You can take wonderfully talented actors, wonderfully talented writers and producers, and, uh, do a wonderful show!… but if it doesn’t hit with the public in two minutes, it’s bye-bye.

I always learned to be philanthropic… to give back.

We used to listen to all the marvelous operas on records. Music was a very important part of our lives.

Because of the power of television, I was visible to everybody all over the world. But there are many things in the theater that are more fulfilling and that I look forward to doing more....

They very seldom let me lose my cool. They made me like I was Polly Perfect, which was ridiculous so that when I bump into kids on the street they’d say ‘I wish my Mom...