On
May 5, 2003, Zachary Houle had the privilege of interviewing one
of the all-time greats in television history who just happened to
be a major part of the show we all love. Over coffee at the cafeteria
of an Ottawa Fitness Centre, Houle sat down with Les and asked him
about his time on YCDTOTV.
Zachary
Houle: What can you tell me about working with the kids on
the show?
Les Lye:
I don’t know whether I can add anything new. …
In the early years, Kevin Schenk was an original (cast member).
If not, he came in during the second year.
ZH:
Yeah, I hear he’s still around in town, has some kind
of software company.
LL: He
was very clever. I’ve told the story, and he knows it
very well and I’ll tell it to the day I die. The only
problem kid in the early years – and, for that matter,
the later years – was Kevin. Yet he’s turned out
to be one of the nicest young men of them all. He was a headache,
but he was good. So we put up with him. (Laughs). |
Les Lye at SlimeCon 2002 |
ZH:
I’d imagine there was quite an eclectic mix of kids on the
show. Different personalities.
LL: Oh, absolutely.
One common thread, though, was that they were all, as far as I know,
Grade A students. This was almost a necessity. Roger Price wouldn’t
interfere to a degree with their schoolwork, yet he didn’t
want anyone coming back at him saying, “Well, thanks to you,
I failed.” So they were all good students.
They also had
to be good and fast readers. Unfortunately, there was one case where
I can remember … in the early years, there was a kid who was,
I think, dyslexic. He really had trouble reading the scripts, but
he was obviously a talented kid. He missed out, though.
But, you’re
right, there was a wide assortment of personalities.
ZH:
Some of them went onto bigger and better things. Obviously, Alanis
is one example, but you have Klea Scott … .
LL: The first
time I saw her (outside of You Can’t) was on a series
that only lasted one season, which was a very good cop series. Brooklyn
South. She had a big role in that, and then she was immediately
released (from it) – it was not renewed. She moved to another
series that had been going on. I can never remember the names of
the damn things. I never think I watch as much (TV), anyway. But
she was an FBI agent.
ZH:
That might have been Millennium.
LL: It might
have been. Then the next season, I think it folded, too. It had
nothing to do with her. She ended up on another series that lasted
only one year, and it was set in Hollywood, or Los Angeles. (It
was about) homicide in Los Angeles.
ZH:
Are you surprised … ?
LL: (Interrupts).
I was never surprised about … . You know, I was never surprised
about Alanis. She was a talented actress. I’ve told the story
many times, but after she’d been around for a season, I said
to Roger, “You’re not using Alanis very much.”
And he said, “No, no. That’s a 35-year-old in a 14-year-old
body.” I thought about it, and I thought that he was probably
right. She knew what she wanted, and she made it.
And Christine:
of all the kids on that show, she was probably the one that impressed
me the most, maybe because she was there since the beginning. She
was a complete natural; it was as if she’d been born in a
TV studio. I don’t think she’d done any acting (before
that), and she was completely playing herself. But she was a fast
study, knew all her lines. Anyway, she wound up in a show working
behind the camera.
ZH:
If I could get back to Alanis for a second, I’ve heard conflicting
stories about her leaving the show. Was there more to it than just
the usual story that she was simply getting too old for You
Can’t?
LL: Probably,
she was getting busy singing wherever she could. So it may have
been a bit of both things, because she certainly (had her heart
set on singing) … and what were we to do? I invited her to
do an Uncle Willy and Floyd show after she left (You
Can’t). And she was very good. This was where I realized
she was a good little actress.
The show turned
out very funny. She played a high school student who wanted to use
the facilities, a motel, for a benefit show. That motel was used
in the last series of the (Uncle Willy and Floyd) show,
one of the most elaborate sets built at CJOH. I remember we called
her Sinala – Alanis backwards. And she was, “Ok, that’s
fine. Sinala.” So we did a show on the stage, and she sang
two songs she was singing at the time. One of them was a ballad,
… but it was nothing like anything she did later.
She was singing
all over Ottawa; she’d sing the national anthem at the football
games. She was very good.
ZH:
I’ve heard stories about you dying your hair for the show.
Looking at you now, I would have never known you were in your 50s,
watching as a kid.
LL: Oh, this
is the reason. You weren’t supposed to.
In the very
beginning, I used food coloring. But I’d have different colors
for different characters. After awhile, I said to Roger, “I’m
getting sick of dying my hair six times a day (with food coloring).
I really should get it (permanently) dyed.” He said, “Go
ahead, for heaven’s sakes! The show will pay for it.”
And I was like, “Oh! (pauses). Oh, well, if you put it that
way … .” (laughs).
This guy named
Bernard, who was available for the station, a good hairdresser,
did it the first time. It was April 7th, which was my wife’s
birthday. They were doing a party for her, and I got home around
suppertime with my new black hair. And, her first words to me were,
“You can’t wash that out can you?” And I was like,
“Um, no.” (laughs).
It was really
black. Bernard, later, modified it somewhat to make it look more
natural. But, for the next 10 years, my wife couldn’t wait
until the show was over so I could let my hair go and let it be
white.
ZH:
Are there any particular shows that stick out in your mind?
LL: One show
they only showed once was on Divorce. I had a copy of the
Divorce show, so I’m going to have a look at it.
There was a scene there with Lisa Ruddy, which is one of my favorites.
I’m playing the dad and I have to tell her I’m getting
a divorce, and she says something like, “Oh, dad! I’ll
be with you, I’ll be on your side.” And I start to cry.
She couldn’t help it, but she starts to laugh. We must have
done 15 takes. She was desperate by the end, but I told her, “Ah,
don’t worry about it. We’ve got lots of tape!”
She goes, “I know, but I can’t help it!” Well,
we finally got it and put it away.
But I must
have a look at that. I didn’t know I had a copy. This gang
of people (from the U.S.) brought me 17 shows, most of which I did
have, when they came up to visit two years ago. I guess that’s
one of them. I don’t know what the problem was with that episode.
The other story
I tell about the censoring is that the first time we used Snake
Eyes, Roger said, “We’ve got an old school bus and we’ll
cut it in half. You’re going to be the bus driver. I don’t
know why, but I think Snake Eyes would be a good name for him.”
And I was, “Oh fine, I’ll wear dark glasses.”
Roger was always very good about costumes and characterizations,
and he’d say, “It’s up to you to do the character.”
So, (I figured) Snake Eyes had to have a Southern accent. Roger
says, “Oh yeah! That’ll be good!”
As you can
imagine, it’s obvious that you have to do all the scenes all
at once in the studio. So, for the bus scene, we must have done
10 or 12 of them all at once. And, at the end of each gag, Snake
Eyes would pull out this great, big revolver and fire it into what
would be the roof of the bus, which I did.
Nickelodeon
sent it all back (with a memo): “Do it again, and don’t
– for God’s sake – use the gun. It’s too
real!”
ZH:
Speaking of which, another crew member told me that the guns used
on the show were, in fact, real. Roger was in the army had all of
these guns that were used on the set. Is that true?
LL: It’s
funny you mention that. We had at least three different directors
over the years, and one of them was Brenda (Mason). All these things
seem to tie together: Brenda was a student of mine at Algonquin
College in Ottawa a couple of years before, when I’d taught
a couple of semesters about speech and voice.
One day, Brenda
said, “That’s it!” She came in from the studio.
“Get those guns out of this studio now!” And course
Roger says, “Well, wait a minute! Wait a minute! We’ve
got stacks of phony, wooden guns and props over here.” But
finally he just gave up. “Okay. Whatever you say.”
So there were
no real, live guns anymore, anywhere near the studio. I don’t
know whether he was in the army – he might have been an army
brat.
ZH:
What was it like to work with him? I’m getting Phil Spector-type
mad genius vibes here. I’m hearing that a lot of people seem
to have a lot of complaints about various things.
LL: Fortunately,
he listened. This is sort of the same vein: often, the kids would
go to him about the scripts and say, “Roger, we wouldn’t
say that. What the hell does that mean? What the hell is that?”
And he’d
go, “Well, that’s a British expression.”
“I know.”
“Well,
what would you say?”
They’d
then tell him, and he’d say, “OK. Change the script,
write that in.”
He’d
listen to the cameraman, too, and anyone else. Not that he’d
necessarily agree, or make changes.
But, yeah,
even I’d once in a while … . When I played the German
Nazi guard, I had to tread lightly there. I had the German accent
and the foreign thing. And I can’t quite remember how it came
up, but (Kevin) Kubusheskie, I guess, is Polish and Roger had written
some kind of gag (involving Kubusheskie and the Nazi guard).
And I said
to Roger, “Roger, you can’t do that. Absolutely not!
Kubusheskie is Polish and I’m a Nazi!”
(Imitating
Roger) “Oh yeah, … hmmm. Well, OK.”
But, overall,
I had no problems working with Roger. He had certainly several strong
points. He had a good sense of humor. He knew jokes. He also had
a facility for picking the right kids. He’d have an audition
where he’d have 400 kids for the show, and he’d very
seldom miss (picking the right ones).
He often broke
his own rules. He said right at the beginning, “Nobody’s
sons, daughters or grandsons are going to be on this show. Nobody
connected with the program will be on.” So one woman who worked
at the station, her son ended up on the show. It doesn’t matter,
the certain name. Roger said to him, “You’re kinda dumb
– which he was – so when you leave the room, run into
the door.” I was there and Roger said, “Show him, Les.
What you do is just come close to hitting the door, but you just
hit it with your foot.” Needless to say, he didn’t.
He ran face first into the door. (Laughs.) It looked great, but
he could have busted his nose. He didn’t last very long.
ZH:
Do you know where Roger Price went?
LL: Last thing
I heard, he was living in France. But I’m not sure about that.
Last time I heard from him was two years ago, when he phoned from
Florida and Adam (Reid) was with him. I think he’s probably
still working.
ZH:
I understand he moved to France and took a year off the program
in ’88.
LL: He was
in Toronto. In fact, I went down and did stuff there for Turkey
TV, and visited with him. I think he was gone for close to
a year, and we’d kept in touch and he said, “Look, if
I’m going to do (You Can’t) again, and it’s
done here in Toronto, would you do it?” I said, “Of
course, I’ll do it.” But, as it turned out, they talked
him into coming back to Ottawa, and we picked up where we left off.
That’s where we got the new cast of new kids.
ZH:
In ’83, he was doing a show for PBS called Don’t
Look Now!, so there was other things going on that seemed to
conflict with his role on You Can’t. I’m curious as
to what that might have been happening there.
LL: Yeah, I
remember going into the studio one day, and somebody said, “You
better have a look at this show on PBS.”
“What
do you mean?”
“It’s
You Can’t Do That On Television, but with a different
name and different characters.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,
they got a teacher, and instead of slime they get them to walk the
plank of a pirate ship.”
So I watched
it and me and Geoff Darby had sold the idea (somewhere) –
and they had a teacher, of course, and I think it was a female –
and it didn’t work. But we still started shooting You
Can’t Do That. The only crisis we really had was when
Roger Price moved to Toronto (in ’88). He was going to work
with CFTO in Toronto. …
In fact, there
was another show (I did years later) that ended up on the air for
a few episodes. He (Price) approached Fred Silverman, he was the
big guy at NBC. Anyway, he approached Silverman with the idea, and
he told me about it. He said, “What it is is that it’s
an old folks home and, nearby, there’s a kid’s orphanage
or whatever that’s been burnt to the ground. Their things
have been all saved, but they have nowhere to live. So they moved
in with the old people – you had the young kids and the old
timers reacting and interacting.”
I said, “That
sounds good.”
He said, “Well,
I’ve got a part for you, probably, as a director (of the home)
or something.”
So we approached
Silverman.
One thing I
remember is that Silverman – who’d seen You Can’t
Do That – said, “How old is that guy on your show?”
At the time, I was probably around 60.
He said, “You
gotta get them at that age. If you get really old people, some of
them might be great but they’re likely to croak on you.”
And, by the
way, the show didn’t work because the writer was the guy who
did The Waltons. They only did maybe a few shows, and it
didn’t work or didn’t sell and that was the end of that.
Joan Leslie, an old Hollywood glamour girl, she was in it.
But you always
have ideas. I kept pushing him (Price) to do a You Can’t
Do That On Television movie. The only other thing I would have
liked to have seen happen is a You Can’t Do That On Television
revival with the kids all grown up, and the teacher and all of those
old guys I played either retired or dead.
I’d like
to still do a reunion show, but they better hurry up and do it because
I’m not going to be around forever, you know. Some ideas have
been talked about: we’d have Barth working in a high-class
restaurant. Some of the other characters would be in jail.
That reminds
me, one of my favorite gags was with Doug Ptolemy. (Breaks into
Teacher voice). “In 20 years, you’ll probably be looking
at a yearbook and say, ‘There’s Lisa, now an undertaker.
There’s Moose, brain surgeon. There’s Alasdair, an English
professor.’ (Stops voice). And Dougie says, “And there’s
the teacher – dead.” (Laughs). I thought that was one
of the great lines.
ZH:
You were just talking about an accident in the studio not long ago.
Were there any other mishaps that took place?
LL: Another
near-serious accident, one involving Christine (McGlade), was that
they rebuilt the studio door on one of the sets out of very light
plastic or polyethylene. It was so you could easily go through it,
so you could quickly exit by walking through the door. They didn’t
make that clear (to the cast, that you weren’t supposed to
run through it). And I’m waiting from a distance as she runs
to the door during a take, and she hit the door with a tremendous
force. She went right, clean through it! Unfortunately, there was
another door that was four or five feet beyond that – a real
(metal) door. She luckily got her hands out, so she didn’t
really hurt herself. She was OK. But somebody should have told her!
Another time,
somebody brought in either a hamster or gerbil. As Ross, the studio
director, I had to handle it. I had the thing in my hand, and it
was a take. We’re taping. The damn thing bit me. It drew blood.
So I held it up like this in front the camera, and the damn thing
is hanging off me. I said, “Whoever owns this gerbil, come
and get him immediately or else he’s going to meet God!”
Some kid comes
running onto the set, yelling “Oh! Oh!” (Laughs.)
But, fortunately,
there were no real accidents.
ZH:
I’d heard they had Abby (Hagyard) in the kitchen set where
there was this explosion, and the special effects guy got a little
too gung-ho with the dynamite used in the scene.
LL: Oh yeah.
It was a real blast. It scared the living hell out of Abby and Lisa
(Ruddy), I think, who was in the kitchen with her. … . They
probably used it in the show. The blast, though, had a little too
much power.
ZH:
You and Moose (Christine McGlade) had a really close relationship
on the show, and I believe she said you two would develop sketches
together that were grosser than anything on the show. What kind
of stuff?
LL: Oh yeah.
The kids wanted to relate (to me), but I didn’t want to become
a second parent or a best friend unless they made a move. Some of
the didn’t, so I didn’t infer and I let them have their
fun off camera. The only time I found I had to do something that
the director or producer should have been doing was during a pilot
called UFO Kidnapped. They were so concerned with special
effects that they weren’t giving the kids much direction.
So, more than
once, one of them would say to me, “What am I supposed to
do in this scene?”
I’d say,
“Well, I’m not the director. But if you have no idea
I can tell you what you probably should do.” So that worked
fine.
That show,
by the way, was where I established a very pleasant relationship
with Klea Scott. Klea was in that pilot, and there was so much time
spent shooting the movie. You’d wait and wait, so I’d
brought in my ukuleles from Willy and Floyd, just to pass
the time, and I start playing and singing some old song. (Starts
singing.) Please don’t talk about me when I’m gooooone,
oh honey. (Stops singing.) I look and Klea’s singing with
me.
I go, “How
the hell do you know that song, Klea?”
She says, “I
know them all.”
“What?”
“My mother
plays the ukulele and sings them all the time.”
So I tested
her, and she knew a whole bunch of the good ol’ songs from
the ‘20s and ‘30s. So that helped pass the time, and
we later had Klea on Willy and Floyd.
I don’t
know if any of the other kids knew, but I knew that she’d
taken tap-dancing lessons. So I said, “Jeeze, Klea, you’re
black and you’re a tap dancer. We’re going to have to
work that into the script (for Willy and Floyd).”
And she said,
“OK, sure.”
So one of the
last scenes of the show she did is that we had a great big huge
Afro wig (that I wore), and Liz, the make-up girl, darkened me,
made me black. And I came in as her uncle Crazy Legs Turner.
Adam Reid was
very talented. We used him on Willy and Floyd, and he was
very good. He’s kept with it, acting.
ZH:
That’s funny, because a lot of child actors just simply disappear
after awhile, or turn to drinking or drugs.
LL: Dougie
Ptolemy apparently had a small problem – I don’t know
whether it might have been booze or it might have been drugs. He
was great, though, because he was so small, short.
Every once
in awhile, I run into a young man or woman that I don’t remember
whatsoever, and they’ll say, “Yeah, I was on that show.”
I met a guy at the airport, working behind the counter, who was
on the show. I couldn’t remember him to save my life.
Of course,
we went through a bunch of kids. Quite often, they’d be on
a dozen shows, sometimes not even that. We had identical twins on
one show and they never appeared again.
Les
Lye at SlimeCon 2002
|
ZH:
Was there a favorite character that you liked doing well above
the others?
LL: Well
I liked doing both Dad and Barth. They were such slobs. When
I went on tour in the States, we used to go over and take
over a school (for Nickelodeon). I think I did three or four.
I’d go down usually as Barth. Mr. Wizard would be there,
and four or five Nickelodeon stars. There was a stand-up comic
with black hair, and he was pretty funny. I don’t remember
his name or what his show was about. Provenza?
ZH:
Yeah, that rings a bell.
LL: There
was another guy, Marc Summers. He had a game show (Double
Dare) on the network. I haven’t seen Marc in years,
but I hear he’s doing very well. He’d usually
be the MC when we’d take over the school. |
I remember
they’d get kids to send in why they wanted Nickelodeon to
take over their school. And they’d pick them by location.
So we went down to the American South, then near Detroit, then out
west to Seattle, I guess it was. Anyway, I walked in as Barth into
one of the classes:
(Breaks into
character) “Hi kids, how are you doing?”
“Alright,
Barth. What are we having for lunch?”
“Well,
let’s see. What was the road kill of today? Squirrel? Badger?”
Anyway, in
one classroom, there were a bunch of kids sitting right by the door.
I come down and say, “Hi kids, any questions? Anything you’d
like to know?”
One of the
kids says, “Gimme your watch.”
“Pardon?”
“Gimme
your watch.”
“What?
Why would I give you my watch?”
“Well,
why not? You got lots of money.”
He really stumped
me.
“Sorry,
but this is a keepsake I’ve got to keep because this is what
my grandmother gave me before she died. I couldn’t possibly
give it to you.”
“OK.”
Give me your
watch. You never know … (Shakes head.) But they were great
fun, those personal appearances.
We did go down
on another occasion to appear before a (U.S. Senate) committee on
children’s TV. Afterwards, I realized it was a mistake for
me to get dressed as Dad. The kids with me were wandering through
one of the government buildings, and we go into one of the committee
meetings. Mr. Rogers couldn’t make it, so he sent his mailman
from the show. Very nice fella. He didn’t tell me, but someone
else said that Mr. Rogers didn’t like the show (You Can’t)
at all.
Nickelodeon
wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say to these people. I
was dressed like Dad – a drunken bum – so I went in
there, did a few gags that didn’t go over very well. That
was a mistake. Most of the people in the committee room didn’t
know who I was, either.
ZH:
Thinking back to the Barth routine you just did a minute ago, The
Simpsons must owe you a whole boatload of money for the character
they swiped from you. The Homer-isms, to me, come from that.
LL: (Laughs).
Yeah, I wonder. Which reminds me, you probably know that you can
see You Can’t during Fatal Attraction, the
opening scene. I was reviewing movies then for CJOH (on the side),
so I went to see Fatal Attraction. I saw it and went, “Holy
hell, nobody told me about this!”
So when I get
back to the station, I phone Geoff Darby. Geoff, by the way, was
one of my students at Algonquin, who climbed the ladder, and is
now in a very fortunate position in some cable outfit making a bundle.
But I phoned Geoff:
“Oh,
hi Les. What’s up?”
“Fatal
Attraction.”
“What’s
that?”
”It’s
a new movie … .”
“Oooohhhh!
Oh yeah! I think I’ve heard of that!”
“You
haven’t seen it?”
“No.”
“There’s
a scene where there’s You Can’t Do That. Moose
and one of the other kids are getting slimed.”
“Oooohhh,
yeah. I remember now. Last year, somebody phoned us and asked about
using it and we said, ‘Yeah. Go ahead. Give us a thousand’
.”
I said, “Well,
if I would have been in it (the scene), you would have been sued!”
But I wasn’t
in it, and nobody contested it. It was Moose getting slimed in multi-color.
And then, Michael Douglas, the father, said (in the movie), “Turn
that thing off!” (Laughs).
ZH:
I’m sure that was a common reaction around all of North America.
(Laughs).
LL: I was always
amazed we didn’t get more complaints. One of my favorite stories
involves Dad. It happened right here at this gym, where I’ve
been a member for 35 years. The first year I was on TV in ’79,
an Ottawa policeman, a young guy, John, says to me here, “I
saw that kids show you’re doing, and that father – that
drunken bum, that slob.”
“Yeah?
Yeah?”
“I know
who you’re doing. I know who it is.”
I said, “Wait
a minute. I’m not doing anybody … .”
“Oh yes
you are!”
I said, “John,
I telling you … !”
“No,
I’m telling you! I’ve rescued him a couple of times
and I can tell you where he lives!”
“No!
No! I don’t want to know!” (Laughs).
So there must
have been a guy out there in Ottawa who looked a lot like Dad, this
no-good, drunken bum. (Shakes head). John wouldn’t believe
me that I didn’t know this guy. But, no, it was just a coincidence.
ZH:
What other complaints did you get? Just people coming up to you?
LL: No, I never
got anything personally. But I guess Nickelodeon would get most
of them, and maybe CJOH. I think they were mostly fans and parents.
I got a nice
letter from Australia when the show was first sold down there. It
from was a married woman originally from Ottawa who’d married
an Australian. She wrote in and said, “I was in the kitchen
one day and heard the kids watching this new program. I recognized
your voice. I come running into and the kids thought I was nuts.
‘That’s Ottawa! That’s Les Lye’.”
Oh my God. Anyway, she wrote me and said she was coming back to
visit. Could she drop in?
I said, “Absolutely.
Just give me a phone call, here’s my phone number.”
So I met them
at the station. She had two little boys and her husband. And that
was the big moment of their lives, to look around and see some of
the sets. I supposed it happened elsewhere, but they were really,
really excited.
It (the show)
was really popular in Australia. I think they bought it for a five-year
run and then they bought it for another five. But the only way I’d
know was if I was getting residuals.
ZH:
But the show is described by many as a kids version of Saturday
Night Live in that it was really edgy for its time, really
envelope pushing. There must have been … .
LL: One show
I hated – and still do – was on the subject of farting.
Summer camp was the main scene and the kids blew the roof off! But
that’s a personal thing. Alasdair was in it. Justin was in
it. Justin was another kid I liked working with – Justin Cammy.
Another mistake
was that we had Barth’s mom show up in one sketch. I really
had trouble doing the high female voice. I couldn’t do the
‘Duuuuh – I heard that’ stuff. I wasn’t
overly impressed with the finished product.
ZH:
It’s been suggested, though, that you couldn’t do the
show today out of political correctness. It appeared at the right
time, the right place. The conditions were ripe for it …
LL: And yet,
there was a lot said and done on television now that was never really
thought of being done in those days. Especially language. You didn’t
say ass, penis and certain words. But, to get back to your point,
that’s a good thought. I’m not sure. I’d have
to look at some of the shows and see what I thought about them.
But I think they’d certainly be acceptable.
ZH:
Do you have any regrets about the show?
LL: One of
them, I luckily caught. I was a pirate on one episode, a one-shot.
They gave me a knife about this long … . (Extends hands apart
about the length of an arm).
ZH:
My God.
LL: Of course,
the back of this thing was really thick. But the blade was sharp.
So when we taped, it was a close-up on me and I take the sword –
and the kids are watching on set – and I stick my tongue out,
and lick the sword. Well, of course, I used the back, thick side
of the blade. Had I’d used the other side, it would have just
sliced my tongue right in half. And the kids laugh.
Geoff was directing
it. And I had second thoughts, so I said, “Geoff, what about
that last scene?”
I left a pause,
and Geoff said, “You don’t think we should use that
last bit?”
I said, “For
God’s sake, you show that then kids are going to watch this
and think, ‘Well, if he can do it, I can do it’.”
I then said,
“I want to make sure, I want to see that bit wiped from the
tape.” Which I did. I made sure it was erased, so it could
never be used.
Another time
on Willy and Floyd, we had a show that was done partially
live. I’m climbing up a ladder and all you can see by the
time I get up is that I’m hanging off the pipes up above.
I take a paintbrush and Willy says, “You got a good hold on
that brush?”
“Yeah?”
“Good,
because I need the ladder.”
And he pulls
the ladder away, and all you see are my feet and legs hanging down.
I get a call
immediately after the show, and this woman was really upset. She
asked to speak to me.
“What’s
the matter, ma’am?”
“My son
is really upset because he thinks Floyd hanged himself.”
“Oh my
good God! Well, put him on the phone.”
So my own voice
is close to Floyd’s anyway, so I put him on the phone and
go, “Billy? This is Floyd. How would you think that (I hung)?”
“Are
you OK?”
“I’m
fine. It was just a joke. I pretended I was just hanging onto a
paintbrush and that was it. I’m OK.”
“Well
… . OK.”
That made me
think at the time, ‘Jeez, you never really know what kids
are going to think,’ so you really gotta be careful.
ZH:
What do you think of the show now, in terms of your career?
LL: Well, it
was one of a couple of high points in my career for several reasons.
It gave me so much opportunity to create some of these characters.
As I said, Roger was very free thinking. And he’d leave a
lot of thought to me in costuming and character. …
It really took
him a few years, though, to get around to suggesting that I don’t
do impersonations, because the Doctor was Groucho Marx. There was
no doubt about that. He didn’t object at the time, but we
ran out of doctor jokes so he said, “We’re going to
get rid of the Doctor, and now you’re going to be a dentist.”
That was when he said, “But he’s not … going …
to … be …. W.C. Fields.” (Laughs.) He’d
seen Willy and Floyd where I did a sort of W.C. Fields
imitation.
I said, “OK,
that’s fine, Rog.” I made him British and he still had
a big nose, and that made it OK. Roger didn’t realize, though,
that Blip was sort of based on a Canadian actor named Les Ruby.
Les – I don’t know if you remember him or not –
but he had a TV show where he owned a store, maybe a general store,
and he sold lottery tickets. He had a funny laugh, so I thought
I’d do my version of Les Ruby. I didn’t know Les until
I met him at a banquet for Lorne Greene (just prior to his death).
Les used to do a lot of Wayne and Shuster, a lot of character stuff,
because he was bald and fat. … Les died not long ago.
I’m at
that age now where, everywhere I turn, some old associate is gone.
ZH:
You gotta be close to 80.
LL: 78. Yeah,
I just celebrated the first anniversary of my heart attack. They
(the doctors) called it a heart attack. The artery was somewhat
plugged, so they did angioplasty. It was highly successful. So,
I’m on medication. I’m diabetic, too. Adult onset. But
the medication I’m taking is really working.
ZH:
That’s good. You seem pretty fit, if you’re coming out
here every day.
LL: Almost
every day. So, all in all, I’m living the good life. …
I’m glad the show came towards the end of my career, because
it served as a good old age pension.
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