Podcast appearances and mentions of joel thurm

Comedy History 101 wraps up the year with our best interviews from 2024. Featuring episode excerpts from Arrested Development's Emmy-winning writer Jim Vallely, Paul Bellini from Kids in the Hall, Joel Thurm – casting director Airplane and Grease, plus histories of The Comedy Cellar, Yuk-Yuks, Moms Mabley with Rhonda Hansome, Sean Cullens, Susan Silver, Stan Zimmerman, directors Brent Hodge, Josh Forbes, Alan Bernstein, and more… Also, our friend Jean-François Brisson gives a recap of all our Canadian comedy episodes from the year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joel Thurm was the casting director for such iconic movies as Airplane, Grease, Rocky Horror Picture Show, as well being the head of NBC casting for a solid decade. He is also the author of the new book, Sex, Drugs, and Pilot Season.   We do a deep dive into casting in Hollywood, turning down Tom Cruise and Madonna, and insider stories on Taxi, David Hasselhoff, and what role Bob Hope played in getting Seinfeld on the air. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 652.1: Ed welcomes Joel Thurm, former Vice President of Talent and Casting for both Paramount Television and NBC, and one of the most accomplished and most respected casting directors in the film and TV industry. Joel's memoir, Sex, Drugs, and Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director, provides both a backstage look at the boardrooms of New York and the executive suites in Hollywood (particularly during the 1970s, '80s, and '90s) and a history of how TV casting decisions were often made during the era of the three-network universe. Topics this segment include how Joel recognized, before anyone else, that John Travolta was more than just another teen idol; how Joel and Travolta helped convince Olivia Newton-John to play Sandy in the movie version of Grease (after Newton-John had voiced her reluctance to do the part); and how Joel first became involved in casting after working for theatrical director David Merrick in New York City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 652.2: Legendary casting director Joel Thurm shares a few stories about his experience working with CBS executive Ethel Winant in the early 1970s, including how he discovered Georgia Engel for The Mary Tyler Moore Show; how he lobbied both CBS and MTM to cast Farrah Fawcett-Majors to play Bill Daily's girlfriend on The Bob Newhart Show; and how Joel became responsible casting every segment of the Bicentennial Minutes (1974-1976). Joel's memoir, Sex, Drugs, and Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director, is available from Bear Manor Media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For this episode we spoke with Joel Thurm, a retired casting director with a riveting story. Joel's love of entertainment began in college, and soon enough he was making his mark in New York City! However, the true magic behind his success lies in casting, where his keen eye for talent shines. As the former Senior VP of Talent and Casting at NBC, Joel has been part of some of the biggest productions in Network history. His story is a humble reminder of the transformative power of persistence, and the many doors opened by networking in the industry! ------------------------------------------------------------ One on One / Next Level's Website ► https://www.oneononenyc.com/ The Heart to Heart Podcast ► https://oneonone.lpages.co/ Follow us on Tik Tok ► https://www.tiktok.com/@oneonone_nextlevel Follow us on Instagram ► https://www.instagram.com/oneononenyc_la/ One on One / Next Level's Youtube ► https://www.youtube.com/@OneOnOneNextLevel

Paul Rudnick is a novelist, playwright, essayist and screenwriter, whom the New York Times has called, “one of our pre-eminent humorists.” His plays have been produced both on and off Broadway and around the world, and include I HATE HAMLET, JEFFREY, THE MOST FABULOUS STORY EVER TOLD, VALHALLA, REGRETS ONLY, and THE NEW CENTURY. He has won an Obie Award, two Outer Critics Circle Awards and the John Gassner Playwrighting Award, and two of his short plays have been included in STANDING ON CEREMONY: THE GAY MARRIAGE PLAYS. His novels include SOCIAL DISEASE and I'LL TAKE IT, both from Knopf and PLAYING THE PALACE from Berkley. He's a regular contributor to The New Yorker and his articles and essays have also appeared in The New York Times, Esquire, Vogue and Vanity Fair. HarperCollins has published both Mr. Rudnick's Collected Plays and a group of essays entitled I SHUDDER. His essays have also been included in the New Yorker anthologies FIERCE PAJAMAS and DISQUIET, PLEASE.Mr. Rudnick is rumored to be quite close to Premiere magazine's film critic Libby Gelman-Waxner, whose collected columns were published by St. Martins under the title IF YOU ASK ME. Ms. Gelman-Waxner has also reviewed in the pages of Entertainment Weekly, and the column now appears every few weeks on The New Yorker website.Mr. Rudnick's screenplays include IN & OUT, SISTER ACT, the screen adaptation of JEFFREY, and ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES. His Young Adult novels, entitled GORGEOUS and IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT, have been published by Scholastic.Mr. Rudnick has appeared on the Today show, Real Time with Bill Maher, Conan O'Brien, A Prairie Home Companion, and Fresh Air, among other programs. Mr. Rudnick's new play, Guilty Pleasure, will be directed by Christopher Ashley and produced at the LaJolla Playhouse. On September 12, 2020, HBO began airing Coastal Elites, written by Mr. Rudnick, directed by Jay Roach, and starring Bette Midler, Dan Levy, Issa Rae, Sarah Paulson and Kaitlyn Dever. He's currently writing a screenplay called EX-HUSBANDS, based on an original idea by Billy Eichner, for Amazon. His new novel, FARRELL COVINGTON AND THE LIMITS OF STYLE, will be publshed in June of 2023 by Simon&Schuster From his humble beginnings growing up on his grandfather's dairy farm in New York, JOEL THURM became one of the most admired, powerful, and accomplished casting directors in Hollywood, Early on, Thurm's instincts proved beyond reproach when he recognized John Travolta as much more than a teen idol, casting him in the TV movie THE BOY IN THE PLASTIC BUBBLE. It was during his years as Vice President of Talent and Casting for both Paramount Television and NBC that he discovered the remarkable Phoenix family, from which River and Joaquin became A-list movie stars. With his insider's knowledge, irreverent style, and biting wit, Thurm tells the stories of his key involvement in such iconic movies and shows as GREASE, AIRPLANE!, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, CHEERS, TAXI, THE LOVE BOAT, FANTASY ISLAND, STARSKY & HUTCH, CHARLIE'S ANGELS, THE GOLDEN GIRLS, KNIGHT RIDER, THE COSBY SHOW, HILL STREET BLUES and many, many more. SEX, DRUGS, AND PILOT SEASON is the ultimate backstage pass to the boardrooms of Manhattan and the executive suites of Hollywood where show-business history was made. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joel Thurm was one of the most admired, powerful, and accomplished casting directors in Hollywood. It was during his years as Vice President of Talent and Casting for both Paramount Television and NBC that he discovered the remarkable Phoenix family from which River and Joaquin became A-list movie stars. Here, Thurm tells the stories of his key involvement in such iconic movies and shows as Grease, Airplane!, Cheers, Silver Spoons, and more.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/5351305/advertisement

Legendary former casting director Joel Thurm chats with Trey Elling about SEX, DRUGS, & PILOT SEASON: CONFESSIONS OF A CASTING DIRECTOR. Topics include: Joaquin Phoenix's influence on the book (0:00:57) Growing up on a dairy farm in Brooklyn, NY (0:02:58) David Merrick's influence on Joel's career (0:08:16) How Pearl Bailey got Joel to Hollywood (0:13:03) LSD, a puffy shirt, & Jesus Christ Superstar (0:16:21) Learning how to handle people from Ethel Winant (0:21:12) The Minutes on CBS (0:23:46) Charlton Heston (0:27:18) Casting Susan Sarandon The Rocky Horror Picture Show (0:28:03) Why Aaron Spelling Leonard Goldberg made such a good team (0:30:49) The Boy In The Plastic Bubble (0:33:14) Grease as an example of Joel's philosophy on money & creativity (0:38:45) Olivia Newton John's “Slutty Sandy” scene (0:40:52) Getting the team back together for Grease Live in 2019 (0:43:26) The joys of working on Taxi (0:47:11) Airplane! (0:55:36) Why Peter Graves & Kareem Abdul Jabbar getting cast (0:59:06) Leslie Nielsen reinventing himself with Airplane! (1:00:55) Ted Danson, Shelly Long, & Cheers (1:03:10) Choosing Claire Huxtable for The Cosby Show (1:06:59) Joel bucking “casting couch” stereotype (1:11:39) What he would've done differently (1:20:25) Why he stopped casting in the early 1990s (1:23:24) Joel's last casting job (1:25:30)

Legendary casting director Joel Thurm holds absolutely nothing back as he tells us tales from his days casting some of the biggest movies and TV shows of the 70s and 80s, including “Grease,” “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” and “Taxi.” And then we do some high-level one-on-one market research for our podcast with a “lucky” listener - it's our “Focus Group of One.” GUEST Joel Thurm Sex, Drugs & Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director HOUSE BAND David Traugh SPONSORS NUTRAFOL: For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our US listeners ten dollars off your first scalp care order when you go to nutrafol.com/scalp and enter promo code PAULA. LOMI: Turn your food waste into dirt with the press of a button with Lomi. Use the code PAULA to save $50 at lomi.com/PAULA HELIX: Helix is offering 20% off all mattress orders AND two free pillows for our listeners! Go to helixsleep.com/PAULA. This is their best offer yet and it won't last long! With Helix, better sleep starts now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with NaTasha Yvette Williams, Tony Award Nominated Broadway Star, "Sweet Sue" from “Some Like It Hot” About Harvey's guest: Today's special guest, NaTasha Yvette Williams, is currently taking Broadway by storm in her spectacular Tony Award-nominated portrayal of “Sweet Sue”, who most definitely puts the HEAT in the smash hit musical, “Some Like it Hot”.   In addition to her Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, she received an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Performer in a Broadway Musical.   Our guest is a Broadway veteran, having appeared in 7 other Broadway shows including “The Color Purple”, “The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess”, which earned her and her fellow cast members a Grammy Award nomination for Best Musical Theatre Album,  “A Night With Janis Joplin”, “Waitress”, “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical”, “Chicago”, and “Chicken & Biscuits”.    She's also appeared in the national tours of “Xanadu”, “The Drowsy Chaperone”, the Elvis musical “All Shook Up”, “Seussical the Musical”, and “Cinderella”.  And she's starred in Regional productions of many shows including “Hairspray”, “Ain't Misbehavin'”, and “Mahalia: A Gospel Musical”.   She won an Audelco Award for Outstanding Performance in a Musical for playing “Grandma” and “Spirit of the Booty” in “Bella: An American Tall Tale”.   On the big screen, she appeared in “Sweet Little Lies”, “Alice”, and “Better Nate than Ever”.  And on TV, you've seen her in “Orange is the New Black”, “Madam Secretary”, “New Amsterdam”, “FBI”, “The Good Fight”, “Harlem”, “Partner Track”, “Run the World”  - and of course, who can ever forget her magnificent 2015 television performances as “Queenie” in “Live from Lincoln Center” and “Glinda” in “The Wiz: Live!”.   In addition to her Broadway cast albums, she's released 2 solo albums of beautiful standards, “How Deep is the Ocean”, and “For My Mother”.   And she's appeared in concert with the New York Philharmonic and numerous symphony orchestras across America.    After seeing “Some Like it Hot” during my recent trip to New York, I became OBSESSED with getting this FABULOUS woman to appear on our show.  And today, despite her grueling performance schedule, she has graciously agreed to grant me this interview. For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/ To see more about Joel Thurm, go to:https://www.instagram.com/natashayvettewilliams/https://open.spotify.com/artist/53sTxOQ5mNoqYdxO1heLUk #NaTashaYvetteWilliams   #harveybrownstoneinterviews

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Joel Thurm, Casting Director, Author, “Sex, Drugs and Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director” About Harvey's guest: Today's guest, Joel Thurm, is a show business veteran whose name you may not know, but whose work you have most definitely seen and loved.   For over 40 years, he was one of the most sought-after, powerful and respected casting directors in Hollywood.  Starting in the early 70's, as a casting director at CBS, then casting TV shows for superstar producer Aaron Spelling, then becoming Senior Vice President of Talent and Casting at NBC for 10 years, and also serving as Vice President of Television Talent at Paramount Studios, our guest helped create entertainment that has brought countless hours of joy to millions of people around the world.   On the big screen, he was responsible for casting 3 mega-hit movies:  “Grease”, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “Airplane”.  And in the world of television, he cast dozens of hugely popular TV series including “Taxi”, “Fantasy Island”, “The Bob Newhart Show”, “Starsky & Hutch”, “Charlie's Angels”, “Cheers”, “Miami Vice”, “The Golden Girls”, “Seinfeld”, “L.A. Law”, “Hill Street Blues”, “Night Court” and believe me, I'm just scratching the surface.  He produced and cast the Emmy award winning TV movie, “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble” starring John Travolta, as well as the 5-time Emmy award winning miniseries, “The Lives of Benjamin Franklin”, starring Melvyn Douglas and Michael Learned, and the Emmy award winning TV movie “The Gathering” starring Ed Asner and Maureen Stapleton, as well as the 1988 TV remake of “Inherit the Wind” starring Kirk Douglas and Jason Robards, which won 3 Emmy awards.   And my favourite of all his TV movies is “An Early Frost”, starring Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara, which was the first movie about AIDS, winning 4 Emmy awards.   He was responsible for launching the careers of countless stars including Nick Nolte, John Ritter, David Hasselhoff, Amy Irving, James Woods, Lorenzo Lamas, Danny DeVito, Christina Hendricks and dozens more.  And get this: HE was the one who cast Ted Danson in “Cheers”, and he was the one who cast the wonderful Georgia Engel to play Ted Baxter's wife in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”.   And now, he's written a fascinating, entertaining and insightful memoir entitled, “Sex, Drugs and Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director”. For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/ To see more about Joel Thurm, go to:https://www.joelthurm.com/https://www.instagram.com/joelthurmphotos/ #JoelThurm    #harveybrownstoneinterviews

Joel Thurm is known as one of Hollywood's most accomplished casting directors. He played a key role casting some of the most important shows and films including Cheers, Hill Street Blues, Taxi, Grease, Airplane!, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He has worked with celebrities ranging from Judy Garland, Pearl Bailey, and Ethel Merman to Ted Danson and John Travolta. His new book is Sex, Drugs And Pilot Season: Confessions Of A Casting Director. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Embark on a captivating journey through Joel Thurm's memoir, "Sex, Drugs & Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director," where he unveils the inner workings of the casting industry and his contributions to many movie and TV classics. My guest, Joel Thurm, and I discuss: Explore Joel Thurm's Memoir: "Sex, Drugs & Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director" Unveiling Casting 101 Secrets with Joel Thurm David Hasselhoff and Joel Thurm's Role in Shaping His Career Ted Neeley's Journey and Joel Thurm's Influence Joel Thurm's Impact on Ted Danson's Career Casting 3 iconic movies: Airplane!, Grease, and Rocky Horror Picture Show - Iconic TV Shows and Joel Thurm's Casting Contributions: The Bob Newhart Show, Cheers, and Taxi Inside the World of Spelling-Goldberg: Joel Thurm's Castings for Starsky and Hutch, Fantasy Island, and The Love Boat Unforgettable Stories from the Set of Grease!: John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John through Joel Thurm's Eyes The Facts of Life Rescued: Joel Thurm's Remarkable Intervention and Impact A Journey through Joel Thurm's Extraordinary Career: Captivating Anecdotes and Insider Experiences await you. You're going to love my conversation with Joel Thurm IMDB Joel's website Instagram Joel's book on Amazon SPONSORS: AIRDOCTOR: Head over to https://airdoctorpro.com and use promo code CLASSIC, and depending on the model, you'll receive UP TO 39% off or UP TO $300 off! FACTOR MEALS - Head over here and use code classic50 to get 50% off your first box. Follow Jeff Dwoskin (host): Jeff Dwoskin on Twitter The Jeff Dwoskin Show podcast on Twitter Podcast website Podcast on Instagram Join my mailing list Buy me a coffee (support the show) Subscribe to my Youtube channel (watch Crossing the Streams!) Yes, the show used to be called Live from Detroit: The Jeff Dwoskin Show

Steve speaks with uber casting director Joel Thurm whose many credits include "Grease," "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and "Airplane," and who's authored a new book  “Sex, Drugs and Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director.” 

Chasing Plants - Chris Thorogood The Not Old Better Show, Smithsonian Associates Interview Series Welcome to The Not Old Better Show, Smithsonian Associates, Art of Living interview series on radio and podcast. I'm Paul Vogelzang, and as part of our Smithsonian Associates, Art Of Living interview series, we have an amazing interview with Smithsonian Associate Chris Thorogood, author of the excellent new book Chasing Plants, Journeys with a Botanist through Rainforests, Swamps, and Mountains.   Our guest today, Smithsonian Associate Chris Thorogood, will be appearing at Smithsonian Associates coming up, so check out our website for more details about Smithsonian Associate Chris Thorogood presentation titled, Chasing Plants. Thank you so much for listening. We've got a great guest today, whom I'll introduce in just a moment.  But, quickly, if you missed any episodes, last week was our 709th episode when I spoke to Ralph White, who has written the excellent new book, Getting Out of Saigon.    Two weeks ago, I spoke with Hollywood casting director Joel Thurm who has written the new book, Sex, Drugs & Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director. Excellent subjects for our Not Old Better Show audience. If you missed those shows, along with any others, you can go back and check them out with my entire back catalog of shows, all free for you, there on our website, NotOld-Better.com.  You can Google Not Old Better and get everything you need about us! Our guest today, Smithsonian Associate Chris Thorogood, is deputy director and head of science at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum, and Chris is an acclaimed illustrator, beautifully capturing plants from around the world in his new book, Chasing Plants: Journeys with a Botanist through Rainforests, Swamps, and Mountains. Chris Thorogood is a field botanist.  Christ Thorogood will be appearing at Smithsonian Associates, Live from the UK, and coming up, so please check out our website for more details about Chris Thorogood's Smithsonian Associates presentation titled Chasing Plants. As a field botanist, Chris Thorogood lives a life of adventures across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.  Chris Thorogood has clambered over cliffs and up erupting volcanoes and trekked through typhoons. Along the way, he's encountered pitcher plants, irises, and orchids of unimaginable beauty. Smithsonian Associate Chris Thorogood joins us today to tell us all about his travels discovering rare plants and his vivid paintings, and he'll share details of hair-raising excursions and explains the vital work he and other botanists are doing to protect the world's plants. Please join me in welcoming to The Not Old Better Show, Smithsonian Associate Chris Thorogood. My thanks to Smithsonian Associate Chris Thorogood for his time today.  Christ Thorogood will be appearing at Smithsonian Associates, Live from the UK, and coming up, so please check out our website for more details about Chris Thorogood's Smithsonian Associates presentation titled Chasing Plants.  Please check out Chris' new book, beautifully illustrated by Chris, titled: his new book, Chasing Plants: Journeys with a Botanist through Rainforests, Swamps, and Mountains. My thanks, always, to the Smithsonian team for all they do to support the show. My thanks to you, my wonderful Not Old Better Show audience on radio and podcast.  Please be well, be safe and let's talk about better: The Not Old Better Show. Remember, just Google Not Old Better for everything you need to know about us.  Thanks, everybody, and we'll see you next week. 

Getting Out Of Saigon - Ralph White The Not Old Better Show, Author Interview Series Welcome to The Not Old Better Show, Art of Living interview series on radio and podcast. I'm Paul Vogelzang, and today's show is brought to you by Sunday, at GetSunday.com/NOB and Shady Rays sunglasses, at ShadyRays.com/NOB As part of our Art Of Living interview series, we have an amazing interview with author Ralph White.  Our guest today, Ralph White,  has written the excellent new book, Getting Out of Saigon.  Getting Out of Saigon is the remarkable story of a city on the eve of destruction and the colorful characters who respond differently to impending doom. It's about one man's quest to save innocent lives not because it was ordered but because it was the right thing to do. Thank you so much for listening. We've got a great guest today, whom I'll introduce in just a moment.  But, quickly, if you missed any episodes, last week was our 708th episode when I spoke to  Hollywood casting director Joel Thurm who has written the new book, Sex, Drugs & Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director.   Two weeks ago, I spoke with Smithsonian Associate, Former National Park ranger, and historian John Martini, discussing the infamous Alcatraz island.  Excellent subjects for our Not Old Better Show audience. If you missed those shows, along with any others, you can go back and check them out with my entire back catalog of shows, all free for you, there on our website, NotOld-Better.com.  You can Google Not Old Better and get everything you need about us! In April 1975, Ralph White was asked by his boss to transfer from the Bangkok branch of the Chase Manhattan Bank to the Saigon Branch. He was tasked with closing the branch if and when it appeared that Saigon would fall to the North Vietnamese army and ensure the safety of the senior Vietnamese employees. But when he arrived, he realized the situation in Saigon was far more perilous than he had imagined. The senior staff members there urged him to evacuate the entire staff of the branch and their families, which was far more than he was authorized to do. Quickly he realized that no one would be safe when the city fell, and it was no longer a question of whether to evacuate but how. Getting Out of Saigon is the remarkable story of a city on the eve of destruction and the colorful characters who respond differently to impending doom. It's about one man's quest to save innocent lives not because it was ordered but because it was the right thing to do. That of course is our guest today, author Ralph White reading from his new book, Getting Out of Saigon. Please join me in welcoming to The Not Old Better Show, Art of Living interview series on radio and podcast author Ralph White. My thanks to Sunday, at GetSunday.com/NOB, and Shady Rays sunglasses, at ShadyRays.com/NOB Please support our sponsors who so generously sponsor the show.  My thanks to Ralph White, who has written the excellent new book, Getting Out of Saigon. My thanks to you, for my The Not Old Better Show, Art of Living interview series on radio and podcast.  Please be well, be safe, and let's talk about better.  The Not Old Better Show, Art of Living interview series on radio and podcast.  Thanks, everybody, and we'll see you next week.

I dreamt of being a pilot as a child and grew up watching The A-Team and my favourite character was 'Howling Mad Murdock' played by Dwight Schultz. I was obsessed with aircraft so he was the one I wanted to be as his character could fly any plane or helicopter that he had to. Years later I saw him with Jamie Glazov and Anni Cyrus on 'The Glazov Gang' and was intrigued at his strong Conservative Christian stance while delivering common sense commentary. This is the first interview he has done for many years so it truly is an honour to have Dwight join Hearts of Oak on this audio only discussion. (he is the voice king) We talk about those early days treading the boards in the theatre and as a star in Hollywood, working on the biggest TV programme in the world and Dwight shares some stories of how his strong conservative stance got him into much hot water. He truly is a breath of fresh air in an increasingly demonic industry that opposes truth at every turn and mocks all who have a Christian Faith or Conservative Values. (*Peter takes to the skies regularly and has held a pilots licence for many years) A respected performer on Broadway, Dwight Schultz found everlasting fame by playing the certifiable "Howling Mad" Murdock on the action series "The A-Team" (1983-86). A living, breathing cartoon with a seemingly endless selection of voices and accents at his command, Murdock provided the air power for the A-Team's clandestine adventures, provided that his compatriots could break him out of the mental hospital where he resided. One of the show's most popular and memorable figures, Murdock ensured Schultz steady work on television and on the big screen playing Reginald Barclay in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" An accomplished voice actor, Dwight can be heard in numerous hit computer games and in countless animated shows. Interview recorded 21.3.23 *Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast. Check out his art https://theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com/ and follow him on GETTR https://gettr.com/user/BoschFawstin and Twitter https://twitter.com/TheBoschFawstin?s=20  To sign up for our weekly email, find our social media, podcasts, video, livestreaming platforms and more... https://heartsofoak.org/connect/ Please subscribe, like and share! TRANSCRIPT [0:22] Hello Hearts of Oak, and welcome to another interview coming up with Dwight Schultz, Howling Mad Murdock from the A-Team. He came in on a audio. Dwight hasn't done interviews for years. I was absolutely delighted to have him on when you talk to one of your childhood heroes who you grew up watching him in A-Team. And he was my favourite simply because he was a pilot. And I always wanted to grow up and that's what I wanted to grow up to be. But I'm talking to him about being a conservative, being a Christian in the industry, in Hollywood, in the movie industry. And actually we delve more deeply into his Christian faith, Roman Catholic background, and what it means for him to be a Christian in that industry where you're pulled every way and where your faith is ridiculed, mocked, and everything stands against that. So great conversation about some of his experiences and what it is to be a Christian and to be a conservative in the industry. We talk about his voiceovers, I mean his voice is legendary. Talk about that and why he stepped away from doing kind of in front of a camera in 2001, why that was, and all the voiceover and then I think 100 video games, his voice is in a whole other world, a whole other industry. So, I know you will enjoy listening to Dwight as much as I enjoyed speaking with him. [1:48] It is wonderful to have Dwight Schultz with us today. Dwight, thank you so much for joining us. [1:54] Oh, it's my pleasure, Peter, for my reintroduction to the world of podcasting, radio, television.   Well, this is something I've only been doing three years, So I know you have much more experience back in the day, but we'll get into some of that. And obviously I... Remember you fondly growing up. I think I was six when The A Team first came out, which is now 40 years ago. I'm sure I didn't want it when I was six. But your role obviously is as Howling Mad Murdock. So we can take just a little bit memory lane before we go into and talk about actually being a conservative in the industry and what that is like. But I mean, it ran for five seasons, 83 to think 87. Do you just want to let us know how you actually ended up in that role? Well, actually, it actually only went four seasons, real seasons, so it's not technically considered a success. That's true. I ended up in that role because I made a comedy tape at the Williamstown Theatre Festival around 1979, 1980. [3:18] Somewhere in there. And the comedy tape, and for two years, I didn't hear anything. And then suddenly I started getting calls from my agent to audition and to go to Los Angeles to audition. and it was because of this comedy tape. And I found out it had been making the rounds for two years and eventually Steve Cannell and Frank Lupo, his co-writer saw it and requested me to come. Joel Thurm, who was the vice president of NBC at the time, however, he had different ideas about this character. And anyway, I went in and they flew me out to Los Angeles. [4:03] And my wife was out here. She wasn't my wife at the time, but I had been dating her since 79. And she was out here living in Los Angeles, which was difficult. I mean, I was glad to come out here for any reason. And I had never. It was a joy, but I came in and I auditioned and it was a total flop. It was a bomb. I mean, you walk into a small room with 25 people, 30 people, and there was not a single laugh. There was nothing. There was no... And then they sent me out and they sent the director, Rod Holcomb, out with me to talk to me. I came back in, I did the same audition, And everybody was laughing and I had no idea why they were laughing now. And they weren't laughing before, unless someone said laugh when he comes back. You know, that's the way it was. It was just an astonishing thing. And they said, you got the part. [5:02] And then, uh, and this is the, really, this is the nub, right? So, uh, I, they shoot in Mexico and I went down to Mexico. And when we were down there, I was fired. I was fired. I was fired. Rod Holcomb came into my little room and he said, I'm afraid it's not going to work out. And I said, oh, what? He said, it's not Steven. It's not Frank. It's the would-be's at NBC. They just don't think you're quite right for it. And so they took me out of my little room and they put me in with a stuntman who I loved. I just loved him. I mean, it was incredible to work with these guys. And so there I was with the stuntmen for the rest of the shoot down in Mexico. And when we came back to the States, they were editing it and putting it together as we were shooting it, right? [5:58] I got a call from my agent said your dials were great. I said, what are you talking about? I had no idea what they were talking about. This is 82, right? This is 1980. I don't know what you're talking about. He said the dials, the dials, the testing. The audience loved you. You're the best dials that anybody had. So I was written back in. I was rehired before I was fired. And so you can't make this stuff up in life. You can't. So it just turns out that they had a different view of what this character should be like. And I had another view. And Stephen Cannell and Frank Lupo were in my camp. And so they had to write me back into the first five episodes, which they had kind of written me out of. And that's the way it started. And I was, [7:04] as anybody would be, you know, I got to work with some of the finest old actors [7:12] that I had grown up with in the 50s and 60s. And it was a thrill. The four years were a thrill. I mean, it was an absolute thrill. And I got along beautifully with everybody. And Stephen J. Cannell [7:24] was a conservative. I mean, I'm lucky. I'm fortunate there. I was fortunate because some of my other experiences were not so fortunate, working with people who knew I was a conservative and weren't going to have a conservative on their show. That was the way it started back then. But anyway, so it was four years of, we didn't really have a studio. We were working on locations and I got along famously with everybody. And it was a joy. It was four, believe me, it changed my life completely and totally. I never thought I would end up in Los Angeles and never leave. Well, what was I mean, it's intense, I guess, that you're living and breathing it. And most people, I have no idea what that's like. Most people go to a job and they go home, but you're there nonstop. What's that kind of intensity, especially for years with it's the same people? It's the same people. But listen, as an actor, I mean, I've been working I've been working professionally since nineteen sixty nine. This gig, it's over 50 years. Right. So I had, I have before the 18, I never knew what my next job was ever. I never knew what I was doing next. And after the 18, I never have known [8:50] what I'm going to do next. I've never had a consistent job other than those four years. And I thank God for them every night. I hoped it would go longer, but this was not the intention, nor the background of Stephen J Cannell. His shows were two years, three years. And then they name of every single writer that we had in the first year moved on to their own series. They all became producers. And this is not the way you have a successful series for an, actor, which is selfish, right? You want to go at least five years, seven years. But they all, you have to have somebody there who is consistently behind it, pushing it, making sure everything is the way it's supposed to be. But that was not the way it was. But I did everything that you can possibly imagine, I think, on that show. And as the 14-hour days, 15-hour day, I loved it because I knew that there was going to be an ending. I knew the day I started that there was going to be a last day. And so and I think that's the way life is, actually. [10:02] And so take advantage of what you have and enjoy it and hope for the best. But I savour it every minute and I look back very fondly. When you say it wasn't a success, I remember thinking this is the biggest thing ever. This is phenomenal. I watched it as a kid growing up. So it did seem to be the kind of TV show that you would watch. I mean, the only other one I remember at the same time was I think Knight Rider at the same time, but they were the shows to watch.   Yes, they were. But you see, we were on NBC, Grant Tinker and Brandon Tartikoff, and their moniker was quality programming. And Grant Tinker, and well, Tartikoff gave an interview for the New York Times, right? This is not an example of our quality program, right? Really, this is it. That's what he said. You know, their ideas was Hill Street Blues, which they had on. This was their idea of quality programming, not this schlock that's number one. [11:12] This is not it. And I sent Grant Tinker a telegram and George Peppard said, don't do it, pal. Don't do it. Don't do it, Peppard said to me. I sent it to him and I said, this is third rate executive ship. I said, we do the best work we can and we're number one, why are you doing this to us? And then he sent me a telegram back, which I have kept, saying, well, you're assuming that that was true, what you read. And I said, well, I checked with the writer, the journalist, quote unquote, who he said, he talked to you and this is what you said. And indeed he did. And this is a tag to all of this. He, after the show was over, it was cancelled, several years afterwards, I have received a phone call from his assistant saying [12:13] Brandon wants to talk to you. And I said, sure, I'll talk to him. And I met with him in this basement office, 20th Century Fox. And I walked in and there was nobody there but Brandon Tartikoff sitting at a table and he apologized to me. [12:31] His daughter had been in a very serious accident and it changed his life. It was one of these things. And he apologized to me. I'll never forget it. And this does not happen in show business. It does not happen. And I said, thank you. Thank you so much for that. I said, and then I went into my spiel about being an actor. And that I, you know, you do the best job you can, whether you're doing Shakespeare, whether you're doing a show, or whether you're doing The A-Team. You do the best job you can. It is the same job if you're good and you love your work. It doesn't matter. You do the best thing, the best you put. You're not walking through it. I said, that's what we were doing. And we happened to be number one. And why did you rain on the parade? You know, I asked him and he gave me some explanations as to the the exigencies at the top of a TV network. And I, so at any rate, that that that's the experience. That's the beginning and end of that experience, really.[13:43] And I carry with me.   How did you cope with that fame? And you were what, 30, 32, so you weren't young, young. But still, when you're thrust into that level of publicity, how did that affect you personally and how did you cope with that? Well, you know, I was fortunate that I was working since I had been working since 69. I spent 13 years in regional theatre. I spent years in New York, three Broadway plays. I had a lot of experience. [14:17] Really, they walk in the boards, doing all the grunt work, getting there. And I, fame was not a, I was known and all my interests in theatre were to be, this is a joke actually, but never the same actor twice. I mean, that's it. You didn't want to do the same thing. And here I was, and I forced the idea that this actor, this character would be different in each episode, which the vice president of NBC said, that's the way you comb your hair differently. You should be the same. We want you to be polite on this. And I said, no, no, no, no, no, I don't wanna do that. I wanna be different in every show. And so I maintained, I think, because of the work that I had had. When you do the classics, when you're in, and I don't mean this, when you have the great opportunity to play a Shakespearean role. [15:22] You understand something about talent, about what goes into writing, brilliant writing, and then schlock writing. I mean, you see it all. And when you've been given that opportunity, There's a humility that hits you. So fame was never something that I wanted. I wanted to be able to – and I've had this ability. I've been able to go to a department store or take my daughter to a mall and not be recognized, which is – I'm telling you, I have worked with – I mean, I worked with Paul Newman and Paul Newman was, it was not a, he, he told me he couldn't go anywhere. He was a prisoner of his fame. [16:12] George Peppard was a prisoner of his fame. I mean, the closest I think I've ever gotten was somebody said, your voice sounds familiar, do you know my brother? I'll say, no, I don't know your brother. Then every once in a while, somebody recognizes you, but it's a curse. [16:33] It is a curse, really. If you have a family, if you want a family life, if you want privacy, which I think is necessary for survival in this business. I mean, I've seen a lot of actors drop to their knees and open cardboard tubes and pull drugs out. You know, and that's fame. And you ask them, that's it, it's driven. You know, you gotta have that fame, you gotta have that fame, you gotta. And it's not what I wanted. I really am a repertory actor, that's it. I'm a repertory actor. I spent one year in Houston, at the Alley Theatre in Houston, and it was one of the greatest years I've ever had. And I never wanted to leave. And someone told me, that's why you have to leave. I would have stayed there. I could have stayed there. But my agents all told me, you have to leave. You can't stay here, or your career will be over. And I said, but I love this. And they said, you won't love it when it dries up there. You know, you have to go to a bigger, a bigger yard in essence. But I'm really a repertory actor. That's it. [17:47] Your last I think your last TV role was 2001. I will get into the voice side later, but your last 2001. Why did, why did it end there? Was a personal experience? Was it just choice? Oh, yeah. No, it was a really a personal experience. It was CIA. 2001 was... [18:17] I went in for wardrobe fitting, and we were at the Memorial Cemetery, Veterans Cemetery down in Wilshire Boulevard, and that's where it was being shot. And I walked in, and this is nothing, I won't mention the name, I shouldn't have even said what the show was. Just someone in the wardrobe room. We were talking about 9-11. We were talking about what had happened in New York. I had a lot of friends in New York, of course, obviously. And she said, I don't have any connection to that. I don't know why everybody – I just don't have any connection to it, you know? She still connects? And she rubbed it off, you know? And I said, I mean, life was – rules were at that point not easy to come by, actually. And I said I can't do this, you know, I can't work. This to me was a sign, a sign from God. I'm not joking. You look for these things. This was a sign that this was the wave of the future. There was going to be a lot of denial and there was going to be, and it's complicated. I mean, I'm not judging anybody. [19:43] But for me, I had an opportunity to move into another direction, and I decided to do the other direction because I could be anybody, anything in voiceover work. Video games were just becoming big at the time, and the whole business was very big. And voice work was something that, as an actor in the theatre, I always did. If I couldn't find the voice of the character, I couldn't find the character. And so that was it. I mean, the fates came together at that time. And I was doing radio at the time on a fairly regular basis with a friend named Don Ecker. And I just moved in that direction. [20:36] I mean, there were opportunities there, but I knew things had changed at that point. Yeah, well, we'll get into that. I want to pick on being a conservative in the, the movie and TV industry, and that seems to be opposites. We've seen more and more, and I think it probably gets worse. And you're Roman Catholic, you're conservative. And what has been your experiences having a faith and also having a conservative belief? How does that fit into the showbiz industry? What has it been like for you? Well, going back, if you look at, [21:23] if you look at the world that we're in today, the Judeo-Christian world, which is, and I have to say if I have one criticism of modern Christianity prior to today, and I mean going back, because there's a lot of things I could say about today, which we will, I'm sure. But one of the things which always struck me me was about Christians, was their antipathy for the Old Testament, the Torah. It is Judeo-Christianity, and if a Christian doesn't understand that the Old Testament is their testament, there's, a problem. And they don't, indeed. In Bible study, the number of times that I heard Christians say oh, that's not my God. I want to get out of this. I want to get to my God. Well, that's two gods. [22:24] I mean, there is the Trinity, which is three gods in one, right? I mean, we do have that mystery, but we are monotheistic. And Christ's Old Testament was his Old Testament. He was here to fulfil the Old Testament. This is what he said, that it is the Father. You're speaking of your father. This is Christ's father and the Torah, the law as it was laid down is your law. It went on to the New Testament. [22:58] You know, and Catholics, I mean, I was raised a Catholic, and when I found out that it wasn't, thou shalt not kill, but thou shalt not murder, you know, the wheels begin to turn, and you try to think as best you can about these things. But there was a disconnect between the Old Testament in the New Testament. But that has to do with my criticism of my own faith. In motion pictures in the film industry, it was under attack, as it is today. Christianity is—and Judeo-Christian ethic, the West, everything that has been built through the Judeo-Christian ethic is under attack and they want to destroy it. [23:55] And basically at the very front of that is the communist wagon, and it always has been. And you can go back to 1918 or whatever and read about it, and they tried every which way from Sunday to do it, and they always failed, and now they've found another way of doing it. And they have succeeded by going after our children when we didn't know they were going after our children. But as Christians, we're pretending that it wasn't important to be mothers and fathers and the nuclear family really wasn't that important. Well, then why were they trying to destroy it? And why has it been number one? [24:35] Because and I'm going to say something else here in a second, which I'm pointing to, there's a quote. This is the technique that they have used, and you didn't know it, but you felt it all along. You felt this, but you didn't know it. [24:57] A quote by, it's attributed to Oscar Wilde. And I think it is his, I don't think, I don't think, I think it is his quote. And it is pithy and accurate and brilliant and beyond belief descriptive of everything. Everything in the world is about sex, except sex. Sex is about power. And boy, when I read that, I said, is this, did he really say this? Is it? And it hit me from every direction. The entertainment business in every which way is about sex. Novels, books, television, commercials, life itself, clothes, it's all about sex. And it goes back to God's edict to humanity. [25:56] Go forth and multiply. This is the power of procreation, is sharing in the power of creation. That power was given to all of us. We don't know, I mean, people have talked about it, but you don't, we don't know where that came from, except from God. And it is something to, what do we do with these gifts? Do we throw them away? Or do we say these are precious? [26:30] And you see by the people that you meet, those who recognize the gift and those who don't recognize the gift. And you are asked not to recognize it on a daily basis. And as a child, if you think back to your childhood when sexual urges, whether you're—and of course, I can't tell you what a woman goes through, but I can only tell you what a kid goes through—boy, when you're going through puberty, the whistles and gongs are going off, and you're you're having dreams at night and you can't stop it. [27:03] Everything is at the wrong moment and you're not purposefully thinking about it, but it's a force to be reckoned with. And you understand it as you grow older that this force is to bring you to someone else, to love, to have a family and to create the next generation and then everything changes after that. If you can contemplate that greatness, that extraordinary thing, and realize that the world seems to want to distort it, well, you realize the powers that are set up against Judeo-Christianity. And who say, we don't want the Ten Commandments, we don't want that Old Testament rag, we want freedom, free, and of course I went through that in the 60s and 70s in school, and I saw it. I mean, I was part of it in that it bounced off of me at every moment. And being a Christian, you stay in it. [28:10] I stayed in my Christianity. This is another tale. When I got to school, to college, I mean, I had 12 years of Christian education, right? I wanted to be an actor and I went to Towson University, which had a great theatre program. And it was the first time that I was in a purely secular environment. The thing that killed me was that everybody hated their parents. Everybody hated their parents. I mean, nobody wanted to, nobody had a good thing, I loved my parents. And I used to say, I used to have a long bus ride home and I used to sit in the bus looking out the window saying, why do I love my parents and I can't find somebody who loves their parents? What is that? Well, I can't say that I answered the question, but the answer was in the destruction of the family. [29:10] It was in the destruction, and it had started then. Not my mother and father. And then here's the next aspect, and I think that this plays a very big part in all the trouble we're having today. I never wanted to do something that shamed my parents, that they would be ashamed of. I felt shame. I still do. I feel shame. It was given to me by my mother and my father. Now, none of us are perfect. I know my mother wasn't perfect, my father wasn't perfect. I'm not perfect, but I feel shame and shame is rare. Now, look, I was listening to your podcast [29:58] with Father Calvin Robinson. Right.   Goodness, you make me blush. No, no. And no, but he said something. He said he said something about drag queens in the sanctuary. [30:19] I mean, we're talking about there's no shame if you do that. Before, shortly after, I guess we communicated, I went to here in Los Angeles, I went to the Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena, and I saw two, I don't know if you know these individuals, Dennis Prager, do you know Dennis Prager? Dennis is a Jewish scholar. I've been following him since since 1982, when I came to Los Angeles. He had a program called Religion on the Line, one of the great minds and thinkers of all time. In fact, many times after listening to him, I would say to myself, I'm a Jew. That's what I am, I'm a Jew. [31:05] And then there's Eric Metaxas, who is a Christian writer, thinker, and these two were in a program, an evening called ask a Gentile, Ask a Jew. And it was a great evening, two hours of just two brilliant people talking about the state of religion. What was the final outcome, sad outcome of the evening? Metaxas and Prager both came to the conclusion that we, organized religion, has failed us. It has failed us. The churches and the synagogues have failed us. They have not stepped up to defend their own dogma, their own beliefs. And we are left flailing, individuals almost. And we are struggling to connect, which is what you and I are doing right now. [32:08] I was dumbfounded by that, but at the same time, that's what I'm thinking. That's what I've been thinking for quite some time. And all of these things, you know, we are under attack from every direction. And in your own mind, what do you do? Do you throw it away? Do you say, well maybe I'm thinking the wrong thing. No, no, no, that is not the case. Because when you think about why our children, [32:47] and if you've seen this now, why our children are being told that they don't know what their sex is, Metaxas brought this up in the evening that this is one of those key cardinal points. You can see. This is a perversion of reality, because you know what the truth is. If you have a Supreme Court justice, as we do in the United States, who says, I can't define a woman, and that children, 10 year old children, 11 and 12 year old children, secretly, don't tell your parents the hallmark of a lie. Keep it secret. Don't tell anybody. Don't even tell yourself. [33:26] You know the hallmark of concealment, consciousness of guilt, everything that you know is, they are trying to tell you you know nothing and everything you know is not to be believed, but they are to be believed. That children, there are not boys and girls, that men can give birth, that there are, you know, these things that we, it's incomprehensible what's going on and it's all to destroy right from wrong. Well, that's because it's kind of, I look at it a different way. One is the difficulty of living in a society where evil is slightly different, where it's a slippery slope and it may be difficult to distinguish what you believe with something that's slightly different. But we see such a chasm now between what is true, what is right, and the collapse and degradation of society. So in theory, that means it is easier to be a Christian because it's easy to be distinct, because what you face is the opposite of what you believe. And and that's why it's curious and interesting to see churches going down this line whenever there's, [34:38] there's no question of what we see is the opposite of what is written in scripture. Oh, there's no question. You know what you're saying? You can be crushed. You know, you can be crushed at the same time. You have to deny so many things to accept what's going on. And yet you say to yourself, how do I stop it? The war that's going on in Europe at this moment. And this is why I love Bannon. I mean, I just, I adore him. I never got to, I would not, and I'll say this, Andrew Breitbart brought me out of the closet politically, really politically. I was doing a lot of things, but saying a lot of things that were in the basket, but he truly brought me out.   When was this? When was this? . This is a through also through Gary Sinise and friends of Abe. [35:48] Boy, this is this is in the, I have to say nine. I'd say 2000 to 2005, 2006. By 2008, yeah, I have to say around 2005, 2006. [36:09] I was like a Jew wandering in the desert alone and wondering where God was. And a friend of mine who I worked with on Fat Man and Little Boy, a film about making the atomic bomb, called me up, his wife was a casting director, and he said, you know there are conservatives just like yourself who get together on a regular basis. I said, no, I did not know that. He said, would you like to go to a meeting? I said, I would love to go to a meeting of other people. I went and it was Gary Sinise and Andrew Breitbart, and a lot of other extraordinary people who were all, and this is it, seeking, trying to make connections. And so Andrew said, you have to become public. He had big Hollywood and big, you know, all of, he had all of these big websites. And he asked me to write an article. [37:09] He heard me in private describe a situation that I was in, in which I was at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. I had just come back from working with Charlton Heston and I had a long discussion, which was just a wonderful discussion in the hallway at the Amundsen Theatre about Ronald Reagan becoming president, right? And this individual who was a big producer in Hollywood overheard me talking about Ronald Reagan, and he said, Oh, so you're a Reagan a-hole, you know? [37:58] And yeah, that's right. That's right. And I was, I got to tell you, I mean, this was a big guy at the theatre too, that I was working, and I went cold. I went cold. I said, yes. I said, you know, not as a, you know, and I pulled back. I was, you know, he was attacking me, obviously, with his language. And I was shocked. I was totally numbed. And I didn't want to continue with this discussion, because otherwise there would have been a blowout. But that was how in 78, 80, I understood that there was this chasm there. And [38:51] it only got worse as time went on. As I said, fortunate, it is not a zero-sum game. Fortunate there was for me, and I did have an audition for this producer. There was a writer there and a brilliant writer. We had a fallout, but he's just an extraordinary writer. His name is Tom Fontana. He wrote some very, it was St. Elsewhere, producer, writer for St. Elsewhere, The Wire, many wonderful programs. And he did not know about this problem that I had and invited me to read for a part called Fiscus in St. Elsewhere. And I walked in and there was this producer [39:37] who has passed away since now. And Breitbart wanted me to write about him. And I did, and I regretted it, but I don't regret it. But anyway, so I walked in and he was there and he said, oh, what are you doing here? And to this audition, and I said, I'm here to read for the part of Fiskars. He said, it's not gonna be a Reagan blank hole on my show. So you know what that audition was like, right? You know, I mean, and I walked out and I just, I said, God, is this going to be it? You know, is this the way it's gonna be? And at any rate, so, but I finally did write this article about him and I lost a lot of friends for writing it. And then at the same time, and I was one of the first actors for Breitbart to use my name. This was what he wanted because a lot of pseudonyms, writing for Big Hollywood, And which I understand, please, I did not do this, I did this [40:40] for personal reasons, but not because I'm brave or anything of that nature. I just was at the point where I was going to tell the truth. This is the way it's done. And you are excluded on a cocktail napkin. And that cocktail napkin is sent around to other producers and you're excluded. It is not a zero sum game because there was Stephen J Cannell and he hired me. [41:03] But the majority of people will not, unless, of course, you bring in 30 or 40 million dollars over a weekend. And then they'll hire you. But the attack on Judeo-Christianity, the attack on conservatism, which is a hallmark of Judeo-Christianity, is now at its height. It's never been greater than it is today. Well can I, you're obviously being a Christian, being a conservative within an industry within the workplace, but then you had your podcast, then you're doing, you mentioned Breitbart on the Glazov Gang, that's something different. You're stepping outside and actually you're much more public. I mean was that a conscious decision to actually begin to use radio, use the internet, use TV and speak of these issues as a Christian and conservative. Yes, absolutely. And the reason for that was I, you know, if you're, [42:13] make a point, like I would not, as Murdock from The A-Team, go out and evangelize. I wouldn't go out as Murdock from The A-Team, vote for. Right? [42:34] You're taking something that is not related and you're trying to use it to get somewhere. Where it's not as, to me, as honest as separating yourself out, creating a podcast, creating another world. This is where I talk politics. This is where I talk my personal life, my personal beliefs. This is where I do it. And so you come to me and then we go out from there. And I associate with people who talk about religion, and I associate with people who talk about politics, and I talk it there in that realm. [43:19] There's obviously a mixture. You can't divorce yourself from who you are and what you've done, and I don't. But I've never hidden my religion. I've never hidden my Christianity, as some people do. That's not the way to do it either. Yes, I am a Christian. I'm a Judeo-Christian. I believe in the Old Testament and the New Testament. And it's, for me, not a contradiction in terms. And so I express it that way. I express it here on my own podcast when I had it. And if ever anybody wanted to talk about it, I was willing to do it. And I attended every event, and with Jamie and [44:10] the lovely Anni Cyrus, that was just wonderful. That was absolutely wonderful. I went to a David Horowitz retreat, where I met Jamie. I had the great fortune, an opportunity to speak at a Freedom Concert event. Many of my public heroes were there from various political websites. And I got to meet them. And that's where I met Jamie. And he invited me on to engage with him on his program, the Glazov Gang. It's so funny. But, you know, and I met just so many fabulous people. And there are so many things right now, which I see things now and can talk about things that I couldn't prior to coming out with Andrew. And that, of course, is Bannon's big thing, Andrew. Andrew, I mean, he's – and Andrew changed – just brought the world together. I mean, his vision, his understanding of what was really going on was unique. And he was right into – he was dead on about everything. And I still don't agree with most of his friends. [45:38] I have very dark feelings about what happened to Andrew, even though I know he had a heart problem. But when the, I mean, you know what I'm talking about. I don't want to get into that aside, but I know the darkness that's out there and a voice like his had to be stopped. And they don't stop at anything. They don't. And we have now been witness to it in the United States for five or six years. Nothing stops them. Nothing. And they will lie to your face. They do not care because they are the voice of something that is dark. [46:20] That's not a knife you feel in your back. That's me scratching it. Oh, but I feel blood. No, that's not blood. You know, that's it. That's it. Can I finish off with your voice? Now, it is always wonderful to have a guest coming on and the sound is absolutely beautiful, crystal clear. You're coming through. Obviously, your voice is your how you make your your living now. And you've you've moved away from being kind of front of the camera to doing voice. Tell us what that is like, because it means you talked about fame and that means you're not recognized. It is your voice. And I remember watching, you were the one who, again, using your voice in all different ways, even back as in The A Team. But tell us about, how that works in the industry.   Well, in the industry, it doesn't. You have to be very fortunate. One of the first casting directors I ever met was Sylvia Gold, was her name. And she met with me, my first agent introduced me to her, and she said. [47:36] Oh, darling, she said, you don't understand. No one wants to hear that stuff. That's in the theatre. They want to hear you. They want to hear your voice. It's your voice that's important. And I said, no, it's not. I said, that's not what it's not. You know, I'm a vampire. I'm a thief. I listen to other people. I'm a mathematical idiot. And God gave me this ability to hear people's voices. And I said, I remember being seven years old. I was about seven years old, and I remember the first impression I ever did, which was, James Mason in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, he had a line, it was, I am dying now, and the Nautilus is dying with me, present as him. And I said this out loud to myself, I am dying now, and the Nautilus is dying with me. And the more I did it, the closer I got. And I would spend time, and I became an Anglophile, and I started listening to Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole, and I found that if I put headphones on, their voice came from the middle of my head, and I could steal from them. I could do impressions of their voice, and even if it wasn't perfect. [48:52] It became another voice, another character. And I began to identify with my relatives that way. I started doing impressions of my relatives and they did not like it. And I started doing impressions of my teachers at school and the kids liked it, but the teachers didn't like it if they heard it. And that's how it started. And I just had an ear for people's voices and dialects in the United States. And that's it. And in terms of, well, if I'm coming across crystal clear, That's because somebody recommended this microphone, the Heil PR-40, which is a dynamic microphone. Most people are wedded to very expensive condenser mics. But this is a rejection, it's a cardioid. People can open the door and come into the room and you won't hear it, you'll just hear me. Art Bell used this mic and he was always extolling the virtues of this mic, and I listened to him. And so, you know, and it's inexpensive, comparatively speaking, so it's available. [50:04] And so I, but I have spent years studying and recording people's voices and listening to them and trying to reproduce them. And one of the great thrills in my life was, I was, I knew somebody who was intimately involved with Laurence Olivier. [50:29] Peter Shaffer, and he wrote Amadeus, right? And he was just an absolutely spectacular man. And he gave me the play Amadeus to read before it was on Broadway and in Great Britain. And he was just a sweetheart of all sweethearts anyway. So I went into a bathroom and I did my impression of Olivier doing the Othello chamber scene. And I gave it to someone who was with Peter and asked them to listen to it to see if I caught any of it. And he said, this friend said, Shaffer listened to it and said, well, he said if Larry was very, very sick. But it was, you know, it was one of those, I, God, to have, you know, I, I, I think I listened, I don't know, I can't, I can't repeat anything that I've ever done myself, but I, I think I listened to the chamber scene from Othello, Olivier's Othello a thousand times. And that's how you learn when you're a young kid. That's how you learn. And you say, oh, my God, every comma. I followed it along, and he followed the text. [51:49] Amazingly, he followed the text and was dead on. And those are the kinds of things that I became very attuned to people's voices, and recorded them. And I have a lot of recordings and sometimes I still listen to Burton's Hamlet. And Gielgud, of course, directed it. [52:21] And it was considered a disaster on Broadway, but there's some great, there's just to capture, it is a miracle that I can sit here and listen to people who have passed away as if they're in my room. It is, it is a miracle, a technical miracle, but a miracle, or listening to the great choruses, motion picture choruses from 1958 and 60, and I listen to these grand voices, and I say, most of these people are not here now, But I'm listening to them and I get emotional about it. So anyway...   You've also embraced just finally about. I think I looked through and you've done the voice for like 100 video games. Well, yeah, I guess that's just if you're you're good at something, then that can be used across different, different industries. Oh, exactly. and video games are bigger than motion pictures now. And the hardest thing I was ever asked to do, and we were asked to do this periodically, you know, these great actors, right? [53:31] Sir Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, right? Those two individuals. Do impressions of both of them, to do them in the same thing. They were in X-Men, right? So I can't do them because they're so close. And you just do. You're asked to do it. They can't make it to do a pickup, right? So they ask an actor to come in and do a line, half a line. That's it. I can't do Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart at the same time. But I can't. I can't do it because they're too close. And yet they're different. But I have not been able to. I mean, you know, you in Ian McKellen with Bilbo Baggins, you know, he's called the essence. [54:19] Patrick is done it. Patrick is down there, too. But I can't do them together. I cannot do them together. I have to do them separately. And Patrick is he was a delight, by the way. Very liberal, very liberal. But one of the great things about Star Trek is my greatest experience that I've had in Hollywood, because there was little to no politics on that set, and everybody was a delight to work with. Everyone, absolutely everyone. And walking around on the great Paramount lot was a thrill. Anyway, sorry, I'm getting side-lined. I loved all those people. I did. I really did. Dwight, I so appreciate you coming on. It's absolutely wonderful to speak with you and hear about your experiences in the industry. So we really do appreciate your time today.   Well, it's my pleasure and I am very grateful. It's been a long time since I've done anything like this.   Oh, maybe it'll become more regular. Well, thank you, Peter.   Thank you so much, Dwight. Thank you.   Bye-bye.

Sex, Drugs and Pilot Season - Joel Thurm The Not Old Better Show, Author Interview Series Welcome to The Not Old Better Show, Art of Living interview series on radio and podcast. I'm Paul Vogelzang, and today's show is brought to you by NextEvo Naturals, Clinically Proven, Absorbing CBD, and Harry's, created for a different shaving experience  As part of our Art Of Living interview series, we have an excellent program sex, drugs and the pilot season for television and theater!   Our guest today is long-time star maker, casting director, and author Joel Thurm.  Hollywood casting director Joel Thurm has written the new book, Sex, Drugs & Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director.  Thank you so much for listening. We've got a great guest today, whom I'll introduce in just a moment.  But, quickly, if you missed any episodes, last week was our 707th episode when I spoke to Smithsonian Associate, Former National Park ranger, and historian John Martini, discussing the infamous Alcatraz island.  Two weeks ago, I spoke to returning guest biblical scholar and NYT best-selling author Dr. Bart Ehrman.   Excellent subjects for our Not Old Better Show audience. If you missed those shows, along with any others, you can go back and check them out with my entire back catalog of shows, all free for you, there on our website, NotOld-Better.com From his humble beginnings growing up on his grandfather's dairy farm in New York, JOEL THURM became one of the most admired, powerful, and accomplished casting directors in Hollywood, Early on, Thurm's instincts proved beyond reproach when he recognized John Travolta as much more than a teen idol, casting him in the TV movie THE BOY IN THE PLASTIC BUBBLE.  Joel Thurm tells us today about the stories and his key involvement in such iconic movies and shows as GREASE, AIRPLANE!, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, CHEERS, TAXI, THE LOVE BOAT, FANTASY ISLAND, STARSKY & HUTCH, CHARLIE'S ANGELS, THE GOLDEN GIRLS, KNIGHT RIDER, THE COSBY SHOW, HILL STREET BLUES and many, many more. SEX, DRUGS, AND PILOT SEASON is the ultimate backstage pass. That, of course, is our guest today, author and casting director Joel Thurm, reading from his new book,   Sex, Drugs & Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director.  Please join me in welcoming to The Not Old Better Show on radio and podcast Joel Thurm. My thanks to  our sponsors,  NextEvo Naturals, Clinically Proven, Absorbing CBD, and Harry's, created for a different shaving experience Please check out our sponsors, who are so helpful in sponsoring the show.  My thanks to Joel Thurm for his generous time today.  Remember to check out Joel Thurm's new book, Sex, Drugs & Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director. My thanks to the Smithsonian team for all they do to support the show.  My thanks to you, my wonderful Not Old Better Show audience… Let's talk about better.  The Not Old Better Show Smithsonian Associates interview series.  Thanks, everybody. 

** Filmmaker, writer John Sayles talks Jamie MacGillivray, his new novel  ** Joel Thurm visits the Hollywood casting couch ** Activist/poet Mitchel Cohen presents "The Rubber Stamp Man" Pt. 1 ** Peter Wise celebrates musician/poet Gil Scott-Heron 

Joel Thurm's new book SEX, DRUGS and PILOT SEASON: Confessions of a Casting Director (Bear Manor Media) is smart, sardonic, and perhaps best of all: filled with great dish. One of Hollywood's most admired and accomplished casting directors, Thurm worked in a business where people were still deep in the closet. He was the first person in NBC history to take a same-sex partner as his date to company events. When the AIDS crisis hit, Joel made every effort possible to get work-any work- for actors who were ill, so that they could get or keep their health insurance. You might have seen the recent New York Post story where Joel shares his experiences with Rock Hudson and Robert Reed. SEX, DRUGS and PILOT SEASON takes us on the wild ride of his career from working in the theatre with legends Pearl Bailey, Judy Garland, Ethel Merman, David Merrick, and Gloria Swanson to being part of the wise (and sometimes unwise) early career casting decisions involving Jason Bateman, Tom Cruise, Ted Danson, Farrah Fawcett, Don Johnson, Regina King, Madonna, Joaquin and River Phoenix and Susan Sarandon, to name a few. Thurm played a key role in many of the most pivotal casting decisions in TV history (including Cheers, The Cosby Show, Hill Street Blues, and Taxi)-and for three enduringly popular movies: Grease, Airplane!, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. In contrast to Hollywood memoirs where the author attempts to lionize himself and get even with the everyone on the planet, Joel is a wonderful storyteller who is honest about his success and failures. Thurm candid about doing his fair share of drugs in his leisure time and acknowledges instances where other powerful Hollywood people did employ a casting couch. If Thurm learned that someone did have a casting couch, he would subsequently have nothing to do with them.

Hollywood Casting Director Joel ThurmJoel is one of the most admired and accomplished casting directors in HollywoodHis new book is called, “SEX, DRUGS and PILOT SEASON: Confessions of a Casting Director”-He played a HUGE role in some of the biggest shows in the history of television:Cheers, The Cosby Show, Hill Street Blues, Taxi, Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Charlie's Angels -He produced John Travolta's first movie, "Boy in the Plastic Bubble"-Ted Danson & Shelley Long casting on Cheers-Was he nervous when Woody replaced Coach on Cheers-Favorite person he cast over the years - it has to do with a big star working on Mork & Mindy -Favorite person he worked with over the years-Casting for 'Airplane' and Lloyd Bridges Photo Courtesy: Cheat Sheet 

Joel Thurm's new book SEX, DRUGS and PILOT SEASON: Confessions of a Casting Director (Bear Manor Media) is smart, sardonic, and perhaps best of all: filled with great dish. One of Hollywood's most admired and accomplished casting directors, Thurm worked in a business where people were still deep in the closet. He was the first person in NBC history to take a same-sex partner as his date to company events. When the AIDS crisis hit, Joel made every effort possible to get work-any work- for actors who were ill, so that they could get or keep their health insurance. You might have seen the recent New York Post story where Joel shares his experiences with Rock Hudson and Robert Reed. SEX, DRUGS and PILOT SEASON takes us on the wild ride of his career from working in the theatre with legends Pearl Bailey, Judy Garland, Ethel Merman, David Merrick, and Gloria Swanson to being part of the wise (and sometimes unwise) early career casting decisions involving Jason Bateman, Tom Cruise, Ted Danson, Farrah Fawcett, Don Johnson, Regina King, Madonna, Joaquin and River Phoenix and Susan Sarandon, to name a few. Thurm played a key role in many of the most pivotal casting decisions in TV history (including Cheers, The Cosby Show, Hill Street Blues, and Taxi)-and for three enduringly popular movies: Grease, Airplane!, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. In contrast to Hollywood memoirs where the author attempts to lionize himself and get even with the everyone on the planet, Joel is a wonderful storyteller who is honest about his success and failures. Thurm candid about doing his fair share of drugs in his leisure time and acknowledges instances where other powerful Hollywood people did employ a casting couch. If Thurm learned that someone did have a casting couch, he would subsequently have nothing to do with them.

It's time to go Under Oath! In this episode, we chat with actress Katee Sackhoff from Battlestar Galactica & Joel Thurm, who was the casting director for Grease, Rocky Horror Picture Show, and more!

Joel Thurm is a well-known casting director, producer, and photo artist by profession. He is known as a casting director for the TV projects such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Grease (1978), Airplane! (1980), and Altered States (1980).Many people are curious about Joel Thurm's married life or wife's details. Apart from this, his fans and followers raised questions about his sexuality. After his sexual relationship with the veteran actors Rock Hudson and Robert Reed (both of them are gay), it is possibly determined that Joel Thurm is also gay. However, Joel hasn't opened up about his sexuality in the public media.Nevertheless, the 80-year-old casting director might also be a married personality and also has a wife. Although, he hasn't disclosed his relationship status yet. Joel is more focused on his career and tries to avoid the public media, and wants to stay as a low-key personality.Joel Thurm has an approximate net worth of about $2 million. He earned this fortune from his professional career as a casting director and as producer. Joel worked as a casting director for more than 28 TV projects. However, he has seemed inactive in the showbiz industry since 2004. Furthermore, Joel also makes money from his other business venture.Joel Thurm began his career shortly after completing his education. He started working as a casting director in 1975. He made his showbiz industry debut in 1975 as a casting director for the TV Mini-Series, The Lives of Benjamin Franklin, for one episode. In the same year, Joel was also seen as a casting director in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.His breakthrough role came in 1975, when he worked as a casting director in the TV Series, The Bob Newhart Show for all 20 episodes, created by David Davis and Lorenzo Music until 1976.Some of his notable works are Starsky and Hutch (1977-1978), King of the Gypsies (1978), Moment by Moment (1978), Taxi (1979), The New Odd Couple (1983), Something to Live for: The Alison Gertz Story (1992), OP Center (1995), It's My Party (1966), In My Sister's Shadow (1997), Beggars and Choosers (1999), The Lot (1999), Popstars (2001), I Dream (2004), and others.Joel Thurm also worked as a producer for the TV projects such as The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976), Angie (1979), Nell Carter... Never Too Old to Dream (1986), Nell Carter Special (1986), Morton's by the Bay (1989, Marked for Murder (1993), and It's My Party (1996), and others. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/unimpressedpodcast. https://plus.acast.com/s/unimpressedpodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joel Thurm has many films and TV shows on his roster, including Grease, Airplane!, Cheers, and The Golden Girls, to name a few. From humble beginnings to his rise as one of the most admired, powerful, and accomplished casting directors in Tinsel Town, Joel Thurm joins Torg & Elliott to dish some Hollywood dirt. Find more stories in Joel's latest book, "Sex, Drugs, and Pilot Season."

On today's episode of The BS, we discuss how Bailey hates Branden's vape, UFOs, and we get another round of Everything's Better with Fuck! Next, we talk to casting director, Joel Thurm! He tells us about casting Golden Girls, how convinced NBC President Grant Tinker to cast Ted Danson on Cheers, and his thoughts on Grease 2! Check out his new book: "SEX, DRUGS and PILOT SEASON Confessions of a Casting Director" available now. If you're a subscriber, in the bonus content you'll hear about how Bailey called 911 on a shitty car! All that and more on today's episode of The BS! #BetterThanRadio For daily ad-free content, become a subscriber of The BS today: WWW.PODCASTTHEBS.COM --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-bailey-show/message

On this 1980s Now exclusive, Will speaks with legendary casting director Joel Thurm. Among his many extraordinary credits, Joel was VP of Talent and Casting at NBC throughout the 1980s. and cast most of our favorite TV shows from that era. Joel's new book "Sex, Drugs and Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director" is available everywhere now.Introduction - :00Interview - 4:40For the many ways to support the show, visit www.1980snow.com/support.For more episodes of 1980s Now and information about the show visit www.1980snow.com.And for even more 1980s awesomeness visit the80sruled.com or facebook.com/80sruled.Learn more about Jon's podcast and Youtube channel at www.GenXGrownup.com.Buy Joel Thurm's new book at "Sex, Drugs and Pilot Season" at http://bit.ly/3XV6LEt.

Will, Kat and Jon discuss current 80s news including reviews for the new "Night Court," the hardest scene to film in "Top Gun: Maverick," and how Val Kilmer returned to the new "Willow" series. Then, the trio discusses 10 times other actors nearly played characters we love in 1980s films.Introduction - :00Announcement - 3:00*Listen for our interview with legendary casting director Joel Thurm later this week. He cast most of the characters that populated the TV shows we loved throughout the 1980s.1980s News - 5:56Near-Miss Casting Calls in the 1980s - 48:33Wrap-Up - 1:38:57For the many ways to support the show, visit www.1980snow.com/support.For more episodes of 1980s Now and information about the show visit www.1980snow.com.And for even more 1980s awesomeness visit the80sruled.com or facebook.com/80sruled.Learn more about Jon's podcast and Youtube channel at www.GenXGrownup.com.

One of Hollywood's most admired and accomplished casting directors, Thurm played a key role in many of the most pivotal casting decisions in TV history. The book is must-have for pop culture lovers who spent their childhoods watching classic TV shows including Cheers, Taxi, Golden Girls, and Miami Vice—and/or anyone who binges these shows on cable.  An added bonus:  for Joel's great stories about the movies Grease, Airplane, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.    SEX, DRUGS and PILOT SEASON takes us on the wild ride of his career from working in the theatre with legends Pearl Bailey, Judy Garland, Ethel Merman, and Gloria Swanson to being part of the wise (and sometimes unwise) early career casting decisions involving Jason Bateman, Tom Cruise, Ted Danson, Farrah Fawcett, Don Johnson, Regina King, Madonna, Joaquin and River Phoenix and Susan Sarandon, to name a few.    On the way, we learn “how the sausage was made” on shows that also include The A-Team, The Bob Newhart Show, Charlie's Angels, Family, The Facts of Life, Family Ties, Fantasy Island, Knight Rider, L.A. Law, The Love Boat, The Rookies, and Starsky & Hutch. Because he was head of talent at NBC, Thurm also provides interesting insights about Seinfeld and The Golden Girls.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

February 10th - Mickey Fitz, Erik Davis, Joel Thurm

Joel Thurm, former casting director and author of 'Sex, Drugs and Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director.'

An interview with Joel Thurm, author of "Sex, Drugs and Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director" (Part 2) --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lights-camera-author/support

Any Wersching of "24" and "Bosch" dies after three-year bout with cancer...Marc Anthony marries a woman 31 years younger...Brooke Shields' turn to tell her rape story...ABC is getting nasty with T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach's exit plans...Old casting director Joel Thurm writes a book about his gay romps with Hollywood's leading men

The best celebrity interview ever, Memphis police video of Tyre Nichols killing, Paul Pelosi attack video & 911 call, TJ Holmes & Amy Robach fired by ABC, Damar Hamlin "speaks", and the Confessions of a Casting Director remembers Rock Hudson & Robert Reed. Damar Hamlin is still pretending to not be dead. In your face, Juanita Broaddrick. A police chase in Milam County Texas leaves 3 dead. Memphis cops beat Tyre Nichols to death. All of it was caught on tape. Memphis PD shuts down their SCORPION unit in response. Looting ensued. Some people are saying there are 6 good reasons to resist arrest. The cousin of BLM founder Patrisse Cullors, Keenan Anderson, was killed following an altercation with LAPD. The Paul Pelosi attack video has been released. The 911 call he made was also released featuring a 911 operator who cannot take a hint. David DePape made a bizarre call to KTVU. TJ Holmes and Amy Robach have been BLOWN OUT. We remember the exact moment TJ realizes he's going to nail Ho-bach. They are so in love now that they're doing the 'Bachelor Leap'. Drew Crime: 20/20 cover the murder of Shele Covlin. One of the suspects in the Madi Brooks rape has been arrested for ANOTHER rape. 48 Hours featured the Ally Kostial murder. Sports: Jim Harbaugh met with the Denver Broncos again... after saying he was staying at Michigan. Josh Gattis BLOWN OUT by the University of Miami. Instagram Updates: Chet Hanks remains SO DEEP. Matthew Rondeau desperately wants you to see the base of his shaft. Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going to nordvpn.com/dams to get up a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 4 months for free! It's completely risk free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee. Joel Thurm is spilling all the hot action in Sex, Drugs & Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director. The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners awarded a $1.2M contract to a nonprofit run by felons. Oops. Kanye West is being investigated for battery for taking and throwing a woman's phone. The cameras love following Buster Murdaugh around during his father's murder trial. Pamela Anderson's 15th husband, Jon Peters, claims he's going to leave her $10M when he dies. Jon Peters is quite the cocksman. RIP Tom Verlaine. Drew is super bummed about this list of aging rock stars. In honor of the late Lisa Marie Presley, we remember the charming interview of Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie with Diane Sawyer. Visit Our Presenting Sponsor Hall Financial – Michigan's highest rated mortgage company Social media is dumb, but we're on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (Drew and Mike Show, Marc Fellhauer, Trudi Daniels and BranDon).

An interview with Joel Thurm, author of "Sex, Drugs, and Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director" --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lights-camera-author/support

For Video Edition, Please Click and Subscribe Here: https://youtu.be/4y9lWjFLGBw From his humble beginnings growing up on his grandfather's dairy farm in New York, JOEL THURM became one of the most admired, powerful, and accomplished casting directors in Hollywood, Early on, Thurm's instincts proved beyond reproach when he recognized John Travolta as much more than a teen idol, casting him in the TV movie THE BOY IN THE PLASTIC BUBBLE. It was during his years as Vice President of Talent and Casting for both Paramount Television and NBC that he discovered the remarkable Phoenix family, from which River and Joaquin became A-list movie stars. With his insider's knowledge, irreverent style, and biting wit, Thurm tells the stories of his key involvement in such iconic movies and shows as GREASE, AIRPLANE!, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, CHEERS, TAXI, THE LOVE BOAT, FANTASY ISLAND, STARSKY & HUTCH, CHARLIE'S ANGELS, THE GOLDEN GIRLS, KNIGHT RIDER, THE COSBY SHOW, HILL STREET BLUES and many, many more. SEX, DRUGS, AND PILOT SEASON is the ultimate backstage pass to the boardrooms of Manhattan and the executive suites of Hollywood where show-business history was made. "A true talent at the top of the biz. We are all lucky to know him! And a great guy! It's fun and I love it." -JOHN TRAVOLTA  "Actors are naturally nervous around casting directors. Then one comes along who changes your life! Thanks, Joel," -DANNY DEVITO "Joel is one of the good guys," -TONY DANZA "This book will make you laugh out loud, cry and wonder 'did this really happen?' Joel Thurm was in the eye of the tornado and he is still standing." -DEBBIE ALLEN

Joel Thurm joined me to discuss watching Milton Berle, wrestling, and Disney as a child; wanting to be an actor but finding his calling backstage; working for David Merrick; casting Broadway; moving to L.A.; working on The Pearl Bailey Show; musical guest appearances; Ethel Winant; casting The Bob Newhart Show; casting Henry Winkler and John Randolph; casting Raul Julia, Katherine Helmond, John Ritter, Will MacKenzie, Rene Auberjonois, and Chirstopher Lloyd in very early roles; casting the play and film of The Rocky Horror Picture Show; casting "Grease"; producing "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble"; coercing Olivia Newton John to take the role in "Grease"; swapping the "new, improved" script with the original; turning 80; casting Fantasy Island with Ricardo Montalban and Herve Villechaize; casting Taxi with Judd Hirsch; Cleavon Little being replaced by Jeff Conaway; Nell Carter being unavailable; Andy Kaufman came with the deal; reluctantly accepting the job of casting and producing Angie; casting "Airplane" with Peter Graves; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar being the third choice after Pete Rose and Bruce Jenner; Barbara Billingsley being the second choice after Harriet Nelson; being named NBC's head of talent; casting a casting agent on an episode of Taxi; Eileen Brennan; casting Gavin McLeod and Lauren Tewes for The Love Boat; casting Daniel J. Travanti for Hill Street Blues; Fred Silverman doesn't think he's likeable, so Joel got him to smile; Cheers comes down to three choices for Sam and Diane; NBC won't let Joel cast it; Joel implores Grant Tinker to hire Ted Danson because women will want to fuck him more than William Devane; being wrong on Don Johnson for Miami Vice; casting Florence Halop in Night Court; his favorite show, Law & Order SVU; fandom of Chris Meloni and Mariska Hargitay; recommending Christine Ebersole to SNL in 1981, his assistant recommending Dennis Miller in 1985 and Elvira in 1987 You can order Joel's "Sex Drugs and Pilot Season" here Sex, Drugs & Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director: Thurm, Joel: 9781629339535: Amazon.com: Books

Gary Interviews Joel Thurm, Author & Iconic TV & Film Casting Director

Through absolutely no fault of this episode's guests, Andrew shares three interviews that now sound a little odd, a little untimely, maybe even a little creepy owing to the fact that they were all recorded before the deaths of Betty White, Norm McDonald and Halyna Hutchins (the cinematographer killed after the accidental discharge of Alec Baldwin's prop gun on the indie western, Rust). First up, Joel Thurm, author of the upcoming memoir, Sex, Drugs & Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director, shares his memories of working at NBC on The Golden Girls and reveals how Betty White's fellow castmates really felt about the comedy legend, who died in January at 99. Next, Legendary Hollywood producer (Fast Times At Ridgemont High, The Untouchables) Art Linson remembers his near death experience producing 1997's The Edge with a very grumpy and very bearded Alec Baldwin. Finally, actor and writer Fred Stoller shares tales of bullying, petty theft and tennis involving his (mostly) friend, the late Norm Macdonald. Mentioned and recommended: Joel Thurm's Sex Drugs & Pilot Season (available spring 2022) Art Linson's What Just Happened Fred Stoller's Maybe We'll Have You Back Andrew Goldman's The Desk