[music]
There was no on-camera interviewer. The producer asked questions off-camera.
He spoke eloquently about responsibility, nature, and love.
First, about his time starring in one of the most popular TV shows ever, Bonanza.
>>Lorne Greene: I remember one time after about 17 or 18 shows
I really wanted to get out of the show.
I thought the show was not doing well.
I'd been told the show was going to be a flop.
But every show opened up with somebody
one member of the family with a gun pointing at somebody
saying 'What are you doing on the Ponderosa?'
and finally, I said to the producer, I said look
I said if a stranger comes on the Ponderosa
why do we have to point a gun at him?
I say what are you doing on the Ponderosa? He doesn't know where he is.
It's a thousand square miles.
So why don't we
why don't we say, listen, where you from, St. Louis? Great!
How about staying with us for a week?
Just be our guest we'll talk and
we'll find out what's happening in the rest of the world.
At least let's be human beings.
Let's not be antagonists.
Eventually that became our [indistinct]
and instead of being a western shoot-em-up
it became a story
a series about a four-letter word
love
love of land
love of trees
love of the environment
love of people
love of country
love
Television has a tremendous responsibility.
The responsibility is to be accurate.
The responsibility is to be truthful.
The responsibility is not to
mislead the viewing public.
He speaks about his role playing a fire captain on the TV series, Code Red
>>I compromised.
It was the unhappiest time
I've ever had in the business.
It was horrible.
I hated getting up to go to work.
I did not believe
any of the scripts.
I didn't believe
that any of these things could happen.
Every fire, every show had at least one fire
and maybe two.
I said this is not
it's not about fires.
It's about firemen.
You gotta be careful about a series
because you're not in control.
I said I want to do a show in which I am in control.
I call it New Wilderness because the old wilderness is gone.
What I'm doing with the wildlife show
bears a certain resemblance somehow
to what we did in Bonanza
because Bonanza dealt with responsibility.
Somebody called Bonanza a morality play on horseback
which I've never forgotten.
The wildlife show deals with
man's responsibility
for the creatures of this earth
but as far as I'm concerned
I'm here one time only
and I'd like to feel
that what I did
encouraged other people to do something.
Lorne Greene was also well-known for his Alpo dog food commercials.
While there, I asked him if he fed his dogs Alpo.
He grinned and replied that not only did they eat it
but he was being provided an unlimited supply of it.
We all enjoyed a good chuckle over that.