| A Television Show on the Bravo Network that aims to become the foremost archive of the study of the craft of theater and film. The program consists of Host James Lipton, the Dean of the Famous Actor's Studio Drama School (attended by the likes of James Dean and Marlon Brando) at New School University, interviewing various Actors, Writers and Directors about their life's experiences and the technique's they utilize in approaching their work.
The interview differs from other "talk show" formats by alotting an entire hour (at the least) to the individual guests, as well as the rigorous research that Lipton does in preperation for it - Lipton prepares for two full weeks prior to conducting an interview, handwriting his questions out on hundreds of blue index cards (which have become his trademark). Each interview ends with the guest answering a Questionairre invented by Lipton's personal Idol, Bernard Pivot (host of the french television show "Bouillon de Culture"), followed by a question-and-answer session between the guest and the school's students.
The "official" complete archive consists of the following interviews, however, it inexplicably does not include many guests, such as Paul Newman, Sally Feild, Alec Baldwin and Phillip Seymour-Hoffman:
Roseanne
Ben Affleck
Alan Alda
Antonio Banderas
Ellen Barkin
Kim Basinger
Kathy Bates
Ned Beatty
Juliette Binoche
Matthew Broderick
Carol Burnett
Gabriel Byrne
James Caan
Michael Caine
Stockard Channing
Francis Ford Coppola
Kevin Costner
Billy Crystal
Geena Davis
Robert DeNiro
Johnny Depp
Michael Douglas
Richard Dreyfuss
Laurence Fishburne
Harrison Ford
Andy Garcia
Richard Gere
Danny Glover
Whoopi Goldberg
Hugh Grant
Melanie Griffith
Gene Hackman
Tom Hanks
Ed Harris
Ethan Hawke
Anthony Hopkins
Helen Hunt
Samuel L. Jackson
Tommy Lee Jones
Val Kilmer
Ben Kingsley
Kevin Kline
Spike Lee
Jack Lemmon
Jerry Lewis
Mary Tyler Moore
Mike Meyers
Gwyneth Paltrow
Sarah Jessica Parker
Sean Penn
Bernadette Peters
Dennis Quaid
Vanessa Redgrave
Tim Robbins
Julia Roberts
Meg Ryan
Susan Sarandon
Will Smith
Sissy Spacek
Kevin Spacey
Steven Spielberg
Sylvester Stallone
Ben Stiller
Sharon Stone
Meryl Streep
Billy Bob Thornton
Benicio Del Toro
Christopher Walken
Sigourney Weaver
Robin Williams
Bruce Willis
Debra Winger
"Inside The Actor's Studio" incidentally became so popular it was parodied on "Saturday Night Live" with Will Ferrel imitating Lipton. Lipton did not approve of the impression, however, and pleaded for Ferrel to stop once and for all with an appearance on the Actor's Studio 100th Guest Celebration Special. Ferrel did appear, as Lipton, with Lipton. He did not, however, cease impersonating him afterwards. | 
