INT: You mentioned Carl McCarthy. [DQ: Right.] You wanna talk about one of the great Stage Managers--I remember meeting Carl in New York, just I know he’s a very important guy at NBC on the stage managing staff. Anything? 

DQ: Right. Carl, handlebar mustache, okay. Nice thin blonde hair, and so forth, was, you know, had a little bit of a belly on him, and so forth, an older guy. But he loved to dune buggy! The guy was an adventurous guy, you know. As a matter of fact I think that’s how we, we heard that he was, yeah. [INT: It is. we lost him. Yeah, he was adventuring in Baja [Baja California], and dune buggy accident, that’s exactly right.] Yes, he was in Mexico. So, you know, big tragedy there, and so forth, the loss. And you know, I mean he’s, he was guiding me, he was the First [First Stage Manger] on SANFORD AND SON. He was, you know. And as you know as a Second [Second Stage Manager], you’re getting everybody everything, running any little thing that that First might need You know, to help run a show or rehearsal or whatever it might be. So the loss of Carl was a pretty big, pretty big deal in a lot of our lives, and especially everybody over at NBC.

INT: Any other Stage Managers at NBC? Any colleagues, names you can think of? 

DQ: Oh yeah. Jerry Masterson, who was there for many, many years, Teddy Baker [Ted Baker], an old hoofer. And you know, as when we start, and I tell these stories, it’s, you gotta realize that, you know, these guys are the pioneers of television that have come in, as either Stage Managers… Many, for example, Buddy Borgen, out of CBS, was a torpedo bomber out of World War II. Many of the photographers and cameramen had been a photographer during World War II, or a camera, you know, operator, or some sort of, you know, involvement, because once that all ended, and there was, what are we gonna do? So a lot of men came from, you know, World War II background, and some from Korea and so forth. So especially when I started, they were like my father’s age. Okay, and I remember one guy was the head carpenter on THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW. Greg [Greg Garrison] would say, “Go out and ask Charlie what, how long it’s gonna be before that swing set’s ready.” And I go, “Okay.” So I run out to Charlie, and in my little, naïve little way said, “How long before the swing set’s ready, Charlie?” He said, “It’ll be ready when it’s ready!” I have to bring an answer back. So I know at this point, I have to drop a name, so I said, “Well Greg wants to know.” Being Greg Garrison. And so he goes, “Ah, it’s gonna be a while.” So I’m thinking, I’m thinking. I’ve got to carry this message. “I’m gonna tell him 15 minutes.” And I start walking away. And he said, “It’ll be ready in about five.” Thank you. You know, those guys, if I would’ve said, Greg would like to know how long it’ll be before the set’s ready, it would’ve taken a different tone, and so forth. So I’m learning, see, how to, you have to frame a succinct little question here to get your answer, the answer that you needed. So, all those guys, and all me coming up, you know, beginning and so forth, and then stage managing as well, they were all experienced, experienced, experienced. They’ve done it all; they’ve gone through live television. They’ve gone through the beginnings of it: camera, audio, boom operators, set designers, set decorators. Everybody is coming up. Oh, especially all the stagehands. They’re either from theater, or they’re coming in from, you know, a background, and then the experience. So, it made you grow up right away. It made you have to mature, and have to really start--as insecure as I was when I first started, without the lack of knowledge that even my peers had by getting a major in college, you had to step up. You had to appear that you know what you’re talking about; in the meantime you’re just going, because you know you really don’t [LAUGH]. So it was a lot of stress, a lot of pressure.

DQ: And THE MARTIN SHOW [THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW], I was the Second [Second Stage Manager]. Dean never did a pick up or a second take. Whatever happened happened. You know, it’s the truth he never got script. He never got a script. So I tested this. I’m a little gofer now, you know, I’d heard all that story, so I’m standing beside Janet Ty, who was Greg Garrison’s executive secretary, and I’ve got all the pink pages or blue pages, whatever I had for script changes that I had to get out to everybody, and so, I said, “Should I give one of these to Dean?” She turned on me and said, “No, absolutely not!” I said, “Okay, I was just checking, just checking.” I kinda wanted that real, no. You know, I didn’t know if maybe he got something off the sides, that was the brilliance of the man who didn’t get a script, so he could be in the sketch, the script, the whatever’s happening, with the cue cards, right off to the side. And he’s being the straight man to, you know, Bob Newhart or whatever, and he could be involved in the sketch, while he’s reading, and he’s enjoying the sketch as it’s happening. He was just brilliant when it came to that. Happy, enthusiastic, oh, it just, you couldn’t help just being in love with the man. He was just fantastic. [INT: I envy you, that’s a show I’d love to been around.] Oh, yeah. And then once the, you know, the roasts began, and then you know, all the stars and you know, me being the waiter and the bartender at that time, and… wonderful stories.

INT: LAUGH-IN [ROWAN & MARTIN’S LAUGH-IN] had already come and gone by then, or was… 

DQ: It was wrapping up, I think like three or four shows. MARTIN SHOW [THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW] had been running for years prior, I think LAUGH-IN ran for four, FLIP I think ran for four, and ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW I think, I don’t remember, three or four years. So those were all concluding, which is another reason I was let go. You know, there was, there’s automatically--from NBC staff, is what I’m referring to. You know, all those shows are going away, and you know, I don’t think at the time they knew what was gonna replace them by December, you know, for next season. [INT: And quite frankly, Greg Garrison’s words to you were probably good then too, because Greg really wasn’t doing too much after that time, or I might be wrong about that but.] Correct. Absolutely. Might’ve hung in there with a country music show for a little while, but that was the end of DEAN. GOLDDIGGERS [THE GOLDDIGGERS] and JONATHAN WINTERS [THE JONATHAN WINTERS SHOW], we ran our two syndicated seasons and that was it. So it was, yeah, it was the conclusion and a time for me to move on. No place to go. And then found a little SANFORD AND SON, filled on here and there, and then got over to, got over to CBS.

INT: Okay. So here we are now, this is 1975? [DQ: Right.] All right. So, how does CBS happen? 

DQ: So now in the meantime, prior to going to work, you know, these variety shows, to hold on to their audience, had summer replacement shows of a variety in nature. So there would be a summer show before THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW would come back. Back in the day before THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW, there might be a summer show, you know, that would carry through. And so a lot of these networks would have the summer shows, a new and different production with completely different, you know, stars, celebrities and so forth. So I’m out of work, really for the first time in my career now. What, I don’t know, five years of television experience with nothing else, and you know, I can’t find a job, I can’t… so I end up selling Electrolux vacuums door to door. You know how tough that is. Well that was a character-building situation for me. I had, you know, bills and all of that wonderful stuff, as we all do, to pay, and oh gosh it was tough. But within a month, I was the Assistant Manager. Okay, so, Stage Manager, Assistant Manager, natural to kind of take control and so forth, so I’d give our big pitches in the morning, and you know, I’d go through the big sales pitch, and the dumping of the dirt, and you know, the whole nine yards to get us all enthusiastically out there, and we’d go out. And it was difficult for me to sell, when…‘cause it’s cold, you’re walking door-to-door for a 300-dollar vacuum here, brand new. So you know, the wife’s at home, or the mother, and so forth, and there’s no decision that’s gonna be made. I mean you hope somebody’s home. I mean how many doors do you go down where nobody’s either answering, or, you couldn’t have this job today. It wouldn’t exist today. Door-to-door Avon, and Red Skelton and THE FULLER BRUSH MAN. Anyway, so when I became the Assistant Manager, I trained people. It was easy for me to--I sold them like hotcakes, because I wasn’t one on one with some person trying to talk them into it, I was selling because he’s doing the work, he’s demonstrating the equipment. So I could guide the whole process. Go, “It’s not your fault, where’s your vacuum?” You know, so we’d vacuum and vacuum and vacuum and vacuum and vacuum and go, with an Electrolux, and dump this pile of dirt. You know, I sold them like crazy. Within a couple of months, my boss and I, I’d assign, you know, the next guy that we though, you know, in charge and say, “Well we have to go to a corporate meeting.” We’re selling in the San Fernando Valley. And so, we’d get them going. We’d go to Burbank airport, hop on a plane and go gamble in Vegas all day, and come back for the, you know, the five o’ clock meeting to kinda, “How’d everybody do? We good? All right.”

DQ: So now there came a point when, oh my god, I’ve gotta get, you know, the season’s gonna be starting, here comes the summer. You know, you know, the fall season is gonna begin here. And I’m so sorry, I don’t remember the name, but he was the Assistant Art Director under Gene McAvoy [Eugene McAvoy], who was the Art Director for, we called them Art Directors in the day, Production Designer, for THE MARTIN SHOW [THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW]. And he was the Assistant, and he was really making a name for himself. Evidently, for Blye and Einstein, Allan Blye and Bob Einstein, who were doing the summer show, starring Joey Heatherton, who was a gorgeous talent at her time, and her dad [Ray Heatherton], it was called JOEY & DAD, a summer show replacement. And he was working the show, and he referred me. We hadn’t seen each other in months and months and months. You know, and so I got a call, “We’d like you to come down and meet you, and maybe be the Second [Second Stage Manager] on the show.” Harry Rogue I think was the First [First Stage Manager], who was a dancer and a hoofer out of New York, I think was the Stage Manager at CBS, as well, at the time. And so I get this referral--I hadn’t worked in months. This is my, thank you, another calling that brought me back in to television again, and so now, I’m running my little tush off. “What do you need,” bum, bum, bum, I am there. Thrilled to be working, just for the chance. Well Allan and Bob came up to me after the show and said, “You’re fantastic. You know, we wanna make sure we have your numbers, we wanna, we’ve got other shows coming up,” you know, ba ba ba, and all that sort of stuff. One of which was the Dick Van Dyke variety show [VAN DYKE AND COMPANY] coming up, little did I know that that was on the agenda. So, you know, it’s that hustle, the enthusiasm, the desire to work, and run, and be the best you can be at all times, is kind of a principle that’s been in my life, and character wise and so forth. So, got to experience that show, and do that show.

DQ: CBS now, in, you know, the stage operations department, sees that, hey who is this guy and so forth. So they start talking, “Hey, have you ever, you know, have you done game shows, and so forth?” Well, sure I’ve done game shows. I did HOLLYWOOD SQUARES once or twice. You know, and that, you know, “Sure I did HOLLYWOOD SQUARES, and so forth.” So, I just knew that I would learn whatever it might take, you know, to do that. So then I started, let’s see, yeah, I started with MATCH GAME, the original MATCH GAME. I did TATTLETALES about that time. And, toward the end of the run, also freelancing, I did THE DINAH SHORE SHOW, okay? DINAH SHORE SHOW was, Sid Grosfield was the First [First Stage Manager] on that, and, so I became the Second [Second Stage Manager] on that show. So that would be, you know, I could make my, not for the week, in three days. And now I pick up game shows, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Oh, I was workin’, I was a workin’ freelance Stage Manager. And finally for the first time, really making money. You know, when I started, so, on staff at NBC, it took a while to make it, and then there was no consistent work, and now I have consistent work. I’m a happy guy, you know, and love going to work every day. So, doing DINAH was lovely. Just, since I mentioned DINAH SHORE SHOW--a transgression over here--a few years later, while it’s finishing up, you know, Burt Reynolds was, they were dating for a little while. So they were going next door to us, and now I’m working PRICE IS RIGHT. So now, you know, like Greg [Greg Garrison] used to do to me, as a Second [Second Stage manager] on THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW, he’d say, “Go down to THE TONIGHT SHOW [THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JOHNNY CARSON] and let’s find out who’s on the show.” So if there was somebody on the show that he wanted, he’d grab them right after that show, say “I’m gonna pay you such and such, come on, do a walk on, we’ll do a bit, you know, we’ll do something with Dean.” And he’ll grab, spontaneously, stars. He’d send me down to THE TONIGHT SHOW. Well I’m out, you know, in the hall and whatever with the show, PRICE IS RIGHT, working, which was a big show… well all the prizes are in the hallway and so forth, so it’s open, there’s Burt and so forth, and he’s going, “Hey, what the heck’s going on in here?” I said, “Oh, it’s THE PRICE IS RIGHT.” “Yeah, I heard about that show.” I talked to him, I talked to the Producers, we get a hold of Barker [Bob Barker], we talked the whole thing. We gotta get him out here on the show. We’re rolling a car out called lucky seven; we put Burt on the hood. Those were the days when you could do that.

DQ: Another great moment is, I’m at CBS, and I’m walking down the nice big hallway, and there’s two studios to the left, stages to the left and to the right. And I look down the hall, and there’s two guys walking, and I look up, and I go, “Is that Redd? That’s Redd Foxx! That’s Redd.” So now they turn into the studio, they’re going into THE DINAH SHORE [THE DINAH SHORE SHOW]. Now I’m off, of course, doing other shows other than DINAH, I go, gotta get to the Stage Manager, gotta get Sid [Sid Grosfield], gotta find out what dressing room he’s in, so I can go say hi. And just as I’m about to clear the door, he had excused himself from the Producer, and came back out and gave me a hug. It was so special. Then he grabs a hold of me and he goes, “Doug listen, I’ve got a, I’ve got a variety show coming. You’ve gotta be with me on the variety show, it’s coming to CBS.” I’m going, “Fantastic, fantastic!” You know, well, I’m locked in, I was hired to do THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS at the time, so, you know, I never did get to do it, but he was there, and wanted me. It was just the... it was the warmest conclusion of all the years I’d worked prior to it, and me coming up with the big ‘Who do you want for president?’ and our bonding kind of thing over that. It was fantastic.

DQ: So, summer of ’75 [1975] I do that show. I start now filling in on TATTLETALES, MATCH GAME, which was huge at the time, with all the celebrities. TATTLETALES had it too. Filling in with DINAH [THE DINAH SHORE SHOW] at the time. And then, I get a, I’m doing PRICE IS RIGHT, finally, and there was a--[INT: Which by the way, and we’ll get to this later on, but it’s a good time to say, so what year is this you’re doing PRICE IS RIGHT?] ’75, probably. [INT: Okay. So it’s almost 40 years, and you’re still working PRICE IS RIGHT. That’s quite remarkable; we’ll talk about PRICE later on, so anyway, we’re back in this.] So, yeah, I was filling in on that show, and it was within that first big year of coming, working again. And I remember Andy Selig [Andrew J. Selig], you know, I do stage right on THE PRICE IS RIGHT; it’s three Stage Managers on the show. And I’m on the stage right at the turntable and all the fly cues. And so after the show, Marc Breslow and you know Andy Selig come over to me, and go, “You’re fantastic. You know, are you available to come back and work on the show?” I look up at Andy Selig, I’d been calling him for a year, ‘cause he knew me over at NBC and how I’d started with THE MARTIN SHOW [THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW], and HOLLYWOOD SQUARES and all that. Calling him for a year and not one acknowledgement, one callback, just to say, “Hey, how are you, I’m available,” nothing. I looked up at him and went, “Of course I’m available.” You know, so now I start doing THE PRICE IS RIGHT, and that’s where the Burt Reynolds story comes in and so forth.

DQ: And so now, as this lovely summer is progressing and I’m working a lot, and happy, we start to get into ’76 [1976]…wait a minute. '75 [1975], ’75, so now it’s coming into the fall. Now Barker, I’ve gotten to know Bob Barker. So Bob Barker is doing THE MISS USA, you know, big, big thing, in different countries, and all over. So I’m working the show, and I’m freelance, as Bob knows. The next thing you know, he says, “Hey, Barker wants to see you.” It’s like the principal again, what’ve I done? What am I doing? “Hey Doug, have you AD’d before?” “Yeah. Yeah, of course I have.” He said, “Listen, I want, I’m gonna be going to,” I think it was Hong Kong, “to do the Miss USA, you know, contest, and so forth. Are you available to go?” you know. I said, “Well, when is this?” “It’s gonna be in the fall.” I said, “Okay, absolutely. Let me check, see how the schedule is and so forth.” In the meantime, I get a call from Bob Einstein and Allan Blye, it's THE DICK VAN DYKE VARIETY SHOW [VAN DYKE AND COMPANY] going at NBC. So now I go get, I get to go back to NBC as a First [First Assistant Director], and one of the old stages where THE MARTIN SHOW [THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW] was done, and all that sort of stuff, and I’m working with Dick Van Dyke. John Moffitt of course is the Director. So I had to turn down Bob; I was a little nervous about it because I really hadn’t AD’d before. You know, I don’t know if he wants me on a stopwatch, and what he wants me, 30 sec, 20, you know, I don’t know. Didn’t get that far. But told him I had to take this because it’s a series, you know. Who knows how long it’s gonna run? Ran one year, one season. So this is a story I like to tell about this show, to apologize to John Moffitt. There was a--I made a mistake. And you know, you remember these mistakes. John may not have any recollection of this. You know, it wasn’t huge, but it was something that I’ve carried with me all these years. So there’s Dick Van--we love Dick, I mean who doesn’t love Dick? He’s, in rehearsal, he’s the same guy, stumbling over things, and he’s the same guy that you saw him on his show that you know, tumbling over the hassock and stuff. Well he’d be leaning over to try to reach something in the back, his stomach has hit the hot water nozzle on the hot water, and he’s standing there, and it’s pouring on his foot. And he pauses and goes, “What the heck?” It’s burning his foot. He can’t, he’s stuck--I can’t--“Why is that burning? I can’t…” I mean that kind of stuff is happening all the time. So just adds to his lovely persona, and you know, that stumbling bumbling, you know, accident waiting to happen. So I get the show, and I get to come back, and so there’s, it’s kind of early on, and we’re all sort of, you know, in awe of, you know, Dick Van Dyke, you know. And movie career, and MARY POPPINS, and all the, you know, big star back in the day. So, I’m, there’s a camera, and I’ve got a prop man over here who’s got a guitar. And there’s a nice lovely thing happening over here on stage, and then Dick is making a transition as he’s talking and talking and talking. Well, a prop man’s supposed to set that guitar before he gets there. We’re both so in awe, and watching Dick, and this performance, I forget to cue the guy to set the guitar. You know, and I’m in between cameras, and, the song was “Desperado”, I remember the song. So he crosses over and looks, and his guitar’s not there, and Dick looks at me, and then goes, “Desperado”. And he starts singing the song, and my heart just sank. This is gonna be, it’s so brilliant, this take. There’s not gonna be another take, this is it. No guitar, ‘cause we’d rehearsed, he’s got the chords down. I look over at the prop man and went “Ahh…” I knew we were dead in the water. So John comes down after the take. And he goes, “Doug, where’s the guitar?” you know. So my heart sank a second time when I did that. And so, “John, I apologize, I goofed that cue up, I’m so sorry. That’s why--I was just in awe of what was happening at the time, and my mistake, sorry buddy.”

DQ: So now, we’re involved in a lot of rehearsal with the show [VAN DYKE AND COMPANY], okay. So we spend two or three days in rehearsal before we come down to the stage, and rehearse maybe on a Thursday, shoot on a, you know, more dress rehearsal on a Friday. So the creative atmosphere with Allan Blye and Bob [Bob Einstein], and certainly with Dick [Dick Van Dyke], and he had his supporting cast around him and so forth, I contributed this to the show. Remember the old the joke when you have a, you know, it’s like you have the glass, you go, “You got the time?” “Yeah, I’ve got about 10:30,” okay? And his wife says, “Well, you know what, you know, my watch must be rolling slow,” and so they both dump their drinks on each other. I said, “May I? I’ve got an idea.” ‘Cause Dick is the star here. So I think he goes, “Wow, my watch seems to be running a little slow then.” And so then I said, “Hers should be on the inside, so when she goes, "Well I’m gonna have to check the time," pours it back into his cup, and goes, "Well I’m running late honey, I’ve gotta…" So he gets it twice on him. That was me, that was mine. You know, so, the opportunity, though, can only present itself if it’s a creative atmosphere, and you’re part of that creative atmosphere. Sometimes the Stage Managers, there’s, we don’t have a lot of that input and opportunity and so forth, especially today. But back in that day, when you spent time in a rehearsal hall, and you rehearsed for several days leading up to something, everybody gets to know each other so much better and more deeply than when you’re down at work on a stage, and then it’s a lot more business. So even though I came up with that while we were rehearsing on stage, it was, it has to have a creative atmosphere. You have to know when you can have an input. When it’s good, when it’s not so good, is it gonna take up the time, yeah okay, thanks a lot. You have to really sense that and know that as a Stage Manager. And sometimes that’s not our place at all, as a lot of us know. It’s, you know, “Whatever you need, I’ll cue this, or I’ll provide the props,” you know, blah blah blah, whatever I have to do, so. Those guys were fun, creative--Dick--the same, the same was a little bit with THE MARTIN SHOW [THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW] when we’d be in rehearsal and…you know, another one we’ll get to is ARCHIE BUNKER’S PLACE with Carroll O’Connor, a wonderful creative atmosphere.

INT: You’re still, you’re freelance at this point, at CBS. Did you eventually join staff at CBS? [DQ: Yes.] And when did that happen, and why? 

DQ: Well, remember the transition--so I’m going away to do the, couldn’t go with Barker [Bob Barker] to go to Hong Kong. Got the variety show [VAN DYKE AND COMPANY]. NBC is going through, I believe at the time, a change over in programming. So we’re putting Dick’s [Dick Van Dyke] show on at different days of the week, and not really a lot of promotion, and there was a lot of, you know. Allan [Allan Blye], Bob [Bob Einstein], and Dick were all upset about this with the network, and Dick was actually saying, you know, said, “I’m gonna cancel them. I’m gonna cancel them if we’re getting this kind of a runaround. They’re not promoting us, now it’s on eight o’ clock Thursday. You know, they’re not getting that, it’s a time change, and they’re…you’re not able to hold an audience as well.” So, at that time, I’d worked remember all through ’75 [1975] and into and now the fall of ’76 [1976], in fall of ’76, and now I’m starting to get phone calls from Harvey Holt at CBS, saying, “Doug, we’d really like to, you know, when are you available to come back to CBS, and blah blah blah, we wanna talk to you.” And I said, “I’m right in the middle of a dress rehearsal right now,” he called me at NBC. “I can’t, I’ll call you back, I’ll call you back as soon as I can.” Well he was pursuing getting a hold of me, to eventually see… Then after the third or fourth call, he goes, “Doug, we’re talking about wanting to put you on staff here at CBS.” I said, “Harvey that’s great. I’ve got to go, I’ve got a show to do.” So that also gave me the time to think, hmm, I’m having an awfully lovely wonderful time here freelancing, and making decent money, and working several different kinds of shows, let me think about this. Well, Dick Van Dyke’s show says, “That’s it, we’re not gonna continue,” whether it’s the network that did it, or production staff, or whoever did, I don’t recall. And so now the opportunity comes, so I come over to CBS and go, “Okay, what do you guys have?” Said, “We want you to take over THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS.” It’s a soap opera, and you know at that time it’s like number one. It’s a half hour show, shoot to the top. Well, you know, on my little, you know, resume, have you done soap operas? Well sure. I observed a little DAYS OF OUR LIVES--I still had no idea what was, you know, happening. But then I thought to myself, what’s the--it can’t be that much far removed from a sitcom. You’re still running a stage with cast, and props, and wardrobe changes, and lots of stuff. So I said, “Okay.” They said, “We want you, you know, YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS.” So I did a little bit of negotiating for vacation time and so forth, so that… And I said, excuse me, one of the things I wanted to do was, I wanted to do sports. Their eyes lit up, because all the guys that had been on staff didn’t wanna do live stuff anymore, the stress of sports. I’m single, I’ll travel. Their eyes sort of lit up and I did get that extra week of vacation, okay, to start with. And I said, “Look, it’s between you and me, I don’t need to brag about it to anybody else that’s on staff here.” And there were eight of us, total. At the heyday of television, it was still, you know, it was starting to kind of run its…the golden age of television I might say. Television was, you know, they grabbed up some of the best of us at the time that were willing to go on staff. Now there was a lot of guys that had great careers, you [Dency Nelson], being one of them, that the last thing you’d think about is, I don’t wanna be on staff. I wanna be able to do the shows I do.

DQ: So it came at a time for me when all was sort of ending out there [transition from freelance to staff position at CBS]. SANFORD AND SON had go, Redd [REDD FOXX] was, you know… And the Van Dyke [VAN DYKE AND COMPANY] and MARTIN [THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW], and all the shows they were canceled, I said, “Sure, I’ll make this transition.” So I did, I was like the last week of December of ’76 [1976] was when I went on staff at CBS. So now I’m taking over. They’re un, they’re un…happy for whatever reason, and so I had to delay it a week, I just remembered, said, “Doug, okay, you’re coming over to do the show, right?” I said, “I’ve already cashed my per diem check, I’m going to Vegas with Dinah, you know I’m doing the show.” So they had to keep whoever was there for another week with the promise of me coming, and so forth, I just remembered that, so… Getting to do THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, okay. It’s a half hour show, okay. You know, it’s an hour show now, and has been for many years, and most all soaps have been an hour show. But it was up and coming, THE PRICE IS RIGHT, you know, was on. That early ’72 [1972], ’73 [1973] time when a lot of shows were created and on the air had a great run, and many, many, many years. These are some of them, and a lot of soaps as well.

DQ: Now, if I may tell you a little bit about the wonderfulness of THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS at the time. Half hour show, and I think, in all the shows I’ve done, it’s the only one that was shot in order, in sequence. Nothing was out of order. Now shot out of order. So we’d start with a little rehearsal, or blocking, a walk through with the Actors. “And you cross over on this line, and you look back on that line,” and so on and so forth. Then we’d do a little camera blocking. And then we’ll do a serious, more serious camera blocking with props and everything to be exactly as it should be. And then we do a dress rehearsal. You know, full make up, and wardrobe, and everything’s up to… And then we’ll have notes for the cast after, and we’ll reset the stage, and get ready to tape. So it’d be like the fourth time we would go through the show. And the show was to start I think around 4:30, and we only had a 15-minute pad, otherwise we had to take an hour meal break. So if there’re gonna be any pick ups or anything…pretty tight. Everybody back in the day, were so, cast wise, camera wise, audio wise, set, everybody was so wonderfully experienced here, that we almost never went over that. So that cast was so prepared to come in, and if there was a bobble, we’d finish the scene, then we’d go back, because they laid down the music live, they had any sound effects live, there was everything live, in this, in these takes. So when we had to do a pick up, it’d be, “When did the music come in?” “It came on such and such a line, go back a page or two, gonna do a pick up, we’re gonna lead it in with such and such and so and so, and your line’s live, to lead in prior to the music coming in.” And that would be our pick up. Good moving. Now, during this half hour of a show, I would have, everybody would be so ready, and I don’t remember how we pulled this off, but I would go over, you know, we have a microphone that goes into each dressing room, and I’d say, “John and Laurie on stage, John and Laurie on stage”, like three pages before. And they’d be there, every time. So now we’d be finishing a scene here with three cameras and two booms, and we’d get to the point, all planned by the Director, “Okay, break three,” and a boom would break, and we would go over to another set where I’d have the other two Actors. They’re gonna have a page or two of a tag to set up the next scene. So it’d be “Hold ‘em, hold ‘em, hold ‘em, hold ‘em, hold ‘em and dissolve.” I’d give my cues; everybody started doing impressions of me. “Hahahaha and cue.” So we’d finish that scene, boom. Like in our commercial break sort of thing, those scenes done, all the cameras and booms would repo, and now we’re gonna do a scene and a half here, break a camera, go over to the next set, and dissolve. Tag a little scene, and everybody would come over. It was beautiful. It was--[INT: Actors must have loved it too, the continuity and just, the theater.] Oh, the flow! The creativity, the on point, on spot, just everybody had to be on top of their jobs, whatever it was. Even if it was the prop man, making sure that that water’s supposed to be here, and not over here. You know, you made every note, and every note.

DQ: And this, by the way, was done without the Director’s script. This was done without the shots. This was done without all of that. So now let’s add a scene with extras. You had to be so good, and so aware, because you had, as a Stage Manager, you’re directing the background, the atmosphere, you had to be on, you had to figure out exactly when that wide shot was coming. Always by a monitor, you’d find Doug Quick sitting in his Director’s chair, okay, watching that monitor. Listening and watching, making notes when an Actor is, you know, maybe shadowing another so that they’re down just a little bit more in a 50/50. Making those little marks on those lines, so that when you go in to give notes and so forth, you had it. You know, it was right there. So for me to watch, okay, you gotta cross somebody there, that’s when this is gonna say, that shot’s gonna hold up and so forth. But then you had to identify the person, had to cue ‘em exactly at the same time if you did a pick up without the continuity you’re dead in the water. They’re going to look at this in post and go, “That guy upstairs doesn’t know what he’s doing.” And I could never let that happen. I could never let that happen. So finally, it got to the point where there had some changes, and the script it would say, I saw the Director’s script with all the shots, and I said, “Hey, could you do me a favor, make me a copy of that, and bring it down as soon as you can.” So I started now having the Director’s script, now you see a lot of the shots. Now, you know, as long as those shots stay consistent, you can coordinate that background and atmosphere. So important today to have that, ‘cause you’re gonna get one take at it. Back then it was a good one take because of the format. But you didn’t have the time to, you know. And if you’re doing a pick up you have to know exactly where those extras were during that pick up. “Back it up, back up, up, back up, up,” look at your notes, your pages, you had, I had every detail was always to perfection. So, to complement my perfection after the very first day on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, and, and so now after the show, we break and there’s no pick ups, we all go up to a rehearsal hall. And if you were acting today, you changed your wardrobe, came up to rehearsal hall, if you weren’t you drove in. And we would all meet in a rehearsal hall, and we’d go through a reading of the script, we’d all sit around at a table, and read, and time it, and see if it was, you know, on time, and if there might be an edit or two. And if there was anything that needed to be put on its feet, I had the props, and the sofas, and the chairs, and the kitchen type of set, and put it all on its feet if the Director wanted that. So that was the very first end of the day was that thing, and then we’d start more on our feet the next morning. So, we’re sitting around the table and getting ready for the read, and Bill Glenn, god bless him, I think was directing and sat in on the last shoot. And he says, “I don’t know about everybody else, but you know, Doug Quick was the best thing, you know, since sliced bread.” They all applauded me, sitting at that table. And I, you know, ‘cause I kinda BS’d my way saying, “Soap operas, of course!” you know. So to be on spot, and you know, to be as perfect as I knew I had to be, having never done it before. You know, now I get all this applause, and so I remember it all dining down and I said, “Thanks a lot. From now on everything’s downhill. We’re never gonna top this.” So I did the show for several years after that.

INT: I know, there’s so much to talk about you right now, but since we talked about this, this is excellent stuff, tell me the difference now. How is Y & R [THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS] done now? Please. 

DQ: Wow. Right, well it transitioned several years later to become the hour show that it is now, and has been, and still the ratings are top notch. And now what’s happening is, instead of all those rehearsals we used to get, and even when it went to the hour show, you know, you would have rehearsal with your Actors and cameras and boom, you would have that rehearsal. And if it needed another one, you got another rehearsal out of it. “Okay, touch ‘em up, let’s get ready, set for a take.” Okay? So, and if we needed to do another pick up, we did another--another take at the scene, we did another take at the scene. A lot of that all was going on when we transitioned, so that we could still maintain this quality. Now, if you’re on the show, and two people are sitting, and nobody’s really walking back and forth, you roll on the first take. The first pass at it, you’re rolling. If it’s three quarters of what you think it should be, or seven eighths, or not a hundred percent, moving, next. So a lot of pressure, you know. I used to come in at five AM to prep, and had to be out by six, so back when I was transitioned to the hour show, it’d be like, you know, a five minute break, from four to five, you know, five minutes, from four o’ clock, and then five o’ clock. Said, “Doug, you working hard?” I said, “Nope, just between five and six.” ‘Cause you had to have everything ready, the cast ready, everything, because you didn’t wanna go to that second meal break. So there was a lot of pressure to prevent that. [INT: You were still shooting in continuity at this time?] No, no, now out of continuity when we went to the hour, okay. Sorry, I skipped around there a little bit. But we had time to do scenes over again, two times, maybe three. You know, we know we’re gonna have to tighten up later in the day, those Actors know that they’re coming in, then later afternoon, they have to be so prepared ‘cause they’re not gonna get that third take, second take, in some cases. So it put some of the better Actors toward the end of the day, okay, ‘cause they knew they were gonna nail it in the first take or two, still with the blocking and the moving. And then, the transition if you will today, the blocking is a little more at its minimum, okay? And they’re rolling on the very first take. You know, and they’re buying it, and moving on. And so for the Actors, and for even camera work--now, audio, boom, you know, you’ve got, you know, you don’t want a boom shadow, you’re trying not to, you’ve done the show a thousand times in this set, and you know, we have all the camera shots, but it’s not as perfect as it would be in take two. You know, ‘cause we get to see it. Or we’ll come out and go, you know, I used to walk it also for the camera, “Okay, and shot 242, this is when, Tommy, this is when he’s gonna walk down to here. Okay, then he’s gonna look back, and that’s where, you know, so and so’s coming in now, it’s not gonna be over here, we’re gonna bring him in right down from over here.” Just kind of walk that blocking, ‘cause I’ve got it with the Actors early in the morning, plus now I have it in my script, just to save time because, I know we’re rolling on this. [INT: No rehearsal hall at all anymore, right?] No, no, no. Yeah, that’s long gone. So, you know, you had to do what it took, and Joe Vicens, who, you know, was a terrific cameraman, he’s probably the best cameraman at CBS, and he’d be sure and tell you that, too. [INT: [LAUGH]] We would set up, we had a nice fourth wall set up situation where we would make nice little creative dollying sets and I’d help with all those props, just ‘cause I had the sense of framing and so forth that it would be da, da, da, and I’d watch those kind of things, as that camera’s ending, and then go for the cue. You know what I mean, just for the beauty of a shot that has nice symmetry and moving down.

DQ: One of the things, back in the day, all you Stage Managers, when you’re working alone, we have to be creative in our cues, so if I cue action downstage, okay, and now I have somebody that’s coming in the front door, no way I can make that in two or three seconds. Well this is where a lot of string would come in, and you would tie it to a bush, you know, and so all you do is you’d cue action down here, and run over to that, and go da, da, da, and pull the string on the bush, the bush would move, and they’d come in. Another time, I used to, early on in the, when the half hour, I’d have a nail, okay, a nice little 10 penny nail, and I’d see where I’d have to throw it through without hitting lights, and without hitting anything, and cue action down here, getting ready I know the cue’s coming. Dialogues, coming. And it’d go over the set, ting a ling a ling, in the door they’d come. Everybody’s, “How did you do that Doug? I was waiting all day, and I wondered how you were gonna cue them in.” I would find every fun way I could for me to make those cues happen when you’re working, you know, alone. [INT: That’s great.] Sometimes, you know, cameramen would help off to the side, and so forth when you just couldn’t make it, but good creative fun days.

INT: Tell me about your colleagues at CBS. I know there’s many, but let’s just stay with soap opera right now. With YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, any stories about your fellow Stage Managers? 

DQ: Well, eventually when I left to go on to do specials and a lot of other shows, I stayed with Y & R for, I’d say a year, a year or so, up until about ’78 [1978]. And when it had gone to an hour, then Don Jacob came in. He was there for a good strong 20 years. And so he was on staff, of course we had Willie Dahl, and Jimmy Rice [Jim Rice] who did ALL IN THE FAMILY for all those years, and Buddy Borgen who filled in, and Harry Rogue, all those. [INT: Yeah, everybody did everything. You’re on staff, you be prepared to do it all.] Yeah. I’d go from a special to network news, you know, pick up to sitcom, game show pilot, CBS Sports. [INT: Yeah, you talked about sports and how that was important. How did you possibly have time in your schedule, how much sports did you do?] Well I did a lot early on, and the reason it worked, remember I came on as a Y & R, YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, so that’s Monday through Friday. So I’m available on weekends. So, and I told them, I’d like to be able to do that because I know the soaps are, you know, that’s Monday through Friday. So, I’m available weekends, I wanna do sports. Well, you know, I transition and me being the ex-jock that I was, basketball, football, was at all the Lakers playoff games in the ‘90s [1990s]. I did football, and I was with Summerall [Pat Summerall], and Brookshier [Tom Brookshier], and several of the other commentators doing the LA Open at the Riviera [Riviera Country Club], and all those sorts of things for several days. So, you know, once I was the guy that was locked into sports, then my schedule could adjust a little more if I needed to be out of town Friday, let’s say, or if I’m doing a college football game, or you know, what am I, what am I doing. You know, I had a little bit more flexibility, ‘cause I was the guy who wanted to go do the sports and travel and so forth.

DQ: Let me jump--since we’re on sports, one of the most exciting times ever, I think we will all agree was, I was doing the LA Open, it might have been at that time called the Glen Campbell open, at the Riviera Country Club. And there was some rookie little team, that you know, were finding their way through life, and playing hockey in the Olympics in 1980. So we’d have a little bit of rehearsal, or not rehearsal, but we’d shoot some, you know, on Thursdays and Fridays back in the day, and have some of those highlights, you know, that were highlighted for sports and so forth, and then Saturday, Sunday, we would definitely be on, you know, for the entire tournament, you know, and so forth. So all we were doing, Summerall [Pat Summerall], as soon as we would break from this, we ran over to the very first set-up I ever saw. They had a nice big room with all these folding chairs and a big screen and the feed from the Olympics, the Winter Olympics. I think it was Lake Placid, you know, 1980. And it was like, oh my gosh. So you’re with an audience, you’re with the... we’re yelling, we’re screaming, and, you know, and here comes Eruzione [Mike Eruzione], and here comes a great hockey team, and they’re beating this team, and they’re beating Russia, and they’re going for the gold medal. I swear, it was so exciting, that there were times when…. Our sports commentators, the rest of us over there, ‘cause I’m, he goes, “Okay, we got five minutes we gotta get back,” you know, we’re absolutely almost sacrificing losing our jobs to watch this incredible miracle that was happening. Oh my gosh it was the most--I remember absolutely nothing about the golf that, but all about the Olympic hockey team. Just fantastic.

INT: Any other sport highlights in your mind from stage managing? 

DQ: Yeah, one of the first times Magic Johnson had come out of, I think, Michigan, signed to the Lakers; we went to San Diego to cover the very first game that he was playing in. So I went down to San Diego with a couple of other guys, and, to do the Laker games, and then as we had that, you know, it would come, you know, more into the playoffs, and more, and I got to do all of the local, you know, games that were played in LA, I didn’t get to travel to Boston or whoever they might be playing. But every home game I was there. And then, oh shoot…something popped into my--okay, so now, there’s a place in LA that I’m gonna do a boxing match. Okay, I did several in Vegas, by the way. Muhammad Ali, I was at a Muhammad Ali fight, when he fought the young kid, Spinks [Leon Spinks]. Okay I was there, ringside. And so now we’re going, we’ve got a CBS afternoon, it’s boxing at the Olympic stadium, okay, which is downtown LA at the time. So I said, all right, well this is kinda my first boxing match, you know, so I’m talking to the guys and the camera, said, “Well look, don’t wear any jewelry, okay, dress cas [casual], play it down, not a big deal.” Said, “Okay, that’s cool.” So now I’m at ringside, and for all of you that may not know, with IFBs [interruptible foldback] and ears now, and talent being cued by an Executive Producer, or Director, or AD who may be cuing ‘em, you know, if I would sit behind the two sportscasters, okay? So when we’re getting ready, a round is over and we’re getting ready to go to commercial, my hand’s going four, three, two, “The rapping will be right back after this.” Boom, we’re away. So now I count them back down, “Okay guys, 10 seconds,” coming back to live again, okay, and then, “Five, four, three,” right in between, so both of them knew, boom, “We’re back here with such and such a fight at Olympic stadium,” bell rings, boom out they come. Did that in basketball, I would be standing between the score keeper, right beside the score keeper, and stand up and hold the game up with the referee as we were in commercial break. Football games, I was on the field, as well as with whoever was calling the game in front of me. And it’d be like coming out of the special, and just like telling the Second [Second Stage Manager], “We’re holding them up an extra 10 seconds,” and I’d hand them the card, we’d, you know, “Three, two, one,” we’d come back out, and says, “And next Saturday on CBS Sports Spectacular is such and such and so forth,” they’d finish that, hand them back, we’d let the game go. So we had a lot of hands on as Stage Managers in early sports. We were, there wasn’t, you know, something coming across their ear. It was you speaking directly to them, right behind them. [INT: And actually, you coordinate with the referees, the umpires.] We had to have meetings with the refs prior to, even beginning that day’s sport event, whether it was football, basketball, so they knew who you’re looking for. Looking for me, to hold up the game, and hold us up into commercial, okay? It was the old, kinda the red hat sort of situation back in the day, so you’d stand out from, you know, all the guys on the sideline at a football game. But I could stand up to hold the game up with the official score keeper right beside me. You know, I’d be spotting, Magic’s coming back in, you know, Kareem’s coming back in. You know, I could call it to the booth well, ‘cause the next time out, boom, he’s coming back in.