TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

TVC 740.2: Phil Gries, founder and owner of Archival Television Audio , and Ed discuss how In Celebration of US , the sixteen-hour CBS special hosted by Walter Cronkite that aired on July 4, 1976, not only was inclusive in tone and presentation, but marked the first time that a network had devoted day-long coverage to a single event since the moon landing of July 20, 1969.

TVC 740.3: Phil Gries of Archival Television Audio plays a few more audio highlights of In Celebration of US , the day-long CBS special, hosted by Walter Cronkite, that aired on July 4, 1976, including coverage of the largest naturalization ceremony in U.S. history and of the massive parade in Philadelphia that included representatives from the forty-eight continental states plus several other cou...

TVC 740.4: Phil Gries of Archival Television Audio plays more audio highlights of In Celebration of US , including coverage of the jazz festival held on July 4, 1976 that also commemorated the 100 th birthday of jazz great Louis Armstrong, plus a few minutes of the Major League Baseball game that day between the Houston Astros and the Cincinnati Reds.   Audio courtesy Archival Television Audio . I...

TVC 740.5: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with Barry Weitz, co-creator and co-executive producer of Movin' On (NBC, 1974-1976), and Kathy Bird, author of Sundance Turns Fifty: The Amazing Legacy of Movin' On , a fun new book that not only takes you behind the scenes of the production of Movin' On , but introduces you to many of the people who are responsible for keeping the show ali...

TVC 740.6: Barry Weitz, co-creator and co-executive producer of Movin' On , and Kathy Bird, author of Sundance Turns Fifty: The Amazing Legacy of Movin' On , discuss the circumstances that resulted in NBC canceling Movin' On at the end of its second season, and how the NBC programming executive who made that decision, Marvin Antonowsky, got his comeuppance in a very public way. Sundance Turns Fift...

Please enjoy this special preview of our upcoming conversation with Martha Reeves , the legendary Motown powerhouse who is also one of the most influential voices in American music. June is Black Music Month, and to celebrate the occasion Martha is releasing "To Know You is to Love You," the leadoff single for Searching , Martha's first new album in twenty-two years. Both the single and the video...

TVC 739.4: Ed welcomes Barry Weitz, co-creator and co-executive producer of Movin' On (NBC, 1974-1976), the classic TV series starring Claude Akins and Frank Converse as independent truck drivers that, in many ways, was a modern-day Western, and Kathy Bird, author of Sundance Turns Fifty: The Amazing Legacy of Movin' On , a fun new book that not only takes you behind the scenes of the production o...

TVC 739.5: Barry Weitz, co-creator and co-executive producer of Movin' On , and Kathy Bird, author of Sundance Turns Fifty: The Amazing Legacy of Movin' On , talk to Ed about how Movin' On was an unusual series not only because it was filmed entirely on location in different states throughout the continental U.S., but also insofar as Barry's production team scouted the locations first, then wrote...

TVC 739.6: Barry Weitz, co-creator and co-executive producer of Movin' On , and Kathy Bird, author of Sundance Turns Fifty: The Amazing Legacy of Movin' On , talk to Ed about how it would be impossible to make Movin' On today in the same way that Barry and his production partner, Phil D'Antoni, made the series when they produced it together in the mid 1970s. Also in this segment: Barry shares an a...

TVC 738.2: Via remote from the Hollywood Museum : TV Confidential brings you coverage of the recent opening night ceremonies for From Norma Jean to Marilyn Monroe: A Centennial Celebration , a new exhibit at the Hollywood Museum that features, among other items, an exclusive look at never-before-published photographs from George Barris' last photo sessions with Marilyn Monroe, which occurred in mi...

TVC 738.3: Via remote from the Hollywood Museum : TV Confidential brings you more highlights of the opening night ceremonies for From Norma Jean to Marilyn Monroe: A Centennial Celebration , a new exhibit at the Hollywood Museum that commemorates the 100 th birthday of the beloved screen legend. For tickets and more information, go to TheHollywoodMuseum.com . This segment includes remarks from gue...

TVC 738.3: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with Hall of Fame radio broadcaster Don Sainte-Johnn , author of San Francisco's Last Top 40 Disc Jockey , a memoir of Don's life and career behind the microphone. Topics this segment include how KFRC transitioned from Top 40 radio to big band in 1986—a successful format change that continued for seven years; why Don chose to stay at KFRC as...

TVC 738.4: Ed welcomes back actor, comedian, voice artist, and impressionist Jim Meskimen ( Landman, Gaslit, Welcome to Chippendales, The Big Door Prize ). Topics this segment include how Jim's early background acting in commercials provided a training ground for delivering a full performance, even when doing a one-line, one-scene, five-second bit (such as his recent appearance as the "cranky dive...

TVC 738.5: Actor, comedian, voice artist, and impressionist Jim Meskimen talks to Ed about when he first discovered his gift for mimicry; how his repertoire includes voices that most people probably wouldn't think of as impressionist material (such as actor Paul Giamatti); and how he determines when to add a new voice to his arsenal. Jim's latest movie, Hungry , becomes available for viewing on de...

TVC 737.1: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with David Spencer, award- winning musical dramatist, author, critic, musical theatre teacher, and the author of The Novelizers , a deep dive into the world of media tie-in writing that not only introduces readers to many of the people who have adapted film and TV screenplays into original tie-in novels, while also making the case that tie-i...

TVC 737.2: David Spencer, author of The Novelizers , talks to Ed about how he came to write Passing Fancy: Alien Nation, Book 6 (Pocket Books, 1994), the tie-in novel based on the Alien Nation television series (FOX, 1989-1990). Also in this segment: the Three Most Common Misconceptions About Tie-In Novels, plus three examples of tie-in novels that were unauthorized. The Novelizers: An Affectionat...

TVC 737.3: Ed welcomes Hall of Fame radio broadcaster Don Sainte-Johnn . For more than twenty years, Don was one of the voices heard every day on KFRC, The Big 610 in San Francisco, the powerhouse station that not only shaped a generation of listeners in the San Francisco Bay Area, but was one of the most successful radio stations anywhere in the U.S. throughout the 1970s. Don's memoir, San Franci...

TVC 737.4: Hall of Fame radio broadcaster Don Sainte-Johnn , author of San Francisco's Last Top 40 Disc Jockey , talks to Ed about how he came to choose his radio name; the importance of show prep in the course of a daily broadcast; and the role that Joe Adams, Ray Charles' manager, played early in Don's career. San Francisco's Last Top 40 Disc Jockey is available through Amazon.com.

TVC 737.5: Hall of Fame radio broadcaster Don Sainte-Johnn , author of San Francisco's Last Top 40 Disc Jockey , shares a few of the crazier moments that went on behind the scenes and on the air at KFRC-AM, The Big 610. San Francisco's Last Top 40 Disc Jockey is available through Amazon.com.

Please enjoy this special preview of our upcoming conversation with Cindy Mitchum , youngest daughter of legendary character actor John Mitchum and the niece of screen legend Robert Mitchum. Cindy has just rereleased Them Ornery Mitchum Boys: The Adventures of Robert and John Mitchum , a rollicking look at the lives and careers of her famous dad and famous uncle as they move through decades of adv...

From December 2021, via remote from the Hollywood Museum: Five-time Emmy Award-winning writer and producer John Barbour, creator of NBC's R eal People , tells Ed the story of how he acquired the moniker "The Godfather of Reality TV." John Barbour passed away Sunday, May 10, 2026 at the age of ninety-three. Please join us the weekend of May 29 for a special program length tribute to John Barbour th...

TVC 736.1: Ed welcomes David Spencer, award- winning musical dramatist, author, critic, musical theatre teacher, and the author of The Novelizers: An Affectionate History of Media Adaptations and Originals, Their Astonishing Authors, and the Art of the Craft , a deep dive into the world of media tie-in writing — novels that are not only based on existing movies, TV series, made for TV movies, and...

TVC 736.2: David Spencer, author of The Novelizers , uses Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962), the 1984 made-for-TV adaptation of A Christmas Carol starring George C. Scott, and Harry Sinclair Drago's novelization of The Champ (1932) as examples of the kind of choices that an adapting writer will make when presenting characters from the source material in a way that is unique to prose. The Novel...

TVC 736.3: David Spencer, author of The Novelizers , talks to Ed about how writing, in some respects, is another form of acting, insofar as novelists or screenwriters will often inhabit the lives of the characters they create.  The Novelizers: An Affectionate History of Media Adaptations and Originals, Their Astonishing Authors, and the Art of the Craft is available through Bear Manor Media as wel...

TVC 736.4: While we're on the subject of TV tie-in novels, we thought we'd bring you an encore presentation of our August 2011 conversation with New York Times bestselling novelist and Edgar Award-nominated television writer and producer Lee Goldberg ( Spenser: For Hire, Diagnosis Murder, Monk ). Lee's latest novel, Murder by Design , becomes available in bookstores everywhere on Monday, June 1 an...