How 5 Minutes with Red Skelton Changed Johnny Carson's Career
TV Confidential with Ed Robertson
Release Date: 01/20/2026
Peter Falk, Patrick McGoohan, and Columbo
TV Confidential with Ed Robertson
TVC 723.3: Glenn Stewart, author of , talks to Ed about Patrick McGoohan’s peculiar relationship with as an actor, writer, and director. While McGoohan starred in two of the very best episodes of the original Columbo (“By Dawn’s Early Light,” “Identity Crisis”) and one of the better episodes of the ABC series (“Agenda for Murder”), he also contributed to some of the problems that plagued Columbo in the 1990s (including, most notably, the episode “Murder with Too Many Notes”). is available through Bonaventure Press and Amazon.com.
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Barry Pearl on how improv teaches actors to become fearless on stage
TV Confidential with Ed Robertson
TVC 723.4: Ed welcomes Barry Pearl, the award-winning actor, director, and producer known to musical lovers around the world as “Doody” in Paramount’s iconic film (1978), although Barry’s association with Grease dates back to the early 1970s (and continues to this day). Barry is getting ready to direct a new stage production of , a witty, honest and affectionate look at modern love that is also the longest running revue in off-Broadway history. I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change runs Wednesday, Feb. 18 through Sunday, Mar. 8 at the in Long Beach, CA. For tickets and...
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Barry Pearl on the through line between CPO Sharkey and Grease
TV Confidential with Ed Robertson
TVC 723.5: Actor, director, and producer Barry Pearl talks to Ed about teaching improv to special needs students at Inclusion Films (the film company, run by Joey Travolta, that teaches and employs people in the film industry who have developmental and physical disabilities); how actor and director Jerry Paris mentored Barry when Barry first came out to Los Angeles in the mid 1970s; Barry’s experience working with Don Rickles on in 1976; and how being eliminated from the cast of Sharkey in the spring of 1977 turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because it set into motion the events...
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The Life and Times of Alan Napier
TV Confidential with Ed Robertson
TVC 722.1: From January 2016: joins Ed for a look at the life and career of (1903-1988), the British actor best known to three generations of TV viewers as Alfred the butler on Batman. Jim is co-author of , a combination memoir, biography and filmography that is largely based on a manuscript that Napier wrote himself in 1969. Jim first learned about this manuscript in 1975, when he interviewed Napier for Films in Review. Over the ensuing years, he helped flesh out the manuscript (including the chapters on the last twenty years of Napier’s life) and eventually got it published....
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Why Batman is just one chapter in the life of Alan Napier
TV Confidential with Ed Robertson
TVC 722.2: , co-author of , talks to Ed about what an eloquent writer was; the variety of characters that Napier played in his stage and film career; and how Napier was often cast as older men (even when he was young) because of his height. is available through . You can also order it by calling (800) 253-2187. Audio clips of Alan Napier heard in this segment courtesy of Jeffrey Vance.
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Alan Napier, John Houseman, and Orson Welles
TV Confidential with Ed Robertson
TVC 722.3: , co-author of , talks to Ed about how Alan Napier overcame a stammer when he was a child; why he likely enjoyed wearing the Batsuit on Batman when asked to do so; and Napier’s various collaborations with John Houseman and Orson Welles for radio, film, and television. is available through . You can also order it by calling (800) 253-2187. Audio clips of Alan Napier heard in this segment courtesy of Jeffrey Vance.
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The Night When Johnny Carson Upstaged Don Rickles
TV Confidential with Ed Robertson
TVC 722.4: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with , host of the award-winning and the author of , a deep dive into Johnny Carson’s thirty-year reign as host of The Tonight Show. Topics this segment include why the act of Carson inviting young comedians to join him on the couch after performing their set had a much greater impact in Los Angeles than when the show was based in New York; how Doc Severinsen became Johnny’s band leader in 1967; why Ed McMahon’s relationship with Carson was “friendly, yet fearful”; and the back story behind the night in December 1976...
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100 Years of The King Family
TV Confidential with Ed Robertson
TVC 722.5: Ed welcomes , one of the youngest members of , and one of the busiest voice actors in the entertainment industry today. Cam’s new book, 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 the world), but, in many respects, also serves as a King family album. is available through Rare Bird Books as well as Amazon.com. Topics this segment include how the King Family musical act started on a Christmas morning...
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The Many Voices of Cam Clarke
TV Confidential with Ed Robertson
TVC 722.6: Voice actor , author of , talks to Ed about his accidental path to becoming a voice actor; how he was mentored as a voice artist by ; and why a voice actor should “never audition with something you can’t sustain.” is available through Rare Bird Books as well as Amazon.com.
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45 Years of Magnum, p.i.
TV Confidential with Ed Robertson
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.
info_outlineTVC 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, Paula Poundstone, Loni Anderson, and many, many others. Love Johnny Carson is available wherever books are sold through Dutton Books. Topics this segment include the prominent role that Carson’s second wife, Joanne, played in helping Johnny become host of The Tonight Show in 1962; how powerful Joanne was behind the scenes of The Tonight Show, especially during the New York years; and how a surprise appearance by Red Skelton on Carson’s Coffee Break, a five-minute show that Carson hosted for Los Angeles station KNXT in the early 1950s, changed the trajectory of Johnny’s career