INTERVIEW WITH JUNE LOCKHART June: Ok, lets go immediately.... Terry: Alright. June: And the hell with the noise. Terry: (Chuckles) Your history in film and television is rather unique and very extensive. I understand you started out as a child in film, is that right? June: I did a few films, yes, as I was growing up. My father would never let me be under contract until I had finished my education though and I graduated from West Lake School, which was lovely, but the first film I did was "A Christmas Carol" which is shown every year. My mother and father play Mr. and Mrs. Bob Cratchit and I play Belinda. We did it in 1938 and I was 12 years old, and it's the "A Christmas Carol" in which Reginald Owen is Scrooge and it was a treat. It's lovely, and can you imagine how wonderful it is to be able to sit down, with my grandchildren now, have them see their great grandparents, their grandmother at the age of 12, and be there with their parents and to see this whole traditional film filled with the traditional family. I mean it's really nice. Terry: At the time did you realize what the whole thing was about? June: No. Not at 12? Come on! (Chuckles) Of course not! Terry: So your family encouraged you to continue on in film and TV the rest of your life too? June: I was taught to be a professional about it if I was going to do it, but I never really applied myself to the work until I was about 22 or 23. I always looked at it as a wonderful hobby and it had lovely opportunities. During my teenage years I worked with Bette Davis in "All This and Heaven Too", and Gary Cooper in "Sergeant York", I played his sister. In "The White Cliffs of Dover" I played opposite Irene Dunne and Van Johnson. So, I had some really lovely opportunities and it was effortless, easy, and totally without pressure. Terry: Do you have a family? Do you have children? June: Yes, I have two daughters. Terry: I believe their in show-business too, aren't they? June: Ann, the elder one, is an actress and the younger one is a designer of magnificent jewelry which has been on "ER", "The Bold and the Beautiful", and "General Hospital". She's done jewelry for "Step By Step", "7th Heaven", many other shows and she does beautiful earrings. In fact, I'm wearing a pair. Terry: Oh fantastic! June: Yes. Terry: Your daughter, that's also an actress, did you encourage her? What did you tell her about getting into the business? June: There again it just came along naturally, and I tried to assist her by doing work with her that was.... I went out, and in those days they had dinner theatre, so I did some dinner theatre with her and did plays like "40 Carrots" in which there are mother and daughter characters so that she would get a feeling for it, but she was not a self-conscious performer in any way and so that was nice, and that got started. Terry: Your first series, was that "Lassie"? June: Yes. Terry: How did that come about? June: They had offered it to me when Jan Clayton was leaving, but I was living in New York with my children at the time and when I came back out here in a years time, just through a happen stance, I ran into Bob Golden and Bonita Granville who were the producers, both of whom I'd known since I was 12, and they said "Wish you'd do the mother in "Lassie" for us." because they were then re-casting. I said, "Well I'll do it a year." and they said, "Not long enough.", but on my drive home I thought, "You know, I really should investigate this. I've got two children to support and it's a lovely part, and a dignified role. It's already on the air, I don't have to do a pilot and it's sponsored." So, I had my agent call, I did an audition for it, and got the part. Terry: Were you concerned about acting with a dog? June: No, because when I was 20 I did "Son of Lassie" which was the second "Lassie" feature and I had already worked with Rudd Weatherwax and the dog when I was in in that film, as you know it was MGM. I went under contract to MGM as soon as I graduated from West Lake, so it was sort of just like coming home. There's no complications at all. Terry: And after "Lassie" there was "Petticoat Junction", wasn't there? June: No, after that was "Lost In Space". Terry: "Lost In Space"! June: We did that for three years and that was like, you know, being in kindergarten and going out in the backyard and playing sandbox or something. It was wonderful fun and a good cast, and we've all stayed in touch and have a great affectionate regard for one each other, and that's lovely. Terry: That's great! June: We've been doing some conventions together. Then I did "Petticoat Junction", and I hear that Meredith MacRae, Lori Saunders, and Linda Kay Henning are going to be here today which is thrilling to me, and I'll be being interviewed with them at 3:30 tomorrow! Terry: What did you think of the new "Lost In Space" movie? Was it pretty much what you envisioned or wanted? June: Well, I was thrilled to be in it. I mean to find myself portrayed by an actress with a body like Pamela Anderson after all these years of working out and watching what I eat, and of course I've never smoked. Of course in the movie theatre when this figure came on the screen I went, "Yeah! Yo! Yes!" and applauded and laughed and it was really grand. I liked the first part of it which was essentially our pilot. It was all the same situations, even some of the same dialogue, but I must say that as it went along, and went off into the second act, second and third act of it, I couldn't follow it. Terry: Yeah. Are you a sci-fi fan? June: Yes. Terry: You really are? June: Yes. Well, of course I follow space, but more than a sci-fi fan. I'm a science fact fan! I am devoted to what they're doing at NASA, and the things that we enjoy in the space program, because of the space program that we enjoy as civilians is remarkable. For instance, without the space program we wouldn't have MRI's, Cat Scans, blood analizers, we wouldn't have athletic shoes, we wouldn't have the internet, we wouldn't have weather reports as we know them, we wouldn't have dust busters even if it weren't for the space program. Firemen wouldn't have light weight equipment to carry and lighter oxygen, they wouldn't be able to see through smoke with their visors that they wear, hasmat material, clean room fabrics that have been designed for people working in chemistry labs, there are so many things that we..... well Christopher Reeves rides around in a wheelchair designed by the space program and every bit of funding that they ask for they should get. It's absolutely amazing! Your glasses, if you wear them, don't scratch because of a polymer that was designed to keep the windshield of the shuttle from scratching on launch, and so our glasses are treated with this so that our glasses don't scratch. Terry: What series do you think your most remembered for that people really identify you with? June: It depends on the age of the person because now there is a whole new group of people who are watching "Lassie", and yet there are 40 and 45 year old people who watched "Lassie" and then subsequently "Lost In Space". We now have, of course, "Lost In Space", "Petticoat Junction", and "Lassie" all 3 on television. The new audience for them is really just remarkable and great fun to get out there and meet the people who are watching, and then of course there's the soap opera crowd who are indeed watching "General Hospital". I've been doing that off and on since 1984. Terry: Why do you think TV moms are not portrayed as they were back in the 60's and 70's? First of all, you don't see as many TV moms now-a-days as you did back then. Familys are so much different, they're shown as divorced and this and that, why do you think that is? June: Well, I think that's because in life they are divorced. Though interestingly enough, the women that I played were all very strong women. As an example, you might think "Well, Lassie's mother was just out there on the farm", but there are ways of reading dialogue that if you read it just flat off the page you might say, "Gee that's kind of a light line.", like if the bean crop fails and you say to your husband, "Paul, what are we going to do?" that's one way of reading the line. On the other hand, if you're sitting down at the kitchen table and you say, "Alright, now Paul what are we going to do?!" that brings strength, and I played that women with strength, and vitality, and authority. In fact, many people say to me she ran the farm, while he was out trying to make a bean crop come in for 6 years. Terry: The strong farm woman, absolutely! June: Absolutely! Yes, but also she was educated, literate, she had a sense of community spirit, she was really a very well rounded character, and it was written that way more and more the longer I played it because I brought to it something that perhaps the earlier mothers had not had written into their character. Terry: Has anybody ever approached you for a reunion TV movie of any of your series, "Lassie", "Lost In Space", or "Petticoat Junction"? June: Yeah, they talk about "Lost In Space" every once in a while. I think it would be lovely to do a "Petticoat Junction" one. Especially since it's now so valuable since it's been released on TV Land. Who knows? I don't know. I'd certainly love to do it because I love that character of Dr. Janet Craig. Terry: You took over for Bea Benaderet? June: No, I did not take over for Bea Benaderet. Terry: Oh, ok. June: Bea had died and I played an entirely new different character, as the mother image in the series, but I was not the girl's mother. Terry: Which of all your series, I suppose this is an impossible question, which one did you enjoy the most? June: I liked each of them for different reasons. I'd be with "Lassie" still if they hadn't changed the format. Doing "Lost In Space" I think would've been great fun for another 3 or 4 years, however that was not to be and apparantly through Irwin Allen's not getting his scripts in, or his outlines of the next year's work..... they wanted to pick it up, but he said he was late and didn't get them in for when they had the meeting in New York , you know. It was going to be picked up for the next year, but when he was late they said, "We don't have anything from him, ok, that's it, it's off the air." and then of course I went into "Petticoat" immediately. Terry: I heard that they tried to do a "Lost In Space" movie for a long time but Irwin didn't want it done? June: I think that's so, initially, and then finally after he died his wife sold all the rights. Everything, including merchandising rights and all! Merchandising rights, which incidentally she did not own. Terry: And none of the actors get any part of it? June: (Shakes head no.) No. Terry: That's sad. June: Doesn't matter. We make it up in other ways. You know, what you lose on the swings, you gain on the round-a-bouts. Becky: So what is June Lockhart doing now days? June: Well, what June is doing now... to speak in the third person, that's always such a funny way to pose a question I think..... I'm doing a lot of public speaking. I'm the ambassador for the California State Park System. I work a lot with NASA, I'm going to be there in a week and a half. I have just done a thing for the Food Channel called "The Way We Were" which was fun. I've been doing.... let's see, I did a "Rosie O'Donnel Show" recently with Lassie, with the new Lassie who is a magnificently looking dog. I did that and I've just done a commercial for a gift certificate for new babies from Pampers and that'll be airing soon and I never stop. It's just one thing after another, and great fun! Terry: I take it you really don't want to retire? June: Why? Terry: Why would you? June: It's a rich full life. I am a very fulfilled and happy woman. It's just neat! And my daughter and grandaughter, they'll be here tomorrow....... the one who designs the jewelry, I don't know what Annie's doing this weekend. She's been doing a lot of celebrity rodeos and riding cutting horses...... and so I find I'm really very fulfilled and I get all my wishes. Terry: That's gotta be why you look so well because.... June: Thank you! Terry: You haven't aged hardly at all. It's incredible! June: (Laughs) Well, I've never smoked. I watch what I eat, I'm very careful about that, and also I work out. I have a wonderful trainer named Linda Alden who comes to the house and we work out, and so I'm very limber, and I do a lot of great stretching, and lift weights, and I think it truly keeps me fit and I am just in splendid shape. Terry: You said you're going to be doing some stuff on the Food Channel. You ever going to be releasing a cook book? I know for instance, the lady that played Alice on "The Brady Bunch" released a cook book, you ever think of anything like that? June: Well, there's one ready to go. Terry: Oh really? Ok. June: Yes, so we'll see about that. Terry: Do you have a title for it yet? June: No. Probably "June Lockhart Cooks" or something like that, but I don't cook you know. All those years on "Lassie" when I was cooking, I was stirring a pot of hot water! Terry: (Laughs) Oh really? June: But, I think that.... yeah that will be somewhere down the line. Who knows. One of the things that I do while I'm working the conventions for "Lost In Space" or, well any convention really, I have been very involved in the editing of and have written the foreword for a wonderful book called "Lost In Space Forever". It is the definitive "Lost In Space" book. It has every episode, all kinds of pictures, interviews with the actors, the set designers, the costumers, make-up people, guest artists, everything and it's truly a pip! I'll have it for sale tomorrow and then at the last two or three pages of the book are what we call "Smith-isms" like "You bubble-headed boobie" and things like that, but it's just a fine, fine book. I have some remarkable pictures from the series and also all the way back to Bette Davis and me in "All This and Heaven Too" when I was 14, and from "A Christmas Carol" which was my debut film, and of course pictures from "Petticoat", and pictures from "General Hospital", so there's a great variety of things, but this book "Lost In Space Forever" is really just a joy! Terry: I take it you really don't mind when fans approach you? You really like meeting them? June: Oh no, of course! Well I wouldn't be out doing something like this if I didn't expect to talk to them. I know there are some who don't like to, but why show up? (Chuckles) Terry: Ok, well I thank you so much! June: Thank you very much! Actress filmography Christmas Carol, A (1938) (uncredited) .... Cratchit's Daughter All This, and Heaven Too (1940) .... Isabelle Sergeant York (1941) .... Rosie York Adam Had Four Sons (1941) .... Vance Miss Annie Rooney (1942) .... Stella Bainbridge Forever and a Day (1943) .... Girl in Air Raid Shelter White Cliffs of Dover, The (1944) (uncredited) .... Betsy (age 18) Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) .... Lucille Ballard Son of Lassie (1945) .... Priscilla Keep Your Powder Dry (1945) .... Sarah Swanson Yearling, The (1946) .... Twink Weatherby She-Wolf of London (1946) .... Phyllis Allenby Easy to Wed (1946) .... Babs Norvell T-Men (1947) .... Tony's wife It's a Joke, Son (1947) .... Mary Lou Bury Me Dead (1947) .... Barbara Carlin "Who Said That?" (1948) TV Series .... Panelist (1952-1955) Time Limit (1957) .... Mrs. Cargill "Lassie" (1954) TV Series .... Ruth Martin (1958-64) Lassie's Great Adventure (1963) .... Ruth Martin "Lost in Space" (1965) TV Series .... Maureen Robinson (1965-68) "Petticoat Junction" (1963) TV Series .... Dr. Janet Craig (1968-70) But I Don't Want to Get Married! (1970) (TV) .... Hope Bait, The (1973) (TV) .... Nora Who Is the Black Dahlia? (1975) (TV) .... Mrs. Fowler Curse of the Black Widow (1977) (TV) .... Mrs Lockwood Gift of Love, The (1978) (TV) Double Life, A (1978) (TV) "Loose Change" (1978) (mini) TV Series .... Irene Evans Walking Through the Fire (1979) (TV) .... Ruth Moore Butterfly (1981/I) .... Mrs. Gillespie Deadly Games (1982) Capture of Grizzly Adams, The (1982) (TV) .... Liz Hawkins Strange Invaders (1983) .... Mrs. Bigelow Tell Me That You Love Me (1983) .... Mrs. Taylor "General Hospital" (1984-Current) TV Series .... Maria Ramirez Night They Saved Christmas, The (1984) (TV) .... Mrs. Claus Gidget's Summer Reunion (1985) (TV) Troll (1986) .... Eunice St. Clair Rented Lips (1988) .... Archie's Mother Perfect People (1988) (TV) .... Esther Whisper Kills, A (1988) (TV) .... Winifred Rogers C.H.U.D. II - Bud the Chud (1989) Big Picture, The (1989) .... Janet Kingsley Dead Women in Lingerie (1991) .... Ma Danger Island (1992) (TV) .... Kate Sleep with Me (1994) .... Caroline Colony, The (1995) (TV) .... Mrs. Billingsley Out There (1995) (TV) .... Donna Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen, The (1998) .... Herself Lost in Space (1998) .... Principal Cartwright Notable TV guest appearances "Philco Television Playhouse, The" (1948) in episode: "Rise Up and Walk" (episode # 8.9) 1/1/1956 "Alcoa Hour, The" (1955) in episode: "Morning's at Seven" (episode # 2.4) 11/4/1956 "United States Steel Hour, The" (1953) in episode: "Loud Laugh, A" 8/14/1957 "United States Steel Hour, The" (1953) in episode: "Locked Door, The" 11/6/1957 "United States Steel Hour, The" (1953) in episode: "Little Charlie Don't Want a Saddle" 12/18/1957 "Gunsmoke" (1955) playing "Beulah" in episode: "Dirt" (episode # 3.25) 3/1/1958 "Wagon Train" (1957) playing "Sarah Drummond" in episode: "Sarah Drummond Story, The" (episode # 1.27) 4/2/1958 "Zane Grey Theater" (1956) in episode: "Handful of Ashes, A" (episode # 2.27) 5/2/1958 "Cimarron City" (1958) in episode: "Medicine Man" (episode # 1.5) 11/8/1958 "United States Steel Hour, The" (1953) in episode: "Goodbye . . . But It Doesn't Go Away" 12/31/1958 "Rawhide" (1959) in episode: "Incident at Barker Springs" (episode # 1.7) 2/20/1959 "United States Steel Hour, The" (1953) in episode: "Square Egghead, The" 3/11/1959 "Wagon Train" (1957) playing "Laura Bell" in episode: "Ricky and Laura Bell Story, The" (episode # 3.20) 2/24/1960 "Perry Mason" (1957) playing "Mona Stanton Harvey" in episode: "Case of the Scandalous Sculptor, The" (episode # 8.3) 10/8/1964 "Bewitched" (1964) playing "Mrs. Burns" in episode: "Little Pitchers Have Big Fears" (episode # 1.6) 10/22/1964 "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" (1964) playing "Ellen Bryce" in episode: "Ghost of Moby Dick, The" (episode # 1.14) 12/14/1964 "Man from U.N.C.L.E., The" (1964) playing "Sarah Taub" in episode: "Dove Affair, The" (episode # 1.12) 12/15/1964 "Branded" (1965) in episode: "Vindicator, The" (episode # 1.2) 1/31/1965 "Family Affair" (1966) playing "Miss Evans" in episode: "Substitute Teacher, The" (episode # 3.5) 10/21/1968 "Beverly Hillbillies, The" (1962) playing "Doctor Janet Craig" in episode: "Thanksgiving Story, The" (episode # 7.10) 11/27/1968 "Happy Days" (1974) playing "Judge MacBride" in episode: "Two Angry Men" (episode # 3.20) "Ellery Queen" (1975) playing "Claudia Wentworth" in episode: "Adventures Of The Pharoah's Curse, The" (episode # 1.10) 12/11/1975 "Quincy" (1976) playing "Mrs. Clara Rhodes" in episode: "Star is Dead, A" (episode # 1.3) 11/28/1976 "Hardy Boys Mysteries, The" (1977) playing "Mrs. Migley" in episode: "Dangerous Waters" (episode # 3.5) 10/29/1978 "Quincy" (1976) in episode: "Physician, Heal Thyself" (episode # 3.22) 7/5/1979 "Quincy" (1976) playing "chief of surgury over Dr Schaffer" in episode: "Physician, Heal Thyself" (episode # 3.22) 7/5/1979 "Magnum P.I." (1980) playing "Mrs. Diane Pauley" in episode: "Lest We Forget" 1981 "Darkroom" (1981) in episode: "Uncle George" 1981 "Greatest American Hero, The" (1981) playing "Alice Davidson" in episode: "Here's Looking At You Kid" (episode # 1.3) 4/1/1981 "Knots Landing" (1979) playing "Hilda Grant" in episode: "Encounters" 1982 "Falcon Crest" (1981) playing "Mara Wingate" in episode: "Dark Journey" (episode # 1.9) 1/29/1982 "Greatest American Hero, The" (1981) playing "Alice Davidson" in episode: "Newlywed Game, The" (episode # 3.4) 11/19/1982 "Quincy" (1976) playing "Mrs Hanover" in episode: "Quincy's Wedding (Pt.II)" (episode # 7.18) 2/23/1983 "Whiz Kids" (1983) playing "Mrs. Butterfield" in episode: "Maid in the USA" (episode # 1.13) 2/4/1984 "Murder, She Wrote" (1984) playing "Beryl Hayward" in episode: "School for Scandal" (episode # 2.4) 10/20/1985 "Full House" (1987) playing "Miss Wiltrout" in episode: "Double Trouble" (episode # 5.1) 9/17/1991 "Full House" (1987) playing "Miss Wiltrout" in episode: "Matchmaker Michelle" (episode # 5.2) 9/24/1991 "John Larroquette Show, The" (1993) playing "John's Mother" in episode: "This is Not a Step" 9/21/1993 "Babylon 5" (1994) playing "Dr. Laura Rosen" in episode: "Quality of Mercy, The" (episode # 1.21) 8/17/1994 "Roseanne" (1988) playing "Herself" in episode: "All about Rosey" (episode # 7.19) 3/1/1995 "Duckman" (1994) (voice) in episode: "America the Beautiful" (episode # 2.5) 4/10/1995 "Critic, The" (1994) playing "Herself"(voice) in episode: "All the Duke's Men" (episode # 2.6) 4/23/1995 "Roseanne" (1988) playing "Leon's mother" in episode: "December Bride" (episode # 8.11) 12/12/1995 "Beverly Hills, 90210" (1990) playing "Celia Martin" in episode: "Ripe Young Age, A" (episode # 7.22) 3/5/1997 "Beverly Hills, 90210" (1990) playing "Celia Martin" in episode: "Graduation Day: Part 1" (episode # 7.31) 5/21/1997 "Beverly Hills, 90210" (1990) playing "Celia Martin" in episode: "Graduation Day: Part 2" (episode # 7.32) 5/21/1997 "Fired Up" (1997) playing "Herself" in episode: "Under Pressure" (episode # 1.8) 6/23/1997 "Beverly Hills, 90210" (1990) playing "Celia Martin" in episode: "Crimes and Misdemeanors" (episode # 8.19) 2/4/1998 -END-