Mr. Media Interviews By Bob Andelman

From 2007: There aren’t many people who want to go to prison. Not on purpose, not by accident, not even if they deserve it. Loss of liberty, loss of freedom, loss of privacy, loss of choice . Rasha Drachkovitch takes film crews where few of us want to go: the most dreaded prisons in the world. As producer of the MSNBC documentary series "Lockup" – now in its seventh season – he has been everywhere from San Quentin to maximum security prisons in Moscow and China.

From 2007: Joining me today is Cooking Light magazine editor Mary Kay Culpepper; she took over the publication's top chair in January 2001. Since then, the magazine’s audience has grown to more than eleven and a half million readers, and it seems safe to assume that at least a few of them have improved their health by following the ideas and recipes in Cooking Light.

From 2007: Joining me today is Seth Bauer, editorial director of The Green Guide and thegreenguide.com. Launched in 1994 and acquired by National Geographic in 2007, The Green Guide is a bimonthly newsletter and comprehensive Web site for consumers interested in a green lifestyle. Over the past 20 years, Bauer has served as editor-in-chief for publications such as Body & Soul and Walking magazines. He’s also the co-author of the 90 Day Fitness Walking Program.

From 2007: My "cousin" David A. Andelman is a veteran foreign affairs correspondent whose assignments took him to more than fifty countries, as Paris correspondent for CBS News and as the Southeast Asia and Eastern European bureau chief for The New York Times. He also spent time at the New York Daily News and CNBC. He is now the author of a topical new book, A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and The Price We Pay Today, as well as two earlier works, The Peacemakers and The Fourth World War.

From 2007: Judge David Young is unlike any other TV judge you’ve likely seen before. In a video marketplace with courts of every color and gender and with their focuses ranging from petty crimes and divorce to Texas justice, the Judge David Young show has a gimmick that’s no gimmick. Yep, he’s gay.

From 2010: Welcoming Yvonne Strahovski to the show is the easiest thing I’ve had to do since starting out four years ago. As Chuck’s long repressed girlfriend, Sarah, Yvonne has made an impression for everything she brings to the role besides being the sweetest eye candy on the planet. She plays a woman who kicks ass, male and female, takes a backseat to no man or woman, is smart, intuitive and an excellent example of the kind of character that every dad should want his teen to admire and respect.

I’m delighted to welcome Collins back to the show for the third time. We’re going to focus on his latest deep dive into the literary estate of the late detective fiction writer Mickey Spillane. It’s called “Killing Town.” It represents the 10th posthumous Mike Hammer novel that Collins has written from partial manuscripts and notes Spillane left behind when he died in 2006. This one is special because it chronicles Hammer’s first ever adventure, written in the 1940s. It was never published until

Banging My Head Against the Wall: A Comedy Writer’s Guide to Seeing Stars is a great book title because it is not only clever, it tells you exactly what the book is about. Humorist Andy Cowan’s career has known great highs, as captured in his memoir’s subtitle – and great frustrations, as telegraphed in the title. It also gets across the concept of opposites, which could be said to capsulize his work life ever since he conceived of “The Opposite” episode of “Seinfeld.”

I’m a lifelong baseball fan whose heroes were Mickey Mantle of the Yankees and Tom Seaver of the Mets. I never met Ted Williams, but I did have a book I wrote, Stadium For Rent, enshrined in the Ted Williams Hitters Hall of Fame at Tropicana Field here in St. Petersburg. Just sayin’! If you love baseball as much as I do, there will be moments in Nick Davis’s new documentary, Ted Williams: “The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived,” that will choke you up and maybe even bring a tear to at least one eye.

A different kind of episode! Congratulations to Dave Gibbons, comic book artist extraordinaire and co-creator of Watchmen with Alan Moore, for being elected to the Will Eisner Hall of Fame at San Diego Comic-Con on July 20, 2018. Dave was on Mr. Media in January 2009 -- it's #556. You might enjoy this audiobook excerpt from my 2005 bio, "Will Eisner: A Spirited Life," for which I interviewed Gibbons and Alan Moore about their experiences with Will Eisner in creating new stories for Eisner's The Spirit.

From 2009: Will success spoil standup comedy queen Lisa Lampanelli? That’s what Howard Stern asked her in January 2009. A word of warning for the fainthearted Mr. Media listener: There are no censors on this show. Nobody will be bleeping Lisa, who is known to thrown around four and 12-letter words. She is free to let it rip here. So if you’re easily offended, switch shows now.

From 2008: If you think Fox TV is edgy and kooky now, you should’ve seen it back in the early ‘90s when Stephen Chao was a programmer and eventually its President. He commissioned “COPS,” created “America’s Most Wanted,” and earned a reputation for creating commercial success by pushing boundaries and questioning the conventional wisdom. Today, if you want to see videos such as “Increase Boob Size on Pictures with Photoshop” -- yes, I did like that one myself -- check out wonderhowto.com.

I guess I thought I knew Kip Addotta. Now that I am reading his autobiography, Kip Addotta: Confessions of a Comedian, I realize I don’t know him at all. My guest today was a staple of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s comedy scene as he found it: comedy clubs in Los Angeles, nightclubs in Miami and Las Vegas, and an endless series of guest appearances on the talk shows that could make a comic’s career in those days – “The Mike Douglas Show,” “The Merv Griffin Show” and “The Tonight Show with John

The first thing I need to tell you about Forrest Galante is that I will never go out on an adventure with a man who is comfortable carrying a live Burmese Python around his neck.But that’s just me.Watching him do stuff like that from the comfort of my living room, however, as the wildlife biologist and tracker does in his new Animal Planet TV series, “Extinct or Alive,” is totally cool.The show airs Sundays at 9 p.m. Eastern or Pacific.

As host of the new Wondry podcast series, “Business Wars,” every week, he breaks down some of the world’s greatest us vs. them company conflicts and gives them new life through narrative commentary and conversational recreations. To date, “Business Wars” has compellingly examined Nike vs. Adidas, Netflix vs. Blockbuster, Beats vs. Monster Cable, and Marvel vs. DC Comics. You might recognize David’s voice, if not his face, as the former host of “Marketplace” on NPR.

My guest today is actress Sheree J. Wilson, who played opposite Chuck Norris as assistant district attorney Alix Cahill on “Walker, Texas Ranger,” the long-running TV series that debuted 25 years ago. The show is back once more, this time on getTV. I’m hoping Sheree might have a favorite Chuck Norris joke of her own – or knows whether Chuck Norris enjoys Chuck Norris jokes.

Stephen Rosenfield is the founding director of the American Comedy Institute and his alumni are as diverse as Jim Gaffigan and Lena Dunham – talk about opposite ends of the spectrum! In his book, he writes about the different types of comedy and comedians, and breaks down the techniques and behind-the-scenes details that can make or break a modern comedian. I’m not interested in jumping onstage, but I’m fascinated by stand-ups and their careers. I found "Mastering Stand-Up" to be compelling.

FROM 2008: No matter what role he’s in, Bob Balaban always makes an impression, from Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind to playing the President of NBC on “Seinfeld.” And the same is was true of his work as a director, which you can discover in Bernard and Doris, starring Susan Sarandon and Ralph Fiennes. (Currently, he is appearing in "Condor" on the Audience Network.)

If you’re a comic book fan and you’ve never seen Ross Pearsall’s “Super-Team Family” work, put Mr. Media on pause while you look up BraveAndBoldLost.Blogspot.com – we’ll wait. Cool, right? Want to see the Fantastic Four cross paths with Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Chewbacca? Pearsall made it happen. Marvel’s Iron Fist and TV’s “Kung Fu” Caine, as played by David Carradine? Done! How about the Black Panther meets Peter Sellers’ Pink Panther? Yup, been there, did that.

From 2008: No one ever did undercover police work better or with more distinction than Joe Pistone, who you probably know better as “Donnie Brasco.” Brasco became a household name in the 1980s as the undercover character played by Pistone, perhaps the ballsiest FBI agent ever. His testimony ultimately sent more than 200 mobsters to jail and – indirectly, several to their deaths. Pistone was famously portrayed by Johnny Depp in the 1997 movie, Donnie Brasco, which co-starred Al Pacino.