1980s

Bruce Laingen

Bill Thompson

In early November 1979, a group of students and militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking everyone inside hostage, including the chargé d’affaires, a career diplomat named Bruce Laingen.

The militants were demanding the return of the exiled Shah of Iran, who was undergoing medical treatment in the U.S.

But diplomatic and even military efforts to free the hostages failed, and they ended up being held in Iran for 444 days. It was only on Inauguration Day 1981 that the hostages were ultimately freed.

Years later, Bruce Laingen wrote a book, based on a journal he’d kept while in captivity. And that’s when I met him.

So here now, from 1992, Bruce Langan.

Bruce Laingen died in 2019, at age 96.

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Jimmy Carter

Ann Richards

Bill Thompson
Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel

In the summer of 1988 leaders of the Democratic party invited Texas State Treasurer Ann Richards to deliver a prime-time address at the Democratic National Convention.

Richards delivered. all right, in a big way, targeting Republican presidential nominee George H.W. Bush, who had just spent eight years as Ronald Reagan’s vice president. Richards delivered a takedown line that has lived forever: “He was born with a silver foot in his mouth.”

I met Ann Richards in the fall of 1989 when she had just launched her campaign for governor of Texas.

So here now from 1989 Ann Richards.

Ann Richards won the election for governor in 1990, but served just one term.

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She died in 2006 at age 73.

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Bob Dole

Alex Trebek

Bill Thompson
Photo: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS

By now you’ve heard the sad news that Jeopardy host Alex Trebek passed away early Sunday.

So today, we’ll be revisiting my interview with him from some 30 years ago. He was promoting a book called, appropriately enough, The Jeopardy Book.

And get ready for some real Insider information about the show he hosted since 1984.

So here now, from 1990, Alex Trebek:

Geraldine Ferraro

Bill Thompson

Tonight, October 7th, Senator Kamala Harris will meet Vice President Mike Pence in their one and only debate of the 2020 election campaign.

Photo: Univ of Texas-Arlington News Service Photograph Collection

Harris is the first woman of color on a major party presidential ticket, and she is only the third woman ever nominated by a major party for vice president.

The first, in 1984, was Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro, who was chosen by Democrat Walter Mondale to be his running mate.

Her one and only debate performance was against then-incumbent Vice President George H.W. Bush.

I met Gerladine Ferraro in 1998. The book she had just written was about the strong women who shaped her life, not least of whom was her own mother.

Sp here now, from 1998, Geraldine Ferraro:

Geraldinme Ferraro died in 2011 at the age of 75.

Melissa Anderson

Bill Thompson

It was 46 years ago this week that NBC TV viewers first heard that theme music introducing a series called “Littel House on the Prairie.”

For the next eight years, it was a perennial viewer favorite.

One of the stars of the series was Melissa Anderson — known in those years as “Melissa Sue Anderson”; she’ll explain why, in this interview. Anderson played “Mary,” one member of the Ingalls family.

I met her in 2010, when she wrote a memoir about her years on “Little House.”

So here now, from 2010, Melissa Anderson:

Melissa Anderson will be 58 later this month. She became a naturalized citizen oif Canada in 2007.

And reruns of “Little House on the Prairie” can still be found on TV almost every day.

Sydney Biddle Barrows

Bill Thompson

As public scandals go, this one might seem pretty benign, by today’s low bar. But in 1984, it was a big story when it was revealed that the authoirities had broken up a high-priced Manhattan escort service that was being run by a woman named Sydney Biddle Barrows.

Now, when a New York Post reporter uncovered the fact that the 32-year-old Barrows is from the Biddle family of Philadelphia, and is a direct descendant of some of the original Mayflower settlers, he dubbed her the “Mayflower Madam” — and the name stuck.

Within two years of her company being put out of business, Barrows wrote a bestselling autobiography, called, of course, “The Mayflower Madam.”

That’s when I first met her.

So here now, from 1986, Mayflower Madam Sydney Biddle Barrows:

Sydney Biddle Barrows is 68 now. She’s a management consultant and writer.

Ally Sheedy

Bill Thompson
Photo: Bridget Laudien

In the 1980s movies like The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire, WarGames, and Short Circuit made Ally Sheedy a star. She was a prominent member of the so-called Brat Pack.

I met her in 1991 when, at age 28, she had just published a collection of her poetry. Many of the poems in her book dated back to her teenage years. But as she remionded me, it’s not like she was new to writing, or publishing.

So here now, from 1991, Ally Sheedy.

Ally Sheedy is 58 now. She was most recently seen in 2016’s X Men: Apocalypse. But her 1991 book Yesterday I Saw the Sun was the last book she’s published.

Dan Quayle

Bill Thompson

Dan Quayle was a Republcian U.S. Senator from Indiana. and not a very well-known Senator, when George H.W. BuSh chose him as his 1988 running mate. Quayle took a lot of heat from critics who derided him as an intellectual lightweight.

Bush won that election, and Qualye became America’s 44th vice president.

But the 1992 camapign proved more difficult for Bush and Quayle.

It was in June of ’92 that Quayle visited an elementary school in New Jersey. It wa supposed to be just another routine campaign photo-op, a school spelling bee.

A 12-year-old boy went up the blackboard to spell his word, “potato.” But Quayle “corrected” him, insisting there was an “e” at the end of “potato.”

Things just kind of went downhjll from there.

I first met Dan Quayle about two years later, after he’d written a memoir. And as you’re about to hear, he had a sense of humor about The Potato Incident.

Here now, from 1994, Dan Quayle:

Dan Quayle is now 73. He lives with his wife Marilyn in retirement in Arizona. They’ve been married for 47

Selwa “Lucky” Roosevelt

Bill Thompson

It’s not a government job that gets a lot of attention or media coverage.

Photo: National Council of US-Arab Relations

But the office of U.S. Chief of Protocol is a uniquely sensitive position. If done right, no one even notices. But if done wrong, it can spark an international crisis.

Former journalist Selwa Roosevelt — always known as “Lucky” — was Chief of Protocol under :resident Ronald Reagan, from 1982 to 1989. That’s longer than anyone else has ever served in that position.

I met Lucky Roosevelt the year after she left the government.

Here now, from 1990, Selwa “Lucky” Roosevelt.

During her tenure, Lucky Roosevelt presided over more than 70 state visits and restoration of the historic Blair House in Washington.

In 2012, President Barack Obama awarded Lucky Roosevelt a presidential commendation for her government service.

Lucky Roosevelt is now 91.

Roger Ailes

Bill Thompson

Years before he became head of Fox News — way before there even was a Fox News — Roger Ailes was a media consultant. Most prominent among his many clients, perhaps, was President Ronald Reagan. Ailes was an adviser to the President in his 1984 reelection bid, and was indirectly responsible for one of that campaign’s most memorable, and decisive, moments.

I met Roger Ailes in the fall of 1987. He’d written a book to help coach people in the art of public speaking and dealing with the media. The books promised to reveal the “secrets of the master communicators.”

So here now, from 1987, Roger Ailes:

Roger Ailes went on to become CEO of the fledgling Fox News in 1996. He held that post until 2016 when allegations of sexual harassment forced him out.

Roger Ailes died in 2017, thee days after his 77th birthday.