Athleisure Mag #57 Sep 2020 | Turning Negatives into Postives with Suzanne Somers

This month, we caught up with one of TV's favorite sitcom actresses who also made an impact in the fitness world as an icon. We talked with Suzanne Somers about how a series of events took place that got her into the industry, how she nabbed one of her most known roles as Chrissy Snow of Three's Company, how leaving this role created an opportunity for Thighmaster as well as her focus on women living their best lives as the navigate the process of aging. She shared her insights as well as the negative moments that she forged into positives and her ultimate success.

ATHLEISURE MAG: What was the moment when you realized that you wanted to be in entertainment and to be an actor?

SUZANNE SOMERS: There was no moment. You’d think that there was a moment and you’d think that there was a dream. But I am a recovering Catholic and I got pregnant the first time that I had ever had sex. I was 17 or 18 – I was very young. The other day, my granddaughter said, “you got pregnant and lost your virginity on the same day?” I said, “yep”. So at that time, it didn’t matter whether you liked the boy or not, you were going to get married. I found myself walking down that aisle that I didn’t want to walk down in an outfit that I hated. My mother and I went to buy it and I remember her saying, “it shouldn’t be too white.”

What came out of that was this baby. I mean at 18, who wants to have a baby – I didn’t I’ve been very honest with my son about that and said, “who wants a baby at 18? I didn’t know you.” When I delivered him, I looked at these little eyes that were all bunchy and out of my mouth came this statement, “I promise that I am going to make a good life for you.” I did. I figured it out. I got pregnant at 18, I gave birth one month after my 19th birthday and I got divorced from the father and it was just me and my son against the world. I was never going to stay with the father, I knew that. I was the first person in my family to ever get a divorce and the first person in my hometown who ever got that divorce and I kept that promise. I didn’t know how to be a mother. My son never got into drugs, he never got into alcohol. I believe that we’re hard wired and when I had my baby, I knew I was going to make it right and I had the wisdom to know that part. I am so proud of him. He’s a good father, I wish that I had had a good father like him. He has 2 little girls that are now in their 20’s. They’re not screwed up although they are entitled – because that generation is. I did my part!

AM: Growing up, many of us remember seeing reruns of Three’s Companies and then as we got older, seeing you on Step by Step. What was it about taking those roles and being on those shows that you enjoyed being part of them?

SS: By the time that I got to Step by Step, I was pretty ensconced in that world of sitcoms. But honestly, when you’re talking about the lead up to all of that, then it goes back to when I got the lead of Guys and Dolls in high school. I played Adelaide and I didn’t know that I had any talent. I tried out because the rest of the classes were too hard for me. But I did love Fine Arts. I loved music, singing, acting. I got a scholarship to college and there was no one in my family that had ever gone to college and no one in my hometown that I knew had gone to college.

I got a music scholarship and do you know what I chose? I was so dumb. I chose a Catholic girls college – that was the worst place that I could choose to go to college. Then 2 months into college, I got pregnant. Here I was, the first person in my family to go to college and the first one in my family to have that opportunity and I got pregnant. I thought that all my dreams were out the window. The last night of the show, that guy came and at the time, I didn’t know who he was. He was really well known in radio and his name was Walter Winchell – he had a trademark look of a beige raincoat and a pork pie hat. He walked up on stage that last night and he went right to me. He walked up to me in his NY accent which I had never heard before in my small hometown of California and he said, “you’re going some place sister.” That was fortuitous. Then when I got pregnant, I felt that my college dream was over and I had to go to work and I felt that I didn’t have any talent or skills that I knew of. I’m trying to make a living so I got a job as an extra, the lowest rung on the whole showbiz totem pole – you couldn’t go any lower. I made $32 a day and that was how I was able to survive.

My childhood was actually terrible. I look at people who have had negative things that happened in their life and I tell them, use it – make this be your asset. My father became my asset. The fact that he told me growing up that I was a piece of crap all the time, that I was a nothing, that I was a zero, he would make his hands shape into a big “o” – he would tell me all this stuff. So you believe how you are programmed and that was my programming. So when you ask me, “what was your dream and how did you end up in this business?" I'm an accident and I had talent that I didn’t know that I had. I now encourage people that come from a negative to use that as your opportunity – because you want it more then the average person. Every time my dad would say these things, I would think to myself, “I’ll show you.” One night, I was on stage and I was headlining a concert in Vegas at the biggest room in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand, he was in the audience and it wasn’t revenge or anything. I called him up on stage and if ever there was a moment where I had the “I’ll show you,” it was that night. He was so proud of me. I sang him a song – “you made me love you, I didn’t want to do it – I didn’t want to do it.”

AM: Wow

SS: Kind of poignant right? The negatives are the positives. So I had another thing that happened. After I divorced my husband who I never wanted to marry in the first place, I fell in love with Alan Hamel (Anniversary Game, Wedding Party, Lou Grant). I had taken an extra job and you know I walked into Studio C in ABC San Francisco and I was hired to be the prize model. It was like Vanna White but not as glamorous and all. I would open the refrigerator and pull the drawers out and show that it just wasn’t any kind of refrigerator but a it was a refrigerator freezer.

When I walked into that studio, I met Alan Hamel and my knees felt weak. I had never felt like that. It was almost like we had known each other in another lifetime. So we started dating and I would meet him at his hotel. Everything that my mother would tell me not to do, I didn’t care. I felt like, I’ll show you. I’m in love with this guy and there is nobody like him in my hometown. I owned my power although at the time I didn’t see that. I did anything that I could to have a date with Alan Hamel.

I’m reading the trades one day and they say, there’s an interview for a guest starring part on a sitcom called Lotsa Luck with Dom DeLuise (Blazing Saddles, The Muppet Movie, Smokey and the Bandit II). The description was, small town girl doesn’t know who she is and doesn’t know who she wants. I thought, that’s me. I tell Alan and he says that’s great, I’ll pick you up at the airport. So I gather together 50 bucks – probably sold a jacket or something that I owned. I flew to Los Angeles and he picked me up. The whole reason I wanted to fly is because of that kiss he would give me in the car. It was this romantic kiss that I just couldn’t believe that you could feel like that. He drives me to Burbank for the interview. I didn’t know that you needed an agent, I didn’t know that you need them to set up an appointment. I just thought that you just go over there and had to be there at the time. I walk in and they ask me why I’m there and I say that I have an interview for the Dom DeLuise show. I had never had a professional part before as I was just an extra. I didn’t know that the one extra part that I had had when I was in the Thunderbird would catapult me and I was a writer at the time.

I see the girls walking in, signing in and receiving their scripts under my lashes. I read my part for a guy that I would end up doing sitcoms with, he said, “very nice.” I said, “I know that I’m exactly who you’re looking for because I’m a small town girl, I don’t know who I am and I don’t know what I look like.” He said he would give me a call back. I thought great and I went to reception and told them that I had a call back and she said that was great and I asked her what it was. Johnny Carson walks in. I look up and I’m like that’s Johnny Carson. He’s looking at me and walks over to me and says, “hey little lady, what are you doing here?” I proudly said that I had a call back because I now know the lingo. He asked for what show and I told him and he said that Dom DeLuise was a great friend of his and he wished me a lot of luck. I gave him my little book of poetry and didn’t realize that on the back the only credit that I had listed was that I was the mysterious blonde in the Thunderbird of the movie which I hadn’t seen because I couldn’t afford to go to the movie. I knew that it was a dumb credit and I didn’t know who George Lucas was. I eventually did do a one woman show on Broadway 10 years ago called, The Blonde in the Thunderbird – I didn’t know anything.

I guess when he went back to the office on Wed, he read the back of the cover and saw the credit. I was booked on the Tonight Show for that Fri – can you believe it? I didn't have a dress to go to the show. But I guess, I wrote a bag check or whatever you do when you're desperate – desperate people did desperate things. I always had the mentality of “I’ll figure out tomorrow what I did today.” I bought a one shoulder long gown to the floor - I should have worn a short one as I didn't realize that my legs were my asset. Fri night, Alan drives me over there as I couldn’t afford a taxi. I’m standing behind that famous curtain in that aqua dress – I’m the mysterious girl in the Thunderbird and I don’t know that that’s anything and I hear Johnny Carson say, “we’ve all wanted to know who the mysterious blonde in American Graffiti was. Well we found who the mysterious blond was and it’s Suzanne Somers.” I was so nervous and thinking, “you were?” The curtain opened and I walk out to an audience who was cheering and I didn’t know what that was for. I go out there and he liked that he had never met someone so naïve about Hollywood – he liked me. He was from Iowa – he liked simplicity. He was so nice to me and so good to me. I sit down after the applause stopped and he let me know that they didn’t get that kind of reaction from guests very often. I wasn’t acting like anything. He started having me on once a month to read from my book of poems and my little book of poetry became the best selling book of poetry in America from all the Tonight Show appearances. He was so great, they would place an isolated camera on him so that as I read my poems, he would have over the top reactions to go along with it.

One night, after so many appearances, a guy by the name of Fred Silverman who was the president of ABC Television had already casted Chrissy Snow and neither of them had tested very well. They knew that they had a hit with the show, bt this one part was not testing very well. Fred later told me, “I got the girl. I’ve seen her on the Tonight Show all the time. So I get called in for an interview for a sitcom that I have never heard of and no one had because it hadn't been heard of called "Three's Company." The rest is history and you know. I got it and I was the most surprised person in the world to find myself on the #1 sitcom. That’s how I became who I became and I guess becayse I had natural talent, I was able to play the ping pong game with John Ritter (Hearts Afire, Bad Santa, Child’s Play). I didn’t realize then that he was the most talented physical and comedic actor. He was so good and I recognized that when I would watch him and I could see how talented he was. I learned by watching him. Within a year I understood comedy. Even though I didn’t study comedy, I understood the music of it and comedy is musical it’s set up – set up – beat. The writers got that and when they started writing John and I, it created a tension on the set with Joyce DeWitt because she had studied under scholarship, she was under contract. I had never had an acting class, had never studied and it made her so angry with me.

AM: We see you in that part and to see all of the happy accidents that took place to make that happen!

SS: I think for your readers, it’s a story to know that no matter where you come from and it’s about using the negative things in your life as positivity and that’s what I do. I’m looking outside right now on the 93 acre land that I live on watching sheep chase each other and I grew up living in a closet hiding from my father’s temper. We had a lock on the inside of the door so that no matter how hard he kicked at it – he couldn’t get us.

AM: How did you partner with Thigh- Master? That’s a fitness icon right there!

SS: Right! I get these huge opportunities that come into my life. I get on Three’s Company which shoots to #1 at a time when it really mattered. Our show had the highest demographic across all television. I had the highest demographic of all women at that time and I had never heard of demographics. When I signed onto Three’s Company at the time, I was like where should I sign and just signed! I didn’t have a lawyer, I didn't care about how much the pay was, but by year 6 when my contract was up, I recognized that monetarily, I was worth something. It pisses people off when they realize that you know their worth. At the time, the men were making 10-15 times more than the women. I now recognize my worth and I wanted to be paid what they were being paid. Laverne and Shirley had just renegotiated with ABC and they gave them a colonic as I like to say so they were ready for my husband when he came in. They had already decided that the next big female star that would try to get paid what they were worth, would be made an example of. When my husband walked into the meeting with all the men, all the lawyers and all of that they decided as my husband says, “that you were fired before the moment that I walked in.” He said that I wanted to be paid X as that is what the men were being paid. I was waiting at home because he had left that morning – there were no cellphones there.

I can tell by the fact that he’s not running up the stairs and there’s not that long of a way to walk. He meets me where I am, looks me in the eyes and says, “you’re out.” I asked what he meant. He said you were fired before I walked in. I wasn’t getting a raise and I wasn’t going to be on the show he said, “you’re O-U-T out.” I died inside. The greatest job that I had ever had, I made a jewel and I figured out Chrissy Snow myself. I created this character where most people don’t like dumb blonds and I took this person from a small town, who didn’t know what she was or what she looked like and created someone that is beloved to this day. Wherever I go even in Jerusalem and Warsaw, Poland – people point out Chrissy Snow. Not only was I out, but it became this thing where not one woman backed me up and they all felt like, “who does she think she is?” Everyone was afraid to talk and I don’t hold it against them, but it was to their detriment because in not supporting me, I could have made life a lot sweeter for all of them.

Now, I had to find a job because we were living a life of means because we thought we could afford the house that we had just bought. My husband was very well known in Canada and ironically could become the Johnny Carson of Canada because that’s who he was up there. He had the late night talk shows – at one point he had 11 series on at the same time. So Alan made a deal for me at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. I knew that I could sing and that I could dance a little because of Guys & Dolls. People said, what's your credit and I said, “well I had the lead in Guys & Dolls in high school.”

Some people came to me and pitched us ThighMaster. It was originally called The V-Bar. My husband and I always debate on which one of us named it as he thinks he did and I think I did, so I just say we both did.

AM: You mutually named it.

SS: Yes we mutually named it. We both said, you put it between your knees and squeeze and that became the byline. Oh God, Johnny Carson loved it, Jay Leno loved it, David Letterman loved it and comedians loved the name and the byline! That’s what we started doing. After we sold 10 million – again no plan. Life is a journey and it’s about following the flow and life will take you on the right road. ThighMaster started us on the road and we became and we’re seen as brilliant marketers. So I lost one job and got another job and then I got another job with Step by Step. I was just talking to Patrick Duffy (Dallas, The Bold & The Beautiful, Welcome to Sweden) this morning – the other great husband that I have had in my life. He is the most kindest, funniest and we got along great. He is very humble, doesn’t care what he looks like, where he comes from and he simply loves to work. His wife passed away and that was the saddest thing as he so adored her. He and I got along so great – that’s what led me to what I now do. In this pandemic, I have thrived during this time. Do you want to know why?

AM: Yes.

SS: I fractured my hip. I’m on a crutch and I’m having a hard time moving. Alan and I have been doing the Facebook Live show that people love! When the pandemic started, I invited everyone to bring their own tequila, salt and hors deourves where I tell people about my products and I just finished my 27th book called A New Way to Age and I don’t know how or why but when you write 27 books, you learn something. I have interviewed so many doctors thing. I have interviewed so many doctors and they trust me. I’m able to speak for them in a language that my followers understand. By the time I interview a doctor, I verify everything and get approval on their interview so that they can learn about hormones, how to replace what you do when you’re aging. I love the way I look and how many people when aging feel this way? I have a great sex drive and aging is about worn out parts. You have to understand that your hormones wear out at a certain level and they have to be replaced and to understand how to replace them through lab and blood work and to have your doctors analyze where this is and how to put back what you have lost in this process. It includes what you need. Aging is great – just know what you need to do to put those items back. The women who love me, have learned so much from me and that’s what we do every Tues and Fri night. 25 million of my books have sold globally and they have the opportunity to learn a lot, have fun with me and to see my husband and I who have been married for 50 years. That’s what happens when you replace worn out parts. It’s my proudest achievement. I loved Chrissy Snow and treated her demise like a death in the family and then I made that negative work for me and I made falling in love with Alan Hamel work for me and my baby who I had at a young age I turned that for me. I live a happy and blessed life that I can be proud of.

@SuzanneSomers

PHOTOS COURTESY | Suzanne Somers