Description

“You’re in acting class and you’re studying Chekov or ‘Waiting for Godot’ -- and then you end up doing 80s tits-and-a**… You caught on pretty quick what it was about and where the power lay.” -- Actress Heather Thomas

What was it like to be an 80s poster icon and sex symbol? Susan and Sharon welcome The Fall Guy star and “80s Poster Lady” Heather Thomas. She’s an actor, writer and activist -- but may be best known for her “Pink Bikini” poster, one of the best-selling pin-up posters of all time. Heather Thomas had leading roles in television shows like BJ and the Bear, The Love Boat and TJ Hooker -- as well as the movie Zapped! with Scott Baio, Willie Aames and Felice Schachter. But her most famous role was playing stuntwoman Jody Banks on the hit 80s television series The Fall Guy. 

Running for five seasons on ABC, The Fall Guy spawned board games, posters, a video game -- and just last year, a major feature film starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt -- and Heather Thomas! Since her days as a TV star and pin-up queen, Heather Thomas has gone on to an extraordinary career as a novelist, political activist, organizer and fund-raiser.  

NOTE: This episode was recorded Dec. 2024, before the LA Fires. Our thoughts are with Heather and her family, and all those impacted by the fires. Stay safe. Be well. 

THE CONVERSATION

• WORKING WITH MONKEYS: Clyde, the orangutan from Every Which Way But Loose, was her co-star once: “He thought it was funny to keep grabbing my boob. I thought he was gonna rip it off!” And a stint on BJ and the Bear led to producer Glen Larsen tapping her for the co-starring role in The Fall Guy.
• WORKING WITH TV PRODUCERS: “All of them are crazy. You’re not gonna find any normal ones, not in those days. Everyone was nuts. And they still are.”
• "Smile more": Early on, the ABC network executives were afraid that Heather Thomas wasn’t likable. So they put her in a bikini. “I guess that made up for me not smiling enough.” 
• STUNT WORK: “Lee Majors almost broke my nose once.” "I was good on rollerskates!"
• In preparation for a Fall Guy episode, Heather trained with the Los Angeles Thunderbirds roller-derby team: “They showed me how to ‘break my back’ on the rail -- it was really fun!”
• Ted Lange -- Isaac, the bartender on The Love Boat -- was one of Heather’s favorite directors on the Fall Guy.
• A GOOD DIRECTOR: For Heather, it was someone who brought her into the filmmaking process. For Lee Majors -- it was anyone who got him home by 5:00pm! 
• THE POSTER: Once the show was a hit, a poster was the next big step: “It outsold Farrah Fawcett. I bought a house. I was thrilled.”
• DIS-LIKENESS: Heather’s image has been hi-jacked and used for everything from lighters, to puzzles, to notebook covers -- to a pillow!
• ON HAVING A FAMOUS BODY: “My body was my living. That’s how I saw it.  So I had to feed it, exercise it -- I couldn’t have an ounce of cellulite. It was part of the gig. But I didn’t care, I was grateful. I was making more money than I ever had in my life. I was a kid.”
• ZAPPED! -- Teen sex comedy -- or sexual harassment?  “They tried to get me topless, but my contract said uh-uh!  So, they used a body double. There’s a big disclaimer at the end of the movie saying that it’s not my tits.”
• Activism: “Ever since they said, ‘You can’t climb the tree, the boys can’ -- I was a feminist.”

So join Susan and Sharon -- and Heather -- as they talk fly-fishing, Star Wars, David Letterman,Teen Beat, Shaun Cassidy & Parker Stevenson, “Gabor-lore”, Cliff Robertson’s toupeé, organizing your phone by decade, not complying in advance -- and canoeing with Henry Winkler!

AUDIO-OGRAPHY
Find Heather Thomas on Twitter at Twitter.com/HeatherThomasAF 
And find Heather Thomas on BlueSky at HeatherThomasAF.bsky.social 
Watch Heather Thomas in The Fall Guy on Peacock, Amazon Prime or Flixfling!

Check DontGetPurged.org to make sure your name has not been purged from voter rolls!
Find out more about CREW at CitizensForEthics.org

VITAL READING
Get Handbook for A Post-Roe America by Robin Marty at Bookshop.org.
Check out Men In Dark Times by Hannah Ahrendt at Bookshop.org.
Read Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson at Bookshop.org.
You can also follow Richardson’s substack.

SUPPORT FOR THE LA FIRES
Online at DisasterAssistance.gov 
On the FEMA App for mobile devices or Call the FEMA Helpline at 1-800-621-3362
Calls are accepted every day from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. PST.

More resources at Eaton Canyon Community Relief.
Google List of LA County Resources. 
AIRBNB is offering temporary free housing for those displaced by the fires. Start here. 

PLACES TO VOLUNTEER
Google Doc for Wednesday and ongoing.
Volunteer with the Red Cross.

TALK TO SOMEONE
Reach out to friends and family. Take care of yourself:
Pro Bono Therapy for LA Wildfires - Google Doc. 
More mental health resources at LARevive.

DONATING
Master GoFundMe List for LA Fire Victims Google Doc.
Displaced Black families in Altadena Google Doc. 
Gofundme pages for EATON CANYON COMMUNITY RELIEF

CONNECT
Visit 80sTVLadies.com for transcripts.
Join the conversation at Facebook.com/80sTVLadies.
Sign up for the 80s TV Ladies mailing list.
Support us and get ad-free episodes on PATREON. 

In Honor of President Carter and to learn more about his presidency: Get Susan’s new play about him and his Crisis of Confidence speech: Confidence (and the Speech) at Broadway Licensing.

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