Mark Harmon believed, "There's some kind of parallel between athlete and actor but I’m not quite sure what it is. You have to put a lot of dedication and desire into both. I worked hard at perfecting football techniques and the same applies to acting if you want to do it well. I’ve always looked on the camera as a friend. It doesn't frighten me because somebody was always taking pictures of my parents (Elyse Knox and footballer Tommy Harmon) or the family. I guess I got accustomed to movie cameras when I was in Junior High School and the family was doing cereal commercials in our backyard."
"I wanted to be a dancer, not an actress," Donna Mills disclosed. "I had no interest in acting. As a matter of fact I did a couple of plays in High School and I hated them because I had to kiss a boy I didn't like...When I was first starting out I was a dancer in Chicago, where I was from. I did a lot of stage work in New York and Chicago – not Broadway. Theater is where I feel I come from, I’d like to go back."
George Segal remarked, "On stage most of the time – out of a sense of politeness – you don't fool around, try new things (such as improvising). But the more fooling around there is, the more sense of spontaneity." Mark made known, "Acting was always in the back of my mind. But it was only (in 1975) that I admitted it to myself." Writer and director Mel Frank "has no loyalty to his printed word," George observed. "He’s loyal to his ideas. It’s what happens between the words in a movie, as Glenda (Jackson) says. But on stage, all you have are words. Most of the audience is too far away to see faces."
"I come from the background of my father, who comes from the steel mills – that's what Rensselaer, Indiana is about," Mark mentioned. "And some of those values are instilled in me. I was an athlete because I never played the perfect game. I never played a game where I said, 'That’s it. I can't play it any more perfect than that – just like it was on the chalkboard. There’s a parallel there between that and being an actor."
"As an actress you get some feedback when your show is on," Donna noted. "People come and tell you – sometimes they tell you it's not so good – but at least you have some feedback. As a producer there are long, long periods of time when you're developing a project when there is no reward, and no monetary award. As a producer in television you don’t get any money until the network orders it. Not a cent."
"I’ve done other things in my life," Mark shared. "I’ve sold shoes. I’ve been a carpenter. I’ve sold flowers. I did advertising exec work. And I know I didn’t like that. And I know that, as an actor, I look forward to getting up and going to work in the morning. And I look forward to the idea of working real hard at something and having a chance to get better at it and maybe that possibility of how good you can be is limitless."
Donna played Abby on 'Knots Landing', "I wanted the part the moment I read the script...I had to persuade the producers to cast me completely against type. They were looking for a dark, buxom woman for the role...Abby was introduced to stir up trouble. To make things sort of cook and bubble...She likes power more than money. She’s got enough money. It’s power...she most wants...I go into a supermarket, and people will come up to me and say, 'You’re so bad and naughty...I just love you'. The fan mail is the same."
Mark pointed out, "There's a real insecurity involved in this business. Actors are insecure for a reason. It’s bred into their nature and my belief is, you have to find a reason to love that insecurity and hate it at the same time."
"I like making decisions. There’s something very satisfying about making decisions. Sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re not. But I find that more bad things can happen from indecision than from bad decisions," Donna discovered. "I’m never afraid the elevator is going to drop. I’m just afraid it’s going to get stuck." For instance, "I just pitched a series to CBS (in 1990) that I don’t want to be in. It’s an hour dramatic series. But it sort of took us a long time to get an appointment. They said if I wanted to be in it, they would see us immediately. Since I didn’t want to be in it, they weren’t quite so anxious."
"Money isn’t everything," George reasoned. But "of course money makes a difference...When we’re in New York, it’s not a matter of whether we can afford to go to Sardi’s...When we do, we can look at the left side of the menu first." Donna acknowledged, "I've never been poor, but I’ve certainly had to watch my pennies on different occasions in my life. So I’m very conservative with money. I was brought up with that idea. No matter how much money I’ve ever made, I’ve always saved a lot of it."
In the 1984-85 season of 'Knot Landing', the communications (or intelligence gathering) project Empire Valley became the feature storyline on the show. Abby's role in the project was "vital to national security." "You expect to use my TV as a cover up for your electronic Disneyland?" Abby told Greg (played by William Devane). Greg required Abby to expedite the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licenses to enable satellite dishes be installed and used for sending, collecting and storing of information. Madison Mason played John Coblentz told Abby, "Now the reward for the free world with its communications network that can intercept messages of war, of missile and troop deployments, of sabotage by terrorists. This is vital to our security."
