We'll be back with a brand new edition of TV Confidential later this week. In the meantime, please enjoy this clip from January 2015 in which Tony, Donna, and Ed look back at the legacy of The Simpsons on television and on pop culture in general. The first regular episode of The Simpsons originally aired on Jan. 14, 1990.

TVC 673.1: Part 2 of a conversation that began just before the holidays with Nick Nugent, author of The Knight Rider Companion: Abridged Edition, everything you wanted to know about the classic TV series starring David Hasselhoff, Edward Mulhare, and the voice of William Daniels. Topics this segment include how series creator Glen Larson originally saw Knight Rider as a contemporary rendering of The Lone Ranger; why KITT and the car were two different entities; the show’s impact on 1980s pop culture; and the throughline between Knight Rider, My Mother the Car, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Knight Rider Companion Abridged Edition is available from Black Pawn Press and includes new and updated interviews with series creator Glen Larson, series stars David Hasselhoff, William Daniels, and Rebecca Holden, and many other key personnel; an updated Hall of Fame Autograph Guide, Vehicle States Guide, Knight Rider Fonts Guide, Knight Rider Logos Guide, Knight Equipment Guide, and a complete series episode guide; several pages of one-of-a-kind artwork created exclusively for the abridged edition.

TVC 673.2: Nick Nugent, author of The Knight Rider Companion: Abridged Edition, discusses some of the new material available in his book. The Knight Rider Companion Abridged Edition is available from Black Pawn Press.

TVC 673.3: Ed welcomes back Pat Boone, the legendary singer, actor, and all-around entertainer who not only celebrated his ninetieth birthday a few months back, but also recently marked his seventieth year in show business. Pat Boone and Michael Learned star as Bob and Barbara Fraley in the biopic Our Crossroads, a true story of family and faith that also features Kevin Sorbo, Tom Wopat, and Dean Cain. Our Crossroads is scheduled for release in July 2025. Pat Boone and Kevin Sorbo also both play Thomas Jefferson in The American Miracle, another film that is slated for release later in 2025. Pat can currently be seen in Reagan and Miracle in the Valley, both of which are available now for viewing on demand through Amazon Prime. Topics this segment include how Pat met Michael Learned for the first time just before filming their scenes together in Our Crossroads; how Pat approached providing the voice of our sixteenth president for “The Legacy of Abraham Lincoln,” a 2023 episode of the animated series Star Spangled Adventures; and why films have always been influential on our culture, particularly among young people.

TVC 673.4: Ed welcomes Dawn Moore, one of the top marketing and branding professionals in the luxury retail industry, and the daughter of Clayton Moore, the actor known to three generations of television viewers as The Lone Ranger. The 2024-2025 television season marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the premiere of The Lone Ranger (ABC, 1949-1957) on TV. Topics this segment include the throughline between what Dawn does for a living today and what her dad was doing forty and fifty years ago, when he was promoting the brand of The Lone Ranger through his many personal appearances; how her dad was a master of crafting whatever questions were asked of him, whenever he did interviews; the many people who entered careers of service because of the values that Clayton Moore embodied through his performance as The Lone Ranger; and her dad’s wry, nonchalant reaction to Dawn telling him that she had met Elizabeth Taylor one day in the course of her work. 

TVC 673.5: Dawn Moore, daughter of Clayton Moore, talks to Ed about the origins of the Lone Ranger Creed; how her dad embodied the words of the Creed every day for the last fifty years of his life; and how Dawn displayed quotes from some of the tenets of the Creed on the window of the Harry Winston jewelry store on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills to help calm her neighborhood on the day after of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Other topics this segment include the various connections between Clayton Moore, Roy Rogers, and Dale Evans, and how that is captured in some of the vintage photographs that are currently on display as part of the Happy Trails exhibit at TheHollywoodMuseum.com. For more about Dawn, go to MooreAbout.com.

We'll be back with a brand new edition of TV Confidential later this week. In the meantime, please enjoy this clip from January 2015 in which Tony, Donna, and Ed look back at the circumstances that led to James Garner to end The Rockford Files (NBC, 1974-1980)in the middle of the show's sixth season. The final episode of The Rockford Files aired on Jan. 10, 1980 during This Week in TV History.

TVC 672.1: Ed welcomes entertainment journalist and comedy historian Tripp Whetsell. Tripp’s latest book, Norman Lear: His Life and Times, is the first comprehensive biography of the legendary, Emmy Award-winning producer of All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, The Jeffersons, The Fact of Life, and many other series that helped elevate the American network sitcom. While much has been written about Norman Lear, before and after his death on Dec. 5. 2023, Tripp’s book shows that there remains much to learn about the legendary “man in the white hat”— since Lear himself was often reluctant to discuss his early life in great detail. Topics this segment include how Lear got his foothold in show business by way of Danny Thomas, and his roots in the golden era of variety television throughout the 1950s and early ’60s. Norman Lear: His Life and Times is available wherever books are sold through Applause Books. For our listeners in Southern California, Tripp Whetsell will appear at Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood on Wednesday, Jan. 8 beginning at 7pm.

TVC 672.2: Tripp Whetsell, author of Norman Lear: His Life and Times, talks to Ed about how the latitude that Norman Lear often gave his actors and his writers on his television shows was often a double-edged sword; Lear’s years as a motion picture producer in the 1960s; and the events that led to the premiere on All in the Family on CBS in January 1971. Norman Lear: His Life and Times is available wherever books are sold through Applause Books. Tripp Whetsell will appear at Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood on Wednesday, Jan. 8 beginning at 7pm.

TVC 672.3: Part 2 of a conversation that began just before the holidays with Steve Randisi, author of Penny Singleton: A Biography, a comprehensive look at the life and career of the actress who not only achieved worldwide fame in the 1930s and ’40s as the star of the Blondie movie series from Columbia Pictures (and, later, to TV audiences as the voice of Jane Jetson on the original Jetsons TV series and, later, the Jetsons movie), but who made history in 1958 when she became the first female president of an AFL-CIO union, the American Guild of Variety Artists. Topics this segment include how Singleton was nearly fired from the first Blondie picture because of an incident over a cigarette; the values she formed while growing up in South Philadelphia; and how her longtime connection with Rod Serling resulted in her appearance opposite John McGiver in the Twilight Zone episode “Sounds and Silences.” Penny Singleton: A Biography is available from Bear Manor Media.

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 January 2015 in which Tony, Donna, and Ed look back at the premiere of A.M. America, the precursor to Good Morning, America, on Jan. 6, 1975. An offshoot of Ralph Story's A.M., a local program produced by KABC-TV in Los Angeles, A.M. America never found an audience on a national level and was canceled ten months later.