My appearance on "Hot Seat" with ultra-conservative talk show host Wally George. I was a 19-year old kid at the time, watching Wally's weekday call-in program. At the end of the show, Wally said, "I'm looking for someone to come on the Hot Seat and debate proposition 64 with me - if you think you can handle it, call me here at KDOC." Proposition 64 was a California ballot proposition that called for all people with AIDS to be isolated from the general public and treated like they had a communicable disease. I doubt it would have gone into effect even if it had passed (which it didn't) I think its constitutionality would have been questioned by a judge. After all, an issue like this should be judged by the health community based on the risk to the public health - its not something that should be voted on by the public, who don't have such knowledge but are basing their votes on hearsay and fear. (I wish I could have made that point on TV...) But I really wasn't there as any sort of expert - I was just a teenager who thought it would be fun to be on TV; so I called up and they booked to be a guest on the show. Later I realized, "is this how Wally wins his arguments - by booking people to discuss a topic they know little about?"... It was a long drive from El Segundo (where I lived) and Anaheim (where KDOC studios were), so I wore comfortable clothes - a T-shirt and jeans - bringing my suit to change into once I arrived. There was no green room at KDOC - it was just a general lounge area overlooked by the secretary. A TV set was on continually, showing only KDOC. I believe they taped their show on Wednesdays and aired it on Saturday night. The TV set in the lounge was playing horse racing. Real boring. I was sitting in the lounge with the other guests, and we all joked about who had the nerve to go up and change the channel. I think one of us tried, but found it was a monitor, not a TV set, so there was no dial to change. There was still an hour or so before the taping was to start, so I didn't bother changing into my suit. One of the producers of the show came up to me and said there's been a change in plans - that I would not in fact be on the hot seat, but they'd bring me up to the podium as a guest. I was disappointed, and felt it was because I wasn't wearing a suit. I went into the restroom to change into my suit, and realized I forgot to bring a dress shirt. I started to panic. I think I even asked the other guests if they had an extra dress shirt with them. Then I thought maybe I could hide my T-shirt under my suit jacket - maybe no one would notice. I tried that in the bathroom, but there was no hiding it. That's why I went out there wearing a T-shirt, tie and coat. I wasn't trying to dress like Patti Smith - it just kinda happened that way. And once the producers saw me wearing a coat and tie, they said there's been another change of plans, and that I would be on the hot seat as originally planned. I don't know if its because I looked better with a coat, or if they thought my Patti Smith style looked funny. Whichever... Wally came into the lounge at one point and was real nice to us all, making small talk and everything. The doctor (pharmacist) you see in the clip struck me as a real conspiracist kinda guy. When were all chatting backstage before the show, he was talking to Rich (the guy who sat next to me and did most of the talking on the show) about the politics of Lyndon LaRouche and how the Queen of England was a drug pusher and everything. I didn't know about the Hong Kong opium wars or anything - it just struck me as weird that here was this guy calling the Queen of England a drug pusher. I admit I kinda fell into his trap on that one during the show, when I was silly enough to bring it up. But I really had a feeling he was supportive of the proposition because of being a Lyndon LaRouche fan (who backed the proposition), not because of any concern about public health. He denied it - maybe I was wrong about him - I dunno. But I just did a quick Google search, and apparently he has since gone around making speeches about how he believes AIDS was created by the government and placed inside polio vaccines (for people in Africa) and hepatitis vaccines (for gays) as a means of sinister population control of these two groups. So I guess I was right about my original gut feeling - I guess he was a kinda nutty conspiracy-theorist... The clip ends with Wally throwing me out (as he did with most guests). During the commercial break he shook my hand before I left - still a nice guy, and didn't care that the audience could see. I saw Wally at the local supermarket about a decade ago. He died not too long after, in 2003. He wasn't the first ultra-conservative talk show host, but I feel his show did pave the way for others to follow. Please forgive my hair - it was 1986 after all...

• published: 15 Sep 2007
• views: 26889