As Sue saw me frantically scribbling all this in my little notebook, she asked, "Do you know what one of Benny's sayings was?" I was trying to think of one of his joke sayings on the show, such as "Do unto others - then run," but nothing seemed appropriate. But she rescued me from guessing, saying, "'Write it down!'" Every time Sue had a good idea, or something she wanted to remember, Benny would say, "Write it down, Little Sausage, write it down!" ("Little Sausage" was Benny's pet name for her.) "S-A-U-S-A-G-E," Ian helpfully spelled at this point. "They don't have sausages in America," he said to Sue. "Actually, we do," I responded, "but ours are made with real meat!" Sue told me then of Benny's habit of writing down ideas, jokes, and sketches for the show on any piece of paper that came to hand - even once, she said, on a piece of shirt cardboard from a laundry!

There were practical jokes played on the set, as well. At one time, Sue, a nonsmoker, had to smoke a prop cigarette, but someone (Sue thinks it was Dennis Kirkland, the producer) substituted a real one. Naturally, the real cigarette had quite an effect on her! Kirkland's nickname for her was "Upton No Good," (although it was meant jokingly) and apparently he was a bit of a taskmaster on the set. Sue didn't mind, though, as she knew that he was concerned with getting the best possible performance out of his actors.

All performers must occasionally suffer for their art, and Sue was no exception. In the "Charlene's Angels" sketch, she played a bikini-clad assassin, who tried to shoot Benny with two guns mounted in her...well, in her chest. In effect, she was a proto-Fembot, twenty years before Austin Powers. Sue said that a charge of flash powder had been put inside a built-up bra, and "if you look closely," ("Oh, I did, I certainly did," I interrupted) "you can see the little tube where it was." The flash charge was connected by a wire to a switch held in her hand - but there was too much flash powder in the charge! In the sketch, you can see Sue recoil from the impact of the flash powder exploding, and she actually wound up being slightly burned in two sensitive, painful places! Of course, I couldn't resist making a wisecrack about kissing them better...and then immediately slapped my own wrist for being so cheeky!

As Sue's tenure with the show lengthened, she became unofficial "head girl" to the Angels. If any of them had any sort of problem - with a costume, a role, or whatever - they'd take the problem to her, and she'd intercede with Dennis Kirkland, Benny, or both. Sue said that Benny never insisted that an Angel do something she was uncomfortable with: if someone didn't want to do something, he'd find someone else to do it. If there was a problem with a costume, he'd authorize alterations to it.

Sue sat in on auditions as well. Benny's practice in auditions was to ask the prospective Angel what she wanted to do on the show: if she wanted to dance, he'd have her do that. If she wanted to do comedy acting, Benny would perform a little scene with the girl. Sue also gave me this bit of behind-the-scenes information: despite her long tenure as one of the most valued members of Benny's stock company, she was never hired for more than three shows at a time! (Many of the Angels, in fact, were hired for no more than one show at a time.) She didn't mind, though, because she didn't wish to become "complacent." I asked if she still received residuals (royalty payments) from repeats of episodes she appeared in: she still does.