Where Hollywood Hides: Television | Movies | Music | Show Business | Writing | Producing | Directing | Acting

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Bob McCullough & Suzanne Herrera McCullough, creators of www.WhereHollywoodHides.com, host this one-of-a-kind intimate behind-the-scenes podcast conversation about the best years Classic TV, movies and music. They have plenty to tell you about how they broke into Hollywood and have survived in the most exciting and challenging business in the world! Bob & Suzanne are showbiz industry veterans with more than 200 primetime television and film credits who openly share their stories from inside places like Paramount Studios, MGM, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., Disney Studios, and Universal Studios , where they worked their way up the Hollywood ladder. You’ll hear about their experiences in the gritty world of Rock-and-Roll working alongside iconic bands performing at The Whiskey A-go-go, The Starwood, and The Palamino Club...as well as the backstage concert fun with Van Halen and David Lee Roth. Listen in and learn how they got into The Writers’ Guild of America, Screen Actors Guild, and The Directors Guild of America, had agents from CAA and ICM on their side, worked with producers like Lew Wasserman, Jerry Bruckheimer, Glen Larson, Stephen J. Cannell, and Aaron Spelling... navigated among networks like ABC, NBC, and CBS, and became intimate collaborators with celebrities like Lana Turner, Jane Wyman, Lorenzo Lamas, Jackie Collins, Bill Murray, Peter Boyle, and even Roddy Piper and Jesse Ventura. You’ll hear how they worked with and rubbed shoulders with movie and TV stars like Kirk Douglas, Goldie Hawn, Sammie Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Johnny Carson, Jonathan Winters, Rick Springfield, Lee Majors, Farrah Fawcett, Robert Loggia, Joe Pesci, Robert deNiro, and hundreds of other fabulous actors and actresses. Bob’s career started with “Mission: Impossible” and “Mannix”, and came to include writing, producing, and directing on hit television series like “BJ & The Bear”, “Six Million Dollar Man”, “Bionic Woman”, “Eight Is Enough”, “Galactica”, “Falcon Crest”, “Hollywood Wives”, “Airport”, “Star Trek”, “Highlander”, “Kung Fu”, “JAG”, “Baywatch”, and dozens more, while Suzanne was cast in shows like “Fantasy Island”, “Falcon Crest”, “The Young and The Restless”, “Magnum, P.I.”, “Kojak”, “Barreta” and “The Incredible Hulk”. From writing, directing, producing, and acting in some of the most well-known TV shows and films of a generation—as well as working overseas on international television series hits like “High Tide” and “Zorro”--they hold nothing back as you hear what life in Hollywood is really all about. Hear about their latest career moves, their movies and TV pilots currently in development, and the opportunities everyone has in new media, internet video programming, cable and broadcast television, and in foreign co-productions. If you want to know how to get your own showbiz career off the ground, these Hollywood stories and practical tips just might give you the inside track to "breaking in and moving up" from that first job to a creative and rewarding career in Hollywood. It's an entertaining and educational trip into the world of classic television, film, and music, so join the party!

Episode List

#26 "Brady Bunch" Producer Lloyd Schwartz: Hollywood Career Tips and How to Deal with Actors

Aug 27th, 2014 5:00 PM

Suzanne and Bob talk about their new book, Where Hollywood Hides: Santa Barbara, and are then joined by Lloyd Schwartz, one of TV’s most prolific writer-producers for stories of his long and successful career in Hollywood. Starting as a standup comic (with a member of The Black Panthers as his working partner), Lloyd recalls selling his first network script while still in college and describes the confidence and writing skills that made him Hollywood’s youngest television producer. With TV writing credits ranging from Harper Valley PTA and Baywatch to movies like The Invisible Woman and A Very Brady Christmas, Lloyd was well prepared when he became the producer of one of television’s most iconic series of all time, The Brady Bunch. Lloyd doesn’t pull any punches as he describes his notion of “happy projects” and reveals his secret to building a lasting writing career and delivers a realistic and practical step-by-step strategy for breaking into the studio system. “If you do exactly what I’m saying, you’ll get into the business”. Throughout the conversation, Lloyd shares stories of his favorite actors, talks about what it was like moving up through the ranks from dialogue coach to producer—eventually becoming a network executive—and then to writing America’s first live dinner theatre plays. It’s a high-energy inspirational interview peppered with rock-solid tips for surviving in Hollywood, including Lloyd’s personal mantra “The phone will never ring. You have to make it happen.” Lloyd Schwartz has a unique and inspiring story, and if you want “the keys to making it in Hollywood”, you’ll want to hear this podcast.

#25 Producing Movies & TV with Actor-Producer Jimmy Hawkins

Aug 11th, 2014 5:59 PM

After his childhood appearance as "Tommy Bailey" in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life and an incredible 500 acting credits alongside stars like Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Sally Field, Shelly Fabares, Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, Rick Nelson, and Elvis Presley, Hawkins grew restless co-starring as "America's favorite boyfriend and sidekick". He wanted more out of his Hollywood career...and he went out and got it. Turning away from acting, Jimmy Hawkins set out to “remake” himself and soon became one of Hollywood’s most entrepreneurial and commercially successful independent film and television producers. You’ll hear how Jimmy navigated the shark-infested waters of Hollywood power-brokers and deal-makers to help finance and produce Evel Knievel with George Hamilton, and the thrill of the movie’s star-studded premier at Grauman’s Chiinese Theater that turned a small independent film into a 25-million dollar hit. Not resting on his laurels, Jimmy went on to create and produce hit films like Scout’s Honor starring the young Gary Coleman, Don’t Look Back: The Story of Leroy “Satchel” Page with Lou Gossett Jr., and Love Leads the Way, starring Timothy Bottoms. He reveals why each of his movie or television projects has projected positive values, the best in human nature, and personal redemption... and the keys to his ongoing personal and critical success. With unmatched creative instincts, Jimmy has the uncanny ability to transcend genres, formats, and media. After creating and producing Motown Returns to the Apollo, he soon jumped into the publishing world to author no less than five best selling books targeting the everlasting appeal of Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. This is a conversation you won't forget as Jimmy Hawkins shares the genuine secrets to producing both movies and television projects in Hollywood.

#24 Garner Simmons: TV & Film Writer and Sam Peckinpah Historian

Jul 9th, 2014 11:26 PM

Garner Simmons—television and feature film screenwriter—joins Bob McCullough and Suzanne Herrera McCullough for a faced-paced conversation focused upon the twists and turns of his Hollywood writing career. With “writing in the blood”, Garner tells his unique story of breaking into show business while working on his PhD by writing the definitive biography of legendary movie director Sam Peckinpah. With Peckinpah: A Portrait in Montage as his calling card, Garner began climbing the rungs of the Hollywood career ladder by following his personal mantra: “keep writing”. Simmons reveals how winning a studio screenplay contest first brought him to the attention of mega-agents and gave him the courage to leave Chicago for Hollywood...only to discover that agents don’t always deliver on their promises. Once he was in Hollywood and hearing the frequent advice “to forget this business and go back home”, Garner did what he does best: he kept writing. You’ll hear his story of unmatched “chutzpah”, determination, and the work ethic that helped him create his own “breaks”. Garner talks about working as Story Editor in the early seasons of Falcon Crest, and the credits that quickly followed as writer, story consultant, and producer on shows like Yellow Rose, “V”, Spencer for Hire, Buck James, and Poltergeist. As a writer of unparalleled versatility, Simmons has written for all genres and transitioned from TV series to longform movies (A Rare Breed, Miracle Landing), wrote the early drafts of The Last Samurai (starring Tom Cruise), and currently has multiple feature films in development. More than just telling his own story, this quick-tempo conversation with Garner Simmons reveals the hard truth about working with Hollywood agents, delivers valuable career advice, and is truly a lesson in finding “the keys to success in show business”!

#23 Jerry London: Famed Director of Major Television Movies & Mini-series

Jul 1st, 2014 12:47 AM

Bob and Suzanne interview one of Hollywood’s most esteemed directors, Jerry London. With hundreds of primetime television series, movies, and mega-miniseries to his credit, Jerry tells how he broke into show business as an apprentice film editor on I Love Lucy, and what it was like "paying dues" working on The Untouchables and The Danny Thomas Show. Jerry has great stories about working closely with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, including his "day at the races" with Hollywood stars betting and winning on longshots. Jerry describes his early directing gigs on shows like Hogan’s Heroes, Happy Days, and Love, American Style, where he made a daring creative decision that put him in the limelight and propelled his career forward onto nearly every hit show in Hollywood, including The Rockford Files, Kojak, Hawaii Five-0, The Six Million Dollar Man, and Barreta. The biggest mini-series of all time! From directing TV series non-stop, Jerry then graduated to movies and miniseries, ultimately becoming the creative force behind such memorable productions as The Scarlet and the Black, Chicago Story, Women in White, Escapade, Wheels, and the longest, most critically acclaimed miniseries of its time, Shogun. Jerry London’s behind-the-scenes stories, his advice to aspiring filmmakers, and his personal impressions of the many stars he worked with (Burt Reynolds, Doris Day, Angie Dickenson, Rock Hudson, Lee Remick, James Garner, Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Richard Chamberlain), make this an episode you won’t forget!

#22 Behind the Scenes with "Wolfman Jack"

Jun 2nd, 2014 7:42 PM

The episode opens with an audio-clip tease of things to come... and if you’ve never heard of “Radio XERB”, you’re about to get a real lesson in the early days of Rock n’ Roll! Suzanne opens the show with “movie news” about this season’s classic sci-fi monster flick Godzilla starring Ken Watanabe (Suzanne’s fave) and Bryan Cranston (Bob’s fave) revealing the tongue-in-cheek contemporary “take” on it. Bob then jumps into the heart of the episode with his questionable vocal impression of one of the world’s true broadcasting originals, the inimitable Wolfman Jack. After sharing their personal experiences with the early world of “outlaw radio”, Suzanne and Bob deliver some amazing sound clips from The Wolfman himself and his professional inspiration, early Rock ‘n Roll’s most powerful and popular disc jockey (before he got busted for his involvement in assorted “payola” schemes), the incredibly fast-talking “Moondog” Allan Freed. Uniquely shrouded in well-planned “mystery”, Wolfman Jack’s persona was first revealed to the world in George Lucas’ classic American Graffiti. Bob and Suzanne share even more about this gravely-voiced legend as they describe what it was like working side-by-side with him in a fast-paced studio environment perpetually clouded in marijuana smoke. Throughout the episode, classic music clips from The Miracles, KC & the Sunshine Band, blues legend Howlin’ Wolf, and The Rolling Stones help tell the story of the era’s most iconic, innovative, and well-loved radio star...as we pull back the curtain to reveal the real man (and his actual name) behind Wolfman Jack. In the words of Wolfman Jack himself, time to “get your boogie on, baby!”

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