E-mail a friendTony Danza
airdate July 14, 2004
Actor Tony Danza is best known for his loveable sitcom characters. He starred in Who's the Boss? for eight seasons and had a five-year run in Taxi. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Danza attended college on a wrestling scholarship. After graduation, he had a profitable career as a boxer when a producer discovered him at a NY boxing gym. Through his production company, Katie Face Productions, Danza is involved in all forms of television.
Tony Danza
Tavis: Tony Danza has been a popular fixture on prime-time television for years with hit shows like 'Taxi' and 'Who's the Boss?' So why on earth would he want to tackle the unpredictable world of daytime TV? Well, if the past is prologue for the future, his new syndicated series could be around for a while. At least they got the name of the show right. 'The Tony Danza Show.' Premieres in September. Check your local listings, as they say. Tony D, Nice to see you.
Tony Danza: You, too, Tavis.
Tavis: I'm glad to have you on, man.
Danza: Thank you. It's nice to be here.
Tavis: So what the heck are you thinking? You got nothing better to do than to jump into the craziness of daytime television?
Danza: Well, you know, for the last 10 years, I've been out doing live. You know, I've been singing and dancing, playing casinos, playing everything from county fairs to Carnegie Hall, you know. You sing a ballad as the roller coaster goes by, you know what I mean? I don't know, it's sort of like a natural progression. I mean, I've been doing this live stuff. I feel like it's sort of given me a--like a sort of a training ground, an education towards this. I don't know. Somebody offered me the job. I get to do it live in New York. Get to go home--
Tavis: I was about to say that. You've been out--you've been in L.A. for what, 20 some years?
Danza: Yeah, over 25.
Tavis: Over 25 years in L.A., but you're a kid that grew up in Brooklyn.
Danza: I'm a Brooklyn boy, and when I was 15, we moved to Long Island. But basically, a New York kid.
Tavis: So now you're going back home now. So how you feel about that?
Danza: Oh, it's amazing. I mean, as a crazy-- Look, I mean, you talk about your roots and everything. It's certainly--it's where I come from. People ask me, you know, where you're from. I say I live in L.A. I'm a Dodger fan, you know, and by the way, in first place. But, um...
Tavis: Ha ha ha!
Danza: But, you know, I'm from New York. I tell them, and then invariably they say, 'Yeah. I can tell by the way you talk.' You know, so...so yeah, it's exciting to go back. You know, I come from there. My father was a garbage man for the city of New York, and I'm gonna do a show there.
Tavis: How great a story is that? Your dad was a garbage man, and you're going back home.
Danza: I wish he was around to see it, Tavis. I really do.
Tavis: You know, I watch--
Danza: Let me just give you this, you see. So, you know, on some talk shows, they give you a cup, they give you--we got wine.
Tavis: Whoa! 'Cause you're Italian, yeah.
Danza: 'The Tony Danza Show' wine.
Tavis: I like this. Can you see this? Can you see this? I don't think you can read that. You probably can't read it. Anyway, it says, '‘The Tony Danza Show: Live from New York,' weekdays, premiering--' Oh, my God. 'Premiering September 13th.' That's a great day.
Danza: Why is that a great day? Why?
Tavis: Because I'll be 40 on September 13th.
Danza: You know, this is the weirdest thing. This has been happening. This has been--
Tavis: That's a great premiere date.
Danza: Now let me tell you something. Let me just--so for many years, Fred Silverman--
Tavis: Yeah, absolutely. Big-time producer.
Danza: Big time guy. Ran ABC, NBC.
Tavis: Absolutely.
Danza: He's been telling me for years, for years, 'You should do a talk show. You should do a variety show. You should do a talk show.' So I ran into him at the Hall of Fame induction for the Academy. I was hosting, and he said to me, 'So you're finally gonna do what I said to do.' I said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'Well, when's it starting?' I said, 'September 13th.' He goes, 'That's my birthday.' So that was his birthday, right?
Tavis: Oh, yeah. Ha ha!
Danza: I got a woman who works in my house, and she's a, um, naturalized citizen. She's from El Salvador. Her name's Beatrice. Wonderful. Been working for me for, you know, 20 years and, um, so she says, 'When does the show start?' I said, 'September 13th.' She says, 'You know, that's the day I came from El Salvador,' she says. So...and then on the way here, the guy driving me says, 'When does your show start?' I say, 'September 13th.' He says, 'Hey, you know, that's my birthday.'
Tavis: Ha ha!
Danza: Now you. This is--this is karma.
Tavis: You're off and running then, man. Yeah, you start a show on my birthday, you got a hit, man. You got a hit, Tony.
Danza: You know, from your mouth...
Tavis: Yeah, you got a hit there. So what are you most looking forward to about being able to change positions, sitting in the host chair as opposed to the guest chair?
Danza: Well, I'm interested in people. I'm gonna get some interesting people in, you know. Maybe you'll come do the show.
Tavis: I'd be happy to.
Danza: You know, turnabout is fair play.
Tavis: Is that a free trip to New York?
Danza: Yeah, you get it all.
Tavis: Free hotel? Ooh, minibar?
Danza: I'm telling you--
Tavis: OK, I'm there.
Danza: We're talking about doing Jimmy Kimmel's green room now.
Tavis: Ha ha ha! You throw in the free minibar, and I'm there. I'm easy, man. I'm easy.
Danza: So I'm interested in that. I'm interested in people. But, you know, the thing that really, um, excites me, and I'm not kidding you, first of all, doing it live, but having an audience every day. I like being in front of an audience.
Tavis: That's where all that singing and dancing comes in.
Danza: That's what I like to do. So, um, I think that's the thing that's most exciting. One of the things you find out--I've been doing some test shows, been interviewing--we're trying to find a piano player, a female piano player. And so how we've been doing it is I just sit there and I interview them. We sing a little bit, we talk. It's a tremendous position of power.
Tavis: So, are you gonna sing a little bit on the show?
Danza: I'm gonna sneak it in a little bit, Tavis, yeah.
Tavis: It's unfair that a guy like you has so much talent. You sing, you dance, you started out as a football player.
Danza: No, no, I was a fighter.
Tavis: Fighter. I mean, fighter. I meant to say boxing.
Danza: I was too small to play football.
Tavis: You boxed...
Danza: Yeah. I wasn't that great, though. Somebody said, 'How good were you? Were you ranked?' I says, 'Yeah, I was number 9 in the gym.'
Tavis: And there were only 10 people in the gym. Ha ha ha! But you boxed, you sing, you dance, you act, now you're hosting a talk show. How unfair is it that a guy should have all that talent?
Danza: Well, I'll tell you--the dancing started at the end of 'Taxi.' I was about 30, 32.
Tavis: You started dancing late.
Danza: I just--we did a show where we pretended to tap-dance. I said, 'Gee, this is something--' I've always loved Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire and Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson and--
Tavis: So, Sammy Davis starts tapping at 3, and you start at 38.
Danza: Yeah, 32. And I, uh, and I got myself a teacher, and I got myself hooked on it. I really liked it. And it's sort of been the license to do everything else. And you'd be surprised, you know, you get a teacher--it's called late-in-life endeavors. Pick up the piano. Play a little trumpet. I'm working a ukulele. It's really tough. But what happens is, it's not how much you practice. It's how long you stick with something. And I don't know about you, but 5 years goes by like that nowadays. So if you're stuck with something for 5 years... I mean, you're not gonna be Van Cliburn, but, you know, at least you can play a little bit.
Tavis: So you're telling me in 10 years, you're gonna release a ukulele album?
Danza: You never know.
Tavis: Tony Danza plays the ukulele.
Danza: Wait a minute. 3 chords. You learn C, F, and G. There's 3,000 songs, you know?
Tavis: Um, are you at all scared about this? You scared about this daytime thing?
Danza: I go from, uh, I go from the extremes. Like, I'm--I'm confident. I feel pretty good about it. I feel like I am ready. I mean, I have a certain amount of life experience. You know, I'm a little older now, uh, you know, I have children. I have a 33-year-old son who's--
Tavis: You have a 33-year-old son? You look like you're 38 and you've got a 33-year-old son.
Danza: Oh, it's amazing. A 38-year-old can have a 33-year-old, but anyway... So, I have a son. He's married. I got a 17-year-old daughter, an 11-year-old daughter, I'm married 18--and I have some life experience. I've been around a while in the business. I've done this last 10 years of live, you know, stage work, being out there. I've tried to do just about everything. You know, I've done some Broadway. So I feel like I'm ready, you know? And so, sometimes I'm real confident. And we went out and we've done some city-specific promotion things where I go out in the street and just basically ambush people. And there's a lot of goodwill out there for me. So I have some confidence. And then, all of a sudden, I switch to the self-doubt side, and I go, 'How can I do this? It's really gonna be tough.' But, uh, I don't know. It's a tremendous challenge.
Tavis: It's gotta be nice, though, I think, on a couple of different levels. One, because you've done the prime-time thing, so you're challenged by a daytime thing. That's--I mean, challenges are always good for a guy like you, a guy like me. You like to be challenged, number one. Number two, you go in with name identity. You know how difficult it is to get something off the ground when nobody knows who you are? And, in your case, you don't just have name identity, but thirdly, people like Tony Danza. You've always been one of those guys that people like and want to hang out with and get to know and chase down in the street. I mean--
Danza: Well, I'm hoping that that's all gonna--listen, you know, these things work. Like, I used to talk about, uh--somebody said, 'How come ‘Who's the Boss?' worked and other shows you had didn't work?' It's just things come together at that moment, you know? There was a--it had a little hook on 'Who's the Boss?' It was the first time a guy was cleanin' house for a girl, you know, whatever it was. Um, you know, it's that convergence of factors that some... A championship season. I don't know what it is. It feels a little bit like that this time, so who knows? We're gonna, you know... I got everything crossed.
Tavis: How cool was 'Taxi'? And I ask that because I--you know, it reruns all the time and I was just watching it the other night. How cool was it doing that show?
Danza: Well, you gotta remember, we were all kids, you know. I was in my 20s, and it was an incredible time. You gotta realize, too, it was the hottest show on TV--like 'The Sopranos' now. That's how 'Taxi' was, and I was in it, you know. We were living in Hollywood. I had a Corvette. I was a young guy. It just couldn't have been better.
And you got to work every day, you got to work with not only the guys in the cast, Danny and Judd and Jeff and Chris and Andy Kaufman and Marilu, but the guys behind the scene. Jim Brooks, you know, 'Broadcast News,' 'Terms of Endearment,' as good as it gets. Ed. Weinberger, Stan Daniels, Dave Davis, David Lloyd. I mean, the list of guys--Jimmy Burrows--the guys that were behind the scenes--it was like going to the greatest academy for 5 years. For me it changed my life because I was smart enough to absorb as much as I could. Then when I got a chance to do 'Who's the Boss?' I tried to apply the things that I had learned there. You get rid of the good stuff you really liked--I mean, the good stuff you kept, and the other stuff you said, no, I don't need that.
Tavis: Speaking of 'Broadcast News' and Mr. Burrows, there was a line in that movie, and I'm paraphrasing it, but there was a line that is uttered, I believe, by William Hurt, and the line is, 'What do you do when your life exceeds your dreams?' What do you do when your life exceeds your dreams? You're lucky to ever be in a situation where your life has exceeded all the dreams that you had. But juxtapose for me your life with the dreams that you had as a kid growing up.
Danza: Well, I tell you, I think back--my mother and father, terrific people. Really hard workers. My mom was a bookkeeper, office manager. My father was a garbage man, like I said, and I do this joke: he worked on the street that I lived on and went to school on. And I was always so proud of him 'cause he used to drop me off at school with the truck.
Tavis: Ha ha ha ha!
Danza: But anyway, they just filled you with an incredible work ethic. And my mother--especially my mother--she was the ambitious one in the family. She was always saying, 'We should buy the house next door.' It wasn't for sale, but that's my mom. She also always said you could be whatever you want to be. You're special. You can do it. And you start to believe that. So I was always a dreamer. I always thought, you know, my mom said I could do it. So I always-- sometimes it got me in trouble because, you know--
Tavis: My mom said I could do that!
Danza: Yeah, exactly. But I've been lucky. I've been very fortunate. I was discovered in a boxing ring. A guy saw me. I end up on TV. I end up in the best show on TV. I get a career out of it. And then I'm able, somehow... Somebody asked me the other day, 'What's your greatest achievement?' I think the greatest achievement is I'm still here. It's longevity, you know, over 25 years, we're still sitting around talking about it. So, you know, it's heady stuff. It's trippy.
Tavis: Now, because your show--again, 'The Tony Danza show: Live from New York,' premieres on my birthday, September 13th...
Danza: I'm sending you a card.
Tavis: And the driver's birthday and the housekeeper's birthday and everybody else's birthday--September 13th, 'The Tony Danza Show: Live from New York' premieres. I hate to even think about this because it's not gonna happen, 'cause again, you're starting on my birthday, but at this point in your career, if this doesn't work--if it doesn't work--'cause that's always a possibility...
Danza: Sure, it is.
Tavis: What happens? What are you gonna think? How are you gonna process that?
Danza: Well, you know, ego's tough. Any time something fails--I've had some failures. So your heart breaks a little bit. You feel for the people that work there, too, because it's not only you losing your job. A lot of people lose their jobs. And a lot of people put their heart and soul into it. And a lot of people at the studio, for instance--I feel for the people at the studio who go, 'I'm all in on ‘Tony Danza,'' you know? They're putting their careers on the line. But I think that's part of the deal. That's part of life. You just gotta move on, and what's next? I think. I don't--it's not like I don't ever consider that, but that's not something that weighs on me heavily.
Tavis: That is an honest answer and I appreciate that because you are such an honest guy and because you're starting on my birthday, September 13th. You got a hit. Tony, nice to see you.
Danza: Tavis, thanks for having me.
Tavis: That's our show for tonight. As always, you can catch me on the radio on NPR. I'll see you back here next time on PBS.
Danza: Salute.
Tavis: Yes. Thank you. Until then, thank you for watching. Good night from Los Angeles, and keep the faith.
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