Ian Talks Comedy

Marlene Weisman joined me to discuss props she created; Steve Martin's Penis Beauty Cream; SNL Rerun Pills; Chris Rock's Guide for White People to Survive the Apollo; props done for Howard Stern; her diary; being remembered at the 50th ; growing up and watching Bewitched; going to college to be a graphic designer; Monty Python; being in a Xerox show with Keith Haring; working with Thomas Dolby; working for Stiff Records; Phil Hartman; taking a Graphic Design for TV class from SNL's Bob Pook; getting hired; Mike Myers and her bonded over That 60's Movie sketch; creating Wayne's World logo; her co-graphic artists Doug Zider, Ira Rappaport; and Kevin Frank; learning Paintbox; working Letterman Monday through Wednesday, and SNL Thursday through Saturday; getting the SNL graphic list on Thursday; Davey Wilson's Thursday production meetings; graphic coordinator Steve Koren, then Davey Wilson's son Tom; Natalie Cole's Unforgettable Album Cover; drawing the pictures for Simon; doing Night After Night with Allan Havey on three summer breaks; creating look of Sprockets; Jim Signorelli; Chris Farley's Folgers Crystals sketch; working from 9 am Friday to 1 am Sunday with a nap break; designing post-show party invites; creating logos for Happy Fun Ball, Nat X, Massive Head-wound Harry, I'm Chillin, and Bullet Hole Tampons; drawing the More to Come pictures on the Tonight Show sketches; importance of Polaroids; creating graphics and voicing a caller to Coffee Talk; her work with Al Franken (Stuart Smalley); Crystal Gravy; having to draw the Scream offstage during the live show in a game show sketch with Christopher Walken in 1990

Ian Maxtone-Graham joined me to discuss remembering the moon landing; Batman; writing humorous articles in high school and at Brown; getting hired on Not Necessarily the News; Motown Review; being head writer for Comedy Central game show Clash; getting hired at National Lampoon; asking Jack Handy to submit Deep Thoughts leads to him getting hired on SNL; Fred Wolf; Fetal Abuse Laugh-a-Thon with Victoria Jackson, Woody Harrelson, Phil Hartman & Jon Lovitz; Glenn Close Christmas monologue; working with her again on the Simpsons; best comedies also are dramatic; creation of the Hanukkah Song; working with Norm on Update; getting three pieces on Jason Alexander episode; favorite hosts; Bob Newhart; Norm's Charles Kuralt; leaving SNL to go to The Simpsons; becoming the Tall Man character; "Burns, Baby Burns" original idea; hard to write for Rodney; "City of NY vs. Homer Simpson"; donated a cel to the 9/11 Museum; 70's NY; "Trash of the Titans"; policy wonk vs. populist; "Blunder Years"; Paul Newman guest voice; Smithers back story; How I Wet Your Mother w/ David Byrne and Glenn Close; Dads; importance of graphics on SNL

Andy Robin joined me to discuss being "Penske material"; Candid Camera; Emergency; crooners; Paul Anka; being a Mets fan; writing for and editing Harvard Lampoon; rally for Dan Quayle;submitting for SNL; a sketch he wrote is similar to one going on that week; he gets hired by Jim Downey; writes a Godfather / George Bush sketch for Joe Mantegna; Dennis Miller disses Vanilla Ice; writing copy guy sketches with Robert Schneider; on air appearances; Jeremy Irons; cut for time Steven Seagal sketch; Sandler gets a spec Seinfeld script to Seinfeld; Larry Charles works with him on stories for "Junior Mint"; not knowing he was hired becomes an episode; raisins disappearing after his interview becomes part of an episode; Dolores; The Barber comes from his life; The Jimmy sneakers were worn by Alec Berg; "The Bottle Deposit" leads to a real life crime; "The Comeback" came from Peter Mehlman; The Slicer; "The Nap" came from prop masters indecisiveness; The Martin Short Show; Nathan Thurm; "The Puerto Rican Day Parade"; Martin Short's Bette Davis impression; Michael Richards Show was ruined by the network; original pilot by Michael Ritchie was really good; going into pyschiatry

Brent Forrester talks about writing for "The Ben Stiller Show", "Daddy Dearest", "The Simpsons", "Mr. Show", and "The Office"

Ken Lerner joined me to discuss growing up in Brooklyn as a Yankee fan; being in the peanut gallery on Howdy Doody; his brother, the late Michael Lerner; studying with Stella Adler; Hot Tomorrow with Oingo Boingo and Herve Villechaize; being on the Happy Days episode "Richie Fights Back"; "Fonzie Love Pinky"; playing 3 characters of Happy Days; being a member of the Coney Island Whitefish; demolition derby stunt drivers took liberties on him; Roz Kelly fights with Winkler; being in Grand Theft Auto; Ron Howard mentored his son about being a child actor; Laverne & Shirley; Jerry Paris; Gas Pump Girls; did not know how to ride a motorcycle; Any Which Way but Loose; playing doctors, lawyers and rabbis; "Don't Shoot, I'm a Lawyer"; new character on Happy Days; worked throughout his 40's and 50's; Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Irreconcilable Differences; working with George C. Scott in Exorcist III; Love on the Run; The Feud; The Goldbergs asked his son if his real dad Ken can play his TV dad; The Running Man; Family Ties; Lafayette High School; Gravesend; Sledge Hammer; Adam Schiff fan of his on West Wing; Fabulous Baker Boys; Marc Maron and his brother; supposed to be in cast of Chicago Hope but given four episode run; auditioning on Zoom; Marty Brest; coaching on Zoom; loaded dreidels

Morgan Fairchild joined me to discuss not being allowed to watch Dobie Gillis; improv and acting training from Larry O'Dwyer; being in the Junior Players; Happy Days; seeing Robin Williams rehearse Mork; getting called to be a recurring cast member on Mork & Mindy; David Letterman; Robert Conrad; doing a Bob Hope special with George Burns, Tony Randall, and Danny Thomas; Milton Berle shows up for shop talk; Jack Lemmon saves her on the dance floor; working with Rodney Dangerfield; hosting An Evening at the Improv and befriending Pee Wee Herman; being in Pee Wee's Big Adventure; Night of 100 Stars; "killing" Lee Strasberg; meeting Rosa Parks and Paul Newman; introducing Billy Crystal to Esther Williams, wife of Fernando Llamas; introducing Pee Wee to Willie Nelson; catching a bullet in her teeth on Circus of the Stars; guest starring on The Bob Newhart Show; co-hosting Battle of the Network Stars with Howard Cosell; Jon Lovitz and the Liar; being booked to host SNL and not knowing or in the country; Lorne wouldn't take her call to apologize; Blondes vs. Brunettes; going on Friends and realizing she knew Matthew Perry as a child; earning an Emmy nom on Murphy Brown; guesting in the lesbian kiss episode of Roseanne; The Simpsons; her podcast with her sister, Two Bitches from Texas; Anson Williams; and love in your 60s and 70s

Catlin Adams joined me to discuss immigrating for Israel; Our Miss Brooks and The Gale Storm Show; 1950s anti-Antisemitism; being in acting class taught by Anna Mizrahi; auditioning for The Actor's Studio with Margaret Sherwood; her 60 years of friendship with Ellen Burstyn; taking class with Stella Adler; acting was about the craft; demystifying acting as making choices and sense memory; first TV role on He & She; parents let her stay in Actors Studio if she could pay for it and have a B average; her first film Up in the Cellar; getting cast; having to have stunt breasts; doing a McMillan and Wife; meeting Christopher Guest on The Fortune; shooting movie Katherine with Sissy Spacek and an unsure Henry Winkler; The Jerk is a smart dumb comedy; Theodora Van Runkel created her character's look; learning how to ride a motorcycle; improv in scenes with Steve Martin; her son watching it in school; Stanley Kubrick being a fan; getting the part by tackling Steve Martin and biting him on the nipple; Steve stood in lobby at premiere because of nerves; Jazz Singer is a great soundtrack; Neil Diamond was not a good actor; read for both female parts; changed scene to Neil turning her down for sex; her character kept changing; Olivier's acting was terrible; admitted doing the job for the money; quitting Square Pegs after being told teachers were going to be just as important as kids; going to AFI to learn directing; not knowing what to do; Obsession; Parasite; film waves; becoming friends with Melanie Mayron; writing Sticky Fingers for her and Rae Dawn Chong; Rae Dawn drops out and Helen Slater takes role; after movie, taking time out to have children; becoming an acting coach; Danitra Vance; Christopher Guest; SNL; Ellen Burstyn at 93; Lee Grant at 100; theater is for the rich now; directing Carol Kane

Bill Nuss joined me to discuss watching Off. Joe Bolton as a child; writing to Johnny Carson; his love of Honeymooners; going to film school backward; creating the Mee-Ow show at Northwestern with partner Dusty Kay; Seth Myers crediting it with his pursuing comedy; meeting Brandon Tartikoff; auditioning for SNL; Brandon gets them a pitch at Eight is Enough; going with Brandon as an exec to NBC; creation of Diff'rent Strokes; being in the room when the cancellation of SNL was discussed; worked on Cannell and Larson series; asked to write for A-Team & later 21 Jump Street; casting Johnny Depp; writing the Hulk Hogan A-Team episodes; "Lease with an Option to Buy" w/ Della Reese and worst episode of A-Team; writing a Psycho homage for Knight Rider and a The God's Must Be Crazy takeoff for the A-Team; creating the Booker character for Jump Street; favorite Jump Streets; Raven; guesting on his shows; The Hat Squad; Renegade; directing was easy for him; favorite episode of Booker; creating Pacific Blue; WWE & Mario Lopez; PB episodes "Stargazer' and "59 Minutes"; creating North Shore and having young Jason Momoa in the cast; NCIS; Hawaii 5-0; his passion project, the musical version of The Honeymooners

Melody Anderson joins me and discusses having a crush on Tonto; going into radio journalism; hearing a radio broadcast of Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf and wanting to go into acting; moving to LA and modeling to pay bills; getting gigs of Welcome Back, Kotter, Pleasure Cove, Elvis, and BJ in the Bear quickly; starring in Flash with Max von Sydow; playing it straight; meeting Queen; co-starring in Dead and Buried with a sick Jack Albertson; getting great reviews as an undead school teacher; going against type on Bunker's Place; wanting to be like Jean Arthur or Carole Lombard; guesting on Fall Guy and with Dirk Benedict on A-Team and Battlestar Galactica; CHiPs; Police Woman Centerfold; starring in movies of the week; Manimal; loving the animals; show is made fun of but was a fun job; playing Edith Adams to Jeff Goldblum's Ernie Kovacs; High School USA; Boy in Blue with Nicholas Cage; St. Elsewhere; Murder, She Wrote; going to NYU to get her masters in social work; being a trauma treatment specialist; wants to be known for doing good; EMDR treatment; sees patients 20 hours a week; Zoom therapy; www.counselingbymelody.com; calming techniques; what she does if patients recognize her

Jill Kleck Woo and I discuss being restless on a farm; watching the Brady Bunch and wanting to go to California; going to Ohio University; Bernie Brillstein offering a job in California; working with John Moffitt and Bill Lee; Friday Edition; musical guests; Andy Kaufman; Fridays next to Lawrence Welk; Don Novello; Maryedith Burrell; cancellation of Fridays; Not Necessarily the News; Rich Hall, Conan O'Brien, Al Jean and Mike Reiss; Tom Kramer & Michael Richards; Fridays now streaming; how she started her business; moving to Santa Monica; hiring crews for The Daily Show; sending crews to Fairbanks, Alaska and jungles of Thailand; working with The Daily Show since Craig Kilborn; Amy Kimmleman; how Fridays had pictures of their crew in the credits

Robert L. McCullough joined me to discuss watching test patterns and Captain Tom; going to BHHS w/ Burt Ward; going to Stanford to mingle; became a page and a gopher at Universal; becoming a set locator for Bionic Woman and pitching a script; goes to Eight is Enough, then BJ and the Bear; writes "Gasohol", "Beauties and the Beasts" and the creepy "Blonde in a Cell of Gold" guest starring Paul Williams; getting call to "fix" Falcon Crest, makes it more soapy; creates show bible on stories on his wives 10 siblings; Jane Wyman was the hard worker ; getting Lana Turner to guest star; Jackie Collins Hollywood Wives; Arthur Hailey's International Airport; Dark Mansion; odd meeting with Loretta Young; signing Joan Fontaine; O'Hara, with Pat Morita; Zorro, four seasons with Duncan Regehr; Daniel Craig's first TV appearance, High Tide with Rick Springfield; Soldier of Fortune with Dennis Rodman; Tag Team pilot with Jesse Ventura & Randy "Macho Man" Savage; creating script contests that lead to things; going one on one with new writers and creating a how to podcast.

Art Dielhenn joined me to discuss watching Roy Rogers; having celiac disease and dyslexia; a drama coach turns him onto acting; realizing in college he is not an actor; moving Oppenheimer's possessions as a moving man; spending 7 years directing at KRMA Denver; moving to KQED San Francisco and directing Pauline Kael; Peter Bonerz is a guest and invites Art to L.A.; Norman Lear hires him as an AD on Apple Pie and Hello Larry; does Sanford and says Redd and Jamie Foxx are two funniest people he's ever worked with; working with Jack Shea on Silver Spoons; Insight; getting the job on Punky Brewster; "Perils of Punky" episode; censor problems; 15 minute episodes; going to Webster; everyone hates Susan Clark; being friends with Soleil Moon Frye's mom and they both protect Soleil; going to Head of the Class; Howard Hesseman being miserable; working with Brian Robbins, Dan Schneider, and Elaine Stritch; getting hired to direct Free Spirit, wanting Amy Yasbeck as star, but getting Corrine Bohrer; wanting and getting Allison Hannigan as co-star; directing a Cosby Show and having to give Cosby notes; directing Pacific Station and dealing with a depressed Robert Guillaume; having fun with Ron Liebman; Sister, Sister with Tia & Tamera Mowry; directing Lifetime show Maggie; going into life coaching; getting clients; going to AA; writing Get Out of Your Head and Addiction is a Family Disease; how alcoholism is a progressive disease even if you're not actively drinking

Dan O'Shannon joined me to discuss Cleveland kids TV and his documentary; going to Cleveland State for a year; doing stand up; getting to know his character; buying a Cheers script to find a template for a spec script; Marc Sotkin reads spec, hires him on It's A Living; writes for Safe at Home; writes a freelance Charmings; getting hired with writing partner Tom Anderson on Newhart; writing a freelance Cheers on off time; coming up with the Newhart finale at same time as Bob's wife; Cheers episode "Two Girls for Every Boyd"; "Who is Cliff Clavin" and Alex Trebek's acting; Spanky MacFarlane; almost getting Bill Clinton; "Severe Crane Damage" - did not write We Will Rock You opening; Freudian slip joke; coining the phrase "Did I say that out loud"; writing the episode were Lilith divorces Frasier; "Woody Gets an Election"; Kelsey Grammar becomes Frasier; the last name Kraypence; his 1993 sitcom The Boys with Anthony Edwards replaced by Christopher Meloni; Suddenly Susan with Rodney Dangerfield; Oscar nominee for Redux Riding Hood; Maggie; Frasier episodes "Sliding Doors", "Rooms with a View"; Don Juan in Hell"; Modern Family "Fly with Me", "having to service all characters, "Undeck the Halls"; his books "What are you Laughing At" and "The Adventures of Mrs. Jesus", pilot "Furst Born"; moving to Cleveland"; long driving trips

Seth Freeman joined me to discuss going backstage on Kukla, Fran & Ollie; Hop-along Cassidy; writing for his school paper; teaching math to inner city students so they gain pride; deciding to move to LA; becoming a gofer at MTM; being mentored by Gene Reynolds, Allan Burns, and James L. Brooks; Jeff Melvoin's book on TV writing; WGA Foundation for TV writers; knowing all aspects of TV production in case you become a producer; working on the TV show Brooklyn Bridge; CBS wants to spin off Lou Grant; MTM wants to make it a drama; his episode "Hostage", "The Cop"; pitching an episode then doing the research; writing an episode about message parlor girls, prisoners of conscience and the blacklist; "Rape" came from Allan Burns and his wife's charity work; writing a spec Bob Newhart and getting both sitcoms and dramas which made him what Lou Grant producers wanted; creating Lincoln Heights, getting an MA in public health right before COVID 19; CBS thought Lou Grant would be cancelled after 13 weeks; was eventually cancelled last minute because of Ed Asner's politics

Frank Chindamo joined me to talk about being half Ecuadorean and half Italian and can only speak English; living in Queens; Winky Dink and You; getting the writer's assistants job; Ferris Butler; Michael O'Donoghue; Charles Rocket's f-bomb; his sketch that was never produced; Bill Murray teaches him Cronkite; working on the first documentary about Mother Theresa; getting a MFA at Columbia; his shorts Cat and Mousse and Jelly Donut Saga; directing Food for Thought; creating a company Fun Little Movies that produced first internet comedy series and first comedy video for a phone; teaching at USC; learns comedy can reduce stress, pain and heart attacks; writes a book Laugh RX; medicine is the best medicine but laughter helps; Jon Stewart & Patch Adam; LaughterMD.com; worst place to watch comedy is on Tik Tok

Marsha Posner Williams joined me to talk about wanting to know how TV was made; being able to type 122 WPM; getting a job as a secretary for Steve Gordon on "The Practice"; getting hired by Tony Thomas; working for Soap; most controversial show ever; mix of comedy and drama; Billy Crystal's coming out scene; best of season cuts would be 4 hours long; Bea Arthur; Benson; Inga Swenson; Ann Jillian; Condo; Marc Price's set teacher was president of Marlo Thomas fan club; Estelle Getty second youngest on Golden Girls; hoping producing Night Court would get her off jury duty; tallest cast ever; Reinhold Weege would think sitting in dark black rooms; getting married in 1985 and doing 52 episodes of three sitcoms; Hail to the Chief; Dick Shawn; "the woman is a candle"; nuns in the front row; pilot Arena with Ted Bessell; came to Golden Girls after Coco; Golden Girls drag show; WWE wrestler is a huge fan; SNL skit; Lanai; Susan Harris plays a hooker on Soap and uses the phrase "around the world"; John Ritter's testicles and Cheers name mix-ups; Bea & Betty's mothers die the same week; The Golden Girls being easy to work with; Paul Bogart quit as director, replaced by Jay Sandrich and Terry Hughes; Babes; working with Stu Silver on "Good Grief"; wanting an older lead and FOX forcing Howie Mandel; Jerry Lewis directs an episode; Tom Poston; typing 20,000 jokes in two years makes her tough; getting her hand smacked by Ed. Weinberger at Amen

Susan Silver joined me to discuss being a Sagittarius; watching Your Show of Shows; being born in Milwaukee and moving to Whitefish Bay; being rocked by her mother; Northwestern; UCLA with professor Francis Ford Coppola; working on Laugh In; writing for Love, American Style and Room 222; writing the Mary Tyler Moore episodes "A Friend in Need" & "Room 223"; writing the pilot to Maude; wearing hot pants and being in a TV guide article; The Couple Takes a Wife and similar Seinfeld episode; Bob Newhart show; her favorite TV movie that didn't go; her political affair; helping Bill Clinton; offered a job writing for NASA; working for the ADL; my grandmothers WWII story; being a UN observer for the Simon Wiesenthal Center; Bob Woodruff a funny person; Square Pegs; saying she's in the age bracket 50 to dead; dating past 50; no longer dyeing her hair; choking stories; Dr. Heimlich & Anson Williams; her "adopted" grandchildren; working with the FIDF; future of Israel; antisemitism; Hitlers Ascent and Trump; being afraid to walk in NYC with the Star of David; NY vs. LA; Donald Trump; Buddy Hackett vs. Don Rickles; her parents

Kevin and I discuss Face the Music; Fridays; Twilight Theater; Laugh Trax; No Soap, Radio; The Jeffersons; getting SNL; Eddie Murphy's showcase; getting stuff on his second show; Subliminal Advertising Sketch, Lie Detector Sketch; Chess Club Coach sketch; Trivial Pursuit sketch; being locked in Dick Ebersol's office to write Eddie Murphy's Christmas 1984 show; Christopher Guest Auctioneer Sketch, I Am Also the World, Prison Rape Sketch; Women in Prison tv show; Night Court and favorite episodes; Boy Meets World and the genius of Will Freidle; Townsend TV; Boogies Diner; Girlfriend Guy; BIFL; and what he's doing now.

Ross Shafer joined me to talk about watching Rusty Nails as a kid; flipping bikes, cars, houses, and businesses; college football; owning a stereo / pet store named Woofers and Tweeters; hamster drag racing; going to a comedy club when he had an ulcer; seeing there was a science there; trying it and getting good enough to win Showtimes Comedy Laugh Off; having a day job and not being able to move to LA; bombing on Alan Thicke's Canadian talk show; pitching Almost Live!; getting the show on the air on the fly; creating fame for little towns near Seattle; Louie, Louie campaign makes it a hit, but no one wants to syndicate; gets job to host Late Show but has to cancel remaining gigs; writers to Johnny Carson; Writer's Strike causes theme shows like TV reunions; Ozzy Osbourne; Hollywood Squares & Howard Stern; finding out Late Show is cancelled that morning; getting Match Game; memorable trip; Sally Struthers and Charles Nelson Reilly; Iraq War preempts show and ratings dive; began doing corporate gigs; his WOW versus POW theory; the book Love, Johnny by Mark Malkoff

Peter Lefcourt joined me to discuss listening to Jean Shepard, his first TV, joining the Peace Corps and going to Togo; living in Paris three months a year; coming back and teaching in the Dalton School; being a cab driver and studying dialogue; becoming a professor at Marlboro College in Vermont; wrote a TV movie that sold and didn't get made; writing pornography and turning a story into a TV movie with Barbara Eden and Barbara Feldon; early freelance jobs; Eight is Enough; Dick Van Patten and the ponies; Rivkin the Bounty Hunter TV movie; American Dream; Scarecrow & Mrs. King; pilot Bulba with Jeff Altman & Bill Hicks; Devlin Connection with Rock Hudson; Cagney & Lacey, his 1st episode "Jane Doe #37" nominated for Writer's Guild Award; wins Emmy in 1985; creating I Had Three Wives and casting Victor Garber; working on Our Family Honor; writing Monte Carlo for Joan Collins and George Hamilton; Studio 5B; writing his first novel The Deal, a harsh satire on the film industry; his second novel, The Dreyfus Affair, about a homosexual love story on an MLB team; optioned three times and now being looked at by Timothy Chalamet; Di & I a fictional love story between Princess Diana and a Jewish screenwriter; working on Due South with Paul Haggis; The Woody satirizing Bob Packwood; Abbreviating Ernie about rough sex that leads to death and dismemberment; his TV satire Beggars and Choosers he co-created with Brandon Tartikoff; Eleven Karens about a man who had relationships with 11 women named Karen; Manhattan Beach Project, a satire on reality TV; his love of dark humor

Marc Weingarten joined me to discuss putting color strips on a black and white TV, trying to watch TV with Orthodox Jewish parents; moving from NY to Miami to Israel to California; his first time on stage; learning how to be a standup; producing Count Basie's final album; getting a job at the Laff Stop; investing 1% in that club; hearing the Ice House was for sale and buying it with three partners for $67,000; history of the Ice House; Pat Paulsen; seeing green George Lopez; Gallagher; David Letterman; producing Rick Dees comedy shows and writing an opening for Rick to be funny; sold out 6000 seats in 10 days; doing sports with Sweet Dick Whittington; getting Rudy Tellez as his manager; being a writer on Into the Night when Brad Garrett hosted; producing the Super Bowl of Comedy; creating the Uproar comedy label; becoming a Grammy voter; memories of Richard Jeni, Jay Leno, Harry Anderson, Jay Johnson, Marcia Warfield, Robin Williams, Ben Powers, Howie Mandel; what makes the best comedians; Woody Allen; George Carlin's friendship and advice; Bill Cosby; being bumped by Rodney Dangerfield.

Rebecca Arthur Golden joined me to discuss her love of Lucille Ball; her current dogs; her beloved dog Emmy who was her dog on Perfect Strangers; being a born performer and always knowing she would be on TV; playing a stewardess; went to NYU; supported herself as a bank teller, then infiltrated high schools for a private eye; worked the Robert Durst case; being on Search for Tomorrow; getting a pilot Anything But Love with Vicki Lawrence and Marsha Warfield; couldn't get on Super Password but next year was the celebrity; Win, Lose or Draw and March Game; doing a Rodney Dangerfield special; getting Perfect Strangers; learning co-star Melanie Wilson's dad is Mr. Whipple; Bibibopka episode; doing an episode when Bronson couldn't be there; guesting on Johnny Carson, being scared and answering "the laundry" when asked what was next; Circus of the Stars; getting strep during rehearsals of trapeze and being scared on tape night; being on the last Battle of the Network Stars; ABC winning though cast was undersized; Cosell calling her race; winning the Tug O' War; improvising a scene in Scrooged with Bill Murray; leaving show business to raise a family; going back to do a short film and a play; working as a spokesperson for Cabi; charity work; being a class mom and making DVD's on school shows for all the parents.

Greg Evigan joined me to discuss writing the theme to My Two Dads; watching Honeymooners; piano lessons; high school bands; winning an Award for Hello Dolly in high school; being i Jesus Christ Superstar & Grease on Broadway and road; being cast in A Year at the Top with Paul Shaffer; All that Glitters; his memorable two-part One Day at a Time; BJ and the Bear not getting a DVD release; driving miles per episode; clapboard motivated Sam; finding out about the 7 Lady Truckers; Lady Truckers do Carson - he gets guest host; Masquerade; Kirstie Alley; participating in the BOTNS; being the 1988 captain; Howard Cosell; winning with Robert Conrad as captain; performing on and with Pink Lady; singing with Valerie Landsburg on Fame; performing My Two Dads theme on an episode; working with Davey Jones & Bobby Rydell; cliffhanger ending; Chuck Lorre = physical comedy; crazy 80s fashion; married 47 years; kids and grandkids around the world; daughter a humanitarian in Zimbabwe; son Jason, a Grammy winning songwriter - producer; doing three Aaron Spelling shows in three years; Pacific Palisades; working; with David Steinberg; doing General Hospital; writing classical music and performing with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Maggie Wheeler joined me to discuss 60's sitcoms; her parents not wanting her to pursue acting; her inspiration; Anna Deveare Smith; being 18 in the late 70's; Studio 54; MTV voice-overs; Rubinoos commercial; her audition for The New Show; her cheerleader characters; attempting to break dance with Penny Marshall and the Breakers; working with her idols; Lorne sends her audition tape to Rankin-Bass; hired on cartoons Silver Hawks& The Comic Strip to do most voices; Jonathan Kaufer casts her in Soup for One; Henry Jaglom hires her for New Years Day; her co-star is ex boyfriend, David Duchovny; wins Best Actress at a film festival; going on Johnny Carson; Dream On; becoming friends with Brian Benben, David Crane & Marta Kauffman; guesting in Emmy-winning Seinfeld ep "The Fix UP'; Larry David says Top 5 episode; Danger Theater; X-Files; being first one hired and first fired on Ellen; Janice's voice and laugh; writing her in 8 months pregnant in an episode; getting fired from Suddenly Susan; Janice's entrances were hidden; being second for wife on Everybody Does Raymond and being given a recurring role; Parent Trap; "Palestinian Chicken" episode of Curb; her recent double guest starring on Bob's Burgers

Brad Isaacs joined me to talk about the Dick Van Dyke Show; favorite episodes; writing a spec script for Taxi, handing it to Marilu Henner and her remembering twenty plus years later; sitcoms not talking down; Simpsons & Saul Bellow; mother could sing songs even though she hardly speak due to dementia; dropped out of high school and got a GED; goes to Vegas to be a pro gambler; watching DVD inspires him; gets a job on TBS series Safe at Home; leads to a freelance Head of the Class and a job at Webster; one Webster so bad guest actor Michael Richards walks off; freelance Duet; hired for Newharts last season; favorite episodes; Dan O'Shannon came up with shows ending; "Father Goose" episode with Henry Gibson; others being confused by which Newhart he worked on; getting hired at Roseanne; being asked to come up with a show for Tom Arnold; models it after DVD with Tom rarely seen; Roseanne wants more Tom Arnold, Brad quits; meeting Carl Reiner and getting forgiveness; writing to Bill Persky and getting a letter back from his 12 and 10 year old daughters; Ken Levine; meeting George McGovern on Newhart; Larry Sanders Show; Norm MacDonald story; rewriting Tommy Boy; adding Superstar and housekeeping among other things; NBC had high hopes for NewsRadio; shows were written by 4 writers; Dave Foley was young enough looking to me believable; episodes "Smoking" & "Big Day"; inspiring "Bitch Session"; quitting after a year; having the show down stairs "The John Larroquette Show" angry at them due to noise; not getting their due; working as a consultant on King of the Hill and Undeclared; writing 8 Crazy Nights and fighting with Sandler about poop jokes; creating Lovespring International, an improvised sitcom for Lifetime; Tarzana; A West Texas Children's Story

Chris Lemmon joined me and discussed how he knew his dad was a movie star; his films Going Undercover & Weekend Warriors; working with Lloyd Bridges; dreaming of Steely Dan; classical musicians were there first rock stars; wanting to make a movie about Robert Schumann; Billy Joel, Chevy Chase & Jeff Goldblum; his film debut in Airport '77; having one line in Seems Like Old Times and being remembered by Goldie Hawn when they did Swing Shift; his sitcom Brothers & Sisters, which was shot on the same set as King Kong; becoming friends with costar Randy Brooks; Mary Crosby; his film, COD; being a guest on the Tonight Show; subbing for Rick Dees and doing a sketch about a Haggis Wagon; That's Life largely improvised; Duet; taking his dad to tapings; his favorite episode, "I Never Played for My Father"; his book; his one man show playing his dad; Kevin Spacey's impression vs. his; SNL Star Wars sketch; Harvey Lembeck; playing a stalker; Alan Alda plays one in Whispers in the Dark; Lena's Holiday; Thunder in Paradise; Jack almost makes the cut at Pebble Beach but it's rained out; The Way You Look Tonight; his daughter Sydney on Broadway and son has a movie coming out; his children and golf; golf as a way to see what a person is truly like; his lung transplant and being greatful

David Garrison joined me to discuss watching I Love Lucy and Maverick; going to high school with Bruce Springsteen; getting a BFA at BU; joining the Arena Stage in Washington D.C.; his first off Broadway play, The History of American Film; his tenure on the soap opera The Edge of Night; getting a Tony nomination for A Day in Hollywood / A Night in Ukraine - a Marx Brothers parody; joining Pirates of Penzance; appearing on Night of 100 Stars; James Cagney accidentally being locked in the basement; replacing Harvey Fierstein in Torch Song Trilogy; leaving to join the cast of a new show It's Your Move; favorite episodes; Married with Children; writers taking his love of the outdoors and giving it to Steve; favorite episodes include "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", "I'll See You in Court", and "Have You Driven a Ford Lately"; actually driving a '65 Mustang; leaving MWC and joining Working It Out; playing Nixon in The Great Society; Titanic; Wicked; and working out a musical based on the 1998 film Ever After

Robin Riker joined me to discuss Julie Brown; her families history in show business; making her stage debut at 4; her parents start a theater in Aspen; her dad hosts a kids show Cap. Rick's Showboat; appearing in the Colorado Shakespeare festival at 10; auditioning for her parents; divorce; watching Walt Disney & Old Yeller; being a waitress; getting parts on Joe Forester, MASH, & Rockford Files; working with Greg Antonacci for the first time; being in the movie Alligator with Sue Lyon & Robert Forrester; her performance written about by Quentin Tarantino; doing the pilot Herndon with Michael Richards & Ted McGinley; reuniting with Greg Antonacci on Brothers; being told that the series has been picked up for 50 episodes; her 2 Cable Ace Award nominations; guesting on Misfits of Science and befriending Dean Paul Martin & Kevin Peter Hall; guesting on Doctor, Doctor; getting cast on Get A Life; growing up a fan of Bob & Ray and now working with Bob Eliot & Elinor Donahue; playing the wife of Sam Robards; meeting his real life mother, Lauren Bacall; Zoo Animals on Wheels; being on Shaky Ground; taking Jennifer Love Hewitt for lunch on her 15th birthday and getting yelled at for being 5 minutes late; working with Ed Asner; being in the pilot but not the series Emeril; Bones; doing interrogation scenes; soap operas; getting killed of Bold and the Beautiful by forgetting how to swim due to Alzheimer's; General Hospital; doing the plays The Ladies Room and Kiss at City Hall; writing A Survivors Guide to Hollywood, with advice on navigating an actors life in Hollywood; going on a tour; costarring with Brian Austin Green in an upcoming movie; working with Jack son Adam on a one person shwo

Robert Hays joined me to discuss loving the Lone Ranger; moving from Virginia to Turkey to Nebraska; changing schools & becoming class clown; being a Marine brat; signing up for an acting class in college; selling his horse to buy a VW bus and moving to the Old Globe in San Diego; being taught by Craig Noel; working with Leonard Nimoy; getting a job on Rockford Files from Eddie Foy III; his dad asking Eddie to talk him out of acting; Laverne & Shirley; Angie makes him recognizable; winning the Tug O' War on the Battle of the Network Stars with Kent McCord; Family Feud / Angie crossover; being called the New Cary Grant by Merv Griffin and having other guest Orson Welles call him the New Robert Hays; doing a magic trick with Orson; having to shoot Airplane & Angie consecutively for two weeks of twenty hour days; the "alcohol problem" scenes took a lot of time and shirts to shoot; dailies were packed; 1st screening the third reel was shown before second; having his parents come to the premiere and Peter Graves tell him he has a hankering for young boys; Bette Midler laughs throughout; friends thought trailer had all the jokes; name is different in foreign countries; one town in Australia played it for two years straight; choosing scripts; picking Take This Job and Shove It to work with Art Carney, Royal Dano and Barbara Hershey; Airplane v. Caddyshack; Michael O'Keefe, The Great Santini and Robert Duvall; hosting SNL 1/24/81; dress rehearsal going better; a prop phone is not placed on stage forcing him to ad lib; pitching sketches Ordinary People and Inflatable Prostitute; loving NYC; filming a TV movie Murder by the Book in NYC; Fred Gwynne; doing Mr. Roberts live on NBC in 1984; dress rehearsal ran better and show was too neat; bringing Anthony Hopkins to taping of Angie; Starman - designed as Highway to Heaven meets The Fugitive; not picked up at last minute

Ken Estin remembers the laugh track; MTM shows; going to college to write short stories; send a Bob Newhart Show spec to the Charles Brothers; tracked down 2 years later for Taxi; working with Jim Burrows, Glen & Les Charles; party after each show; 1st script "Reluctant Fighter" wins Writers Guild Award; Christopher Lloyd won Emmy's for his episodes; having to cut 10 minutes from "Elegant Iggy"; Jim crying in "Jim's Inheritance" while Coach cries on "Coach's Daughter" on Cheers; Danny DeVito uses real life story to redeem Louie in "Louie Goes too Far"; "Jim's Marios"; wrote most Taxi episodes; "Shloogel Show"; "Louie & the Blind Girl" a taken on "Beauty and the Beast"; Sam Simon; creating a sitcom "Shaping Up"; cancelled in Top 10; Tim Robbins fired after pilot; Sam meets Jennifer Tilly and says I'm going to marry her and does; script credit; rewriting Beverly Hills Cop for Eddie Murphy; movies are too loose; created Tracey Ullman Show; her characters but sketches written by writing team; gets Matt Groening to create new characters for bumpers - The Simpsons; hires Sam Simon; James L. Brooks spins them off; he sells his share of Simpsons for $200,000; Sam Simon's Simpsons money goes to dog's charities; Way Cool World; and his book on breaking into TV writing And the Emmy Goes to . . .

George Arthur Bloom joined me to talk about watching Beanie and Cecil; wanting to be a pro baseball player; joining the Coast Guard; getting a job in the mail room at MCA; working his way up to Lew Wasserman's assistant; going to Universal with Wasserman; asking to learn how to be a producer; working on late 60's TV shows; optioned what would become Blade Runner after he lost the option; American International; experience like the show The Studio; producing the Abominable Dr. Phibes; Roger Corman; Little Shop of Horrors; writing Knife for the Ladies starring Jack Elam; write after school specials; writing the first 4 episodes of 1984 Transformers cartoon; setting up good guys and bad guys; writing original My Little Pony with a darker tone; writing songs and the movie; creating the after network executives; Potato Head Kids; helping to fix and then write Magic School Bus; creating the character of Digit (voiced by Gilbert Gottfried) for Cyber chase; not liking writers' room, prefers to work one on one with writers; writing on The Nancy Walker Show for Norman Lear; seeing his episode done on another series; playing tennis with Robert Duvall; writing a screenplay, Any Day Now about a homosexual who wants to adopt a kid with Down Syndrome in 1982; having it pass through many leads including Tommy Lee Jones, Dom DeLuise, and Sylvester Stallone; his son is friends with director Travis Fine, who is looking for a script; finally made 30 years later with Alan Cumming in the lead; became a stage play in Japan

Julie Brown joined me to discuss Captain Kangaroo; being in her high school homecoming court; the scary nun's in elementary school; being funny in Van Nuys High; studying at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco; meeting her comedy partner Charlie Coffey; Denzel Washington being in the cast; starting a comedy team, Brown & Coffey; playing San Francisco and gay audiences; guest starring on Happy Days; doing an NBC late night pilot Road Show with John Candy; being in a slasher film, Bloody Birthday; guest starring in the pilot for Get a Life; being on two episodes of Laverne & Shirley; being in the repertory company of Evening at the Improv; performing "Homecoming Queens Got a Gun"; Newhart; Just Say Julie; her character made jokes, she didn't hate any performer; Gene Simmons; "Downtown" Julie Brown; MTV wouldn't pay for props, proper writers; Beavis & Butthead stealing her commenting on videos; her SNL audition in 1985; turning down a re-audition in 1986; Sam Kinison; SCTV; The Edge; Wayne Knight; Tom Kenny; being a fan of reality TV; her new podcast being improvised; doing improv once a week at the Groundlings

Dirk Benedict joined me to discuss Montana v. Montauk; not having a TV in Montana until 1956 and not watching one until college; lived out in ranch houses; now only watches old movies and English football; Steven Spielberg could not believe the number of movies he hadn't seen; movies are just pictures, not like early dialogue based films; having same acting teacher as Sir Anthony Hopkins; Whitman College; not having a plan; not having a phone in Montana during Battlestar Galactica, agent had to call a bar six miles away to get him; Kate Jackson; wanting to make the film version of A River Runs Through It; house-sitting for Anthony Hopkins in 1971; Aaron Spelling offered him guest spots on Charlies Angels; Diana Rigg wanted all male heterosexual Broadway cast; met friend Keith Michelle, who taught him about macrobiotics; playing Gloria Swanson's blind son in Butterflies are Free; living with her and having dinner with Greta Garbo; learning dirt on Joe Kennedy; befriending Maya Angelou on a set in Sweden; co-starring with Strother Martin in SSSSSST; getting job because of death of Brandon deWilde and producer Richard Zanuck seeing him in a Hawaii 5-O; Jim MacArthur; wore most makeup ever up to that point in SSSSSST; Robert Blake hangs out with him and Strother; Strother and him listen to Mozart; befriending George Roy Hill; playing George's piano; palm reader accurately predicts his life; befriending Fred Astaire; co-starring with Twiggy in W; Chopper One; dating Lucie Arnaz while costarring in Lil Abner; being a conservative in liberal Hollywood; never wanting to be an actor; being dared to try out for school play and getting the lead; stage acting is sex and camera acting in masturbation; his Kamikaze Cowboy Kitchen; his twin granddaughters; living in Europe for 4 years; his macrobiotic book saved lives but were burned on orders from AMA; Marie Osmond's parents put a stop to a potential romance because he wasn't Mormon; diet drugs; impotence; was considered funny after he got out of his house; Markie Post; cast of A-Team were considered misogynists but every female guest stars loved them; NBC hated A-Team; dedicating his book to people who died of cancer; being fat is worse than smoking; people who think others who are successful are just lucky; trying to help Gilda Radner & Jill Ireland beat cancer; no for sugar takes 8 years; Merv Griffin loved him for his honesty

Susan Isaacs joined me to discuss teaching at Chapman University; living on $400 a month rent in NYC; watching the Flintstones; no VCR's; watching Carson and SNL; being in the Groundlings with Lisa Kudrow, Chris Kattan, Will Ferrell, and Maggie Baird; going to USC Film School; guest starring on Family Ties; nice bosses making nice sets; starting a comedy troupe King Baby, with Tony Hale; Tony leaves to do Arrested Development; getting cut from Planes, Trains and Automobiles; Scrooged and Seinfeld and being awed by the height of Michael Richards and Bill Murray; reboots; TV is better than movies now; The Wrong Guys; She's Out of Control; doing a Sony digital commercial short; being a professor; hard to be just an actor; Singer & Sons pilot; getting added to the cast of Anything but Love the day before it was cancelled; Harold Gould v. Tom Bosley; Eric Stoltz v. Michael J. Fox; Peggy Sue Got Married; doing Delirious with John Candy; John Candy's life; funny people have trauma; Jodie Foster and Ron Howard are two child stars who've survived; Michael Jackson; her book Angry Conversations with God; turning it from a book to a one person show; story is universal even if not religious; improvising one of the first movies ever shot on an I Phone - Ride Share in 2011

Tommy Kovac joined me to discuss seeing Sam Kinison at 2; favorite SNL episodes; favorite comedy movies; Adam Sandler, Woody Allen, & Chevy Chase movies; loving all different sitcoms; comedy albums from Cheech and Chong and Radio Dinner; George Burns v. Brad Dourif & Nicholson v. Pachino 1975; 1994 Best Picture, 1980 Best Song; SCTV Perry Como, Bob Dylan; having done 2,500 shows; favorite guests Mitzi McCall & Charlie Brill; worst guest: Nicholas Myers & Butch Patrick; forgetting questions; wanting to have on Valerie Landsburg & Laraine Newman; having Cindy Morgan on; me almost getting Richard Dreyfuss and asking Jerry Seinfeld; being declined by Joanne Worley and Ruth Buzzi; people who died after being booked; Joe Polato; Richard Heard; pop culture nerd outs; belly buttons; sports; Cathy Rigby; Sean Weatherly; next year making 10 years

Bob Illes joined me to talk about his new book Funny is Money with 39 anecdotes; growing up in South Central LA; early TV influences; meeting writing partner James R. Stein at USC; doing the Stein & Illes show; Digby Wolfe; winning a contest to write for Tennessee Ernie Ford; Mike Ovitz; hard to get a radio job; working on Tom Smothers Organic Show; writing monologues for Bill Cosby on The New Bill Cosby Show; friction between Cosby & George Schlatter; meeting Groucho; working with Pat McCormick; Aaron Ruben hiring them on Sanford & Son; the controversial "Lamont, is that You" episode; doing a pilot for Schlatter called Lampoon w/ Alan Katz & Pat Proft; Joe & Sons; One Day at a Time; getting dressed down by Norman Lear and his mea culpa; What's Happening!!; Fernwood Tonight; A New Kind of Family with Rob Lowe & Janet Jackson; Dick Clair; Pat McCormick; working on The Steve Allen Comedy Hour and making a bad impression on Catherine O'Hara; his friendship with Sherman Helmsley; Anthony Geary & Ron Glass; All in the Family on the Nixon tapes;

Michele Lee joined me to discuss her podcast Knot Done Yet and her co-hosts Donna Mills and Joan Van Ark; her father being a makeup artist in the arts; watching early TV including Ed Sullivan & Sid Caesar; being on stage since age 17; having two careers pre (Herbie the Love Bug) and post Knots Landing; being on Broadway in Vintage 60; her dad said not to audition for How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, she did and got the part; starring in The Comic with Dick Van Dyke and going to his 100th birthday party; Dick not understanding hate and still performing; a person's legacy; guesting on Laugh In, Love, American Style, The Love Boat, Hollywood Squares, Tattletales, and Alias Smith & Jones; loving Barry and being friends with Henry Winkler; Juie Harris; Knots Landing not intended to be a soap; her podcast not being political; realizing we're trying to form a More Perfect Union; Night of 100 Stars; seeing Hal Linden & Barbara Eden in Love Letters in their 90's; All Star Party for Joan Rivers; turning down Sinatra and their long friendship afterword

Bob Illes and I discuss his early years; starting a radio comedy show at USC; Digby Wolfe; winning a contest to write for Tennesse Ernie Ford; Mike Ovitz; writing monologues for Bill Cosby; meeting Groucho Marx and Peter Sellers; writing for the Lily Tomlin special and winning an Emmy; The Super Emmy; writing the Sanford & Son episode, "Lamont, Is That You", The Smothers Brothers NBC reboot; Mickey Rose; Chevy Chase; Don Novello; Joe & Sons, One Day at a Time, getting dressed down by Norman Lear and his mea culpa; What's Happening!!, Captain and Tenille Show, Fernwood Tonight, winning another Emmy for the last year of The Carol Burnett Show, America 2-Night; Peeping Times; The Mary Tyler Moore Hour;       Steve Allen Comedy Hour; Catherine O'Hara, Flo, Private Benjamin, No Soap, Radio; Silver Spoons; Jason Bateman, John Houseman; The Cracker Brothers; Milton Berle; Double Trouble, Sylvan in Paradise, Jim Nabors; Courtney Cox; Jackie Bison Show; Harry Shearer, Stan Freberg; Amen; Sherman Hemsley; favorite episode; getting cancelled by NBC because Johnny Carson retired; age ranges in sitcoms

Dean Cameron joined me to discuss the RFK assassination; in a play and getting the bug; doing theater with Anthony Edwards & Eric Stoltz; movies he read for; getting a pilot The Best of Times; the sitcom Spencer; Fast Times the series; read Damone in 1982; Summer School; Carl Reiner, Kirstie Alley; crazy letters from fans; Amy Locane; favorite scene in the film; drinking vs. marijuana in the film; Prince of Bel Air TV movie; Joe Bob Briggs nomination for Bad Dreams; Ski School; ALF; They Came from Outer Space; improv; Ski School 2 with Will Sasso; Killing Box about Civil War zombies; co-starring Billy Bob Thornton and Matt LeBlanc; not seeing half his movies; Meg Tilly; starring in an unfinished film 211; It's a Shame About Ray; Trolly's Ghost Story with Anthony Edwards; replacing David Duchovny on State of Emergency; writing scripts; Hollywood Palms; Mr. Sterling series; working in computer programming; his wife is a TV editor; joining the band The Thornbirds; writing a song being so difficult; performing live is greatest thrill; meeting Penn Jillette while performing as a magician in Caesars Palace; new film, 213 Bones; pranking his dad as Chainsaw

Roger Director discusses his last name; how TV is the writers medium; growing up in East Rockaway inhaling DDT; like to tell stories economically so went into journalism; covering a house fire on Guy Lombardo Blvd, jazzed him up; writing a term paper on Lenny Bruce; decided to get a job instead of more education; created Stretch the Limo Driver for Vanity Fair; Sport Magazine; friend suggests him to Steven Bocho; writes a spec Bay City Blues and gets hired; Bay City cancelled and goes to Hill Street Blues; Michael Conrad still on show; his roll call was a great way to hook in audiences; writes poem that is Estherhaus' epitaph; stories were outlined on index cards, given to writers, then polish and assembled into an episode; favorite character was Howard Hunter; mine is Belker; changed TV; Bochco writes about human condition so there's humor in the episodes; going from newspapers to Emmys in year; doesn't remember being Michael O'Donoghue's Silverman leak; did a year profiling Tim Hutton; Knicks v. Lakers fandom; NY Football Giants; going to Moonlighting; pilot go to him; show had no parameters; having crazy ideas and using them; breaking the fourth wall; Rona Barrett clip show; Camille episode with Whoopi Goldberg and slapstick ending; Maddie gets married, America outraged; creating Herbert Viola to be David's sidekick; Charles Rocket; Eva Marie Saint asks for a line reading; working with Orson Welles &Stanley Donnen; writing with Mel Brooks on Mad About You; his new novel, Killing in Havana; writing a roman a clef about his career; writing a book about the 2006 champion NY Giants; liking women's soccer; being a Mets and Yankees fan; working with Charles Floyd Johnson on NCIS; Arliss; working on a show for "people who don't watch televison"

Denise Nicholas joined me to discuss watching the Ed Sullivan Show; living on the same block as Hitsville, USA; not fitting in with her family; joining the Free Southern Theater and performing Waiting for Godot; Roscoe Orman; her part in the Civil Rights Movement; Negro Ensemble Company leads to It Takes a Thief with Robert Wagner; loving 2 1/2 Men; Room 222, the first "dramedy"; James L. Brooks; episodes were taken from the headlines; going on game shows with Karen Valentine; Hollywood Squares; injuring herself on Battle of the Network Stars; singing on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson in 1971; being the mystery guest on What's My Line; Match Game; Dinah Shore Show; having to prove herself to Sidney Poitier to cast her in Let's Do it Again; fighting to play Carroll O'Connor's girlfriend on In the Heat of the Night; asking for black writers; Redd Foxx; Baby, I'm Back; guesting on Diff'rent Strokes; her sisters gruesome murder; being in the pilot for Masquerade; guesting on Magnum, PI; getting an NAACP nomination for telefilm Mother's Day; joining the cast and writing staff of In the Heat of the Night; Ghost Dad; Richard Roundtree; her novel Freshwater Road; her second novel turning into her memoir deciding whether to work or not; 23 and me saying she is 64% European and 34% Nigerian; going to Nigeria and no one there believing she's Nigerian; Blacula; too much television shows

Mark Malkoff joins me to discuss Johnny's likability; booking of civilian guests like the potato chip in front of celebrities; finding them; Vlasak Kresick; Martin Mull; Rohan Varvedecker; couldn't get Letterman or Bette Midler as guests; tried for years to finally get Angie Dickinson & Dyan Cannon; getting into podcasts at the right time; Jimmy Buffet wanted to talk Johnny; wanting to book Jim Downey; talking to Robert Smigel; Stephen Colbert's cancellation; SNL's format is what keeps it popular; Johnny's breaking of Sahara hotel record in 1964 solidifies his fame; having old time guests; retiring and then gaining some weight kept him off TV; NBC's 75th; Carson gains power in 1967, more in 1979; show goes from 90 minutes to 60; some guests like Buck Henry & Suzanne Pleshette don't come back; wanting good talkers, not just big stars; James Garner & Burt Reynolds were both; comedians Rickles, Rodney, Martin Short & David Steinberg; Cher goes on with guest hosts; Warren Beatty; didn't like "bit" comedians; banning Orson Welles, Uri Geller & Kreskin; origin of Carnac; Steve Allen; Prof. Backwards joke makes him mad at SNL; Dana Carvey's Johnny sketches; Johnny on ;s "Here's Cliffy" episode of Cheers; Marc Shaiman; Jan Hooks; rock stars were few like Chuck Berry & ZZ Top; kept booking Tony Bennett; Arsenio never out rates him; warning Chevy Chase; Dennis Miller; Top Weekend Update anchors; Elaine Stritch; Buck Henry on Paar; Rickles and the geisha girls; Tiny Tim & miss Vicki; Ed Ames; Doc Severinsen still alive; Johnny's popularity grew through anniversary shows; only Letterman did them; Johnny places on Dave; picking Lorne Michaels brain; Tom Davis; Mark's natural curiosity

Steven Peterman joined me to discuss a picture taken of him watching TV at 4; going to see Peter Pan in the theater; Milwaukee Braves; growing up and guesting on Happy Days; getting his first onstage laugh in 1966; English teacher him to try Ivy League colleges; getting into Harvard; Hasty Pudding, playing female ingenue and meeting Dustin Hoffman; being on Broadway shortly after graduation in The American Millionaire with Paul Sorvino; being to embarrassed to audition for The Lampoon; wife tells him to audition for The Magic Show; going to LA and guest starring on pilots for 240-Robert and Skag; Peter Gallagher; Ethel is an Elephant pilot in 1980 with Todd Susman and Liberty Godshall; John Astin; Ed Zwick; Gideon's Trumpet and The Paper Chase with John Houseman; Making the Grade; Jay Sandrich; a pilot called Fog; Square Pegs - would've been a regular in season 2; Greatest American Hero; doing Family Ties in a leg cast; trying to write with Nick Wyman, then teaming up with Gary Donzig; writing a spec Family Ties, then Remington Steele; getting hired on Murphy Brown; working with Buck Henry, Jay Thomas, and Colleen Dewhurst; winning an Emmy for "Jingle Hell, Jingle Hell, Jingle all the Way"; episodes inception and impact; writing Emmy nominated "Come Out, Come Out Whoever You Are" and bringing laughs to AIDS patients; doing two years of lead up to Murphy's pregnancy and having Dan Quayle just call it a choice; Murphy Brown v. George H.W. Bush; Rush Limbaugh gets script and reads it aloud; Mr. Casual Sex, SNL's parody; Corky Sherwood Forrest; Cheers was the only sitcom that should go 11 years; fazing out Avery and Robert Pastorelli; Barry Manilow guest starred; Paul Reubens was after, but the Garry Marshall character was created during their reign; Rodney Dangerfield guests onm Suddenly Susan; Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, and Rose Marie guest; Combat Radio

Chas Floyd Johnson joined me to discuss his name; radio; getting the first TV in the neighborhood in 1948; going to Howard with Stokely Carmichael; Stony Brook Prepatory School; working for JFK's 1960 campaign; Howard Players; getting his law degree; working in the US Copyright Office; getting an job offer at UNESCO; guesting on Toma and Kojak with Sylvester Stallone; working in the Universal mail room for three days; getting a job on Rockford; rising to producer; writing stories; David Chase; writing the phone messages on Rockford; Jim Garner being great to work with; doing The New Maverick and First Monday with Garner; macho and self deprecating; casting African Americans; Hellinger's Law pilot with Telly Savalas and Sean Penn (getting his SAG card); First Monday; Simon & Simon pilot; favorite Rockfords; Magnum, PI; Magnum vs. Higgins; being a military lawyer in Vietnam; first show to tackle PTSD; Ivan Dixon; Frank Sinatra guest stars; Magnum gets cancelled, killed off and revived; BL Stryker with Burt Reynolds; retiring after 55 years in show business; pilots that didn't sell The Silver Fox with James Coburn and Revealing Evidence with a young Stanley Tucci; JAG; life imitating art going back to his time as a military lawyer; NCIS and its spinoffs; Mark Harmon fits in with all his leads; Ziva; Pauley Perrette; all the writers he has worked with; Red Tails about Tuskegee Airman; making a documentary about the history of The Congressional Black Caucus; never wanted to write a sitcom; my working with John L Lewis (who he made a documentary about) and John McCain

Christopher Atkins joined me to talk about Rye Playland, his high school baseball career; modeling; meeting Claudia Black and running into her 40 later; modeling with Brooke Shields, Phoebe Cates, and Lisanne Frank; showing his swing in Blue Lagoon, Randall Kleiser making him sleep with a Brooke Shields poster over his bed for a week before meeting her; swimming with a professional naked baby; William Daniels; being beaten at The Golden Globes by Timothy Hutton; Child Bride of Short Creek about FLDS; Night of 100 Star; hanging out with Paul Newman, Gene Kelly, Mickey Rooney, and Princess Grace; I Love Liberty; The Pirate Movie; Kristy McNichol and its long cult status; her chewing gun; possible reunion; his hit "How Can I Live Without Her"; appearing on American Bandstand; doing Rock 'n' Roll Summer (1985) with Dick Clark; doing a parody of Nastassja Kinski's snake poster; doing Carson with guest host Joan Rivers; getting treated like the Beatles; A Night in Heaven; Perfect Match; Dallas; having Larry Hagman help you move into your dressing room; doing Circus of the Stars and putting your head in a lions mouth; Beaks; doing two movies as a love interest for Joe Pesci's real life girlfriend; twice doing the Jerry Lewis Telethon; Smoke 'n' Lightning; playing a crew member from Blue Lagoon who died of AIDS in It's My Party; his film Amy; how he got into writing and how he wants to make his own film

I watch one of my favorite TV specials ever, 1982's Night of 100 Stars featuring performances by Hal Linden, Michele Lee, Pam Dawber, Nancy Dussault, John Schneider, Robin Williams, David Letterman, George Burns and Sammy Davis Jr.

Randall Carver joined me to discuss watching Mighty Mouse as a child; going to military school; getting cast in Midnight Cowboy; becoming friends with Jon Voight; recreating a Ben Hecht story as UCLA drama piece; Barbara Sigel gets him an audition for Time to Run; being a reform student on Room 222; doing a TV movies Detour to Terror and befriending OJ; watching Lucille Ball run the show on Hello Lucy and Andy Griffith yelling at stagehands for cursing; doing a special with Minnie Riperton and telling Maya Rudolph about it forty years later; studying with Robin Williams; playing Jeffrey DeVito on Forever Fernwood; being typecast as young; his experience at the DMZ during Vietnam; being introduced on Taxi's pilot; his audition; the episodes "Blind Date", "The Great Line"; his TV wife, Ellen Regan; Ruth Gordon; Tony Clifton famous guest appearance; sending Tony a welcome gift; seeing Christopher Lloyd as Reverend Jim and knowing his time is short; not remembering saving a house in 1979; his next sitcom The Six O'Clock Follies was interrupted during the premiere with news of Iranian hostage tragedy; being on four episodes of The Norm Show; hanging out with Norm MacDonald; being in There Will Be Blood; getting married on the last day of the Mayan calendar; being on Emergency led his brother to become an EMT; Alias Smith and Jones; Randall, Jim Carrey & Andy Kaufman's love of Howdy Doody; hanging out with Andy right after he got his cancer diagnosis; forgetting TV appearances

Shelley Herman joined me to talk about about Bess Meyerson and Our Miss Brooks; going to see Elvis with a friend who's mother knew someone at NBC; getting the page job; working on The Tonight Show; giving away prizes on Stump the Band; getting people tickets; being on the Dating Game three times; going to the Rocky Horror Picture Show; Tim Curry; working on the $!.98 Beauty Show;; doing a sting operation for Chuck Barris; Battle of the Network Stars; the tragic life of Freddie Prinze; Jack & Mabel Albertson; Rickles / Carson cigarette box incident; getting harassed by McLean Stevenson'; knowing Jack Klugman from Philly; working on Van Dyke & Company; her friendship with Andy Kaufman; not watching Taxi b/c Andy says it was crap and then marrying one of the stars; Alan Zweibel hellps her clear Gilda Radner material for her book; meeting Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Jamie Farr; being friends with Susan Stafford; getting a meeting with Dick Ebersol; Andy Kaufman on Fridays; being a cast member on Off the Wall; Cynthia Stevenson & Squire Rushnell; hanging out with Richard Dawson; working on The Liar's Club; Alex Trebek and Ruta Lee; working on Love Connection; her love of game shows, especially Jeopardy; the original Wheel of Fortune; secrets of Supermarket Sweep; how she got her book title; introducing me to her husband, actor Randall Carver

Clark Brandon joined me to talk about his father, As the World Turns actor Peter Brandon; The Monkees; living between Greenwich and LA; getting his 1st TV series right after high school; getting the show as a pay it forward from the producer to his dad; The Fitzpatricks gets buried by Happy Days; guesting on Family; auditions; auditioning and not getting the Mackenzie's of Paradise Cove; being added to Wonder Woman for a possible spin-off; Out of the Blue and its mistakes; becoming friends with Mike Binder through Jimmy Brogan; the cast Dixie Carter, Eileen Heckart, and Peter Scolari; the story behind Bosom Buddies; doing an after-school special where he tries to take Marcia Brady's virginity; meeting Dick Van Dyke; hearing crew stories; playing a blind teen who makes out with Kim Richards on Hello, Larry; playing a pot dealer and smoking it for real in the movie Serial; being friends with Jonathan Prince before Mr. Merlin; getting the role; Barnard Hughes and Bill Bixby memories; too unrealistic for 1982; Andy Cohen's crush rumor; teen magazines; Merlin big internationally; JD Salinger a fan; being a journeyman actor; his role on Facts of Life; working with Nancy McKeon & Charlotte Rae; Pamela Adlon; doing the Hollywood Christmas Parade, a David Copperfield special, an anti-drug PBS doc and car shows with Sorrell Brooke; My Tutor; Crispin Glover's odd choices; Markie Post on Love Boat; Funland (1987) written by Bonnie & Terry Turner and and co-starring David L Lander; co-writing and starring in Fast Food with Jim Varney; his film, Skeeter; becoming a teacher, then an administrator in daughters' school; his current pilots and screenplay and being remembered for his roles as a good looking dick.

Paul Myers joined me to discuss seeing The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show; death of JFK; seeing John Candy for the first time on Coming up Rosie; Second City Television; writing this book at same time doc is coming out; Candy's humanity; his idols Laughton & Gleason; death of dad at 5 changed him profoundly; KITH and their dads; Del Close finding him and shaping him; going to enlist in Vietnam to lose weight, similar to Stripes; mud wrestling scene in Stripes; three orange whips; John Candy was picked as a topic because everyone knows him; couldn't get Bill Murray or Rick Moranis; hosting Jim Belushi's first SNL as a cast member and having him on set of Only the Lonely; his twenty plus year friendship with Dan Aykroyd; Splash; Summer Rental; Tracy J. Morgan; Valri Bromfield; Planes, Trains & Automobiles; Uncle Buck; coaching Macaulay Culkin; Chris Columbus; Maureen O'Hara; no scandals; anxiety and weight two biggest problems; Paul liking Canadian Bacon and me liking Delirious; Paul's mom on SNL Mothers Day; Don Pardo flirting with his mom; his brother Mike Myers' character Lothar

Reuben Leder joined me to discuss his family moving with the Dodger in 1958; learning all the jobs of the movies while working on his fathers low budget films; his pilot Strange Customs; his fathers films I Dismember Mama and Ape; working with Victor Buono, working on last season of Incredible Hulk; working on Magnum PI; being sent to Hawaii; diffusing Darren McGavin; working on all aspects of the show; writing John Hillerman's Higgins monologues; his photographic memory and late night drinking; working with Orson Welles & Kim Richards on episode "Mixed Doubles"; Tom Selleck saying he was the only one who could write Magnum; getting an ear for music / dialogue as Jackie DeShannon's drummer at 14; playing on Magnum softball team against Orlando Cepeda; the Luther Gillis episodes; one was a back door pilot; brilliance of Eugene Roche; selling his first script to Alex Karras; Ivan Dixon; writing a song for a Magnum episode and getting $40,000 in royalties; Ernest Borgnine; leaving after season 6 due to too much rewriting freelancers scripts; Charles Floyd Johnson; writing a Rockford Files movie; being praised about script script from James Garner and cursed at by Rita Moreno; missing Frank Sinatra; working on Downtown with a young Mariska Hargitay; pilots: Danger Down Under with Lee Majors and Badlands 2005 with Sharon Stone; writing a Land of the Lost and Star Trek TNG under a pseudonym; the Star Trek TNG being on the last of 100 Greatest Episodes of all time.

Krista Errickson joined me and we discussed her Wikipedia page; her grandfather, a famous Broadway set designer; her godfather, Elia Kazan; her father's family, the McIntyre's being the family written about in James Michener's Hawaii; watching Mr. Rogers & Captain Kangaroo; Lawrence Welk; the earwig episode of Night Gallery; becoming a model at 13; being a contemporary of Brooke Shields; shooting a movie with her that got scrapped; Little Darlings; improvising in her scenes; her helping to compile the film's soundtrack; Alexa Kenin; Cynthia Nixon; fighting with Kristy McNichol; not wanting to do Hello, Larry; John Femia; Joey Travolta; crossover episode with Diff'rent Strokes; seeing the trauma in Dana Plato; the production company "banking" school hours by making them go to school during vacation; her pilot The First Time; appearing in the Doors LA Woman video; having to audition in a bikini for Mr. Belvedere; appearing on 21 Jump Street and pissing Richard Grieco's girlfriend off; befriending Johnny Depp & Peter DeLuise; meeting Brad Pitt; 90210 made her want to quit acting; getting to be the first western woman in Iran since 1978; producing documentaries; being friends with Joe Dicso, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, and the Murray brothers; dating Peter Aykroyd; being with Belushi three days before his death; drinking double Remy Martin's at 15; negotiating with the Taliban for a hostages release; most Muslim fundamentalists are illiterate; Christian fundamentalism; a 21 Jump Street episode that echoes Charlie Kirk that was made 4 years before he was born; Studio 54

Podcaster Shari Fesko (Saturday Night Ladies) and I discuss the TV, movies, and music of 1985

Paul Linke and I discuss his one man shows; how his eulogy for his first wife turned into a one man play on HBO; how his second wife inspired his second show and his friendship with Charles Nelson Reilly his third; his new show, The Summer I Got Old; watching Kate Smith and Howdy Doody on an early TV; his love of the Doors turns into a performance piece based on "The End" at USC; appearing in The Baby Makers with Barbara Hershey; hosting, acting in and promoting The Golden Theater Festival; hosting the 1974 Christmas Seals Telethon; being a good eulogist working with Jackie Gleason & Lucille Ball; going to the Last Waltz; 60's music; his recurring role on Happy Days; Henry Winkler and Johnny Depp having the same aura; appearing with Alan Alda in a scene on MASH; Alda's technique and Michael Richards; slam dancing on CHiPS; the MAIT Team episode; seeing Timothy Leary's ashes; Keith Richards; being on The Mike Douglas Show; his role in Motel Hell; Elaine Joyce and JD Salinger; appearing on Supertrain and Just Men with Betty White; his 25 year friendship with John Ritter; and how his shows require a lot of adrenaline and make him crash afterwards

Harper the Fox joined me to discuss Mr. Rogers and his unintentional role in the porn industry; people using VR to go to their childhood homes; being an English lit major; teaching herself guitar; parodying Paul Simon with "Pound in Silence"; being a writer; the Onion; being a geek; meeting her husband, an extroverted improv comedian; the c word; her writing process; how her fans write parodies; an example of her poetry from her book, Wandering Lust; trying to get known; how showing your tits helps; her Hallelujah parody; Johnny Cash; her vocal range is limited in female singers; changing keys on songs; her Conspiracy Kids songs; Honey Taylor's Bigfoot Encounter; Stallone's porn; Joey Chestnut vs. adult stars; funny porn tropes; we've always been dirty & filthy; her podcast Dirty Folk; degradation & dick ratings; all bodies eventually was together; and her film Cops vs. Whores.

Tommy Ruben joined me to discuss the closed knit cast of CPO Sharkey; growing up in Larchont, NY and his dad working for Sgt. Bilko; his dad Aaron, writing for Fred Allen, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, The Andy Griffith Show and creating Gomer Pyle USMC; Don Rickles getting booed on Comic Relief; Sharkey's scripts scripts had ad-libs written in; being a class clown; guest starring on MASH; going to the Oakwood School; his dad''s film, The Comic; his father liked to build sitcoms around someone; creating CPO Sharkey; Polish jokes got the most letters; his first scene; episodes focusing on his character; the Johnny Carson incident and how has dad was mad; NBC wasn't all in on Don; Bob Newhart; his brother writing the punk rock episode; appearing in More American Graffiti with Cindy Williams; the difference in Drew Barrymore and James garner's acting methods; appearing and writing and episodes of The Stockard Channing Show; Rhonda Bates; being in his brothers movies; almost getting The Hardy Boys Show; and studying photography at the School of Visual Arts.

Larry Charles joined me to talk about his early heroes, The Little Rascals, 3 Stooges, and Abbott & Costello; trying stand up as a duo; the bimmies; portraying rabbi on stage; selling jokes; Darrow Igus buys jokes & leads to Fridays; the parakeet; Diner of the Living Dead; The Clash; Ronnie Horror Picture Show; 2nd Amendment sketch; Joe Shulkin; not all Fridays writers on drugs; harsher political satire than SNL; Men who Hum; more edgy music, then Kim Carnes; pause after Fridays; writing for Arsenio Hall; Dragnet; Seinfeld: The Library Book, The Limo, The Subway, The Outing; a scary incident with his family, art, and police; his voice; Carroll O'Connor & Carol Burnett; Mel Brooks; working with Shelley Berman on Curb; John Astin; Sandy Baron; Borat and the nude fight scene; more women liked Borat than predicted; loving Mad Magazine & National Lampoon; favorite writer was Michael O'Donoghue; Sacha Baron Cohen should have won the Oscar; Matt Walsh; faux doc on assassination of George W. Bush; Andy Kaufman returns to Fridays as a born again Christian; Nathan Fielder; Marty Feldman

Michael S. Baser joined me to discuss watching Sky King as a kid; using comedy as a deterrent to bullies; starting a stand-up duo as a teenager; meeting Kim Weiskopf; his father not helping them; A Year at the Top; writing the first transgender character on TV in the Jeffersons; writing the Barbara's Friend suicide episode of One Day at a Time; creating Mr. Furley on Three's Company; creating 9 to 5; working for Glen Larson; working with Janet Jackson on Good Times; giving Michael Moye his first job on Good Times; Carter Country; Melanie Griffith; Norman Paul; Three's Company; Lana; Don Knotts; Campus Cops; wanting Jane Curtin on 9 to 5; Rachel Dennison; Al Jean & Mike Reiss; and his pilot, Crazy Dan

Ricky Blitt joined me to discuss sports; Monty Python; pitching The Ringer about fixing the Special Olympics; weed helping him know who his friends are and work harder; his last 32 years being better than first 32; college work gets praise from his father; working up to ones potential; John Cleese; comedy is harder and less prestigious than drama; Seinfeld & Friends will will stay because they were mainly for laughs; Seth MacFarlane asked him to write his current script; both fans of of All in the Family and SCTV; Taxi and Mary Tyler Moore blended it the best; he writes things that others won't and does it hilariously; Family Guy being a game changer; writing When You Wish Upon a Weinstein); difference between Family Guy and Seinfeld writing rooms; writing the pilot becoming Glenn and casting Sally Struthers; his brothers, Barry, a Pulitzer winning cartoonist; writing a movie for Cher and Johnny Knoxville; Dear Santa and not talking down to kids and constraints of a PG movie; not liking When Harry Met Sally; OCD; and writing a pilot for Rob Gronkowski

Eddie Brill joins me to discuss watching Jackie Gleason, Ernie Kovacs, & Bill Dana as a kid; going to Emerson college; Andy Kaufman; creating a comedy major at Emerson; trying stand up, quitting, and going back four years later; running the Paper Moon Comedy Club; Fright Night; Bill Gonzalez' Cable Comedy Show; watching the '86 World Series in Boston; minor league stadiums; his dad catching Sandy Koufax; hockey; 1969 - year of 3 NY championships; friendships with Sam Kinison & Robert Schimmel; doing warm up on Saved by the Bell; Louis CK gets him job as warm up at Letterman; subbing for Alan Kalter; Dr. Katz; first warm up after 9/11; doing bits on the show; doing stand up in UK, France, and Amsterdam; Mitch Hedberg and Stephen Wright; meeting Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Rodney Dangerfield, and Redd Foxx; Flip Wilson; Police Squad; booking ventriloquists; meeting childhood crushes Farrah Fawcett & Sophia Loren; Don Rickles compliments him; appearing on Never Mind the Buzzcocks & The Jonathan Ross Show; doing a character, Jackie Shecky and being recognized by the Beastie Boys; The Chevy Chase Roast; Richard Belzer; Robert Klein; David Brenner & Joan Rivers help him hone his first Letterman appearance; Cleon Jones, Roberto Clemente, and Sid Fernandez; and eating mustard on baked potatoes

Jameel Saleem and I discussed his watching Cheers and MASH as a kid; Jimmy Stewart; going to Hampton College with DJ Envy; wanting to be an FBI agent, then realizing he wants to be playing an FBI agent; getting small roles on Hack & The Wire; being in TV reenactments; his film, Exit Strategy; persistence; writing a freelance Ricky Smiley Show; getting first first job on Manhattan Love Story; doing a sitcom Telenovela for Eva Longoria and NBC; getting hired by South Park for a video game and still being in the writers room; the show Whiskey Cavalier; working on Disenchantment with Matt Groening; his Netflix deal; Bob's Burgers; finally not being the tallest writer in the room; Matt Selman resurrecting The Simpsons; his Loft Bed episode of Bob's Burgers; video games and Dungeons & Dragons expand imagination; his episode Dead Boats Society premiering 7/31; Louise is his favorite to write for; currently writing a Broadway play; the music on Bob's Burgers; Mike Judge; and The Towering Inferno

Rob Kutner joined me to discuss Lost in Space; Letterman; writing; the Far Side; writing for the Princeton Tiger; applying to write for MAD; writing spec scripts; getting hired as an intern on Dennis Miller Live; the shows format; writing the rants; how 9/11 changed Dennis and comedy; going to The Daily Show; doing "Is America Ready for a Black President?" with Larry Wilmore; Buck Henry; getting burnt out; getting hired as a monologue specialist at The Tonight Show Starring Conan O'Brien; not knowing the backstage machinations; Conan is a 12:30 guy; writing a Mormon / Hanukkah mash up; celebrities he met; the last week on The Tonight Show; Norm MacDonald; Conan's tour; Conan's fascination with Charles in Charge; writing for the Oscars; his books Apocalypse How and The Future According to Me; his comedy album 2776; writing for the animated series Teen Titans Go and Angry Birds; his Snot Goblins series liked by RL Stine; adapting Ant Man's Memoirs; his latest book: Jews, 5000 Years & Counting; his podcast The Novelizers

Allan Katz joined me to discuss Kukla, Fran & Ollie; joining the National Guard; becoming a copywriter; Screaming Yellow Zonkers; George Schlatter calls him; staying in a hotel and writing writing on legal pads; teaming with Larry Siegel on monologues; Laugh In skits almost like an ad; Bill Richmond; meeting Orson Welles; Lily Tomlin; writing freelance All in the Family and Sanford & Son episodes; creating the character of Julio; working on Thicker and Water and pilot Lampoon; ABC Comedy News with Richard Pryor, Bob & Ray, and Albert Brooks; writing for Jackie Gleason & Mary Tyler Moore; M*A*S*H*, Alan Alda a great person person to work with; Alan's wife being in the cast; Cher not caring about comedy on her show, relegating her cast of Teri Garr, Steve Martin & Martin Mull with nothing to do; working on Rhoda; Valerie Harper a perfectionist in the best way; Paul Sorvino could be a jerk; working with Kenneth McMillan, Gene Reynolds, and Henry Morgan; Ginger Rogers on The Love Boat; writing an opera Zapata with Harry Nillson; its star, Sean Elliott; writing two pilots for Karen Valentine, including TV version of The Goodbye Girl; realizing that Molly Gordon of the Bear is his friend Bryan Gordon's daughter; business of TV; Charlie and Company; Flip Wilson is difficult while rest of cast was great; producing a series Roxie, whose star Andrea Martin, wanted to do a variety series; Scorch; writing a very special Blossom; Big Man on Campus; filming a movie Bucky and the Squirrels as a college film course project

Helaine Witt joined me me to discuss watching Bonanza in color; Ed Sullivan Show; her mom not liking Jack Benny; going to Elmont High School; John Mulaney; seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and earlier on Jack Paar; Ringo not playing live at Shea; Elton John; teaching in 1970's NY; bad neighborhoods; being laid off by NYC; going to a stand up club in SF and taking classes; selling jokes to Joan Rivers; coming back to NY in 1991; working with Gladys Simon; working with Vanessa Hollingshead as a coach; going to the Actors Temple with Rabbi Jill; Simpsons "stealing" her jokes; Tom Padovano; my ending joke; Carrie Snow; her writing process; wanting to write for Gutfeld; being able to submit for Leno; more time for stand up after retiring from teaching in 2011; Governors Comedy Cub; Jewish Comedy Contest becomes a documentary called Still Standing; working with Jo Firestone on doc Good Timing; appearing on MSNBC and Wendy Williams; Joan Rivers didn't want a roast; Next Door app; Seinfeld; appearing in short film Singles Retreat and its premiere

Rose Abdoo joined me to discuss us being birthday buddies; The Flintstones; staying up to watch The Tonight Show; going to Michigan State; moving to Chicago to join Second City; ETC with Stephen Colbert & Amy Sedaris; seeing seeing Mike Meyers & Geena Davis; Chris Farley "Whale Boy" sketch; Tim Meadows; Happy Happy Good Show with Conan O'Brien, Bob Odenkirk & Robert Smigel; winning a Joseph Jefferson Award; creating one person shows; performing in Utah; her TV debut Johnny Bago; my dog; heat wave; playing a version of her mother in My Best Friend's Wedding; Detroit Tigers; dressing for baseball games; Gilmore Girls; the greater great writing; always opposite weather than what was supposed to be in Stars Hallows; Gypsy never in a scene with Ms. Kim; working with Liz Torres & Sally Struthers; the show Reboot and and playing a version of Selma Diamond; Curb Your Enthusiasm; Good Night & Good Luck; George Clooney's generosity; Hacks; Jean Smart; Hannah Einbinder; wanting to not play a character with an accent; Selma Diamond; Happy Days; Lotsa Luck; water cooler moments; Hack fans; CBS Saturday 70's and NBC Thursday 80's lineups; Newhart finale; St. Elsewhere; 25th Anniversary of Gilmore Girls; fan theories; Del Close

Barry Nichols joined me to discuss his love of the Smothers Brothers; how his brother Nils got an internship at SNL in 1978; being the drummer from Jeannie Cunningham; getting hired to work on Nothing Lasts Forever; being hired by Dick Ebersol; Nick Nolte backs out; an average an average week for him' being in charge of cast tickets; a four hour dress rehearsal; Eddie Murphy, Drew Barrymore; having to bring around Duran Duran; singing backup to Randy Newman; having Stevie Wonder play his bongos; hanging with Huey Lewis, John Candy, Santana; being Lily Tomlin's punk drummer in a cut sketch; being a member of The Garage Band; recording music for sketches; getting residual checks for episodes he was in; joining SAG; Spinal Tap; Harry Shearer; Carol Kane; Pamela Stephenson; the Don Rickles episode; Loverboy only getting one number; Tina Turner; being in David Letterman's NBC Talent show episode; being in on the ground floor of Friday Night Videos; picking the videos including Oingo Boingo; having to be live, in studio, for the video of the week, ZZ Top; Saturday Nights Main Event; holding cue cards on a water slide; Captain Lou Albano; Andre the Giant being twice the size of his bodyguard; his friendship with Gene Oakerland; moving to LA and doing grip and audio work; coming to North Carolina and and doing 15 ESPN Jimmy V Golf Classics; getting hired to edit for thirty-five years and recently retiring; opening the Milton 66 Bear Garden; and his name diversity.

Legendary comedian Steve Bleustein joined me and discussed his autobiography Memoir of a Nobody; watching Howdy Doody & Peter Pan; going to Emerson College w/ Henry Winkler; Dave Madden & Albert Hammond taking him to try out stand up at the Comedy Store; Sammy Shore saying he has the sound; his work at The Groundlings with Tracy & Laraine Newman and Jack Soo; Tom Dreeson; being on The Merv Griffin Show with Laraine and getting ribbed about a nose job; Liz Torres; Brady Bunch Variety Hour; working with Rip Taylor and Ronnie Graham; writing for Loman & Barkley; a bit making a stick a star; Fred & Mary Willard and their holiday parties; being the last surviving member of the Ace Trucking Company; Fred hating elevators; Cracking Up; meeting Farrah Fawcett; Florence Henderson; Comedy Central ruins comedy boom; how to become a proficient comedian; comics get on TV too early; new comics are too filthy; he likes John Mulaney & Wanda Sykes; working on A Year at the Top with Mickey Rooney & Gabe Dell; Gabe can't remember lines; The Rabbit Test; opening in Vegas; doing a pilot with Tina Turner; Gabe Kaplan presents him as a new comic to watch; the Playboy Pajama Party nightmare; having dogs; becoming famous for Make Me Laugh; Gallagher; Bob Saget; Norm Crosby's Comedy Shop

Included: 10 minutes of my conversation with Harry Shearer, the sketches: "Where's Johnny", "Tom Snyder", "Who's on First",, "Senator Kennedy's Next Speech", "The Night the Nights Stayed on in Pittsburgh"

Marc Sheffler joined joined me to discuss watching 50's children's TV; his father getting The Three Stooges for his tenth birthday; seeing Jerry Lewis in a movie and his dad telling him "Why not you?"; his dad getting him him a limo to the premiere of "The Last House on the Left"; going to college with David Duke; his dad sending sending him to the Catskills; working for comedian London Lee; having to pretend to be a conductor; selling a script to NBC; watching Dick Van Dyke and partnering with Sam Denoff; becoming stand up and throwing out his Catskills material; getting a spot at the Comedy Store; becoming friends with George Miller, David Letterman, and Andy Kaufman; Tony Clifton; writing How Bugs Bunny won the West; working on Co-Ed Fever and becoming life long friends with Heather Thomas; her intelligence; writing the pilot for Lewis & Clark but not getting hired on the series; having Johnny Carson apologize; writing for Sanford; Robin Williams; the Comedy Store being an orphanage for talent; creating his stand up character El Yid

Ellie Barancik came on and discussed her last name; her father being the last surviving Monuments Men; growing up with Bozo the Clown & getting to go to the studio with Bonnie Hunt; Clutch Cargo; watching Carol Burnett and surprising her with a tribute thirty years later; finding SNL and crushing on Dan Aykroyd; meeting him on the set of Dr. Detroit; discovering Letterman; dating Steve Koren when he was trying to get on SNL staff; meeting Dan Aykroyd again in 1991; going to BU with Greg Fitzsimmons and John Henson; being an NBC page; not getting fall 1990 SNL desk gig because they wanted to give her it in the longer spring gig; being hired by Jim Pitt and Michael Shoemaker; Letterman pages can become celebrities; taking messages for cast members; Adam Sandler; Herb Sargent took Steve Koren under his wing; typing up scripts for read through; Robert Smigel; Al Franken's in show changes; asked to move to Update in 1993; seeing the staff at SNL 50 ; last SNL was 92-93 season finale; Claire Shirey; going to Conan; embarrassingly meeting Conan in 1991; getting hired by Jeff Ross; reading writer submissions; the pressure of the daily show; being at the party after the first show and realizing they have nothing for the the rest of the week; Conan didn't want to do remotes; coming up with the Mr. T apple picking remote; getting to become a writer under apprentice rules; putting the show together with Jeff Ross; creating Conan & Andy's slideshow; writing for The Bonnie Hunt Show; watching the Bachelor; working with Steve O'Donnell

Tom Dreesen joined me to discuss his half white / half black comedy team and the racism they encountered; how he and Tim Reid started as an anti-drug program; first saw TV at 17 (Honeymooners); being a pin boy, caddie, insurance salesman but wanting to be a comedian; The Tonight Show; getting bumped four times; his first appearance; working with Sammy Davis, Jr.; game shows; the exhilaration of working in front of 20,000 people not there to see you; Frank Sinatra always being on time, rising for women, and being a gentleman; how people always ask about the mob and not to have them do you a favor; Jules Podell; would stay at Sinatra's house; became friends; a saloon saloon singer and a saloon comic; Don Rickles; George Burns trying out new material at 95; the new Pope; Sinatra's charity; The Magnificent Obsession; materials own you; David Letterman vs. Jay Leno in love of stand up; Freddie Prinze; bat boy for the Cubs; introducing friends to their idols; Bobby Rydell; Wrigley Field is frozen in time; his one week as a talk show host; the Chicago Blackhawks

1. Fridays - Michael Richards as "Frank Zappa" (1/8/82) 2. New Show - Scabs Meeting (4/23/84) 3. Fridays - 2nd Amendment Debate (4/10/81) 4. Fridays - The Ronnie Horror Picture Show (12/12/80) 5. New Show - Roy's Food Repair (1/13/84)

Plus

Andy Kaufman and Kathie Sullivan (9/18/81)

Mike Chisholm joins me to discuss how his curiosity leads to conversations; Steve O'Donnell; our first time watching Letterman; meeting Letterman guests on twitch; Rick Sheckman; intern stories; becoming friends with Rupert Jee and speaking at his retirement; Steve Young; Paul Shaffer; swooning over Barbara Gaines;; Steve Weiner; learning how to podcast; Calvert DeForest; Matt Roberts does a three hour episode; editing, PC culture; censoring episodes; the r word; Midget Wrestling Warriors; saying something is gay; Don Rickles; Andrew "Dice" Clay; Howard Stern; blackface; Jjimmy Hat, Andy Kaufman, and Jerry Lawler; Merrill Markoe; befriending Jeff Altman and Dick Cavett; how my OCD affects my show; his ailing father; season 2 and being my Tony Randall

Chris Kelly joined me to discuss his dad and his love of lesson plans; living in Canada and having having one US TV station; Little Rascals; other comedy hubs beside Canada; his influence; improv; his dad writing for SNL; Harry Shearer; every TV show having its own process; Letterman's reaction to being passed by Politically Incorrect in the ratings; having structure even in lunch orders; writing for the Village Voice; getting hired on HA!'s After Drive and Comedy Channels Sports Monster; being told Sports Monster had no viewers in Philadelphia; being the first to write about sports in National Lampoon; getting to NL when they got rid of the nudity, and having it shut down; the letters; the "prefect game" in Late Night; Tom Gammill & Cathy; writing VO's for Penn Jillette; meeting Bill Maher and discussing the Politically Incorrect should have a Johnny Carson like monologue; Bills early TV appearances; Buffalo Bill, Geena Davis and Jay Tarses; Slap Maxwell; Richard Mulligan; Arianna Huffington; Christine O'Donnell; moving to ABC; writing with Bill his New Rule on football streaming; Roseanne vs. OJ jury episode; great talk show guests; Charles Grodin; Dom Irrera makes a host look good; Andrew Smith on Johnny Carson and getting his job by "whipping it out"; Bill Scheft; Reese Witherspoon; having to write 100's of jokes on the same topic; Top 10 list; calling to congratulate Bill on 9/11 episode that got him fired; all desk show bits were created by Bill except New Rules written by Billy Martin; The Kardashians; Regis Philbin; what's Bill like; best and worst guests; Scott Carter's tremendous fingerprints on the show; his cat book, Downton Tabby

Andy Cowan joined me to discuss his Seinfeld episode, "The Opposite"; his book and chapter on rejected Seinfeld plots; Danny Thomas; his idol, Jack Benny; Leave it to Beaver & The Honeymooners; going to Boston University; loving Letterman & VCR's; Nancy Sinatra and Seinfeld finale; jazz; how he tricked Lorne Michaels into a meeting; how he would "fix" SNL; Rick Moranis & SCTV; being a pre-interviewer on the Merv Griffin Show; writing spec Taxi's; ore-interviewing Orson Welles the day before he died; Whitney Houston; Ethel Merman; writing for Cheers and The Pat Sajak Show; Jerry Lewis; 60 Minutes then and now; Andy Rooney; Howie, a comic strip, cartoon, and sitcom stuck in development; Up & Down Guys; his podcast the Neurotic Vaccine; his new episode which which he considers his best

Diana and I discuss The Bellinis; Lenny (Luca Brasi) Montana; Hollywood High; auditioning for Marni Nixon Feast, Ozzie's Girls; guest starring in a memorable Happy Days, Chico and the Man, Medical Story, The First Nudie Musical, Starsky & Hutch; Paul Michael Glaser; The Love Boat pilot; Soap; audition; cast becomes family; Hollywood Squares, Dinah!; Perry Como’s Early American Christmas; Barney Miller; Steve Landesburg; I’m A Big Girl Now; Danny Thomas; Martin Short; People's Choice Award; American Bandstand "Who You Foolin'?"; All Star Salute to Mother's Day; Bob Hope; Bobbie Gentry; Don Rickles; finding out her show got cancelled while On Broadway; Peking Encounter; A Foot in the Door, Night Partners; Yvette Mimieux; Patti Davis Reagan; Hotel; No Complaints; Harold Gould, Murder She Wrote and friendship with Angela Lansbury; Trapper John, MD ; St. Elsewhere; Throb playing Paul Walker's Mom; success in Germany; The Bruce Diet; Home Free; Matthew Perry, Marian Mercer; Maggie Roswell, and teaching at Manhattanville College

Samantha Harper Macy joined me to discuss watching Perry Mason as a teen with her family; going to Ole Miss with James Meredith; being seen as a racist in Chicago because she is from the south; auditioning with Woody Allen; being shown around the city by strangers; modeling; taking acting classes from Lee Strasberg; hippies; sees Oh! Calcutta and for it; her sketch; meeting her husband, Bill Macy; Oh! Calcutta banned in her home town; Bill guests on All in the Family; Bill gets Maude and Samantha guest stars; her guest starring on Hot L Baltimore leads to Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman; working with Victor Killian, Louise Lasser, and Mary Kay Place; playing a hooker on Hill St. Blues; her husband's work in The Jerk, Movers & Shakers, Bad Medicine and The Late Show; working with Robin Williams on Mork & Mindy and Terry Bradshaw and Mel Tillis on a TV pilot; being directed in two films by Hal Ashby; her memoir, Naked in Oh! Calcutta and other Stories; and her play Two Sisters Cafe

Jerry Minor joined me to discuss his first memory of seeing Johnny Cash TV; the Detroit Lions; playing Michael Jackson's glove; being a Jehovah's Witness; proselytizing; leaving the Church and starting comedy; going to a show to try stand up; going to his first comedy show; working in Second City Detroit, Chicago, and Toronto and the similarities and differences; Mr. Show; being hired on SNL in 2000 and moved to cast when Tim Meadows leaves; Grandmaster Rap; working with Eminem on first show; impressions of Billy Dee Williams and Al Sharpton; working with Dana Carvey; the Tom Green episode, Mena Suvari; XFL delays Jennifer Lopez episode; Conan O' Brien; playing Sharpton to Darrell Hammond's Jesse Jackson; being let go; the problem of being the new guy; writing and the song "Somebody's Fucking My Lady" with Craig Robinson; Rodney Dangerfield; Martin Short Show; Anchorman; Abbott Elementary; Beer League; Lucky Louie; working with Louis CK; being in Funny People by Judd Apatow; guys named Jerry; being on the 1st season of Bob's Burgers; Brickleberry: Howard Stern; Yucko the Clown and JD; directing at Second City; SNL's 50th anniversary; David Cross inspires new podcasrt "Playing to the Back of the Room"

Kres Mersky and I discussed her name; starting acting at a local park at 14 and getting the bug; going to Beverly Hills High with Rob Reiner, Richard Dreyfus, and Julie Kavner; TV debut on Virginian; doing three episodes of Ironside; working with Carl Reiner in The Comic & Oh God!; working with Rob Reiner on the TV show which birthed Spinal Tap; doing a B motorcycle movie; skating in Holy Rollers and Charlies Angels; being in Won Ton Ton, the Dog that Saved Hollywood as Theda Bara; having most of her Charlies Angels scenes with Farrah Fawcett; having Richard Pryor discover her one woman show and putting an excerpt on his NBC variety show; appearing in Husbands, Wives and Lovers; guest starring on two classics, Taxi & Barney Miller; Stephanie a 1981 pilot starring Stephanie Faracy; being in the last movie directed by George Cukor; appearances on Open All Night and Ryan's Four; her most famous role as Wormser's mom in Revenge of the Nerds; guesting on Facts of Life and St. Elsewhere; focusing on family; writing and starring in a one woman play about Isadora Duncan; going back to do a Murder, She Wrote; writing and starring in a one woman play about Einstein's secretary; Nuts and Chews her many character play a la Lily Tomlin; doing Einstein research at Cal Tech; making a short film Rope, with her husband editor Paul Geretsen; and his making many commercials during COVID

Rick Mitchell joined me to discuss Carol recognizing him from TMZ; writing a performing speeches in his past ; it really not being that hard to write a good speech; giving a good speech requires you know your audience; this book can help save you from listening to bad speeches; differences in different religious weddings; worst speeches are graduation and bar mitzvah; not being Jewish and everyone thinking he is; taking a DNA test to find he's half Jewish; attending UC Davis; working at Second City and Improv Olympic; SNL being a big impetus; Norm MacDonald, Rodney Dangerfield, Mitch Hedberg, and George Carlin; his style; writing for Yakov Smirnoff; trying stand up after killing at his high school graduation; corporate gigs; his career at TMZ; writing monologues for Ellen; having her voice before being hired; her being from New Orleans; backstage gossip; what hurt her was always saying "be nice"; telling stories; guest hosts; Eugene & Dan Levy were hard; Wanda Sykes & Jennifer Anniston were easy; Robert Downey Jr, his favorite and Jason Sudeikis

Trace Baeulieu joined me to discuss his last name; riffing on teachers and film strips; his quick stint at Univ. at Minnesota; stand up; having a day job; being an opener; meeting Frank and Joel; joining for the second episode; all original episodes done in one day; not as many jokes in early days; Frank's an old soul, makes history and baseball references; Ground Zero; jokes for the group; audience feels smarter for getting jokes; Ed Platt; Peabody Award; Dennis Miller; Trace's cell phone; Jetsons; Comedy Central execs only came to Minnesota once; not having Comedy Central himself; Crow tattoos; my name; Freaks & Geeks; working with Joe Flaherty; SCTV; writing for Americas Funniest Home Video; being a fun job; Silly Rhymes for Belligerent Children; JD Salinger; Cinematic Titanic; conventions; Atheist convention; Sklar Brothers; not riffing on good movies; Godfather; Godfather III; Unforgiven; North by Northwest; slapstick comedy; Pee Wee's Big Adventure; Dr. Strangelove; Groucho; Jack Benny; doing a radio play in Chicago; his podcast; the Oscars; Inside Out; Harry Shearer; Harry Potter; Crow's voice; David Frye; Mads are Back

Stu Kreisman joined me to talk about stalking the original cast of SNL; writing for National Lampoon and Alan King ; SCTV; his two tours with Night Court (1984 - 1986, 1990 - 1992); Cheers; Newhart; Homeboys in Outer Space; Harry Anderson's and 1985 SNL monologue

Andy Goldberg & Wendy Cutler of the improv group Off the Wall joined me to discuss the founder, Dee Marcus; how they met her; the original members, Chris Thompson, Judy Pioli, and Joie Madigow; having four women and two men; Marc Sotkin and Robin Williams join; improv games; characters; Paul Willson, David Ruprecht, Phil Lamar, and John Ritter join and leave; Maryedith Burrell; Completely Off the Wall pilot loses to Fridays; appearances on The Dating Game, The Goodbye Girl, and Fernwood Tonight; Norman Lear's compliment; voiceover acting and looping; Super Loopers; Diary of a Young Comic with Richard Lewis; hanging out at Cantor's Deli; Garry Shandling, Bernadette Birkett, Archie Hahn, Tom Tully, and Harry Murphy join and leave; Ken Levine takes classes; 1985-1986 sketch comedy Off the Wall not affiliated even though Susan Elliot was a cast member; George Wendt; Laverne & Shirley; Dance Night; celebrity fans Bruce Willis, Sam Shepard, and Gene Hackman; appearing on An Evening at the Improv; having a monthly guest, including Chevy Chase; Wendy & Bob Perlow due gags on People Do the Craziest Things; Candid Camera; Edinburgh Festival; Puppetry of the Penis; Groundlings cross-pollination; his book, Improv Comedy and teaching Bryan Cranston

Dan Vitale joined me and discussed social media presence; attention he got from Marc Maron's podcast; Lorne Michaels seeing him; his audition for The New Show; his fluctuating weight from 1986 - 1991; Cobra Kai; streaming services give more content; Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Bill Burr & Louis CK; being Lorne Michaels protege; being funnier now than when he was "hot" in the '80's because he's off alcohol and drugs and older; being listed above Norm MacDonald as a SNL cast member in Rolling Stone; growing up in Island Park, Long Island; other famous Island Park residents including Al D'Amato and the basis for Tony Soprano; where he did stand up pre Covid; living through Covid and protests; going back to college and feeling like Johnny Lawrence from Cobra Kai; IPhones; Dave Attell, memories of Don Novello and Randy Quaid; wanting to know who from his cast was invited to the 40th anniversary; Joan Cusack; Anthony Michael Hall; Damon Wayans; Jon Lovitz; Nora Dunn; Dennis Miller; Danitra Vance; Terry Sweeney;  A Whitney Brown; Jim Downey; Franken & Davis; remembering the Madonna episode and the horrible week working with Chevy Chase; being with world's largest man Michael Hebrank (1100 lbs.) at the Brookhaven Rehabilitation Center; intermittent fasting; coming back for the Ron Reagan Jr. episode; residuals; current SNL; Baldwin's Trump vs. Carrey's Biden; Taran Killam; Darrell Hammond making SNL a civil service job; Alan Zweibel; and John Murray

Andy Hoglund joined me to discuss finding out about SNL through Wayne's World and Comedy Central reruns; my getting tapes mailed from Canada by Bronwyn Douwsma; going to Boston University; studying film; doing a term paper about how the original cast of SNL embodies the baby boomers; working for Sen. Ted Kennedy; writing an article about SNL movies and it going viral; his copy of the Shales / Miller SNL book being autographed by almost 100 cast members; first, by Dan Aykroyd, second by Colin Quinn; writing for Vulture; being asked to recap SNL's episodes for Entertainment Weekly; Don Pardo; Johnny Gilbert; meeting a lot of ex-cast members through stand up; Christopher Guest only one to not sign; Harry Shearer; Steve Martin & G.E. Smith only non cast members to sign; season 6 cast members Denny Dillon, Patrick Weathers, Matthew Laurence; Don Novello's friendship with Francis Ford Coppola; Peter Aykroyd; Mark McKinney and his work on Studio 60; KITH Brain Candy; Season 11; Fridays; Robin Duke, Jim Belushi, Mary Gross, and Kevin Kelton; Billy Crystal was the only time he sent the book away to be signed; Dana Carvey; Robert Carradine; Michael Davis; MST3K and Joel Hodgson; Anne Beatts; Yvonne Hudson; Brian Doyle-Murray; Adam Sandler; how Lorne Michaels has changed; me getting my picture with him; Colin Jost & Michael Che; Shari Lewis; and our friendships with the late Dan Vitale

Chris Regan joined me to discuss growing up in Central NY; 70's TV; enjoying black & white comedy movies; loving Monty Python; SNL; UK comedy; auditioning for David Frost; comedy aging poorly; Michael Davis; going to Ithaca College; being in a sketch troupe with Andy Daly and the Stangel Brothers; being a NYC comedian and mostly topical; going to a comedy club for the first time at 14; coming advertising; working for Nickelodeon; getting jokes on Weekend Update; Colin Quinn vouching for him to get a job on The Daily Show; political affiliation of late night writers; Gen X not getting a President; teaching; working on Talk Show with Spike Feresten and FOX's bungles; Lopez Tonight almost making him quit show business; Chuck Sklar; poker playing and pai gow; writing for Anthony Jeselnik and Greg Giraldo; first Family he worked on was the Simpsons crossover; his episode "Girl Internetted"; "Send in Stewie"; "Yacht Rockers"; Marjo Gortner; "Teacher's Heavy Petting"; the fun of writing for Chris Griffin; his relationship with Seth MacFarlane; Harry Shearer; the three Family Guy writing rooms; Family Guy references; new season; TV ratings and his new episode "Bring Up Brady" with Tom Brady coming next season

Elaine Aronson joined me to discuss 60's TV; growing up in Newton, Mass; going to college for dance; graduating from UCSB with a degree in dramatic arts w/o talking a drama class; teaching dance; being a secretary at Empire Pictures; writing scenes for child actors; getting Ron Zimmerman as a mentor; writing a spec Molly Dodd; getting hired on It's the Garry Shandling Show; first episode is Gilda Radner episode; strike happens and goes back to being a waitress; "Save Mr. Peck's" an all guest star episode; "Worry Wort"; how an episode doesn't start with tricks; moving to Night Court; Phil / Will; meeting Bill Clinton; writing the final episode and 30 Rock redoing it; doing Doogie Howser, MD; the Bochco method; having an ear infection and not being able to hear when having to interview deaf actresses; meeting her husband, Curtis Armstrong; Gilbert Gottfried; Clinic Defense Alliance; working on Good Advice & Cybill; Christine Baranski; the failure of The Gregory Hines Show; Maggie; The Weber Show; That 80's Show; The Game; Mystery Girls; Project MC2; You, Me, Her; how mini rooms are not leading to young writers being able to later run shows; her pilot Kitty's Dish; long hours currently on The Gilded Age; Long Island sets; Curtis' taping American Dad; Moonlighting

Michael Curtis joined me to talk Saturday Morning cartoons; going to SDSU Film Corps; having a local Emmy nominated public access sketch show; working on Return of the Killer Tomatoes; being a PA for many films, then an AD; meeting his partner Greg Mahlins; pitching and an episode of Dream On; a story for The Wonder Years; joining the writing staff of Great Scott with Tobey Maguire; writing The Making of ... and God Spoke, a cult classic; writing for Don Rickles on Daddy Dearest; Diane English being out of touch on Double Rush; play a cop in Who's Harry Crumb; working with Peter & David Paul and Martin Mull; getting a PhD from the Universal Life Church; getting hired on Friends; The Super Bowl episode with Jean Claude Van Damme and Brooke Shields; writing "The One Where Ross & Rachel. ...You Know"; writing the Ms. Chanandler Bong joke; Tom Selleck; how hard it was to write the "Rachel Smokes" episode; Princess Leia episode has a fan in George Lucas; a censored joke; Young Tony Danza; leaving due to exhaustion; going to Work with Me with Kevin Pollack; sneaking on to The Grinch set; The Weber Show; Nikki; writing the Joe Schmo Show; writing a pilot for Dane Cook; Love, Inc.; making three pilots for the Jonas Brothers Show; working with the boys; Fred Savage; moving to Italy; Italian health care system; People learning English from Friends; seeing the talent in Olivo Rodrigo; working with Jake Paul

Rosie Shuster and Marilyn Suzanne Miller join me to talk about MSM's love of the musical Peter Pan; Rosie loving her dad's joke books, West Side Story, and being in the audience of the Ed Sullivan Show; Rosie meets Lorne Michaels and Howard Shore; MSM goes to work for James L. Brooks & Garry Marshall; Rosie writes for Canadian children and crime game shows; sends a monologue for Laugh In that Lorne submits and gets on; Lorne uses Rosie's fathers (Frank Shuster of Wayne & Shuster) CBC specials as a blueprint for SNL; MSM turns down SNL, changes mind; work together on a Lily Tomlin special; cast goes on Tom Snyder; Rosie writes New Dad and creates the Bees; Rosie writes first Emily Litella Update piece; MSM writes Slumber Party for Madeline Kahn; Hard Hars w/ Lily Tomlin and Mommy Beer; Laraine (as Shirley Temple) sings and dances with Garrett and Elliot Gould; The Nerds; The Festrunk Brothers; Uncle Roy; Let's Kill Gary Gilmore for Christmas; Fred Garvin, Male Prostitute; how SNL wanted to make itself laughs and everyone in the production was on top of their game; Lunch Counter Reunion; Lorne encourage differet comic sensibilities; Child Psychologist; coming back in 1981; Eddie Murphy; Adam Sandler; Rosie helping to craft the Church Lady sketches with Dana Carvey; The Taboosters; writing sketches more graphic to bargain for what you really want; MSM goes to the Tracey Ullman Show; Sarah Silverman; MSM on lack of artistry on television; Rosie works on Larry Sanders; MSM writes for Carol Burnett; Rosie is a fan of Arte Madrid; watching SNL today; ageism in Hollywood; Paul Shaffer's genius; being "middle-aged"

Gary Seith & Brad Robinson join me to discuss the A-Team; Mr. T's cartoon; 80's sitcoms; Alf; Pulp Fiction; high school journalism turns to making short films; college; Gary working for Fox Philadelphia and Clerks the Animated Series; Brad AD's his professor's films at Penn State; working on Hack, Always Sunny; Gary meets his wife on the set of The Push; Brad works on Ted & Blues Jasmine; Alec Baldwin and Woody Allen stories; Brad's film, Public Interest; getting Robert Curtis Brown & Stuart Pankin; first time they each watched SNL; doing an SNL cast draft on a road trip; Brad hangs out with Mitch Glazer & Bill Murray; during COVID maps out a Blues Brothers doc; Brad gets idea for the pod; hanging out with Jim Belushi; other sketch shows; best episodes from each season; Deep Thoughts; Tournament Talk; My SNL Stories; Dave Thomas and From Cleveland

Stuart Pankin joined me to discuss his first TV role; watching Winky Dink & Howdy Doody; Pats v. Geno's; Dickinson College English major; early off-Broadway and Broadway roles; San Pedro Beach Bus; Next Stop, Greenwich Village; Scavenger Hunt; Barney Miller; Alex Henteloff; Magic on Love Island; No Soap, Radio; Not Necessarily the News; no trailer had to use bathroom; playing different character; winning a Cable Ace Award; The Pyramid; Markie Post; Night Court appearances; Cinemax Comedy Experiment; Family Ties; Nearly Departed; Stephen Furst; playing Orthodox Jews; Dinosaurs, last episode and issues of the day; Nick Freno; pilot that didn't make it; San Pedro Beach Bums considered lost media; Curb Your Enthusiasm; Public Interest; Girl Meets World; Sabrina Carpenter; Suite Life of Zach & Cody; being married for 50 Years.

Peter Gaulke joined me to discuss seeing Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It's A Wonderful Life recently in theatres; no new comedy films premiering; became bored in gymnastics, did comedy bits; tried to get on Gong Show but goes to Comedy Store to practice and tries out; comedy influences; Showtime Special; starting in LA stunts his progress; meeting Fred Wolf and making videos to sell to Dick Clark; having his ideas stolen; writing a Married with Children; sending a sketch to Fred at SNL; they buy sketch but doesn't ai due to cost; hire him as a writer; leaves to do Strange Wilderness, a film based on short movies he made; remade in 2008 as a stoner comedy; his documentary (first half) / fake documentary (2nd) film We Gotta Get Buscemi; writing another sketch too expensive to get made; talking with hosts Quentin Tarantino and Elle McPherson; Say It Isn't So; rewriting Black Knight for Martin Lawrence; studio cuts first 15 minutes out and wonders what's wrong; they put it back; writing Max Fernsby and the Infinite Toys for Harper Collins; self publishing fake travelogues; new YA sci-fi series; writing a Trump animal book with Fred Wolf; having many projects in the works

Chuck Sklar joined me to discuss his birth town; the Cubs and Blackhawks; his first memory of watching the 1968 Democratic National Convention; Captain Nice; Iowa comedians / comedy writers Harper Steele, Higgins Boys & Gruber; writing sketches for Toby Huss's comedy troupe; starting standup; being introduced as a great writer; moving to Boston from Chicago; callbacks; appearing on Evening at the Improv; writing for Friday Night Videos and Bill Maher; getting hired on Conan and becoming head monologue writer; writing for the Oscars and not knowing the movies; Chris Rock's bit about black people not caring about Oscar films; Chris's "accountants"; the Sean Penn - Jude Law dustup; playing David Copperfield; playing Osama bin Laden on "Louie"; writing for Saturday Night Special; getting hired on The Chris Rock Show; bringing his dry humor; famous sketches; his sketches with Mario Joyner; doing stand up on Conan; doing it now; his film script and the difficulties getting it made; going to SNL with Chris in 2014; working on the monologue and pitching a script that died at readthrough; working on tonight's monologue; Everybody Still Hates Chris

Lowell Ganz joined me to discuss how watching classic sitcoms was his "college"; his parents reaction to his constant TV watching; meeting Mark Rothman; Mark Rothman's dad giving a script they wrote to Jack Klugman and Tony Randall who gave it to Garry Marshall; getting hired, fired and rehired by The Odd Couple; "The Ides of April" and "Fear of Flying"; moving to Happy Days; writing the experimental three camera episode "Fonzie Gets Married"; going to # 1; introducing Laverne & Shirley; not realizing these characters could be spun off; test pilot scene; favorite episodes; meeting Michael McKean and David L. Lander and sneaking Lenny & Squggy past ABC; Busting Loose; giving new writers their first jobs; Cindy Begel; his skill at joke memory; The Ted Knight Show; The Lovebirds; The Rita Moreno Show; directing; going back to Happy Days; Ron Howard talks about directing; burning down Arnolds; how he personalized the news article that turned into "Night Shift";  Babaloo Mandel; "Splash"; changing Bruce Jay Friedman's original script; Oscars; Writer's Guild Lifetime Achievement Award; Red Buttons; Garry Marshall puts older writers in the room; Danny Thomas; A Happy Days episode gets Tom Hanks "Splash"; Working Stiffs gets Michael Keaton "Night Shift"; "Spies Like Us"; George C. Scott; Lowell's roles in "Splash" & "Parenthood"; Bpb Hope; Phil Silvers; "realness" of "Parenthood"; closes movie to him; unsurity of box office appeal; "City Slickers"; Rick Moranis has to drop out; Bruno Kirby will play either role; David L. Lander; "A League of their Own"; a bad review; ballplayers love it; Penny Marshall's directing"; 5 TV shows from his movies; how his characters are done to him after the movie finishes; "City Slickers II"; "Fever Pitch"; making like less misogynistic than book; ending changing to mirror real life; Mr. Saturday Night the Musical; Garry Marshall's Memorial Service"

SNN's Jon Schneider joins me to unbox an awesome assemblage of Saturday Night Live memorabilia sent to me by Eileen O'Brien including over 40 episode rundowns, 3 full scripts, tickets to after parties, and a graphic novel depicting the 2/2/85 Alex Karras / Tina Turner episode

Chris DeLuca joins me to discuss the Staten Island / Long Island dichotomy; the Magic Garden; WPIX; Milford Plaza; first laugh in 3rd grade; writing in college; being a Letterman fan; Letterman's making comedy out of nothing vs. Conan's style; Conan product placement sketches; SNL internship; 1st week Chevy Chase / Robbie Robertson; Tom Hanks pacing back and forth trying to imitate Joe Pesci; eating a chili burger and grossing out Mike Myers; Jerry Seinfeld episode; coming back as a page in 1995; cast was friendlier; watching the Foo Fighters rehearse; playing basketball with the cast; Norm MacDonald; being allowed to "fax" jokes to Update; working on Conan; DB Frick; writing sample was used Update jokes; working on Conan and submitting jokes for Craig Kilborn; getting hired by Craig six months before he leaves; writing for guest hosts and then staying for Craig Ferguson; Lori Nasso's Scottish stalker character; bits he wrote; Video Game Awards bits on video game violence and Gamer Hall of Fame; doing a Master Class in putting up with your wife during quarantine; Trump Talk: the American Emperor, his podcast

Peter Montagna joined me to discuss the pronunciation of his last name; TV tubes; being a fan of monster movies; his goal of being a painter; graduating with a degree in nutrition; working at NYU; seeing SNL shoot a sketch near his job gives him the itch; reads Corsair's makeup book; quits his job; takes a class and then teaches with Burt Roth; corresponding with Dick Smith; not getting the ABC makeup apprenticeship; getting the NBC apprenticeship; working with Kevin Haney and being a floater from 1981 to 1984; being Makeup Department head from 1984 to 1989; turning Eddie Murphy white for the "White Like Me" sketch; turning Billy Crystal & Christopher Guest black for "Negro League Memories" sketch; turning Billy into Sammy Davis, Jr., and Yul Brynner's niece; the blooper with Billy's wig and Martin Short; a typical week; his Saturday 10:30 meeting with Department heads; working with Phil Hartman on Frankenstein; working with Billy Crystal on Princess Bride; working with Don Rickles; on Mr. Saturday Night; the work on Robot Repair causing Phil Hartman to give him a writing credit; working on Quick Change with Bill Murray; working on Cold Case; My Fellow Americans with Dan Aykroyd and James Garner; working with Robin Williams; retiring except to help out Billy Crystal.

Don McEnery joined me to discuss knowing how to ask where the library is in Spanish; It's a Wonderful Life; attempting to be a singer-songwriter; a panic attack makes him decide to pursue standup; starting Long Island; observational humor; touring with Howie Mandel; worst gigs; comedy condos; working clean; working with Glenn "Mr. Bullhorn" Super and Sinbad; Dry Bar Comedy; getting on Evening on the Improv; how Seinfeld stories come from real life; meeting his partner Bob Shaw; going to the Emmys; working for George Carlin; co-writing Hercules and A Bug's Life; writing the pilot The Eligible Dentist for Gene Wilder; Punchline; moving to North Carolina; retiring; Denny Johnston; performing for 10,000 people and never getting nervous

Eddie Feldmann joined me to discuss growing up in Saugerties, NY; comedy albums and cartoons being his entree into comedy; a 3rd grade Catholic school essay gone awry; working in his families deli; getting a criminal justice degree from SUNY Oswego; trying an open mic in Virginia; moving to Virginia Beach to pursue comedy; Bob Saget & Joe Bolster get him to come to NYC; not getting passed at Comic Strip b/c booker was attacked while he was performing; political humor; meeting Dennis Miller in 1984 when Dennis was practicing for Letterman debut; opening for Dennis on the road; tossing out a Clarence joke that Dennis used on Letterman and killed; Dennis asking him to submit jokes to his new Tribune talk show; Norm quits to go to Roseanne, Eddie moves to LA to join Dennis's staff; a typical day at the Dennis Miller Show; playing the "science guy" on Dennis Miller Show; the other writers; Larry Jacobson gets him and Peter Gaulke a freelance Married with Children; Fred Wolf hires him on Chevy Chase Show for 14 weeks, lasts 6; he joins Dennis Miller live as head writer for 10 years; my favorite rant; crafting the rant; how it was a once weekly show written as a daily show; Dennis telling writers not to watch other talk shows; freelancing his Law & Order; being a fan of Jerry Orbach; his episodes including Harm & Faccia y Faccia; being EP of The Showbiz Show with David Spade; working on Norm MacDonald is trending; how he would give Norm monologue jokes every day and Norm checking the ones he liked and they were all prison rape jokes; what he's working on now; attempting to reboot Comic Relief; and how Dennis Miller made his references.