http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png http://gawker.com/tag/defamer/tonydanza http://gawker.com/tag/defamer/tonydanza Stopping by Late Show to drum up interest in Pineapple Express, James Franco admitted to David Letterman that this was only his second-ever experience on a talk show. The first was two years ago, when he appeared on The Tony Danza Show: A lightly surreal daytime chatfest hosted by everyone's favorite Who's The Boss-star and guido savante, it relied perhaps a little too heavily on ill-conceived gimmicks and stunts. (The Plinkoesque call-in trivia game Extravadanza immediately pops to mind.) Sure enough, learning that Franco played a boxer in a "horrible movie" he refrains from naming (Annapolis! It was Annapolis!), Danza challenged him first to a push-up contest, and, after Franco politely rejected that offer, a Hook-the-Ring decathalon event that still induces involuntarily facial-twitching and regular nightmares of Danza's "I'm the Lord of the Ring-Hookers!" victory dance.

• Late Show

]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5031615&view=rss&microfeed=true Defamer wishes a happy 57th birthday to Tony Danza, whose 1980 big-screen masterpiece, Going Ape!, we were distressed to find among the more esteemed selections slated for oblivion in last weekend's Viacom bust-up. On this special day, we urge Sumner Redstone, Brad Grey, Matt Blank and all others involved to put their differences aside long enough to secure this film's rightful place in the VOD canon where it belongs. Thank you. [IMDB]

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