Recent Interviews

In his one-hour interview, Louie Zakarian talks about his early interest in makeup and how he came to learn the craft through his own research and experimentation. He discusses his first job in television, on the show Monsters, and how he broke into NBC and the union through work doing makeup on Donahue. He then talks about getting the opportunity to work at Saturday Night Live, including appearing on-camera in one of his first episodes. Zakarian then goes...

In his two-and-a-half hour interview, Tom Brokaw talks about his early life, including early television news reporting jobs with various local stations around the country. He recalls his stint as the White House correspondent for NBC News during which he covered Watergate and the fall of the Nixon White House. He discusses being co-anchor on Today, the highlight of which for him was covering the 1981 Royal Wedding between Prince Charles and Lady Diana. He recounts being hired...

In his two-hour interview, Barry Manilow talks about his early life, including the bands he played with as a teen and his early interest in orchestration. He discusses working in the CBS mail room, which led to a job on the local WCBS series Call Back. He details his career writing commercial jingles for companies including State Farm, Band-Aid, Dr. Pepper, and McDonald’s. He speaks of being the accompanist for Bette Midler, and going out on tour. Manilow recounts his first huge hit...

In his five-and-a-half hour interview, Carl Gottlieb talks about his early years, and joining The Committee improv group in San Francisco. He discusses working with various members of that group, including Peter Bonerz, Del Close, and Avery Schreiber, and later collaborating with Howard Hesseman and Rob Reiner. He recounts writing for The Summer Brothers Smothers Show, which lead to a writing job on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Gottlieb recalls the tumultuous years on...