The Incredible Inman's Pop Culture Potluck

Big Stars + Small Screen = Tiny Audiences

The big TV story in the fall of 1971 was that movie stars were coming to the tube, including James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Shirley MacLaine, Glenn Ford, Anthony Quinn, Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis, among others. Many of them turned to TV because movie roles were growing scarce, and for lucrative paychecks. But the vehicles they chose were garden variety TV — family sitcoms and cop shows — and viewers tuned out. We look at the highest-profile failures — “The Jimmy Stewart Show,” Shirley MacLaine’s “Shirley’s World” and Henry Fonda’s “The Smith Family.”

The Keefe Brasselle Story, or Godfather Knows Best

Keefe Brasselle’s show business career includes a few movies, some TV work, probable arson, extortion, kickbacks, assault with a deadly weapon and lots of threats of bodily harm. His unholy alliance with a CBS executive led to the executive’s downfall, and his repeated boasting about his mafia connections, along with his lack of any real talent, made him a bitter has-been reduced to writing and acting in a 1970s drive-in quicky. In this episode we examine Brasselle’s career and his unsavory associations.

A Short History of Ridiculous Sponsor Interference

For almost as long as there has been broadcasting, there has been commercial sponsorship. But from the 1930s through the 1960s sponsors had an unusual amount of power because, through advertising agencies, they owned entire blocks of time on the program schedule and produced their own shows. In this episode we look at a few examples of sponsor power run amok, resulting in complications that were sometimes dangerous, sometimes just silly. Along the way we will sample clips from "The Jack Benny Program," "The Flintstones," "I Love Lucy," "Playhouse 90," "The $64,000 Question" and "30 Rock," among others.

Who Shot J.R.?: The Plot Heard Round the World

As "Game of Thrones" ends its season with the traditional cliffhanger, it follows in the tradition of a family saga that started it all -- "Dallas." Like "Game of Thrones," "Dallas" told stories in a season-long arc, and J.R. Ewing was arguably the precursor of anti-heroes like Don Draper, Tony Soprano or Tywin Lannister. And "Dallas" had the mac daddy of all season-ending cliffhangers: "Who Shot J.R.?," which swept the world during the summer of 1980. In this podcast we look at the similarities between "Dallas" and "Game of Thrones" as well as that fateful summer.