WADT radio personality Gary Leavitt, a Peabody resident, hosted stars Loretta Swit and Adrienne Barbeau on his hit show “Gary and Friends” Wednesday night.
On the show, which takes place every Wednesday from 8p.m. to 9 p.m., Leavitt interviews not only worldwide celebrities, but people from state and local levels. The show’s theme is based on human interest.
Leavitt said that he wants his guests to feel “comfortable” when talking with him and tells them to think of the interviews as a “conversation as if we were old friends.”
“I always tell people to pretend we are splitting a pizza,” he said in an interview. “I talk to them about what they have done in their career, what they are doing now, and what they want to promote.”
This week’s episode dubbed the guests “two of Hollywood’s most beautiful actresses.” One of the guests, Swit, played Margaret “hot lips” Houlihan on the 1972 sitcom “M*A*S*H,” while the other guest, Barbeau, was known as a “scream queen” in many horror movies. She was popular for her role as Beatrice Arthur’s daughter in the CBS comedy “Maude.”
Playing a nurse, Swit said that she played her role of Houlihan as a form of encouraging women to pursue their passions and lead a successful life.
“Women who watched M*A*S*H would send me mail and tell me that my character helped to inspire them to become a nurse,” she said during the show Wednesday night. “That is a wonderful feeling.”
Like Swit, Barbeau also took pride in her career as a young actress. She said her favorite film was her first feature “The Fog” because it helped determine a successful career path going forward.
“It was sort of a family, the crew, and we were filming in a beautiful part of the country north of San Francisco,” she said during the show. “I have an affection for so many things I have done, and all for different reasons.”
Since starting his career in radio in 1985, Leavitt has had over 300 celebrity guests on his show, some of which include Marion Ross from “Happy Days,” Jerry Mathers from “Leave it to Beaver,” and the soup guy from “Seinfeld.” He said his guest list is determined by “what they can bring to the table” based on teamwork. He wants them to leave the show feeling like they were able to share a story that the audience may not have known about, without feeling “one-upped.”
“We are noncontroversial; we are entertainment; we are informative,” he said. “I want them to have a fun time with it — I want the experience of the show to be more enjoyable than the past 100 that they’ve done.”
Leavitt’s show can be listened to on the radio at WATD FM 95.9 as well as online at 959WATD.com.
Rachel Galatis can be reached at [email protected].
