All language subtitles for Billy.Flanigan.The.Happiest.Man.On.Earth.2022.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC5.1-[YTS.GG - YTS.BZ]

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[whimsical music]

[Billy] I remember my parents
used to tell my brothers to, you know,

take Billy outside and,
you know, throw a ball at him.

We had this-- Oh, well,
there was a field that we turned into a baseball field.

And I was sitting there at bat
and my brother said, "Willie, choke up on the bat."

I had no idea what that meant.

So I turned the bat around
and went... [gagging]

And then they all
dropped their gloves

and they were laughing
and I thought,

"Well, that's what I enjoyed,

because I made everybody laugh."

[light-hearted music]

I went to a baseball--

I, I call them auditions,
what do you call them

tryouts, I guess. I don't know.

I got cast in Triple-A Baseball.

The only reason I got there
was because my last name was Flanigan.

I went to the first rehearsal
and I was horrible.

I mean,
I was literally horrible.

And they were making fun of me,

and saying "Come on, you faggot,
start hitting that ball.

You can't do that. What a shame
you are to your brothers."

Putting so much pressure on me.

It wasn't until I actually had
kids who played baseball

then I found out what
"choke up on the bat" meant.

'Cause they never taught.
They just thought it was funny and we went on from there.

[whimsical music]

Am I answering your questions?

[laughs]

You want me to continue
with the story? Okay.

- Billy Flanigan.
- Billy Flanigan.

- Billy Flanigan.
- Billy Flanigan.

Billy Flanigan.

Billy Flanigan.

The Billy Flanigan.
The Billy Flanigan.

[whimsical music]

- Take it away.
- Everybody knew Billy Flanigan.

This energy is contagious.

Oh, Billy Flanigan.

[man 1]
You mentioned Billy Flanigan's name anywhere at Disney,

everyone knew.

He thinks I'm Billy Flanigan
and I'm going to save the day.

- [woman 1]
That's Billy Flanigan. - [woman 2] Billy Flanigan.

- [woman 3] Billy Flanigan.
- [woman 4] Mr. Billy Flanigan.

[man 2]
Billy Flanigan.

[whimsical music]

[Billy]
My job at Disney has just been

the most incredible journey.

I get to make fun of myself,
and I am...

I'm a good, honest person.

So I wake up every day
and I, I think I am.

I have no reason not to be
the happiest man on earth.

[whimsical music]

[reporter 1]
COVID-19 is now considered a global pandemic.

[reporter 2] Schools are
temporarily closing in some districts across the country.

[reporter 3]
Hospitals in larger cities are overwhelmed

with infected patients
while also seeing an increase

in frontline workers
showing symptoms.

[reporter 4]
One of the most popular amusement parks,

Walt Disney World,
announced today that it will also shut down.

[reporter 5]
In an abundance of caution,

we are proceeding with
the closure of our theme parks.

[reported 6]
Fireworks and most indoor shows have been canceled as well,

to prevent crowds from forming.

[somber music]

[Walt Disney]
Here age relives fond memories of the past,

and here youth may savor
the challenge and promise of the future,

with the hope that it will be
a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.

To all who come to this
happy place, welcome.

[Jenn]
It has been absolutely devastating.

Not only, uh,
my livelihood taken away,

but the only thing that
I've ever known

that I was put on this earth
to do taken away...

Uh, live performance
almost entirely disappearing.

It's been very difficult because

for the most part,
my work has been on stage.

In my time at Disney, 31 years,
they've only closed twice.

One was for a hurricane.

But the second time that they
closed was after 9/11,

This came up

and when Disney said,
"We're shutting down the parks."

I was like...

"Wait, what?
And what is this COVID?"

Humans are made to be
around each other.

And so, at least for me,

being alone at my house,

you know, to go from being
in a profession

that's very extroverted, um,
and performing on a daily basis

and seeing so many people
on a daily basis to being entirely alone was really,

um, hard, hard in a lot of ways.

[Rich]
Yeah. It's, um...

It's a tough time.
I hope we learn things from this

that make us stronger
and better the next time there's some kind of,

um, emergency or some kind of

issue that comes to
affect everybody,

we can, we can deal with it,

and we can take care of each
other a little better and...

The world has changed.

Disney...

...personally,

made my career,

and many others,
cast members there.

It's so hard when you go
to work every day and doing what you love,

not just actors, but, uh,

technicians, the camera people,
costuming.

To have this amount of...

Just stop the magic.

[melancholic music]

[Donn]
This is the fantasy land.

You still need
this entertainment.

Entertainment was always
the first to go in any crisis.

[vocalizing]

[Hannah]
I heard my doorbell ring and I thought,

"Did I hear the doorbell ring?"
Because it just seems so strange

that anybody would even be
at your door. Because we're all supposed to be

staying away from each other
right now, right?

Why would anybody be here?

And it rang again and I thought,

"I don't think I ordered
anything, but okay."

And I, and I go downstairs
and I, I looked

at the people on my door,
and off in the sidewalk

I see this lime green helmet.

and I was like,
"I think that's Billy.

I think that's Billy!"
And I threw up in the door and you're trying to do that

thing, like, I want to come out
and say hello and hug you,

But we have to stay far away
from each other and,

and he was like,
"Well, I was over on the trail,

and I just figured I'd take,
you know, and...

one minute,
detouring and come say hello."

It had been so long since
you'd had any sort of that,

not only just the interaction,
but, like, that positive, warm, loving feeling.

I mean, I hadn't touched
another human in a month.

I hadn't hugged
anyone in a month.

I hadn't had any of that
connection in such a long time.

And that, just that
one small act of just,

just even thinking of me.

Not even "Oh, I am going to
make this big grand gesture."

It was just somebody thought,
"I'll just go say hi.

Maybe she won't be home,
but I'll make the effort."

And he went on his way,
and I think he was like, "You know what?

I think I'm going to go
to somebody else's house

because there are
a couple of other people that live nearby" and,

and I said, "Okay,"
and I waved him on

and I shut the door and I just,
like, burst into tears.

It w-- I just--
It was all of that, um...

I don't know, like all of
that emotion that was just sort of sitting in there

that you didn't realize,
I think just released.

It was just that small act
of kindness. It wasn't big, it wasn't--

Like I said, there was no song,

there was no dance,
there was no name.

It wasn't a thing.
It was just somebody...

...thought, "I care about
that person. I'm just going to check in on them and say hello."

[audience laughs]

[Billy]
That was the joke here.

So, um, when Kenny Howard
asked me to do this show here,

I thought, you know,
just don't leave there.

- I, uh--
- [audience laughs]

About, uh,
five and a half years ago,

I did a fiftieth birthday show
all about me.

[audience cheers]

And then just, uh, last June, I
did a fifty-fifth birthday show

- all about me.
- [audience cheers]

So, I thought, I mean, really,

what else could I talk about me
unless I dug into my diary

and divulge some deep,
dark secrets.

[piano playing]

So...

[audience cheers, claps]

...that's exactly
what we're going to do.

[audience laughs]

[somber music]

Growing up, I strove
for attention a lot

because I felt as though
I didn't get a whole lot of attention.

We were a very big family,

lived in a three-bedroom house
with six kids,

three boys in one room,
three girls in another room.

And then there was me,
kind of going,

"Hey, I'm here."

I never remember
not being Billy.

I was always Billy when I was
younger. My dad went by Bill.

My brothers, for some reason
called me Willie.

My sisters nicknamed me Bing.

There was one day during
the winter, I was sitting in a bathrobe at home

drinking some orange juice,
and they said, "Who do you think you are? Bing Crosby?"

And "White Christmas" was on the
radio, so I was singing along.

So I've been Bing ever since
to all my siblings.

My dad always wanted a Timothy,
Mike and Pat. It-- There's an old Irish song.

♪ If you're Irish
Come into me parlor ♪

♪ There's a welcome
There for you ♪

♪ If your name is
Timothy, Mike or Pat ♪

He got his Timothy,
that was the first one.

Mary was named after my mother.
My mother's name is Mary Lou.

Then Mike was the second boy.

So my name was supposed
to be Patrick.

My mother said, "If we have
another child" to my dad,

"Odds are the next one's
going to be a girl the way we're going.

So if you want a namesake,
this is the one."

So he went with William.

And then my sister,
Patty, was born,

so he got his Timothy,
Mike and Pat.

But the Pat was a...

The, the Pat was a girl.

We've had singing,
and dancing, and music

in our family all the time.

As soon as you get home
from church on Sunday,

Dad would put
the Hi-Fi on over the--

Arm would go over,
the record would drop.

And it was continuous music.

Um, it was, it was so fabulous.

[Billy]
My dad worked two full time jobs and one part time job,

came home,
slept four hours a night.

We always had to be quiet
when Dad was sleeping,

because a lot of times
his four hours were

nine in the morning until noon,

and then he'd leave
and go to work again.

He did do many different jobs
growing up, painting houses.

Tried to get it
on the ground level of certain,

different companies,
one called Perma Shoehorn,

which was a shoehorn
you'd put in your shoe,

and then it was
permanently there

so that, you know,
little things like that.

He worked so hard

having a, such a large family.

He allowed my mom
the opportunity to stay home and be a stay-at-home mom.

So she was always there to

discipline us, teach us.

My parents had
a crimes and punishment list.

On the top of it, it said,

"Ha-ha! You were bad.
Look up your punishment."

So that we knew

what our punishment would be
if we did the crime.

If we tattletaled, then you'd
have to look up your crime.

You didn't do your chores,
you'd look up your crime.

If you didn't brush your teeth,
you'd look up your crime.

Always, my dad would have loved
to have been a professional performer.

My dad was an entertainer,

an artist trapped into
a forklift operator's life, yes.

He did a lot of
community theater shows.

So my mom would go in
and reluctantly

learn these dances and be
part of the dancing group.

But my dad would
always have featured roles throughout the shows.

So they would do The music man
or My fair Lady.

And he was always "Harold Hill"

or "Professor Henry Higgins"
and things.

So, I would go to
rehearsals with him,

and I would just love to be
a part of it and say,

"Oh, Gosh, I can't wait
until I'm old enough to be a part of one of these shows.

And, you know,

it's-- it was always so...

...hard. Sorry. [sobs]

Um...

When I was following my dream...

[clicks tongue]

When I was following my dream
to be a performer,

and succeeding

that he had to sit,
sit back and watch.

But he never watched without
the biggest smile on his face and so much pride.

I think I'm a perf--

I think I'm a performer
because of him.

[calm music]

I was one of the first,
not to brag,

and I had seen he had done

maybe seven or eight Flanigrams
before he Flanigramed me.

Of course, no one ever knows
when they're being Flanigramed.

He doesn't tell you he's coming.

So it legitimately is
the best day ever.

Such a surprise,
was on a Sunday morning,

I am up and it's,
well, afternoon,

because now it's COVID,

and it's Sunday.

Who gets up
in the morning on Sunday

when you're not allowed
to be anywhere?

My doorbell rang, and I just,
I opened the door,

- and there he was.
- ...except you're not made up.

Still in my little jammies
and robe at maybe one o'clock.

There was no lipstick.
There was no nail polish.

I was in my housecoat
and there was Billy Flanigan.

And I was like, "Oh!
Oh, my gosh, what are you, what are you doing here?"

It was great.
He came to the front door,

and sang and danced.
And it was, it was wonderful.

It was the best. It made my day.

It made my Sunday. It was great.

He just spends all this time

putting smiles on your face
and sings you a song.

And it's just pure
and utter joy.

It was so wonderful
to see someone that is

so positive and so overflowing
with joy and life.

There to simply bring
a smile to my day.

It was great. It was
mimosa time when he left. It was fantastic.

Billy is also one
of the most selfless people you'll ever meet.

...thought that this incredible
person in my life would ride all these miles

and sing me a song
about how many miles he's ridden to see me.

He will ride 40 miles a day,
60 miles a day.

Some days he has done
80 miles in a day.

Billy has a feast
and he makes sure that all of his friends are fed.

There's nobody like him.

There really, there really
is nobody like him.

[whimsical music]

So, uh, September 18th, 1967,

"Dear Diary, I hate school.

I got picked on today.
I'm not good at sports."

In sixth grade, we did a musical
concert version of The Mikado,

and I was cast as the Pooh-Bah.

I was just to stand there
during this first song and

I would stand there and I was
fanning myself and I would make

faces at the audience or make
faces at people behind me.

And the audience was chuckling
and laughing,

and I just hammed it up so much.

This is kind of where I really,

really caught the, the bug
to be a performer.

I didn't feel like they were
laughing at me.

I felt like it was
what I was doing that was causing them to laugh.

I remember thinking,
"This is what I want to do."

So the bullying actually
started then.

And then would transfer
into school. I remember going on a field trip that day

out into the hot-- somewhere
hot, and my mom put me in shorts

thinking that would be
the right thing to do and

I was the only one
that had shorts on.

It's almost like they found

the thing you had
to make fun of.

So I was made fun of because
I was the only one that had shorts on

and I was a boy and only girls
wore shorts to school.

It was like, "Oh Look at
Billy. He's, he's got shorts on."

But by the end of the day,
you know, I was sitting next to

the teacher who was trying
to console me and all the kids were like,

"Mrs. Hepler, we're hot."

And she said, "Well, you should
have worn shorts like Billy."

- [audience laughs]
- Then we go to September 14th, 1973.

"Dear Diary, I just finished
my first week at junior high school.

- It is worse than
elementary school." - [audience laughs]

"I got beat up today because
I struck out playing softball during gym class.

I hate school. I hate sports."

So when I got into seventh
grade, I did join the chorus

and I was one
of three boys maybe.

Just really wasn't
a popular thing to do.

I know they really had to
struggle to get boys to be part of

any shows that they did.

And if you were, you were
a geeky nerd, faggot,

gay, all that
kind of stuff, so...

I-- it was really hard
for me to find my place

because I felt really
comfortable while I was in

acting, and drama,
and things like that.

But at the same time,
it really wasn't popular.

Played guitar
when I was younger, my parents gave me a guitar

and I had to walk a mile
to my guitar lessons.

And I would have
to plan my route

because I knew
where the kids hung out,

and there were times
where I'd have to cross the street and then--

because they hung out
on this side, but they'd see me,

and they'd throw bottles
across the street at me and things like that.

It was just like--
I never did anything to them.

It was just-- I was
the weakest link, you know.

It's like in the animal kingdom,

they always tell you
the weakest link--

The predators look
for the weakest link

to be able to attack
and eat and all that.

But that weakness throughout
the years and once I discovered what I loved and

who I wanted to be.

I just became so much stronger.

There was one teacher in school,

my friend's teacher,
Barbara Roberts,

who I, who I always say she's,
she saved my life.

I remember when he was 12,
always such a beautiful little boy just--

And he'd wear white turtlenecks.

And what boys wore
white turtlenecks?

She saw the, the bullying,

and she would always kind
of take me under her wing.

Tell me that they were
just jealous.

She would feed me
with the things that

I needed to hear
while I was that age.

Really feed me,
"You've got to be yourself.

You've got to go
for what you want.

You can't listen to what
other people say."

She, uh, she was there for me.

But I have to say
he's a very strong man.

Very strong to have
overcome everything.

To just, you know,

reach for the stars
and attain the stars.

Just indomitable is
the word I would use for him.

And I love him dearly,
and I always will.

When, when you're in
that position of being the butt of everybody's joke

or being bullied,

it turns your heart
into a kinder heart.

Because you would never want
anybody else to experience what you did.

So, as mean as people were

and as, um, as cruel
as they were,

helps me become more kind.

[whimsical music]

[Kevin]
So not being able to work at Disney is kind of

killing a little bit of his soul

because he isn't able to go
and perform and bring the magic

to all the people that
he normally does.

So he's finding a way to do it.

To my knowledge,
I was one of the first people that he visited

but he did visit a few
of my friends before me.

[reporter]
Hat's off to Billy Flanigan,

he's peddled over three thousand
miles on his bike,

delivering smiles.

[Jenn]
People were calling them Billygrams,

and I said, "Well,
that name's already taken. This is a missed opportunity."

[reporter]
You know the pandemic shut him down

from performing
at Disney world.

So he decided to go
and do singing telegrams

with a personalized
song and dance,

spreading cheer
all over Orlando.

I said, "Well,
his last name's Flanigan.

It should be Flanigrams."
He gave me the credit for naming it.

I thought I'm not a genius.
I definitely, uh, I am not,

cannot be the first one that
thought of this. But I was the first one to put it

down on social media.

- [birds chirping]
- ♪ It's your Billy Flanigram ♪

♪ Your Billy Flanigram ♪

♪ I'm here, you say hello
Hello ♪

♪ It's your Flanigram
Your Billy Flanigram ♪

♪ 'Cause I want you to know ♪

♪ That I bike twenty-one miles
For one of your smiles ♪

♪ Lindsay and E.J. ♪

[reporter]
They have a little name for when you get a visit from him,

they say you've been
Flanigramed.

I am waiting with bated breath
for my Flanigram,

and that's not a quote.
But I said something like that.

I've never seen somebody that
just can make anything happen.

Everybody says when you work
on Disney property,

you're creating magic
for the guests.

For Billy that doesn't stop
on Disney property.

That's just his way of life.

[Amy]
We don't have to have bells and whistles

and a stage or anything
like that to do what we do.

There wasn't a whole lot
of reasons to smile

over the last five
or six months and...

I don't know. Billy just said,
"You know what? Here, have some of mine."

Billy Flanigan driving up
in his Superman T-shirt

that should be worn
by a 16-year-old,

but it's being worn
by a 60-year-old.

But he shows up
and for three minutes, does what we expect of Billy

but what we know he loves doing,
and we're the ones that benefit from it.

He called me and he said,
"What are you doing?"

And I said, "I'm working"
He said, "Well, I'm here, come outside."

It's certainly fun
to get the ding-dong ring.

You know he's riding a bike,
you know, something most of us all know how to do.

You know,
he's just riding his bike.

Here he is, standing
there with his bicycle.

And you're like,
"wait a second. You live, you live way up there."

He is doing something
so very simple,

and it's making
so many people happy.

I'm sitting alone in my house,
working, staring at the computer

and this just made my day
to see that face.

Then I told him to shave.
[chuckles]

When he had that taken away,
and then he still was able to

lace up his shoes
and then find a way to perform on people's doorsteps.

It's like, I'm sitting here
crying about "I don't have a stage," you know,

and he has created a stage.

I mean, absolutely
that is inspiring for all of us because it makes you realize,

"Oh, maybe there is something
else I can do here that's a little more creative."

Uh, it doesn't involve a stage
of Disney World,

but the opportunities are there.

[singing]

[reporter]
Billy Flanagan spreading love one smile at a time.

Isn't that just the Disney way?

Yeah, the Flanigrams may not be

with lights, and makeup,
and music or anything like that,

but to him...

...it's a necessity.

[calm music]

[Billy]
I went from a very small town in Avon

where performing
was not cool at all,

To go to the Boston Conservatory
where all of these people that actually went to the school

were not ashamed
of being performers

or anything that
I learned being from Avon,

to be kind of ashamed of that.

I met my first male homosexual.

You know, who was outed,
you know, at that time.

So,

it was a bit freeing to be there

and very intimidating because
my talent was not developed

like all of these
other people's talents were.

So, my friend Eileen,
who was like my sister,

we ended up living together
in a studio apartment

on, in bunk beds.
I slept on the top. She slept on the bottom.

He did the cleaning
and I did the cooking and, um,

and I, I remember I used
to get mad because, like, he's a total neatnik,

He's super disciplined,
you know.

We fought like siblings.

We fought like cats and dogs.

There were times she would call
me a compulsive liar

because I was sent
to the grocery store

to get whole peeled tomatoes,
and I said they didn't have any.

What? There is no such thing
as a supermarket

without whole peeled food,
and I'm like...

"You're a compulsive liar!"

To this day,
we still laugh about that, that you're a compulsive liar.

[Billy]
Yeah, we fought like brother and sister.

When my sister was in college,

she used to go see a group
called the Great Pretenders,

and they were a lip sync crew,

and they did lip sync to

'60s and '50s songs,

and for a college town, all
the college girls loved them.

They were four guys,
they were handsome,

and my sister had given
them some ideas and said,

"You know, you guys should have
some girls in your--

You know, add a girl
to your group."

And she gave them
all these song ideas.

And she said,
"I would love to do it."

Well, they took all of her ideas
and hired somebody else.

She was devastated.

So her revenge was

to come up with a girl version
of the Great Pretenders.

We were the Copy Kittens
and he was & Company.

The name of the group was
the Copy Kittens & Company.

Three Flanigan girls,
Eileen McQuaid, a neighbor, and Billy.

♪ Super Flanigan
Super Gail ♪

♪ Super Mary and Super Karen ♪

♪ We're the guys
who love to sing ♪

She went to every place
that the Great Pretenders used to play

and got us into
all these places.

Well, ma-- guys drink more
than girls do, apparently.

So we had more guys
coming to watch our show

because there were
girls performing.

So we were getting the jobs
over the Great Pretenders.

He choreographed
all of the shows.

So many costume changes.
So much fun.

My dad was doing
a community theater show

and Karen,
she was a dancer in the show,

And he just thought
she was adorable.

His dad that I call Pops.

He was-- I just loved him...

His dad, he was just my, uh...

[chuckles] He was, he was
just like my own father.

He said, "You know, my kids have
this group and they're looking for somebody.

You should go
audition for them."

So I did.
First time ever lip syncing

but they hired me,
and so that's more

basically how we really
got to know each other more.

We were flirting a lot.
A lot, a lot.

I chased him. [laughs]

I used to say to my sisters,
"Okay, I'm scared because

we're flirting a lot.
If you ever don't see me and you don't see Karen,

come find us because
something's happening."

He used to get mad and
he would be like, you know, "Get her away from me."

I was actually engaged
to somebody else. [laughs]

I started fe-- having
these feelings for Karen,

like I'd never felt
for anybody else,

but she was engaged
to somebody else.

[Karen]
Whereas that person that I was engaged to

didn't really like the fact
that I was in nightclubs and doing all that.

I, I wanted to do what I wanted
to do that made me happy.

So, and being around
all of them,

the Flanigans made me
extremely happy.

And then, you know,
all of a sudden we just, we connected. [laughs]

So, she ended up breaking up
with her boyfriend and, um...

And the two of us became
the two of us.

The rest was history after that.

[Eileen]
I've never had so much fun

because I was
with all my friends.

We got into US magazine.

We opened
for Rodney Dangerfield.

We played all the best,
most fun clubs in the '80s, you know?

And you did it all
with your best friends, doing something that was like

completely hilarious and fun.

[Billy]
Yeah, then that ended up putting me through college,

and it kind of took me
out of a lot of productions that I could do because,

we'd always work
on the weekends,

and the shows were running
on the weekends. So it was like,

"Well, I can't audition
for that because I have a Copy Kitten show and...

That being said,

I'm glad that I did have to
do that because I feel like

I earned it.
I earned everything that I got

by doing it myself and not
having my parents pay for it.

I had a teacher in college,

uh, an acting teacher,
my sophomore year,

who told me to give up
on the business.

He said, "You're never going
to make it in this business.

I'm just telling you that."

I mean, what do you do
with that?

You either leave,
or you continue on and try to prove him wrong.

How did I meet Billy Flanigan?
Let me think.

I think it goes back
about 40 years.

I went to my Shakespeare class
and I was the only one in there.

And the teacher's like,
"I'm surprised you're here.

Why aren't you
at the Disney audition?

Go get some music and
go to the audition.

It's right at Copley Plaza."

And we did audition tours

and traveled around the country
looking for talent

as we were about to start
growing our entertainment business

with new theme parks
and new shows,

we needed more talent.

Auditioned, sang,

the three ladies at the desk
when I started to sing,

they weren't
paying attention to me.

It was one
of those things, like,

"I'm here.
I really don't care, anyway.

Because I've got Copy Kittens.
What do I need this for?"

So I started singing
"All I Care About."

♪ I don't care about
Expensive things ♪

♪ Cashmere coats ♪
And I walked up to the table and I went

♪ Diamond rings ♪

And I threw my fingers under
their eyes, and they all went...

and looked up at me, and they
started smiling and I backed up

and winked,
and smiled, and sang. And then they called me back,

and I ended up being
one of six people left at the end of the night.

And there was just something
about him that was so

genuine and original and...

fun and Disney. I mean, I--
You look for people who are just as nice backstage

as they can be on stage
when we want to hire people.

And Billy certainly fell
into that category.

And I had an answering machine
at my apartment at home.

"There's going to be a message
on the machine."

So I went home and I listened
to my messages and there was no message from Disney.

In the meanwhile, I had been
hired for Busch Gardens,

and I had my contract
and I had to send it in.

I was so depressed.
And I, like, "Well, at least I have Busch Gardens."

So I'm going to go there,
and I signed the contract

and I put it in the envelope,
and as I was getting ready to leave to go mail the contract,

the phone rang
and it was Rich Taylor,

offering me the job at Disney.

He seemed very polished
for his age,

and we just thought,

uh, I think he's one to keep.

The kittens will have
to come another day, but we can take Billy.

So, I ripped up that other
contract. It was awesome.

[adventurous music]

People in Texas and in Arizona
and California were saying, "Oh, gosh,

if you ever make your way out
this far, come see me."

And when I had the opportunity
to drive my friend's car out to California,

my friend Vanessa Ray, she plays
Eddie Janko on Blue Blood,

and she was one
of our original Nemos in Finding Nemo The Musical.

My whole thing was,
"I'll do it if I can put my bike on the back of, of your car."

So I went from Orlando

and I drove through
the panhandles to one person in Pensacola.

[Kriss]
You are not on your bike.

Right now, like, 700 miles
on interstate 10,

and obviously, he wasn't.

But, uh, he did have the bike
on the back of the car,

and he actually came
and surprised me in Pensacola,

and gave me the Flanigram
at 11 p.m. at night

after driving nine hours.

[Paul]
I didn't mean for him to take the time,

but I just was teasing him

that I was seeing
all of these Flanigrams

that my fellow performers
in Orlando were receiving.

Just joking that, uh,
I was expecting mine and patiently waiting.

But I did know for sure,
maybe after about a week of teasing, I thought,

"Paul, he's going to show up.
He's going to show up

because you're,
you're giving him the bait and you know Billy."

When I got close to his house,

I saw that he lived, like,
I'm looking at a hill,

- A very steep hill.
- Literally, it was like straight up.

I have never seen a hill
like this and I said, "I will not walk my bike.

I will make sure I ride it,"
and sure enough, I got up there

and what the funny thing was is

I'm looking trying to figure out
which house might be his.

You know how some people will
have fake deer and they're just placed all so perfectly.

That's exactly what it was.
These deer, where one was standing, one was sitting.

One was over there, like,
eating. And I thought,

"Wow, those look so real."

And then I hear

his voice in the background.

[Paul]
What is that? What is that?

And then the deer started
scattering

and I'm like,
"My gosh, they're real."

- [woman laughing]
- [Paul] Who is that?

[woman]

He's plugging along and
we're up on the top of the hill,

like screaming and yelling
and clapping, and he's like,

"You didn't tell me
you lived on a hill."

You never told me
you lived on a--

[laughing]

It was really exhausting

trying to get through that song
because I was so out of breath,

and at that moment
I thought I was going to die.

♪ Hello ♪

♪ It's your Flanigram ♪

♪ Your Billy Flanigram ♪

[Paul]
But when I saw him, bicycling up

the very steep hill
to my parent's home.

I did get emotional. I felt
the tears. I felt the love.

♪ ...your smiles
Padilla family ♪

[Paul]
The fact that Billy Flanigan took the time

to come to Texas and Flanigram

me and my family,

uh, truly was an amazing thing
for him to do.

It's a hard hill.

- [all laughing]
- [man hoots]

[man]
We love you, Billy.

[whimsical music]

[Donn]
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,

welcome to
Billy Flanigan's experience.

It was amazing.

[cheering]

I was a Kid at the kingdom,
that's what they called us.

They had two groups
of Kids at the Kingdom.

It was Kids of the Kingdom
and Showtime Singers.

The Showtime Singers was
the touring group,

because Disney was celebrating
their tenth anniversary

and the group that was in
ended up not touring at all

because it was sort of toward
the end of the ten centennial celebration.

But Epcot was opening
on October 1st, 1982.

So we were there on opening day.

We actually were on the clock
for two weeks straight.

We would rehearse
every single day,

do all-nighters. Sometimes
we never came off the clock.

[Billy]
They would put cots in the entertainment offices

and in the rehearsal rooms
for us to sleep in for a couple of hours

because we were rehearsing
out in front of Spaceship Earth,

and then we would have to go
over to the Magic Kingdom and do our shows,

and then we would go back
over to Epcot to rehearse what we were doing.

And then we'd rehearse
in front of the Spaceship Earth at night.

[Rich]
It was a huge entertainment project.

You put on a brand new show,

and open a brand new parade,

and do a brand new fireworks,

that all opened on the same day

was pretty adventuresome.

[Billy]
So it was two weeks of just

nonstop being on the clock.

So much overtime
helped me pay off

a lot of my college debt,
let me tell you.

And then I ended up
getting married in 1983.

And Karen had auditioned.

Well, just as they were
hiring Karen, she found out she was pregnant.

- March 26th, 1984.
- [man coughs]

"Dear Diary,

It's a boy."

[audience laughs]

"What the hell am I going
to do with a boy?"

[audience laughs]

"Oh, I pray
he doesn't like sports."

He worked 24/7 at times,
which was very difficult.

That's where I was like

being the mom, you know,
he took care of everything.

[Billy] In the meantime,
they had trained me to sub over at a show

called The Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue
as a character called Johnny Ringo.

I know Ryan and I used
to spend countless nights at Hoop-Dee-Doo,

when shows would run until,
until midnight, and we were sleeping on the second floor.

Sometimes we got to go out
and sit out and actually watch the show.

They would feed us, you know,
because growing boys, we had to eat.

When it came time
for contract renewals,

all the other jobs were
already filled.

So they said,
"We have nothing for you."

You know, and that's
a year-to-year contract. It's not like,

you know, you've got a job
for life when you get hired as an actor there.

You're on an equity contract,

just like if you were
in any equity

or Broadway theater tour.

You know,
it's for a certain term at Disney, a year.

You don't know you're going
to have a contract at the end of that year.

"Oh, my gosh, I just had a kid.

And now I'm going
to lose insurance. What am I going to do?"

So we were planning
on moving back to Boston

and I'd-- we'd go back
into the Copy Ki-- You know, I was going to--

Totally taking step backwards,
'cause now I had a family.

It, it was either
"Well, congratulations.

We have a contract for you
we'd like to offer."

Then you have to negotiate that,

but for a lot of people,
including me, ultimately, in 2016,

uh, "I'm sorry we don't have
a contract for you."

One of the people that got hired

for Hoop-Dee-Doodidn't pass
his physical.

So they called
and they offered me

a three-day position
at Hoop-Dee-Doo.

So a friend of mine called
and said, "Hey, congratulations.

I heard you get called."
And I said,

"Yeah." I said,
"I had to turn it down

because it was only three days
and no benefits,

and I have my son now."

And she called
the director of Hoop-Dee-Doo,

and like, ten minutes later,
Disney called back again and said,

"Take the three-day contract
and you'll just go get a fourth day somewhere

and we'll just, you know,
teach you stuff.

Just go wherever you want
on that fourth day."

And then I started just
learning everything.

I worked hard and

became somebody who would
learn things fast.

So that I would always be, um,

the one that they would turn to.

It was just consistent. We were
consistently working there,

and you grow so much
by doing that.

And once you're in with Disney,
and you're disciplined,

and you show up,
and you're kind to other people.

Nobody was just stuck
in one show.

[Billy]
And I ended up working now

seven days a week,
sometimes double shifts.

It became my life.

[Karen]
There's times, and, you know, years

that you'd go, "I don't know.
I have a husband?"

Then Karen got pregnant again.
She's home with two kids in diapers,

and I'm working seven days
a week from early morning until late at night,

July 14th, 1985.

- "Dear Diary,
my second son was born today." - [woman laughs]

"The doctor said if we
keep it up, we might have our own basketball team."

[audience laughs]

The whole year,

I only had six days off,

for the, the entire year,

And I was loving
what I was doing.

But I totally became
a workaholic.

July 29th, 1989.

"Dear Diary. You guessed it.
Boy number three.

[audience laughs]

"Getting used to this boy stuff.
Not bad.

I bought them all microphones
with the dance lights on the stands."

- [audience laughs]
- "I got this."

[Ryan]
Uh, we would actually pick the stand up

and start swinging it
like a baseball bat.

"No. What are you doing?

Those are microphones.
What? Are you kidding me?"

You know,
none of our friends had kids.

You know, everyone was
so focused on their careers.

And here we are with a family,
and it all happened so fast

and it was just crazy.

[audience laughs]

February 23rd, 1991.

"Dear Diary, I took my boys
to the playground today

- and there was a Little League
team rehearsing on the field." - [audience laughs]

Dad. No, it's tryouts,
like, this is sports, it's a little bit different.

It was pretty funny how the
verbiage would get mixed up.

And we would always
make fun of him.

The coaches would say,
"Hey, Flanigan, do you think

your dad could come out and
help coach?" And they would just laugh.

"No, no, no.
He'll sing the national anthem."

We'd would be at a baseball game
and Dad's doing choreography behind home plate.

I would be at the games,
and then I'd be behind

the bleachers with headsets in

choreographing
for another job that I had.

You know,
when everybody's cheering,

he's dancing and singing
back there.

We were just like, "Oh, God,
here goes dad again." Or...

He wanted to make us, you know,
the Backstreet Boys, the NSYNC.

You know, the three brothers
that kind of go out there and

take over the world,
but it didn't happen.

They found ESPN on TV
and they were just watching all these sports things

and they never went back.
And I thought, "What did I do wrong?"

You know, Pop wanted football,
all the cheerleader's competition time.

"Where's your mom and dad?
You know, we need new routines and this and that."

So I found my niche
in what they were doing to try to be as involved as I could.

You know what?
The fact he was there, that, that made a difference.

[chuckles]
So, even if he didn't know

what was going on or paying
attention, we didn't care.

June 8th, 1999.

"Dear Diary,

today my wife gave birth
to a girl.

- I have a girl."
- [audience cheers]

"My voice then, 'What are
we going to do with the girl?' I said,

[in evil voice]
'Stay away from her. She's mine.'"

[Billy]
Everything is rose...

[Karen]
She's not very fragile.

- No, she's--
- [Billy] No, she's a bigot.

- You should have seen--
- [Lexi] I've been dancing since I was like three or four.

I don't know. I feel like,
I was just kind of born into it,

like they put me
in dance classes

and I've loved it ever since.

So, I was taking swimming
lessons for a little bit

and the coach is trying to
get me on the swim team,

and then they're like,
"You'd have to quit dance."

And I was like, "Oh, no, sorry,
I, I can't give it up."

In my mom and dad's brain,
they were like, "Oh, well, it's going to cost more money,

but if this is
what she wants to do."

That's why they're
so supportive of me

because I'm the only one
they have left.

I hope I'm his favorite
since I'm his only performer.

[applause and cheer]

[unintelligible]

He would always show me
the Barbie Birthdayvideotape,

and I'd always want to watch it

because either we were watching
that or we were watching The Wizard of Oz.

- There's no in between.
- [all] Happy Birthday, Barbie.

I remember sitting down
with my high school girlfriend and her mom,

and we were looking at photos,

and they come across
pictures of Disney.

They were at the Ken
and Barbie show.

She gets called up on stage,
and I'm like,

"Do you realize
who you're standing next to?"

And she's like,
"Yeah, that's Ken."

And I go,
"Well, you're dating Ken's son."

Billy was the co-star
of my very first show, a professional show.

I was Barbie
in The Magical World of Barbie, and he was my Ken.

Started in 1993,
we opened on Thanksgiving Day,

and we closed the day after
Thanksgiving

because Mattel and Disney didn't
like what they saw. So, then

we went into rewrites,
and we did thirty different shows over thirty days.

and reopened on Christmas Day.

It was an insane time for us.

And because I'm not a dancer,
I would go through

all eight hours of rehearsal,

and then I'd have another
four hours of just choreography every single day.

It wasn't the
Barbie and Ken Show. It was the Barbie Show,

and there were times
when he really...

I could tell it was
kind of bothering him

and I, I tried very hard as
Barbie to give him center stage.

[Sterling]
Billy Flanagan has

a really strong commitment
to being on center.

When you're on stage, you've got
what we consider stage right,

And we reconsider stage left
and then on center.

And by on center, I mean
center stage all the time.

"Oh, is this where
I'm going to be?"

And he's always pointing
downstage center.

Gravitationally, his body

just pulls to being on center.

I swear to goodness,
if any other actor said that you would be so offended,

you'd be like,
"Ah! Who does he think he is?"

Enjoys being center stage.

He's never, you know,
tried to hide that.

That's where old Billy
is always is.

He's always downstage center
because he is like the quintessential leading man.

Billy's the leading man,

You know, he's a gorgeous,
tall, blond-haired guy.

Billy's great and Billy will
tell you how great he is.

That's sort of an infamous story
at this point where on the first day of rehearsal...

...apparently, they asked
for all the principal performers to stand up.

Well, the proof-- principal
performers at Nemo are

Nemo and Marlin and Dory.

He realized after he stood up

that they didn't actually
apply to him.

You're not Nemo, Marlin, or
Dori. And he was like, "But--"

He just kind of stood there and
looked around, and he kind of noticed. "Wait a minute."

"But I'm the star. I'm, I'm
always, I'm always the star."

Everybody's like, "That's Billy.
He's a legend here."

You'll learn a little bit to
give and take and share a little bit of the stage

with the "principle performers."

- [whimsical music]
- Touché.

And you don't know
if he's being serious

or this is just kitchy.

They usually put
the tall in the center and the littles on the out.

But every once in a while
they would switch and the littles in the middle

and the talls to go out
just to switch things up.

And if Billy was on one of
the platforms, way to the right or of way to the left,

he'd look around and go,
"I'm feeling dizzy right now."

Or if there was another
tall gentleman like Billy, he would have to split center.

"Can you move me a little
bit more to the center?"

And the joke was, "Oh, no."

That he gets a nosebleed,
if he's not on center.

Can't move him off his center,
his nose will start to bleed.

He also is very giving
as far as shining the light on other people

and accentuating all their
strength at the same time

as him being like, mister, you
know, center of attention too.

He was always born
to be on stage,

and he loves it to the soul

of his absolute down to the
tippy-tippy toes of his feet

And he shares his talent
with the world freely, and I love that about him.

♪ I be ♪

♪ Now, don't be that surprised ♪

♪ 'Cause out of all
Those other guys ♪

♪ Oh, you picked ♪

[exhales sharply]

♪ Me ♪

[audience laughs and applauds]

"Dear Diary,

I lived a very
extraordinary life.

I have it all. A great wife.

Great kids.
Great job. Amazing home.

But things are starting
to feel different.

I met someone.

Who's just like me.

Amazing home.

Wife, kids...

But our stories are
so much the same

that it felt
like it was no longer fair to the people we love...

...not to know
who we really are.

I used to get this all the time

when people would say, "Oh, uh
oh-- Well, Billy's married."

And they'd go, "To a woman?"

Am I like, "Yeah.

Of course, to a woman.
What do you mean?"

"You have kids?"

[stutters] Because I'm like,

"Yes, am I, am I that

obvious?"

You know, like,
"What am I doing that is,

you know, making me
seem so un-straight?"

In school, whenever my dad would
come in like choreograph stuff

so some people would come up
to me and would be like, "Is your dad gay?"

And I'm like, "No,
I have a mom, like,

my parents are together."
And they're like, "Oh, okay,

I just thought..." and I was
like, "No, it's okay."

Like, I get the--
I got the question a lot.

Growing up, you see
this beautiful relationship with your parents,

you would never think
second of it.

You'd have never questioned it.
Um, if anything,

you, you idol it, you wanted
to be just like them.

I couldn't imagine
what he's going through, right?

It, it, it, it couldn't
have been easy.

Um, any decision
you make, right,

and you're, you're always going
to second guess yourself.

"Was it the right thing?
Was it the wrong thing?" No one's ever going to know.

Ultimately, there was one point,
I came back

and they kind of explained,
you know, what was going on.

Not into detail. And then, uh,

later on, when everything
did happen, I remember my dad took me out to dinner.

My dad was driving me home
from dance, he's like,

"We're going to need
to have a family meeting."

And in my head, always like,

"What if my dad is gay?"
[chuckles]

So there must have just been
something about me.

You know, being tall, skinny,
blonde, singer, dancer. "You're gay."

But, you know, looking back
on a lot of it too, I'm like,

"I get it."

I was so engaged in my work.

And then when I was home, I was
so engaged in my new family.

All of that...

...knowledge and everything
just made me, made me believe that I was cured.

That's-- that-- that's what
I kept thinking.

I'd found a woman,
that I fell in love with. I was comfortable with,

you know, we had
a fantastic love life.

So there was no question
in my mind that

I finally found what
I was supposed to be.

I felt like,
I felt like everybody else.

If I ever caught myself having
different feelings,

like, if I met somebody
and I thought...

You convince yourself
that it's not a crush

or it's not any sexual
kind of feelings.

It's more of a...

"Oh, I'd really like
to be friends with them."

Or "I find that person
very intriguing."

You know, it's, it's always
something else.

It's never anything but that.

And especially with
my religious upbringing

and my family
and my siblings and,

and just that desperate need
to be normal,

it all worked. You know, It
wasn't until I was about 45

that I started having

odd feelings like...

[clicks tongue]

...something's not right.

You know, so it took that long

before stuff
like that kicked in,

or before I allowed
stuff like that to kick in.

I remember that point
in my life, like, "Gosh,

maybe I'm really living
the wrong life."

And, uh...

I had met somebody who

was paying attention to me,
and very complimentary and very, um...

It wasn't weird.

It wasn't, it wasn't weird.

I knew right away that
I had a crush on him.

I became his friend.

He was married, had kids,

and I thought, "Wow, you know,
I can have this friend who has a wife

and kids and, you know,
Karen and I would go out with them and..."

Karen never really took
to them at all. She, um...

I think she just had suspicions
that something was going on

more beyond this friendship.

So we talked a lot about..

...being closeted and, you know,
wanting so desperately to be normal

and have that life
with the wife and the kids and,

and living the lives
that we lived.

And he was the first person
I ever felt like understood

Why I got married,
had kids and was-- had a family.

I was so devoted and devout and,
and just couldn't imagine myself

breaking my vows that I just
wouldn't let it happen.

So I continued to kind of...

...have the feelings
but live without.

Until I didn't.

And then that's when it,

you know, that's
when it all got bad.

My dad ended up moving out
and I lived with my mom for the rest of high school.

Which, it was hard because
my whole life I had lived with both of them.

You can say, a complete shock
in the sense of like, of course,

he's been with my mom
for so long, you know,

we, we grew up through
the years of him saying how much he loves her.

When it happened, my father
was setting up a meeting with all the kids to

tell us that, uh,
you know, he was,

he was coming out
and, uh, he was gay.

But, you know, when he comes out

and he tells us this,
and you think back upon it,

does it make
a little sense? Yeah.

Uh, he explained the situation.

Explained to me what was
going on, and you know what?

I'm not a person
to judge anybody.

I'm not a big judge person.
You know, I just kind of go with the flow.

People got to do what they got
to do to make themselves happy

or, you know, move on.

It was, it was hard.

It was really,
really hard to see, um...

...to see my mom that way.

[sniffs]

Sorry.

Um...

Because, yeah, she was,
she was broken.

Her, her whole world
was turned upside down.

It, it had appeared
as though my life moved on,

and she was stuck home alone.

And it was really...

...horribly hard on her
and on Lexi too,

because Lexie would just

hear her crying
in the shower or, um,

[clicks tongue]

You know,
Karen would sleep all day

and, you know,
it was a horrible depression.

But she didn't want to get help
because she had said-- I said, you know, "Please get help."

And she didn't want to.
She said, "Because they're going to try to convince me

not to hate you and
I need to hate you."

And then, you know, you know,
if you're out and about, people would say,

"Hey, I'm so proud of you"
or, you know, "Good for you."

"You're, you know...
Are you happy?"

And the answer could always...

I had a smile on my face,
but I'm like, "Well, it's hard to be happy

when you know you've hurt
somebody so bad."

You know, I remember one man
who went through the same situation said

that his wife said, you know,
"You've got a party waiting for you.

You know all these people
who are waiting to celebrate you

and welcome you
into this new world.

And I'm alone."

And I knew that Karen was alone.

Um, my boys were all out,
married and,

and Lexi was home and danced
for six hours a night.

And so she was, she was alone.

I remember
After this happened, um,

I took my daughter to New York
and we saw the show If/Thenwith Idina Menzel

and I said, "If the tickets are
more than a hundred dollars, we're not going."

And she goes, I only have
three seats left and there were three of us,

my daughter's friend,
and she goes there all hundred fifty each.

And I'm like, "Lexi,
I can't do it. It's too much."

And the disappointment on
Lexi's face because she just wanted to see Idina Menzel,

and we're walking away
and the woman said,

"Come on back. I'll give it
to you for a hundred bucks."

It was meant for us to see
the show because it,

it changed so much

for me because the show is about
making a decision in your life.

And you-- She lives both ways.
You see the, the play.

If I answer this phone call,

this is going to happen.
If I don't answer it,

this is going to happen
and it plays both sides.

And it just goes to show you
that one decision you make in your life,

how it could change everything.

I mean this,
as simple as this phone call.

And there was a song in there,

where something happens
at the end of the show to her,

and she ends up wanting
to hate her husband.

and a friend pulls her aside,

and sings
this beautiful song about

"If you knew...

what was going to happen,

would you have not wanted
to experience...

- ...all of the good?"
- [sobs]

"All of the good
that led to that bad."

I wouldn't have wanted to give
any of that up.

So I wouldn't have
changed a thing.

I would have possibly
pushed back the timing of coming out

for Lexi's sake.

But other than that,

everything was just too good
not to have relived it.

[indistinct chatter]

[mellow music]

[kid]
Happy birthday, we love you.

That's daddy. And that's--
Give daddy a kiss.

My granddaughter was making her
first communion.

And I just text Karen
and I just said,

"I found
some really cheap flights

to go to Chicago.
Would you like to come with me?"

"Let me, I'll let you know"
and she finally did come.

You know, she decided to go.
I bought the tickets and

I rented a car, and we had
this hour and a half drive to my son's house.

and it was very, um, awkward.

And we talked a lot
about the past.

Nothing about the gay stuff.

It was just all about our kids
growing up, and,

you know, Karen would do
some silly things

that she used to do
when we were married and I'd make fun of her like,

you know, so our relationship

that weekend became more
like it used to be,

and after that, we started to,

"Hey, I'm having a dinner on
Sunday" and the family started coming over again and

I think it was good
for my kids to see us get along,

and I, we had
that conversation about

it's time.

I think it just came to a point
where, "You know what?

It just-- let's just move on
and, you know,

have fun with our family
when we can, you know."

We were able to celebrate
Christmas together, which was great.

And then Corona happened.

And I say, you know,
one of the best things that's come out of this

is just how close Karen
and I have become.

Because she was the only one
we'd let in the house.

And she'd come over
and she'd work out.

Lexi and I and
our little gym here and

then she'd stay for movies
and stay for dinner

and a couple of nights
she slept over.

In, in a separate room.

And I used to-- I would joke
to her and say,

"Oh, come on, come sleep
in your old bed." She goes,

[mimics Karen]
"I'm not going to do that. Oh, my God."

And so it was just cute
and silly and funny,

and I think 21 year-old Lexie

became 14 year-old Lexi,

and got to live
a few months of us doing that,

It was good for her to see
the two of us get along and be happy.

I feel like it goes both ways.
like, I feel like sometimes he regrets it because of,

like, the years that
we all weren't, like, a cohesive family.

But I feel like now
he's okay, better.

He's always taught us
growing up, do whatever it takes to make sure

your family is taken care of,

but you're happy
at the same time.

If anybody has that
little restraint on them as their living,

it just makes it that much
harder to live.

So when he told me I gave him
the same advice

Dad you got to do what you need
to do that makes you happy.

If this is something
that has been

bothering you
for a very long time

and this is something
you need to do

because it's going to
make you happy,

then you've got to do it.

And now he's finally free
to, to be himself truly a hundred percent.

Like, who would imagine
Billy Flannigan wasn't himself for so long?

That's crazy, right?
He was so happy. He brought so much joy to people.

But to think he was holding
something back for so long

just means that he could have
been that much happier.

Every action has a reaction.

It's just what, what reaction
are you going to show.

And if you do the right things,
we're still going to love you.

You know, we still do love.

You know, the one promise
I made him make me

was take care of Mom.

You know, it just shows that

uh, there's growing. Everybody's
growing, moving forward,

trying to, you know,
push the, put the past away and move towards the future.

For having such a big heart

and everything
and being able to...

...overcome everything and...

...seeing they now have
the friendship that they do is, it's amazing.

They get along with each other,
they talk to each other they eat with each other.

They still hang out
with their kids together, Christmas together.

You know, they do a lot
of things together,

which is not great
just for them,

but for the family
dynamics as well.

I knew time would change

and just I knew my mom
just needed time,

and so it's kind of like,
nothing ever changed,

just my mom doesn't live here.

She, she's a rock star,
you know, for having to

deal with not just us
three boys, but you know,

she took care of my father.
She, she, she did it.

Every life has its obstacles,
and this one just happened to be ours.

[guitar solo]

1992, I gave birth to the first
of my five children, whose name was Chloe.

When Chloe was about
five or six,

she asked for a wish through
the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

And when they came to the house
to ask her what she wanted,

she said she wanted to go
to Walt Disney World,

and ride on the float like
Mi-- Michelle Tanner from Full House,

which was her favorite TV show.

And we ended up in
Animal Kingdom one day

and, uh, made our way
to the Theater in the Wild

to watch the show
called Tarzan Rocks!

Music in our family is the way
that we communicated with each other

for a very, very long time.

Um, you know, Doctors said
Chloe wasn't going to be able to speak.

So, we used music to practice
words to communicate.

Saw this little girl
down in a wheelchair, it was a purple wheelchair,

which caught my eye.
She had purple on.

The music,
when we started singing,

and she was moving
in such a way.

And the way her parents were
reacting at her reaction...

You know, you just read all
of that while you're performing.

So I kept thinking,

I have got to reach out
to her in some way.

So, once I got to the reprise,
I'm supposed to go up and around

the ramp with the girls
and then come back down the ramp,

and I immediately bolted
as soon as I started singing.

[Marie] All of a sudden
he was just standing right in front of Chloe.

[cheering]

[indistinct singing]

But he just very gently
kissed her on the tip of her nose and left.

And then the show ended,

and I just thought,
"Well, that was

incredibly magical."

We had this amazing connection

and I just gave her
a cute little kiss on the nose and then had to run up,

and I thought, "I'm going
to get in so much trouble

because I just broke every
rule in the book."

[singing continues]

She was kind of imploring me
to, to write to him, to find him somehow.

And I'm like, "Chloe,
what am I going to do? Write a random letter?"

A little bit later, we were
having a company picnic

and they brought everybody
together, and they--

One of the stage managers said,

"Well, we've got
a guest letter."

Well, I wrote a random letter
that said,

"Disney's Animal Kingdom,
Tarzan Rocks!Billy,

Kissimmee Florida,"
and whatever the ZIP code was,

and I wrote a letter about how

one single moment
of making magic

can change the life
of another person,

and I said, "I don't know
what to do with this

because this child,
since the day we got home,

has talked about this man
every single day,

and I don't even know
who he is."

So they rewarded me
with this Mousecar.

I had never even heard
of them when I got it.

But it says, um,

"Billy Flanigan,
for all your magic

and the memorable moments
you create.

Thank you, Tarzan Rocks!"

Disney's Animal Kingdom.
So, um...

I wanted to let this woman know

what had happened
because of her kind letter.

So I asked for the envelope
for the letter and she had a return address there.

We received a package
from Billy Flanigan,

July three, it happens to be
Chloe's birthday.

So, he-- their connectivity is
pretty, pretty serious.

He was really encompassing
what it means to be

a Disney person by recognizing,

"My impact is going to be
about this family,

is going to be
about their connectivity to one another,

and their connectivity
to this place."

She kept going and going,
and this went on for six years.

and the year the Tarzan Rocks!
closed, we closed in February.

Chloe died in May.

Her freedom came when she was
with somebody who says,

"I'm just going to sit
next to you and love you because you're you."

You know? "I'm just going to,
from the stage,

make sure you know I'm watching
you because I love you."

And the fact that
he came to her in song

was something universal
and the, the power of his voice.

was something that he knew
how to use,

to change other people's lives.

[Marie]
It was like they were like kind

not talking about it,
you know?[chuckles]

Like, we both feel this
inside our hearts,

and we don't need to use words.

We can just sit
next to one another,

and, and get this.

Even through this whole
Flanigram thing, I always say, you know,

I'm, I'm praying that I get
to go back to work.

And I just say, "Just take me
where I'm supposed to go today

to make a difference
in someone's life."

[Liv]
I was heartbroken.

Rands-- we, we don t like being
apart for a very long time,

so it was hard for me to
not be around my family.

My connection with the Rand
family is so incredible,

because when I was in L.A.

I made a point to contact Marie

and ask her for Liv's address.

And she said I will arrange
for her to be in Anaheim on that day.

[Liv]
I get in the car, I'm hanging out with my friends

doing the normal thing
during the pandemic,

which is wearing your mask
and avoiding other people.

I thought nothing,
nothing was different

from just seeing
my little bubble of humans.

My friend, she said to me,
"Will you take a picture of me with my mask?

"A friend of mine made my mask.
So will you take a picture so I can send it to them?"

And I said,
"Oh, sure, like, no problem."

You know, have the camera out,
ready to go and just focused on getting the picture of her,

and I said, "Hold on,
I can't get it to, I can't get it to focus."

And she says, "Oh, well,
maybe he can help."

And I didn't really know
what she was talking about,

and then I heard his voice
from behind me.

And I know that voice.
You know, that's not-- [chuckles]

I, I know that voice like

you know your favorite song.

- ♪ Your Billy Flanigram
Your Billy Flanigram ♪ - [Liv screams in joy]

♪ Hey, I'm here to say hello ♪

♪ Hello!
It's your Flanigram ♪

♪ Your Billy Flanigram ♪

[sobbing]

[Live]
I was in awe

to the point where I,
I fell to the ground

and I started to cry and

he was there with his bike
and his song.

Sat on the ground and was like,
"Why are you here?"

- [sobbing] Why are you here?
- [people laughing]

- Your friend. Who's, who's
Aaron? God bless you. - [woman chuckles]

I'm down in Irvine. I'm out of
Irvine. I'm going back to Anaheim.

[Liv]
It again reminded me that...

...this is a person who has
always been there.

You know, this isn't my mom
or my brother,

but this is a person who has
always been there.

Who has showed up for me

every single time

something important has
happened.

And it wasn't until way after

that I had found out that
her grandfather was dying,

and that she couldn't get home
to go see him.

I didn't know that. I thought
I was going to go see

Liv in California
and surprise her and be happy.

He is like a fairy godfather.

It's, it's...

That, that's all
I can explain, like,

someone magical who just
always comes

when they need to be there.

So when stuff like that happens,

you just kind of be like,
"This is where I was supposed to be."

And that's why I always say,
I, I, I assume my little prayer in the morning saying,

"Take me where
I need to go today," you know.

I was across the country,

and I couldn't get to anybody
that I loved.

But somebody who I love
got to me.

I'm so sorry. I sound like
I've been crying. I have been.

How I could be
the happiest man on Earth

and just cry for hours?

Hang on one second.

Where are,
what are you guys doing?

Can I have,
can we hang on one second?

- [cameraman] Sure.
- Yeah.

[reporter 1]
The Walt Disney Company announced today

they would be laying off
more than 720 performers.

[reporter 2] So many of these
Disney cast members went from being furloughed

to officially separated from
the Walt Disney World Company.

[reporter 3]
The Walt Disney Company announced today that

they will be laying off
more than 720 performers.

[reporter 4] The actors union
confirmed that Disney has now laid off more than 90 percent

of performers
across their resorts.

[reporter 5]
Actors, singers, and dancers

behind such iconic shows like

Festival of the Lion King
andFinding Nemo, The Musical.

[reporter 6]
Cast members are reeling from the news that

the theme park giant has
laid off 720 performers.

[reporter 7]
Hundreds of cast members have gone

from being furloughed
to officially terminated,

meaning not only
a loss of income

but medical benefits as well.

Other effects
of the job losses...

[melancholic music]

You know, you just, like,
happen to open your phone and you're chatting

and you check your email,
you know, just casually not looking for anything,

not thinking "I wonder
if it's coming today,"

and out of nowhere
I saw an email that said,

"Notice of separation."

I was on that initial
round of e-mails,

and they did give us
lots and lots of notice.

So, I sensed it.

It was the reality...

...when I read it.

My heart dropped and I, um,

I opened it up and I saw
"Dear Cast Member."

Everything after that was just

letters and spaces and numbers,
and-- but I knew what it was.

But I will not lie the day
that it officially happened.

was...

...a huge hit emotionally.

And it was the reality
when I got an email to clean out your locker,

You feel like you got
broken up with, you know,

you feel like,
like you were in a relationship,

and out of nowhere,
somebody was like,

"Uh, it's not you, it's me."

To go to the stage,
put a mask on.

Make sure you have a mask,
somebody will escort you.

You're there to clean out
your locker.

I called the family
to let them know.

Um, and I kind of just did this
for the rest of the night, you know.

The walk to the parking lot
to get in your car after that...

...it was so quiet.

So quiet. It was so...

That night I went back on
and just...

It was just posts
and posts and posts. I mean, my entire newsfeed.

Every single person I knew was,
um, in their own way,

you know, saying, "Okay,
we have to say goodbye."

You look around...

...you see some things,
some attractions, the tops of them from the park.

Like, wow.

This is it.

In many ways I understand,

because they are a business.

And ultimately, if you ever,
you know, want to be on the ship again,

the ship has to stay afloat.

Everyone was doing
the best they could

on a daily basis
to survive this.

They offered, uh, a career
that I would never take back.

Yes, it's work.
And, yes, it is an industry.

Because of them,
I am who I am today.

Even within the last month,

um, more people have received
phone calls to, to return.

I know they will bring us back
when they can,

um, and I know that
I don't know enough to know when that will be.

I don't know if I'm in the line.
But if I am in the line,

even if I'm in the back
of the line, the line is moving.

But if Disney calls,

I got my ears.

So, I'm just keeping myself

actively, uh,

training, studying, learning,
growing, changing.

Um...

But if there ever comes a call,

where I can come in
and audition again.

I'll be there.

I'm really kind of suffering
survivor guilt

because my entire cast
has lost their jobs.

If I got the email before
I was asked back,

I think my first thing
would be to say,

"Is there anything
on Disney property

that I could do,
whether it would be,

you know, custodial or
operations or, you know, whatever.

Is, is there a place
that I can be moved to to continue my service?"

People like, "Gosh, you must be
so happy. You have a job."

And I am.

But at the same time,
there's so many people who are suffering.

I do have faith that it will
come back and they will start bringing shows back.

But my heart is breaking.

You really audition for Disney,
and you get the job.

You plan on being here
for a year.

That's what your contract is.
It's for one year.

And for so many of us, you know,

my one year is almost
four decades now.

I'm just really lucky.

I'm really lucky.

[melancholic music]

[Rich]
Walt Disney built a magical place,

but he realized it took
people to populate it and make it come alive.

You know if you walk down
Main Street,

yes, it's magical.
But if the band's not there

or the citizens aren't there
or the Dapper Dans aren't singing on the corner,

It's just buildings
that are of that period.

And then the curtain opens up
on the main street.

But it's not until you
walk around that one corner that you see the castle.

That's where everybody is
realizing, "I'm here.

- Woo!"
- [Iris] And it's Disney,

and this may be the only time
they're ever going to be there

and you are on the stage.

I mean, how many, literally,
how many people get to do that?

Billy's been working at Disney
for a very long time.

He was like an institution.

[Holland]
To live that out the way he did.

He was smart to go to the gym
and ride that bike. [laughs]

There's always a level
of certainty to him.

It was always a "we" aspect.
He's so inclusive in that way,

Flanigrams would not exist
if it wasn't for all of this happening,

and, and look at the happiness
that that's brought to people.

And so the people make
the magic come alive.

And Billy's one of those
magic makers that, that never

um, got rid of his pixie dust
from the, from the day he showed up.

He would be exactly
the kind of performer Walt would require,

that we all have.

That's who he wants

making magic in parks.

I think that we always saw
the real Billy

before, uh, he came out.

I think him coming out was
just another side to him.

It was the next chapter.

Everyone thinks of him
as Superman.

It's nice to know that, uh...

...that he's not.
[chuckles]

It's nice to know that
he is a human being,

uh, and a very kind soul, who is
a sensitive soul, obviously.

Otherwise, he would not be doing
all of these things that he's doing.

I don't think he's, uh,
done finding

whatever he's looking for,
if he's looking for something,

I don't think he's done.

But I think he's happy.

When social media
started posting

Billy riding this bike around
to performers...

...just opened my heart like...

I knew that was you, Billy.

I knew that was you.

And now look at you.

[whimsical music]

[announcer]
Ladies and gentlemen, we are at places,

that is places for the top
of the show.

Places, please. Everybody,
have a great show

and go make some magic.

♪ Every style and every move ♪

♪ I've got my bag of tricks ♪

♪ And when
There's choreography ♪

♪ Oh, baby watch my kicks ♪

♪ No matter
What life has dealt ♪

♪ What has been written
On any page ♪

♪ I'll take my place
And I'll stand tall ♪

♪ Right on center stage ♪

♪ I can see this through ♪

♪ Yes, I know I can ♪

♪ I found the courage
All through the years ♪

♪ I've got the strength inside ♪

♪ And all the love in my heart ♪

♪ But behind every smile ♪

♪ Behind every smile ♪

♪ Yes, behind ♪

♪ Every smile ♪

♪ Are a million tears ♪

♪♪

[whimsical music]

[audience cheering]

[applause]

[whimsical music]