I represent the first generation who, when we were born, the television was now a permanent fixture in our homes. When I was born people had breakfast with Barbara Walters, dinner with Walter Cronkite, and slept with Johnny Carson. Read the full "Pre-ramble"
| Show No. 150 | First hour: Author Wesley Hyatt (Television’s Top 100: The Most Watched American Broadcasts, 1960-2010) joins Ed for a look at the series finales of M*A*S*H and The Fugitive, the “Who Shot J.R.” revelation episode of Dallas, the groundbreaking miniseries Roots, and other highly-rated television broadcasts of the past five decades. |
Our
guests this week include author Stephen J. Weiss, a highly decorated World War II
veteran who was also one of the early pioneers of television. As a soldier for
the U.S. Army in World War II, Steve landed on the beaches of Southern France in
1944, where he, along with seven others, became separated from their company
during a ferocious battle in central France and found themselves caught enemy
lines. Listed as Missing in Action by the U.S. Army, Steve not only managed to
evade capture with the help of the French Resistance, but went to serve the
French Resistance and an OSS Operational Group behind enemy lines — for which he
later received, among other honors, the American Bronze Star, two Croix de
Guerre, and the French Resistance Medal (the only American soldier, by the way,
ever to receive this honor). When he returned to the United States at the end of
World War II, Steve spent 35 years in the television industry as a music and
videotape editor, including ten years at CBS, where he worked alongside such
broadcast legends as Edward R. Murrow and Jack Benny. 
But,
like many soldiers who return home from the war, Steve struggled to adjust back
to civilian life after experiencing the trauma of combat. For that reason, he
not only sought therapy, he began to study psychotherapy, and eventually earned
his masters degree and Ph.D. in clinical psychology, with a particular focus on
helping soldiers who may be at risk from suffering from posttraumatic stress
disorder. Steve writes about his wartime experiences, his work in television,
his teaching career and more in Second Chance: In Combat with the US 'Texas'
Infantry, the OSS, and the French Resistance during the Liberation of France,
1943-1946, a riveting new book that we will talk about during our
first hour.
Joining
us during our second hour will be Michelle Patterson.
Michelle’s company, EventComplete, specializes in the strategy,
production and marketing of large scale conferences, such as the California Women's Conference, that are informative
and entertaining. 
One
of the most respected tributes to the power of women for nearly 30 years, this
year’s California Women’s Conference will take place Sept. 23-24 at the Long
Beach Convention Center, 300 East Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach, CA. Scheduled
guest speakers include Gloria Allred, Patricia Arquette, Marcia Cross, Mary
McDonough, Michael Learned, Julie Newmar, Tippi Hedren, Rose Marie, Mark Victor
Hanson, Shannon Tweed, Carol Channing and David Misch, while Grammy-winning
recording artists Melissa Manchester and Helen Reddy will perform at the opening
and closing of the conference. For tickets and more information, call (949)
218-0866, email info@CalforniaWomensConference.com or visit www.californiawomensconference.com. 
August 31, 1957
Children's show Kukla, Fran and Ollie airs its last episode on prime-time network TV.
The show featured beloved puppets Kukla, Ollie (a dragon), and others, with live actress Fran Allison as host. The show began as a local Chicago program and moved to NBC in 1948. It was one of the two most important series made in Chicago, along with Garroway at Large, during the city's brief period as an important production center for network programs in the late 1940s. After its network cancellation, PBS revived the series from 1969 to 1971.
September 1, 1922
Her most prolific appearances in film came in the 1940s and 1950s and included her best-known film roles, such as Salome Where She Danced and The Ten Commandments, opposite Charlton Heston. In the 1960s, she gained a whole new generation of fans, playing "Lily Munster" on CBS television series The Munsters, opposite Fred Gwynne.
quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
