HOW ALAN ALDA ACCIDENTALLY TURNED A DRAMATIC MAS*H SCENE INTO ABSOLUTE CHAOS
I remember sitting down for a podcast interview a few years back, and the host asked me a question I hadn’t heard in decades. He didn’t ask about…
HOLLYWOOD’S FINEST COMEDIC FOIL… BUT HE CHOSE THE QUIET LIFE OF A CRAFTSMAN
In the late 1970s, network television was dominated by the chaotic, fast-paced energy of Malibu and Beverly Hills. To the public, the man who brought the high-strung, intensely…
THE DAY ALAN ALDA UNWITTINGLY RUINED A DEADPAN RADAR O’REILLY SCENE
We were sitting in a small, dimly lit podcast studio in Manhattan, the walls lined with acoustic foam and the microphone suspended between us like a tiny metallic…
THE CHOPPER SOUNDED DIFFERENT IN THE CALIFORNIA MOUNTAINS… BUT LORETTA SWIT KNEW THAT ENGINE.
The Malibu Creek State Park was quiet on a Tuesday afternoon, save for the dry wind brushing through the chaparral. Loretta Swit stood near the rocky hillside where…
THE SCRIPT CALLED FOR TEARS… BUT GARY BURGHOFF LIVED THEM.
It started with a simple question during a late-night retrospective interview. The room was quiet, the heavy studio lights dimmed, leaving just a few old colleagues sharing a…
THE HOLLYWOOD COWARD… BUT HE WAS THE BRAVEST MAN ON SET
We all remember him as the man we loved to hate. For five seasons on television, he played a character defined by arrogance, incompetence, and a distinct lack…
THE DAY AN INTEGRITY TEST TURNED INTO A HOLLYWOOD HOAX
We were sitting in this tiny, dimly lit radio studio in Los Angeles for a podcast retrospective, and the host, out of nowhere, brought up an old, grainy…
A MOMENT OF SILENCE IN THE SWAMP… DAVID OGDEN STIERS NEVER FORGOT.
The studio lights always felt a little too hot when the clock crawled past midnight. They were filming on Stage 9, and the air was thick with the…
THE CHOPPER BLADES STOPPED… BUT THE SILENCE WAS EVEN LOUDER.
The sun was high over the Malibu hills, casting long, sharp shadows across the dry brush and the jagged rocks that once stood in for a world away….
THE DAY THE FRUIT HAT NEARLY TOOK OUT FRANK BURNS
The lights in the auditorium were bright, almost as hot as those summer days we spent filming in the Malibu mountains. I was sitting on a stage with…