Podcasts about Ernie Kovacs

Today on another encore episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to musician Jon Klages, grandson of musician and Hi-Fi proponent and record label owner Enoch Light. Our conversation with Jon began with understanding just who his grandfather was. A classically trained musician, Enoch founded his first group, Enoch Light & His Orchestra & later Enoch Light and the Light Brigade before World War II. Wildly popular in upper class New York society, Light went on to found one of the most unique independent record labels, well, ever. Vinyl collectors today will know Light's Command Records & Project 3 firstly for its unique, minimalist artwork from renowned artist Josel Albers. From classical to pop to Space Age Bachelor Pop to popular soundtrack hits and more, Light was nothing if not proficient. From albums like Persuasive Percussion to The Private Life of a Private Eye, Lights albums were visually stunning first and foremost. But take a listen to any of his albums from composers as varied as Doc Severinson, Dick Hyman, Tommy Mottola & the landmark album from The Free Design, the albums were recorded for the best audio fidelity available. The albums sound terrific. We discuss this with Jon & loved hearing about how his own mother played a role in all these recordings too. If you love the Moog, horns, Bossa Nova and more mid-sixties exotica, you must find these albums for your collection. We also talk to Jon about his experiences in the studio with his grandfather as well as his own recordings. Part of the fabled Hoboken indie scene of the 1980s, Jon release a new album in 2021, Fabulous Twilight and has a new album coming in 2025 as well. We discuss how Jon became a singer/songwriter, how his passion for being around music led to a career in it and much more. Plus, we hear much about Jon's father, a seven-time Emmy winner for lighting design who worked with everyone from Muhammad Ali to Ernie Kovacs. This is one episode you do not want to miss and it's happening right now. Take a listen to the Rarified Heir Podcast with Jon Klages, right now.            

Support us on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/user?u=4279967Jack Benny TV Videocasthttps://open.spotify.com/show/6BDar4CsgVEyUloEQ8sWpw?si=89123269fe144a10Jack Benny Show OTR Podcast!https://open.spotify.com/show/3UZ6NSEL7RPxOXUoQ4NiDP?si=987ab6e776a7468cJudy Garland and Friends OTR Podcasthttps://open.spotify.com/show/5ZKJYkgHOIjQzZWCt1a1NN?si=538b47b50852483dStrange New Worlds Of Dimension X-1 Podcasthttps://open.spotify.com/show/6hFMGUvEdaYqPBoxy00sOk?si=a37cc300a8e247a1Buck Benny YouTube Channelhttps://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrOoc1Q5bllBgQA469XNyoA;_ylu=Y29sbwNncTEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3Ny/RV=2/RE=1707891281/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%2fwww.youtube.com%2f%40BuckBenny/RK=2/RS=nVp4LDJhOmL70bh7eeCi6DPNdW4-Support us on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/user?u=4279967

Comedy on a MondayFirst a look at the events of the dayThen The Charlie McCarthy Show, originally broadcast March 31, 1946, 79 years ago with guest Roy Rogers.  Bergen is the new truant officer! Mortimer recites "Hickory, Dickory, Dock." Charlie and Edgar join guest Roy Rogers for a visit to a ghost town. . Followed by the news from 79 years ago, then The Fred Allen Show, originally broadcast March 31, 1946, 79 years ago, Charlie the Chicken with Monty Woolley.  The Allen's Alley question: "How do you think new scientific developments are going to affect you?" "McGee and McGee" (the songwriters) appear in the alley. Fred is trying to buy a radio, guest Monty Woolley wants to give his away. Fred and Monty act in "Mr. Mob-Buster," a combination of "Mr. District Attorney" and "Gangbusters." Monty is trying to capture "Charlie The Chicken."Then You Bet Your Life starring Groucho Marx, originally broadcast March 31, 1958, 67 years ago, The Secret Word is Name. Wait, what is Ernie Kovacs doing with Groucho?Followed by The CBS Radio Workshop, originally broadcast March 31, 1957, 68 years ago, A Dogs Life.   Tony Schwartz, with his ever-present portable tape recorder decides to adopt a dog and finds that there's more to it than first appears. Finally, Lum and Abner, originally broadcast March 31, 1942, 83 years ago, Diogenes Leaves $10,000.   Diogenes has confessed all, says goodbye, and leaves Pine Ridge $10,000. Thanks to Honeywell for supporting our podcast by using the Buy Me a Coffee function at http://classicradio.streamIf you like what we do here, visit our friend Jay at http://radio.macinmind.com for great old time radio shows 24 hours a day

Today on another encore edition of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to illustrator & cartoonist Drew Friedman, son of the great writer, screenwriter and author, Bruce Jay Friedman. Known for his pop culture writing, including screenplays like Stir Crazy with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor and Doctor Detroit, Bruce Jay was part of the well-heeled Manhattan literary, pop culture and social scene, with his own table at the once-fashionable & paparazzi friendly Elaine's restaurant in the 70s and 80s. Bruce Jay Friendman was also a novelist with books like The Lonely Guy (which became a film with Charles Grodin and Steve Martin) & as well as a playwright for productions like Scuba Duba &Steambath which became a PBS production in 1973. This literati scene rubbed off on Drew who was always obsessed with drawing and cartoons from a very early age. This passion led to a career as a cartoonist for magazines like The New Yorker, National Lampoon, Spy, Newsweek and many more. In turn, this led to caricature books & illustrations with titles like Old Jewish Comedians, Maverix and Lunatix: Icons of underground Comics and All The Presidents. Drew Friedman became famous for his lifelike if sometimes slightly demented images of B-movie actor Tor Johnson, public access television host Joe Franklin, comedian Ernie Kovacs (ahem) and Groucho Marx and many more. The aptly named Drew Friedman is our guest this week because this is the Rarified Heir Podcast and everyone has a story. This one is fascinating. Take a listen.

Today on bonus edition of the Rarified Heir Podcast we are dropping a special episode in addition to this week's episode with Brendan Wayne. Our guest today is Ben Model who in addition to being a silent film accompanist, is also the archivist for the estates of Edie Adams and Ernie Kovacs. We spoke to Ben today because (drum doll please) (Add drumroll)*, on Ernie's birthday, Thursday January 23 at 7pm EST, we will be screening the previously lost, final episode of the Ernie Kovacs gameshow Take a Good Look on the YouTube channel of Clown Jewels. And if you tune in, join the live commentary with Ben and host Josh Mills, the son of Edie Adams and grand poo bah of the Ernie Kovacs estate. The very next day, on Friday January 24, Clown Jewels is releasing a brand new, Ernie Kovacs album of previously unreleased material from his radio show entitled Mayhem in the AM: The Lost Radio Comedy of Ernie Kovacs on all digital outlets. Both these projects are years in the making and we can't wait to share this with both our podcast fans as well as Ernie

Today on part of one of another encore edition of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to Brendan Wayne, the grandson of none other than John Wayne. While we share many connections (one of which is that Ernie Kovacs and The Duke starred in the film North to Alaska together) there is a deeper one that's existed between Brendan and host for some time now. Turns out that while Brendan is literally The Mandalorian on the Disney+ hit series The Mandalorian, he also happens to be the coach of Josh's daughter's soccer team. It's our 4th year working with Brendan in fact. Better yet, Brendan is a terrific father himself whose girls not only play on the team, one of them co-coaches with him! We totally lucked out with our soccer coaches. Wacky stuff indeed, right? Well, it's no more wacky than Brendan himself who talks to us about anything and everything on this first episode. We discuss his relationship with The Duke, Wayne's relationship with director John Ford, Brendan hanging with grandpa sans toupee and Brendan's classical acting training. Still, it's hard to wrap our heads around the fact that somehow our soccer coach also happens to be The Mandalorian as well as being the grandson of one of America's most iconic actors. So if Capezio dancewear and the difficulty of dating a girl whose dad only wants to talk about your grandad is something that seems noteworthy, take a listen to this episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast. We promise you will dig it. Everyone has a story.

Today on an encore edition of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to siblings Deb Scott Studebaker & Stan Warnow about their musician/inventor Raymond Scott. Like our good friend Ernie Kovacs, some of you might have heard the name Raymond Scott but don't really know who he was or what he did. Others however, might be salivating knowing that one of the 20thCenturies musical geniuses is the subject of this episode. Either way, both Deb and Stan graciously sat down together to do this interview & wowed us with tales of their complex genius dad. Vintage cartoon fans might know Scott from his songs “Powerhouse” and “Toy Trumpet,” classic television and radio fans may know him and his orchestra from the show “Your Hit Parade” and others may know him as the Godfather of the modern synthesizer & inventor of the Clavinex & Electronium. A performer, a demanding band leader, a composer and the Director of Motown's electronic and research department, Raymond Scott was nothing if not prolific. In addition, we discuss Deb's mother, entertainer Dorothy Collins who was a Broadway star, a nightclub performer and a television star on shows like The Hollywood Palace. We get the lowdown on a father so driven by his creations he gave up performing for tinkering in his office and being one of the founders of electronic music as well as fax machine – decades before it became a reality. It's positively Looney Tunes on this episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast. Everyone has a story.

We answer listener questions about Al the hoopster, his parents big time involvement in the temple in Queens, Al going to Paul Simon's bar mitzvah, and the origin of title of the Kapusta Albums is revealed… via Ernie Kovacs. After each answer from Al, Nilly the Dog adds a brief comment of her own. Ask Al questions at www.alkooper.com on the Kooperkast page.

Today on Part Two of our conversation about silent film stars Harold Lloyd and Mildred Davis on the Rarified Heir Podcast, we continue our conversation with Suzanne Lloyd, their granddaughter who was raised as their daughter. Last week we laid the groundwork on the life and legacy of one of the silent era's greatest comedians. This week, we discuss the life Suzanne led in the family's Green Acres 16 acre estate in Benedict Canyon. Harold seemed to have a way with money and he indulged all his passions with abandon. Although retired when Suzanne was growing up, Harold remained very active in his passions. Be it photography, the Shriners hospital, the estate itself or even his passion for bowling with Howard Hughes, we get into it all. Topics discussed in this episode include: Harold's passion for Stereo, Rick Nelson, TV director Richard Correll, Debbie Reynolds, the Blacklist, Paul McCartney & Wings, Disneyland, the Rolling Stones, Marilyn Monroe, Roddy McDowell, Harmon Kardon audio and more. Along the way we discuss 3-D photography, pipe organs and an almost ridiculous obsession with Christmas and Christmas trees you have to hear to believe. But we get into it, oh yes we do! We pick up our conversation with Suzanne mid-interview as we compare Ernie Kovacs to Harold Lloyd on this episode, of this episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast. Everyone has a story. Enjoy.  

  Today on another brand new episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we give you part one of our conversation with Suzanne Lloyd, the granddaughter of silent film comedy star & Christmas tree obsessive, Harold Lloyd. Now, if the name (or the image) of Harold Lloyd doesn't immediately ring a bell like Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin, this is one of the reasons we do this podcast, to make sure the legacy of legendary (or sometimes just working actors) are not forgotten. And after you hear Suzanne's lengthy and almost encyclopedic remembrances of the man who raised her and why his name isn't always mentioned as one of the three silent film comedians, you will understand it after listening to part one and next week's part two. There is a reason. One we know all too well ourselves with the Ernie Kovacs estate. On today's episode, we discuss the silent era of film and names like Hal Roach, Colleen Moore, Mary Pickford, Daryl Zanuck, Irving Thalberg, Snub Pollard and more are bandied about like so many of Suzanne's colorful stories about Harold Lloyd. We also hearabout Suzanne's grandmother, actress Mildred Davis who was a pretty huge silent film star in her own right. It's a whirlwind of information that fans of silent films won't get enough of and fans who love old Hollywood but maybe don't know the silent era well will want to learn more about. Suzanne was a marvelous guest – someone who knows dates, places, studios, names and more like these things happened just yesterday. It's clear that because she now controlls the Harold Lloyd Estate and his production company that she learned all this while also genuinely loving her grandfather who raised her like a daughter. It's terrific stuff. So now podcast listeners, we bring you the story of Speedy aka Harold Lloyd on this episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast. Take a listen.

Welcome to another bonus edition of the Rarified Heir Podcast. Today we bring you something a little different. Just for fun. On Saturday September 28th and Sunday the 29th, 2024 the good folks at the VideoFest in Dallas presented Devo's Gerald Casale with the Ernie Kovacs award. Since the 1997, Bart Weiss and the Video Association of Dallas has given out a (semi) annual Ernie Kovacs award with the help of Edie Adams and since her passing in 2009, her son, Rarified Heir Podcast host Josh Mills. Past recipients include Joel Hodgson, Paul Reubens, Amy Sedaris, Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, Mike Judge, George Schlatter, Kevin McDonald & Dave Foley of Kids in the Hall, Al Franken, Martin Mull, Michael Nesmith and more. Thank you to Kyle Riche for recording the event, Bart Weiss and the VideoFest in Dallas Texas for holding an Ernie Kovacs award annually, Gerald Casale for being such an Ernie Kovacs fan, Jeff Winner for making this event happen, the good folks at the Texas Theater, DJ George Gimarc, all the VideoFest volunteers and everyone who has attended any of the Kovacs Awards through the years. So Rarified Heir Podcast fans, this is not your typical episode, but we thought you all might want to hear some of what happened that weekend. And here it is.

Welcome to another bonus edition of the Rarified Heir Podcast. Today we bring you something a little different. Just for fun. On Saturday September 28th and Sunday the 29th, 2024 the good folks at the VideoFest in Dallas presented Devo's Gerald Casale with the Ernie Kovacs award. Since the 1997, Bart Weiss and the Video Association of Dallas has given out a (semi) annual Ernie Kovacs award with the help of Edie Adams and since her passing in 2009, her son, Rarified Heir Podcast host Josh Mills. Past recipients include Joel Hodgson, Paul Reubens, Amy Sedaris, Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, Mike Judge, George Schlatter, Kevin McDonald & Dave Foley of Kids in the Hall, Al Franken, Martin Mull, Michael Nesmith and more. Thank you to Kyle Riche for recording the event, Bart Weiss and the VideoFest in Dallas Texas for holding an Ernie Kovacs award annually, Gerald Casale for being such an Ernie Kovacs fan, Jeff Winner for making this event happen, the good folks at the Texas Theater, DJ George Gimarc, all the VideoFest volunteers and everyone who has attended any of the Kovacs Awards through the years. So Rarified Heir Podcast fans, this is not your typical episode, but we thought you all might want to hear some of what happened that weekend. And here it is.

Agents Scott and Cam, along with guest operative Lachlan Page, author of Magical Disinformation, slam back shots and play a high stakes game of checkers against Alec Guinness while decoding the 1959 Graham Greene adaptation Our Man in Havana.   Directed by Carol Reed. Starring Alec Guinness, Burl Ives, Maureen O'Hara, Ernie Kovacs, Noël Coward, Ralph Richardson, Jo Morrow and Grégoire Aslan.  Learn more about Lachlan's work over at his website. All of his books, including Magical Disinformation, are available on Amazon.  You can also follow Lachlan on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Become a SpyHards Patron and gain access to top secret "Agents in the Field" bonus episodes, movie commentaries and more! Purchase the latest exclusive SpyHards merch at Redbubble. Social media: @spyhards View the NOC List and the Disavowed List at Letterboxd.com/spyhards Podcast artwork by Hannah Hughes. Theme music by Doug Astley.

Today on the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to journalist Claudia Cowan who grew up the daughter of actress Barbara Rush and pioneering A-list publicist Warren Cowan. Claudia spoke with us about growing up with a mother co-starred with Paul Newman in The Young Philadelphians and whose father was Paul Newmand's press agent. It was a difficult task to focus on both her mother and father because they both did so much personally and professionally – including marrying and divorcing – twice. Along the way we hear about Claudia's favorite LA restaurants, her mother's disappointment at not singing a duet with Frank Sinatra in Robin and the Seven Hoods, how her father invented the “Top Ten list,” what it was like being on tour with her mother while she was starring in regional theater in Chicago and how her parents met The Beatles at a garden party the night after their famed Hollywood Bowl performance that her father was publicizing and so much more. So what is it like to have a father who represented Clint Eastwood, Kirk Douglas, George Burns, Ronald Reagan and others while her mom was starring in movies with Rock Hudson, Dean Martin Marlon Brando, Hope Lange and Ernie Kovacs? You'll just have to listen to this episode and find out. And let us say this, in honor of her father, when asked, who his favorite client was said “The next one,” let us just say that our favorite episode is the next one, which in this case is THIS one with Claudia Cowan. Another child of a celebrity interviewed by a child of a celebrity. Everyone has a story.

May 3-9, 1997 This week Ken welcomes comedian and man behind the comedy special "Harangue" (watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9qlvlgkiJs), Kevin Casey White. Ken and Kevin discuss being live in Mexico City, international waters, loving John Carpenter, Big Trouble in Little China, smokers coughs, homaging the Thing title car, growing up in St. Louis, Xena, loving Lucy Lawless, The Evil Dead, growing up without cable, The Nanny, twist endings, why TV Guide writers should avoid writing comedy, Rob Schneider, Men Behaving Badly, terrible US remakes of UK shows, Jack Parr, Conan O'Brien, Johnny Carson being a dick, YouTube Rabbit Holes, Ernie Kovacs, The Simpsons, the wonder of Saturday Morning cartoons, the rarity of demographic TV Blocks, comic books, X-Men '97, Batman, wanting video games that look like actual cartoons, The Mask, how cartoons can feel timeless, Waynehead, Freakazoid, Ricardo Montalban, what your favorite Ninja Turtle says about you, Tales from the Crypt, the Cryptkeeper hosting a kid's game show, revealing the existence of the "dirty" edits of TFTC, the history of HBO's original programming, Rosie O'Donnell's stand up, people coming out of the closet, SNICK, staying at your grandma's because she has cable, the turning point in Simpsons' history that IS "Homer's Enemy" the Frank Grimes episode, downbeat endings, smart writing, COPS, America's Most Wanted, the novelty of consumers having VHS Cameras, The Jeff Foxworthy Show, iconic child actors and confusing the world of Cuba Gooding Jr. 

A widow (Doris Day) who runs a lobster business in Maine ends up in a legal battle with a powerful railroad company.  Co-starring Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs and Steve Forrest.

GGACP celebrates the recent release of the musical documentary "Killing Me Softly with His Songs" (now streaming) by revisiting this memorable interview with Grammy and Emmy winner Charles Fox. In this episode, Charles looks back on a six-decade career of writing top 40 hits as well as themes for TV shows (“Happy Days,” “Wonder Woman,” "The Love Boat"), feature films (“Barbarella,” “9 to 5”) and game shows (“Match Game,” “What's My Line?”). Also, Charles teams with Barry Manilow, pens a tune for Burt Reynolds, witnesses the Ed Ames tomahawk incident and remembers friends Neal Hefti, Jerry Goldsmith and Henry Mancini. PLUS: “Love, American Style”! The Charles Fox Singers! The inventiveness of Ernie Kovacs! Gilbert sings the soundtrack from “Zapped!” And the boys pay loving tribute to Paul Williams! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ferris Butler and his biographer D.B. Frick joined me to discuss his garage band version of SNL "Waste Meet News"; his love for Sid Caesar and Ernie Kovacs; Brooklyn in the 50's and 60's; his pilot for the Vintage Seltzer Hour with Michael O'Donoghue and Garrett Morris; going to NYU film school and being taught by Martin Scorsese and classmates with Billy Crystal; creating Waste Meat News; having Radames Pera on; the budget; New York Magazine says Waste Meat is being copied by SNL; getting hired by Jean Doumanian; how the crew was excited for new season. but the press was already hostile; not getting anything on the premiere; getting Leather Weather on the Malcolm McDowell show; writing the tag to Eddie Murphy's first appearance; writing Tort-U-Matic and her monologue for Jamie Lee Curtis; co-writing Reagan Co for the Robert Hays episode; Howard Stern has beef about his Leather Weather Girl vs. Ferris' sketch; writing the Kung Fu prostitution sketch and slipping a watersports joke by the censors; the difference between head writers Mason Williams and Stevens and Moore; writing one joke for Weekend Update; Brian Doyle-Murray; Bill hosts; he was recommended by Letty Aronson; more Bill Murray stories; is Ferris Butler, Ferris Bueller - Del Close wanted to do a movie about him, Quentin Tarantino believes it; writing "Prison Confession" sketch for Ray Sharkey episode; writing a sketch that got cut at dress; writing the "Big Brother" sketch for Deborah Harry episode; the re-evaluation of season 6; Name That Sin; musical guests; saving his sketches; not being surprised Dick Ebersol didn't as him back; not getting credit for writing for SNL; not being invited to any anniversary; Waste Meat News is in the Paley Center for Media

Renowned for his expertise in 19th-century history, Nevada & Las Vegas welcomes a distinguished historian to the show to delve into the rich history of Tropicana. Beginning our discussion with his experiences in Las Vegas and his tenure at The Valley Times, which intersected with organized crime, we segue seamlessly into his initial impressions upon hearing the name "Tropicana."Set to become the new home of the Las Vegas A's baseball stadium, Tropicana has a storied past intertwined with the city's underworld. Initially touted as "The Tiffany of the Strip," its true colors were revealed following a failed assassination attempt on Frank Costello in New York.From Joe Agosto's oversight of the Folies Bergere, operating without a license, to Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal's residence at the Tropicana, which sparks anecdotes about Michael's father's views on Sharon Stone's portrayal of Geri in "Casino," the property has navigated a complex path to the present day, often contending with larger competitors.The integration of a new resort alongside the baseball stadium prompts reflections on past events, such as the 1984 labor dispute that culminated in a bomb explosion in the Tropicana's parking lot. The venue has hosted a myriad of legendary performers, from Ernie Kovacs and Benny Goodman to contemporary acts like Wayne Newton and productions like "Mamma Mia." Notably, the Tropicana also served as a backdrop for iconic television shows like "Charlie's Angels" and the filming of "The Godfather" in 1972.Contemplating the announcement of the Tropicana as the stadium site, concerns arise about preserving the essence of old Las Vegas amidst the city's rapid evolution. The fate of the iconic stained-glass ceiling in the casino is pondered, along with reminiscences of what will be missed about the Tropicana.In summary, the discussion illuminates Tropicana's multifaceted history and its role in shaping the identity of Las Vegas, while also raising questions about the city's future direction and the preservation of its nostalgic landmarks.Michael Green Link:https://www.unlv.edu/people/michael-greenTropicana Links:Hotel Site (if still operational): https://casinos.ballys.com/tropicana-las-vegas/Folies Bergere Last Dance Video: https://bit.ly/4bXpRSlPhoto of Iconic Stained-Glass Ceiling: https://www.casino.org/vitalvegas/say-aint-tropicana-casino-lose-stained-glass-ceiling/Before the Lights Links:A Heartbeat & A Guitar: Johnny Cash & the Making of Bitter Tear Docuseries: https://www.beforethelightspod.com/docuseries/bitter-tearsHire Tommy to Speak: https://www.beforethelightspod.com/public-speakingBecome a BTL Member: https://www.beforethelightspod.com/supportBefore the Lights Website: https://www.beforethelightspod.com/Get Tommy a Glass of VinoSupport the showFollow the show on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beforethelightspodcast/Follow the show on Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/beforethelightspodcast/Follow the show on Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@beforethelightspodcast?lang=enFollow Tommy on Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/tcanale3Rate & Review: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/before-the-lights/id1501245041Email the host: beforethelightspod@gmail.com

TVC 641.2: Josh Mills and Pat Thomas talk to Ed about Ernie Kovacs' many collaborations and longtime friendship with Jack Lemmon; how the format for Ernie's successful morning show in Philadelphia inspired NBC to develop The Today Show; how Kovacs was the first to understand that television was an intimate form; and how Ernie's influence can be seen in the antics of comedian Soupy Sales. Josh and Pat are two of the co-authors, along with Ben Model, of Ernie in Kovacsland, a marvelously conceived book that not only gives readers a true glimpse into the mind of Ernie Kovacs, but shows the many media outlets for Ernie's creativity that went beyond television. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 641.1: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with Josh Mills, son of Edie Adams and the curator of the estates of Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams, and Pat Thomas, author of Invitation to Openness: the Jazz & Soul Photography of Les McCann, Material Wealth: Mining the Personal Archive of Allen Ginsberg, and Did It! Jerry Rubin: An American Revolutionary. Josh and Pat are two of the co-authors, along with Ben Model, of Ernie in Kovacsland: Writings, Drawings, and Photographs from Television's Original Genius, a marvelously conceived book that not only gives readers a true glimpse into the mind of Ernie Kovacs, but shows the many media outlets for Ernie's creativity that went beyond television. Topics this segment include the back story of Zoomar, the satirical novel about advertising and television that Ernie published in 1957, but which is still timely today; Take a Good Look, the “anti-game show” that Ernie hosted (ABC, 1959-1961) that, in many respects, is also the essence of Ernie Kovacs; and the perforated, three-page foldout in Ernie in Kovacsland that pays homage to Ernie's long association with MAD magazine. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 640.1: Ed welcomes Josh Mills, son of Edie Adams and the curator of the estates of Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams, and author Pat Thomas (Invitation to Openness: the Jazz & Soul Photography of Les McCann, Material Wealth: Mining the Personal Archive of Allen Ginsberg, Did It! Jerry Rubin: An American Revolutionary). Josh and Pat are two of the co-authors, along with Ben Model, of Ernie in Kovacsland: Writings, Drawings, and Photographs from Television's Original Genius, a marvelously conceived, non-linear book that gives readers a true glimpse into the mind of Ernie Kovacs. Topics this segment include how, in many ways, Ernie in Kovacsland is an outgrowth of Edie's tireless preservation of all things Ernie Kovacs; how she recognized that Ernie was doing something special before anyone else did; and how Kovacs' influence extends to such counter-cultural figures as Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Alice Cooper, and the original writers and performers of Saturday Night Live. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 640.2: Josh Mills and Pat Thomas talk to Ed about The Silent Show, the iconic NBC special from January 1957 that is the only Ernie Kovacs television show to be broadcast in color. Other topics this segment include how Kovacs was a constant presence on television from 1950 until his death in January 1962 (even though he never had a “long-running” series, per se); his incredible knack for generating publicity; and how the Percy Dovetonsils poem “Thoughts While Falling Off the Empire State Building” is one example of how Kovacs came to influence the Yippies and the Beat generation. Josh and Pat are two of the co-authors, along with Ben Model, of Ernie in Kovacsland, a marvelously conceived book that not only gives readers a true glimpse into the mind of Ernie Kovacs, but shows the many media outlets for Ernie's creativity that went beyond television. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mike Mills of R.E.M. takes us out to the ball game with his concept supergroup, The Baseball Project. Also, Josh Mills shares the story of one of the most innovative television comedians ever – the one and only Ernie Kovacs. And Alex Pappademas takes us inside the brilliant minds of Steely Dan.

June 19 - 25, 1953 This week Ken welcomes professor, writer, producer and director Jack Solder (Nightmare on Elm St. 2, By Dawn's Early Light, The Hidden, 12:01, Alone in the Dark) to the show. Ken and Jack discuss growing up in Philly, growing up playing trumpet, being a classical musician, realizing you're good but not GREAT at something, becoming an editor, the rhythm of cuts, working at New Line Cinema, Caroline Biggerstaff, poses vs pauses, editing The Burning, learning by doing, creating suspense, revival art house cinema, the genius of Buster Keaton, exploitation films, Ed Sullivan, Uncle Milty, 1950s music shows, the cultural scene of the 1950s, Uncle Pete Boyle, Chief Halftown, kids shows, Life of Reilly, Magnavox, The DuMont Network, newspapermen, The Big Story, The Big Picture, the strangeness of modern day network TV, the personal nature of TV, working with Harvey Keitel, swapping India for Eastern Europe, the fake Indian word for "Roll 'em" Easta Sasusaway, never being Mr. Wizard, Big Top with Jack Sterling, Wrestling, boxing, You Asked for It, Fearless Ed, Variety Shows, New York Socialites and Intellectuals, Dinah Shore, representations of gay people on TV, Ernie Kovacs, Red necks, Farmers, how your car key fob is more powerful than the computer that sent men to the moon, the world after cell phones, Alan Funt, Candid Camera, Kids Say the Darndest Things, UHF stations, Dragnet, American Bandstand, 12:01, The Hidden, the gayest Nightmare on Elm St film, Robocop, working with Jake the Dog, and the strangeness of The Omen The Series pilot. 

TVC 631.5: George Schlatter, creator and producer of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and Real People, talks to Ed about casting Robin Williams for the 1977 revival of Laugh-In; his hopes for launching a contemporary edition of Laugh-In in the near future; and why his friend Ernie Kovacs likely would've been proud of Turn-On, had he lived to see it. George's memoir, Still Laughing: A Life in Comedy, is the story of how a kid from Missouri forged his way out of the rough and tumble world of Las Vegas nightclubs and wound up working with some of the most fascinating people in the history of show biz, including Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Eddie Murphy, Cher, Elton John, Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Liza Minnelli, Michael Jackson, Doris Day, Jonathan Winters, Richard Pryor, Shirley MacLaine, Bill Cosby, Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, Diana Ross, Lena Horne, Dinah Shore, and Nat King Cole. The print edition of Still Laughing is available wherever books are sold, while the audio edition is now available form Audible. The first two episodes of Turn-On are now available for viewing on demand, for free, on the Clown Jewels channel on YouTube. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the Rarified Heir Podcast we are talking to someone who frankly, we didn't know we absolutely needed to talk to a month ago. We are talking to actress/voice over artist Pamela Dillman. Pamela's father was actor Bradford Dillman and her stepmother was supermodel, Suzy Parker. Yes, THAT Suzy Parker. But what makes this episode so special, at least for host Josh Mills, was that Pamela grew up with and was best friends with Josh's sister Mia Kovacs. Sadly, Mia passed away in 1982 so there are very few people who remember Mia and who remember what she was like. So it was a true thrill for Josh to be able to ask Pamela questions about his sister as well as his mother Edie Adams. We do our best to try and make sure we connect about Pamela's life growing up in Beverly Hills at the very prim and proper John Thomas Dye school where she met Mia but also to talk about everything from how her father considered himself a working actor who just did his job and was honored to be an actor but how much of a cultural impact her stepmother Suzy made as literally the world's first supermodel. Hell, The Beatles wrote a song about her! So mea culpa (or would that be Mia culpa?), this episode does focus heavily on someone other than Pamela's career and her famous parents. After all this is a podcast where a child of a celebrity interviews a child of a celebrity. But when you can finally talk to someone who knew your sibling when they were in elementary school, I hope you can forgive us for indulging a bit. Part therapy session, part remembrance and part fascinating foray into the San Francisco 49ers, RADA, moldy Chanel couture garments, Caesar's Palace and Morgan Freeman, this episode of the podcast was a real thrill. Everyone has a story.

Book Vs. Movie: Bell Book and CandleThe Original 1950 Play & the 1958 Film"Bell, Book, and Candle," released in 1958 and directed by Richard Quine, is a romantic comedy that intertwines the ordinary and the supernatural. The movie revolves around Gillian Holroyd, a beautiful and free-spirited witch who resides in Greenwich Village, New York. Her magical world turns unexpectedly when she develops feelings for her neighbor, Shepherd Henderson. This story takes place on Christmas Eve, making it a unique holiday classic. The film is based on the 1950 play by John Van Druten and stars James Stewart and Kim Novak (who had also filmed Vertigo the same year). It showcases the hip world of the late 1950s with an unusual romance full of flights of fancy and, of course, cats!In this ep, the Margos discuss:The work of John Van Druten.The use of witchcraft as a theme in mid-20th Century America.The cast of the 1958 film: James Stewart (Shep Henderson,) Kim Novak (Gil Holroyd,) Jack Lemmon (Nicky Holroyd,) Ernie Kovacs (Sidney Redlitch,) Hermione Gingold (Bianca De Pass,) Elsa Lanchester (Aunt Queenie Holroyd,) and Janice Rule as Merle Kittridge.Clips used:Gillian casts her spellBell, Book, and Candle (1958 trailer)The “Club Zodiac”Shep realizes Gil loves himShep gets meanGillian is now a humanMusic: George DuningBook Vs. Movie is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. Find more podcasts you will love Frolic.Media/podcasts. Join our Patreon page “Book Vs. Movie podcast”You can find us on Facebook at Book Vs. Movie Podcast GroupFollow us on Twitter @bookversusmovieInstagram: Book Versus Movie https://www.instagram.com/bookversusmovie/Email us at bookversusmoviepodcast@gmail.com Margo D. Twitter @BrooklynMargo Margo D's Blog www.brooklynfitchick.com Margo D's Instagram “Brooklyn Fit Chick”Margo D's TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@margodonohuebrooklynfitchick@gmail.comYou can buy your copy of Filmed in Brooklyn here! Margo P. Twitter @ShesNachoMamaMargo P's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/shesnachomama/Margo P's Blog https://coloniabook.weebly.com/ Our logo was designed by Madeleine Gainey/Studio 39 Marketing Follow on Instagram @Studio39Marketing & @musicalmadeleine This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5406542/advertisement

Book Vs. Movie: Bell Book and CandleThe Original 1950 Play & the 1958 Film"Bell, Book, and Candle," released in 1958 and directed by Richard Quine, is a romantic comedy that intertwines the ordinary and the supernatural. The movie revolves around Gillian Holroyd, a beautiful and free-spirited witch who resides in Greenwich Village, New York. Her magical world turns unexpectedly when she develops feelings for her neighbor, Shepherd Henderson. This story takes place on Christmas Eve, making it a unique holiday classic. The film is based on the 1950 play by John Van Druten and stars James Stewart and Kim Novak (who had also filmed Vertigo the same year). It showcases the hip world of the late 1950s with an unusual romance full of flights of fancy and, of course, cats!In this ep, the Margos discuss:The work of John Van Druten.The use of witchcraft as a theme in mid-20th Century America.The cast of the 1958 film: James Stewart (Shep Henderson,) Kim Novak (Gil Holroyd,) Jack Lemmon (Nicky Holroyd,) Ernie Kovacs (Sidney Redlitch,) Hermione Gingold (Bianca De Pass,) Elsa Lanchester (Aunt Queenie Holroyd,) and Janice Rule as Merle Kittridge.Clips used:Gillian casts her spellBell, Book, and Candle (1958 trailer)The “Club Zodiac”Shep realizes Gil loves himShep gets meanGillian is now a humanMusic: George DuningBook Vs. Movie is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. Find more podcasts you will love Frolic.Media/podcasts. Join our Patreon page “Book Vs. Movie podcast”You can find us on Facebook at Book Vs. Movie Podcast GroupFollow us on Twitter @bookversusmovieInstagram: Book Versus Movie https://www.instagram.com/bookversusmovie/Email us at bookversusmoviepodcast@gmail.com Margo D. Twitter @BrooklynMargo Margo D's Blog www.brooklynfitchick.com Margo D's Instagram “Brooklyn Fit Chick”Margo D's TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@margodonohuebrooklynfitchick@gmail.comYou can buy your copy of Filmed in Brooklyn here! Margo P. Twitter @ShesNachoMamaMargo P's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/shesnachomama/Margo P's Blog https://coloniabook.weebly.com/ Our logo was designed by Madeleine Gainey/Studio 39 Marketing Follow on Instagram @Studio39Marketing & @musicalmadeleine

Michael Mann discusses the other Michael Mann; starting on radio before listening to it; recreating Charlotte's Web on the radio show Let's Pretend; his mom getting him into modeling at 5; a newspaper write up from 1952; performing on Broadway with Bette Davis in Two's Company; performing a portion of the show on Ed Sullivan; working with Lon Chaney, Jr. on a infamous 1952 adaptation of Frankenstein; playing Perry Como's son on his show; appearing in a play One Borrowed Time with Jean Lockhart; costarring on the 1955-1956 sitcom Joe & Mabel with Nita Talbot & Norman Fell; working with Ernie Kovacs & Milton Berle; pausing acting in 1960 to go into the Navy; coming back; guest starring on Delvecchio with future client Judd Hirsch; playing softball vs. Happy Days; Penny Marshall; working with Jackie Gleason twenty-five years later in Smokey & the Bandit; MASH; Taxi; Jim Burrows; Szysznyk; Christopher Walken is fine, just hasn't hosted SNL in a while; going to the Professional Childrens School; guest starring on All in the Family with Billy Crystal; Theodore Bikel; "Stephanie's Conversion" episode; becoming a manager; his clients Molly Shannon, Rachel Dratch, Robert Pine; what he's doing now

George joins me to talk about his favorite radio programs; growing up with music; moving to Las Vegas; Sammy Davis, Jr; his wife, Jolene Brand; Ernie Kovacs; his biggest talent is to make things funny; inventing the Vegas lounge act; working on The Dinah Shore Show; Fat Jack Leonard; new comedians and brighter colors; can talk about many different topics like sex and politics; laughter is a panacea; taping Al Hirt on a high rise next to a dead man; origins of Laugh-In; predicting Reagan's presidency; getting Nixon elected; booking Ronald Reagan and the Marquis Chimps in Vegas; Barbara Feldon didn't get the dirty jokes; Lily Tomlin gives the finger; Judy Carne shows her nipple; comedy should be fun; Martin Short; Bill Maher; breaking TV's color barrier; Sammy Davis Jr. vs. Micey Rooney; getting fired from The Judy Garland Show; British comics; discovering Byron Allen, Pamela Rodgers, Robin Williams, Lenny Schultze, and Tiny Tim; Frank Sinatra meets Wayland Flowers and Madam; Turn On; hiring Albert Brooks; creating Soul and working with Redd Foxx; Gregory Hines & Sammy Davis Jr.'s challenge dance; creating Speak Up America for Marjoe Gortner and Jayne Kennedy; George Carlin getting his inseam measured by his wife before a show; working with Geoge Burns, Jack Benny, and Goldie Hawn

Cha' Calla. Sounds outta my face. Never go full Bishop. Adobe Fresca. Love me an Underage Ward. Moon Knight AKA Phil Spector. I WILL be Going There! Click. I need to Gummy and Think. Ernie Kovacs and his Freakin' Monkeys. Randy Quad's World is Stupid. Why don't you just give them the answer!?!?! The Cadence of Nonsense. Tom Cruise/Hanks. Experimenting with Tom Merritt. Pretending Randy had a Charlie with Nicole and more on this episode of The Morning Stream. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cha' Calla. Sounds outta my face. Never go full Bishop. Adobe Fresca. Love me an Underage Ward. Moon Knight AKA Phil Spector. I WILL be Going There! Click. I need to Gummy and Think. Ernie Kovacs and his Freakin' Monkeys. Randy Quad's World is Stupid. Why don't you just give them the answer!?!?! The Cadence of Nonsense. Tom Cruise/Hanks. Experimenting with Tom Merritt. Pretending Randy had a Charlie with Nicole and more on this episode of The Morning Stream. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#erniekovacs #TVcomedy #Hollywood #EdieAdams #realconversations CONVERSATIONS WITH CALVIN WE THE SPECIES Now!!!  JOSHUA MILLS; ‘Ernie in Kovacsland;' Co-Curator, Runs estates of Ernie Kovacs (original TV genius), Edie Adams, Martin Mills Photography; Host of ‘Rarified Heir'(children of celebrities); LIVE from LA https://www.youtube.com/c/ConversationswithCalvinWetheSpecIEs 245 Interviews. GLOBAL Reach. Earth Life. Amazing People.  PLEASE SUBSCRIBE and join the other 4100 Subscribers. (You can find almost any subject, even AI) ** JOSHUA MILLS; ‘Ernie in Kovacsland;' Co-Curator, Runs estates of Ernie Kovacs (original TV genius), Edie Adams, Martin Mills Photography; Host of ‘Rarified Heir'(children of celebrities); LIVE from LA YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_8m-uVTlKU&t=5s “Getting a chance to interview Josh Mills was in the ‘magical' classification. The son of Edie Adams (originally married to Ernie Kovacs, who revolutionized 1950's television comedy) Josh, is a fixture in Hollywood, interviewing the children of celebrities on his podcast ‘Rarified Heir.' He is introspective, funny, brilliant, and replete with so many stories like hanging out with Clint Eastwood, watching TV, when he was a kid. ALL in our interview. Importantly his very special, creative, unique and essential (especially if you like TV etc.) book, just released on Amazon. (A purist coffee table book), “Ernie in Kovacsland: Writings, Drawings, and Photographs from Television's Original Genius”  Calvin ** CONTACTS: www.edieadams.com/ https://rarifiedheirpodcast.com www.erniekovacs.com fantagraphics.com www.martinmillsphotography.com itsalivemedia.com fantagraphics.com ERNIE IN KOVACSLAND(book) Amazon: amzn.to/45xfgu5 ** BIO: It's Alive! Media was founded by Josh Mills in 2002. We are a boutique public relations company with a concentration in music, music-related films and technology publicity specializing in both consumer entertainment PR as well as corporate communications. Since 2008, It's Alive! Media has worked hand in hand with Ediad Productions handing the estates of groundbreaking comedian Ernie Kovacs, entertainer Edie Adams and photographer Martin Mills. It's Alive! Media provides its clients with a wide variety of PR and marketing services. This includes the creation and servicing of corporate and consumer press releases, full-service press campaigns involving some or all of the following: national press, tour press, trade & industry press and electronic  & mass media press. Primary genres for consumer press include: Indie, Rock, Punk, Alternative, Pop, Industrial, World Music, Gothic, Kids and Electronic music. We specialize in high-profile reissues, new releases and local/indie bands for tour press, regional & national campaigns. Josh Mills has worked in public relations since 1996. He has worked for a variety of independent and corporate companies including independent label World Domination Recordings, national live music venue House of Blues and digital music distributor Liquid Audio. Additionally, he has consulted for Ark21 Records, Motormouth Media, Transistor Recordings and Liquid Digital Media. His experience in the music industry has run the gamut from consumer press, live music/venue press to music technology corporate/business press. ** WE ARE ALSO ON AUDIO AUDIO “Conversations with Calvin; WE the SpecIEs” ANCHOR https://lnkd.in/g4jcUPq SPOTIFY https://lnkd.in/ghuMFeC APPLE PODCASTS BREAKER https://lnkd.in/g62StzJ GOOGLE PODCASTS https://lnkd.in/gpd3XfM POCKET CASTS https://pca.st/bmjmzait RADIO PUBLIC https://lnkd.in/gxueFZw edits by Claudine Smith- Email: casproductions01@gmail.com

Mike Mills of R.E.M. takes us out to the ball game with his concept supergroup, The Baseball Project. Also, Josh Mills shares the story of one of the most innovative television comedians ever – the one and only Ernie Kovacs. And Alex Pappademas takes us inside the brilliant minds of Steely Dan.

Say the name "Ernie Kovacs" today and you may well be met with a quizzical look. But say "the video art pioneer who inspired SNL, Python, Laugh In, and MST3K among many others" and you'll be in business! Smart-ass adlibs, odd ball musical acts, and numerous (and sometimes surreal) camera tricks that we take for granted today were all part of Ernie's toolkit, and he was ubiquitous on 1950s tv. He also became a superb character actor and sketch comic, and - not surprisingly -- he was an early inductee into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. Find more clips below and thanks for sharing our shows! Want more Ernie? Ernie had a gift for improv and his early talk shows take full advantage. This clip catches some of Ernie's best for NBC, including a great bit with a malfunctioning camera (it starts about 5:40 in). https://youtu.be/GSH8L2zmtaM We like to say "all comedy is derivative" -- in the best way of course! You can see that premise in action here with Ernie's "Mr. Question Man" -- the foundation for Steve Allen's Answer Man and Johnny Carson's Carnac. https://youtu.be/Tz_C4ZEwFm4 Ernie was also a fine character actor with a standout role in Bell, Book and Candle among his highlights. But he couldn't stop being Ernie as seen in this faux trailer for his first film role in Operation Mad Ball. https://youtu.be/QuVhvH4NHNc    

Peter Strauss burst on to the scene in the wildly popular 1976 miniseries "Rich Man, Poor Man" as successful entrepreneur Rudy Jordache, alongside Nick Nolte as the hard luck brother, Tom. He went to a prolific career on film, television and stage. His most recent role was headlining "Love Amid the Ruins" with JoBeth Williams at the Laguna Playhouse, and he also recently starred in "The Outgoing Tide" here for the Ojai Performing Arts Theater nonprofit group. He won an Emmy in 1979 for "The Jericho Mile" about a prison lifer who trains for the Olympics. It was Michael Mann's first directing credit. In a sign of his range, Strauss also played the President of the United States opposite Ice Cube in "XXX: State of the Union." We talk about his wide-ranging career with hundreds of acting credits. He has called Ojai home for more than 35 years and is deeply involved with horticulture, and was the spokesperson for Miracle-Gro for years. He travels widely collecting plants, specializing in succulents. We talk about Ojai and climate change, how the town has changed over the decades and what we need to do to secure the future. We did not talk about the transmigration of souls, Ernie Kovacs or summer homes in Nantucket.

Today on the Rarified Heir Podcast, we talk to musician and ace copy editor Jon Klages, whose grandfather, musician/producer/record label owner Enoch Light likely was the genesis of the Stereo revolution. Yes, you heard me right, classically trained violinist Enoch Light was one of, if not the first, to realize that by placing more than one microphone in a recording studio, you could create a fuller, more dynamic sound to your then, Hi-Fi, and now Stereo system today. Whoa. While Enoch released 25 plus records in his career, it was his record labels Grand Award, Project 3 and Command that really are his legacy. The labels, specifically Command, were known for their audio fidelity as well as their groundbreaking abstract artwork, gatefold sleeves and extensive liner notes that make them so unique. Be it space age pop, jazz, classical, film scores, Bossa Nova or anything else under the sun, Enoch Light was a pioneer in bringing the best music to the consumer in the best light (pun intended) possible. We talk about Jon's being in the recording studio with Enoch and mother Julie Light Klages at many sessions Enoch oversaw with his pipe at the ready. We also spoke about Jon's father, lighting designer William Klages, winner of seven Emmy awards, who worked with both Ernie Kovacs and host Josh Mills' mother Edie Adams at NBC in the early 1950s. We talk to john about his own musical career in the 80s as part of the “Hoboken Sound” with The Individuals, his move to Los Angeles and playing with the LA music scene surrounding the Paisley Underground and his 2021 solo debut Fabulous Twilight. Oh and did we mention that Jon copy edited the upcoming Ernie Kovacs book Ernie in Kovacsland from Fantagraphics coming July 18? Or that he's copy editing Edie Adams second autobiography as well? No? Well, take a listen to this episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast for some serious greatness.

Today on the Rarified Heir Podcast we are talking to master illustrator, painter and cartoonist Drew Friedman, son of writer/screenwriter Bruce Jay Friedman. And when we say writer, we mean a writer – short stories, essays, Broadway plays, films, novels – you name it and Bruce Jay Friedman did it. From screenplays like hit films like Splash and Stir Crazy to less, how do we say this, successful films like Doctor Detroit, Bruce Jay Friedman walked in both the literary and pop culture worlds, seamlessly. We also talk Bruce's novels like Scuba Duba and A Mother's Kisses, which were lauded for their humorous look at social and societal issues of the day. With contemporaries like Joseph Heller and Thomas Pynchon, you are in some pretty impressive company. We also talk to Drew about growing up in New York with a father who had his own table at the fashionable Elaine's in Manhattan for 30 years as well as his own obsession with drawing as a child. It's led Drew to be known as one of the most well-known portrait artists and cartoon artists of the last 50 or so years. His works have appeared in everything from the Wall Street Journal to Heavy Metal. His latest book, Maverix and Lunatix : Icons of Underground Comix is out now on Fantagraphics books. His other books you might ask?  How about Old  Jewish Comedians? Or Heroes of the Comics? Or All The Presidents. Somehow we talk find time to talk to Drew about Topps baseball cards, Groucho Marx, National Lampoon, Joe Franklin, Tor Johnson, Sammy Petrillo, Dick Shawn, Ernie Kovacs and much much more. It's a lively interview that became a conversation and that's always a great thing for this podcast. So sit back and take a listen to the latest episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast with Drew Friedman. Everyone has a story.

Alex Firer (OniPress's Rick & Morty Comics, The Onion) joins Trevor & Valerie to talk about Bell Book and Candle, Rick & Morty, Ernie Kovacs, Art Carney, the candy bar Alex eats through the episode, and Trevor & Valerie discuss making an email for the podcast. This was supposed to be the Halloween ep but I (Valerie) was moving & things got delayed. SOCIALS Alex is on Hive & Instagram @ alexfirer Valerie is on Twitter, Hive & Tumblr @stealingvalerie Trevor is on Twitter @trevorcumbo The podcast email (we did end up making an email!) is theeoddpodd@gmail.com

Today on the 100th episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we talk to…wait a minute, we talk to Josh Mills? That's right, we've flipped the script! Because this is a milestone for us, having launched during Covid and posting a new episode for 100 weeks in a row, we decided to do something to celebrate. Something different. Our amazing and talented friend Daisy Torme took the time out of her busy schedule to guest host this 100th episode today and interview our regular host Josh Mills in a Freaky Friday moment no one saw coming. So Daisy is our host and Josh is our guest. Hmnnnn…. Daisy was the perfect person to take over the episode as they have had a familial connection that goes back decades. Josh's dad Marty Mills and Daisy's dad Mel Torme were friends from the early 50s in New York and while there were rough patches, Marty, Mel, Buddy Rich and Sammy Davis Jr. had a unique, irreverent, competitive, fraternal bond that we spoke about in episode 68. So Daisy was the perfect choice to do this because as the Buddy Rich & Mel Torme album title goes, we're Together Again for the First Time. We talk about Josh's years growing up the child of a celebrity with his mother, entertainer Edie Adams, professional photographer Martin Mills & running the estate of Edie's first husband Ernie Kovacs. Along the way, we touch on Mills Music, an iconic music publishing company run by Josh's grandfather Jack Mills, Mia Kovacs, Josh's sister, the mob, Edie's love of comedians & musicians, Marty's ship to shore mobile phone, Maury Wills, Italian food, Peter Sellers, Eddie Fisher, Edie's nightclub act and John Kenley, a name you will look up during the podcast, we are sure. But before we begin the episode, we have to thank our former producer/engineer Erik Paparazzi for his help in getting this off the ground in the early days and to Jason Klamm, who was the first one to sign on to the podcast as co-host back in 2020 when this wasn't even close to reality and to Jamie Harley (that's me) for all his help, patience and effort in making this podcast last 100 episode. His commitment to this podcast is unparalleled and quite literally, we never would have gotten to 100 episode without him. We also owe a huge thank you to Daisy for her time, effort, interest, kindness, research and help in making this 100th episode a reality. But most importantly, we want to thank you, the listeners, for commenting on social media, for emailing us ideas and suggestions and generally, letting us know that all this is worth it. Some new things are happening with the podcast – we've launched our Patreon page today so if you feel like what we are doing is worthy, let us know and feel free to send along a little something as a one-time pledge, a monthly pledge or just provide more an encouragement. While this podcast is a labor of love, we hope to make it even better over the next 100 episodes. And with that…we bring you Daisy and Josh, the podcast centennial

Episode one hundred and fifty-four of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs is the last of our four-part mini-series on LA sunshine pop and folk-rock in summer 1967. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a fifteen-minute bonus episode available, on "Baby, Now That I've Found You" by the Foundations. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources There is no Mixcloud this week, because there were too many Turtles songs in the episode. There's relatively little information available about the Turtles compared to other bands of their era, and so apart from the sources on the general LA scene referenced in all these podcasts, the information here comes from a small number of sources. This DVD is a decent short documentary on the band's career. Howard Kaylan's autobiography, Shell Shocked: My Life with the Turtles, Flo and Eddie, and Frank Zappa, Etc.,  is a fun read, if inevitably biased towards his own viewpoint. Jim Pons' Hard Core Love: Sex, Football, and Rock and Roll in the Kingdom of God is much less fun, being as it is largely organised around how his life led up to his latter-day religious beliefs, but is the only other book I'm aware of with a substantial amount of coverage of the Turtles. There are many compilations of the Turtles' material available, of which All The Singles is by far and away the best. The box set of all their albums with bonus tracks is now out of print on CD, but can still be bought as MP3s. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript We've spent a lot of time recently in the LA of summer 1967, at the point where the sunshine pop sound that was created when the surf harmonies of the Beach Boys collided with folk rock was at its apex, right before fashions changed and tight sunny pop songs with harmonies from LA became yesterday's news, and extended blues-rock improvisations from San Francisco became the latest in thing. This episode is the last part of this four-episode sequence, and is going to be shorter than those others. In many ways this one is a bridge between this sequence and next episode, where we travel back to London, because we're saying goodbye for a while to the LA scene, and when we do return to LA it will be, for the most part, to look at music that's a lot less sunshine and a lot more shadow. So this is a brief fade-out while we sing ba-ba-ba, a three-minute pop-song of an episode, a last bit of sunshine pop before we return to longer, more complicated, stories  in two weeks' time, at which point the sun will firmly set. Like many musicians associated with LA, Howard Kaylan was born elsewhere and migrated there as a child, and he seems to have regarded his move from upstate New York to LA as essentially a move to Disneyland itself. That impression can only have been made stronger by the fact that soon after his family moved there he got his first childhood girlfriend -- who happened to be a Mouseketeer on the TV. And TV was how young Howard filtered most of his perceptions -- particularly TV comedy. By the age of fourteen he was the president of the Soupy Sales Fan Club, and he was also obsessed with the works of Ernie Kovacs, Sid Caesar, and the great satirist and parodist Stan Freberg: [Excerpt: Stan Freberg, "St. George and the Dragonet"] Second only to his love of comedy, though, was his love of music, and it was on the trip from New York to LA that he saw a show that would eventually change his life. Along the way, his family had gone to Las Vegas, and while there they had seen Louis Prima and Keeley Smith do their nightclub act. Prima is someone I would have liked to do a full podcast episode on when I was covering the fifties, and who I did do a Patreon bonus episode on. He's now probably best known for doing the voice of King Louis in the Jungle Book: [Excerpt: Louis Prima, "I Wanna Be Like You (the Monkey Song)"] But he was also a jump blues musician who made some very good records in a similar style to Louis Jordan, like "Jump, Jive, an' Wail" [Excerpt: Louis Prima, "Jump, Jive, an' Wail"] But like Jordan, Prima dealt at least as much in comedy as in music -- usually comedy involving stereotypes about his Italian-American ethnic origins. At the time young Howard Kaylan saw him, he was working a double act with his then-wife Keeley Smith. The act would consist of Smith trying to sing a song straight, while Prima would clown around, interject, and act like a fool, as Smith grew more and more exasperated, and would eventually start contemptuously mocking Prima. [Excerpt: Louis Prima and Keeley Smith, "Embraceable You/I've Got It Bad and That Ain't Good"] This is of course a fairly standard double-act format, as anyone who has suffered through an episode of The Little and Large Show will be all too painfully aware, but Prima and Smith did it better than most, and to young Howard Kaylan, this was the greatest entertainment imaginable. But while comedy was the closest thing to Kaylan's heart, music was a close second. He was a regular listener to Art Laboe's radio show, and in a brief period as a teenage shoplifter he obtained records like Ray Charles' album Genius + Soul = Jazz: [Excerpt: Ray Charles, "One Mint Julep"] and the single "Tossin' and Turnin'" by Bobby Lewis: [Excerpt: Bobby Lewis, "Tossin' and Turnin'"] "Tossin' and Turnin'" made a deep impression on Kaylan, because of the saxophone solo, which was actually a saxophone duet. On the record, baritone sax player Frank Henry played a solo, and it was doubled by the great tenor sax player King Curtis, who was just playing a mouthpiece rather than a full instrument, making a high-pitched squeaking sound: [Excerpt: Bobby Lewis, "Tossin' and Turnin'"] Curtis was of course also responsible for another great saxophone part a couple of years earlier, on a record that Kaylan loved because it combined comedy and rock and roll, "Yakety Yak": [Excerpt: The Coasters, "Yakety Yak"] Those two saxophone parts inspired Kaylan to become a rock and roller. He was already learning the clarinet and playing part time in an amateur Dixieland band, and it was easy enough to switch to saxophone, which has the same fingering. Within a matter of weeks of starting to play sax, he was invited to join a band called the Nightriders, who consisted of Chuck Portz on bass, Al Nichol on guitar, and Glen Wilson on drums. The Nightriders became locally popular, and would perform sets largely made up of Johnny and the Hurricanes and Ventures material. While he was becoming a budding King Curtis, Kaylan was still a schoolkid, and one of the classes he found most enjoyable was choir class. There was another kid in choir who Kaylan got on with, and one day that kid, Mark Volman came up to him, and had a conversation that Kaylan would recollect decades later in his autobiography: “So I hear you're in a rock 'n' roll band.” “Yep.” “Um, do you think I could join it?” “Well, what do you do?” “Nothing.” “Nothing?” “Nope.” “Sounds good to me. I'll ask Al.” Volman initially became the group's roadie and occasional tambourine player, and would also get on stage to sing a bit during their very occasional vocal numbers, but was mostly "in the band" in name only at first -- he didn't get a share of the group's money, but he was allowed to say he was in the group because that meant that his friends would come to the Nightriders' shows, and he was popular among the surfing crowd. Eventually, Volman's father started to complain that his son wasn't getting any money from being in the band, while the rest of the group were, and they explained to him that Volman was just carrying the instruments while they were all playing them. Volman's father said "if Mark plays an instrument, will you give him equal shares?" and they said that that was fair, so Volman got an alto sax to play along with Kaylan's tenor. Volman had also been taking clarinet lessons, and the two soon became a tight horn section for the group, which went through a few lineup changes and soon settled on a lineup of Volman and Kaylan on saxes, Nichol on lead guitar, Jim Tucker on rhythm guitar, Portz on bass, and Don Murray on drums. That new lineup became known as the Crossfires, presumably after the Johnny and the Hurricanes song of the same name: [Excerpt: Johnny and the Hurricanes, "Crossfire"] Volman and Kaylan worked out choreographed dance steps to do while playing their saxes, and the group even developed a group of obsessive fans who called themselves the Chunky Club, named after one of the group's originals: [Excerpt: The Crossfires, "Chunky"] At this point the group were pretty much only playing instrumentals, though they would do occasional vocals on R&B songs like "Money" or their version of Don and Dewey's "Justine", songs which required more enthusiasm than vocal ability. But their first single, released on a tiny label, was another surf instrumental, a song called "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde": [Excerpt: The Crossfires, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde"] The group became popular enough locally that they became the house band at the Revelaire Club in Redondo Beach. There as well as playing their own sets, they would also be the backing band for any touring acts that came through without their own band, quickly gaining the kind of performing ability that comes from having to learn a new artist's entire repertoire in a few days and be able to perform it with them live with little or no rehearsal. They backed artists like the Coasters, the Drifters, Bobby Vee, the Rivingtons, and dozens of other major acts, and as part of that Volman and Kaylan would, on songs that required backing vocals, sing harmonies rather than playing saxophone. And that harmony-singing ability became important when the British Invasion happened, and suddenly people didn't want to hear surf instrumentals, but vocals along the lines of the new British groups. The Crossfires' next attempt at a single was another original, this one an attempt at sounding like one of their favourite new British groups, the Kinks: [Excerpt: The Crossfires, "One Potato, Two Potato"] This change to vocals necessitated a change in the group dynamic. Volman and Kaylan ditched the saxophones, and discovered that between them they made one great frontman. The two have never been excessively close on a personal level, but both have always known that the other has qualities they needed. Frank Zappa would later rather dismissively say "I regard Howard as a fine singer, and Mark as a great tambourine player and fat person", and it's definitely true that Kaylan is one of the truly great vocalists to come out of the LA scene in this period, while Volman is merely a good harmony singer, not anything particularly special -- though he *is* a good harmony singer -- but it undersells Volman's contribution. There's a reason the two men performed together for nearly sixty years. Kaylan is a great singer, but also by nature rather reserved, and he always looked uncomfortable on stage, as well as, frankly, not exactly looking like a rock star (Kaylan describes himself not inaccurately as looking like a potato several times in his autobiography). Volman, on the other hand, is a merely good singer, but he has a naturally outgoing personality, and while he's also not the most conventionally good-looking of people he has a *memorable* appearance in a way that Kaylan doesn't. Volman could do all the normal frontman stuff, the stuff that makes a show an actual show -- the jokes, the dancing, the between-song patter, the getting the crowd going, while Kaylan could concentrate on the singing. They started doing a variation on the routine that had so enthralled Howard Kaylan when he'd seen Louis Prima and Keeley Smith do it as a child. Kaylan would stand more or less stock still, looking rather awkward, but singing like an angel, while Volman would dance around, clown, act the fool, and generally do everything he could to disrupt the performance -- short of actually disrupting it in reality. It worked, and Volman became one of that small but illustrious group of people -- the band member who makes the least contribution to the sound of the music but the biggest contribution to the feel of the band itself, and without whom they wouldn't be the same. After "One Potato, Two Potato" was a flop, the Crossfires were signed to their third label. This label, White Whale, was just starting out, and the Crossfires were to become their only real hit act. Or rather, the Turtles were. The owners of White Whale knew that they didn't have much promotional budget and that their label was not a known quantity -- it was a tiny label with no track record. But they thought of a way they could turn that to their advantage. Everyone knew that the Beatles, before Capitol had picked up their contracts, had had their records released on a bunch of obscure labels like Swan and Tollie. People *might* look for records on tiny independent labels if they thought it might be another British act who were unknown in the US but could be as good as the Beatles. So they chose a name for the group that they thought sounded as English as possible -- an animal name that started with "the", and ended in "les", just like the Beatles. The group, all teenagers at the time, were desperate enough that they agreed to change their name, and from that point on they became the Turtles. In order to try and jump on as many bandwagons as possible, the label wanted to position them as a folk-rock band, so their first single under the Turtles name was a cover of a Bob Dylan song, from Another Side of Bob Dylan: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "It Ain't Me Babe"] That song's hit potential had already been seen by Johnny Cash, who'd had a country hit with it a few months before. But the Turtles took the song in a different direction, inspired by Kaylan's *other* great influence, along with Prima and Smith. Kaylan was a big fan of the Zombies, one of the more interesting of the British Invasion groups, and particularly of their singer Colin Blunstone. Kaylan imitated Blunstone on the group's hit single, "She's Not There", on which Blunstone sang in a breathy, hushed, voice on the verses: [Excerpt: The Zombies, "She's Not There"] before the song went into a more stomping chorus on which Blunstone sang in a fuller voice: [Excerpt: The Zombies, "She's Not There"] Kaylan did this on the Turtles' version of "It Ain't Me Babe", starting off with a quiet verse: [Excerpt: The Turtles, "It Ain't Me Babe"] Before, like the Zombies, going into a foursquare, more uptempo, louder chorus: [Excerpt: The Turtles, "It Ain't Me Babe"] The single became a national top ten hit, and even sort of got the approval of Bob Dylan. On the group's first national tour, Dylan was at one club show, which they ended with "It Ain't Me Babe", and after the show the group were introduced to the great songwriter, who was somewhat the worse for wear. Dylan said “Hey, that was a great song you just played, man. That should be your single", and then passed out into his food. With the group's first single becoming a top ten hit, Volman and Kaylan got themselves a house in Laurel Canyon, which was not yet the rock star Mecca it was soon to become, but which was starting to get a few interesting residents. They would soon count Henry Diltz of the Modern Folk Quartet, Danny Hutton, and Frank Zappa among their neighbours. Soon Richie Furay would move in with them, and the house would be used by the future members of the Buffalo Springfield as their rehearsal space. The Turtles were rapidly becoming part of the in crowd. But they needed a follow-up single, and so Bones Howe, who was producing their records, brought in P.F. Sloan to play them a few of his new songs. They liked "Eve of Destruction" enough to earmark it as a possible album track, but they didn't think they would do it justice, and so it was passed on to Barry McGuire. But Sloan did have something for them -- a pseudo-protest song called "Let Me Be" that was very clearly patterned after their version of "It Ain't Me Babe", and which was just rebellious enough to make them seem a little bit daring, but which was far more teenage angst than political manifesto: [Excerpt: The Turtles, "Let Me Be"] That did relatively well, making the top thirty -- well enough for the group to rush out an album which was padded out with some sloppy cover versions of other Dylan songs, a version of "Eve of Destruction", and a few originals written by Kaylan. But the group weren't happy with the idea of being protest singers. They were a bunch of young men who were more motivated by having a good time than by politics, and they didn't think that it made sense for them to be posing as angry politicised rebels. Not only that, but there was a significant drop-off between "It Ain't Me Babe" and "Let Me Be". They needed to do better. They got the clue for their new direction while they were in New York. There they saw their friends in the Mothers of Invention playing their legendary residency at the Garrick Theatre, but they also saw a new band, the Lovin' Spoonful, who were playing music that was clearly related to the music the Turtles were doing -- full of harmonies and melody, and inspired by folk music -- but with no sense of rebelliousness at all. They called it "Good Time Music": [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful, "Good Time Music"] As soon as they got back to LA, they told Bones Howe and the executives at White Whale that they weren't going to be a folk-rock group any more, they were going to be "good time music", just like the Lovin' Spoonful. They were expecting some resistance, but they were told that that was fine, and that PF Sloan had some good time music songs too. "You Baby" made the top twenty: [Excerpt: The Turtles, "You Baby"] The Turtles were important enough in the hierarchy of LA stars that Kaylan and Tucker were even invited by David Crosby to meet the Beatles at Derek Taylor's house when they were in LA on their last tour -- this may be the same day that the Beatles met Brian and Carl Wilson, as I talked about in the episode on "All You Need is Love", though Howard Kaylan describes this as being a party and that sounded like more of an intimate gathering. If it was that day, there was nearly a third Beach Boy there. The Turtles knew David Marks, the Beach Boys' former rhythm guitarist, because they'd played a lot in Inglewood where he'd grown up, and Marks asked if he could tag along with Kaylan and Tucker to meet the Beatles. They agreed, and drove up to the house, and actually saw George Harrison through the window, but that was as close as they got to the Beatles that day. There was a heavy police presence around the house because it was known that the Beatles were there, and one of the police officers asked them to drive back and park somewhere else and walk up, because there had been complaints from neighbours about the number of cars around. They were about to do just that, when Marks started yelling obscenities and making pig noises at the police, so they were all arrested, and the police claimed to find a single cannabis seed in the car. Charges were dropped, but now Kaylan was on the police's radar, and so he moved out of the Laurel Canyon home to avoid bringing police attention to Buffalo Springfield, so that Neil Young and Bruce Palmer wouldn't get deported. But generally the group were doing well. But there was a problem. And that problem was their record label. They rushed out another album to cash in on the success of "You Baby", one that was done so quickly that it had "Let Me Be" on it again, just as the previous album had, and which included a version of the old standard "All My Trials", with the songwriting credited to the two owners of White Whale records. And they pumped out a lot of singles. A LOT of singles, ranging from a song written for them by new songwriter Warren Zevon, to cover versions of Frank Sinatra's "It Was a Very Good Year" and the old standard "We'll Meet Again". Of the five singles after "You Baby", the one that charted highest was a song actually written by a couple of the band members. But for some reason a song with verses in 5/4 time and choruses in 6/4 with lyrics like "killing the living and living to kill, the grim reaper of love thrives on pain" didn't appeal to the group's good-time music pop audience and only reached number eighty-one: [Excerpt: The Turtles, "Grim Reaper of Love"] The group started falling apart. Don Murray became convinced that  the rest of the band were conspiring against him and wanted him out, so he walked out of the group in the middle of a rehearsal for a TV show. They got Joel Larson of the Grass Roots -- the group who had a number of hits with Sloan and Barri songs -- to sub for a few gigs before getting in a permanent replacement, Johnny Barbata, who came to them on the recommendation of Gene Clark, and who was one of the best drummers on the scene -- someone who was not only a great drummer but a great showman, who would twirl his drumsticks between his fingers with every beat, and who would regularly engage in drum battles with Buddy Rich. By the time they hit their fifth flop single in a row, they lost their bass player as well -- Chuck Portz decided he was going to quit music and become a fisherman instead. They replaced him with Chip Douglas of the Modern Folk Quartet. Then they very nearly lost their singers. Volman and Kaylan both got their draft notices at the same time, and it seemed likely they would end up having to go and fight in the Vietnam war. Kaylan was distraught, but his mother told him "Speak to your cousin Herb". Cousin Herb was Herb Cohen, the manager of the Mothers of Invention and numerous other LA acts, including the Modern Folk Quartet, and Kaylan only vaguely knew him at this time, but he agreed to meet up with them, and told them “Stop worrying! I got Zappa out, I got Tim Buckley out, and I'll get you out.” Cohen told Volman and Kaylan to not wash for a week before their induction, to take every drug of every different kind they could find right before going in, to deliberately disobey every order, to fail the logic tests, and to sexually proposition the male officers dealing with the induction. They followed his orders to the letter, and got marked as 4-F, unfit for service. They still needed a hit though, and eventually they found something by going back to their good-time music idea. It was a song from the Koppelman-Rubin publishing company -- the same company that did the Lovin Spoonful's management and production. The song in question was by Alan Gordon and Gary Bonner, two former members of a group called the Magicians, who had had a minor success with a single called "An Invitation to Cry": [Excerpt: The Magicians, "An Invitation to Cry"] The Magicians had split up, and Bonner and Gordon were trying to make a go of things as professional songwriters, but had had little success to this point. The song on the demo had been passed over by everyone, and the demo was not at all impressive, just a scratchy acetate with Bonner singing off-key and playing acoustic rhythm guitar and Gordon slapping his knees to provide rhythm, but the group heard something in it. They played the song live for months, refining the arrangement, before taking it into the studio. There are arguments to this day as to who deserves the credit for the sound on "Happy Together" -- Chip Douglas apparently did the bulk of the arrangement work while they were on tour, but the group's new producer, Joe Wissert, a former staff engineer for Cameo-Parkway, also claimed credit for much of it. Either way, "Happy Together" is a small masterpiece of dynamics. The song is structured much like the songs that had made the Turtles' name, with the old Zombies idea of the soft verse and much louder chorus: [Excerpt: The Turtles, "Happy Together"] But the track is really made by the tiny details of the arrangement, the way instruments and vocal parts come in and out as the track builds up, dies down, and builds again. If you listen to the isolated tracks, there are fantastic touches like the juxtaposition of the bassoon and oboe (which I think is played on a mellotron): [Excerpt: The Turtles, "Happy Together", isolated tracks] And a similar level of care and attention was put into the vocal arrangement by Douglas, with some parts just Kaylan singing solo, other parts having Volman double him, and of course the famous "bah bah bah" massed vocals: [Excerpt: The Turtles, "Happy Together", isolated vocals] At the end of the track, thinking he was probably going to do another take, Kaylan decided to fool around and sing "How is the weather?", which Bonner and Gordon had jokingly done on the demo. But the group loved it, and insisted that was the take they were going to use: [Excerpt: The Turtles, "Happy Together"] "Happy Together" knocked "Penny Lane" by the Beatles off the number one spot in the US, but by that point the group had already had another lineup change. The Monkees had decided they wanted to make records without the hit factory that had been overseeing them, and had asked Chip Douglas if he wanted to produce their first recordings as a self-contained band. Given that the Monkees were the biggest thing in the American music industry at the time, Douglas had agreed, and so the group needed their third bass player in a year. The one they went for was Jim Pons. Pons had seen the Beatles play at the Hollywood Bowl in 1964, and decided he wanted to become a pop star. The next day he'd been in a car crash, which had paid out enough insurance money that he was able to buy two guitars, a bass, drums, and amps, and use them to start his own band. That band was originally called The Rockwells, but quickly changed their name to the Leaves, and became a regular fixture at Ciro's on Sunset Strip, first as customers, then after beating Love in the auditions, as the new resident band when the Byrds left. For a while the Leaves had occasionally had guest vocals from a singer called Richard Marin, but Pons eventually decided to get rid of him, because, as he put it "I wanted us to look like The Beatles. There were no Mexicans in The Beatles". He is at pains in his autobiography to assure us that he's not a bigot, and that Marin understood. I'm sure he did. Marin went on to be better known as Cheech Marin of Cheech and Chong. The Leaves were signed by Pat Boone to his production company, and through that company they got signed to Mira Records. Their first single, produced by Nik Venet, had been a version of "Love Minus Zero (No Limit)", a song by Bob Dylan: [Excerpt: The Leaves, "Love Minus Zero (No Limit)"] That had become a local hit, though not a national one, and the Leaves had become one of the biggest bands on the Sunset Strip scene, hanging out with all the other bands. They had become friendly with the Doors before the Doors got a record deal, and Pat Boone had even asked for an introduction, as he was thinking of signing them, but unfortunately when he met Jim Morrison, Morrison had drunk a lot of vodka, and given that Morrison was an obnoxious drunk Boone had second thoughts, and so the world missed out on the chance of a collaboration between the Doors and Pat Boone. Their second single was "Hey Joe" -- as was their third and fourth, as we discussed in that episode: [Excerpt: The Leaves, "Hey Joe"] Their third version of "Hey Joe" had become a top forty hit, but they didn't have a follow-up, and their second album, All The Good That's Happening, while it's a good album, sold poorly. Various band members quit or fell out, and when Johnny Barbata knocked on Jim Pons' door it was an easy decision to quit and join a band that had a current number one hit. When Pons joined, the group had already recorded the Happy Together album. That album included the follow-up to "Happy Together", another Bonner and Gordon song, "She'd Rather Be With Me": [Excerpt: The Turtles, "She'd Rather Be With Me"] None of the group were tremendously impressed with that song, but it did very well, becoming the group's second-biggest hit in the US, reaching number three, and actually becoming a bigger hit than "Happy Together" in parts of Europe. Before "Happy Together" the group hadn't really made much impact outside the US. In the UK, their early singles had been released by Pye, the smallish label that had the Kinks and Donovan, but which didn't have much promotional budget, and they'd sunk without trace. For "You Baby" they'd switched to Immediate, the indie label that Andrew Oldham had set up, and it had done a little better but still not charted. But from "Happy Together" they were on Decca, a much bigger label, and "Happy Together" had made number twelve in the charts in the UK, and "She'd Rather Be With Me" reached number four. So the new lineup of the group went on a UK tour. As soon as they got to the hotel, they found they had a message from Graham Nash of the Hollies, saying he would like to meet up with them. They all went round to Nash's house, and found Donovan was also there, and Nash played them a tape he'd just been given of Sgt Pepper, which wouldn't come out for a few more days. At this point they were living every dream a bunch of Anglophile American musicians could possibly have. Jim Tucker mentioned that he would love to meet the Beatles, and Nash suggested they do just that. On their way out the door, Donovan said to them, "beware of Lennon". It was when they got to the Speakeasy club that the first faux-pas of the evening happened. Nash introduced them to Justin Hayward and John Lodge of the Moody Blues, and Volman said how much he loved their record "Go Now": [Excerpt: The Moody Blues, "Go Now"] The problem was that Hayward and Lodge had joined the group after that record had come out, to replace its lead singer Denny Laine. Oh well, they were still going to meet the Beatles, right? They got to the table where John, Paul, and Ringo were sat, at a tense moment -- Paul was having a row with Jane Asher, who stormed out just as the Turtles were getting there. But at first, everything seemed to go well. The Beatles all expressed their admiration for "Happy Together" and sang the "ba ba ba" parts at them, and Paul and Kaylan bonded over their shared love for "Justine" by Don and Dewey, a song which the Crossfires had performed in their club sets, and started singing it together: [Excerpt: Don and Dewey, "Justine"] But John Lennon was often a mean drunk, and he noticed that Jim Tucker seemed to be the weak link in the group, and soon started bullying him, mocking his clothes, his name, and everything he said. This devastated Tucker, who had idolised Lennon up to that point, and blurted out "I'm sorry I ever met you", to which Lennon just responded "You never did, son, you never did". The group walked out, hurt and confused -- and according to Kaylan in his autobiography, Tucker was so demoralised by Lennon's abuse that he quit music forever shortly afterwards, though Tucker says that this wasn't the reason he quit. From their return to LA on, the Turtles would be down to just a five-piece band. After leaving the club, the group went off in different directions, but then Kaylan (and this is according to Kaylan's autobiography, there are no other sources for this) was approached by Brian Jones, asking for his autograph because he loved the Turtles so much. Jones introduced Kaylan to the friend he was with, Jimi Hendrix, and they went out for dinner, but Jones soon disappeared with a girl he'd met. and left Kaylan and Hendrix alone. They were drinking a lot -- more than Kaylan was used to -- and he was tired, and the omelette that Hendrix had ordered for Kaylan was creamier than he was expecting... and Kaylan capped what had been a night full of unimaginable highs and lows by vomiting all over Jimi Hendrix's expensive red velvet suit. Rather amazingly after all this, the Moody Blues, the Beatles, and Hendrix, all showed up to the Turtles' London gig and apparently enjoyed it. After "She'd Rather Be With Me", the next single to be released wasn't really a proper single, it was a theme song they'd been asked to record for a dire sex comedy titled "Guide for the Married Man", and is mostly notable for being composed by John Williams, the man who would later go on to compose the music for Star Wars. That didn't chart, but the group followed it with two more top twenty hits written by Bonner and Gordon, "You Know What I Mean" and "She's My Girl". But then the group decided that Bonner and Gordon weren't giving them their best material, and started turning down their submissions, like a song called "Celebrity Ball" which they thought had no commercial potential, at least until the song was picked up by their friends Three Dog Night, retitled "Celebrate", and made the top twenty: [Excerpt: Three Dog Night, "Celebrate"] Instead, the group decided to start recording more of their own material. They were worried that in the fast-changing rock world bands that did other songwriters' material were losing credibility. But "Sound Asleep", their first effort in this new plan, only made number forty-seven on the charts. Clearly they needed a different plan. They called in their old bass player Chip Douglas, who was now an experienced hitmaker as a producer. He called in *his* friend Harry Nilsson, who wrote "The Story of Rock & Roll" for the group, but that didn't do much better, only making number forty-eight. But the group persevered, starting work on a new album produced by Douglas, The Turtles Present The Battle of the Bands, the conceit of which was that every track would be presented as being by a different band. So there were tracks by  Chief Kamanawanalea and his Royal Macadamia Nuts,  Fats Mallard and the Bluegrass Fireball, The Atomic Enchilada, and so on, all done in the styles suggested by those band names. There was even a track by "The Cross Fires": [Excerpt: The Cross Fires, "Surfer Dan"] It was the first time the group had conceived of an album as a piece, and nine of the twelve tracks were originals by the band -- there was a track written by their friend Bill Martin, and the opening track, by "The US Teens Featuring Raoul", was co-written by Chip Douglas and Harry Nilsson. But for the most part the songs were written by the band members themselves, and jointly credited to all of them. This was the democratic decision, but one that Howard Kaylan would later regret, because of the song for which the band name was just "Howie, Mark, Johnny, Jim & Al". Where all the other songs were parodies of other types of music, that one was, as the name suggests, a parody of the Turtles themselves. It was written by Kaylan in disgust at the record label, who kept pestering the group to "give us another 'Happy Together'". Kaylan got more and more angry at this badgering, and eventually thought "OK, you want another 'Happy Together'? I'll give you another 'Happy Together'" and in a few minutes wrote a song that was intended as an utterly vicious parody of that kind of song, with lyrics that nobody could possibly take seriously, and with music that was just mocking the whole structure of "Happy Together" specifically. He played it to the rest of the group, expecting them to fall about laughing, but instead they all insisted it was the group's next single. "Elenore" went to number six on the charts, becoming their biggest hit since "She'd Rather Be With Me": [Excerpt: The Turtles, "Elenore"] And because everything was credited to the group, Kaylan's songwriting royalties were split five ways. For the follow-up, they chose the one actual cover version on the album. "You Showed Me" is a song that Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark had written together in the very early days of the Byrds, and they'd recorded it as a jangly folk-rock tune in 1964: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "You Showed Me"] They'd never released that track, but Gene Clark had performed it solo after leaving the Byrds, and Douglas had been in Clark's band at the time, and liked the song. He played it for the Turtles, but when he played it for them the only instrument he had to hand was a pump organ with one of its bellows broken. Because of this, he had to play it slowly, and while he kept insisting that the song needed to be faster, the group were equally insistent that what he was playing them was the big ballad hit they wanted, and they recorded it at that tempo. "You Showed Me" became the Turtles' final top ten hit: [Excerpt: The Turtles, "You Showed Me"] But once again there were problems in the group. Johnny Barbata was the greatest drummer any of them had ever played with, but he didn't fit as a personality -- he didn't like hanging round with the rest of them when not on stage, and while there were no hard feelings, it was clear he could get a gig with pretty much anyone and didn't need to play with a group he wasn't entirely happy in. By mutual agreement, he left to go and play with Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, and was replaced by John Seiter from Spanky and Our Gang -- a good drummer, but not the best of the best like Barbata had been. On top of this, there were a whole host of legal problems to deal with. The Turtles were the only big act on White Whale records, though White Whale did put out some other records. For example, they'd released the single "Desdemona" by John's Children in the US: [Excerpt: John's Children, "Desdemona"] The group, being the Anglophiles they were, had loved that record, and were also among the very small number of Americans to like the music made by John's Children's guitarist's new folk duo, Tyrannosaurus Rex: [Excerpt: Tyrannosaurus Rex, "Debora"] When Tyrannosaurus Rex supported the Turtles, indeed, Volman and Kaylan became very close to Marc Bolan, and told him that the next time they were in England they'd have to get together, maybe even record together. That would happen not that many years later, with results we'll be getting to in... episode 201, by my current calculations. But John's Children hadn't had a hit, and indeed nobody on White Whale other than the Turtles had. So White Whale desperately wanted to stop the Turtles having any independence, and to make sure they continued to be their hit factory. They worked with the group's roadie, Dave Krambeck, to undermine the group's faith in their manager, Bill Utley, who supported the group in their desire for independence. Soon, Krambeck and White Whale had ousted Utley, and Krambeck had paid Utley fifty thousand dollars for their management contract, with the promise of another two hundred thousand later. That fifty thousand dollars had been taken by Krambeck as an advance against the Turtles' royalties, so they were really buying themselves out. Except that Krambeck then sold the management contract on to a New York management firm, without telling the group. He then embezzled as much of the group's ready cash as he could and ran off to Mexico, without paying Utley his two hundred thousand dollars. The Turtles were out of money, and they were being sued by Utley because he hadn't had the money he should have had, and by the big New York firm, because  since the Turtles hadn't known they were now legally their managers they were in breach of contract. They needed money quickly, and so they signed with another big management company, this one co-owned by Bill Cosby, in the belief that Cosby's star power might be able to get them some better bookings. It did -- one of the group's first gigs after signing with the new company was at the White House. It turned out they were Tricia Nixon's favourite group, and so they and the Temptations were booked at her request for a White House party. The group at first refused to play for a President they rightly thought of as a monster, but their managers insisted. That destroyed their reputation among the cool antiestablishment youth, of course, but it did start getting them well-paid corporate gigs. Right up until the point where Kaylan became sick at his own hypocrisy at playing these events, drank too much of the complimentary champagne at an event for the president of US Steel, went into a drunken rant about how sick the audience made him, and then about how his bandmates were a bunch of sellouts, threw his mic into a swimming pool, and quit while still on stage. He was out of the band for two months, during which time they worked on new material without him, before they made up and decided to work on a new album. This new album, though, was going to be more democratic. As well as being all original material, they weren't having any of this nonsense about the lead singer singing lead. This time, whoever wrote the song was going to sing lead, so Kaylan only ended up singing lead on six of the twelve songs on what turned out to be their final album, Turtle Soup. They wanted a truly great producer for the new album, and they all made lists of who they might call. The lists included a few big names like George Martin and Phil Spector, but one name kept turning up -- Ray Davies. As we'll hear in the next episode, the Kinks had been making some astonishing music since "You Really Got Me", but most of it had not been heard in the US. But the Turtles all loved the Kinks' 1968 album The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, which they considered the best album ever made: [Excerpt: The Kinks, "Animal Farm"] They got in touch with Davies, and he agreed to produce the album -- the first time he did any serious outside production work -- and eventually they were able to persuade White Whale, who had no idea who he was, to allow him to produce it. The resulting album is by far the group's strongest album-length work, though there were problems -- Davies' original mix of the album was dominated by the orchestral parts written by Wrecking Crew musician Ray Pohlman, while the group thought that their own instruments should be more audible, since they were trying to prove that they were a proper band. They remixed it themselves, annoying Davies, though reissues since the eighties have reverted to a mix closer to Davies' intentions. Some of the music, like Pons' "Dance This Dance With Me", perhaps has the group trying a little *too* hard to sound like the Kinks: [Excerpt: The Turtles, "Dance This Dance With Me"] But on the other hand, Kaylan's "You Don't Have to Walk in the Rain" is the group's last great pop single, and has one of the best lines of any single from the sixties -- "I look at your face, I love you anyway": [Excerpt: The Turtles, "You Don't Have to Walk in the Rain"] But the album produced no hits, and the group were getting more and more problems from their label. White Whale tried to get Volman and Kaylan to go to Memphis without the other band members to record with Chips Moman, but they refused -- the Turtles were a band, and they were proud of not having session players play their parts on the records. Instead, they started work with Jerry Yester producing on a new album, to be called Shell Shock. They did, though bow to pressure and record a terrible country track called "Who Would Ever Think That I Would Marry Margaret" backed by session players, at White Whale's insistence, but managed to persuade the label not to release it. They audited White Whale and discovered that in the first six months of 1969 alone -- a period where they hadn't sold that many records -- they'd been underpaid by a staggering six hundred and fifty thousand dollars. They sued the label for several million, and in retaliation, the label locked them out of the recording studio, locking their equipment in there. They basically begged White Whale to let them record one last great single, one last throw of the dice. Jim Pons had, for years, known a keyboard player named Bob Harris, and had recently got to know Harris' wife, Judee Sill. Sill had a troubled life -- she was a heroin addict, and had at times turned to streetwalking to earn money, and had spent time in prison for armed robbery -- but she was also an astonishing songwriter, whose music was as inspired by Bach as by any pop or folk composer. Sill had been signed to Blimp, the Turtles' new production and publishing company, and Pons was co-producing some tracks on her first album, with Graham Nash producing others. Pons thought one song from that album, "Lady-O", would be perfect for the Turtles: [Excerpt: Judee Sill, "Lady-O"] (music continues under) The Turtles stuck closely to Sill's vision of the song. So closely that you haven't noticed that before I started talking, we'd already switched from Sill's record to the Turtles' version. [Excerpt: The Turtles, "Lady-O"] That track, with Sill on guitar backing Kaylan, Volman, and Nichol's vocals, was the last Turtles single to be released while the band were together. Despite “Lady O” being as gorgeous a melody as has ever been produced in the rock world, it sank without trace, as did a single from the Shell Shock sessions released under a pseudonym, The Dedications. White Whale followed that up, to the group's disgust, with "Who Would Ever Think That I Would Marry Margaret?", and then started putting out whatever they had in the vaults, trying to get the last few pennies, even releasing their 1965 album track version of "Eve of Destruction" as if it were a new single. The band were even more disgusted when they discovered that, thanks to the flurry of suits and countersuits, they not only could no longer perform as the Turtles, but White Whale were laying legal claim to their own names. They couldn't perform under those names -- Howard Kaylan, Mark Volman, and the rest were the intellectual property of White Whale, according to the lawyers. The group split up, and Kaylan and Volman did some session work, including singing on a demo for a couple of new songwriters: [Excerpt: Steely Dan, "Everyone's Gone to the Movies"] When that demo got the songwriters a contract, one of them actually phoned up to see if Kaylan wanted a permanent job in their new band, but they didn't want Volman as well, so Kaylan refused, and Steely Dan had to do without him. Volman and Kaylan were despondent, washed-up, has-been ex-rock stars. But when they went to see a gig by their old friend Frank Zappa, it turned out that he was looking for exactly that. Of course, they couldn't use their own names, but the story of the Phlorescent Leech and Eddie is a story for another time...

GGACP celebrates the 40th anniversary of one of Gilbert's favorite comedies, "Zapped!" (released July 23, 1982) with this 2019 interview featuring Grammy and Emmy winning composer Charles Fox. In this episode, Charles looks back on a six-decade career of writing top 40 hits (“Killing Me Softly with His Song,” "Ready to Take a Chance Again") as well as music and themes for TV shows (“Happy Days,” “Wonder Woman”) feature films (“Barbarella,” “9 to 5”) and game shows (“Match Game,” “What's My Line?”). Also, Charles praises Ernie Kovacs, pens a tune for Burt Reynolds, witnesses the Ed Ames tomahawk incident and remembers friends Neal Hefti, Jerry Goldsmith and Henry Mancini. PLUS: "The Green Slime"! “Love, American Style”! The Charles Fox Singers! And the boys pay loving tribute to Paul Williams! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Edie Adams was a very popular movie and television star in the 1950s, known widely for her comic impersonations of sexy singers, and her own wonderful singing voice. But eventually she became even more widely known for being the wife of legendary television comic Ernie Kovacs. The two of them were a hugely popular comic duo. But their story had a tragic end. In early 1962, Kovacs was killed in an auto accident. He was the only occupant of the car, and it was never known precisely what happened to cause the accident. I met Edie Adams in 1990, when she finally wrote the book that publishers had been after her to write ever since Ernie kovacs's death.

Today on the Rarified Heir Podcast, we present to you an encore episode with guest Chris Lemmon, son of Jack Lemmon. Chris spoke with us last year in the midst of Covid and was holed up as his home on the East Coast due to a pretty intense compromised immunity which he speaks about at length. In addition to his health, we speak to Chris about what it was like growing up Lemmon, the son of one of America's greatest actors and why he chose to go into acting as well. We further talked to Chris about some familial bonds as well – his father and Josh's mother Edie Adams were close friends beginning in the 1950s when Jack and Edie's first husband Ernie Kovacs starred in several films together. They were not only co-stars but fast friends. We talk about a trip to Venice Italy in 1984 that Chris and Josh attended where hotel guests included Hollywood super-agent, Sue Mengers, Gore Vidal and Christopher Walken, who was shooting the James Bond film “A View To A Kill” as villain Max Zorin. There were dinners, conversation and drinks at Harry's Bar all week that was both strangely normal and surreal. It was a great conversation with Chris and a fun catch-up to have him on the podcast. So take a listen as this is the Rarified Heir Podcast encore episode with Chris Lemmon. Everyone has a story.

Today we bring you a first on the Rarified Heir Podcast, a bonus episode in tribute to Gilbert Gottfried and the Gilbert Gottfried Amazing Colossal Podcast. Our guest today is not a child of a celebrity but Ben Model is the archivist to the Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams archive which is run by our host Josh Mills. In 2019, Ben and Josh were guests on the Gilbert Gottfried Amazing Colossal Podcast to celebrate the Centennial of Ernie Kovacs. Truly shocked and saddened by Gilbert's passing last week, Ben and Josh wanted to share some stories about how terrific their time was on the Gilbert Gottfried Amazing Colossal Podcast and how warm, funny and truly insane Gilbert and co-host Frank Santopadre were n he best possible ways. Clearly not celebrities, Frank took a chance on having Ben and Josh on as guests because he knew Kovacs was an important comedy figure and perhaps they should take a chance to talk about Kovacs to listeners who maybe knew about him but perhaps not enough. Somehow by taking that chance, the episode in question became an odd mix of silent film accompaniment, risqué stories about Josh's mom that Gilbert loved and by both accounts, a moment that happens all too rare in life – a genuine connection. Basically, this bonus episode is a tribute to Gilbert Gottfried and also a huge thank you to Frank Santopadre & unofficial podcast booker Gino Salamone for taking a chance on two nobodies who just thought it would be a fun idea. We miss you Gilbert. We are sorry there wont be a second chance to connect but we know you are cursing out Walter Brennan in heaven and that makes us smile. We'll miss you Gil.

Today on the Rarified Heir Podcast we are talking to Charlie Matthau, son of acting great Walter Matthau and Carol Matthau. It's been a while since we've seen Charlie. You see, the connections run deep on this episode. Because our host Josh Mills mother, Edie Adams was close to Jack Lemmon, via the film The Apartment and Jack and Ernie Kovacs friendship on films like Operation Mad Ball, It Happened To Jane, Bell Book and Candle in the 1950s there was a familial bond. Cut to the 1970s and each Christmas, Edie and family would attend Jack Lemmon's Christmas party at his house which of course, always included the Matthau's. Additionally, all the families gathered on Broad Beach Road in Malibu each Summer which further cemented their friendship. There was much to talk about including conversations about The Fortune Cookie, Truman Capote, Howard Hughes, Micky and Nicky, Don Siegel, The Bad News Bears, Charly Varick, Billy Wilder, Vic Morrow, The Grass Harp, the Mormon Church, 1920: The Year of the Six Presidents, Jimmy Stewart and much more. Furthermore, we discuss how Charlie's mom – then known as Carol Grace - was the basis of the Holly Golightly character in Breakfast at Tiffany's played by Audrey Hepburn, how Walter Matthau once hosted the Oscars with an earpiece listening to a ballgame, how Walter got hired for a role for being ‘British.' Carol's much loved novella A Secret in the Daisy, Walter's middle name (cough) and much more. It was great to go down memory lane with Charlie on the latest episode of The Rarified Heir Podcast. Everyone has a story. Take a listen.

Paul's guest is a  stand up comic,  a graphic artist, a puppeteer, a photographer, a voice artist, and a TV producer/performer, Paul welcomes TV's John DiDonna. Life stories range from humorist innovator Ernie Kovacs to Chico Marx to a manic bus driver. John's life is a shared comedic tone poem, His show called TWITS ran in the late 1980s and included some of these elements: Crazy Kenny, Mr. Friendly, Manny Moe and Jack, impersonations of Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood and MORE! This show is a celebration of a man who dedicates his life to making others laugh.Support the show (https://lifeslearningcurve.org)

This week Ken welcomes UK writer, podcast host, TV presenter, radio personality and reformed stand up comedian Robin Ince to the show. Ken and Robin discuss 1960, Richard Nixon's moral ethics, raiding your grandparents' houses for old magazines, Alan Moore, Robert Aikman, promo monster movie stills from Monster Magazines, Steptoe & Son, the post war booms in the US vs the UK, how people in the 20th Century looked so much older than you when they were younger than you, Harry & Tonto, Death Wish, shooting things in London set in New York, gritty crime drama, great NYC stage actors appearing in TV dramas, UK Radio vs US Radio, panel shows, Bela Lugosi, Lenny Bruce's later years, stand up comedians' obsession with conspiracy theories, how Carlin and Pryor were made for television, vaudeville, Burlesque, how Friends is all about sex, Seinfeld, Bride of Frankenstein, Ernest Thesiger, Jerry Lewis, Poor Devil, Ernie Kovacs, Edie Adams, Jackie Gleason, Rockford Files, Young Maverick, Spaghetti Westerns, 1940s British Movie stars you could never quite trust, Leslie Howard, Colonel March, Targets, evil magicians, WGBH, Arts, Johnny Staccato, Anthony Newley, Dark Shadows, Dan Curtis, Reece Shearsmith, Dana Gould, Birdie, Robert Mitchum, Vincent Price, Raymond Burr, John Carpenter, Something Wild, Jonathan Demme, John Waters, Pink Flamingos, and a Viking tease for Part II...

TVC 564.3: Part 2 of our conversation with Jordan Young about the television career of bandleader Spike Jones, including the near-collaboration between Jones and Ernie Kovacs in the early 1950s, when Kovacs hosted The Tonight Show. Jordan's many books on entertainment history include Spike Jones, Off the Record: The Man Who Murdered Music, a comprehensive history and discography of Spike Jones that has been completely updated and reissued with a host of new material, including more than 260 never before published photographs, scripts, arrangements, memorabilia and more. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Clergy response teams, open microphone morning speakers and Carlyle Group jurors + this day in history w/the death of Ernie Kovacs and our song of the day by Fish Hat Pope on your #MorningMonarchy for January 13, 2022.

Today on another encore episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we talk to Adam Shawn, son of the immensely talented and hysterical comedian Dick Shawn. Adam and host Josh Mills have quite a connection here as Dick Shawn and Josh's mom Edie Adams starred together in films like It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, television movies like Fast Friends and Evil Roy Slade and a TV variety show, Here's Edie, hosted by, who else, Edie Adams. The connections don't stop there. Shawn and Ernie Kovacs, Edie's first husband starred in the war-time comedy, Wake Me When it's Over. We recorded this in person, pre-pandemic and got to talk to Adam about some of his father's best roles including L.S.D. in the original version of Mel Brooks' The Producers, his one-man show The (2nd) Greatest Entertainer in the World and his antics on The Tonight Show, The Ed Sullivan Show and even on a Fat Boys album in the 1980s. Adam spoke with us about his dad's stint in the minors playing for the Chicago White Sox affiliate, a very intense incident in Miami Beach with a mobsters moll (evidently) & how to this day, his father's inventive and genius comedy is severely underappreciated. Oh the places you'll go, on this encore episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast.

  Today on the Rarified Heir Podcast we are talking to Ann Marie Snyder, daughter of journalist, news anchor and talk show host Tom Snyder who will soon be the topic of a documentary of his life, called Tom Who? Known primarily as the host of his late night program, The Tomorrow Show in the 1970s and his Late, Late Show with Tom Snyder in the 1990s, Tom Snyder was a charismatic, deep-thinking, irreverent and ethical personality who pioneered the long form, single subject interview on American television beginning in the early 1970s. Unlike say Johnny Carson or Merv Griffin (or even Steve Allen or Ernie Kovacs), Snyder considered himself a journalist first. His interviews with everyone from Charles Manson to John Lennon, Johnny Rotten, Kiss, Henry Miller and Howard Stern were either casual conversations you could slip into like a soft pair of slippers or occasionally cantankerous affairs, usually done with a cigarette in hand and a hearty laugh. Snyder loved his audience and his audience loved him. Frequent call-in guests to his three-hour radio show in the 1980s were Sherman Helmsley, Robert Blake and some guy from Indiana who turned out to be David Letterman. We talk to Ann Marie about her dad and we hear stories about everything from how she was forbidden to visit the 9th floor where Saturday Night Life taped at 30 Rockefeller Plaza,  how her dad and Neil Young bonded over their mutual love of Lionel Trains and how her dad refused to allow her to see Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers at Madison Square Garden when guest and original Tom Petty drummer Stand Lynch gave Ann Marie two tickets and use of the band limo to the gig at age 15.It's a great conversation with Ann Marie as we talk about her dad, who hated network interference, loved a stiff drink and was quite possibly the Godfather of the podcast as we know it today. And so as Tom might say, "Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air." This is the Rarified Heir Podcast.  

Madeline Brumby joins Jim for Monster Attack!'s annual Halloween show and a look at one of the films that influenced the TV show "Bewitched," 1958's "Bell Book And Candle," starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, Ernie Kovacs, Jack Lemmon, Elsa Lanchester, Hermione Gingold and Howard McNear. A NYC publisher meets and falls for a beautiful woman, who just happens to be a witch... only he does not know that initially.  Find out more about this classic on this week's episode of MONSTER ATTACK!.

This week Ken welcomes writer, director, actor, and one of Ken's most looked up to Renascence Men, John Sayles. Ken and John discuss outer space, TV as babysitter, how 1960 was far before Ken was born, late night TV, inappropriate commercials, human remote controls, the lack of choice, 30 Westerns on TV, Have Gun Will Travel, signature guns, TV theme songs, how you set the tone and mood for a story, Wanted Dead or Alive, Steve McQueen, how some actors are just cool, Ernie Kovacs, sight gags, surreal TV, The Rebel, Nick Adams wannabe status, Johnny Cash singing the theme to The Rebel, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, how The British actually really love Murder, Elmer Bernstein's theme to Johnny Staccato, John Cassavetes, west coast white jazz musicians, the Ed Sullivan Show, variety shows, Johnny Puleo and the Harmonica Gang, SCTV, The Beatles, Jackie Mason flipping off America on live TV, Peter Gunn, lack of ambiguity in television, first seeing color on TV in a baseball game, learning story structure via watching TV, Sergio Leone, being and undercover western detective for Wells Fargo, Adventures in Paradise, Ricardo Montauban, Dobie Gillis, Bob Denver as Maynard J. Krebbs, Tuesday Weld acting on TV with Warren Beatty, Archie, making your own On the Road as Route 66 with very minor changes, The Riflemen, Chuck Connors, doing your chores, TV and movies being banned from shooting in Chicago for years, The Untouchables, Crime Story, M Squad, Lee Marvin, Police Squad being influenced by M Squad's theme song, Joe Dante directing Police Squad, the best sight gags on the show, John Ford, Andy Devine's Hollywood status after Ward Bond's death, The Millionaire, dueling Bat Mastersons, being a super fan of mafia succession, how Ring Lardner in 8 Men Out was Robert Stack's voice, Robert Stack's jokes, Walter Winchell, Neville Brand, Al Capone, Friday Night Fights, The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports, how boxing was the perfect subject to air on television, Emile Griffith killing Benny Paret in the ring live on TV, The Twilight Zone, Lee Marvin in the Twilight Zone Episode Steel, Hemingway's story "50 Grand", and the oddness of TV sign offs.

After a nearly 500-day hiatus, due to the biblically cataclysmic global plague, Lewis made his “post”-pandemic performance debut. Was it outdoors? Yes. Was it in front of physically present live humans? Indeed! And while he may have had the comedy equivalent of the "twisties", the audience at the Chautauqua Institute could not have been more gracious or appreciative. All in all, a great way to get back on the road. Originally founded as a Methodist adult camp, the Chautauqua Institute is located in western New York state, and features a wealth of programming where adults speak intelligently to each other. Amazingly, this kind of place still exists in America. Followers of Lewis Black will know that in nearby Jamestown is the National Comedy Center which features a treasure-trove of material about the history and development of comedy in America, including exhibits on Ernie Kovacs, the Smothers Brothers, George Carlin, and Muppet Fozzie Bear. It also hosts the Lucille Ball Comedy Festival, which is happening this week (August 3-7)! So, if you're in the greater Chautauqua County area it's an experience you won't want to miss. The NCC is also home to the Lucy-Desi Museum, which honors the contributions to comedy that Lucille Ball made (she grew up in nearby Celoron), and the entire NCC serves a monument to Lucy's legacy and her vision of the place of comedy in American culture. Lewis's performance went well, though preparing for it was one of the hardest things he's ever done, up there with getting ready for his Bar Mitzvah. Preparing for a show and writing his set without an audience is not his normal approach. He had to work in isolation and without his usual facilities and faculties, similar to the pandemic-restricted training regimens of the Olympic athletes now in Tokyo. But like them, once he's on the big stage, the muscle memory comes back and the joy of performing comes through. His set went well and now he's looking forward to hitting the road starting in September. So, assuming the vaccine situation gets a little better, Lewis's fall tour will begin next month with club dates in Huntsville, AL, Cleveland, OH, and Omaha, NE. If that isn't incentive enough to get vaccinated, what more do you need? The rants this week touch on the state of the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, with a decided lack of empathy for the latter. We also have submissions about the difficulties of buying a pillow, the sacrilege that is fruit on pizza, and one about how Canada is not so much better than America. And more. The live rants come from Lewis' performance on Feb. 6, 2020 at the Coral Springs Center for the Performing Arts. Submit rants to Lewis https://www.lewisblack.com/live Lewis' latest special, Thanks For Risking Your Life is available now! https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE Subscribe to Lewis Black's Rantcast Apple – https://bit.ly/rantcast Spotify – https://spoti.fi/3oNaPFh Google – https://bit.ly/37Zb35u Amazon – https://amzn.to/37bg8Za Follow Lewis Website – http://www.lewisblack.com Instagram – http://www.instagram.com/thelewisblack Twitter – https://twitter.com/thelewisblack Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/thelewisblack Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/OfficialLewisBlack New episodes arrive every Wednesday via The Laugh Button For advertising opportunities email: advertise@thelaughbutton.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TVC 547.7: Emmy Award winner Ron Bacon talks to Ed about some of the many comedians that he either worked with or knew personally during his production career at ABC, including why it was both fun and dangerous to work with Ernie Kovacs. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TVC 546.4: Ed welcomes Emmy Award winner Ron Bacon. Ron spent thirty-five years in network TV production—mostly with ABC, where he wore many hats (including stage manager, associate director, writer, producer, and director) on more than 12,500 broadcasts, covering just about every type of programming available, including such variety shows as The Lawrence Welk Show, The Frank Sinatra Show, The Hollywood Palace, The Jonathan Winters Show, and Shindig; live events, such as the Academy Awards and Emmy Awards broadcasts; the now-iconic specials that Ernie Kovacs did for ABC just before his death in 1962; sporting events, such as the 1984 Summer Olympics (for which Ron won an Emmy); and many of the game shows produced by Chuck Barris, Monty Hall, and Goodson-Todman. The story of how Ron broke into television is a classic example of how persistence and networking, coupled with the right opportunity, can help you land the right job. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the Rarified Heir Podcast we are talking to Bill Funt, whose father Allen Funt was creator, host, producer and force of nature behind the iconic television show Candid Camera. Founded in 1947 as a radio program called Candid Microphone Funt spun-off the property into LPs in the 1950s and even movies like What Do You Say To A Naked Lady in 1970 and Candid Candid Camera for Playboy TV in the 80s. But I digress. We talk to Bill about what his father would think about being known as the very first reality show, if Candid Camera was either a cruel show as the critics said or a fantastic human experiment as his fans believed, it's genesis during WWI, Funt's interview on the Ernie Kovacs hosted The Tonight Show where they do a spoof of the show called Rancid Camera, surviving a literal hijacking of their Eastern Airlines airplane to Miami which was diverted to Cuba in the 60s, his mother's Marilyn Funt's book Are You Anybody? interviewing celebrity wives, his aunt, Lyricist Elaine Laron whose song “Name Dropping” might as well have been the theme song for this podcast and a whole lot more. All in all we had a lot of Funt. So sit back, take a listen and “Smile! You're on Candid Camera” on the Rarified Heir Podcast.

Steve Darnall will break down the summer edition of Nostalgia Digest Magazine including the legacy of comedy icon Ernie Kovacs, radio and TV program ‘This is Your Life', stories of baseball great Joe DiMaggio and more.

Today on the Podcast, we are talking to someone Josh has known his whole life, actor Chris Lemmon, son of actress Cynthia Stone and the incomparable Jack Lemmon. Jack and host Josh Mills’  mom starred together in two films, The Apartment & Under The Yum Yum Tree, Jack and Ernie Kovacs starred in four movies together which cemented a great family friendship beginning in the 1950s. So what was it like growing up the son of one of the greatest actors this country has ever produced? Not as easy but also not as hard as you’d think. We talk to Chris tribute show to his dad, A Twist of Lemmon, his memories of hanging out with Blake Edwards & Walter Matthau, helping to launch the Fox Network with his show Duets in the late 80s, his recent double lung transplant – yikes -  and starring with Josh’s mom Edie Adams in the classic film, The Happy Hooker Goes to Hollywood. I ask you, is there any other film title that screams Rarified Heir than that? It’s a Zoom induced love fest / cry fest with a little hammering thrown in, next on the Rarified Heir Podcast.

TVC 527.2: Novelist, essayist, and TV historian Mitchell Hadley talks to Ed about the eternal appeal of Perry Mason; the genius of Ernie Kovacs; and how prime time game shows such as What’s My Line? also serve as “inadvertent documentaries” about the culture of the early 1960s. Mitchell’s latest book, The Electronic Mirror: What Classic TV Tells US About Who We Were and Who We Are (and Everything in Between), traces the evolution of the various genres that populated the first three decades of television, while also showing why the shared experience of television that marked the lives of so many of us who came of age in a three-network TV universe is often lost on contemporary viewers. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They’re great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Ambassador of JOY brings You a man of JOY: Michael Mann. Michael has been in the entertainment industry since age five. Michael entered the business as a model and was one of the pioneers in live television. Michael worked with such celebrities as Milton Berle, Ernie Kovacs, Ed Sullivan, Jimmy Durante, Perry Como, Sid Caesar, Ed Wynn, and Danny Thomas. He has appeared in over 300 live dramatic and comedy productions and in numerous Broadway and off-Broadway productionsThe Joy of Living is broadcast live Monday's at 3PM PT.The Joy of Living TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).The Joy of Living Radio Show is broadcast on K4HD Radio - Hollywood Talk Radio (www.k4hd.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).The podcast is also available on Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com).

Country music artist and Urban Cowboy legend Mickey Gilley joins Nancy to discuss his music journey, famous relatives Jerry Lee Lewis and Jimmy Swaggart, the bar and film that influenced his career, mechanical bulls, flying planes, his television career, and chart-topping success (1:10). In the second segment, Nancy talks with Josh Mills and Jason Klamm about the new podcast Rarified Heir featuring grown children of celebrities, Mills’ experience of growing up with celebrity parents Edie Adams and Martin Mills, and Edie’s first husband comedian Ernie Kovacs. (32:54). Like and follow Entertaining Insights Facebook Page. Discover more Mickey Gilley music. Find out more about Josh Mills and Jason Klamm, Edie Adams, Martin Mills, and Ernie Kovacs. Check out the Comedy on Vinyl podcast. Visit Nancy’s website. Take a humor break and find out more about our sponsor  HumorOutcasts.com (1:00, 32:45).

Today on Rarified Heir, we are talking to Adam Shawn, son of the great actor, comedian and monologist Dick Shawn. On the day we taped this podcast, we had met Adam one-week prior via a mutual at an Ernie Kovacs Centennial event at the Hollywood Heritage Museum I presented. It’s strange that Adam and host Josh Mills had never met. Dick Shawn starred in two films with his mother Edie Adams, “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” and  “Evil Roy Slade”. What’s more Dick Shawn was a guest on his mom’s 1964 variety show “Here’s Edie”. Additionally, he starred with Ernie Kovacs in “Wake Me When It’s Over” in 1960. Edie adored Dick Shawn. He was zany, creative and hysterically funny. He along with Phil Silvers, Jonathan Winters, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar Terry-Thomas and Buddy Hackett among others brought her out of a deep depression after the death of her first husband, Comedian Ernie Kovacs when filming began on Stanley Kramer ‘s “Mad World” film in 1963. We speak with Adam Shawn about growing up outside of Hollywood, his father’s incredible one-man show, “The Second Greatest Entertainer in the World” where Adam was stage manager and what it was like growing up where people expected you to be funny when they found out who his dad was.  Much more too. So what was it like growing up with a dad whose iconic turn in Mel Brooks “The Producers” as L.S.D. (Lorenzo St. Dubios) was one of his signature roles?  Find out now on the Rarified Heir Podcast. 

In 2018, I was invited to the opening of the National Comedy Center in Jamestown New York.  I had reached out to the center months prior to inquire if they had interest in showcasing some of the items I had from the estate of my late mother actress/comedian Edie Adams and that of her first husband, groundbreaking comedian Ernie Kovacs. They were receptive and that Summer I found myself at the NCC. What struck me immediately was that the National Comedy Center had invited the estates and families of other comedians to the opening. I became friendly with Lucinda Winters-Nash, daughter of Jonathan Winters and her family via a good friend Dan Pasternack. It was at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Center that I had a minor epiphany. I was just one of many families who represented the estate of a celebrity who was well known to the public but only a child could tell you what that celebrity was really like. We had insider’s knowledge to the highs and lows of show business, how our parents acted as people not just how the world saw them as celebrities. Moreover while we all shared somewhat similar experiences growing up as children of celebrities, we all had direct and firsthand knowledge of how great and sometimes how terrible celebrity could be. Somehow I had something in common with the people in the room, even though we had never met before. Be it George Carlin, Andy Kaufman, Jonathan Winters, Edie Adams, Lenny Bruce or whomever, we all had something in common – our famous parents. The more I talked to Lucinda and her family, the more I realized we all felt a need to preserve the legacy of our parents but we also had stories to tell. Our stories. Our parents might be famous, but only we saw them as real people. We were all slightly different versions of one another. It was then I thought there was more to this than just a ribbon cutting ceremony.  It took me a while to crystallize this feeling and that has become this podcast:  Rarified Heir, a podcast about celebrity and the children of celebrities. Indeed everyone has a story. Here we all find our own voice. Take a listen to the Rarified Heir podcast.

Rarified Heir is a podcast that interviews children of celebrities by the child of a celebrity. Joshua Mills, son of Actress and Comedian Edie Adams (www.edieadams.com) and Celebrity and Sports Photographer Martin Mills (www.martinmillsphotography.com)  grew up in Hollywood during the 1970s. His family home had five people with four different last names living under one roof. He grew up with step fathers, step sisters, half-sisters and relations once removed. Mills grew up in the house his mother shared with her first husband, iconic Television comedian Ernie Kovacs (www.erniekovacs.com, whose estate he runs), Mills went to school with many children of celebrities including actors, musicians, entertainment industry executives, television writers, directors and producers. He grew up with the children of: Brian Wilson, Frank Zappa, Lou Rawls, John Kay, Garry Marshall, Charlie Brill & Mitzi McCall, George Stanford Brown & Tyne Daley, Jack Klugman, Jon Peters, Mama Cass and more. Finding himself in surreal situations because of his lineage (spending Halloween at Groucho Marx house with Groucho while dressed as The Marx Brothers, being on a float at the Hollywood Christmas Parade, Christmas at Jack Lemmon’s house, learning backgammon on the set of “The Love Boat”, being on Buddy Rich’s tour bus, lounging with Tanya Roberts in his living room, having lunch with character actor Normal Alden at Nate ‘n Al’s Delicatessen, hearing Robert Morse recite the Serenity Prayer during Summer Stock, walking onto the turf of the Superdome, watching TV with Clint Eastwood during a party for Supertramp, etc.) Mills grew up thinking nothing of spending the day at Alex Trebek’shouse playing with Alex Daughter Nikki or sleeping over at the home of Josh & Tony Davis whose father was producer Jerry Davis (That Girl, The Odd Couple). It was only after he was well into his forties that Josh started to examine just how abnormal his childhood actually was. It was then, while writing a memoir with a childhood friend, Seth Kupchick did he really explore how truly bizarre his life was and how incredulous people were when they heard his stories or saw his pictures. To put an even finer point on it, growing up in the permissive 1970s & 1980s in Hollywood, Josh had an insider’s look at the highs and lows of celebrity in a changing entertainment world. It was during the self-examination of writing the book that Mills came up with the idea to interview  children of celebrities (sports figures, politicians, etc.) about their own childhood experiences and how they jived or differed from his own. How much was similar, how much was different, how much was totally unreal?  Was it possible that others who grew up with famous parents in rock-n-roll for instance might have stories that were relatable but totally different from his own? What was it like to meet Paul McCartney? What was it like having two equally famous parents? What was the most bizarre moment you found yourself in? Was there a dangerous situation you were in because of your celebrity connection? Did people treat you different as the son or daughter of (fill in the blank)? What were the advantage of being a celebrity kid? Was there a true down time when their parents career was on the wane? How do you deal with your parents fading or escalating popularity over a career? Josh Mills and co-host Jason Klamm will bring together a wide variety of adult children of celebrities for a fun, funny, bizarre, jaw-dropping, strange and wonderful look behind celebrity by the people that know them best: their very own children. It’s a podcast about celebrity, by the children of celebrity. You get the back story from an insider’s point of view filtered through the veil of someone who not only understands their experience but has lived it as well.

INTERVIEW BEGINS AT 15:30 Ernie Kovacs was many things, comedian, writer, actor, television pioneer, special effects inventor, genius, gambler, father, husband and cigar nut....and in every case he did nothing in moderation!! Kovacs took the new medium of Television and turned it on it's head, and almost 70 years later he is still ahead of the game. Listeners of the show have heard Brian make several references to Kovacs, and he introduced Lauren to this comic genius so it was only fitting to bring on Kovacs expert and fellow genius Prof Andrew Horton of University of Oklahoma to discuss the life and legend of Ernie. ANDREW HORTON is the Jeanne H Smith Professor of Film and Video Studies Emeritus of the University of Oklahoma, an award- winning screenwriter, and the author of thirty books on film, screenwriting and cultural studies And hey, check out our Merch Store for Shirts. Hoodies, Coffee Mugs, Stickers, Magnets and a whole host of other items https://www.teepublic.com/user/tahistory All of our episodes are listed as explicit due to language and some topics, such as historical crime, that may not be suitable for all listeners.

In which we discuss episodes of ERNIE KOVACS (1950s) and learn that he paved the way for Monty Python, find out that Dan has a new VHS cabinet, and explore surreal television without a studio audience. (Warning: contains spoilers and some content may be triggering.)

December 28, 1996 - January 3, 1997 This week Ken welcomes NPR TV critic, musician and author of the great book Race-Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation, Eric Deggans to the show. Ken and Eric discuss Eric's smooth radio voice, growing up in Gary Indiana, being a touring musician, becoming a TV critic in 1996 in Florida, getting sick of pop music, how hard jobs were to get as a teenager, Letterman, watching TV late night, being a fan of weirdo comedy, SCTV, Ernie Kovacs, being signed to Motown, making sure you always have an HBO Subscription, touring Japan, getting a VCR, the importance of phone trees when black people would be on TV, the paranoia of Dark Skies, the importance of criticism, Siskel and Ebert, Cybill, committing mail fraud with Columbia House to exponentially increase you record collection, experiencing White Rock Music, Quincy Jones, The original Bill Cosby Show, Saturday Morning Cartoons, Saturday Night Live, Eddie Murphy, jamming, In Concert, The Midnight Special, Meet The Press, all the people we've lost, Tim Russert, Regis, Steve Harvey, stand up sitcoms, Robert Townsend, how wrong The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer was, Larry Wilmore, difficult stars, Bernie Mac, NYPD Blue, anti-heroes, re-examining shows you liked, Ellen, good and bad network notes, lack of diverse casts, suspension of disbelief, and the absolute greatness of Homicide Life on the Street.

Jeff Goldblum stars as legendary 1950s comedian Ernie Kovacs in an Emmy-nominated TV biopic - plus, it's got Cloris Leachman as his wacky mom. What's not to like? Listen in as we talk ERNIE KOVACS: BETWEEN THE LAUGHTER!

Carl Reiner returns for a 3rd appearance sharing stories about Johnny Carson, Ernie Kovacs, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Shelley Winters, & takes listener questions.

Fred Mollin Interview: LOADS of cool stories here! Leaving school at 16 to be a musician, butting heads with Clive Davis, working with Jimmy Webb, Kris Kristofferson, Vince Gill, Chris Cornell, Mark Knopfler, Jackson Browne, WIllie Nelson, Jim Peterik… living at the Chateau Marmont, loneliness, Ernie Kovacs, baseball cards, not hanging with downers  Fred Mollin is a successful record producer and well-known film and television composer who’s worked in LA, Toronto & Nashville. Fred produced Grammy-nominated "Sometimes When we Touch" by Dan Hill… worked on successful projects with Jimmy Webb, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Mathis, America, JD Souther, Rita Wilson, Lamont Dozier, Billy Joel, Vince Gill, Willie Nelson, Natalie Cole, Linda Rondstadt, Mark Knopfler, Chris Cornell, Jackson Brown and other popular artists. He also spent 17 years as a successful composer for television and film, with numerous solo projects as well. Fred also runs a record company, Melody Place, which has a distribution agreement in place with BMG. Support this Show: http://www.everyonelovesguitar.com/support  Subscribe https://www.everyonelovesguitar.com/subscribe/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EveryoneLovesGuitar/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everyonelovesguitar/ 

To mark the centennial year of TV legend Ernie Kovacs, Gilbert and Frank welcome historian Josh Mills and Kovacs archivist Ben Model for a look back at the pioneering broadcaster's lasting impact and influence on David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, Monty Python and The Kids in the Hall (among others). Also, Billy Wilder comes to dinner, Ernie shoots a pilot with Buster Keaton, Jack Lemmon joins the Nairobi Trio and Josh remembers his mom (and Kovacs' widow), Edie Adams. PLUS: Percy Dovetonsils! "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"! Josh meets Groucho Marx! Edie dates Peter Sellers! And Gilbert "inspires" a silent film score! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's episode of #ThePondTheater will contain my thoughts on this year's Ernie Kovacs presentation, #PlaymobilTheMovie & #KnivesOut!

Raw audio of the presentation I recorded when attending The Ernie Kovacs Retrospective. This is not the entire presentation of course as I cut out a ton of bits that require visuals for full context. Otherwise, this is un-tampered audio on Ernie Kovacs for your pleasure and education about comedy from the old days. https://www.erniekovacs.com/

TVC 460.5: David Frankham shares memories of working with comic legends Jack Benny and Ernie Kovacs, and his penchant for playing characters who have nervous breakdowns onscreen (which he did famously in King Rat, as well as in the “Is There No Truth in Beauty” episode of the original Star Trek). Jonathan David Dixon co-hosts. David Frankham provides the voice of The Storyteller in Ben Wickey’s stop-motion puppet animation version of The House of the Seven Gables, which is available now on DVD through ArkhamBazaar.com as part of the HP Lovecraft Film Festival Best of 2018 collection. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gilbert and Frank welcome one of their favorite composers, Grammy and Emmy winner Charles Fox, who looks back on a six-decade career of writing top 40 hits ("Killing Me Softly with His Song") as well as music and themes for TV shows ("Happy Days," "Wonder Woman") feature films ("Barbarella," "9 to 5") and game shows ("Match Game," "What's My Line?"). Also, Charles teams with Barry Manilow, pens a tune for Burt Reynolds, witnesses the Ed Ames tomahawk incident and remembers friends Neal Hefti, Jerry Goldsmith and Henry Mancini. PLUS: "Love, American Style"! The Charles Fox Singers! The inventiveness of Ernie Kovacs! Gilbert sings the soundtrack from "Zapped!" And the boys pay loving tribute to Paul Williams! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host: ANDRAS JONES  Musical Guest: KISSPANIC Guest: JOSH MILLS Kisspanic are: Rudi Meibergen - Vocals & Guitar Thomas Rojo - Guitar R8B Theme Song performed by Kisspanic Andras Jones – Producer/Editor  Jessica Gutierrez – Recording Engineer  Tony Householder – Mixing Engineer/Graphic Design Kisspanic - Song Mixes Carlo Velasquez – Digital Media  Brought to you by Erica Russel LINKS: RADIO8BLOG - http://www.radio8ball.com/2019/06/29/josh-mills-kisspanic/ KISSPANIC - https://www.kisspanic.com/ JOSH MILLS - https://martinmillsphotography.com/ RADIO8BALL APP - http://www.radio8ball.com/the-r8b-app/  RADIO8BALL PATREON - https://www.patreon.com/radio8ball  RADIO8BALL FACEBOOK - https://www.facebook.com/radio8ball/  RADIO8BALL TWITTER - @radio8ball  RADIO8BALL INSTAGRAM - @theradio8ballshow Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/radio8ball See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ben Model on Douglas MacLean Kickstarter • John Soister on The Man Who Laughs and The Last Warning • Josh Mills on Ernie Kovacs (82:03)

Ernie Kovacs was a pioneering force in early television and helped lay the foundations of what would later become Late Night Comedy. Ben Model is a renowned silent film accompanist and as an archivist has help preserve and restore lost and damaged films. He's also one of the leading voices who helped the Library of Congress acquire the massive back catalogue of Kovacs films in 2015, and helped curate the impressive 9-disc ERNIE KOVACS: CENTENNIAL EDITION for Shout! Factory, available now. For those who know NOTHING about Kovacs, Ben breaks down the great bits and game-changers that may still impress all these years later. Special thanks to Josh Mills for helping arrange this conversation, and you can get more silent films from Ben through his Undercrank Productions film label at silentfilmmusic.com. Hail Satire! is hosted and produced by Vic Shuttee. Originally recorded on November 19, 2018.

On the ship: The Jeff is exposed to cosmic radiation. Also, we finally announce the results of the 5th 3rd Annual Frequency Earth Chili Cook-Off. Transmissions: The Manchurian Directions Damned Man Passive Aggressive Teaching Book of Z-Rob: Fortune Cookies New Decks: 39 - Gravity Well Join us on internet: frequency.earth Tweet us your escapist fantasies : @frequencyearth Starring: G. Maximilian Zarou as The Jeff, Nicola Clarke as the Ship's Computer, and Rob Schultz as Sheldon. Featuring: Paul Mueller, Sasha Huff, Kenny Beck, Erin McGathy, Dan Waters, Jack Allison, Nick Mandernach, Michael Upperco, Russell Anderson, and Tim Greer. Z-Rob by Z-Rob. Guest writers: Russell Anderson Original music by Darius Holbert, John Painter. Produced by Russell August Anderson. Written & Directed by Rob Schultz. This show, like so much of Creation, is Not Art. Frequency Earth: Chili Cook-Off was originally broadcast as Better Radio, episode 5, on Dec 25, 2009.

A bit of a do-over. More about one of my favorite comedians of all time.

Here is one of my favorite sketch in lieu of a show since I'm out of room on my Libsyn account. How embarrassing...

Archie Bunker’s All in the Family debuts television’s first gay-themed episode. With the exception of television comedian Ernie Kovacs poking fun at an effeminate character he played in the 1950s, it wasn’t until the 1970s that a gay character played on television. It should come as no surprise that the loveable bigot, Archie Bunker from All in the Family, was the one chosen to encounter that character. First aired on February 9, 1971, with the title “Judging Books by Covers,” the program produced by Norman Lear went like this: Archie’s son-in-law, Michael (“Meathead”), brings home his friend Roger who Archie thinks is gay. It turns out he isn’t, but Archie gets a rude awakening when he discovers that his long-time friend and former football star Steve was in fact gay. Bunker had a hard time coming to grips with the notion that his beer-drinking buddy was homosexual as this didn’t fit his stereotype of gay men. For Bunker, this created a dilemma of staying loyal to his friend or abandoning him because of pre-conceived notions. The episode was rather bold of Lear and his crew, especially as All in the Family had been on the air for only a month. Archie’s gay friend, as it turned out, was a one-time event. It would be six years before a recurring gay character showed up on television. That’s when Billy Crystal played gay character Jodie Dallas on the show Soap. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Stephen King, Ernie Kovacs and Richard Simmons! Plus Milestone rediscovers the original Hollywood before Hollywood, only on DigiGods! DigiGods Podcast, 11/07/17 (MP3) — 30.29 MB right click to save Subscribe to the DigiGods Podcast In this episode, the Gods discuss: Ancient Aliens: Season 10 Volume 1 (DVD) Annabelle: Creation (Blu-ray/DVD) The Bridge: Season 3 (DVD) Caïn: Season 1 (DVD) Caïn: Season 2 (DVD) Camilla Läckberg: The Preacher, The Stonecutter and The Stranger (DVD) The Champion: A Story of America's First Film Town (DVD) Class: Season One (Blu-ray) The Dark Tower (Blu-ray/DVD) Dave Made a Maze (DVD) Ernie Kovacs: Take a Good Look - The Definitive Collection (DVD) The Good Catholic (Blu-ray) The Good Place: The Complete First Season (DVD) Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill! (DVD) Hans Richter: Everything Turns - Everything Revolves (DVD) Harold & Lillian (Blu-ray) Humans 2.0 (Blu-ray) The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Miniseries (DVD) Injecting Aluminum (DVD) Inspector Winter (DVD) Kidnap (Blu-ray/DVD) Marcella, Season 1 (DVD) Meat (DVD) Michael Jackson: Searching for Neverland (DVD) Midsomer Murders: Series 19, Part 2 (Blu-ray) Mindblown (DVD) Murders at Barlume (DVD) Orphan Black: Season Five (Blu-ray) Paris: The Great Saga (DVD) Person to Person (DVD) Personal Shopper (Blu-ray) Reign: The Fourth and Final Season (DVD) Revelator (DVD) Richard M. Sherman: Songs of a Lifetime (DVD) Richard Simmons: Sweatin' to the Oldies: The Complete Collection (DVD) Slipknot - Day of the Gusano (Blu-ray) Step (DVD) Teen Wolf Season 6 Part 2 (DVD) War for the Planet of the Apes (Blu-ray) Wolves at the Door (DVD-R) Please also visit CineGods.com. 

I got the opportunity to attend the Ernie Kovacs award and hear Kevin McDonald and Dave Foley (creators of Kids in the Hall) speak about the show and introduce their 1996 film "Brain Candy". Listen as Nick and I discuss the event that night, the Kids in the Hall, and our thoughts on their film. 

This is a mini episode on the history of the Ernie Kovacs award and some information on Video Fest. This Year Kevin McDonald and Dave Foley (creators of Kids in the Hall) will be recipients of the award. I'm attending this event at the Alamo Drafthouse in Richardson. In addition to the award they will also have a Q&A discussion Panel and a showing of their movie Brain Candy. I'll be doing a follow up episode on that event.   For tickets and more info check out the link below: http://videofest.org/kovacs/