Tom Selleck (Re-Release)

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Tom Selleck (Re-Release)" on Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Podcast Information:

• Title: Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes)
• Hosts: Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson
• Episode: Tom Selleck (Re-Release)
• Release Date: May 14, 2025

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Introduction

In this special episode of Where Everybody Knows Your Name, Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson welcome their esteemed friend and first-time podcast guest, Tom Selleck. The trio reminisces about their shared history from the iconic sitcom “Cheers” and delves into Tom’s illustrious career, personal anecdotes, and his recently released memoir, "You Never Know."

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Early Career and Magnum P.I.

Ted Danson kicks off the conversation by highlighting the significance of Tom's first podcast appearance, emphasizing their long-standing friendship forged during their time on “Cheers”.

[02:01] Tom Selleck: "I know him well."

The discussion transitions to Tom’s breakthrough role in "Magnum P.I.", reflecting on pivotal moments that shaped both their careers.

[04:15] Tom Selleck: "It was a seminal moment for us. I ended up diving in the water then. I wasn't worried about you. I think you dove in the water another way and you're run over by a boat."

Tom recounts the intense filming experiences and the unforeseen fame that followed the show's success.

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Transition to "Cheers"

A year after “Magnum P.I.,” Ted swiftly transitions to his own career milestone with "Cheers", marking the rapid ascent to fame that both actors experienced.

[05:26] Ted Danson: "Right."

Tom shares anecdotes about the bustling set locations and the overwhelming crowds that accompanied their rising stardom.

[06:56] Tom Selleck: "But now, see, I forgot. I was searching my brain right now because it was an amazing hotel. All the little shutters. I mean, it was an amazing."

---

Experiences with Mae West and "Poltergeist"

The conversation shifts to Tom’s experience working on the film "Poltergeist" and his interaction with legendary director Steven Spielberg.

[07:18] Ted Danson: "Not all of them, most of them, maybe. Here's my memory of it..."

Tom humorously recounts his realization about his own appearance and its impact on his casting opportunities.

[08:35] Tom Selleck: "Yeah."

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"Three Men and a Baby" and Box Office Success

Tom reflects on his role in "Three Men and a Baby," discussing its monumental box office success and the collaborative dynamics with Ted and their mutual agent, Betty McCarthy.

[37:07] Tom Selleck: "Do."

Ted elaborates on the film's global reach and its reception, highlighting their intertwined careers.

[37:18] Ted Danson: "Yes. So that, that was a big deal for you too."

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Western Films and "Quigley Down Under"

Delving into his passion for Westerns, Tom shares insights from filming "Quigley Down Under" in the Australian outback. He details the challenges of long-distance shooting and the camaraderie with the cast, including Alan Rickman.

[49:00] Ted Danson: "Oh, that's. That was smart."

Tom discusses the meticulous attention to detail in the film, especially concerning historical accuracy in weaponry.

[54:02] Tom Selleck: "There's a movie I love called Veracruz with Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster..."

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Personal Reflections and Memoir Writing

Tom opens up about penning his memoir, "You Never Know," describing the emotional journey and the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

[72:27] Ted Danson: "Did you enjoy it?"

He shares heartfelt stories from his childhood, exemplifying the values instilled by his parents that shaped his character.

[28:43] Ted Danson: "Oh, good one. Good one moment."

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Meeting His Wife, Jilly

A touching segment details how Tom met his wife, Jilly Mac, during his time in London attending "Cats." He narrates their initial encounters, the serendipitous nature of their meetings, and the blossoming of their relationship over 38 years.

[81:09] Ted Danson: "38."

Tom reminisces about their first date and the unique bond they share.

[81:13] Ted Danson: "Yeah. Please say hi to her."

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Awards and Recognition

The hosts discuss Tom’s experiences with prestigious awards, including his Golden Globe win and hosting the Emmys. Tom shares candid moments from award shows, highlighting both triumphs and memorable interactions.

[61:52] Tom Selleck: "That's the real deal."

[63:00] Tom Selleck: "I've never got to do the walk because I was backstage."

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Acting Philosophy and Industry Insights

Concluding the episode, Tom offers his perspective on acting, storytelling, and the evolving landscape of film and television. He contrasts the depth of classic black-and-white films with contemporary productions, advocating for authentic storytelling over reliance on gimmicks.

[67:05] Tom Selleck: "They are. And I'm just old now or older or whatever you want to say, but I look at previews..."

[69:00] Tom Selleck: "I can't do shtick. Your show, the Good Place. I got the title right."

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Closing Remarks

Ted expresses his deep appreciation for Tom’s candidness and the enriching conversation, encouraging listeners to grab Tom’s memoir and stay tuned for future episodes. The hosts share warm goodbyes, underscoring the enduring bond between them.

[82:33] Ted Danson: "Anyway, I adore you, my friend."

[82:38] Tom Selleck: "Gotta keep moving."

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Tom Selleck: "I was studying business at SC and ended up through just pure serendipity, signing a contract with the studio." [32:20]
• Ted Danson: "The best life is a life in motion. As I like to say, move it or lose it." [18:40]
• Tom Selleck: "I just had to find my own way to do this, playing an admittedly iconic character." [51:14]
• Ted Danson: "It's a privilege to sit down with people uninterrupted and talk to them for an hour and a half or so." [82:06]

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Conclusion

This episode offers a heartfelt and comprehensive look into Tom Selleck’s life, capturing his professional milestones, personal stories, and the values that have guided him throughout his career. Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson facilitate a warm and engaging conversation, making this a must-listen for fans and aspiring actors alike.

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Note: This summary excludes all advertisements, intros, outros, and non-content segments to focus solely on the meaningful discussions and stories shared by Tom Selleck, Ted Danson, and Woody Harrelson.

Transcript

[Ted Danson]

Where everybody knows your name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson sometimes is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states. What a great story.

[Tom Selleck]

It is. I put it in the book, so I hope.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Welcome back to where everybody knows your name. Thank you so much for revisiting all these great episodes with me over the past few weeks. Next week, we'll be back with brand new conversations, but today's episode is one of my favorites. It's with a true gentleman, my old friend and colleague Tom Selleck. He said it was the first podcast episode he ever did. So, hey, we made history. Tom spoke with me about how he got discovered working on Magnum PI his experience with Mae west, and we reminisced about the making of the three Men and a baby movies. We also talked about the memoir he was writing, which came out later. It's called you never know. Meet my friend Tom Selleck. I can't tell you how excited I am. I get to sit with you for an hour and chew the fat.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah, well, we used to do that.

[Ted Danson]

Not for a full hour. No, I mean, and not for a long time. Yeah. It's so funny that I have moments with you that kind of marked maybe your career a little bit, too, but definitely my career with Magnum and Three men in a video.

[Tom Selleck]

I know him well.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

You remember your Magnum episode?

[Ted Danson]

Yes, completely. Literally. I do.

[Tom Selleck]

It was monumental for us.

[Ted Danson]

I remember first off, it was also the day you got picked up for season two.

[Tom Selleck]

That's exactly right. Because we had done 13 in our first season and we were doing pretty good, but you never know.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Tom Selleck]

And that was the day we found out. But it was also monumental because I could kind of spot you because you were smart enough. You're playing the bad guy.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Tom Selleck]

Who wasn't supposed to be the bad guy.

[Ted Danson]

But I was a wimpy husband. Let's tell the truth. Murderous wimpy husband.

[Tom Selleck]

But often at episodic TV level, you get an actor and just they have to prove they're gonna be the bad guy. And you wouldn't do that. But here was the monumental thing for you.

[Ted Danson]

I remember on a boat.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah, we're on the boat. You have to get stupid, which you did. You had a gun, so of course you got stupid enough to let me kick it out your hand. And then we fight, and you go over to the boat and pull out a big grappling.

[Ted Danson]

Grappling hook. Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

And Andrea Markovici, playing your wife. Girlfriend was behind me. And you're. You're. You're acting up a storm.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

Acting your little brains out with this grappling hook. And I go, wait a minute. Stop.

[Ted Danson]

Stop shooting. Stop. Yeah, we need.

[Tom Selleck]

I said, I can't do this. Look, I had done so many cliches by then, and we were going to get into that. I said, he's got a grappling hook and she's back here. I got the keys to the boat. Why don't I just grab her, dive in the water and run away? And that's what you did. They really freaked out. Oh, no. Because we. We weren't allowed to change anything because everybody. The writers were back in la.

[Ted Danson]

Don.

[Tom Selleck]

Right, Don.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

And three hours ahead.

[Ted Danson]

Or it was hard to get them.

[Tom Selleck]

On the three hours behind. So they were getting later. And I just said, I can't do it. I. And it was a seminal moment for us. I ended up diving in the water then. I wasn't worried about you. I think you dove in the water another way and you're run over by a boat.

[Ted Danson]

Yes.

[Tom Selleck]

I get mine, you got yours. But it was so much change in the show and commenting on those kind of cliches that helped us make our mark, I think. And it was that show. I didn't know whether you'd remember the grappling. Totally.

[Ted Danson]

Totally.

[Tom Selleck]

Well, I think we had about two hours where we sat around and talked anyway. And I think within a year, you were doing Cheers.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, about a year, I think.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

God, I remember you. It happened fast for you. The mega stardomness of being Magnum. I remember you had a bus. It wasn't like a trailer. You had a bus that they could drive to motor.

[Tom Selleck]

It was the big motorhome.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Tom Selleck]

I didn't graduate to the rock and roll bus yet.

[Ted Danson]

No. But, man, I remember when they would call you to come to the set, they had to bring you through throngs of people who wanted hang out with you.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah. And that's. You don't go to school for that.

[Ted Danson]

No.

[Tom Selleck]

It was strange. We did get a lot of people. What I think was a blessing for me was we didn't have a lot of press, you know, and those. There was only one. There wasn't any entertainment show at that point, not even Entertainment Tonight. And the media didn't really couldn't Afford to send people over. So I was kind of spared that end of it. But the crowds. We did about five or six shows and we just. They said we can't shoot in Waikiki anymore. It's. It's crazy.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Especially at night because tourists who had watched you in the States would all flock to come see you. That's true.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

But it was a good gig.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

You got to stay at the Colony Surf Hotel and.

[Ted Danson]

But now, see, I forgot. I was searching my brain right now because it was an amazing hotel. All the little shutters. I mean, it was an amazing.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah. And you were looked out over the water.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, no, it was. It was a nice. You're right. It was a nice gig.

[Tom Selleck]

And you overcame most of the cliches. Written for bad guys.

[Ted Danson]

Here's my memory of this. Not all of them. Most of them, maybe. Here's my memory of it. And this sounds like I'm making this up. I think I didn't get cast in this particular film I'm going to mention because I just wasn't good enough or whatever. But Spielberg, Steven Spielberg, was casting Poltergeist. We had a meeting and he was very interested in me and this is what I was told. Then he saw the episode that you and I shot and he saw this weak kind of namby pamby husband getting the shit kicked out of him by rather tall, handsome Tom Selleck. And there was an overhead shot that I was not. This was when I discovered, oh, I'm balding, I have an actual full on ball spot.

[Tom Selleck]

I don't tell that part of the story. But you told me that. That's when I discovered I had a bald spot back.

[Ted Danson]

While you with no bald spot were kicking the shit out of me. And I think Mr. Spielberg went, Ah, no. And he told me this later, or somebody told me this, that I actually did kind of lose that part.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Which, you know, we both kind of lost parts to him, didn't we?

[Tom Selleck]

We all lost a lot of parts or what. Where. When was the dancing da in that chronology?

[Ted Danson]

Before.

[Tom Selleck]

It was before that.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, the first thing.

[Tom Selleck]

But I hadn't seen it yet.

[Ted Danson]

I don't know.

[Tom Selleck]

Or I would have been picking your brain. Because that was really good.

[Ted Danson]

Larry cast it. Yeah, no, I'd done, I think the Onion Field and then I did a bunch of episodics and that's how I met you.

[Tom Selleck]

Yes.

[Ted Danson]

And then eight years later we did it again. But let me stay with Magnum for a second because first off I saw you and took note of you on Rockford. I loved James Gardner and I loved Rockford. And I thought, oh, I don't know if this is going to work. And then you just stole the show. That was a huge part for you. Yes.

[Tom Selleck]

It was a very big deal. I had. Steve Cannell became a really good friend. He cast me in two pilots, both with James Whitmore Jr. Jimmy Whitmore. And they were the first two pilots that Steve ever wrote that didn't sell because he sold everything he wrote and he felt really bad. And he called me up and he said, I wrote this thing on Rockford. I think it's okay. Let me send it to you. And it was a spoof on the same kind of cliches that the grappling hook was.

[Ted Danson]

And the perfect specimen of a human being. Perfect detective, the opposite of James Gardner.

[Tom Selleck]

Lance White, White on white, nearly perfect. And. And to work with Garner, I mean, it was really a. I was to the point where I was getting bigger jobs and figured, well, maybe I'll get a shot and to work with him on his set.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

I understood that doing a lead is. Involves leadership.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Tom Selleck]

Because that's what he did. I mean, he was always hurting from something. His knees hurt, his knees back hurt. But he. He put on a happy face. And I. I thought of it and thought of Jim many times when I started Magnum, because, you know, you are the host. Yeah. And I told a friend who. Whose husband was a really good actor, Danny Jansen and David had died. But I said, I got this pilot and it's really neat. I got this narration. And Danny says, well, you know what that means, don't you? You're going to be in every shot. And I said, oh, great, that's fantastic. And then you get to about episode five and you're dying, you know, and I realized what it was. But, you know, actually everybody's taken their mood really off of you when you show up. And if you put on a happy face, it not only helps them, it helps you.

[Ted Danson]

And the crew is there 15 hours a day, and you are the family. You are a family together. And if it's a bad place to come, work. Yeah, that's horrible.

[Tom Selleck]

Well, I'm happy to say that Magnum and Blue Bloods, I hope I had something to do with it, were good places to work. There was no pot stirring nonsense that I'm sure you came across. And I came across guesting on a lot of shows.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ted Danson]

I remember Benson. I walked to do a guest spot on Benson.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Which was a half hour sitcom and good and everyone was great. But on the mirror in my little, you know, cubbyhole, guest star cubbyhole was someone had written with a magic marker. One day left of this place and I'm out.

[Tom Selleck]

And it was like, oh, shoot, it's absolutely miserable. Yeah, I did the movie Myra Breckenridge. I was in it for a cup of coffee, but I got to work with Mae West. But that picture was in horrible trouble. And all we did was sit around and Mae west is writing her own stuff and Raquel Welch is writing her own stuff. And it was just. The only good part of it was I was on a day player's salary and it was about two weeks before I ever worked. So.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Tom Selleck]

Had they known, they would have put me on a weekly and I would have made less money.

[Ted Danson]

Now one of the notes about that particular film was, you got it because of Mae West's encouragement or something. Is there a story there, Tom, you want to tell us?

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah. Well, it was really funny. I mean, I'm under contract to Fox in the new talent program. My friend Sam and I were both under contract and they disbanded the talent program. And after two years there, they just let. When our options ran out, we had six month options, they just fired us. So now I get fired and I get two jobs right away at Fox. I hadn't worked at Fox my whole time there. One was a show called Lancer which everybody remembers now because of DiCaprio and Brad Pitt because that's a TV show he was doing. And the other was to go see Mae West. So I knew my agent secretary very well. Actually she was more available than he was me. So she says, you have an appointment for Meyer Breckenridge with Mae west at 8pm in her dressing. And you could kind of hear her eyebrows raise. And she kidded me a lot. And I didn't know what to expect as Mae west, for God's sakes. Well, it just turned out she doesn't get up till about noon and she's up. So I go in and. And meet her.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

And that was about it. And then I got a. I thought I was done. You know, There was about 800 guys there all auditioning for one of seven parts, all titled Young Stud, Young Stud Number One, Young Stud Number Two. So I go and then I get a call from my agent secretary and she says, you have an appointment with Mae west at her apartment at 8pm So I don't know what to expect. And it just turned out it was above board. Above board? Yeah. Everything in her apartment was white.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

She was wearing white. The piano was white. There was a big piano in there. Anyway, long story short, she said, would you read with me? And I said, yeah. And so I read with her. But as soon as, you know, May didn't talk like Mae West. She was more Brooklyn.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Tom Selleck]

And then I started to read, and she became Mae west. And it freaked me out. And I started laughing and apologized, and it turned out she wrote that scene and she thought I was laughing at the material.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

And then she said, and this is what got me the part. She's leaning on the piano. She said, come here. I come over to her, and she says, put your hands on my waist. So I did that. And she says, now spread your legs. So I did. And then she looked over at my shoulder. Her. Her assistant on the couch said, this is going to work. She was concerned that I was too tall.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

But she liked me.

[Ted Danson]

We should say that. Mae west in the, what, 30s, 40s, was one of the biggest kind of body sex symbols. WC Fields.

[Tom Selleck]

And she. And she got away with murder.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

I mean, she could get away with stuff. You always felt you were watching something you weren't allowed to see.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Double entendre.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Everything. Yeah, but she was at that time, I don't know, 65.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah. But she wanted to appear bigger than she was. She was a tiny woman. Yeah. And so once I spread my legs, I got the part. I don't. I made that up just now.

[Ted Danson]

The last thing, but not the spread. She did make you stand that way, though.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah, I was standing like this. It made me shorter.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, I love that.

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[Sara Fedorovich]

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[Ted Danson]

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I like it.

[Tom Selleck]

It's good.

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[Ted Danson]

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[Tom Selleck]

I really think there was a period, there was a big actors strike that lasted for four or five months, so we were already supposed to start. So I had this kind of melancholy period in Hawaii, knowing I knew enough about work and stuff to know that if the show was a failure, you know, millions of people were going to see it, my life was going to be different. So it wasn't from interviews or anything else. It was really knowing that. And then like I say, by the time we were third show into Waikiki where we like to shoot and all.

[Ted Danson]

Right, you got mobbed, but I did.

[Tom Selleck]

I. And then I didn't realize until I went back and, and somebody said, you are huge. Yeah, I forget what. Oh, I went back.

[Ted Danson]

To an awards show maybe.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah, it was, I think the People's First People Choice Awards where I was the newcomer.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Tom Selleck]

And I think that I went, oh, holy.

[Ted Danson]

Because you were arguably one of the biggest stars in the world. No, it was huge. That was absolutely huge.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

But it sat on you. Well, or was it hard to walk around being you can't duck and hide at 6, 4?

[Tom Selleck]

I didn't like it.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Why?

[Tom Selleck]

Mainly because of family and a sense of privacy. And I started getting asking questions in interviews that I didn't want to say, give an answer to. And I was trying. I said, you better find a way and find a line about what you're going to talk about. I didn't always succeed, but it just grew and, and I still can't quite describe it, but I wasn't going through it every day. I had a lovely house in Hawaii. It was a tiny little house, a one bedroom house. I rented it. I later bought it. It's the first house I could ever afford. And I belonged to a place called the Outrigger Canoe Club. And that was local people.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

And yeah, they kind of knew I was an actor. But that time while the actors were on strike and we couldn't start the show, start shooting was great. Yeah, I. I actually was living Magnum's life.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

At the beach and stuff. And so it was really, I don't know, a lot to adjust to, I think. I don't know how people say the same show was in Atlanta, got the same kind of heat.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

I don't know how people do that. I had this huge buffer and it was a blessing.

[Ted Danson]

But you would go home. Did you work the first hiatus, the first summer? Did what? What? You made a film? What do you remember?

[Tom Selleck]

I made a film, High Road to China.

[Ted Danson]

Right. This is where Mary Steenbergen comes in. My wife.

[Tom Selleck]

Really?

[Ted Danson]

Because she sat down with. Well, first off here, you know, everyone claims a little story, I'm sure.

[Tom Selleck]

But this being Mary, I'm sure, I'm a huge fan. I know, as you know.

[Ted Danson]

But you said in some interview article or something, some. Somebody asked a silly question, like, if you were stranded on a desert island, who would you want it to be with? And you said Mary Steenburgeon, which got her attention. It did get her attention. So then when she sat down with you, this was her interpretation at some point, bunch or something, she said it felt like. You look at her and she's a very nervous, very shy person that sometimes gets interpreted as, I don't know, cold, judgmental. So these are her words, not mine. And so she thought, oh, I blew it. That's her story. Tom Selleck's story.

[Tom Selleck]

I don't think she blew it. I can't remember the movie that she had done.

[Ted Danson]

I think it was High Road to China.

[Tom Selleck]

No, no, her movie.

[Ted Danson]

Oh, oh, oh, her movie.

[Tom Selleck]

She had just kind of burst on the scene. I think she got nominated.

[Ted Danson]

She got an Oscar for. Sorry, somebody in Howard. Go ahead, help me. Oh my God, this is horrible. You should keep.

[Tom Selleck]

You're like me with names.

[Ted Danson]

No, you should keep this in so she can rag, you know, tell me what an idiot I am.

[Tom Selleck]

Well, I had seen that and I was a big fan. Yeah, I did High Road with Bess Armstrong.

[Ted Danson]

Yes.

[Tom Selleck]

Who I saw in, in Four Seasons before that.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

With my friend Carol Burnett and, and Jack Weston, who was in High Road was in Four Seasons also. So anyway, that's kind of inside baseball.

[Ted Danson]

But let me back up. Yeah, let me back up. So this is my impression of you, which. No, I'm not going to do an impression, but my impression of you has always been that you are, in the best old fashioned sense of the word, a gentleman. Thank you. Yeah, you are. You're an old fashioned gentleman. And where did that come from is my question. What was your, your mom and dad? I met your dad once, I think. But where did that come from? Where did your moral center?

[Tom Selleck]

I think it came from my family. I was lucky. I could go into analysis for 20 years and not blame my parents for anything. And they were great. I've been working on a book, so I've been thinking about a lot of that stuff. And I remember early on my dad, it was just important to be accountable for your acts. He held us accountable. I wouldn't say he was strict, but he was. Whatever they did, I felt when I screwed up, which I did lots, I'd probably get punished, but I didn't care about that. I cared about letting them down. I remember I was like seven or something and I was playing baseball on the street. We lived on a little residential block and we weren't supposed to, but we did anyway. And I got a hold of one and I, I broke a window down the street and everybody scattered and we all ran into our house and everything and I told my mom and she said, well, thank you for telling me, but we'll see what happens when your dad gets home. And she says, are you. I said, are you going to tell him? She said, no, you are.

[Ted Danson]

Oh, good one. Good one moment.

[Tom Selleck]

So my dad, I told him and he said, thanks for telling me. I'll see you in the morning. Was a Saturday. And we got up and he took me down to the house and said, tell him. Knocked on their door. And they opened the door. I said, I'm the guy who broke your window. I don't want to cry. But after we did that, he said, no, come on. And he put me in the car and we went to the hardware store first. He showed me how to measure the window and we bought some glass and glazer points and window putty. And he went down and fixed the window with me because it was very handy. He worked as a carpenter before he got into real estate. So that, you know, that.

[Ted Danson]

That to me feels like the most perfect parenting example you could come up with.

[Tom Selleck]

The other one I remember was my brother Bob, who was 19 months older than me. And we were, we were very young. We were like eight or something, but getting full of ourselves, you know. And my dad said, I want you to come down to city hall with me. I got a tour. So we go, go down to city hall in Van Nuys, Little City hall. And gives me the tour, gives me the tour of the police department. He says, it's yes, sir, no, sir. So we did that. And he says, can I take him downstairs? And the cops said, sure. So the guy goes down with my dad to the jail cells and he says, can they go in and just see what it's like being in a cell? And. And the cop says, sure. And he had a little smile on his face, the cop. So we go in the cell and my dad says, okay, lock him up. And they shut that door and left for a while. I mean, for five minutes. You go, okay, he's coming back now. So you get to be about 20 minutes. And it was. Finally we heard footsteps coming down. And I think my dad said, I don't think I have to say anything.

[Ted Danson]

Wow, that's amazing.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

What a great story.

[Tom Selleck]

It is. I put it in the book, so I hope.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

It's called. You Never know, you Never know why that an accidental career. I was studying business at SC and ended up through just pure serendipity, signing a contract with the studio. I'd never thought about acting or wanted to or anything else.

[Ted Danson]

Someone spotted you doing what I did.

[Tom Selleck]

The Dating Game.

[Ted Danson]

That's right. That's a famous place.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah, but I. That they, they. You know how. You know what they do with all this stuff? You, you get it? It's. Suddenly I was an all American basketball player at SC and was discovered on the Dating Game and, and then got Magnum and.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Tom Selleck]

That's not, that's not the Story, but they inflate all this stuff. Number one, I, I rode the pine at SC and only had a scholarship for one semester. So it just gets crazy. So I'm trying to straighten all that out, but what are we talking about?

[Ted Danson]

But go stick with sports for a second. Back then, volleyball. Were you a big time volleyball player then? Because I know you were.

[Tom Selleck]

I played volleyball on the beach at Will Rogers State park in la.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

Before Magnum days after usc. But huh.

[Ted Danson]

After college you did this or.

[Tom Selleck]

Oh, I. Well, I played, I played basketball at sc. I also played volleyball. It. We had to raise money because it wasn't an NC2A sport and borrow old uniforms from the basketball team. But I played for SC for two years and we started the sport there. So that was indoor though. Indoor six man.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

And then I played two men at the beach, but I wasn't really that good. I was very good indoors because I could, I could jump.

[Ted Danson]

You could spike.

[Tom Selleck]

Tell, tell Woody I could jump. I saw his movie. So basically I, I started playing at Outrigger in the sand. They have two sand courts above their parking garage and that was one of my saviors. Just, just playing. So we got pretty good. And at Outrigger in the men's seniors, so we won two national championships.

[Ted Danson]

That's good, that's good.

[Tom Selleck]

Wow. Well, I've never played for all the marbles till then. It was the men's seniors, it was 35 and over, but I was playing with ex Olympians and all American guy players and stuff. So it was really fun.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, I was, I was. Basketball was going to be my life. Which was very silly because I fell in love with basketball in high school. It was a prep school, there were 300 boys. So any run of the mill high school could have just kicked our ass, you know. But it was my life. I loved it. I just dreamt that. And I had no other sport, went to Stanford. My friend and I, who was a good athlete, went, all right, let's go try out for freshman ball. Yeah, this was the same year Lou Alcinder was a freshman at ucla. So I stepped to the court and I looked around and I just went, oh shoot. Turned around, walked out. And that was the end of my dream.

[Tom Selleck]

Well, basketball was my, I mean I had played baseball forever, Little League and everything else, and burned out a little bit on it and started doing really well in high school in basketball. So that was my sport. But I was, I was a six foot four inch forward at that time in the pack eight.

[Ted Danson]

Oh, that's A big deal, by the way, Pack eight.

[Tom Selleck]

It is a big deal, but I just realized, you know, now the guys I'm playing against are 6, 7, 6, 8, 6, 9, 6. That's my brush with greatness, though.

[Ted Danson]

Tell me.

[Tom Selleck]

Well, Alcindor.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

Kareem.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

Was at ucla and when we were preparing for the team we were going to play the next week, the guys who weren't going to play a lot, you, me and a bunch of other guys would learn basically the UCLA offense as much as we could and we'd run it against our first team.

[Ted Danson]

And.

[Tom Selleck]

None of them were very big. So when we prepared for UCLA, I was Mr. Skylar Alcinder. I've told him I got to know Kareem. HE LAUGHS but yeah, that was my job.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. Did you develop a skyhook or not?

[Tom Selleck]

Well, it was a tough job because we had a seven footer. He wasn't quite as agile as Lou Alcindor, but his elbows were right about head height for me.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Boom.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah. So, yeah, a lot of booms.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Well, okay, let's skip ahead a little bit. Three Men and a Baby. Yeah, that was a big deal. I don't know if it was a big deal for you. It was a big deal movie.

[Tom Selleck]

It was a huge deal for me.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. I mean, it was 150, 60 plus million dollar kind of back then.

[Tom Selleck]

2, 210 worldwide.

[Ted Danson]

Oh, wow. So that.

[Tom Selleck]

And the number one movie in the world.

[Ted Danson]

Yes. So that, that was. That's a big deal for you too.

[Tom Selleck]

Do.

[Ted Danson]

How did that come about for you? Because I know there was a mishmash of directors and it all kind of fell apart and came together.

[Tom Selleck]

I. I got a call from my dear friend and agent, Betty McCarthy, and she said, jeffrey Katzenberg wants to come to Hawaii. And I said, jeffrey Katzenberg wants to come to Hawaii? He says, yeah, he wants to talk to you about a project. I thought it was about development and stuff, but I was impressed. I said, sure. So after work I went to a meeting. They had just gotten off a plane and it was him and Colleen Seurow who directed the original Three Men in a Cradle. And we just sat down and Jeffrey's. I wish I could do every movie for Jeffrey because he kind of executive produces every movie and work was very good for me when I was working for Jeffrey. And I appreciate that. So he's talking, he's very convincing and I thought, well, I said, so I know you want to think about this, but I'm interested. But Colleen Cirro is very quiet, very Serious. Very French. And he says, no, I want you to do it. I said, okay, well, who you going to get for the other two bachelors? And you may not know this.

[Ted Danson]

I don't know this.

[Tom Selleck]

You said Ted Danson and Steve Gutenberg. And there's something about Jeffrey where I knew that's who he'd get.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. Because he had.

[Tom Selleck]

You didn't know?

[Ted Danson]

No. You were. You were the head to get you.

[Tom Selleck]

I guess. I don't know. But that was his dream team.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Tom Selleck]

It's nice. You were on it.

[Ted Danson]

Really nice.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah. So I said, it's okay with me.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

And they left and they got on a plane.

[Woody Harrelson]

Wow.

[Tom Selleck]

Colleen Sorel was very serious. And there is a danger in somebody making the same movie twice. Eventually it. I didn't. I wasn't in on any of this. I'm doing Magnum. But from what I heard, it was getting a little. It wasn't going to be a Jeffrey like movie. And as he explained to me later, she had this concept that she wanted to turn their apartment. It should represent a female womb. She was getting really serious about it.

[Ted Danson]

Sure wasn't how it ended up. No.

[Tom Selleck]

So anyway. And I said, who? You. So, what are you going to do? I think he called me and he said, well, I got a new director, very excited about it, Leonard Nimoy. And I didn't know Leonard. I just knew he was Spock. But I think he didn't have a lot of prep. And I think he's just. Leonard saved that movie. He really knew his chops. He knew his stuff.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

And his concept of how to use the babies. I've worked with babies in a few scenes and everything else before that and much since, but you usually rehearse with a doll and pretend the baby's there when they're shooting your coverage. But our babies were there and it created. They were there all the time. And I don't ever. I remember rehearsing blocking a scene with a doll, but from then on, they were in the scene. And I think that was the key.

[Ted Danson]

No matter what the business was. Whether you were holding up your hand to catch a bottle that was being thrown to you while you're holding the baby or making phone calls.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah. What? You. You must get this a lot. I get it a little, but. What? The ghost thing. Just crazy. Have you been asked that everywhere you go?

[Ted Danson]

Used to be. Yeah. And I have to admit, when you go back and you look at it, you get chills. It's a little spooky.

[Tom Selleck]

Well, you were playing as I Recall a vain actor. I don't know where they got that concept for an actor there. I think it was posters of yourself all over.

[Ted Danson]

Cutouts. Also life size cutouts or short cutouts of me in my commercials. And there was one that was about 6, 7 year old boy size and.

[Tom Selleck]

It was very scary. Yeah, I guess it was great for. Maybe Jeffrey thought of that.

[Ted Danson]

Somebody did because they. The rentals on the back in the VCR days, the rentals went through the roof.

[Nick Leow]

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[Ted Danson]

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[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Which is another reason why some kid didn't die in this building in New York. Because we shot it because it was.

[Tom Selleck]

On a sound stage.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

But you know, you were. You know, I think this was. This was right when you shot your final. You shot your final episode of Magnum.

[Tom Selleck]

And then came first year and came right there.

[Ted Danson]

Came right there. So were huge. And we'd go out and we'd. Steve and I would giggle over how invisible we became around you. Then we went out to dinner with Leonard. The three of us.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

And all three of us disappeared into the backdrop. He was so popular.

[Tom Selleck]

Leonard is such a good guy. I don't. People's got this Spock impression. And it. He's a fine actor and a fine director, but.

[Ted Danson]

And an amazing photographer.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

Did. Was it your suite?

[Ted Danson]

Yes.

[Tom Selleck]

Where we had the parties.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

Because. And I don't know why everybody was up in Toronto. Was there a strike 22 production?

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, maybe there was.

[Tom Selleck]

Either a striker had gotten so cheap they couldn't. They wouldn't go anywhere else. But it was wonderful.

[Ted Danson]

We'd have every actor in town come to these parties.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Every Saturday. Because I had this huge, massive living room.

[Tom Selleck]

Yes, you did. And.

[Ted Danson]

And the Sutton. I think it was a Sutton place.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Had back then, in the glory days. Had a butler.

[Tom Selleck]

Yes.

[Ted Danson]

Werner.

[Tom Selleck]

Our floors. Verner.

[Ted Danson]

Verner.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah, It's Werner.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

Spelled with a W. And the top floors had the butler.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

It was very rock and roll. It really was.

[Tom Selleck]

It was. And I think that's where I really met Woody. Yeah, he came to visit because he came up a couple times.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Jeffrey Katzenberg story. I remember he was famous for his. Or still is, his 60 second phone calls.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

He would check in with everybody, check in with me, but it was a 60 second phone call. Packed, very sweet, and he was gone. But when we did Three Men and a Lady. Yeah. Two or three years later, we were sitting and we'd shot it and it felt really good. Felt like a really. And it was. It was a good movie. And we were sitting in a commissary and it was about to come out, and I was saying, so how. How's it looking? We said, oh, we're the 100 pound gorilla in the room. We are. It's looking really good. There's something. Home Alone, I think is the name of this movie coming back. But I don't. We're not. We're not worried about it.

[Tom Selleck]

Robert Court, who produced both movies, was a worrier, and he was just going home alone. That's all I'm going to say. I mean, this is before it ever came out.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Cleaned our clocks.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah. No, Jeffrey. Jeffrey called me a bunch of times. He'd call me with grosses every week, but quickly.

[Ted Danson]

Yes. Yeah. That didn't. He didn't. He did that for me, too, but not on the second movie because, well.

[Tom Selleck]

They didn't want to talk about the grosses. The second movie did okay, but he thought, yeah, they had another blockbuster. I think they took it for granted, too.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Okay. I'm gonna jump now.

[Woody Harrelson]

I want to jump.

[Ted Danson]

I mean, you were born to be in a saddle.

[Tom Selleck]

Yes.

[Ted Danson]

You were born to be a western hero. You weren't really. Was that riding horseback, was that an acquired skill for you?

[Tom Selleck]

Well, other than going to the ponies at Griffith park where they strap you into a pony and gore hunt. Yeah. I mean, I think I did a couple commercials, but in a commercial, if you sit on a horse, they only need like 2, 3 seconds, so that isn't a big deal. But then I got cast in the sockets with Sam.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Tom Selleck]

My pal. And I was going to be working with Ben Johnson, Academy Award winner, and Glenn Ford. And it was a big deal, but I learned from the ground up. I had some days before we started and woman named Donna Hall, a wrangler. Her husband was the chief wrangler on the show. She just started me out and said, first of all, she taught me how to get on and get off. And then for a couple days, it was all about sitting a horse, how to do it. And I said, when do I get to gallop? She said, 95% of what you do in a movie is riding to a mark, Stopping.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

Controlling your horse and doing dialogue and getting on and getting off when you can do that. Right. Maybe I'll let you do that.

[Ted Danson]

Oh, that's. That was smart.

[Tom Selleck]

Well, Bob Totten, our director, he had done like 19 gun smokes. And I mean, he was going to ask us to do the real stuff. He didn't like stunt doubles. So it was really. And I was hooked forever.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

I grew up on horseback because. Lived in Arizona. My friends were hoping. Kids who lived in the museum property that I was growing up in because of my father. But my friends were also ranchers, sons and daughters. So.

[Tom Selleck]

Wow.

[Ted Danson]

We had horses. And my father wouldn't let me ride by myself with. With a saddle. If I was going to ride by myself, I had to ride bareback. That way, if I got thrown, I, you know, break a bone maybe, but not get dragged.

[Tom Selleck]

You wouldn't get caught in a stir.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. Yeah. And get dragged. So I. I grew up with that and I. I had one. One little movie for television called Cowboy where I got to ride like the wind. And it just made me so happy. So happy. But you. Quigley down under is truly one of those movies that I've watched and not just because I know you and love you. It's a brilliant movie. And you were just astounding. Really good western.

[Tom Selleck]

Thank you. I'm very, very proud of that movie. You know, it's funny, I think it had been across a few desks. Sean connery, maybe. Steve McQueen, I don't know.

[Ted Danson]

And many directors.

[Tom Selleck]

Yes. And I was proud that they sent it to me and I said, I gotta do this. It was like fifth year of Magnum when I first saw the script by John Hill, and. But it's interesting, you know, I said, boy, you know, almost every part I've had like that. When they're like iconic characters.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Tom Selleck]

You go, well, Jimmy Stewart could have done this way better than I could. Or in this case, it was John Wayne. And I said, can I find my own way to do this? Playing an admittedly iconic character. And. Well, then you just do it and see what happens. But. But was intimidating. A lot of parts have been that. When I've got some of those bigger iconic guys, I didn't think of Magnum as iconic. I guess he ended up that way.

[Ted Danson]

That was. That was a brilliant. How long you were. Where'd you shoot that? In Australia?

[Tom Selleck]

About four months in. In the outback of Australia.

[Ted Danson]

Right. With Alan Rickman, who's one of the.

[Tom Selleck]

Best bad guys and a prince of a guy. Yeah. So, so sad he's gone. And he. He told me that movie changed his life. He just loved it out there. Loved horses. The outback, there's nothing going on.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

It's 17,000 people, I think, in Alice Springs, in the dead center of the country. And then just miles and miles of desert. The rest of the. I don't know, 20 million people in Australia all live on the coast.

[Ted Danson]

Where. Where did you stay? Where'd they put you?

[Tom Selleck]

Is there a Town Sheraton there? But it was. There was a airline strike, so we didn't even have groups of tourists coming in and out. But it was great, really hard work. I called it Bulldust. The soil in Australia is very old. It's some of the oldest land on earth. And this powdery red dust that would just get all over you. So you'd come in at night after long rides. We'd ride for two hours to get to these unbelievable locations and then two hours home. So a cold beer was. Really cold beers in the bar were just a treat. And guess who you're in the bar with? Your crew.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

And. But they're a great group of guys.

[Ted Danson]

What was the rifle? I remember being like, that is Sharps rifle.

[Tom Selleck]

I. I had done a lot of research and. And I'd seen a lot of westerns where they were using the wrong stuff.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Tom Selleck]

There's a movie I love called Veracruz with Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster. Well, that's the. I think 1860s. And they're using 1892 Winchesters and 1873 Colts. And it just ain't Right. And the Sharps was the right gun. And it was legendary, the Sharps in those days.

[Ted Danson]

Because of the distance.

[Tom Selleck]

Because the distance. It was famous. It's one of the reasons we almost lost all our buffalo. I just started watching the. The documentary on that because it was so accurate, but they'd never seen anything like it over there. And I talked to Simon Windsor, our director, who did a great job. Great guy. And did a great job. And we decided to. To make it. To not unveil. Was sent to Shees when he gets off the boat and. For quite a while.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

And Simon really got it that we got nominated for Academy Award for sound, actually. Because he was shooting at such long distances.

[Ted Danson]

Yes.

[Tom Selleck]

Simon realized that the person who gets hit with a bullet hasn't heard the rifle yet.

[Ted Danson]

God, that's amazing.

[Tom Selleck]

So you got the rifle impact. You got the bullet impact on the guy, and then you hear the. The gun go off.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Tom Selleck]

And he. He just did great stuff. But Laura was great. Laura San. And Alan. And Alan kind of, you know, he'd done Die Hard. That's where I said, you got to get that guy. Because he. He made a heavy.

[Ted Danson]

Intelligent and highly entertaining.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah, always entertaining. Because he. He was really asking Quigley. I mean, it's really a good film and he's brilliant in it, but. But he was doing the same scene over and over and over again kind of to prove he's bad. But he did it with such relish.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Did you work with Alan for a day on something? I can't even remember. But he was so open and, you know, available to tell stories and just a sweet, sweet man.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah. So it was. It was. It was a wonderful experience. And my daughter got two first birthdays.

[Ted Danson]

Hannah.

[Tom Selleck]

Well, because when we left to go home, it was her first birthday. But by the time we got to la, you save a day. So she had two first birthdays.

[Ted Danson]

Was that first. She was one when you were down there.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Wow. So that.

[Tom Selleck]

It was a big deal. And it was a big Western. And there's a guy, there's a reviewer, Gary Franklin.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

Where he said, on my scale, 10 being best. Well, he had beat me up all my life and he gave it a 10.

[Ted Danson]

That's good.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah, it's.

[Ted Danson]

It's. It's funny how that happens.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah. It didn't get a good. A very good release. It competed with us and really pre men, the little lady. And it competed with Dances With Wolves.

[Ted Danson]

Oh, wow.

[Tom Selleck]

And, yeah, you know, they should have realized they didn't expect it to be as good as it was.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

But it's become. When they. When video rentals were the deal, it. You could never get it in the store. It just was always out.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

No, it's. I. I mean it. I've watched it.

[Tom Selleck]

Thank you.

[Ted Danson]

Maybe a dozen times.

[Tom Selleck]

So have I. Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

That's funny. Okay, so Blue Bloods. Who knew? Did you know this was gonna. Are you about to do a 14th season?

[Tom Selleck]

I didn't know much of anything when Leonard. Not Leonard Nimoy. Leonard Goldberg.

[Ted Danson]

Goldberg.

[Tom Selleck]

I get called in, and they want me to do this. This part. And there were two issues. One, I said, where are you going to shoot this? Because I liked the script. It had a procedural element, but it was really about character, because I don't want to do procedural. And I said, where are you going to shoot this? It should be shot in New York, because the city has got to be. It's like a western. The land is a central character in the show, and so it's New York. He said, New York. But I think I have a way to make that work, because I said, I don't want to do that to my family. So I've done it to my family for 13 years, but they worked it out. I do. We do eight day shows. I do. Say the last four one and the first four of the next, and then I commute, which I've done for.

[Ted Danson]

But you'll have 10 days or so at home.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

But, yeah, I. I thought it had potential. And, you know, there was always a push at the network to keep turning it more like the rest of their shows. There were some pretty good fights on that. When I say fights, I mean ethical fights, where you go back and forth and you say no and politely. And we ended up winning out and doing the show. We thought. I always kidded Leonard because I was. When I did, I did a Charlie's Angels where I was going to be Jackie Smith's boyfriend. And I was very enthused because besides working with Jackie Smith, it was going to recur because they were going to get them involved with personal lives. And after the first one, they said, they're not going to use you again, Leonard Goldberg.

[Ted Danson]

Not crazy about you.

[Tom Selleck]

No. So Leonard fired me from that one. So now my boss, Leonard's gone now, but he was really on top of the bucks.

[Ted Danson]

He was one of the gentlemen in our business, too. He cast me in something about Amelia, which was the incest.

[Tom Selleck]

I know the movie well.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

Congratulations.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

I think there was an Emmy there.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, no, something. A Golden Globe. It was a Golden Globe, but who remembers that? Other than the fact that it's right in front of our tv. We put our awards in our little tv, our private TV room kind of thing. Right to the point where we can't quite. Because. And I have my Emmys and Golden Globes over here surrounding her Oscar that she won, and it just doesn't work. There's something about an Oscar man. Just cuts through all the other awards.

[Tom Selleck]

That's the real deal.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, but he, He's. I had so much respect for Leonard, and I. I do miss him.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

I was hosting the Emmys when you at least came up on stage for something about Amelia the same year, I think.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

Carol Burnett called me and she was sick. She had some kind of virus, and she said, they're starting rumors that I'm dying. I'm not dying, but it's. It was kind of like, I can't remember some of the viruses that were going around. Those. That lasted a while.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

And she said, so you gotta. You gotta host the show for me.

[Ted Danson]

Oh, wow. At last minute.

[Tom Selleck]

Yes. Well, it wouldn't have mattered if I had a year to prepare. It's not. Not my bag.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

I was scared to death, and I just talked as fast as I could.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

But that was the year I won Miami.

[Ted Danson]

Oh, really? Nice.

[Tom Selleck]

And maybe I should. I was backstage waiting to come out again.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Tom Selleck]

The nice thing is, is John and Larry and Roger were backstage with me because they were going to come out and present your co stars. You know, I, I had told. They said this is if, If. If you win. I said, oh, come on. I've. I've done this three or four times. I'm not going to win.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

So don't worry about it. They said, well, just know you get your Emmy on one side of the stage, you have to run to the other side. Said, okay. And I won. And I. I've never got to do the walk. You know, where you're in your chair.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

And you got that awful camera. Right. Your face pretending they aren't there. And then you're so happy somebody else won.

[Ted Danson]

And. And people grab your hand as you walk by.

[Tom Selleck]

Well, so I never got to do the walk because I was backstage.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Tom Selleck]

And I don't remember a lot of it. I didn't really have any speech whatsoever. And I didn't really get to take in the audience. But maybe you never do.

[Ted Danson]

I got nominated.

[Tom Selleck]

A bunch of times.

[Ted Danson]

A bunch of times. Like 14 times. I think all together, but nine in a row for Cheers and didn't win. And then when I won, people kept saying, oh, but you must. You have eight of these, right? People don't. Everybody in an award show is so into their own head and nervousness and fear that they don't really take in anything. People thought I won all the time.

[Tom Selleck]

And I. Yeah, I just, I thought, well, why couldn't you just sit there, relax for a minute and just look at the people applauding Now. All I could think of, you're hosting and they said, you got to run to the other side of the stage to introduce the next award.

[Ted Danson]

Tommy Lee Jones had the best. It was just thank you for the.

[Tom Selleck]

Work and turned around, I heard William Holden said, thank you and left.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, that's very cool.

[Tom Selleck]

Instead of thanking your agent and everybody who could give you a job.

[Ted Danson]

Looking back at old time, 40s, 50s movie stars, who, who are. Jimmy Stewart. You mentioned Jimmy. He was one of my.

[Tom Selleck]

Jimmy Stewart. John Wayne.

[Ted Danson]

Bogart.

[Tom Selleck]

Oh, yeah. And then I always felt, if you get asked, what actress, what actress is your favorite actress, who would you like to work with most? I said, you can't answer that question. But Lillian Gish, I can't.

[Ted Danson]

Mary got to work with Lillian.

[Tom Selleck]

I would have killed to work with Lillian Gish. Barbara Stanwick, Gene Tierney. Barbara Stanwyck, Judy Gene Arthur.

[Ted Danson]

Gene Arthur. Oh, my gosh.

[Tom Selleck]

I mean, they were amazing. And Irene Dunn, unbelievable.

[Ted Danson]

I. I love Mary will leave the room and the news is on and I click immediately to, you know, TCM or, you know, and I see. And she comes back in and goes, oh, I see you're watching some black and white films again. They're so comforting to me.

[Tom Selleck]

They are. And I'm just old now or older or whatever you want to say, but I look at previews, the movies coming on, and it's just a bunch of gimmicks and effects and oh, my God, that person can fly and the wings come out of nowhere. And I'm just kind of sick of that. And they, they really were good stories.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

Be they funny. Most of the really good comedies can do both even today. Make you laugh or cry at the same time. You guys could do that and Cheers.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

And Friends could do that.

[Ted Danson]

Friends. Well, that was a hoot for you. How many shows did you do of friends?

[Tom Selleck]

9.

[Ted Danson]

Was that your first stepping out in front of a live audience?

[Tom Selleck]

I had done Taxi.

[Ted Danson]

What'd you play in Taxi? I haven't seen it.

[Tom Selleck]

I played. It was Memories of Cabs Such and such. Whatever the number was because the cab just got totaled and everybody told stories. I was with Mary Lou Henner driving, and I was in the back seat, and it freaked me out because the audience was right there because the way it was set up and I got flop sweat and. And I mean really bad.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah. And when you say don't sweat, don't sweat, it gets worse.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

So that was my last experience, and I. I. Jimmy Burrows.

[Ted Danson]

Did Jimmy Burrows direct that one? Do you remember?

[Tom Selleck]

No, Jimmy didn't direct it. I wish he did. Good guy. Michael Lembeck directed the first one, and he said, now, when. When you come into the set, we're not going to introduce you.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Tom Selleck]

When you come into the set, everybody's gonna go nuts. I said, oh, come on. He said, just be prepared. Don't let it throw you. And the audience went nuts at all. I had. The hardest thing I had to deal with was the waiting. Well, you say something and it's funny.

[Ted Danson]

Oh. Oh, the waiting. Yes. Gotcha.

[Tom Selleck]

It isn't real.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

And I've got to find the comedy and tragedy and the tragedy and comedy. That's the only.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

I can't do shtick. Your show, the Good Place.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

I got the title right. Which wasn't such a good place.

[Ted Danson]

No. It turned out not to be.

[Tom Selleck]

I love that show.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, it's good. Thanks. Thanks. I used to, on Cheers, make sure that I had a piece of business, you know, whatever it was that I could. Because if the joke was really good and people laughed, you still, like you said, didn't want to sit there waiting. You wanted to have something more important to do. And if the joke sucked, you wanted to really have something more important to go back to. I remember on Cheers, if you. Because it was, you know, the bar and all of that, so it was like. It was like theater. It was. You had to be a lot. Everybody on the set, which was large, had to be active. You know, they had to be acting at all times. So if you had a good joke, you would all of a sudden notice that, you know, Woody or Rhea or somebody would be. All of a sudden, there'd be people crossing right behind you, right at the good joke. And if you had a sucko joke, you'd turn around and no one. They were ducking down, disappearing.

[Tom Selleck]

I used. I used chairs a lot as an example, but we'd get these guest directors or. And they would. A lot of my scenes are in my office as the police commissioner and blue blood. So they would constantly have somebody come in the Office walk and sit down. And they wouldn't cover the entrance with all the subtexts and all. And I said, the scene doesn't start when they sit at my desk. The scene started at the door.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Tom Selleck]

And I just hammered them with that. And I said, in Cheers, the scene starts when they come in the room, not when they sit down at the bar.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Tom Selleck]

And I used that over and over again. And I think I've got him trained now.

[Ted Danson]

He loves Cheers. Just do what he says. All right. What's. What. What are you. You're writing a book?

[Tom Selleck]

I've written a book. Oh, it's. I actually finished now.

[Ted Danson]

You. You wrote it?

[Tom Selleck]

I wrote it. I have a collaborator. But I realize very early on, basically, I've. The way we work and I couldn't do it without him is I write something, right? I go to him, we go over it, and I bounce it off of him and. And that's it. So, yes, I wrote it. And, yeah. Because I didn't want to. The audience is on. The reader is onto readers, audiences. They're onto all this stuff where. Oh, I wrote a book, actually. It's a series of books.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

Yes. Some other guy helped me write it, but. And a ghost writer wrote the whole thing, and I just didn't want to do that. I got to give him credit. Ellis Henneken, real good writer. Anyway, I don't think I could have done it without bouncing off of him. I never really considered writing a book. I mean, I didn't become a heroin addict and lose my career for 10 years and have a great story. I just worked.

[Ted Danson]

There is time, you know. There is time. Tom, in his 80s, turned to heroin.

[Tom Selleck]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

And how long. How long did that take that book?

[Tom Selleck]

Well, because Covid.

[Woody Harrelson]

Ah.

[Tom Selleck]

You know, I envisioned sitting down with the collaborator in my dressing room sometimes if I finish early, he's in New York, I'm in New York.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

We had protocols. You could. Couldn't get near our set or anything. It was Covid and a bunch of stuff. And the last year was very difficult because there were some pretty serious negotiations, which are still going on in some ways, but so it took me about four years.

[Ted Danson]

Did you enjoy it?

[Tom Selleck]

No, I'm proud of it, yes. Somebody told me who knows something about writing. They said autobiographies are hard because you. At least for me, it was because you have to kind of relive a lot of stuff, all those things to make them come alive. Especially, like I say, I wasn't shooting up heroin or something. I. I just Had a drama at work.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Tom Selleck]

You know, so if they don't get inside your head, you don't really have a, a book.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

That's worth reading. So it, it involved a lot of emotional investment. I'd write for a couple hours a day when I was behaving myself and I'd be exhausted.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

Real brain dead exhaustion, you know.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

And it was very, you know, a lot of tears sometimes. I'd read it, I'd read everything to Jilly. I'd come back, it was about dinner time, and I'd read the pages that I did and I just couldn't get through some of them, a lot of them actually. And just that or that story I told you about my dad, you know, I couldn't read it, Jilly. I could, I never get, I could finish the sentence. You just choke up. So. Yeah, I'm very proud of it. But I, I don't know whether I liked it or not. I, I, I didn't like the, the deadlines.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

And stuff.

[Ted Danson]

Let, let's jump back for a second with Jilly. You met, how and when.

[Tom Selleck]

Well, I met Jilly was it before I saw Jilly. I didn't meet her. I went to John Hillman told me on Magnum. He said, when you go to London? Because I was going to do a picture over there called Lasser.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Tom Selleck]

And he said, when you go to London, you must see Cats. It's unique. So I put it on my list. And one night I had some time and one of my really good friends, my makeup man, Lon Bentley, who lived down the street from me.

[Ted Danson]

Please say hi to Lon for me.

[Tom Selleck]

I will say hi to Lon.

[Ted Danson]

Go on.

[Tom Selleck]

Great guy, as you know. Yes. And he lived down the street from me in Hawaii. So I said, come on with me, I'll. And I'll buy dinner afterwards. So we went and I noticed. How big do you want to make this story? Because it's complicated.

[Ted Danson]

You married her and stayed for a long. It's a big story.

[Tom Selleck]

I love the show. But I found that one particular cat on stage. I would notice she looked really good in a leotard, but they all did. And a guy named Brian Blessed, good actor, was in a movie. The first movie I did High Road to China and he was old Deuteronomy and Cats. So I went backstage to talk to Brian and I was single and High Road was very difficult, so I didn't have any free time. So it wouldn't hurt to meet somebody. So I go back and Brian starts in he loved mountain climbing. Passionate about it. And he gets into mountain climbing and Everest and all. So he says, look, when you get to the carabiners and the dings, and it's now like a half an hour. And I finally just said to him in the program, I said, who is that? I noticed this cat. Real personality. You could see it through all the whiskers and stuff. And he says, oh, that's Jilly Mac. She's probably crazy about you. As a matter of fact, all the girls are. But I know you get a lot of that. So I told them all to go away. So it was deserted. Anyway, long story short, I went back a couple times.

[Ted Danson]

Wow. Without seeing her. Without her.

[Tom Selleck]

Well, I love the show.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

I think it got a bad rap when they made it bigger and bigger. It was very intimate in London, so I really enjoyed the show. So Lana and I go back, and Jilly was always highly professional. But she's on stage, and at the very end, they're singing out to the audience. And I'd been watching her. In fact, somebody had said to her, one of the other dancers, one of the guys that she danced with, do you know who's staring at you? And she told me the story later. And she said, who? And he said, tom Selleck. She said, who the fuck's that? She didn't know, which was a big plus. Yeah, at that point, you know. So anyway, at the very end, this goes on because I went to eight shows. But at the very end of the show, at a certain point, she's singing and she just goes like this.

[Ted Danson]

Right into your eyes. Nailed it.

[Tom Selleck]

But no, not a long look, Just a checkout. And I said, lon, did she just look at me? And he said, she sure did.

[Ted Danson]

Anyway, you dragged poor Lon to all eight of them?

[Tom Selleck]

No, I've dragged Lon to probably four of them. But I actually only saw seven and a half because I had to work late.

[Ted Danson]

Wait, now, so give me the actual meat.

[Tom Selleck]

The meet was after. I knew the theater manager by then because he'd get me in the back way. I said, is it okay to call someone? He said, yeah, I'll give you the backstage number. So I called her up from Wales. My best friend from high school now had a farm in Wales. And I called from there and was very nervous. And she finally said, I'm about to go on. Would you like to take me out for a cocktail? Because I was hemming and hawing, and I'm not good at that. I don't know whether you are, but I'm not very smooth, and I'm pretty shy. So, anyway, we went out and Lon came along. I said, come on, Lon. You got to go with me. I don't know who this person is. And she showed up, and she had purple hair. She called her Black Tulip and ate like a horse. She was hungry. And, boy, they really. That. That. That show was wonderful. And you've been together how long now? 38.

[Ted Danson]

38 years?

[Tom Selleck]

No, maybe a little longer. Jilly can count. I can't.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. Please say hi to her.

[Tom Selleck]

I will. I will. I'll see her. And whenever we're done.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Hey, cannot thank you enough for doing this. Seriously. We have never, ever. I mean, this is the one thing I know that I like about podcasts, because I'm finding my way and I keep going. Is this podcast. I'm not sure. It's a privilege to sit down with people uninterrupted and talk to them for an hour and a half or so. It really is. And this was a privilege. I've always admired you. We both share the same Annette Wolf, who is our publicist, who is one of the most gracious, wonderful people in our business, but absolutely. She keeps me posted on what you're doing and how you are, but it's.

[Tom Selleck]

Well, likewise. She does.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

So it's really nice to sit down with you.

[Tom Selleck]

It's great to sit down with you. And it's not. I've never got to do. Do it, really. And usually you're on a talk show and most of the hosts are looking over at their shoulder for the next question or the next joke or.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

You can't.

[Ted Danson]

No.

[Tom Selleck]

You can't finish a story.

[Ted Danson]

No. You're performing. You're not chatting.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Anyway, I adore you, my friend.

[Tom Selleck]

Great to see you.

[Ted Danson]

You as well. Let's stay upright for another 15, 20 years.

[Tom Selleck]

Gotta keep moving.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Tom Selleck]

Keep moving forward.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

That's Tom Selleck, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much, Tom, for making us your first ever podcast stop. I was honored, truly honored, to spend this time with you. I loved you for many years. So be sure to grab Tom's book, you Never know a Memoir, at a bookseller near you. That's our show for this week. Thanks for listening. Hello to Woody. I miss you. And special thanks to our friends at Team Coco. If you liked today's episode, be sure and tell a friend and subscribe on your podcast app of choice to get new episodes as soon as they drop. Do us a favor. Leave us a great rating and a review on Apple Podcasts. If you're in the mood, it makes a difference. Thank you so much. More for you next time where everybody knows your name.

[Sara Fedorovich]

You've been listening to where everybody knows your name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson Sometimes. The show is produced by me, Nick Leow. Executive producers are Adam Sachs, Colin Anderson, Jeff Ross and myself. Sara Fedorovich is our supervising producer. Our senior producer is Matt Apodaca. Engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez research by Alyssa Grohl Talent booking by Paula Davis and Gina Batista. Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Antony Genn, Mary Steenburgen and John Osborne. Special thanks to Willie Navarre. We'll have more for you next time where everybody knows your name. I won't let my moderate to severe.

[Ted Danson]

Plaque psoriasis symptoms define me Emerge as.

[Unknown]

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[Ted Danson]

Serious allergic reactions may occur. Tremphye may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them.

[Tom Selleck]

Before treatment, your doctor should check you.

[Ted Danson]

For infections and tuberculosis.

[Tom Selleck]

Tell your doctor if you have an.

[Ted Danson]

Infection or symptoms of infection, including fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. Tell your doctor if you had a.

[Unknown]

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