TV Reunions, Tabloids, and Truths with William Keck – Episode 380

Jeff Dwoskin 0:00

Alright, everyone. I am so excited to welcome back to the show. Producer, author, reporter, Emmy nominated TV producer, former entertainment journalism author of when you step upon a star, cringe worthy Confessions of a tabloid bad boy. Welcome back to the show. William Keck,

William Keck 0:22

thank you, Jeff, great to be back. So great been a while. So we're coming up on a a year. I think it

Jeff Dwoskin 0:29

might be your episode 347 when we did a deep dive into your book. And then I have a chart here that shows sales skyrocketing after your parents on my show. And I just would have been,

William Keck 0:44

Oh, it did help. Yeah, every one of you, that's, that's why we do them, you know. But yeah, it was, was I did a lot of interviews, and yours was one of my favorites. So I'm really glad to be doing part two with you. We had a lot of unfinished business to discuss,

Jeff Dwoskin 0:58

yes, and thank you for that lovely compliment. I had a great time with you as well. It was, but in all seriousness, like, how did, how, how did the book do? It looked like it was. Did amazing. I saw a lot of cool articles. You were everywhere. Yeah,

William Keck 1:12

no, it was, you know, my publicist, Harlan, did a really great job. You know, Harlan represents a lot of the celebrities in the book, so he actually helped me get them to contribute to the book, people like Lindsay Wagner and Melissa Gilbert and mutual friends of ours. So yeah, and then I've known him as a publicist for so many years, so to have him be my publicist on the book was really interesting and exciting. And we got some great press, and we were taking the book to Dallas. There's something called the south work experience. So they're having a bunch of actors from, well, obviously Dallas, but also the ladies. And not landing, they're doing a Threes Company reunion all at South Fork. So I'll be there with my book and to moderate panels. That's in August, actually. And then then I'll be with the book, I think in Memphis in September, and then Orlando in October. So it's, it ain't done yet. We're still rocking and rolling with this thing

Jeff Dwoskin 2:09

that is really, really exciting. I I'm glad to hear that that's really awesome. You deserve you deserve it. It was a great confessional. And so I'm gonna, I'll put a link in the show notes to this one too. So anyone who won, ever you should, everyone who's listening should buy this book. It was, will was a, was horrible, horrible person at one point.

William Keck 2:31

I was, I'm still not wonderful, but I I was much

Jeff Dwoskin 2:36

worse. Yeah, he was reformed, but it's but makes for some great stories.

William Keck 2:41

Yeah. I mean, I discussed it, but just very briefly, I was a tabloid reporter for three years for the National Enquirer. It was during the whole OJ debacle, that whole horrible tragedy, I should say, not a debacle. Well, it was, it was a little bit of that too. I just had a nightmare the other night. It was something that actually happened that I, I did not put in the book because I was, I'm still too embarrassed to this day, because I don't want my editors to know, but I, I'll tell you very briefly, it's a it's a fascinating story. I was at the Bel Air hotel, and I was on assignments. I'm I want to say it was maybe for Oprah's birthday party or something, and Gale King and all these celebrities were there, and I was, you know, hiding in the bushes trying to find out things I was already sick of. OJ, I just did not want to be part of that at all. I did not want to go to downtown, to the police departments and jail cells. I just, I hated it. So any chance I had to avoid it, I would, um, even though I did have this big, scoop in the the beginning with the Cole brown Simpsons family, which we talked about, which leads off the book. But when I was at the Bel Air hotel that night, I was sneaking through the dining room area, and it was very dark, was very late, and I saw Chris Darden and the Marcia Clark. Marcia Clark, thank you. I confuse her with Marcia Cross all the time? Marcia Clark, they were there having a romantic interlude, and nobody knew about this yet. It came out later, but this would have been shocking, and I I saw it, and I almost just pushed it away, as if I didn't see it, because I didn't want to jump in there. But I mean, if my editors could fire me now with that, they would come back, yes, they would come back and fire me. It would have been huge. It would have been cover stories for weeks about that romance, and it did come out later, but I just went right back to looking for Oprah. So you know, it's again, that one that was just too embarrassed. But everything else is in the book. I revealed everything else, but we left kind of a big unfinished subject matter. We wanted to talk about. We wanted to talk about all the reunions that I was part of, all these amazing TV reunions.

Jeff Dwoskin 4:50

Yes, you were, and you were so many, I don't we may, we may have to have like five sequels to this. Let's do it the. Depends how many stories you guys tell me the gist. So you worked for, like, some of these were with Hallmark, when you were with TV Guide. Like, how did you come about becoming? Like, because this is one of the things that when, yeah, I mean, if I look up your mini bios, it goes, known for cast reunion shows,

William Keck 5:16

it does. It's weird, yeah, yeah. I really did not sit out for that to be my thing, I'll tell you. You know, it's, it's, and this is, this is discussed in in the book. I had a very small family. I had no siblings. I had just my mom. My dad died when I was a kid, and I loved going out and playing with the kids in the neighborhood. Was always very envious when they went off into their own homes for dinners and vacations. So I really threw myself into my love for TV. I just loved when they would reunite. And I think the first one I remember watching on TV was rescue from Gilligan's Island. Because it always really, really bothered me that they never got off that damn Island. Can we swear on this show? Yeah, please. At fucking Island, it really, really bothered me. So when they got together, and then, of course, you know, tidal wave happened, and they ended up back on that fucking Island, it was just the most amazing thing. And then it became kind of a thing that did so well in the ratings. Then they did the Brady girls got married, and that led to the Brady brides. And every show started doing these. And a little bit later, there was the dynasty reunion, which I which I worked on behind the scenes, and there was all these Dallas and Waltons. And I was just obsessed. And so when I came out here to California, I wanted to be there for every possible reunion I could that's why, in the book, you see me at the Knott's Lenny cul de sac with all the ladies, and you see me at South work with the whole cast. You see me up at the Carrington mansion, the faloli mansion in Northern California, with John Forest Lake, Linda Evans, Joan Collins, anytime there was a reunion, I was there for it. And these things happen behind the scenes that you can ask me about. And then when I had a chance to produce my own reunions, I just, I went crazy, and that was on Hallmark.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:05

I'll list some of these off, because I'm not sure exactly which ones were on Hallmark or which ones you covered. Yeah, but we can just so if I were to start with, Leave It to Beaver.

William Keck 7:14

Well, so Leave It to Beaver. Was my my friend Michael Levitz. He partnered with Howard Henry Winkler, and they produced the TV Land Awards, which was just like my wedding. I mean, it was the day I looked forward to it more than any other during the year, when they would all come together. It was just nuts. And so at the time, I was at USA Today, so I got my pick of the litter. I mean, maybe there would be four reunions, and I would say, I want to cover that one and that one, and one of the ones they were honoring was Leave It to Beaver. It was the 50th anniversary of Leave It to Beaver. I had an opportunity to sit down for quite a while with Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers together, and but the the coolest thing was, I really wanted to talk to Barbara Billingsley, and she was maybe going to make it in person. She didn't, but I did get to talk to Mrs. Cleaver on the phone for for quite a while, which was just so exciting, and that that was the big deal for me, is that I wanted to meet them before they passed, because it did feel when they one of them died. It felt like one of my own family members dying. And not long after that, June, June did die, Barbara Billingsley did pass away. So that was that one. So that was No, I had not a lot of involvement on that, but just to sit with Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers. And this kicked off a tradition that I did for about 15 years, where I did a a TV reunion Christmas card, and so I put on a baseball cap, and I brought a little bat, and I basically posed with Jerry and Tony as the beaver. And I sent this out to all the media, you know, for Christmas and all my friends and family. So they thought I was a total weirdo, and they were right, but it was like, Yeah, wishing you a very beaver Christmas or something like that. I Yeah. I mean, we did a Brady card and we did a Dallas card from South Fork. So, yeah, that was, that was super fun. Um, I saw Jerry Mathers not long ago, and I just, you know, you talk about me being sad about one of these people dying, Jerry is just, I think just devastated. I don't know if we'll ever recover. You know, with Tony having passed, it just wasn't, it wasn't supposed to happen. They were they did everything together. They always remain brothers after that show ended, and it's heartbreaking to see him without, without Wally.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:34

This is such a thing for them. And then when the cast starts passing away, you know, like Tina Louise is, like, the only one left, right, crazy.

William Keck 9:45

And since, since we talked Jeff, I, I did have a very long, like hour conversation with Team Louise, who was very private, and she's sort of like, you know, I would say a reckless almost, but you. She's obsessed with this book that she wrote years and years and years ago about her childhood, you know, about about three years of her life spent an orphanage, and I was able to get her on the phone to talk about that, and she really did not want to talk about Gilligan's Island, but I kept on steering it back there, and I got her to tell great stories about Bob Denver and Russell Johnson and Don wells and and she didn't have the animosity that everybody thinks she does. I think that she did for a long time. But when, you know, she's 90 years old now. So I think when you get to be 90, you're kind of like, you know, what the f let, let's go there. Let, let's talk about it. But it wasn't easy. I gotta, I mean, I really had to keep on, you know, like she when she was talking about this orphanage she was in. So was being an orphanage Tina kind of like being stranded on a deserted island, and she would roll her eyes and but she played ball with me. That was great. It was a thrill.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:50

Why do you think some folks like Tina, in your experience with all the folks that you've met, there's some that embrace it, like Jerry Mathers is still the beaver. He's still doing the comic cons. And then Tina Louise, you know, just recently, puts out, you know, I'm done with ginger, right? It's like, even though it's most people would probably say immediately, the visceral reaction would be ginger.

William Keck 11:15

Well, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And when they did that rescue from Gilligan's Island. People who care will know that she was not part of it. She did not do any of those Gilligan's Island reunion movies because she she had been on Dallas very briefly for for a year, and she told me actually why she left Dallas. I never knew this. I guess there was a contract dispute. She was supposed to be a bigger character than she was. She was brought on to be JR and jock secretary, and she thought she was going to be in the opening credits along with Victoria principal and Linda gray and Patrick Duffy and and for whatever reason, she wasn't, and she never got over that. And I don't know if they let her go or she quit or what, but it wasn't. It wasn't, it wasn't a great experience. So she probably doesn't want to talk about Dallas either. I don't Dallas, either, I don't know, I don't want to, I don't want to come down, or she was so gracious to talk to me, and was very generous with her time. So I, you know, I Why do they not want to do more? It's just, it's a matter of, I think, how they see themselves, and some of them see themselves as a bigger star than perhaps fate has in store for them. Florence Henderson, she always got a kick out of being Mrs. Brady, and for that reason, she got a reputation of being fun and easy to work with. And because of that, she got a lot of offers. I mean, it was often offers that kind of had her playing Mrs. Brady or something like that. But she would get other things too, because people just adore her. And then someone like Eve plumb, who makes it clear that she wants nothing to do with the Brady Bunch, I think that it just sort of makes her seem like she's someone who's sour grapes, whether she is or not, and maybe you don't want to work with somebody who's like that. I've gotten to know Eve, and she's she's different than the others. I'll say that, you know? I mean, she is showing up for things because she's getting paid now. And you know what? I'll say that too, they have every right to get paid. And people, I was like, you know, why not do it? Why not just be part of this show up, you know? And for the fans, well, you know, okay, maybe five or six times. But when you're being asked to do this again and again, and you're not getting paid for something, or you're getting paid very, very, very little. And the project you're talking about the Brady Bunch, you did not make residuals on you were paid very, very little when you were, like, 13 years old. And when you go on to a program to promote it, it's promoting the brand Paramount is going to make more money for it, but you're still not. So I get why people would be hesitant to support something that they're not getting a benefit from. Totally get it

Jeff Dwoskin 13:48

well and Eve almost kind of was on, I think when she, like, passed on the Brady Bunch hour and stuff like which, but did give us fake

William Keck 13:57

how smart was she passed on that piece of garbage? Yes, yeah, it's still, they all wish they had.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:03

It's funny, though it's, it's bad rap as the Brady Bunch variety hour gets when you really put it up against other 70s variety shows at the time, it's really, I mean, it's on par they weren't. It wasn't like they were all great, and the Brady Bunch. One was bad, you know, they were a little fun, bad for this. They were 70s, you know. I mean, hey, off the time. I mean,

William Keck 14:27

listen, anytime I love to love you, Brady, you know, comes up on Instagram. I'm going to watch it. You know, whether they're dancing with and B Davis or they're dancing with Donnie and Marie or whatever. I mean, I'm all there for it. But what really irked me about the Brady variety show. It sounds so strange, but yes, I'm bitter is that they spent all this money on these costumes and these crazy sets and swimming pools with divers going in, Esther Williams type divers going in, but when they would cut to the Brady house. House. It looked like they were filming it in a closet or one of their dressing rooms. They spent no money to even remotely try to recreate a room of the house. I have rooms in my house that look more like the Brady house. So that that was like, you know, it made me think the whole thing was done the cheap that they didn't care about, I guess, you know, sort of paying tribute to what was and and honoring the fans who who care about what the Brady house looked like. So how great was it when they did that reunion and they redid the Brady house to make it look like the actual Brady house. I, I were you? Have you been there? Have you had a chance to go? I

Jeff Dwoskin 15:37

haven't gone the renovation one. I think I just saw they were doing like a sweepstakes. You could win a yes to go see it or something. Yeah,

William Keck 15:44

yeah, yeah. I was there not long ago with Christopher Knight Peter Brady. He gave me a tour, which was, I mean, just incredible. He wrote something for my book, and I handed him a copy of my book for that, finally, but yeah, they were, they were doing at the time they were doing, they were auctioning off a chance to be there for a very Brady brunch. And now they're, I think they have an auction for a very Brady barbecue. For whatever reason they're not allowed to say Brady Bunch. So they find other ways to weave in Brady with the brunch and things like that.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:16

Fine. I got, I got to talk to Christopher Knight. He was, he was a good dude. He was, he was fun to talk to. You know, who I talked to from the as a, Leave It to Beaver that people love. This one is Steven Talbot Gilbert,

William Keck 16:28

yeah, sure, yeah, such a How was he? Was he

Jeff Dwoskin 16:34

good? Amazing. It was great. Yeah, good. So fun. Tina Louise, the email I got back was she doesn't do technology. Technology, I didn't. I wanted to, so bad talk

William Keck 16:46

to, yeah, ours was, uh, ours was a phone call. It would have been great to talk to her in a zoom like this, but that was not to happen. No technology.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:56

Pick you. Pick the next one, which was one of the your, your most

William Keck 16:59

favorite? Well, you know, when I got to home and family, which was a show that ran on the Hallmark Channel for nine seasons, I was there for eight of those years, executive producer gave me a chance to kind of take over this two hour show and do these crazy, splashy two hour reunion shows. And I the first one I did started by accident. We were pitch a chance to have Anson Williams on the show, and then we were also pitched around that time, Don most and Marion Ross. I'm like, you know, instead of just booking them over the next few months, why not just have them come together and sound like a great idea. My producer loved it. The the stars were there each to promote something. Marion Ross had her book come out. Anson had a book come out. And Donnie most who played, Ralph Mal, he had a, I think, an album coming out, because he's a big conductor musician. And they all were like, oi, you know, they love each other. They're very, very close to the happy days. I'm talking about Happy Days cast, but they want to make sure they had a chance to promote their individual items that it wouldn't get lost in talking about Fonzie. So what I did was I say, Hey, listen, you will come on and we'll do a couple segments about happy days, but then you'll each have your own segment to talk about your books and your music. And we had, it was great. We had Anson did a whole segment about, I guess his uncle was the creator of the the Heimlich maneuver. I think we did a Heimlich demonstration with one of them, and then we had Marion and Anson were in the audience when Don did his conducting of the orchestra. So this kind of set the the tone of what these were going to be when I did the next one, which I think was the Waltons, I had my choice of who I wanted, and I didn't want it to get lost with all of them. And I I knew some people were better on cameras than the others, so my wish list was obviously Richard Thomas, who we got, and Michael learned, who played Olivia Walton, the mom we got her. And then I had the three girls come on, because I knew they were very close, and we what was great about this was I was able to get Earl Hamner, who was the creator of The Waltons. He was very old. He was in his 90s at the time, and not in great health. He recorded an opening, as he did for every episode of The Waltons. And he and I worked together on some kind of a poetic, kind of an opening about some, you know, life for the Waltons. You know, it was always like coming home. And so we went, we took the camera into our home. And then what was great is we did the goodbyes, the good nights at the end of the episode too. So two hours of a lot of, you know, memories and clips and all that kind of thing. And then we, they were all in tears by the end of it. So it was, it was a lot of fun to do that, but it was we, I'll see. We paid them nothing. We paid them nothing. So a lot of times the question was, what? What's in it for me, and if they had something to promote, that was the answer. But if they had nothing to promote, it was really just me begging, yeah. That the fans will love this and everyone else is doing it. And I think one of the people who who was most reluctant to do a reunion was Al Corley, who played the first Stephen Carrington in dynasty. And I think Al, like me, just, you know, he he needed some money, and he said, Can you just give us, you know, $500 and I said, I said, I'm I can't because the network wouldn't have approved it. And if I paid him that, then it would set a precedent, and I would have to pay everybody that people watch this for like, $500 that's nothing, you know, just pay the five people on the show 500 but then we would have had to do that for for every cast reunion I did. And then there would have been negotiating, well, how much is that person getting paid? So we just kept it as nothing you can promote, whatever you want to do. But Al had nothing to promote. But luckily, John James, who played Jeff Colby, he called him and said, Come on, just do it. Come and have fun with us. And that's what happened in that case, with

Jeff Dwoskin 20:56

the happy days, example, or the Waltons. What is it like sitting there watching these folks reunite, because they probably haven't seen each other in most cases, or a lot of cases, in very long time, but at some one point they were, you know, as close as any family, right?

William Keck 21:14

Well, you know what was funny, you mentioned that I did a Star Trek The Next Generation reunion, and I forget how. I think maybe I had Jonathan Frakes on, and he said, you know, we, I can get them for you. And so I worked with Jonathan, we put together, I think we had, like five, and it was so hard to schedule the the next generation reunion, because they do see each other almost every weekend at these reunions, it was a matter of, gosh, one would drop out, and I would put somebody else in. We kept on moving the date. And finally, I'm like, You know what? They're never all going to be available. Because if, if some of them aren't available to do a sci fi show in Oklahoma, they're going to reach out to some of the other cast members. And because I wasn't paying them anything, why would they do my show for free when they can make, I don't know, $100,000 at one of these weekend events. How could I argue with that? We got most of them. The guy who played data help me with Thank you. Brent Spiner wanted to do it, but he was at a he was at a convention, so he recorded a greeting for them, and, you know, a surprise greeting. And he was making fun of the fact they see each other all the time. He's like, Hey guys, it's been so long since we saw each other. My gosh, I can't imagine what you guys look like now. And they were all laughing, rolling their eyes, knowing they were going to see him in probably five days. What was terrifying with that? I always because we paid them nothing. I was always worried we were going to lose them. If they got any offer to do anything to make five bucks that they were going, they would quit mine. And this happened with the next generation. They wanted Frakes to come in a day early to do some extra autographs, and he left me message, will I'm so sorry. I can't do it. I needed him because I didn't have Patrick Stewart, I designed. We had turned our house set into a whole spaceship, and he was going to be our captain. We needed Riker, so I did one of my begging things. I'm like, Please, please. And I think he got one of the other actors to go do what he was going to do. And God bless John and friggs. He came on our reunion. And when he saw what we had done, when he saw that it was two hours. He's like, will i i get how you would have been screwed if I hadn't done this. I get it. And I'm like, oh yes, thank you. But I wasn't always lucky. I did lose some people right before we lost the mother from Little House in the prairie, right before our reunion, and I was so bummed, and but then all of a sudden, I got Albert, I got Matthew leberto to come to it instead. So it was always negotiating and worry until they were all there on set, Karen bailed on you. That was Karen had a very good reason for bailing, which, which I can never talk about. Yeah, I know. I'll just say I brought it up to her recently, and she was not happy that I brought this up. So that's, yeah, I'm not here to again with the book. I promise not to expose scandals anymore. I've become a reformed person, so I'm not going to go back on this fight. No,

Jeff Dwoskin 24:10

no, no, we don't I like Karen. She was a guest. I had a good time. Oh, yeah, yeah. Lovely, yeah. So when you have the the next generation cast together anything new? Are they just repeating all the same stories? Did you get it? What kind of scoop did you get on that? And I And yes, I would guess most of the people on the list aren't seeing each other. That one is an active Comic Con. Probably favorite. There isn't a Comic Con I don't go to that. I have one of all the women from from the next generation. Oh, you do, yes, that was the only time I ever got upset at a comic con, by the way, I I go do like Beverly Crusher, right? I get and they, and they're all there, and they purposely, when they're at Comic Cons, they purposely bring pictures of each other Fair. Fabulous. So I went to the one, had her sign it. Picked the one because I knew I was going to have the other. And of course, I get with all three. So maybe one day I'll meet the third, and I'll bring it, and I'll have the trifecta on the fabulous. So that's great. That's great. This is where I get upset. So not upset, but, you know, and this is the scam. And so I go to the next one, they're like, they want to charge me more, because now they're considering it, the value of it, they have. They consider it like they didn't consider just the photo. They considered it like I was bringing it. You know, sometimes when people bring in a toy or something, they'll charge like, 100 bucks, but like, the eight by 10 is 40. So instead of 40, they're like, it's 60. I'm like, What are you talking about? And they're like, well, because it's, it's already, I'm like, I got it right over there. I would, I would have got a different picture over there. I would have just got individual pictures, you know, I mean, it was just, it was, it was the only time in a comic con that they did that. I know it's so petty, it sounds

William Keck 25:52

so i It's so for I know exactly we're talking about. And if I could, if you'll let me, I have, I have some really good autograph stories that they're actually in the book, but it speaks to what you went through. And one, I'll tell I was involved with the other two. This one was told to me by Burt Ward. He kind of denied it later on, and then he admitted to it. There was a little boy who had a poster of the Batman movie from my was it 1966 the one that Lee Meriwether did as Catwoman. And this little boy had signatures from Burt Ward Burgess married. This is a long time ago. You know, when they were a lot in the in the 80s. I guess Burgess Meredith, Lee maryweather, Caesar Romero and Frank Gorshin. So he had Robin the Joker, the Riddler, Cat Woman and Penguin. The only one he needed was Adam West. So this little boy and his mother show up at the Hollywood show, which at this point was still in at the Beverly garland hotel in North Hollywood. And Adam was was there, and I assume Bert was as well for this one. And so the costs were not a lot back then for a signing. I think it was maybe 20 bucks for a signature. And so the little boy went up to the table, and I always thought it was Adam, but Adam was there. But now Bert tells me that next to Adam was his manager, a guy named Fred Westbrook, who was always looking for a dime, and when they saw this poster, the conversation turned to, well, you know, little child, what you have there is worth a lot of money. And when I sign this, it's going to be worth a ton of money. So we don't see us signing this for $20 the lowest we could do for you is $500 Wow. So the little boy starts crying. You know, Batman's his hero. I mean, he obviously, he's going around searching for all them. This is going to forever taint the poster and his memories. The mother is livid, because it's posted out there. What the cost is? She had to go talk to the manager, and I believe there was a conversation that was had, and they came to a I think it was $100 or something that that they paid. They negotiated them down. But how awful to this little boy that he had to experience that whole thing? And, you know, there is something I get. You know, a lot of these people haven't worked a long time. This is a chance to make money. They're making their fans super happy, but it does totally change what an autograph used to be. My I was a general hospital fan when I was a kid, and my grandmother was on a cruise ship, and Anthony Geary was on the cruise ship, who played Luke, of Luke and Laura fame, and she went up to him, and Tony Geary signed an autograph on a Princess Cruises napkin for me, and I kept it, and it really meant something. It was a gift. And now that it's a negotiation, a lot of celebrities, some of them don't feel comfortable with that, and I tell you, one of them is a Love Boat actress, and she's one of the most amazing people. Cynthia tweez. Lauren tweez is how she went on the show. She played Julie the cruise director, and she loves her fans so much that she doesn't feel comfortable going to these autograph shows and charging them. She just says it feels icky for them. So I don't know. I mean, I get both sides of that. I mean, people would rather, I think, see her and pay her a little something than not see her at all. What? What is your view on, on the autograph negotiation conversation?

Jeff Dwoskin 29:27

Well, funny, you should ask. You could see from behind me that I clearly here? I don't know if I showed you last time, but like, I mean, I have, you know, my whole wall is all eight by 10s and

William Keck 29:43

fabulous. What's your most precious one there? If, if the if the house run fire, it's not going to happen. God, for a bit. But if you could only grab one, Jeff, what would you grab?

Jeff Dwoskin 29:52

I like to think I wouldn't grab any of them, but like, Sorry kids, I had to save the five. To save the five. Ons

William Keck 30:01

your rap, you're covering one of your kids faces with one of these autographs. Which one do you my favorite?

Jeff Dwoskin 30:07

My favorite one, actually, yeah, which isn't even from any of these is, I was interviewing John Iman, and John Iman was, I love the Twilight Zone. Okay, so, like, the Twilight Zone is, like my fave. So he was in, actually the same episode as Steven Talbot, called The Fugitive. And he was one of the kids playing baseball. And he was in, like the original, the the in the pilot to Leave It to Beaver. He was like a kid actor that was in all the little things. And so I'm interviewing him, and we're talking and he's sharing stories, and, you know, had a lot of great stories. And he says, Oh, by the way, I was in an ad in, like, for, I'm going to look at his carnation in a 1950s Life magazine. I said, really? I said, John, if I can get that magazine, because I love the old style of ads. You know, those old ads, right? If I can get that and I send it to you, you sign it for me. He says, yes, absolutely. I get on YouTube. I get on the eBay. It's Pat Boone's on the cover. I find it. I order it. They ship it to me. I go and I I ship it to him with a return thing, so he doesn't have to, you know, all he has to do is sign it and send it to me. And he did. It was just, it was so cool, and it's on my wall, and, yeah, and so I just love it, because there's just a little bit more of a story behind

William Keck 31:34

it. So that might be one that you would, you would grab, potentially, I it's just, I don't know if I

Jeff Dwoskin 31:38

would grab it, but if, like, I were to say, like, a lot of times when people are like, which one's your favorite? I go, that one's, I think is my favorite. And it's not because, you know, sure, I got Henry Winkler right here saying Jeff is cool. So that's, you know, and you know. And I met a lot of cool people I love. There's the kid, the Guy, Carl from walking dead right there. When I walked up to his table, I said to him, you see that girl over there? Oh, she's got eyes for you, buddy. Like, she was like, I was right in line with her, and she was just like, so in love with

William Keck 32:09

that. Oh, my God, that's great. I stopped watching walking dead when they killed carloff. I'm like, I'm done. I can't, I can't.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:16

But I said to that, I get to the front and I'm like, I can't use any of these photos I go I had in my head I needed the a picture of him eating the pudding on the roof, like, Oh, we got that one. Hang on, yeah, we got that one. We got that we got that picture. And so, so they went and got it for me. Oh, that's, oh, my favorite. Favorite picture, though, is that one right there, which is, maybe that's the one I'll grab. Is, it's Land of the Lost us in the raft with Holly and and will,

William Keck 32:46

all three of them, all three of them, Marshall will and Holly. Yeah, could break into the song right now, but I'm not going to. It's great when there's a story behind it. I agree. Yeah, it,

Jeff Dwoskin 32:56

it was, it was fun. I have, I'll tell you a story when we're done, of one night. Don't have that. I still am a little better. Oh,

William Keck 33:03

okay, those are always the best stories. Yeah, you know, I will I, since we were speaking about Gilligan's Island, I'll tell, I want to tell you a couple, a couple quick autograph stories. Um, I was still the inquirer at the time. I had heard that Russell Johnson, who played the professor, that his his son, had passed away recently of AIDS, and that Russell was a an advocate for HIV, and he was, you know, just doing a wonderful thing with his life in tribute to his son. So I'm like, You know what? This is a great inquire story, and I always wanted to try to bring good inquire stories to them, instead of just the the sleaze I met Russell at one of these autograph shows, and it was his lunch break, and we went to lunch. Had a great lunch, and was very emotional, you know, he cried. I cried. We talked about his son, all the work that he did, and then I walked him back to his signing table. He said, you know, will this was really great. He said, Do you want to, do you want an autograph before you go? And I said, Oh, I said, Russell, that'd be very nice. I would like that very much. And so he, he signed the photo for me. It's photos in the book. He handed it to me and said, that'll be $15 so it's, it's hysterical. I mean, it's, it's but it says, it says a lot. I think, I think it says a lot. And the other one was, I caught you moment, and this was when I was working on dynasty. I was working on the reunion movie. I was on set Joan Collins had a best friend who was also her assistant, a woman named Judy Breyer who was huge shoulders. I mean, the women on dynasty always wore those shoulder pads, but hers just looked like those naturally, without the pads. And so Judy, I got to know Judy a little bit from working on the on dynasty, and she said, you know, will Would you like a an autographed photo from Joan? And I kind of knew this was a no no working on the show, you just don't do that. But I was like, you know, there's nobody around and, and she said, Joan was in her trailer, and. So I said, Well, sure, it was. It was near the end of we were about to wrap the production. She went to her trailer, a short time later, came out with an autographed photo from Joan. It was a beautiful photo to will love Joan Collins. And right at that moment, Joan Collins comes from the other direction, walking offset into her trailer. She had not been in her trailer. She had not signed the autograph, and Judy knows she's busted, and she's just looking at me, and I'm looking at her, and I kept the autograph, even though I know it's a Judy Breyer, Joan Collins autograph. The photo of that is, is in, is in the book. I mean, how funny. So I think probably, unless you see them do it a lot of times, it is a publicist or assistant who has learned how to forge their signature. And I have a beautiful poster from Ken kershaval who played Cliff Barnes on Dallas. It's, it's a beautiful illustration of him with an oil well in the back. And it's signing me, but it is the most feminine signature, I mean, with little hearts. And I'm like, I knew Ken kershaval. He did not, he did not sign this, but I, I kept it, you know? I mean, he said he did. At one

Jeff Dwoskin 36:17

point when eBay was, I'm going back a little bit. I would buy autographs. None of them are on the wall. None of them are on the wall. And I then I finally made a rule for myself. I said, If I don't meet the person, it doesn't have any meaning for me. So I don't want it. I don't need the autograph. Like, I think one of them is John Travolta a grease photo. But I'm like, they're just in my drawer. Sure they come with a certificate and says it's real and all that. Yeah, it's like, mine, but it's like, I think it of authenticity, please, right? I kind of could just decided, like, if I don't, if I, if I'm not experiencing it, it has no meaning to me. I did think of the one that I would take in the fire. What is it I have, I have an eight by 10 of Mary I and remember the old computer paper? You know that you Yeah, sure, no, it's, it's an autograph from Mary travers, and she was actually in my house, and that, that's a story she was speaking at my temple. And so she was at my house because my mom was sort of, you know her and a friend were in charge of hospitality. So she was at my house. It was once a joke that she used to drink. She drank from our Tweety Bird glass, which doesn't exist anymore, but she drew, she autographed like a little caricature of herself. She drew and signed it, and it's on my wall over there. And we went and saw them in concert. And so we were backstage, and they sang my grandpa Happy Birthday. Peter Paul Mayer, it was like that one, I think would were to pick one with the most sentimental value. I think that would be it that

William Keck 37:54

that beats Marshall will and Holly.

Jeff Dwoskin 37:57

Okay, I get it, though I get it, but yeah, I mean, like, maybe I'd grab them both.

William Keck 38:03

Yeah, you know, I'm, I'm very much at a stage in my life where I'm, I accumulated so much. I mean, here's the stuff I'm keeping. I mean, we're gonna do a quick thing. I want you to tell me, well, you'll know what these things are. Look what I'm talking to, but what is

Jeff Dwoskin 38:17

this? Oh, that is Bigfoot from $6 million Man, exactly. Yes.

William Keck 38:22

With the what does this do? Oh, removable chest plate to show his

Jeff Dwoskin 38:27

bionics. That was Andre the Giant. Wasn't

William Keck 38:30

it? Uh, it was it. Was it? The first time he appeared was Jack Cassidy, who was lurch, lurch, right, right. No. Ted Cassidy. Ted cast. Maybe that's it, yeah, was it ever Andre the Giant? Or was it and then, and then it was Andre the Giant? Okay, brought him back. I think Ted had died, and then they recast Bigfoot,

Jeff Dwoskin 38:50

which is easy, because you're covering him for so

William Keck 38:53

Well, exactly, of course, yeah, he must be dying. Well, way too short. Yeah, I don't think you I have a few I have a few items here. This thing, it's available on Ebay. I can't get anybody to buy it. I thought it's so cool. It is. This was a press only promo for Adams family values. And obviously it's thing holding the Addams Family House in a snow globe. Now it's the snow is all dried up, so maybe that's why nobody wants it. But, um, I thought was Wednesday, you know, being a big show now, and and thing being a character, that I would get some bids. No bids. I think it's available for $15 now, if you want to look for it on my on my eBay, and I'm so I'm I'm also keeping this, which I love,

Jeff Dwoskin 39:37

oh, I love that, a

William Keck 39:38

Herman from the 1960s it's a puppet, and he's in great shape. And I probably can make a little money from this one, but I'm holding on to him a Herman monster puppet that's and then the last couple of things. I mean, I guess, you know, everybody has one of these.

Jeff Dwoskin 39:56

I saw the real one at the Smithsonian Institute,

William Keck 39:58

did you? Oh.

Jeff Dwoskin 40:01

Yeah. And then this, oh, Jr.

William Keck 40:03

It's a Yeah, Larry Hagman decanter. And I don't know if it's, it's musical. I don't know if it still plays the Dallas theme song. It doesn't Oh, it's broken. Oh, it's broken.

Jeff Dwoskin 40:16

That's why you're not getting any beds

William Keck 40:18

well, and I will. Now I don't think I want to part with this. Oh, this is, this is a shame the hat also broke, and that's, well, I won't get into that. It's a very it's a sad story. So I'm keeping that, but I'm I'm getting rid of everything. But the things that I'm keeping are things like you said that have real, real emotional, personal value.

Jeff Dwoskin 40:37

I read in a Feng Shui book once stuff like that, just take some good pictures of it and have yeah photos, and then you can part with it. The physical though, that one I'd keep. I I want the

William Keck 40:50

book this one, yeah, I gotta, I keep this I sold by fembai. I think what

Jeff Dwoskin 40:54

you need to do is get a $6 million Man one and put them next to each other.

William Keck 40:58

I have a photo with Lee Majors holding the $6 million Man photo, and that was pretty great. My license plate on my car is bionic. I don't know if I mentioned that to you, so when I was at home and family, I had a chance to have both Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner come on the show, unfortunately, separate times, but I have them both sitting with me on my the front of my car, next to the bionic license plate. So I

Jeff Dwoskin 41:24

love that is so cool. So cool. Yeah, you mentioned The Love Boat. Oh, yeah. Who is it that reunion?

William Keck 41:33

Well, I was, I covered a Love Boat reunion, but I also did produce my own and it was, it was amazing. It couldn't have gone better. It was around Christmas time. So it became a two hour Christmas Love Boat reunion on Hallmark, and I had all of them. Gavin was still with us, so you know, all of them, and they were in their costumes, because I worked at a deal with Princess Cruises to promote Princess Cruises. And so they had them in their costumes, which was unbelievable. I got Jack Jones to come out and sing The Love Boat theme song, as he did for the first, like, nine years of the show. And he was very he just died recently. He was very old then, and he lip synced the whole thing. And the very first shot of the reunion is, you know him going and then you hear love, exciting, but not paired up at all. It was really, it was, it was kind of tragic. And then I had Cheryl come out and sing Felice Navidad as a surprise to the cast. I mean, I was, I was in heaven. I was in heaven.

Jeff Dwoskin 42:40

Taro was the best. Charo

William Keck 42:43

is the best. Um as well. I met a good friend of mine, Jack Bowers. We met at her house, at some, I don't know, with some strange dance party or something. I mean, how many times can you say that I met someone so at Charles Dance Party at her house. But you don't forget something like that. You do not forget that that, or you do forget something like that you've got, you know, too many margaritas.

Jeff Dwoskin 43:05

The Love Boat is, you know, one of those shows I've had Isaac over and doc on the show. It was funny, because, like, it's been a while, but like, when I reached out to Bernie compels people, right? Cuz Bernie's Bernie's Love Boat, but he's also get smart, right? It's like, it's a, it's a pretty solid character he did on Get Smart also. So this only has happened to me twice, but I can when I, when I come onto this zoom and we talk, I'm fully fine. I can talk to anyone, right? I mean, maybe, like, you know, yeah, I'm pretty much. I can talk when we're here. This is the roles we're playing, and I can talk. They're so easy to talk to. I totally get that I don't know how to talk to Bernie Copel when he just randomly calls my cell phone. You know what I mean? It's not like, I don't, can't talk to him, but it's like, Hey, Jeff, it's Bernie Coppell. I hear you want to talk. Yeah, I want to be on my podcast. I'm like, Yeah, that would be great, you know, because somehow he got the information. Alright, let's find a time. Are you free tomorrow? I'm like, sure. I'm like, because usually, like, I'm pushing out two weeks or so, because I like to prepare and stuff. But Ernie gobell wants to do it tomorrow. I'm doing it tomorrow. Okay, let's, let's be real. When they're older, you don't, but you don't put it on. Wait two weeks, yeah, and, and so we get on and that guy to this day, like, I would say, I call it an interview, but I'm really not any part of it. Bernie co Bell starts talking and telling stories non stop for like, over 45 minutes. It was to me, amazing. I because I don't need to hear myself, right? If I don't have to work, I don't have to. But, you know, at the end, when you're editing it, you're like, it's supposed to be an interview, but like, you know, one point I'm like, Alright, now we're going to talk about my burner. We gotta talk about get smart. Like,

William Keck 45:00

Oh, you see? Well, that's the deal. Is there's always we're taught not to interrupt people, that it's rude. But when you have a show to do, luckily he it sounds like he was interesting. But there are times when you have an hour, a half an hour, 15 minutes with somebody is all you're given, and they go on and on and on, as I did for the first half of our chat today. I'm sorry I caught myself, and you realize you're not going to get to any of your questions, and maybe they're talking about something that was interesting for the first five minutes, but now you can no longer use this and so you there's an art to interrupting that's part of that can be part of our job.

Jeff Dwoskin 45:39

Yes, i i Also, but if a lot of times, if it's like, on the right path anyway, and like, you know, it's like, I'm like, okay, you know, I mean, like, this is, as long as they're covering everything I want to talk about, I'm like, or they'll go deeper on things that, you know, that I wouldn't have even thought to die. I'm like, anyway, he was awesome. They were all three, actually, Ted Lyons and Fred Grandy and Ham were all amazing. Getting Vicky is, is the one I need to get the

William Keck 46:09

Oh, Jill. Yeah. No, yeah. Bernie was. Bernie was one of the ones who wanted to get paid. Even though he was getting paid by Princess, he was almost a holdout. And he said, Well, I can't come on without getting paid. And then princess had to talk with with Doc, and he, he was there in his costume. Thank you.

Jeff Dwoskin 46:28

He doesn't get paid twice. Come on. Yeah, that's

William Keck 46:31

exactly maybe he forgot, maybe he forgot, but he was great, you know. And I, I had each of them do a segment of their own. That's where I was getting at with the happy days thing. They each got to segment of their own so I had, it was I had Jill Whelan make these amazing she's so crafty. She made these amazing Christmas ornaments that she gave to the cast at the end of the show. And oh my god, these things were stolen off the set, and they didn't get them. I mean, it is the only time anything was stolen. And what a horrible time to have something stolen. These were gorgeous. And why would someone take six of them? They took the entire collection of them. I had Isaac Ted made a drink in the kitchen. He did a cocktail mixologist segment, which was great. Cynthia, Lauren tweez at the time was, she was, she was selling cheese at a store near her in the Bay Area. And so she did a lovely segment on a cheese platter. And I think Bernie, we had to a medical segment to keep, keeping, you know, in theme with, with Doc Bricker, I think it was something kind of comical about how to cure things that you could happen on cruise ships which princess didn't like because you no one gets sick on a cruise ship. No one dies on a cruise ship. Not to worry about that. Oh yeah. They have, like, morgues. They have more cruise ships. People are throwing their their fiances off cruise ships every week. It seems like, what is up with that?

Jeff Dwoskin 48:02

I don't know. But like, I sometimes, like, I get these really weird tiktoks where it's like, if you ever fall off a cruise ship, it's basically like you're dead. You know? I mean, because by time you hit the water and come up the cruise the boat is like forever, and that's assuming you didn't get immediately sucked under. Don't if you see a a video like that in Tiktok, anyone listening? Don't watch it, because that's all you'll get. That's all you'll get. Oh my gosh, here's how to survive. You're not going to survive,

William Keck 48:28

although I wrote a Christmas movie. You know, that's that very thing happened, they fell overboard and ended up on an

Jeff Dwoskin 48:35

island. Oh, sure, if there's an island right there. And sure, sure. Sure. Of course, of course. In your made up world, what was the hardest one you did? Like, when it just did not go right? It was like,

William Keck 48:51

I'll tell you yes. Very easy answer to that. I was a huge fan of soap, the TV show, soap that ran from, I think it was 77 to 81 it's the show that Billy Crystal got his start on, playing one of the first gay characters on TV. So Well, anyway, I'm like, You know what? Let's do a soap reunion and Benson. The tag was, or the the tie in was that Robert Guillaume, who played Benson. He had a book come out, and so I worked to get, get an award for him, some kind of a Hollywood award. And he was beloved by the cast. He was he had had a stroke many years ago, so I knew people probably thought this is one of the last times to see him. So I told my my producer, I said, you know, there's a lot of younger cast members, and he had a friend who was close with Billy Crystal. I went out to everybody, but the only people I could get to do it because they were out of town or they had to cancel, were the late 80 year olds. So and I listen, I mean, I, I, those are the people I love more than anything in the world, but they weren't in. Great condition. The kids of all these people sent in messages. And we I got all of them. I got Billy Crystal and Diana Canova and Ted was they all filmed these greetings for him, but they showed up, and it was Catherine Hellman, who was had major dementia and could only kind of say the same phrase over and over again. Robert Mandan, who he was great, but he, he looked like he had died about a year before. Robert Guillaume was was very, very frail. Reneo bergenois, he, you know him, obviously, because he's a big Star Trek you're a big Star Trek fan. He was on Star Trek. He didn't understand what the whole thing was. Didn't know it's gonna be televised, so when he got there, he wasn't ready to be on camera. We had to convince him to do that. And then chuck and Bob, of course, were there as well, and they were the dummy was very easy to work with, but my editor, who himself was in his 80s, was livid when he saw it was sort of like the Night of the Living Dead. They were just kind of walking to send and he's like, never again, this is your last reunion. We're doing no more of these. And it was, I think that was my last reunion. He wanted to kill me. We had a two hour show plan. We did 15 minutes with them. And they were, they were gone. Ageism, sure, but listen, you know, it's also good TV. And I didn't, I wasn't aware that Catherine Hellman was not in good health. And it did, it wouldn't have served her well to be seen for any more time on air. Um, it's kind of like the last time we saw Betty White. She was on the two last time she did a, I think, a password, and she wasn't her. It wasn't Betty anymore. She was always so fast, so smart, and she couldn't get those, the words weren't coming to her, kind of like me today. And then when she was at the Emmys, well, the Screen Actors go to awards, I forget what it was, and you don't want that to be the last time you're seen and that has happened a few times. Kim Novak, when she was at the Oscars was was very, very upsetting. Liza Minnelli, when they brought her out at the Oscars, Lady Gaga couldn't have been more sweet to her. But I'm all for for celebrating them. But aren't there people who love them who know that it's not in their best interest sometimes to be seen when they're fighting an addiction, when they're still not ready to be on camera. And what's, what's your feeling on that? Jeff, I

Jeff Dwoskin 52:30

feel like it depends the Liza one was a little awkward. I mean, it really depends on, I think I agree 100% with you. They need people to know, to say, we're good. It's one thing to see them, but it's another thing when they're so frail to, like, put them through that it just because it's not like, it'd be one thing if you're cutting to their house and they're in their living room, and maybe they're, you know, like in a comfortable area, it can't be comfortable to get them from wherever they were to that stage, meaning travel, dressed up, everything. They're exhausted by the time you start. Yeah, and I agree with you, Lady Gaga was sort of won a medal for he was protecting that moment.

William Keck 53:13

I'm not a fan of hiding people, if they're with it and have the energy and they're just struggling with with a temporary or, you know, or some kind of limitation, but if they're literally just not present, if they're not there and have dimension, or saying the same things over and over again, that's, that's a different

Jeff Dwoskin 53:30

right? Yeah, it's, yeah, I'm with Yeah, I'm with you on that. We took

William Keck 53:34

our show home and family to Dollywood, and so as a surprise, I wanted to get greetings from the nine to five cast. And I was very easily able to get Jane, and I got Lily, and I really wanted to get Dabney, Dabney Coleman, and I had heard that he was, he was not well, so we went to his house. And you're right, it was his domain, um, he was very comfortable in his regular chair. And we got just what we needed. But if it had been something, you know, asking more of him, it wouldn't have been the way to go.

Jeff Dwoskin 54:03

Yeah, I think it's a case by case, right? Some people Yeah, because Betty White was pretty good until, like, what, 97 or something. It's like 99 Yeah. I mean, well, I'm just saying she was still like, Yeah,

William Keck 54:15

amazing. So just maybe let us think of her that way.

Jeff Dwoskin 54:20

She got better as you got older, she did right?

William Keck 54:23

You know what's wild. I'm doing a story now for Disney, and it's about weeks from this off. Oh, it's my mom. Hey, Mom. It's about the 1950s I was reading a memo from Walt Disney about the kind of casting that they were looking for. They were looking for a mother type, and it said in this memo from the 1950s we're looking for a Betty White type. So, I mean, even back then, I mean, she was that, that woman, that woman we wanted to snuggle in her bosom.

Jeff Dwoskin 54:51

I've watched the Dean Martin rose, which was forever ago. She was 50, and they were making fun of her for being old.

William Keck 54:59

Everyone's now talking. Up The Golden Girls. Ruma clanahan was like in her late 40s when they started. I mean, in the cast of like, Desperate Housewives and Sex and the City are like, way older than the Golden Girls were when they were filming. That it's wild. And I do think that styles have changed, and people are looking younger than they did with the kind of the permed hair and but it's wild to think that I am getting close to being, I don't know, 10 years older than room McClanahan was as a golden girl. It's frightening.

Jeff Dwoskin 55:29

It is. It is bizarre. Nothing scarier than that. Or when a Facebook memory comes up and you're like, how was that 15 years ago? Oh my gosh, right. So I know we talked a little bit about Batman. Did you did you cover that one? Or was it just kind of,

William Keck 55:43

I did, I mean, I went to Comic Con in San Diego, so I was let go from TV Guide. They were, they were going out of business almost. They're still struggling. So they're still around somehow. But everyone was being let go. Was my time, so I was let go. But I lined up two interviews that I really, really wanted to do, and they said, Sure, go ahead and do them. I did one with Robin Williams and Pam Dauber. I did a Mork and Mindy interview together, which was great. And I have a picture with Robin doing nine or nine, but I really wanted to go into Comic Con and do it. Was I interviewed Adam West, Burt Ward and Julie Newmar together. So that was terrific. I know that Bert and Adam had a on again off again relationship and friendship, and sometimes Bert was wouldn't be at a reunion, and you're like, Hmm, and there was a time when they weren't particularly close, and of course, Batman Trumps Robin. You know, I did tell you that story about the the autograph. We had them both on, home and family at separate times. I had all three of them, actually, Julie nor as well. But what happened with Adam West is I did a pre interview with them. We always interviewed them in advance. Adam said he wanted to tell a very heartwarming story about the Riddler, about about what was his name, Frank Orson. And it was a beautiful story about how Frank was on his deathbed, and Adam went to visit him. Adam put a photo of Frank up on his monitor so that Frank could see his face one more time on television. And it was, it was heartwarming. And not long after that, he passed. So I prepped my host, and Adam has a beautiful story to tell about Frank Ocean. And so they, they said, Well, you know, we want, just want to get in this question about Frank before we let you go. And so Adam got this little evil look in his eye, and he said, How much time do we have? And our hosts were like, oh, no, go ahead. Please tell the story. And he tells the story about how he and Frank Orson got off work early and they went to the Hollywood Hills to a party, and they opened the doors, and everyone was engaged in an orgy. Great story for Jimmy Kimmel, but not on the Hallmark Channel. Everybody was first there was silence, and then everybody, the cameraman, the craft service guys were dying laughing. And of course, it never made it on to the the Hallmark show. But I mean, you never know what you're going to get. Adam West was a he was a fun guy. He was a great guy. I loved him, but, boy, he was a dirty guy too, which made him just even better.

Jeff Dwoskin 58:06

I think burr Ward talks about that, like, how he'll try and squeeze in some innuendos, you know, just go out of his way and then, like, you do it where they they had to use the cut because there was no more time or anything like that.

William Keck 58:20

Yes, totally. Would I think you like to throw people off their game? And you know what? Again, he was in his 80s then, and so, you know, why not have have fun?

Jeff Dwoskin 58:27

Alright, last question, I'll let you go, because I appreciate you hanging out with me. But if you could redo one, which one would you redo? And this can be based on, I don't mean that you you messed it up or anything like that. But, like, I interviewed somebody, and afterwards I watched the show he was on, and I'm like, Oh, if I could me, I could talk to him again. How could I have not been so in touch with that character

William Keck 58:50

first? I'll tell you too that I really wanted to do. I didn't get to very quickly. I want to do Eight is Enough, terribly. And Dick Van Patten publicist, he's passed, but he wanted to be an executive producer, even in name only, and we weren't going to do that. And so I never got to do eight is enough. But I was already talking to Betty Buckley about flying her in and singing. That didn't happen. I also really wanted to do growing pains, and that was going to happen. But then we lost, um, we lost Alan, uh, Jason Seaver, so, but the one that I could, if I could redo it, they all went really, really well, you know, I mean, there's all these photos in the book. The Waltons was incredible Little House in the prairie. We did dynasty, and that's landing, um, gosh, when I could redo,

Jeff Dwoskin 59:35

just because you'd have new questions, they did some amazing things after. It doesn't have to be because it was bad or anything anyway. So when you

William Keck 59:42

have I've died now. I mean, all those people from soap that I mentioned to you, they're all in just in time, just in time, and reneo bears and why has died? I mean, we have Chuck and Bob on the show again, and that wouldn't be a bad show, well, but was, it was a home run. I was so grateful that I got. Them all. I don't know which, which reunion would you love to see happen, that that hasn't happened yet. Or

Jeff Dwoskin 1:00:06

the thing is, a kid that disappointed me the most in terms of reunions, when you talked earlier about, like the TV shows, how the TV shows are coming back. It always bothered me when I was a kid that Larry Hagman didn't come back and that they got Wayne, yeah, they need to be that character. Like, yes, why wouldn't you come back? Why wouldn't you it's like, just yeah, that that was, Oh, that was by me.

William Keck 1:00:30

Why? Why do it you're talking about, I dream of Genie 15 years later. Yeah, Barbara Eden and they got Wayne Rogers, who played Trapper John on mass, to do it and listen, I gotta say he did a great job. That's a thankless job to take over for Larry Hagman as Tony, but he he hit her home run. They did another one, though, I guess Wayne Rogers didn't want to do it. They created a new character who was played by Ken kershaval, who was Larry Hagman rival on Dallas. I think they thought that would be clever, and it was just unwatchable. It was horrible. It was horrible. Some of these things, you know, I'm so excited and they're so bad that even I can't watch the Marion Rhoda was just the worst piece of crap. I had a party for that, and we ended up turning it off and switching over to Melrose Place. It was so bad Melrose, I would have loved to have done Melrose. That would have been, that would have been great to do.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:01:27

Yeah, a full night, a full original Beverly Hills, 902, and oh, would be great. Melrose would have been fun. We used to watch those back to back, like when they were on back to back. We would all get together and watch, Oh, absolutely.

William Keck 1:01:39

I guess the Brady's would be it, you know, a by the time the Brady renovation had happened, and they filmed that very close to where we shot, Hallmark had decided they didn't want to do these reunions anymore. And so it kills me that I wasn't able to get those six Bradys onto the show and do a to a two hour Brady home and family episode that. So that's that would be my, my answer, not a redo, but a one that got away.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:02:01

That would be the one, if I had to pick two that pop in my head that I think would be the coolest to sit down with the whole cast that I would really, really enjoy. Would be happy days and or the Brady Bunch like, those like, if just surround myself with those like, that would be cool, just because I feel like,

William Keck 1:02:18

yeah, yeah, we're so lucky. How lucky are we, though to have had a chance to meet so many of these people that we we love.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:02:27

It is amazing. It is I do feel blessed. I'm jealous all the people that you've met, but, but it gives, it gives me something that says, strike. And

William Keck 1:02:37

you're right, Jeff, you know, I mean, I mentioned how the Star Trek cast, he sees sees each other all the time, but in a lot of these cases, they hadn't seen each other, and it was the last time that they saw each other. Certainly, that's so Benson one. It was the last time they all saw each other before they all all passed so the fact that I got to give these people that I worship the gift of coming together one last time was one of the things that I was most excited to talk about in the book

Jeff Dwoskin 1:03:03

amazing that is a gift. That is a gift so well, also a gift from me that you sat down and hung with me again. Appreciate you so much.

William Keck 1:03:12

I'm talking to you. I really, really do, and I will, I will do one more shameless plug, you know, if, if people you know want to hear more of these stories and see all of these reunion photos, pages and pages and pages with facts of life and and hear the stories behind these reunions, then please. You know, check out the book on Amazon when you step upon a star. And if you like it, I'd appreciate a nice little little review so other people can have a chance to check it out. Thank you so much, Jeff, you're you're the best at what you do.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:03:43

Thank you. I appreciate that you're the best at what you do. That's why, that's why we're so awesome together. We are

William Keck 1:03:49

hugs, hugs, technical, hugs.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:03:53

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye, bye. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai