“The last time I got an Emmy, it was given to me by Susan Flannery”

“We are like Fred and Barney and Wilma and Betty,“ laughs Peter Bergman of his best friend John McCook and their spouses. “Our wives get along brilliantly, we both have respect for the medium we work in, we play tennis together, our kids play together. We just have one of those friendships”.

“John’s wife Laurette called me one day and said their daughter [Becky] had broken her arm,” Bergman recalls. He rushed over to the emergency room and tried to help, “but the doctor did everything gross you have ever seen. There were needles everywhere. Becky was fine, but I was ashen! I said, ‘Excuse me’, and I literally went out and squatted in the hallway.”

Bergman stops by McCook’s dressing room whenever he can: “He’s got lots of funny pictures on the walls and an espresso maker - it’s such a warm, friendly environment. His door is always open, and he’s never in there alone”.

SOAP OPERA MAGAZINE: “We know B&B and Y&R are taped in the same studio, but how did you and John meet”?
PETER: It all started when “Fred” here walked up to me in the hall after I’d be on Y&R for about three weeks. He said, “Hi, my name is John McCook. I just wanted to welcome you, and tell you that you’ve come here with a lovely reputation.” I said, “Uh-oh, thanks.”

“I was well aware who John McCook was, because I watch daytime TV. He said, “I know you have a family and I’ve got a family. Maybe we can all hook up at some point.” I thought that was great. Our families met when we took the kids to see a screening of The Wizard of Oz. Afterward, my wife Mariellen said, “I’d like to get together with the McCooks. They are real.”

“We were planning a Christmas party, and Mariellen asked if we should invite the McCooks. I said I’d love to, but thought it would be too overwhelming for them with lots of other people around. So we didn’t. But the very next day after our party, we got an invitation to their Christmas party! Well, for two years now we’ve been explaining to the McCooks, “We were going to invite you to the party, dammit.”

“Sometimes when you go out with another married couple, you like him, you like her, you like the kids, but your kids don’t like their kids. That happens. So with all these variables, it’s amazing we found the McCooks”.

“When I got the Emmy, part of my acceptance speech was thanking the McCook family, who had been with me through an incredibly bizarre year in my career. I finished the speech and turned around. John was the first person standing in the wings and I had to go offstage that way. It was like a movie in slow motion. It’s my favorite moment in our friendship”.

Q:After years of not receiving nominations or awards in key categories, it's nice that sister soap The Bold and the Beautiful really gets to "come to the party."
Peter: They sure do. I was very happy for Susan [Flannery, (Stephanie)] and Jennifer Finnigan [(Bridget), who won, respectively, Outstanding Lead Actress and Outstanding Younger Leading Actress], as well as their technical winners, too. It's pretty impressive. B&B is quite a player in this thing. It was actually B&B that came up with the idea of the bus. That was an idea of Bradley Bell's [B&B's executive producer and head writer] a few years ago.