Rob Ulin (Dinosaurs / Roseanne / Norm Show / Ramy)

Rob Ulin joins me to discuss watching Gilligan's Island and Dick Van Dyke Show as a kid; wanting to be an actor; going to Harvard and being on Lampoon with Conan; writing a letter to Norman Lear who mentored him; writing the teleplay for a Married with Children; writing an episode of Hard Times on Planet Earth; how Ferris Bueller the TV series almost made him quit writing; Chloris Leachman; writing Dinosaurs made him enjoy writing; doing episodes poking fun at the elderly, religion; an episode in which homosexuality and vegetarianism are parallelled; "New Leaf" about drugs; and dancing as a metaphor for masturbation and wet dreams; joining the writing staff of Roseanne; writing emotional episodes that still had jokes; winning a Humanitas Prize; Ned Beatty; the famous writers T-shirt story; trying to edit the lesbian kiss episode; Shelly Winters; trying to get Shirley Jones & Florence Henderson for a TV mom's episode; getting fired; working with Dave Raether; going to Veronicas Closet and then Stressed Eric; working with Norm MacDonald on Norm; Norm was not able to be an exaggerated version of himself but could act; Jack Warden; Frank Sebastiano; working on Andy Richter Controls the Universe and George Lopez; tackling race on Roseanne; working on Malcolm in the Middle; writing a pilot, My Boys; writing Aliens in America the first post 9-11 sitcom featuring a Muslim cast member; working on The Middle, Anger Management with Charlie Sheen, The Carmichael Show & Young Sheldon; working on The Kids are Alright; Rami; writing his first play Judgement Day starring Jason Alexander; and future projects