David Cassidy on the Web
Interview with David Cassidy on Ruby & the Rockits
August 4, 2009
By: Sarah Eve
http://totallyher.com/interview-with-david-cassidy-on-ruby-the-rockits/
"The episodes are absolutely, in my opinion, better and better and better every week."
David Cassidy stars on the new ABC Family half hour comedy Ruby & the Rockits. While sadly I have not gotten the opportunity to speak with him personally, ABC Family did hook me up with a copy of the transcript from an on set interview. Let's find out what David had to say about his new show.
How was the idea for Ruby & the Rockits created?
David Cassidy: Well, my brother and I had a phone call about a year and a half ago-Shaun and I. And I had the germ of the idea of doing a family show, which we have talked about-Patrick and I have talked about working together and said, "Wouldn't it be great if we could,"-I'm trying to think of the original conversation that just sparked the idea. And he ran with it, you know. That's what he does and he does it well. I said a music show satirizing our family, my persona, his, and Patrick and I have always wanted to work together.
And I said, "You know, it'd be great if we could get Ryan as well. Then the four of us can work together for the first time," because the only other time any of us have ever worked together was when-well, we did an AIDS benefit, which was hysterical, but that was just three of us. I won't even discuss that. But it was hysterically funny.
Come on. please discuss it.
David Cassidy: If you all know anything about the theater and-I won't go into this. It's not important. But we did a [Sondheim] song called "You Can Drive A Person Crazy," So, we did all the original choreography. And it was written for "Three Women," and it was very funny.
And a couple of the incidents that occurred during that rehearsal has melded their way into this production, into this show, because it's what we do with each other, it's [the speak] that Shaun and he have, that Shaun and I have, Patrick and I have, our father-a lot of it is incorporated into this show. And we had so much fun doing it. We did like four performances of it, I think, and it was just great.
Back to the creation of the show:
David Cassidy: So, I called him and said, "What about doing something before we die," that kind of thing. And he went, "Hmm." And he started running ideas, I guess, through his head and put those tiny little fingers on the computer, and he said, "Come on out. I pitched the idea to the studio. They liked it, and they want to meet with us."
So, we met with the studio and then with the network, and we just were ourselves, which, it wasn't a performance, it was just being as natural and as real with ourselves and kind of taking the piss out of each other, which is a British expression. I hope you understand that it's a British expression. But that's what we do all the time with each other. And that's what we do in this. And it comes from Shaun and Patrick's, Patrick and mine, Shaun and mine. And there are some rough parallels to our lives in this show.
It's all in the family.
It is truly the most family you could ever put on a-I mean Shaun and I have written, my wife, Sue, has written song. Melissa's our choreographer. Other than my daughter, Katie, and my son, Beau, and his kids coming in on it, you know-Katie, actually, we got together last weekend, all of us. And Katie just started doing Melrose Place. And she said, at the end of the day, she said, "I really want to do it, write me a really good guest shot." And Shaun went, "Hmm, I think we could do that."
I have no idea what kind of a role she would play. But that would be great too. I mean, it's just really-it's the best job I ever had. I mean you've been here all day. And I'm sorry you got to see this particular episode. It's not usually what-I mean, I'm usually not-I'm not this low, but man I get to play. I mean I get to play. And there's just no-this is my playground and boy they let me go. And I do.
How much fun are you having being on Ruby & the Rockits?
I've never had as much fun as I've ever had doing anything. And I've said this a few times recently. I can't stand it when actors come on television, not so much in print, but I guess even in print, and you listen to them on the radio and they're doing an interview about their new project, their new movie, their new television show, their new Broadway show, and they're there promoting it. And you hear the Arnold Schwarzenegger quote: "This is the greatest movie ever made." Don't say that. But this is the best thing I've ever done, in my opinion, for me. It's the best role I've ever had, the best cast I've ever worked work.
How well does the cast work together?
Every single person is fantastic. I mean you can say they are people you can hand the ball to and they'll score a touchdown. Every person on this show can deliver the punch line. You know, bottom of the ninth, two outs, bases loaded, you're down three runs, pop, boom. And it feels so good to have that kind of support and to genuinely like all of the people you work with.
Alexa and I were talking about this yesterday. Do you know how rare that is that you like everybody, and you genuinely like them, not just, "Yeah, he's okay." I mean they're really good human beings, grounded, not full of themselves. There's no, "He's getting all the funny lines." There's none of that stuff. It's all, "Whatever we have to do together to make it great, to make it-let's make it the best we can."
Tell us about the writing.
We have a fantastic writing staff, man. Wow! They come in-the next day you go, "Wow! What they just did to this script!" And it's better. I mean it was good when we read it on Monday but-and every day. And I really genuinely believe that every week this show has gotten better. I mean it's-because I've seen the pilot now five times or something. It's a good pilot. We did a lot of exposition in it, that was really quite cleverly done by them. It didn't feel-I mean there's a lot of backstory in this. How did you two break up, and how did she end up in your house, and how did she end up at his house, and what's your relationship with-? You know, there's a lot of that but the episodes are absolutely, in my opinion, better and better and better every week.
Every element of it, to me-and I've done some bombs-you can feel it when it's just, "Well, it might be okay." But this one just feels so good. It feels so right for this network, just so right for working-all of us working together. I don't know. I think it's a genuine family comedy. I think it has a lot of adult stuff.
Who is the primary audience of the show?
It is not a kid show, you know, it's not. Kids love it. They come every week, [and] they like [it]. And I think that has a lot to do with Alexa and with Austin. I think that's probably the case. And I'm sure their grandmothers have told them about me.
To watch the fun David Cassidy is having on his new show be sure to catch episodes on ABC Family Tuesday nights at 8:30/7:30 Central or on ABCFamily.com.
