| SALLY JESSY RAPHAEL |
Topic: "TV Stars of the Past: Where Are They Now?"
Guests: Dick Sargent, Dick Van Patten, Susan Richardson, LaWanda Page, and BernNadette Stanis
(The following is a partial transcript of Dick�s appearance on the �Sally Jessy Raphael� talk show which aired on November 29, 1991.)
Sally: Let me introduce my first guest. He played Darrin, Samantha�s husband on �Bewitched.� Welcome, Dick Sargent. (cheers and applause) Boy, they got that! They really did!
Dick: Beautiful! I was so afraid they�d say Dick York. Boy!
Sally: Oh, do people do that?
Dick: Oh, yes. Everyday. He was on for five years; I did it for three. I expect that. If they know the face, I�m lucky.
Sally: Lucky you had the same first name, right?
Dick: That helps. It probably saved time on changing the cards for billing and stuff.
Sally: Now, let me just get serious for a moment. Two weeks ago, you decided to go public with a secret that you had been keeping for a long time, and we thought that would be a pretty interesting way to discuss you and your life in the seventies. What was that secret?
Dick: I came out as, I think, the first--at least living--American actor admitting that I�m a gay man, which I�m very proud because I�m a member of a good group of people, and its time we have role models that weren�t, y�know, the few that we had. When I was first out in Hollywood, we had the rumor that Rock Hudson was gay. We talked about Michelangelo and Walt Whitman, but that was really kind of not current, y�know? I kind of represent the square family-type man on television, and I think that maybe its a shock to some people. There are gays and lesbians--right now--portraying that kind of thing, and nobody knows it. I want people to know that we�re just people. We�re everywhere. We�re on the hockey rinks; we�re in the stands. We�re ten percent--at least--of the population.
Sally: Can you go back for me, because there are a lot of people who--especially younger people--were not aware of what it must have been like. Let�s go to you and playing with Elizabeth Montgomery on �Bewitched.� Did she and her husband know you were gay?
Dick: I think so. I had a lover for twenty years who passed away twelve years ago of a cerebral hemorrhage, and when I started on the show, we used to play tennis with Liz and her husband, and they would come over for Christmas or we�d be over their house for Christmas or whatever, and we�ve remained friends, Liz and myself. In fact, we�re even closer now. So, it was a strain on the sponsor level.
Sally: Did the other people in the cast care or think . . .
Dick: I don�t think anybody cared.
Sally: But the sponsor did care.
Dick: I think they still will. I don�t think I�ll work too much, but to me, boy, I never thought I�d spend my �golden years�--I hate that--as a gay activist, but that�s what I�m going to be. Besides my charity work for Special Olympics, and Best Buddies, this is what I�m going to be doing, and I�m proud and happy to do it.
Sally: Do you still get residuals from �Bewitched?�
Dick: I don�t get a dime from it. Those old contracts; we got ten residuals and that was paid off about eighteen years ago. (audience gasps) Doesn�t that hurt? My last check was $13.75.
(Stay tuned. More of this transcript to come.)