[sinclairfan]

September 18, 1976
NBC NEWS SPECIAL
Morgan Fairchild interview

Jessica Savidge:  Good evening, America.  As you may have heard, later this week, NBC News will be filming, and showing, a Parking Lot Brawl between soap actress Morgan Fairchild and Bionic Woman Lindsay Wagner.  What's a parking lot brawl?  Well, our friends at ABC's Battle of the Network Stars can't seem to decide whether they're hosting fistfights or catfights.  So, we're having two NBC actresses get ready in their on-set trailers, then "step outside" into NBC's parking lot to fight on camera.  We aim to excise the circus atmosphere which ABC's approach has facilitated, and to show two "real women", albeit super-sexy one's, fight it out in a realistic setting.  No plush carpeting, just hard pavement.  We'll interview both NBC stars, Morgan Fairchild first.  Morgan, you look stunning.... what caused you to agree to participate in the first "Care to Step Outside?" fight.

MF:  Thank you, Jessica.  Well, like every woman in America, regardless of who you were rooting for, I was electrified by Lynda Carter's and Farrah Fawcett's fistfight in May.  The energy was so raw, so hard, so real.  Finally, America's men could see on display for the first time how two alpha women actually fight.  And although I have ..... minor complaints ..... although each woman has her own foibles, in my eyes, ..... there was no denying that each are alpha's  ..... that, like Lynda later said, they both sleep with who they want, they both get the roles they want.  They don't back down from anyone or any challenge.  It was an irresistible force/immovable object thing.  Only one of them could win.  It was primal, like Donna deVarona described.  Lindsey and I want to recapture that energy ..... says the Cathy Lee Crosby drama and crocodile tears and breast mauling.  Just two women, toe to toe.

JS:  So alpha women don't maul each others' breasts?

MF:  They ..... we .... do.  But after we punch the snot out of your face.  Jessica, think about it .... go back to the first time you were in Middle School and saw two high school alphas in jeans, both standing, fists up, just .... punching each other [jabbing motion] ..... right cross, left jab, right hook.  Picture how scared you were of one having her nose broken, a tooth knocked out.  Picture yourself in bed that night, not answering the phone when a friend called to talk about it, because you didn't know what to say, didn't trust your voice not to crack.Crack.  Knowing it was inevitable that one day it would be YOU in the fistfight.  Wondering how you'd do.  Hoping the girl you'd fight would be pretty.  Wondering how you'd handle the humiliation of a loss.  Lindsay and I want to recreate THAT fight.  By being on hardtop, it's not going to the ground.  It'll be a mostly standup fight.

JS:  Who DID win that fight, in Middle School, when it was your turn to fight?

MF:  Do you REALLY need to ask, Jessica?  ...... I ALWAYS win.

JS:  Next up, Lindsay Wagner.

[sinclairfan]

Seprember 18, 1976
NBC NEWS SPECIAL
Lindsay Wagner Interview

JS:  We are back, this time with the star of 'The Bionic Woman', Lindsay Wagner.  Lindsay, your opponent for later this week, Morgan Fairchild, just gave us a window into her personal reaction, first to the Lynda Carter-Farrah Fawcett and subsequent fights on ABC, and then secondly into her own witnessing of and participating in girlfights.  I wonder if you'd be willing to do the same.

LW:  Sure, I can try.  On the ABC fights, certainly I remember wondering what exactly to expect when first hearing that Lynda and Farrah were going to fight.  Farrah, especially ..... I guess we've all gotten used to the smiling poster of hers--what could get her so angry that she would come to blows with someone?  But, then, it all kind of came together when I thought about how all of us in the industry think about where each of them go from here--I mean, Charlie's Angels and Wonder Woman are popular now, but Mannix was popular in 1970, 1971 and is off the air now, right?  Where do they go next?  And, they're each, .... Lynda and Farrah ..... headed down the same path.  I guess we each became, in a way. ...  our own casting directors, and started playing them off against each other.  So, yeah, it made sense ...... let's put them in a room and have them fight. 

JS:  And when you saw the fight, what was your reaction?

LW:  Shock, of course.  But pride.  Pride as an actress.  I mean, they fought as well as any .... biker chick ..... or girl gang leader ..... you name it.  They just put it all out there.  No fear at all, that's for sure.  I was proud to be an actress that night.  This is where I think ABC has mis-read the ratings they're getting.  America tuned in for the determination the women showed, not their grabbing breasts or whatever.  ABC is going for the "jiggle" angle, when it's the sheer ... bravery .... shown by two women that's the draw.

JS:  Now, let's talk about Lindsay.  Have you been in fights, and how did you handle yourself?

LW:  Well, I DID have the whole middle school/high school initiation that Morgan talked about.  But for me, the first time I got some .... "lead in my pencil" ..... in a fight was at a nightclub.  I had a gentleman putting the moves on me .... in a good way, I was certainly receptive ..... and another woman my age and build .... and, I'll admit, pretty ...  must have had his eye on him, too.  Well, she confronted me in the powder room, and asked me to leave.  So I asked her if she cared to step outside.  And something kicked in for me, because I knew then it was on between her and myself, that there was no way to avoid violence between her and me.  This story is what gave NBC the idea for the concept between Morgan and me .... and, if it works, between many other pairs of women down the road.

JS:  I'm going to guess you won that fight with your barroom rival?

LW:  I ..... won.  In that I got the man.  But the fight itself was very raw, very violent.  I don't regret it, it needed to happen.  Every woman needs a fight like that every so often.  Morgan said she always wins.  Well, then maybe she hasn't been looking for the right kind of fights .... against the right women.

JS:  Intriguing.  And with that, we're out of time.