"I'm at a point now (in 1993), where I can just enjoy life. I take work seriously but I don't take myself too seriously. Work hard, be smart and remember there's no such thing as perfection," Kate Jackson told Bart Mills. In April 1993, the TV movie, 'Adrift' went on air. Kate Jackson spent 6 weeks in Gisborne, New Zealand in 1992 to film 'Adrift'. Kate told Susan King of the 'Los Angeles Times', Gisborne was "the first city of the sun" because "when the sun rises, the first rays of the sun hit the Earth in Gisborne, and it marks the new day for the whole rest of the world."
'Adrift' took viewers on an adventure as experienced by one couple celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary. They decided to set sail across the Pacific Ocean (from Los Angeles to Honolulu) for 3 months to rekindle their marriage. "It's an all-round adventure," Kate told Bart. "When I read the script, I couldn't stop turning the pages. And I loved being in New Zealand for 6 weeks making it, even though the water was incredibly cold and we worked from before dawn to 9 or 10 at night."
"It was just barely spring," Kate remembered. "It was wild and it was windy and it rained. It was unbelievable." Kate stayed at the Whispering Sands Motel, "It was on the ocean, but back from the ocean. The weather was incredible. I woke up at the ocean every day and my head was clear. I had no sinuses. I just felt like a million dollars." Kate also mentioned, "When we were in Gisborne, we were (shooting) the exteriors on a boat 59 feet long. We would go out in the morning when the sun came up and would come back at night when the sun would come down around 9:30 at night. It was unbelievable."
Kate reportedly received training, "I worked out really hard so I could hoist the sail. When it came time to do the scuba part, I could say, 'I can do that. I can swim. I can do this. I can do that.' I got to do all of those wonderful things." Kate described working with director Christian Duguay, "He had every shot in his head. He is one of the top 5 Steadicam operators in the world. He would strap on that Steadicam and we would be doing scenes."
Of the dolphins scenes, "They have to turn their heads to look at you. I had this dolphin cry, this little high voice you'd try to make. The baby dolphin would jump up and look at us. One day, I was way in the back on the bow of the boat and I was pulling the dinghy in. I had my hands (above the water) and a Shamu, a black-and-white baby killer (whale) was right underneath me. I was trying to touch it, but it sailed on past. It was beautiful."
Jaclyn Smith acknowledged, "Mini-series are great. You get to travel all over the world making them. Summer is when I hope the good projects will come along, so I can take (my children) with me. It's an adventure for them. Children love hotels. And because hotel rooms are small, and you're squeezed, you get even closer than at home … I don't want to work out of town during their school year, so I try to do lengthy jobs during their vacations. I take them with me, so far exposing them to the cultures of Canada, England, France and Switzerland."
Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and Farrah Fawcett rose to TV stardom in 1976 on the TV series, 'Charlie's Angels'. "We see each other every 3 or 4 months," Kate made known in 1993. "We make dinner at one another's house. We each make some special thing and bring it. We've always had a real bond, the kind you get when you come to work together at 6:00am and spend all day every day together.
"If you read those hairbrush stories in the rag newspapers - well, we never threw any hairbrushes … The show gave us a chance, as 'The Bionic Woman' gave Lindsay Wagner a chance. I don't know what you thought of 'Laverne & Shirley,' but look at Penny Marshall now (in 1993). People who didn't get it, didn't get it. We weren't the characters, we were women in control of our own lives, getting the last laugh on everyone who didn't understand."
Jaclyn Smith added, "I was a kid when I went on 'Charlie's Angels'. It was like 3 college kids in a dormitory. We didn't know what was up, and it totally changed our lives. It was a wonderful education for all of us, and opened doors." In 1989, Jaclyn could be seen in 'Christine Cromwell', "It's more in the genre of the mystery movies of the '30s and '40s. Cromwell has had a charmed life. She has a very interesting mother, and 6 stepfathers, her own father passed away. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence and Harvard Law School, was a public defender for 3 years, became disenchanted with it, and joined an investment firm."
Costume designer Marjorie Bowers: "She's a working woman, she doesn't have an unlimited wardrobe. We tried to establish her as having money from way back. There had to be a hook that separates Cromwell from other professional women on TV. We went through Jaclyn's closet to see her lifestyle choices, then struck a balance between the role and the actress." By 1992, some 22 million women were wearing Jaclyn Smith's label when shopping for casual wear at Kmart. At the time, Jaclyn co-produced and starred opposite Christopher Reeve in the TV movie, 'Nightmare in the Daylight'.
Costume designer Marjorie Bowers: "She's a working woman, she doesn't have an unlimited wardrobe. We tried to establish her as having money from way back. There had to be a hook that separates Cromwell from other professional women on TV. We went through Jaclyn's closet to see her lifestyle choices, then struck a balance between the role and the actress." By 1992, some 22 million women were wearing Jaclyn Smith's label when shopping for casual wear at Kmart. At the time, Jaclyn co-produced and starred opposite Christopher Reeve in the TV movie, 'Nightmare in the Daylight'.
Jaclyn told 'The Morning Call', "'Nightmare' probably got made because the network (executives) have seen me as a victim in serious and emotional pieces for a long, long time and it's hard to change their minds. But 'Love Can Be Murder' (also 1992) is hopefully a step in the right direction in terms of doing a greater variety of parts in the future. I'm hoping to develop properties that will allow me to do Southern, country and unsophisticated women so I can do dialects, a talent I've rarely been called on to do. I've only used regional accents 3 times in my entire career - in 'Florence Nightingale', 'Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy' and 'George Washington.' Nobody's even tapped my potential in this area."
In May 1994, Farrah Fawcett could be seen in the TV movie, 'The Substitute Wife'. Set in Nebraska in 1869, the movie told a story of one woman who had a few months to live decided to scour the American frontier to find a substitute wife for her husband and a new mother for her kids. Amy learnt women on the frontier were outnumbered by men 10 to 1. Hence a good woman was all but impossible to find. In the end, Amy settled for Pearl, a prostitute. "I'm not just a whore. I'm a damn good whore," Pearl said.
'The Substitute Wife' was written by Stan Daniels of 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' and produced by Fred Pierce, the former executive of the American Broadcasting Company. David Zurawik of the 'Baltimore Sun' observed, "This is a women's film in the best sense of the term." Ray Loynd of 'The Los Angeles Times' added, "The sex, under Peter Werner's measured direction, is realistic and forthright as opposed to smirky-glossy or coy."
'The Substitute Wife' was written by Stan Daniels of 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' and produced by Fred Pierce, the former executive of the American Broadcasting Company. David Zurawik of the 'Baltimore Sun' observed, "This is a women's film in the best sense of the term." Ray Loynd of 'The Los Angeles Times' added, "The sex, under Peter Werner's measured direction, is realistic and forthright as opposed to smirky-glossy or coy."
