A period documentary on the making of the classic sci-fi
movie. Interviews with the film makers during the production,
including production designers, actor Keir Dullea, and author Arthur C. Clarke. Produced by the Thomas Craven Film Corporation.
Take a look at the original theatrical trailer, also hosted on the Aeolus 13 Umbra YouTube channel:
In 2023,
Vicky Dawson, celebrates the 50th anniversary of her first on-screen credit, an
ABC Afterschool Special “Rookie of
the Year,” starring Jodie Foster. What better way for a Hot Hero cast member to
get started than in a series which dovetails nicely into Bruce and Carole Hart’s vision to produce programming that models positive behaviors for
adolescents.
But wait, there’s more!
That
common clarion call from commercials highlights Dawson extensive
commercial experience dating back to 1971 (nearly 150, most as a child actor),
as well as let you know that there is more to Dawson than what first meets the
eye. In the cast, Dawson represented the stereotypical pretty and popular girl
in school. No, she didn’t wear a bag over head like Stanley Dipstick or have
purple make up and bald caps like Ym and Ur; however, Dawson could go
toe-to-toe with a Broadway veteran like Claudette Sutherland and had the
“give-it-all-you-got” actor’s credo that is essential to every production and indispensable to comedy. Sure, she looked wonderful in dresses and jeans, but make her up as a Stone Age high school student or a giant dreidel and she’s
still all go.
At the
same age when I was barely able to drag myself out of bed and my existence stood
as a monument to underachievement, Dawson had two jobs on network shows at the
same time. While, yes, luck plays a large part in the entertainment world, it
only gets you a seat at the table — talent and hard work keeps you there and
Dawson has been there for five decades.
Every
interview uncovers more pieces of the Hot
Hero puzzle. Here, we learn more about just how close Hot Hero Sandwich got to a second season — or at least how close
NBC President Fred Silverman wanted people to think, we dive into some after
school children’s programming, review some clips, find out Jane Fonda has an
aversion to baboon costumes, and just exactly what John Belushi kept in his
closet in his dressing room at Saturday
Night Live.
Vicky reports on the first
woman president, Donna Summer.
Ae13U: To start off, just to get some basic
information, you were the youngest main cast member. I was told you were 18,
but given your birthday of July 5, 1961, you were actually 17 when you began
filming the series, correct?
Vicky Dawson: Correct. It was during my time when I was on Another World [an NBC daytime soap opera]
and I did graduate from high school that year and moved right into New York.
Ae13U: At 17? Were you living with family
members? I know you also attended New York University. Was that about the same
time?
Vicky Dawson: That was a little later.
I grew up in New Jersey. My family was always commuting into the city and then
when I was on Another World, it was just the commuting was a lot and so my
parents were like-minded in that they thought I should just live in the city . . . set me up and there I moved in and then from basically right at the end of
my 17th year I was doing Another World.
I started Hot Hero and I think we
shot it all through that summer.
Ae13U: According to your Internet Movie Database profile, starting at age 10, you did a lot of commercial work, about 150 in
all. How many commercials do you think you did before Hot Hero?
Vicky Dawson: Before Hot Hero? Let's see, I would say
probably two-thirds of them because I just was doing a lot of commercials as a
kid. I did do more commercials as an adult, but not so much. I kind of moved
away from that and wanted to work on other kinds of things.
Ae13U: You were doing those commercials in New York City, correct?
Vicky Dawson: New York or on locations.
Ae13U:What brands did you represent in the commercials as a child actor?
Vicky Dawson: Oh, my gosh. I'm pretty
much across the board. AT&T, Cracker Jack, Pepsi, Hallmark . . . I mean, you name it.
Ae13U: What inspired you at such an early
age to pursue acting?
Vicky Dawson: I honestly just think
it's a passion and I just loved it. Obviously, with anything that you do,
there's sacrifice. And so despite sacrifices, I continue to want to pursue it
and my folks were very good and balanced about it.
Ae13U: Speaking of sacrifices, were you
able to do the school play, go to the prom, things like that despite your
schedule?
Vicky Dawson: Yeah, but most part I was
able to find the balance. I think there were a couple of instances where I
think there was a bigger project involved.
My mom, who invested a lot in terms of her time with me, was kind of like, “You
should do this,” and I wanted to go to the PEP rally! A 14-year-old would think
so. There were a couple of times that happened, but for the most part I pretty much always
wanted to do what was coming my way. On the East Coast, they don't have the
same Jackie Coogan Laws like out here [Dawson is located in Southern
California] where they need a tutor on the set. I mean, it's kind of the wild,
wild, West and so I missed a lot of school.
Ae13U: How about acting, dancing, singing
lessons? Did you do anything like that?
Vicky Dawson: I took dance and I took
voice, but I'm not really much of a singer, but I did love dance but no, I
never did because I was working so much. It was all I could do. I had
opportunities with amazing people who taught me on set, some of these people
that are just icons, so I appreciated that.
Ae13U: I’d like to shift gears a bit and
discuss the After School specials you
did. You did three ABC After School
Specials, including “Rookie of the Year” (1973) with Jodie Foster, “It Must Be Love ‘Cause I Feel So Dumb” (1975), “Sometimes I Don't Love My Mother”(1982), and one NBC Special Treat, “Snowbound” (1978). I’d like to focus on two of
them, “Snowbound” and “It Must Be Love ‘Cause I Feel So Dumb,” both short,
30-minute programs.
I love both these wonderful coming-of-age
films. In “Snowbound” you appear in just the opening exposition and the resolution,
but you have this nice scene at the end where you realize your boyfriend is
falling in love with the other girl, and there’s a mix of a sudden realization
and disappointment on your face that I thought was remarkably true to the
moment.
My favorite though, and one in which you
have a bit more to do, “It Must Be Love ‘Cause I Feel So Dumb,” really
fits into the Hot Hero theme of
modeling positive behaviors in awkward situations. It also stars Alfred Lutter
as the young boy whose affections for you create the conflict in the story.
ABC
After School Special “It Must Be Love ‘Cause I Feel So Dumb” (1975).
[Note: Lutter originated the role of Tommy in
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) and in the subsequent TV pilot; as Young
Boris, the younger version of Woody Allen’s character, in Love and Death
(1975); and the brainy baseball statistician, Ogilvie, in Bad News Bears (1976)]
Ae13U: In both, however, I see a trend. You play
the pretty, popular, and slightly entitled girl. Was this a trend in your early
career as a child actor?
Vicky Dawson: You know, you're
right. It seems like I would either get
cast as the nice pretty girl, the girl-next-door person, or the absolutely
horrible cheerleader type, which is very typical but just the way it goes. You
know, it's funny because for this project I was originally cast as the quiet
girl.
Ae13U: Really? The girl that Alfred
Lutter’s character eventually hooks up with at the end?
Vicky Dawson: Yeah.I was cast in that role and I think ABC thought the gal that was
cast as the real, glamorous, sexy cheerleader, was, I think, was a bit too
glamorous and too sexy. I guess they
liked me, thankfully, and they just moved me over to the other role and recast
the other part.
Ae13U: Interesting how you got pushed into
that roll, though the girl who did eventually get cast for that part [Denby
Olcott] did bear a slight resemblance to you, except for the pigtails.
Vicky Dawson: I got that part because
she [Olcott’s character] plays the flute here. I play the flute. That's why I
got that part.
Ae13U:
Were you aware at the time of this growing sense that, you know,
another cheerleader, another pretty girlfriend of the popular boy. Did you have
a sense of this trend back then?
Vicky Dawson: You know, you always have
to like the person you are, even if it's a terrible person because that's not the only thing they are, there's a lot of different levels to a person, so I always found
if it was well-written, then there’s always different things that you can touch
on and work on and make those characters interesting and actually hope to win
the audiences, either their approval for you or they’re rooting for you that
you stop being such a jerk.
But no, but as
an actor you shouldn't approach any role like, “I hate this person,” because
that's not the way people think. So, I never really found it boring and if the
writing is good I could find something to work on for me to make it worthwhile.
Plus, I always did a lot of theater so that's where you really have an
opportunity to grow and be more challenged than whatever you’re branded as for
TV or film.
Vicky Dawson caricature by Hot Hero series
writer Sherry Coben, drawn during the time of the series (1979).
Ae13U: Turning back to Hot Hero,
there were some regular characters like The Puberty Fairy [Andy Breckman],
Stanley Dipstyck [Paul O’Keefe], Tapedeck [L. Michael Craig], or Ym and Ur
(Denny Dillon and O’Keefe]. You, along with some of the other actors, didn’t
have those type of recurring characters. I’m not suggesting that they should
have put a bag over your head, but I’m wondering if you felt at the time this
was something you maybe were missing out on? It’s a bit of a small point, but
I’m a bit curious about that.
Vicky Dawson: No, it's a good question.
I think that Denny was more of the seasoned comedienne . . . so I think a
lot of it just naturally went to her because and she was wonderful. I think I
did do more of the straight kind of roles. I think I had a “Vidal Baboon”
character, I was a Jewish dreidel . . . two little things, but I think a lot of
what I was fighting was my schedule because, you know, I would have to be in
Brooklyn at seven in the morning, so leaving Manhattan at five. At that time, Another World was a 90-minute show . . .
and I always had a very big story on Another
World, so if I only worked at the quote “morning shift” I would be done by
one or two and then they would have a car for me and they would take me to
Rockefeller Center and then I basically work at Hot Hero Sandwich till – oh, my
gosh — those were some late nights.
Ae13U:And into the early mornings by some accounts. You must have been working
close to 19-20 hours a day some days.
Vicky Dawson: I'm not in as many things
as the other actors because I literally was there maybe half the time they were.
Ae13U:
I like that sketch. It gives you a chance for some broad
characterization. While it may be lost on viewers today, Hare Krishnas and
cults like the Moonies [the Unification
Church] were ubiquitous in urban areas, even up in Albany [where this author
lives] but they were kind of like everywhere back then and even as a teenager I
could see a lot of young people, some of whom seemed to be just being
exploited.
Vicky Dawson: Yeah, I think that's why
they wrote that, because it was a thing then.
Ae13U: It’s just a short sketch, but you
show a range of emotions from joy to disappoint, rejection, pathos, and then
back to joy at the end. Still, as I’m watching it, I see a young woman trying
to break free of the role others created for her and I’m wondering if you
didn’t perhaps see an analog with the roles you were getting and wanting to
break free from that?
Vicky Dawson: I honestly don't remember
being bothered by that. I think I had a few fun things to do. Honestly, I
was up at five and probably going to bed at midnight, one. You know, I was
happy to be working and grateful for both jobs and just trying to keep it all
together and show up on time everywhere.
Ae13U: And you were doing all at ages 17
and 18. Incredible. OK. Let’s take a look at a sketch I watch with Claudette
Sutherland, the “Name Jeans” sketch from episode 8 where you and Claudette are
mother and daughter debating whether or not to buy an expensive pair of
designer jeans. Let’s watch and get your response.
Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 8: Name Jeans.
Ae13U: When I spoke to Claudette, I got a
clear understanding you guys didn't do extensive rehearsals on this, nor on
most sketches.
Vicky Dawson: [laughter] No, we didn’t!
Ae13U: What impressed me about this sketch
is knowing this and seeing the timing is sharp, the responses snappy and
believable mother/daughter chemistry, despite the fact you didn't have much
rehearsal. Claudette is a Broadway vet with nearly two decades of experience at
this point and here is 18-year-old Vicky Dawson going toe-to-toe with her.
Vicky Dawson: Thanks. That's nice. You know, it's
funny. Watching these clips, I've forgotten that it appears to me that they
would shoot it like a like a master shot like for film where it was a
one-take thing. I don't remember how many cameras we had, but it was probably
like a three-camera show so that they weren't editing later and you just had to
get everything right. You know, it wasn't like they could fix it in the editing
room because so yeah, it was it was fun and challenging.
Ae13U: OK. One more clip I love because
it’s a short 30-second film with no dialog. From episode 1, the “Dating
T-Shirts” short.
Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 1 Short Film: Dating Shirts.
Ae13U: [laughter] I played that for a few
friends and it seemed to us a very “70s-era” clip. I don’t have any children,
but not sure that I would let my 15-year-old daughter stay out to midnight. Dating is, of course, a recurring theme on the series, like in the "Name Jeans" sketch where your character wants to attract a boy with the right pair of jeans.
Vicky Dawson: In the scene with Claudette, I think they
told me you can say any guy’s name [as the name of her character’s boyfriend],
so I said, “Greg Irvine” because he was my boyfriend then, but now he's my husband.
Ae13U: Oh, my gosh, I never realized that!
Of course, your name is Vicky Dawson Irvine. I must have seen that clip a dozen
times and never made the connection. That is fantastic! You’ve been together 43
years. That is an impressive feat inside or outside Hollywood. It’s always
wonderful to hear that, and there it was all along right in front of us.
Vicky Dawson and Greg Irvine, not long after the show (photo courtesy
Vicky Dawson).
Ae13U: OK, small point I’ve wanted to ask.
In the opening credits, who was the man in car acting as the driving
instructor? I know it’s been 43 years, but just one of those things the Hot
Hero Historian likes to check up on. Was he a crew member or something like
that?
Vicky Dawson: I'm sure he's a hired actor. I don't think
they pulled him off the street or anything. I believe we shot that in Yonkers.
Ae13U: I would love to get some street
names used in the opening sequence and go down there and take photos of the
locations as they are now. Something for the future to do
How did you land the audition for the show?
Did you get it through an agent? Word of mouth? Trade ads? Based on what the
other actors said, I’m guessing perhaps it was probably your agent.
Vicky Dawson: Yeah, I had an agent and
a manager and that was back in the day when you could freelance agents, so I
had a manager and it was basically whichever agent contacted her first to have
me read for something they were the ones that had dibs. Now, you just have one
agent and they don't have to compete. I don't really remember who it was and I
don't remember much about the audition to be honest . . .
Ae13U: Well, nobody does of those I
interviewed so far. It was so long ago. Any other memories?
Vicky Dawson: Well, first of all,
everybody was so nice. It was so fun, and even though we were always busy and
working to put so much material together. There were bands coming in and the
interviews that they were doing, and so it was just a really fun environment to
be in. I remember tap dancing with Sandra [McClain, a supporting cast member]
to pass the time in the hallways. I remember that it was the studio where Saturday Night Live shot.
Ae13U: Do you recall which SNL cast member’s dressing room you got?
Vicky Dawson: Yes, I was in John
Belushi's dressing room! [laughter] and I opened his closet — just because it
was unlocked and I think I was going in there to put something
in there and all of this like knitting or crocheting or something came out like
single chain. Not a sweater or anything. It was just a one long single chain
all coiled up. I guess it was a wardrobe mistress or somebody who also works at
Saturday Night Live,she goes, yeah, he would just do that
to calm his nerves before the show. He would just do it put it in the closet,
just stuff it in there and it comes tumbling out at you.
Ae13U: [laughter] That is a classic bit of
TV history and gives some insight into Belushi. Thank you for sharing that!
Anything else stands out in your mind after all these years?
Vicky Dawson in character on Hot Hero Sandwich
Episode 9: Stone Age Nightmare High. Not her “Vidal Baboon” character, but
probably not far apart on the evolutionary scale.
Vicky Dawson: I do remember meeting Jane Fonda. I think that she was doing Meet the Press and so they used the same studio and makeup room
right there. I think there was would have been a
Sunday morning and I was doing my “Vidal Baboon” character and I had a fur
onesie on, these pink high heels, and my Vidal Baboon sash. I think they did
end up using those scenes in the shows, but I might be in doubt.
[Note: Those scenes, however intriguing, were one of several sketches that did not make it on air. Although material for twelve episodes were planned and sketches filmed, the high costs of production resulted in only eleven on-air episodes and the extra footage not used.]
They were taking
me into makeup to get the final, finishing touches which was my underarm hair,
attached to my underarms, and Jane Fonda is in there getting touched up for Meet the Press, and ,you know, she
doesn't like people to talk to her, but I understand she's getting ready to
go do a very serious show and basically I looked like Barbarella, her worst nightmare . . . not one of her favorite memories.
[Note: Jane Fonda and her then-husband Tom
Hayden appeared on Meet the Press, Sep. 29, 1979, to discuss McCarthyism.]
She looks at me
— like, to the side — when I sit in the chair next to her and, you know, I
followed what they told me. I didn't say anything, but then they lifted my arms
and they started gluing the hair. And I think it was just too much for her to
take, and I just like kind of looked at her and I was like, “Hi!” Someone came
in and said, Vicky, "We're going to, we're going to work on your costume out here." She [Fonda] had asked that I be removed. She’s a really lovely person and I don't
blame her on a Sunday morning trying to put together very serious thoughts.
Ae13U:
Right. I watch Meet the Press
andI can just imagine some of the
questions she was about to face. Understandable, but with the Belushi story,
those are two classic Hollywood tales. Thank you so much for sharing.
Ae13U:One last question I like to ask everyone is whether you thought there
might have been a second season for Hot
Hero Sandwich. Some thought there might have been a chance. Others
suspected that the network was sabotaging the show because it was so expensive.
What were your thoughts?
Vicky Dawson: One thing that’s
interesting, after working 20 hours a day for like seven months, whatever it was
. . . Hot Hero was picked up and they
were going to move it to LA down here [where Dawson is now located]. I don't
know why, but they made that decision. It was better for them. So, we were all
going to move to shoot it.
Ae13U:
That’s a new twist I had not heard!
Vicky Dawson: Of course, it was
problematic for me because I was on Another
World. So, at the time, Fred Silverman, because they were both NBC shows,
just said we need her [Dawson] to go to LA with Hot Hero. So literally, in one day on Another World, I had my wedding [Note: Dawson’s on-screen husband was Ray Liotta], I had my
honeymoon night, and I got a headache, and then I died of a brain tumor in my negligee. All of this was to get me off the show fast. I packed my bags. I was leaving that Friday. It was like
Wednesday and NBC pulled the plug on the show. I went from two jobs for months
on end to no jobs.
Ae13U: Wow. That is heartbreaking. Welcome
to Hollywood, huh? Just when I think I’ve heard all the Hot Hero secrets, another one pops up. One thing I have learned
though, Fred Silverman doesn’t have many fans among the Hot Hero alumni.
Well, Vicky, I see we’ve come to the end of
my questions and I think I’ve taken up enough of your time. We’ve learned some
really interesting things today that really helps put the Hot Hero Sandwich picture together. Thank you!
Vicky Dawson: It was very nice to meet you, a pleasure
to chat, and thanks for the trip down memory lane.
If you wanna be a star of stage and screen — Look out, it's rough and mean.
— AC/DC, It's a Long Way
to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N' Roll)
One thing I have
learned regarding Hot Hero Sandwich
is that NBC President Fred Silverman told the cast and crew and the media
different things about the future of the show. When it came down to the end,
Silverman seems to have played people along — telling them different stories — in
order to hide his true agenda to end the show.
Dawson today.
The episode
where Dawson’s character dies on Another
World (Episode #1.3916) aired on Dec. 11, 1979. In a Jan. 18, 1980, article
in The New York Times, Fred
Silverman, then president of NBC, cited Hot
Hero Sandwich, as one of several shows that demonstrated the network’s
commitment to “informational children’s programming.” Then, a week later, the
show was cancelled. I can give Silverman the benefit of the doubt he had not
made the decision by Dec. 11, but he clearly was hedging his bets with Dawson
and keeping others in the dark by telling conflicting stories.
It will be interesting to find out what Silverman told
Matt McCoy and Paul O’Keefe someday. I almost expect two completely different
stories I haven’t heard before.
As I watched Vicky
Dawson recount the story about the various challenges and disappointments over
her career, there was a certain sense of serenity to her. An acceptance as she
acknowledged the realities of the business.
I’m sure the scars still linger, but so do the victories. Another aspect
of long-time actors I’ve interviewed is their resilience born of their love for
the trade. They know they swim with the sharks.
It’s a tough business, but
there comes the moment when you’re the one on the stage, when you’re the one
who has the spotlight, and when 43 years later you’re the one being interviewed
— YOU, not the sharks.
You have to be
brilliant to stand out in an industry whose darkness can diminish your light, but that’s why we
call them stars.
In interviewing
the cast for Hot Hero Sandwich, I
sometimes ask questions on a very small point. What kind of equipment did they
use, do they remember the audition process, where did they live, etc. At times,
I’m almost embarrassed to ask some of these questions, but the historian in me
hates to leave no stone unturned.
Having watched
the opening credits an umpteenth number of times, I noticed that besides the
main cast, there is just one other individual (not including the dog) who appears in the opening credits — the driving instructor in the car with Vicky Dawson as
she gets picked up by the gang in the Hot Hero van. It is only a few quick seconds, but I was curious. Was
it maybe an actual driving instructor and his car hired for the shoot? An
extra? I had a chance to ask Vicky Dawson about it and naturally after all
these years she wasn’t sure, but thought it was a local actor.
I was curious, so
I reached out to series writer Sherry Coben and her husband series film editor
and associate producer Patrick McMahon, and their response proves that some of
the most interesting stories can be found in the unlikeliest of places — right
in front of you all along.
Coben noted that
the driving instructor was their friend and colleague John Nicolella who served
as free occasional consultant to Bruce and Carole Hart. He was a producer and
director (Saturday Night Fever and Miami Vice) who started as an assistant
director in NYC. The NYC film/TV community was close and collegial and such
favors were common. Nicolella helped the Harts put together the crew for the
film shoot of the opening credits, and since he was there on location with him,
they put him in the car.
In reviewing Nicolella’s credits in the Internet Movie Database, I was surprised to find out that in
addition to production/producer credits on Saturday
Night Fever and Miami Vice, he
also directed some of my favorites shows, including the four excellent martial
arts Vanishing Son TV movies
featuring my local hometown hero actor Russell Wong and an episode of one of my
favorite, if short-lived, superhero series, M.AN.T.I.S.
starring Carl Lumbly. Nicolella’s last credits were as executive producer for
Don Johnson’s Nash Bridges TV series
(he also directed Johnson’s music video for his song “Heartbeat”) before
passing away far too early in 1998.
Amazingly, I had
been a fan of Nicolella’s work all this time.
According to
Patrick McMahon, John Nicolella was an experienced and successful assistant director turned film producer. He met Bruce and Carole Hart in New York when the Harts asked
him to produce their TV movie Sooner or
Later . . . (1979). Nicolella was busy as he was producing a movie for
Robert Stigwood at the time, but he worked up the budget for the Harts’ film in
pre-production and, according to McMahon, “was quite taken with them . . . with
their Sesame Street and Free to Be . . . You and Me (1974) background."
About a year
later, while working on Hot Hero Sandwich,
the Harts called Nicolella for advice on the film shoot of the title sequence. Nicolella
hired the crew for them and supervised the one-day shoot. In gratitude, the
Harts made him the driving instructor in the Vicky Dawson clip.
John Nicolella setting up a shot for Miami Vice (MiamiViceOnline.com).
A few years
after that, when Nicolella was producing and sometimes directing the hit show
Miami Vice, the Harts called him again. They were doing a TV movie called Leap of Faith (1988) and they wanted to
use the Eagles song “Desperado” in their film but didn't have the budget for
it. Glenn Frey, who wrote the song, was working as an actor on Miami Vice at the time and had become
friends with Nicolella and, without a problem, the song was approved for that
movie.
While members of
the crew sometimes turn up in a scene on a film they’re working on, I’ve found
no such mention for Nicolella and it may be that this one brief scene may be
among his few, and perhaps his only, appearance on film in a career he devoted
his life too.
Everyone
deserves the spotlight sometimes, including the ones operating it.
Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 1 Opening Credits.
[Note:
According to Jarett Smithwrick in his interview:
“The opening was shot in Westchester, a van sequence was shot in a park. I remember it was in a recreation area we
used to take kids to, when I worked as a camp counselor in High School. Yonkers
was the location for the remaining scenes if memory serves me right.”]