| Late Late Show with Tom Snyder, guest Kate Mulgrew,
May 8, 1997 Transcribed by Saffron
- March, 1999
RATING: PG
Screen captures by: Totally Kate!
Notes and Disclaimer: I transcribed this, but I don't own
the copyright. No infringement intended. Please do not post or distribute. Thanks!
ENJOY!!
Tom: Good evening, my friends
and welcome back everybody. I'm T.S. and the color cast is on the air now for Thursday
night, it's the 8th of May, 1997. Our old pal, Kate Mulgrew is here tonight, the gal who's
got her picture on TV Guide this week.
[snip]
Tom: Back with Kate Mulgrew from the starship. And then Huey Lewis and the
News and the accapella performance of one of the songs for, I believe, their new
CD...Settle back and fire up the [color TVs], watch the pictures, hear the sounds as they
travel through the air. Thanks for lookin' in, everybody.
[commercial break]
Tom: Our pal, Kate Mulgrew continues as the star of the enormously popular
television series, Star Trek: Voyager. Captain Janeway and the rest of her space
traveling crew will conclude their season on May 21st with the first part of a special
2-part cliffhanger. She is also the cover story for this week's TV Guide . It is
always a joy to have Miss Mulgrew in our company and thanks for comin' by to CBS.
Kate: Oh, it's my pleasure.
Tom: The cover of TV Guide,
congratulations.
Kate: I've had a couple of covers on
TV Guide, actually.
Tom: I know, but this is the
latest one...
Kate: Lovely one. It's a lovely one.
Tom: Lemme me talk to ya here,
we've talked about your boys...who are now what, 13...
Kate: [starts to laugh] We seem to talk about
my boys, love, & God. They're 13 and 14, yeah.
Tom: 13 and 14. You guys took
a..., I read about this, you went to Costa Rica.
Kate: We went to Costa Rica.
Tom: And you did all kinds of
things you probably didn't think you could do.
Kate: Well, Regis Philbin killed me
because I said it was Outward Bound. 'Cause then I had to correct myself, nationally. It
was first class Outward Bound. We had two spectacular guides. This is a small company, out
of Ann Arbor, Michigan. But I have to tell you, I have never in my life felt so physically
exhilarated...
Tom: Really?
Kate: ...and so present. I mean, I'm
a woman of a certain age, right? What age is that, Tom? You did call me your pal, didn't
ya? [laughing]
Tom: Somewhere between 35 and
death?
Kate: That's right, you angel.
[Tom laughs]
Kate: [turns to crew] Is he an angel? So, the whole thing was, to
shoot the rapid for a week. The Pacuare River, which I think is numbered among the five
most beautiful rivers in the world. And the latter part was on the Caribbean side, scuba
diving, hot air ballooning...terrifying experience. Have you ever done it?
Tom: No. Never.
Kate: Absolutely... ice in my veins.
Tom: I have a bit of vertigo,
and I would never go up, Kate, because I'm afraid....it's not very tall, the wall....
Kate: The basket is very shallow.
Tom: That's what I mean.
Kate: The basket comes to just your
hips. And there you are... with your progeny, your only reason to go on in life...
Tom: Right.
Kate: ...and they are clinging and
one is saying, 'Get... me... out... of this....'
Tom: Oh, the kids are....
Kate: Absolutely ashen.
Kate: It's a lateral moving thing.
Tom: Boys that age are
immortal. Nothing frightens them.
Kate: No no no no. Because
vertigo, I think has something to do with puberty. Can one make this association without
getting into a good deal of trouble. Because they were just white as sheets.
Tom: Oh, you're kidding.
Kate: Then we could not land. I said
'I think it's high time.... it's time, we've been here at 2,000 feet. This has been
great...' We're all ready to go and he couldn't. There was a cable, there was a goat,
there was a sheep, there was a bird, there was a thing, right? So he says to me, 'You know
I can only go this way, I can't go this way. I'm going to have to hit some trees to break
our fall.'
Tom: Aw, man.
Kate: He said 'I'm gonna talk to you
quietly. I'm gonna give you the codes and I'm gonna overboard these kids out of this
basket", right?
Tom: Ok.
Kate: I said 'This is great. This is
great. Go to Costa Rica, be a big shot...', right?
Tom: Show these kids what you
can do.
Kate: At about 5 feet, he [says]
'why don't you jump, pal' to my oldest son, who just leapt out of the bloody balloon [laughing]
Tom: Bye-bye. [laughs]
Kate: ...so long, suckers! I never
saw three kids hurl themselves so quickly and then we hit the ground and the tree and
boom. But it was nothing compared to what happened in the rapids. That was [whispers] so frightening.
Tom: What happened there?
Kate: These are Class 4 rapids. Now,
for those professionals out there who are laughing at me, right...who are shooting 9s and
10s... I mean this is my first time. Class 4 is a fast-moving...
Tom: Couldn't you just have
gone to a hotel in Italy and sat in a Jacuzzi with the kids?
Kate: Well, that's always been my
vacation... 6 o'clock, the big oversized coconut drink and don't bother me, right? I said
no, I'm going to go all the way with my kids. But as I was going down these rapids, the
guy said...'Oh my God,' I heard it...'We're going in the wrong way!' We hit it sideways.
We couldn't get out.
Tom: Yeah. Did the guy in the
raft know the guy in the balloon at all?
[Tom & crew laugh]
Kate: How did you know they were the
same chap?... right? ...addicted to terror. No, but we're all in the thing together. He's
laughing at first, but we can't get out of the loop... [makes slurping sounds]...screaming, right? He says, 'I'm going to throw
these kids overboard.' I said 'You can't throw the kids into the roaring rapids,' right?
'How in God's name are they gonna survive?!?' He said 'I'm throwin' 'em over'...one by
one, let's go kids... with the helmet...throwing them out. We were in there for 10
minutes.
Tom: He threw your boys
overboard?
Kate: ...I'm watching...my blood...
Tom: Did you protest at all?
Did you say 'don't do this?'
Kate: ...but they got close-ups,
some guy with a camera is running around... of Captain Janeway screaming invectives at the
top of her voice... 15 minutes later, it took us to get out...throwing the rope. And what
happened to the boys?
Kate: They went under...very good swimmers, these kids, and
they caught an eddy and they went to the side...and they're all laughing.
Tom: Oh, they think it's
funny.
Kate: 'Ha! Ha! Mom!'
[Tom & crew laugh]
Kate: Absolutely terrified. But I
did it.
Tom: You did it.
Kate: What do you think of that?
Tom: I think it's terr...I'm
proud of you and I'll bet your boys were proud of ya too.
Kate: I think they were very proud
of me.
Tom: I bet they saw a mom
didn't know they had.
Kate: They certainly did.
Tom: Do they ask you questions
now about stuff, ya know, girls and...
Kate: I like it...[starts to laugh] ...when you ask me questions about stuff... Sex?
Tom: Yeah, girls.
Kate: [pauses to think] Number one is very quiet, my oldest son...
Tom: OK, 14...
Kate: ...and I respect that. I think
that's natural [to crew] isn't it, chaps?
Tom: Yep.
Kate: Look at them! [laughs] Yes. It's uniform.
Tom: The chaps agree. Quiet is
good.
Kate: Alexander is a bit
more open with me. And a little more, I think, inclined to be emotional. So I love to talk
about that. 'How do you feel about girls.' 'What's happening to you?' But you can only go
so far and then it's intrusive. And I think I may have mentioned to you that last time I
saw you, It's very hard for mother's to know were that line is.
Tom: Mm-hmm.
Kate: I have raised these boys.
Tom: I wonder if a mom can see
when the boy becomes a man or starts that process. I often wondered if my mom saw when I
stopped being a boy and became a man. I wonder if mom's ever sees that.
Kate: Well, I think we have to see
it.
Tom: Uh-huh.
Kate: I think we have to.
Tom: And I wonder if there is
any bond stronger than mother and son.
Kate: I don't think so.
Tom: No, I doubt not. That is
truly the relationship that lasts from cradle to grave.
Kate: We were talking about this the
other night. My boys said 'Well, no, then that works for fathers and daughters' and I said
'Perhaps' but in my experience, what is that is so deep and profound about this
particular... This connection is just... I simply adore them. Is it unconditional on both
sides, do you think?
Tom: Mm-hmm. I think so. I think it
is. I've seen it, women friends who have sons and women who have daughters...the
relationship between mother and daughter is nothing as compared to that between mother and
son. There's something between mother and son, it is truly the circling of the wagons
between mother and son, and I used to try and get in the way of it sometimes and I have
learned that you can't get in the way of the Mom and the boy cubs. You just cannot.
Kate: You really can't, can
you?
Tom: But do they ask you questions
that you can't answer?
Kate: Yes. Well, they ask me a lot
of questions that I think are taboo for me to answer.
Tom: Like...
Kate: Well, like about my life.
Tom: Oh really.
Kate: And I've been educated.. I've
been taught not to answer them. Of course my instinct, [laughing] is to divulge all. Why not? I do it to you , I do it to everybody,
but then with your son, you have to realize that there is certain line which you cannot
cross because you have to condition.... you have to train him, don't you, to respect women
of my age. So if they want to talk about sex in any graphic way, which is all they want to
do at that age, I say no, that's frankly none of your business.
Tom: Is it tough, being a
single mom... and you've been a single mom for as long as I can remember.
Kate: [laughs] How depressing... for
as long as you can remember. I mean you've know me for a long time. I have been a single
mother for five years. Is it tough? Yeah. It's tough. Did you read that article about
downsizing the family in 'Newsweek'?
Tom: Uh, no.
Kate: I brought this up with
your guy, Neil, who's very sharp, by the way. It said something that's haunting me
lately--a lot of single mother's trying to do the whole thing. I'm not sure we can do the
whole thing. She had a wonderful editorial in Newsweek....I guess she's a CEO for a small
but thriving company in the East and she's also the mother of three...and she's saying
'Working the holiday, I'm finally understanding what you guys, what you gentlemen have
loved all these years.'
Tom: Oh sure... for many
people... and I didn't read the article, but I read a condensation of it,...people find
the workplace solace now. It used to be that work was where all the pressure... and guys
and gals would come home because this was the place of peace and quiet... Now... 'this' is
the place of peace and quiet--the workplace, and home is gangbusters.
Kate: Well, what is this gonna do to
the kids? You see, because at 5 o'clock as she's heading home, she's really full of
trepidation. She doesn't quite know how she's gonna catch her breath in time to deal with
them and she must deal with them. Those are her children. They're the first priority...
and they're not gonna really care about her 12-hour day at the office. Why should they,
right?
Tom: Absolutely.
Kate: They need that attention. They
need to sit down to dinner. Had a long talk with Joe Califano the other night about it.
Tom: Oh, former Secretary of
Health Education and Welfare.
Kate: Right. They were talking about
drug abuse, right? What really gets kids into trouble and he said "I'll tell ya, it's
the age-old song, baby. Do you eat with them every night? Do you oversee their homework on
a regular basis? ...
Tom: Do you put 'em to bed?
Kate: ...and do you lie on the floor
with the Oreo cookies and the milk and say 'How ya doin', pal'?"
Tom: Yeah.
Kate: He said you would be shocked
to find that this is now a great challenge for most parents whereas, I guess, in
yesteryear, it was easier.
Tom: [sighs] Let's go on to
the movies and Star Trek; and stuff like this before we get ourselves totally and
completely depressed.
Kate: All right. [starts to laugh]
Tom: Let me do a fast break and
we'll continue here with Kate Mulgrew from Star Trek Voyager, the 2-part cliff-hanger is
on the UPN network starting on, I believe, May the 21st. The toll-free is up and running,
I'm Tom and this is CBS.
[commercial break]
Tom: We're with Kate Mulgrew, here
is J on the toll-free in Queens, NY. Hi, J, welcome to CBS.
J: Thank you.
Tom: You're welcome.
J: Uh, I miss you here in
New York as a newscaster in the 70s. I remember you very well.
Tom: Thank you. I appreciate that
very, very much. I had a wonderful time in New York City and I miss it to this day.
Thanks, J.
J: I used to work at 909 Third Avenue
in New York City right across the street from a place called "Friar Tuck's' and They
used to have a waitress there that we used to refer to as Katherine Hepburn and
basically... [Tom chuckling]...I believe that this is the young lady sitting there right
now.
Kate: You got that a hundred percent
right. How amazing. What's your name sir?
J: My name is J and I used
to work for General Telephone and we used to have a whole crew that used to come in there.
Tom: At Friar Tuck's?
J: At Friar Tuck's.
Kate: That was a long time ago.
J: Right. ...and actually
Jerry Seinfeld worked across the street at the [Bruberger] and I think he was one of our
waiters also...
Kate: He was at the high-class
place...
J: ...but basically, Kate
was basically one of the ones when we would sit down and everybody would be smart-mouthing
the waitresses, she would be the one that would always come back with somethin' good....
Kate: Like where's my tip...[laughs]
J: ...and every time we'd go
in, we'd tell the lady at the door 'We want Katherine Hepburn'.
[Tom laughs]
J: ...and basically ya know,
you're talkin' about your sons and how you don't wanna tell about your life but there are
alotta things that happen in the real world that basically help you [with life conditions]
and different things about the world that you really are away from now.
Kate: Yes.
Tom: Now you mentioned, and [J], you
heard Kate say this that there are some things in life you don't tell your sons....
J: Exactly.
Tom: But I hope that they know that
you worked since you were 12-years-old even though they may not have to.
Kate: That's why I want you to
just... Would you say that again about Friar Tuck's, J? I was only seventeen or eighteen
years old at that time.
J: [chuckles]
Kate: I got fired from that job, you
know. I dumped a plate of pasta on some guys lap
Tom: [chuckles] On purpose?
Kate: No tip...
Tom: On purpose or by accident.
Kate: No, he was being naughty and
nasty.
Tom: Oh. oh.
J: ...But I'm sayin' ...any
of these experiences that you had when you weren't a star that you basically have to keep
yourself grounded with and use them and go back to those things so you don't loose
yourself in the rarified air that you're living in now.
Kate: No, but it's not rarified air,
[J], and please, I'm not a star. I'm in a television series right now and I'm very blessed
to have this job, but my life will revert, once again, to what it was before. I'm an
actress and I have never confused myself with being a star.
J: Once you are on Star
Trek, you going to be a legend, believe me. You're hooked up with William Shatner and
everybody else and no matter what you say...
Kate: I gotta be hooked up with
William Shatner?
J: ...this television program is more
than a regular program.
[crew laughing at Kate's comment]
Tom: We didn't say shacked up, we
said 'hooked up'.
Kate: Well, I intend to try and stay
as grounded as possible because I think that's what happiness is all about, don't you?
J: Absolutely.
Tom: Now, J, let me ask you a
question back. Is the Friar Tuck still in operation?
J: Not a Friar Tuck's. It's
some other cockamamie place now, but it's still got that brick front and everything.
Kate: P.J. Clarks is still goin'
across the street, isn't it?
J: Uh, yeah. P.J. Clarks is
never gonna go away.
Kate: No.
Tom: No, I hope not.
J: And it still looks the
same .. almost unpainted, looks like it should be torn down but it just sits there.
Tom: J, you're speakin' sacrilege,
talkin' about tearin' down P.J. Clarks, come on.
J: Look, I spent many a
night and many a twenty dollar bill in there, believe me.
Tom: Same here. I'm glad you called,
sir and thank for your compliment.
J: Ok, thank you.
Kate: Thank you very much.
Tom: G'night, J.
J: Bye-bye.
Tom: The jobs we've all had to do,
huh?
Kate: Well, thank God.
Tom: Yeah.
Kate: It is truly the
seasoning of life, isn't it?
Tom: Yeah. Did ya ever have to sell
Plumber's Helper door-to-door?
Kate: [laughs] [indistinguishable comment] No. Plumber's Helper? No, I managed to
escape Plumber's Helper.
Tom: Yeah, I sold those door to
door.
Kate: Have you ever waited
tables?
Tom: Yes, I have.
Kate: Have you ever done temp
work?
Tom: Nope. But I've stacked tin
cans, I've cut cheese at the A & P, I've ground coffee, I've filled the milk cases...
Kate: Now would you say,
between you and me, that's sort of made you what you are?
Tom: Absolutely, I wouldn't give
that up for the world and by the way, I know those jobs are waiting for me when this
all turns, you know.
Kate: Yeah. Exactly. I mean,
I'm half-joking with J, but I'll tell you, I fully expect that life does... It's all
about chapters. This is a chapter... something will happen.
Tom: But let me tell ya, selling
Plumber's Helpers door-to-door is tough work because nobody ever buys one of those unless
they desperately need one, ya know?
Kate: I think it's a sure way
to go to heaven.
Tom: Now Star Trek was a lifesaver
for you. You had finished Mrs. Columbo...
Kate: T-Tom. I finished Mrs.
Columbo about 3 decades before Star Trek.
Tom: But after Mrs. Columbo,
there was a time when...
Kate: This is just...[laughing] ....getting worse and worse and worse.
Tom: No...
Kate: There was a
little bit of a dirth there... of activity?
Tom: A dirth... dirth
[thwack], as they say.
Kate: Yeah, but I worked in
the theatre a lot, um, which one doesn't see. You're talking about celebrity... I did a
lovely series called 'HeartBeat' but indeed I have never, in my life, experienced anything
of this magnitude, nor will I ever again.
Tom: When you signed on for
Star Trek, where did you think it would go? A year, two years?
Kate: Oh no. I knew the
longevity involved. I assumed and was well cautioned that the commitment would be five,
six, possibly even seven years.
Tom: Mm-hmm.
Kate: It was the phenomenon
itself that only sort of revealed itself to me very slowly and not I see that what J, for
instance, is saying is quite true. There is a legend to this thing...
Tom: No question.
Kate: ...and I suppose, for
the rest of my life when I go and...
Tom: It's almost a religion.
Kate: Well, you're talking the
San Diego 39ers.
Tom: No, no, no. I don't want
to go there.
Kate: No.
Tom: But in their devotion to Star
Trek and what was created by Roddenberry and company, these people are devoted to
that.
Kate: Indeed they are. Indeed
they are, and that's to be respected...
Tom: Yes, it is.
Kate: ..and so, I will just do
the best that I can for the time that I'm there. Listen, it's a wonderful job. She's a
great character.
Tom: Yes, she is.
Kate: I'm the captain of the
ship. I'm not in the kitchen. I'm the captain. Can you imagine how marvelous? So, for as
long as it runs, I'm a very happy camper.
Tom: Well, good for you and
the cover of TV Guide sure beats the program listings at the back of the book.
Let me do a fast tickle here with the sponsors. Kate Mulgrew is with us from Star
Trek: Voyager and their 2-part cliffhanger is on UPN on the 21st of May. You'll check
the listings in your town for the exact time and station. Back with Kate and you on the
phone after this short break.
[commercial break]
Tom: Here is R on the
toll-free in Clarksville, Indiana. Hello.
R: Hey, Tom.
Tom: Hello R.
R: Hey, Kate.
Kate: Hello, R.
R: I wanted to ask
you, Kate, about your brothers and sisters.
Kate: Oy.
R: You spoke about
them in a telephone commercial several years ago and I loved it.
Kate: Yes, I have a lot of
brothers and sisters.
R: You have?
Kate: I have a lot of brothers
and sisters.
R: How many?
Kate: Well, there were
eight of us originally and 2 of my sisters have died, but I always say eight because
that's the way it was.
R: That's right.
Kate: So, it was a big family.
What did you want to ask me?
R: Well, in your
telephone commercial, you said you called them all the time and I hop that was just
script, but the way it really was.
Kate: Well, I do talk to them
all the time. I'm the 2nd oldest child, the oldest girl. That's a position of some
importance in such a big family.
Tom: And responsibility
Kate: Very big, you know?
R: And you were born
where?
Kate: I was born in Dubuque,
Iowa.
R: And grew up there?
Kate: Yes, I certainly did.
Are you familiar with Dubuque, R?
R: No, I'm not.
Kate: Built on a bluff an run
on the same principle?
[Tom laughs]
R: I'm Midwestern, but
not Dubuque.
Kate: Where are you from?
R: Clarksville,
Indiana.
Kate: Yeah, Indiana's a
beautiful state. So we lived in Dubuque. I grew up in the country on 50 acres of land. My
father was a contractor. He bought this house in the country to raise all of us because we
were Irish Catholic and God knows, skies the limit, having those kids... so there we were,
left to our own devices and I sure that's where we all fell in love.
Tom: And when was the last
time you returned to the fair city of Dubuque.
Kate: Oh, I go home at least
twice a year.
Tom: Good for you.
Kate: But I see my mother a
lot. I mean, it's a constant coming and going. I'll see my sister next week. I've got 16
nieces and nephews, for heaven's sake.
Tom: In the Dubuque area? In
Iowa?
Kate: All over the world.
[laughs] They're still growing.
R: Anybody else in the
acting profession?
Kate: No. Interesting, huh? I
think I have a little niece well on her way... [lowers voice to sultry tone] ..talks like
this-"Hello, Aunt Kate. How are you?" [normal voice] I'm fine. You just wait.
R: I do love watching
you. It's been such fun watching you through the years.
Kate: Thank you, R, what a
nice thing to say.
Tom: Good night there, R, and
thanks for calling.
R: And Tom, I love
your show. You keep me up much too late.
Tom: You're very kind, R.
[Kate & R laughing]
R: Bye-bye.
Kate: Bye-bye.
Tom: I'd say you keep me up
too, but some people might take it the wrong way.
R: [laughs] I'll tell
my friends you said that.
Tom: You do, indeed. In fact,
if you like, I'll repeat it tomorrow if they got the tape machine's going.
Kate: [laughing] [Don't] you dare repeat that.
Tom: Good night, now.
R: Good night.
[Kate & Tom laughing]
Kate: So bad.
Tom: Now I read this afternoon
that you were at the White House a couple of years back and you met Hillary and Chelsea
and they are apparently huge watchers.....
Kate: Just the first lady, not
Chelsea, and the Vice President.
Tom: Ok.
Kate: So briefly did I
meet the Vice President. It was an exercise in brevity: How do you do, picture, great,
good-bye. But the first lady was so... I know everybody's got their..thing. I'm not gonna
get into the political aspects of this. She was so gracious to me and so present to me and
so present and so well-informed and I know she just got off the plane 2 hours before.
Tom: Sure, sure.
Kate: I thought, she's aces in
my book. It was a pretty marvelous presentation. So I have been a great admirer ever
since.
Tom: Um, I'm at the end of my
conversation with you for the evening so I can now ask a...
Kate: I hope just for the
evening.
Tom: Yeah... a..a.. question
that occurred to me the last time. You're a very busy person, you have this television
show that you are committed to and you have 13 and 14 and you have Costa Rica and Bali,
whatever. Do you have time for romance in your life at all? Are you a girlfriend to
anybody?
Kate: I do my best, Tom. I
try... [Tom & Kate start to
laugh]... to uphold to
the old tradition. I do. I have to be fed. I have to live and I have found a wonderful
man.
Tom: Good for you.
Kate: So absolutely, there's
plenty of room. This is life. Gotta live it.
Tom: Ok, We'll all be watching
the 21st, pal.
Kate: Ok.
Tom: The season ender and
we'll see you in the new year, OK?
Kate: Thanks a lot.
Tom: My pleasure.
Kate: Great to see you.
Tom: OK, best to your boys. Kate
Mulgrew. Check out Star Trek: Voyager on UPN May 21st. Check the listings for
time and station. Back with Huey Lewis and later the News after this short break. |