Episode #205: JD Lobue Jr. (JD Lobue Sr.)

Today on the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to J.D. Lobue Jr., son of television director & at one time budding sunshine pop musician J.D. Lobue Sr. We reached out to J.D. Jr., after reading an article in a fantastic music magazine called Ugly Things about a band from the 1960s called The Gordian Knot. While reading the article, the name J.D. Lobue came up and host Josh Mills immediately thought, “That MUST be the father of my former little league baseball teammate!” After all, Lobue isn’t Smith, it’s a pretty unique name. With a little bit more research, we discovered our hunch was correct, it was the same person.

As we dug a little further, we realized that not only was Sr. a member of The Gordian Knot, but was also a well-known television director whose credits included multiple credits for iconic American shows like Soul Train, Soap, It’s A Living, Herman’s Head, Dharma and Greg and so many more. There were also credits for shows that didn’t make it like Norman Lear’s All’s Fair, Amanda’s By The Sea, Comedy Zone, You Take The Kids and more. So on this episode, we get into the weeds on what it was like in the booth watching your dad direct Soul Train and how your dad kept it together when things didn’t go right on the set of Soap.

We also discuss meeting the great Madeline Kahn, how he channeled The Bad News Bears Tanner as a member of the Dodgers at Studio City National Little League, iconic TV director Jay Sandrich, the jazz fusion band The Crusaders, sitting in Archie Bunker’s chair on the All in the Family set, playing tennis at Mel Torme’s house and much more. This is the Rarified Heir Podcast and everyone has a story. Take a listen.