80s TV Ladies podcast: “Heather Thomas on The Fall Guy, Activism and The Poster”

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https://www.80stvladies.com/episode/...and-the-poster

“You’re in acting class and you’re studying Chekov or ‘Waiting for Godot’ -- and then you end up doing 80’s tits-and-ass… You caught on pretty quick what it was about and where the power lay.” -- Actress Heather Thomas

The Conversation

• WORKING WITH MONKEYS: Clyde, the orangutan from Every Which Way But Loose, was her co-star once: “He thought it was funny to keep grabbing my boob. I thought he was gonna rip it off!” And a stint on BJ and the Bear led to producer Glen Larsen tapping her for the co-starring role in The Fall Guy.
• WORKING WITH TV PRODUCERS: “All of them are crazy. You’re not gonna find any normal ones, not in those days. Everyone was nuts. And they still are.”
• "Smile more": Early on, the ABC network executives were afraid that Heather Thomas wasn’t likable. So they put her in a bikini. “I guess that made up for me not smiling enough.”
• STUNT WORK: “Lee Majors almost broke my nose once.” "I was good on rollerskates!"
• In preparation for a Fall Guy episode, Heather trained with the Los Angeles Thunderbirds roller-derby team: “They showed me how to ‘break my back’ on the rail -- it was really fun!”
• Ted Lange -- Isaac, the bartender on The Love Boat -- was one of Heather’s favorite directors on the Fall Guy.
• A GOOD DIRECTOR: For Heather, it was someone who brought her into the filmmaking process. For Lee Majors -- it was anyone who got him home by 5:00pm!
• THE POSTER: Once the show was a hit, a poster was the next big step: “It outsold Farrah Fawcett. I bought a house. I was thrilled.”
• DIS-LIKENESS: Heather’s image has been hi-jacked and used for everything from lighters, to puzzles, to notebook covers -- to a pillow!
• ON HAVING A FAMOUS BODY: “My body was my living. That’s how I saw it. So I had to feed it, exercise it -- I couldn’t have an ounce of cellulite. It was part of the gig. But I didn’t care, I was grateful. I was making more money than I ever had in my life. I was a kid.”
• ZAPPED! -- Teen sex comedy -- or sexual harassment? “They tried to get me topless, but my contract said uh-uh! So, they used a body double. There’s a big disclaimer at the end of the movie saying that it’s not my tits.”
• Activism: “Ever since they said, ‘You can’t climb the tree, the boys can’ -- I was a feminist.”
• So join Susan and Sharon -- and Heather -- as they talk fly-fishing, Star Wars, David Letterman, Teen Beat, Shaun Cassidy & Parker Stevenson, “Gabor-lore”, Cliff Robertson’s toupeé, organizing your phone by decade, not complying in advance -- and canoeing with Henry Winkler!