A Show of Onstage Sibling Strength

When they were little, Donny and Marie Osmond often sang with their older brothers. The boys were discovered performing at Disneyland, and the Osmond Brothers went on to make their television debut on “The Andy Williams Show” in 1962. Donny’s appearance on the show followed shortly thereafter. He then became a teen heartthrob, and in the mid-’70s the brother and sister had their own “Donny and Marie” TV show.

They are again on the airwaves with a syndicated talk show taped in L.A. Donny, now 40, has been married for 20 years and lives with his wife, Debbie, and five sons in Utah. Marie, 38, lives in Los Angeles with her six children--three girls and three boys--and her husband, Brian Blosil.

Question: What careers would you have gone into other than entertainment?

Marie: Well, I’m actually doing a hobby right now that’s turned into a business, which is my [line of] dolls. I create all of them. It really started as a diversion from work, and it turned into a huge business. I come with all kinds of concepts and different ideas . . . to the design of the dress and the fabrics. It’s a fun outlet.

Donny: There are two things that come to mind that I would have done. One is I almost started a security company--for house and personal security. But, had I not gone into show business, I probably would have been an electrical engineer or electronics engineer. Even on the show here, I utilize the Internet and all that kind of stuff. I love computer technology, so maybe something in the computer business.

Q: What’s one of the hardest things about your current work?

D: Time. I live in Utah and commute back and forth, so I spend most of the week down here. My weekends are like gold to me because that’s when I get to go home and be with my wife and kids. Both my wife and I decided that’s where we want to raise our family.

M: Do you know what I have found, though? That Charlie Cook and Dick Clark [executive producers] and everybody who works here actually helps us keep that time very sacred on the weekend.

Q: What was one of the worst jobs you had to do?

M: You know what? I don’t know if there were any worst, but my mom was really adamant that I learned to make bread and homemade jam and bottle fruit and do all those types of things that were very domestic, and being the only girl--you know, my brothers are worthless in the kitchen--she made sure that I knew how to mend pants and sew. I love her for that.

Q: You didn’t have to do any odd jobs, paying jobs to get through the summer or anything like that?

M: Oh, I had to work with Donny.

D: We never really had outside jobs. If you want to call it that, we always had a job in performing with the brothers.

M: For me, though, there are a few years there that I didn’t perform. I wasn’t really sure that performing was something that I wanted. I had to be around 10 or 11, and, because my dad insisted that everybody work, nobody came out on the road and did nothing. My job was to do box office.

D: But she didn’t get paid for that.

M: No, but I was expected to do it. I mean, it was a job.

D: She’s kinda deadwood.

M: What I did is I would go in and count what they call deadwood, which was the remaining tickets. It’s all computerized now, but when you’re in an arena and, say, like the very back 200 seats weren’t sold, you have to count that and then figure the ticket sales. I was known as the mean little ticket counter because I could find a mistake like nobody’s business, and they were afraid of this little 10-year-old girl. It was hysterical, but those were the kind of jobs that I had.

D: The only thing I’ve been doing all my life is singing. Around the house I had to mow the lawn and things like that.

Q: I assume you didn’t get paid for doing chores at home.

D: No, no. That was expected of us, to get those things done like mow the lawn and clean the toilets and vacuum the carpet and sweep the floor. You had to do that because we never really had maids and servants and all that kind of stuff growing up. With nine children, you’re expected to.

M: One of my favorite stories really tells you about my dad, because he’s a great guy. The show was No. 1 like three years in a row. We decided to move it to Utah, my dad wanted to move back there. So we built this big, huge multimillion-dollar, state-of-the-art studio, and the day before the press shows up, my dad gets a bill for what it would cost for a cleaning crew. And he looks at it and says, “I’m not gonna pay this. I have nine kids.” And so the day before we’re letting all these people into our studio, we’re actually . . . scrubbing toilets and cleaning mirrors and vacuuming and sweeping. That’s what’s great about my dad is that he taught us reality.

Q: What’s the most fun you guys have with your talk show?

D: I think what I enjoy most is that things change constantly here. When I was doing [the play “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”], and Marie can relate to this, when you do theater, typically you get a gig for maybe three to six months maximum. I did “Joseph” for six years. So it’s kind of a nice refreshing change to have different guests that you’re talking to all the time and different songs, different shows every week--that’s the challenge, but it’s also the enjoyment of it.

M: I think the thing that we both learned is the discipline, because theater is some of the toughest discipline that you can do because not only are you doing the same show night after night, but you have to find the discipline to create it and make it fresh every night.

D: Well, it is a lot of work, but then again you have to remember what we’ve been through. We started so young. That really taught us a very, very good work ethic.

M: Donny, how many years is it for us?

D: Thirty-five.

M: Yeah, we’ve worked together for 35 years. See, it’s a different kind of show too. First of all, I think it’s our sibling relationship. We have a lot of fun together. I can tease him in ways I never could a regular host, a co-host or whatever. It’s nice to have a male’s perspective on something, and I think it’s really nice to have a female perspective on the same topic. It’s wonderful to work with my brother again. I mean, I really enjoy it.

Q: Do you guys ever get mad at each other?

D: Sure.

M: Oh, yeah. Bone mad.

Q: How do you handle that at work?

D: You know, we have to be realistic about things and it’s not always an agreement here, but we’ve agreed to disagree. But when the show starts and the tape rolls and the cameras are on, we agree to agree.

M: And what’s interesting is we also give each other strength. If one person’s having a bad day, the other person helps them out.

D: Yeah.

M: And we’re both very opinionated, very strong-willed, and we respect each other immensely. So, you get strength, you fight, you cry, you do all kinds of things together--that’s the great thing about family, and it’s nice to be able to work together.

Q: Anything else you guys wanted to say about work?

M: Well, they told me you were going to ask the question--”Did you do anything bizarre to get a job?”

D: OK. Have you ever done anything bizarre to get a job?

M: You know, I couldn’t think of anything, but have you ever done anything, Donny?

D: The thing that comes to mind is when I was trying to get my record deal back in the mid-’80s. I remember crashing a Grammy party--it was an Arista party--and I just wanted to meet [President] Clive Davis. I didn’t get the record deal when I crashed that party, but in the long run it worked out better. I made a great friend.

Q: Does Mr. Davis know you crashed the party?

D: He will now.