The Flashback Interview: Morgan Fairchild

Johnny Caps sits down with screen icon Morgan Fairchild for a wide-ranging conversation ahead of her return to the Chiller Theatre convention, where she will reunite with The Seduction co-stars Andrew Stevens and Colleen Camp. Fairchild talks about launching a new weekly podcast with her sister, Two Bitches From Texas, built from their candid Sunday calls and aimed at creating connection and kindness in a noisy moment. She shares joyful memories of improvising Pee-wee’s Big Adventure scenes with James Brolin and first-time feature director Tim Burton, plus how soaps and CBS Radio Mystery Theater taught her camera craft, stamina, and voice-only storytelling. The interview also touches on advocacy, from demystifying AIDS on national TV to early climate testimony, along with stage vs. screen rhythms, a Jack Lemmon rescue story, and why The Seduction still feels iconoclastic. Fairchild hints at an in-progress memoir, reflects on being recognized across generations from Friends to cult favorites, and makes a case for leading with humor, empathy, and craft.

My newest interview subject for PopGeeks, Morgan Fairchild, is a performer I’ve been hoping to interview for almost a decade now. First making an impression on me as the movie-within-a-movie version of Dottie in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, over the years I would become more familiar with her work as an actress and an activist, and I would be even more impressed by her as I grew older. With the help of my friend Harlan Boll, I spoke to Ms. Fairchild on Thursday, October 16th about everything from her acting to her activism to her new podcast with her sister.

With a laugh in her voice, her kindness radiated throughout our conversation I hope you all enjoy getting to know this beautiful and kind talent.

Say hello to Morgan Fairchild!

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

Morgan Fairchild: Oh, well, thank you for wanting to talk.

Johnny Caps: And second, I apologize for the delay. I had a health issue earlier this month, so we had to reschedule the interview.

Morgan Fairchild: They said you were in the hospital. Are you okay?

Johnny Caps: It’s a pretty complex thing, but I’m taking things day by day, and today is not about me. It’s about you, so let’s launch right into the interview, starting with this: You’ll soon be returning to the Chiller Theatre convention, where I’ll be meeting you for the third time.

Morgan Fairchild: (Laughing) You poor man.

Johnny Caps: Not at all. I always like meeting you, so what do you like about attending Chiller Theatre?

Morgan Fairchild: Oh, it’s just so fun. You know, I love Halloween. I love all the horror stuff and everything.

I love vampires. It’s just always fun to go to Chiller. People dress up.

It’s around Halloween, which is my favorite holiday, so it’s just always fun. You meet a lot of fun people, and see a lot of fun costumes, and get to see a lot of old friends because we’re all there signing stuff. It’s always nice.

Johnny Caps and Morgan Fairchild at the October 2021 Chiller Theatre convention…

Johnny Caps: Alright. What’s been the most wonderful piece of memorabilia you’ve signed at any of your Chiller Theatre appearances?

Morgan Fairchild: Well, I always appreciate when people have things from The Seduction or the soaps, but these days, especially anything from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure is very touching because of Paul’s passing. That was a great fun time when we were shooting that.

Johnny Caps: I’ll get to a question about that shortly, but first: Your previous Chiller appearances have been solo appearances, but this time, you’ll be appearing as part of a cast reunion for The Seduction, alongside Andrew Stevens and Colleen Camp. When that reunion was first pitched to you, what did you think of the idea?

Morgan Fairchild: Well, I thought it was a great idea. I had wondered about it myself, but Andrew had not really wanted to be associated with acting for a long time, so it didn’t occur to me that he would want to do it. I was excited to hear that he wanted to do it because people still seem to love that movie, so I’m glad we’re getting together.

Johnny Caps: In addition to meeting you again, I’m looking forward to meeting Andrew and Colleen for the first time.

Morgan Fairchild: Oh, well, Colleen is a hoot. You’ll love both of them (laughing).

Johnny Caps: Switching gears, you very recently launched a podcast with your sister entitled Two Bitches From Texas.

Morgan Fairchild: Yes.

Johnny Caps: What can you tell me about your plans for it?

Morgan Fairchild: Well, we actually launched yesterday. Our first guest up was Donna Mills, and it seems to be getting a really good reaction, judging from the analytics they’re doing and people’s responses online. It seems like it’s getting a good reaction, and it’s going to be a very eclectic podcast.

I have eclectic interests, so we’re going to bounce around with different kinds of people for interviews.

Johnny Caps: Alright. What do you hope to achieve with the podcast?

Morgan Fairchild: You know, it started because my sister and I had these regular Sunday phone calls that we do. During COVID, we realized we hadn’t been talking as much because we were both afraid we would be interfering with the other’s work schedule, so we scheduled a Sunday night phone call when she would finish working and then drive up to her lake house.

For about an hour-and-a-half, we’d talk every week, and we really got a lot out of it because we discovered that we kind of talk about everything in the world. We found it uplifting to share, and we kind of wanted to reach out as people are kind of feeling alienated about things right now, from families, from politics, from everything. e wanted to reach out to people and have them be part of our conversation, a sense of caring, a sense of family, a sense of kindness. It’s reaching out to people.

Johnny Caps: That’s wonderful to hear. I watched some of your debut episode, and you, your sister, and Donna, are all fantastic storytellers.

Morgan Fairchild: (Laughing) Well, thank you. We appreciate that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L7QjF20Muo

Johnny Caps: Oh, not a problem. When it does come to The Seduction, it took a while, but it did become a cult classic, so what do you think of the movie now from the perspective of 2025?

Morgan Fairchild: Well, I was always proud of it because it was iconoclastic at the time. It was the first time, I think, that a story had been done about an obsessed fan pursuing someone, and also, for the time, it was the first time that I knew of that the woman really turned the tables on the assaulter and went after him. In two different ways, it was kind of groundbreaking in its’ time.

Johnny Caps: It’s a fantastic movie, and it does lead me to a hypothetical question: Where do you think your The Seduction character, Jamie Douglas, is in 2025?

Morgan Fairchild: It’s hard to say because of what’s happening to the news business right now (laughing), but I think all of the things she’s been through have made her a stronger woman, and I think she would be standing up for freedom of the press.

Johnny Caps: I can see that. Earlier, you did mention Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, and that was actually my first exposure to any of your work. Of course, it was recently announced to be going into The Criterion Collection, so what are your favorite memories of your cameo in that movie, and of Paul Reubens himself?

Morgan Fairchild: Well, Paul and I became great friends when I was hosting An Evening At The Improv. We were at rehearsal in the afternoon, and all of the other, older comics came in and ran through their acts, and then this younger guy told me that he was not going to run through his act, but not to worry. He wouldn’t hurt me.

He said, “I won’t hurt you”, and I’m like, “What the hell is he going to do?” (Laughing)

He came out that night as Pee-wee, and he had a brown paper bag full of plastic spiders and snakes, and he was throwing things at me. I grew up in the theater, so I just went with it. We just improvised all over the place, and afterwards, he came over and said, “You got me, you got me! Oh, nobody gets me, but you really worked with me”,, so we became great friends.

When I had an answering service, I got a message saying, “We have Pee-wee Herman on the line”. I got on the phone and said, “Paul, I know your real name!” (laughing). “You don’t have to say it’s Pee-wee Herman”. He said , “I’ve got a big favor to ask”, and I said, “Yeah?”.

He said, “I’m doing my first movie, and we need some celebrity cameos. Everybody’s turned us down, and I was wondering if you’d do it”.

I said, “First of all, don’t tell people everybody’s turned you down”. He said, “We’ve got no money”. I said, “I got the ‘no money’. When do you need me?”.

He said, “Thursday”, and I said, “Okay, let me see if I can get out of Falcon Crest for the day”. I got the day off, so I arrive on the set, and they’re on the backlot of Warner Brothers, shooting in the forest back there, the ninja fight.

I got there and said, “You know, guys, I got 4-and-a-half-years worth of kung fu training in Chinatown. I could probably do this ninja fight for you, other than falling out of a tree as I’m sure Lorimar will sue me if I break a leg”. We did the ninja fight, and then Jim Brolin arrives in Pee-wee gear. We don’t have a script.

We don’t even have sides.

We have no idea what we’re doing, so they just said to look at each other and say, “I know you are, but what am I?”. We both said, “What does it mean?”, and they said, “It doesn’t matter. It will be funny in context”. We don’t know what it means, and they said, “It’ll be okay. It’ll be funny in the movie”, so we did that.

Jim and I did the pilot of Hotel a few years before that, so I said, “Hey, Jim, do you have to work today?”. He said, “No, I have the whole day off”. “Me, too. Do you want to do more?”. He said, “Sure, what can we do?”.

I said, “I don’t know. Let’s go over to the guys”. It was Paul and Tim Burton, and this was Tim Burton’s first movie. We said, “You’ve got us for the day. Do you want to do something else?”.

They said, “We borrowed the backlot set here. Where could we go? We don’t have any other sets”. Jim said, “Let me make a phone call”, so he calls Aaron Spelling. They weren’t shooting on the Hotel Fairmont set that day, so Aaron loans us the lobby set for the hotel, and that becomes the scene where Jim is a big game hunter, and I’m a spy, and Paul Reubens is a bellhop going, “Paging Mr. Herman”.

It was all improvised spur-of-the-moment, with Aaron nicely loaning us his set. We just wanted to do more steps that day (laughing).

Johnny Caps: That’s a wonderful story. That was an amazing movie, and although your part was small, it was memorable. An interesting side note: A decade ago, I actually interviewed Elizabeth Daily, whom you played the movie-within-a-movie version of Dottie…

Morgan Fairchild: Yeah, yeah.

Johnny Caps: I just think that’s a neat bit of synergy. I interviewed her a decade ago, and I’m interviewing you now, and I think that’s very cool.

Morgan Fairchild: Yeah. She seemed like a really nice lady, too.

Johnny Caps: Going back to the 70s, one of your earliest major roles was playing Jennifer Pace on Search For Tomorrow. As I’ve asked several soap opera veterans, what did working on a soap opera teach you that would apply to your later work as an actress?

Morgan Fairchild: Working on a soap, I think, is great training for young actors. I learned so much about camera. You know, I grew up in the theater, so I’d already had years in the theater before I was on a soap, but it was a whole other thing to learn camera technique and blocking and all of these things for the soap.

I remember it because I got married very young, so I didn’t really get to go to college. I had to go to college part-time, and I had credits here and there, but anyway, I used to go in and watch the show every day on our lunch break.

One time, one of the guys came in and said, “Why are you watching the show on our lunch break?”. I said, “I didn’t really get to go to college, but if I’d gotten to go to college and study drama, they would’ve videotaped me doing scenes, and then play it back to me and show me what I did wrong, and these people are paying me to do it, so I just sit back and see what I did wrong. What can I do better?”. (Laughing)

Johnny Caps: That’s always very good advice. Also in the 70s, you appeared on a decent amount of episodes of The CBS Radio Mystery Theatre. Of all the roles you played on that show, which one provided you the most challenges, and rewards, as an actress?

Morgan Fairchild: Oh, god. Honey, that’s like 50 years ago. I don’t really remember.

I DO remember how fun they were. I really wanted to do it, although we made no money. I think it was, like, 44 dollars an episode, and even in 1975, that was not much, but I got to work with all these wonderful actors.

EG Marshall and Fred Gwynne and Tony Roberts and all these people I’d grown up with, and William Redfield, who later did One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. It was wonderful working with Tony Roberts. We got to be great friends.

It was all these Broadway people, and people who loved radio, and I saw it as a real opportunity as an actor to experiment with having to convey everything ONLY with your voice, making a world live only with your voice. It’s an isolation technique. I’d done much training, and it was great fun, and very interesting.

We had so much fun, such wonderful actors, and because of the way we were doing it, they would literally do the creaky door, or the birds flying by, right there on the set like old radio times. It was great fun.

Johnny Caps: Well, I have to say, of all the episodes I’ve heard you on, as they’re on YouTube, I really like Pool Of Fear.

Morgan Fairchild: Which one?

Johnny Caps: Pool Of Fear. That’s the one where you play a young woman who wants to off her stepmother, and does so by hiring an acquaintance to try and drown her in a pool at her father’s house, but instead, the person she hires to drown her has a heart attack, and it’s implied that he saw a ghost and it led to his death, while the stepmother survives, much to your chagrin.

Morgan Fairchild: (Laughing) That sounds fun.

Johnny Caps: Yeah, it really was.

Morgan Fairchild: You know, it’s very gratifying because a lot of people on Twitter and Bluesky have rediscovered these old radio shows, and I think it’s wonderful.

Johnny Caps: It certainly is. I really do enjoy listening to it. It’s great fun.

Heading back to the 80s, you played Racine on the drama Paper Dolls. What made that show so special to work on?

Morgan Fairchild: You know, that was my favorite of the series I did in the 80s. It was great fun because they let me say whatever I wanted (laughing). Len Goldberg had called me up, and wanted me to do this show.

I read the script, and I said, “Len, I really don’t want to do another big cast show”. I’d done Dallas, and I’d done Flamingo Road, and I didn’t want to get stereotyped into the soapy shows.

He said, “No, no, no, just read the script”, so I said, “Okay, I’ll read the script”. I read the script, and I called him back, and I said, “Len, I don’t have any storyline. It’s a two-hour movie, and I’m just on the phone. I don’t have any storyline”, because I was playing this modeling agent, Eileen Ford run amok. I said, “I don’t have anything to do”, and he said, “No. I promise you we’ll get you a storyline if it goes to series”.

He said, “ABC has already promised they’re going to leave it on for a year. They understand from Dynasty that it takes a year for the show to get introduced, and find an audience and all that”. Len was a very nice man, and very persuasive, so finally I said, “Okay, okay”, but when it came down to time to do all of my telephone calls, I would just (laughing) ad-lib all this stuff to amuse myself, and they would leave it in. They liked my dark sense of humor.

It was all about the fashion industry, so you’re shooting in New York. Len called me and said, “Oh, Morgan, we just realized you don’t have any exteriors, so you don’t need to go to New York”, and I said, “No, I want to go to New York. I’m a paleontology nut, and The Museum Of Natural History is having this big exhibit of the biggest paleo-anthropological finds of all time. It’s it’s the Taung Baby (now usually called the Taung Child) and Littlefoot and the First Family (an actual group). I want to go to the fossil exhibit”.

He said, “Okay”, so they wrote me a scene. I think I come out of the Plaza Hotel and say, “Where’s my limo?”, and then I had one scene with Brenda Vaccaro going down Park Avenue, or something, in a limo. Anyway, I get to the Museum Of Natural History, and they have all these major fossils under plexiglass squares or rectangles, and I’m looking at this very massive, very primitive skull with huge, wide cheekbones and this ridge on his head.

These two guys were looking at the other side with the little cards on the plexiglass supposedly telling you what it is, but to be honest, they weren’t really great, so if you didn’t know what you were looking at, you wouldn’t know what you were looking at.

These two guys said, “What is that thing on his head?”, and I said, “Well, that’s called a Sagittal Crest. You see how wide those cheekbones are? That’s because this is a herbivore, and he’s grinding. There’s massive pressure, so the jaw muscle is going to go through the middle of the cheekbone, and attach to that thing on his head to brace it for all the heavy grinding”.

They said, “Oh, your cards are better than mine”, and I said, “No, no, no. I’m just telling you what I know. The cards don’t tell you that”. They took one look at me and said, “Aren’t you Morgan Fairchild? How do you know this shit?” (Morgan and Johnny laugh). I wanted to be a paleontologist when I was a kid, so I kind of try to keep a hand in.

Johnny Caps: Well, you’re actually the second person who worked on that show that I’ve interviewed, the first being makeup artist and hair stylist Gail Ryan. She says hello, and she sends her love.

Morgan Fairchild: Oh, say hi for me! Oh, how lovely! She’s lovely, and she’s very nice.

Thank you.

Johnny Caps: Oh, not a problem. After Paper Dolls, you spent a season playing Jordan Roberts on Falcon Crest. Of all the episodes you worked on, which ones were your favorites?

Morgan Fairchild: You know, I was very grateful because it was a storyline about the adult repercussions of incest, and that had never been done on television before. I was very grateful that they got a wonderful actor to play my father. We had some very good scenes together.

I felt proud of the work on that.

Johnny Caps: Alright. On a lighter note, you played the Queen in the Cannon Movie Tales version of Sleeping Beauty. I’ve interviewed quite a few talents who worked with Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, and opinions on them and Cannon Films are mixed, to say the least (Morgan laughs), so what did you think of working with them?

Morgan Fairchild: You know, I always had a good experience working with them. I know some people didn’t, but I always had a good experience working with them, and we shot that movie in Israel in the Spring of ’86. It was right after we bombed Libya, so nobody was there because people were afraid to go as they were afraid Gaddafi would bomb Israel to get even with us, so it was an interesting time to be there.

We were up on Masada, and we were the only people up there. It was an interesting time, and I got to see a lot of Israel, running around as there were a lot of days off because someone stole all the fairy costumes. I ended up with a lot of days off as they had to rebuild all the costumes, so I got to go to so many places.

I got to go to Jericho, Bethlehem, all kinds of places I’m not sure I’d be able to go now.

I got to see Israel. I got to see the Holy Land, and you could really feel history coming up through your feet there. It was really quite amazing.

Johnny Caps: Alright. Coming back to the States, working on Sleeping Beauty meant you weren’t able to host Saturday Night Live, where Jon Lovitz’s character of Tommy Flanagan, The Pathological Liar, would boast that you were his wife. Knowing that you appeared in the Fernando At Night Of 100 Stars II sketch in Season 10, even though you didn’t host SNL, as the show loves its’ cameos, were you ever asked to cameo in one of the Tommy Flanagan sketches?

Morgan Fairchild: No, actually. It was very odd. Apparently, they thought I was going to host SNL, and I was in Israel shooting.

My mother called and said, “Oh, I’m so excited. You’re hosting Saturday Night Live”, and I said, “When am I doing that?”. She said, “Uh, this Saturday”. I said, “Mom, I’m in Israel. You know it’s Saturday Night Live? (Laughing) I’m in Israel shooting a movie. I can’t possibly be there”.

I said, “Where did you see that?”. She said, “TV Guide”. I said, “Maybe they meant Morgan Brittany”, and she said, “No, it’s you”, so I didn’t know.

Apparently, somebody at my agency, who maybe had a drug problem, had booked me on it, but nobody had told me or the head of the agency, and I didn’t know that I was supposed to be doing that until my mother told me (laughing).

Apparently, I don’t think Lorne Michaels ever forgave me. You know, I tried to call and explain what happened, but I don’t think he would ever take the call, but it was not my fault. I didn’t know I was supposed to be hosting Saturday Night Live (laughing) when I was shooting a movie in Israel.

Johnny Caps: Well, going into the 90s, in 2020, I interviewed actor and writer George McGrath, who wrote your 1993 TV movie Based On An Untrue Story.

Morgan Fairchild: I love George.

Johnny Caps: He spoke well of you, so did you have fun working on that project?

Morgan Fairchild: Oh, I loved that project. I thought that project was a bit underrated because it was such a spoof-y thing, and we had so much fun shooting it. George was wonderful, and the script was wonderful, and it was just very, very funny.

Johnny Caps: I’m glad to hear it. I wish it would get a current home video release, but as it was a 20th Century Fox title, it’s currently locked up in the Disney Vault, and may never see the light of day again, unfortunately.

Morgan Fairchild: Oh, you’re kidding. I didn’t realize that.

Johnny Caps: Oh, yeah. Disney, of course, bought 20th Century Fox in 2019, renamed it 20th Century Studios, and there are literally thousands of 20th Century Fox titles that are now out-of-print. Some of them are coming out on 4K and Blu-Ray, but they’re coming out in dribs and drabs, and it’s even worse for the Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures libraries.

Disney doesn’t even like to acknowledge it, even though Touchstone was keeping the lights on at Disney before The Little Mermaid came out.

Morgan Fairchild: Well, I’m sorry to hear that, but George was wonderful. If you talk to George again, say hi.

Johnny Caps: I will. Also in 1993, you followed in a long line of my previous interview subjects by acting on Murder, She Wrote, playing Iris Novaro in the episode Murder At A Discount. What was it like working with Angela Lansbury?

Morgan Fairchild: Oh, my god, what an honor. I knew Angela outside of things because we were both working in Democratic politics, so I used to see her at all kinds of different functions, and always at Lew Wasserman’s house. Lew would have lovely events at his house.

We were sort of friends to begin with, but she was so kind and so gracious when I was doing the show.

She would have me come in her dressing room, and we would sit and gab in her dressing room between scenes. She was just the most wonderful, wonderful lady. You know, everything you think lovely about Angela is true.

She was just a wonderful person.

Johnny Caps: That’s wonderful to hear. Staying in the 90s, you played Nora Tyler Bing on several episodes of Friends. When you walk down the street, would you say that’s a project you’re recognized for often, or does it depend on the age of who you meet?

Morgan Fairchild: You know, I find from doing shows like Chiller that it really depends on the age. I mean, most people know Friends, but certainly the older ones know Flamingo Road, Paper Dolls, and The Seduction. The younger audience knows Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and Friends and, oddly enough, sometimes Sleeping Beauty.

A lot of people have come up to me and said, “Oh, I used to watch this as a kid, and I played it for my kids, and now I’m playing it for my grandkids!” (laughing).

Johnny Caps: Alright. As with several of my previous interview subjects, you worked with Bob Hope on several of his specials in the 80s and 90s. Of all those specials you worked on, which was your best experience?

Morgan Fairchild: You know, any time working with Bob was always an honor. He was such a legend, and just a great guy to work with. It was always fun, and different times with different people. remember we were shooting one in Austin that Jack Lemmon was on, and Jack was great.

Bob had been trying to get him to do one forever, and he wouldn’t do it, but he did one, and was going to play the piano and everything.

I remember we came back one night from rehearsal, and I was still in a strapless cocktail dress from rehearsal. We were headed back into the hotel, and Bob said to Jack and me, “You know, I’m a spokesman for this Texas bank, and they’re having their ball upstairs. Would you guys come up and say hello?”.

We said sure, so we go up there, and some drunk old guy grabs me and drags me out on the dance floor. He says, (Morgan slips into a Texas drawl) “I’m gonna dance with you, honey”, (back to Morgan’s own voice) and then starts trying to put his hand down the front of my strapless dress.

Well, Jack Lemmon comes by, grabs my arm, and whirls me away, saying (Morgan imitating Lemmon’s voice), “Take your hands off that woman, sir. Unhand that woman, sir”. (Laughing when going back to Morgan’s own voice) He whisks me away, so being rescued by Jack Lemmon was great fun. (Morgan and Johnny laugh)

Johnny Caps: Cool. You also worked with Rodney Dangerfield on one of his specials. As I asked two previous interview subjects of mine, Becky LeBeau and Heather Thomas, what do you remember the most about working with Rodney?

Morgan Fairchild: Oh, I loved Rodney. He was just such a dear, dear guy, and always seemed quite like what you see, sometimes befuddled and sometimes a little cranky. He really liked me, and I really liked him, and you could tell.

We had so much fun. I had worked in the theater, and I was used to doing comedy, so we would just work together great.

I remember, one time, the producer came up and said, “Morgan, could you come down to the set?”. I said, “Oh, good. Are you ready for me?”, and they said, “No. Would you just come down to the set?”. I said, “Okay, but why?”. “Well, Rodney’s kind of cranky, but he’s on better behavior when you’re there”, (laughing) so I said, “Sure. I’ll go down”.

He was a doll. He was great to work with, and just fun.

I mean, so many of these wonderful guys are departed now. You know, Angela and Bob and Rodney and so many of them have passed on. I miss them.

Johnny Caps: I miss them, too. I mean, I was a little too young to see a lot of this stuff first-hand, but I have caught up with it on YouTube, and I think it’s stuff that deserves a lot more credit.

Since you did mention the theater, you’re also an accomplished stage actress, performing in genres ranging from comedy to drama to musical, so what has stage acting provided for you that screen acting has not?

Morgan Fairchild: There’s just such a huge difference between stage and screen, partially about the focus of energy. If you’re doing theater, you get up late, go to bed late, and get up late. Your whole day, you’re kind of aiming toward 8:00 curtain and three hours on, on, on, on.

Once you get out there, you’re on, whereas film, you get there at 5:00 AM, you spend a lot of time waiting, and then suddenly, when they’re ready for you, BOOM, you’ve got to be on.

It’s a total different energy focus, and I like both of them. I enjoy both of them. Of course, you get the immediate response from stage if you’re getting the laughs.

I mean, there’s a rapport with the audience. Each audience has got a different personality, and so each night you come out on stage, it’s like meeting a new person you’re going to have dinner with, and you’re going to make conversation with.

You’re kind of reaching out to them, and they to you, and you’re engaging, so it’s different. It’s intimate. It’s much more immediate, good or bad.

Either the laugh lands or it doesn’t (laughing), but they both have their own kind of fulfillment.

Johnny Caps: Alright. Switching away from acting to more serious matters, like my recent interview subject, the aforementioned Heather Thomas, you’ve been a political activist for many decades now, so what was the inspiration for your political activism?

Morgan Fairchild: Well, I got inspired because they started trying to do things I didn’t like. When Reagan got into office, he started trying to ban abortions, although I think he was really doing more lip service.

The generation I come from? We had a lot of breakthroughs for women’s rights. When I was getting divorced, it was among the first years a woman could get a bank account or a credit card in her own name without a husband or brother, or man, signing for her.

A lot of young women now don’t know how restrictive it used to be, and so I would stand up for your right to choice.

I’m a science nerd, so global warming was something I was very interested in in the 80s. Testifying before a Senate committee, I explained global warming to them in ’87. I think Al Gore and I were the first two people talking about global warming in the 80s, when he was still a senator, and then AIDS hit.

I have these weird hobbies, one of which is emerging viruses and epidemiology, so I found myself on Nightline and doing a lot of these shows, working with Dr. Fauci and C. Everett Koop, who was the Surgeon General at the time, on AIDS.

At the time, I realized I had these odd hobbies, and my odd hobby of reading everything on this particular virus kind of equipped me to be the only famous face who could go out on Nightline and explain what a retrovirus is, and how it works, and how you do and don’t get it, and try and work to take the stigma off the gay community, and just get it treated like a disease. I felt a moral obligation to do that.

Johnny Caps: That’s very noble. As I also asked Heather, what was the most fun you had at a political event, whether it was a fundraiser, a protest, or a convention?

Morgan Fairchild: Well, different blondes. We did one Get Out The Vote campaign on a bus for several days back in the 80s, arranged by Campaign California. A bunch of us, going up and down the state of California, registering voters.

I think it was Michael J. Fox, and Rob Lowe, and Robert Downey Jr., and Sarah Jessica Parker, and Peter Fonda, and Jane Fonds, and Ed Begley Jr…Just a ton of us.

Some of it switched out a little every day, but if you want to have mass hysteria, stop at a McDonalds’ in 1986 with Michael J. Fox, Rob Lowe, and Robert Downey Jr. (laughing). Mass chaos.

Johnny Caps: Alright. Another question I asked Heather: Politically, do you think the situation in the United States will get better, worse, or continue as a rollercoaster ride?

Morgan Fairchild: I think the situation in the United States at this moment is rather unpredictable. I would like to think better angels will prevail. I’d like to think some order, and some consistence to our institutions, will return.

I don’t see it on the horizon, but I’m forever hopeful.

Johnny Caps: I agree with that. It is very dicey times, and that actually kind of connects to my next question. Switching away from politics, I’ve asked several of my recent interview subjects this lengthy question, and I wanted to ask you as well:

I’ve lived all my life with autism spectrum disorder, and one aspect of that is having an intense focus on a particular subject. For me, it’s the pop culture of the 1980s, which I turned to in order to cope with the tragedy and trauma I experienced in the 90s and the 00s. I’ve noticed, though, that people are still more likely to be making fun of the pop culture of the 80s, as well as the fashions, hairstyles, and makeup, than they are to make fun of those same things from the 90s.

As you were active in both the 1980s and the 1990s, why do you think the 80s are still more likely to be made fun of than the 90s are?

Morgan Fairchild: Huh. Well, maybe it’s the shoulder pads and the big hair. It’s a little easier to spoof, a little easier to make fun of, but it was a lot of fun.

The 80s were fun. I loved the big hair and the shoulder pads (laughing). I had a lot of fun in the 80s.

It was a lot of fun. The music was fun. The pop culture was fun.

It was fun. I don’t know why people like to make fun of it, but it’s easier to spoof, I guess, than some of them.

Johnny Caps: Yeah. I mean, me personally, since the 90s were such a godawful decade for me, I would really love to see people do things like make fun of Nirvana and Seinfeld and Pulp Fiction…You know, just take them down a couple of pegs, just once.

Morgan Fairchild: Oh, okay. I’m sorry the 90s were so bad for you. Are you okay?

Johnny Caps: Well, basically, the entire time period from 1991 to 2012 was very rough. I mean, as a child and a teen, I was bullied by other kids, and by the time I got to high school, eventually the teachers as well. There were times I was a bully myself because I thought that was what you had to do to survive in school.

I lost my dad to a heart attack in 1995, when I was only 12 years old.

Morgan Fairchild: Oh, my god.

Johnny Caps: I ended up in a mental hospital a year-and-a-half later where I was formally diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, or Asperger’s Syndrome, as it was called at the time. Four school transfers in four years, and when I was technically an adult, things didn’t get any better because I was still learning the ins and outs of life with autism spectrum disorder, and it was pretty hard.

It caused my relationship with my mom to decay in the last decade of her life. She would die of cancer in 2010. I was so scared by the 9/11 attacks that I was voting against my interests in the first three elections I was able to vote in.

Those are votes I regret. I’m firmly on the liberal side of things now, but I wasn’t in my 20s, and I deeply regret that.

Really, things wouldn’t improve for me until 2012, when I turned 30 and decided to approach life in a more tolerant, open-minded and kind way. The pop culture of the 80s got me through all that and led me to the light of a better day, and you played a part in that with your work in the decade.

A very 80s autograph, said with the most positivity possible, of Morgan Fairchild from the April 2019 Chiller Theatre convention…

Morgan Fairchild: Well, thank you. I’m glad I was helpful in some way. I’m so sorry about all of that.

It’s one of the things we’re trying to do with the podcast, again. One of our mentors, my sister and me, in the theater always said, “Acting is reaching out with love to your fellow man”, and that’s kind of what we’re trying to do, give people a sense of sanity and kindness and love, and bring that back to society. I’m so sorry about the bullying and everything.

Johnny Caps: Yeah. That’s why I don’t look back on the 90s, or the 00s, for that matter, with that much fondness, but the 80s got me through it, and it’s still helping me to this day.

On a lighter note, what’s your idea of the perfect day off?

Morgan Fairchild: Oh, just reading. I’m a voracious reader, so just being able to sit and read instead of just running around. We’ve been working so hard on the podcast lately.

I’ve been doing a lot of different reading on people we’re going to interview, so that actually gives me an excuse to read books and pretend it’s business (laughing). I get to read different books of people we’re going to interview, their life stories, and come up with good questions, and everything to try to be creative with the questions. That’s been fun, but just reading.

I have just always loved to read, just find new worlds with reading.

Johnny Caps: Absolutely. Finally, besides the podcast and your appearance at the Chiller Theatre convention, when I tried reaching out to Harlan earlier this year about the possibility of an interview, he told me that you were working on an autobiography. Can I ask about where you’re at with that?

Morgan Fairchild: Um, well, we’re looking at trying to find a publisher for it. I haven’t finished it. I did the proposal, but quite frankly, I’m just being told that biographies of celebrities aren’t selling right now, so it might not be a good time, but I’m ever hopeful that people will get interested.

Johnny Caps: Alright. Well, that does it for my questions. I again thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to speak to me.

This is an interview I’ve been hoping to do for almost a decade, and this was everything I was hoping it would be.

Morgan Fairchild: Well, thank you, and thank you for saying that. That’s very kind of you, and just know that I’m sorry to hear about all of the bullying. I hate bullies, and I just want to let you know I am sending you lots of hugs and good wishes from here.

Johnny Caps: Thank you very much. I look forward to seeing you next weekend, the weekend after this one, at Chiller Theatre, and I hope you have a wonderful afternoon.

Morgan Fairchild: Thank you. You, too.

Johnny Caps: Have a good day.

Morgan Fairchild: Okay, bye bye.

Johnny Caps: Bye.

I would again like to thank Morgan Fairchild for taking the time out of her schedule, and Harlan Boll for setting up this interview.

Who will I Flashback with next? Stay tuned.

Next: The FLASHBACK interview: DeeDee Rescher or discuss on our Film and TV forums

Key Takeaways

• Morgan Fairchild will appear at the Chiller Theatre convention for a Seduction reunion with Andrew Stevens and Colleen Camp.
• She recently launched a podcast with her sister, Two Bitches From Texas, featuring eclectic guests and candid conversations.
• Fairchild reflected on her cult-favorite cameo in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and her friendship with Paul Reubens.
• She discussed her experiences on soaps, CBS Radio Mystery Theater, and how those roles sharpened her craft.
• The actress shared memories of Paper Dolls, Falcon Crest, and filming Sleeping Beauty in Israel.
• Fairchild spoke warmly of working with legends like Angela Lansbury, Bob Hope, Jack Lemmon, and Rodney Dangerfield.
• She highlighted her long history of political activism, from women’s rights to climate awareness and AIDS advocacy.
• Her favorite projects remain defined by creativity, resilience, and the freedom to improvise.
• She is working on an autobiography while continuing convention appearances and her new podcast.
• Across generations, Fairchild is recognized for roles ranging from soaps and cult films to Friends and beyond.