Todd Bridges, Best Known for "Willis" of Diff'rent Strokes, Tells His Life Story (Full Interview)

all right here we go today we have Todd Bridges who played Wills Jackson on one of the great TV shows of all time Different Strokes welcome to Vlad TV oh thank you very much appreciate it long time fan I used to watch that show religiously oh thank you so much religiously man such a a great concept and a show that really people still talk about to this day yeah it was before its time that's for sure yeah they weren't making shows like that no absolutely especially with like the special episodes where you cover the serious issues I don't think any show on you know National Television was doing anything even close to that yeah that was the difference between us is that uh we were doing shows that everyone was afraid to touch or get near but our but the good thing about us though we did those shows and it always we had the the F people FCC people right there always like uh uh you can't say this you can't see that you know I tell you what I watch TV today and I'm like I see I'm like did he just say what I'm like we would have been C you know sued the things that they say things that they do things that they show you just cannot do that in our day when we grew up K do it on TV but now they could do just about anything that's right that's right well it's your first time here I want to start in the very beginning okay so you're born and raised in San Francisco yes Bay Area kid just like me yes which area you from I'm from a originally viation Valley uh right above I lived right above C the old Candlestick Park basic okay that's by by Hunter's Point right yep I used to watch uh willly Mays Bobby bonds all those guys play baseball with B okay if I didn't couldn't go to the game we watching B my brother I grew up in Sano okay yeah and I went to I live in Berkeley Oakland for about 10 years afterwards that's yeah okay and your parents were in the business as well my yes my mom was in the business first and then my dad my dad was a long Sherman for a bunch of years Okay and like did your mom train a bunch of female actresses yeah NE long Regina King uh uh my friend who passed away Lamont Bentley um lean Shai lean y she trained all those people she trained them for and she trained like Regina and Nia a bunch of kids for like years and years but not even getting paid she just trained them she end up managing them later on but she didn't get paid in the beginning she just trained them you know we had you know originally what would happen was if you wanted to be in Show Business you had to come through my mom and my dad because there was no other way for us to get through at the time it was very difficult yeah okay and your brother uh is Jimmy Bridges who's also an actor I've seen him in a bunch of roles not knowing that was your actual brother oh yeah my brother's an actor and my sister's an actress so we all we all work and my son was in the he was in a bunch of movies uh he was in a movie um Daddy Daycare right Daddy Daycare that's right yeah he was in that one and uh my daughter is just now getting into the business my son actually develops video games for a company and my daughter is just now getting in Show Business love it yeah love it okay so you get in the business at age 10 no I started age five age five okay I'm sorry what was your first T my first thing was a Jello commercial jello for the entire family it was before way before Bill way before that okay and uh they go Betty bridge is San Franco like J and jel I go mom can I have some more that's what I said that was my one line okay but your first TV rooll was my first TV role was um Streets of San Francisco at Carl M oh I remember that show and Michael Douglas yeah okay but at age 10 you got a roll on Barney Miller yes yes okay and by the way like you well before that before that I was in a movie at 8 yeah was in a movie eight with um called um wait it was with uh Henry Winkler and [ __ ] spack mhm and then I also did a movie at eight with Jane Alexandra okay yeah I forgot the name of the movies but I've worked with those people in the movies when I was a kid I mean was this something you wanted to do as a kid or something your parents just pushed all the kids into no I always wanted to be in Show Business from the very beginning from when I used to watch sanord his son on TV uh I said that's what I want to do for I want to be just like that have a shell just like him and um I was glad I was able to accomplish it yeah and you got to meet him at one point oh I got to not only meet him hang out with him he's a really great guy I got to meet all my people that I loved growing up with which was Lena horn I got to meet U I got to meet Elvis Presley I got to meet um let's see um Davis J Michael Jackson well Michael Jackson because I dated Jennifer little while I G to meet Michael Jackson okay um so um all the famous people I was always around you know from uh SE Jr I met Frank Sinatra ban Crosby Jerry I met all those people from being around those guys dope and those and Bert Reynolds was I loved Bert Reynolds he loved me I loved Dom deloise those guys were two amazing guys I just love I love Bert so much Bert was such a nice guy okay so you got a role on Barney Miller and then there was a spin-off fish yeah which you got a regular uh yeah the show was written for me and aot W Danny Arnold when we did when I did Barney Mill he say I'm going to find a show for you and he goes and it's it's going to be a show show with uh a fota from from uh Barney Miller he says because you two could work well together and um so if if you ever watched the show you notice we had a lot of interacting me and him had a lot of interacting together because the show was written for us they put everyone else around us well I remember you did a you did an interview with Oprah in 2010 you saying right right around that time you getting sexually abused uh that's when I was 11 years old 10 11 10 11 years old yeah and this was like a family friend yeah well he was a family friend who became a publicist who did that so uhhuh yeah and I mean initially well I guess your mom believed you but your dad did not yeah my dad was the kind of guy who was more about the money than anything else so he was just all about what this guy money this guy can make for that guy so he was more about that than anything my mom knew she could see in my eyes the truth so she knew yeah and I remember you said like after that you had to kind of wrestle with your own sexuality wondering if you were gay or not never had sex before so I I was wrestling through that not knowing and sure enough you know the women would definitely W over so me liking women definitely W over yeah so and I was very you know but the thing about it the thing that people don't talk about much is how much destruction it causes to a kid at a very AG a very young age when that takes place yeah I think that you know after watching that movie sounds of Freedom you know you realize that you know America is involved in some crazy stuff and kids get destroyed every single day and it's very difficult for kids to make it back I'm blessed to still be alive did anything happen to the guy was any charges pressed well at the time we were supposed to report it to the police but the show I was on did not want that to happen oh they didn't want the bad the bad press they didn't want anything to do with that is the guy still alive I don't know did you ever try to confront him later in life he don't want to see me I don't want to see him because if I see him it's going to be you know I'll be locked up somewhere so I don't want anything to do with it yeah [ __ ] that guy it's better just to leave people alone like that okay so I mean after that traumatic situation happened you still stayed in the business and then by 78 you did Roots yep the biggest miniseries of all time yes uh I mean one I mean it was nominated for 37 emys a won nine it won a Golden Globe and a Peabody oh yeah um the record was the record for the third highest rated episode of any type of Television oh second most watched series finale in television history I was the only kid with dialogue in the whole show yeah everybody else was adults I was the only kid with a lot of dialogue and but I'll tell you what the funny it was at one point they ran out of black people in the show so I think they even had me at one time they go oh my gosh we need a black kid way out they go uh Todd hey we'll give you a little more money put a different clothes on in a hat and go way out there and stand I did there was enough black people in the business that were in the show everyone that was in Show Business at black people were in roots oh yeah I mean that was a phenomenon because I mean listen 2023 everyone knows about slavery everyone knows about this but up until that time there were no stories about slavery Alex Haley started writing I think in reader digest started putting these little stories together which turned into a book which ultimately turned into the series but up until that point it wasn't being taught in school people just thought slavery I mean they were really trying to brush it under the carpet of course and they still trying to brush it under the carpet right but that but that show was was a turning point yeah in American history and here's the craziest part if you remember watching that show the things they said on that show you could never say on TV today such as the n-word you can't say that anymore but it show was on that TV you say in the movie but you can't say that on TV that was said on TV yeah yeah man it it was a great series I mean I know I know that uh was it will Packer tried to remake it it just I try to watch it n it was just wasn't shout out to will man I'll [ __ ] with will but but not he he didn't do it justice way the first one really yeah you we've interviewed John Amos before they sent me a script where the character that I ultimately portrayed kente was they had begun to flesh him out so I could see what he was about and I said man I don't know who's going to get that but whoever gets that role they're going to have some piece of work behind them once they get this down and as it turned out I was cast as K kente and it changed the industry's perception of John amosa was no longer the actor that did could do comedy but they said oh this guy can do he's got dramatic chops as well oh I played the adult uh kin oh yeah and uh yeah man it was a it was a Phenom oh yeah yeah you can't so things like that there are some things you should leave alone and it's just like with there's some movies don't do a remake yeah they do remake and you're like ah this was the worst thing I've seen why did they remake this oh oh yeah I mean space Jam to White first one was amazing oh my gosh I don't want to talk about white man can jump to that was just didn't didn't work at all I tried to me and my wife tried to watch it and I was like G this I can't watch he go what I go I can't watch this this is nothing like the original and the original was so much wonderful because you know you had Wesley Snipes I'm not putting anything bad on the actors but you know with Wesley Snipes and you had uh hars and common those two were the most amazing together well and you had other TV shows that you were doing you did the love boo uh you did the walon you did A Little House on the Prairie But ultimately semi-regular on Everybody Hates Chris well that that comes later yeah that comes later oh before that yeah no before I we talking about everything that you know that's leading up to Different Strokes you had a whole bunch of stuff I worked on I've done over I've done over at least 200 commercials uh in fact I did a remember you know because of this milk commercial I loved milk so much and the milk commercial I drank so much milk I think I drink like three gallons of milk and I'm now I'm lactose intolerant because of that dang milk I love love milk and I was like oh man this is the best best you know and um but what's crazy is here's the craziest thing I can drink milk in another country like in Europe I can drink milk in Europe is that where they have it like in in boxes like paper boxes you don't have to refrigerate it like people that are GL have gluten allergies can have gluten from Europe okay people who over here because they all the stuff they put in it we our bodies can't handle that but over there milk comes out of there I can drink it fine I can have you know I'm good with it yep okay so how did you get the role uh as will as Jackson on different I got the role from fish okay Barbara Brook leotti had saw me on fish fish I got canceled not because it wasn't doing well in the ratings it was a number one show it got canceled because at the time apoto wanted more money and at the time you know they didn't care if star wanted more money everything was producer ran you know they own the exact producers if they own the show they own the show see no one can tell them what to do with it you know and um uh that show got canceled as soon as that show got cancelled they realized that they tried to do they tried Different Strokes at first with just uh Gary Coleman and comrad Bane and then they realized that Arnold needs a brother they realized that so she saw she got canceled so they had to put around Gary Coleman people who already knew what they're doing in front of a live audience people who who could carry Gary we had to carry Gary that's why you know the toughest job on a sitcom is being the setup man the setup man has to be believable and has to be good at setting up for the people who wants to throw the jokes at him well the concept of the show is very interesting it was really unlike any show of that era so you had this older man uh Philip Drummond y uh whose wife died yep and uh he had a housekeeper a black house housekeeper y uh who had two kids yep she dies Y and he ends up adopting the kids yep because she on her deathbed we know I guess he loved her that much on her deathbed she said please take care of my children and he decided to take care of us okay so now you have this older white man with these two young black kids and he's got his daughter y as well oh yeah now right now it's not a big deal to do something like that but back then you know from what I understand there was a lot of hate mail I think the CL was like sending you guys death threats we got hate mail from both sides that's just how it was you know they didn't want to see us uh hugging a white guy and saying hey we love you they didn't want to see any of that and the white people did not want us you know hugging them their people so it was kind of like you know we got it from both sides but then eventually you know all year two years later everyone fell in love with the show because they realized that it's just about love it's just about you know family you know and um you know look think about this uh Van Diesel has made a huge living off family and in all of his movies what he say family family that's what it's about family and you could do Well when things are about family yeah well uh you know the what you could say is the star of the show Gary Coleman y I mean I originally he wasn't supposed to be the star right well no no he was always supposed to be the star yeah but the thing was is that his lead was different than my lead he was the star but I had all the girls okay so I was good with that okay and Gary Coleman's personal life is interesting so he was adopted oh yeah uh but he didn't know until he was 21 really yeah he did not know he was ad he thought those were his biological parents yes he did not know until he was 21 years old okay yeah and when he was born he had a whole bunch of uh you know medical complications yeah uh kidney defects and um you know because of all the medications and everything else like that extended his growth and he also was never around kids huh that's why his vocabulary was huge he was only around adults right because being around kids was dangerous for him so he was only around kids you know only around adults and that's why when you saw Gary talk and walk and talk he was like a grown little man he was a little kid like a grown man well I mean because the condition that he went through along with the medications he could only grow to 4 fo8 yep so he basically stayed small his entire life and he wasn't like a little person or no you know he didn't have dwarfism or what people thought he was just because the K he was a real little person yeah that's what he was yeah right because he had a kidney transplant at age five y well no two two kidney transplants at five and then another one at 17 well he no he had more than that I think no I think I thought he had total of three cuz I know he had one at 13 because I remember being on the set okay um no or did he have it before that it was like n yeah I think it was 9 or 10 because he was on the show and they brought him back to work way too fast they brought him back to work uh a week later after his kidney transplant and and his kidney uh reacted I remember cuz I was 13 years old and I was crying because they had him there working which he shouldn't have been working yeah but you know those at that time they only cared about making money everyone did that's what they cared about so but you know had it been my had that happened to me my parent my mother would have never had me there there's no way well because he had to have di dialysis his whole life right yeah so was he doing that on set having dialysis but at one point it was once a week he do it on the set but then I think later on his life became every every other day Okay well even with all these problems the show started to take off yeah and people really took to it the catchphrase what you talking about Willis that was created by a typo because back then we only had typew yeah you know I mean there was no like you know something to correct your word spelling or something like that so they wrote it was written in the script remember saying it was written what you about Willis and grick Coleman said it so fast that it became the catchphrase and and if you notice the first five years was always directed to me directed to Willis because Willis was the one that always kept messing up so it was directed right at Willis always and then he started going to everybody else I mean everyone knew that catchphrase I mean even you listen to Biggie's first album of course your Styles played out like carnold wondered what you're talking about Willis oh yeah it's it's it's probably one to it's probably a catch it's a catchphrase today that's still huge that some kids don't even know where it came from yeah they'll say it and have no idea that it because I remember my friend's kid was saying she was like do you know where that's from and she's like he's like yeah I heard on the show and she's like no it's not where it's from yes it is he was like she like no it's from a TV show I used to watch she had to make them understand where it was from because they really think it's from something else I mean you had been on other shows but now you're actually co-starring in a major sitcom what was it like I mean cuz you're you're how old at the time you're 13 yeah at 13 years old suddenly you're a national phenomenon yeah how did a 13-year-old adapt to that well the thing about it was the thing that was different for me than a lot of other kids that may have been they didn't want me doing a lot of stuff becoming bigger than Gary Coleman they didn't want that happening M because I was at the teenage stage I could became huge in like in films with um like John Hughes films I was like up for one of those I should have got breakfast club but you know oh yeah they told me they didn't know how to uh they didn't know how to write for black people well there were no black people in Breakfast Club of course not but that was one of the roles I was going for was The Jock okay but they told me they don't know how to write for black people that was played by Emilio EST yes yeah okay come on how many times you see just a white kid as jock and it's not a black kid of a jock right come on you know what I mean okay even in that day in the 80s it was always black people did jobs I feel you you know but they but when they said they didn't know how to write for black people I just walked out because I couldn't believe the guy even had said had the audacity and it wasn't John Hughes John Hughes was a great guy I met John Hughes on the plane it was his partner John Hughes is the one that told me to come in he told me he that's the part he wanted me to play and when I got in there the guy said uh you know I don't know how to ride for black people he was first I tell you what this is what he did I was in he went we don't know how to write for black people and I was like I what this is what I said same way you write for white people and I walked out and you didn't get the roll no of course not not saying that but I'm like like what mean you don't know how to write so was he scared I'll be we come on man we all talk the same you know what I mean like give me a break you know well the guest appearances on the show were really interesting oh we always had the biggest guest appearances on the show Muhammad Ali oh yeah Muhammad Ali was the greatest guy in the world man I we had so much fun with him didn't he coin the term Different Strokes for different folks and that's kind of where the name came from I'm sure Ali was the most amazing thing ever man he with Ali I remember he used to come up behind you and do like a like do this thing and you're like and he started laughing Ali was oh man that that was always my hero you know and um yeah he he was my hero I mean even one time before Ali was on the show they wanted me to say something negative about Ali and I was like I'm not saying it and and The Producers were threatening to fire me but Alberton stepped in one of the execu says no if he don't want to say it he doesn't have to say it yeah that's how they were back then though they were very like it was all about there was like I said I wasn't allowed to do anything off the show why I was doing that show is either I did the show I couldn't do anything else wasn't the original title 45 minutes from Harlem sure was that was the original title of the show different strok is way better way better way better 45 minutes from Harlem I don't think would have been successful I don't think that would have taken off that would have taken off the same way not at all um Nancy Reagan came on the show who was the first lady at the time when Nancy Reagan came on the show uh the Ronald Reagan the president showed up too oh really yeah and what made it so crazy was but he wasn't actually on the show though no no but everyone in the audience was Secret Service mind you they didn't laugh at any of our jokes but everything Nancy said they were like we're like yeah okay but the craziest part about it was as House of security was going in and out you got scanned you got scanned like you got scanned three times before you even made it to the set didn't Reagan get shot around that time uh probably after that I'm sure after that yeah cuz remember there was a whole shooting thing happen but what was even crazier was I remember talking I met a guy who worked for the Secret Service and he was showing me what they had in a trunk he showed me they had you know surface to air missiles in the trunk he was showing I was like oh my God damn like but it was a no fly zone when she was there it was no fly zone when he came there came no planes could not fly over Universal yep couldn't fly over this is before 911 before 911 before all that yeah yeah and then jenet Jackson jenet Jackson who I'm the reason why Jenna Jackson got hired because I had she used to be on Good Times owned by the same company she used to be walking through and I saw see man she's good looking you know and I wanted to meet her so I I thought the best way to meet her really was to get her hired on the show right because she was on Good Times Before Good Times yeah but I but same company oh okay we all we all rehearsed and worked at the same stage okay so I'd see her going through all the time I'd be like she was good looking so I um you know end I met her there and all that but I figured the best way to really get to know her was to work with her and okay and I when they work one to find Willis a girlfriend I was like H you got to hire Janet Jackson like we're going to inter said nope you hire Janet Jackson They hir Jen Jackson and you guys dated after that oh yeah we dated for a couple years after that couple years yeah were you one of her first boyfriends or yep oh yeah and it was the most nerve-racking thing in the world was meeting all her brothers that was very nerve-wrecking and scary cuz she had what five brothers yeah they they were looking me like you know I think the funniest was Michael was the funniest um um I'm going to The Haven Hurst place they were just re just building haveners they had tour a small house down we building a big house and I go there and I'm with Janet and um we're standing I'm standing there and Michael drives in and he gets out the car and this is before Thriller came out and he's running around and the tr's going cuz this is Thriller and I'm like he's singing in the pipes you know how they have the pipe and I'm like what do he like oh they singing his new album like oh okay but little that I know it's going to be that big considered some of you know the greatest album of all time didn't know that at that time okay any interesting stories with with the Jacksons or around all stories I can't tell Janet will kill me so I ain't telling St okay I still talk to Janet so she'll be mad about tell St she' be like why did you say that I don't want to hear that so well I mentioned this before like you guys had the special episodes and I remember I remember watching the the child sexual abuse episode I a Boston cream pie kind of I had also be written a lot out of that that show because of your experience yeah I said I don't want to be much in this show just leave me out of this and I was in it but not a lot okay I mean having that episode air with your experiences did that kind of trigger you somewhat well not that it trigger me but it just you know it it made me very sad you know that nothing was really done about what should have been done about it you know so I mean there was a lot of problems you know with Gary Coleman and him getting paid keeping the money that he was supposed to be getting now during that time was your money situation straight my money was fine until I started getting in trouble then I had to for L but during that time your parents never took advantage of you you got everything the money goes into a trust right it goes into a trust but what happened with Gary was they were they're able to take that money move it from a trust to whatever they wanted to they thought that they applied to the court to move that money from the trust to um you can you can make it to where you can make more interest more money you can move it to another Another Thing by what they moved it to which is Oran pictures you know and a few other places that you know he never got any money from it they always said he lost money well yeah because in 1989 he actually sued his adoptive parents and his business advisor for 3.8 million yep for misappropriating he made 18 million total right that's what he made but that's not what he he sued for 3point million because he he was only suing a certain amount of people but he actually made he should have made almost he would have had about at least 14 million from the show he should have had at least wow cuz he won 1.28 million yeah in 1993 but that's just a small smid small smid of what he lost yeah okay so you're doing the show and the show is blowing up but around 1980 you were 15 you started experimenting with drugs no what happened with me was um okay let me go back at 12 years old even though I was under Different Strokes I started getting really harassed by after being sexually molested I started getting seriously harassed by the police I was the first to talk about it nobody believed me they thought that oh this kid's making it up because he's going to show this and that and we look today and go oh he wasn't making that up people see now that it was real yeah um I'd be riding but we we first moved to it didn't happen until we first moved to San frano Valley in 1970 I believe 74 we moved to San frano Valley I'd be riding my bike um with my friends and I get pulled over at gunpoint by the police they take my bike told me I stole it huh they take my bike downst she take me handcuff my mom would have to come yell at them and let me go um it got to a point so bad with them that you know um I remember they gave me it uh we were riding out go-karts we used to have this property behind before they were building houses me and the I was me and these two white kids at go-karts and we go ride at go-karts in the dirt Hill right around there right so this cop comes up I'm the only one who gets ticket he doesn't give ticket to the white kids but just me so the white parents were like oh this is ridiculous so they came to court with us and they got thrown out because I was the only one who got a ticket so they took my go-kart wrote me a ticket so they were notorious for doing that to me so I started emotionally breaking down from that mentally breaking down so I didn't start really experimenting from drugs till I was 21 that's when I started experimenting okay so back then you weren't touching drugs at all no okay I may have tried some weed but that was it I didn't do anything else after that okay I wasn't really that's why I was voted most likely not to be on drugs H because that and that's that's why today like people think that I had a long drug career I did not it was only 5 years okay so in ' 83 when you 18 you got arrested for carrying a concealed weapon yes that's because I was getting at that point I was getting uh in San FR Valley I got a cross burn to my lwn and threatened to kill me wait wait wait okay oh yeah okay I didn't know this [ __ ] was happening in La you know like I interviewed Dominique Wilkins and that happened to him yeah in uh North Carolina I'm I'm puzzled up like what is what is this big bright light so I go out the front door and as I get to the front yard there's a big cross bur in my yard and I remember being very uh nervous and scared to being very angry and know to the point where you know anything could have happened if anybody showed up in my front door oh yeah you expect that type of [ __ ] in North Carolina in the 70s but you're talking about in in the valley where we're at right now oh yeah y they burned across in your front this was over Different Strokes yeah and not just that which over being black yeah that's it period I told you when I was 12 years old I was riding my bike I got jumped by seven white kids and I fought my way out of it cuz you know the thing about what they didn't realize I was a fighter I fought my way out of it and I told each and every one of them get you back as I grow up and I got every one of them back but the point of the matter is they didn't like I was the first black kid it was in Koga Park when Koga Park was an all white neighborhood okay and I was one of the first black kids there okay they burned an actual cross oh yeah how did your parents react to that oh my mom was pissed but but but well this was at my house down the street from my mom house okay but so what happened was it's interesting what happened was they started doing all this they threatened at one point two black police officers came my mom's house and said your son needs to get out of town they threatened to kill me and they said they they were going to plant a gun on me and shoot me so these kid these black people are SC in my house and that's when I left and went to Jamaica I went to Jamaica I was in Jamaica for two months then they kicked in the door at my house and told my bodyguard that someone saw me shooting a gun in someone's window but I was in Jamaica you in Jamaica and I was there the whole time and my mom said well couldn't have been him we have an eyewitness well I'll tell you what call the border control and talk talk to border and talk to them talk to customs and see what they tell you and I've been there the whole time so this was an ongoing thing for a kid growing up think about this you're famous MH but you're treated like you're less than yeah you're getting guns pulled on you same time you're on a show who don't want you doing anything else they want to keep you contained to just that show because think about this if I became bigger than the show what would happen you're going to leave right and they didn't want that to happen back then they had all the control they don't have that no more today yeah but they had it back then well in ' 85 the show got moved from NBC to AB that was only because and it was still the number one show when it got moved it got moved because Gary Coleman's parents not Gary Coleman his parents wanted more money and they he was already making the top dollar on than anybody else on any show he's making more than everybody on any show and they um we end up uh finally you know I think what I heard was gar com's parents kept calling um the president we all had the president's number to NBC kept calling kept calling kept calling them and finally got some fed go I'm can we're going to cancel the show we don't want to deal with this anymore moved to ABC and then the same thing happened to ABC you know they kept getting called and and tortured and they didn't want to take it anymore we should have gone we could have had a I was told about six years ago when I ran into the president old president that we could have got a grace period for 5 years because we saved NBC we could have got a grace period for 5 years but at that time Cosby came in all those shows came in and they were like we don't want we don't need this we don't need a headache so we could have got a grace period for facts the life went 11 years and wasn't you know I'm not being mean but they weren't a number one show like we were well it was also a spin-off off your show right the the housekeeper what was her name again uh Charlotte Ray yeah she she got a spin-off which turned into The Facts of Life which became a hit show as well we could have win 11 years easy but you know they were getting tortured you know think about it you're Network you got all these new shows coming in making a fortune do you want to get tortured no yeah well uh when it went to ABC it was supposed to be uh 22 Episodes but only aired for 19 yeah um and then ultimately you know I mean based on some of the stuff I read part of it they say was based on Gary Coleman who started out very chipper wasn't because Gary Cohen became very resentful because he knew what was going on he knew that his Money's been and he was being forced to work when he was sick think about it if you're being forced to work when you're sick how happy do you want to be going to a set yeah you know you're not going to be too happy you're not working because you enjoy it you're working because people around you need to get that money the final episode uh March 7th 1986 the front page you were not there no uh I mean a few people weren't there uh PL wasn't there uh you know a bunch of people weren't there do you even know that was the last episode yeah okay how did you feel when the final episode aired I was in it be I wasn't in it because that was Willie Coleman's final jab to me because you know uh I wouldn't do what he wanted me to do and um but I had the last lap with the Coleman so you know Gary Man became very close and they wanted to you know can you get Gary talk I was like nope Gary doesn't want to talk to you sorry you know Gary didn't want to talk to him them you know cuz Gary they ruined Gary's Life yeah you know by what they did you know so they didn't um you know he didn't want anything to do with them did the problem start after the show got canceled the problem started for for me yeah yo yeah for me because the show kept me stable CU I knew I had to work so it kept me stable MH when the show ended it had nothing to do with that I wasn't working cuz I didn't want to work him for a while I was planing on traveling around it happened to when I found out my accounts that's when I found out my accounts just stole you know almost three something million dollars wait wait wait wait oh yeah your account stole over $3 million and you want to know the crazy part about it what's that you'll love this my dad knew about it but didn't say anything wait wait your dad knew that your accounts stealing money because they they had stole from no they have stole from his clients and he was divorced with my mom so he was mad at my mom so he took it out on me too but wait this is the crazy part because we didn't catch the bank the first three years we didn't get any of that money back damn we caught them within 6 months and how we caught was it was like all of a sudden we get a call from EF Hutton say Hey where's that $10,000 check we're like it's not there and then we're like and by the time we ran over there and got the books and all that you know man you know uh we we go we go sue the bank and all that and it was you know I won't name the name of the bank City National Bank um I can't name it because we did win the suit against them but they were only responsible for 6 months of money which is only $90,000 how about that so you're down $3 million yep so then at that point but but you're you're what 21 at the time you're not really you don't have Financial I was planning on traveling the world then coming back you know that was a lot of money back then you know I could have you know 3 million M right now you know you you you could get a house for like you know you know 180,000 200,000 was a huge house yes you know and so it hit me hard you know that I lost it and I was then I got then at once that hit me hard then all that sexual molestation stuff came up to me all the police harassment came on me and you know um I remember I bought this house in uh North Ridge I bought a a 3500 foot house in North Ridge big really nice pretty house and um I was uh I was getting a brand new carpet put in brand new carpet put in and I decided hey well you know you know there's you know ask me this amount of money this estimate I said well if I rip it up myself I can save a couple thousand I said oh I me my friends rip it up so I found a white powder baggie underneath the carpet oh really I did not know that that house used to belong to a drug dealer did not know that and I didn't know what that white powder was my friend knew what it was and he said yeah man blah BL blah you know when you're an addict I tried it all my problems went away okay but little that I know see this is what I always said I wish that parents would have told us the same thing I told my kids about drug addiction all that they said don't do drugs why not because we said not to no explanation that you can lose lose everything and get addicted and go to jail nothing like that you know and um you know that's why I'm very honest with my kids and that's why they're doing well because I'm honest with them I told them the very beginning what's going to happen and I can show them but um so you know never knew I was going to get addicted and get in all that trouble never knew that but it did happened okay so you started with powder cocaine yeah but then escalated to crack yeah well it's not that it escalated that is that what what happens is it's all the same thing see people try to make oh well Powers no you know better than crack no it's all the same yeah it's all bad for you it's all drugs and it's not good for you the thing about which makes me mad even to this very day is I'm 30 years sober but they don't tell you that they always try to bring up the fact something 30 years ago 30 years ago was a lifetime ago but they try to bring oh you know like a kid some child start gets in trouble my name comes up oh and Todd BR what what I ever to do with them I'm 30 years sober yeah you know but um when all that came up yeah you know I end up doing drugs period I just did drugs and I thought that that was the right way to go that's how I felt about myself that's where I wanted to be that's how low I was inside of myself because what you don't realize is that when you're um when you get sober drugs is not your problem you are your problem yeah and until you can correct what's inside of you nothing else is going to be fixed okay so you you were experimenting with cocaine crack meth also yeah everything what was the worst drug you think during that era all of it there's nothing that was any better than anything it was all bad it all did the same thing to you okay you know it gives you a false sense of uh of feeling good about yourself and then the low you get the highest highs and the lowest lows MH you know there is nothing that uh I can say that's good about it nothing's good about it at all nothing okay well that next year 87 you got charged for robbery making a threat no that was Danny play that was oh no that's yeah but but that was thrown out thrown out right you it was a suspended suspended sentence you put no guilty but then in ' 89 Mur for attempted murder but I but I won okay so tell me exactly what happened I don't know I can't tell you that I wasn't there you weren't there nope why were you charged with attempt to murder them because I was in the area I guess and see what had what had happened was the people who this is what what they don't tell you the police had interviewed the next door neighbors who who clearly told them I was not in the house but at the time that's not what they wanted to do you know they wanted somebody to go down they want to you know they try to make names off celebrities these uh prosecutors and all that and so um they knew the story from the beginning I shouldn't even been charged with it they knew the story yeah but yet they still tried to have you know still charge me and um you know these Witnesses came in who were the prosecution's witness they get on the understand he a prosecution with they get on understand goes we told the police that Todd was outside when the shooting happened huh he wasn't in the house he was outside we told him that well well the the victim uh Kenneth text Clay oh yeah did he say that you did it well he said I did it because guess why he wanted to sue me that's why he said I did it but also he was also said he he said I did it because he had a deal he got a deal because he had other things going on and he wanted not to go to prison that's what happened to everyone putting you on it and having his high-profile actor he could get his other charges dropped that's what everybody did trying to get but what happened was thank God the jury saw through that they saw the truth they saw what really happened you know because those two key witnesses that were the prosecutes and Witnesses said that I was outside the whole time and I didn't know them from Adam I don't even they said they talked to me but I don't even remember them because that's how high I was that night I had talked to them and they they said that what happened was I know what they said because I've read over that recently they said that they were talking to me shots were fired inside the house they said I looked at the house I don't remember which direction was they said I looked at the house and then I just ran away from the house and they said they were talking to me when they heard too because they they heard that they saw me they looked at me and I I I was confused and I ran away and they said they just went back in their house well I remember there was a old uh TV interview where you were actually in jail yeah at the time so were you not given Bond during that time or no man they didn't give me Bond they uh Johnny cofman didn't want me to have it he was smart John Co was your he was very smart about that he didn't want me to have Bond because you noce people they good on bond that the drug addicts go out and do what get themselves in more trouble and end up you know not being able to win that case so I just see you know the bottom line is I just you know they he kept me in there which saved my life you know well he saved my life later on because then then I got in trouble again again for drugs again but then finally it was 1993 when um I got sober well okay so Johnny Cochran is your lawyer this is before OJ oh way before all this stuff yeah when you saw Johnny Cochran do the OJ trial years later what' you think I was like he's an amazing lawyer that's for sure you know because see what people don't understand when a city comes after you mhm to they spend a lot of money trying to convict you so you have to spend either half the amount or equal the amount being defended that's why you know have you noticed recently he about all people getting out of jail come and find out they didn't do it yeah see it ain't about guilty or innocence it's just about who does the better case and and then finally when they can so they can see the evidence you know a lot of these lawyers they sell you down the river they just want to you know have a you know just get I I got to get them off my case load you know but you know Johnny Cochran doesn't you know UNT turns every single Stone he unturned everything and showed the truth of the matter you know and there was a catchphrase for our thing too he says he who in the mud wants to get someone else just as dirty because that's what happened everybody else was in the mud they wanted to get me even dirtier I mean you're Innocent but you know how these trials go Lots innocent people we don't have a good defense who have you know trust me cour appointed lawyers and we don't have a Johnny Cochran jump truck lawyers is what exactly I mean how much time were you facing uh 14 years to life 14 years to life yeah how scared were you cuz you're in your mid 20s hearing this type of insane number it wasn't see the thing is I truly believed that I'd be okay because I knew I was innocent yeah and I trusted God and that's when I you know and but the thing I didn't know how to do I still didn't I knew I was going to be found innocent but I didn't know what I was going to do when I got out how I was going to get away from drugs I had no idea I had no program I had no you know no way of getting free from it you know and that's why I was like even after beating all those charges I still end up doing drugs again because I had no way to beat it you know emotionally and mentally we're going to get to that part so in ' 89 that's when you beat this case yep uh Dana Plato uh who played Kimberly Drummond on the show had a hard time yeah after losing um you know after losing a role on the show in 1991 she went into a video store with a pelic gun and robbed him the the guy behind the counter called 911 and said I've just been robbed by the girl who played Kimberly on Different Strokes I me literally he was like I know who you are she's not wearing a mask yeah were you in contact with her up to this point uh uh I went testify for her in court and that's why I ended up relapsing I was two years sober I was two years sober um I went in there and man that prosecutor beat me up so bad I went home and got high huh he made me feel so low about myself cuz that was his job was to discredit me you know understand he did everything he could and threw everything at me and brought everything up that I went through emotionally and mentally and I end up relapsing after that end up going back out because of that reason I wasn't I I found out that I wasn't what I realized was I should have stayed away from it I wasn't ready to help anybody I couldn't help myself I was hanging on barely hanging on myself you know and that was the dumbest thing I ever did all right cuz that next year in ' 92 you're 27 years old you got arrested for suspicion 26 sorry you were ared on suspicion of transporting drugs for sale and possession of a loaded firearm yep I guess you were in Burbank and you got pulled over yep and I end up really beating that case Bley too right cuz you got caught with meth and a loaded loaded gun and they because you know at the point of your life when you're in fear for your life all the time from people you don't I didn't trust white people at all at that point in my life and I was always carrying a gun just to be safe I didn't trust anybody you know I was like you know somebody mess me I'm going to do my do what I got to do you you know um it's not until you realize that like today I'm okay with whatever happens um if I go I'm going to be with God so I'm fine with that you know so I'm not in fear of my life anymore I don't need to carry a weapon to defend myself I just don't want to get into a fight anymore so I carry pepper spray so I can just I'm not using my fist anymore yeah but you know um I think back then like I said I was a I was a a kid if you think about this my father was also abusive growing up to me and my mom so if you think about this you're you're you can't find anybody safe there's no one safe I didn't have my father safe me and my mom were weren we were safe when we weren't with my dad when my dad was there we didn't feel safe when I was out on my own couldn't feel safe because I was getting harassed by the police when I was at Studio they couldn't feel safe there either I couldn't I had nowhere to feel safe so um I carried guns you know I thought that would keep me safe you know and like we all learned it's just it's something that makes you unsafe you know and then like I said I had relapsed and I had done drugs again you know and cuz I had no real program I had no real program was it during that incident that you considered suicide by cop yeah oh so you thought at that point [ __ ] get out and just get shot by this cop and it'll be over yeah and that's the thing the thing about it is is that when you when you go through as much as we I've gone through or people go through and some people go through less you you've had enough you just can't it's too hard to live you know things are rough um so yeah I was going to um pull my gun out I thought about it you know grabbing my gun and just firing at them and make them kill me but then um you know God was like no I I got something for you and um Johnny Cochran came this next day when I was in um in jail and he goes he was I remember he was rolling his ring on his finger and he goes I'm going help you one more time but if you don't get sober he did and he did that for free he did the case for free wow he goes I'm going help you one more time he go I'm going help you for free but if you don't get sober I'm done huh and I want he goes I don't want to be friends with you and I and I was like I still wasn't ready yet but I but the interesting part about it when I went to court um the judge says okay you can either go to rehab tonight or you can go to jail whichever one you want to do and I looked at his thing and I saw this circle with a triangle in it and I went the Jud is in the program and I was like okay I go I'm done but I go but before I go in tonight I'm going to buy $1,000 I bought ,000 worth of drugs go I'm going to do drugs in every kind of way so I have no excuses that what I didn't cuz you know addicts always have a great excuse or I didn't do it this way or I didn't do it this way I didn't want to leave myself no excuses I did so many drugs I got paranoid again that had that had been long been gone that came back again and I remember when I when I went into treatment that day um they told me I had to go to a meeting and I threaten threatened them all with a crowbar well not crowbar the show rod and I remember I heard these big steps these boom boom I turned around it was the biggest black guy ever seen he duck Lo under the door and he said this can be hard or this can be easy I'm went this can be easy they strapped me down in four points I was in a psycho for like a couple at least a week and a half two weeks in cybo and then finally they brought me down and um I realized I'm I'm ready and I got sober been sober ever since right February 24th 1993 yep that was the last time you took drugs last time I took drugs and it's the greatest feeling in the world let me tell you but like I said you learn that it's that you learn that drugs is just the way to hide your symptoms is you it was me I was the symptom you know because I was doing it you know to get away from who I was and I fixed it all which was great I mean everyone says they're going to stop doing drugs you know I mean I've interviewed flavor flave who's been on and off on and off on and off you know when I interviewed him he was sober and then a couple years later he find out he wasn't so you know that type of thing you know I'm a weed smoker you know I've tried to stop a few times didn't work uh you know I I've stayed away from hard drugs because I had a close friend who overdosed and died off cocaine at 23 that that made me go to that funeral made me say I'm not going to try this and over the years I've got offered a few times but I'm like H if this puts a friend in a casket I'm good with it but you who had been trying every kind of drug what has kept you sober for 30 years I don't need it anymore huh I don't need to be happy I'm happy with me okay and once you find that happiness within yourself you know um you do safe things that are addicting like I play video games that's safe you know what I mean can't get in trouble that way no you know what I mean um but I but it's like I don't need it anymore I don't need it to I'm not trying to escape my feelings anymore I know my feelings now I know who I am you know I know I don't have to escape it anymore you know when when bad things come up in my head it's I need go man that's not you anymore so why you worried about then I move forward I run the tape in my head see the thing that a lot of people don't do they don't run the tape in their head they don't run like okay say I go like this I do drugs I break out in handcuffs and then I end up embarrassed all them TV then I'm going to do more drugs because I'm embarrassed nah I ain't got to go there I'm good and I call a sponsor okay you still have your sponsor of course of course yeah 30 years later you still have a sponsor course everybody does we all do if you want to and it's because it's not I've had my sponsor for the last 20 years and we're friend we're good friends yeah but you know what I realize today is and I tell so many people this what you may be thinking behind your head your brain is probably broken most people's brains is broken you think things and it's not really what's really the like you I can walk into you ever walk into a room and you think these people look at me they're talking bad about me you thought that see that's a broken brain I guarantee you everyone in don't care [ __ ] about you right they don't care about you but you are so self-conscious with that paranoid yes you think that you think that but it's like they a even care about you they don't want nothing to do with you you know and once I figured out that it was me you know I was like okay I got to fix that you know and then I asked that's why I can ask for I can ask for advice now because hey man am I seeing what I'm not seeing you're not seeing that okay okay and I ain't listening to my brain then you know I know that there's a better way for me you know I'm I'm religious God I love God God loves me you know I've had some pretty Dam close experiences with God trust me any you know I had uh when I was doing drugs I had eight Grandma seizures on drugs um wow I tried to hang myself twice uh besides oh yeah let me tell you this though so I hung myself no one's at the house I woke up a couple hours later across the room the Rope had been cut and there was no one at my house there you go that's why I truly believe in God and Christ I Believe In Christ and God oh yeah they're there he's there my friend uh I always tell people who don't believe you will see him eventually my friend disco D he hung himself at his mom's house this was one of the low points of of my life hearing about this let me tell you something I lost one of my best friends too that same way and um what I always say is not you know sometimes God is calling you up early um and it's no slap to anybody just happens um God doesn't want me to go right now I have a lot I have a lot more to do you know well you and Gary Coleman maintain a relationship the whole time right yeah so by 1998 Gary Coleman who you said had made $18 million doing television was working as security guard yeah see the difference was when I got sober I started working again if you notice that I started doing different shows yeah it was hard for Gary because the size he was what was he going to do if he wasn't playing the odity on the show what was he going to do I was playing you know criminals drug dealers lawyers doctors it was hard for Gary to get those kind of roles just was well uh he was in the mall uh shopping for some security guard stuff and a woman approached him who was a fan wanted an autograph he said no and then she started talking [ __ ] about him yeah and then a fight broke out where I guess he punched her in the face a few times and then he had to go to court he's got to get a steps tool to do it so he can't just swing up you gotta go up some go I don't quite know how how he figured that out but he ultimately went to court and he played no contests he got a suspended uh jail sentence and what year what part when was that this was 1998 so what happened was by 1999 I get a phone call from Gary okay and he goes Todd I'm sorry I go sorry about what Gary goes it's so easy to get in trouble and so hard to get out of him I go I tried to tell you that Gary and that's when we came close really close close oh yeah cuz he realized that it wasn't my fault things stupid things happen and then you can't just get out of it and they make it seem like it's just you you know what they always say about Different Strokes always it's the curse of different strokes and I was like if that's the case I should be dead too I mean how hard is it for Gary to be this major TV star to working as a security guard and people are recognizing him as a security guard that's the worst part you could be listen you know everyone you know other people that are really are not known could be security guards they could have a fruitful life and go on and raise their families and get their paycheck but when you're Gary Coleman with the what you talking about Willis and people are over there like well [ __ ] you look familiar and the problem is is that you know the media is going to make a big thing about they're going to embarrass you even more yeah you know and that's the sad part about it but it was like it was harder for him to get acting roles than it was for me you know like once the show stopped yeah I I put myself through all that but then again when I got sober I started working like crazy you know different shows I'm I was on World's dumbs for 13 years you know one of the main leads on that you know and it's like you know you see the different what I always tell people is if you start out as a comedian it's a lot harder to do serious work yeah if you start off at doing drama it's so easy to do comedy huh come second nature because drama like you know you've seen you know um Robert daero yeah he's hilarious analyze this why is he hilarious because he's a good dramatic actor if You' seen everything I've done when I was younger it was all drama drama drama drama drama comedy came later you know and so comedy is just it's easy for anybody who's who's a who's a dramatic actor to do comedy is not that hard you know it's just timing and all that I even did stand up for 12 years I did stand up for 12 years yep none in United stes but all over I mean not mean all over United States but not La everywhere else okay yeah I had a great time I had so much fun doing it I learned you know fast up that's why I Everybody Hates Chris we used to have riff sessions and most of us on that show were stand up comedians and we'd have riff sessions we all just riffing and laughing and then you know it got to the point to where the uh one of The Producers aloy would let me make up my own dialogue a lot of my stuff was all like there's one scene where uh uh his brother comes in and I go I go who's that he goes That's my brother went a I was gonna stab him and I go because he's your brother I won't so all that stuff I made up so many D so much Dialogue on that show and they just it was just hysterical you know because you know it's just natural stuff that's fun to do Kimberly Drummond uh Dana Plato uh after the show was cancell very day yeah well she like I said earlier she struggled to find work she got fired because she was pregnant oh that's why she got fired that's the real reason why she got fired wow because they couldn't have back in those days an unwed woman pregnant they couldn't have it like today they be like ah no big deal we just shoot around you we don't we just add in the show not back then yeah cuz how old was she supposed to be on the show like 17 or something no she was like 18 she got pregnant but it's because but on the show she had age is what I'm saying yeah well when she first started the show she was supposed to be a year older than me 13 okay got it I was going to be 12 and she was 13 got it but you know when I became 18 she was would be 19 or 20 she could be pregnant but that's not the show was like no we know cuz he had so much restrictions on TV well I mean she tried to work she did a bunch of be movies but she was getting she was getting loaded the whole time yeah well she did a porn movie at one point called Different Different Strokes that was I actually watched it for research purposes oh everybody did um I see I want here's the thing what I was able to accomplish was I didn't care about working for four years I worked at a hospital I was a chical dependency Tech I was a counselor so I didn't give a crap about the business I didn't come back to business I was asked to come back and I was asked to come back by by Alberton first role I ever did was the new Lassie first I did and I'll tell you something funny so I'm on the road with new Lassie I'm playing as Sheriff right and they're like do not give Todd the gun because we don't want anyone to get any pictures of him with a gun in his hand so I this they say AC give me the gun they cut I throw it on the ground they have to come get it it was hysterical Albert was the greatest i loveed al Burton because of that and that's what got me that's when I started I got the bug again I wanted to do it again well Dana like you said had drug problems yeah and then in 1999 when this is where the fuzzy part is some people are saying that she died of suicide other people saying there was a drug overdose accidental it was accidental drug overdose um what I heard is okay this is what I heard but see I talked to the I told her see if you ever listen to my Howard Stern interviews I'm fire at I'm firing if he Fires at me I fire back I learn I used to learn I don't care about it anymore but I used to learn everything about you if you're interviewing me I learned everything about him so if you tried to attack me I come right after you just as fast um so you know I would go on Howard you know and when you're a comedian you know you're blasting away you're having fun everyone's laughing so Dana I told her I said Dana you're not you can't go on there lying I said if you're going to go on that show if they ask you question just admit it yeah they asked me did you do drugs yeah I did drugs and it was stupid idea I should never done that then it goes I have never done cocaine in my life and they were like yeah okay and when callers called in they beat her up yeah and she couldn't take it she went home and what happened was the things I tell people about sleeping pills never take sleeping pills she took some sleeping pills she woke up kind of drowsy took some more so what did it after the Howard St show yeah she was so depressed and emotionally depressed over that she wanted to go to sleep so she took something to go to sleep and woke up and took some some more she probably took you know see the thing about I tell people if you know if you can't go to sleep just don't go to sleep don't take nothing to go to sleep unless it's natural well in 93 Gary Coleman did an interview he said he actually tried to commit suicide twice by overdosing on pills yeah Gary that's what Gary did he did too lot of a lot of suicide and suicide attempts on that show like no there's a lot of suicide attempts in the world this this what I always tell people we weren't buying drugs from The Brady Bunch yeah but I mean to be buying from regular people but to be fair I mean it it becomes kind of a bigger story of how Hollywood treats child actors no it becomes a think that has anything to do no it becomes a bigger story with how all of us kids were affected by different things in our lives me being molested uh being um uh molested being being harassed by the police you know having a father figure who was drunk all the time and I always after me and my mom doing something Dana was adopted you know that no I did not Dana was adopted also adopted she didn't find out about her she found her finally found her mother and her mother didn't want anything to do with her so you just all those things that are happening to us it's a recipe for disaster for any kid the difference is we probably live longer than we should have in the beginning with me was like I said because I knew what was right I knew what it was like not to be on drugs to live you know Dana was doing drugs early you know I found some things out about Dana I'm like wow I found out things before I even knew what drugs were I remember one of my good friends was like man we were smoking pot with Dana when she was like you know 16 I was like what and we like they knew not to come around you because you'd be like I was like hell I was against drugs I was against drugs yeah totally against it you know and but that's why I what I've learned is never be against anything just say just don't do it yeah you know what I mean just I don't like I don't when I see people now with shortcomings I don't put them down because we all have shortcomings you know but and I always say man I hope that person finds themselves and and be able to take care of themselves the thing I don't like is how different color people can do all the drugs mess up all they want and go right back to work like it's not a big deal well that same the same people color get punished a lot harder yeah well the same year that the Dana dies uh Gary Coleman fils for bankruptcy yeah uh he basically said it's from me to accountants to my doctor parents to agents to lawyers back to me again uh he had an arcade that that was the dumbest thing in the world was getting $100,000 where he got the arcade at wasn't going to work yeah that he got the arcade in the in a a dying Marin AR area right you know what I mean it's like dude you gonna get arcade get it somewhere where there's people at you know but he got into a dying You Know M area so no one was coming in that area anyway yeah we used to go there a lot cuz we used to fish there me and my brother used to go there a lot we used to fish there but once that area died from that once they moved the dock it changed everything in that area well yeah I mean by this time he is a security guard he ran through his money um and he had the health problems that continued so all the money had to be spent exactly yeah dialysis the pills the medication the doctors so yeah he had to just file for bankruptcy at that point and I'm sure that was another low point for him yeah it was and and like I said he the thing about for Gary because he was so big and because things that he was doing to be a security guard had to be a serious low point for him um when he could have found a job to do something that was even you know like the job I took because I took a regular job but I was a chemical dependency Tech that was great that's very rewarding work if someone puts you down for that you know they're gonna get slapped in the face by somebody you know and um it gave me time to assess my life and I remember uh when I first saw the check from that I was like this missing some damn zeros in this thing I know it was like I worked like 40 45 hours I think it was like 600 bucks I'm like what the heck that's a lot of work in I for 600 bucks so I was mad man you know I like I got I I got to get back to the business you know and I and I finally decided that's when I called Alberton got me the first job and then I started taking off from there again started working a bunch of stuff again well a few years later you did a celebrity boxing with Vanilla Ice were you in Vanilla Ice cool before that yeah yeah but I told Vanilla Ice I was like look dude I'm not losing on national TV so you better be ready that's when I was chunky too I was thick and I was still like I was still mad mad at the world I was I wasn't mad at the world but I was still mad and then what happened was I beat Vanilla Ice up and then I got I got I was totally like depressed I got boxers remorse it was terrible and I was like I don't want to do this anymore you know and then I finally you know I was able to fix those feelings and emotions too and then it helped me you know stay sober even longer so well I mean right now you see a lot of celebrity boxing matches but back then it was really a new thing like how much did you get paid to do that match oh we got paid a lot of money a lot can you say how much um made a couple hundred, doing that okay yeah okay that's a nice little check yeah for 45 minutes come on well but 45 minutes again punched I didn't get punched that much he did yeah well you took a few I mean you took you took a few I took a few in real life too so what difference is it why I get paid a lot of money for it how did he take the loss I don't know but the funniest part about it was I uh the the what made it extremely funny was um like I said when we're in the ring I was like look dude you know I'm not losing on national TV I said so I hope you came to really fight because I came to really fight yeah man I've been in Funk fights okay you know and then then when he hit me I didn't do nothing I was like a yeah you know and I I remember our trainer dude he was like you know cuz they came to me in the second round they go you got to he's going to quit we don't want him to quit I said what do you mean you know so I don't hit him they're like you don't hit him that much and then when they left my court is like [ __ ] that [ __ ] you hit his ass I was like I was like oh my gosh I was like I was like wow these guys are crazy you know what I mean and and uh it was so funny it just was hysterical well and I just want to say that unlike a lot of uh other people in entertainment who end up blowing through their money especially when it comes really fast seems like vanilla ice actually made good business decisions great I remember seeing a few years ago some special on him he like had a huge house boat van vanilla is is off one song really well well you know what it is is he um see the when parents your parents come from money oh so his parents had money I'm sure okay when you come from money you know how to make money but he's in he's involved in real estate he's like he has a lot of land in Florida he sells fix his homes up sells them so good for him yeah okay and after that you started getting more work you were on Fear Factor you were on uh skating with celebrities oh yeah uh you always got paid a lot of money for those shows oh yeah yeah those are nice checks oh yeah they always big checks um and then in 200 seven you mentioned this before Everybody Hates Chris oh yeah you played monk oh yeah that was a lot but I was also remember I was on World's dumbs before that well right yeah world's dumbest came out in world's dumbest criminals yeah was everything we we were like the we it was on every uh we were the announcers and the standup comedians announcers for it everything we we say what we want to say and we and that we actually the funny thing before we get into the other show I tell you about this the funny thing about that is the first episode we did we couldn't curse or anything like that and we're like man this not going to be funny unless you bleep out our cursing and they're like like oh we can't do that like it's not Network look it up you can bleep it out no one's going to care and finally it's like all right so they allowed us to come in right and uh said okay fine just say what you want to say whatever you want to say we said all right and we were like f f f and by doing that the show blew up and it became a huge show okay everyone knew what that show was but uh and then after that was I got everybody hates I went on audition Everybody Hates Chris and I was like and I'm not gonna get no TV show you know especially for black people I was like I'm not gonna be able to you know you know I've only been on a show for black people by Everybody Hates Chris because of Chris Rock and Ali ly I have never done any other black show that was out there they wouldn't hire me for some reason I have no idea why so I was like I went audition I'm like man I ain't gonna get this job man it ain't GNA happen and I got a call I was like what I got this job because um Ol Roy said that um the funniest thing about he goes he uh he never looks at tapes never did let someone else do it he said decid said sit I'm G put tape in had to put tape himself and look and he said he saw me and he goes what the and he called and said hey did you just did you need to offer him did you offer him they go she goes no I found goes no offer him the job so they offered me the job and it was supposed to be one time right and I said you know they said it's one time but I was so good they were like oh no man we got to have you in the show just come on back and do whatever you know you want I'm like yeah I'll do the show said but you got to work around world's dumbest and you know cuz uh world's dumbest was like once a week too you know and um end up working around it so it was fine we interviewed Ernest Thomas who played Omar the funeral director pretty good character I hear about Chris Frogman at this is 89 he's at some local Club there and I go and see him I went man you a superstar man do people know you're this good so we go to like a local club we take photo I have actually have a photo from then uh from back then and so then years later you know in 2000 five when they saw that everybody he's Chris they said he was looking for me I'm like I didn't believe that was true because I don't know him you know uh like that you know but they said no he's looking for you so then he created this role you know um of all the people God bless them God met everybody everybody black this said oh Ernie I got this for you Martin Lawrence I can do this Eddie Murphy and they they mean well they just never did but Chris Rock who never promised anything you know create he and Ali ly created this role of Mr Omar and because of him I'm known to the Millennials like oh yeah he was hilarious yeah I I did a play with Ernest Thomas I love ER Ernest Thomas because he has that lazy eye yeah and we' be in the middle of the plan I be like Ernest what you looking at and I sit under my bre when only he can hear me I'm like I'm I'm over here I'm over here you go shut up to he laughing you know so it was always I love Ernest who also had serious drug issues yeah Muhammad Ali actually helped him out yep yep well Ernest Thomas just he's a great actor really good if you saw him in uh what's crazy is that he hasn't Ernest Thomas is so good he was in uh Malcolm X and he was wonderful in Malcolm X I remember that yeah but I'm telling you man when it comes to us and our people rough you don't get hired by a lot of your own people you know not for me I don't know if it's probably happening now but you know it's like the thing is that a lot of us has done so much for us we've done so much for our people but you know like like I did nothing my me and my parents and all we did nothing but help our people out in this business we got a lot of people started and working and all that and that's what you're supposed to do other races do it they'll pull each other back and forth and for some reason we just didn't we don't do it you know I'm hoping that that changes one day well in 2008 uh you were on hul Hogan celebrity championship wrestling yeah I should have won that too man play Mr not so perfect yes and that was the whole joke of it because everyone thought will supposed to be perfect so I was Mr not so perfect and I did I did the hardest job on that show I was flipping and turning because you know I'm a gymnist by Nature so I'm flipping and flipping off and then Dennis Robin wins I was so mad at that but of course Den Robin gonna win because he's Hulk Hogan's friend oh that's the reason well come on he all he did okay if you ever watched the ending of the show all they did was a like jump from the top rof armar I'm doing flips off it I'm jumping out the ring flipping over everywhere all the all the real wrestlers said I work the hardest and should have won well yeah uh in one episode uh you had to wrestle Tanya hard with a lead pipe cuz she's known for for beating the other skater with a lead pipe well well her husband went and beat I worked with her on world's dumbest I kept trying to get her to admit the truth she never would oh she never admitted that she did she was behind it she always sound I had no idea I'm like yeah right your boyfriend knew so you knew too yeah Dennis robman I just interviewed him actually a few months ago did you see his new face tattoo no I haven't seen that he has a new face tattoo you got to be kidding I think only Mike Tyson get ready with a face tattoo so what's actually kind of funny is that uh the the person who he has the tattoo of his girlfriend was actually the person I was working with to schedule them so this is his new face tattoo he got a face on his cheek what you think on do he breaks up with her and I think he got the same a similar tattoo on his butt cheek what is he going to do when he breaks up with her that's why your butt cheek is dip but on your face is not oh man that's I mean does anything Dennis Robin do really truly surprise you at this point I mean if you really think about it I mean this this was the wild man of the NBA forever he wore dresses and full makeup like he worked a lot well I think he got all that idea from Madonna that's why became bigger Madonna yeah he claims that there was a contract that Madonna was going to pay him a million dollars to pregnat her I would not be surprised yeah he was he was getting the badest women during that era Let Me Tell You Madonna uh Carmen Electra uh I mean he he was sleeping with Genie bus from the Lakers when he played know he some hot women I ain't going to lie with that it was okay and then then that same year 2008 you actually wrote your book uh killing Willis from Different Strokes to the Mean Streets to the life I always wanted yeah see it was called killing Willis because I kept for a while I kept always trying to kill Willis not realizing that Willis was a part of me and it was me yeah you know and the end of the book it talk talks about where it's me that's who I am you know it's going to always be that way so no need to kill it just in in and make it better now I got websites that I sell merchandise from you know from wi time my Willis cups and clothes and hoodies and shorts and shoes you know real to bridges.com you go there you can buy all kind of stuff now love it might as well you know you might as well Embrace what it is you know yeah of course don't hate it embrace it exactly I mean you're always going to be you know of course I'm not going to get what was it what was that one show Gary Coleman was on Vanilla Ice was on was it Celebrity Big Brother or something no no it was um what was it God real something real world no no because I came on the show yeah because you came on the show and was like yo say it what you talking about say it say it and Gary Co would say then like I like lifted him up or something yeah so I came on there and I told vanel I said you want to box again he was like so he left Gary alone after that cuz that was after celebrity boxing right he didn't want to fight again after he's like n I'm good so I actually in fact I remember yeah I helped Gary he was leav he wanted to leave and I helped him leave he I think he end up quitting that show I helped him leave he wanted to catch a taxi and I think I end up giving him either g a no I paid for his taxi okay I paid for his taxi well in that same year 2008 uh there was a situation with Gary Coleman in a Utah bowling alley I guess uh someone took a picture of him without his permission they got to an argument yeah so I guess in the parking lot Gary backed up and hit the guy with his car and then dragged him under the car and then car Gary has a hard time seeing over the car man Gary came to my house one time and he wanted me to go with him for a ride with him and I'm like I look in the car and it's like phone books in there he was sitting on I'm like man I'm not riding with you with no phone books one that phone book slides off we dead he has to sit on actual phone why not like a child seat like a boo man he was sitting on phone FS too phone books and I was like I'm not riding with you g you got have to ride with me well that next year 2010 uh Gary passes away yeah and you were in contact with him that whole time yeah and um the interesting part about that I was out in at the time before he passed away I was out at Lake San Antonio I was with my family jet skiing you know I had jet skis and all that and we had a motor home we camped we did every year we go either uh to the Lakes jet skiing or we had and we had motorcycles dirt off-road motorcycles would go to the desert and um I remember when I found out about it um I got a call that he was in a coma and um she pulled the plug and that hurt us all she p pull the plug actually the day after May 28th right I think believe May 28th when he passed away that's the day after my birthday that was his his ex-wife yeah common law was his ex-wife no it was ex-wife it was an ex-wife I don't know how she was able to have the ability to do that but it was the saddest thing ever um to lose did he like fall down some stairs or or something they said he fell down some stairs but I don't know how you can fall down three stairs and hit your head and splits that wide open so we don't know what happened but you know we weren't there but you know all we can do is speculate but after losing Dana losing Gary was very dramatic for me well yeah I mean when he died it was such a mess because I guess the the parents and then his business associates and his ex-wife started to fight to the point where they cancelled the funeral yeah we had to cancel it yeah just completely can because of bickering yep they were bickering so much nothing could get done that's like ridiculous yeah so me and uh one of his one of Gary's hang out with Gary one of his best friends me and Dion on Maya we ended up doing things ourselves just a little small little thing for ourselves for for Gary all right and then 2013 uh Conrad Bane Mr Drummond died which makes you the last surviving original cast member of Different Strokes crazy right who would ever thought that no one would ever thought that that I'd be the last one you know but God wants me here I'm healthy and God wants me here you know I got a job to do and you know my job is to help a lot of people understand what addiction really is and understand that there's a better way to live life than just you know worrying about other things right and you know Mr Drummond was like although he played a father on the show from what I understand he was like an actual father he Father Figure to me yeah I didn't have a good dad so he was definitely a father figure to me too so but you know he died at age 89 yeah that's a good age a long illustrious career I talk to day before he died actually okay and you know he just was sleeping and that was it just didn't wake up that's the best way to go man we we should all be so lucky y exactly than well in 2018 uh there was a situation with an ex who I guess was a porn star oh I found that when she when I found that she was to poison your dog oh yeah man there a crossbow involved like what yeah but none of that was real I I took it a court and I won okay so she accused you of what ex course she accused me of trying to uh well what happened was it was two actually I'm explain to you what happened there were one girl when I found out this one girl was a porn star I broke up with her I don't want I don't want to date no porn star I'm not into that and then when I found out the other girl kept calling me and calling me and calling me I don't want anything to do with that too I'm very like I'm like a guy who doesn't want to be disturbed when I'm in my normal mind you know and um they decided to go after me and actually they made me lose one of my they me they made me lose a big show I lost my my uh D Strokes reboot because of that really so there supposed to be a reboot yeah we were going to do a reboot I was signed with Sony and everybody so who was going to be in it it was going to be well it was going to be me and most likely Kim Fields okay and um we were going to be married we have a kid and then we're going to adop we're going to have Mary Joe gatl who played Pearl she was going to have she's going to be uh have these two grandkids that her daughter left her and then she's going to you know she can't take care of him she's too old she she brings them to Willis and Willis decides to adopt him it was going to be reverse Different Strokes oh okay aha but it didn't happen no because they they they uh slung on these accusations you know and but I won you know they thought that see what they thought was like how you know some people like some of these actors they accuse him of something and all these women come out of the car root work and say he did but that didn't happen with me because I'm not that kind of guy so that shot them in the foot right you know they thought that I was and he did this to me but wom were like what Cosby kind of no they were like he ain't like that what are you talking you're lying everybody knew they were lying so you know when I went to court the judge you know when I showed the evidence judge knew I was telling the truth you know and then they and squashed him and and then they made them look bad but I lost my show behind that though so yeah but that just means it wasn't meant to be what I always say uh well 2022 you were on Celebrity Big Brother yes that was show man but that was like woo being who else was on that show with you uh good friend of mine Cynthia Bailey who was a good friend of mine today that's the one I got into argument with she's on the show we're good friends um the guy from insync Chris from insync I'm good friends with him still um I think those are the two only two that I talked to but Lamar oh no Lamar odm good friend I talked to Lamar I just F talk to Lamar OD he's going to New York right now I just talked to him today uh Lamar odm all good good friends but we're all good friends Lamar is a mess man I I interviewed him once and there were supposed to be two other interviews and they all fell apart like the day of the day of something weird now he's doing something for Rehab now I think right yeah he got some rehab didn't he just get into a car accident I think so smashed up a whole bunch of cars recently which you know it is what it is yeah but I I love him that's my buddy though still yeah you know but I but see the reason why I'm always like if I stay in someone's life long enough and you're not sober you're going to get sober I'm gonna make you get it so you g get him sober oh if I have to yes I will if I have to I will because I know that there's a much better life on the other side of course I mean listen I've got I have drug addicts in my family and um we really just don't talk to them yeah it's because you know I me if you are an active drug addict we we can't do much with you and the thing is is that but the sad part about it is is that there's a solution for active drug addicts there's always a solution you can't you can't run from it there's a solution if you want it right but you got sober then maybe there's place for in our lives but at this point actively smoking crack you can't really be around us uhuh because you're going to bring bad elements in people's Liv exactly well I learn I learned a lesson where I used to work with a lot of newcomers I won't do that no more man one time I was working with this newcomer you know and I get picked him up took him to a meeting and I'm driving right this is after 13 years sober I'm driving you know and also I look down I see a crack pipe roll I'm like I pull th the window I'm like man if I got pulled over there's no way the cop won't believe that's mine you know I mean I F I'm like that's it and you got to be at least seven or eight years over or 10 years over before I put you in my car I ain't taking no chances I feel you mean you're not getting I'm not getting arrested for you I told people that if we go somewhere and you rob a bank you better believe I will be on understand snitching my ass it was him right there yet do with the glasses got a beard it was him your honor I ain't got nothing to do it was him I am not going to jail for nobody I hav been there I Ain going for nobody else as you should you know when I was locked up I was next to Richard Ramirez night soer really yes and Eric L Menendez was next to me too okay I was there with some real killers man yeah I'm in there for drugs they in there for murder I had to get out of there do do you know the Menendez brother story because I remember you know very much because I was in there with him Michael frz I think you know who I've interviewed was locked up with him I think TK Kirkland was locked up with them I mean a lot of people it was LA County jail so yeah Michael Francis right Michael franc the mafia guy I had I got a story with him too we did I did a movie my friend did a movie and he was the he wased it yeah yes and I heard about this yeah well I was there yeah I was there dude right and I I I got in a flu and my friend Stony was in the movie and I'm like man like like man I see people walking around talking in their sleeves right and he's like my friend's like man you crazy man I'm like no man you go you sick no I'm telling you dude I'm seen people walk around in black suits talking their sleeves sure enough it was the FBI and they the movie I was like I told you he like oh my God it's the mob what you expect y they're all being watched my friend was blown away when it was real he Blown Away didn't believe me cuz I I had the flu you know you know flu you try to hallucinate and seeing things but I wasn't seeing things that that week so so what's next for you what are you working on now right now I have something really big that I can't say yet it's about to become um it's going to be it's going to be really good for a lot of people well I can kind of say it it's it's actually going to be an ethical it's an ethical place to go for treatment where you can find the the rehabs that are ethical because you know rehab is not it's a business all of are not ethical you know um the ones we're going to display and show are going to be to find people it's going to be very ethical it's going to be it's going to send people to the right places it's going to match people up the right places and not just that I'm also married you know um I got married uh last year um September 21st last year um and let me tell you something man marriag is work but it's a wonder of thing but I got three four step kids that's a lot of work I have my two older kids 25 26 then I have now 10 12 uh eight 16 and 18 I coach my 10-year-old's uh football team like I coach my 25-year-old son's football team my coach football team I'm the head coach of that and you know um I'm working entertainment business is coming back hopefully when we get off this strike we can get back and work I'm sure by the time This Ss we'll be off strike so we'll be all working you know I'm I'm doing a lot of things but uh I'm also a streamer on Twitch I stream on Twitch I'm on um right now I think I have 7800 followers I just started a couple months ago I at 7800 followers okay um but it's um you know I'm happy that's where it counts I'm happy with myself and I'm just you know that's the most important thing is being happy inside yourself if you can't be happy inside yourself doesn't matter what you do well Todd man uh I I really appreciate the honesty you did not duck a single question you did not tell me don't talk about that I'm not going to discuss it you really owned everything from your success to to the failures to you know the highs to the lows and and um you know I'm sorry you keep having to talk about your drug addiction from 30 years ago that's all right 30 years but you but you've you you've accepted it just remember I'm 3 sober 3 when I look at you man you look great your skin looks great you're in good shape you know what I'm saying you're what 58 58 yeah you're 8 years old than me but you look 20 years younger I know people always think I'm so young they're like 58 like yeah well I mean that's what you get you know when you get off drugs you know I mean you not look like this at 58 being on drugs the whole time the problem is people you know they they they're on it in their 40s and 50s and that's why it just destroys them and I was blessed to we I got out of 26 yes how that's a blessing to get out 26 oh yeah I was able to get out and then your body heals back up and you get normal you know just my testosterone is low but we're fixing that that's coming back coming back it's what it is man Todd I look forward to everything you got coming up I think you have a long long career ahead of you still oh thank you so much I really appreciate that's what it is peace peace out

Channel: djvlad

Views: 142,089

Keywords: VladTV, DJ Vlad, Interview, Hip-Hop, Rap, News, Gossip, Rumors, Drama

Id: EbDfICH4JCw

Length: 85min 37sec (5137 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 25 2023