Episode 16: The Greatest American Hero – William Katt!

[00:00] William: Hey, everybody, this is William Katt from Greatest American Hero and Carrie and House. You’re listening to Bobby and Jason’s Awesome 80s podcast. Welcome to the ’80s.

[00:14] Bobby: We are here live, this is Bobby and Jason’s Awesome ’80s podcast, we are in our double garage, man, we are growing.

[00:22] Jason: Double garaging it.

[00:24] Bobby: Yeah, baby. So last week, episode 15, we spoke to-

[00:28] Jason: Wait a second, you didn’t introduce yourself, how the hell does anybody know who you are?

[00:30] Bobby: My name is Bobby Catalano. Across the table is-

[00:42] Bobby: Mr. Jason Pascoe.

[00:44] Jason: Wow, that’s so cool, you doing my little intro is great.

[00:47] Bobby: Isn’t that great? Can I recap now? I just wanna get into it, man, I’m excited, ’cause today’s show. We’ll get into it later, but anyway, let’s recap. We had Scott Schwartz on last week, the famous actor from The Toy with Richard Pryor and Jackie Gleason, and the little Christmas movie.

[01:05] Jason: A Christmas Story.

[01:06] Bobby: A Christmas Story, so that was a lot of fun, man.

[01:08] Jason: We’ve gotten a lot of emails from you people out there, all you listeners in listener land, and just the cool stuff.

[01:18] Bobby: Yeah, we’re gonna read some of those at the end of the show.

[01:20] Jason: We liked that you appreciated Christmas Story as much as we did, and everybody gave it the okay that it was okay to talk about Christmas in October because it was Scotty Schwartz.

[01:29] Bobby: Exactly, and when you go in all these stores you see Christmas shit everywhere, so I guess we’re in the spirit.

[01:36] Jason: At least we’re legit, the only thing I think would be better would be if we actually had Santa Claus on, then October’s okay to celebrate Christmas too.

[01:43] Bobby: So yeah, Halloween’s coming up, remember last week you talked about those crazy killer clowns, they’re all over the news.

[01:52] Bobby: It’s crazy, but here’s a little story I heard about the other day. The legitimate clowns are not happy.

[02:00] Jason: But most of them aren’t anyway.

[02:01] Bobby: The leader of the clown organization, they actually have a clown organization of the real clowns, the ones that make people happy, they were planning a million-clown march in Arizona.

[02:13] Jason: Wow, in Arizona of all places.

[02:14] Bobby: In Arizona, where the weather’s hot and the weather’s high. So the leader of this group got death threats, so they canceled their million-clown march. This clown shit’s just out of hand, bro.

[02:31] Jason: I mean, pick Arizona of all places, they’re pretty trigger-happy down there. But why would you walk around in a clown makeup, everybody’s gonna be a sad clown.

[02:43] Bobby: I feel bad for the legitimate clowns, though, ’cause they make a living doing this, and I feel like they’re gonna lose a lot of business over all this killer clown bullshit.

[02:52] Jason: I think a few more of them are gonna turn to alcoholics.

[02:55] Bobby: Have you ever seen anybody dress up as a clown trick-or-treating? I don’t remember ever seeing that.

[03:00] Jason: No, me either.

[03:01] Bobby: If I go to the circus I see it, but I just never see anybody come to my door with a clown suit on.

[03:07] Jason: Me neither. And I would think the clown thing would’ve went downhill with the John Wayne Gacy thing, back in the day. But I’m telling you, you heard it here first, party people, I think it’s a conspiracy for advertising for the new It thing that’s coming out.

[03:24] Bobby: There you go, everything, folks, is a conspiracy.

[03:27] Bobby: So what do you got, you said there was something you wanted to talk about.

[03:33] Jason: There was something I wanted to talk about because somebody’s getting old, besides us. Certainly beats the alternative.

[03:39] Bobby: Young at heart, baby.

[03:40] Jason: That’s right. Luke Perry on the cover of AARP, what the hell’s that?

[03:44] Bobby: What the hell, Luke Perry’s on the cover?

[03:47] Jason: A contemporary, oh my God, people, if you didn’t need to realize it, it’s happening, we’re all creeping up there.

[03:53] Bobby: That’s right, we’re all creeping up there, we don’t carry our cards yet, thank God.

[03:59] Jason: It’s so hard for me to think of that, ’cause you and me sitting here, it feels like back in the ’80s we’re sitting here, you know?

[04:05] Bobby: I can tell you folks, party people, that Jason has a full head of hair.

[04:10] Jason: Thank you, and so do you.

[04:12] Bobby: So do I, you’re not doing too badly. And Alf’s in the studio, he has so much hair he can share it.

[04:20] Jason: That’s very true, and especially the Philly Phanatic, who uses our sound dampeners while we’re here.

[04:26] Bobby: So we didn’t say, this is episode what?

[04:28] Jason: 16.

[04:29] Bobby: Number 16 in Spanish.

[04:33] Jason: We’re almost legal. Can you say 16 in Spanish? Dude, I can barely say anything in Spanish.

[04:35] Bobby: It’s dieciséis.

[04:37] Jason: There you go, people.

[04:38] Bobby: Dieciséis, people.

[04:39] Jason: We’re educating you and making you a little more bilingual each week, thanks to Roberto.

[04:45] Bobby: We’re gonna give you a heads up, next week’s show is gonna be a special Halloween episode.

[04:51] Jason: Don’t listen alone.

[04:53] Bobby: Yes, do not listen alone.

[04:56] Jason: So we’re gonna have some fun.

[04:57] Bobby: We are, we’re gonna have some fun, we have some cool things planned, and you definitely want to tune in.

[05:02] Jason: We might even dress up, but you’re not gonna see it.

[05:04] Bobby: So today’s the day that we have scored one of the biggest stars of the ’80s.

[05:12] Jason: The one thing I remember watching when I was young in the ’80s, and maybe everybody out there remembers it too, when they used to do Monkees reruns.

[05:18] Bobby: I remember The Monkees.

[05:18] Jason: Remember The Monkees? And even though it was a show that was on in the ’60s, it got really popular in the ’80s, they kept playing it.

[05:24] Jason: It was like always on. I remember, in the intro where they’re all in their superhero things, I remember watching that as a kid.

[05:29] Bobby: You wanna be there.

[05:30] Jason: Yeah, you wanna be there. And then there was one other guy.

[05:34] Bobby: One other guy, and he is gonna be a special guest coming up, William Katt.

[05:38] Jason: William Katt, believe it or not, I’m walking on air, The Greatest American Hero.

[05:46] Bobby: The Greatest American Hero, we’re so excited to have him, he’s gonna be coming up in a few minutes. When I was a young kid watching that show, it was great, it was on from ’81 to ’83, and it made a big impact on a lot of people.

[05:59] Jason: Here’s a guy every week, you’re looking at him and he’s flying.

[06:02] Bobby: He’s flying, you know what’s cool about that show was, they had the comedy thing going on, he was like a reluctant superhero.

[06:10] Jason: Yes.

[06:11] Bobby: He’s a high school teacher and he gets this magic suit from outer space and superpowers, he don’t know what the hell he’s doing. So we’re gonna talk to him about that coming up very shortly.

[06:24] Jason: Yes we are. So get yourself together, get some popcorn, sit down, this is one you can listen to alone, and we really hope you enjoy it. Day or night, I’m walking. All right, we’re in for a special treat, everybody.

[06:41] Bobby: We are. We told you we had a special guest, and we weren’t kidding.

[06:44] Jason: That’s right, if you were a kid like we were in the ’80s, every week you wanted to watch this because there were two superpowers that any kid ever wanted, one was-

[06:53] Bobby: To fly.

[06:54] Jason: And the other one was-

[06:55] Bobby: To lose his manual.

[06:56] Jason: That’s right.

[06:58] Bobby: We are here with William Katt.

[07:02] Jason: William Katt, yes, how you doing, Bill?

[07:05] William: I’m doing well. You forgot to add that I lost my mind too.

[07:08] Bobby: He lost your mind, and he lost the manual. Did you ever find that manual?

[07:13] William: I think they did the beginning of the second season, and then they lost it just as quickly.

[07:19] Bobby: Well, you know what?

[07:20] William: Very clever of Cannell, of Steve Cannell.

[07:22] Bobby: To do that, it was, it actually made it fun that you had to figure all these things out.

[07:28] Jason: Yeah, it was so cool.

[07:29] William: Indeed.

[07:30] Bobby: So Bill, when did the show run? It ran from ’81 for how many seasons?

[07:34] William: No, that’s incorrect. We ran from late ’79, we did the pilot, then we were down for a while, then we were back up in ’80, ’81, ’82, and we ended in the fall of ’83. But we only did like 43 shows, it was kind of a convoluted exercise because we were in, and then we were down, and then we were back in. It was kinda crazy, I think that’s some of the reason we lost our viewership.

[08:04] Jason: Was there any particular reason behind that, why it went like that?

[08:09] William: I really don’t have any idea, that was outside of my wheelhouse.

[08:15] Bobby: Gotcha. Well, when you received the script the first time, what did you think when you were reading it?

[08:21] William: I was in New York, I was doing a play, a Michel Tremblay play called Bonjour La Bonjour with Diana Weast and a number of very accomplished actors from the Guthrie Theater. I received the script from my agent, Michael Black at the time at ICM, and I thought it was laugh out loud funny, but I really wasn’t interested in doing a television show at the time.

[08:46] William: But after some prompting by my agent, Steve Cannell got on the phone, he was so gracious, I said, “Sure, come meet me.” So he flew out, he took his private jet and flew out to New York, saw the play, took me out to dinner, and he won me over.

[09:07] William: Just one of the most gracious, charming men I’ve ever met, and still to this day, outside of my father, has left one of the strongest watermarks in my life.

[09:17] Bobby: So when you were playing a superhero in the ’80s, it’s a little different than today where you see Iron Man and all these different superheroes, a little more risky back then. Didn’t you mention once you were worried about being typecast?

[09:27] William: Well, nowadays you got Hemsworth, Ed Norton, and Robert Downey, just to mention a few, all these guys are looking for their franchise, be it Marvel or DC Comics, because it’s such a huge cash cow for them. And it doesn’t seem to have any kind of impact on the careers these days. But if you ask me or Adam West at the time, doing a show that was as risque as the early Batman and then my show, Greatest American Hero, it could be the end of a career.

[10:10] Bobby: Right, it was a different time, for sure.

[10:14] William: Very much so. Nowadays you have all those big actors, and not only do they do that, but they’re doing all the voiceover work and they’re doing all the television commercials, it’s a much different time.

[10:26] Bobby: Yeah, definitely.

[10:27] William: I didn’t understand the impact of the show when I was doing it. It wasn’t until the advent of all the Comic-Cons that have sprung up since the mid-’80s that I realized what kind of impact it had on fans.

[10:45] Bobby: Without a doubt, the show has become like a cult thing.

[10:47] Jason: We can speak for ourselves and say it was a huge impact on us.

[10:52] Bobby: Yeah, we were kids in the ’80s, and I remember watching you on the show and thinking not only was it cool to see you flying and making the mistakes and learning the ropes, I liked your relationship also with your co-stars. Robert Culp was great.

[11:10] William: I’ll tell you something, working with Robert Culp and Connie Sellecca, it was like lightning in a bottle, one of those magical casting sessions where it was just magic when we all got together.

[11:22] Bobby: Yeah, the cast was great, you guys worked so well together.

[11:25] Jason: It definitely came through, absolutely.

[11:28] Bobby: Yeah, the chemistry was definitely there.

[11:31] William: It was interesting, I know it’s probably a well-known fact now, but Steve Cannell told the story where Connie was only signed on to do the pilot.

[11:40] William: And then they were gonna change out the girl every episode, but she was so wonderful and delicious to watch that he called her agent and made an overall deal after the first week.

[11:52] Bobby: And I’m sure that made you happy.

[11:55] William: Oh yeah, well, she was and still is one of the most beautiful women on the planet.

[12:01] Jason: Agreed, absolutely agree.

[12:03] William: And just as lovely inside as well.

[12:07] Bobby: Get that in there, that’s right, she might listen. So Bill, did I hear that they’re thinking about making a big screen version of your show, or is that just a rumor?

[12:17] William: Of Hero? Years ago, a wonderful screenplay writer, Paul Hernandez, who has since passed unfortunately, who was responsible for Sky High, he was a very dear friend of mine, and he wrote just a magnificent script when it was still at Disney.

[12:38] William: But that got put into turnaround. I read another script several years later by somebody else, whose name is eluding me at the moment, and that was not made. I think Steve bought the rights back from Disney, and eventually it landed at 20th Century Fox. The last I heard, after Steven passed, Steven’s eldest daughter was at the helm of that trying to get it made, and I think it was going to be done as a TV series.

[13:12] William: The last I heard of it was last January, in the trades they announced that they had green-lit or picked up a script at least, and they had hired a director, but honestly, since that time, and now it’s been so many months later, I haven’t heard anything about it.

[13:30] Bobby: Well, let’s cross our fingers.

[13:31] William: Have you guys heard anything?

[13:33] Bobby: I know as much as you do.

[13:34] Jason: Just heard that little blurb.

[13:37] Bobby: What about the suit, do you still have it? Were you able to snag that from the wardrobe, or-

[13:45] William: No, no, no, geez. I had no idea how valuable that suit would be.

[13:51] Bobby: How many suits did you go through?

[13:54] William: I think there was only five suits made.

[13:58] William: I’ve seen one in a museum, I know Paul Hernandez had one, he gave it to his wife, I know she has it, it’s one of the originals definitely, ’cause I saw it.

[14:07] William: And then there’s a couple other, Dennis Madalone, who was the stuntman on that show, who’s still one of my best friends, he has a shirt, the top of it, he doesn’t have the bottoms. I don’t know where the others are.

[14:26] William: Somebody is coveting, wherever it is, it’s being coveted by somebody.

[14:30] Jason: Going back a little bit there, which you just brought up, what was it like working with Robert Culp, going in there and working with him all the time?

[14:38] Bobby: Yeah, ’cause you guys were complete opposites.

[14:41] William: Yeah, you know, it’s a famous story, Bob and I didn’t particularly get along very well at the beginning of the show, when we met. But I think that really worked for the show. It was pretty obvious in the first scenes that we did together, when we met in the little coffee shop, when Michael Pare has a little encounter with him. And then later on, we have an encounter at the high school, he comes to the high school, and we have a pretty cool scene in the men’s bathroom, where we’re jockeying for who’s gonna be in control.

[15:10] William: And we were not getting along at the time, but shortly thereafter, by the end of the second or third week, at the beginning of the pilot, I think our pilot was originally like a month-long that we shot. But by the end of the second week, we had a meeting in the trailer, and we came to some sort of formal détente, and we became fast friends for the next 30 years.

[15:48] Bobby: That’s great.

[15:48] Jason: That is great, I didn’t know that.

[15:52] Bobby: Can I tell, I wanna admit something, I was surfing YouTube earlier, and I come along you and Kurt Russell doing a Star Wars audition, you were trying out for Luke Skywalker from the original episode.

[16:08] William: Yeah, that’s true.

[16:09] Bobby: You gotta tell us about that.

[16:12] Jason: We gotta know about that.

[16:16] William: Well, I’m so lucky, I got to be on the added features on that release. One day I’d be curious to meet Mr. Lucas, although we don’t travel in the same universe, I’d like to find out why Kurt Russell, who did such a wonderful job in that reading, and I, who was following on his heels trying to keep up, why we didn’t get those roles. Although I must say, Mark Hamill and, oh, why am I drawing a blank, who played Han Solo?

[16:52] Jason: Harrison Ford.

[16:52] William: Harrison Ford. Jesus, shame on me.

[16:56] Jason: It’s okay, you get a pass.

[16:57] William: They were so perfect in those roles.

[17:00] Bobby: Yeah, they were great, and I did watch your audition, I thought you did great, and you guys worked well together.

[17:07] William: Yeah, he was great, he’s had an okay career.

[17:11] Bobby: He’s done all right. But then you did a little film in, what was it, ’75-

[17:15] William: He’s done a little something.

[17:17] Bobby: Yeah, he did, well, you did too. Didn’t you guys share the audition space for another film you actually did with Brian De Palma?

[17:26] William: I don’t know if Kurt auditioned for that, I have no idea. But I think everybody, Lucas and De Palma, in the first casting sessions, I think they were sitting side by side in a sound stage, seeing every young up-and-coming actor and actress for those roles at the same time.

[17:49] Bobby: So they cast both films simultaneously?

[17:54] William: Simultaneously, initially, and then they had their own screen tests separately, of course.

[18:00] Jason: Oh, so we’re talking about Carrie, of course.

[18:04] William: I was talking about Carrie, yes. I didn’t get Star Wars, but I got the booby prize, if you can call it that.

[18:10] Bobby: No, little bit more than that, Bill, that was a nice prize there.

[18:16] William: Yeah, no, I’m very happy, very grateful that Brian had the audacity, I should say, not just the courage, but the audacity to cast me, because I was so full of myself at the time, he saw beyond that.

[18:31] William: And I guess the chemistry worked on stage with Sissy and with Amy Irving.

[18:36] Bobby: And Bill, you had some great hair in that movie, by the way.

[18:40] Jason: Big props.

[18:41] William: Yeah, good hair.

[18:44] William: I was doing a Farrah Fawcett imitation, I think.

[18:49] Jason: Yeah, and you nailed it.

[18:52] Bobby: Let’s get in a little bit about-

[18:52] William: Yeah, I was doing Farrah Fawcett hair, we had big hair then.

[18:56] Bobby: Well, I had that Farrah Fawcett poster on my wall, I will admit that.

[19:00] Jason: No, Greatest American Hero poster, sorry, every guy my age had that poster on the wall.

[19:09] Bobby: So let’s talk about your parents, I know both of them were very famous, maybe some of our listeners don’t know a lot about them, can you tell us a little bit about them, your mom and dad?

[19:20] William: My dad was most famous for Kit Carson, his name is Bill Williams, he was very successful in Vaudeville as a dancer, and then he went on to do a lot of Westerns at RKO and Columbia.

[19:38] William: He worked with my mom, met my mom, and got married. My mom was, of course, famous for Della Street on the great number one show, Perry Mason. But she did many, many films before that, she worked with Cagney, she was Frank Sinatra’s first on-screen kiss, she worked with Jimmy Stewart, Fred MacMurray, she’s worked with everybody.

[20:06] Bobby: What was it like in your house, were these people coming and going, what was that like?

[20:12] William: No, I grew up, I didn’t know any different. A lot of these people did come over and spend time, Clint Eastwood was very good friends with my dad.

[20:22] Bobby: That’s cool, man.

[20:24] William: But I don’t remember anything particularly stands out to me at this point, ’cause I was a kid, I didn’t have any way of comparing it to anything.

[20:35] Jason: It was just your life.

[20:36] Jason: That was just the normal way it was.

[20:37] Bobby: That’s what you knew.

[20:38] William: Yeah. But you also were many years on Perry Mason, and you acted with your mom, right?

[20:46] William: I did a couple times, I think one of my earliest things was on Perry Mason, and I had to go swim in a lake that was freezing, on a back lot at Universal, I believe, and I said, “Nah, this is not for me.”

[21:00] Bobby: Really?

[21:01] William: I think the only other time I tried as a kid, I did Rawhide, and I got to do a scene with Clint Eastwood, and that was pretty cool.

[21:09] Bobby: Wow, that’s cool, that’s a memory.

[21:13] Bobby: That’s super cool. Now, you didn’t actually wanna be on Perry Mason, right? Didn’t you get a phone call from somebody very famous who tried to convince you?

[21:21] William: Oh, yeah, the reboot, when they did the reboot at NBC, Fred Silverman and Dean Hargrove, I think, were the two producers who concocted it, I think Dean wrote many of the scripts.

[21:37] William: Yeah, I was not going to do it, I was happy doing, I was on the road doing Pirates of Penzance with George Rose. I was in St. Louis at the time, on tour, and Raymond called me on the phone and said, “Young man.” “Yes? This is Uncle Raymond.”

[21:57] Bobby: Oh man, with that voice.

[21:59] William: It was, he was a force to be reckoned with, I’ll tell you what. But I had known Raymond since I was a little kid, four or five years old, so he was just like a family friend. And he wasn’t gonna do the show unless my mom was in it, he was responsible for getting her back in the show. And then, of course, keeping it all in the family, they wanted me to come and join that little tribe that they had.

[22:29] William: So I was in the right place at the right time, and I flew from St. Louis to Toronto. We did the first episode, and I stayed for about four and a half years doing four episodes a year, aside from the theater that I’d get a chance to do in between.

[22:48] Jason: So you were very busy.

[22:52] William: I stayed busy for a while, I’ll tell you what, I did.

[22:56] Jason: Tell us about House, how did that come about?

[22:59] William: House was the next film I did after I did Secret of the Lost Legend for Touchstone, I did that with Sean Young, Bill Norton directed.

[23:13] William: We did that in West Africa, in the Ivory Coast, we were there for about four months. Working with the wonderful Sean Young, who was a pistol, I’ll tell you that, I’ll just leave it at that, she was a pistol.

[23:31] Jason: I think that comes through with her, I think you can tell.

[23:35] William: Anyway, House was the next film that I did, and that came about, I read the script, I thought it was hysterically funny, there was a great buzz about Steve Miner, that he was looking for a breakout film, and this certainly suited him very well, his sensibilities.

[23:55] William: He was always very left of center and had this kind of quirky, great sense of humor, and it matched mine. We just had so much fun on that set and we became very friendly for many years after that.

[24:10] Bobby: Seen that movie so many times, what you just said, you could see that in the film, the mix of the comedy and the horror, and I think that’s why it’s become pretty much of a cult classic, people love it.

[24:22] William: Yeah, it’s funny, when I go out there and I do some of the cons that I do, a lot of people will come up to me and say, “You know, this is the first horror film that I ever watched.”

[24:32] William: Because it was one of those films that, certainly by today’s standards, it was very tame, but it still had enough, it created enough tension and anxiety in you before it made you laugh, and as a result people loved it.

[24:51] Jason: That was one of the first ones that my mother let me watch, so I remember that.

[24:53] Bobby: Yeah.

[24:54] Jason: I was there, it scared you shitless, or what?

[24:56] William: It’s funny talking about that film because even now, all these years later, I did a scene with George Wendt, who was so wonderful to work with.

[25:05] Jason: Norm.

[25:06] William: We did a scene upstairs in the bedroom, I put a pair of goggles on him and I hand him a spear gun, and I say, “There’s a big raccoon in the closet.” And that scene is still, to me, one of the funniest scenes I’ve ever done in my career, and largely, entirely, because George was so good in it, he had very little to say, he was just so hysterically funny to watch.

[25:30] Bobby: I remember that.

[25:32] Bobby: So you were talking earlier about the Comic-Cons and all these conventions, and how you didn’t realize the impact that your Greatest American Hero had on people, tell us about what it’s like going to all these conventions and meeting the fans in person.

[25:48] William: It’s great, as anyone who’s doing it these days knows, the fans at the sci-fi conventions and the horror conventions, they’re the best.

[25:58] Bobby: They are.

[25:58] William: They’re absolutely loyal, they follow you, and they’re gracious, they’re so gracious and kind and appreciative. And for me it’s a great opportunity to meet them and spend time with them and listen to them and talk to them and really get to know them and what they were going through at the time when they were seeing some of these things. It’s pretty remarkable, I feel so lucky to be able to do it.

[26:26] Jason: After all these years to see that, it’s really impressive that you said that they are gracious and passionate and sincere.

[26:34] William: Oh yeah, I’m sure.

[26:35] Bobby: I mean, they just wanna have a moment with you, and I think they’ll remember that for a lifetime, I think that’s pretty cool.

[26:39] William: Well, I wanna have a moment with them too, and I try and take a good amount of time with each person and look them in the eye and shake their hands and visit with them and hear the impact that the show made and really talk about our lives at the time and what we were all going through.

[27:01] Bobby: That’s pretty awesome that you do that, I’m digging that. Speaking of science fiction, you did a film in 2007, The Man from Earth, and this movie has gotten a big following, it’s amazing.

[27:19] William: It’s been interesting. David Lee Smith, Tony Todd, Richard Riehle, I think that’s his name, Ellen Crawford, and me, and Billingsley and Peterson and Alexis Thorpe, we all felt the same thing, first time I read the script I couldn’t put it down, and my agent said, “No, Bill, you don’t wanna do this. It’s very low budget, there’s really nothing in it.” What they were really saying, the agents, is that there’s nothing in it for them.

[27:58] William: But for me, I said, this is a fascinating story, it’s about a guy who’s not a vampire, he’s not undead, he’s not an alien.

[28:11] William: He’s just this guy who doesn’t understand it himself, and he’s lived for 10,000 years. Everybody who’s seen it knows the plot, we try, a room full of PhDs in our various subjects of expertise, we try and poke a hole in his story, and we can’t, we can’t prove it wrong.

[28:35] William: And it’s fascinating, it’s very interesting, I thought it was a fascinating script, I wish that we had had more money at the time, ’cause it was a really fast shoot. But this remarkable little picture had legs that none of us anticipated.

[28:51] Bobby: And that’s a cool thing to be part of something like that, and then this happens. That’s pretty neat. And did you know this movie’s in the top 50 science fiction films?

[29:03] William: I did not know that.

[29:05] Bobby: It actually is, on IMDb.

[29:08] William: I know it’s one of the smartest scripts that I’ve read or had the joy of being a part of, it’s very smart, and he was a wonderful writer.

[29:24] Jason: And you got the sequel coming out next year, right, you’re working on the sequel, The Man from Earth-

[29:28] William: Holocene. We had a sequel, we’ve already shot it, and it’s quite good, Richard Shephard and Eric Wilkinson, who were director and producer of the first one, they did a wonderful job keeping the integrity of the first script, they did a wonderful job with the second script, I think people are gonna be really pleased when they see it.

[29:50] Bobby: Eric’s a good friend of ours too, he’s a good guy. And that’s coming out in 2017, so we definitely gotta keep our eye out on that one.

[30:00] Bobby: Now, you got something coming out, Man From Earth II, I think the title is exactly The Man from Earth: Holocene.

[30:11] Bobby: So you got something coming out next week.

[30:16] Jason: Yeah, Subterranea.

[30:19] William: I did with Nick Turturro, and a wonderful young filmmaker out of Montana, whom I had seen a couple short films that he had made, and I was just blown away how good this kid was.

[30:40] William: And it’s a very interesting premise, I play, I kind of, I’m a good guy with a bad side.

[30:51] Bobby: You know what, I saw the film, and I can agree with that, but it’s coming out on October 25th, so I recommend it, it’s a good, interesting film, it keeps you glued, you’re real curious where it’s going, and Bug Hall was very good also.

[31:10] William: Oh, Bug Hall was very good, I was very unfamiliar with his work, other than when he did his earlier stuff when he was younger.

[31:19] William: But he’s a wonderful leading man in his 20s now, and he really does a great job of carrying the film.

[31:28] Bobby: Yeah, he did, and you were great, man, I don’t wanna give it away, but you were something, bro.

[31:34] Jason: Everybody will enjoy your performance, yeah, he was really good.

[31:38] Bobby: All right, man, well, cool, we really appreciate you taking time out to talk with us, it’s an honor for us to speak with you.

[31:44] William: Oh, it’s my pleasure, I’m always thrilled that anyone at all is interested in what I’ve done.

[31:50] Jason: Yeah, we really, it’s really special for us to talk to you ’cause-

[31:54] Bobby: ‘Cause we were young kids watching you flying around, banging into walls and shit, so it’s cool to talk to you.

[31:59] Jason: Yeah, exactly, and as young boys, that’s what you wanted to do, and you got a chance to do it, and just like those people you see in conventions, you made a big impression on us. Are you coming to Vegas anytime soon, any conventions coming up on your schedule?

[32:13] William: One of my first jobs was in Vegas in 1973, I was doing Sound of Music at the Union Plaza, I worked there for about six or seven months. I love Vegas.

[32:24] Bobby: Yeah, that’s where we are, we’re Vegas guys, so we’re close by.

[32:28] Jason: If you do a Comic-Con, we’ll have to stop by and say hello in person.

[32:32] William: I’d love it. Hey, thank you, guys, for taking the time and speaking with me, I appreciate it.

[32:37] Jason: Thank you, Bill, really appreciate it.

[32:38] Bobby: You take care of yourself, man.

[32:40] Jason: Take care.

[32:46] Jason: I’m bugging out still.

[32:47] Bobby: I know, I’m speechless, that was a great interview. Bill Katt really gave us so much great information, a lot of things I never even knew.

[32:55] Jason: Me either.

[32:56] Bobby: And I think a lot of our listeners are gonna really appreciate it, any kid who grew up in the ’80s knows that TV show.

[33:06] Jason: Yeah, and like he said about being typecast, it’s hard to take your mind out of what’s going on today, with The Avengers and everything he talked about. Sure, it’s cool, it looks cool, and it’s not a career killer like he said. And if you look at it from somebody today who didn’t grow up watching it all the time, you think to yourself, “Wow, it’s a little campy.” But when you grew up between him and Buck Rogers-

[33:28] Bobby: Yeah, but here’s the thing, man, it’s campy, but it was so much fun, and I think that’s why it became such a hit.

[33:33] Jason: Well, you didn’t realize it when you were a kid that it’s campy.

[33:36] Bobby: Like we said at the beginning, he was reluctant, he lost his manual, and he was trying to find his way in every show. And it was just a lot of fun to watch, even today when you watch it on DVD or in your home, it’s still fun.

[33:48] Jason: It’s, he was an imperfect superhero, and it was funny, he had enough stuff going on.

[33:52] Jason: And he was just, like I said even before, when you’re 13, 14, 15 years old, you don’t know, you can’t say, “Oh, this is camp.” You watched something like House, that was scary.

[34:03] Bobby: It was scary, especially when you’re young.

[34:05] Jason: Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about, when you don’t have any point of reference. That was scary, and to watch William Katt in that show, it was just when we were able to get him, it was just like-

[34:17] Bobby: We were excited, we were high-fiving. We’re like, “Yeah.” Yeah, we were excited. But he really brought it to the table, I really liked how he gives back to his fans at the conventions, at Comic-Cons, and he spends time with them.

[34:28] Bobby: He just doesn’t brush them off, he actually wants to meet them and speak with them for a few minutes, and that’s great that he does that.

[34:37] Jason: You heard how he didn’t realize it was gonna be that, back then he didn’t realize it.

[34:40] Bobby: He didn’t keep the suit, bro.

[34:42] Jason: Yeah, exactly. And he realizes now, as an adult, seeing it, going, “Wow, this was something,” and he’s sincere about it. So if anybody out there gets a chance to see him, other than Subterranea, which is coming out on the 25th of October, which is right now, if you get a chance to see him at a Comic-Con, he’s somebody like you and I, let’s go check him out, he’s super cool.

[35:06] Bobby: And you know what, I bet a lot of our listeners didn’t realize that he tried out to be Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, back in the day. I was a fanboy, ’cause I love Star Wars, but it’s pretty cool to watch those audition tapes. If you go on YouTube, anybody listening, you put in William Katt, Star Wars auditions, you will find his actual audition tapes.

[35:25] Jason: And you know what’s really cool about it, there’s no takedown notices for it either, you can actually watch it.

[35:29] Bobby: Exactly, Darth Vader is not trying to ruin the party.

[35:34] Jason: That’s right, Lucasfilm isn’t like, “Don’t put these up there,” they wanna share it with everybody, he’s a sharer, you can tell.

[35:40] Bobby: He is, like us, we’re sharers over here. But bro, sadly, it’s that time.

[35:48] Jason: No, it’s not that time yet.

[35:49] Bobby: Okay, what do you wanna talk about?

[35:50] Jason: I need an email bag jingle.

[35:52] Bobby: Oh, shit, I’m glitching out over here.

[35:56] Bobby: Do you have any emails?

[35:58] Jason: Yeah, we do have an email.

[35:59] Bobby: Let me go grab them.

[36:00] Jason: All right, here we go, ladies and gentlemen, we know you like it, one, two, three, four, da-dun-dun.

[36:08] Bobby: It’s time for the mail bag, the mail bag, hey, we’re reading the mail bag. I am not a singer and I don’t pretend to be.

[36:16] Jason: But that’s what makes it so awesome.

[36:17] Bobby: So Jason, you read the comments from our social media.

[36:21] Jason: I get the comments today.

[36:22] Bobby: I get the comments, and I’ll read the email afterwards.

[36:24] Jason: That’s right, okay, here we go with the comments, coming around the first right here, it’s Gina Di, come on, it’s Gina.

[36:35] Bobby: And Jason, I always butcher her name.

[36:38] Jason: That’s right, but she knows who she is.

[36:39] Bobby: She’s a big fan of the show.

[36:40] Jason: Big fan, love reading what she posts, and that’s why we include her all the time. So, “Great show, he’s a great guy.” She’s talking about Scotty Schwartz, this is about the Scotty Schwartz show. “He’s a great guy, it seems, if y’all hang out with him sometime, I would enjoy seeing some pics of his dad’s store, sounds cool, xoxo to my boys.”

[37:02] Bobby: That’s on our list, we’re gonna hopefully meet up with Scotty Schwartz in LA and go see his dad’s memorabilia store one day.

[37:09] Jason: More than just him, we’re gonna-

[37:10] Bobby: Well, yeah, we got a lot of things going on, but definitely that’s one of our stops.

[37:15] Jason: Absolutely, all right, Candy Burrish Hickok, I think I got that right, ding, ding.

[37:22] Bobby: Nah, you probably got it wrong.

[37:23] Jason: I know, I probably did. “That’s great you got him, but keep away, keep him away from any poles, ha ha.” Well, there you go, ha ha.

[37:30] Bobby: You know what she’s talking about, Scotty Schwartz getting his tongue on that pole.

[37:33] Jason: Got his tongue stuck on the pole, so he’s not gonna be spending any time down at Princess’ place, I’m sure, with that. All right, Janice Holmes Berry, there we go, I got that one.

[37:43] Bobby: That was easy.

[37:44] Jason: “OMG, I loved the Scott Schwartz interview, I found out so many things I never knew about him. Maybe you guys could interview George Michael, imagine that.”

[37:49] Jason: Oh man, wouldn’t that be cool? That would be a long interview, that would be pretty awesome. “Loving the work you both are doing, keep it up, big fan from Arizona.” Arizona’s the star of the show today too.

[38:03] Bobby: Yeah, we have the Killer Klowns and then we got Janice.

[38:07] Jason: Janice Holmes Berry, so there’s our three social media comments.

[38:11] Bobby: There you go, right there. And party people, if you ever want us to read your comments, you need to comment on our Facebook page, find us on Facebook, and we would love to read your comments.

[38:20] Jason: Or you can DM us on Instagram, we get those too.

[38:23] Bobby: You can do that, and Twitter, and you can send us emails. All right, so I have an email, this is from Jessica Hanley, and I got that right, that was pretty easy.

[38:33] Bobby: She says, “I’m a big fan of Diane Franklin’s, and I saw her post about your show on Twitter, so now I’m a big fan of both of you.”

[38:42] Bobby: She said, “The interview with Diane was great, she sounds like so much fun, and she really is cool.”

[38:49] Jason: Yeah, she really is.

[38:50] Bobby: “I’ll be honest, I don’t remember the dance show you guys were on back in the day, is there any way I can watch some videos of the show?”

[38:58] Jason: What a question.

[39:00] Bobby: That’s kind of a long shot.

[39:01] Jason: You know what, I could go on a rant for a little while and tell you, but unfortunately, yeah, I will. So the big answer is no. Not even if you put 10 seconds in your dance video.

[39:12] Bobby: Although we would like to.

[39:14] Jason: Yeah, but you know what, can you share Carol’s Whisper?

[39:16] Bobby: You can’t even, yeah, that’s true, you can’t put 10 seconds into your regular dance video, what’s up with that?

[39:21] Jason: I don’t know, man.

[39:22] Bobby: Anyway, she says, “Curious to see what all the hype was about,” and then, laughing out loud. Well, maybe if you go on YouTube you might be able to find some things.

[39:32] Jason: Good luck.

[39:33] Bobby: She goes, “Well, again, thanks for the great podcast, I’m a fan, and I’m looking forward to more awesome shows.”

[39:41] Jason: Well, we cannot thank you enough for that, Jessica.

[39:43] Bobby: Jessica, thank you very much.

[39:45] Jason: Thanks for the email, and we’re sorry that we’re not able to do any of that, but, unfortunately, antiquated thinking.

[39:51] Bobby: Jason, can you get me my tissues?

[39:54] Jason: No, no, you can man up a little bit, pal.

[39:58] Bobby: I need my box of tissues.

[40:00] Jason: Is it because the show is over?

[40:03] Bobby: It’s because the show, the party is over and I’m-

[40:06] Jason: The party is over for this week.

[40:07] Bobby: I’m gonna cry.

[40:08] Jason: Number 16, two more years till we’re legal.

[40:10] Bobby: Number 16, man, and we got a special show next week, the Halloween show, so make sure you are listening, because there’s some special shit gonna happen on that show.

[40:20] Jason: Bam skippy, we already got some of it done, so you’re gonna enjoy that. So each and every one of you out there, thanks again for listening.

[40:26] Jason: Have yourselves a great weekend, and Bobby’s gonna show us he can count and take us out.

[40:31] Bobby: Thanks for all the support, we do appreciate it, but this podcast will self-destruct in five, four, three, two, one. Kaboom, take care, everybody.

[40:43] Jason: See you later, everyone.