TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

TVC 501.3: From July 2015: Tony, Donna, and Ed commemorate the birthday of Merv Griffin with a look at his long-running daytime talk show (NBC/Westinghouse/CBS/Metromedia, 1962-1986) and his contributions to the world of TV game shows, including Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. 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 501.4: Ed welcomes film and TV actor, author, and noted acting teacher Basil Hoffman (Acting and How to Be Good at It, Cold Reading and How to Be Good at It). In a screen career that spans five decades, Basil has appeared in two Academy Award-winning Best Pictures (Ordinary People, The Artist), plus he’s worked with fourteen Oscar-winning actors (including Jason Robards, Sophia Loren, Dustin Hoffman, Mary Steenbergen, Renee Zellweger, J.K. Simmons, Timothy Hutton, and Christopher Walken), two Oscar-winning cinematographers, and ten Oscar-winning directors (including Steven Spielberg, the Coen Brothers, Michel Hazanavicius, Sydney Pollack, and Robert Redford), while his television credits include such shows as Seinfeld, Square Pegs, Sanford & Son, The Rockford Files, Columbo, M*A*S*H, The Defenders, Kung Fu, Ellery Queen, Hill Street Blues, and The Practice. NOTE: Out of an abundance of caution due to local government quarantine regulations, the two-day acting workshop that Basil Hoffman was scheduled to lead at Blue Light New Mexico on July 25-26 has been canceled.  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 501.5: Actor, author and acting teacher Basil Hoffman (Acting and How to Be Good at It, Cold Reading and How to Be Good at It) talks to Ed about the difference between “actor first” directors and “camera first” directors, plus he shares some memories of working with directors Sydney Pollack, Carl Reiner, and Robert Redford. Basil is one of just two actors to work with Redford four times—twice as an actor, and twice being directed by Redford. NOTE: Out of an abundance of caution due to local government quarantine regulations, the two-day acting workshop that Basil Hoffman was scheduled to lead at Blue Light New Mexico on July 25-26 has been canceled.  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 501.6: Actor, author and acting teacher Basil Hoffman (Acting and How to Be Good at It, Cold Reading and How to Be Good at It) shares a few memories of working with Peter O’Toole in My Favorite Year, James Garner in The Rockford Files, and Peter Falk in Columbo. NOTE: Out of an abundance of caution due to local government quarantine regulations, the two-day acting workshop that Basil Hoffman was scheduled to lead at Blue Light New Mexico on July 25-26 has been canceled.  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 501.7: From July 2015: Tony, Donna, and Ed remember the premiere of Pantomime Quiz, a variation of Charades that began as a locally produced game show in Los Angeles (KTLA, 1947-1949) before airing in prime time on ABC, NBC, CBS and the Dumont network at various points between 1949 and 1959. One of the first TV shows to win an Emmy Award (which it did in 1949), Pantomime Quiz later morphed into Stump the Stars (CBS, 1962-1963) and continued to run in syndication under that title throughout the 1960s. Topics include how the CBS version of Stump the Stars included cast members of such shows as Perry Mason. 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 July 2013: Tony, Donna, and Ed commemorate the 40th anniversary of the death of Bruce Lee with a look at the actor's life and career in movies and television, in the U.S. and overseas, as well as his influence on such martial arts stars as Chuck Norris and Jackie Chan.  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 July 2013: Tony, Donna, and Ed remember the final broadcast of Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, its influence on such future competition shows as The Vocie and American Idol, and the aftermath of Godfrey's ill-fated decision to fire Julius LaRosa on the air.   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 July 2013: Tony, Donna, and Ed remember the birthday of Red Skelton, his long-running TV variety series (NBC/CBS, 1951-1971), his genius for pantomime, his influence on such comedians as George Carlin and Robert Klein, and his famous monologue about the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance. 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 500.1: From September 2013: Broadcast legend Hugh Downs talks to Ed and Phil Gries about his years as announcer/sidekick on The Jack Paar Tonight Show (NBC, 1957-1962), including the night of Feb. 10, 1960, when Downs found himself suddenly filling in as host after Paar walked off the set of The Tonight Show seven minutes into the broadcast to protest NBC’s decision to censor an on-air joke Paar had told the night before concerning a water closet. This segment includes audio highlights from the Feb. 10, 1960 Tonight Show broadcast, as well as a clip from Downs’ 1953 interview with Frank Lloyd Wright for the NBC program Wisdom. Hugh Downs passed away on July 1, 2020 at age 99. 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 500.2: Part 1 of a two-part conversation with Radames Pera, the actor best known for playing young Kwai Chang Caine, aka “Grasshopper,” in the flashback sequences of the original Kung Fu (ABC, 1972-1975), and John Edwards, Mary Ingalls’ love interest, on Little House on the Prairie. Earlier this year Universal announced plans to develop Kung Fu as a feature motion picture, while The CW will reimagine Kung Fu as a new weekly series that is scheduled to premiere during the 2020-2021 television season. Ed talks to Radames about both these developments, plus Radames shares some memories about his work on the original series, including the role that Bruce Lee played indirectly in getting Kung Fu on the air. 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 500.3: Radames Pera, the actor who played young Kwai Chang Caine in the flashback sequences of the original Kung Fu (ABC, 1972-1975), talks to Ed about working with actors Keye Luke, Philip Ahn, James Hong, and Benson Fong and producers Jerry Thorpe and Alex Beaton on the series, and how Kung Fu infused elements of Eastern philosophy into the trappings of a TV Western. 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 500.4: Ed welcomes Peri Gilpin, the award-winning actress known around the world as acerbic radio producer Roz Doyle on Frasier (NBC, 1993-2004). Peri currently stars as a Hollywood agent who eagerly takes on a client in his eighties—only to cast him in a host of less than dignified roles—in Old Guy, the critically acclaimed six-episode short form comedy series that takes a satiric look at how the film and TV industry often portrays older people, particularly those in their seventies and eighties. All six episodes of Old Guy are available for streaming on demand, for free, at OldGuyComedy.com. Old Guy is based on both Don’t Sit Down Yet, a book by Gabrielle Burton about aging, and on the experiences of Gabrielle’s husband, Roger Burton, a retired psychologist and former professional musician who enjoyed a wildly successful third act in his seventies and eighties as a film and TV actor. With that in mind, the creators and producers of Old Guy—Gabrielle and Roger’s daughters Ursula Burton, Jennifer Burton, Maria Burton, Gabrielle Burton, and Charity Burton—also join Peri and Ed to discuss how the series uses both sharp wit and broad humor to address and comment on the ongoing issue of ageism. 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 500.5: Actress Peri Gilpin answers listener email questions about her work as a voice actress, her early stage career, and, of course, Frasier. Peri currently stars opposite Roger Burton in Old Guy, the critically acclaimed six-episode short form comedy series that takes a satiric look at how the film and TV industry often portrays older people, particularly those in their seventies and eighties. All six episodes of Old Guy are available for streaming on demand, for free, at OldGuyComedy.com. Also joining Peri in this segment are the creators and producers of Old Guy—Ursula Burton, Jennifer Burton, Maria Burton, Gabrielle Burton, and Charity Burton. For our listeners who are also members of the Television Academy: Peri Gilpin and Roger Burton are both under consideration for Emmy nominations for Outstanding Actress and Actor for a Short Form Comedy, respectively, while Old Guy is a contender for a nomination for Outstanding Short Form Comedy. If you have not already done so, watch Old Guy at OldGuyComedy.com and then consider nominating Peri, Roger, and the show. 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 500.6: From September 2013: Broadcast legend Hugh Downs talks to Ed and Phil Gries about his interviews with President Dwight D. Eisenhower and chess champion Bobby Fischer for the Today Show, as well as the night he felt genuinely starstruck in the presence of Rita Hayworth when he interviewed her on The Tonight Show. This segment includes a brief clip from Downs’ Tonight Show interview with Hayworth on Aug. 17, 1962. Hugh Downs passed away on July 1, 2020 at age 99.  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 500.7: Some final thoughts on the passing of Hugh Downs, including tributes posted via Facebook by author Steven Tiabbi and Patty Duke biographer Bill Jankowski. 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