TVC 722.5: Ed welcomes Cam Clarke , one of the youngest members of The King Family , and one of the busiest voice actors in the entertainment industry today. Cam's new book, Now They're All Here: The King Family, Over 100 Years of Entertainment From America's First Family of Song is an oral history that not only traces The King Family's imprint on entertainment over the past century (spanning the worlds of vaudeville, radio, record albums, musical films from the 1940s, and live venues all over t...
Jan 27, 2026•18 min•Season 18Ep. 722
TVC 722.6: Voice actor Cam Clarke , author of Now They're All Here: The King Family, Over 100 Years of Entertainment From America's First Family of Song , talks to Ed about his accidental path to becoming a voice actor; how he was mentored as a voice artist by Michael Bell ; and why a voice actor should "never audition with something you can't sustain." Now They're All Here is available through Rare Bird Books as well as Amazon.com....
Jan 27, 2026•17 min•Season 18Ep. 722
TVC 720.3: From December 2015: Tony, Donna, and Ed commemorate the premiere of Magnum, p.i. (CBS, 1980-1988) and the birthday of TV talk show legend Phil Donahue as part of This Week in TV History.
Jan 22, 2026•21 min•Season 18Ep. 721
TVC 721.2: Ed welcomes Mark Malkoff , host of the award-winning Carson Podcast and the author of Love Johnny Carson: One Obsessive Fan's Journey to Find The Genius Behind the Legend , a deep dive into Johnny Carson's thirty-year reign as host of The Tonight Show that includes interviews with more than four hundred Tonight Show personnel, including staff members, production people, writers, friends, and such Tonight Show guests as Carol Burnett, Mel Brooks, Bob Saget, Larry King, Michael J. Fox, ...
Jan 20, 2026•12 min•Season 18Ep. 721
TVC 720.3: Mark Malkoff , host of the award-winning Carson Podcast and the author of Love Johnny Carson , talks to Ed about why Johnny Carson often had a "surprise guest" during the early years of hosting The Tonight Show ; how Carson's writers often approached writing the monologue differently whenever a guest host hosted the show in Johnny's absence; Carson's secret philanthropy; and his legendary generosity toward up-and-coming comedians. Love Johnny Carson: One Obsessive Fan's Journey to Fin...
Jan 20, 2026•16 min•Season 18Ep. 721
TVC 721.4: Ed welcomes back Lindsay Wagner , the Emmy Award-winning actress known around the world as Jaime Sommers, The Bionic Woman. Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere of The Bionic Woman (ABC/NBC, 1976-1978). Topics this segment include how Lindsay accepted the part of Jaime after some prodding from both her mother and her younger sister; how the development of Jaime's character was a true collaboration between Lindsay and series producer Kenneth Johnson;...
Jan 20, 2026•21 min•Season 18Ep. 721
TVC 721.5: Lindsay Wagner talks to Ed about working with Academy Award-winning actor John Houseman on both The Paper Chase and The Bionic Woman , working with Academy Award-winning director Robert Wise on Two People , and how she got her first television set with an assist from James Garner. Lindsay is making available special, limited-edition Bionic Woman memorabilia to celebrate the show's fiftieth anniversary, including newly released signed photos of Lindsay as Jaime; a select number of auto...
Jan 19, 2026•8 min•Season 18Ep. 721
TVC 720.1: From January 2011: Tony, Donna, and Ed remember of the premiere of Masterpiece Theater (PBS, 1971-…) and the first NBC broadcast of Kukla, Fran and Ollie as part of This Week in TV History.
Jan 15, 2026•10 min•Season 18Ep. 720
TVC 720.4: Ed welcomes Doug Thompson, award-winning writer, producer, and director of more than 1,000 hours of radio programming for broadcast across the U.S. and Canada, as well as more than thirty TV documentaries for Canadian television. Among his credits, Doug created and produced three radio shows for John Candy, including Radio Kandy, a weekly two-hour show that was not only carried by more than 350 radio stations across the U.S. for two years at the height of Candy's movie career, but whi...
Jan 13, 2026•23 min•Season 18Ep. 720
TVC 720.5: Award-winning radio producer Doug Thompson talks to Ed about working with Ringo Starr on the nationally syndicated radio series Ringo's Yellow Submarine ; with Jim Henson on both The Dark Crystal and The Fantastic Miss Piggy Special ; and with The Monkees on a radio documentary that Doug produced for broadcast in Canada in 1967.
Jan 13, 2026•18 min•Season 18Ep. 720
Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the premiere of Batman (ABC, 1966-1968). With that in mind, we thought we'd bring you an encore presentation of a conversation that Tony, Donna, and I had in January 2016 about the legacy of the Batman television series, including how the premiere of Batman as a midseason replacement ushered in the era of the "second season," a staple of network TV that continues to this day.
Jan 12, 2026•9 min•Season 8Ep. 302
We took a few days off for the holidays, but we'll be back with a new edition of TV Confidential later this week. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past clip from January 2013 featuring renowned Elvis historian Cory Cooper. Cory's knowledge of The King is based on his deep ties to many of the people who were closest to Elvis, including members of the "Memphis Mafia." Topics this segment include some of Cory's favorite Elvis movies; what Elvis looked for when he listened to other ...
Jan 07, 2026•9 min•Season 5Ep. 168
By now, most of you are probably aware of the tragic deaths of Rob and Michele Reiner on Dec. 14, 2025. We are in the process of putting together a formal tribute program in memory of Rob Reiner that will air in a few weeks on TV Confidential. In the meantime, please enjoy this clip from January 2011 in which Tony, Donna, and Ed discuss the many ways in which All in the Family changed television when it premiered on Jan. 12, 1971.
Jan 05, 2026•13 min•Season 3Ep. 73
We're taking a few days off for the holidays, but we'll be back with brand new editions of TV Confidential in the new year. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past clip from December 2015 in which author Paul Green helps Ed revisit the life and career of Pete Duel, the star of Alias Smith and Jones who took his life on Dec. 30, 1971, at the height of his television celebrity. The second edition of Paul's book Pete Duel: A Biography includes new information from not only Duel's fam...
Dec 30, 2025•8 min•Season 8Ep. 299
TVC 719.2: Part 2 of a conversation that began a few weeks ago with author, essayist, novelist, and TV historian Mitchell Hadley ( The Electronic Mirror , ItsAboutTV.com ). Mitchell's latest book, Darkness in Primetime: How Classic-Era TV Foresaw Modern Society's Descent into Hell , is a series of essays that shows how certain episodes of such classic series as The Twilight Zone , The Outer Limits , Star Trek , and The Prisoner —all of which were originally written and broadcast in either the 19...
Dec 25, 2025•19 min•Season 18Ep. 719
TVC 719.3: Mitchell Hadley talks to Ed about "The Running Men," an essay that Mitchell recently wrote for ItsAboutTV.com that makes the case for why it's not necessary for every television series to have a final episode that resolves the premise and ties up any other loose ends. Ed agrees with Mitchell, but adds that the influence of social media on today's TV landscape makes it impossible for show runners to avoid producing a series finale without upsetting the fan base. Mitchell's latest book,...
Dec 25, 2025•12 min•Season 18Ep. 719
We're taking a few days off for the holidays, but we'll be back with brand new editions of TV Confidential in the new year. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past clip from March 2016 featuring sixties film historian Tom Lisanti. Tom's books include Pamela Tiffin: Hollywood to Rome, 1961-1974 , a comprehensive look at Tiffin's work in film and television that includes insight from Tiffin herself (as well as such co-stars as Franco Nero), while also exploring the reasons why she r...
Dec 24, 2025•11 min•Season 8Ep. 316
TVC 719.4: Ed welcomes Tom Sturges , son of Academy Award-winning writer/director Preston Sturges, one of the top executives in the music industry, and the author of such books as Every Idea is a Good Idea , A Good Divorce Begins Here , and Preston Sturges: The Last Years of Hollywood's First Writer-Director . Tom's latest book, Men Explained... Finally , is a humorous, totally unscientific, and yet often very wise look at the male species that reveals such universal Man Truths as Why All Men ar...
Dec 23, 2025•24 min•Season 18Ep. 719
TVC 719.5: Tom Sturges talks to Ed about how his father, Preston Sturges , embodied some of the "man truths" that Tom writes about in his new book, Men Explained… Finally ; how Tom came to work with NBA star Shaquille O'Neal when O'Neal became a rap artist; and what Tom looks for when determining whether a new song has what it takes to become a hit record. Men Explained… Finally is available wherever books are sold through Centimilla Press....
Dec 23, 2025•19 min•Season 18Ep. 719
TVC 718.1: From November 2015: Tony, Donna, and Ed discuss the legacy of The Mary Tyler Moore Show (CBS, 1970-1977), including a look at its spinoff series Rhoda (CBS, 1974-1978), Phyllis (CBS, 1975-1977), and Lou Grant (CBS, 1977-1982).
Dec 18, 2025•22 min•Season 18Ep. 718
TVC 718.2: From November 2015: Tony, Donna, and Ed discuss "Rhoda's Wedding" (CBS, Oct. 28, 1974), the famous first-season episode of Rhoda in which Rhoda Morgenstein (Valerie Harper) marries Joe Gerard (David Groh), and why the episode remains a television classic more than fifty years later, even though the decision to marry the two characters ultimately hurt the series.
Dec 18, 2025•20 min•Season 18Ep. 718
TVC 718.3: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with Mark Shaw , author of Abuse of Power: Connecting Robert Kennedy's Assassinaton with the Murders of JFK and Dorothy Kilgallen and The Reporter Who Knew Too Much . Topics this segment include new findings that suggest that the autopsy performed on Kilgallen after her death in November 1965 may have been compromised. As was the case with Mark's previous book, Collateral Damage , Abuse of Power emphasizes the importance of relying on prim...
Dec 17, 2025•15 min•Season 18Ep. 718
TVC 718.4: Ed welcomes back Stefanie Powers , the actress known around the world as Jennifer Hart on Hart to Hart (ABC, 1979-1984), and the founder and president of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation , the nonprofit organization that Stefanie established in 1982 in memory of her longtime life partner that continues and furthers the conservation work of William Holden in East Africa. Stefanie will reunite with McLintock! co-star Patrick Wayne for the first time in sixty years for a one-perfor...
Dec 16, 2025•20 min•Season 18Ep. 718
TVC 718.5: Stefanie Powers talks to Ed about why her experience as a contract player at Columbia Pictures at the start of her career was like "a finishing school for actors"; working with Ava Gardner on Maggie (CBS, 1986), a pilot for a series that marked Gardner's final screen appearance (the pilot, however, never aired); and why James Garner ranks alongside Robert Wagner as among Stefanie's favorite co-stars. (Stefanie starred opposite Garner in "The Red Easy Red Dog," a second-season episode ...
Dec 16, 2025•18 min•Season 18Ep. 718
TVC 718.6: Mark Shaw , author of Abuse of Power: Connecting Robert Kennedy's Assassinaton with the Murders of JFK and Dorothy Kilgallen and The Reporter Who Knew Too Much , talks to Ed about how the City of New York honored Dorothy Kilgallen on Saturday, Nov. 8 by naming a street after her on the sixtieth anniversary of her death. Other topics this segment include why so many of us are enamored with real-life murder mysteries. Abuse of Power and The Reporter Who Knew Too Much are both available ...
Dec 15, 2025•18 min•Season 18Ep. 718
TVC 717.1: Ed welcomes back Mark Shaw , investigative journalist, former criminal defense attorney, onetime legal analyst for CNN, ESPN, and USA Today, and the author of nearly thirty books, including The Reporter Who Knew Too Much: The Mysterious Death of What's My Line TV Star and Media Icon Dorothy Kilgallen . Mark's latest book, Abuse of Power , includes new information about the mysterious nature of Kilgallen's demise in November 1965 that, Mark believes, links the death of Kilgallen to the...
Dec 11, 2025•23 min•Season 18Ep. 717
TVC 717.2: Mark Shaw , author of Abuse of Power: Connecting Robert Kennedy's Assassinaton with the Murders of JFK and Dorothy Kilgallen , talks to Ed about a recently released YouTube video about John Shear (pictured above, left), a longtime paddock captain at Santa Anita Racetrack in Southern California who hired Sirhan Sirhan (pictured above, center) as a "hot walker" several months before Sirhan was arrested for the assassination of RFK in June 1968. According to Mark, Shear's comments in tha...
Dec 11, 2025•20 min•Season 18Ep. 717
TVC 717.3: From December 2011: Tony, Donna, and Ed send birthday wishes to film and television legend Dick Van Dyke ( The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mary Poppins, Diagnosis Murder ) as part of This Week in TV History. Dick Van Dyke turns 100 on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025.
Dec 10, 2025•14 min•Season 18Ep. 717
TVC 717.4: Ed welcomes back Ellen Geer , daughter of Will Geer and the artistic director of Theatricum Botanicum , the outdoor amphitheatre in Topanga Canyon, California that Will Geer founded in 1973. Theatricum's fifth annual Holiday Family Faire will take place on Saturday, Dec. 13 from 11am to 5pm, followed by a special live production of It's a Wonderful Life featuring Beau Bridges, Wendie Malick, Joe Mantegna beginning at 5pm. Tickets for the live production of It's a Wonderful Life are av...
Dec 09, 2025•23 min•Season 18Ep. 717
TVC 717.5: Ed welcomes back actress and author Alison Arngrim ( Little House on the Prairie , Confessions of a Prairie Bitch ). Alison has news about several events coming up over the next few weeks that will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere of Little House on the Prairie (NBC, 1974-1983), including the recent Live Before a Studio Audience edition of The Little House 50th Anniversary Podcast featuring Alison, Dean Butler, and Pamela Bob that took place on Saturday, Nov. 22 at 1...
Dec 08, 2025•17 min•Season 18Ep. 717
