Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 25, 1993 TAG: 9309250311
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-17 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SUSAN KING LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: HOLLYWOOD LENGTH: Medium
TV buffs may even remember the Emmy winner as the star of the short-lived 1967 NBC sitcom "Captain Nice," in which he played a nebbish superhero.
Daniels says even his friends are often surprised at the various projects he's done over the years. "People say, `I didn't know you did that!' To tell you the truth, some of the things I have even forgotten myself."
One movie he's never forgotten doing, though, is the acclaimed 1967 romantic comedy "Two for the Road," which starred the late Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney.
"It's a wonderful movie," Daniels says. "It was such a pleasant experience." Hepburn, he adds, "was very gracious. It was all very nice."
Daniels is back on television after a five-year absence. He's starring with Ben Savage in the new ABC sitcom "Boy Meets World," airing Fridays on ABC (at 8:30 p.m. on WSET-Channel 13 in the Roanoke viewing area).
Daniels plays Mr. Feeny, the rather harried teacher and next-door neighbor of mischievous 11-year-old Corey Matthews (Savage). "Boy Meets World" is Daniels' first sitcom since the 1976 CBS comedy "The Nancy Walker Show."
The actor wasn't in the market for a sitcom. He and wife Bonnie Bartlett, who played his spouse on "St. Elsewhere," had a series of development deals with the networks. None worked out.
"What we were developing, the networks were not interested in right now - one-hour dramas," Daniels says.
So in the interim, Daniels says, he would do an occasional feature or TV movie.
"I was just happy to stay up in Santa Barbara and fool around in the garden."
But he did put down his gardening shears long enough to read the pilot for "Boy Meets World." He admired the writing.
"I liked the literate quality of it," he says. "I also liked the fact it was not a screwball thing. And Feeny is being treated very respectfully as a teacher. I think that's important."
Daniels has fond memories of his six seasons on "St. Elsewhere." In fact, he says, it was the most pleasant experience he's had on TV. "The writing was tremendously consistent," he says.
"The people they would bring on as guest stars. . . . Of course, Bonnie came on (as a regular). We found to our utter surprise that we worked very well together."
During his years on "St. Elsewhere," Daniels moonlighted as the voice of the super car KITT on "Knight Rider."
"There were so many of my actor friends who wouldn't even speak to me because I was doing two shows at once," Daniels says, laughing.
"It was the same network, NBC, so they worked (my schedule) out. I would just go over to Universal and in about 45 minutes or an hour, knock off a whole show."
by CNB