Larry Hagman's interview at "Entertainment Tonight"

BOB GOEN: Why the book now?

LARRY HAGMAN: Well, I got bored. For years, people kept asking me to write a book, and I just didn't want to do it. And then finally I had a lot of time on my hands -- I'm not retired, I'm out of work! So I decided to write a book. Todd Gold, who interviewed me a lot for People magazine, said he'd love to do it.

BOB: Is it difficult for you to remember all these tall tales?

LARRY: I can't remember what I had for breakfast at times! I can remember the things I did 30 years ago, those are the easy ones. And I had a lot of fun, and I think a lot of fun kind of erased my memory!

BOB: Were there any stories in here that you weren't comfortable with your family knowing?

LARRY: I took them out. I mean, that would hurt people. There's nothing in there that would be uncomfortable for anybody. In your life there are a lot of things you carry a grudge about. I didn't put in any of that stuff, and not only that, I didn't remember most of them! I remember the good times, not the bad times.

BOB: Well, some of these stories have got to be painful and surprising to your children. The story where you almost euthanized your father, was that news to your family?

LARRY: No, no, we've been laughing about that for years!

BOB: What did you do; how did that happen?

LARRY: Dad had this stroke, and he went from 250 lbs. to 90 lbs. I'd come down and visit him -- I was doing " I Dream of Jeannie " -- and I would shave him and we'd talk. I had this cyanide pill that I was going to break into Dad's IV to put him out of his misery. He was never going to get any better. But I knew as soon as I did that, his roommate Walter would say, "He did it! He did it!" It would be the first time in 13 years Walter had said a word, so I flushed it down the toilet. Dad died two or three weeks later.

BOB: And your mom was Mary Martin. Was it difficult growing up the son of a celebrity?

LARRY: No, I didn't know any different. That's the way life was, so it was just like everyday stuff. I didn't live with her very long. I lived with her a year, and that was all. I lived with my grandmother until I was 12. When she died, I moved in with my mother and stepfather and I lived there for a year. We didn't get along too well, my stepfather and I, and so I was shipped off to school, which, thank God, saved me from killing him. Or saved him from killing me. I didn't get to know her until later years, until I was into my thirties, forties.

BOB: You guys weren't that far apart in age, actually.

LARRY: No, she was 17 years older than I was. I was brought up like she was my sister!

BOB: Were there any pressures you felt, being Mary Martin's son and having to live up to that level of expectation?

LARRY: No, I don't think so, because I didn't live with her.

BOB: Was it a hindrance or a help?

LARRY: In my career it was a big help, got my foot in the door. My first Broadway show was Comes a Day with Cheryl Crawford. She was the producer, and she was a very good friend of my mother's. So I got a reading and got the part. I'm a firm believer in nepotism.

BOB: Silent Sundays, what is that, how did that start?

LARRY: What happened was, I was doing "I Dream of Jeannie," and I was doing a scene in a rodeo using a trampoline and jumping up onto horses and falling and flipping -- I did all my own stunts on that show -- and I was yelling. I woke up the next day, luckily it was a Saturday, and I didn't have any voice, couldn't talk, so the doctor said, "Don't talk on Saturdays," so I didn't talk on Sundays either. The next week I tried it again and my voice cleared up. That's what started it off. It lasted about 20, 25 years. I don't do it as often now.

BOB: The other significant episode that happened on "I Dream of Jeannie" was when you had the nervous breakdown...

LARRY: Well, my wife was pregnant with my second son, and she was diagnosed with exhaustion and they gave her a drug, which was a light speed, and she said, "You want to lose some weight? Take these, a doctor prescribed it." So we thought it was okay. Then I ran out, so I went to get more. It says the medication may become habit-forming, and I thought, "That's a bunch of baloney; I've been taking this for five years." So I decided to quit, but quitting smoking and speed at the same time -- I just fell apart!

BOB: I remember asking you if you were afraid of dying. You said you weren't afraid of dying, you're afraid of pain. That's a result of taking LSD, you think?

LARRY: Yeah, and it's illegal because it opens up your mind to all kinds of facets of existence, and that's frightening for every government. I don't blame them.

BOB: You smoked marijuana for the first time with Jack Nicholson?

LARRY: Yeah, that was pretty cool. I was down in Acapulco, and he said, "You're drinking too much," and he was right. So he said, "Smoke this stuff," and I did, and it opened me up to a lot of things too. It's a calming drug. It's not a drug; it's an herb.

BOB: So you were drinking too much then?

LARRY: Yeah, I drank too much since I was 14.

BOB: As I read the book, it didn't seem like you dwelled on the abuse of alcohol. You were really putting it away?

LARRY: Yeah, well, you have to. The more you drink, the more you have to. I never got blackouts, I just reached a level and I stayed there. It gives you energy to a certain point, and it was okay. I wish I hadn't done it. I wish I'd quit drinking when I quit smoking. It was a waste of time, and after a while I just did it to stay normal.

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