SC: DQMW is one of the most critically aclaimed family dramas of all time. And as we mentioned earlier, it will become part of the PaxTV lineup. It is seen weeknights at 9 pm.
It's actually the story of a courageous country doctor and her frontier
husband. Take a look:
(Insert clip from Where the Heart Is - Train scene - when Sully tells Mike that he loves her).
SC: Here he is, the newly cropped Joe Lando. Hi Joe.
JL: Hi.
SC: Good to see you.
JL: Thanks for having me.
SC: Now, this is a whole new look for you. I liked the long hair, I gotta
tell ya. It looked good, looked really good.
JL: Well, but after almost seven years, it was time for a change......with the new baby. Basically, just starting anew. That was DQ and I'm off looking for a new gig now.
SC: Because, I would imagine, that that hair really did.....I mean that's how people knew you and it did kind of......Does it feel good? Does it feel weird?
JL: It's great. It takes me all of like two minutes to get ready as you can see. It's a little blond. I'm looking for a style. I don't know what I'm doing now.
SC: I think it looks teriffic. You mentioned a new baby. Congratulations.
JL: Thanks. He's twelve weeks old. His name is Jack Neville and he's just ah....he's beautiful. It's everything everybody told me it would be.
SC: Now, you've been maried for quite a while, haven't you?
JL: No, actually, just over a year. But we dated almost for ten.
SC: Well that, I know that.
JL: Back when I was a chef in a restaurant, my wife was the cashier. As soon as she turned 18, I asked her out and it was kismet.
SC: Wow. How old were you?
JL: (with a smile) I was 18 too. No, I wasn't (laugh). I was 26 I think. I was the older man.
SC: You've done quite a bit. We all know you from DQ, but you started out on OLTL.
JL: Back about ten years ago. You were saying you were on?
SC: Many moons ago, for one shining moment, I was a OLTL star....actress.
JL: We must have passed in the night.
SC: We did. Because you were good and got to stay and I stunk and they asked me to leave.
JL: Did they? You know, every thirteen weeks they can just (pfttt) kick you out of there. So I had like two hundred and sixty five shows and you had twenty --
SC: Twelve.
JL: Twelve? Twelve?
SC: Thanks for bringing it up.
JL: Sorry 'bout that.
SC: With moving out and doing all this with DQ just one year after you started with OLTL and DQ went to Pilot. You're working on alot of different stuff right now. Tell me about that.
JL: I did a film in December with Charlie Sheen, Martin....Charles Sheen and
Martin. That's called "No Code of Conduct." Summer before, I did a movie, an
independent, with Vivian Wu called "Blindness." That was just in the
Hollywood Film Festival. And another one with Peter Coyote called "Seeds of
Doubt."
SC: And not only do you have DQ coming up on Pax, you're actually looking at a new project.
JL: Yeah, they've been kind enough to spend some time with me and talk to me about possibly developing something that would fit into the PaxTV format.
SC: Good. That's really exciting. It's really exciting for the whole cast of DQ for this to have fallen onto PaxTV. It's really neat to have it see a new life.
JL: I think that CBS really did a favor and actually gave PaxTV all of DQ.
You know, there is no more. And it's a very unique situation. It's not like
you can tune in every week and see the show on CBS anymore. It all belongs to
PaxTV.
SC: Did that cast over the years become a real family?
JL: Oh yeah, we spent 14 hours, 15, 18 hours a days, 5 days a week. We saw these people more than we saw our own families. And weathered the storms and the fires and the riots----all that stuff. It was a special time (said very quietly.)
SC: Wow. Do you guys ever get back together, spend any time together?
JL: I see quite a few of the folks. Not the actors because everyone goes off
in different directions. But I was friends with some of the people who were
on the crew. I spend a lot of time with the man who played the bartender,
Hank. William Shockley's a good buddy of mine. It's just good to see 'em.
You know, we support each other still. If someone does a play, we all go to
it.
SC: Oh good. Oh, that's fun. Now what's been the reaction on the haircut? Do people still walk up to you and say "Sully, that's you, isn't it?"
JL: I was just in Phoenix doing a little dinner party kind of thing for PaxNet and the reaction's mixed. Some people say they like it, other's come up and say "Oh, what did you do to your head?" (in the Jake voice) and things like that.
It made my wife happy, it's made me very happy. And the good thing about it
is that it didn't fall out (laugh). It just got shorter. So if I decide to
bail on this look, I can always go back to the long hair.
SC: And guess what.....now your 12 week old son can't pull your hair out quite as readily.
JL: Exactly. 'Cause it was down to here (gestures to just above the crease in elbow) before I cut it. I finally just got fed up.
SC: What did you do with it? Did you save it?
JL: It's in a big brown bag in my office. Yup.
SC: Thank you so much for being here. We're all looking forward to seeing you on PaxNet. It's really nice meeting you.
JL: Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.
SC: Again, you can see DQMW and Joe Lando right here, Monday through Friday
at 9 pm.
Transcript courtesy of Susan Leidy and Sue Berlin
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