Now I've Heard Everything

Happy birthday to George Takei, who today is 83. Many of us remember him best s Helmsman Sulu on the original "Star Trek" TV series, or perhaps as an author or activist or wildly popular and widely quoted and rweeted internet commentator. George Takei was just four years old when the Japanese empire attacked Pearl Harbor and plunged America into World War Two.   The U.S. government ordered Ja...

On a cold January morning in 2009, a US Airways flight left New York's LaGuardia Airport. At the controls that morning was veteran Captain Chesley Sullenberger, whom everyone called "Sully." Moments after takeoff, the plane ran into a flock of geese, disabling its engines. Unable to reach any nearby airport, Sully and co-pilot Jeff Sykes safely guided the plane into the Hudson River, where it stay...

ChuckNorris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants. But a book is how I first met Chuck Norris 32 years ago, in early 1988. He had just written an autobiography and was on tour to promote it.  And it was one of the many times in my interviewing career that I wished I could have had a couple of hours, instead of just 15 minutes, with a subject.

Sir James Dyson will tell you, it's not eas being an innovator. Dyson is the guy who, a few years ago, came up with a whole new kind of vacuum cleaner, which he dubbed the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum. It was a revolution in vacuum technology that upended that well-established undustry. But as he told me, in our 2004 interview, it isn't as easy as just building the better mousetrap. 

On this Easter weekend, I wanted to share with you one of several comversations I had with one of the most popular of the TV evangelists of his day: Rev. Robert Schullt, creator of The Hour of Power, the leader of a congregation that worshiped in the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. In 1992, we met for an interview about a new book about his life.  It was called "Goliath," writt...

Back in the '70s, Robert Blake was a huge TV star.  His career actually began when he was a kid -- did you know he was a star in many of those old black and white "Little Rascals" movies? So it's kind of sad that many people today only know Robert Blake -- if they remember him at all -- for his 2005 murder trial, in which he was eventually acquitted in the shoorting death of his second wife B...

Everyone knows the story of young Dorothy Gale of Kansas, and her epic journey to meet the great and powerful Wizard of Oz.   And we know that along the way she "liquidates" the Wicked Witch of the West.  Back in 1995, Gregory Maguire built on L. Frank Baum's work to create "Wicked," the backstory of the Wicked Witch of the West.  "Wicked" became a moden day cultural phenomenon.

If not for the coronavirus, this would have been Final Four weekend.  So, for you basketball-starved fans, let me share with you an interrview I did some 20 years ago with the coach who took his team to the Final Four eleven times during his 36 seasons with the University of North Carolina. Dean Smith was one of the winningest coaches in college basketball history. Here is my 1999 interview.

Since 1985, I've done over 10,000 interviews, with notable people, not-so-notable folks, some you've never heard of, some downright infamous. In most cases, I had anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes with my interview subject. Time to have a cup of coffee, make some small talk, do the interview, and sign some autographs, and say our goodbyes. But every now and then, I would have a lot less time for the...

Years before he became head of Fox News -- way before there even was a Fox News -- Roger Ailes was a media consultant.  Most prominent among his many clients, perhaps, was President Ronald Reagan. Ailes was an adviser to the Presidentg in his 1984 reelection bid, and was indrectly responsible for one of that campaign's most memorable, and decisive, moments. I met Roger Ailes in the fall of 19...

Donnie Brasco was a real person.  Well, no, Donnie was an identity created by the FBI, back in the 1980s, when they assigned an agent named Joseph Pistone to go undercover, as Donnie Brasco, and infiltrate some of America's most notorious organized crime familiies.

Janine Turner is best known for her roles on TV's "Northern Exposure" and "Friday Night Lights,"  and in the movie "Cliffhanger." But until 2014, much of her private life  -- how she prevailed over heartbreak, alcoholism, and the death of her father -- had remained out of public view.

There have been many authors I've interviewed year after year, and one of my favorites -- a guy I always looked forward to talking to -- was this guy, Robert B. Parker.