THE MAN BEHIND ISIS
BRIAN CUTLER TALKS TO retroCRUSH ABOUT HIS ROLES ON "THE SECRETS OF ISIS", "MORK & MINDY", "THE INCREDIBLE HULK", "CHARLIE'S ANGELS", and MORE!

INTERVIEW by Randy Waage (randy@retrocrush.com)

How did you get the part of Rick Mason on Isis?

It was a standard audition process. They put out an open call to agents all over LA and they brought in maybe 80 or 90 guys for the role. They then got it down to 4  or 5 and I was lucky. I got the short straw.

I was the first one cast for the show. With Norm and Lou of Filmation Studios I sat in on all the auditions for everybody else. Which was kind of a nice thing because they wanted to make sure that they got compatible people. The final decision came down to 10 or 12 women for Isis. I read and auditioned with all of them. Then we got to Joanna and that’s who they went with.

Where was the show filmed?

All of the filming was done in and around the Los Angeles area. Because it was almost all done on location. We worked a 6-day workweek: Monday through Saturday. When you do a location  shoot like that they can work you according to SAG rules. We shot 2 complete episodes per week in and around Los Angeles, San Fernando Valley, Big Bear, Lake Tahoe, Malibu, and Franklin Canyon. All of the places we could get to in a day or so. Then we’d get back late that night and head back the next morning.

Did you have a lot of kids recognize you?

Everywhere we went we were recognized. I had 2 small kids at the time. The woman I was married to had 2 kids. All of their friends loved to come over to the house. I did a lot of promotional things as Rick Mason: The Universal Studios tour, guest appearances at Disneyland.

What where your impressions of Joanna Cameron?

Joanna was obviously cast in the role so she was the best person for the part. She was a very dedicated, very consummate professional at what she did. She worked very hard.

What about the special effects? 

We didn’t have any stunt people. We did all the stunts ourselves. Any of the flying stuff was done with guide wires on green screen or blue screen depending on whom you talk to. They call them both.

Shazam and Isis were popular shows.

What’s interesting is that there’s been such a resurgence of interest in the show. I guess I’ve always been recognized from the show for years. It’s kind of interesting because with the advent of the computer era people track me down.

You were always getting into trouble on the show. Do you have a favorite episode?

I was sort of the Lois Lane of Isis. Superman had Lois Lane and Isis had Rick Martin. I particularly like the shows were they brought in Craig Watson and Evan Kim near the very end of the show. They were going to do some spin offs with those two. My favorite episodes are when they added a few more characters, they gave Rick more involvement, and made him a little stronger character instead of the guy who was walking into walls.

Did JoAnna Cameron keep to herself? 

I’m not saying she was difficult to work with. She wasn’t. She was  charming to work with. She was very single minded. She did have a lot of responsibility. You have to respect somebody for that. I had a lot of responsibility too, but I wasn’t the "star of the show" which gives you a little lighter load to carry. It wasn’t that Joanna was excluded from anything. I just think that she had more pressure and didn’t take the time to party.

There were a couple of other characters on the show too?

There was a student in the first season. The actress who played her is Joanna Pang. She’s living in New York and teaches dance. She has a son who goes to NYU. We e-mail occasionally. She was a delight to work with. She was a wonderful kid. They replaced her with a girl named Ronalda Douglas in the second season. Who knows why? She was charming too.

It must have been a pretty interesting time in your life.

O yea. It was fabulous. It was great!

For a time the Isis shared time with Shazam?

Originally it was 2 shows. It was Shazam and it was Isis. Then they decided to combine it and make it the Shazam/Isis hour. That was part of a marketing strategy that somebody came out with. Who knows? People ask me this all the time. Why did it go off the air so soon? It was making a lot of money. It was the most popular daytime television show on the air during the 70’s. Whenever we went to CBS affiliate dinners or banquets the press would meet and talk with us. They don’t do that unless you have a hot show.

I think that probably the two guys who owned Filmation Lou & Norm wanted to get more into cartoon animation. They closed down their live division and went into full animation. That’s basically what they ended up doing and who knows why. I don’t have a clue. Nobody ever talked to me about it.

Do you know if they’re ever going to release a complete set of the series on DVD?

I don’t have a clue. I know that on  Nickelodeon or one of the late night shows has been showing reruns of Shazam off and on. It would be nice if they’d re-release the Isis stuff. Filmation sold it to Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers sold it to Hallmark. Hallmark just sold it to somebody. I don’t know whom they sold it to. One of the guys who I stay in touch with who has an Isis website said he was going to look into it and find out who bought it. I don’t have any information at all about it going to DVD. It sure would be nice.

They had more shows trying to teach moral lessons in the 70’s.

I think so. I think we need it more today than anything.

Most of the shows today don’t teach a lesson. It’s all about toys they advertise and computer generated graphics. 

It’s a strange time isn’t it?

I guess that’s why we’re Nostalgic for more innocent times during our youth.

Well good for you!

I’m going to ask you a few questions about guest starring roles you had on classic TV shows.

I was on most of the popular shows in the mid 70’s/early 80’s. I was on Charlie’s Angels, the Incredible Hulk 3 times, Night Rider 2 times, I worked on Mork & Mindy for several episodes, and the Fall guy with Lee Majors.

We all love Lee Majors! He was the 6 million dollar man!

You know in all the years that I’ve been in this business I think the most gracious and giving star that I ever worked with was Lee Majors. He’s a wonderful guy. I enjoyed working with him. The second time I starred on the show he wasn’t feeling well. They had me go to his honey wagon. It’s a Mobile Home that 8 people could live in and not see each other.

He was a big, big star in the 70’s.

The Assistant Director brought me to his beautiful mobile home. I knocked on the door and said, "Mr. Majors?" He opened the door, "It’s Lee. Come on in!" We sat down and said, "Look, I’m not feeling good today. We have a lot of scenes we have to shoot this morning and afternoon. I’ll take your lead. Whatever you feel comfortable doing I’ll follow." You don’t have big stars that are of that caliber. The work we did together was wonderful and he was great to work with.

What about the Incredible Hulk?

I worked with Bill Bixby and Mariette Hartley on the Incredible Hulk. I did the 2-hour season premiere closer or opener. That’s the one where Bill Bixby fell in love with Mariette Hartley and they were going to get married. Then she found out she had cancer and was going to die. She starts drinking at some bar and I was the slimy bar slug that picked her up & took her back to her apartment to have his way with her. Then Bixby shows up and I answer the door.

I open a Champagne bottle and the cork hits him in the head and turns him into the Hulk. He tears my place apart. It was so successful on the air here that they turned it into a 2-hour feature and released it in England/Europe. Which was a big surprise. When they do that you get paid all over again and then some. That’s always a fun thing to have happen. It’s like Manna from Heaven. Money that comes from nowhere that you never expected.

Marriette Hartley is a beautiful lady.

She’s one of the great ladies of the whole industry. She’s a consummate professional, and lovely to work with. She’s very giving, very caring. She pops up on things every once in awhile. I don’t know if she’s semi-retired or not. Sometimes you get to a point where you wonder if it’s even worth it or not anymore.

Did they have a stunt man for your scene  with the Hulk?

I did most of my stunts on that. I fought with the Hulk and he pushed he through a wall. I went through my bathroom wall and fell into a big hamper. It was a 2-story apartment. He pulled the main beam from the upper stairs support and the whole top floor collapsed. They didn’t want me to get crushed by the roof so they did have a stuntman for that. I did most of it up until the whole thing collapsed. Then they brought in a stunt double for that.

What about Bill Bixby?

Years before I knew the girl he was marrying who was a wonderful woman. We had done a lot of summer stock together and when we were just out of high school. Bill Bixby was a wonderful man. Unfortunately he died WAY before his time. He was very gracious, a dedicated actor and a professional.

You worked on a Charlie’s Angels episode?

All this and a dollar will buy you a cup of coffee. Unless of course it’s Starbucks then it’ll cost you $6. I worked on the most famous Charlie’s Angels episode: Angels in Chains with the original Angels and David Huddleston who is a dear friend and a wonderful character actor.

I did a couple of episodes of Quincy. I guest starred with Jack Klugman and Robert Ito. That was great fun too.

What was it like working with the original Angels: Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson, and Jaclyn Smith?

Jaclyn Smith is one of the sweetest ladies you’ll ever meet. Farrah you couldn’t get close to because she had bodyguards around her all the time. Kate Jackson was nice too.  When you’re a guest star or co-star on something you’re not there to socialize. You’re there to do your job. You don’t know if you’re going to have a half a day or a week to shoot everything. It’s not a big party atmosphere.

What was it like on the set of Mork & Mindy?

Pam Dawber is a sweet gal. She’s married to a very old friend of mine Mark Harmon because I grew up with her older sister Christy Harmon. I studied with Charles Conrad at the Conrad Studio in LA with her younger sister Kelly Harmon. I’ve known the Harmon family for 40 something years. Robin Williams was great, wonderful guy. He never stops. He never slows down. The nice thing about being on their set was in addition to working with them they had a Massage Therapist and a Chiropractor on the set all the time. If you bumped your head or you weren’t feeling right then they’d readjust or massage you. I’ve never been on a set where they had that.

Jonathan Winters played their son on the show?

That’s right.

That show was huge back then.

Yes. Monstrous. To have the two of them on the set you couldn’t get anything out of your mouth you’d be laughing all the time. It was very funny.

Jonathan Winters was a big star in his own right. 

Absolutely. He’s a wonderful man too.

I know you also worked on a movie called Concorde: Airport 79.

With Robert Wagner, David Warner, and Alain Delon from France, George Kennedy, Susan Blakley on that film. I also played one of her lovers in a film called Secrets.

Who was the worst to work with?

The worst? Even if I could think of someone I probably wouldn’t tell you. It bites you in the ass.

You don’t have to tell me.

I think overall that the more successful a big star is the nicer they are to work with. I had the honor of working with Lucille Ball. You hear horror stories about big stars. Like how difficult it is to work with Barbra Streisand and yet a friend of mine who is one of the best studio violinist in the business said the first time he worked with her it was a dream. The first time I ever worked with Lucille Ball it was the same thing.

She did so many which show where you on?

The Lucy Show.

That was the one after, "I Love Lucy"?

With her kids grown up. I played little Lucy’s fiancé. Lucy was late to our first read and we were all sitting around waiting. When she walked in she walked over to me and said, "Mr. Cutler excuse me for being late. It will never happen again." I was the new kid on the block. Everybody else had been on the show for a long time.

All the horror stories you hear go right out the window with that. Was she a professional? Yes. Did she know where she wanted all her key lights and the camera? Yes. Those are the things you need to know. Lucy was a dream to work with. It was one of the thrills of my life.

Where you ever up for any leads in a TV show?

I was a male lead on Isis. I had a co-starring lead on Emergency. I had an interruption in my career: The Vietnam War. I served 2 tours of duty in Vietnam. It slowed down the momentum of my career because I was doing a lot of work. I had starred in a feature film called Catalina Caper with Peter Duryea, Dell Moore who was a big comic star at the time, and Tommy Kirk who was Disney’s biggest star in the 60’s. It was a fun kind of caper movie. The studio that released it wanted me to sign a contract to do 7 more features. I went to Vietnam instead.

You kind of forget about that the draft must have interrupted many people’s careers.

It’s frustrating because many people somehow got out of going. Do I resent that? Yes, I do. Was I happy to go? No, I wasn’t. There are things you do and choices you make in your life that alter and change the course of it sometimes. That was an altering thing for me. When I got back I of course finished college, got my degree, and all that stuff.

I kept acting at the same time. Then I did more co-star and guest star work than anything else. In the early 80’s I went through a horrendous divorce. I have done a lot of Theater and Musical Comedy Theater in my life. I starred in a show in Kansas City and opened a theater in 1972 for a couple of people. They opened another theater in 1983.

They asked if I’d star in the show they were doing, called The Unsinkable Molly Brown with Joyce Bulifant. She was the center square on Hollywood Squares for years. Her husband is Bill Asher who is one of the biggest directors and their son is the kid who directed Diamonds. He is married to Jenny McCarthy.

One of the best Repertory Theaters is the Missouri Repertory Theater. The woman who ran it asked if I’d sign a contract and work for her. Actors want to work so I went ahead and signed.

That’s what made you move from California?

My wife was born and raised in the Midwest. She wants to move to LA. I’ve been told by casting directors, producers, and filmmakers around the country that I have and run one of the best acting schools in the country, which is a very nice thing to be told.

I’ve been asked to open a studio there. I also have a production company called River City Pictures with my wife. We have a producing and writing partner. We have a very big budget action adventure right now that’s based on north mythology. Sort of the "Scorpion King" meets "Lord of the Rings" because we wanted our first foray into mainstream Hollywood to be as box office friendly as it could be. It’s called Braun. It’s at our wish list of studio execs, movie stars, and directors are all looking at it right now. That’s something we’re very excited about.

I’ve Executive Produced, Co-wrote a feature film about 3 years ago that we premiered in the Midwest. We won accolades from film festivals. It’s called, "My One and Only" It’s a coming of age comedy about a young black kid. It was very funny. 

Does the whole "Hollywood thing" get tiresome? 

I’ve been in the business for years. I’m sure that when we go back to LA my old agent who I hook up with will get me more acting work. If it comes along I’ll be happy and thrilled to do it. I’ve spent 50 years in front of the camera. I want to spend the next 50 behind the camera producing and directing. The 50 years after that I’m not sure what I’ll do.

It’s something you have to love. You face daily rejection all the time. The frustration level is so great that you have to love it. If you don’t love it find something else to do. There’s nothing wrong with finding something else you love to do.

They say acting is a tough profession.

It’s the insecurity of the business I think that’s harder to live with then anything else.

Which part of acting did you like the best: TV, movies, or stage?

I love filmmaking. I just love the whole filmmaking process. I love live theater. I have always been a theater-based actor. There’s nothing better. There’s a couple of clubs in town where I’ll go and sing periodically. I love to get up to sing and perform. I love that immediate audience feedback.

Television is great, but they beat you to death. If you look at stars at the beginning of the season then look at them at the end of the season they look beat to death. It’s hard. You can’t work five or 6 days a week, 18 or 20 hours a day without it affecting you.

Was there a person you idolized or had a retroCRUSH on while growing up?

I don’t think I idolized anybody. I study different people and I like to pick up the best qualities from those people for comedy, humor, and understanding the life situation. I would say Charlie Chaplin for learning how to listen in film. For understanding how great the listening process is I would have to say Spencer Tracy.

The person who was a great change in my life when I started studying acting was Charles Conrad who was a product of Sandy Meissner in New York. The Meissner technique became the Conrad technique. I speak to Charles a couple times a month. He’s retired and lives in North Carolina. I’m the person he sort of handed the gauntlet to.

Some of the people that we worked with, trained, and studied with were: Michelle Pfeiffer, Kim Basinger, Veronica Hamel, Dennis Quaid, and Carl Weathers. Just to name a few. It was an incredible time and Charles is a great mentor to have. He still is my mentor when I have questions about a role I’m going to be doing or anything I do at my acting studio I always defer to Charles and give him a buzz. I’m probably the only actor in the world he talks to because if you coach, train, and work with actors your whole life, which he did for over 45 years. You find out that most actors aren’t very other centered they’re more self-centered.

Until you become a superstar then I think you have to become other centered or you become devoured by the system. Those are some of the things that I reflect on and look for. I continually look for actors that you don’t catch acting. Those are the actors who those of us who are part of the business respect as actors.

I want to say thanks so much to the fans for remembering and caring. It means a lot.

Check out Brian’s Actor’s Studio website at http://www.actorsstudio.com/.

Two great sites about the Isis TV show are: the Unofficial Isis Appreciation Page, and 70's live vid kid sites.

JOANNA "ISIS" CAMERON

I was only 6 years old when I first saw ISIS on TV, but seeing Joanna Cameron in her sexy Egyptian digs chanting, "Oh Mighty ISIS", was enough to make me realize that "women sure is purty!"  A friend I used to work with told me their father had a habit of saying, "Oh Mighty ISIS get me out of this CRISIS!" when he was worried.  ISIS was basically an Egyptian ripoff of the Wonder Woman character meant to accompany Shazam in his shows, much like Xena was brought out to compliment Hercules.  It should be noted, however, that the Saturday morning ISIS show beat the Linda Carter Wonder Woman series by a full year!

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