# Bob Illes (author, Funny is Money, Vintage 2020 ep w/ better sound) Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/ian-talks-comedy-140290/bob-illes-author-funny-is-money-vintage-2020-ep-w-better-sound Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/ian-talks-comedy-140290/bob-illes-author-funny-is-money-vintage-2020-ep-w-better-sound.md Podcast: [Ian Talks Comedy](https://stenobird.com/podcast/ian-talks-comedy-140290) Published: 2026-01-03T14:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ian-fermaglich/episodes/Bob-Illes-author--Funny-is-Money--Vintage-2020-ep-w-better-sound-e3d02hq Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/21d579e4/podcast/play/113297402/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-11-30%2F6aa6e244-9832-32c1-b680-a286abd50012.mp3 Processing state: processed JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/ian-talks-comedy-140290/episodes/bob-illes-author-funny-is-money-vintage-2020-ep-w-better-sound Duration seconds: 5761 ## Resource Bob Illes and I discuss his early years; starting a radio comedy show at USC; Digby Wolfe; winning a contest to write for Tennesse Ernie Ford; Mike Ovitz; writing monologues for Bill Cosby; meeting Groucho Marx and Peter Sellers; writing for the Lily Tomlin special and winning an Emmy; The Super Emmy; writing the Sanford & Son episode, "Lamont, Is That You", The Smothers Brothers NBC reboot; Mickey Rose; Chevy Chase; Don Novello; Joe & Sons , One Day at a Time , getting dressed down by Norman Lear and his mea culpa; What's Happening !!, Captain and Tenille Show , Fernwood Tonight , winning another Emmy for the last year of The Carol Burnett Show , America 2-Night; Peeping Times; The Mary Tyler Moore Hour; Steve Allen Comedy Hour; Catherine O'Hara , Flo, Private Benjamin, No Soap, Radio; Silver Spoons; Jason Bateman, John Houseman; The Cracker Brothers; Milton Berle; Double Trouble, Sylvan in Paradise, Jim Nabors; Courtney Cox; Jackie Bison Show ; Harry Shearer, Stan Freberg; Amen ; Sherman Hemsley; favorite episode; getting cancelled by NBC because Johnny Carson retired; age ranges in sitcoms ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/ian-talks-comedy-140290/episodes/bob-illes-author-funny-is-money-vintage-2020-ep-w-better-sound/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/ian-talks-comedy-140290/bob-illes-author-funny-is-money-vintage-2020-ep-w-better-sound.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.