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Patrick Duffy says Dallas cast "started mornings with champagne and ended with tequila shots"

Though they brought the drama on TV, the cast of Dallas knew how to have fun when the cameras stopped rolling.

During his very first podcast interview, Patrick Duffy gave a wide-ranging interview looking back on his successful television career.

After addressing a host of Internet rumors his former costars dug up about him (no, he was never a professional athlete, yes, he ruptured his vocal cords decades ago and never recovered), Duffy talked through a timeline of his TV hits, which began with the late '70s sci-fi series Man from Atlantis.

Once that show — which required the actor to perform challenging underwater stunts and learn how to dive — was canceled, he was immediately offered a host of roles, including parts on Lassie and The Young Pioneers. But it was Dallas that stood out: "it was a five-episode miniseries pilot," the 75-year-old recalled. "It was a no-brainer."

Of course it lasted much longer, airing for 13 seasons, spawning several made-for-TV movies and coming back as a reboot from 2012 to 2014.

Duffy remembered that the day the original cast met for the first time, they gathered at Warner Bros. studios. "And then Haggy came in, Larry Hagman," Duffy shared. "He came in a full cowboy fringe leather outfit, big hat, leather saddlebags over his shoulder — and in the saddlebags were bottles of champagne.

So we sat down and drank champagne before we ever started reading the pilots of Dallas, to get to know each other," he continued. "That was the the beginning of the relationship. But I remember being introduced to everybody, and and I shook Hagman's hand. And I went home that day after the whole process and I told my wife, I said, 'I think I met my best friend today.' "

Duffy said the two remained "best friends from that moment on, till the day he died." (Hagman died in 2012 at the age of 81.)

But as for the champagne, "when we started working, every morning that we would be working together on the set, we'd get a call time, usually, you know, 7, 6 o'clock call time. I would pull into MGM. We'd park the cars. We'd go to Hagman's room. We'd open a bottle of champagne. We'd have a glass of champagne every morning to start the day."

Though Duffy would "lay out" until lunch, "Haggy," he said, "would continue. And in the course of the day, he'd get through three or four bottles of champagne. Work. And then, you know, they'd break for lunch and so we'd go across the street, instead of the commissary, because they don't serve alcohol in the commissary. We went to the Backstage Tavern ... and we'd have a couple of drinks and a hamburger, and then come back and and do the second half of the day."

The actor said that as the years went on the cast could "judge when the show [was] about to wrap for the day." So then, they knew it "was the right time — we would catch the prop guy's eye and would just do this," he said, seemingly indicating a nod. "That was all, and then magically, a styrofoam cup would appear."

When asked by Keanan if that meant more champagne, Duffy said, "Oh no. We'd have a little shot of tequila before we wrapped because we knew it wouldn't kick in till they called wrap. And then, that was it. That was my work day with Hagman for 13 years. That was the '80s."

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by Anonymousreply 25December 19, 2024 10:54 PM

Alcohol is not the answer.

by Anonymousreply 1December 19, 2024 11:48 AM

Sounds like so much fun.

Those were the days when people weren't such teetotaling prudes!

by Anonymousreply 2December 19, 2024 11:54 AM

LH: "I never was a drunk True, I was drinking five bottles of champagne a day [during the filming of the original series], but I was never drunk. I just took little slugs throughout the day. Nine o'clock in the morning to nine o'clock at night is 12 long hours. You can ingest a lot of alcohol in that time, but it was never too much."

also

LH: "I had a liver transplant in 1995."

Certain the liver failure had NOTHING to do with the five bottles of champagne per day, which was "never too much."

And in a final flourish of hubris, Larry tells the interviewer:

"I'm pretty healthy I take a lot of vitamin pills."

Larry died three months after this interview.

by Anonymousreply 3December 19, 2024 12:02 PM

I’m always perplexed by morning drinkers. I don’t see how it’s productive. I’d need a nap by 1.

by Anonymousreply 4December 19, 2024 12:02 PM

Just thinking about having drinks early in the morning makes me feel a little queasy. I also don't know how morning drinkers do it.

by Anonymousreply 5December 19, 2024 12:05 PM

I’m not surprised R3. Long-term drunks always have a basket of excuses and it’s funny how they think they were never “drunk” since they weren’t falling over the furniture.

by Anonymousreply 6December 19, 2024 12:06 PM

And yet Larry Hagman was able to sustain a very long and productive career throughout his entire life.

If it worked for him, then great!

by Anonymousreply 7December 19, 2024 12:08 PM

Depending on the brand of champagne Hagman was drinking he could have been spending a couple of thousand dollars a week on bubbly. I’m assuming he wasn’t drinking Andre.

by Anonymousreply 8December 19, 2024 5:28 PM

And when I brought my baby oil, it would end in a freak off.

by Anonymousreply 9December 19, 2024 5:39 PM

damn, you just know the behavior on that set (formerly known as fun) would never be tolerated today.

by Anonymousreply 10December 19, 2024 5:44 PM

It's nice to read about happy memories for a change. Working on that show sounds like a blast thanks to Larry.

by Anonymousreply 11December 19, 2024 5:46 PM

America was a more culturally rich and innovative country the more inebriated it was.

by Anonymousreply 12December 19, 2024 5:51 PM

[qiote] started mornings with champagne and ended with tequila shots

Oh, so it was Santo Tequila who shot JR

by Anonymousreply 13December 19, 2024 5:55 PM

They probably all started drinking because their job brought lots of downtime. These soaps had a huge cast, probably 10 to twelve regulars. That gets them very little screen time to shoot unless you were Larry Hagman or Patrick Duffy. If you only appear for 15 minutes in a 48-minute episode (back in the 80s) you had a lot of wait time in your trailer every day. I think Barbara Bel Geddes got herself a contract clause that scheduled her filming to two or three days a week, so her work was compacted a bit. But the others just hung around for 12 hours every day to shoot five minutes worth of film.

by Anonymousreply 14December 19, 2024 5:57 PM

In the “E! True Hollywood Story” of Dallas, there is a clip of the cast promoting the show in one of the early seasons on Dinah Shore’s show and they are all shit faced.

The characters were all drunks too, the Barneses and the Ewings loved their booze.

by Anonymousreply 15December 19, 2024 6:16 PM

I can handle my liquor.

by Anonymousreply 16December 19, 2024 6:49 PM

Donald Trump shining Larry Hagman's shoes.

Well that was definitely weird.

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by Anonymousreply 17December 19, 2024 6:57 PM

^ LOL at Trump's fat ass sticking out. 🤣

by Anonymousreply 18December 19, 2024 6:59 PM

With some of the storylines on that show it's not surprising they needed to be crocked to play it all seriously. I'm just curious what the cast of One Life To Live during the 'Eterna' arc.

by Anonymousreply 19December 19, 2024 10:04 PM

^ what the cast was ON

by Anonymousreply 20December 19, 2024 10:05 PM

Patrick Duffy gave me gayling butterflies whenever he appeared in jeans on Step by Step.

by Anonymousreply 21December 19, 2024 10:11 PM

^ John Beck did that for me on Dallas.

by Anonymousreply 22December 19, 2024 10:15 PM

Victoria Principal seems the type that wouldn't participate in the daily drinking.

by Anonymousreply 23December 19, 2024 10:44 PM

Patrick Duffy always seemed like a good man. Definite husband material.

Larry Hagman was a drug enthusiast and alcoholic. He skipped the wait list and had a liver transplant. Hagman continued to drink after the operation and died.

I'll take Patrick any day.

by Anonymousreply 24December 19, 2024 10:47 PM

[quote] Larry Hagman was a drug enthusiast and alcoholic. He skipped the wait list and had a liver transplant. Hagman continued to drink after the operation and died.

Don't forget the hot tub photo where he and his wife were naked in the hot tub with his son.

He seemed to be quite debauched.

by Anonymousreply 25December 19, 2024 10:54 PM
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