#196 The Fascinating Life of Adrienne Barbeau: From Go-Go Dancer to Broadway Star and Beyond

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If you're a pop culture junkie, who loves TV, film, music, comedy and other really important stuff, then you've come to the right place. Get ready and settle in for classic conversation, the best pop culture interviews in the world. that's right, we circled the globe so you don't have to. If you're ready to be the king of the water cooler, then you're ready for classic conversations with your host, Jeff Dwoskin.

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All right, Carol, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. And you got the show going each and every week and this week was no exception. Welcome, everybody to Episode 196 of classic conversations. As always, I'm your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Great to have you back for what is sure to be one of the classic hits of conversations we've ever had. My guest today is none other than Adrienne Barbeau that's right Adrienne Barbeau star of Maude Escape from New York, creep show Swamp Thing The fog the original Rizzo and the musical Grease and so much more. You're gonna love this conversation and it's coming up in just a few seconds and in these few seconds I just want to spotlight last week's interview with him media and Josh gondola man fabulous episode. Josh is not only a comedian he is a four time Emmy Award winner writer for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. If you're behind right after this episode, catch up with that one and also all our bonus episodes which spotlight segments from our live show crossing the streams. We're looking for TV binge watching suggestions, we got your back but enough about that. It's time for me to share my conversation with Adrienne Barbeau with you enjoy

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All right everyone, I am excited to introduce you to my next guest actress Broadway star scream queen author, singer loved her and the fog Swamp Thing back to school creep show and that's just scratching the surface. Welcome to this show. Adrienne Barbeau welcome. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Thank you for being here. I wanted to cover one quick thing of importance right off the bat. I was reading your memoir, there are worse things I could do. And I want to thank you for the Tabasco sauce on hard boiled eggs.

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Don't thank me thank bea arther

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Oh, good. Thank you via bea and I've been really into hard boiled eggs lately. Like no joke

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is that the first time you've ever considered what a hot sauce on hard boiled eggs?

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Yeah, I you know, I put the salt and pepper on and I was like I'm rockin the hard boiled egg with salt and pepper. And then I read Tabasco sauce. I'm like, I'll try this. I'm willing to try

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your hot sauce of choice.

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I know. It's like a game changing you like shit. You've literally changed my life.

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Especially on the yoke, you know on the leg. It's so the drips off. But it goes into the yoke. I love that.

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Right? I just want you bite and it's like I got into those COSCO hard boiled eggs. Don't

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ask me why Oh, okay. Okay. You're not cooking them yourself? Well, sometimes

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we do. But sometimes, you know, they're not the easiest things to make in the world. Right? Oh, come along. I don't mean easiest thing to me. I mean, like they're time consuming, right. I mean,

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the time it takes you to turn the flame on.

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I know. I know. It's ridiculous. It's your day. Welcome. For those just tuning in, welcome to egg talk. I'm Jeff and this is my co host, Adrian. All right, Adrian, you've got this amazing career and so many stories. I'd love to like to start at the beginning because or at least start like New York Go Go dancer for the mob.

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Yep. When I first got to Manhattan, and I needed to work at night because I was hoping to be an actress on Broadway. And if you're going to be an actress on Broadway, you got to have your day straight. You go to audition can take classes and take voice lessons and make the rounds as they say I'm a answered an ad for a place on West 49th Street between sixth and seventh called Maddies Mardi Gras. And Maddie found out many many years later was really Maddie, the horse of one of the families. But he was my boss and I started working there first as a cocktail waitress they trained me to be a barmaid. And then man, he had these motorized mannequins on a stage they sing the bar, you know, dressed up like musicians and they move the piano player sort of pumped his fingers off of us and we guitar player looked like he was playing the guitar and the drummer made his hands go up. And now what are you studying? You know, we were in 40 flies by that time. 45 Excellent. Do you know patrons would come in and they order a drink at the bar and then they turn around to enjoy the live band. The leader wasn't live band getting just off and so The magnet the idea that the girls working there should get up and dance in front of these rice mannequins. Here's the later one of the girls who worked there and wrote a book of Valak being a Mrs. To them up. And in it she says that you were the very first gogo dancers in existence or the first Gobo dancers in Manhattan or something. I don't know if it's true, but it was quite a while ago, it could have been true. And then I went on and I danced at various places all over the tri state area and a place called Trudy Heller. It's down in the village until I finally got my first union acting job, and then I didn't and then at 11, I went off and did summer stock for five months. But when I came back, I went back and started dancing again until I finally ended up on Broadway never had to dance again for money in my life. At least not on a stage as a goat.

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Right now, because you had to. Not in that format. No, gotcha. All right. So a fake band though. Basically, it was like an adult Chucky Cheese.

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Yes, yes, it was.

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Alright, so then you transition from gogo girl to Broadway Fiddler on the Roof.

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Yes, I played Tevye a second daughter, the one that sings a song at the St. Train Station and goes off to Siberia with her revolutionary boy chick.

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My Hebrew name is Tabea. Really? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. All right. No, no real connection there other than it just happens to be. But this is you. You worked with Bette Midler. That mother was in the play as well.

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Yes. That was played cyfle the older daughter and she was actually in the show. We both went in as replacements the showing and running about four years when I joined it, but that was already in Michelle. Oh, and my two weeks of rehearsal involved sitting in the balcony every night watching the show every night that just brought me to tears with that scene with where she's begging Papa to let her memory muffle the tailor and not Lazar wolf butcher she was brilliant it was even before the Divine Miss no there was no question that she was going to be everything she has become

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seen as a powerhouse right right from the beginning right from Yes. Do you keep in touch or is it more like I would you would even

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touch she she actually last time I saw her well it was way before the pandemic we email maybe once every two years or something she gave me an a wonderful quote from my from my memoir, my first book.

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It's nice. It's funny. It's like talking now in these days it's like can mean a text or Facebook message.

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Yeah, but more fun when you're sitting in the in the second room.

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Oh, yeah, absolutely. Especially. Yeah, especially if one of the people is Adrienne Barbeau or baton of their Yes, I will give you that. Totally. In the book. You talk about having anxiety after Fiddler was just nervous to like trying to like what were you going to do just self doubt like what

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No, it was actually for a fiver really, although it didn't raise its head until I was about halfway through similar and I had decided I you know it was time to leave I had been in in the show for more than a year and how Prentiss who was my boss he produced dinner was sending a road company out of Zorba the Greek. So I went in an audition for him and I saying life is what do you do, which is the song The leader sings because I love the song and I love the role and I love the song primarily. And I got halfway through the song and how started yelling at me from the balcony. What are you singing that for? You're not right for that role, you should be auditioning for the whatever show remember, I want to say the mistress that that's not the name of charactor the the other woman in the show, it's been year, this is going back 1966. And I was so I guess humiliated that I started having trouble even getting myself to an audition. You know, I was working on Broadway, but I just sort of lost all leads to myself as a singer. Certainly. And you know, I remember I used to buy the trades that I'd circle the auditions. And then I wouldn't go or if I did go, I'd start to sing and I'd lose control of my facial muscles and my knees would be shaking. And it was difficult. I eventually I overcame it by accepting a role a starring role in in an Off Broadway show where I had to sing and dance but sing primarily 13 numbers, some of them in the nude, and it sort of put paid to my feeling that I couldn't then I went on to Greece.

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You know, it's funny, like when I started reading your book, I didn't realize you had originated the role of Rizzo in Greece. It's always fun to learn something new and really cool. It's such a cool thing to like, be the first person of like, oh, wow, that's an iconic character and an iconic play.

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I'm very proud of it. And I had just finished collaborating on a book about Greece with stories for more than 100 performers who appeared in the Broadway show and then they meet national companies ever We went from Travolta to Patrick Swayze to treat Williams, Peter Gallagher, Mary Lou header. We collected many, many, many wonderful funny, sometimes touching, sometimes hysterically funny stories from each of them for the 50th anniversary of Greece. It's called Greece. Tell me more. Tell me more. It's already available on Amazon. Greece gave rise to the rest of my career and a good portion of the rest of my life in the way in which you read the book, you realize syst friends, that original company of Greece, and we had all of the Greece's have stayed very, very close, it colored everything going forward. I

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think you worked with Barry Bostwick, right. And he was Danny Zuko. Yeah. Barry was was Zuko. And it's funny because when I read that, like I have Barry Bostwick now in my head. So I was trying to figure out Oh, Danny Zuko. And but then when I saw the cover the book I'm like, Oh, Barry Bostwick was Danny Zuko.

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Oh, yes, yes, he was. Yes, he was. And he's got some great stories to tell.

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What are a couple of the stories that kind of came up so that you remembered or is there one or two that you could share with me? I mean,

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one of my favorites is written by Lisa Raggio. Lisa was in the national Well, she was in several of the companies. She did the show. I think it was the Westbury music fair, which was a theater in the round nail if you're doing a show when the round is no backstage. So all of the actors have to change clothes. They set up little booths at the top of the aisles and you finish a scene you run the aisle right into your booth, change your costume, run back down the aisle and get on stage and do the next scene. Lisa had a very quick change. She had a helper, someone who was there a dresser so when he was there to help her make the change. And during the show when, during her very quick change, she gets up to her to her change booth Bell dresser, nobody there to help her make the change. Well, what can she do? She runs down to the audience. She thinks she's going to grab some lady from the audience and pull her back up. But the audience that day was nothing but high school boys that are all been bused in from various Yeah, I don't know, non co ed school or something. So she grabs this 16 year old or 14 year old boy WAGs him up the pig and says okay, my blouse and snap my bra Tiki on my whatever he was doing. She did she says it very, very funny. Okay, call up. Do this do that. Thanks. She hands him a piece of gum instead extends him back to his chair. The way she tells it is very funny. It was a story I had never heard. And I'm just hoping that that fellow is still around and he picks up a copy of the book that he reads about himself. Those kinds of stories. They're all kinds of stories. But that was one we had one night. This is the fun map on the in the Broadway show. It's after I had left we had a rather elderly doorman and one night in the middle of the park seen this elderly doorman walked across the stage saying telephone call for Bill Hill telephone call for billing. And that he just walked out the other side. I don't know if

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that's my area. So but there's

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you know, everyone tells their audition stories. It's a wonderful oral history, I guess you'd say of putting together a show how it came to be how Jim Jacobs and Lauren Casey came up with the idea in a drunken stupor as a party one night. I think people who care about Greece, they'll be care about the theater music. Oh, they will really enjoy it. Oh, it's,

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it sounds amazing. I was as I was kind of digging in a little bit on it. I didn't realize John Travolta. I mean, I know he's in the movie, but he was duty. He was duty

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in the national company. Yeah, he tells some nice stories. And his sister played one of the other roles got to travel with this sister.

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Sorry, I got to take a quick break. I want to take a moment to thank everyone for the support of the sponsors. When you support the sponsors. You're supporting us here at Classic conversations. And that's how we get the lights on. And now back to my fabulous conversation with Adrienne Barbeau. We were about to dive into Greece's influence on the TV show Happy Days, and we're back. I talked to I don't remember which the abbey days crew. I think it might have been answered Williams and they were talking about you know, the happy days the original pilot had bombed or not bombed but it just didn't get picked up. And then the combination of he said American Graffiti and Greece stageplay Poppy popularity is what renewed the interest in that original Happy Days pilot which then they called on to another pilot and then set it in the 50s and then that became

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Oh, interesting. All right.

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sideline trivia for Yeah, it was interesting to read. And I think I knew it. But like that grease play had a really rough start. It took a while to kind of find its way. It's not like the original reviews weren't as kind as one would hope.

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Oh, our producers were told by their financial people after opening night and reviews came in and they were terrible, or they weren't good. They said post the closing notice post the closing notice. And we were all walking around thinking Well, that's it, you read the book, and you'll Well, one of the other really interesting stories I've been getting maybe just printed it in Forbes magazine is we got a good review from Richard watt. I think it was in the Daily News, we got a bad review from Douglas watts in the post, I could be getting these names wrong. But the producers took the good review from Richard watts. And because their names were so similar, they waited until close to five o'clock on the next day. And they bought an ad in the post. And they printed the Daily News Review so that it looked like the post was giving us a great review. And they waited until five so they could get right under the water and nobody can catch on. And the next day it looked like you know we got to rain. Maybe

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that is the end. Yeah, like somebody or our paycheck big time that day. And then you you got a Tony Award nomination.

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Yes, it was a real surprise, because I didn't even know we were eligible for the tone aids, you know, and the head of the Tony The whatever that Alexandra Cohen would didn't want us in the Tonys because we opened at the Eden Theatre, which was down in the village in the East Village. But we were on a Broadway contract because it was such a large theater, but we were not in the neighborhood in the Broadway in virulence, you know, and he he wasn't gonna let us be eligible. And the producers again said that they were going to go to the press and expose it all. And so they finally agreed he did say nobody would win, and it would win a Tony, it would be over his dead body. And he didn't die. But but you know, I was nominated. And it's something I'm very proud of.

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It was interesting story in the book, the song, there were things I could do, which is also the name of your memoir, interesting story in the book that that almost got cut out of the play. Yeah,

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it was sort of working. And I don't know, they tried everything. Not that there wasn't a good song or that and I wasn't I was doing it, okay. It just wasn't working. The audience was just like, sitting on their hands. And the woman who was the head of the publishing company that was going to publish the music came to see the show in previews. And afterwards, she said to the producer, it's not the song it's the scene before it the way it's written. You don't care about her don't have any feeling about Rizzo that she's not up and, and she's being sort of the way she was. So the guys rewrote that scene that night. And the next day, they were cheering

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the next day Tony Award nominated. That's pretty cool. I'm guessing I read this in the book, but it was it's been a while. So I'm gonna I'm just gonna ask in terms of an update, Have you still not seen the movie Greece

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is still not seeing the movie. I did see Greece too. I guess when it came out? I don't remember that. I remember thinking Michelle Pfeiffer was beautiful. And what a lovely performance. You know,

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yes, I agree with you about Michelle Pfeiffer agrees to it was a fun sequel. All right, we won't go into why you didn't see the movie.

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I didn't see it. Because I have such wonderful memories of what we did. And I did one day I was in store or something. And I heard some music coming over the music machine. And I thought, what is that, and then I recognize it as being there were things I could do from the movie. And they had done such a different approach, musically, that I thought, oh, no, I'm just gonna stick with what I remember.

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I can relate to that. I understand because the grease becomes like the visual that everyone saw and thinks of his grace. But you know, you originated it in its own unique way. And there's a disc I got it, I got it.

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And the stage play was it was much different from the movie and much different even from productions that are seeing now when they made a big revival many, many years ago, but I think it's much more Right, right. Lightweight and sort of fun and bubblegummy we were we were pretty raw. We were man, you know, we'd get down to those that Torian companies wouldn't get down to those cities in the south. That's one of the stories they all walk in and the theater manager says okay, you've got to do the clean version. And they're all looking at each other. Like what's the clean version? I don't know what a clean version, some of them refuse.

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It's funny you say that because I remember as a kid talent shows school town so I was what Whatever And inevitably, every talent show had Greased Lightning. Right? And I remember later and listening to those lyrics going, how did they let kids lip sync this? You know, in like elementary or middle school or whatever, you know, it's like an amazing great song. That's not what I mean. But when you realize it was coming, you know, the kids the age of the kids were miming it. It's like you're like Did anyone ever listen to the lyrics?

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Did they even know what a grant right

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the adults around they're like, Did no one listen. I mean, it just you just alright so Broadway star and that gets you noticed by Norman Lear and next thing you know your on Maude

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Yeah, Norman. His casting director had seen me in the show or read about me and then they called me in and and then they flew me to LA for what was not a great audition, but they hired me. That was the last time it was worked. I worked in New York for many many years when I started the television and then then the film career here in LA,

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and you remain lifelong friends with Bea Arthur.

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I did Yes. Oh, yes. Yeah, with all Conrad bein bill may seem all of them.

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It's such an amazing cast. Did you ever ask the Arthur if she regretted doing the Star Wars Holiday Special?

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Did she I never even knew that. Oh, yeah.

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Things in its ASCII right by Oh yeah. She's in that she's singing you can find that on YouTube. It's where that she's actually really good at but you know, the it's such a weird Star Wars thing. But yeah, she likes is the bartender and she sings she has a whole musical number. Oh, really?

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Well, I don't know if she regretted it. She She certainly never talked about.

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So I don't know. That's funny. So I had Fred brandy on the show. And one of the things he was excited to point out was he was your boyfriend on Maude.

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Yes. And then we work together again on the left books before he went off to his political career. And Natalie, isn't he? Isn't he the head of a major charity organization or

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a might be doing that also, but he's also when I talked to him, which wasn't too long ago, he was touring with a one man play and I think he's doing a lot of theater. Wow, I was oh, but a tyke Maude came out but like I rewatched the first episode. So first episode doorbell door knock Bea Arthur opens the door, Ed Begley Jr.

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Was it the first episode?

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I think so? Yeah, that was yeah, that was the first episode come at you. You come in with the sunglasses and you were in therapy, are you I

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remember reading in, but I don't remember anything. The only shows I sort of remember where the bit America the what telethons, the, you know, the talent shows and the telethons that we did where we got all that to sing and dance. It

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must be hard. I mean, sometimes these conversations I imagined, just remember everything because for us, the people that watch it, it lives on forever, right? And for you. It's like it was a job. He did something it was special. And then I can't remember things that one thing in the book that was a little upsetting to read, but I mean, it was just like the stuff they put you through to lose weight for the thing we talked about.

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Oh, well, I can't blame them. I mean, they they wanted me to lose the way I put myself through it. Oh, God, what do you mean the horse your

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500 calorie diet? I mean, yeah.

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And then they went also but I ate so many nuts. I got sick. I must eat a pound of all lanes are so yes, yeah. Well, they're with you know, you're on Broadway. You're dancing up a store. You've been doing that for eight years. And maybe you're a little you're not television. Wait, but it doesn't matter. Nobody says a word. You're in great shape. And then you get to TV and in those days, I don't know if they still say it like a camera adds 10 pounds and some big they want me to lose like

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a lot of pressure. And I finally did it.

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But it wasn't easy.

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It was interesting. I like what I was reading sometimes I like to just kind of dig in and see what kind of trivia exists based on kind of the shows and Conrad Bane negotiated his own series when it ended Maude ended and that's that's how he ended up in different strokes and then was it in the All in the Family that there was a different Carol

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no not in all in the family be made her first appearance as well? Yeah, but not Archie's cousin eat it is cousin an all in the family. And the response was so overwhelming that the story that I've heard the head of this of the network called Norman the next day and said Who is that girl? Let's get her own show. He felt what she's 48 years old. And then Norman really had to work hard to convince being to because she wasn't interested in coming to LA or doing anything and so they had her Do I think this is right. I don't think this is the first appearance she made on all in the family. They did a pilot with Marsha Ron Klain, the daughter, I don't remember what the pilot was getting the pilot sold. I think Marcia didn't want to move to LA. And maybe there was also the feeling that Marsha and b are both equally talented, but were similar in their approach to Kameni. And maybe they wanted a little different, you know, Sylvan who wasn't got it like to like and be there Atlanta delivery, so they started auditioning women, then they auditioned a lot. And when Norman Norman met me and beat your butt, because the character had already been established as having a seven year old child, after our first meeting, he said, No, no, she's not right. She doesn't look old enough to have a seven year old. And then when they couldn't find anybody back in LA, that's when they flew me out and had me audition, and then took a chance,

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took a chance on a young Adrienne Barbeau. And here we are. Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, it's one of the most iconic that comes television shows, period, I guess ever. So it's, it must be amazing. Just to be part of that legacy, especially with since you covered so many amazing topics. social topics.

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Yes. I was so fortunate. Because we were we dealt with everything under the sun. And when only wishes we were dealing with those things now because they've all come back to bite us on the ass. I mean, oh my god. Well, that's another story.

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That's another podcast. Right. Have you back? Yeah. I kind of I noted that in your book, when you talked about certain things. I was like, Oh, wow. You could have written this just right now. Oh, yes. Let's keep it light. Well, we'll have a darker so now that now the fog, the fog is coming up in the timeline. And you've met John Carpenter already you were married before the fog, right?

26:52

I met John in spring of 78. When he hired me to clay, the first lesson on image television film, there's something called someone's watching me with Lauren Hutton. And then we became friends. And then we became boyfriend and girlfriend. And then we got married. I think we got married. I mean, I know we got married on you see, of 78 going into 79. And then we started filming the fog right after that. So we had just been married a very short period of time. In fact, we insisted on taking separate hotel rooms point location, because we didn't want anybody to think that she was giving me preferential treatment as his wife, and then at the end of the first day, he came up and he said, I'm not having any fun at all, at that extent, either of my eyelids. Let's let's go back to be husband and wife.

27:47

Here's a question for you before specifically diving into the movie itself, right in this time frame, being on TV and doing movies, it wasn't always it's not an easy jump right?

27:59

It could see you for free on Tuesday night on mind that film producers thought there's no way they're going to pay to steal their movie theater. So it wasn't really until John Travolta who was doing Welcome back. Kotter made the transition that barely started to change, but had it not been for John offering me the role in the fog. I don't know. I mean, that may even be what I didn't. Well, no, that's not why I didn't get offered, or why I didn't even get to audition for Greece. I mean, I was already too old to play at heart when I was when they were making the movie but ya know, if you were a TV actor, you couldn't get seen for Shell

28:36

was John given a hard time putting you in the fog because of that?

28:39

No, I don't think so. I never heard that. I think he had enough. I mean, it was his project.

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Did people look at you and go who's this TV star thinks she could be a movie like was there that jealousy?

28:50

No, no, I never got that or any of us. I mean, we'll know Jamie Lee was was known for Halloween trying to think I guess maybe I was the only one that came from television more than I think about it but no, I never this never crossed my mind. I think they wanted John is project and they gave John his free ring. He had to fight to get Kurt Russell into Escape from New York because the network wanted or the studio wanted Charles Bronson and somebody else wanted Tommy Jones and John just said well if you don't take Kurt you don't

29:24

get the project. They had worked together on Elvis

29:27

Yes, but the studio thought Kurt was at a Disney actor

29:31

right that's right yeah, I know I until you just said it if you forget Kurt Russell was a Disney guy. Yeah, oh yeah. Oh my Yeah, but he was a badass and Escape from New York.

29:43

Oh, he's great. But no, there was never I never heard anything anybody saying no, you can't hire her for she's TV.

29:51

No, I just wondered if it was weird just because of you know how they separated it was like oil and water moving TVs back then if if there was any, anything that like jealousy or anything, I was just curious. It was just Yeah, no, not at all like you've done like all amazing things but at least three are considered like cult cult classics Escape from New York, which you mentioned bog this one and then Swamp Thing. The fog. I mean, not just Jamie Lee courtesy you mentioned but also her mom Janet Lee and you was like cornucopia of Scream Queens, right. John, do you how do you cast an amazing cast? Imagine it's as a director, it's a stressful thing, putting together a movie because I read it in the book and just some other research, you know, there was editing and then either he did what he wanted to kind of wasn't really happy with the original cottony they kind of fixed it. And I think it worked out for everyone except the fog, who didn't get another job until 2005. When they remade the fog.

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And then it wasn't the same fun was it it was CG. It wasn't our fog juice.

30:54

Fog Rosario, we're gonna but it was interesting. I mentioned trivia is that is a scene where they filmed it and then played it in reverse to get the fog

31:03

to Yes, you know, it was 1979. And they didn't have CGI, they didn't have any way to evacuate the fog from the scene, they could blow the fog into the scene using fans. But they couldn't suck it out. In the last scene where I'm on the roof of Berlin video lighthouse, I am surrounded by fog and the ghost is chasing me. And then suddenly something happens they have sex Laughlin or with with how bull rope in the church and the ghosts disappear and the fog disappears at the end of the sea with me acting in reverse. I had to do the oh my god, that thing is disappeared. And I'm unsaved with no fog on me. And then the fog is around me and he's I don't get I can't explain it to you now. But

31:53

no, I got it in

31:55

reverse. They developed the negative upside down or something again, it's not my table. But yeah, that was the gentleman came up and he said, Okay, we got to do it like this is the only thing you have to remember is don't blink. Because if you blink if you blink quickly, it looks really weird when we reverse the shell or the negative and so I tried not to blink.

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That's a lot of pressure. Don't blink. That's a lot of pressure. Oh, I was gonna say like so much ingenuity goes into like the movies before CGI. It's like, there's something about the realism and the field is completely different because they actually had to do that while you're seeing what you're seeing. So it adds I think a whole layer to it. Brilliant. Sorry, I gotta take a quick break. And we're back with Adrienne Barbeau then you did escape from New York after the fog. Was that your next movie?

32:51

No, I did something in in Greece called the time traveler with tiered delay

32:57

so Escape from New York and then Cannonball Run and Charlie in the great Balloon Race and then swampthing then creep show us like and then the thing COMPUTER VOICE uncredited you had an incredible early 80s

33:10

Yeah in there and then that was the one with tear delay in Greece i know that must have come right after the fog maybe because before the others whatever attorney in the great balloon Chase was a TV movie and back to school was in there somewhere and Swamp Thing

33:27

1986 Right so I'm saying 82 So at this point, I am now a movie actress like you're there like oh, she used to be a TV star Are you like it's interesting now that you're still seeing TV actor

33:39

by that point? I think it was just going back and forth I mean anything whatever came along with it and I even will an ad for I did know at three it would have been because I got pregnant when I read I did in six months on stage here in LA a play called women behind bars with Lou Leonard Sally Kellerman replaced me I think when I left, so no, I was I was sort of bouncing back and forth.

34:04

Let me let me ask the question a different way. Did you because of all the movies access, did you lose that TV actors can't do movie stigma? Like did you were you able then to just people were like, Oh, we have a movie, Adrienne? Barbeau? Yeah, for sure. Like there was no more like, Oh, she's a

34:19

T Yes, yes. By that time. Uh, by that time, it wasn't just me. I mean, by that time, I think the end when did Travolta do Saturday Night Fever. And, you know, the industry had started realizing that they could draw from television as well. And the

34:34

one thing you have in common with John Travolta, you both were in the Broadway Greece boom. There's something about that Greece. Yes. Something that that Cannonball Run. Interesting take you had on it in the book sounded like there was it was a dangerous set. You talk about one of the horrible accidents that happen on the set, and then how loose that movie was not your favorite thing to do other than meeting Roger Moore. Yeah,

34:57

my favorite thing to do now.

35:00

It's funny as I look back on cannibal run I was like I always in my head when I saw I was like oh it's just a crazy movie Dom delouis Captain chaos you know like I just all this craziness Jackie Chan and no one knew Jackie Chan was yet Jamie Farr right you know it really weird characters in that movie but then reading like the backstory like you actually being there and some of the things that happened it was like oh, maybe it wasn't as great as I remembered.

35:26

Well, millions of people love it.

35:29

It's one of those. It's a popcorn movie and it's popcorn. Yes, I suppose Creepshow I rewatched creep show because I hadn't seen it in so long. I rewatched the crate that's a great movie. That is a fun movie. You are great in it. How Holbrook you got to work with again on the fog and oh my god, you were your character was a real bitch. Wow, it was your it's a great tagline you had in that and it's a great little thing. How Holbrook really did not like you. Rodney Dangerfield almost didn't like you as much and back to school. Was that fun?

36:06

Is what? It was fun. Rodney was a character. It was just fun.

36:12

Ron he's just so hilarious. You're not in it the whole time. But you I mean, your character is pivotable pivotal pivotable pivotal for you and it's trying to throw some extra pivotal to the whole plot. It's really really really funny. That's a fun movie. I love that movie. And then swap thing just rewatched one thing too I like to rewatch the movies as as I'm kind of getting ready because I loved swamping when I was a kid I mean I've never seen it was on cable I mean I've seen Swamp Thing like a million times it was interesting your your reaction to the movie was pretty much it sounds like from the research I did the same as West Cravens reactions to the movie once it was done by it went on to become a cult classic. Everyone loved it Siskel and Ebert.

36:55

Yes, it got me interested in what do you know, was Wess reaction? Because I don't know that I've ever read anything or heard anything. What did he say? Well, I mean, you know, it was a nightmare for him to Purdue direct, because they kept pulling budget out from under him. But what did he say that, you know,

37:13

it was kind of a little bit along those lines that he didn't he didn't work for nearly two years after the film's release really felt like he had his chance and kind of blew it and he felt like he would never work again. Oh, but it's one of those things where it's like when you watch it, you know, especially comic book movies at the time, it was a fun movie and

37:33

it will love it. I have people come up to me all the time because they just they love it. They just love it. I think for West End for me, it was just disappointing because we both knew what he started with the screenplay that he started with and and what his vision was and what what it could have been at the studio supported him. But whatever

37:56

that happens, all right. I mean, I got amazing script. And then they just it doesn't lift off the page. I have no doubts he could have that had he gotten the budget, like you had mentioned in the book. And I remember there was an interesting, one bad guy that takes the potion he changes and then the other guy, Louis Jordans character, he changes and someone was like talking to Wes Craven, how he felt about those transformations. And it said, all West did was give a sigh That was his answer. I mean, and if anything, it was a really fun movie. And then how did it feel to like, revisit that franchise, like because you were on the TV show as well, right?

38:32

I did one episode every TV show I received privately impressed with the set that they built. Oh my gosh, the swamp that they built was I just wish Wes had been around to see it. It was it was incredible. It was remarkable. And then I guess the show got caught up in some kind of a business situation and they cancelled it. It was not because it wasn't well received. But yeah, I just thought to do one episode. I played the head of the CDC. And it would have been a recurring role, I think had the show gone on but but it was fun to be asked.

39:03

Yeah, that's cool. And then you revisited creep show as well.

39:06

I didn't that was fun to be asked to Yeah. She wasn't Billy. All right. But it was great working with Greg Nicotero and COVID who hired and worked with we had just not long before that played an incestuous brother and sister on criminal minds I think it was

39:25

so when I do kind of research I Google stuff right out Google your name see what comes up. You know, that kind of stuff. Celebrity bowling,

39:33

I still have my ball and my shoes and the bag that they gave me to carry the ball and

39:40

besides having never heard of this show, it was I looked at it. This is what really really caught my eye. It was season one episode 132 Oh my god. This has been like huge celebrity bowling. How did I miss this? Was it six nights a week? And you went up against Kathie Lee cry Be and

40:02

remember nothing. It's just that I still have that shoots in the ball.

40:06

Well, I tell you that entire episode is on YouTube. So you're kidding me?

40:11

Oh god. Oh god, that

40:13

was your episode of shine. Ah, there's like a lot of fun. There's a lot of fun. Oh, really?

40:18

Oh wow. I bet they don't have a footage of me as an 18 year old being Miss wrestling for channels 58 in Oakland, California when Gorgeous George threw a chair at me. That was long before videotape, but

40:36

that would be amazing. There is

40:38

a book how or if there's a book written about it with a picture of me, I think.

40:42

And then in your book, I think it was in your buckets. You taught you turn down $100,000 For celebrity boxing keeping with Yes. Celebrity against Anna Nicole Smith.

40:53

Yes, she was a neighbor. She lived up the hill from me. Yes. No, I did turn that down.

40:57

And then you did more. So many gang you aren't every pyramid show.

41:02

I always wanted their top winners. Yes. And I didn't remember this. Until I ran it and Jill, Joanne Warli. We were doing some benefit or something. And she reminded me we did the pilot for the golf show up in San Francisco. I don't remember it. I remember walking with Chuck Barris someplace. But yeah, we did the pilot for the gong show. But those were the days and you know, you did your TV show during the week Maude or whatever. And on the weekends. That was the reality performances that the game shows so many of them and I don't even remember the names of some of them, you know, but most of them were fun

41:39

Hollywood Squares. That 100,000 10,000 25,000 I pyramid and a tattletale. There was like a million million of them. Yeah, so that was that's how it worked. You kind of made the rounds as you did the shows. I mean, that's fun, as you probably got to meet a lot of extra people you wouldn't have met otherwise. Yes. Carninval on HBO, one of my favorite jobs. Well, maybe your favorite.

42:01

I just loved everything about it. I love the character. I love the people that were writing it. I love the actors, the crew caterers, the fact that it was 38 miles from my house, and I could drop the kids off at school and sometimes pick them up the opportunity to play that character, a snake dancer with some kind of psychic abilities at that time in my life when we wouldn't expect you know, a woman who was moving into her 50s to be playing a sexual being right instead of a nurse or a lawyer or a judge. I just loved it.

42:36

And then I mean, you've done tons of voiceover work for that man as Selena, go. Selina Kyle, Cat Woman, video games, you've done everything you've done. I guess you've just done a little bit of everything I have, you could choose one thing to do. Why would you want to focus on why Broadway and other TV show movie like you could have your druthers,

42:55

it really comes down to the role, it really comes down to the words. The last time I was on stage was in 2016. I did the national tour of Pippin, and I accepted it because it opens grandmother sings a great song hanging upside down from a trapeze 15 feet in the air with no net. And there I was, in my age doing a trapeze act and singing at the same time. Those kinds of roles, I guess I would say I am least interested in doing stage primarily because I wake up at 530 in the morning and I go all day and you know, like eight o'clock at night, I'm ready to sit down. That's a whole reversal in terms of search lifestyle stage, but if the all time great role came along, sure, it really just depends on the words.

43:50

I guess I was remiss, I should have added author, would you like to just write your own, continue to write your own books, and then maybe turn those into something? I mean, like a Movie or Miniseries?

44:01

Well, my second vampire novel, we have almost finished with a pilot script for it for a series.

44:09

That's awesome.

44:10

What I like about writing, I'm not dependent on anybody else for my creativity. But I don't think I'm a writer. I don't know if I have you know, I'm not a story person really. So I don't know if I will write again. I will see if the grease book was I'm very pleased with the way it came out. But I was more of a collaborator on it

44:32

memoir and three vampire books. I'd say that puts you in author category. Oh, yeah. No. You're right. Or sorry to break it to you. Well, it's so much so much amazing career and so many things you've done. It's just incredible. I can't thank you enough for hanging out with me. This is so much love. Thank

44:52

you. Thank you very much. It was fun to we got to talk about stuff that I don't always come

44:58

about. I assume you mean that Hard Boiled Egg. Where can people keep up with you? I know you have a website? And do you hang out on the socials,

45:05

I'm on Insta. I'm not. I mean, I have a Facebook fan page. And I do post on it when I've got something to talk about. They all are similar names, but they all just, they're all just a little different. And so I'm trying to find I made notes to myself, because I never remember, I think my Instagram account is Adrian underscore Barbeau. I have a website, which I try to keep up to date. That's a barbeau.com. I rarely use my Twitter account, especially in this day and age when I don't want to get started.

45:41

Yeah, gotcha. All right. And my

45:44

Facebook account is at four, the number four a barbell row. And I guess when I posted on Insta sometimes shows up on the Facebook account, but mostly I just I follow on my boys on Instagram, all three of them with their three different really fantastic careers. Then when I got something going on, I put it up there. I mean, there will be stuff about the book coming out, you know that that will definitely come out. When I do conventions on I make sure I always have those up on my website. And on Instagram. Most of my time these days is spent narrating television series and films for

46:21

for the visually impaired. Oh, that's wonderful. That's awesome. I really

46:25

enjoy that. So if you know if you're watching TV and you put your SAP channel on your make hear my voice he might hear someone else's, but I do. I just did a wonderful movie. It's a documentary about projects that anymore.

46:40

You've said too much. You've said too much. I you know, I do have a question. Since you brought up inventions. I have one last question for you. Because you would be what I would consider a ComiCon conundrum. And what I mean by that is I would come up to you and have my money ready. And I have to put so much thought into which headshot or picture because there's so many that I could go with right? The creep show a swamp thing and escape in New York, right? There's probably someone from the fog you probably have there. And who else knows what else you got on that table? Dark trek. Deep Space One

47:15

drew caring being unit.

47:17

That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. You're like, you're like my comic con. You're like my comic con nightmare. I went, you know, are you like you have to go? I gotta make a choice. I got to make a choice. Why? Why do people choose the most stuff do you have is? Or is it like swept between some?

47:31

Well, you know, it depends on the convention. So some conventions are horror related. And some of them are comic related. So if it's a comic convention, sometimes they might take the poster of Scooby Doo. But they'll they'll take that ran over something in there. But the horror conventions and again, it depends on it depends on who else is at the con. I tried to do conventions with Tom Atkins whenever I possibly can to give me opportunities to spend time with him because he's one of my closest friends. If Tom and I are both at a convention, then there's going to be a lot of fun people there and they want to take a thug poster, or they'll want to take a creep show coaster because we were both in Greek show. It just depends. It depends on the part of the country. Cannonball is a big cannonball poster is a big seller. It just depends. I never know, I never know. And then I have people come up and say, Oh, you don't have anything from Cannon Ball. Women in the avocado jungle of death. Like thinking? No, I don't think that

48:37

Bill Maher has one of those at his table.

48:39

Yeah. Or Sons of Anarchy, or the video game.

48:44

That's what I'm saying. You're like this. You're like, you're not you're a Comic Con nightmare. And I mean, in a most loving way, because you have so many and you have to pick one. I always wish Oh, they should make a montage photo. That would be the one that would just blow up. But you're right. It does play into if other people are there. If you have other fog people there or creep show or Batman they're gonna want multiple signatures on one thing. All these variables. All right, well, okay. All right. Well, thank you so much. This was fun. Yeah. Bye. Bye. All right, everyone. Amazing Adrienne Barbeau I can only imagine you're already heading to the cupboard or wherever you keep your hot sauce and probably started boiling some hard boiled eggs right at the beginning of the interview, so you'd be ready when it was over to enjoy that delicacy. So many great stories. Check out Adrian's memoir, check out her oral history of Greece. Tell me more. Tell me more take this time to dive into one of your favorite Adrienne Barbeau movies. All right. Can you believe it? The interview is over. So that can only mean one thing. That's right episode 196 has come to an end. One more thank you to my special guest, Adrienne Barbeau. And of course A huge thank you to all of you for coming back week after week. It means the world to me, and I'll see you next time.

50:08

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Classic conversations. If you like what you heard, don't be shy and give us a follow on your favorite podcast app. Also, why not go ahead and tell all your friends about the show? You strike us as the kind of person that people listen to? Thanks in advance for spreading the word and we'll catch you next time on classic conversations.

50:30

You

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