Be warned: I will be a namedropper in this blogapalooza. I am really taking advantage of your generous nature because, around my own house, they don't want to hear about the time Bob Saget and I were hanging around by the pool...or the funny thing Tony Danza once told me about Teri Hatcher. No, none of my brushes with greatness matter, but my oldest son is star-struck by knowing a kid at school whose dad once met the guys in those Sonic commercials. The genesis for this exercise in egotism, is an e-mail from KMBC's programming department about the fall premiere dates for the new ABC shows. It reminded me of July's past, when ABC would fly a bunch of folks from about 20 stations around the country, to Hollywood, to introduce the new shows and tape interviews with some of the stars. Talk about egos, prima-donnas and back-stabbers and that was just us reporters. Weeks before the event, I'd get VHS tapes of some of the new shows and, as a family, we would hunker down for viewing. I was never very good at predicting the hits. Once we watched a gritty, realistic police show that I pronounced too depressing to make it through even the first season. That hopeless little show was called NYPD Blue. On the other hand, I thought the show about a teenage tennis star being coached by William Devane would be huge...do you even remember Phenom?

The first night at the ABC junket was always spent watching a video presentation designed to get us excited about the upcoming season by unveiling the new network slogan. One year it was "Still the One!" Another time they went for the direct approach "Watch TV." These were the years before the big hits like Lost and Desperate Housewives. One year, I think they thought about using "Please. Oh, Please Watch Us and We Will Wash Your Car!"

Over the next two days, it was a lazy-susan filled with stars and wannabes. There would be four little recording spots set up around the pool area of the hotel with a morning shift and afternoon shift of TV folks sitting down for five minute interviews. The stars would stay put and we reporter/interviewer-types would circulate. The initial, pre-taping conversation was always about the same "Hello. My name is Joel Nichols from Kansas City. Thanks for doing this." Some of the stars would have a Kansas City memory to share. Some would just grunt. Some would ask "Are you enjoying your time here in California?" That was always my opening to try and break the ice a little bit but responding "It's very nice but I really miss being home with my wife and kids." At that point, I would take a photo of the children out of my pocket and hand it to the performer. Maybe I was kidding myself, but I always hoped it would make our chat a little more relaxed. Once, after showing the photo to Ellen DeGeneres, I mentioned to her that my oldest son, who was quite little at the time, had a crush on her. She said she'd wait for him and they could get married in 25 years. Well, that was before the magazine covers and before she became the Ellen we all know today, so I guess I should cancel the hall I rented for the wedding reception.

Tony Danza always seemed to be at the event promoting a new show. As we sat waiting for the cue to start the interview, one time, Teri Hatcher walked by. She was Lois of Lois & Clark at the time and didn't look the least bit desperate. Most of the eyes followed her as she made her way to a seat, including Tony Danza's...his eyes, not his seat. After she sat down, Mr. Danza, or Tony as we close friends call him, leaned in and whispered to me "There's a lot of good-lookin' women around here...but they gotta to do some weights. They gotta tone up and work out. Arms are too undefined." I'm not sure, but I think Tony was already working on his next project if the one he was there to promote tanked....fleshing it out, in a manner of speaking. Tony Danza Presents Working Out With The Stars, or somthing like that.

Speaking of shows tanking, it was a little sad to talk to stars of shows that nobody, including the stars, thought had a chance. Remember Hiller & Diller? Of course not. It only lasted a few months. Yet, it had some very funny people in it: Eugene Levy, Kevin Nealon and Richard Lewis. Nealon and Lewis were part of the junket in 1997 and they were hilarious. But, they knew the show was bound for destruction. You could see it in their eyes. Richard Lewis spent most of our five minutes making cracks about my tie and Kevin Nealon was happier to do his Mr. Subliminal from Saturday Night Live than talk about the new show.

Well, if I really want to drop some names, I'd better get a move on, so here is a list...a partial list, mind you...of my close, personal friends in Hollywood of the 1990s and, what you really want to know, what I thought of them:

Betty White: a class act...a legend...she autographed a book for my wife and liked it when I told her, honestly, that one my early TV heroes was her late husband, Allen Ludden.

Bob Saget: funnier than he got to be on Full House or America's Funniest Home Videos...he hung out with everyone between interviews and talked about his kids.

Drew Carey: hilarious and completely grateful for the chance he'd been given. Even with a new sit-com coming up, his career highlight was and would always be sitting on the couch next to Johnny Carson after his first appearance on The Tonight Show.

George Foreman: easy-going, funny, a born salesman. I think I walked away from the interview with six of his grills.

The Olsen Twins: a little scary as they arrived with a huge entourage which seemed to make the Stepford Wives look bubbly. Frankly, the girls struck me as a little sad that day.

D.L.Hughley: everyone was rooting for his show because he was such a nice guy.

Felicity Huffman: the show she was there to promote, Sportsnight, didn't last as long as some hoped it would but you could tell she was going to be around...really smart and witty.

Tea Leoni: very down-to-earth...not at all taken with herself...bright and funny...disappointed that I was happily-married. (Okay. I'm just assuming she was disappointed. I can't prove it.)

I think I'd better stop. I just want to mention one last celebrity: Michael J. Fox. When I first started in TV, Family Ties was a big hit. Every now and then, a viewer would say they thought I looked a little like Michael J. Fox. Remember, this is about two decades, several pounds and lots of silver hairs ago. (Last year, while doing a live weathercast from a high-school, where the kids had camped out all night to raise money for the homeless, a group of Sophomore girls said "Know who you remind us of?" I, knowingly responded " Who?" "Regis Philbin!" What? No more Michael J. Fox? Well....I'm outta control!) Over the years I have been lucky enough to interview Mr. Fox three times, all having to do with Spin City. All three times, he was a kind, eager-to-please, funny gentleman. I used my "look-how-cute-my-kids-are-so-be-nice-to-me" ploy the first time out and he asked for their names. When I mentioned that my daughter's name is Samantha, he said "Oh, we've got a Sam, too but he's a he." A couple years later, I showed him a different picture...assuming he'd have long forgotten me. He looked at it and said "Oh, that's your Sam...she's grown up a lot." He may well have forgotten me, as well he should have, but he did remember the kids.

The interesting part of interviewing Michael J. Fox, was that the three times were like three different people. The basic decency and good humor was always there but the behavior was altered. The first time he was seemed a little uneasy...a little jumpy. You'd almost call it hyper. The second time, about a year later, he was very still and composed. The third time, a couple years after that, he seemed to have found a middle ground between the two...engaged but with lots of things on his mind. It was not long after that last interview that he made public his battle with Parkinson Disease. That explained the different behaviors as they experimented with the right medications and tried to get a handle on his situation. In the moment of the interviews he had been quick-witted, funny, admirable for his talent. After the fact, after finding out about his private war, he became just plain inspiring.

Well, that's enough about my adventures in the land of ABC...for now. But, if you'd like, I could tell you sometime about talking politics with Bill Murray and joking around with Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder...what Steve Allen told me about a paper clip....how Phyllis Diller shared her bra size with me...meeting Dolly Parton, in her hotel room! You know, it's just a matter of time before they take this blog away from me and I end up sitting in a lawn chair on my front yard yelling at strangers "Hey...wanna know what Tom Selleck once told me...." There's no business like show business.