TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

TVC 670.3: Steve Randisi , author of Penny Singleton: A Biography , talks to Ed how about Singleton came to adopt her screen name; why Singleton had a lot of the Blondie character as a person; and why the Blondie movies continue to endure after ninety years. Penny Singleton: A Biography is available from Bear Manor Media.

TVC 670.4: Ed welcomes back Stefanie Powers , the actress known around the world as Jennifer Hart on Hart to Hart (ABC, 1979-1984), and the founder and president of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation , a nonprofit organization that Stefanie established in 1982 in memory of her longtime life partner that continues and furthers the conservation work of William Holden in East Africa. Topics this...

TVC 671.5: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with Stefanie Powers , the actress known around the world as Jennifer Hart on Hart to Hart (ABC, 1979-1984) and the founder and president of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation ( WHWF.org ). Topics this segment include Stefanie's work as chair of the Seasoned Performers Committee for both the L.A. Local and the National Board Committee of...

TVC 670.5: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with Ray Richmond, author of The Sopranos: The Complete Visual History , a twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the multi-Emmy Award-winning drama that not only broke new ground in television when it premiered in 1999, but launched the current Golden Age of dramatic television on cable and digital platforms, while also taking the concept...

TVC 670.6: From June 2013: Jennifer Armstrong, former staff writer for Entertainment Weekly and the author of many books on popular television, joins Ed, Tony, and Donna for a roundtable discussion on the career of James Gandolfini and the impact of The Sopranos on popular culture. This segment with Jennifer was recorded on June 20, 2013, one day after Gandolfini's sudden death at the age of fifty...

TVC 669.1: Part 2 of a conversation that began on our last program with Emmy Award-winning writer, producer, director, and author Joseph Dougherty ( thirtysomething, Pretty Little Liars, A Screenwriters Companion: Instruction, Opinion, Encouragement ). Joe's latest book, Rod Serling at 100: One Writer's Acknowledgment , takes a deep dive into the legacy of the Emmy Award-winning writer/producer, w...

TVC 669.2: Joseph Dougherty , author of Rod Serling at 100 , talks to Ed about "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar," the first-season episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallery that is widely considered to be among the very best pieces of writing that Serling ever did, and why Joe believes the episode itself "exists somewhere in a space between The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery ." Rod Serling at 1...

TVC 669.3: Joseph Dougherty , author of Rod Serling at 100 , talks about the opportunity he once had to adapt Rod Serling's live television drama The Velvet Alley into a film, and how surprised he was to learn just how sparsely Serling wrote when Joe studied Serling's script for "The Purple Testament" for style purposes as part of the Velvet Alley project. Also in this segment: Ed asks Joe about h...

TVC 669.4: Ed welcomes back Ray Richmond, longtime television critic and entertainment reporter for such trade publications as The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety . Ray's latest book, The Sopranos: The Complete Visual History , celebrates the twenty-fifth anniversary of the premiere of The Sopranos , the multi-Emmy Award-winning drama created by David Chase and starring James Gandolfini that...

TVC 669.5: Via remote from The Hollywood Museum : TV Confidential brings you special audio highlights of the opening night ceremony for Happy Trails , a new exhibit at the Hollywood Museum that celebrates the lives and legacy of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, the legendary King of the Cowboys and Queen of the Westerns. The Happy Trails exhibit features a host of never before seen personal items from t...

TVC 669.6: Via remote from The Hollywood Museum : TV Confidential brings you more highlights of the opening night ceremony for Happy Trails , the new exhibit at the Hollywood Museum that celebrates the lives and legacy of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. This segment includes comments from Dawn Moore, daughter of actor Clayton Moore (Roy and Dale's co-star in The Far Frontier ), and Julie Rogers Pomilia...

We're taking a few days off this week, but we'll be back with a brand new edition of TV Confidential on Monday. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past, featuring this clip from December 2010 in which Tony, Donna, and Ed remember the network premiere of A Charlie Brown Christmas , the very first Peanuts animated special, on CBS on Dec. 9, 1965.

Thursday, Dec. 5 marks the one-year anniversary of the death of television icon Norman Lear. TV Confidential marks the occasion by bringing you this "Blast from the Past" clip from July 2022 in which Ed, Tony, Donna, and writer, producer, and author Jay Moriarty ( The Jeffersons, All in the Family, Honky in the House ) discuss how "The Draft Dodger," the controversial episode of  All in the Family...

We're taking a few days off this week, but we'll be back with a brand new edition of TV Confidential next week. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past, featuring an excerpt from our January 2013 conversation with Barbara Feldon ( Get Smart, Getting Smarter, Living Alone and Loving It ).

Television is one of the few things that we have in common. Just about all of us has a favorite show that we either grew up watching or binge-watch today, or a favorite star whose career we continue to follow. That's the premise behind TV CONFIDENTIAL , an engaging blend of talk and entertainment featuring lively conversations with the stars and other creative people behind the scenes of some of A...

We're taking a few days off this week, but we'll be back with a brand new edition of TV Confidential next week. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past, featuring an excerpt from our December 2022 conversation with Norma Maldonado ( Jane the Virgin, Sweet Navidad ). 

We're taking a few days off this week, but we'll be back with a brand new edition of TV Confidential next week. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past, featuring an excerpt from our September 2011 conversation with Julie Newmar ( Batman, Li'l Abner, Silk Stockings, The Marriage-Go-Round, My Living Doll, The Conscious Catwoman Explains Life on Earth ).

We're taking a few days off this week, but we'll be back with a brand new edition of TV Confidential next week. In the meantime, please enjoy this "Blast from the Past," featuring an excerpt from our December 2012 conversation with actor, author and CBS Radio commentator Charles Grodin ( Rosemary's Baby, Catch-22, Midnight Run, The Heartbreak Kid, Seems Like Old Times, Beethoven ).

TVC 668.1: Ed welcomes actress, producer, and comedienne Kat Kramer, author Jimmy Byrge, and actress and producer Patricia Riley. Jimmy is the author of The Evergreen Christmas Tree , a new children's book, based on a true story, about a family in the mountains of Tennessee who, despite not having a lot of money, set off to find the perfect Christmas tree that represents love and standing up for w...

TVC 668.2: From November 2019: Tony Figueroa remembers  Ric Ocasek , the front man of The Cars , with a particular focus on the iconic video "You Might Think," the first music video to use computer graphics. Ric Ocasek passed away on Sept. 15, 2019.

TVC 668.3: From November 2019: Tony and Ed talk about how the award-winning video "You Might Think" by The Cars—the first music video to use computer graphics—went on to influence the production of movies and TV shows, as well as such other music video pioneers as Michael Nesmith.

TVC 668.4: Ed welcomes back Emmy Award-winning writer, producer, director, and author Joseph Dougherty ( thirtysomething, Pretty Little Liars, A Screenwriters Companion: Instruction, Opinion, Encouragement ). Calendar year 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Rod Serling ( The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling's Night Gallery ). To mark the occasion, Joe's latest book, Rod Serling at 100 , ta...

TVC 668.5: Joseph Dougherty , author of Rod Serling at 100 , talks to Ed about how The Twilight Zone operates on an ethical and moral universe (for the most part); why The Twilight Zone is particularly appealing to anyone who loves language; and why Joe believes that most of the hour-long Twilight Zone episodes are better than most people remember. Rod Serling at 100 is available from Fayetteville...

TVC 668.6: Joseph Dougherty , author of Rod Serling at 100 , talks to Ed about "Dust," "Mr. Denton on Doomsday," "Mr. Garrity and the Graves," and other Western-themed episodes of The Twilight Zone , and how Rod Serling's disenchantment with the television can be traced with the network interference he faced during the production of The Loner (CBS, 1965-1966), the existentialist Western starring L...

TVC 667.1: From November 2014: Tony, Donna, and Ed wish legendary actor Ed Asner a Happy Birthday as part of This Week in TV History. Ed Asner passed away on Aug. 29, 2021 at age ninety-one. Since this segment originally aired in 2014, TV Confidential had the opportunity to talk to Ed several times on our program; you can enjoy those conversations anytime on demand on the TV Confidential podcast,...