THEY WERE ENEMIES ON SCREEN BUT THE GRAVEL TOLD ANOTHER STORY
The studio lot at Paramount was unusually quiet that afternoon, the kind of stillness that only settles over a place when the cameras stop rolling and the ghosts…
THE UNIFORM WAS JUST A PROP UNTIL THE GRAVEL CRUNCHED
The warehouse was tucked away in a corner of the studio lot where the ghosts of Old Hollywood go to sleep. It smelled of cedar, mothballs, and the…
HOW RICHARD DAWSON FINALLY BROKE THE UNBREAKABLE COLONEL KLINK
The studio was quiet, the kind of expensive silence you only find in high-end podcast booths, and Richard Dawson sat back, his voice a familiar, gravelly velvet. The…
THE FLYING MONOCLE THAT BROKE STALAG 13
Werner Klemperer sat across from the host in a dimly lit radio studio, his voice carrying that familiar, refined cadence that fans loved. It was a late-career interview,…
THE MONOCLE THAT NEARLY RUINED COLONEL KLINK’S DIGNITY
Werner is sitting in a comfortable, library-style set for a retrospective documentary. The interviewer reaches into a small wooden box on the coffee table and pulls out a…
THE DAY THE DOGS ALMOST ENDED SERGEANT SCHULTZ’S ACTING CAREER
It is 1971, and the air in the television studio is thick with the scent of hairspray and stale coffee. John Banner sits comfortably in a low-slung velvet…
THE DAY NEWKIRK ALMOST WENT TO JAIL FOR REAL
The interviewer leans forward, holding a glossy 8×10 black-and-white photograph from the mid-sixties. Richard Dawson leans back in his chair, a rascal’s glint returning to his eyes as…
THE SECRET WEIGHT OF SERGEANT SCHULTZ AND THE STAGE FOUR PRANK
The interviewer leaned across the small mahogany table, his face illuminated by the soft, warm glow of the studio lights. It was one of those late-career retrospectives, the…
HOW COLONEL KLINK NEARLY LOST HIS PRUSSIAN DIGNITY OVER A SAUSAGE
“You have to understand the atmosphere of that set,” Werner says, leaning back and adjusting his glasses. He is sitting on a stage in North Hollywood for a…
THE DAY COLONEL KLINK FINALLY BROKE SERGEANT SCHULTZ ON CAMERA
The studio light was a soft, amber glow, catching the edge of Werner Klemperer’s glasses as he leaned back in the leather chair. It was the mid-nineties, and…