Interviews: 1970s TV Stars Parker Stevenson & Ernest Thomas Reveal a Different Era of Entertainment

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CHICAGO – Television has changed so much in the last generation that it’s hard to imagine a time of only three networks and a limited number of shows premiering every fall. But in the 1970s there were two such TV series, “The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries,” starring Parker Stevenson, and “What’s Happening!!,” starring Ernest Thomas. They both made appearances at the “Hollywood Show” in Chicagoland.

The “Hollywood Show” is an event in which fans can mingle, take photographs and get autographs from the celebrities who appear there, and takes place in Chicago, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The next session will take place in Los Angeles on January 8th-10th, 2016. For complete details and ticket purchase information, click here.

StarParker Stevenson of “The Hardy Boys,” “Baywatch,” “Stroker Ace”

Parker Stevenson
Parker Stevenson at the “Hollywood Show’ Chicago
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Parker Stevenson began his career as a teen heart throb. After working in smaller films in the 1970s (“A Separate Peace,” “Lifeguard”) he landed the role of Frank Hardy – opposite Shaun Cassidy as brother Joe – in “The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries,” which premiered on ABC-TV in 1977. This put him on the covers of teen fan magazines, and launched a career that included the miniseries “North and South” (1985), a recurring role on the first “Baywatch” (1990) and opposite Burt Reynolds in the film “Stroker Ace” (1983).

HollywoodChicago.com: When you were starting out as an actor, you changed your given name. What do you remember about Robert Stevenson Parker that is distinctly different from Parker Stevenson?

Parker Stevenson: I’ve been performing for 48 years, and we go through so many transitions in life. Am I the same as when I was a kid? No.

HollywoodChicago.com: Now that you’re an adult, what perspective do you have on the impact of the novel ‘A Separate Peace,’ that goes beyond your participation in the film version?

Stevenson: I don’t know if kids still read it, I just know that for me - as a boarding school kid - the book had a lot of resonance. It was a well written book. I was honored to play a part in that movie version.

HollywoodChicago.com: You are known for your ethereal good looks. How do you feel that skewered your perspective on having relationships, since you had this image at an early age?

Stevenson: Honestly, it’s more complicated as that. I never thought of myself as being that good looking, I was an actor, people saw me on television, and then they start to think you’re good looking because of that presentation. I was no better looking before the show, than after – and before the TV show I couldn’t get a date to save my life. So what changed? Did I suddenly become more good looking? No. I got lucky, I got a TV show. That’s what happened.

HollywoodChicago.com: You had a legacy within the Burt Reynolds universe with your role in ‘Stroker Ace.’ What can you tell us about the legendary director Hal Needham that the rest of the world doesn’t know?

Hardy Boys
Parker Stevenson (right) & Shaun Cassidy of ‘The Hardy Boys’
Photo credit: Universal Studios Home Entertainment

Stevenson: Burt and Hal were great friends, and I fell into that job. Burt thought it would be fun to have me in the film. He’s just that way, and the movies they made were just easy and fun. Hal was that way as well, he would play Pac-Man between set-ups. His films worked because of the fun people were having when making them, and that ended up in the final result.

HollywoodChicago.com: How did your work in North and South change your perspective on the true history of the American Civil War?

Stevenson: What was weird for me about that experience, is that there was a picture in my grandparent’s house of a grave looking man in a uniform. He turned out to be relative - General George Gordon Meade, the Northern Army commander at Gettysburg. He was my great-great grandfather on my mother’s side.

I went off to do ‘North and South’ wondering how to absorb everything associated with the role, but knowing that this close family member was instrumental in that conflict, that helped me to get there.  I understood it all much better when I brought him into the portrayal.

HollywoodChicago.com: What was the best advice someone gave you about acting and give me an example of a performance where you used that advice?

Stevenson: What I hear all the time is to stop and listen. When you do a scene 30 times, and know the lines, you stop listening. The point is to listen, that’s the only thing that can make it real.

StarErnest Thomas of TV’s “What’s Happening!!”

Ernest Thomas
Ernest Thomas at the “Hollywood Show’ Chicago,
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Ernest Thomas will forever be remembered as “Raj” on the popular TV series “What’s Happening!!” The show had a couple of lives, first on network from 1976 to 1979 on the ABC-TV network, and then as “What’s Happening Now!!” in syndication from 1985 to 1988. But before that series, Thomas was a successful actor on Broadway and the movies (“A Piece of the Action,” directed by Sidney Poitier). He continues to do guest starring roles on television and the movies (including Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X”) to the present day.

HollywoodChicago.com: What was your process in going from Gary, Indiana, to your first role on Broadway in the mid 1970s?

Ernest Thomas: I went to college first, at Indiana State University. I was kind of a cut up, and would imitate all these voices for my friend. He told me I could probably be an actor, so I took a course in college and got an ‘A’ and started doing plays, including Shakespeare. I kind of thought it would just be a hobby though, and brushed it off. And then, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts - based in New York City - had auditions in Chicago, and I was brought into the same school that Spencer Tracy studied at. From there, I auditioned for Broadway and did several plays. After that, it was onto Los Angeles to be a TV star. [laughs]

HollywoodChicago.com: There always seemed to be constant tinkering on your signature show ‘What’s Happening!!’ Why was there so much difficulty with the production staff on the direction of the show?

Thomas: The producers were fine, the network was fine, we were having issues. Fred [Berry] and I had some drug issues, and that made for some difficulties. When Mabel [King] left, the dynamic of not having a mother figure changed us somewhat, but that was because Mabel wanted more money, and they said no.

HollywoodChicago.com: How was the experience of being directed by Sidney Poitier? What expectations did he have for the performances in ‘A Piece of the Action’?

Thomas: Sidney wanted us to keep up the standards of our audition, what got us the job. He didn’t like anybody playing around on the set. He wanted us to play attention. He once had to tell me to ‘snap out of it,’ and I idolized him, so I felt bad for weeks. I also would stare at him, because I didn’t believe I was working with him, and he would say ‘get over it.’ [laughs]

I had to fake fall in the movie, but went the wrong way and smashed my head on the base of the camera. Everybody gasped, because it was so loud. Sidney picked me up and said, ‘now Ernest, this is a very expensive camera.’ [laughs]

HollywoodChicago.com: What was the best advice someone gave you about acting and give me an example of a performance where you used that advice?

What’s Happening!!
Ernest Thomas (right), Fred Berry of ‘What’s Happening!!’
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Thomas: The head of the Academy, Mike Thoma, gave me some good advice when I had to play a villain in a play. He told me to say the more venomous stuff quietly, that’s scarier than being mean or shouting. He said the audience would always respond to that.

HollywoodChicago.com: You went through many eras of social change in the era you grew up in. What do you feel is the most significant historical event that you lived through, and how did it affect you personally?

Thomas: Definitely the 1960s changed everything. I was one of the few blacks at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, and I wasn’t used to seeing the Klu Klux Klan march in parades, as they did then. It was scary. When Martin Luther King was assassinated, there was rioting. I wasn’t participating in that, but the white kids came to our dorm and were shouting, ‘kill the n*ggers.’ That was a very frightening moment. But the good news was my roommate was white, and we’re still best friends.

HollywoodChicago.com: Was there ever a point in your career in which you looked up and thought, how the hell did I get here?

Thomas: They had an Ernest Thomas Day in Gary, Indiana, when the show was at its peak. Going there, when everyone wanted to just see me, was surreal. Jesse Jackson was there, the Mayor of Gary, but they all came to see me. My mother couldn’t believe it, she almost fainted. They actually made a bust of my head, and I just thought it was too good to be true, how can life be that good? That was a pretty good how-the-hell-did-I-get-there moment.

The next “Hollywood Show” event is January 8th-10th, 2016, in Los Angeles. For complete details – including celebrities scheduled to appear – and ticket purchase information, click here.

HollywoodChicago.com senior staff writer Patrick McDonald

By PATRICK McDONALD
Writer, Editorial Coordinator
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

© 2016 Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

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