ROSIE: Here we go. Our next guest I very talented actor who plays the perfect human specimen in the new show "Now and Again." I love the show. Take a look.

>> MICHAEL: We here at Superheroes Anonymous realize you have a choice in law enforcement. We're grateful you chose us.

ROSIE: He's like the bionic man. Please welcome Eric Close!
[ cheers and applause ]
ROSIE: Hi, Eric.
ERIC: How are you?
ROSIE: How are you? Enjoy your show.
ERIC: Thank you.
ROSIE: I do. I have this thing called replay. It's like a smart VCR.
ERIC: Right.
ROSIE: You just type in the names of the shows you like and it tapes them all.
ERIC: My dad just told me about that yesterday. He's got the same. He was really excited about it. They just got a computer and he's freaking out about it.
ROSIE: It's Friday nights. So it's on 9:00? And it's a really good show. You were not bionic from the beginning, were you?
ERIC: No. John Goodman starts out, he's the character.
ROSIE: Right.
ERIC: And he has an untimely death with a subway train.
ROSIE: Right.
ERIC: And they put his brain in my body. My body's been bioengineered by the government.
ROSIE: At the beginning when you tried to call your wife in the first few weeks and then the guy comes into your apartment, I didn't know you were bionic then.
ERIC: See, I didn't know either, I was.
ROSIE: Oh, you were?
ERIC: Because if knew, I would have busted out.
ROSIE: Of course you would have.
ERIC: I wouldn't have stuck around.
ROSIE: Did they change that? Or was that always the story line?
ERIC: No, it always was. Basically what's been happening is the doctor's been kind of training me and trying to get me comfortable with my new skin, so to speak.
ROSIE: Right.
ERIC: And every episode I sort of find out new things about my superhuman strength.
ROSIE: Yeah. It is like the bionic man.
ERIC: Yeah, kind of. I love the bionic man.
ROSIE: Me, too. Steve Austin.
ERIC: I was a huge fan. I remember one of the pictures I took when I was a kid. You take your old school picture.
ROSIE: Yeah.
ERIC: My right eye was kind of squinty.
ROSIE: Sure, yeah.
ERIC: I kind of thought, I look like the bionic man. So I was the bionic man, I'd have the squinty eye.
ROSIE: And did you make the sound? [ imitating the "bionic" sound ]
ERIC: [ imitating the "bionic" sound ] Yeah. [ "humming" The Six Million Dollar Man theme ] Is that it?
ROSIE: That is impressive, Sir.
ERIC: Thank you.
ROSIE: Many people can remember songs with words. Few can remember just melodies from the 1970s.
[ laughter ]
ROSIE: That's wonderful.
ERIC: It's the only one I know.
ROSIE: You must enjoy doing the show. You have done a lot of other shows? Because I don't remember seeing you, believe it or not?
ERIC: Glen Gordon Caron who created this show, after I auditioned for this show, he looked at me and says, "why don't I know you?" And I said, well, you know, this is my fifth series. You know, that's been on the air. But it just – you know it's just funny how things stick and how things click with the audience.
ROSIE: What were the other ones?
ERIC: Last two seasons before this I did "The Magnificent Seven" which was a western. And then I did "Dark Skies" which is a Sci-Fi deal.
ROSIE: Didn't see that.
ERIC: You didn't see anything. Did you watch "Santa Barbara"?
ROSIE: No.
ERIC: Someone did.
ROSIE: That's on NBC. I got my ABC soaps that I do. Sorry.
ERIC: Right.
ROSIE: But, you're – you always wanted to be an actor when you're a kid? You're totally focused on this?
ERIC: I was doing plays in school. And I just got kick out of it. I really liked it. That's when I got the bug. And then I went off to college and just kind of let that go. And then when I got out of school, I thought, what the hell am I going to do? I don't know what I'm going to do. And I thought, you know what, I've got give it a go. I know deep down inside it's what I want to do. People say it's a big risk. It's the riskiest thing, you're crazy to do it. And I said, I have to do it, because I don't want to be at the end of my life and say never gave it a shot.
ROSIE: Did you do struggling actor routine in New York?
ERIC: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I was the waiter. I was the worst bartender in the world. It was terrible. I tried to stay away from bartending on Friday nights because I got swamped. Things are coming up and ticker tapes coming down and I'm going, I don't know what I'm doing. So my boss took care of that and fired me.
ROSIE: Did you live in the city?
ERIC: In --
ROSIE: When you were just starting o lived right in Manhattan?
ERIC: No, I was born here. Staten Island.
[ scattered applause ]
ROSIE: You can get a ride home, obviously.
ERIC: Born in Staten Island, then I moved to San Diego. And I grew up in San Diego. And now I'm back here.
ROSIE: And how do you like it?
ERIC: Oh, I love it.
ROSIE: You're shooting the show here?
ERIC: Yeah, we're staying here.
ROSIE: How's your apartment? You got a nice apartment?
ERIC: Oh, yeah, a little high.
ROSIE: You're afraid of heights?
ERIC: Yeah. You know, it's funny, I'm a rock climber. I've been climbing for I've climbed cliffs that are 700 feet straight up. But when I out on a balcony, I get goose bumps. And I don’t know what it is.
ROSIE: Really?
ERIC: It's different, when you're climbing a rock, you have ropes and you're holding onto the rock and you're more in control. When you step on this balcony, you think, I know who built this balcony.
ROSIE: That's true. You actually climb rocks just you, ropes and like those little sticky things you stick in the rock?
ERIC: They're called – they call them rocks or chalks. And you stick them inside cracks in the rock.
ROSIE: Yeah, yeah.
ERIC: It's crazy.
ROSIE: I have a question.
ERIC: Yes.
ROSIE: Why do you do that?
[ laughter ]
ROSIE: It makes no sense to me. you get all the way up there for what? You could have been killed!
ERIC: It's just awesome to get – when you look at that rock and you say, I'm going to get to the top of that thing. Didn't you climb trees when you were a kid?
ROSIE: Never.
ERIC: You never did?
[ laughter ]
ERIC: Did anybody climb trees? I climbed trees.
ROSIE: I looked at a tree. I thought you get up there, to what? You get down you get hurt. The people who go to Mt. Everest. Are you one of those?
ERIC: No. I read the book, "Into Thin Air." My wife and I read it while we were in Chamonix, France. And I said, I'm going to climb Everest. She said, no you're not or I'm going divorce you.
ROSIE: She's a smart woman. We're going to take a break and come back and talk more with Eric Close right after this.

ROSIE: We’re back with Eric Close, who was telling me at the break, it must be tough to have to stay in shape for this role. Because you're playing the perfect guy.
ERIC: Yeah. It's a lot of pressure to play the perfect guy. Especially when you love junk food like I do.
ROSIE: You don't look like you love junk food.
ERIC: Oh, I love it. I live for it.
ROSIE: You don’t look like it. Give me some of your favorites.
ERIC: Oatmeal cookies, Butter Fingers. Anything that has chocolate in it.
ROSIE: See, that’s good. Although you started with oatmeal cookies, I was a little worried.
ERIC: These are good, full of brown sugar, butter and raisins
ROSIE: Where do you get those?
ERIC: I'm getting hungry thinking about them. On the set. The craft service guy he's like the devil. He knows swore off chocolate for 6 weeks, all right, I don't know why. It's not lent, but it just happened to be at the same time. I decided, he comes walking around this set with this giant box of candy, he's like, candy? Candy? These little horns grow out of his head. Candy? Get out of here.
ROSIE: Remember from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang." When the child catcher comes out and goes, candy children! And he has the net.
ERIC: That's him.
ROSIE: Yeah, when they go -- I love that movie.
ERIC: He didn't make it in acting so went into the craft service business
ROSIE: Anyone else in your family in acting?
ERIC: My brothers Randy and Chris.
ROSIE: Are they younger than you?
ERIC: Yeah. They've got some time.
ROSIE: Are they doing stage stuff or tv stuff?
ERIC: Everything. Class, everything that we as actors do when you're starting out. Just studying, trying to hone your craft, and you know, try and get your break. It's tough.
ROSIE: It is tough. It only takes one thing. But when you get that one thing like your show. You have a baby girl.
ERIC: A baby girl. She's awesome.
ROSIE: How old?
ERIC: She's 18 months. Named Katie.
ROSIE: Katie.
ERIC: Yeah.
ROSIE: What's she into?
ERIC: Everything.
ROSIE: Really? She's into Barney
ERIC: Loves Barney. Loves Elmo. I'm not a big fan Barney, I'm sorry. But I love Elmo. Have you had Elmo on your show yet?
ROSIE: Oh, times.
ERIC: Elmo's the man.
ROSIE: You're not kidding.
ERIC: He's got that great voice.
ROSIE: Can you do a little Elmo?
ERIC: Hmm, okay. [ singing ] La la la la la la Elmo la la la la la la Elmo's song he wrote the music...
ROSIE: [ singing ] He wrote the words
ERIC: That's Elmo's song.
ROSIE: There you go.
[ cheers and applause ]
ROSIE: You have all the tapes like Elmo Palooza?
ERIC: There goes my career.
ROSIE: No, no, no. People like you singing off key. I do it every day. Is it true that you used to hang out at "The Tonight Show"?
ERIC: Yes.
ROSIE: Just to see the people --
ERIC: When I worked at NBC, on -- in California on "Santa Barbara," I would go over to "The Tonight Show."
ROSIE: Right.
ERIC: And hang out with a friend of mine was doing Jay Leno's hair. And I would sit in a room about this big and all the stars would come in. Garth Brooks. But the highlight of my life, one of the greatest moments of my life was I went over there to meet Tom Cruise. Okay.
ROSIE: Come on.
ERIC: It was awesome.
ROSIE: Was he nice?
ERIC: He was amazing.
ROSIE: See?
ERIC: This is what he did. We were talking walking down the hall. I strategically next to him he said, he was getting ready to do "The Firm." Everybody swept him away. He introduced himself. I said, my name's Eric. I thought, God, I didn't get to ask him what I had to ask him. I turned around, I walked back and he's coming down the ramp. And I said Tom, I gotta ask you something. He goes, yeah, Eric, what you want to ask me. First he remembered my and he tells entourage to kick back a minute. And he walks me down to his station wagon which he drove himself and sat there with me for five minutes and gave me advice about acting an career.
ROSIE: And did I force you to say this?
ERIC: No.
[Rosie plays: "Tommy Can You Hear Me" ]
ROSIE: I love him. He's a great guy.
ERIC: And I haven't washed my hand since.
ROSIE: I don't blame you. Shake mine then. Little Tom Cruise germs. It's lovely to meet you, Eric.
ERIC: Nice to meet you.
ROSIE: You're a nice young man. I'm 38 now, I can call you young. We'll be right back with Trisha Yearwood. Don't go away.