The 1980s sitcom revolved around a truck driver and his pet chimpanzee

NEED TO KNOW

• Greg Evigan initially planned to leave Los Angeles for New York before auditioning for B.J. and the Bear
• He was hesitant about the show’s premise, which featured a trucker who talks to a chimpanzee
• The show aired from 1979 to 1981, and Evigan later starred in the sitcom My Two Dads in the 1980s

Greg Evigan is opening up about how he landed his role on the sitcom B.J. and the Bear — and his initial reaction to learning the premise of the show, which revolved around a truck driver who travels and talks to his pet chimpanzee.

In a new interview on Pop Culture Retro released on Wednesday, Sept. 16, the 72-year-old actor recalled how he had just decided he would leave Los Angeles and move to New York when the opportunity to audition for the show arose.

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“I just started thinking, ‘I don’t know about this place,’ ” Evigan said. “‘You know, I think I might back to New York and get back on the Broadway stage, try to do that again.’ And then my agent called me. She says, ‘Uh, Greg, I know you’re leaving, but can you just go on this one thing?’ I said, ‘What is it?’ She says, ‘It’s gonna be a big show. It’s this guy that drives around in a truck, you know.’ ”

He continued: “I said, ‘Oh, well, yeah, trucker.’ Okay. ‘And he talks to a chimp.’ And I said, ‘What?’ You know, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, right. I don’t think so.’ ”

But his agent was insistent, he said, recalling: “She says, ‘Greg, you got to go. You just just go in and don’t even care, you know.’ And pretty much that’s what I think got me the job is I didn’t care.”

“As an actor, you know, it’s like if you care too much, you show your hand, you look like you need the job, right?” he added.

The show, which starred Evigan as freelance trucker Billie Joe “B.J.” McKay, ran for three seasons and aired on NBC from 1979 to 1981.

Evigan went on to star in the 1980s sitcom My Two Dads, which premiered in 1987 and aired for three seasons through 1990. The sitcom followed an unconventional family, consisting of two men: straight-laced financial adviser Michael Taylor (Paul Reiser) and free-spirited artist Joey Harris (Evigan) who both loved the same woman and battled for her affection for over a decade.

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