The Merv Griffin Show
Mary Beth Evans and Kin Shriner from ‘Rituals’
1985
(Mary Beth’s first talk show appearance)
(Transcript is edited to include Mary Beth and Kin exclusively)
Other guests include: Peter Reckell and Kristian Alfonso (Bo and Hope, Days), Tracey Bregman and Doug Davidson (Paul and Lauren, Y&R), Steve Bond and Sherilyn Walter (GH).
Merv: These next two lovers will definitely steam up your television set. As Mike Gallagher, he was happily married until he discovered that the beautiful Dakota Lane was the surrogate mother of his babies. The show is Rituals. Kin Shriner and Mary Beth Evans… here they are:
Merv: You’ve heard of table hoppers, Kin Shriner is a soap hopper.
Mary Beth: He’s all mine now. (laughs)
Merv: He’s yours now, right.
Merv to (Mary Beth): YOU are cute!
Mary Beth (giggles): Thanks.
Kin: Isn’t she though? And those eyes; look at those eyes. (Waves his hand in front of Mary Beth’s eyes)
Merv: Oh, you do that to all of your leading ladies? (Does the hand wave, too)
Mary Beth: So I’ve heard.
Merv: Is he a fun guy. Mary Beth?
Mary Beth: Ya, he’s pretty fun.
Kin: We have a lot of fun. She has about the same attention span as I do, about three seconds.
Mary Beth: We get yelled at a lot.
Merv: Uh oh. Surrogate mother. How did that happen?
Mary Beth: I have everything. I have a brain tumor, and since I was dying, I thought I would be a surrogate mother for his wife, so…
Merv: Awww. How did that all happen?
Mary Beth: Secretly.
Merv: Oh, ya? Tell us.
Mary Beth: They wanted to have a baby, and they couldn’t, so he went to the bank…or whatever you do…
Merv: Went to the bank or whatever you do? (laughing)
Kin: Sperm bank.
Mary Beth: Ya.
Merv: Oh, sperm bank, not an S&L (teasing).
Mary Beth: No. So I went there in the other room, so he didn’t know I was there. I got the injection (laughs, looking at Kin), and now I’m pregnant.
Kin: It’s pretty goofy stuff there, it’s just that, see in syndication we…
Mary Beth: We can get away with a lot.
Merv looks at the entire panel and asks: Don’t any guys on soaps wear socks? (2 or 3 of the men are wearing no socks)
Tracey: Days of our Lives and Young and Restless stars (wear socks).
Mary Beth: Ok, you win, battle of the soap stars…. (laughs)
Merv: Ok, where were we before we got into this whole thing? You said pretty crazy…
Kin: Ya, syndicated we can get away with stuff that the network people can’t necessarily do.
Merv: You were on for a while around my show here.
Kin: Ya, 8 o’clock.
Merv: Ya, 8 o’clock.
Mary Beth: What did you think about that?
Merv: That was good, ya.
Mary Beth: Did you go catch it in the back (laughs).
Merv: Then you, then you moved to daytime…
Kin: Yes, we were at 12:30 then we moved to 1:30.
Mary Beth: We haven’t found our spot yet.
Merv: I hear a lot about Rituals.
Kin: Ya, its doing ok…it’s doing alright. What do you think, huh? (To Mary Beth)
Mary Beth nods and says yes.
Merv (to Mary Beth): You’re married in real life?
Mary Beth: No. I’m engaged.
Merv: Oh, you’re engaged to… And will that happen?
Mary Beth: I think so….November 3rd. Actually, we’re getting married at the same place Steve got married. (Looks over at Steve Bond from GH)
Merv: Oh, down in Palos Verdes.
Mary Beth nods
Steve: Four days away, I got married November 7th.
Mary Beth: Oh really? Small world, huh?
Steve and Merv: Ya.
Merv: Kin, tell me about your future. I worry about you sometimes
Mary Beth: So do I (laughs).
—
Merv talks to Kin about his family, then there’s a break. Back from break, Mary Beth is talking to Merv about Kin.
Mary Beth: I’m learning so much about him, I didn’t know all of these things!
Kin (arms around Mary Beth): C’mon, c’mon.
Merv: You didn’t know all of these things?
Mary Beth: I didn’t know some of them.
Merv to Mary Beth: How does your fiancé feel about you being on the show?
Mary Beth: Well…I mean he’s happy about it, but he doesn’t like to watch it necessarily.
Merv: Oh, we’ve got another one here Tracey.
Mary Beth looks over to Tracey: (smiling) Yes, I know.
Merv: Tracey’s hasn’t seen her show…
Mary Beth: No… mine’s seen it, he just…
Merv: Doesn’t approve?
Mary Beth: He approves, he would rather just know it’s there and not see it all the time…the kissing and stuff you know (she smiles).
Merv: Oh, so, we don’t even like to discuss that around the house?
Mary Beth: No, we discuss it, he just doesn’t watch it (laughs).
Merv: Mmm. What kind of profession is he in?
Mary Beth: He’s a doctor.
Merv: Well, they kiss a lot at the office I’m sure.
Mary Beth: That’s what I thought, but he doesn’t want me to think that (laughs).
Merv: (laughs) Ohh. Is he a specialist?
Mary Beth: ENT- Ear nose throat.
Merv: Oh, Ear Nose Throat.
Mary Beth: He’s a fun guy, I should have brought him.
Merv: I can’t imagine though that ENT is the most romantic of the…
Mary Beth: He is romantic though…when we got engaged…
Merv: (makes faces as he says)…when you’re looking up people’s noses all day and down their red throats all the time (clears throat)…and all that kind of thing….
Mary Beth (laughs): No, he’s romantic….
Merv: Not like a gynecologist though…
Mary Beth: No, that would be a lot worse (laughs).
Merv: When will…November 3rd the wedding bells will be ringing. And then what about Rituals?
Mary Beth: Who knows? <shrugs shoulders>
Merv: Oh…
Mary Beth: Well, I mean…its going to go on and I’m pregnant so I guess I’ll have a baby, and it’ll be his I think, unless they got them mixed up and it’s somebody else’s…and you know how that is.
Merv: Will he let you work after the wedding bells ring? (Mary Beth looks at Kin)
Kin and Merv both say: No no, no. (Mary Beth laughs)
Merv: No, the doctor…Kin will be in Ft. Lauderdale, forget about Kin.
Mary Beth: Of course he will, ya.
Merv: Oh, he will allow you to work.
Mary Beth: Oh…ya. I think he needs me to. He’s still in his residency.
Merv: Oh, he’s not a full ENT.
Mary Beth: No…so you don’t want to go to him yet?
Merv: How did he graduate in the class?
Mary Beth: I think #1 probably, of course (laughs).
Merv: I always like to ask that when I go into a doctor’s office…’How many in your graduating class doctor…oh 500? Where were you in the class?’ before you let them operate you know?
Mary Beth: Good idea, you may end up with one nose too many or something.
Merv: Mmm hmm. Where’s the storyline right now?
Mary Beth: He just found out that I am the mother of his baby.
Merv: Oh right, yes, and then what?
Mary Beth looks to Kin, and then says: I don’t know if we can say anything, if we can tell them (smiles).
Merv: Go ahead, tell us.
Mary Beth: So, basically his wife has gone astray and he’s going astray with me.
Merv: So the whole show is going astray?
Merv: How does that title figure in…Rituals?
Mary Beth: It was a book.
Kin: Ya, it was a book.
Merv: Ya, but I still want to know how the title figures in, I don’t care about the book part of it.
Kin: I don’t know how it figures in. The whole thing takes place at some girls’ college. So, they took it from the book.
Merv: Well you sure cleared that up (laughs).
Merv: Kin Shriner and Mary Beth Evans, from Rituals, a syndicated television show.
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