AFTRA is the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. SAG is the Screen Actors Guild.  And the Players are veteran performers who love the “old time radio” in which they performed as very young actors. They appeared with us many times doing wonderful bits (such as Bob and Ray) and whole programs (such as the Lux Radio Theater). Here is their first appearance  on our program as performed eight years ago.

No, it’s not the group you think it is. It’s “Beyond the Fringe” an early post-war group introduced here, in a program about British and American comedy, by Abe Peck who was one of our regulars in the 1980s. Peter Moore is in the group as are various others who went on to prominence after they escaped from Oxford University.

Having already done books on most of the negative virtues, Joseph Epstein did another masterwork back in 2002. It was a hilarious analysis of how we try to lord it over one another by faking superior wisdom, importance and influence. Here he joins us together with John Anderson of the Tribune, an expert on “high society,” as they indulge their knowledge of snobology with tales from the front lines of pretention and high arrogance.

The meaning of the title is that both Harry and I experience “awe” when contemplating the oddities and delights of his career as actor, satirist and all-around great mimic. Here he is, seriously kidding around in a 2006 conversation and tracking from Saturday Nite Live to his own show. Simple confession: Harry is one of my favorite show biz people.

Jean Shepherd fully deserved that title. He is long gone but much remembered by fans who hear fragments of the Shepherd style in some of the best of the ad-lib broadcasters today. Here we talk with his biographer Eugene Begmann in 2005 and then get a smashing excerpt from Shepherd waking up night-time New York.