Leaving L.A.

Originally published in Charlotte Magazine in slightly different form. This version copyright Allan Maurer, 2004. Photos courtesy of Wayne Powers.

Wayne Powers moved to Charlotte with his wife and two sons in 1994. He continues to do voice work for commercials (he was the voice of the Bud Man and has done animation voices for "Mutant Ninja Turtles" and other shows).

Robin Williams and a young Wayne Powers

Powers also opened Tea Rex in South End next to the Charlotte Trolley Barn, where he sells exotic and high quality teas, herbs, brewing equipment, gourmet snacks as well as the CD the he made with his band, Hoi Polloi in LA. Most recently, he performed in Charlotte Rep's "Picasso at the Lapin Agile." Wayne Powers arrived in Hollywood via a road show in which he starred with Dick York of "Bewitched" fame.

Although he had lived many places, his longest pre-LA stint was in St. Louis, where he hosted a radio talk show and did television news in addition to theater. Contacts in LA landed him a job with film score maestro, Henri Mancini's company, at first as a song demonstrator, but eventually managing several arms of Mancini's empire.

His first meeting with the composer illustrates the good luck Powers would have in Hollywood.

"I met with Mr. Mancini and at the end of the interview, he asked, "Of all the songs I've written do you have a favorite?' I thought, what a loaded question. So, I just told the truth. I said, Mr. Mancini, I've liked a lot of your work, and you probably expect me to say something famous like "Moon River," or "Days of Wine and Roses." But you did a movie score that had the most beautiful melody I think I've ever heard. It was in "Two for the Road." He paused, and said, "That's my favorite, too." I knew I had the job."

Eventually Powers caught the notice of the casting director for the TV show "Laugh In," who referred him to a comedy improv company called Off The Wall. A number of the company's players left to become writers on the "Laverne and Shirley" show, and Powers joined Robin Williams in replacing them. Veterans of Off the Wall include John Ritter, Betty Thomas ("Hill Street Blues"), and Paul Williams ("Cheers"). The audience regularly included stars such as Dudley Moore and producer Norman Lear.

The improv show served as a launching pad for many careers.

Robin Williams was picked up for "Happy Days," which in turn led to his hit show, "Mork and Mindy." Powers got his network TV start on "Laverne and Shirley." "The casting director was a friend of mine," Powers says.

"The actor who played a cop on the show left, and the casting director suggested me as a replacement. The director of the show was someone who knew me from New York. He said, 'Powers? I know him. Hire him.' So I got my first network job without auditioning."

Doing his bit part on the show itself was not quite that easy. "I expected we would read through the lines, do the blocking (where the actors are placed in the scene) and so on. But they had already done all that, blocking the part with a guy wearing a sign that said "cop." So I was the only one in the scene who didn't know what was going on. But everyone was helpful and I got through it."

They liked Powers as the cop, so he was asked to return with more lines in the next episode. This time, he faced a greater problem. He could not stop cracking up when Phil Foster, the actor who played Laverne's father, Frank De Fazio, put his large comic face up to close to Powers' own and read his line.

Finally, they were doing it in front of a live audience and Powers was near panic. "It was my second week on network TV and I'm scared to death. I'm thinking about dead babies, about leprosy, just nervous I'm going to fall down laughing.

"We get to the point where Foster is supposed to deliver his line and he looked at my eyes and knew. So, he turned away from me and just threw the line away. He didn't even get a laugh. Do you know what that means? He was a comedian and a comedian would rather give up blood than a laugh. So I've always been grateful to him."

Powers as a Tektonese in "Alien Nation."

The "Laverne and Shirley" role led to other sitcom work. Powers played Mackenzie Phillips' boyfriend on "One Day at a Time," appeared in "Doogie Howser, M.D.," twice, and guested on shows such as "Full House," "Alien Nation," "Alf," "Adam 12," among others.

He was a regular on the syndicated "Evening at the Improv." In 1990, he landed the role of a hospital administrator in "13 East," a show about an overweight nurse that rode high in the ratings two seasons.

Powers gained sixty pounds to do the part. He thought the fat jokes his character leveled at the nurse played by Diana Bellamy were much funnier if he was fat himself. "I ate steaks, drank milk shakes, and really enjoyed putting the weight on," Powers says. He figured, "the worst thing that could happen was I'd have a tax deduction for Hagen Daaz. Taking it back off wasn't nearly as much fun."

Powers loved filming sitcoms in front of a live audience. "It was like doing a play every week. The energy is like a ball. You throw it out, they throw it back."

Although the show did extremely well in the ratings it was unceremoniously dropped after its second season when a new program director took over at NBC, demonstrating the lack of reason that often prevails in TV programming decisions.

"You don't have a whole lot of control over it unless you're a superstar and even then it's fleeting," Powers explains. "I think there was one week we didn't win our time slot. The reason we got canceled is that Warren Littlefield, who took over at NBC, didn't have a good relationship with the producer. So we were gone."

Powers moved on, in particular, to singing with his popular LA jazz band, Hoi Polloi, for the years before moving to Charlotte. His singing voice reminds several critics of a cross between Louis Armstrong and Leon Redbone.

He taught at the Debbie Reynolds acting school and worked with an LA repertory company. A business trip brought him to Charlotte one spring when the dogwoods and azaleas were in bloom and he bought a house here before going back to LA. But Powers hasn't soured on the city. "I love it here," he says.

Wayne Powers operates Tea Rex in South End.

Powers is also a successful jazz musician.
Listen to some of his music.

More information on Wayne can be found at www.waynepowers.com

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