Ian Talks Comedy

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...

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 Br...

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...

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; wo...

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 Vi...

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 sk...

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; demolit...

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...

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; firs...

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; cr...

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...

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, Co...

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&...

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...

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; writin...

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 producti...

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 Colum...

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;...

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 pilo...

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...

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...

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...

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 part...

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 pi...