John McCook began his soap career as the wildly popular Lance Prentiss on The Young and the Restless in 1976. After a four-year stint on that show, he left soaps to test the prime-time waters. He found steady gigs guest-starring on series like L.A. Law, Alice, and Family Ties, and in 1985 appeared as a regular on the short-lived night time series Code Name: Foxfire. Wed to actress Laurette Spang (Battlestar Galactica) since 1980, McCook was wooed back to daytime in '87 by Y&R head honcho William Bell to play Eric Forrester, B&B's patriarch. Possessing a dry wit that keeps his castmates grinning on a daily basis, McCook's also known for his welcoming nature: He is the first to greet new actors when they're added to the show's roster. The father of four is equally gracious to members of the press, and recently invited us into his dressing room to discuss what's new at B&B, Eric and Stephanie's recent remarriage, and his thoughts on the show expanding to an hour. — Michael J. Maloney The cast recently assembled for a new photo. How is it when everyone gets together? It's fun. The other day, Justin Torkildsen, our new Rick, was surprised that he was in a scene with a lot of other people. He really had a good time because he got to speak to people at length [for the first time]. What advice did you have for Justin when he joined the show? I met Justin soon after he was cast. I introduced myself to him as his TV dad. I wanted him to know that we've got a friendly environment here; it's not a scary place where you have to blow everyone away with your acting after you've been here for 10 minutes. My advice to Justin was don't worry about things. Everybody on our show wants a new actor to do well. I also met Justin's dad. I assured him that his son would be in a good place. I know if I were the dad of a teenager from someplace else and my son was going to join a show in another state, I'd be concerned. People have misconceptions about what Hollywood's about. I wanted to assure [Justin's dad] that I'm a family man and I have kids his son's age. It's more than just a bunch of blank-faced, strange, weird actors that Justin's working with here. He's working with family people. Speaking of family, Eric and Stephanie's hospital re-marriage came as a surprise. It did, but the writing was sweet and rich and it came from history. This time their [remarriage] was more organic. It wasn't a plot like their last attempt at remarriage [when the photo of Eric and Lauren in bed was revealed]. It was more about character, and that's always the best way to go. The plot that's going on now is about keeping Stephanie from finding out about Thorne and Brooke. They say marriage is the kiss of death for a couple on soaps, but I don't think that will be the case with Eric and Stephanie. No. Having Eric and Stephanie together again solidifies the Forrester family. The viewers like to see the affection that the characters have for each other. These are two people who share a lot. They're intellectually equal and they've been together forever. I don't know what troubles I can see down the road for Eric and Stephanie. I'd like to see the avenue explored where Eric finds it hard to take care of Stephanie [because of her stroke]. The pairing of Brooke and Thorne has been a surprise hit. I agree. It wasn't just putting two people together to see what happens. This story has rich organic roots. Katherine (Kelly Lang, Brooke) is playing this story with absolute conviction in terms of being in love with this guy. And Thorne is as surprised and thrilled as he could be over it. It's affected Macy, Stephanie, Ridge and Eric. It's all incredibly compelling. I've read in some of the magazines where people have written in and said, "Oh, Brooke's at it again with another Forrester man." If you break it down in story facts, sure it looks that way. But it's a soap opera. We're taking rich, organic relationships and convoluting them once again. We don't need 35 characters to tell a story. Exactly. And it's playing well on-air. And that's all that matters. That relationship has fired people up and it has an effect on the viewers. It's brought up strong emotional reactions from fans, which is great. Speaking of the viewers, B&B's fan event is now a biannual affair. As the event's master of ceremonies, how do you feel about that? I don't think it should be held any less-frequently than that if we're going to have an ongoing relationship with the fans. Having it every other year will make it more special. We have new characters and actors here and by the time we have the event [next summer], the audience will have gotten to know them pretty well. Laurette's series, Battlestar Galactica, celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1998. Were there any special events to honor that? Not specifically that I recall. There are science-fiction events all the time and she's seen at different things. She keeps in touch with certain cast members like Dirk Benedict, Anne Lockhart and Richard Hatch (Starbuck, Sheba and Apollo). Laurette looks terrific. Does she ever think about a return to acting? Every once in a while. She'd really rather be home with our [youngest] daughter Molly. Laurette knows that if she went to work at 6:30 in the morning, by 8:30 she'd be wondering, "What's going on with Molly? Will she be picked up from school? Will I be home by dinner?" She went back to work after our [oldest] son Jake was born and it drove her nuts. Is it rejuvenating for you to do theater projects outside of B&B, like Putting It Together with Carol Burnett? Yes. I look forward to doing something next summer. I skipped last summer because I was so busy here [at B&B]. Come March or April, I'll start sounding around to see what's out there. Brad Bell [B&B's head writer and executive producer] recently intimated in an interview that he's ready for the show to go an hour. I read that. It's quite a change because people have been asking that for 13 years and the answer has usually been "No." But now I think he feels ready. He has the production and cast to be able to deal with it. It would be a tumultuous time here if that were to happen. We have the half-hour thing down pretty well. Expanding to an hour doesn't mean we'd necessarily need 20 more actors right away. It'd mean we'd be able to luxuriate some of our stories a lot more. I'm not sure we'd maintain what's engaging about our show for an hour a day, five days a week. I don't necessarily want to do it. But I certainly don't think it's a bad idea either. You have a dry wit that can defuse potentially stressful situations. At a press conference last February, one international reporter would not stop inquiring about rumors of strife on the set. She made some reference to how her question was intrusive and you said to her, deadpan, "Well, then maybe you should stop asking it!" It really broke the room up. I will always try to defuse things by saying something funny. I think everybody should have an effective way of dealing with conflict using wit and intellect rather than belligerence or confrontation. We have a tendency in situations with press conferences to be a little too serious. We should be having more fun at those moments. It's not a serious business. We're about entertainment. Ratings are down all around, but B&B is almost always the No.-2-rated soap. The Bells have a respect for the value of generational storytelling. I'm very lucky to be working here. I could have been dropped from any number of other shows by now. Shows are throwing out wonderful characters and dependable actors with strong followings left and right. It's an embarrassment that people writing daytime television keep doing that. It's ridiculous. They're trying to find a new audience, but there isn't one. It's the old audience that needs to be gotten back. The young people who watch soaps do so for the same reason that their parents and grandparents do. |