When I was offered the show my agent said to me, ‘I think you’re probably going to want to turn this down.’ I asked why, and he said because it’s on The WB, which had just launched six months earlier, if that. But I enjoyed the experience from the beginning.

When you went to a reception for the national group of television critics at that time, it would be nine people in a small room with stale rumaki, and everybody thinking how can they get the hell out of there. Now the climate couldn’t be more different. It’s a hot ticket, with red carpets and starlets, executives, development people and agents.

After shooting the pilot, I went down to the office to meet [The WB founder and CEO] Jamie Kellner. I remember he was in shirtsleeves. He brought me into his office and said, ‘I really like this show, and I think you and I are going to be in business together for a long time.’ People always say that, but he really seemed to mean it.

This year, ‘7th Heaven’ ties ‘The Waltons’ as the longest-running family drama of all time.



Mr. Collins stars in “7th Heaven.”