More Random TV GUIDE Ads - DIXIE: CHANGING HABITS

No, this isn't the true story of Dixie Carter's conversion from a Democrat to a Republican, but a wacky TV movie about nuns and hookers - two of my favorite things starring two of my MTM favorites the late Suzanne (BOB NEWHART SHOW) Pleshette and the amazingly ageless Cloris (MARY TYLER MOORE, PHYLLIS) Leachman. This is one that I'm gonna have to hunt down because what's funnier than a whore in a convent? NOTHING! Why this wasn't turned into a weekly series, I just don't know. If I ran CBS this would have been the cornerstone of an entire line-up built around both nuns and prostitutes. They could private eyes, crime scene investigators, roommates - every tired cliche could be turned on its proverbial head with a little injection of DIXIE. All "heaven" could have broke loose indead!

THE DOUGLAS MICHAEL SHOW with Sam Pancake

I've know Sam Pancake (yes, it's his real name) for almost a decade now. We've worked together on several TV shows and films where he was an actor and I was an art department schlub. When I started producing projects through Velvet Candy Entertainment, I'd run into Sam and he would ask me when I was gonna put him in one of my shows. Well kids, that time is now! Ladies and gentlemen, today I welcome Sam Pancake, one of the stars of Velvet Candy's new hit web series PRETTY (created by the genuius named Steve Silverman), as my very special guest on THE DOUGLAS MICHAEL SHOW!
D: Sam Pancake - you are one of the hardest working people in showbiz. If you're not on TV, you're in a film or in one, two or three stage shows at a time, or a Prevacid commercial...or hosting karaoke night! What's your secret?
SP: My secret? Fear, my magic go-fast pills, and unstoppable sparkle.

D: I love those magic go-fast pills!!! In PRETTY you're playing Michael Champagne, father of pageant contestant Annette Champagne. I've seen you in so many films and TV shows, but is this the first time you've played a dad?
SP: Ummm...I know I had a baby daughter in an orange juice commercial in the late 1990's, though of course I was barely old enough to have a child then.

D: One of those teen-age juice-drinking Dads, I guess. What kind of research did you do for this role?
SP: I am from the South. Research complete.
D: That's hysterical. You've done tons of sitcom work from WINGS to FAT ACTRESS to LOVESPRING INTERNATIONAL. Is there a particular sitcom that you haven't been on that you wish you would have?
SP: LIDSVILLE, PHYLLIS and that one where the fat, slobby unfunny guy has a thin, hot wife and an overbearing laugh track. Oh, wait..

D: Imagine if Phyllis visited Lidsville!!! I love Cloris Leachman and Charles Nelson Reilly. Who are your comedy heroes?
SP: W.C. Fields, Lily Tomlin, Tracey Ullman, Kids in the Hall, Dame Edna, Lucy, of course, all the SCTV crew (but especially Catherine O'Hara and Andrea Martin), my girlfriend Meryl Streep, French and Saunders, Madeline Kahn and Cary Grant & Irene Dunne in "The Awful Truth," to name but a very few. AND all my hilarious friends and family, famous or otherwise!

D: Those are some funny people there. Aside from your comedy work, you've also done WITHOUT A TRACE, NYPD BLUE and THE WEST WING. How is working on serious shows like that different than something like PRETTY?
SP: You get paid a helluva lot more and it actually appears on the television, dear.

D: Ouch! I have to ask you about your hysterical impersonation of Lisa Whelchel. You've played her (and/or Blair Warner) for years know. What was the first time you donned that famous feathered wig?
SP: It's so cute you think I can remember things!! Umm...I'm guessing...1998?

D: So, after PRETTY, what's next for Mr. Pancake?
SP: The sweet peace of the grave---because I hope PRETTY runs until I die!!!!

D: From your lips to Maude's ears...Thanks for chatting with me Sam. See ya at the bar!

SP: Only if you're buying, tiger. Don't forget to check out PRETTY, y'all!