One of the alleged victims of Stephen Collins — who played Reverend Eric Camden on 7th Heaven for 11 seasons before his career was ended by a molestation scandal — sits down for a tell-all interview in Investigation Discovery’s Hollywood Demons docuseries.
In the first episode of the ID six-parter, April Price recounted a series of allegedly inappropriate sexual encounters she had with the actor in 1983. Price was 13 years old and Collins lived next door to her aunt and herself in a Los Angeles apartment complex. “This is bad. This is really bad. I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Price at one point in the episode recalled after finding herself alone with Collins in his apartment, and he emerged from his bedroom without any clothes on.
“At this point, I was as rigid and tight and as small as I could make myself, and I’m looking anywhere but at him,” Price added. She isn’t alone in being left reeling in the ID series by Collins who, having played a squeaky-clean pastor dad on the popular WB family drama, in 2014 first admitted to sexual misconduct with three underage girls, from 1973 to 1994.
Collins’ initial confession came from a recording of a marriage therapy session in 2012, which was posted online by TMZ in October and which the 7th Heaven star claimed was made without his or the therapist’s knowledge or consent. Collins can be heard on the tape confessing to exposing himself or molesting the pre-teenage girls. “I put her hand on my penis,” he says at one point on the recording.
Despite those admissions, Collins was never charged as the statute of limitations had run out. The two-hour premiere of Hollywood Demons on Monday night includes 7th Heaven co-star Jeremy London hearing for the first time the taped confession by Collins after first wanting to distance himself from the scandal.
“I don’t know what happened. You’re messing with somebody that I love and care about, and to see anybody messing with him [Collins], it still makes my blood boil,” London tells the Hollywood Demons producers in an interview. But his demeanor markedly changed when he listened to the recording of Collins’ confession.
“Its tough. It’s hard. I’m a dad, first and foremost, above everything else. And so my first thoughts always go to the children. Stephen Collins would be a dead man if that was my child,” London then said. Garth Ancier, the founding president of Programming at the WB Network, told the ID producers no 7th Heaven co-stars, including child actors like Beverley Mitchell, David Gallagher and Mackenzie Rosman, brought up allegations against Collins during the production of the popular series.
Ancier added the initial confessions by Collins, which included a statement to People magazine and a Katie Couric interview for ABC’s 20/20 program, didn’t resonate with his experiences with the TV actor over 11 seasons. “It actually doesn’t line up with the Stephen Collins I knew, at all,” he said on the ID series episode.
Celebrity doctor Drew Pinsky, who offers analysis during the Stephen Collins episode, said he is friends with Beverly Mitchell, who played Lucy Camden on 7th Heaven, and she never told him about issues on or off set. “He was a nice guy. He is a smart dude. He is engaging and interesting and charming, he is all of those things. And he was engaged in some monstrous behavior,” Pinsky said.
From April Price comes a warning to young people who may meet Hollywood stars they idolize. “Sometimes the biggest monsters have the prettiest faces. You can’t just trust people that are nice to you and kind and charismatic. Not everybody that’s nice to you has nice intentions,” she said.
Hollywood Demons, which bows March 24 on ID and will stream on Max, will appear weekly with additional episodes on former child actors Brian Bonsall (Family Ties) and Dee Jay Daniels (The Hughleys). The series will also explore the dark side of the 1990s series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers; The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Taylor Armstrong alleging abuse by her late husband; an expose of the Von Erichs’ wrestling dynasty; and a episode about fan stalkers.
Hollywood Demons is produced by Ample Entertainment for Investigation Discovery.
