TV Confidential Archives: May 23, 2011

Show No. 89 May 23, 2011

First hour: TV critic Mark Dawidziak joins Ed for a look at what trends we can glean from the new network television shows that will premiere this coming fall. Also in this hour: Phil Gries pays tribute to Johnny Carson on the 19th anniversary of his final appearance as host of The Tonight Show. Plus: Listener emails. Second hour: Ed welcomes actor, artist, filmmaker and novelist Peter Mark Richman (Dynasty, Three’s Company, Longstreet, Cain’s Hundred, Four Faces, The Rebirth of Ira Masters, Hollander’s Deal) for a wide-ranging conversation about his life and career, including Peter Mark's work with such legends as Paddy Chayefsky, Martin Ritt, Janis Paige and Quinn Martin.

Tributes to Sidney Lumet and Johnny Carson: Next on TV CONFIDENTIAL

Television historians Stephen Bowie and Wesley Hyatt will join us on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, premiering Monday, May 30 at 9pm ET, 6pm PT on Shokus Internet Radio, with additional airings Tuesday, May 31 at 11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT on Passionate World Radio, Friday, June 3 at 7pm ET and PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org, and Saturday, June 4 at 8pm PT and Sunday, June 5 at 2pm PT on KWDJ 1360-AM (Ridgecrest, CA).

Publisher of The Classic TV History Blog, an excellent resource on many of the writers, producers and shows from the Golden Age of Television, Stephen Bowie will help us pay tribute to director Sidney Lumet, who passed away on Apr. 9 at the age of 86. Known for helming such acclaimed feature motion pictures as 12 Angry Men, The Verdict, Network, Dog Day Afternoon, The Pawnbroker, Prince of the City, Serpico and Fail-Safe, Lumet also made many significant contributions to television in the 1950s and early 1960s, particularly during the era of live television. Many elements of style for which Lumet would become later known as a director were first developed in some of those early live dramas. We’ll talk about that and more when Stephen joins us in our second hour.

Wesley Hyatt will join us in our first hour with a look at Oprah Winfrey’s impact on daytime television over the past 25 years. Plus: Part 2 of our special tribute to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, including clips from Johnny’s first anniversary show in October 1963; and a brand new edition of This Week in TV History.

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
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This week in Television History: May 2011 Part V

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.

May 30, 1908

Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and countless other Warner Bros. cartoon characters, was born in San Francisco. His parents, who ran a women's clothing business, moved with their son to Portland, Oregon, when Blanc was a child. Blanc began performing as a musician and singer on local radio programs in Portland before he was 20. In the late 1920s, he and his wife, Estelle, created a daily radio show called "Cobwebs and Nuts," which became a hit. Blanc made many other radio appearances and became a regular on Jack Benny's hit radio show, providing the sounds of Benny's ancient car (The Maxwell) and playing several other characters.

In 1937, Blanc made his debut with Warner Bros., providing the voice for a drunken bull in a short cartoon called "Picador Porky." Another actor provided the pig's voice, but Blanc later replaced him. In 1940, Bugs Bunny debuted in a short called "A Wild Hare." Blanc said he wanted the rabbit to sound tough and streetwise, so he created a comic combination of Bronx and Brooklyn accents. Other characters Blanc created for Warner Bros. included the Road Runner, Sylvester, and Tweety Bird. He performed in some 850 cartoons for Warner Bros. during his 50-year career. For other studios, he provided the voices of Barney Rubble and Dino the dinosaur in The Flintstones, Mr. Spacely for The Jetsons, and Woody Woodpecker's laugh.

In his 1988 autobiography, That's Not All Folks, Blanc described a nearly fatal traffic accident that left him in a coma. Unable to rouse him by using his real name, a doctor finally said, "How are you, Bugs Bunny?" and Mel replied, in Bugs' voice, "Ehh, just fine, doc. How are you?"

Blanc continued to provide voices until the late 1980s, most memorably voicing Daffy Duck dueling with Donald Duck in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988). After Mel Blanc died of complications from heart disease, his son Noel, trained by his father, provided the voices for the characters the elder Blanc had helped bring to life.

JUNE

June 1, 1980

CNN (Cable News Network), the world's first 24-hour television news network, makes its debut. The network signed on at 6 p.m. EST from its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, with a lead story about the attempted assassination of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. CNN went on to change the notion that news could only be reported at fixed times throughout the day. At the time of CNN's launch, TV news was dominated by three major networks--ABC, CBS and NBC--and their nightly 30-minute broadcasts. Initially available in less than two million U.S. homes, today CNN is seen in more than 89 million American households and over 160 million homes internationally.

CNN was the brainchild of Robert "Ted" Turner, a colorful, outspoken businessman dubbed the "Mouth of the South." Turner was born on November 19, 1938, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and as a child moved with his family to Georgia, where his father ran a successful billboard advertising company. After his father committed suicide in 1963, Turner took over the business and expanded it. In 1970, he bought a failing Atlanta TV station that broadcast old movies and network reruns and within a few years Turner had transformed it into a "superstation," a concept he pioneered, in which the station was beamed by satellite into homes across the country. Turner later bought the Atlanta Braves baseball team and the Atlanta Hawks basketball team and aired their games on his network, TBS (Turner Broadcasting System). In 1977, Turner gained international fame when he sailed his yacht to victory in the prestigious America's Cup race.

In its first years of operation, CNN lost money and was ridiculed as the Chicken Noodle Network. However, Turner continued to invest in building up the network's news bureaus around the world and in 1983, he bought Satellite News Channel, owned in part by ABC, and thereby eliminated CNN's main competitor. CNN eventually came to be known for covering live events around the world as they happened, often beating the major networks to the punch. The network gained significant traction with its live coverage of the Persian Gulf War in 1991 and the network's audience grew along with the increasing popularity of cable television during the 1990s.

In 1996, CNN merged with Time Warner, which merged with America Online four years later. Today, Ted Turner is an environmentalist and peace activist whose philanthropic efforts include a 1997 gift of $1 billion to the United Nations.

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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Jeff Conaway

Jeff Conaway died today at the age of 60. Jeffrey Charles William Michael Conaway was born on October 5, 1950 and was best known for his roles in the movie Grease and the US television series Taxi and Babylon 5. He also directed the 1992 film Bikini Summer II. Conaway began acting on Broadway at age two. He appeared in the play All the Way Home in 1960. He attended North Carolina School of the Arts. He is best known for playing Kenickie in the 1978 motion picture musical Grease and for his role on the television series Taxi, where he played cocky, vain, struggling actor Bobby Wheeler from 1978 to 1981. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1978 for his role as Wheeler. Conaway left Taxi after the third season. Taxi writer Sam Simon recalled in 2008 that during production of Simon's first script for that show, an absent Conaway was found in his dressing room too high on drugs to perform, and that his dialog for that episode was divided up between fellow co-stars Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd. This contributed to Conaway's eventual firing. Conaway starred in the short-lived 1983 fantasy-spoof series, Wizards and Warriors. He appeared in an early episode of Murder, She Wrote and three more episodes later in the series. He made an appearance in the film, Jawbreaker, as the father of one of the teenage girls. In 1988, he appeared as a sleazy henchman in, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. From 1989-1990, he was cast on The Bold and the Beautiful, in the role of "Mick Savage." In 1993, he appeared onstage in Real Life Photographs.

From 1994-1999, he played earnest and naive Sergeant Zack Allan, on Babylon 5 (seasons two through five and three telefilms). He made guest appearances on such shows as Barnaby Jones and George and Leo. He also appeared in the Disney film Pete's Dragon. In 2001, he was an F.B.I. agent in the film, Do You Wanna Know a Secret?.

After experiencing a crisis in the mid-1980s, Conaway came to grips with the fact that he had a substance abuse problem. He underwent treatment in the late '80s and often spoke candidly about his addictions.By the mid-2000s however, he had relapsed. Conaway appeared in VH1's Celebrity Fit Club, but was forced to leave and entered rehab. In early 2008 Conaway appeared with other celebrities in the VH1 reality series Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. The show revealed that Conaway was addicted to cocaine, alcohol, and painkillers, and in a co-dependent relationship with his girlfriend Vikki, also a user of prescription opiates. Conaway had suffered a back injury earlier in his career on the set of Grease while filming the "Greased Lightning" scene, which had been exacerbated more recently as a result of lifting boxes in his home.

Conaway's appearance on the show's first and second seasons drew much attention due to his severely crippled state, his constant threats of leaving the facility and his frequent inability to speak clearly. Upon arrival at the Pasadena Recovery Center (which was filmed as part of Celebrity Rehab's first episode) Conaway, using a wheelchair, arrived drunk, mumbling to Dr. Drew that the night previous he had binged on cocaine and Jack Daniel's whiskey.

During the second episode of Celebrity Rehab's first season, Conaway, fed up with his dorsalgia, withdrawal symptoms and the humiliation of having to be assisted while using the toilet, told Dr. Pinsky that he was thinking of killing himself. After Pinsky asked him to elaborate upon how he would carry out a suicidal act, Conaway glared at the mirror in his room and said "I see myself breaking that mirror and slicing my **** throat with it." During group sessions, Conaway revealed "torture" from his childhood, as older boys in his neighborhood would put him into dangerous situations, tying him up and threatening him. When he was seven years old, he was a victim of pedophiles and child pornographers. Conaway stated that he had been an addict since he was a teenager.

With John Travolta's support, Conaway took courses and auditing from the Church of Scientology to cope with his drug problem and depression,^[10] although he did not intend to become a Scientologist.

In June 2009, Conaway and Vikki joined Celebrity Rehab cast mate Mary Carey at the premier of her spoof flick Celebrity Pornhab with Dr. Screw. Dr. Drew said that he was saddened by the situation.

In August 2009 Conaway was interviewed by Entertainment Tonight. In the interview, the actor claimed he was much better after a fifth back operation, and that he had yet to use painkillers again. He also discussed unscrupulous doctors and enablers.

In March 2010, shortly after the death of actor Corey Haim, Conaway told E! News that he had warned Haim about dying due to prescription drug abuse.

On May 11, 2011, Conaway was found unconscious from what was initially described as an overdose of what was believed to be pain medication, and was taken to Encino Tarzana Medical Center in Encino, California, where he was listed as being in critical condition and in a coma. After the initial reports, Dr. Drew Pinsky, who had treated Conaway for substance abuse, said the actor was suffering not from a drug overdose but rather from "pneumonia with sepsis", for which he was placed into an induced coma.

Instead of a quote I'll play this clip because I love Bobby's reaction when Jim is taking the test. Sadly it seemed that Jeff turned into Jim.

Good Night Jeff Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

Your Mental Sorbet: Saturday Night Live - Cluckin Chicken

Here is another "Mental Sorbet" that we could use to momentarily forget about those things that leave a bad taste in our mouths... Maybe this time you will still have a bad taste.







Stay TunedTony Figueroa

TV Confidential Archives May 16, 2011

Show No. 88 May 16, 2011

First hour: Award-winning independent film actress Tanna Frederick (Hollywood Dreams, Queen of the Lot, Irene in Time) joins Ed for a conversation about her work with director Henry Jaglom, as well as her upcoming performance in the stage production of A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia. Also in this hour: TV Guide business editor Stephen Battaglio (David Susskind: A Televised Life) discusses the 50th anniversary of former FCC chairman Newton Minow's famous "vast wasteland" speech on the state of network television; the possible next moves for Katie Couric and Oprah Winfrey; and what impact Ashton Kutcher might have on the future of Two and a Half Men. Plus: Phil Gries remembers Project 20, a series of historical documentaries from the 1950s and '60s that, in many ways, were a forerunner to the work of Ken Burns. Second hour: Ed welcomes Emmy Award-winning talk show host and former game show emcee Jim Peck (The Big ShowDown, Second Chance, Three's a Crowd, The Joker's Wild). Jim hosts I Remember, an oral history program for Milwaukee Public Television featuring conversations with national newsmakers as well as people who have contributed to the history and culture of Wisconsin. Topics include Jim's work with such game show legends as Jim Lange and Chuck Barris, as well as his interviews with Barbara Walters, Tom Smothers, Mary Higgins Clark, Sidney Sheldon, Madeleine Albright and other 20th century icons. Also in this hour: Tony Figueroa and Donna Allen discuss the legacy of The Simpsons, Susan Lucci's streak-busting Emmy win, the death of comic Phil Hartman and other events that originally occurred This Week in TV History.

This Week in Television History: May 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.

May 28, 1998

Comic Phil Hartman killed by wife Brynn, in a murder-suicide.

He was 49. Born on September 24, 1948, in Ontario, Canada, Hartman was raised in Connecticut and Southern California, and later became an American citizen. Early on, he found work designing record album covers (he created the official logo for the rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) but made the leap to acting in 1975 when he joined the L.A. improvisational acting group, the Groundlings. With his fellow Groundlings alum, Paul Reubens, Hartman wrote the screenplay for the successful comedy Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985). Along with Reubens, Hartman had helped create the zany man-child character of Pee Wee Herman, though Reubens received most of the credit. From 1986 to 1990, Hartman portrayed Kap’n Karl on the Saturday morning children’s TV series Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.

Also in 1986, Hartman earned a spot on the long-running NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live. In his eight years on the show, Hartman became known for his spot-on impersonations of a variety of celebrities, notably President Bill Clinton. He also made frequent guest appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. In 1989, Hartman shared an Emmy Award for his writing contributions to Saturday Night Live. He went on to set a record for the most appearances (153) as one of the show’s regulars.

Hartman joined the cast of the TV sitcom NewsRadio in 1995. He played the egotistical anchorman of an AM radio news station in New York City through four seasons of the show’s five-year run. The ensemble cast also included Dave Foley, Maura Tierney and Andy Dick. Hartman also notably provided the voices for a number of characters, including the has-been actor Troy McClure and the incompetent lawyer Lionel Hurtz, on the acclaimed animated series The Simpsons. In addition to his TV work as an actor and pitchman (for MCI, McDonald’s and Cheetos, among others), Hartman appeared on the big screen in Blind Date (1987), Jingle All the Way (1996) and Small Soldiers, released after his death.

Off-screen, Hartman was popular among his Hollywood colleagues and known for being completely different from some of the more unlikable characters he had portrayed. The murder-suicide, which shocked fans and friends alike, occurred early on the morning of May 28, 1998, at the couple’s home in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino. According to news reports, Brynn, Hartman’s third wife (two previous marriages ended in divorce) had a history of drug and alcohol problems. The couple had two children.

May 30, 1908

Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and countless other Warner Bros. cartoon characters, was born in San Francisco.

His parents, who ran a women's clothing business, moved with their son to Portland, Oregon, when Blanc was a child. Blanc began performing as a musician and singer on local radio programs in Portland before he was 20. In the late 1920s, he and his wife, Estelle, created a daily radio show called "Cobwebs and Nuts," which became a hit. Blanc made many other radio appearances and became a regular on Jack Benny's hit radio show, providing the sounds of Benny's ancient car (The Maxwell) and playing several other characters.

In 1937, Blanc made his debut with Warner Bros., providing the voice for a drunken bull in a short cartoon called "Picador Porky." Another actor provided the pig's voice, but Blanc later replaced him. In 1940, Bugs Bunny debuted in a short called "A Wild Hare." Blanc said he wanted the rabbit to sound tough and streetwise, so he created a comic combination of Bronx and Brooklyn accents. Other characters Blanc created for Warner Bros. included the Road Runner, Sylvester, and Tweety Bird. He performed in some 850 cartoons for Warner Bros. during his 50-year career. For other studios, he provided the voices of Barney Rubble and Dino the dinosaur in The Flintstones, Mr. Spacely for The Jetsons, and Woody Woodpecker's laugh.

In his 1988 autobiography, That's Not All Folks, Blanc described a nearly fatal traffic accident that left him in a coma. Unable to rouse him by using his real name, a doctor finally said, "How are you, Bugs Bunny?" and Mel replied, in Bugs' voice, "Ehh, just fine, doc. How are you?" Blanc continued to provide voices until the late 1980s, most memorably voicing Daffy Duck dueling with Donald Duck in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988). After Mel Blanc died of complications from heart disease, his son Noel, trained by his father, provided the voices for the characters the elder Blanc had helped bring to life.

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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Peter Mark Richman, Mark Dawidziak and The Sounds of Lost Johnny Carson: Next on TV CONFIDENTIAL

Actor, artist, filmmaker and novelist Peter Mark Richman will be our special guest on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, premiering Monday, May 23 at 9pm ET, 6pm PT on Shokus Internet Radio, with additional airings Tuesday, May 24 at 11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT on Passionate World Radio, Friday, May 27 at 7pm ET and PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org, and Saturday, May 28 at 8pm PT on KWDJ 1360-AM (Ridgecrest, CA).

Most of us recognize Peter Mark Richman for his more than 500 appearances on television, including regular roles on Dynasty, Three’s Company, Longstreet and Cain’s Hundred, as well as guest appearances on such popular shows as The Fugitive, Mannix, The Invaders, Ironside, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, The Name of the Game, Murder, She Wrote and Star Trek: The Next Generation.





















What you may not know is that, in addition to being such a versatile television actor, Peter Mark Richman is also an accomplished stage performer, playwright, filmmaker, novelist and painter who has had seventeen one-man exhibitions of his paintings; published two works of fiction, The Rebirth of Ira Masters, a collection of short stories, and Hollander’s Deal, a full-length novel set in the world of the New York stage and old-time Hollywood; and produced, wrote the screenplay for and starred in the film adaptation of his award-winning one-man show, Four Faces. We’ll talk about Peter Mark’s diverse career, including his work with such legends as Paddy Chayefsky, Martin Ritt, Janis Paige and Quinn Martin, when he joins us in our second hour.











Our first hour will feature a special edition of The Sounds of Lost Television that pays tribute to Johnny Carson, who 19 years ago this week stepped down as host of The Tonight Show. Phil Gries will play some rarely heard highlights from Johnny’s first few years on The Tonight Show, including the first appearance of Johnny as Carnac the Magnificent.



Plus: TV critic Mark Dawidziak will join us for a look at the network upfronts and what trends seem to be store for the coming fall television season.

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

Your Mental Sorbet: SNL Ambiguously Gay Duo Goes Live Action With Jon Hamm

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

Robert Smigel's animated "Ambiguously Gay Duo" come to life with John Hamm and Jimmy Fallon in the title roles along with Stephen Colbert, Steve Carrell, Ed Helms and Fred Armison.

Stay TunedTony Figueroa

TV Confidential Archives May 9, 2011

Show No. 87 May 9, 2011

First hour: Ed welcomes actor, singer, songwriter, musician, stand-up comedian and stage magician Dan Frischman (Head of the Class, Kenan & Kel). Also in this hour: Ed discusses some of the television news coverage of the death of Osama bin Laden, while Tony Figueroa remembers the death of Moe Howard, Raymond Burr's Emmy win for Perry Mason and other events that originally took place This Week in Television History. Second hour: Paul Green, author of Pete Duel: A Biography and other books on film and television, joins Ed for a conversation about Duel's early television work, particularly his starring role opposite Judy Carne in the 1966 Screen Gems comedy Love on a Rooftop. Also in this hour: the latest developments on OWN and the David E. Kelley revamp of Wonder Woman, plus listener emails.

This Week in Television History: May 2011 PART III

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.

May 17, 2000
Final episode of Beverly Hills 90210 airs

Donna Martin (Tori Spelling) and David Silver (Brian Austin Green) finally say their vows, and on-and-off couple Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) and Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) reunites, as the curtain closes on the teen drama series Beverly Hills, 90210 after 10 seasons. The final episode of the show, which premiered on October 4, 1990, on the Fox Television network, airs on this day in 2000.

Beverly Hills, 90210 was created by Darren Star and produced by Aaron Spelling, known for his roster of hit TV shows, including The Mod Squad, Charlie’s Angels, The Love Boat, Dynasty, Starsky and Hutch and T.J. Hooker, among many others. At the outset, the show focused mostly on the culture shock that twin siblings Brandon and Brenda (Jason Priestley and Shannen Doherty) experience when they move with their parents from Minneapolis to swanky Beverly Hills. The first few seasons of the series followed the Walsh twins and their classmates--notably played by Garth, Perry, Spelling, Green, Gabrielle Carteris, and Ian Ziering--through their time at West Beverly Hills High School (the fact that many of the actors were noticeably older than high school age was well noted in press coverage of the show). The third season saw many of them go off to college at California University, and by the eighth season the gang (much changed after many cast departures and additions) was making their way into adult life.

90210 became the first in a string of Fox programs that were geared towards teenagers and young adults, combining glamour and style trends with a moralistic spin on teen-focused “issues.” Seemingly, no subject was taboo, and in its 10 seasons the show featured plotlines revolving around alcohol and drug abuse, learning disabilities, teenage pregnancy, date rape, gay rights, domestic violence, suicide and AIDS. Fueled by a young, diverse audience, 90210 proved to be consistently popular in the ratings for most of its run, reaching as high as No. 24.

Frequent cast changes occurred throughout the course of the show, most notably the departure of Doherty, who left at the end of the fourth season amid rumored tensions on the set. Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, who played Brandon’s bad-girl cousin for four seasons, replaced Doherty. Perry departed near the beginning of the sixth season but returned in the ninth as a “Special Guest Star.” In 1992, 90210 spawned a spin-off, Melrose Place, which was aimed at a slightly older audience; though it got off to a disappointing start, it eventually became another hit, producing in turn its own short-lived spin-off, Models, Inc. In the 10th season, ratings for Beverly Hills, 90210 dropped to an average of only 10 million viewers per week, a decline from previous seasons. Fox finally pulled the plug in early 2000, and the final episode aired that May. Melrose Place had bowed out the previous year.

In the fall of 2008, an updated version of Spelling’s now-classic series, titled simply 90210, debuted on the CW network. The show focused on a family from Kansas--parents with two teenage children--who move to Beverly Hills to keep tabs on the father’s alcoholic mother, a former TV star. Garth and Doherty both signed on to reprise their roles of Kelly Taylor and Brenda Walsh, now a guidance counselor and a guest musical director, respectively, at West Beverly Hills High School.

May 20, 2007

The Simpsons airs 400th episode.

The Simpsons was created by Matt Groenig, whose comic strip Life Is Hell caught the attention of the Hollywood producer James L. Brooks. Brooks enlisted Groenig to create a cartoon short that would run during the Fox sketch comedy series The Tracey Ullmann Show. Two of the show’s regulars, Dan Castellaneta and Julie Kavner, provided the voices for Homer and Marge Simpson, while Nancy Cartwright (who had originally auditioned for the role of their daughter, Lisa) landed the role of their troublemaking adolescent son, Bart. Lisa (voiced by Yeardley Smith) rounded out the speaking parts for the dysfunctional Simpson family, who made their debut on The Tracey Ullmann Show in April 1987. Brooks later convinced Barry Diller, Fox’s then-chief executive, to turn the shorts into a half-hour weekly series, to be developed by Brooks, Groenig and Sam Simon. The Simpsons debuted on Fox in December 1989 with a special Christmas episode, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire.”

The first animated prime-time sitcom since The Flinstones in the 1960s, The Simpsons burst onto the scene during a period when most of the successful comedy series on television were family-friendly offerings such as The Cosby Show, Full House, Growing Pains and Family Matters. Offbeat and dysfunctional, The Simpsons offered a far different view of family life. Critics raved about the show and its edgy, pop-culture savvy humor from the beginning, and it became a huge ratings hit.

In 2005, The Simpsons became the longest-running sitcom ever, passing The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, which ran for 14 seasons (1952-66). Over the years, the series racked up no fewer than 23 Emmy Awards, and was named by TIME magazine as the best show of all time in 1999 and as No. 1 on Entertainment Weekly’s list of New Classic TV Shows in 2008. Its incredible success paved the way for other adult-oriented animated series, notably Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill, The Family Guy and South Park.

May 21, 1999

Soap star Susan Lucci wins first Emmy after 19 nominations.

“The streak is over…Susan Lucci!” announces Shemar Moore of The Young and the Restless on this night in 1999, right before presenting the Daytime Emmy Award for Best Actress to the tearful star of ABC’s All My Children. The award was Lucci’s first win in 19 straight years of being nominated in the Best Actress category for her portrayal of Erica Kane.

A native of Garden City, New York, Lucci moved to New York City after graduating from college in 1968. She played bit parts in the films Goodbye, Columbus and Me, Natalie (both 1969) before landing the role of the troubled teenager Erica Kane on a new soap opera, All My Children. The show debuted on January 5, 1970, and Lucci would go on to play Erica Kane over the next four decades, as the character married no fewer than 11 times (to eight different men, and several of the marriages were invalid), had several children and grandchildren, was kidnapped, survived an airplane crash and a car accident, battled drug addiction and became the owner of her own cosmetics company (among other notable events). By 1991, Erica Kane was, according to TV Guide, “unequivocally the most famous soap-opera character in the history of TV.”

As reported by the New York Times, Lucci at that time was the highest-paid actor on daytime television, earning more than $1 million per year for her work on All My Children. Her honors included a Best Soap Actress win in a 1985 People magazine poll, and a 1989 Soap Opera Digest Editors Award for an “outstanding contribution to daytime television.” One thing she didn’t have, however, was an Emmy. She received her first nomination in 1978, and before long had received several nominations in a row without a win. After reportedly losing her temper after failing to take home the award in 1982 and 1983, Lucci began accepting her runner-up status with more humor. In the fall of 1990, she appeared as a guest host on an episode of Saturday Night Live, in which all of the show’s cast and crew members carried Emmy statuettes past her during her opening monologue. She also filmed a commercial for a sugar substitute called the Sweet One, in which she lampooned her own hunger for an Emmy.

Lucci was the favorite to win that May night in 1999, and Moore’s announcement brought the audience in the theater at Madison Square Garden to their feet for a standing ovation that lasted several minutes. Lucci’s emotional acceptance speech brought tears to the eyes of many in the crowd, including the talk show host Rosie O’Donnell and Lucci’s All My Children co-stars Kelly Ripa and Marcy Walker. After thanking her husband, Helmut Huber, the All My Children cast and crew and her fans, Lucci closed her speech by announcing “I’m going to go back to that studio Monday and I’m going to play Erica Kane for all she’s worth.”

In addition to her work on All My Children, Lucci guest-starred repeatedly on the prime-time soap opera Dallas during the 1990s and has appeared in a number of TV movies, including Lady Mobster, Mafia Princess and Secret Passions. In 1999, she starred on Broadway in the revival of Annie Get Your Gun. Lucci also competed in the seventh installment of the reality series Dancing With the Stars, which aired in the fall of 2008.

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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Jim Peck, Tanna Frederick and Stephen Battaglio: Next on TV CONFIDENTIAL

Talk show host and game show emcee Jim Peck, independent film actress Tanna Frederick and TV Guide business editor Stephen Battaglio will be our guests on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, premiering Monday, May 16 at 9pm ET, 6pm PT on Shokus Internet Radio, with additional airings Tuesday, May 17 at 11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT on Passionate World Radio, Friday, May 20 at 7pm ET and PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org, and Saturday, May 21 at 8pm PT on KWDJ 1360-AM (Ridgecrest, CA).

Known to game show aficionados as the host of such network and nationally syndicated shows as The Big ShowDown, Second Chance, Three’s a Crowd and The Joker’s Wild, Jim Peck is also an accomplished interviewer and talk show host for Good Morning, America, as well as local television shows in the Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. markets. Currently the host of I Remember, a weekly oral history program for Milwaukee Public Television, Jim won an Emmy Award for his in-depth interview with Barbara Walters, and has also sat down with such newsmakers and 20^th century icons as Tom Smothers, Sidney Sheldon, Mary Higgins Clark and Madeleine Albright. We’ll talk about some of Jim’s favorite interviews, as well as his work with such game show legends as Jim Lange and Chuck Barris, when he joins us in our second hour.
















Also joining us this week will be award-winning independent film actress Tanna Frederick (Hollywood Dreams, Queen of the Lot, Irene in Time, Just 45 Minutes from Broadway).

Tanna will be starring in a stage production of A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia beginning Friday, May 20 and continuing through Sunday, July 10. The performances on May 20 and May 21 will benefit the animal rescue charity New Leash on Life. We’ll talk about Tanna’s love for animals, her work with director Henry Jaglom, how she came to play Sylvia, plus a whole lot more when she joins us in our first hour.








Also in our first hour: Stephen Battaglio, business editor for TV Guide and the author of David Susskind: A Televised Life, will join us for a look at the 50th anniversary of former FCC chairman Newton Minow’s famous “vast wasteland” speech on the state of network television. All this, plus the Sounds of Lost Television and a brand new edition of This Week in TV History.

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
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