I represent the first generation who, when we were born, the television was now a permanent fixture in our homes. When I was born people had breakfast with Barbara Walters, dinner with Walter Cronkite, and slept with Johnny Carson.
Read the full "Pre-ramble"
Original Airdate: Week of Feb. 20-26, 2013 First hour: Ed welcomes author, journalist and screenwriter Marvin J. Wolf. Marv’s books include Fallen Angels: Chronicles of L.A. Crime and Mystery,
a behind-the-scenes look at 39 famous crimes that not only took place
in Los Angeles, but reveal an altogether different side of the City of
Angels than what you may have seen on television or in the movies. Among
the cases discussed in the book: Caryl Chessman, the Red Light Bandit;
the precedent-setting rape trial of movie mogul Alexander Pantages; the
mysterious death of actor Nick Adams; the tragic murder of actor Sal
Mineo; and the gruesome death of Elizabeth Short, the woman known as The
Black Dahlia. Marv co-wrote Fallen Angels along with noted
criminal defense attorney Katherine Mader; the book was recently
re-released both in paperback and as an e-Book. The e-Book edition of Fallen Angels
includes links to the various crime scenes detailed in each story, so
that readers can travel directly to the locations themselves, virtually
via Google Maps and Google Earth.
Second hour: An encore presentation of our November 2010 conversation with novelist Darlene Quinn, author of Twisted Webs, Webs of Power, Webs of Fate and the forthcoming Unpredictable Webs, and the co-author, along with the late Buddy Ebsen, of Sizzling Cold Case: The Legend of Lori London, an original novel featuring Barnaby Jones. Plus: Tony Figueroa and Donna Allen remember the pilot for The Andy Griffith Show, which originally aired This Week in TV History as an episode of Make Room for Daddy.
Second hour: Ed welcomes singer/actress Linda Lawson. Linda’s husband, the late John Foreman, co-produced Sometimes a Great Notion
along with Paul Newman, while Newman also directed the motion picture.
Linda shares some memories of working with Newman, Henry Fonda, Lee
Remick, Richard Jaeckel and Oscar-winning costumer Edith Head. Also in
this hour: An encore presentation of Phil Gries’ look back at “Meet Mr.
Lincoln,” a short film about the life of Abraham Lincoln that originally
aired on the NBC documentary series Project XX.
Actress Donna Allen Figueroa, had an audition for the Chicago production of “DREAMGIRLS,” but there was one small problem...(small being the operative word.) And Christine and Hannes discuss the talent necessary to compete in the competitive world of musical theater. Click Dreamgirl to listen to the show.
Tony Figueora hosting The performers... Dan Farren ( 90 second story) Donna Allen Figueora Carrie Specht Dan Tirman Beverly Mickins (singing Blue Blue Blue - John Fogherty) Featured guest storyteller Rueben Padilla And John O'kennedy as musical director. Image by Dan Farren 43:45 / 40.2 MB / Rated: PG-13
Comedian, author and motivational speaker Tom Dreesen joins Ed and Frankie in the second hour as TV Confidential launches its second season from its new broadcast home in the studios of Shokus Internet Radio. Tom discusses his book, Tim & Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White, his partnership with Tim Reid in the early 1970s, his breakthrough appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and his long association with Frank Sinatra.
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.
I set the Wayback machine to the end of April and found many Television Historical Milestones & Moments in TV Pop Culture.
Television Historical Milestones
April 19, 1938 The National Broadcasting Company launched experimental television broadcasts from the Empire State Building. These experiments aired only five hours a week to very few TV households.
Almost two years to the day prior.
April 24, 1936 A group of firemen responding to an alarm in Camden, New Jersey, is televised. It was the first time an unplanned event was broadcast on television, anticipating the development of live TV news coverage. Fortunately, the event would not inspire anyone to create reality programming.
April 30, 1939 NBC began regular U.S. television broadcasts, with a telecast of President Franklin D. Roosevelt opening the New York World's Fair. Programs were transmitted from the NBC mobile camera trucks to the main transmitter, which was connected to an aerial atop the Empire State Building. Ten days prior to the Roosevelt speech, David Sarnoff, President of RCA (The Radio Corporation of America and NBC's original parent company) made a dedication speech for the opening of the RCA Pavilion at the New York World's Fair. Staging this event prior to the World's Fair opening ceremonies ensured that RCA would capture its share of the newspaper headlines. The ceremony was televised, and watched by several hundred viewers on TV receivers inside the RCA Pavilion at the fairgrounds, as well as on receivers installed on the 62nd floor of Radio City in Manhattan. Back then, the programs included operas, cartoons, cooking demonstrations, travelogues, fashion shows, and skaters at Rockefeller Center along with numerous live telecasts relayed from within the fair itself.
Moments in TV Pop Culture
April 30, 1992 The final episode of the The Cosby Show aired. YouTube - Cosby Show Final Moments of Last Episode The sitcom debuted in 1984 at a time when the sitcom was declared to be dead. Comedian Bill Cosby starred in the nation's top-rated program for four of its eight years and always ranked in the top 20 shows. The show focused on the Huxtable family, an upper-middle class African-American family living in a brownstone in Brooklyn Heights, New York. The patriarch was Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable, an obstetrician. The matriarch was attorney Clair Huxtable. Despite its comedic tone, the show sometimes involved serious subjects, such as son Theo's experiences dealing with dyslexia, inspired by Cosby's child Ennis, who was also dyslexic. Although the cast and characters were predominantly African-American, the program was unusual in that issues of race were rarely mentioned when compared to other situation comedies of the time, such as The Jeffersons. However, The Cosby Show had African-American themes, such as civil rights marches, and it frequently promoted African-American and African culture represented by artists and musicians such as Jacob Lawrence, Miles Davis, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Lena Horne, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Miriam Makeba. On April 30th 1992, the second day of the Los Angeles Riots, KNBC (NBC's Los Angeles affiliate) was covering the historic event nonstop. But that evening the station decided to suspend it’s around the clock riot coverage to air the series finale of The Cosby Show giving viewers a brief Mental Sorbet. Following the broadcast Bill Cosby went on the air and asked Angelinos to pray for peace.
The widely publicized episode featured cameos by Oprah Winfrey, k.d. lang, Demi Moore, Billy Bob Thornton, and Dwight Yoakam. An estimated 42 million viewers watched the special hour-long program. Ellen DeGeneres herself had come out earlier that year on The Oprah Winfrey Show and in TIME. Ellen is often credited to be the first primetime sitcom to feature a gay leading character but there was a sitcom titled Love, Sidney (1981 until 1983) staring the late Tony Randall. The first openly gay regular character on a sitcom was Soap's (1977) Jodie Dallas, played by Billy Crystal. In the spring of 1994, Ellen DeGeneres was cast in a series called These Friends of Mine, but in the fall of 1994, she took center stage and the program was retiled Ellen. The program finished in the top 20 shows for the 1994-1995 season. The outing ignited a storm of controversy, prompting ABC to place a parental advisory at the beginning of each episode. Despite her success, and the enormous audience drawn by the coming-out episode, ABC cancelled the series at the end of the 1998 season. Although the network pointed to dwindling ratings, Ellen DeGeneres contended that the network buckled under pressure from conservative groups and stopped promoting the show after the controversial episode.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was.”
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.
Before I get to this weeks historical installment I want to first acknowledge one of many historical milestones that led to what we now call Television. Please note that my above disclaimer rings especially true.
April 7, 1927 The first simultaneous telecast of image and sound takes place on April 7th 1927. Then Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover read a speech in Washington, D.C., that was transmitted to the Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York City. The New York audience saw and heard a tiny televised image of Hoover that was less than 3 square inches.
April 4, 1969 The CBS Television Network fired The Smothers Brothers because the brothers failed to submit an episode of the The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour to network executives before its broadcast.
The network claimed the second to last show of the season was turned in late, and claimed that their tardiness constituted a breach of contract justifying their dropping of the series. The network ultimately refused to run the episode anyway because they said it "would be considered irreverent and offensive by a large segment of our audience". That episode is on the Smothers Brothers: The Best of Season 3 DVD.
The variety show was well known for its censorship battles with the network. The network executives often objected to the brothers' selection of controversial, outspoken, left wing, and antiwar guests, including: Pete Seeger, who had been invited to appear on the Smothers' second season premiere to sing his anti-war song, "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy.” Seeger would later appear on the show and sang that song. Harry Belafonte was scheduled to do a calypso song called "Don't Stop the Carnival" with images from the riots at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention behind him. The Song was cut and the time was sold to the Nixon campaign but can now be seen on the season 3 DVD. Joan Baez wanted to dedicate a song to her draft-resisting husband who was about to go to prison for his stance. The dedication to her husband made the air but the reason for the dedication did not. Dr. Benjamin Spock, noted baby doctor and anti-war activist, was prevented from appearing as a guest of the show because, according to the network, he was a "convicted felon."
Under the category of irreverent and offensive, we have: David Steinberg’s satirical sermonettes caused controversy for being sacrilegious. His second sermonette was in the episode that never aired. Leigh French created the recurring hippie character, Goldie O'Keefe, whose parody of afternoon advice shows for housewives, "Share a Little Tea with Goldie," was actually one long celebration of mind-altering drugs. (Tea" was a counter culture code word for marijuana, but the CBS censors seemed to be unaware of the connection). Goldie would open her sketches with, "Hi(gh)– and glad of it!" Elaine May wrote a skit about censorship that featured Tom and Elaine who playing motion picture censors trying to find a more acceptable substitution for unacceptable dialogue. The skit ended up being censored.
Tom and Dick Smothers assembled the old Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour gang in February 1988 for a 20th reunion special on CBS. Now the network wanted the brothers and company to be edgy and controversial but no one associated with the show was interested. After all when the establishment tells you something is cool... It's no longer cool.
In 1968 when it came time to submit the names of the writers for Emmy considerations, Tom refused to include his name for fear that he had become too controversial and it would hurt the show’s chances of winning. The show won the Emmy for outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy Variety that year. Almost 40 Years later (Sunday, September 21st 2008) during the live television broadcast of the 60th Annual Emmy Awards (YouTube - Steve Martin Tommy Smothers Emmy 2008), Tom Smothers received an Emmy acknowledging his contributions as a writer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Steve Martin, who was one of the Emmy winning writers on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, presented Tom with a commemorative Emmy acknowledging his role in the writing of a variety show. Television Academy Honors Tom Smothers With Commemorative Emmy
In October of this year the book "Dangerously Funny: the Uncensored History of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" by David Bianculli will be published by Touchstone. Visit their website: http://www.tvworthwatching.com/
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
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.
I had Sherman set the WABAC machine to February 22, 1980 when the U.S. men's ice hockey team, led by coach Herb Brooks, defeated the Soviet Union team, 4 - 3. The event was forever known as the "Miracle on Ice". The Soviet Union team, who were considered to be the best international hockey team in the world, they entered the Olympic tournament as heavy favorites, having won every ice hockey gold medal since 1964, and all but one gold medal since 1956. On February 9th, the American and Soviet teams met for an exhibition match at Madison Square Garden in order to practice for the upcoming competition. The Soviet Union won (10-3) so the odds were in favor of the Russians. The day before the match, columnist Dave Anderson wrote in the New York Times, "Unless the ice melts, or unless the United States team or another team performs a miracle, as did the American squad in 1960, the Russians are expected to easily win the Olympic gold medal for the sixth time in the last seven tournaments". The game ended with Al Michaels delivering the most famous call in Hockey history, "Eleven seconds, you've got ten seconds, the countdown going on right now! Morrow, up to Silk...five seconds left in the game... Do you believe in miracles? YES!!!"
Two days later on February 24th, 1980 the U.S. Hockey Team won its "Do you believe in miracles?" gold medal during the 1980 Olympic Winter Games beating Finland (4-2) in their final medal round game. The Soviet Union took the Silver Medal by beating Sweden in their final game. Sweden took home the Bronze Medal, with Finland finishing fourth.
On a personal note February 24th 1980 was the day my baby sister Laura was born. I mention this here because people her age and younger don’t truly appreciate the historical significance of these event and what was happening in the world at that time.
Though the Olympic Games are supposed to be an arena free of politics the Soviet and American teams were long time rivals due to the Cold War.
At the same time there was another international drama playing out. Despite President Carter’s initial refusal to admit the Shah of Iran into the United States, on October 22, 1979, he finally granted the Shah entry and temporary asylum for the duration of his cancer treatment. In response to the Shah's entry into the U.S., Iranian militants seized the American embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981.
The "Miracle on Ice" was a shot in the country’s morale during a time of great uncertainty.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was February 22nd, 1980.
Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa
Photo of Tony with baby sister Laura
We travel back to December of 1995, when a holiday trip to Ohio turned into an adventure as we found ourselves right smack in the middle of The Blizzard of 95.
Rowan & Martin's Laugh In will be the featured program this week on Talking Television With Dave White. Child Of Television writer Tony Figueroa will be the guest from 7:30-9PM Pacific time (10:30-midnight Eastern) Tuesday, June 3 on http://www.ksav.org/ . Who was your favorite Laugh In comic and what was your favorite sketch from this imaginative and original program? Listeners can participate by phone (800)407-KSAV(5728) or e-mail talk@ksav.org. For program details visit http://www.talkingtelevision.org/ . Dave White; Host Talking Television With Dave White http://www.ksav.org/http://www.talkingtelevision.org/
Our Holiday Show is also the final episode of Season Two of Story Salon ON THE AIR. The theme is "Santa Ho Ho No" with Dan Tirman as our Featured Performer. Enjoy!
"Winn's 88 Blues" shot by Lance Anderson... Music by John O'Kennedy...
Recorded Live on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 at The Coffee Fix in Studio City, California...
1:o3:22 / 58.1 MB / Rated: PG-13 (Some Adult Language and Themes)... Until we meet again in the New Year... "Thanks for the Download!"
Every month or so I will pod cast an episode of Comedy Callback and during those weeks in between shows, I will be interviewing all sorts of people on the business of being funny. I’ll also be blogging and letting you know where you can find the funny. If you have any thoughts or suggestions please drop me an ‘e’ at comedycallback@gmail.com. And remember, life is short - so laugh hard!
Dan Farren
Part two of our show has a theme. I didn’t know it at the time, but I do now. Comedy and transportation. Dylan Brody hits the road with a guy named “Doug”. Beverly Mickins hits the road with Andre & Reggie. And Tony Figueroa just hits the road thanks to a motorcycle accident. Enjoy! Some mature language.
My first impression of Cavemen was that this was going to be a train wreck. I had this strange urge to look at this show the same way a rubbernecker has to slow down and look at a horrible accident. Someone at a major television network wanted to take a successful commercial campaign and develop it into a TV show. The Geico Insurance TV commercials feature a commercial spokesman saying that, "Geico dot com is so easy a caveman could do it". We then see two modern day cavemen watching the commercial and being offended that Geico has stereotyped them as primitive and stupid. The commercial campaign is successful but I really can't see turning that into a weekly series with a blatant message about intolerance. People don't watch TV to hear a message. That is Basic TV writing 101. I'm not saying that you can't have a message, but it has to be subtle. Bewitched had a subtle message about tolerance towards people who are different and towards mixed marriages. The Munsters pilot had a similar message when they showed intolerant neighbors who didn't approve of "Those people that moved in next door". Science fiction shows like Star Trek and The Twilight Zone had strong messages about intolerance but none of their examples were ever used as part of their promotional campaign. Another reason that I think viewers are going to be turned off by this show is because the actors Jeffrey Daniel Phillips and Ben Weber who people loved in the commercials are not in the show (Jeffrey Daniel Phillips does play a minor character named Maurice). I certainly don't want to compare these cavemen to other characters that have been played by multiple actors like Darren Stephens (Bewitched), Hannibal Hays (Alias Smith and Jones) or even the Duke boys (The Dukes of Hazzard). I can only imagine that some executive said, "We can put the wig and makeup on any actor and the audience won't know the difference". History has proved otherwise.
I saw the pilot and I can hear my college television production teacher say, "What’s the point?" First you have to buy into the premise that cavemen have lived among us since the beginning of time. The opening credits features a montage of cavemen throughout history. Anything would be better than the chosen premise, time warp, thawed from an iceberg or cloned caveman DNA. The main characters Joel Claybrook (Bill English), Andy Claybrook (Sam Huntington) and Nick Hedge (Nick Kroll) are three metrosexual cavemen who share an apartment in the city. Joel is the reasonable and responsible roommate who supports the other two. Joel works at an Ikea type store called Norsbild. I can't think of a more unfunny setting than an Ikea type store. That setting is only good for three, maybe four jokes and they were used up in the first two episodes. Nick is the intellectual snob. Unlike Fraser Crane or Major Charles Emerson Winchester III (M*A*S*H) who people enjoy seeing fall off their high horse, Nick has no horse. He acts like the world owes him a horse to fall off of and he blames the Homo sapiens for keeping him down. People don't care for that personality type in real life, why would they want to see it on TV? In the pilot Nick sponges off Andy. I had to live with a roommate like that in college, so why do I want to see that on TV? Andy is the sweet but naive roommate who is willing to do anything to be liked and accepted by his roommates and the Homo sapiens. Andy just broke up with his girlfriend so he also has rebound issues.
This is the reason why Mr. Whipple, Madge the manicurists or the Maytag Repairman never had a TV show. This is also one of the few times that I am sorry that I never judge a show by it's pilot.
I watched the next episode. Deadbeat Nick can't come up with his share of the rent. Joel gets him a job at his store as a replenisher but Nick would rather sit around all day and download music than work. Again, I don't think TV audiences want to see a college educated person working in the service industry not doing their job because they find the work or work in general beneath them. TV sitcoms should be an escape from that reality. When Nick gets fired he plays the "cave card" for lack of a better term. While all of this is happening, Andy is trying to befriend a girl who is afraid of cavemen. Each attempt to win this girl over becomes more like stalking. Once Andy does win her over, the roommates scare her off by acting like cavemen grunting and pounding their chest. In essence they perpetuating the stereotype, but I guess since they own it so it's okay.
Years ago All in the Family successfully showcased the stupidity that is bigotry by having the lead character act like a real bigot using real ethnic slurs. The audience laughed at Archie Bunker and his narrow view of the world. Cavemen attempts to poke fun at the way people treat minorities by creating a fake minority. When creating a fake minority, where do you get your inspiration? I can imagine that several minority groups have to be offended by the way the show presents the issues of intolerance and acceptance. The way these issues are presented (I'm sure with no offence intended) can be seen as mocking the struggles that real minority groups face even today. Of course the bigger issue here is that the show offends everyone’s intelligence.
Instead of quoting the show I will quote two different friends who said at two different times, "I liked the show better when it was called It's About Time.
Comedian, author and motivational speaker 
Two days later on February 24
