The Boston Globe
Wednesday, October 5, 2005
Section: Living; Pg. E4
Headline: Playing the Straight Man
Byline: Christopher Muther
For six years, Jim J. Bullock played opposite Ted Knight as nerdy neighbor Monroe Ficus on TV's "Too Close for Comfort." Along the way, Bullock became a 1980s gay idol, cementing his status by becoming that decade's version of Paul Lynde on an updated version of "Hollywood Squares" and going on to cohost a talk show on Fox with Tammy Faye Bakker in 1996. He is in Boston through Oct. 16, starring as joke shop owner Wilbur Turnblad, father of the full-figured Tracy and husband to cross-dressing hausfrau Edna in "Hairspray."
Q. I think a lot of people are surprised that you're playing the husband in "Hairspray" and you're not the one wearing the dress. Did you have any interest in playing Edna Turnblad?
A. Oh yeah, totally. I auditioned for Edna. That's the choice role.
Q. Did they determine that you were too butch for the part?
A. I was told that when Michael McKean did it on Broadway that they just felt that it didn't work with a thin man playing a fat woman. So they pretty much told me after I auditioned that I would not do Edna. They said, "If you gain 100 pounds, then we can talk."
Q. That sounds like the best excuse ever to go to Krispy Kreme.
A. Honey, I don't need another excuse to consume a dozen from Krispy Kreme. I can do that without even knowing it. I've woken up many a morning with a Krispy Kreme box between my legs, not knowing how it got there.
Q. I need to clear something up for my own sanity. Was Monroe supposed to be heterosexual?
A. Yes, yes, one of the greatest mysteries of television of the 1980s. It was very odd that they didn't make Monroe gay. But you have to look at the times. It was the early 1980s. Gay characters weren't out yet. Billy Crystal on "Soap," that's about the only gay character I can think of on TV.
Q. My theory was that Monroe was straight, and then he turned gay after the episode where he got jumped by those two scary ladies in the van.
A. The two fat chicks? It probably did damage him. The producers called me in and said they were getting fan letters asking if Monroe is gay. And they told me he's not gay, he's straight. And I said, "What do you want me to do, butch it up? One of the things that you guys could do is stop writing these story lines where two fat chicks take advantage of me, where I fall in love with a transsexual, and I lose my virginity to Selma Diamond!"
Q. Now, on "Alf," you played another heterosexual. You were married to that secretary from "Moonlighting."
A. Oh, good Lord.
Q. You had quite a range.
A. Why must you torture me? Demon! I forgot about being married on "Alf." I've tried to forget that show altogether. All I remember about "Alf" was my hair. I had such pretty hair coming off "Hollywood Squares." They didn't want anyone to think I was a 'mo, so they died my hair black, because blond streaks are a dead giveaway.
Q. What are you talking about? Frosted hair is very masculine.
A. Yeah. Me and George Michael. Very masculine.
Q. Who was more alien to work with, Alf or Tammy Faye?
A. [Long pause] Well, certainly the greater pleasure was Tammy Faye. If I have an unhappy memory in my career, it's "Alf." Just a miserable group of people doing a miserable show.
Q. And you had miserable hair . . .
A. . . . And I was fat, for me. I had quit smoking, then I go to "Alf," and everybody, including those kids and that damn puppet, smoked on set. Every time they called "Cut!," everybody smoked. There were cigarettes stashed all over. I was in hell.
