Books: David Fishof, the creator and driving force behind “Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp” — which he and Mark Burnett then adapted for the VH1 Classic series — has written “Rock Your Business — What Your Company Can Learn From the Business of Rock and Roll” (BenBella Books).
The book, written with Michael Levin, will be out in stores this Tuesday, Sept. 4 and features blurbs from the likes of Roger Daltrey, Vince Neil, Phil Simms and Scott Hamilton.
“I want to share my experiences of how corporate America can learn from the business of rock ’n roll, and to share information for anyone who has an idea and is trying to bring it to fruition,” Fishof tells me. “Everyone is walking around with an idea of how to make a million dollars — whether it’s an app, a TV show, reality series, movie — and I want to show you how, in my experience, you can make anything and everything happen.”
Fishof also gives props to Burnett, the “Survivor” guru who helped him transition his “Fantasy Camp” to television. “I learned a lot from my association with Mark in the last few years,” he says.
Fishof will be here next week, and is scheduled to appear on CNBC next Friday, Sept. 7, with appearances also scheduled for Sirius/XM and VH1.
He’s also amped up about the next phase in the evolution of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp.” Starting Oct. 1, the operation kicks off in its new home at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. “We’ve got Roger Daltrey, Dave Navarro, Warren Haynes and Alice Cooper lined up to do camps,” says Fishof. “And we’ve built a rehearsal studio nearby.”
Fishof — who organized the first Monkees reunion tour and created/produced Ringo Starr’s first All-Starr Band tour (and many successive All-Starr tours) — says he hopes to start a “Rock Star of the Day” program, where people in Vegas can visit the “Fantasy Camp” studio, jam with a rocker and leave with a DVD of their performance.
How cool is that?
More . . . Actor Stephen Tobolowsky (“Glee,” “Californication”) has authored “The Dangerous Animals Club,” which will be out Sept. 25 and is a collection of 26 true stories ranging from his childhood in Texas to his relationship with playwright Beth Henley to his experiences in Hollywood (he’s also appeared in “Groundhog Day,” “Mississippi Burning,” “Heroes” and “Deadwood,” among many other film and TV roles).
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“Ghost Hunters” returns for its midseason premiere next Wednesday, Sept. 5 (9 p.m.) on Syfy without TAPS co-founder Grant Wilson — but that’s about to be remedied.
Ashley Troub joins the TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society) team on the show’s Sept. 26 episode, entitled “Don’t Feed the Apparition” (because it takes place at the Alexandria Zoo in Alexandria, La.). Troub joins TAPS from her previous group, California’s Eastern Ventura Paranormal Society; one her “major areas of interest in the ghost-hunting world” is EVP (electronic voice phenomenon).
In Troub’s debut episode, Alexandria Zoo staff members are experiencing weird, unexplained stuff — reminiscent of pranks pulled by their beloved (now dead) former zookeeper.
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In yesterday’s Post, I wrote a story about the theoretical possibility of NBC one day moving “Late Night” host Jimmy Fallon to the 11:35 p.m. timeslot to take advantage of his younger-skewing audience (translation: bigger advertising dollars).
That, in turn, engendered some interesting data courtesy of the folks over at Conan O’Brien’s late-night TBS show, “Conan.”
Of all the late-night shows, “Conan” has the youngest median age, 36, according to Nielsen data compiled from last December through last June 21. That’s 22 and 20 years younger than the median-age “Tonight Show” and “Late Show” viewer, respectively — and 17 years younger than the median-age viewers of both “Late Night” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (“Kimmel” airs an hour later, while “Late Night” airs 90 minutes later).
“Conan” also skews five years younger than Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report” and seven years younger than “The Daily Show.”
Interesting.
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HBO has released “True Blood: Eats, Drinks, and Bites from Bon Temps,” a cookbook inspired by the series which contains 85 recipes from New Orleans chef Marcelle Bienvenu.
Meanwhile, all 35 episodes of the old Fox series “Get A Life,” which starred Chris Elliott, will be out on a 5-DVD set Sept. 18. The show aired from 1990-92.
And, speaking of Fox, “The X-Files” creator Chris Carter will receive this year’s Outstanding Television Writer Award from the Austin Film Festival & Conference in October. What took ’em so long? The show’s been off the air since 2002, and the last “X-Files” movie came out in 2008. Sheesh.
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Last, but not least:
* Jerry Springer will host a live version of “The Price is Right” at Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City starting Sept. 13. The show, which runs through Oct. 21, is staged Wednesday through Sunday (8 p.m. nightly with a 3 p.m. matinee on Wednesdays) . . . Tuesday night’s summer finale of “Pretty Little Liars” on ABC Family lit up social media — generating over 709,000 tweets in its original airing and nearly 2 million tweets for an all-day marathon . . . Cable network INSP has landed rights to the old series “The Virginian,” which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. James Drury and Doug McClure starred in the series, which ran on CBS from 1962-71.