TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

TVC 724.3: Harvey Lisberg, manager of Herman's Hermits, talks to Ed and guest co-host Chuck Harter about why Hold On! (1966), the first movie starring Herman's Hermits, is "a poor man's A Hard Day's Night; how frontman Peter Noone handled the band's sudden burst to fame when he was just sixteen; and why the music of Herman's Hermits was never as respected in England as it was in the United States. Harvey's memoir, I'm Into Something Good: My Life Managing 10cc, Herman's Hermits, and Many More, is available wherever books are sold through Omnibus Press.

Please enjoy this special preview of our upcoming conversation with Jennifer Jones, the first African-American member of the world renowned Radio City Rockettes, and an award-winning performer who is celebrated for her pioneering achievements and unwavering advocacy for equal rights in the arts. Jennifer's memoir, Becoming Spectacular: The Rhythm of Resilience from The First African-American Rockette, not only tells the story of how she helped establish a transformative era for The Rockettes while inspiring other Black dancers, but also recounts her triumphant battle against colorectal cancer in 2018. February is Black History Month. March is both Women's History Month and Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Becoming Spectacular is available wherever books are sold through Amistad Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. Our complete conversation with Jennifer Jones will air during the weekend of Feb. 27 on TV Confidential.

For our listeners in the Greater L.A. Metro area, Jennifer Jones' story is also included in This Joint is Jumping, a new exhibit at The Hollywood Museum that honors the contributions of many notable Black artists, singers, actors, writers and sports figures, including Whitney Houston, Lena Horne, Denzel Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, The Pointer Sisters, Dionne Warwick, Forrest Whitaker, Wesley Snipes, Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Angela Bassett, Muhammad Ali, Will Smith, Halle Berry, Viola Davis, Diana Ross, and Oprah Winfrey. This Joint is Jumping becomes open to the public on Thursday, Feb. 19. For tickets and more information: TheHollywoodMuseum.com

We took a few days off, but we'll be back with a brand new edition of TV Confidential later this week. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past clip from February 2016 in which Tony, Donna, and Ed discuss the television career of Sandy Duncan (Funny Face, The Hogan Family) as part of This Week in TV History. Sandy Duncan was born on Feb. 20, 1946.

TVC 723.6: From July 2020: 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 how Jim Hutton and James Garner were two of the many actors he worked with who happened to be tall; how Richard Benjamin and Alan J. Pakula are examples of "actor first" directors (and how Steven Spielberg and the Coen Brothers exemplify "camera first" directors); and how Basil also happened with a number of actors who were father and son, including Jim Hutton and Timothy Hutton and Carl Reiner and Rob Reiner. Basil Hoffman passed away on Sept. 17, 2021.

TVC 723.1: Ed welcomes Glenn Stewart, an adjunct professor at Westfield State University (Westfield, Massachusetts) whose background in media includes twenty-five years in radio, both as an on-air personality and as a station programmer for many stations across the United States. Glenn's new book, Columbo Explains the Seventies: A TV Cop's Pop Culture Journey, asks the question, "If you sealed all forty-five episodes of the original Columbo (NBC, 1971-1978) in a time capsule and unearthed them one hundred years later, what would those episodes of Columbo tell us about the culture of the 1970s?" Columbo Explains the Seventies is available through Bonaventure Press and Amazon.com. Topics this segment include how the original Columbo is more a clash of styles versus a study in class conflict; how social capital is portrayed in Columbo; and the extent to which the series reflects the melting pot of Los Angeles in the 1970s.

TVC 723.2: Glenn Stewart, author of Columbo Explains the Seventies, discusses some of the differences between the original Columbo (NBC, 1971-1978) and the revival of Columbo in the 1990s (ABC, 1989-2003), and how one of his goals for the book is to get readers to revisit the NBC series. Columbo Explains the Seventies is available through Bonaventure Press and Amazon.com.

TVC 723.3: Glenn Stewart, author of Columbo Explains the Seventies, talks to Ed about Patrick McGoohan's peculiar relationship with Columbo as an actor, writer, and director. While McGoohan starred in two of the very best episodes of the original Columbo ("By Dawn's Early Light," "Identity Crisis") and one of the better episodes of the ABC series ("Agenda for Murder"), he also contributed to some of the problems that plagued Columbo in the 1990s (including, most notably, the episode "Murder with Too Many Notes"). Columbo Explains the Seventies is available through Bonaventure Press and Amazon.com.

TVC 723.4: Ed welcomes Barry Pearl, the award-winning actor, director, and producer known to musical lovers around the world as "Doody" in Paramount's iconic film Grease (1978), although Barry's association with Grease dates back to the early 1970s (and continues to this day). Barry is getting ready to direct a new stage production of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, a witty, honest and affectionate look at modern love that is also the longest running revue in off-Broadway history. I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change runs Wednesday, Feb. 18 through Sunday, Mar. 8 at the International City Theatre in Long Beach, CA. For tickets and more information, call (562) 436-4610 or go to InternationalCityTheatre.org. Topics this segment include how Barry learned the Viola Spolin method of improv while working with actor/director Howard Storm; why fearlessness is at the essence of all improvisational acting; and Barry's experience directing Sid Caesar in a stage production of Oliver! in the early 1970s. The International City Theatre is located at the Beverly O'Neill Theater at The Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center 330 East Seaside Way, in Long Beach, CA 90802.

TVC 723.5: Actor, director, and producer Barry Pearl talks to Ed about teaching improv to special needs students at Inclusion Films (the film company, run by Joey Travolta, that teaches and employs people in the film industry who have developmental and physical disabilities); how actor and director Jerry Paris mentored Barry when Barry first came out to Los Angeles in the mid 1970s; Barry's experience working with Don Rickles on CPO Sharkey in 1976; and how being eliminated from the cast of Sharkey in the spring of 1977 turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because it set into motion the events that led Barry to be cast as Doody in Grease. Barry Pearl is getting ready to direct a new stage production of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change that will run Wednesday, Feb. 18 through Sunday, Mar. 8 at the International City Theatre (located at the Beverly O'Neill Theater at The Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, 330 East Seaside Way, in Long Beach, CA 90802). For tickets and more information, call (562) 436-4610 or go to InternationalCityTheatre.org.

TVC 722.1: From January 2016: James Bigwood joins Ed for a look at the life and career of Alan Napier (1903-1988), the British actor best known to three generations of TV viewers as Alfred the butler on Batman. Jim is co-author of Not Just Batman's Butler: The Autobiography of Alan Napier, a combination memoir, biography and filmography that is largely based on a manuscript that Napier wrote himself in 1969. Jim first learned about this manuscript in 1975, when he interviewed Napier for Films in Review. Over the ensuing years, he helped flesh out the manuscript (including the chapters on the last twenty years of Napier's life) and eventually got it published. January 2026 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the premiere of Batman. Not Just Batman's Butler is available through McFarlandPub.com. You can also order it by calling (800) 253-2187. Audio clips of Alan Napier heard in this segment courtesy of Jeffrey Vance.