TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

TVC 648.2: Nick Santa Maria, co-author of The Annotated Abbott and Costello: A Complete Viewer's Guide to the Comedy Team and Their 38 Films , joins Greg and Ed for a look at the ClassicFlix.com Blu-ray release of The Abbott and Costello Show, Season 2 . Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast e...

TVC 648.3: Nick Santa Maria, co-author of The Annotated Abbott and Costello: A Complete Viewer's Guide to the Comedy Team and Their 38 Films , talks to Greg and Ed about some of the many famous character actors who appear in the second season of The Abbott and Costello Show , including Phyllis Coates, Joan Shawlee, Hillary Brooke, Adele Jurgens, Percy Helton, Karen Sharpe, and Gloria Henry. The Ab...

TVC 648.4: Ed welcomes back actress, author, and teacher Dee Wallace ( E.T: The Extraterrestrial, The Howling, Born: Giving Birth to a New You ). Topics this segment include what led Dee on the path of self-creation, and how the challenge we all face is creating ourselves consciously, versus by default. Dee's latest book, Born: Giving Birth to a New You , is available wherever books are sold onlin...

TVC 648.5: Actress and author Dee Wallace ( E.T: The Extraterrestrial, The Howling, Born: Giving Birth to a New You ) talks to Ed about some of her acting mentors, which include Charles Conrad, Uta Hagen, and Jeff Corey, and how the acting method taught by Conrad differed from most other approaches to "The Method." Also in this segment: Dee shares some memories of working with Dudley Moore in 10 a...

TVC 648.6: Nick Santa Maria, co-author of The Annotated Abbott and Costello: A Complete Viewer's Guide to the Comedy Team and Their 38 Films , talks to Greg and Ed about how the Abbott and Costello cartoon series in 1965 was a boon for Bud Abbott, given his failing health at the time. The Abbott and Costello Show, Season 2 is now available on Blu-ray through ClassicFlix.com. Nick's podcast, Abbott...

TVC 647.1: Ed welcomes back sixties movie historian Tom Lisanti ( Talking Sixties Drive-In Movies, Dueling Harlows: The Race to Bring the Actress's Life to the Silver Screen, Trippin' with Terry Southern: What I Think I Remember, Ryan's Hope: An Oral History of Daytime's Groundbreaking Soap ). Tom's latest book, Carol Lynley: Her Film & TV Career in Thrillers, Fantasy and Suspense , takes a deep d...

TVC 647.2: Sixties movie historian Tom Lisanti ( Carol Lynley: Her Film & TV Career in Thrillers, Fantasy and Suspense, Ryan's Hope: An Oral History of Daytime's Groundbreaking Soap ) talks to Ed about how Carol Lynley always brought a depth to her characters that resonated with audiences; how Lynley did a lot of her own stunt work in The Poseidon Adventure , despite her fear of heights; why the c...

TVC 647.5: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with Johnny Whitaker, the actor known around the world as Jody Davis on Family Affair , Johnny Stuart on Sigmund and the Sea Monsters , and Tom Sawyer in Disney's musical adaptation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1973).Topics this segment include the role that John's family played in helping him overcome his drug addiction; the work John d...

TVC 647.6: Johnny Whitaker talks to Ed about his recent visit to the Mark Twain Cave Complex in Hannibal, Missouri, and how he was given the honor of being among the few people allowed to leave their mark in the caves; how thrilling it was to work with Elizabeth Montgomery on Bewitched ; and the story of how Eva Gabor wanted to "adopt" John following his second appearance on Green Acres . Sigmund...

TVC 647.7: Susan Silver , one of the first female television comedy writers and the author of Hot Pants in Hollywood: Sex, Secrets, and Sitcoms , brings her popular series of three-minute reviews and commentaries, Susan Says , to TV Confidential . This week: Susan shares a few thoughts on her relationship with her mom during this Mother's Day weekend. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confide...

TVC 646.4: Ed welcomes Johnny Whitaker, the actor known around the world as Jody Davis on Family Affair , Johnny Stuart on Sigmund and the Sea Monsters , and Tom Sawyer in the classic Disney musical adaptation of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1973). Sigmund and the Sea Monsters is among the many classic shows from Sid and Marty Krofft that are now available for streaming on demand on...

TVC 646.5: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with five-time Emmy Award-winning writer, producer, and cultural critic John Barbour ( Real People ) and Carol Hoenig , the collaborator on John's memoir, Your Mother's Not a Virgin . Carol's latest book, The Greatest Reviews I've Ever Read , is a collection of some of John's many film reviews for Los Angeles magazine and KNBC-TV Los Angeles...

TVC 646.6: Five-time Emmy Award-winning writer, producer, and cultural critic John Barbour ( Real People , Your Mother's Not a Virgin ) recalls the circumstances that led to Bob Hope's appearance on John's talk show John Barbour's Half-Hour in December 1972, including the touching story of how Hope came to the studio that day by himself and applied his own makeup. Carol Hoenig 's latest book, The...

TVC 645.1: Ed welcomes Tony Award-winning actress, director, and novelist Dinah Manoff ( I Ought to Be in Pictures, Grease, Soap, Ordinary People, Empty Nest ). Dinah's new novel, The Real True Hollywood Story of Jackie Gold , gives readers a fast-paced, authentic look at life behind the red carpet while also asking the eternal question, "Does fame really matter?" Topics this segment include how D...

TVC 645.3: From April 2012: Tony, Donna, and Ed look back at how television covered the riots that broke out in Los Angeles on Apr. 29, 1992. Because Tony and Donna did not live far from the flashpoint of the riots (the intersection of Florence and Normandy in Los Angeles), they had a first-hand view of the chaos that broke out, as it happened. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential h...

TVC 645.3: From April 2012: Tony, Donna, and Ed discuss how TV news in Los Angeles has never been the same since coverage of the riots that broke out in Los Angeles on Apr. 29, 1992. Topics this segment include Rodney King's famous "Can we all get along?" speech, calling for peace; why then-L.A. mayor Tom Bradley insisted that KNBC Channel 4, the NBC-TV affiliate in Los Angeles, pause its coverage...

TVC 645.4: Tony Award-winning actress, director, and novelist Dinah Manoff chats with Ed about being directed by Robert Redford in the Oscar-winning movie Ordinary People (and how she dramatized some of that experience in her novel, The Real True Hollywood Story of Jackie Gold ); how Dinah herself became a director while starring in Empty Nest ; and why Dinah's mother, Oscar-winning actress and pi...

TVC 645.5: Ed welcomes back five-time Emmy Award-winning writer, producer, talk show host, and cultural critic John Barbour ( Real People ) and Carol Hoenig , the collaborator on John's memoir, Your Mother's Not a Virgin . Carol's latest book, The Greatest Reviews I've Ever Read , is a collection of some of John's many film reviews for Los Angeles magazine and KNBC-TV Los Angeles from the 1970s th...

TVC 654.6: Five-time Emmy Award-winning writer, producer, and cultural critic John Barbour ( Real People ) and Carol Hoenig , the collaborator on John's memoir, Your Mother's Not a Virgin talk to Ed about how John was the first critic to review movies on TV news, paving the way for Siskel and Ebert and many, many film critics on television; why John believes that movies are the writer's medium, no...

TVC 644.2: Greg Ehrbar discusses the Kino Lorber Blu-ray release of A Fish in the Bathtub (1998), an offbeat comedy starring Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara, Phyllis Newman, Bob Dishy, and Judy Graubart that also marks one of the few times that Stiller and Meara performed together on film (other than their series of commercials for Blue Nun wines). Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has...

TVC 644.2a: Greg Ehrbar discusses the Kino Lorber Blu-ray release of Alice in Wonderland (1933), the first sound-movie adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass , featuring an all-star cast that includes Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, W.C. Fields, Edward Everett Horton, Charles Ruggles, Charlotte Henry, Sterling Holloway, and Jack Oakie. Want to adverti...

TVC 644.3: Greg Ehrbar reviews the Shirley Temple Storybook Collection , a six-DVD set featuring some of the best episodes of her popular Sunday night series, Shirley Temple's Storybook (NBC, 1958-1959, 1960-1961). The DVD collection includes adaptations of such beloved children's classics as The Little Mermaid, Winnie the Pooh, Babes in Toyland, Pippi Longstocking, Kim, The Reluctant Dragon, The...

TVC 644.4: Ed welcomes game show legend, radio host, actor, and novelist Jim MacKrell ( Celebrity Sweepstakes, The Game Game, Run Maggie Run, Falen: Semper Fi, Down from the Mountain, Last Call with Jim MacKrell ). Topics this segment includes Jim's early career in radio (including being an on-air personality at KXOL/Fort Worth, Texas at the birth of "Top 40" radio); how our ability to communicate...

TVC 644.5: Game show legend and novelist Jim MacKrell talks to Ed about some of the people in the music industry whom he met when he worked for Henry Mancini, including Gordon Jenkins, Lou Rawls, Joe Saraceno, and Anita Kerr; why legendary Los Angeles Times sports columnist Jim Murray was the print equivalent to broadcast legend Vin Scully, in that both had an ability to connect with people in way...

TVC 644.6: Game show legend and novelist Jim MacKrell talks to Ed about what makes the dog characters in his novels Down from the Mountain, Falen: Semper Fi , and Run Maggie Run such unusual protagonists. All three of Jim's novels are available at Amazon.com and JMacKrell.com. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship req...