Paul Williams

19th November 2024

Paul Williams has lived an extraordinary life. He’s a songwriter who’s written songs performed by Three Dog Night, Tiny Tim, The Carpenters, and David Bowie. On the latest episode of Bullseye we get into it all. Falling out of airplanes. Dressing as an Orangutan from Planet of the Apes on Carson. The simple genius of Kermit the Frog’s Rainbow Connection, which was quite complicated to write.

Episode notes

(Photo: Daniel Speer / Maximum Fun)

Paul Williams has lived an extraordinary life. 

He’s a songwriter who’s written songs performed by Three Dog Night, Tiny Tim, The Carpenters, and David Bowie. Paul also co-wrote perhaps one of the greatest Muppet songs of all time: Rainbow Connection from The Muppet Movie.

As an actor he’s also been in a ton of great projects – from Battle for the Planet of the Apes to the cult classic Phantom of the Paradise

Other extraordinary facts – Paul has skydived over 100 times. He was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson appearing 50 times. 

On the latest episode of Bullseye we get into it all: Falling out of airplanes. Dressing as an Orangutan from Planet of the Apes on Carson. The simple genius of Kermit the Frog’s Rainbow Connection, which was surprisingly complicated to write.

In this episode...

Senior Producer
Producer
Maximum Fun Producer
Maximum Fun Production Fellow
Video Editor

Guests

  • Paul Williams

About the show

Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.

Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.

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Senior Producer

Producer

Maximum Fun Producer

Maximum Fun Production Fellow

Video Editor

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