Author: Bill Thompson

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.

Maya Angelou

Bill Thompson

Few poets ever rise to the kind of prominence enjoyed by Maya Angelou. But of course, she was much more than a poet — essayist, memoirist, and civil rights activist. And not a bad singer, as you’ll hear in a few minutes.

Maya Angelou with Bill Thompson 1993

She worked with both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

In 1993, Angelou recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at the first inauguration of President Bill Clinton. I met her a few months later.

Here now, from October 1993, Maya Angelou.

In 2013, Maya Angelou published the seventh volume of her autobiography.

She died in 2014, at age 86.

Stacey Koon

Bill Thompson

This is an episode of Now I’ve Heard Everything that made me think very carefully about. Given the tensions the entire nation — the world — is enduring right now, I did not want to further inflame things.

But ultimately, I think this interview, from 1992, with former Sgt. Stacey Koon, may provide some relevance and context.

Let’s go back to March 1991. An LA cop makes a late-night traffic stop, pulling over a car driven by a man named Rodney King.

Things quickly escalated, as King resisted attempts to arrest him for drunk driving. Four LAPD officers arrived, to offer assistance — and were caught on video, shot by a nearby resident, repeatedly hitting King with their nightsticks. They Tased him twice.

The ranking officer at the scene: Sgt. Stacey Koon.

After portions of the video were broadcast, all the officers were charged with excessive use of force, and after a high-profile trial in April 1992 in state court, all were acquitted.

The now-famous LA riots followed.

About six months later is when I met Stacey Koon, who had just written a book called “Presumed Guilty.” And as you\’re about to hear, Koon was still angry.

Here now, from October 1992, Sgt. Stacey Koon.

Six months after this interview, Stacey Koon and Officer Lawrence Powell were convicted in federal court of violating Rodney King’s civil rights, and were sentenced to 20 months in prison.

Stacey Koon is 69 now and stays largely out of the public eye.

John Waters

Bill Thompson

Hairspray. Cry-Baby. Serial Mom. Pink Flamingos.

Photo: PEN American Center

Filmmaker John Waters has a long, illustrious, and unique body of work.

He started making movies in the early 1960s, but only rose to prominence in the ’70s, and by the ’80s was a cultural icon.

I first met him in the fall of 1986. He had just published a by collection of his writings, a slender little book called “Crackpot.”

So here now, from 1986, John Waters.

That movie he John Waters was talking about, near the end there — yes,. that was Hairspray.

John Waters celebrated his 74th birthday this spring. While he hasn’t made a movie in several years, he was seen earlier this year in an episode of “Law & Order SVU.”

Reba McEntire

Bill Thompson

Reba McEntire recorded her first song in 1976, when she was just 21.

Photo: Gage Skidmore

Her first number one record didn’t come for another decade, but she’s been on a roll ever since, and today is a country music icon.

In 1994, Reba wrote an autobiography, and that;s when I met her.

And yes, it was another one of those times that I was pretty starstruck. But she immediately put me at ease.

And that day, I also brought my 11- and 13-year-old daughters and my wife to meet one of our favorite performers. In fact, at one point in this interview, you’ll hear a brief exchange between Reba and my wife.

And after we listen to the interview, stick around — I have to tell you one of my favorite celebrity stories.

So here now, from 1994, Reba McEntire.

Reba McEntire’s most recent album, “Stronger Than the Truth,: was released last year.

And she recently guest starred on TV’s “Young Sheldon.”

Her own TV show, “Reba,” is still seen in syndication.

Dave Pallone

Bill Thompson

A little bit of backstory: in 1979 major league baseball umpires went on strike. MLB hired substitutes — scabs, as m,any call them — and veteran minor league umpire Dave Pallone was offered a big-league job.

He remained in the National League for ten years.

But as he told in his 1990 book “Behind the Mask,” his fellow umpires disliked him. And he developed a reputation for being quick-tempered.

In April 1988, Pallone had a very high-profile confrontation with someone else who had a reputation for his temper: Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose. During an argument over a controversial call, Rose shoved Pallone — a very serious offense in baseball — and was suspended for 30 days.

Dave Pallone was forced to resign from baseball in September 1988.

I met him two years later, when he published his book.

Here now, from 1990, Dave Pallone.

“Behind the Mask” was a New York Times best-seller

Dave Pallone is 68 now, and does diversity training for corporations, as well as NCAA colleges, universities and athletes.

And he’s in the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame.

Stephenie Meyer

Bill Thompson

When I was a kid, all my friends and I were into The Twilight Zone, the Rod Serling TV series.

Photo: Gage Skidmore

But in the later 2000s, another “twilight” captured the world’s imagination: the “Twilight” series of novels by Stephenie Meyer.

Four, in all, chronicling the stories of teenager Bella, vampire Edward. and werewolf Jacob.

The third book in the series, “Eclipse,” was published in 2007. And that’s when I met the author — who, as you’ll hear, was still getting accustomed to the fact she had become more popular, book-sales-wise, than J.K. Rowling.

Here now, from 2007, Stephenie Meyer.

Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” books have been turned into popular movies. And her books continue to sell tens of millions of copies worldwide.

Mel Blanc

Bill Thompson
Photo by Alan Light

This was actually one of the most popular interviews I posted last year on Now I’ve Heard Everything — and since tomorrow, May 30th, would have been his 112th birthday, I wanted to re-share my 1988 interview with the unmatched master of voice acting, Mel Blanc.

Bugs Bunny. Daffy Duck. Elmer Fudd, Sylvester and Twety, Porky Pig, Barney Rubble. Heck, he was even the voice of Jack Benny’s car.

Virtually everyone has heard Mel’s voice characterizations.

So here now, from 1988, Mel Blanc:

Less than a year after our interview, Mel Blanc died at the age of 81, taking with him hundreds of the voices many of us grew up with.

Samantha Bee

Bill Thompson

Canadian-born comedian Samantha Bee was a fixture on TV’s The Daily Show or twelvve years. Indeed, she was Most Photo: Senor Correspondent.

Photo: Montclair Film

I met her tewn years ago next week, at the height of her popularity on that show, when she wrote a breezy memoir, a hilariously guided tour of her childhood and adolescence.

So here now, from 2010, Samantha Bee:

Samamtha Bee left The Daily Show in 2015, to launch her own show, Full Frontal With Samantha Bee,

She became a U.S. citizen in 2014, but also retained her Canadian citizenship.