TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

TVC 469.4: Actor and screenwriter James Moses Black (Reverend Hawley on This is Us, rogue cop Deacon Brown in the new Screen Gems crime thriller Black and Blue) talks to Ed about why This is Us continues to resonate with viewers; his approach to playing morally complex characters; and how his experience as an actor helps him as a writer. Black and Blue is now playing in theaters everywhere. Want t...

TVC 469.7: From the Sept. 25 ceremony at the Hollywood Museum ceremony honoring Dawn Wells and the legacy of Gilligan's Island: Ed catches up with Bill Funt, son of Candid Camera creator Allen Funt, and a longtime friend of Sherwood Schwartz and many Gilligan's Island cast members. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential  has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorsh...

TVC 468.1: A return appearance by Will Ryan, Nick Santa Maria, and Michael Schlesinger. Will and Nick are the stars—and Mike, the writer, producer and director—of The Misadventures of Biffle and Shooster, the Rondo Award-nominated collection of original, authentically-made 1930s-style short features starring the greatest comedy team, Benny Biffle and Sammy Shooster, that never actually existed. In...

TVC 468.2: James Rosin, author of People, Places & Me, shares a few stories about his life as a working actor and working writer (both in L.A. and New York), including his encounters with Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Albert Finney, Tony Randall, Woody Allen, and Bruce Willis; the six months Jim spent working on a kibbutz in Israel in the early 1970s (and learning how popular Hawaii Five-O was in th...

TVC 468.3: Part 1 of a two-part conversation with actress, singer, dancer, philanthropist, and showbiz legend Ruta Lee (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Witness for the Prosecution, Sergeants Three, Perry Mason, High Rollers). Ruta's memoirs, Consider Your Ass Kissed, are targeted for publication in 2020. For more information on The Thalians, the charitable organization that Ruta co-founded with D...

TVC 468.4: Ed plays highlights from the Sept. 25 ceremony at the Hollywood Museum that unveiled the new lobby exhibit honoring Dawn Wells and the legacy of Gilligan's Island, including comments from Ruta Lee that pay tribute to series creator Sherwood Schwartz. The Gilligan's Island exhibit features the original gingham dress and blue "short shorts" that Dawn Wells wore as Mary Ann on Gilligan's I...

TVC 468.5: From the Sept. 25 ceremony at the Hollywood Museum ceremony honoring Dawn Wells and the legacy of Gilligan's Island: Producer Lloyd Schwartz (The Brady Bunch, A Very Brady Renovation) on how Dawn Wells shared two important traits with the Mary Ann character, while Museum president Donelle Dadigan reads a letter from actor Dwayne Hickman that pays homage to Bob Denver. Want to advertise/...

TVC 468.6: Greg Ehrbar interviews Roberta Levitow, daughter of legendary animator and director Abe Levitow (Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, Gay Purr-ee), and an accomplished director, performer, and teacher in her own right. Roberta's current album, Lost in the Stars, features her interpretations of songs from some of the animated musicals that her father directed, plus other classics. Calendar year...

TVC 468.7: TV Confidential remembers Robert Forster, the venerable film and TV actor who passed away Friday, Oct. 11. Forster's Oscar nomination for his performance in Jackie Brown (1998), and the success he enjoyed in the two decades after that film's release, remains one of Hollywood's greatest comeback stories. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential  has partnered with AdvertiseCas...

TVC 467.1: Tony and Ed continue our celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of The Brady Bunch series and franchise with a look at the latest Brady reincarnation, A Very Brady Renovation. 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 yo...

TVC 467.2: Ed welcomes Gary Hahn, director of marketing for both The National Comedy Center and the Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum, both of which are based in Jamestown, New York—the birthplace of Lucille Ball. 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 wor...

TVC 467.3: Ed welcomes actor Robert Clohessy (Oz, Boardwalk Empire, Blue Bloods). Topics include working alongside Tom Selleck on Blue Bloods and why the family dinner sequences play a major role in the show's appeal and longevity. 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 467.4: Part 1 of a conversation with noted film and TV character James DuMont (Treme, The Butler, Dallas Buyers Club, Stranger Things 2, Men of a Certain Age). Currently seen, along with Danny McBride and John Goodman, in the Sunday night HBO series The Righteous Gemstones, James also has a direct line to the history of television: His great-uncle Allen DuMont created the cathode ray tube, the...

TVC 467.5: TV Confidential remembers Diahann Carroll (Julia, Dynasty, Claudine, No Strings) by replaying a clip from her appearance on Merv Griffin's short-lived NBC daytime show in February 1963, a few months before Carroll won the Tony Award that year for her performance opposite Richard Kiley in No Strings. Audio courtesy ATVAudio.com. Diahann Carroll passed away on Friday, Oct. 4 at age 84. Wa...

TVC 467.6: Tony and Ed with a few final thoughts on HGTV's A Very Brady Renovation, and how the various actors who have played the Bradys have returned to the Brady Bunch franchise, one way or another. 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 an...

TVC 466.1: Tony, Donna, and Ed remember the Loma Prieta earthquake that occurred in Northern California on Oct. 17, 1989. The 6.9-magnitude quake caused sixty-three deaths; injured 3,757 people; damaged or destroyed homes, buildings, and major thoroughfares throughout the San Francisco Bay Area; and halted the 1989 World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A's for ten days. Wan...

TVC 466.2: Ed and Tony welcome Jeff Abraham, comedy historian and co-author, along with Burt Kearns, of The Show Won't Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage, the first book to explore an aspect of show business that not too many people talk about: performers who died onstage in the middle of their act. Despite its morbid-sounding premise, The Show Won't On is...

TVC 466.3: Jeff Abraham, comedy historian and co-author, along with Burt Kearns, of The Show Won't Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage, discusses what appears to be the most dangerous profession in show business (and no, it's not what you'd think). Listeners in Southern California can meet Jeff and Burt at the Dearly Departed Artifact Museum in Hollywood on...

TVC 466.4: Ed welcomes back Peter Onorati (This Is Us, West End, Cop Rock, S.W.A.T.). Topics include Peter's upcoming return appearance this season on This Is Us; his many collaborations with his mentor, Steven Bochco; and his approach to playing such morally complex characters as New Jersey mob boss John Trevi in West End, a feature motion picture by Joe Basile that Peter describes West End as "H...

TVC 466.5: Ed welcomes back eight-time Emmy Award winner Ed Asner (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant, God Help Us, A Man and His Prostate). Topics include Ed's upcoming USA Network series Briarpatch; working with David Janssen on The Fugitive; and how his beloved Los Angeles Dodgers will fare in the Major League Baseball postseason. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential  has partn...

TVC 466.6: Tony, Donna, and Ed remember how both network and local television covered the Loma Prieta earthquake of Oct. 17, 1989, including how then-ABC Sports broadcaster Al Michaels found himself playing news anchor in the hours immediately following the quake. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential  has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for th...

TVC 465.2: Part 2 of the conversation that began last week with Will Beinbrink, the actor who plays Tom Rogan in the worldwide box office hit It: Chapter Two. Topics include Will's recent collaboration with actor/director Campbell Scott in the film noir-like thriller Manhattan Nocturne, and why he looks for roles that "scare" him, but in a good way. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confident...

TVC 465.1: Ed welcomes back actor and author James Rosin. Jim's latest book, People Places & Me, reflects on his life as a working actor (both in L.A. and New York), his experiences working on stage and on television on both coasts (both as a writer and as an actor), and the many moments of encouragement that he received along the way from people famous and otherwise. Want to advertise/sponsor our...

TVC 465.3: Greg and Ed remember The Invaders (ABC, 1967-1968), the classic series created by Larry Cohen and produced by Quinn Martin about a mild-mannered architect who tries to convince an unbelieving world that aliens from another planet are trying to take over the Earth. Topics include how The Invaders is more about paranoia than science fiction. Both seasons of The Invaders are available on D...

TVC 465.4: An excerpt from Ed's two-part conversation with Roy Thinnes (The Invaders, The X Files, General Hospital, Dark Shadows) from February 2016. In this segment, Roy discusses his meeting with Quinn Martin that led to him being cast as David Vincent on The Invaders; the stellar writing on the series; and how Roy's own interest in extraterrestrial life forms stems from the writings of George...