Robert Wuhl, "Assume The Position/Arli$$/Hollywood Knights" actor: Mr. Media Interview, Pt. 2

(Return to Part 1)

ANDELMAN: My buddies will kill me if I let you get away without asking about Newbomb Turk and Hollywood Knights. What do you remember about getting that film made? I don’t know that we’ll ever get a DVD commentary on that, but…

WUHL: There is a commentary on it.

ANDELMAN: Is there really?

WUHL: Yeah, there’s one out. Did I do it, or did Floyd (Mutrux) do it? I think maybe Floyd did it.







ANDELMAN: I’ve had my copy so long I didn’t even know that. If you could tell a story about that movie, what might it be?

WUHL: It was my first gig. It came out in 1979. I just got out to L.A., and within about three months, I’m handed the lead in this movie, and within another two months, we’re shooting it. What I remember most about it is the anarchy involved in the shooting of it and a lot of good times and a couple of friends who I still talk to, am still close with to this day. I’m stopped more for Newbomb Turk than anything, I would say, with the exception probably of “Arli$$,” because that was a TV series. But outside of that, including Batman, including Bull Durham, including anything, I’m probably stopped more, I’m sure I’m stopped more for Hollywood Knights.

Hollywood Knights on YouTube
Clip 1: Tubby's Drive-In
Clip 2: Newbomb Turk Farting to "Volare"

ANDELMAN: That movie just had such an anti-American Graffiti feel to it, which may have made it that much funnier.

WUHL: Well, the pitch was, I remember, the way they sold it to the studio was “American Graffiti meets Animal House.” And as good as the movie was, the early cuts I thought were even better.

ANDELMAN: Really?

WUHL: Yeah, I thought it was a much better movie before they went to do all the preview screenings and chopped it down and stuff. But, that said, Hollywood Knights also coincided, believe it or not, with the birth of HBO, because when HBO first started, that was one of the movies that they ran over and over and over about 1981. They ran this thing, and people would watch it, and it’s amazing that I’d hear about fathers watching it with their sons, and now those sons have grown up, and now they’re watching it with their kids. So, it’s kind of fun -- now.






ANDELMAN: I said in the introduction that I had seen it hundreds of times. I wasn’t kidding. It just cracks me up every time I see it. I love that movie. I don’t know why. It must say something for my level of maturity, I guess, I don’t know. It’s interesting, though, looking at the “Assume the Position” specials and then Hollywood Knights, maybe it’s the wonder of the camera, but you don’t look like you’ve aged 25 years in that time.

WUHL: It’s more than that. It’s 27 years.

ANDELMAN: Yeah.

WUHL: Well – I have!







ANDELMAN: Fran Drescher, who was in that movie…

WUHL: A lot of good talent in that movie. Floyd was great at picking young talent. That’s Michele Pfeiffer’s first film.

ANDELMAN: Tony Danza was in there.

WUHL: Tony Danza’s first film.

ANDELMAN: Richard Schaal…

WUHL: Dick Schaal did work before, but the talent! Fran’s in it, a guy named P. R. Paul, Gailard Sartain, Stuart Pankin, a lot of good people in that movie.

ANDELMAN: Pankin was great. Fran was on Howard Stern’s radio show recently talking about her interest in running for Congress. Now, unfortunately, she couldn’t name the three branches of government when questioned, and I just wondered, knowing your interest in history, if she would get your vote?

WUHL: I must say, I’m a big believer in loyalty, so probably. I’m a believer in voting for your friends. I think that’s a good thing.

ANDELMAN: Are you very political?

WUHL: No.

ANDELMAN: You’re not.

WUHL: No. But I believe in voting for your friends in anything, whether it’s the Oscars, the President, your high school buddy running for junior class president. Why not vote for your friends?

ANDELMAN: Another actress who you started with or started with you, Sandra Oh, of course now a very big star on “Grey’s Anatomy” and made a name for herself though first as your secretary on “Arli$$.” She won the Academy Award, of course. How much credit can you take for her success?







WUHL: She did not win.

ANDELMAN: Did she not win?

WUHL: No, no.

ANDELMAN: My apology. She was nominated.

WUHL: No, she wasn’t.

ANDELMAN: She wasn’t even nominated?

WUHL: No.

ANDELMAN: She deserved it. Anyway, I’m embarrassed. How much credit, nonetheless, can you take for her success?

WUHL: I gave her a job.

ANDELMAN: There you go.

WUHL: I just gave her a job.

ANDELMAN: It all came from there.

WUHL: Well, I had seen her work. I had seen her do a movie called Double Happiness from Toronto, where she’s from, and I thought she was really good in that. The part came down to two actresses. It came down to her and a girl named Lauren Graham.

ANDELMAN: Oh, really?

WUHL: Yes, and either one would have been great. I just took a flyer on Sandra, and I’m not surprised at all at the huge success of both of them.

ANDELMAN: Very different actresses.

WUHL: They’re both terrific. I mean, those are two terrific actresses.

ANDELMAN: So what’s next for you? I know when you did the first “Assume the Position,” there was talk of it becoming a regular thing, but it’s been a year now until the second one. Will it get a regular spot, or….

WUHL: It’s very hard to do. That’s the one thing. These things are pretty labor-intensive between the research, the writing, the editing, the workshopping. But yeah, I enjoy doing them a whole hell of a lot. It’s different. There’s nothing like it. I really love watching the students and working with them, so hopefully it continues.

ANDELMAN: Do you have other things scheduled at this point?

WUHL: There is a film project I’m looking to direct that I’ve been working on for a while called Pick Six, which was about the three ex-frat kids in 2002, I think it was, or 2003, who hacked into the OTB and won the Breeder’s Cup. It’s a funny story about growing up and coming of age, a different type of coming of age story that I really like a lot.

ANDELMAN: Well, Robert, I want to thank you so much for joining us on Mr. Media and, of course, for making me a big hero among my college buddies, who worshiped at the altar of Newbomb Turk and the Pie Wagon.

WUHL: Do you know there was a band named The New Bomb Turks?

ANDELMAN: No, really?

WUHL: They had a rock band for about 15 years -- I never met the guys -- named The New Bomb Turks.

© 2007 by Bob Andelman. All rights reserved.