TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

TV Confidential wishes Willie Mays a happy 90th birthday by sharing this clip from a May 4, 1963 interview between New York Mets broadcaster Ralph Kiner and the Hall of Fame outfielder of the New York Giants and San Francisco Giants. Audio courtesy Phil Gries of Archival Television Audio. Mays' memoir, 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid , was released in 2020. Want to advertise/spon...

From May 2014: Tony, Donna, and Ed discuss Raymond Burr's first Emmy win for playing Perry Mason, which occurred on May 6, 1959, and the many ways in which Perry Mason set the standard for legal dramas on television. Practice, and L.A. Law. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential  has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our...

TVC 537.1: Ed welcomes back David Hofstede, founder and publisher of the popular blog Comfort TV . David's latest book, When Television Brought Us Together , is an often whimsical, but always thought-provoking look at Father Knows Best, The Brady Bunch, That Girl, The Andy Griffith Show and other favorite shows from the '50s, '60s, and '70s and whether the values reflected by those shows still hol...

TVC 537.2: David Hofstede, founder and publisher of the popular blog Comfort TV , talks to Ed about the final episode of That Girl , the "Moo goo gai pan" episode of The Bob Newhart Show , and other favorites from the Comfort TV era. David's latest book, When Television Brought Us Together , is available from Black Pawn Press. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential  has partnered with...

TVC 537.3: Tony Figueroa talks to Ed about some of the experiences that he and Donna have had while going out on auditions as a couple. 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 advertise on our show. Please email  sales@adverti...

TVC 537.4: Ed welcomes Martha Bolton, the first and only fulltime female staff writer that Hope ever hired, and the co-author, along with Linda Hope, Bob Hope's daughter, of Dear Bob: Bob Hope's Wartime Correspondence with the G.I.s of World War II , a selection of some of the thousands of letters, postcards, and packages that Bob Hope received every day from 1941-1945 from the fighting soldiers o...

TVC 537.5: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with award-winning television writer/producer Jay Moriarty . Jay's memoir, Honky in the House: Writing & Producing The Jeffersons , not only takes you inside the writing room of The Jeffersons (CBS, 1975-1985), but provides a capsule history of the so-called Golden Age of TV Sitcoms, as well as insight into why Norman Lear was, and is, one o...

TVC 537.6: Jay Moriarty , longtime writer and producer of The Jeffersons (CBS, 1975-1985), talks to Ed about why it is a disservice to describe the character of George Jefferson as a "black Archie Bunker." Jay's memoir, Honky in the House: Writing & Producing The Jeffersons , is available through Amazon.com. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to ha...

From June 2011: Music journalist Jason Draper, author of Prince: Chaos, Disorder and Revolution, joins Ed for a look at the life, career and music of Prince, as well as the artist's impact on MTV.  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 wi...

From June 2011: Music journalist Jason Draper, author of Prince: Chaos, Disorder and Revolution, talks to Ed about how the movie Purple Rain came to be developed. 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 advertise on our show....

From June 2011: Music journalist Jason Draper, author of Prince: Chaos, Disorder and Revolution, tells Ed how the iconic music artist came to adapt his famous stage name. 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 advertise on ou...

TVC 536.1: From October 2018: An encore presentation of our special ten-question Bob Crane TV Trivia Quiz featuring special guest emcee Robert Crane —the eldest son of Bob Crane , and an accomplished screenwriter, journalist , and author in his own right. Every question in the quiz touches on Bob Crane's career, one way or another. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered...

TVC 536.2: From October 2018: The final question of the Bob Crane TV Trivia Quiz with special guest emcee Robert Crane , plus Ed, Tony, and Donna talk to Bob about his latest book, Hollywood Plateau , a collection of candid interviews with the likes of Jimmy Kimmel, Bruce Dern, John Wayne, Teri Garr, Jack Nicholson, Cheech and Chong, Karen Black, Oscar de la Hoya, and other celebrities and newsmak...

TVC 536.3: From March 2019: Legendary Hollywood agent and talent manager Budd Burton Moss ( Hollywood: Sometimes Reality is Better Than the Dream ) and longtime television director Howard Storm ( The Imperfect Storm: From Henry Street to Hollywood ) join Ed for a roundtable discussion about All in the Family, The Bob Newhart Show, the "sneaky comedy" of Harold Gould, and the genius of Norman Lear....

TVC 536.4: Ed welcomes award-winning television writer/producer Jay Moriarty . Jay spent about thirty years writing and producing sitcoms for network television, including eight years for Norman Lear and Tandem Productions—seven of which Jay and his longtime writing partner, Mike Milligan, spent writing and producing The Jeffersons (CBS, 1975-1985). Jay's memoir, Honky in the House: Writing & Prod...

TVC 536.5: Award-winning television writer/producer Jay Moriarty talks to Ed about "The First Store," the seriocomic episode of The Jeffersons that paid tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; the portrayal of interracial marriage on The Jeffersons ; and the May 2019 live staging of "A Friend in Need," the premiere episode of The Jeffersons , as part of Live in Front of a Studio Audience . Jay's me...

TVC 536.6: Greg and Ed discuss the Blu-ray release of Jetsons: The Movie , and why it's still an important film in the Hanna-Barbera canon, despite the widely panned decision to replace Janet Waldo with pop star Tiffany as the voice of Judy Jetson. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition...

From April 2011: Tony, Donna, and Ed go back to Apr. 19, 1938, when NBC launched experimental television broadcasts from the Empire State Building. 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 advertise on our show. Please email  s...

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. This technological advance changed the face of 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 to work with...

TVC 535.1: A special baseball-themed edition of This Week in TV History that celebrates the life and career of Tommy Lasorda, the legendary manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers who went on to become one of the great ambassadors of Major League Baseball. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edit...

TVC 535.2: Tony and Ed commemorate the anniversary of Hank Aaron's then-record 715th major league home run, which he hit against Al Downing of the Los Angeles Dodgers on Apr. 8, 1974—an historic moment, both in the world of sports and for the U.S. in general, that was captured live on television as part of NBC's Monday Night Baseball .  Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partn...

TVC 535.3: Ed plays the conclusion of a three-part conversation with Carol Ford and Linda Groundwater , two of the co-authors (along with Dee Young) of Bob Crane: The Definitive Biography , a comprehensive, cradle-to-grave look at the life and career of the beloved Hogan's Heroes star. Topics this segment include the lengths that Crane took to overcome his addiction to sex and porn, including seek...

TVC 535.4: Bob Crane biographers Carol Ford and Linda Groundwater talk to Ed about Crane's longtime compulsion to record every aspect of his life via written journals, audio tape, 8-mm film, and, finally, video cassette. Bob Crane: The Definitive Biography includes first-hand insight from more than two hundred people who knew Bob Crane personally and better than most, including family members; his...

TVC 535.5: Part 2 of a conversation that began a few weeks ago with Radames Pera , the actor best known for playing young Kwai Chang Caine, aka "Grasshopper," in the flashback sequences of the original Kung Fu (ABC, 1972-1975), and John Edwards, Mary Ingalls' love interest, on Little House on the Prairie . After a successful career as a child actor, Radames left acting in the late 1980s and reinve...