Howie Mandel Talks About ‘Take It All’

Photo by Jordin Althaus/NBC

Howie Mandel is hoping for another shot at game show magic with a holiday themed special called Take It All. Who doesn’t love a good old fashioned yankee swap? It’s the best part of family holiday get togethers, isn’t it? We all love trying to steal the iPad your uncle generously brought while praying you don’t get stuck with the musical toilet paper holder put into play by your wisecracking cousin. It's the highlight of the holiday. And now Howie has brought the idea of the white elephant to prime time. But in this version there are no dud prizes. At stake is hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise like hover crafts, expensive cars and exotic vacations.

On Basing the Show on a Yankee Swap
“Having been to a party where people played Yankee Swap or White Elephant or Secret Santa, you realize the reason that we’re playing it in people’s homes is because it’s a great form of entertainment, and it’s a great interactive, social, fun game… I’m Jewish, so we didn’t play Secret Santa but when I went to work and you worked at companies, and we had holiday parties and things like that, I had seen it. So I was fascinated by it. It was always the highlight of every party. And especially when people became competitive and upset and angry, I mean it was so much fun to watch people steal from another person. And it always tickled my fancy.”

On the Level of Prizes on Take It All
“There are no duds. Well, the only dud, if you want to call it a dud, is you end up out. And I say that a couple times on the show. In one of the beginning rounds when the amounts are lower, you could end up where there’s a range from $15,000 to $100,000 in one round, and end if you end up holding the $15,000 prize, which for all intents and purposes is a really nice valuable gift, that could end up being the dud because that could send you home. You have to give that back. You give back everything you’ve accumulated up to that point… That being said, prizes are like characters in themselves. You will see things that you haven’t seen on any other show. Things like hovercrafts and submarines and jet packs, and things like you’ve never seen before, so they’re all amazing.”

On Not Knowing Anything About the Prizes or the Players
“This is why I wanted to play it and maybe it’s not like any other host, I’ve never gone into the prize room. So I said, ‘I want to be blown away by these prizes too,’ so I don’t know what’s coming up; number one. So as the game goes on and a hovercraft appears, I have no idea. I want to guess. I want to have the fun. Is the hovercraft worth more than the Mercedes? Is it worth more than a jet pack? I don’t know, so I’m having fun with that. And the other thing is, I know nothing about the contestants until I ask the questions. So, they’re obviously, as there are in every show, a casting process, as far as people showing up and applying to be on the show, and they fill out applications, I don’t know anything about it. So, you may think you know something. I don’t want to know something. I don’t want to know what their background is or how they play or what their strategy is. We learn and it unfolds in front of you.”

This week's inspiring pop culture moment: Wolfgang Puck

 

Photo by Isabella Vosmikova/Bravo 

Each week we take a look around our pop culture world and try to find one moment that stood out as the most inspiring. It might be a celebrity who is doing charitable things; a TV shows that inspires us to be better. Here is this week's most inspiring pop culture moment.

Winning a big reality show like Top Chef doesn’t look easy. But in a recent interview with culinary celebrity Wolfgang Puck, he said that after victory is when the hard work really begins. And yet, with a little bit of leadership and a lot of teamwork he explained that success was certainly achievable.

As Wolfgang noted, “What you really have to do is sit down and know your strengths and your weaknesses. And if you are… a chef in a restaurant, hire the appropriate people to help you to be successful. In a way, once you go into the next step, owning a restaurant or being a chef, you have to be a coach and a player in a way. So you have to be able to do both.”

Five Things You Don’t Know About Scott Bakula

 Photo by Michael Parmelee/NBC

Whether you loved him on Quantum Leap, Men of a Certain Age, Desperate Housewives of his recent appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, there’s probably a lot about Scott Bakula that you never learned about him. In a recent conference call interview, he shared some of those unexplored tidbits. Here are five things you don’t know about Scott Bakula.

He Likes Classic Holiday Movies

In anticipation of the holiday season, Scott was asked which Xmas flick was his nearest and dearest to his heart. He replied, “I love White Christmas. That’s one of my favorites just because I love the music. I love the story, Bing Crosby. It’s just one of my all time favorites. And it’s hard to have a Christmas without seeing a little bit of Jimmy Stewart and angels running around town.”

If He Hadn’t Become an Actor, He Would Have Held Court  

If Scott hadn’t been an actor he probably would have followed family father into the legal profession. As he explained, “I’ve always had an affinity for lawyers. My dad is a lawyer. He’s retired now. My brother is a lawyer. It’s always been easy, the legalese. And I’ve always felt comfortable certainly in a courtroom because you’re just performing. And there was a time in my life when I thought when I grew up I’d be a trial lawyer myself. So I’m not afraid of those kinds of parts at all. So I do have a certain affinity for it.”

On the Red Carpet with Paula Abdul, Derek Hough and NappyTabs

Photo by Pop Culture Passionistas

A few weeks ago the lovely folks at the Archive of American Television asked us to cover the red carpet at the Choreographers: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow event at the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences. Although we don't partake ourselves, we are big fans of watching others dance. We spent years growing up at our sister's dance recitals, love a big musical theater production number and never miss an episode of Dancing with the Stars or So You Think You Can Dance. Plus we pretty much know every Gene Kelly movie by heart.

So it wasn't a big burden to be asked to go talk to Derek Hough, Paula Abdul, Kenny Ortega, George Chakiris, Napoleon and Tabitha D'Umo and Mrs. Gene Kelly about the current state of dance on TV. Here are a few excepts from the interviews.

George Chakiris on the Current State of Dance on TV
Our biggest thrill of the night came when an unannounced dancer walked the red carpet. It was all we could do to contain ourselves when George Chakiris (Bernardo from West Side Story) came over to chat. Somewhere in his house he has an aging portrait of himself, because there's no way the man is 78 years old. We asked him what we thought on the current state of dance on TV. He replied, "We get to see wonderful, young talent, some incredible young dancers — guys and girls. Their technique is just mind boggling. They're really fantastic. And it makes room for other choreographers to come into the picture, young people who wouldn't have that opportunity otherwise."

Kenny Ortega on West Side Story
Sometimes when doing red carpets it's interesting to see a celebrity's reaction to seeing another star. This was the case when we spoke with Kenny Ortega of High School Musical, Newsies and Madonna/Michael Jackson videos fame. A huge director/choreographer/producer in his own right, he was giddy to see George Chakiris, citing Bernardo as the reason he got into dancing. He gushed, "The first time I saw West Side Story, and I saw him play Bernardo, which he won and Academy Award for, that was it. My mom pegged my black jeans, died my white shirt purple. I was Bernardo for months and months and I was determined to one day be a dancer… It was the movie that influenced my life, changed my thinking and gave me a purpose and a goal… He's my hero."

Twilight’s Christian Serratos Designs Jewelry in Angela’s Honor

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Photo courtesy of Christian Serratos

Fans flocked to theaters recently to catch the final installment of the Twilight Saga. True, most of the attention is focused on the romance between Bella and Edward, and the off-screen relationship of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson — but they have been surrounded by a strong supporting cast throughout the franchise.

Among those stalwart co-stars was Christian Serratos, who played Bella’s BFF Angela in all of the films. In a recent exclusive interview the 22-year-old actress talked about working on the movies and her new jewelry line.

When looking back on the Twilight experience, Christian recounted, “It’s been incredible. It’s been a big chunk of my growing up. I started on the movie when I was 18. So traveling and filming was great for me. And working with incredible directors and cast was just the icing on the cake.”

Zachary Quinto Talks About American Horror Story — Part I

Photo by Michael Yarish/FX

We became Zachary Quinto fans on Season 3 of 24 when he appeared as Adam Kaufman, computer analyst and Chloe’s nemesis. And while we admittedly didn’t watch Heroes, his turn as the serial killer Skylar got him rave reviews and earned him the gig as Spock in J.J Abrams Star Trek. So we were excited during Season 1 of American Horror Story to see Zachary back on out TV sets. And while we loved the first installment of the series, we were slightly disappointed to not see more Zachary.

Well this season, creator and producer Ryan Murphy has certainly changed all that. The actor is back and not only has a huge role as Dr. Oliver Thredson, but as it turns out he is also the scariest monster of them all — Bloody Face. In a recent conference call interview Zachary discussed Dr. Thredson, Bloody Face and crossing lines.

On When He Knew He Was Bloody Face
“I knew from the very beginning. It was part of the conversation that I had with Ryan about me coming back to the second installment of the show, in the first place. It very much informed the character that I was building from the beginning. As a result, I felt like my responsibility became to create a character that people could trust, or at least trust initially, and have some hope that perhaps he is actually the one voice of reason and sanity within this chaotic world. So it was actually more exciting for me to know from the beginning. It gave me more to play with and more to hold back and more secrets to keep.”

On Whether Dr. Thredson Believes in Psychiatry
“He definitely believes in it. Part of being a psychopath is an ability to dissociate from one reality and create another one completely. He does that expertly. His level of training, medical training and intuition instinct — he’s very skilled. That’s what allows him to get away with it as long as he does. So yes, he does believe in it, which is another layer of tragedy of the character is that he could have been something else. He could have made a more significantly positive contribution had he only rechanneled his traumas, his energy.”

On Preparing for Difficult Scenes
“It depends on the scene. There are different levels of preparation for different scenes in different kinds of work. So I have a combination of things that I do. I usually just find some solitude and some quiet in a little corner of the set where there’s not a lot of traffic and not a lot of people around and do what it is that I need to do. I listen to music a lot, if I need to get into a particular emotional space, I use that and just other stretching, just breathing, taking time to mostly be quiet and find that stillness. That’s important. I love playing characters that go to extreme places and I love to explore different kinds of psychological landscapes, so it is ultimately a kind of fun, but it’s also complicated and colored by the depth of the nastiness of it at certain times as well. That can be a challenging part.”

Jackass Steve-O Talks About His New Show Killer Karaoke

Photo by Jeremy Freeman

Steve-O (a.k.a. Stephen Glover) of "Jackass" fame is back on TV beginning November 23 in what could prove to be the funniest show in quite some time. Take one part The Singing Bee, where contestants sing karaoke-style, add a second part Fear Factor and a dash of Wipeout and you get Killer Karaoke. In a recent exclusive interview Steve described the premise. "It's very simple it's people singing karaoke while horrible things happen to them."

The horrible things come in all shapes and sizes from electrocution to cactuses to snakes and eels. There are three rounds of gameplay. In each round two players sing karaoke while being dunked in a tank full of eels or strapped to another person who controls their every move. After each pair performs, the audience votes to send a winner through to the final round.

And this is where the Wipeout part comes in. The three finalists are placed on a giant turntable. As they begin to sing, the wheel starts to turn faster and faster. Oh, and it tilts, too, just for good measure. Steve explained, "The whole time the wheel is spinning the prize money is increasing. The longer you stay on the wheel, the more money you get." The wheel eventually goes so fast it's impossible to stay on. Steve described it as, "Delightfully uncomfortable to watch."

The announcer on the show is none other than Twisted Sister's Dee Snyder, but sadly for Steve-O the two did not work together. He stated, "Dee Snyder, the announcer, was working sort of after the fact. So as excited as I am that he's part of the show, I didn't get to actually work with him myself. But I wish I had because my first concert I ever went to was Twisted Sister. I want to say I was 11 years old."

Krysten Ritter Talks Turkey and the B— in Apt 23

 Photo by ABC/Kelsey McNeal

If you lived by the motto Don’t Trust the B — in Apt 23 before, you really might want to avoid her around the holidays. In an exclusive interview with Krysten Ritter, we confirmed what we had assumed. She’s much nicer than her TV persona. But she warned us that Chloe is up to no good this Thanksgiving.

Krysten talked about the very special holiday episode of ABC’s sassiest sitcom. She explained her character’s fundamental issues with the special day, “Chloe hates Thanksgiving because she thinks it’s a fake holiday where people pretend to be nice to each other and wear Uggs. It’s against everything she stands for.”

Not surprisingly to fans of the show, Chloe concocts a dastardly plan. Krysten explained, “This Thanksgiving she needs June to come with her and be her emotional support because she can’t get through one day with her mom without blowing something out, without causing some big scene. So her solution is to put June in a wheelchair so she can level the playing field with her mom and then expose June for being a fraud — for faking that she needs to be in a wheelchair.”

Lizzie Brochere Channels Lizzie Bordon on American Horror Story

Photo by Frank Ockenfels/FX 

It’s not every day that a French actress lands a role on a primetime U.S. series — especially one named American Horror Story. And when Lizzie Brochere nabbed the part of Grace on Season 2 of the shock series, she had to bone up on one very iconic murderess from the states. After all, her character is based on the infamous axe wielder Lizzy Borden.

In a recent conference call interview, Brochere talked about researching Borden for her turn on AHS: Asylum. She recounted, “I discovered a source book with her inquest testimony. I loved reading it out loud. I thought she was so smart and strangely fascinating, that character. I don't know if it helped my acting, but it was necessary for me to know a bit more of that character, who was a very important American figure. I had no clue who she was.”

Brochere worked on other aspects of her onscreen persona as well. She recalled, “I did a lot of stretching, yoga and dancing, almost ballet… She's very sexy, so you want her to be moving in a smoother way than I do. So that was a little job. And Grace, she's somewhere in me — apart from that big backstory and all that. Her sarcasm, her way of seeing life and that little liveliness she has. How she always says amazing lines when you feel like she's a young little Tibetan monk.”

The Chew/Top Chef's Carla Hall Cooks with Love

Photo by Lorenzo Bevilaqua/ABC

We've watched every season of Top Chef including the All-Stars, the Masters and Just Desserts. And while there are many chefs we have enjoyed through the years one of the standouts is Season 5's Carla Hall. Her infectious laugh and bright outlook kept viewers and contestants smiling at every turn. And she was still as joyful when she returned in Season 8 for All Stars so much so that she earned the title of Fan Favorite.

Since the show ended Carla has continued her sweets/catering business Alchemy and joined the panel on The Chew, cooking's answer to The View. Each day she joins Mario Batali, Michael Symon, Clinton Kelly and health Daphne Oz to dish on all things food related. And after years of begging from her fans, Carla has finally released a cookbook called Cooking with Love: Comfort Food that Hugs You. In a recent exclusive interview we talked to Carla about her about when she knew she could cook, what her favorite childhood dish was and pizza in Milan.

On Her Favorite Childhood Dish
Carla told us all her cooking is influenced by her southern upbringing and her grandma's cooking even though she never thought of herself as a southern cook until appearing on Top Chef. She stated, "But because it's so much a part of me, it is my lens. It's how I see things." So we asked her what was the favorite dish that her grandma used to make. Here Carla describes Grandma's biscuits and her five flavor poundcake.

On Where and What She Would Be Eating Right Now
We asked Carla if she could be anywhere in the world eating anything she wanted what would she be having? Without even knowing it, her choice was also in one of our favorite countries and a staple of our diet — pizza in Milan. And she asked us to come along. "Then you have a friend, okay it could be two friends, Amy and Nancy. And all three of us are sharing this pizza… That's where I want to be." How could we say no?

This Week's Inspiring Pop Culture Moment: Michael J. Fox

Photo by Pop Culture Passionistas

Each week we take a look around our pop culture world and try to find one moment that stood out as the most inspiring. It might be a celebrity who is doing charitable things, a TV shows that inspires us to be better or a philosophy that we should all strive to live by. Here is this week's most inspiring pop culture moment.

This past weekend stars gathered in New York City to support one of their own at the "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Cure Parkinsons" benefit. The Michael J. Fox Foundation held it's annual gala at the Waldorf Astoria on Saturday night. The event is put on each fall to raise awareness of and money for the Foundation's efforts to help cure Parkinson's disease, which Fox is afflicted with.

Fox's Rescue Me co-star Denis Leary hosted the evening and started the night off with an original song he wrote for the Family Ties actor. According to the Wall Street Journal, Leary and his band, The Enablers, sang, "Everyone is wondering how long I'm going to last. I'm Michael J. Fox, I'm kicking Parkinson's a—."

Fox joked that he just might use the ditty as the theme song to his new NBC sitcom. Leary, who often razzes Fox about all his Emmys, explained his friend's new sitcom, "The premise is Mike Fox comes back to TV. I'm not bitter."

Presenters that evening included Fox's wife of 24 years Tracy Pollen along with journalist Katie Couric, CBS correspondent Bill Geist (who recently announced his own Parkinson's diagnosis), his son Willie Geist, ad exec and TV personality Donny Deutsch and actress Amanda Peet. Bill Geist gave a speech and jokes he was penning a memoir entitled "I'd Shoot Myself, but I Might Miss."

Next up was comedian Louis CK who gave the centerpiece performance of the event. At the end of his routine he introduced Fox, who got up and made a speech, thanking everyone for coming, even in the wake of superstore Sandy. He stated, "There's nothing we can't achieve together; thank you for everything you do."

And then in a Marty McFly-like moment, Fox jumped up on stage with the evening's musical guest, Elvis Costello, who did a rousing set including "Pump It Up."

Almost 1000 guests were in attendance at the event, which raised $4.5 million for Parkinson's research.

Read more about the Michael J. Fox Foundation at their website.


For related stories check out:
This Week's Inspiring Pop Culture Moment: Yolanda Goins
This week's inspiring pop culture moment: Jane Lynch

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Laura Benanti Talks Go On and Pop Culture

  Photo by Colleen Hayes/NBC 

Laura Benanti is a relative newcomer to TV viewers. Her first sitcom, Starved, debuted in 2005. But the humorous take on group therapy for people with eating disorders didn’t resonate with audiences and it was canceled after seven episodes. Her second go at small screen support systems, Go On, is much more likely to last a while — thanks in no small part to the fact that Matthew Perry is the star.

But before Laura became a television actress, she had quite an impressive career on Broadway. She’s had four Tony noms and one win for her 2008 turn as Louise (aka Gypsy Rose Lee) in Gypsy. And even though she loves the theater, she’s also clearly a TV fan.

In a recent interview she talked about Go On, some of her favorite shows to watch and the star of the Great White Way she’d most like to work with.

Jimmy Smits Talks About Sons of Anarchy

Photo by Prashant Gupta/FX

In Season 5 on Sons of Anarchy, Jimmy Smits joined the cast as Nero Padilla, the Mexican pimp known as the “companionator.” He starts a business partnership with Jax (Charlie Hunnam) and sparks a romantic one with Gemma (Katey Sagal). A longtime fan of the show created by Sagal’s husband, Kurt Sutter, Jimmy was thrilled to join the cast. He now can add Sons to his long list of credits, which include L.A. Law, Pee Wee’s Playhouse, NYPD Blue, West Wing and Star Wars. In a recent conference call interview Jimmy talked about getting the part, riding motorcycles and light sabers.

On Getting Cast in Sons of Anarchy
“Paris Barclay, who is an executive and does a lot of the directing of a lot of the Sons episodes, is somebody that I know from NYPD Blue… It so happened last year that the DGA, the Director’s Guild of America, was doing a tribute for him, and because of that they invited a number of different people from all of the wonderful shows that he’s participated in — In Treatment that he was involved with and Blue and of course Sons… [Longtime partner] Wanda [De Jesus] and myself and Katie and Kurt, we spent a couple of minutes talking. In a way it was out of that that the call came from Kurt that he wanted to know if I would sit down with him and just explore the possibility of an idea for an arc. At that time, he was formulating what he was going to do for the season and what he necessitated in terms of the spokes of the wheel of the show. So we had two or three lunch meetings. I went to his office, took me around to the set, and just started vibing about what the show needed and a character that he was interested in exploring. That’s the way it all started. That first script wasn’t really written yet, but he had it in his head. So basically, that’s how it happened.”

On Being a Fan of SOA
“We were fans of the show. It does have a really loyal, core base following that are very passionate about the show. It’s not just people that are into motorcycles. It’s this whole outlaw, very passionate following.  It’s an industry darling. A lot of people in our business are into the show… Wanda, she was a die-hard fan of the show probably because the fact that Kurt, besides the grittiness of the show, he writes very strong women characters. So when that call came in and Kurt wanted to talk, she was like, ‘You’ve got to do this.  You’ve got to do this. You’ve seen the show, but you don’t know what happened.’ So we started watching that third season, which is when… they did the whole Irish storyline, I think the show just jumped into another gear it just struck me that the show is very, very cinematic in a way.  They’re able to do these wonderful things.”

Wedding Bells Are Ringing on Parks and Recreation

 Photo by Danny Feld/NBC 

TV fans were stunned a couple of weeks ago when the eternally optimistic career girl Leslie Knope accepted Ben Wyatt’s proposal on Parks and Recreation. While the series’ creators had always planned on Leslie bouncing from one not-so-great boyfriend, the introduction of her soul mate could not be denied. In a recent conference call interview stars Amy Poehler and Adam Scott joined Executive Producer Michael Schur to talk about the impending nuptials.

Amy admitted that she was brought to tears of joy for Leslie when she read the engagement script. She recalled what touched her most about the pivotal moment, “I loved that the scene is about everything to come. It's an empty room, which can be depressing in some respects for some people, but in this context it was all about [possibility], that nothing had filled that room. That room was empty and open and ready to be filled with the future.”

The Emmy-nominated actress continued, “It was really cool that Dean Holland, our Director, and Mike Schur picked that. It happened in front of the fireplace of the empty room, which is just really nice because it was warm. I just loved that Leslie looked around to see what was around here and there was just this big empty room, which was like basically the idea. It's basically what happens when you're thinking about committing to someone. The future seems really wide and open and clean and so that ended up being what it was and I thought it was perfect.”

MOVIE NEWS: Tara Reid to Co-Produce Cop Drama

Photo by Eva Rinaldi

American Reunion star Tara Reid will be taking a role off-camera in her latest project, a feature film called Disengaged. Tara is best known as an actress in the American Pie franchise, The Big Lebowski, Saved by the Bell and Scrubs, but this time she will take on the task of co-producer as well.

Tara will join Brickroad Films founders Kevin Barrett and Anthony Thorne to produce the movie in 2013. They are currently in pre-production on the crime drama that will star Reid alongside Sticky Fingaz (Flight of the Phoenix), Dylan Sprayberry (Man of Steel) and Ellery Sprayberry (The Butterfly Room).

The movie will tell the tale of two Los Angeles cops during the shooting investigation of a 17-year-old boy. Tara will play one of their wives. Find out more at the Brickroad Films website.


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This week's inspiring pop culture moment: Lindsay Wagner

  Photo by Mrquizzical

Each week we take a look around our pop culture world and try to find one moment that stood out as the most inspiring. It might be a celebrity who is doing charitable things, a TV shows that inspires us to be better. Here is this week's most inspiring pop culture moment.

The self-proclaimed nature lover is happier to be playing with her dogs than hob knobbing at some Hollywood hot spot. Some might still think of her as the Bionic Woman, who makes the occasional TV appearance on shows like Warehouse 13. But outside of her career in entertainment, Lindsay has become an author and public speaker who lives by the credo “quiet the mind and open the heart.”

Tim Gunn Pulls Back the Curtain on Project Runway — Part II

Courtesy of Lifetime

We love listening to Tim Gunn talk so much that we wanted to share more of our recent conference call interview with him. Here’s what he had to say on some of the Project Runway’s hot topics. Here’s what he had to say about using accessories “thoughtfully” and his most uncomfortable home visit in part two of our two-part interview:

On Season 10 Contestant Christopher Palu’s Love of Real Fur
“I didn’t know about his interest in fur. It’s never once come up in a conversation with him… I’m very respectful of people’s life and proclivity. However I would suggest that he visits the PETA website… I would suggest that he just see another point of view. With so many options for fur these days, so many faux fur options I just profoundly believe that it’s entirely unnecessary and, frankly, rather vulgar.”

On Season 8 Winner Gretchen Jones’ Home Visit
“The editing of the show was kind to everyone, kind. And the home visit that was so dramatically edited was Gretchen, the winner of Season 8. Her mother — I mean we’re playing crochet — you don’t see any of this in the edit — and her mother kept knocking my crochet ball across the street into the traffic. So I had to run across the street and retrieve it. I’d bring it back and she’d slam it again. It was so hostile and angry I couldn’t believe it and I thought, ‘Well, the mess doesn’t fall from the tree.’”

On the Importance (or Not) of Accessorizing Thoughtfully
“To hear the judges talk about it it’s the most important thing in the world. Generally speaking, I’ll just be blunt, I feel that they’re an enhancement, the accessories are, to whatever the garment is and the same with the hair and makeup is. But for me it’s all about that garment. Unless the accessorizing is an extraordinary distraction in a bad way I would never comment on it at all. But the judges seem to have a very different take. They are times when it’s all they talk about is the accessorizing, and I just want to say, ‘Be quiet. Look at the clothes.’”

Our Archive Interview with Chuck Lorre

Courtesy of the Archive of American Television

A few months back we had the honor of interviewing Chuck Lorre on behalf of the Archive of American Television. Sitting face to face for almost four hours with the creator of Two and a Half Men, Mike & Molly and The Big Bang Theory was at once intimidating and exhilarating. Here is one of the most prolific names in television chatting with us about his entire career — from his days as a wanna be rock star to his rise to Executive Producer of three of TV's top rated shows. His reputation proceeded him, which made the interview that much more nerve-racking, but we found Chuck to be charming, straightforward and an enthralling storyteller. The whole interview is on the Archive's website if you want to see more, but here are our favorite moments.

On Getting into the Business
Before he was a writer/producer Chuck was a struggling musician. He described his existence joking, "I think the word is poor." He had a two-year-old son and a baby on the way and played nightclubs and bar mitzvahs to make a living. During the day he'd do cold call sales pitching random products door-to-door. Here's the story of his serendipitous stop at the office of DIC comics that kickstarted his career as a writer.

On Writing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Theme Song
Even after he began writing, he still played music and wrote songs. His only successful pop song was "French Kissin' in the U.S.A." recorded by Blondie. But he also had a huge hit with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Themes Song. Here's the story behind it.

Wolfgang Puck Shares His Culinary Favorites

Photo by Isabella Vosmikova/Bravo 

Wolfgang Puck is one of the most celebrated celebrity culinarians in history. With a breadth of experience that stretches back to when he was a 14-year-old boy in Austria, he revolutionized California cuisine with his designer pizzas at Spago. Now he’s taking his perfectly tuned palette to the judge’s table on Season 10 of Top Chef.

People talk a lot to Wolfgang about cooking, but it’s not very often that he speaks about what he likes to eat. In a recent conference call interview he talked about Emeril Lagasse’s barbecue shrimp, local fish, white truffles and his mother’s home cooking.

Puck’s love of food traces back to his childhood, when his mother taught him how to cook. To this day, his favorite dish takes him back to his motherland. He acknowledged, “I grew up in Austria and for me real comfort food is Wiener Schnitzel. Wiener Schnitzel and mashed potatoes because it reminds me of my youth… It reminds me when I grow up and it feels very comforting.”

Chloë Sevigny Talks About American Horror Story: Asylum

Photo by Frank Ockenfels/FX

So far Season 2 of American Horror Story has not disappointed. We were worried if Ryan Murphy could bring us an equally creepy yet completely different version of the anthology series and he has delivered. This version is a bit more gory than the first but Jessica Lange is once again brilliant and we never say no to anything in which James Cromwell plays a part. As Dr. Arden, the creepy Frankenstein-ish doctor in the 1964-era mental hospital run by Jessica’s Sister Jude, he clearly is up to no good and obviously has no interest in curing any of his patients.

One such patient is Shelley, played by Chloë Sevigny (Boys Don’t Cry, Dogville, Big Love). Shelley been institutionalized because she’s a nymphomaniac. After trying to force himself on her, Dr. Arden proceeds to cut off both her legs to prevent her from escaping. Didn’t see that one coming. You really never do in an American Horror Story plot. In a recent conference call interview we talked to the actress about how she got the part, how it compares to past roles and how much she knew about the plot

Chloe said she didn’t need to audition for the part, “Thank God, because I’d never gotten the role auditioning, I’m terrible at it.” Instead she said creator and producer Ryan Murphy called her directly. “[He] said they had this guest spot and they had me in mind for it… We spoke for about an hour about the character and about the season and what he wanted to do with her. I’d never seen the show before and I had to sign on without having read any scripts. I said, ‘I already know how to make a decision considering solely off this conversation.’ So they sent me the first season and I watched that and I loved it. I was hooked right away and that’s when I signed on. Then I showed up and got my first script and that’s how I found out about the character after reading about more than what we had spoken about.”

But she only found out the arc for Shelley each week as the scripts came in. She stated, “When I read the third episode and I found out what happens to her and then what’s going to happen next and [Ryan] explained it to me. I was a little taken aback.”

Daniel Rosa Gets a Second Chance on The Voice

Photo by Tyler Golden/NBC

Second chances are few and far between in life and in reality TV. But Daniel Rosa, a lucky contestant from last season of The Voice got his lucky break upon his return.  This time the judge’s took notice of the 20-year-olds smoky rendition of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” — a much more successful choice than his first blind audition’s “Animal” by Neon Trees.

Clearly he listened to what the judge’s had told him before — build your confidence. It’s no wonder he was nervous. As Daniel recounted in a recent conference call interview, “The first time I ever held a microphone, in my entire life singing, was the blind auditions. I’ve never held a microphone. And it is hard for me to break out of the choir-like stance and walking around is very different for me.”

So he listened to the words of wisdom doled out by The Voice's brain trust — Blake Shelton, Cee Lo Green, Christina Aguilera and Adam Levine. He started performing and hosting shows in his native Riverside, California.

Both Blake and Cee Lo took notice when he came back to the reality show. They pushed their buttons and turned their chairs around. When it came time to make his choice, Daniel decided to join Team Cee Lo.

Joanna Coles Talks About Project Runway All Stars

Photo by Barbara Nitke

Project Runway All Stars is back for a new season and we're totally excited to find out "what happened to Andrae" when Season 2 competitor Andrae Gonzalo returns along with twelve other past designers. Some of our favorites include Anthony, Uli, Emilio and Althea. Also returning in the Tim Gunn role is mentor Joanna Coles. In a recent conference all interview Joanna talked about the new season and what makes a successful designer.

Joanna explained what she thinks is the difference between the designers that stand out and those that don't. "It takes an element of bravery and it takes the ability to be able to surprise. And it also takes the ability to make sure that every garment is carrying your signature in it. So everything has to be cohesive and it has to feel like something you've done."

In her role as mentor she has never felt the need to be like Tim Gunn. She noted, "Tim is such a one off. It would be a hiding to nothing to try to imitate him. I am on the TV show like I am in real life. I'm very direct. I'm very straight forward. I say pretty much what I think, as I think Tim does actually, but we're very different... and I think I've had sex more recently than Tim."

In the workroom she counsels each designer based on their personalities and desires. She stated, "I try to be flexible depending on what I think people need. There were some people in the room who really want another voice to bounce things off and to try an idea out by saying it out loud and seeing what someone else's reaction was. There were other people that actually needed you to talk about the shape and the silhouette and the fabric and was this going to work. There was a room full of very creative people and some were better actual designers than others. So there was a range of advice needed in the room."

This Week's Inspiring Pop Culture Moment: Brad Pitt

Photo by SpreePix MediaIMG

Each week we take a look around our pop culture world and try to find one moment that stood out as the most inspiring. It might be a celebrity who is doing charitable things, a TV shows that inspires us to be better or a philosophy that we should all strive to live by. Here is this week's most inspiring pop culture moment.

It's down to the wire in the November election, which will not only determine the next President of the United States and many congressional seats, but as always the ballots will include referendums in each state covering measures from tax reform to state budget and food labeling to tuition rates. One big hot button issue this year is marriage equality. Four states will vote on same-sex marriage this November — Maryland, Maine, Minnesota and Washington.

In an effort to support gay and lesbian equality, Brad Pitt has stepped up and donated $100,000 to the Human Rights Campaign. The "Killing Them Softly" star agreed to match up to one hundred grand in contributions from the organization's members. This is not the first time Brad has stepped up for gay rights. In 2008 he also donated $100,000 to California’s Prop 8 battle.

In an open letter appearing on the HRC website, Brad wrote, "It's unbelievable to me that people's lives and relationships are literally being voted on in a matter of days… Voters will go to the polls to decide if gay and lesbian couples – our friends and neighbors – are worthy of the same protections as everyone else."

Brad and his fiance Angelina Jolie have been very vocal supporters of gay rights. In fact, they have sworn not to marry themselves until it is a right all citizens have. In the letter he stated, "I'm not going to back down from the fight for loving and committed couples to have the ability to marry."

In closing he added, “Every person's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is enshrined in our country's Declaration of Independence, but powerful, well-funded groups are flooding the airwaves with lies trying to take away those rights from certain people... and we can't stand for it.”

HRC has spent over $8 million in the fight for marriage equality, $5 million in these four states alone. If you want to join in Brad's commitment to the gay community visit the HRC site for more details.


For related stories check out:

This Week's Inspiring Pop Culture Moment: Ellen Barkin

This Week's Inspiring Pop Culture Moment: Meredith Vieira

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Todd Carmichael Traverses the Globe to Find the Best Bean

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 Courtesy of the Travel Channel

Just the other day our morning ritual of having a good cup of Joe was thrown for a surprisingly good loop. In preparation for an interview with coffee magnate and adventurer we sampled one of his offerings — the La Colombe medium blend selection call Haiti – Blue Forest.

We’d never heard of a java from Haiti before and for good reason. It take a truly enterprising guy like Dangerous Grounds star Todd Carmichael to find it. Best known as the first American explorer to travel solo cross Antarctica to the South Pole, Todd admittedly fell into the coffee business when he got his first job “lugging around coffee bags in a coffee warehouse.” The names of distant locales that were imprinted on those sacks sparked his fantasies of traveling to far off lands. In a recent exclusive interview he told us, “I wanted to go to every one of those places and I made my life out of that.”