Patrick Duffy says the world wasn't ready for him to do comedy when he left Dallas.
In a new interview with ET, the "Bobby Ewing" actor talked his exit from the series and his transition to Step by Step in the 1990s. Here's the funny story he revealed about his time away from Dallas.
Patrick Duffy on when he quit Dallas for comedy
This week, Duffy told ET that his brief exit from Dallas in 1985 came because he wanted to take on a comedy project. "I was ready," he said, after seven years of drama on Dallas. However, he added, "I'm not sure the world was."
Duffy then recalled the less than enthusiastic response to him being pitched as a comedy star in the mid-80s. He said his Dallas producer Leonard Katzman sold it like this to the team that eventually produced Step by Step:
"'Nobody knows this yet, but one of the main actors on Dallas is gonna quit and I think you should do a sitcom with him,' and [the Step by Step producer] said, 'Larry Hagman's quitting Dallas? And Leonard went, 'No, it's the boring one, Patrick.'"
The mid-80s didn't end up becoming Duffy's time to shine in a comedy, but that would come with Step by Step in the 1990s.
A strange family reunion
Patrick Duffy thrived on Step by Step in the 1990s
Duffy ultimately returned to Dallas in 1986, but his comedy aspirations came to fruition when Step by Step premiered in 1991 after the Dallas finale. The popular sitcom aired for seven seasons from 1991 to 1998, and Duffy now told ET it was "the best job" he ever had.
Most recently, Duffy appeared on NCIS in 2020 and was in the 2020 Christmas movie Once Upon a Main Street. Last year, the actor also opened up about his relationship with actress Linda Purl after sadly losing his longtime wife in 2017.
They got the good genes!
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