THE DAY JOHN BANNER FINALLY SAW EVERYTHING ON SET
The studio light reflects off the mahogany table as Robert Clary settles into his chair. He is in his late eighties now, but the spark in his eyes…
THE COMMANDANT CONDUCTS A SYMPHONY OF UNEXPECTED LAUGHTER
The studio lights were dim, the kind of amber glow you only see on late-night talk shows in the early nineties. Werner Klemperer sat there, looking every bit…
THE LEGENDARY NIGHT RICHARD DAWSON BROKE COMMANDANT KLINK ON SET
It is funny how a single sound or a specific smell can bring it all back to you. I was sitting in this small, dimly lit podcast studio…
THE DAY THE MONOCLE DECIDED TO TAKE A STICKY DIVE
The studio light was a soft, warm amber, and the air smelled faintly of stale coffee and expensive microphones. Werner Klemperer sat across from me, looking every bit…
THE COMMANDANT THE CORPORAL AND THE GREAT DELI SANDWICH DISASTER
It is a crisp afternoon in the late 1990s, and the fluorescent lights of a hotel ballroom are humming with the quiet energy of a dedicated crowd. Werner…
WERNER KLEMPERER AND THE REBELLIOUS MONOCLE OF STALAG 13
The studio lights were always a bit too bright, even for a documentary crew. I sat there in that high-backed leather chair, decades removed from the gates of…
THE BUNKS WERE COLD BUT THE LAUGHTER KEPT US WARM
The sun was beginning to dip behind the soundstages at Paramount, casting long, skeletal shadows across the asphalt. It was a quiet Tuesday, years after the world had…
THE DAY THE SERGEANT FORGOT HE WAS THE ENEMY
The interviewer leaned forward, sliding a worn, matte-finish photograph across the mahogany desk. Richard Dawson, with that familiar, sharp-eyed glint in his expression, picked it up with a…
THE TRUTH BEHIND THE MOST SERIOUS SURGERY SCENE IN TELEVISION HISTORY
I was doing a podcast interview recently, sitting in a cozy studio in New York. The host was a sharp guy, someone who really knew his television history…
THEY THOUGHT IT WAS JUST A PROP. SHE KNEW THE TRUTH.
They were sitting in a sterile green room, the kind with bad lighting and a distinct lack of character. It was decades after the final helicopter had spun…