fathers

A Daughter’s Loving Embrace: Rain Pryor’s Book About Richard Pryor

Bill Thompson
Rain Pryor (center_ with Bill and Hillary Thompson

The late Richard Pryor was a hugely talented comedian and brilliant entertainer — but, by his own admission, a failure as a father.

In 2006 his daughter Rain Pryor wrote a memoir, a sympathetic portrait of the man, failings and all. Her book was called Jokes My Father Never Taught Me.

So here now from November 2006, Rain Pryor.

Richard Pryor died in December 2005, at the age of 65.

Rain Pryor is 54 now, and is active as a comedian, actor, and singer.

You may also like these episodes:


Bill Kinison

Judith Belushi

Buy Books / Media from Amazon

As an Amazon Associate, Now I’ve Heard Everything earns from qualifying purchases.

Chris Lemmon

Bill Thompson

Father’s Day is coming up in about a week, and today. I wanted to share with you an interview I did a few years ago about a Hollywood father-son story.

Photo: Alan Light

For the better part of four decades, one of America’s favorite actors was Jack Lemmon.

He made some 60 movies. He was nominated for eight Academy Awards, and won the Oscar twice,for Mr. Roberts, and for Save The Tiger.

Younger audiences may remember him best for his roles in the comedies Grumpy, Old Men and Grumpier Old Men.

And starting in the 1970s, Jack Lemmon’s son Chris also established himself as a performer. The younger lemon is a talented actor, screenwriter, and musician.

And in 2006, he published a book, a tribute to his dad, called A Twist of Lemmon.

And that book was nothing like so many Hollywood tell-alls.

So here now, from 2006, Chris Lemmon.

Jack Lemmon died in 2001. He was 76.

Chris Lemmon will be 68 later this month. He lives in Connecticut.

You may also like these episodes:

Rock Brynner
Rain Pryor

Buy Books / Media from Amazon

Al Roker

Bill Thompson
Photo: Brian Solis

Not all funny people on TV are comedians. Some are weathermen, like NBC’s Al Roker.

For years, Roker has been a fixture on The Today Show. And in 2000, he wrote a funny book about fatherhood, and especially the challenges of raising children years apart in age.

But as you’re about to hear, it wasn’t all jokes and humor. Al Roker had some serious and poignant things to say about fatherhood.

So here now, from 2000, Al Roker:

Al Roker is 66 now. He’s been with NBC for 42 years.

Barack Obama

Bill Thompson

A few years before he was an Illinois state senator, long before he became a U.S. Senator and years before the nation elected him our first African-American president, Barack Obama was a law professor and community organizer.

Barack Obama
Photo: Official White House Photographer

Just before he went off to law school, Obama traveled to Kenya to learn more about his father, and to try and put some perspective on his mixed-race heritage.

The result was his book “Dreams From My Father.”

So here now, from 1995, Barack Obama.

Tomorrow, August 4th, is Barack Obama’s 59th birthday.

Chris & Bob Elliott

Bill Thompson
Bob Elliott

Father’s Day is this Sunday and all this week on Now I’ve Heard Everything we’ve been featuring interviews about fathers.

Today a conversation with a father and son who have been making us laugh for decades.

Actor-comedian Chris Elliott and his dad, Bob Elliott, collaborated on a 1989 book called “Daddy’s Boy: A Son’s Shocking Account of Life with a Famous Father.”

Chris Elliott Photo: Alan Light

Don’t be alarmed — it’s a parody celebrity tell-all memoirs, and was all very, very tongue-in-cheek — as was our interview just before Fathers Day 1989.

I’m not sure if their book ever did become a major bestseller, although it did get a really nice write-up in the New York Times and a lot of other places..

Chris Elliott remains active and popular in moveis and TV.

Bob Elliott died in 2016. He was 92.

Mark Shriver

Bill Thompson
R, Sargent Shriver

Father’s Day is next Sunday and all this week on Now I’ve Heard Everything we’re featuring interviews about fathers.

Few men are as widely praised as Sargent Shriver was. after his death in early 2011. Thousands of tributes hailed Shriver not only for his great public accomplishments — including founding the Peace Corps, building President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty — but also his personal virtues.

Mark Shriver Photo: Amanda Rhoades

He was, in nearly everyone’s words, a “good man.”

I met his son Mark Shriver about a year-and-a-half after his father’s death, in 2012, when he wrote a book about his father, and what he had learned from him in life and in death.

So here now, from 2012, Mark Shriver.

Mark Shriver, who’s 56 noe, is President of the Save the Children Action Network. He and his family live in Maryland.

Rain Pryor

Bill Thompson
Rain Pryor (center) with Hillary Thompson and Bill Thompson

Next Sunday is Father’s Day, so all of this week on Now I’ve Heard Everything, we are featuring interviews about fathers.

The late Richard Pryor was a hugely talented comedian and brilliant entertainer — but, by his own admission, a failure as a father.

In 2006 his daughter Rain Pryor wrote a memoir, a sympathetic portrait of the man, failings and all.

So here now from November 2006, Rain Pryor.

Richard Pryor died in December 2005, at the age of 65.

Rain Pryor is 50, and is active as a comedian, actor, and singer.