80s TV Ladies - Episode 309: “Mama’s Family & Private Lessons | Actor Eric Brown”

[TMC]

https://80stvladies.com/episode/epis...tor-eric-brown

“I was the highest paid actor in Hollywood -- if you were counting by the word.” - actor Eric Brown

The Conversation

• TAKING THE PIPPIN BUS: Nine-year-old Eric played the lead in the original touring company of Bob Fosse’s Pippin! “It was 1974. I was the only child in a cast of adults. One-and-two-night stands. In a bus. Thirty states. Six months.”
• PRIVATE LESSONS: The lead got fired -- so Eric was promoted to star!
• 15 GOING ON 30: In Private Lessons, Fifteen year-old Eric Brown, played a fifteen-year-old -- being seduced by a thirty-year-old woman! “My wife is still mad at my mother for letting me play that role!”
• KICKED OUT OF SCHOOL: Eric was kicked out of St. Francis Prep School for being in Private Lessons: “They said, “We think you’d do better at another school considering your career goals.” It was a very Franciscan way of saying, “Get out”.”
• MAMA’S FAMILY: “You know the rumors that Betty White had a dirty streak? All true.”
• On working with Carol Burnett, Vicki Lawrence, Dorothy Lyman, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Harvey Korman: “Everyone was so funny -- you were always laughing. They were constantly futzing, because they knew what was funny -- and if it wasn’t, they would fix it."
• DIRECTOR SPLIT: Mama’s Family had TWO directors: Harvey Korman worked with the actors, while someone else blocked out the camera moves (Roger Beatty).
• THE METAVERSE OF MAMA'S FAMILY: Vicki Lawrence started playing the at least 63-year-old “Mama” when she was in her late 20’s!
• THE EPISODE THAT NEVER WAS: Eric pitched an episode where he and Ken Barry -- both tap dancers -- could dance together in a talent show. But it never happened.
• TAKE THE TOUPEE: Carol Burnett would do anything for a laugh -- including pulling the hairpiece off a certain co-star during taping -- when no one was expecting it!
• BAD NEWS, GOOD NEWS, WORSE NEWS -- Mama’s Family gets cancelled. Then it comes back! But not with Eric.
• LOVING LAURA HOLT: After Private Lessons, Eric did a replay on Remington Steele -- playing a kid with a crush on an “older woman”: “I was head over heels in love with Stephanie Zimbalist. In real life!”
• BE KIND, REWIND: After jobs dried up in Hollywood, Eric moved to Monterey and got a job in a video store: “I was renting movies to people that I WAS IN.”
• FIRST RULE OF COMMUNICATION: For the MacArthur Foundation or a lost chicken in Queens: Know your goal.
• WHAT CAN ONE PERSON DO TO HELP THE WORLD? Find what you love and offer that.
• So, join Susan and Sharon -- and Eric -- as they talk Listerine commercials, the Clinton campaign, Jon de Bont, Sarah Jessica Parker, Barry Williams, On Golden Pond, Ian Ziering, curfew “double standards”, working with women directors, Jerry Reed, Emmanuelle, Fred Willard -- and evil twins!

[BestTVever]

Thanks for posting this. The audio is definitely worth a listen. Its funny he talks about Eunice ripping off the wig of the play director for laughs and it was kept in the final take. That same actor was on Gimmie A Break and Nell was selling vacuums and it goes out of control and takes off his wig. Same actor. Same physical comedy joke.

One thing Eric sort of described was how the show changed in syndication. Eric was a straight laced character. Bubba was added and was the zaney grandson. But he failed to mention how Mama changed. In syndication Mama was the serious one surrounded by idiots.

[warp9p65]

Just watched that YouTube video the other day. It's the only video I've ever come across where Eric Brown was being interviewed. I thought his remembrances of the show were great. Learned some things I'd never known before.