Before the actor formerly known as Ricardo Tubbs became a household name in the mid-1980s, Philip Michael Thomas had roles in everything from Starsky & Hutch to the legendary Blaxploitation film Stigma. He also recorded two forgettable pop albums. Unlike his Miami Vice co-star Don Johnson and another ‘80s über-star, David Hasselhoff, Philip Michael Thomas failed to make a dent in the German album sales charts. Most recently, Thomas surfaced in the video game Vice City.

The Wave: It would be so cool, just to freak people out, if you and Don Johnson walked around Miami together wearing white suits and turquoise blazers.
Philip Michael Thomas: [Laughs] Yeah, people would freak. When we’re not together, people ask Don and I the same question, which is, “Where’s Don,” or “Where’s Philip? Where’s Tubbs? Where’s Crockett?”

TW: How do you feel about still being known as Ricardo Tubbs?
PMT: I love that people still know me as Tubbs. I still get letters from everywhere in the world because of Miami Vice. Last year I did the voice of Lance Vance for the video game Vice City. Now I get kids coming up to me on the street asking me to sign their videogame. It’s fabulous. Vice City is a continuation of my work in the ‘80s. I play the villain in the videogame, so it’s a nice twist.

TW: What else are you doing these days?
PMT: I’m in Miami where I’m producing a play called Sacha that I co-wrote with Sandi Morais. It’s an enchanting musical love story for the whole family. We’re in rehearsals now and we open at the Hollywood Playhouse in August. I really want to bring this to Broadway and make it a huge hit.

TW: Any chance it will make its way out to San Francisco?
PMT: Absolutely. My first big break was Hair at the Geary Theater in San Francisco. When I heard that The Wave is from San Francisco, I thought, “Oh my God! The circle!” I studied at the A.C.T. (American Conservatory Theatre). I would love to do this in San Francisco. I can see it now – “Successful homeboy returns.” There is phenomenal talent in San Francisco. I can’t wait to be there and start auditioning for my Sacha and my Harriet the Horrible Owl and my snake and my rat and my duck. I can’t wait.

TW: Any TV or movie roles coming up for you?
PMT: I just did a movie last year called Fate, which also stars Michael Paré and Lee Majors, which should be released in September. It’s a psychological thriller and Lee Majors plays a villain.

TW: It’s interesting because a search on Ebay reveals that you have a strong cult following for some of the Blaxploitation films you did, such as Stigma and Sparkle.
PMT: Yeah. A lot of people don’t know about my career before Miami Vice. I was at the top of my game before that. I was in seven Broadway shows, 40-some television shows, 11 major motion pictures. But it was Miami Vice that catapulted me. It’s like Prince: He did a few albums before he finally hit it big. And then after, people started to go back and listen to those earlier albums and realize that they were pretty good.

TW: Do you ever talk to Don Johnson?
PMT: Sure. Absolutely.

TW: Whose albums were better: yours or Don Johnson’s?
PMT: It depends on the listener. Don did extremely well. I think he had a top-five record in Germany. On a personal tip, of course, I like mine better. I composed all my music, while Don didn’t. Some of my songs haven’t been released yet – like a duet with Dionne Warwick called “Love Wrote this Song.” I love composing. In fact, I wrote all the songs for my new play, Sacha.

TW: When is the last time you chased a Colombian drug lord on a speedboat?
PMT: [Laughs] That would have to be 1989, the last year of Miami Vice.

TW: You were in an episode of Starsky & Hutch. Who’s cooler?
PMT: Yeah, I played Kingston St. Jacques They’ve got their own different kind of cool. They had a great chemistry. Don and I were like their juniors.

TW: What’s the most annoying question you’ve ever been asked in an interview?
PMT: I don’t think any question is annoying. I love doing interviews. I even love the paparazzi.

TW: Have you ever been mistaken for another famous person?
PMT: Smokey Robinson. When it happens, I say, “I’m Philip Michael Thomas.”

To date, Steve Guttenberg has starred, credit-over-title, in no less than six movies that have grossed over $100 million worldwide. Add all of his flicks up and you get gross receipts of over $1 billion. Although he starred in the Three Men and a Baby, Cocoon and Short Circuit franchises, Guttenberg is perhaps best known as Sgt. Carey Mahoney, the loveable troublemaker of the Police Academy franchise, a role that he would reprise in four of the seven Police Academy sequels. In this quick interview, we beat the point so far into the ground that only a highly advanced excavation team could retrieve it.

The Wave: If you could revive one of your ‘80s franchises – Police Academy, Cocoon or Three Men and a Baby– which one would it be?
Steve Guttenberg: It would have to be the Can’t Stop the Music franchise. It’s an overlooked masterpiece. [Editor’s note: Can’t Stop the Music was a biopic about the formation and rise of The Village People in which Guttenberg played Jack Morrell, a DJ and songwriter for the band. “Overlooked” would be one way of describing this final nail in disco’s coffin.]

TW: How do you feel about being approached for autographs by Police Academy fans?
SG: It means the customers are highly satisfied. The reason you go into show business is so people can see what you do. The weirdest thing is, we all want to be private. It’s a compliment when people say that they like your work. It takes a lot of gumption for people to come up to you, too, so you have to have some compassion and understanding when people come up and ask for an autograph. It took a lot for them to do that. People are really nice and very supportive. I have a great time with people. They’re just in a very good mood.

TW: What made you decide to stop doing Police Academy films?
SG: I just had more opportunities other places. That was basically it. I really love those people. They were great.

TW: Were you trying to be taken more seriously?
SG: People think that people architect careers. There is no architecting a career. Most actors, all actors go job to job even if you choose your jobs. But even Laurence Olivier didn’t architect his career. Just continue to do good work, keep a good attitude, have fun, appreciate where you are, be nice to other people and everything works out pretty good. You have a plan and my agent has a plan and God has a plan… Usually it’s God’s plan that works out.

TW: Is there ever any talk about going back and doing another Police Academy?
SG: All the time people are talking about doing something. Thank God the movies have done very well. They’re popular pictures that could probably make a lot of money again if you do another one.

TW: What do you think of the current crop of silly comedies?
SG: We need them. That’s the most important thing. We humans crave entertainment, even bad entertainment. It’s better to have bad entertainment than no entertainment, so what’s there to think about? It’s all just entertainment, but compared to what? Compared to the Sistine Chapel, or compared to the last Martin Lawrence movie? They’re all good. Look at chimpanzees and apes: There was a great study in The New York Times. They were talking about chimpanzees and the fact that their number one goal is to entertain each other. That’s how you gain status in the chimpanzee world. Whoever’s funnier or can leap over trees better is the leader, and the most popular. They just want to be entertained and that’s all we want. What do we want from the television? From the movies? Just to be entertained! If you want to learn, you can go to school. If you want to be entertained, you watch a documentary or a feature or television. So, who’s to say good or bad? We need movies and we need entertainment.

TW: What surprises you?
SG: People’s rudeness.

TW: If people ask “Where are you now?” What would you like them to know you’re doing?
SG: Living a hopefully meaningful and fulfilling life as an artist, as a brother, as a son and a friend and associate. I’m trying to keep popping up in different holes, because that’s what I think my job is as an artist – to continue serving the audience. I’m interested in doing projects that make this world a better place to live in.

Jamie Lee Curtis first gained fame as a horror film “scream queen” in the ‘70s. In the ‘80s she had some big hits (Trading Places, A Fish Called Wanda) in between a few major box-office disasters (Perfect, Blue Steel), but survived to have a career that continues with this weekend’s release of Freaky Friday. In addition to acting, she’s also a successful author of children’s books and the wife of comedian-actor-writer-director Christopher Guest. But when we caught up with her, we had ‘80s on the brain…

The Wave: Why do the ‘80s classics hold up?
Jamie Lee Curtis: Trading Places is funny, very well written and has really funny actors.

TW: What are your memories of making that film?
JLC: That movie, I was young. I was this young girl. I was just sort of flabbergasted that I was in a movie with these people. They all made me laugh. Denholm Elliot, he’s incredible in that movie, just so funny. And Dan Aykroyd is Dan Aykroyd.

TW: When you look back on Perfect, do you find it has some merit?
JLC: No. I watched Perfect, weirdly enough, a week ago. A friend of mine’s daughter was visiting and she had never seen it and I said, “Oh, hey, I’ll put it on for you.” That is not a good movie. That is really, really not a good movie. Although, I was hot. I’ve learned one thing I must tell you: I’m 44 now. When I was 26, I did not think I had a nice body.

TW: What did you think?
JLC: I mean, I thought I looked fine but I had no concept. Now, when I look at it, I think, “Oh, my God.”

TW: But you still look great. I mean, we saw Tailor of Panama.
JLC: [Looks at her chest] “What’s happening,” is all I’m saying? In my house, every day there’s a news brief. We send a note out saying, “Did they get bigger?” Forty is really where they say June is busting out all over.

TW: So is 40 better?
JLC: Forty is a great time to get to know who you are. So in that sense, I think 40 is incredible, because you’ve been through enough and tried to find yourself. I think 40 is the point where you cross that line and you start going, “Okay, who am I? Really, who am I?” Because all of the pretense of the past decades has not worked. So, in that sense, I think it’s an incredibly liberating time and hopefully a very exciting time.

TW: So, back to the ‘80s – you didn’t know they were hiring you to be hot?
JLC: I clearly wasn’t aware of how amazing I looked. And you know what? I’m so uninterested in that now. That’s what the whole 40 thing hopefully is. But at the time, I just was unaware that I actually had this amazing figure. That was an interesting thing to see from that old movie, but the movie itself was terrible.

TW: How did you survive such a big flop?
JLC: That was a monster summer flop. I knew it didn’t work when we were making it, and yet I had to be the good girl and just kind of put the smile on and walk through it. And while it was happening, I had to get involved in the expectation – the publicity. And then I had to walk through it when it was a complete disaster. Two weeks before the release, I was getting anxious. A lot of people were coming up to me going, “Hey, cool, great, it’s great, it’s great, it’s great, great, great, great.” And I just keep sitting there going, “Yeah, okay, better good than bad, but we’ll see what happens.” That movie in particular was a very big reminder to me that nobody knows anything. Show business is complete alchemy and you really have to let go and hope that the work is good.

TW: What was it like working with John Travolta?
JLC: You know, it was a movie. We had a good time. I just felt like I was involved in something that I knew wasn’t that good and it just was a really long shoot and really long post and a really long wait for the summer movie, and a lot of publicity. And it was just bad.

The popularity explosion of professional wrestling in the 1980s was due in large part to the high-flying ring antics of Randy Poffo, otherwise known as “Macho Man” Randy Savage. While the size of Andre the Giant and the musculature of Hulk Hogan drew curious onlookers into the arenas, it was Savage’s willingness to hurl his body through the air (imagine Michael Jordan using his powers for evil) that kept them coming back. After a 25-year wrestling career that included six world championship reigns, Savage recently retired to Florida.

The Wave: What comes to mind when you think of the 1980s?
Randy Savage: Wrestlemania. I started June 17, 1985, right after Wrestlemania and had one of the greatest runs anybody could ever have and enjoyed it like crazy.

TW: Was your match at the Pontiac Silverdome in 1987 the biggest highlight of your career?
RS: Yeah, that was definitely the biggest rush. We set an indoor attendance record of 93,000 people. I’d have to say that that was the highlight. What a rush, just walking down the aisle. It was incredible.

TW: In the ‘80s, your brother Larry wrestled for the WWF as “The Genius.” Was it difficult when you became a big star, while his character never took off?
RS: Well, he had a great attitude about it. He was just happy for me and still is. It was just one of those things.

TW: In the ‘80s, there were Randy Savage dolls, posters, t-shirts and videos at every toy store. What was it like when the money started rolling in?
RS: It was crazy. I don’t like to think of it as a lifestyle change, but then you look at yourself and I guess there is. I don’t think of myself as a materialistic person, but at the same time, all of a sudden there’s zeros at the end of the numbers, so it makes all the hard work pay off.

TW: Was there anything you blew your money on that you regret?
RS: I was so busy, I didn’t have time to spend it. I did buy a Porsche one time and had it sent to me and I found out I couldn’t even get in it. I was too big for it. I had to sell it right away and I didn’t even drive it a block.

TW: How many Slim Jims do you think you’ve eaten in your lifetime?
RS: I don’t know. [Laughs] Over a hundred. I’ve done a lot of commercials.

TW: So you’ll only eat them when filming a commercial?
RS: I’ll put one down when I want a little excitement.

TW: How is wrestling different today than in the ‘80s?
RS: I think they raised the bar a little bit with more ladder matches and stuff like that. When I was doing all my high-flying stuff, I was the high-flyer. Now it’s just standard. They’re jumping from balconies and stuff. I don’t know how much higher they can get.

TW: What’s the worst injury you’ve had in the ring?
RS: I’ve had a bunch of injuries. I really don’t focus on them. I’ve had a bunch of knee operations and stuff like that, but it’s not a big deal. You don’t get out of the wrestling business without being banged up from head to toe, unless you were a manager or a referee. There’s no way you can be a wrestler and not have injuries.

TW: Do wrestling fans ever try and challenge you?
RS: Oh yeah. When I was wrestling one time in Knoxville, Tennessee, I had a fan come into the ring and knife me. I got stabbed. A big fight broke out; it turned into a big riot. I thought this guy was just punching me really hard, but when I got back to the dressing room, my arm was torn up all the way to the muscle.

TW: How do you feel about the recent drug overdose death of your ex-wife and ring partner, “Miss Elizabeth”?
RS: Yeah. [long pause] That was sad. Since the WCW days, I hadn’t talked to her at all. It had been about six or seven years. I was shocked to hear about it.

TW: What’s the difference between Randy Savage and Randy Poffo?
RS: I guess I just kick it up a notch. I’m pretty high strung, anyway. I’m not a golfer; I’m not a fisherman. I’m a type triple-A personality.

Quick: Name any gold medallist from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics other than Mary Lou Retton. Ha – you can’t! That’s because the tiny five-medal winner captured your heart, along with the rest of America’s, when she nailed a perfect 10.0 to capture her sport’s top prize. In the 20 years since that memorable flip through the air, Retton has turned her celebrity status into a lucrative career, first as a pitchwoman for nearly half the companies on the Fortune 500, and later as one of the most popular motivational speakers on the circuit. Even though we didn’t pony up her $30,000 speaking fee, Retton agreed to talk with us, anyway.

The Wave: Are you surprised that your celebrity status is intact all these years later?
Mary Lou Retton: Yeah. Next year I’m celebrating 20 years of winning the Olympics. It blows me away that every single day when I leave my house people still want autographs and pictures. It’s very surprising, but it’s nice. It’s hard for me to get mad because people are so nice to me.

TW: What are your fan interactions usually like?
MLR: Oh, they want to pick me up and squeeze my cheeks. They say, “Do a cartwheel!” or, “Give me that Wheaties smile!”

TW: How long did it take for you to realize that you were famous?
MLR: It was the morning after. I won my medal on a Friday night. After you win the medal, they take you immediately to drug testing. It took me a couple of hours to go to the bathroom. Then I went to a press conference and I did not get back to the dorm in the village until four in the morning. The next morning I went to pick up an Olympic ring I had ordered at a strip mall that was outside of security. I walked outside the Olympic security gates and that was the moment that I knew that my life had changed forever. It was actually a very frightening experience. It was Whoom! “Mary Lou! Mary Lou! Mary Lou!” People were on a first name basis like they knew me. Everyone wanted autographs and pictures and I was being pulled and tugged and actually had to go back inside the security gates. I was like, “Oh my gosh, what has happened?”

TW: And how long after that before the first endorsement offer came?
MLR: It was crazy. The very next week, a car dealership in my home state of West Virginia wanted to give me a Corvette. I was only 16 years old. “Yeah! I’ll take a ‘Vette!” They came in instantaneously.

TW: Did you ever turn down an endorsement?
MLR: A lot! I did a whole lot of big names like McDonalds, Eveready Batteries, Wheaties, big big commercial endorsements. But I turned down a Bug Spray that wanted me to do a commercial. I just didn’t see the fit. There was an eyeglass company that wanted to have a Mary Lou Retton line of eyewear. Well, I have 20/20 vision. I’ve never had glasses or contacts before in my life, but they didn’t care! I tried to go with quality companies and ones that made sense.

TW: You’ve met several presidents at the White House. Do you have a favorite?
MLR: Reagan. He was incredible. After the Games, all the people who won gold medals went on a gold medal tour. We started in Washington D.C. and had a reception with President and Mrs. Reagan. And the USA delegation voted on two people, a man and a woman, who would present the President and Mrs. Reagan with our official Olympic blazer. Steve Lundquist, who was a gold medal swimmer, gave his to Nancy, and I was supposed to give mine to the President. He’s a big man and I’m only 4’9”, so I have to tap him on the back. I say, “Mr. President, I’d like to present you with our official Olympic blazer.” He turned around and looked down at me and he got so excited. He said, “Nancy! Nancy, come here! It’s that little Mary Lou we watched!” Here I am, just a little kid out of West Virginia and the President of the United States knew who I was.

TW: Did Reagan seem out of it? Did he not know you were going to be there?
MLR: I guess not. He seemed surprised.

TW: How have gymnastics changed since 1984?
MLR: It’s changed a lot. After every Olympic Games, the International Gymnastics Committee gets together, sits down, pow-wows and changes scoring values. So what you did at one Olympics means nothing now; you have to upgrade the level of difficulty. After 20 years of that, it’s much more difficult. It’s a hard sport.

TW: If you did your 1984 routines today, would you get a gold medal?
MLR: You know what, my vault and my floor [both of which received perfect 10.0s –Ed.] from 20 years ago would hold up today. But my bars and my beam? No way. I’d be very far behind.

TW: Does that competitive spirit still come out?
MLR: Oh yes! Absolutely. I want to win. In fact, I am the bowling champion in my family, just for the record. If it is running up stairs, or playing Monopoly or bowling or anything, absolutely it’s competitive. I want to win!

TW: When was the last time you popped in the tape of the ’84 Games?
MLR: Well, I show a four-minute tape of the Olympics every time I give a speech, so I see it a lot more than you might think. But my girls saw the video and they pop it in and love to watch it. So, I’d say about a month ago I watched it.

TW: What’s the biggest misconception about Mary Lou Retton?
MLR: That I sleep with a smile on my face. That I’m [helium voice] “perky!” That word was used with me all the time. I’m a happy person, no question about it, but I have bad days, too. Ask my husband.

Matthew Modine was never a huge ‘80s star. He wasn’t part of The Brat Pack. He wasn’t even a brat. But he made some memorable films in that decade. Full Metal Jacket holds up as one of the best war movies ever, and Vision Quest is a sports-drama classic. And who can forget him being violated by a gorilla in Hotel New Hampshire? Ah, memories…

The Wave: Were the ‘80s a good time for your career?
Matthew Modine: It was a good time, but my best work is ahead of me. When I look back at the careers of actors I really admire, like Humphrey Bogart, the really interesting roles came to them when they were in their 40s. Now that I’m 40, people don’t see me as a young man anymore. Now I can finally start playing more substantial roles. I really do believe that my best work is ahead of me.

TW: What are your memories of Vision Quest?
MM: Every athlete and anyone who’s a sports fan knows Vision Quest and they love the movie. So, that is just an absolute positive memory. It’s a movie that introduced Madonna to the world. It was a movie I had to work on tremendously hard to get in shape for because I’d just moved to New York. I was 18 years old and I started studying with the great acting teacher Stella Adler. Everybody smoked and drank coffee and did their best James Dean poses all the time, so I thought that’s what I had to do. So, I got really skinny. The director said, “I really like you. I think you’re a good actor but can you do 10 pushups?” So, I had to go get in shape for that role. We spent eight weeks training, lifting weights and wrestling, so that’s a wonderful, absolutely positive experience.

TW: Was it harder than Full Metal Jacket?
MM: This may sound weird, but Full Metal Jacket was an unbelievably difficult psychological journey. Not because of Stanley Kubrick, but the film is a very difficult movie. There’s the straightforward narrative of the first half of the film and then the ambiguity of the second half of the film. Stanley Kubrick called me and said, “My favorite review of the film is this.” You heard the newspaper shuffling in his hands and he goes, “Listen to this. This is good. ‘The first half of the film is brilliant. Then the film degenerates into a masterpiece.’” I think that’s a good description of what the film is. But it’s as ambiguous as that whole war was. People say that Kubrick films are dispassionate or lack humanity, but I think that’s the point.

TW: How did you avoid being typecast in the ‘80s?
MM: I never thought about it as a career. I think a career means a course, and I’ve never set a course. If I did, I’d say I’m like Columbus. Columbus was trying to find a way around the Middle East and trying to find a new route and accidentally discovered America. I‘ve made some movies that I’m not happy with, that didn’t turn out as well as I hoped they would. But I’ve just always tried to do the best I can. Even when you know the situation, once you go into it, is not ideal, you still try to do the best you can.

TW: Are you talking about Cutthroat Island?
MM: I’ll tell you what. Cutthroat Island was reviewed like we were remaking Gone with the Wind. It wasn’t the film that I signed up to make. The experience and what happened during the editing of the film, my involvement in the film is very different than what the end result of the film was. I could be bitter about that but I think that’s a mistake of Renny Harlin and Geena Davis and egos. And I think nobody understands that more than they do. It’s a shame because I think that Geena is a wonderfully gifted actress. It would be really interesting to take some of these action film directors like Renny Harlin or Jan de Bont and give them a straight narrative story to tell. Give them All the President’s Men and see how they would handle that.

When Time Warner unleashed MTV onto the basic cable systems of North America in 1981, the five anonymous “VeeJays” hired to host the channel became overnight sensations. Among the original gang of five was Nina Blackwood, an aspiring music journalist whose spiked-hair-and-leopard-spandex look made her a perfect poster girl for the network. Blackwood’s association with MTV has forever coupled her with the ‘80s. Today, she can be seen on late-night television hocking retro hits compilation albums and heard on her nationally syndicated radio show, Absolutely80s.

The Wave: Are you an ‘80s icon?
Nina Blackwood: In a way, yeah. I just got a call a couple of weeks ago from CNBC to do a piece. It’s about Bruce Springsteen and how the groups that appeal to the baby boomers are the highest-grossing concert acts these days. So because those are ‘80s acts, they automatically thought of me. So, I guess that is a truth to a certain degree.

TW: Does that mean that you were more famous than you knew at the time?
NB: No. We were aware of how popular MTV, and consequently the five of us, were at the time. I remember one time in San Antonio, Texas, they were taking me to a record store for a personal appearance and there were all these people lined up all around the mall. I said, “Wow, what’s going on there?” and they said, “They’re there for you.” Or if we’d go to concerts we would literally get mobbed.

TW: After the five of you became famous, did your egos swell out of control?
NB: With the five of us, there were never any ego problems at all. We were really – and we still are – like a family of brothers and sisters. People would ask about feuds between Martha [Quinn] and I. There’s always this idea that there’s going to be a catfight. And there never was.

TW: Were there any inter-VJ romances?
NB: People thought that Mark [Goodman] and I were a couple. Well, he was married, and we weren’t. People expect that we would have these stories of incestual activities, but we were really pretty fairly normal people that got really cool jobs.

TW: How has MTV changed since you were there?
NB: It was so different than what it is now. Then, people would come on and because it was such a new animal, it was more of, “Wow, this is cool,” so the actual event of being there kind of overshadowed everything else. Whereas now – and I don’t mean to slam MTV because it’s almost not their fault – but now its like everybody involved, like at The MTV Awards, tries to outdo each other in being cool. And at The MTV Movie Awards, the actors and actresses who are invited try to be so cool and outrageous. We weren’t really trying. It just was different. And now it’s like kind of a forced cool.

TW: Do you have a personal highlight from your MTV days?
NB: There were so many really cool things, but there is one that I still kick myself about. I was over in London to interview Roger Waters and I was sitting waiting to do the interview after the show. I was at sound check, and there was Eric Clapton, just Eric Clapton on stage and me sitting in this huge empty arena. There were people running around doing sound and lighting and whatever, but it was like, “There’s Eric Clapton just noodling around onstage and I’m just sitting here!” That was one of the ones where I felt like, “This is pretty cool.”

TW: In the early days, MTV was criticized for not playing black artists. Do you think that was a valid criticism?
NB: That was overblown. MTV really started off as a “rock and roll” channel. So, we were playing music that was on FM radio rock stations, for the most part. Of course, it did move into pop. This had nothing to do with MTV, but there were not a lot of black rock and roll artists. I mean, there really were none. I remember running into Rick James once because we had the same agent. I ran into him in Hollywood and he was so upset. But his funky stuff didn’t fit into the format. It was never a question of race.

TW: What was your most embarrassing ‘80s fashion faux pas?
NB: Well, I still like the damn outfit, but one was this jumpsuit – which was very popular back then – and it had all different colored pieces of fabric, and when you took it off you could turn it into a purse! I loved that thing. It was so colorful, I was so happy every time I put it on. It might be a little much these days.

TW: Is it true you were almost in Spinal Tap?
NB: I was in Spinal Tap! I was in the pilot. I did it right before MTV. I was Harry Shearer’s girlfriend. They weren’t really sure if they wanted it to be a TV show or a movie. And actually, Rebecca De Mornay was in it, too. The weirdest thing about that is after it came out, they came to MTV and I had to do the interview. Talk about a surreal experience. By then, I had several interviews under my belt with real rock stars and it was just bizarre how right on the money they were.

TW: When you think of the ‘80s, what comes to mind?
NB: Well, obviously MTV. It was, for the first half of the ‘80s, the biggest thing going in entertainment and changed a lot of the media, in general. Plus, I was there, so of course I’m going to say MTV. But I really think of the ‘80s and think of MTV.

It’s getting harder and harder for Rodney Dangerfield to claim he gets no respect. Especially now that his trademark white shirt and red tie are on permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution. These days he’s finishing up his autobiography, Rodney Exposed, planning to release a double-CD called Romantic and Rappin’ Rodney and marketing his own red wine, Rodney’s Red, through his own website, Rodney.com. He recently underwent some fairly serious heart procedures, but he’s clearly in good spirits. “I have a little thing for the nurse,” says Dangerfield. “It’s a little thing, but it’s a thing.”

The Wave: Why do Caddyshack and Back to School still hold up?
Rodney Dangerfield: Well, as long as people play golf, they’ll always have Caddyshack. And as long as kids go to college, they’ll always have Back to School. I did things that they play all the time.

TW: How does it feel with those films on Comedy Central all the time?
RD: Well, hey…good! Get a little more publicity.

TW: What movies do your fans talk to you the most about?
RD: Caddyshack, Back to School, Easy Money, too. They talk about those. And kids all know me from Ladybugs. I was a soccer coach in that movie.

TW: What are your memories of making Caddyshack?
RD: You know, people think that when you make a movie, when the day is done you all go out, get a few drinks and kid around and have a laugh. You’re too busy; you’re too tired. You’ve been around the whole day trying to be funny doing Caddyshack. When it’s finished, I want to take off the makeup. I want to go to the gym, relax, have a steam room and then come home, eat, and it’s time to go to bed. You don’t really have that much time to have fun when you’re making a movie. It’s all work.

TW: Was comedy different in the ‘80s?
RD: I would say so. Comics are more risqué today. They can say anything, frankly, in certain clubs.

TW: Does that make it better or worse?
RD: I don’t know. I never had any problem, years ago or today, so I couldn’t answer that.

TW: What do you think of modern comedy movies like American Pie compared to the ‘80s movies?
RD: Unfortunately, I don’t see too many movies. I don’t like to sit uncomfortably for an hour and a half. In a theater, it’s all uncomfortable seats. If I want to go to the bathroom, I can’t go or I’ll miss the movie, so most of my stuff I watch at home. I have comfort here.

TW: Are you doing a remake of Back to School?
RD: They want to do a remake or something and they just want me to have a cameo in it, or something like that, so I said, “Good luck! Whatever you wanna do.”

TW: Why do a remake instead of a sequel?
RD: I don’t know. That’s how people think.

TW: What makes you laugh?
RD: Laurel and Hardy. I like the old timers. They had images. Today, there’s very few people with an image. I have an image. “I don’t get no respect.” That’s an image. W.C. Fields, there were images, Mae West and all those people. But Laurel and Hardy to me are the funniest. They’re the only comics who use their real name in all their movies.

TW: You don’t even use your real name.
RD: This is my third name. [Dangerfield was born Jacob Cohen and called himself Jack Roy during his first stint as a comedian. –Ed.]

TW: If I heckled you, what would you say to me?
RD: When you go to the movies, do you talk back to the screen? Later on, you and I would go in the men’s room and have it out together. I’ll show you how small you are.

TW: What’s your favorite Rodney Dangerfield movie?
RD: They’re all my sons. I don’t know. I guess Back to School possibly could have been one of my favorites, but I like them all. Easy Money was good, too. And Ladybugs – they’re all cute. But Back to School – kids and people will always go to see that as long as people go to college. Caddyshack will go on forever as long as people play golf. So, I did a couple movies that will live long after I’m gone.

Stephen J. Cannell is one of the most prolific writers in the history of television. Among the 43 television series he wrote and created were such 1980s staples as The Greatest American Hero, The A-Team, Wiseguy, 21 Jump Street, Riptide, Hunter, and Hardcastle & McCormick. In addition, Cannell is also an accomplished screenwriter and best-selling author. But you may know him best as the guy who rips his paper out of his typewriter before throwing it into the air. It’s an act he commits at the end of every one of his television shows.

The Wave: Why did you start putting yourself at the end of every one of your shows in the ‘80s?
Stephen J. Cannell: It’s hard to say what motivated it. I had several shows on the air at the same time, and I was starting to be called a “television mogul” in the press and I hated it. I had a publicist at the time and we were getting ready to design my production company logo, and I said to her, “I want to get this off of me! To me a ‘mogul’ is a guy in a green jacket who tries to screw actresses.” [Laughs] I get up every morning and I write for five or six hours, you know, I don’t want to be a mogul. So she came to me a day or two later and said “What if we do something for the end credit where you’re at the typewriter to establish you as a writer?” And I said “I’d love that,” and I’m a little bit of a ham anyway. It did give me more fame than I ever would have had otherwise, and that was positive.

TW: Were you surprised by the success of The A-Team?
SJC: I was really surprised by the A-Team. I thought the critics were going to love that show and that the audiences wouldn’t get it because the characters were so dysfunctional. I broke every rule that you could have for a hero. Hannibal basically was risking everybody’s lives, Face was a compulsive liar, Murdock was insane and living in a mental institution – these were not normal television heroes for that period of time. B.A. Baracus was this guy who hated everyone else in the unit and they were all scared to death of him. Those were unusual characters. But it was just the other way around: The audiences instantly got it, and the critics never understood it. They just jumped on me for the violence, and I said “Violence?! I have episodes where the A-Team winds up taking out the heavies by shooting artichokes out of an air-gun!” [Laughs]

TW: Where did the concept for The A-Team originate?
SJC: The idea for The A-Team came from Brandon [Tartikoff], not from me. I would never have come up with that. It wasn’t in my wheelhouse at all. You know, I was doing shows like the Rockford Files and Beretta and Greatest American Hero. I had gone in to pitch something to Brandon, and before I got the first word of the pitch out of my mouth, he said, “I have an idea I want you to do…” and I thought, “Oh, fuck…” And he says, “It’s called The A-Team,” and I’m thinking, “I hate the title.” And this is exactly the way he pitched it to me: “Have you seen Road Warrior? Mel Gibson’s movie? Well, it’s kind of like that, but it’s not.” [Laughs]

TW: There’s been talk for a long time about making an A-Team movie. Do you think it would play on the nostalgia factor, or would it be re-made as a more serious action film?
SJC: We’re doing that at FOX, and more than likely we will improve the verisimilitude. The show was pretty cartoony, and I think we will make it, in tone, more like Die Hard or Lethal Weapon 1, where you believe that you could get killed by these bullets, but keep the humor and character things alive.

TW: Will it have the black van with the red stripe?
SJC: I don’t know yet, but in all likelihood we’ll do the new version of that, maybe an S.U.V. with a red stripe. [Laughs]

TW: We did an interview with Johnny Depp [Vol. 3 Issue 14] in which he described 21 Jump Street as “assembly line garbage” and a “harsh prison sentence.” Does that bother you?
SJC: Nah. Johnny was a good player for us and a good star. He didn’t cause problems beyond misbehaving a little here or there, but he was only 21 years old. I’ll tell you a really interesting, nice Johnny Depp story. He had a five-year contract, and at the end of the fourth season, we were beginning to hear rumors that he might not be coming back, that he was going to be a movie star and all that. I decided to let the sleeping dog lie, because if we knew for sure that he wasn’t coming back, the show might be cancelled. Then one day I got a call from Johnny and he says, “Have you been hearing that I might not come back to the show?” and I said, “Yeah, I have heard that,” and he says, “I just want you to know that I hope the show gets cancelled, because I’ve been offered some really nice movie roles and I have other things to do. But I have a deal with you guys and if this thing gets renewed, I’ll be there.” And I’ll always remember that as a very stand-up thing to do.

TW: You’re filthy rich. Do you ever think of retiring, or can you not imagine not writing?
SJC: I live for this stuff. I had an interesting epiphany a while back. I was thinking about Ernest Hemmingway committing suicide. I don’t get it. How could this guy - who had this joy of living and fishing and had all these friends and lived in Cuba, and was such a man’s man - blow his head off with a shotgun? And then in a moment I realized why he did it: He couldn’t write anymore. He was going senile and he couldn’t do it. His life had no meaning to him. He was a guy who got up and wrote 10 pages every day, and then he’d get drunk. I thought yeah, man, it would be very hard for me if I didn’t have this in my life. I’d have my family and my kids, but not to be able to get up and live my fantasy life would be very hard for me.