THE DAY SERGEANT SCHULTZ WAS RECRUITED BY THE REAL UNDERGROUND
The studio lights were always a bit too bright for John Banner, even years after the show had finished its run. He sat there on the talk show…
THE COFFEE MUG WAS EMPTY BUT THEIR HEARTS WERE FULL
Werner Klemperer stood in the back corner of a dusty storage unit on the Paramount lot, his fingers hovering over a wooden crate that hadn’t been opened in…
THE TRAPDOOR WAS JUST A PROP UNTIL THE LIGHTS WENT OUT
The old studio lot in Culver City was quiet, a graveyard of stories and rotted timber. Robert Clary walked slowly, his eyes scanning the dry California dirt where…
DAVID OGDEN STIERS RECALLS THE SURGERY PRANK THAT BROKE HIS DIGNITY
I was sitting in a dimly lit studio for a podcast called The Creative Path just a few years ago. The host was a bright-eyed fellow who clearly…
MIKE FARRELL DIDN’T SAY GOODBYE TO HAWKEYE. HE SAID IT TO ALAN.
The room was quiet, the kind of quiet that only happens when two people have known each other for half a lifetime. Mike Farrell sat across from Loretta…
GARY BURGHOFF RECALLS THE DAY THE MASH CAST TOTALLY DISAPPEARED
It is funny how a single sound can define a decade of your life. I was sitting in a small, soundproof studio recently for a podcast interview. The…
THE DAY NEWKIRK FINALLY BROKE THE SERGEANT
The studio lights are low, casting long shadows across the room as Richard Dawson leans back in a plush velvet chair. This isn’t the high-energy, “Survey says!” version…
HOW THE MONOCLE STAYED ON WHILE SCHULTZ ATE THE SCENE
The studio lights were a bit warmer than I remembered them being back at Desilu, but the chair was certainly more comfortable. I was sitting there, across from…
THE MAN WHO SAW NOTHING BUT A PERFECTLY COOKED SCHNITZEL
The studio lights were warm, reflecting off the polished surface of the interview desk where John Banner sat. At seventy-one, he still carried that same radiating warmth that…
THE DAY SERGEANT SCHULTZ TRIED TO EAT THE PROP FOOD
The auditorium was filled with that specific kind of nostalgic energy you only find at television conventions. It was a warm afternoon in 1972, and the air was…