I love Scott Bakula! He is one of my favorite actors. I
am a huge fan of his from Quantum Leap and other shows. And he is so
gorgeous and likable. On the phone, he was SO NICE! Just like you know
he would be. Oh, yeah, he's an actor, and they can all fake it. But he
did seem really nice. He is clearly enjoying this show and this
character - that shows on screen every episode. He is the reason I
watched this show initially, but it is an awesome show, so I would watch it now
anyway. The camaraderie between these three guys, and the great
writing, and the humor, is just like nothing else you can see on TV. I
was so excited after speaking with Scott Bakula and it really just made
my week. Woo hoo!
TURNER ENTERTAINMENT
Moderator: Carmen McNeil
November 2, 2010 1:35 pm CT
Operator: Good day and welcome to the Turner Entertainments' “Men of a
Certain Age” conference call with Scott Bakula. Today's conference is
being recorded.
And at this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Carmen
McNeil. Please go ahead, ma'am.
Carmen McNeil: Thank you for joining us today. Scott Bakula is on the
line and he will be answering your questions regarding Men of a Certain
Age Season 2. Season 2 premieres on Monday, December 6 at 10:00 pm.
Operator, please open up the lines for questions.
Operator: Certainly; at this time if you wish to ask a question, you may
do so by pressing star and 1 on your touch-tone phone. That is star and
1 on your touch-tone phone.
We will go first to the site of Lisa Steinberg with Starry Constellation
magazine. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Lisa Steinberg: Hi, Scott. Good afternoon. Thank you so much for
speaking with us today.
Scott Bakula: It's my pleasure, Lisa. How are you?
Lisa Steinberg: I'm good, thank you.
Scott Bakula: Good.
Lisa Steinberg: I'm really excited for this new big premiere coming up
and I've been a fan since the beginning and I'm wondering from your
point of view, what do you think it is about the show that has continued
to garner so many great viewers and such critical acclaim for the show?
Scott Bakula: Well, I think you know the big catch with the show from
the beginning was whether because it is so different, whether people
were actually going to like it and I think that hasn’t changed and
people embraced the show and we are coming back with more and more of
the same but you know obviously a brand new season but I think because
there isn't a show like us on the air and I think Ray Romano and Michael
Royce's point of view is kind of view and I think people have responded
to that.
And I think there is a great sense of reality that the show has and all
three of our characters are different and yet relatable and so many
people have come up to me and you know men have come up and said, well,
I see a little bit of myself in all three of your guys’ characters and I
think that has made us you know popular and lots of women over the
course of the last year have said, you're just like – you did you know
when you threw that coffee on that back of that car and chased after the
car, my husband would do that just like that and you know the husbands
are kind of looking down at his toes and I think we are a relatable
show, we are not fancy but I think we are – people seem to be
comfortable with us.
Operator: And we will go next to the site of Earl Dittman with Wireless
Magazine. Your line is open, please go ahead.
Earl Dittman: Hi, Scott. How are you doing?
Scott Bakula: I'm great, Earl. How are you?
Earl Dittman: I am so excited you are back for another year and I hope
you are on for several season.
Scott Bakula: I hope so too.
Earl Dittman: And it's 12 episodes this year.
Scott Bakula: Yes.
Earl Dittman: You know I was talking to Andre earlier this – and you
just kind of mentioned the answer to that but Andre said that his
character was very much like him, he can relate to him 100% almost. Can
you relate to your character a lot? I mean is it a lot of him in you?
Scott Bakula: There is hardly any of me in him which – that is what was
so attractive when I read the part. Obviously, I can relate to the actor
side of him and I can relate to some of his actor's frustrations
certainly but what has been most appealing for me is that he is so
different from me and it allows me to really have this kind of what most
actors like to do is you know escape into a character and for me to play
this guy who has no responsibility and no relationship and no kids and
no mortgage and sleeps with all kinds of women – different ages, sizes
you know colors, it's just you know it is really – it's a blast for me
to do.
Operator: And we will take our next question from the site of Suzanne
Lanoue with The TV Megasite. Your line is open, please go ahead,
Suzanne Lanoue: Hi, Scott. It's great to talk to you.
Scott Bakula: Thanks, Suzanne, nice talking to you too.
Suzanne Lanoue: I was wondering if you still sing and if so, do you
think your character will be singing on the show?
Scott Bakula: I do still sing. I still study voice. I've done a few
musicals in the last 3 or 4 years, I've been able to get out and have to
go and do that so that is kind of my first love. And I don’t know that I
will sing on the show, my character certainly is an actor and we talked
about some musicals that I did when I was back in college. So I have the
possibility of doing that.
There was a time when the originally conceived Terry that he was going
to maybe be – my part time job was going to be as a kind of a wedding
singer which would have been a blast but they went away from that. But I
hope that you know maybe, we'll get a chance to sing. We were – there
was a point in time when if we have gone long enough in Enterprise, I
would have been a singing Starship captain but we didn’t get that far.
Operator: And as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, you may do
so by pressing star and 1 on your touch-tone phone. We will take our
next question from the site of Jay Jacobs with PopEntertainment.com.
Your line is open, please go ahead.
Jay Jacobs: Hey, Scott. Nice to talk to you.
Scott Bakula: You too, Jay. Thanks.
Jay Jacobs: I really enjoyed the first two episodes for the new season.
I'm just sort of in honor of Terry's old frozen food commercial in the
second episode, do you have any early showbiz jobs that ever come back
to haunt you?
Scott Bakula: Well, I don’t know – I wouldn’t say that they’ve come back
to haunt me but I did a few commercials when I was just starting out in
New York and they were great because they paid bills and gave me some
financial freedom but there were a few of them that were – I had a big
huge Canada Dry commercial that I did with Bob Giraldi and Michael
Peters when he was alive and it as right after the Thriller video came
out so I was a singing, dancing, guy at the front of the triangle coming
down dancing to Canada Dry music and it didn’t – it's never come back to
haunt me but it always you know it definitely makes me smile.
Operator: And we will go next to the site of the Gerri Miller with
MNN.com. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Gerri Miller: Okay, hi there, Scott.
Scott Bakula: Hi, Gerri.
Gerri Miller: Tell me about the overall theme of the season in your
mind? What do you see as each guy's challenge this year?
Scott Bakula: Well, certainly, Terry's challenge is similar to what –
it's life challenges which is you know when is he going to grow up and
kind of get on with life? And with his real job trying to sell cars for
his friend in the car dealership, he is pressed into that and also he is
– gets involved in a more serious kind of adult relationship this year
on the show and there are challenges there.
Joe's character is wrestling with being single, continues to wrestle
with some gambling issues and his kind of peculiar friendship that he
has with Manfro, his bookie, and Andre's challenges are beyond just
trying to live and balance a life and three kind, the reality of that
and he is now saddled with running this dealership and still having his
dad looking over his shoulders and running a dealership in a time when
not everybody is out there buying cars.
So everybody has – again, some kind of very real issues, none of them
earth-shattering but all of them you know kind of relevant and
relatable.
Operator: And we will go next to the site of Hadas Bashan with Pnai
Plus. Your line is open, please go ahead.
Hadas Bashan: Hi, Scott. I'm talking to your from Israel.
Scott Bakula: Fantastic, high.
Hadas Bashan: I'm not local.
Scott Bakula: How are you?
Hadas Bashan: Okay. Hello?
Scott Bakula: Hello?
Hadas Bashan: Hi, can you hear me?
Scott Bakula: I can, Hadas. How are you?
Hadas Bashan: I'm great. I'm talking to you from Israel.
Scott Bakula: Fantastic.
Scott Bakula: I don’t know if you know but here, we – my generation at
least, we grew up on Quantum Leap here in Israel.
Scott Bakula: Fantastic, I love to hear that.
Hadas Bashan: Is it something – I have two questions about that and
sorry I am a bit nostalgic but because we didn’t have a lot of channels
on TV here so it was very meaningful for us to see you every day.
Scott Bakula: Great.
Hadas Bashan: So I wanted to ask, do you know what your affect outside
of the USA, like people like me growing on the character of Sam Beckett
and also, do you think – do you miss him sometimes and do you think
maybe you would have wanted him to have more leaps these days. And to do
some things that you can think about.
Scott Bakula: Yes, thank you. Yes, I am very aware of the effect – the
worldwide effect that Quantum Leap has had and I'm reminded when I – the
few times I get out and do any kind of convention or a fan gathering
that people come from all over the world and are fans from all over the
world and I'm always touched by that and we – you know for the people
that were involved in making the show, it really – it's kind of – it
really lands on you in terms of you know the impact that you've had and
the families that watched our show together and how much of an
impression we made and so that is always a great feeling.
And yes, we would have loved for the show to have gone on longer and I
guess the continuing popularity of the show and with younger people now
and people that grew up on it are now sharing it with their kids and
things like that, it really makes you proud and it makes you realize
that you did something that not only has – had a lot of effect on people
when it came out but still has relevance in the world and meaning in the
world and certainly, a character like Sam Beckett is – we could always –
we could use a few more of him around so I'm proud of the show and I
love to hear that you enjoyed it over there so much and I hope it wasn’t
just because you only had a few channels to watch.
Operator: And we will go once again to the site of Suzanne Lanoue. Your
line is open. Please go ahead.
Suzanne Lanoue: Hi again. I had to mention that when you talked about
being a wedding – your character maybe being a wedding singer, I flashed
to the Quantum Leap episode when you were singing Volare.
Scott Bakula: That's right.
Suzanne Lanoue: And I want to tell you that your old commercials are on
You Tube, I just looked them up.
Scott Bakula: I'm sure that they are. I'm sure that they are. You can't
get away from anything anymore, really. It's…
Suzanne Lanoue: No, you can't.
Scott Bakula: I'm not sure that that’s necessarily a good thing,
something should be you know memories, but that is not the world we live
in anymore so certainly, it's relevant that this episode this idea of me
being – having made a commercial 20 years ago and having it come back to
haunt me –in whatever way it works in our show, is real.
And maybe a little bit painful but you know those commercials paid some
bills.
Suzanne Lanoue: I'm sure they did. Well, thank you very much. I love the
show and you are the reason I started watching it.
Scott Bakula: Thank you. I appreciate that.
Operator: And we will take our final question from the site of Jay
Jacobs with PopEntertainment.com. Your line is open, please go ahead.
Jay Jacobs: Hi again, Scott. I was wondering, you mentioned earlier and
it is true that the show is very unique. I was wondering why you think
that there are so few shows out there around the personal lives and
problems of men in their 40s or women in their 40s, or just any type of
thing like that? Why something like that is so unique in today's
television world?
Scott Bakula: Well, I think in the – you know today's television world,
it's you know look, I don’t think this show; to be quite honest would
have made it on the air if Ray hadn't been attached to it. I think this
is driven completely by you know the presence of Ray Romano and his
return to television.
I think that's what seriously got TNT excited and in the landscape of
today's television, you are going to go in – most guys are going to go
in, writers are going to be going and pitch a story like this and then
the network is going to say "Well you know do they fight crime together
when they're not at the diner talking?" "Do they own a strip club?" or
you know "How can we jazz the show up?" You know …
Jay Jacobs: Right.
Scott Bakula: Happily, because Ray and the network's desire to be in
business with him, he was able to let the show be and you know and let
the show breathe and they have been – the network has been fantastic
with you know allowing the show to be human and I think it's just in the
world today, and advertising and marketing you know people are used to
flashier, catchier, fancier dressed up hours of television.
And so it just doesn’t fit in and then you can say, well gosh you know
look at Mad Men or look at whatever and –- it's very rare that you can
get a show that is about people. I have pit shows in my life where you
know well you know it's a relationship show and they let – almost left
you out of the room because they just – you know they just wanted to be
about something.
They need to have – you know it needs to have a franchise, what is the
franchise? What is the – and that is not what our show's about and this
is just kind of one of those match you know marriages where the material
and the right guy brought it to the right network and we are where we
are because believe me, if we've you know done the show on a major
network, it wouldn’t be the show that you see right now.
So we're just lucky, I think and you know nothing against guys my own
age and guys in their 40s but I think the concept in television is that
we are not that interesting you know unless we are doing you know
solving crimes or driving fast cars or flying Starships as I have done.
So we just got lucky, I think.
Operator: And I'm showing no more questions in queue at this time.
Carmen McNeil: Thank you so much for joining our call today. Thank you,
Scott for your time and don’t forget to watch Men of a Certain Age,
December 6 at 10:00 pm. Thank you.
Scott Bakula: Thanks, Carmen.
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