Dave: My next guest stars as the dreamy Dr. Susan Lewis on the show that all the kids are talking about, ER. Making her first appearance with us, ladies and gentlemen, how about a nice welcome for Sherry Stringfield.

 

(Sherry enters as the CBS Orchestra plays "Son of a Preacher Man" by Dusty Springfield).

 

Dave: Welcome to the program

 

Sherry: Thank you

 

Dave: I certainly appreciate you dropping by. Tell the folks a little bit about yourself. Where're you from?

 

Sherry: Texas

 

Dave: Oh! What part of Texas?

 

Sherry: Houston

 

Dave: Houston, Texas is a great town isn't it?

 

Sherry: (Pauses)Yeah...(laughs)

 

Dave: What do you mean? You seem reserved there...um, sort of qualified?

 

Sherry: Um...no, it's a great town, I loved growing up there but I don't know that I could really live there now.

 

Dave: Why not?

 

Sherry: Well...

 

Dave: Not big enough for you?

 

(Sherry laughs, then audience, then Dave)

 

Sherry: (Using mock snob voice) Yeah, if it's not New York or L.A., I mean, where do you live?

 

Dave: No, but it's, uh, every time I've been there, it's something very romantic about Texas, very exciting.

 

Sherry: Oh, it's great.

 

Dave: Yeah.

 

Sherry: Yes, vast and...yeah, it is kinda romantic.

 

Dave: But the people there in Houston, you're saying, get on your nerves. Is that what your saying?

 

Sherry: (Laughs) No, no, my family's there, I'm not saying that.

 

Dave: Yeah, of course. So then you left Houston, where'd you go?

 

Sherry: I went to New York. I went to, uh, SUNY Purchase.

 

Dave: Uh-huh.

 

Sherry: Art school, and um...

 

Dave: Okay, you were in art school, what were you gonna do with an art degree?

 

Sherry: No, I mean, like...I was an actress there. I studied acting.

 

Dave: Oh, you studied acting.

 

Sherry: Yeah.

 

Dave: And what did they teach you, how to act, uh, at college? What did you learn that you still use today? What tool is valuable for you?

 

Sherry: Um....I guess the mind set that....You're really no one, you're not very talented and you're never going to work. (Laughs)

 

(Audience laughs)

 

Dave: Oh, that's what they taught you.

 

Sherry: That's basically what they taught me.

 

Dave: Well they were all wrong, weren't they? You had the last laugh. You know what I learned in acting school? And I still use it today. How to put on my own make-up. (Dave smiles at the audience, they cheer)

 

Dave: That's right.

 

Sherry: (Points at Dave) Actually...

 

Dave: So what was, uh, what was your, like, first time, uh, first big time, show business job?

 

Sherry: Uh, Guiding Light, a soap opera.

 

Dave: A soap opera, sure. Is that still on the air, the Guiding Light?

 

Sherry: Yes it is.

 

Dave: And what part did you play?

 

Sherry: The villainess.

 

Dave: Uh-huh.

 

Sherry: Evil Blake.

 

Dave: You killed people? You...

 

Sherry: No, I didn't kill people but...

 

Dave: Broke up marriages?

 

Sherry: Oh yeah. Broke up marriages. And, um, I locked my husband up in, like an insane asylum because he had, like a crush on someone else.

 

Dave: So you had him declared legally insane.

 

Sherry: Yeah.

 

Dave: Oh, that's cute. Yeah, and, uh...

 

(Audience laughs)

 

Dave: And how did you get along with the rest of the cast members? Did they know that this wasn't you? Or did they take it out on you, or is that just silliness?

 

Sherry: Um...well, that's funny because, um, they're kinda mean to you when you play a villain on a show.

 

Dave: Yeah.

 

Sherry: Not mean to you but they take it serious, like when you walk in at, like seven in the morning for the rehearsal and everyone's like (mimics her co-stars by giving a cautious look). You just start saying your lines and they kinda take it seriously, I guess, because you're being so evil everyday. They kinda think you are.

 

Dave: Yeah, you're doing such a good job of acting they think, well, I bet she really is like that.

 

Sherry: I guess. People don't like their characters to be, like...you know, I throw water on people so they always, like, knew if you were in a scene with Sherry, like, some bad stuff might go down. So they were kinda like--

 

Dave: I hate it when the bad stuff goes down.

 

(Sherry laughs and so does the audience)

 

Dave: Paul, who sang that song?

 

Paul Shaffer: That was Don Henley, I think.

 

(Audience laughs again)

 

Dave: Oh yeah, that was an old Eagles song, isn't it?

 

Sherry: Right on! (Laughs)

 

Dave: "Hate it When the Bad Stuff Goes Down". (Laughs) And then you went on to, after that you were on--

 

Sherry: NYPD Blue.

 

Dave: Were you naked on that show? Everyone's naked on that show.

 

(Audience laughs)

 

Sherry: Yeah...yeah...I had a little butt scene.

 

Dave: Hey, a butt scene!

 

Sherry: A butt scene!

 

(Audience cheers)

 

Dave: Uh, then was that all right with you? Do you mind--

 

Sherry: No--

 

Dave: Is it something that actors and actresses are expected to do these days, those butt scenes?

 

Sherry: No, I don't know...uh, I don't know if they expect to do it, but uh, I kinda...liked it in like a weird way.

 

Dave: Really!

 

(Audience cheers emphatically)

 

Sherry: (Resigned) Oh...God...no, I mean (laughs), in the way of...you know what? It's a butt. And like--

 

Dave: What are you saying?

 

Sherry: It's kinda nice to, like, de-glamorize that stuff.

 

Dave: Uh-huh

 

Sherry: I mean, it was like a cop show.

 

Dave: Right.

 

Sherry: And it was...it wasn't gratuitous.

 

Dave: No, of course not...let me just make...make a little note here for your file (pretends to write on a blue index card)...Sherry...enjoys...the butt scene...

 

(Sherry laughs, audience cheers)

 

Dave: Okay, that will go on your permanent record...and then you left NYPD Blue and you must've thought, man, that was a great show, what am I gonna do now? I'm not on NYPD Blue. And then you got on ER.

 

Sherry: Yeah, that was lucky.

 

Dave: How did you get that job?

 

Sherry: Um, like, I'm still not really sure because I left NYPD Blue and I was gonna move back here, so, like half my stuff was here and half in LA, and then, like, that came up and then I was like... all right, let's go with this. (Dave laughs) I'm in LA still!

 

Dave: So you're in Los Angeles but, I mean, this is gonna be a bigger show, this must be very gratifying for you.

 

Sherry: It's amazing--

 

Dave: Yes?

 

Sherry: Oh very. I'm so blessed. Yeah.

 

Dave: Well, good for you. Well it was a pleasure meeting you.

 

Sherry: It was a pleasure.

 

Dave: And give my best to the rest of the folks over there in the emergency room.

 

Sherry: I will.

 

Dave: Thank you very much, Sherry.

 

Sherry: Thank you.

 

(Audience starts cheering)

 

Dave: Sherry Stringfield, ladies and gentlemen. Don Henley is next. Thank you so much.