Richard L. Bare

In his two-and-a-half-hour interview, Richard L. Bare (1913-2015) talks about his early interests in photography and amateur movie-making. He briefly describes his work in a combat photography unit during World War II. He discusses his transition to making short films for Warner Bros., starting with So You Want to Give Up Smoking, which led to a series of So You… titles. He talks about his entrance into television at Warner Bros. and speaks of Jack Warner's feelings about the new medium. Bare talks about Warner Bros. head of television, Bill Orr, and his association with him. He details one of the studio's biggest hits, the Western series Cheyenne, and speaks of working with James Garner (who he had discovered during his Cheyenne years) in the series that made Garner a star, the Western-comedy Maverick. Bare describes his work on other series such as The Twilight Zone (and the episodes "Third From the Sun," "Nick of Time," and "To Serve Man") and the pilot of 77 Sunset Strip (originally intended as a feature film). He recalls his work on the rural comedies Petticoat Junction and Green Acres. Finally, Bare talks about his later work including the feature film Wicked Wicked, filmed in the Duo-vision split-screen process. Karen Herman conducted the interview on January 30, 2003 in Newport Beach, CA.