Clint and somebody had faxed me at the venue he was playing the Life section of USA Today with a headline saying the show was huge. And then, the show was really expensive to produce. And our ratings? They didn’t go way down but every week it was less and less. There also was something with the writers, but you never know sometimes what’s going on with these things. But they decided not to pick it up. Even though, we shot an ending specifically for Europe. It was really big over there. But I guess some things are not meant to be.
AS: That’s a shame. I wonder if that’s going to happen with “Desperate Housewives.” Are you aware of that show?
LHB: I’m aware of it, I know it’s gotten really good reviews, but I haven’t seen it.
AS: It seems like it’s more of a woman’s show, “Desperate Housewives,” whereas I always thought of Knots as more of an even balance.
LHB: You know it’s funny Clint will be doing a show and these big, old guys will come up to him and they just love “Knots Landing.” And this is out there, in the heartland. It’s really amazing because we never thought of it as a woman’s show and when I’m out there they’ll ask me about a certain episode. It always tickles me.
AS: I don’t think I have anything else…
LHB: I’ve actually got to go and attempt to start dinner.
AS: Oh really?
LHB: Yeah, Clint said I heat up stuff really well. I really don’t enjoy it a lot, I don’t despise it, I tried … I can fix anything in the house. I’m a fixer; I’m mechanically inclined. But when I get in the kitchen I get flustered. Like I bought a George Foreman grill and I thought, “I’m so in!” and I got ground turkey meat and I made turkey burgers last night and they were horrible. They were so dry we threw them out. I just have to get to know the grill. I guess I cooked them too long, but anyway, I’m going to steam vegetables or something.
AS: Well that’s neat that you do it yourself.
LHB: Well I don’t do it all myself, but I try. (Laughs)
AS: It has been a pleasure; I hope I haven’t taken up too much of your time.
LHB: No, it’s been fun! I really enjoyed it. I haven’t talked about this in a long time. I appreciate it, Art Swift. Art Swift. I just like saying your name, Art Swift. (AS laughs).
AS: Thanks a lot, Lisa Hartman Black! Be well.
Art Swift is a student at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City. Check out
www.ArthurSwift.com for additional writings. Please visit
www.knotslandingonline.com.
Special thanks to the members of Knots Landing Online.
Copyright © 2004 Arthur Swift
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