The Flashback Interview: Julie McCullough

Johnny Caps sits down with Julie McCullough for a career-spanning Flashback Interview. McCullough shares behind-the-scenes stories, personal reflections, and memorable experiences from her career in entertainment.

I’ve known Julie McCullough for almost a decade now. I had initially made a bad first impression on her social media in 2016, and that led me to fear that I had capsized my chances of ever interviewing her. With the help of two former interview subjects of mine, Carrie Stevens and Jewel Shepard, I met Julie at the Hoboken International Film Festival in 2017, the first year of the festival’s three-year-run in my hometown of Greenwood Lake, NY.

In spite of my ill-advised comment the year before, we had the tentative beginnings of a friendship.

Johnny Caps and Julie McCullough at the Hoboken International Film Festival in 2017

I would later go on to interview Julie on the red carpet of the Hoboken International Film Festival in 2018 and 2019, and we would gradually develop our friendship further at the October 2021 and April 2023 Chiller Theatre conventions, the latter of which was where she accepted my Facebook friend request. It would take two more years, but I would finally have the chance to do a long-awaited one-on-one interview with Julie on May 2nd, 2025. The only reason it’s taken so long for this interview to go up is because of Julie’s thriving work in independent film, which we discussed alongside the entirety of her career from the 1980s to today.

This interview took almost a decade to put together, and the end result was totally worth it. I hope you all enjoy getting to know my friend in a way you never have before.

Say hello to Julie McCullough!

Johnny Caps: First of all, before anything, thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to speak to me.

Julie McCullough: No worries. It’s so nice to chat with you, and I hope you’re doing good. I know you had a big health scare.

Johnny Caps: Yes. Happily, it’s all behind me now, and I’m slowly making my way back out into the world, starting with Chiller this past weekend.

Julie McCullough: Yes. I was so excited to see that you went, and I saw some of the pictures. They had a very nice lineup at Chiller.

They always do, but there were some interesting people that I hadn’t seen there before.

Johnny Caps: Yes, there certainly was, and I will be asking more about Chiller at some point in the interview, but I again want to thank you for your time. I haven’t done an interview in over half-a-year, so I may be a little rusty, so please bear with me.

Julie McCullough: No worries, no worries.

Johnny Caps: Okay. I used to start all my interviews with these questions, but although every interview I do is special, I now only reserve these for certain occasions, so I’ll start off with this question: What were your pop-cultural likes growing up, like favorite movies and music?

Julie McCullough: My favorite movies from my childhood included one of the Of The Dead movies. It was the one where they were on an island, and they got on a boat at the end. I also liked the one where the poor guy was the last one at the house alive and he came along, but his throat was injured and he couldn’t speak.

Those scary movies like that? I loved them when I was a kid. Dawn Of The Dead.

Day Of The Dead.

I was also a huge fan of Dark Shadows with Barnabas Collins and Josette and Angelique. Those were some of my absolute favorites. I watched all the Dark Shadows movies when I was a kid.

They were some of my favorites as far as movies. I loved the soap opera of Dark Shadows as a child.

Favorite childhood television shows were, of course, everybody’s favorite, Gilligan’s Island, and The Brady Bunch. I also watched all those sitcoms from the 50s and 60s, so many old shows like that. I was a huge fan of Star Trek in my younger years as well.

I watched all the Star Treks, and all the Twilight Zones. They were some of my favorites.

Johnny Caps: Cool. My next question is: What were your high school days like?

Julie McCullough: High school days? I spent the first half of my freshman year in Poplar Buff, Missouri, where I went to Poplar Buff High School, and then during the holidays of my freshman year, we moved to Allen, Texas. I finished 9th grade in Allen, Texas, where I also finished high school with the Allen Eagles.

That’s where I graduated from. At the time, it was a small school. Now it’s really large.

They put out more NFL players than, I think, any school in the country. They’re a big school known for their sports.

Also, Allen, Texas is where Barney The Dinosaur got started.

Johnny Caps: That’s interesting and, of course, I met David Joyner, the suit actor for Barney, at Chiller this past weekend. He was a very nice guy.

Julie McCullough: That’s fantastic! I love it. Well, Barney was filmed in Allen, Texas.

Johnny Caps: Well, staying with you, though, before and during your Playboy days, you were modeling clothes, so who were your favorite designers to work for, and what are the most outrageous fashions, and I mean that in a positive way, that you can recall wearing?

Julie McCullough: Well, I did a lot of commercial-type modeling. I did cheerleader supply catalogs. I was in a lot of those in the early-to-mid-80s.

I did ads for Howard’s and Rose’s. The flyers that people would get in the mail? I was in a lot of those types of flyers.

It’s so hard to remember as I did so many different things.

I did some posters. I did a Spuds McKenzie poster as one of the Bud Light girls hanging around with Spuds. I did a poster for Burger King as a Burger King girl at the drive-thru window with a couple that was on a scooter in wedding outfits, and I’m looking out the window as they’re driving off with their Burger King stuff.

I did a lot of random ads. I did a Coca-Cola billboard and poster that was in Austria. I did various things, more commercial than fashion, necessarily.

Johnny Caps: Alright. If I recall correctly, there are some posters on eBay, video posters, for the VHS release of Stewardess School, and it looks like even though you weren’t in the movie, you were in a stewardess outfit on the poster promoting the movie.

Julie McCullough: Yes, yes! Isn’t that funny? That was literally just for the advertisement.

I was dressed up as a flight attendant with a couple of other girls also dressed as flight attendants advertising for that movie, but I’m not in it. I don’t know why they didn’t have the people in the movie. I have no idea, but they used to do campaigns like that back in the 1980s.

Johnny Caps: A decade I really miss, but I’ll go more in-depth about that later. For now, though, 2025 marked the 40th anniversary of your first Playboy appearance, where you ended up on the cover to celebrate the Girls Of Texas. How did you react when you found out you would be on the cover of that issue?

Julie McCullough: Well, I was living in Texas at the time. A local photographer had asked me about shooting for the Girls Of Texas as he was friends with a Playboy photographer and they were looking for girls for that. He photographed me for that, and then a few months later they called back.

Playboy was interested in having me on the cover of that issue, so I went to Chicago. I was dressed in a baseball jacket, holding a baseball because they planned at the time to have some girls pose for a baseball pictorial, but I think they only wound up getting one girl, so they scratched that idea.

At the same time, they had shot someone else for a cover out in California dressed in a cowboy outfit, so they decided they had me as the model for that particular subject, but they liked the idea of the cowboy outfit, so they basically switched it around. They flew me to California, I got in the cowboy vest and pants and hat, and that’s what ended up actually being the cover. It was really interesting.

It was my first time, too, ever being at the Mansion and meeting Hef. I got to meet LeRoy Neiman, which I was so excited about. On my first morning at the Playboy Mansion ever, I walked through the Breakfast Room.

I was about to go do my first photo shoot for the cover of Playboy, and LeRoy Nieman was there, sitting at the breakfast table. I stopped in my tracks, backtracked a little, looked down and said, “Oh, oh my god, you’re LeRoy Nieman!”.

He kind of laughed and said, “Oh, yes I am! I’m surprised that you, being so young, know who I am”. I said, “I love your art!”. I was living with a roommate, and there was a painting of Joe Namath above our fireplace in Texas that LeRoy Nieman had painted.

“There’s a painting”, it was a print, obviously, “of your artwork in my living room!”. I was so excited. I think I was more excited about that than being on the cover of Playboy!

(Julie and Johnny laugh) I love art.

Johnny Caps: Well, it’s always great to meet someone you admire. Staying with that theme, one of your first notable onscreen appearances was at the Midsummer Nights Dream 1985 TV special. What do you think made that particular Midsummer Nights Dream party so special?

Julie McCullough: For 1985? Well, that was my first year being on the cover of the magazine. It was February 1985, and then I came into town to start shooting a pictorial for Playboy to be their centerfold.

I came into town to do those photo shoots, so I was in and out of town a lot. I was at the Mansion, and then they would send me out to do photo shoots.

I went to St. Helene, which is near San Francisco. It’s the same location where they shot Dorothy Stratten’s Playmate Of The Year pictorial. It was the same house, and that’s where a lot of my Playmate shoot had taken place.

The other location for my Playmate shoot was in Santa Barbara, so most of my shooting was there. I think there were some in-studio pictures shot at the Playboy studio, and then that’s probably why I was there for the Midsummer Nights’ Dream party. It was because I was in town being photographed for my Playmate pictorial, which came out in February of ’86.

The place where the photo shoot happened for Playboy was in Napa Valley. The area is called St. Helene, but there’s a vineyard that makes wine called St. Clemente Vineyards. The logo on their wine bottles has that house that is in most of my Playmate photographs.

That’s the same place where Dorothy Stratten was photographed for her cover and her Playmate Of The Year pictorial. A lot of people don’t know where that house is, and I think we’re the only two Playmates who shot there.

Johnny Caps: A nice bit of continuity in the magazine’s history. Besides that party, of all the parties you attended at the Playboy Mansion in the 1980s, which were your favorites?

Julie McCullough: Oh, I loved the Easter parties because everyone would bring their children. The Playmates and different celebrities would come, so you had an afternoon gathering that was really nice. There was always a big egg hunt, and it was just fun.

It was an afternoon gathering, and that was more family-oriented. Later, in the late 90s and into the 2000s, I would say that the Halloween party was always my favorite. That was amazing.

The Halloween parties at the Playboy Mansion were extraordinary.

They would do a big haunted house on the tennis court. Rich Correll, a famous director of many shows, was friends with Hef, and he has this massive collection of memorabilia from monster movies and horror movies. In fact, he’s making a museum of all that stuff in Las Vegas right now.

He would put up at the Playboy Mansion. It was a lot of memorabilia from horror movies, and some really good sci-fi stuff. He’s the one that really put those parties together.

They did a Dawn Of The Dead kind of thing out on the front lawn with gravestones. I even had my own gravestone. It said, “Julie M.-Died Of Growing Pains”.

(Julie and Johnny laugh) It was funny, and they would have people hiding in the woods that were just there for when people would walk through.

There was a whole redwood forest on the Playboy Mansion property at the time with little pathways going through it, so people from the parties would walk through those pathways and then, (laughing) all of a sudden, people would jump out of nowhere. They were hiding in the trees in the forest there. That was hilarious.

Nobody ever really expected that, and it was so funny. People would literally be hired just to come and scare people.

Johnny Caps: That sounds like a blast.

Julie McCullough: Those were some of the most fun parties, I think.

Johnny Caps: One more question about the Mansion before we transfer to your acting work: When it comes to the Playboy Mansion, who were the nicest stars you met there, and conversely, and only if you’re comfortable mentioning them, who were the meanest?

Julie McCullough: (Laughing) Oh, I didn’t meet anybody particularly mean. I think there were so many nice people. A man I worked with on my very first movie was Robert Culp.

I met him because he was one of Hef’s friends, and he ended up guiding me. He got me my very first manager, Hilly Elkins. Robert Culp sent me to him.

Robert and his wife Candace have both passed away now, but they were Playboy Mansion regulars, and I was so close to them. He literally called himself my “Hollywood Dad”. I was very close to him, and I would say he’s my number one because I was always close to Robert.

He was a very good man.

I also met, and became very good friends with, Don Adams because he was one of Hef’s very good friends. Don and I went to The Magic Awards, which the Magic Castle would do, and me and Don were presenters together at the Magic Awards. One year, Don Knotts was there watching it in the audience, and I wound up getting a picture with him.

I got two other Playmates to attend that year dressed in Bunny outfits for the awards, and when we were in our casual dresses, we took a picture with Don Adams and Don Knotts. It was Angela Little, Shanna Moakler, and myself of The Playmates, and I call that picture “The Three Blondes And The Two Dons”.

Johnny Caps: I love the sound of that. Also in 1986, the same year you were February’s Playmate Of The Month, you began a long run with Larry Wilson And Company, a comedy troupe with many appearances on stage and screen.

Julie McCullough: Yes.

Johnny Caps: Were there any particular sketches you performed, or characters you played, that were personal favorites for you?

Julie McCullough: Well, I played a nerdy nurse character, and I would disappear in a box and then come out in the back of the audience. I would disappear from a floating table in the air, and then I would come out from a trunk in the ceiling. I played so many different characters, and I did that for approximately seventeen years.

I met Larry Wilson at the Improv Comedy Club in 1986, and we started working together. He asked me if I would be in his comedy troupe. It’s a magic-comedy troupe, and he’s extremely well-known as one of the earliest people doing magic-comedy.

I worked with him doing that for almost seventeen years, and with that, we did Disney‘s New Vaudevillians TV show, and we were on Dick Clark Live as a magic show. I was in TV Guide a few times with the magic-comedy troupe.

I loved doing that. That was my side gig throughout most of my career until I just wanted to start doing stand-up comedy on my own on stage so I didn’t have to do a lot of physical comedy. With the magic-comedy show, there was a lot of physical comedy, so after a while, your body gets beat up, and it don’t bounce back (laughing).

We toured a lot of the old vaudeville circuit doing stage shows, and fundraisers for different cities and towns. I got to work on a lot of fabulous stages because of that, a lot of beautiful old vintage theaters, so I really enjoyed that. I’m still friends with Larry Wilson.

He lives in Reno now, and he does all sorts of great stuff there with magic.

Johnny Caps: Very cool. I’ll ask more about your stand-up career later in the interview, but what did your time working with Larry Wilson And Company teach you that would apply to your stand-up days?

Julie McCullough: Facials and visualizations, looks…Everything matters when you’re on stage. Even doing stand-up comedy, when you’re selling a joke, sometimes it’s a physical look on your face, or the way you contort your body, that gets the laugh. I know I learned a lot from Larry when working with that group.

We had a couple of different people work with us through the years on that. We were called Larry Wilson And The Flying Gavettis. We were called Larry Wilson And The Hellhounds.

We had different names for the troupe, and we would make these very funny cards. People would take pictures and send cards out to agents, so we did a lot of really fabulous photographs with the comedy troupe over the years.

There’s one of us in a police lineup where I’m dressed in a leopard outfit, posing like I’m taking a modeling picture. There’s one where I’m dressed as the nerdy nurse in the lineup. One guy would be dressed in a tutu with a cigar hanging out of his mouth.

One guy would be dressed up as an Elvis impersonator. Larry was always the normal one in those pictures. His main thing was that he would always wear a white tuxedo with tennis shoes.

There was one where there was an image of the Titanic sinking in the background, and we were in a life raft partying with a bottle of wine. There’s one of us dressed up as pilgrims trying to catch a turkey in a pot. It was silly fun stuff.

There’s just so many. I post them every now and then publicly. Those photos were great.

Johnny Caps: They certainly were. After several media appearances as yourself, your first notable big screen role was as Polly McClatchie in Big Bad Mama II. Were you nervous about your first movie role, or did your prior stage experiences prepare you for it?

Julie McCullough: Absolutely. We were poor, living in the country during a hard time. I was basically playing a country girl, which wasn’t far off from playing myself (laughing), and I loved that.

That was great. My mom and dad were huge Angie Dickinson fans. My dad always thought my mom looked like Angie Dickinson, and she does.

That was my first big movie. Robert Culp was in that, and so was Bruce Glover, whom we just lost. What an amazing actor he was, just a good man.

It was really fun. In my first acting job, I was starring in it, so it was great, great fun.

Johnny Caps: That’s wonderful to hear. Did Angie, Robert and Bruce have any acting advice for you?

Julie McCullough: Angie was so sweet. She was just really supportive. I don’t know if they really had any acting advice for me.

Later, Robert Culp would always give me acting advice throughout my entire career. He would watch every single thing I ever did, and then call me and give me his notes. He came to every play I ever did.

He even came to see me do stand-up comedy years later. He watched every TV show I ever did, and he would always call me with notes afterwards.

When he saw my first episode of The Drew Carey Show, he called me up, and it was the first time he didn’t give me any notes. He told me, “Fan-F’n-Tastic” (laughing). That’s what he said.

He said, “You found your niche”, because I used my accent. A lot of times I was trying to get rid of my accent, and when he saw me do The Drew Carey Show, he just said, “You stayed in character. Playing a character like that, Julie, is going to be the reason you will stay in the business for years to come”.

He said, “That’s your niche. Play yourself. Play a country person, a Southern person’, and he was right. I like my work the best when I don’t have to lose my accent.

Johnny Caps: It’s wonderful to have confidence in your own voice.

Julie McCullough: Right?

Johnny Caps: I haven’t always had confidence in my own. I’m 42 years old (Author’s note: This interview was done in May of 2025. My 43rd birthday was in December of 2025), yet whenever I hear myself speak, I find myself thinking that I still sound like a teenager.

Julie McCullough: It’s good to have youthful thoughts as well when you’re speaking to anyone and taking on a job. For me, playing characters, I have a youthful whimsy and feeling about my acting jobs. I love playing characters.

It’s like you’re doing it for the first time all over again. I love it.

Johnny Caps: Wonderful. You had a small but memorable role as Susie in the 1988 remake of The Blob. Although it didn’t do too well at the box office upon its’ original release, it has since come to be seen as a classic of 80s horror.

Julie McCullough: Yes.

Johnny Caps: What do you think home audiences saw in the remake of The Blob that theatrical audiences did not?

Julie McCullough: I think that you get a wider-range audience now because things can run on streaming. Back then, it was just the main networks and the movie studios. At that time, most of the horror movies were very much blood-and-guts.

They were very, very graphic and violent, and that one wasn’t as graphic and violent as one of those 80s horror flicks. I think maybe that’s why it didn’t capture an audience at the time, but everybody loves it now.

It’s so funny. People absolutely love that movie, and they come to me at conventions all the time with posters or DVDs of it. I think it’s just got a wider audience now, and more people get to see it.

Johnny Caps: That’s wonderful to hear. I’ll always go to bat for the cinema of the 1980s. I feel it’s a very underrated decade for it.

Actually, I feel the 80s is an underrated decade for pop culture in general, and it deserves more credit than it gets.

Staying with The Blob, you weren’t the only Playboy veteran in The Blob as future Playmate Erika Eleniak also had a role in that movie. Have you kept in touch with her over the years?

Julie McCullough: Yes. We’re in touch through social media. I’ve been in touch when I see her.

We’ll get back in touch, and then we’ll lose touch, and then we’ll get back in touch. I love Erika. She’s sweet.

I did a play with Erika in the 1980s, before I was even on Growing Pains. We were playing the same character. I was originally her understudy and then, literally, the day before opening night, she quit the play, so I wound up taking over, and I wound up doing the entire run of the play.

It was called See Mother’s Son. It was a Lou LaRusso play about Eugene O’Neill. Lou LaRusso was known for his Hoboken plays.

I was cast as a main character, but originally Erika was in it. It was starring Michael Pare, who was playing Eugene O’Neill.

Johnny Caps: Cool. Pardon me for saying cool over and over again. You’ve just led a very cool life, and I’m just honored that you’re sharing these stories with me.

Julie McCullough: Well, throughout my career, I’ve pretty much stayed doing a bit of everything. I think that’s what a lot of entertainers do. In the old days, the studios used to teach singing and dancing, and that was all part of being in the entertainment business.

Nowadays, it’s sort of come together again, but the separation definitely started when they stopped teaching singing and dancing at the studios for their players, and then you just had to seek that on your own.

I would do small theater stuff, and I would do the magic-comedy shows. I was doing TV acting, and I would do Playboy promotional work. Most of my Playboy promotional work was done in my 30s.

I would go to golf tournaments, and work as a caddy for the Playboy Golf Tournament. I did the Playboy cigar tour in my 30s. I did a 50 city tour of the United States for the 50th anniversary of Playboy. was working more for Playboy in my 30s than I did in my 20s.

In my 20s, I was mostly focused on doing television shows, and then it all sort of came together. Doing standup, doing theater, doing the magic-comedy shows, doing television, trying to do some independent film work…I just sort of did a little bit of all of it.

Johnny Caps: Wonderful to hear, and I’ll have plenty more questions on that to come, but…

Julie McCullough: Oh, I forgot about the circus. I did Circus Of The Stars as well back then, walking the high wire, which was great fun. I still stay in touch with a lot of the circus family as well.

Johnny Caps: That’s fantastic. When it does come to stage work, if my research is correct, you spent some time in the stage production Playboy’s Girls Of Rock N’ Roll. If that is correct, what songs did you sing, and did you ever consider pursuing singing further?

Julie McCullough: Yes, and I actually had a demo deal with Epic Records to sing country music, but I didn’t pursue it. I wound up getting a television series called Robin’s Hoods, and I moved to Canada to do the series. I just sort of let it all go by the wayside, and I never finished it.

I did the Playboy Girls Of Rock N’ Roll in Mexico City, and that was it. I only did the one show. I didn’t do the shows in Las Vegas, just the touring show in Mexico.

I sang backup on some of the songs, and lead on some of the songs. It was a little of everything. I can’t even remember all of the songs.

Honestly, it’s been so long. I’d have to think about that. I don’t remember all the music, but that was great fun.

I took that during the 1988 Writer’s Strike. I did the Playboy Girls Of Rock N’ Roll Show in Mexico, and I only did it because I thought, “Well, there’s no acting work to be had here” (laughing), so I took that show.

Johnny Caps: Well, I hope you’ll bring your demo out on social media someday. I, for one, would love to hear your singing voice.

Julie McCullough: Aww. Well, I’m a smoker, so now I have that smoker’s gravel. I don’t have the breath that I used to have (laughing).

The damage from the smoking over the years certainly took my singing days away.

Johnny Caps: Well, as I mentioned to another interview subject of mine, Kelli Maroney, who also worked on Big Bad Mama II…

Julie McCullough: Yeah? I adore her.

Johnny Caps: I do, too. She says that she’s not into singing. Even when I encouraged her to do karaoke, she still expressed a reluctance to sing.

Julie McCullough: I have a karaoke go-to song. My karaoke go-to song is Delta Dawn.

Johnny Caps: Oh, cool.

Julie McCullough: That’s my favorite go-to karaoke song to do.

Johnny Caps: I’ve always felt that, with karaoke, people should just get up and sing, no matter what their voice sounds like, because it’s really less about singing and more about having fun.

Julie McCullough: I absolutely 100 percent agree on that. I think it’s about getting over stage fright and getting used to being in front of people. I think karaoke’s great for that.

Johnny Caps: It certainly helped me with a lot of my socialization skills in my mid-to-late-20s, and I still do the occasional karaoke video on Facebook. I haven’t done one in over a year now, though. I’m going to have to get back to that.

Julie McCullough: I love it.

Johnny Caps: Staying with you, though, and going into the 90s, you played Mary in the Golden Girls episode Mary Has A Little Lamb. Even though you only appeared in that one episode, you’ve spoken fondly of the experience…

Julie McCullough: Yes.

Johnny Caps: …So what do you think has given The Golden Girls such staying power after all these years?

Julie McCullough: Well, that’s definitely a bravo to the writers because they were so ahead of their time. For many years, there were mostly sitcoms with young people, and to have a sitcom with older women was definitely a flashback to the 1970s, when they used to do that more often. All the British shows were all ages, but a lot of American sitcoms had turned to young people, and there weren’t a lot of shows geared towards an older audience.

The staying power of that show? All credit goes to the writers of that program because they had so many great scenarios which hold up. From politics to religion to teen pregnancy to being gay, it was certainly all taboo back then, and they brought it to the forefront and made humor out of it.

I think that’s why it still stands out.

Johnny Caps: I can agree with that. As a writer myself, albeit of non-fiction, I know how powerful words can be, and I definitely agree with you about the writing. Also in the 90s, you played Trina in the Beverly Hills, 90210 episode Slumber Party.

Julie McCullough: Yes, first season.

Johnny Caps: What are your favorite memories of working on that show?

Julie McCullough: I loved working on that show. It was the first season, and it was still new at the time. I worked with Judie Aronson on that, and Judie and I worked years later on a movie together.

I also worked with Ian Ziering on Sharknado. They were all my peers. We were close in age, and I became friends with most of that cast, and I’m still friends with most of them.

I recently saw a bunch of them at The Hollywood Show as we had a Sharknado reunion alongside some of the Beverly Hills cast. It was a good combination.

Johnny Caps: Yeah. On the red carpet of the Hoboken International Film Festival in 2019, besides yourself, Judie Aronson was another one of the talents I interviewed…

Julie McCullough: Yes.

Johnny Caps: …And I’m hoping to do a more in-depth one-on-one interview with her. My friend Kimmy Robertson has passed along my contact information to Judie, along with a picture of us at the October 2022 Chiller, and we’re hoping it will happen someday, but I know Judie’s very busy.

Julie McCullough: Yeah. I can help you expedite that as well because I’m friends with Judie. She’s very nice, and she’s very active doing a bunch of the conventions.

She’s very popular, especially for the photo ops as she does a thing where it looks like she’s naked in a raft, and she takes pictures recreating her Friday The 13th scene.

Johnny Caps: One of the pictures I got signed of her was of her as a Playboy Bunny.

Julie McCullough: Yes, she was a Playboy Bunny at the Club in Los Angeles.

Johnny Caps: When I’d gotten that signed at the October 2022 Chiller, I asked if you had connected her to that, and she told me no, but I just thought that was pretty cool.

Julie McCullough: Yeah, that was by pure coincidence, and when the New York Playboy Club opened, I went to New York City with Judie after the Hoboken International Film Festival. We went with another Playmate, Pia Reyes, to the Playboy Club, and we got pictures together, which I thought was cool…

Johnny Caps: That’s wonderful.

Julie McCullough: …And then it closed. I’m really glad I got to go in there before it closed down to see it.

Johnny Caps: That’s wonderful. Returning to acting, you appeared as Rosie in a few episodes of the sitcom Drexell’s Class, which starred the late Dabney Coleman.

Julie McCullough: Yes. I loved that show! That was one where I got to put in my Southern as well, and I was so excited because I didn’t have to lose my accent.

I was playing Rosie, the Southern swanky secretary who Dabney’s character was always hitting on, and that was fun! I loved doing that show. I did a couple of episodes of that.

Johnny Caps: Yeah. Dabney Coleman was a very underrated actor.

Julie McCullough: Oh, a great actor.

Johnny Caps: My favorite role of his, even though it was a small one, was his role in The Muppets Take Manhattan as a sleazy theatrical producer. The Muppets are trying to pitch their show to him, and he asks them for 300 bucks a piece to put it on, and then it’s revealed that he’s actually a scam artist, and he takes Gonzo and Camilla hostage.

Julie McCullough: That’s hilarious. I’ve never seen that, but that’s hilarious.

Johnny Caps: Oh, I think you’d enjoy it. It was the last movie with the main Muppets that Jim Henson did before his passing six years later. Actually, Jim Henson was the very first star I ever met.

Julie McCullough: Wow!

Johnny Caps: Me and my family were on a Walt Disney World trip in 1990. We were at the Magic Kingdom. My dad had just taken my brother and I off the Mad Tea Party ride, and my mom mentioned that she saw Jim Henson sitting on a bench, so we went up to his security guards and asked if we could meet him.

He agreed, and he even did the voice of Kermit The Frog for me.

Julie McCullough: Oh!

Johnny Caps: He was really a very nice guy. Sadly, he died about two months or so later.

Julie McCullough: That’s so cool that you got to meet him.

Johnny Caps: Yeah. I just wish that he was still here. He was an amazing guy.

Julie McCullough: Yeah. He had an office over by the A&M Studios. I always thought that was so cool, but I never got to know him or meet him.

Johnny Caps: I think you would’ve liked him because he was certainly very fan-friendly, even when he had all this stuff going on. Returning to your work, though, you had a role as Kimberly in 1994 basketball movie The St. Tammany Miracle. As you’ve played basketball yourself, how accurate was the movie to your own experiences on the court?

Julie McCullough: Well, we filmed it on an old basketball court in St. Tammany. It was a movie about a high school girls’ basketball team. Soleil Moon Frye, Jamie Luner, and Mark-Paul Gosselar were in it.

It was a coming-of-age movie, and I played a teenager who was a little bit troubled.

It was just fun playing basketball. We had all these local high school girl basketball players that we played with, but it was so hot. Louisiana was so hot when we were filming it.

One girl passed out when we were filming because we were running up and down this basketball court, and it was just a lot. They had these massive swamp coolers in there, but it didn’t help. I just remember sweating my guts out (laughing).

I wasn’t a great basketball player, but I could actually play pretty good. I played on a celebrity basketball team for years and years and years. It was called The Hollywood Knights, and I was literally the very first girl they had on the team.

It was an all-boys basketball team until they let me on the team. It was a lot of fun.

I did one basketball game at Fairfax High School, a charity one. Jim Brown was our coach, and he did NOT want us girls that showed up. He gave this whole speech about how if we don’t show up to the practice, he’s not going to play us.

Well, I showed up at the practice, so he was forced to play me, and at the literal very end of the basketball game, he finally put me in.

I went down the court, got the ball, and shot a three-point shot, and that ended the basketball game. It was the last shot, and it won us the game. I looked at Jim and put my three fingers up (laughing).

I was so happy, and the guys were cheering because he did not want to play me, but he had to play me because I showed up to the practices.

The Mirisches ran the Hollywood Knights team. Michael Mirisch was the coach. He was a young guy, and so a lot of the guy players said, “Put her on the team. She played good at that charity game”.

They finally put me on the celebrity basketball team with all guys, and I played on that for a good decade of games. We played locally, raising a lot of money for high schools in the Greater Los Angeles area.

Johnny Caps: That’s wonderful to hear, and very honorable. After seeing the picture of you on the Hollywood Knights team on your Facebook page, and then going through your filmography to see The St. Tammany Miracle, that’s why I decided to connect the two. That just gives you an idea of what my research process entails.

Julie McCullough: (Laughing) You did great! It’s amazing that you even knew that.

Johnny Caps: Well, to go back to TV, as in TV series, as mentioned, you played Stacey Wright on the drama Robin’s Hoods.

Julie McCullough: Yes!

Johnny Caps: What made that show so special for you to work on?

Julie McCullough: Robin’s Hoods. It was 1994 when I got cast, and I hadn’t had a job in a long time. I really hadn’t.

I was really depressed, and it just came at the right time. I broke down and cried when I got that job.

Originally there was an actress playing a character on 90210, and she was doing something else, so she almost didn’t show up for that job. The casting director, Tony Shepard, said, “If this actress doesn’t show up on set, would you be ready to come in last minute and replace her?”. I said, “I’ve already been on the show as a different character. He said, “It doesn’t matter.

It’s been a while”.

He then said, “Aaron wants to know, would you take the role, though?”, and I said, “Yes, of course!”. Aaron was going to cast me as a replacement character for somebody. I don’t even know who the girl was.

I couldn’t tell you at the time, but she wound up showing up, and I did not get the job. Mr. Spelling sent me a holding fee check, and it was like a little God Blessing because I was so financially broke at the time, and I thought, “Wow! This was like my little God kiss”. He sent me a check, just because I said yes, as a holding fee.

In the meantime, he brought me in for Robin’s Hoods to audition. They had cast the rest of the characters already, and there was one left, which was the Stacey character. Everybody they had cast was blonde, and here I am, a blonde.

At the casting session, there was one redhead girl there and one brunette girl. The brunette girl had flown in from Canada, a very pretty girl, and we did the auditions.

Mr. Spelling, in my audition, said, “If I cast you in this role, would you do this?”, and he pulls out a headshot of me with dark hair. I had dyed my hair dark for a movie called The Baby Doll Murders that I was in, and I had done another movie called Letter To Dad that I had black hair in. He pulled out a headshot of me with dark hair and said, “Would you do this? Dye your hair dark?”.

(Laughing) I was back to blonde, my natural color, and it was really hard to keep up that dark dye because my hair was so blonde that when my roots were growing out, it looked like I was balding as my blonde roots were growing through that dark hair. It was just hard to keep up, so I went back to blonde. I had all that dark dye stripped off, and it took me a while to get my blonde hair back.

Here I was. I’d just gotten all my blonde back, but he pulls out this picture and says, “If I cast you, would you do this?”. I looked at the picture.

He meant dye my hair dark, and I went, “Mr. Spelling, I would dye my hair bright green, or I would shave it bald. I have no allegiance to my hair. If you give me this job, I’ll do whatever you want with my hair”. He started laughing, and he laughed so hard and so loud. He said, “Okay, great answer”.

They let me and the red-headed girl go. They sent us home, and they kept the brunette girl and asked her to come back in. Me and the red-headed girl walked out of the Spelling offices and went to the elevator.

We went to the parking structure, and it was like doing a walk of shame. We just knew we didn’t get the job. We laughed and said, “I guess we didn’t get that job”.

The red-headed girl said, “Aw, what a bummer”.

We were both bummed out, leaving thinking we didn’t get the job. We thought that since that girl was brought in from Canada, and the show was filming in Canada, she would be getting the job, and she was extremely pretty. Oh, she was so pretty!

When I got home, I threw away my script, my audition material, because I just knew I didn’t get the job. I then got a phone call from Tony Shepard, the casting director, and he said, “Well…”

I said, “Thank you so much for bringing me in to try and get the job. I appreciate you doing that”. He said, “Well, are your bags packed?”. I went, “Of course not. I didn’t pack no bags. I didn’t get the job. I just wanted to tell you I appreciate…”, and he said, “No, really. Are your bags packed? Because you’re going to Canada”.

I was like, “What? What?!? I just threw the script away”. He said, “What? You threw it away? (Laughing) Get it out of the garbage! You have the show!”.

I said, “I was so sure, when you let us go, that the brunette girl got the job”. He said, “Here’s the thing. We brought her into the audition, and brought her back into the room because she’d flown in from Canada, and Aaron just wanted to know how her trip was. ‘How was the hotel? How was the accommodation? Was everything good?'”. He said that when he was asking the questions, she would just give one word answers.

I said, “What do you mean?”. He said, “Well, Aaron said, ‘How was your trip in from Canada?’. She said, ‘It was good’. He said, ‘Was everything good at the hotel we put you at?’, and she said, ‘It’s good’, and there was a long pause of silence”. He said there was nothing, and then Aaron said, “I liked all the girls in the audition, but I want to go with the funny one who said she would dye her hair green or shave her head bald (laughing). Julie, let’s go with her”.

He said, “At least we know she’s reliable because she came in to replace that other character on 90210 if I needed her’, so that’s how I got cast.

Johnny Caps: That’s a fantastic story. If Robin’s Hoods had gone on to a second season, where do you think the character of Stacey would’ve gone next?

Julie McCullough: Well, they were writing off one of the characters on the show because she was a difficult person, although I’m not going to say names, and we were all happy about it, or at least me and one other cast member were very happy about it because she was very a very unfriendly person. They basically ended the show on a cliffhanger. Unfortunately, they didn’t bring it back.

I wish they would’ve because I would’ve loved to have another season of it. We did one full season, which was great. I think we did 24 episodes, and it was just fun living in Vancouver, Canada.

Vancouver was so beautiful, and I was so happy living there. I loved it up there. I don’t know what would’ve happened with the character of Stacey.

Basically, we were a bunch of ex-cons, people who had done minor crimes. We were living above this restaurant/bar, and we were working there.

That was the premise of the show, and we were like detectives almost. Fighting crime, that kind of thing, but we were more victims of circumstances ourselves, and that was the premise of the show. Now, Linda Purl got pregnant during the show, so she was not in the last four episodes because she went away to go have her baby back in Los Angeles.

They brought in Rick Springfield as the lead for the last four episodes, so they maybe would’ve brought Linda back and kept Rick.

I’m not sure where it would’ve went, but I sure would’ve liked to find out (laughing). I liked being on it. It was a real good job.

Long hours, though. Shucks, we were filming anywhere from 12 to…I think I did an 18 hour day once. They were long days, really long days.

Johnny Caps: Well, I’m glad you had such a good experience on it.

Julie McCullough: Yep.

Johnny Caps: As has been discussed in this interview, you’ve kept a connection to Playboy, and an example of that came through your voicework on the video game Playboy: The Mansion.

Julie McCullough: A good game.

Johnny Caps: As it’s not uncommon nowadays for games to be remastered and expanded, would you do new voicework for the game if it were to be redone?

Julie McCullough: Oh, absolutely. I would love it. That was fun.

I did a lot of the background voices of different characters in the game. I’m the main voice of the game to tell you how to play it, so I tried to make my voice sound almost androgynous for the game. I tried doing different accents for characters, and I did it for PC, PlayStation and Xbox.

I did it for all three gaming systems, and then I did go to the gamers’ convention that year. I love games, so that was really fun. Being the voice of that game, I actually got to go work the expo for gaming.

I saw all the new games that were coming out, and that was exciting. I loved going to that.

Johnny Caps: When it does come to the accents you did for Playboy: The Mansion, do you recall which ones you did?

Julie McCullough: I did a lot of the party guests. I would do, (light Valley Girl voice), “Oh, Hef!”, sounding like a giggly girl. I did (lowering her voice) some guy voices with really deep voices.

(Back to her regular voice) I did all kinds of voices. I’m like, (low guy’s voice) “Hey, Hef!”. (Back to her regular voice) I just did little short things as characters for the game.

I did some male voices and some female voices because I had the deep voice anyway. I did some Southern accents. I did some with no accents at all.

I just did a bunch of random party guest voices.

Johnny Caps: Very cool. Returning to screen acting, you memorably appeared as Joni Waves in the first Sharknado movie. When you were offered the role, how did you react to the script, and did you have any idea that it would become the phenomenon that it did?

Julie McCullough: Oh, I had absolutely no clue that it was going to be such a big hit. I did this other movie for them called 2012: Ice Age, and it wasn’t that good of a movie, but it was very popular with kids. 2012: Ice Age wound up being big, actually. So many people watched it.

When the producer called me about doing Sharknado, it was originally called Dark Skies. They didn’t tell us what the title was going to be, but then they did tell us the title, and I was like, “WHAT? Sharks coming out of a tornado?”. It was just funny, and then getting to work with Ian again…Ian took a picture of he and I on set.

He posted it out on his social media and said, “After (20 years at the time), Steve finally got his Corvette back!”. I forget exactly how he worded it, but it was hilarious, the response.

It was the first time we got to work together in all those years, so that was fun. It was mostly fun because Ian is awesome. He’s a good dude, and the producers for The Asylum?

I LOVE them! David Latt is one of my favorite producers I ever got to work with. I adore him so much.

He’s such a fun producer. He would roll around on rollerblades at his studio, and I just thought that was hilarious.

He would work with so many new filmmakers. He got filmmakers right out of school and put them to work, so one might be doing wardrobe on one movie, and on the next movie they might be directing, and on the next movie they might be doing the sound. He would move and rotate them around so they could get on-set experience as filmmakers, and I thought that’s just an incredible set-up, what he was doing, and it still is.

It’s phenomenal, just creating the whole set of movies with flashbacks to the 50s and 60s style of silliness.

I loved it. I love everything that The Asylum does. I think they’re a great company, and I think he’s a great, great boss.

Johnny Caps: That’s wonderful to hear. When it comes to studios that you’ve been working with in recent years, you’ve been working with JC Films on several of their projects.

Julie McCullough: Yes, love them!

Johnny Caps: Of the movies you have done with them so far, which has been your favorite, or is it hard to choose?

Julie McCullough: It’s hard to choose because I’ve done so many with them now. I’ve done several movies with them, and most of them are starring myself and Dean Cain. I’ve been mostly doing smaller parts, more character-type roles.

I did one that was called In God’s Time, and now it’s called Our Crossroads. That one was based on a true story. I play this old biddy aunt who fights this man and his wife for custody of my nieces and nephews, and this man and woman end up getting the custody of the kids.

Those kids are now all grown up, and they turned out to be extraordinary human beings. That one I liked.

I did another true story with them called Break The Cycle. It’s about a man in North Carolina who basically took prisoners’ children and reintroduced them to their prisoner parents. One of the first things he does is have the prisoners wash the feet of the children and ask for their forgiveness, and now he’s done a lot with these kids, and with trade schools, so these kids have opportunities, and they don’t repeat the cycle of what their parents’ transgressions were.

He’s made an extraordinary difference in prisons, and with prisoners’ kids. Those kids are now graduating high school, graduating universities, and they’ve become business people, doctors, lawyers. All these kids are doing extraordinary things, kids who might not have had an opportunity.

That’s called Break The Cycle. I think that’s a phenomenal story, and it’s a true story.

I did a funny one called Not A Clue. That was cute. I did a Christmas one called Hank’s Christmas Wish, which was adorable, about a grown-up elf who is retired.

I’m doing one up-and-coming that’s called When Angels Fall, and I’m filming that with Richard Grieco just outside of Atlanta.

That one’s coming up, and I’m also going to be doing a series of movies. The first one’s called The Summoning. That’s not a JC Films film.

It’s another company out of Ohio that are doing ghost stories and horror films mostly. I’m doing a whole series of those, and I’m filming the first one this coming week. I’m playing two different characters in that first movie, and then I’ll be doing a whole bunch more of those movies.

They’re all basically ghost stories about a cemetery in Athens, Ohio. There’s this whole group of cemeteries there. This is a true story, by the way.

These cemeteries from way back form a pentagram. I’m doing the first of those movies next week, and I’ll be doing a whole series of them, starting with The Summoning. It’s the first in the cycle of cemetery movies as we’re going to be doing movies about all the cemeteries there.

Those are the two upcoming projects that I’m about to film, and then I did an upcoming television miniseries for JC Films’ channel JC Films+. That one’s called The Last War, and that one has a big ensemble cast. Richard Grieco, Dean Cain, Kevin Sorbo, myself…Eddie Clintock did an episode of it.

We did a bunch of episodes of that, and so that’s it. That’s out now as well. We finished that series up.

I’m just doing a whole bunch of different things. The Summoning, that one is starring Michael Pare, Felissa Rose, myself, and a big ensemble cast as well. I’ve been working like crazy.

Who knew? (Laughing) Who knew I would be 60 years old and getting all this work?

I’m playing a lot of characters in different, fun things. I’m enjoying it more now, more than I ever have. I enjoy the process of making films.

These are mostly independent, super low-budget films, so I hope people aren’t too harsh when they see them because I just love doing independent films. I love doing them because it’s so fun to see young filmmakers or independent filmmakers. Working with these people has been a great joy.

I’ve been doing a lot with JC Films. They’re based out of West Virginia, but they have film hubs all over the United States, so we’re filming in different locations all over, and it’s such a brilliant new genre of filmmaking for all these independent films. They do film clubs all over the country.

Johnny Caps: I’m glad to hear you’re so active. I mean, you deserve it. You are a very talented performer.

Julie McCullough: Thanks! I’m trying to be (laughing). I’m trying to be different in different roles.

I played a hardcore crackhead in one movie I did. It was a small part, but very significant. I was very excited to do that film.

That one was almost all women. It was a female director, a female DP, a female stunt coordinator. That one was filmed in Los Angeles, and I just loved doing that role.

That movie was called Untogether. The stunt coordinator was Julie Michaels. She was awesome, as was the female DP.

Julie Michaels, you probably know her, too. She’s been around for a long time, working as an actress and a stuntwoman and a stunt coordinator.

Johnny Caps: Believe it or not, Julie Michaels is actually the second talent I ever did a successful phone interview with.

Julie McCullough: No kidding!

Johnny Caps: Yeah. I interviewed her back in 2013, back when I was writing for a website called RetroJunk. She was my second successful phone interview.

Julie McCullough: Oh! She’s so sweet. I love her.

She is the reason I got cast in that movie, playing a hardcore junkie on the street. There were sex scenes and nudity in it, not from my character, but from some of the other characters in it. It had a strong cast.

Jamie Dornan was one of the stars of it.

It had a heavy, heavy storyline, and I play this hardcore crackhead in it. I look disgusting in it, Johnny. You would not recognize me.

I look disgusting, and I thought it was AWESOME! (Laughing) I got to look so gross and disgusting. It’s not the kind of thing that people would’ve cast me as, so I sent in pictures looking absolutely horrible.

I sent snapshots to Julie Michaels, and Julie presented us to the director.

The director picked me out of the lineup of women, so I went in and it was great being in something completely unique and different that I never got to play before. I loved it. It was one of my favorite things I got to do on film, just because I looked gross (laughing).

That’s the only way I can describe it. I looked disgusting.

Johnny Caps: Well, it’s always great when you have a chance to stretch your abilities. To switch from acting to another great talent of yours’, you’re an accomplished stand-up comedienne, known to many as The Funny Bunny, so what drew you to the world of stand-up comedy?

Julie McCullough: Mostly because I’d been doing the magic-comedy stuff for so many years. When I finally started doing the other stuff, it was just kind of a natural blend. Going into stand-up comedy, I started out at the Improv Comedy Club, taking classes for years.

That’s how I got together with Larry Wilson, working with him for all those years. Those were my grassroots in doing comedy.

Johnny Caps: Which comedians were the biggest influences on your stand-up?

Julie McCullough: Oh, gosh. I don’t know. There’s so many.

I love comedy, and I love storytelling, and I love making people laugh. I don’t know if I had any particular influence. I just always loved comedic actresses for sure, like Carol Burnett.

She was one of the greatest of all. I just loved comedy in general. All of these actresses I admire, like Betty White, they do comedy.

To be able to be up onstage and talk was just fabulous. I loved it. I didn’t have to be a character.

I didn’t have to be somebody I ain’t. It didn’t matter about my accent. It was just “get up and talk about it”.

When I first started going full-time in stand-up, there were no Playboy Playmates doing stand-up comedy. I was paving the road, and now there are a few Playboy Playmates that are doing stand-up comedy.

I just love doing it. I love making people laugh. I don’t know if I necessarily have any particular people I looked up to, but I looked up to a lot of different people.

There was a big group of actresses and actors that I loved that were just funny people. Those were my favorite roles that I would get to do, and a lot of the characters were in the films and TV that I watched. I love it.

Johnny Caps: That’s wonderful to hear. Of all the places you’ve performed stand-up comedy, which has been the most special place for you?

Julie McCullough: I always loved the Improv Comedy Club. That’s where I started out. I loved it.

It was one of my favorites because it was kind of my home club. It’s where I met Larry Wilson in my comedy class there. A lot of comedians were in that class that are still working to this day, and I just started booking sitcoms at the time when I was there.

I booked Growing Pains, and I booked Who’s The Boss? and The Golden Girls. I booked Drexell’s Class. I was booking all these situation comedies.

I did Harry And The Hendersons, where I played the Swedish au pair girl next door. I was getting to play all these different sitcom characters, and that was really early on, and it was all because I started out at the Improv Comedy Club. It still stands as my home club and favorite place.

Johnny Caps: Fantastic! Switching gears, you’ve appeared at quite a few conventions over the years, so what’s been the most rewarding part of attending conventions for you?

Julie McCullough: Well, Chiller is my number one favorite convention. I don’t really do that many conventions. I’ve done a few, but not many, so I like Chiller.

The Hollywood Show is always fun because I get to see a lot of actors and other people that I know at those shows. I remember, when I did my first Hollywood Show, that everyone seemed so old to me (laughing) because I was the young person. The next thing you know, I’m at a convention, and I looked around, and I knew almost everybody.

They were either my peers or people I had worked with.

There was this young actor sitting next to me who was on a current TV series that was very, very popular, and I asked him how he liked the show. He said, “I like it, but…I don’t want to be offensive, but everybody seems so old”. I started laughing.

I was like, “Oh, my god! He’s me, 30 or 40 years ago!”. (Laughing) Here he is, thinking everybody’s so old, and I’ve become the old person!

Johnny Caps: Staying with conventions, what’s been the most wonderful piece of memorabilia you’ve signed at a convention?

Julie McCullough: Oh, gosh. I’ve signed all different kinds of things from baseballs to jerseys, coasters…I don’t know. I can’t even think of one off the top of my head.

I’ve signed so many different kinds of things.

I collect things, too. I’ve collected some stuff from conventions. Do you want to know what I got?

(Laughing)

Johnny Caps: Oh, sure!

Julie McCullough: I like to collect. That’s my problem because when I’m at these conventions, I’m a big fan, so I walk around to see who else is there, and what else is being sold, and I’ll wind up buying stuff.

I have an I Dream Of Jeannie bottle. Hands down extraordinary. Mario Della Casa has the license, and so a lot of the times, he’ll do conventions with Barbara Eden signing the I Dream Of Jeannie bottles.

He also makes Freddie The Flutes from HR Pufnstuf, and I have a Freddie The Flute. He made microphones that look vintage, and I have the signatures of several WKRP In Cinncinatti cast members on that. The memorabilia is like pieces of art.

Oh, my goodness. I’m trying to think of something else. Oh!

It’s not signed, but I’m going to ask her to sign it, the actress who played Josette on Dark Shadows. It’s from 1989, when they had a Dark Shadows revival, but I have Josette’s music box, and I’m hopefully eventually going to have her sign that. I have my own collection of odds and ends memorabilia of things that I grew up watching.

Don Adams gave me a lunchbox with him answering his shoe…

Johnny Caps: Oh, yeah.

Julie McCullough: …And he signed it to me, “To Julie, with love, Don Adams”. I have that, and it’s like my star piece because it was Don Adams, and he gave it to me. I was looking for the TV lunchbox, and then he found one, brought one, and gave it to me.

Johnny Caps: That’s wonderful!

Julie McCullough: That’s the kind of memorabilia stuff that I love. I love to collect these things, and I use them as pieces of art, basically, around my house. I love my I Dream Of Jeannie bottle and my Freddie The Flute.

My WKRP In Cincinnati microphone…I love it. I also have a Dracula ring that they made for a while. They made a limited edition of these rings from the movie Dracula.

It’s the Dracula insignia ring, and it came in a coffin (laughing).

Johnny Caps: Oh, wow!

Julie McCullough: Do you know what I’m talking about? Have you ever seen those?

Johnny Caps: I think I have, but I just love hearing you talk about the memorabilia you collect. It’s very cool.

Julie McCullough: I also have Playboy memorabilia, too. Hef gave me my black Bunny outfit that I wore during the tour, so I have that, as well as the miscellaneous stuff I actually got from the tour. I have Playboy lighters, Playboy cigarettes, just random, different things.

I have books that Hef autographed and signed to me…Just stuff like that. I have my own collection of things (laughing). I love books, and I have a lot of books signed by different people.

Bob Denver, who played Gilligan on Gilligan’s Island, lived in my town that I live in right now. This is where he passed away, and his wife, her name is Dreama Denver, lives here in town. She actually played Gilligan’s wife in one of the Gilligan movies.

She writes books, and one of them is about her and Bob Denver. I have all her different books autographed. She writes children’s books, and I have all those autographed.

(Laughing) I love collecting things. I love autographed books. I just met Homer Hickam.

The movie October Sky was about his life. He works for NASA, and he’s from this area as well. I’m going to get his book next.

That’s the next thing I’m going to collect, and I want his books autographed. I just love to collect memorabilia.

Johnny Caps: That’s wonderful to hear.

Julie McCullough: Oh, I have to inject this, too. I have a dinner plate autographed by Keith Coogan…

Johnny Caps: Oh, yeah!

Julie McCullough: …And it says, “The dishes are done, man!”. (Laughing) I have that plate in my kitchen. I love it.

It makes me laugh.

Johnny Caps: That’s fantastic. Since you did mention Chiller Theatre, that’s been something of a home convention for me, and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting you twice there so far…

Julie McCullough: Yeah.

Johnny Caps: …And there would’ve been a third time in 2024 if it weren’t for my health issues, which are now happily in my past, so of all these conventions, what has made Chiller such a favorite for you?

Julie McCullough: Oh, the people running it, the people that come there. It’s hands down my favorite. I really, really like Kevin, who owns and runs it.

He’s one of my favorite, favorite people. I just adore him, and all the people that work there. I really like the people who work for that convention.

They’re just a great group, and the customers…Everybody who comes to Chiller is such fun.

I like seeing people dressed up as characters. I did it one time with my best friend, Tia Carrere. People came dressed up as Wayne and Garth when she was there.

(Laughing) I thought it was hilarious. Stuff like that just makes it fun.

Johnny Caps: Absolutely. I loved getting back there for the first time in a year-and-a-half. This Chiller I attended this past weekend was very special for me in so many ways, and I’m glad I had a chance to get back there.

Julie McCullough; Yeah. Everybody seemed so excited, too, that you were coming, everybody. See, that’s the thing about a convention like that.

When they know who their regular people are, their regular attendees and regular guests, a rapport is just built, and everybody was so glad you were coming back. I saw the post about it. Everybody was excited that you were going.

Yes, it was wonderful to be there, and I’m already planning ahead for October. To supplement that, as part of my return to the world, I’m actually returning to my retail job tomorrow for the first time since September of 2024. I got the note of clearance from my doctor, and I’m going to be going back to work.

I’m looking forward to returning to work, but this interview is about you, so if I may go to my next question…

Julie McCullough: Sure.

Johnny Caps: …If I may be so bold, you don’t look your age at all, so what’s the secret to your youthful appearance?

Julie McCullough: Aw, thanks. Thanks for saying that. I think I look my age, (laughing) but that’s just my own thing.

My mother certainly does not look her age at all. I have good genes that way. I’m just trying to keep okay without getting any plastic surgery because I see that look on actresses, and I think it’s, like, they look better without all that plastic surgery stuff, you know?

Johnny Caps: I understand, speaking of which: Several years ago, Playboy models of the 70s, 80s and 90s recreated their covers at the ages they are now, or were then, with models including Kimberly Conrad, Candace Collins, and my dear friend, and two-time interview subject, Charlotte Kemp. Were you asked to participate in that project, and if not, would you like to have done so?

Julie McCullough: Oh, I would’ve loved to have done it, and yes, I wished they asked me to do it, but they didn’t do it. No, I wasn’t asked, but it would’ve been great fun. That would’ve been awesome.

Johnny Caps: I certainly would’ve loved to have seen it. I mean, if you’ll pardon me for being so bold, you still do look amazing.

Julie McCullough: Aw, thanks. I wish they would’ve asked. If they asked, I absolutely would’ve because I think it’s fun to recreate those covers.

Everybody looked actually really good, you know, and it was nice that they did that, you know? They weren’t having everybody made up as something they weren’t. It was awesome.

It was just really great.

I was excited, and Kimberly Hefner is one of my best friends as well, so I was really excited that she did it. I thought she looked fantastic, too, and she looks really young. Oh, my gosh.

Wow, I mean, she looks great.

Johnny Caps: When it does come to questions about fashions and hairstyles, this next one’s a little wordy, so please bear with me.

I’ve been a fan of the 1980s ever since my teenage years, but I’ve noticed that ever since January 1st, 1990, the fashions, makeup and hairstyles of the 1980s have been consistently and constantly been made fun of for 35 years and counting…

Julie McCullough: And now it’s coming back. It’s all coming back. I see girls with 1980s hairdos, I swear.

It’s all coming back.

Johnny Caps: Conversely, since January 1st, 2000, the fashions, makeup and hairstyles of the 1990s have pretty much gotten a free pass from being made fun of, being treated with love and respect for a solid 25 years, so why do you think people are so eager to make fun of the fashions, hairstyles and makeup of the 1980s, and so reluctant to give the same treatment to the fashions, hairstyles and makeup of the 1990s?

Julie McCullough: I don’t know. I really don’t. I think a lot of it has come back, at least from what I’ve noticed.

I’ve noticed that a lot of the fashions of the 1980s, the girls’ hairstyles, the big shoulder pads…All of that seems to be coming back, and with a vengeance, you know?

Johnny Caps: Well, yeah, I have noticed. There are several 80s fan creators that I follow on Facebook, names like Ana Moll and Heather Leather and cantbuyme80s. All of them are big 80s fans, and they’re even younger than I am, but they’re continuing to keep the decade going.

I will always go to bat for the 1980s because during the difficult times for me in the 90s and the 00s, the 1980s, the pop culture, the magazines, all of it…They all had what I aspired for in my own life.

Maturity, fun, friendship…I yearned for all those things in the 90s and 00s, and I would finally get them upon turning 30 in 2012. My fascination with the 1980s? That’s my special interest, being as I’m on the autism spectrum and, thankfully, I’ve been able to get that to work for me very well.

My intense focus on the 1980s has led me to the chance to interview and befriend many great people, including yourself, and I will always defend the 1980s, no matter what.

Julie McCullough: I like the 1980s, and the 1990s, AND the 2000s, too. I really like the fashions of the 2000s. I loved how the hip hugger pants came back.

Fashion-wise, probably the 2000s are some of my favorites in fashions.

Johnny Caps: Well, my main reasons for not being too fond of the 90s or 00s is just because of all the personal problems I went through in the decade. I guess a bigger question is: Do you think your experiences in a decade can influence your feelings about it?

Julie McCullough: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. For me, I worked a lot in the 1990s in TV.

I get referred to as an 80s person, but really, most of my shows were in the 1990s. I was more a 1990s actress than I was 1980s, you know?

Johnny Caps: I hope I didn’t cause offense by talking about my issues in the 1990s.

Julie McCullough: Oh, no, no! Everybody’s got different experiences, and everybody has different favorite times for fashion and things like that. Everybody’s experience is different, everybody’s, don’t you think?

Johnny Caps: Absolutely. I mean, my 90s was being made fun of in elementary and middle and high school, times of being a bully myself because I thought that’s what you had to do to survive, losing my dad to a heart attack in 1995 when I was 12, losing my mind to bullying a year-and-a-half later and landing in a mental hospital where I was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, three school transfers in four years, the start of the end of my relationship with my mom, whom I would lose a little over 15 years after my dad died…

Because I had such hard times in the 90s, and I couldn’t look ahead to what the future would hold, I looked to the immediate past, developed a fascination with the 1980s, and it’s continued to inspire me ever since.

Julie McCullough: Wow. I love that, though, because it shows a progression of all the good things that wound up actually happening, and you persevered through all of it.

Johnny Caps: …And it was my love of the 1980s, combined with my love of the Chiller Theatre convention, that got me through my rough medical issues in 2024. I mean, there were times in 2024 when I was in a very dark spot, but then I realized I had to tough through it, you know?

I’m a fan of 80s pop-rock, and I don’t like 90s grunge rock. There was one time in 2024 when I dialed 988 because I was so out of my mind with depression of how bad the situation was, but then I realized that I don’t want to be like those 90s grunge rockers who all cashed their chips in too early. I want to be like the 80s pop rockers who are still continuing to thrive and tour.

Julie McCullough: They are. Isn’t that great? I love the music.

We really had some good music. The heavy metal music that came out of the 80s was phenomenal.

Johnny Caps: Yeah. I was never able to get into grunge. I mean, people like Kurt Cobain and Chris Cornell, they were noble people who were fighting for noble causes, and I admire that.

I respect that, but their music? I can’t stand it.

Julie McCullough: I didn’t like it.

Johnny Caps: Yeah, it was just too depressing for my blood.

Julie McCullough: It was. You’re right, a lot of it was depressing.

Johnny Caps: To return to you, and to fashion, on a lighter note, I’ve noticed from your pictures over the years that you can really rock a hat.

Julie McCullough: (Laughing) I love hats. I’m a big hat person.

Johnny Caps: I mean, from your Playboy covers to your time on the Ray Combs version of Family Feud to your appearances on red carpets and at conventions, you’ve, pardon the pun, worn a lot of hats…

Julie McCullough: (Laughing) Yes, I have.

Johnny Caps: …So have you ever considered going into business and making hats?

Julie McCullough: Uh, no. I probably should’ve because I’m that big of a hat connoisseur (laughing). I love my hats.

That’s so funny that you noticed that and said that. I love hats. I’ve just always had a soft spot for them.

They’re my go-to. I like wearing them. I incorporate all my fashion around my hat half the time.

I just like that.

Johnny Caps: I notice often, at conventions, you wear flat caps and/or tam o’shanters. Is that in connection to your Irish heritage?

Julie McCullough: No. From when I discovered those hats, they’ve always been my favorite, you know? Hands down, over the years, I have a tendency towards them. I call them cabbie hats.

Some call them cabbie hats. Some people call them paperboy hats. I really like those hats.

Those are, hands down, my favorite. I get them in different colors, different materials. I have them for Winter.

I have them for Summer. I will literally do my entire wardrobe around a hat. I also like steampunk attire…

Johnny Caps: Oh, yeah.

Johnny Caps and Julie McCullough at The Hoboken International Film Festival in 2019, Ms. McCullough rocking a hat…

Julie McCullough: I love steampunk attire. I have steampunk clothing styles. A lot of it is incorporated in my wardrobe that I’ve actually used.

I love long duster coats. Those were popular in the 80s, 90s AND 2000s, and they’re very popular steampunk attire. It’s fun clothing, and I like wearing that stuff now to conventions, too, because everybody dresses up, so I can dress up in a little steampunk style without it being ridiculous.

When you’re at a convention, everybody dresses up in different things.

Johnny Caps: Well, as the song says, you wear it well.

Julie McCullough: Yeah, I should’ve gone into the hat business because I love them so much.

Johnny Caps: To return to acting, it’s said that the Southern accent is the original British accent, and as such, there have been Shakespearean productions where the Bard’s words are spoken in Southern tones, so have you ever considered participating in such a production?

Julie McCullough: I don’t even know about this. What is this?

Johnny Caps: I first heard about it on NPR about maybe six or so years back, but the Southern accent is apparently what the original British accent was in the 1400s and 1500s, and there have been Shakespearean productions where the plays are performed in Southern accents.

Julie McCullough: That’s so cool. I didn’t know that.

Johnny Caps: Since, in this interview, you’ve talked about how you love to utilize your Southern accent, I hope you may, at some point, consider finding one of those productions of Shakespeare’s works in Southern accents and giving it a go.

Julie McCullough: That would be hilarious. I love the idea. I’m not aware of those, but I like the idea a lot, a lot.

With most of my work over the years, I tried to get rid of my accent. Now I just don’t care. I just pretty much try to be myself in my work anymore, and I try to utilize my accent.

I like my work better now. I do.

I did a pilot that became a CBS movie of the week called Arly Hanks, and that was one of the first things I did where I didn’t have to lose my accents…That, and Drexell’s Class, playing a Southern character. Arly Hanks was based on a series of books called Malice In Maggody. That was an ensemble cast, and an amazing cast, if you can look it up.

In that, I got to play this total Southern girl in a small town.

(Julie’s Southern accent grows stronger) I was going to get out of my small town and move to the big city of Little Rock, and go to the Perle Institute Of Hair Design and Beauty. (Laughing) Those were some of my lines in the movie.

Originally, it was going to be a pilot for a TV series. CBS nixed it as a TV series and ran it two years later as a movie of the week. When I was in Canada filming Robin’s Hoods in the mid-90s, I got a call from the producers, asking me about the possibility of coming back and doing that as a series because when they ran it as a movie of the week, it got the highest ratings CBS had had the entire year, and they nixed it as a series.

It would’ve been a great series. It was kind of like a Southern version of Northern Exposure. It was very similar, but it was set in the South, in Arkansas.

It’s one of my favorite shows that I ever did in my entire career. It was one of my favorite things that I ever did. I wish, wish, wish that that would’ve been made into a series.

Now, my character gets killed in that episode, but they were going to bring me back as my cousin or as my sister because I wore a Dolly Parton kind of wig in it, and they were just going to put me in another wig and make me another character.

Johnny Caps: Again, I’m glad you had such a good experience with that. To transition back to comedy, I would like to ask a few questions about deceased comics whom I don’t know if you crossed paths with or not. We’ll start with this:

As you both performed stand-up and you both entertained the troops, albeit at different times, and as the first two decades or so of your work coincided with the last two decades or so of his, did you ever cross paths with Bob Hope?

Julie McCullough: Oh, no, and I wished I would’ve. Now, one of the last years that Bob Hope did it, I got asked about going and doing it, but I wasn’t available. I was working.

I literally could not get off the work to go do that, and I was really sad because I always wanted to do that.

Now, I did go later. I didn’t go with the USO, but I went through the Department Of Defense. I went to Afghanistan, and I performed stand-up all over Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008.

I was very, very honored that I got to do that and be part of it, especially because I never got to do the USO Bob Hope tours. I always wished I could’ve met him, but no, didn’t get to.

Johnny Caps: Alright. Similarly, I had the pleasure of interviewing the late Judy Tenuta twice, and counting her among my friends, so did you ever cross paths with her in your travels as a stand-up?

Julie McCullough: I just knew Judy through my agent, but I never really got to know Judy. I wish I would’ve. I just knew her socially.

That’s it.

Johnny Caps: I thought she was a sweetheart, and I loved having the chance to interview her twice.

Julie McCullough: Aw, that’s fantastic.

Johnny Caps: Yeah. She was really very kind, and in an ideal world, she would still be here.

Julie McCullough: Yeah, that was very sad. We’ve lost a lot of the comedians, a lot.

Johnny Caps: That actually does lead me to my third question along these lines. Because of Ken Del Vecchio’s films, and his Hoboken International Film Festival, you often worked with the much-missed Gilbert Gottfried, so what do you recall the most about working with him?

Julie McCullough: Oh, I loved Gilbert. He was just hilarious. He would say the most obnoxious things, and he would just come out at the Film Festivals and do one-liners.

I would introduce an award for something, and then he would get up and tell a one-liner joke, and then he would get off. He was awesome, just nothing but gloriously great, fun things to say about him. He was just so naturally funny.

That was a very sad loss because I enjoyed working with him, and I worked with him for a lot of years at the film festival. He would always help host, and I would always help give out awards and introductions at the film festival. That was really great fun.

I absolutely miss him.

Johnny Caps: Yeah. I still listen to his Dirty Jokes album whenever I can, and I just laugh my ass off at it. He really knew how to sell those jokes.

Julie McCullough: I have this friend, a comedienne named Lisa Corrao, and she was with him on his last tour when he got sick. He took a turn for the worse, sadly, and she was working with him and opening for him. That was really a sad loss.

Johnny Caps: …But there is a foundation set up in his name that is researching the cause of his death, and looking into cures for it, so that’s good.

Julie McCullough: Yeah, what a sad loss. We lost a lot of comedians. Over the years, we’ve lost so many that it’s kind of shocking that some of them passed away.

Johnny Caps: I can actually recall making a joke after Bob Saget died, and the joke was, “With Bob Saget’s passing, Artie Lange comes one step closer to attaining The Prize”.

Julie McCullough: (Laughing) Aw. That was sad, the way he died, too, just out of the blue. Now he was known as one of the dirtiest comics in the business.

People would get so offended going to his shows, which I find even more hilarious because they think you’re supposed to be like you are on a sitcom.

It was the same with Betty White. Betty White cussed all through her stand-up. She was a cusser, and she would tell dirty jokes, and people would get so offended.

They think they’re not going to tell dirty jokes because they’re on a sitcom, but their stand-up was much different than them on TV.

Johnny Caps: Yeah. It’s always cool to see how a stage persona can change from a screen persona, and vice versa.

Julie McCullough: Uh-huh.

Johnny Caps: Staying with you, though, on IMDB, in your Other Works section, you’re listed as having written poetry and prose. As I ask those who write in addition to their on-screen work, what has writing provided for you that acting has not?

Julie McCullough: Just an outlet to write. Sometimes things come into your head. For me, it was poetry and lyrics for songs.

I just liked writing. It was definitely an outlet after my divorce. When I got my divorce, I was writing a lot at that point.

I wrote a sitcom during that time, and just lots of different things. It was an outlet to not be depressed. It’s easy to get depressed in the entertainment business.

We have so many highs and lows.

Johnny Caps: Yeah, I can definitely relate to that. Writing has always helped me out. I know that writing my feelings out on Facebook during my ordeals from last year into the early months of this year.

Julie McCullough: Yes.

Johnny Caps: It definitely helped me out, and I’m just glad I have the gift of writing. I was not good at most of the subjects I studied in school, part of being on the autism spectrum, and also just because I stopped giving a damn about a lot of things after my dad died, but I was always able to rely on my writing.

Julie McCullough: Johnny, I swear, a lot of creative people just have heavy depression. It’s just part of being a creative soul, and so many people who are creative have had depression problems. It just comes hand-in-hand.

I think, maybe, because we’re more sensitive people, whether you write or you make art, whether you perform or whether you’re getting on stage, creative people are so sensitive. See, you’re just a sensitive person.

Johnny Caps: Thank you. Returning to writing, to you, and to Beverly Hills, 90210, our mutual friend, and another former interview subject of mine, Christine Elise…

Julie McCullough: Oh, I love her.

Johnny Caps: …Wrote a few episodes of that show after having left it in an acting capacity, so with your writing abilities, have you ever submitted script proposals for any of the shows that you’ve worked on?

Julie McCullough: No, I never did. I pitched a TV series pilot with a writer on Taxi and Cheers. He was a really great guy, and he was the executive producer for my TV pilot.

We went to all the networks and studios, and ABC had put it on hold, then everybody at ABC in the development department got fired, and that show went down the drain with their jobs, unfortunately.

I was so upset and distraught because the new development team wouldn’t even look at my show. They wouldn’t even look at it because the prior team had had it. The girl from the ABC development team was named Julie, and she contacted me, like, a year or so later, and she told me, “You need to turn that into a movie”.

(Laughing) I was like, “Maybe I will’, so I did work on it for a little bit, with the possibility of turning my TV pilot into a movie comedy, but I haven’t done it yet. I’ve been too busy doing other things. You spread yourself out so thin, doing so many things all at once, but that’s the nature of being a creative person. You’re always going with bird in hand to whatever’s in front of you right now, and that’s constantly what I do.

I always try to evolve, and try to keep going forward as an entertainer, and as a creative person.

Johnny Caps: That’s one of the best things to do. Also like Christine Elise, you’re a noted vegan…

Julie McCullough: I’m not vegan. I’m actually vegetarian. The difference is vegan, you cannot have any dairy products whatsoever, and being a vegetarian, I have cheese and I have milk.

I have dairy products. I just don’t have fish, chicken or meat of any form. I just can’t eat it at all now because it’s been 40 years.

I’ve been a vegetarian for 40 years.

Johnny Caps: Okay. Thank you for the clarification. I had asked this question of you during one of our red carpet interviews, but I wanted to apply it to conventions as well.

Is it difficult to find food at conventions that fits your vegetarian diet, or do you bring your own food to conventions to head such worries off at the pass?

Julie McCullough: Generally, I’ll bring my own snacks and things when I’m at those conventions. However, there’s always something somewhere for me to eat. I’ll go into restaurants, and if they don’t have anything on the menu except for a salad, then I’ll have that.

I always find something. I feel like I’m never really out of food options, you know?

Johnny Caps: Alright. I now come to my final two questions. I start with the one I used to end all my interviews with, and it’s this: If you could go back to your youth with the knowledge that you have now, would you do anything differently?

Julie McCullough: Oh, absolutely. I would make sure that I took certain jobs that I found out my agent turned down. I did go to network for a TV pilot I really wanted to do, and my agents apparently turned down the amount of money.

They didn’t present it to me, and I would’ve taken it. I wish I would’ve been on that show. It didn’t last for very long, but I certainly loved the show, and I wanted to do it.

I didn’t get to do it because the agents turned down the money, and they didn’t let me know. I know that it was a great missed opportunity. There are a couple of things that I would like a redo on.

Johnny Caps: Alright, and now I come to the question I’ve been ending my interviews with for quite a while now: In addition to the projects you discussed earlier, what’s next for you?

Julie McCullough: Just keep on keeping on. Stay busy, stay creative.

Johnny Caps: Alright. Well, that does it for my questions, but before I wrap up, I do want to thank you for taking the time to do this interview. I’d been wanting to do this interview for at least a decade now, and this has been everything I was hoping it would be, and so much more.

Julie McCullough: Oh, thanks. Well, I am so thrilled that you’re feeling better. I watched your posts, and I was trying to keep abreast of what was going on.

It seems like everybody was, and everybody at Chiller was definitely happy to see you, and to know that you’re doing better. I’m glad you kept writing during that time to let everybody know what was going on.

Johnny Caps: Thank you, and I also thank you for taking a chance on being my friend. I know that I didn’t exactly make the best impression on you initially on your social media, so I thank you for giving me another chance. I’m honored to count you among my friends.

Julie McCullough: Aww.

Johnny Caps: I do thank you for your time. This has been one of the longest interviews I’ve ever done, and you have such wonderful stories, and I thank you for taking the time for sharing them with me.

Julie McCullough: Well, it was really nice to chat with you, and I’m just excited that you’re out of the hospital, and back on the right track to being in good health.

Johnny Caps: I didn’t do too bad for someone who hasn’t done an interview in over half-a-year, did I?

Julie McCullough: You did great.

Johnny Caps: You’re a wonderful storyteller, and I’m honored that you shared you stories with me. I’ll leave you to it for now, but again, thank you for your time, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.

Julie McCullough: Thank you, Johnny. Big hugs to you.

Johnny Caps: Big hugs to you.

Julie McCullough: Thank you. Bye.

Johnny Caps: Bye.

—

I would again like to thank Julie McCullough for taking the time out of her schedule to speak to me. It was an honor to help her share her stories. I also thank Julie for giving me permission to use the pictures from her social media that you see in this article.

Who will I Flashback with next? Stay tuned.

Discuss this interview on our Johnny Caps Flashback Interviews forum

Key Takeaways

• Julie McCullough’s career spans four decades, from Playboy Playmate and commercial model to indie film actress and stand-up comedienne.
• She reflected on the 40th anniversary of her first Playboy cover and shared a memorable story about meeting artist LeRoy Neiman at the Mansion.
• Her first major film role in Big Bad Mama II came alongside Angie Dickinson, Robert Culp, and Bruce Boxleitner, who all encouraged her natural instincts.
• McCullough discussed The Blob remake’s journey from box-office disappointment to cult classic and championed 1980s cinema as underrated.
• She shared fond memories of working on The Golden Girls and credited the show’s sharp writing for its lasting popularity.
• Her stand-up career earned her the nickname “The Funny Bunny,” with influences including Carol Burnett, Don Rickles, and Robin Williams.
• She memorably appeared in the first Sharknado and continues to work actively with JC Films on independent projects.
• McCullough values convention appearances for the genuine personal connections she makes with fans.
• The interview touched on the late Gilbert Gottfried, Judy Tenuta, and her love of 80s pop culture and fashion.
• She is currently working on multiple independent film projects and remains active in stand-up comedy.