TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

TVC 483.4: Legendary actor, author, and activist Ed Asner (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant, Elf, Disney Pixar’s UP, Briarpatch) talks about the roles that actor Richard Crenna and The House on Greenapple Road—a made-for-TV movie produced by Quinn Martin—both played in helping him land his signature role of Lou Grant. Ed can currently be seen as town boss James Staghorne Sr. in Briarpatch, which airs Monday nights on USA Network. Ed’s memoir, SON OF A JUNKMAN: My Life from the West Bottoms of Kansas City to the Bright Lights of Hollywood, not only pays tribute to his cast members on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Lou Grant, but reveals the person on whom Ed based his portrayal of Grant when he did the hour-long series. Son of a Junkman also discusses the challenges that Ed faced during his tenure as president of the Screen Actors Guild; the backlash he faced from the El Salvador controversy in 1982, and the effect that had not only on Lou Grant, but his acting career in general; and the influence that Ed’s father continues to have on his life today.  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 483.5: Greg and Ed discuss the DVD release of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (BBC, 1976-1979); why the humor of the series is not for everyone; and why the American adaptation, Reggie (ABC, 1983), starring Richard Mulligan, failed to catch on.  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 482.1: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with author, screenwriter, and voice artist Steve Stoliar. Steve’s career in the entertainment industry began in the early 1970s, when a series of events led to a job as the personal secretary and archivist of the one, the only Groucho Marx during the last three years of Groucho’s life—a period of time in which Steve went from being a starry-eyed fan to becoming Groucho’s protector. Steve’s memoir, Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho’s House, is available in hardcover, paperback, as an eBook and as an audiobook through BearManor Media. 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 482.2: Author, screenwriter, and voice artist Steve Stoliar talks to Ed about how he came to develop his skill for mimickry; his recent collaboration with director Howard Storm; and the wisdom that Jack Lemmon once shared during a conversation with Bill Marx, Harpo’s son. Steve’s memoir, Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho’s House, is available in hardcover, paperback, as an eBook and as an audiobook through BearManor Media. 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 482.3: Tony, Donna, and Ed remember the Miracle on Ice, the U.S. men’s hockey team’s win over the Soviet Union’s men’s hockey team in the medal-round game on Feb. 22, 1980 during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.  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 482.5: Ed welcomes actress and voice artist Joan Van Ark (Knots Landing, Dallas, Spider-Woman). Topics include Joan’s background as a stage actress; the role that Knots producer Michael Filerman played in bringing Julie Harris to the series; and how the costumes of Joan’s that are currently on display at the Hollywood Museum are an example of how Valene Ewing evolved as a character on Knots. The Knots Landing lobby exhibit at The Hollywood Museum is on display through Wednesday, April 1. 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 482.6: Joan Van Ark talks to Ed about her background as a voice artist; some of her early TV roles; and the advice that James Garner once gave her early in her career. The Knots Landing lobby exhibit is on display through Wednesday, April 1. For more information, go to TheHollywoodMuseum.com. 2019-2020 also the marks the fortieth anniversary of the premiere of Spider-Woman, the first TV adaptation of a female superhero from the Marvel Comics universe; Joan Van Ark provided the voices of both Spider-Woman and her alter ego, Jessica Drew. All sixteen episodes of Spider-Woman are now available on demand on Disney+. 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 September 2012: Ed welcomes Charlene Tilton, Lucy Ewing on Dallas (both the original series on CBS and the new Dallas on TNT), Charlene is also the president of Actors for Autism, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to the advancement, education and training of children and adults with autism. 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 September 2012: Ed talks to Charlene Tilton, Lucy Ewing on Dallas (both the original series on CBS and the new Dallas on TNT), and the president of Actors for Autism, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to the advancement, education and training of children and adults with autism. 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 481.1: Part 1 of a two-part conversation with author, screenwriter, and voice artist Steve Stoliar. Steve’s book Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho’s House is a memoir of his experience as the personal secretary and archivist of the one, the only Groucho Marx during the last three years of Groucho’s life—a period of time in which Steve went from being a starry-eyed fan to becoming Groucho’s protector. Raised Eyebrows is available in hardcover, paperback, as an eBook and as an audiobook through BearManor Media. 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 481.2: Greg and Ed discuss the Shout! Factory Blu-ray release of Abbott & Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection, as well as the Warner Archive releases of Abbott and Costello in Hollywood, Lost in a Harem, Rio Rita, and Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd. Topics include how Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was one of the inspirations for the Scooby-Doo franchise. 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 481.3: Greg and Ed discuss the various configurations of The Abbott and Costello Show (CBS, 1952-1954) available for home entertainment and how the series itself influenced Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David when they went on to develop Seinfeld. 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 481.4: Ed welcomes back stage and TV actor Stacy Keach (Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, Titus, Man with a Plan). Topics include how Stacy’s love of radio dramas helped inspire him to become an actor; why humor is the best way to approach the humanity of a character; and why the works of Mary Shelley, Rod Serling, and Bob Kane have all stood the test of time. Stacy Keach will be starring as The Creature in an original adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, produced by L.A. Theater Works, that will be recorded live in front of an audience for future radio broadcast at UCLA’s James Bridges Theatre on Friday, Feb. 28, Saturday, Feb. 29 and Sunday, March 1. There will be two performances on Saturday, Feb. 29, one of which is a matinee that will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Leslie S. Klinger, author of The New Annotated Frankenstein. If you listen to us to in the L.A. area, and would like to attend one of the recordings, call 310-827-0889 or go to www.latw.org for tickets and more information For our listeners everywhere, the performance of Frankenstein starring Stacy Keach will soon be broadcast on public radio stations across the U.S., as well as heard daily in China and worldwide on the Radio Beijing Network. It will also become available for download as a podcast via iTunes and NPR One, as well as streaming on demand at www.latw.org 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

A special edition of This Week in TV History in which Tony, Donna, and Ed discuss what a brilliant comedienne Gracie Allen was and the influence that The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show had on many other sitcoms, including It's Garry Shandling's 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

Ed and Phil close out this week's program with an encore presentation of The Sounds of Lost Television that includes a clip from Meet Mr. Lincoln, a short film about the life of Abraham Lincoln that originally aired on Project Twenty (NBC, 1954-1970), the documentary series that, in many respects, was a precursor to the type of documentaries that Ken Burns has produced over the past three decades. 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