Friday, July 29, 2016

Your Mental Sorbet: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Campaign Songs


Here is another "Mental Sorbet"
that we could use to momentarily forget about those things that leave a bad taste in our mouths.


John Oliver and some of America’s favorite recording artists remind politicians not to use their songs without permission on the campaign trail.




Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Peter Marshall, Lois Lane and the Early Days of Motown: Next on TVC

Singer/actor Peter Marshall, author Bruce Jenkins and Superman scholar Carl Glass will join us on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, airing July 29-Aug. 1 at the following times and venues:

Share-a-Vision Radio
San Francisco Bay Area
Friday 7/29
7pm ET, 4pm PT
10pm ET, 7pm PT
Click on the Listen Live button at KSAV.org
Use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in KSAV
or hear us on the KSAV channel on CX Radio Brazil

Indiana Talks
Marion, IN
Saturday 7/30
8pm ET, 5pm PT
Sunday 7/31
6pm ET, 3pm PT
Click on the player at IndianaTalks.com
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in Indiana Talks

KSCO-AM 1080
San Jose, Santa Cruz and Salinas, CA
KOMY-AM 1340
La Selva Beach and Watsonville, CA
Sunday 7/31
9am ET, 6am PT
Also streaming at KSCO.com

KHMB AM-1710
KHMV-LP 100.9 FM

Half Moon Bay, CA
Sunday 7/31
9pm PT
Monday 8/1
Midnight ET
Click on the Listen Live button at KHMBRadio.com

RadioSlot.com
San Francisco, CA
Monday 8/1
10pm ET, 7pm PT
with replays Tuesday thru Friday at 10pm ET, 7pm PT
Click on the Talk Slot button at RadioSlot.com

PWRNetwork
Ann Arbor, MI
Various times throughout the week
on the Entertainment Channel at PWRNetwork.com
and the PWR channel on TuneIn

Best known as the original host of The Hollywood Squares, Peter Marshall’s career in entertainment spans the worlds of big band music, Broadway musicals, comedy, movies, live performances, and radio. Early in his career Peter partnered with comedian Tommy Noonan, appearing in major nightclubs, films and theatres across the country, as well as numerous times on The Ed Sullivan Show, while his stage credits include the London production of Bye Bye Birdie and the Broadway production of Skyscraper with Julie Harris and Charles Nelson Reilly.

Today Peter is heard every day on the Music of Your Life radio network, where he plays the music of the Big Band era and draws on his vast knowledge of The Great American Songbook and the artists of that era. We’ll talk to him about his background in music, as well as ask a few questions about his movie career, stage work, and his years on The Hollywood Squares. Peter Marshall will join us in our second hour.






Joining us in our first hour will be Bruce Jenkins, award-winning columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, and the author of such books as Goodbye: In Search of Gordon Jenkins. Though he grew up in a house surrounded by music and musicians ― his father, Gordon Jenkins, was a composer and arranger who worked with such artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Cash and (most notably) Frank Sinatra, while his mother, Beverly Mahr, was a blues singer known for such iconic songs as “Crescent City Blues” ― Bruce became drawn to R&B music as a youngster in 1960 after first hearing “Shop Around” by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.

Bruce’s latest book, Shop Around: Growing Up with Motown in a Sinatra Household, is a musical memoir that not only provides the back story of “Shop Around” and the early days of Motown Records, but shares Bruce’s own personal story about his lifelong passion for the music from the Motown era, and how that led to lasting friendships with the likes of Huey Lewis of Huey Lewis and the News, and Emilio Castillo and Steve “Doc” Kupka of Tower of Power. Shop Around is the second volume in the “Music That Changed My Life” series published by Wellstone Books, a series of short books that reminds us of the many ways in which music brings us together. Bruce Jenkins will join us in our first hour.

For our listeners in the San Francisco Bay Area, Bruce Jenkins will be appearing at Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 Ninth Avenue in San Francisco on Wednesday, Aug. 10 beginning at 7:30pm.

Also on this week’s program: Carl Glass will join us as we pay tribute to Noel Neill, the actress known to three generations of Adventures of Superman fans, and the first actress ever to play Lois Lane on film.

For many years, Carl was the publisher of Glass House Presents, a website dedicated to preserving the memory of actor George Reeves. As a result of Glass House Presents, as well as his active involvement in several other Superman projects, Carl met Noel Neill, and remained good friends with her until she died. Carl Glass will also join us in our first hour.

TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about television
Fri 7pm ET and PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org and CX Radio Brazil
Sat 8pm ET, 5pm PT and Sun 6pm ET, 3pm PT on Indiana Talks
Sun 9am ET, 6am PT KSCO-AM 1080 (San Jose, Santa Cruz and Salinas, CA)
Sun 9am ET, 6am PT KOMY-AM 1340 (La Selva Beach and Watsonville, CA)
Sun 9pm PT, Mon Mid ET on KHMB-AM and FM (Half Moon Bay, CA)
Mon 10pm ET, 7pm PT on The Radio Slot Network
Replays various times throughout the week on the Entertainment Channel at PWRNetwork
Tape us now, listen to us later, using DAR.fm/tvconfidential
Also available as a podcast via iTunes, FeedBurner
and now on your mobile phone via Stitcher.com
Follow us online at www.tvconfidential.net
Follow us now on Twitter: Twitter.com/tvconfidential
Like our Fan Page at www.facebook.com/tvconfidential

If you listen to TV CONFIDENTIAL, and like what you’ve heard, please consider supporting our efforts by becoming a patron of our show through Patreon. For as little as a dollar a month, you will help offset the costs of production and receive some cool rewards. For more information, please visit www.Patreon.com/tvconfidential... and thanks!

Monday, July 25, 2016

This Week in Television History: July 2016 PART IV


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.

July 27, 1940
Bugs Bunny first appears on the silver screen in A Wild Hare. 
The wisecracking rabbit had evolved through several earlier short films. As in many future installments of Bugs Bunny cartoons, A Wild Hare featured Bugs as the would-be dinner for frustrated hunter Elmer Fudd.
CLICK HERE for a list of Stations


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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Friday, July 22, 2016

Your Mental Sorbet: COMIC CON the Musical!


Here is another "Mental Sorbet"
that we could use to momentarily forget about those things that leave a bad taste in our mouths.

Nerdist and Whitney Avalon (Princess Rap Battles) is here to take you on a magical/musical journey through Con!
Shot on location during SDCC 2015.
Subscribe for more Nerdist Presents: http://nerdi.st/subscribe


Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Garry Marshall

There's no better satisfaction than writing.
I feel that writing is the best and everything else comes with it.
-Garry Marshall
Garry Kent Marshall
1934 – 2016
I'm sad to report that one of my TV heroes, Garry Marshall, died today at a hospital in Burbank, California, at the age of 81, due to complications from pneumonia after a stroke.
Marshall was born in the New York City borough of The Bronx, the son of Marjorie Irene (née Ward; 1908-1983), a tap dance teacher who ran a tap dance school, and Anthony Wallace Marshall (1906–99), a director of industrial films and later a producer. 

He was the brother of actress/director Penny Marshall and Ronny Marshall Hallin, a TV producer. His father was of Italian descent, his family having come from San Martino sulla Marrucina,ChietiAbruzzo, and his mother was of German, English, and Scottish ancestry. His father changed his last name from "Masciarelli" to "Marshall" before Garry was born. Marshall was baptized Presbyterian and also raised Lutheran for a time. He attended De Witt Clinton High School, where he was a classmate of Spider-Man artist Steve Ditko, and Northwestern University, where he wrote a sports column for The Daily Northwestern, and is a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.


Marshall began his career as a joke writer for such comedians as Joey Bishop and Phil Foster, and then became a writer for The Tonight Show with Jack Paar. In 1961 he moved to Hollywood, where he teamed up with Jerry Belson as a writer for television. 


Their first television series as creator/producers was Hey, Landlord, which lasted one season (1966–67). 

They then adapted Neil Simon's play The Odd Couple for television. 

On his own, Marshall created Happy DaysLaverne and Shirley, starring his sister Penny, and Mork & Mindy, which were produced by his associates Thomas L. MillerRobert L. Boyett, and Edward K. Milkis. He was also a co-creator of the short-lived sitcom Makin' It, which the three men also produced.
In the early 1980s, Marshall met Hector Elizondo while playing basketball and became great friends. Elizondo appears in every movie that Marshall directed, beginning with Marshall's first feature film, Young Doctors in Love. Elizondo once noted that he is written into all of Marshall's contracts whether he wanted to do the movie or not. In the opening credits of Exit to Eden, their eighth movie together, Elizondo is credited "As Usual ... Hector Elizondo".

In 1984 Marshall had a movie hit as the writer and director of The Flamingo Kid.
A consummate producer, Marshall wore many hats during this period of his career: most of his hit TV shows were created and executive produced by him. His first producing assignment came with Hey, Landlord in 1966. He stepped up the very next year, producing The Lucy Show. Then came successes in producing The Odd CoupleLaverne and ShirleyBlansky's BeautiesMork & MindyAngie, and Happy Days.
Marshall also launched independent productions, via his theatre (The Falcon in Toluca Lake) and in association with productions launched with talent he was grooming and working with for years. One such project, titled Four Stars, was directed by actress Lynda Goodfriend (who portrayed Lori Beth in Happy Days), and was based on a play Goodfriend had read when she was studying at the Lee Strasberg Center, which had been written by John Schulte and Kevin Mahoney. It starred Julie Paris (the daughter of Happy Days director and Dick Van Dyke Show co-star Jerry Paris) and film veteran Bert Kramer. Marshall went on to focus on directing feature films, with a series of hits, such as BeachesPretty WomanThe Princess Diaries, and most recently Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve.
Marshall was also an actor, making his TV acting debut starting as a child with a recurring role in the long-running CBS series The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950–58), appearing on the television series Murphy Brown and in such movies as Soapdish, on FOX's filmmaking-competition reality TV series On the Lot, which aired in 2007, and provided a guest-starring voice for The Simpsons episodes Eight Misbehavin' and Homer the Father. He also appeared in two episodes of Happy Days as a drummer.
Marshall's theater credits include Wrong Turn at Lungfish, which he wrote in collaboration with Lowell GanzThe Roast with Jerry BelsonShelves and Happy Days: A New Musical with Paul Williams, which had its premiere at The Falcon Theater in Burbank, California in the summer of 2006.
In 1996 he was awarded the Women in Film Lucy Award in recognition of excellence and innovation in creative works that have enhanced the perception of women through the medium of television.
In 1997, Marshall was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame for his contributions to the field of television.

Marshall also has a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. He played the role of "director" on Burbank's "Lights...camera...action!" float in the 2014 Rose Parade. His son, Scott Marshall, is also a director. In 2014, he appeared in a guest star role in a February episode in season 11 of Two and a Half Men on CBS. 
Garry Marshall as Matthew Perry's Father on 'Odd Couple
Marshall received the Valentine Davies Award (1995) and Laurel Award for TV Writing Achievement (2014) from the Writers Guild of America.

Good Night Mr. Marshall and thanks for some of the best laughs I had during my childhood. You really made them Happy Days.

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Tribute to Peter Falk: Next on TVC

Emmy Award-winning writer/producer William Link and television critic Mark Dawidziak will join us on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, airing July 22-25 at the following times and venues:

Share-a-Vision Radio
San Francisco Bay Area
Friday 7/22
7pm ET, 4pm PT
10pm ET, 7pm PT
Click on the Listen Live button at KSAV.org
Use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in KSAV
or hear us on the KSAV channel on CX Radio Brazil

Indiana Talks
Marion, IN
Saturday 7/23
8pm ET, 5pm PT
Sunday 7/24
6pm ET, 3pm PT
Click on the player at IndianaTalks.com
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in Indiana Talks

KSCO-AM 1080
San Jose, Santa Cruz and Salinas, CA
KOMY-AM 1340
La Selva Beach and Watsonville, CA
Sunday 7/24
9am ET, 6am PT
Also streaming at KSCO.com

KHMB AM-1710
KHMV-LP 100.9 FM

Half Moon Bay, CA
Sunday 7/24
9pm PT
Monday 7/25
Midnight ET
Click on the Listen Live button at KHMBRadio.com

RadioSlot.com
San Francisco, CA
Monday 7/25
10pm ET, 7pm PT
with replays Tuesday thru Friday at 10pm ET, 7pm PT
Click on the Talk Slot button at RadioSlot.com

PWRNetwork
Ann Arbor, MI
Various times throughout the week
on the Entertainment Channel at PWRNetwork.com
and the PWR channel on TuneIn

This week we’ll commemorate the five-year anniversary of the death of Peter Falk with an encore presentation of our special July 25, 2011 tribute to the Emmy Award-winning star of Columbo, Murder by Death, The Cheap Detective, Pocketful of Miracles, Murder, Inc. and Trials of O’Brien.

Emmy Award-winning writer/producer William Link (Columbo, Mannix, Ellery Queen, Murder, She Wrote, The Columbo Collection) will join us in our second hour as we discuss the origins of the Columbo character (which Bill created along with his longtime collaborator, Richard Levinson); Falk's friendship with Levinson and Link, which predated their work on the Columbo television series; how Falk came to be cast as Columbo; and the enduring appeal of the Columbo character.

Our first hour will feature Mark Dawidziak, television critic for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer and the author of such books as The Columbo Phile, the definitive book on the classic TV mystery series. Among other things, we’ll talk about Falk's dedication to Columbo, both on camera and behind the scenes; his favorite episodes and favorite Columbo clues; and his collaborations with Neil Simon, Frank Capra, Ben Gazzara and John Cassavetes.

TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about television
Fri 7pm ET and PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org and CX Radio Brazil
Sat 8pm ET, 5pm PT and Sun 6pm ET, 3pm PT on Indiana Talks
Sun 9am ET, 6am PT KSCO-AM 1080 (San Jose, Santa Cruz and Salinas, CA)
Sun 9am ET, 6am PT KOMY-AM 1340 (La Selva Beach and Watsonville, CA)
Sun 9pm PT, Mon Mid ET on KHMB-AM and FM (Half Moon Bay, CA)
Mon 10pm ET, 7pm PT on The Radio Slot Network
Replays various times throughout the week on the Entertainment Channel at PWRNetwork
Tape us now, listen to us later, using DAR.fm/tvconfidential
Also available as a podcast via iTunes, FeedBurner
and now on your mobile phone via Stitcher.com
Follow us online at www.tvconfidential.net
Follow us now on Twitter: Twitter.com/tvconfidential
Like our Fan Page at www.facebook.com/tvconfidential

If you listen to TV CONFIDENTIAL, and like what you’ve heard, please consider supporting our efforts by becoming a patron of our show through Patreon. For as little as a dollar a month, you will help offset the costs of production and receive some cool rewards. For more information, please visit www.Patreon.com/tvconfidential... and thanks!

Monday, July 18, 2016

This Week in Television History: July 2016 PART IlI


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.


July 21, 1951
Robin Williams was born Robin McLaurin Williams at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. 




July 24, 1956bn
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis perbform their last comedy show together at New York's Copacabana Club. 
Born Dino Paul Crocetti in Steubenville, Ohio, Martin started a nightclub act after working as a prizefighter and a steelworker in the 1940s. Lewis, the son of performers, debuted in comedy acts with his parents at age five and was working steadily as a comic by 1946, when he met Dean Martin. The pair performed an act in which screwball Lewis constantly interrupted straight man Martin's singing. They made their first appearance in 1946 at a club in Atlantic City and were an instant hit, soon in demand for radio and movie performances. The pair made 16 movies together, starting with My Friend Irma in 1949. By 1956, though, the pair decided to call it quits.
After the duo split up, Martin launched his own TV variety show, which ran from 1965 to 1974. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Martin teamed up with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop to perform in Las Vegas. The group quickly became known as the Rat Pack, a suave group of young, fast-living entertainers. The group made several movies together in the early 1960s, including Ocean's Eleven (1960), Sergeants Three (1962), and Robin and the Seven Hoods. Martin died in 1995.
Lewis went on to sign one of the most lucrative film contracts of the day, a $10 million deal for 14 films with Paramount. Lewis' films, including Cinderfella (1960) and The Nutty Professor (1963), failed to attract much praise from American critics but made him a star in France, where he has long been considered a comic genius. After a long absence from film, he gave an acclaimed performance in the 1986 film The King of Comedy, co-starring Robert De Niro.
CLICK HERE for a list of Stations


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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Friday, July 15, 2016

Your Mental Sorbet: Captain Kangaroo and Bunny Rabbit on Mr Roger's Neighborhood

Here is another "Mental Sorbet"
that we could use to momentarily forget about those things that leave a bad taste in our mouths.

This is a Mr. Rogers Neighborhood program where Captain Kangaroo and Bunny Rabbit appear as guest stars. It looks like a 1970s show. I found this partial show on an early VHS tape recording so the quality is not the best.




Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

The Seinfeld Phenomenon: Next on TVC

TV historian and entertainment writer Jennifer Armstrong pays a return visit on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, airing July 15-18 at the following times and venues:

Share-a-Vision Radio
San Francisco Bay Area
Friday 7/15
7pm ET, 4pm PT
10pm ET, 7pm PT
Click on the Listen Live button at KSAV.org
Use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in KSAV
or hear us on the KSAV channel on CX Radio Brazil

Indiana Talks
Marion, IN
Saturday 7/16
8pm ET, 5pm PT
Sunday 7/17
6pm ET, 3pm PT
Click on the player at IndianaTalks.com
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in Indiana Talks

KSCO-AM 1080
San Jose, Santa Cruz and Salinas, CA
KOMY-AM 1340
La Selva Beach and Watsonville, CA
Sunday 7/17
9am ET, 6am PT
Also streaming at KSCO.com

KHMB AM-1710
KHMV-LP 100.9 FM

Half Moon Bay, CA
Sunday 7/17
9pm PT
Monday 7/18
Midnight ET
Click on the Listen Live button at KHMBRadio.com

RadioSlot.com
San Francisco, CA
Monday 7/18
10pm ET, 7pm PT
with replays Tuesday thru Friday at 10pm ET, 7pm PT
Click on the Talk Slot button at RadioSlot.com

PWRNetwork
Ann Arbor, MI
Various times throughout the week
on the Entertainment Channel at PWRNetwork.com
and the PWR channel on TuneIn


Once described as a show that blurred between reality and fiction beyond convention, Seinfeld was a bona fide cultural sensation that not only drew heavily from the idiosyncrasies of everyday ordinary life, but bled into the real world, altering the lives of everyone it touched in ways no one could have imagined.

We’ll talk about Seinfeld and more when Jennifer Armstrong joins us in our second hour. Jennifer’s latest book, Seinfeldia: How a Show About Nothing Changed Everything, not only walks you through the origins of Seinfeld (and how it barely got on the air), but provides an inside-the-writers-room perspective on how many of the show’s most famous (and infamous) storylines and catchphrases came to be. We’ll talk about why NBC was worried about “The Chinese Restaurant,” but surprisingly had no qualms about “The Contest.” We’ll also get some insight into who Larry David is (both as a person and as a showrunner), and why Curb Your Enthusiasm is, in some ways, even better than Seinfeld; get the inside scoop on the fierce Twitter rivalry between @SeinfeldToday and @Seinfeld2000; and see how Larry Thomas, the actor played the Soup Nazi, best embodies the phenomenon that Jennifer that defines as Seinfeldia more than anyone (or anything) else.







Our first hour will include a tribute to Ann Morgan Guilbert (The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Nanny), plus an expanded DVD report on three popular shows from the ’60s and ’70s.

TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about television
Fri 7pm ET and PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org and CX Radio Brazil
Sat 8pm ET, 5pm PT and Sun 6pm ET, 3pm PT on Indiana Talks
Sun 9am ET, 6am PT KSCO-AM 1080 (San Jose, Santa Cruz and Salinas, CA)
Sun 9am ET, 6am PT KOMY-AM 1340 (La Selva Beach and Watsonville, CA)
Sun 9pm PT, Mon Mid ET on KHMB-AM and FM (Half Moon Bay, CA)
Mon 10pm ET, 7pm PT on The Radio Slot Network
Replays various times throughout the week on the Entertainment Channel at PWRNetwork
Tape us now, listen to us later, using DAR.fm/tvconfidential
Also available as a podcast via iTunes, FeedBurner
and now on your mobile phone via Stitcher.com
Follow us online at www.tvconfidential.net
Follow us now on Twitter: Twitter.com/tvconfidential
Like our Fan Page at www.facebook.com/tvconfidential

If you listen to TV CONFIDENTIAL, and like what you’ve heard, please consider supporting our efforts by becoming a patron of our show through Patreon. For as little as a dollar a month, you will help offset the costs of production and receive some cool rewards. For more information, please visit www.Patreon.com/tvconfidential... and thanks!

Monday, July 11, 2016

This Week in Television History: July 2016 PART Il


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.

July 12, 1976
Family Feud Premiered 
Family Feud is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson where two families compete to name the most popular responses to survey questions in order to win cash and prizes.
The program premiered on ABC on July 12, 1976, and ran as part of its daytime schedule until June 14, 1985. The program was re-launched by CBS on July 4, 1988, and ran until September 10, 1993. Three separate editions for syndication were also produced. The first aired from September 19, 1977 to September 6, 1985. The second aired from September 19, 1988 to September 8, 1995. The current syndicated series premiered on September 20, 1999.
The ABC network version of the show and the first syndicated series were hosted by Richard DawsonRay Combs hosted the CBS series and the first six seasons of the accompanying syndicated version, then was replaced by Dawson for the final season. The 1999 syndicated series has been hosted by Louie Anderson (1999–2002), Richard Karn (2002–06), John O'Hurley (2006–10), and Steve Harvey (2010–present). Announcers for the series have included Gene Wood (1976–95), Burton Richardson (1999–2010), Joey Fatone(2010–15), and Rubin Ervin (2015–present).
The program has spawned multiple regional adaptations in over 50 international markets outside the United States. Within a year of its debut, the original version became the number one game show in daytime television; however, as viewing habits changed, the ratings declined. Harvey's takeover in 2010 increased Nielsen ratingssignificantly and eventually placed the program among the top five most popular syndicated television shows in the country. In 2013, TV Guide ranked Family Feud third in its list of the 60 greatest game shows of all time.
CLICK HERE for a list of Stations


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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Friday, July 08, 2016

Your Mental Sorbet: Robin Williams & John Ritter

Robin Williams & John Ritter
Here is another "Mental Sorbet"
that we could use to momentarily forget about those things that leave a bad taste in our mouths.

Robin Williams HBO Comedy Special 1978 encores with John Ritter.





Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa