Alec Baldwin's "Here's the Thing"

[Seaviewer]

Australia's ABC Radio National has been playing some of Alec Baldwin's interview series as a summer fill-in.

He talks to, among others, Barbra Streisand, Jerry Seinfeld, Carly Simon, James Cromwell - no fellow former Knots vets as yet, unfortunately.

I've been very impressed by his interview style - or as he would probably have it, conversations.

The episodes are archived at: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/heresthething

Highly recommended.

 

[James from London]

I've been very impressed by his interview style - or as he would probably have it, conversations.

Yeah, he's really, really good - really engaged, really interested in his subjects.

He talks to, among others, Barbra Streisand, Jerry Seinfeld, Carly Simon, James Cromwell - no fellow former Knots vets as yet, unfortunately.

No, but there's a lovely chat with Debbie Reynolds where he talks about working with her makeup artist brother on Knots, and a great one with Julianne Moore where they discuss their soap opera experiences. But some of his most fascinating interviews are with people I've never even heard of - as is often the way with podcasts.

 

[Seaviewer]

In the David Letterman segment, Alec talks about being new in Hollywood and auditioning for Knots Landing at Lorimar.

Strange that he seems to think he was in the Pilot - I assume he's talking about his own first episode. Can he really be unaware even now that the show had been running for five years before he got there?

You can listen to the episode or read the transcript here:

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/heresthething/episodes/216217-david-letterman

 

[James from London]

Can he really be unaware even now that the show had been running for five years before he got there?

In his autobiography, he describes how territorial some of the long-standing cast members were when it came to sharing screentime with newbies like himself (no names mentioned) so he obviously realises that there was Life Before Joshua.

 

[Daniel Avery]

The idea of him interviewing James Cromwell made me giggle. There's an odd sort of "Six Degrees of Daytime" link between them, even if they might not even know it. James Cromwell's wife is the noted (and beloved, by me at least ) daytime actress Anna Stuart. Stuart's first major role in daytime was Toni Ferra Powers on The Doctors. Her character was the older half-sister of Billy Aldrich, played by a succession of child actors when she was on the soap. Years after she departed, the show decided to age Billy to adulthood and recast him with....Alec Baldwin, in what was probably his first TV role.

Strange that he seems to think he was in the Pilot - I assume he's talking about his own first episode

Which, if you recall, was not even the first episode of that season. Though they have AB in the opening titles of the first episode of that season, Joshua didn't turn up until the second episode.

 

[James from London]

The idea of him interviewing James Cromwell made me giggle. There's an odd sort of "Six Degrees of Daytime" link between them, even if they might not even know it. James Cromwell's wife is the noted (and beloved, by me at least ) daytime actress Anna Stuart. Stuart's first major role in daytime was Toni Ferra Powers on The Doctors. Her character was the older half-sister of Billy Aldrich, played by a succession of child actors when she was on the soap. Years after she departed, the show decided to age Billy to adulthood and recast him with....Alec Baldwin, in what was probably his first TV role.

I can't remember if they made that connection -- probably not -- but that was a great interview.