TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

TVC 631.5: George Schlatter, creator and producer of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and Real People, talks to Ed about casting Robin Williams for the 1977 revival of Laugh-In; his hopes for launching a contemporary edition of Laugh-In in the near future; and why his friend Ernie Kovacs likely would've been proud of Turn-On, had he lived to see it.

George's memoir, Still Laughing: A Life in Comedy, is the story of how a kid from Missouri forged his way out of the rough and tumble world of Las Vegas nightclubs and wound up working with some of the most fascinating people in the history of show biz, including Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Eddie Murphy, Cher, Elton John, Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Liza Minnelli, Michael Jackson, Doris Day, Jonathan Winters, Richard Pryor, Shirley MacLaine, Bill Cosby, Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, Diana Ross, Lena Horne, Dinah Shore, and Nat King Cole. The print edition of Still Laughing is available wherever books are sold, while the audio edition is now available form Audible. The first two episodes of Turn-On are now available for viewing on demand, for free, on the Clown Jewels channel on YouTube.

Want to advertise/sponsor our show?

TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email [email protected] or click the link below to get started:

https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 631.5a: Part 2 of our conversation with music and television historian Chuck Harter about The Monkees television series (NBC, 1966-1968) and why it still holds up today. Chuck interviewed Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork, and many other key Monkees personnel for Hey, Hey, We're The Monkees, the excellent Disney Channel documentary, written by Chuck, that explores the history of The Monkees, both the group and the series, and the ongoing impact of the Monkees phenomenon. In this segment, Chuck and Ed discuss the enormous influence that director James Frawley had on the success of The Monkees (particularly, the first season, when the show won the Emmy for Best Comedy Series), and why two out of three Monkees fans today seem to prefer the second season over the first.

Want to advertise/sponsor our show?

TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email [email protected] or click the link below to get started:

https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 631.6: Music and television historian Chuck Harter talks to Ed about some of the ways in which the second season of The Monkees (NBC, 1966-1968) differs from the first (to the point where the second season is almost an entirely different series), and how the success of the Monkees tour in 1967 changed the group's attitude about doing the show. Chuck wrote Hey, Hey, We're The Monkees, the excellent Disney Channel documentary that explores the history of The Monkees, both the group and the series, and the ongoing impact of the Monkees phenomenon.

Want to advertise/sponsor our show?

TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email [email protected] or click the link below to get started:

https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 630.1: Actor, comedian, and impressionist Jim Meskimen talks to Ed about his interest in charcoal sketch drawings; his early background as a cartoonist and work in animation; how he first discovered his gift for mimicry; and the online course he teaches, The Working Actor Method. Jim recently played talk show legend Phil Donahue in Welcome to Chippendales; he can also be seen in Gaslit, The Big Door Prize, and Hunter.

Want to advertise/sponsor our show?

TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email [email protected] or click the link below to get started:

https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 630.2: Ed welcomes back Don Most, the actor known around the world as Ralph Malph on Happy Days, and an accomplished singer whose vocal style pays homage to the Swing Era and the music of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Bobby Darin. Don's new album, New York High, is a collection of contemporary jazz standards (including covers of "Smoke from a Distant Fire," "Fly Me to the Moon," and "The Look of Love"), while the title track, "New York High," is an original tune written by Mike Reed, "the Casey Kasem of Great Britain." New York High is available wherever music is sold.

Want to advertise/sponsor our show?

TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email [email protected] or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 630.3: Singer/actor Don Most gives Ed and his listeners an idea of the thought process behind putting together both a live show and an album such as New York High. Don's latest album, New York High, is available wherever music is sold.

Want to advertise/sponsor our show?

TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email [email protected] or click the link below to get started:

https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 629.5: Ed welcomes back singer/actor Robert Davi (License to Kill, The Goonies, Profiler, Davi Sings Sinatra). Robert will perform his music show, Robert Davi: My Kind of Town, an evening of music that pays tribute to both the Great American Songbook and his idol and mentor, Frank Sinatra, at the Black Box Center for the Arts, 8221 Glades Road, Suite No. 10, in Boca Raton, Florida on Sunday, Dec. 3.

Want to advertise/sponsor our show?

TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email [email protected] or click the link below to get started:

https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 629.6: Ed welcomes TJ Lubinsky, director and co-executive producer of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme: Memories of My Mom and Dad, a two-hour special, hosted by David Lawrence, that takes a joyful look at how television helped Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme become the most successful husband-and-wife singing duo of all time. Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme: Memories of My Mom and Dad premieres the weekend of Saturday, Dec. 3 on PBS stations across the country.

Want to advertise/sponsor our show?

TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email [email protected] or click the link below to get started:

https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 628.1: From November 2013: Part 2 of our special joint edition of The Sounds of Lost Television and This Week in TV History featuring Phil Gries, Tony Figueroa, and Donna Allen that looks back at how network television news covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963—a seminal moment in U.S. history and in the lives of many Baby Boomers and a seminal moment in the history of network TV news. In this segment, Phil plays audio from Aaron Brown's interview with Walter Cronkite on CNN in November 2003 in which Cronkite recalls the moment when he briefly lost his composure on camera after he announced the death of President Kennedy. Also in this segment: More highlights from Phil's exclusive interview with Don Pardo in May 1998 in which Pardo discusses his early career at NBC, including the times when he did play-by-play in 1946 as part of experimental TV broadcasts of Major League Baseball games at Yankee Stadium, Ebbets Field, and the Polo Grounds.

Want to advertise/sponsor our show?

TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email [email protected] or click the link below to get started:

https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 628.2: From November 2013: Phil Gries of Archival Television Audio discusses some of the various films and documentaries that have been made over the years about the assassination of President John K. Kennedy. Also in this segment: How the JFK assassination left a stigma on the city of Dallas for many years, and how that started to changed in the late 1970s with the emergence of the Dallas Cowboys as "America's Team" and the popularity of the TV series Dallas.

Want to advertise/sponsor our show?

TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email [email protected] or click the link below to get started:

https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices