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[snip]
Tom: Back with Kate Mulgrew from the starship. And then Huey Lewis and the News and the accapella performance of one of the songs for, I believe, their new CD...Settle back and fire up the [color TVs], watch the pictures, hear the sounds as they travel through the air. Thanks for lookin' in, everybody.
[commercial break]
Tom: Our pal, Kate Mulgrew continues as the star of the enormously popular television series, Star Trek: Voyager. Captain Janeway and the rest of her space traveling crew will conclude their season on May 21st with the first part of a special 2-part cliffhanger. She is also the cover story for this week's TV Guide. It is always a joy to have Miss Mulgrew in our company and thanks for comin' by to CBS.
Kate: Oh, it's my pleasure.
Tom: The cover of TV Guide, congratulations.
Kate: I've had a couple of covers on TV Guide, actually.
Tom: I know, but this is the latest one...
Kate: Lovely one. It's a lovely one.
Tom: Lemme me talk to ya here, we've talked about your boys...who are now what, 13...
Kate: [starts to laugh] We seem to talk about my boys, love, & God. They're 13 and 14, yeah.
Tom: 13 and 14. You guys took a..., I read about this, you went to Costa Rica.
Kate: We went to Costa Rica.
Tom: And you did all kinds of things you probably didn't think you could do.
Kate: Well, Regis Philbin killed me because I said it was Outward Bound. 'Cause then I had to correct myself, nationally. It was first class Outward Bound. We had two spectacular guides. This is a small company, out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. But I have to tell you, I have never in my life felt so physically exhilarated...
Tom: Really?
Kate: ...and so present. I mean, I'm a woman of a certain age, right? What age is that, Tom? You did call me your pal, didn't ya? [laughing]
Tom: Somewhere between 35 and death?
Kate: That's right, you angel.
[Tom laughs]
Kate: [turns to crew] Is he an angel? So, the whole thing was, to shoot the rapids for a week. The Pacuare River, which I think is numbered among the five most beautiful rivers in the world. And the latter part was on the Caribbean side, scuba diving, hot air ballooning...terrifying experience. Have you ever done it?
Tom: No. Never.
Kate: Absolutely... ice in my veins.
Tom: I have a bit of vertigo, and I would never go up, Kate, because I'm afraid....it's not very tall, the wall....
Kate: The basket is very shallow.
Tom: That's what I mean.
Kate: The basket comes to just your hips. And there you are... with your progeny, your only reason to go on in life...
Tom: Right.
Kate: ...and they are clinging and one is saying, 'Get... me... out... of this....'
Tom: Oh, the kids are....
Kate: Absolutely ashen.
Kate: It's a lateral moving thing.
Tom: Boys that age are immortal. Nothing frightens them.
Kate: No no no no. Because vertigo, I think has something to do with puberty. Can one make this association without getting into a good deal of trouble. Because they were just white as sheets.
Tom: Oh, you're kidding.
Kate: Then we could not land. I said 'I think it's high time.... it's time, we've been here at 2,000 feet. This has been great...' We're all ready to go and he couldn't. There was a cable, there was a goat, there was a sheep, there was a bird, there was a thing, right? So he says to me, 'You know I can only go this way, I can't go this way. I'm going to have to hit some trees to break our fall.'
Tom: Aw, man.
Kate: He said 'I'm gonna talk to you quietly. I'm gonna give you the codes and I'm gonna overboard these kids out of this basket", right?
Tom: Ok.
Kate: I said 'This is great. This is great. Go to Costa Rica, be a big shot...', right?
Tom: Show these kids what you can do.
Kate: At about 5 feet, he [says] 'why don't you jump, pal' to my oldest son, who just leapt out of the bloody balloon [laughing]
Tom: Bye-bye. [laughs]
Kate: ...so long, suckers! I never saw three kids hurl themselves so quickly and then we hit the ground and the tree and boom. But it was nothing compared to what happened in the rapids. That was [whispers] so frightening.
Tom: What happened there?
Kate: These are Class 4 rapids. Now, for those professionals out there who are laughing at me, right...who are shooting 9s and 10s... I mean this is my first time. Class 4 is a fast-moving...
Tom: Couldn't you just have gone to a hotel in Italy and sat in a Jacuzzi with the kids?
Kate: Well, that's always been my vacation... 6 o'clock, the big oversized coconut drink and don't bother me, right? I said no, I'm going to go all the way with my kids. But as I was going down these rapids, the guy said...'Oh my God,' I heard it...'We're going in the wrong way!' We hit it sideways. We couldn't get out.
Tom: Yeah. Did the guy in the raft know the guy in the balloon at all?
[Tom & crew laugh]
Kate: How did you know they were the same chap?... right? ...addicted to terror. No, but we're all in the thing together. He's laughing at first, but we can't get out of the loop... [makes slurping sounds]...screaming, right? He says, 'I'm going to throw these kids overboard.' I said 'You can't throw the kids into the roaring rapids,' right? 'How in God's name are they gonna survive?!?' He said 'I'm throwin' 'em over'...one by one, let's go kids... with the helmet...throwing them out. We were in there for 10 minutes.
Tom: He threw your boys overboard?
Kate: ...I'm watching...my blood...
Tom: Did you protest at all? Did you say 'don't do this?'
Kate: ...but they got close-ups, some guy with a camera is running around... of Captain Janeway screaming invectives at the top of her voice... 15 minutes later, it took us to get out...throwing the rope. And what happened to the boys?
Kate: They went under...very good swimmers, these kids, and they caught an eddy and they went to the side...and they're all laughing.
Tom: Oh, they think it's funny.
Kate: 'Ha! Ha! Mom!' [Tom & crew laugh]
Kate: Absolutely terrified. But I did it.
Tom: You did it.
Kate: What do you think of that?
Tom: I think it's terr...I'm proud of you and I'll bet your boys were proud of ya too.
Kate: I think they were very proud of me.
Tom: I bet they saw a mom didn't know they had.
Kate: They certainly did.
Tom: Do they ask you questions now about stuff, ya know, girls and...
Kate: I like it...[starts to laugh] ...when you ask me questions about stuff... Sex?
Tom: Yeah, girls.
Kate: [pauses to think] Number one is very quiet, my oldest son...
Tom: OK, 14...
Kate: ...and I respect that. I think that's natural [to crew] isn't it, chaps?
Tom: Yep.
Kate: Look at them! [laughs] Yes. It's uniform.
Tom: The chaps agree. Quiet is good.
Kate: Alexander is a bit more open with me. And a little more, I think, inclined to be emotional. So I love to talk about that. 'How do you feel about girls?' 'What's happening to you?' But you can only go so far and then it's intrusive. And I think I may have mentioned to you that last time I saw you, it's very hard for mothers to know were that line is.
Tom: Mm-hmm.
Kate: I have raised these boys.
Tom: I wonder if a mom can see when the boy becomes a man or starts that process. I often wondered if my mom saw when I stopped being a boy and became a man. I wonder if moms ever sees that.
Kate: Well, I think we have to see it.
Tom: Uh-huh.
Kate: I think we have to.
Tom: And I wonder if there is any bond stronger than mother and son.
Kate: I don't think so.
Tom: No, I doubt not. That is truly the relationship that lasts from cradle to grave.
Kate: We were talking about this the other night. My boys said 'Well, no, then that works for fathers and daughters and I said 'Perhaps' but in my experience, what is that is so deep and profound about this particular... This connection is just... I simply adore them. Is it unconditional on both sides, do you think?
Tom: Mm-hmm. I think so. I think it is. I've seen it, women friends who have sons and women who have daughters...the relationship between mother and daughter is nothing as compared to that between mother and son. There's something between mother and son, it is truly the circling of the wagons between mother and song, and I used to try and get in the way of it sometimes and I have learned that you can't get in the way of the Mom and the boy cubs. You just cannot.
Kate: You really can't, can you?
Tom: But do they ask you questions that you can't answer?
Kate: Yes. Well, they ask me a lot of questions that I think are taboo for me to answer.
Tom: Like...
Kate: Well, like about my life.
Tom: Oh really.
Kate: And I've been educated.. I've been taught not to answer them. Of course my instinct, [laughing] is to divulge all. Why not? I do it to you , I do it to everybody, but then with your son, you have to realize that there is certain line which you cannot cross because you have to condition.... you have to train him, don't you, to respect women of my age. So if they want to talk about sex in any graphic way, which is all they want to do at that age, I say no, that's frankly none of your business.
Tom: Is it tough, being a single mom... and you've been a single mom for as long as I can remember.
Kate: [laughs] How depressing... for as long as you can remember. I mean you've known me for a long time. I have been a single mother for five years. Is it tough? Yeah. It's tough. Did you read that article about downsizing the family in 'Newsweek'?
Tom: Uh, no.
Kate: I brought this up with your guy, Neil, who's very sharp,
by the way. It said something that's haunting me lately--a lot of single
mothers trying to do the whole thing. I'm not sure we can do the whole
thing. She had a wonderful editorial in Newsweek....I guess she's a CEO
for a small but thriving company in the East and she's also the mother
of three...and she's saying 'Working is the holiday, I'm finally understanding
what you guys, what you gentlemen have loved all these years.'
Tom: Oh sure... for many people... and I didn't read the article, but I read a condensation of it,...people find the workplace solace now. It used to be that work was where all the pressure... and guys and gals would come home because this was the place of peace and quiet... Now... 'this' is the place of peace and quiet--the workplace, and home is gangbusters.
Kate: Well, what is this gonna do to the kids? You see, because at 5 o'clock as she's heading home, she's really full of trepidation. She doesn't quite know how she's gonna catch her breath in time to deal with them and she must deal with them. Those are her children. They're the first priority... and they're not gonna really care about her 12-hour day at the office. Why should they, right?
Tom: Absolutely.
Kate: They need that attention. They need to sit down to dinner. Had a long talk with Joe Califano the other night about it.
Tom: Oh, former Secretary of Health Education and Welfare.
Kate: Right. They were talking about drug abuse, right? What really gets kids into trouble and he said "I'll tell ya, it's the age-old song, baby. Do you eat with them every night? Do you oversee their homework on a regular basis? ...
Tom: Do you put 'em to bed?
Kate: ...and do you lie on the floor with the Oreo cookies and the milk and say 'How ya doin', pal'?"
Tom: Yeah.
Kate: He said you would be shocked to find that this is now a great challenge for most parents whereas, I guess, in yesteryear, it was easier.
Tom: [sighs] Let's go on to the movies and Star Trek; and stuff like this before we get ourselves totally and completely depressed.
Kate: All right. [starts to laugh]
Tom: Let me do a fast break and we'll continue here with Kate Mulgrew from Star Trek Voyager, the 2-part cliff-hanger is on the UPN network starting on, I believe, May the 21st. The toll-free is up and running, I'm Tom and this is CBS.
[commercial break]
Tom: We're with Kate Mulgrew, here is Joe on the toll-free in Queens, NY. Hi, Joe, welcome to CBS.
Joe: Thank you.
Tom: You're welcome.
Joe: Uh, I miss you here in New York as a newscaster in the 70s. I remember you very well.
Tom: Thank you. I appreciate that very, very much. I had a wonderful time in New York City and I miss it to this day. Thanks, Joe.
Joe: I used to work at 909 Third Avenue in New York City right across the street from a place called "Friar Tuck's' and they used to have a waitress there that we used to refer to as Katherine Hepburn and basically... [Tom chuckling]...I believe that this is the young lady sitting there right now.
Kate: You got that a hundred percent right. How amazing. What's your name sir?
Joe: My name is Joe and I used to work for General Telephone and we used to have a whole crew that used to come in there.
Tom: At Friar Tuck's?
Joe: At Friar Tuck's.
Kate: That was a long time ago.
Joe: Right. ...and actually Jerry Seinfeld worked across the street at the [Bruberger] and I think he was one of our waiters also...
Kate: He was at the high-class place...
Joe: ...but basically, Kate was basically one of the ones when we would sit down and everybody would be smart-mouthing the waitresses, she would be the one that would always come back with somethin' good....
Kate: Like where's my tip...[laughs]
Joe: ...and every time we'd go in, we'd tell the lady at the door 'We want Katherine Hepburn'.
[Tom laughs]
Joe: ...and basically ya know, you're talkin' about your sons and how you don't wanna tell about your life but there are alotta things that happen in the real world that basically help you [with life conditions] and different things about the world that you really are away from now.
Kate: Yes.
Tom: Now you mentioned, and Joe, you heard Kate say this that there are some things in life you don't tell your sons....
Joe: Exactly.
Tom: But I hope that they know that you worked since you were 12-years-old even though they may not have to.
Kate: That's why I want you to just... Would you say that again about Friar Tuck's, Joe? I was only seventeen or eighteen years old at that time.
Joe: [chuckles]
Kate: I got fired from that job, you know. I dumped a plate of pasta on some guy's lap.
Tom: [chuckles] On purpose?
Kate: No tip...
Tom: On purpose or by accident.
Kate: No, he was being naughty and nasty.
Tom: Oh. oh.
Joe: ...But I'm sayin' ...any of these experiences that you had when you weren't a star that you basically have to keep yourself grounded with and use them and go back to those things so you don't loose yourself in the rarefied air that you're living in now.
Kate: No, but it's not rarefied air, Joe, and please, I'm not a star. I'm in a television series right now and I'm very blessed to have this job, but my life will revert, once again, to what it was before. I'm an actress and I have never confused myself with being a star.
Joe: Once you are on Star Trek, you going to be a legend, believe me. You're hooked up with William Shatner and everybody else and no matter what you say...
Kate: I gotta be hooked up with William Shatner?
Joe: ...this television program is more than a regular program.
[crew laughing at Kate's comment]
Tom: We didn't say shacked up, we said 'hooked up'.
Kate: Well, I intend to try and stay as grounded as possible because I think that's what happiness is all about, don't you?
Joe: Absolutely.
Tom: Now, Joe, let me ask you a question back. Is the Friar Tuck's still in operation?
Joe: Not as Friar Tuck's. It's some other cockamamie place now, but it's still got that brick front and everything.
Kate: P.J. Clarks is still goin' across the street, isn't it?
Joe: Uh, yeah. P.J. Clarks is never gonna go away.
Kate: No.
Tom: No, I hope not.
Joe: And it still looks the same .. almost unpainted, looks like it should be torn down but it just sits there.
Tom: Joe, you're speakin' sacrilege, talkin' about tearin' down P.J. Clarks, come on.
Joe: Look, I spent many a night and many a twenty dollar bill in there, believe me.
Tom: Same here. I'm glad you called, sir and thank for your compliment.
Joe: Ok, thank you.
Kate: Thank you very much.
Tom: G'night, Joe.
Joe: Bye-bye.
Tom: The jobs we've all had to do, huh?
Kate: Well, thank God.
Tom: Yeah.
Kate: It is truly the seasoning of life, isn't it?
Tom: Yeah. Did ya ever have to sell Plumber's Helpers door-to-door?
Kate: [laughs] [indistinguishable comment] No. Plumber's Helpers? No, I managed to escape Plumber's Helpers.
Tom: Yeah, I sold those door to door.
Kate: Have you ever waited tables?
Tom: Yes, I have.
Kate: Have you ever done temp work?
Tom: Nope. But I've stacked tin cans, I've cut cheese at the A & P, I've ground coffee, I've filled the milk cases...
Kate: Now would you say, between you and me, that's sort of made you what you are?
Tom: Absolutely, I wouldn't give that up for the world and by the way, I know those jobs are waiting for me when this all turns, you know.
Kate: Yeah. Exactly. I mean, I'm half-joking with Joe, but I'll tell you, I fully expect that life does... It's all about chapters. This is a chapter... something will happen.
Tom: But let me tell ya, selling Plumber's Helpers door-to-door is tough work because nobody ever buys one of those unless they desperately need one, ya know?
Kate: I think it's a sure way to go to heaven.
Tom: Now Star Trek was a lifesaver for you. You had finished Mrs. Columbo...
Kate: T-Tom. I finished Mrs. Columbo about 3 decades before Star Trek.
Tom: But after Mrs. Columbo, there was a time when...
Kate: This is just...[laughing] ....getting worse and worse and worse.
Tom: No...
Kate: There was a little bit of a dirth there... of activity?
Tom: A dirth... dirth [thwack], as they say.
Kate: Yeah, but I worked in the theatre a lot, um, which one doesn't see. You're talking about celebrity... I did a lovely series called 'HeartBeat' but indeed I have never, in my life, experienced anything of this magnitude, nor will I ever again.
Tom: When you signed on for Star Trek, where did you think it would go? A year, two years?
Kate: Oh no. I knew the longevity involved. I assumed and was well cautioned that the commitment would be five, six, possibly even seven years.
Tom: Mm-hmm.
Kate: It was the phenomenon itself that only sort of revealed itself to me very slowly and now I see that what Joe, for instance, is saying is quite true. There is a legend to this thing...
Tom: No question.
Kate: ...and I suppose, for the rest of my life when I go and...
Tom: It's almost a religion.
Kate: Well, you're talking the San Diego 39ers?
Tom: No, no, no. I don't want to go there.
Kate: No.
Tom: But in their devotion to Star Trek and what was created by Roddenberry and company, these people are devoted to that.
Kate: Indeed they are. Indeed they are, and that's to be respected...
Tom: Yes, it is.
Kate: ..and so, I will just do the best that I can for the time that I'm there. Listen, it's a wonderful job. She's a great character.
Tom: Yes, she is.
Kate: I'm the captain of the ship. I'm not in the kitchen. I'm the captain. Can you imagine how marvelous? So, for as long as it runs, I'm a very happy camper.
Tom: Well, good for you and the cover of TV Guide sure beats the program listings at the back of the book. Let me do a fast tickle here with the sponsors. Kate Mulgrew is with us from Star Trek: Voyager and their 2-part cliffhanger is on UPN on the 21st of May. You'll check the listings in your town for the exact time and station. Back with Kate and you on the phone after this short break.
[commercial break]
Tom: Here is Ruth on the toll-free in Clarksville, Indiana. Hello.
Ruth: Hey, Tom.
Tom: Hello Ruth
Ruth: Hey, Kate.
Kate: Hello, Ruth
Ruth: I wanted to ask you, Kate, about your brothers and sisters.
Kate: Oy.
Ruth: You spoke about them in a telephone commercial several years ago and I loved it.
Kate: Yes, I have a lot of brothers and sisters.
Ruth: You have?
Kate: I have a lot of brothers and sisters.
Ruth: How many?
Kate: Well, there were eight of us originally and 2 of my sisters have died, but I always say eight because that's the way it was.
Ruth: That's right.
Kate: So, it was a big family. What did you want to ask me?
Ruth: Well, in your telephone commercial, you said you called them all the time and I hope that wasn't just script, but the way it really was.
Kate: Well, I do talk to them all the time. I'm the 2nd oldest child, the oldest girl. That's a position of some importance in such a big family.
Tom: And responsibility
Kate: Very big, you know?
Ruth: And you were born where?
Kate: I was born in Dubuque, Iowa.
Ruth: And grew up there?
Kate: Yes, I certainly did. Are you familiar with Dubuque, Ruth?
Ruth: No, I'm not.
Kate: Built on a bluff and run on the same principle?
[Tom laughs]
Ruth: I'm Midwestern, but not Dubuque.
Kate: Where are you from?
Ruth: Clarksville, Indiana.
Kate: Yeah, Indiana's a beautiful state. So we lived in Dubuque. I grew up in the country on 50 acres of land. My father was a contractor. He bought this house in the country to raise all of us because we were Irish Catholic and God knows, the skie's the limit, having those kids... so there we were, left to our own devices and I sure that's where we all fell in love.
Tom: And when was the last time you returned to the fair city of Dubuque?
Kate: Oh, I go home at least twice a year.
Tom: Good for you.
Kate: But I see my mother a lot. I mean, it's a constant coming and going. I'll see my sister next week. I've got 16 nieces and nephews, for heaven's sake.
Tom: In the Dubuque area? In Iowa?
Kate: All over the world. [laughs] They're still growing.
Ruth : Anybody else in the acting profession?
Kate: No. Interesting, huh? I think I have a little niece well on her way... [lowers voice to sultry tone] ..talks like this-"Hello, Aunt Kate. How are you?" [normal voice] I'm fine. You just wait.
Ruth: I do love watching you. It's been such fun watching you through the years.
Kate: Thank you, Ruth, what a nice thing to say.
Tom: Good night there, Ruth, and thanks for calling.
Ruth: And Tom, I love your show. You keep me up much too late.
Tom: You're very kind, Ruth
[Kate & Ruth laughing]
Ruth: Bye-bye.
Kate: Bye-bye.
Tom: I'd say you keep me up too, but some people might take it the wrong way.
Ruth: [laughs] I'll tell my friends you said that.
Tom: You do, indeed. In fact, if you like, I'll repeat it tomorrow if they got the tape machine's going.
Kate: [laughing] [Don't] you dare repeat that.
Tom: Good night, now.
Ruth: Good night.
[Kate & Tom laughing]
Kate: So bad.
Tom: Now I read this afternoon that you were at the White House a couple of years back and you met Hillary and Chelsea and they are apparently huge watchers.....
Kate: Just the first lady, not Chelsea, and the Vice President.
Tom: Ok.
Kate: So briefly did I meet the Vice President. It was an exercise in brevity: How do you do, picture, great, good-bye. But the first lady was so... I know everybody's got their..thing. I'm not gonna get into the political aspects of this. She was so gracious to me and so present to me and so present and so well-informed and I know she just got off the plane 2 hours before.
Tom: Sure, sure.
Kate: I thought, she's aces in my book. It was a pretty marvelous presentation. So I have been a great admirer ever since.
Tom: Um, I'm at the end of my conversation with you for the evening so I can now ask a...
Kate: I hope just for the evening.
Tom: Yeah... a..a.. question that occurred to me the last time. You're a very busy person, you have this television show that you are committed to and you have 13 and 14 and you have Costa Rica and Bali, whatever. Do you have time for romance in your life at all? Are you a girlfriend to anybody?
Kate: I do my best, Tom. I try... [Tom & Kate start to laugh]... to uphold to the old tradition. I do. I have to be fed. I have to live and I have found a wonderful man.
Tom: Good for you.
Kate: So absolutely, there's plenty of room. This is life. Gotta live it.
Tom: Ok, We'll all be watching the 21st, pal.
Kate: Ok.
Tom: The season ender and we'll see you in the new year, OK?
Kate: Thanks a lot.
Tom: My pleasure.
Kate: Great to see you.
Tom: OK, best to your boys. Kate Mulgrew. Check out Star
Trek: Voyager on UPN May 21st. Check the listings for time and station.
Back with Huey Lewis and later the News after this short break.
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