You have a TV? No. I just like to read the TV guide. Read the TV guide. You don't need a TV. Happy Wednesday everybody. It's time for a brand new edition of TV Guidance Counselor. I am Ken Reed. As always, you're TV Guidance Counselor, and for those of you just joining us, the concept of this show is that I own, let's say, every edition of TV Guide. It's fairly close. Guest, a friend, someone I am interviewing that week will pick a copy of TV Guide from the past. They will sit down and write what they would watch that week, and then the podcast is us discussing their choices. My guest this week is Eric Charles Nielsen. Eric is a guy that I know from Boston. He started comedy here in Boston with me. He's a very funny, stand-up comedian. He moved out to L.A. a number of years ago, and you may know him, in addition to being a stand-up. He's appeared on Conan O'Brien, among other things, but you may know him as Garrett on the TV show community, which we discuss quite a bit in this episode. He's in a lot of commercials. He's incredibly funny. This guy always makes me laugh. He's one of the few people that never fails to make me laugh, and I think you'll enjoy this episode. And please listen to this week's episode with Eric Charles Nielsen. Mr. Eric Charles Nielsen, how are you, sir? I'm good. I'm good. I have a list here. I made it with a lot of difficulty. Yeah. You agonized over this. I showed up Eric's place here, I'm on the West Coast, with a portion of the West Coast collection. You literally grabbed a random one, which is December 25th to the 31st, 1993. It's got a painting of Johnny Carson, end of the year, end of an error. Johnny Carson wearing a Santa hat. End of Johnny Carson. Yeah. Was he off the air by then? This was the last year. There was one week of, no, he was off the air. Yeah. Because he was on the Kennedy Center Honors, and they say this week we get one of our Christmas wishes, Johnny on TV, but will he really return? That's pretty bad. They're just like, for Christmas, not world peace. Johnny Carson back on TV. That's what I want. That's what I want. Did you ever watch Carson? I never really watched that. He was a little more for my time, I think. I was a little man and Conan got. I can't say I've never seen him, but I was not really awake at 11.30 at night for the most part. Yeah. Well, that's probably good. And when I was awake at 11.30, I wasn't like, oh, let's watch some TV. Yeah, you're like, I'm sick or having some. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So this week you had some trouble with, but halfway through, you were just like, I don't even want to do this week. It was very little worth watching at week or so. No, it's not. I mean, this is very padded, I'm saying that in advance. That's fine. And this is a tough week because it's Christmas week, so the normal stuff isn't necessarily on. It makes it tough because the normal stuff isn't so great. That's true. It may be it would make it easier because you'd have specials on, and that's... Yeah, no. Well, I mean, this is actually post-special, so I feel like it's a lot of reruns, a lot of them. It's true. It's that dead week between Christmas and New Year's. Yeah. Like, nobody wants to see any Christmas specials anymore, but also nobody wants to... It's very few New Year specials. Yeah. Did you used to watch a lot of the Christmas specials? Ah, I've seen them. I don't know that I would have watched them as of 1993, I would have been 12 at that point. Too old. I don't know, I might have, might have. Right. It's a weird age. It wouldn't have been a thing that I would have sought out. So you were up in Florida? Yeah. And you had cable, too, at this time. Yes. So you had more options. Are you an only child? No. Okay. My sister is two years younger than me, and my brother is nine years younger than me. Okay. So he would have been actually December 29th. The Wednesday here would have been his fourth birthday. So you might have got stuck watching some Christmas specials, though, with them. And if they were watching... It was stuck. I mean, yeah. Like I said, while in some cases, maybe stuck. Did you just have one TV? We did at that point, I believe. So you would have had to all... Like I feel... Agreed upon something. Like, later in my childhood, I had like a smaller TV in my room. Right. Right. Right. Like, but that would have been more like when I was 14 or 15. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. And so were you in one of the community Christmas specials? I was. You're in the Halloween ones. Yeah. I mean, at least one of the Halloween ones. I was in the Christmas one. Right. Because I wasn't in the Klamation one. Right. I wasn't in... I don't know what that the first one was. Yeah. But I wasn't in that. Yeah. So just how I went special. Which is still pretty good. Yeah. I think that was... Only in one Halloween special, actually. That's the one... The zombie one. Yeah. I was in like... They called me in for three days. I ended up being in like 12 frames. Yeah. But you got to work a pretty amazing costume. Yeah. Yeah. Zombie hamster. Zombie hamster. Human zombie hamster. I know that Garrett would have worn a hamster suit, but I guess they were... Yeah. That's what they thought. That's what they thought they would do. So no Christmas special, but hey. Someday. Yeah. So Saturday night at eight o'clock, what'd you go with? I went with what is probably a rerun of Star Trek Deep Space Nine. So you love Deep Space Nine? No. You're a Star Trek fan? No. I'm a big Star Trek fan. I feel like Deep Space Nine was where I kind of fell off it. You don't like Ferengis. I like Ferengis. Okay. I feel like there was like an ongoing storyline about this war. And it's like I could not... Isn't this thing? I don't really like stories of war. You know? Yeah. I'm not a big war guy. I hate war movies. Yeah. I don't... It's just so alien for my experience. And so... And I feel like it never really meshed with... The Star Trek thing. The character thing. Yeah. 'Cause the idea of Deep Space... I was never a huge Star Trek guy. Yeah. And it's really strange when the more of my friends that I do episodes of the show with, I'm finding out all of them like Star Trek the next generation and wrestling. Both of those... They all... They're half right here. Yeah. Deep Space 9 was the one Star Trek series I did kind of watch every now and then. Yeah. Because it found the premise interesting. It was a black hole basically that people used for like interstellar travel. Yeah. From home. Right. And it was like a port city basically. Yeah. It was kind of like the... It was like the docks. There were interesting things in the premise. I feel like I liked the first season. Right. I liked the second season. Okay. I wasn't crazy about the third season. I kind of fell off after that. I'm told it kind of came together later than that. I didn't even know it lasted that long. Seven years. Seven years really. At that point, yeah. I mean... I used to get it confused with not far escape, but what's the other show that was... It's not a Star Trek show. Babylon 5. Babylon 5. Babylon 5. And Deep Space 9. My mom watched, but I never did. Our long sci-fi syndicated shows with numbers in the title? Very confused. Although Blake 7 didn't fit into that mix for me. Wait. I don't know what that is. Blake 7's a British sci-fi series that actually wasn't that bad, but... So this says, "See Sunday 7 p.m. for details of Deep Space 9." So this particular episode... There's a lot of... There's a lot of Deep Space 9. There's a lot of Deep Space 9 that... Like one of these channel 54 in Baltimore/DC. Yep. Ran a lot of reruns. And they ran the Highlander of the series very frequently. But this particular episode, the crew of Deep Space 9 become resistance fighters. As the circle mounts an invasion of the station, Dax and Kira try to reach Bajor with proof of the conspiracy before Jarrow, played by Frank Langella, can take control. There you go. Frank Langella. Frank Langella. Skeletor. Skeletor himself from the Masters of the Universe movie. And he was also... I don't remember that episode. Yeah. So I guess I have to watch it. Yeah. I've watched it for the Frank Langella content. I'll be honest with you. I will watch him in most things. Except the box, which was terrible. A terrible Richard Matheson adaptation. Richard Kelly did a couple of years ago that they shot in Boston. Frank Langella has like a burned face or something in it. It's very weird. I don't know if I would have gone with Deep Space 9. I think I would have gone with either the real world, which I'm a huge fan of at this time. My mom also went with huge real world. I should hang with your mom. Yeah, I feel like this is just going to be the... You need to head down to Virginia. Yeah. Like just me and my mom. Just watching stuff we have the same taste in. Probably going to be even more Star Trek. Probably more than you. Probably. That's fine. So what are you going with that? Or more likely cops, which I watched every week. I still watch it every week. Never watched cops. Well, you lived in Florida. You probably saw it literally most episodes. That's not fair to Florida. But most episodes are in Florida. Yeah. To be fair. I don't know. People are always like weird things happen in Florida. But I feel like Florida is the place where weird things happen. But there are also people there who recognize that they're weird things. Yeah. They get more attention. I feel like if it was Alabama, for example, there would be weird things that people would see as normal. Yeah. Yeah. And those are the people that moved to Alabama instead of Florida's a little bit more cosmopolitan. I don't think anyone moves to Alabama. No. I don't think so. You can only move out of Alabama. Or be sentenced to be in Alabama. Yeah. Yeah. We're in Florida. Was it like North Carolina? Ah, near Cape Canaveral. Okay. Did you ever go to Space Camp? No. I toured the Space Center numerous times. So that was probably a very exciting thing for a lot of kids. For us it was just like on a fourth grade trip. We're going back to the space. There's nothing else to do. We go to the Space Center. We got to go see this thing that orbited around the earth. Was that the big school trip you would do? That was, yeah, that and then the next year it was usually Disney World. You would go to Disney World on a school trip? Yeah. Wow. It always seemed like a waste because we always had to leave it like four. Yeah. I've never been to Disney World. It's a half day. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. I had a bunch of friends when I went to Northeastern, which was a big mistake. They did a think of a co-op where you would work for six months and go to school for six months. And one of the people who was sort of a guidance counselor there had got kickbacks from Disney to get kids in the communication program to move to Disney and be like goofy. It's like job experience. But someone told me no one's ever been declared dead on Disney property. But that doesn't mean no one's died on Disney property. I don't know about that because that seems like not necessarily worth it. Well, it's not like from what I heard that too, but it's also like if somebody's sitting down in a restaurant and has like a heart attack. Yeah. No, nobody's gonna blame Disneyland because some guy. True. But if someone stands up on the Matterhorn and is beheaded. I don't know. The Matterhorn is that's mosey. That's true. What was the weirdest like local Disney rumor that would go around the schoolyard when you're like, we weren't that close to Disney. Right. But nothing. No, like weird rumors came around like my cousin went there once and, you know, goofy killed a guy. People feed kill the guy. Yeah. I think I think I'm going with that. That's the one you've heard. No, I never heard that. But let's say. Let's spread. Let's start spreading it. This is where this is round zero. Yes. Everyone heard an air first goofy killed a guy because he looked at Cinderella the wrong way. They wouldn't be in the same area. Well, they're not supposed to be because that sort of thing happens. Yeah, it was already a chaotic situation. Yeah. And then it got compounded by that. So 8/30, you don't have to watch anything because you're watching an hour long show. Yes. I probably would have gone with cops again, although the state was on. Was that a show that used to watch? No. No. And it's weird because my wife, I think we're just going to hear a lot of my mom, my wife. Right. Right. That's fine. Occasionally my sister. Yeah. I've since seen a few episodes of the state and liked it. Um, like, but it's, I mean, I feel like at that point, I was not into comedy. I didn't really follow comedy. And at this point, I have it on DVD. Right. Right. So you retroactively got into it, but you were not aware of it enough then. You didn't watch any comedy really? No sketches? No. I mean, some, a couple things. Yeah. Where you and you got into comedy then? Uh, 22. Really? Was that like? After I started doing comedy. That's when you got into it? Yeah. That's very weird. So it wouldn't like after I even met him. Yeah. I did not drop as a fan. Like when I was doing, like when I started doing stand up. Yeah. Like I had seen Bill Cosby himself. Yep. I had heard Woody Allen's comedy album. I was familiar with Stephen Wright. Right. There was a, uh, Robin Williams special that I taped when I was a kid. And I used to watch that. Oh, the HBO one. Yeah. The, I don't forget off the wall or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's Michael Jackson. But it was something along those. Yes. Robin Williams doing Michael Jackson. Probably. I don't remember it that clearly. It seems like he would have watched that. Um, so what was your impetus for doing stand up then? Um, basically. That stuff? The summer before we were my senior year of college. I spent two months making preparations to write a novel. Okay. And then I got a page and a half into the novel before I realized this. This is terrible. It's a terrible idea. I don't know how to write this. Right. Uh, so when I went back to school I realized I have to write something where I can know whether or not it's good. You needed that immediate response. In, within the first day. Right. Right. So, so I'm not wasting my time. Yeah. Not wasting my entire summer. So you got a new comedy through pure economy? Yeah. Pretty much. Interesting. I didn't want to, you know, spend two months planning a dystopian novel. About a bunch of students who were imprisoned for various reasons. Right. Which, if I had kept going with it, probably would have sold pretty well five years ago. I mean, that sounds like a sci-fi series. Yeah, I know. I could see a lot of young adult fiction. Absolutely. So nine o'clock would you go with? Nine o'clock through eleven o'clock I went with the NBA basketball, the Orlando Magic versus the Chicago Bulls. So you're a big basketball guy? I am. Really? Yeah. That surprises me. It surprises me too. Yeah. So you're watching all our sports at this time instead of coming? Yeah. I was, I was a pretty big, like I followed the magic. They were the local team. Right. Followed and this would have been like a beat. With Shaq on the magic? I think this would have been the second year Shaq was on the magic. Okay. That sounds like he's on a drug. Shaq's on the magic again. Yeah. Oh, Shaq. All that Shaq. See, were you really into Shaq? I mean, not as much. I mean, I feel like you didn't buy Shaq diesel or Shaq through the video game or. Shaq through. No, no. Didn't go see any of his films. Yeah, I didn't go see Kazam or steel. Azam or steel. Does he have any other? Probably. Blue Chepsy was pretty good. But that was a drama. It was pretty good. And that Fushnickin song was over there. Well, the Fushnickins was pretty. Yeah. I don't think it would be cause of Shaq, but it was a pretty good song. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Must buy Shaq. Yeah. Yeah. Can we rock? So would you go to games? No, no, I don't think I ever went to a magic game. Okay. Cause I didn't have a car. Yeah. I didn't have a car, but I feel like, I feel like I watched a lot of basketball, I think, just because it was something to do with my family and it was on TV. Right. And as we're seeing at this point. There's not a lot of other things. Not a lot of TV. Well, see, I would have gone with this thing called the Hollywood Fantasy Christmas. Cause this is actually a Christmas day. Yes, I would. And this is Patrick McNay, who's from John Steed from The Avengers. I would have to say, yeah. Who's a holiday celebrating from the back lots of Universal Studios in Hollywood and Florida. And guests include David Carradine and Rita Coolidge. I don't, I have a big notion who one of those people is. You don't know, I assume it's David Carradine. Yeah. Yeah. He's gone like Kung Fu. He wasn't Kung Fu. Yes. He's John Carradine's son and Robert Carradine from Revenge of the Nerds is his brother. Now which one of them was in Kill Bill? That's David Carradine. David Carradine. Yes, yes. He's now deceased. I'm familiar with him. Yeah. Rita Coolidge does not sound like somebody else. She's an actress. She used to put on albums as well. But I definitely would have gone with that. Or Nickelodeon had the Rugrats Christmas special. The Rugrats Christmas special. Didn't they also have a Hanukkah special? They did. Later they had a Hanukkah special. Cause Tommy Pickles is Jewish, I believe. Oh no, Tommy. The red headed one with the glasses. Chucky. Chucky was Jewish. Yeah. Yeah. Which was very unusual for that time. But I assume you had a lot of Jewish people in Florida. No. None really. I don't know. Actually. Maybe they're all in a window. Yeah. Now that I think about it. So I feel like the part of Florida we were in was like one third Floridians. One third like young families who had moved there from the north. From New York or Chicago or whatever. Because of the economy. And one third engineers from the nearby... The Space? The Space. Or we had a couple of other engineering firms. Which I assume were they all because they were going to be engineers in the area anyway. It's an engineering town. Yeah. Big on engineers. I think we had a Northrop Grumman plant. That sounds so evil. A couple of semi-conductor facilities. That kind of thing. That seems like ominous. Very ominous to me. But I'm just mistrusting of corporations generally. Yeah. And so you're not... Somebody's got to make the satellite conductors. That's true. That's true. I don't know what they do. But somebody's got to make them. And no one does full conductors. It's always just semi. I think you can't go all the way. I think that's... You can do full-sized conductors? Yeah. I think it's... It's not that they're... I think it's that they conduct... I don't know. At a certain temperature. I feel like I knew this when I was there. Was this a... Was this a module in school? I feel like today in semi-conductor a class we need to... No, no. I don't know. Well, there were a lot of kids you grew up with that just their... Their whole ambition was to just work at one of these plants. Oh, yeah. There were plenty of... I mean, I feel like most of the... Most of the kids I grew up with who had any ambition really were... Yeah, it was either scientific or in some cases medical. To just work there and work at one of these plants. Yeah. People were either going to become engineers or doctors. Right. Were you one of the few people that you grew up with that got out? I feel like a lot of them got out. Okay. We weren't in a bad part of the country. No, no, no, but it seems like a lot of people I know get like... But it wasn't part of the country where if you realized it wasn't a great part of the country you... You're out of there. Yeah, you would be able to leave and you probably did. Yeah. Yeah. I know an unusually high number of comedians from Florida who I didn't meet in Florida. Yeah. Like 10 or 20. Okay. I don't know that many at all. Yeah. And I'm from there. There's a few in Boston now but like Todd Barry's from Florida. Yeah. And Eric Andre. Yep. Eric Andre's from Florida. It's a bulk of a tone which is if you're talking about like retired people. Yeah. That's pretty much a giant retirement community. So you can imagine how well he went over there. Do you remember him from Boston? No. Yeah. He used to go to the Emerald Island. He had a little different time for me. It might have been a similar time because it was... I think it was like the year after I left. It might have been maybe. But you used to go to the Emerald Island, didn't you? Yeah. It was a little after. Yeah. That you went to the Emerald Island. Yeah. It was like condemned. Right? Yeah. So the Emerald Island was this in Dorchester, Massachusetts which is a pretty bad part of town. If you've seen Gone Baby Gone, that. And yeah. Where'd they go to and talk to that drug dealer guy. That's pretty much... I don't know why you're elaborate. Yeah. Okay. Yes. But more for the listener in case they've seen it. Yeah. If you ever feeling homesick for those days, Gone Baby Gone, it'll be just like the Emerald Island. But it was a bad part of town. And I remember, I think it was Shane Moss and Joe Lisk got mugged out in front of the open mic one night. Oh, wow. And, but everyone went every week. It was kind of a fun... We got free pizza. We got free pizza. Yeah. They were free pizza. Yeah. It was... They didn't have heat on that side of the building. No. It was freezing. Yeah. And it was next to a condemned old Bradley's department store. Yeah. I just remember, yeah. They didn't have heat. And most of the surfaces were just concrete. Yeah. Unpainted. Yeah. So, Eric used to go there. So, two hours from Florida. You and Eric Andre should have a sitcom. I have a tape of myself at the Emerald Isle from the first month I didn't stand up. Oh, really? Do you ever watch it? I... It's a VHS. I don't know. Like, I can't convert it. I could convert that for you. All right. I'll convert that for you. So, let's roll on to Sunday night, which you really had trouble with on Sunday. Yeah. Sunday... I mean, well, from 8 to 9, I have Star Trek in the next generation. So, that was a little bit easier. I've covered this already. Yeah. Like, that was the one I liked the most out of the Star Trek. Yeah. I wouldn't have gone with America's Funny Some videos, which again, I still watch and find very funny. I mean, at that point, I probably would have done that. It's... It's so funny. When I was... Maybe not when I was 12, but maybe when I was like 8 or 9. Yeah. Yeah. It's... It's still on the air. It's still on the air. It's still on the air, even with like YouTube. Yep. Yep. It's doing kind of the same thing. It's doing even better than YouTube, because now people can upload videos right to AFV. Oh, that's true. Money for it. I think they get like 50 or $100 for theirs. Internet videos, yeah. Yeah. So, in some ways, it was very ahead of its time. Yeah. I've sort of predicted the way that we consume that sort of stuff now. It's just like a lot of dogs falling off. Yup. Dogs hitting people in the groin. Yeah. Yup. Cats doing fun things. Oh. Again, a lot of things from Florida on this show. Yeah. So, that's an hour and an hour for me. So, at 9 o'clock, what would you go? Actually, I listed the state. So you did go with the state. We are in a compromise. We've given the episode from the night before. This is skits by the, you know what always bothers me? Skits. Skits. Yeah. Why don't people say skits? Nobody does skits. Nobody professional does skits. Skits is always what, like, your aunt that doesn't understand anything calls your stand up. Or, like, what a Cub Scout troop does like a camp hour. Right. We're doing a skit for the school graduation this year. Yeah. And you just recite these lines and everyone knows what it is, but it's not funny. Yeah. Like, it just tries me to say when I hear skits, and I'm like, "Just say, "Sketch." You know what doesn't make a difference, but it really bothers me. It's probably really bothered the state. It probably did. And this one, the New York-based comedy troop includes parodies of unplugged in the Free of Mine campaign. Uh, okay. Yeah. Sure it did. I'm, that seems like a thing that state would have done. Very manner, matter of fact. I don't know if that would have sold me on it necessarily. But I would have watched on the Discovery Channel, which is highly unusual. They were showing a great documentary that I actually saw in theaters called Comic Book Confidential, which I don't know if it was. I saw that. I didn't know what it was. And it's a very good documentary from about 1988. And they cover a lot of underground comics creators like the Hernandez Brothers do love and rockets, and Frank Miller. Yeah. And how do you keep the car? This sounds interesting. It's very interesting. I actually would highly recommend it now. There's a great DVD. Yeah. You can watch it online. But I would have gone with that. Fair enough. Yeah. So, Monday night, the saddest night of the week, as I always say, is a great documentary. I would have gone with that. Fair enough. Yeah. So, Monday night, the saddest night of the week, as I always say. And I think that you would agree with FaceTime. Yeah. I know. I made a brief effort. I was like, "I guess I'll just watch D Space Nine again." But then I didn't have anything for the second half. And I'm like, "That's not interesting." You know what? It's December 27. It's two days after Christmas. I'm probably not watching TV. You're playing Genesis. Yeah. Yeah. Did you have that game? No. I had that game and played it all the time. I don't know. Yeah. A Toe Jam and Earl was a big one. Toe Jam and Earl. I was a big fan of Toe Jam and Earl. Yeah. And you were a die-hard Sega guy, or would you? Well, I had a Sega, and we were not in a situation to own multiple systems. Right. I was a fan of that one. Yeah. I always found that that was like that you were either Super Nintendo or Sega. Yeah. I don't know that... We used to call it Super No Friendo. Ah. That's how Sega was. This was the you were in a Sega household? Yeah. You couldn't really make it into an insulting punk. Yeah. I don't know if that's possible. Let's go back to that now. Yeah. If someone has an insulting Sega Genesis pun, please email me at kennedy.com and we will see, we'll share it with a listener ship. And then we always had the weird kid who had TurboGrafx-16 and would insist that Bonk was a good game, but no. Bonk. I liked slaughterhouse. I remember Bonk from that, the Bonk's adventure from that day. Bonk's adventure. Nick Arcade. Yes. Nick Arcade. That was the only place you saw TurboGrafx-16 in the wild. Oh yeah, absolutely. Not a really. And they pushed and pushed and pushed. Although, sometimes, did you ever watch a show called Video Power? That does not happen. Johnny Arcade. Johnny Arcade. His real name was Stevie Paninsky. Why don't you go with that? Yeah. That's enough. That's a great stage name. Like, you know, Video Power was Stevie Paninsky is a show I would watch every day. Although people might tune in expecting polka. Yeah. I mean, it just sounds like a minor opponent from, like, the Mike Tyson's Punch-Out series. Yes. Some, like, very offensive, Polish stereotype. Oh. It's very soda-pupinsky. Yeah. Yeah. But it was a weekday show, Monday through Friday, every week, and it was this kid Johnny Arcade and he'd give you tips on video games, and then the second season was a rip-off of Nick Arcade. They switched it and also mixed it with Funhouse so you ran through and Velcroed video games to yourself. And then you had to play them? Then you won them. It was like a Super Tour-run kind of thing. Ah. Yeah. They shot a lot of that stuff in Florida because Nickelodeon Studios moved down there. I remember, yeah. I remember going to Universal Studios and seeing, like, I mean, not seeing as in, I was watching the taping but, like, seeing it was happening. Yeah. So you never saw them taping anything down there? No. You would go. No. I knew they were taping. They used to shoot Swamp Thing down there. The USA Network Swamp Thing. They used to shoot Superboy down there, which was not a great show. No. Very little loved. Many people don't cite that as a favorite. They taped Sequest DSV. Sequest DSV, which was airing this time and you did not pick. Jonathan Brandes? Yeah. My uncle. Like, I watched the first season of that and then I, my uncle was one of the people working on the dolphin. Oh, he was a dolphin trainer? No. No, the animatronic dolphin. Oh, really? And for whatever reason, once I found out the dolphin was animatronic. In most of the shots, they'd just turned me off the show. It ruined it. Yeah. When you thought it was a real dolphin. They're dubbing the voice in. Right. Right. But at least haven't been a real dolphin. Did you ever see Johnny Neumannic later where they have the dolphins and just be like, "Bull shit. This is, I got fooled by a mechanical dolphin." So Eric does not like... Aren't we all been fooled by a mechanical dolphin? Mechanical mammals, not a thing that Eric likes, or the Marilyn Manson record that you don't like either. Yeah. Also from Florida, Marilyn Manson. Yeah. There's a lot of stuff from Florida. I feel like when we look back at it, most of American culture comes in some way from Florida. You think so? Yeah. And is that, do you want to burn notice? No. It's great. It's filming Florida. Film in Florida. Film in Miami. Yep. Who's Campbell's in it? Oh, Miami's not Florida. Miami's not Florida. Miami's Miami. That's true. That's true. Was there rivalries between different cities in Florida? Like, if you're from Orlando and someone's from Miami, you'd be like, "Fuck you." I mean, I never went to Miami, like I lived in Florida for 10 years. You still never been there? No. You've never been there. I've been to Fort Lauderdale a couple times. For spring break? To party? No. No. Once. Because my junior high school video production class got an award. Oh, that's a pretty good. And ceremony was down there. That's a party. And once because I was going on a cruise that departed from Fort Lauderdale. Okay. So there's no spring break. No spring? No. I'm very pale. So am I. If someone, if I ever committed a crime... I'm not pale. Well, I've been walking around in LA for like three days, so I've got a little bit of time. Well, I've been here for 10 years. Well, you're going to live longer than me. But if I ever committed a crime instead of sending me to jail, they could just send me to spring break in Fort Lauderdale and it would be so much worse of a sentence. It would be the worst place for me to be dropped into. Absolutely awful. So you couldn't pick any? There was nothing at eight o'clock that did it for you. No. No. You never liked Fresh Prince? I wouldn't watch it now, probably. There's a new show that debuts this night called Success Stories. And in this episode, Bruce Jenner hosts this pilot for a possible series that profiles people who've achieved wealth in fame. Might I put that host this pilot for a possible series? Which means never going to happen. On December 27. Yes. Never going to happen. That should just say host this failure we're burning off when no one will watch it so we can do a minimum amount of money lost. I would have gone with a movie, Vice Versa. What's that? So I would have thought, I would have turned it on. It's on Comedy Central. I would have thought this has to be the Vice Versa with Fred Savage and Judge Reinhold where they switch bodies. But it's actually the 1948 British, Peter Eustinoff, Tom Foolery play and I would have been very disappointed but it probably would have taken me a good hour to figure that out. I would have been like, where is Fred Savage? This was at Comedy Central. On Comedy Central, they're showing a movie from 1948. 1948. Yeah. British. Yeah. Black and white British comedy from 1948. You would never have that to know. No. No. I would. I do too. We should write them some letters. And so, a 30. 1940s British. More. More. This is what we want. There's a running reruns of community. Right? Is Comedy Central doing? Comedy Central is running reruns of community. I feel like they were doing an hour at 7 o'clock for a while. Right. But now it's just like 1, like 4.30 a.m. Do you get recognized from community? Not that much. I feel like just because I'm in LA, when I leave the city I get recognized more. Really. Like in LA, maybe people recognize me, but they just kind of know, all right, this is LA. You don't say anything. Yeah. People come up to turn around and so the entire cast of everyone from everything. Yeah. Do people, so people come up to you when you're outside of LA? Oh yeah. You get it. I don't know. I did a comedy festival in Austin a few weeks ago. Yeah. The moon tower. Yeah. It was great. I really liked it. And I feel like I was recognized, like, I was recognized, or at least people said they recognize me as much in four days as they did in four years out here. Out here. Unfortunately, half of the people in Austin said, "Hey, I like you on community." Right. They proceeded to follow that up with, "I didn't know you did stand up." Oh. But that's kind of good though. So that's how my career is going. Right. But I mean, obviously, that's way more high profile, I guess, but you've been on Conan. I mean, you've done stand up and pretty high profile places. Yeah, I've done some stand up. Yeah. That's what I actually do. Yeah, that's like the real you and this other thing is sort of a lark to the degree. Yeah. And do you get fan mail? No. You don't. I've never gotten fan mail. I've never gotten fan mail. I feel like people just, you know, get in touch with you on Facebook at this point or Twitter. Right. I don't know that fan mail is-- But I mean, I guess that counts as fan mail, so you've got like Facebook and Twitter fan mail. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's like a week. You did. Did you do a convention? Was there like a community fan convention? What was that like? It was weird. It's fun. I've done it twice. There's been two of them. Just like a lot of-- and I can't tell how many of them are like obsessive community fans that have traveled from out of town. Right. And how many of them are just like, hey, I like community. This is going on. Why not? In LA anyway. Yeah. Because I go-- well, not so much anymore, but I used to go to a lot of those fan type conventions. I can't imagine what it's like to be like on the other side of it. Yeah. It's interesting because I feel like I-- for the next time I did it, I had a cold. So I was-- like, they did a panel with like me and the guy who played that meal and Vicki and a few of the other recurring characters. Right. And after that, everyone wanted me to sign a thing. You know, they've got their programs and their t-shirts and what have you. Right. And they're just like, I have a cold. I need to get out of here. Yeah. Yeah. So I signed like 100 things. And I'm sure a lot of the people went home and were sick for the next week. Well, you spread-- I feel bad. But that's the best way to interact with your favorite celebrity is to have a germ that was inside their body, Eric. So really, you gave them a gift that-- I don't think I have any good favorite celebrity. Did you-- Maybe my wife. Maybe my wife's favorite celebrity. Did she make you sign autographs every night? No. She says eight by 10s and be like, yeah. Wonderful dinner, honey. Please sign this. Do you have pictures of us in this house? There really isn't. I noticed that. It always seemed like a weird costume to me. To put pictures of yourself in there? Yes. Because it's like, you're already there. You don't need a picture of anyone who's going to be there on a regular basis. You know what I think it's for? If people break in, so they'll feel bad. Like if they break in here and they have no pictures of you, they'll just picture you as like some awful asshole. And they'll be like, you know what? You deserves this. But if you put like a really sweet photo of yourself, they'll come in and they'll think twice. I think that's what the branch is for. There's a branch about the TV with tassel paint from us. So you think that will make the discouraged people? I think maybe it'll confuse them? That's a good idea. Look, I'm not sure what that's about. At the very least, you could use it to defend yourself. Yeah. If I just come in like when tassel's flying everywhere. So when you first did your first episode of Community, how did that hold up to what you thought a TV set would be like growing up, watching TV? Kind of the same. Yeah, because it shot more like a movie anyway, right? Yeah. We did a lot of takes. We had to do it from different angles. I was surprised at the different angles. Right. I did not realistically speaking, you know, going back to it and thinking, oh, that's what that is. That's what that is. Right. You know, you have to do it from the, but. It seems so mechanical, sort of. Well, I had done some internet videos and I was glad that they had multiple cameras. Right. So I was able to get three angles at once or three, as opposed to, I mean, that's always difficult, especially if you're at living to have one camera, because you have to recreate what? The exact shot of commercial this week. And it was a 30 second spot. All dialogue took eight hours because they had to, like they had a bunch of alternate line readings that they wanted to go through. Right. Right. Right. And they had to get those from all the different angles. Geez. It kind of takes the magic out of television a little bit, I imagine, when you just see the, just the, the bear, just the work of it. Oh, yeah. Like, I, I launched things and it's like, I, I enjoy community a lot. Right. So you can, you can still watch it and not be taken out of it when you see yourself. Oh, yeah. Certainly. I mean, especially the episodes I wasn't in. Right. But I mean, I feel like I'm watching it and I'm like, oh, they use that take. Right. I didn't like that take. Right. I don't like the take they choose if there are like multiple dialogue options. I find they always pick the one I like least. Right. Right. Because your tastes are just different. Yeah. Do you ever, do you ever improv on that show? Or you just, I feel like they don't in general because they, or didn't I get a tight shooting schedule problem. Yeah. They've got a very tight shooting schedule to begin with with all the, the effects and whatnot. Right. Right. And see you on it because it's, I really like that show and I think you're great on it. It's, it's hilarious. But when, you know, because we know each other from stand up ages ago and started in Boston together. So, you know, I'm watching the show and seven of your face is floating on my screen yelling crisis. It's really weird. You know, it's, it takes me, it's great. But I'm like, this is, this is not, most people don't. Okay. Jeff is talking to. And then the Dean runs in. Oh, wait, there's Eric. Yeah. Exactly. And a lot of people we know show up in commercials and things like that. Yeah. Rachel and my wife were watching me and I'm like, it's not normal for people to see people they know on television frequently. And it sort of takes us out of it. I mean, it's cool. But, you know, like Mike Sherman's in a bunch of commercials and we're still not met. Oh, you know Mike Sherman? Oh, I think he started after you left. That's right. Yeah. I'm one of those guys. Look, I did like three years after I, three years after I left less than two, you know, two and a half years after I left Boston. I did the Aspen Comedy Festival. Yes. Yeah. And the representatives from Boston that year were Shane Moss and Dan Bolder. Yep. And Chris Fleming. Yeah. None of whom I had met. Right. And Chris lives out here now. Chris lives out here now. Shane lives out here now. Nobody knows what happened to Dan Bolder. Bolder is still in Boston. He's still in Boston. He was actually, he was. When did he just do? Like Ferguson. Yeah. But he came out here for the day. Right. He lives in Boston. Yeah. I mean, he's a great example of someone. Is he core? I mean, Tim Bolder is incredibly funny, but he's a difficult kid to figure out. Yeah. And he won the Boston Comedy Festival when he was 19, I think. Yeah. And he's done a, you know, he's gone. So funny. Yeah. Like, yeah, that's like the only time I've actually seen him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, I think I saw him when I was in Boston in 2009. Nobody needs to know this. Yeah. No, we can cut this out. But Eric and I were talking earlier about how I can't believe, you know, he's been out here for almost 10 years. And I feel like it hasn't been that long, but you know, it really has. So Monday night, nine o'clock, you weren't with nothing. Nothing. Murphy Brown, you weren't a fan? Really? You really didn't like Murphy Brown. I just feel like it, I, I feel like Murphy Brown was seen as like cutting edge at that point. And it's like, you was back at it. It's like, it's so, like, it's so funny, you know, it wasn't necessarily cutting edge. I think a lot of the thing was because of the game. She was a single mom. She was a single mom. I think because of the Dan Quayle stuff, which had nothing to do with the show. It was really Dan Quayle's fault for making the show a thing. Like giving it some juju in the media. But it was a well-written, fun show. I don't know. Like, I feel like it only, like, I've got a lot of issues with political comedy. Okay. But I feel like I have more issues with like political comedy that tries not to be political. It tries to be, it's set in that environment, but doesn't have a strong viewpoint. It's just like, where we're doing something because, look, it's the president, right? Oh, well, it's over the Congress. But they don't want to piss anyone off. Yeah. But they don't want to, you know, they don't want to have any of the political characters on the show actually have the political opinions that would necessarily be the reason why they're politicians in the first place. That's what politics are. So you're kind of like, "Why aren't they discussing any issues?" Right. You're kind of like, "Oh, nothing. You're like, if you're going to do it, do it. If you're not going to do it, don't bother." Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough. I enjoyed the show. I would have watched it at this time. I watched Bob, which was the 1990s Bob Newhart show, where he was a comic book artist. Yeah. Which I like. It's running against a rerun of the Bob Newhart show on Nickelodeon. Yes. What a Sophie's Choice. A real generational, uh, defining... I imagine Bob Newhart just looked at the ratings for like the Nickelodeon reruns and it's like... That beat... We could have had them. I beat myself. Me, 20 years ago. It's like John Fogarty getting sued for ripping himself off. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, this one has a guest starring role by Jerry Burns, who is an actor from Cambridge, Massachusetts, who is on "Dear John" as Kirk. All right. Do you remember that? I don't remember that. What were your favorite, if you think back of your favorite sitcoms growing up? What... Or like a couple that come to mind? Uh, "Taxi." Really? Yeah. I was a big "Taxi" fan. A very morose show. Yeah. But in a great way. Yeah. It's for "Sombre" a sad show. Yeah. But I mean, it's... And that's a weird thing. It's like a... Yeah, it's got a "Sombre" undertone. It's like over-the-top characters. Yeah. I mean, like a... You know, Reverend Jim. Yeah. That's true. It wasn't. It was... It was sort of a mixture of big and heart... Yeah, yeah. ...like just like sad people. And I feel like kind of like, kind of the root of the modern sitcom. Yeah. No, I would absolutely agree. I mean, even just the pedigree of people who left from that show to create, you know, cheers and all those kind of shows. Yeah. I mean, obviously, you know, if you start with... I mean, cheers being the start of a lot of things that... Yeah. That was kind of the start of cheers. Yeah. I've never met. I've literally never met anyone who didn't like cheers. I... Yeah. I don't think so. Nobody. Nobody... Yeah. People who are like, "I hate everything." And I'll be like, "Cheers." No, like, "Cheers." It's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. Nobody doesn't like cheers. Even Kim Jong-il. There's no cheers on the... There were no cheers on the... Fair enough. Tuesday night, 8 o'clock. I'm guessing you're a huge full-house fan. I'm being sarcastic, of course. Fortunately, Tuesday, 8 o'clock afforded me a cop-out. Comedy Central is screening Monty Python in the Holy Grail. Yes. And you're a Monty Python fan? Oh, yeah. But a latecomer to Monty Python. No. Okay. So you did watch that sketch coming, right? Yeah. No. I mean, that was... I mean, I was a nerd. That was a thing hanging around. Can you pick it up? Can you pick it up? Yeah. Came with the card you got. Yeah. Is that your favorite Monty Python movie? Ah! You see, I almost like the TV show a little better than the movies. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I like Life of Brian. Like, I appreciate that Life of Brian is a little more cohesive. Right. Right. Yeah. The Holy Grail is definitely a sketch movie. Yeah. But this is great. Yeah. Like, I really... It really is always bothered me. They... Like, I know the joke is that they didn't have an ending for Holy Grail. Right. But... They could have had an ending. They could have had an ending. Like, you know, it can be ridiculous, but at least make it an ending. Yeah. And put some work into it, Monty Python. Yeah. Lazy asses. Ah. So that's not a bad choice. I probably normally would have gone with Full House, although this is a repeat. Really? Yeah. I was still watching it at this time. Really? Yeah. You're older than me, right? Um, I'm a couple of years. Maybe a year older than you. I'm 33. Ah, we're about 33. Nevermind. Yeah. They're the same age. Yeah. Full? Everyone thinks I'm older than them. I don't know why that is. I... I just... You just seem like the kind of person who started comedy later in life. Oh. Okay. That's why I'll take that as a compliment. For a number of years. Yeah. But you were a teenager at that. Yeah. But I was a teenager. I always figured like you were in a band until you were like 25, 27 and then started comedy. Yeah. No, I was like 14. And then we stopped when I was like 19. You see? I don't know any of that. I lived a... I lived an old man's life at that time. Yeah. But that night we also had a Rescue 911 episode which is one of the funniest shows ever. If you remember that show... You just like transcripts of like... Yes. It's real 911 calls hosted by William Shatner and reenacted by actors. Which sounds like an adult swim show. Like if you pitch that now as an adult swim show with comedians reenacting real 911 calls with William Shatner, it would be huge. I found the film off the roof. Yes. This one. I found the roof. Oh, my favorite one and I've mentioned on the podcast before was in Florida, sorry. This kid was sitting on his bed with an M80 and he was just running the fuse through a lighter back and forth for something to do and an M80 fuse are made to be able to explode under water. So they don't go out. So he tried to stub it out in the carpet and blew his hand off and the phone call was the real call this kid going, "I done blown my hand off. I blown off with some boom." He was calling it boom. It was... Well in all fairness he had just had his hand blown off. He did. But just this... And then this bad actor was acting that out while this real call was on. And you know, it was... It just seems kind of like exploitative. Yeah. Unnecessary. I mean... Yeah. But as from last season, a Pennsylvania girl who was hit by a car while bicycling, not that funny, a girl in Tennessee who was struck by a school bus, also not that funny. But here's the one that would get me. A toddler in Oregon who fell into a bucket of cleaning solution. Oh. That... Oh. I don't know why that's... I'm sure it was probably blinded. But they just... If we could see the radio and I would be like a bad dummy. I know. It's like a bad dummy. Legs in this bucket of cleaning solution. It's... William Shatner. I mean, you can't get. It's funny. Yeah. 930 what are we going with? Nothing. Because you're still watching Money Python. Yeah. But you passed over Roseanne. I feel like I've passed over Roseanne in general. You still don't like it. Like I never watched it. Really? It's such a great show. I've never... It might be. I don't know where I would see it. I don't know. I think you'd like it. It's a very good blue color show. It's very funny. It has a real heart to it. I wasn't necessarily... Like I feel like there was something weirdly adult about it that I wasn't comfortable with at the time. Yeah. I mean, it was a lot of talk about struggle and can we pair a mortgage and we lost our business. Yeah. But it was a real... It was a great depiction of a real family to me. Like their... Yeah. That's what I heard. And it's like, it's a thing where, you know, now that I'm not 12. Right. You can handle it. Yeah. Did you have a... Did you have a weak constitution at that age? Oh, yeah. I mean, I did not swear until I was 17. What's first where you said? Damn. Yeah. What was the situation? Uh, just like a... Some... Some of the... Kids. You swore at them? Yeah. Which is like, damn you, kids. Wow. It wasn't like some girl walk by and you were like, damn. Oh, no. I wish it was that. That wouldn't come to build the next year. Okay. So you said, damn, to some kids. Was your family very strict? No. I mean, they didn't swear much, but they were... I mean, they weren't strict. I mean, this was mostly me. This was... My family swears like sailors, and I almost never swear. I swear much more now than I did growing up. Oh, yeah. Well, I swear much more now than I did growing up, but that's like, any swearing. Right, right, right. Did they ever restrict what you could watch? Um... I feel like there were... I was discouraged from watching certain things. Was there one in particular that sticks out that you really wanted to watch and they said no? No. I mean, I didn't really want to watch any of it. Like, of the things they didn't... Of the things they kind of disapproved of, I mean, I feel like the only one that I later watched and enjoyed was The Simpsons. They disapproved of The Simpsons. Yeah. What was their... What was their issue with it? We never went into much detail because I didn't press them on it. Yeah. I mean, so, weirdly, a lot of people have done the show. I've heard that from them. Their parents would not let them watch The Simpsons, which for probably younger listeners seems crazy. Yeah. Because it's such an institution and seems very harmless. But when it first came out, the parents thought it was very severe. You seem like the first season, like, "Okay, where is this going?" Yeah. It was... They really... A lot of the media played up the angle of, like, these kids talking back to their parents and being very disrespectful. Yeah. And it was sort of a controversial show. More slapstick stuff. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Allow for... You know, at that point, I mean, were there any, like, adult sitcoms that were animated? There were some attempts. There had been many before that. Yeah. But at an '89, there was Family Dog, which was Tim Burton's animated sitcom. That was like six episodes, right? That was a huge failure. And in the wake of The Simpsons, we got some, but... Oh, in the wake of The Simpsons, there was a ton. But I think what I think was before The Simpsons was Fish Police. Fish Police was after The Simpsons. Was it after? It was one of those... We find very capital entrepreneurs and whatnot. Right. So they must have been all after. I mean, probably the last one I can think of before The Simpsons was Wait 'til Your Father Gets Home, which was... That's like the early 70s. Yeah, early 70s. Yeah. I can't think of anyone in the early... That's kind of... Yeah. It was like The Duck Factory. The Duck Factory. Which was a Jim Carrey show where he worked at an animation studio. It was the first... Did it put Jim Carrey like pre- and living color? Pre-once bitten. Yeah. It was like 1983. So pre-Earth girls are easy? Pre-Earth girls are easy. It was when Earth girls were hard. And it was him working at this animation studio and half the show was animated and half was the sitcom. But other than that, yeah, I can't really think of anything at all. So The Simpsons really did change everything. But it's funny that your parents... Yeah. Did your parents watch community? Yeah. Did they have any issues with it? No. I mean, they... They never had issues. I mean, I think it's like they were like, "We're worried about the kids." Everybody's saying, "Don't let your kids watch this so we're not going to let our kids watch this kind of thing." I don't even know if everyone... Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. It's that damn medium. I mean, I feel like there were some things that like my parents, you know, disapproved of just cause they didn't... They were like... They hated Pee Wee Herman. Really? Did you like Pee Wee Herman? No. Oh, I see I loved him. I can't stand him. He didn't like big adventure. He didn't watch... No, I just... It's the voice of the mannerisms. It's like... Too much for it. Yeah, this is like, "Ah, so grating to me." Interesting. See, you parents just didn't... And I know that's not a popular opinion. I mean, it may not be, but... Yeah. Yeah. Wow, that does surprise me, I will say. Yeah. So at 9.30, I would have gone with shock video on HBO, which was examining the growing use of home video equipment and its impact on personal privacy, including home video footage comments from TV Guide Editor-in-Chief Anitha Disney and author Alvin Toffler. Sounds interesting. I'd watch that now. I feel like that you... I might watch that now if only to be like, "Oh God, 20 years ago, what were they worried about you?" Right. Or like, "Wow, they were right." So Wednesday night, 8 o'clock... There is going to be a cat falling off a television. Yes. Really? What's gonna happen? What'd you go with at Wednesday? I went with these days night again. It was a rough hour. Yeah. Rough hour. I don't have anything to say about it. I'm sorry. I went with it. It's fine. You don't like Unsolved Mysteries? No. 'Cause this is... Stuff creeped me out. Really? Do you believe in UFOs? No, I believe in none of it. But it still creeps you out. Well, I mean, is it... Was it all UFOs or something? A lot of it was real crime. A lot of it was not true crime stuff. It's always... Yeah. I don't need to hear about murderers and their murders. Yeah. That freaked me out at the time as well. This one's about... UFO stuff just makes me angry. So this one is a pilot's disappearance after a reported sighting of a UFO as he flew between Australia and Tasmania. Also, the search for a car thief who shot and paralyzed an orange California man in 1991. From Orange that not the man wasn't orange. He wasn't a good one for that shot. Yeah. Is that Orange County or Orange? It just says Orange. That might be Orange, the city in Orange County, California. It could be. Yeah. Yeah. I assume. I wonder if I ever found that guy. No. I mean, that is weird to me. It was like, on the one hand, we're trying to sell you on evidence of extraterrestrial life. Right. On the other hand, here's some guy who shot a cop. Which is a real thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's a real thing. But also, if you're convinced that the first part is also a real thing... Well, it adds some legitimacy to the silly stuff. That's what they did. They were like... I can see that. Yeah. But if you were really convinced, wouldn't the fact that there were aliens kind of really... No offense to the cop. Right. Do you want to trivialize that man's plight? Yeah. It either trivializes the cop or it trivializes the UFO. It's like, "Look, I'm sorry this cop got shot, but did you know there are aliens? Because this is a bigger deal." It's kind of like what cops do. It's one of their things. Right. And you're like, "Maybe if we could enlist the aliens help, they'd have some sort of technology that could help us find this person." So why don't we focus on that? Yeah. Fair enough. So you went with that again. So I would go with the hour of that. So nine o'clock Wednesday night, what are you going with? I said dragnet. Dragnet was a great show. Yeah. It was kind of a law and order of its era. Yeah, absolutely. It was on for 12 years. I think it was on longer than that. I think it was on like 20 years. It may have been. I think it was on and then it was off and then it was on again and it was a radio show before that. Yeah, and there are definitely 60s episodes that are in full color like late 60s with a busting hippies or a LSD and all kinds of stuff. Did you see the movie? The dragnet movie with Tom Hanks. With that. Yeah. It was a pretty great movie. When I was around this age. Yeah, it's a great movie. And it's always weird to me like remakes of TV shows and as movies, remakes of TV shows and movies that kind of like come far enough after the TV show to recognize what was ridiculous about it. Right. Right. Which dragnet does and I think the Brady Bunch movies do beautifully but are still sort of a loving tribute to them. They're not just like a hateful parody. Yeah. So it's like, wait a minute, there's something about self-awareness that unsettles me. You don't like that. I don't dislike it necessarily. But does it take you out of the story or it makes it out of shape? It kind of takes me out of yeah, I mean like the fact that this is self-consciously but not only fiction but fiction that recognizes its own weaknesses as fiction. Right. Right. So I can see that being an issue where I have a big issue when bands do songs about being in a band. So about being on the road or my biggest pick peeves when they're singing a song they're like, that's why I wrote you this song or something like that and it just takes me out of it. It's like if you're watching a TV show and one of the characters turned to the screen and they said, well that's why we're making this show. You know, it's almost like you're just like, no, why have you, don't look at me. You know, it's like looking at your soul while you're doing this thing and it totally takes you out of it. I can sympathize with that. Absolutely. We're making a point about racism. Yes. Did you get it? You know, I probably wouldn't have gotten a drag nap but I don't think that's a bad choice. At the time I think I probably would have gone with Time Tracks which was a syndicated sci-fi show that was basically a rip off of Time Cop, the Jean Claude Van Dam movie. Let me guess. Time Tracks did not have Jean Claude Van Dam. No, no. It was another large Belgian man. It was not a great show. It was very cyberpunk that show as 1993 thought. That was when that started filtering into- Oh yes. Into the minds of people who didn't necessarily understand what it was. Yeah, you had the movie Hackers and Billy Idol actually put out an album called Cyberpunk that came with a floppy disk. I heard that. It was terrible. There was a decent song in there called Shock to the System. That was the single. I don't remember that one. It's a pretty generic Billy Idol song. It's almost like Billy Idol on numbers. It's like Shock to the System. All right. So Thursday night. All right. Thursday. Where December 30th, eight o'clock we had a disagreement about this already but you're going with the Simpsons. You're going to- What's the episode of the Simpsons? So this is a repeat. There's flashbacks till the rise and fall of the Fad 4, Homer, Appu, Principal Skinnier, Skinnen Barney who hit the heights of musical success. Be sure. Yeah, the beat shows. This is a really good one and David Crosby and George Harrison are voices on this one. This is a classic from the first few seasons of this show. Yeah. However. Okay. I love Mad About You. And it's a funny show. It's a great show. It's an underrated great show. If I had to go with the three best sitcoms of the 90s in America, discounting the Simpsons as it's important. Okay. I'm going with Mad About You and I'm going news radio and I'm going with Wings. Wings? Yeah. Really loved Wings. Okay. If you like Cheers, you should like Wings. I feel like, I don't know, maybe I should give it another shot. So you just do not like Paul Reiser? I'm not a huge Paul Reiser fan. I feel like maybe I didn't see him in his prime. Okay. Fair enough. But this show, it was great. It was a screwball-y but had great dialogue and it was all character comedy. I feel like it's one of those things where it's, there were a lot of good shows on NBC and I feel like some of them kind of got swept under the rug from not being the biggest ones. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, I think Mad About You is a million times better than friends. Well, friends wasn't on at this point, right? No, no. It started the next year. Well, I wouldn't have watched that. Yeah. And I actually find, and this is sacrilege for many people, that Mad About You to Me holds up better than Seinfeld. It seems less dated. Huh. I haven't seen Seinfeld in 10 years, so I can't argue with that. I love Seinfeld when I was on and when I try to re-watch it, I'm just like, hmm, something is missing. And when I re-watch Mad About You, which I still will re-watch, I really enjoy it. I mean, I feel like I haven't been to many shows about a married couple without kids. No. They don't have kids, right? Yeah. They don't have kids. They just live in New York. Or if there is a show-- What's your show? Because that's the most popular thing. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And this was a show where they were pretty evenly matched. It wasn't like some fat guy with like a supermodel wife, like a lot of them are. Or there wasn't like that conceit of like, well, if their mother lives with them, you know, or some crazy thing like that, it was just-- This happens. Yeah, that happens. But it was just like, you know, it's just they're married and they have jobs and that's it. They have jobs and I mean, probably, I mean now. That's a hard thing to pull off because you don't have this sort of high concept gimmick. Yeah. Like you have like these two characters both have to work because they're the only income. And they're the only-- no, I would just say they're the only thing the show is based on-- Right, exactly. They have to be well-formed characters. I guess not like an ensemble workplace comedy where you can have the dumb guy. You can have the dumb guy. The six people at the wall and bike four of them are okay and the two of them kind of gradually take lesser roles. Right, exactly. And then they've got a recurring guy who will become popular. Right, right. Exactly. I mean, that's what the formula kind of was and this show managed to be very good without fond back on that. Did they have any other regulars? They did. So they had a couple of friends and their siblings would pop up every now and then. But for the most part, and they did have a great supporting character cast like Richard Kind and Hank Azaria and he was on that show. It's always weird to me how people on the Simpsons also do other things sometimes. Yeah, it's weird when you see them on things. I mean, Hank Azaria was also on Herman's head before that. And so was-- Yardley Smith was on her head as well. Yeah. Who just has that voice? Yeah. Which is-- I imagine convenience, but also-- Well, so does Nancy Cartwright. I mean, she was in the Twilight Zone movie. Do you remember her segment from that? Exactly. And she-- and it's terrifying to hear Bart's voice coming out of this woman in the Twilight Zone movie. It adds a whole extra level. Yeah. Because that specific segment's also about cartoons and TV. And so it's very, very creepy. Yeah. And that's an extra level of creepy. It's just like, I can't imagine like never being able to not be Elisa Simpson. Yeah, you can't shut it off. It's probably a noise to you. And you're that. Yeah. No, I would imagine that would be pretty terrifying. I've done some voice acting auditions. I've never gotten a role, but it's like I've always tried to do something at least adjacent to my voice. Right. Right. So that it's not your exact voice. So that it's not just my voice coming out of this cartoon giraffe or something? I invited myself to the Aspen Comedy Festival to Wall's Brothers in 2006. And Brian Henson was there because they were doing this dirty muppet improv. And Brian Henson's speaking voice is identical to Hoggle in Labyrinth. He voiced Hoggle. And that's basically his speaking voice. It's the closest voice he does to his speaking voice. So it's standing behind him in line ordering food. And I just am like, did Hoggle just order a green chili suit? Like it was really weird. And like now these two that I feel bad for this guy. It's a lot like you seeing me on community. Exactly. Hey, there's Eric. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I was like, what's up set? Hoggle's ordering. Yeah. Not at the sound stage. Yeah. I need to find out. I have traded plastic for David Bowie's location. Yeah. I mean, the one episode that aside from the crisis one that really sticks out in my mind too has just sort of being just very surreal. And I imagine extremely, probably more weird for you is the Dungeons & Dragons one where you know the scene with Chevy Chase. Oh, yeah. No, I'm just delivering Chevy Chase's. I mean, those books were actually Dan Harmon's Dungeons & Dragons books. Really? Did we see like hovering over you like don't? He was never on set because in the, you know, in the writer's room probably sleeping. Right. So you could have done whatever you wanted to those and you'd never know. Oh, yeah. And I had some of those. So I was like, oh, I had this one and this one and I always wanted to see this one. That's pretty cool. Yeah. So, but I mean, how weird was it? Did you watch Chevy Chase growing up? Like were you a Fletch fan? Or that? That's somewhat familiar with Chevy Chase. I feel like, I mean, of the, I feel like of the major like post Saturday night live actors that are, he did the fewest things you like that I was going to say the fewest like family movies. Yeah. And did you only pretty much watch family movies? Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I don't know. I don't know what the first R-rated movie was that I watched. Really? But it was pretty late. Wow. Yeah. Wow. It was pretty late. So you, so you're watching Ghostbusters and this was, yeah, I watched Ghostbusters and we're getting to that. Yeah. Um, we, yeah, but it was, he was doing a lot of R-rated comedies and you just weren't familiar with this world. Yeah. And this was, you know, this was me. This wasn't necessarily my parents. Right. Um, like it was my parents for a while and then later it was me. Because you taste just wasn't that, would something just too crude for you or you're just gonna- I was worried. I was worried. And then later I was like, yeah, this is okay. Do you gonna get in trouble or that? No, that I was, that I, that it was going to be upsetting to me. Really? Yeah. Do you remember something you saw on TV like accidentally that really upset you? Ah, I saw an episode of Tales from the Crypt once. Do you remember what episode it was? I don't remember. Like I just remember, I saw it from the last scene, which was like a, like a beauty pageant, but it was like an autopsy. Yes. Yes. Lea Thompson is in that episode. Yeah. And it's a miss, it's a miss autopsy pageant. And she does. So the, the plot of that episode- So I only saw the last two minutes and it was like, oh God, you did not want to see that last two minutes. Well, that's always the big reveal. I mean, they're, they're all Henry twists at the end. So that's going to be the most gruesome moment. But the plot of that tale from the Crypt is that, uh, she's in this beauty pageant and she murders some of her opponents to win this beauty pageant. Yeah. And then it turns out that winning means they kill you and make you into an autopsy, uh, model. That doesn't seem like, you'd think that would be something they would reveal before the competition. Yeah, you would think so. But they're all based on comics written in the 50s, you know, in the simpler times. I love Tales from the Crypt. I was watching that. So was my wife. I was like all the DVDs. Yeah. They're great. They're great. I, I'm not, I'm not going near that. You don't like horror or you're squeamish. I don't like horror. I feel like I can just about handle the Twilight Zone. Okay. And that's as far as I'm, you know, comfortable. I imagine you probably can handle the Twilight Zone because it's been sort of softened for you by the Simpsons, who reference pretty much every Twilight Zone. It's a lack of blood. Like, I feel like even fake blood really bothers me. Really? So you're, you're very squeamish about actual physical gore. Yeah. Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. Um, and so you didn't really, we're going to go out into the comedies hard, I didn't really do anything for you. So you just watched your family movies at the same time. I'm just watching, yeah, science fiction and sports and what was your favorite movie as a kid? Can we go back to that? I don't know. Yeah. I don't have one. I don't think I have. Goonies. No, I never saw that. You've still never seen the Goonies? Wow. Eric, we'll have to do a screen of notes. Um, like I'm, I like the Ghostbusters. Fair enough. Fair enough. I think the Ghostbusters Star Wars. Have you been to the Millennium Buildmore downtown? No. That's where they film the Slimer scenes. I know. I should. It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool to go in there. Like we always say like we're going to go to that in the Bradbury building. Yeah. Oh, they're right near each other. Yeah. Well, obviously I've been downtown a lot. You should go to, it's just really cool to go in like a, if you're a Blade Runner fan. I don't know if you. I'm not familiar with Blade Runner. Um, you should rent Blade Runner. It's a great movie. I feel there was a point where I had to decide whether I would like, I really, like, I was a very stubborn child. I avoided listening to any music with lyrics. With lyrics? Oh, with lyrics. Can you listen to classical music? Yeah. Interesting. Pretty much exclusively. You love all this Costello. This is later. Okay. This is later. When I was in, when I was in high school, when I was in college, I kind of decided, "Alright, I, you know, I've been very stubborn about popular culture in general." Right. Were you snobby about it? Was that the thing? Or you just were scared? Kind of, like, kind of, kind of just like, but I think it was more just being a contrarian. Right. Because you like to argue with people. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. But, you know, when I went off to college, I was like, "Okay, I'm glad I don't have to do this anymore." Right. You're almost damaging yourself. You're missing out on stuff. Yeah. And it's like, "Okay. So I have a TV. I can do that." Right. I can, I've decided one point. I can either catch up on movies, or I can catch up on music. Right. And you went with music. Catch down-load movies. That's true. Then you would have to go out and, like, actually read them or whatever. Right. So, I mean, at that era, at that, yeah, at that point, it was a lot. It was a convenience thing. Yeah. A lot more feasible to, you know, check out a lot of music. Again, your logic as to why you started doing stand-up applies here as to why you started doing music. It's really just laziness. Like my entire... I think you've summed up America with that. Yeah. So, 8.30, I'm going with wings, as I mentioned. 8.30, you're going with wings. I didn't have anything for 8.30. You're not watching Gallagher. We need a hero. Not a chance. 9 o'clock, I would have gone with Seinfeld. Yeah. That's... I've got Seinfeld and then Frazier. So Seinfeld is from 1992 when a flight back to New York City, Jerry has a first-class time, but Elaine suffers from Murphy's Law. Meanwhile, Kramer and George find trouble and root to meeting them. Pretty decent episode, not the best episode. I'm not... I don't... I don't... That one doesn't ring any bells for me. And I never liked Frazier. Never liked it. I couldn't get into it. I would have gone with it. I wasn't a huge fan. But I felt like it was another thing. I was like, "I guess I'd watch it." I would have gone with Herman's head. Herman's head still airing, and... Still airing in '93, up against Frazier. Still airing. Time out. Hank Azaria's... Two shows? Yeah. Three. In addition to the Simpsons? Yeah. Who's on the Simpsons? Met about you. And... What? I can imagine... He might have got you a single camera or...? No. It's a three-camera sitcom. Yeah. Yeah. So it was a live taping. Yep. And Herman's head might have been single camera though. Herman's head was a live three-camera sitcom. Really? Yep. Yep. So it isn't saying where you could plausibly do both. You could plausibly do both. And he did. And then just like... And he was a guest role on Met about you. Oh, okay. Oh, we occur. Well, I'm not about you as much as you are on community. Yeah. And also I would imagine Herman's head like he'd only be in half of the... Yeah. Because he was sort of an adversarial, not in every scene, yeah. Yeah. So he'd come and split it. He wouldn't be in the... I'm trying to remember. He was like one of the people in the head, right? No, no. He was one of the people that worked in the office. Oh. He was like a sleazy office guy. Yeah. He was the Dan Fielding to the Smaker. Who am I thinking of that? You thinking of like the guy who was like the stuck-up guy or the party dude? The... Like the... Yeah, the... The glasses, the ego? Yeah. Yeah, the superego. The superego, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was a heckus area. A heckus area was like the sleazy horny office guy. Oh, man. Yeah. Which is a role he plays very well. I've seen like two episodes of Herman's head. Yeah. And not recently. It's not a bad show. It was a weird... It was a weird... I mean, a... It was five dollars in that series. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Like you needed two whole casts. Yeah. So, I would imagine not a cheap show to produce. No. But it looked a little cheap. Yeah, exactly. They cut corners. Yeah. Which was weird for Fox at that point because they don't know necessarily how much money they have. They were the low-rent channel. Yeah. All their shows looked a little cheap. Especially their sitcoms. Yeah. They spent a lot of money on the dramas like "Wherwolf" and "21 Jump Street" and "90210" at this time in Melrose Place. Alien Nation. Alien Nation. Ken Johnson's "Fine, Fine, Follow Up to V". Yeah. Did you watch Alien Nation? Oh, yeah. Did you watch the follow-up movies and stuff? I watched the... Wasn't it... I didn't watch the... I don't think I watched the follow-up movies. I watched the... The pilot was like a TV movie. Yeah. So the original was a theatrical movie. Oh, it was a theatrical movie. There was a theatrical movie, Alien Nation. And then they made a TV movie pilot. And then it was an ongoing series that was cancelled prematurely. So four years later, they wrapped up the series with three made for TV movies. Huh. Also on Fox? Also on Fox. Yeah. There was some pretty gross stuff in those movies though. There was some squeamish things in that. Yeah. I feel like it bothers me lessened. If it's aliens. If it's... If it's science fiction, if it's like they're not trying to upset me. Okay. So you feel like science fiction is a little safer? Yeah. Well, it's really I don't like being... I don't like feeling suspense. I... You know, that makes sense because I forget who this quote is from. But someone once explained to me the difference between horror and science fiction. They could be presenting you the same exact thing. Science fiction explains it. Yeah. So if it's a vampire, they tell you what disease the person has and how it works mechanically. Whereas horror will bother. Yeah. And so the explanation sort of takes the fear out away from it. People like horror is kind of like comedy in a way. It's exactly like comedy. Because it's like it's... Shock surprise and suspense. Not driven by... Like it's not defined by what plot points are involved. Right. Or what setting it's in. It's more defined defined by like what visceral reaction you want to indicate. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And it's a different visceral reaction. The comedy produces. I do not like the one that horror produces. But mechanically they work identically. It's just, you know, a different flavor of reaction. I feel like I suffer from anxiety in real life. I don't want my television doing it to me too. Well some people, because I mean I suffer from severe anxiety. Yeah. And I do my whole life growing up. Like panic attacks and things. But I found that horror was cathartic. It was almost a controllable way to experience that. Isn't for me. Yeah. Yeah. Different strokes. A show that made me have anxiety. So the final night of the week here, Friday night, 8 o'clock, would you go with? I went with Ghostbusters. So here's the thing. Again, there's a movie I can watch it. Yeah, you can watch the whole movie for the night. So two things that you passed up was a thing called the King Orange Jamboree. This is New Year's Eve. You passed up the King Orange Jamboree, which I assume is something to do with Florida. I don't know. I've never heard of it. Maybe it has to do with the Netherlands. Does the Netherlands produce a lot of oranges? Instead, the orange free steak. Is it really? Yeah. I didn't even know that. Like the color orange has always been associated with the... The Netherlands? The Netherlands? I don't know. Is that Netherlands? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I know tulips. Yeah, I don't know that much about the Netherlands either. I don't think that's a bad thing. I know they're associated with, like, William of Orange, you know? Oh, interesting. Yeah. Yeah, it's like the royal family or whatever. They're colored. Yeah. This is Joe Nameth hosting a 60th annual parade in Miami. All right, it isn't Florida featuring Grand Marshal Ed McMahon, appearances by de-cathletes Dave Johnson and Dan O'Brien, and a float with Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and Goofy, who hopefully doesn't murder anyone. Oh, Dan and Dave. Dan and Dave. So that's what I would have been... That's probably interesting with the orange bowl. The football game. Oh, because would have that been on New Year's? Yeah, it would have been, yeah. It would have been, yeah, probably in the first week of the New Year. I also should mention what happened on New Year's Eve that night. We had Dick Clark's Rock and New Year's Eve with Holly Robinson and Mark Curry of Hang on Mr. Cooper with musical guest SWV Kiss, Darryl Hall, Joey Lawrence. That's right. Joey Lawrence listed as a musical guest. And Brooks and Dunn, and we also... They couldn't get oats. They couldn't get oats. Just Darryl Hall. We had Fox's New Year's Eve, which was performances by George Carlin, Bobcat Goldthwaite, and the cast of Living Single hosted by Richard Jenny. Wow. That was Fox's. That's actually some pretty, you know... That's not bad. That's not bad. That's pretty legitimate. Yeah. I mean, the cast of Living Single. And we had a New Year's Eve special hosted by Richard Simmons live from Las Vegas with comedian Kevin Meany. Oh, Kevin Meany. Tough choices that night from New Year's Eve. What did you used to do on New Year's Eve? Would you watch? We would watch the Dick Clark show. Yeah. You always wanted Dick Clark? Yeah. So finally, Eric, as you know, TV Guide is not just informative. It has opinions. And cheers, and it jeers. So, read you these cheers and jeers and see if you agree or disagree. They ever give jeers to cheers? Yes, they did, actually. I have seen... It should just say jeers to cheers. But they have had issue with cheers at some point. So, this one says cheers to Martin Lawrence and Fox for having the good sense to pull a particularly adult episode of Martin that was scheduled to follow two animated Christmas specials. Lawrence, a host of HBO's frequently profane Def Comedy Jam, showed surprising sensitivity and agreeing with a network decision to run a tamer episode of his off-to-rece show that night. Does Martin Lawrence have any choice? I don't think he did. I don't know why they're giving him credit for this. Like, maybe not for just not like getting angry at me. Yeah, I'd be like, "No, we're going to show this." Yeah. I would disagree with this. I don't think he should get credit for that. Yeah. I mean, this is network. I mean, it makes sense. It's weird that they were airing Martin. I mean, I guess it's the re-ron, so they could have aired any re-ron. That's true. That's true. All right. We'll go in difference on that. Here's one that may be close to your heart. Cheers to the Sci-Fi channel for the nifty redefinition of Silent Night and Day. On December 25th, the cable channel will devote all of its schedule to silent sci-fi and horror comics, including Metropolis, Nosferatu and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. That sounds neat. That wasn't on the schedule, because during the daytime, I think it was on the daytime. Oh, was the daytime? Can you imagine a channel airing all silent films today? Yeah. People would freak out in the two years. I don't think it was people like AMC at that point. It was airing like 30s to 50s. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, they definitely were. And it's like, and I like that there were obviously a lot of their prime time shows are good, but... Yeah. You like having access to that stuff? Yeah. From 1948? Yeah. It just seems to me like there's not as much, like, which is weird, because those are probably really cheap to run. That's the thing. They may not be now, but they probably won't be. Yeah. No, they probably are now. Yeah. And it's just, you would think even if they could get minimal ratings, which, if they chose the right movies, they probably could. Maybe. It just probably seems risky. Yeah. It's easier to air Canadian sex comedies. I mean, like 300 channels, you know? There might be a silent channel. I don't know. I would agree with that year. Canadian sex comedies. Canadian sex comedies. Yeah. That's what Comedy Central likes to show. Canadian? Yeah. A lot of Canadian ones. All those National Lampoon movies? Like National Lampoon? Are these horny dogs? I just assume they can't. Almost always Canadian. Lesser portions of like the Sunset Strip. No. Many of them are Canadian. Yeah. They're cheap to import. Lesser portions of Sunset Strip. That's not a phrase. Yeah. That should be a TV series. Lesser portions. Lesser portions of the Sunset Strip. Cheers to the nearly one in three TV households that tuned in to CVS's to dance with the white dog. I don't think people should be dancing with dogs. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Cheers to the rumor mongers. And those two ready to believe them who spread the scuttle butt that burnt nernie, those two lovable muppets of Sesame Street fame are gay. Was that really a rumor at any point? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. There were news stories about a joke. No, there were news stories about it. I'm going to let it legitimately. Yes. Yes. I would assume burnt nernie were children. Yeah. I do too. So it's weird that they're living together. Without parents. Without parents. Yeah, I agree. But yeah, if burnt nernie are adults. Um. Are they adults? Do they don't have jobs? No. You're just going to lose your mind thinking about this. Yeah. Like, what are they supposed to be? Just roommates, I guess. Yeah. Maybe they're on disability. Yeah. I mean. They get checks. Maybe they wrote a hit song 10 years earlier and just live off the residuals. Yeah. Maybe they were recurring on NBC show. I'm going to see, yeah. That might be what they were doing. Not living large, but enough to survive. I mean, they don't seem rich. Yeah. But they got enough. They got enough money. Enough to. You know, keep them in like bath supplies. Yeah. And rubber duckies. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would agree with that, uh, jeer. Yeah. And finally, Eric, cheers to CNN's Mary Tillitsden, host of CNN & Company and almost always lively AM talk show. It's hook. All women. No tabloid topics. What? I don't know. It's like the view. Yeah. Maybe. Fair enough. I've never seen the view. You're not missing out. It doesn't seem like. I don't think you'd like to view. I don't think I would like to view either. Yeah. If anyone, yeah. Yeah. If anyone listening to the view, watching the, if anyone who produces the view is listening to this. Ah. I just stuttered a lot. I just, like, tripped over my words completely. That's fair enough. You'll be on the show, but you might not. Yeah. I'll be on the show, but I'll probably do that. Your guest host. Whoopee. Well, Eric, thank you so much for doing the show. Thank you. Thank you. You're a quite welcome, sir. All right. There you go. That was Eric Charles Nielsen, very, very funny comedian. I will have all the links to all of his clips and his website and his dates and all that kind of stuff up on the TV guidance counselor.com website. You can see him when he comes to your town. I highly recommend it. He's also going to be in community the Yahoo season. So definitely look for him or just by the DVDs of the old seasons and look for him and you will enjoy what you've done. As always, please like us on Facebook. Email me at kennedykenread.com. Sign up for our mailing list. You will get all kinds of fun things. I won't spam you. It'll only be fun things unless all you like is spam and then you won't get that so it won't be fun. But for everyone else, it'll be very fun. So yes, that's about it. So we'll see you again next week on TV guidance counselor. Why haven't we all been fooled by our mechanical stuff?
