What memories do you of working
in daytime? "I remember the early days of Santa Barbara, when we are all sort of
learning our way together. The day's work was very much a work in progress with a lot of collaboration and a lot of
openness on everyone's part, from the writers to the actors to the producers. I've never quite duplicated that working
environment - outside of my theater environment - where there was that much exchange of creative information."
Can you share some of the funny things that occurred
during you time at SB? "There was a lot of stuff that happened behind the scenes that is not printable,
unfortunately, in a family publication (laughs). The stuff on-screen wasn't nearly as interesting as the stuff
that was happening offscreen."
What was it like working with Nancy Lee Grah (ex-Julia Capwell,
now Alexis, General Hospital) on SB? "Nancy and I had this fabulous working relationship that
went sour toward the end. But, we never quite lost the chemistry, even when we hated each other. The audience
seemed to like us together. Nancy and I have never been - or played peoples - who were pushovers. We had opinions
and we expressed them. Now, we're considerably mellower. We both have children of our own by different people.
I'm glad to say that we're great friends again."
You played a doctor on Days. What was he like? "That was my first contract role. Evan was the father of Maggie's surrogate child. He was like Mason,
sort of misanthropic. His wife had died tragically, so he mopped around. He had some of the qualities of Mason,
but without any of the fun. The character never really clicked. The writers thought the age spread was too much
between Suzanne Rogers (Maggie) and me. Actually, we were an item offscreen for a couple of years, but the writers didn't
think we were right for each other. I lasted for about a year."
While Ronn Moss was away doing a project in Italy, you temporarily
replaced him as Ridge on B&B. What kind of experience was that? "They offered me
six weeks of work to come in and make out with Hunter Tylo (Taylor) - for a lot of money. Which sounded wonderful, so
I accepted. But to step into somebody else's role and especially when he's as different an actor as Ronn is to me and
they're basically continuing to write for Ronn - well, it was a very strange experience."
Do you watch soaps now? "On
occasion, I look in on General Hospital. I've checked up on Jill's (Farren Phelps) show, One Life to Live.
As a viewer and as an actor, I miss the humor we had on Santa Barbara. I wish the shows would take themselves less
seriously. [On SB] we sort of walked a fine line between respect for the work, but still not taking ourselves too seriously,
especially when actors like Justin Deas (ex-Keith Timmons; now Guiding Light's Buzz) and Robin Mattson (ex-Gina Capwell) were
on the show. There was a kind of irreverence about it - that the audience was in on. We were winking along with
the viewers. The soaps are a bit heavy-handed now, I'd like to see the shows get some lightness back into them."
