TV sitcoms

Patty Duke

Bill Thompson

Well before her 20th birthday, Patty Duke had already won an Oscar and was star of her own TV series.

Patty Duke won the Oscar for best supporting actress in The 1962 movie The Miracle Worker, which was the captain from the Broadway play in which she also starred.

On the heels of that success came her TV series, the Patty Duke Show, in which she played the dual roles of typical American teemager Patty and her identical cousin from England, Cathy.

Later Patty Duke moved on to more sophisticated, adult roles, including a part in the movie Valley of the Dolls.

But all along the way, she suffered from severe, undiagnosed bipolar disorder, Exacerbated by various forms of abuse.

In the early 1980s Duke finally got the help she needed, And a few years later, she wrote a memoir entitled Call Me Anna. That’s when I met her.

Now it’s important to keep in mind that this interview is 33 years old, and many advances have been made not only in the treatment of the disorder, but how we refer to it.

So here now, from 1988, Patty Duke.

Patty Duke died in 2016. She was 69.

Dawn Wells

Bill Thompson

It’s Celebrity Cookbook Week on Now I’ve Heard Everything.

And we start with not only one of my favorite sitcom stars, but also one of my favorite cookbooks.

Dawn Wells portrayed Kansas farm girl Mary Ann Summers on Gilligan’s Island. Turns out, she was pretty handy with coconuts, bananas, and whatever else the castaways were able to find — plus a few food items probably not normally found on a desert island, but, that was Gilligan’s Island. It was a fantasy.

I met Dawn Wells in 1993, when she was promoting her cookbook, called “Mary Ann’s Gilligan’s Island Cookbook.” It included the recipes from her mother, and her grandmother, as well as island cuisine.

So, here now, from 1993, Dawn Wells.

Dawn Wells is 82 now and remains a fan favorite.

George Lindsey

Bill Thompson

Is it possible to get a major supporting role on a major television show, and have it cripple your acting career?

It nearly happened to George Lindsey. You remember him as Goober from The Andy Griffith Show.

Taking that role, he says ,typecast him for years to come.

I met him about 25 years ago, when he wrote a memoir called Goober in a Nutshell.

So here now, from 1995, George Lindsey.

George Lindsey was 83 when he died in 2012. but thanks to Andy Griffith Show reruns, Goober lives on.