TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

TVC 722.2: James Bigwood , co-author of Not Just Batman's Butler: The Autobiography of Alan Napier , talks to Ed about what an eloquent writer Alan Napier was; the variety of characters that Napier played in his stage and film career; and how Napier was often cast as older men (even when he was young) because of his height. Not Just Batman's Butler is available through McFarlandPub.com . You can a...

TVC 722.3: James Bigwood , co-author of Not Just Batman's Butler: The Autobiography of Alan Napier , talks to Ed about how Alan Napier overcame a stammer when he was a child; why he likely enjoyed wearing the Batsuit on Batman when asked to do so; and Napier's various collaborations with John Houseman and Orson Welles for radio, film, and television. Not Just Batman's Butler is available through M...

TVC 722.4: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with Mark Malkoff , host of the award-winning Carson Podcast and the author of Love Johnny Carson: One Obsessive Fan's Journey to Find The Genius Behind the Legend , a deep dive into Johnny Carson's thirty-year reign as host of The Tonight Show . Topics this segment include why the act of Carson inviting young comedians to join him on the co...

TVC 722.5: Ed welcomes Cam Clarke , one of the youngest members of The King Family , and one of the busiest voice actors in the entertainment industry today. Cam's new book, Now They're All Here: The King Family, Over 100 Years of Entertainment From America's First Family of Song is an oral history that not only traces The King Family's imprint on entertainment over the past century (spanning the...

TVC 722.6: Voice actor Cam Clarke , author of Now They're All Here: The King Family, Over 100 Years of Entertainment From America's First Family of Song , talks to Ed about his accidental path to becoming a voice actor; how he was mentored as a voice artist by Michael Bell ; and why a voice actor should "never audition with something you can't sustain." Now They're All Here is available through Ra...

TVC 720.3: From December 2015: Tony, Donna, and Ed commemorate the premiere of Magnum, p.i. (CBS, 1980-1988) and the birthday of TV talk show legend Phil Donahue as part of This Week in TV History.

TVC 721.2: Ed welcomes  Mark Malkoff , host of the award-winning Carson Podcast and the author of Love Johnny Carson: One Obsessive Fan's Journey to Find The Genius Behind the Legend , a deep dive into Johnny Carson's thirty-year reign as host of The Tonight Show that includes interviews with more than four hundred Tonight Show personnel, including staff members, production people, writers, friend...

TVC 720.3: Mark Malkoff , host of the award-winning Carson Podcast and the author of Love Johnny Carson , talks to Ed about why Johnny Carson often had a "surprise guest" during the early years of hosting The Tonight Show ; how Carson's writers often approached writing the monologue differently whenever a guest host hosted the show in Johnny's absence; Carson's secret philanthropy; and his legenda...

TVC 721.4: Ed welcomes back Lindsay Wagner , the Emmy Award-winning actress known around the world as Jaime Sommers, The Bionic Woman. Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere of The Bionic Woman (ABC/NBC, 1976-1978). Topics this segment include how Lindsay accepted the part of Jaime after some prodding from both her mother and her younger sister; how the developmen...

TVC 721.5: Lindsay Wagner talks to Ed about working with Academy Award-winning actor John Houseman on both The Paper Chase and The Bionic Woman , working with Academy Award-winning director Robert Wise on Two People , and how she got her first television set with an assist from James Garner. Lindsay is making available  special, limited-edition Bionic Woman memorabilia to celebrate the show's fift...

TVC 720.1: From January 2011: Tony, Donna, and Ed remember of the premiere of Masterpiece Theater (PBS, 1971-…) and the first NBC broadcast of Kukla, Fran and Ollie as part of This Week in TV History.

 TVC 720.4: Ed welcomes Doug Thompson, award-winning writer, producer, and director of more than 1,000 hours of radio programming for broadcast across the U.S. and Canada, as well as more than thirty TV documentaries for Canadian television. Among his credits, Doug created and produced three radio shows for John Candy, including Radio Kandy, a weekly two-hour show that was not only carried by more...

 TVC 720.5: Award-winning radio producer Doug Thompson talks to Ed about working with Ringo Starr on the nationally syndicated radio series Ringo's Yellow Submarine ; with Jim Henson on both The Dark Crystal and The Fantastic Miss Piggy Special ; and with The Monkees on a radio documentary that Doug produced for broadcast in Canada in 1967.

Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the premiere of Batman (ABC, 1966-1968). With that in mind, we thought we'd bring you an encore presentation of a conversation that Tony, Donna, and I had in January 2016 about the legacy of the Batman television series, including how the premiere of Batman as a midseason replacement ushered in the era of the "second season," a staple of netw...

We took a few days off for the holidays, but we'll be back with a new edition of  TV Confidential later this week. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past clip from January 2013 featuring renowned Elvis historian Cory Cooper. Cory's knowledge of The King is based on his deep ties to many of the people who were closest to Elvis, including members of the "Memphis Mafia." Topics this s...

By now, most of you are probably aware of the tragic deaths of Rob and Michele Reiner on Dec. 14, 2025. We are in the process of putting together a formal tribute program in memory of Rob Reiner that will air in a few weeks on TV Confidential. In the meantime, please enjoy this clip from January 2011 in which Tony, Donna, and Ed discuss the many ways in which All in the Family changed television w...

We're taking a few days off for the holidays, but we'll be back with brand new editions of TV Confidential in the new year. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past clip from December 2015 in which author Paul Green helps Ed revisit the life and career of Pete Duel, the star of Alias Smith and Jones who took his life on Dec. 30, 1971, at the height of his television celebrity. The se...

TVC 719.2: Part 2 of a conversation that began a few weeks ago with author, essayist, novelist, and TV historian Mitchell Hadley ( The Electronic Mirror , ItsAboutTV.com ). Mitchell's latest book, Darkness in Primetime: How Classic-Era TV Foresaw Modern Society's Descent into Hell , is a series of essays that shows how certain episodes of such classic series as The Twilight Zone , The Outer Limits...

TVC 719.3: Mitchell Hadley talks to Ed about "The Running Men," an essay that Mitchell recently wrote for ItsAboutTV.com that makes the case for why it's not necessary for every television series to have a final episode that resolves the premise and ties up any other loose ends. Ed agrees with Mitchell, but adds that the influence of social media on today's TV landscape makes it impossible for sho...

We're taking a few days off for the holidays, but we'll be back with brand new editions of TV Confidential in the new year. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past clip from March 2016 featuring sixties film historian Tom Lisanti. Tom's books include Pamela Tiffin: Hollywood to Rome, 1961-1974 , a comprehensive look at Tiffin's work in film and television that includes insight from...

TVC 719.4: Ed welcomes Tom Sturges , son of Academy Award-winning writer/director Preston Sturges, one of the top executives in the music industry, and the author of such books as Every Idea is a Good Idea , A Good Divorce Begins Here , and Preston Sturges: The Last Years of Hollywood's First Writer-Director . Tom's latest book, Men Explained... Finally , is a humorous, totally unscientific, and y...

TVC 719.5: Tom Sturges talks to Ed about how his father, Preston Sturges , embodied some of the "man truths" that Tom writes about in his new book, Men Explained… Finally ; how Tom came to work with NBA star Shaquille O'Neal when O'Neal became a rap artist; and what Tom looks for when determining whether a new song has what it takes to become a hit record. Men Explained… Finally is available where...

TVC 718.1: From November 2015: Tony, Donna, and Ed discuss the legacy of The Mary Tyler Moore Show (CBS, 1970-1977), including a look at its spinoff series Rhoda (CBS, 1974-1978), Phyllis (CBS, 1975-1977), and Lou Grant (CBS, 1977-1982) .

TVC 718.2: From November 2015: Tony, Donna, and Ed discuss "Rhoda's Wedding" (CBS, Oct. 28, 1974), the famous first-season episode of Rhoda in which Rhoda Morgenstein (Valerie Harper) marries Joe Gerard (David Groh), and why the episode remains a television classic more than fifty years later, even though the decision to marry the two characters ultimately hurt the series.

TVC 718.3: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with Mark Shaw , author of Abuse of Power: Connecting Robert Kennedy's Assassinaton with the Murders of JFK and Dorothy Kilgallen and The Reporter Who Knew Too Much . Topics this segment include new findings that suggest that the autopsy performed on Kilgallen after her death in November 1965 may have been compromised. As was the case with M...