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"
Best known as the original host of The Hollywood Squares, Peter Marshall’s career in entertainment spans the worlds of big band music, Broadway musicals, comedy, movies, live performances, and radio. Early in his career Peter partnered with comedian Tommy Noonan, appearing in major nightclubs, films and theatres across the country, as well as numerous times on The Ed Sullivan Show, while his stage credits include the London production of Bye Bye Birdie and the Broadway production of Skyscraper with Julie Harris and Charles Nelson Reilly.
Joining us in our first hour will be Bruce Jenkins, award-winning columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, and the author of such books as Goodbye: In Search of Gordon Jenkins. Though he grew up in a house surrounded by music and musicians ― his father, Gordon Jenkins, was a composer and arranger who worked with such artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Cash and (most notably) Frank Sinatra, while his mother, Beverly Mahr, was a blues singer known for such iconic songs as “Crescent City Blues” ― Bruce became drawn to R&B music as a youngster in 1960 after first hearing “Shop Around” by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. 
Also on this week’s program: Carl Glass will join us as we pay tribute to Noel Neill, the actress known to three generations of Adventures of Superman fans, and the first actress ever to play Lois Lane on film.  | ||
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 27, 1940
Bugs Bunny first appears on the silver screen in A Wild Hare.
The wisecracking rabbit had evolved through
several earlier short films. As in many future installments of Bugs Bunny
cartoons, A Wild Hare featured Bugs
as the would-be dinner for frustrated hunter Elmer Fudd.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was". Stay Tuned Tony Figueroa |
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| Garry Kent Marshall 1934 – 2016 |
This week we’ll commemorate the five-year anniversary of the death of Peter Falk with an encore presentation of our special July 25, 2011 tribute to the Emmy Award-winning star of Columbo, Murder by Death, The Cheap Detective, Pocketful of Miracles, Murder, Inc. and Trials of O’Brien. 
Emmy Award-winning writer/producer William Link (Columbo, Mannix, Ellery Queen, Murder, She Wrote, The Columbo Collection) will join us in our second hour as we discuss the origins of the Columbo character (which Bill created along with his longtime collaborator, Richard Levinson); Falk's friendship with Levinson and Link, which predated their work on the Columbo television series; how Falk came to be cast as Columbo; and the enduring appeal of the Columbo character.
Our first hour will feature Mark Dawidziak, television critic for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer and the author of such books as The Columbo Phile, the definitive book on the classic TV mystery series. Among other things, we’ll talk about Falk's dedication to Columbo, both on camera and behind the scenes; his favorite episodes and favorite Columbo clues; and his collaborations with Neil Simon, Frank Capra, Ben Gazzara and John Cassavetes. | ||
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 21, 1951
Robin Williams was born Robin McLaurin Williams at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.
July 24, 1956bn
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis perbform their last comedy
show together at New York's Copacabana Club.
Born Dino Paul Crocetti in Steubenville, Ohio, Martin started a
nightclub act after working as a prizefighter and a steelworker in the 1940s.
Lewis, the son of performers, debuted in comedy acts with his parents at age
five and was working steadily as a comic by 1946, when he met Dean Martin. The
pair performed an act in which screwball Lewis constantly interrupted straight
man Martin's singing. They made their first appearance in 1946 at a club in
Atlantic City and were an instant hit, soon in demand for radio and movie
performances. The pair made 16 movies together, starting with My Friend Irma
in 1949. By 1956, though, the pair decided to call it quits.
After the duo split up,
Martin launched his own TV variety show, which ran from 1965 to 1974. In the
late 1950s and early 1960s, Martin teamed up with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis,
Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop to perform in Las Vegas. The group quickly
became known as the Rat Pack, a suave group of young, fast-living entertainers.
The group made several movies together in the early 1960s, including Ocean's
Eleven (1960), Sergeants Three (1962), and Robin and the Seven
Hoods. Martin died in 1995.
Lewis
went on to sign one of the most lucrative film contracts of the day, a $10
million deal for 14 films with Paramount. Lewis' films, including Cinderfella
(1960) and The Nutty Professor (1963), failed to attract much praise
from American critics but made him a star in France, where he has long been
considered a comic genius. After a long absence from film, he gave an acclaimed
performance in the 1986 film The King of Comedy, co-starring Robert De
Niro.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was". Stay Tuned Tony Figueroa |
Once described as a show that blurred between reality and fiction beyond convention, Seinfeld was a bona fide cultural sensation that not only drew heavily from the idiosyncrasies of everyday ordinary life, but bled into the real world, altering the lives of everyone it touched in ways no one could have imagined.
We’ll talk about Seinfeld and more when Jennifer Armstrong joins us in our second hour. Jennifer’s latest book, Seinfeldia: How a Show About Nothing Changed Everything, not only walks you through the origins of Seinfeld (and how it barely got on the air), but provides an inside-the-writers-room perspective on how many of the show’s most famous (and infamous) storylines and catchphrases came to be. We’ll talk about why NBC was worried about “The Chinese Restaurant,” but surprisingly had no qualms about “The Contest.” We’ll also get some insight into who Larry David is (both as a person and as a showrunner), and why Curb Your Enthusiasm is, in some ways, even better than Seinfeld; get the inside scoop on the fierce Twitter rivalry between @SeinfeldToday and @Seinfeld2000; and see how Larry Thomas, the actor played the Soup Nazi, best embodies the phenomenon that Jennifer that defines as Seinfeldia more than anyone (or anything) else. | |||
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 12, 1976
Family Feud Premiered
Family Feud is an American
television game show created by Mark Goodson where two families compete
to name the most popular responses to survey questions in order to win cash and
prizes.
The program premiered on ABC on July 12, 1976, and ran
as part of its daytime schedule until June 14, 1985. The program was
re-launched by CBS on July 4, 1988, and ran
until September 10, 1993. Three separate editions for syndication were also produced. The
first aired from September 19, 1977 to September 6, 1985. The second aired from
September 19, 1988 to September 8, 1995. The current syndicated series
premiered on September 20, 1999.
The ABC network version of the
show and the first syndicated series were hosted by Richard Dawson. Ray Combs hosted the CBS series and the first six
seasons of the accompanying syndicated version, then was replaced by Dawson for
the final season. The 1999 syndicated series has been hosted by Louie Anderson (1999–2002), Richard Karn (2002–06), John O'Hurley (2006–10), and Steve Harvey (2010–present). Announcers
for the series have included Gene Wood (1976–95), Burton
Richardson (1999–2010), Joey Fatone(2010–15), and Rubin Ervin (2015–present).
The program has spawned
multiple regional adaptations in over 50 international markets outside the United States. Within
a year of its debut, the original version became the number one game show in
daytime television; however, as viewing habits changed, the ratings declined.
Harvey's takeover in 2010 increased Nielsen ratingssignificantly and eventually
placed the program among the top five most popular syndicated television shows
in the country. In 2013, TV Guide ranked Family Feud third
in its list of the 60 greatest game shows of all time.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was". Stay Tuned Tony Figueroa |
