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Interview With Fred Grandy
Aired October 07, 2003 - 14:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, well how do you turn star power into political power? Well Fred Grandy made the leap from the "Love Boat"'s Gopher to a four-term governor from Iowa and a failed run at the Iowa governor's mansion. But he's now joined the other side of politics: the news media. Woo, I don't know if I should say that.
Grandy says there's not much difference between entertainment and politics and experience in both is likely to play a role in his new job as a talk show host on D.C. radio station WMAL AM. Fred, thanks for joining us. Good to see you.
FRED GRANDY, FORMER CONGRESSMAN, TALK SHOW HOST, WMAL: Thank you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, so as an actor there's a lot of pros and cons about getting into politics. For you, what was the biggest transitional challenge?
GRANDY: Well, the biggest transition comes if you're lucky enough to get elected because you're almost like a dotcom stock with your celebrity beforehand. You rise and rise and rise. But as soon as you're, if you're lucky enough to get a majority of votes, you plummet. Then you have to do the job.
So if Arnold Schwarzenegger wins today and winds up tomorrow as the elected governor of California, he's got to rebuild an entire reputation, he's got to do it in a hurry because he has a very short amount of time. I mean, this isn't a honeymoon for a governor. This is a shotgun wedding. He's got to go to work immediately, build coalitions in Sacramento.
So I think he's probably at the peak of his popularity, assuming he wins the election.
PHILLIPS: Now, Fred, you had -- obviously you had a lot of fame with record to your role on the "Love Boat." Everybody knew you because of that. But you also had quite a strong background. You were a speech writer for Wiley Maine (ph), you when the to Harvard, you speak two languages. I'm very impressed by the Arabic by the way.
GRANDY: That didn't do me much good in Iowa, I must tell you.
PHILLIPS: You know though? You could be helping a lot folks out at the Pentagon right now, believe me.
GRANDY: Well they haven't called. PHILLIPS: Well, maybe now they will.
But now for Arnold, you know, everybody knows him as this big actor and this body builder. Now, does he have the other side like you had the other side? You had the education, you had the political background.
GRANDY: Well, first of all, I think what he has successfully sold is his ability to be a successful manifestation of the American dream, particularly the imported American dream. He's a successful immigrant entrepreneur. He has obviously married very well. One of his biggest assets in this campaign is Maria Shriver.
PHILLIPS: Why is that an asset?
GRANDY: Because she is an attractive spokesperson for him. And I think that people automatically connect them as a team. And assuming that he goes to Sacramento, I think that she will be an enormous asset for that.
That's the kind of thing people watch during the campaign. It obviously helped Bill Clinton. It helped Ronald Reagan when he ran. And I think it's helped George Bush.
So he has established himself as somebody who has started with nothing and become quite successful playing by the rules. It's not all that different from that report you just did in the Austrian beer hall. He's rich and successful. People want to tap into that.
PHILLIPS: So you don't think there's much difference between politics and entertainment?
GRANDY: I don't think there's any difference at all. I mean Washington is Hollywood with higher ceilings.
PHILLIPS: Now just because you have acting talent doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be a powerful leader or a smart leader.
GRANDY: No, but again, he has established himself as a successful business person. Not everybody in Hollywood is as successful at business as Arnold Schwarzenegger. That's a tremendous asset, particularly when you take over a chief executive job like governor.
So I think his ability to communicate, coupled with his ability to kind of parley very little natural talent, and I think that's not any denigration of him, into an enormously successful career, makes him connect with a lot of people that say, hey if this guy can do it, maybe I could do it too.
PHILLIPS: Well you definitely did it.
All right, Fred, in Arabic, I want to hear you say, "Listen to my radio show, WMAL."
GRANDY: (speaking Arabic) WMAL.
PHILLIPS: There you go, the Pentagon is listening.
GRANDY: You don't speak Arabic, that wasn't Arabic at all.
PHILLIPS: Hey, I know a few things. Enchila (ph). That's the most important, OK? There you go. Fred Grandy, a pleasure.
GRANDY: (speaking Arabic)
PHILLIPS: Aw. (speaking Arabic) to you too. Thanks, Fred. Take care.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 7, 2003 - 14:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, well how do you turn star power into political power? Well Fred Grandy made the leap from the "Love Boat"'s Gopher to a four-term governor from Iowa and a failed run at the Iowa governor's mansion. But he's now joined the other side of politics: the news media. Woo, I don't know if I should say that.
Grandy says there's not much difference between entertainment and politics and experience in both is likely to play a role in his new job as a talk show host on D.C. radio station WMAL AM. Fred, thanks for joining us. Good to see you.
FRED GRANDY, FORMER CONGRESSMAN, TALK SHOW HOST, WMAL: Thank you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, so as an actor there's a lot of pros and cons about getting into politics. For you, what was the biggest transitional challenge?
GRANDY: Well, the biggest transition comes if you're lucky enough to get elected because you're almost like a dotcom stock with your celebrity beforehand. You rise and rise and rise. But as soon as you're, if you're lucky enough to get a majority of votes, you plummet. Then you have to do the job.
So if Arnold Schwarzenegger wins today and winds up tomorrow as the elected governor of California, he's got to rebuild an entire reputation, he's got to do it in a hurry because he has a very short amount of time. I mean, this isn't a honeymoon for a governor. This is a shotgun wedding. He's got to go to work immediately, build coalitions in Sacramento.
So I think he's probably at the peak of his popularity, assuming he wins the election.
PHILLIPS: Now, Fred, you had -- obviously you had a lot of fame with record to your role on the "Love Boat." Everybody knew you because of that. But you also had quite a strong background. You were a speech writer for Wiley Maine (ph), you when the to Harvard, you speak two languages. I'm very impressed by the Arabic by the way.
GRANDY: That didn't do me much good in Iowa, I must tell you.
PHILLIPS: You know though? You could be helping a lot folks out at the Pentagon right now, believe me.
GRANDY: Well they haven't called. PHILLIPS: Well, maybe now they will.
But now for Arnold, you know, everybody knows him as this big actor and this body builder. Now, does he have the other side like you had the other side? You had the education, you had the political background.
GRANDY: Well, first of all, I think what he has successfully sold is his ability to be a successful manifestation of the American dream, particularly the imported American dream. He's a successful immigrant entrepreneur. He has obviously married very well. One of his biggest assets in this campaign is Maria Shriver.
PHILLIPS: Why is that an asset?
GRANDY: Because she is an attractive spokesperson for him. And I think that people automatically connect them as a team. And assuming that he goes to Sacramento, I think that she will be an enormous asset for that.
That's the kind of thing people watch during the campaign. It obviously helped Bill Clinton. It helped Ronald Reagan when he ran. And I think it's helped George Bush.
So he has established himself as somebody who has started with nothing and become quite successful playing by the rules. It's not all that different from that report you just did in the Austrian beer hall. He's rich and successful. People want to tap into that.
PHILLIPS: So you don't think there's much difference between politics and entertainment?
GRANDY: I don't think there's any difference at all. I mean Washington is Hollywood with higher ceilings.
PHILLIPS: Now just because you have acting talent doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be a powerful leader or a smart leader.
GRANDY: No, but again, he has established himself as a successful business person. Not everybody in Hollywood is as successful at business as Arnold Schwarzenegger. That's a tremendous asset, particularly when you take over a chief executive job like governor.
So I think his ability to communicate, coupled with his ability to kind of parley very little natural talent, and I think that's not any denigration of him, into an enormously successful career, makes him connect with a lot of people that say, hey if this guy can do it, maybe I could do it too.
PHILLIPS: Well you definitely did it.
All right, Fred, in Arabic, I want to hear you say, "Listen to my radio show, WMAL."
GRANDY: (speaking Arabic) WMAL.
PHILLIPS: There you go, the Pentagon is listening.
GRANDY: You don't speak Arabic, that wasn't Arabic at all.
PHILLIPS: Hey, I know a few things. Enchila (ph). That's the most important, OK? There you go. Fred Grandy, a pleasure.
GRANDY: (speaking Arabic)
PHILLIPS: Aw. (speaking Arabic) to you too. Thanks, Fred. Take care.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
