Cheech Marin has the fondest memories of working with Betty White.
The comedian, 78, costarred with the late sitcom icon on The Golden Palace, a spin-off of The Golden Girls that ran for one season between 1992 and 1993 on CBS. While speaking with PEOPLE about the new documentary, Cheech and Chong’s Last Movie, he shared memories from the set of the early ’90s sitcom.
“Well, I was offered the opportunity to be on this show, but I wanted to work on this show because I wanted to work with Betty White,” he recalls.
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Though White couldn’t have known it at first, she held a special place in Marin’s childhood memories. “Betty White was the very first person I ever saw on TV as a kid,” he says.
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From left: Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux, Betty White as Rose Nylund, Cheech Marin as Chuy Castillos and Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak Hollingsworth on “The Golden Palace” in 1992.
“I was a little kid, and she was the hostess of a dance party show called Al Jarvis’s Make Believe Ballroom,” he says.
“She was like 19 or something like that, and she was just the cutest thing I’d ever seen, so I wanted to work on [The Golden Palace] with her. And that proved to be a joy. We became very good friends on that show.”
Marin also enjoyed his time on set with future Oscar nominee Don Cheadle, who also joined the cast of the spin-off. On The Golden Palace, White’s character Rose ran a Miami hotel with Blanche (Rue McClanahan) and Sophia (Estelle Getty), sans Bea Arthur’s Dorothy, who had gotten married to Blanche’s uncle at the end of The Golden Girls.
“Donny, we had a lot of time hanging out together, because his dressing room was kind of far from the stage and my dressing room was right next to the stage, so we hung out a lot because he didn’t want to make that long walk,” Marin recalls. “It was great working with all those people. That was really a lot of fun.”
Marin also costarred with Don Johnson on the 1996–2001 CBS cop series Nash Bridges.
Photo By Angeline Herron
Tommy Chong (left) and Cheech Marin in ‘Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie’
In Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie, Chong reunites with Tommy Chong, and the pair reminisce about their run as the comedy duo Cheech & Chong, which began in 1971 and included hit albums and movies. Director David Bushell teamed up with Chong’s daughter Robbi Chong to bring their story to life in a way that Chong, 86, describes as “a little more than a documentary.”
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“It didn’t come together overnight,” he adds. “It was eight, nine years of digging in our past and finding the footage and everything else and then putting it all together. They had so much to choose from.”
“To put it together the way they did in a movie — it’s a little more than a documentary. It’s a movie, and a respected movie. And because there’s a lot of elements in there that only Dave Bushell, the director, could bring with all his experience. And Robbi, my daughter, whew. Now here we are.”
Cheech and Chong’s Last Movie is now in theaters.
Read the original article on People
