Latest News from The Interviews

Dan Wilcox

Growing Up with Dan Wilcox

 Wed, 04/12/2017 When we were first offered the chance to interview TV writer Dan Wilcox we immediately got a vision, a very familiar screenshot of the credits rolling during an episode of one of our favorite ‘70s/’80s TV shows — M*A*S*H . Close your eyes, you can see it, too — the yellow, stencil font that reads “Written by Dan Wilcox and Thad Mumford.” That credit appeared on 15 episodes of the series, including the legendary finale “ Goodbye, Farwell, and Amen .” Wilcox and his partner Thad Mumford were also...
Thad Mumford

From Yankees Batboy to "Roots: The Next Generations" - Thad Mumford Broke New Ground

 Wed, 04/12/2017 If you had asked a young Thad Mumford what he wanted to be when he grew up, he would not have predicted that he’d one day become the prolific writer of television shows like M*A*S*H and A Different World . As a kid, Mumford wanted nothing more than to be a New York Yankees’ player. While he never realized that dream, he would join the team in his own groundbreaking way — by becoming the first African-American batboy from the squad - that didn’t even have any black players at the time. When his...
Carl Reiner and Rob Reiner

Reiner on Reiner

 Fri, 04/07/2017 We're so excited that talented father-son duo Carl Reiner and Rob Reiner are being honored by getting their hand and footprints imprinted in the sidewalk in front of Hollywood's TCL Chinese Theatre. The pair already has adjoining stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. While having a parent in the entertainment industry may offer a leg up to aspiring writers, directors, and actors, having an extremely successful parent can also provide potential pitfalls. As Rob says, "There’s no question about it...
The Bugs Bunny Show

"What's up, Doc?" Saturday Mornings with Bugs Began 55 Years Ago

 Thu, 04/06/2017 Somewhere in your memory there's likely an image of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck donning hats and canes, singing "This is It." That was the intro to The Bugs Bunny Show , which debuted on Saturday mornings on April 7, 1962 and became the longest, continuously-running morning children's program in network TV history. The Bugs Bunny Show actually premiered in primetime 2 years earlier, on October 11, 1960, and ran through September 25, 1962 on ABC 's Tuesday nights from 7:30-8:00pm. (1960 was a big...
Ed O'Neill

From Al Bundy to Lucious Lyon: FOX Turns 30!

 Wed, 04/05/2017 For years it was just the big three: CBS, NBC, and ABC. Dumont was a fledgling 4th during the early years of television, but collapsed in the 1950s. Then on April 5, 1987 the FOX Network launched into primetime and stuck. FOX had trickled into the airwaves six months earlier with only 95 stations, striving to project a distinctive, younger image than the established broadcast networks. FOX's first offering on October 9, 1986 was in late night: The Late Show starring Joan Rivers . Rivers had...
Dick Clark

Forgotten Lines, Laughing Fits, and Wrong Envelopes: A Brief History of the Television Blooper

 Sat, 04/01/2017 LA LA-gate! On February 26, 2017, if you were watching the end of the broadcast of the 89th Academy Awards, you were rewarded with seeing a bit of history. If you’re reading this I can’t imagine you don’t know, but Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were handed the wrong envelope, and thus announced the wrong Best Picture winner. Awards show bloopers are all too common. From Christine Lahti winning a Golden Globe while still in the restroom at the Beverly Hilton , to Elizabeth Taylor mangling names...

The Mary Tyler Moore Show Finale at 40

 Sun, 03/19/2017 Forty years ago, on March 19, 1977, the cast of The Mary Tyler Moore Show took their final bow. The series finale, “The Last Show” saw the gang at WJM facing a new station manager and a round of surprise firings. Show creators Allan Burns and James L. Brooks brought back every writer who had written on the show more than once, and crafted a funny, heartwarming script that, as Brooks says, “made the series end honestly.” But not every moment in the final episode was pre-planned. The group hug...
Mary Tyler Moore, Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman

Mary, Rhoda, and Phyllis: TV's First Realistic Female Friends

 Fri, 03/10/2017 Hearing the news of Mary Tyler Moore’s passing in January really stung. Her contributions to the art forms of television and comedy are incalculable. The characters from The Mary Tyler Moore Show (and The Dick Van Dyke Show , for that matter) are as familiar as family. Mary Richards and her friends and co-workers were three-dimensional and fallible, perhaps more so than any television characters that had come before. Co-creator James L. Brooks ’ more realistic style on The Mary Tyler Moore Show...