Daytime’s
Real-Life Music Man
They
all laughed when John McCook first appeared on a soap opera - but after his
fantastically successful career in daytime TV, nobody’s laughing now.
John,
who’s played handsome and powerful ERIC FORRESTER on B&B for nearly seven
years, debuted on Y&R a decade earlier, as a character named LANCE PRENTISS.
It
was a tough challenge for him, because up to then his background had been music
and the stage. And when his friends saw him
on the small screen, they poked fun at their pal’s new line of work.
„There
were people who were close to me who would look at what I was doing and laugh,“
John recalls. „I thought this stuff I was doing really cool, but they would
laugh and it hurt me.“
John
has gotten over the hurt feelings. In fact, he’s proud of his work on B&B.
„Now I feel that if another actor laughs at your work, challenge him to try it,
to see how hard it actually is,“ he says.
It
was John’s versatile musical talents that won him his first role on Y&R in
1976.
„I
had been doing theatre and conducting for about five years,“ he says. „They
needed someone quick. They had cast an actor as Lance Prentiss, but after one
day he quit; he couldn’t handle it. They brought me in with about five other
guys and I got the part.“ John quickly found out how demanding it could be to
work on soaps.
„My
first day there, they handed me a song and told me I was going to sing. Plus, I
had to re-shoot all the scenes that the other guy had shot. It was a killer!“
In
fact, his schedule was so crammed he wasn’t able to view himself on TV for
days.
„About
a week into it, I got a chance to sit down and look at it and thought to myself,
‘This is cool!’ “ That was it - John was hooked. But he still had a lot to
learn about TV.
„It
was live on tape back then, and unless something fell down, your really didn’t
stop to fix it. I was used to musical theatre, but on TV if they wanted you to
sing on the show, they would just hand you a song and tell you to sing it. It
didn’t matter if you could sing or not.“
CBS
took advantage of John’s musical background in another way, by co-starring him
in a series of musical specials with Michael Nouri (ex-STEVE, SEARCH FOR
TOMORROW), Janice Lynde (ex-LAUREL, OLTL; ex-LESLIE, Y&R), and Mary
Stuart(ex-JO, SFT).
„The
specials were called After Hours: From
Janice, John, Mary and Michael With Love,“ John remembers. They aired from
3 to 4 in the afternoon. It was great. We got to perform different types of
material than we did on the soaps to showcase our talents.“
John’s
so proud of that show that hanging in his dressing room is a framed copy of the
ad for the show that appeared in TV Guide.
When
Y&R expanded from a half hour to an hour-long show, „they offered me a
chance to stay on, but I felt it was time I went out and tried to do prime
time,“ John says.
But
after sending out his resumes and photos of himself in a tuxedo, John found it
wasn’t easy to break into nighttime TV.
„I
was just an 8X10 glossy photo to all these people in prime time, and I wasn’t
getting roles.“
John
solved that by hiring a new live-wire agent, Harry Gold, who’s still his agent
today.
„Harry
told me he wasn’t going to send me out for the leading man stuff anymore. He
told me I should do comedy, so I could break out of that 8X10 image. I did
everything from wacky neighbor to news anchor, and that did it for me. I started
getting serious roles, too.“
During the same period, John returned to his first love, music, and starred in local productions of about a dozen shows including Peter Pan, Camelot and Pirates of Penzance. „My roots have always been in musical theatre, so it felt good to do that again.“
Then
came the phone call that led to his role as Eric on a new show called THE BOLD
AND THE BEAUTIFUL...and superstardom on the soaps. After talking it over with
B&B creator Bill Bell, John was impressed with the opportunity he was handed.
„I
told myself that even if the show failed, it was going to be on for at least
five years. I was then getting shows with a guarantee of only one episode.“
However,
during the first few years, John was relegated to an minor role as „the dad“
in the Forrester clan, and he bean to grow antsy.
„I
went home to my wife Laurette and said, ‘I feel like I’m in the background,’
“ Laurette gave John some great advice. “ ‘Get off your butt and do
something about it!’ was Laurette’s answer, and she was right!“ John adds
with a grin.
John
decided that if a change was deeded he’d star with himself. „I went on a
diet and lost weight, I quit drinking as much as I had been at the time, and my
last vice, smoking, I gave up recently.“
The
personal transformation worked. John was given a bigger, hotter part on the show.
Eric, the powerful head of Forrester Fashions, became the focus of both the
romantic and the dramatic storylines. Today, graying but still decidedly dashing,
he’s one of daytime’s most idolized leading men.
And
although B&B is still the „baby of daytime’s 10 soaps, it frequently
ranks No.3 in the Neilsen ratings. Syndicated versions of the show are
incredibly popular overseas, and in some countries , like Italy, it’s the
top-rated show on the air.
John
has recently come full circle, returning to his roots in music. He especially
enjoyed doing a musical comedy with Carol Burnett at the Long Beach Civic Light
Opera Center.
„Doing
musical theatre again was a blast, and I couldn’t have asked for anyone more
talented than Carol,“ John smiles. „It was like a dream come true.“
John
is also finishing up an album he made for European release. And he’s producing
an album for Jeff Trachta (THORNE) and Bobbie Eakes (MACY) for the same market.
„And
then I get to produce another on for myself. It’s really exciting stuff for me.“
If John sounds happy, it’s because he is. He has a job he loves, and a family that brings him great joy and fulfillment. John McCook has had the last laugh. And it looks like he’ll be making beautiful music for a long time to come.
Soap Opera Magazine 11/30/93