TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

TVC 700.1: Emmy Award-winning writer, director, and producer Joseph Dougherty and author and artist Alexis Hunter join Ed for the first of a special two-part look at the life and career of Joi Lansing, the legendary Blonde Bombshell best known for her pin-up photos, her frequent work in movies and television throughout the '50s and '60s, and her successful nightclub singing act. Joe's latest book, Comfort and Joi, is a part-biography, part-filmography, and part-appreciation of Joi Lansing that makes the case that Lansing was not only a much better actress than people gave her credit for, but could make even a seven-second silent bit in which she appears on the far edge of the frame interesting to watch just because she was in it. Alexis is the author of Joi Lansing: A Body to Die For, an intimate memoir of Alexis's four-year relationship with Lansing, a period that coincided with the last four years of Joi's life before she died from breast cancer in August 1972. Joi and Alexis had to keep their relationship secret, partly because of the pressure Joi felt to maintain her public image as the ultimate object of desire for men, and partly because the public at large in 1969 was not as accepting of intimate relationships between two members of the same sex as they are today. Topics this segment include the many karmic coincidences that brought Joe and Alexis together (as well as the many ways in which their books complement each other); how Joi honed her comedic skills while working with Lucille Ball and Bob Cummings; and Joi's experience working with Orson Welles not only in Touch of Evil, but in the award-winning comedy-drama Fountain of Youth.

TVC 701.2: Joseph Dougherty, author of Comfort and Joi, and Alexis Hunter, author of Joi Lansing: A Body to Die For, talk to Ed about the many times in which producer Al Simon and actress Nancy Kulp crossed paths with Joi Lansing; Joi's notable television appearances, including her recurring role as Gladys Flatt in The Beverly Hillbillies; and Hot Cars (1956), a film noir thriller that, in many respects, marked Joi's most prominent appearance on the big screen other than Touch of Evil. Comfort and Joi is available from Tucker DS Press, while Joi Lansing: A Body to Die For is available from Bear Manor Media.

TVC 701.3: From August 2016: Steve Binder, Emmy Award-winning producer and director and the co-author, along with Mary Beth Leidman, of Fade Up 26: The Movers and Shakers of Variety Television, talks to Ed about the controversy involving Petula Clark and Harry Belafonte behind the scenes of Clark's 1968 special for NBC, and why both The Ed Sullivan Show and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour really shaped the genre of variety television as we know it today.

TVC 701.4: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with actor, author, playwright, and Emmy Award-winning producer Laurence Luckinbill (The Boys in the Band, The Delphi Bureau, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Lyndon, Hemingway, Teddy Tonight!, Clarence Darrow Tonight!). Topics this segment include how Larry and Mart Crowley, author of The Boys in the Band, had more in common with each other than either had realized; and the night when Larry saw actor Charles Laughton perform passages from the classics—a transformative experience that helped put Larry on his path to becoming an actor. Larry's autobiography, Affective Memories: How Chance and The Theater Saved My Life, is available wherever books are sold through Sunbury Press.

TVC 701.5: Actor and author Laurence Luckinbill (The Boys in the Band, The Delphi Bureau, Star Trek V, Affective Memories: How Chance and The Theater Saved My Life) talks to Ed about working with writer/producer Sam Rolfe on The Delphi Bureau (ABC, 1972-1973); how Larry's portrayal of Glenn Garth Gregory as a "reluctant hero" was a first for American dramatic television (beating out James Garner's reluctant hero Jim Rockford by two years); and the invaluable lesson about blocking that Larry learned from William Roderick when they starred together in the national stage tour of A Man for All Seasons. Larry's autobiography, Affective Memories, is available wherever books are sold through Sunbury Press.

TVC 701.6: Actor and author Laurence Luckinbill talks to Ed about why St. Thomas More, the protagonist of Robert Bolt's award-winning play A Man for All Seasons, was one of the true disciples of Christ. Larry's autobiography, Affective Memories: How Chance and The Theater Saved My Life, is available wherever books are sold through Sunbury Press. Larry Luckinbill's A History and a Quest is a mini documentary that provides a primary lesson in fundamental civics and a history of why America exists and why true democracy matters. The complete piece runs about forty minutes and is well worth watching. Larry Luckinbill's A History and a Quest is available right now for viewing on demand for free on the Lucie Arnaz Official YouTube Channel.

TVC 701.7: From August 2022: Chuck Harter shares a poignant memory of a scene that he witnessed at a Washington, D.C. tavern on Aug. 16, 1977, the day that Elvis Presley died.

TVC 700.1: From August 2016: Ed welcomes Steve Binder, Emmy Award-winning producer and director (Diana Ross: Live in Central Park, Elvis: The 1968 Comeback Special, The T.A.M.I. Show) and the co-author, along with Mary Beth Liedman, of Fade Up 26: The Movers and Shakers of Variety Television, an oral history of variety television, as told through the voices of the men and women who were and are responsible for bringing these shows into our homes for the past sixty-five years.

TVC 700.2: From August 2016: Steve Binder, Emmy Award-winning producer and director and the co-author, along with Mary Beth Leidman, of Fade Up 26: The Movers and Shakers of Variety Television, talks to Ed about working with Dwight Hemion on the pop music series Hullabaloo (NBC, 1965-1966). Gary Smith, Hemion's longtime producing partner, passed away on Saturday, July 19 at the age of ninety.

TVC 700.3: Via remote from Las Vegas: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with Morgan White, Jr., longtime late night radio personality for WBZ AM-FM/Boston, author of many books on a variety of subjects, and the Undisputed King of Trivia. Topics this segment include the back story of Morgan came to wear his trademark black leather cowboy hat; how he came to be immortalized in two of the works of artist John Wilson, including the statue Father and Child Reading on the campus of Roxbury Community College; and how he was once considered to audition for the role of Hawk in Spenser: For Hire. You can listen to Morgan every Saturday at 10pm ET on WBZ AM-FM/Boston.