Going Hollywood - Movies and Television from the Golden Age to Today

What happens when a man turns his back on everything society tells him he should want?

In the aftermath of World War I, one man’s search for spiritual enlightenment takes him from the glittering drawing rooms of high society to the mountains of India. But the pursuit of inner peace comes at a price—and not everyone is willing to pay it.

Based on W. Somerset Maugham’s celebrated novel, The Razor’s Edge (1946) stars Tyrone Power in one of his most unconventional roles, alongside Gene Tierney, Anne Baxter, and Clifton Webb. Behind the film’s g...

Mel Brooks famously said that the only way to get even with Hitler is to make fun of him. Although Mel said it, he wasn’t the first to do it. That honor goes to Charles Chaplin (The Great Dictator”, 1940) and to the director of our film for today, the legendary Ernst Lubitsch and his brilliant political satire from 1942, “To Be or Not To Be.”

To be or not to be, that is the question of this movie. A troupe of second rate actors are the last line of defense against the onslaught of fascism and somehow it’s hil...

A great sitcom can survive a lot, but it can’t survive forgetting who it is. We’re back for Part Two of our “Laverne & Shirley” 50th anniversary celebration, and we dig into why that basement apartment window, the working-class charm, and “Making Our Dreams Come True” still feel so alive 50 years later. The early seasons don’t just deliver laughs, they build a world where being the underdog is the whole point.

So, we give one last hurrah to the Milwaukee era, remembering a few more of our favorite (and one of the most famous) episodes, and then we ge...

We're making our dreams come true today, as we dive into the wonderfully wacky world of our two favorite Milwaukee bottle-cappers while they transverse life, love, and a little vo-de-oh-doh-doh. Yes, we’re talking about Ms. DeFazio and Ms. Feeney today, in the first of our two part celebration of the 50th anniversary of "Laverne & Shirley"! This situation comedy, which aired on ABC from 1976 until 1983, defines the term “classic television”.  We’re commemorating the show’s 50th by going back to the Milwaukee years, when two blue-collar  turn bad luck into a weekly art form. And yes, we start where the sh...

It's our 100th episode!! And we have something extra special in mind to commemorate the occasion.  We looked back 100 years to find a film that is widely considered one of the greatest silent films of all time - from 1926, it's Buster Keaton's masterpiece "The General". 

 A silent film where the biggest romantic rival is a locomotive sounds like a joke until Buster Keaton turns it into one of the most ambitious action comedies ever put on screen. It's a Civil War era train-chase epic that mixes breathtaking stunt work, meticulous visual storytelling, and a surprisingly dark sense of...

The news hit like a gut punch: Dolly is gone, and somehow the whole world is mourning at once. We needed to talk it out, but since laughter through tears is our favorite emotion, not with a stats-heavy deep dive, but with the stories, songs, laughs, and screen moments that made her feel bigger than celebrity and closer than a neighbor. 

We look back at the Dolly we met through film and television, from "9 to 5" (1980) to "Steel Magnolias" (1989) to the pure guilty-pleasure fun of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" (1982),  plus a real soft spot for "Straight Ta...

The line hits like a slap- literally: “Let me tell you the truth for once in my life...I was the slut of all time!” From that notorious confession, we jump into one of the most infamous Hollywood melodramas of all time, MGM’s "Butterfield 8". Today on "Going Hollywood" we're unpacking this notorious guilty pleasure from 1960, and why this film is widely called trash while still being weirdly hard to look away from. 

We dig into the behind-the-scenes story that makes "Butterfield 8" essential Hollywood gossip history: Elizabeth Taylor reportedly despised the script, rushed to finish her final MGM con...

It's our first crossover episode!

Taking a page from 1990s "Must See TV", today we have a special treat. Join us for a "Going Hollywood/Front Row Classics" crossover event as Tony welcomes FRC's Brandon Davis and guest Ben Burke to the show to discuss the (questionable) guilty classic, MGM's musical remake of "The Women", 1956's "The Opposite Sex" .

We talk about the remake’s biggest swings: adding eye-popping Metro-color, wedging in yawn-inducing production numbers, and most criminal of all: introducing men into the cast!  Add into the mix a murderous row of gifted actresses who...

A gangster’s superstition turns into a citywide con, and somehow it becomes one of the most humane stories of the 1930s. We’re talking about Frank Capra’s "Lady For A Day" (1933), where Apple Annie sells apples in Times Square and Dave the Dude buys one before every deal like it’s a talisman. When Annie’s daughter returns from Spain expecting a wealthy society mother, Dave and his crew scramble to build a high-society illusion overnight, complete with manners, clothes, and a borrowed life.

What surprised us most is how well the film balances fantasy with real...

One performer. No guest stars. No dancing chorus to hide behind. Just one unbelievably talented and chutzpah-filled 22-year-old staring down the biggest network in America—and winning all the marbles. 

It’s Barbra Streisand in the 1960s.

Today, we revisit her first two iconic CBS television specials, My Name Is Barbra (1965) and Color Me Barbra (1966), and explore how a girl barely out of her teens could make an hour of pure singing feel like must-see television. These weren’t conventional variety shows. They were something closer to the prototype for the modern music video—built around pe...

We take a listener recommendation and give Brad one more chance to become a George Stevens fan. Will he? Won't he? You'll have to listen to find out, as we tackle what is, arguably, Steven's masterwork and certainly one of the greatest films of the 1950s: "A Place in the Sun".

One bad decision is a plot. A thousand tiny compromises is a life, and "A Place in the Sun" (1951) stares straight at that truth until it becomes unbearable. We follow Montgomery Clift’s George Eastman as he reaches for the "American Dream", only to find it qu...

“She croaked the blues right out of the horn.”
So went a famous movie review by-line, and it kills us to  admit it, but it’s true. It’s also true that it is by popular demand that we’re tackling it all…the good, the bad, and the filters, because, it’s today ladies and gentlemen!  From Warner Bros. in 1974, we’re talking about “Mame”.

But we’re going to try to look past the punch lines, and dive into the notorious bomb with a little tenderness and understanding, because the story of how it misfires is more complic...

"So gentlemen prefer blondes do they?" 

This famous opening line is delivered with more than a little irony by our leading lady, the lethally funny Lil Andrews, in today’s film: MGM’s 1932 pre-Code classic “Red Headed Woman”. After all, the woman saying it is cinema’s most celebrated platinum blonde—Jean Harlow—who trades peroxide for provocation and proceeds to set the screen ablaze as a redhead whose morals are negotiable but whose style is impeccable.  Marriages go smash, reputations take a nosedive, and even murder gets a crack at the spotlight—all served up with a wink and a wicke...

It’s our very own “bottle” episode. Sort of…

Your movie picks are taking over the show today.  A listener voicemail, classic Hollywood wish lists, and a friendly debate over a famous ending all in one relaxed “bottle” hang. Hit play, then tell us what we should cover next?

Along the way, we shout out the people who keep “Going Hollywood” lively with smart opinions, strong taste, and the kind of detailed requests that make our watch list impossible to ignore.

Text us or Leave a Voice Mail

 Links to Tony's website...

Could we be more excited about this week's episode?  We know!!

This week, we are hanging out with six of our favorite Gen Xers whose relationship dramas, career travails, sexual exploits and over-caffeinated adventures kept us captivated for a decade. Yes, today we're taking on "Friends".

"Friends" is one of those shows everyone “knows” until you actually sit down and rewatch it and realize how much is going on under the laugh track. It's more than comfort TV; it's a sitcom that not only became a defining piece of television history but also a time capsu...

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but we were wrong. It was a GREAT idea to ask the one and only Bruce Vilanch to help us kick off our new “Can’t Stop the Movie!” summer series with the granddaddies  of guilty pleasures, 1980’s disco fiasco “Can’t Stop the Music” and 1977’s “The Brady Bunch Variety Hour.”

Bruce discussed his hysterically funny  memoir “It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time” and why “disastrous” TV specials and misguided variety experiments have a longer afterlife now than they did when they first aired. We unpack how "The Brady Bunch...

A priceless object. A room full of liars. One detective trying to stay loyal to his own dubious moral code. We’re diving into "The Maltese Falcon" (1941), the Warner Bros classic that turns a hardboiled mystery into the blueprint for film noir, and we’re doing it the way we love best: with story, history, and a few sharp opinions.

We talk about why this is one of the rare movie adaptations that barely flinches from its source, and how John Huston’s “shoot the book” approach creates a fast, propulsive thriller that still feels modern. Along the way, w...

We ain't too dadgum ignorant to recognize that Sissy Spacek's Oscar-winning performance as the "Coal Miner’s Daughter," Loretta Lynn, is one of the most startlingly real transformations any actor has made in film history.  Spacek doesn't "act" Loretta Lynn...she becomes the country superstar--from her humbler than humble beginnings as a backwoods mountain girl to the heights of wealth and fame as the big-hearted and big-haired "First Lady of Country Music". It is not only the performance of the year; its a performance for the ages. 

And lending her support is an equally stellar supporting cast, that...

Start spreading the news!  

I'm flying solo without Brad this week, so I called in film historian Brandon Davis to help me unpack Martin Scorsese’s flawed but brilliant masterpiece from 1977, "New York, New York" starring the one and only Liza Minnelli and Robert DeNiro. 

We get into why the movie shocks people on first watch: lavish MGM-style sets, painted-backdrop “Technicolor” vibes, and then suddenly two people fighting like it’s a bruising 1970s relationship drama. We talk about Scorsese’s improvisation-heavy process, how that creates both magic and mess, and why Minnelli’s performance is so unexpect...

We are celebrating someone's birthday today on "Going Hollywood" and it is an occasion truly worth marking: Marilyn Monroe's 100th birthday on June 1, 2026. And though it may be odd to think of the ultimate movie sex siren as a centenarian, her image as an ever youthful romantic symbol is forever burnished in celluloid. 

So we feel it's fitting, as we celebrate the life of this screen legend, to take a look at her final, unfinished film; "Something's Got to Give", the 1962 romantic comedy that shut down after a chaotic production and survived only as reconstructed footage. Long m...

People love to dismiss “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” as “dated,” but that word can hide a much harsher truth: much of the discomfort it dramatizes never fully went away. Stanley Kramer’s 1967 classic is still a relevant thesis that dares to ask the question: "But would you want your daughter to marry one?" If that sounds blunt, it is— and that’s why the movie still sparks arguments decades later.

In this episode we tackle the social politics behind Kramer's provocative comedy, and the Hollywood history that shaped it. 1967 is a hinge year, with “Old Hollywood” going h...

"Oh, Donald!"

One gurgling little declaration, and a television icon is born.  Is it Mary Richards? Is it Maude Findlay? Nope. It's "That Girl"!

A sitcom can look light as air and still change what viewers believe is possible. "That Girl", which aired from 1966 to 1971,  does exactly that, and rewatching it now makes the impact even clearer. We talk through why Marlo Thomas’s Anne Marie feels so lovable and so important, even if the show doesn’t get name-checked as often as other classics. The big idea is simple: a young woman moves to New Yo...

Long before she became notorious for her real life mothering skills, Joan Crawford was famous for her portrayal of a reel life mother; one who had an alarming (one may say unnatural) obsession with her oldest child, and one who would go to any lengths...perhaps even murder...to make her child's dreams come true. Yes, today we're taking on the Big C in her Oscar-winning performance  in the noir-tinged soap opera, "Mildred Pierce". 

We’re diving into the 1945 Warner Bros classic that not only returned Joan Crawford to the top of the A-list, but  helped redefine what...

"I consider this woman to be the greatest actress in the English language."

Thus spoke F. Murray Abraham at the OSCAR podium as he was announcing the winner of the 1985 Best Actress Award. For nearly everyone in the Shrine Auditorium that night, that platitude could only refer to one woman amongst the nominees of Meryl Streep, Ann Bancroft, Whoopi Goldberg and Jessica Lange. It was the final nominee... Geraldine Page. 

In this very special episode of "Going Hollywood" we are joined by writer- director-producer Del Shores to talk about the singular Miss Page and her O...

It's that Poppins woman!  

We kick off our "Best Actress" month by celebrating one of the most magical Oscar winners of all time:  Dame Julie Andrews as the practically perfect nanny herself, "Mary Poppins" (1964)!

She blows in on the east wind like a well-dressed surprise and promptly takes charge of the Banks household with one raised eyebrow,  a carpetbag that definitely did not come from any normal shop and a knack for turning chores into sing-along that makes everyday life sparkle—one spoonful of sugar at a time. 

But there's more to the classi...

Everyone knows the image.  

A man dangling precariously from a clock on the side of a skyscraper, only a handgrip away from plunging to the busy streets below. It must be a scene from a terrifying dramatic thriller, right? Wrong! It's a thriller, alright, but it's from one of the most hilarious comedies every made. From 1923, it's Harold Lloyd in "Safety Last!" 

Long regarded as a masterpiece of silent film comedy, "Safety Last!" features one of the greatest of the greats, the master comedian himself Harold Lloyd, who changed the face of character comedy in wa...

Katharine Hepburn. Ginger Rogers. Lucille Ball. Eve Arden. Ann Miller. Phyllis Kennedy. Constance Collier. Jack Carson. Is this the roster of an awards ceremony in the 1950s?  No -- it's the call sheet for our movie today, featuring one of the most stacked line-ups of soon-to-be stars ever gathered on a single soundstage. From RKO in 1937, it's "Stage Door."

At first glance, it's Hepburn v Rogers as the main event; two titans of the studio, one on the way up and one fighting to stay. Who will come out champ in the last round? But what really m...

A classic sitcom can look effortless, but behind the scenes can tell a different story. A failed pilot. A total recast. A “Hail Mary” save from first season cancellation. All true events that happened to one of the benchmarks of classic situation comedy: "The Dick Van Dyke Show" .

We follow the legendary sitcom back to its origin story: Carl Reiner’s original pilot, why it didn’t sell, and how Sheldon Leonard helps transform the exact same core idea into one of the most respected comedies in TV history. If you love behind-the-scenes Hollywood history, this is the kind...

It’s our third season, and we’ve decided that it’s time to take a more serious approach to appreciating the art of film, film history, and the craft of filmmaking.

April Fools! It’s “Airplane!” (1980)

An airliner full of passengers gets hit with food poisoning, the crew goes down, and the only hope is a washed-up pilot with a bruised past. That plot sounds like a straight disaster thriller and that’s exactly why “Airplane!” works: it uses a perfectly serious skeleton and then fires jokes at you so fast you barely have time to breathe.

On December 14, 2025, Hollywood...and the world...lost a true icon. A man who was not only a gifted actor, but a once-in-a-generation filmmaker who was adept at any style, from satire to horror to romantic comedy. We also lost a true humanitarian and, as his alter ego Harry Burns may have said, a real "mensch".  We are indeed talking about the one and only, Rob Reiner. 

So, for our Season Premiere, we wanted to celebrate this gifted filmmaker and great human being by discussing two of his signature films: the genre-defying but so entertaining (at least to To...

All women, all claws. Jungle Red!

Call it “The Real Housewives of New York- 1939 Edition”. For our season two finale, we tackle MGM’s 1939 classic satire “The Women”.  From savage one-liners to that wild Technicolor fashion show, we trace how Claire Boothe Luce’s play survived the Production Code, why Anita Loos’ screenplay still stings, and where the movie trades social ambition for a romance-first ending.

We are joined by very special guest (and Brad’s husband) Maurice Chevalier and get his singular take on the proceedings. We also  get granular on the craft: George Cukor’s propulsive...

He's baackkk!!!

Brad makes his return to "Going Hollywood" and we celebrate by actually letting him pick a film!  And what a delightful film it is, too...from 1948 it's 
"Miranda." Join us as we dive into the whimsy and wonder of this lesser-known British comedy starring the late great Glynis Johns as Miranda, a beautiful mermaid with a devastating fin and effect on males that come into her wake.  What can we say? The fish can't help it.  Johns, perhaps best recognized for her role as Winifred Banks in "Mary Poppins", holds special significance for Brad—who re...

Think you know Lucy? You don't know Lucy. 

In this episode of "Going Hollywood" we dive into "Lucy in London" (1966), the most unconventional hour Lucille Ball ever made, and unpack how a TV icon tried to outrun her own legend at the height of the British Invasion. Today, Tony is joined by "Lucy" insider Thomas J. Watson, and we retrace the bold creative choices that stripped away the laugh track, left the studio behind, and embraced single-camera street shooting, speed-ramping, and still photography.

Why did Lucy say yes to a one-day sprint across London with A...

We're on the top of the world today at "Going Hollywood" as we have a truly special guest to discuss a truly special artist...Randy L. Schmidt is here to discuss the one and only Karen Carpenter!

 A drummer first, a once‑in‑a‑century voice second, and a reluctant star always—the Karen Carpenter Story is as riveting as the records she left behind. We sit down with the author of the bestselling book Little Girl Blue and director of "Karen Carpenter: Starving for Perfection" (2024), to unpack how a 1989 TV movie created a tidal wave of new fans...

A housing crunch, a missing wall, and one of the sexiest stoop scenes ever filmed. Join us today as we break one of Tony's favorite movies, and one of the true classics of romantic comedy, from 1943, George Steven's "The More The Merrier."

Guest host Brandon Davis, of NPR's "Front Row Classics" joins Tony for the second week in a row as they dive into this comedic jewel and discuss the genius of director George Stevens, the criminally underrated leading man, Joel McRae, the delightful  Charles Coburn (in an Oscar-winning performance) and the incandescent star Jean Arthur, a t...

Tony sits down with Brandon Davis, from NPR Illinois for the first of two episodes with the host of "Front Row Classics" podcast! In this first, we trace Brandon's path from grandma’s Rodgers and Hammerstein VHS tapes to a 350+ episode archive of interviews with film historians, authors, TCM personalities, and even cast members of "The Love Boat".  What starts as a get-to-know-you quickly turns into a golden age tour of "what-ifs"—Bette Davis and James Mason in "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf", Claudette Colbert as Margo Channing, Lucy as the Manchurian mastermind—and why the versions we got endur...

Get ready to "Sparkle, Neely, Sparkle" for Part Two of our special "Dollapalooza" tribute to the "Citizen Kane" of camp, 1967's "Valley of the Dolls."  

We start with the music. Andre and Dory Previn’s title theme? Gorgeous, melancholy, timeless. The rest? A tour of mid-century TV-variety vibes that never quite match the film’s ambition. From Patty Duke’s surprise dubbing and the myth of the star-making number to Judy Garland’s earlier pass at “I’ll Plant My Own Tree,” we map out how direction, staging, and label politics turned strong talent into strange cinema. Then we speed-r...

Dolls! Dolls! Dolls!

We're climbing Mount Everest today...the Mount Everest of Camp, that is...to reach our ultimate destination, the "Valley of the Dolls" (1967). 

 In Part One of our two-part "Doll-apalooza", we dive headfirst into "Valley of the Dolls" to explore how a record-shattering novel morphed into a glossy, chaotic cult classic that refuses to fade. From Travilla’s couture and 60s hair architecture to the film’s stubborn 1940s morality, we map the exact fault lines where glamour cracks into melodrama—and why that crack is what keeps fans coming back.

We pull...

We interrupt our scheduled programs for a special milestone: one million views on Tony's "Wired" interview on YouTube!  This occasion opened the door for a bigger conversation, so we pulled up a chair and dug in.  

Brad asks some questions that blew past the YouTube cut: what we actually know about Natalie Wood’s final night, why rumor loves tidy villains, and how to honor a legacy without letting tragedy swallow it whole.  From there, we build a clear, no-filler Elizabeth Taylor film watch list, take a deeper dive into Hollywood's gay history, and we revisit the story...

The residents of 1313 Mockingbird Lane get ready for their close-up, as we wrap up our spirited “Addams v. Munsters” debate with a nostalgic deep dive into the classic sitcom “The Munsters”.  We explore what sets it apart from “The Addams Family”—not just visually, but culturally—and reminisce about the show’s offbeat charm, its subtle social commentary, and the chemistry between cast members, highlighting icons like Fred Gwynne, Yvonne DeCarlo, and Al Lewis. Join us as we break down two memorable episodes.

Along the way, we reflect on why "The Addams Family" and "The Munsters" shot to the top of the r...