TV Confidential Archives: Apr. 11, 2011

Show No. 83 Apr. 11, 2011

First hour: Ed welcomes Stephen Battaglio, business editor for TV Guide and the author of David Susskind: A Televised Life, an comprehensive biography of television producer, executive, talk show host and impresario David Susskind, whose influence in many ways shaped the first four decades of the medium. Topics include the origins of Susskind's revolutionary talk show, Open End; his controversial interview with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev; his landmark series East Side, West Side with George C. Scott; his willingness to speak out against network TV practices and his noted appetite for women. Also in this hour: Phil Gries discusses the rarely seen 1967 television production of Annie, Get Your Gun. Second hour: Tony Figueroa and Donna Allen join Ed for a look back at The Andy Griffith Show, the 25th anniversary of the Return to Mayberry reunion movie, the occasion of the first videotape recorder demonstration in 1956 and other events that originally took place This Week in TV History.