Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - GGACP Rewind: Episode #41: Bill Mumy

Episode Date: May 25, 2026

To mark 2015's 50th anniversary of the classic adventure series “Lost in Space,” Gilbert and Frank dial up Will Robinson himself, actor, musician and voice artist Bill Mumy, who shares childhood m...emories of working with icons Irwin Allen, Brigitte Bardot and Walt Disney and explains why he turned down the role of Eddie on "The Munsters." Also, Bill runs afoul of Alfred Hitchcock, stars in three unforgettable “Twilight Zone” episodes and records the novelty song “Fish Heads.” PLUS: “The Great Vegetable Rebellion”! Billy meets Keith Richards! Zorro meets Eva Peron! And Gilbert tangles with the Man of Steel! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 You're no longer young people. You're just people. And people are either productive or dead weight. It's my first day of work, and I need to make a big impression. Were you just checking me out? No. It's too bad. I see at least 15 ladies I need to talk to you before my beta block is off.
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Starting point is 00:00:35 That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what it. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. Ms. Gilbert Gottfried, Mrs. Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast with my co-host, Frank Santo Potra. And today we'll be talking to the kid that played Will Robinson on Lost in Space.
Starting point is 00:01:25 And aside from that, he's been on classic episodes of the Twilight Zone. Alfred Hitchcock presents. He's worked with Jack Benny. And most importantly, at 10 years old, was sharing the screen with Sex Pot, Brigitte Bardot. So let's get ready to talk to Billy Mummy. This is Gilbert Gottfried, and this is Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast. I'm here with my co-host, Frank Santo Padre, and our guest today is an actor, musician, and voiceover artist whose career has spanned 50 years.
Starting point is 00:02:17 He's been in classic TV shows like The Fugitive, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. but he'll always be known to audiences as Anthony Fremont on the Twilight Zone. And of course has Will Robinson on the series Lost in Space. He's worked with everyone from Jack Benny to Jimmy Stewart. Today he has the honor of working with me. Please welcome Billy Moomy. I'm honored to be here, Gilbert. Thank you kindly.
Starting point is 00:03:00 Thanks for doing the show, Bill. You're welcome, Frank. Thanks for having me. It's good to be here. It's real good. And Frank gave me the proper pronunciation of your name as Mummy. I hope I said it right. Yep, moo like a cow, me like me.
Starting point is 00:03:16 Yeah, I was always calling you Billy Mummey. Yeah, I've heard that one a few times, but, you know, my dad said it was this way, so I kind of, you know, went along with it. Your dad was a cattle rancher, wasn't he, Bill? He was indeed, yes, he was. And I've been a vegetarian for 35 years. That's funny. Go figure.
Starting point is 00:03:40 Now, what got you into show business? The truth of the matter is I broke my leg when I was about four years old, and I couldn't go out and run around with my pals for, you know, while I was in a cast, And I really just stared daily at Zorro on TV and Superman. Guy Williams, who eventually, you know, played my father in Lost in Space, and George Reeves as Superman. And those two caped adventurers just, you know, hit me really hard, like a religion. And I told my parents that I wanted to get inside the television set and be like them. well, A, we lived in, you know, West L.A. in Los Angeles.
Starting point is 00:04:25 B, my mother had worked as a writer's secretary at Fox Studios for 11 years before I was born. Her father, my grandfather, who had passed away before I was born, Harry Gould, had been an agent in the 30s, mostly representing directors and writers, but he had some actors. He represented Boris Karloff, got him the Frankenstein auditions and negotiations. Oh, wow. That's a cool thing. So my mother's side of the family wasn't intimidated by, impressed with, or, you know, nervous about the entertainment business. My father was, as we said, a cattle rancher. He didn't spend most of his life in L.A. He had just married my mom and moved down here from Bishop. And I was an only child, and my dad's attitude about it was, well, you know, to my mother, if you go with him and he has a good time and that's what he wants to do and that's what you want to do.
Starting point is 00:05:19 go ahead and see what happens. So my mother put me on a, got me on a show called Rompa Room, which you guys probably have heard of, which is basic. Yeah, it was like a syndicated nursery school in various sections across the country, and, you know, any civilian could sign up and get on Romp Aroom. But she was smart because she did that to see how I would react with cameras and lights and stuff. And, you know, you can't escape your destiny. I started working.
Starting point is 00:05:47 You were six when you started officially in the business? this bill? Five. Okay, so Wikipedia lied to me. Oh, oh no. Well, we'll just have to fix that one. What was the, you started going on auditions? I mean, how quickly did you, did you experience any kind of success? I did some, some print stuff when I was like barely five, maybe still four. And then the first television episodic I did, I was five and it was an episode of Riverboat. which was a CBS series that Darren McGavin was the star on. And many, many, many years later, exactly 40 years later, actually, Darren McGavin and I played the same character in the first Monacham-Gaulham Captain America movie.
Starting point is 00:06:35 Oh, I love it. I played the character in World War II, and he played the character in present day. So it was kind of a connect-a-d. The one that starred J.D. Sallinger's son. That's right, Matt Sallenger, with rubber ears on the back. Of course. It's legendary. And an Italian red skull. You know, I mean, I'm a comic book freak,
Starting point is 00:06:57 and Jack Kirby, who co-created Captain America, was a friend of mine, and I was honored to know him. Oh, how lucky for you. Yeah, you know, so anytime the opportunity to be in any kind of superhero comic book-related project has offered itself to me, I've jumped at it. And my wife was pregnant with our son at the time when we filmed that. We filmed it in Yugoslavia, which was great. Quite an adventure.
Starting point is 00:07:21 And, yeah, with all respect to Albert Paiune who directed it, it's really bad. You ever seen any of that Gilbert, the Captain America movie that was made in the... Oh, no. What was it in the... Melinda Dillon and Ronnie Cox and Darren McCaffin. And, yeah, I mean, there's some... The performances aren't that bad. In fact, the guy who played the Italian Red Skull was pretty good.
Starting point is 00:07:44 Scott Paulson, I think, was his name. But the movie, yeah, didn't make sense. It wasn't... Wasn't too great. Now, when did you get your most famous role and Lost in Space? Well, I was cast in Lost in Space in the end of 1964. I just wrapped up a movie with Jimmy Stewart for 20th Century Fox called Dear Bridget, with Bridget, with Bridget Bardot.
Starting point is 00:08:09 Oh, wait, wait, wait, hold on. You're a little boy. How old were you? All of ten, just double digits. So 10 years old, and you're with the most beautiful sexiest actress in the world? Yep. We saw a picture of you sitting on it. I think you were sitting on her lap or sitting on a bed with her, Bill?
Starting point is 00:08:31 Yeah, yes, I was both. Where every man in the world envy, Jude. I got to tell you, man, and I'm not kidding. I absolutely was very hip to how cool that was at the time. I was checking out the view, and I was the first American actor to get a screen kiss from Bridget Bardot. Oh, my God. By the time I had worked with Bridget Bardot, I had already worked with Shirley Jones and Connie Stevens and Elizabeth Montgomery and a few other safety blonde actresses that I had crushes on all of them. But Bridget Bardot was insanely hot, and we flew to France to shoot her scenes where they duplicated her cottage, uh,
Starting point is 00:09:14 down to the last book and art piece on the wall. She was very nice, and she was beautiful. And we connected via some letters in 2004 because she has a foundation for animal rights, and I donated some photographs and stuff for that. But she was really cool 40 years later to reconnect with. Ten years old in bed with Bridgety Bardot. Oh, the pain, the pain.
Starting point is 00:09:41 And Jimmy Stewart was the star of that movie. Billy, and I've heard you say that never a nicer guy. The best of the best, I have to tell you. I've worked with a lot of iconic people, you know, and we don't need to list them now. Oh, but we will. Yeah, that's all right. But, I mean, he was really a total mensch, a brilliant actor, no, nothing precious or fancy about him. You know, he hung out with the crew.
Starting point is 00:10:08 He was happy to stand in when he had to stand in for himself. He played my father. We worked together for 10 weeks. And, you know, when we weren't shooting, he was tossing the ball back and forth with me. We developed a really nice relationship. And his wife, Gloria, had been my Sunday school teacher when I was really little. And it was just a really nice relationship, and he really laid down the foundation for how you should behave as an artist and as a professional person. And, you know, I can't say I've lived up to it, but I've tried.
Starting point is 00:10:41 You played a math genius in that picture. You played his son. Yeah. Now, because of Jimmy Stewart, that reminds me because Jimmy Stewart and Jack Benny were friends. And you worked with Jack Benny. Yep, I did an episode of his television show. And it was taped live. I remember that.
Starting point is 00:11:04 I did a few live things. A thing with Bob Hope was live. I know I sound like I'm 100. Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason and Red Skelton, all those live old shows from the late 50s, early 60s. I did skips on all of those. And it was a, first of all, I got to tell you, personally, Jack Benny is one of my favorite all-time comedians.
Starting point is 00:11:26 I mean, his timing is just so great. One little look from him was so, you know, right on. And, yeah, I'm really happy to say I worked with those guys. And everybody, we've had. a few guests on the podcast who have worked with Benny, and all of them have said they just loved him as a person. Well, he and I didn't exactly, you know, go out for margaritas after we wrapped. I was probably seven at the time, six to seven, but I can recall it being, you know, a pleasant event and, you know, nothing, nothing that I would remember that would scar my young soul, unlike Alfred
Starting point is 00:12:08 Hitchcock. Oh, tell us about that. You know, I've told it, yeah, okay. So I did three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock's television series, but one of them that I'll discuss now. I was really in every shot. It was all about this kid whose
Starting point is 00:12:24 uncle comes back from a holiday, tells him he has a present for him. The kid looks out the window and all his friends are out playing cops and robbers and he goes up to the room and he goes through his uncle's suitcase and finds a revolver in a box of shells. And he takes the gun and he puts a few bullets in the chamber and puts the rest of the bullets in his pocket,
Starting point is 00:12:42 thinking that's his present and goes out to play with his friends. It's a great, powerful episodic, you know, 30 minutes about guns and all that. And during the course of this episode, he slowly but surely, he's always spin in the chambers and by the end of the show he's filled up all six chambers, and you know it's the next time he pulls a trigger, something bad's going to happen. So it's very dramatic. But the point was, I'm in like every shot. and of course there are, you know, child labor laws, and you can only work X amount of hours a day, and you have to get your schooling in, blah, blah, blah.
Starting point is 00:13:16 So we're midway through the shoot. I'd probably been working three days or something, and the welfare worker, social worker, said to the assistant director, well, you're going to lose Billy in like 10 minutes. So they wanted to get one more post-up film before they wrapped me out. And so they decided it would be smart to have me stand in for myself,
Starting point is 00:13:37 which I was fine. to cooperate and do, but I will point out the fact that I'm not a stand in, and I was seven. So I'm fidgeting around. I've been working eight hours, and I'm fidgeting around on my mark while they're trying to light me. So Alfred Hitchcock, who was sitting in his chair, gets up and waddles towards me. And I've got to tell you, he always was sweating profusely. and he wore this tight, right shirt with a black tie and a suit,
Starting point is 00:14:12 and he looked like Job of the Hut. I mean, he was really an intimidating physical presence, and I was probably 4'3-3-or-something ridiculous, weighed probably 50 pounds. He walks up to me, and he bends down, and this is exactly what he says to me, and no one can hear it but him, and he whispers in my ear, and he says, if you don't stop moving up to your mark, milk. And I'm like, I'm like, what? I mean, seriously, I'm like, huh?
Starting point is 00:15:05 That's a pretty good impression, too, Bill. So they, thank you. So they get this shot, and they wrap me out for the day, and I'm here to say that 55 years, 53 years later, if he had said to me, thank you very, I was just kidding, you know,
Starting point is 00:15:24 I wasn't really going to nail your feet to your mark. If he'd said that to me, I probably wouldn't have remembered it, right? But you could tell, I could tell, that he really
Starting point is 00:15:35 got pleasure in the knowledge, that he scared the heck out of this little kid who was working for him really hard and really doing a good job. So I could,
Starting point is 00:15:48 you know, there's something twisted about somebody who wants to scare a little kid. And I remember telling my mother, as we walked to the parking lot that night at Universal, we walked to her pink 1959 Cadillac, telling her, and he said it was going to mail my seat to the butt. And my mother just looked at me and goes, oh, honey, he's British. They have a different scent of humor. That sends it up.
Starting point is 00:16:12 And I heard for years after that, when you pass, when, his office was on the lot, you wouldn't go near it. It's absolutely true. I walk, you know, for those of us who are familiar with the layout of Universal's Main Street, Alfred Hitchcock's bungalow was at the end on the right next to Edithead's department. And, you know, you kind of had to pass it unless you walked all around a couple of stages and went out of your way.
Starting point is 00:16:45 And I went out of my way to walk around. I worked there a lot, and I went out of my way to not want to bump into him or talk to him or see him again. And you never did. That's true. No, I never did. I worked for him. I did another episode of his show after that. But he didn't direct it.
Starting point is 00:17:03 I didn't see him. So you did Bang Your Dead, was that the one you were talking about? Yes. And then you did one with Claude Rains, didn't you? Yeah, Caldor Without a Key. Yeah. What was he like? He was great.
Starting point is 00:17:16 It was really just that it was most. That show was mostly just the two of us, and John Larch, who had played my father in It's a Good Life in the Twilight Zone where I was Anthony Fremont. It was like the three of us in a police station. It was, I don't know if it holds up, but Claude Raines was great. And he was one of those actors that my mother was really, you know, excited about that I was working with. Oh, my God, honey, you're working with Claude Raines. Oh, you know, the Invisible Man and all these great films. that's great for her, but, you know, when I was that age,
Starting point is 00:17:52 I had never seen any of those movies. So, you know, it wasn't a big deal to me. I didn't get excited. The only person I really got excited about when I was little to work with and nervous about was Walt Disney. Maybe Lucy, you know, because they were, Walt Disney gave you the Mickey Mouse Club in Disneyland and Zorro and all that stuff. And Lucy, everybody knew Lucy.
Starting point is 00:18:14 But the other people that I worked with that were big stars, I hadn't really been familiar with their catalog, so I wasn't intimidated. Sure. Does it hit you all these years later when you became an adult? Oh, my God. I'm sitting there. I'm acting with Claude Raines, and I didn't even know who he was. You know what hit me, and I don't mean this in a smarmy way if it sounds that way.
Starting point is 00:18:35 What hit me is working with people as an adult who either weren't prepared or weren't very good or directors who were in a frenzy and didn't kind of, you know what I mean, and then my mind would go, geez, I worked with these guys who really had it down. You know, I worked with these guys who were, like,
Starting point is 00:18:55 were absolutely like Olympic champions in their fields. And, you know, you didn't appreciate it when you were little, and then you get into the game and you realize, oh, my God, I worked with these cats who were like, really great.
Starting point is 00:19:11 And it's a nice feeling, obviously. Okay, so now finally, I'll go back to Lost in Space. Yeah, man. So you were already like a respected actor as a little kid. Yeah, I had worked half of my life when I was cast in Lost in Space and probably had quite a pretty impressive, you know, catalog. I didn't audition for it. I just wrapped up Dear Bridget for 20th Century Fox, and Lost in Space was a lot. Fox Show and Irwin Allen who produced and created Lost in Space just cast me from doing Dear Bridgett.
Starting point is 00:19:52 But to do Lost in Space to play Will Robinson for me was exactly what I had been passionate about wanting to get into acting in the first place for. You know, he was like a little superhero. He saved the day. He had a ray gun. He actually used it. He could fly the ship. He could program the robot. He saved everybody all the time.
Starting point is 00:20:12 Will Robinson was like, man, that was all I wanted to be. So I had nothing but a great time. I was 10 when we started and made the pilot, and I was 14 when we went off the year. And those were great years for me. And those people are really still like family to me. And there you were doing scenes with Zorro. Yeah, that was, I mean, can you imagine for me? I mean, because, you know, whether I'd worked with all those other guys or not,
Starting point is 00:20:42 you know, to work with Zorro, Guy was such a, Guy Williams was such a great, impressive person. And when you stood next to him, especially when you were forced to then, you know, here was this incredibly handsome,
Starting point is 00:20:57 you know, strong, likable guy. And the, the, especially the black and white, the first 30 episodes or so that we did, there's a few really nice
Starting point is 00:21:10 father-son scenes between guy and I, that I cherish, and I see those once in a while, and this beautiful John Williams score to Lost in Space, you know. Oh, yeah. And, you know, it's nice. A lot of that holds up to me, that early adventure ensemble, sci-fi, Lost in Space stuff. Then it kind of became that campy Three Stooges thing
Starting point is 00:21:33 with Me, Smith, and the Robot, which I cherish as well from a totally different, you know, Mark's brothersish three-stoochus perspective, but the show changed so dramatically in tone. And you just brought up Mr. Smith. Dr. Smith to you, dear boy. My dramatos are your usual friends, you bubbling movie. That's great.
Starting point is 00:22:00 Now, and Frank and I would just talk you about, the amazing thing is that he always convinced to everyone. he was like a British Shakespearean actor, but he was a Jew from the Bronx. That's exactly right. Jonathan Harris reinvented himself at a very early age, and literally, honestly, down to almost the DNA of his being, he became that person. He became that theater. Someone said, are you British? He said, no, I'm just affected.
Starting point is 00:22:39 But that's who he began. And he was married for 64 years to this wonderful lady who, like, ran Clarell, and she was exactly like him. She had re-invented themselves together, and they lived this lifestyle of loveliness and gardening and lo, la-la. And they were just super wonderful people, and I loved Jonathan. And he was, if he was your friend, he was a wonderful friend. And if he didn't like you, then he, you know, he had no time for you. Which is also something I respect in a way, which I'm not really like. But, you know, sometimes when we get older, you know, you don't suffer fools anymore.
Starting point is 00:23:25 And when he was older, he did not. And I watched and witnessed that a lot. And I, you know, it was kind of, kind of impressive to see. And the two of you became close. Yes, we did. We did several animated projects together for Disney. And there were a handful of, you know, Lost in Space Reunion specials on TV and things where we went back to our roles
Starting point is 00:23:52 with the robot and he and I. And we then started hanging out, you know, and later in my life, probably the last five, six years of his life. we went to dinner, you know, every couple of months and hung out. It was really a nice relationship. And very importantly, I worked with Jonathan Harris. Oh, yeah, you were telling me. In the forgotten Problem Child cartoon series.
Starting point is 00:24:20 Oh. Yeah. And he all, writing, he was always there a half hour late and completely, probably ready to do his stuff. Oh, yeah. You know, I thought I was one of those people, Billy. the thought he was just thought he was a British actor, the thought he was a trained, a Shakespearean actor, and no idea that he was from the Bronx, a Jewish guy from the Bronx.
Starting point is 00:24:40 And they were a poor family. Oh, they were so poor. There's no punchline, by the way. But they were literally so poor that when he was, I think the story was he was around 12, 13, 14, they rented his room out in order to, you know, pay their bills, and he slept on the dining room table for a couple of years. They were really, really poor, and I know that Jonathan was, you know, not poor when he passed away.
Starting point is 00:25:15 We'll put it that way. He did very well, and I'm happy for that. Wow. I was doing research about him. I mean, I learned so much, and I didn't know that he was in a spinoff of the third man that they made a series. Yeah, he worked with Michael Rennie for a couple of years. Michael Rennie. And then Michael Rennie came and did the only two-part episode of Lost in Space.
Starting point is 00:25:36 We played like an intergalactic collector of species called The Keeper, which was a really good show because, you know, obviously we had two hours to do it. I can't believe it's so incredible. I keep talking about Harris. Yeah, he's an interesting man. But like a poor Jew from the Bronx who looks like he's lived in wealth his whole life in, you know, from England. You think he was to the manner of. to look at it. Yes. Yep, and he just completely reinvented himself. It was a conscious transformation, and it became reality. I mean, that's really who he became. It wasn't an act.
Starting point is 00:26:15 He became that, but it obviously took decades to metamorphosize into that reality of it just became his natural self. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast after this. Now, we have to jump to your proudest moment on Lost in Space, the Vegetable episode. Oh, God. The Great Vegetable Rebellion, where we're working opposite talking carrots. Jonathan took root as a celery stock. Guy Williams and June Lockhart couldn't stop laughing and were written.
Starting point is 00:27:01 out of the next two episodes is punishment. Is that true? Yeah. Oh, that's wild. Yeah. And me, you know, to me, I'm just thinking, this is just a bad comic book, and I'm just going to, you know,
Starting point is 00:27:13 to me, Will Robinson was always this little superhero. That's who I kind of, you know, wanted him to be, whether it was, you know, Zorro or Superman, whatever, those were the things that, you know, were inspiring me. So I just tried to keep the straight face. And I did keep the straight face, but that was, the show got absolutely,
Starting point is 00:27:31 just campy and ridiculous. But you know, you have to look back and realize that was 1967, that whole psychedelic period in our pop culture, you know, and it's such a unique frozen little era where, you know, God, Richard Nixon was on laughing. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah, sure. It was just a really weird pop art, campy.
Starting point is 00:27:58 And we were up as Batman was on the same time as Lost. Space. We were on the air before Batman, but then they came on, and they were opposite us. And in our second season, when we went to color, everything just became so unbelievably, you know, bright and crazy. I think Batman really helped Irwin Allen, who created and produced Lost in Space, to turn the show into more of a campy direction. And Jonathan certainly did that. He used to rewrite all of his dialogue. And he knew at the beginning, beginning of the series that Dr. Smith, his character as a saboteur, you know, wouldn't last long. He'd probably be killed off. So he slowly, over the course of the first season, turned the character
Starting point is 00:28:42 into more of this comedic, bumbling, you know, alliterative, insulting Dr. Smith that is the majority of the episodes. And the more he did that, the better our ratings were. So Erwin Allen, you know, kind of gave him free reign to rewrite the character. And, you know, it's a weird. period in time, that pop art period. And I heard during the vegetable episode, he's obsessed with the vegetable episode. Yeah, people are dressed up as carrots and giant oranges. Yeah, can you imagine the auditions for that? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:15 Just imagine. And if you look at it, I'm sure you can Google it or whatever it might be, but if you look at it, I mean, it's just, God, awful, ridiculous. It's so bad. But it's so bad, it's deliciously bad. I know what Dan Aykroyd would have said on Saturday Night Live is what Leonard Pinskarnel, it's deliciously bad. And I heard Jonathan Harris went to the writers and said, you know, this is shit that you've written here. And the writers turned to him and said, we just couldn't think of another goddamn idea.
Starting point is 00:29:53 Well, that sounds about right. That sounds about right. The series is coming out on... on Blu-ray. Oh, good. And we're doing a bunch of little, I can't go into the details, but we're doing a bunch of special little bits for it, you know, that are, for the die-hard loss in space fans,
Starting point is 00:30:12 it's going to be very, very cool. You know what, I watched the show as a kid, Bill. Correct me if I'm wrong. I always thought that the Irwin Allen series recycled costumes. Oh, absolutely. First of all, I used to ride my bike, my purple-swin-stingray, which I still have. I used to ride that bike from my house to 20th century Fox
Starting point is 00:30:34 because it was less than a mile away. And in those years, I was at Fox from 64 through 68. And you had not just Irwin's show. Irwin had a voyage to the bottom of the sea, Lost in State, Time Tunnel, Land of the Giants. You had Batman, you had the Green Hornet, you had Peyton Place, Daniel Boone, 12 o'clock, high. What was that, that, oh, the fantastic voyage. Then they started doing Planet the Apes and
Starting point is 00:31:09 Hello Dolly. The studio was just incredible. A Peyton Place. It was just, you'd go to that commissary every day and it was just so cool. It was such a great lot to be on. But yeah, Irwin would, you know, put, Irwin Allen would have some guy, some stunt guy in a rubber suit on voyage to the bottom of the sea in stage 10, and that guy would be green. And then he'd walk him over to our set on stage 11, and they'd spray paint him orange. And, you know, he'd be over another week.
Starting point is 00:31:41 Now, what happened? Now, the show goes off the air, and tell us what happened to your father on this show, former Zorro Guy Williams. Guy Williams. Well, Guy actually relocated, as a guest of Ava Peron down in Argentina
Starting point is 00:32:05 where he was just worshipped as Zoro and he made appearances as Zorro in Argentina where as a guest of the government they gave him this incredible apartment and on the water or something and he was treated like the king and he lived out his days
Starting point is 00:32:25 kind of as a Zoro celebrity as a guest of the government of Argentina. I never saw a guy after we rapped. You know, we had, we finished 84 episodes of Lost in Space. We wrapped for the end of the third season. Of course, in those days, you know, a season was like 26, 30-some episode. Today, a season is what, you know, six or ten or whatever it is. But in those days, we, it was quite a longer.
Starting point is 00:32:52 And so Guy Williams, just because he played Zorro. Fascinating. Yeah, was like a god there. Yeah, he was treated like a beetle. Yeah, he was absolutely treated like an Elvis beetle down there. And he wasn't even Spanish. He was an Italian guy from New York. Armando Catalano.
Starting point is 00:33:12 Right, exactly. He's a wonderful man. Very, very smart. He used to, honestly and truly, I mean that seriously, he used to buy stocks on the set phone. These are years before anybody had cell phones, right? He'd be over on the phone on the stage, buying stock at like 7 o'clock in the morning, and he'd sell it at like, you know, 11 or 12 and make a few thousand dollars. He told my mother that I should buy some AT&T stock,
Starting point is 00:33:44 and I think she bought me $1,000 worth of AT&T or something like that, that eventually, you know, split and became every telecommunications company you can think of. It was a really good investment. Isn't show business great, Bill, an Italian guy from Manhattan, can be revered as a god in Buenos Aires because he wore a cape on television? It's a wacky, cookie world, man. And I mean that, conca chon kong. And I heard when he was living there, he grew back his Zora.
Starting point is 00:34:17 That's right. I heard that, too. Yeah, and he made appearances, you know, in the cape and that and everything. But, I mean, how cool is that? I think it's great. I know that he loved being Zorro, and I know that he grew to be disappointed in the direction that Lost in Space took. You know, there wasn't even a Dr. Smith in the pilot. It was really just the family against the alien environment stranded out there trying to make their way back to Earth.
Starting point is 00:34:44 And then Dr. Smith was added, and, you know, it became kind of the three stooges of Smith robot and me. but but I mean I and I do want to clarify that there was never ever a bad nasty vibe on our set between the cast the fact that Jonathan Harris who became Dr. Smith you know kind of turned the series or the show became his vehicle that might have bugged the heck out of Guy but Jonathan and Guy got along very well it was a very pleasant set to work on from my perspective and I worked you know a lot on it. But I think Guy was much happier with his legacy of Big Zorro than he was with his legacy of being Professor John Robinson. Why did they change the theme? I'm sorry to interrupt you, Bill. Why did they change the theme
Starting point is 00:35:32 song? I always wondered. I don't know. They were both written by John Williams. They're both great in different ways. And I think it was just, you know, we're entering that pop 1967 kind of era. And I think, you know, it's a hypothesis because no one consulted me at the time. But I think they wanted more of a poppy thing. I see. You know? So the great John Williams, you know, gave it to him. Who went on to do Star Wars? And Jaws?
Starting point is 00:35:58 Oh, yeah, but he cut his teeth on Lost in Space. And those themes that he wrote for our series from 65 through 68, they're great. I love them. I love them. I love the second. I like the second one better, but they're both great.
Starting point is 00:36:13 Oh, it's just great. It's infectious. Yeah, I agree. Now, you also were in more Twilight Zone episodes than Ron Sterling. You know something? I'm very, very proud of those Twilight Zone in the sense that I think they hold up really well. And, you know, I'm not embarrassed to say I think I turned in good performances in those shows. But, I mean, I'm working opposite Jack Klugman. I'm working opposite Gloucman.
Starting point is 00:36:45 And, you know, those were brilliantly written scripts by Rod Serling. And I'm so grateful to have had those opportunities. And I do think they hold up really well. The Jack Klugman one is one of my favorites. Yeah. That's the first American television show that addresses the subject of American casualties in Vietnam. And that was 1963. Yeah, he finds out his son was shot.
Starting point is 00:37:15 And he realizes he's always ignored his son, and he wants to have one day with him. It's a beautiful episode, and we filmed that episode at an amusement park on the Santa Monica Pier by the ocean here in California, late at night after the pier had closed, and it was creepy. You know, because it's not like you're being in Disneyland. It's that spooky kind of boardwalk games and house of mirrors, and most of that stuff was shot in the House of Mears, and most of that stuff was shot in the house of mirrors, and I'm playing basically a ghost. So they put these little tiny pieces of tape on these mirrors
Starting point is 00:37:54 that the camera would be below the frame, but I would see through my peripheral vision these little tiny pieces of tape and kind of float through the maze of mirrors, and Jack Klugman would follow me and smash into the mirrors and stuff like that. But it was a creepy shoot. That part of it,
Starting point is 00:38:13 was really creepy. And I'll tell you, a funny memory that I just had. My father very rarely went on sets with me, but it was a night shoot that part of the show was a night shoot. He came down to the Santa Monica Pier with my mom that night that we shot that. And Jack Klugman, when he reunites with his son who's supposedly dying in Vietnam, and he comes back as this little boy, me, when he reunites with him, he's just overwhelmed with emotion and he just grabs me and kisses me and hugs me. And he was such, Jack was such a mensch. He walked over to my mom and dad and said,
Starting point is 00:38:53 look, I just want you to know when we're shooting this next scene, your son is my little boy come back to life. I'm really going to kiss him. I'm really going to hug him. I'm going to slobber on him. And I just want you to know in advance that, you know, I respect you and I hope that that doesn't bother you. My folks are like, no, you're acting.
Starting point is 00:39:11 It's great. But it was such so sweet of Jack, Bruckman, too, of, you know, been such a mention, go over there and tell my parents that he was going to kiss me and stuff like that. He and I reminisced several years later, decades later, about that. And we were both very proud to be a part of that show. I don't think you would do. You never met Jack Klugman. No. I never met him either, but was he a sweet man, Bill?
Starting point is 00:39:35 He was a great man. He was an extremely energetic in a totally positive way. and he was a dedicated actor, and I have nothing but praise and gratitude that I worked with him. Then he would later become famous with the odd couple and Quincy. Yeah, absolutely. He had a really great career. And so you really like Klugman?
Starting point is 00:40:02 He was a joy to work with. And, you know, this, without trying to sound like a politician, there's very few people that I worked with. They weren't nice and easy going. And, you know, the thing is, as you know, Gilbert, there's nothing more collaborative than a crew and a cast. All it takes is one guy to drop the boom mic into frame and it screws it up for everybody. All it takes is one actor to show up unprepared and, you know, there's 20 takes later. So, you know, when you get a good crew and a good cast that groove together and things are moving along in a positive attitude and nobody's being a fabulous jerk or
Starting point is 00:40:40 anything, you know, it makes such a difference. You know, it's nice to have that energy where everybody's clicking. Now, then there was another famous episode, classic Twilight Zone. It's a good life. Yeah, that's the one that I'm probably best known for. Anthony Fremont. wishing everybody away into the cornfield. I should tell our listeners that I was a little late getting here in New York traffic, and when I first introduced myself to Billy over the phone, he said, I was thinking about wishing you into the cornfield, but I'll catch you some slack. It was good that you shared that little story. That's real good. I was honored.
Starting point is 00:41:23 You know, I just saw Cloris Leachman two weeks ago, who played my mom in that episode, and played my mom three other times, four other times. And, you know, any actor, any actor, who has the opportunity to, work opposite Chloris, someone of her level, you can't help but have your own game bumped up. You know, it's like jamming with Eric Clapton or something. You know, when you're playing with somebody that great, you're either going to rise to the occasion or you're just going to, you know, freak out and not be able to handle it. And working with Chloris, which I was lucky enough to do four or five times, was always just an
Starting point is 00:42:05 unbelievable on her and bumped my game up, really. We'd love to have her on the show. We're fans. She's fantastic. She is brilliant. She is just amazing. And great at comedy. Great at comedy.
Starting point is 00:42:18 And I did a Comedy Central roast with Gloria Lechman. Yes, you did, didn't you? And Cloris Leachman was hysterical. Yeah, and she'll go there, right? Yes. Yeah. No, she is a very special. multi-talented, impressive human being.
Starting point is 00:42:39 I remember she got up on stage and looked at the dais and said, I wish someone would punch me so I could see stars. That's great. That's great. She really committed to that. I'm sure she'd never done anything like that in her life. Oh, I love that. And then she said,
Starting point is 00:43:04 And you'll have to excuse me if I'm not familiar with any of you. All I ever do is go to movies, watch TV, and read magazines. Funny. Wow. Wow. I wish someone would punch me so I could see stuff. I love that. How old were you when you did that Twilight Zone episode, Bill?
Starting point is 00:43:26 Because I have to say you were genuinely frightening, even as a child. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I'm proud of that performance, actually, if that doesn't sound silly. I was seven or, yeah, I was seven. And then you did it. I think I was seven. I was just on the cusp of six, seven.
Starting point is 00:43:47 Now, now I remember, I think another one of your accomplishments was being in a movie, hard to hold. Hard to watch. Hot. Let me just, Gilbert, let me just clarify this. Let me say this, okay? There's a swimming pool in my backyard. Hard to hold paid for it.
Starting point is 00:44:11 Wow. Okay? Hard to watch. Rick Springfield was a great guy. I got to meet Keith Richards because Patty, his wife Patty, was in that movie, and he came down to the set, which to me was, you know, I'm very happy that I got to say hi, Keith, although I'm sure he doesn't remember because I don't think he was awake.
Starting point is 00:44:33 but, you know, Rick Springfield was a really nice guy, and la-di-da. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast, but first a word from our sponsor. Visit BetMDMDM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMDM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly, 19 plus to wager, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor.
Starting point is 00:45:15 Free of charge. BetMGEM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Now, did you ever meet Rod Serling? Oh, yeah, yeah. He and I used to play mahjong together every Thursday. Wow! I'm kidding him. Oh, yeah. God damn it.
Starting point is 00:45:33 Of course I met him. I want to picture Rod Serling playing monsohn. Yes. So he would direct or write? Well, he wrote. Yeah. And he would come, you have to think of it this way. There's no regular cast to the Twilight Zone, right?
Starting point is 00:45:53 So every episode, the only regular cast member is Rod Serling, who comes in to do his intros and outros. So, A, what happens in a long-running television show? series when there is no regular cast. Nobody becomes a fabulous schmuck because you come in for three or four days and you're done. So everybody's on their best behavior. It's wonderful, right? And Rod Serling is the only on-camera regular and the crew loves him. And because he's, you know, creating these shows, writing these beautiful scripts, all of the different heads of his apartments, they just want to talk to them about next week's script that they've gotten, oh, wow, we were going to get this prop for this or that, or, hey, Rod, what about this
Starting point is 00:46:39 for the... I just remember him as being really friendly, really light, not that heavy kind of on-camera presence that you might think, brooding or anything like that, no, really light, really easy, really friendly, the kind of, you know, executive who, when he comes on the set, the whole crew wants to talk to him, whereas opposed to, like, let's say, lost in space, Irwin Allen would come on the set and he would tap his watch. Time is money and everybody would be like, okay, Irwin's here, you know, tension and
Starting point is 00:47:12 not that he wasn't a nice guy, but, you know, when he was on the set, everybody was like nervous and on their best behavior and he'd tap his watch. And when Rod Serling came to the Twilight Zone's own, the three that I did anyway, everybody from every department was like really happy to see
Starting point is 00:47:28 him and had questions about the next episode or whatever. And the only thing that I remember with sadness is that he chain smoked and it killed him at such an early age
Starting point is 00:47:40 because he was such a fantastic and unique and visionary and you know with a strong social commentary you know he was such a great talent
Starting point is 00:47:53 because you could have the Simps Gilbert you could read an unpublished Rod Serling story and everybody would immediately I think recognize that
Starting point is 00:48:03 this is a Rod Serling script. He had an iambic pentameter or rhythm to the way he would write dialogue that was really recognizable and so powerful that he's just like Jimmy Hendricks. You know, if you hear Jimmy Hendricks play guitar, you know, oh, that's Jimmy Hendricks. You don't wonder if, is that Eric Clapton? Is that Mike Bloomfield? Is that George Harrison? No, you know that's Jimmy Hendricks. And when you hear Rod Serling's dialogue, you know that's Rod Serling. And it was, it was was an honor to work with him. And your other one, another very creepy twilight zone.
Starting point is 00:48:41 Well, that's a spooky one. A long distance call. Yeah. Yeah, that was the first one I did. It was one of six Twilight zones that were shot on videotape, not film, because, you know, some brilliant, you know, bean counter at the network decided they should cut the budget and go from film to tape. So they only did six of them on tape.
Starting point is 00:49:03 So it really stands out as that hard-looking video of the day. But it's a very powerful episode. It was the first one I did. And my mom almost didn't let me do it because the character, you know, for the audience. You know, this little boy and his grandmother gives him a toy telephone for his birthday. And then she goes upstairs and dies. And then she calls him on the toy telephone. throughout the episode and tries to get him to join her in death.
Starting point is 00:49:39 And during the course of the show, the little boy tries to kill himself several times. He runs out into traffic. He jumps into the pond and almost drowns. I think there's a, I can't remember anything. He jumps off a balcony. It's been about 50s six years. Anyway, my mother didn't, was very recalcitrant about me. accepting that role because she didn't want it to give me ideas.
Starting point is 00:50:08 Like, you know, I don't want Billy to think if he, you know, jumps in the pool, he'll get his way, or I don't want him to, you know, anyway, all I can say is I'm very glad my mother decided that was a good role and we did it because that was the first of the Twilight Zone I did. And yeah, it's a very dramatic, very powerful show. And you worked with Walt, you met Walt Disney. Mm-hmm. I did indeed, several times. and yeah, I did several Disney movies when Walt was still on the lot and still alive, and without going into a long story, I can just say that was an incredibly unique lot when Disney was there. It was really a fun place to work.
Starting point is 00:50:51 You'd wrap for lunch, and there'd be tons of ping pong tables outside by the commissary, and people from every different production on the lot would be out just playing ping pong. and I mean it was honestly I mean it it was like a really fun lot to work on and uh Walt who said to me call me Uncle Walt Billy he was you know he was nothing but generous and and kind to me
Starting point is 00:51:21 although one day he mixed me up with the kid the red-haired kid who was doing Mary Poppins and I was walking to the commissary and Walt Disney called me aside and he said Billy, I No, he didn't, he didn't say Billy at that point in time because he mixed me up with that kid whose name I can't remember.
Starting point is 00:51:40 But he, the kid from Mary Poppins had been falling asleep on the set. And he pulled me aside and said, I really want you to make sure you're going to bed early enough at home. And I would, yes, Mr. Disney. And I looked at him like, what the hell are you talking about?
Starting point is 00:51:57 Right. And then later on, it was like, oh, I'm sorry, Billy. I thought you were that Mary Popper. And I used to do a lot of work on MTV. So I remember a video called Fishheads. Yes, indeed. Oh, you have said Dr. Demento staple.
Starting point is 00:52:17 Yes, indeed. The number one most requested song. The history of the Dr. Demento show, Rolling Stone, named it number 57 of the best videos of all times. Thank you very much. So you can pose fish heads. That's my partner and I is Barnes & Bens. Barnes doing some quirky novelty, you know, sci-fi rock and roll and fish heads just was the crown jewel in our little showbiz tiara. Can you sing a little of fish heads? Fish heads, fish heads, roly-poly fish heads, eat them up, yum.
Starting point is 00:52:52 I took a fish head out to see a movie. Didn't have to pay to get it in. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. Any more is going to cost you a t-shirt and a cap. I just want to go back to something quick. I have a list here.
Starting point is 00:53:14 So much of the television you did in the same, I mean, even before, Lost in Space, you're on the Loretta Young show. You did General Electric Theater. Dick Powell Theater, you did Going My Way with Gene Kelly. We talked about Jimmy Stewart. I dream of Jeannie, Bewitched. Jack Benny.
Starting point is 00:53:30 Jack Benny. We talked about Alphine Young. We talked about Alfred Young. But here's something near and dear to my hearts and to Gilbert's hearts. You were googie on the Munsters. Yeah, man. Absolutely. You bet your butt I was googie.
Starting point is 00:53:42 And Grandpa turns you into a chimp. Yep. Well, no, it was a practical joke that I played on. Oh, that's right. Grandpa, it wasn't really a chimp. I brought that chimp in. But the trivial pursuit reality of that is it was the same chimp that went on to play the bloop on Austin Space. Wow.
Starting point is 00:54:00 You know, and with all props to Butch Patrick, who was Eddie Munster. And we talked to Butch on the show. And I like Butch. He's a friend of mine, and he did a great job. But I was offered the role of Eddie Munster, and I turned it down because of the makeup. And if I had done Eddie Munster, I wouldn't have done Will Robinson. But many years later, I did a television series called Babylon Five for five years, where I played an alien.
Starting point is 00:54:31 And that makeup thing came back to bite me on the butt really hard. What do you remember about Fred Gwynn and Al Lewis? They come up on the show a lot, Bill. Well, Al was a crack-up, right? I mean, we all grew up watching Al on, I mean, before. Car 54. Exactly, which I loved. And Fred, too.
Starting point is 00:54:55 Al did an episode of Lost in Space where he played a sorcerer, and he and Jonathan Harris were, oh my gosh, they were just like Martin and Lewis. They were so funny together. What I really remember about working on that show was the intensity of the makeup that Fred Gwynne went through to become Frankenstein, right? And what's interesting, just a little side note, is my grandfather, who passed away before I was born, who had been an agent, had gotten, you know, Boris Karloff a job as Frankenstein. So when I was working with Fred Gwyn, in that Frankenstein makeup, it was like, wow, it's all kind of come full circle, Moly. That's interesting. We had Sarah Karloff on the show.
Starting point is 00:55:39 Oh, Sarah's a friend, yeah. She's great. And so your grandfather? Tell us again. Give us the story. My grandfather, Harry Gould, nice Jewish man, was Boris Karloff's agent. And he was mostly represented writers and directors in the late 30s and 40s. But one of his acting clients was Boris Karloff.
Starting point is 00:56:00 And Boris Karloff was driving a truck back and forth between L.A. and San Francisco. And my grandfather, who passed away before I was born, my grandfather, the story goes, told him, you know, to get his self back here as quick as possible because he had an audition for a movie, you know, Universal. And he definitely repped him during that period and negotiated his Frankenstein deal. And my mother's family was given a pair of Scotty dogs by Boris Karloff's gratitude. And James Wales, who directed Frankenstein, I heard he didn't like Boris Karloff, and he used to look down on him and call him a truck driver. Well, he was a truck driver.
Starting point is 00:56:51 Yeah. He was indeed a truck driver, which certainly is. is an acknowledgement of a hardworking laborer's job in the hard times that that era was in, you know, all drops to Boris Karloff. Also, when we talked to Sarah and we talked to Bella Lagosie Jr. too, I mean, one of the things we covered was that Bella, and Bear Me Out on this, but that he turned down the monster part because he didn't want to, among other reasons, he didn't want to go through the makeup process. And you turned down any monster for the same reason.
Starting point is 00:57:23 That's absolutely true. That's kind of cool. Yeah. It's absolutely true. Now, what nationality are you now? Earth, Earthling. Oh, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Earthling, I'm a mutt, you know?
Starting point is 00:57:37 I don't like to think of these tribal little clubs. You have a bunch of different, so you're part Jewish, at least. My grandfather was Jewish. Yes, I'm happy to be everything, you know what I mean? I guess I'm Moomy. My father says, of the family is Pennsylvania Dutch, whatever
Starting point is 00:57:59 that means, which goes you know, goes back, there's like many generations of California Mumies. My father was born in 1904, and he was born in California. His father was born, you know, whenever before that, he was born in Ohio.
Starting point is 00:58:16 So it's an American, Moomy is an American thing that goes then, I guess, back to Dutch, German, whatever. I don't know. And my, and my mother's side of family is Gould, G-O-U-L-D, which was, she came from Detroit, and her father, Harry Gould, who was Boris Carlis-Chaloff's agent, came from Detroit, and I don't know before that, you know. It's all just a quilt.
Starting point is 00:58:43 I'm just amazed that Billy Mummy is part Jewish, because you always struck me as the ultimate goyam. Oh, you know, I grew up in Beverlywood, man. And every single, everybody, and I mean literally, everybody that I went to school with was Jewish, and I used to, because of my father and because of my mother, being a little bit of both, I took off every holiday you could possibly. And I went to public school. That's great.
Starting point is 00:59:16 Well, I just want to ask you a couple of other things about Lost in Space before we wrap it up, and then you plug the Blu-ray again. Two things. One is, what did you think of the big budget picture with the William Hurt and Gary Oldman picture? Next. Okay. That's honest. And didn't you have a Lost in Space project of your own or a script of your own that you got everybody interested in,
Starting point is 00:59:39 except the person that you needed to take an interest in it? I did. Many, many, many years ago, 19, God, when was that? 1980 or something. Yeah, I did. I had written a resolution movie of the week that I had taken to the cast members and to CBS. I mean, it was really stupid of me and presumptuous of me when I look back on it. I wrote this script, and then I took it to the cast and got their kind of feedback and made a few tweaks,
Starting point is 01:00:07 and then I took it to a guy named Andy Siegel, who had been a PA, a production assistant on Lost in Space, but at the time was like the head of CBS. I took it to him, and he was like, yeah, they will do this. and then I took it to Erwin Allen, which was, it was completely his. He owns it. It was all his, right? So when I look back on it, the fact that I didn't immediately go to Irwin was really stupid of me. But Irwin shut me down really hard.
Starting point is 01:00:37 You know, he just said, you know, look, if I, this was kind of right after the towering inferno and beside an adventure. Oh, yeah. He was making big features. He was on a run. And he said to me, look, if I ever want to go back. to Lost in Space, you know, I'll call your agent, but I don't, I don't appreciate you kind of stirring this soup up. And he was right. I got to say, it hurt me at the time, because it was a labor of love for me, you know, I just kind of felt, I grew, I was 10 through 14 on Lost
Starting point is 01:01:07 Space, and those relationships, not only with the people, but with the characters, was really resonating within me, and I wanted to resolve it and all that stuff. But he was right. He was right to say, you know, don't mess with my stuff. He was right. But all I can say is I'm looking forward to this release of the Lost in Space project that's coming out because there's some bonus material, that's all I can say, that just might strike a resonant chord with the subject we're talking about. Oh, good. I'm looking forward to that. One thing about Irwin Allen, by the way, I think Gilbert and I have a bone to pick, a particular bone to pick with Erwin Allen, because he put the Marx Brothers in a movie and then separated them. The story of mankind.
Starting point is 01:01:55 Yes. One of the worst movies of all time. You know, Irwin had some winners and some clonkers, and one of the things that I think he was really good at was kind of assembling a team. He was good at getting the initial group of people and crew, actors and crew and stuff. musicians, etc. Together. But then it was hit and miss with him, you know? But hey, who might argue with a legacy like that?
Starting point is 01:02:28 I mean, you know, he ended up a very, very wealthy man. Oh, Poseidon Inventure, Towering Inferno. The Poseid Inferno, both pretty good. Yeah. Yeah, no, I agree completely. But, I mean, I don't know if you ever saw his Alice in Wonderland movie the week. No, I was thinking of the swarm. Look, there were a couple of cluckers.
Starting point is 01:02:50 If it weren't for Erwin, I probably wouldn't be on the phone with you now. And when I was a boy, I never had a bad moment with him. I used to go up to his office on the Fox lot, and he would give me the toys and the licensing little chotchkes that lost in space made and stuff. And, you know, when I was there from the age of 10 to 13, Erwin was never a pain in the butt to me. he was always fine. It was only later when I tried to kind of wrestle that into my own control or my own vision, which really wasn't my place to do when I think about it. Only then did he kind of stick his arm out and say,
Starting point is 01:03:34 stop right there, pal, this is mine, and, you know, I don't want you messing around with it. And he was right, you know, I got to say. I felt proprietary about it from an emotional place. And I wrote the Lost in Space comic book for years. You know, that stuff has resonated within me. Those characters seem to wake up within me sometimes and kind of want to be heard. But you've got to remember who they are, and there is. And you and just as slightly off the topic, but you and Gilbert were both in episodes of Superboy.
Starting point is 01:04:08 Yeah. You know, we did. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I did three episodes. Well, he did the... Was yours the animated? I did the live... I did both. Yeah, I did three episodes of the...
Starting point is 01:04:24 Didn't you do the Weird Al show? Yes! Yes! I did the Weird Al show. In fact, I introduced Al to his incredibly beautiful life. That was a setup from me. Wow. Yeah. I think we've probably done several of the same, you know,
Starting point is 01:04:43 shows i know that fish heads initially ran on saturday night live around the time you were on it yes and and i yeah i did weird out show and superboy i did the superboy series what did you play on a knick knick a knack the master of toys you were a villain yes and that was a fun show did you know you went down to florida right yes yeah that was fun i did three of those uh and david nutter went on to direct the X-Files and a lot of good quality sci-fi primetime TV. He directed the three episodes that I did. I had a blast doing that show. Oh, yeah, David Nutter directed the ones I was in.
Starting point is 01:05:27 Cool. And also, what's the main guy from the Superman series? Christopher... No, no, no. The producer... Oh, Ilya. Oh, Ilya Salkin. Ilya Salkin was there.
Starting point is 01:05:45 Yeah, cool. Yeah, that was fun, right? Went down to Orlando or whatever. Yeah, they put you in a wacky outfit and you just had fun. And I was Miss Yes Piclick and I think about two episodes of the Superman cartoon. I never know how to say that character's name. Yeah. Yeah, but that's so cool.
Starting point is 01:06:07 How do you say that character's name again? Yeah, he said it. He said it exactly to where I've always. Set it in my head, yeah. Mixed-S-Pidilic. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:06:17 And Tim Dale. The imp from the fifth dimension. Yeah. Tim Daly was Superman in that. That's right. Those are great, man. I love being, don't you love being a part of that history? Oh, absolutely.
Starting point is 01:06:29 And I wrote a Superboy comic book. Yeah, that's cool. I've written a lot of comic books. But I'll tell you, just in terms of comic books, the coolest thing in essence that I've ever done. was I had a dinner party here with Jerry Siegel, Bob Kane, and Jack Kirby. Wow. Oh, wow. Right?
Starting point is 01:06:52 And between the three of those guys, they pretty much created everybody. And, of course, they were well aware of each other. But they hadn't been in the same room with each other in like 45 years. Wow, that's good stuff, Bill. Yeah. I very briefly at some convention met Noel Neal and Jack Larson. Jack Larson, yeah. And that was a treat for me.
Starting point is 01:07:21 They're both really nice. You know, I did one of those Superman shows in Cleveland. I think it was the 50th, this is how long ago it was, I think it was the 50th anniversary of Superman, and it was in Cleveland. And I was with those guys with Noel and Jack. And boy, you know, there's a whole subject we could talk about another time. We'll do it. The old George Reeves thing, you know.
Starting point is 01:07:43 Oh, my God. Yeah, they told me some really, you know, mind-blowing stuff there. But we'll say that for another show. Another one. Is Noel Neal still with us? Yeah. We should have her and Jack Larson on the same. You know who else is still with us?
Starting point is 01:07:59 He's still a coat. Is she still around? Oh, my God. She's at the actor's home. Wow. Here in the valley in L.A. by the Pankham. No, and she was the first Lois Lane on the television series. She was like the tough talking.
Starting point is 01:08:14 Oh, she was great. The black and white ones. That's great. Noel Neal became more like family-friendly. Yes. Noel is a wonderful lady, and I'm honored to have spent time with her. But I think Phyllis Coates, Lois Lane, was a much tougher. stronger character.
Starting point is 01:08:38 Yeah, well, she was like more, I think when they tried it at first, they wanted to make it like a 40s film. Yeah, like a serial. And, you know, if you look at that first season, I think there were 30-some episodes with Phyllis Coates. She had equal billing to George Reeves on those shows. Same size, first card. George Reeves and Phyllis Coats. Bam, bam. It's a little bit like Lost in Space and that it's a show that started out a little bit more serious and then became campier as it went to, as it went into a couple of seasons.
Starting point is 01:09:11 When it went color, it got a lot lighter. I remember the first one with the moleman is scary. No one's ever made that comparison before, and I think you're absolutely right. And I love both versions of Lost in Space, so what do I know? Yeah, I mean, I prefer the black and white, but I certainly can embrace the pop culture. and the comedy of the second season. And the third season is kind of an amalgam of both. You know, half the third season is kind of straight ahead,
Starting point is 01:09:42 and then half the third season is still campy. But, yeah, the older I get, the more I can embrace all of it. Okay, well, the most important thing you've said, the biggest revelation is that Billy Mummy, Billy Mummy, is a Jew. I thought the most important revelation was that he had the Hots for Bridget Bardot at 10. Yes, I wear both of them with pride. Well, this has been Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast with my co-host, Frank Santopatra,
Starting point is 01:10:24 and we have been talking to the great Billy Mummy, who at 10 years old, fuck the Bridget Bardot. I wish. Bill, tell us again about the Blu-Rays and anything else you want to promote. Well, I have a new album coming out next month, and it's, you know, it's pretty good. We didn't even get into your music. You're an accomplished musician. You play many instruments.
Starting point is 01:10:54 I do, indeed. You play in a band with Jose Ferrer's son, all kinds of cool shit. You know, yeah, it's a long list, but it's, it's all. good. It's creative energy that gets exercised, so I'm grateful. The Lost in Space Blu-ray of the entire series with some, and I can't go into it,
Starting point is 01:11:12 but I can tell you, really cool bonus bits will be coming out in September, I think, is the release date. But we're still putting that all together right now. I'm so grateful that I'm part of the creative, you know,
Starting point is 01:11:27 part of that. And things are good, you know. can't complain. So far, so good. Onwards. You had a hell of a fun run. I'll tell you, you've worked with everybody. Let's keep going, right? Thanks for doing it. Thank you, Billy. Boom. My pleasure, guys. Best of luck with everything, and see you around.

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