For an actor in the 1960s, landing a permanent role in a new TV series was a big deal. But little did actor Russell Johnson know, when he took that role in 1963, that it would become his identity for the rest of his life.
Johnson was cast as Roy Hinckley, better known as The Professor on the brand new TV series “Gilligan’s Island.”
And over its three-year run, the almost-cartoon-like series about seven people stranded on a desert island after a shipwreck became a cultural phenomenon. Even more so when the show went into syndication after its network run. It’s still in reruns today, 60 years later.
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And even though he went on to many television and movie roles after “Gilligan’s Island” Russell Johnson is still known primarily as The Professor.
By 1993, he had fully embraced the idea that that was going to be his identity. And that was the year he wrote a light-hearted memoir about the show, called Here On Gilligan’s Isle.
I had lots and lots of questions for him when we met one day that summer to talk about the book.
Sidney Lumet was born into a show business family in 1924. His father was an actor, producer, and director. His mother was a dancer. And young Sidney made his own acting debut at the age most kids are starting kindergarten. He was on Broadway by age 11.
But in his 20s Lumet found his real talent: directing. After several successful years in the young new medium of television, Lumet directed his first feature film in 1957, a little production you may have heard of called “Twelve Angry Men.”
In the years that followed Lumet made his mark in Hollywood directing such films as” Dog Day Afternoon,” “Network,” and “ Murder On The Orient Express,”
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And then there was “Failsafe,” “Serpico,” and “The Wiz,” among many other notable films.
But after decades of successful filmmaking, Lumet came to realize how little most people actually know about how movies get made. So in 1995 Sidney Lumet wrote a book called Making Movies. It was his chance to pull back the curtain and show us what really goes on.
I met him 1 day that spring when he was on a book tour.
Jamie Lee Curtis has been in professional acting for an almost unbelievable 50-plus years. She is one of America’s most recognizable stars, both for the horror movies that made her famous but also for the other roles she’s played, mostly comedies.
You probably also remember her for some of the TV commercials she’s seen in.
And she is also an author, specifically, a children’s book author. She’s written over a dozen, many of them bestsellers.
A book she wrote in 1998 was one of those bestsellers. She called it Today I Feel Silly & Other Moods That Make My Day.
It certainly made my day On That September afternoon when we met to talk about the book.
So here now, from 1998, Jamie Lee Curtis.
Jamie Lee Curtis is 66 now. She was named a “Disney Legend” last year.
Many people think English should be the official language of the United States. President Trump is trying to make it so, through an executive order.
But even if everyone spoke English that doesn’t mean we all sound alike. A native of Pittsburgh is going to sound different than a native of New Orleans, or Boston or Omaha.
It may seem like the regional differences in our language have become blurred over the decades, due to the influence of television and the media.
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But experts say that’s not necessarily true.
And here’s where former PBS TV anchorman Robert MacNeil comes in. Back in 1986 MacNeil was co-author of a book, and companion TV series, called The Story of English.
And in 2005 he took it a step further, with a new book called Do You Speak American? That book was a detailed exploration of how regional dialects and accents continue to flourish.
I had gotten to know Robert MacNeil over the years, always looking up to him as a fellow broadcaster. We met one day in January of 2005 to talk about his new book.
25 years ago many people thought Bill Bradley was going to be our next president.
Not only had he served 20 years in the United States Senate, representing New Jersey, but he’s also in the Basketball Hall of Fame after a 10-year career with the New York Knicks.
Bill Bradley is also an Olympic gold medalist, a Rhodes Scholar, and a military veteran.
What he did not have, however, was the backing of the powerful Democratic establishment. That belonged to Al Gore.
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Bradley gave Gore a pretty good run for his money. But after defeats in Iowa, New Hampshire, and on Super Tuesday, Bradley bowed out.
It was later that year, as the Bush-Gore battle was at its peak, that Bradley published a book, called The Journey From Here. He and I met to talk about his book, just hours before the first presidential debate of the 2000 campaign.
So here now, from 2000, Bill Bradley.
Bill Bradley is 82 now. He hosts a weekly show on Sirius satellite radio.
Close your eyes and imagine the 1960s. Imagine the art of the ‘60s, especially the rich colors of psychedelic-inspired posters and murals and paintings.
Chances are what you just imagined was the work of renowned artist Peter Max.
Max was born in Germany in 1937, but over the next 16 years his family moved first to China, Been Israel, a brief stop in Paris, and finally to New York City.
Young Peter was a creative sponge, absorbing cultural and aesthetic influences from every place he lived to enhance his natural talent.
He opened his first small art studio in Manhattan in 1962, and as the ‘60s progressed his interest in astronomy and counterculture coalesced in his art.
By 1970 Peter Max was already a cultural icon, that’s only published his first book. But shortly after that he went on a long hiatus, and many even thought he had ended his career.
He had not, of course, and In 2002 he was ready to publish a long retrospective of his work, a big coffee table book called The Art of Peter Max.
I met him when he was on a tour promoting the book in the fall of 2002. And what an incredible creative mind he has. Be sure and listen in the second half of this interview when he describes exactly how he creates a work of art.
So here now, from 2002, Peter Max.
Peter Max will be 88 next month. Doctors say he has Advanced dementia. He lives in New York.
CBS TV correspondent Kimberly Dozier was never under any illusion that covering the war in Iraq was going to be a walk in the park.
But before her experience in Iraq was over, doctors were telling her she may never walk again.
May 29, 2006 Was Memorial Day here in the U.S. Dozier, her cameraman and her sound technician were with an Army patrol in a residential neighborhood in Baghdad.
That’s when a remotely detonated car bomb exploded. Dozier’s crew was killed, as well as an Army captain and an Iraqi translator. Dozier herself was gravely injured.
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After being transported to Germany, then back to the U.S., Dozier underwent some two dozen major surgeries over the next two months. Doctors treated extensive head wounds, burns, and badly broken legs. They told her she may never walk again.
But Kimberly Dozier proved them wrong. By 20:08 she was participating in the Marine Corps marathon in Washington. And that’s also the year she wrote a searing memoir called Breathing the Fire.
I met with her at CBS News headquarters in Washington almost two years to the day after her injuries, to talk about the book.
So here now from 2008, Kimberly Dozier.
Kimberly Dozier is 59 now. Today she works as a contributor on CNN.
They called him The Hitman. Wrestler Bret Hart was born into a wrestling family. His father was the renowned Stu Hart who often would bring other big name wrestling stars home with him when Bret was just a little boy.
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By the time he was a teenager Bret Hart still wasn’t convinced that he wanted to become a wrestler himself but he changed his mind by his early 20s. And by the time he retired some 25 years ago Bret Hart had become one of the best known, most popular, and most highly regarded wrestlers in the world.
He was not without controversy, of course, including an Infamous incident in Montreal that has come to be known as the “Montreal screw job.”
In 2008 Hart wrote an autobiography called My Real Life in The Cartoon World of Wrestling. I met him one afternoon in the crowded downtown Washington DC hotel lobby to talk about his book when he was on a book tour.
If you enjoy Creole or Cajun cuisine, you should probably thank Chef Paul Prudhomme. As the founder and head chef of K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen in New Orleans, Prudhomme introduced the region’s food to the rest of America.
Paul Prudhomme was the youngest of 13 kids in his family. His father was a farmer, his mother’s family included early Cajun settlers.
Chef Paul opened his first restaurant when he was just 17. It was a hamburger joint that lasted just a few months, but which launched his professional food career, culminating in 1979 with the opening of K-Paul’s.
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In 1984 Prudhomme published what became his signature cookbook, Chef Paul Prudence Louisiana Kitchen. Ten more cookbooks would follow, over the next 20 years.
Chef Paul also created a line of spices and sauces that can still be found in millions of kitchens today.
I met him for lunch one day in 1989. Well, to be accurate, he came to my studio and made lunch, and that’s what you’re about to hear in this interview.
So here now, from 1989, Chef Paul Prudhomme.
Paul Prudhomme’s wife Kay died in 1993. Chef Paul died in 2015 at age 75.
