December 18, 2024 • 28 mins
For over 2 decades journalist and host Ben Mankiewicz has given us the inside scoop on all of our favorite films. But movies aside, the TCM host’s favorite form of entertainment is watching and being with his three beloved rescue dogs.
EPISODE NOTES: One on One with Turner Classic Movies’ Main Man Ben Mankiewicz
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EPISODE NOTES: One on One with Turner Classic Movies’ Main Man Ben Mankiewicz
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rappaport-to-the-rescue-on-pet-life-radio-petliferadio-com--6667849/support.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Live.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk Pets.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Rap Aport to the Rescue with award winning animal advocate,
best selling author, journalist, and pet products creator Jill Rapaport.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Hi. I'm Jill Rapaport, and welcome to this Holiday edition
of Rapaport to the Rescue. I love this time of year.
It is so beautiful out here in the Hamptons. It's
decorated everywhere you go, the Christmas lights and all of.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
The music and the festivities. It's such a special time
of year.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
We all feel so blessed to have people in our
lives that we love so much, and especially for our
fur angels. I wake up every day and I literally
look at them and I say thank you as I
hug each one of my doggies, and I go outside
and I pet and kiss my horses. Those are truly
(00:58):
my blessings. But it's this time of year that animal
welfare is truly in a very challenging and dire state.
This is the time where so many shelters are filled
to the brim, and it's worse now that it's been
a decade. That really is quite horrific now, and for me,
I knew I had to do something about this because
(01:20):
the thought of any animal not being in a loving home,
it's just heartbreaking, but especially at holiday time when we're
all gathered with the ones we love, those animals deserve
and need to have the same. So I started this
wonderful campaign last year at Southampton Animal Shelter called a
Home for the Holidays, and after I added an after
(01:42):
because I still have one dog from a year ago
that I was featuring that was a year old deaf
pity mix and he's still sitting there. He was adopted
and returned three times. So I now added after because
I started the new campaign again with my underdogs from
Southampton Animal Shelter, the seniors, the pits, and the special needs.
(02:05):
And I am determined like last year, where I play
sixteen of those dogs in the most wonderful, loving homes
and very challenging situations. Two or Siberian huskies that were
eight years old and had to go together and a
wonderful family took them both. So I know I can
do it, and I know you can help me do it.
I encourage you. I beg you to go to your
(02:27):
local shelter and volunteer your time, make a donation, walk
a dog, please foster.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Foster is God's work. You are the mediator between hell
and heaven, and then of course adopt. You can make
a difference. I'm trying to do what I can with
my local shelter. You all can make a difference, especially
this time of year. So thank you so much for
listening to me and hopefully understanding the need to protect
(02:54):
our fur angels at the shelters and all across this country.
We're so many animals are languishing. Now coming up today,
I have such an exciting interview. I have a little
crush on this guy. I've got to admit. If you
happen to watch Turner Classic Movies and who doesn't you
know that cute host Ben Mankowitz. He is smart, he
(03:16):
is swab. To add to another reason, I think he's
so fabulous. He's a huge rescuer.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
So when we come back, we're going to chat with
Ben Mankowitz from Turner Classic Movies.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
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(04:14):
I want to know who.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
The latest trendsetters are in Hollywood? How about Irish setters?
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Find out who's been spotted with spots, cowing with her
jaw and shopping for Gucci with her pucci. Get this
scoop on all the latest celebrity pet pattern right here
pet Life Radio.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Let's talk pets. Welcome back to Rappaport to the Rescue.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I'm Joe Rappaport, And as I said in my intro,
and I got to embarrass you a little bit, ben I.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Told our audience, I have a little bit of a
crush on you.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
I have been bankowitz with us now from Turner Classic Movies,
and I have to tell you I'm not alone. When
I told my girlfriends I was doing this interview, and
they said, oh he is so adorable.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
I bet you get that a lot.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Well, what I usually get is somebody like you coming
up to me and saying, at first to the you
know you've been mank with right or are you been
maqu withs I'm like, yeah, that's right. I'm feeling all
kind of haughty. And then they're like, oh my god,
my mother loves you. That's generally how it plays out,
but it's great. I'm always into it. It's amazing to
work at a place like TCM that really matters, that
(05:19):
means something in people's lives. I mean, you know, TV
can be a fairly silly business, and you know what
we do resonates with people with connects them to their
family and meaningful ways, connects them to their friends and
their past. And I don't know, it's pretty great. I
feel really fortunate.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Well, you've been there, I believe since two thousand and two.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Is three, yeah, two thousand and three. Yeah, so you're
in the right there. It's twenty one plus years.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Wow, you don't realize how long that's been.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Yeah, I mean I got this job. I got to
LA in two thousand and one. I've been a local
news reporter, which of course you're deeply familiar with, and
I didn't want to do that anymore. And I basically
didn't work for a year and a half and I
was probably six weeks at the most from trying to
go back to the local news. Hopefully i'd land a
station here in LA because I wanted to stay here.
But I mean I could have easily ended up in
(06:08):
Cleveland or Dallas or San Antonio, you know, anywhere that
would hire me. Cincinnati, where I once turned a job
down to stay in Charleston, and then I got this
TCM job, So it felt like a job to me
when I got it, like, go great, I finally landed
a job, and then it's turned into you know, really
what defines my entire career. And in two years, less
than two years when I crossed twenty three years, you know,
(06:30):
I've been there longer than Robert Osborne was who signed
the station on the air nineteen ninety four, and that
is that's staggering to me.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Well, what's amazing is your die hard followers, and I
know because I'm one of them, but especially this time
of year, like you said, it's a feel good channel,
and all of the hosts, including you obviously but you
have a whole wonderful roster of people.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
We do.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
The information that each one gives and the history behind
these movies is so fascinating to me. The facts that
you get.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
I love hearing that. It's really amazing. A number of people.
Everybody stops me and they just have a story about
why it matters to them, and frequently it's an incredibly
moving story about, you know, spending the last six months
of their mother's life, going home to live with their
mom to help her through an illness that took her life,
and then saying, we all we did all day was
connect and watch Turner classic movies. Sin It's the best
six months I ever spent with, you know, And you're like,
and then they start to cry. It's really an experience
(07:22):
to have people care about this channel so much. And
I'm super lucky to get here because you know, it's
really the movies that do the connecting so well.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And besides this job, this gig, you're also on my
favorite show, CBS Sunday Morning. I see you do wonderful
profiles on there. That is my dream job. You really
do have the best two gigs in television.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
I'm really fortunate and then that CBS Sunday Morning came
really because of TCM of some crossover in the audience there,
and they'd seen me do a couple of things on
TCM and they knew I had a journalism background, and
they called to do one piece and it went well,
and you know, and I do, you know whatever, I
do somewhere between seven and ten a year, but there's
no set number. They just call when they feel like
(08:02):
there's a good matchup. And I'm also super busy, but
I'm thrilled every time I did. I did two earlier,
just a few weeks ago, I did back to back
weeks of Kathy Bates and al Pacino, and I was
really proud of both those pieces.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Well, you know, I was on the red carpet many
decades of my career, and I interviewed a lot of
the same celebrities that you have.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
And it's an interesting job to have because it's a
fine line. I never use, notespend.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
I never looked down because I found that if you
break eye contact, you lose them.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
And I've watched the way you interview very casual, relaxed.
You can tell that you have the information, you know
their background, but it's really a true conversation.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Well, that's what you're going for. That's certainly the goal
I'm trying to find. Yeah, Jarah, I got a notebook here,
so so like I think it's somewhere in here. So
during Kathy baits because I bring her up, which was
a really you know, that moment went viral because of
something that happened in the middle of the interview, which
we were able to not correct her on but point
out something that she thought she did not thank her
mother when she won the oscar.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Of of course that was everywhere.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Yeah, and it was it was really great. So, but
earlier in that conversation, in part because my notes here,
I'll just show you this is a brand, not her,
but this is and I know this people can't see this,
but my notes look like this, like they're like, I mean,
there's a seven hundred words on a page and it's
a big notebook. So during the interview, Kathy bates, and
she was really into it. She said about herself, she's
a very serious person. Right, She's like, I should probably
(09:22):
try to be less serious. And she was really looking
forward to this interview and she was into it. We
were clearly connecting, and she was talking about things that
really mattered to her, and at one point she said
something which took us in a different direction, and I
really wanted to finish what we had just been talking about,
and I knew I needed a detail, and I looked
down and I couldn't find it. Because I got seven
hundred words on the page, I couldn't even find it.
(09:44):
And in the middle of talking, as I looked down
to your point about breaking eye contact, she said, are
you listening right? Are you listening to me? And I,
thankfully I was able to repeat what she had just said,
and I said, which was true. I was like, no,
I'm totally listening to you. I just wanted to remember
one thing that you would just said that triggered something.
So I looked down, but I can't find it anyway.
And I didn't tell me that she was mad. It
(10:05):
told me that she was into it, like she was
really vested in it. And then about twenty minutes later,
she said the thing about her mother had been sort
of snid about her winning the oscar for misery, and
she said, I think she was angry because I didn't
thank her. And the interviews in the afternoon and that
morning I had watched her Oscar acceptance speech, so it
was right in the front and I said, you know,
you did thank her, and she said no, I didn't
check the tape. Again, she was stern. I never thought
(10:27):
she was mad at me. She's just like I like
it right, She's just matter of fact. And I said,
and I wasn't going to argue with her. I looked
at our producer and I and he looked at me
like the same way, like she definitely thanked her. And
then he brought the phone over when we had to
change the battery on the camera, but ten minutes later
and we showed it to her and she just had
this amazing, amazing reaction. It was such a wonderful thing
(10:50):
to be a part of. And I now feel like
like she and I are friends. And she came on
TCM like three weeks later because it had, you know,
gone so well, and talked about movies. She loved.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I think that you gave her such wonderful closure for
something that has bothered her obviously for decades. You made
her heart full and took away the whole. But she thought,
how could I not thank my mother?
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Yeah, no, it clearly mattered to her. And it's just
this weird thing that happens with these movies and that
people take care, you know, and it matters to them.
And even though this wasn't TCM, it's still like that's
exactly what we do, is connect parents to children, even
if the parents are long gone. Right. You watch one
of these movies and you think, this is either a
movie my mom loved or my dad loved, or this
(11:34):
is the world that they grew up in, this is
what they saw, and you feel connected to them and
that matters.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Well, you have a certain style about you. I feel
that these actors feel you're one of them. You remind
me younger of a James Lipton actors studio. You know,
he would get the best interviews because they respected him
so much, and I see that same connection in all
of your interviews.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Well, you know, I'm very honored that you said that,
and who pointed that. The only other people who've pointed
that out to me. It's happened twice in my life,
and it was you're the second, but it was the
all bunch of people at one time. That was when
I did a piece on the actor's studio and the
people at the actor's studio were like, you you know
who you remind us of It's James even though I'm
not an actor, and he was. But it was really nice.
(12:18):
I love actress what we do hosting, and you do
red carpets. I hate doing red carpet interviews. Oh I
don't like any interview that's shorter than an hour. I mean,
I like, that's what I want to do is you know,
get into it with people and you know, and they're
in a different frame of mind. They're not really gonna
reveal any part of themselves.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Yeah, I mean it's like an assembly line. They've got
to go on one, do another, that's right.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Yeah, you know they're moving down. You know other people
are coming. You know, they're going to tell the same
story because they I mean, I do it a few
times that I've been on the other end of red carpet.
It's like you you realize, well, I just said the
same thing to six straight people, you know. So it's hard.
This is a strange, weird job and to be able
to manage to connect in a meaningful way. But anyway,
so I just met with in going for these jobs,
(12:58):
you know, it's these hosting jobs, It's like I I
went through a process of not getting a ton of
jobs in that year and a half that I was
only like working freelance here and there for places, and
I just realized, I guess what should have been obvious
is what actors go through to get jobs. Auditioning it.
I mean, it's humiliating, you know. I mean it's just
one and the humiliation is direct. It's like they look
at you and your face and they're like, you know, Jill,
(13:19):
thanks for coming in, but we're not really into your
eyes and your nose and your mouth and the way
they are together, and your hair and the way you sound.
But otherwise than.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Not really thinking that, are you Ben No, I'm saying that.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
That's how it always felt to me, Like no, But
I mean the rejection is it's a full rejection. When
you get things, it's like I don't then we don't
like your face and the way you talk and how
your arms are. You know, it's like this very you know,
it just wears you down. But they get up there
and they sort of give themselves everything. So I now
feel bad because you apparently didn't take rejection as badly
(13:50):
as I did, but I felt it acutely I did.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
But you know what, I don't think they ever had
the boss to say that to me. I just assume
I just thought I was older. They don't tell you.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
That I'm making that up. Nobody says that, but that's
what I heard, like, because the rejection is always personal, right,
It's like, we don't like the thing that you bring. No,
of course, nobody ever said Ben, we don't like your face.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Well you know what I did, Ben.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
I would get rejected or start to get rejected, and
I would not take no for an answer. I would say, well,
wait a minute, let me show you this, Let me
show you what I can do. And I turned around
to jobs where they really want that into me and
I wore them down.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
That's great, And the mere act of doing that that
also tells them something about you, right, sort of your
doggedness to provide nice segue to what we're going to
get into. And this is a relentless person, which is
valuable in that field. So yeah, that's good. I didn't
do that. I didn't do that.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
I shrank away, So obviously it's done well for you.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
And you know the other thing that's so distinctive about
you is your voice. Okay, and your brother who I
worked with for.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Many years at WCBS in New York, Josh Mangowitz, who's,
you know, one of the great stars of Dateline. He
a also has such a distinguished Mankowitz voice.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
The two of you, Well, we do a lot of
podcasting now, and I did do some radio for a while,
and I love radio, and it's why I like podcasts,
because it's you know, it's radio basically. But yeah, my
brother and I we sound a little bit alike, but
he has a slightly more nasal tone because when we
talked to police, they told us a very different story.
There were times when I was working in Miami and
I would I would go into track a piece and
(15:26):
I would get into the studio and I would just
start you know. You know, when Joe Rapaport woke up
this morning, it was not the day she expected. I
was like, oh my god, I sounding my brother, you know.
But also, everything I've learned about TV and most of
what I've learned about life came from my brother, who's
Earth's greatest big brother.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
And he's so smart. I mean I used to go
to him. He'd make fun of me. I was the
entertainment reporter. Of course, Josh was in the trenches, the
news man, and you know, he'd walk by what's happening
in Hollywood today and kind of laugh at me. But
we had so much fun working together. And your whole family,
I mean, you come from incredible lineage, you really do.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
I'm very fortunate, very proud of my family's history in
Hollywood and mostly in politics. You know, I grew up
Josh was born in la because Josh is a much
much much much much much much older person and one
more much But I grew up in d C. And
my father was kind of a big deal in democratic politics,
and everybody recognized my dad, So I just thought he
was the to me, the Hollywood connection, his father and
(16:26):
his uncle, Herman Mankowitz and Joe Mankowitz. I just thought
they were the like I thought that my dad was
the main person, right, think he was the star. But
really the politics was the was the offshoot the original
the original show. We were the spin off politics, but
the original show was of course politics. And my grandfather,
Herman and my great uncle Joe.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Would they proud, and I assume how could they not be?
But you know, you took a different route, and they
might have looked at it as more fluff. Right.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Joe died a little before I started at TCM, and
Herman died a long before. Herman, as the movie mank depicted,
was he drank himself largely to death, in part because
he was ashamed of what he did that writing these movies,
and he wrote Citizen Kane. But these movies were not substantive,
and that the real work of a writer or a thinker,
of an intellectual, which he certainly was, was that it's
(17:17):
funny in this world. You could certainly write a play,
or write the great American novel, or teach. Their father
always wanted Joe to teach, because that's what he'd done.
But you could be even a theater critic like that
was thought of as a noble profession. But writing these
nonsense popcorn filler for the masses, that was junk. And
that's what Herman and Joe heard from their father again
(17:37):
and again. Joe had a sense of humor about it.
I'm not sure Herman did, even though Herman had a
great wit. But Joe used to say about his father,
He's like, yeah, he doesn't think the movies are a
worthwhile way to make it a living. But he sure
likes the yacht that he likes to visit, the yacht
that the movies bought, whereas Herman was just sort of
tortured by it.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
One if I could, you know, when everybody asked me
if you go back in time, you know, who would
you go back? I'd meet my grandfather and I'd tell
him you're wrong. Your work matters. These movies matter to people.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Oh just think how proud he would be of you,
seeing what you're doing and how many lives you touch
with these wonderful movies and talking about them.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
I think Herman would think, like, wait, so let me
understand this. So they pay you to talk about other
people's movies, and then you sort of get credit for
those movies. And I'd be like, that's right, that's what happens.
You'd be like, well, that's impressive. That is yeah, well done.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah, well you have a movie boff when you were young.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
I mean you have to not only know all about
them and watch every movie, But do you love movies?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Is this in your book?
Speaker 4 (18:37):
I love movies? Yeah, yeah, I mean I love going
to the movies. I was a kid who loved movies.
I probably loved movies more than most of my friends
growing up, but I don't think they wouldn't have described
me in that way. I loved going, I loved seeing movies,
but I didn't study them. I couldn't imagine having any
kind of career related to them. I started to think
about them differently in college, and then still I just
(18:59):
couldn't imagine that there would be a career like this,
And then by the time I was super into them
by the time I got the job at TCM, but
I didn't understand even the world. I was getting into
it first, like, I thought that my learning curve would
be minimal, and it turned out to be steep. But
it happened pretty quick. I took it seriously.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
So you're in La and you've got your beautiful wife
and your daughter and your rescue dogs, and of course
they're going to give into that in a moment.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
But are you hob nobbing.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
With the stars? Well, I see you at all the
happening restaurants, are you at all the premieres? What's your
normal life like in La?
Speaker 4 (19:31):
I was a movie critic for a while. I was
terrible at it, and I didn't really like it. I liked.
Many of the other critics I liked. I'm making friends
with them, but I never felt comfortable with literally criticizing
a movie.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yeah you know, I.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Mean I feel more comfortable with it at TCM because I,
you know, I sort of get that, Hey, man, you
have to take me seriously. I'm just telling you sometimes,
you know, And I only acknowledge what's universally thought to
be great, and if I say something's not good, it's
usually still fun, right, right, So, and also the people
who made it are long. But I just don't like
that I'm not good at it. And I felt like
I was imitating a critic all the time. I've started
(20:05):
saying that in a lot of interviews, but I really
feel it like I was saying the things that I
guess I had heard other critics say, and it didn't
sound like me. I'm like, I don't think I talk
like this, like And every bit of success I've had
on television has been because I'm playing myself right, authentic.
I am authentic. And then I was able to really
kind of get that in when I moved from Charleston
(20:27):
as a reporter to Miami as a reporter and then
host of a kind of very different kind of new
show we did there, and that let me have just
be me, And I was like, now, so this just
got easy.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
So is that your way of telling me that you
don't hobnob with the stars.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
So I don't go to premieres. That's true. I mean
I hobnob with stars because I just put together a
reel for something that I was pitching, and I was like,
you know, putting in these interviews and the connections that
I had with you know, Harrison Ford and Tom Hanks
and Steven Spilberg, Kathy Bits I used, and al Pacino
and but you know, like I interview them and I'm
sort of we just had it. This week of podcasts
(21:00):
dropped with Jason Rightman, and it was an amazing conversation
with me and Jason about about movies and how much
we love movies, about how much we love our fathers too,
and you know, both we've both lost our fathers. I
mean we're grown men. That happens and his father Ivan Wrightman,
the director, and I just like I connected with him
in such a meaningful way. I gave him believe we're
not friends, and it's not like we're not. And I'm
I probably could if I reached out and said, you
(21:21):
want to have dinner, we might be able to have dinner.
But it's I finished with Tom Hanks and I'm like,
oh my god, I'm going to be Tom Hanks's best friend.
And then it occurs to you about forty five minutes later,
oh wait, he has friends, like He's like, he doesn't
doesn't really need me to be his best friend. So
I have definitely, I would definitely. There's some people I've
interviewed and connected with who I would call my friends,
no question, Elliott Gould Springs right to mind, and Angie Dickinson.
(21:43):
And then I've made some other friends who are, you know,
relatively famous. But basically, no, I don't hobnob, I don't
go to restaurants. My closest friends are still the idiots
I went to high school with.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
You know, I'm Chu's your brother, I Karen, I returned.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Yeah, Jelius is a pretty good friend too. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
you know, you know, you know, as you getting over.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Okay, anyway, Well, first of all, when I heard you
had the rescue dogs, I thought, oh, gotta love Ben
Mankowitz those dogs. And when we talked about it in
our phone conversation a few weeks ago, and you were
telling me how they've changed your life and touched your
family's life, and how they add so much to your life.
And this is the time of year. My whole open
(22:22):
is about how dire the situation is right now, especially
this time of year when so many animals are dumped.
Tell me what your rescue doggies mean to you.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
I'm sure everybody says this, but it's not just a lie.
I mean they're part of the family. We have three
of them now. We added the third one about eight
months ago. Under my feet right now is the queen
of the house, Bob Manka. It's a girl named Bob
and Bobby is you know, she's twelve. She's a shepherd rescue.
She's definitely slowing down, but she's doing great. And we
(22:52):
had her and then we got another dog, and he's
been a pain in the ass. You we have to
acknowledge sometimes it's not the greatest fit ever. But it's
six years and he loves us and we put up
with him, and you know, he like kind of ruins
things at the park all the time, and he's a grouch.
He doesn't know it. And as soon as you tell
him no, he's like, oh, I'm sorry, what did I do?
And then I just didn't want that dog to be
(23:15):
fifty percent of our dogs. That dog's name is Bunk,
name for the character on the Wire, Wendell Pierce's character
on the Wire, because they told us he was a
Chesapeake Bay Retriever, a Maryland dog, but like he's half
pipule and something else, like he's got chest Peak Bay Retriever.
There's no Chesapeake Bay Retrievers and shelters in Los Angeles,
and so I just thought, I think we need him
to be thirty three percent of our dogs and not
(23:36):
fifty percent of our dogs. So we adopted another dog.
I was sort of a surprised for my wife and daughter.
My wife and I talked about it, but I mean,
we're like in between houses and fixing up a house,
and life is incredibly hacktic. She works on East Coast
hours in LA, so she's up at five in the morning,
and you know, like, hey, here's a third dog. Might
not have gone over so well, and I'm not sure
(23:57):
it did at first, but the dog was so beautiful
and so wonderful that I was saying to her, like, look,
if we can't handle it, Like, if we take this
dog back to the shelter today, he'll get adopted today,
Like she's a beautiful, wonderful, sweet animal, and she'll go
like that as she did.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
And now, I bet your wife would give up you
before she would give up a hundred.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
I mean that happened with then, like she was like,
we're not giving the dog up. I'm just irritated. And
then by the next day she's like, I'm not irritated
anymore for so much.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Yeah, but there really is something to be said.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
I mean, I don't have human children. I have all
my as I call them my fur angels surrounding me.
They're looking at me right now too. And I've got
my horses out in the pastures, and they really during
COVID when we couldn't be near humans, I never felt lonely, Ben,
I really didn't. I just had them over and I
never even when you're sad and depressed and we all
go through that, I look at them and it's just
(24:51):
like lifted right.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Yeah, my previous dog, Rookie, who's the greatest dog. Sorry, Baba,
you're close, You're so close. Yeah, cover the years, thankfully,
She can't really here, and she doesn't care. She's like, hey, man,
I am what I am. She's very she's very. Yeah. Yeah,
they all these, all four of our dogs, but Rookie
more than any. It was the first animal I'd had
who always knew my mood. I mean it was just amazing,
(25:14):
you know, and I'd come down for a frustrating day,
I'd sigh and wherever that dog was get, I'd sigh.
That dog came over and you know, put his head
on my lap, like what do I need to do?
And then I'd get you know, I watch a lot
of I'm a huge sports fan. I'd gamble and I
you know, get a little irritated, and and Rookie would
be like, I'm going upstairs, not into this, like I'm not,
(25:36):
and I'm like no, no, it was good. It was
good Rookie. And she did need to be like see.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
You later, yeah, taking the que off.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
I'd bring Rookie to I played softball a lot. I
would love to again, getting old, but and we was
in a league in Santa Monica. It's like slow pitch,
you know, an idiot league. But uh, we played League
C minus. Give you an idea of how top tier
we were, but I'd bring Rookie because I was like, oh,
it's great a bunch of guys sitting around and put
dog in the hart Bok. He always loved to take
a ride anywhere, put in the car. But Rookie at softball,
(26:04):
like you'd tie him to a fence the field and
he would turn his back to play like he didn't
like it because it was men emotional, you know, they
hit it and ohoa and all the things that he
associated with me yelling at the TV, you know, because
I couldn't get a back. It was too much for him. Yea, yeah, yeah,
he woudn't even get out of the car.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
So I love that name Rookie. I might have to
steal that for my next rescue steal away.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
My favorite baseball player had one great season his rookie year.
So I've named a couple of books after variations of
Mitchell Page as well.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
These are such great stories and such a great message
to our audience all over the world about taking in
these wonderful creatures and how they really do rescue.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Us, even the stuff that you don't want to do,
the cleaning up after him and taking him to even
this morning, like they somehow were outside playing and it
didn't even rain, but somehow, I must the sprinkler went off. Anyway,
two of them came in incredibly muddy, and they like
ran through the house and they tracked the mud through
and I don't know, Yes, it was a pain in
the ass, but I was like you just I don't know,
you're like looking after him, like you clean up, even
(27:02):
when you have to pick up after him. I always
think I'm taking care of him. I'm taking care of things.
You know, this is my job, and I never big picture.
Of course, in moments you might get irritated, but big
picture has made me a better person, there's just no question.
A more thoughtful person and a more patient person. And
I'm definitely know a more loving person and a much
better caretaker for humans because I take care of these guys.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Oh well, that is such a wonderful endorsement for everyone
to be a perfect pet parent and to want to
go out and rescue an animal right now. Oh, Ben,
I can't thank you enough. I know you have to
run to a very important engagement downtown LA, and I
know the traffic there, so we're not going to keep
you any longer. But Ben Mankowitz Turner classic movies, wonderful
(27:45):
animal advocate, great voice.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
I do have a crush on you. I can't thank
you enough for taking the time to be on Rapidport
to the Rescue.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
This was just great, well.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Great Joe, and I hope we can figure something out
between you and organization and TCM too great.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
So thanks, that would be wonderful and happy and healthy
holidays to you and your beautiful family on two and
four legs.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
Not Dan you as well.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Thanks Jill, thank you, and thank you all for joining
us today this very special edition of RAPP Report to
the Rescue.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on Petlife
Radio dot com.
Live.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk Pets.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Rap Aport to the Rescue with award winning animal advocate,
best selling author, journalist, and pet products creator Jill Rapaport.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Hi. I'm Jill Rapaport, and welcome to this Holiday edition
of Rapaport to the Rescue. I love this time of year.
It is so beautiful out here in the Hamptons. It's
decorated everywhere you go, the Christmas lights and all of.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
The music and the festivities. It's such a special time
of year.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
We all feel so blessed to have people in our
lives that we love so much, and especially for our
fur angels. I wake up every day and I literally
look at them and I say thank you as I
hug each one of my doggies, and I go outside
and I pet and kiss my horses. Those are truly
(00:58):
my blessings. But it's this time of year that animal
welfare is truly in a very challenging and dire state.
This is the time where so many shelters are filled
to the brim, and it's worse now that it's been
a decade. That really is quite horrific now, and for me,
I knew I had to do something about this because
(01:20):
the thought of any animal not being in a loving home,
it's just heartbreaking, but especially at holiday time when we're
all gathered with the ones we love, those animals deserve
and need to have the same. So I started this
wonderful campaign last year at Southampton Animal Shelter called a
Home for the Holidays, and after I added an after
(01:42):
because I still have one dog from a year ago
that I was featuring that was a year old deaf
pity mix and he's still sitting there. He was adopted
and returned three times. So I now added after because
I started the new campaign again with my underdogs from
Southampton Animal Shelter, the seniors, the pits, and the special needs.
(02:05):
And I am determined like last year, where I play
sixteen of those dogs in the most wonderful, loving homes
and very challenging situations. Two or Siberian huskies that were
eight years old and had to go together and a
wonderful family took them both. So I know I can
do it, and I know you can help me do it.
I encourage you. I beg you to go to your
(02:27):
local shelter and volunteer your time, make a donation, walk
a dog, please foster.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Foster is God's work. You are the mediator between hell
and heaven, and then of course adopt. You can make
a difference. I'm trying to do what I can with
my local shelter. You all can make a difference, especially
this time of year. So thank you so much for
listening to me and hopefully understanding the need to protect
(02:54):
our fur angels at the shelters and all across this country.
We're so many animals are languishing. Now coming up today,
I have such an exciting interview. I have a little
crush on this guy. I've got to admit. If you
happen to watch Turner Classic Movies and who doesn't you
know that cute host Ben Mankowitz. He is smart, he
(03:16):
is swab. To add to another reason, I think he's
so fabulous. He's a huge rescuer.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
So when we come back, we're going to chat with
Ben Mankowitz from Turner Classic Movies.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
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(04:14):
I want to know who.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
The latest trendsetters are in Hollywood? How about Irish setters?
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Find out who's been spotted with spots, cowing with her
jaw and shopping for Gucci with her pucci. Get this
scoop on all the latest celebrity pet pattern right here
pet Life Radio.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Let's talk pets. Welcome back to Rappaport to the Rescue.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I'm Joe Rappaport, And as I said in my intro,
and I got to embarrass you a little bit, ben I.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Told our audience, I have a little bit of a
crush on you.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
I have been bankowitz with us now from Turner Classic Movies,
and I have to tell you I'm not alone. When
I told my girlfriends I was doing this interview, and
they said, oh he is so adorable.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
I bet you get that a lot.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Well, what I usually get is somebody like you coming
up to me and saying, at first to the you
know you've been mank with right or are you been
maqu withs I'm like, yeah, that's right. I'm feeling all
kind of haughty. And then they're like, oh my god,
my mother loves you. That's generally how it plays out,
but it's great. I'm always into it. It's amazing to
work at a place like TCM that really matters, that
(05:19):
means something in people's lives. I mean, you know, TV
can be a fairly silly business, and you know what
we do resonates with people with connects them to their
family and meaningful ways, connects them to their friends and
their past. And I don't know, it's pretty great. I
feel really fortunate.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Well, you've been there, I believe since two thousand and two.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Is three, yeah, two thousand and three. Yeah, so you're
in the right there. It's twenty one plus years.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Wow, you don't realize how long that's been.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Yeah, I mean I got this job. I got to
LA in two thousand and one. I've been a local
news reporter, which of course you're deeply familiar with, and
I didn't want to do that anymore. And I basically
didn't work for a year and a half and I
was probably six weeks at the most from trying to
go back to the local news. Hopefully i'd land a
station here in LA because I wanted to stay here.
But I mean I could have easily ended up in
(06:08):
Cleveland or Dallas or San Antonio, you know, anywhere that
would hire me. Cincinnati, where I once turned a job
down to stay in Charleston, and then I got this
TCM job, So it felt like a job to me
when I got it, like, go great, I finally landed
a job, and then it's turned into you know, really
what defines my entire career. And in two years, less
than two years when I crossed twenty three years, you know,
(06:30):
I've been there longer than Robert Osborne was who signed
the station on the air nineteen ninety four, and that
is that's staggering to me.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Well, what's amazing is your die hard followers, and I
know because I'm one of them, but especially this time
of year, like you said, it's a feel good channel,
and all of the hosts, including you obviously but you
have a whole wonderful roster of people.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
We do.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
The information that each one gives and the history behind
these movies is so fascinating to me. The facts that
you get.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
I love hearing that. It's really amazing. A number of people.
Everybody stops me and they just have a story about
why it matters to them, and frequently it's an incredibly
moving story about, you know, spending the last six months
of their mother's life, going home to live with their
mom to help her through an illness that took her life,
and then saying, we all we did all day was
connect and watch Turner classic movies. Sin It's the best
six months I ever spent with, you know, And you're like,
and then they start to cry. It's really an experience
(07:22):
to have people care about this channel so much. And
I'm super lucky to get here because you know, it's
really the movies that do the connecting so well.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And besides this job, this gig, you're also on my
favorite show, CBS Sunday Morning. I see you do wonderful
profiles on there. That is my dream job. You really
do have the best two gigs in television.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
I'm really fortunate and then that CBS Sunday Morning came
really because of TCM of some crossover in the audience there,
and they'd seen me do a couple of things on
TCM and they knew I had a journalism background, and
they called to do one piece and it went well,
and you know, and I do, you know whatever, I
do somewhere between seven and ten a year, but there's
no set number. They just call when they feel like
(08:02):
there's a good matchup. And I'm also super busy, but
I'm thrilled every time I did. I did two earlier,
just a few weeks ago, I did back to back
weeks of Kathy Bates and al Pacino, and I was
really proud of both those pieces.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Well, you know, I was on the red carpet many
decades of my career, and I interviewed a lot of
the same celebrities that you have.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
And it's an interesting job to have because it's a
fine line. I never use, notespend.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
I never looked down because I found that if you
break eye contact, you lose them.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
And I've watched the way you interview very casual, relaxed.
You can tell that you have the information, you know
their background, but it's really a true conversation.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Well, that's what you're going for. That's certainly the goal
I'm trying to find. Yeah, Jarah, I got a notebook here,
so so like I think it's somewhere in here. So
during Kathy baits because I bring her up, which was
a really you know, that moment went viral because of
something that happened in the middle of the interview, which
we were able to not correct her on but point
out something that she thought she did not thank her
mother when she won the oscar.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Of of course that was everywhere.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Yeah, and it was it was really great. So, but
earlier in that conversation, in part because my notes here,
I'll just show you this is a brand, not her,
but this is and I know this people can't see this,
but my notes look like this, like they're like, I mean,
there's a seven hundred words on a page and it's
a big notebook. So during the interview, Kathy bates, and
she was really into it. She said about herself, she's
a very serious person. Right, She's like, I should probably
(09:22):
try to be less serious. And she was really looking
forward to this interview and she was into it. We
were clearly connecting, and she was talking about things that
really mattered to her, and at one point she said
something which took us in a different direction, and I
really wanted to finish what we had just been talking about,
and I knew I needed a detail, and I looked
down and I couldn't find it. Because I got seven
hundred words on the page, I couldn't even find it.
(09:44):
And in the middle of talking, as I looked down
to your point about breaking eye contact, she said, are
you listening right? Are you listening to me? And I,
thankfully I was able to repeat what she had just said,
and I said, which was true. I was like, no,
I'm totally listening to you. I just wanted to remember
one thing that you would just said that triggered something.
So I looked down, but I can't find it anyway.
And I didn't tell me that she was mad. It
(10:05):
told me that she was into it, like she was
really vested in it. And then about twenty minutes later,
she said the thing about her mother had been sort
of snid about her winning the oscar for misery, and
she said, I think she was angry because I didn't
thank her. And the interviews in the afternoon and that
morning I had watched her Oscar acceptance speech, so it
was right in the front and I said, you know,
you did thank her, and she said no, I didn't
check the tape. Again, she was stern. I never thought
(10:27):
she was mad at me. She's just like I like
it right, She's just matter of fact. And I said,
and I wasn't going to argue with her. I looked
at our producer and I and he looked at me
like the same way, like she definitely thanked her. And
then he brought the phone over when we had to
change the battery on the camera, but ten minutes later
and we showed it to her and she just had
this amazing, amazing reaction. It was such a wonderful thing
(10:50):
to be a part of. And I now feel like
like she and I are friends. And she came on
TCM like three weeks later because it had, you know,
gone so well, and talked about movies. She loved.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I think that you gave her such wonderful closure for
something that has bothered her obviously for decades. You made
her heart full and took away the whole. But she thought,
how could I not thank my mother?
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Yeah, no, it clearly mattered to her. And it's just
this weird thing that happens with these movies and that
people take care, you know, and it matters to them.
And even though this wasn't TCM, it's still like that's
exactly what we do, is connect parents to children, even
if the parents are long gone. Right. You watch one
of these movies and you think, this is either a
movie my mom loved or my dad loved, or this
(11:34):
is the world that they grew up in, this is
what they saw, and you feel connected to them and
that matters.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Well, you have a certain style about you. I feel
that these actors feel you're one of them. You remind
me younger of a James Lipton actors studio. You know,
he would get the best interviews because they respected him
so much, and I see that same connection in all
of your interviews.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Well, you know, I'm very honored that you said that,
and who pointed that. The only other people who've pointed
that out to me. It's happened twice in my life,
and it was you're the second, but it was the
all bunch of people at one time. That was when
I did a piece on the actor's studio and the
people at the actor's studio were like, you you know
who you remind us of It's James even though I'm
not an actor, and he was. But it was really nice.
(12:18):
I love actress what we do hosting, and you do
red carpets. I hate doing red carpet interviews. Oh I
don't like any interview that's shorter than an hour. I mean,
I like, that's what I want to do is you know,
get into it with people and you know, and they're
in a different frame of mind. They're not really gonna
reveal any part of themselves.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Yeah, I mean it's like an assembly line. They've got
to go on one, do another, that's right.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Yeah, you know they're moving down. You know other people
are coming. You know, they're going to tell the same
story because they I mean, I do it a few
times that I've been on the other end of red carpet.
It's like you you realize, well, I just said the
same thing to six straight people, you know. So it's hard.
This is a strange, weird job and to be able
to manage to connect in a meaningful way. But anyway,
so I just met with in going for these jobs,
(12:58):
you know, it's these hosting jobs, It's like I I
went through a process of not getting a ton of
jobs in that year and a half that I was
only like working freelance here and there for places, and
I just realized, I guess what should have been obvious
is what actors go through to get jobs. Auditioning it.
I mean, it's humiliating, you know. I mean it's just
one and the humiliation is direct. It's like they look
at you and your face and they're like, you know, Jill,
(13:19):
thanks for coming in, but we're not really into your
eyes and your nose and your mouth and the way
they are together, and your hair and the way you sound.
But otherwise than.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Not really thinking that, are you Ben No, I'm saying that.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
That's how it always felt to me, Like no, But
I mean the rejection is it's a full rejection. When
you get things, it's like I don't then we don't
like your face and the way you talk and how
your arms are. You know, it's like this very you know,
it just wears you down. But they get up there
and they sort of give themselves everything. So I now
feel bad because you apparently didn't take rejection as badly
(13:50):
as I did, but I felt it acutely I did.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
But you know what, I don't think they ever had
the boss to say that to me. I just assume
I just thought I was older. They don't tell you.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
That I'm making that up. Nobody says that, but that's
what I heard, like, because the rejection is always personal, right,
It's like, we don't like the thing that you bring. No,
of course, nobody ever said Ben, we don't like your face.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Well you know what I did, Ben.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
I would get rejected or start to get rejected, and
I would not take no for an answer. I would say, well,
wait a minute, let me show you this, Let me
show you what I can do. And I turned around
to jobs where they really want that into me and
I wore them down.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
That's great, And the mere act of doing that that
also tells them something about you, right, sort of your
doggedness to provide nice segue to what we're going to
get into. And this is a relentless person, which is
valuable in that field. So yeah, that's good. I didn't
do that. I didn't do that.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
I shrank away, So obviously it's done well for you.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
And you know the other thing that's so distinctive about
you is your voice. Okay, and your brother who I
worked with for.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Many years at WCBS in New York, Josh Mangowitz, who's,
you know, one of the great stars of Dateline. He
a also has such a distinguished Mankowitz voice.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
The two of you, Well, we do a lot of
podcasting now, and I did do some radio for a while,
and I love radio, and it's why I like podcasts,
because it's you know, it's radio basically. But yeah, my
brother and I we sound a little bit alike, but
he has a slightly more nasal tone because when we
talked to police, they told us a very different story.
There were times when I was working in Miami and
I would I would go into track a piece and
(15:26):
I would get into the studio and I would just
start you know. You know, when Joe Rapaport woke up
this morning, it was not the day she expected. I
was like, oh my god, I sounding my brother, you know.
But also, everything I've learned about TV and most of
what I've learned about life came from my brother, who's
Earth's greatest big brother.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
And he's so smart. I mean I used to go
to him. He'd make fun of me. I was the
entertainment reporter. Of course, Josh was in the trenches, the
news man, and you know, he'd walk by what's happening
in Hollywood today and kind of laugh at me. But
we had so much fun working together. And your whole family,
I mean, you come from incredible lineage, you really do.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
I'm very fortunate, very proud of my family's history in
Hollywood and mostly in politics. You know, I grew up
Josh was born in la because Josh is a much
much much much much much much older person and one
more much But I grew up in d C. And
my father was kind of a big deal in democratic politics,
and everybody recognized my dad, So I just thought he
was the to me, the Hollywood connection, his father and
(16:26):
his uncle, Herman Mankowitz and Joe Mankowitz. I just thought
they were the like I thought that my dad was
the main person, right, think he was the star. But
really the politics was the was the offshoot the original
the original show. We were the spin off politics, but
the original show was of course politics. And my grandfather,
Herman and my great uncle Joe.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Would they proud, and I assume how could they not be?
But you know, you took a different route, and they
might have looked at it as more fluff. Right.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Joe died a little before I started at TCM, and
Herman died a long before. Herman, as the movie mank depicted,
was he drank himself largely to death, in part because
he was ashamed of what he did that writing these movies,
and he wrote Citizen Kane. But these movies were not substantive,
and that the real work of a writer or a thinker,
of an intellectual, which he certainly was, was that it's
(17:17):
funny in this world. You could certainly write a play,
or write the great American novel, or teach. Their father
always wanted Joe to teach, because that's what he'd done.
But you could be even a theater critic like that
was thought of as a noble profession. But writing these
nonsense popcorn filler for the masses, that was junk. And
that's what Herman and Joe heard from their father again
(17:37):
and again. Joe had a sense of humor about it.
I'm not sure Herman did, even though Herman had a
great wit. But Joe used to say about his father,
He's like, yeah, he doesn't think the movies are a
worthwhile way to make it a living. But he sure
likes the yacht that he likes to visit, the yacht
that the movies bought, whereas Herman was just sort of
tortured by it.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
One if I could, you know, when everybody asked me
if you go back in time, you know, who would
you go back? I'd meet my grandfather and I'd tell
him you're wrong. Your work matters. These movies matter to people.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Oh just think how proud he would be of you,
seeing what you're doing and how many lives you touch
with these wonderful movies and talking about them.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
I think Herman would think, like, wait, so let me
understand this. So they pay you to talk about other
people's movies, and then you sort of get credit for
those movies. And I'd be like, that's right, that's what happens.
You'd be like, well, that's impressive. That is yeah, well done.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah, well you have a movie boff when you were young.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
I mean you have to not only know all about
them and watch every movie, But do you love movies?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Is this in your book?
Speaker 4 (18:37):
I love movies? Yeah, yeah, I mean I love going
to the movies. I was a kid who loved movies.
I probably loved movies more than most of my friends
growing up, but I don't think they wouldn't have described
me in that way. I loved going, I loved seeing movies,
but I didn't study them. I couldn't imagine having any
kind of career related to them. I started to think
about them differently in college, and then still I just
(18:59):
couldn't imagine that there would be a career like this,
And then by the time I was super into them
by the time I got the job at TCM, but
I didn't understand even the world. I was getting into
it first, like, I thought that my learning curve would
be minimal, and it turned out to be steep. But
it happened pretty quick. I took it seriously.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
So you're in La and you've got your beautiful wife
and your daughter and your rescue dogs, and of course
they're going to give into that in a moment.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
But are you hob nobbing.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
With the stars? Well, I see you at all the
happening restaurants, are you at all the premieres? What's your
normal life like in La?
Speaker 4 (19:31):
I was a movie critic for a while. I was
terrible at it, and I didn't really like it. I liked.
Many of the other critics I liked. I'm making friends
with them, but I never felt comfortable with literally criticizing
a movie.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yeah you know, I.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Mean I feel more comfortable with it at TCM because I,
you know, I sort of get that, Hey, man, you
have to take me seriously. I'm just telling you sometimes,
you know, And I only acknowledge what's universally thought to
be great, and if I say something's not good, it's
usually still fun, right, right, So, and also the people
who made it are long. But I just don't like
that I'm not good at it. And I felt like
I was imitating a critic all the time. I've started
(20:05):
saying that in a lot of interviews, but I really
feel it like I was saying the things that I
guess I had heard other critics say, and it didn't
sound like me. I'm like, I don't think I talk
like this, like And every bit of success I've had
on television has been because I'm playing myself right, authentic.
I am authentic. And then I was able to really
kind of get that in when I moved from Charleston
(20:27):
as a reporter to Miami as a reporter and then
host of a kind of very different kind of new
show we did there, and that let me have just
be me, And I was like, now, so this just
got easy.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
So is that your way of telling me that you
don't hobnob with the stars.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
So I don't go to premieres. That's true. I mean
I hobnob with stars because I just put together a
reel for something that I was pitching, and I was like,
you know, putting in these interviews and the connections that
I had with you know, Harrison Ford and Tom Hanks
and Steven Spilberg, Kathy Bits I used, and al Pacino
and but you know, like I interview them and I'm
sort of we just had it. This week of podcasts
(21:00):
dropped with Jason Rightman, and it was an amazing conversation
with me and Jason about about movies and how much
we love movies, about how much we love our fathers too,
and you know, both we've both lost our fathers. I
mean we're grown men. That happens and his father Ivan Wrightman,
the director, and I just like I connected with him
in such a meaningful way. I gave him believe we're
not friends, and it's not like we're not. And I'm
I probably could if I reached out and said, you
(21:21):
want to have dinner, we might be able to have dinner.
But it's I finished with Tom Hanks and I'm like,
oh my god, I'm going to be Tom Hanks's best friend.
And then it occurs to you about forty five minutes later,
oh wait, he has friends, like He's like, he doesn't
doesn't really need me to be his best friend. So
I have definitely, I would definitely. There's some people I've
interviewed and connected with who I would call my friends,
no question, Elliott Gould Springs right to mind, and Angie Dickinson.
(21:43):
And then I've made some other friends who are, you know,
relatively famous. But basically, no, I don't hobnob, I don't
go to restaurants. My closest friends are still the idiots
I went to high school with.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
You know, I'm Chu's your brother, I Karen, I returned.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Yeah, Jelius is a pretty good friend too. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
you know, you know, you know, as you getting over.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Okay, anyway, Well, first of all, when I heard you
had the rescue dogs, I thought, oh, gotta love Ben
Mankowitz those dogs. And when we talked about it in
our phone conversation a few weeks ago, and you were
telling me how they've changed your life and touched your
family's life, and how they add so much to your life.
And this is the time of year. My whole open
(22:22):
is about how dire the situation is right now, especially
this time of year when so many animals are dumped.
Tell me what your rescue doggies mean to you.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
I'm sure everybody says this, but it's not just a lie.
I mean they're part of the family. We have three
of them now. We added the third one about eight
months ago. Under my feet right now is the queen
of the house, Bob Manka. It's a girl named Bob
and Bobby is you know, she's twelve. She's a shepherd rescue.
She's definitely slowing down, but she's doing great. And we
(22:52):
had her and then we got another dog, and he's
been a pain in the ass. You we have to
acknowledge sometimes it's not the greatest fit ever. But it's
six years and he loves us and we put up
with him, and you know, he like kind of ruins
things at the park all the time, and he's a grouch.
He doesn't know it. And as soon as you tell
him no, he's like, oh, I'm sorry, what did I do?
And then I just didn't want that dog to be
(23:15):
fifty percent of our dogs. That dog's name is Bunk,
name for the character on the Wire, Wendell Pierce's character
on the Wire, because they told us he was a
Chesapeake Bay Retriever, a Maryland dog, but like he's half
pipule and something else, like he's got chest Peak Bay Retriever.
There's no Chesapeake Bay Retrievers and shelters in Los Angeles,
and so I just thought, I think we need him
to be thirty three percent of our dogs and not
(23:36):
fifty percent of our dogs. So we adopted another dog.
I was sort of a surprised for my wife and daughter.
My wife and I talked about it, but I mean,
we're like in between houses and fixing up a house,
and life is incredibly hacktic. She works on East Coast
hours in LA, so she's up at five in the morning,
and you know, like, hey, here's a third dog. Might
not have gone over so well, and I'm not sure
(23:57):
it did at first, but the dog was so beautiful
and so wonderful that I was saying to her, like, look,
if we can't handle it, Like, if we take this
dog back to the shelter today, he'll get adopted today,
Like she's a beautiful, wonderful, sweet animal, and she'll go
like that as she did.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
And now, I bet your wife would give up you
before she would give up a hundred.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
I mean that happened with then, like she was like,
we're not giving the dog up. I'm just irritated. And
then by the next day she's like, I'm not irritated
anymore for so much.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Yeah, but there really is something to be said.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
I mean, I don't have human children. I have all
my as I call them my fur angels surrounding me.
They're looking at me right now too. And I've got
my horses out in the pastures, and they really during
COVID when we couldn't be near humans, I never felt lonely, Ben,
I really didn't. I just had them over and I
never even when you're sad and depressed and we all
go through that, I look at them and it's just
(24:51):
like lifted right.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Yeah, my previous dog, Rookie, who's the greatest dog. Sorry, Baba,
you're close, You're so close. Yeah, cover the years, thankfully,
She can't really here, and she doesn't care. She's like, hey, man,
I am what I am. She's very she's very. Yeah. Yeah,
they all these, all four of our dogs, but Rookie
more than any. It was the first animal I'd had
who always knew my mood. I mean it was just amazing,
(25:14):
you know, and I'd come down for a frustrating day,
I'd sigh and wherever that dog was get, I'd sigh.
That dog came over and you know, put his head
on my lap, like what do I need to do?
And then I'd get you know, I watch a lot
of I'm a huge sports fan. I'd gamble and I
you know, get a little irritated, and and Rookie would
be like, I'm going upstairs, not into this, like I'm not,
(25:36):
and I'm like no, no, it was good. It was
good Rookie. And she did need to be like see.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
You later, yeah, taking the que off.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
I'd bring Rookie to I played softball a lot. I
would love to again, getting old, but and we was
in a league in Santa Monica. It's like slow pitch,
you know, an idiot league. But uh, we played League
C minus. Give you an idea of how top tier
we were, but I'd bring Rookie because I was like, oh,
it's great a bunch of guys sitting around and put
dog in the hart Bok. He always loved to take
a ride anywhere, put in the car. But Rookie at softball,
(26:04):
like you'd tie him to a fence the field and
he would turn his back to play like he didn't
like it because it was men emotional, you know, they
hit it and ohoa and all the things that he
associated with me yelling at the TV, you know, because
I couldn't get a back. It was too much for him. Yea, yeah, yeah,
he woudn't even get out of the car.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
So I love that name Rookie. I might have to
steal that for my next rescue steal away.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
My favorite baseball player had one great season his rookie year.
So I've named a couple of books after variations of
Mitchell Page as well.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
These are such great stories and such a great message
to our audience all over the world about taking in
these wonderful creatures and how they really do rescue.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Us, even the stuff that you don't want to do,
the cleaning up after him and taking him to even
this morning, like they somehow were outside playing and it
didn't even rain, but somehow, I must the sprinkler went off. Anyway,
two of them came in incredibly muddy, and they like
ran through the house and they tracked the mud through
and I don't know, Yes, it was a pain in
the ass, but I was like you just I don't know,
you're like looking after him, like you clean up, even
(27:02):
when you have to pick up after him. I always
think I'm taking care of him. I'm taking care of things.
You know, this is my job, and I never big picture.
Of course, in moments you might get irritated, but big
picture has made me a better person, there's just no question.
A more thoughtful person and a more patient person. And
I'm definitely know a more loving person and a much
better caretaker for humans because I take care of these guys.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Oh well, that is such a wonderful endorsement for everyone
to be a perfect pet parent and to want to
go out and rescue an animal right now. Oh, Ben,
I can't thank you enough. I know you have to
run to a very important engagement downtown LA, and I
know the traffic there, so we're not going to keep
you any longer. But Ben Mankowitz Turner classic movies, wonderful
(27:45):
animal advocate, great voice.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
I do have a crush on you. I can't thank
you enough for taking the time to be on Rapidport
to the Rescue.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
This was just great, well.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Great Joe, and I hope we can figure something out
between you and organization and TCM too great.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
So thanks, that would be wonderful and happy and healthy
holidays to you and your beautiful family on two and
four legs.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
Not Dan you as well.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Thanks Jill, thank you, and thank you all for joining
us today this very special edition of RAPP Report to
the Rescue.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on Petlife
Radio dot com.
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