Against All Odds: My Story

by Norris, Chuck

  Tom and Larry encouraged me to start at a low level. “Do the exercises each day for ten or fifteen minutes, keeping the plane of the board at a low level for about three weeks,” they said, “and see if it doesn't help your shoulder.”

  I faithfully exercised on the Total Gym every day, and as I felt the strength in my shoulder increasing, I raised the angle level of the board. Amazingly, within three weeks, my shoulder was completely healed! I called the doctor and cancelled the operation.

  As I continued working out on the Total Gym, I discovered that I was getting stronger than I'd ever been before, even when I had been working out with heavy weights. The Total Gym was stretching my muscles and elongating them without pain, almost like a dancer or a gymnast doing full-stretch exercises. My body was becoming more flexible, and I could tell that my arms and legs were stronger than they had previously been. When I grappled and wrestled with students in my martial arts classes, I realized that the strength in my grip was more powerful too. I was astounded. I had worked out with every sort of exercise equipment and weights imaginable, but this simple machine was producing more desirable effects, in less time and with less stress!

  I still did my martial arts training and aerobic exercises, and tried to maintain a healthy diet, but from the first time I tried it, to this very day, the Total Gym has been a regular part of my daily work-out routine. Over the years I've tried other machines and methods, but I've always come back to the Total Gym.

  The only drawback to the Total Gym was its lack of portability. The Total Gym had been originally designed as a machine to be used in rehabilitation centers, not for the general public. But by 1995, Tom and Larry had nearly exhausted the market for selling the Total Gym to rehabilitation centers. They sold a few machines to gyms, but nobody seemed to know what to do with it.

  One day as we were talking about their situation, I asked, “Have you guys ever thought about modifying the machine so it could be used in people's homes?”

  “No, not really …”

  “Well, if you could change the design slightly so it could fold up and be put away in a closet or under a bed, I think you guys could make some good money on this.”

  “Do you really think so, Chuck?”

  “Yeah, I do. I know what a benefit this machine has been to me. I'll bet it could help a lot of other people, too.”

  “Would you be willing to endorse the product?”

  “Sure, I would. Every time I've gone overseas to do a movie or something, you have sent me a Total Gym to work out on. I'd be more than happy to help out.”

  Tom and Larry went back home and worked on the design of the Total Gym, modifying it slightly so it could be packed away after use. When they brought it to Dallas for me to try, I was as excited as they were! The new machine had all the benefits of the original, without the heaviness. Best of all, it could be set up or taken down in a matter of seconds and stored away in about the same amount of space required for an ironing board. I felt sure the guys were on to something big.

  “Great! Now we have to find someone who can market the machine for us,” Larry said. They researched the various marketing companies and settled on American Telecast, a marketing company specializing in infomercials.

  The guys said, “Chuck, nobody knows this machine any better than you. Would you be willing to do the infomercial for the Total Gym?”

  “Well, I'm happy to endorse the machine, but I hadn't really thought about doing anything on television,” I hedged. I was already appearing on my own television program, Walker, Texas Ranger, and I didn't want to be over-exposed. But something inside me said, “For these guys, go ahead and do it.”

  I'm now convinced that God was leading me to become involved with Larry and Tom. I knew that they were quality guys whom I could trust. As devout Christian men, their personal integrity was beyond question. Every morning before their actual workday begins, Tom and Larry start by having a brief prayer session with their employees.

  “I don't endorse too many products,” I told the representatives from American Telecast, “but for Tom and Larry I'll do whatever it takes.”

  I was willing to do the infomercial for free because of my friendship with Tom and Larry, but American Telecast wouldn't hear of it. “No, we need to work out a contract arrangement of some sort,” they said.

  “OK, whatever you want to do is fine with me.” We struck a deal in which I would make a small royalty on the infomercial sales of the Total Gym.

  American Telecast felt that we could appeal to a broader audience if we included a female on the program, so they brought in Christy Brinkley to assist me. I hadn't known Christy prior to filming the infomercial, but she is extremely articulate, cooperative, and wonderful to work with. We had a great time putting together the program.

  More importantly, the product was something that we really believed in. I've never endorsed a product I didn't have absolute confidence in, and I couldn't have done the infomercial if I hadn't been convinced of the Total Gym's effectiveness for anyone willing to put in the time and effort, even beginners.

  It's always nice to see good things happen to good people. When the infomercial began airing on television stations across the country, Tom and Larry—who had been struggling to find a market for their machine for more than twenty years—suddenly had a new problem. Sales started pouring in so rapidly that Fitness Quest, the manufacturer of the machines, could hardly keep up with the orders! To date, sales figures on the Total Gym have surpassed a billion dollars! Christy Brinkley and I have done several editions of the Total Gym infomercial. It is the longest-running infomercial featuring a piece of exercise equipment in the history of television commercials. And it's still going!

  The Total Gym is so effective it can be deceiving; it works even when you don't realize it. When my son-in-law Damien and family came to visit at our ranch in Texas, he asked if he could work out with me.

  “Sure, glad to have you,” I said.

  Damien watched as I worked out on the Total Gym at the top level. When it came his turn, I placed the bench at a low level, two steps up from the bottom. Damien did the routine with relative ease. He wanted to keep on working out on the Total Gym, but I was a little concerned.

  “Damien, you shouldn't go too hard. You don't want to overdo it.”

  “Oh, no, I'm fine. I can do lots more.”

  “I'm just telling you that you're going to be sore tomorrow because you've never done this kind of workout before. You're working muscles that you've never challenged before. You're using a lot of muscles at the same time. This isn't like working with a barbell or something.”

  “No, I can do it!”

  “OK …”

  Damien continued working on the Total Gym and was enjoying every minute, even though he was doing more than I wanted him to do.

  The next morning Damien could hardly raise his arms high enough to brush his teeth! He had to lower his head to the sink to get the toothbrush into his mouth.

  “I tried to warn you!” I told him with a laugh.

  “I'll listen to you next time, for sure,” he responded.

  Although I've never really used it for that purpose, I discovered that the Total Gym was also effective at helping a person lose weight. I was on a popular call-in radio show hosted by Kid Craddock in Dallas one day when a guy called in and said, “Chuck, I'm using one of your Total Gyms.”

  “Oh, really? How do you like it?”

  “I want to thank you so much,” he said. “Since using the Total Gym, I've lost more than seventy pounds!”

  I now have three Total Gyms in my exercise room at home and still use the machine as a regular part of my exercise regimen and plan to use it for the rest of my life. The beauty of the Total Gym is that if it is used according to the instructions, it will provide a vigorous workout for both beginners and people who have worked out for years.

  Beyond the benefits I receive from exercising on the Total Gym, the success story is a tremendous illustration
of God's faithfulness. Larry and Tom gave Total Gyms to me when they were receiving nothing in return. Then I was able in some small way to be a part of God giving back to them “pressed down, shaken together, and running over.”

  The only other infomercial I've done to date is for a product called Max.com, an Internet service provider (ISP) that actually filters and blocks the pornography before it gets to your computer and alerts parents when their children are trying to access sites that may not be in their best interests. It is an incredible Internet service provider, and I am proud to be a part of it.

  I did the infomercial in 2003 with Patricia Heaton, costar of the hit television show Everybody Loves Raymond. Patricia is a sincere Christian woman who, like me, is sick of the smut and perversion being brought directly into our homes, uninvited, by purveyors of Internet porn. Patricia is the mother of four boys, so the protection is especially important to her and her husband, David Hunt. “If our boys can't hack through this thing, I'll know it works,” Patricia said.

  We tried other blocking programs and discovered that within two clicks of a mouse, one could escape the blocking system and be right back into a porn site. Not so with Max.com. When Patricia was convinced the program really worked, she signed on to do the infomercial.

  I appreciate Patricia's concern for integrity and her high standards. I applauded when she walked out during an awards program in which the Osbournes spewed forth a litany of profanity from the stage. “I'm not going to sit here and listen to that sort of garbage,” Patricia said, as she left the auditorium.

  Amen, sister!

  And we don't need to sit back idly while Internet pornography perverts the minds and saps the time, energy, and money of our youth. To me, fighting against the demeaning obscenity being flagrantly dangled in front of our kids (and adults!) on computers nowadays is a moral obligation stemming from my Christian commitment. How could I do otherwise?

  CHAPTER 24

  SOUL MATES

  It may be hard for you to believe, but Hollywood can be an extremely lonely place. Despite the constant hustle and bustle, and the myriad lights artificially brightening the dark skies at night, no amount of hype and hoopla can fill the void in your soul when you are alone.

  Nevertheless, during the first few years after Dianne and I divorced, I had no desire ever to get married again. I avoided anything that looked like a serious relationship and poured myself into my work. Then I met an attractive young woman through one of my friends. We began dating and struck up a solid relationship. Yet for some inexplicable reason, it never felt quite right. We stayed together for five years, and we almost got married. I bought her an engagement ring, and we were beginning to make wedding plans when we both realized that we were fooling ourselves. Our relationship lacked the kind of total commitment good marriages demand. We broke up, and I was thrust back in the dating game. But I was alone again and miserable.

  For the first few years of Walker, I was practically consumed with developing story lines, writing, producing, acting, and editing the program. I returned home after work, grabbed something to eat, and fell into bed most nights exhausted. When I took time to socialize, it was usually on an extremely superficial level.

  About that time Larry Morales, one of my best friends, came to Dallas to stay with me while I was filming Walker, Texas Ranger. He realized how lonely I was and told me he knew a woman I should meet. “She's beautiful, and you won't be sorry. I'd like to invite her to Dallas, and maybe you can give her a small part in Walker.”

  “For you, Larry, I'll do it,” I said.

  A few nights later I was having sushi at a restaurant in Dallas, along with family, friends, and my date for the evening. I was nose to nose with my date in deep conversation, when I heard Larry introducing someone named Gena to everyone at our table. When Larry finally called out my name, I looked up for the first time and saw the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.

  “Er, ah … it's nice to meet you, Gena,” I said as the beautiful woman extended her hand, and we shook briefly. I then turned back to my date, but the image of Gena was still in my mind.

  After dinner Larry drove Gena to her hotel, and I went home. My date hadn't liked the way I looked at Gena, or maybe she saw Gena's reflection in my mind's eye. She didn't say, and I didn't ask.

  Gena came on the set the next day and played a small part on the show. She was fabulous … and her acting wasn't bad either! I invited her to dinner that night. As we talked about our lives, she told me that she had two young children, and her entire family—mom, brothers, and sisters—all lived in the High Sierra Mountains in a little town called Chester, California, where Gena was a gun-toting member of the county sheriff's force. She had been married before, and since her husband's departure, she had worked two jobs—as a model and as a deputy sheriff—trying to make a living and to take care of herself and her children.

  During the few days Gena was in Dallas, I discovered that she was not only beautiful on the outside but on the inside as well. She seemed to radiate a love, peace, and joy that I always knew existed, but had rarely experienced in my life. I wanted to get to know Gena better, so I asked her to return to Dallas as soon as possible. She came back a couple of weeks later, and our friendship grew into a dating relationship. Before long I felt myself falling head over heels in love.

  Nevertheless, I was reluctant to ask her to marry me. We had both recently come out of long-term relationships, and I didn't think we were ready for such a serious commitment as marriage. I knew I wasn't, anyhow. But I wanted Gena in my life, so I convinced her to come to Dallas for a while to pursue her modeling career.

  One of her jobs in Dallas was modeling wedding gowns. I attended the show and was amazed at how Gena modeled one gown, then went backstage, and came right back out wearing another gown, looking equally gorgeous in all of them! One of the wedding gowns had an extremely long train attached, and when Gena stepped around the corner to enter the runway, a flowerpot got snagged on the train of the expensive gown. The flowerpot took a ride on the train all the way down the runway!

  When Gena turned around and saw the flowerpot hooked on her dress, she was mortified. But she kept her composure and just kept on walking, dragging the decorative piece behind her.

  After the show Gena and I had a good laugh about the incident. “That flowerpot looked so good on that dress, I was thinking about buying it,” I quipped.

  Gena playfully punched me in the arm as her response to my remark.

  Later that night I called my mom and told her about the show. I must have been especially expressive about how beautiful Gena looked in the wedding gowns.

  “Are you saying that she would make a beautiful bride?” Mom asked whimsically.

  “No comment,” I deadpanned. Marriage was not in my plans.

  Gena's ten-year-old son, Tim, came with her, but her daughter, Kelley, thirteen years of age and in junior high school in California, balked and bristled at even the idea of moving to Dallas. “Please, Mom! Please,” she begged. “Don't make me move away from our hometown. All my friends are here.”

  Gena's sister, Maureen, has a daughter, Caitlin, who is the same age as Kelley. “Why don't you just let Kelley live with us for a while?” Maureen suggested. “She could be with her friends and continue school in Chester, and when she's ready emotionally, she can move down with the rest of your family in Dallas.”

  Gena called me in Dallas and told me of Maureen's idea. “What do you think?” Gena asked.

  “I don't know,” I replied. “It's going to be tough for her either way. You just have to pray about it, and do what your heart is telling you to do.” It was hard on Gena to leave her daughter behind, even in the watchful and loving care of family, but she agreed to give it a try, since Kelley was doing so well in her classes and sports.

  Gena brought Tim with her from California, and I picked them up at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. Gena hugged me warmly, but Tim remained distant. He made it obvious from the start that he
was far from comfortable with being there. I couldn't say that I blamed him, being uprooted from the only place he had ever known and living with a man he barely knew. But worst of all, Gena and I weren't married.

  I stepped carefully with Tim, avoiding any impression that I was attempting to usurp his father's position in his life. After all, Tim idolized his father. I figured it was going to take some time before he warmed up to me.

  My sons were equally slow to accept Gena, until they came to know her. Similarly, Gena had to be as patient with my sons as I had to be patient with her children. Winning over our family members was not going to be easy.

  Gena and I are both spiritually oriented people, which—after our initial physical attraction—was part of what endeared us to each other in the first place. Maybe that's why I wasn't surprised when I walked in the house one day and found Gena reading the Bible. “I recognize that Book,” I said with a laugh.

  “Oh, Carlos! Come sit down. Look what I found in the Bible!” She pointed out the passage she had been reading, and it seemed the words leaped off the page at me. I sat down, and we began to read the Bible together. We've done so almost every day since.

  Gena and I set out on a search to find a church family, a place where we could learn biblical truth and grow in our spiritual lives. The Dallas-Fort Worth area has no shortage of great churches; quite the contrary, that part of Texas boasts a spiritual smorgasbord ready to satisfy almost every theological taste. Finding a church would be no problem; finding the right church for us seemed like a daunting task.