YBMW Interview: Patrick Duffy. A Man With A Crab

YBMW: Did this type of stuff always interest you? When you were a kid, did you read superhero comics and stuff like that?

PD: Yeah, I did. I grew up in a little town in Montana, and for the first eight years of my life there was no television in Boulder, Montana. A couple of houses had television but we didn’t have TV in our house. So, our entertainment was comic books. You would then trade comic books, and it was a big event to go to somebody’s house with your box of comics, and then you would sit, and it was like a lending library, and you would trade comics. Then you’d come back to your house, and like I watched “Battlestar Galactica” here, like six episodes in a row, you would sit with some candy and start reading comic books one after another until you got through the box. It was generally the superheroes that I would read, but since there wasn’t a great variety it would even be the Archie’s and Sluggo and all of those. But, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Superman, Batman… those were the ones that you traded and loved. And little did I know, and nor was I planning, that my first job in the industry would be as a superhero.

A lot of people say “You played Aquaman, didn’t you?” And I said “No, didn’t really. I played Man from Atlantis.” We invented our superheroes because I think they didn’t want to pay for the Aquaman franchise.

YBMW: So, how do you like the way they’re treating superheroes now in movies compared to what you grew up with?

PD: The interesting thing is it’s the same as my involvement with “Patrick Duffy and the Crab.” I have to assume that my take on superheroes is antiquated by virtue of when I was impressed with it. It has to change. It has to become relevant for the time period that it’s being filmed in. And I’m looking at Dark Knight now vis-a- vis Michael Keaton’s Batman, or the Dark Knight especially vis-a -vis George Clooney, who says it’s probably the worst movie he’s ever done. You know, and I’m inclined to agree with him. So I watch The Dark Knight and I almost don’t look at it as a Batman series anymore, I look at it as a “superhero series,” almost like a reinvention of a superhero. Because I think Michael Keaton’s Batman, pretty much to this day is my favorite. I actually wish he would have stayed with the franchise one more time, cause I think he had the perfect balance between the reluctant hero aspect of Bruce Wayne and Batman.

His was the closest to the old comic book version that I was used to seeing. So, you know, I just look at The Dark Knight as a piece of science fiction that was terrific, and I like that aspect of it, but I didn’t think Christian Bale really nailed that particular superhero the way I like to see it. Although, I think Christian Bale is very fine actor.

I like superhero movies, but I wasn’t especially intrigued with superheroes that have to become completely computerized. When they go all the way to the Hulk or things like that. It becomes too cartoonish, and I don’t mean in a silly way cartoonish, but if they’re going to do that; I’d rather just watch a cartoon. The nice thing about the Batman stuff is it’s still humanoid in concept and I like that.

YBMW: Ok. Now, totally switching gears here, you had sort of the distinction of not only being the TV star in “Dallas” and “Step By Step,” but you also had a pop hit in Europe?

PD (laughing) Ha! Yes I did.

YBMW: We have the YouTube Video…

PD: Oh! I know it. Once you get on YouTube, they can just link it everywhere, to every misstep you ever made as an actor. That happened strictly and solely because of the popularity of “Dallas” in France. The singer, Marie Mathieu is a brilliant sort of Edith Piaf type singer and her management thought a great thing would be to put Bobby Ewing at the height of the Dallas fame, singing with Marie Mathieu.

I had never sung before in my life… and obviously should never do it again, and they tried to write a song… in as few notes as possible, and that’s what we sang.

It was quite successful as a record and sold over a million copies in Europe, but it was a one-off. You’ll notice that there’s not “Patrick and Marie, Together Again.” It just wasn’t to be.

YBMW: So you may have actually paved the road in Germany for David Hasselhoff…

PD: Well, theoretically, he can carry a tune a lot better than I haven’t followed his musical career, although I know David, he’s at least a singer by reputation, you know, maybe not my style of singer but he has sold millions of records so… (laughs) I don’t know if I paved the way or whether.

YBMW: Hey, a million copies is great.

PD: A million is great, it was certainly not because of the quality of the record, but the ingenuity of the management team wanting to capitalize on the success of a show… that’s all it was.