Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 31 - Sam Anderson (Matlock / Friends / Lost / ER / WKRP in Cincinatti))

This time I’m letting Sam Anderson talk.

Sam is someone who’s been a working character actor since the 1970s, popping up in dramas and comedies alike. At the moment, he’s living the character actor’s dream, in that he’s a series regular on one of the most entertaining dramas on network television, playing Kathy Bates’ husband on CBS’s extremely creative reboot of Matlock.

Like so many actors, Sam got his start in the theater, but once he made the move to California, he jumped in front of the camera and has rarely found himself without work. As far as where you might know him from, it’s virtually impossible to know, given the width and breadth of his filmography, but some key moments from his career have found him playing an obstetrician obsessed with Arthur Fonzarelli on Friends, being stranded for several seasons on Lost, playing principal to a young Forrest Gump, and sparring with just about every doctor at Cook County General on ER. From Perfect Strangers and Growing Pains to four episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati, each one of which found him playing a different character, Anderson has been all up and down your TV dial and then some.

Basically, if you look at this man’s list of credits, you’ll realize that he’s been in just about everything at some point, and while that might be hyperbole with some actors, with Sam Anderson, it’s way closer to the truth than not. As such, there was never any chance that we’d get to everything that you folks asked me to ask him about, but I did my best, and he offered up some great stories to go with all the things that I threw at him.

Well, that’s probably enough of an intro. It’s time to let Sam Anderson talk.