Not what you’d call an under-achiever -- Howard Michael Gould has been a TV writer, a screenwriter, showrunner, TV and film director, copywriter, playwright, and novelist. A varied background with great stories about running Cybil Shepherd’s sitcom of horror and an amazing association with Mike Nichols.
Well that was great fun! Howard (then "Howie") was my frat
ReplyDeletebrother at Amherst, and we chatted some years ago when he
had a kid looking at colleges -- I was reading your blog back
then and learned that he knew you.
Looking forward to Part 2!
Great interview. But odd miking on your outro.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting podcast. I noticed that a lot of Ken's blog readers commented that they really don't listen to podcasts. Apparently too time-consuming. I would encourage them to at least give each weekly offering a 5 minute listen to see if their interest is peaked. Ken's podcasts aren't that long. He ferrets out the interesting stuff from his guests and keeps it moving. It is easy to multitask while listening. You are certainly missing out on some interesting stories and, at times, life lessons if you are not tuning in. Just my opinion....
ReplyDeleteI meant "piqued" not "peaked" - right? This is a pretty literate group...so I guess I better start editing my posts. Oh well....
ReplyDeleteA little late on the Jeopardy posts.... In 1991 I won $116,500 on a syndicated incarnation of $100,000 Pyramid (back when you had to be one of the three fastest players to enter the quarterly $100K tournament). Afterwards, I can't tell you how many people said, "Yeah, but you have to pay taxes on it." And then there was the coworker who asked me if the audition included "acting out what you'd do if you win."
ReplyDeleteGould was much kinder to Cybill Shepherd than other accounts have been. I thought he made some fair points in her defense...although it's probably easier for him, since he wasn't the one she had fired (as other accounts have it).
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Very entertaining interview and Michael seems very humble with his success. Looking forward to Part 2.
ReplyDeleteThis was a wonderful conversation. The stories he had of Mike Nichols reminded me a little bit of your memories of Larry Gelbart, the respect for writers and such. It was really fascinating that Gould's play reminded Nichols of Pinter's Betrayal. If memory serves, Nichols final Broadway directing credit was a revival of Betrayal starring Daniel Craig and Rachael Weitz.
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