Part 2 of the Lisa Melamed interview...

What was it like for the cast, living in Arizona in a hotel?

There is something unnatural about being on location. Anytime you speak to somebody who's worked on location, it becomes this strange little society...a bit of a Biosphere.

It was a very long time for everyone to be away from their families and from their homes. Although there was tremendous disappointment when we didn't continue past the sixty-five episodes, I think that there was a sense of relief--that people just wanted to go home. Dave and Laura had just recently had their baby. And I think at a certain point it was good for the kids to go back to their real life. Because there is always something artificial about being on location, going to sets. Sometimes the fakeness of the process makes your life start to feel fake. The people to whom you're usually accountable aren't around.

Being on the set, did you see the end coming?

I know there was sort of back and forth with Nickelodeon. For a while there was an expectation that we were going to go to a hundred episodes. And then we weren't. It could have shifted a couple of times. So, I don't think it was ever a big shock that it didn't happen because it was never "for sure" one way or the other.

The end was really sad, and everybody felt very nostalgic as people do. It was like summer camp ending. I think everybody had very mixed feelings, because you can overstay and get too much of a good thing. If they had said it was going further, I'm not exactly sure how many of the cast would have stayed. I don't know what their contracts were.

In fact, in the episode "Crush" I know that there was some thought that the girl who played Megan, who had the crush on Buddy...we were kind of testing her to see where when someone leaves and you bring in someone new, there was some thought that she might come up as a next generation if the girls were to leave.

I think at a certain point, had the show gone on, we would have had to have done a summer break. Or a winter break and come back a different summer. Because, as you point out on the web site quite accurately, it is one long, long, long summer. Buddy goes through much evolution in that two month period and he has quite the growth spurt.

But I think, had we gone on, we would have come back the following summer and allow the characters to change. And figure out an organic way to bring in new cast members if we had to.

As far as male viewers are concerned, there seems to be little consensus on which girl is more attractive, Brad or Melody...

It's very much like that Betty and Veronica thing. It was smart casting because they're very, very different. Their energy is very different. And their look is very different. And it was fun to write as well. It was fun to write Melody as an overly earnest, very well intentioned goofball. Melody was just a little bit nuts. That was the secret to Melody! (laughs) Brad was kind of the grounding.

What attitude must one take when writing a kid show with a youthful cast?

Being a teenager is such an evocative time. It's certainly a time in my life that I as a writer go back to time and again, obviously, writing Party of Five for three years. It's such a rich time and such an emotional time. It's a time where you're really evolving as a person and kind of figuring out where your values are and who you want to be when you grow up, as opposed to what you want to be when you grow up. There's a lot to write about that. Every one of us was really looking back on who we were and what we got through to survive being teenagers and come out the other end. We brought that to the scripts. That was the fun of it.

The trick was to never write down. I will stand by my Hey Dude scripts as I stand by anything else I've written for much bigger budget shows. I never sat down and though, "It's only Hey Dude." I always sat down to write it knowing that it was going to matter as much to the people watching it as anything else. It was important, even for self-respect. I know that was true of the other writers too. We wanted to be as good as if they were going to spend a million dollars filming it.

When Graham and I were working together, it was always about making it as good as it possibly could be. Obviously, from time to time, you have to take into consideration certain limitations with time and money. In terms of storytelling, I would have to say Hey Dude could have been a prime time show. We were doing the same work as if it were a prime time show.

Any memorable experiences or bloopers on the set?

Sometimes the occasional rattlesnake sighting, which was good for some excitement. Also an occasional family of javelinas would wander onto the set. Those are the wild pigs. And your site mentions the bat in the "Miss Tucson" episode, which was kind of funny.

Did you ever get to go the actual dude ranch and participate in the activities?

No. I'm from Brooklyn. (Laughs) I had none of those skills. I basically stayed at the hotel and hung out there. It was very tiring. Generally, we were shooting at six in the morning. We would go about ten hours...I can't remember what the workday was. But we got up as early as possible so we wouldn't be shooting in the beating, noonday sun.

Was there a difference between working between the two directors, Fred Keller and Ross Bagwell?

Yes. They were very different directors. Ross was very visceral and Fred was very intellectual. Certain scripts suited each director better than the other, and sometimes we would try to work the rotation so that the person more appropriate to filming got it. We were sometimes able to do that and sometimes not. If you asked them, they would say that there were certain scripts that they liked better. Probably they would fall into categories of Ross liking to do the more funny, action stuff; and Fred liking to do the more character, thoughtful stuff. So Fred and I were a better combination.

What were your lingering thoughts about the location shots?

Ultimately, I think they were real troopers. It was physically taxing. We were out in the sun all day. We were in the heat. Much of the ranch is gravel, and it offers a certain amount of resistance when you're walking across it. (laughs) I got very skinny in my four Hey Dude months because it was so hot, you just didn't want to eat too much.

But it was very beautiful. I would always make a point (to look around) when I was driving from the hotel to the ranch...because you get up at five o'clock in the morning, or working all day to write or rewrite. Also at the time I worked at Tucson I wrote an after school special, so I had a side project going.

One of the great fun things about that, and one of the advantages of living on location, I remember that I wrote a speech that I needed to hear out loud. I just called Christine and said, "Could you come here and just read this for me so I can hear how it sounds?" That was like, look, I have my acting troupe!

But they worked very hard. To get up that early, get out there, and work in the heat. And be away from the comforts of home. I know that there's something very liberating and exciting to the kids about living away from their parents. But there's also something disconcerting. You don't have your stuff. You don't have your mommy. Some of them had their cars. Kelly had her BMW there! Kelly had the red beamer.

Kelly was a model before acting on hey Dude?

They were picture frames (among many other modeling jobs). Her picture was in picture frames. I know one of the spots that she did ran forever and ever. It was an Army ad. One of the earlier "Be All That You Can Be" ads.

As a soldier?

Yes.

Do you want to play a little word association?

I'll take a chance...

David Brisbin

The grown up.

He's really a pro, really fearless. He completely threw himself into that part, body and soul. He held it to a very high standard, and I think he was a really good influence for the kids. He was really good for them to see: an actor being as serious about his work in such a goofy role.

As we never tried to write down to the show, he never acted down to the show. I think that's fiercely important when you have a young cast to have somebody there who's really worked hard and gone through all of the shit of being an actor, and approach it with a level of professionalism and passion as David did.

David Lascher

Brat.

In a good way! Very mischievous. Totally aware of how cute he is (laughs), and willing to use that. And also a real pro.

Kelly Brown

Complicated.

Kelly and I became good friends after the show was over. We had a slightly bumpier ride while I was there. I think the source of the conflict was the fact that she was not...I wished that she was more secure about her talent and her presence. I think she had an incredibly lovely presence on the show. I thought that she had enormous potential as an actress. I know that some of her insecurities about that sometimes got in her way. I think that there were ways in which I was holding her to a standard that she didn't think she met. Perhaps a little pressure. And again, "Who's this stranger coming to the party?" They had all been there for at least a year living there and here's this--talk about "New Kid on the Block"--who suddenly has authority and what have you.

Again, I think the "Miss Tucson" episode, which she and I talked about at great length later on, when all was said and done, was something that was not easy for her. Although I think she did a really good job. The speech that Brad makes at the end, and all the stuff. Even the suitcase packing, which I shamelessly stole from the movie Smile, she did great. But I wished that she felt better about her work there. I think that it was at a point in her life where--remember about where I said before about who you are when you're younger, and she was not a teenager, but still--she was trying to figure out who she was. And experiencing some of those growing pains while we were there.

The context of this was more subtextual, even in the things that I would write for her character. I would try to encourage her to stretch a little bit. And I think she did. But I think she never took the pleasure in it which she should have, because I think that she was quite good on the show.

Might that feeling have influenced her subsequent decision to leave acting?

No, I don't think so. She went back home and married a man that she'd been involved with for a very long time and really wanted to have a family. And live a not easily commutable distance to Manhattan. I think she really made a life decision and it's not to say that when her kids aren't both in school that she wouldn't go back to acting. Last I saw her she was still quite beautiful. Beautiful blue eyes.

Smile? I've never heard of that film.

Smile is a movie from the 1970's, I think. Stars Bruce Dern and Barbara Feldon. And I'm embarrassed to say, one of the beauty pageant contestants in the film does, in fact, pack a suitcase for her talent. I've since learned to curb my sticky fingers.

Christine Taylor

Really terrific.

Just wonderful energy, bright, shining, terrifically talented, terrifically energetic. She's obviously has gone on to great success. She took it very seriously and got a tremendous kick out of it. She's a good girl. She was actually in my house for a month or so when she was waiting for a new house to become ready, moving out of an old place.

The mystery man, Joe Torres.

Very much a mystery man.

A strange, interesting character. Kind of quiet. Very creative. Very off-kilter. I got a kick out of him. I actually wrote two episodes in which he was very strongly featured. He has the soul of an artist, and I think the acting thing was a strange little twist of fate for Joe. I think he liked doing it, but I never got the sense that that was how he was going to spend his life.

Josh Tygiel

Ummm...Buddy.

Very nice kid. A really nice family. They would come to the set. It was a little bit hard for him because, as the "baby" of the group, I think he had a lot of big brothers and big sisters, but wasn't really as much a part of the inner circle. He was the cast member that didn't live on location. A very nice little kid.

Jonathan Galkin

Beautiful eyes.

Another one with beautiful eyes. Completely, fiercely, passionately into music, as I am. So we would bond over that. Again, like life imitating art, there was something a little bit Jake-like. Again, when you come onto a show that's firmly established, and people have been living together, and eating, breathing, sleeping under the same roof for a long time, that there is sometimes a little bit of a struggle when you're the newcomer.

He obviously became very good friends with everybody. But for a little a while it sort of felt like he had a lot of that "Jakeness" to him. A really good kid.

Geoffrey Coy

Incredibly sweet.

Very good looking. Another one of the group who you never got the sense that this was going to be the way he was going to spend the rest of his life. I don't know what he's doing. For all I know he could be acting, but I'm not sure.

It was fun to bring in an actor and a character to kind of be a rival to Ted. He had a very different energy than David Lascher. But had a very nice physical presence with Kelly. There were a couple of triangles on the show. There would be Ted, Melody, and Brad triangle, which is reflected in the Archie, Betty, and Veronica thing. And then we had the Ted, Kyle, and Brad triangle. It was the very fast talking, East Coast Ted vs. the much more laconic cowboy. So Geoffrey really gave some nice presence to that.

Debrah Kalman

(Pauses) I think it was tricky for Deb to be the other grown up on the show, but not to be Mr. Ernst. Her role in the show...I wished we had come up with a better way to integrate her into some of the stories. She was sort of a supporting character, but it's hard to ear mark one person as that. But in fact because she was neither the person in charge nor one of the kids, it sometimes became tricky. And I know that was frustrating for her. But when we were able to write her into it, it was nice to have another grownup presence. A lot of the times, in the stories when you wanted to have someone deliver the moral of the story, it was nice to be able to go to her character. I think she was able to do that with a very nice sincerity.

Being the straight man or straight woman on a show is sometimes thankless. But I think she did it with grace.

Lisa Melamed

Ummm...you'd have to ask somebody else!

I hope a part of the team. I felt like I went there and worked as hard as I could, helped them churn it out. I was happy to be invited to that party.

You did a great, great job. And those back episodes are considered some of the best.

When you kind of get a sense that something's ending...now having done ten seasons of television out here, whether you're talking about the run of a show or a season, you kind of start with tremendous energy and vitality. Then there's always going to be a little lag in the middle, just because people get tired and you're putting out so much product. And then when you kind of see the end in sight, everybody gets a second wind. So on one hand I was there for some of the "can we go home already." Once it became clear that we could in fact go home already, then there was a tremendous sense of people pulling together, nostalgia, and appreciation for the fact that not everybody gets to do this. What a fun way to make a living.

How about "Sewn at the Hip?"

"Sewn at the Hip" was an episode I really liked, based in part on an experience I had as a teenager. Coming to realize that friendships can evolve and it doesn't make them less.

Was "Ex-Static" based on any of your experiences?

No...I know I pitched "Miss Tucson" and I know I pitched "Crush," and certainly "Sewn at the Hip" because it was based on something in my life. I think the idea of Buddy's parents was something that was given to me. I'm fairly certain that one came out of a meeting. It just evolved that I would write that.

You created some interesting interaction with Melody and Buddy, she having seen a parental breakup.

For a show that's based so much in the present, it was interesting to try and invent histories for them. I remember when Judy (Spencer) wrote Melody's brother, it was a very good episode. And just coming with the notion of, "Wouldn't it be interesting if somebody else on the ranch had particular insight?" Even on "Miss Tucson," it's a little bit hard to believe that Christine Taylor was a fat, ugly kid! Even I had to stretch to write that! But coming up with some of the histories of these characters was an interesting thing to get to do. It always came back to how can you show kindness and decency and love towards your friends, and how can you help them get through the difficulty.

Getting back to "Miss Tucson," and why I felt so proud and so proprietary about that episode, was the sacrifice that Brad makes to teach Melody, or to help Melody work through her stuff. To me it's just a very noble and lovely thing you get to do for your friends.

All of those lessons are heightened and exaggerated because it is, in fact, a television show and also a comedy...but when you strip it down, they all had important lessons. Cliff (Fagin) did that beautiful episode about the handicapped riding ("Ride, She Said"). It was an incredibly lovely--and sneaky--way to get a Christmas episode in a summer show. I thought he was very clever about that.

Closing thoughts?

From my perspective, it was really Graham Yost who was the guiding light of the show. He's a really funny and also incredibly sensitive and sincere guy. I think one of the reasons we liked each other so much is that we both took it so damn seriously! (Laughs.) I moved to Los Angeles in May of 1990, writing Hey Dude since the fall of '89. And then packed my car and drove to Tucson on September 1st of 1990. So we're literally talking ten years ago. Yet I can sit here and picture the ranch, and I can picture the hotel, the elevator in the hotel, where the mail was, people sitting around the pool...very vivid. It was very important. It was the show where my writing career began.

We'll turn on the TV one day and it'll be back. There is a trendlessness to it. There's very little of it (that's dated). There are some references, some pop culture references. But even the costumes and the way the hair is styled, they're not that set in time. It's potentially the kind of show if Nickelodeon wanted to dust it of and put it on again. There's sort of an intrinsic hokiness to it, but it has that endless summer feel. It's something they can show again and it wouldn't seem ridiculously dated. It almost felt like a period show even when we were doing it contemporary! (Laughs.)

This has been a fun trot down memory lane. I like talking about Hey Dude because there aren't many occasions to talk about it and, as I said, it's something that holds a very special place in my heart.

			Lisa Melamed Interview:
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