Author bios of Harry Castleman and Walter J. Podrazik

Harry Castleman never really watched as much television as you might think, he just has a good memory. When not writing books, Harry is a lawyer with the firm of Michienzie & Sawin in Boston, specializing in business, real estate, probate, and intellectual property law. He has co-authored seven other popular culture books with Wally Podrazik, and also co-authored another book about applying and going to law school. He previously worked as a media producer for the Democratic National Committee, press secretary for the Florida Democratic Party, and as a media consultant to political campaigns both nationally and in Florida. Harry has also been a guest lecturer on TV history at Boston University’s College of Communication and has been interviewed on radio and television stations concerning television and music history. He graduated from Northwestern University (where Harry met Wally) and Boston University School of Law. Harry is thrilled that he got to share with his daughter the excitement of the Red Sox winning the World Series three times within ten years. He now can’t imagine life without a wide-screen high-definition television but still relies on his daughter to explain the latest apps. Harry is enjoying the second decade of the twenty-first century more than he ever expected.    [Harry Castleman photo by Laura B. Driemeyer] 

Walter J. Podrazik loves making media work. As a project planner and consultant, Wally has experienced firsthand history-in-the-making handling media logistics at such high profile events as the Democratic party’s quadrennial presidential nominating conventions. He also eagerly embraces modern media tools for research, analysis, and historical narrative, providing insights online, in print, on radio and television, at conferences, and in a variety of education forums. A graduate of the School of Communication at Northwestern University, Wally is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) where he has taught courses on future TV, television history, and the intersection of mass media and politics. In Chicago, Wally serves as television curator at the Museum of Broadcast Communications. He has collaborated on seven other books with Harry Castleman, including three volumes on The Beatles. A lifelong traveler, Wally has visited all fifty states, five continents, and dozens of countries, inevitably finding memorable media moments in every setting. (He heard the O. J. Simpson verdict over a taxi cab radio in France.) Among his favorite destinations: Alaska, Australia, London, New York, and the Grand Canyon. Wally is happily married and enjoys watching television at his family home (built in 1872), occasionally imagining a pre-TV world there without Columbo, Fawlty Towers, Sherlock, The Fugitive, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, SCTV, and The Good Place.     [Walter J. Podrazik photo by Grace DuMelle. Hanging Rock, Australia.]