TV Personalities – Now I've Heard Everything

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.

A Lifetime of Sports Memories: TVs Warner Wolf

February 24, 2025Bill Thompson

TV sportscasters, just like the athletes they covered, come and go.

But a few established themselves as stars, remaining popular for years, even decades.

Meet televisions Warner Wolf. He actually started on the radio in 1961, before moving to TV in 1965 in his hometown Washington DC.

By 1976 he had moved on to New York City, were he further cemented his reputation as a sportscasting star.

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Along the way Warner Wolf popularized two catch phrases: “Gimme a break!” and “Let’s go to the videotape.”

Eventually Wolf wrote two books, each titled after one of those catchphrases. I met him in 2000 on publication of Let’s Go To The Videotape.

Be sure and stick around for his predictions, and see how many of them actually came true.

So here now, from 2000, Warner Wolf.

Warner wolf levt TV in 2016. He’s 87 now, and can be heard weekly on New York’s WOR radio.

TV-radio Fixture Charles Osgood, On How He Practiced His Unique Journalism

February 19, 2025Bill Thompson

Most journalists can craft a pretty good straight news story, in that classic inverted pyramid style. All the facts, expertly and objectively told.

But then there are other journalists, those who have a unique talent for taking that same set of facts but putting them into a context and a perspective with such nuance and grace that it almost becomes a whole new story.

One of the great practitioners in that second category was longtime CBS radio and television personality Charles Osgood.

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His special skill was taking the mundane and turning it into something sparkling, taking some ordinary government pronouncement and turning it into something you would tell your grandchildren about.

His daily feature on CBS radio was known as “Tile Osgood File.” In 1991 Osgood published a collection of some of his best work, in a book called, of course, The Osgood Files. That was when I first met him.

So here now, from 1991, Charles Osgood.

Charles Osgood died in 2024. He was 91.

A Longtime Broadcasters Secret to Happiness: Be Thankful

January 22, 2025Bill Thompson

Have you counted your blessings today?

If you haven’t, maybe you should. It might be good for your health.

So says longtime TV journalist Deborah Norville.

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Get your copy of Deborah Norville’s book

In 2007, the “Inside Edition” anchor wrote a book about gratitude, thankfulness, and how they can actually change not just your attitude, but your very health.

So here now, from 2007, Deborah Norville.

Deborah Norville is now 66.

In March she will mark 30 yeasras anchor of “Inside Edition.”

How Does A Woman Define Success? Answers From Dr. Joyce Brothers

January 15, 2025Bill Thompson

She was America’s first “pop psychologist.”. Dr. Joyce Brothers became instantly famous in 1955, as a 28-year-old, when she won the TV quiz show ‘’The $64,000 Question” by showing off her expertise in, of all things, boxing.

Over the next five decades, Dr. Brothers offered her advice via television appearances and a magazine column.

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She was the author of many books, including her1988 book called The Successful Woman, based on interviews she had done with dozens of some of the country’s most successful women.

And, among other things, her book sought to go beyond the Superwoman archetype, the modern woman who has it all. Or at least, seems to.

So here now, from 1988, Dr. Joyce Brothers.

Dr. Joyce Brothers died in 2013 at age 85.

Why Phyllis George Decided She Would Never Say Never

November 15, 2024November 14, 2024Bill Thompson

To some young women, being crowned Miss America would be the pinnacle of their life, their peak accomplishment.

To others the Miss America title is just the first of many notable accomplishments

Phyllis George won the title in 1971, representing Texas in the pageant.

Just four years later, she was hired by CBS Sports, to co-host The NFL Today.

And four years after that, she became First Lady of Kentucky when her husband John Y. Brown was elected Governor.

Later she became a successful chicken entrepreneur

And all of these things happened, she said , because her attitude never allowed her to say never period

That inspired her to call her 2002 book Never Say Never. A somewhat autobiographical book, it laid out ten things we can all do to achieve what he dream of.

So here now, from 2002, Phyllis George.

Phyllis George died in 2020 from a rare form of cancer. She was 70.

The Lou Dobbs Vision For American Populism

October 4, 2024September 28, 2024Bill Thompson

What has happened to the idea that the American people are the ones in charge of their own country?

According to longtime cable news personality Lou Dobbs, American populism has been replaced by a network of elites in government and business.

Dobbs wrote about it in his 2007 book Independents Day. I met him that November, just about a year before the 2008 election – and Dobbs spared neither side his criticism.

So here now, from 2007, Lou Dobbs.

Lou Dobbs died this past July. He was 78.

C-SPAN Founder Brian Lamb on Where History and Literature Intersect

September 13, 2024September 12, 2024Bill Thompson

The journalist who founded C-SPAN in the 1970s retired last month after leading the network for 47 years.

To many viewers, Brian Lamb was C-SPAN. His quiet and intelligent demeanor helped set the tone for the cable outlet dedicated to bringing the workings of the federal government into American homes.

And for 15 years, from 1989 to 2004, Brian Lamb was also host of the popular weekly C-SPAN show “Booknotes.”

Each show featured a prominent writer of nonfiction, and each was allowed on the show only once, meaning Lamb tapered 800 shows with 800 authors.

About halfway through the show’s run, Lamb and his staff collected highlights from many of those interviews in a book called – appropriately enough – Booknotes.

That’s when I had the chance to spend a few minutes with him.

So here now, from 1997. Brian Lamb.

Brian Lamb will be 83 next month. He lives in Virginia. .