TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

TVC 580.3: Film historian Andrew Erish , author of Vitagraph: America's First Great Motion Picture Studio , talks to Ed about how The Vitagraph Company not only made movies that appealed to every aspect of society, but was one of the first to make "socially responsible" films (such as An Easter Lily , an entry in the popular Sonny Jim comedy series that addressed racial prejudice). Other topics in...

TVC 580.4: A special roundtable discussion devoted to Columbo , including the original NBC series (1971-1978); Prescription: Murder , the play by Richard Levinson and William Link that begat Columbo (and which eventually led to the two Columbo pilots, Prescription: Murder and Ransom for a Dead Man ); and how the ABC revival (1989-2003) holds up, compared to the original series. Joining us on the p...

TVC 580.5: Emmy Award-winning writer/producer Joseph Dougherty ( thirtysomething, Pretty Little Liars ), author David Koenig ( Shooting Columbo: The Lives and Deaths of TV's Rumpled Detective ), writer/producer Dan Farren (Story Salon), and Tony Figueroa of This Week in TV History discuss the often unheralded contributions of mystery writer Jackson Gillis to Columbo ; why the episodes shepherded b...

TVC 580.6: Our special roundtable discussion devoted to Columbo , featuring Joseph Dougherty ( thirtysomething, Pretty Little Liars, Saving Grace, Chester Bailey ), David Koenig , author of Shooting Columbo: The Lives and Deaths of TV's Rumpled Detective , writer/producer Dan Farren (Story Salon), and Tony Figueroa of This Week in TV History continues. Joseph Dougherty's latest book, A Screenwrite...

TVC 579.1: A conversation recorded in February 2020 with John Cerney , a commercial artist who specializes in creating 16-foot-high, billboard-size cut-out art murals that dot the landscape of some twenty-eight states across the U.S. (and, particularly, the highways of California and the Midwest). John's pieces include a portrait of James Dean that welcomes visitors to the SPCA in Monterey County,...

TVC 579.2: Commercial artist John Cerney talks to Ed about some of the logistics involved in putting together Giant Marfa and the various other 16-foot-high, billboard-size cut-out art murals that dot the landscape of some twenty-eight states across the U.S. The Giant Marfa mural includes a giant 1951 Ford Deluxe (the car that Rock Hudson drove in Giant ), plus music by Michael Nesmith and the Fir...

TVC 579.2a: Greg Ehrbar discusses Broadside (ABC, 1964-1965), the short-lived spin-off of McHale's Navy starring Kathleen Nolan, Dick Sargent, and Edward Andrews that is best remembered today as the show that prevented William Asher and Elizabeth Montgomery from casting Sargent as Darrin on Bewitched when that series began production in 1964. (Sargent, of course, later joined the cast of Bewitched...

TVC 579.3: Part 2 of a conversation that began with last week with George Stevens Jr. , founder of the American Film Institute and the Kennedy Center Honors, and the son of Academy Award-winning filmmaker George Stevens ( A Place in the Sun, Shane, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Giant ). Topics this segment include a recap of the events that led to the creation of AFI, incl...

TVC 578.1: From November 2018: Iconic television producer Marty Krofft talks to Ed about how both The Banana Splits and the musical puppet show Les Poupées de Paris helped launch Sid & Marty Krofft Productions; the Krofft brothers' many collaborations with Charles Fox, including H.R. Pufnstuf and Lidsville; and the appeal of Sigmund and the Sea Monsters. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Conf...

TVC 578.2: Ed welcomes Cable Ace Award-winning actor and voice artist Stuart Pankin ( Dinosaurs , Not Necessarily the News, The San Pedro Beach Bums ). Though we often think of Stu for his many comedic roles, he has a host of dramatic parts among his credits, including Michael Douglas' best friend in Fatal Attraction and his latest film, Deep in the Forest , a political thriller written, produced,...

TVC 578.3: Actor and voice artist Stuart Pankin talks to Ed about how Dinosaurs posed a challenge for the voice actors who worked on the show because they had to match their voices with the movements of the Jim Henson puppets first (instead of the other way around), and how Stu's experience on The San Pedro Beach Bums fomented an important professional relationship that eventually led to his roles...

TVC 578.4: Ed welcomes George Stevens Jr., son of Academy Award-winning director George Stevens, the founder of the American Film Institute, and the creator of the Kennedy Center Honors. After working with his father on the sets of A Place in the Sun, Shane, The Diary of Anne Frank , and Giant, George was well on his way to establishing his own career as a director when a unique opportunity to wor...

TVC 578.5: Emmy Award winner, Academy Award recipient, and American Film Institute founder George Stevens Jr. talks about his working with Edward R. Murrow at the United States information Agency (including the production of USIA's first feature-length film, John F. Kennedy: Years of Lightning, Day of Drums ), and his experience working with Jack Webb, Blake Edwards, and Alfred Hitchcock during hi...

From November 2018: Iconic television producer Marty Krofft talks to Ed about the origins of Sigmund and the Sea Monsters and working with Charles Nelson Reilly on Lidsville . Marty was among the special guests that appeared at the first ever Krofft Kon , which took place Saturday, May 21 at the Orinda Theatre in Orinda, California. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered...

TVC 577.1: An encore presentation of our June 2014 conversation with Marion Ross ( Happy Days, Brooklyn Bridge ). Marion Ross, June Lockhart, and Michael Learned are among the many stars who have contributed photographs to the Hollywood Museum as part of a special Mothers Day exhibit that will be on display for a limited time only through Sunday, May 15 . Two years in the making, and originally sc...

From May 2014: Marion Ross, the actress known around the world as Mrs. C on Happy Day s, talks to Ed, Tony, and Donna about how the cast of Happy Days bonded together by playing softball, and how the Happy Days softball team toured to such places as Okinawa and East Germany. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential  has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requ...

TVC 577.2a: Greg Ehrbar and Ed discuss the recent DVD release of McHale's Navy (ABC, 1962-1966), the long-running sitcom starring Ernest Borgnine, Tim Conway and Joe Flynn that was more or less styled after The Phil Silvers Show , only with a Navy setting. Topics this segment include the two McHale's Navy feature motion pictures from the 1960s, both of which are available through Shout! Factory. W...

TVC 577.3: Greg and Ed continue discussing the recent Shout! Factory DVD release of McHale's Navy (ABC, 1962-1966). Though remembered by Baby Boomers as a broad send-up of Navy etiquette, McHale's was originally conceived as an hour-long dramatic series. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast e...

TVC 577.4: An encore presentation of our March 2015 conversation with June Lockhart ( Lost in Space, Lassie, Petticoat Junction ). June Lockhart, Marion Ross, and Michael Learned are among the many stars who have contributed photographs to the Hollywood Museum as part of a special Mothers Day exhibit that will be on display for a limited time only through Sunday, May 15 . Want to advertise/sponsor...

TVC 577.5: A brand new conversation with Michael Learned, the four-time Emmy Award-winning actress known around the world as Olivia Walton, the matriarch of the Walton family. Michael's latest film, Second Acts , is now available for streaming on demand. She is also about to star, along with Evan Peters, Richard Jenkins, and Penelope Ann Miller, in the forthcoming new Netflix series about serial k...

TVC 577.6: Michael Learned shares a few memories about The Waltons (CBS, 1972-1981), including the story of she originally won the role of Olivia Walton. Michael's latest film, Second Acts , is now available for streaming on demand. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program....

TVC 577.1: Ed welcomes actor, author, screenwriter, producer, and acting teacher Joe Coyle ( Promised Land, Jack Reacher, Ocean's 11, Out of Sight, Three Kings, Zoolande r, Fail Safe ). Joe is one of the contributors to Beyond Where the Buses Run , an anthology of short stories edited by Theresa Griffin Kennedy that also features Robert Crane. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential ha...

TVC 577.2: Greg Ehrbar talks to Ed about the Blu-ray release of The Wonderful World of The Brothers Grimm , a restoration of the 1962 fantasy musical starring Barbara Eden, Laurence Harvey, Russ Tamblyn, and Buddy Hackett that was not a huge hit when it was originally released, even though it was among the highest grossing movies of 1962. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has par...

From April 2011: Tony, Donna, and Ed remember the Captain Midnight incident of Apr. 27, 1986, when a video pirate known only as Captain Midnight managed to override the satellite transmission of the HBO broadcast of The Falcon and the Snowman. The culprit hijacked the feed to protest HBO's subscription fees.  Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential  has partnered with AdvertiseCast to...

From April 2012: Tony, Donna, and Ed remember the first coast-to-coast telecast by satellite communications, which took place on Apr. 24, 1962, a technological advance that changed the face of broadcast television.  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 t...