Ups and Downs For Jim J. Bullock

Overnight successes are generally people who have been around the entertainment business a lot longer than overnight before getting cast in a regular, breakout role.

Then there’s Jim J. Bullock.

He spent four years in Los Angeles after leaving Odessa, Texas, where he appeared in a Permian High School production of Bye, Bye Birdie (in Paul Lynde’s role), then in college productions of Godspell and A Midsummer Night’s Dream as Bottom (I am resisting any comment), and in the cast of a Christian Broadcasting Network series called Sunshine Factory.

A large percentage of that four years did not involve The Bright Lights of Hollywood. He was employed for a year at Bob’s Burger Bar, then at Victoria Station (tips were better). He found part-time work at a bank, then jobs as a corporate messenger and a mall Santa. As far as show biz, nothing happened for him until success on a Monday pot-luck night at Mitzi Shore’s Comedy Store, which led to a contract at ABC and his first appearance on Nov. 25, 1980 on Ted Knight’s series Too Close For Comfort.. Two days before the episode aired, the Odessa American crowed that Bullock’s character would become a regular. He was a sudden success at age 25.

Here he is talking about his role to a syndicated news service column dated May 15, 1982.

How JM Bullock Copes With Success
By BOB LARDINE
New York Daily News
HOLLYWOOD—It happens to a lot of nobodies in this town. One day they’re a whisper away from the unemployment line, and the next day they’re pulling down $6,000 a week or more on a top television series.
Some performers go berserk with that kind of money. That’s what happened to JM J. Bullock. At 26, he had never earned more than $200 a week in his life. The most notable thing about him was that he dropped the ‘i’ from his first name, Jim, just to be different. And then, suddenly, he turned up as Monroe on CBS’s [sic] hot series, “Too Close for Comfort.” He was making big bucks and was an instant star.
“I went crazy with all the money I was making,” he admits. “I spent $50,000 in a flash, and to this day I still can’t tell you where it all went. I know I did go out and buy a new Datsun 280-ZX, but I don’t know where I spent the rest. I was afraid to tell my father (an executive with a small oil company in Odessa, Texas) that I had gone through so much money, but somehow he understood when you’ve gone without for so long and then come into a lot of money, you tend to go out and enjoy spending it.”
Bullock manages his money much better these days, but he’s still pouring out the cash. A couple of months ago he splurged on a brand new home in the Hollywood Hills, which cost him half a million dollars. The house is enormous — 4,000 square feet that includes four bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths and a kitchen so huge you could put a basket at each end and call it a basketball court.
The actor lives in the spacious triple-deck home all by himself. “Sure, it’s big,” he says, “but I need a large house because I’m a party person, and I intend to have tremendous get-togethers with my friends. It’s going to be party, party, party from now on.
Somehow, you don’t expect that kind of revelation from a deeply religious person who was brought up a Baptist in Texas, and who still goes to church every Sunday. But Bullock is a strange guy, almost like the character he portrays on “Too Close for Comfort.” He’s constantly seen in gorilla or chicken outfits, and always plays an idiot on the show who is a constant irritant to the series star, Ted Knight.
Bullock gained a spot on the show after it had aired twice in 1980. He was appearing at The Comedy Store, a showcase for young comics, and was recommended to ABC. “But the network didn’t know what to do with me,” he says. “First, they tried to get me on Mork & Mindy,’ but I wasn’t right for them.
“Then ABC sent me over to the ‘Too Close for Comfort’ producers. Arne Sultan and Earl Barret. They hated me. I weighed 215 at the time, and decided I was too fat. I dropped 45 pounds in four months, and ABC decided that I should have another shot at ‘Too Close for Comfort.’ But Sultan and Barret wouldn’t hear of it. ‘We don’t want him,’ they said. ‘We’re looking for a Woody Allen type, a short guy with horn-rimmed glasses.’ ABC insisted that they let me read for them. They did, reluctantly, and after hearing me, they gave me the role.”
Bullock sounds like Paul Lynde, looks like Steve Martin and forever seeks to be the fool. But there’s another side to this young actor, who spent the first three years in Hollywood waiting on tables.
“I’d like to be seen more realistically on the show in the future,” he says. “I’d like to get away from being such a cartoon character, and be given a chance to reach other levels. I’d like to show other sides of my personality other than just the silly side.”
He enjoys working on the show, and claims he is closest to Nancy Dussault.

Bullock gave a lot of interviews around this time. In some, he went into specifics about the second Too Close For Comfort audition. This was related by Stacy Jenel Smith of Editor’s News & Features International. It reminds me of the behaviour of another TV character—Ted Baxter, snivelling to Lou Grant.

“I was blazing with confidence,” he recalls. “I had the strangest feeling I would get it.”
Nevertheless, the ABC executives kept him waiting 45 minutes for the interview. When he was finally called into their inner sanctum, he angrily stormed in, threw his script on a desk and yelled, “Don’t you ever keep me waiting like that again! I’m calling my agent!” and stormed out. Only to return on his knees a second later, pleading their forgiveness.
That was followed by his grabbing executive producer Arne Sultan by the ankle, kissing his feet and begging, “Pleeeeease, Pleeeeease, give me the job.”
Such outrageous behavior is by no means unique with Bullock, nor is it always associated with his work. For Instance, on a recent cross-country flight, he got the urge to entertain, cut eye holes in an air-sickness bag, put it over his head and made his way down the aisle asking passengers what they’d like to drink — as “The Unknown Steward.”



Jump ahead about 10 years and Bullock’s interviews were quite different. He survived a storyline change on Two Close For Comfort but it didn’t save the show. His career and personal life were up and down. This is from the Los Angeles Times syndicate, Dec. 19, 1995.

Having the Last Laugh
After a Rough Stretch, Jim J. Bullock Is Back at Work and Has Managed Not to Lose His Sense of Humor
By ERIC SHEPARD
Times Staff Writer
Forgive Jim J. Bullock if he doesn’t apologize for shouting to the world that he’s 40 and gay.
When you’ve lost as many things in your life as Bullock, including money, self-esteem and countless friends, being honest is an easy challenge.
“There might have been a time when I would have carefully watched what I said or what I did, but that day has long passed,” said Bullock, a comedy actor best known for his portrayal of the nerdy character Monroe Ficus on the television sitcom “Too Close for Comfort” in the 1980s. “I’ve been through too much to act like somebody I’m not.”
When the program was being put together for the play “End of the World Party,” which Bullock is currently starring in at the Celebration Theatre in Hollywood, director Bob Schrock couldn’t believe the bio sketch his lead actor turned in.
Bullock nixed listing his credits and accomplishments—including an about-to-air TV talk show he is co-hosting with Tammy Faye Baker—opting instead for the simplified “I’m 40. I’m queer. I’m here. Thank God.”
Strangers may think Bullock is being arrogant or looking for attention with such a statement, but friends know otherwise. They know it’s nothing more than a way to laugh off what has been a difficult period.
After his six-year run on “Too Close for Comfort,” Bullock became a regular on a new version of the “Hollywood Squares,” hosted by John Davidson. That lasted 2½ years and was followed by a season on “Alf.”
For those 10 years. Bullock was one of Hollywood’s more recognizable faces, with his Texas accent, streaked blond hair and big eyeglasses.
But when Bullock finished his work on “Alf” in 1989, he began a four-year stretch of unemployment. He lost his manager and his agent. His 4,000-square-foot home in the Hollywood Hills went into foreclosure and he filed for bankruptcy.
“I was surrounded by people who told me I had nothing to worry about,” said Bullock, who studied music and acting at Oklahoma Baptist College.
“Everyone kept telling me that I was terrific and that I’d be working for years. I will never trust my whole career in the hands of others again.”
The lack of work drove Bullock into a deep depression. His friends rarely saw him, and when they did his trademark sense of humor was almost non-existent.
With a few remaining personal possessions, Bullock moved into his boyfriend’s one-bedroom condominium in West Hollywood to start over. He gained 40 pounds and five inches around his waist but didn’t have enough money to buy new clothes, and he was contemplating taking a job as a bartender at a nearby restaurant.
Then in the fall of 1992, Joan Rivers called and asked Bullock to appear on an episode of her talk show that was going to reunite the cast of “Hollywood Squares.” There was a long pause on the other end.
At first, Bullock said no. He didn’t want to face people from happier times. But in the end, he agreed.
When Rivers asked Bullock on the air what he had been up to, he replied: “I’ve been in foreclosure,” and got a big laugh.
Big enough, in fact, to impress talent agency owner Cheri Ingram, who was watching the show and called Bullock the minute he returned to Los Angeles.
“I had heard Jim hadn’t been doing well, but when I saw him on that talk show I could see that he was still the great guy so many people had loved all those years,” Ingram said. “I thought he still had a lot of life in him, and I wanted to be the one to get it out of him.”
Ingram promised Bullock work within 90 days, but two weeks later she got him a regular role on the syndicated comedy “Boogie’s Diner,” which was produced in Toronto and was a big hit in Canada. In the United States, it aired on the Family Channel.
Bullock left that show last year after securing a deal to host the new syndicated talk show with Tammy Faye that will debut in many markets Dec. 26. In Los Angeles, the station and start date have yet to be determined. The hourlong show is being billed as an alternative to the popular “Regis and Kathie Lee” morning show.
“Yes, I really am working with Tammy Faye,” Bullock says with a smirk. “Everyone thinks it’s a joke, but it’s legitimate. Actually, we’ve been having a blast.”
Despite a busy production schedule, Bullock is earning about $14 a performance portraying the character of Hunter in “End of the World Party,” about six gay men who share a summer party house on Fire Island in New York. The friends find it increasingly difficult to let loose and have fun with AIDS hanging over the house like a storm cloud.
Bullock’s character is the 38-year-old den mother of the group who deflects everything with humor. The part seems tailor-made for a man who likes to tell jokes but has also lost his share of friends to the deadly virus. Although the play has been extended through January, Bullock will leave this week, when the play goes dark over the holidays, in order to have more time to take care of his boyfriend who’s battling AIDS.
“I had sort of a rough summer, and this play came along at a time when I needed to lift my spirits,” Bullock said. “It isn’t easy being a gay man in the ‘90s, but it’s important not to lose your sense of humor. This play has helped me keep a smile on my face.”
The play was written by Chuck Ranberg, who earlier this year won an Emmy Award for comedy writing with partner Anne Flett Giordano for an episode of “Frasier.” Ranberg said the play won’t be the same without Bullock.
“The minute I saw Jim’s audition tape I knew he was perfect for the part,” Ranberg said. “He brings a humor and wit that’s very difficult to find. An even with the things going on in his life, he’s always the one who keeps the rest of the cast up and laughing. I wish we could keep him forever.”
Such words are a comfort to Bullock.
“I’ve been to the bottom, and I know what it feels like,” he said. “I’m grateful to get a second chance because life’s too short to take for granted. Life is certainly not a dress rehearsal.”

There’s a cliché about gays and drama. Unfortunately, more drama than in a Bette Davis movie followed Bullock after this story was published. Tammy Faye got sick and the re-cast show limped along for only a few months. His husband passed away from AIDS. He was outed in the National Enquirer as being HIV-positive. All this triggered a crystal meth addiction that he was able to overcome after several years.

Drug-free, Bullock got what he might call “a third chance.” He returned to the stage (in several companies of Hairspray among them) and, presumably, cashed residual cheques from Too Close For Comfort

Jim J. Bullock is 70 now and enjoying the warmth of Palm Springs. And, we hope, the warmth of fans.