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Tony DanzaPerhaps best known for his sitcom personas, Tony Danza is indisputably one of America's most popular performers. Having starred on some of television's most beloved and long-running series, from "Taxi" to "Who's the Boss," Danza also has established himself as a stage and screen star, as well as a respected entertainer. And now, he's entering the world of daytime television with "The Tony Danza Show," a new talk show blending celebrity interviews, human interest stories, cooking and audience participation. The show launches in Fall 2004 in national syndication. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Danza received a wrestling scholarship to the University of Dubuque in Iowa, where he earned a Bachelor's degree in History Education. Discovered at a boxing gymnasium in New York, Danza was ultimately cast in the critically acclaimed series "Taxi," earning him a place in television history. He followed with a starring role in the ABC comedy series "Who's the Boss?" which ran for eight seasons; Danza directed several episodes. His recent television experience includes a role as attorney Joe Celano on the CBS dramatic series "Family Law" opposite a stellar ensemble cast including Kathleen Quinlan, Chris McDonald and Dixie Carter. Danza received an Emmy nomination for his performance on David E. Kelley's award-winning series "The Practice." His small-screen credits include a performance opposite George C. Scott and Jack Lemmon in Showtime's remake of the film clic "12 Angry Men." Danza was seen in the Disney/ABC television movies "The Garbage Picking Field Goal Kicking Philadelphia Phenomenon" and "Noah," and starred in and executive produced the ABC comedy series "Hudson Street" and NBC's "The Tony Danza Show." He hosted the 2001 "Miss America Pageant," and the 2003 "People's Choice Awards" for national television. Via his production company, Katie Face Productions, Danza is actively involved in all forms of television, including production of the highly rated "Before They Were Stars" specials. On the big screen, Danza starred in Walt Disney's "Angels in the Outfield" with Danny Glover, "She's Out Of Control," and Frank Rainore's action-drama "A Brooklyn State of Mind" with Vincent Spano, Danny Aiello and Maria Grazia Cucinotta, among other projects. Danza wrote, directed and starred in the short film inspired by personal events entitled "Mama Mia." For his theatrical debut in "Wrong Turn at Lungfish," he earned an Outer Critic's Circle Award nomination. On stage, Danza received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Rocky the bartender in the Broadway revival of Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh" opposite Kevin Spacey in its return to Broadway at the Brook Atkinson Theater. He made his Broadway debut in Arthur Miller's Tony Award-winning play "A View From The Bridge." Danza spent much of the last eight years touring with his live act, most recently showcasing the newest version of his song and dance show with stops in New York, Texas, Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia, Las Vegas, California and Florida among other locations. He released his debut album The House I Live In last year. It includes his well-received single of the same name, which Billboard Magazine named as the adult contemporary pick of the week. The album includes Danza's versions of many of the clics with which he grew up, including "That's All," "Pennies from Heaven," "Goodnight My Love," "I'll Be Seeing You" and a compelling version of "Little Child" (Daddy Dear), sung with his daughter Emily.
Television talk show host Tony Danza and Samsung Electronics SVP Peter Weedfald, present a check for $100,000 worth of technology equipment that Samsung is donating to the Washington Irving Middle School in Los Angeles, CA. Accepting the check are Grej Pesjaka, a visually impaired 10 year-old student at the school and Chandice Covington, a professor at UCLA's School of Nursing, who nominated the school and wrote the Grand Prize winning essay as part of Samsung's Hope For Education National Essay Contest. One hundred other schools across America each received $10,000 in Samsung technology products as well. (PRNewsFoto)[AG] Television talk show host Tony Danza today underscored the importance of state-of-the-art technology in clrooms across America by featuring the Grand Prize winner of the first annual Tony Danza is a real talk show host Perhaps this column should be called "My Life as a TV Critic." My convalescence coincided with the opening of the new talk show season. New season, new shows, old shows too. Oprah was back with a beautiful new hairdo, and wowed the country by giving away 276 cars on her opening day. Wouldn't it have been great to be in her audience that day? Ellen DeGeneres was back funnier than ever, and I like the way she incorporates members of her audience as well as home viewers into her program. I've always thought she's about the funniest woman on TV, and her daily monologues about the little things in life are usually hilarious. However, after about four weeks of the new season, I began to wonder if she had run out of daily things to talk about, and frankly, I'm tired of watching her dance every day. Sorry, Ellen. I'm in the minority, I know. Two newcomers made a big splash on the screen -- Jane Pauley and Tony Danza. I admire Jane Pauley greatly as a person and as a journalist and watched faithfully the first week, but soon began to check the listings to see what her topic was going to be. Sorry, Jane. Now Tony Danza, there's a real talk show host. He's been voted the best new daytime talk show host, and I agree with that. He does everything; chats, sings, dances, cooks, makes us laugh, and even makes the daily game fun when a home viewer plays "Extravadanza". He's quite the man about town and hobnobs with all the celebrities, but is still so down to earth, and doesn't mind admitting that he's a devoted family man. Yes, I like Tony. No Maury, no Montel, no Jerry Springer. Even the women at "The View" were a little frenetic for my mood. No cooking shows (a little bit of Emeril goes a long way -- Bam!), no reality shows, and very little news except for our faithful "McLaughlin Report" on Friday nights. Of course, I never stopped on the sports channel, except for one time. Isn't it nice to know that tournament Scrabble got coverage on ESPN? Hooray!
Tony Danza helps ''Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research'' A gaggle of TV stars, includ ing Tony Danza, Edie Falco, Jesse Martin, Kelly Ripa and Michael Imperioli have con tributed custom-made Christ mas cards to Cablevision's "Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research," named after former Cablevi sion exec Marc Lustgarten. Over 100 celebrities in total created cards for the fund raising efforts — with Jessica Simpson's card reading "Peas on Earth" (a play on her dim witted public persona) and Adam Sandler's card featur ing a picture of his pooch, Matzo Ball. The cards are available through Dec. 23 on eBay (keyword "cards for charity"), with all money raised going to the foundation. Danza, by the way, will swing with his three-piece band on tomorrow's "Tony Danza Show" (10 a.m./ Ch. 7).
Tony Danza gives away trips to Miami Beach Oprah recently handed out car keys, to a flood of free publicity, so Miami tried to get into the act Thursday on The Tony Danza Show. The former costar of the sitcom Taxi surprised his studio audience with about 140 free Miami Beach vacations, a promotional stunt hatched by the local tourism board to counter bad publicity over recent hurricanes. "I think they want you to know Miami is beautiful and back," Danza said during the live broadcast from New York, as confetti and streamers rained down on the screaming audience. Just as Pontiac executives figured that 276 free Pontiac G6s were worth having Oprah Winfrey gush about the sedans on her TV show, Spirit Airlines and Miami Beach's Fontainebleau Hilton Resort bankrolled the Danza giveaway. Spirit will foot the airfare for the trips, and the Fontainebleau will give away its rooms for the six-night stays, according to the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. The tax-funded bureau will pick up the transportation tab for shuttling the winners to The Beach from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Like most discount carriers, Spirit doesn't fly to Miami International. Danza tactfully told guests that Spirit would by flying them "to South Florida." The winners must fly out of New York's La Guardia Airport and may take their trips anytime in the next 12 months. But the prizes are limited to unsold plane tickets and hotel rooms, Spirit and Fontainebleau executives said. A round-trip Spirit flight to Fort Lauderdale costs about $180 in January, and one night at the Fontainebleau runs about $220 on Expedia.com, meaning that the prizes could be worth a total of $210,000 or more. Trip contests on radio and television are usually orchestrated by destinations seeking publicity, but tourism experts said this giveaway was much larger than usual. Bureau executives held several conference calls with producers to hammer out what the new talk-show host would say. The bureau wanted Danza to mention New York's cold weather, and he did. The idea was to remind viewers that the Miami area was untouched by this season's hurricane ault. Nonetheless, Danza appeared to wander a bit off message. "Miami's taken a beating," he said, before catching himself. "I mean Florida's taken a beating, with all the hurricanes."
Though "The Tony Danza Show" is No. 1 in its time period in New York and Philadelphia, the cheerful, upbeat Brooklyn native is struggling to find an audience in other parts of the country for his breezy, lighthearted mix of celebrity interviews, jokey banter and cooking segments. Here in Detroit, he's running fourth in the 11 a.m. time slot and regularly getting bashed by ABC's "The View" and CBS's "The Price is Right." "A lot of times, that knowledge, that little nugget, puts a guest at ease, and the interview goes a little bit better," says Danza. "Guests want to have a blueprint of what's happening also. It's a team sport interviewing." It's also a team sport hosting a talk show. "The Tony Danza Show" features Ereka Vetrini of "The Apprentice" as Danza's banter buddy and "favorite second banana." "But she came in with a big group of people to audition. And how we did it, I interviewed each person as if they were a guest to see if we had any chemistry. Ereka was great. We clicked. And she looks great on camera. She's bright. She's sort of neighborhood. We got very lucky." The oddest sight in Tony's talk show kitchen? Paris Hilton doing lasagna. "That was bizarre. But she was a good sport," says Danza. "You're not going to see Paris Hilton cook on any other show." So from embarring Halloween costume mistakes to tabloid celebutante cuisine encounters, "The Tony Danza Show" is a work in progress for its rookie host. "It's a grind," admits Danza. "But you've really got to focus on something before you get good at it. And I really want to get good at this."
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