JEAN STAPLETON has FUN with ARSENIO - R.I.P.

scene Stapleton lovely to meet you darling listen I loved him before he was famous oh and listen I bring greetings from two people hmm Monica Calhoun mm-hmm and somebody named Whoopi Goldberg know them both let's talk about Whoopi I know people must or at least initially must have said to you you and Whoopi yes many in the press really yeah they always ask that which is strange to us because we're people and we're actors you know and and we're theater oriented and experienced and we're both serious actors and and of course it was a joy to meet her and I hadn't met her before I started work you see on Baghdad cafe and she's an absolute joy to be with and he's one of the finest people I've ever known the most honest and generous and straightforward and of course infinite gifts um unique person don't you think well when you were into the honest and straightforward I give you a double Amen on that oh well you don't know me well I'm Janine and awful will be tells it like it is oh definitely tells it like it is um how did the network decide to put you two together and how did they get both of you well because they saw well Mort Lachman saw a film and that we had seen to go to Baghdad cafe and it had a part for Whoopi and a part for me so we came after us they all did and it was such a lovely idea and we both responded to it and responded to the fact that we were also going to be in it and as each was told huh oh they told you yeah they told me Whoopi was going to be in it they told Whoopi I was gonna be in and that was a big inducement to me and she says it was to her as well as the quality of the piece so they kind of lied a little bit to get both of it they didn't lie well I mean no no baby have we true really they had a commitment from you um well I guess not at the time I guess they told Whoopi but they may have phrased it correctly and said they were asking Jane I don't know now if someone was from another planet and they knew nothing about Bagdad cafe explained the premise well it's the story of this isolated cafe and the desert in the Mojave Desert and a woman named Brenda with a sometim husband who was played by Cleavon little and a family at played a daughter played by Monica Calhoun and and other characters and in comes this woman who has just left her marriage in the desert he just stormed out of the car she wouldn't take it anymore and she walks for miles and to this cafe doesn't know where she's going and so it's a new beginning for this woman now in the movie she was a German woman German tourist but if they didn't want a German tourists they wanted an American tourist and and so I come to this cafe and there's something about it that is feels like home and the magic in the mystery of the desert appeals to her and the sense that she's starting a new chapter in her life and this brand is very interesting and that's so it's the blossoming I think you might say of the desert and up in metaphorically of a friendship yeah okay let's take a commerce or I don't wanna get caught up in another idea we'll take a commercial come right back with genes day whose idea was it for you and Carol to sing the theme and all the family well that was written by a Charles Strouse the composer I don't know I guess it was born in the minds of the great ones like Norman Lear uh it was great wasn't it we made three three tapes you know through the years and we always tried to articulate that one line that nobody in this whole country could understand and we got many requests you know and it was to any who cares to know at this late date boy the way our old La Salle ran great now that was a automobile of yesteryear yes see um I knew that you could sing and I'm glad they made that decision Sandi show this thing I found this morning what did you put your glass ed dowling your luck is that zero get your chin up off the floor mister you give me a hero you can open any door is nothing to it but to do it I knew then thing that theme you know anything for a laugh yeah you know we like I said we fell in love with you on all in the family but what kind of things did you do before then is your bedroom well I did that and don't stole the nasality of that character for a family but well you know a shows on Broadway actually Damn Yankees was my first musical and I say modestly but it won't sound modest that I was a discovery of George habits and before that I've done um my first Broadway show which was called in the summer house with Judith Anderson and Mildred Donna but uh I was going along nicely and actually did more musicals than straight plays on Broadway yeah did you did you ever like we're gonna Baskin and Robbins or were you ever like somebody's secretary or something oh yeah wasn't it Baskin sir I would have you know taken the stuff home I uh I was a secretary I was a I was a native New York City which was the best place to be if you wanted to be in the theater at that time and I had to earn a living as soon as I graduated from high school I started out as a typist but then every summer I left whatever job I had and went to summer stock and I had wonderful years of experience and I worked though for quite a number of years became a secretary after I learned shorthand and I did that and I I then I worked in workshops we called them the off-broadway move movement didn't exist in we had workshop classes things like that at night and you just build you know yeah there are many links in the chain yeah hmm after all in the family was it hard to find jobs and people that wanted to put you in situations that weren't like Edith no no not at all which I attribute to the intelligence of the casting community no I wasn't plied with anything like that one or two times you know but no and these most wonderful opportunities in television and theater came after that series thanks to that series yeah that series broke a lot of ground as far as television it did yes and I don't know is there anything breaking ground now like that did I don't know you don't answer that I'm your interviewer yeah yeah well if I like to have conversations I don't like there's enough interviews going yeah yeah I like that I think there's some grub your sister a lot of people may not like the ground that's being broken oh but I think Fox is a network is kind of breaking a lot of ground I think so too there were a lot of controversial things that went on on the show what was the what got the most letters what did people have a hard time dealing with on all in the family G and talking about ancient history I don't want to take up the time trying to remember yeah but you know actually the shock did not come that was expected CB s man's that the switchboards after our opening and expected tons of calls they only got 500 calls which was very very little yeah and you see it Norman Lear trusted the audience mm-hmm and he was right he trusted them he he didn't think of them as the lowest common denominator to play too and therefore he expressed his social conscience his wonderful entertaining talent and was it afraid you know yeah so it was groundbreaking but people were ready for it I guess so yes yeah well good luck with Baghdad careful oh thank you it opens this Friday the 28th of September I get that in we're gonna do business - well let's do that 28 that 8:30 we have a lovely lead in Burt Reynolds new show - yeah that and then has everybody on it it certainly does the best you know it's interesting that you you when you make the statement you said it opens you still have theater in your heart oh absolutely yes well that's the mother of it all you know yeah her television show opens hey we'll be right back

Channel: MyTalkShowHeroes

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Id: 9d-EdHRCbOw

Length: 10min 53sec (653 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 16 2016