Tuesday evening Sept. 9th, Susan McCray will introduce you to the legendary comedian SHECKY GREENE on her show “Getting To Know You.”
Don’t miss the stories of this great entertainer. How his career began and how he became one of the highest paid entertainers in Las Vegas.
Shecky even sings a little song to Susan. Don’t miss out on the fun with Shecky Greene on “Getting To Know You” with host Susan McCray.
Here is a Trivia Question to all from Susan McCray:
What do all the following well known television shows have in common?
I spy; The Mod Squad; That Girl; Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman;
Mayberry RFD; The Dick Van Dyke Show; The Andy Griffith Show;
Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer
Tune in Tuesday evening, September 2nd when Susan McCray gives you the answer on “Getting To Know You” at 6:30 p.m. pacific time 9:30 p.m. eastern time on KSAV.org. If you’d like to share your answer send it in as a comment.
Back in the ’60s and ’70s, it was standard practice for the networks to replace many of their popular shows in June, July and August with short-run comedy and variety shows, such as This is Johnny Cash and The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour. That changed, however, in the 80s, as HBO, Showtime, and other cable networks came into force. For years the broadcast nets conceded the summer to the cable channels networks gave up on the summer . . . until Regis came along in 1999 with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, followed by Survivor in 2000, then American Idol in 2002. Now the networks are back to creating original summer shows, such as Flashpoint and Swingtown on CBS, in the hopes that one of them will catch fire and become TV’s next big hit.
With that in mind, I thought it might be fun to take a look at some other summer series that either became big, big hits or have continued to live on as cult classics:
10. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (summer series in 1999, big hit in 2000)
9. Sonny & Cher (summer series in 1971, big hit throughout the early ’70s)
8. Northern Exposure (summer series in 1990, big hit throughout the ’90s)
7. The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd (NBC summer series in 1987, major cable series for Lifetime throughout the early 1990s)
6. Coronet Blue (Fugitive-like summer series from 1967; still a cult classic)
5. Buffalo Bill (summer series in 1983; still a cult classic)
4. Fernwood 2-Night (summer replacement for Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman in 1977; still a cult classic)
3. (tie) Survivor and American Idol (summer series in 2000 and 2002, still big network hits)
2. The Prisoner (summer replacement for The Jackie Gleason Show in 1968; still a cult classic)
1. Seinfeld (the pilot originally aired in the summer of 1989)
Ed Robertson
Pop Culture Critic and Television Historian
Co-Host, TV CONFIDENTIAL
Every other Tuesday at 10:3opm ET, 7:30pm PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
www.edrobertson.com
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
TV historian David Krell joins Ed Robertson and Frankie Montiforte as they discuss the changing face of summer television on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, Tuesday, Aug. 26 (TONIGHT) beginning at 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org.Once the domain of short-lived replacement shows, unsold pilots and burned-off episodes of canceled series, the summer months also have played an important role in launching many long-running network series, from The Sonny and Cher Show, Northern Exposure and Survivor on CBS to Beverly Hills, 90210 and The O.C. on Fox and Seinfeld on NBC. We’ll also talk about the current summer hits on CBS (Swingtown and Flashpoint), as well as cult classics like Coronet Blue and The Prisoner (both of which originally aired on CBS as summer series in the late 1960s), and a whole lot more.
If you have thoughts on these or other series, or have a summer favorite from years past that you’d like to talk about (be it The Ken Berry WOW Show, Buffalo Bill, Fernwood Tonight, reruns of Dan August or something even more obscure), be sure to log on to KSAV.org TONIGHT 26 beginning at 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT. Phone number is (800) 407-KSAV (5728), email address is talk@tvconfidential.net.In the meantime, if you have an idea for a future program, or know someone that you think might want to receive our weekly program announcements, please email us at our website, www.tvconfidential.net.
Ed Robertson
Co-Host, TV CONFIDENTIAL
Every other Tuesday at 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
A Show Biz great visits Susan McCray on September 9th, one of the most well known and beloved entertainers, Mr. Shecky Greene guests with his “new friend” Susan McCray. Hear some “inside” stories and even a personalized song Shecky sings to Susan. It is sure to make you smile. Don’t miss Shecky Greene on Getting To Know You - Tuesday, September 9th at 6:30 p.m. pacific 9:30 p.m. eastern on KSAV.org
Brian Copeland is one of the top voices on KGO radio, but he also knows his television. When he first developed Not a Genuine Black Man—his riveting one-man show about growing up black in San Leandro in the early 1970s, at a time when the East Bay suburb was notoriously 99.9 percent white and determined to keep it that way—he set out to capture the style of All in the Family, Good Times, Maude and other groundbreaking comedies produced by Norman Lear, where the audience finds themselves laughing hysterically one moment and sobbing the next. “It would be really funny—then you’d find out Edith got raped, and you’d go, ‘Where in the hell did that came from?’” he explains. “Or you’d watch Good Times, there’d be a hilarious line, then all of a sudden J.J. gets shot by a gangbanger. So when I wrote the show, I knew the rhythms I wanted were the rhythms of Norman Lear.”Copeland nails those rhythms in Genuine, the long-running San Francisco solo show from 2004 that recently debuted in San Jose after successful runs in Los Angeles and off-Broadway. The show runs at the Historic Hoover Theatre through Aug. 24. At a time when Barack Obama calls for a national discussion on race in America, Copeland provides that and more in a two-hour roller-coaster ride that explores how our surroundings (and surviving them) make us who we are. It’s an evening of theatre you won’t soon forget.
I recently had a chance to chat with Brian Copeland for The Wave Magazine. Among other topics, we spoke about his one-man show, his beginnings in stand-up comedy, and how making a roomful of people laugh really is better than sex. An excerpt from our conversation appears below; the complete interview is available by clicking here.
What made you want to be a comic?
BC: I always loved comedy growing up. Then when I was in high school, I saw Richard Pryor: Live in Concert on HBO, and it literally changed my life. I did not know that comedy could be like that. Here’s a guy who’s talking about all of the things that happened to him the previous year, about being drunk on vodka and shooting the tires off his wife’s car and leaving, about his heart attack and having a dialogue with his heart (“Please don’t kill me”), about snorting cocaine and about how his father behaved at his mother’s funeral. In fact, Genuine is a lot like that concert film in spirit, because it’s very truthful.
This was the early ’80s (I was class of ’82). The comedy boom was just starting. Tommy Thomas, who’d been my CYO baseball coach when I was a fifth grader, opened up the original Tommy T’s Comedy House in San Leandro, right up the street from my house. The week after I graduated from high school, I called Tommy and said, “I’m thinking about trying comedy. Do you have an open mic night?” This was like five o’clock on a Tuesday. He said, “No, but I have a comic sick tonight, can you do about 15 minutes?” Being 18 years old, I said, “Sure!” Today I’d say, “Are you out of your mind?” But I’m 18 years old, “Sure!”So I pulled out the newspaper and wrote a bunch of stuff. It was a small crowd, maybe 20 people, and they laughed. Tommy invited me to come back the next Tuesday. The next Tuesday, I packed the place with friends and family, I wrote some more stuff, and I killed. Then the next week I came back, wrote a bunch more stuff, and died a horrible, horrible death. I was scared to go back on stage again for about nine months.
How’d you get over it?
BC: Just got back on the horse. I realized that I missed it. I realized there was nothing that made me feel like I felt when I thought of something, wrote it down, said it in front of an audience, and they reacted and responded. There is nothing like it, Ed, it really is better than sex. And only a real comic can understand that. To write a joke that you tell in front of 250 strangers and they laugh and applaud, it is better than the best sex you ever had.
Ed Robertson
Pop Culture Critic and Television Historian
Co-Host, TV CONFIDENTIAL
Every other Tuesday at 10:3opm ET, 7:30pm PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
www.edrobertson.com
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes
In case you missed it, our tribute to William Conrad is now available on the archives page at KSAV.org.
A special preview of just a few of the interesting, entertaining, and fun interviews coming your way every Tuesday evening on “Getting To Know You” with host Susan McCray:
Bob Hope called him the “Comedians Comedian” Jerry Lewis calls him “The Epitome of Comic Genius.” Susan McCray invites you to get to know him. Las Vegas headliner, comedian and television/film actor, Shecky Greene.
He is best known for his Emmy nominated role as Oscar Goldman on the series “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “Bionic Woman.” Susan interviews film and television actor/ producer, Richard Anderson.
If you are a lover of R&B music, get to know a member of two of the most successful Rhythm and Blues vocal groups of the 50’s, “The Clovers” and “The Ink Spots,” Harold Winley.
Who isn’t interested in how celebrities live? You can get an insight into how well known people live in their homes. Whether it be having a 14 foot home theater, or a spa that holds 20, Susan McCray will talk about them all with L.A. Times Real Estate Editor and Editor of the paper’s “Hot Property” column, Ann Brenoff.
So be sure to check out the air dates for these and future “Getting To Know You” shows by going to Susan McCray’s website: www.susanmccray.com and click on the “Schedule” menu. If you happen to miss a show or would like to hear it again at your leisure, you can find all three years of previously aired “Getting To Know You” shows on Susan’s site by clicking on the “Archives” menu.
“Getting To Know You” with Susan McCray every Tuesday evening at 6:30 p.m. pacific /9:30 p.m. eastern on KSAV.org SPECIAL GUESTS …. FOR SPECIAL LISTENERS
In case you missed it, last week we announced that Dave White has officially handed over the reins of Talking Television, and that Frankie Montiforte and I will be taking over as hosts of the program beginning Tuesday, Aug. 12 at 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT on Share-a-Vision Radio. As we also announced last week, the program will now be called TV CONFIDENTIAL, and will be broadcast every other Tuesday at 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT (instead of weekly, as before).
Other than those two changes, TV CONFIDENTIAL will be the same program you know as Talking Television, only with different hosts. We’ll have many of the same features, such as our DVD report and David Krell’s commentary, plus we’ll continue to take you behind the scenes of your favorite shows and pay tribute to your favorite TV personalities. In fact, on our Tuesday, Aug. 12 program, we’ll look back at the career of William Conrad—from his early days as the radio voice of Matt Dillon to his memorable work as the narrator on Rocky & Bullwinkle and, of course, The Fugitive, from his behind-the-scenes work as a TV producer to his starring roles in Cannon and Jake and The Fatman.
Paul Robert Coyle, who worked with Bill on Jake and The Fatman, will be joining us on Tuesday, Aug. 12… we hope you’ll join us, too.
In the meantime, if you would to be on our email list for future announcements, or if you have an idea for a future program, please email us at our website, www.tvconfidential.net. As a matter of fact, the idea for our tribute to William Conrad originated from a regular listener—so we definitely want to hear from you!
Finally, as we also announced last week, the reason Dave is stepping aside is that he will be launching a new program, DAVE WHITE PRESENTS, beginning Tuesday, Aug. 19 at 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT on Share-a-Vision Radio. DAVE WHITE PRESENTS will then alternate with TV CONFIDENTIAL in the Tuesday, 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT time slot. You can learn more about Dave’s new show by going to www.audioentertainment.org.
Ed Robertson
Pop Culture Critic and Television Historian
Co-Host, TV CONFIDENTIAL
Every other Tuesday at 10:3opm ET, 7:30pm PT
beginning Aug. 12 on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
www.edrobertson.com
www.tvconfidential.net
P.S. Speaking of hearing from you… many thanks to all who wrote with feedback to our tribute to Dick Martin last week. For those who may have missed our broadcast, it is available on the archives page at www.ksav.org.
There was a time when radio was king. When the air-waves were America’s destination to find the best entertainment of the day. The High Street Broadcast captures the spirit of this golden age and adds to it a modern twist and a sense of humor that speaks to today’s listening audience.It’s unique hour format includes zany character sketches, original and classic songs and a half-hour serial, all with our signature HSB comedic twist.We create a new show each month, which is then performed in front of a live audience at the High Street Arts Center in Moorpark, CA. We hope you enjoy the show as much as we enjoy creating it for you.
Hear it every SUNDAY at 4:00 PM and 7:00 PM on KSAV.org.
Susan McCray invites you to enjoy her newly redesigned website. The site is packed with information, photos, news, video excerpts, and much more. There is a Feedback page that includes a place for site visitors to send Susan comments and questions. The About menu page is about Susan’s background and careers as a casting director, CD and TV producer, and singer. You can enjoy excerpts of videos with Susan discussing her casting for the long running television series “Little House on the Prairie.” There is a video conversation with pianist, arranger, Vincent Falcone talking about the CD “Warm Heart … Cool Hands” produced by Susan and much more. Please log on and enjoy one of the most informative and entertaining websites: www.susanmccray.com