The Kangaroo Kid Surfs Again - Part
1
This was written by Peter Phelps, the Australian
actor who played 'The Kangaroo Kid' in "The Exchange, pts. 1 &
2" about his time on 'The Young Riders.' His comments are different
to any others I've seen about the show, but in the interests of free speech,
I include it as a legitimate viewpoint.
I'd been in LA a couple of weeks and was convincing all but
the highly-discerning checkout people of my Midwest heritage, when I was
called to meet with the makes of an established series for a guest lead
in their show. As an Australian. This accent I knew. The show was 'The Young
Riders,' a western series where it seemed all the good guys were really
good-looking and the bad guys weren't. They wanted me to play the part of
The Kangaroo Kid. I was told my previous films in Australia had put me in
good stead for this part. This was surprising because mostly when I met
folks while looking for employment in the US, my resume is gazed upon with
nodding indifference, I guess because none of the films I have appeared
in reached the blockbuster status - a requirement if you don't want to keep
throwing a photo and a two-page printout of your working life at strangers.
I agreed to play The Kangaroo Kid. Speedos [an Australian swimsuit brand
- ed.] didn't crop up in the script, which was a good sign, and I could
stay on a horse long enough for the camera to capture anything heroic. The
classic scenes of riding into town with a couple of six-guns appealed to
my childhood fantasies, of course; so too did the thought of enough money
to keep me going another few months.
I must have impressed the producer, Jonas McCord, because after my first
week of shooting in Arizona he had extended my working visa for another
eighteen months and negotiated with the network for me to join the cast
as an ongoing, regular cast member.
A season with a series here means about 250,000 bucks in US greenbacks.
I pictured a house on the north coast with spare change, and a Land Cruiser
in the driveway.
The two episodes in which I appeared as The Kangaroo Kid were the season's
finale, so any cast reshuffles would be happening as I swaggered down the
dusty trails of Tucson, Arizona.
The producer had picked my up at the airport and driven me to the location
to meet the crew, my horse and my six-guns. This is rare. Usually you are
lucky as supporting actor to hitch a ride with an assistant director who
was going to the airport anyway to pick up the rushes (the previous day's
filmed footage).
The existing cast welcomed me very graciously, which doesn't always happen
with 'the new guy." The location was straight out of a John Wayne movie;
in fact we used the same street and sets in Old Tucson as on the The Duke's
The Alamo .
Eyeing a probable year or more with these people, I endeavoured to fit in
as smoothly as I could. The guys in the cast were all about twenty-six,
married, in AA programs or the like,. and everyone it seemed, drove a mammoth
four-wheel drive and/or a Harley Davidson. The Wild West. I thought the
best way to get to know my fellow workers was to do the social circuit of
Tucson with the boys. This included a pool hall with posters on the walls
of my co-stars. I got some idea of how long they had been in this place
by the amount of attention the local female populations gave to tour tables.
Another joint I had to experience was an 'upmarket' strip club. known to
the boys as 'Church.' As in "Have you taken the Aussie to Church yet?"
on my second day there, or "Met this girl in Church last night."
A permanent section around the catwalk was reserved for the town's resident
cowboys and the boys all had their favourite 'exotic dancers,' who at one
time or another were seen in locations other than their place of employment.
From: Sex Without Madonna, Peter Phelps, pp. 92-94