For those who have followed this website, or know me, or have ever engaged in a conversation with me about sitcoms, you will undoubtedly know about my affinity for the short-lived but fabulous sitcom It’s Your Move, which aired for just 18 episodes between 1984-85. It’s true that it’s hard to justify putting it up against mega-successful classics like Seinfeld, Cheers, Leave It to Beaver, All in the Family, Newhart, or The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (all other series that I consider to be at the top of my list), I still will answer It’s Your Move when asked what my favorite TV show is. And the reason is simple: it just is. No doubt part of it is that it brings back memories of that pretty amazing time of my life when I was coming of age, enjoying these wiseguy kids coming of age as well. But the biggest part is that no matter how many times I watch it, no matter how old I get, I laugh all the way through it. It’s that good. And it’s that comforting.
But you’ve heard all this or similar diatribes when I’ve discussed meeting cast members from the show here and here. You’ve heard me cry and lament the time I tried and failed to meet David Garrison. And now you get to hear it all again, because you get to hear an entirely new tale about a breakfast I’ll never forget.
Over the years I’ve tried to befriend on Facebook as many actors and actresses who had a role in the series. This proved particularly successful back in 2008 when it lead to a meeting and friendship with Adam Sadowsky, who played the role of Eli in the show. One of the other actresses who was on Facebook was Caren Kaye, who played the role of Eileen Burton, the mother of Matthew (Jason Bateman). At first she didn’t accept my friendship, but later did… but rarely posted anything for years.
Then she suddenly became more active and began posting quite frequently. At one point I added her into my Sitcom Kaleidoscope group, and nearly every time I posted something about It’s Your Move, she would ‘like it’ or comment. Then later I noticed that she had in fact done an autograph show, and had gone out for dinner with fellow collector and fan Bryan, who I would see regularly at the Hollywood Show. I contacted this Bryan via Facebook and asked if he might facilitate a meeting with Caren and her husband Renny Temple, who was also an actor, who had starred in a very memorable episode of All in the Family called The Draft Dodger, playing the title role – aka David Brewster. Bryan said he would try, but our schedules never seemed to line up. Then Caren was announced guest for Chiller Theatre, so I thought I’d finally get the chance to meet her… but she later cancelled.
My last course of action was to simply contact her directly and see if I could possibly charm my way into a meeting. I had planned to do this in April when I was going to be Los Angeles for a week… but alas, I soon learned through her Facebook page that she and Renny were going to be moving to Oregon before that! I had to act quickly!
A couple of weeks before my February trip, I finally sent her a note expressing my interest in her career, It’s Your Move, her friendship on Facebook, and probably most importantly that I had become friends with Adam, and I added a few photos of us together at Disneyland. That was all it took. She quickly responded back and we made plans for Sunday, February 12, 2018. Initially she had put forth meeting at the Westwood Cafe, but then realized they were closed on Sundays, so we changed the breakfast to Le Pain Quotidien. She also suggested that we ask Adam to join us.
It took a bit to get hold of Adam as we hadn’t spoken in several years, but finally I found a way to contact him through his website. He finally responded that he was in! Immediately my mind flashed to having a whole big It’s Your Move reunion – all orchestrated by me! – by then I got my head out of the clouds and just decided to focus my attention on this meeting.
I causally verified our plans a couple of times as the date approached, thinking that this had worked out too easily… to perfectly… to actually come true. But sure enough, the morning came, and as David and I waited at the restaurant, he notified me that he thought he saw Caren and Renny walking up the sidewalk. I was standing inside the door of the restaurant, and as they passed by I gave them a smile and a wave. They nodded politely and kept walking up the sidewalk. Awkward moment number one. Having never been the restaurant before, they kept walking looking for the entrance, and thought I was a worker beckoning them into a rival restaurant. I scurried up the sidewalk and rounded them up, giving us something to chuckle at right away. Caren gave me a big hug, and Renny gave me a hearty and friendly handshake.
We took our seats at a large community table, with David and Renny sitting across from Caren and me. Adam wasn’t there yet, so I gave him a call, and sure enough, he was parking. It was a grand reunion in more ways than one when he walked in. He and his parents had become close with Caren and Renny as he grew up, but they hadn’t seen each other in quite some time, so they each gave him an emotional hug, and then he gave me a hug as well.
The restaurant was one of those healthy gluten-free establishments, so none of us knew quite what to order, but of course it didn’t make any difference to me whether we eating food or stringing tennis rackets, I was just happy to be in the presence of all three of these fine people. Four, if you count David. I ordered the Paris Ham and Gruyere Omelette, and I think I even ate some of it.
The next two hours flew by. While Caren and Adam were catching up on everything next to me, Renny entertained David and me with tales of how he met Caren back in the 1970’s, working the improv troupe War Babies and in the folk band The Highwaymen. Once Caren had caught up with Adam, we were able to chat, and our discussions went all over the board. From talking about her career in show business, some unsavory encounters with Dustin Hoffman, her time on another short-lived sitcom called Who’s Watching the Kids, and even some serious talk about my daughter’s drug problems and her adopted son, who was killed in 2010 in a tragic gang-related incident.
The conversations rarely honed in on It’s Your Move, although everyone was impressed with the kids’ novel based on the series that I brought with me (Caren even put it down her shirt, joking that she wanted one for herself; reminded her much more valuable it had just become based on where it’s been). Renny did mention that he was there for most if not all of the tapings, and that you could hear his laughter distinctly coming from the audience. Adam repeated his story about responding to the audition call while his parents were out of town, and recalled being interviewed by Brandon Tartikoff. Once juicy tidbit of information he shared was that producer and executive Fred Silverman had written the lyrics to Sweatin’ Betty in the Dregs of Humanity episode. Caren and Adam both told me that they hadn’t spoken to Tricia Cast since the taping, although Adam admitted his crush on her and the fact that his most memorable line in the show was “Make way for The Wall,” which was followed by slapping her on the butt. I didn’t blame him one iota.
While I chatted with Caren and Adam, Renny shared lots of great memories about his work on All in the Family, the most interesting being that Carroll O’Conner was such a great actor that he actually felt terrified by “Archie” when he confronted him onscreen. He also mentioned that sometimes the highly conservative audience in Orange County would actually cheer Archie’s viewpoints, causing them to sometimes stop the taping to make sure the audience was clapping in the right places.
Needless to say, the two hours flew by, even though my head was spinning trying to take everything in from everyone, running through my head questions I wanted to ask – but ultimately couldn’t fit in. As Caren and Renny said they need to get home to look after Caren’s mother, she signed my It’s Your Move photo and book. I had Adam put in a ‘specal’ inscription, that only true fans of the show will really understand.
We walked them outside, and Adam hung back for a little bit and we chatted more, as he updated me on some of the work he was doing for Synn Labs, including building a giant, functioning Etch-a-Sketch for Target. We recalled our first meeting, and he casually notified me that Jerry Seinfeld had been sitting three tables away from us the entire time. Remember this was the day that I also met Brian Wilson, visited the Playboy Mansion, and saw Dick Van Dyke walking through Beverly Hills. My eyeballs nearly dropped out of my head when he told me that. Of course I asked him why he didn’t tell me then, and he said he didn’t want me to make a scene… nor did he want Jerry to ‘steal his thunder’. Ugh!
David and I bid farewell to Adam, and I promised that next time Carolyn came with me, we’d be looking him up again as she wanted to meet him. I mentioned her favorite line of his, “I’m at that age!!” When David and I got back to his house, we watched The Draft Dodger episode, which, as always, brought a tear or two to my eye. Then something bizarre happened.
David was going to show me an unrelated episode of Maude that he had on DVR, and he had caught the end credits from the previous show Hart to Hart, and as he scanned by them, something caught his eye. This:
Don’t tell me that karma doesn’t exist.
But now it’s karma’s move, as I continue this quest to meet the cast members of It’s Your Move. But no matter what, I don’t think I’ll ever have another breakfast like this, even if Jason Bateman nearly breaks down my door to deliver it. Watch the series, and you’ll get that joke.
My February 2018 California trip will continue…
It sounds like you had a great time meeting Caren & Renny, and catching up with Adam. I hope you can somehow get the entire cast, all together, someday soon!
Dave Chasteen
February 23rd, 2018