Doris Day on singing ‘Que Sera Sera’ In The Man Who Knew Too Much:

The first time somebody told me it was going to be in that movie, I thought, “Why?” I didn’t think there was a place to put that song. … I thought, “I’m not crazy about that. Where are they going to put it? For what?” … I didn’t think it was a good song.

Image via furcoatsanddiamonds

This week we’ve been listening back to some of our favorite interviews of 2012. We’ve heard from Aziz Ansari, Aaron Sorkin, R.A. Dickey, Catherine Russell, and Joan Rivers. Today we’ll hear from Stephen Colbert and Doris Day. But we’d also love to hear from you, since you’re the wonderful people doing the listening out there. What have been some of your favorite Fresh Air interviews this year?

Image by xybo via Flickr Commons

R.A. Dickey on the spin of a perfect knuckleball:

As a conventional pitcher, you throw a fastball, a curveball, a slider, a change-up — and those pitches are all thrown with a certain amount of spin on them. With a knuckleball, you’re doing the opposite. You’re taking spin completely off the baseball and you’re leaving it up to the physics of air resistance and seams on the baseball. … So, a perfectly thrown knuckleball has a little less than a quarter rotation from the time it leaves your hand until the time that it gets to the catcher’s mitt.

Aaron Sorkin on whether real people talk like the characters he writes:

“I haven’t met anyone who can. When I write these things, I’m alone in a room for a very long time, and I get to rewrite them, and I get to think for a long time about what’s going to be said. If I get on a roll, then I can write a conversation like that without stopping, but I can’t do it when talking to a real person, like you. That’s not who I am in real life.”

Here’s Toronto Blue Jays pitcher R.A. Dickey (just traded by the New York Mets) explaining his famous knuckleball to ESPN. We’re listening back to some of our favorite shows of the year this week, including one with Dickey about his rocky road to the major leagues.

Joan Rivers on some of the people she brought home to meet her parents:

I was bringing home Woody Allen before he was Woody Allen, Richard Pryor before he was Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin before she was Lily Tomlin. These are weird people walking up the driveway. This is not a nice boy from Yale. You ever shake Woody’s hand? Put your hand in a glass of water and then shake your hand. Woody was very weird and very brilliant, but they didn’t see that far.

Love and Death (1975) | Woody Allen

Aziz Ansari on what his parents think of his chosen profession:

My parents have seen me do stand-up. I did Carnegie Hall January of last year. And a few days before, I thought, ‘I have to fly my parents in to see this.’ … I was a little worried that they would be offended by some of the bits. There’s some pretty harsh stuff. But the positives outweigh the negatives. And after the show, they didn’t say anything about the language. Someone was sitting next to my parents and saying they were laughing the whole time. They weren’t getting offended. Maybe every now and then my mom put her hands in her face, but I think any mom would do that with some of the stuff I say. Stand-up comedy is a raunchy profession.”

Movie critic David Edelstein on Amour — one of his favorite films from 2012 — and the movie’s director, Michael Haneke:

I really hate Michael Haneke. I think he’s a provocateur. … He’s kind of a sadistic, proto-punk guy and finally, in this case, he’s discovered a real-world antagonist that’s even more brutal than he is, which is time.

Image: A still from Amour via NPR

David Bianculli on when his favorite television show, Breaking Bad, is scheduled to return:

It’s not soon enough. It’s next spring or summer, but it will be ending when it comes back so I’m already looking forward to it with dread. You know, it’s like the last piece of pie from that pie.

Image of Aaron Paul on Breaking Bad via NPR

Today on the show, TV critic David Bianculli and film critic David Edelstein share their favorite shows and movies from 2012. Stay tuned!

Image by stevetaylor.fivefour via Flickr Commons