Actors

Carroll O’Connor

Bill Thompson

It was on January 12th. 1971 — 50 years ago — that situation comedy changed in a big way, with the premiere of a controversial show called All in the Family.

At the center of the show was an irascible middle-aged blue collar worker named Archie Bunker. What made Archie so controversial, then and now, was how utterly unapologetic he was for his politically incorrect views.

The show was also controversial because CBS had just very publicly dumped its so-called “rural” comedies — The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and Petticoat Junction — in favor of more modern and edgy shows like MAS*H and All In The Family.

Cast in the role of Archie Bunker was veteran actor Carroll O’Connor, who went on not only to win 4 Emmys as Archie but later starred in the series In The Heat of Tthe Night.

In 1998 O’Connor wrote A a memoir, and that’s when I got to meet and interview him.

TRIGGER WARNING: This interview that you’re about to hear includes talks about O’Connor’s adult son’s drug abuse and suicide.

So here now from 1998, Carroll O’Connor

And you can find easy links to (name’s) book(s) on Amazon ar HeardEverything.com.

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June Lockhart

Don Knotts

Bill Thompson

Don Knotts is perhaps best know as Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife from The Andy Griffith Show. But you also remember him as Ralph Furley from Three’s Company. Maybe you remember him from The Apple Dumpling Gang movies, or The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, or The Shakiest Gun in the West. Or The Incredible Mr. Limpet.

Don Knotts had a decades-long entertainment career, which actually began soon after World War II, but which really took off when he reconnected with his old friend Andy Griffith.

I met Don Knotts in November 1999, when he wrote a book called Barney Fife And Other Characters I Have Known.

So here now, from 1999, Don Knotts.

Don Knotts died in 2006. He was 81.

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George Lindsey

Dawn Wells

Kitty Carlisle Hart

Bill Thompson

Regular listeners of Now I’ve Heard Everything know that I don’t often get starstruck. But this was one of those times.

If you grew up in the ’60s, as I did, you may best remember Kitty Carlisle as a panelist on the game show “To Tell the Truth.” But her acting career went back many decades before that.

In fact, Kitty Carlisle was a featured performer in the 1935 Marx Brothers classic “A Night at the Opera.”

In 1988, Kitty Carlisle Hart Road an autobiography. That’s what I met her.

So here now, from 1988, Kitty Carlisle Hart:

Kitty Carlisle Hart died in 2007 at age 96.

Molly Shannon

Bill Thompson

While Molly Shannon may be best known for her six seasons on Saturday Night and her many many television and movie appearances, it turns out she is also a children’s book author.

In 2011, Shannon published a book called Tilly the trickster. It’s about a young girl who loves to play practical jokes on people, ranging from her brother, to her parents, to her school mates.

So, is there a little bit of Molly Shannon in Tilly the trickster, I wondered?

And be sure and listen to the end of the interview, for the true story of how Molly Shannon first met Will Ferrell.

So here now, from 2011, Molly Shannon.

Molly Shannon is 56 now, and is still seen frequently on television and in movies.

Dom DeLuise

Bill Thompson
Photo: Allan Warren

Today we’re wrapping up Celebrity Cookbook Week on Now I’ve Heard Everything.

On Monday, we heard from actress Dawn Wells (Mary Ann from Gilligan’s Island), then on Wednesday, musician-actor Isaac Hayes.Today, one of my favorite comic actors from the ’60s amd ’70s,

Dom DeLuise may be best known for the many movies he made with Burt Reynolds, and Mel Brooks.

I met him on a snowy Friday afternoon in January 1988, after he published his cookbook “Eat This, it’ll Make You Feel Better.”

So here now, from 1988, Dom DeLuise.

Dom DeLuise died in 2009. He was 75.

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.

Phyllis Diller

Bill Thompson

Like many of my fellow Baby Boomers, I grew up watching Phyllis Diller on TV and in movies. She was one of America’s first female stand-up comedians, inspiring the likes of Joan Rivers, Roseanne Barr, and Ellen DeGeneres, among others.

Photo: Allan Warren

Diller was known for her wild outfits, her even wilder hair, her self-deprecating humor, a cigarette always in a long holder, and her jokes about her long-suffering husband whom she nicknamed Fang.

Phyllis Diller wrote a memoir in 2005. She was too frail at that point, in her late 80s, to go on a book tour, so I interviewed her by phone.

So here now, from 2005, Phyllis Diller:

Phyllis Diller died in 2012. She was 95.

Bob Keeshan

Bill Thompson
Photo: CBS Television

Sixty-five years ago this week, a new children’s television show was launched on the CBS networok. Its creator was a man who had actually been part of the supporting cast of The Howdy Doody Show. His name was Bob keeshan. But the world knew him for decades to come as Captain Kangaroo.

I actually interviewed Bob keeshan twice. This interview was the second time, in early 1995. He had written a book for a book filled with ideas for activities they can do with their kids.

That as you’re about to hear, the captain had plenty of practical advice for happy parenting and happy kids.

So here now, from 1995, Bob keeshan.

Captain Kangaroo was seen every weekday morning on CBS for 29 years, then on PBS for five more years.

Bob Keeshan died

Julie Andrews

Bill Thompson

Julie Andrews made her debut as an actress and singer in London in 1948.

She first appeared on Broadway in 1954.

But to audiences of all ages around the world, she may be best known as Mary Poppins, or as Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music.

Photo: Mary Poppins trailer screenshot

I met her in 2009, aftershe and her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton, had collaborated

poems, solngs a,d lullabies

Tomorrow, October 1st, is Julie Andrews’s 85th birthday.