TV Guidance Counselor Episode 562: Rockne S. O'Bannon

April 29 - May 5, 1967

This week Ken welcomes director, producer and writer (Evil, Farscape, The New Twilight Zone, V, Seaquest DSV) Rockne S. O'Bannon to the show. 

Ken and Rockne discuss Ken's long time love of Rockne's work and how often it comes up on the show, 1967, the amazing nature of not aging since 1967, the boom of sci-fi TV in 1966, Film reboots of classic TV shows, quantum entanglement, growing up in LA, Rockne's mother being a Busby Barkley dancer, Rockne's father being a gaffer at Warner Brothers, writing your first pilot script at age 10 for The Boy from U.N.C.L.E., realizing people make television at an early age, Isaac Asimov's essay on how sexy Mr. Spock is, Lawrence Welk swimsuit issue, innovation in animal training, Raven with a Gun, writing for streaming shows and dealing with not needing the convention ad break structure, Sci-Fi Channel movie templates, Laugh-In, Hollywood Teletype, commissioned art, the rise of hippy culture in the mainstream, TV Guide's incredibly detailed listings for everything including reruns and sports, Frankenstein Jr, Space Angel, Clutch Cargo, The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke shows status as the greatest TV sitcom ever, Pistols & Petticoats, Gunsmoke, Tom Skerrit's week, The Avengers, Johnny Carson reruns, Saturday Night Live, TV shows about television, It's About Time, Ed Sullivan, the pre-muppet Muppets, Roger Miller's variety show, FBI, Rockne's Dad taking home TV scripts for him to study, the horror of pay tv, white guys as Native Americans, westerns, Steve Allen's invention of everything, Mr. Terrific, Captain Nice, Buck Henry, Get Smart!, The New Twilight Zone, "Wordplay", "The Shadow Man", Darkroom with James Coburn, Joey Bishop, Don Herbert is Mr. Wizard, TV Close Ups, The National Science Test, The Saint, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Girl from U.N.C.L.E., Red Skelton, The Invaders, pinkies, playing it cool around celebrities, Albert Brooks, Night of the Meek, The Afterhours, Fame is the Name of the Game, Lost in Space, Batman '66, Fringe, Evil, time travel, Time Tunnel, being the new Irwin Allen by mistake, gadgets, I Spy, Wild Wild West, Honey West, Green Hornet, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, F Troop, Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker's chemistry, not wanting to talk to Milton Berle, short lived shows that had an outsized impact on pop culture, the power of villains, vigilantes, Bob & Ray, Tim Conway, "you're very pleased to meet me", Patrick McNee's secrets to life, nudists, Mod Tampons, TV Teletype, and Chuck Connors, as a Cowboy in Africa.