Denise Nicholas (Room 222, In the Heat of the Night)

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