'Stars Earn Stripes' Participants Talk to KARK 4 Today's Mallory Hardin
By: KARK 4 News
Updated: August 13, 2012
A new show debuted Monday night on NBC called Stars Earn Stripes, and one of its hosts is Arkansas' own General Wesley Clark.
General Clark and show contestants Dean Cain and J.W. Cortes spoke with Mallory Hardin Monday morning about the show.
Here's what they had to say.
General Clark: "We're bringing together eight great special operations guys and first responders and teaming them up with eight really fit, competent, capable celebrities that the audience will know.
"We're running them through military training missions that are as realistic as we could make them, just like men and women in the armed forces have to do. They're using live ammunition, they're really jumping out of the helicopter, and the idea is that it's not only going to be entertaining for the audience, but it will also help young people understand what men and women in the armed forces do.
"The monies that they earn go to veterans charities, so it's for a good cause for veterans, it's a good cause in terms of entertainment and education about the armed forces, so that's why I'm hosting it and I'm privileged to work with some great people like J.W. Cortes, who's a former Marine Gunnery Sargeant, now a NYC policeman; Dean Cain, actor everybody knows him from Superman and they're representative of the great people we have on this cast. They were terrific people."
Mallory: I love this concept, really showing the hard work that all of our troops go through and what it takes. Talk about some of your cast, you have a great cast on this show.
General Clark: We do. And I think Dean will tell you how he saw it, how tough it was, and J.W. will tell you how realistic it was from his perspective. J.W. was it real?
J.W.: Sir, as close to the real thing as possible, minus the insurgency. It really put the celebrities and the operatives in the front seat. We really did ask them to jump out of the helicopter with full combat loads and then swim to zodiac that wasn't --
General Clark: And you went out with them right?
J.W.: Absolutely, I was second-wing right alongside these celebrities, I was impressed. Impressed by their physical ability but more so by their heart, their true compassion for what we were doing.
General Clark: Dean, it was a push, right?
Dean: A major, major push. It was everyone from Laila Ali to Terry Crews, myself, Nick Lachey, Todd Palin, there was a nice mix of us, Picabo Street. But you had a lot of our celebrity types, and it feels funny to be called a celebrity, but we were all athletes, all of us were athletes and we're all big patriots. We all support our armed forces to the Nth degree, so much that we put our reputations and our lives, our literal lives on the line to be out there with these guys. And I had great respect for them when we came into this competition, and I thought I had some understanding of what they go through in training, but to actually be there and be part of it was unbelievable. So special, and hopefully America will get a chance to see what real heroes these men and women are who serve every single day and keep us safe at home.
Mallory: We really look forward to the show debuting tonight, a great concept. General Clark before we go, while we have you here, you are a native Arkansan, a Razorback fan, how do you feel this football season is going to be for the hogs?
General Clark: I'm really excited about the Razorbacks prospects. You know I've been watching all the SEC clips and all the sports writers, they all know we've got a great quarterback in Tyler Wilson, we know coby hamilton's really coming along as a receiver, we're going to have a great team this year, we got knyle davis back, this is going to be a winning team. I got a lot of friends in Louisiana and Alabama who are going to lose a lot of money on these games.
Mallory: That's what we like to hear. Thank you so much General Wesley Clark, and we look forward to your show debuting tonight Stars Earn Stripes, that is tonight on NBC.
General Clark and show contestants Dean Cain and J.W. Cortes spoke with Mallory Hardin Monday morning about the show.
Here's what they had to say.
General Clark: "We're bringing together eight great special operations guys and first responders and teaming them up with eight really fit, competent, capable celebrities that the audience will know.
"We're running them through military training missions that are as realistic as we could make them, just like men and women in the armed forces have to do. They're using live ammunition, they're really jumping out of the helicopter, and the idea is that it's not only going to be entertaining for the audience, but it will also help young people understand what men and women in the armed forces do.
"The monies that they earn go to veterans charities, so it's for a good cause for veterans, it's a good cause in terms of entertainment and education about the armed forces, so that's why I'm hosting it and I'm privileged to work with some great people like J.W. Cortes, who's a former Marine Gunnery Sargeant, now a NYC policeman; Dean Cain, actor everybody knows him from Superman and they're representative of the great people we have on this cast. They were terrific people."
Mallory: I love this concept, really showing the hard work that all of our troops go through and what it takes. Talk about some of your cast, you have a great cast on this show.
General Clark: We do. And I think Dean will tell you how he saw it, how tough it was, and J.W. will tell you how realistic it was from his perspective. J.W. was it real?
J.W.: Sir, as close to the real thing as possible, minus the insurgency. It really put the celebrities and the operatives in the front seat. We really did ask them to jump out of the helicopter with full combat loads and then swim to zodiac that wasn't --
General Clark: And you went out with them right?
J.W.: Absolutely, I was second-wing right alongside these celebrities, I was impressed. Impressed by their physical ability but more so by their heart, their true compassion for what we were doing.
General Clark: Dean, it was a push, right?
Dean: A major, major push. It was everyone from Laila Ali to Terry Crews, myself, Nick Lachey, Todd Palin, there was a nice mix of us, Picabo Street. But you had a lot of our celebrity types, and it feels funny to be called a celebrity, but we were all athletes, all of us were athletes and we're all big patriots. We all support our armed forces to the Nth degree, so much that we put our reputations and our lives, our literal lives on the line to be out there with these guys. And I had great respect for them when we came into this competition, and I thought I had some understanding of what they go through in training, but to actually be there and be part of it was unbelievable. So special, and hopefully America will get a chance to see what real heroes these men and women are who serve every single day and keep us safe at home.
Mallory: We really look forward to the show debuting tonight, a great concept. General Clark before we go, while we have you here, you are a native Arkansan, a Razorback fan, how do you feel this football season is going to be for the hogs?
General Clark: I'm really excited about the Razorbacks prospects. You know I've been watching all the SEC clips and all the sports writers, they all know we've got a great quarterback in Tyler Wilson, we know coby hamilton's really coming along as a receiver, we're going to have a great team this year, we got knyle davis back, this is going to be a winning team. I got a lot of friends in Louisiana and Alabama who are going to lose a lot of money on these games.
Mallory: That's what we like to hear. Thank you so much General Wesley Clark, and we look forward to your show debuting tonight Stars Earn Stripes, that is tonight on NBC.
