People magazine called my next guest one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world, you will remember him from "One Life to Live" and now you can see him as Byron Sully, the rugged frontiersman on Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman. Please welcome Joe Lando.
Enter Joe to wild applause. Vicki gives him a hug, tells him he's looking good and they compare suits.
VICKI: Right here, come and sit right here. Looks like we called each other early this morning and said "what are you wearing?"
JOE: Thanks for having me. Hey folks (waves to the audience and gets more applause)
VICKI: How does it feel to be ... do you know ... well yeah, I guess you know ... (referring to the People Magazine she's holding)
JOE: They call you up and they tell you ...
VICKI: They do a nice photo ... where are you ...
JOE: Yeah, well I don't know about that photo but ...
VICKI: You're not crazy about that photo? Do you get to approve a photo?
JOE: No. The reason why these pants were unbuttoned there (pointing to the photo in People Magazine) is ‘cos I was about 20 lbs. overweight and ...
VICKI: Why was that?
JOE: Well I'd just had the summer off ...
VICKI: Do you do that? Do you go up and down just like women? Do guys do that?
JOE: Um, er - I did! Lots of croissants and beer.
VICKI: Well, yeah, because you have to be all studly to do Dr. Quinn, right?
JOE: Supposedly. Yeah.
VICKI: Now you started on er, er - was One Life to Live your big break do you think?
JOE: Yeah, well prior to that I was working in a restaurant so I came out here, One Life was a big thing for me, I was only acting off and on prior to that.
VICKI: What do you think about soap operas? Because I was at the Soap Opera Update Awards the other night and one of the gals got up to thank her for award and said I hate it when people make fun of us and say that we're not really -- ‘cos we work very very hard and --
JOE: Exactly. I'll never forget the fact that's where I got my start. It was a great training ground for young actors, um, I think there's a stigmatism attached to it that's unfair and those people work really hard, you know, 20 or 30 pages of dialogue a day is pretty tough.
VICKI: A stigmatism? Honey - a stigmatism? Isn't that a ..
JOE: I didn't mean a stigmatism, I mean a ..
VICKI: (interrupting Joe) It's okay. I want all the kids to learn the right - we have to have an dictionary and etiquette book here all the time. A stigmatism is in your eye.
JOE: There's a stigma attached to it.
VICKI: You're so cute you don't have to be smart. (Audience groans).
VICKI: (laughing) I'm teasing.
JOE: Alright.
VICKI: So - are you - did you - were you a stunt man for a while or did you want to be a stunt man?
JOE: Well I wanted to come out and become an actor, ever since I was a kid, and I heard that Bert Reynolds say on the Johnny Carson show that he became a stunt man and from that became an actor. So I tried it. Didn't work.
VICKI: Why? You weren't good at it? Or ---
JOE: No. I came out here during a big strike. There was an actor's strike and a director's strike in 1980 and so I went right into the restaurant business. I had a background in that.
VICKI: The restaurant business? Like - what - chefing? Cooking?
JOE: I was a cook, yes. And I also trained a few people on a movie called "I Love you to Death" and -- you've got me watching every word now.
VICKI: You trained a --
JOE: Stigmatism! (Laughs)
VICKI: I'll be here for you.
JOE: Change of subject. At 4 o'clock this morning I wake up. I cannot sleep.
VICKI: Thinking about me huh?
JOE: Thinking about you in an odd way. I er, yeah, you know how you get a song stuck in your head?
VICKI: Uh huh!
JOE: So I'm still wondering - why did the lights go out? You know?
VICKI: I don't know. That damn song never made any sense to begin with. I have no idea.
JOE: I kept going over and there's a part there that was missing in my head now - did you kill your sister in this?
VICKI: No. They hung an innocent man.
JOE: They hung an innocent man with an electrical rope?
VICKI: I don't know.
JOE: You know, in the old James Cagney movies and stuff like they put them in the chair and strap them in - they turn on the juice, the lights go dim, so that's what I figured, that maybe it's a metaphor --
VICKI: I think it is --
JOE: It's a metaphor for --
VICKI: That justice does not reign and the lights went out --
JOE: Okay. But who did you kill?
VICKI: My er -
JOE: So I can sleep tonight.
VICKI: Who did I kill?
JOE: There's a bit about a little sister going missing and she aims her gun.
VICKI: See - That was me, I was the little sister.
JOE: You were aiming at ...?
VICKI: Now there should be another verse where I get Johnny Cochrane to defend me and then a book comes out and I make a billion bucks.
VICKI: It could be, you never know.
JOE: You don't want to talk about this do you?
VICKI: Well it doesn't make any sense. That's the main reason we don't talk - let's talk about Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. That'd be easier.
JOE: Stigmatism
VICKI: Let's talk about your stigmatism on Dr. Quinn. Are you like that character at all? Did you want that character? Did you want that part?
JOE: Yeah, I um, CBS sent me the script and I was just finishing up on One Life, the last couple of shows where Jessica Tuck who played Megan dies and lots of tears and stuff like that and they sent me the script and I read it while I was here in New York and I loved the part - this quiet kind of laconic loaner, man of integrity --
VICKI: Rugged
JOE: Yeah.
VICKI: Where'd you grow up?
JOE: I grew up outside of Chicago. I spent a lot of time camping and the outdoors. My father was a fisherman ---
VICKI: And so you feel comfortable with all that stuff.
JOE: Right. We just did our kind of unofficial honeymoon, my wife and me. We rented a motor home, went all over the south west west, we went from Zion Canyon Utah to Aspen, actually we hired a guide to teach us how to fly fish so we went white water rafting and mountain biking and hiking, had a great time.
VICKI: Now there was a big cliff hanger at the end of last season on Dr. Quinn, you fell over the - I mean literally --
JOE: I literally fell over the cliff --
VICKI: Literally a cliff hanger --
JOE: My nemesis hit the rocks and I landed in the water.
VICKI: What did you think when that happens - maybe they're not bringing me back?
JOE: Oh, I read ahead and so I know (audience laughs). I come back but um, I'm not quite in the kind of shape I used to be. I'm um severely injured and it's kind of questionable if I'll make it through. And then everything that follows after that is out. I'm a hunted man now which is very unusual for my character. It kind of changes the dynamics with my relationship with Dr. Quinn, Jane, and um, so it should be quite interesting this year and in this first episode I have some really wild eating habits and some other stuff that goes on --
VICKI: Have you done the first episode yet?
JOE: Yeah, actually we put away six before we even go down for the summer.
VICKI: Really?
JOE: Because July and August is way too hot so we take off our hiatus then--
VICKI: Where do you guys shoot?
JOE: Paramount Ranch. Agoura Hills, California. Inland from Malibu
VICKI: I don't think you're quite close enough to Malibu huh?
JOE: No. It gets like 110 out there. You know where Calabsis is?
VICKI: I know it well.
JOE: Okay, so, it gets boiling out there.
VICKI: So you did six episodes, then you took off and got - is that when you got married?
JOE: No, I got married around Memorial Day and then went right back to work.
VICKI: Well we're going to talk about that and say hi to your cute little wife when we come back.
Commercial break
Clip from One Life to Live when Megan is dying
VICKI: You were there from ‘89 to' 91 I think I read?
JOE: ‘89 to ‘91, okay.
VICKI: And you already had long hair? You just said you'd cut your hair off if you could.
JOE: Well, I would. I knew that I had the part for Dr. Quinn so I had - it was a weird schedule, I was here in New York for a week and then three weeks in LA and I just knew way ahead of time that I had the job.
VICKI: But you'd cut your hair all off if you could?
JOE: Certainly. I'd love to have a gig where I could play an inmate some place and just phwooosh (motions having his hair shaved off).
VICKI: But it looks nice. Looks great. It's pretty. It's a pain in the butt to have beautiful long tresses isn't it?
JOE: Mm Mm!
VICKI: So you're a newly wed, you were married on Memorial Day of this year?
JOE: May 24. See I timed so I got engaged the day after 4th of July last year and then married on Memorial Day weekend so I'll never forget the dates. (Audience laughs).
VICKI: Where is your darling wife? There she is!
JOE: She's right there. (camera on Kirsten - audience applauds)
VICKI: How'd you guys meet?
JOE: She was a cashier at a restaurant where I was a cook.
VICKI: Really?
JOE: Yeah. So I just used to give her a hard time all the time. Finally she gave in.
VICKI: So no show biz background there at all? No aspirations to show biz? Is that good or bad do you think?
JOE: Well she understands the business fully. She's been around me through the whole journey and I think it works out for the best. You know, there's no having to worry about her schedule and my schedule or taking her someplace else. If we have to get up and go, we can go together.
VICKI: How did you propose?
JOE: Well it was my Dad's 70th birthday and so under the guise of his 70th birthday party, we had a bunch of people come in from my family, friends of mine that I grew up with, my Dad's buddies from when he was a kid and we rented a big yacht down in Marina Del Ray and, um, Kirsten just thought it's going to be for the party, so we, we were stressed out this whole time over this party that I was going to throw for my father but what we were doing was getting out the boat down here and driving down to the Ritz Carleton dock and picking everyone else up there.
Well I had people spreading the rumor there that we were going to get engaged so that everyone knew by the time they walked out it was going to be a surprise. And, I um, brought her up on the top deck with a bottle of champagne and had a chair ready to for her to sit right there. I had called her father the night before and asked for his permission on July 4th and then um, you know, I had this big long speech that I'd prepared, a kind of little poem thing and er, as soon as I sat her down, and she was like "I don't want to sit down" and I said "SIT DOWN" (audience laughs). I get down there and I open the box and looked at her face and then I was like Jerry Lewis in The Disorderly Orderly -- "could we wed - shall I put -- would you say yes and I got it on her finger and we both, you know, cried a little bit and that was it! (audience - awwww - lots of applause). It was amazing but she knew what I wanted to say.
VICKI: You're a real romantic guy.
JOE: I am.
VICKI: Guys that cook are romantic, aren't they. Don't you think Kirsten? What do you cook?
JOE: Anything, anything and everything. I have a really bad kitchen in the house in LA. It's electric you know. Two electric burners. You can't even make pasta, you have boil over and sauce over there and ...
VICKI: It's a bummer. But is that what you do? Do you do Italian stuff?
JOE: Yeah, a lot of Italian food - it was a Sicilian restaurant where I worked when we met and then I used to be a motion picture caterer for about four years. I was trying to get on a set no matter what it took and so when people ask me how did you do it, it was like "oh, it was real simple" I just showed up and they gave me a job---
VICKI: Did you ever go to a chef school?
JOE: I took lessons, I took classes. I even started in high school and I took cooking classes and then I took a couple of classes in LA and I worked under people who were good cooks, good chefs.
VICKI: So what's your speciality? Pasta what?
JOE: I make a really good crepe lasagne that I have yet to make at home for us. Crepe lasagne - vegetarian.
VICKI: Yeah, Kirsten listening right now "oh yeah, really?"
JOE: (to Kirsten) Do I cook or not. Kirsten nods yes. And we're building a house which will have a great kitchen.
VICKI: And your thinking about starting a family?
JOE: We're thinking about starting a family so we're excited about that.
VICKI: (looking at Kirsten) Did you know that Kirsten, that your thinking about that?
KIRSTEN: Yes, he filled me on that one.
Joe laughs.
VICKI: So you want kids?
JOE: About. Yeah. 2.4
VICKI: It's a commitment and it's a lot of work but it'll keep you young and adorable and it will keep you one of the 50 most beautiful people. Those kids will keep you on your toes.
JOE: Hopefully, they'll take care of me in my old age.
VICKI: Probably. Maybe. Well you're a darling. Thanks for coming by. And we're going to watch for Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman on CBS - you're still on Sunday nights?
JOE: Saturday nights.
VICKI: Saturday nights
JOE: CBS - September 27
VICKI: Good for you. That's when you premier?
JOE: Yes.
VICKI: Good luck with the season and I hope everything works out. You get well.
JOE: I will.
VICKI: You're too cute not to be well.
At the end of the show, some of the audience had some questions for Joe:
AUDIENCE MEMBER: (to Joe) What would you like to see happen to your character on Dr. Quinn?
VICKI: Do you have any choice at all?
JOE: Not really. No, they kind of --
AUDIENCE MEMBER: What would you like to see happen to Sully?
JOE: I'd like to see him come back and be a stronger - not a Mr. Mom type character - but somebody who has a little more say so, um, you know what happened on the show recently, um, he needs to get back to his roots, what made him that interesting character that appealed to me so much in the beginning - a very strong but sensitive guy who does right. Right now, he's kind of in limbo and um, hopefully, I think that's what we're forced into with this new storyline.
VICKI: You need to get him back on the straight and narrow taking care of business.
JOE: Exactly.
VICKI: Yeah. Wait. Is this your groupie Joe? Did you say this lady has been following you around.
JOE: Everywhere I go, there she is! (audience applauds) Sue, right? Let's hear it for Sue.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Do you have any aspirations to do more acting in the movies than just in television?
VICKI: Yes I do Sue, and how nice of you --- oh - you're asking Joe.
JOE: In fact I just finished a film with Vivian Wu and Lisa Lu From Joy Luck Club and it's called Blindness, a Chinese director named Anna Chee directed it and so it's an interesting little psycho film with four characters --
VICKI: When will we see this do you think?
JOE: Very intense. Sometime in 98 I believe. We just literally finished it two weeks ago.
VICKI: Hot off the press.
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