Your Mental Sorbet: Leonard Nimoy's Cameo on The Big Bang Theory

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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

James Sheldon: Next on TVC

Television director James Sheldon will join us on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, airing Feb. 25-Mar. 2 at the following times and stations:

WROM Radio
Detroit, MI
Wednesday 2/25
8pm ET, 5pm PT
2am ET, 11pm PT
Sunday 3/1
8pm ET, 5pm PT
2am ET, 11pm PT
Click on the Listen Live button at WROMRadio.net 

Share-a-Vision Radio 
San Francisco Bay Area
Friday 2/27
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 2/28
8pm ET, 5pm PT
Sunday 3/1 
6pm ET, 3pm PT 
Click on the player at IndianaTalks.com
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in Indiana Talks

Pittsburgh Talks
Pittsburgh, PA
Saturday 2/28
8pm ET, 5pm PT
Sunday 3/1 
6pm ET, 3pm PT 
Click on the player at PittTalks.com
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in Pittsburgh Talks

KSCO-AM 1080
San Jose, Santa Cruz and Salinas, CA
KOMY-AM 1340
La Selva Beach and Watsonville, CA
Sunday 3/1
10am ET, 7am PT
Also streaming at KSCO.com 

Boost Radio Network
Paramus, NJ
Sunday 3/1
8pm ET, 5pm PT
Click on the On the Air button at BoostRadioNetwork.com

KHMB-AM 1710
Half Moon Bay, CA
Sunday 3/1
9pm PT
Monday 3/2
Midnight ET
Click on the Listen Live button at KHMBRadio.com
or use the Live365 app on your smartphone and type in KHMB

RadioSlot.com
San Francisco, CA
Monday 3/2
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

James Sheldon directed not only many of the great shows from the first forty years of network television, but virtually every kind of network television show imaginable, beginning with the very first commercial network program (We the People, telecast nationally on CBS on June 1, 1948), as well as live dramas, anthology shows, Westerns, sitcoms, action adventure, musicals, private eye shows, police dramas, legal dramas, nighttime soap operas, interview programs and everything in between, including such classic shows as Naked City, The Twilight Zone, Route 66, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, The Fugitive, My Three Sons, Family Affair, Batman, Ironside, Ellery Queen, Cagney and Lacey, Dallas, M*A*S*H, Sanford and Son, Room 222 and The Waltons. During that time Jim experienced many technological changes in television, plus he helped launch the careers of James Dean, Paul Newman, Carroll O'Connor, Clint Eastwood, Lee Remick, Tony Randall, Tyne Daly and many other actors.

Jim has captured dozens of stories about his life and career in television in an excellent book, Before I Forget: Directing Television, 1948-1988. James Sheldon will be joining us in our second hour. 

Also this week: Greg Ehrbar’s latest DVD report, and Tony Figueroa and Donna Allen with a brand new This Week in TV History. 

TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about television
Wed and Sun 8pm ET, 5pm PT on WROM Radio 
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 
Sat 8pm ET, 5pm PT and Sun 6pm ET, 3pm PT on Pittsburgh Talks
Sun 10am ET, 7am PT KSCO-AM 1080 (San Jose, Santa Cruz and Salinas, CA)
Sun 10am ET, 7am PT KOMY-AM 1340 (La Selva Beach and Watsonville, CA)
Sun 8pm ET, 5pm PT Boost Radio Network 
Sun 9pm PT, Mon Mid ET on KHMB-AM 1710 (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

This Week in Television History: February 2015 PART IV

Listen to me on TV CONFIDENTIAL:

CLICK HERE for a list of Stations

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.

February 24, 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.

Two days prior on February 22, 1980 was the "Miracle on Ice". The U.S. men's ice hockey team, led by coach Herb Brooks, defeated the Soviet Union team, 4 - 3. 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 9, 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!!!"

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.

President Jimmy Carter was considering a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics, to bheld in Moscow out of protest to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. President Carter eventually confirmed the boycott on March 21, 1980.

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.

February 25, 1950

Comedy program Your Show of Shows, hosted by Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, first airs.

Although the show lasted only four seasons, it became a classic of television's golden era, featuring comedy by future stars Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Woody Allen, and others. The series was one of television's Top 20 hits for three of its four years.

February 27, 1940

Howard Hesseman is born. 

The actor is best known for playing disc jockey Johnny Fever on WKRP in Cincinnati and schoolteacher Charlie Moore on Head of the Class.

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

 

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa