Laurence Luckinbill on finding the motor that drives the narrative of a book, play, or any kind of story
Original Airdates: Feb. 7-10, 2025
TVC 677.5: Ed welcomes actor, author, playwright, and Emmy Award-winning producer Laurence Luckinbill (The Boys in the Band, The Delphi Bureau, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Lyndon, Hemingway, Teddy Tonight!, Clarence Darrow Tonight!). Larry’s autobiography, Affective Memories: How Chance and The Theater Saved My Life, is a page-turning, brutally honest story of how Larry overcame a meager upbringing up in the Ozark Mountains to forge his way into a successful career as a working actor and playwright. While it includes a lot of great showbiz stories from Larry’s career on stage, film, and television, Affective Memories is really a book that transcends genres, evoking many classic American themes (one of which is finding redemption and a second lease on life through the love of a good woman), while also providing insight into what it means to be an actor, the healing power of the performing arts, and the lifetime discovery of what it means to be human. Among other topics this segment, Larry shares the story of how he came to write Teddy Tonight, his one-man show about the life of President Theodore Roosevelt (pictured above right), to illustrate how to find the “motor” that drives the particular story that one wants to tell, be that as a play, a memoir, or a long-form work of fiction.
Laurence Luckinbill on how he first learned not to laugh at words
Original Airdates: Feb. 7-10, 2025
TVC 677.6: Actor and author Laurence Luckinbill (The Boys in the Band, The Delphi Bureau, Star Trek V, Affective Memories: How Chance and The Theater Saved My Life) shares a few memories of his years in Oakland, California, where he moved to be with his family in the 1950s; the many mentors in his life, including the Catholic nun who taught him to appreciate the power of words; and how he first came to learn the difference between a “movie horse” and a “horse” horse while filming an episode of Bonanza. Affective Memories is available wherever books are sold through Sunbury Press.
Laurence Luckinbill, David Janssen, and Mush the Alaskan Malamute
Original Airdates: Feb. 14-17, 2025
TVC 678.2: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with Laurence Luckinbill (The Boys in the Band, The Delphi Bureau, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Lyndon, Hemingway, Teddy Tonight!, Clarence Darrow Tonight!). Topics this segment include how Larry’s guest appearance on Harry O in the summer of 1974 (pictured above) resulted in Larry adopting an Alaskan Malumute, whom Larry named Mush (and who remained a beloved part of the Luckinbill family for the next thirteen years), and how William Shatner cast Larry as Sybok in Star Trek V after seeing his one-man show Lyndon on PBS (pictured above right).
Larry’s autobiography, Affective Memories: How Chance and The Theater Saved My Life, is available wherever books are sold through Sunbury Press.
How Laurence Luckinbill approached playing Sybok in Star Trek V
Original Airdates: Feb. 14-17, 2025
TVC 678.3: Actor and author Laurence Luckinbill talks to Ed about working with William Shatner, both as an actor and as a director, in Star Trek V, as well as the approach he took toward playing Sybok, Spock’s half-brother, in that film.
Larry’s autobiography, Affective Memories: How Chance and The Theater Saved My Life, is available wherever books are sold through Sunbury Press.
