Mr. Media Interviews By Bob Andelman

Since leaving the newsroom, Jill Geissler has been on the teaching staff of The Poynter Institute here in St. Petersburg, where she focuses on leadership and management. She also hosts an incredibly popular podcast, “What Great Bosses Know,” heard on Poynter Online and iTunes U And because of the Poynter connection and its promotion of stuff like ethics, I will point out that I have done work for Poynter over the years

Midnight Express was one of the scariest movies I ever saw. It was probably one of the most horrifying films you ever saw, too. The story of Billy Hayes, an American tourist caught attempting to leave Turkey by plane in 1970 with bags of hashish taped to his stomach, for which he was subsequently jailed for five years – and, with only 42 days left to serve, resentenced to life in prison – was made into a major motion picture starring Brad Davis and written by Oliver Stone.

From 2010: Christian Slater has at last found solid footing on network television. His ABC series, “The Forgotten,” got off to an admittedly slow start in the ratings when it debuted last fall, but the network stayed with it and so has a growing audience. Now the show stands to get a boost from the addition of a familiar face: Elisha Cuthbert, who we saw grow up over eight seasons—or days, if you will—of the Fox series, “24.”

Somebody call Josh Radnor on CBS! The girl of his character’s dreams on “How I Met Your Mother” — actress JoAnna Garcia — has slipped away and landed her own sitcom on ABC! And while I don’t think co-star, Jennifer Finnigan, has been reported MIA on another network, once you guys see her, you won’t forget her.

Joining me, in order, will be Darryl Stephens, the star and title character of the popular Logo Channel series, “Noah’s Arc.” In the middle of what is shaping up to be a gay male sandwich will be the beautiful and straight actress Janina Gavankar, who stars as “Papi” on Showtime’s long-running “The L Word.” And then bringing up the funny at the rear will be my old Facebook friend whom I’ve never before spoken with, the star of “Last Comic Standing” and “Celebrity Fit Club,” comedia

From 2011: Meital Dohan will be a familiar face – and body – to fans of Showtime’s long-running series “Weeds.” On that show, she was Yael Hoffman, the very strong willed Israeli director of admissions for a Hebrew university where Andy hoped to find salvation. But, this being Weeds, viewers knew he’d find something else when she said, “I’m wearing a bra, so stop looking for my n!pples.” As one YouTube fan wrote, “That was the hottest way I have ever heard anyone say “n!pples.”

I met Gene Simmons once. KISS was touring without the makeup for the first time and we were backstage at the Lakeland Civic Center. We didn’t talk long. Pretty soon, the late concert promoter John Stoll walked up to party with Gene Simmons. Each of his arms was around the waist of a beautiful, glammed out young lady whom he introduced to Simmons. The chit-chat was officially over. “Sorry, Bob. Gotta go,” Simmons said, trading places with Stoll between the girls. “Maybe we can talk later.” Never ha

A few years ago, Jim Melvin decided it was now or never. He retired from the St. Petersburg Times, took his family and savings, and moved to North Carolina. He put everything else aside to fulfill what he believed to be his destiny and nearly 2,000 pages that became The Death Wizard Chronicles. It’s a hell of a story, a hell of a series, and Jim Melvin is a hell of a guy.

What red-blooded man’s heart doesn’t start racing at the “Speed Racer” theme? My guest today is part of the revival of the immortal Speed Racer. He is IDW comic book writer Arie Kaplan, and with the release of the Wachowski Brothers’ big screen, live action adaptation of the Japanese anime classic, I thought it would be fun to talk a little Speed today. We’ll also touch on some of Arie’s other work.

In the world of comics, Denis Kitchen can do it all. Cartoonist, editor, publisher, museum consultant—heck, he even produced a daughter, Alexa, who is rapidly developing into a word-class artist in her own right. I’ve known Denis personally since 2002, when he vetted me as the guy who would eventually write the authorized biography, Will Eisner: A Spirited Life.

Over the last year, Kitchen has been more productive than he has been in decades, co-authoring a retrospective of Harvey Kurtzman, the first editor of Mad magazine, called The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics, with Paul Buhle; a history of underground comix called Underground Classics: The Transformation of Comics into Comix, with James Danky; and producing a look back at his own career, The Oddly Compelling Art of Denis Kitchen, with text by Charles Brownstein.

Carly Pope, a very sexy young actress with a strong male following, thanks to her appearances in Canadian films such as—hold your ears, tea party members—Young People F*cking and Itty Bitty T!tty Committee. (And for the record, she’s the second cast member I’ve interviewed from YPF, as it's known in ads.) She’s done salacious American comedy, too, such as “Calif@rnication” with David Duchovny and “Dirt” with Courtney Cox.

I’ve been predicting the death of the print edition of newspapers for 10 years. But not the death of newspapers themselves; I firmly believe that the content will outlast all of us, it’s just in search of a new delivery system. Which brings me to today’s guest, Paul Gillin, the man behind the popular blog, NewspaperDeathWatch.com. He is also the author of the books, The New Influencers and Secrets of Social Media Marketing.

I have known Eric Rhoads for almost eighteen years, since I wrote for the predecessor to Radio Ink, the Pulse of Radio. Eric’s publications are devoted to the business of radio, so I thought he would be the perfect person to offer perspective on the proposed Sirius/XM merger.

Here are some of the things I learned from reading Guy Kawasaki’s new business manual, Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition: • He only eats at three Silicon Valley restaurants. That way he’ll be remembered by the staff and treated as a regular. • He flies United Airlines 75 to 100 times a year, but Air Canada only once annually. United gives him deference; Air Canada doesn’t know him. • Tell him he’s not a bad skater for an old guy.

Where do you know Larry Hankin from? He plays homeless quite a bit, in episodes of “ER” he literally played a character known as “Bearded Homeless Guy.” He’s also been on “Breaking Bad,” “CSI, “The Sarah Silverman Program,” “My Name is Earl” and on “Friends” he had the recurring role of weird Mr. Heckles on “Friends.” The “Weird” is officially capitalized.) His TV career goes all the way back to “That Girl” with Marlo Thomas.

I still remember the first time I heard "Sugar Sugar" by The Archies -- and Ron Dante. It was September 1969, I was a new fourth grader in Mrs. Arnesan’s class at Judd Elementary School in North Brunswick, New Jersey, riding the school bus home. We were on Black Horse Lane, then a shady, rural road, driving all the way to the end of it to drop off one of my classmates at her secluded home. As usual when we had our regular driver at the wheel, WABC 77 AM was blasting through the tinny speakers.

He started as a mandolin player. In Philadelphia. Tell me that wasn’t devastating for a 13-year-old kid! Thanks, Dad! But there’s no sign it left a lasting scar on the musical inclinations of Josh Flagg, who just released his debut album, Devastate Me. It’s got a modern, power pop sound that should easily catch on with a big crowd.

NBC went for a shorter season commitment more like “Mad Men” or “Rescue Me,” and gave fresh life to a fan favorite. That, and it’s a show centered around high school football. In Texas. Hard to go wrong there. All of that makes my guest today, Drew Waters, a lucky man. He was not an actor on the show’s original network run, coming on board in a limited role after the show became one of the first network/satellite hybrids. In other words, if the NBC show died in its infancy, he would never have b

Trina Robbins was a great guest the first time around (2007), talking about her original comic book character, GoGirl! This time, she’s here to promote a new Fantagraphics collection of full color art by Nell Brinkley, drawn between 1913 and 1940. It’s a beautiful coffee table book laden with history and significance for both comics and advertising.