The finished product! A bargain at twice the price!

Bill McNeely, Boating Commentator Extraordinaire, interviewed on July 18, 2007.

Videographer Jack Joy tapes the gleaming cigarette as it leaves the dock.

Four 225hp Mercury outboards on the stern, plus a helm jammed with communications gear.

Hanging on at 70 mph!  It's hard to outrun these guys.

I frame a shot of one of the many sailboat "heats" that slooowly departed Newport for Ensenada in light winds.

Boats of various classes jockey for starting positions before the horn or cannon sounds.

A speedy entrant -- if the wind picks up, that is.

Shaka, our 47-foot floating limo for the Ensenada shoot.

Southbound for Ensenada at 25 knots, Shaka's two 490hp diesels humming.

Cameraman Jack Joy shoots close-ups of charts with Shaka's owner/Captain, Duane Fitzgerald.

A Mexican Navy outpost on the southernmost Coronado Island.

We tape an interview with Alejandro D'Acosta, the architect/proprietor of Casa de Piedra Winery, about ten miles from Ensenada.

Trolling for yellowtail on the way home, Todos Santos Island and its lighthouse visible in the distance.

Our truly beloved production staff, cast, and crew. It was a happy set, and I think you can see and feel it on-screen.

Lester's "head shot."

Paul as "Meekman;" yours truly as a character who came to be called "Dr. Mengele" on the set.

Lester in drag as a quiz show contestant.

This real, live lion's trainer advised me to sling my tail over my shoulder, rather than let it drag behind me...

With Jean Stapleton as "Beakmom."

Teresa and I were married on a Kauai beach while Beakman was in production. This was our wedding cake.

And speaking of cakes, a birthday treat from the staff in the shape of a tempting wedge of Velveeta.

Kino and his right-hand man. That's my mic on the headband.

I got to sing with Little Richard. Between takes, he confessed to me that reading aloud was a challenge for him. "You see," he said, "I never had the education." I found this disarming and impressive in its candor. He read two books brilliantly.

Kirk Douglas -- legendary, but cranky.

Kenny Loggins joins us at a live appearance in Santa Barbara -- that's co-host Marabina Jaimes in front of me.

Annie Potts -- every bit as nice as one might suspect.

Kino spent the afternoon in Salma Hayek's lap. She was well-prepared and knew exactly how she wanted her reading staged and shot.

Geena Davis was very sweet and meticulous in her performance.

Jason Alexander -- not at all like his neurotic alter-ego, George Costanza. Very pleasant, professional, and "centered."

Kino meets Lambchop, whose body was a real athletic sock. Shari's daughter, Mallory, operated Lambchop's tiny arms from behind Kino's wall with me, using thin nylon lines. The two of us had a lot of laughs as fellow "puppet kids."

With Martin Mull, Producer Julio Moline, co-host Anne Betancourt, and Director Cordelia Stone.

Kino wins an Emmy -- "Best Series Host." On the way to the parking lot after the ceremony, I dropped my statuette, and it snapped in half at the winged goddess's ankles. I rushed back to the press room, and they gave me a new one from a locked closet that was full of them.

Hosting a KCET pledge break, on-camera as myself for a change.

I search in vain for land somewhere off the California coast.

Taping on a bluff overlooking Little Harbor.

Videographer Jack Joy shoots the rugged coastline on the "Hawaii side" of Catalina, near its western tip.

Motu, our comfy, twin-masted, 52-foot camera platform, moored near the isthmus.

Scott Bloom does a funny secret agent bit for New York's RJO Group.

Videographer Bob Carr frames a wide shot.

At the Chernobyl reactor.

Searching for "nuked" microbes.

At a Georgia Superfund site.

The original menagerie, about 1954, on the set of CBS's "In the Park."

About 1977 -- L to R: Magnolia Ostrich, The Abominable Snowman, Albert Chipmunk, Mom, Geoffrey Giraffe, Dad, Calvin Crow.

Mary Ritts, June 16, 1910-May 14, 2006