Marie Introduces Joe:

Alright you guys, ladies especially. (Wild screams). Our next guest burned up the t.v. screens on such soaps as One Life To Live and the Guiding Light and he was named by People Magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people. He is best known for playing Jane Seymour’s long haired lover on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and now, he is going back to the great outdoors with a new series called Higher Ground. Would you please give a warm welcome to Joe Lando. (Screams and claps as Joe walks in and waves to the crowd who are all standing up clapping. Joe blows them kisses).

Marie: You’ve cut your hair.

Donny: It’s all short. You got rid of the long hair.

Joe: Yes I did, about two years ago now.

Donny: It looks good, it looks great.

Joe: (glancing over his shoulder at the pic of him as Sully from Dr. Quinn) I didn’t have to shave then either.

Donny: That was a great job.

Marie: Is Byron Sully .... Sully?

Joe: Byron, yeah.

Marie: Byron. You played ... good grief ... how many years was that you played him on Dr. Quinn?

Joe: Seven years of my life, six years on t.v.

Marie: What did you learn from that? Did you have any ... I mean that’s a long time to play a character.

Joe: Yeah, it was a long haul. I did the soaps before that and that was really a learning experience but I’ve learned so many things that I’ve learned enough so that on this new show I’m co-executive producer.

Donny: On Higher Ground?

Joe: On Higher Ground. I’ve learned a million things from Jane, she’s quite the professional ....

Donny: She’s been here several times, great lady.

Joe: Yeah, and we had a real tight crew ---

Marie: Donny had a crush on her

Donny: Every man has a crush on Jane Seymour

Joe: By the way, I learned English from you folks too.

Marie: You what?

Donny: You did, how so?

Joe: I’m kidding, I’m kidding. I grew up watching you guys on t.v. and so wow, I’m sitting here with you.

Donny: Okay, okay, I gotta read you your Chinese horoscope.

Joe: Do we have the same birthday? December 9th?

Donny: December 9th?

Joe: Yup

Donny: You gotta be kidding.

Marie: Now wait, I didn’t know that, but this is what is interesting about horoscopes because it’s different for everybody.

Joe: Different year.

Marie: Even though, yes, different year, so he’s a rooster but you’re an ox.

Joe: Am I? I thought I was a rat

Donny: No, no, no, you’re an ox. Your element is metal. This is interesting. This year you will meet challenges and surprises. You’ll meet influential people, the last part of 2000 will be better than the first.

Joe: Okay. So far it’s been pretty good.

Donny: Yeah? Well it’s only going to get better from here.

Joe: Great

Marie: Now you really enjoy -- the show Higher Ground -- what is it based on?

Joe: It’s based on schools that really exist all around the world, um kind of an outward bound program. My character’s name is Peter Scarbrow, he’s a recovering addict, seven years sober and the show picks up seven years into his sobriety while he’s running the school of 150 kids, all high risk teens, kids who have had quite a few problems, incest, and it’s set in the Pacific Northwest, beautiful scenery ...

Marie: And like you say, there are camps like this all over ...

Joe: All over - we visited ---

Marie: We have a clip from the show.

Joe: Great.

Marie: Do you need to set it up or shall we just watch it?

Joe: I think the clip will explain it.

Donny: Okay here we go.

(Shows clip of Peter telling Scott the rules of Mt. Horizon from the first episode “no drugs, no sex, no inappropriate touching and there’s no violence.”)

Donny: That’s a very interesting concept.

Joe: These girls are going to love that actor in that scene too, Hayden Christensen, he’s just a wonderful actor and a really good guy and I think he’s going to be somebody, somebody big.

Donny: A good buddy of mine, Rob Dias, does this very thing that you’re doing. He has a school for troubled teens, there’s quite a few of them around the country.

Joe: We visited a few in Northern Idaho and a few around here in Southern California.

Marie: Do you base your stories off of true stories?

Joe: All the kids are real stories and we’ve taken a license with what goes on from day to day obviously, but they are all based on real people. My character’s just a collection of people who we met.

Marie: So you have characters come and go and all that kind of thing?

Joe: Well, there’s 150 students and we really center our stories on 6 or 7 of them, Cliffhangers they're called, that’s the group.

Marie: You do 90% your own stunts too don’t you?

Joe: I do a lot of them, yeah.

Marie: What 10% won’t you do?

Joe: Ah, there’s, um, mostly it’s insurance reasons. You fall down and get hurt.

Donny: I totally understand that. We have you a shot of you in action. This is you in action.

Joe: Great.

(Shows clip of Joe climbing from the opening credits of Higher Ground and Joe does a voice over explaining which shots are him and which shots are a stunt man).

Donny: You did that?

Joe: No, that day I was supposed to be in the mountains, I wanted to be up there but we had to change locations as to where we were going to shoot that climbing scene and that rock that the stunt man was climbing on is scree ... I mean it breaks up ...

Marie: That’s you though, right?

Joe: That’s me, --- right now while this man’s climbing, I’m sitting on peak across from him watching him. It’s great, they dropped me off the helicopter and I’m just sitting there watching this guy. That was the best day of work for me I’ve ever had.

Donny: It looks like a lot of fun.

Joe: Oh yeah, it is. I worked in the studio and then I got in a car and they drove me up and dropped me on a mountain and um --- Joe is interrupted by screams and cheers --- and I’m really proud of the show, it’s really good.

Donny: I can see why. Well we really appreciate you coming by. Good luck with the show. It’s on the Fox Family Channel every Friday night.

Joe: Please watch.

Donny: Thank you Joe so much.