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(2/15/07 10:42 pm)
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Valentine's Special - Interview with Frank Dicopoulos
Guiding Light's Valentine to Katrina Victims
This Valentine's Day, Guiding Light took a break from amour in the afternoon for an episode showcasing the cast's real-life labor of love: a trip to Katrina-ravaged New Orleans as part of the soap's campaign to give back to those who have kept it around for the past 70 years. Fittingly, GL's resident good guy Frank Dicopoulos (Frank Cooper) shared with us the side of daytime that fans rarely get to see. —Damian Holbrook
TVGuide.com: So how did this come about?
Frank Dicopoulos: Ellen Wheeler and Jan Conklin, our other producer, came up with the idea. We had a relationship with [volunteer groups] New York Cares and Hands On. They're solely responsible for rebuilding homes that have been devastated... sort of like Habitat for Humanity. For our 70th anniversary, Ellen wanted to do something completely different. She wanted to go outside of the box. You know, it's really nice when you help charities, give them money and all of that. But this was a really unique opportunity. There was about 60 of us who went down, cast and crew, and [we worked on] three homes in different stages. One needed to be reframed. The next home needed to be insulated and the third home, which I worked on, was the "finished" home. So that meant taking it all the way from the sheet-rock to fully furnishing it. Just massive. Our scenic artist did this amazing job in picking out all of the furniture, the colors, the accoutrements... all of the accessories. Everything!
TVGuide.com: How long were you down there?
Dicopoulos: A solid week. Ellen said, "Tthis is what we want to do. We want to spend an entire year giving back to the community." So every single month, teams of actors will go out to various parts of the country to donate their time and service. Whether it's environmental, rebuilding homes, going to schools and painting murals... I'm just so damn proud of this. It's very cool and once again, it's not bragging. It's really doing the right thing.
TVGuide.com: So you suspended filming for a week?
Dicopoulos: Oh yeah. Lots of pre-shooting episodes so we wouldn't be behind.
TVGuide.com: Totally worth it, though, I'm sure.
Dicopoulos: To see how these people were touched? Oh yeah. The woman whose house we finished — I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it — to see her daughter when she saw her room and jumped on her bed? To hear those gut-wrenching cries? Oh my god.
TVGuide.com: And the cast was there to present it?
Dicopoulos: Yeah, it was just amazing.
TVGuide.com: Who surprised you by being the most handy on a construction site?
Dicopoulos: This is not a political answer, but I was blown away by every single one of my cast mates. Not one of them complained. Everybody just rose to the occasion. And there were team leaders who had expertise in their own fields and they would train us. I mean, I know how to hit a nail, but they coached us — and before you knew it, I was doing base-molding and trim! Each actor felt the same way. I'm talking Crystal Chappell (Olivia), Beth Chamberlain (Beth), Rob Bogue (Mallet), John Driscoll (Coop), Mandy Bruno (Marina). We had everybody. Even little Marcy [Rylan] (Lizzie).
TVGuide.com: What's the next project?
Dicopoulos: I know I'm going to Virginia. A team is going to Georgia. They're breaking us all up and sending different groups, so I don't know what the projects are. They keep them all pretty hush-hush. We didn't even know, until the day we were down there... and that's another thing. The Hands On team was absolutely unbelievable. And it's comprised of kids in their 20s from all over the country who basically shut down their lives for anywhere from a month to a year to donate their time. Literally uprooting their lives because they want to do this.
TVGuide.com: Did you see other groups volunteering down in New Orleans?
Dicopoulos: No. We stayed in a camp half the time and the other half in a restructured hotel. The Hands On crew stayed in what amounts to a gymnasium. It was all tents, bunk beds, one bathroom and an outdoor shower. [Laughs]
TVGuide.com: How is the region looking these days?
Dicopoulos: It was as if the hurricane had hit yesterday. The drive from New Orleans to Biloxi was total devastation. Unreal. The Ninth Ward, which was hit the worst... there was spray-painting on the outside of homes telling you how many people died there, how many animals died. It is that bad.
TVGuide.com: Does Ellen plan to incorporate any of this into storylines?
Dicopoulos: Not storylines, no. We had the Valentine's Day show, documenting what we did down there. But as far as characters helping out? No. [Laughs] Could you imagine the Coopers working on a house?
TVGuide.com: They'd do more damage than good!
Dicopoulos: Oh my god, yeah! [Laughs]
TVGuide.com: So what is going on with Guiding Light now?
Dicopoulos: The great thing about what [head writer] David Kreizman and Ellen are doing right now is that all of the stories are intertwined. Everybody is affected by what's going on and that is awesome. There's nothing hokey going on. It's all real stuff.
TVGuide.com: And you have some familiar faces showing back up, right?
Dicopoulos: Yeah. [Bonnie Dennison] is on now as my niece, Daisy.
TVGuide.com: She's all druggied-up now. And they just cast Brian Gaskill as the NuDylan.
Dicopoulos: Yeah, we've got him. And a new character for Marina. That's a secret for right now, but they are gone wreak havoc on all of Springfield.
TVGuide.com: And how long have you been doing this?
Dicopoulos: 20 years.
TVGuide.com: Then you have probably worked with a cast member of every other soap now.
Dicopoulos: Not just the soaps, but primetime and films. [Laughs] Everyone from Melina Kanakaredes, who's on CSI: NY to Cynthia Watros who was on Lost…and how about Hayden Panetierre [from Heroes]?!
TVGuide.com: How did the GL cast react to the news of Passions' cancellation?
Dicopoulos: It wasn't good. My first response was, "Oh god, here's another soap going down." Second of all, I felt real bad for the actors on the show, knowing that they're no longer employed. And thirdly, they were behind us! Now when you look at the ratings, there's Guiding Light.
TVGuide.com: Pulling up the rear, huh?
Dicopoulos: And that's not the best thing to see. All you need to do is look at how close all of the soaps are [in the Nielsen ratings] — within tenths! — and that's just the way it falls. Anything can happen. It's scary. But it's not that there's a competition among shows. I root for all of my friends on other soaps. I want to keep daytime alive!
FYI: If you missed Guiding Light's special Valentine's episode today, you can still watch it online on CBS.com/innertube.
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