The orange Dodge Charger, famous for its bolted doors emblazoned with the number 01, has drawn criticism over the years for the Confederate Flag that covers its roof. The flag has long been the center of debate among those who find it racially offensive and those who consider it merely a symbol of southern pride.  

“The image of the Confederate flag is not something that should play an official role in our sport as we continue to reach out to new fans and make NASCAR more inclusive,” said NASCAR spokesman David Higdon in a statement printed by the Associated Press. Watson addressed the issue on Twitter where he can be seen in a photo with the famous car. “The track ask me to drive it,” Tweeted Watson. “I bought [the] car because of the Dukes Of Hazzard show, I don’t stand for the flag.”

In 2007, Just My Show raised the issue with Dukes of Hazzard star Tom Wopat (seen in photo), who said that at the time of filming, the Confederate Flag wasn’t nearly as politically incorrect as it is today. “Obviously, there’s problems with the Confederate flag,” Wopat told Just My Show. “You know, that’s inherent.” But the actor also believes that the show maintained a strong fan base in the black community. “I think you’ll find a huge huge majority of them did not…I mean didn’t really take that as a personal affront,” he said. “I think we were a huge hit among the black populace…and I don’t know that I can back that up, but I’d be willing to bet.”

So what’s your take? Did NASCAR make the right call or cave in to political correctness? Share your opinion our poll.

Just My Show had a chance to talk with Merrill and Rubicam about Whitney’s passing last night in the hour leading up to the Grammy Awards.

I’m not seeing a lot of the fans and the media focusing in on [Whitney’s problems]. It seems like people are putting that aside and just kind of going back to that time where she was the biggest thing in the world and, just emotionally, really being shocked and connected to how good she was. Is that what you’re finding?

Shannon: Absolutely that’s what I’m hearing because you could, you know, dig not very deep at all and come up with plenty of lurid sounding material regardless of its truth or not. But I think people really want to honor her and they’ve been touched by her deeply and they loved her joy factor and they loved her soaring beautiful voice and they want to celebrate that because she was a gift in their life and that’s how they’re feeling and they didn’t experience all that other mess and that isn’t what they would want to think of her as.

George: It’s not what we want from our icons, you know? I think many of us were hopeful that Whitney would be able to overcome some of her travails and from what I hear, it sounds like she’s about to come out with a movie project with Jordan Sparks and, you know, people are lauding it. It sounds like it’s gonna be, you know, a big deal and it sounds like there were aspects to her life that were coming together. So, you know, it’s hard to know. We just don’t know enough yet to talk about that side but…

Shannon: That will never be known.

George: Yeah, maybe not.

Shannon: You know, I think that’s a tough one. She was truly experiencing numerous meltdowns and that’s a sad thing for people to watch and so they very naturally want to focus on how great she was.

George: Yeah. I think so. Yeah.

We don’t generally try to rank singers historically, you know, in the same way we might rank shortstops and quarterbacks. If you had to though, where does Whitney’s voice stack up among the all time list of great female voices?

Shannon: I put her right up there with Billie Holliday and with…Janice Joplin. So Janice Joplin and Billie Holiday and Whitney. I mean I think, in their very different ways, they’re all just glorious.

George: I also would just add that I think Whitney defined another category…and I think there have been singers that, you know, that have come along since that learned from Whitney, that grew up with Whitney, to learn how to sing…but I just don’t think I’ve heard anybody on par with her. There are some wonderfully expressive singers, you know, as Shannon said. We have a great crop that are gonna be out there tonight. Adele is a phenomenal singer. There’s just a quality in Whitney’s tone when she was in her prime. I just don’t know if anyone’s achieved that before.

People may not realize, I certainly didn’t realize that How Will I Know was originally written for Janet Jackson. Looking back, was that the best rejection you’ve ever gotten or would it still have been a hit if Janet sang it?

George: Boy, good question. Well I think where Janet Jackson was in her career, she was heading in a completely different direction. She was about to do her Control album with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis…and it was, you know, it was a complete departure from the lighter, breathier pop, R&B sound that she had going. So when we wrote How Will I Know and Shannon sang the vocals with a quality, you know, similar to the way Janet was singing at the time…You know, I’m sure when it was sent in, they thought “nice song but it’s not really the direction that we’re going.” And as songwriters, when you write songs for other people, you know, that’s something that you become aware of. It’s either right or its not. So we’ve been blessed, fortunate that, you know, we’ve had people excited about our songs and sing them and have, you know, iconic success with them as well. So we have that to go along with the many times that we’ve also heard that the song wasn’t quite right.

Shannon: Right, but I think, you know, in the case of How Will I Know, we were just so fortunate that it ended up in Clive’s [Davis] hands and then he passed it along to Narada Michael Walden to record with Whitney and all of the right elements came into play and made it a successful song. I mean, successful beyond imagining.

George: Yeah.

Shannon: And for us to hear her voice on that song and how she lifted it up into another stratosphere, was really something.

I think How Will I Know and I Wanna Dance With Somebody seem straight forward in terms of the meaning of the songs but is there anything about either the lyrics or sort of the writing process of those songs that people might be surprised to hear?

Shannon: I think that they might be surprised to know that as I was writing the lyrics to I Wanna Dance With Somebody, there was a little bit of darkness in my feeling about it. That real sense of longing and loneliness that someone can feel when they realize they don’t have a plan for the evening and they don’t have someone to connect with, someone to go out and have fun with and to, not just go and dance dance with, but to do that life dance with.

George: I think Narada and Whitney conveyed that really well too because it was such a party, you know, in the chorus like that but there’s that pause, you know…”But when the night falls, loneliness calls.” It’s just that little pause before the open breasted chorus, you know?

Shannon: Yeah, well and George and I one time did a version of that in performance where we opened it up as a balled and it makes a beautiful ballad cause it’s sort of a mournful quality to it as well as a celebratious dance floor song. You can do it either way.

How has your experience with these songs and Whitney changed your life?

Shannon: Immensely.

George: Forever.

Shannon: She brought us a visibility that I don’t think we would have achieved had she not recorded our songs. And she also gave us confidence we probably also would not have had going forward as songwriters and as performers for Boy Meets Girl. So that was a huge change for us. I really think that it was everything. It made the difference. And I’m just incredibly grateful to her for that. And for making the experience being in the music business so joyous for us.

How do you think Whitney may have changed the game in terms of her influence on other artists…or did she just do it a lot better?

George: I think she just upped the bar, yeah. I mean we already talked about the fact that Janet Jackson was presenting pop R&B with that sort of breathy sort of, you know, light quality and that was, you know, that was accepted, you know…but there was nobody, I mean nobody in the modern age…I mean Aretha was still having hits. I mean she did have Pink Cadillac and all. But, you know, nobody past the 60s had really defined R&B like she ended up doing…She stepped into the role and created a genre I think.

Shannon: Yeah, I think she mixed in more of a pop sensibility.

George: There was. There was a raw…our original demo for I Wanna Dance With Somebody was kind of a rock demo. So I think there’s a level of intensity that she also conveyed. I’m not saying it was cause of the demo. I’m just saying…I think it suited her because she was aggressive. It wasn’t just passive.

Any final thought on, you know, a particular sort of moment in the experience, in the connection with Whitney that means something extra special to you, or any particular way you’re gonna remember her?

Shannon: I’m going to remember hearing her on the radio because the radio was, at the time, the prominent delivery system for music, and I’m just going to remember hearing her on that car radio going by the house and feeling, you know, like she was, she was my girl.

George: Yeah…I will always forever be proud of, you know, our linkage with her through our songs and…these are somewhat sad days and, you know, I go between celebration and tears right now and, you know, it’ll be a while before we can completely celebrate again. But I have to say, you know, she was unique and there’ll be no one that can ever step into those boots. She did it her way.

Learn more about George and Shannon at boymeetsgirlmusic.com.  -  “Like” Just My Show on Facebook. Follow Just My Show on Twitter.

Tony Packo’s came to national attention after it was mentioned several times on the hit TV show M*A*S*H as a favorite of character Maxwell Q. Klinger, played by Toledo native Jamie Farr. “It was a little Hungarian bar on the east side of Toledo and because it was a bar, as children, we were not allowed to go in to buy these hot dogs,” recalled Farr on Just My Show in 2007. “We used to have to send the oldest one in and then couldn’t eat there. You had to take the hot dogs out. I think they were like about thirty five cents at the time.”

Farr, who described the famous dogs as “more like Polish sausage,” said that kids in his neighborhood would go to great lengths to get their hands on them. “We’d catch a bus in the dead of winter there and we had some pretty bad winters in Toledo,” he remembered. “We’d freeze out there but the hot dogs were still worth the trip and the freezing to get those.”

Of course, Tony Packo’s wasn’t the only hometown reference made by the quirky Corporal Klinger, who could frequently be seen sporting Toledo Mud Hens gear around the 4077^th. The city’s name was also included in the camp’s famous sign post indicating its distance of 6,133 miles from Korea.

“I remember as a kid, every time you’d go see a movie and the movie theater, they mention Toledo, Ohio, you’d get a big laugh and I never knew why,” Farr said with a chuckle of his own. “I always thought it was a great city, but I think everybody still thinks it’s not the beautiful Garden of Eden that I imagined it to be.”

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How old were you when you were on Cosby?

I actually started when I was three and a half and we finished right after I turned five.

How much do you actually remember from it at that age?

You know it’s really funny. I get this question a lot and I remember everything vividly around that age. It’s after that that starts to get foggy, like if you asked me anything…what I was doing in school maybe like fifth grade or something, I couldn’t tell you. But I remember those years vividly and it was just like testament to the fact of how influential that time was in my life.

How’d you get involved? Your parents just took you down there for an audition?

I actually was in New York doing a modeling competition and one of the judges was a producer from The Cosby Show and they had mentioned to my mom and I that they were looking for someone to replace the infant twins on the show. Went in for a reading I believe and, you know, they loved me…and… My mom didn’t really kind of believe it was for real so we actually flew right back to Chicago as planned and they called and said that Mr. Cosby would like to meet with us and read and do all that kind of stuff and so they flew us right back out to New York and the rest as they say is history.

Did you know who Bill Cosby was?

You know it’s funny is I did. At three and a half believe it or not, I was very into pop culture, entertainment, television, everything…and The Cosby Show was actually one of the few show that my mom, you know, would let me watch, you know, as far as grown up show, you know. It was a whole bunch of Sesame Street and things and then, you know, as far as shows that the family watched, I could definitely watch The Cosby Show, so I actually did. You know, I of course, didn’t know you know, his…I knew his persona on the show. I didn’t really know Bill Cosby, you know, but getting to know him was great and he’s such a great man, and I would love to also speak with him too.

Any particular memory of Geoffrey and what he was like?

Definitely. He had a braid or as a lot of people call a rat tail and so did I and so I remember all the time comparing like who’s was longer, and of course, his was. But you know, as a four year old, you want to believe that everything you do is better than anybody that’s older than you so I remember…you know and I kept saying that mine’s gonna get longer than yours. Mine’s gonna get longer than yours…and I don’t know if Geoffrey knew how long his was or I don’t know if he still has it actually but I want to say to Geoffrey that mine was I believe 30 inches long when I cut it so…I want him to beat that. But ah…Yeah it was really long and I cut it like around my 13^th birthday and I do remember that vividly. Just all the time, people were like you guys are perfect together cause we don’t think any kid would have had the same hair style as the person we casted as his father.

I would say probably a pretty healthy percentage of actors that are doing something when they’re three, drop out of the business. You’re still going strong. You’re doing a lot of voice work I know. What’s your latest?

I’m on Fairlyodd Parents which is on Nickelodeon right now. That’s still going strong. I just did a Jack in the Box commercial which has just started to run and is becoming pretty popular. And mostly writing right now and that is kind of what I want to do eventually. So in addition to the acting, that’s pretty much my focus. Mostly on screenplays but, you know, I want to of course go into TV as well…and I had a great basis on a show that I was on at three years old to kind of model myself after, you know, what a television show is about and what it should be like and how it should touch other people, so you know that’s pretty much what I want to do but as of right now, you know, like I said, it’s going great career wise. I couldn’t ask for more to be still in it, you know 20 plus years later…and every time I tell people that I’m so grateful, you know when they can look at me and they know that I’m not over 30 and they say, you know, how long have you been doing this? And I say you know actually wow, you know in February it’ll be 22 years and they go wow like what was your first job? And I’m still…I’m always so proud to say, you know, The Cosby Show because just to have that foundation and then to still stay in it and I honestly think if I wasn’t on that show, I still wouldn’t be acting and always grateful for that.

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Mount Vernon’s 3,900 seat Memorial Field has been home to football, baseball, even boxing. But for three days in May of 1979, its tunnel served as the set for the classic scene in which a young fan offers an injured Greene a Coke, prompting the NFL tough guy to utter the iconic line, “Hey kid, catch,” as he tosses him his game jersey.

Constructed as a state of the art facility, the 81 year old stadium has eroded to the point that the city’s high school football team has moved across town to a newly built field. With plans for a more modern athletic complex on the site, the city broke ground last summer on a project that included the demolition of the current structure.

But the city’s then former mayor Ernie Davis, who decided to seek re-election in November, saw the site differently. “I just looked at it from an architectural and historical point of view,” said Davis, himself an architect by trade. “It has historical significance to it.” So when he was re-elected, Davis asked the contractor to work around the stadium structure until his inauguration. Now back in office, Davis officially announced the end of demolition at last week’s Board of Estimate and Contract meeting.

Of course, the stadium’s reprieve has little to do with its place in pop culture history with many residents likely unaware of what took place in that tunnel over 30 years ago. “If you’re young, let’s say if you’re 20 years old, you’re not likely to remember it or if you’re a recent resident, you’re not likely to remember it,” Davis told Just My Show. “But there is a hardcore group of people who absolutely remembers that commercial.” Davis is one of them.

“It was a great commercial, but I’m prejudice of course,” he confesses. “I think just artistically, I think it was a great commercial and it made it even better because it was shot in Mount Vernon.”

With a name like Ernie Davis, you have to figure the mayor knows at least a little something about football. “When I used to go to cash my check, they’d say ‘oh are you THE Ernie Davis?’ I’d say ‘yes I am,’” he laughed. “He was supposed to be the answer to Jim Brown but he never played in the pros and his name is so remembered,” said Davis of the Syracuse Heisman Trophy winner he shares a name with. “I just find that incredible. Even today, people remember Ernie Davis.”

Mayor Davis plans to address any structural issues at the old Memorial Field stadium, along with ordering improvements to the locker rooms, lighting and landscaping. Asked if he’s considered approaching Coke for funding, Davis replied that he’d “never thought about it but now I’m thinking about it now…That’s an excellent idea. I’m gonna write that down. See, this is a very fortuitous conversation.”

As for  what’s taking place in that other football stadium on Sunday, Davis is sticking with the hometown team. “I think it’s hard to bet against a team that has the momentum that I think the Giants have at this point,” he reasoned. “Big mo is with the Giants.”

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From joining the Cosby cast to its racial impact and its historic finale…It’s all here!

Plus, remembering Kotter’s Robert Hegyes, John Parr revisits St. Elmo and more in the latest edition of New News About Old Stuff.

“I showed up to do the pilot [of Welcome Back, Kotter] and I’m getting into the elevator at CBS where we shot the pilot and Alan Sachs, who was the producer, and John Travolta and I got in an elevator together and Alan looked at me and said, ‘Epstein this is Barbarino.’ I said, ‘no no no. I’m Barbarino.’ And he said, ‘no no no. This is Barbarino. You’re Epstein.’ And I said…It went something like this. ‘Do I get the same pay he does?’ And he said, ‘yeah.’ I said, ‘OK. It’s fine. Fine with me.’”

There’s a professional component to this podcast – one that involves trying to put together an entertaining show with good production in order to build a loyal audience. There’s also a part of it that’s a bit of a scam – a legitimized excuse to get to call people I just really really want to talk to.  Bob Hegyes was my model Just My Show guest for both agendas.

Juan Epstein may have only been on TV for four seasons (three as far as Bob was concerned) and may not have gotten the actor quite as  much notoriety as that guy who played Barbarino, but he’s one of those characters in TV history that you remember, one that makes you smile just to think about. (How many characters on TV can make you laugh just by walking a few steps and handing a guy a piece of paper?) Bob made it look so easy. Trust me. It’s not. Don’t mistake a goofy character for one that’s simple to play. Bob may not have been a big movie star, but he was incredibly talented.

I wanted to have Bob on the podcast for a while before I was able to get a hold of him. I just thought there was something about his character on Kotter that landed him right in Just My Show’s sweet spot. Of course, I also just kinda thought it would be awesome to get to talk to him! Eventually, I tracked him down and he did it. He didn’t do the Kotter E! True Hollywood Story, but he did my little show… and he was great!

We talked about how the show was banned in Boston, about the day he met George Harrison and found out he was a Kotter fan, and about how his feelings toward the role had changed over the years. At times in his career he was frustrated, but by the time I talked with him, he was just appreciative. “When  you’re able to make people laugh, that’s a gift,” he told me. Bob had the gift big time.

Lucky for TV fans that he was cool on that elevator ride and lucky for me that I got to spend a little time chatting with him. Great actor. Great guy. He’ll be missed.

So Ralph Macchio, your little Daniel Larusso, is now 50. Your little boy’s all grown up. What do you think of that?

Oh my God. It’s so unbelievable. You know it’s so funny because about a month ago, maybe more, we had lunch together for the first time in years and years and years and he’s just the sweetest guy in the world. I just adore him and I did on the movie, and we were sitting there, we said we had this special chemistry, you know, and it just showed.  I mean, it’s rare. But we had lunch and it was like we just picked up where we left off, but you know, 30 years later or however many years it is. I lost track.

I think people might have a hard time grasping the idea that Ralph is 50 because he looks more like he’s 15, doesn’t he?

I know. The stinker. You know, and I’m only like 14 years older than him, so when I got cast in this movie…I thought he was 16 when I was hired and then, you know, later that day I guess in passing, someone said “oh no, he’s 22” and I was… oh my…I’m only 36 or whatever. I’m too young to be his mom.  But no, I wasn’t.

You can’t imagine that he’s not as nice in person as he seems. What was he like to work with back then?

He was the same. You know people don’t change. I always say that. Of course, he’s more mature now. But he was very mature as a 22 year old. I always found him incredibly centered and very grounded. I was very impressed by that, you know, even as a young man. And we had a lot of fun together and it was just such an easy gig. So much fun. Just very natural the entire thing and that’s what he gives off, he emanates. You know, he’s just the sweetest, nicest, you know, fun person.

When you first saw this script, what did you think? Are you shocked what this has turned into?

Well you know I vividly remember reading that script. I could tell you I was in my bedroom. I was on my bed, I was reading the script, and after it was over, I closed it and I said, what a little gem. And I said this is a life changing part for, you know, a male Asian, being Mr. Miyagi…[Pat Morita] was incredible.

I had no idea it was gonna become such a classic, but I knew it was a gem. I said that’s a beautiful, sweet, great message, heartfelt script.  So I was very impressed by it. Because I wasn’t into martial arts. I didn’t know anything about that world, nor did I have a son. You know, it wasn’t anything part of my life. But I connected to it. So I knew that that had to be a great thing that it was very universal and it was so touching.

It was a beautiful script. So, but no. I had no idea, you know and I remember Ralph and I, we were in a trailer one day and he goes to me “Randee, we gotta change the title of this. It’s so cheesy.” He said “we gotta change The Karate Kid.” I go, “I know. It is a little cheesy.” So we were in there for about half an hour trying to think of another title for the movie and either we did and it wasn’t accepted or…I don’t remember what the outcome was. But yeah, turns out it was a great title.

Is this movie the one credit people get the most excited to talk to you about still?

Yeah, it is. You know, I had that Emmy nomination for Mad Men, and people I think, still get excited about The Karate Kid more. I think it’s been seen by, you know, every human being after they turn 12 years old in the world, you know. It’s been translated to every language. Yeah, people still connect to that movie and the plight of, you know, a young person going to a new school and having to deal with these challenges. I think, you know, it really hits so many people…or being a parent or a single parent. There are a lot of themes in there that are just very universal. You know what I’m saying?

And some pretty good acting too.

Yeah, well. That’s for you to say I guess. Not for me to say.

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Sure, it’s been called ageist, sexist and annoying, but with 11 million copies sold since 1979, it’s not going anywhere!

Plus, Ralph Macchio turns 50 and much more in the latest edition of New News About Old Stuff.

8pm Santa Clause is Comin’ to Town (ABC)

December 3

8pm It’s a Wonderful Life (NBC)

December 5

8pm A Charlie Brown Christmas (ABC)

December 7

7:30pm How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Cartoon)

9pm Christmas Vacation (ABC Family)

December 8

8pm Santa Clause is Comin’ to Town (ABC Family)

December 9

7pm Santa Clause is Comin’ to Town (ABC Family)

8pm Frosty the Snowman (CBS)

December 10

10pm Christmas Vacation (ABC Family)

December 12

9pm Christmas Vacation (ABC Family)

December 24

8pm It’s a Wonderful Life (NBC)

8pm A Christmas Story Marathon (TBS)