This Week in Television History: July 2018 PART V

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.

Donna Allen-Figueroa

August 1, 1971

The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour debuts. The popular variety show, featuring music, comedy routines and sarcastic banter between vertically challenged Sonny and his statuesque wife, Cher.

Sonny and Cher had been singing and performing comedy in nightclubs for more than a decade. They released several hit records in the 1960s, most notably "I Got You, Babe," before launching their show. The series rated well and showcased future comedy stars, including Teri Garr and Steve Martin.

Despite the show's popularity, the couple suffered marital problems and announced in the spring of 1974 that they were divorcing and would cancel the show. After divorcing in 1975, both Sonny and Cher tried and failed to launch solo comedy-variety shows. They revived their show together briefly in 1976 and 1977. Cher went on to a successful film career, winning the Best Actress Oscar for Moonstruck (1987). Bono later became a politician, serving as mayor of Palm Springs and a U.S. congressman. 

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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Your Mental Sorbet: Billy Joel - Miami 2017 (from Live at Shea Stadium)

Here is another "Mental Sorbet" 

A little spark of madness

that we could use to momentarily forget about those

things that leave a bad taste in our mouths

Music video by Billy Joel performing Miami 2017 (I've Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway). (C) 2011 Sony Music Entertainment

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Robert Crane, Audrey Walters, and the Allure of Green Acres: Next on TVC

Screenwriter, author and journalist Robert Crane and actress, teacher and entrepreneur Audrey Walters will join us this weekend on TV CONFIDENTIAL, airing July 27-30 at the following times and venues:

Share-a-Vision Radio
San Francisco Bay Area
Friday 7/27
7pm ET, 4pm PT
10pm ET, 7pm PT
Click on the Listen Live button at KSAV.org
Use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in KSAV
Hear us on the KSAV channel on CX Radio Brazil
Hear us on your cell phone or landline number by dialing 712-432-4235

Indiana Talks
Marion, IN
Saturday 7/28
8pm ET, 5pm PT
Sunday 7/29
10am ET, 7am PT
Click on the player at IndianaTalks.com
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in Indiana Talks

WON 920 The Apple
Brooklyn, NY
Saturday 7/28
10pm ET, 7pm PT
Streaming at Live365.com

KSCO AM-1080 and FM-104.1
San Jose, Santa Cruz and Salinas, CA
KOMY AM-1340
La Selva Beach and Watsonville, CA
Sunday 7/29
9am ET, 6am PT
Also streaming at KSCO.com
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in KSCO

CROC Radio
Kimberley, British Columbia, Canada
Sunday 7/29
1pm ET, 10am PT
Streaming at CROCRadio.com
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in CROC

KHMB AM-1710
KHMV-LP 100.9 FM
Half Moon Bay, CA
Sunday 7/29
9pm PT
Monday 7/30
Midnight ET
Click on the Listen Live button at KHMBRadio.com

RadioSlot.com
San Francisco, CA
Monday 7/30
10pm ET, 7pm PT
with replays Tuesday thru Friday at 10pm ET, 7pm PT
Click on the Talk Slot button at RadioSlot.com

PWRNetwork
A member of the Truli Media Group
Ann Arbor, MI ~ Boston, MA ~ Chicago, IL ~ Melrose, FL ~ Los Angeles, CA
Various times throughout the week
on the Entertainment Channel on PWRNetwork.com
and the PWR channel on TuneIn

The eldest son of actor Bob Crane, Robert Crane is a successful freelance journalist, screenwriter and author who has interviewed a host of actors, comedians, studio executives, writers, directors, musicians and other creative people for Playboy, Playgirl, Oui, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications. One of those assignments led to Bob to a six-year association as a publicist, producer and confidant to actor John Candy.

Bob’s latest book, Hollywood Plateau, is a collection of candid interviews with the likes of Jimmy Kimmel, Joan Rivers, Roseanne Barr, Spinal Tap, Bruce Dern, John Wayne, Jack Nicholson, Chevy Chase, Jamie Foxx, Cheech and Chong, the cast of SCTV, Oscar de la Hoya, and Jan Stephenson that Bob originally conducted over a forty-year period (circa 1974 to 2013), prior to the era of political correctness—a time when industry people spoke their minds without self and organizational censorship. In many cases, Bob interviewed these celebrities when they were just coming onto the scene, and before they became as famous (or, as in the case of Barr, infamous) as we know them to be today. We’ll talk about that, plus we’ll hear some of the back stories of these conversations—including how Bob came to interview Koko, the sign-language-speaking gorilla.

Bob also put together a special ten-question TV trivia quiz in which every question relates to the career of his dad. See how many answers you know when Robert Crane joins us in our second hour.

This week’s program will also feature actress, teacher and entrepreneur Audrey Walters. As an actress, Audrey has appeared in such films and TV series as Preacher, Killer Women, What if?, Mile High Laci, Revenge for Real: Rocky Mountain Retribution, The Lake, Camouflage, Diablo Canyon, and After the Fall. When she is not acting, Audrey draws on her background as a broadcast journalist and entrepreneur to co-run the youth workshop Talk to the Camera, which helps elementary and middle school children develop their social communication skills through exercises and activities that require them to make eye contact with other people. Though Talk to the Camera is based in Denver, Colorado, it has recently expanded to two other states, while franchising opportunities remain available. We will talk about that, and more, when Audrey Walters joins us in our second hour.

Audrey Walters plays a sultry, take-charge Madame in Big Kill, a Western from Archstone Pictures starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Jason Patric and Danny Trejo that will be released later this year in theaters and Video on Demand. She also appears as real estate agent Mrs. Boychuk in the dark comedy Arizona, which premiered earlier in 2018 at Sundance and which will also be released theatrically and On Demand either late summer or early fall.

Plus: With a stage production of Green Acres now in the works, Greg Ehrbar will revisit the long-running CBS series from the mid 1960s that, in many respects, was the closest thing American television came to capturing the genius and absurdity of Monty Python.

TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about television
Fri 7pm ET and PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org and CX Radio Brazil
Sat 8pm ET, 5pm PT and Sun 10am ET, 7am PT on Indiana Talks (Marion, IN)
Sat 10pm ET, 7pm PT on WON 920 The Apple (Brooklyn, NY)
Sun 9am ET, 6am PT KSCO-AM 1080 (San Jose, Santa Cruz and Salinas, CA)
Sun 9am ET, 6am PT KOMY-AM 1340 (La Selva Beach and Watsonville, CA)
Sun 1pm ET, 10am PT CROC Radio (British Columbia, Canada)
Sun 9pm PT, Mon Mid ET on KHMB-AM and FM (Half Moon Bay, CA)
Mon 10pm ET, 7pm PT on The Radio Slot Network (San Francisco, CA)
Replays various times throughout the week on the Entertainment Channel at PWRNetwork
Tape us now, listen to us later, using DAR.fm/tvconfidential
Also available as a podcast via iTunes, Spreaker, FeedBurner, SoundCloud, Stitcher, YouTube and other platforms
Follow us online at https://www.televisionconfidential.com
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Become a patron of our show through Patreon

Please visit our new website, www.televisionconfidential.com. There, you can keep up with news of upcoming guests, as well as access the last few archived episodes of the program, for free, via the Archives page, or the Listen Now page.

TV Confidential has its own YouTube channel, YouTube.com/tvconfidential. There, you can also listen to recent episodes, on demand, and for free. If you visit our YouTube channel, please take a moment and hit the Subscribe button… and thanks!

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This Week in Television History: July 2018 PART IV

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.

Donna Allen-Figueroa

July 27, 2003

Bob Hope dies at age 100 in Toluca Lake, California. Known for entertaining American servicemen and women for more than five decades, Hope had a career that spanned the whole range of 20th century entertainment, from vaudeville to Broadway musicals to radio, television and movies.

He was born Leslie Townes Hope, the fifth of seven sons, on May 29, 1903, in Eltham, England. In 1907, Hope’s family moved to Cleveland, Ohio. As a young man, he began his entertainment career as a dancer and vaudeville performer. During the 1930s, he appeared in Broadway musicals, along with such performers as Fanny Brice and Ethel Merman. In 1934, Hope wed the nightclub singer Dolores Reade; the marriage would endure until his death. In 1938, Hope, who became known for his snappy one-liners, rose to national fame with his own radio show on NBC and his first feature film, The Big Broadcast of 1938.

In 1940, Hope co-starred in the box-office hit Road to Singapore with Bing Crosby. The film, about a pair of singing, wisecracking con men, was the first of seven “Road” movies the pair would make. Hope appeared in more than 50 feature films during his career. He hosted the Academy Awards 18 times, although he never won an Oscar himself, an occurrence he turned into a long-running joke. However, he did receive five special awards from the Academy, including two honorary Oscars. Hope was also a top entertainer on TV and from 1959 to 1996 he made 284 “Bob Hope specials” for NBC.

Starting with World War II, Hope began entertaining American troops at military bases around the world. His USO tours traveled to military bases during times of war (Vietnam, the Persian Gulf), as well as times of peace. He was so beloved for his work with the military for more than half a century that Congress passed a resolution in 1997 making Hope an honorary veteran. It was one of the countless honors that Hope received throughout his career. In 1998, he was granted honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth.

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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Your Mental Sorbet: COMIC CON the Musical! (featuring Whitney Avalon - Princess Rap Battles)

Here is another "Mental Sorbet" 

A little spark of madness

that we could use to momentarily forget about those

things that leave a bad taste in our mouths

Starring Whitney Avalon

http://www.youtube.com/WhitneyAvalon

Directed by Andrew Bowser

Lyrics by Ben Mekler and Jess Lane

Music by Freddy Scott

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

This Week in Television History: July 2018 PART III

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.

Donna Allen-Figueroa

July 18, 1913

Richard Bernard “Red” Skelton was born. 

The comedian who was best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971 Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, while pursuing another career as a painter.

July 20, 1973

Bruce Lee dies at age 32. Actor and martial-arts expert Bruce Lee dies in Los Angeles at age 32 from a brain edema possibly caused by a reaction to a prescription painkiller.

Lee’s body was returned to Seattle, where he was buried. His sudden death at the young age of 32 led to rumors and speculation about the cause of his demise. One theory held that Lee had been murdered by Chinese gangsters while another rumor circulated that the actor had been the victim of a curse. The family-curse theory resurfaced when Lee’s 28-year-old son Brandon, who had followed in his father’s footsteps to become an actor, died in an accidental shooting on the set of the movie The Crow on March 31, 1991. The younger Lee was buried next to his father at Seattle’s Lake View Cemetery.

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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Your Mental Sorbet: Al Bundy at Speakers Corner

Here is another "Mental Sorbet" 

A little spark of madness

that we could use to momentarily forget about those

things that leave a bad taste in our mouths

A Speakers' Corner is an area where open-air public speaking, debate, and discussion are allowed. The original and most noted is in the northeast corner of Hyde Parkin London, England.

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

This Week in Television History: July 2018 PART II

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.

Donna Allen-Figueroa

July 12, 1908

Milton Berle the Emmy-winning American comedian and actor is born. 
As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater (1948–55), he was the first major star of television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr. Television to millions during TV's golden age. Mr. Television

Berle first appeared on television in 1929 in an experimental broadcast in Chicago which he hosted in front of 129 people.

Berle would revive the structure and routines of his vaudeville act for his debut on TV. His first TV series was The Texaco Star Theatre, which began September 22, 1948 on ABC and continued until June 15, 1949 with cast members Stang, Kelton and Gallop, along with Charles Irving, Kay Armen, and double-talk specialist Al Kelly. Writers included Nat Hiken, brothers Danny and Neil Simon, Leo Fuld and Aaron Ruben.

The show began with Berle rotating hosting duties with three other comedians, but in October he became the permanent host. Berle's highly visual style, characterized by vaudeville slapstick and outlandish costumes, proved ideal for the new medium. Berle modeled the show's structure and skits directly from his vaudeville shows, and hired writer Hal Collins to revive his old routines.

When the show moved to NBC, it dominated Tuesday night television for the next several years, reaching the number one slot in the Nielsen ratings with as much as an 80% share of the viewing audience. Berle and the show each won Emmy Awards after the first season. Fewer movie tickets were sold on Tuesdays. Some theaters, restaurants and other businesses shut down for the hour or closed for the evening so their customers would not miss Berle's antics. Berle's autobiography notes that in Detroit, "an investigation took place when the water levels took a drastic drop in the reservoirs on Tuesday nights between 9 and 9:05. It turned out that everyone waited until the end of the Texaco Star Theatre before going to the bathroom."

Television set sales more than doubled after Texaco Star Theatre's debut, reaching two million in 1949. Berle's stature as the medium's first superstar earned him the sobriquet "Mr. Television". He also earned another nickname after ending a 1949 broadcast with a brief ad-libbed remark to children watching the show: "Listen to your Uncle Miltie and go to bed." Francis Craig and Kermit Goell's Near Youbecame the theme song that closed Berle's TV shows.

Berle risked his newfound TV stardom at its zenith to challenge Texaco when the sponsor tried to prevent black performers from appearing on his show:
I remember clashing with the advertising agency and the sponsor over my signing the Four Step Brothers for an appearance on the show. The only thing I could figure out was that there was an objection to black performers on the show, but I couldn't even find out who was objecting. "We just don't like them," I was told, but who the hell was "we"? Because I was riding high in 1950, I sent out the word: "If they don't go on, I don't go on." At ten minutes of eight—ten minutes before showtime—I got permission for the Step Brothers to appear. If I broke the color-line policy or not, I don't know, but later on I had no trouble booking Bill Robinson or Lena Horne.

Berle's mother Sadie was often in the audience for his broadcasts; she had long served as a "plant" to encourage laughter from his stage show audiences. Her unique, "piercing, roof-shaking laugh" would stand out, especially when Berle made an entrance in an outrageous costume. After feigning surprise he would "ad lib" a response; for example: "Lady, you've got all night to make a fool of yourself. I've only got an hour!"
Berle asked NBC to switch from live broadcasts to film, which would have made possible reruns (and residual income from them); he was angered when the network refused. However, NBC did consent to make a kinescope of each show. Later, Berle was offered 25% ownership of a company manufacturing the teleprompter by its inventor, Irving Berlin Kahn, if he would simply use the new gadget on his program. He turned the offer down.
For Berle's contribution to television, he was inducted to the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.
TV decline
At one million dollars a year, NBC signed him to an exclusive, unprecedented 30-year television contract in 1951.
Texaco pulled out of sponsorship of the show in 1953. Buick picked it up, prompting a renaming to The Buick-Berle Show, and the program's format was changed to show the backstage preparations to put on a variety show. Critics generally approved of the changes, but Berle's ratings continued to fall, and Buick pulled out after two seasons. In addition, "Berle's persona had shifted from the impetuous and aggressive style of the Texaco Star Theater days to a more cultivated, but less distinctive personality, leaving many fans somehow unsatisfied."

By the time the again-renamed Milton Berle Show finished its only full season (1955–56), Berle was already becoming history—though his final season was host to two of Elvis Presley's earliest television appearances, April 3 and June 5, 1956. The final straw during that last season may have come from CBS scheduling The Phil Silvers Show opposite Berle. Ironically, Silvers was one of Berle's best friends in show business and had come to CBS's attention in an appearance on Berle's program. Bilko's creator-producer, Nat Hiken, had been one of Berle's radio writers.

Berle knew that NBC had already decided to cancel his show before Presley appeared. Berle later appeared in the Kraft Music Hall series from 1958 to 1959, but NBC was finding increasingly fewer showcases for its one-time superstar. By 1960, he was reduced to hosting a bowling program, Jackpot Bowling, delivering his quips and interviewing celebrities between the efforts of that week's bowling contestants. 

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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa