Chip Keyes (Gimme A Break, Valerie / Hogan Family, Shaky Ground)

<p>Chip Keyes joined me to discuss Chip being a nickname for William, his mother being a working woman during the war; watching <em>Howdy Doody </em>&amp; <em>The Mickey Mouse Club</em> and wanting to be in to show business; watching Disney and westerns; getting his comedy from his mother&#39;s sharp tongue; the influence of The <em>Dick Van Dyke Show</em>; his love of Maverick and James Garner; writing his first sketch in eighth grade; <em>Laugh In </em>becomes a hit and he sees Second City as a way to make sketch performing a career; forming the Portable Circus; becoming a local hit on campus; doing a gig in Hartford; getting George Sherman to be a director; taking the troupe to New York and around the country; a sketch using the word &quot;shit&quot; gets press and a talking to from a Jesus freak; auditioning and not getting <em>SNL</em>; becoming a page; his original plan was to become a teacher; leaving the page program to move to L.A.; <em>SCTV</em>; getting a play produced; his partner, Jeffrey Lippa wants to be an actor; he makes a critical decision; wins on <em>Match Game</em> to give him time to figure out what he wants; goes back to NYC and host a kids show; makes good money doing commercials; <em>Taxi</em> inspires him and his brother Doug to write a spec script; a great note made his spec script better; writes 2 episodes of <em>Sanford</em>; Mort Lachman becomes a mentor; gets hired on <em>Gimme a Break</em>; writes &quot;The Chief&#39;s Gay Evening&quot;; does a pilot with George Kennedy; gets job on <em>Valerie</em>; moved to <em>Perfect Strangers</em>; going back to <em>Valerie</em> and being told to come up with stories that could work for Valerie or a replacement; Valerie Harper was tense and a control freak; hard to write for characters who were so nice; Jack Carter; O.J. Simpson; PORKO; Dennis Burkely; getting a GLAAD Award; <em>Valerie</em> condom episode; episode had a warning and was exiled to late night in his hometown; NBC asks for Fire Prevention week and MLK episodes; not liking the AID