Today on another encore episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast we are talking to Christopher Lewis, son of comedian, writer, director & auteur Jerry Lewis. Ostensibly, we spoke to Christopher to talk about the publication of the book he shepherded from his father's archive, Jerry Lewis On Being a Person. But what we got was quite a bit more as we had hoped.

Christopher sat down with us for quite some time to talk about his father and what it was like being the son of "The King of Comedy" which we learned, became his monicker after the Martin Scorsese film was released. We also learned about – and you knew this was coming, how could it not? – the unreleased film, The Day The Clown Cried. Perhaps the most talked about film no one has ever seen, heard from Christopher what is holding up its release to this day & why he thought it was never released.

We also dug into some fantastic things like the films his dad made for himself and not a studio with stars of the day which was totally fascinating. We spoke about his time in Vegas as part of the MDA Telethon, the Jerry Lewis donation to the Library of Congress, the forgotten TV show of the 70s Pink Lady and Jeff (trust me, it's a corker) and which comedian made him laugh. And without further adieu, we bring you Christopher Lewis about "Le Roi du Crazy," his dad, Jerry Lewis.

Today on another encore episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to Hugo Morley, grandson of the great actor, pitchman, foodie and much beloved Robert Morley. It's strange what stays with you as a you grow older but for host josh Mills, the obsession with the Morley film, Who's Killing the Great Chef's of Europe is right up there on this episode. We discuss this offbeat comedic crime caper as well as Morley being the face of an entire nation as the spokesman for British Airways. And that's just the Yank version of Robert Morley.

For Britons and Australians, Robert Morley was known more for the 100+ films he made, beginning in 1939 which garnered him an Academy Award nomination opposite Norma Shearer and Tyrone Power in Marie Antoinette. We also learn about Hugo's father, noted U.K. theatre critic Sheridan Morley, an especially wonderful friendship with Carol Channing, along with Yul Brenner, Eli Wallach, David Tomlinson and Griff Rhys Jones as well. All played a part in Hugo's time with his grandfather and his father.

Of course we discuss his grandfather's love of cuisine, time spend at grandpa's back garden pool and his ever present cigars. And did we mention Robert Morley's time in the Muppet movies? Well, sit back and relax and check out this episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast and learn about how to become a bartender and not make a mixed drink to boot. Everyone has a story.

Today on another encore episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we speak to James Tomlinson, the son of actor David Tomlinson. It's not every day we talk to a guest who was on the set of Mary Poppins(cough) he wasn't that impressed), met Walt Disney, received Christmas gifts from the Walt Disney Company each year because it's not everyone whose father was Mary's employer, Mr. Banks in one of Disney's most beloved hit movies of all-time.

While we do speak about James' father's career on the London stage and in films like Bedknobs and Brooksticks, Up The Creek & Warning for Warriors we also speak about his father's time in WWII which was beyond difficult, it was also tragic for him and his family. And when we discuss his grandfather who led a very, unconventional life, or lives, it's not your typical stiff upper lip British stereotype at all. We get into it, believe me.

Along the way we discuss Tominlson's friends like comedian Peter Sellers, horror movie icon Vincent Price as well as a co-star who made an impression on him that wasn't quite….good. That's all we will say for now. We also discuss boats, sailing, California in the 60s, what it was like to fly on Walt Disney's private plane and much more. This is the Rarified Heir Podcast and this is one of our favorite episodes….. Why? Because it's "Practically perfect in every way".

Today on an another encore edition of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we bring you part two of our conversation with Patricia Weidenfeld, daughter of comedian Pat Cooper. As you heard on the first episode, Weidenfeld's life as a child of a show business comic was pretty terrific until it wasn't. Learning rather abruptly at age eight that her father had a family prior to hers after being accosted outside a Broadway theater, Patricia tells us more on part two of our conversation than she has ever told anyone publicly, at any time before. It turns out that the Broadway incident was the first in a series of jarring revelations and family secrets that her parents kept from her over the years. How she learned about them is another story entirely.

Patti was amazingly open, honest and truthful in this conversation for the podcast about some deeply personal stories that she had never spoken about prior. Her complex relationship with the father she thought she knew and the father she learned he was at the end of her life are nothing short of revelatory as well as heartbreaking. But through it all, Patti expressed to us via her complex and jumbled feelings a genuine sense of love, affection and pride as well as confusion, hurt and pain through the years as she looked back on it all. This episode took quite a while to lock in as Patti had to take some time contemplating things before telling us her remarkable story in such a public manner. The fact that she does so with such authentic emotions and feelings is a testament to who she is as a human being. This is the Rarified Heir Podcast and this one isn't easy. Everyone has a story.

Today on an another encore edition of the Rarified heir Podcast, we bring you part one of our conversation with Patricia Weidenfeld, daughter of 'The Outrage Comic', Pat Cooper. Known for his explosive (but funny) temper on stage and his somewhat rogue temperament in the business, Cooper's humor revolved around his Italian heritage and calling out things that bothered him, his album cover parody, his seemingly endless Vegas showroom shows, a well-known Seinfeld episode and in later life, his time on The Howard Stern Show.

We spoke to Patti about growing up with a father she loved dearly and a mother who seemed to smooth everything over when things went a little awry. We talk about Pat's years growing up in Coney Island, how he got his start in comedy, his early years making his bones on The Ed Sullivan Show, an appearance on the Tom Snyder's Tomorrow show that froze his career in limbo after he called out an show business injustice and more. We also get into their move to Las Vegas in the 1970s, numerous dates in Atlantic City, guest hosting shows like The Merv Griffin Show and other gigs that took him on the road. Life in the Cooper household seemed perfectly as it should be. Until it wasn't.

Some things she heard from her parents didn't add up. It seemingly boiled over during a visit to New York City outside a Broadway Theater when her family was confronted by a person claiming to be Pat's son, hijacking their family outing. Who was that person and why hadn't Patti ever heard of or seen him before? And why here and why now? Take a listen to part one of our interview with Patricia Weidenfeld to hear what turns out to be the first out-of-nowhere moment that in many ways turned her idyllic life upside down. This is the Rarified Heir Podcast and everyone has a story. Take a listen.

Today on another episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to Nabil Ayers, son of musician Roy Ayers, a jazz/funk/soul giant most famous for his song "Everybody Loves the Sunshine" and is likely one of the most sampled artists of all time. A vibraphonist, singer and composer, Ayers songs have been sampled by everyone from Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige and Snoop Dogg as well as had collaborations with Alicia Keyes, The Roots and Tyler, The Creator among others.

As you will soon hear, Nabil's story is unlike anything we have heard before on the podcast. Imagine growing up knowing who your father was but only meeting him occasionally. By design. Sometimes it was a planned meeting that lasted just long enough to ask, "Do you want some Tempura?" and others were times that were literally a chance meeting on the street at a music store. As you will soon hear, we discuss this and much more around his book, 2022's My Life in the Sunshine that explains all this and much more.

Nabil himself was open, engaging, honest and ready to discuss everything. What it was like growing up with a Jewish/Baha'i Faith mother who really only wanted a child at the age of 20, his relationship with his uncle Alan, a jazz musician himself who really was the masculine figure Nabil looked up to the most and how he finally had lunch with his dad well into his 30s when things seemed to not be making as much sense as they did earlier in his life.

Currently a record executive, he's the President of the Beggars Group of labels, a group of well respected, independent US and UK labels, Nabil has also played in bands, owned his own record store, has his own podcast on both family and identity, called Identified, has written articles for The Guardian, the New York Times and others, has his own Substack page and much more. Accomplished, talented and versatile, Nabil opened up to us about pretty much everything we asked about. His story is about as unique take on celebrity and growing up the child of a celebrity as we could imagine. This is the Rarified Heir Podcast and everyone has a story. But none of them are like the one you are going to hear, right now.

Today on the Rarified Heir Podcast we are talking to Anne Serling, daughter of the great writer and as we learn, practical joker and pop culture figure Rod Serling. Of course we talk to Anne about beloved anthology shows her father created like The Twilight Zone as well as The Night Gallery but we also talk to Anne about her father's humanity, his years growing up in upstate New York, his religious beliefs and traditions, his career in radio, the films he wrote and much more.

But we also hear from Anne about why she wrote a book about her father, As I Knew Him: My Dad Rod Serling but also what it was like being the daughter of entertainment industry legend,…at home. We learned that Rod was a lover of animals and their home was filled with dogs, parakeets and even some very unconventional animals. We learn her father splurged only on two things which we will get to, his favorite restaurants in Los Angeles, the music her father sang to and even some of the inside jokes they shared together.

This episode is literally years in the making and we couldn't have been more thankful to Anne for taking the time to sit down with us to talk about someone we all know and love as a creator of two massively influential television shows but also about the humanity, humor and kindness of her father as only she would know. This is the Rarified Heir Podcast and everyone has a story. Or is it?

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast. Today, we are doing something different but not totally unprecedented. Last year in 2024, we presented a bonus episode, recorded live at the Texas Theater in Dallas, Texas with Ernie Kovacs award winner, Gerald Casale from Devo at VideoFest. This year, we'd like to present this year's VideoFest's Ernie Kovacs Award recipient, comedian Fred Armisen. This is just one of the ways we keep the legacy of both Ernie and Edie Adams going and frankly, it's really a major impetus for this podcast itself. How better to keep someone's legacy alive than via the children of those who knew them best, their children?

Recorded on November 23, in the very same theater where Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, exactly 62 years prior, this episode exists only because of one person and we wanted to thank Dev Shapiro of Selig News for his recording. You see, we recorded this directly from the sound board for ideal sound quality but when we got the digital files, they were corrupted and unusable. Thankfully, it was Dev to the rescue and while Dev was not recording directly from the sound board, I think we can all forgive the minor audio issues because well, he saved our bacon by just being there. Preservation is key and we thank Dev for making that happen. And thank you to yours truly for some of the audio fidelity we goosed up for this episode too.

Big thanks to VideoFest's Founder Bart Weiss, the VideoFest team including Kelly Kitchens (who is also a Patreon supporter), Reid Robinson, Elijah Cruz Barron, Janeth Farnsworth, Jessica Spawn, Andy Streitfeld and Mark Wickersham as well as Barak Epstein of the Texas Theatre and Erin Barros of Concord Hospitality. More big thanks to Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams archivist Ben Model for the tip to bring up the Ernie in Kovacsland book on stage prior to the interview as well.

And now, here's Fred Armisen. Take a listen. Everyone has a story.