Hollywood.Demons.S01E01

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00:00:00I want to talk about the stuff about Stephen, if you feel comfortable, we can get started.

00:00:27Who is Stephen Collins?

00:00:31Stephen Collins, to me, is not only one of the finest actors, but one of the finest human

00:00:39beings in Hollywood.

00:00:40Stephen Collins has long been one of Hollywood's busiest actors.

00:00:43Do you remember the time when you met him?

00:00:45I only met him in casting.

00:00:47What was it like when he came in?

00:00:49He was exactly who I thought he would be.

00:00:53He was a father figure on the set.

00:00:55The last eight months, 7th Heaven's been the top rated show on the WB.

00:00:59It just showed me what I wanted to be when it came to being a professional actor and

00:01:04how you treat people and how you present yourself, too.

00:01:08That's why it was even more of a shock to hear, you know, what ended up happening.

00:01:14Stephen Collins was America's father, however, the lives you're watching on TV could not

00:01:20be less real.

00:01:21You don't have to believe everything you hear.

00:01:24I can't say that working on 7th Heaven was a very positive experience for me.

00:01:28The fact that he was on a show with a bunch of children really concerned me.

00:01:32You slept with another girl?

00:01:35I've never told this story.

00:01:36Are you okay telling it?

00:01:37I need people to hear this.

00:01:39Not many things are rarely just black and white.

00:01:45The shades of gray are where the story is.

00:01:47Sometimes the biggest monsters have the prettiest faces.

00:01:51How many girls all together?

00:01:56David, one down, you're on your left.

00:02:02Thank you very much.

00:02:05Closer.

00:02:06Ready?

00:02:07You're sure?

00:02:08Yeah.

00:02:10I've been in this business for 33, 34 years now, so finding myself in Hollywood in the

00:02:2390s was, it was quite a ride.

00:02:25Basically, I just, I love watching television still today, and I never thought I'd end up

00:02:29working with all those people who did those shows, but I did.

00:02:32I was 17 years old when my mom and I drove out to Los Angeles, and I had some good experiences

00:02:38and I had some not so good experiences.

00:02:39I would still use Stephen Collins as my benchmark in how you should handle yourself on set,

00:02:46but after the news, it kind of almost made me question my own judgment.

00:03:00The only ones who've ever worked with him that we were able to interview, they're all

00:03:05guys.

00:03:06They're all the men.

00:03:07Well, the fact that the women don't want to talk about it, to me, I think it's probably

00:03:12more a sign of how mixed their feelings are.

00:03:14They probably had a deep affection for him, and they're conflicted in terms of trying

00:03:17to understand how they can have such an affection for a monster.

00:03:21Let's be fair.

00:03:23Stephen Collins, I actually share a heritage with.

00:03:26I also went to Amherst College.

00:03:28You have to be a very bright person to have gone to that college, and he went into an

00:03:33acting career, much to the chagrin of his family.

00:03:37I knew Stephen because I first saw him on the screen from All the President's Men.

00:03:44He's in these scenes with these two guys, one named Robert Redford, one named Dustin

00:03:48Hoffman, and all you're doing is looking at Steve.

00:03:51He had this intensity of a whisper.

00:03:53Let me put it this way.

00:03:56I would have no problems if you wrote a story like that.

00:03:59I remember watching Stephen and saying, who is this guy?

00:04:02We'd never seen him before.

00:04:03I wanted to meet him.

00:04:04And then the magic year of 1979, they made Star Trek the motion picture.

00:04:10I was working on that film, and this character starts to walk towards us, and when I get

00:04:15closer, it's Steve Collins!

00:04:17And we became very, very close friends.

00:04:24Back then, if you got a big role, for example, in a movie like Star Trek, that can catapult

00:04:30you forever.

00:04:32Stephen got a big part in a movie called The Promise.

00:04:35He was a tearjerker, an emotional brilliant, and he was in Jumping Jack Flash.

00:04:39Is he on some kind of medication?

00:04:41Not that I know of.

00:04:42Are you on some kind of medication?

00:04:44Marty!

00:04:45It was wonderful to see him.

00:04:46It became a breakout movie.

00:04:48He also landed a role on a big budget ABC show.

00:04:53Tales of the Gold Monkey was really sort of, would look like a cheap takeoff of Raiders

00:04:58of the Lost Ark.

00:04:59In 1982, I was one of the writer-producers of Tales of the Gold Monkey.

00:05:04Steve Collins' character was named Jake Cutter, and he had been in The Flying Tigers, but

00:05:09now he has a Grumman goose, and he goes off on adventures to different areas there.

00:05:15How did you land the part of Jake?

00:05:16My agent called one day, and I said, I just want to play a hero.

00:05:19That's the side of him that really attracted me to playing the part.

00:05:22In all the other shows, I did all these action shows.

00:05:25You always had the ingenue of the week.

00:05:27But in Gold Monkey, we didn't do that.

00:05:30But one episode, Steve actually, he said, let's find a very strong way that I can fall

00:05:37in love.

00:05:38And so I came up with this character, and she was this remarkable French girl, and it

00:05:44was very difficult to find an actress for that part.

00:05:48Then Faye Grant walks in.

00:05:51We all went, you know, oh my God, you know, she's come off the big screen.

00:05:55Oh my God, you know, she's come off the pages of my script.

00:05:58But at one point...

00:06:00I like you.

00:06:01Now, let me explain something about this scene.

00:06:03She goes...

00:06:04If you do not hold me, I'm afraid I will crumble into little pieces.

00:06:08And at that point, he grabs her, and I looked at Steve.

00:06:11This was not acting.

00:06:14He got a look on his face.

00:06:16It's the first time they hugged.

00:06:17First time they got that close.

00:06:19And he kind of started shaking a little.

00:06:22And cut.

00:06:24Cut.

00:06:26Cut.

00:06:27Finally, they released each other.

00:06:29And that was the moment.

00:06:30And Steve told me, after that hug, I realized I'm going to marry that girl.

00:06:36At the time that Stephen Collins and Faye Grant met, he was 35, she was 25.

00:06:41Not a terrible age gap.

00:06:43He never talked much about his personal life at all.

00:06:47I actually didn't know until later that he had a first wife and that he had been divorced.

00:06:51This was something that was very private and personal to him.

00:06:59People loved the show right away.

00:07:02I found this in the gift shop, our own little gold monkey.

00:07:07Women loved it.

00:07:08Men loved it.

00:07:09And also, like, teeny bopper girls loved it.

00:07:16I grew up in a very small town in Oklahoma.

00:07:19We're not talking about a metropolis.

00:07:23There was one stoplight and one four-way stop sign and TV was a great escape.

00:07:29And Tales of the Gold Monkey was a big deal.

00:07:31It was the fantasy escapism, especially growing up in a small town.

00:07:37I want to be taken away into something totally, completely different.

00:07:41That's not real life, that I don't live every day.

00:07:44In 1983, my Aunt Cindy flew me to L.A. for the first time during spring break.

00:07:50Cindy was, at that time, at least the line producer for the premier commercial director for a lot of years.

00:07:56She became an executive producer for Tony and Ridley Scott.

00:08:00And I would say, Cindy Aikens, people knew who she was.

00:08:03When I got to come to L.A., I was excited about seeing new things

00:08:06and experiencing something that was completely different from what I grew up knowing.

00:08:11So, as soon as she picked me up from L.A.X., we went directly to the complex.

00:08:16And as we're walking up the steps into the courtyard,

00:08:18she pointed to the apartment that was catty-cornered to her and said,

00:08:23Stephen Collins lived there.

00:08:25She said, Tales of the Gold Monkey, and that was not a show that I missed.

00:08:30And so to find out that he lived next door to my aunt, yes, I was absolutely starstruck.

00:08:35I remember wanting to get a headshot from him.

00:08:40When I knocked on the door and he opened the door,

00:08:42he was a tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed god that was really nice and drove a sports car.

00:08:50There's the Polaroid that I posed with, with Stephen.

00:08:54Stephen Collins asked me where I was from and what I was doing there.

00:08:58He was very tuned in.

00:08:59It's almost an electric charge.

00:09:01Like, immediately, it's the lean-in, it's the touch, it's the,

00:09:05I'm paying attention to you and nobody else on the planet exists.

00:09:08I mean, and as a very naive child, that becomes all-enveloping.

00:09:14I told him I was a big fan of the show, and I asked him for a signed headshot.

00:09:18And he said that he would have his people sign it for me.

00:09:21And I was like, Oh my God.

00:09:23I told him I was a big fan of the show, and I asked him for a signed headshot.

00:09:27And he said that he would have his people get that to me.

00:09:30That felt good for a 13-year-old that had never met a movie star before.

00:09:34It was a big deal.

00:09:38So the autograph he writes to April says,

00:09:40To April, come out and see us again sometime.

00:09:43And then he signs off with love.

00:09:45And for some reason, that was weird to me.

00:09:48I thought that was off-putting.

00:09:50Like, why would he say that?

00:09:52I just say, Great to meet you. Be well.

00:09:57So after that spring break, I had such a great time

00:10:01that Cindy had decided that I could spend the summer of 83 with her.

00:10:07So this was me at 13, a complete goofball.

00:10:10And we've got Woody Woodpecker and the Hulk.

00:10:13We also went to the beach.

00:10:15That was, I think, my very first time playing in the ocean.

00:10:18Then we went to Disneyland, which was great.

00:10:21In the summer when I was staying with Cindy,

00:10:23she would go to work, and I just wanted to stay in the apartment.

00:10:28There weren't a lot of people that were around during the day.

00:10:33A couple of days into my trip, I was in the kitchen cooking.

00:10:38And the kitchen opens up with French doors into the private courtyard.

00:10:43So I was inside, and I was in my nightgown.

00:10:47And I look up, and I see Stephen Collins.

00:10:53He was in the courtyard.

00:10:55He was going left to right.

00:10:59And he had a wad of clothes in his hands.

00:11:02And he was completely naked.

00:11:08Did I just see that?

00:11:10Did I just see what I thought I saw that was so jarring and so unexpected?

00:11:15I mean, I definitely saw him.

00:11:17And I know he saw me standing there.

00:11:19You might imagine that any 13-year-old seeing that

00:11:23would either scream or ask for help.

00:11:26But that tends not to be how people react.

00:11:28When people are in confusing situations, they freeze.

00:11:34Now, he was in the courtyard,

00:11:36and he walked from the vicinity of his apartment

00:11:39to where the washer and dryer was,

00:11:41carrying a load of laundry or rumpled clothes.

00:11:44And he was completely nude.

00:11:46Why in the world would he be going to wash clothes naked?

00:11:51I'm a former SVU detective.

00:11:55I like to work in child abuse because children are the real victims.

00:11:59They're pure, innocent children.

00:12:01And whatever happens to them is not their fault.

00:12:07In April Price's situation, that's a test to me.

00:12:11And I believe he wants to see what she's going to do.

00:12:14He wants to see if she's going to run away,

00:12:17if she's going to be disgusted, if she's going to tell everybody.

00:12:20It was just so abnormal and just so bizarre

00:12:23that I didn't really give it a lot of thought at the time.

00:12:27At the time, Stephen Collins was also dating this woman, Faye Grant.

00:12:32Faye was on one episode of Tales of the Gold Monkey.

00:12:35I remember her being on the show.

00:12:37She was young, and she was pretty, and she was blonde.

00:12:39She would show up, and then they would go into his apartment.

00:12:42He was in a committed, happy relationship, it seemed like.

00:12:45And she was gorgeous.

00:12:47So when he walked by,

00:12:49the sexual thing would not have come into my mind

00:12:52because I knew that he had a girlfriend.

00:13:00I knew I was going to be in California for a long time,

00:13:03so I packed up my Atari.

00:13:05That is an old video system.

00:13:09I had brought the Atari with me.

00:13:11What I had forgotten was the connector,

00:13:13the AC adapter thing that went from the Atari to the TV.

00:13:16So my mom overnighted that so that we would have it.

00:13:20And I had no idea how to hook it up to a TV at that time.

00:13:24So once the UPS arrived with that adapter,

00:13:26I had the adapter in my hand,

00:13:28and Stephen Collins happened to be there.

00:13:31And I approached him, and I said,

00:13:33Hey, do you happen to know how to hook up this Atari for me

00:13:37so I can play this?

00:13:39And he said, sure, he could do that, no problem.

00:13:43And he's in the living room in my aunt's apartment

00:13:46hooking up that Atari,

00:13:48and he turned around,

00:13:53and his jeans were completely open,

00:13:57and he's completely exposed.

00:14:03I mean, this poor girl is just setting up her gaming station,

00:14:08and to be exposed to someone

00:14:11who is expressing dominance and control with a sexual behavior,

00:14:16that is traumatizing.

00:14:20At this point, now I'm completely flustered.

00:14:25What do you, like, how do you react to that?

00:14:28What's the purpose of this?

00:14:31Why, why, why?

00:14:33All I know is I was supremely shocked,

00:14:37very uncomfortable,

00:14:39and still didn't want to insult him

00:14:42because he was kind to me and nice and doing me a favor.

00:14:46So I'm trying to look him in the face

00:14:49and have a conversation with him as if nothing was going on.

00:14:54He chit-chatted for a little bit and then left.

00:14:58Would you like to know why you shouldn't get into a strange car?

00:15:02Well, he could hurt you.

00:15:04This is the beginning of the 80s,

00:15:06so this is before Stranger Danger, Panic.

00:15:09How could you expect a 13-year-old to have the wherewithal

00:15:12to know when it's time to be rude?

00:15:14No one conditioned her for that.

00:15:16And he's famous,

00:15:18so why would he want to do anything bad to anybody?

00:15:21And well, you know, Stephen has a girlfriend.

00:15:23Surely an adult would not cheat,

00:15:25and surely an adult would not be interested in a child.

00:15:28But those are assumptions that only children make.

00:15:32I never said anything, first of all,

00:15:35because we all know I wouldn't have been believed.

00:15:40I never said this before,

00:15:42but when I was 4, I say it's an uncle, but it wasn't an uncle.

00:15:46They used to babysit me,

00:15:48and he would make me sit on his lap so that he could molest me.

00:15:54And...

00:15:59I, of course, didn't like it.

00:16:01And I also remember one time

00:16:04when he basically said I could play with his if he could play with mine.

00:16:11And I remember telling the family that that had happened,

00:16:16and they didn't believe any of it.

00:16:19And I'll be honest, I spent a lot of years of my adult life

00:16:23thinking that trauma of that experience,

00:16:27and now you overlay what happened with Stephen Collins,

00:16:31who is a known actor, charismatic, gorgeous,

00:16:36all of these things, and you add those two traumas together.

00:16:43My response as an adult when I look back at it,

00:16:47with me trying to, like, bury it and not say anything,

00:16:50there's reasons that I didn't.

00:16:52And it's, I can see why I didn't.

00:16:59My brain had to protect itself.

00:17:03They didn't want to talk about it.

00:17:05They didn't want to look at it.

00:17:07I just acted like it was, everything was normal,

00:17:10and he hadn't done it at all.

00:17:13From that point on, April attempts to distance herself from the abuser,

00:17:18but at that point in time, there's only so much a young girl can do

00:17:21to distance herself from an adult male who lives in the same complex.

00:17:27There was one time when I was eating breakfast

00:17:30at one of the tables in the courtyard.

00:17:32He came by in a bathrobe and sat down by me

00:17:35and was talking about how pretty my feet were, of all things.

00:17:40I was definitely not comfortable,

00:17:42and I'm, like, doing the wince thing because not,

00:17:46I'm not looking for that. I don't need that.

00:17:48I don't need to be built up. I never have liked that.

00:17:52Then he said to me, I need to learn to take a compliment.

00:17:57Just imagine an adult male hanging out with a 12 or 13-year-old female.

00:18:02Just that. Just hanging out.

00:18:05And then making comments about even her feet.

00:18:08And I suspect he likes his power over her.

00:18:13This is called grooming.

00:18:15Grooming is when a grown-up establishes a relationship

00:18:19with a child in an effort to sexually abuse them.

00:18:23I think Stephen Collins was making April feel special from other kids.

00:18:29Stephen gives her an autograph first, so he gives her some attention.

00:18:32And then he exposes himself to her.

00:18:34And then, a third time, he comes to her again

00:18:36and offers her a different kind of attention.

00:18:39This one feels a little more sexualized, a little more loaded.

00:18:41He's talking about her feet, which is a particular body part

00:18:45that sort of suggests, I'm paying close attention to you.

00:18:48By the point that he is fully harassing her,

00:18:52she's already been in it for so long,

00:18:54how would she explain it to somebody

00:18:55if she ever did want to say to an adult that this was happening?

00:18:58Because there's all these other examples of things that happened before

00:19:00and she didn't say anything.

00:19:02I put that incident out of my head.

00:19:04Cindy and I, we just continued on like normal.

00:19:07I probably went to the office with her more.

00:19:10So Stephen Collins was not my main concern at that point.

00:19:19Close to the end of the trip,

00:19:21I am laying out in the courtyard in my bathing suit.

00:19:25It was completely secluded.

00:19:27This was the swimsuit that I would lay out in.

00:19:30We're not talking about sexy bathing suits here.

00:19:33And into the courtyard walks Stephen, dressed fairly nice,

00:19:38and sits down by me.

00:19:40Like, he was very close.

00:19:42And, you know, I was like, I'm getting ready to go home pretty soon.

00:19:46Somehow talking about Tales of the Gold Monkey,

00:19:49and he says, I have some of the memorabilia from that show in my apartment.

00:19:54And of course I'm like, perking up?

00:19:57Like, really?

00:19:59You know, and he goes, yeah, you want to come see it?

00:20:02It is weird and creepy that an adult man wanted a child's attention this much.

00:20:08So I get up from laying there,

00:20:11so in nothing but my bathing suit,

00:20:13and follow him into his apartment.

00:20:16The part of me that was still upset about the exposure before

00:20:21is going and justifying, he won't do that again.

00:20:25He won't do that again. This should be fine.

00:20:28For people that think April was dumb to have gone to his apartment with her,

00:20:33he knew what he was doing when he asked about the prop of the Tale of the Gold Monkey.

00:20:37He knew that was the lure that was going to bring her into the apartment.

00:20:41He didn't bring it out.

00:20:43What's the classic metaphor?

00:20:45I got some candy for you, honey. Follow me.

00:20:47Is that child dumb for going after the candy?

00:20:50It's the same damn thing.

00:20:54So the memorabilia from the show and some pictures and stuff

00:20:58setting up on the top of this credenza.

00:21:00And I'm standing there and I'm looking at it.

00:21:02And he goes, do you mind if I go get more comfortable?

00:21:07So I'm looking at this stuff,

00:21:09and he comes walking back from the bedroom completely nude.

00:21:15And my stomach just fell.

00:21:17And I'm like, now I'm actually scared.

00:21:22I'm in this man's apartment.

00:21:24I'm in a bathing suit and he's naked.

00:21:27This is bad. This is really bad.

00:21:30I don't know what I'm going to do.

00:21:39Sitting on the couch at this point,

00:21:41I was as rigid and as tight and as small as I could make myself.

00:21:44I'm looking anywhere but at him.

00:21:46And he's nonchalantly fiddling around the apartment

00:21:50like there was nothing going on.

00:21:53He goes up, there's a standing lamp that's right beside me,

00:21:56and he's screwing in a light bulb.

00:21:58And I mean, literally eye level,

00:22:01completely nude man, and I'm in his apartment.

00:22:06And I don't know what I'm going to do.

00:22:09How long do you feel like it went on?

00:22:13I would say the entire instance, probably 20 minutes maybe.

00:22:17In my experience, oftentimes,

00:22:20these perpetrators will be self-stimulating.

00:22:24Now, she does not remember that,

00:22:26but the duration of all this makes me wonder

00:22:28if something like that was happening.

00:22:29And remember, a 12 or 13-year-old,

00:22:30they don't understand what's happening.

00:22:32It doesn't even get laid down in memory.

00:22:34I was completely defenseless and helpless in his apartment.

00:22:37And about that time, Cindy walks by.

00:22:41She had come home from work early, unexpectedly.

00:22:43And the minute I saw her, I mean, just like that,

00:22:47there's my aunt, I gotta go bye.

00:22:49Boom, and I'm gone.

00:22:53There was no time for him to say,

00:22:55hey, don't talk about this, or hey, this was okay.

00:22:57He didn't even have a chance to say bye.

00:23:00Like, I was gone.

00:23:02And I immediately go into her apartment and get in the shower.

00:23:08She bolts out to see her aunt as her excuse.

00:23:11But what she needed was adult support.

00:23:14She needed another adult to help pull her out of this.

00:23:18And she got it just in the nick of time.

00:23:20And if Cindy hadn't have come home that day,

00:23:22I hate to think what would have happened.

00:23:25Would he have raped me? I don't know.

00:23:27I'd like to think not.

00:23:29The fact that he didn't touch her,

00:23:32it still makes it a crime,

00:23:33because he exposed himself right up to her face,

00:23:36and she had nowhere else to go, is a physical threat.

00:23:40But young kids, they might think,

00:23:42if it's not total sex, then it's not as bad.

00:23:45Because no one ever told them it's bad.

00:23:48Literally, after that point, I hadn't said anything to Cindy.

00:23:53I used to do a lot of reporting on Girls Gone Wild.

00:23:56And one thing I thought was so interesting

00:23:58is the kinds of girls that they picked for those videotapes.

00:24:01It was very important that those girls

00:24:03were not from L.A. or Miami,

00:24:05that they were visiting L.A. or Miami,

00:24:07that they were coming from the Bible Belt

00:24:09or the Midwest or anywhere else.

00:24:12Something similar seems to be happening here

00:24:15with Stephen Collins.

00:24:16A 13-year-old girl from the Midwest

00:24:18is effectively code for,

00:24:20I will never have to deal with this again.

00:24:22She will not be somebody that I have to run into.

00:24:25She won't make it anywhere. She won't become anybody.

00:24:28I won't have to deal with the consequences of this action.

00:24:31Is it difficult to maintain a relationship here in Los Angeles?

00:24:36I think what happens to a lot of people

00:24:38when they first hit L.A. or New York in different ways

00:24:41is that all the possibilities of the town sort of grip you

00:24:44and you want to do them all.

00:24:45So, as all this is going on with April,

00:24:48he is in a romantic relationship with Faye Grant.

00:24:51Tales of the Golden Monkey had only been on for one season.

00:24:55After Gold Monkey, they stayed together,

00:24:57and three years later, they got married.

00:25:00And then four years later,

00:25:02they had this beautiful little daughter.

00:25:05So, fast forward to 1994,

00:25:07and Stephen published this.

00:25:09Eye Contact, it's his debut novel.

00:25:11He dedicated it to Faye Grant.

00:25:14It's a piece of fiction about a woman

00:25:17with sexual compulsions and a lot of fantasies.

00:25:21A laptop and a blank page are a little slice of heaven

00:25:24for Stephen Collins.

00:25:25Collins retreats to his trailer and taps out erotic thrillers.

00:25:31An early instance in the book is of this woman

00:25:33exposing herself to a minor, to a boy.

00:25:36I was surprised because it was a dark story,

00:25:40and it wasn't Steve Collins to me.

00:25:43I would get messages, my machine would beep,

00:25:46and I would hear,

00:25:47Steve, I just read your book.

00:25:50I loved it, but where did this come from?

00:25:54Holy, I've never seen this.

00:26:00Stephen Collins did a sit-down interview with Charlie Rose,

00:26:03but he's carrying himself in that interview

00:26:05like an anthropologist for a particular kind of sexual,

00:26:09in his words, compulsion.

00:26:11I think that it is probably that sexually compulsive behavior

00:26:14is at core not much different from alcohol.

00:26:19He's framing this as if he's an expert on it,

00:26:21but how?

00:26:23Nobody was Googling anything in the 90s.

00:26:26How'd you find out?

00:26:27What'd you read, what'd you look up?

00:26:29You're telling me that you know.

00:26:30How do you know?

00:26:31In her case, when she's nervous,

00:26:32she turns to an arena where she's in total control.

00:26:35Total control.

00:26:36There it is, there it is, everybody.

00:26:38It's about power and control over another individual,

00:26:41a young individual.

00:26:46In 1996, he was in a movie called Babysitter Seduction.

00:26:50There's a scene with Keri Russell lying in a bed

00:26:54with Stephen slowly undressing her.

00:26:57And what's odd is you would think

00:26:59he'd explicitly avoid these things.

00:27:02Wouldn't it be uncomfortable for him

00:27:04to know that he was in a film and then did what he did?

00:27:08It's just so odd.

00:27:09And then in 1998, Stephen put out another novel.

00:27:13So I wrote about a person who moves into a new apartment

00:27:16and discovers that his kitchen window

00:27:19looks into the kitchen window of a very attractive woman,

00:27:22and then he discovers it's actually a sister to that woman.

00:27:26You can't tell me that there's not parallels

00:27:28from what happened to me specifically

00:27:31that's not on the page in one of the novels that he's written.

00:27:35It worried me because he's got power,

00:27:37and it is getting bigger, and he is getting better known.

00:27:46My name is Garth Ann Sear, and in the mid-'90s,

00:27:50WB Network was created after the same exact team

00:27:54had created the Fox Network,

00:27:55and I was the founding president of programming for the WB.

00:28:00When you're starting a network, you have to figure out

00:28:03what the identity of the network's going to be.

00:28:06At the WB, the most prominent shows we did were Charmed,

00:28:10Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

00:28:12We had The Wayans Brothers Show, which was very popular.

00:28:16So we began to gravitate toward was ensemble family shows.

00:28:22And when I say family, you know, Charmed is a family.

00:28:26They're three sisters.

00:28:27I mean, there's a family on Buffy, you know?

00:28:31Then it just occurred to us that it had been many years

00:28:35since network television had done a true family show,

00:28:38and what kept crossing my mind is, where is R8 is Enough?

00:28:43Because that was a show I grew up watching,

00:28:45and it's a big family, so we wanted to create that ethic.

00:28:49And my boss, who's president of the whole company,

00:28:52Jamie Kellner, he is the one who suggested

00:28:54we should make the father figure a minister.

00:28:58And so this was like, oh, that's kind of a unique take

00:29:01on a family, because he's father to the community

00:29:05and also father to his kids.

00:29:07So we created this show called 7th Heaven,

00:29:09and we need someone to produce the show.

00:29:13Well, I think a show we did called Family

00:29:15that was about a real family.

00:29:17Aaron Spellings had been such a prolific producer

00:29:20already in his career.

00:29:21You know, Fantasy Island, Love Boat, you know, Hotel, Dynasty.

00:29:26And of course, you always love your last baby,

00:29:28so Beverly Hills 90210 was very close to me.

00:29:31We worked with him at Fox first with 90210,

00:29:35and then when we went to WB,

00:29:38we knew he was a very, very reliable commercial producer.

00:29:43But the thing with Aaron is, I didn't think he'd done

00:29:45a show about a minister family before,

00:29:48but when you've done so many shows

00:29:50that you're the most prolific producer of the entire era,

00:29:54I started to believe that you have to do something

00:29:57that he's never done before to get him to stretch creatively.

00:30:04Honestly, at the end of the day,

00:30:05all scripted programming is about the writing first,

00:30:08and then, of course, casting has to be great.

00:30:11And so that was the chemistry we had to get right.

00:30:14And I remember with 7th Heaven, we cast the kids first

00:30:17because casting the kids in the show

00:30:19was a little easier than casting the adults,

00:30:22because the adults in that role

00:30:24needed someone who was believable as a minister.

00:30:27And the people we kept looking at were just not quite cutting it.

00:30:32We kept swinging and missing,

00:30:35and I then said to Aaron, I know this is a long shot,

00:30:39but there's a guy I remember

00:30:40from Tales of the Golden Monkey on ABC.

00:30:44It's an adventure show, but the guy seems to have

00:30:48that sort of minister vibe going on.

00:30:53So Aaron watched it and said,

00:30:57I get it, that works, and we cast him.

00:31:01It was fantastic.

00:31:06When we cast Stephen for the lead role in 7th Heaven,

00:31:11there's obviously no way we would have ever imagined

00:31:16what would be coming down the road after the show was over.

00:31:25The opening credits of 7th Heaven are just iconic.

00:31:29It's also so typical of the 90s.

00:31:32It's like the guitar and like the...

00:31:35And it's just, it's cheesy.

00:31:40I loved 7th Heaven growing up.

00:31:42I felt like I was part of the family.

00:31:44I really wanted to be.

00:31:45This is when I would imagine Rob Anderson in here,

00:31:49like, squeezed in maybe before, like, Simon.

00:31:53The main characters were Reverend Camden,

00:31:56who was the head of this family, five kids.

00:32:00Catherine Hicks is Mama Bear.

00:32:02She's the mom on the show.

00:32:04She loves her kids, but always overworks.

00:32:08Oh, she just has a lot going on.

00:32:10When you look at someone like Catherine,

00:32:12you have to realize there need to be

00:32:14experienced actors on the set.

00:32:16Catherine Hicks had been on television

00:32:18since she graduated college,

00:32:19and she was recently on a short-lived

00:32:21Aaron Spelling soap opera.

00:32:22Everyone else in the cast,

00:32:23they're almost always fresh faces.

00:32:26Barry Watson seemed like kind of a little more shy,

00:32:31reserved as the boy in the family.

00:32:35Jessica Biel plays Mary Camden.

00:32:38Jessica Biel played a typical girl in school

00:32:42who didn't know how pretty she was.

00:32:44She had grown into her looks,

00:32:45and she was a little awkward given her height,

00:32:48and that made her more vulnerable,

00:32:50even though she was very pretty.

00:32:527th Heaven is the reason we know Jessica Biel.

00:32:54That is the show that put her on the map.

00:32:57Every scene she was in, she lit up

00:33:00and ended up being the great actor that she became.

00:33:03So if you have Jessica Biel, then Beverly Mitchell

00:33:06becomes more of the girl next door

00:33:09who wasn't as tall as her sister,

00:33:11but probably was everyone's best friend.

00:33:14David Gallagher plays Simon.

00:33:17He's the youngest son,

00:33:18and most of the absurd lessons

00:33:21happen to him.

00:33:22For example, he flips off his friends at school.

00:33:27They act like it was murder.

00:33:31The girl who plays Ruthie is Mackenzie Rosman.

00:33:35Ruthie's a real bitch in the show, honestly.

00:33:38Like, she is a real brat.

00:33:40And in one episode...

00:33:41Has anyone ever hijacked a plane fitting my description?

00:33:44And Stephen Collins played Reverend Camden.

00:33:48He was the god of the show.

00:33:51He was the savior.

00:33:52He fixed all the problems.

00:33:54Stephen Collins, as the father of that show,

00:33:57is the heart of the show.

00:33:59He is the core of it.

00:34:00It is his performance of these ethics

00:34:03that really make 7th Heaven.

00:34:05They told us you had your friend's baby at their house,

00:34:08and there was a beer sitting on the table.

00:34:09I don't know. That sounds like trouble.

00:34:11He was just the pinnacle of what a father should be.

00:34:16I think having her join is trouble.

00:34:18It's a soft-spoken nature

00:34:20with, like, a little bit of judgment underneath.

00:34:23Have you tried smoking marijuana?

00:34:25I don't think we ever mentioned

00:34:27what kind of minister he was, specifically.

00:34:30I don't think any of us ever thought of it as a religious show.

00:34:33We thought of it as a moral show.

00:34:35You know, teaching, you know, right and wrong

00:34:38to people through credible parent figures.

00:34:41We weren't worried about how it would be received

00:34:43because we were doing a morality show

00:34:45about raising kids.

00:34:46If you think about the kinds of shows

00:34:48that were coming before 7th Heaven,

00:34:50the dads in those other shows that you were watching,

00:34:52they weren't always approachable people.

00:34:54This is different.

00:34:55This wasn't just changing the way we looked at fatherhood

00:34:58in a pop culture lens,

00:34:59but it was also changing how we look at fathers culturally.

00:35:02Look at how functional this family is.

00:35:05Every episode, they dealt with some issue

00:35:09that happens in America.

00:35:11There was issues on gangs,

00:35:13and there was issues on racism,

00:35:16there was drugs,

00:35:18kids huffing paint in the hallway

00:35:22that made you feel good about your own life

00:35:25because you weren't addicted to drugs

00:35:27and you weren't huffing paint in the hallway,

00:35:29and your neighbor's not a gang member.

00:35:32As I got a little bit older, then the 20s come along,

00:35:35and I was determined not to allow this one thing

00:35:38to hold any kind of sway over my life.

00:35:41So I didn't bother to give him too much of my energy.

00:35:45But in and around 1996,

00:35:47I was made to understand

00:35:49that he was playing a role of a preacher, pastor,

00:35:53in a show, and he was a family man.

00:35:56It did bug me.

00:35:59I think we all kind of understand

00:36:01when a show starts to get into the stratosphere,

00:36:04there's no escaping the PR for that show.

00:36:07I mean, you can't not see a commercial.

00:36:10You can't not hear a blurb on Entertainment Tonight or Extra.

00:36:14You can't not see a magazine cover.

00:36:18And the fact that he was on a show

00:36:21with a bunch of children really concerned me.

00:36:24Congratulations. Good luck to you. Thank you.

00:36:26The actresses were 14, 13, and 7 was red flag for me.

00:36:30We hang out. We're buds.

00:36:32You have your father and daughter on the show, but...

00:36:34Only on the show.

00:36:36This is where self-awareness of me keeping my silence

00:36:39started to wear on me.

00:36:41We've almost had this bond somehow, the two of us.

00:36:43We're connected. We're tight.

00:36:45That's pretty good. Go ahead.

00:36:47It's not quite father and daughter.

00:36:49It's not quite older brother and little sister

00:36:51because I'm the way older brother.

00:36:53Now I'm starting to become worried

00:36:55that it wasn't just me.

00:36:59Am I the starting point to a marathon?

00:37:10When I was in my 20s,

00:37:12I was a script supervisor in Hollywood.

00:37:14It was more along the lines of following in Cindy's footsteps

00:37:17because of her connections.

00:37:19I was determined not to allow this one thing

00:37:22to hold any kind of sway over my life.

00:37:25But now he's got a show with a bunch of other children.

00:37:29Everything is changing.

00:37:32So it's time to tell Cindy what really happened.

00:37:36I sit down with Cindy, and I tell her,

00:37:39first of all, the instances.

00:37:41And she was livid.

00:37:43She said, if I had known back then,

00:37:45I would have gone immediately to the police.

00:37:48And I said, here's my dilemma.

00:37:51Here's my biggest problem.

00:37:53He's on a show with a lot of children.

00:37:57Do I say something?

00:37:59And both of us understood immediately

00:38:03when we talked about it.

00:38:05If I said something, first of all, I would be called a liar.

00:38:08I would not have been believed,

00:38:10and I would have lost my entire career.

00:38:12People are in love or infatuated

00:38:15with a persona that they've seen scripted out.

00:38:19So I kept my mouth shut.

00:38:21I kept my mouth shut.

00:38:23Did you see Steven working with the young girls

00:38:25and what that was like?

00:38:27He's a father figure.

00:38:29I never saw him working with the young girls

00:38:31because he wasn't there enough.

00:38:35I directly worked with all the women on the show.

00:38:38So that would be Catherine, that would be Beverly,

00:38:41Mackenzie, and Jessica Biel,

00:38:44all the women guest stars that came on the show.

00:38:48The environments have really always been pretty happy

00:38:50and easygoing.

00:38:52It felt like family.

00:38:53That's what we are. We are family here.

00:38:55Well, let's be real.

00:38:57Most actors bring a lot of themselves into their characters.

00:39:00That's part of why you're casting them.

00:39:02And, you know, sometimes you're always playing

00:39:04a version of yourself.

00:39:08So, for example, I used to have Oscar parties

00:39:11at my house every year.

00:39:12So Steven was here one time,

00:39:14and my nephew, who was then pretty young,

00:39:17was kind of doing crazy things out of sight

00:39:20because he's mischievous.

00:39:22And Steven came to me and said,

00:39:24I need to talk to you about something.

00:39:26And he just, like, was the father figure saying,

00:39:30you know, your nephew's doing some things

00:39:32that I think you should know about.

00:39:34And he did it very nicely.

00:39:35It was not with any attitude or anything.

00:39:38And it was in my house.

00:39:40So that was who he was.

00:39:44Seventh Heaven aired on the WB.

00:39:47The first season, it was averaging

00:39:49about three million viewers, which is not a lot.

00:39:52It wasn't a hit that fast.

00:39:54It's also not the kind of show that people,

00:39:56like, oh, did you see that episode?

00:39:58It's not the kind of show

00:39:59that people would talk about in Los Angeles.

00:40:01But that's okay.

00:40:02But remember, there's a vast audience out there

00:40:04that has lots of different points of view and takes.

00:40:06And you're programming for all of them,

00:40:09not just for yourself.

00:40:13And some people started to recognize

00:40:15this is a special show.

00:40:19My name is Melissa Henson.

00:40:21I'm the vice president of programs

00:40:23for the Parents Television and Media Council.

00:40:26The Parents Television Council,

00:40:28it's like a watchdog group.

00:40:30It started in response to a growing recognition

00:40:33that TV was becoming increasingly unfriendly

00:40:37to family audiences.

00:40:39By mid to late 90s,

00:40:41we started to have shows like Friends

00:40:43during the family hour,

00:40:44you know, where they had episodes

00:40:46where the guys suddenly get free pornography

00:40:48and they're afraid to turn off the TV

00:40:49because they won't get the free porn anymore.

00:40:51So it was increasingly difficult to find programs

00:40:53that parents would feel comfortable watching

00:40:55with their kids in the room,

00:40:56let alone watch with their children.

00:40:59But in 1996,

00:41:017th Heaven debuted on the WB Network.

00:41:05It was on our radar from the fact

00:41:07that they were a religious family,

00:41:09a religious household.

00:41:10The father was a pastor.

00:41:11That alone made it somewhat unique.

00:41:13The fact that the dad was a character

00:41:15that was worthy of respect and not a clown,

00:41:18someone that the kids would go to

00:41:20for advice and guidance.

00:41:22In looking at 7th Heaven,

00:41:23you sort of ask yourself

00:41:25how many shows in the history of television

00:41:28have had morality tales.

00:41:30There was Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.

00:41:32There was Touched by an Angel.

00:41:34But they weren't necessarily geared toward kids.

00:41:37So 7th Heaven was something that kids actually did

00:41:40seek out and want to watch on their own.

00:41:42It wasn't just,

00:41:43oh, mom's going to make me watch this stupid show.

00:41:45It was, oh, this is something I want to see.

00:41:48And of course, it didn't hurt that they had Jessica Biel,

00:41:51who probably brought in a lot of teenage boys.

00:41:54And there's a Barry Watson

00:41:56who probably brought in a lot of teenage girls.

00:42:02The Parents TV Council loved 7th Heaven.

00:42:06We would periodically release

00:42:08our ranking of the top 10 best shows for families.

00:42:12And 7th Heaven was often number one

00:42:14on our top 10 best list.

00:42:16We decided to cover on it.

00:42:18Cover was the best show on TV you're not watching.

00:42:21And then finally, the second season of the show

00:42:24got a zillion Emmys.

00:42:26And so everyone sort of said,

00:42:28oh, maybe I should watch that show.

00:42:30And then suddenly the show

00:42:32had such an intensity

00:42:34around how many people were watching it.

00:42:36The audience, once they tune in, they just love us.

00:42:38And they never tune out.

00:42:40And the premiere of Season 2

00:42:42actually was WB's most-watched hour.

00:42:45It had over 12 million viewers.

00:42:48I have never heard of any show

00:42:50being in primetime twice a week.

00:42:52It became increasingly an anomaly

00:42:55in the broadcast landscape.

00:42:57Most people want these kind of shows.

00:42:59That's why we're growing so fast.

00:43:01It's got humor. It's got an edge.

00:43:03It was just real, and it was simple.

00:43:06And those are your next-door neighbors.

00:43:09I love your show.

00:43:11Thank you so much.

00:43:13One thing about this show, it can teach a lot,

00:43:15but it doesn't preach.

00:43:17They did deal with very weighty issues at times,

00:43:19but they always handled it

00:43:21in very responsible ways.

00:43:23For about the last 8 months,

00:43:257th Heaven's been a top-rated show on the WB.

00:43:28The cast, as far as I'm familiar,

00:43:30is our family, and I love them all.

00:43:32They were certainly recognized,

00:43:34and I think Steven did become

00:43:36sort of America's dad.

00:43:38You know...

00:43:41Sometimes the biggest monsters have the prettiest faces.

00:43:44You can't just trust

00:43:46that people that are nice to you

00:43:48and kind and charismatic...

00:43:50Not everybody that's nice to you

00:43:52has nice intentions.

00:43:56I didn't realize when I first moved out to Hollywood

00:43:59and started working in the industry,

00:44:01Steven Collins, I didn't expect to see him again

00:44:04because mainly I worked on TV commercials.

00:44:07Sometime around 1997,

00:44:10I was asked to do the affiliate promos for CBS.

00:44:14I'm sitting at the craft service table

00:44:16and doing my job,

00:44:18and they give me a shot list,

00:44:20and oh, my God, oh, my God,

00:44:22Steven Collins is coming on to do promos.

00:44:27He was a person that I hadn't seen

00:44:29for, like, 14 years.

00:44:32I was like, what can I...

00:44:34There's nothing that I can do.

00:44:36I mean, I'm sitting there thinking,

00:44:38should I laugh, should I say something to the producers?

00:44:40No, because I'm dead in the...

00:44:42I mean, I'm just stuck.

00:44:46I'm sitting at the table.

00:44:48At some point, he sees me.

00:44:54And the moment he saw me, he knew.

00:44:59I mean, you could see his face.

00:45:01You could see the whole countenance.

00:45:03He knew who I was.

00:45:05Well, at a break.

00:45:08When he was done,

00:45:10he waited till nobody else was at the table,

00:45:13and he came up to me, and he said,

00:45:17I want you to know

00:45:19what I did was extremely wrong.

00:45:22I feel terrible about it.

00:45:25Please forgive me.

00:45:29All of a sudden,

00:45:31I thought, I don't have to worry about this anymore.

00:45:34He is sorry.

00:45:36He is contrite.

00:45:38So I kept my mouth shut.

00:45:40I kept my mouth shut.

00:45:44Looking back, I don't think it was sincere.

00:45:47I think it was damage control,

00:45:49because all of a sudden,

00:45:51here is one of my little indiscretions

00:45:53that I shouldn't have done

00:45:55that actually could put words to it and hurt my career.

00:45:58I don't know Stephen Collins,

00:46:00but I just have this deep concern

00:46:03that he doesn't care about the people

00:46:05he has power and control over.

00:46:07He's manipulative.

00:46:09He plays on people's affections.

00:46:11And it's far worse than April realized.

00:46:19The problem with 7th Heaven, the cast,

00:46:22the arc of all these people

00:46:24who have never been TV stars before

00:46:27is they come in,

00:46:29they're very happy to have the opportunity,

00:46:31and as the show becomes more and more popular,

00:46:34they may want to do other stuff.

00:46:39So in the year 2000, while she was still on the show,

00:46:42Jessica Biel posed for a magazine called Deer.

00:46:46On the cover, she's topless.

00:46:48That was one of those weird blips

00:46:50on the radar of my career that I just feel like,

00:46:53it was a photo shoot that I did.

00:46:56It was totally exposed.

00:46:58It wasn't an on-purpose thing at all.

00:47:00It was, you know, I'm a woman now.

00:47:02Sure, I can wear that bikini.

00:47:04Those kinds of things, when you're young,

00:47:06just sort of, it rolls out in a way that you do not expect.

00:47:09I never thought that was a big deal, that the WB,

00:47:12all of our shows had really strong female leads.

00:47:15And so she's on a show that's all about growing up and morality,

00:47:19and so seeing her a little less clad

00:47:22than she would be on an episode of 7th Heaven

00:47:25probably was a bigger deal.

00:47:27Stephen Collins had something to say about it, actually.

00:47:30He says...

00:47:50Out of the mouths of babes, Stephen Collins is right.

00:47:53Now, is that a smokescreen for his own behaviour?

00:47:56Stephen Collins wants to be associated

00:47:58with being a good guy on the right side of this issue

00:48:01to make sure no one has any hint of any trouble.

00:48:04Jessica Biel still had two more years on her contract with 7th Heaven,

00:48:08but Jessica is essentially written out of the show.

00:48:10She's portrayed as a troubled teen

00:48:12who is sent away to go live with the grandparents.

00:48:15Jessica Biel, she was becoming such a big star on the show,

00:48:19she wanted to do other stuff.

00:48:21So, you know, you're trying to...

00:48:24protect what's great about the show

00:48:26while being respectful to the actors.

00:48:29Jessica would return for a few episodes

00:48:31here and there to fill out her contract.

00:48:34Our character was popping in and out.

00:48:36She wasn't a big part of the show, but the show was still a hit.

00:48:39Jessica Biel's departure happened on episode 95,

00:48:42and reaching 100 episodes is a milestone.

00:48:45It's a success.

00:48:47I want to thank Aaron on behalf of the cast.

00:48:50When you're on a spelling show, you can bet that...

00:48:53things will go as smoothly and be as professionally run

00:48:57as they are anywhere in the business.

00:48:59It feels great. It feels great,

00:49:01especially when you have a cast like people like this,

00:49:04and the rest of the cast that's fun to work with.

00:49:06It's a big number of episodes for a show,

00:49:08and by today's standards, how many shows hit 100 episodes?

00:49:11Almost none.

00:49:13This is my favorite show I have ever been a part of.

00:49:17I'm speechless. I'm just so honored to have been,

00:49:20you know, a part of such a wonderful show.

00:49:22Having 100 episodes means the show can go on in syndication,

00:49:25being replayed indefinitely,

00:49:27and go on to be exposed to future generations.

00:49:29And this potentially means more revenue

00:49:31for all the producers, writers, actors,

00:49:33everyone involved in the production.

00:49:35I don't know how long this show will be.

00:49:37And if you can keep going and keep the show fresh,

00:49:42that's marvelous.

00:49:44But in season 6, Barry had somewhat of a brush with cancer,

00:49:50and he couldn't do all the episodes.

00:49:52So producers were very good by introducing new characters,

00:49:57fresh cast members,

00:49:59to introduce fresh stories with different characters.

00:50:02We've introduced new neighbors.

00:50:04The show actually had a good amount of cameos.

00:50:07Hi.

00:50:08Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were in it.

00:50:10Ashley Simpson was a regular character for two seasons.

00:50:14One of the characters that really stood out,

00:50:16who I loved so much, was George Stoltz.

00:50:19I'm giving you a cake.

00:50:20What kind of cake?

00:50:21Whatever kind of cake you want. It's your birthday.

00:50:23George and his brother, they were a riot.

00:50:28I am Jeremy Lunden.

00:50:30Mallrats is what people know me the most from,

00:50:33and playing Griff on a Party of Five,

00:50:35and coming off of Emmy Award-winning shows

00:50:37and Golden Globe-winning shows and stuff like that.

00:50:39But the Seventh Heaven fans are people that,

00:50:41like, it means so much to them.

00:50:43In season 7, Jeremy Lunden comes in as a new young minister,

00:50:47and then Jeremy plays that role for two seasons.

00:50:50Chandler. It was a breath of fresh air.

00:50:53It just was its own little piece of,

00:50:55I'd say heaven, but that's cheesy.

00:50:57It was its own little piece of serenity.

00:51:00My name is Kyle Searles, and my friend Tyler Hackman,

00:51:03he got booked as a series regular role

00:51:06on Seventh Heaven for the role of Martin.

00:51:09And I played his quirky best friend, Mac.

00:51:12Who was the girl, the blonde?

00:51:14That was no girl. That was a woman.

00:51:17You know, he was the one that was getting into trouble

00:51:20and stirring stuff up, if you know what I mean.

00:51:22Hey, I read your chapter from your English Lit assignment.

00:51:26It's a nice job.

00:51:28I also gave my instructor Margaret's paper only.

00:51:31It had my name on it.

00:51:33Why would you do that? I don't know.

00:51:35That's textbook dad mode right there.

00:51:37We should talk.

00:51:39Before getting cast on Seventh Heaven,

00:51:41I was your regular, struggling actor.

00:51:45So once I got the role to play Mac on Seventh Heaven,

00:51:49I'm coming onto a set where all of the actors,

00:51:52for the most part, are basically family at this point.

00:51:55They're so tight-knit, and it was nerve-wracking for me

00:51:58because I'm like, they're not going to accept me.

00:52:01But I remember my first day on set,

00:52:04and Stephen immediately came straight up to me,

00:52:07offered out his hand for a handshake, introduced himself.

00:52:10I'm like, I know who you are. You don't have to tell me your name.

00:52:14He just was so good at disarming people,

00:52:18and you just, you immediately feel, like, accepted.

00:52:22Stephen Collins was most certainly America's dad.

00:52:25I mean, I wanted him to be my dad.

00:52:27I still want him to be my dad.

00:52:31He would drive to work in a beat-up old Toyota Prius

00:52:34every single morning when the man was making enough money

00:52:37that he could have been driving up in a Bentley.

00:52:40He could have been decked out, dressed to the nines,

00:52:43but he was wearing what Jay Leno typically wears,

00:52:46the blue jean shirt and jeans, you know?

00:52:49I always felt like, I want to be like that.

00:52:52I need to model myself after him more.

00:52:56In between takes, Stephen would go over

00:52:59and he would strike up conversations with extras.

00:53:02And that's another thing that you didn't really see very often,

00:53:06at least I didn't, with main principal actors

00:53:10even associating themselves with extras.

00:53:13You know, women wanted to talk to him.

00:53:16That actually worries me.

00:53:18He seems to go out of his way to bring people into his sphere,

00:53:23and that sometimes speaks of sociopathy.

00:53:27I don't know him, but I worry that that's what's going on here.

00:53:32I can't say that working on 7th Heaven

00:53:34was a very positive experience for me.

00:53:36I left 7th Heaven because I got fired.

00:53:40Jeremy is a really sweet guy.

00:53:44He's super talented. He's super open.

00:53:47He had a bad drug problem.

00:53:49While working on 7th Heaven,

00:53:51my wife and I, we were driving up from up to 405,

00:53:54and things got stupid, and we were yelling and screaming

00:53:57over something that we shouldn't have even been fighting over.

00:54:00And that literally, in that moment, changed everything.

00:54:14Jeremy's wife, there's a question about

00:54:16whether she was using substances at the time as well.

00:54:20And this is while you were working on 7th Heaven.

00:54:22Yeah.

00:54:23So you're dealing with, like, this press.

00:54:26Mm-hmm. Saying that I beat up women,

00:54:28that I was, like, some kind of, like, woman abuser.

00:54:32But because of that, I got turned into...

00:54:36People were saying really horrible things about me.

00:54:39And all of a sudden, I was a bad person whenever I wasn't.

00:54:44And so, of course, I started doing everything I could not to...

00:54:48Um...

00:54:56I'm sorry.

00:55:18Hollywood abandoned me and chose to believe lies about me.

00:55:23I think one of the strangest things about the business is

00:55:27the world is watching, always.

00:55:30And it wants to eat you.

00:55:33And it wants you to fail.

00:55:35That same year of this incident

00:55:37was Jeremy's last season of 7th Heaven.

00:55:40It's very surprising to me, actually,

00:55:43that Stephen Collins didn't say anything about Jeremy publicly.

00:55:47With WB, we had learned through hard knocks

00:55:51that starting a network was really

00:55:53a completely different level of challenge.

00:55:55The most prominent shows we did,

00:55:57most of them had become part of the pop culture.

00:55:59But then we did the merger with UPN

00:56:02to create a new brand from scratch.

00:56:04It was an entirely different team that was going to start with CW.

00:56:08My job was to shut down WB.

00:56:12So we had internally discussed at WB

00:56:16about wrapping up 7th Heaven at the end of the 10th season.

00:56:19And so I went to see Aaron Svelling and said,

00:56:22I think, you know, we want to bring this to a natural end.

00:56:26And he goes, you're cancelling my show.

00:56:29I remember when they made the announcement

00:56:33that this was going to be the last season,

00:56:35the seasoned veterans in the cast and the crew,

00:56:38they were ready, you know?

00:56:40The worst part about doing 7th Heaven

00:56:42is a little bit of a Groundhog Day aspect

00:56:44of doing a show like 7th Heaven,

00:56:46because here we are in the kitchen again.

00:56:48Here we are in the living room again.

00:56:50They were ready for the next opportunity

00:56:52and the next stage in their life.

00:56:54I think the newer actors, we were having fun.

00:56:57So why stop now?

00:56:59Because it's so tough to have that next big role.

00:57:02When I left the show, I did cry.

00:57:06I felt a strong connection to the people that I work with.

00:57:13It was, in a very real sense, the end of an era.

00:57:17But there really hasn't been anything

00:57:20in terms of something that, you know,

00:57:22families can feel 100% comfortable

00:57:24letting their kids watch.

00:57:26I'm the mother of a 16-year-old son,

00:57:28and when he was in preschool,

00:57:29it was really easy to find things

00:57:31that I was okay with him watching.

00:57:32Once they get to be about 8, 9 years old,

00:57:35it's really hard to find something

00:57:38that is clean and wholesome

00:57:42So the show actually was going to go off the next season,

00:57:45but because the New Network didn't have enough shows,

00:57:48they made a choice to bring back the show

00:57:50after they'd already wrapped it.

00:57:53So the 11th season was like an extra season.

00:57:57It says a lot about the cast

00:57:59that the world sees and says,

00:58:02we want more.

00:58:037th Heaven went on for 11 seasons,

00:58:06and the final show had an audience

00:58:09of 9 million people who were sorry to see it go.

00:58:14It's the longest-running family show in history.

00:58:17When I worked on 7th Heaven,

00:58:19that kind of set the standard in my mind

00:58:22as to what a set should be like.

00:58:26And when I look back on my entire experience

00:58:30and in the business,

00:58:32there was only a couple people

00:58:35that I could look back on and say,

00:58:39they taught me something.

00:58:41Steven was definitely right there,

00:58:45probably number one.

00:58:49Right before 7th Heaven started,

00:58:52I played a sort of string of bad guy characters.

00:58:56And then along comes 7th Heaven,

00:58:58and now it's like,

00:58:59hmm, I wonder if I'll ever get to play a bad guy again.

00:59:02After 7th Heaven,

00:59:03Steven Collins played a lot of dads.

00:59:05He was in the office playing a dad,

00:59:07he was in Revolutions, J.J. Abrams TV show.

00:59:10And he appeared on the second season

00:59:12on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

00:59:14Are these my beautiful children?

00:59:16When I saw him show up on screen,

00:59:18I'm freaking out.

00:59:19This is the exact opposite of 7th Heaven.

00:59:23I really can't stress enough

00:59:25how bizarre the second season is.

00:59:27There are entire episodes

00:59:28of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

00:59:29that are so offensive

00:59:30that you cannot find them anymore.

00:59:32They are not available on streaming.

00:59:34I just saw you on an episode

00:59:35of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,

00:59:38and you were so funny.

00:59:39Are you gonna be doing any more of this role?

00:59:41So to see him on that show,

00:59:44now he is canonized in the same way

00:59:47to a completely different audience

00:59:48who probably didn't grow up watching 7th Heaven.

00:59:54About seven years after 7th Heaven had wrapped,

00:59:58I didn't do a very good job

01:00:02maintaining contact with anybody.

01:00:05Not even Stephen.

01:00:07But I remember getting a phone call.

01:00:09It was actually a reporter for TMZ.

01:00:16And they said,

01:00:17we wanted to interview you

01:00:19on the new Stephen Collins bombshell

01:00:21that just dropped.

01:00:23I don't have the slightest clue.

01:00:26When you say bombshell,

01:00:27I'm assuming you mean something bad, right?

01:00:32And they were like, oh, yeah.

01:00:38I read it in the paper.

01:00:40I thought, oh, my God,

01:00:41my heart hit the floor.

01:00:42How could something like that happen?

01:00:46And within 24 hours,

01:00:48I spoke to Tom Green.

01:00:51And first thing out of his mouth was,

01:00:54did you hear?

01:00:57And I said, hear what?

01:00:59And he said, about Stephen.

01:01:02On October 7, 2014,

01:01:04TMZ put out a recording,

01:01:05an audio of him speaking in a therapy session

01:01:09with his wife.

01:01:10So the audio was actually taken

01:01:11from a session in 2012,

01:01:12which is two years before it leaked.

01:01:14It was clear that it was a session

01:01:16between Stephen, his wife, and their therapist.

01:01:19And it was a session that was secretly recorded

01:01:21without his consent by his wife.

01:01:24At this point,

01:01:25he's having some marital discord

01:01:27with his wife, Faye.

01:01:31In this recording,

01:01:32Stephen recounts his experience

01:01:34with a young girl

01:01:35he allegedly abused before April.

01:01:50In 1973, this child was 10 years old.

01:01:53Stephen was 25.

01:01:54He was living in New York at the time.

01:01:58At first, I was hearing some buzzings of it,

01:02:01but I wasn't putting it with my Stephen Collins

01:02:04because there's not a chance in hell

01:02:07my Stephen Collins is being accused of these things.

01:02:10You don't accuse saints of things.

01:02:12My defense was coming from a place

01:02:14where I was put in the same position

01:02:17and I didn't do anything wrong.

01:02:24What kinds of things did you say?

01:02:28The exposure happened a couple of times.

01:02:33A couple of times?

01:02:34With a 10-year-old?

01:02:36Okay.

01:02:37Well, you know, she was 11

01:02:39and then, like, 12 and 13.

01:02:41Oh, my God.

01:02:42There were, like, three incidents

01:02:44over about three years.

01:02:47He admits to exposing himself

01:02:49two times to this victim,

01:02:51and then the last time,

01:02:52the worst thing that ever happened.

01:03:07He seems a little irritated

01:03:09that he has to tell these stories with Faye.

01:03:23She knew something was bad,

01:03:25and she was on it,

01:03:26and that's what he was irritated about,

01:03:28that she was blowing his cover.

01:03:31And then Stephen goes on to describe

01:03:33another alleged victim,

01:03:35which sounds like April.

01:03:42Even though it was beeped out,

01:03:44obviously, I knew that it was my name

01:03:46that he was saying on that taped confession.

01:03:49And this has gone national.

01:03:53Oh, so disgusting.

01:03:55And then his wife said,

01:03:56did you date her?

01:04:02And that was so icky to me

01:04:04to hear her ask,

01:04:05did you date her?

01:04:06I wanted to almost vomit.

01:04:08But what was even worse,

01:04:09what the gut punch on that was,

01:04:11was finally hearing that there wasn't just me.

01:04:17It's all so sad,

01:04:18but there's a third girl

01:04:20he admits to perpetrating

01:04:22against the babysitter of his children,

01:04:26and then this recording ends abruptly.

01:04:33I don't know why Faye taped it.

01:04:35Some people think it's because

01:04:37she just was taping her sessions

01:04:39to listen to them later

01:04:40and maybe reflect on them.

01:04:41Other people think that she recorded them

01:04:43because she knew that he had done this

01:04:44and wanted proof of it.

01:04:47There's a third theory that she taped it

01:04:49because she was trying to get

01:04:50a settlement out of him

01:04:51and their divorce,

01:04:52and this was a good way to blackmail him.

01:04:53What we do know is he and his team

01:04:55has not come out and denied

01:04:57that it's on the tape.

01:04:58Aisha is completely right.

01:05:02The way this was recorded

01:05:04and the fact that it was released,

01:05:06unfortunately, is reprehensible.

01:05:08It's a terrible thing.

01:05:10This is not okay,

01:05:12but neither is the behavior

01:05:13that was uncovered.

01:05:15It's like, if I have videotape

01:05:16of you murdering somebody,

01:05:17it doesn't matter

01:05:18why I want you to get in trouble.

01:05:20You still murdered somebody.

01:05:21She sees this clearly,

01:05:22and she is correct.

01:05:23I don't care what the circumstances were

01:05:25of how it comes up.

01:05:26In a courtroom, that's one thing,

01:05:27but in a court of public opinion,

01:05:29it is what it is.

01:05:36Knowing that he has admitted

01:05:38to these accounts,

01:05:40especially one in particular

01:05:42touching with a 10-year-old,

01:05:44how do you feel about that?

01:05:45It actually does not line up

01:05:47with the Stephen Collins

01:05:49I knew at all.

01:05:51By the way, I didn't know

01:05:52all those details

01:05:53about, you know, the recording.

01:05:55Did you listen to the recording?

01:05:57Yeah, I don't think

01:05:59that I listened to the recording.

01:06:01I think it was just me

01:06:03just trying to, you know,

01:06:04stick your head in the sand

01:06:05kind of thing.

01:06:08Walking through,

01:06:10first hearing these rumors...

01:06:12Well, whatever.

01:06:13Something happened.

01:06:14Because if something happened,

01:06:15I don't know what happened.

01:06:16You're messing with somebody

01:06:17that I love and care about,

01:06:18and to see anybody

01:06:20messing with him,

01:06:22it still makes my blood boil.

01:06:25So, Stephen,

01:06:27in the recording,

01:06:28he says that there were

01:06:29three incidences.

01:06:38Which I'm sorry to, like,

01:06:39put you through.

01:06:40It's tough. It's hard.

01:06:42I'm a dad.

01:06:44First and foremost.

01:06:46Above everything else.

01:06:50And so my first, um,

01:06:53thoughts always go to the children.

01:06:56Stephen Collins would be

01:06:57a dead man

01:06:58if that was my child.

01:07:05After Faye Grant

01:07:06recorded Stephen Collins

01:07:08in the marriage therapy session,

01:07:09she emailed the victim

01:07:11from 1973.

01:07:15The same victim

01:07:16made a police report

01:07:17to the NYPD.

01:07:18During the investigation,

01:07:19the 10-year-old girl

01:07:21revealed to police

01:07:22on the record

01:07:23that there was quite a bit more

01:07:24that went on

01:07:25with that contact.

01:07:27It was not merely

01:07:28that he grabbed her hand

01:07:30and placed it

01:07:31on his genitalia.

01:07:33He moved her hand

01:07:34until he completed.

01:07:45The NYPD opened up a case

01:07:47against Stephen Collins.

01:07:48They started an investigation

01:07:50and they brought Stephen Collins

01:07:52in for an interview.

01:07:55And the information

01:07:56contained in those cases

01:07:57is not available

01:07:58for public information

01:08:00because it involves a minor.

01:08:02But I can tell you

01:08:03the detective that had the case

01:08:04thought that Stephen

01:08:05was very weird.

01:08:10But there was a problem already

01:08:11with the case

01:08:12because there were

01:08:13statute of limitations.

01:08:14Statute of limitations

01:08:16is the amount of time

01:08:17after you report a crime

01:08:19whether you can make

01:08:20an arrest or not.

01:08:22So in sex crimes,

01:08:25it's usually five years

01:08:26from the 18th birthday.

01:08:28The victim in 1973

01:08:30had until basically

01:08:31approximately 1986

01:08:33to make a report

01:08:34that we could prosecute

01:08:35and she didn't

01:08:36and she still made the report

01:08:38in 2012.

01:08:41No charges were filed

01:08:42against Stephen Collins

01:08:43because of the statute of

01:08:44limitations had passed.

01:08:46But it was still

01:08:47going to be investigated

01:08:48because you might find

01:08:49other cases

01:08:50that you can't prosecute.

01:08:54There were like 10 years

01:08:55between each incident

01:08:56that Stephen Collins

01:08:57admits to abusing

01:08:58these children.

01:08:59There absolutely could

01:09:00be more victims.

01:09:03After I heard the recording,

01:09:05the very next morning

01:09:06I called the Los Angeles

01:09:07Police Department

01:09:08because I knew that they

01:09:09had an ongoing investigation.

01:09:11And when I called

01:09:13and I said,

01:09:15I'm calling about

01:09:16the Stephen Collins tape

01:09:17that aired last night

01:09:18and I gave them my name.

01:09:20I said I know that

01:09:21he said April

01:09:22and I know that the name

01:09:23of the apartment complex

01:09:25was on Havenhurst.

01:09:26And immediately

01:09:27they knew I was right.

01:09:29And after that,

01:09:30Los Angeles Police Department

01:09:32sent a detective

01:09:33to come talk to me.

01:09:35They took a full statement

01:09:36and the New York

01:09:37Police Department

01:09:38sent two detectives

01:09:39to come to speak to me

01:09:40and they took a full statement.

01:09:43But I knew from the beginning

01:09:44when I was giving the reports

01:09:46to the police departments

01:09:47that the statute of limitations

01:09:49had run out.

01:09:52The investigations into him

01:09:54all kind of fell apart.

01:09:56One case,

01:09:57the girl in question

01:09:58in 1994

01:10:00did not come forward.

01:10:01So there was nothing

01:10:02to prosecute.

01:10:04How are you guys?

01:10:05Stephen Collins,

01:10:06how you doing?

01:10:07Good to see you.

01:10:08Stephen Collins,

01:10:09nice to see you too.

01:10:10I didn't hear much

01:10:11about those young girls.

01:10:13But the thing that I noticed

01:10:15was Seventh Heaven

01:10:17was off the air

01:10:18for a period of time.

01:10:19Well how do you feel

01:10:20about a lot of networks

01:10:21that you know took it off?

01:10:23He stepped down from SAG too.

01:10:25But I understand

01:10:26he's the figurehead of the show.

01:10:28I mean you have to have

01:10:29some sort of

01:10:31reaction.

01:10:32Around that time

01:10:33he had two movies

01:10:34he was going to do.

01:10:35He had a series

01:10:36called Scandal.

01:10:37All these things

01:10:38are happening

01:10:39and are all gone.

01:10:40Thanks Mr. Collins,

01:10:41nice to see you.

01:10:43Mr. Collins,

01:10:44nice to see you again.

01:10:45Thank you so much.

01:10:46When it comes

01:10:47to Stephen Collins,

01:10:48I think most people

01:10:49would just duck,

01:10:50go into hiding.

01:10:51After something like that

01:10:52it's exposed.

01:10:55But that has not

01:10:56been his style.

01:10:58So in December 2014

01:11:00Stephen Collins decides

01:11:01to sit down

01:11:02with Katie Couric

01:11:03on 20-20.

01:11:05So you never saw that?

01:11:06No.

01:11:07Alright,

01:11:08I'm going to pull up the video.

01:11:09Okay.

01:11:15Okay,

01:11:16whenever you're ready.

01:11:20I know that other people

01:11:21are going to judge

01:11:22and doubt

01:11:23and I can't do anything

01:11:24about that.

01:11:25All I can do is

01:11:26tell my truth.

01:11:27Tell my truth.

01:11:29Looking at this

01:11:30it's hard to interpret

01:11:31what you're seeing, right?

01:11:32Because no doubt

01:11:33there's PR

01:11:34and lawyers

01:11:35and people

01:11:36telling Stephen Collins

01:11:37what he should say

01:11:38or what he can say

01:11:39and what he can say

01:11:40and not put himself

01:11:42in harm's way.

01:11:44So this is all

01:11:45carefully crafted,

01:11:46I'm sure.

01:11:48The first incident,

01:11:50how old was the victim?

01:11:52She was 10.

01:11:55I noticed

01:11:56he doesn't look

01:11:57so hurt to say it.

01:11:59I had no idea

01:12:00the first one was 10.

01:12:04I mean,

01:12:05it's all three are wrong,

01:12:07don't get me wrong, but

01:12:14like I'm kind of like

01:12:15shaking right now.

01:12:18Well, in 1973

01:12:20there were

01:12:22two occasions

01:12:23when I

01:12:26exposed myself

01:12:27to this young woman.

01:12:29Isn't that interesting?

01:12:31He calls her a young woman.

01:12:32She's 10.

01:12:34How many

01:12:3510-year-old women do you know?

01:12:36I don't know any.

01:12:37That's interesting language

01:12:39for someone

01:12:40arguably too young

01:12:41to even really have a period.

01:12:42He is warping language

01:12:44so subtly

01:12:46it twists

01:12:48fundamentally what he's done.

01:12:50And

01:12:52I

01:12:54took her hand

01:12:55and moved it

01:12:57in such a way that

01:12:58she was touching me

01:13:00inappropriately.

01:13:01He said,

01:13:02she was touching me

01:13:03inappropriately.

01:13:04You are molesting a child.

01:13:06She is not touching you

01:13:07inappropriately.

01:13:08Those are a lot of words

01:13:09to say

01:13:10I forced her

01:13:11to give me a handjob.

01:13:14I think we both

01:13:15just sat there

01:13:16and we really

01:13:17didn't move a muscle.

01:13:18He says,

01:13:20we realized

01:13:21something unfathomable happened.

01:13:23Like,

01:13:24when you put it together

01:13:25a lot of times

01:13:26pedophiles see

01:13:27the victims

01:13:28as a participant.

01:13:31When a kid is 10 years old

01:13:32there is no we.

01:13:34It's a child.

01:13:36And after about

01:13:38what I recall

01:13:39was about 45 seconds

01:13:41I

01:13:43took her hand and

01:13:44moved it back.

01:13:47He was very precise.

01:13:48Like,

01:13:49it only happened

01:13:50this many seconds.

01:13:51There was no talking

01:13:52and it was very quick.

01:13:5345 seconds.

01:13:54That's his interpretation.

01:13:55He's saying it's 45 seconds.

01:13:57Let's be fair

01:13:58and say it's 45 seconds.

01:14:00I think you should

01:14:01take some time

01:14:02to count

01:14:0345 seconds

01:14:04and you tell me

01:14:05that's not a long time

01:14:06for a 10 year old

01:14:07to have her hand

01:14:08on your penis.

01:14:10There were

01:14:11two times

01:14:12in 1982

01:14:14when

01:14:1520 years ago.

01:14:16A lot of men

01:14:17who are accused of

01:14:18sexual violence do this

01:14:19where they

01:14:20will frame it

01:14:21in how many years

01:14:22it's been since

01:14:23they did it.

01:14:24What does that have to do

01:14:25with anything?

01:14:26You didn't admit to it then.

01:14:27You didn't say sorry.

01:14:29You didn't have to

01:14:30present in court.

01:14:31You didn't have to

01:14:32pay a fine.

01:14:33You didn't have to

01:14:34do anything.

01:14:35You're right.

01:14:36You've had 20 years

01:14:37to just live free

01:14:38despite what you are

01:14:39admitting to have done.

01:14:41The look on

01:14:42the one in 1982

01:14:43was such that

01:14:44it immediately

01:14:45just

01:14:47stopped everything cold.

01:14:49That's not what happened.

01:14:50The way he portrayed it

01:14:52that it only happened

01:14:53once in everything

01:14:54it sent me into a fury.

01:14:56He's trying to save his career

01:14:57and he's downplaying it

01:14:58but on the other hand

01:14:59as the person

01:15:00that it happened to

01:15:01I was enraged.

01:15:02I am not

01:15:03attracted to

01:15:04underage girls.

01:15:05This is the first time

01:15:09that

01:15:11I've ever thought

01:15:12that he's full of s***.

01:15:14No, I'm not

01:15:15I'm not

01:15:16satisfied with this.

01:15:21Phew.

01:15:22I had like a knot

01:15:23in my stomach.

01:15:27My whole world

01:15:28changed when I had

01:15:30kids of my own.

01:15:31A whole world view.

01:15:34And certainly

01:15:35my tolerance for

01:15:37this.

01:15:39I think that goes

01:15:40without being said

01:15:41but you know what I mean.

01:15:45I just think that maybe I

01:15:47put him up on a

01:15:49professional pedestal

01:15:50a bit too much.

01:15:54Are you a pedophile?

01:15:55I do not fit the

01:15:56either clinical or

01:15:57dictionary definition of it.

01:15:59That to me

01:16:00seemed like a prepared answer

01:16:02because

01:16:03we're just missing words.

01:16:05Pedophilia is a

01:16:06is a specific term

01:16:07that does refer to children

01:16:08but it's usually children

01:16:09under about 10 or 11.

01:16:11What he is

01:16:12is a hemophiliac

01:16:13which is somebody

01:16:14who's attracted to

01:16:15prepubescent

01:16:16girls usually

01:16:17so 11 to 14.

01:16:18He's right.

01:16:19There is a distinct

01:16:20word for what he is.

01:16:21For him to know

01:16:22what the clinical

01:16:23definition is

01:16:24he knows the line

01:16:25to walk doesn't he?

01:16:27The answer should have been

01:16:28it doesn't matter

01:16:29what we call it

01:16:30what I did was

01:16:31I victimized young

01:16:32women sexually

01:16:33and I harmed them.

01:16:34That's it.

01:16:35That's what you did.

01:16:47In Seventh Heaven

01:16:48there were three young women

01:16:49on the show

01:16:50from 7 to 15.

01:16:51They're exactly the ages

01:16:53that

01:16:54a predator

01:16:55would love.

01:16:56So did you ever

01:16:57witness anything

01:16:58with Stephen at all?

01:16:59No, nothing.

01:17:00It just didn't happen

01:17:01that I would see.

01:17:02I mean it may have happened

01:17:03but I wasn't

01:17:04I didn't see it.

01:17:05What did you notice

01:17:06about him working

01:17:07with young girls

01:17:08or with extras

01:17:09or anything like that?

01:17:10What I noticed about

01:17:11Stephen Collins

01:17:12working with young girls

01:17:13and extras

01:17:14is that I never noticed

01:17:15a damn thing

01:17:16with young girls

01:17:17and extras.

01:17:18Never crossed any lines

01:17:19of any

01:17:20any kind.

01:17:21There's lots of

01:17:22safety rails

01:17:23when you have kids

01:17:24on a show.

01:17:25For minors

01:17:26there are always

01:17:27people on set

01:17:28or teachers

01:17:29or monitoring

01:17:30situations

01:17:31got a sense

01:17:32that this was a

01:17:33really protected set.

01:17:35I'm actually a personal

01:17:36friend of Beverly Mitchell.

01:17:38She never reported

01:17:39any issues to me.

01:17:40He was a nice guy.

01:17:42He is a smart dude.

01:17:43He is engaging

01:17:44and interesting

01:17:45and charming.

01:17:46He is all of those things.

01:17:48And he was engaged

01:17:49in some monstrous behavior.

01:17:53After the

01:17:54child abuse scandal

01:17:55Seventh Heaven

01:17:56became something

01:17:57that a lot of people

01:17:58didn't talk about.

01:18:03But there were

01:18:04other actors

01:18:05on that show.

01:18:06I love your show.

01:18:07Thank you so much.

01:18:08This was their

01:18:09career and their lives.

01:18:10It's honestly

01:18:11like just amazing.

01:18:12And there are

01:18:13great people

01:18:15I'm actually

01:18:16very honored

01:18:17that I get to be

01:18:18part of this

01:18:19rare thing nowadays.

01:18:21So one person's

01:18:22actions

01:18:23should that

01:18:24also

01:18:25take this

01:18:26piece of culture

01:18:27that we all have

01:18:28and destroy it?

01:18:34Mr. Collins

01:18:35how are you doing?

01:18:36Do you feel

01:18:37that you can make

01:18:38a comeback

01:18:39as an actor?

01:18:40Oh, you know

01:18:41if I'm lucky enough

01:18:42to get past

01:18:44Stephen Collins'

01:18:45story broke a few

01:18:46years before

01:18:47similar stories

01:18:48about other

01:18:49Hollywood icons

01:18:50and well before

01:18:51the Me Too movement.

01:18:54I'm so glad

01:18:55that there are

01:18:56people saying

01:18:57how much the show

01:18:58means to them.

01:18:59He just was able

01:19:00to fade away

01:19:01into obscurity

01:19:02over that.

01:19:06I used to always

01:19:07say that

01:19:08memories are like

01:19:09they're all encased

01:19:10in little

01:19:11amber

01:19:12balls

01:19:13to keep them safe

01:19:14like the insect

01:19:15in Jurassic Park

01:19:16in the amber.

01:19:17You don't put

01:19:18the memory

01:19:19on a table

01:19:20and get a sledgehammer

01:19:21and go

01:19:22pow

01:19:23and break it open.

01:19:24I feel

01:19:25we all

01:19:26are angry

01:19:27the victims

01:19:28and the friends.

01:19:29We all feel

01:19:30betrayed.

01:19:31You can't change it.

01:19:32The person

01:19:33and the thing

01:19:34that was in that amber

01:19:35was someone different

01:19:36and that's what

01:19:37you loved

01:19:38and when something

01:19:39now has happened

01:19:40here

01:19:41you don't say

01:19:42it's okay

01:19:43but you don't then

01:19:44destroy

01:19:45you know

01:19:46all of these

01:19:47bits of amber memories.

01:19:50Stephen Collins

01:19:51now lives

01:19:52with a woman

01:19:53who is 40 years

01:19:54younger than him.

01:19:55She was a super fan.

01:19:57The age difference

01:19:58given what we know

01:19:59about his history

01:20:00does certainly

01:20:01raise an eyebrow.

01:20:02Let's hope he can

01:20:03commit to this woman

01:20:04and not perpetrate

01:20:05on others.

01:20:07I'm sure

01:20:08Stephen Collins

01:20:09would hope

01:20:10that he is remembered

01:20:11for being an actor.

01:20:12He is not

01:20:13and will not be remembered

01:20:14for that.

01:20:15I know

01:20:16Stephen Collins'

01:20:17face

01:20:18from Seventh Heaven

01:20:19but I know his name

01:20:20because of his scandals

01:20:21off screen.

01:20:24And when you look back

01:20:25at Stephen Collins' career

01:20:26you can see

01:20:27some of these signs

01:20:28along the way.

01:20:30He wrote

01:20:31erotic thrillers.

01:20:32He was in that movie

01:20:33Babysitter Seduction

01:20:34two years after

01:20:35he admittedly

01:20:36exposed himself

01:20:37to a babysitter.

01:20:38When I'm re-watching

01:20:39Seventh Heaven now

01:20:40in one of the

01:20:41last few seasons

01:20:42Ruthie

01:20:43who's now

01:20:44basically like

01:20:45a teenager

01:20:46is dancing provocatively

01:20:48and her father

01:20:49is watching her.

01:20:51It's actually

01:20:52so uncomfortable to watch.

01:20:53So grown up

01:20:54you were my

01:20:55favorite preacher dad.

01:20:56These things

01:20:57don't need to

01:20:58read as creepy.

01:20:59They don't need to.

01:21:00They shouldn't

01:21:01but they do

01:21:02because now we know

01:21:03what kind of a person

01:21:04Stephen Collins is.

01:21:05I played a sort of

01:21:06string of

01:21:07bad guy characters.

01:21:09So there's a scene

01:21:10in It's Always Sunny

01:21:11in Philadelphia.

01:21:19Just it's hard

01:21:20to listen to.

01:21:21When these kind of

01:21:22stories come out

01:21:23how do you separate

01:21:24the work from

01:21:25the person?

01:21:26And

01:21:28it's so hard for me

01:21:29to imagine

01:21:30anyone doing that.

01:21:31Stephen Collins

01:21:32played dozens

01:21:33of different characters

01:21:34but perhaps his

01:21:35greatest acting job

01:21:36was transforming

01:21:37himself into

01:21:38the Stephen Collins

01:21:39we thought we knew

01:21:41as opposed to

01:21:42the Stephen Collins

01:21:43we now know.

01:21:52Don't believe

01:21:53everything you

01:21:54hear on television.

01:22:07Am I arrested?

01:22:08Yeah.

01:22:11He's not Power Rangers.

01:22:13He's evil.

01:22:16Power Rangers

01:22:17has a dark history.

01:22:19He ran him through

01:22:20with the sword.

01:22:23He started sending

01:22:24pictures of my house

01:22:26and of my car.

01:22:29It's like okay

01:22:30this is getting serious now.

01:22:33This is one family

01:22:34a single generation

01:22:35of six brothers.

01:22:37And I'm

01:22:38the only one left now.

01:22:39If there were

01:22:40ever a circumstance

01:22:41that looked like a curse

01:22:42it's this one.

01:22:43You always hear

01:22:44what the child actor

01:22:45that comes out all loud.

01:22:46I don't know why

01:22:47you guys did this to me.

01:22:48My friend's

01:22:49just hanging himself.

01:22:50Don't to be sued

01:22:51I'm innocent.

01:22:52I think the majority

01:22:53of people don't

01:22:54know the true story.

01:22:57Why didn't you

01:22:58just say that you

01:22:59wanted to speak now?

01:23:00What is going on?

01:23:03Can I just

01:23:04have a moment?

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