Joel Thurm (casting director, Taxi, Grease, Cheers; autobiography "Sex, Drugs, and Pilot Season")

<p>Joel Thurm joined me to discuss watching Milton Berle, wrestling, and Disney as a child; wanting to be an actor but finding his calling backstage; working for David Merrick; casting Broadway; moving to L.A.; working on <em>The</em> P<em>earl Bailey Show</em>; musical guest appearances; Ethel Winant; casting <em>The Bob Newhart Show</em>; casting Henry Winkler and John Randolph; casting Raul Julia, Katherine Helmond, John Ritter, Will MacKenzie, Rene Auberjonois, and Chirstopher Lloyd in very early roles; casting the play and film of The Rocky Horror Picture Show;&nbsp;casting "Grease"; producing "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble"; coercing Olivia Newton John to take the role in "Grease"; swapping the "new, improved" script with the original; turning 80; casting <em>Fantasy Island</em> with Ricardo Montalban and Herve Villechaize; casting <em>Taxi </em>with Judd Hirsch; Cleavon Little being replaced by Jeff Conaway; Nell Carter being unavailable; Andy Kaufman came with the deal; reluctantly accepting the job of casting and producing <em>Angie</em>; casting "Airplane" with Peter Graves; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar being the third choice after Pete Rose and Bruce Jenner; Barbara Billingsley being the second choice after Harriet Nelson; being named NBC's head of talent; casting a casting agent on an episode of <em>Taxi</em>; Eileen Brennan; casting Gavin McLeod and Lauren Tewes for <em>The Love Boat</em>; casting Daniel J. Travanti for <em>Hill Street Blues;</em> Fred Silverman doesn't think he's likeable, so Joel got him to smile; <em>Cheers</em> comes down to three choices for Sam and Diane; NBC won't let Joel cast it; Joel implores Grant Tinker to hire Ted Danson because women will want to fuck him more than William Devane; being wrong on Don Johnson for <em>Miami Vice</em>; casting Florence Halop in <em>Night Court</em>; his favorite show, <em>Law &amp; Order SVU; </em>fandom of Chris Meloni and Mariska Hargitay; recommending Christine Ebersole to <em>SNL </em>in 1981, his assistant recommending Dennis Miller in 1985 and