TROOPER MAVERICK Original Airdate: November 29, 1959
Synopsis. Whenever he’s in the Dakota Territories, Bart drops in on the Army fort run by his friend, Colonel Sam Percy, so that he can check out the poker action between the soldiers and the local settlers. Maverick becomes suspicious when Sam, normally one of the card players, arrests him for gambling and sentences him to 180 days service. Behind closed doors, Sam explains why he had Bart imprisoned—a war with the Sioux Indians is imminent, and one of his soldiers has been funneling weapons to the other side. Percy needs Maverick to uncover the spy and stop the smuggling.
LEARN MORE about this episode in the revised third edition of Maverick: Legend of the West, featuring more than 100 pages of new information about the show that made James Garner a star. 25 percent of the net proceeds from the sales of the third edition will be donated to The James Garner Animal Rescue Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising funds to help rescue organizations, shelters, individuals, fosters, and veterans with emergencies, evacuations, medical care, adoptions, training, pet supplies, shelter, rehabilitation, boarding, transportation, food, and other pressing needs. JGARF is one way for Garner fans to honor Jim’s memory and extend his legacy. The revised third edition of Maverick: Legend of the West is available through Black Pawn Press, Amazon.com, and wherever books are sold online.
Synopsis. Ben thinks he’s found the perfect opponent for a barnstorming prizefighter: Nell’s mammoth cousin Clancy (played by Denny Miller). James Garner makes a cameo appearance as Bret Maverick.
LEARN MORE about this episode in the revised third edition of Maverick: Legend of the West, featuring more than 100 pages of new information about the show that made James Garner a star. 25 percent of the net proceeds from the sales of the third edition will be donated to The James Garner Animal Rescue Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising funds to help rescue organizations, shelters, individuals, fosters, and veterans with emergencies, evacuations, medical care, adoptions, training, pet supplies, shelter, rehabilitation, boarding, transportation, food, and other pressing needs. JGARF is one way for Garner fans to honor Jim’s memory and extend his legacy. The revised third edition of Maverick: Legend of the West is available through Black Pawn Press, Amazon.com, and wherever books are sold online.
SHADY DEAL AT SUNNY ACRES Original Airdate: November 23, 1958
Synopsis. Bret wins $15,000 playing poker in Sunny Acres, Colorado. He deposits the money with the town’s banker, John Bates, but when he tries to withdraw some of his money the following morning, Bates denies the entire transaction. (Unbeknownst to Maverick, Bates has been lifting funds from the bank in order to buy out his partner, Ben Granville.) Bret vows to recover his money within two weeks, but Bates is unfazed—he knows he has an impeccable reputation in town, and that the sheriff will be watching Maverick closely. Bret plays helpless, but actually orchestrates an elaborate investment scheme built around Bates’ inherent greed. Playing key roles in the sting: Samantha Crawford, Dandy Jim Buckley, Gentleman Jack Darby, Cindy Lou Brown, Big Mike McComb, and brother Bart.
“Shady Deal at Sunny Acres” marked the final appearances of Dandy Jim Buckley and Samantha Crawford. Efrem Zimbalist Jr. was busy starring in 77 Sunset Strip, while Diane Brewster was about to launch her own series (The Islanders, produced by Richard Bare). In fact, except for Gentleman Jack Darby, none of the supporting characters created by Roy Huggins and company returned to Maverick following Huggins’ departure after the second season.
In his memoir, The Garner Files, James Garner singled out “Shady Deal at Sunny Acres” as his favorite episode of the series “because it’s Bret at his coolest.”
LEARN MORE about this episode in the revised third edition of Maverick: Legend of the West, featuring more than 100 pages of new information about the show that made James Garner a star. 25 percent of the net proceeds from the sales of the third edition will be donated to The James Garner Animal Rescue Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising funds to help rescue organizations, shelters, individuals, fosters, and veterans with emergencies, evacuations, medical care, adoptions, training, pet supplies, shelter, rehabilitation, boarding, transportation, food, and other pressing needs. JGARF is one way for Garner fans to honor Jim’s memory and extend his legacy. The revised third edition of Maverick: Legend of the West is available through Black Pawn Press, Amazon.com, and wherever books are sold online.
YOU CAN’T BEAT THE PERCENTAGE Original Airdate: October 4, 1959
Synopsis. Bart arrives in the town of Arroyo after receiving a letter Myra (played by Karen Steele), a saloon girl whom he met long ago in Missouri. Myra tells Bart that she plans to buy the saloon from Dave Wendell (Gerald Mohr) and that she needs Bart as a business partner. Maverick soon realizes that Myra plans to implicate him in the murder of her husband, a cowboy who has followed her from their home in Texas, so that she will become free to marry Wendell.
Guest stars include Gerald Mohr, the first actor to play Doc Holliday on Maverick, and Karen Steele, who co-starred with Mike Connors in “Point Blank,” the episode that series creator Roy Huggins considered to be the pilot episode of Maverick.
LEARN MORE about this episode in the revised third edition of Maverick: Legend of the West, featuring more than 100 pages of new information about the show that made James Garner a star. 25 percent of the net proceeds from the sales of the third edition will be donated to The James Garner Animal Rescue Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising funds to help rescue organizations, shelters, individuals, fosters, and veterans with emergencies, evacuations, medical care, adoptions, training, pet supplies, shelter, rehabilitation, boarding, transportation, food, and other pressing needs. JGARF is one way for Garner fans to honor Jim’s memory and extend his legacy. The revised third edition of Maverick: Legend of the West is available through Black Pawn Press, Amazon.com, and wherever books are sold online.
If you grew up watching television in the ’50s, ’60s and early 1970s, you know that part of the fun of watching TV back then were the ubiquitous—and often ingenious—animated commercials for Cap’n Crunch, Sugar Crisp, Lucky Charms, Froot Loops, Fruity Pebbles, Quisp and Quake, Trix, Count Chocula, Franken Berry and numerous other popular breakfast cereals made by Kellogg’s, Post, Quaker, Ralston-Purina and other manufacturers. Much of these appeal of these commercials is the host of animated characters that are still popular today, including Tony the Tiger, Snap, Crackle and Pop, Lucky the Leprechaun, the Trix Rabbit and the Cheerios Kid. These cereal characters became big stars not only through their TV commercials, but through merchandise such as comic books, stuffed toys and, in some cases, their own TV series.
We’ll talk about this, and more, in our second hour as we replay our conversation from September 2013 with author Tim Hollis. Tim’s book Part of a Complete Breakfast: Cereal Characters of the Baby Boom Era not only reveals the origins and appeal of these commercials, but discusses how changing times helped lead to the demise of some of these popular animated breakfast-cereal characters.
Speaking of savvy advertising, we’ll talk about Coca-Cola—a product that has used print, radio and television very effectively throughout its long history—in our first hour as we replay our conversation from September 2013 with Mark Pendergrast, author of For God, Country and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It. What began as a medicinal product in 1886 gradually evolved into a refreshment beverage that not only became the dominant consumer product in the United States throughout the 20th century, but, in many respects, came to be identified with America itself.
Originally published in 1993, For God, Country and Coca-Cola has been revised and updated with new information on the history and future of Coca-Cola, including a look at how Coca-Cola and Pepsi, once rivals in the “cola wars,” are now united in the “new cola wars”—despite the fact that both are considered the primary culprits behind the obesity epidemic. The new edition also documents beyond the shadow of a doubt that Coca-Cola originally contained cocaine; discusses the origins of such famous TV campaigns as “The Hilltop Ad” (as well as the differences in how Coke and Pepsi advertise their products), and reveals the original formula used by Frank Mason Robinson, the man who not only gave Coca-Cola its name, but wrote the name in the Spencerian script that became the product’s trademark.
TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about television Fri 9am ET, 6am PT on WBRT AM 1320/FM 97.1 (Bardstown, KY) Fri 7pm ET and PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org and CX Radio Brazil Fri 10pm ET, 7pm PT, Sat/Sun 11pm ET, 8pm PT on RadioSlot (San Francisco, CA) Sat 9am ET, 6am PT on WKXO 1500 AM and 103.5 FM (Lexington-Fayette/Richmond/Berea, KY) Sat 3pm ET, Noon PT on WTCA 1050 AM and 106.1 FM (Plymouth, IN) Sat 4pm CT, 2pm PT and Sun 6pm CT, 4pm PT on KSCJ 1360 AM and 94.9 FM (Sioux City, IA) Sat 8pm ET, 5pm PT and Sun 10am ET, 7am PT on Indiana Talks (Huntington, IN) Sat 10pm ET, 7pm PT on 920 WON The Apple (Brooklyn, NY) Sun 5am ET, 2am PT on WLAD-AM 800 and FM 94.1 (Danbury, CT) Sun 9am ET, 6am PT on KSCO-AM 1080 (San Jose/Santa Cruz/Salinas, CA) Sun 9am ET, 6am PT on KOMY-AM 1340 (La Selva Beach/Watsonville, CA) Sun 1pm ET, 10am PT on CROC Radio (British Columbia, Canada) Sun 6pm CT, 4pm PT on KLTF (St. Cloud/Little Falls, MN) Sun 8pm CT, 6pm PT on KPLT AM and FM (Paris, TX) Sun 10pm ET, 7pm PT on WDIG AM (Dothan, AL) Sun 9pm PT, Mon Mid ET on KHMB-AM and FM (Half Moon Bay, CA) Various times throughout the week on the Entertainment Channel at Passionate World Talk Radio
Did you miss last week’s show? Download the podcast by hitting SHARE and listen to it on demand:
Join our mailing list and receive our weekly newsletter with news on upcoming guests and other things you’ll want to know. Best of all, it’s free! TV Confidential now has its own YouTube channel and TuneIn channel. Catch up on recent episodes, on demand, on the go, and for free. Alexa users: You can now listen to TV Confidential any time on your smart speaker just by saying “Alexa, play TV Confidential.” Become a TV Confidential Confidant and receive unlimited access to the last five years of TV Confidential and other Members Only privileges, including the opportunity to participate in select guest interviews, and more. Joining is easy. To find out how, go to TelevisionConfidential.com and click Become a Confidant.
Amy Stoch of Bill and Ted 3Original Airdates: Aug. 28-30, 2020 TVC 506.4: Actress Amy Stoch (Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Dallas, the Gunsmoke reunion movies) talks to Ed about reprising her role as Missy, Bill Preston’s stepmom, in Bill and Ted Face the Music. She also shares the story of the wonderful compliment that Barbara Bel Geddes paid her early during her arc on Dallas. Bill and Ted Face the Music is now showing in select drive-ins and is available for viewing on demand on many platforms. Amy Stoch on working with TV legend James ArnessOriginal Airdates: Aug. 28-30, 2020 TVC 506.5: Actress Amy Stoch (Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Bill and Ted Face the Music) shares a few memories of playing Matt Dillon’s daughter in the Gunsmoke reunion movies. She also talks to Ed about her second career as an adjunct instructor at four universities (and the challenges of teaching her students online this past semester, in light of COVID-19). Bill and Ted Face the Music is now showing in select drive-ins and is available for viewing on demand on many platforms.
Amy Stoch recently reprised her role as Missy in Bill and Ted Face the Music, the rollicking third film in the Bill and Ted series. She’ll tell us what it was like to revisit a character that she hadn’t played in thirty years, plus we’ll talk about her second career as an adjunct instructor at four universities (and the challenges of teaching her students online this past semester, in light of COVID-19), as well as ask her a few questions about her other movie and TV roles. Amy Stoch will join us in our second hour. Bill and Ted Face the Music will be released Tuesday, Sept. 1 by Orion Pictures.
This week’s program will also include a conversation with author, screenwriter, opinion columnist, and high school educator Larry Strauss. Larry has taught high school English in South Los Angeles for nearly thirty years. He has also written more than a dozen books—one of which, The Facts of My Life, he co-authored with his mother, stage and television actress Charlotte Rae.
TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about television Fri 9am ET, 6am PT on WBRT AM 1320/FM 97.1 (Bardstown, KY) Fri 7pm ET and PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org and CX Radio Brazil Fri 10pm ET, 7pm PT, Sat/Sun 11pm ET, 8pm PT on RadioSlot (San Francisco, CA) Sat 9am ET, 6am PT on WKXO 1500 AM and 103.5 FM (Lexington-Fayette/Richmond/Berea, KY) Sat 3pm ET, Noon PT on WTCA 1050 AM and 106.1 FM (Plymouth, IN) Sat 4pm CT, 2pm PT and Sun 6pm CT, 4pm PT on KSCJ 1360 AM and 94.9 FM (Sioux City, IA) Sat 8pm ET, 5pm PT and Sun 10am ET, 7am PT on Indiana Talks (Huntington, IN) Sat 10pm ET, 7pm PT on 920 WON The Apple (Brooklyn, NY) Sun 5am ET, 2am PT on WLAD-AM 800 and FM 94.1 (Danbury, CT) Sun 9am ET, 6am PT on KSCO-AM 1080 (San Jose/Santa Cruz/Salinas, CA) Sun 9am ET, 6am PT on KOMY-AM 1340 (La Selva Beach/Watsonville, CA) Sun 1pm ET, 10am PT on CROC Radio (British Columbia, Canada) Sun 6pm CT, 4pm PT on KLTF (St. Cloud/Little Falls, MN) Sun 8pm CT, 6pm PT on KPLT AM and FM (Paris, TX) Sun 10pm ET, 7pm PT on WDIG AM (Dothan, AL) Sun 9pm PT, Mon Mid ET on KHMB-AM and FM (Half Moon Bay, CA) Various times throughout the week on the Entertainment Channel at Passionate World Talk Radio
Did you miss last week’s show? Download the podcast by hitting SHARE and listen to it on demand:
Join our mailing list and receive our weekly newsletter with news on upcoming guests and other things you’ll want to know. Best of all, it’s free! TV Confidential now has its own YouTube channel and TuneIn channel. Catch up on recent episodes, on demand, on the go, and for free.
Alexa users: You can now listen to TV Confidential any time on your smart speaker just by saying “Alexa, play TV Confidential.” Become a TV Confidential Confidant and receive unlimited access to the last five years of TV Confidential and other Members Only privileges, including the opportunity to participate in select guest interviews, and more. Joining is easy. To find out how, go to TelevisionConfidential.com and click Become a Confidant.
Linda Purl: Taking a Chance on Love Original Airdates: Aug. 21-23, 2020 TVC 505.5: Ed welcomes singer/actress Linda Purl (Happy Days, Matlock,The Young Pioneers,The Office, Homeland, Desperate Housewives). Linda’s latest CD, Taking a Chance on Love, includes fresh takes on classic pop tunes from The Great American Songbook. Proceeds from sales of Linda Purl: Taking a Chance on Love will support the Actors Fund.
Linda Purl with Some Happy Days Memories Original Airdates: Aug. 21-23, 2020 TVC 505.6: Singer/actress Linda Purl shares a few memories of working with Don Most, Jerry Paris, and Garry Marshall on Happy Days. Linda’s latest CD, Taking a Chance on Love, includes fresh takes on classic pop tunes from The Great American Songbook. Proceeds from sales of Linda Purl: Taking a Chance on Love will support the Actors Fund.
How TV Covered the March on WashingtonOriginal Airdates: Aug. 21-23, 2020 TVC 505.2: From August 2013: Phil Gries presents audio highlights of how network television and network radio covered the historic March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963, when more than 200,000 Americans of every age, race and religion came to Washington, D.C. to support the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Bill. This segment includes clips of ABC News correspondent Howard K. Smith interviewing Philip Randolph, one of the “Big Six” organizers of the march; and NBC News correspondent Marvin Agronsky interviewing socialist, pacifist, and civil rights advocate Norman Thomas. The Opposition to the March on WashingtonOriginal Airdates: Aug. 21-23, 2020 TVC 505.3: From August 2013: Phil Gries plays audio highlights of an ABC News segment from Aug. 28, 1963 in which Sen. Strom Thurmond (D./R.-SC) voiced his opposition to the March on Washington, and of the rebuttal by ABC News correspondent Howard K. Smith voicing his opposition to Thurmond. The audio heard in this segment is from Phil’s private collection.
Hollywood’s Support for the March of WashingtonOriginal Airdates: Aug. 21-23, 2020 TVC 505.4: From August 2013: Phil Gries presents audio highlights of how network television and network radio covered the historic March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963, including NBC News interviews with march supporters Marlon Brando and Burt Lancaster, and ABC News correspondent Lisa Howard interviewing James Baldwin. Also in this segment: A brief excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. Audio heard in this segment is from Phil’s private collection.
Synopsis. Whenever he’s in the Dakota Territories, Bart drops in on the Army fort run by his friend, Colonel Sam Percy, so that he can check out the poker action between the soldiers and the local settlers. Maverick becomes suspicious when Sam, normally one of the card players, arrests him for gambling and sentences him to 180 days service. Behind closed doors, Sam explains why he had Bart imprisoned—a war with the Sioux Indians is imminent, and one of his soldiers has been funneling weapons to the other side. Percy needs Maverick to uncover the spy and stop the smuggling.
Amy Stoch
Linda Purl: Taking a Chance on Love
Linda Purl with Some Happy Days Memories
How TV Covered the March on Washington Original Airdates: Aug. 21-23, 2020 TVC 505.2: From August 2013: Phil Gries presents audio highlights of how network television and network radio covered the historic 