Letting Them Talk with Will Harris

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 Sh...

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...

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 c...

This time, I’m letting Dennis Quaid talk.

Dennis has grinned his way through an acting career that started in the ‘70s and has continued unabated ever since. Sure, he’s had a few ups and downs over the decades, as he’ll freely admit (and, indeed, does so during the course of our interview), but he’s still going strong and acting up a storm.

The project that brought us together for this conversation is  “I Can Only Imagine 2,” the s...

Today, I’m letting C. Thomas Howell talk.

I’ve been watching this man’s work since I was 11 years old and went to see “E.T.” with my family. A line like that might make some actors feel old, but given that Tommy – and I’m not being overly familiar here, this is actually how he’s listed on his official Facebook page –  was only 12 years old himself when he was hired for that particular film, I think he’ll probably be cool with it.

I...

Today, I’m letting Nathan Rabin talk.

I used to read Nathan’s work on the A.V. Club long before I began writing for the site myself, and every once in awhile it still strikes me as a little weird that he and I have become a mutual admiration society. And it’s not just me: during the course of the conversation, you’ll hear me mention that my daughter considers it her favorite low-key brag that her dad is friends with the guy who cre...

This time I’m letting Raymond Ian Burns talk…although you’d know him better by his nom de punk: Captain Sensible.

As a founding member of the Damned, he’s a proper punk rock legend and a member of the band who famously released the first punk single in the UK and was the first UK punk band to play in the US. Mind you, he hasn’t been a consistent member of the band throughout the entirety of their existence, but it’s because of that...

This time, the person I’m letting talk is Kathleen Chalfant.

Kathleen is an actress who got her start in the theater, moved into on-camera acting through the wonderful world of soap operas, and has become a familiar face in films as well as on television, most recently on the Peacock series “The Copenhagen Test.”

In the series, Kathleen plays the elusive character known as St. George, and while I’m not the first person to use that ...

This time, I'm letting Kyle Vincent talk.

Kyle is someone whose music I’ve been enjoying since the release of his self-titled 1997 album. Appropriately, it’s that very album that brings us into conversation today, since it’s finally made its way to streaming services for the first time.

Kyle has a deep history in music, but things really got rolling for him when he was fronting the band Candy, who you may remember for their single ...

This time, I’m letting Chris Mulkey talk.

Chris is a character actor whose work I’ve been watching since well before I actually knew who he was, but I do know when I actually started paying attention to him: after he started playing Hank Jennings, the deceitful husband of Double R Diner owner Norma Jennings, on Twin Peaks.

He first stepped in front of the camera in the mid-1970s, and he’s been working steadily ever since, perpetual...

This time, I'm letting Angelo Moore talk.

Angelo is a force of nature, one of the most gregarious individuals I’ve ever had the good fortune to interview, and – it must be said – one of the greatest self-promoters you’re likely to ever come across. And I mean that as a compliment. I need to take notes from this man.

In addition to having been the frontman of Fishbone since the band’s inception, Angelo also works under the guise of ...

This time, I’m letting Rizwan Manji talk.

Rizwan has successfully carved himself out a career as a character actor, one who’s frequently comedic but has also had the opportunity to show off his dramatic chops on occasion. I first met him when he was in the cast of the NBC sitcom Outsourced, which was set in a call center in India. It met with a decidedly mixed reaction at the time, but I enjoyed it from the get-go, for reasons whic...

This time, I'm letting Jerry Ordway talk.

Jerry is one of my favorite comic book artists and writers, going back to the early ‘80s. If you listened to my interview with Mike Carlin a few episodes back, then you already know that I’m a certifiable comic book nerd, but I will admit that I got even nerdier while talking with Mr. Ordway.

If you came of age with DC Comics anywhere within the ‘60s through the ‘80s, then you’re aware of t...

This time, I'm letting Mat Bradley-Tschirgi talk.

Mat's a fellow pop culture writer - because, you know, we’re all in this thing together, you guys - and he and I follow each other on social media. We have a number of similar pop culture likes, but I was still surprised and honored when he asked me if I’d give a read to his latest book and do a blurb for it. I happily agreed, because, c’mon, when someone says, “I’ve just written a ...

This time I’m letting two people talk. Better yet, it’s two people who starred in one of my favorite sitcoms in recent memory, and now they’re the hosts of one of my must-listen podcasts.

If you’ve ever watched The Middle, then you already know Eden Sher, a.k.a. Sue Sue Heck, and if you watched The Middle on a semi-regular basis, then you also know Brock Ciarlelli, who played Sue’s bestie, Brad. I think just about everyone who list...

This time I'm letting Thomas Jane talk.

The last time I talked to Mr. Jane was in 2011, when I interviewed him for the AV Club’s Random Roles feature, and I won’t lie to you, I was downright giddy when I got word that I’d secured him for an episode of this podcast.

Thomas Jane has been acting in front of the camera since he was 15, and the story about how he got that gig is one that we talk about during the course of our conversati...

This time, I'm letting Pepe Serna talk.

Pepe is a character actor who’s been appearing onscreen since the start of the ‘70s, bouncing between film, stage, and television, and although he’s still acting whenever the opportunity presents itself, he spends a good chunk of his time these days as an artist and an acting teacher.

Pepe’s first film was a Roger Corman cult classic called The Student Nurses, and having gotten his foot in th...

This time, I'm letting Julie Klausner talk.

I’d never interviewed Julie before, but we found ourselves following each other on Bluesky as a result of my AV Club Set List interview with They Might Be Giants. It turns out that she's a huge They Might Be Giants fan, which is something I didn’t realize, but I clearly should’ve, since – as a realized during a rewatch of her Hulu series Difficult People – there’s an episode where her cos...

This time, I'm letting Billy Campbell talk.

Billy is someone whose career arc has taken him from Dynasty to Dracula to Star Trek: The Next Generation, if not necessarily in that order. He’s starred in a plethora of period pieces that have found him in the midst of the Civil War, Los Angeles in the late 1930s, and Chicago in the early 1960s.

But, of course, it’s important to keep in mind that Billy basically hasn’t stopped working s...