This episode of On Story goes deep into hilarity with the comedic geniuses behind the original Ghostbusters, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, The Graduate, and In Living Color! Judd Apatow, Harold Ramis, Buck Henry, and Larry Wilmore take us on a gut-busting ride through their journeys in iconic film and television comedy. Tune in, sit back, and get ready to laugh.

Writer- actor-director Buck Henry got his start in television in the early 1960’s. Buck Henry co-created the series Get Smart with Mel Brooks and was twice nominated for an Academy Award®- first in 1968 for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Graduate and again in 1979 for Best Director for the film Heaven Can Wait. Buck Henry has appeared in more than one hundred films and television shows, including Defending Your Life, The Player, Catch-22, 30 Rock, and Saturday Night Live, which he hosted ten times.

Producer, director, actor, comedian and screenwriter Judd Apatow is best known for the television shows Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared and Girls. His extensive filmography includes the hit movies, Anchorman, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Bridesmaids and the 2015 film Trainwreck starring Amy Schumer, Tilda Swinton and Bill Hader. Judd Apatow’s book Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy was released in summer 2015.

The late Harold Ramis wrote, directed and or starred in some of the most beloved comedies of the past forty years including Caddyshack, Animal House, Ghostbusters, High Fidelity and Groundhog Day. He got his start as a joke editor for Playboy Magazine and went on to become a performer and head writer on the sketch comedy series SCTV. Upon his passing, President Barack Obama said of Ramis, "when we watched his movies – from Animal House and Caddyshack to Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day – we didn’t just laugh until it hurt. We questioned authority. We identified with the outsider. We rooted for the underdog. And through it all, we never lost our faith in happy endings."

Larry Wilmore is the host of Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore. He started his career as an actor and stand-up comedian before writing and producing on the early nineties classic television shows In Living Color, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and The Jamie Foxx Show. He co-created The PJ’s with Eddie Murphy, The Bernie Mac Show with Bernie Mac, and was a consulting producer and guest star on the American version of The Office. This segment was recorded at the 14th Austin Film Festival and at a special event at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, TX in 2013. We begin with Larry Wilmore discussing his comedic roots.

 

On Story is brought to you by

The Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation

The City of Austin Cultural Arts Division

The Texas Commission on the Arts

The US Institute of Museum and Library Services

The Texas Library and Archives Commission

Applied Materials

 

Additional support for On Story comes from

Final Draft

Loyola Marymount University School of Film and Television