TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

TVC 625.7: Music historian Chuck Harter joins Ed for a remembrance of music legend Tina Turner, a force of nature as a live performer (both as a solo artist and when she performed with her husband Ike Turner as part of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue) who went on to become a darling of the MTV generation. Tina Turner passed away May 24, 2023 at age eighty-three. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV...

TVC 624.1: Ed welcomes Arielle Raycene, actress, entrepreneur, social media influencer, and co-founder of Real A F, a platform that connects social media with spatial media and a 3-D walk-around application. Arielle also can be seen in the action thriller Confidential Informant (with Mel Gibson and Kate Bosworth), the Peacock series Bupkis (starring Pete Davidson), and the 1980s horror movie spoof...

TVC 624.2: Ed and Greg Ehrbar welcome back actor, author, and comedian Nick Santa Maria ( The Misadventures of Biffle and Shooster ). Nick's new book, The Annotated Abbott and Costello: A Complete Viewer's Guide to the Comedy Team and Their 38 Films (a collaboration with Matthew Coniam), not only provides a film by film, scene by scene look at all thirty-eight movies starring Bud Abbott and Lou Co...

TVC 624.3: Nick Santa Maria, co-author of The Annotated Abbott and Costello , talks to Ed and Greg about how Abbott and Costello honed their style from their days in burlesque, and how such classical routines as "Who's on First," "365 Days," and "7 x 13 = 28" always seem fresh and new, no matter how many times they performed it. The Annotated Abbott and Costello is available at McFarlandPub.com an...

TVC 624.4: Ed welcomes back George Schlatter, creator and producer of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and Real People , and a fixture in the world of variety television for more than fifty years. George's memoir, Still Laughing: A Life in Comedy , is the story of how a kid from Missouri forged his way out of the rough and tumble world of Las Vegas nightclubs and wound up working with some of the most fa...

TVC 623.1: Game show historian Steve Beverly, retired professor of broadcast journalism at Union University and host of Steve Beverly's TV Classics , joins Ed for a remembrance of game show legend Bob Barker, longtime host of The Price is Right and, before that, Truth or Consequences . Bob Barker passed away on Saturday, Aug. 26 at age ninety-nine. In this segment, Steve talks to Ed about how Bark...

TVC 623.2: Game show historian Steve Beverly talks to Ed about how it took a few shows for the Bob Barker Price is Right to find its footing; why it was a risky move for CBS to expand The Price is Right to an hour from its original thirty-minute length; and why Drew Carey was "a compromise choice" to replace Barker as host of Price in 2007. Bob Barker passed away on Saturday, Aug. 26 at age ninety...

TVC 623.2a: Game show historian Steve Beverly talks to Ed about Bob Barker's vast skills as a communicator—and, particularly, his ability to connect with both the studio audience and the viewers at home—enabled him to withstand the various scandals and controversies that plagued The Price is Right in the years after Bob Barker became executive producer of the show. Bob Barker passed away on Saturd...

TVC 623.3: Tony Figueroa and Donna Allen reminisce about the "Barker's Box" segment on Truth or Consequences , and how that feature was a mini version of the type of audience participation show that Barker hosted on radio early in his career. Bob Barker passed away on Saturday, Aug. 26 at age ninety-nine. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handl...

TVC 623.4: Longtime television announcer Randy West joins Ed as TV Confidential continues its tribute to game show legend Bob Barker. Among the many game shows on which Randy worked as an announcer was the Bob Barker Price is Right . In this segment, Randy talks to Ed about the circumstances that led him to succeed Rod Roddy as the announcer on Price in 2003; why he considers the year he spent on...

TVC 623.5: Longtime television announcer Randy West shares some memories of working alongside Bob Barker during the 2003-2004 season, when Randy was the announcer on The Price is Right. He also provides some insight into hosting the live version of The Price is Right, which Randy has done in many different venues over the years. Bob Barker passed away on Saturday, Aug. 26 at age ninety-nine. Want...

TVC 623.6: Tony Figueroa and Donna Allen share a few memories about being neighbors with Bob Barker during the years he hosted The Price is Right . the time when they were neighbors Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you adver...

TVC 622.1: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with Georgiana "Noopy" Rodrigues, daughter of legendary singer, actress, and comedienne Rose Marie . This past Tuesday, Aug. 15 marked the 100th birthday of Rose Marie; to mark the occasion, Sepia Records, along with the Rose Marie estate, have just released Rose Marie Sings: The Complete Mercury Recordings and More , a collection of twenty-...

TVC 622.2: Georgiana "Noopy" Rodrigues, daughter of the one and only Rose Marie , talks to Ed about how her mom and Doris Day bonded immediately once they started working together on The Doris Day Show , and how their friendship lasted until Rose Marie's death. Also in this segment: Noopy and Ed talk about the 100 days of "Rose Marie Facts," a collection of Rose Marie facts and trivia that will be...

TVC 622.3: Greg Ehrbar interviews Mark Cantor, jazz and film historian, author of The Soundies: A History and Catalog of Jukebox Film Shorts of the 1940s , and one of the contributors to the Blu-ray release Soundies: The Ultimate Collection . Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of ou...

TVC 622.4: Ed welcomes Simon Napier-Bell, former manager of Wham!, longtime record producer and songwriter, and the director of The Real George Michael: Portrait of an Artist, an excellent documentary that not only explores the many ups and downs of the illustrious Grammy Award winner, but takes a deep dive into who George really was: a kind and generous person who ultimately fought many demons wh...

TVC 623.5: Simon Napier-Bell, former manager of Wham! and the director of The Real George Michael , talks to Ed about how George Michael, like many artists, had an up-and-down relationship with fame throughout his life and career. Also in this segment: Ed asks Simon what he looked for, and what George looked for, when determining whether a new song might become a hit record. The Real George Michae...

TVC 622.6: Jazz and film historian Mark Cantor talks to Greg Ehrbar about how his book, The Soundies: A History and Catalog of Jukebox Film Shorts of the 1940s , was more than four decades in the making. The Soundies: A History and Catalog of Jukebox Film Shorts of the 1940s is available through McFarland Books and Amazon.com, while Soundies: The Ultimate Collection is available on Blu-ray through...

TVC 621.1: Part 2 of a two-part conversation that began on our program last week with Grammy Award-winning and Emmy Award-winning composer Charles Fox . Charles is the subject of Killing Me Softly with His Songs , a forthcoming documentary that not only chronicles Charles' life and career in music, but is really, at its heart, a celebration of music itself—and, particularly, the power of live musi...

TVC 621.2: Ed welcomes back Georgiana "Noopy" Rodrigues, daughter of legendary singer, actress, and comedienne Rose Marie . This past Tuesday, Aug. 15 marked the 100th birthday of Rose Marie; to mark the occasion, Sepia Records, along with the Rose Marie estate, have just released Rose Marie Sings: The Complete Mercury Recordings and More , a collection of twenty-nine classic recordings and rariti...

TVC 621.3: Georgiana "Noopy" Rodrigues, daughter of the one and only Rose Marie , talks to Ed about some of the dinner parties that her parents often threw (including a memorable one with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz around the time they made The Long, Long Trailer ) and why family was always important to Rose Marie. Rose Marie Sings: The Complete Mercury Recordings and More includes twenty-nine of...

TVC 620.1: Gregory Orr, son of William T. Orr, the original head of television production at Warner Bros. Studios, and the grandson of Warner Bros. co-founder Jack L. Warner, talks to Ed about the many ways in which Warner Bros. in which Warner Bros. set the standards for production of hour-long episodic television during the early days of the medium. Calendar year 2023 marks the 100th anniversary...

TVC 620.5: Ed welcomes back Grammy Award-winning and Emmy Award-winning composer Charles Fox, the man behind "Killing Me Softly with His Song," "Ready to Take a Chance Again," "I Got a Name," and many other classic songs from the 1970s, and the composer of some of the most iconic theme songs in TV history, including Happy Days, Wonder Woman , and The Love Boat . Charles is the subject of Killing M...

TVC 620.3: Gregory Orr, son of William T. Orr, the original head of television production at Warner Bros. Studios, and the grandson of Warner Bros. co-founder Jack L. Warner, talks to Ed about the some of the many film stars and television stars that Warner Bros. developed during the era of the studio system, and how Jack Warner took little interest in the development of his television division be...

TVC 619:1: Ed welcomes filmmaker Gregory Orr, son of William T. Orr, the original head of television production at Warner Bros. Studios, and the grandson of Warner Bros. co-founder Jack L. Warner. Calendar year 2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of Warner Bros.; to mark the occasion, Greg has just released the director's cut of his 1993 documentary Jack L. Warner: The Last Mogul , an...