I was thrilled to have the opportunity of sitting down for a private sushi lunch with two of televisions most beloved icons. I mean who wouldn't be excited about dining with Captain Kirk and The Fonz? Two performers that I literally grew up with, glued to the television screen and certainly a major part of my childhood watching "Star Trek" and "Happy Days."
William Shatner (86) and Henry Winkler (72) have more energy and enthusiasm than most millennials I know. It is not difficult to fall in love with them, both charming, hysterical and extremely well educated about the world around them. Now with the second season of their popular new NBC television series "Better Late Than Never," we get to see these goofy charmers join forces with co-stars Terry Bradshaw and George Foreman with comedian Jeff Dye along for the exotic voyages.
This new season includes deliciously entertaining treks through Munich, Berlin, Lithuania, Sweden, Barcelona, Madrid, and Morocco. The two-hour season two premiere will air Monday, Jan. 1 (9-11 p.m. ET/PT) with a special preview episode slated for Monday, Dec. 11 (10-11 p.m.) following “The Voice.”
We follow their expeditions through seven cities and five countries, as the group immerse themselves in different cultures while in each destination. From dining on outrageous foods to participating in Oktoberfest in Munich, riding camels in the middle of the Sahara Desert or facing off against a bull in Madrid, these men take us on an adventure of a lifetime. Other series highlights also include touring Morocco by motorbike, leaving their mark on the Berlin Wall, parasailing in Barcelona, getting lost in Russia and much more.
In this exclusive interview, I chatted with the guys about a wide range of topics from their favorite and worst travel experiences around the world to their plans for the future, and it was an adventure unto itself.
Congratulations on your second season of "Better Late Than Never." Were you excited to travel with each other again?
HENRY WINKLER: Shatner showed up at the airport on a suitcase that he rode through the terminal.
WILLIAM SHATNER: That was my idea five years ago as my legs got less and less strong. Most of my exercise came from walking down airport corridors, and I always wanted to be able to ride on my roll on. Next thing I know some guy comes out with the invention.
Where are your favorite travel adventures off camera?
SHATNER: My Den.
WINKLER: Trout fishing. It's my favorite thing to do in the whole world.
SHATNER: I'm taking helicopter lessons so I can go wherever I want. I have seven hours already and need 40 to solo. It's tricky to hover in a helicopter, a flight is like a car. The three things are; the technique of flying it, navigation and the third is talking on the radio. It's like being on a high powered horse. You've got to be absolutely still.
WINKLER: For the show, the locations are picked for safety. There is an entire team of security from New Zealand that travels with us. They help pick the places where they know the ins and outs. In Madrid, there was a scare just before we got there. So this is the way I saw Madrid on my day off....sitting in a van looking out of the window. I was only let out of the van to buy a postcard.
SHATNER: The difference between Henry and me was like when we were in Lithuania, and we have a day off, and I decided to rent a Vespa. The producer for the show told me I couldn't go. I pretended I couldn't hear her and still go out with a security car following me. I'm driving through the back roads in the wilds of Lithuania where one doesn't know what is going to emerge from this prehistoric forest. I was on a dirt road that ended at a river, and there was a family there. I asked them if they had any pierogi, which was my quest. They had nothing, so I left. (He chuckles) I like to explore during my days off.
Do people recognize you in these countries?
WINKLER: It depends on where we are. In Munich, one of the most famous open squares with the oldest glockenspiels, people came up to us from every country in the world to take a photo. That is not one of Bill's favorite things to do.
SHATNER: On the other hand it is one of Henry's favorite things to do.
WINKLER: I act for people to watch me. I love meeting people. Acting is the one craft you don't do by and for yourself only. It is a shared experience. We get to go on this trip around the world, experience things we didn't know, we have never seen. We have eaten things we didn't know you ate. Danced in the streets of major cities, doing the flamenco, tango, the hora and the waltz. Seeing great architecture, meeting wonderful people...It's indescribable. It's not like we are on a tv show and the scripts are great, and the cast is great. This is a life event for us, and hopefully for the people who are watching.
After all this travel what hurts most on your body?
SHATNER: My feet.
WINKLER: George Foreman just launched a line of shoes, and they are so comfortable and so much support.
SHATNER: All that travel we did is debilitating, and yet we are still enthralled by the places we visited.
WINKLER: We don't know anything or nor do we ask about where we are going or whats going to happen. Every morning we get up and have the time of our lives.
As Executive Producer were you part of the casting of the show Henry?
WINKLER: I was invited to a meeting at Universal, and they told me about the idea for the show which originated in Korea. They had a board with casting suggestions for the other three grandfathers, and William Shatner was next to my name on the board. I called other people to ask if they would want to do the show. They were for the most part scared to travel. Scared to travel for 40 days non stop. But we ended up with an amazing group of guys.
How does the shooting schedule work with the group?
WINKLER: We shoot for four days, we fly one day, and we have one day off. During the day off, Bill and I would take tours in the city in places we knew we were not going to shoot. Or we would all meet for dinner, like the one we had in Korea and had these incredible adventures where we got to know the city and then actually participate in the city. I'm a pretty verbal guy, and I literally don't have the language to describe this adventure.
SHATNER: And you had to be there when he was speechless.
What was your most disappointing experience in your travels on the show?
WINKLER: There is a place in the North of Sweden that offers up a delicacy of herring that is fermented for 100 years.
SHATNER: If a dead body was swarming with maggots, that's the smell of this food.
WINKLER: Only Bill ended up putting this into his mouth. The smell was so powerful that it jettisoned Terry Bradshaw out of his chair and he spilled a little on his shirt and ran away with it as he went. Bill, being the lovely man that he is, picked up a piece of the herring and started chasing and tackling Terry.
SHATNER: Terry said his worst experience was being sacked by me to the ground.
WINKLER: But, 99.9 percent of the travel we did is fun.
What was the most meaningful experience you had?
WINKLER: My parents escaped Nazi Germany and were very tough, and I never was able to get through to them. They didn't understand what I needed or wanted in this world. They thought I should take over the family business. We went to Berlin, and I was taken on a journey, and it ends up in front of a house where it turned out to be where my father and his brothers once lived. This was where they started the company that they brought over to America, and there is a plaque for every Jew that was taken. I looked on the ground in front of the house, and there was a plaque with the name Helmut Winkler, an Uncle I had only heard about. I never thought that I would have that kind of emotion about my family.
SHATNER: For me, the high point was in Lithuania where my grandmother's mother was born in a town where 70,000 Jews were slaughtered. When I came back to Vilnius, they had arranged in the town square for some dances both by the Lithuanians and by the remnant of half a dozen Jewish people. I danced the hora in the city square which had been the ghetto where they laid slaughtered and dying of starvation. That was the high point.
The low point was when we did a sculpting class in Barcelona. A city that is known for its exquisite architecture and artwork. We were given a pound of clay, and they brought in one of the models for us to form. And one of the lowest moments was the naked model by the name of Henry Winkler.
WINKLER: I thought I was amazing. I looked like the Butterball turkey.
SHATNER: The courage he had was extraordinary. We are actors after all..... and we were beautiful once.
Tell me your thoughts about each of the locations you visit in this season of "Better Late Than Never."
WINKLER: Munich: The Leiderhosen and do not miss in the mornings they cut a pretzel in half and butter it. You gotta have it.
SHATNER: Berlin: Was the discovery of Henry's uncle and a plaque marking the remnant of a whole existence of a family. Everything else is ashes.
WINKLER: Lithuania: We went to a place where tourists can live as a farmer in a replica of a village from the 15th century. Bill took us to an area (where we are told was across the Russian border), and he gets out and is being funny, and these Russian soldiers come and smash him against the car. I had no idea that it was a re-creation and part of a KGB experience in Lithuania.
SHATNER: We were all blindfolded and handcuffed to chairs, and we lived in that moment some semblance of what it must have felt like.
WINKLER: Sweden: Fourteen islands like the Scandinavian Venice. Every island is a different socio-economic group.
SHATNER: For me, the etiquette lesson we took in the King's house in Sweden was the best. The visit ended up in a food fight with the management yelling not to get the food on the frocked walls.
WINKLER: We were taught by the Queen of etiquette in Sweden, Magdalena Ribbing. She was majestic.
SHATNER: Morocco: The bazaar in Marrakesh is incredible, and we went rug shopping.
WINKLER: Madrid: Dancing in the streets. Matadors and tango. The festival of Saint John where each neighborhood would have a wonderful celebration of food and beer and everyone would come into the square. At night they would light a bonfire, and you would write on a piece of paper everything you wanted to rid yourself of for that year and throw it into the fire.
The interview came to a close with both men obviously touched by their experiences abroad and excited about where they would travel in future episodes. Shatner thinks a Virtual reality trip would be amazing, while Winkler still dreams of Trout fishing. We hope to all be along for the ride with them.
Note: The interview above has been edited for length and clarity.
