8/30 Larry Manetti talks with Robert Loggia!

Loggia was a radio and TV anchor in Southern Command Network in the Panama Canal Zone. Loggia first came to prominence playing real-life American lawman Elfego Baca in a 1958 series of Walt Disney television shows. He starred as the proverbial cat-burglar-turned-good in a short-lived series called T.H.E. Cat. In 1972 he played Frank Carver on the CBS soap opera The Secret Storm.[5] His many television credits include appearances on Frasier, Overland Trail, Target: The Corruptors!, The Eleventh Hour, Breaking Point, Combat!, Custer, Columbo, Ellery Queen, Starsky and Hutch, Charlie's Angels, The Rockford Files (three times as three different characters), Magnum, P.I., Quincy ME, The Sopranos, Monk, Oliver Stone's miniseries Wild Palms and Little House on the Prairie.

His film roles include An Officer and a Gentleman, Mercy Mission: The Rescue of Flight 771, based on the Air New Zealand Flight 103 incident, Scarface, Prizzi's Honor, Over The Top, Independence Day, Necessary Roughness, Return to Me, Armed and Dangerous, and Big (for which he won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor).

In 1985, Loggia was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of crusty private detective Sam Ransom in the thriller Jagged Edge. He was nominated for an Emmy in 1989 for his portrayal of FBI agent Nick Mancuso in the TV series Mancuso, FBI, a follow up to the previous year's miniseries Favorite Son. Loggia appeared as mobsters in multiple films including Sykes in Disney's Oliver & Company (1988), Salvatore 'The Shark' Macelli in John Landis' Innocent Blood and Mr. Eddy in David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997) and The Don's Analyst (1997).

In 1998, Loggia appeared in a television commercial lampooning obscure celebrity endorsements. In it, a young boy names Loggia as someone he would trust to recommend Minute Maid orange-tangerine blend; Robert Loggia instantly appears and endorses the drink, to which the boy exclaims, "Whoa, Robert Loggia!"[6] The commercial was later referenced in an episode of Malcolm in the Middle in which Loggia made a guest appearance as "Grandpa Victor" (for which he received his second Emmy nomination); Loggia drinks some orange juice, then spits it out and complains about the pulp. In a similar vein, Loggia has been parodied on an episode of the show Family Guy titled "Peter's Two Dads." Loggia also played a violent mobster named Feech La Manna on a few episodes of the series The Sopranos.

In addition to his role in Oliver & Company (1988), Loggia has had several other voice acting roles. A recurring role on the Adult Swim animated comedy Tom Goes to the Mayor, as crooked cop Ray Machowski in the video game Grand Theft Auto III, as Admiral Petrarch in FreeSpace 2, as the narrator of the Scarface: The World is Yours game adaptation, and in the anime movie A Dog of Flanders (1997).[7]

In August 2009, Loggia appeared in one of Apple's Get a Mac advertisements. The advertisement features Loggia as a personal trainer hired by PC to get him back on top of his game.

On October 26, 2009, TVGuide.com announced Loggia joined the cast of the TNT series Men of a Certain Age.[8] The role had him teaming up again with his Necessary Roughness co-star Scott Bakula.

In 2010, he was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in recognition of his humanitarian efforts.

8/23 Larry Manetti talks with Carol Burnett!

Carol Burnett started in show business as an occasional stage actress, sometimes nightclub singer, and more often a hatcheck girl. After a few years barely making ends meet, 22-year-old Burnett first appeared on television in 1955, playing the dummy's romantic interest in 13 episodes of The Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Show, a kids' program that aired on Saturday mornings (Winchell was a ventriloquist, Mahoney was his dummy). At 23, she was cast as Buddy Hackett's girlfriend on Stanley, a NBC prime time sitcom set among workers at a hotel's newsstand, and written by Neil Simon and Woody Allen, among others. At 23½, she found herself unemployed when the program was cancelled, and for a time she worked as an usher at a Hollywood movie theater.

Burnett bounced back with a parody pop song, "I Made a Fool of Myself Over John Foster Dulles," confessing her love for the utterly unsexy, 68-year-old Secretary of State who is now best remembered as the namesake for Dulles Airport outside Washington DC. The song became a minor pop hit after Burnett sang it on Jack Paar's Tonight Show in 1957.

After that, she was a frequent panelist on the game show Pantomime Quiz. In 1959, she joined the ensemble cast of The Garry Moore Show, a popular comedy-variety hour, while concurrently starring on Broadway in the musical-comedy Once Upon a Mattress, based on the children's story The Princess and the Pea. In a memorable Twilight Zone, she played a klutzy but contented single woman offered a life of glamour by her guardian angel. She had a recurring role as a tough female Marine in Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C., becoming good friends with its star Jim Nabors, who was later her traditional first guest every season on her variety show. Burnett appeared in several episodes of her friend Lucille Ball's The Lucy Show, and she was a regular on the mid-1960s variety show The Entertainers with Art Buchwald and Bob Newhart. After that show ended, Ball offered to produce a sitcom for her, but Burnett declined, fearing she might feel stifled playing the same character week after week.

Instead, Burnett and her husband, producer Joe Hamilton, crafted a variety hour around her talents. The Carol Burnett Show premiered in 1967, ran for eleven years and won 22 Emmys. Recurring sketches included the tight-skirted secretary Mrs. Wiggins, the Southern-fried bitch Eunice of Mama's Family (later spun off to its own sitcom), and the bad actress star of the soap opera parody As the Stomach Turns. There were also spoofs of classic movies, most memorably Burnett as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, wearing a dress made from the drapes -- complete with curtain rod (the dress was maniacally designed by Bob Mackie). For no particular reason, she would occasionally belt out a Tarzan yell, and at some point in every show Burnett would take questions from the audience, usually coming up with an answer that was either heartwarming or hilarious.

Burnett had perfect chemistry with her supporting cast, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, and Lyle Waggoner, and through the show's first seven seasons there were no cast changes. When Waggoner left he was replaced with Tim Conway for the eighth and subsequent seasons. The show was always funny but never mean or risqué, and in an era with only three channels, audiences of all ages tuned in to see what wacky skits Burnett would perform each week. On video, The Carol Burnett Show has been repackaged as Carol Burnett & Friends, and unlike some alleged comedy classics, no-one who rents the videos could possibly be disappointed.

She worked occasionally in feature films, including Noises Off with Michael Caine, Robert Altman's A Wedding, and The Four Seasons with Alan Alda. Her best TV films include the Vietnam survivors' drama Friendly Fire,Eunice (the pilot for Mama's Family), and three separate TV adaptations of her Broadway hit Once Upon a Mattress in 1964, 1972, and 2005.

In 1986 she starred in Fresno, a six-hour mini-series spoofing Dallas and Dynasty, with Burnett as Fresno's hard-drinking raisin matriarch Charlotte Kensington. With Charles Grodin, Teri Garr, Dabney Coleman, and Gregory Harrison, it was funny to the finish, but has never been released on video in America.

In 1990 she starred in Carol & Company with Jeremy Piven and Peter Krause, an anthology series with a half-hour comedy skit each week, but it was quickly cancelled. In 1991 she revived her Carol Burnett Show in name and format but with a new supporting cast. . Later in the 1990s, she played Helen Hunt's mother on Mad About You.

Her second husband, Joe Hamilton, had been a jazz musician, but after marrying Burnett he produced most of her starring projects. Their daughter, Carrie Hamilton became an actress, starring in the TV movie Hostage with Burnett and in touring productions of Rent, before dying of lung cancer in 2002. Another daughter, Erin Hamilton, has had several hits on the dance charts, including covers of "Dream Weaver" and Cheap Trick's "The Flame."

By virtually all accounts, the good-natured wise-cracking Burnett seen on her variety show was the real Carol Burnett. Her beloved grandmother, Mae Eudora Jones White, died in 1967 at the age of 82, but Burnett never stopped tugging her ear at the end of every episode. In the show's third season, Burnett received a résumé from a 10-year-old fan who wanted a career in comedy -- Jim Carrey, who received a long, personal letter of encouragement from Burnett. When she received her star on Hollywood Boulevard, Burnett had it placed in front of the theater where she had been an usher. And in 1989, when Burnett's friend Lucille Ball died suddenly on Burnett's birthday, Burnett received a bouquet from Ball several hours after hearing the sad news -- Ball had ordered the flowers in advance for Burnett's birthday.

Hamilton, her husband, wrote the theme song for The Carol Burnett Show, which she sang at the end of every episode. "I'm so glad we had this time together, just to have a laugh or sing a song, seems we just get started and before you know it, comes the time we have to say, 'So long.'" And then Burnett would wave and shout, "Good night, everybody."

8/16 Larry Manetti talks with Monica Mancini

Monica Mancini is a Concord Record recording artist and 2005 Double-Grammy award nominee, who has carved out an impressive career as a singer and concert performer, appearing with major symphony orchestras worldwide.

Mancini is the one of the twin daughters (sister Felice) [1] of famed film composer Henry Mancini and his wife Ginny.[2] Her brother is singer/actor Chris Mancini.[3] She began her singing career as a member of the Henry Mancini chorus, which later led to a successful career in the studios at Los Angeles.

She has appeared on countless film scores, and has recorded with artists such as Placido Domingo, Horace Silver, Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson.

Mancini's current double Grammy nominated release 'Ultimate Mancini' includes guest artists: Stevie Wonder, Kenny Rankin and Plas Johnson, amongst others, whose contributions are in praise and memory of her late father.

To date, her albums include 'Ultimate Mancini', 'Cinema Paradiso', 'Monica Mancini' and 'Dreams of Johnny Mercer'. Her voice was heard on the soundtrack of the 2002 film Ghost Ship when she sang 'Senza Fine'.

Mancini sang with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl on July 10–11, 2009. Included in her performance were 'It Had Better Be Tonight' from the film The Pink Panther and 'Two for the Road'.

8/9 Larry Manetti talks with actor Joe Pantoliano

Joe Pantoliano is an American film and television actor. He played the character of Ralph Cifaretto on The Sopranos, Bob Keane in La Bamba, Cypher in The Matrix, Teddy in Memento, Francis Fratelli in The Goonies, Guido "the Killer Pimp" in Risky Business, and Jennifer Tilly's violent mobster boyfriend in Bound. He also played Deputy U.S. Marshal Renfro in both The Fugitive and U.S. Marshals. He is often referred to as "Joey Pants", due to the difficulty some have pronouncing his Italian surname.

8/2 Larry Manetti Talks with Acting Coach Michelle Danner

Michelle Danner is an internationally acclaimed actress and acting coach. Her student list include Catherine Bell, Gerard Butler, Common, Penelope Cruz, Justin Chatwin, Marcia Cross, Zooey Deschanel, Rob Estes, Isla Fisher, Rick Fox, James Franco, Salma Hayek, Sally Kellerman, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Christian Slater, Gabrielle Union, Justine Waddell and numerous others. She teaches internationally in Europe, Toronto, Vancouver, Dubai, Los Angeles and New York.

Michelle started her career in the arts production in 1977 when she helped with the production and administration of Saturday Night Fever, West Side Story (1978) and Bubbling Brown Sugar (1979) on their European tours.

From 1983 to 1987 she acted as artistic director of the non-profit theatre group New York Theatre Company.

In 1990 she moved to Los Angeles. In 2000 she and Larry Moss (Acting Coach) raised $1.5 million from donors, such as Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Kate Capshaw, and Niel Simon to build and open Edgemar Center for the Arts in Los Angeles. Housed in the Edgemar Center, they created The Larry Moss Studio (now The Acting Studio at Edgemar). The two theatre, art gallery complex in Santa Monica contains a 99-seat black box theatre and a 60 seat second stage along with an art filled lobby.

In 2006 she produced, directed and starred in "How to Go on a Date in Queens."

Michelle was the acting expert on the WB series "The Starlet".