First score in Hollywood 31

The next month, July 1982, I took an old car, that was in the family, and took off for Hollywood. Driving across the country I felt a sense of freedom,traveling across the open road. You have to drive a couple of hundred miles west before you are free of the concrete jungle and out into the open country. I liked being on the open road and thought if I failed in Hollywood , I would drive one of those big rigs across the country.

Not that I had any doubt at all that I would make it big it Hollywood. After all, the first TV job I read for I got a TV series. Out in Hollywood where they produce tons of series, I would certainly get one right away. I needed to because the money was almost gone and now I was supporting a wife.

Day dreaming along the way, I planned to be bi-coastal. After making a couple of nice scores in La, I would return to New York and do nothing but Broadway plays and films.

When we finally arrived in La, after 12 adventurous days on the road, we crashed at Robert Pastorelli's apartment in the heart of Hollywood. I knew Bobby from New York, we were in Gray Spades together at the Ensemble Studio Theater directed By Risa Bramen.

We had the same agent , The Gage Group, and unwinding at his apartment, he received a call from the Gage Group to go on a audition. Bobby told them I had just arrived and they were able to get me in on the audition. I didn't expect any action so quick, my first day in Hollywood, but glad to see the move was already paying off.

The character I was reading for was a nervous guy and when I read for the casting director, Molly Lapata, I pushed and I could see the CD wince and I immediately pulled back within myself. I explained to her that I just drove in that day and was not ready to audition. I think she forgave me for my lousy reading as she had me in for other things ,which I got.

After a couple of days I had another audition for a show called "Madam's Place" , a show where the lead character was a puppet. I got the role and taped it and it went very well.

Off and running in Hollywood.

IMDB for Madam's Place

Feast and famine 29 1982

We finished the back order 5 episodes and I felt I did well. CBS scheduled "Bakers Dozen" to start airing in the spring of 1982. This was not a good sign as it was not picked for the fall season . The producers said it was because there was a change in leadership at CBS, during the strike, and the new bosses at CBS favored shows that they had a hand in producing. It still had a shot to make it on the fall schedule if the ratings were exceptional. If picked for the fall would mean another 17 episodes would be made.

The day came to air the first episode on TV and I sat with my new wife and friends to watch. I was disappointed in what I saw. In my opinion, the two negative choices the producers made was to put in a phony sounding laugh track and casting a connected but untalented actress in the lead female role.

Although the show was a cop comedy, it was shot on film on the streets of New York and I thought the laugh track cheapened the show. When the ratings came out, the show did not do well and was cancelled after the 6 episodes.

That is the nature of this business, feast and famine. I went from a series regular on the brink of stardom to just another out of work actor.

That was depressing enough but I received a bill from my former manager, Lyn Kressel for 25% of the last 5 episodes. Now, I paid her 25% for the pilot but then she was accused of a conflict of interest and quit managing. I thought, why should I pay her for the last 5 episodes when she wasn't my manager anymore, which meant she wasn't trying to get me more work and advance my career.

Lyn claimed it did not matter that she wasn't working for me , the contract I signed with her stated that I had to pay her for any work I got from the pilot.

I got a lawyer and fought it and never paid her any more money. Of coarse I had to pay the lawyer which was almost as much as her bill. I didn't care as I felt I was being screwed.

Was this a mistake? It probably was as she went on to become one of the leading casting directors in New York. My new agents, The Gage Group, did not want to get involved and gave me no guidance in this matter.

Every actor I talked to, said I was crazy for going against Lyn Kressel as she would black ball me.I didn't listen to them as my experience with most actors was they are a bunch of wimps and would wash Lyn Kressel's dirty underwear if she asked them.

I still had enough money for awhile ,even with a new wife, but something had to happen soon or I would be broke again.

One day, my new agents sent me on a interview with Laury Oppendum, the casting director of Hill Street Blues, a hit cop Tv series shot in Los Angeles. When I went into the interview with Laury, she said that she and all her co-workers in La raved about my performance in Baker's Dozen.

She said I would be perfect for all sorts of guest spots on Hill St. Blues but unfortunately, she can't hire me from New York, but if I was in Los Angeles, she would not hesitate to have me in to audition.

I went home thinking about what Laury had said. I never to this point considered going to La but I was not getting any calls from the other Equity houses in New York and I had burned a few bridges.

My mind raced as I walked home. La,La, should I go?

Bitter sweet success 27

The shoot, for the pilot on CBS, could not have gone better for me. I had one scene where I pick the pocket of another character and the actor playing the role didn't realize what I did and it was all caught on camera. The producers and everybody involved thought it was great and my position was secure.

There was a particular incident that I remember. We were shooting a scene inside a bar and an actor I knew from Jimmy Rays came in to do extra work. Now this particular guy would tell me that I was a fool for working for no money when I was doing Off-Off Broadway. When he saw me , he came over and congratulated me for being smart and to do some extra work. I didn't say anything but as the day went on and he saw that I was not only a principle but a regular, he asked to be excused saying he was sick.

This actor could not accept that someone he thought was inferior to him, rise to the top while he languished doing extra work which is the dregs of show business. I never saw this actor again.

Getting this job changed my life, mostly for the better but there were some negative consequences. Up to this time all my close actor friends were struggling, working as waiters or cab drivers like my self. We would comfort each other in our misery of the struggle.

Now I went from a struggling actor to the fast track of the business. Friends that I got drunk with, friends that I performed plays with me in the outer reaches of off off, shunned me and treated me with suspicion as if I had betrayed them. They assumed that I had changed so they beat me to it by not saying hello when we ran into each other, unless I acknowledged them first.

I should have been more understanding. I felt they were not happy for me so I retaliated by walking away from a lot of old friends who I felt were not true friends but jealous of me.

In looking back, I am sorry for the way I acted to their insecurity. I know how painful it can be to give everything you have to make it as an actor and get nowhere. How painful it can be to see some one that you think you are better than, all actors think they are the best, have some success while you languish in shit jobs. Laying awake at night, worried that you will end up in poverty with no children, alone and broke.

I know because I felt that way.

Filming on the Streets of NY 26

The day came for the first day of shooting for "Baker's Dozen"TV pilot  for CBS Television. I was nervous as this was my first job on film to be shown across America and  possibly a life changing venture.

The first scene I was to shoot was the scene I had auditioned . I was determined to play moment to moment and create the illusion of the first time. This is essential in film, to be spontaneous and in the moment.

So here I am in my own trailer on Broadway and 45th Street waiting to be called to the set. I looked over my scene and was sure of all my intentions and what my character wanted. The knock at the door came and the ad escorted me to the set, passing onlookers behind barricades. I felt like a star, as the spectators looked at me with respect and awe. I got hold of myself and not let it go to my head. After all, I haven't shot anything yet.

We shot the first scene and it went great basically because I was working with a great actor, Ron Silver. We hooked into each other and created a relationship between the 2 characters, Ron's Detective Locasale and mine, Jeff Diggens the pickpocket.

After we rapped my scene, the producers Sonny Grosso and his partner Bud Jacobson came over to me and complimented on my performance. This enabled me to relax and enjoy myself for the rest of the shoot.

All the theater I had done over the past 7 years paid off. The scenes I had in the pilot were easy compared what I had created on stage. The major difference is the lack of rehearsal. In theater there is usually 4 weeks of rehearsal but on TV the only rehearsal is right before you shoot while the crew is setting up the scene.