| The Tony Danza Show | |
|---|---|
Title card |
|
| Format | Talk show |
| Presented by | Tony Danza |
| Starring | Ereka Vetrini Nadia DiGiallonardo |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 330 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Syndicated |
| Original run | September 13, 2004 – September 15, 2006 |
The Tony Danza Show was a daytime talk show hosted by Tony Danza, but was also a sitcom featuring the same actor (see "1997 sitcom series" below). Debuting on September 13, 2004, the talk show, syndicated by Buena Vista Television, was broadcast from ABC's New York City studios. The show was broadcast live every morning at 10:00 AM Eastern, with many East Coast markets carrying the live feed.
Tony's sidekick, Ereka Vetrini (from The Apprentice), did not have her contract renewed for the show's second season; in addition, two of the show's producers were fired. Tony had an on-air pianist, Nadia DiGiallonardo, with whom he performed a song and/or dance with at the end of each episode. Her contract was renewed for the second season and she took over many of the segment hosting/sidekick duties that belonged to Vetrini the first season.
On May 9, 2005, during a go-kart race with NASCAR star Rusty Wallace (who was a guest that day), Danza's kart flipped after Wallace accidentally bumped him. Danza suffered a concussion; neither he nor Wallace were wearing a helmet.
In March 2006, the show was put on a two-week hiatus with Danza stating he "didn't know" if or when the show would return. While it did return after the scheduled two weeks on March 24, 2006 Tony said that the show was "unlikely" to be picked up for a third season.
The most-viewed episode of the series featured the heavy metal band, The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, and their appearance followed an email from a viewer.[1]
The last live broadcast of the program was on May 26, 2006, after which repeats aired for the remainder of the Summer. VH1's The Best Week Ever then started an online petition to save the show.
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"Extravadanza" was a game played once each day with a home viewer via telephone. Danza (or, more often, his co-host) would drop a chip on a Plinko-style board. Unlike Plinko, a stuck chip still counted when it eventually hit an amount. The caller would then try to answer a question, and similar to the games on Live with Regis and Kelly had 10 seconds and only one guess (as opposed to 20 seconds on "Live"). A correct answer won the dollar amount the chip landed on.
The Tony Danza Show was previously the name of a short-lived 1997 NBC sitcom starring Danza, Majandra Delfino, Dean Stockwell, Ashley Malinger, Maria Canals, and Shaun Weiss.