Selleck interview - Feb. 24

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

Hi Guys,
On the Decades channel, on Wed. at 9:30 pm, Tom Selleck is interviewed by Dick Cavett. This episode is from 1985, so I assume it would be much more Magnum PI related than a current interview
would be. I find it curious there weren't more John Hillerman interviews done, you would think he would be a natural, what a shame!
By the way, the various incarnations of the Cavett show probably booked more interesting historical, political, acting and scientific guests than any other series ever, from the 60's thru the 90's.
Dick could be a pain at times, feeling the need to remind everyone how intellectual he was by making references or word play that went over everyone's head, on a show aimed at the
general public. He did have plenty of backbone though, he stood up and gave it right back to anyone who tried to intimidate the tiny Cavett, as when the veteran street fighter and amateur
boxer Norman Mailer tried to punk him.

PS - The correct year for this interview is 1995, it was wrongly listed as 1985 when I looked at the TV guide.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

I saw the interview today and the problem was Cavett and Selleck kept going off track, talking like buddies over a beer instead of it being a professional interview. Which is understandable because they did
consider each other a friend, and in my opinion they had already had a few brews. Tom was promoting "Broken Trust"(1995) a movie I have never heard of before, but hopefully it's good. He also said the only
reason he did the Christopher Columbus movie was because they promised him 5 scenes with Marlon Brando, which ended up being one disappointing one. Selleck confirmed it was a terrible movie.
They also talked of his 2 times on the "Dating Game", he lost both to his relief.

[NotthatRick]

Darn. Sorry I missed it. I enjoy those old interviews.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

On Tuesday, March 2, DECADES is running another Tom Selleck interview. Dick Cavett Show, 9 PM. Tom and Dick have a real rapport, hopefully it will be good.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

Darn. Sorry I missed it. I enjoy those old interviews.

Hi NotthatRick,
Tonight's (March 2) interview on DECADES with Selleck was excellent.Tom came on to promote "Mr. Baseball"(1992) but he and Dick Cavett had a wide ranging chat.
He is obviously a bright, introspective man who takes his craft seriously, I can't wait till his autobiography comes out.
What a relief to hear a star who references books he has read and who can sustain an adult conversation, here with a noted intellectual.
At one point Tom shows the Rolex watch his Dad bought him for $150 when he turned 21, basically for being a good son and not getting into trouble growing up.
For me this is the best Selleck interview I have seen so far, this man should have his own podcast.
Maybe next Tuesday DECADES will run a third interview with Tom, I will keep my eye out and let everyone know. Tom and Dick Cavett have a good personal
chemistry which no doubt helps their interviews go well.

[NotthatRick]

Sounds like it was a very enjoyable interview to watch. Unfortunately, we do not get the Decades channel. But now that I know these interviews are out there I will be keeping an eye out for them.

[Pahonu]

Darn. Sorry I missed it. I enjoy those old interviews.

Hi NotthatRick,
Tonight's (March 2) interview on DECADES with Selleck was excellent.Tom came on to promote "Mr. Baseball"(1992) but he and Dick Cavett had a wide ranging chat.
He is obviously a bright, introspective man who takes his craft seriously, I can't wait till his autobiography comes out.
What a relief to hear a star who references books he has read and who can sustain an adult conversation, here with a noted intellectual.
At one point Tom shows the Rolex watch his Dad bought him for $150 when he turned 21, basically for being a good son and not getting into trouble growing up.
For me this is the best Selleck interview I have seen so far, this man should have his own podcast.
Maybe next Tuesday DECADES will run a third interview with Tom, I will keep my eye out and let everyone know. Tom and Dick Cavett have a good personal
chemistry which no doubt helps their interviews go well.

He told that same story about the watch in an interview I saw with Dinah Shore. His two brothers also got a watch, if I recall correctly.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

Decades just ran a two part 1977 interview with Gwen Verdon on the Dick Cavette Show.
I always thought she had been miscast as Magnum's mother because I found the character dreary and one note.
Though Verdon was nominated for a Emmy for the role.
But after seeing her on Cavette it's obvious the fault lied with the Magnum writers, producers and the directors.
She was magic on Cavette, appearing in leotard and stockings.
With a trio of backup dancers she gave a masters class on the evolution of dance in Broadway/Hollywood since the 1930's.
She illustrated each breakthrough via the vehicle of her then 52 year old body, still the magnificent dancing instrument that
made her a legend of dance and allure.
So called great dancers of today like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift etc., their moves are reduced to childish gyrations by comparison.
I have never been much of a dance fan to begin with but Gwen made me a believer. Her radiant personality when chatting with
Dick enlivened both the broadcast and the normally laid back Cavette.
That this incredibly sexy and talented actress was the same person wasted as the boring mother on Magnum is a shame, the producers
failed both her and we fans.
I hope Cavette had other Magnum cast members on besides Selleck and Verdon, he would have hit it off with John Hillerman big time.
I will keep my eye out as there are some 30 years worth of interviews Decades can rerun, and if I find in advance they have any
other Magnum cast members scheduled I will let you know. Or if they rerun again the Selleck interviews.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Luther Gillis: As Chuckie would say, 'why take only 24 hours? Take a whole day'.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Decades just ran a two part 1977 interview with Gwen Verdon on the Dick Cavette Show.
I always thought she had been miscast as Magnum's mother because I found the character dreary and one note.
Though Verdon was nominated for a Emmy for the role.
But after seeing her on Cavette it's obvious the fault lied with the Magnum writers, producers and the directors.
She was magic on Cavette, appearing in leotard and stockings.
With a trio of backup dancers she gave a masters class on the evolution of dance in Broadway/Hollywood since the 1930's.
She illustrated each breakthrough via the vehicle of her then 52 year old body, still the magnificent dancing instrument that
made her a legend of dance and allure.
So called great dancers of today like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift etc., their moves are reduced to childish gyrations by comparison.
I have never been much of a dance fan to begin with but Gwen made me a believer. Her radiant personality when chatting with
Dick enlivened both the broadcast and the normally laid back Cavette.
That this incredibly sexy and talented actress was the same person wasted as the boring mother on Magnum is a shame, the producers
failed both her and we fans.
I hope Cavette had other Magnum cast members on besides Selleck and Verdon, he would have hit it off with John Hillerman big time.
I will keep my eye out as there are some 30 years worth of interviews Decades can rerun, and if I find in advance they have any
other Magnum cast members scheduled I will let you know. Or if they rerun again the Selleck interviews.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Luther Gillis: As Chuckie would say, 'why take only 24 hours? Take a whole day'.

That's what I don't like about the Emmies. Often times it's not the performances that get recognized but the "name". Gwen Verdon was obviously a big name and she gets cast as the mother of the main star and automatically that qualifies her for an Emmy? Apparently so. I've seen this many times. How many other MPI guest stars were nominated? Only Gwen? So does that mean she was the best guest star on the show? Somehow I doubt it. I haven't seen the episode with her (haven't gotten that far) but it seems like fans aren't exactly crazy about her performance. Personally I would have nominated Hanna Hertelendy (Lena Greenberg) from season 1. I thought she gave a very strong performance, but hey she's not a big name, right? I always thought Kwan Hi Lim deserved a nod for playing Tanaka, but he's just a local actor with no real connections in Hollyweird, right? Big fan of Marta DuBois' Michelle too! I also really liked Silvia Sydney's performance in "Birdman of Budapest". She and Hillerman were great together. She actually was a big name (back in the early days of cinema) and deserved maybe a nomination.

Anyway, it's all politics and who you know. And how much your agent can do for you.

[Pahonu]

Gwen Verdon was an incredible talent with multiple Tony Awards and an Emmy. She was married to Bob Fosse for many years. By time she did MPI she was in her 60’s and her career had shifted to guest appearances in dramas. That actually wasn’t an unusual career progression at the time, moving from film or stage to TV later in life. It’s less true today as actors move between media regularly.

It’s actually a little surprising she was nominated for an Emmy at all for MPI, even given her distinguished career. Very few nominations for guest actors went to action adventure oriented shows. Most of the nominations and awards were for straight dramas. That’s not so for lead actors, but a review of guest acting Emmys from the 80’s shows series like LA Law, thirtysomething, and St. Elsewhere with many nominations. Many of the nominees seemed to be primarily film actors, or former film actors.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

p

Gwen Verdon was an incredible talent with multiple Tony Awards and an Emmy. She was married to Bob Fosse for many years. By time she did MPI she was in her 60’s and her career had shifted to guest appearances in dramas. That actually wasn’t an unusual career progression at the time, moving from film or stage to TV later in life. It’s less true today as actors move between media regularly.
It’s actually a little surprising she was nominated for an Emmy at all for MPI, even given her distinguished career. Very few nominations for guest actors went to action adventure oriented shows. Most of the nominations and awards were for straight dramas. That’s not so for lead actors, but a review of guest acting Emmys from the 80’s shows series like LA Law, thirtysomething, and St. Elsewhere with many nominations. Many of the nominees seemed to be primarily film actors, or former film actors.

Hi Phonu & Ivan,
Phonu, you said it was surprising Verdon got nominated for an Emmy though at the time film stars seemed to reap many of the guest Emmy nominations.
I think Ivan was spot on in saying the well liked Gwen was a big name and that got her the Emmy nod, as I doubt many of the voters were
Magnum fans and never saw her performance, even though they are honor bound to watch the cited episodes put forward for nomination.
It would have been obvious to any Emmy voter that Gwen wasn't very good in it as she had nothing to work with, you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear.
I also liked Ivan's suggestions regarding the best performances on Magnum -

"Kwan Hi Lim deserved a nod for playing Tanaka...and Silvia Sydney's performance in "Birdman of Budapest"."

Not to mention Frank Sinatra. And of course John Hillerman was nominated 4 times for Higgins, 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1987, winning in 1987.
The more I think about Ivan's touting of Kwan Hi Lim(Tanaka) the more I realize he was brilliant, the Hawaiian Spencer Tracy, he "stole focus" of every scene
he was in without doing much. And unlike most series stars the ever generous Selleck let him do so. They had a real chemistry between them.

[Pahonu]

p

Gwen Verdon was an incredible talent with multiple Tony Awards and an Emmy. She was married to Bob Fosse for many years. By time she did MPI she was in her 60’s and her career had shifted to guest appearances in dramas. That actually wasn’t an unusual career progression at the time, moving from film or stage to TV later in life. It’s less true today as actors move between media regularly.
It’s actually a little surprising she was nominated for an Emmy at all for MPI, even given her distinguished career. Very few nominations for guest actors went to action adventure oriented shows. Most of the nominations and awards were for straight dramas. That’s not so for lead actors, but a review of guest acting Emmys from the 80’s shows series like LA Law, thirtysomething, and St. Elsewhere with many nominations. Many of the nominees seemed to be primarily film actors, or former film actors.

Hi Phonu & Ivan,
Phonu, you said it was surprising Verdon got nominated for an Emmy though at the time film stars seemed to reap many of the guest Emmy nominations.
I think Ivan was spot on in saying the well liked Gwen was a big name and that got her the Emmy nod, as I doubt many of the voters were
Magnum fans and never saw her performance, even though they are honor bound to watch the cited episodes put forward for nomination.
It would have been obvious to any Emmy voter that Gwen wasn't very good in it as she had nothing to work with, you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear.
I also liked Ivan's suggestions regarding the best performances on Magnum -

"Kwan Hi Lim deserved a nod for playing Tanaka...and Silvia Sydney's performance in "Birdman of Budapest"."

Not to mention Frank Sinatra. And of course John Hillerman was nominated 4 times for Higgins, 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1987, winning in 1987.
The more I think about Ivan's touting of Kwan Hi Lim(Tanaka) the more I realize he was brilliant, the Hawaiian Spencer Tracy, he "stole focus" of every scene
he was in without doing much. And unlike most series stars the ever generous Selleck let him do so. They had a real chemistry between them.

She was definitely in that group of former film actors moving to TV, as was Sylvia Sydney and Sinatra, obviously. That wasn’t what I found surprising.

The surprise was that almost all of these guest star nominations of the era were for performances in straight dramatic series, not for more action oriented shows like MPI. She certainly had a distinguished career and was worthy of a nomination.

There was also one nomination for a guest appearance on Moonlighting, which had comical elements, but that was also unusual. I was drawing these conclusions from looking at all the nominations from the decade. Serious dramas seemed to get the vast majority of the guest acting nominations. This wasn’t the case for lead actors.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

p

Gwen Verdon was an incredible talent with multiple Tony Awards and an Emmy. She was married to Bob Fosse for many years. By time she did MPI she was in her 60’s and her career had shifted to guest appearances in dramas. That actually wasn’t an unusual career progression at the time, moving from film or stage to TV later in life. It’s less true today as actors move between media regularly.
It’s actually a little surprising she was nominated for an Emmy at all for MPI, even given her distinguished career. Very few nominations for guest actors went to action adventure oriented shows. Most of the nominations and awards were for straight dramas. That’s not so for lead actors, but a review of guest acting Emmys from the 80’s shows series like LA Law, thirtysomething, and St. Elsewhere with many nominations. Many of the nominees seemed to be primarily film actors, or former film actors.

Hi Phonu & Ivan,
Phonu, you said it was surprising Verdon got nominated for an Emmy though at the time film stars seemed to reap many of the guest Emmy nominations.
I think Ivan was spot on in saying the well liked Gwen was a big name and that got her the Emmy nod, as I doubt many of the voters were
Magnum fans and never saw her performance, even though they are honor bound to watch the cited episodes put forward for nomination.
It would have been obvious to any Emmy voter that Gwen wasn't very good in it as she had nothing to work with, you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear.
I also liked Ivan's suggestions regarding the best performances on Magnum -

"Kwan Hi Lim deserved a nod for playing Tanaka...and Silvia Sydney's performance in "Birdman of Budapest"."

Not to mention Frank Sinatra. And of course John Hillerman was nominated 4 times for Higgins, 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1987, winning in 1987.
The more I think about Ivan's touting of Kwan Hi Lim(Tanaka) the more I realize he was brilliant, the Hawaiian Spencer Tracy, he "stole focus" of every scene
he was in without doing much. And unlike most series stars the ever generous Selleck let him do so. They had a real chemistry between them.

Oh, how did I forget Sinatra? He was of course a HUGE name but he also gave a fantastic performance! That final scene at Laura's grave gets me every time! Really surprised he wasn't nominated. Even given his star status. Kenneth Tigar as the Ripper was also worthy of a nom, even if we don't fully see him until the end. But man, he was creepy when finally revealed!

Gwen Verdon was in 2 episodes of WALKER, TEXAS RANGER where I thought she was very good. But WALKER wasn't ever going to get any nominations, that's for sure.