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"
First hour: Actor Larry Manetti joins Ed and Frankie. Larry's book, Aloha: Magnum, is the first book to take readers behind the scenes of the long-running private eye series Magnum, p.i. and also features great stories about his friendship with Tom Selleck and fellow cast members John Hillerman and Roger E. Mosley. Also in the hour: Ed and Frankie remember Fess Parker, Peter Graves and Merlin Olsen.
Second hour: Ed, Frankie and guest co-host Tony Figueroa welcome author and media guru Phil Cooke. Phil’s latest book, The Last TV Evangelist, is an inside look at the world of religious media and the challenges facing religious leaders to reach today's generation.
Listen to me on TV CONFIDENTIAL with Ed Robertson and Frankie Montiforte Broadcast LIVE every other Monday at 9pm ET, 6pm PT (immediately following STU'S SHOW) on Shokus Internet Radio. The program will then be repeated Tuesday thru Sunday at the same time (9pm ET, 6pm PT)on Shokus Radio for the next two weeks, and then will be posted on line at our archives page at TVConfidential.net. We are also on Share-a-Vision Radio (KSAV.org) Friday at 7pm PT and ET, either before or after the DUSTY RECORDS show, depending on where you live.
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.
March 30, 1962 Jack Paar films his final episode of The Tonight Show.
Paar had hosted the show since July 1957, six months after Steve Allen stepped down. Paar was known for his emotional outbursts, which included walking off the set of The Tonight Show on February 11, 1960, to protest network censorship of his jokes. The unflappable Johnny Carson took over as host starting in October 1962.
March 31, 1992 Dateline NBC premieres.
NBC had long attempted to catch up with popular newsmagazines on CBS and ABC, which consistently drew top ratings, but failed until the debut of Dateline NBC. In November 1992, the show caused a scandal when it was revealed that an expose on General Motors trucks was rigged to show a dramatic explosion. Dateline NBC aired an investigative report on Tuesday, November 17th, 1992, titled “Waiting to Explode.” The 60 minute program was about General Motorspickup trucks allegedly exploding upon impact during accidents due to the poor design of fuel tanks. Dateline's film showed a sample of a low speed accident with the fuel tank exploding. In reality, Dateline NBC producers had rigged the truck’s fuel tank with remotely controlled explosives. The program did not disclose the fact that the accident was staged. GM investigators studied the film, and discovered that smoke actually came out of the fuel tank 6 frames before impact. GM subsequently filed an anti-defamation/libel lawsuit against NBC after conducting an extensive investigation. On Monday, February 8, 1993 GM conducted a highly publicized point-by-point rebuttal in the Product Exhibit Hall of the General Motors Building in Detroit that lasted nearly two hours after announcing the lawsuit. The lawsuit was settled the same week by NBC, and Jane Pauley read a 3 minute 30 second on-air apology to viewers.
April 1, 1949 The first TV variety show starring an African-American cast debuts. The show, Happy Pappy, starred Ray Grant as master of ceremonies. It first aired on local television in Chicago.
April 3, 1956 Elvis sings his first RCA recording, "Heartbreak Hotel," on NBC's Milton Berle Show.
An estimated 25 percent of America's population saw him sing that night; by April 21, the song had become Elvis' first No. 1 single.
April 4, 1969
The CBS Television Network fired the Smothers Brothers because the brothers failed to submit an episode of 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 constituded 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". The episode featured the second of David Steinberg’s satirical sermonettes. The first one caused controversy for being sacrilegious. That episode is now on the Smothers Brothers: The Best of Season 3 DVD.
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. http://www.smothersbrothers.com/press_room/tomsteveemmy.jpg YouTube - Steve Martin Tommy Smothers Emmy 2008 Almost 40 Years later (Sunday, September 21st 2008) during the live television broadcast of the 60th Annual Emmy Awards, 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
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
Here is another "Mental Sorbet" that we could use to momentarily forget about those things that leave a bad taste in our mouths.
NBC Special saluting the 25th Anniversary of "The Wonderful World of Disney" Television Show.Fess Parker and Buddy Ebsen. Famous asDavy Crockett and Sidekick George Russell in Walt Disneys "Frontierland"TV-Show.
Actor and scriptwriter Robert Culp died today after he hit his head from a fall that took place outside his Los Angeles home. He was 79 years old. Culp earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on I Spy (1965-1968), the espionageseries, where he and co-star Bill Cosby played a pair of secret agents.
Culp was born Robert Martin Culp on August 16, 1930 in Oakland, California. He graduated from Berkeley High School. He also attended the University of Washington School of Drama and graduated from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. He was married five times and had three sons and two daughters. From 1967-1970, he was married to Eurasian actress France Nuyen, whom he met when she guest-starred on I Spy in 1966. She appeared in four episodes of the series, two of them written by Culp himself. During the series run, Culp wrote scripts for seven episodes, one of which he also directed. He also wrote scripts for several other television series, including Trackdown.
Culp came to national attention very early in his career as the star of the 1957-1959 Western television series Trackdown in which he played Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman. Trackdown was a spin-off of Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, also on CBS. Culp's character was introduced in an episode titled Badge of Honor. Culp had previously appeared in two other episodes of Zane Grey Theater - "Morning Incident" and "Calico Bait" (both 1960) playing different roles. Trackdown then had a CBS spin-off of its own: Wanted: Dead or Alive, with Steve McQueen as bounty hunter Josh Randall. After his series ended in 1959, Culp continued to work in television, including a guest-starring role as Stewart Douglas in the 1960 episode "So Dim the Light" of CBS's anthology series, The DuPont Show with June Allyson. He appeared too on the NBC anthology series, The Barbara Stanwyck Show. Moreover, Culp was cast as Captain Shark in a first season episode of NBC's The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964). Among his more memorable performances were in three episodes of the science-fiction anthology series The Outer Limits (1963-1965), including the classic "Demon with a Glass Hand", written by Harlan Ellison. In the 1961-1962 season, he guest starred on ABC's crime dramaTarget: The Corruptors!. In the 1962-1963 season, he guest starred in NBC's modern Western series Empire starring Richard Egan. In the episode, he got into a boxing match with series co-star Ryan O'Neal. Culp then played secret agent Kelly Robinson, who masqueraded as a professional tennis player, for three years on the hit NBC series I Spy (1965-68), with co-star Bill Cosby. Culp wrote the scripts for seven episodes, one of which he also directed. One episode earned him an Emmy nomination for writing. For all three years of the series he was also nominated for an acting Emmy (Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series category), but lost each time to Cosby. He played a murderer in three separate Columbo episodes. Prior to that, he, Peter Falk, Robert Wagner and Darren McGavin each stepped in to take turns with Anthony Franciosa's rotation of NBC's series The Name of the Game after Franciosa was fired, alternating a lead role of the lavish 90-minute show about the magazine business with Gene Barry and Robert Stack.
In 1981 he got his big break back into the television realm when he starred in The Greatest American Hero, he played tough-as-nails-by-the-book-FBI Agent Bill Maxwell who gets teamed up with a special education teacher named Ralph Hinkley after Ralph receives a supersuit with special powers from aliens delivered by a flying saucer. That show only lasted three years ending in 1983 but the character of Bill Maxwell will always be remembered by some Culp fans. He reprised the role in a voice-over role on the stop-motion sketch comedy Robot Chicken.
In 1987, he reunited with Bill Cosby, this time on The Cosby Show, playing Dr. Cliff Huxtable's old friend Scott Kelly. The name was a combination of their I Spy characters' names. When Larry Hagman entered into contract negotiations over his character of J.R. Ewing in Dallas it was widely reported that Culp was ready to step into the role with an explanation that J.R.'s face had been altered following an accident. However this turned out to be a false rumor. Culp has said in interviews that he was never contacted by anyone from Dallas about the part. He was working on The Greatest American Hero at the time and has stated that he would not have left his role as Maxwell even if it had been offered. One of his most recent recurring roles was a part on Everybody Loves Raymond as Warren Whelan, Ray's father-in-law. He appeared on episodes of many other television programs including a 1961 season three episode of Bonanza titled Broken Ballad, as well as The Golden Girls, The Nanny, The Girls Next Door and Wings.
Although primarily known from television, Culp has also worked as an actor in many theatrical films, beginning with three in 1963: As naval officer John F. Kennedy's good friend Ensign George Ross in PT 109, as legendary gunslingerWild Bill Hickok in The Raiders and as the debonair fiance of Jane Fonda in the romantic comedy Sunday in New York. He went on to star in the provocative Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice in 1969, probably the height of his movie career. Another memorable role came as another gunslinger, Thomas Luther Price, in Hannie Caulder (1971) opposite Raquel Welch. A year later, Hickey & Boggs reunited him with Cosby for the first time since I Spy. Culp also directed this feature film, in which he and Cosby portray over-the-hill private eyes. In 1986, he had a primary role as General Woods in the comedy Combat Academy. Culp played the U.S. President in Alan J. Pakula's 1994 murder mystery The Pelican Brief starring Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts. In all, Culp has given hundreds of performances in a career spanning more than 50 years.
Listen to me on TV CONFIDENTIAL with Ed Robertson and Frankie Montiforte Broadcast LIVE every other Monday at 9pm ET, 6pm PT (immediately following STU'S SHOW) on Shokus Internet Radio. The program will then be repeated Tuesday thru Sunday at the same time (9pm ET, 6pm PT)on Shokus Radio for the next two weeks, and then will be posted on line at our archives page at TVConfidential.net. We are also on Share-a-Vision Radio (KSAV.org) Friday at 7pm PT and ET, either before or after the DUSTY RECORDS show, depending on where you live.
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.
March 23, 1940 Truth or Consequences originally aired on NBC radio with its creator, Ralph Edwards, as the Host. A decade later it moved to television on CBS. Contestants on the show were asked trick questions which they almost always failed to answer correctly. If they answered incorrectly, or failed to come up with any answer in a short time, Beulah the Buzzer went off. The host then told them that since they had failed to tell the truth, they would have to pay the consequences. Consequences consisted of elaborate stunts, some done in the studio and others done outside, some completed on that week's episode and others taking a week or more and requiring the contestant to return when the stunt was completed. Some of the stunts were funny, but more often they were also embarrassing, and occasionally they were sentimental like the reunion with a long-lost relative or a relative/spouse returning from military duty overseas, particularly Vietnam. Sometimes, if that military person was based in California, his or her spouse or parents were flown in for that reunion. The spa city of "Hot Springs" in Sierra County, New Mexico took the name Truth or Consequences in1950, when host Ralph Edwards announced that he would do the program from the first town that renamed itself after the show. Ralph Edwards came to the town during the first weekend of May for the next fifty years. The original TV version of this series, with Edwards as host, lasted only a single season. When in returned three years later on NBC, Jack Bailey was the host, later replaced by Steve Dunne. NBC aired a daytime version of the show from 1956 to 1965, first with Jack Bailey again as host, succeeded by Bob Barker. Barker remained with the show through the rest of the daytime run and on into the original syndicated run from 1966 to 1974. During Barker's run as host, "Barker's Box" was played. Barker's Box was a box with four drawers in it. A contestant able to pick the drawer with money in it won a bonus prize. Bob Hilton hosted a short-lived syndicated revival from 1977 to1978 and in the fall of 1987, comic Larry Anderson became the host of another short-lived version.
March 24, 1980 The late-night news program Nightline, anchored Ted Koppel, airs for the first time on ABC. The show that would become Nightline first aired during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, during which Iranians seized the U.S. embassy in Iran, taking 66 Americans hostage. To cover the story as it unfolded, ABC debuted a late-night news show called The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage, which was normally anchored by Frank Reynolds. When the crisis ended, the show became a more general news show called Nightline and Koppel, who had already worked for ABC News in various capacities since 1963, became its anchor.
Throughout its tenure on television, Nightline has aired five nights a week at 11:30 p.m., competing with NBC’s The Tonight Show and CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman for viewers during much of that time. Despite some threats of cancellation over the years, Koppel’s professionalism and the show’s unique mix of long-format interviews and investigative journalism kept the show popular with audiences. Nightline remains the only news show of its genre to air every weeknight. In November 2005, Ted Koppel left Nightline, he was replaced by the three-anchor team of Martin Bashir, Cynthia McFadden and Terry Moran. The program also introduced a new multi-topic format. In the past, each show had concentrated on a single topic. To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
Actor Larry Manetti is scheduled to join us on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, premiering Monday, March 22 at 9pm ET, 6pm PT on Shokus Internet Radio, with a rebroadcast Friday, March 26 at 7pm ET and PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org. Best known for playing Rick, the manager of the King Kamehameha Club on Magnum, p.i., Larry Manetti is also the author of Aloha, Magnum, the first book to take readers behind the scenes of long-running private eye series. Aloha, Magnum not only tells the story behind the creation and development of Magnum, but is filled with great stories of Larry's sometimes rowdy, but always amusing encounters with Hollywood's elite, including Elvis Presley, Robert Conrad, Connie Stevens, Michelle Pfeiffer and Frank Sinatra. Larry Manetti will be joining us in our first hour.
Joining us in our second hour will be author and media guru Phil Cooke. Phil's latest book, The Last TV Evangelist, is an inside look at the world of religious media - a billion-dollar industry that has built massive networks, launched global organizations and allowed Christianity to reach more people in this century alone than the rest of history combined. But that impact has come with a price, as scandals, controversies and the "prosperity gospel" have clouded the perception of Christian evangelism in today's culture. Phil's book explores what it will take to for religious media to reach the next generation before the industry completely collapses.
If you want to be part of our conversation, we invite you to join us for our live broadcast Monday, March 22 beginning at 9pm ET, 6pm PT on Shokus Internet Radio.
TV CONFIDENTIAL with Ed Robertson and Frankie Montiforte Every night at 9pm ET, 6pm PT Shokus Internet Radio Fridays 7pm ET and PT Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org http://www.tvconfidential.net/ blog.tvconfidential.net Also available as a podcast via iTunes and FeedBurner
Peter Graves was born Peter Aurness on March 18, 1926 in Minneapolis, Minnesota (He was the younger brother of actor James Arness). Graves died of a heart attack yesterday, just four days prior to his 84th birthday. He collapsed outside his home in Pacific Palisades, shortly after returning from a Sunday brunch with his family. His daughter administered CPR in an attempt to revive him.
Graves appeared in more than seventy films, TV series and TV movies. He is best known Jim Phelps, the leader of the elite Impossible Missions Force in the iconic CBS TV series Mission: Impossible from 1967 to 1973, and its revival, from 1988 to 1990 and Captain Clarence Oveur in the comedies Airplane! (“You ever seen a grown man naked?”)and Airplane II: The Sequel.
During the 1990s, he hosted the documentary series Biography on A&E. Graves received a Golden Globe Award in 1971 for his role as Jim Phelps on Mission: Impossible. He also received nominations for an Emmy Award and Golden Globe awards in other seasons of that show. Graves also won a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding informational series in 1997 as host of Biography. On October 30, 2009 Graves was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Good Night Mr. Phelps and good luck on your new mission.
Listen to me on TV CONFIDENTIAL with Ed Robertson and Frankie Montiforte Broadcast LIVE every other Monday at 9pm ET, 6pm PT (immediately following STU'S SHOW) on Shokus Internet Radio. The program will then be repeated Tuesday thru Sunday at the same time (9pm ET, 6pm PT)on Shokus Radio for the next two weeks, and then will be posted on line at our archives page at TVConfidential.net. We are also on Share-a-Vision Radio (KSAV.org) Friday at 7pm PT and ET, either before or after the DUSTY RECORDS show, depending on where you live.
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.
March 19, 1953 First Academy Awards program on network TV. The first network broadcast of the Academy Awards takes place on this day in 1953. Some 174 stations across the country carried the awards. Gary Cooper won Best Actor for his performance in High Noon, and Shirley Booth won Best Actress for her role in Come Back, Little Sheba. The Greatest Show on Earth won Best Picture.
March 21, 1980 J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman), the character millions loved to hate on TV’s popular nighttime drama Dallas, was shot. The shooting made the season finale, titled A House Divided, one of television’s most famous cliffhangers and left America wondering “Who shot J.R.?” Dallas fans waited for the next eight months to have that question answered because the season premiere of Dallas was delayed due to a Screen Actors Guild strike. That summer, the question “Who Shot J.R.?” entered the national lexicon. Fan’s wore T-shirts printed with "Who Shot J.R.?" and "I Shot J.R.". A session of the Turkish parliament was suspended to allow legislators a chance to get home in time to view the Dallas episode. Betting parlors worldwide took bets as to which one of the 10 or so principal characters had actually pulled the trigger. J.R. had many enemies and audiences were hard-pressed to guess who was responsible for the shooting.
The person who pulled the trigger was revealed to be J.R.’s sister in law/mistress Kristin Shepard (Mary Crosby) in the "Who Done It?" episode which aired on November 21, 1980. It was, at the time, the highest rated television episode in US history. It had a Nielsen rating of 53.3 and a 76% share, and it was estimated that 83,000,000 people watched the episode. The previous record for a TV episode, not counting the final installment of the miniseries Roots, had been the 1967 finale for The Fugitive. "Who Shot J.R.?" now sits second on the list, being beaten in 1983 by the final episode of M*A*S*H but still remains the highest rated non-finale episode of a TV series.
The series, based on the children's book by Laura Ingalls Wilder, premiered in 1974. The show was one of television's 25 most highly rated shows for seven of its nine seasons. When series star and executive producer Michael Landon decided to leave the show in 1982, the show's title changed to Little House: A New Beginning and focused on character Laura Ingalls Wilder (Melissa Gilbert) and her family. The show lasted only one more season. Three made-for-television movie sequels followed: Little House: Look Back to Yesterday (1983), Little House: Bless All the Dear Children (1983), and Little House: The Last Farewell (1984). To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
First hour: Author Sherry Kelly (The Big Life of a Little Man) joins Ed and Frankie as they remember the life and career of actor Michael Dunn (The Wild, Wild West, Ship of Fools). Also: Ed and Frankie comment on The Marriage Ref, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Parenthood and other recent television premieres.
Here is another "Mental Sorbet" that we could use to momentarily forget about those things that leave a bad taste in our mouths.
Judith Lowry (July 27, 1890 - November 29, 1976) was best remembered role was as the acid-tongued "Mother Dexter" on the 1970s sitcom, Phyllis, which starred Cloris Leachman. Phyllis is the second spin-off of The Mary Tyler Moore Show (the first being Rhoda) created by Ed Weinberger and Stan Daniels. The show starred Cloris Leachman as Phyllis Lindstrom, who was previously Mary Richards' landlady on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. In the new series, Phyllis and her daughter Bess Lindstrom moved from Minneapolis to San Francisco, after the death of her husband, Dr. Lars Lindstrom. It was revealed that San Francisco was Phyllis' and Lars' original hometown, prior to their moving to Minneapolis, and that his mother and stepfather still resided there.
Fiesty octogenarian Mother Dexter is late for her wedding because Phyllis forgot to pick her up, so she is forced to hail a taxi on her wedding day. In a 1976 episode, Jonathan's cranky and outspoken Mother Dexter (Judith Lowry), Phyllis' main nemesis, married Arthur Lanson (Burt Mustin); both Lowry and Mustin died within a month of the episode's airing.
Story Salon is Los Angeles’s longest running storytelling venue. What began as an alternative to stand-up clubs and self-conscious performance spaces has been challenging performers and audiences for more than a decade. Created in a North Hollywood coffee house Story Salon now reaches the globe through Podcasting, publishing, and recordings. The rules of the Story Salon haven’t changed since it started: Five to seven minutes of original material performed by the author. The result is a unique blend of observation, memoir and comment that makes the Salon one of the most eclectic entertainment experiences available. More than a dozen solo theater works have been developed at Story Salon, as well as a CD of stories, and several books. “Live storytelling is a unique art form,” says Story Salon founder, writer/actor/comedian Beverly Mickins. “Words spoken aloud paint pictures capable of evoking laughter and tears, the whole range of emotion. People have been telling each other stories since the first campfires, talking about the whole mix of things, important and trivial, that go into making life. Storytelling is one of the ways we figure out how to be human.”
Listen to me on TV CONFIDENTIAL with Ed Robertson and Frankie Montiforte Broadcast LIVE every other Monday at 9pm ET, 6pm PT (immediately following STU'S SHOW) on Shokus Internet Radio. The program will then be repeated Tuesday thru Sunday at the same time (9pm ET, 6pm PT)on Shokus Radio for the next two weeks, and then will be posted on line at our archives page at TVConfidential.net. We are also on Share-a-Vision Radio (KSAV.org) Friday at 7pm PT and ET, either before or after the DUSTY RECORDS show, depending on where you live.
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.
March 9, 1959 The International Toy Fair in New York premiered Barbie. That event was followed by 50 years of Barbie comercials during Saturday morning cartoons. This is the first Barbie commercial that aired during the Mickey Mouse Club.
March 9, 1976 ABC premiered Family, a weekly prime-time drama about a Pasadena California suburban family. The show was created by novelist and screenwriter Jay Presson Allen, directed by film director Mark Rydell, and produced by film director Mike Nichols, as well as television moguls Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg.
The show featured James Broderick and Sada Thompson as Doug and Kate Lawrence. Doug was an independent lawyer, and Kate was a housewife. They had three children: Nancy (portrayed by Elayne Heilveil in the original mini-series and later by Meredith Baxter Birney), Willie (Gary Frank), Letitia, nicknamed "Buddy" (Kristy McNichol) and the family later adopted a girl named Annie Cooper (Quinn Cummings). The show attempted to depict the "average" family, warts and all. Storylines were very topical, and the show was one of the first to feature shows to be termed as "very special episodes."
In the first episode, Nancy, who was pregnant with her second child, walked in on her husband Jeff (John Rubinstein) making love to one of her friends. Other topical storylines included Kate having to deal with the possibility that she had breast cancer. In the later seasons, there were instances in which Buddy had to decide whether or not to have sex (She always chose to wait, most notably in an episode with guest star/teen idol Leif Garrett). One episode featured guest-star Henry Fonda as a visiting elderly relative who was beginning to experience senility.
During its five seasons Family received fourteen Emmy Award nominations, three of them for Outstanding Drama Series. The show won four awards all in acting categories: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (Sada Thompson in 1977), Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Kristy McNichol in 1976 and 1978) and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Gary Frank in 1976).
March 10, 1989 Fox network primered the reality series COPS. The show that follows police officers, constables, and sheriff's deputies during patrols and other police activities. The show came out right after the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike and the new network needed material. An unscripted show that did not require writers would be ideal for FOX.
The show covered COPS in 140 different cities in the United States, and also filmed in Hong Kong, London, and the former Soviet Union. 2,044 arrests have been made on COPS. The oldest person arrested was 90 years old (for battery) The youngest person arrested was 7 years old (for a bike theft) Roughly 120 hours of footage goes into one broadcast segment.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
The life and career of dwarf actor Michael Dunn will be among the topics of conversation on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, premiering Monday, March 8 at 9pm ET, 6pm PT on Shokus Internet Radio, with a rebroadcast Friday, March 12 at 7pm ET and PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org. Best known for playing the evil Dr. Miguelito Loveless on television's The Wild, Wild West, as well as his Oscar-nominated performance in the 1965 film classic Ship of Fools, singer/actor Michael Dunn led an amazing life from childhood until his sudden death in 1973 at the age of thirty-eight. Born with dwarfism, Dunn overcame constant pain throughout his brief life to leave an inimitable mark on stage, screen and television. Joining us this week as we remember this TV icon will be Sherry Kelly, author of a new biography on Michael Dunn, The Big Life of a Little Man. She'll be with us in our first hour.
If you want to be part of our conversation, we invite you to join us for our live broadcast Monday, March 8 beginning at 9pm ET, 6pm PT on Shokus Internet Radio. Phone number is (888) SHOKUS-5 / (888) 746-5875. Email address is talk@tvconfidential.net.
TV CONFIDENTIAL with Ed Robertson and Frankie MontiforteEvery night at 9pm ET, 6pm PT Shokus Internet Radio Fridays 7pm ET and PT Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.orghttp://www.tvconfidential.net/blog.tvconfidential.netAlso available as a podcast via iTunes and FeedBurner
MAILING LIST ADVISORY: You have received this message because you recently contacted Ed Robertson with respect to his books Thirty Years of The Rockford Files, The Fugitive Recaptured, The Ethics of Star Trek and Maverick: Legend of the West, or his appearances on Talking Television with Dave White (Share-a-Vision Radio) and Doctor Rerun (The Ronn Owens Program). No one is placed on this list without their consent, nor will anyone's name be distributed to any additional email lists. Announcements will go out every other week, so the number of emails you receive from this address should not exceed two per month. If you do not wish to receive further updates, please reply with the message "Remove" and we will take your address off the list promptly.
Here is another "Mental Sorbet" that we could use to momentarily forget about those things that leave a bad taste in our mouths.
Perhaps the most widely-seen streaker in history was 34-year-old Robert Opel, who streaked across the stage flashing the peace sign on national US television at the 46th Academy Awards in 1974. Recovering quickly, the bemused host David Niven quipped, "Isn't it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?" Later, some evidence arose suggesting that Opel's appearance was facilitated as a stunt by the show's producer Jack Haley, Jr. Robert Metzler, the show's business manager, believed that the incident had been planned in some way; during the dress rehearsal Niven had asked Metzler's wife to borrow a pen so he could write down the famous ad-lib. Niven's brush with the streaker was voted the top Oscars moment by film fans in 2001. Ironically, Opel's run across the stage occurred with Niven mostly between him and the camera, so nothing below the waist was visible to the TV audience. The first one or two frames of Opel's appearance do provide a blurred view of Opel's genitalia, but since they appeared at the very edges of the image they were probably never seen by viewers due to the overscan common in TV sets at the time.
Listen to me on TV CONFIDENTIAL with Ed Robertson and Frankie Montiforte Broadcast LIVE every other Monday at 9pm ET, 6pm PT (immediately following STU'S SHOW) on Shokus Internet Radio. The program will then be repeated Tuesday thru Sunday at the same time (9pm ET, 6pm PT)on Shokus Radio for the next two weeks, and then will be posted on line at our archives page at TVConfidential.net. We are also on Share-a-Vision Radio (KSAV.org) Friday at 7pm PT and ET, either before or after the DUSTY RECORDS show, depending on where you live.
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.
March 2, 1944 For the first time, the Academy Awards are presented as part of a televised variety show.
Jack Benny served as master of ceremonies for the event, which was held at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles. Due to lack of network interest, the show was only broadcast locally, on two Los Angeles TV stations. Winners included Best Film Going My Way, whose male lead, Bing Crosby, won Best Actor. Ingrid Bergman won Best Actress for her performance in Gaslight.
March 4, 1996 Minnie Pearl dies.
A longtime fixture of Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, comedian Minnie Pearl dies on this day. Pearl was famous for her comic monologues about hillbilly life, and was featured on the long-running syndicated show Hee Haw from 1970 to 1990.
March 6, 1947 Hour Glass, the first regularly scheduled network variety hour, airs its last episode. The most ambitious television program to date, Hour Glass helped prove that television could provide high-quality entertainment as well as novelty programming. Although commercial television had existed since 1941, World War II temporarily halted the growth of the medium. When Hour Glass premiered in 1946 on NBC, the network consisted of only three stations, in New York, Philadelphia, and Schenectady, and only a few thousand people owned television sets. Hour Glass was the first hour-long entertainment series produced for network television, and it was hailed as the most ambitious production of its time. The series, well funded by sponsor Standard Brands, featured elaborate sets and respected performers like Peggy Lee and ventriloquist Edgar Bergen--previous television efforts had usually featured second-rate vaudeville performers. At first, the sponsor's live commercials ran between two and four minutes but were later shortened. The show was the first to feature a regular weekly host--Helen Parrish, who was succeeded by Eddie Mayehoff. Hour Glass raised interest in regularly scheduled entertainment programming, and several other network series began to follow suit in 1946. However, it was more than a year after Hour Glass went off the air before another company agreed to sponsor a big-budget variety show. That show was Texaco Star Theater, featuring host Milton Berle. The show launched the "vaudeo" era in television history, where variety shows featuring successful vaudeville acts made TV stars out of performers like Eddie Cantor, Ed Sullivan, Bob Hope, and Abbott and Costello.
March 7, 1955 The first Broadway play to be televised in color, featuring the original cast, airs in 1955.
The play was Peter Pan, starring Mary Martin.
March 7, 1960 Jack Paar returns to The Tonight Show. A month after walking off The Tonight Show to protest censorship, host Jack Paar returns to the show. Paar, who had been hosting the show since July 1957, shortly after host Steve Allen left, was protesting NBC's censorship of a joke about a "water closet," which the network deemed inappropriate.
Paar joined The Tonight Show as host in 1957 after Steve Allen retired from the popular late-night program. The witty, often emotional Paar was a master of the interview as well as comic sketches. Regulars on his show included Hugh Downs, bandleader Jose Melis, Tedi Thurman, and Dody Goodman. Florence Henderson, Betty White, and Buddy Hackett also appeared frequently. The mostly humorous show also included serious moments: Paar railed against the Cuban dictatorship under Batista and praised Castro's revolution. He also did some telecasts from the Berlin Wall. Paar permanently left The Tonight Show in 1962, and the show was hosted by a series of substitutes until Johnny Carson took over later that year. To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
First hour: Actor Larry Manetti joins Ed and Frankie. Larry's book, Aloha: Magnum, is the first book to take readers behind the scenes of the long-running private eye series Magnum, p.i. and also features great stories about his friendship with Tom Selleck and fellow cast members John Hillerman and Roger E. Mosley. Also in the hour: Ed and Frankie remember Fess Parker, Peter Graves and Merlin Olsen.
