Mark Dawidziak: Who stopped the music that kept TV in tune?

Our friend Jon Burlingame is among those interviewed by Mark Dawidziak for his column today on the ongoing absence of theme music from network TV shows. Once a signature of television, not to mention a touchstone for generations of TV viewers, theme music has been absent from prime time network shows for nearly 20 years. Amazing. Here’s the link to Mark’s piece:

http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/mark_dawidziak/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-0/1251534647165870.xml&coll=2

Jon, of course, is the author of Television’s Greatest Hits: The Story of Television Themes from Dragnet to Friends; he’ll also be our guest on the Sept. 21 edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL.

Mark is the TV critic for The Cleveland Plain-Dealer, as well as the author of The Columbo Phile and The Night Stalker Companion.

Ed Robertson
Co-Host, TV CONFIDENTIAL
Mon thru Sun, 10pm ET, 7pm PT
Shokus Internet Radio
Every  other Tuesday, 11pm ET,  8pm PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes and FeedBurner

CNN and founder Ted Turner 30 years later: Can the cable giant reignite and fend off challenges from Fox News Channel?

From Rich Lieberman’s City Brights blog:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/lieberman/detail?blogid=70&entry_id=46518

For a historical look at the early days of Ted Turner, TBS and  CNN, catch our interview with Bill Tush on the archives page at TVConfidential.net.

Ed Robertson
Co-Host, TV CONFIDENTIAL
Mon thru Sun, 10pm ET, 7pm PT
Shokus Internet Radio
Every other Tuesday, 11pm ET, 8pm PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes and FeedBurner

As the Internet turns 40, unforeseen barriers threaten its growth

From the Associated Press, by way of the San Francisco Chronicle:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/08/30/financial/f102244D87.DTL&type=tech

Writer, producer and longtime Quinn Martin collaborator Philip Saltzman dies at age 80

Philip Saltzman was an accomplished writer for television in the 1950s and ’60s, specializing in scripts for one-hour dramatic series before becoming a successful TV producer in the 1970s. Though he wrote episodes of such popular shows as Perry Mason, The Rifleman, Wanted: Dead or Alive and Run For Your Life, he is best known for his many collaborations with Quinn Martin, first as a freelance writer on such QM shows as Twelve O’Clock High, The F.B.I. and The Fugitive, then as the show runner on the long-running CBS private detective series Barnaby Jones.

Our friend Paul Robert Coyle, a prolific TV writer in his own right, reports that Saltzman passed away in his sleep on Aug. 14 at the Motion Picture & Television Country Home in Woodland Hills. He was 80 years old and had apparently been ill for quite some time. “Phil was a class act,” said Paul, who wrote several episodes of Barnaby Jones in the late 1970s, then later worked with Saltzman in the 1980s on Crazy Like a Fox and Jake and the Fatman.

I had the opportunity to speak to Saltzman several times in the early 1990s while writing and researching my book The Fugitive Recaptured. I remember that he spoke softly yet fondly about his work on the show (he wrote six episodes of The Fugitive, including one of the very best episodes of the series, “Cry Uncle”) and his friendship with David Janssen (he had previously written for Janssen on Richard Diamond, Private Detective).

Sadly, the Los Angeles Times published just a short news brief on Saltzman’s passing, but there’s a nice obituary written by our friend Stephen Bowie for his Classic TV History blog. In addition, Saltzman gave a lengthy interview for Filmfax magazine in 2004 in which he discussed his long career in television.

Ed Robertson
Author, THE FUGITIVE RECAPTURED and other books on televison
Co-Host, TV CONFIDENTIAL
Mon thru Sun, 10pm ET, 7pm PT
Shokus Internet Radio
Every other Tuesday, 11pm ET, 8pm PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes and FeedBurner

TV CONFIDENTIAL Aug. 10 edition: Hour 2 with guest Joseph Dougherty

Emmy-winning writer, director and producer Joseph Dougherty (thirtysomething, Saving Grace) joins Ed, Frankie and guest co-host Tony Figueroa for a conversation about new media, the current state of network television and other topics:

http://media.podcastingmanager.com/9/3/5/3/3/142636-133539/Media/081009tvc27_2.mp3

TV CONFIDENTIAL Aug. 10 edition: Hour 1 with guest Michael Davis

Author, journalist and educator Michael Davis joins Ed, Frankie and guest co-host Tony Figueroa. Michael’s book, Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street, marks the 40th anniversary of the landmark children’s television series:

http://media.podcastingmanager.com/9/3/5/3/3/142636-133539/Media/081009tvc27_1.mp3

Bob Hope and The Laugh Makers: Next on TV CONFIDENTIAL

Television writer Bob Mills will be our guest on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, premiering Monday, August 24 at 10pm ET, 7pm PT on Shokus Internet Radio, with a rebroadcast Tuesday, August 25, 11pm ET, 8pm PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org.

Bob Mills was a comedy writer for Bob Hope during the last 20 years of Hope’s illustrious career. His new book, The Laugh Makers: A Behind the Scenes Tribute to Bob Hope’s Incredible Gag Writers, takes readers on a side-splitting journey to a bygone era of television variety shows and slapstick sketch comedy.

Bob’s book is not only filled with backstage stories and rare, previously unpublished photographs, including behind-the-scenes photos of Hope’s historic trip to China in 1979 (Hope and company were the first U.S. television crew ever allowed in China), but provides a candid portrait of Hope that sheds light on his incredible longevity. If you love Bob Hope, this is a show you won’t want to miss. Bob Mills will join us during our second hour; we hope you’ll join us, too.

Ed Robertson
Co-Host, TV CONFIDENTIAL
Mon-Sun 10pm ET, 7pm PT
Shokus Internet Radio
Every other Tuesday at 11pm ET, 8pm PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes and FeedBurner

Perry’s celebrates 40 years in San Francisco

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/20/DDJS19912P.DTL

KOFY TV Retro Night, Episode 59: The Wild, Wild West with guest host Ed Robertson

In case you missed them, or if you live outside the San Francisco Bay Area and didn’t get a chance to see them, check out the wrap-around segments we did last week for The Wild, Wild West on the TV Confidential YouTube page, www.youtube.com/tvconfidential:

Ed Robertson
Co-Host, TV CONFIDENTIAL
Mon thru Sun, 10pm ET, 7pm PT
Shokus Internet Radio
Every other Tuesday, 10pm ET, 7pm PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes and FeedBurner

TV CONFIDENTIAL July 27 edition: Hour 1 with guest Mike Dann

Former CBS and NBC programming executive Mike Dann joins Ed and Frankie in the first hour for a lively discussion about his career in television, as well as the current state of the medium. Mike’s memoirs, As I Saw It: The Inside Story of the Golden Age of Television, traces the first 25 years of network TV, from the birth of the first full network schedule through the creation of such staples as The Today Show and The Tonight Show, to the rise and fall of such prime time giants as Tom and Dick Smothers:

http://media.podcastingmanager.com/9/3/5/3/3/142636-133539/Media/072709tvc26_1.mp3