Rhonda Shear on Up All Night, Mel Brooks, Chuck Barris and Playboy

Rhonda Shear hosted more than 400 episodes of Up All Night on USA Network from 1991 to 1998, and she is one of the only hosts from that era who still owns the name. She talks about the Happy Days incident with Henry Winkler that got her blackballed from every Paramount sitcom at 23, the one line in Spaceballs that Mel Brooks cast her in himself, opening for Robin Williams at the Holy City Zoo, and how a Playboy pictorial where she kept all her clothes on cost her a pageant crown and made headlines around the world. She also explains how a warehouse in Tampa became the studio where she is producing brand new Up All Night episodes today, funded by the bra and panty company she built with her husband. Show Highlights: Up All Night on USA Network. Rhonda Shear hosted the show from 1991 to 1998 and estimates she has 400 plus episodes, but USA destroyed the masters when the network sold, taking a decade of Gilbert Gottfried material with them. Spaceballs. Mel Brooks personally auditioned every tiny role, told her he wanted a blonde for the diner waitress, and hired her anyway when she offered to wear a wig. She has one line and gets asked about it more than anything else she has done. Chuck Barris. She did The Gong Show, The Dating Game, the $1.98 Beauty Show, and a Barris pilot called Comedy Courtroom, and argues he was doing reality television decades before anyone called it that. The pageant scandal. Her $1.98 Beauty Show appearance aired in the middle of the Miss Torrance pageant she was leading, the judges said she was mocking the pageant system, and she finished first runner up instead of advancing toward Miss America. Playboy and the Floral Trail. Her 1977 Girls of the New South pictorial was shot fully clothed in antebellum dress at New Orleans plantations by photographer David Chan, and the Floral Trail Society stripped her of her queen title over it anyway. Stand up in the 1980s. She worked the Improv, the Laugh Factory, and the Comedy Store, introduced Robin Williams at the Holy City Zoo and effectively became his opening act, and pitched Jamie Masada on a women of comedy night she booked and filled herself. You're going to love my conversation with Rhonda Shear IMDB Up all Night Network Rhonda's Book Instagram YouTube Follow Jeff Dwoskin (host): Jeff Dwoskin on Twitter The Jeff Dwoskin Show podcast on Twitter Podcast website Podcast on Instagram Subscribe to my Youtube channel Yes, the show used to be called Live from Detroit: The Jeff Dwoskin Show Ways to support the show: Buy me a coffee (support the show) Dashery/TeePublic Store: Classic Conversations merch and more! Love the books I talk about on the show? Here is my Amazon store to shop. SPONSOR: STAMPEDE SOCIAL Drive engagement from your social channels and podcast with Stampede Social's Instagram and Facebook DM automation! Visit https://stampede.social Also check out: Why Instagram + Stampede Social Is the Growth Strategy Podcasters Need in 2025 (and Beyond) Thanks for checking out Classic Conversations! Dive into pop culture nostalgia with comedian Jeff Dwoskin as he hosts the best TV and film interviews. Hear inspiring stories from actors, comedians, musicians, and pop culture icons about the road to success. Part comedy, part drama—always entertaining. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.