Denise Nicholas (Room 222, In the Heat of the Night)

Denise Nicholas joined me to discuss watching the Ed Sullivan Show; living on the same block as Hitsville, USA; not fitting in with her family; joining the Free Southern Theater and performing Waiting for Godot; Roscoe Orman; her part in the Civil Rights Movement; Negro Ensemble Company leads to It Takes a Thief with Robert Wagner; loving 2 1/2 Men; Room 222, the first "dramedy"; James L. Brooks; episodes were taken from the headlines; going on game shows with Karen Valentine; Hollywood Squares; injuring herself on Battle of the Network Stars; singing on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson in 1971; being the mystery guest on What's My Line; Match Game; Dinah Shore Show; having to prove herself to Sidney Poitier to cast her in Let's Do it Again; fighting to play Carroll O'Connor's girlfriend on In the Heat of the Night; asking for black writers; Redd Foxx; Baby, I'm Back; guesting on Diff'rent Strokes; her sisters gruesome murder; being in the pilot for Masquerade; guesting on Magnum, PI; getting an NAACP nomination for telefilm Mother's Day; joining the cast and writing staff of In the Heat of the Night; Ghost Dad; Richard Roundtree; her novel Freshwater Road; her second novel turning into her memoir deciding whether to work or not; 23 and me saying she is 64% European and 34% Nigerian; going to Nigeria and no one there believing she's Nigerian; Blacula; too much television shows