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"
Ed, Frankie and guest co-host Tony Figueroa welcome actress Susan Olsen The Brady Bunch and pop culture historian Ted Nichelson in the first hour as they discuss their book, Love to Love You Bradys, a behind-the-scenes history of the short-lived but long remembered Brady Bunch Variety Hour.
Then Emmy-winning writer/producer Joseph Dougherty (thirtysomething, Saving Grace) joins the guys in the second hour as they weigh in on the ongoing late night controversy involving Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien and its effect on NBC's 10pm lineup and local network affiliates.
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.
January 11, 1949 NBC links its East and Midwest TV networks, celebrating with a special ceremonial telecast. Radio network NBC had started experimenting with television broadcasts as early as 1938 and began regular service in 1939, starting with the World's Fair in New York. NBC and CBS both received commercial licenses for stations in New York City on July 1, 1941. NBC launched its first TV network in 1946 by transmitting programs from its New York station to its Philadelphia and Schenectady stations. The company didn't open its Midwest network until September of 1948. The West Coast was added in September 1951, creating the country's first coast-to-coast network.
January 12, 1971 The controversial situtuaon comedy All in the Family debuts.
The show, which was one of TV's top hits for much of its run, starred Carroll O'Connor as bigoted Archie Bunker; Jean Stapleton as his wife, Edith; and Sally Struthers and Rob Reiner as the couple's liberal daughter and son-in-law. The show changed the course of television by portraying the harsh realities of bigotry and racism and dealing with controversial subjects like birth control, rape, and politics. The show changed its name to Archie Bunker's Place in 1979, when the action shifted from the Bunkers' living room to the bar Archie owned.
January 13, 1928 Experimental Television sets are installed in three homes in Schenectady, New York. RCA and General Electric installed the sets, which displayed a 1.5-inch-square picture. However, televisions did not become common household appliances until the late 1940s.
January 14, 1952 Today premieres on NBC.
It was the brainchild of Pat Weaver, who was then vice-president of NBC. Weaver was president of the company from 1953 to 1955, during which time Today's late-night companion The Tonight Show premiered. In pre-production, the show's proposed title was The Rise and Shine Revue. Today was the first show of its genre when it signed on with original host Dave Garroway. The show blended national news headlines, in-depth interviews with newsmakers, lifestyle features, other light news and gimmicks (including the presence of the chimpanzeeJ. Fred Muggs as the show's mascot during the early years), and local station news updates. Today's female anchors were once called "Today girls." Other hosts over the years have included John Chancellor, Hugh Downs, Florence Henderson, Barbara Walters, Tom Brokaw, Bryant Gumbel, Jane Pauley, and Katie Couric. Current cast includes Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira, with weatherman Al Roker, news anchor Ann Curry, and correspondent Natalie Morales.
January 15, 1974 The first episode of Happy Days airs on this day in 1974, portraying the comic antics of 1950s Milwaukee high school student Richie Cunningham and his pal Potsie Webber.
A minor character, super-cool biker Arthur "the Fonz" Fonzarelli, soon came to be the show's central character. The immensely popular series was the most highly rated comedy in the 1976-77 TV season and stayed in the Top 20 most highly rated shows for seven of its 10 seasons. It launched several spin-offs, including Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy.
January 15, 1981 Hill Street Blues premieres on NBC.
The show, which ran until 1987, won Emmys for Outstanding Drama Series in 1982, 1983, and 1984. The show revolved around police officers in an unidentified city.
January 16, 1973 Long-running western series Bonanza is cancelled after 14 seasons.
The episode The Hunter was written and directed by Michael Landon.
The show, which debuted in 1959, was the first western to be televised in color. Throughout the 1960s, the show, which featured the adventures of the Cartwright family on their ranch, the Ponderosa, was one of the most highly rated programs on television. Its trademark theme song rose to No. 19 on Billboard's Top Singles chart in 1961.
January 16, 1976
Donny and Marie premieres.
Music variety show Donny and Marie premieres, starring 18-year-old Donny Osmond and his 16-year-old sister, Marie. The show ran for only three years, but the brother and sister were reunited in 1998 with a daytime talk show.
January 17, 1949
The Goldbergs debuts as television's first situation comedy.
The show ran until 1954. The show, which evolved from a nearly 20-year-old popular radio program of the same name, followed the adventures of a middle-class Jewish family in the Bronx. Gertrude Berg played gossipy housewife Molly Goldberg, and Philip Loeb played her husband, Jake, who worked in the clothing business. They had two teenagers, Sammy and Rosalie.
In each episode, the family would face another typical middle-class problem--and Molly enjoyed trying to help the neighbors in her apartment complex solve their problems, too. Later, when the fictitious family moved from the Bronx to suburban Haverville, the cast was joined by philosophical Uncle David, Sammy's fiancee (who later became his wife), her mother, and new neighbors. In 1952, Loeb was blacklisted for alleged Communist sympathies.
The show's sponsor, General Foods, dropped the series, and the show moved to NBC-without Loeb, though Berg had fought to keep him aboard. Loeb declared under oath he had never been a member of the Communist Party, and the charges were never proved, but his career was destroyed. He died in 1955 after taking a fatal overdose of sleeping pills in a hotel room.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
Join us as we look back on two iconic TV shows (one from the ’70s, the other from the ’80s) on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, premiering Monday, Jan. 11 at 10pm ET, 7pm PT on Shokus Internet Radio, with a rebroadcast Tuesday, Jan. 12 at 11pm ET, 8pm PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org. Actress Susan Olsen (Cindy on The Brady Bunch) and author Ted Nichelson are scheduled to join us in our first hour. They’ll be talking about their new book, Love to Love You Bradys, an inside look at the making of the short-lived but long remembered Brady Bunch Variety Hour, which aired on ABC as an occasional series during the spring of 1977. Featuring interviews with nearly all of the original Brady cast members, as well as such behind-the-scenes personnel as Bruce Vilanch and Paul Shafer, the book is an insightful look at the television industry that also happens to chronicle the strangest chapter in Brady Bunch history. Susan and Ted will join us beginning at 10:05pm ET, 7:05pm PT.
Then in our second hour, we’ll welcome back Joseph Dougherty, the Emmy-winning writer, producer and director behind thirtysomething, Judging Amy, Saved, SavingGrace and other quality television series. We’ll talk about these shows and more when Joseph joins us beginning at 11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT. If you want to be part of our conversation, if you have questions or comments for any of our guests, we invite you to join us for our live broadcast Monday, Jan. 11 beginning at 10pm ET, 7pm PT on Shokus Internet Radio. Phone number is (888) SHOKUS-5 / (888) 746-5875. Email address is talk@tvconfidential.net.
Art Clokey, the creator of Gumby and Pokey, began his work with clay figures on his grandfather's farm 80 miles north of Detroit where he spent his summers in the 1930s. It was paradise to him as a boy. A neighboring farmer had a son about his age. They would play together in the barnyard or in the living room of the house. The son had a set of blocks and toy cannons. They built forts with toy soldiers. They would shoot pencils and marbles out of the cannons and destroy the fort. When they ran out of soldiers Art began to make them of clay. It was the first time he can remember working with clay.
He is best known for his animated television character Gumby. Clokey and his wife Ruth invented Gumby in the early 1950s at their Covina home shortly after he had finished film school at USC. Since 1955, Gumby and his horse Pokey have been a familiar presence on television, appearing in several series—and even in a 1995feature film, Gumby: The Movie. Clokey's second most famous production is the duo of Davey and Goliath, funded by the Lutheran Church in America.
By that time, Gumby toys were already ubiquitous. But Clokey had mixed feelings about commercialization. “I didn’t allow merchandising for seven years after it was on the air,” Clokey told the Tribune, “because I was very idealistic, and I didn’t want parents to think we were trying to exploit their children.”
Here is another "Mental Sorbet" that we could use to momentarily forget about those things that leave a bad taste in our mouths. All My Children (AMC) is an priemered January 5, 1970. Created by Agnes Nixon, the show is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. Since its inception, the show has featured Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most popular characters. The title of the show refers to the bonds of humanity. The poem, written by Nixon, that appears in the title credits' photo album reads: “The Great and the Least, The Rich and the Poor,The Weak and the Strong,In Sickness and in Health,In Joy and Sorrow,In Tragedy and Triumph,You are ALL MY CHILDREN”
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.
January 5, 1998 Sonny Bono, Congressman and former half of the singing duo Sonny and Cher, is killed in a skiing accident.
Born in 1935, Bono rose to fame in the early 1970s as the straight man to his wife in The Sonny and Cher Show. As a signer and songwriter he received ten gold records during his career but his biggest hit was undoubtedly 1965’s ”I Got You Babe.” He entered the political world in 1988 when he was elected mayor of Palm Springs. He was elected to Congress in 1994 as a Republican. He was 62.
January 6, 1936 Porky Pig makes his world debut in a Warner Brothers cartoon, Gold Diggers of '49.
When Mel Blanc joined Warner Brothers the following year, he became the famous voice behind Porky as well as the Warner Brothers characters Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester, and Tweety.
January 6, 1973 The animated Saturday morning TV series of shorts called Schoolhouse Rock premieres on ABC with Multiplication Rock.
The short musical cartoons featured lessons in math, history, science, grammar, and more, with classics like "Conjunction Junction," "Interjections," and "The Preamble to the Constitution."
January 8, 1966 Rock and roll TV variety show Shindig on ABC airs its last episode.
The show had debuted in September 1964, featuring acts including the Everly Brothers, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, and others. NBC launched a similar show, Hullabaloo, in January 1965, which ran until August 1966.
January 10, 1971 Masterpiece Theatre debuts. Among the show's many presentations are Upstairs Downstairs (1974-1977), I, Claudius (1978), and A Tale of Two Cities (1989). Program hosts included Alistair Cooke and Russell Baker.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
First hour Second hour Ed and Frankie play highlights from some of their favorite interviews from 2009 in both hours of this program. Also: Tony Figueroa remembers the births of Mary Tyler Moore and Tracey Ullman, the deaths of Rick Nelson and Alan Hale Jr. and the premiere of Dragnet on television, while David Krell remembers Arthur Haley's Hotel and the "Opie the Birdman" episode of The Andy Griffith Show.
COMING UP Monday, Jan. 1110pm ET 7pm PT with replays nightly at 10pm ET 7pm PT thru Jan. 24 ShokusRadio.com Tuesday, Jan. 1211pm ET 8pm PT Share-a-Vision RadioKSAV.org Our scheduled guests include writer/producer Joseph Dougherty (thirtysomething) and author Ted Nichelson (Love to Love You Bradys). Subscribe to TV CONFIDENTIAL
Dear Readers,I have been spending Christmas in Ohio and New Years at home in Hollywood.
Again, I was never one for New Year’s resolutions and here is why,
but since I've done it for the last couple of years I thought that I could make it a yearly feature on my blog.
Last year I resolved to do more reading (Especially reading more classics and more plays). I did do a lot more reading in 2009, but not as many classics or plays as I wanted to. In my defense that since, I became a contributor to TV CONFIDENTIAL with Ed Robertson and Frankie Montiforte I have been reading the books that our guests have written. So this year again I plan to read more classics and more plays and take more advantage of my local library.
Last year I resolved to take a greater interest in current events outside the entertainment industry. Well, I can say that I took a greater interest in current events and was disturbed at how much entertainment news passes for real news (TV Confidential Archives 063009.mp3). TMZ is trash, but they're not always wrong.
This year I again resolve to take a greater interest in current events outside the entertainment industry if that is even possible.Again this year it would be ridiculous for me to say that."I resolve to watch less television" but I said it last year and I did wind up watching less TV and it was not because of any self discipline on my part CHILD OF TELEVISION: Fall 2009. This year I resolve to watch less television. Don't worry I should have enough to write and talk about.
Last year I resolved to do more blogging and podcasting. This year I resolve to do more blogging, writing, interviews, story telling and stand-up.
Last year I resolved to patronise more "Mom & Pop" business' in my neighborhood. I did patronise more "Mom & Pop" business' in my neighborhood. And this year I resolve to patronise even more "Mom & Pop" business' in my neighborhood.
To quote Dave Garroway, the first host of the Today Show who closed each program with an upraised hand and the single word, "Peace".
Ed, Frankie and guest co-host Tony Figueroa welcome actress Susan Olsen The Brady Bunch and pop culture historian Ted Nichelson in the first hour as they discuss their book, Love to Love You Bradys, a behind-the-scenes history of the short-lived but long remembered Brady Bunch Variety Hour.
Then Emmy-winning writer/producer Joseph Dougherty (thirtysomething, Saving Grace) joins the guys in the second hour as they weigh in on the ongoing late night controversy involving Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien and its effect on NBC's 10pm lineup and local network affiliates. 
