The Remaining Half of "Guiding Light's" Most Famous Foursome Wax Nostalgic on Tacky Gifts, Inappropriate Noises and Enduring Friendships
by Adam Kelly
Soap Opera Digest
June 24, 1997
Remember the early '80s? Rubik's Cube...Reagonomics...Smurfs...and GUIDING LIGHT's Four Musketeers: Rick, Mindy, Phillip and Beth. Over the years, the actors playing those characters left the show one by one. Judi Evans Luciano (ex-Beth) now plays Paulina on ANOTHER WORLD, while Krista Tesreau (ex-Mindy) ended her run as ONE LIFE TO LIVE's Tina in January. But actors (and real-life best friends) Michael O'Leary (Rick) and Grant Aleksander (Phillip) both returned to GL in 1995--and it was there, in the shady dressing room they share on the studio's fifth floor, that they took us on a trip down memory lane.
Digest
Which of you was at GL first?
Aleksander
I was. I came on in December of '82, and Mikey got here in May, '83. Before that, Phil MacGregor played Rick.
Digest
Why did they get rid of Phil?
Aleksander
As I recall, they were looking for Beths, and [to O'Leary] you tested with the Beth's out in L.A., right? And I think [then-Executive Producer Gail Kobe] thought Mikey was more like what she thought Rick should be.
Digest
What were your first impressions of each other?
O'Leary
When I first started, I was so nervous. I really remember wanting to be accepted by everybody. But I think we hit it off pretty quickly.
Aleksander
It's sort of impossible not to like Mikey. Everybody likes him. I was a bit more hotheaded, but even so...we hit it off pretty much immediately.
Digest
How do you feel today about the whole Four Musketeer phenomenon?
O'Leary
I look back at old tapes every now and then, and boy, were we young. We were kids! But the story was great. It was just about what kids did: bouncing around, getting in trouble, stealing girlfriends.
Aleksander
It was very well-written. It could have worked with any four actors, just probably not as well. We were the right four people at the right time, doing the right story. We did that story in the early '80s, and it played on that whole "American innocence" sort of thing. If we did that story now, even with the same actors, I don't know if it would be nearly as popular, because the country's different. Society has a harder edge.
O'Leary
Krista [Tesreau] was so sweet and funny and vivacious.
Aleksander
It's funny how things turned out, because we tested so many Mindys, and they really wanted this one girl who was a preacher's daughter. She was a little sexpot; she started undressing me in her audition. And they desperately wanted her, but her father the preacher demanded script approval, so it didn't work out. Then Krista came along, and she was adorable and energetic, but really not what the character was conceived to be.
Digest
Did you have fun back then?
O'Leary
Oh, yeah, We always horsed around.
Aleksander (laughing)
Remember when I put on Mary Kay's [Adams, ex-India] clothes? I put on her tennis outfit one time while Chris Bernau [ex-Alan] was shooting a tennis scene. I came out in a wig and the tennis outfit and he just looked at me, not knowing what to say, and then in frustration he shouts, "WE'RE TAAAAPING!"
O'Leary
The story about Krista farting is lengendary.
Aleksander
Oh, yes.
O'Leary
We were doing Cyrano [on-screen] and Mindy was directing Beth, Phillip and Rick. And we were screwing around and finally they told us to get our act together, so we decided to run lines. Only Krista said she didn't need to, she already knew everything, so we ran our lines and she just...didn't. Anyway, we start taping the scene, and it gets to Krista's line and from the look on her face, it was obvious she had no idea what to say next. Her lips started quivering and she was completely silent and then, all of the sudden [there was a loud, long, farting noise].
Aleksander
Shamu in heat.
O'Leary
That fart could have knocked down a wall. But the funniest thing was, the guy operating the boom mike said "Wait, I think I heard a fart. Play it back." So they replayed Krista's fart. Then we had to pick up from the fart, except Krista was convulsing with shame and our faces were swollen from laughing so hard.
Aleksander
We always had fun, and as much as anything, I think people like to watch people who are having a good time.
O'Leary
Being silly, irreverent, just having a good time, that's us. We're a lot like Rick and Phillip in that way.
Aleksander
The only thing we don't do in real life, but do as characters, is the angry stuff. I don't think Mikey and I have ever had a real fight.
O'Leary
You gave me a lecture once.
Aleksander
I've been stern occasionally, but never any fighting or shouting.
Digest
On GL, of course, Rick and Phillip have had some terrible fights--and they're always Phillip's fault.
O'Leary
It's true. Like when he slept with my wife, Meredith.
Aleksander
You weren't married then.
O'Leary
Yes, I was.
Aleksander
No, you weren't! Go get one of our show historians to check. Rick and Meredith were not married then, and she forced me into it.
O'Leary
Forced?
Aleksander
I was drunk.
O'Leary
That's always his excuse. Then, I did an appearance somewhere right afterward, and this woman was like, "Phillip slept with your wife, but you're still gonna be friends, right?" Nobody cared about Meredith; all they cared about was that Rick and Phillip stayed friends.
Digest
The characters are practically a supercouple, they've overcome so much.
Aleksander
Regardless of what happens to the characters, I think people know these guys are great friends and love each other. That's what fans think, more than anything else.
O'Leary
The other thing is, there's this societal thing about men having problems being affectionate with one another. Grant and I don't have that problem. We're comfortable with each other.
Aleksander
We don't do a lot of back-slapping.
O'Leary
Yeah. So that veneer is gone, and what remains is familiarity. We have traveled a road together, and that's the way real good friendships are. I get tons of letters from men, and they talk about their own friendships, and invariably they see themselves as either the Phillip or the Rick in the relationship.
Digest
Do you two hang out after work?
Aleksander
We try to get together on a fairly regular basis. Usually that means grabbing some Mexican food and margaritas after work. Now that Mikey's a papa, we have to schedule things a little better.
O'Leary
In the beginning, before we were married, we would go bowling every Friday night. Then we would go to John's Pizza, then get ice cream.
Digest
Do your wives get along?
O'Leary
Yeah, Sherry and my wife, Joni, really have a lot in common; they're both from the South, and they hit it off real good.
Digest
Do you exchange Christmas presents?
O'Leary
Oh, yeah. Once, I got this kind of tacky gift...
Aleksander
Here we go.
O'Leary
I hope the person never reads this article, but anyway, it was this ceramic lighthouse with purple water and little people on it and it had a broken clock.
Aleksander
It was like something you'd see at a yard sale.
O'Leary
I threw it in the trash, but later, I picked it out again. This was two weeks before Christmas, so Joni and I got a new box, wrapped it up all professional-like and gave it to Grant. We were really serious about it. So he and Sherry gave us all these nice gifts, and then we gave him the ceramic lighthouse and I said, "We really hope you like this. Joni and I worked really hard on this."
Aleksander
Oh, now you're embellishing! You didn't say you made it.
O'Leary
Yes I did. So he opens up the present and he's getting all excited and opens the box and...he just looks at it, trying to figure out what it is.
Aleksander
I was trying to think of something nice to say about it. And meanwhile, I'm thinking, "God, I'm going to have to display this thing somewhere." And I said, "Jeez...look, Sherry...this is just...really special."
Digest
Whatever happened to it?
Aleksander
I gave it to Jerry ver Dorn [Ross].
Digest
It's interesting that you both returned to GL around the same time.
O'Leary
I came back first, and I was always like, "When are you coming back?"
Aleksander
When I finally did, I walked into the hallway and I saw him and we laughed, because it was like we came full circle. But it felt good.
O'Leary
It's a great job, and to have your best friend with you, what more can you want?
Aleksander
It doesn't suck.
O'Leary
No, it sure doesn't.
