Pam Dawber wanted to punch Raquel Welch
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Raquel Welch was any director’s nightmare. She was just outrageous.
I’ll give you the opening story. We sat in the meeting, and there were two women who were playing her lieutenants. One of them was Vicki Fredericks, who was a Broadway dancer who had the lead in a Broadway show called, Dancin’, and she was quite lovely and a great dancer. And the other woman, was from Texas, she was the Playboy Bunny of the Year. They were both quite beautiful.
So we sat and read for at least an hour. And our usual routine was, we dismissed everybody but the star and the execs. Pam stayed, Robin stayed, and I stayed. And we would say to the guest star, “Do you have any questions or is there anything we can help you with?” And Raquel said, “Ah yes, who are the two girls that are going to play my lieutenants?” And I said, “The two women that were sitting on your right.” And she said, “Oh, I didn’t notice them.”
Then she said she had a problem with her entrance. Robin comes running into the apartment, says to Pam [that] the Nekrons, or whoever they were, are coming to kidnap him. And she says, “When are they coming?” He says, “They could be here any second!” And there’s an explosion. The doors to the apartment fly off, onto the couch. And in walks the first girl. Vicki Fredericks walks down stage left. The other girl comes down, walks down stage right, and they both pose with their hands on their hips. And then Raquel enters.
Raquel said, “You can’t have them come in before me.”
And we said to Raquel, “If they come in after you, they’re gonna distract. They’re going to pull the eye. What we’re doing here is, we’re setting it up. The audience sees this woman come down, ‘No, that’s not her.’ Then the next one, ‘No, that’s not her’—and then you enter! You know? And they frame you! It’s the perfect entrance.” But if someone comes in after her, the audience looks at the person coming in that’s moving.
She said, “I have an idea. Supposing they wear dog masks, and I lead them in on leashes.” So I knew immediately that she did not want to compete with these two very lovely women. And that never happened—we would not allow that, the dog masks.
What I said to her was, “Raquel, your character is too strong. You don’t need to have them in dog masks or leashes. All you need to do is snap your fingers. Those girls will drop to their knees.” And she said, “Oh, I like that.”
At one point, Robin was trying to talk around her idea about it not being good for them to come in first. And Robin was trying to explain it to her. Pam was standing there, and Pam said, “You know, Raquel, he’s right.” And Raquel said, “Honey, please.” And she stepped in front of Pam, blocking her, then went on to talk to Robin. Pam made a fist and made believe she was hitting [Raquel] in the back of the head, and walked away.
[After that], Pam would do that every time she came on stage. She’d sneak up behind Raquel, and make believe she was punching her in the head.
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