TV Guidance Counselor
TV Guidance Counselor Episode 24: Brendan Boogie
- Wait, you have a TV? - No, I just like to read the TV guide. Read the TV guide, you don't need a TV. (rock music) - Hello and welcome to TV Gaiden's Counselor's Wednesday. It's time to talk about old TV. I am Ken Reed, your TV Gaiden's Counselor. My guest this week is not a comedian. He is a musician named Brendan Boogie. You may know him, you may not know him. He's a Boston area musician. He's been in a bunch of great bands. He's recently written and directed and starred in a movie called The Mayor of Rock and Roll. That'll be out soon. I'll put links up to that on the Tumblr page. And I think you'll enjoy this episode. So please sit back and enjoy this week's TV Gaiden's Counselor with Brendan Boogie. - So what's on TV? - So what's on TV? - So what's on TV? (rock music) - So what, Mr. Brendan Boogie, Brendan? - Oh Ken, how are you? Thank you for having me. I'm thrilled to be here. - Thank you for coming to my home. - Absolutely. - And you gave me a Snickers donut. - I did, I did. I applied him with Snickers donuts and coffee. Yeah, we bought, we were recording two podcasts today, so we bought a dozen donuts this morning, and we normally don't get a dozen 'cause there's only two of us. - Right. - But-- - With your name on it. - You would think that I would be more good for more than half a donut, but I'm trying to be kind of the calories. - Yeah, I understand, I understand. I should probably be doing that, but I really don't bother. - Right. - I try to have to, you're a slim guy. - Well, I eat healthy all week so that I can just stop my fat face all weekend. - Yeah, yeah. - That's a good way of pizza. - I'm trying to get my diet to the point where they're all cheat days. That's sort of my goal. - Yeah, we call that the American diet. - Yes, exactly, yeah. - It's the Southern diet. - Which I was like, we, speaking of donuts, we, in the Northeast here, we didn't really have crispy cream. - Yeah, right. - And they came in and they started doing really well right away 'cause it was new. - Yeah. - But the thing-- - Kind of faded away. - Well, what happened was they do a thing where you go in and they give you a free donut. - Mm-hmm. - And so they were, and again, I don't mean to disparage the South as I do pretty much every episode, but for some reason people don't South, they go, they get a free donut and they go, this is great, give me a dozen. - Oh. - And here people go, this is great, thanks. Now I don't need to buy 'em. - Right, I remember there was a, I used to work at Tufts University and there was a beloco, which is a burrito place. - Yes, used to be called the wrap. - Yeah, right, right. And they moved into the neighborhood and they had this great thing of they were just giving away burritos like a lot of the time to the point where, I don't remember a time when I couldn't just go get a free burrito and I never bought it. - Yes, it was fine. - So I go by, oh, is it free? No, okay, I'll go. I won't go by there then. - When I went to Northeastern, I was the, well, close to the poorest I've ever been in my life. - And there was a wrap there, which is what beloco used to be called. And they'd pre-make a lot of the sandwiches, but at the end of the night, they had some sort of, I don't know if it was a law, but you couldn't donate them to the homeless. - Right. - For whatever reason. - So they would fuck the homeless. - Yeah, right, it was the law, it was more. - You couldn't have them? - It was more just, more just good judgment on that part. - We don't want them, exactly. - 'Cause we need a bunch of fat homeless people walking around, right? - Right, right, you know, they're already sedentary. - The very least they can do is be slim and appealing to the eye. - Yeah, give them something to do, right? So they would just get ready to throw all these sandwiches away at the end of the night. - And I would just swoop in, can't read. - And swoop in and get 'em, between all of them. - And opportunistic read. - Fill up a bag of day-old burritos, and I am good to go. - Good to go, good to go indeed. - Running, you picked a TV guide from the week of August 20th, 1988. - I did. - Which is your birthday week. - It was two days after my birth of 20th. - All right. - So my 12th birthday. So I figured, you know, when I was gonna do this show, I figured I wanted to go for a time when TV was really important to me. - Yes. - And also when probably puberty was at its ugliest. - Yes. - Just in case things got weird. - Right. - And I figured that might be interesting for people there. - Oh, absolutely. And also this is generally when you have the least going on that's not involving sitting at home. - Exactly, right. - You still don't wanna hang out with your parents for having a much less TV. I'm also a summer birthday person, so I kinda like having never had been in school during my birthdays. - Right, but it turns out that in the 80s, the summer viewing left a little to be desired. - It would get a little slim. There was a lot of special events, but yeah, I mean, there was-- - It would load up for the big fall premieres. - Especially in August, they would also front, they would always front and load the summer. So like the big events would be sort of July. My August, which traditionally is the month that most families would go on vacation. - Right, right. - So the networks would pretty much just give up. - My family wanted to go on vacation, but I said, I got TV to watch bitches. - Yeah, well, I would really flip out. Like if we didn't go, we used to go down a rat, spend our summers in Narragansett, Rhode Island, and the house-- - Don't brag, or I don't wanna brag. I don't wanna brag, we had family down there, but I insisted we had cable. - Yeah, yeah. - And we would have cable down there. We brought our VCRs. When we'd go to Maine, we got four channels. - Yeah, yeah. - That's just-- - Yeah, we used to summer in Maine, and there was some withdrawal, some TV withdrawal happening. - Absolutely. Let's start Saturday night, let's get right into it. Eight o'clock, what'd you go with? - I went with Facts of Life. - Yeah, I did, I didn't know. Hopefully it was not a Chloris Leachman one. - It is, see, I prefer the Chloris Leachman one. - To you when they have the store-- - Over our heads. - Yeah. - I've been looking for an over our head sweatshirt for years. - Over our heads was the ideal store for me. It was like a Spencer gifts without the dildos. It was just-- - See, I would think that would not be a selling point for you. - No, see, I'm not a big dildo guy. - That's the most shocking thing in the history of this podcast is-- - Really? - When people are listening, they're like, "Can read, very funny, probably big dildo guy." - Yeah, and I'm not. - Yeah, I like giant gumbies. - Yeah. - You know, it's very, very-- - Oh, right, right, yeah. - It was very '80s. But I just remember it was sort of like-- - It was a spin on a different stroke. - But Mrs. Garrett had a school of girls, and then they all got old. - Yes. - And then they opened a store. And it just says everybody left. It just got, it was just very '80s at George Clooney and Mackenzie Astin. - George Clooney was our Mackenzie Astin. It was a favorite of mine. - Yeah. - And yeah, this was the last season of the show. And so the last season effects of life, they were constantly trying to do backdoor pilots to keep the show going. And this is a repeat of one where they tried to do a spin-off with Natalie with his backdoor pilot. So this is Natalie's first bite of the Big Apple, it's hard to digest. Ha ha. - Oh, I get it. - She overnights and is so whole off with the four weirdest people I've ever met, quote from Natalie. Now, they only emphasized one guest star in this episode who was Michelle Little, who played Claire, who is the least big star that was a guest star in this episode. She, the only other thing I know that she did was she was in the movie "My Demon Lover" with Scott Valentine, the other two people that lived around Richard Greco and David Spade. - Oh, wow, nice. - Very good, yeah. - Didn't work for some reason, but I actually really enjoyed that episode. I would've watched that series "Living in New York" in 1988 in a loft with David Spade with Greco. - Well, I wouldn't, yeah. And she had left her relationship with Snake, who took her virginity. - Took her virginity. - That was far above. - That was in this season. But by the point, she was like, you know, I gotta move to the big apple. I'm a woman now. - Who do you think she would have been? Would it be Spade or Greco? - Spade. - Yeah. - She was a spade guy, I think. I think Greco, you know, he was, she thought he was above her, and I don't think he was, though. - Natalie was my favorite girl from Vaxx. - Really? - She's the one I'd wanna hang out with the most. - Yeah, I don't, it's one of those things where I'd seen them all, and I can say, I don't have a favorite. - I don't have a favorite fact of life girl, I guess, with the gun to my head, it has to be Joe. - Okay. - With the gun to my head. - So you weren't a fan of any of the girls? - I didn't like any of them, and yet I watched the show, which is one of these kind of overarching themes that I realized as I was preparing this, is that I spent a lot of time watching things that I did not particularly like. - That's a theme that a lot of people, and myself included, I did that as well. I don't know if kids do that now, I feel like they have so many other options. I think it'd be like, I don't like this show, I'm just gonna play video games. - Yeah, sure. - And they also, since they can time shift now, I feel like they can watch whatever they want, whenever they want, so they don't have to watch. - They don't have to suffer through. - Yeah. - You're like, I don't want to get up to change the channel, so there's a show I like at 8.30, and a show I like at 9.30, and a show I hate at 9, but I'm just gonna sit here and watch it, so I don't have to change the channel. - It's very uncomfortable to have to sit through something. I mean, I could have gone and read a book, but. - Well, why would you do that? - Reading's for losers. - Exactly. - So at 8.30, what do you go with? - I should be still over the second half of Star Trek the next generation. - Really? - The prize is because I probably would have seen it already, so I may not have watched it again. It was a rerun, I assume, right? - It wasn't, so here's the thing. - So I didn't do my syndicated shows, would air first run throughout the summer sometimes, and Star Trek the next generation was a first run syndicated show. It was almost the biggest success in first run syndication 'til Baywatch came along. But this episode is after crashing the shuttle craft onto Varga 2, Troy is held hostage by a sadistic creature that delights in taunting the rescue team. - I never watched Star Trek the next generation. - Oh, I've watched it. I've revisited it recently, and it actually holds up pretty well. - Yeah, I mean, my wife's a big fan of it. I hated it when I was growing up, but I'm shocked how many people, how many of my friends I've had on the show, were huge Star Trek the next generation. - Yeah, I think maybe at the time, I probably would have picked "Wouldn't have watched the whole show," but I think I got into it later. - Right. - So it's kind of a, I cheated on that one. - That's fine, I mean, 'cause your other option of what I would have gone with is 227, which I absolutely love. - Yeah, I watched 227, and I can't imagine being interested in two-two-seven. I mean, I remember it, and I remember Jack A. - Hilarious, Jack A. - Hilarious. - Yeah, she's great, look at them like Jack A. - I don't know, there's sometimes, I feel like I had a tipping point with sitcoms where I would like it, but then I hated it, too. - So you hated it because you were a lady. - Well, 'cause they were black. I hated it. - You were a racist, you were born in man. - Surprised they even aired this. - I know, exactly. - But this episode, as a musician, you should find interesting, it's the resonance of 227 Trumpets, the arrival of a new handyman. But Alfonso, played by Alfonso Arau, hits a sour note when it's discovered he's really a concert violinist. - Ooh, yeah. - Why would that hit a sour note if they're like, you pretended to be a handyman, and you can actually play the violin. This is bullshit. - Yeah, right, I don't understand. - Why would that make you mad? - Like, a concert violinist very well could be a handyman. - Sure, it's like, and probably most of them are. - And I imagine it's not like he's doing research for his violining by pretending-- - He's writing a concerta about handyman, like with Schneider from-- - From one day to the time, yes. - He used us nine o'clock, what'd you go with? - I went with Golden Girls. - It's the move. I mean, Saturday night, you gotta go with Golden Girls. - And Golden Girls is another one of those shows that holds up. - Oh, absolutely. - And I think I learned everything about sex that I know now I learned from Golden Girls. - From Golden Girls. I think you're not alone there. I think Ruma came in the hand, really? - How is it that she was sexy? I mean-- - I didn't find her sexy. - I found her sexy, but again, I was 12. So she was making sex-- - Well, that makes it better or worse. - Well, it's 'cause I'm like, here's a woman that's fucking, or talking about fucking, and I'm like, well, what's fucking? That sounds awesome. - Yeah, who else was talking about it? - Who's that? - Jack A. Harry. - Jack A, right. - She's a much more attractive woman than Ruma Clinton, but again-- - And so was Natalie. - I'm racist. - Still you are. So was Natalie. I mean, hey, she was talking about it. - So let's play Mary Fuck Kill right now. Jack A, Ruma Clan of Hand Natalie. - So this game I have to pick one of them to marry, one of them to make sex with, and one of them to murder. What a weird game. How did that become the game? Couldn't it be like Mary sex with ignore? Like, why do you have to murder somebody? Like, why are those three things? - Look, I didn't invent the game. - But do people know, like, what is this game derived from? It's very weird. - Well, it's the three things that you do, right. It's the three most likely options when you meet somebody. - It's a very common game and it's, you know, agreed upon that these are the rules. - Well, I know if I don't have sex with someone or marry them, chances are all clear. - You got to kill them. - Yes, it's our arm. I will murder them. - I'm managing the guy who first thought of this. He was like, guys, friends, I got this great game. - So Mary? - Yeah. - Fuck, yeah. - I'm on board kill. And they're like, oh. Or like, maybe that was the last iteration like you might have been like, "Mary, fuck, eat." - Yeah. - And they're like, what is wrong with you? - He scaled it back a lot. - And he's like, "No, no, just kill him. "Just kill him." - All right, all right, we'll play now. - Or maybe the first one was like, "Mary, kill him then fuck." And they're like, "You should probably split those two out "into two different options." - The focus group, it didn't go well. Fairly focused group. - So what are the options, J.I.K. Ruma Clinic? - J.I.K. Ruma Clinic and Natalie. - This is the easiest question on Earth. - Okay. - Go ahead. - You kill Ruma Clinic, him. - Wow. - And Natalie, who'd be a great time. I need to have sex with J.I.K., super sexy. - See, I think I would agree that I would marry Natalie, she's a keeper. I would fuck Ruma Clanahan and I would kill J.I.K. - Why? - Because of that voice. - And you know, that stuff is-- - Amazing. - Yeah, that stuff, okay. And I found Ruma Clanahan sexy. - I did. - But my favorite was Be Arthur. - Oh, everyone loves Be Arthur, she's the best. - I think she's comedically one of the funniest. - Maud was great, she's great and everything. And this episode is very special. There's a very special guest star in this episode. Sophia is swept off her feet by an old gangster played by Mickey Rooney. - Ooh, ooh, I saw that recently again. - Yep. - Who had her drive him to the bank where he made a substantial and very speedy withdrawal. I remember this one. Mickey Rooney, I'm always amused by even though I absolutely hate them, man. Hate them, man. - Yeah, but he's something to watch. Oh, he is. - He's something to watch. - How is he still alive? - I know, it's incredible. - Ooh, thank you, Rooney. 930, what'd you go with? - Again, I'm doing a lot of switching around and I went to the second half of Mystery because it was a Sherlock Holmes. - It was. So you really had an aversion to the black show. (laughs) Because you passed up, amen. - Yeah, amen, I didn't like. But that was more my anti-religion stuff. - All right, all right. - Even when I was 12, I was just like, what are these people doing going to church? - I always liked Sherman Holmes late 'cause I was a big Jefferson fan. And I watched amen, again, didn't like it that much. But Saturday night on NBC, I just stuck around the whole night, I watched that a lot. - That was the thing is I probably, there's part of me that would have done that, but I wanted to look elsewhere and say, what would I be more interested in? So I kind of cheated and I probably might have watched the whole Sherlock Holmes, but Golden Girls, you know. - I definitely would have gone with amen, but I did notice that MTV had the half hour comedy hour, which was a big fan about the time. - Right, right, right. - Yeah, I wouldn't have been as pressed to watch that 'cause MTV had about two hours of programming that they re-analyze. - Sure, sure, yeah. - Did they say who was the comedian? - It doesn't say who the comedians were, but-- - Was it you, Ken? - It was me. I was on when I was eight years old at that time. And you know, I'll say it, I was pretty good. - Yeah, he was pretty good. - Now, just for the sake of completeness, Saturday Night Live that night, political skits from the past two seasons featuring Simon and Simon, which is Senator Paul Simon and singer. - Paul Simon. - I remember that. - Alice Rankin plays. - Paul Weathers as Jesse Jackson. - Right, right, okay. - Saturday Night Live kinda was really strong then. - Oh, my favorite year of Saturday Night Live is like 85 to 91. That's by far the best year that was. Although, I forget who said it, probably a lot of people, but they always say the best year of Saturday Night Live, the best season was when you were 12. - Right, probably. - Which is true for everybody. I think that that's probably the case. - Yeah, that's probably why Jimmy Fallon is the host for the tonight show. - Exactly. So look-- - If Jimmy Fallon, if you're considering going on this show, those are my words, not can't TV happy to have you. - That's fine. Although I think I did say disparaging things against him in an earlier episode. So Sunday Night, before we get your picks, I just wanna mention that there is a wonderful ad in this TV guide for "Young in the Restless" this week with a concert photo from a special guest star of this week. It says, "A special week. "Dany Romelotti in concert." I have no idea who that is, but I really need to check him out based on his photo. - You don't have his early stuff? - I don't, when he was just "Dany Romel." - Yeah, I was into him before it was going on. - Yeah, but I decided that it was like, "I'm gonna go with my hair today." - Right, yeah. - "To appeal to the masses." So Sunday Night, the Lord's Night, as we've already stated, you're not a fan. What do you go with at eight o'clock? - Family ties. - That's the move, final season, Courtney Cox, great stuff. - Right, I remember crying in the last episode. I cried so much that I was so upset. I had to stay home from school the next day. - Wow, what happened to you, man? - I don't know, man. I was so broken by television. - 'Cause this is what's wrong. - This is what confuses me about you, because you're like a good-looking dude. You're sort of like, I would assume that you had some stuff going on at some point, but this knowledge of television is just really disturbing. - Yeah, I was just, I didn't sleep. I had a weird medical condition where I would sleep like two hours a night, so I watched TV all night. - Gotcha, there we go, that's fine. - Yeah, and I just sat where everyone watched TV. - And so for me, I mean, I was nerd, but I assume you weren't a huge nerd. - I was a pretty huge nerd at late comic books, huge late bloomer, I didn't 'cause the girl fly was nearly 18 years old. - Okay. - And yeah, but I did like martial arts, and I was in a band, and I said, yeah, it doesn't make sense to me either. - Yeah, you're kind of, this is baffling me. - It baffles me to, it baffles my dad. He was very upset. Like, when I was 14 or 15, we had a elementary school behind our house, and kids would go drink down there. And my dad was always like, it's Saturday night, I'd be home watching Saturday night Maris and Amen. - Right, right. - And my dad would be like, hey, there's kids drinking down there. And I'm like, hey, you know, you could go down there if you wanted. And I was like, no, I really don't want to do that. And he's like, oh, that's okay if you do that. - If you do, you know, I just need some kind of proof that my son is-- - You know what I used to do, though, is, and I don't think I've told this story before, I used to call it cops on the kids. - Yeah. - And I'd watch them run away, which is really funny. - Yeah. - Because we lived up on this hill on that binoculars. I'd watch where they hid their beers. - Yeah. - I would go down, steal the beers, resell them to them at school that week. They never figured it out. - Wow, you're sociopath. - Oh yeah, it was great. - Oh my God. - 'Cause I'd be like, they'd be like, that is like such a plan. - I made so much money. They'd be like, dude, someone stole all our fucking nanny lights. - Yeah, yeah. - And I'd be like, that's really good. My cousin was over this weekend. He left like half a case of nanny lights. - Yeah, yeah. - It was time for like five bucks a can. - With the same barcode though. - Yeah, and they'd be like, all right. And they must have paid $40 or $50 a can by the end of the year. - Oh yeah, yeah. - It's revived. But yeah, so, family ties, I mean, at this point, it was been on like half my life. - That was the show that I felt like the parents were probably the most like my parents. - We would be ex hippies. - Sort of like ex hippies really kind of, and I wasn't a conservative like Michael J. Fox. - Well, I sort of you as a Justine Bateman. - Yeah, right, exactly. - I was Jennifer, which means my personality changed depending on the need of the plotline. - But you were very sarcastic. - Exactly. - Were you an only child? - No, I had an older brother and a younger brother. - Okay. - So I guess I would, I guess I would say a Mallory. - Yeah, the Mallory. - Yeah, Mallory, yeah. But my parents were definitely on the history of television. If they could say, name a TV family that's most like yours. It was probably family ties. - I don't think I could name a TV family that was most like my, you know, this will shock you. I've never, that's never occurred to me to do that. - Really? - Yeah, I'll have to really think about that. - Yeah, right. Well, you have a television based podcast, so I-- - I know, it would make sense that I'm gonna have to think about this. - No. - I don't think so. - So that show is very comfort food for me. The point where I, when it was on Netflix again, I started watching it and I would fall asleep during every episode. - It holds up pretty well. - It was so, but it was so like-- - That's what you watched me go to bed at night. - It was so comforting to me. - It's a great show and I think that's probably the case for a lot of people with family ties. - Yeah, right. - It was, it was-- - The Michael J. Fox is fantastic. Who doesn't like Michael J. Fox? - Nobody. - Except the people at the network who canceled the Michael J. Fox. - Yeah, well, Rush Limbaugh, he's a real-- - Yeah, he's a work. - 8.30, what are you going with? This was tough, there wasn't a lot of choices here. - Yeah, I mean, well, the problem is the family ties was on one hour episode. - Oh, it was 'cause it was on one hour, yes. Because it was the repeat of the penultimate episode. - So if I had seen it before, I probably would have switched over to marriage with children at 8.30, but if I hadn't seen it before, I would have watched the whole family ties. And this family ties is called The Last of the Red Hot Psychologists, I believe. Doesn't have the title here, but I'm remembering. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah, so it's a one hour, so I think that's the right move. Your only other choice is marriage with children. Not a great show. - You don't like marriage with children? - Never liked it. - I watched it, it didn't like it. - It's another one I've revisited and feel like it holds up better than-- - It just feels so sleazy. - Well, yeah. - It felt like watching edited pornography. - Well, there was a point where it was that, and it was clear, and then that became the joke was sort of like, Al was the joke. - Right. - You know, at first Al was sort of, you know, you're supposed to-- - He's the every man, but then you realize that what a clown he is, and it got very cartoonish, which I thought was terrifying. - Oh, you enjoyed cartoonish. - So you like cartoonish shows? Fox was the king of the cartoonish sitcom. - When Jefferson came on and replaced Steve, I think it got better. - It definitely got weirder, which wasn't necessarily-- - And he had the Nomam stuff and all that, which was clearly parody, and they weren't supposed to be heroic for having-- - But it was almost like, it was a live-action cartoon. There was no other way to describe it. - Right, and I enjoyed it. - Nine o'clock, what'd you go with? - Gary Shamling, it's Gary Shamling's show, I believe. - Which was on the USA Network. - USA Network. - I believe that was the one, it's Gary Shamling's show, right, where we talked to the camera, and he would drive his little golf cart into the-- - What a weird show. - I never liked Larry Sanders that much, but I loved it's Gary Shamling's show. - I like Larry Sanders a lot. - It's Gary Shamling's show started as a segment on Mike Nesmith's television parts, which was one of my favorite shows of all time. - I've never even heard of that. - I'm a huge Mike Nesmith fan. He's one of my favorite people to ever walk the face of the year. - He were friends on Facebook. - I'm friends on Facebook. - He's probably got him for you. - Yeah, I saw him as a bizarre thing when your friends on Facebook and Mike Nesmith. - And he's produced, like, I love his music as well, but he's produced a lot of my favorite television movies. He produced Repo Man in a bunch of other movies that I love, but he did the first music video, 'cause he invented the concept of MTV, as you probably know, and he had a thing called Elephant Parts, which was a home video, a series of music videos, with comedy skits in between. And so in 1984, he brought this to TV with a show called Television Parts, and it was sort of a sketch comedy show with music videos interspersed. But what he would do is he would find a stand-up comedian that he liked, basically give them a budget and a time to make a four-minute video, do whatever you want. So Bock at Goldthwade did something, Gary Schannling, Jay Leno, a ton of people. And so Gary Schannling made what was essentially a pilot for its Gary Schannling show. And it's well worth watching if you liked Gary Schannling show, but it really inspired a lot of people to do these sort of weird things because they were getting a network airtime, but didn't really have any, you know, you couldn't swear a show, booms or anything, but you could kind of do whatever you wanted. So he really did something weird and innovative, and that's what he did in it's Gary Schannling show, which was very fourth wall-breaking and very knowing and winking about the cliches of sitcoms. It was a really smart, funny show. - We didn't like Larry Sanders. - Larry Sanders was okay, but when I was watching on HBO at that time, it was always on between Dream On. - You hated Dream On. - Loved Dream On. It was on between Dream On and Tales from the Crypt. - Said either of those. - See, I think you either liked Dream On and Tales from the Crypt or you liked Larry Sanders' show, but I love Mr. Show at the time. - Yeah, of course. - Gary Schannling's show was fantastic. If you ever want to see television parts, I will take you up on that. - Pretty entertaining. - You went with that, and then what'd you go with at 9/30? - Tracey Allman just kept it on Fox. - Yeah, again, great stuff. What a weird show. This one is Francesca, who is probably my least favorite character that she played. - Which one was that? - A teenage girl. - All right, all right, all right, all right. - Plants to play while her parents are away, a highway worker feels she's losing her femininity. - And I remember the Simpsons, like we started to wear Simpsons T-shirts in that year or into eighth grade or so. - Yeah, so that's when, like, I had a Bart Simpson, I'm Bart Simpson, who the hell are you, T-shirt? - An eighth grade. - Yes. - And it was a real big deal to wear that. Yeah, and I wore it anyway, 'cause you know what? - Yeah, you're best. - Screw the man. - Exactly. - I remember all these kids in seventh grade, they went on a class trip to Washington, DC, which I didn't go on. And actually, because I didn't go, I had to go to what they called environmental camp, which just meant that we went to this place called Pinebanks and Melrose and looked at this stuff called skunk cabbage. But it was literally-- - Similar to go on watching the DC. - And they went to hotels and the only people that didn't go were me, this one other kid, and all the kids in the special needs class. So it was just the two of us in these woods and this woman making a smell skunk cabbage with these kids yelling and it was horrific. But we had to walk, oh, it's awful. The kids all came back and they had all bought shirts with pot leaves on them that said keep off the grass. - Yeah. - And that was a big controversy. - Oh yeah, exactly. - But so-- - Yeah, who Bart Simpson, who the hell are you? That was huge. - That's gonna make some people angry. I remember those shirts were huge bootleg shirts at the flea markets we used to go at the time. - Yeah, it was like you get that in a death leopard mirror. - Yes, well, you have to win. You can't just buy a death leopard mirror. If you see a death leopard mirror in someone's house-- - Someone's earned that. - They earned that. - I weirdly have, this is an odd memory that I have and with these two things intermingled for no real reason. But there used to be a carnival in Melrose called the Fireman's Carnival. That was an April vacation every year. And I am a very sore loser. I freak out. - I'm a terrible loser. - I was playing poker last night. And I was, I had one friend and a bunch of guys I barely know and I was just trying so hard to not like freak the fuck out. - Yeah, yeah. - Because these people didn't know me. They didn't want else was in good mood. - No, I'm like-- - I can't do it again. - I can't do competitive games. Camille and Lamont Price, very funny. - Pretty hard to know. - He's asked me to be on his trivia team a few times. 'Cause you know, obviously why wouldn't you? - Yeah, right, exactly. - But the problem is when we lose, I would be like extremely, no, we lost a couple times. I won most of the time, but there's sometimes if there's like sports questions and stuff like beatles. I'm not doing too well with those. And I get really upset and cut up and it's not fun. I don't-- - And you make other people uncomfortable. - Oh yeah, do not ask me to do it in a competitive. I will not enjoy it, but I was at this carnival and I would always get really mad at the games 'cause it rigged and I won once though. And I got a Bon Jovi mirror, which I didn't even pick. The guy just gave it to me and I took it 'cause I had never won. And it was a Saturday night and I remember going home and watching Golden Girls staring at my winnings of this Bon Jovi mirror. So for some reason, I always think Golden Girls, Bon Jovi mirror. - Bon Jovi mirror, yeah. - I wonder if Bill Belichick has Bon Jovi mirror and just looks at himself and says-- - Man, I wish I was John. - He probably does, that's why he runs the entry. - Yeah, exactly. - So Monday night, the saddest night of the week. - I disagree and I'll tell you why in a minute. - Well, to me, it's always the saddest because you've gone back to school. You've gone back to work. You really need some good teaming to take you away from them. So what is your-- - At eight o'clock, I went with Newhart. - That's the correct name. - No, Bob Newhart, even-- - My favorite. - Yeah, and you had Larry, brother Darryl, other brother Darryl, there was not a bad moment on that show. - One of the best sitcoms of all time and then in the last few seasons, speaking of shows that got cartoonish, it got cartoonish but just in the most surreal, bizarre, great way. - Right. - Like when Michael and Stephanie's baby took over as the owner of the television station. - Sure, yeah. - What was that, just really crazy. - I remember one episode that was, it was probably earlier than this where he, it was weirdly my favorite moment where he had to go to a small claims court and his big strategy was he had legal pads. - Yes, yes. - What's his big strategy? And to do a turn right on a table. Like, that's all he came up with. - He's never been better than a Newhart. - Yeah, yeah. - The Bob Newhart show was good show. But Newhart was just the next single show. - I used to, when I got really into comedy, when I was younger, it used to be buttoned down mind of Bob Newhart and Bill Cosby. - Oh, yeah. - The two, you know, records. - Records, you know, that I, or Bill Cosby, those two records, I forget their names right now, but himself. - No, it was earlier. But the, I used to listen to them as I went to sleep. So Bob Newhart, like. - There's a real current theme of things you listen to. - Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's like trying to learn Spanish. - Yeah, exactly. So all my comedy was when I went to, I didn't listen to music or anything when I went to sleep. It was always comedy. - Getting to see Bob Newhart last year was like one of the highlights of the line. - Now, if you don't go do some conference with some. - He quits. - So he would go some super right-wing thing. 'Cause he does a lot of, he mostly just does private gigs now. - Right, right. - From ritual white people. - Yeah, and yeah, he had been hired to do some private gig that was for some right-wing, whatever. And then once he kind of found out he debailed out. - Oh, good. I thought I'm like, please don't let another hero die. - No, no, no. I think he's pretty. - I know he's Catholic, but I mean, and he's his 80s. So I assume he's a little, probably not that much. - He's a little more conservative than I am, I'm guessing. - He's best friends with Don Rick. - That's true, yeah. - So yeah, it was great. - Well, that's great. I'm so happy. - Yeah. - I could not, this was worth doing just here. - Just a minute of that. - Back to Boston, I highly recommend you go. So the only other option you really had was alpha this time, which I used to watch occasionally. - I would watch and hate at the same time. - Yeah, yeah. - It's one of those things where you watched it and you hated it. - It's a hate watch show. - Yeah, yeah. - Then at 8.30, what'd you go with? - I went with Hogan family just out of habit, just out of, I could not. - I was boycotting at this time because I loved Valerie so much. - Yeah. - And I couldn't do it. - Really? - I hate Sandy Duncan. - Oh, yeah. - Yeah. - But she had a glass eye, that's cool. - Sandy Duncan? - Yeah. - I didn't know she had a glass eye. - You did not know, I told you something about television. - No, not even if it sounds really wrong. What happened? Do you know what happened? - I don't know. But I know, during that show, she had a glass eye. - But that makes sense to me because I never trust a person with a glass eye. - It's true, yeah. - Yeah. - I mean, she'll stab you in the back and watch you play in Peter Pan. - When I was growing up. - That's an old expression, right? - Yeah, yeah. I mean, I definitely have seen that. - Yeah. - For Sean Phillips. - When I was growing up scared, the people of the cross street from us was an English guy married to an Irish lady and a her. - Well, that right there. - Yeah, I mean, that's a sitcom right there. - Yeah, my father's from Ireland. - Yeah. - And, you know. - They don't get along. - Yeah, we don't. I mean, they do in a way, but it's more just, you know, speaking of our, I don't want to pre-shadow our next thing, but the British Bulldogs, the rest of us, they have the Union Jack on their ass. - Yeah, the dad had a problem. - And my dad was, oh, the Union Jack on their ass. That's where it belongs. And I was like, that was my first time going, oh, my dad, it doesn't like British people. - Yeah. - He was from Ireland. - Well, we're in Ireland, isn't it? - He's from Kildare. - Okay. - What was your dad's favorite TV show on your grown up? - Did he watch any Irish stuff? - No, no, the things that I remember him watching, a real big moment for me was when he watched Monty Python. - Yeah, but he was okay with that? - Yeah, I mean, they had BBC and they were, you know, so they were dominated by the British. - Sort of like with the way Canada feels about us, probably. - Yeah, well, they kind of hate us, but also they watch all our shit. - I feel like Ireland is Iraq in 300 years. - Yeah, all right, but that's interesting. But the idea of, there was this really huge moment for me in my life when, so I went to bed and I heard him laughing really, and we couldn't watch Monty Python 'cause it had tits in it. I mean, and we couldn't watch it. But so I was probably like eight or nine. And I was at the top of the stairs and I heard him laughing and I kind of crept down. I expected to get kicked back upstairs, but he kind of looked at me and he just let me sit there and watch with him. He was laughing and I was laughing. So Monty Python's always been a big thing. - Do you guys still watch Monty Python? - He still watch it, yeah, he still watch it, yeah. - Nice. - But that was, so that's the one I remember from him. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah, my dad wasn't big on him. My dad watched Benny Hill. - Oh yeah, my dad looked exactly like Benny Hill. - Does he look at me? - He used to get mistaken for him in public and people like airports and stuff. - Have you ever seen him run really fast and grab people's boobs? - Well, that's how he met my mom. - Nice. - Nice. - Nice. So we're, oh yeah, so the Hogan family, Sydney Duncan, Glass Eye, that's where we're at. - Yeah, you're also talking about neighbors there in the United States. - Yes, our neighbors, where English and I are. - See, I'm derailing you. - No, it's all right. I have the ability to get back there. And her brother, she was Irish. Her brother came to live with them and he had a Glass Eye. My dad told me it was because of an IRA incident. But sometimes he would forget to put it in and be walking around with just this whole-- - That's amazing. - You know, like Brian Wilson's dad. - Yeah. - And it would just freak me out, freak me out. - That would've been awesome. - Terrifying. So I wouldn't have watched the Hogan family. I would have gone with the Kavanaugh's. - I don't even know what that is. - I wasn't a big show. It was Bernard Hughes, who I love. He met here at the beginning of the podcast from "The Lost Boys" Bernard Hughes. And it was sort of a well-meaning, sort of nice, just family sitcom. It wasn't great, but it was-- - It's about the Irish people. I don't care for the Irish. - No, who does? I don't like a play, I mean, come on. - I don't like, I hate all races, including my own. - Yeah, don't we all? - That's what we'll learn in here. - I really, I have a real problem with people who identify too much with their ethnic past Americans. - Right, right. - Like, I think you would have a little bit more of a license since your father's from that country. - Well, what I say is, I say my father's Irish and my mother's American, 'cause my mother's from Maine. And so they go, "What do you mean, American? What is your--?" - Yeah, and I say, "Well, she's from America. She's from Bangor, Maine." - She's from Maine. - Oh, and my father's from Ireland. - Yeah. - You know, if you travel or spend time in an immigrant family, that's how you think of it, I think. - Yeah, absolutely. Like, I always say I'm American, and people are like, "What are you talking about?" - Right, right. - Or I'm American. That's, there's no other, and like when I lived in England, if someone was like, "I'm Italian," and they were like, you know, from Italy. - Yeah. - If you were not really-- - Yeah, right, exactly. - You have a very odd culture here. So, at nine o'clock, what'd you go with? - I went with Primetime Wrestling, WWF, and I gotta tell ya, every Monday night, probably that's probably when it started. - This is the Pre-Raught Euro. - Oh yeah, this was Primetime Wrestling, hosted by Gorilla Monsoon about the brain heat, and Bobby the brain heat in underrated comic jeans. - Ham and Egger. - Ham and Egger, yeah. Goldbreaker, you know, most of the jokes and comedy timing that I've ever learned in my life. He was a big hero of mine, and he was a big hero of mine, and still is, and Monday's still belong to Monday Night Raw in my life. - Really? Is it still on? - Yeah. - Oh, it's on Sci-Fi channel, now, right? - No, it's on USA still. - It's on USA still? - Yeah, we're coming up on, yeah, Monday Night Raw, I think they said they're 20th anniversary or something like that, but it's the most, it's the thing I know most about in my life is WWE. - See how much, that's one revelation I'm getting from doing this show. - Is how many of my friends are secretly die-hard wrestling fans? - Yeah, and it's sort of one of those things where the problem is is that it's becoming more okay because nerd culture, and it's very similar to any nerd culture. You know, you know the people that got worked up when there was this great article in Cracked on Cracked.com about kind of explaining wrestling fans in the context of, you know how everyone got worked up when Ben Affleck was named Batman, right? - Yeah, now he's playing Hulk Hogan, right? But the idea is that like, that's how we feel when something happens to our show, but people are like, "But it's fake." It's like, "Well, so is Batman," and you're getting worked up about that. - Did you know, this was probably the wrestling fact that blew my mind the most, that for three years, Bob Mould wrote for wrestling? - Yeah. - That's crazy. I'm always surprised to play wrestling. - Patrice O'Neill for a short time wrote for wrestling. - Yeah, it's very, very odd. I liked wrestling before I had pubes, and then I kind of gave up on it. It was a big Hulk Hogan's rock and wrestling fair. I always watched Saturday Night's main event. So Saturday Night's main event for people that don't know, a Saturday Night Live was on for three weeks out of the month, and the fourth week, it was replaced in the time slot by Saturday Night's main event. - Which beat him in the ratings every time? - It did beat him in the ratings every time. Different demographics. Actually, in 1985, speaking of television parts, they tried to replace Saturday Night Live with television parts before Lauren Michaels came back. They were gonna cancel it and replace it with television parts. But I was like, "I'm not into that." But Saturday Night's main event I watched, which I think I only watched 'cause I would tune in to watch SNL, and then I would watch it. - I've tried to explain to people the love of wrestling, and unless you're a fan, it's one of those things where I, you know, I've been through almost every era now. - Right. - With the Hulk Hogan, and then in college, it was Stone Cold and the Rock and WWE World and all that, and then the more recent stuff. And it's just like, at this point, I got 30 years in on this thing. - I can't just give up on it. - You know, even if I, you know, it has its ups and downs, but I got three decades in on it. - I mean, I imagine that's how people must feel. That's so popular. It's very similar. - Yeah, exactly, yeah. - But you still can't justify "Joke the Clown." "Dunk the Clown." - "Dunk the Clown." - Yes, I can. I'll be happily justified, "Dunk." - What about "Dink." - "Dink." No. "Dunk" is an evil clown. That was a great character. - So, how much of a fan of "In St. Clown" posse are you? - I'm not a fan at all. - 'Cause that's really, "Dunk the Clown" is these stooges to the "In St. Clown" posse's punk rock. - No, but "Dunk the Clown" was a wrestler playing a character and, you know, and he actually recently died. Name's Matt Borne. - Was he a spy? - He was not. No. That would be Jason Moore. - That's Jason Moore. - Yeah, right, right. - I don't want your wrestling to be at any movie star. - He started "Dunk the Clown," right? No, "Dunk the Evil Clown" was great, but then they turned him good and gave him a midget, a little person. It was pretty lame. Wrestling, it's one of those things where, you know, I remember Chris Rock talked about, I like hip hop and I'm tired of defending it. - Yeah. - That's how I feel about wrestling. It's like, I'm not gonna defend it, I'm not gonna talk anyone into it, but it's my thing. - Fair enough. I would have gone with "Cait and Allie." There's no question about it. This episode at Joe Nameth in it, which is the only reason I know who Joe Nameth is, and this is a new day and time. This is the first time that "Cait and Allie" moved to CBS Monday nights. - Okay. - So my Monday night, CBS 1988 was solid. - Oh, nice. - Solid through the night, because at 9.30, I always went with "Designing Women." This is a great episode. Love "Designing Women," big fan. - Again, I hate Myshek Taylor. - Why do you hate Myshek Taylor? - 'Cause he's gay. - No, no. - Oh my God. - Is he gay? - I don't know if he's gay. - I think he played that character so well in "Mannequin." - Hollywood. - That we assume he's gay. - Yeah. - But who knows? - He's, he's, he just might be selfish. - So Tuesday night, eight o'clock, what are you going with? - I reluctantly chose who's the boss. - We all did. - Yeah. - Everybody did at that time. Again, this is the quintessential show. I never liked, but watched every week. - Sure, sure. - I hate Tony Dansa. - Yeah. - In this episode, Angela gives Tony the cue to help his insecure opponent get out from behind the eight ball in a pool table showdown. - See, I feel like that's something I could watch right now and be like that, right? - Yeah, it's, it would be on the background. - And again, Mona was another like, "Room of Clannahan type character." - She was sexy. - Older lady that was sexy. I find "Room of Clannahan" sexier than that Katherine Helman. - No, I think if we do an online vote on who is sexier, "Room of Clannahan." - Well, if it's an online vote, you know it's gonna be accurate. - It's gonna be accurate. Well, I can't get a 900 number accurately in real time, but if we took calls, I think we'd take a call. You know what would be funny? Is it, you know how you get those political calls to see what they're going for? - Yeah, right. - If you were like, all right, and they were like, would you rather make sex with "Room of Clann", or Katherine Helman? - I like, would you be a tech person? - The person's bored. - Yeah. - And the person has it so many times, they're bored. - We should just do that. We should just get a phone book. - 'Cause there's nothing, we're not allowed to do that. - You're right, yeah, a couple people if we want it. - And I'd be curious to you, 'cause I think either people would answer immediately 'cause they hadn't hit them, or they would just be like, "What?" - Yeah, I imagine it'd be more confusing than anything else. But I love the idea of a person in the call center and getting bored with asking this question. - If I make an eight bucks an hour. - If I ever become a millionaire, which is just a matter of time, I will spend some money on that. I will hire a call center to make these calls and cool. - I would buy in the movie theaters, you know how you have those? Not the average, not the commercials, but the-- - The slides. - The slides, yeah. - I would buy a slide with me waving and saying, "Hey, come see Brendan in the second to last row," and then they turn and I would be there. It's just waving and saying hi to people. - Well, that would be extra funny is if you hired a friend of yours to be in another row, and then have another slide be like, "Don't do that, come see this guy." And then people would be very, very conflicted. - Yeah, I used to go to the movies every Tuesday when I was in college. It was the one day we could end up classes and it didn't work. And so I'd go to the first showing, so I would usually be alone in the theater. And one week I went to see the movie Snow Day, which is a great movie done by the guys who created Pete and Pete, that's supposed to be an adventures movie. - Right, right, right, right. - And it was the first show, it was 10 a.m., and I forgot there was School Vacation Week. So I was in there with this grandmother and her three or four grandkids, and I hadn't shaved, and I looked like a dirt bag, and I'm sitting in the back, and I'm the only one in there, and they keep turning around looking at me like, "Why is this vagrant? "Is it gonna kill us?" - Yeah. - And then I enjoyed the movie, so I'm laughing, and when I laughed, they'd turn around really terrifying. - Yeah, like, he came for you, Robert. - I know, so now I start trying to stifle my laughter, which makes it worse because it meant that I would laugh like 30 seconds after a funny part. So now I'm laughing for no reason in their eyes, and they left halfway through the movie. So that planted my backfire on you, if you put those things on. - Yeah, that's true. - So 8.30 would you go with? - I just couldn't find anything. I feel like maybe I would have switched over to the Braves versus the Cardinals game. - So you would not have gone with Full House? - Oh, I have never seen more than 30 seconds of Full House. - Is it your most hated sitcom? - It is probably the most hated sitcom. - Wow, what about it? Do you hate so much? - It just repulses me in every way, everything about it. - Do you hate dead moms? - I see, if it were about the dead mom, maybe I'd-- - That'd be interesting. - Yeah, right. I can't tell you what, I just hated the kids, and I hated the, you know, John Stamos, who I like very much now, but like, John Stamos being cool and-- - You didn't believe he was cool. He wasn't a fawns for the '90s. - He was not a fawns for the '90s, and Dave Coolier, I was a big fan of Out of Control. - Out of Control was one of Nickelodeon's best shows. - I was a big fan of that, and then when I, it could, didn't carry over, and Saggot, you know, again, this was before we knew. - See, I was, so the two things on Full House for me is one, even though I was seven, I knew it was created by Jeff Franklin, who wrote Summer School, which is one of my favorite movies, so I was psyched about Full House for that reason. - See, Summer School's one of your favorite movies? - It's a great comedy. Summer School's a movie that I can put on and go to sleep today. - Exactly, I can put it on and go to sleep today. - I enjoy it. - I love Summer School. - I love Summer School. - It's in my, it's probably my top 10 favorite comedies. - Wow, it's so nondescript. - Well, who doesn't look more convict? It's got a great cast, call runner. - But it's got, it's just, it's the television of movies. - It's a very television type movie. It seems very much like a TV movie, right? But I love Jeff Franklin, I love Dave Coolier, 'cause Out of Control was maybe my favorite show in a couple of days. - It is, yeah, yeah. - Great show, really funny, weird, innovative, strange show. - They just, with Nickelodeon in the early days, they just said, "Hey, Canadians, you just have this for a little while, and you're a weird, creative Canadian." - Yeah, but that wasn't a Canadian show, that was one of-- - Well, he's Canadian, right? - No, he's from Detroit. - But that was-- - I think he was Canadian. - Oh, he's hockey. - And he boned Alanis Morissette. - He did, and that gives you Canadian citizenship. - I think so, yeah, that's a sovereign nation. - It's like planting a flag on the moon. (laughing) - That's what we call that. And then also, I knew Bob Saggot because I'd seen him on the Young Comedians special, and Rodney Dangerfield special. So I'd seen him do it, do it in comedy. And when I saw him as the dad on that show, I was like, "Whoa, that's very strange." - I think Full House and Family Matters is a close second in the shows that I just hated, and it wasn't even really 'cause of Urkel, it was everybody else but Urkel. - Okay, fair enough, fair enough. - At least with Urkel, I was sort of like, all right, they're going for something here. - I also, I did sort of like Full House because I really enjoyed three men and a baby at the time. And it was sort of a similar part. I'm surprised there aren't like some weird conservative people who are pointing to Full House as the future of where we're going. - Yeah, exactly, we're going to have three guys, raisin girls, all right, San Francisco. Like, you've never heard that there. I don't know how that happened now on hindsight. How did some conservative Christians-- - But I was very anti-Full House, very anti-Full House. - Well, let's agree to disagree. We'll move on to nine o'clock, Tuesday night. What'd you go with? - Moonlighting. - Yeah, there's no question, Moonlighting. This is a great, great episode. It's one with where Maddy Hayes' sister is in the picture as he's dating her in this episode. David returns to the remnants of a mutiny on the Blue Moon bounty and a visit from someone who wants to have a father to David chat about responsibility and obligation. You get Curtis Armstrong. - Oh, Curtis Armstrong, so strong in that show. - I've never said-- - The Agnes Topesto - Oh, she's great. - And covered by all the romance. - Yeah, I've never seen Curtis Armstrong in something that I did not love. - He's great. - He's great in everything. - Everything's fantastic. - He was great in all the cartoon work he's done. Fantastic. - Yeah, a big fan. - Wednesday night, eight o'clock. What's your move? - With growing pains. - Again, I think this is the move. 88, the prime season for growing pains. I love growing pains. Season two, season three, season four, especially three and four, were by far the best season-- - They seem to, as it got later, seemed to be sneaking in kind of adult jokes. Like, I remember one time they were, Ben was making a movie. - Yes, with the bikini. - Yeah, and like he had, he was supposed to go on a, he had a sign on the phone and it was supposed to say public phone, but it said pubic phone, yeah. And I remember noticing that going, "Huh." - Yeah. Growing pains had a lot of, it was a smarter show than people gave a credit for. - And that's why Kirk Cameron decided to storm him in the producer's office and tell him they were making pornography. - Well, he was-- - He leads me to believe he's never actually seen pornography. - No, I imagine he hasn't. He-- - Tell him to show him, "No, this is pornography." - Kirk Cameron's the classic, "I was a cokehead and now I'm a Christian." - Yeah, yeah. - Like, I can't think of anyone that's more of a text book case of that, it's horrific. - Still going on. - But also, he had a problem with Julie McCullough being on the show 'cause she was in play. - Right, right. - Which he decided meant was pornography. This episode is when a nomination for student body president opens up New Horizons for Mike, who's unaware he was chosen because he's, quote, "such a loser," which I thought was great because he was presented as, like, he thought he was a cool guy, but a lot of the people at the school thought he was a loser, which was unusual for a sitcom, and he was also the butt of a lot of the jokes he wasn't supposed to be the person we wanted to be like, which is kind of a cool take on a show like that, which also, I think, is just 'cause the writers thought he was kind of a dude. - Right, so, like, let's make him-- - Yeah. - And I guess Alan Thicke was famously very cheap, so they made Jason Seever very cheap. Yes, yes. - And, did you ever see "Thick of the Night?" - I did not see "Thick of the Night." - "Thick of the Night" was-- - I heard of it. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - No, it was a-- - All right, a talk showing. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - It was interesting. - Right. - I'm surprised they haven't brought back "Thick of the Night" with his sons. - Yeah, right. - Or that's an album name or something. So, 8.30, what'd you go with? - I went with "Head of the Class." - Again, favorite show of mine. - Yeah. - It made me terrified of New York City in a weird way. - Mm-hmm. - I always-- - All the F thing I've ever seen. No, I always, for some reason, and again, I don't know it. - It's been a lot more racial jokes than this than "Thick of the Night." - It was a couple of a lot on this podcast. - It was the '80s. - It was the '80s, and we're in New England. - Yeah, yeah. - Most people in all races. - All right, right. - But "Head of the Class" was because, for some reason, and I, again, don't know why this happened, but I always believed, in the back of my mind, that "Head of the Class" took place in the same New York as the Warriors. (laughing) So, I always picture them in the school and the Warriors just going outside. - Yeah, no, I could say that, yeah. - Although, now that I think about it, what a great thing that would make if you could somehow mash together the "Head of the Class" and the Warriors. - But the thing about growing pains, and it wasn't on here, but my favorite spin-off of growing pains is just the ten of us. - Just the ten of us. - I'm talking about puberty. - Oh, yes. - Those daughters, Jamie Looner-- - Oh, yes, I met her before. - Did you sign by just the ten of us cast photo? - She was one of those, okay, I'm a heterosexual. - Like that, we just know. - They made a lot of jokes about her having weight problems. There was a great episode where her and the coach are both on diets. - Right, she was gorgeous. - But that show was really funny. - Yeah. - And really knowing-- - I just remember it was smart. - It was just very boner, bonerific. - Bonerific, ironically, when growing pains is the one that had boners. - Yeah, sure. - Also growing pains, I mean, just ten of us, I always remember used the word "slut" very frequently, used the word "stinking" and always called the bathroom the "can." - All right. - I would be like, "Hey, you're stinking slut. "I'm in the can." - Yeah. - And Bill Kirkenbauer was a protege of Gallagher. - Yes, he was very good in the Senate community. I always enjoyed Bill Kirkenbauer. He was in a movie called "Full Moon High." In the early '80s, that was about a werewolf high school that I think Larry Cohen wrote. But pretty weird comedy. But just the ten of us was a really smart, phony show. And what happened with growing pains was a lot of the great growing pains writers moved to just the ten of us. - Right. - And season four, which is when growing pains sort of took a nosedive. And just the ten of us got really good. But that was on Friday nights this year. - Yeah. - Great show. - Not this week. - Not this week. - Yeah. - Only three seasons. - My 12th birthday. - But I couldn't get a, you know, some-- - I remember I got suspended from Skrual. - These. - Who's in "Never an Elf Street" part four. - I had their lagging camp. - Had a lagging camp. - That's pretty good. - 'Cause there's an odd "Never an Elf Street" connection. - Yeah, she was. - Bill So was Joanne Willette, was in "Never an Elf Street" part one. And JR, just the ten of us, frequently wore a they were known as her t-shirt. - Yeah, okay. - And two cast members were never the answer. - Right. - Very strange. I was like Evan Arnold on that show, who played Gavin Doosler, who was a character he also played on "Grown Paints." - Okay. - I see him in commercials every now and he pops up still. But one week I got suspended from Skrual in the third grade because I threw an eraser at somebody. And that night was an episode where Wendy got suspended from Skrual in just a ten of us. So I felt a real connection. - Yeah, I bet. - So at nine o'clock would you go, oh, I should mention though, the head of the class episode is every year they would do a musical, and this was the one where they did "Grease." - Oh, okay, yeah. Nine o'clock would you go with? - I think I probably would have caught the last hour of back to school. - Yeah. - On the danger field. - I think that's a good move. - I mean, I know, I probably would have seen it a bunch of times, but I would switch over. - That's over. - You can check in on that. - You can just get right in. - Yeah. - You're not really gonna ask me like, "Wait, what's happening here? I'm confused." - The only screen appearance by Kurt Vonnegut. - Oh, really? - He's in there, and they've got that kinesin scene that's so funny. - But he has, and Steve Sweeney's in it. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - But Kurt Vonnegut writes his paper on Kurt Vonnegut. - Oh, okay. - Actually, Kurt Vonnegut, which is really, really weird. - I was probably too young to know who that was. - Yeah, well, I would imagine you would be. - Yeah, yeah. - So let's go Thursday night, eight o'clock, what'd you get? - I mean, I was in the '80s, it had to be the Cosby Show, right? - There was really no other question. - And that got to the point where I felt like I was watching it out of habit. - It was always good that I don't think it was a Cosby Show ever really dipped in quality. It was always very funny. And I feel like Cosby Show was one of the prime examples of a show where the plot did not matter at all. - Yeah, I remember just not liking Vanessa very much. - But she was a Theo fan. - Well, yeah, you remember when we're Theo moved out, when I moved out that was good. But Vanessa was, I thought, a very realistic teenager girl character. - Maybe that's why I didn't like her. - Probably. - 'Cause I was gonna be a teenage boy, and then I didn't like them, they didn't like me. - I think, you know, for the most part, sometimes you're not supposed to like her. - Right, right, right. - But the Cosby Show, I would have loved to have been adopted by the Cosby Show. I mean, I don't think anyone would have, right, not wanted that thing to happen. - Ken Reed, this is a sitcom of itself at your age. - Yeah, right now, they could raise me as their own, and it'd be fantastic. - But isn't it amazing, you know, and they bring it up recently about how, you know, Bill Cosby had all those accusations made against him about sexually salting women, and how, we were just like, no, not Cliff Huxball. - Yeah, no. - Who knows? - Yeah. - He did work with Quincy Jones a lot, with his jazz albums. - $8.30, what'd you go with? - Um, Different World. - 'Cause you only had two choices. It was Mr. Ed, and Different World. - Right, right. - Different World was a great show. I always enjoyed it. - Yeah, I thought it was good. Dwayne Wayne. - Everyone liked Dwayne Wayne. - Yeah, yeah. - Even Sinbad was good on him. - Yeah, right. - And I didn't like his sitcom Mark later, but I loved him on a-- - Who didn't like Dwayne Wayne? - Nine o'clock, what'd you go with? Dwayne Wayne was in a great movie called Def by Temptation, by the way, which is about demons. - Hmm. - Trauma put it out. I liked Dwayne Wayne. Check out Def by Temptation. - Does he have the flip glasses? - He does. - Oh, wow, okay. Wow, they put it in the movie. - Yeah. - Uh, what'd you go with? - I mean, Cheers. - Cheers. - Yes. - One of the best shows of all-- Top, maybe Top three shows in my opinion. - What are your other two? - Simpsons. - Okay. - I think Simpsons is probably number one. I'd say Cheers is probably number two. And I would go on comedies. (sighs) God, this is grinding to a halt. - That's all right. You don't have to answer that. - Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think it's a close two to Simpsons number one. - Simpsons and Cheers. - And plus it took place in Boston. I mean, it was just like-- - Right. - It was like the Celtics. You know, in the '80s were like the Celtics, Cheers. You know, I mean, that was my childhood. - Yeah, that's the two big things. - Yeah. - This episode features a sports cameo by the Red Sox, Wade Balcon. - No, that was great. And they took his pants, right? - Yeah, sorry. - I know of Wade Balcon from this episode when I took T-Ball for one year in 1986, or '07, I was kicked off the team later. - We passed Wade Balcon, sorry, it's all rushing back to me. - But we had to do baseball cards of ourselves so that they could charge our parents' money for both of us. - Sure, yeah. - And write our favorite baseball player, and I just wrote Wade Balcon, 'cause I had known of him from Cheers. No clue who Wade Balcon is. - Oh, wow. - Could not tell you who that was. - So, yeah, I mean, so this was '88, so it was two years after they were in the World Series. So I was watching baseball at that time too. So, never liked baseball. - Yeah. - 930. - 930? - Night Court. - There's no question, Night Court. - When, you know, it looks like they moved family ties at this point, but at one point, you had that Cosby family ties, Cheers, Night Court, and what a lineup. I was talking about that the other day. I was trying to explain the younger people how what an amazing Thursday night was. - That's a good point of, you know. - Only law was a little too old for me. - It was too old for me. - And Dr. Giggles scared me on it. But it was fantastic. In this episode, Mac inherits $2 million, showers his friends with gifts and quits his job, and he's replaced by an in-app clerk who brings the criminal justice system to its knees. I have never seen an episode of Night Court that I didn't know. - Even a Mac heavy one. - Yeah, I liked Mac, he was used very well. There wasn't a single character in Night Court, I didn't like it. - Yeah, John Larricut was amazing. - John Larricut is one of my personal heroes. I love John Larric. - Very attracted to Markey Post, too. - Who is it? - She was on some movie where she played a hooker. - Yes, she was gonna did a bunch of two movies. - Yeah, and she was one time in this lingerie thing. - Yeah. - And I can tell you any deal field other than that, but I remember it like it was yesterday. - She was in Hearts of Fire, which is a good show. - Yeah, right, right, right. - It was a good show. - Yeah, that was a pretty decent show. Linda Blubber Thomas, who did Design Room, Design Room. - Friday night, the final night of the week, what do you go with eight o'clock? - Perfect strangers, I went with. - Again, a show I never really enjoyed, but watched every-- - My mother was a really big fan of it. So I think I enjoyed her enjoying it. - What did she like about it? - I think she liked the physical comedy part of it. - It was very slapstick. - I think two of them, 'cause I remember one episode where they were wearing skis in the apartment and they kept pushing each other and leaning backwards. - It's a very, I love Lucy. - Right, yeah, and I think my mother really enjoyed that, and she very rarely watched TV, or very rarely liked it, enjoyed TV. - She only watched a couple of strangers. - It was kind of like that. I mean, that was the thing she liked. And strangely enough, she's not a TV person, and she's not a comedy person, but she liked that, and then years later, Reno 9-1-1. - Weird. - Loved it, 'cause she doesn't like dirty, or like ever accept that. And she's like, it's outrageous, but it's so funny. And she would laugh at Reno 9-1-1. - That's very strange. - It's very out of character. - I probably would have watched perfect strangers, but it was a repeat. So I think what I would have gone with is probably Black's magic. - I don't even know what that is. It was a very short-lived show, and it started one of my favorite people on Earth, Howlinden. - Howlinden, right? I remember that. - Marnie Miller. - And Howlinden played a stage magician that sort of solved mysteries with his father, who was played by Harry Morgan, who's always. - Oh, wow, all right. - And in this episode, Tina Louise is the guest star, as well as Frank Bonner from WKRP. - Oh, man, I'm really satisfied. If I'd done my research, I would have watched. - Great show. While working as a technical consultant for a new movie, Alex gets an added responsibility when the producer is murdered. This is a really, really good episode. Also, I should mention Claudia Christiansons, who, Claudia Christiansons, played Bill's mother on "Freaks and Geeks" later, but is also a stripper in the movie "The Hidden," which is a great, great movie. She's been in a ton of things. Very funny movie called "Hext." She's in "Hext is very funny." So I would have gotten a Black's magic, no question about it, absolutely, which would have made me miss "Full House" as well. What did you pick at 8.30? - Now that I know Black's magic, can I switch to that? - You can switch to Black's magic. - We're going for the hour of Black's magic. - It's a second half of Black's magic. - Yeah, all right. - 'Cause you would have called, we would have known each other. - Yeah, I wouldn't tell you, you should watch Black's magic. - Oh, Black's magic, you know, you should watch it. - I still had that show, and it's very good. It didn't last very long, though. It was a fun show. Nine o'clock, what's your move? - Mr. Belvedere. - Classic final season, this is when you got married. They kind of screwed around with the episode and whatever, but it was still amusing. I would have gone with that as well. - Except for Hewitt, everybody likes Christopher Hewitt. This was an hour-long episode, and they did this because they aired the finale, essentially. - Oh, okay, it was an hour-long? I must have got that wrong. - Oh, no, I'm sorry, this isn't the hour-long number, correct. They ran a show that did not do very well. They burned off the pilot at 9.30, a show called Doodles. - Doodles, I have not heard of that. - Doodles start Hoyt Axton as Doodle, and a tomboy wants to take advantage of a too-good-to-be-true sale on color TVs, despite a caution from her friend Doodle that the goods may be hot. - I don't know if there's actually multiple characters named Doodle. - Yeah, Doodle and Doodle too. I also like the-- - They're just confusing. - Yeah, which Doodle, which one are you about? - I should also mention that TV guy felt the need to say, not on ABC's announced fall schedule. - So don't get you into this. - Even TV guy was like, this show. - I don't want to watch this, it probably isn't. I should also mention, as I do every week, when 2020's on a Friday night, 2020 was the one show my parents did not allow me to watch because it messed me up. So I always like to read what that episode was about. This week is scheduled a 50th anniversary salute to Tanglewood, the Massachusetts Summer Residence of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. - That would mess with your head, yeah. - That really would have scared me. And then it included performances by the orchestra and Soviet-born pianist Vladimir Feltzman. - Scary stuff. - That probably would have scared me. And they're like, don't go to Tanglewood. - To catch a predator. - To catch a concert pianist. - To catch a concert pianist. As we know, TV guy does not just inform it. - Well wait, I have the second half of a-- - Oh, sorry, you didn't go do it. - I'm sorry, I didn't go do it. I picked an NFL exhibition game. - I have nothing to talk about for that. I don't know anything about the NFL. - Pre-season, literally, I would have been like, all right, I want to just pre-season giant and browns game. - And no stakes football game. That's why doodles never made it. - I would have chosen the no stakes. Why do I lose all my money better than these pre-season games? - Damn it, damn it. So as you know, TV guy does not just inform it. It has opinions and it cheers. - Right, controversial. - Very controversial. - So I'll read you this week's Cheers and Cheers and I'll see if you agree or disagree with that. First, Cheers to Pulaski, the TV detective for its offbeat charm. This overlooked British series, which includes this week on cable's A&E centers on Larry, the heart-drinking womanizing American star of his detective show, filmed in England. - I'm gonna go disagree, I'm gonna go jeers. - You're gonna go jeers? - Yeah, because that heart-drinking womanizing stuff, I don't think that's what we should be exporting to England. - That's true. - It's imported from England. - Oh, but it was an American character? - It was American character. - So we were showing Americans in a bad light. - A bad light. I've actually never heard of this show, but this description makes me wonder. - Yeah, right. - So I'm indifferent on that one. - Yeah, right. - Jeers to ABC's summer replacement series, Hot House, for abusing a good cast with bad scripts. - See, I think Cheers, that's the best thing you should do to a good cast. - What do you think the show's about? - Hot House, probably just flower gardeners. - Here's the show. The show concerns itself with the staff of a psychiatric clinic, but it would appear the inmates were running the asylum. In one episode, the neurotic doctors did nothing, but talk about their problems and self-doubts while jumping in and out of bed with each other. An hour of anxious pillow talk is hard to take. The painful part has been watching some excellent actors try to make good drama out of silly psycho babble. - See, I think I'd go Cheers with that again. I would think that sounds like I would enjoy that. - It's kind of like ER, yeah. Cheers to PBS's documentary series, Frontline, for consistent quality. - Sure. - It's a good job. - Yeah, it's like, fuck you, Frontline. - Yeah, and I'll go with Cheers. - Sure. - Your Frontline's always great. - And finally, Cheers to Geraldo Rivera for his interview with Natalie Wood's sister Lana and Warren Harris who wrote a book on the late actresses' two marriages to Robert Wagner. On a syndicated talk show, Rivera grilled the two guests about Wood's death as though they were on trial for murder or at the very least suppressing evidence. - That's probably the most thing with the most integrity Geraldo has ever done. So if they knew what was happening later, it was like-- - Like this though, turning to the studio audience, he prompted quote, "If you think Natalie's death "was an accident, applaud, with her sister there." - Right, right, right. - What a piece of shit. - Sure, but he became much shittier. - Oh, he absolutely did. - Yeah, I mean, he had to up the shittiness to-- - To overcome the general shittiness of the media that had risen. - That's true. - Like a kid's tie, and he's been a tie to the shit. - But he was a forerunner of that shit. - Absolutely. - Absolutely. - So cheers for Geraldo. - Cheers for Geraldo. - And Brennan, thank you so much for the show. - Absolutely, thank you for having me. (upbeat music) - And that was Brendan Boogie. So you can check him out. Just Google Brendan Boogie, I'll also put some links to his music page. You can also check out the Mayor of Rock and Roll when it comes out, what she assures me should be very soon. And also, please keep emailing me at candidikendread.com. Tell me if you like the show. Tell me if you don't like the show. Tell me things I got wrong. Tell me things I got right. Whatever you want. And also, please like us on the Facebook page. We will have some very good guests coming up. I don't want to spoil anything, but definitely subscribe. You don't want to miss any special episodes. And we'll see you next week on TV Guidance Counselor. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [MUSIC PLAYING]