Larry Anderson Talks… "Life" (And Work) "With Lucy," Lee Majors, "Charlie's Angels," Bill Bixby, "Happy Days," and More - Herbie J Pilato

Larry Anderson is a multitalented performer actor director magician and TV host As his professional biography reveals he was just elevenyearsold when he delved into show business after seeing a magician perform at a Cub Scout function By the time he was fourteen he was performing magic professionally and over the next six years developed a reputation as one of the hottest young entertainers in Minneapolis and St PaulIn time Hollywood called and Larry landed a job with nationally known magician and president of an emerging entertainment company Mark Wilson Among his many assignments was serving as the technical advisor for film and television projects incorporating magic as part of their theme As consultant and teacher to Bill Bixby on the NBC series The Magician which aired in the 1970s Larry appeared in many of the episodes opening his eyes to a whole new career actingLarry39s big break arrived when he landed one of the lead roles in his first TV series another show for NBC this one a sitcom titled Brothers and Sisters This series lasted only one season but opened the door to several gueststar appearances on classic TV shows like Charlie39s Angels The Six Million Dollar Man Happy Days Knight Rider Mork and Mindy The ATeam Matlock Night Court Beverly Hills 90210 Boston Public The OC Raising The Bar Desperate Housewives Mad Men Everybody Loves Chris and more including Star Search which was the precursor to today39s American IdolIn between it all circa 1986 Larry auditioned for and was chosen by producer Aaron Spelling who brought the world the aforementioned Charlie39s Angels along with The Mod Squad The Love Boat Fantasy Island and countless others and the legendary Lucille Ball to play her soninlaw on the ABC sitcom Life with Lucy Like Brothers and Sisters Life lasted only one season but afforded Larry a fateful guest appearance on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson For watching at home that night was TV39s iconic host and producer Ralph Edwards This Is Your Life who based on Larry39s quotmagicalquot eight minutes with Carson hired him as host of the new Truth or ConsequencesSince then Larry hosted a weekly watersports series for the Travel Channel entitled Get Wet and other game shows including the California Lottery39s Big Spin and Trivia Track for the Game Show Network On the big screen Larry also appeared in films such as Star Trek InsurrectionIn recent years Larry has hosted or been the quotproduct expertquot on numerous successful infomercial campaigns Among these are George Foreman39s Party Grill and Rotisserie Oven shows Wagner39s WallMagic Home Decorating System TimeLife Music39s Rock ampamp Roll Era AM Gold and Classic Love Songs of The 6039s shows and the IDAPZ Active Eyewear System Larry39s favorite Infomercial is one he wrote produced and stars in titled JawDroppers a set of howto videotapes teaching anyone to perform jawdropping magic tricks with everyday itemsLarry now shares some classic TV memories on working with Lucy Bixby on The Magician and Lee Majors on The Six Million Dollar Man among othersFirstly Larry worked with Majors in an episode of Six entitled The Ghostly Teletype in which he had a fairly large guest role at what was a very early period in his career The reason Larry was selected to appear in this episode was due to his combined talents as a magician and actor Majors39 Steve Austin character required the skills of a magician who would be able to assist him in thwarting evil mindcontrolling twins As Larry explains working on this Sixsegment was quotfun though it started out a little rockyquotThe first day Larry was on the set he walked up to Majors who between shots was on the telephone When the Six Million Dollar star hung up the receiver Larry walked up to him and introduced himself As Larry recalls Majors just looked at him and didn39t even acknowledge his presence Majors then picked up the phone again called the main office and Larry who stands 6394quot was convinced it was because he was 2 amp189 inches taller than the Millionaire MajorsLarry laughs about it now because he can understand Majors39 superhero stance may have felt threatened or at least dwarfed onscreen by a significantly taller guestactor on his show quotBut he could have handled it a little bit betterquot Larry relays quotmaybe if he39d slipped away and made the phone call somewhere else instead of just in front of me He was just very overt about his displeasurequotHowever Larry surmises the decisionmakers on the other end of the phone probably told Majors quotLook the guy can act and he can do all the magic tricks that we need for this episode and he39s hiredquotFortunately after that somewhat tense initial meeting Larry says the rest of the shoot was quotquite pleasantquotAnother classic TV show in which Larry appeared was somewhat related to Majors in the guise of the original Charlie39s Angels which also aired on ABC in the mid1970s and which featured Majors39 thenwife and soontobe historical figure Farrah Fawcett Larry enjoyed working on Angels calling it quota great opportunityquot This particular guestshot transpired on the heels of Larry receiving his Screen Actors Guild card which was a result of his serving as technical advisor on The Magician which aired around the same time as Six and AngelsThe Magician was also one of the catalysts that brought Larry to Los Angeles in the early 7039s under the employ of Mark Wilson who was then as Larry calls him the quotDavid Copperfield of televisionquot Wilson had had a onehour magic series ten years prior that aired on CBS Saturday mornings for approximately four years It was titled The Magic Land of Allakazam and it was essentially a liveaction magicvariety show with cartoons dispersed throughout Wilson was later commissioned by Paramount to be the technical advisor on The Magician a position that he largely turned over to LarryquotSoquot Larry relays quotI was on the Paramount lot every day teaching Bill Bixby magic on the set serving as his personal offcamera and sometimes oncamera magic coachquot which brings us back to Charlie39s AngelsAfter The Magician disappeared off NBC Larry decided he wanted to phase magic out of his career completely and give himself over to acting fullthrottle By the time he actually accomplished this Bixby had himself changed career focus He became a director And one of his assignments was for an episode of Charlie39s Angels for which he remembered that Larry was moving into actingUltimately it was Bixby who had suggested to NBC higherups that Larry become his onscreen assistant within the premise of The Magician and now he was casting Larry for a role on ABC39s Angels It was a first season episode that featured the original three Angels Farrah Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith the latter with whom Larry performed directly quotIt was a fun scene with Jaclynquot he explains quotI played a porno filmmaker as the Angels were trying to bust up a porno film ring And she posed as a wannabe actress who was willing to break into show business at any costquotInteresting that such an edgy episode would be helmed by Bixby who before The Magician was a regular on family shows like My Favorite Martian The Courtship of Eddie39s Father and The Incredible Hulk none of which he ever mentioned while working with Larry on Angels or The Magician quotHe was not the type of person who sat around and reminisced on the setquot Larry explains quotHe was always in the moment He loved doing The Magician He loved learning the magic and he finally directed an episode at the end of the season which was his first directing job everquotEither way as Larry goes on to explain Bixby was a man of integrity and was quotvery investedquot in making a success of whatever assignment he tackled as an actor or director quotThere wasn39t a lot of downtime to sit around and chat about old times especially with someone like myself who was so new to the business I wouldn39t have been the kind of guy that he would engage with in that kind of conversationquotBut they did sit around and practice a lot of magic tricks at least on the set of The MagicianIt may be interesting to note at this juncture that Larry is not related to actormagician Harry Anderson who is best known from his starring role in the classic TV show Night Court which ran on NBC in the 1980s quotIt39s just a bizarre coincidencequot Larry says of the similarities between him and Harry quotWe39re both tall and WASPy guys who act do magic and have soundalike namesquotHowever Larry and Harry did end up working together on an episode of Court And as Larry remembers quotWe actually had an opportunity to sit around and do card tricksquot in between rehearsing and shooting scenesAnother show Larry cut his acting teeth on was ABC39s big 1970s hit Happy Days As part of his regimen to become a legitimately trained actor he enlisted in The Harvey Lembeck Workshop Lembeck was an actor who appeared as Eric Von Zipper in the classic Beach Party films directed by William Asher of Bewitched According to Larry Lembeck who was also the father of actordirector Michael Lembeck was quotthe goto guy in Hollywood for anyone who wanted to get into comedy And literally anyone who was anyone in comedy trained in his workshopsquotAs such in the course of doing that workshop various producers and casting people would drop in and sort of mine any potential talent that might be there And one of those casting directors was Bobby Hoffman who was responsible for shows like Happy Days its hit spinoff Laverne ampamp Shirley and a number of other Paramount sitcoms And Hoffman cast Larry in Days for which he ultimately performed in two episodes In the first one he appeared in a smaller role as quotcrazy college buddyquot to the character played by Ted McGinley who had replaced Ron Howard after he left the series Then a year or so later Larry was hired again for a substantially larger part playing a character who posed a threat to Scott Baio39s Chachi who in this segment was the star of a high school play directed by The Fonz Henry Winkler and which also featured Joanie Erin MoranAs Larry explains quotI was the dashing actor that had moved away from Milwaukee and went to Hollywood and did some commercialsquot one of which was a famous Brylcreem commercial And at some point in the episode Winkler39s Fonzie says to Larry39s character quotHey amp8211 aren39t you that guy in that Brylcreem commercialquotquotIt was a nice big part and very campy and lots of funquot Larry relays quotAnd I of course had a great time with the castquotBy this time Larry was no longer attending the Harvey Lembeck39s classes and was teaching his own workshop which a few of the Happy Days cast would later attendBut it was in the Lembeck workshop that Larry befriended fellow classmates like Robin Williams who found fame on ABC39s Mork ampamp Mindy another spinoff from Days and John Ritter who became the star of ABC39s super hit Three39s Company and with whom Larry would perform on Life With Lucy as Lucille Ball was a huge fan of Ritter39s slapstick talentLarry says it was wonderful to work with his friend Ritter on Life With Lucy which this year is celebrating the 25th Anniversary of its debut but he says working with that show39s redheaded comedic legend became quotthe greatest thrill I could ever have It was a penultimate moment in any actor39s careeramp8230to be chosen by LucyquotquotAnd I truly was chosen by Lucyquot he explains quotI was auditioning against lots of other guys some of whom had come off recent TV series and they had substantially more experience than I did in terms of their track record But I had had all those years with Harvey Lembeck and the improvtraining under my belt I also had many years as a standup comedy magician So I was skilled I just didn39t have the resume that a lot of the guys the network was bringing in to the audition hadquotquotBut you know how the networks thinkquot he goes on to say quotYou want to try to bring in somebody that has a following They have to have a high TV quotQScorequotamp8230a strong recognizability factorquotBut each time he39d receive another callback he39d say to himself quotI can39t believe this is happeningquotThen when Lucy herself started showing up at the auditions he says it got a little more intimidating quotIt got down to where the room was no longer just the casting director and a few of the producers Now it was Aaron Spelling E Duke Vincent who worked with Spelling on shows like Dynasty network executives Lucy and Gary Morton her second husband and the show39s producerquotThrough it all Larry remained calm and collected and decided to bring some additional expertise into each audition quotI needed to figure out how to bring something fresh each timequot he says quotEven if it was it was just a small gesture or look a doubletake or just something that was differentquotLucy took notice and she later relayed that to Larry As he recalls quotShe told ABC execs 39This is the guy He may not have the resume but he39s got the improv background And this is who I want playing my soninlaw39quotAs Larry continues to explain quotAaron acceded to that decision and hired me And suddenly I found myself in a series every day going to work with Lucille Ball It was just blissamp8230a fantasyquotUnfortunately reality soon set in as he realized that after a time hardly any of the episodes were staged around his character quotI really started to feel like I was a piece of the furniturequot he says quotAs time went on it became very apparent that probably out of most everyone else in the cast they just didn39t know what to do with my character Donovan Scott whose character worked at the hardware store got to be in every episode with Curtis portrayed by Ball39s longstoic sidekick Gale Gordon So his character was assured some business But I was the father who didn39t have a jobamp8230the character just wasn39t fleshed out So it was a little less fulfilling than I would have liked in terms of getting some scenes I don39t think Lucy and I ever had a scene alone in a room that lasted more than a line But I was still grateful to be there And it was a thrillquotHowever it was no secret that the scripts were not up to snuff quotWe were all generally disappointed in the scriptsquot Larry admits quotI can39t speak for Lucy but many in the cast were not happy with the quality of the writing We understood why Lucy had wanted Bob Carroll Jr and Madelyn Pugh Davis as her security blankets having developed and written her three previous series I Love Lucy The Lucy Show Here39s Lucy all of which were very successful But I think where TV sitcoms had developed over 35 years to a higher level of sophistication perhaps the audience felt they were kind of doing the same ol39 silly stuff and maybe not quite as goodquotAlthough Lucy herself was still brilliant at her age I think the show needed a more modern approach and maybe fresh eyes So in retrospect Bob and Madelyn were probably not the correct choicequotYet Lucy embraced Life With Lucy with an energy and thrill unlike any other show she had done She was so happy to be working with young people She delighted in everyone39s participation be it the actors or any member of the production team She was simply happy to be working again and she gave herself over completely to the show quotShe loved doing the showquot Larry confirms And ultimately there were many reasons why Life was cut short only 13 episodes were taped amp8211 of which 8 actually airedquotI think in some ways Gary Morton was problematicquot Larry speculates quotand maybe he was one of the reasons the network pulled the plug He insisted on being the producer He insisted on doing the editing which was less than adept He also insisted on doing the warmups for the audience And called the shots on God knows how many other things The show had his finger prints on everything I mean he was a pleasant enough guy but he was not skilled in all the areas that he thought he was and the show suffered because of itquotThere were other reasons that Life proved challenging for Lucy At the time Desi Arnaz her former business and marriage partner was very ill and as Larry relays quotthe handwriting was on the wall He wasn39t going to last long and he died shortly after the show was canceled So there were days when she came in and you could see that she was really down and depressed It must have been tough for her too because she was married to Gary at the time and all the feelings that she had for Desi all the years they had spent togetheramp8230everything they went throughamp8230all the reminiscing I39m sure she was very conflicted about a lot of things To then have the responsibility of the show Well it just had to be very overwhelming for herquotStill there were many positive developments that came from and were delivered by Life With LucyQ The character of Lucille Barker seemed to have more depth and texture than Ball39s previous smallscreen personas of Lucy Ricardo Lucy Carmichael or Lucy CarterA quotYesquot Larry says in agreement quotThat may be partly a result of Bob and Madelyn bringing in a younger staff of writers to add a flavor they might not have ordinarily contributed They obviously went along with the new concepts and approved them and those additional writers amp8211 and their contributions amp8211 indeed made the show richerquotQ Still one can39t help but wonder if Lucy felt responsible for everyone in the cast and the crew for the show being canceledA quotOh God yesquot Larry says quotShe took the weight of the world on her shoulders for that one She took all the blame which was just silly because people can only be blamed and praised for their own performances And Lucy herself always delivered a good performance But she took the blame for everything that didn39t work which just displayed how gracious she was I don39t think in her heart she really believed she was responsible but she did say 39It39s my fault the show has failed39 And everyone on the set was quick to say 39No it39s not39quotquotShe wanted it to succeed so badly for the rest of usquot Larry continues quotwhich she stated on talk shows and a couple of live events She would say 39You know amp8211 I had my shot and I had my three successful series and I guess one failure out of four is not so bad but I wanted this so much for the rest of the cast This was their big break and they got dumped after six weeksquotquotShe had been therequot Larry says quotShe could put herself in our shoes She saw the joy we had and how grateful we were to have finally made it to a network sitcom She could see all of that in our demeanor just in our chats on the set and so forth She knew it was our big break and we all just got the rug pulled from underneath us So she hurt for us which just shows how empathetic and warm and beautiful a person she wasamp8230to feel more of the loss for us than for herself She was a very special personquotQ So Ball wasn39t as demanding to work with as she had been notably so on previous showsA quotI didn39t have that longtime frame of referencequot Larry explains quotThat was certainly the lore or the legendamp8230that she was very demanding and hard to work with And yet I39m very much of that same mind I39m a perfectionist So to me that didn39t seem hard to deal with It seemed absolutely right If something was off she just wasn39t going to allow it to stay that way She was going to correct it And she made no bones about being the person who said it If the director didn39t speak up then she would She would usually defer or allow director Marc Daniels or whoever was directing the right to correct something But if they didn39t or they were busy with something else she might just grab you by the shoulders and say 39You39ve got to turn out face the audiencecamera The audience is out there It39s not here39quotquotAnd if you swallowed a line of dialogue she39d say 39What Speak up39 And you knew the word 39whatquot was not in the script She39d bark 39You better say it louder because I39m not going to give you my next line until I can actually HEAR your line39quotYet Larry found that interplay quottotally charmingquotOverall Larry says Lucy wanted to quotgive her fans everything that she had been giving them for the thirty or so years prior The sad fact is even if she had done it with all of the skill and timing that she had on I Love Lucy decades before the audience still perceived a person in her late 70s trying to live up to her past So it felt somewhat uncomfortable watching it because you now have a certain element of concern As if to say 39She39s in that chair bouncing up and down she39s gonna39 get hurt She39s trying too hard39 So I don39t think there was any way she could have performed the way she used to as Lucy Ricardo There was just no way to match itquotSomehow however Gale Gordon managed to retain the energy and verve that he had brought to countless Lucy shows in the pastquotWhat a guyquot Larry says of the actor who played his father on Life With Lucy quotI39ve never seen a more eventempered man For as brilliant as he was he was the kind of person that if you walked past him on the street you39d think he had no personality whatsoever He39s just a normal looking guy He could be a real bank president just like his Mr Mooney character on The Lucy Show Yet he was a brilliant comedian And just as sharp and witty and delightful a guy as you ever want to meetquotquotWhat was so funny about himquot Larry goes on to say quotis that he39d arrive on the set and he would just suddenly turn on and be this great performer You just couldn39t match the guy You couldn39t try to top him Because when Gale was 39on39 you just knew he was going to steal the scene And then after he was done he would just walk off the set and read his book and he just became the most mildmannered and shy type of guyquotIf you would engage him in conversation he would always talk and be very pleasant and have something witty to say But he just kind of enjoyed his quiet time And then he would go back on stage and be Mr McGibbon Mr Carter or Mr Mooney or whatever role he was playing His transformation from on set to off and back was simply a remarkable thing to watchamp8230the two sides of Gale Gordonamp8230the performer and the personquotAnd where does that come fromquotI guessquot Larry starts to explain quotfrom all the years of experience and the sheer love of what he did I mean when you39d look at him you39d never think he was a particularly fit guy You know he was always kind of round and portly But my lord amp8211 he would never tire out He was there on the set until the last pickup shot was done even if we went really late he would be just as fresh as everyone elseamp8230or fresherquotFortunately Gordon lived a long and happy lifeWith regard to Larry39s astounding success ratio it appears he is following in his onscreen father39s fortunate footstepsquotWhen I look backquot Larry concludes of an eclectic existence that has taken him through around and beyond classic television quotI39ve had the opportunity to perform with for and get to know people like Paul McCartney John Lennon Stevie Wonder Cat Stevens Johnny Carson Lucille Ball and many more entertainment superstars How great is that for a kid from MinnesotaquotAll in all a life and career certainly worthy of one so talented a renaissance man as Larry AndersonHerbie J Pilato is a WriterProducer who has worked for Syfy AampampE TLC Bravo The Discovery Channel Universal Warner Bros and Sony Herbie J is the author of a number of acclaimed TV tiein books The Bionic Book Life Story The Book of Life Goes On The Bewitched Book Bewitched Forever The Kung Fu Book of Caine The Kung Fu Book of Wisdom and NBC ampamp ME My Life As A Page In A Book Herbie J is also the Founder and Executive Director for The Classic TV Preservation Society a nonprofit organization dedicated to closing the gap between positive TV shows and education the Creative Director for Erie Street Entertainment a TV production company that is geared toward scififantasy and familyoriented material and appears frequently on TV in shows like the TV Guide Channel39s new series 100 Moments That Changed TV now airing every Sunday night in October For more information please log on to wwwClassicTVPSblogspotcom or wwwErieStreetEntertainmentblogspotcom or contact Herbie J directly via hjpilatoyahoocomRead all Herbie J39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Herbie J39s Classic TV CornerCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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