My dad called me meat head dead from the neck up.

I guess because the shows were activist in their own way - the marriage of my public activism and my career activism, you know - people understand me very well. They also understand there's a very strong bipartisan part in all of this.

I think somehow I got a sense of the foolishness of the human - my favorite phrase, the foolishness of the human condition.

We had a Judeo-Christian ethic hanging around a couple thousand years that didn't help erase racism at all. So the notion of the little half-hour comedy changing things is something I think is silly.

I got a call from an agent to come to New York City, and write for the 'Ford Star Revue.' Because at the time there wasn't much 'national television'.

Bud [Yorkin] was the kindest and dearest man, and one of the most talented directors there was.

That's the heart of it: My shows were not that controversial with the American people. They were controversial with the people who think for the American people.