TV Personalities – Now I've Heard Everything

Murder On The Evening News: Bill O’Reilly Talks About His First Novel

November 5, 2025Bill Thompson

We all know that network TV news is a cutthroat business. Big egos, big money, and big power collide every day. And in fiction, it can turn deadly.

For his first book, a mystery novel called Those Who Trespass, TV news anchor and commentator Bill O’Reilly assembled a cast of characters with big egos making big money and craving big power.

And, as in any good mystery novel, some wind up dead, and the story turns into not just a “whodunit” but a “whydunit.”

This was, of course, only Bill O’Reilly’s first book. He’s had a long string of bestsellers since then.

He and I met 1 day in the spring of 1998 to talk about Those Who Trespass.

So here now, from 1998, Bill O’Reilly.

Bill O’Reilly is 76 now. He hosts the No Spin News podcast and is often seen on Newsmax and News Nation.

It’s A Hardball Life: The Chris Matthews Book Where It Began

October 29, 2025Bill Thompson

Chris Matthews says he has been a political junkie since childhood. And his career path would seem to back that up.

With a degree from Holy Cross, graduate work at the University of North Carolina, and a teaching position at Harvard, Matthews came to Washington while in his 20s and went to work on Capitol Hill.

And it was his years under some of Washington’s most powerful figures that he learned the tradecraft he calls hardball. It is, he says, not only how politics gets done, but how everything in business and elsewhere gets done..

After politics Matthews became a columnist, and ultimately a popular cable TV talk show host. A few years before he made that transition, he wrote his first book, which he called Hardball. That’s when I first met him.

And stick around for the second half of this interview as we talk about his predictions for the 1988 presidential race – and why we all need to master Hardball.

So here now, from 1988, Chris Matthews.

Chris Matthews will be 80 in December. He retired from his TV show in 2020 although he still appears from time to time as a guest commentator.

One Of The Great Voices Of Baseball Broadcasting: Jon Miller

October 25, 2025Bill Thompson

You may have heard that old saying “Find a job that you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”

If that’s true, Jon Miller has never “worked” a day in his life. Now of course he is one of the hardest working broadcasters in all of sports, but it’s a job he has literally loved since he was a child.

Picture this: the young Jon Miller sitting In the stands at Candlestick Park in San Francisco watching the Giants play, and glancing up at the pressbox, watching the broadcasters do what they do.

He was so inspired that later at home he would recreate baseball games and tape record the play by play, complete with audience sounds and even commercials.

He broke into actual broadcasting in the early 1970s. And for over 50 years now he has been doing what he loves.

In 1998 Jon Miller wrote a book called Confessions of a Baseball Purist. His publisher put him out on a book tour just as spring training was getting underway, and he carved out a few minutes to speak with me.

And what you’re about to hear is an interesting snapshot of Major League Baseball 27 years ago, so the names will bring back memories, and some of the concepts may now seem a little quaint.. And oh yes, this was before Barry Bonds.

So here now, from 1998, Jon Miller.

Jon Miller turned 74 a couple of weeks ago. He lives near San Francisco.

The Radio Personality Who Became An Iconic TV Star: “Laugh-In’s” Gary Owens

October 22, 2025Bill Thompson

Is it possible to make lots of money with just your voice?

Certainly. For decades people have made successful careers out of voice acting, voiceovers, radio,even automated systems.

Only a handful, however, reach the pinnacle of the profession, people who do indeed make tons of money from their voice.

And sometimes their careers take unexpected turns. And that’s where we find longtime radio personality turned TV star Gary Owens.

He was a successful and popular radio personality in Los Angeles in the 1960s, when he was recruited to join an unusual new TV show called “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.”

But actually, even though “Laugh-In” may be what he is best remembered for, Gary Owens had a very long and very successful voice acting career.

Owens was never one to gatekeep, so in 2004 he wrote a book called How to Make a Million Dollars With Your Voice. Now keeping in mind that that was over 20 years ago, long before anyone knew that AI was going to take over a lot of the voicing environment, so some of what he says is a little dated.

But not to worry, because listening to the stories that Gary Owens tells more than makes up for it.

So here now, from 2004, Gary Owens.

Gary Owens died in 2015, at age 80.

Hulk Hogan: Behind the Persona in His Own Words

August 23, 2025Bill Thompson

Many people would say that when Hulk Hogan died last week he took a big piece of American culture with him.

Widely regarded as the world’s most recognized wrestling star, Hogan’s interest in wrestling blossomed when he was a teenager.

He first wrestled professionally in 1977 at age 24. But it was when he joined the World Wrestling Federation, then known as the WWF, that he became a star.

And it wasn’t just his proficiency as a wrestler that made him a star, it was his showmanship. Soon entire shows were built around Hulk.

And wouldn’t you know it, his showmanship also became a profession – Hulk Hogan became an actor.

But to those closest to him, Hulk Hogan was also Terry Bollea, the husband and family man.

In 2002 Hogan published his autobiography, a book called Hollywood Hulk Hogan. His publisher told me he was too busy for a traditional book tour, so I got a phone interview instead.

So here now, from 2002, Hulk Hogan.

Hulk Hogan passed away just days before his 72nd birthday.

Behind the Lens of Laughter: Peter Funt on “Candid Camera” and His Father’s Enduring Legacy

July 24, 2025Bill Thompson

Long before “Punk’d” or “America’s Funniest Home Videos” there was “Candid Camera.” The premise was simple and popular: catch ordinary folks in funny and unusual situations, benign practical jokes as it were.

The show’s creator was a genial, soft-spoken man named Allen Funt.

His son Peter began visiting the set of the show at a very early age. And when his father suffered a major stroke in the early 1990s, Peter Funt stepped in and assumed the leadership role, hosting “Candid Camera” for several more years.

Peter Funt is also a thoughtful and respected essayist and columnist. And in 2013 he published a collection of his essays, a book he called Cautiously Optimistic. He and I talked one day that spring about his essays, and about” “Candid Camera.”

So here now, from 2013, Peter Funt.

Peter Funt is 78 now. He lives in California, and still writes a weekly newspaper column and is a popular public speaker.

John Stossel: The Iconoclastic “Give Me a Break” Journalist

June 23, 2025Bill Thompson

John Stossel didn’t set out to be a TV news reporter. He kind of stumbled into it after college, When a friend got him an entry-level job at a TV station in Portland, Oregon.

After making his mark there, despite stage fright and a stutter, Stossel was hired away by WCBS-TV in New York where he further built his journalism reputation. Later he joined ABC News, where he co-anchored “20/20,” and
and after that Fox News.

And along the way he won 19 Emmys, not bad for a kid who hadn’t planned to be a journalist.

As an iconic reporter with a libertarian bent, Stossel’s signature phrase was “Give me a break!” You may remember his TV specials by that name.

So that’s what he also called his first book, published in 2004. I talked with them shortly after the book came out.

So here now, from 2004, John Stossel.

John Stossel is 78. He now runs Stossel TV.

Yyou May Not Be a Lawyer, But It Can Pay To Tthink Like One: TV’s Lis Iwehl

June 18, 2025Bill Thompson

Remember what Professor kingsfield said in the movie The Ppaper Chase?

Can thinking like a lawyer help you in everyday life and everyday situations

Well, thinking like a lawyer is precisely what noted trial attorney and cable TV legal analyst Lis Wiehl recommended in her 2004 debut book called Winning Every Time.

Trying to convince your boss to give you a raise? Having a disagreement with your spouse over whether to buy that expensive car? Trying to convince your teenager that it’s wise to stay in school?

All things can be accomplished if you use the skills of a lawyer, Wiehl says.

I had a chance to talk with her when her book came out in the summer of 2004.

So here now, from 2004 Lis Wiehl.

Lis Wiehl will be 64 later this summer. She lectures and regularly appears on TV and radio as a legal analyst.

Sports, Marriage & Parenthood: The Life of ESPN’s Mike Greenberg

May 14, 2025Bill Thompson

In the popular TV sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond” the character Ray Barone was a popular and very successful sports writer. But at home his wife thought he was an idiot.

Now let’s turn the channel back to real life. Mike Greenberg is a popular and very successful sportscaster on ESPN and ABC. But according to his 2006 book his wife thinks he’s an idiot.

Actually his book was called Why My Wife Thinks I’m An Idiot. It was his first book, and one of his most popular, Perhaps because it is not only about sports, buts about the challenges of being a spouse and a parent.

As one review at the time noted, Greenberg’s was a book about a man tryling to grow up before his children do.

We both had a great time doing this interview in the spring of 2006.

So here now, from 2006, Mike Greenberg.

Mike Greenberg will be 58 later this summer. You can hear him on his podcast #Greeny.

True Stories From A Living Legend: CBS’s Bob Schieffer

April 21, 2025Bill Thompson

From the JFK assassination to Vietnam to the Nixon White House, longtime CBS TV correspondent Bob Schieffer has covered it all.

During a broadcast career that has now spanned six decades Schieffer has helped write the book on modern electronic journalism.

Bob Schieffer started his career in his native Texas as a newspaper reporter – that’s how he found himself in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

And it was his newspaper that sent him to Vietnam – at his own request.

After joining CBS in 1969 Schieffer covered Congress, the State Department, the Pentagon, and ultimately the White House, winning virtually every major journalism award along the way.

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And Sunday morning TV viewers will remember him as the moderator of “Face the Nation,” a position he held for 24 years.

It was during his tenure on “Face the Nation” that Schieffer wrote a journalist’s memoir, a book he called This Just In.

So here now, from 2004, Bob Schieffer.

Bob Schieffer was named a “Living Legend“ by the Library of Congress in 2008. Today at age 88 Bob Schieffer is a fellow at Harvard.