Actress Charlene Tilton back in town for Dallas reunion

by Daniel A. Kusner of Dallas Voice

When Charlene Tilton answers the phone from her Los Angeles home, her voice has a thin, high-pitched quality. And with her bubbly personality, it sounds eerily just like Tammy Faye Bakker’s. Tilton was one of Bakker’s friends, and without even purchasing the rights, Bakker handed Tilton the authority to portray the televangelist in the film version of her life.

“The gay community owes Tammy a debt of gratitude. I was also friendly with Liberace when he died. And back then, everyone worried that Linda Evans was infected because she kissed Rock Hudson on Dynasty. But on the PTL, Tammy introduced her friend Steve who had AIDS, and she embraced him on-air,” Tilton remembers. “Not only was Tammy the first celebrity, she was the first Christian who reached out and went to hospices. And when people asked if she was worried about getting sick, Tammy told them, ‘No. I believe my God heals.’”

Although she can’t give many specifics, Tilton’s recently shot a sitcom pilot about a cooking show that just got picked up for 13 episodes. And she’s heading to the U.K. to play Wicked Stepmother for a stage version of Cinderella. She hopes the feature film version of the Tammy Faye story will start shooting in 2009.

But on Saturday, Tilton returns to the SouthFork Ranch to celebrate the 30th anniversary of her most famous acting credit: Dallas playing Lucy Ewing — J.R.’s nympho niece. Lucy was a spunky SMU student who lived in the lap of luxury but didn’t have enough love. She popped pills, had an abortion, falsely accused a teacher of raping her and hopped from bed to bed. On the first episode, she was in a hayloft with Pam Ewing’s ex-beau and makes the boyfriend call her Pam instead of Lucy.

“How kinky is that?” Tilton says. “And she was only 17 at the time.”

But Tilton is especially proud of “The Royal Marriage,” a three-episode saga that aired in 1979 where Lucy meets and gets engaged to Kit Mainwaring, the scion of Mainwaring Oil, Ewing Oil’s main competitor. J.R. was thrilled over the arrangement, and so was Lucy — at first.

“Kit treated Lucy wonderfully. He was a gorgeous gentleman, nice and understanding. He would have been the perfect spouse. Lucy was so in love,” Tilton says. “But then Kip tells her, ‘I tried to do this for my family, but I can’t go through with it because I’m not being honest with you or my family.’ He came out to her — they used the word ‘homosexual.’ Lucy was so sad, confused and heartbroken.”

Even though Lucy wasn’t the nicest girl in the 214 area code, she didn’t go after Kit in a vengeful way.

“I loved the way the writers handled it. She protected Kit’s privacy and didn’t try to out him. When she found out that J.R. knew Kip was gay, Lucy told Kip not to worry: She’d handle J.R. This was like the first time someone had come out on TV. Those are my all-time favorite episodes on Dallas.

Tilton made TV history on another show — when she hosted Saturday Night Live in 1981. That episode was the notorious distinction for twice airing the word “fuck”: Musical guest Prince sung an F bomb in the song “Party Up,” and during the closing segment while Charles Rocket parodied the “Who Shot J.R.?” plot, Tilton asked him what’s it like to get shot. Rocket said, “It’s the first time I’ve ever been shot in my life. I’d like to know who the fuck did it.”

“I think they fired Charles before he left the stage,” Tilton recalls.

Tilton knows that Dallas’ gayborhood has two bars named after her cast mates: J.R.’s and Sue Ellen’s. If they ever wanted to create a watering hole named after Lucy, Tilton has a few ideas.

“Maybe it could be a safe place for closeted men. But Lucy wasn’t good at keeping secrets,” Tilton giggles. “But I’m from the school of ‘more is more,’ so the gaudier the better. Also, it would have to be pink. But the most important thing of all — it would have to have excellent lighting.”