(Thanks to both Lisa Ward, and Elizabeth Znameroski for sending me this)

OnlineHost:  Copyright 1995 Oldsmobile; licensed to America Online, Inc.

OnlineHost:  For a guy who originally wanted to become a paleontologist
and study the fossilized remains of bones, it is ironic that Peter
MacNicol eventually chose a career as vibrantly alive as acting.
Nonetheless, MacNicol has demonstrated an exceedingly wide range of talent
in theater, television, and film.

OnlineHost:  Currently, MacNicol can be seen starring on CBS' "Chicago
Hope" as Alan Birch, the hospital's embattled legal representative. In a
drastic departure from his television role, MacNicol will be seen this
December starring as 'Renfield' in Mel Brooks' satirical film "Dracula:
Dead and Loving It" for Castle Rock Entertainment.

OnlineHost:  MacNicol's past work demonstrates the broad dramatic and
comedic spectrum of his talent. On film, he has appeared as the naive
Southern writer who fell in love with Meryl Streep in "Sophie's Choice;"
the villainous museum curator in "Ghostbusters II;" and the summer camp
director in "Addams' Family Values." Other film credits include
"Housesitter" and "American Blue Note."

OnlineHost:  On television, he was a series regular as John Forsythe's
press secretary on "The Powers That Be." Guest starring credits include
"Cheers" and "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd." Additionally, he was
featured in such telefilms as "Johnny Bull," "HBO's By The Dawn's Early
Light," Faerie Tale Theater's "The Boy Who Left Home" and "Rosewell."

OnlineHost:  MacNicol began his career studying at the University of
Minnesota. While there, he performed in two seasons at the Guthrie
Theater. A New York talent agent spotted him and told him to make a move
to Manhattan. Shortly thereafter, he was cast in the off-Broadway play,
"Crimes of the Heart." The production eventually moved to Broadway, and
MacNicol garnered the Theater World Award. It was also during this
production that a casting agent noticed him and called him in to read for
his eventual role in "Sophie's Choice."

OnlineHost:  Among his other stage credits is the Broadway production of
"White Lairs/Black Comedy," MacNicol also has further extensive classical
repertory theater background, including the New York Shakepeare Festival
in which he played title roles in "Richard II" and "Romeo and Juliet," and
appeared in "Twelfth Night," "Rum and Coke" and "Found A Peanut."

OnlineHost:  Born and raised in Texas, MacNicol was the youngest of five
children. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife of eight
years, Marsue Cumming. And true to his tremendously multi- talented
persona, Peter MacNicol spends a great deal of his free time playing...the
bagpipes! Welcome to Center Stage!

AOLiveMC5:  Welcome, Peter!

PMacNicol:  Apologies to you dwellers of cyberspace! It wasn't my fault!
It was this incompetent production team!

AOLiveMC5:  Are you ready for some audience questions? We've got lots of
them!

PMacNicol:  Yes, I'm ready. And a special greeting to all of you toads!

AOLiveMC5:  Our first one is from JBecky:

Question:  Peter, when in the heck are you coming back to visit CH? Us Mac
fans miss you!

PMacNicol:  I have no idea. We discussed the bare outlines of ways of
bringing me back for a visit, but we haven't dealt with it in a couple of
weeks.

AOLiveMC5:  Mope88 wants to know:

Question:  You were great in Ghostbusters. Any remembrances?

PMacNicol:  Dan Akroyd eating an olive loaf sandwich at 7 o'clock in the
morning. I remember how sweet Rick Moranis was, and how very tall
Sigourney Weaver was! Actually, that was one of the happiest work
experiences in my career. I spent hours out in my trailer inventing the
language of Carpathia. Our national flag, which was a snake stepping on a
man, and our national product, which was those little barrels Saint
Bernards wear around their necks on rescue missions.

AOLiveMC5:  CTola asks:

Question:  Why did they kill your character off in Chicago Hope? Was it
your choice?

PMacNicol:  Killing the character off was their choice. It was painful,
I'm sure for everybody. But I would be less than honest if I said that it
was anyone else's idea but my own to leave the show in the first place, at
least as a series regular. A recurring status would have suited me really
nicely.

AOLiveMC5:  JessByl would like to know:

Question:  Hi Peter! What is/are the name of your upcoming projects after
"Dracula: Dead and Loving It" and what kind of character will you be
playing?

PMacNicol:  Hi Jess! Oh my God, I'm humiliated, I can't remember! It's the
pressure of Cyberspace. I think it's called Fugitive From Justice, but
then again, the title is a fugitive from my brain at the moment.

AOLiveMC5:  TCoxen asks:

Question:  Hi Peter, love your work. What are your feelings about leaving
the show? Have you talked to any of the cast members since leaving?

PMacNicol:  I see many of the cast members on a continuing basis. I had
Mexican food with Adam only last week. Tom Gibson I talked on the phone
with two days ago.

AOLiveMC5:  Ellie2450 asks:

Question:  What type of a character do you enjoy playing in a movie or a
TV show? BTW, everyone from the channel "chicagohope" on IRC says that
they loved your character in CH. I love - "Why is my helmet fogging up?
They've given me defective equipment... ".

PMacNicol:  That was a delicious episode, and originally I was supposed to
be on my anniversary in Italy that week and not in the episode at all. But
I was written into it at the last minute. You CH trivia buffs will be
interested to know that David Kelly wrote that episode (Quarantine) in
only 2 1/2 days.

AOLiveMC5:  NoFear010 sends this question:

Question:  Hello Peter MacNichol. What acting schools did you attend, what
are your hobbies, and by the way dude, you were like really cool in the
movie GhostBusters II.

PMacNicol:  I'll go back to the previous question first. I enjoy playing
someone entirely different than the last person I played. This next movie
I'm going to be an off my rocker FBI agent. Brand new for me (not the off
the rocker part, just the law enforcement part). I do like characters with
many dimensions, and certainly Alan Birch was as rich a character as you
will find outside of the plays of Anton Checkov. Thanks for the
Ghostbusters compliment! I'm recognized more for that role than any other.
My hobby is writing. I have a screenwriting program called Final Draft and
I can usually be found at my Mac working away at one of two screenplays.

AOLiveMC5:  HABCO2 asks:

Question:  Are you related to Christy?

PMacNicol:  No. She's Irish, I'm Scots. But she is a fine actress. I think
she has one brother Jimmy.

AOLiveMC5:  AntCab would like to know:

Question:  Do you ever think about how much your character was beloved and
its impact on the show?

PMacNicol:  I was haunted by their decision to terminate him so much so
that I questioned my decision to leave the show. It just didn't seem right
killing him. It seemed cosmically wrong in some way. But David Kelly is a
brilliant writer and like a great writer before him, Arthur Conan Doyle,
the temptation to kill off a beloved character was too much to ignore. God
knows it makes for powerful drama. Doyle killed off Holmes in a book
called His Last Bow, by the way.

AOLiveMC5:  Here's a question from Rednail1:

Question:  Peter, tell us about the Mel Brooks movie.

PMacNicol:  Working for Mel Brooks reminded me of when I was a child
growing up in Texas and how on a hot May afternoon I would try and stand
in the center of one of those dust devils we used to get in our backyard.
He's a force, and one of the funniest men in this hemisphere. I'm playing
an exotic creature called Renfield, who like Janos in GB2, is another
hapless soul who is less villain than victim. I'm pathetic really. I
travel to Transylvania to sell real estate and I wind up a mind slave who
eats insects. It's sad really.

AOLiveMC5:  Alex995 asks:

Question:  Hi Peter, what is your "dream role"?

PMacNicol:  Alan Birch was pretty damn close. Andrew Aguecheek in
Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is another. I played that some years back in
Central Park and the memory is like some lovely pink dream. What do you
think I should play?

AOLiveMC5:  MINIAPPLE asks:

Question:  Peter, how did you bear the Minnesota winters?

PMacNicol:  I didn't. I lost the will to live almost everyday. I had to
literally hypnotize myself to face the AM. I'd tell myself, "My, but it's
sultry out today!", and that would work for about 5 seconds and then my
nose hairs would freeze and my eye moisture would turn to glare ice, and
I'd look at my old copies of Islands magazine.

AOLiveMC5:  VicDmizr asks:

Question:  Did you have any part in writing that great speech you gave on
the show the week before you left?

PMacNicol:  No, that was one of David Kelly's glories, wasn't it? Funny
thing but my two longest monologues and in some ways most challenging,
were not in classical theater, but in shows written by DEK.

AOLiveMC5:  The next question is from Lisaloo:

Question:  What kind of reaction have you gotten from fans since your
character was killed off?

PMacNicol:  Everyone has been stricken. And they look to me for answers,
and some of the blame has to fall to me because it was my decision to
leave the show. But David's shoulders are broad enough to take some of the
hit. My mother's church group was the hardest hit. They've all gone into
kind of a mournful huddle since the killing, and there's really no
bringing them out of it.

AOLiveMC5:  Here's a question from JUSTME768:

Question:  I really enjoyed your work in Sophie's Choice and in the TV
show with John Forsythe. What are your current projects? And, was it a
thrill working with Meryl Streep?

PMacNicol:  It was a thrill working with Meryl, as well as everyone else
on that film, cast and crew alike. That film was the closest approximation
to a symphony performance I've ever experienced in this medium. Everyone
played better than they'd ever played before and possibly ever will again.
I'm still deciding on future projects, but I sincerely hope to direct a
small independent film this year.

AOLiveMC5:  ChuckM895 would like to know:

Question:  How do you prepare for such a role as Renfield in Bram Stoker's
Dracula? He was a crazed lunatic servant of Dracula.

PMacNicol:  Playing lunacy is enormously liberating. Easy, in a sense. The
restraints are off, and you're running wild-eyed through the sets for 2
1/2 months. I felt like the Mad Hatter on a summer holiday. The
preparation was all in the accent. A good English accent is a must for
anyone who calls themselves a trained actor, and I hope mine passes muster
on the other side of the pond.

AOLiveMC5:  Clairey wants to know:

Question:  What was it like to work with Mandy Patenkin? Is he anything
like his character was?

PMacNicol:  Mandy and I were supposed to play two fellows who really
didn't like each other. Go back to the pilot and see for yourself. What
happened, was that we became the best of friends. We're still enormously
close, and I've even considered buying land which neighbors his own. He is
intense, intelligent, instinctual, what other I-words are there? I really
love him. And that's not just Hollywood hyperbole. He's wonderful to play
opposite, and our scenes together are some of my favorite.

AOLiveMC5:  Wmonica asks:

Question:  What do you think about "chats" in cyberspace?

PMacNicol:  This is the most fun I've had in a chat since...wait a second,
I've never had this much fun in a chat!

AOLiveMC5:  LProff asks:

Question:  Peter, what kind of role model do you think your Chicago Hope
character projects to young boys from a single female parent relationship?

PMacNicol:  Oh, a good one I hope. Your question is more interesting than
my answer. Let's see, certainly his intelligence, his aggressiveness in
court is nicely balanced with his soft, sweet side. Notice I keep saying
"is" instead of "was". (Sigh) I've failed you. My answer is stupid.

AOLiveMC5:  ChapelHee wants to know:

Question:  I thought it was interesting that although the preseason hoopla
was about Mandy leaving, you seemed to be the focus of that last show. How
did it come about that you both left at the same time?

PMacNicol:  Sheer, strange coincidence. God's truth. I didn't decide until
October. Mandy had decided in the Spring.

AOLiveMC5:  Shaftu006 has a suggestion for you:

Question:  Maybe PMacNicol should join the "ER" cast next season!

PMacNicol:  It would be fun wearing scrubs! On our show, I wore them every
chance I could get, which I think was once.

AOLiveMC5:  BelTor2 asks:

Question:  Which character are you more like in real life? The counselor
from Addams' Family Values or Chicago Hope attorney?

PMacNicol:  Well, they're all inside me, which I guess is kind of spooky.
Actors are like little villages. We have all of these people inside of us,
beggars and kings, saints and villains, counselors and councils. I'm like
everybody I've ever played, and even more like everybody I haven't played
yet. Stick around and meet the rest of me!

AOLiveMC5:  Lisaloo sends this question:

Question:  I loved you in the Faerie Tale Theatre tale of The Boy Who Went
Out In Search Of The Shivers. Why did you take that particular role to
play?

PMacNicol:  I took this because I love Fairy Tales and I adore Christopher
Lee, who you know from the Hammer Dracula films. Actually, that entire
cast was a marvel. David Warner, Frank Zappa, and Dana Hill.

AOLiveMC5:  DTWFEMANA would like to know:

Question:  Your character on CH had real empathy? Are you as warm to the
problems of humankind?

PMacNicol:  Well, I don't turn a deaf ear to the woes of Bosnia and
Rwanda. But I'm sure I could be a lot more compassionate. That's a good
thing about this holiday season. It can act as a string around the finger,
reminding us of giving more and taking less.

AOLiveMC5:  Peter, we only have time for one more question. This one is
from FW DeeTal:

Question:  I haven't seen your latest with Leslie Nielsen as Dracula but
I'll bet it's a riot. Rumor has it Nielsen is wild on a set. True?

PMacNicol:  I don't know about wild, but he does have a whoopee device
which he holds onto like an asthmatic does his inhaler. He is proud to say
he is demonstrated it before royalty. I told him he should be less proud.

AOLiveMC5:  Folks, since Peter arrived late tonight, we're going to stay a
little longer and answer some more questions. IV22 wants to know:

Question:  Is Mandy as weird as the doctor he plays?

PMacNicol:  No. But I'm sure there is a portion of Geiger in him or he
wouldn't have an approach to the character at all. That stands to reason.

AOLiveMC5:  ChapelHee asks:

Question:  It seemed like your character on CH went from comic relief, to
a more serious character. Did you enjoy playing one more than the other?

PMacNicol:  Well, I brought the comic aspect in with me. That was just my
way of entertaining myself. While I waited for more to do in the series.
It wasn't really until episode eight until the writers found a stride with
me. The balancing of comedy with straight playing was established from
episode eight on. Before then I was a little schizo I think. Some episodes
I was only comic relief, some episodes just a straight man. By the end of
the season David had found a beautiful teeter-totter quality to Birch.

AOLiveMC5:  This one is from JenLCB:

Question:  Hi, Peter! <waving happily> Glad you made it. I was wondering
if you had thoughts on another prime time drama or sitcom, on theatre, or
if you're going to concentrate on film?

PMacNicol:  Oh Jen! How in God's name are you? Jen, if I don't direct my
own little movie by the end of 1996, then I think I'll just wither away
and die. As for concentrations, small independent films interest me more
than anything else because the parts are so much more colorful.

AOLiveMC5:  DRexrode asks:

Question:  So what became of your little daughter that was on the show?

PMacNicol:  Well, Alicia is with Geiger. The little actress is with her
real mom in Hemmet, California.

AOLiveMC5:  NoFear010 asks:

Question:  Hello Peter MacNichol, What kind of music do you like?

PMacNicol:  Everything. And I mean everything except high shrill operatic
voices. They scare me. Oh, and I'm not a huge fan of reggae.

AOLiveMC5:  OK, here's our last question (for real, this time). This is
from LeapYearD:

Question:  Peter, how did you become interested in the bagpipes? How long
have you played? Long live the eel!

PMacNicol:  Bless you for saying long live the eel! I second that! As for
the bagpipes, I have been smitten with that instrument since I was 3 years
old and I was watching the Stooges, and I believe it was Curly who opened
up a closet door to reveal a skeleton playing bagpipes. They were trying
to dehaunt a Scottish castle or something. The plot memory is vague, but
the droning of those pipes was emblazoned on my memory. I started playing
in college.

AOLiveMC5:  Peter, thank you for joining us in Oldsmobile's Celebrity
Circle tonight!

PMacNicol:  In closing, let me say to all of you fans of Chicago Hope, I
could not have asked for a better year and a half, or a better role.
That's a long time I got to stand up at the plate and my gratitude for the
show, its creators, its cast, its crew, and most particularly, for its
audience is unbounded. I will miss you all. But only Alan Birch is dead.
Actors live and die and are reborn a thousand times in one lifetime.
That's the magic of acting. Farewell.

AOLiveMC5:  Thank you, Peter. And thanks to you, audience, for some great
questions. Good night, everyone!

OnlineHost:  Our sincere thanks to Peter MacNicol for joining us in the
Olds Celebrity Circle this evening. If you "tuned in" late, be sure to
stop back tomorrow at about this time for an edited transcript. It will be
"live" at keyword: OLDSMOBILE. Thank you and good night!

OnlineHost:  Copyright 1995 Oldsmobile; licensed to America Online, Inc.