Remembering Dennis Farina and Peyton Place: The Television Series: Next on TVC

Actor and author James Rosin will join us on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, airing July 31-Aug. 6 at the following times and venues:

WROM Radio
Detroit, MI
Wednesday 7/31
8pm ET, 5pm PT
2am ET, 11pm PT
Sunday 8/4
8pm ET, 5pm PT
2am ET, 11pm PT
Click on the Listen Live button at WROMRadio.net

WYYR: Yesteryear Radio
Vero Beach, FL
Wednesday 7/31
9pm ET, 6pm PT
Click the On Air button at WYYR.com

Indiana Talks
Marion, IN
Wednesday 7/31
11pm ET, 8pm PT
with replays at various times throughout the week
Click on the player at IndianaTalks.com
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in Indiana Talks

Share-a-Vision Radio
San Francisco Bay Area
Friday 8/2
7pm ET, 4pm PT
10pm ET, 7pm PT
Click on the Listen Live button at KSAV.org
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in KSAV

Talktainment Radio
Columbus, OH
Thursday 8/1
2am ET, 11pm PT
Friday 8/2
3am ET, Midnight PT
Noon ET, 9am PT
Click on the Listen Live button at TalktainmentRadio.com

KKYT 93.7 FM The Coyote
Ridgecrest, CA
Sunday 8/4
9pm PT
Monday 8/5
Midnight ET
Click on the Listen Live button at Coyote395.com
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in KKYT

KHMB Radio 1710 AM
Half Moon Bay, CA
Sunday 8/4
9pm PT
Monday 8/5
Midnight ET
Click on the Listen Live button at KHMBRadio.com
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The Radio Slot Network
San Francisco, CA
Monday 8/5
9pm ET, 6pm PT
with replays at various times throughout the week
Click on the Talk Slot button at RadioSlot.com

Passionate World Radio
Ann Arbor, MI
Tuesday 8/6
9:30pm ET, 6:30pm PT
with replays at various times throughout the week at PWRTalkonDemand.com
Click on the Listen Now button at PWRTalk.com

Known for his roles in such films and TV series as Out of Sight, Get Shorty, Saving Private Ryan, Empire Falls, Midnight Run, Buddy Faro, Law and Order, and, of course, Crime Story, Dennis Farina passed last week at the age of sixty-nine. As you may recall, we talked to Farina in October 2011 about not only Crime Story and his other collaborations with Michael Mann, but also The Last Rites of Joe May, the story of an aging short-money hustler that many consider to be among Dennis’ best films ever. We will replay our conversation with Dennis Farina during our second hour.

Our first hour will include a return appearance from actor and author James Rosin. Jim’s latest book is Peyton Place: The Television Series, everything you wanted to know about the long-running TV series from the 1960s that was also television’s very first prime time soap opera. Peyton Place launched the careers of Mia Farrow, Ryan O’Neal, Lee Grant, Barbara Parkins and a host of other film and TV actors. But it was also a very ambitious show, not just in terms of subject matter, but also in terms of content.

Jim Rosin also appears in Casting By, the documentary about pioneering casting director Marion Dougherty, which makes its television premiere on HBO on Monday, Aug. 5. Dougherty helped change the face of film and television (particularly in the '60s, '70s and '80s) by looking for actors who were right for the part, regardless of whether they looked look like a typical Hollywood leading man. She discovered such future stars as Peter Falk, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Jon Voight, and Robert Duvall, plus countless other character actors. With that in mind, this week’s program will also include an encore presentation our conversation with television historian Stephen Bowie from March 2011 about some of the many prominent character actors discovered by Dougherty, many of whom made their television debut when she was casting director on Naked City.
TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about television
Wed and Sun 8pm ET, 5pm PT on WROM Radio
Wed 9pm ET, 6pm PT on WYYR: Yesteryear Radio
Wed 11pm ET, 8pm PT on IndianaTalks.com
Fri 7pm ET and PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
Fri Noon ET, 9am PT on Talktainment Radio
Sun 9pm PT, Mon Midnight ET on KKYT 93.7 FM The Coyote (Ridgecrest, Calif.)
Sun 9pm PT, Mon Midnight ET on KHMB Radio 1710 AM (Half Moon Bay, Calif.)
Mon 9pm ET, 6pm PT on The Radio Slot Network
Tue 9:30pm ET, 6:30pm PT on Passionate World Radio
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Eileen Brennan

Actors are crazy or we wouldn't be doing this - Eileen Brennan 

Eileen Brennan

Eileen Brennan died of bladder cancer at her home in Burbank, California on July 28. She was 80. Born as Verla Eileen Regina Brennen on September 3, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, daughter of silent film actress Regina "Jeanne" Menehan and Dr. John Gerald Brennen.

Eileen Brennan appeared in plays with the Mask and Bauble Society at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, where she was employed. She starred there in Arsenic and Old Lace. Her exceptional comic skills and romantic soprano voice propelled her from unknown to star in the title role of Rick Besoyan's off-Broadway tongue-in-cheek musical/operetta Little Mary Sunshine (1959) and its un-official sequel, The Student Gypsy (1963). She went on to create the role of Irene Malloy in the original Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! (1964). Her feature film debut was in Divorce American Style (1967). She soon became one of the most recognizable (if unidentifiable) supporting actresses in film and television. Her roles were usually sympathetic characters, though she has played a variety of other character types, including earthy, vulgar and sassy, but occasionally "with a heart of gold." A year after her feature film debut she became a semi-regular on the comedy-variety show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, but stayed for only two months.

Brennan received excellent reviews as brothel madam "Billie" in George Roy Hill's Oscar-winning 1973 film The Sting as the confidante of con man Henry Gondorf (Paul Newman). Although her name was not often recognized by the general public, she became a favorite of many directors, in particular Peter Bogdanovich. She appeared in Bogdanovich's 1971 classic The Last Picture Show (for which she received a BAFTA nomination for best supporting actress) and his 1974 adaptation of the Henry James novella Daisy Miller. Bogdanovich was the only director who made use of her musical talents (before, she sang in performances off Broadway) when he cast her as Cybill Shepherd's crude, fun-loving maid in his 1975 musical flop At Long Last Love (which also starred Madeline Kahn; both Brennan and Kahn would work together in two more films: The Cheap Detective and Clue; where she once more displayed her world-weary acting style to great effect).

Brennan also worked with director Robert Moore and writer Neil Simon, appearing in Murder by Death as Tess Skeffington (1976); and The Cheap Detective (1978). Both of these movies also starred James Coco, James Cromwell and Peter Falk. She had a starring role, playing 'Mutha' in the 1978 movie, FM, about rock radio.

In 1980, Brennan received a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for her role as Goldie Hawn's nasty commanding officer in Private Benjamin. She reprised the role in the television adaptation (1981–1983), for which she won an Emmy (supporting actress) as well as a Golden Globe (lead actress). She has one additional Golden Globe nomination and six Emmy nominations.
After having dinner together one night in 1982, Brennan and Hawn left a restaurant. Brennan was hit by a passing car and was critically injured. She took three years off work to recover, and had to overcome a subsequent addiction to painkillers.
It was during this time that her performance as Mrs. Peacock in Clue (1985) reached theaters. In the 1990s, she appeared in Stella with Bette Midler, Bogdanovich's Texasville, the sequel to The Last Picture Show, and Reckless. She had a recurring role on the sitcom Blossom as the neighbor/confidant of the title character. In 2001, she made a brief appearance in the horror movie Jeepers Creepers as The Cat Lady.

In 2002, she starred in the dark comedy film Comic Book Villains, with DJ Qualls. In recent years, Brennan had guest-starred in television, including recurring roles as the nosy Mrs. Bink in 7th Heaven and as gruff acting coach Zandra on Will & Grace. In 2003 director Shawn Levy cast her in a cameo role of a babysitter to Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt's children in an updated remake of Cheaper by the Dozen. Levy was inspired to cast Brennan after his personal viewing of Private Benjamin on television. Brennan's cameo was deleted from the actual cut of the movie however. Nonetheless she did receive credit for her role on the Deleted Scenes special feature of the film's DVD. In 2004, she appeared in The Hollow as "Joan Van Etten".

Brennan received an Emmy nomination for her guest starring role in Taxi episode "Thy Boss's Wife" (1981). Brennan guest starred on two Murder, She Wrote episodes, "Old Habits Die Hard" (1987) and "Dear Deadly" (1994), and in 1987 she also appeared in the Magnum, P.I. episode, "The Love That Lies".

Good Night Ms. Brennan

Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

This Week in Television History: July 2013 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.

July 29, 1957

Jack Paar becomes host of The Tonight Show. NBC returned the program to a talk/variety show format once again, with Jack Paar becoming the new solo host of the show. Under Paar, most of the NBC affiliates which had dropped the show during the ill-fated run of America After Dark began airing the show once again. Paar's era began the practice of branding the series after the host, and as such the program, though officially still called The Tonight Show, was marketed as The Jack Paar Show. A combo band conducted by Paar's Army buddy pianist Jose Melis filled commercial breaks and backed musical entertainers. [See music and announcers below.] Paar also introduced the idea of having guest hosts; one of these early hosts was Johnny Carson. In the late 1950s, it was one of the first regularly scheduled shows to be videotaped in color.

On February 11, 1960, Jack Paar walked off his show for a month after NBC censors edited out a segment, taped the night before, about a joke involving a "W.C." (water closet, a polite term for a flush toilet) being confused for a "wayside chapel." As he left his desk, he said, "I am leaving The Tonight Show. There must be a better way of making a living than this." Paar's abrupt departure left his startled announcer, Hugh Downs, to finish the broadcast himself.
Paar returned to the show on March 7, 1960, strolled on stage, struck a pose, and said, "As I was saying before I was interrupted..." After the audience erupted in applause, Paar continued, "When I walked off, I said there must be a better way of making a living. Well, I've looked... and there isn't."

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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa