Brian Kerwin Reminisces About His Career

In a recent interview with Soap Opera Digest, Brian Kerwin was asked about a career that goes back many years prior to his current stint on One Life to Live...

Weekly: Are you on it? I printed seven pages for you. I'd like to mention the names of some shows you've been on, and then you can comment on them, okay?
Kerwin: Okay.

Weekly: The Young and the Restless (as Greg Foster, 1976-'77).
Kerwin: In terms of the starting of my career, one of the best things to ever happen to me was getting hired on The Young and the Restless. The only thing that may have been better was, six months later, getting fired from The Young and the Restless. It was a mutual dissatisfaction. I thought I would never do a soap again. I had a very bad experience working on that show and I certainly stayed away from soaps for the longest time based on that.

I was there for 40 episodes, six months. I was David Hasselhoff's (ex-Snapper) brother. Maybe I was young and silly, but I truly did not get along with the producer, John Conboy, at all, one little bit.

Weekly: The Love Boat (Ted Lawrence, 1980-'81).
Kerwin: The Love Boat was fun. The one I remember doing — I did two of them — was when they did a real cruise. They flew me down to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We all hopped on a boat and took two weeks to get back to Los Angeles. So, as far as I was concerned, that was a pretty good job. Don't remember anything about the show, but the cruise was nice.

Weekly: How about Roseanne (Gary Hall, 1990)?
Kerwin: That I truly enjoyed. I loved all the people in that. I've worked with Laurie Metcalf (Jackie) a couple times. Roseanne's a little wacko sometimes. John Goodman is one of the finest actors working. I just liked all the people. The biggest problem with that show was they picked me right at the end of one season for two episodes where I get engaged to Jackie. The plan was all through the next year or two or three, I would be getting married to Jackie, getting maybe divorced from Jackie.

Unfortunately that hiatus, Roseanne fired her entire production staff. So they started the new year with new producers, new writing team, new directors, and as is usually the case, they threw out what their predecessors did. So they quickly put two more episodes in which I broke up with Jackie and took a walk.

Weekly: St. Elsewhere (Terence O'Casey, 1986)?
Kerwin: I loved that show, too. It was a big double episode. I was a polio patient. Nobody could diagnose what I had. It turned out I had contracted polio in a society where polio doesn't much exist. But it was great. Denzel Washington (ex-Dr. Chandler) and David Morse (ex-Dr. Morrison) and William Daniels (ex-Dr. Craig), were all wonderful actors. Bruce Paltrow was producing it. It was an amazing staff of people. I would have stayed on that show forever.

Weekly: Did little Gwyneth Paltrow visit the set?
Kerwin: No. The first time I ever met Gwyneth, it was during a play reading. She had only done one film and people were starting to say, "Oh, she's talented. She's Blythe Danner's daughter." Nobody knew anything about her. She was 20 and we did this reading and I asked her if she had ever heard of a producer named Bruce Paltrow, and she said, "He's my dad!"

She never mentioned anything about Blythe Danner (ex-Paige, St. Elsewhere) being her mother. And we all talked, had a good ol' time talking about what a wonderful producer/director her father was. And then she turned into a huge superstar.

Weekly: And, finally, how did you like being on Big Love (Eddie, 2007)?
Kerwin: I loved it. I would have liked to do more. It actually came up in conversation when we were talking about starting One Life to Live Frank Valentini (executive producer) had seen Big Love, and he said, "You know, if they want you in more episodes, we'll schedule around it. We'd be happy to have you on Big Love while you're doing One Life to Live. It would help you. It would help us."

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.