Jennifer, Drew and Alley. (Sonja Flemming/CBS)
Soaps.com recently had the opportunity to talk to Pam’s portrayer, Alley Mills, who filled us in on all the details!
Soaps.com: How do Pam and Donna end up on “The Price is Right?”
Alley Mills: Well, Pam has watched “The Price is Right” her entire life back home in Chicago with Betty White (who plays Pam's mother Ann Douglas), which is a little pathetic, but loves it and has started bringing her computer to work to watch “The Price is Right” on her break. So it starts where I’m watching “The Price is Right” and I’m screaming, “Come on Down” and I’m loving it and everything, and then I overhear in the meeting that Forrester is really in trouble and is worried that they’ve become too elitist. So being the brilliant person that I am, and a little bit self-motivated because I love “The Price is Right,” I thought how great would it be if we showed Forrester gowns as prizes? So I call the producer and make an appointment. And then when my dear friend Donna finds out, because she’s so annoyed by me watching this show, it’s driving her crazy, and just like Lucy and Ethel, when she finds out I’ve got this appointment, she goes, “Oh, okay, I’ll go too.” So she comes with me and then screws it up because she’s so slow driving that she makes me miss the appointment and I’m freaked out and exasperated. Then I get the brilliant idea once I’m there, because they won’t let me through security, that I can get through security if I get to be a contestant. So I sign up to be in the audience and so does Donna and the hijinx begin. So I change into my “I Love Drew Carey” outfit in the bathroom and hijinx ensue.
(After getting confirmation from the show’s publicist that she could share more, Alley continued…)
So they’re calling peoples names, “Come on down,” and I’m just flipping out. It’s pretty fun because they get that audience really jacked up and everybody’s screaming and jumping up and down and I’m screaming and jumping up and down and Donna is like totally bored. She was bored all the way through the interview. She’s like so above everything, but she’s of course still with me, because that’s Donna. (laughs) She’s there anyway even though she’s so crazed by everything. So she’s sitting next to me bored and all of a sudden they call her name, “Donna Logan come on down!” And she goes nuts! And I am furious and completely sad too and it breaks my heart because she doesn't know anything. She doesn’t even know what a cup of coffee costs because Eric pays for everything. I knew everything of course that they have up there. Her first prize is a bake set and I’m like dying. It’s really fun. The whole thing is just hilarious and Drew Carey (host of "TPIR") was just a great sport. Pam thinks he’s a hottie, well so do I. Just between you and me and the world. I don’t care. I think Drew Carey is really sexy, so it was not hard for me to imagine that he was. He truly, which I have never been this close to him, he has gorgeous eyes.
Soaps.com: Does he really?
Alley Mills: Totally. Big, huge, almond eyes. I mean, like wow! He’s great. It may have been because of Donna, I don’t know, but he seemed to be a very good sport. I think of course it was because of me. (laughs)
Soaps.com: Do you watch "The Price is Right?"
Alley Mills: I do now! I started watching it when it was mentioned to me that I would be doing this. And I became hooked because it’s really great because people might never win all this stuff [and they] get really great prizes. It’s really warm hearted. It’s like that show where they build a house for you. It’s got that kind of vibe to it. The audiences get so excited.
Soaps.com: The show definitely helps people out which is always nice.
Alley Mills: Yes. I think that’s why it’s been on so long. Because some game shows are sort of cynical and mean spirited and this is really awesome. It makes you feel good. And [Drew’s] a really nice guy.
Soaps.com: So taping the scenes was a good time.
Alley Mills: It was truly fun.
Soaps.com: Are there any good bloopers or outtakes from the shoot?
Alley Mills: I don’t think so. (laughs) Although, Jen (Gareis, as Donna), as she jumped up flipping out that she’s on the show, banged a woman right in the face! I mean that really isn’t an outtake, but the woman wasn’t pleased. It was sort of a Donna moment, you know?
Soaps.com: Did you tape it with a real audience or were extras hired?
Alley Mills: It was a real “The Price is Right” audience that stayed late to do it with us. I actually got a couple of my friends who are in their sixties to sit in front of me because they’re “The Price is Right” fans and I knew they would love to be there. They had so much fun.
Soaps.com: Any B&B fans in the audience?
Pam and Donna, come on down! (Sonja Flemming/CBS)
(There was some musing as to when the game show is on in relation to the soap.)
It seemed everybody watched The Bold and the Beautiful. They knew who we were. It must come sort of at the same time in the morning or something.
Soaps.com: What do fans often say to you about your character when you encounter them?
Alley Mills: Well, the most recent one, yesterday, is, “Even though I shouldn’t say this, I really like it when you’re mean to Donna.” (laughs) The first time, when I first started, my first thing with Donna with the dog and everything, I can’t remember, a couple of years ago, I was with my husband in Palm Springs and this woman was like, “It’s you!” We were at a fancy restaurant and she was kind of a rich lady, she was with her husband and she recognized my voice. She said, “It’s you. It’s Pam.” And she goes, “It’s really not nice what you’re doing to poor Donna.” And I said, “What about her? She took my sister’s husband away! Come on. Let’s get real!” (laughs) I think people, they love somebody else to do what they might secretly want to do.
Soaps.com: Of course. They get to live vicariously through the wackiness that is Pam. Are you still surprised by some of the scripts, or are you used to the craziness that Pam is involved in?
Alley Mills: Well, I laughed out loud on “The Price is Right” script. I really laughed out loud. A [writer] named Adam who works for our executive producer wrote it and it's really funny. So it’s always a joy when the writing is really funny, not just the situation and just the things that he has us do I think are hysterical. So that’s a big joy and then the week after that, Oy. You’ll see. I’m up to no good again! (laughs) I just thought, “Oh, God. Everybody is going to hate me again.” Just when “The Price is Right,” I think you'll like me after "The Price is Right," but then a week later you might hate me again.
Soaps.com: I think people love to hate Pam. Like you said, it’s fun to see her do all the mean things and crazy things…
Alley Mills: I think it really helps that the people she’s mean to sort of deserve it. That’s what I think. I mean I wouldn’t like it if I was really mean to nice people. I’m kind of like Robin Hood you know? You can steal from the rich and give to the poor. That’s how I look at it. I think she’s right.
Soaps.com: Is there anything you’d like to see happen for Pam that you haven’t had a chance to do yet?
Alley Mills: Well one of these days the poor girl might meet somebody. She’s been in that guesthouse alone for a pretty long time and then with Betty White for forty-five years! I mean it would be nice if she had a friend or, I don’t know, something. I don’t know if they could write that for me, or if it’s too far fetched. There was one guy up in the cabin, he was a caretaker during the honey thing and I had a scene with him. It was just setting up the bear and the honey joke, but I thought he was going to be my boyfriend, and he comes in and he’s like missing a tooth and I’m going, “Oh, Brad (Bell, Executive Producer/Head Writer, B&B) come on!” But I thought, “You know what? I’ll take it.” I can’t remember his name, Carl or something. But I thought he was going to be my love interest. So did my husband when he read the scene. He said, “I think he’s setting this up,” but he was just setting up the honey.
Soaps.com: That would be interesting to see how Pam would react to going out on a date or having a boyfriend.
Alley Mills: It would have to be a very particular person.
Soaps.com: A little off-kilter I would think.
Alley Mills: That’s what I would think. Because off-kilter attracts. There’s a lot off people who are off-kilter in the world. There’s got to be one in Beverly Hills that she could find somewhere.
Soaps.com: I would think you could definitely find an off-kilter person there.
Alley Mills: I would think. So that’s my hope one of these days.
Soaps.com: This past year you produced a play and helped promote your husband’s book. Are you working on anything else right now?
Alley Mills: I’m not actually. I’ve been working a lot here, so I’m just going to take my little vacation, and my husband is still doing his play, so I’m going to go back east, we have a little place back there, and just hang out with him while he finishes the play and take the summer off honestly. We have seven grandchildren. It’s the one time I can really hang out with them over the summer is when we have our own break. I’m not anxious to work unless it’s something amazing. I’ll read it if it’s sent to me, but that’s all. I’m not pursuing anything.
Tune in on June 17 and 18 to watch as Pam and Donna take their latest battle to national television when they appear on “The Price is Right!”
- Lori Wilson
xo Chrissi
