TV Radio Mirror (Jan - Jun 1963)

GEORGE MAHARIS (Continued from page 20) — because we're opposites in everything you might think of. He's a married man, I'm a single man; he has different likes and dislikes; he's much more a quiet kind of guy, and I'm very energetic and out-looking and seeking; and he likes to go home and sit home and do what he's doing. Fred : The show is a success because of the combination, isn't it? He's doing well because of you, and vice versa ; it's a team, regardless of who's more popular, and who's got a hit record. Isn't that true? George: It's all a team, Fred, and this is one of the things — the ugly things which have come out in the press — which I've really disagreed about. I mean, there was an article in a magazine which was supposed to have been by Marty, which said "I hate George Maharis." And, you know, this kind of thing. I don't really accuse the man; I don't really know that he actually said that to a reporter. But I do know that there are certain things in the article which only three of us knew about — myself, the producer of the show, and Marty. And I don't know how they got in the article. I've never really involved myself with that kind of competitive thing. I believe in cause and effect. In other words, my whole approach to my work is — and I've said this to many people — that it's like baking a cake. I worry about the ingredients; I don't worry about the cake. I feel that if I put in the eggs and the flour and the rest — and I put them in good, and it has all the body when I put it in the oven — the cake will be there. Other people are worried about the frosting ... so that, when you take the cake and you bite into it, it really doesn't have anything. I worry about my work, and when the people appreciate my work, that's when they like me. So I'm not worried about the competitive thing of whether I'm more popular or not more popular and so forth. i worried about the real thing: " ^y like it; they understand it; and I'm giving them something. Fred: Do you think that possibly he or the producers — or he feels, with the producers — that maybe you're not as sick as you're supposed to be? Maybe he feels that you're unfair? George: Well, I really haven't questioned him, because I don't think it's important. I don't want to get sidetracked now, with these kind of petty arguments as to who's right and who's wrong. I have, if I want, the proofs of their doctors, you know; of the doctors I've seen, only one has been mine. If they want to look at those records, they're there for anybody to see. I've never refused to go back to work. And I've never refused to give up my vacation. And I've never refused a reJ porter, or an interview — even at the time when I was sick and they booked me on "special events" on Sunday, when I should have been resting. So I don't see 74 THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FEUD From the other corner of the ring comes an entirely different version of the story — one that doesn't paint a very pretty picture of George Maharis — and one he denies through gritted teeth. "He's trying to get out of his contract so he can obtain bigger and juicier parts free-lancing," the producers stoutly insist. "As the trade papers reported, he had a thorough examination by outside, unbiased physicians and he's been given a clean bill of health. "He's well and he can work. When we ordered him back on the set, he never even answered us. There was nothing left to do but suspend him." Executive producer Herbert Leonard, who had the final say-so of whether or not to suspend Maharis, had a "no comment" for the press when it came down to expressing his personal opinions — • but a member of his family said, through tight lips: "Bert respected that guy when they started the series, and Maharis respected Bert, who took him from nowhere and gave him his big chance — the chance every actor longs for. Bert said, 'That boy is going to go far.' "Maharis did, too. I guess no one in the industry knew just how far he was going to try to go — and over how many bodies." Along with the announcement of the suspension, Screen Gems let it be known they had recruited Glenn Corbett for "special guest-star shots in two segments . . . the outcome of these may be a regular spot in the series." Just what a "regular spot" really means, no one seems ready to clarify. Rumor has it that Corbett, fresh from the defunct "It's a Man's World," is, in actuality, being used as bait to bring George back to his senses and a-running. It's said that Glenn — although a handsome and proven actor in his own right — is too much like Marty Milner and the show needs a more brooding "sex symbol" than the all-American Corbett can provide. The word is also out that the show will fold without Maharis, and that Maharis was the first to realize this. As to that, the producers remind everyone that their star-away-from-home can't work anywhere else, either. What it boils down to now is that — if George isn't . going "Route 66" any longer — just what route will he take? And will he, and those around him, pay a little more attention to the signs along the way? As one wit on Hollywood Boulevard put it, the other day — with an ironic reference to the show's far-out episode titles : "I hear the first segment they're doing with Corbett, instead of Maharis, is entitled, 'Far Away Bark a Horizon of Dogs.' " Makes you kind of wonder, doesn't it, whether it's the producers or Maharis barking up the wrong tree . . . ? how they can say that I've been uncooperative. The only time I have ever balked is from the professional standpoint, when I felt that what they were writing in the script was illogical. I would call them on the phone and say to them so-and-so. And I must say that, nine out of ten times, they'd change it for me — because they realized I'm just not interested in saying anything which is of no value. Fred: People wonder, George, why there are no romantic entanglements in your life. George: You mean my personal life? Fred: Yes. George: Well, there have been, and there haven't been. I've had romantic entanglements . . . and I must say I've had one which was quite a great disappointment to me. I've had other romantic entanglements — but, to be very serious, I don't have the time. I'm on the road; I'm in Memphis a week; I'm in California two weeks; I'm in Phoenix a week and a half; in New York for four days, to cut a record. And it goes on like that . . . Fred: And you really haven't had a chance to meet anybody that you . . . George: Well, yes — I've met Debbie Walley, and Inger Stevens, and Suzanne Pleshette and — you know, people like this — that I've had kind of marvelous times with. Inger Stevens was probably the most serious of all those girls. I'd be in California, but then she'd get a show in New York. I'd go to New York, and she'd be in California. And it went on like that. Now she's in New York, in rehearsal, and I can't seem to get hold of her. She's in rehearsal — and now they're sending me out of town to recuperate. But Inger is a marvelous woman, really. Fred: Is romance _,very important in your life, George? Do you find that you miss it? George: Oh, yeah. You miss it. But, you see, my career is very important to me — and without it, I really don't know what I could do. If somebody said to me, you have a choice of getting married and having twelve kids and doing nothing else of much importance in your life ... or the other choice would be to have a fabulous career, but to be unfulfilled in love ... I really wouldn't know which one to choose; both of them are so important. And I feel I have to have a little of both. At this point, it's been like one way, and not the other. When I had one, I didn't have the other . . . then when I had the other, I couldn't seem to find the one. Fred: How does it feel to have a hit record, George? This is a whole new facet. George: It's something which has been in the back of my head now for — ever since I was a young kid! Singing was my only expression then. When I got into high school, I was a very difficult, individual kind of kid. And when I sang, I found out that I had a communication with people ... it was my first realization that this was one way I could communicate. So I sang. When I got out of high school and started working around, I never thought