Obscurity Knocks

This week's guest is someone who holds a special place in history: he was my very first Random Roles interview. You know Peter Gallagher and/or his eyebrows from such projects as The Idolmaker, The O.C., Summer Lovers, and While You Were Sleeping, in which he played the guy who was sleeping. Oh, right, and he was also in a little movie called Sex, Lies and Videotape. But God forbid we should spend time talking about any of those things...although he does actually sing the word "baby" at one point, so there's that, at least.

Clancy Brown has a voice that may be familiar to you from a plethora of animated series, playing everyone from Mr. Krabs on Spongebob Squarepants to Lex Luthor on various programs in the DC Animated Universe, but in the real world, relatively speaking, he’s also popped up in numerous films and TV series, including Highlander, The Shawshank Redemption, Starship Troopers, Carnivale, and Billions. Naturally, we talked about virtually none of these things in any real detail during the course of the podcast... Okay, fine, we did talk about Highlander for a few minutes. We also took a little time to talk about his new series, Emergence, which joins the ABC lineup on September 24 at 10 p.m. Mostly, though, it was just a whole lot of obscurities. Support Obscurity Knocks on Patreon! 

You’ve almost certainly seen W. Earl Brown's name in the credits of dozens of movies and TV series over the years, including such classics as Scream and There’s Something About Mary, and he’s also a familiar face to fans of HBO’s Deadwood, but it will come as no surprise to regular listeners to this podcast that the only time we talk about any of these projects are - at best - in passing. Fortunately, however, by the time you’ve made it to the end of our conversation, you’ll have heard stories about working Kris Kristofferson, Robin Williams, and Burt Reynolds, playing Meat Loaf, and appearing in Project: ALF. Yes, you read that correctly: Project: ALF. You’re welcome, America.

With appearances in 200 films and on 150+ different TV series, it's hard to imagine that you don't know Richard Riehle from something. Maybe it's Office Space. Perhaps it's Star Trek: The Next Generation. Or Glory. Or Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Or NCIS. We could go on and on (and on and on) with this, but we won't. We'll just offer up this latest episode of Obscurity Knocks and hope that you enjoy it.

Welcome to a special episode - but not a very special episode - of Obscurity Knocks, in which we set aside the usual format in favor of spotlighting an actor whose films and TV appearances were a big part of my childhood: Ike Eisenmann. Ike was one of the stars of the short-lived sci-fi series The Fantastic Journey, which has been pulled out of mothballs (where it never should've been stored in the first place) by GetTV for a marathon of all 10 of its episodes. The first 5 episodes aired on March 12, and the final 5 episodes will kick off Monday, March 19, at midnight...as in one minute after 11:59 pm Sunday night. Just wanted to clarify.

Curtis Armstrong first made his mark in the ‘80s, first thanks to such films as Risky Business, Better Off Dead, and the Revenge of the Nerds franchise, and then transitioning to TV with a supporting role on Moonlighting. Since then, he’s… Well, basically, he’s been in everything ever. I mean, not really, but it seems like it sometimes, so it felt like the most succinct way of summing it up. Anyway, join Curtis as he regales us with tales of Dave Thomas, Debbie Harry, and Desmond Pfieffer before casually dropping the staggering revelation that he unsuccessfully auditioned to play one of the most iconic TV characters of all time. (He's cool with it now, though: even he can't imagine what the series would've been like if he'd gotten it.)

You know Xander Berkeley from so many different things that it's hard to know what an individual's personal point of reference is going to be, but of late he's probably known by most people as Gregory on The Walking Dead. Then again, he was also Magistrate Hale on Salem, Percy on Nikita, and George Mason on 24, all of which were pretty high-profile roles, too. What you almost certainly don't know him for, however, is anything that he talked about on his episode of Obscurity Knocks. Once again, apologies on the sound quality, and apologies on the incredibly lengthy delay because of my sheer embarrasment about the sound quality. There will be more episodes of Obscurity Knocks, rest assured, but not until I have a producer. Stay tuned...and enjoy the episode!

Yes, it's been ages since we last posted an episode - we discuss our absence a bit in a very special intro that's all apologies - but we're back with an episode that was actually reocrded a year ago today. The sound quality varies wildly throughout, but the stories are great, so here's hoping you can endure the sonic shortcomings to enjoy the tales that our guest spins. You probably recognize his face, but if you don't remember his name, it's John Heard, and he's been a working actor since the '70s, and he's never stopped working, spending time on the stage, on TV, and in films. He's a man who isn't afraid to speak his mind, and you'll have proof of that almost as soon as you hit "play." Here's hoping you enjoy the proceedings, and we promise you this: we're going to get better at this. No, seriously, we really are. 

Peter Mackenzie, as you may be aware, is currently a cast member on ABC’s black-ish, and once you listen to this episode, you’ll be so happy for him that he is, because our last few topics of conversation would have you believe that most of the man’s career has involved working on pilots that never got picked up. In fact, he’s been in a lot of great stuff over the years, including films like Trumbo, 42, One Hour Photo, and Lorenzo’s Oil, not to mention more TV series than you can shake a stick at. I also must give all due credit for Peter’s appearance on the show to Michael Price (The Simpsons, F Is for Family), who recommended that I invite him on. They worked together on Homeboys from Outer Space, you know. And, yes, of course we talked about that.

Barry Primus is a character actor's character actor, a fellow who got his start in the theater, went on to work on TV and in film, and has expanded his palette over the years to include writing, directing, and producing. You may know him from his work in New York, New York (not to mention half a dozen other Robert DeNiro movies), his stint on Cagney & Lacey, or films like Heartland, The Rose, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, and Space Camp. Join us as he regales Obscurity Knocks with stories about working with Del Close, George C. Scott, Roger Corman, and Bill Maher, among many others.

John Kapelos is an actor you may know from his work with John Hughes on such iconic ‘80s films as Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, or if you’re a vampire aficionado, you might have watched him in the ‘90s on Forever Knight. But the man has basically been a workaholic since the early ‘80s, as you can tell from the 60+ films and 100+ TV programs he’s popped up on over the years, including – just to cite a few more recent credits – Justified, Modern Family, Transparent, Togetherness, and to keep the folks at home happy, Republic of Doyle.

Kurt Fuller has had so many roles in so many films and TV series over the course of his career that when the time came to introduce him onto Obscurity Knocks, I was so intimidated by the sheer volume of options I had available to me to mention that I actually starred stammering and failed to mention nearly as many of them as I'd intended. Be it Psych or Supernatural, Ghostbusters II or Wayne's World, Miracle Mile or No Holds Barred, Fuller has been all over the place, and he's got one of those faces that you recognize immediately, even if you can't always come up with his name. Maybe that'll change after you listen to our conversation. Perhaps from now on you'll see him and immediately think, "Oh, hey, it's Kurt Fuller from Moonbase!" Nah, I'm just kidding. Nobody's ever said that before, and nobody ever will. And if for some reason they do, Kurt Fuller will have my hide.

Bruce McGill is a man whose list of credits is far too long to list here, but he has a history of making an impression just about every time he turns up in TV and films, whether it’s playing the William Tell Overture by tapping on his throat in Animal House, intimidating the hell out of you in The Insider, or trying to get rich quick and get in trouble even quicker on MacGyver. You can currently catch Mr. McGill in theaters in Ride Along 2, where he reprises his role as Lieutenant Brooks, and he's just kicking off what is unfortunately the final season of Rizzoli & Isles on TNT.

You may remember Mackenzie Astin from his younger days, when he was hanging out with Blair, Tootie, Natalie, and Jo at Edna’s Edibles and Over Our Heads on The Facts of Life, but he's been out of Peekskill for quite some time now. Only last year he could be found squaring off against Jon Hamm during one of the final episodes of Mad Men, and that's far from the only high-profile gig he’s had lately: over the past few years, he’s turned up on Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS, Criminal Minds, Shameless, Bones, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Scorpion, and Castle, among others, and he had a recurring role on Scandal last season that carried over into this season as well. When we talked to him for the debut episode of Obscurity Knocks, he couldn't talk about his latest endeavor, joking that "the nondisclosure agreement I just signed had its own nondisclosure agreement," so just keep your eyes open for him. But that's good advice in general: as you can see from the above list of credits, you never know where that guy is going to show up next!