TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

TVC 731.1: TV Confidential commemorates the recent passing of Chuck Norris by bringing you an encore of our conversation with Wayne Péré, the actor known to fans of Walker: Texas Ranger as the villainous Victor LaRue. At the time we spoke to Wayne in November 2018, he was starring as Dr. Emerson in the hit Sony/Marvel feature Venom , while his many other film and television credits include Friends...

TVC 731.2: From November 2018: Actor and director Wayne Péré talks to Ed about his approach to playing villains in movies and on television (including a few more memories of playing Victor LaRue on Walker: Texas Ranger ); his approach to playing characters movies that are based in the Marvel Comics universe; and how he became a director.

TVC 731.3: From November 2018: Actor and director Wayne Péré talks to Ed about how he sometimes creates his own back story for the characters as he prepares to play them; and the difference between playing a fictional character and a character based on a real person.

TVC 731.4: TV Confidential commemorates the recent passing of Chuck Norris by bringing you an encore of our conversation with actress and producer Sheree J. Wilson ( Dallas, Walker: Texas Ranger ). At the time we spoke to Sheree in September 2013, she had just produced and starred Easy Rider: The Ride Back , a sequel (and prequel) to the groundbreaking cult classic that explores the lineage of Wya...

TVC 731.5: From September 2013: Sheree J. Wilson shares a few memories of starring with Chuck Norris on Walker: Texas Ranger , including how the series had struggled to find its footing early on, including several changes in production staff and crew, until Sheree convinced Norris to hire Michael Preece ( Dallas, The Streets of San Francisco ) as Walker 's regular director . Easy Rider: The Ride B...

TVC 731.6: From September 2013: Sheree J. Wilson talks to Ed about her close friendship with Larry Hagman in the twenty years after Dallas left the air, including traveling with Hagman and his family on many occasions, and spending quality time with Hagman just a few days before he died in November 2012 . Easy Rider: The Ride Back is available for viewing on demand through Amazon Prime. Photo of S...

TVC 731.7: TV Confidential concludes its remembrance of Chuck Norris by bringing you a clip of our 2012 conversation with longtime television director Michael Preece (Dallas, Walker: Texas Ranger, The Streets of San Francisco, MacGyver ). Preece directed about eighty episodes of Walker ; prior to that, he helmed more episodes of Dallas than any other director. Topics this segment include how Preec...

TVC 730.4: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with two-time Emmy Award-winning writer and producer Robert Illes ( The Carol Burnett Show, Sanford and Son, Fernwood Tonight, Lily, Silver Spoons, Sister, Sister ). Bob's memoir, Funny is Money , is a humorous, irreverent, deeply personal, and often moving look at his forty-two-year career writing and producing comedy for network television...

TVC 730.5: Emmy Award-winning writer and producer Robert Illes talks to Ed about working with producer Alan Thicke behind the scenes of Fernwood Tonight ; writing for Toni Tennille, Daryl Dragon, and John Byner on the Captain and Tennille variety series; and writing for Dick Van Dyke on what turned out to be the final season of The Carol Burnett Show . Bob's memoir, Funny is Money , is available i...

TVC 730.6: Emmy Award-winning writer and producer Robert Illes talks to Ed about meeting and sometimes writing for many of the iconic performers that he grew up watching on TV as a kid; working on his own for the first time after a twenty-five year partnership with James Stein; and how Bob's solo career began with Sister, Sister and continued for another seventeen years. Bob's memoir, Funny is Mon...

TVC 729.1:  Ed welcomes two-time Emmy Award-winning writer and producer Robert Illes ( The Carol Burnett Show, Sanford and Son, Fernwood Tonight, Lily, Silver Spoons, Sister, Sister ). Bob's memoir, Funny is Money , is a humorous, irreverent, deeply personal, and often moving look at his forty-two-year career writing and producing comedy for network television—a career that not only included such...

TVC 729.2: Emmy Award-winning writer and producer Robert Illes talks to Ed about how he and James Stein got their first big break in television when they wrote the weekly monologue for comedian Bill Cosby on The New Bill Cosby Show (CBS, 1972-1973); working with Tom and Dick Smothers on The Smothers Brothers Show (NBC, 1975) and with legendary comedy writer Pat McCormick on several TV shows; and h...

TVC 729.3: From March 2016: Tony, Donna, and Ed discuss the influence of comedian George Burns on two generations of TV comedy writers. George Burns died on Mar. 9, 1996 as part of This Week in TV History.

TVC 729.4: Ed welcomes back renowned actress, author, and conservationist Stefanie Powers ( Hart to Hart , The Girl from U.N.C.L.E ., One from the Hart ). The United Nations recently honored Stefanie as an Agent of Change in recognition for her work with the William Holden Wildlife Foundation , the nonprofit organization that Stefanie established in 1982 in memory of her longtime life partner that...

TVC 726.5: From March 2016: Tony, Donna, and Ed remember the premiere of the Emmy Award-winning drama Family (ABC, 1976-1980) as part of This Week in TV History.

TVC 726.6: From February 2014: Ed and guest co-host Phil Gries welcome Joe Franklin, the legendary TV talk show host whose popular weekday talk show, Joe Franklin's Memory Lane , not only aired every day on New York television for more than forty years (1950-1993), but was also broadcast nationally for many years on superstation WOR and syndicated in many other markets. This past Thursday, Mar. 12...

TVC 726.7: Ed and guest co-host Phil Gries play more of their conversation with legendary TV talk show host Joe Franklin. Our conversation with Joe originally aired in February 2014, eleven months before his passing in January 2015. Thursday, Mar. 12, 2026 would have been Joe Franklin's 100 th birthday.

TVC 728.1: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with authors, playwrights, and producers Anthony Wynn and Robert Wood. Tony and Bob's latest book, Two for the Road , chronicles the lifelong love story of Barry Morse and his wife of sixty years, actress Sydney Sturgess, as told through the many cards, letters, and audio recordings that Barry and Sydney sent to each other in the course of t...

TVC 728.2: TV Confidential remembers Neil Sedaka, the Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, and pianist who sold millions of records worldwide and who wrote or co-wrote more than five hundred songs for himself and other artists in a career that spanned nearly seven decades. Neil Sedaka passed away Friday, Feb. 27 at the age of eighty-six. Because of the often symbiotic relationship between musi...

TVC 728.3: Our remembrance of Neil Sedaka continues with clips from our conversation from March 2024 with legendary music manager Harvey Lisberg about "Is This the Way to Amarillo," the Sedaka-penned song that became a huge hit in 1971 for British singer Tony Christie; from April 2016 with Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Toni Tennille about "Love Will Keep Us Together," the Sedaka tune that...

TVC 728.4: Ed welcomes back actor, author, and documentary filmmaker James Rosin . Jim wrote, produced, and directed Philly Hoops , a deep dive into the early years of one of the NBA's most storied franchises, The Philadelphia Warriors (now the Golden State Warriors), that also traces the rise of professional basketball in the City of Brotherly Love, including the history of the Philadelphia SPHAs...

TVC 728.5: Actor, author, and documentary filmmaker James Rosin talks to Ed about Wilt Chamberlain's historic 100-point game for the Philadelphia Warriors, which occurred on Mar. 2, 1962 in Hershey, Pennsylvania (the Warriors beat the New York Knicks that night, 169-147); how many of the Warriors players during the first sixteen years of the franchise, including Chamberlain, had direct ties to the...

TVC 728.6: Actor, author, and documentary filmmaker James Rosin talks to Ed about how the Philadelphia SPHAs, the first professional basketball team in Philadelphia, were also one of the best teams on the East Coast during the first part of the twentieth century, competing against—and often beating—some of the best teams in the country, including the Harlem Globetrotters; and how the SPHAs eventua...

TVC 727.1: Tony Figueroa and Donna Allen join Ed for an expanded edition of This Week in TV History that remembers Rob Reiner, the Emmy Award-winning actor and writer and Academy Award-nominated director and producer who died tragically on Dec. 14, 2025. Reiner was born on Mar. 6, 1947. The segment begins with Tony sharing a story about the circumstances that led him to spend an afternoon with Rei...

TVC 727.2: Tony, Donna, and Ed discuss Rob Reiner's experience as a staff writer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (CBS, 1967-1969), as well as some of Reiner's notable "non-Meathead" roles on television, including his guest appearances as Myrna's boyfriend Sheldn on The Odd Couple in September 1974 (in the episode that also marked Penny Marshall's final appearance as Myrna) and as second-rate...