TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

From January 2011: Tony, Donna, and Ed discuss the many ways in which Batman changed the face of television when it premiered on Jan. 12, 1966. 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...

TVC 522.5: From July 2011: Emmy Award-winning writer/producer William Link , co-creator of Columbo , Mannix , Ellery Queen , Murder She Wrote , and other acclaimed TV-movies and TV series, gives Ed and his listeners a window into how he and his longtime collaborator Richard Levinson worked together. William Link passed away on Sunday, Dec. 27.  Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential h...

TVC 522.6: From July 2011: From July 2011: Emmy Award-winning writer/producer William Link , co-creator of Columbo , talks to Ed about the three elements that comprise a typical Columbo story, including the final clue (or what Peter Falk liked to call "The Pop"). Other topics include The Columbo Collection , a series of original Columbo short stories, written by Bill, was published in 2011. Willia...

From May 2011: Pete Duel biographer Paul Green talks to Ed about Duel's work on television in the mid 1960s, particularly when he starred in the Screen Gems comedies Gidget and Love on a Rooftop . Paul's books include Pete Duel: A Biography , a comprehensive look at the life of the actor best known for playing Hannibal Heyes on Alias Smith and Jones . Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confide...

From May 2011: Pete Duel biographer Paul Green talks to Ed about how Duel's confidence as an actor grown during the time he filmed Love on a Rooftop ; the similarities in format and style between Rooftop and Bewitched ; and how well Duel played off Rich Little when they worked together on the series. Paul's books include Pete Duel: A Biography , a comprehensive look at the life of the actor best k...

TVC 445.3: Ed and guest co-host Chuck Harter welcome Robert Hooks ( Trouble Man, N.Y.P.D., Star Trek III: The Search for Spock ), the Emmy Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated actor and producer who founded three significant African-American theatre companies: the Group Theatre Workshop in New York; the DC Black Repertory Company in his hometown of Washington, D.C.; and the internationally recog...

TVC 446.3: Actress and author Joyce Bulifant ( Match Game, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Love Thy Neighbor, Disney's The Happiest Millionaire, Airplane! ) talks to Ed and Greg Ehrbar about being directed by her son John Asher in the Amazon movie I Hate Kids and the independent film Taken . Joyce's book, My Four Hollywood Husbands , is the inspiring story of how she overcame dyslexia, feelings of self...

TVC 446.4: Actress and author Joyce Bulifant ( My Four Hollywood Husbands ) talks to Ed and Greg Ehrbar about the Disney TV series that nearly came about while she was filming The Happiest Millionaire ; the trouble she had making eye contact with Raymond Burr when they worked together on Perry Mason ; and how she nearly turned down Airplane! My Four Hollywood Husbands is the inspiring story of how...

TVC 445.4: Emmy Award-winning actor and producer Robert Hooks talks to Ed and guest co-host Chuck Harter about the origins and legacy of the Negro Ensemble Company, one of the three significant African-American theatre companies that Robert founded. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast editio...

TVC 445.5: Emmy Award winner Robert Hooks shares a few memories with Ed and guest co-host Chuck Harter about Jack Warden and Frank Converse, his co-stars on the groundbreaking police drama N.Y.P.D. (ABC, 1967-1969), the first TV cop show with the official imprimatur of the New York Police Department, the first network TV drama with an African-American star, and the first show to portray an African...

From February 2016: Actor and artist Roy Thinnes ( The Invaders, The X Files ) talks to Ed about playing unorthodox psychiatrist James Whitman in The Psychiatrist (NBC, 1971), a six-episode series created by Richard Levinson and William Link and produced by Norman Felton. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential  has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship request...

From July 2011: William Link, co-creator of Columbo , Ellery Queen , Mannix and other classic TV series, talks to Ed about how he and Richard Levinson were actively involved in all aspects of the production of their projects (including casting). Other topics include That Certain Summer , the groundbreaking TV-movie starring Hal Holbrook that Levinson and Link wrote and produced in 1972, and The Gu...

From October 2014: Ed, Tony and Donna welcome Dawn Wells, the actress known to three generations of television viewers as Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island . Dawn's new book, What Would Mary Ann Do? A Guide to Life , takes the question "Ginger or Mary Ann" a step further by showing readers how Mary Ann would respond to the various changes in today's culture that face women of all ages. The book also i...

From October 2014: Ed, Tony and Donna welcome Dawn Wells, the actress known to three generations of television viewers as Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island . Dawn's new book, What Would Mary Ann Do? A Guide to Life , includes memories of Dawn's life and career before and after Gilligan's Island , while also paying tribute to each of her six fellow cast members. In this segment Dawn talks about how par...

From October 2014: Dawn Wells, the actress known to three generations of television viewers as Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island , shares a few more memories of her time "on the Island," including how she and her fellow cast members particularly enjoyed filming the various dream sequences on the show. Then, Ed, Tony, and Donna spend a few minutes talking amongst themselves about what a thrill it was t...

From October 2010: Emmy Award-winning writer/producer William Link shares a few memories of his friend and colleague Stephen J. Cannell, including how Cannell, like Levinson and Link, was "obsessed" with writing (but in a good way). Cannell wrote "Double Exposure," one of the best episodes of the original Columb o, plus he briefly collaborated with Bill and Richard Levinson on Ston e (ABC, 1980),...

From October 2010: Emmy Award-winning writer/producer William Link ( Columbo, Mannix, Murder She Wrote, Ellery Queen ) talks to Ed about his particular approach to writing, plus he mentions some of his favorite writers, including Raymond Chandler and Robert B. Parker. William Link passed away Dec. 27, 2020 at age 87.  Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential  has partnered with Advertis...

From February 2017: Ed, Tony, and Donna welcome back Jennifer Armstrong, author of Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted and All the Brilliant Minds Who Made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic . Topics this segment include how The Mary Tyler Moore Show celebrated Mary Richards' various friendships, both male and female, and how the series began focusing more on Mary's relationships with her professional...

TVC 521.1: A return visit from longtime television writer Paul Robert Coyle ( The Streets of San Francisco, Barnaby Jones, Crazy Like a Fox, Simon & Simon, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Incredible Journeys , Stephen King's The Dead Zone ). Paul's memoir, Swords, Starships and Superheroes: From Star Trek to Xena to Hercules: A TV W...

TVC 521.2: Paul Robert Coyle talks to Ed about the importance of adapting to changes in the TV industry; the events that led to the first sale of one of his scripts (the Streets of San Francisco episode "The Honorable Profession"); how writing for television is a step process, and how the Quinn Martin operation embodied that. Paul's memoir, Swords, Starships and Superheroes , includes many useful...

TVC 521.3: TV Confidential commemorates the recent 40th anniversary of the death of John Lennon by playing highlights from our December 2010 conversation with television producer and New York Times bestselling author Keith Elliot Greenberg. Keith's book December 8, 1980: The Day John Lennon Died not only provides a minute-by-minute, almost documentary-like look at the last day of John Lennon's lif...

TVC 521.4: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with actor, comedian, and voice artist Hank Garrett ( Car 54, Where Are You? , Three Days of the Condor ). Topics this segment include the events that brought Hank to the West Coast, including co-starring with James Earl Jones in the police drama Paris (CBS, 1979), and how that role stemmed from the time when Hank and Jones worked together o...

TVC 521.4: TVC 521.5: Actor and comedian Hank Garrett talks to Ed, Tony, and Donna about the famous fight sequence between Robert Redford and him in Three Days of the Condor ; his background in the martial arts; and the time when Elvis Presley asked Hank to spar with him. Hank's memoir, From Harlem Hoodlum to Hollywood Heavyweight , is available through Briton Publishing, Amazon.com, and other onl...

TVC 521.6: From December 2010: More highlights from our conversation with New York Times bestselling author Keith Elliot Greenberg ( December 8, 1980: The Day John Lennon Died ). Topics this segment include Lennon's accessibility with the public, including some of his notable encounters with fans; how pop culture would have changed, had Lennon lived; and how Lennon used his celebrity to affect cha...

A special sneak preview of our upcoming interview with Emmy Award-winning actress Carolyn Hennesy ( General Hospital ). Carolyn's landmark 500th episode playing Diane Miller on General Hospital airs Tuesday, Dec. 22 on ABC. Our complete interview with Carolyn Hennesy will premiere on TV Confidential during the weekend of Jan. 8-10. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential  has partnered...