TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

From April 2015: Tony, Donna, and Ed remember the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere of My Name is Barbra, an hour of music starring Barbra Streisand, and the first in a series of specials that the Broadway star and future Oscar winner filmed for CBS in the late 1960s. Though it went on to win two Emmys and a Peabody Award, CBS was nervous about My Name is Barbra before it aired. Rather than rel...

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 ...

TVC 490.4: Ed welcomes back Alison Arngrim, the actress known around the world as Nellie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie . With everyone sheltered at home these days, Alison began reading the original Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder aloud to her fans and followers around the world and posting them every day, for free, on her Facebook page. Alison's daily readings have not only exp...

TVC 490.5: Alison Arngrim ( Little House on the Prairie ) tells Ed about the upcoming live digital version of her acclaimed one-woman show, Confessions of a Prairie Terror , on Saturday, May 9 and again on May 16. For more details, go to SpinCycleNYC.com . Alison's memoir, Confessions of a Prairie Bitch , is available wherever books are sold. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential  ha...

TVC 490.6: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with John Barbour , the five-time Emmy Award-winning talk show host , comedian, critic at large , and documentary film maker who is also the creator, producer, principal writer, and one of the original co-hosts of Real People (NBC, 1979-1984). In this segment, John shares a few thoughts about isolation during this extraordinary time, includi...

TVC 490.7: Emmy Award-winning writer, producer, director, comedian and talk show host John Barbour ( Real People ) shares a few more stories about his days at a nightclub comedian in the 1960s, including finding his own piece of ground as a comic and helping a young Pat Morita do the same. John's memoir, Your Mother's Not a Virgin: The Bumpy Life and Times of the Canadian Dropout Who Changed the F...

TVC 490.8: Emmy Award-winning talk show host , comedian, critic at large , and documentary film maker John Barbour ( Real People ) tells Ed the story of his unlikely friendship with screenwriter Harlan Ellison. John's memoir, Your Mother's Not a Virgin: The Bumpy Life and Times of the Canadian Dropout Who Changed the Face of American TV , is available wherever books are sold online. John Barbour's...

From April 2012: Tony, Donna, and Ed remember the screen debut of Warner Bros. character Daffy Duck in Porky's Duck Hunt (1937), which was originally released on Apr. 17, 1937. 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...

From April 2018: Tony, Donna, and Ed remember the world premiere of The Blues Brothers on the Apr. 22, 1978 edition of Saturday Night Live. Topics include the sheer level of talent that Dan Ackroyd put together in creating the band. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential  has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program...

In light of the passing earlier this week of Tom Lester, the actor known around the world as Eb on Green Acres, we you bring this minisode edition in which Greg and Ed discuss the broadcast history of Green Acres (CBS, 1965-1971). In many respects, Green Acres was the closest thing American television came to capturing the genius and absurdity of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Want to advertise/spo...

TVC 489.1: From April 2011: Tony, Donna, and Ed remember Apr. 22, 1976, when Barbara Walters signed a $5 million contract to join Harry Reasoner as co-anchor of The ABC Evening News . The deal made Walters not only the highest paid TV journalist at the time, but the first female to headline a network news broadcast. Barbara Walters passed away Friday, Dec. 30 at age ninety-three. Want to advertise...

TVC 489.2: From April 2011: Tony, Donna, and Ed go back to Apr. 24, 1936, when television cameras in Camden, New Jersey filmed a group of firemen responding to an alarm. This not only marked the first time an unplanned event was broadcast on television, but paved the way for what we now know as "breaking news" or live TV news coverage. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential  has partn...

TVC 489.3: Ed, Tony, and Donna welcome back actor, director, and entrepreneur Anson Williams . Anson directed and co-stars, along with fellow longtime Happy Days cast member Don Most, in Harvest Time , a dramatic short with dark humor that is also the pilot episode for a possible anthology series that would feature actors from movies and TV in roles that are completely different than the character...

TVC 489.4: Actor/director Anson Williams tells Ed, Tony, and Donna how fellow Happy Days alumnus Don Most made it easy for Anson for appear in front of the camera for the first time in years during production of Harvest Time . The pilot for a possible anthology series, Harvest Time can be seen for free at PopGoestheCulture.tv . Anson Williams, along with his business partner Joanna Connell, also r...

TVC 489.5: Five time Emmy Award-winning writer, producer, director, comedian and talk show host John Barbour talks to Ed about his affinity for Superman and the role that played in ultimately getting Real People (NBC, 1979-1984) on NBC after John had originally developed the concept for ABC. John's memoir, Your Mother's Not a Virgin: The Bumpy Life and Times of the Canadian Dropout Who Changed the...

TVC 489.6: John Barbour , creator, producer, principal writer and one of the original hosts of Real People (NBC, 1979-1984), talks to Ed about why Real People is the best form of realty television because it celebrates the "entertainment of reality." John's memoir, Your Mother's Not a Virgin: The Bumpy Life and Times of the Canadian Dropout Who Changed the Face of American TV , is available wherev...

TVC 489.7: Emmy Award-winning writer, producer, director, comedian and talk show host John Barbour talks to Ed about the many ways in which Redd Foxx helped him during the years when John performed as a nightclub comedian. John's memoir, Your Mother's Not a Virgin: The Bumpy Life and Times of the Canadian Dropout Who Changed the Face of American TV , is available wherever books are sold online. Jo...

TVC 489.8: Greg and Ed remember Shirley Temple's Storybook (NBC, 1958-1961), select episodes of which are available for streaming on demand on Amazon. 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...

TVC 489.9: Greg and Ed discuss some of the many Shirley Temple movies that are available for home viewing, including Bright Eyes, Heidi, The Blue Bird, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and The Little Colonel.  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 wit...

From April 2012: Tony, Donna, and Ed go back to Apr. 24, 1982, the day when Jane Fonda's first workout video was released and the effect that Fonda's bestselling series of aerobics tapes had on VCR sales, the home video market, and our culture in general. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential  has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast...

From December 2012: Ed welcomes actor, author and CBS Radio commentator Charles Grodin (Rosemary's Baby, Catch-22, Midnight Run, The Heartbreak Kid, Seems Like Old Times, Beethoven, The Perils of Show Business: Proceed at Your Own Risk). Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential  has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our pr...

From May 2011: Actor, playwright, artist, and novelist Peter Mark Richman ( Cain's Hundred , Longstreet , Dynasty, Three's Company, 4 Faces , Hollander's Deal , A Medal for Murray , The Rebirth of Ira Masters ) on how he first began writing during the Golden Age of Television, when he was appearing in live TV shows in New York City; how he received encouragement from Paddy Chayefksy and, particula...

TVC 488.1: Ed welcomes singer, actress, and songwriter Roslyn Kind . Through the encouragement of friends, fans and family, Roslyn has released the digital singles of "Save the Country" and "Light of Love," two songs that are not only very uplifting, but have particular significance for Roslyn, both as a female and as an American. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential  has partnered...

TVC 488.2: Part 2 of our conversation with singer, actress, and songwriter Roslyn Kind ( "Save the Country," "Light of Love" ). Topics this segment include how Roslyn came to write "Light of Love," appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show , and how she recorded her first album on the day of her high school graduation. The digital singles of both "Save the Country" and Light of Love" are available whereve...

TVC 488.3: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with Howard Storm , Robin Williams ' regular director during the first three seasons of Mork & Mindy . Howard's memoir, The Imperfect Storm: From Henry Street to Hollywood , is available through Bear Manor Media. Steve Stoliar , author of Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho's House and Howard's collaborator on The Imperfect Storm , co-h...