Remember WENN on CNN's Showbiz Today

Mike Waters found this transcript (thanks, Mike!). It was produced during the filming of "Sight Unseen" on March 2, 1996, and was repeated in November of 1996. The WENN scenes were "wraparounds" to other interviews done for the show—I've edited those out. Notes in square brackets are mine.

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RADIO ANNOUNCER [Mackie]: "This is WENN in Pittsburgh. The time is 2:00 P.M."

ACTOR [Mackie as villain]: "Why ain't you wearing no gun, Shiloh?"

RADIO ANNOUNCER [presumably Mackie]: "Remember WENN. It's the best radio you'll see on TV."

BILL TUSH: "There was a time when families would gather around the radio and listen to all those great shows in what was known as radio's golden age. Molly Ringwald doesn't remember those days, do you?"

MOLLY RINGWALD: "No."

BILL TUSH: "You weren't even around, actually."

MOLLY RINGWALD: "No."

BILL TUSH: "Neither was I. But we are on the set, part of the set of Remember WENN. It's a new show that's on AMC, American Movie Classics, about the golden days of radio and you're a guest star."

MOLLY RINGWALD: "Um-hmm."

BILL TUSH: "And you're playing who?"

MOLLY RINGWALD: "My name is Angela and I play a blind girl who's a fan of old time radio, which really makes sense, because radio has always been a lot better for explaining things to people. It doesn't have anything to do with vision. It has to do with the words and the voices to tell stories, so I play a fan of the character of Mackie, who's sort of the man of a thousand voices and I fall in love with his voice and in love with him."

BILL TUSH: "Okay, and you're going to come to the radio station, I guess, to meet him. But we'll talk a little bit more about that..."

[segue to segment about movie Up Close and Personal]

BILL TUSH: "All right...we're back with Molly Ringwald and Remember WENN, W-E-N-N is the name of this radio station. This is the green room. This is the nicest green room I've ever seen."

MOLLY RINGWALD: "Isn't it?"

BILL TUSH: "Yeah, it's actually green."

MOLLY RINGWALD: "It is."

BILL TUSH: "Which- have you ever seen a green room that's green?"

MOLLY RINGWALD: "No, I think not."

BILL TUSH: "I never have. All right. Angela is the lady you play on the show."

MOLLY RINGWALD: "Um-hmm."

BILL TUSH: "On your guest starring appearance."

MOLLY RINGWALD: "Yes."

BILL TUSH: "Tell- you said she's a blind girl and there's a reason why you wanted to play her."

MOLLY RINGWALD: "Well my father's blind and I've never played a character who's blind, so obviously that was interesting to me and he also happens to be a big, big fan of radio so just the two of them together sentimentally made me very interested."

BILL TUSH: "So we were talking about the other cast members. It looks like a fun show."

MOLLY RINGWALD: "It's very."

BILL TUSH: "I thank you for your time. It's good to see you again Molly Ringwald. Look for her on Remember WENN. Your episode's in June, we found out. Okay..."

[segue to segment about the movie Down Periscope]

BILL TUSH: "We are back on location on the set of Remember WENN, the new hot series on American Movie Classics and here is the lady that plays Hilary Booth. This is Melinda Mullins and last time I saw you, you were complaining you didn't want to sit up in the balcony at the Benny Goodman concert."

MELINDA MULLINS: "That's right. Such a diva."

BILL TUSH: "Yeah, really, I mean Hilary is kind of what, snooty?"

MELINDA MULLINS: "Yeah, snooty, spoiled, selfish, self-centered. Nothing like me, of course, but-"

BILL TUSH: "No, we've been sitting here in the announcer's lounge for the past half hour talking. She's a wonderful person. It's all an act. It's all phony. This is the- I don't know, everything is so detailed around here."

MELINDA MULLINS: "Isn't it great? We have great set designers and wonderful costume people. I don't know if you can tell from this."

BILL TUSH: "So you're having fun doing the show, right?"

MELINDA MULLINS: "I love it."

BILL TUSH: "Let's plug the time again, Wednesdays?"

MELINDA MULLINS: "Wednesdays."

BILL TUSH: "8:30- eight o'clock?"

MELINDA MULLINS: "At eight o'clock."

BILL TUSH: "And here's the P.R. person from AMC."

MELINDA MULLINS: "Yeah."

BILL TUSH: "Okay. All right. Thank you Melinda."

MELINDA MULLINS: "Thank you."

BILL TUSH: "To your continued success."

MELINDA MULLINS: "Thanks."

BILL TUSH: "We're going to Broadway. You've been there, you've been on-stage, done a lot of stuff. Well Bus Stop, which was a play, then a movie, is now a play again."

MELINDA MULLINS: "Great."

BILL TUSH: "At Circle in the Square, right, and we have Mary-Louise Parker in the lead role, made famous by Marilyn Monroe in the movies."

MELINDA MULLINS: "That's right."

BILL TUSH: "Cynthia Tornquist is going to tell us about that. Thank you."

MELINDA MULLINS: "Thank you, Bill."

[segue to segment about the play Bus Stop]

BILL TUSH: "And here's where it all began for young Betty Roberts, a young lady from Elkhart, Indiana who made hour way to the big city, an intern, comes to the reception desk and finds stardom on the radio. This is Amanda Naughton in real life. You play Betty Roberts.

AMANDA NAUGHTON: "Yes I do."

BILL TUSH: "What a great 30s name that is."

AMANDA NAUGHTON: "I think so, too. It's kind of perfect, isn't it?"

BILL TUSH: "Yeah. You look like a Betty Roberts."

AMANDA NAUGHTON: "My friends giggle when they ask me well what is this show and what's your character? I said her name is Betty Roberts. They say perfect, perfect."

BILL TUSH: "It's so funny, in the first episode, which I watched the other day, the writer of one of the shows gets bombed and you step in."

AMANDA NAUGHTON: "Not as in bombs from the sky but as in-"

BILL TUSH: "Bombed."

AMANDA NAUGHTON: "Drunk, yes. Yes. Betty has to step in and save the day and think fast."

ACTOR [Victor]: "So how's our patient?"

AMANDA NAUGHTON [as Betty]: "His fingers sound like a Fred Astaire production number. Here are the first pages."

BILL TUSH: "Amanda Naughton, thank you so much."

AMANDA NAUGHTON: "Thank you. Thank you very much."

BILL TUSH: "All right, another New York actor, which you are, by the way. Everybody here's a New Yorker so this is like home. You go to work every day-"

AMANDA NAUGHTON: "It's wonderful to live and work in the same town and be able to-"

BILL TUSH: "I'm twisting to that because Neil Simon, New York playwright-"

AMANDA NAUGHTON: "Yes?"

BILL TUSH: "His big play Jake's Women-"

AMANDA NAUGHTON: "-is going to be a CBS Sunday Night Movie starring Alan Alda on March the 3rd. Oh great."

BILL TUSH: "Something to watch."

AMANDA NAUGHTON: "Yes."

[segue to segment about the television movie Jake's Women]

CHRISTOPHER MURNEY [as Custard the Clown]: "Okay, it's just 10 more minutes and we'll fix the guard's toenail [sic ???] and you're going to be our very first grandstand gang. We have prizes and tapes coming for all of you."

[I think the transcriptionist was a bit hard of hearing. <g> The lines are actually: "Wowwwww, kids, it's just ten more minutes to the Six O'Clock Circus, and, kids, you're going to be our very first Grandstand Gang...there's gonna be prizes and gifts for all of you."]

BILL TUSH: "I cannot believe a man of Mackie Bloom's dignity would stoop to playing a clown on the radio. It must be embarrassing for you."

CHRISTOPHER MURNEY: "It is, but I just- I wanted to do golf celebrity tournaments, which is why I put myself through this."

BILL TUSH: "Oh, okay, you and Leslie Nielsen. That's the only reason you did that."

CHRISTOPHER MURNEY: "Exactly. I mean that's the only reason you do this stuff."

BILL TUSH: "This is Christopher Murney, who plays Mackie and he's like the jack of all trades here at W-H-E-N, [sic] right?"

CHRISTOPHER MURNEY: "W-E-N-N."

BILL TUSH: "Oh, W-E-N-N."

CHRISTOPHER MURNEY: "I don't want to encourage you or anything like that, but hey, we've got to push it, you know what I mean?"

BILL TUSH: "Give me the call letters again."

CHRISTOPHER MURNEY: "Yeah, Mackie's- he just does all the voices- not all, but, you know, the announcers and characters and- from butlers to- he'll try a maid. He'll, you know-"

BILL TUSH: "In the old days of radio there were guys like that."

CHRISTOPHER MURNEY: "Absolutely."

BILL TUSH: "Thank you, Christopher."

CHRISTOPHER MURNEY: "You're welcome."

BILL TUSH: "Christopher Murney, who plays Mackie Bloom on Remember WENN..."

[segue to segment about Pocahontas on video]

CHRISTOPHER MURNEY [as Custard the Clown]: "Now here's Mr. Foley and he's the man who makes the circus sounds so let's give him a great big cheer."

[Again, a mistranscription. The quote is actually: "Wowwwww, here's Mr. Fearless Foley—he makes all our circus sounds, so let's give him a great big cheer."]

BILL TUSH: "What would a radio station be like in the late 30s without a sound effects man? This is Mr. Foley, Tom Beckett in real life, and it's your job to do the sound effects?"

TOM BECKETT: "Yes."

BILL TUSH: "And here's all your stuff."

TOM BECKETT: "Yeah, here it is."

BILL TUSH: "This is very accurate. If you look at old- the history books of radio, you see these things."

TOM BECKETT: "They scoured flea markets, antique stores all over the East Coast and found all of these things, yeah."

BILL TUSH: "I have this microphone at home."

TOM BECKETT: "I don't know what you do with it but I bet you have it."

BILL TUSH: "I talk. I do radio in my house. Anyway, do some sound effects."

TOM BECKETT: "Let's see what they- well they have a train whistle, I think it is. I hope this is going to be all right."

BILL TUSH: "Wow. Now this one- this is just an annoying sound."

TOM BECKETT: "Yeah, it's just- that's the annoying squeak machine. But supposedly this is a train leaving."

BILL TUSH: "Pardon me, boy! Is that...oh, sorry, I'm getting into the mood."

TOM BECKETT: "And then they love the whistles. They have this little whistle they gave us, too."

BILL TUSH: "You you're really good at that, you know?"

TOM BECKETT: "I've got the wind blowing between my ears."

BILL TUSH: "Thank you for the demonstration. Here's the big wind machine."

TOM BECKETT: "Yeah, this is the big wind machine."

BILL TUSH: "That's the other big wind machine."

TOM BECKETT: "Which they actually use in the theater, machines like this, as well."

BILL TUSH: "It sounds real."

TOM BECKETT: "Yeah."

BILL TUSH: Mr. Foley, by the way, Foley artist is the name of the guy that adds sound effects to the movies."

TOM BECKETT: "Yes, and as I'm sure you know, there actually was a Mr. Foley who invented that propeller."

BILL TUSH: "I did not know that."

TOM BECKETT: "Um-hmm."

BILL TUSH: "That is wild stuff. Okay thank you Tom Beckett."

TOM BECKETT: "Thank you."

BILL TUSH: "We're going to go meet two upscale rappers now."

TOM BECKETT: "Oh good."

BILL TUSH: "These guys are bringing rap music uptown, a rap couple. It's getting competitive, the rap music business. You know about the new guy, Snoop Dog Eat Dog?"

TOM BECKETT: "Yeah."

BILL TUSH: "I've been waiting for three weeks to use that stupid joke..."

[segue to segment about rap group]

BILL TUSH: "We've got to go, but I wanted to introduce you to one person that's very important to Remember WENN and that's Paula Connelly, who's the executive producer. We didn't say where WENN is located. It's in Pittsburgh. Paula's from Pittsburgh, I'm from Pittsburgh. It's a happening town. It's good to- we've been reminiscing about all this stuff. But you have this project and a lot more for AMC, right?"

PAULA CONNELLY: "A lot more coming up."

BILL TUSH: "So you just have to watch. What's that one with Frankie Avalon that's in August?"

PAULA CONNELLY: "Hollywood Ballyhoo and Sideshow."

BILL TUSH: "You're going to show all the old days of the 50s and 60s? Okay, look forward to it. Let's go reminisce some more about Pittsburgh..."

  

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