Television Writer/Producer Lee Goldberg: This Week on TV CONFIDENTIAL

Edgar Award-nominated writer, producer and novelist Lee Goldberg will be our special guest on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, premiering Monday, August 1 at 9pm ET, 6pm PT on Shokus Internet Radio, with additional airings throughout the week at the following times and venues:

InternetVoicesRadio.com
Tuesday 8/2
11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT

Share-a-Vision Radio
KSAV.org
Friday 8/5
7pm ET, 4pm PT
10pm ET, 7pm PT

KWDJ 1360-AM
Ridgecrest, Calif.
Saturday 8/6
8pm PT

ShokusRadio.com
Tuesday 8/2 – Sunday 8/7
11am ET, 8am PT
9pm ET, 6pm PT
2am ET, 11pm PT

Lee Goldberg has written for and produced such popular television shows as Diagnosis Murder, Monk, Psych, Hunter, The Cosby Mysteries, Sliders and Spenser: For Hire. He is also the writer, producer and director of Remaindered, the critically acclaimed independent film that continues to generate a lot of buzz in film festivals across the country.

In addition, Lee is the author of more than 40 books, both fiction and nonfiction, including Successful Television Writing, a hands-on approach to writing for the television industry.


Lee’s latest books include Watch Me Die, a fast-paced whodunit with humor about a would-be private eye who finds himself embroiled in a real-life mystery, drawing on knowledge he’s learned from reading Spenser novels and watching Mannix reruns (only to find that real-life detective work can be hazardous to his health); and Mr. Monk on the Couch, the latest edition in the best-selling Monk mystery novels based on the popular USA-TV series starring Tony Shalhoub.


Lee Goldberg will be joining us in our second hour.










Our first hour will include an expanded edition of This Week in TV History that focuses on several notable anniversary dates coming up this week, including the 40^th anniversary of the premiere of The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, the 30th anniversary of MTV and the 100^th birthday of Lucille Ball. It’s a full program as always... we certainly hope you’ll join us.













TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about television
Mondays 9pm ET, 6pm PT
Shokus Internet Radio
Tuesdays 11:05pm, 8:05pm PT
Passionate World Radio
Fridays 7pm ET and PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
Saturdays 8pm PT
Sundays 2pm PT
KWDJ 1360-AM (Ridgecrest, Calif.)
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes and FeedBurner
Find us now on Facebook

This Week in Television History: August 2011 PART I

Listen to me on me on TV CONFIDENTIAL: Shokus Radio Mondays 9pm ET, 6pm PT with replays three times a day, seven days a week at 11am ET, 8am PT 9pm ET, 6pm PT and 1am ET, 10pm PT

Passionate World Radio Tuesdays 11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT KSAV – San Francisco Bay Area Fridays 7pm ET and PT

KWDJ 1360 AM – Ridgecrest, CA Saturdays 11pm ET, 8pm PT Sundays 5pm ET, 2pm PM 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.

Aug 1, 1981

MTV launches.

MTV: Music Television goes on the air for the first time ever, with the words (spoken by one of MTV’s creators, John Lack): “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll.” The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” was the first music video to air on the new cable television channel, which initially was available only to households in parts of New Jersey. MTV went on to revolutionize the music industry and become an influential source of pop culture and entertainment in the United States and other parts of the world, including Europe, Asia and Latin America, which all have MTV-branded channels.

In MTV’s early days, its programming consisted of basic music videos that were introduced by VJs (video jockeys) and provided for free by record companies. As the record industry recognized MTV’s value as a promotional vehicle, money was invested in making creative, cutting-edge videos. Some directors, including Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Three Kings) and Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), worked on music videos before segueing into feature films. In the 1980s, MTV was instrumental in promoting the careers of performers such as Madonna, Michael Jackson, Prince and Duran Duran, whose videos played in heavy rotation.

By the late 1980s, MTV started airing non-video programming, geared toward teenagers and young adults. Its popular reality series The Real World launched in 1992 and was followed by such highly rated shows as The Osbournes, Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, Laguna Beach, My Super Sweet 16 and The Hills. MTV also debuted animated series including Beavis and Butthead and Celebrity Deathmatch, as well as documentaries, news, game shows and public service campaigns on topics ranging from voting rights to safe sex. MTV developed a reputation for pushing cultural boundaries and taste; the airing of Madonna’s 1989 “Like a Prayer” video is just one famous example. In 1984, the channel launched the MTV Music Video Awards, which were followed in 1992 by the MTV Movie Awards. Today, MTV’s music-video programming is largely confined to one show, Total Request Live.

August 3, 1941

Martha Helen Stewart (née Kostyra) was born.

Business magnate, television host, author and magazine publisher. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising. Stewart's syndicated talk show, Martha, is broadcast throughout the world, she has written numerous bestselling books, and she is the publisher of Martha Stewart Living magazine.

In 2001, Stewart was named the third most powerful woman in America by Ladies Home Journal. In 2004, she was convicted of lying to investigators about a stock sale and served five months in prison. Stewart began a strong comeback campaign in 2005, with her company returning to profitability in 2006.

August 5, 1956

Maureen Denise McCormick was born. Actress, reality show participant, and recording artist. She is best known as a child actor who played Marcia Brady in the television series The Brady Bunch from 1969 to 1974.

August 6, 1911

Lucille Ball was born.

She became one of America's most beloved comic actresses, is born near Jamestown, New York. Her father, an electrician, died when Ball was two. By age 15, Ball had decided to attend drama school and become an actress. However, the shy, skinny teenager received little encouragement and was rejected at least four times from Broadway chorus lines before finally becoming a chorus girl in 1926. In 1933, she was hired as the Chesterfield cigarette girl and was featured in all the company's advertisements. Attracting attention with her Chesterfield ads, she finally began playing bit parts in Hollywood movies in 1933. By the late 1930s, the starlet had graduated to comic supporting roles. In 1940, she met Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz while shooting Too Many Girls. The couple married the following year.

Ball continued to land movie roles that didn't fully showcase her talent. Frustrated, she turned to radio and starred as a ditzy wife in My Favorite Husband from 1948 to 1951. CBS decided to launch the popular series on the relatively new medium of TV. Lucy insisted Desi be cast as her husband in the TV version, though the network executives argued that no one would believe the couple were married. Desi and Lucy performed before live audiences and filmed a pilot, convincing network executives that audiences responded well to their act, and CBS cast Desi for the show.

I Love Lucy became one of the most popular TV situation comedies in history, ranking in the top three shows for six years and turning the couple's production company, Desilu, into a multimillion-dollar business. Ball became president of the company in 1960, after she and Desi divorced. She also starred in several other "Lucy" shows, including The Lucy Show, which debuted in 1962 and ran for six seasons, and Here's Lucy, in which she starred with her two children until the show was cancelled in 1974. A later show, Life with Lucy, featuring Lucy as a grandmother, was cancelled after only eight episodes. Ball worked little in the last years of her life. She died of congestive heart failure in 1989, at the age of 78.

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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Your Mental Sorbet: Matthew Perry Sitcom 'Second Chance' Predicted Gaddafi Would Die in 2011

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

When the FOX Network was new there was a 1987 Matthew Perry sitcom that predicted Muammar Gaddafi would be killed in 2011.

The show opens in 2011 and the main character Charles, played by Kiel Martin, dies in a hovercraft accident, and after meeting St. Peter at the gates of heaven, is judged to be neither good enough for heaven or bad enough for hell. He's sent back to earth to help his teenage self, played by Matthew Perry, to live a more virtuous life. 

 

Colonel Gaddafi appears before St. Peter who sentences him to spend eternity in hell.
Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

Your Mental Sorbet: Jimmy Kimmel Live - Harrison Ford Settles a Feud

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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

TV Confidential Archives July 18, 2011

Show No. 97 July 18, 2011

First hour: Television historian and author Wesley Hyatt (Emmy Award Winning Nighttime Television Shows, Television’s Top 100: The Most Watched American Broadcasts from 1960 through 2010) joins Ed, Tony Figueroa and Donna Allen for a round-table discussion on the careers of writer/producers Sam Denoff (That Girl, The Dick Van Dyke Show) and Sherwood Schwartz (Gilligan’s Island, The Brady Bunch). Second hour: Ed welcomes actress, author, producer and publisher Kathryn Leigh Scott, star of the iconic ABC daytime drama Dark Shadows and other stage, film and television productions. Kathryn's books include Dark Passages, a paranormal romance novel that pays homage to Dark Shadows while also capturing the romance and innocence of the JFK Camelot era of the early 1960s, and The Bunny Years, a behind-the-scenes history of The Playboy Clubs in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Tokyo and other cities and their impact on American culture. Kathryn's upcoming appearances include the Diesel Bookstore at the Brentwood Country Mart in Santa Monica, CA on Sunday, August 7; the Barnes & Noble at 86th and Lexington in New York City on Wednesday, August 17; the Dark Shadows 45th Anniversary Cast Reunion and Fan Convention in New York City on August 19, 20 and 21; Book Soup in West Hollywood, CA on Tuesday, September 13; the West Hollywood Book Fair in West Hollywood, CA on Sunday, October 2; and the New York Comic-Con on October 14 and 15. Also in this hour: A look at this year's Emmy nominations.

Tribute to Peter Falk: Next on TV CONFIDENTIAL

The life and career of Emmy Award-winning actor Peter Falk will be the subject of the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, premiering Monday, July 25 at 9pm ET, 6pm PT on Shokus Internet Radio, with additional airings throughout the week, including Tuesday, July 26 at 11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT on Passionate World Radio, Friday, July 29 at 7pm ET and PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org, and Saturday, July 30 on KWDJ 1360-AM (Ridgecrest, CA).

Known to two generations of TV audiences throughout the world as rumpled L.A. police detective Lieutenant Columbo — a character he played in one form or another over the course of 35 years, from his original appearance on NBC in Prescription: Murder (1968) through his final appearance on ABC in Columbo Likes The Nightlife (2003) — Peter Falk passed away on June 23 at the age of 83.

Our guests this week as we remember Peter Falk will be William Link, co-creator and co-executive producer of Columbo, and Mark Dawidziak, author of The Columbo Phile, the definitive book on the Columbo television series.


Bill and Mark will talk about their friendship with Peter Falk; his idiosyncratic personality; his dedication as an actor both on-camera and behind the scenes; his collaborations with Neil Simon, Frank Capra and John Cassavetes; and, of course, his fondness for and devotion to the Columbo character.

William Link will be joining us in our second hour. Mark Dawidziak will be with us in our first hour. We hope you’ll join us for both hours as we remember Peter Falk.








































TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about television
Mondays 9pm ET, 6pm PT
Shokus Internet Radio
Tuesdays 11:05pm, 8:05pm PT
Passionate World Radio
Fridays 7pm ET and PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
Saturdays 8pm PT
Sundays 2pm PT
KWDJ 1360-AM (Ridgecrest, Calif.)
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes and FeedBurner
Find us now on Facebook

This Week in Television History: July 2011 PART IV

Listen to me on me on TV CONFIDENTIAL:

Shokus Radio Mondays 9pm ET, 6pm PT with replays three times a day, seven days a week at 11am ET, 8am PT 9pm ET, 6pm PT and 1am ET, 10pm PT

Passionate World Radio Tuesdays 11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT



KSAV – San Francisco Bay Area Fridays 7pm ET and PT

KWDJ 1360 AM – Ridgecrest, CA Saturdays 11pm ET, 8pm PT Sundays 5pm ET, 2pm PM



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.

July 27, 2003

Bob Hope dies at age 100 in Toluca Lake, California.

Known for entertaining American servicemen and women for more than five decades, Hope had a career that spanned the whole range of 20th century entertainment, from vaudeville to Broadway musicals to radio, television and movies.

He was born Leslie Townes Hope, the fifth of seven sons, on May 29, 1903, in Eltham, England. In 1907, Hope’s family moved to Cleveland, Ohio. As a young man, he began his entertainment career as a dancer and vaudeville performer. During the 1930s, he appeared in Broadway musicals, along with such performers as Fanny Brice and Ethel Merman. In 1934, Hope wed the nightclub singer Dolores Reade; the marriage would endure until his death. In 1938, Hope, who became known for his snappy one-liners, rose to national fame with his own radio show on NBC and his first feature film, The Big Broadcast of 1938.

In 1940, Hope co-starred in the box-office hit Road to Singapore with Bing Crosby. The film, about a pair of singing, wisecracking con men, was the first of seven “Road” movies the pair would make. Hope appeared in more than 50 feature films during his career. He hosted the Academy Awards 18 times, although he never won an Oscar himself, an occurrence he turned into a long-running joke. However, he did receive five special awards from the Academy, including two honorary Oscars. Hope was also a top entertainer on TV and from 1959 to 1996 he made 284 “Bob Hope specials” for NBC.

Starting with World War II, Hope began entertaining American troops at military bases around the world. His USO tours traveled to military bases during times of war (Vietnam, the Persian Gulf), as well as times of peace. He was so beloved for his work with the military for more than half a century that Congress passed a resolution in 1997 making Hope an honorary veteran. It was one of the countless honors that Hope received throughout his career. In 1998, he was granted honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth.

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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Your Mental Sorbet: Star Trek: The Captain's Summit

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

Whoopi Goldberg sits down with Trek stars William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes and gets personal with them.

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

TV Confidential Archives July 11, 2011

Show No. 96
July 11, 2011

First hour: Tony Figueroa and Donna Allen join Ed to discuss the plans to continue broadcasting All My Children and One Life to Live online after the long-running daytime dramas complete their run on ABC. Also this hour: Phil Gries plays highlights from Playboy's Penthouse, an early 1960s talk show featuring Playboy magazine founder and publisher Hugh Hefner. Plus: a replay of our Sept. 13, 2010 conversation with Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Aviva Kempner (Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg) on the life and career of television pioneer Gertrude Berg (The Goldbergs).

Second hour: Ed welcomes actress, author and radio host Dee Wallace (E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, Cujo, The Howling, The Frighteners, 10, Together We Stand, The New Lassie, Sons and Daughters). Dee’s latest book, Bright Light: Spiritual Lessons from a Life in Acting, tells the story of her journey in show business and also through life itself, and features many poignant and humorous stories about lessons she learned from the likes of Peter Jackson, Joe Dante, Wes Craven, Blake Edwards, Dudley Moore, acting coach Charles Conrad, and her late husband, actor Christopher Stone.

Kathryn Leigh Scott: Next on TV CONFIDENTIAL

Actress, author and publisher Kathryn Leigh Scott will be our special guest on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, premiering Monday, July 18 at 9pm ET, 6pm PT on Shokus Internet Radio, with additional airings Tuesday, July 19 at 11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT on Passionate World Radio, Friday, July 22 at 7pm ET and PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org, and Saturday, July 23 on KWDJ 1360-AM (Ridgecrest, CA).

Known internationally for her starring role in the long-running, groundbreaking and iconic ABC daytime drama Dark Shadows, Kathryn Leigh Scott is also founder of Pomegranate Press, one of the leading independent book publishers in the industry, and one of the first companies to specialize in books on classic television and the entertainment industry. An accomplished author, Kathryn has written several books, including The Bunny Years, a behind-the-scenes history of The Playboy Clubs in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Tokyo and other cities and their impact on American culture.

Kathryn’s latest book, Dark Passages, is a paranormal romance novel that pays homage to Dark Shadows while also capturing the romance and innocence of the JFK Camelot era of the early 1960s. We’ll talk about Dark Passages, as well as some of Kathryn’s other roles on stage, film and television, when she joins us in our second hour.

Kathryn Leigh Scott has several appearances coming up over the next few weeks, including Comic-Con in San Diego, CA on Friday, July 22 and Saturday, July 23; the Diesel Bookstore at the Brentwood Country Mart in Santa Monica, CA on Sunday, August 7; the Barnes & Noble at 86^th and Lexington in New York City on Wednesday, August 17; the Dark Shadows 45th Anniversary Cast Reunion and Fan Convention in New York City on August 19, 20 and 21; Book Soup in West Hollywood, CA on Tuesday, September 13; the West Hollywood Book Fair in West Hollywood, CA on Sunday, October 2; and the New York Comic-Con on October 14 and 15.


















Our first hour will include a round-table discussion of the careers of writer/producers Sam Denoff (That Girl, The Dick Van Dyke Show) and Sherwood Schwartz (Gilligan’s Island, The Brady Bunch). Television historian and author Wesley Hyatt (Television’s Top 100, Emmy Award Winning Primetime Television Shows) will join us for that, along with Tony Figueroa and Donna Allen. Plus: a look at this year’s Emmy nominations.






















TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about television
Mondays 9pm ET, 6pm PT
Shokus Internet Radio
Tuesdays 11:05pm, 8:05pm PT
Passionate World Radio
Fridays 7pm ET and PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
Saturdays 8pm PT
Sundays 2pm PT
KWDJ 1360-AM (Ridgecrest, Calif.)
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes and FeedBurner
Find us now on Facebook