My Days Page 23

  “I think there were times when Marion stepped in because even Jerry Paris couldn’t get us to settle down with all his ranting and yelling. Those two were like the good cop and bad cop. Jerry was the bad cop, and Marion was the good cop. I swear, I really think they had that routine worked out to keep us all in line.”

  —Scott Baio

  David Laurell (DL): It is always interesting how, in everyone’s life, everything we do or don’t do has an effect on where we go and who we become. Had you not been cast in Bugsy Malone, the chances are more than good that you would have never gotten the role of Chachi.

  Scott Baio (SB): That is so true. After we did Bugsy Malone, they screened it for the executives at Paramount, and Garry happened to be one of the executives who came in for the screening. When he saw me, something popped in his head. This is a little-known fact, but he had an idea for a spin-off of Happy Days, a show he created called Pinky, and he thought I would be perfect for it. So he arranged for me to do the pilot for that show, but it didn’t go. Then, at the same time, Garry was doing a show called Blansky’s Beauties, with Nancy Walker. He put me in that for a year, and then that is what led to Happy Days.

  DL: Tell us about your memories of doing Happy Days.

  SB: Well, it was the real start of my career—the jumping-off point for me. It’s where I learned everything about the business, about life, and I was lucky to have learned all those things from such great people. I grew up on that show. When we started out, I was a boy. I did Happy Days from the time I was fifteen till I was about twenty-two or twenty-three. And even though I was in my mid-teens when I started, I looked like an eleven-year-old boy. So much of my real life took place while I was doing Happy Days, and then I went on to do Joanie Loves Chachi—which I shouldn’t have done. That was a mistake. We did that between the tenth and eleventh seasons of Happy Days, and then I went back to doing Happy Days. After that came Charles in Charge, and I loved doing that. It’s good to be the king, right? [laughs].

  DL: You were a part of a show that a hundred years from now, people will still know about. I don’t know what sort of device they will be watching it on, but I’m betting they will still be watching it.

  SB: I totally agree. I have people come up to me and mention Happy Days all the time—kids who weren’t even born when we were doing it. That just tickles me. It was a huge show, and that had a lot to do with that era—the domination of the three networks—when people eight to eighty . . . thirty to forty million people . . . watched every week. I don’t know if we’ll ever see any one show that will be able to get that kind of audience again. It was a beautiful story. It was well written. The characters were great. And that’s the key to success in any television show. And that all goes back to Garry Marshall—his vision for the show, and how he brought all the elements together to make it work. It was a wonderful experience.

  DL: Talk about how you developed the character of Chachi.

  SB: Come on, David [rolls his eyes]. There was no character [laughing]. Chachi was just me, doing the dialogue the writers had written. I think every actor plays a version of themselves in whatever character they are doing, and Chachi was 100 percent me. I didn’t really give it much thought—the development of that character. Chachi was just me, always was, right on through Charles in Charge.

  DL: By the time you came to Happy Days, the show was a hit. So you knew when you got that role, your life would be dramatically changing. Was there any moment you can pinpoint when you knew that your life would never be the same again?

  SB: You know, David, I’m going to be honest. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing and what was happening when I started. It was all so overwhelming that a lot of those early memories of doing the show are a big blur to me. I was just sort of winging it. But I guess there were two times that I do remember it hitting me that things would be different.

  After filming Happy Days on Friday nights, the cast would go out into the audience and sign autographs. I remember this one time, after I had been doing the show for a couple months, Henry was out there, and the people were just going crazy, as they always were. While he was doing that, I walked through the set. This roar went up from the crowd, and it scared me. I thought something had happened to someone. So I looked out at the audience, and they were looking at me. I didn’t know what was happening, and then I caught eye contact with Henry, and I felt bad because I thought I was stealing his thunder. I always had great respect for him and really felt bad. So I was standing there, looking at Henry, and he motioned for me to come out into the audience. When I did, everybody was asking me for an autograph and taking pictures, and it was just crazy. I did that for about ten minutes, and then Henry came up behind me and put his arm around my shoulder and said, “Things are going to be very different for you from now on.”

  I didn’t really know what the hell he was talking about. But then, soon after that, I was invited to some car show in the Midwest to sign autographs. It was at this huge convention center, and there was a catwalk around the perimeter of the hall. I remember walking there with my dad and looking down and seeing the place just packed with human beings. And I said, “Wow! This must really be a popular car show.” And the guy who was with us said, “They don’t care about the cars. They’re all here to see you.” I was sixteen. And I remember looking at my father and thinking, What is going on? He put his arm around me and said, “It’s all right. You’ll be all right.” It was at that moment I got it—what Henry meant.

  DL: Can you share some of your memories and thoughts on working with Marion?

  SB: I always felt a certain amount of intimidation when I had to do a scene with Marion. Not personally, but professionally. I have worked with very few actors—and I’ve been lucky to have worked with some great ones—but very few that were always on the money like Marion was. She was always totally prepared, never missed a line. That is not an easy thing to do. So whenever I had to do a scene with her, I felt I had to show up with my A game. I don’t mean that as a competitive thing between actors, not at all. It was just that she was always right there on cue. I think that was probably because of her theatrical training and her work in the theater, where you don’t get numerous chances, like you do in television. Watching her work and working with her was a great learning experience for me, to see the way it should be done.

  DL: Did you ever have any interaction with her away from the show?

  SB: Oh my God, the softball games [laughing]. We had a Happy Days softball team, and on weekends they played games all over the place, not just in Los Angeles, like, all over the country and even in other countries. I think Garry had this secret desire to be the owner of a professional baseball team, and there was always a running joke that people only got hired for Happy Days if they were good softball players. We became a real team. We would take on all these other organized teams for charities, and Marion loved that.

  When I first started on the show, I remember somebody asking me if I was going to play on the softball team, and I said, “I don’t think so.” Well, that must have gotten back to Garry. Not long after that, one day while we were rehearsing, my father unexpectedly showed up on the set, and I could tell something was wrong. I asked him what he was doing there, and he told me Garry had called him and wanted to see both of us. So we go into Garry’s office, and I’m just scared to death. I’m sure he was going to tell me he was unhappy with something I was doing or fire me from the show.

  When we walked in, he looked up at us and said, “Sit down.” I was sweating like crazy. Then he got up and came around to the front of his desk and said, “You know, I love doing television shows. And do you know why I love doing television shows? Because it lets me put together a team to play softball. ” It was like a scene out of The Godfather or something [laughing]. He looked at my dad and said, “Now, I hear your son won’t play on our team. Why is that?”

  My father looked at me and I looked at my father, and then we both looked back at Garry, and my dad said, “D
o you want him to play?”

  Garry threw his hands up and started yelling, “Hell yes, I want him to play. That’s why I called you in here!”

  So my dad said, “Okay, then he plays.”

  And Garry said, “Good! Now, get the hell out of here and go back to work.”

  That was so Garry. He was the best. I loved him. We all loved him. He changed the lives of everybody who worked on that show—personally, professionally, monetarily. He was a genius, and so many people owe their careers to him. I certainly do. There were a lot of people whose talent and hard work made that show a success—we really were a team in the truest sense—but it all started and ended with Garry.

  DL: Have you ever tried to analyze what it was that made Happy Days such a huge success?

  SB: It is one of those things you really can’t analyze or define. If you could somehow come up with a scientific answer as to why it all worked, then every television producer would follow the template and every show would be a hit. Obviously, that doesn’t happen. So I don’t know. It was the right show at the right time. The casting was just about as perfect as you could ever hope for, and there was a certain amount of magic dust that was sprinkled over us all as people that translated to what we did on-screen as characters. There were no egos at play on that show. That is very rare for a television show, but Garry and the other big players—the producers and Jerry Paris—they would have never put up with that from anyone.

  DL: Has that magic dust ever landed on any other show you were in?

  SB: No. I mean, I’ve been in shows that have come close—Charles in Charge would be an example—but nothing like Happy Days. That show represents everything I am and everything I have. I will always be attached to that show—all of us will. Say the name Ron Howard—a child actor, a great director, an Academy Award winner—and yet the first thing people think of when they hear his name is Happy Days. That’s how big that show was and continues to be. It was a wonderful experience that, I don’t think for me, will ever be duplicated or matched.

  DL: Sitting here in the office of your home, do you find it a tad bit ironic that Marion’s house is just over the hill?

  SB: Yeah, it is. Funny thing is, that was purely coincidental. When we were looking for a house, they showed us this one, and as we were driving out here to look at it, I remember saying that I thought Marion lived somewhere nearby. So we bought it, and then I realized that she lives right around the block.

  DL: Readers of this book will learn a lot about your neighbor from around the block that they otherwise would have never known. Do you think there may be some things revealed that may come as a surprise to those of you who know her?

  SB: I have spoken to her about this a little bit, and she has told me she plans on being very candid and open and honest about her life. So I am going to be interested to read about her marriage, because I know nothing about it except that her husband had issues with alcoholism. She was always hesitant to talk about that, at least around me. So I would find that to be very interesting. I know she had some difficult times, and I would like to learn about just what she went through and how she dealt with it. She was always so great at helping others with their problems that I’m curious as to how she handled her own problems.

  DL: One last thing. What do you know about her that you would hope readers will get to know about her?

  SB: That she is the happiest person you could ever meet. She is the happiest person I’ve ever known in my life. I have never seen her when she wasn’t upbeat and up for having a good time. This is the honest truth: I have never seen her in a bad mood—ever. Even when things might have gotten tense on the set, she always remained calm. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that she just loves what she does. She really loves the craft of acting, and I think she was always so grateful to have the chance to do it. I would say, throughout my life, along with Henry, people always ask me what Marion is like. I always say, “What do you think she’s like?” They say, “I think she is bubbly and sweet.” And I tell them, “You know what? That is exactly what she is like. ” The reason I ask that is because I know what people see by watching her, and what they see is really what she is like.

  She is one of the loveliest people I have ever known, although you never wanted to mess around too much around her when we were working. Remember, she really was a mom, and she wasn’t above saying, “Okay, settle down!” or “Hey! Cut it out!” And hearing that from her was like hearing it from your own mom when you were a kid. Everything just stopped [laughs]. I think there were times when Marion stepped in because even Jerry Paris couldn’t get us to settle down with all his ranting and yelling. Those two were like the good cop and bad cop. Jerry was the bad cop, and Marion was the good cop. I swear, I really think they had that routine worked out to keep us all in line [laughing].

  But, as far as what I would like people to know about Marion, I think more than anything it is that what you see is what you get. From the first time I met her until this day, she is one of those people who really is what she appears to be—totally genuine. You can’t say that about a lot of people in Hollywood. Hell, you can’t say it about a lot of people from anywhere.

  Chapter 23

  My Real-Life Children

  Right from the start I had made the decision that there was just no way I was ever going to sit down and write the story of my life without my Happy Days family members being involved. They were all a part of the team that made my dream come true, and I just wasn’t going to go into a project like this without my team.

  But there are two other people who are members of an even more exclusive team of mine that I also had to have involved—two people whom I love so much and am so proud of—a duo that made another dream come true for me: the dream of being a mother and a grandmother. That is the team of my son, Jim Meskimen, and my daughter, Ellen Kreamer.

  While I may have been revered as the model of the all-American mother for the role I played on Happy Days, in real life I many times questioned if I was doing a good job of raising my son and daughter. For the most part, I feel that I did. I think I even doubled up on my efforts to be as good a mother as I could because I knew their father, Effie, would be somewhat limited when it came to parenting.

  On Happy Days, we were all very lucky to have been working with producers who recognized that, while a top-rated show demands a lot of work, the members of the cast and crew are human beings with lives outside of work. That kind of understanding and, frankly, just plain compassion are rare when it comes to television producers. But ours were a rare and wonderful bunch who realized that people needed a proper balance in life.

  Our typical workweek consisted of doing rehearsals from Monday through Thursday. We usually began around 9:30 a.m. and wrapped between 4:30 and 5:00 p.m. Then, of course, Friday was the day we shot, and that was always a long one. We would usually have a call time at noon and would rarely finish before 11:00 p.m. Those are very civilized hours for a television show, and yet they did necessitate me having help with Jim and Ellen. They were no longer small children, but they did need someone to keep an eye on them, and so I had a housekeeper who came every day and made sure that the place was kept clean and that the kids were fed and did not get into any mischief. I also had a wonderful neighbor named Doris who was always available if the kids needed anything.

  Along with lucking out on having decent work hours, I was also fortunate in that the school Jim and Ellen attended was just down the hill from our home, so they could walk back and forth. I was never one of those moms who was very involved with the administrative or political happenings at their school, and I never felt guilty about that. It just wasn’t my thing, and even if I had not had a demanding job, I still wouldn’t have ever been a PTA mom or headed up bake sales or rummage sales.

  So was I a good mom? I think I was a pretty darn good one, if I say so myself. I can’t begin to tell you how many times over the past thirty years or more that someone has come up to me and said, “You rais
ed me!” or “I always wished you had been my mother.” Well, that is one of the kindest things you could ever hear, and I am always deeply touched when people say those things. But there are two people whom I really did raise, and if the way any child turns out is a reflection on how they were raised, I am damn well pleased with the job I did.

  Jim, who was always so kind from the time he was a baby, is a very good artist. He is a wonderful actor, voice actor and impressionist and appeared in the British version of the improvisational comedy series Whose Line Is It Anyway? He would also be familiar to many for having played the role of Martin Housely on the hit NBC series Parks and Recreation and Officer Wholihan in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the big-screen version of the Dr. Seuss tale that starred Jim Carrey.

  He has also carved out a successful niche doing voice-over work for commercials and video games and has voiced numerous animated characters, including doing the Robin Williams voice of the genie in Disney’s Aladdin franchise. He is an incredible impressionist who can mimic the voice of just about any celebrity you can name, as he proved when he toured the country to perform his one-man show JIMPRESSIONS. He’s also well known on YouTube for several viral hits featuring his impressions (www.youtube.com/user/jimmeskimen).

  In 1987 Jim married Tamra Shockley, an actress who has appeared in feature films, including Apollo 13, Absence and What Would Jesus Do? She is also the founder of an excellent acting school in Los Angeles, The Acting Center (www.theactingcenterla.com). In 1990 Jim and Tamra teamed up to provide me with the most wonderful gift: my first grandchild, Taylor Brooke Meskimen, who has kept the family tradition alive for the third generation by appearing in independent films, commercials and music videos. As a narrator of audiobooks, she has already won prestigious awards.

  Ellen, who always had a far more independent streak than her brother, has also achieved a wonderful level of success in television as a producer and writer. She has also carried on the family tradition by being associated with a legendary hit show, Friends. She was a writer for Friends and then went on to write for the show’s spin-off, Joey, with Matt LeBlanc, and for The New Adventures of Old Christine, which starred Julia Louis-Dreyfus.