REPORTER: I was wondering if you could maybe share with us your favorite memories from your time on Cagney & Lacey. I’m sure working together again on this show made you reminisce a little bit. So anything you guys laughed about on the set or anything like that?
Tyne Daly: Oh darling it’s so long ago I can’t remember a thing. I deny everything. I remember nothing.
Sharon Gless: I do remember my favorite time and Tyne referred to it earlier, we did laugh a lot. And my favorite time we occasionally – when we were so tired, I mean, 17 hour days, we’d get to a part of a scene and one of us would get the giggles. And we couldn’t stop. They’d cut, start again and when we’d get to that exact same place, I mean, we’d be so, so tired that we’d just start giggling.
Tyne Daly: This is Tyne talking now. We used to, you know, there was diminishing returns. There’d get to a place where you’re so tired and there is really no point in going on then. Only the smartest of directors or producers would say you know something let’s call it for the day, this is over.
But I’ll tell you what I appreciated a great deal about Miss Gless, when we started working together I needed to do the next day’s work before I went home. And, you know, I had kids and a husband at home and – but we would stay and run through the next day’s scenes, you know, as we’re – how do you call that – whatever was on the call sheet for the next day.
And we would go through it and we would pound it to death until we felt we understood it so that we could come in in the morning and know what we were up to. And she was willing to do that kind of rehearsing and investigating that I found – felt was absolutely necessary.
And I don’t think, Shar, tell me if I’m wrong but you weren’t sort of brought up in that tradition.
Sharon Gless: No but I loved it so much that I became dependant on it. And any show I’ve done since then that’s what I have to do.
Tyne Daly: Yeah.
Sharon Gless: Because I can’t – I don’t think I’ve ever had a costar who’s interested in doing it with me but then I have to hire somebody to be my Tyne Daly because like… there was such value in that process…
Tyne Daly: Yeah, the work ethic was really pretty impeccable considering that we were in the, you know, in the terrible shoals of television land where everybody puts it down and says it’s less than. We had a work ethic that was pretty fine.
REPORTER: And Sharon, were there any giggles during the Burn Notice filming or anything like that or did they not work you guys so tirelessly?
Sharon Gless: We didn’t really have a chance on the set to laugh a lot. Our scenes were sort of emotional.
Tyne Daly: Yeah. Well…
Sharon Gless: But we certainly laughed in the makeup trailer and laughed, you know, we went out to dinner and laughed and…
Tyne Daly: I’d say for Sharon, you know, I think for Sharon – this is Tyne talking. For Sharon it was a really responsible part. It’s a kind of opportunity on Burn Notice that she hasn’t had before, it’s quite exciting to see, you know, that character get exploded out of just, you know, his mom.
But I was there on a three day vacation. I came down and did my little bit and did my supporting of my friend whom I love dearly and would go anywhere to give a boost to. And then the rest of the time I could just kind of fool around. And by the end of it it was the end of the season right Shar?
Sharon Gless: Yes.
Tyne Daly: Yeah, so we got – we went out and had dinner and laughed a lot in the relief part when it’s over and you go… OK, good, congratulations, it’s the end of your season. Let’s have a dinner and eat too much and drink too much and laugh too much. It was swell.
Sharon Gless: Actually it wasn’t the end of the season because this show is in the – (unintelligible) is confusing.
Tyne Daly: Okay.
Sharon Gless: This show opens the second half of Year 3. Does that make sense?
Tyne Daly: All right.
Sharon Gless: So I still had like six more to do but that didn’t stop me from going out and playing with Tyne.
REPORTER: It’s obvious listening to you guys for the best hour or so that you guys have become friends. And I wanted to ask you to go back in time a little bit and ask what was that like Cagney & Lacey off the set time that you realized you weren’t just coworkers?
Tyne Daly: Well people used to – go ahead Shar.
Sharon Gless: That happened for me before we ever started working together. Tyne Daly came to my house with champagne and balloons before we ever stepped in front of a camera and I fell in love. So…
Tyne Daly: This is Tyne talking. I was charged to get Sharon to do the show. We had had Loretta Swit, we had had Meg Foster and they were recasting again. I was deeply pissed off, you know, I wanted to get on with it. I loved the project and I loved the idea of these two women as colleagues.
And so, you know, the agents and the managers and the thing and the producers had all been in it. But Sharon luckily had a birthday on the 31st of May which is one of those national holidays – what the hell is it?
Sharon Gless: Memorial Day.
Tyne Daly: Yes, Memorial Day. And Memorial Day – I should, you know, be grateful to all of us who fought. But so everybody was out of town. And I called her up and I said I know it’s your birthday, let me come over, let’s talk this over. And we sat on the floor of her little house in California and I said, you know, come out and play. The thing can’t go forever, for God sake it’ll never go over.
It’s about, you know, two women are the stars. But it’s a good gig and please come out and play with me. And I think that was the, you know, the thing that convinced her to finally say yes.
Sharon Gless: Well that – there were a lot of reasons actually.
But – and we polished off that bottle of champagne together.
Tyne Daly: We did. And celebrated her birthday and sort of decided – I think at that point we decided to be partners and colleagues. And that was unshakeable for the next six years whether, you know, the story was mainly about one or the other, the prize went to one or the other, you know, whatever the vicissitudes – the billing – we had a huge fight about billing, we had a huge fight about all sorts of things.
But we sort of let them fight while we stayed tight. You know…
Sharon Gless: Yeah.
Tyne Daly: And that was a lesson of colleague-ness that turned into friendship for me. It wasn’t so at the beginning but it turned into this lady who’s a friend of mine.
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