Stephen Talbot
Encyclopedia
Stephen Henderson Talbot (born February 28, 1949, Los Angeles, California
) is an award-winning TV reporter, writer
, and producer
who began his career as a television
child actor
of the late 1950s and early 1960s. He is the son of actor Lyle Talbot.
He is best known for the early TV sit-com Leave It to Beaver
, in which he had the semi-regular role as Gilbert Bates, best friend of Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver (Jerry Mathers
).
Talbot went on to become an accomplished, Emmy award-winning "behind the scenes" contributor to the Public Broadcasting Service
and its Frontline
and Frontline World series.
He is currently developing a PBS music series, "Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders" and produces an online series of music videos called "Quick Hits.",
(56-episodes), Talbot has all but abandoned the character today.
Talbot guest-starred on Lassie
, M Squad
, The Barbara Stanwyck Show
, The Blue Angels
, Perry Mason
, Wanted: Dead or Alive , "The Donna Reed Show" and The Lucy Show
. In 1960, Talbot played the role of Ronnie Kramer in the episode "I Hit and Ran" of CBS's anthology series The DuPont Show with June Allyson
. Talbot also appeared in two The Twilight Zone
episodes.
On stage, Talbot co-starred as "Sonny" in William Inge's "Dark at the Top of the Stairs" with Marjorie Lord at the La Jolla Playhouse. He also played Dick Clark's ward in the only movie Clark ever acted in, "Because They're Young" (1960), a high school drama with Tuesday Weld and music by rock 'n roller Duane Eddy.
As an adult, Talbot turned from acting to journalism and did not dwell on his LITB heritage, turning down numerous Leave it to Beaver "reunion" offers in order to be taken seriously as a reporter. But in recent years he has begun to reflect on his "Beaver" experience in articles and interviews and even in a Frontline documentary, Diet Wars.
winners, "Broken Arrow" about nuclear weapons accidents and "The Case of Dashiell Hammett." He has had a long association with the PBS series, Frontline beginning with his documentary on the financing of the 1992 presidential campaign, The Best Campaign Money Can Buy, which won a DuPont Award. He is the executive producer of "Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders," a new music series for PBS, whose pilot episode aired in 2010.
He is the executive producer of "The Price of Sex," a documentary by director and photo journalist Mimi Chakarova about sex trafficking in eastern Europe and the Middle East.
, and critical biographies of Newt Gingrich
and Rush Limbaugh
.
From 2002-2008, Talbot was the Series Editor and a senior producer for Frontline/World, the international TV news magazine program and web site. Based at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, where he teaches, Talbot and colleague Sharon Tiller helped identify and mentor the "next generation of video journalists" whose work was showcased on Frontline/World.
's ANC in exile) and "The Gospel and Guatemala" with Elizabeth Farnsworth
. At KQED, Talbot also reported and produced dozens of feature stories for The MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour.
He has written and co-produced several PBS biographies of noted writers, including Ken Kesey
, Beryl Markham, Carlos
Fuentes, Maxine Hong Kingston
and John Dos Passos
.
With David Davis, Talbot wrote and directed The Sixties: The Years That Shaped a Generation, a two-hour history special that aired nationally on PBS in 2005, and was based on his earlier film, "1968: The Year That Shaped a Generation."
, the Washington Post Magazine, The Nation
, Mother Jones
, Rolling Stone, the San Francisco Chronicle
, and the Los Angeles Times
. He wrote about Robert Mugabe in an article for the "Frontline/World" web site, From Liberator to Tyrant. In the 1970s, he was a reporter and editor for InterNews, a radio and print foreign news service based in Berkeley, California
.
s, four local (San Francisco) Emmys, two Peabody Award
s, a DuPont-Columbia Journalism Silver Baton
, a George Polk Award, an Edward R. Murrow Award
from the Overseas Press Club of America, a First Prize TV Award from the Education Writers Association, a National Press Club Arthur Rowse Award for press criticism, and an Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America.
, a movie star and veteran TV character actor. He attended Harvard High School (now called Harvard-Westlake) in North Hollywood (class of 1966) and graduated from Wesleyan University
(Connecticut) in 1970.
Stephen Talbot lives in San Francisco with his wife, Pippa Gordon. They have two grown children, Dashiell and Caitlin. Talbot named his son Dashiell, now a lawyer, after San Francisco mystery writer Dashiell Hammett
. His daughter, Caitlin, is an actress who graduated from the American Conservatory of Theater in San Francisco.
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
) is an award-winning TV reporter, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, and producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
who began his career as a television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
child actor
Child actor
The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting in motion pictures or television, but also to an adult who began his or her acting career as a child; to avoid confusion, the latter is also called a former child actor...
of the late 1950s and early 1960s. He is the son of actor Lyle Talbot.
He is best known for the early TV sit-com Leave It to Beaver
Leave It to Beaver
Leave It to Beaver is an American television situation comedy about an inquisitive but often naïve boy named Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver and his adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood...
, in which he had the semi-regular role as Gilbert Bates, best friend of Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver (Jerry Mathers
Jerry Mathers
Gerald Patrick "Jerry" Mathers is an American television, film, and stage actor. Mathers is best known for his role in the television sitcom series Leave It to Beaver , in which he played Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver, the younger son of archetypal suburban couple June and Ward Cleaver , and the brother...
).
Talbot went on to become an accomplished, Emmy award-winning "behind the scenes" contributor to the Public Broadcasting Service
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
and its Frontline
Frontline (TV series)
FRONTLINE is a public affairs television program that produces and broadcasts in-depth documentaries about various subjects. Produced at WGBH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts and distributed through the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States, the program has been critically acclaimed and...
and Frontline World series.
He is currently developing a PBS music series, "Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders" and produces an online series of music videos called "Quick Hits.",
Early life and career
Having spent his early prepubescent years in front of the cameras on Leave it to Beaver as Gilbert BatesGilbert Bates
Gilbert Henderson Bates was an American soldier best known for his peaceful postwar march throughout the American south....
(56-episodes), Talbot has all but abandoned the character today.
"In the interests of historical accuracy I should say that, yes, Gilbert was a troublemaker and an occasional liar, but my character was certainly no Eddie Haskell -- that leering teenage hypocrite who spoke unctuously to parents ('Well, hello Mrs. Cleaver, and how is young Theodore today?') and venomously to the Beav ('Hey, squirt, take a powder before I squash you like a bug')."! "I have spent my adult life trying to conceal my Leave it to Beaver past or correcting the historical record. Either way the series has become inescapable. When I was a kid, I loved acting; in fact, I badgered my father and mother until they allowed me to work. But how could I have known as an innocent 9-year-old that I was taking part in a television program that would live on for 40 years as an icon for baby boomers? In the early '80s, I turned down an offer to revive my role as Gilbert in a dreadful Beaver reunion series. "I'm trying to establish myself as a documentary filmmaker and an investigative reporter," I explained to the producers. "I can't go back to being Gilbert!"
Talbot guest-starred on Lassie
Lassie (1954 TV series)
Lassie is an American television series that follows the adventures of a female Rough Collie named Lassie and her companions, human and animal. The show was the creation of producer Robert Maxwell and animal trainer Rudd Weatherwax and was televised from September 12, 1954, to March 24, 1973...
, M Squad
M Squad
M Squad is an American police drama television series that ran from 1957 to 1960 on NBC. Its format would later inspire the creation of spoof TV show Police Squad! Its sponsor was the Pall Mall cigarette brand; Lee Marvin, the program's star, appeared in its commercials during the...
, The Barbara Stanwyck Show
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
The Barbara Stanwyck Show is an American anthology drama television series which ran on NBC from September 1960 to September 1961. Barbara Stanwyck served as hostess, and starred in all but four of the half-hour productions. The four she did not star in were actually pilot episodes of potential...
, The Blue Angels
The Blue Angels (TV series)
The Blue Angels is a 1960-1961 syndicated television series about the Blue Angels of the United States Navy. The program starred Dennis Cross as Commander Arthur Richards, the head of a four-man squadron which tours the country to give flight exhibitions...
, Perry Mason
Perry Mason (TV series)
Perry Mason is an American legal drama produced by Paisano Productions that ran from September 1957 to May 1966 on CBS. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a fictional Los Angeles defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner...
, Wanted: Dead or Alive , "The Donna Reed Show" and The Lucy Show
The Lucy Show
The Lucy Show is an American situation comedy that aired on CBS from 1962 until 1968. It was Lucille Ball's follow-up to I Love Lucy. A significant change in cast and premise for the 1965-66 season divides the program into two distinct eras; aside from Ball, only Gale Gordon, who joined the program...
. In 1960, Talbot played the role of Ronnie Kramer in the episode "I Hit and Ran" of CBS's anthology series The DuPont Show with June Allyson
The DuPont Show with June Allyson
The DuPont Show with June Allyson is an American anthology drama series which aired on CBS from September 21, 1959 to April 3, 1961 with rebroadcasts continuing until June 12, 1961...
. Talbot also appeared in two The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
episodes.
On stage, Talbot co-starred as "Sonny" in William Inge's "Dark at the Top of the Stairs" with Marjorie Lord at the La Jolla Playhouse. He also played Dick Clark's ward in the only movie Clark ever acted in, "Because They're Young" (1960), a high school drama with Tuesday Weld and music by rock 'n roller Duane Eddy.
As an adult, Talbot turned from acting to journalism and did not dwell on his LITB heritage, turning down numerous Leave it to Beaver "reunion" offers in order to be taken seriously as a reporter. But in recent years he has begun to reflect on his "Beaver" experience in articles and interviews and even in a Frontline documentary, Diet Wars.
Career
Talbot has reported, written and produced more than thirty documentaries, including two Peabody AwardPeabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
winners, "Broken Arrow" about nuclear weapons accidents and "The Case of Dashiell Hammett." He has had a long association with the PBS series, Frontline beginning with his documentary on the financing of the 1992 presidential campaign, The Best Campaign Money Can Buy, which won a DuPont Award. He is the executive producer of "Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders," a new music series for PBS, whose pilot episode aired in 2010.
He is the executive producer of "The Price of Sex," a documentary by director and photo journalist Mimi Chakarova about sex trafficking in eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Frontline
In 2007 he produced, "What's Happening to the News" a 90 minute episode of Frontlines "News War" series. Some of his other Frontline news documentaries include "The Heartbeat of America" (an investigation of General Motors), "Spying on Saddam", "Why America Hates the Press", "Justice for Sale" with Bill MoyersBill Moyers
Bill Moyers is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the United States President Lyndon B. Johnson Administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years. Moyers has had an extensive involvement with public...
, and critical biographies of Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is a U.S. Republican Party politician who served as the House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995 and as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999....
and Rush Limbaugh
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio talk show host, conservative political commentator, and an opinion leader in American conservatism. He hosts The Rush Limbaugh Show which is aired throughout the U.S. on Premiere Radio Networks and is the highest-rated talk-radio program in the United...
.
From 2002-2008, Talbot was the Series Editor and a senior producer for Frontline/World, the international TV news magazine program and web site. Based at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, where he teaches, Talbot and colleague Sharon Tiller helped identify and mentor the "next generation of video journalists" whose work was showcased on Frontline/World.
TV journalism
In the 1980s, Talbot was a staff reporter and producer at KQED-TV, the PBS affiliate in San Francisco, where he produced local documentaries, as well as national PBS documentaries such as "South Africa Under Siege" (a portrait of Nelson MandelaNelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
's ANC in exile) and "The Gospel and Guatemala" with Elizabeth Farnsworth
Elizabeth Farnsworth
Elizabeth Farnsworth is an American television news anchorwoman.Born in 1943 Elizabeth Fink in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to a family of farmers, teachers, doctors and railroad executives....
. At KQED, Talbot also reported and produced dozens of feature stories for The MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour.
He has written and co-produced several PBS biographies of noted writers, including Ken Kesey
Ken Kesey
Kenneth Elton "Ken" Kesey was an American author, best known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , and as a counter-cultural figure who considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. "I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a...
, Beryl Markham, Carlos
Fuentes, Maxine Hong Kingston
Maxine Hong Kingston
Maxine Hong Kingston is a Chinese American author and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated with a BA in English in 1962. Kingston has written three novels and several works of non-fiction about the experiences of Chinese immigrants living in the United...
and John Dos Passos
John Dos Passos
John Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist and artist.-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Dos Passos was the illegitimate son of John Randolph Dos Passos , a distinguished lawyer of Madeiran Portuguese descent, and Lucy Addison Sprigg Madison of Petersburg, Virginia. The elder Dos Passos...
.
With David Davis, Talbot wrote and directed The Sixties: The Years That Shaped a Generation, a two-hour history special that aired nationally on PBS in 2005, and was based on his earlier film, "1968: The Year That Shaped a Generation."
Writings
His articles have appeared in Salon.comSalon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
, the Washington Post Magazine, The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
, Mother Jones
Mother Jones (magazine)
Mother Jones is an American independent news organization, featuring investigative and breaking news reporting on politics, the environment, human rights, and culture. Mother Jones has been nominated for 23 National Magazine Awards and has won six times, including for General Excellence in 2001,...
, Rolling Stone, the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
, and the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
. He wrote about Robert Mugabe in an article for the "Frontline/World" web site, From Liberator to Tyrant. In the 1970s, he was a reporter and editor for InterNews, a radio and print foreign news service based in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
.
Awards
Talbot has won numerous awards for his journalism, including two national Emmy AwardEmmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
s, four local (San Francisco) Emmys, two Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
s, a DuPont-Columbia Journalism Silver Baton
DuPont-Columbia Award
The Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award is an American award that honors excellence in broadcast journalism. The awards, administered since 1968 by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City, are considered a broadcast equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, another...
, a George Polk Award, an Edward R. Murrow Award
Edward Murrow Award (OPC)
The Edward Murrow Award is a journalism award given by the Overseas Press Club of America annually since 1978, for "Best TV interpretation or documentary on international affairs."- External links :*...
from the Overseas Press Club of America, a First Prize TV Award from the Education Writers Association, a National Press Club Arthur Rowse Award for press criticism, and an Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America.
Personal life
Stephen Talbot is the son of the late Lyle TalbotLyle Talbot
Lyle Talbot , born Lisle Henderson, was an American actor on stage and screen, best known for his long career in movies from 1931 to 1960 and for his frequent appearances on TV in the 1950s and '60s, including his decade-long role as Joe Randolph on television's The Adventures of Ozzie and...
, a movie star and veteran TV character actor. He attended Harvard High School (now called Harvard-Westlake) in North Hollywood (class of 1966) and graduated from Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
(Connecticut) in 1970.
Stephen Talbot lives in San Francisco with his wife, Pippa Gordon. They have two grown children, Dashiell and Caitlin. Talbot named his son Dashiell, now a lawyer, after San Francisco mystery writer Dashiell Hammett
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade , Nick and Nora Charles , and the Continental Op .In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on...
. His daughter, Caitlin, is an actress who graduated from the American Conservatory of Theater in San Francisco.
Select filmography
- See the complete Stephen Talbot filmography at IMDB
Year Title Role 1957 Leave it to Beaver Leave It to BeaverLeave It to Beaver is an American television situation comedy about an inquisitive but often naïve boy named Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver and his adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood...
1959-1963 56-episodes (TV)Gilbert Bates 1961 The Twilight Zone The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
StaticStatic (The Twilight Zone)"Static" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Opening narration:As Ed Lindsay retrieves his old radio from the boarding house basement, he says to a boy watching him, "Don't you know what a radio is?". "Sure", says the kid, "but I've never seen one like that ...
(TV)The Boy 1962 The Twilight Zone The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
The FugitiveThe Fugitive (Twilight Zone)"The Fugitive" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:The story opens at a public park, where a group of children are playing softball. They are accompanied by Old Ben, a kindly, grandfatherly gentleman, whom the kids adore. When it is Old Ben's turn...
(TV)Howie 1982 The Case of Dashiell Hammett
(TV)Writer
Producer1989 Crossing Borders: The Journey of Carlos
Fuentes
(TV)Writer, Co-Producer 1992 Frontline Frontline (TV series)FRONTLINE is a public affairs television program that produces and broadcasts in-depth documentaries about various subjects. Produced at WGBH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts and distributed through the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States, the program has been critically acclaimed and...
The Best Campaign Money Can Buy (TV)Producer 2004 Frontline Frontline (TV series)FRONTLINE is a public affairs television program that produces and broadcasts in-depth documentaries about various subjects. Produced at WGBH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts and distributed through the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States, the program has been critically acclaimed and...
Diet Wars (TV)Host 2005 The Sixties: The Years That Shaped
a Generation (TV)Co-Producer 2007 Frontline Frontline (TV series)FRONTLINE is a public affairs television program that produces and broadcasts in-depth documentaries about various subjects. Produced at WGBH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts and distributed through the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States, the program has been critically acclaimed and...
News War: What's Happening to the News (TV)Producer, Co-Writer 2010 "Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders Sound Tracks: Music Without BordersSound Tracks: Music Without Borders is a one-hour pilot episode for a proposed music, travel and journalism series that first aired nationally on PBS on January 25, 2010....
"
(TV) PBS pilot episodeExecutive Producer