TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

A encore presentation of our May 2016 tribute to beloved television actor William Schallert, featuring highlights from Bill’s previous appearances on TV Confidential. In this segment, Bill talks about working with Elvis Presley in Speedway; with Walter Matthau in both Lonely are the Brave and Charley Varrick; and the role that Kirk Douglas played in ending the Hollywood Blacklist by ensuring that Dalton Trumbo received screen credit for writing the screenplay for Spartacus. 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@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From May 2016: Greg Ehrbar reviews The Matchless Gene Rayburn, a comprehensive biography of game show legend Gene Rayburn (Match Game). 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@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From January 2013: Bob Leszczak, author of Single Season Sitcoms, 1948-1979: A Complete Guide, talks to Ed about My World... and Welcome to It, the Emmy Award-winning, critically acclaimed avant garde sitcom starring William Windom that likely wasn't renewed for a second season because the show's animated sequences, which were produced by DePatie-Freleng, were too expensive. Other topics this segment include how Prime of Life, a proposed series produced by Monty Hall that would've starred Windom, morphed into The McLean Stevenson Show because of a network decision.  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@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 499.7: From June 2011: Tony, Donna, and Ed remember The Bicentennial Minutes (CBS, 1974-1976), a series of one-minute educational television segments, produced by CBS News, that aired in prime time (usually at the end of the 8pm hour) to commemorate the bicentennial of the American Revolution. The series premiered on July 4, 1974 and was originally scheduled to end on July 4, 1976, but continued until Dec. 31, 1976. First Lady Betty Ford delivered the Minute on July 4, 1976, while President Gerald Ford delivered the final Minute on Dec. 31 of that year.  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@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

First hour: Bob Leszczak, author of Single Season Sitcoms, 1948-1979: A Complete Guide, provides Ed with the back story of The Paul Lynde Show, The Nancy Walker Show, Headmaster, My World and Welcome to It, The McLean Stevenson Show and other comedy series that, for one reason or another, lasted less than one season.  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@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From January 2013: Bob Leszczak, author of Single Season Sitcoms, 1948-1979: A Complete Guide, provides some background details about The Good Life, A Year at the Top, Ichabod and Me and other comedy series that, for one reason or another, lasted less than one season. 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@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 544.1: Ed, Tony, and Donna welcome Emmy nominated comedy writer Jim Abell. Jim spent three years as a staff writer for Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In (NBC, 1968-1973), while his other credits include Lily Tomlin’s second comedy album, And That’s the Truth, plus many of the blackout sketches on Love, American Style. Topics this segment include the clever ways in which Laugh-In circumvented the network censors every week, plus the story of how Jim began his journey in TV after receiving encouragement from actor/comedian Harvey Korman. 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@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 544.2: Emmy nominated comedy writer Jim Abell shares a few more stories about writing for Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and Love, American Style, including how he and his writing partner, Chet Dowling, often found inspiration from the tombstones of the great comedians who lay in repose at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Burbank, California. 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@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 544.3: An encore presentation of our March 2019 conversation with Will Ryan, Nick Santa Maria and Michael Schlesinger. Will and Ryan are the stars, and Mike is the writer, producer and director, of The Misadventures of Biffle and Shooster—the Rondo Award-nominated DVD collection of 1930s-style comedies that pay homage to The Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy and other vintage comedy teams from the Golden Era of Hollywood. The Biffle and Shooster shorts were filmed over a five-year period in the early 2010s, yet they look and sound as if they were actually unearthed from the 1930s. 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@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 544.4: From March 2019: Will Ryan, Nick Santa Maria and Michael Schlesinger of The Misadventures of Biffle and Shooster talk to Ed and Greg Ehrbar about why the humor of the Biffle and Shooster shorts is timeless and appeals to all age groups. 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@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 544.5: From March 2019: Will Ryan, Nick Santa Maria and Michael Schlesinger talk to Ed and Greg Ehrbar about the various comic inspirations for the Biffle and Shooster shorts, which include Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, The Ritz Brothers, and even the obscure comedy team of Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo. The Misadventures of Biffle and Shooster is available now on DVD.  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@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 544.6: Award-winning ad writer and columnist Michael Shevack shares the back story of the spot for which he is best known: The iconic slogan for Gillette razors, “Gillette, the best a man can get.” Michael’s books include Soul Lessons from The Wizard of Oz: How to Find Your Yellow Brick Road and The Six Fix: Spiritual Healthcare for a Stronger America. 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@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From August 2011: Ed and Tony welcome Edgar Award-nominated writer, producer and novelist Lee Goldberg (Diagnosis Murder, Monk, Psych, Hunter, Spenser: For Hire, Successful Television Writing). Topics this segment include what not to do when writing a spec script for a particular TV series, and why writing episodic television in general is like being a carpenter for hire. 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@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From August 2011: Ed and Tony welcome Edgar Award-nominated writer, producer and novelist Lee Goldberg (Diagnosis Murder, Monk, Psych, Hunter, Spenser: For Hire, Lost Hills, Bone Canyon, Successful Television Writing). Topics this segment include how Lee and his longtime writing partner, William Rabkin, worked together when they wrote and produced television, and why Act I of any given script is always the hardest to write. 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@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From August 2011: Ed and Tony welcome Edgar Award-nominated writer, producer and novelist Lee Goldberg (Diagnosis Murder, Monk, Psych, Hunter, Spenser: For Hire, Lost Hills, Bone Canyon, Successful Television Writing). Topics this segment include why, once a pilot is sold, the networks become very protective of what they call "the franchise" of the series--that is, the show's contract with the audience to deliver the same type of stories for that show every week. 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@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices