- Morgan Fairchild and Jim J. Bullock are making their grand return to The Bold and the Beautiful 17 years after their last appearances.
- “We are having so much fun,” Fairchild tells EW. “We both like to do comedy and we kind of crack each other up. So while those poor people are over there having a dramatic scene, we’re over here in the corner laughing.”
- Fairchild reprises her role as the fabulous San Francisco socialite Dottie, while Bullock plays the new character Joseph, her loyal assistant who ensures her jewelry purchases are of the top-most quality.
Pull back the velvet curtain, for a pair of stars are about to arrive.
Morgan Fairchild and Jim J. Bullock are returning to The Bold and the Beautiful 17 years after they last set foot on the set of the beloved CBS soap.
“The first time I did Bold, God, how many years ago? A long time ago. I remember I was shooting the day Michael Jackson died. So that’s however long ago that is,” Fairchild reflects in conversation with Entertainment Weekly, days ahead of her and Bullock’s appearance on Jan. 27’s new episode of the daytime drama.
“That’s right, Michael Jackson was 2009, that was when I was on the show,” Bullock confirms, noting that his and Fairchild’s “storylines never crossed. Morgan and I never got to work together.” But now as the extravagant San Francisco socialite Dottie and her loyal, gem-inspecting assistant Joseph, they’re thick as thieves. “I’m so thrilled to get to come back and to work with Morgan. She’s just a sweetheart.”
Sean Smith, Bell-Philip TV Productions
A veteran of some of the most widely watched and broadly acclaimed series of the past half century, Fairchild made a stop in B&B‘s Los Angeles after stints on fellow soaps General Hospital, Falcon Crest, The City, Flamingo Road, and Search for Tomorrow, which provided her with her first screen role in 1973.
Dottie first sauntered onto B&B in 2009 at the invitation of friend and former queen of the cast Stephanie Forrester (played by Susan Flannery). Bullock, meanwhile, appeared the same year as the quirky wedding planner Serge, a role he originated in 2005. In a touching full-circle moment, Dottie returns for a meeting with Steffy Forrester (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood), Stephanie’s granddaughter, while Bullock stars as Joseph, her loyal, jewel-inspecting assistant.
The official logline for Jan. 27’s episode reads: “During a special fashion show in a San Francisco hotel suite, Steffy Forrester and her cousin Electra Forrester (Laneya Grace) are joined by Dottie, a wealthy San Francisco socialite, and her fabulous longtime assistant Joseph to purchase a Forrester original jewelry item. While Electra is impressed by Dottie and Joseph’s interest in a specific piece of jewelry, she learns that her boyfriend Will Spencer (Crew Morrow) and her frenemy Dylan (Sydney Bullock) will be spending time together.”
When asked what kind of changes Dottie may have undergone in her decade-and-a-half absence from the soap, Fairchild lets out a knowing laugh. “Dottie is still kind of the same!” she explains. “In the first scene we have here, I’m coming in to check out the jewelry — as I would. So Jim as Joseph is giving me the heads up, like, ‘Oh, that’s fabulous,’ as only he can. So we’re having a lot of fun with it.”
Fairchild gushes about the “back and forth kind of thing” she and Bullock have developed as scene partners, noting that held up against “some of the high drama, we are sort of the comic relief.”
The pair laugh at Fairchild’s assessment, which Bullock cosigns. “We have a lot of fun, which was easy there. The show is absolutely, from the top down, the kindest, nicest, most grateful people, and they treat everyone with respect,” he says. Fairchild reflects that on B&B, “they really do make you feel like you’re part of the team, even though it’s always awkward coming in when you’re kind of the new kid on the block. Especially onto an established show, especially one that’s this established that’s been going on forever.”
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Fairchild originated plenty of parts over the course of her five-decade career in Hollywood, like Constance Weldon Semple Carlyle, the spoiled heiress she played to Golden Globes glory on Flamingo Road. But she’s romped onto the crews of plenty of moving ships too, from her recent, Emmy-nominated turn as Anjelica Deveraux, a character originated by Jane Elliot 30 years prior on Days of Our Lives, to her appearance as Vivienne St. Charmaine on a 2020 episode of The Simpsons.
Both actors call the Bold and the Beautiful set experience exceptional, reminding Fairchild not of similarly sunny pastures, but their opposite: “From the producers, to the security guys, to the hair and makeup people, absolutely everybody was like, ‘We’re so glad to have you here.’ You know, it does make you feel all warm and fuzzy. Not every set is like that, for sure. Sometimes it’s like, ‘What are you doing here, bitch?'”
Cliff Lipson/CBS via Getty
Fairchild has kind words for Laneya Grace, the “wonderful young actress” who appears in her first scene with Bullock. She also shares the words of wisdom she passed down to Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, their other scene partner: “We’ve got Jacqueline, who has such big, beautiful eyes. I told her, you know, ‘Keep your eyes up, because your eyes are great, kid. Don’t look down. Keep your eyes up.'”
Bullock doesn’t share Fairchild’s background in soaps. The Wyoming-born actor and comedian gained recognition for his humorous turns in films like Spaceballs, and as the goofy, lovable Monroe Ficus on the ABC sitcom Too Close for Comfort. Having shot several episode of Bold and the Beautiful (Fairchild and Bullock both can confirm that Tuesday’s episode is only the first fans will see of Dottie and Joseph), Bullock praises the “special gift” required to “learn all those lines and to be able to say them so quickly, because they come so quickly.”
Reflecting on her time starting out on Search for Tomorrow, which became one of the first soap operas ever launched when it premiered back in 1951, Fairchild says to forget films, theater, and primetime dramas. Soaps are “the best way to learn — from pros who’ve been doing it for a long time, for young actors to get exposure to camera technique, and to get a lot of acting chops under your belt. Because if you can do this, you can do anything.”
The days may be grueling, and B&B‘s current love triangle between Electra, Will, and Dylan may be heading nowhere good — and fast. But none of that bogs Fairchild or Bullock down. “We are having so much fun with this on Bold and the Beautiful,” Fairchild says. “We both like to do comedy and we kind of crack each other up. So while those poor people are over there having a dramatic scene, we’re over here in the corner laughing, just carrying on.”
The Bold and the Beautiful airs daily on CBS at 1:30 p.m. ET and 12:30 p.m. PT, and streams on Paramount+.