TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

TVC 696.5: Via remote from the back patio of Davenport's Restaurant in Encino, California: Robert Crane, John Cerney, and Meagan Bejar talk to Ed about Bob's experience with dealing with tragedy and loss; why "closure" is a media term; how John Candy came from a humble background, after losing his father when he was five; and how Candy once lobbied NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana to play for the Toronto Argonauts in the CFL when Candy co-owned that team. Bob's latest book, Three-Cornered Circle, which he co-authored with Christopher Fryer, is available through Kill Fee Publishing.

TVC 696.6: Christopher Fryer, co-author, along with Robert Crane, of Three-Cornered Circle, shares a few of his favorite stories about his encounters with John Candy, including the time when he, Bob, Candy, and then-NBC broadcaster Bob Costas were all stuck in the same car together along the Garden State Parkway while heading for a concert in New Jersey. Three-Cornered Circle is available through Kill Fee Publishing.

A special preview of our upcoming interview with Kiki Ebsen, youngest daughter of Buddy Ebsen, and an accomplished singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist in her own right. Kiki will perform an evening of jazz standards at the G Spot jazz venue in Los Angeles on Sunday, July 6 beginning at 7pm. Our complete conversation with Kiki will air during the weekend of July 18 on TV Confidential, then will become available for listening on demand as a podcast on Monday, July 21.  Photo of Kiki Ebsen by Cliff Lipson. Photo courtesy KikiEbsen.com

TVC 695.1: Ed welcomes Academy Award-nominated director and animator Bill Kroyer (FernGully: The Last Rainforest, Tron, Technological Threat). The title of Bill's memoir, Mr. In-Between: My Life in the Middle of the Animation Revolution, is a play on words: He began his career in animation drawing something known as "in-betweens," while the story arc of his career in animation happens to coincide with the many changes in the landscape of animation that have occurred over the past five decades. Mr. In-Between is available wherever books are sold through CRC Press. Topics this segment why working in animation is a "God-like" profession; the generosity in spirit among animators in general; how a chance meeting with legendary Warner Bros. animator Chuck Jones in Chicago circa 1974 inspired Bill to try his luck in Hollywood; plus Bill's early experiences in television working with producer Glen Larson and Stephen J. Cannell.

TVC 695.2: Academy Award-nominated director and animator Bill Kroyer talks to Ed about what an "in-between" is in animation; why it took more than the success of Tron, the first feature motion picture to integrate computer-generated imagery, for CGI to take off; what led Bill into directing; and how he came to work with Mick Jagger on the music video for "Hard Woman," one of the first videos to use CGI software that implemented movement. Bill's memoir, Mr. In-Between: My Life in the Middle of the Animation Revolution, is available wherever books are sold through CRC Press.

TVC 695.4: Via remote from the back patio of Davenport's Restaurant in Encino, California: Ed welcomes back Robert Crane, eldest son of Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane, and the author or co-author of several books on movies and television, including My UnHollywood Family, Hollywood Plateau, Jack Nicholson: The Early Years, Bruce Dern: Things I've Said, But Probably Shouldn't Have: An Unrepentant Memoir, and Crane: Sex, Celebrity, and My Father's Unsolved Murder (the last three of which were collaborations with Bob's longtime writing partner, Christopher Fryer). Bob and Chris' latest book, Three-Cornered Circle, is a screen play released in book form that is also an adaptation of one of the most poignant stories of the Crane book: the period in Bob's life when he had to juggle the biggest break of his career at the time—being hired as right-hand man for movie superstar John Candy—with the tragic news that Bob's wife at the time, artist and landscape designer Kari Hildebrand, has been diagnosed with cancer. Three-Cornered Circle is available through Kill Fee Publishing. Also joining Bob and Ed at Davenport's are commercial artist John Cerney, who did the cover art and other illustrations that appear in Three-Cornered Circle, and Meagan Bejar, the managing editor of the book.

TVC 695.5: Ed welcomes back Christopher Fryer, co-author, along with Robert Crane, of Three-Cornered Circle and other books on movies and television. Topics this segment include how Chris and Bob worked together on Crane: Sex, Celebrity, and My Father's Unsolved Murder (and, to some degree, on Three-Cornered Circle); the importance of using dialogue to conveying the emotion necessary to drive the story when writing for the screen; and why there can never any "closure" when someone you truly love suddenly dies. Three-Cornered Circle is available through Kill Fee Publishing.

TVC 694.1: Ed welcomes back Tom Lisanti, renowned historian of sixties cinema, and the author of such books as Carol Lynley: Her Film & TV Career in Thrillers, Fantasy and Suspense and Ryan's Hope: An Oral History of Daytime's Groundbreaking Soap. Tom's recent books include Dueling Harlows: The Race to Bring the Actress's Life to the Silver Screen, everything you wanted to know about the two major motion pictures released in 1965 about screen legend Jean Harlow—both of which happened to be named Harlow—and the highly publicized efforts by rival producers Bill Sargent and Joseph Levine to out-do each other. Sargent's Harlow, a quickly made independent movie starring Carol Lynley, was filmed in black and white, using Sargent's patented technology Electronovision. Levine's Harlow, a big budget biopic starring Carroll Baker, was filmed in color for Paramount Pictures. Both Harlows were originally released within a few weeks of each other in 1965; both are available now on home entertainment. Dueling Harlows is available from McFarlandPub.com. Topics this segment include why the Lynley/Sargent Harlow is much better than what the original reviews would suggest; how Lynley originally signed on because Judy Garland was attached to the project, only to remain stuck on it once Garland quit; and why the real-life story of Harlow herself generated such interest in movie makers.

TVC 694.2: Tom Lisanti, author of Dueling Harlows: The Race to Bring the Actress's Life to the Silver Screen, talks to Ed about his forthcoming oral history of the brief period in which the daytime soap Another World (NBC, 1964-1999) expanded from sixty minutes in length to ninety minutes.

TVC 694.5: Part 2 of a conversation that began two programs ago with Steve Aldous and Gary Gillies, co-authors of The Harry O Viewing Companion: History and Episodes of the Classic Detective Series, a deep dive into the making of Harry O (ABC, 1974-1976), the short-lived but fondly remembered private eye series starring David Janssen, Henry Darrow, and Anthony Zerbe, that also offers insight into what made Harry O so special. Topics this segment include Janssen's mounting frustration with ABC once each of the qualities that had made Harry O stand out from other private eye shows on television were slowly taken away once production of the series moved from San Diego to Los Angeles. The Harry O Viewing Companion is available wherever books are sold through McFarland Books.