The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

 For over a hundred years some of the greatest video treasures of all time have been produced. Some have been lost in the sands of time and others, soon to be rediscovered, will become fan favorites for a whole new generation.

 Each week we will feature just one of the many hidden gems that you can see on RCN TV with insights and commentaries on classic television shows and legendary cinematic performances.

Robert Livingston (born Robert Edward Randall) may not be a household name today when you think of classic motion pictures but he carved out a star-studded career for himself in some of cinemas’ most iconic roles and popular film series in the 1930s and 1940s.

Billed in these films as Bob Livingston, he was one of the original members of “The Three Mesquiteers” and starred in a whopping 27 movies as “Stony Brook,” starting with the first movie in 1936.

The films would focus on a trio of friends/cowboys–true to each other a la Alexandre Dumas’ “The Three Musketeers.” They would participate in various “western-themed” adventures–always triumphant in the end. Their name was a combination of the “musketeers” and mesquite, a popular plant found in the western part of the United States.

In 1938’s “Outlaws of Sonora,” the trio’s loyalty is put to the test as a villain, who looks similar to one of the heroes, goes on a crime wave and it’s up to the Mesquiteers to discover the truth, vindicate their friend and stop the bad guys.

In “Hit The Saddle” (which featured a very young Rita Hayworth, nine years before her turn as “Gilda”), the protagonists seek vengeance for the wrongful death of a young boy’s father but a love interest adds complexity to their battle for justice. 

Most of their movies followed similar plot lines, with the cowboys pitted against criminals and outlaws from the old west.  However, after the United States entered World War II, the Mesquiteers would also fight Nazis in a few of their adventures.

The films were very popular throughout the series’ run that lasted until 1943.  The Motion Picture Herald records that these films were consistently ranked in the top 10 westerns of each year, even after Livingston left the franchise.

Livingston’s last role as Stony Brook was in the 1941 movie “Saddlemates,” but he also starred as the titular character in other famous western characters like Don Diego / Zorro and “The Lone Ranger,” before, during and after his run with “The Three Mesquite” film series.

In all, the Quincy, Illinois native would appear in 136 total movies in a career that began as a silent film actor in 1921. Livingston would end up appearing in over half of the 51 “Mesquiteers” films.

His final acting role was in the 1975 comedy “Blazing Stewardesses” — a film that made references to and tried to build on the success of Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles” that came out the year prior.  The original intent of the “Stewardesses” picture was to pay homage to the “B Film Westerns” that Livingston had made so popular in the 1930s and ’40s.

You can see a marathon of films (including all the ones listed in today’s blog) starring Livingston’s Stony Brooks character, starting with 1938’s “The Purple Vigilantes” on Monday, August 3rd starting at 9 a.m. on RCN TV.

To view the complete rundown of classic programming on RCN TV, check out the weekly listings here on our website.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company. 

For over a hundred years some of the greatest video treasures of all time have been produced. Some have been lost in the sands of time and others, soon to be rediscovered, will become fan favorites for a whole new generation. 

Each week we will feature just one of the many hidden gems that you can see on RCN TV with insights and commentaries on classic television shows and legendary cinematic performances. 

From 1939 through the late 1960s, the comedy quartet of George Balzer, John Tackaberry, Milt Josefsberg and Sam Perrin were responsible for some of the funniest bits and comedic sketches on the radio and television mediums.

The four writers not only developed some great sketch comedy routines but also found a way to develop a winning program formula and have success repeating that same episode, literally for decades.

Wait…they repeated the same episode and continue to get new laughs every time?

Let me give you some examples.

On “The Jack Benny Program” alone, the writers developed annual shows like the popular Christmas Shopping and New Year’s Eve programs, which followed the same basic pattern, but would add increasingly funny jokes and added comedic bits with each episode.

For the former, the entire episode each year was Benny looking to buy Christmas gifts for his staff. Utilizing his well-known “skin flint-ness” as a backdrop, Benny would find new ways to save money with increasing cheapness as each show went on.  Every year the cheapness would reach new “highs,” and would culminate with Benny frustrating a salesperson beyond reason, with great comedic results (many would say the 1955 version with Mel Blanc portraying the salesman — ultimately blowing his brains out — was the best/funniest version of this type of episode).

The New Year’s Eve show would feature Benny as the current year’s Father Time, waxing poetic about the highs and lows of the previous year.  While mixing in jokes about the biggest stars and events of the completed year, the climax would be his handing off the role to a young boy portraying the following year’s Baby New Year and a wish of hope and prosperity for the 12 months to come.

Another popular reoccurring episode was the “Lunch Counter Murders.”

Originating as a radio play, the show would focus on Benny running a small-town diner with different members of his cast popping in and for a quick bite while portraying quirky characters.  The show’s second half would feature a guest star heading a group of “dangerous villains” who were on the run from the police and holding Benny hostage at his late night eatery.

Without question, the 1953-version of this skit, with Dan Duryea (who was very popular in films around this time) as the main guest star and cast regular Dennis Day as his sidekick, was the best version of this particular skit.  This edition built on the best comedic gags from the radio version and mixed in humorous visual jokes (complete with a hand-grabbing cash register for people foolish enough to ask Benny for change).

The jokes in this version were fast and furious and featured a surprise, additional guest star at the very end of the skit to top off one of the most popular episodes during the TV program’s early years.

You can catch the laughs for yourself of this specific version of the “Lunch Counter Murder” featured this Wednesday, July 30, at 10:30 am on RCN TV.

Also, see one of the best versions of the “New Year’s” shows, this Tuesday, July 28, at 8pm.

Be on the lookout for more of the annual Benny shows scribed by Perrin, Josefsberg, Balzer and Tackaberry as part of RCN TV’s annual holiday marathon programming.

To view the complete rundown of classic programming on RCN TV, check out the weekly listings here on our website.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

For over a hundred years some of the greatest video treasures of all time have been produced. Some have been lost in the sands of time and others, soon to be rediscovered, will become fan favorites for a whole new generation. 

Each week we will feature just one of the many hidden gems that you can see on RCN TV with insights and commentaries on classic television shows and legendary cinematic performances. 

Whether you’re a fan of rural comedy or not, you can’t argue that The Beverly Hillbillies was one of the most successful television comedies of all time.

Spawning two other successful shows, a “return” episode over a decade after its cancellation, and a major motion picture, “Hillbillies,” its low-brow comedy set a high standard (along with boffo ratings) throughout the 1960s.

The plots were simple: take a backwaters family who strikes oil and inherits a fortune, and dump them in the ritziest area of the country, while having Beverly Hills’ greediest banker be their guardian while watching over their money. “Fish out of water” hijinx always ensued, complete with memorable special guest star performances, and big- named actors often portraying themselves.

Heading the creative team was Paul Henning, who had worked as a writer on other TV classics, including the “Burns and Allen Show,” which had a 10-year run on television after a lengthy radio run.

The cast was anchored by veteran song and dance man, Buddy Ebsen, who was ready to retire before reading the pilot episode and deciding to put those plans on hold.

Veteran radio and television character actress, Bea Benaderet, who had wanted to play the part of “Granny,” saw Irene Ryan’s screen test and insisted Ryan take that role.  Benaderet ended up with a recurring guest starring role as Jethro’s mother before starring in “Hillbillies”’ first spin-off, “Petticoat Junction” (more on this show in a future blog entry).

Ryan brought interesting dynamics to the program as she had both played as, and starred in front of, hillbillies in summer stock theater.  (On EmmyTVLegends.org

Henning tells a humorous story about Ryan’s early career and also recalls how the banker Milton Drysdale was based on a real character he knew.)

According to “Variety’s” article, “The Top 100 Television Shows of All-Time,” The Beverly Hillbillies was the number one show in its first two years and finished in the top 20 in the Nielsen ratings in eight of its nine-year run.

The only year the show was not among the top ranked shows was its last year, when CBS made the bizarre decision to drop the show out of its primetime lineup and air the program at what is an extremely unusual (for a network show) timeslot of Tuesdays at 7:30pm.

“Hillbillies” never lost a ratings battle within its timeslot against any other program during its entire run.

Several of its individual shows are ranked in both the most-watched and the critics’ choice for the greatest 100 television episodes of all time, including 16 of its episodes ranked among the top 100 programs watched in television history.

It captured many Emmy Awards in multiple categories during its production and has remained on TV in syndication to this day.

“Hillbillies”’ network run came to an end, not because of declining ratings, nor did the cast nor creative team run out of ideas, nor did viewers want to see the series end.  It, along with several other very successful TV programs, were cancelled because CBS executive Robert Wood decided to cancel every successful show that had a tree in it (according to actor Pat Buttram.)  This was part of the great “rural purge” of 1971, in which CBS jettisoned many of its feel-good, rural shows in lieu of comedies that tackled serious social and cultural issues. 

You can relive the hilarity of “The Beverly Hillbillies” on Wednesday mornings at 9:30 a.m. on RCN TV.

To view the complete rundown of classic programming on RCN TV, check out the weekly listings here on our website.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other other agency, organization, employer or company. 

While there hasn’t been much action on the fields this summer, it has actually been a pretty busy last 6-8 weeks in terms of the amount of turnover for some pretty big head coaching and athletic director positions in the Lehigh Valley.

The area said goodbye to three head coaches, each with incredible longevity at their respective schools:

Mike Grasso at Bethlehem Catholic – 45 years

Doug Snyder at Allen HS – 24 years

Chad Landis at Liberty HS – 20 years (12 as a head coach, 8 more as an assistant)

All three were on our RCN SportsTalk show this spring (each one had their own show) and told stories of their careers, their programs’ highlights, lessons learned and the many student-athletes their teachings impacted. (RCN customers can see these exclusive interviews for free through RCN On Demand).

Likewise, over the last month, we’ve also talked to a number of new head coaches and athletic directors – some with some pretty big shoes to fill (their stories also were told on SportsTalk to hear them in their own words).

One person who I did want to focus on today was the new Hurricanes Boys Basketball Head Coach, Nigel Long.

Nigel was a great student and basketball player at Freedom High School. After one year playing college ball outside of the area, he transferred back to the Valley to have a very successful playing career at Muhlenberg College.

Since then he has been a great AAU head coach, an assistant coach at Bethlehem Catholic and a mentor to a lot of young people in Eastern Pennsylvania.

Nigel was on a Freedom team that wasn’t the tallest team, nor a squad with what the basketball experts would call a top-tier, talent-laden team “on paper.” However, his Patriots squads always battled hard and made for competitive games, even when being the underdog.  I believed his teams installed a work ethic that continued after Nigel’s graduation – one that culminated in his school’s first District XI championship in decades, this past winter.

I made a point of mentioning on our sports program that I believe Long may be the most significant hiring, in a summer in which so many great names and qualified basketball individuals were given new positions.  This includes Long’s mentor, Darnell Braswell, who takes over the William Allen basketball program.  The former Canary great  — another local product who had an outstanding playing career locally — took over the Allen head coaching position just a few days after Long was approved by the Bethlehem Area School District School Board to take over at Liberty.

The Hurricanes are no doubt a team in transition as they lost one of the most underrated and best all-around players to graduation.  Long will be responsible for cultivating a new leader after the departure of Will Harper, who played varsity basketball for his entire four-year career.

Likewise, Liberty has a number of freshmen and sophomores who will be responsible for stepping up their games and keeping the program playing at a high level.

Furthermore, I’ve heard from insiders in the Bethlehem community that there’s a number of very talented 7th and 8th graders coming into the program this year and Nigel will be responsible for implementing his hard-working and aggressive, defense-driven style of play that he was so well-known for during his playing days.

It should also be noted that with the hiring of Long, Braswell and Dieruff High School’s Marlon Randall, the Lehigh Valley tripled the number of African-American head basketball coaches within a 10-day span.  As far as I can remember, this number had never been more than one at any given time during the same calendar year.

Each of these head coaches discussed the cultural significance of this fact and other ways their hiring will positively impact their respective communities. I enjoyed my conversations with each of these men on our most recent shows.  I am very much looking forward to working with them and hope I have the opportunities to announce their games this winter.

Thanks to all of our local coaches and administrators for being on our show and best of luck on the new chapter in your careers!

The views expressed in this blog arethose of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

For over a hundred years some of the greatest video treasures of all time have been produced. Some have been lost in the sands of time and others, soon to be rediscovered, will become fan favorites for a whole new generation.

 Each week we will feature just one of the many hidden gems that you can see on RCN TV with insights and commentaries on classic television shows and legendary cinematic performances. 

When one talks about the show that’s the typical, quintessential 1950s “TV family,” you need to look no further than “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” program.

But do you know how this television show came to fruition?

Ozzie Nelson was an orchestra leader who sometimes teamed with Harriet (born Peggy Lou Snyder) for events before both were asked to appear at the same time on a national radio show called “The Baker’s Broadcast” in the early 1930s.  One of the initial hosts of the show was Robert Ripley (remember “Ripley’s ‘Believe It or Not?’ “)

Ozzie and Harriet married in 1935 and decided, as opposed to continuing to work independently, they would see more of each other by working the same gigs.

Featured appearances on some of the top radio programs in the 1940s included “The Red Skelton Show,” “The Fred Allen Show” and “Suspense,” which led to their own radio vehicle.

When Skeleton was drafted in 1944, Ozzie was left to create his own family situation comedy on Red’s program, giving him valuable experience he would need a couple years later to develop his own television show.

The Ozzie and Harriet radio program actually switched networks, from CBS to NBC and finally to ABC, who was significantly behind the other two networks in the Hooper ratings that were used at that time. In the late 1940s, all three networks started looking at existing radio shows that could successfully make the transition to television.  Because ABC was desperate to hold on to their talent and not lose them to the other two networks, they pretty much offered the Nelsons carte blanche when it came to creating their own television program.

First of all, Ozzie and Harriet never had to produce a pilot episode for ABC. Instead, the couple’s successful movie, “Here Comes the Nelsons,” was used to convince the network that America would fall in love with this real-life family.

Also, before a single episode aired, Ozzie convinced ABC to guarantee them a 10-year contract.  This meant that regardless of whether or not the series would ever be canceled, the entire family would still get paid for a decade–a virtually unheard of television contract concession, even to this day.

The contract actually turned out to be a godsend for the network and not as much for the Nelsons as the show became an instant hit and easily surpassed the 10-year contract, making it the first weekly prime-time scripted television program ever to last for more than a decade.

In all, the series would go on for a record-setting 14-year sojourn on television alone.

We’ll have more on this program’s legacy coming up in a future blog post.

In the meantime, you can visit with the Nelsons yourself.  “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” airs weekly on Sunday afternoons at 1 p.m. on RCN-TV.

Plus…we’re hosting an “Ozzie and Harriet” mini-marathon this Monday evening starting at 9 pm on RCN-TV.

To view the complete rundown of classic programming, check out the weekly listings here on our website.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company. 

Normally by this time every year, I have annually made my way out to at least a few dozen of the summer basketball league games and to two or three (or more) different tournaments that feature teams from the RCN coverage areas in Lehigh Valley, the Delaware Valley and even teams from the Washington, DC area.

Obviously, those plans have been put on hold, with a number of spring and summer tournaments canceling their usual events.

In speaking to several of the local summer basketball organizers, there remains some optimism that, while the full slate of “summer league” games will not be played, there could be some events over the next two months to give the kids a little bit of outdoor basketball activities in late July or August.

Thinking of these games made me look through my computer and discover there were quite a bit of “new” pictures that I took at last year’s summer games that never saw the light of day because of space and never made it to our website.

As fate would have it, I’d like to present a whole batch of these never-before-seen summer basketball pictures as we reflect on last year’s outdoor basketball action.  I will continue to be in contact with summer basketball league organizers over the next several weeks.  I very much hope that I will be able to pass along some positive news soon for summer hoops fans on “SportsTalk” and here at “The Shop.”

In the meantime, we look back on the action from last year…

Keep checking back to the “SportsTalk Shop” for the latest news – positive or negative – regarding summer basketball, or any other local sports, returning to action in the RCN viewing areas this year.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

A few weeks back here at “The Shop,” we started to bring you all the All-Stars for the past sports season involving teams in the RCN-TV viewing area.

We continue to honor those student-athletes this week. We’ll start in the DMV area by taking a look at those recognized for high school basketball.

First, here’s the DC State Athletic League releasing their girls and boys list, followed by teams identified by “Major Moves” spotlighting players from Virginia.

Next, here are the scholar-athlete award winners for District 11 for this past school year:

2A Scholar Athlete Winner
Harrison Bernhard- Northwestern Lehigh HS

3A Scholar Athlete Winner
Kenny Herrmann- Bethlehem Catholic HS

2A Essay Winner
Andrew Cerniglia- Notre Dame Green Pond HS

3A Essay Winner
Caden Wright- Emmaus HS

Here are the wrestling student-athlete award winners from each school in both the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and the Colonial League:

2019-20 DXI WCA Scholar Athlete Information

And last but not least, the EPC girls and boys Sportsmanship Award Winners for the 2019-20 school year:

Avery Francis (Stroudsburg)
&
Sheamus McConnell (Pocono Mountain West)

Remember to keep checking back here at “The Shop” for more recognition of our local high school student-athletes’ achievements throughout the year and congratulations to this year’s honorees!

The views expressed in this blog arethose of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

For over a hundred years some of the greatest video treasures of all time have been produced. Some have been lost in the sands of time and others, soon to be rediscovered, will become fan favorites for a whole new generation.

Each week we will feature just one of the many hidden gems that you can see on RCN TV with insights and commentaries on classic television shows and legendary cinematic performances. 

For the many people who will be staying home for this year’s Fourth of July or for people who have RCN’s TiVo and DVR products, a tremendous way to spend the holiday would be to watch the documentary series marathon, “Victory at Sea” (followed by an encore performance of the 2019 Allentown Fireworks Spectacular).

This Emmy-Award Winning, limited-run series on NBC recounts historic battles and key moments in the United States victory over the Axis powers in World War II.

The idea for the show came from United States Navy Lieutenant Commander Harry Salomon.  While working on writing a historical review of World War II, Solomon uncovered millions of feet of actual newsreel footage, covering the wars’ darkest moments and the Allied Forces’s greatest victories.

After leaving the Navy in 1948 Solomon and fellow Harvard grad Robert Sarnoff, who was the son of NBC President David Sarnoff, approached the network about making a documentary series based on this footage.

The series was green-lighted by NBC for a whopping $500,000 budget (one of the largest of the time period) and was an instant hit.

The scenes were accompanied by legendary songwriter / composer Richard Rodgers, who was coming off several huge Broadway hits and is one of just two people ever to win an Emmy, a Tony, a Grammy, an Academy Award and a Pulitzer prize.

Excerpts from this soundtrack have been used for many movies, television shows and special events ever since.

After its network run, the footage was re-edited again with a brand new narration and was released as a self-contained hour and a half long featured film.  A few years later, NBC re-edited the footage a third time for a television movie showing. Its success had also included a successful spin-off show called, “Project Twenty.”

See the best moments of the “Victory at Sea” saga as part of a special Independence Day marathon on RCN-TV, followed by the Allentown Fireworks Show.

To view the complete rundown of classic programming on RCN TV, check out the weekly listings here on our website.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

For over a hundred years some of the greatest video treasures of all time have been produced. Some have been lost in the sands of time and others, soon to be rediscovered, will become fan favorites for a whole new generation.

Each week we will feature just one of the many hidden gems that you can see on RCN TV with insights and commentaries on classic television shows and legendary cinematic performances.

Last week here at the Classic Video Showplace, we took a look at the origins and beginning of “The Lucy Show,” the first series starring Lucille Ball after her record-setting role in her nine-year run as Lucy Ricardo with real-life husband, Desi Arnaz.

(The cast of “The Lucy Show” through the first three seasons)

Like her initial TV series, “The Lucy Show” was well-received by critics and fans alike and quickly became a top 20 staple in the Nielsen television ratings.

By the end of the show’s first season on the air, Arnaz, tired of the business aspect of the entertainment industry, asked Ball to buy him out as co-president of the show’s production company, Desilu.

Lucille took full control of the show’s direction from season two onward, and later named her new husband, Gary Morton, as co-executive producer.

After its first three, rather smooth years on television, this series was in for a rocky, yet equally successful run during the rest of its years on TV.

During the summer hiatus between the series’ third and fourth seasons (back when television seasons actually lasted nearly an entire year), Vance decided to step away from the project (more on that in a moment.)

Vance was initially replaced by Ann Southern (who then left because she demanded, but was denied, sharing top-billing with Lucy).  Joan Blondell, who was also a friend of Ball’s, was then brought in as her sidekick.  Despite the friendship, Lucille realized the on-camera chemistry was not working between the two and quickly replaced her with Mary Jane Croft, appearing in a different role than she had performed earlier in the series.  (Croft also played several characters on the original show, including the role of Lucy’s neighbor during “I Love Lucy’s” sixth season – the last of the 30-minute editions of this program.)

Vance’s departure from the show evolved from a continuing rift between her and Ball–one that started over miscommunication between both actors’ agents, studio executives and the show’s producers.  Vance would later return to appear on the show on a part-time basis and, eventually, the long-standing friendship between the two was renewed.

An argument between Ball and her longtime “Lucy” writing staff (two of which had worked with Lucy since her radio show, “My Favorite Husband”, in the 1940s) led to their dismissal. Lucille’s on-camera children were also fired from the show (despite Candy Moore becoming a very popular teen idol at that time) and the setting for the program shifted to a new location, with no mention of her children again for the rest of the show’s run.

One of the reasons for the show’s move to California: to make it more realistic when special guest stars would happen to cross paths with Lucy in her adventures.

Ball made another shrewd business decision as executive producer:  despite less than 5% of Americans having color television sets in 1963, she insisted on filming the episodes in color, pointing out they could make more money in syndication with colorized episodes.  Even so, CBS rejected that idea and continued to broadcast these shows in black-and-white for two more seasons, even though they were filmed in color.

Also, unlike most shows that were being produced in the early 1960s, “The Lucy Show” was filmed in front of a live audience (with a laugh track added only for jokes that did not get a good response).  The studio audience became a staple for many sitcoms in the decade that followed.

While Ball rarely ad-libbed lines during this production, there were several episodes in which mishaps occurred during filming that made it to the final cut.

One example included Lucy getting trapped in a shower filled with rapidly rising water, and Vance, without breaking character, was left to improv and create lines in order to buy time for Ball to recover from her unintentional misadventure. The scene, with a mistake and all, made it to the final version of the episode.

Another famous experience included fellow legendary comedians Bob Hope and Jack Benny trying to outdo each other with one liners while the cameras continue to roll without interruption.  While the live audience never seemed to catch on to these unexpected lines and occurrences, it’s fun to go back and watch an episode like this to see how these talented actors responded when things went off script.

The show itself was never canceled. Instead, Ball, tired of running the large Desilu Productions, sold the company to Paramount, and with it the rights to this incarnation of her show. The very next year she formed a new, smaller production unit (with herself as the creative head) and launched the equally popular “Here’s Lucy” sitcom, which ran for six additional seasons. 

You can see “The Lucy Show,” every Wednesday morning at 11am on RCN-TV.

To see the full listing of classic programming on RCN, check out the weekly listings here on our website. 

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other other agency, organization, employer or company.

As part of the 15-year anniversary of the RCN SportsTalk program we are celebrating this month, I started compiling a list of the top 10 shows that come to mind when looking back at the show’s history (see our previous blog for entries #1-#5).

Here are entries #6-#10, in no particular order:

6) Joe Craig, Gary Laubach & Dick Tracy – the pilot show

You never forget your first show…although, it seemed if you blinked, this one was over in a flash.  Although a lot has evolved since that first program, one of the first — and biggest — changes since the first few shows was that the program was only 30 minutes long back then.  With these three legendary sports personalities on for just a half hour, this program seemed to end shortly after we started.  Subsequent weeks revealed that, because of the outstanding talent we have as guests each week, the show had to expand to a 60-minute format, which we have continued to this day. Unlike most television shows now-a-days that are reducing their shows’ length to try to improve their pacing to meet people’s shortening attention spans, I’m proud to say that when our hour is up, guests and viewers alike always say, “Hey, I wish we had another hour to talk more.” 

7) Olympian Joetta Clark Diggs

I’m cheating here as we have been honored to have this international star on a few times over the years. She has discussed everything from her time in the Olympics to raising her daughter, Talitha, to topical social issues, to her story with her dad’s career, on which the movie “Lean On Me” was based. If I find out in advance that Keith Groller will not be with us and we’re discussing a topic I know she feels strongly about, she’s the first person I call to see if she’s available to fill in as a co-host.  Joetta is always a joy to speak with about all of her areas of expertise.

8) The Lumberjack Show at the Fair

SportsTalk Executive Producer Rick Geho has had some very good suggestions for me and the show over the years. One idea that I didn’t think was so great at the time involved one of our shows from the Allentown Fair. We were sharing the Farmerama Stage with a gentleman from Minnesota who performed a lumberjack show and Rick suggested that we have him on as a guest.

A lumberjack show…really?

But not only did this gentleman produce some wonderful stories and made for an entertaining show, but he bid me — live on the air — to participate in some of his show activities.  This included me throwing an axe over my head to try to hit a target 40 feet away.  Without any practice, I hit the target – a feat Mr. Craig and our RCN crew members still say to this day was one of the most shocking things they’ve seen in their careers (I tried to think of that as a compliment from them, but I’m not so sure).

9) The Dick Tracy “surprise” tribute show

This is actually the first show that came to mind when I sat down to do this … and will probably be one of the greatest SportsTalk episodes that I will ever be a part of. Coach Tracy was a mentor to me – I looked up to him as a kid watching Whitehall HS basketball games, he was my journalism and yearbook teacher as a high school student and a colleague and the most helpful person to me when I started announcing games in the Lehigh Valley as a radio announcer. Then later I had the honor to announce games with him for RCN-TV. When Coach “retired” from broadcasting I remembered a conversation from years earlier in which I asked him: if there was one day in which he could relive any of the great experiences in his life, what would it be?  His response was that he would actually enjoy a couple hours sitting around with his state championship Zephyr basketball team and just shoot the breeze with them.  I contacted everyone on that team along with some other special people in Dick’s life who came in and surprised him live on the air. Coach HATED tributes and the fact that we were able to bring his entire team back and keep this a secret from him while pulling off a successful show on LIVE TV is truly one of the most amazing accomplishments I will ever have achieved as producer of this program.

10) ???

Now I’m really taking an easy way out. Probably even if I had the rundown of all of our shows in front of me I couldn’t name a final entry in this list.  I’ve been blessed to have so many wonderful people volunteer their time to come in and share their stories and opinions with us. I’d like to think every show is a little unique from the previous ones so I am just going to keep the spot open for now and call it a tie between practically every other show we’ve done.

Thanks to all for the memories!!!