TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

TVC 668.4: Ed welcomes back Emmy Award-winning writer, producer, director, and author Joseph Dougherty (thirtysomething, Pretty Little Liars, A Screenwriters Companion: Instruction, Opinion, Encouragement). Calendar year 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Rod Serling (The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling's Night Gallery). To mark the occasion, Joe's latest book, Rod Serling at 100, takes a deep dive into the legacy of the Emmy Award-winning writer/producer, with a particular focus on Serling as a writer, and what Serling's body of work continues to mean to Joe personally. Rod Serling at 100 is available from Fayetteville Mafia Press. Topics this segment include how Serling was among the first writers that got the general public to take science fiction seriously, and why the parables told on The Twilight Zone remain timeless because human emotions are timeless.

TVC 668.5: Joseph Dougherty, author of Rod Serling at 100, talks to Ed about how The Twilight Zone operates on an ethical and moral universe (for the most part); why The Twilight Zone is particularly appealing to anyone who loves language; and why Joe believes that most of the hour-long Twilight Zone episodes are better than most people remember. Rod Serling at 100 is available from Fayetteville Mafia Press.

TVC 668.6: Joseph Dougherty, author of Rod Serling at 100, talks to Ed about "Dust," "Mr. Denton on Doomsday," "Mr. Garrity and the Graves," and other Western-themed episodes of The Twilight Zone, and how Rod Serling's disenchantment with the television can be traced with the network interference he faced during the production of The Loner (CBS, 1965-1966), the existentialist Western starring Lloyd Bridges that, though set in post-Civil War America circa 1865, really served as Serling's commentary for the divided nature of America in 1965. Rod Serling at 100 is available from Fayetteville Mafia Press.

TVC 667.1: From November 2014: Tony, Donna, and Ed wish legendary actor Ed Asner a Happy Birthday as part of This Week in TV History. Ed Asner passed away on Aug. 29, 2021 at age ninety-one. Since this segment originally aired in 2014, TV Confidential had the opportunity to talk to Ed several times on our program; you can enjoy those conversations anytime on demand on the TV Confidential podcast, which is available for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you find podcasts.

TVC 667.2: Ed welcomes back Columbo historian David Koenig (Shooting Columbo: The Lives and Deaths of TV's Rumpled Detective). David's latest book, Unshot Columbo: Cracking the Cases That Never Got Filmed, takes a deep dive into nineteen Columbo mysteries that were written for either the original NBC series or the ABC revival, but, for one reason or another, never went into production. Topics this segment include the various attempts to bring back Sergeant Wilson, the character played by Bob Dishy in "The Greenhouse Jungle" and "Now You See Him," beyond those two episodes and why Peter Falk kept opposing those efforts. Both Shooting Columbo and Unshot Columbo are available through Bonaventure Press.

TVC 667.3: David Koenig, author of Unshot Columbo: Cracking the Cases That Never Got Filmed, talks to Ed about how "Old-Fashioned Murder," the sixth-season episode featuring Joyce Van Patten as the murderer, was originally conceived as a modern-day Richard III that would have featured Burgess Meredith as the lead character, and why Peter Falk always wanted female murderers on the series to be seen as sympathetic characters. Both Shooting Columbo and Unshot Columbo are available through Bonaventure Press.

TVC 667.4: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with Robert Crane, eldest son of Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane, and the author of My UnHollywood Family, a fresh look at his relationship with his famous dad (mostly told from the perspective of his mother's side of the family); the lifelong impact that his dad continues to have on him, his mom, and his siblings; and a story that will resonate with anyone who has survived a broken marriage, grown up in a dysfunctional household, navigated relationships with step parents, or dealt with narcissistic personalities at home or at work. Topics this segment include why Hogan's Heroes continues to thrive; how Bob got to meet both The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield because of his dad; and how Bob drew inspiration from the style of Nobel Prize winning author Annie Ernaux when he wrote My UnHollywood Family. My UnHollywood Family is available now through Oregon Greystone Press.

TVC 667.5: Robert Crane, eldest son of Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane, talks to Ed about how he learned a lot about interviewing people from talking to his stepfather, Charles Sloan; how his dad created a style of free-form radio that we can see today in the work of Howard Stern; and why Bob believes that the word "closure" is a newsroom term, borne out of the era of such entertainment programs such as Access Hollywood and Entertainment Tonight. Bob's latest book, My UnHollywood Family, is available now through Oregon Greystone Press.

TVC 666.6: David Koenig, author of Shooting Columbo: The Lives and Deaths of TV's Rumpled Detective and Unshot Columbo: Cracking the Cases That Never Got Filmed, talks to Ed about "Fear No Murder," an innovative mystery that Peter Falk not only wanted to film, but which would've served as the coda to the Columbo series, were it not for an impasse between Falk and ABC over casting that ultimately killed the project. Both Shooting Columbo and Unshot Columbo are available through Bonaventure Press.

TVC 666.1: From October 2014: Ed welcomes Doug Hill and Jeffrey Weingrad, co-authors of Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live, everything you wanted to know about the first ten years of Saturday Night Live, from its beginnings as an outlaw program produced by an unruly band of renegades from the comedy underground to a TV institution that began its fiftieth season on NBC in October 2024. Featuring more than 250 interviews, including many of the show's original writers and SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels, Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live was hailed by the Associated Press as "maybe the best book ever written about television."