If you’ve only seen the advance trailer for the new AppleTV series Pluribus (above), but still haven’t streamed the series (the first two episodes are up now), you might think Peter Bergman is the leading man on the sci-fi drama.
Bergman, best known from his 36-year stint as Jack Abbott on The Young and the Restless, pops up in a pivitol scene on episode one of Pluribus. Without giving too much away, the main character, cheerless romance novelist Carol Sturka (Better Call Saul), is freaking out over the sudden, unexplained death of her friend and agent. Even freakier, everyone she subsequently encounters seems robotic or zombie-like.
She races home, turns on the TV, and on the only channel with any reception appears Bergman as some high-ranking White House official. He addresses her directly through the TV. “This must be bewhildering to you,” he says, advising her to stick close to home. “Rest assured Carol, we will figure out what makes you different.”
Bergman tells the story of how he was cast in the role this week on brioux.tv: the podcast. Our conversation, which launches Monday morning, also features his long time co-star on The Young and the Restless, Melody Thomas Scott (Nikki Newman).
Turns out that Bergman is good friends with the creator, writer and executive producer of Pluribus, Vince Gilligan.
“He called me and asked if I might be interested in being in the first episode,” Bergman tells me, stressing that while the trailer makes it look like he’s one of the two leads, “this is Rhea Seeborn’s show. and she is just brilliant.”
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For Bergman, the role involved a couple of days on location in Albuquerque, home base for Gilligan dating back to his breakout success with Breaking Bad. How Bergman and Gilligan know each other is a story in itself.
“I know Vince because Bryan Cranston has been a friend of mine for 44 years,” he explains. Long before Breaking Bad made his an Emmy-winning star, Cranston was on a soap called Loving that was shot in New York, Bergman, before his Y&R days, spent a decade on another New York daytime series, All My Children.
“We played against each other in a softball game, and I played first base,” said Bergman. “Bryan and I got chatting after he hit a single and we’ve been friends ever since.”
Their wives also hit it off, and for the past four decades, these two famillies plan vacations together. Since the Cranston’s were tight with the Gilligan’s, the Bergman’s were pulled into the same orbit — leading to an effective bit of casting on this new series Pluribus.
And to think that, 44 years ago, if Cranston had hit a double, a triple or even a home run, none of this would ever have happened.
1 Comment
This is very cool. Y&R was my mom’s soap when I was growing up in the 80s and 90s.
Despite years of thinking of Terry Lester as ‘the real Jack Abbott,’ I always thought Peter Bergman was a solid actor who carried his load on the show. Its great to see him get to do other things.