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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]