Letting Them Talk with Will Harris

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Longtime pop culture journalist Will Harris, perhaps best known for his work at the A.V. Club (or, more specifically, for his Random Roles interviews), finally embarks on a straightforward interview podcast, chatting with actors, writers, musicians, political pundits, comic book artists... The world is his oyster, and he's planning to make the most of it!

  1. 1D AGO

    Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 31 - Sam Anderson (Matlock / Friends / Lost / ER / WKRP in Cincinatti))

    This time I’m letting Sam Anderson talk. Sam is someone who’s been a working character actor since the 1970s, popping up in dramas and comedies alike. At the moment, he’s living the character actor’s dream, in that he’s a series regular on one of the most entertaining dramas on network television, playing Kathy Bates’ husband on CBS’s extremely creative reboot of Matlock. Like so many actors, Sam got his start in the theater, but once he made the move to California, he jumped in front of the camera and has rarely found himself without work. As far as where you might know him from, it’s virtually impossible to know, given the width and breadth of his filmography, but some key moments from his career have found him playing an obstetrician obsessed with Arthur Fonzarelli on Friends, being stranded for several seasons on Lost, playing principal to a young Forrest Gump, and sparring with just about every doctor at Cook County General on ER. From Perfect Strangers and Growing Pains to four episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati, each one of which found him playing a different character, Anderson has been all up and down your TV dial and then some. Basically, if you look at this man’s list of credits, you’ll realize that he’s been in just about everything at some point, and while that might be hyperbole with some actors, with Sam Anderson, it’s way closer to the truth than not. As such, there was never any chance that we’d get to everything that you folks asked me to ask him about, but I did my best, and he offered up some great stories to go with all the things that I threw at him. Well, that’s probably enough of an intro. It’s time to let Sam Anderson talk.

    1h 10m

  2. 4D AGO

    Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 30 - Jay O. Sanders (JFK / Law & Order: Criminal Intent / The Day After Tomorrow / True Detective) /

    This time I’m letting Jay O. Sanders talk. Jay started in the theater, quickly found his way in front of the camera, and has successfully forged an extremely substantial career as a character actor. Before that, though, he made his New York theater debut in a “Shakespeare in the Park” performance of Henry V alongside such fellow cast members as William Hurt, Meryl Streep, Michael Moriarty, and Bruce McGill, which – all things considered – is a pretty amazing way to kick off a career. Thankfully, he didn’t stop there, but since it’s statistically unlikely that most listeners have had the opportunity to catch Jay in his various theater performances, don’t worry, you’ll almost certainly recognize him from any number of TV or film appearances. For me, as I mention in the course of our conversation, he’s instantly Kevin Costner’s right-hand man in JFK. If you’re a fan of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, you might recognize him either from his first appearance, which was as a bad guy working alongside a funeral home owner played by Jim Gaffigan, or you might remember him when he stepped in to keep Goren and Eames in line for the series’ final season. More recently, you might’ve seen him on NBC’s Blindspot, Prime Video’s Sneaky Pete, USA’s The Sinner, or Discovery’s Manhunt: Deadly Games, i.e. the season about the Unabomber. But Jay’s done so much stuff that there’s really no telling where you might’ve seen him. AfterMASH? Crime Story? Roseanne? Eddie Macon’s Run? Okay, that’s kind of an outlier, but if you’re from my generation, they played that thing incessantly on HBO back in the day. He’s also in The Young Riders, Angels in the Outfield, The Big Green, Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider, The Day After Tomorrow… He’s definitely an actor where you can comfortably use the phrase, “And the list goes on…” And suffice it to say that he’s got at least as many stories as he’s got roles in his back catalog. That feels like a more than sufficient intro. It’s time to let Jay O. Sanders talk.

    1h 19m

  3. 6D AGO

    Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 29 - Mark Harmon (NCIS / Ghosts of Sicily / Summer School / The West Wing)

    This time I’m talking to someone who was once named People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive. Not that it came up in the conversation, but it just feels like a real pop culture badge of accomplishment, so I felt like I needed to mention it. Mark Harmon has been acting since the ‘70s,  but while he earned an Emmy nod for his work in the 1977 miniseries Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years, it really wasn’t until the ‘80s that he started to hit his stride in terms of mainstream popularity. From Flamingo Road to St. Elsewhere, playing Ted Bundy in The Deliberate Stranger to playing against Kirstie Alley in Carl Reiner’s film Summer School, he was a major figure on both TV and film. In the 1990s, however, despite working steadily in film and on TV, Harmon struggled to find a long-term foothold on the small screen. That situation changed in a big way in the early 2000s, when an arc on The West Wing led to a backdoor pilot on JAG that turned into the most popular role of his lengthy career: playing Leroy Jethro Gibbs on NCIS. In the series 19th season, Harmon stepped away from NCIS, and although he’s kept a foot in that world by narrating the prequel series, NCIS: Origins, and continued to act when he’s of a mind to do so, he’s spent more time writing of late, collaborating with Leon Carroll, Jr. on a series of books: Ghosts of Honolulu, Ghosts of Panama, and the just-released Ghosts of Sicily. Military history buffs will particularly enjoy the series, and as I mention to him during the course of our conversation, the latest book could be subtitled Military and Mobsters. It’s a great read. Given how carefully Gibbs used to choose his words on NCIS, it may surprise you that Harmon is a talker, and as a result, I didn’t get to hit on every topic I would’ve liked, but I’ll say that just about anything we didn’t touch on in this conversation, we talked about it in my Random Roles interview with him, which can find in the AV Club archives. Suffice to say, however, that we had a great chat that makes for a fun listen. And with all of that said, it’s time to let Mark Harmon talk.

    58 min

  4. APR 13

    Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 28 - Corbin Bernsen (L.A. Law / Psych / Major League / Star Trek))

    This time, I’m letting Corbin Bernsen talk. As one of the leads of NBC’s long-running legal drama L.A. LAW, Corbin was one of the biggest TV stars of the ‘80s, and he’s managed to maintain a significant career ever since, not only as an actor but as a director as well. On paper, he seems to be someone who was always destined to work in Hollywood, given that his mother, Jeanne Cooper, was a soap opera star on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, and his father, Harry Bernsen, Jr., was a producer. But as you’ll hear, Corbin really wasn’t all that enthused about the idea of becoming an actor. Obviously, he changed his mind, but it took a little while for him to come around. Currently, Bernsen is busy talking up his latest film, THE YETI, a horror movie that centers around – you guessed it – a yeti, but it’s a period piece, and even with all of the horror movies emerging nowadays, it stands out both in its look and its substance. But don’t worry, there’s plenty of blood, too. Our conversation starts with the new movie, of course, and from there we delve into various other highlights from his career, including as many listener requests as we had time to tackle. I also reached out to a couple of his former co-stars – including two of his PSYCH castmates – who I’ve interviewed over the years and got some questions from them. One of them is so well-considered and absolutely unlike the relationship he has with that actor that it completely blew his mind, but his response proved to be so philosophical that it blew my mind. Anyway, yes, we talked about MAJOR LEAGUE, and, yes, I asked him about guest-starring on STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION…and he teased that he has something else STAR TREK-oriented coming up. We also talked about his appearance on SEINFELD, some of his other horror films, most notably THE DENTIST and TALES FROM THE HOOD, briefly popping up in the blaxploitation classic THREE THE HARD WAY, how his version of faith-centered films doesn’t necessarily mesh with the general definition of that genre, and why he thinks the never-aired attempt at an L.A. LAW revival didn’t work. No, we didn’t hit everything that I would’ve liked to have hit, but that just means there’s plenty of material left for a sequel. That’s probably enough of an intro. It’s time to let Corbin Bernsen talk.

    53 min

  5. APR 9

    Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 27 - Thomas Dolby

    This time, I’m letting Thomas Dolby talk. Thomas Dolby is a musician whose output throughout the ‘80s and into the ‘90s was part of the soundtrack to my life. Of course, anyone who came of age during the early days of MTV knows his music whether they know his name or not. Just play them a snippet of “She Blinded Me with Science,” and the memories will instantly come flowing back. I had the opportunity to chat with Mr. Dolby some years ago when I was writing for Bullz-Eye.com and he was in the midst of doing a flurry of press for the reissue of Prefab Sprout’s STEVE McQUEEN album, which he produced. Of course, I completely nerded out, as any proper music geek would, and believe me, I wish I could produce the audio of that conversation, because if I could, I’d include at least a portion of it with this episode…at least partially because, as you’ve probably noted if you’d look at the length of this particular installment, it’s a bit shorter than usual. That’s because I didn’t know until it was too late to do anything about it that I’d accidentally only been allotted 30 minutes for our interview, and he didn’t know that I thought I’d been allotted an hour, so when we hit the 30-minute mark, I found myself a bit blindsided by the sudden end of the conversation. I mean, it’s all fine and well, these things happen, but I’m sorry for you, the listener, that it didn’t go on longer. Still, during the course of our half-hour together, we talked about as much of his career as I could manage, we discussed a bit about his soundtrack work, which resulted in a particularly great Ken Russell story, and we talked about some of his session and production work over the years, including a Thompson Twins song you may not have realized that he had a hand in. If you’re a fan of his work, I think you’ll enjoy it, and if you don’t know much about his career, I think you’ll find it fascinating. And with that said, I’d say it’s time to let Thomas Dolby talk…and after you're done listening to him talk, maybe you'd like to go see him on tour. Here's a list of his upcoming tour dates!

    34 min

  6. MAR 26

    Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 26 - DeAnn Heline and Eileen Heisler (The Middle / Roseanne / Murphy Brown)

    This time I’m letting two – count ‘em – two people talk: DeAnn Heline and Eileen Heisler. They’re the pair behind Blackie and Blondie Productions, which should ring a bell if you’re a diehard TV fan, but in case you’re still drawing a blank, DeAnn and Eileen are the duo responsible for creating The Middle. Yes, you may recall that we’ve had another duo on this show in the past, and they, too, were part of the Middle family: Eden Sher and Brock Ciarlelli, a.k.a. Sue and Brad, not to mention the host of the Middling podcast. When I interviewed them for the show, I made a comment about how I was planning to interview DeAnn and Eileen, and I said that my plan was to focus on their career before they created The Middle, thereby giving me an opportunity to discuss an era that I didn’t know that much about while also leaving the Middle stories to Eden and Brock. As it happens, Brock instantly said, “No, but you have to ask them about The Middle!” Almost as instantly as DeAnn said, “Uh, we created it, we can talk about it if we want!” So there you go: we talked about The Middle. But we also talked about Blackie and Blondie: The Early Years. In addition to the inevitable secret origin of their long-running friendship and creative work together, we also discussed the various stages of their career, including their work on Roseanne, Murphy Brown, Ellen, Lipstick Jungle, and a few other short-lived series in their back catalog. They offered up stories about working with Norm MacDonald, Garry Marshall, Tom Poston, and another past guest, Peter Tolan, plus many others over the years. And, yes, there was a decent amount of conversation about my personal connection to The Middle, how my family helped inspire a storyline in one of the episodes, and more. Okay, that’s probably enough of an intro. It’s time to let DeAnn and Eileen talk.

    1h 25m

  7. MAR 14

    Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 25 - Peter Tolan (The Job / Rescue Me / The Larry Sanders Show / Dave Chappelle)

    Unabashed plug: WE HAVE MERCH! https://www.teepublic.com/user/lettingthemtalk   This time I’m letting Peter Tolan talk. Peter is one of the best TV writers in the business as well as one of my favorite storytellers, either of which would be plenty enough excuse to have him as a guest. But when I traded emails with him a few weeks back, he said he was confident that I’d be able to come up with a legitimate reason to bring him on as a guest, and he was right: as I record this intro, which will also be the day that I release this episode, it will be the 25th anniversary of the premiere of the ABC series THE JOB, a.k.a. the first collaboration between Peter and Denis Leary. Maybe you remember the series, maybe you don’t, but as Peter and I discuss, it was definitely an anomaly on ABC’s prime-time landscape at the time, in that it was a half-hour single-camera comedy with occasional dramatic elements. It was also a pretty great show, but despite that, it only lasted for two short seasons…although to be fair, the fact that it lasted for more than a single season was a legit shocker to everyone involved, so there’s that achievement, at least. So, yes, Peter and I discussed THE JOB at length, but of course we talked about other things from his back catalog as well, including his subsequent collaboration with Denis Leary – RESCUE ME – as well as his work on THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW, including his favorite guest-star story and why he feels like he was able to get along with Garry Shandling when others weren’t. We also talked about a couple of his screenplays, including MY FELLOW AMERICANS and WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM, with the latter leading to some great Mike Nichols stories. I also got him to talk about the Dave Chappelle pilot that led to a major squabble with Fox, his recent experiences with a pilot for FX that were a little disappointing, to put it mildly, and he even teases a new series that he and Denis Leary are trying to get off the ground, one that would reunite them with a former RESCUE ME guest star… Well, that should keep you listening for the long haul. It’s time to let Peter Tolan talk.   http://willharris.substack.com https://www.patreon.com/LettingThemTalk

    1h 24m

  8. MAR 10

    Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 24 - Jane Alexander (Testament / The Great White Hope / Severance)

    This time, I’m letting Jane Alexander talk. Jane is a four-time Academy Award nominee, a seven-time Tony nominee, and a two-time Emmy winner (with six additional nominations to her credit), so…there’s really no good reason why she should be talking to me for this podcast. The only explanation I can offer: she and I got along swimmingly when I did a piece for Smithsonian about the play and film versions of The Great White Hope and chatted with both Jane and her co-star, the late, great James Earl Jones. Since then, we’ve stayed in touch, and when I found out that one of the films that scored her one of those aforementioned Oscar nods – Testament – was being added to the Criterion Collection, I pitched her on the idea of this conversation, and she was kind enough to agree. I also took advantage of the opportunity to do something I’ve never done before during an interview: spring a special guest on someone. As you may or may not know, I did all of the interviews for the book Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane!, and one of those interviews was with Ross Harris, who – in addition to being the boy who visits Peter Graves in the cockpit – also played Jane’s son in Testament. This is another one of those moments that plays particularly well if you’re a paid subscriber and have access to the video, but even without it, you can hear the unbridled joy in Jane’s voice when Ross joins us for a portion of the conversation. Of course, Testament isn’t the only thing we talk about during the episode. Jane has plenty of stories about other projects, including meeting Muhammad Ali while doing The Great White Hope, acting alongside Johnny Cash and being invited to introduce him at one of his concerts, working with Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood in City Heat, and – more recently – being part of the runaway Apple TV+ hit Severance. Well, that’s probably enough of an introduction. It’s time to let Jane Alexander talk.

    1h 9m
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About

Longtime pop culture journalist Will Harris, perhaps best known for his work at the A.V. Club (or, more specifically, for his Random Roles interviews), finally embarks on a straightforward interview podcast, chatting with actors, writers, musicians, political pundits, comic book artists... The world is his oyster, and he's planning to make the most of it!

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