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• Article on Mr. Amos
• Halley's Comet Foundation

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Tavis: John Amos is an Emmy-nominated actor whose terrific career includes the groundbreaking sitcom, of course, "Good Times,' the seminal miniseries 'Roots,' and more recently, a recurring role on "The West Wing." This spring, you can catch him in his role in "Dr. Doolittle Three," now out on DVD. Here now, a scene from "Dr. Doolittle Three."

Tavis: John Amos, nice to have you here.

John Amos: Good to be here, Tavis.

Tavis: That's a long way from inner city Chicago and "Good Times."

Amos: Just a little bit. A little bit, yeah.

Tavis: You're out on a farm now.

Amos: You got it. Out on the ranch.

Tavis: Yeah. Did you like this?

Amos: Oh, I enjoyed it. A lot of people don't know, but I used to raise horses. And in fact I regard myself more as a country boy than I do a city boy, even though I was born in New Jersey. Summers, Mom would send me south to Birmingham, like most of us that had southern roots. And she'd put me on the train, and a couple of days later, I'd arrive in Birmingham and spend my summers there. So I've always been fond of the country and animals moreso than the city.

Tavis: Yeah, and it's not just that. Did I read somewhere, or somebody told me, Holly or somebody told me, you're working on a country CD?

Amos: Might be a country album.

Tavis: Might be a country album.

Amos: Just could be.

Tavis: So John Amos sings, too?

Amos: Oh, yeah, yeah. I've been singing. I never went into the studio and approached it seriously until I just got the bug again. Back in the day, I sang on the 'Dinah Shore Show' as a guest, and there was a show back in the early seventies called "The Funny Side" that had five couples on it of various backgrounds, various ethnic and financial backgrounds.

Theresa Graves and I portrayed the Black couple. Or the urban African American couple, as we were known. (Laughs) And each week, the show would have a different theme. One week it would be the funny side of marriage or shopping or whatever. And invariably, there'd be especially-written musical material, so we'd have to sing, as well. But I always enjoyed it. But I've especially enjoyed country songs because they're storytelling songs, and.

Tavis: I was about to ask you, what was the attraction to country here? The storytelling? Yeah.

Amos: Telling stories. And that's basically what I am as an actor is a storyteller. I felt very comfortable in that genre, 'cause for the last 15 years, I've been performing my own one-man show around the country.

Tavis: 'Halley's Comet."

Amos: 'Halley's Comet,' and we've talked about that in the past, but I'll share it with you.

Tavis: Please, please.

Amos: It's the love of my life, because I wrote the piece. Years ago, I realized that at any point as an actor, you're the extension of someone's ego. And unless your face is right on the top of that eight by 10 pile, or whatever it I they select you from, you don't exist. So I said I'd better use the skills and the gifts that God has given me and write something for myself.

'Cause there's four stages in an actor's life, as I understand it. There's who is Tavis Smiley, there's get me Tavis Smiley, get me a young Tavis Smiley, and then finally, once again, who is Tavis Smiley? (Laughs) So, I said before they get back to who is John Amos again, I'd better create something for myself. So I wrote a piece some 15 years ago called "Halley's Comet," and I've been performing it around the country and around the world for 15 years now.

Myself and my director, John Harrison, it's become the annuity that I hoped it would be, but from a creative standpoint, it's become a piece that allows me to play all of the characters that I've never had the opportunity to portray in Hollywood. So it's been a blessing for me.

Tavis: For those who have not seen it, when you say portray characters you've not had a chance to play, because you have done so much, those would be characters like?

Amos: Oh, like my 19 year old, of course, I'm much too old to play a 19 year older now. But I play my own 19 year old son, who was a Marine during the Second World War in a fierce fire fight. I portray his commanding officer, a redneck lieutenant. I also portray his Italian-American sergeant. These are characters that I portray briefly or peripherally. And some of the other characters I get into obviously a bit deeper during the course of the two-hour play.

Tavis: When you walk in a room, I suspect you get treated the same way all the time. But when you walk on the stage, when you came on the lot today, there's a buzz around the fact that John Amos is coming op the set today. John Amos is on the lot today. And I think that buzz exists in part because you haven't just been around for all these years, doing high quality work, but you've had the chance to be a part of seminal projects.

I used that word advisedly earlier. Deliberately earlier, I should say. When I said seminal, "Roots," seminal piece of work. 'Good Times,' seminal piece of television. Start with "Roots,' if I can, right quick. What do you recall, looking back on that now, about whether or not you thought it would become the seminal, classic piece that it has become?

Amos: I don't think any of us, well, I can only speak for myself. I don't think any of us anticipated that "Roots" would have the global impact that it did, not just in terms of a television audience, but in terms of convincing people or inducing people to go out and check out their own history. Find out about their own lineage, and who their ancestors were.

For me, on a personal basis, it was vindication, because I integrated two schools in the New Jersey school system. And the textbooks were, as you might imagine, when I was coming up. No, they weren't written in hieroglyphics, I'm not that old. (Laughs) But they were inaccurate, and they were insensitive, and they perpetuated stereotypes.

Tavis: I know you're getting older, they ain't changed a whole lot. Yeah.

Amos: Well, they've had to have changed since I was in school, because we had imagery, if you saw, I'll never forget the one image I saw that showed a Black man, and he had a tremendously huge, physically developed body, like he had been on steroids from birth. No offense, Barry. (Laughs) But a head that was almost like an acorn, implying that we had limited mental capacity, but unlimited physical prowess.

And when it got to the part about Africa and its history, as compared to European history, literally maybe a paragraph or two. Said Africa was shaped like a pork chop and inhabited by savages. And maybe a few more lines about lions, tigers, and bears, and that was about it. So as soon as I got my stuff together and I was able to travel, that was the first place on my agenda.

So I've been traveling to the continent for the past 30 years, beginning in Liberia, and having seen North Africa, South Africa, while Nelson was still incarcerated. East Africa. And most recently, I've been visiting and making relationships in the entertainment industry with the country of Uganda.

Tavis: How amazing is that in Liberia now, a woman president?

Amos: It's fantastic. I'd like to see happening all across the continent, and maybe in our own country as well.

Tavis: "Good Times.' Just saw you on TV Land the other night, the TV Land Awards. They gave a big, nice award to "Good Times.'

Amos: Nice reunion with the surviving members of the family. That was a good thing. I hadn't seen all of us together collectively in one place sense Esther Rolle passed. Yeah.

Tavis: Yeah. She was a neighbor of mine.

Amos: Really? She was a wonderful woman. And she personified the strong matriarch. But she had a sensitive side, too. And quite frankly, a lot of people don't know, but had it not been for Esther Rolle insisting that it not be a matriarchal family, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you about "Good Times." I might be talking to you about something else.

But she insisted that she have a husband on that show, and that it not be a matriarch. So hats off to you, Esther. Rest in peace.

Tavis: When you look back on the career that you've been able to put together, I assume that you're happy with what you've been able to do so far?

Amos: Oh, no question. I realize I've been blessed. I've been extremely fortunate. A lot of people don't know that I started out as a writer years and years ago, when I first game to the industry. I came down from Canada. I had taken my last shot at professional football, unsuccessfully. And if you had, like, a four-hour show, I could tell you about all the teams I played for (laughs) or tried to play for.

But at any rate, I had come down from Canada after getting cut from the BC Lions, the last team I was to try out for. And (laughs) I was supposed to be given a four-day tryout. That was the rule with American imports in those days in the Canadian League. But I got cut in two days. So I said, well, that's another sign that I really should be looking for another line of work (laughs) other than football.

And the bottom line is once I began to concentrate on making my living exclusively from the industry, it's like that was what I was supposed to be doing. Things just fell into place. After I had gone out on my first commercial audition, after being cut from 13 teams, the director, I walked into the room...

Tavis: So that really is a bad number, isn't it? (Laughs)

Amos: Yeah, it is a bad number for me. (Laughs) Maybe I should have tried out for my fourteenth team.

Tavis: Twelve, 14 teams, yeah.

Amos: But at any rate, I got cut so many times that I knew I had to do something else. And I went back to what I knew best, which was writing, performing, all the things that came to me naturally. And that's when my life began to turn around.

Tavis: Let me offer this, if I might, as an exit question. The one thing I always admired about you and others who have the fortitude, which I do not have, to be in this thing called Hollywood, I'm asking questions, but you couldn't pay me to be an actor. Not that I have any talent to do that anyway. And the reason why you couldn't pay me for it is because ya'll get told no so many more times than you get told yes.

There's only a few people who get told yes all the time, get to pick the scripts they want. Most people, every day in these auditions, get told no a whole lot more times than they get told yes. I assume, though, that being cut by 13 teams...

Amos: I was ready.

Tavis: (Laughs) There you go.

Amos: I had a lot of scar tissue, man. (Laughs) They couldn't get through to the real me.

Tavis: You see what I mean? You wanna make that connection. Maybe there was a lesson in there.

Amos: No question.

Tavis: By the time you came to Hollywood, they couldn't...

Amos: If at first you don't succeed, keep on trying. Just keep on pushing. Ultimately and eventually, you'll get there.

Tavis: Well, you have gotten there, and we are all the better for you having gotten there.

Amos: Well, I thank you.

Tavis: Nice to have you on.

Amos: I thank you.

Tavis: 'Dr. Doolittle Three,' now out on DVD, starring one James, John Amos. I'm trying to mix James Evans and John Amos. We'll call him John Amos, his real name. What his mama called him.

Amos: That'll work. Just make the check out right, Tavis. (Laughs)

Tavis: (Laughs) No check for coming on here, but you're welcome back anytime.

Amos: Oh, I appreciate that. That's as good as a check. Thank you.

Tavis: Glad to have you, man. That's our show for tonight. Catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from L.A. Thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith.