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tv   Tavis Smiley  PBS  March 17, 2011 12:00am-12:30am PDT

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[captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: i'm tavis smiley, a conversation with ed o'neill, the man who helped put the fox network on the map and now the head of one of tv's most popular, "modern family. the series will try to repeat its emmy win for best comedy and then duo steel magnolia, they are the real life couple whose cd is one of the most popular of 2011. actor ed o'neill and couple steel magnolia coming upright now. >> needed extra help with his reading. >> i'm james. >> yes. >> everyone making a difference?
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you help us all live better. >> nationwide difference supports tavis smiley with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis smiley and remove obstacles to economic empowerment. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: welcome ed o'neill back to this program and is one of the most popular shows "modern family." it took home the emmy last year for best comedy. here now a scene from "modern
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family." >> what are you doing here? >> i'm just returning that crock pot that gloria borrowed. >> i forgot you had that crock pot, jay. we are getting ready to build a christmas castle. >> sure. >> remember, how much fun we had building that book shelf together? >> that was my vietnam. and i was in vietnam. >> oh, look at us, three construction dudes. dad, i'm going to get you workman gloves, blue or camel, what's your preference? >> surprise me. tavis: you are the most diverse head of the household. your family is all over the place. >> yeah. tavis: you are diversity. >> that's right. tavis: what do you make of this character and all the different pieces of his family's puzzle? >> when i first started trying
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to do it, i was concerned, you know, i thought, i don't know how to play this guy. i didn't know how that relationship would work with my wife, the clomian, i didn't know if anybody would buy that. this is perfect casting. and then again, at this stage, i'm 64. i really don't even know how to play it. i don't know how to be 64. it seems odd to be this old. it's almost i'm out there on my own now. when you are in your 30's, you sort of know what's appropriate. you know how to live. so, that carries over into the world and i don't know what's appropriate half the time. i don't know if that makes sense. tavis: i get it. the question that makes me want to ask and all i ask is how, then, you find center, how do you know then when you are
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hitting the bull's eye if by your own admission, there are so many pieces to this puzzle that you aren't sure you are putting it together properly? >> i think not knowing has its own advantages. tavis: i can see that. >> you are shooting in the dark and you are blind and shooting from the hip. somehow, it has commeedic elements. either going to fail who arebly or it's going to work. and so far, it's working. tavis: you like that tightrope kind of atmosphere? >> i do, because it's a little scary. i like it. tavis: what can you be scared of at 64? you don't want to give yourself cardiac arrest. >> robert michum said, bob, isn't time to slow down?
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he said, he said, barbara, now is when you jam the accelerating off the floor. go right off the pier. tavis: when you think about the show and the character you play and how diverse this family is, it fits into the times we live. we live in multi racial, multi cultural, and that fits. >> i don't have anything to do with it, but i find myself -- in my own life example, without getting into my own life -- >> tavis: this guy walks on stage and opened up his wallet and starts pulling out baby pictures. >> claire bear and my baby daughter. >> not to get into your own
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life, but you are saying, mr. o'neill. >> i have that a bit of that in my own life and i know a lot of people, a lot of friends who are also experiencing a much different life than, say, our parents. tavis: nuclear family isn't the same. >> no. yeah, that's interesting. tavis: i suspect if you can take what is now the new normal, to use that phrase, and find comedy in it, that's what works. >> yeah. it's an amazing show. you know, there are a lot of elements that make it work and certainly not the least of which are great writers and producers and the three separate but interrelated families, so they can go a lot of places quickly with story lines and never bets
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boring. tavis: took you a while to decide that you were going to come back to television in this way. >> yeah. tavis: you wanted to have the right vehicle, make the right decision and choice, so here you are back now. strange question. i was about to ask whether or not you made the right choice given the show is a hit. it's possible that the show could not have been a hit and you could have felt you made the right choice and just wasn't a hit. are you happy with the choice that you made? >> i am. and yes, that's an interesting way to look at it, because i have done shows that weren't successful. but they were the right choices. i did "big apple," that i absolutely loved. short-lived. shot it on location in new york. i would show anybody that show. i'm very proud of it. and "john from cincinnati." i did it for hbo that ran one
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year and that wasn't considered a successful show, but it was a great experience. tavis: how does the artist in you or for that matter, the human being in you deal with something that you think was high quality work and it just isn't met with the kind of acclaim that you thought it might have been or should have been. every artist travels with the journey you go, and you do it. how do you process it and put yourself into it and the audience says, not so much? >> that's hard. it's hard, but that's one of those tough lessons. and you have to learn in this business. and if you can't do that, then perhaps you are in the wrong business. you have to kind of "v" that resiliencey where you say, i wish this worked, what's next
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because that's how you survive. tavis: to the point of surviving, it requires talent and i have none. if i had talent, acting was the last thing i would do, because i don't have the constitution to take that kind of rejection day in and day out. you get told no in this town a lot more than you are told yes. >> you act well. you may not have to audition anymore or not do it in the same way as a business sense but you act every time you are up here. you may not feel like smiling or interested in who you are talking to, but you show good acting ability. tavis: when you were talking about the fact that this is a business, do you recall the days or do you choose not to remember the days that you were getting those nos before you were getting yeses?
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>> you always remember those days and it helps you, i think, because -- most of us -- most actors get those days much more than not. for example, this show i'm in now is the first show that i have ever been in that has this kind of acclaim. tavis: come on. you had -- >> "married with children" was not the same experience. that was on a network that took a lot of years to get off the ground that didn't get the critical success that this show is getting. it was a different audience, for example. tavis: i'll debate you on this. >> i'm not going to argue too hard. tavis: you have to redefine acclaim to me. the show ran 11 seasons? >> 10 1/2 seasons. tavis: 11 seasons, everybody knows in the country you can't walk down the street without being called mr. bundy. >> that was a debate job and i
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loved "married with children." i loved doing it. it took me out of the -- tavis: i'm worried. >> took me out of the system. tavis: yeah. >> and that's what i wanted, more than anything else. i wanted to be able to do what i wanted. so for that -- and i loved the show. but at the same time, it did not get the same kind of respect. you know, i mean, i had a different kind of person coming up to me every day now in stores and so forth, mr. o'neill -- "married with children" was more the vegas guy. hey, whoa! i had guys take my wife -- [beep] i can't fond will your wife's -- [beep] [laughter] >> it was a little bit of a
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different crowd. tavis: which one is better? [laughter] >> "married with children" kept you -- kept me wanting the approval of my peers, which i didn't really get. they all said, you know, you're successful. that in itself is a certain amount of acclaim in this town. but in this show you get helen merea, spielberg and that's what i'm talking about. that means a lot. to me, it means a lot. i enjoy it. tavis: how fortunate, how blessed, how lucky do you feel that you had had a chance to at this age, to have another bite of the apple and have a successful bite at it and get this acclaim? >> as lucky as you can be. in terms of the business, as
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lucky as you can be. i feel very lucky. tavis: this won't be it and this show will be around for a while. but if this were it, if your career were going to be defined by these two bookends, "married with children," "modern family," you would happy with that? >> oh, yeah. even before this show, i would say i was one of the luckiest actors because of "married with children." most actors are struggling. 99% or maybe that's too low. [laughter] >> you get a show like married runs 10 1/2 years, you have to say you're lucky and if you don't get the oscar or whatever
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some other actors get, you are way ahead of the game. tavis: people can't see you. ed o'neill, the show, "modern family," big hit for abc, hottest comedy and i'm glad to have you on the set. good luck. up next, steel magnolia. stay with us. tavis: if only the music business were this easy, meghan linsy and joshua scott jones met at a ca rockyo ley bar and they are number one on i tunes. is that a story or what? they call themselves steel magnolia and this is their self-titled cd.
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♪ ♪ ♪ tavis: put the cover back up for me and i was saying how cool the photo cover was, debut cd, nice cover and i said that to joshua and he said to me -- >> last shot of the day, actually. [laughter] >> we had been posing all day and smiled like this and stand like this and do this, that and the other, and i said, you know
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what? let's just have a free-for-all and let's look where we want to look and do what we want to do and that was the second-to-last shot. tavis: and you paid the photographer $50,000. that's why i hate photo shoots. you do it all day long and make a quirky shot and that's the one that makes it. >> we found out before we went to the photo shoot, michael jackson passed away and -- we put michael jackson's greatest hits on the truck and during this photo shoot, we were listening to michael. tavis: since you went there, it raises the question, given you are so much in your sound and give a little bit of different influences. >> me first? tavis: sure. if meghan doesn't mind.
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>> go ahead. >> at a very young age my parents listened to classic country music. patsy cline, willie nelson and my brother was 12 years older than me and listened to 1970's rock and roll. tavis: little bit of everything. how about you meghan? >> i grew up in new orleans. tavis: i knew what you listened to. >> i had soul influence and when i turned 14, my mom helped me put a band together and i started playing. i mean everything. dolly parton was my first love, aretha franklin and the music can make you feel something when you hear it. tavis: i mentioned the story at
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the top about how this thing really happened. >> we were doing a radio interview the other day and we told the story how we met in the karaoke sounds like a story that was made up. tavis: this town is good about creating lies and that's why i asked. that's how it happened? >> true. i walked into international in 2006 and i just got off work and i walked into this little place and heard this huge voice and i turned around and saw her and i could see clearly that she was a complete star. and god, this girl doesn't have a record deal. and i got the courage to walk up and put in a song and we hit it off. that's where it is. tavis: i assume you agree or tell me either way, about how
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hard this business is and country isn't the easiest to get into. but are saying how hard this town is, nashville. >> it takes persistence and time and your place in time, too. i think i started going to nashville when i was 14. so 10 years -- 11 years now. it takes a while. josh was doing the same thing. and the magic was when we met each other and that was the turning point for us and we found our sound and people started to notice. tavis: how amazing is it that the minute the two of you connect, his talent, your talent and this thing takes off? >> well, i think -- real large part of that, i mean, for me was swallowing my pride and learning how to put other things before myself and that's when things
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started happening for me. as far as finding meghan and us coming together and making music together, we were together first as friends and in a relationship for a year before -- tavis: making music together. >> yeah. we have grown so much personally on a personal level and then musically. tavis: what happens in a personal relationship where you realize that makes the light goes off to say that says, we should do this together? >> a lot of it was other people telling us at first. i don't think -- we had written a song together called "the edge of good-bye." and people would say, man, why aren't you guys a duo. none of us had thought about it. first it was that and i think you get to a point in a relationship where we love each
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other and we are meant to be together and if we sound that great together, then why wouldn't we do this together. tavis: there are 12 tracks on here, seven of them you wrote. it's got to feel good for any artist to put their debut cd out and everybody is talking about it and writing about your sound now. that's a beautiful thing. how much more special does it feel when you have written the majority of the tracks on the project? >> it feels very comfortable. this last single is the first single that has been released that we had written. and the first one, that wasn't the case. it gave us a new sense of confidence and it just feels like home, i think. >> i think our sound is based on our song writing. that brought this all together, the first song we wrote together
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was something that people liked. it happened so organically for us and we didn't think about it. sometimes that's better, because you can overthink things and that is special. tavis: what's your process, someone writing the words, someone writing the music? how do you write putting a song together? >> nashville is a subculture of a bunch of songwriters and there is a phrase that says, it all begins with the song and you see it on bum irstickers. for me -- bumper stickers. for me, i had never co-wrote a song before. i forgot the question. tavis: the process of your writing. >> well, the process revolves around a guitar line or melody and you build a phrase off of that. that's usually how it works. >> with us, we write -- every
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time it's different. he wrote his verse and we came together on the choruses and josh will be playing something and one of us will start to sing. tavis: is any of this scary and i say this, you come off the blocks as fast as you two have, does it scare you at all? >> there are times when i have been scared and i think we've -- it's almost like an attack on some level. it's kind of strange when things start to take off. it's like you second guess whether or not -- pinch me. it has been a great ride and everything, but that's where trust and faith comes in. and then we have a lot of that. we depend on that every day. and also from each other. i think at the end of the day, it's good to have one another to
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lean on. tavis: fear for you? >> definitely. especially being, you know, new to all this and first year out, it's a little scary at first. tavis: when do you start thinking about this industry always raising that issue of the sophomore jinx. you have to revel in this first one but another one at some point. >> yeah. tavis: i hate to take you out of this moment of bliss. because of the success of this one, your fans will want another one. when do you start working on that one? >> we take it day by day. we feel very grateful. and it's a humbling thing, too, to have a little success. and so we don't take it for granted. we take it day by day and try to focus on what we do best and that's all we can do.
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tavis: best way to do it. you came out of the blocks very fast and everybody talking about steel magnolia. meghan and josh make up a real-life couple. i'm glad somebody convinced you to do this. it's working out. called steel magnolia. congratulations already on what is going to be a great career. >> thanks for having us. tavis: that's our show for us. good night from l.a. thanks for watching. and as always, keep the faith. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> for more information on project. that's next time. we'll see you then. >> all i know his name is james and needs extra help with his
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reading. >> i'm james. >> yes. >> everyone making a difference? >> thank you. >> you help us all live better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley with every question and every answer. nationwide insurance is working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to financial empowerment one step at a time sm nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions from your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.
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