We’re KNOT Done Yet ep2

The women on a cul-de-sac. Michelle Lee, Donna Mills, and Joan Van Ark. Not a moment in time that mattered.

We laughed, cried, and shared secrets. We stayed friends. Let’s do that again with you.

We’re not done yet. Hello, girls. Hello, girlfriends.

Hi, guys. How are we all doing today? It’s a beautiful day, so that’s good, and I’ll go running later. I’m loving it more without the sun.

It’s amazing, the weather. It really is. When you think of what we’ve gone through here in Los Angeles in the last, even the last six months.

We’re in a horrible time with weather, whether things are falling off mountains in mud and fire. Gosh, hopefully one day we’ll get on top of it. We will, but they’re testing us, that’s for sure.

The three strikes that happened over the summer for people in the world we come from and are from, same thing. Things were shut down and picketing and all kinds of things. Picketing.

What is it? Picketing. Picketing, exactly, right, because they were legitimate problems, but that’s kind of the way it’s been. But I feel terrible for these people when you see on the news, nothing but the foundation of their home.

That’s all that’s visible, the concrete foundation on so many, so many homes. And Donna went through a whole thing where she happened to be caught. That could have been my house so easily.

I am so very, very grateful to the firefighters that kept that fire away from this canyon where I live. They need every tribute and every thank you and every gathering to thank them in person for all that they gave this Los Angeles. What I loved was, and we don’t say it enough because sometimes times are difficult.

But you see people coming together, even in that terrible fire, where people really felt for each other. There was a harmony and a peace between them, if not their burned down lives. But that’s nice to see today.

Listen, I know we’ve been talking about different things we’d like to say or talk about that maybe people would like to hear. Do you remember your first day, either of you, on the Knox set? Well, Joan, you go first because you came first. Yeah, because I’ll warm up the room, Abster.

I’ll get them ready for you. I don’t recall the first day that time. I do recall the table read that I requested, which was the first real gathering of the entire cast.

And as luck would have it, I had just finished and so had Ted Shackelford, Geary Ewing, my husband. Sometimes when he’s not over fooling around with Donna Mills and Abby at the time. But bottom line is, I had just done a Wonder Woman with Ted.

And we are so alike, I feel, on set, where it’s high energy and babble, babble, babble and here, there and everywhere. And David Jacobs, the one who created both Dallas and Knox Landing, called me and said, we’ve been looking for a Geary Ewing for you and we’re really kind of interested in Ted Shackelford. And we understand you just worked with him.

So what do you think? And I said, oh, my God, no, no, no, no, no, no. We’re way too much alike. It wouldn’t be a good match.

We had fun on Wonder Woman and all that. But I can’t imagine looking at a series that might go for years, which in fact, Knox did. But I thought, no, this is not a good mix.

Segway to the table read, which is really the first thing you do before starting any important, gigantic episode or project. Walked into the room and who’s sitting across from me at the table but Ted Shackelford. And I thought, wow, how great that they listened to me.

This is really tricky, more than tricky. But as it turned out, he was brilliant. Don’t know about this one who’s talking away.

But, but, but, but it was a marriage made in heaven. I love him so much. And I can’t even tell you.

He was perfect. And I was my usual crazy. So you are crazy.

I’m going to tell the audience how crazy you are. Do you remember the first day? Yes, I do. We were outside the Ewing’s.

Ted and Joan were outside. They were moving into the cul-de-sac. And Bobby Ewing was there visiting Patrick.

Yeah. And I read this was the first scene that I had had. And I went up to them to introduce myself.

And are you going to come over? Come over tonight. I didn’t shut up. I hated me.

I took a whack at this character. And I flew off the screen. I thought, oh, my God.

When I saw it, I went, OK, Michelle, just calm down a little bit. You’ll be all right. That was my first day.

What I was looking for and couldn’t find suit. I wrote a little something about the first day you were talking about us in the reading situation in the room. And I’m going to look for it right now when you continue with Donna.

Yes. Yeah. You were one year.

We needed one year. One year later. Yeah.

Later. Right. We needed somebody to save the show.

Here you go. I remember. I’m sorry.

I thought you were off in the bathroom. I’m sorry. And yeah, I remember because I mean, the first I don’t remember that there was any reading of the script or anything beforehand or a table read or anything.

I just got in a car, drove into the cul-de-sac, got out in front of what was going to be my house. And nobody was nice to me. Well, no wonder.

It was too beautiful. Get her off our set. I looked at John and I said, who is that tramp? She’s just she is your sister-in-law for heaven’s sake.

That’s right. You should have known. But but but, you know, wardrobe did it right again.

I was wearing shorts, little short shorts. Right. T-shirt.

I mean, you knew it was going to be trouble from the minute I got out of the car. Yeah. But that’s what we love.

We love. We love. We love.

Female. A female J.R. The Larry Hagman. Well, that’s needed it.

That’s right. Yeah, we we needed trouble and trouble came. Yeah.

The drop dead gorgeous blonde. And and we already had the drop dead gorgeous brunette. So I had just bookend or blonde.

Yeah. So we gain we gain blondism that was for sure. At any rate, it went on for 14 years.

So something must have been going on. Right. The combination.

Donna, how many. What was it? Eight or ten or eight was Julie Harris. She was on for eight seasons.

But I was on for nine. Nine. OK.

Not bad. Yeah. Very good.

It was it was a great time. You know, I have nothing but well, maybe not nothing, but almost nothing but great memories of the times that we had there. You know, it was a it was a special time.

I’m glad that I’m not starting out in the business today. Oh, amen. I think it’s really hard for young actors and actresses in these times because there’s no kind of glue to it all.

You know, even if a series is successful, it’s it’s over in, you know, one night if somebody wants to watch the whole thing. So it’s it’s a different time. Yeah, I think we were lucky.

We had a good time. Different structure. We were talking about what was the worst scene you think.

You’ve ever been in and not plenty, and if you say it was one of mine, you’re going to get punched. Well, when Vallee started boiling the crawdads for dinner for the twins toward the later, when they sort of ran out of storylines, just a tad. And I was boiling crawdads to serve them for dinner.

And Gary came in and said, what? And, you know, what’s for dinner? And saw these little baby crabs. I think that it went off, you know, the deep end, literally. And so did Valine.

She went she went back and forth with being very smart and very instinctive and then had her moments of wait a minute here and always home with an apron on. Well, Donna’s in the gorgeous clothes and Michelle as well. I think I was in jeans.

Most a lot on the cul-de-sac, the cul-de-sac side. Yes. And then we went into.

I saw the most interesting thing the other day on Instagram. There’s there’s a French tribute thing to knots. It’s on all the time.

And the scene was in French. But I and I didn’t remember the scene that they were showing. It was a scene where Constance punched me.

I didn’t even remember this. I thought you, Joan, were the only one who ever, ever, you know, struck me. But I wanted that.

I want I wanted to have that distinction as being the only one. But you had also that the reel that had everybody because people were want to smack Lamby, Abby. You had a lineup of all of the cast and some of the crew to go by.

Bam, bam, bam. It was hysterical. We have that somewhere.

Yeah, that’s a gag reel that we’ve got. We’re guarding with our lives. We’re repeating ourselves here a little bit, I think.

Oops. Yeah, I think last week at lunch, we talked about all of this stuff that we’re doing right now. So I’m going to jump to something.

OK, Joan, when did you know or decide you would be an actress or an actor? Oh, I got one in junior high school and high school in Boulder, Colorado, where I went to school to, you know, the early schools. I went away on spring vacation and I had been dating the quarterback of the football team, the high school football team, Russell James. And we had been kind of dating and having fun times and you name it.

And we had spring vacation and I came back from spring vacation already for him to ask me to go to the prom with him. And I discovered when I got back to Boulder, Colorado and ready to go back to school after spring vacation. It turned out that he Russell had asked D. I don’t remember the last name, probably because I never want to remember it.

He had asked her to go to the prom and I was up Poo Poo Creek. I was so hurt. Oh, my God.

I really was. I thought, how could this be the poor Val? I was rehearsing already for poor Val. And I noticed or someone told me that the Nomad Playhouse, the theater was having auditions for a play called The Madwoman of Shiloh.

It’s a French play that has been translated and done a million times. Wonderful for Summerstock and people like that with a short run. And they were having auditions and I on a whim, my mother and father drove me to the Nomad Playhouse and I auditioned for the part of Irma, the French waitress.

And I had never done anything like that before. No acting, no nothing. And I read it.

And after I finished reading the monologue. You could hear a pin drop. Oh, honey.

I know, you know, that being a theater person, Michelle, that when there’s a silence like that golden silence, which means the coin dropped into the piggy bank. Yeah, people didn’t don’t say a word or don’t even really breathe heavily at all. They just it’s it’s a moment it landed big time.

And I thought, that’s a sound I want to hear a lot of. And I was hooked on theater and doing whatever I had, you know, could do and had to do. I did not get the part of the waitress because I’d never done a thing before.

And they made me the flower girl. And the the whole essence and the whole part of mine was Violet, sir. Violet, sir.

That was it. It was just one, two words. And that was the start of a brilliant, brilliant, thrilling roller coaster ride of being an actress, or now actor, whatever it is.

Now what about Donna we were talking about that once to what what happened to you just decided I’m so full I might as well act. Yeah, no, I, you know, I was a dancer. I started out as a dancer I studied dance since I was five years old.

I loved dance. It was my passion. And I did it for quite a while.

I was actually in the chorus of the original production of My Fair Lady. On Broadway? No, National Company. Oh, it was after it was on Broadway with the National Company.

And that was a thrill for me to get to be a chorus dancer. I just loved it. When I traveled around with it I did a couple of other summer stocks I did a number of things and the more I was in the realm of dancers, the more I realized that a dancer’s life was very short.

And I wanted a career. I didn’t want to be over when I was 25. So that’s when I decided that I was going to act.

And I transitioned out of dance and, you know, got a soap opera, then, and did it but it was because I wanted a career and I didn’t want it to end so soon. Well mine ended. I didn’t know.

I never wanted to be an actress, ever. I didn’t, and it kind of just happened. I was really, I was performing then first before I ever dreamt of being an actress.

Were you singing? Were you singing at all at that time? Yes, I sang for a long time. I had record contracts. And I sang for a long time before I got a role in a show on Broadway, and I had to act.

And it was like, Oh my gosh, can I do this? Well, let me tell you, I was real good at it was called Bravo Giovanni. I was really good at singing those songs. Boy, talk about the silence.

I’m serious. God Almighty, where did that voice come from? However, this is the show I told you about at lunch the other day where I, it’s my first really bad review. One day I’m going to read it to you.

But I started acting. That was it. But I just, it reminded me of something that I have to tell you about.

When I was in grammar school, I was in the chorus. And of course, it was my voice, voice, voice. I was always singing.

And my teacher, Mrs. Quagelino, Sally Quagelino was a music teacher at Shenandoah Grammar School. And I was in the chorus. She loved me.

And boy, did I love her. I always got gold stars at the end of, you know how they put a gold star on an award at the end of the year. And she would always pick me to do five gold rings at the Christmas recital.

Well, when I was really successful, I thought, Oh my gosh, she’s still there. I thought she was still at Shenandoah. I thought I’ve got to see her again, just walk into her classroom at school, after school, and give her a big hug and shock the hell out of her because it was me.

And I spent God knows how much time fixing myself. Isn’t that silly? Well, I opened the door and there she was standing on the other side of the room holding one of those things. I think Lily May did the thing that with the buttons and you strum it.

The zither? Isn’t that what it was? Yeah. Anyway, she looked up and she smiled and she said, and I’ll never forget this. She said, Can I help you? She had no idea who I was.

That was it. Even when I gave her many of my credits. You should have told her you already have.

It’s funny how people see you when you think, Oh gosh, she must know who I am. I mean, I’ve done this, that and the other. She had no idea.

Anybody like that happen? That’s gold. That’s gold. For sure.

I always used to, if someone talks wrong, tell me another story. Okay, then. I’m serious.

Don’t let anything go from here. Well, I always think there is somebody at a very important time who comes into your life who is like charcoal lighter. And it starts something and it goes and it grows and it grows.

And you realize looking back after you’ve gone through all the wonderful different transitions and have been going upward, upward, upward. It’s that person back and it’s often in grade school and school. When you have that kind of person, the speech, what coach at junior high school and high school was the same way he knew how to, I don’t know, find the people and nurture them and give them gentle, gentle praise and gentle positivity.

Yeah, you bloom, bloom where you are planted. And that helps always, always. I actually had sort of someone like that, but it was after I was in a professional career.

You guys probably knew her, Gloria Monte. Oh, yes. Didn’t she become a casting person out here? No, I think she was always a director.

She directed a lot of soap operas in New York. And she cast me in The Secret Storm, the first soap opera that I ever did as a nightclub singer. Oh, wow.

And having been a dancer, I was not a good singer at all. But here I was singing with this band on camera and it was live then. And this woman, I actually remember saying to her, are you sure you want me for this role? Yes, you’re great.

Just sing, just go ahead. I did. Where we got the balls to do that, I don’t know, but I did.

That’s what she was, though. Charcoal got you warm, got you going, and you delivered. And probably much better than you even imagined or that you realized how strong you were.

Yeah. I wish I could, I have not been able to find that, you know, tape, film, whatever it’s called, to see what it’s like. It’s probably gone.

It’s probably so awful. You know, I had a teacher when I was in high school. Her name was Marion Vrie, V-R-E-E.

I was in the a cappella choir. She was the teacher there in Hamilton High School. And, I mean, you had to work real hard to get into a cappella.

You had to audition, you had to sing along, and I made it. And I was a little insecure, which is another problem, because I was still the tallest girl in my class, except for my friend Marsha Miller. So, to compensate, I used to talk a lot.

Anyway, we were invited to sing at the Shrine Auditorium with a Los Angeles Unified District Chorus. And buses from everywhere pulled up in front of this mammoth building, and zillions of kids, all dressed in white, walked in single file with their classes into the stadium. And during the rehearsal, this girl, Geri, who I kind of knew, started talking to me.

And soon enough, we were trying to hide and stifle a giggle here and there. Twenty rows up, fifty-two people on the left-of-stander, and she caught us. How do you see us? Oh, come on.

Among 2,000 other kids who were behaving, she never gave me a second chance. Never. She just threw me out.

She did it in front of the whole busload of my classmates, and I ended up in a class called Horticulture, which I always thought was a class for girls who put out. Yes, exactly. I joined that group.

Oh, my Lord. Yeah. Oh, Michelle, but it made you tougher, Michelle.

It made you tougher. That’s right. Sometimes that’s right.

Sometimes things like that make you tougher. No, I can be tough. Tougher and stronger.

That’s what I hope all this last past time, this close past time, will only empower us to move forward and try again. Because this has been a real test, being in L.A., being in the business we’re in. It’s tricky everywhere, but this was new heights of that.

And I do remember, Michelle, you said something about being tough, and you were. I don’t know if you remember, but the first, well, maybe the first few months I was on the show, we had a little dust-up. Do you remember? You mean a tiff? A tiff.

Yes, we had a tiff. Yes, I do remember it. I do remember it.

And I think it comes from Michelle, the director. I wasn’t directing then, though, but I have a director’s brain, and I’m controlling, and I’m very happy to say that. I am controlling.

Sometimes I can go over a line, but I think I know what I want, and sometimes I say it too loud. And what happened that day as I remember it, it was you and Ted were in a scene with me. And I remember, and all of a sudden I had no idea what I did wrong.

Of course, I never do. But you and Ted gave me a look, and you walked off the set. You walked into a door and out, and I thought, holy shit, what just happened? Anyway, do you remember I called you that night? I do, and I think I remember saying to you maybe, I think we did walk out, and I came back, and I said, don’t push me around.

You know, if you want something, tell me, but don’t push me around. You can’t do that to me. I don’t remember that.

I wasn’t trying to do that. Oh, yes, you were. Oh, no, no.

I don’t remember you saying that, but that was pretty tough too, my dear, if you did say that. Well, I think it got over a hump for us. I beg your pardon.

Abby was doing that all the time. Yes, but it made us better friends because we had confronted that and said it, and we went on, you know? That’s right. I remember calling you when I said, and this is kind of something that maybe some of our girlfriends out there would like to hear this too, because I’m sure they’ve had feelings like this.

What I explained to you was you made me feel insecure because, not because of acting, because I felt you were so beautiful and taking me. Oh, shut up. So you were so beautiful, and I. This goes back to high school.

When I was in high school, I felt, you know, I wasn’t popular, and I saw all the girls in my brain, all the girls were having fun and laughing. I used to say I stood outside a window and watched everybody laugh and dance and play, but I wasn’t invited, or at least I felt, okay, that I wouldn’t be invited. So here comes Donna Mills, and it turned into this feeling I had, which is she’s the popular one.

She’s going to be the popular one, and I don’t know how I’m going to get through this. And that’s why I explained to you that I was feeling not just odd, and it was something to do with me and my background and brain, but it was a truth, and I thought that, again, it was something that would bring us closer, that you understood I had this vulnerability. And maybe, think about it, maybe because I did and I do, I hide behind Michelle out there, director, I can do what I do right in front, here I am, I’m going to tell you where to go, where to sit, where to, you know.

But, yeah, it’s interesting for me, or at least to me it is, from a psychological point of view. Yeah, there’s a bravado that you have that, you know, I think masks some insecurities. Oh, absolutely.

But I like what happened with us because we got beyond that. Oh. We got to understand each other, we got to like each other, and it’s not like it started out that way, because it really didn’t.

And we got closer, as we’ve told people before, because the three of us girls got closer as time went on. went by and I do think, and Joan you can jump in if I ever shut up, it was a time when we could, as we were growing and we were getting older, that we could understand, the three of us could understand each other in another level. We weren’t kids, we just grew so much during the period of time we worked together and then we look at each other in different ways and we ask questions that perhaps we will ask on this show at some time. What about you, Joanie? Yes.

Did you ever feel insecure? Never. Valene and Joan Van Ark are synonymous and in fact that’s one great thing with all the parts we were allowed during Knotts, was to become closer and closer and closer every time there was something we didn’t, because we used to have lunch meetings where we would read the script for the next week during the lunch hour and give our notes to the writers or the moments that we didn’t feel were true to our characters, but we’ve had this, what, more than 14. Our relationship goes and will go till death do us part, but it’s not a girlfriend, I’m not a girlfriend person, I like the guys, gay, straight, you name it, I love them all and women are, it’s a little trickier, but you keep saying the name, using the word girls and I think that is so appropriate and so right that women are discovering the power they have and can execute their goals and move forward with it, but it’s girlfriends, girlfriends, girlfriends, and there’s a difference obviously when it’s a guy.

So important. It is vital. As a woman, women in your life are so important to you.

Yes, indeed, indeed, that is absolutely true, but to be comfortable, to be honest, to be growing with them and you yourself. Sisters is a gorgeous, you know, some of our emails start with sister, you know, girlfriend, it’s girlfriend or sister, you know, S-I-S-T-A-H or something, but it is a connection. I value it beyond, beyond and that’s also where the truth comes in and what you told Michelle about, you know, going through the stages and being honest with yourself and realize when you and Abby had the, Donna had the, you know, the set too or whatever problem happened on the set, it was a growth.

It was a growth and it was a step and it’s even more valuable that you are now joined as you are because of things like that and it’s real and that’s why girls can become women, can become grandmothers, can go on and on and on, but it’s a progression that is still girlfriends. I see it when I’m out doing my run, they’re a cluster and it’s girlfriendship is vital, period. Speaking of insecurities, I just thought of you, Joan, for a second and you know, you were talking about your vulnerability, yes, obviously, and that’s one of the reasons you’re such a great actress, honestly, I believe that and also when you come to the set and most people don’t know this, when you come to the set, you have charms, you’re very special charms that you always wear under everything.

Oh, there it is right here. Do you wear it on now? No, I do. Oh, wait, one is, one is, I’m not all right here, I have a number one, I’ve never done this, this is number one because if even though I’m with two, yeah, rather competitive, fantastic delivery ladies, girls, I’ve got the number one, I think in here is a, what is that number? Oh, the number, the number one, I don’t know, where do I go here? No, we can see it, but they can’t, yeah, oh, that’s right, oh, that’s right, I keep forgetting, I keep forgetting that and then I have, I have all of them taped with band-aids onto my, onto my heart, so this side gets much heavier.

They say, have you seen Joan lately? She really needs to balance those, those big glues. I’m trying to find the one that’s the Pope because, so why, the Pope, Pope? Jean-Paul, I think he’s a saint, he was a saint, he is a saint and I have his medal, but I love that, I treasure that and I need it, obviously it’s a crutch, but it’s also something very much what I want to give to, whatever it is I try to portray or deliver or, and this certainly counts a lot because I think there’s something, a show with the three of us or a podcast or anything, the three, the three of us need to share it and show what our friendships have meant and to help people or girlfriends who are maybe fatuitsed a little because of all this that we’ve all gone through in the last three and a half, four years, so we can help each other, so we can be girlfriends more so than just the, hey, how are you, let’s have lunch or have about, how about a Starbucks or whatever, it should be more than that and it can be and it’s golden when you’ve got it. And I love that we’re talking about all this, I think people really want to hear it.

Well, I think what, it just seems right too that we could trade some of our experience off of some situation a girlfriend might be going through that needs advice or help and they never have to share name or anything, just the situation and what do you think? I think it would be glorious to be able to hear that and filter out what will be the kernel, the golden something that will pull it together and create the kind of relationship we three have now. What are your, and this really goes to what you’re saying right now, I think anyway, the tips and certainly, you know, we always talk about Donna because she looks 28 years old and she’s a hell of a lot older than me, I didn’t say that, but no one laughed, Donna did, thank God, but anyway, what keeps us young, what are the tips for keeping yourself young? Botox, let’s see, filler, frequent separation from somebody you’re getting tired of, I don’t know what. Oh, I know for you and I’m going to tell you if Donna doesn’t say it.

Movement. Oh, that’s the running, yes, I got to say the running every day, no matter what, got to run, got to do a workout, got to do a workout, yes. I work out every day, 100 sit-ups, 50 leg lifts, you know, weights, all kinds of stuff.

Yeah, and I’m doing this hoping for the to match. When I don’t do it, I feel it. Yeah, mentally.

I feel old, when the body gets stiff, it gets, yeah, okay. No, it’s very important, fresh air, doing something outdoors, not in direct sunlight, but to be sure, but outdoors, being outdoors and there he is up there, that guy, whoever, whatever, whatever your religion, whatever you’re feeling, but do it outdoors. It’s so, it’s so.

I’ve got one that we all could relate to, and it’s probably the most important. There’s something youthful about the inside of us. Oh, yeah.

Something youthful about sense of humor and being interested in other people and just having that inner fun. People would think you’re young, even if you’re, you know, 89 years old. I promise I wouldn’t tell Donna Mill’s age, but there you go.

Yeah, you did it. You said it. Not quite there yet, but not far.

There’s nowhere near that. Okay. But it’s true, isn’t it? That fun, that youth, that that we can giggle.

Yeah. And it’s not afraid to do all of those things too, by the way, just to enjoy and to giggle in high school, whatever, or junior high, whatever it is, take that with you whenever, wherever, because that’s who you are. Yeah.

And it’s rewarding. It comes back. It’s a circle.

That’s the thing. It’s a circle. It’s not like that.

I have a good friend who was Chloe’s friend, and then she became my friend too. She’s an amazing woman. Her name is Elise Joan, and she’s a fitness guru, but she’s also a mental fitness guru.

I’d like to bring her on sometime. That’d be great. Because she’s just like a light that comes on, and she does this exercise stuff.

I think she’s in her late 40s, but she has a body of a 20-year-old. I mean, she’s great. Anyway, but she has all these things, and she has a thing that she does online that you can subscribe to, those things.

Anyway, I think you guys would enjoy her, and I think all of you out there would enjoy her too, so maybe we’ll bring her on one day. Yeah, I think that’s fantastic. Talk about bringing on some of our nots friends, some of our nots actors, but we won’t do that for a while.

I think we’ll let everybody get to know us a little bit, and then we’ll jump in. Yeah, but I think eventually it would be really fun to do that. People that show people that were involved in the show.

Constance McCashen was doing, and is currently doing, that kind of thing, and she’d be perfect to come on, our Laura, to come on and be a guest soon on, because that’s exactly her choice now, and helping people. Yeah, she was a therapist. She went back to school after she left nots, and that was really tough for her, leaving nots.

It was awful, but she went back to school and got her doctorate and became a shrink. She’s a shrink and then does this wonderful podcast or whatever you might call that she does. Mm-hmm.

Perfect guest though. Speaking of life’s going on, how about the light in the refrigerator? Okay, what’s in your refrigerator? Yogurt. Jack is on a health binge.

I’m forced to it as well with the shredded lettuce, apple, peaches. He’s got every fruit, including his wife, but he’s got every fruit on the menu. In the refrigerator, but we also have fat Fridays, which we used to have every Friday, but now it’s separated by months sometimes, because I don’t think I’ve had a cheat night in quite a while, but you need to do that.

That’s a healthy thing. Oh, yeah. No, really, to be good and be- Did you ever have a fat Friday, ever? Oh my God, ever? Without a doubt, during all of knots, every Friday, we’d go with one of my agents to the Smokehouse here in LA, which is a very comfortable- Oh, I love it.

Yeah, it’s wonderful. It’s almost like being home, but being served the best food ever, garlic toast, fantastic. We do that and just to top it off, Jack and I would stop at House of Pies on the way home, because you go right by it, pick up a lemon meringue pie or something and come home- My favorite.

Yeah. Oh, lemon meringue? Yeah. Yeah.

It’s pretty tasty. And it doesn’t feel that cheaty because it isn’t like pecan pie, which- Lemon. It’s kind of, but no, fat Fridays are important to have those, kind of let it down, let it go, enjoy, and then go back to the salt mines.

I never did that when I was on knots. I do that sometimes now, but when I was on knots, I swear to you, the entire time I did that show, I never ate pasta, I never ate ice cream, I never ate cake, I never ate cookies. That’s the way, all or nothing though, that’s the way.

You did right, obviously something right. Yes, because then you lose the craving for it. Yeah.

You know what? I ate all that by noon on the set. The craft service? Craft service. On the set.

My guilty pleasure is our donuts. I mean, if you put any glazed anything in front of me, I can’t help it. And See’s Candies, the dark chocolate.

Are you kidding? No. That’s fantastic. I used to not even like chocolate.

Well, dark chocolate is really serious. It’s more than espresso in terms of the, what, caffeine or something in it because you’re a ramrod for a week. You know, Donna Mills, you cook, don’t you? No.

You wouldn’t tell me you cooked. No, not really. I mean, you know, I can make a dinner if I have to.

I thought, wait, Thanksgiving, all your Thanksgivings. Don’t I remember you saying, oh, I cooked this, I cooked that. Yeah, well, I mean, we all cook.

Larry usually cooks the turkey. I was just going to ask, does Larry cook? No, not really. I mean, on special occasions like that, yes.

And he likes to use his green egg, which is the barbecue thing. He likes that. But that’s a guy thing.

Yeah, yeah, that is. That is. That’s like.

Barbecuing is a guy thing. Yeah, but no, I’m not. I wish I wish I was a better cook.

I really do, because I just hate when the time of the day comes when I when you say, OK, what are we going to have for dinner? Yeah, yeah. Oh, I don’t have anything. It’s another.

It’s another job. It’s another job. Yeah.

Yeah. You have to figure the menu, get it all together. Yeah.

I used to cook Chinese almost every single night for a long while. But that’s good food, actually. Yeah.

And I would I just wish I had a sous chef, you know, where they can cut everything before I throw everything in the not pot, but the. The wok. The wok.

Correct. So, no, I loved doing that. And then I stopped and never did it again.

But Jim Ferentino cooked all the time. And my son, he taught my son. I bet Jimmy was good.

A good Italian Italian. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure.

Hey, I want to read something from a diary I found from 1954. My diary. And it’s in they can’t see it, but you can see it.

It’s actually a little girl writing in her diary. And I’m going to tell you what this little girl said. She said, tonight I went to the show.

The show for us was the movies. So we called it the show. We went to the show at night with mom and Kenny, my brother, a drive in.

We saw Laughing Ann and the outcast. The outcast was with John Derrick. What a doll.

What a face. What a figure. I was.

Oh, wait, a figure spelled totally wrong. And then it says no more Robert Wagner. Oh, my God.

Is that you? Was that you in your diary? This is me. I saved two diaries. I love funny.

I love it. Yeah, it is. It’s a thermometer.

It’s a thermometer for the backstory. It’s totally takes takes the measure of what you’ve now become. You’re doing doing the same kind of thing now.

But I mean, that’s so valuable. It’s the very beginning. It’s it’s it’s valuable in terms of what women have gone through to through the march of time.

Yeah. Every every generation has their own thought about what is nice to do. What’s a no, no, you can’t do it.

And what is you know, I’m a hippie and I’m going to do whatever the hell I want. So you start looking at that and you start thinking back to your mom and how your mom would react to anything that might be going on in your life. And how much do we share with our parents, our mom and how what a bad experience it could be, along with what a glorious experience it can be.

By Michelle Lee Dusik. Yes. All righty.

All righty ready. Yeah. Anything else? Anybody? Do you think we should sign off for this? This segment? Yeah, a lot for everybody to digest and think about and.

Oh, say you say goodbye, Gracie. Say goodbye. Goodbye, Karen.

Goodbye, Val. Bye, Abster. Come over to my house anytime.

Actually, I’ll come to your house and I’ll slap you again. How’s that? I think it is time after that. Yeah, your warm greeting.

Bye bye. Love.