Ian Talks Comedy

Sandra Furton Gabriel joined me to discuss getting a backstage pass to John Lennon when her husband played in his band; other jobs in entertainment; being a booker for The Robert Klein Hour; Ringo Starr; getting the job at Letterman; hard to get guests at the beginning; Kathy Vespoli; Bob Costas and Marv Albert were in the building; Bill Murray; pre-interviews, being a witness to Andy Kaufman's will; Tom Selleck, Dr. Ruth, Alec Baldwin; Halloween kids become famous; being on screen; Parents Night; Paul Shaffer marries Kathy; Sandra books his NBC Radio Show; booking Michael J. Fox, Peter O´T...

Chaz Jankel and I discuss his changing his name at 13; his neighborhood growing up; producing an album in Port Jefferson, NY; skiffle music; Lonnie Donnegan; being into Afro-American bands of the 60s and 70s; Mill Hill School; Jews in punk; St. Martin's School of the Arts; turning to music; buying a Wurlitzer electric piano; getting a call from Kilburn and the High Roads; meeting Ian Dury; writing songs together; "Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll"; popularizing that phrase; putting together and naming the Blockheads; Chaz's soul vs. Ian's pub band roots; Ian being institutionalized and marginalized with polio...

Bobby Collins joined me and discussed Ed Sullivan; Robert Klein; Long Island Comedy Clubs; first time doing stand up; his first five minutes; following Freddie Prinze; working for Calvin Klein; being Cher's opening act; doing the Tonight Show in three different eras; testing audiences; different types of theatres; Stand Up Spotlight; having a special needs daughter; Jay Leno's work ethic; CD's and DVD's; comedy being the equalizer; dogs; not hanging with other comedians; his grandkid; staying at so many different hotels; and dinner with Sinatra and Rickles

Allison Smith joined me to talk about The Honeymooners; being in love with the Annie soundtrack; her family finding out she could sing; getting in the kids chorus of Broadway's Evita; getting Annie; her co-stars John Schuck, Harve Presnell, Alice Ghostley, and Rita Rudner; never taking a vacation in three years; only missing shows to tape a Silver Spoons; favorite song is Maybe; performing for Pres. Reagan and at Kennedy Center; Night of 100 Stars; getting Kate & Allie; taping at the Ed Sullivan Theater; memorable episodes; working with Jane Curtin & Susan St. James; getting down to a 4 day week; her...

John Moffitt joined me to discuss doing the school news on the radio; going to Your Show of Shows live; going to Dartmouth; wanting to be a pilot; getting into the NBC management program but getting drafted; teaching Morse code; learning TV production in the army; working with Joseph Papp; hired on the Ed Sullivan Show; making videos for Good Vibrations and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds; Albert Brooks; Lily Tomlin special; turning down being the director of Saturday Night Live; producing and directing The Richard Pryor Show; censorship; Star Wars sketch; Robin Williams; Fridays; the cold open...

Ted Wass joined me to discuss watching horror movies as as a child; Lakewood Ohio; going to the Goodman School of Drama; going to NY; getting the role of Danny Zuko in Grease; being in the pilot for Handle with Care; reading the Soap pilot and wanting the role; his character arc; finding out Soap was cancelled while on Broadway; Soap protests; Danny with Chuck & Bob; playing a rabbi; recasting; working with Charles Lane, Eugene Roche, Richard Mulligan, and Billy Crystal; Triangle Shirtwaist Factory TV movie; doing made for TV movies with Valerie Bertinelli & Phoebe Cates; getting cast and...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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; "...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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"...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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"; "...

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...

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...

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...

Comedian Trent Mabry (album It's Good to Be Here) and I go over the 1977 syndicated special featuring Anson and his guests Lou Rawls, Tanya Tucker, The 5th Dimension, Marty Allen, and Skiles and Henderson