20 / 20

Have you ever noticed that so many cliches...seemingly stupid sayings...actually turn out to be true? My personal favorite - hindsight is 20/20. From where I stand right now - many years later I see the choice I could have made so clearly, but then how would that have altered every other stage of my life from then on? Drastically...nothing would have been the same. From where I stand right now that would not have been good news.

I thought about it for two days. Seriously thought about it. Pulling out of this life, this city, this boat and this marriage. What I did was call the personnel department and say I wasn't moving up to San Francisco after all. I was going to stay. In Los Angeles, working on the Tonight Show, married to Jake.

Lots of my life during that time was fun. I met people and saw things hanging around NBC that I certainly would have never been a part of had I stayed in Locust Valley. By this time I probably would have had a child of my own had I married that nice young man, instead of every other weekend with four kids I liked a lot but, boy was this boat crowded. Life with Jake was crowded...with drama, turmoil, his unhappiness with what he had determined was his unfair "lot in life". Through no fault of his own - always, according to him - his great talent was being passed over time after time to represent the greater talent coming into the agency. I wished I always believed him but I'd come to notice his complaining was becoming a chronic condition and if I noticed, certainly others did, as well.

The Tonight Show was fun, fun, fun. My pal, Betsy, and I were always coming up with something to fill the extra hours in the day. Let's be honest, working hard was not a Tonight Show job requirement. Most of the jobs were pretty cushy. So Betsy and I hooked rugs and put together "The Tonight Show" scrapbook - fully subsidized by NBC under the auspices of the head of the Prop Department. People walked through our bungalow and said hello. Ed McMahon's office was right behind my desk and every late morning he'd walk in with that booming "Hello Janet and Beth". With him what you saw was truly what you got. He was warm and friendly with HORRIBLE taste in women. He met his second wife, Vickie Lee Valentine in the VIP lounge at some airline. She was a hostess. Later she was "reinvented" as Victoria and had one of the worst attitudes of entitlement I'd ever encountered. Reportedly, at their wedding reception in an over-enebriated state (that was true about him too, he did imbibe)...Victoria said "that's it fatso, we're married now I don't have to be nice". And, from what I understood about their union that was certainly truthful.

Other people were very nice. I met Henry Fonda, on my birthday, and when I shook his hand and told him it was the best thing that had happened that day, re replied, "for me, too". Heady stuff.

I'd return home to the boat and cook delicious meals - tuna or mac and cheese in an electric casserole cooker and, while the weather was mostly wonderful, walking up to the shower every morning was not. What was I thinking? Probably, that it drove my father crazy and that made most of it worth it. The sub conscious mind is a powerful vehicle.

I passed two years on the boat with Jake, his children and spent my days with Johnny Carson and his crew. We produced multiple Alpo commercials - yes, I was there the day the dog wouldn't eat and Johnny came backstage and pretended to munch a mouthful. One day I wandered through the studio and happened to check the job postings. During those days at NBC people on the "inside" got first crack at an open position. One caught my eye...Co-ordinator, Compliance and Practices. It was described as working for the department ensuring the honesty and integrity of game shows. At that time NBC, as well as CBS and ABC had many game shows on the air. Hollywood Squares, Name that Tune, Price is Right, Wheel of Fortune and others. Since NBC had been involved in the game show scandals many years earlier they took the integrity of these productions very seriously. It looked interesting...it paid more money... I was ready for a change.

I called personnel and went up to discuss an interview. I didn't tell Jake.