Dave Goudsward and I were happy to be part of this special program. All of the attending cast members looked relaxed and poised - which is quite a feat considering how early Bill and Jonathan had to get up that morning! 

We arrived in Manhattan about 7 AM, with last minute additions for the set dressing. All of the collectibles on the set were from the Dutczak collection. The cast stayed at the Plaza Hotel, across the street, and wandered in on their own.

By the time we arrived, June was already done with make-up and was delighted to see us. (June is the one who gave Ray's name to CBS as the local LIS expert). By the time we got upstairs, Mark Goddard had arrived. To keep the topic fresh for the broadcast, we avoided LIS. June talked about her father Gene and some advise he gave Ricardo Montalban when Ricardo was first starting out in Hollywood; "Never turn anything down!." June appeared on a  Man From UNCLE episode with Ricardo. Marta arrived and as she and Mark finished up make-up, we moved our base of operations from the make-up room to the green room.

 We watched the live feed in the green room with Mark, Marta and June. When Gumbel announced that he never actually watched the show, the crew in the green room got very quiet as a healthy round name of derision came from our little corner.

Mark, Marta, and June were ushered onto the stage and Ray and I had a leisurely breakfast of brie, fruit and coffee as we watched the LIS cast do their magic.

Bill and Jonathan were part of the interview via satellite from Kevin Burns house, as evidenced by the Robot in the background. The LA feed had problems with sound, which is why Bill and Jonathan were not on the air as much as they should have been. Like all remote broadcasts, there was some minor glitch. It was obviously remedied soon enough, since Bill and Jonathan joined right in. Jonathan and Bill were seated on high director's chairs, and the perspective made Kevin's B9 look off scale, almost as if the tread section was missing.

The interview went well, Marta in particular got a lot of airtime. MegaCon was mentioned and TGVR seemed to be the focus of the clips and therefore, the conversation. Thanks to Ray's preparation work, Jane Clayson knew what to ask and to whom, and how cool was it to have Jonathan evoking Smithisms once again? 

Mark flew back to Boston immediately after the program, and June had plans, so Dave and I wandered around Fifth Avenue with Marta for a few hours, visiting St. Patrick's Cathedral and Rockefeller Center followed by a delightful lunch before Marta too had to head back to JFK for her flight.

All in all, a good piece. A couple of problem spots - talk about the new movie was cut out because they ran out of time. This was not unexpected because of the number of people in the cast was so large for such a short piece. Angela was out of town and therefore unavailable, but this may have benefited the rest of the cast because there was only 10 minutes allotted (the spot actually ended up running 8 minutes). This is also why Bob and Dick were not involved. They made a decision to skip the robot as a way to limit the number of people on air. I fought to have Bob included, right up to the night before, but bottom line is that CBS does what CBS wants, and we had no say in the final decision.

It was nice to see LIS back in the public eye again which is were it should be. I have to thank June Lockhart and her agent Pat Newby for hooking me up with CBS to be a part of this. For me it was a dream come true. And special thanks to my buddy Dave Goudsward who helped out with the photography, screen grabs  and with everything else that was involved. 

My Best,

Ray Dutczak.