From 1986 to 1991, Harry Hamlin played the lascivious lawyer, Michael Kuzak, on ‘L.A. Law.” This spring, he returns to TV in a sitcom called ‘Movie Stars” in which he plays an Arnold Schwarzenegger-like character whose home life is more interesting than his on-screen roles.
Q: Your new show, ‘Movie Stars” makes fun of all these Hollywood heavyweights. Are you concerned about any of them trying to get revenge on you?
A: Yeah right. I may never work again. I’ll go on welfare. Maybe I’ll become a sanitation expert. I never really aspired to do something like that in the past, but when you think about it, that might be a good fallback career for me.
Q: Do you like sitcoms better than drama shows?
A: To be quite honest with you I’ve never really ever watched a sit-com before. I know it’s kind of a funny thing to say – me being in the business and all. But they’re just not part of my food chain. I can’t answer your question. I’ve never watched a sitcom before in all the years that I’ve been alive and working as an actor, it’s just never happened.
Oops. Wait a minute, I did see one episode of ‘Seinfeld” – the masturbation episode.
A friend of mine kept telling me that I had to see it and I finally caved-in. But I don’t remember ever watching another episode of any sitcom of any kind ever in my life. I’ve never seen anything like ‘M*A*S*H,” ‘All in the Family” or ‘I Love Lucy.”
Q: So what do you like to watch on TV?
A: Lately, I’ve been get ting a kick out of C-Span. That what’s on now that I think is really funny. You know, I never thought that the question of my TV habits would ever come up.
Q: How did you end up being an actor?
A: I actually wanted to be an architect. I went to Berkly to study architecture and, when I got there, all the architecture classes were filled. So I had to fill out my registration and register by noon, and the closest building to where I was had the acting department in it. So I filled out some cards ended up taking four acting classes and that’s pretty much all I’ve done ever since.
