T.J. HOOKER PRESSROOM : TJ-HOOKER.COM EXCLUSIVE!
Interview with PHILIP WEYLAND, William Shatner's T.J. Hooker Stand-in & Dialogue Coach

PHIL WEYLAND:
"IT WAS ONE OF THE BEST TIMES I EVER HAD"
William Shatner's Stand-In and Dialogue Coach Talks to TJ-Hooker.com
by TJ-Hooker.com's 4Adam30
Exclusive to TJ-Hooker.com

PART TWO

Philip Weyland with William Shatner on the set of "Blood Sport" in Hawaii Last week, we gave you a little bit of Phil's background, like his days in Texas dinner theater, and the genesis of his involvement with William Shatner and, ultimately, T.J. Hooker. This week we bring you even more exciting stories from the set of the show, intimate portraits of the cast, guest stars, and crew who made T.J. Hooker come to life for hundreds of fans every week.

Although Philip Weyland is eager to set the record straight that T.J. Hooker was not meant to be high art, he is equally emphatic that there were many scenes that were taken very seriously by the cast, including William Shatner, and that Shatner did some of his best acting during his tenure on the show. To add to this, Phil gives an example of how effortlessly Shatner made it all look–and how gracious he could be when things went right.

Hooker talks to his daughter Chrissy during one of Shatner's finest moments as T.J. Hooker

"Bill was a great football fan," he says, "and he loved Monday Night Football. Now, there was one sequence [in the Christmas episode "Slay Ride"] where (Hooker) had a long phone conversation with his daughter. It was a long speech to her, and it was done in a telephone booth on the street near the Burbank studios. I would always have headphones on away from the scene so that I could hear what he was saying as I was following the script, watching what he was saying, seeing if he left anything out, forgot anything or misspoke anything. And we had worked on the speech, it must have been at least three quarters of a page long, or something! And he did it, I think in one take.

"Now, I wasn't actually crying, but there was a bit of emotion there, and there had to only have been about three people there who had heard it, and I thought 'This is terrible, only three people heard this?' And all anybody else had seen was just him in the phone booth talking! And Hooker hangs up the phone, and walks out, and I mean it was terrific! He did it, and they said 'Print!' and he said 'Okay, I'll be inside watching the football game if you need me!' And I thought oh, gee, I mean, he just had this great scene, it came off so well, and it seemed like he didn't–it was very strange. You know, it was like turn it on, turn it off! And I was still into the scene! I walked back to one of the nearby studio buildings where a TV had been set up to watch the game. I caught up to him, and he opened the door for me and said 'We did real good on that, didn't we?' And I said 'Oh no no, not we, YOU!" And he said, 'Oh no no no, WE did it.' And that made me feel really good, because we had worked together on that scene, going over the lines and memorizing the lines, and he was gracious enough to include me in that little bit of success there when he really didn't have to. I've always appreciated that, and I'll always remember that."

However, in the same episode, Hooker also spouts one of his most memorable lines, on a completely different level as the aforementioned dramatic monologue. "Of course, my favorite (Hooker) line is 'Merry Christmas, punk!' (laughs) And I remember him doing that, and I thought that is SO over the top, that is SO corny, but it is SO right for the character, and so fun for the show!"

TROUBLES ON THE HOOKER SET?

Phil on location with Adrian Zmed, circa 1982 (photo ©2001 the collection of Philip Weyland)

Any television show that features A-list stars is always rumored to be filled with behind the scenes tensions, especially between the actors. With such strong personalities in front of the camera as Shatner, Adrian Zmed, Heather Locklear and James Darren, there should have been arguments galore. Not so, says Phil.

"(There was) very little friction, overall. I just can't remember any problems, you know , where so-and-so didn't like so-and-so, you know? Maybe they thought Bill was a little aloof at times, but that really wasn't the case, because he just loved to get back in the trailer and either read, or at that time he'd just begun his interest in horses, so he'd be on the phone talking about horses, or he'd be in there with me and we'd be going over lines. . . I mean, he kept busy, he's a very, very active guy."

Even if there weren't problems with the Hooker cast, that didn't mean everything was rosy for Shatner at the time. Not only was he working full-time carrying T.J. Hooker, but he was also in the middle of a continuing series of big-screen Star Trek features. Of course, rumors of tension between the Star Trek castmates are almost endless, and Phil offers his own take on the situation. "The major people: Bill, DeForest, Leonard, all got along fine, it was the other actors and actresses that used to have trouble with Bill. You know, during Hooker, they kept baiting Bill, and criticizing him, saying that he didn't like Star Trek and he was ashamed of it, and he didn't want to do any conventions . . . and in the trailer, Bill would say, 'You know, gee, they're saying that I hate Star Trek; I don't hate Star Trek! I'm doing another one! I like it, I mean the money's great, I love the part, what's the problem?' He said, 'But I gotta tell ya--when I'm working on this show, I'm working 12, 14 hours a day! And the last thing I want to do is hop on a plane for the weekend and go off to some place and talk about Star Trek! On the weekends, I want to go home, spend some time with my family and enjoy my brief time off!'"

BUT WHAT WERE THEY ALL REALLY LIKE?

If there wasn't any friction on the Hooker set, what was the cast actually like then? "Everyone was a different person, and sometimes that's what makes something work. There was a geat deal of camaraderie. I cannot say enough nice things about Heather, she was terrific. They all were!

James Darren: The Greatest Liar on the Planet. (photo ©2001 the collection of Philip Weyland)

"Jimmy Darren, you know, later on directed a couple of the 90210s [which Phil worked on]. And you know–Jimmy Darren is the greatest liar on the planet! No, he is! You know, there were certain scenes in the show where if he was only being shown driving in the police car, he only had to wear his police uniform's shirt, you know, for what they call a run-by. And there was one day he was doing a run-by, and he was with one other (actor) who was doing it with him, and they both just had police shirts on, and jeans, and regular shoes. And a little old lady came up and she said 'Officer, I need some help!' [laughs] And he said 'Yes, ma'am, can I help you?' She had no idea he was an actor and not a police officer. And she said, 'Excuse me–where's the rest of your uniform?' And he said, 'Well ma'am, you have to understand, you see, both of us right now are on probation, we're not real cops yet, we have to complete the training, and when we complete the training, that's when they give us the rest of the uniform.' And she went, 'Oh, yeah, I understand, okay. I need–' [laughs] And he would do that all the time!

"And Heather, you know, doing the two shows at once . . . I mean, I have never once heard anyone say a bad word about Heather Locklear. Nobody. She's the best! She's the absolute best. Adrian . . . they were all great!"

GUEST STARS GALORE

One of the things T.J. Hooker is best known for is its cavalcade of top-notch guest stars, people who either were well-known at the time or who became well-known after their appearance on the show. Being on the set every day, Phil has his share of stories about some of Hollywood's biggest stars.

"I thought I was gonna get to meet the Beach Boys," Phil says, referring to their guest spot in the episode "Blind Justice". "I didn't get to meet the Beach Boys! We didn't actually have the Beach Boys there! Here's what happened. One day we were filming at some school, and over in the corner, they had put up a small platform with a certain kind of backing. And Carl Wilson came on the set, and they put him up there, put the camera down below, and he had his guitar, and he says, 'Okay, here's one for my buddy T.J. Hooker!' Then he goes home! That's it! So what they did was, it was a (Beach Boys) appearance from Long Beach . . . they took (footage from) a concert, and showed them all playing, then they filmed Carl in the same outfit he was wearing at the concert!

Jerry Lee Lewis tickles the ivories (and flexes his acting muscles) on T.J. Hooker

"However," Phil says, his voice taking a somewhat more serious tone, "we did get to spend the day with Jerry Lee Lewis [for the episode "Deadly Ambition"]. That was terrific, something I'll always remember. But he was not really used to (acting), so he was a miserable actor! [laughs] He didn't know who was who! Bill and Adrian would be standing there, and he'd look at Adrian and he'd say, 'Hooker! Glad you're here.' And he'd turn to Bill and say 'Romano, it's good to see ya again!' [laughs] And they would stop and Bill would say, 'Uh, Jerry Lee, I'm Hooker, and this is Adrian, he's Romano.' And Jerry Lee would say 'Oops! Try again!' He was a little uptight, but he did his scenes, got through them, and then he got to play piano. They filmed it at the Palomino, a Country and Western club in north Hollywood, and they let us stay afterwards to see his real show, we got free tickets . . . it was great, just fascinating to watch that man.

Sharon Stone: No "Hollywood Starr" . . . at least not yet

"Sharon Stone. ["Hollywood Starr"] Sharon Stone. [sighs] The idea was to do a spin-off of T.J. Hooker, called 'Hollywood Starr.' But, the script didn't seem to be right, and she didn't seem to be right. I think it was '84, '85, now this is 15, 16 years ago, many of us at that time thought that she wasn't a very good actress. She seemed a bit too 'wooden.' So she was obviously not the Sharon Stone that you see now, although there are vestiges of that 'woodenness' even today. She's really gotten a lot better since then; I'm not trying to be unkind, I'm really just reporting as to what the feeling was and what people thought . . . she was good-looking, but there wasn't that charisma at that particular time that is so important when you're doing a television series. Maybe she just needed something like (Basic Instinct) to really make her a star. But there was none of that leg-crossing in T.J. Hooker. [laughs]"

Leonard Nimoy both guest starred once and also directed an episode of T.J. Hooker. According to Phil, his directing gig came about because of Nimoy's desire to direct Star Trek III. The powers that be were somewhat hesitant to allow Nimoy to helm the next Star Trek movie because they feared personality conflicts between him and the rest of the cast. "Bill said, 'Why don't you come over here and direct an episode of Hooker? We'll show 'em that we just love each other!' And there was no problem!"

WHAT ABOUT THE EPISODES?

Phil on location with football legend Jim Brown during the filming of "Anatomy of a Killing" (photo ©2001 the collection of Philip Weyland)

Of course, with so much attention to the daily dialogue details, Phil found himself wrapped up in the plotlines of every episode. And since, as Phil alluded to earlier in our interview, Hooker was a prime example of formula television, he must have realized that the show's plots were sometimes, shall we say, recycled? "I remember throwing a script across the room one time because, gosh darn it, they kidnapped Stacy again, and it had to do with drugs! [laughs]"

But the episodes that stand out most vividly to Phil are the ones he actually appeared in, like "The Obsession," where he played an LCPD officer: "I think my line was 'How hard do we come down on them?' [laughs] And there was another time, we were on the Santa Monica pier–this is my first appearance on film, actually–Bill directed it. But some lady gives (my character) counterfeit money, and I think she's trying to short change me, so Hooker comes in and grabs her arm, and says 'Here's your change, buddy!'

"There was another time I was supposed to stand in the police station hallway dressed in my LCPD uniform, and Heather comes walking down it, and–now, you're not gonna believe this–she's, yes, [sarcastically] undercover as a prostitute!–and the director, who was a good friend of mine, wanted me to make a couple of extra bucks, so he asked me to whistle and say something like 'All right!' as she walked by me in her prostitute outfit. And immediately after that, one of the producers arrived in his little cart, and he was very upset because they didn't want anybody getting little extra parts, because they were over budget!"

Even with these minor indiscretions, T.J. Hooker was widely acknowledged as a show that was easy to work with. The ratings were decent, and the cast didn't cause problems–major factors in its lengthy run. "I was with Bill in his trailer, it was the end of the second season, and Aaron Spelling called. And he (finished talking to him) and said to me 'Well, that was Mr. Spelling, and he said we're picked up for another year.' And he said one of the things that Aaron Spelling said was 'You know, you people over there don't give us any problems,' and that's one of the resons why the network said 'absolutely, pick 'em up for another year!'"

THE LAST SEASON

However, all good things must come to an end, and it looked like the end for T.J. Hooker when ABC decided to cancel the still-popular show after its fourth season. However, soon after this had been announced, Phil received a call from a friend who was a costumer for the show, and found out that they had been told to keep the costumes and props ready for another year. "Curious, Phil called Bill Shatner that evening, but Bill wasn't home. The next morning Bill returned Phil's call. "I said to him 'That's great! Congratulations on another year!' and Bill said 'What are you talking about, Phil?' and I said, 'You know, the new season,' and Bill said 'But you can't know that! What do you know?' And I said 'It's gonna be on late night, and it's 17 episodes, and everybody's gonna have to take a bit of a pay cut, and there's gonna be a two-hour special at the end, and . . . ' 'You can't know that.' I said: 'Ahhh . . . but I guess I do . . . I, uh . . . I just told you.' Bill said again 'But there is no way you can know that.' I said  'Ahhh . . . But . . . I just did tell you.' Bill continued, 'Do you know where I was last night when you called me? I was signing the contracts for next season, and they had told me before all this that if anyone found out about it, there would be no deal.'" Luckily, even though word had spread, the deal went through and the CBS Late Night edition of T.J. Hooker went on as planned.

William Shatner about to sustain an injury on the location shoot of "Blood Sport" (photo ©2001 the collection of Philip Weyland)

The highlight of that final season has to be "Blood Sport," the two-hour end-of-series movie filmed on location in Hawaii, which Phil joined the cast for. Again, Phil got a small role, as a man on the street whom Hooker accidentally knocks to the ground in his zeal to catch the villain during a chase scene. But Phil was surprised to find that although Shatner was the one who suggested Phil do the stunt in the first place, he had a hard time keeping his end of the bargain. "Hooker was running toward the camera, and I had back to the camera walking on the sidewalk, and I know what's gonna happen: Bill's gonna come up and give me a big sort of a shoulder hit! Well, 4Adam30, he got to me, and he tapped me, a little light tap with his right hand, on my right shoulder. He was supposed to knock me down! He barely even touched me! So it was a split-second decision in my head–if I keep standing here, I'm gonna give up 400 dollars plus a residual check! So I immediately fell to the ground! [laughs] But it wound up looking great because of where the camera was! But he did not want to take a chance on hurting me! He told me later, 'I got close to you, and I thought, I just can't knock Phil down!'"

Another stunt didn't go so well, however. "There was another sequence where we were on a huge cliff, above the house where they filmed Magnum, P.I. And the Asian bad guy and Bill fought on this cliff. And Bill went right when he was supposed to go right, but the bad guy went right when he was supposed to go left, and they had an unhappy meeting with the sword, and it went right into Bill's head, so we had to stop; he got cut and was bleeding, so they fixed him up and we went on with the scene, but Bill was less hurt physically than he was pissed off that the other actor had screwed up."

SUMMING UP

Pals forever . . . on-screen and off

"Just tell everybody that it really was a fun show to work on," Phil said as he was collecting his thoughts. "Remember the Christmas show, where they (Shatner, Zmed, Locklear and Darren) are all going down the street together singing? It was like that, literally!" Their camaraderie was allegedly the same offscreen as it was on, which fans of the show must be delighted to hear.

"Why don't you do some conventions?" Phil asked as we ended our discussion. I can't say we haven't thought of it, to be honest! And if we here at TJ-Hooker.com ever do organize one, we'll be sure to send an invitation Phil's way. His storytelling abilities would be sure to have Hooker fans enthralled for hours on end!