Latest News from The Interviews

"The Jeffersons" Celebrates its 35th Anniversary

 Mon, 01/18/2010 On January 18, 1975, The Jeffersons began its ten-year run on CBS. A spin-off, the series had its "pilot" episode air on All in the Family (on Jan. 11). The Jeffersons began in a period in TV history when African-American characters were becoming the leads of their own shows. Isabel Sanford, in fact, was the first African-American Emmy winner as Best Actress in a Comedy Series (in 1981). The series broke ground in its inclusion of an interracial marriage (in Tom and Helen Willis) and explored...

Andy Rooney at 91

 Thu, 01/14/2010 Andy Rooney is profiled in today's USA Today , on his 91st birthday. There doesn't seem to be any retirement in sight for the nonagenarian. "I can't stop writing," he says. "I like to sit at the typewriter." The Archive of American Television interviewed Andy Rooney in 1999. When asked how he'd like to be remebered he says: "I’d like to be remembered as a good writer, [but] I won’t be, I’ll be remembered as Andy Rooney, the guy who does those little things at the end of 60 Minutes ." Rooney...

"Gumby" Creator Art Clokey Has Died-- Archive Interview Online Soon

 Mon, 01/11/2010 Art Clokey's claymation TV classics include The Gumby Show and Davey and Goliath . He died at the age of 88. The Archive of American Television interviewed Mr. Clokey on July 19, 2001. Interview Description: Art Clokey was interviewed for three-and-a-half hours in Los Aptos, CA. Mr. Clokey spoke of his work creating and producing the classic clay-animated character Gumby, which debuted on Howdy Doody . The character soon had his own show on NBC and had many resurgences since his debut. Mr...

Elvis at 75

 Fri, 01/08/2010 Elvis Presley would have been 75 years old today. TV made a great impact on Elvis' career, when, in 1968, he appeared on Singer Presents Elvis , which would become known as his "comeback special." Variety noted in their review of the show that this special was "loose and sometimes interesting," a marked difference from the '50s TV Elvis of "dynamo hips [that] had stirred a fever pitch of controversy [on] Ed Sullivan ." In his Archive of American Television interview, 1968 Comeback Special...

Trailblazing Cinematographer Joseph M. Wilcots Has Died

 Wed, 01/06/2010 The first African American to join the International Cinematographers Guild, Joseph Wilcots was nominated for an Emmy for his work on Roots . The Archive of American Television interviewed Wilcots on December 5, 2007; his over three-hour Archive interview is now online. Link to his L.A. Times obituary. Interview description: Joseph M. Wilcots was interviewed for three hours plus in Los Angeles, CA. Wilcots spoke about his early interest in photography as a teenager and his filmmaking...

"All My Children" Celebrates 40 Years in Pine Valley

 Tue, 01/05/2010 All My Children debuted on January 5, 1970. Created by legendary Agnes Nixon (her other soaps include One Life to Live and Loving ), AMC helped contemporize the daytime serial by incorporating social themes into the storylines, covering race, sex, and medical issues. The Vietnam War was featured in early storylines, and according to The Museum of Television & Radio's Worlds Without End: The Art and History of the Soap Opera , character Erica Kane had television's first legal abortion in...

TV Producer and Studio Executive David Gerber has Died

 Tue, 01/05/2010 Archive interviewee David Gerber passed away Saturday at the age of 86. His prolific TV work includes overseeing such classic series as Police Woman , Batman , Room 222 , and thirtysomething . A multiple Emmy Award nominee, he won the Emmy as the producer of Police Story in 1976. His interview will be placed online soon. Obituary at TheWrap.com Interview Description: David Gerber was interviewed for nearly three-and-a-half hours in Bel Air, CA. Gerber talked about his start in television...

Alfred Hitchcock in the Schoolyard

 Mon, 01/04/2010 Fifty years ago, Alfred Hitchcock Presents offered up the episode “Man from the South,” which adversely inspired some impressionable young viewers. In the story, a gambler makes an unusual bet with a sinister man— that he can light his Zippo lighter ten times in succession, without fail. If the gambler succeeds he gets a car, if he doesn’t… he loses a finger! The intriguing plot was made that much more popular due to its guest stars: young up-and-coming Steve McQueen (as the gambler) and...

Happy New Year 2010!

 Thu, 12/31/2009 Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin Eve reaches its 38th annual edition with the Dec. 31, 2009- January 1, 2010 special. Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest will host the special starting at 10:00 p.m. (ET & PT) from New York (with Fergie as Las Vegas co-host). Dick Clark spoke about his first New Year's special in 1959 and his inauguration of New Year's Rockin' Eve in 1972 (competing with Guy Lombardo who at that time “owned” New Year’s Eve on TV), when he was interviewed by the Archive of American...