03/15 Robert Conrad talks to you!

The show is all about you! Your letters, your emails and YOUR calls! It's a love-fest between you and Robert Conrad!

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03/08 Phoebe Dorin, The Wild Wild West

Phoebe Dorin (Born June 26, 1940) has been acting since 1963 when she appeared in an episode of General Hospital. Since then she has appeared in dozens of films and TV shows, including episodes of All in the Family, Knots Landing, Yes Dear, and Samantha Who? She is known for her recurring roles in the series Wild Wild West and The Montefuscos.

03/01 Lee Meriwether

Archivists will continually remind you that Lee was successively: Miss San Francisco, Miss California and Miss America. And though most know Lee as “Betty” in the highly successful CBS series, Barnaby Jones, where she co-starred opposite Buddy Ebsen for eight years, and was nominated for both the Golden Globe and the Emmy for her work on that show, Lee has had starring or recurring roles in no less than nine different series, ranging from the first women’s editor with Dave Garroway on the original Today Show on NBC to her three year run as Lily on The Munsters Today for Universal. Some of Lee’s successful series include: Time Tunnel, The New Andy Griffith Show, Mission: Impossible, The F.B.I., 12 O’Clock High, and Dr. Kildare.
Lee was born in Los Angeles and after her brother Don was born 3 years later, the family moved to Phoenix, Arizona. As she was about to enter the fifth grade, her father was transferred to San Francisco. Her memories of childhood are happy ones. She had the usual teenage frustrations but was encouraged to pursue acting while attending George Washington High School along with another young and talented student that fame would touch – Johnny Mathis. Johnny fondly remembers Lee as the girl he never saw without her hair in rollers.

Lee won the pageant titles while attending San Francisco City College as a Radio and TV/Theatre Arts major. She had been nominated by a fraternity there. “I never would have entered on my own.” Everyone, especially Lee, was shocked when she won. Ironically, she almost didn’t make it to Atlantic City. A short time before the competition, her father passed away, and she felt as though, “the whole world had dropped out from under me.” Thank Heavens for Mom who reminded her of the lost scholarships and her father’s personal excitement over the pageant and his eagerness for her participation. The rest is history. Lee’s mother remained a very important part of her life. As she says, “I looked to her for guidance and support and she always gave it unselfishly. Heavens, she practically raised my daughters while I was doing Barnaby Jones for eight years.”

Following her year’s reign as Miss America, Lee joined The Today Show. This experience afforded her the opportunity to use her pageant scholarships to study acting with the famed teacher Lee Strasburg, as well as dancing, singing, and fencing with some of the top coaches in New York. Lee’s beginnings in the entertainment industry include her first TV role – The Philco Television Playhouse" with Mary Astor, her first motion picture lead – The 4-D Man with Robert Lansing, and her first professional stage appearance – Hatful of Rain with William Smithers and Lou Antonio.

Her noteworthy film roles include “Catwoman” in the original Batman movie. She also portrayed Andy Griffith’s pregnant wife in Angel in My Pocket, as well as Rock Hudson’s southern wife in The Undefeated. Lee “swam” with Namu, The Killer Whale and has a great deal of fun in reminding film buffs that she played the “man” killed by Kim Novak in The Legend of Lylah Clare.

Live theatre, however, continues to be Lee’s first love. Attesting to that fact is her long association with Theatre West, a professional actors’ workshop in Hollywood. Of the countless appearances she made at T.W., three stand out in her memory: Spoon River Anthology with Betty Garrett, Aesop in Central Park with Richard Dreyfuss and Ladies of Hanover Towers with Carroll O’Connor. She appeared there in the 40th Reunion production of Spoon River in the role that Ms. Garrett originally portrayed.

An assortment of her recent national stage credits include: the female version of The Odd Couple (two productions), Last Summer at Blue Fish Cove for which she received the Drama Logue Award for Best Actress as well as the San Francisco Critics Award. The Business of Murder with Van Johnson, Sondheim’s Follies with seven former Miss Americas, a national tour with Anthony Zerbe and Roy Dotrice of Country Matters (Sex and Shakespeare!) and most recently productions of the musicals Hello Dolly, Mame, The King and I with George Chakiris, and I Do, I Do, Pirates of Penzance and the 20th Anniversary Tour of Nunsense with Kaye Ballard, Mimi Hines, Georgia Engel and Darlene Love. And four national tours of Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite with her husband, Marshall Borden.

Lee met Marshall in San Antonio where they both starred in a production of Angel Street ("Gaslight"). When, over the next few years, they found themselves appearing together in Lion in Winter and Alone Together, they decided that working side by side was simply not enough. So, in San Francisco on September 21 1986, while performing in one of Marshall’s plays The Artful Lodgers, they tied the knot. In Lodgers they both got to “chew some scenery.” Lee as a drunken floozie and Marshall as a 150-year-old flighty ghost sporting a large moustache, smoking a cigar and wearing an Erte gown! She must really love this man for, as she says, “There he was, looking better in a dress than I do and I still wanted to marry him!”

Lee also loves working with her daughters, Kyle Oldham and Lesley Aletter. Kyle appeared with her mother in The Gingerbread Lady and Last Summer at Bluefish Cove, and Lesley stunt doubled for her in the television travel show It’s a Wonderful World. Both daughters swung high over the center ring with their mom in several Circus of the Stars, and all have done commercials together. Obviously, Lee is happiest around family, whether it’s at work or play.
The future looks to be quite busy for the Borden household. Marshall, a playwright as well, sold his adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo to the National Theatre of Canada in Stratford, Ontario and played for 90 performances in their 2004 season! He is now busy writing the novel of his movie script of The Artful Lodgers, a television series proposal and a musical version of The Count. Lee has kept busy appearing in Love Letters with Beau Bridges, Long Day's Journey into Night; and Rockers by Sherwood Schwartz. She finished a second tour of Nunsense which began at Theatre West with Betty Garrett, Bridget Hanley, Barbara Mallory, Rhonda Stovey and Sandra Tucker. Along with her love of theatre, Lee has enjoyed one of the most difficult acting jobs of her career. Reading John Saul’s gothic thrillers, Second Child, Shadows, Guardian, Black Lightning, the serialized Blackstone Chronicles, The Presence, The Right Hand Of Evil, Nightshade, The Manhattan Hunt Club, Midnight Voices and Black Creek Crossing. The last nine were under Random House’s Audio Publishing. She has adapted the Spoon River Anthology ino a one-woman production where she plays 24 women. This show, entitled The Women of Spoon River: Their Voices from the Hill premiered at the Robinson Theater on the Indiana University Southeast campus in New Albany, Indiana followed by a run of several weeks at Theatre West.

Her favorite role? That of Grandma! Kyle gave birth to daughter Ryan in December 1993. Grandma Lee is always available and eager to take her shopping or to the movies, etc. If she can get her away from Auntie Lesley, that is.

Even when she’s on stage, in front of a camera, or family outings Lee can always be counted on to have several other activities going on simultaneously. She is active with a number of humanitarian endeavors and charities. She still serves as Honorary Chairman of ABILITY FIRST (formally the Crippled Children’s Society). She was an honorary member of Women in Show Business, a Philanthropic organization that funded reconstructive surgery for needy children and was twice named their “Angel of the Year.” She has also served as National Education Chairman of the American Cancer Society and as the Los Angeles Chairman for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. For many years now there has been a special place in her heart for the Blind Children's Center, and the Jeffrey Foundation and the pet organization, “Actors and Others for Animals.”

02/23 Freddy Cannon

Freddy Picariello was born in Swampscott, Massachusetts, moving to the neighboring town of Lynn as a child. His father worked as a truck driver and also played trumpet and sang in local bands. Freddy grew up listening to the rhythm and blues music of Big Joe Turner, Buddy Johnson and others on the radio, and learned to play guitar. After attending Lynn Vocation High School, he made his recording debut in 1955, singing and playing rhythm guitar on a single, "Cha-Cha-Do" by the Spindrifts, which became a local hit. He also played lead guitar on a session for an R&B vocal group, The G-Clefs, whose record "Ka-Ding Dong" made No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1956. At a young age he joined the National Guard, took a job driving a truck, married, and became a father.

Inspired musically by Chuck Berry and Little Richard, he formed his own group, Freddy Karmon & the Hurricanes, which became increasingly popular in the Boston area, and began to develop a trademark strained singing style. He also became a regular on a local TV dance show, Boston Ballroom, and, in 1958, signed up to a management contract with Boston disc jockey Jack McDermott. With lyrics written by his mother, he prepared a new song which he called "Rock and Roll Baby", and produced a demo which McDermott took to the writing and production team of Bob Crewe and Frank Slay. They rearranged the song and rewrote the lyrics, and offered to produce a recording in return for two-thirds of the composing credits. The first recording of the song, now titled "Tallahassee Lassie", with a guitar solo by session musician Kenny Paulson, was rejected by several record companies, but was then heard by TV presenter Dick Clark who part-owned Swan Records in Philadelphia. Clark suggested that the song be re-edited and overdubbed to add excitement, by highlighting the pounding bass drum sound and adding hand claps and Freddy's cries of "whoo!", which later became one of his trademarks. The single was finally released by Swan Records, with the company president, Bernie Binnick, suggesting Freddy's new stage name of "Freddy Cannon". After being promoted and becoming successful in Boston and Philadelphia, the single gradually received national airplay. In 1959, it peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the first of his 22 songs to appear on the Billboard chart, and also reached No. 13 on the R&B singles chart. In the UK, where his early records were issued on the Top Rank label, it reached No. 17.

He stayed on the Swan label with producer Frank Slay for the next five years, and became known as Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon, for the thumping power of his recordings. Dick Clark brought him national exposure through his numerous appearances on his television program, American Bandstand - a record of 110 appearances in total. In the words of writer Cub Koda:
"Freddy Cannon was a true believer, a rocker to the bone. Freddy Cannon made rock & roll records; great noisy rock & roll records, and all of them were infused with a gigantic drum beat that was an automatic invitation to shake it on down anyplace there was a spot to dance."
His second single "Okefenokee" (credited to Freddie Cannon, as were several of his other records) only made No. 43 on the charts, but the next record, "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans", a rocked-up version of a 1922 song, became a gold record and reached No. 3 in the pop charts in both the US and the UK, where it was the biggest of his hits. Cannon toured in Britain, and in March 1960 his album, The Explosive Freddy Cannon, became the first LP by a rock and roll singer to top the album charts in the UK. For the next two years, until early 1962, he continued to have lesser chart hits in the US, in some cases with versions of old standards including "Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy" and Edward "Kid" Ory's "Muskrat Ramble". His hits also included "Twistin' All Night Long", recorded with Danny and the Juniors and also featuring Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons on backing vocals. However, one of his biggest hits came in May 1962 with "Palisades Park", written by future TV Gong Show host Chuck Barris. Produced by Slay with overdubbed rollercoaster sound effects, it reached No. 3 on the Hot 100, No. 15 on the R&B chart, and No. 20 in the UK.

Cannon also appeared with Bobby Vee, Johnny Tillotson and others, in the movie Just for Fun, made in the UK in 1962. Although his popularity in the US faded, he remained a popular touring act in Britain and elsewhere in the world for some years. In 1963 he signed for Warner Bros. Records where he recorded his last two US top twenty hits, "Abigail Beecher" in 1964, and the following year "Action", from Dick Clark's TV show Where the Action Is, which he recorded with top Los Angeles session musicians including Leon Russell, James Burton, Glen Campbell, and David Gates. Also in 1965, Slay acquired Cannon's Swan recordings and sold them to Warner Bros. He appeared, along with The Beau Brummels, in Village of the Giants, a teen movie with early film appearances by Beau Bridges and Ron Howard, and played himself, and performed one of his songs, in the final episode of the teen soap opera, Never Too Young, on 24 June 1966. After leaving Warner Bros. Records in 1967, Cannon released singles on several labels, including Sire, Royal American, Metromedia, MCA, Andee, Claridge, Horn, and Amherst. In the 1970s he recorded and became a promotional man for Buddah Records, but returned to the lower reaches of the charts in 1981 with "Let's Put the Fun Back in Rock'n'Roll," recorded with The Belmonts for MiaSound Records and in 1982 appeared in the independent movie, The Junkman. Thereafter, he continued to work with Dick Clark at his Bandstand reunion concerts, and to tour all over the world. In 2002, he released an album of seasonal songs, Have A Boom Boom Christmas!!

A resident of Tarzana, California, Cannon continues to put on performances at assorted concert venues. He has complete control and ownership of his Swan and Warner Bros. masters.

02/16 Lynda Carter

Lynda Jean Carter (born July 24, 1951) is an American actress and singer, best known for being Miss World USA and as the star of the 1970s television series The New Original Wonder Woman (1975–77) and The New Adventures of Wonder Woman (1977–79).

Carter was born Lynda Jean Carter in Phoenix, Arizona. Her father, Colby Carter, is an art dealer of English descent and her mother, Juana Córdova, is of Mexican descent with roots in Chihuahua, Mexico and previously worked in the telephone industry. Lynda speaks fluent Spanish. Carter grew up an avid reader of the Wonder Woman comic books. She went to Arcadia High School in Phoenix and Kachina Elementary School.

During high school, Carter performed in a band called Just Us, consisting of a marimba, a conga drum, an acoustic guitar, and a stand-up bass played by another girl. When she was 17, Lynda joined two of her cousins in another band called The Relatives. Actor Gary Burghoff was the drummer. The group opened at the Sahara Hotel and Casino lounge in Las Vegas, Nevada, for three months; and, because Lynda was under 21, she had to enter through the kitchen. She attended Arizona State University and was a member of Alpha Xi Delta. After being voted "Most Talented," she dropped out to pursue a career in music. In 1970, Carter sang with The Garfin Gathering with Lynda Carter. Their first performance was in a San Francisco hotel so new that it had no sidewalk entrance. Consequently, they played mostly to the janitors and hotel guests who parked their cars in the underground garage. She returned to Arizona in 1972.

In 1972, Carter entered a local beauty contest and gained national attention in the United States by winning Miss World USA, representing Arizona; in the international 1972 Miss World pageant, representing the U.S., she reached the semi-finals. After taking acting classes at several New York acting schools, she began making appearances on such TV shows as Starsky and Hutch, Cos, and Nakia and in "B-movies," including her only nude appearance, in Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw (1976).

Carter's acting career took off when she landed the starring role in The New Adventures of Wonder Woman as Wonder Woman and her alter ego Diana Prince. The savings her parents had set aside for her to pursue acting in Los Angeles was almost depleted, and she was close to returning to Arizona when her manager informed her that she had won the part. Her earnest performance endeared her to fans and critics, and the series lasted three seasons. Thirty years after first taking on the role, Carter continues to be closely identified with Wonder Woman.
In 1985, DC Comics named Carter as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great for her work on the Wonder Woman series. In 2007, toy company DC Direct released a 13" full-figure statue of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman, limited to 5,000 pieces; it was re-released in 2010. Also in 2010, DC Direct began selling a 5½-inch bust of Carter's rendition of Wonder Woman to celebrate the DC Comics' 75th anniversary.

During the late 1970s, she recorded an album, Portrait. Carter is credited as a co-writer on several songs, and she made numerous guest appearances on variety television programs at the time in a musical capacity. She also sang two of her songs in the 1979 Wonder Woman episode, "Amazon Hot Wax".

Carter's other credits include the title role in a biopic of Rita Hayworth, titled Rita Hayworth, Love Goddess (1983) and a variety of her own TV specials: Lynda Carter's Special (1980), Encore! (1980), Celebration (1981), Street Life (1982), and Body And Soul (1984). She starred in a few short-lived TV series, including Partners in Crime (1984) with Loni Anderson and Hawkeye (1994–95) with Lee Horsley. During this time, she also became a celebrity promotional model for Maybelline cosmetics commercials.

In 2001, Carter was cast in the independent comedy feature Super Troopers as Vermont Governor Jessman. The writers and stars of the film, the comedy troupe Broken Lizard, with Jay Chandrasekhar directing, had specifically sought Carter for the role. Inspired by the character detour from her usual roles, she agreed to play a washed-up former beauty queen in The Creature of the Sunny Side Up Trailer Park (2004), directed by Christopher Coppola. Carter made her first appearance in a major feature film in a number of years in the big-screen remake of The Dukes of Hazzard (2005), also directed by Chandrasekhar. She also appeared in the comedy Sky High (2005) as "Principal Powers", the head of a school for superheroes. The script allowed Carter to poke fun at her most famous character when she states: "I can't do anything more to help you. I'm not Wonder Woman, y'know." In 2006, she guest-starred in the made-for-cable vampire film Slayer. The following year, Lynda returned to the DC Comics' television world in the Smallville episode "Progeny" (2007) playing Chloe Sullivan's Kryptonite-empowered mother.

From September to November 2005, Carter played Mama Morton in the West End London production of Chicago. In 2006, her rendition of "When You're Good to Mama" was officially released on the Chicago: 10th Anniversary Edition CD box set. In May 2007, Carter began touring the U.S. with her one-woman musical cabaret show, An Evening with Lynda Carter. She has played engagements at such venues as Feinstein's At Loews Regency in New York, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. In June 2009, her second album, "At Last", was released and reached #10 on Billboard's Jazz Albums Chart.

In June 2011, Carter released her third album, "Crazy Little Things", which she describes as delightful mix of standards, country, and pop tunes.