Great Lost TV Shows, Vol.5.2: Roddy McDowell

Roddy McDowell, interviewed by WUHY-TV’s Patrick Stoner for their 1984 fund-raising marathon broadcast of all five episodes of The Jolly Six Bums, shared these reminiscences:

“It was a laugh a minute with that madcap gang. I remember well the Vegas episode. My good friend Elizabeth Taylor was visiting me on the set, and she so wanted to take part in the festivities in some way, and so our director -- my old pal Larry Winchester -- gave her a walk-on as a cocktail waitress. Now in Arthur Miller’s wonderful script the cocktail waitress didn’t have a line, so Larry’s friend Rags Larkin, who was I believe the line producer and stunt co-ordinator on the show, he sits down at the bar while the make-up gal is working on Liz and five minutes later he hands Larry a cocktail napkin with this fabulous monologue written on it. Larry hands it over to Liz, she memorizes it on the spot, and then they filmed it word-for-word. Imagine Arthur Miller’s surprise when people started coming up to him at Toots Shor’s congratulating him on that wonderful speech he wrote for Liz! But it was all Rags. A much underrated writer in my opinion.”