Conversations with Legendary Television Stars by Bawden James;Miller Ron;

Author:Bawden, James;Miller, Ron; [Неизв.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2019-11-17T20:00:00+00:00

James Garner with guest star Rita Moreno in The Rockford Files, 1978. Courtesy of NBC publicity.

MILLER: Jim Rockford seemed so much like Bret Maverick that many fans wondered if they were blood relatives.

GARNER: Roy always thought of Rockford as Maverick in modern clothes. We even reworked some of the original Maverick scripts for Rockford Files.

BAWDEN: You also enticed some big-name guest stars.

GARNER: Like Lauren Bacall? She owed me after I did that awful horror film just to please her [1981’s The Fan]. And Rita Moreno, Lou Gossett, Isaac Hayes, and others kept coming back as repeat characters because we treated them right. A lot was due to the time slot—Friday night at 9. In series TV the time slot means everything.

MILLER: Tom Selleck has always said he owed you big-time for the break you gave him by putting him into The Rockford Files as rival detective Lance White, which led to his being cast as the star of Magnum, P.I.

GARNER: The first time he walked on the set I said, “My God! This guy has to be a big star!” We talked a lot about it. I told him, “You’re a really nice guy, a good actor, and you’ve got these looks. You can’t help but be a star, so handle yourself accordingly and do the things you feel good about.”

BAWDEN: I noticed you were being treated by the studio nurse before our interview. Did you suffer an injury today?

GARNER: I guess I need a stuntman—or a new knee. [In 1979, doctors advised him to take time off to heal and he decided to end the show. NBC and Universal claimed the series was in deficit because of the high-priced guest stars. Garner complained the studio wasted money in production overhead. Garner later instituted a lawsuit but settled out of court, and the settlement prohibited discussion of the final terms or other details.]

BAWDEN: It’s now 1984 and you’re getting some of the best reviews of your career for your performances in made-for-television movies.

GARNER: I’m still at it. I’ll next be doing a theatrical opposite Sally Field titled Murphy’s Romance.

MILLER: In my opinion, you were never better than you were in Promise, the Hallmark movie you produced for CBS in which you were cast against your usual type as a bachelor playboy who suddenly has to take responsibility for his schizophrenic brother. This wasn’t your traditional leading man role.

GARNER: I’m in the position now to do what I want to do and not what they expect of me. I’m a little older now. How long can you be the hero? As an actor, I want to do a few different things. I never wanted to be typed. I could do comedy well, even black comedy, and people recognized that. But I grew tired of doing that same role. I wasn’t going to do Promise. We had it written for other people. That was really a project for Jimmy Woods and I wasn’t going to play the other part. I promised him an Emmy and he got it.

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