Did Étoile Make Our Toes Twinkle?

Dave: [0:12] This is the Extra Extra Hot Great Podcast, episode 351 for the April 26, 2025 weekend. I am ballet-loving arms dealer David T. Cole, and I'm here with terrible accent Sarah D. Bunting. Sarah: [0:33] Mercy buckets. Dave: [0:34] And graceful eco-terrorist Tara Ariano. Tara: [0:37] I'm going to pirouette onto your fishing boat and blow it up! Sarah: [0:49] Meows at Sarah's place during the announcement. There's probably not any ninja cats near you. Sarah: [0:54] Welcome to another episode of Extra Extra Hot Great. We are so glad that you're here with us for another week. We could not and would not do this without you. And speaking of that, as the manager at the Extra Hot Great Mutual Aid Vault Bank, If you're listening to this, you're a member on the Patreon. We thank you very much for that. But the end of the month approacheth, which is when people sometimes have to reassess their expenses. So if the economic uncertainties of late have you feeling like you have to cut back, we get it. But the Extra Hot Great Mutual Aid Vault is here for you. We have a number of generous depositors willing to fund 12 months of extra, extra hot great goodness. All you have to do is throw your name in for one. Just email me at bunting at tomato nation dot com or DM me on the discord. It is Cinchy. There is not an application process. You do not have to justify your spreadsheet. Just ask. And if you would like to join the ranks of the generous depositors yourself, that is very kind of you. Same deal. Just reach out to me, bunting at tomato nation, DM on the Discord. I will add you to my Excel of fame. Thank you all for listening and making our jobs fun. Let's all keep doing it together. Tara: [2:07] Thank you, Sarah. We are here this week to talk about Etoile, in which Jack, Luke Kirby, is the head of a major ballet company in New York. Geneviève, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, is the head of a major ballet company in Paris. In both cities, funding and audiences are drifting away, but top patron Crispin Chablis, Simon Callow, is ready to throw his money at the problem. What if the two companies exchanged key personnel for a while? It would be such a fun story they could mark it. But then, Jack demands principal dancer Cheyenne, Lou Delage, and no one is happy about it, especially not Cheyenne herself. The show, which has already been renewed for a second season, was co-created by Amy Sherman Palladino and Daniel Palladino, formerly of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Gilmore Girls. All eight episodes dropped on Prime Video April 24th. I guess it's theoretically possible that we could talk about events from any of them, but I would be very surprised if we get past the series premiere. Let's do the Chen check-in. Sarah, should our listeners watch Etoile? Sarah: [3:16] I actually don't know. If you have been put off by Palladino product in the past, probably no. But I'm going to have to hang up and listen to what you guys have to say about it, because I am not sure what to do myself. Tara: [3:30] Wow. I'm surprised. Dave? Dave: [3:32] Well, I mean, if you're on the fence like that, the answer is no. But the pilot was doing so much that it was actually sort of exhausting to watch it and not fun. So I'm going to give this one a pass. Tara: [3:44] There was a time when I would have been a hard yes on this. It's like I love ballet movies and dance movies and this would have, I thought, be my thing. But that time was probably 25 years ago and now it's a no for me. So let's get into it. Whenever I re-engage with Palladino Works, I'm kind of surprised they're still writing dialogue like that. But then I remember they were actually wildly successful with it on Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and they must know better than I do. So what do I know? But, Sarah, you agree it sounds like. Sarah: [4:17] I really do. Like, I had forgotten that we picked this sort of as a prospective hate watch for Buncee. so I settled in with it and I was like pulled up the IMDB page like who's that guy oh Lou Kirby and then it was like this dialogue feels very arch and I think they're going for hyper realistic and missing and it's just one of those things where like you miss by an inch and it might as well be a mile usually for me with these creators so I'm looking at the IMDB page and I'm like oh Oh, like, you know, you could feel the temperature of my esteem dropping with every sort of passing second. But then at the same time, like these actors are so charming. There's some process-y stuff happening. And so even by the end of the premiere, I was very torn because I want to see what Luke Kirby and Simon Callow do with this. But I also don't know if I can hang with Cheyenne. Oh, God. I mean, it really was exhausting. Dave's right. Tara: [5:19] We should just give a note that there's a cat in Sarah's office who is meowing. Dave: [5:23] Oh, is that what that is? Tara: [5:24] If you hear that. Sarah: [5:26] I am very sorry about that. Cookie Puss, the foster cat, is at the very top of a piece of furniture and yowling at the outdoors wanting to go to there. And eventually this will stop. But I apologize for any inconvenience to others. Fucking Cookie. Tara: [5:44] Yeah, I liked Gilmore Girls in its day, but these guys and Sorkin and everyone on Shonda Rhimes shows like it feels that style of TV writing feels so antique to me. And that's a problem. The other problem is like when you when you're talking about it, they're going for hyper realistic. It's like when you watch the pilot, you can't tell like where they spent the money because some of the stuff looks extremely cheap. Like, there's shots of Cheyenne on a boat, like, doing activism against fishing poachers, I guess. And it just looks like absolute shit. The backdrop behind the ballet studio, like, it looks like it's from a play. Like, just, but they obviously. Sarah: [6:24] A high school play where there's, like, two sophomores, like, waving some blue cardboard. Tara: [6:29] Well, but it's, like, at the wrong angle, too. Like, I don't, it's impossible for me to tell if they're going for, like, no, this is supposed to be stagey. like a musical or or what like it's just it's so inconsistent even though they shot obviously some of it at the real lincoln center, Because you see the exteriors, that's really actually it. But all that plus the shortest episode this season is still over 50 minutes, 5-0, and the finale is an hour 15. Like, this dialogue does not reside comfortably in a runtime like that. It's so mannered and, like, rat-a-tatty. I just, I found, it really wore me down. Like, part of me celebrates the Palladinos completely abusing the blank check that the success of Maisel gave them. But I don't want to experience what has resulted from it, I guess. Like, good for you. Get yours. I'll be over here not watching. Sarah: [7:25] I mean, I don't think it's impossible that it could still work if they really sort of both leaned into that pacing that they clearly want. Like, one of my notes was like, this opening sequence should have been half the length, but all of the content in it. there's other problems with like characterization realism like this simon callow as conceived does not exist but i revere him and have watched bedrooms and hallways so many times that if he uses the phrase honesty stone at any point i will watch this entire series recatedly without complaint but i just feel like there's not like they could get away with this like rat-a-tat That 23s could do sort of thing that they seem to want to do, but they have to make some other concessions to pacing elsewhere and really lean into the hyper part of the hyper realism that they seem to be going for. I want this cast to be able to pull it off, but they don't seem to understand that the pacing of that dialogue has to go with the pacing of the actual events of your story. so like eight hour long episodes is bonkers that's too long. Dave: [8:42] There's something about watching a show that is rich person content, like ballet. I'm not against it. Succession was rich person content, literally. But there's something about that that is fun to watch. Whereas something about ballet is just like, I don't really care. Just like foreign and ungettable about that whole world that makes it hard to click with the characters in the same way that they want you to from their other shows. Like, it's the same formula, you know, like, I don't like you and I don't like you, but maybe we do and maybe we don't do do do do do do do do. Let's do the rhythm thing. Dave: [9:18] But like in this context, it feels very forced to me. Like, it doesn't really feel natural. And the fact in the pilot that they're like doing so many sides attacking the setting from so many different avenues. Like, you know, here comes the Paris people and here's the New York people and here's the arms dealer. and here is this and that. Like, it's too much. Like, this is a wild comparison. But the first two episodes of Frisky Dingo were so well done. Frisky Dingo number one, all about the villain. Frisky Dingo number two, all about the, quote, hero. And then off to the races. I feel like this could have benefited from that where they could have done a more established view of why New York wasn't working and then more established view of why Paris wasn't working. And then Worlds Collide might have been easier to get into because they were doing their usual frantic TV show thing here inside of the dialogue, inside of the character interactions, but then three times as many characters as usual in an episode, and it was all too much. Sarah: [10:27] And then when there are flashbacks that are sort of like, here's a character exposition speech, and then we're going to cut to the bulk of a solo performed by these people. Yes, I understand that it's a ballet show, and some people do want to see the ballet, but this is what I was saying about the pacing. You could have lost eight or nine minutes just on those sequences. Do it later when you've earned it. But the other thing that I wanted to pull out of my notes, which I wasn't exactly able to articulate, it's bringing in a lot of what it thinks is the audience's positive associations with fame, the movie and or the TV show, and all that jazz, which is a really brilliant movie about it. you know, dance company, Hefe, losing it and dying, basically. And if you are trying to trade on those associations, you have to understand better what made those things work. And in Fame's case, it was like, here's where you start paying in sweat, but also processy shit, at least in the movie, sort of, and good songs. And All That Jazz was kind of good songs, but also absolutely ace pacing and editing. And I felt kind of used when it came to the all that jazz part that I was like, well, you want me to associate you with that and you didn't really earn it. Tara: [11:48] Yeah, there probably isn't a way to make a comedy about two ballet companies without it being like so smug and pleased with itself. But even so, the opening scene with like, we're sitting in a club yelling to each other about which classical composers had syphilis is such an annoying way to set a tone. Like, I mean, like a show like this, it's not that it has to be relatable. Dave: [12:12] A fly in an ice cube. Hilarious. Pure hilarity. Pure Homer. Tara: [12:17] Yeah. And to your point about the arms dealer, like, so this is the Crispin character. He's, we're told he made his money, like, dealing arms and ravaging the environment, and that's why Jack doesn't want to work with him. Dave: [12:27] Mm-hmm. Tara: [12:28] But so, you know, the analog would be like he's a coke brother. But based on what we see in the premiere, I don't think they're actually equipped to take on like the political tradeoffs and compromises that you have to make in this world. Like, that's not a story I really want the Palladinos to try to tell. Sarah: [12:47] Honestly. Yeah, really, no. Dave: [12:49] I was going to say, that's a different team. Yeah. Tara: [12:52] Let's have the guys from the Americans do it. Because these guys. No, thank you. Dave: [12:58] Just speaking about the pacing, conversely, the one part where the pacing slowed down where I was really surprised it did was the aside Simpsons family guy-esque flashback to when the French ballet star was the eco-terrorist, the Greenpeace-style anti-fishing or anti-whaling warrior or whatever that was. That went on for so long when the beat was just like, I'm angry and I'm doing this. But it went on for five minutes and none of it was really very good. Tara: [13:27] Right. Well, that's not a flashback. It was supposed to be happening contemporaneously. Dave: [13:30] Oh, was it? Tara: [13:31] Yes. Because she comes in and still in her gear and that's when they tell her you're going to New York. Dave: [13:36] Oh, right, right, right. I don't know why I thought it was a flashback. I guess it had the cadence of a flashback. Tara: [13:39] Yes, cutaway. Dave: [13:41] Yeah, a cutaway. Thank you. It was so long when it just needed to be, I'm angry and I'm doing this and I don't know what I want. Yes. Tara: [13:48] Yeah. I will say, whatever Luke Kirby is doing skin-wise, he looks no different to me than when he was in Take This Waltz, and that was like 15 years ago. He looks amazing. Sarah: [13:59] Yeah. Maybe a little grayer than Rectify, but barely. Tara: [14:04] Yeah. There's a moment when Cheyenne gets to New York, and she's looking, like she's walking through the... whatever, the studios and stuff. And there's a bunch of old portraits on the walls. And she finds one of her that's her like yelling at a choreographer. And then he, Jack is in the background, like just delighted by her. And it's like, I want to get there, guys. She's so great. Sarah: [14:26] Yeah, she sucks. Tara: [14:28] I don't buy, I don't buy this really, I don't buy it. I just don't buy it. Sarah: [14:33] I don't buy it either. And I want the charm of the performances to override this, But that was something that never happened for me with Gilmore Girls or certainly Maisel. So I don't know why I would think it would happen here, even with Callow and Kirby, who I who I really like both of them and Gainsbourg, who I like, too. Tara: [14:51] Yeah. Although I will say about her, like there are going to be a lot of jokes about the language barrier, like her not knowing what stick a pin in it means. She can't speak with perfect English with a British accent. Her English is fine. She knows what she knows what idioms are. I didn't expect to like this and I didn't but like there was I was leaving room for it like I said I'm a dance like I'm a I'm a mark for a dance story but like I'm so behind on all the shows like I like unreservedly like this is such a B minus for me like I can't I can't commit in our current media landscape sorry go back in time and make this in the 2000s when there was less shit for me to watch. Sarah: [15:29] Yeah what's the point you might say? Tara: [15:33] Nice. Dave: [15:42] All right, everybody, let's settle in for a little segment we like to call Ask E-H-G-G. How do you say that? How do you say the name of that show? The ballet show? Tara: [16:09] A12. Dave: [16:10] A12. Yeah. I still think I see a lote. All right. Let's get into your Ask EASG questions. We don't have any judgment this week because we are taping this a little bit in advance. So let's start off with Diatho's question. You are going on the Amazing Race as a four-person team. Pick three characters from TV to go with you, but they all must be played by the same actor. Tara. Tara: [16:33] I'm going to be playing with Catherine Hahn as Jennifer Barkley from Parks and Recreation. She's resourceful, persuasive, bossy. She trades favors. This is the political operative that worked on Leslie's campaign. I'm also going to be playing with Catherine Hahn as Maya from the studio. She's a big picture thinker. She's good at the social game with other teams. She's giving out swag, making people like her. And, of course, going to be playing with Catherine Hahn as Agatha from Agatha all along, because which? Sarah. Sarah: [17:02] I was very curious to see if either of my co-panelists went all dancing, because that's what I'm doing. Dancing's Sam from Cheers, who was an athlete in a previous life. Dancing's Michael from The Good Place, who can bend reality. And dancing's Sheriff Hank Larson from Fargo Season 2. He can figure out puzzles and looks good in uniform. And that's not nothing. Dave. Dave: [17:26] For muscle, the ghoul, for the mental game, Uncle Baby Billy, and splitting the difference, being able to peel off to support either one of them, Boyd Crowder. Tara: [17:38] Nice. Sarah: [17:39] Yeah, love that. Dave: [17:40] Deauville Gent. In the original Scooby-Doo, there would be a musical montage where a song played while the Scooby gang executed their plan to capture the monster. What other show would benefit from resolving their episodes this way, and what song would you choose for that resolution? Sarah: [17:54] This is maybe too flippant under the circumstances, but the show does involve apprehending monsters. So, Law & Order Special Victims Unit, and the song is How Great Thou Art, but sung by the Sirens of Gotham and rendered as How Great Thou Aren't. Dave? Dave: [18:13] Well, I didn't pick a song, but just per our convo on Black Mirror recently, I feel like a lot of episodes on the recent season of Black Mirror could have really benefited from the Scooby-Doo montage acceleration of some of their stuff, especially the first episode, the subscription episode. If like all of the bad things that were happening to her with the ads and then more ads and then more ads and stuff like that were in a montage, that could have been a half hour episode. And that was definitely a half hour episode in spirit. And I feel like also, for some reason, when they did the montages, it actually was presented in Hanna-Barbera cartoon form to let you know they're accelerating the thing. Hey, all the better. That sounds fun to me. Tara: [18:53] Poker Face and Poker Face. Dave: [18:55] Okay. Elsbeth, what if BJ and the Bear was about BJ Honeycutt on The Bear? So BJ and the Bear about the trucker and the chimp is no longer about that. It's about BJ Honeycutt from MASH on the TV show The Bear about the restaurants. Okay. Glad we settled that. Honestly, I think BJ Honeycutt would be the perfect father figure for all the facts on The Bear. F-A-K-S. They'd love his war stories from the Korean War, especially the parts where he bent the rules like having a still in his tent. But B.J. Honeycutt was also, in relative terms, a pretty stable guy. And an older version of him would be probably more so. And I feel like they would respond and benefit from that. Tara? Tara: [19:39] Well, initially, I misread this and thought, OK, if it's BJ and the bear with BJ Honeycutt, we're going to see a lot more post-surgical infections from his chimp friend. But my actual answer for this is you're going to see platings at the bear with surgical precision. Sarah. Sarah: [19:59] I mean, Mike Farrell is still alive. I think it would be kind of rad if he just posted up in the bear's office or a back corner of the kitchen with a first aid kit and just silently patched up folks when they cut their fingers and whatnot. He never speaks. His presence is never explained. He's just there. Dave: [20:16] L triple B is next. What two TV characters not in the same TV universe would you want to have a beef with each other? Tara: [20:24] It's going to be two Chicago guys, Nick Miller from New Girl and Richie from The Bear, as we were just discussing. It's going to be a narcissism of small differences situation that ends in them just beating the crap out of each other because they are too similar and are going to naturally clash. Dave. Dave: [20:42] I'm going to go with the sad but passive aggressive B2 emo droid from Andor. Having a beef with Cheryl from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. that Cheryl is the cybernetic human empathy response Yuko slash lamp. Yes. That is also learns how to act from Kimmy and ends up being kind of a dick. So I think those two would have beef and it would be an extended beef because they're both robots. Sarah: [21:06] This is a recency bias answer, thanks to our first question in this section, I'm sure, but I would really like to see what would happen if Jamie Hector's Marlo Stanfield, no longer able to rule the streets of Balmer, fetched up in Los Angeles and murdered a rival whose death Jamie Hector's Jerry Edgar is investigating. They would definitely have beef with each other, and I would love to watch that cat and mouse unfold. Dave: [21:30] Next question is from Millsnack. What is Skeletor up to these days? Sarah. Sarah: [21:37] He has a podcast about the Ramones. I don't know why, but I feel very strongly that this is true. Tara. Tara: [21:43] He runs a CrossFit gym. Dave. Dave: [21:45] Bone cancer. Rindsey, what is finance bro Dracula up to these days? I think he probably cashed out of his whole courting the market on energy thing and got into Bitcoin and podcasting. His show is called Tales from the Crypto. Tales from the Crypto. Sarah. Sarah: [22:08] Yep. Mine is literally, he has a podcast about Bitcoin. So great minds. And also ours, Tara. Tara: [22:16] Shorting the market? Come on, guys. Duh. Dave: [22:19] Dr. Calhoun, I'm going to Europe in May. What are some travel tios? He typed, and we answer it as such, as is our tradition. So I'm going to Europe in May, says Dr. Calhoun. What are some travel tios? Tara: [22:34] You can travel with Mi Tio, a show on Prime Video, all about unemployed musician Andy and the nephew Tadeo he is suddenly reunited with. That is Mi Tio. Sarah. Sarah: [22:48] Tio Antonio, Bourdain. Tios Mateo, Reese and Good. Tio Esteban, Irwin. And Tio Juanito, Cousteau. Those are your travel tios. Dave. Dave: [23:00] Yeah. To translate this, how I'm answering it, what are some travel uncles? So when you're going to Europe in May and you need to bring or deal with some travel uncles, may I suggest Uncle Fester from Adam's family? He might be fun in Europe. Distant relatives abound, I am sure. Lots of spooky locales in your future. If you can manage the buy-in, maybe Scrooge McDuck. Probably take you to some, like, just before the shit hits the fan Euro club things you would see in John Wick. I feel like he would have the end on there. So between those two, you get the rural castle shit, and then you get the city Euroclub stuff. Those are your travel teos. Sarah: [23:37] Love it. Dave: [23:38] Jovial gent, as Denise Richards' Wild Things comes to a close, which celebrity deserves their own poorly planned eight-episode reality show, and what pun-based title would you give it? Start with Sarah. Sarah: [23:51] Mr. Tea and Sympathy, in which the former B.A. Baracus struggles to write an advice column. Dave. Dave: [23:58] Well, I got a few. I tried to peg it to people that were around at the same time of Denise Richter's height of fame. I got Mina Suvari's baking competition show called American Beauty Pie. I've got a faux bounty hunter show where contestants must track down Joey Lauren Adams called Catching Amy. And I've got Carmen Electra's new MLM Business Venture Candid Reality show called The Electra Company. Tara: [24:25] I just went straight with the Wild Things model, which is how we're going to see Justin Theroux in American Psycho. Dave: [24:33] Diatho, what is your ideal trail mix? All right, so here's my ideal trail mix. Based on trail mixes I have enjoyed in the past, plus things I don't see in trail mixes that I wish there was. So here we go. First of all, salty peanuts. I love a salty peanut. They have skin on them. All the better. I guess that's a Spanish peanut. Probably. Cashew. I enjoy a cashew and a trail mix. It's got that sort of not quite crunch crunch. I don't know what's going on there. It's a little soft, but it's also crunchy. It's so crunchy. And we've got peanut butter chips, like your Reese's baking chips. We're going to put some of those in there. Spittachios. I love a good spittachio. Tara: [25:10] A good what? Dave: [25:11] Spittachio. Tara: [25:12] No. Dave: [25:13] Spittachio. Tara: [25:14] Pistachio. Dave: [25:14] Pistachio. A little bit of potashio. Dried sour cherries. And raisins. Tara? Tara: [25:23] I don't really like trail mix. I would rather just have whatever the thing is that I like and not be trying to sift through all the crap to get to the parts I like. But the one exception. Dave: [25:33] But you're making your own. Tara: [25:34] I know. Listen, the exception is what we used to get, which was a planter's nut-richen heart-healthy mix, which they still make, but it's not the same combination. that we used to get. So the one we used to like was, as far as I can remember, almonds, pistachios, granola, pistachios, hunks of granola, dried cranberries, and dried cherries. Dave: [25:58] Ooh, a hunk of granola, that's good. Tara: [26:00] Yeah, they were good. Dave: [26:01] As long as they're big hunks, right, and they stay together. Yeah. Sarah: [26:04] Cashews, like Dave said, salted pumpkin seeds, butterscotch chips, and craisins. Dave: [26:11] All right. Ah, nuts. This one's just for Sarah. Sarah, what is an orange ice, and how does one become king of them? I don't know what she's talking about. Tara: [26:20] It's from the Discord. Sarah: [26:21] She's talking about An ancestor of mine who just fucking declared himself the orange ice king of Seattle City. So that's how. You become king of them. You, according to my grandmother, you row here from Tuscany. No, that's not what happened. An orange ice is an Italian ice or what His Royal Majesty, my great-great-grandfather, would have called a water ice. Often served in the half of the orange. I mean, it's not exactly an Italian ice. It's more like a granita. Food.com has a pretty good recipe if you're okay with a lot of stirring. but there's just really not that much to it. It's like orange juice and sugar and water and stirring. I don't know if his thing was serving it in the orange rind. I don't know if there was like an orange ice chamber of commerce in South Jersey back in the day. I believe his strategy, like I said, was just announcing that you're the king, literally putting it on your letterhead in that like old-timey peppermint stripey font with the dots that you would see all over Boardwalk Empire. That's what he did. Nobody tried to overthrow him as far as I know. Dave: [27:26] I think he had a melee duel to the death with the previous king and that's how he got the title of Orange Ice King. Sarah: [27:33] Could be. Dave: [27:34] They had to fight with orange ass. A lot of squeezing near the eyes. Vandy has our next question. Did who shot JR or any other such cliffhanger gimmicks ever hold your interest? Sarah. Sarah: [27:47] I watched that actual episode at my grandmother's house and we were into it. And then, of course, it was kind of a letdown when the show came back. And then we kind of like co-watched it on the phone or we tried to. We were constantly like jointly getting in trouble for watching things on the phone together, including Charles and Diana's wedding. And, you know, that was not a local call at that time. And that wedding took a while. And my dad was like, Louise, what the fuck? Yeah, that shit definitely worked on us back in the day, I guess. But I couldn't really think of any other examples either that weren't from a time when I was already like thinking about this stuff for a living. Dave: [28:27] So never watched an episode of Dallas until we did something for this show at some point. Maybe it was the finale or something with Joel Gray playing the devil or whatever it was. And even I knew everything about I Shot JR. I still remember like people were talking about it out of the school. at the school, and there's no way in grade school anybody was actually watching Dallas, the way you would talk about Dukes of Hazzard or something like that in my circle of friends. But somehow, it was just in the chatter. That's how big of a deal it was. Monoculture's crazy, y'all. Sarah: [28:58] Monoculture, yeah. Tara: [29:00] I guess I'm the only Twin Peaks head because I was really into Who Killed Laura Palmer, bought the diary that they made and everything. So yeah, that was my first multimedia TV experience that I can recall. Dave: [29:13] Well, I'd love to admit it now, but I was strangely invested in the Who Shot Mr. Burns cliffhanger slash contest, if you recall. It was actually a contest. Sarah: [29:23] Oh, dang. That's right. Dave: [29:24] And then when it was revealed, I'm like, all right, fine. Tara: [29:27] Yeah. Dave: [29:28] Grizzly Claire has our last question. What song would you select to be the whole music for an EHG hotline? Tara: [29:54] On with a smile? Who the hell is that? Dave: [30:30] You don't recognize the voice? Tara: [30:31] Is it Sammy Davis Jr.? Dave: [30:32] Sammy Davis Jr. Tara: [30:33] Oh my God. Dave: [30:33] Doing Love is All Around. That's your old music, people. Tara: [30:36] Wow. Dave: [30:37] Call the hotline now in here. Tara: [30:39] Sarah. Sarah: [30:40] I considered rolling out that Jeffrey Osborne track. Tara: [30:45] Nice. Sarah: [30:46] From the Thomas Calabro Lady Killers Stripper Murder. undercover joint. But in the end, I decided that the Beastie Boys, three MCs and one DJ was probably the probably the perfect title, at least for old music. And it's pretty short. Tara: [31:02] Tara, I'm going to go with either the WKRP in Cincinnati theme song or Hot Blooded. Dave: [31:10] All right. Here comes your Ask Ask EHG question from Eric. He has a directive more than a question. write lyrics for the Ask EHG theme song. So go to our Discord. The Ask EHG channel is where you want to put your answer. You put in the lyrics there. We'll read them or sing them or something in a future episode. And the best lyrics to the best theme ever will win a sticker. Tara: [31:35] And just to make sure people understand, that was the Ask EHG theme song. That's not the main podcast theme song. This is... Sarah: [31:48] Let's keep this going for a minute. Dave: [31:57] It is time for the Tiny Cannon presenting. This week is our good friend from France. Just like me. Very old. And very good at my job. Sarah: [33:00] I enjoyed watching this sequence just to look at what they were not doing, like what you didn't see, because I think that's the real strength of this. It's shot so intelligently to be at sort of quarter angle over death's shoulder. So all you really see is that this perfectly cast cadaverous person has very prominent cheekbones and there's repeated shots of this signet ring. They don't linger too long on the pale horse and there's like a wind in the shot, but not. Sarah: [33:35] It's just like a breeze, but sometimes the kind of breeze that would just make a chill go up your back. And then the choice to go to a wider shot that keeps death in it as he's sort of like leaving the shot. But then this passerby in slow-mo is just like subsiding to the ground, death having done its job. It was a really interesting thing to contemplate for the canon because O Death is very on the nose. an old cadaverous man in what is probably a string tie. I don't know if that's. Sarah: [34:06] Actual visual canon in the scene, but that was what I was picturing. The dark suit, you can almost hear his joints creaking. I think that Supernatural always had a pretty good sense of when to just be completely on the nose and just like, well, this is the reference, so we're just going to make the reference. We're just going to have it be text and when to be a little subtler. And this is a good combination of that, that I think speaks to a larger ability on the show's part to do that well and to balance that well. I think that sometimes they understand there's only one choice in terms of the storytelling for giant concepts like death, the devil, they really took some big swings. And sometimes they were pretty forthright in the visual text about taking those swings. And I think this is a good exemplar. Yeah, of course you put Oh Death. Like, what other song would you put instead? Is it on the nose? Yes. Should it be? Probably also yes. Dave: [35:06] Yakety Sax. Sarah: [35:09] Oh, yeah, true. Benny Hill theme. Dave: [35:11] 100% agree with you. My takeaway the first time watching it, and it's like, let's just pretend I didn't know it was from Supernatural, was, wow, that was borderline cringey in an acceptable way. I know cringe is a lot of negative connotations, but I mean, it's pretty tropey. There's nothing that's breaking a new ground. Like, okay, he doesn't come riding on a horse. What's his vehicle? It's something else. He's a Grim Reaper-y kind of face. You know, he's got all the elements of being old, all that sort of stuff. Nothing here is new. But when you combine it all together, yeah, it's sort of like an earnest goofiness that I feel fits right in with Supernatural. But if this was like inside of some other show, I don't know if it would work. Like, I think this has to be inside of Supernatural because Supernatural is very winky, but has the habit of switching gears on you, right? So, like, it's very winky and it's very funny, but then it's also like, all right, time to get down to lore brass tacks. And here we go with this. And I feel like this is establishing the lore of death inside of Supernatural. And looking at it blindly, it is kind of tropey and it is kind of like an amalgam of lots of stuff that's come before it. But inside of Supernatural, I feel like it's like it has a magnifying Doppler effect where it's like now we're super, super natural. You know what I mean? Like it really works within this universe. Tara: [36:33] Yeah, I mean, the character is the personification of an idea. There's no way to do it that isn't tropey in some way. When you see clips like this versus the series finale that we made Mademoiselle Caroline watch with us, I get from this era of the show why people liked it more so than what it turned into 700 seasons later. Like, there's a subtlety to this that I wouldn't have necessarily expected based on later outings of the show. I mean, the death touches underplayed, the pale car instead of a pale rider cute, that's a nice touch. And, you know, even though, as Sarah said, you never see death's face in this clip, just the amount of cheekbone you see, you know who that guy is. It's Julian Richings. You've seen him a million times. He had, like, a big arc on Orphan Black. You know, literally hundreds of other performances that you have definitely seen. I appreciated how iconic it made that guy who's, you know, not a household name, but still you're like, oh, of course, who else would they cast? And so, yeah, I thought this was a great way to introduce this. This personification to the show, it's very memorable and very stylish and very cool. Dave: [37:47] We watched some episode, I forget which one it was, but Fortune was the bad character, the villain of it, or Fortuna, I forgot what, I don't know what they call her. But like, she was like a saloon or something like that, right? She seriously, I think, she seriously the drink and then like, you know, you gotta answer her questions or something. I forget, you know, it's been so long. Tara: [38:06] Right. Dave: [38:06] But this feels a part of that, right? So here's this concept, it's fate, it's fortune, it's death. And we're sort of like, it's almost like when Shakespeare does, it's Richard III, but it's in Germany or whatever, like it's in the 20th century. It feels a little bit like that. We're like, how can we make this a little more accessible to people that might not be sold on this as a piece of classical literature or a classical reference, right? That feels a little bit a part of this, and I feel like that's something the show does often and often, and it works within its universe. That whole Fortuna owning a saloon thing is pretty goofy when you just hear me talking about it, but it kind of worked in the universe as well. So I feel like this is just something the show does well. Sarah: [38:49] And this was also like 90 seconds, maybe, or two minutes, the whole sequence. You know, they didn't overplay it. Like this had been a this was like episode 21 of whatever season. So this is an anticipated entrance by the viewership. But they didn't overplay like dun, dun, dun, like American Idol spotlights on the stage. It's death. Like, OK, we they did the tropes that needed to communicate who it was. Dave: [39:16] All right let's make this official sarah d bunting what do you say tiny character intro canon worthy or not and i thought she would say it but that was obviously mademoiselle caroline she did not introduce herself but of course we know. Sarah: [39:28] Yes uh it is a we. Dave: [39:30] And tara for. Tara: [39:31] Me as well. Dave: [39:32] All right so that means death's introduction from supernatural you're hereby inducted to the extra hot great tiny character intro canon, Dave: [39:53] Move over, winners and losers, comma, not quite. We are dealing with our not quite top 11 lists. I will go first. I actually have a not quite nine list for you here. Tara: [40:04] Oh. Dave: [40:05] So let's get into it. These are the top, not quite top nine, Henry Mancini TV themes ranked from eight to one. Here we go. First two are a quiz of sorts. So see if you can figure out what this is a theme to. It goes on for another two minutes. It's all basically that. So I will let you know this is from the late 70s, and it was used a lot. Any guesses? Henry Mancini, this is a theme to a television program. If you guess it right, we're ending the podcast right now. Tara: [41:03] All right. Dave: [41:04] Best guesses. Tara: [41:07] Chips, too. Dave: [41:08] Sarah. Sarah: [41:09] Gong show. Dave: [41:10] Here it is in context. Tara: [41:15] This is NBC Nightly News. No way! Sarah: [41:19] With John Chancellor in Vienna. Tara: [41:21] David Brinkley in Washington. And tonight's segment three, Salt 2, the Senate debate. Sarah: [41:28] Salt 2. Dave: [41:30] Yeah. Sarah: [41:30] Little trivia. Local news for ABC used a sequence from the middle of Cool Hand Luke. Tara: [41:37] No way! Sarah: [41:38] That's crazy. Yeah. Dave: [41:40] All right. So that's my number eight choice. This is number seven. Again, I'm going to play the theme. And if you don't get it, I will go back and play the intro for you. That will definitely jog your memory. Any ideas there? Tara: [42:27] It's like three in the one. Sarah: [42:28] I feel like that's ABC's wide world of sports. Dave: [42:31] It does sort of sound like that. And you are right insofar that it is a, like, compilation show. It is a show of different things glommed together. Tara: [42:42] Real people. Dave: [42:44] Closer. All right. So let me describe the very first graphic you see of the theme. It is a distant skull with a spike in it that comes closer and closer to you as the theme starts playing. And the skull's got like this blue glow around it. And it's a very 1980s graphic design. Sarah: [43:03] In search of? Dave: [43:04] You're so close. All right, here's what it is. Sarah: [43:06] I mean, I know it's not that. The strange. The bizarre. The unexpected. These are the kinds of subjects a man named Robert L. Ripley challenged us to. Believe it or not. Dave: [43:21] Yeah. And then the blue glow skulls comes at you and there's another one of like, you know, some devil mask and blah, blah, blah. And then when it gets weird, when it starts getting light and airy at the end of what we heard, that's where they start doing the credits and it's like starring Jack Palance and it's the guy who's holding a mirror then walking backwards in the credits. Like that's one of the things you won't believe. This guy walked the whole width of Scotland backwards. It's like, oh my God. Your head explodes. All right, that's number seven. Number six, best Henry Mencini TV theme. All right. I know you know this one. Tara: [44:23] Yeah, it's Newhart. I didn't realize he broke the gun. Dave: [44:26] Yeah, me either. I didn't know he did that. I knew he did this one, though. This is number five. Tara: [44:53] This is definitely a show we've watched, but I can't place it. Dave: [44:57] Yeah. NBC, back in the 80s, starring a very famous actor who is in a show that we are watching currently, Tara. Tara: [45:03] Really? Dave: [45:04] Yes. Very young version of himself, playing a sort of con artist of types in this show. Tara: [45:12] Oh, no. I thought it was the one where Hal Linden is a magician or something. Dave: [45:17] Oh, Black's Magic? Tara: [45:18] Black's Magic. Dave: [45:18] No, it's not Black's Magic. Tara: [45:19] Okay, I don't know. Dave: [45:20] That is the theme to Remington Steel. Sarah: [45:23] Oh. Here's Brosnan. Dave: [45:26] Yeah. Tara: [45:26] Of course. Sarah: [45:27] I used to watch that show, too. Dave: [45:28] Yeah, me too. All right. Here's another one. I want you guys to guess what it is. We'll be right back. Tara: [46:02] . Sounds like space and like a Western, so I have no idea. Dave: [46:10] There's a lot going on there, for sure. This is another late 70s, early 80s thing. It's also more like nightly news than, say, a regular TV show. in the Guessing Games. Sarah: [46:22] That's incredible. Dave: [46:22] Yeah, no, it's the theme to the conglomerate programming block, NBC Mystery Movie. Tara: [46:29] Oh, okay. Dave: [46:30] That's where like Columbo was aired. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They would checkerboard it. Like they would have... Sarah: [46:34] Okay. Tara: [46:35] Macmillan and Wife. Dave: [46:36] Macmillan and Wife was one of them. There was a show about crime-solving rabbi that was part of the programming block. So that's why I think a lot of people think that theme is like Macmillan and Wife or something like that because they would show it before that. That is NBC Mystery Movie Theme. That comes in at number four. Number three is a show I had never heard of before I started researching this, but I really dig the theme. This is number three. Tara: [47:27] That sounds like something he initially composed for the one we just heard before this, and they were like, similar, but make it a little bit different. Dave: [47:34] This is a modern Western TV series. The credits are basically this guy riding his Jeep through the desert. He is the sheriff of the county. It is called Cades County. Tara: [47:45] Oh, okay. Sarah: [47:46] Okay. Dave: [47:47] Starring Glenn Ford. Tara: [47:48] Sure. Dave: [47:49] All right. That's number three. Enjoyed that one. Number two. Tara: [48:07] Wow. That's wacky. Dave: [48:09] You don't know this one? I think Sarah knows this one. Sarah: [48:11] Is this what's happening? Dave: [48:12] This is what's happening. I was thinking for you in the last episode. Tara: [48:15] Oh, you were. Dave: [48:15] All right. so by process of elimination can anybody guess number one Pink Panther Pink Panther was a movie first so I did not include it in even though Pink Panther was a cartoon show and it had the same theme it did not include it in our rundown so knowing that any guesses number one, Henry Mancini Mascot's Best Friend television theme. Tara: [48:38] I don't think I knew this was him either. Dave: [49:10] Hey, they've ripped off the theme to Spy Hunter, the video game, said me many, many years ago. Sarah: [49:16] That is Peter Gunn. Dave: [49:17] That's the original version covered by Art of Noise. I think a lot of people know it from the Art of Noise version in the 80s. Sarah: [49:23] And the mashup in third season premiere of Sopranos. Dave: [49:28] Oh, yeah. Tara: [49:29] You can also play it on your old touchtone phone right down the middle. Sarah: [49:34] That's right. Dave: [49:36] If you want to watch a music video, the music video for the Art of Noise version is extremely of its time. It's great. Sarah: [49:44] Oh, boy, it sure is. Dave: [49:45] All the actors are doing things in sync with the beats of the music, and it is extremely and gloriously cringeworthy. So that is my not-quite-nine top Henry Mancini TV themes. Sarah D. Bundy. Sarah: [49:59] I have not-quite-eleven important Aprils of television. I'm going in alphabetical order of project title. Number one, April Morning, a 1988 TV movie about the Battle of Lexington and Concord, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Chad Lowe, Robert Urich, Rip Torn, and co-star of the brilliant film Lady Killers, Susan Blakely. Tara: [50:22] Oh, when you said April Morning, I was like, there's a TV character they called April Morning Oof, but this makes more sense. Go on. Sarah: [50:29] Yeah, it does sound kind of porny. Number two, Boy and Girl Meets World co-creator April Kelly. Number three, Doom Patrol's April Bowlby, playing Rita Farr slash Elastigirl. She was also Stacey on Drop Dead Diva, which was a show that was on really a lot longer than I thought it was. Number four, Grey's Anatomy's April Kepner, played by Sarah Drew. Number five, Jericho's April Parker Jones, who was also main cast on Supergirl for a season or so. Number six, Controversy Alert, Night Riders' April Curtis, played by Rebecca Holden. This is a minority opinion. I liked her way better than Bonnie, and I thought they should have kept her. Number seven, Parks and Rec's April Ludgate Dwyer, played, of course, by Aubrey Plaza. Sarah: [51:17] Number eight, South Park's April Stewart, who has voiced the majority of the show's female characters. Number nine, Star Trek's Robert April, the captain who preceded Pike, is the Enterprise's first commanding officer. I went down a rabbit hole of, like, arguments about who is the canonical portrayer of April. I think he shows up first in animated series and is voiced by Doohan. And then on Strange New Worlds, he was played by Adrian Holmes. Number 10, the unauthorized Beverly Hills 90210 stories, April Telek. Definitely a Hey, It's That Guy Canadian actor. She's been in a ton of stuff and was someone who went on the record to brace Peter Nygaard for being a scumbag. So good for her. Tara: [51:59] Nice. Sarah: [52:00] And that's my list. Tara: [52:01] In honor of our lead topic in the Sherman Palladinos, I have the not quite top 11 Gilmore Girls guest stars that when I tell you they did the show will make you go, huh? Or possibly, oh, no kidding. Counting down from least to most surprising. Number 10, Rob Estes, Kyle McBride himself. He played Jess's dad. Number 9, Brandon Routh, pre-Superman. Number 8, Nick Offerman, pre-Ron Swanson. Number 7, Lawrence Hilton Jacobs, post-Boom Boom Washington. Number 6, Dale Dickey. Really doesn't seem like a Star's Hollow kind of an actor, but she did it. Sarah: [52:41] I mean, not if it's in Connecticut, she doesn't. Ooh. Tara: [52:44] Number five, Tracy Lords. Number four, Danny Pudi. Number three, Jon Hamm. Number two, Rami Malek. Dave: [52:54] Wow. Oh, no way. Tara: [52:56] And number one, and he was in more than one episode, Seth MacFarlane. Dave: [53:02] Wow. Tara: [53:03] Yeah. Dave: [53:03] Well, can't win them all. Sarah: [53:04] Wow. All right. Well. Dave: [53:06] All right. It's time for something exciting and new. It's Kim Rees, the most awesome thing she watched on TV last month. Tara: [59:03] Today's extra credit topic comes from me. It is TV's most important checked things. Plaid, tartan, gingham, buffalo check, windowpane, yes. But facts, athletes, hips, and plenty of other things can be checked too, so I invited the panel to open their mind and bring three to discuss. I'll start. My first checked thing is Bridget's bag in the season four premiere of Succession. And this is the bag that became a meme because Tom called it ludicrously capacious. There's a whole Guardian article that we'll link in the show notes about why this is a marker of class. But she's at, you know, a classy afternoon event in an extremely rich person's townhouse and has just a walking around day bag. The fact that it's Burberry is even more embarrassing because it just makes her look tacky. She should have a clutch or something small. It's just not appropriate. Blah, blah, blah. But anyway, ludicrously capacious was a phrase that was getting thrown around a lot the year of that premiere. So that's my first checked thing. Sarah, what's yours? Sarah: [1:00:10] I am going to start with an actor who was checked out of the final season of the show for which she was the most famous. I'm speaking, of course, of your friend and mine, the late great Shannon Doherty in season four of Beverly Hills Dino 210. No, it's really a pity because that storyline that she went out on was pretty fiery. Her hair was looking amazing. But yeah, you also kind of can't blame her. That situation had become untenable, I think, for everyone in the work environment. But yeah, there are certain scenes and actually entire episodes where you can see her looking off screen at a clock. And it's like, well, so yeah, Shando checked out. Dave. Dave: [1:00:56] I'm going to go with something from the relatively high concept sitcom, My Name is Earl, and that is the list that Earl has to check off in My Name is Earl. Yep. The reason why that show exists. There are over like 300 things on that list I saw. Somebody actually went through the show and tried to write down as many as they could on the shots where you actually can see the list and did a pretty good job. There's like 200 something on the list, and then there's like off the list items that he just talks about. And then there's something called The Pillow List, which I don't remember from the show because I haven't watched it in the donkey's age. But there's like 300 things on the list and they go from the mundane to the truly terrible. That's a show that just seems to have fallen off the conversation radar. Like it just was very popular at the time that people were digging it. And it had, like I said, a relatively high concept. And then just like nothing now. You don't really hear people talk about it when they talk about shows of that era. Tara: [1:01:53] Yeah, it's true. Next for me, we're returning to Beverly Hills 90210, but it's to previous season because we're talking about Donna's Harlequin checked shorts in the episode. So things to do on a rainy day. They are black and red. They are hot pants is putting it mildly. When you see her from behind, her ass cheek is partly hanging out. They are not appropriate day wear. I think they're probably knit like actual wool or yarn. Sarah: [1:02:26] Like sweater shorts. Tara: [1:02:27] Exactly. We have visual aids that we will put in the show notes so that you can see them front and back. They are a lot, and yet also a little, but very memorable, the Harlequin checked shorts. Sarah? Sarah: [1:02:39] I went with the various checked suits worn by RuPaul as a judge and out of drag on RuPaul's Drag Race. These suits cost more than my whole family. And one time we were in LA for a bunch of meetings and he breezed past me in the lobby of my hotel to meet someone for like a lunch meeting. They even smelled... expensive and close up. I mean, he passed within like two feet of me. And I only looked up because it was like, I was obviously like, I was sitting down, but I was still only at the level of this person's like knee. And I was like, wow, that's a real, like, finally, I'm the short one in the room in Los Angeles. There he was in all his perfectly mitered glory. So yes, check suits It was worn by RuPaul in RuPaul, like in RuPaul Charles drag. Dave: [1:03:33] I guess I'll throw in a piece of clothing here now as well. Willie tickles the twang for two. Willie and the gang at the YMCA playing basketball. Willie is wearing a very, very short tartan kilt. And when he is running and bouncing that ball down the court, this kilt is not leaving anything in the imagination. So we get to see his bare bottom and everybody on the other side of Willie gets to see all his tackle. So for that reason, we're going to go with Groundkeepers Willie's short kilt. Tara: [1:04:12] Nice. I have a few alts that we can get to after this. But my final canonical pick is the top Peggy Olsen quit Sterling Cooper in in the final season of Mad Men. You've seen the gif one million times of her walking down the hall, holding a box, wearing her shades, smoking a cig. And she is in a really memorable, cute, checked top. And I think we will all remember that top forever because of how iconic that moment was. But we'll put that in the show notes, too. Sarah. Sarah: [1:04:43] I had a bunch of alts, too, that are really more checks than checked things. But I'm going to go for my final on the, you know, regulation one with a Bates Motel episode that is called Checkout. Episode four of the second season, I mostly picked this because it was shocking to me that of all the shows, this one would have waited like more than 10 episodes to use that title as an episode title. So, yeah, that is my that is my third regulation one. Dave. Dave: [1:05:16] Well, I term dropped this earlier when I was talking about the NBC mystery movie checkerboarding. Are you guys familiar with the term checkerboarding as it applies to programming? Tara: [1:05:26] Yes. Dave: [1:05:26] OK, I wasn't. And then the explanations of it are very bad because you're imagining a checkerboard and the way you describe it. It's like, well, that doesn't sound like a checkerboard. And it doesn't. But this is what it is. So it's basically schedule diversification. So if you look at it globally, instead of programming Monday being all drama all the time, you have news, then a game show, then a comedy, then some dramas, right? You mix it up, you diversify. So instead of having all blue dramas on your programming board, you got some pink and some yellow and some green, then some blue. When you apply that a little more locally, it would be like in the evening, instead of strip programming something like Jeopardy to play Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Tara: [1:06:07] Right. Dave: [1:06:07] You would have a different show every weekday in that slot. So you'd have a show A, B, C, D, and E as you went along in the week. That's also checkerboarding. So basically, it's just mixing up your stuff, checkerboard style, except not really checkerboard style. By the late 80s, there were a lot of first-run syndicated sitcoms in the market. So what happened was NBC major market affiliates counter-programmed the dominant Wheel of Fortune, which was airing at 7.30, with a checkerboard of five different comedies. Thank you. Thinking that they would skew younger than The Wheel of Fortune, they marketed it as prime time begins at 7.30. And generally, it was a failure. Here is the lineup. Monday, Marblehead Manor. Let me know if this... No, nobody knows what this is. It's about the support staff at a mansion that are kind of bad at their job. Featured a pre-Seinfeld Michael Richards as, I think, the gardener? Judging by the promotional art. Tuesday, I think you know She's the Sheriff. Tara: [1:07:06] Yes. Dave: [1:07:07] Starring Suzanne Somers. That was one of these shows. That was not a network show per se. It wasn't a primetime show. Wednesday was a Harry Morgan from MASH, Colonel Potter from MASH, as some old fart in a show called You Can't Take It With You. It was based on a play. Tara: [1:07:24] Right. Dave: [1:07:25] The promotional bit for You Can't Take It With You is him talking to you, talking directly into the camera. But he doesn't mind when his kids call on him, but he wishes they wouldn't call collect. We'd all laugh. This show features a character named Penny Vanderhoff Sycamore. Tara: [1:07:45] Wow. Dave: [1:07:46] Thursday, leading to the Cosby show, was Out of This World, another show I have heard of. Sarah: [1:07:52] Oh, sure. Tara: [1:07:52] I remember that, yeah. Dave: [1:07:53] It's about a mom who has a half-alien daughter. The father who you never see but only hear is played by anybody? Sarah: [1:08:00] Burt Reynolds. Dave: [1:08:01] I've heard Reynolds, correct. This show was created by who? An actor of note. Tara: [1:08:06] Oh, I used to know this. Dave: [1:08:08] Actor of note, then infamous actor now. Well, you know, slightly. Tara: [1:08:10] Dan Schneider? Dave: [1:08:11] No. Tara: [1:08:12] I guess he would be too young. Dave: [1:08:13] He is from a 80s, 70s, 80s sitcom. Sarah: [1:08:17] Scott Baio. Dave: [1:08:18] Correct. Tara: [1:08:18] Oh, nice. Sarah: [1:08:20] Totally guessing. Okay. Tara: [1:08:22] Wow. Sarah: [1:08:22] Oh, Chachi, you weirdo. Tara: [1:08:24] Crazy. Dave: [1:08:24] And then Friday was a show called We Got It Made. Tara: [1:08:27] Yeah. Dave: [1:08:27] M-A-D-E. Sarah: [1:08:29] Yeah, I remember that one. Dave: [1:08:30] It was a retool of a canceled NBC primetime show from like three years before that. Tara: [1:08:35] Yeah. Dave: [1:08:35] And it's a show about a 20-something woman hired by a couple of NYC bachelors to be their maid. M-A-I-D. Why wasn't a show called We Got It Made, as in The Occupation? Tara: [1:08:47] Yeah, I don't know. We talked about that when we talked about Swimsuit on Again with Again with This, because one of the stars of that was in that movie. Dave: [1:08:53] Terry Copley? Tara: [1:08:54] No, it was a guy. Dave: [1:08:55] Oh, I'm saying that's a lead of the show. Tara: [1:08:57] That's a lead, yes. Dave: [1:08:58] So that is checkerboarding of 1987. It came and went. 1987, also the year Star Trek Next Generation came out. So everybody was pretty high on syndication. And then this came along. And really the only one that had legs was Out of This World. It lasted four seasons. The rest of them faded relatively fast. Tara: [1:09:16] Damn. Dave: [1:09:17] Yeah. Tara: [1:09:18] All right. I'll do my runners up first. I really thought Dave was going to say this, but Herb Tarlick's jackets on WKRP in Cincinnati. He's the sales guy. Very tacky. Dave: [1:09:28] I don't remember them being checked. Tara: [1:09:30] I think they were largely clad. Yeah. The couch from Roseanne and now from the Conners. Memorable. And I'm going to say if you want to do a very rewarding Google image search, Alan Cumming Traders Tartans because he wears them a lot and they look incredible every time. He'll do a kilt. He'll do a sash. He'll do a, you know, a sweater, a jacket, a cape. It's a wonderful panoply. Dave: [1:09:57] That guy is in his 60s. Tara: [1:09:59] Yeah. Dave: [1:09:59] And they're bringing him back to play Nightcrawler in the next Avengers movie. Tara: [1:10:05] Well. Dave: [1:10:05] Good for him. Tara: [1:10:06] He's going to have a lot of makeup on. You probably won't be able to tell that much. Dave: [1:10:09] Yeah. Tara: [1:10:09] Also, he is not, he is technically in his 60s, but he is only 60. Dave: [1:10:13] Okay. Tara: [1:10:13] I mean, if Hugh Jackman can keep playing Wolverine, a character who's not supposed to age, Hugh Jackman is probably the same age. Like, I think it's fine. Yep. Sarah, any runners up? Sarah: [1:10:24] I had, like, restaurant checks that didn't go well. Seinfeld, George and the Big Salad, Pauly and Christopher eating it on the check at some big meeting and then beating up the waiter who clocked their shitty tip and stealing the tip back. Because classy guys. The giant novelty check in the publisher's clearinghouse ads. And Mouse from Carrie Diaries, who always wore very cute plaids, usually with a little collar. Dave: [1:10:54] I have one more, and that is the checkerboard logo of Cartoon Network. Tara: [1:10:59] Love it. Dave: [1:11:01] And that is it for another episode of Extra, Extra Hot Great. We got down to the kernel of Elote. Ah, no, the corn! Paul Newman's gonna have my legs broke. Before answering your burning ass EHG questions like, what Skeletor are doing these days? And what inter-show beasts do you want to see? Mademoiselle Caroline killed the tiny character intro canon. we gave you our not-quite-top-11 list and wrapped it all up with a look at important checked things on TV. Remember, We're listening. I am David Tickel, and on behalf of Tara Ariano. Tara: [1:11:44] If they strike, I don't have to pay them. Dave: [1:11:46] And Sarah DeBunding. Sarah: [1:11:48] Shantae, we stay. Dave: [1:11:50] Thanks for listening, everyone, and we'll see you next time, right here on Extra, Extra Hot Grid. Sarah: [1:12:05] It's just awesome.