Classic Conversations: Pop culture Interviews with Jeff Dwoskin

Kathy Garver has spent 60 years as one of television's most beloved figures, and she shows no signs of slowing down.

Best known as Sissy Davis on Family Affair, Kathy reflects on why the show has never truly left the cultural conversation, what it was like to nearly lose the role to The Brady Bunch, and how she went from child actress to Grammy-nominated audiobook narrator. She also reveals the details on her upcoming hosting gig, a new book about Hollywood love stories, and a Pollyanna film she is producing in Australia.

Show Highlights:

Family Affair is celebrating its 60th anniversary with a four-hour block of eight Sissy-focused episodes airing on Catchy Classics, hosted by Kathy herself.

CBS canceled the show at the height of its popularity, and ABC was set to pick it up until The Brady Bunch swooped in and borrowed more than a few of its ideas.

Kathy was Grammy-nominated for narrating the audiobook Elvis, Rocky and Me and lost only to the Dalai Lama, a fact she has clearly not fully accepted.

Her new book Romancing with the Stars, co-authored with Doug Hartline, profiles 27 Hollywood couples and pairs their love stories with real travel guides so readers can recreate the romance.

Kathy is producing a new Pollyanna film shooting in Australia, playing Mrs. Snow alongside a lead actress with 25 million TikTok followers.

Excited to have Kathy Garver return to Classic Conversations!
You're going to love my conversation with Kathy Garver

Kathy's website

IMDB

Facebook

Instagram

Romancing with the Stars (book)

Elvis Rocky and Me (audio book)

Follow Jeff Dwoskin (host):

Jeff Dwoskin on Twitter

The Jeff Dwoskin Show podcast on Twitter

Podcast website

Podcast on Instagram

Subscribe to my Youtube channel

Yes, the show used to be called Live from Detroit: The Jeff Dwoskin Show

Ways to support the show:

Buy me a coffee (support the show)

Dashery/TeePublic Store: Classic Conversations merch and more!

Love the books I talk about on the show? Here is my Amazon store to shop.

SPONSOR: STAMPEDE SOCIAL Drive engagement from your social channels and podcast with Stampede Social's Instagram and Facebook DM automation! Visit https://stampede.social Also check out: Why Instagram + Stampede Social Is the Growth Strategy Podcasters Need in 2025 (and Beyond)
Thanks for checking out Classic Conversations! Dive into pop culture nostalgia with comedian Jeff Dwoskin as he hosts the best TV and film interviews. Hear inspiring stories from actors, comedians, musicians, and pop culture icons about the road to success. Part comedy, part drama—always entertaining.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jennifer Elise Cox didn't just play Jan Brady in The Brady Bunch Movie, she became her.

From landing the role on her very first film audition to sharing a wig with RuPaul, Jennifer brings the same infectious energy and razor-sharp comedic timing to this conversation that made her an icon. She talks about being directed by Betty Thomas, keeping a straight face across from Christine Taylor, guest starring on Will and Grace with a retainer in her mouth, and improvising alongside Lisa Kudrow on Web Therapy.

Show Highlights:

Jennifer lied about her age to land the Jan Brady role -- and the whole audition almost fell apart before it even started.

RuPaul played Jan's guidance counselor, and the two of them shared something on set that Jennifer still has to this day.

A prop that production gave Jennifer for her Will and Grace appearance turned a serious scene into something Debra Messing could not get through.

Lisa Kudrow's approach to improv on Web Therapy left Jennifer with a take on comedy she still talks about.

When The Brady Bunch came calling a third time, Jennifer had two words for them -- and neither one was "yes."

You're going to love my conversation with Jennifer Elise Cox

IMDB

Instagram

Cameo

Follow Jeff Dwoskin (host):

Jeff Dwoskin on Twitter

The Jeff Dwoskin Show podcast on Twitter

Podcast website

Podcast on Instagram

Subscribe to my Youtube channel

Yes, the show used to be called Live from Detroit: The Jeff Dwoskin Show

Ways to support the show:

Buy me a coffee (support the show)

Dashery/TeePublic Store: Classic Conversations merch and more!

Love the books I talk about on the show? Here is my Amazon store to shop.

SPONSOR: STAMPEDE SOCIAL Drive engagement from your social channels and podcast with Stampede Social's Instagram and Facebook DM automation! Visit https://stampede.social Also check out: Why Instagram + Stampede Social Is the Growth Strategy Podcasters Need in 2025 (and Beyond)
Thanks for checking out Classic Conversations! Dive into pop culture nostalgia with comedian Jeff Dwoskin as he hosts the best TV and film interviews. Hear inspiring stories from actors, comedians, musicians, and pop culture icons about the road to success. Part comedy, part drama—always entertaining.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Rich Little has done impressions of presidents, Rat Pack legends, and Hollywood royalty for decades, but the stories behind those performances are even more entertaining than the impressions themselves.

The man of a thousand voices sits down to share what it was really like performing in front of the very people he was imitating, the moments that went sideways, and what keeps him performing in Las Vegas to this day.

Show Highlights:

What happened when Frank Sinatra quietly appeared onstage while Rich was in the middle of doing Frank Sinatra.

The very specific coaching George Burns and Jack Benny each gave Rich on how to imitate them better.

Why Rich Little finished an entire episode of The Muppet Show with a rash on his face.

The moment at the Dean Martin Roasts when Rich tried to teach Jimmy Stewart how to do his own impression.

How Rich Little's swearing-in as a US citizen left him genuinely unsure who had just become an American.

You're going to love my conversation with Rich Little

Facebook

IMDB

Richlittlevegas.com

Rich's autobiography: People I've Known and Been

Follow Jeff Dwoskin (host):

Jeff Dwoskin on Twitter

The Jeff Dwoskin Show podcast on Twitter

Podcast website

Podcast on Instagram

Subscribe to my Youtube channel

Yes, the show used to be called Live from Detroit: The Jeff Dwoskin Show

Ways to support the show:

Buy me a coffee (support the show)

Dashery/TeePublic Store: Classic Conversations merch and more!

Love the books I talk about on the show? Here is my Amazon store to shop.

SPONSOR: STAMPEDE SOCIAL Drive engagement from your social channels and podcast with Stampede Social's Instagram and Facebook DM automation! Visit https://stampede.social Also check out: Why Instagram + Stampede Social Is the Growth Strategy Podcasters Need in 2025 (and Beyond)
Thanks for checking out Classic Conversations! Dive into pop culture nostalgia with comedian Jeff Dwoskin as he hosts the best TV and film interviews. Hear inspiring stories from actors, comedians, musicians, and pop culture icons about the road to success. Part comedy, part drama—always entertaining.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From a gapped-tooth kid who dreamed of Hollywood to the woman who gave Kim Kardashian her first TV appearance and generated over a million dollars a day on home shopping, Dr. Forbes Riley has built one of the most extraordinary careers in entertainment and sales history.

In this conversation, Forbes opens up about the acting career that took her from Splatter University to Broadway opposite Christopher Reeve, the pitching philosophy that turned her into a $2.5 billion force in infomercial history, and why her brand new book, Pitch Secrets A to Z, is really a life skills manual disguised as a business book.

Show Highlights:

The story behind how Forbes invented her own talent agency, complete with a fictional British manager named Lindsay Maxwell, and booked herself into Broadway, commercials, and movies before anyone found out.

Forbes was the woman in the room when Kim Kardashian filmed her very first television appearance, and she shares what she remembers about that day.

She played Lily Tomlin's iconic one-woman show for six months straight, learning every one of 250 pages through hypnotherapy after nearly quitting the production.

Forbes breaks down a live pitch in real time, getting a yes out of thin air using just a question and an embedded command.

Her philosophy that pitching is not selling but enrolling, and why the people who find it pushy are usually the ones who need it most.

You're going to love my conversation with Forbes Riley

IMDB

Instagram

ForbesRiley.com

Pitch Secrets A to Z by Dr. Forbes Riley

Follow Jeff Dwoskin (host):

Jeff Dwoskin on Twitter

The Jeff Dwoskin Show podcast on Twitter

Podcast website

Podcast on Instagram

Subscribe to my Youtube channel

Yes, the show used to be called Live from Detroit: The Jeff Dwoskin Show

Ways to support the show:

Buy me a coffee (support the show)

Dashery/TeePublic Store: Classic Conversations merch and more!

Love the books I talk about on the show? Here is my Amazon store to shop.

SPONSOR: STAMPEDE SOCIAL Drive engagement from your social channels and podcast with Stampede Social's Instagram and Facebook DM automation! Visit https://stampede.social Also check out: Why Instagram + Stampede Social Is the Growth Strategy Podcasters Need in 2025 (and Beyond)
Thanks for checking out Classic Conversations! Dive into pop culture nostalgia with comedian Jeff Dwoskin as he hosts the best TV and film interviews. Hear inspiring stories from actors, comedians, musicians, and pop culture icons about the road to success. Part comedy, part drama—always entertaining.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Marc Sotkin has written and produced some of the most beloved sitcoms in television history, and the stories behind those shows are even better than the episodes themselves.

From selling underwear in Houston to running the writers room on Golden Girls, Sotkin's career is a masterclass in persistence, instinct, and surviving chaos with a sense of humor.

Show Highlights:

How an underwear salesman from Texas talked his wife into moving to Hollywood and somehow made it work.

The $15 quiz show question that was rewritten before it ever aired, and why it still bothers him.

The secret comedy duo Marc Sotkin formed with a young Gary Shandling before either of them were famous.

The Laverne & Shirley season that included a star quitting, a cast member dying the night before a shoot, and Jim Belushi saving the day.

Why the showrunner of Golden Girls eventually ran the show from Boulder, Colorado, flying in twice a week.

You're going to love my conversation with Marc Sotkin

IMDB

Time Off for Bad Behavior

The Comatose Adventures of Lenny Rose

Kind of Dirty Paris Confessions

Marc's website

Follow Jeff Dwoskin (host):

Jeff Dwoskin on Twitter

The Jeff Dwoskin Show podcast on Twitter

Podcast website

Podcast on Instagram

Subscribe to my Youtube channel

Yes, the show used to be called Live from Detroit: The Jeff Dwoskin Show

Ways to support the show:

Buy me a coffee (support the show)

Dashery/TeePublic Store: Classic Conversations merch and more!

Love the books I talk about on the show? Here is my Amazon store to shop.

SPONSOR: STAMPEDE SOCIAL Drive engagement from your social channels and podcast with Stampede Social's Instagram and Facebook DM automation! Visit https://stampede.social Also check out: Why Instagram + Stampede Social Is the Growth Strategy Podcasters Need in 2025 (and Beyond)
Thanks for checking out Classic Conversations! Dive into pop culture nostalgia with comedian Jeff Dwoskin as he hosts the best TV and film interviews. Hear inspiring stories from actors, comedians, musicians, and pop culture icons about the road to success. Part comedy, part drama—always entertaining.

 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.