Actress Peggy Lipton, still blond and doe-eyed, spoke Wednesday at Barnes & Noble Lincoln Center about her new memoir “Breathing Out” (St. Martins). In the book, she discusses acting, motherhood, and her marriage to Quincy Jones. She read passages about her youth, when she longed to wrap her arms around Dion and James Dean, and about having a crush on Paul McCartney in high school. She described later attending a party where she and the famous member of the Beatles flirted.

She also read a passage about auditioning for the hit television show “The Mod Squad,” for the role of Julie Barnes, a runaway delinquent who, while on police probation, agrees to become an undercover cop. Ms. Lipton drove from her “hippie house in Topanga Canyon” to audition before Aaron Spelling and other executives. She wore tinted glasses but was told to take them off. The television executives had auditioned 150 others and had another actress already selected for the role. “My audition had been an afterthought.” She landed the part, and it catapulted her to stardom.

The unusual police show ran for five seasons, covering topics relevant to the turbulent late 1960s and early 1970s such as anti-war activism on campus, race relations, and even the Miranda decision. It captured the language and style of the emergent youth culture, with its drugs, counterculture, and liberal mores.

Ms. Lipton said years later she would be watching television with her daughters, and she’d say, “I think I went out with that guy.” One of her daughters would reply, “Oh, mom.” “We went to see ‘Aviator,'” Ms. Lipton told the audience, and one of her daughters said, “Did you get it on with Howard Hughes?” Ms. Lipton replied that he “was slightly before my time.”

She said when she talks or meets up with “Mod Squad” co-stars Michael Cole and Clarence Williams III, it is “like no time passed.” She also spoke about surviving colon cancer and undergoing 24 rounds of chemotherapy. After this, she said, life is like “looking through a different lens.” She advised people to get tested for colon cancer.

Ms. Lipton was asked what she thought about today’s reality television shows. She said many get on her nerves, but some can be interesting “if things aren’t too preplanned.” She cited “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” the ABC television show where a family is chosen and their home rebuilt and redecorated.

Ms. Lipton hails from Lawrence on Long Island. Her father attended City College, Columbia University, and Harvard Law School; she attended Professional Children’s School and studied at HB Studios.

She pointed out, on the occasion of the release of a new movie version of “Bewitched,” that she appeared on the original television show; in one episode, she told the Darren character, “You’re late.”

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BURTON BOOK Vassar professor Alison McMahan, author of “The Films of Tim Burton” (Continuum), spoke at the Strand Bookstore the other evening. Nancy Bass, co-owner of the Strand, introduced Ms. McMahan; the two grew up together in Pelham Manor.

Ms. McMahan talked about Mr. Burton’s work – including how he reworks “myths”: reimagining “Batman,” “Planet of the Apes,” the legend of Sleepy Hollow. He created his own myth in “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” and, if “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is not quite a myth yet, it is a fairy tale. The Knickerbocker learned many tantalizing details about this upcoming Johnny Depp remake, including the fact that Willy Wonka’s father was a dentist who would not let Wonka eat candy as a boy.

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CAREER CONFIDENCE The Knickerbocker caught up with comedian John Mulrooney at the Borgata Comedy Club in Atlantic City last week. He related an anecdote about the time he performed at the East End Comedy Club in the Hamptons about 20 years ago. There was one distinguished man with a handlebar moustache who was really a good audience member – he even laughed at the set-ups. After the show, the owner of the club came up to Mr. Mulrooney and handed him the guy’s business card, saying, “Fred Trump [Donald’s father] wants you to call him.” Mr. Mulrooney called, thinking Trump wanted to book him for a gig. It turns out, “Trump says, ‘You’re a natural born salesman. Have you ever thought of selling real estate?’ and offered me a job.” Mr. Mulrooney’s father was dismayed that the comic turned Trump down.

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FROM DINOSAURS TO THE DIGITAL AGE “Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries,” is on exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History through January 8. The show presents the most up-to-date perspectives on many dinosaurs, including the theories of why they became extinct.

Dinosaurs are a topic that brings out a lot of questions. The Knickerbocker once attended a talk at the Explorers Club where the assistant dean for medical education at New York University School of Medicine, Dr. Julie Chase, discussed dinosaurs in the Gobi Desert. The audience laughed when one someone asked if the speaker thought dinosaurs were monogamous. The answer was no.

To turn from dinosaurs to the digital age, the final Explorers Club lecture of the season is this coming Wednesday. It features a nonprofit organization called Reach the World, which uses technology to bring the world of exploration to disadvantaged schools. It operates a three-year, around-the-world expedition aboard a sailboat, which is used as an Internet teaching tool for low-income students.