TV Confidential with Ed Robertson

TVC 709.1: From October 2015: Tony, Donna, and Ed remember the premiere of Captain Kangaroo (CBS, 1955-1984) and its impact on other children's television programs, including Romper Room and Bozo the Clown.

TVC 532.6: Academy Award winner George Chakiris talks to Ed about some of his early screen appearances as a dancer in such films as Gentleman Prefer Blondes, White Christmas, and There's No Business Like Show Business; assisting Robert Alton with the choreography of Judy Garland's first stage show in Las Vegas; and how George came to develop his interest in designing jewelry. George's memoir, My West Side Story, is available in hardcover and as an eBook and includes a wonderful back cover quote from George's co-star, dear friend, and fellow Oscar winner from West Side Story, Rita Moreno. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 520.2: Actor, comedian, and voice artist Hank Garrett talks to Ed, Tony, and Donna about how an intervention from Sammy Davis Jr. when Hank was thirteen years old saved him from a life on the streets and opened the doors for what would become a sixty-five-year career as an entertainer. Hank's memoir, From Harlem Hoodlum to Hollywood Heavyweight, is available through Briton Publishing, Amazon.com, and other online retailers. Proceeds from sales of Hank's book will support Wounded Warriors and Disabled Veterans of America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 516.6: From November 2010: Ken Corday, executive producer of Days of Our Lives, talks to Ed and Tony about some of the notable storylines of the first twenty years of Days of Our Lives, as well as the show's occasional struggles with network Standards and Practices over certain subject matters (and, in more recent years, product placement). Ken's book, The Days of Our Lives: The True Story of One Family's Dream and The Untold History of Days of Our Lives, not only chronicles the history of Days of Our Lives on television, but pays tribute to his parents, Ted and Betty Corday, the creators and original executive producers of the series. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 513.2: Game show historian Steve Beverly talks to Ed about Tom Kennedy's versatility as a game show host; how he and his real-life brother, Jack Narz, came to be related to fellow game show legend Bill Cullen; why many, including Kennedy himself, considered Cullen to be the best in the business; some insight on Kennedy's experience hosting The Price is Right; and why You Don't Say, Split Second and Name That Tune were all "Tom Kennedy shows." Steve knew Tom Kennedy for more than twenty years. Tom Kennedy passed away on Wednesday, Oct. 7 at age 93. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TVC 714.2: From February 2014: Prolific television director Ralph Senensky talks to Ed about working with Ralph Waite, Will Geer, Ellen Corby, and Michael Learned on The Waltons, and with Richard Thomas on "Game of Terror," an episode of The FBI that aired in 1971, one year before the premiere of The Waltons. Ralph not only helmed twelve episodes of The Waltons, many of which rank among the very best episodes in the history of that series. Ralph Senensky passed away on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025 at the age of 102.

TVC 714.3: Ed welcomes Les Lannom, the actor known around the world as Lester Hodges on Harry O (ABC, 1974-1976), and a man who has worked with such movie and TV legends as Lee Marvin, Gene Hackman, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Joe Don Baker, Sissy Spacek, Dennis Weaver, Pat Hingle, James Garner, David Carradine, and David Janssen in the course of his career. Topics this segment include the appeal of the smell of a good pipe, the merits of pipe smoking versus cigar smoking, and the bad experience that Les had while smoking a cigarette in 1971 during production of Prime Cut, his first film credit as an actor.

TVC 714.4: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with Louise Sorel (Days of Our Lives, Santa Barbara). Louise's new book, If There Were No Dogs: Musings and Mutterings, is a collection of prose pieces and poems drawn from her life, childhood, and career that reveals how Louise navigated a sometimes difficult childhood with emotionally distant parents by discovering the theatre at a young age and through her lifelong love of animals. Topics this segment include the surreal, almost sitcom-like way in which she first met Dame Judith Anderson, one of her co-stars on Santa Barbara (and an accomplished stage actress who was one of Louise's idols long before Santa Barbara); how the works of Shakespeare become easier to understand once you realize that The Bard wrote in language that actors could perform; plus Louise shares a few memories of her marriage to actor Herb Edelman. If There Were No Dogs is available wherever books are sold online through Book Baby and Amazon.com.

TVC 714.5: Les Lannom talks to Ed about how his penchant for performing cold readings stems from his longtime passion for reading out loud; how his youthful appearances has sometimes worked in his favor (and sometimes not); and how a guest appearance on Kung Fu in 1972 not only put him on the radar of producers Jerry Thorpe, Alex Beaton, and Robert Dozier, but paved the way for his being cast in Such Dust as Dreams Are Made Of, the first pilot for Harry O.

TVC 714.5: Les Lannom talks to Ed about how he and David Janssen bonded almost immediately when they worked together on Harry O, partly because they shared an ability to laugh at themselves and not take themselves too seriously. Les not only wrote the foreword for The Harry O Viewing Companion by Steve Aldous and Gary Gillies, but contributed many behind-the-scenes anecdotes about production of the series. The Harry O Viewing Companion is available wherever books are sold through McFarland Books.

TVC 713.1: TV Confidential remembers June Lockhart (Lassie, Petticoat Junction, Lost in Space) with an encore presentation of our conversation from June 2014 with the beloved actress. June Lockhart passed away on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025 at the age of 100. At the time we spoke to June in June 2014, she had just been honored by NASA with its Exceptional Public Achievement Medal for inspiring the public about space exploration. Topics this segment include June's longtime interest in both space travel and air flight; the back story of the famous TV Guide cover from September 1965 featuring June and Guy Williams; plus June shares a few memories of working with Edgar Buchanan on Petticoat Junction and with Jon Provost on Lassie.

TVC 713.2: From June 2014: June Lockhart talks to Ed about some of the many TV game shows on which she appeared throughout her career, including Who Said That? (NBC, 1948-1955), a show that also began June's long association with the White House press corps, and Take My Word For It (Synd., 1982-1983), a show hosted by Jim Lange that was filmed at the studios of KGO-TV in San Francisco. June Lockhart passed away on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025 at the age of 100.

TVC 713.2a: From November 2015: Tony, Donna, and Ed remember the premiere of F Troop (ABC, 1965-1967) in September 1965. Topics this segment include how the influence of Buster Keaton can be seen in many of the pratfalls that Ken Berry performed when he played Captain Parmenter on F Troop; the on-screen chemistry between Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch, and how they recaptured that ten years later, when they starred in the Saturday morning series The Ghost Busters (CBS, 1975-1976); and how the switch to color in F Troop's second season may have hurt the series.

TVC 713.3: As long as we're in an F Troop frame of mind, we thought we'd bring you an encore presentation of our conversation with Ken Berry (F Troop, Mayberry, R.F.D., Mama's Family) from January 2018. Topics this segment include the role that Leonard Nimoy played early in Berry's career, and how Ken learned both how to be a straight man and how to deliver a punch line when he worked with Abbott and Costello in Las Vegas in the early 1950s. Ken Berry passed away on Dec. 1, 2018. Our conversation with Ken was one of the last, if not the last, interviews he ever gave.

TVC 713.4: From January 2018: Ken Berry talks to Ed about his early years as a dancer with the Billy Barnes Revue; his friendship with Buster Keaton (not to mention the major influence the silent film star had on his career); and the important role that Carol Burnett played throughout Ken's career. Ken Berry passed away on Dec. 1, 2018. Our conversation with Ken was one of the last, if not the last, interviews he ever gave.

TVC 713.5: Ed welcomes back actress and author Louise Sorel (Days of Our Lives, Santa Barbara). Louise's new book, If There Were No Dogs: Musings and Mutterings, is a collection of prose pieces and poems drawn from her life, childhood, and career that not only shares memories of her working with Art Carney, Charles Boyer, George C. Scott, Walter Pidgeon, Rita Moreno, Dame Judith Anderson, Don Rickles, and many others, but reveals how Louise navigated a sometimes difficult childhood with emotionally distant parents by discovering the theatre at a young age and through her lifelong love of animals. Topics this segment include the unlikely assist that Louise received from her father, film producer Albert Cohen, shortly after she had moved to New York at age twenty to study acting at the venerable Neighborhood Playhouse. If There Were No Dogs is available wherever books are sold online through Book Baby and Amazon.com. Louise Sorel is scheduled to appear at United Solo, the world's largest solo theatre festival, in New York City on Saturday, Nov. 15 beginning at 2pm. She'll read passages from If There Were No Dogs, followed by a Q&A session. Click here for tickets and more details.

TVC 713.5: Louise Sorel (Days of Our Lives, Santa Barbara) talks to Ed about why she enjoys writing about some of the many canine companions she has had in her life, including a poem that she once wrote from the point of view of her dog Jiggs. Louise's new book, If There Were No Dogs: Musings and Mutterings, is available wherever books are sold online through Book Baby and Amazon.com. Louise Sorel will read passages from If There Were No Dogs at United Solo, the world's largest solo theatre festival, in New York City on Saturday, Nov. 15 beginning at 2pm. Click here for tickets and more details.

TVC 712.1: From January 2013: Phil Gries joins Ed for a special edition of The Sounds of Lost Television honoring John Zacherle, the popular New York TV personality known as The Cool Ghoul. At a time when horror movies were a staple of local late-night television, Zacherley set himself apart from his contemporaries with an array of zany antics that were usually far more entertaining than the films he introduced, including sound effects, props, and cleverly inserting himself into the movie (usually just before the cutaway to a commercial). Topics this segment include Zacherle's start hosting horror movies in Philadelphia (where his on-screen persona was known as "Roland"); how Zacherle adapted his onscreen persona on WABC-TV in New York from an undertaker character he'd played on Action in the Afternoon, a daily Western soap opera that aired on WCAU-TV in Philadelphia in 1953; and Phil's own association with Zacherle, which lasted many years.

TVC 712.2: From January 2013: Phil Gries plays more audio highlights from the early television career of legendary New York TV horror movie host John Zacherle, as well as a clip from Phil's own interview with Zacherle from October 1997, in which Zacherle discusses how he came up with many of the routines that he did on-camera. Other topics this segment include Zacherle's other work in local television, including hosting the afternoon dance party show Disc-o-Teen; his long association with Dick Clark; and Zacherle's popularity with many music artists, including Ringo Starr and Jerry Garcia. John Zacherle passed away on Oct. 27, 2016 at age ninety-eight.

TVC 712.3: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with Joseph Dougherty, Tony Figueroa, and Dan Farren about some of our favorite local TV horror movie hosts from the 1960s and '70s. This segment particularly focuses on Bob Wilkins, the erudite host of Creature Features on KTVU Channel 2 (Oakland-San Francisco) who was known for his trademark cigar, horn rim glasses, and the catchphrase "Keep America Strong. Watch Horror Movies." Unlike most other local TV horror movie hosts, Wilkins never dressed up as a zany character on Creature Features, but instead kept the viewers tuned in every week by bringing them long-form interviews with the likes of George Lucas, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Vincent Price, and Christopher Lee in between movie segments. Wilkins was also the first to air Night of the Living Dead on local television.