TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

TVC 654.4: Music journalist Jon Burlingame (Music for Prime Time, Dreamsville: Henry Mancini, Peter Gunn, and Music for TV Noir) talks about Henry Mancini's work in motion pictures, including how Mancini proved that a great composer could also be a great songwriter (which he did, with "Moon River"). Dreamsville: Henry Mancini, Peter Gunn, and Music for TV Noir is available from BearManor Media.

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TVC 653.1: Bruce Dern biographers Robert Crane and Christopher Fryer talk to Ed about Dern's famous appearance in The Cowboys (in which he played the man who kills Wayne's character halfway through the picture) and the actor had to navigate a schedule conflict over production of another movie, Silent Running, so that he could film that pivotal scene. Other topics this segment include Beyond Where the Buses Run, the anthology of short story anthologies to which Bob and Chris both contributed; how Bob came to collaborate with Dave Thomas on SCTV: Behind the Scenes; and how actors have a furnace of emotions that they can bring to their faces whenever they need it. Jack Nicholson: The Early Years and Bruce Dern: Things I've Said, But Probably Shouldn't Have: An Unrepentant Memoir are available from University Press of Kentucky.

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TVC 653.2: Bruce Dern biographers Robert Crane and Christopher Fryer talk to Ed about why Dern worked frequently in television in the 1960s—even when he was making movies like The War Wagon with John Wayne—because casting directors from both industries always knew to keep an eye on him. Other topics this segment include the nearly fatal lung injury Dern suffered in 1967 while filming an episode of Run For Your Life; the secret behind Bob and Chris' longtime writing partnership; and the backstory of how they came to write Crane: Sex, Celebrity, and My Father's Unsolved Murder. 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 are all available from University Press of Kentucky.

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TVC 653.3: Robert Crane and Christopher Fryer tell Ed how Bob's experience working with director Paul Schrader on Auto Focus (Schrader's depiction of the Bob Crane murder case) spurred Bob to work with Chris in telling his own account of what happened in their book Crane: Sex, Celebrity, and My Father's Unsolved Murder. Other topics this segment include a poignant memory that Bruce Dern shared about working with James Garner on Support Your Local Sheriff that captures the essence of both Garner and Dern. 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 are all available from University Press of Kentucky.

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TVC 653.4: From June 2014: Tony, Donna, and Ed discuss how TMZ's coverage of the death of Michael Jackson on June 25, 2009 put TMZ on the map as a credible news source.

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TVC 654.5: Ed welcomes back esteemed music journalist and music historian Jon Burlingame (Music for Prime Time: A History of American Television Themes and Scoring). Jon's latest book, Dreamsville: Henry Mancini, Peter Gunn, and Music for TV Noir, is a combination history of Peter Gunn (NBC/ABC, 1958-1961) on television; biography of Grammy Award-winning and Academy Award-winning composer Henry Mancini; and discography of all of the original music that Henry Mancini composed for both Peter Gunn and Mr. Lucky (CBS, 1959-1960) and the soundtrack albums that accompanied both series. Topics this segment include the many moments of serendipity that enabled series creator/producer Blake Edwards to get Peter Gunn on the air and hire Henry Mancini; how Mancini changed the face and sound of prime time television by introducing jazz music as dramatic accompaniment; and the sheer volume of original music that Mancini composed for both Gunn and Mr. Lucky every week between 1958 and 1961. Dreamsville: Henry Mancini, Peter Gunn, and Music for TV Noir is available from BearManor Media.

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TVC 654.6: Music journalist Jon Burlingame (Music for Prime Time, Dreamsville: Henry Mancini, Peter Gunn, and Music for TV Noir) discusses some of the many innovations that Blake Edwards and Peter Gunn brought to network television (including "night for night" shooting, one year before Quinn Martin would make that into an art form), and how the romance between Peter Gunn and Edie Hart was very provocative for its time. Dreamsville: Henry Mancini, Peter Gunn, and Music for TV Noir is available from BearManor Media.

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TVC 652.1: Ed welcomes Joel Thurm, former Vice President of Talent and Casting for both Paramount Television and NBC, and one of the most accomplished and most respected casting directors in the film and TV industry. Joel's memoir, Sex, Drugs, and Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director, provides both a backstage look at the boardrooms of New York and the executive suites in Hollywood (particularly during the 1970s, '80s, and '90s) and a history of how TV casting decisions were often made during the era of the three-network universe. Topics this segment include how Joel recognized, before anyone else, that John Travolta was more than just another teen idol; how Joel and Travolta helped convince Olivia Newton-John to play Sandy in the movie version of Grease (after Newton-John had voiced her reluctance to do the part); and how Joel first became involved in casting after working for theatrical director David Merrick in New York City.

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TVC 652.2: Legendary casting director Joel Thurm shares a few stories about his experience working with CBS executive Ethel Winant in the early 1970s, including how he discovered Georgia Engel for The Mary Tyler Moore Show; how he lobbied both CBS and MTM to cast Farrah Fawcett-Majors to play Bill Daily's girlfriend on The Bob Newhart Show; and how Joel became responsible casting every segment of the Bicentennial Minutes (1974-1976). Joel's memoir, Sex, Drugs, and Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director, is available from Bear Manor Media.

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TVC 652.3: From June 2014: Tony, Donna, and Ed provide a brief rundown of the circumstances surrounding the murder of Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane on June 29, 1978.

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