TV CONFIDENTIAL Archives: Show No. 300, 301, 302, 303 and 304.

In addition, select programs from the past two years are available for purchase for a nominal fee. Click here for more information.

Show No. 300 with guest Bo Svenson
Original Airdate: Week of Dec. 9-14, 2015
First hour: Tony Figueroa and Donna Allen remember the 50^th anniversary of A Charlie Brown Christmas and the 35^th anniversary of Magnum, p.i. Also in this hour: Ed commemorates Frank Sinatra’s 100^th birthday by playing highlights from our conversations with Robert Davi and Barbara van Orden about the legacy of Ole Blue Eyes, as a singer, actor and humanitarian. 
Second hour: Actor, producer and director Bo Svenson (Breaking Point, North Dallas Forty, Kill Bill, Here Come the Brides, Inglorious Basterds) talks to Ed about his upcoming film Don’t Call Me Sir, the inspiring story of groundbreaking judo legend Rusty Kanokogi, which will also feature the acting debut of Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison. For information on the film, go to SupportDontCallMeSir.com. Also in this hour: Phil Gries remembers the NBC 1967 telecast of Annie Get Your Gun as part of The Sounds of Lost Television.

Show No. 301 with guest Lorraine Santoli
Original Airdate: Week of Dec. 16-21, 2015
First hour: Tony Figueroa and Donna Allen remember the birth of baby Joey Stivic on All in the Family, which originally aired during This Week in TV History. Also in this hour: Greg Ehrbar discusses the recent DVD releases of The Original Christmas Classics Gift Sets and The Glen Campbell Christmas Special. 
Second hour: Ed and Greg welcome Lorraine Santoli, author of four books, onetime publicist for the Walt Disney Company, and former director of corporate synergy for the entire Disney company. Lorraine’s latest book, Inside the Disney Marketing Machine: In the Era of Michael Eisner and Frank Wells, discusses what synergy is, how it came to shape the way in which Disney has done business over the past three decades, and how it helped shaped such promotional campaigns as the famous “I’m Going to Disneyland” spots that we see at the end of every Super Bowl. 

Show No. 302 with guest James Bigwood
Original Airdate: Week of Jan. 6-11, 2016
First hour: Tony Figueroa and Donna Allen discuss the legacy of the Batman television series, which premiered fifty years ago This Week in TV History. The segment includes highlights from our October 2013 conversation with Joel Eisner, author of The Official Batman Batbook. Also in this hour: Greg Ehrbar with a look of recently released Peanuts specials on DVD. 
Second hour: James Bigwood joins Ed for a look at the life and career of Alan Napier, the British actor best known to many TV viewers as Alfred the butler on Batman. Jim is co-author of Not Just Batman’s Butler: The Autobiography of Alan Napier, a combination memoir, biography and filmography that is largely based on a manuscript that Napier wrote himself in 1969. Not Just Batman’s Butler is available through McFarlandPub.com. You can also order it by calling (800) 253-2187. 

Show No. 303 with guests Dee Wallace and Stu Shostak
Original Airdate: Week of Jan. 13-18, 2016
First hour: A replay of our January 2012 conversation with Emmy Award-winning actor/comedian Pat Harrington, which discussed not only how Pat came to play Schneider on One Day at a Time, but many of his early experiences in television, including his work with Steve Allen. Also in this hour: TV historian and Internet radio host Stu Shostak (Stu’s Show) joins Ed, Tony and Donna to share some personal memories of Harrington, whom he knew as a friend since 1975. 
Second hour: Actress, author and teacher Dee Wallace (E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, Cujo, The Howling, The Frighteners, Critters), joins Ed to discusses her new series on Amazon Prime, Just Add Magic; her upcoming appearance on Supernatural; and how she came to develop Buppa LaPaloo, a teddy bear that teaches the importance of self love to children ages four to seven.

Show No. 304 with guest Anson Williams
Original Airdate: Week of Jan. 20-25, 2016
Actor, author, director and entrepreneur Anson Williams (Happy Days, Singing to a Bulldog) joins Ed, Tony and Donna for a conversation about his success in business, his approach to creating consumer products, and his experience on Happy Days. (The interview begins about 45 minutes into the first hour and continues until the end of the program.) Anson’s latest book, The Perfect Portion Cookbook, is a guide to making your favorite comfort foods (all in 100-calorie portions) that also reflects Anson’s business philosophy. The Perfect Portion Cookbook will be officially launched on QVC on Sunday, Feb. 7. Also this week: Part 1 of our look at 2015: The Year in Television, plus a replay of a 2012 interview with Henry Winkler co-conducted by Ed and Gary Snyder.

Your Mental Sorbet: The Bionic Woman - Black Magic

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.

Jaime is sent to a remote island to impersonate the niece of the Carstairs family. When the family is sent on a scavenger hunt to find their dead brother's fortune, it's up to Jaime to locate it first and obtain the formula for a top-secret alloy. 

Guest Cast
Vincent Price (Manfred Carstairs and Cyrus Carstairs) 
William Windom (Warfield) 
Hermione Baddeley (Aunt Tess)
Julie Newmar (Claudette)
and 
Abe Vigoda (Barlow)


Black Magic Part I by wwevideo007

Black Magic Part II by wwevideo007

Black Magic Part III by wwevideo007

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Revisiting Dragnet and the Legacy of Jack Webb: Next on TVC

Television writer, producer and director Joseph Dougherty leads a roundtable discussion on the career of Jack Webb on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, premiering Jan. 27-Feb. 1 at the following times and venues:

WROM Radio
Detroit, MI
Wednesday 1/27
8pm ET, 5pm PT
2am ET, 11pm PT
Sunday 1/31
8pm ET, 5pm PT
2am ET, 11pm PT
Click on the Listen Live button at WROMRadio.net

KHDN AM-1230
KBSR AM-1490
KYLW AM-1450
Billings, MT
part of GLN Radio Network
Friday 1/29
3pm ET, Noon PT
Saturday 1/30
6pm ET, 3pm PT
Monday 2/1
3pm ET, Noon PT

Share-a-Vision Radio
San Francisco Bay Area
Friday 1/29
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 1/30
8pm ET, 5pm PT
Sunday 1/31
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 1/31
9am ET, 6am PT
Also streaming at KSCO.com

KHMB AM-1710
KHMV-LP 100.9 FM
Half Moon Bay, CA
Sunday 1/31
9pm PT
Monday 2/1
Midnight ET
Click on the Listen Live button at KHMBRadio.com

RadioSlot.com
San Francisco, CA
Monday 2/1
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

Emmy Award-winning writer, producer and director Joseph Dougherty (thirtysomething, Saving Grace, Pretty Little Liars) returns this week as we take a fresh look at Dragnet, the iconic television series created by Jack Webb that, unfortunately, has often been derided in recent decades. After recently rediscovering the original Dragnet series on radio, Joe went back to the original 1950s television version of Dragnet and, as he explained to us, “what I found there was nothing short of culture shock. I'd experienced Jack Webb at the end of his career, and the late 1960s incarnation of Dragnet. I had no idea of what was really going on in the 1950s series. I'd like to sit down and talk about my own revelations about how Webb essentially invented the procedural drama and how bold some of those early shows were.”

That’s exactly what we’ll do in the second hour of this week’s program. Joining Joe in our roundtable discussion will be writer, producer and TV scholar Dan Farren (Story Salon) and Tony Figueroa. We hope you’ll join us as well.







The first hour of this week’s show will feature Part 2 of our look at 2015: The Year in Television, with a particular focus on notable passings in the world of entertainment.

TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about television
Wed and Sun 8pm ET, 5pm PT on WROM Radio
Fri and Mon 3pm ET, Noon PT and Sat 6pm ET, 3pm PT on GLN Radio Network
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
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Abe Vigoda... no really

While living in Los Angeles, I'd jog three to five miles a day. One morning jogging, my agent calls about a new series called Barney Miller, saying, "Go there at once." — Abe Vigoda

Abraham Charles "Abe" VigodaFebruary 24, 1921 – January 26, 2016

Abe Vigoda died today at the age of 94.

Vigoda was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1921, a son of Samuel and Lena (Moses) Vigoda, Jewishimmigrants from Russia. His father was a tailor who had three sons: Abe, Hy and Bill —a comic book artist who drew for the Archie comics franchise and others in the 1940s. The name "Vigoda" in Russian ("выгода") means benefit/advantage/profit/gain.

Vigoda began acting while in his teens, working with the American Theatre Wing. His career as a professional actor began in 1947.

Vigoda gained acting notability in the 1960s with his work in Broadway productions, including Marat/Sade (1967) playing "Mad Animal", The Man in the Glass Booth (1968) playing "Landau", Inquest (1970), and Tough to Get Help (1972). His best-known film role is that of elder mobster Salvatore Tessio in The Godfather (1972). He also appeared briefly in The Godfather Part II in a flashback sequence at the end of the film.According to director Francis Ford Coppola's commentary on the DVD's widescreen edition, Vigoda landed the role of Tessio in an "open call," in which actors who don't have agents can come in for an audition. 

He gained further fame playing Detective Sgt. Phil Fish on Barney Miller, a character known for his world-weary demeanor and persistent hemorrhoids. Vigoda landed the role after an unusual audition in which he unwittingly displayed his perfection for the role.

Vigoda starred alongside Florence Stanley and Todd Bridges (before Diff'rent Strokes fame) in a brief spinoff of Barney Miller that centered on his character, eponymously called Fish, until it was canceled in June 1978. According to Bridges, just 12 during the show's second season, Fish was scrubbed after Vigoda demanded more money for a third season than the producers were willing to pay.

Before Barney Miller, he made a few appearances on the ABC TV soap Dark Shadows as Ezra Braithwaite and Otis Greene.

In 1982 People magazine mistakenly referred to Vigoda as dead. At the time, Vigoda was performing in a stage play in Calgary. He took the mistake with good humor, posing for a photograph published in Variety in which he was sitting up in a coffin, holding the erroneous issue of People. Jeff Jarvis, a People employee at the time, said that the magazine's editors were known for "messing up" stories, and one of them repeatedly inserted the phrase "the late" in reference to Vigoda, even after a researcher correctly removed it. The edited (erroneous) version was what went to print.

The same mistake was made in 1987 when a reporter for television station WWOR, Channel 9 in Secaucus, New Jersey, mistakenly referred to him as "the late Abe Vigoda". She realized and corrected her mistake the next day.

Vigoda has been the subject of many running gags pertaining to the mistaken reports of his death. In 1997, Vigoda appeared in the film Good Burger as the character Otis, a restaurant's French fry man. Several jokes were made about his advanced age, including Otis saying "I should've died years ago." A Late Night with David Letterman skit showed Letterman trying to summon Vigoda's ghost, but Vigoda walked in and declared, "I'm not dead yet, you pinhead!"

In May 2001, a website was mounted with only one purpose: to report whether Vigoda was dead or alive. In 2005, a "tongue-in-cheek" Firefox extension was released with the sole purpose of telling the browser user Vigoda's status.

Continuing with the gag, Vigoda appeared frequently to make fun of his status on the television show Late Night with Conan O'Brien, including a guest appearance on the show's final episode.

On January 23, 2009, Vigoda appeared live on The Today Show. He said he was doing well, joked about previous reports of his death and announced he had just completed a voice-over for an H&R Block commercial to air during the Super Bowl.

In the 1998 New York Friars' Club roast of Drew Carey, with Vigoda in the audience, comedian Jeffrey Ross joked, "my one regret is that Abe Vigoda isn't alive to see this". He followed that with "Drew, you're a big gambler, what's the over-under on Abe Vigoda?"

“When I was a young man, I was told success had to come in my youth. I found this to be a myth. My experiences have taught me that if you deeply believe in what you are doing, success can come at any age.” — Abe Vigoda

Good Night Mr. Vigoda
I still don't believe you are really gone...

Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa