INT: We did a good job of going in chronological order from your page days through the various freelance folks you worked with. We touched on a lot of CBS TV City, and talking about this, we decided that a great place to pick this up would be June, 1975, when you made the decision, were asked and made the decision to join CBS staff. 

DQ: So in June of ’75, I was... I had been unemployed for a while. My buddy who was the Assistant Art Director, I’m so sorry I don’t remember his name right now, great guy, knew his family, you know, we did THE MARTIN SHOW [THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW] and we’d all go out and have a couple drinks and pat each other on the back, you know what I mean, talk about how great we were, even though I was the Second [Second Stage Manager], and a nervous wreck. Doing THE MARTIN SHOW, I think I lost five pounds of nervous sweat every day ‘cause Dean never did a pick-up. We went straight through, everything was ISO’d, there was no pick-ups with Dean. It was a one take. So anybody you’re cuing in around that, better late than too early, and under all the pressure, I’m trying to learn the whole jargon and the lingo, and it’s like oh… Oh, it was very, very, very stressful. Everything else in life has been pretty much a piece of cake since that time. So--

INT: I gotta stop you there, ‘cause I wanna hear, was there any… You in that Second position [Second Stage Manager], did you ever step on any of Dean’s jokes, did you ever… [On THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW] 

DQ: Oh no, no, no, no. No. No. Made sure I didn’t, you know, it was waiting for that cue, never jumping the cue, waiting for it in my ear--excuse me. Because, you know, so first of all, I was quite the novice. You know, thrown into this, and Greg stood up for me. He, you know… [INT: Greg Garrison, the Producer.] Right, Greg Garrison, the Executive Producer-Director. I had already been the Second and training with Bob Chick, okay, on THE GOLDDIGGER [THE GOLDDIGGERS] show, THE JONATHAN WINTERS SHOW. Oh my gosh, I was Jonathan Winters in college, I was Jonathan for a week, whatever character he played, you know. We all loved Jonathan, oh my gosh! Back… It seems like everybody was funnier back then, ‘cause they were breaking in. Don Rickles, oh my gosh! How funny was Don back in the day? So at any rate, I didn’t make any of those mistakes. I had some, I had some nasty occurrences. One is which, you know, how do you cue somebody who is a big star, and you’re a brand new kid on the block? You know, it’s like you’re standing backstage holding your script, you know, following every little bit of dialogue, and you have somebody here. Do you say, “You’re on,” you know? Do you just stand by and just give them a quick little, you know, what do you do? Or if they’re not responding, you pat them on the back, you tap them on the shoulder, “Go, go, go.” There’s, you know, we have lots of different ways. I still didn’t know really how to do a lot of this. So inexperienced, and even though I’d been around the show for three years, I’m out front, I don’t see a lot what’s going on as a stage, Second Stage Manager behind the scenes.

DQ: So Buddy Hackett had this big guy traveling with him. Had this big bulge right here in his pocket. I don’t know why, but you know, oh that doesn’t look right, that’s a little too big. So, Buddy’s on the show [THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW] and you know, so I’m standing backstage, I’m getting ready for a cue, and getting ready and he’s right here, and we’re looking out into the set and the scene, and getting ready, getting ready to cue, and, “Cue him, cue him, cue him!” So I kinda, you know, “Go, go, go,” and he’s not going, I push him out. He takes about five steps out in to the set and turns around and goes, “I don’t need a cue. You don’t have to touch me, I know my cue. I’ve got a photogenic mind. I’ve known the script, I was you know, blah, blah, blah.” And now I think my career is over at this point. So I look over at Greg [Greg Garrison]. You know, I’m probably white as a sheet; I mean I’m starting to feel it again. You know, white as a sheet and I look over at Greg and he’s bent over laughing. Okay, so it still didn’t help me, you know, so he does all this nastiness, so now we gotta come back and, you know, before the scene and do another thing. Well, it was maybe a restart of a scene, but I wasn’t necessarily, you know, at fault. I’m trying to, you know, get in there. So after that, now what do I do? Okay, you SOB, you’re on your own? Go back a couple of lines, you’re gonna take your cue, or, you know, and now I still have to cover myself. So you know, it’s one of those nice little…better go now, sucker, you know. So, yeah, still adds a lot more stress down the road for the rest of the day ‘cause you know, you’re still, you know. And he was, he was, I think he was just in a bad place for quite a while. He was, he was--went through a nasty, nasty stage, you know. I remember we were, I was a page on THE TONIGHT SHOW [THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JOHNNY CARSON], just remembered, and you know, Ed McMahon used to go backstage and do live commercials, okay. I think they had a bag of Fritos all the time at takes. You know, to put those up, whether or not they stapled them, but there were all the bags in a beautiful display, you know. So we’re backstage, and Buddy looks over, and he goes, rips one off, opens it up and starts eating it. Well it was obviously lit, it’s backstage, it’s got a chair, it’s Ed, you know, whatever it had for Ed, standing or sitting, I don’t recall, but it’s like, “Hey Buddy,” not me, of course, somebody else is yelling, “Buddy, that’s one of our commercials, you know, what are you doing?” [MIMICS HACKETT] You know so, you know. Buddy had, Buddy had his, definitely his attitude, but could be a very, very, funny, funny, funny guy. Okay, sorry. But I digress. [INT: No, I took you there, I wanted to hear some of the--

INT: And I bet you there, if you’ve got any more from Dean Martin [THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW], because I mean, personally for me, I love that show, and just hearing you suggest the way Dean worked, no retakes, pretty much doing the-- 

DQ: You know, Greg Garrison had, Greg knew Dean so well, that when something would start going in a scene, or a dance production number, or that involved Dean, you know, he… By the way, Greg directed right beside the main camera. He was never in the booth. He was never in the booth. Jonathan Lucas, the Choreographer, was in the booth for the camera shots, and the rolling of the ISO. Clay Daniels I think was the AD at the time. Bob Chick, who came up the same way I did, page, gofer, PA, production, and then into stage managing, so I’m following his path. Jonathan was in the booth with all the shots and the script, helping to call what was gonna be online, and do the line cut, and Greg was always on stage. He was right there so he could see Dean. Right there so he had an eye with Dean. Right there so we could call things out. Like, you know, Dean was kind of down in the, didn’t quite have his energy going up and so forth, and he says to so and so, to go get two specific Golddiggers at the time. And said, “And bring them out in their robes, okay.” So, okay. So quickly go get them, “Come on, Greg wants you.” Put them on either side of the camera for Greg, back to the audience, and they could open up their, you know, and tease Dean, and he’s just going, “Oh, hey, yeah. But I wanna tell you.” He’s okay. It perked him up so to speak, you know. Went through all those sorts of things. So Greg knew what, you know, he had to help bring Dean to a point where he thought it was either A, gonna be funnier, it’s gonna be, you know, what’s going on. There was a production number when we’re standing out, and you know, they’re kinda all running around, they grab Dean’s arm, and then somebody will grab this arm, and Greg just would yell, “Swing him around,” to the dancer. And so they really started swinging Dean, and he’s acting it up, and you’ll see it in a lot of the, you know, DEAN MARTIN SHOW BEST OF [THE BEST OF THE DEAN MARTIN VARIETY SHOW]--[INT: I’m remembering it now that you’re telling me this.] Oh, it’s Greg, because he’s standing right there, he sees it coming. Give, “Swing him,” because you know it’s all, you know, pre-recorded music, you know, they’re dancing to. Greg was brilliant that way. [INT: I was just gonna use the word, that’s brilliant.] He was.

INT: I was gonna ask you the question, what advantage did Greg [Greg Garrison] have by being on the floor [on THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW and not cutting, and you’re telling me-- 

DQ: Right there with Dean. [Points eye-to-eye.] Right there. I was there the day, that, you know, Kenny Lane [Ken Lane] was his piano player. I was there the day, I was there for a few years, but this is one of the highlights of the time I was there. Could’ve happened when we had, that piano was all made of balsa wood, so nobody was allowed--Dean. So I mean everybody had eyes going now, anybody that you know, could come out on stage and stand around and watch this when he jumped up on that piano and it collapsed. Just, just hilarious. [INT: Dean had no idea?] No. No. The other thing, when Dean would go to the door, reminds me of the night Carson [Johnny Carson], you know, did the same thing [on THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JOHNNY CARSON] and the whole desk was balsa, and he’s playing Carnac, you know. And so he comes out to shake hands with Ed [Ed McMahon] and trips over that, and just smashed his desk. You know, Ed’s shocked, everybody’s in shock. Fantastic, right. So same thing had happened to Dean.

INT: So again, now you’re sitting with the Assistant Art Director, your friend from DEAN MARTIN SHOW [THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW]… 

DQ: Right. Right. And so then we kind of lost touch after THE MARTIN SHOW, you know. I didn’t, I was still, I was starting to do some SANFORD AND SONS, with Redd Foxx, which was down the hall in stage three I think at NBC. So I started doing some SANFORD AND SONS, because, when THE MARTIN SHOW was canceled, Norm Hopps [Norman C. Hopps], god bless his soul, was the Associate Producer over there as he was on THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW. He knew me, so when they needed a Second [Second Stage Manager], or I filled in eventually for Carl McCarthy, who was stage managing, you know, I started kind of working my way into that, a little familiarity, and eventually became the First [First Stage Manager], when Carl would go do a Bob Hope, you know, Golf Classic [BOB HOPE CLASSIC] or something like that. So I began to fill in in that, and then that kind of went away, and then there was, you know, a few months, went like, you know, oh goodness, what am I gonna do here. So that Art Director friend was doing a summer show, replacing--you know, we did a lot of summer shows that would replace the primetime shows to hold an audience for the summer. DEAN MARTIN would have it. Dinah Shore, even with her talk show that was on in the afternoon would have a summer replacement lighthearted sort of entertaining, singing, dancing, you know, a light little thing. She had one, even, you know, even though it was a daytime talk show [THE DINAH SHORE SHOW]. So now I get a call, excuse me, I get a call, and it’s you know, “We’d like to interview you,” this is Allan Blye, Bob Einstein, okay, “to do JOEY & DAD,” a summer show. Joey was Joey Heatherton. Who was she married to at the time? Lance Rentzel, Lance, something like that. [INT: Oh god, I think you’re right.] Football, wide receiver I think. [INT: Yes.] Well anyway, Joey, I’m not sure where she came from, absolutely beautiful, talented, singing. And her dad, the same way. Nice and relaxed, and oh dad, and they had this great relationship, and they had a show out called JOEY & DAD. June of ’75 [1975], my first introduction at CBS, ‘cause I’d been at NBC my whole upbringing, if you will, in television.

DQ: So now I get the call, I get the gig [on JOEY & DAD], I’m the Second [Second Stage Manager], I think Harry Rogue was the First [First Stage Manager]. So, I hadn’t worked in months. But also, I had also said, you know, “Oh, of course, I’m available,” you know, even though I hadn’t worked. I ran my tail off. I was…are you kidding? “What do you need?” I, you know, I’m working, I’m making sure people are getting ready, making sure they’re ready, making sure whatever sets gonna be. You know, what, musicians, what do I need, you know, done. Background, you know. So when it finished, short run, probably six weeks or something like that. You know, I’m like, I’m reenergized, I’m working again, I’m back in a creative, lovely, you know, environment that we all thrive to, you know, be in, and, both Allan [Allan Blye] and Bob [Bob Einstein] came to me and said, “We wanna make sure we have your number and your contact, you were fantastic, thank you so much for being with us, and you were great,” and all these great compliments. So I’m going okay, wonderful. Well, so now CBS has now seen, you know, I’d gotten some accolades here, and you know I was obviously pretty good. Well coming from NBC, I could BS a little bit, and say, “Well I’ve done this, and I’ve done that. Of course I’ve done all this, and well, absolutely.” So having, I think I did a little HOLLYWOOD SQUARES, but I wasn’t, I think I was like the First once or twice on the shoot. I was never, you know, I was a people wrangler, I’m a Second, you know. Getting all those stars back in after every show was, you know, the toughie. And so, but you know, “Doug, what have you done?” “Oh I’ve done game shows, soap operas, mostly variety, though as you know,” and so forth. And they said, “Oh great.” So I start filling in at all those other shows at CBS. I start doing MATCH GAME, the original MATCH GAME. I start doing a little TATTLETALES, you know. And then I start doing a little talk show with DINAH SHORE [THE DINAH SHORE SHOW], Sid Grosfield’s Second. So you know, then I start to work my way up. Then I’m the First on MATCH GAME, but there’s so many other shows going at CBS. I mean here comes--ALL IN THE FAMILY’s still going, THE JEFFERSONS is going. Tony Orlando has started his variety show, TONY ORLANDO AND DAWN, at the time. So the place is a--SONNY AND CHER going, SONNY & CHER COMEDY HOUR. There’s such a buzz going around, that it was like oh… "Can I, can I do one of those shows, and not do MATCH GAME? Can I get off of some of these game shows?” So anyway I’m sort of filling in for that gap, so that the senior Stage Managers, who had been there for years, of course they’re doin--Jimmy Rice [Jim Rice], he’s got ALL IN THE FAMILY, that ties him up, and blah blah blah. Buddy Borgen, Willie Dahl, CAROL BURNETT SHOW is going. So see I needed to fill those gaps where it was getting so busy that they didn’t. So--but I’m doing it as freelance. It’s fantastic. You know, I’m making a couple of bucks; I’m working at least four days a week, freelancing, which is wonderful stuff. Okay, and I’m getting more and more and more and more experience.

DQ: Also going at the time, as I’m beginning on staff [at CBS], TONY ORLANDO’S [TONY ORLANDO AND DAWN] still going, there’s the FLIP WILSON SPECIAL that came, THE JEFFERSONS are going with DINAH [THE DINAH SHORE SHOW]--[INT: They were all in TV City?] All in TV City. [INT: Wow. I mean you talked about NBC before, running down the guests from THE TONIGHT SHOW [THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JOHNNY CARSON], and it made me think about, that’s what’s missing today, those exciting days when every studio was buzzing with stars all over the place. And then I knew you were gonna come to TV City, because my recollection is, this is what’s going on at CBS, what an exciting place to be.] I couldn’t wait to get to work. ‘Cause just walking down the hall, you didn’t know who you were gonna see, and kind of exciting for me, you know, even though those guys knew a lot of the time, a lot of these folks I’d worked with, the biggest stars, for years on the MARTIN ROASTS [THE DEAN MARTIN CELEBRITY ROAST], or THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW, or as a page on LAUGH-IN [ROWAN & MARTIN’S LAUGH-IN], FLIP, and all that, Flip Wilson. So yeah it was great, I couldn’t wait to get up and get to work and, you know, even though I was doing a soap and I’m tucked in there, you still have your little breaks in the hallway, where you could run over and see what’s happening on CAROL BURNETT [THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW] on a five, you know, we’d wear our headsets, and say hi to Willie Dahl, and watch a little rehearsal, and oh, I gotta get back, you know. TONY ORLANDO AND DAWN, well… So Tony Orlando, I mean the place is big. There were so many Actors and stars coming to these shows, that that hallway at CBS, that I know you’ve been to, had lined up little tiny dressing rooms, which were like pre-fab kind of bungalow kind of things, lining that whole hallway. There would be three or four here, and another one. I think Tony had his built up on the roof, so he could completely get away from everything, ‘cause it was so, it was quite crowded, and not a lot of sets at the time were rolling down the hallway, which would be obvious, you know, so you didn’t wanna block any of that sort of stuff. I think at the time, I don’t recall when Y & R, YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS went to an hour, it was only half, and I think when PRICE IS RIGHT started, it was a half an hour as well. So there wasn’t quite as much activity, you know, once the big variety shows got set. [CLEARS THROAT] Pardon me. So PRICE is only working two days a week back then. They’re doing at least three shows a day. And eventually when we went to an hour, still two--excuse me, two days a week, three hour shows a day. It was a 15, 16-hour day. Okay, there was always an hour break in between, and a reset, and it was pretty tough long day.

DQ: Anyway, Tony Orlando, who I had met on THE JONATHAN WINTERS SHOW. Jonathan Winters had that half hour syndicated show, early ‘70s [1970s], that Greg Garrison was, you know, producing and so forth, and I was coming up. So, there’s a young guy named Tony. I’m like, Tony, Tony Orlando, okay so what? You know, who is this guy? So the show was set, and I’m Second [Second Stage Manager] under Bob Chick, and so we’re sitting in these two small Director’s chairs that are pre-set on stage for the opening, for Jonathan, who’s gonna interview whatever celebrity’s gonna be on the show. It wasn’t this Tony guy. So we look up, and they’re starting to let the audience in, I go, “Oh, we better get out of here, come on, come on, let’s…” and he goes, “Oh no, no, no, that’s okay.” “You sure?” He goes, “Yeah.” So we sit there, all the audience is coming in. You know, we’re chatting, “Blah, blah, blah,” talking, talking, talking. Getting pretty close, I know I’ve got some business to do, I said, “All right, listen, I’ve gotta go check on everybody and make sure we’re ready to do the show,” blah, blah, blah, so we get up to leave. So now later in the show, this guy Tony comes back, and the music, and now he’s gonna sing, “Tie a little, tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree,” and everybody goes, “Oh, that was that guy!” ‘Cause nobody had seen him yet, and been able to associate the song, which is a hit on the radio. Yeah, that was Tony Orlando. So now Tony, became obviously a big star from that point on, and all the rest of his little stuff, he’s got his own variety show on CBS. I think it ran three or four years. So now, it’s like hey, “Hey Tony, you got a sec I wanna talk to yous over here, you know what I’m sayin’?” So I reacquainted, I said, “I remember when nobody knew who you were, knew your face, and we sat in those chairs on the JONATHAN…” “Oh my god that’s right!” you know, big hug. And I said, “Yeah, I’m stage managing here now,” and you know, we get reacquainted. So, from that point on, waving and talking and all that stuff, it was great.

DQ: So before I came on staff [at CBS], which was the end of December of ’76 [1976], in the fall of ’76, okay, you know, there’s lots of shows going on, I get to know Willie Dahl, who had been working RED SKELTON [THE RED SKELTON SHOW] for years, and now he’s stage managing THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW, and Willie’s just so giving and helpful, and wonderful, you know. The other guys were too, but I was a little closer to Willie. So now he worked on a show called I BELIEVE IN MIRACLES, which was a Kathryn Kuhlman show, who was an evangelist. And she would book the time at CBS and shoot at CBS. I, you know, before my time, but it was going on, and Willie had these stories. So there was a staff Stage Manager named Bob Savory. Probably won’t ring a bell, he left early on. So Willie’s going on vacation, so he tells Bob, this is how you work, and handle, you know, the stage with Kathryn and so forth. So he said, “We’ll finish, they’ll finish that early morning sort of rehearsal, it gets close right to 12 o’ clock, and just as she gets to that point at the end of the show, then she’ll just go into some meditation, and just get real quiet, and pray and meditate, and it’s a real quiet time. So everybody just said, ‘Okay everybody, that’s lunch, one hour.’ You know, we kind of spread the word, and everybody respectfully, just quietly walks out.” Charles Cappleman was the head of facilities at the time, was a sweetheart. And so Bob Savory’s taken over for Willie, and everybody’s saying, “Okay everybody, lunch,” quietly they start leaving. Bob goes, “Lunch, one hour everybody.” She came up out of that chair. You know, and he doesn’t know, he’s forgotten what Willie’s told him, so she goes to the phone and says, “Oh Cappy,” he says, “Oh hi Kathryn.” Said, “Well, we need to talk, when is Willie coming back?” Okay. So you know, always she called Cappy. Now, Willie’s got the show, and so he goes over and gets, you know, an empty bottle of vodka, okay, and it’s filled with water. So off to the side, just where she can see, he will kinda take this around, and just take big ol’ swigs straight out of the bottle and put it down and act like he’s hiding and so forth. Kathryn would say, “Cappy,” said, “we really need to talk about Willie.” And he goes, “Oh my gosh, what’s going on?” She said, “Well I think we have a problem here.” And they’d come down, and he would put her on like this all the time. Bob Savory, I have no idea how, Bob Savory, as a Stage Manager, and a lot of these guys came out of World War II, as you know, became Marlon Brando’s, I think a short wave radio operator on Marlon’s island in the South Pacific. So four hours a day, that was the communication, because there were no real phones. We didn’t have satellites and cell phones and communication like we did. That’s how the managers and the Agents, and everybody would communicate. Bob somehow gets this job, leaves, and he can go to an island to live, we never heard from him again, right, but back in the day, as were many of the old timers, big drinkers. So the word came back, you know, and he, you know, Bob came back and visited Willie and the rest of the guys. He goes, “Yeah, four hours a day I’m this, and then I can head right back to the bar.” You know, and spend his day, you know, on an island, and he said, “What a great life.” That was a great life to him. So Kathryn…Kathryn used to wrap the show--a story I heard, Kathryn would wrap the show and so forth, and everybody’d start striking and so forth, and Cappy, of course, would know about what time the show was over. Watch it on a monitor, come down, knock on her door. “Come in, Cappy.” And they’d sit and talk, and say what a wonderful show they thought it was, and so forth. And she’d say, “So how much do I owe you?” And he’d look at, you know, his little up to date, up to the last second list and say, “Well,” just making this figure up, “that’ll be $236,” and so forth. She would open up her briefcase, and count out cash, $236,000, you know. And that’s how she was, how she paid for that show. All those donations came in, but she evidently had a very, very serious heart, you know, was a really, really, really wonderful person from every story I’ve heard. But always quite calm, “Cappy, I think we, we have to talk about Willie, I think we have a problem here.” So Kathryn Kuhlman’s show was going on, you know, at times. And I, you know, whether it was a Sunday or Saturday, I don’t, I never saw it. I was never, I was never around it. [INT: Was it a network show, or syndicated, did she sell it herself?] I’m sure it was syndicated.

DQ: So now, by November, see that fall I’m talking about, that I’m over doing, I come back to the, there’s a show called THE JACKSONS, CAPTAIN AND TENNILLE [THE CAPTAIN AND TENNILLE], Shirley MacLaine is doing a special. CAROL BURNETT’S [THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW] still going, THE PRICE IS RIGHT’S still going, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS has begun, George Burns is doing specials. Okay, all of that’s going on at the same time. So, I come back, and now I get, you know, I start with THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS. And I just remembered a story, so now, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS being a half hour show, and this is the change of how they shoot a soap today. Back in the day, believe it or not, that half hour show was shot in sequence. Okay, shot in sequence, okay--[INT: Did you ever do it live? I mean back in…] No. [INT: No? You could have though.] You’re right, yeah. We were that good. Okay, and the cast was that disciplined, the cameras were there, and then the audio, and the sound effects, and the music, and everything that has to be put into this show was put into the show as we did it live. [INT: Live to tape.] Live to tape, you know. Live to tape, so, there was a certain, you know--I really didn’t get trained on the show, it was kind of me, like, talking to people to find out what we did in this, oh my gosh, this day.

DQ: So, you know, the cast [of THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS] would get their blocking in the morning, and then we’d do a camera blocking. Okay. Then we’d take a little break, and then we’d do a rehearsal, okay, a little bit more up to speed, and they could still carry their scripts around if they wanted. Cue cards were alive and well, and so forth, on the show, and then we’d do that rehearsal. Then we start leading up to a dress rehearsal, which was, you know, “I want scripts down here, everybody’s gonna, you know, here we go.” Then cast notes, okay, and then we’d shoot it. Okay. We had a 15-minute pad. I think we started at 4:30 to 5, we had to be out by 5:15 or it’s an hour meal break. Plus you came back in those days, and you had to register cameras, make sure they were all the same, and that was a 15-minute process. So it’d be an hour and 15, well, we didn’t want this to occur, of course. So I start to get into this rhythm, and I start to see how it’s going. Now, you have your cast waiting in the next set, okay, waiting for it because during this scene, and this set, we would break a camera, and then we’d break a boom, and we’d come down. And I’d have the cast waiting, okay, here we come, here we come, come, and then it would be a dissolve from that scene to this scene. We’d tag it, and then we’d come back and do a whole other scene, okay. And then at the end of that scene, a camera would break, and a boom would break, and go to the next set, and we’d do a little tag and a tease, and maybe that’s it, setting up tomorrow’s show. It was beautiful. If we had to do a pick up, which we did from time to time, we’d go back in that scene, and just say where did the music come in? And we’d go back a line or two before the music, okay, lead into it, music would hit again, everything would be smooth, and we almost, I don’t recall, one or two times, ever going past that 5:15 mark with that 15 minute pad. Everybody was so prepared, so disciplined, so, you know, everybody. Cast and crew. [INT: Even, you know, as you say, you talked about having had your sitcom experience, so it was a scripted, but that’s one a week, you’re doing this every day. A new story every day, that’s what people…] Right. And with different cast coming in. Some you’ve worked with, some you haven’t now, for a couple of days. So put a little feather, I, we’d go… Now at the end of every day, that’s a wrap. Within 15 minutes, I’m in a rehearsal hall with the Producers and the Director. If the Director’s directing tomorrow, he’s up there. And the cast that is working on tomorrow’s show comes up to that rehearsal hall. If you were a cast member of the shot today and you’re in tomorrow, you’re changing, boom you’re back up. If you didn’t shoot today, you’re driving in, ‘cause we have a table reading here. We’re gonna time the script, if the Director has any notes ahead of time, he can pass it on. Most the time, we just read the script and you know, chatted and socialized and so forth afterwards, there was coffee and juice, and blah blah blah. And we’ll see you in the morning. If there was something the Director wanted to put on its feet, I’m there to provide that, with a sofa over here and a chair there, and this is where the doorway is, and so forth.

DQ: Getting up to the, to that rehearsal [on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS] now, for the first time, because it’s my first experience, I started in the morning. You know, “Oh we go to a rehearsal hall, okay, okay. So where is that again?” I didn’t even know where the rehearsal halls were yet. So went up and so forth, and I think it was Bill Glenn, or John Conboy, one of the two, said, “I know for everybody that worked today, okay, and for those of you who don’t know, Doug is the new Stage Manager on the show,” was fant--they all gave me this round of applause, which you know I just, I am so focused, you know, I mean it’s my new gig, so I’m so focused, and I went, “Oh, no!” And they all kinda looked at me, and I said, “The rest of this career’s downhill from here. How am I gonna top that, I’m not gonna top that.” So then I proceeded to work on the show for a good solid year or two. We’ve got all these big shows coming, I slip away and do wonderful sporting events, and you know, I can do all these types of things, but the buzz around CBS was just so fantastic.

INT: I have two thoughts right now, if you wanna mention some of the sporting events, and I know eventually we're gonna get to PRICE IS RIGHT, but we’ll save that for the end, your days at PRICE IS RIGHT, but do you wanna talk about, since we talked about the half hour version of Y & R [THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS] was done, continuity straight through, do you wanna talk about how it’s done now? I think it’d be instructional for folks. 

DQ: Right, exactly. Right, and that’s kind of where I wanted to go, too. Is that, once the show, now the show just rises to number one. I mean it’s just, CBS daytime is really beginning to have a huge impact. Not only is THE PRICE IS RIGHT, you know, getting attention, this show is getting attention, and now it’s two or three years down the line, and now they want to expand THE PRICE IS RIGHT to an hour, as well as THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS to an hour. How do you do the hour show, and now, it was easy to do a half hour show on a stage. Okay. Now, you get a show that’s an hour show, now you need two stages. So now, as--and here’s, sort of the timing was perfect, because there began a time when variety shows at this time started to fade out. Once CAROL BURNETT SHOW was canceled, you know, they only did like specials. You lost all those variety shows, sad but true. Then all of those great guest stars, the Gene Kellys the Lucille Balls, that we were talking about, they had kind of a place to go and be seen and keep a little bit busy. You know, a show like HOLLYWOOD SQUARES could bring on, it was a celebrity, you know. The only thing left, see, is up here, is THE TONIGHT SHOW [THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JOHNNY CARSON], and you know, MERV [THE MERV GRIFFIN SHOW], and you know, all the guys that were, you know, the kings of those talk shows. Prior to MIKE DOUGLAS [THE MIKE DOUGLAS SHOW] by the way, which came to CBS from Philadelphia, that I worked on for three and a half years. So, you know, those Actors and those stars, song and dance, serious Actors, had no place to go guest star anymore. And so as variety shows faded, they faded as well. But they were still dynamic and, you know, still had something to say, but now really no place to go, they’re not being cast in features anymore, their basic hay day is over and now, it was pretty much, their day was over as well, as far as even guesting in television. You know, there’s a time later when everybody started guesting on episodics, and prime time and so forth, ‘cause, what the heck, it’s the only place to work. So, it was a sad part of that time, because we lost all of that.

DQ: And certainly, then you begin to lose the buzz that was, we were talking about [losing variety and talk shows at CBS], was, this great sitcom going, this variety show, this is happening, specials are going on. People in the hallways. Don’t forget, to be able to do this, we only had four stages then. [INT: Yeah, I was gonna bring that up earlier, it was way before those big stages were built across where the trees used to be--] Right, that was like ’94 [1994]. So we turned, those stages turned around 24 hours a day. By the time we would rest, why we could only do two days of PRICE [THE PRICE IS RIGHT] back in the day, because CAROL [THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW] had to be set up on Wednesday, Thursday rehearsal, Friday shoot. Then that would be out, and whatever other game shows--MATCH GAME’S coming in on the weekend, that had to be set up, and then that would be struck Sunday night. And then a crew would come in at midnight to set up THE PRICE IS RIGHT. And then, and it would begin. That stage was 24 hours a day. Now, many--it had the permanent seating, as you know, which is, I think the way that CBS stole Jack Benny away from NBC, helped him decide, you know, how he wanted that stage set up with the audience. [INT: That’s the way Carol felt, I know, when she had her revised series [CAROL & COMPANY] in ’91 [1991], there were only two places she considered. The Aquarius, which was then called The Aquarius, and her stage there, because, it sounds like now from what you’re telling me about Jack, she felt comedy played better down to an orchestra seated audience, rather than up to bleachers. It took her until the mid ‘90s before she was willing to do a show playing up to bleachers, so, you’re right, that stage.] And, a lot of our audiences too by the way, we had bleachers. So you could roll them into 31 and 41 and 43. You know, we had bleachers stored on those balconies. So you know, and they would strike YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS on a weekend, get that out, bring in another show, and change it overnight, and we’d do, you know, shows on the weekends. At midnight, or whenever, the next crew would come in, come in and bam, just start to set up and re-light, and you know, bring in all the sets and the props and the gigs and everything to do Y AND R then. I mean, every stage was moving; it was so dynamic. There was--and so well planned, this is Cappleman [Charles Cappleman], you know, and everybody you know, everybody knew what was gonna happen ahead of time, and had the change, and made the plans, and there was a great deal of pride at CBS, from every aspect. I believe in the reputation that you alluded to, we were the best production house in Hollywood, for television. Okay. The quality of work, the standard, was bar none, the highest and the best, and I didn’t really know that for a few years when I first started, but you know, you felt your pride, you knew you were hitting it out of the park, every day, every other day. You know, you could feel that, you know, you were in a dynamic place. Things were wonderful and happening, enthusiastic, and hard working, and I was young, and everybody was, you know, pretty much a lot older than I was. Some, a lot of them, of course, as, you know, when we start, were like our father’s age, and that era of coming out of, you know, and finally getting that confidence to say, “No, I need this now. No I need that blah, blah, blah, so that,” you know, you could tell them instead of asking like I did on THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW. “When is that set gonna be ready again?” “It’ll be ready when it’s done.” “I really kinda need to know a time. Could you help me with that?” It was tough. So yeah, a wonderful heyday, CBS.

DQ: So then as we, as I go through, starting to go through about year ’77 [1977] into ’78 [1978], I leave THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, even though I still work it for the next you know, 16, 17 years, whatever it was, I still, you know, Thursday or Friday, or if my show that I’m working on is on a little bit of a hiatus, by because you’re on staff, you’re, “Okay, you’re filling in Y & R this week,” or you’re going over to MATCH GAME, or TATTLETALES, or those shows become your show, so whenever they’re in, you know, I’m the First [First Assistant Director] on that show, and educate another Second [Second Assistant Director] to fill in. TATTLETALES I did the same way, MATCH GAME. And almost always, you know, before our comfortable shoes came in, you know, I wore slacks and a shirt to work. It was, you know, and I wore leather shoes. And I if I had to tip toe so my heels didn’t click click on a soap or wherever I had to be quiet, I did it. I remember the first time I put on a pair of, we call them tennis shoes, or running shoes, or something, and went oh my god. What have I been missing? You know, well I was in--this is the way I dressed for years, even if I was on the soap, and not in front of an audience. [INT: Well everybody did. You go down the halls, you see, everybody had jackets and ties, leather shoes.] Yeah. Yep, right. I wore, I’d wear a sport coat, but I would not a tie, I’m not a tie guy. You know, but we always dressed. Okay, especially if I’m out in front with a Bert Convy, or…oh shoot, what’s his name on MATCH GAME? [INT: Gene Rayburn.] Gene Ray--if I’m with the audience with Gene Rayburn, you dressed. I mean, I’m the… [INT: Representing the show.] Absolutely. So, and that was done a lot. Now, you do that on variety shows, you know, you can relax during the week when you’re in a rehearsal and so forth, and blah, blah, blah, you know, you get that… [INT: Show day, though.] Yep, show day was, you always dressed.