Conversations with Legendary Television Stars: Interviews from the First Fifty Years

by James Bawden, Ron Miller

During television's first fifty years -- long before cable networks, Hulu, Netflix, and the like -- families would gather around their television sets nightly to watch entertaining shows such as I Love Lucy, Gunsmoke, M*A*S*H, The Beverly Hillbillies, Fantasy Island, and The Rockford Files. Many of the stars of these beloved shows have passed away, but their presence remains intact -- not only through their television show performances, which are still viewed and appreciated today, but also through stories they told in interviews over the years.

Seasoned journalists and authors James Bawden and Ron Miller have captured provocative and entertaining interviews with important figures from TV's first fifty years. These thirty-nine interviews, selected from conversations conducted from 1971--1998, present a fascinating glimpse of some of television's most influential performers. Featured are exclusive interviews with major stars (including Donna Reed, James Garner, and Ricardo Montalban), icons of comedy (including Lucille Ball, George Burns, and Milton Berle), TV hosts (including Dick Clark and Ed Sullivan), and notable musical entertainers (such as Glen Campbell, Mary Martin, and Lawrence Welk). Each chapter of this volume explores the subject's television work -- with detailed behind-the-scenes disclosures -- and includes additional information about the subject's performances in film and on stage.

353 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 8, 2019

About the author

James Bawden was a Toronto Star entertainment columnist for 40 years. Renowned for his distinguished profiles of movie stars and directors, he co-authored three books and wrote for Films in Review and numerous cinema magazines.

Reviews

[Randy Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Entertaining Collection Of Interviews

This is a great book for anyone who grew up watching TV in the 1950s, 60s or 70s. The names of those interviewed will all be instantly familiar, and the things they have to say are interesting and entertaining. It was especially nice to hear from folks like Vivian Vance, Efram Zimbilist Jr., Lawrence Welk and others you don’t often find in books like this. One technical error: in the ebook I read, the chapter for Lorne Greene had Peter Graves name on it (the Graves interview was the previous chapter).

[Joe Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you remember the people in this book, you should enjoy it. The interviews are very light weight however so don't expect anything in depth like the oral history of TV I read earlier. Truthfully this might be too high a rating but it fits nicely into my research about old TV even if it isn't as in depth as I would have hoped. Still you won't read much about these folks who worked in early TV and old movies many other places.