Friday, August 30, 2013

Your Mental Sorbet: Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream Speech on August 28, 1963

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation
- Opening line of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" Speech

This weeks "Mental Sorbet" commemorates the 50th anniversary the March on Washington.

Martin Luther King's Address at March on Washington
August 28, 1963. Washington, D.C.



Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Thursday, August 29, 2013

TV CONFIDENTIAL Archives: Show No. 197 with guests Diane Baker, Paul Robert Coyle and Jeff Thompson

Show No. 197 with guests Diane Baker, Paul Robert Coyle and Jeff Thompson
Original Airdate: Week of Aug. 21-27, 2013
 
First hour: Jeff Thompson, author of House of Dan Curtis and The Television Horrors of Dan Curtis, discusses Curtis’s many collaborations with screenwriter Richard Matheson, including The Night Stalker, The Night Strangler, Trilogy of Terror, and the 1973 version of Dracula. Also in this hour: Tony Figueroa and Donna Allen pay tribute to Rose Marie on her 90th birthday.  

Second hour: Ed and guest co-host Paul Robert Coyle welcome Diane Baker, actress, producer, and the executive director of the School of Motion Pictures & Television at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, one of the largest film schools in the country.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

William Schallert, The March on Washington and The Last Independent Dealer: Next on TVC

Actor William Schallert and filmmaker Steve Kosareff will join us on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, airing Aug. 28-Sept. 3 at the following times and venues:

WROM Radio
Detroit, MI
Wednesday 8/28
8pm ET, 5pm PT
2am ET, 11pm PT
Sunday 9/1
8pm ET, 5pm PT
2am ET, 11pm PT
Click on the Listen Live button at WROMRadio.net

WYYR: Yesteryear Radio
Vero Beach, FL
Wednesday 8/28
9pm ET, 6pm PT
Click the On Air button at WYYR.com

Indiana Talks
Marion, IN
Wednesday 8/28
11pm ET, 8pm PT
with replays at various times throughout the week
Click on the player at IndianaTalks.com
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in Indiana Talks

Share-a-Vision Radio
San Francisco Bay Area
Friday 8/30
7pm ET, 4pm PT
10pm ET, 7pm PT
Click on the Listen Live button at KSAV.org
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in KSAV

Talktainment Radio
Columbus, OH
Thursday 8/29
2am ET, 11pm PT
Friday 8/30
3am ET, Midnight PT
Noon ET, 9am PT
Click on the Listen Live button at TalktainmentRadio.com

KHMB Radio 1710 AM
Half Moon Bay, CA
Sunday 9/1
9pm PT
Monday 9/2
Midnight ET
Click on the Listen Live button at KHMBRadio.com
or use the Live365 app on your smartphone and type in KHMB

The Radio Slot Network
San Francisco, CA
Monday 9/2
9pm ET, 6pm PT
with replays at various times throughout the week
Click on the Talk Slot button at RadioSlot.com

Passionate World Radio
Ann Arbor, MI
Tuesday 9/3
9:30pm ET, 6:30pm PT
with replays at various times throughout the week at PWRTalkonDemand.com
Click on the Listen Now button at PWRTalk.com


We’ll take you back to Aug. 28, 1963 during our second hour as Phil Gries presents a special edition of The Sounds of Lost Television that remembers how television covered The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The largest demonstration for equality in the history of the United States, the March on Washington was the day on which more than 200,000 Americans of every age, race and religion descended on Washington, D.C. to support the passage of the landmark Civic Rights Bill. Phil has put together an impressive collection of audio from that day, including coverage from network news, comments from James Baldwin, Burt Lancaster and Marlon Brando, and excerpts from the speeches of Philip Randolph and Dr. Martin Luther King.

This week’s program will also include Part 2 of our conversation with actor William Schallert (Dobie Gillis, Get Smart, The Nancy Drew Mysteries, The New Gidget, True Blood, The Patty Duke Show).

In Part 1, as you may recall, we discussed Bill’s early career on stage and in television. In this segment, we’ll talk about some of Bill’s favorite film and TV roles, including the Admiral on Get Smart, plus his work with such legends as Walter Matthau, Kirk Douglas and Don Siegel. Part 2 of our conversation with William Schallert will air during our first hour.















Also in our first hour: We’ll welcome filmmaker Steve Kosareff as we take a look at an aspect of television that is all but gone: the era of the locally owned, independent television set dealer. Once the backbone of television retailing, the local TV set dealer has virtually disappeared in this day and age of big box stores. Steve explores the reasons why in his new documentary, TV Man: The Search for The Last Independent Dealer.

For our listeners in Southern California, TV Man will have a weeklong showing at Laemmle’s Monica 4 Theater, 1332 2nd Street, in Santa Monica, from Friday, Sept. 6 through Thursday, Sept. 12. For more information, go to www.tvman.tv.



TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about television
Wed and Sun 8pm ET, 5pm PT on WROM Radio
Wed 9pm ET, 6pm PT on WYYR: Yesteryear Radio
Wed 11pm ET, 8pm PT on IndianaTalks.com
Fri 7pm ET and PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
Fri Noon ET, 9am PT on Talktainment Radio
Sun 9pm PT, Mon Midnight ET on KHMB Radio 1710 AM (Half Moon Bay, Calif.)
Mon 9pm ET, 6pm PT on The Radio Slot Network
Tue 9:30pm ET, 6:30pm PT on Passionate World Radio
Tape us now, listen to us later, using DAR.fm/tvconfidential
Also available as a podcast via iTunes, FeedBurner
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Monday, August 26, 2013

This Week in Television History: August 2013 PART IV

Listen to me on TV CONFIDENTIAL:


As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history, the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies.


August 29, 1958
The King of Pop Michael Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana. 

Jackson began performing with his four brothers in the pop group the Jackson 5 when he was a child. The group scored its first No. 1 single in 1969, with "I Want You Back." By age 11, Jackson was appearing on TV, and by age 14 he had released his first solo album. A Jackson 5 TV cartoon series appeared in the early '70s, and in 1976 the Jackson family, including sister Janet Jackson, launched a TV variety show called The Jacksons that ran for one season. Throughout the 70s, media attention focused on Michael, who piped vocals in his high voice for "ABC," "I'll Be There," and many other Top 20 hits.


Jackson released several solo albums in the '70s, but his great breakthrough came in 1979 with Off the Wall. He became the first solo artist to score four Top 10 hits from one album, including "She's Out of My Life" and "Rock with You." His next album, Thriller (1983), became the biggest selling album up to that time, selling some 45 million copies around the world. This time, he scored seven Top 10 singles, and the album won eight Grammies. Although his next album, Bad (1987), sold only about half as many copies as Thriller, it was still a tremendous best-seller. In 1991, Jackson signed an unprecedented $65 million record deal with Sony. That year, he released Dangerous.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Jackson developed a reputation as an eccentric recluse. He moved to a 2,700-acre ranch called Neverland, which he outfitted with wild animals and a Ferris wheel. He underwent a facelift and nose job and was rumored to have lightened his skin through chemical treatment, though he claimed his increasing pallor was due to a skin disease. In 1993, scandal broke when Jackson was publicly accused of child molestation and underwent investigation. The case settled out of court. In 1994, Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley; the couple later divorced. Jackson married Deborah Rowe in 1996, and the couple had two sons, Prince and Paris, before divorcing in 1999. On June 13, 2005, Jackson was acquitted of sexual molestation of a young boy, Gavin Arvizo, in criminal court.


Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009, in Los Angeles, California, just weeks before a planned concert tour billed as his "comeback." He was 50 years old.


To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".





Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa