 YCDTOTV.com
spoke with versatile cast member Abby Hagyard about her time on
the show, and below is what she had to say!
How
did you become involved with YCDTOTV?
The
kids were trained by acting coach Carole Hay. When Ruth Buzzi was
no longer being used on the show and they were looking for a replacement,
Carole suggested my name. I met with Geoff and Roger over lunch
and was hired on the spot!
Describe
what it was like to be involved in such a popular TV show.
The show was great fun. The kids were terrific, and the crew at
CJOH in Ottawa is the best. You must remember, though, that from
our perspective up in Canada the show was quite unknown until it
was picked up by YTV. We had no idea that we were so popular until
we traveled to the US on promotional tours. What a surprise!
What
is your first memory of YCDTOTV? Your best? Your worst? Your funniest?
My first memory of the show is the first rehearsal I attended. I
sat in for about 20 minutes then Roger Price took me outside. "How
do you feel working with my 'bratties'?" he asked. I said, "Roger,
I've only been in there 20 minutes. At this point all I feel is
tall!"
My best memory
is getting surprise chocolates on Mother's Day one year from the
entire cast of kids. I made the mistake of offering them around
and I thought I was going to be trampled in the stampede. Can you
tell I don't have children!?!
My worst memory
is the last taping day. Very sad to say good-bye to the kids, to
Roger and to a great show.
My funniest
memory... that's tough! There are so many. I guess the best one
was on the 'poltergeist' show. On my cue (I thank the poltergeist
for taking care of the dishes for me) these dishes are supposed
to disappear in a small explosion. Our SFX man was having a lot
of trouble getting the sink full of dishes to explode. After four
tries, he loaded the sink with this HUGE charge. When the line came
and he hit the button he nearly blew up the entire building. You
can actually see my hair flatten from the blast and a moving shadow
is a light screen flailing around just out of camera range. No one
could hear... Les couldn't get his voice... and then the giggles
hit us all.
Let's
try some name association. What comes to mind when I mention the
following cast members:
Christine McGlade: The most natural TV talent I've ever seen. Funny
thing was, she didn't care if she EVER did a show again.
Les Lye: The
best. Funny, amazing writer, terrific actor, generous, kind... They
don't make them like Les any more.
Lisa Ruddy:
She had/has incredible potential and it kind of got lost when Christine
was on camera. Very sweet, very generous, an excellent sense of
humor.
Alasdair Gillis:
He and I started on the show the same day. He's a really nice guy.
Extremely shy at first. Mischievous. He got out of acting for a
while, traveled to Europe. I hear he's doing some work again. He's
very talented.
Doug Ptolemy:
I have good memories of a vacation in Miami with Doug. He was one
of those deviant kids that was cute enough to get away with just
about anything. So of course he tried just about anything!
Chris Bickford:
Chris joined the show near the end, and I have to say that next
to Alasdair, he was just about my favorite. Moody, but yet very
funny. We had some amazing scenes together.
Vanessa Lindores:
She always got these awful scenes with her braces and glasses taking
so much attention. She was fun.
Justin Cammy:
Very smart and lots of fun. He's since gone on to teach.
Klea Scott:
She's now working in television in the US (Brooklyn South
was the last show I saw her on, I think). She was wonderful on our
show.
Alanis Morissette:
Everyone wants to know about her now. She always seemed older than
her age, and though she was lots of fun and worked hard and did
great scenes, I always had the feeling she was working on something
bigger. Guess I was right!
Kevin Kubusheskie:
I'll never forget the day we all realized he was suddenly too tall
to be on the show. It seemed as if it happened overnight! We had
to shoot all his scenes sitting down. He was a lot of fun.
Describe
the process for taping a show.
Shows were taped in blocks of five episodes. All the kitchen scenes
shot together, then the living rooms, classrooms, dungeons, etc.
(Because I usually appeared at home as Mom, or in the Library as
the Librarian, or an occasional odd character there were times when
I hardly saw the rest of the cast.) Then the shows were pieced together
in the editing suite. A block of shows, including rehearsals (Monday
through Friday after school) and tapings (Saturdays and Sundays,
8 a.m. to 6 p.m.) would last about a month. Then they'd edit the
show and get scripts ready for the next block. Two or three months
later we'd start the process all over again.
What
were your favorite sketches to do?
All
of them. It was a great show and the scripts were fun.
How
was your relationship with Roger Price? How about Geoffrey Darby?
Geoff Darby got his start with Roger Price and YCDTOTV. He was very
young, but extremely good with the kids from the very beginning.
He had a strange sense of humor, but was totally professional. Roger
Price is eccentric, brilliant, totally committed to quality entertainment
for and with kids, and an important influence in the development
of television comedy in North America. I really liked them both
a great deal.
Yellow
gloves... What's up with those?
When we shot the first few shows, the Nickelodeon producer's decided
my hands were far too elegant to belong to a housewife. It was my
idea to just hide them and eliminate the problem altogether. You'll
notice the librarian wore white cotton gloves as well.
When
you look at the entire cast of the show's run, what era of the show
do you feel was the best in terms of creativity and acting?
My first appearance on the show was 1982. I was very fond of those
first episodes with Kube and Alasdair, Christine and Lisa, Justin
and Dougie and Vanessa. Lots of the later shows were great, and
as I said, I was very fond of Chris Bickford. But I think the show
lost most of its charm for me when we became 'famous' here at home.
The kids weren't the same. They were more aware that they were becoming
'stars'. I guess I enjoyed the days when we were just shooting this
crazy show and having fun.
Who
were your favorite kids to work with? What was your favorite episode?
Alasdair and Chris, Lisa and Klea and Liz, Alanis, Kube were probably
my favorite kids. My favorite episode??? You must be kidding. I
loved them all. There was an episode with Chris Bickford when I
had to keep getting him dressed for school. And when I washed his
leather jacket and it shrank. When I became a werewolf. When Les
and I were hobos on the street. When we were driving in the car
with the dog. Most of the kitchen scenes. When Les and I were Santa
and Mrs. C. Get the idea? This isn't easy!
What were your feelings about the 1989 cast being almost totally
revamped? Did it worry you that none of the old school kids were
there, or did you figure the kids would easily fit into the system?
Two things happened in 1989. First, we thought the show was going
to be cancelled. Second, it seemed as if everyone suddenly got too
old. Roger was very determined that the kids on the show would leave
once they looked too mature to be playing young teens any more.
It broke his heart, but that's why the show was a success for so
long: our young audience really felt they could relate to our actors
because they were the same age and the subject matter never got
too sophisticated. So, in 1989 we literally had to start over. But
it was a good formula, great writing and excellent directing. The
kids got first rate training. How could the show not be a hit? (Besides,
think of all the talent Les and I brought to the show "cough, cough")
Why do you suppose the show had such a small Canadian following
being that it was produced in Canada?
Rumor had it that the head of CTV (back then) hated the show and
did everything possible not to encourage it. That's probably not
true. Another rumor had it that Toronto was jealous that a hit show
was being shot in Ottawa and did everything possible to try to kill
it. That's probably not true either. Or maybe they're both true.
You decide.
Do you keep in contact with anyone still? Anyone stand out as lifelong
friends from YCDTOTV?
Sure. I've done a lot of work with Les Lye over the years. I run
into several of the kids every now and again. Ottawa is a funny
city. Stay here long enough and everyone comes back.
What have you been doing since your time with YCDTOTV?
I've been so busy since the show ended I don't know how I had the
time to do it! I've appeared in The Care Bears and The Adventures
of Teddy Ruxpin. I've written, produced and performed 14 stage plays.
I wrote a stage comedy show that was adapted for CTV back in 1992.
It was called, "Gloves Off!" (guess why) I've been producing a live
talent show series since 1998 that tours community events across
the province (so far)... fairs, festival, exhibitions. We're working
on a pilot with Carleton Productions (they co-produced YCDTOTV)
and they hope to show it to the national specialty cable Life Channel.
The showcase is called, "Abby Hagyard's Catch A Rising Star". I've
also created an interactive series of high performance training
workshops called, "First Person Singular". These are really catching
on. People are tired of high priced 'guru' types lecturing at them.
They want solutions that actually have some connection to THEM.
First Person Singular is extremely interactive and has lots of humor.
My client list (just since 1994) includes hospitals, universities,
legal firms, high tech companies, social service agencies and clinics,
youth groups, parenting groups, etc.
Anything
else you would like to tell fans about the series?
There is one thing no one has ever talked about on YCDTOTV: The
most extraordinarily talented woman, who worked on the show in its
entirety and who made the show what it was, was Liz Ciesluk. She
was the make-up, hair and costume genius who built all the padded
clothing and costumes, designed all the characters and gave us life.
She is one of the best make up artists working in North America
today. These days she does a lot of specialty work with film and
operas. In addition, she is a gifted renaissance art dollmaker.
I'm very proud to call her a friend (in spite of how she made me
look!). Lizzie doesn't have a web site up yet, but she's working
on it. I'll send you the address when it's done. I guarantee it'll
blow you away.
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