Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is back for its third season just 23 months and change after the last one ended, so if you’re looking for an Enterprise solution (tee hee) for summer boredom, we’re here to tell you what you need to know. After awarding a bumper crop of Ask Ask EHG answerers, we move on to answering your latest questions on such subjects as which movies we’d most like to talk about if we were still a movie podcast, and which are our favorite songs about TV. Dave pitches Sprite’s “Sun Fizz” ad to the Commercial Tiny Canon. Then, after naming the week’s Not Quite Winners And Losers, we close up with an Extra Credit on the other place-name actors we’d like to see Anson Mount working with, and what they should be doing. Grab a drink from the replicator and join us!
Gorn Fishin' On Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
We boldly go into Season 3 of Paramount+’s best live-action Star Trek show!
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Clip:
[00:04] Wakey, wakey, Mr. Spock, it's your big day.
Dave:
[00:13] This is the Extra, Extra Hot Great Podcast, episode 364 for the July 19th, 2025 weekend. I am Vulcan Terrarium David T. Cole, and I'm here with Cryoserum Allergy, Sarah D. Bunting.
Sarah:
[00:33] What are the odds?
Dave:
[00:34] And Illyrian Phlebotomist Tara Ariano.
Tara:
[00:37] Squeeze your hand. Welcome to Extra, Extra Hot Great, the show made possible by your Patreon support. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you, new members. We are delighted to have you. We are here today to talk about season three of Star Trek's Strange New Worlds: the voyages of the Starship Enterprise, before the events of the original series continue. After the payoff of the season two cliffhanger involving a fight with the Gorn, some relationships are in flux. Captain Christopher Pike Anson Mount is anxious about a mysterious ailment his girlfriend, Captain Maria Battelle, Melanie Scrafano, is fighting and Spock, Ethan Peck, is sad to see Nurse Christine Chappell, Jess Bush, head off on a fellowship. Sometimes things are serious. Sometimes they're goofy. The first two episodes of season three dropped July 17th. We got access to the first five, but we'll be mindful about spoilers for the rest of them. Let's do the Chen check-in. Sarah, should our listeners watch season three of Star Trek Strange New Worlds?
Sarah:
[01:47] As someone who just recently embarked upon these voyages of this Starship Enterprise, yeah, there was someone that I was afraid they were going to kill off that they didn't. So, good enough for me. I'm still it.
Tara:
[02:00] Nice, Dave.
Dave:
[02:03] I'm going to say yes, is delivering more of what you like about Star Trek Strange New Worlds, but we need to have some real talk about the Gorn.
Tara:
[02:11] Well Yeah.
Sarah:
[02:12] Yeah, we do.
Tara:
[02:15] I got that too. I agree. It is a very fun show. The first five episodes of the season alternate serious Goofy, serious, goofy, serious-ish, which I actually think is fine because there must be people who are really into the space battle episodes of Star Trek. Let's get into it now. Where it's mostly just characters yelling jargon and exposition at each other and pretending the ship just got hit and rocking back and forth and stuff.
Sarah:
[02:39] Oh my god, the Broadway blocking. Of these fights, like they don't always leap in the same direction as each other either, which is so TOS.
Tara:
[02:43] Yeah. Mhm.
Sarah:
[02:51] I kind of love it.
Tara:
[02:51] These are not my favorite. My mind, I will say, really wandered in the season premiere. Not to mention, I had no memory of the events of the season two finale from, I looked it up, August 10th, 2023. So I have to ask, and I'm sure it was like strike-related why they broke it up this way.
Sarah:
[03:05] Yeah.
Tara:
[03:09] Perhaps, like, maybe the payoff was supposed to be a previous season finale. Who knows? But was this the strongest way to start this season, Dave?
Dave:
[03:17] I mean, obviously not.
Tara:
[03:19] Yeah right.
Dave:
[03:19] Either we didn't remember the Gorn or we hate the Gorn, stupid Gorn. In the original series, the Gorn was. So goofy. It was like a little tiny Godzilla and complete with the bad rubber suiting of all.
Tara:
[03:30] Mm-hmm.
Dave:
[03:31] And now the Gorn are basically xenomorphs at home of the alien franchise. Mom, I want xenomorphs. We got xenomorphs at home.
Tara:
[03:38] Nice. Yep.
Dave:
[03:40] The Xenomarsa home are the Gorn from Star Trek Strange New Worlds.
Tara:
[03:40] Mm-hmm. Yes.
Dave:
[03:46] And with the events of part one from season two, and now part two from season three of this.
Tara:
[03:50] Yes.
Dave:
[03:50] Hegemony, parts one and two feels like now two-thirds of the Enterprise have like a Gorn subplot now. Either they have PTSD or they've got little Gorn babies in them or Yeah, or they've got gorn feelings now.
Tara:
[04:03] They have a gorn TI, yes. Uh-huh.
Dave:
[04:08] I don't know. It's just gorn, gorn, gorn. It's like, oh, no, the gorn. Paul Newman's going to have my legs. And it's just like too much gorn.
Tara:
[04:16] Gorin fishing. Yeah. Anytime they return to the Gorin, I can feel the tension too of the Current day writers like not wanting to fall back into tropes of, well, some races of alien are just evil, you know.
Dave:
[04:27] Right. But yes, there is that. And the Gorn, yes, they are just sort of like single-minded, I don't know, hive entity or something like that. They're one of those tropes. But as adversaries, they're nothing, right? And Star Trek, you know, the greatest adversaries of Star Trek, like Q and Klingon Warriors and stuff like that. They offer something to play against. The Gorn don't. The Gorns are just meat sacks of biological evil.
Sarah:
[04:56] Yeah, which are sort of guided by whatever larger parallel they're trying to draw, like similar to the Illyrians Being discriminated against as functionally trans people. I mean, that was a compelling series of episodes earlier in the series. Thought, but it was like, like Star Trek sometimes does, it's like we're using space to make some on-the-nose pronouncements about things. In the case of the Gorn, it's like either it's the little dude from Space Balls who pops out of the chest, has a little hat and cane, and is doing a Broadway number on the counter.
Dave:
[05:34] Yeah.
Sarah:
[05:36] Or it's The Last of Us Zombies, or they're Is Real? Like, I mean, I I rewatched the or not rewatched, but I watched the finale, Hegemony One. Because in our household watch, we're sort of mid-season two right now. So I jumped ahead just to see. And it's like, well, here's the hegemony zone. We know they're going to push the envelope, and we can't. Let this stand, but we also can't fight back. And I'm like, oh, guys, okay. Well, that's what we're doing, but also. Their ships don't even have windows because they're guided by the non-visual aspects of solar flares at a question mark.
Dave:
[06:16] Yeah. It's a giant empire that's terrifying and could destroy your civilization. But you can trick the whole fleet into flying into the sun by energizing Tachyon Field or whatever they're doing. It seemed very like they got a power down button on the back of their neck, kind of writing for a killer robot.
Sarah:
[06:37] Yeah, or take us.
Tara:
[06:37] Who was the character you thought they were going to kill?
Dave:
[06:41] Yeah, yeah, but see, I don't mind that character, but this season, I just don't want to see her on screen anymore because of her ah, the gourd, the gourd, the gourd of it all.
Sarah:
[06:50] I I mean, I was hoping Battelle would get Exploded from the inside out, so that we wouldn't have to deal with her compared to everyone else in the cast, less than performance.
Tara:
[07:00] I wouldn't have missed her either, yeah.
Sarah:
[07:01] But oh well.
Dave:
[07:02] I mean, at least the formula for this season has been, all right, we're gonna wash down the gorn with something fun. So by the time you get to episode two, and you're like Guys, I'm done with the gorn.
Tara:
[07:09] Yes.
Dave:
[07:13] No more gorn. They give you a gorn-less, fun episode, which, like, that's more why I'm here.
Tara:
[07:17] Yes.
Dave:
[07:18] I don't need all the Stranger World episodes to be goofy like they sometimes can be, and I like the goofy episodes. I just want them to be more towards the original series, even when they're serious, and less like I'm watching Star Trek's version of dot dot dot alien or whatever.
Tara:
[07:37] Aha, yeah.
Sarah:
[07:38] Right, Ailey. Yeah. No, I agree. I think the blend is usually good. I will say also the pacing, like when they go back and forth between these two like tones. that the pacing is uniformly pretty good, like much better than original series, or certainly Next Generation, which I have so little patience with. For some reason, I feel like I should like that show more than I do, but it's so, it just drags, and the sense that they are actually in space is much better.
Dave:
[08:10] Yeah.
Sarah:
[08:10] In this series, I would say it's better made, looks nicer, better acting.
Dave:
[08:15] It looks a lot nicer. My biggest thing with Star Trek the next generation is this is so petty. It feels like they're doing their mission in a floating Marriott lobby.
Sarah:
[08:24] I was just gonna say, Yep, Motel Six, absolutely.
Dave:
[08:28] Yeah. So, you want to talk about episode two?
Tara:
[08:31] Yeah, it was such a relief to get to it. Because for one thing, I always think it's fun when actors get to show off their special skills. So congratulations to Christina Chong, Blaise. Nunion Sing getting to show her dance skills, smart pairing her with Spock, who only like has to be competently passable, which he is.
Dave:
[08:51] So, why don you set up what this episode is about since we mentioned dancing?
Tara:
[08:55] Okay, so at the end of the first episode, Nurse Chapel takes off on her fellowship in archaeological medicine or something. Is that it? Spock is sad because they've been sort of like not quite dating, but something like it. And then she's coming back and, you know, he's excited to see her and then she comes back with her boss basically, or her instructor on this fellowship.
Dave:
[09:16] Budget Colin Farrell Spot that is.
Sarah:
[09:18] Yeah. And he got her a first edition and she's still sticking with that chode.
Tara:
[09:24] Yeah, he's not cute enough. Sorry to be shallow.
Sarah:
[09:27] No. And why'd they change her hair? I mean, I know why they changed her hair, but ooh, her stacked bob was so much better in the first two seasons.
Tara:
[09:31] Mhm. It's true.
Sarah:
[09:35] These are the important things, people.
Tara:
[09:37] Anyway, so that's the first day, and he's disappointed, and then when he wakes up the next day, it's his wedding. He and Chappell are getting married. And the only person Spock is. And the next no one understands that this is not what's supposed to be happening except for Roger, budget Colin Farrell.
Dave:
[09:53] Mm-hmm.
Tara:
[09:54] And so they have to figure it out. And it turns out that it is Q related, or rather, son of Q, who I called R. So that's the setup.
Dave:
[10:01] Yeah. Play by.
Tara:
[10:02] Played by Rhys Darby from Flight of the Concords and Our Flag Means Death, who we heard in the intro.
Dave:
[10:06] Yeah. Although Star Trek owns Q, I mean, you know, obviously they own it, but also they own the concept of this All-knowing, malevolent, yeah, yeah, trickster god kind of character.
Tara:
[10:15] Chaos demon. Mm-hmm.
Dave:
[10:19] The particulars of this episode, the fact that it was R, they don't call him R, like you said, but let's call him R.
Tara:
[10:23] No Melvar Uh Yep.
Dave:
[10:26] It really felt like that Futurama episode where Melvin or Melvar is controlling the cast of the original Star Trek series and making them put on plays of episodes that he wrote. It really felt like that. Like, so much so that it's sort of like this weird Star Trek Mobius of, you know, like Star Trek fed into Futurama and now Futurama somehow feeding that energy back into Star Trek. I was absolutely loving that episode. And I think they used R in just the right amount. Like, it is an episode where a lot of stuff is happening because he is making it happen. Everybody is living this alternate reality while he's putting his space dust all over the Enterprise. But he's not overused. Like, it is a tempting character to have there all the time because he does fun things, because he can do anything, you know, like Q snapping his fingers, and there's a mariachi band on the Enterprise.
Tara:
[11:18] Yep.
Dave:
[11:19] Like, that does fun. And he's doing some of that, but he's not doing it all the time.
Tara:
[11:21] Yeah.
Dave:
[11:23] Like, the throughput of that episode is still: why are we getting married? And what's the mystery of what's going on? Yeah, so I thought they did a good job balancing all that with the second episode. That was that was my favorite of the s ones we've seen so far.
Tara:
[11:36] Of the two. Oh, you mean of the five, or really?
Dave:
[11:37] Of the five we've seen yet.
Tara:
[11:40] I like the fourth episode better.
Dave:
[11:41] The fourth one's really good, too. And I don't I guess we really can't talk about three, four, five that much, except like in the abstract. Episode three is if Star Trek met the recent new Smash hit Blue Prince. Which is about a mansion where all the rooms change on you overnight.
Tara:
[12:05] That's the fifth one.
Dave:
[12:05] And oh, that's the fifth one.
Tara:
[12:07] Yes.
Dave:
[12:07] Okay, sorry. Episode three is which one?
Tara:
[12:10] The walkling dead is what I called it.
Dave:
[12:11] That's right. Yes. Yes. And then episode four is another fun one.
Sarah:
[12:14] Oh no.
Dave:
[12:16] And I'll just say they figured out a way to do this episode. And when you see it, you'll be, oh, okay.
Tara:
[12:22] I think we can say the holodeck is involved.
Dave:
[12:25] Oh, can we?
Tara:
[12:26] An early, I think it's fine to say that.
Dave:
[12:27] Yeah, I mean, it happens so soon. It's not the it's not the reveal of the episode.
Tara:
[12:30] No. It's it's a they've gotten like a prototype holodeck and they're like, we're t see how much pressure it puts on the, you know, engineering and whatnot.
Dave:
[12:32] Yeah. They're testing it. Yeah. Right. And speaking of which, Scotty gets more to do this season, which I like. Yeah.
Tara:
[12:58] Okay, back to the wedding episode though, Sarah. The way I gasped when Chapel came out in that gown. I felt like You were also on the other side of the country, just enraptured.
Sarah:
[13:05] I mean, Uh-huh.
Tara:
[13:10] It was so beautiful.
Sarah:
[13:11] Yeah. They really know how to shoot this. They really have a love for the whole franchise and what it can do. And the way that it's shot and directed, I think, is coming from a place of like maximizing what this franchise can do for people emotionally and narratively. We recently watched the season two Vanessa and Jim get stuck in 2020's Toronto.
Tara:
[13:39] Yes.
Sarah:
[13:40] Episode. And at the end, I was like, I had a little tear. I was like, why does this work on me? It really was like, you know, when I'm watching it for the purposes of prepping the podcast. I'm trying to take notes, but then I don't really take that many notes because it's perfectly made for what it is. Like, I don't think it's an A genius. Hail the return of the golden era. Level good, but it's so confident in what it is and who it's for that it's really a fun show. And I'm glad that our esteemed colleague John Ramos so strongly suggested that we start watching it over the break because That's what I like about the show is that it has all of this canon to play with, and it does pretty well in choosing which stories to lean on and which actors can really carry stuff. So it's a good show.
Tara:
[14:32] It's so far ahead of all of the other Star Trek shows too. Like Picard and Discovery just were so pung. Ponderous by comparison.
Sarah:
[14:41] Mm-hmm.
Tara:
[14:42] And this, and obviously, lower decks is a different kind of a thing entirely, but they're so good.
Sarah:
[14:42] Yeah.
Dave:
[14:47] I find Lower Dex and this one share a lot of DNA and a lot of sensibilities.
Tara:
[14:51] Mm-hmm.
Sarah:
[14:51] Yeah, I would say that's true.
Dave:
[14:53] I wonder if Lower Dex paved the way for this show.
Tara:
[14:53] Yes. Yeah, that's a good point.
Dave:
[14:57] Like it just like we can lean into the comedy now more. We don't have to be afraid of that. You know, we're not that sort of hard sci-fi. We don have to be that all the time.
Tara:
[15:06] Yeah. I mean, I hope they've learned some lessons from this that they are carrying forward into the Starfleet show.
Dave:
[15:11] Oh, the Academy one?
Tara:
[15:13] The Starfleet Academy show, yeah.
Dave:
[15:14] Yeah, yeah. I have no idea what that's gonna be. I'm hopeful. That they can do something with a setting like that. But I also wonder: like, what's the, what's, what's the danger? Who's the antagonist of a show that is set in a schoolroom?
Tara:
[15:30] Right, right.
Dave:
[15:31] But I guess we'll find out.
Sarah:
[15:32] Who's in that again? Is that Sarandon?
Tara:
[15:34] That's Tatiana Maslani.
Dave:
[15:36] Tateos Bazlani, I think Tegnotaro's in that one. I think they brought her into that. Paul Giamatti's in it.
Tara:
[15:42] I think so. Right.
Dave:
[15:42] Yeah.
Sarah:
[15:42] Oh, yeah, okay.
Tara:
[15:43] Well, I know Tawny Newsome, who voices Mariner, and I've talked about her recently because she's also working on the comedy show that's set at the Star Trek Resort. But she wrote on the Starfleet Academy show as well. So that, I mean, hopefully that means there's a bit, at least a little comic sensibility coming in, even if it's only in every other episode like this one.
Dave:
[16:00] Yeah.
Tara:
[16:02] Like, okay, good, I'll take it.
Dave:
[16:03] But here's the thing: like after you watch Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds. Can this show, I'm not saying they have to do this, but can this show give itself permission to have lower stakes?
Tara:
[16:15] Yeah.
Dave:
[16:16] You know, and if they can't. then it's I feel like it has the potential to get messy. And if they can, well, that might be good because that'll be something kind of new to a series that sort of takes itself kind of seriously, but also Within a very sort of like low stakes environment.
Sarah:
[16:29] Yeah.
Dave:
[16:32] I don't know. It could be interesting.
Sarah:
[16:32] Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think it's a matter of not being paralyzed by respect for the IP.
Tara:
[16:38] Yes.
Sarah:
[16:39] I wanted to like Picard because I liked the character, and I always have liked that performance, even as. He was, you know, stalking the halls of Space Marriott. But it really did feel like they didn't want to do anything, like any moments of wit were quickly. Tamped down because they didn't want to seem disrespectful? Or like, well, you know, we're going to turn this IP around and you're not allowed to drive it anymore. Like, okay, just Have fun with it. Like, people love this set of franchises for a reason. And if you can't kind of plug into the fun of it, then what are we doing here?
Dave:
[17:27] All right, it is time for everybody's favorite segment with their favorite theme. It is AskEH I had to find that on the fly.
Clip:
[17:47] Come.
Dave:
[17:52] I was very happy I found that on the fly. I was able to time it so well. Hey, let's give it up for Dave. All right, it is time for Ask EHG. It been a while since we've been recording this as they come out because we're on vacation for a couple weeks. So we have three judgments to dispense out, and I am the judge for all of them. So sorry in advance. Slash, you're welcome. All right, we got to rewind to Ask Ask ESG for episode three sixty. It came from Jovial Gent. They asked, what is a recent T V show that has made you rediscover your love for an old favorite actor? Tara, get an answer for this one before we get into user answers?
Tara:
[18:29] I do. I have been watching screeners. For Leanne, which is the new Chuck Laurie Netflix sitcom built around the comic Leanne Morgan. We all, by the way, recently saw her, even if we're not necessarily Familiar with her stand-up, she was Rhys Witherspoon's sister in You're Cordially Invited, not the one who was getting married, the other one. She's fine. But in the show, her sister is played by Kristen Johnston. And this is someone who I wouldn't say that I forget about her, but I kind of forget about her when she's not right in front of me. She was. Before this, most recently in The Righteous Gemstone Season Three, very funny but also like dark role. Watched her in the X's for an upcoming Again With Again with This. She's just someone who is so good. I think we take her for granted. She's never mentioned, I feel in the same breath as like a Julia Louis Dreyfus as one of the great sitcom actors of our time. But she really is. Even in this very blah show, she's brings out a lot of sparkles. So, Kristen Johnston in Leanne.
Dave:
[19:30] Mentioning righteous gemstones, I'm going to put Michael Rooker up there.
Tara:
[19:34] Oh, yeah, yeah.
Dave:
[19:35] You don't see him a ton of ton, but when he's there, and he's always sort of playing that edgy, dangerous, somewhere between sleazy and like totally terrifying.
Tara:
[19:42] Psycho, yeah.
Dave:
[19:44] But he does it so well.
Sarah:
[19:45] Yeah.
Tara:
[19:46] Mhm.
Dave:
[19:46] And then when you actually hear him in interviews, you're like, he doesn't seem fully functioning as a person. So when he acts and he does it so well, I'm like, Oh, like, what's the act here, and what's the reality? Like, he's so good at flipping that switch that I'm always impressed and happy to see him on screen. All right, let's get to your answers for this one. And with three E's, when he popped up in Reservation Dogs and The Last of Us in 2023, it reminded me how great and underused Graham Green is. Especially in Reservation Dogs.
Sarah:
[20:17] Oh yeah.
Dave:
[20:17] That was a really sensitive and lovely performance. Yeah, Grant Greene's always good. He was, um, yeah.
Tara:
[20:21] Yeah, he's great.
Dave:
[20:23] Um, I think we recently saw him on Nerve and Exposure episode too. I mean, recently, last little while.
Tara:
[20:28] Oh, yeah, mhm.
Dave:
[20:28] Yeah. Callie Pitter, the residents on Netflix had its issues, but the cast was not one of them. I particularly enjoyed seeing Jason Lee and would love him to have another crack at a lead role in his own comedy. I miss my name is Earl. I think the name Earl holds up. I haven't watched an episode in years and years.
Sarah:
[20:48] Yeah, it was nails on a chalkboard to me, but that's I'm me, so.
Tara:
[20:52] I think Raising Hope is the better version, it's the better evolution of My Name is Earl.
Dave:
[20:57] That makes sense.
Tara:
[20:57] They also, that guy, Greg Garcia, made another show called Sprung that's on freevie that we should watch sometime because apparently it's also like funny and undersung.
Dave:
[21:05] Okay. Our winner this week is Deanna Joy. This might be basic, but Dying for Sex reminded me how criminally misused Michelle Williams was on Dawson's Creek. And yes, she's been doing Oscar caliber film work for years, but it was nice to see her in a longer show that highlighted both her serious and kooky sides. But we're going to give out a second winner for Erica, who glommed on, absolutely glommed on. Yes, sure. Absolutely agree. I also love seeing Sissy Spacek again. That woman's got more gears than a fancy mountain bike. And I love what she did on that show. Next one, 361, also from Jovial Gent. What is the show that only exists as a name in your mind? And what do you think it is about, Tara?
Tara:
[21:50] I guess Virgin River and Sullivan's Crossing are actually two different shows and not the same show twice. What I assume they are both about is the descendants of the lead lady from When Calls the Heart.
Dave:
[22:03] Yeah, okay.
Sarah:
[22:05] You are correct.
Dave:
[22:06] Adam Grossworth of the Adam Grossworth Equalizer Challenge. Peaky Blinders is about brothers who run a window treatment installation company. See it.
Tara:
[22:15] Mhm.
Dave:
[22:15] I always got Peaky Blinders as Sneaky Pete mixed up before I started watching Peaky Blinders.
Sarah:
[22:15] Bucking A.
Tara:
[22:18] Uh-huh. Yep.
Sarah:
[22:21] Yeah, I used to get Peaky Blinders confused with what was the one with all the like famous monsters?
Dave:
[22:25] Penny dreadful.
Sarah:
[22:27] Yes.
Dave:
[22:28] I mean, they take place in sort of the same era.
Tara:
[22:30] True.
Dave:
[22:31] Yeah.
Sarah:
[22:31] And five letter thing that starts with a P, and then an eight letter word, like help me, help you.
Dave:
[22:36] Penis Erica below decks is Downton Abbey on a boat.
Sarah:
[22:38] Yes, penis.
Dave:
[22:42] Sean, I think I got this joke from EHG, but Suits is about the Suits brothers. They make suits, and I refuse to believe otherwise. That sounds like something I said, but I don't want to take credit for it. Damon, Designing Women is just weird science as a TV series. That's pretty good. And our winner for this one is JoJo Lemon. Going Dutch is a reality dating show where contests. On a blind date, they pay for their own dinners.
Tara:
[23:07] How dare you Yes Before I was of dish washing age, dish soap ads made it seem to me like grease comes straight off a pan like gravy.
Dave:
[23:08] If they end up being a match, Captain Maggie Quinn, who she's never heard of before, Tara, you mentioned it in your captain's list, flies the couple to Holland for a second date. Next one comes from C. Kent. What are weird, incorrect beliefs you held due to television commercials of your youth?
Tara:
[23:35] Like it just made it look too easy.
Dave:
[23:37] Depends how you cook.
Tara:
[23:38] It's like, I don't know why this is such a selling point. That doesn't look like it's hard to clean at all. So that was mine.
Dave:
[23:43] I thought serving the wrong type of coffee was the quickest way to lose all your friends for a while. And I'm glad I didn't drink coffee. A lot of ones that didn't quite speak to the brief. Lara had one that she thought Wolf Blitzer was the first President Bush for years, thanks to television. Adam Grossworth back, ring around the collar, and bathtub rings are the same and are the worst thing that can happen to you.
Sarah:
[24:02] Sure.
Dave:
[24:10] And it feels like we solved that as well.
Tara:
[24:11] Mhm About either of them, truly, yeah.
Dave:
[24:12] I feel like we don't see any more commercials about that. Yeah, I mean, because of science.
Tara:
[24:16] Yes.
Dave:
[24:17] Erica, most families eat absolutely massive breakfasts that involve multiple proteins, grains, fruits, enormous glasses of orange juice and milk.
Sarah:
[24:23] Yes, no, yeah, baffling.
Dave:
[24:28] Etc. , etc. This is true. Jesse, this is something that I have to absolutely co-sign. And I don't know what episode it is, but I had a full discussion about this very thing on Listen to Sassy. Jesse says That tavern on the green was the best and fanciest restaurant in the world.
Sarah:
[24:48] I remember you ranting about it on Listen Sassy, too.
Tara:
[24:50] Mm-hmm.
Dave:
[24:51] To pickles, our favorite Vulcan artisan manufacturer of pickles.
Tara:
[24:54] Mm-hmm.
Dave:
[24:55] I believe that men's deodorant would not work on a woman, and vice versa. You can see that. And I've got two winners for this one as well. I've got Thalene. There was a 1970s commercial for Calgon Laundry Desurgent that ran for years, where a white woman asked Mr. Lee. How he gets his shirts so clean and replies, Ancient Chinese secret. I was a nineteen eighties child of Chinese immigrants. I remember being very young and believing there were a bunch of ancient Chinese secrets that I had to learn.
Tara:
[25:26] I hope you have.
Dave:
[25:27] Yeah. So that's one of our winners, and I couldn't choose between the two. So our friend Portland Ork the first. So I grew up in the 80s in California, and Cal Worthington's auto dealership commercials were ubiquitous. The jingle ends with the line: Go see Cal, go see Cal, go see Cal. But I thought it was pussy cow, pussy cow, pussy cow. And for years I thought cow was short for pussy cow. And then she used that in conversation to her embarrassment. And I want to play you that clip so you can understand. I think I can totally see it.
Clip:
[26:06] Here's Cal Worthington and his dog Spot. If you need a great big truck, go see Cal. If you need a little truck, go see Cal. Get a camper, change your luck, buy a van, and save a buck. For any kind of truck, go see Cal.
Dave:
[26:21] Pussy cow Yep.
Sarah:
[26:22] Yeah, I I hear pussy cow, especially that first bit.
Dave:
[26:25] All right. So to recap, Portland Orc the First, Thelene, Jojo, Lemon, Erica, and Deanna. Go on Discord. DM me for your prize. I need your postal address. Also, with those five winners, that means I'm officially out of cake stickers. So it's time for something new. I'm working on it. And I think I might just start sending them out without explaining what they are. And we'll let people post once they get to their House. All right. Let's get into the questions for us. First one comes from Corey, rhymes with story. Allegory. The four networks I associate most with the golden age of TV era are FX, AMC, Showtime, and HBO. What are the most representative shows of each of those networks?
Tara:
[27:09] For FX, I have the Americans, morally ambiguous and sexy. For AMC, Breaking Bad, Dark and Tense. For Showtime, Dexter, buzzy idea that goes on way past its sell-by-date slash internal story logic. And for HBO Sopranos, I feel like it's the only valid choice in this question, honestly. Sarah.
Sarah:
[27:32] FX, I had American Horror Story. I feel like Americans was like maybe a little bit of an outlier in terms of the uniform quality. American Horror Story struck me as a little more consistently inconsistent with FX product. AMC, I had Madmen, glossily and performatively prestigious, but also could back it up. Showtime, I also had Dexter for the same reasons that Tara mentioned. And HBO Sopranos, Ditto. Dave.
Dave:
[27:58] Yeah, I had Americans, Madmen, Dexter, Soprano, so we're all very similar. Sister Night, which TV season would you have liked to see as a studio adolescent style season of one-shot episodes in order to create maximum chaos? Sarah.
Sarah:
[28:14] Well, since we've all agreed to pretend it doesn't exist anyway, why not Zhuzh season two of Friday Night Lights? And then, if it doesn't work out, we could just bury it even further under the jail. Dave.
Dave:
[28:26] Tracker Tracking Edition and Wish You Track Tracker from Tracker.
Sarah:
[28:31] Yes, yep.
Tara:
[28:33] I know I just mentioned her, but I'm going to say Kristen Johnston's season of Righteous Gemstones, which was season three, I think she and Steve Zahn have the chops to have made it work in a neo-live way.
Dave:
[28:45] L and F, do you believe in ghosts? Have you had any ghostly or supernatural encounters in your life? No and no time.
Tara:
[28:52] Same, Sarah.
Sarah:
[28:54] I do. Although if evidence of their conclusively not existing were shown to me, I would accept it. But you can't prove a negative.
Dave:
[29:02] Just look. Look, do you see any ghosts right now? I know. Case closed.
Sarah:
[29:07] Yes, but Dave, you weren't a high-strung girl child who ran Read a lot of Hans Holzer as a kid and knew that it's not always a visual manifestation.
Dave:
[29:09] Yeah, a ghost. Wait, haunts?
Sarah:
[29:21] Furthermore, Hans.
Dave:
[29:23] Oh, if I said haunts, which very apropos.
Sarah:
[29:26] Yeah, I did live in a haunted apartment though. It was my first apartment in New York City. Cold patches, feeling of being watched, shit getting moved around, whispering when nobody else was home, the works. The cat and my human roommate both agreed that there were other beings in the apartment. We called them the girls. I was seeing this guy at the time who was like, okay, high-strung weirdo. So I was like. As a joke, you hear that, ladies. He doesn't believe in you. At which time, a massive Webster's Second International Dictionary that I was using to brace a door open. Tipped over, slid out into the hall, and the door slammed itself three times. And by the time I could form the words, fucking told ya, that dude was out on the sidewalk and would never come back in the apartment again. Could it have been a crossbreeze? But I don't think it was, and neither did Skepticals, my now ex-boyfriend.
Dave:
[30:19] This is not the same apartment that you shared with your brother that we were at that one time.
Sarah:
[30:23] No, no, no.
Dave:
[30:24] Okay, because that the reason why that wall was haunted is because your whole apartment's on a steep incline. If you sat on the floor, you would slide to the other wall, as I remember.
Sarah:
[30:34] Oh, yeah. Like, if you knocked a soda over, it was like a race against time, truly.
Dave:
[30:36] Yeah.
Sarah:
[30:39] I don't think I didn't live there with my brother. That was a couple apartments before, but yeah, no right angles anywhere in that house either.
Dave:
[30:46] All right. See Ken. Everyone knows the good seasons of The Simpsons, but for T-Bone, what are the good seasons of friends?
Tara:
[30:54] You can stop watching friends start at the beginning. The first season is good right from the start or you know. If you like it, good in the ways that you like, but it starts to wind down, in my opinion, at the one where everyone finds out, which is a lot of people's favorite episode for good reason. It's probably my second favorite. Actually, it might even be my first favorite at this point. Point. But that's about two-thirds of the way through season five. The fun, I would say, starts winding down once Chandler and Monica are dating in the open, and then it just becomes a pussy hen peck pairing.
Dave:
[31:26] There's your answer, Seekant. Deal with it. Evil Dolphin, what state deserves a T V show set inside of it, and what's the show?
Tara:
[31:34] I'm gonna say Hawaii. There was recently a report about the studio, like the main one that they use for Hawaii set shows. I believe they shot Magnum PI there, all the, you know, NCIS, Hawaii, Hawaii 5. 0, the new one. Anyway, there's nothing shooting there right now. And so there were photos of like the whole lot getting taken over by weeds and stuff. So I'm going to say, let's put something back there, get that all cleaned up. And what should it be? I have long wanted a Blue Crush show, so let's do that.
Sarah:
[32:07] Oh, God, yes.
Tara:
[32:09] I just heard Susan Orleen on a podcast this week talking about her original article that inspired the movie from Outside Magazine, also R. I. P. Outside. Magazine.
Sarah:
[32:18] I gotta yeah, I gotta rewatch that.
Tara:
[32:21] It's really good.
Sarah:
[32:22] Michelle Rodriguez has finest hour.
Tara:
[32:23] Yeah, true.
Dave:
[32:25] I looked up on Wikipedia, you know, they have a list of shows set in various states. I don't know how exhaustive it is.
Tara:
[32:32] Mhm.
Dave:
[32:32] So I was sort of like perusing the states with the least amount, Vermont.
Tara:
[32:36] Wyoming.
Dave:
[32:37] Yeah, actually, Wyoming, yeah, there's all those Westerns and stuff.
Tara:
[32:38] Oh, I guess there's Westerns, yeah.
Dave:
[32:41] West Virginia was pretty low on the list, but then I took a different tact. Which is maybe New York or California, bear with me, but not inside of New York City or Los Angeles.
Tara:
[32:52] Mm-hmm.
Dave:
[32:53] So there's a lot of state outside of the major cities.
Tara:
[32:56] Yeah.
Dave:
[32:56] I'm thinking Lake Placid.
Tara:
[32:58] Mm-hmm.
Dave:
[32:58] or Mammoth Lakes, respectively, in those two states. It would be sort of a New Hart-esque take on running a ski lodge.
Tara:
[33:06] Mm-hmm.
Dave:
[33:06] but it's secretly just another show about small town people running drug empires. Because that is one of the four new shows that you're allowed to make these days. Yep. Sarah, what do you got?
Sarah:
[33:18] I was tempted similarly by just southern central Pennsylvania mushroom country, where part of my family is from, and you know, mushrooms grow and shit. So that would just be a runner. But what I actually decided. Was Oklahoma, and it's the live action podcast within a spin-off of Oklahoma Is Not Okay, which is syndicating serial knockoff from Only Murders in the Building. I just Would be interested in the limited one season series about that.
Dave:
[33:47] Similar to Hawaii, although it doesn't technically fit the brief, but I can't think of a show that was actually set in Puerto Rico. If you're looking for something new, Puerto Rico. Or Guam. Sister Night is back. If you're still covering movies, which films from this or last year would you want to do segments on? Sarah.
Sarah:
[34:08] For last year, I went with Wicked, the whole marketing and like meta-ness around that guaranteed even more that I would probably never see it. But it would have been interesting to like force me to watch it and then discuss it. I would have been interested in the discussion, even if the movie was not awesome.
Tara:
[34:26] Yeah, that's the only way I'd see it, too.
Dave:
[34:27] Yeah, I just remember Walmart had a tie-in with Wicked. I don't remember the product. I want to say it was cream cheese, and you could get the cream cheese, and it was either pink or green or something.
Tara:
[34:37] It was macaroni and cheese. It was like boxed macs and ch mac and cheese.
Dave:
[34:39] Macaroni and cheese. Thank you.
Tara:
[34:41] Yeah.
Dave:
[34:41] But it was their like great circle or whatever, great value brand, which was like, what are we doing here?
Tara:
[34:43] Great value.
Dave:
[34:47] Why?
Tara:
[34:48] Uh-huh. Yep.
Dave:
[34:51] Yeah, weird stuff.
Tara:
[34:52] Anyway, what was your pick from this year, sir?
Sarah:
[34:53] Yeah. From this year, Superman, because I think it would be fun to do some, I mean, everyone's doing their rankings of Superman properties, but I would like to do that.
Dave:
[35:02] My answer was Superman, but for a totally different reason. I thought that thing was such a bloated mess and everybody on earth just loves it to bits that I kind of want to run against the headwinds on that one and just tell everybody all the ways is terrible.
Sarah:
[35:17] And since we're not doing a ranking of all the Superman properties, just to let You know that if you ranked the Superman properties and you didn't have two at the top of the list, you're wrong. Quit your job.
Dave:
[35:29] Superman 2.
Tara:
[35:30] The one was odd, yeah.
Dave:
[35:30] Yeah, yeah.
Sarah:
[35:31] Superman 2.
Dave:
[35:31] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Neil before Zod.
Tara:
[35:33] Mhm.
Sarah:
[35:35] Mhm.
Dave:
[35:35] Yeah, Christopher Reeve is still my favorite Superman.
Tara:
[35:36] Of course.
Sarah:
[35:37] Fucking A.
Dave:
[35:38] The prototype that sort of set the stage for the rest of the superheroes that came out of it, but I just feel like he's got that, he captured more than anybody else that middle ground between mythical god and goofy nerd.
Tara:
[35:50] Yeah, I agree.
Sarah:
[35:51] And just the most unalloyed foxy of them all, just my opinion.
Tara:
[35:54] Mm-hmm.
Sarah:
[35:56] No offense, Brandon Ralph.
Tara:
[35:57] In terms of ones that I would want to talk about because I thought they were really good, I'm going to say Bridget Jones, Mad About the Boy, which you can still watch on Peacock, by the way. Challengers, which is on Prime video.
Sarah:
[36:09] Mm, I considered that one.
Tara:
[36:13] Drop, I think, is on Peacock. And Sinners just started streaming on Max July 4th. Those were all So good. In terms of ones that I would want to like dig in on in a more academic way, I guess, I'm going to say Materialists and the substance, which I have a lot of thoughts about, and I don't have a way to really get into them because we don't talk about movies anymore. But, Dave.
Dave:
[36:40] In Ninja Batman versus Yakuza League Japan floats upside down in the sky, causing yakuza hurricanes where criminals rain down from the islands in a rainstorm.
Tara:
[36:43] Bye. I'm out.
Dave:
[36:56] All right, following with me so far? The question is, what country would you choose to float upside down, and what type of person storm would it create?
Tara:
[37:06] Okay, first of all, what?
Dave:
[37:08] I don't know.
Tara:
[37:08] Are you okay? Is this a stroke test?
Sarah:
[37:10] Don't overthink it.
Dave:
[37:14] There's no such property, Joe Legend. Just having a stroke.
Sarah:
[37:16] Jovial gents working through some things.
Dave:
[37:18] Yeah.
Sarah:
[37:19] Let's just forge ahead.
Dave:
[37:20] Yeah, I looked it up. It's a real thing. And there's a sequel or like a spiritual follow-up or something as well. So people love Weird Batman. My answer for which country that floats upside down is Iceland, and here's why. When the hurricane comes, all the tiny elf holes, those are those little elf. Houses they build into the sides of trees and hills and stuff like that, they all open up, and all the Holdufolk elves spill out and rain all over you.
Tara:
[37:39] Yeah, mhm.
Dave:
[37:47] So basically, there's a storm of gnomes every time. In Iceland, which could be delightful, but also I don't know if they're really nice. I get the feeling they're probably, you know, a pain in the ass type of elf.
Sarah:
[37:58] Could be a triple situation, just tying it into our theme.
Dave:
[38:00] Oh, those Icelandic elves love to fuck Sarah.
Sarah:
[38:08] Viva la France. We are turning France upside down and raining beret-wearing socialist strikers on town squares all around us. Tara.
Tara:
[38:18] I'm going to turn Sweden upside down and it's going to rain down briskly efficient death cleaners.
Dave:
[38:25] All right, Dr. Calhoun has a question just for me. What shows have the best typography? And that's one I can answer. I'm going to put here Warrior. The show that we were set got canceled. The problem with shows set in the past is often they try to pass off printed material as hand-painted. Like they can't be arsed to hand-painted, so that they just like Take it off the decal machine, slap it up somewhere on the wall, and hope you don't notice. Too clean, too uniform. It didn't do that. I caught a couple boo-boos here and there, but for a show that has so many signs, because it all takes place, mostly takes place in San Francisco, Chinatown in the 1800s. So there's a lot of hand-painted signs, obviously. They did a pretty good job. If you're watching a show that doesn't have such attention to detail, one of the markers of this is that you're going to see two fonts: the lazy choices for fonts for old-timey stuff. One's called Brother, the other's called Council. They're great fonts unto themselves. But it's the first two things that pop up if you put like turn of the century fonts or like circus fonts or old timey Yeah, Western fonts, that kind of stuff.
Sarah:
[39:34] Western font saloon fonts. Yeah.
Dave:
[39:37] Yeah. So if you see those, you know that was a first thought font.
Tara:
[39:41] As seen in Oh Brother, where art thou the most first thought choice for brother First thought, best thought, video killed the radio star.
Dave:
[39:46] Yeah.
Sarah:
[39:47] And when calls the heart, honestly, everything's fresh out of the package on that show.
Dave:
[39:52] And alias credits that use the font top secret. Seeken has another question just for me. Dave only. How are clips organized on your soundboard? By show first, I imagine, but then do you have categories? Faves, most played. I'm always impressed with how quickly you can hit a sound clip, particularly one that's not played frequently. I have a main board for each show, correct? And then speaking to extra hot, great. I have additional boards for Canon and Game Time because those have a lot of clips just onto themselves. The random drops you heard, like that one, are arranged on their own boards, and I have them alphabetically. And I have so many now that I have three boards: I have A to H, I to P, and Q to Z. And then I have a holding tank for all reoccurring segments like is this worse than jazz? Will Dave hate this? Tiny Triumph, etc. that I bring into the main sound boards as needed. Each board holds up to eighty clips. Some of them are completely full. Milsnack, what is your favorite song about T V? Tar.
Tara:
[40:59] Sarah.
Sarah:
[41:00] That was my second thought. My first thought, best thought is an accidental plug for next week's main show, Sleeping with Television On by Mr. William Joel. Dave.
Dave:
[41:09] Are you guys familiar with TV Party by Black Flag? I'm not saying this is my favorite, but it's the first one that came to mind.
Tara:
[41:14] I've only heard the Futurama cover, I think, but yes.
Dave:
[41:18] Okay, here's the song. A little bit from the song. The part of the song, if you know it, this is the part you know.
Clip:
[41:22] We're gonna have a TV for your ride. Turn it high! Be gone! Nothing better to do! And watch me have a couple brews.
Dave:
[41:36] All right, so that's the song. I don't listen to Black Flag, but that was the first one that came to mind. I knew about it. That one. You got a punk band that was Henry Rollins there screaming about drinking beer and watching TV. This is a song from the 80s. There are eight TV shows mentioned by name in the song. I'm giving you both four guesses alternating to see how many together. You can name. I believe the song is from the first half of the 80s. I don't remember exactly when, but that to place you in time. All right. Sarah D. Bunting, name a show that you think is in the song TV Party.
Sarah:
[42:11] A mash Dallas Cheers.
Dave:
[42:12] Matt Tar Sarah Correct Tar Sir All right, last guesses All right, you got one out of eight.
Tara:
[42:22] Twilight Zone Barney Miller Waltons Wow Shit I am a sender.
Sarah:
[42:33] Oh fuck. Ah Rimmington to steal.
Dave:
[42:47] Here are the songs.
Clip:
[42:49] We're dedicated to our favorite shows. That's incredible. Hill Street Blues, Dallas, Winter.
Dave:
[43:04] You spoke over Dallas, so that's the one to speak over. That was that's incredible. Hill Straight Blues, Dallas. Quincy. If you go to the official lyric sites, they get it wrong.
Tara:
[43:11] Quincy Fridays, the Saturday Night Live knockoff.
Dave:
[43:14] That's he's saying Quincy there, not whatever they have. All right, here's the other ones.
Clip:
[43:19] Saturday Night Live Monday Night Football Dynasty Friday!
Dave:
[43:28] The last one was Fridays.
Sarah:
[43:31] Wow Deep cut, Rollins.
Tara:
[43:33] Wow. Damn.
Dave:
[43:35] Yeah.
Sarah:
[43:35] All right.
Tara:
[43:36] I'm so mad. I almost said Hill Street Blues, and I was like, that wouldn't possibly be that.
Dave:
[43:39] But you got one, so I guess we'll declare Sarah Debunting black flag fan number one. All right, that concludes the questions for us. Here is your question to answer in the Ask Ask EHG channel and Discord. It comes from Meredith. The name John Provost, Timmy from Lassie, came up in a game time I was listening to today. My mom worked in the same real estate office as him back in the 80s. The question for you is what Minder celebrity Do you have a tenuous connection to? So put your answer in Ask, Ask, ESEA. We'll be back next week with Judgment.
Clip:
[44:16] Mom, we're thirsty! Well, I've got two glasses of sunfiz coming right up. Sunfizz? That's our favorite! That's because There's a delicious ray of sunshine in every drop. Hey, what's with you, people? I've got fragments and minerals. Trust your gut, not some cartoon character.
Dave:
[44:46] I am here to nominate the Sunfizz Sprite ad for the tiny commercial Canon.
Sarah:
[44:48] So good.
Dave:
[44:53] One of my favorite ads of all time is almost a perfect ad. I don't know how many bottles of Sprite this actually sold. I don't really care. But as a 30-second example of the 90s, damn the system to hell dementedness, I feel like this is the one I always remember. This is the one that I feel like is the exemplar. It's. Basically, a horror film scene with a family in the morning vibe, you know, part of a balanced breakfast brightness. to it all. But instead of Jason or Freddie, it's this Sonny D-esque Sunfizz mascot in all his nineties CGI glory. Unwittingly terrorizing two kids and their mother with his like new corporeal existence as he emerges from the Sunfizz jug label. All the humans freak the fuck out, like you heard. They flee for their lives because this supernatural event has just occurred in their kitchen. And then at the end of the scene, you hear the mom trip in the hall. with a Sunfizz mascot gaining ground on her behind in the hallway. She screams, Run to her children as we digitally zoom in on her mouth. If this was a perfect world, the commercial would have ended right there, maybe with a tiny little sprite logo in the corner. But because Coca-Cola is paying the bills, we are enjoined to obey our thirst and. There's all that fufura at the end, an audio call back to Sunthe's mascot, which I think all betrays what I believe to be committee changes. Born out of the lack of confidence in director Spike Jones' vision here. But that's just my hunch. It is 90% of a perfect commercial with an unfortunate 10% capitalism tack on at the end. The SunFiz commercial. You are my pitch for the tiny commercial canon. I absolutely love it.
Sarah:
[46:50] I will begin. I had completely forgotten about this ad, and there are subtle parts of it that really are so perfect in the construction that I would say it's 97. 5. Percent perfect. Like the over-cheeriness that you begin with, that like bleached out sunny breakfast in America lighting. There's a golden retriever that has like a Vaseline halo around him, even the kids like sing-songing in unison. You definitely have this, like, you know, sunfizz of the corn vibe. It has been very carefully created, and then it turns on a dime, and the little Son, Fizz, in his little CGI sneakers, is like, I have all these vitamins. What's with you, people? And the little girl turning from like, you know, I am an overly cheery child star to it's so good. It's like everything about it is timed perfectly. That last, like, Dip down and into mom's mouth on run. It's so, it's so good. It's so smart and confident until, like you said. Coca-Cola, C-suite was like, how do they know what they're supposed to buy instead?
Dave:
[48:10] What's the call to action?
Sarah:
[48:12] Yeah, exactly. Like, obey your thirst was sort of a dumb tagline, but I think it's actually closer even than Dave. Does. And no matter how many times I hear it or watch it, it's so funny. Brilliant. No further notes. I really enjoyed it and it makes me laugh every time. Tara.
Tara:
[48:33] Yeah, the kids really do look Fucking terrified. Like, I love how mean the ad is willing to be to children.
Sarah:
[48:38] Yeah.
Tara:
[48:42] The question is: you know, perhaps. Is it effective as a commercial? Because I remember Sunfizz way more than I remember that the product is Sprite. You know, in terms of consumer familiarity, this is. Probably like, well, we have to use this advertising budget. Let's do something really weird and dumb. And they did. I was really surprised that it was from 1998, both because That feels like something that's more 2000sy, but also like you said, that the 90s burn the system down thing.
Sarah:
[49:04] Yeah, me too.
Tara:
[49:13] It feels like 98 is at the tail end of that anti-brand.
Dave:
[49:15] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tara:
[49:17] Crap parody baseball cap, adbusters era. You know what I mean? It feels like too late and too early, both somehow, which is funny.
Sarah:
[49:22] Yeah.
Dave:
[49:25] Yeah, and but but speaking to how mean they let themselves be, there's another one in this series, and I forget the wrestler's name, Sting, maybe. It's basically sting pops up to this kid's house and it's a fake make a wish foundation visit. It's like, you know, last Last hope, or something like that.
Tara:
[49:41] Oh I don't remember this at all.
Dave:
[49:45] And the kid really wants to wrestle with Sting, and Sting just fucking destroys this kid. And the parents are there camcording it. And the first, it looks like it might be like wrestling move fake. But then he starts throwing him into like china hutches and stuff like that. And the kid just like bounces off the fucking walls. Like, it really just is like incredibly violent. He drags him over a mantlefold with dishes and everything.
Sarah:
[50:08] Wow, I don't either.
Dave:
[50:09] Oh, I'll have to dig it up so we can put it in the show notes. But yeah, it's another one that has a similar sensibility that absolutely has nothing to do with sprite.
Tara:
[50:11] Yeah.
Dave:
[50:17] But you're, oh, that was fun. I enjoyed that. So, yeah. All right. Bo ten.
Tara:
[50:22] Yeah, let's vote.
Dave:
[50:23] All right, Sarity Bunting, what's it yet?
Sarah:
[50:25] Oh yeah.
Tara:
[50:26] Of course.
Dave:
[50:27] All right, so the Sunfizz commercial for Sprite. You are hereby inducted into the extra hot, great, tiny commercial canon.
Clip:
[50:39] Americans love a winner. Yeah. And will not tolerate a loser. Nope.
Dave:
[50:45] It's time for the not-quite winners and losers of the week. First, not quite winner is Harrison Ford landing his first Emmy nomination at age 83. Thanks a lot for the fucking nomination.
Tara:
[50:57] In the aftermath of like people reacting to their nominations, people were posting other stars of the show, Mucko Uri and Jessica Williams were posting the text That he sent them to congratulate them. And it was like, first of all, how you expect an 83-year-old man to text, but also like it was very sweet. He really feels, he was very happy for his co-stars. It was nice. We're used to hearing him like want to tell talk show hosts to fuck off and stuff, but it's nice to know on set he's a sweetie.
Dave:
[51:25] Here's your fucking text. Tracy, a feature, fired from the pit. And the scuttlebutt is possibly due to her membership in Jesus' house, which, by the way, is a terrible name. A church of Britain that was still doing gay exorcism in 2021. And I am assuming that's not the good kind of gay exorcism, it's the bad kind.
Tara:
[51:55] Yeah, I don't think it's the fun, festive kind.
Dave:
[51:58] No.
Tara:
[51:58] No.
Sarah:
[51:58] No, I if My not quite winner is The Studio, which has hired Sarah Polly to write on season two.
Dave:
[52:00] The power of Christ compels you in these shorty shorts.
Tara:
[52:04] The power of Christ compels you, girl. Yeah.
Dave:
[52:08] So, I guess where you won't see her, what's her Doctor remote?
Tara:
[52:11] Dr. Collins.
Dave:
[52:12] Doctor Collins. I'm not going to see Dr. Collins in season two of the pit. So, all right, Sarah D. Bunting, not quite winner of the week.
Sarah:
[52:25] Obviously, I am thrilled that she feels that she's on their wavelength, and obviously she is based on what we saw of her in season one. So, love it. My not quite loser is the Beeb, Nadia Hussein, formerly of Great British Baking Show, and I think more than one show. Post, she went off in an interview about the Beeb dropping her show, that they were pressuring her to be like, This is a mutual decision. And she was like Kick rocks, it was not mutual. I liked doing the show, and it I thought it was doing well. So tell them yourself. Good for you, Nadia.
Dave:
[53:02] Especially when the BBC is like eighty percent of your options in the UK as far as a channel per capita goes.
Sarah:
[53:07] Yeah.
Tara:
[53:11] My not quite winner of the week is the pit. This is the one Emmy headline that I cherry picked. Because I was very happy about it. It got 13 nominations, including Best Drama, Best Actor for Noah Wiley, Best Supporting Actress, Katherine Lanaza.
Sarah:
[53:25] Yes.
Tara:
[53:26] Outstanding guest actor for Sean Hitozi. Love all of those nominations and many more. I got to vote on the Television Critics Association Awards this week. And the Pitt was nominated there as well. And I don't know if I'm supposed to say, because it doesn't matter. I spread my votes around a little more for shows like Common Side Effects and Somebody Somewhere that were also nominated at the TCA awards, but was happy to see the pit and hope it prospers there even without my votes I think it's gonna be fine. My not quite loser of the week is Ted Lasso. We have a clip of uh it's star Hannah Waddingham. Let's hear it.
Clip:
[54:05] Think that there would be another season. I know we've been asking you this forever. And now there is going to be another season. And no, I feel like it was the most beautiful, beloved dog that was buried. And now we've exhumed it.
Sarah:
[54:23] Wow.
Tara:
[54:24] You know, it's true.
Sarah:
[54:24] I mean, agree, but Oh, God, yeah, that mm-hmm.
Tara:
[54:28] We I remember when um Fresh Off the Boat got renewed, and that star Constance Wu like tweeted, like, oh, fuck, or whatever she did post tweeted at the time.
Dave:
[54:37] I remember that, yep.
Tara:
[54:39] And we were like. Okay, this is like this is the more British way of doing that, where it's like, well, I don't really want to keep doing this, but I guess it's happening. So I think that's the majority opinion anyway. But on that tip, Scrubbs from the same from Bill Lawrence, who is also a co-creator of Ted Lasso, also coming back with all three leads. Like, you know, let's Try having new ideas, maybe? I don't know. Let's.
Dave:
[55:03] Which three leads? I feel like there like six leads in that show.
Tara:
[55:05] Oh, Zach Braff Donald Faison, and Sarah Chalk. The three main doctors. Yeah. So yeah. I mean, I'll check it out. We're probably not going to make you do it, Sarah, but time will tell again.
Sarah:
[55:18] Thank you.
Dave:
[55:19] But a whole new batch of scrub squashions coming your way.
Sarah:
[55:22] It would actually help in game time, I was going to say. You know what? We'll jump off that ambulance bay when we get to it.
Tara:
[55:35] Welcome in, grandpas, for another episode, reminding you that there is so much show that you're missing if you're only still at the grandpa tier. We talked about. Star Trek Strange New World Season 3. We answered questions about topics like Ninja Batman versus Yakuza League. Yeah, we did. If you have three more dollars a month, go to extrahotgreat. com/slash club, kick up that pledge, help us hit our next campaign goal. Always shimmering in the distance. We keep getting so close and then falling back again. Today extra credit topic is Summiting Anson Mount.
Sarah:
[56:11] That's what she said.
Dave:
[56:12] Yeah, I was gonna say, I was gonna say This is my craven attempt to just shit out a show that succeeds because Reddit loves a mystery box show even if there's no conclusive wrap-up to it.
Sarah:
[56:14] Yeah, it did kind of seem.
Tara:
[56:16] That's a joke, guys. He is not just an actor who plays the Star Trek captain. He's also a guy with a name that doubles his location. So I have asked my co-host to match him with two other actors with place name names. And create a show for them all to co-star in when Strange New Worlds ends, which we now know is only a couple of years away. We're going to get a fourth season and then like a shortened fifth season. And then that's it, Strange New Worldswise. I'll go first because it sounds like the two of you really dug in on this one in a way I'm excited to hear. Mine is a dark British style comedy about the Three Ridge. Siblings, their parents died when they were young, bonding them closely. They've always been one another's best friends. As adults, their spouses are always trying to Expand their social circle, but the Ridges have a nearly unerring gift for determining weak points in new acquaintances and drilling down on them mercilessly in league with one another. In very mean ways. Anson Mount plays Steve. He designs and builds custom duck blinds for hunters. Sierra A. Lena McLean is Vanessa, CEO of a company that makes laser pointer cat toys. Dulay Hill is Kevin, who owns a board game cafe. Together they are the core cast of Peak Point and Pinochle. And by the way, Ridge is also a near synonym for a mountain. Thank you. And their spouses are Cody Horn, Chris Rock and Michelle But Sarah, Sarah Nice.
Sarah:
[57:41] Fade up on a makeup chair in the not too distant future. Anson Mount is staring into the middle distance at nothing while around him we hear the production chatter of a quotidian bank commercial. As a make up lady hovers near his still perfectly architectural coif and is swatted absently away by Mount, we see a montage of Mount hearing pitches from his agent. CSI, International Space Station? No. Enterprise, the new Klet? No. It's a post apocalyptic Danny. We talked about this. Warbucks Bank Syndicate. Mount is about to ring off that call without even responding, when his eye comes to rest on a hand lettered sign magneted to the fridge. Days since a lost retainer garbage disposal accident, says the sign, and it has Clearly, been recently reset to zero. Mount half rolls his eyes and says fine into the phone. Back to the bank commercial set, where Mount is running lines, dimly aware that. What's in your wallet is not, in fact, the tagline he's supposed to be infusing with confident warmth, and surveying the crafty table with dissatisfaction. Enter Michael Beach. to grumble that he's pretty sure he saw that same moth eaten platter of croissants on the set of the One Hundred. Mount and Beach greet each other with enthusiasm and commiserate about the fact that they're both there to get out of the house and also to subsidize their Careless offsprings orthodontic device replacements. And to dodge Jimmy, Beach chuckles, that dude's relentless. New montage featuring James Badge Dale. In front of a different crazy wall each time. In the first, in which Dodi Fayed's face is covered with lines of red string, well, did you ever see him and Jack the Ripper together? My point In the second, hitting a map of Las Vegas with a pool cue, So that's where Hoffa is. Beach, in a folding chair, leans over to Mount, sitting next to him. Isn't that the Bellagio? mount as a tiny moth exits his hair, lifts one shoulder, and in the third, while wearing a The Scream T shirt. And that's how Thomas Pynchon pulled off the Gardner Heist. Back in the present, Mount asks, What is it this time? Beach. Well, he got the rights to some self-published nonsense about the Zodiac, and he's insisting it's the next great Hulu Twelve Parter. All I know is do not Pick up the phone, you will lose a hundred minutes. In the background, a light crashes to the ground, and an A D is heard bellowing that they can't go back to one for at least an hour. Mount retreats to a safe corner, cut to his phone screen as he duck duck goes self published Zodiac nonsense. The first two results Jarrett Kobek's Motor Spirit and How to Find Zodiac And an animated insert of Kobek sighing, We prefer the term boutique publishing is A, and B genre critics agree I probably found the motherfucker, so whatever. Whip pan to Sarah's Weinman and debunting at Crafty. Bunting, it's true. Weineman, how old do you think that croissant is? Mount is intrigued in spite of himself, and bored as fuck sitting around at home mostly, so when James Badgdale does call him, Mount has already read most of Motor Spirit, and he picks up the phone. And that's how, while adapting Kobek's work as a docudrama, three actors end up cracking the Zodiac Killer case in HBO's latest water cooler true crime mockumentary property. Where Not to Find Zodiac, a Bart Leighton production. Thank you. I will await my check. Dave.
Dave:
[1:01:20] It's the journey. It's the lucrative, lucrative journey. So I now present my pitch in three parts. Part one: the overview. So my show is called Third Bell. Here's the pitch. It centers around The Whitlock, an old abandoned theater in a dying New England town. It's been closed for decades, but there's an urban legend surrounding the Whitlock. Every thirty-three years someone disappears inside of it. No trace, no explanation, just gone. As we start the first episode, it's been thirty-two years and three hundred and sixty-three days since the last disappearance. Third Bell stars, Anson Mount, as Isaac Bellamy, a philosophy professor who's basically been exiled from his university after a public breakdown. He's all existential dread, brooding monologues, and just enough self-loathing to make him interesting. He's sort of like Mark Marin, but with even better hair. Joining him is Forrest Whitaker as Horace Dillard, a retired crime scene photographer who's come back to his hometown to raise his granddaughter. He's the quiet, soulful guy with a forensic eye. Literally, his old camera might be seeing more than just the present. Joining them is Sally Field as Mabel Voss, a former stage director who once ran the theater and is now back to reclaim her legacy, or maybe more. She's sharp. She's manipulative, and she has hundreds of secrets, and knows way more than she's letting on. The three of these characters form a reluctant team as they dig into the theater's past. But the deeper they go, the more it starts to feel like the theater's digging back. Part two. Here's a sample episode. This is from season one, episode three, dress rehearsal. Isaac, Horace, and Mabel are investigating a weird anomaly in old playbills from the 1950s to the 80s. There's a name that shows up in the cast list, always in the role of understeady, always uncredited otherwise. No actor remembers her, no photos, except Horace finds one. A single blurry image in the corner of a rehearsal photo showing a woman in a large white hat sitting in the balcony. No one else was there that day, and Mabel, she swears she remembers her, but the woman would now be about ninety years old. Meanwhile, Isaac discovers a half-burned monologue in his sister's old belongings. Oh, did I mention his sister vanished thirty-three years ago?
Tara:
[1:04:03] What is time?
Sarah:
[1:04:03] What is the time I I would watch the shit out of this so far.
Dave:
[1:04:04] The monologue talks about the audience behind the audience, which sounds poetic until they realize it's an actual thing. At the end of the episode, Mabel starts rehearsing a scene from the Victorian play, The Murder in the Red Barn. Her performance is chilling and syncs up perfectly with real-life case files from one of the disappearances, word for word. And then, right as she finishes the final line, the third bell tolls. No one rang it. No one even knows where it is. Cut to black. Make money. My third part of my process is the ARG bullshit component, that is augmented reality game component to the Third Bell Show. There's a real website for the Whitlock, Whitlocktheater. org. It's like an old non-profit archive. Nobody knows who runs it. It's got scanned playbills, director notes, missing person reports. And this weird Latin quote spray on the back of the theater curtain that you have to figure out what it is. Super creepy. There's a hidden login page. If you crack the cipher from one of the episodes, you get some bonus bullshit. There's an Instagram account after the curtain 1973 that's supposedly run by a fan of abandoned theaters. But the photos, they're not normal. You zoom in, you start seeing the same red scarf. In multiple time periods. Same girl, same smile, no aging. What the fuck's going on? There's also a phone number in the show, like actually on the screen if you can see it and you call it. It thanks you for reserving your place in the cast list, and then it just rings three times and hangs up on you. If you go to the YouTube page of a 1981 VHS rip of Mavis's rehearsal, And you subscribe to the channel three times in a row, the video flips itself to show a silent masked audience who nod and blink at certain words from the rehearsal. Money, please Yep.
Sarah:
[1:06:04] Also, I think Tara's learned a very valuable lesson about caffeinating her co-hosts and getting us started on shit like this.
Dave:
[1:06:13] And that is it for this episode of Extra Extra Hot Great. We bravely explored the new season of Star Trek's Strange New Worlds before answering your burning ask ESG questions. Like, what upside-down country do you want to reign? What type of person? The terror that is sunfizz was introduced into the tiny commercial canon. We celebrated those who weren't quite the best and worst of the week, and wraps it all up. With some shows designed for Anson Mount's next thing. Next up, Billy Joel on EHG Prime. That's right, we got Billy Joel, Billy Joel, in the studio next week. Remember.
Clip:
[1:06:50] We're listening. Ah!
Dave:
[1:06:53] I am David T. Cole, and on behalf of Tara Ariano and Sarah D. Bunting.
Tara:
[1:06:57] I've got vitamins and minerals.
Sarah:
[1:07:01] You can fly anything, right?
Dave:
[1:07:02] Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time right here on extra, extra hot grade.
Clip:
[1:07:18] No feeling party tonight. This is Extra Hot Great Minis. Today's topic is foreign unfair. Hello, everybody. Welcome to another week of Extra Hot Great Minis. We are joined all week by Omar Gaiaga. Hello, Omar. Hello. Thanks for having me This is the extra credit topic. Comes to us from At the Crazed Spruce, who asks us to pick a foreign show that has not been adapted stateside yet and to say how would an American studio screw up the U. S. remake. I will begin. Three Girls was an ITV miniseries based on a true story of grooming and sex trafficking of teenage girls in Rochedale, UK. Despite being extremely bleak, it was very good and compelling. I can only imagine that it would get St. Olivia Bensonized here in the U. S. with some bonus lectures on not profiling Middle Easterners, and it would be eight episodes instead of the economical three in which the British did it. Dave. Mine has switched from the first time we tried to record this, which was when I said call the midwife, because it just probably could not be done in the States because there's no real healthcare option for poor people to You don't get involved in midwifery. So just forget that show. And then I thought maybe The Genius from Korea, which you may remember is the game show Trip Payne introduced us to a couple of years ago. Oh, yeah. It's a really good show. It might be too smart for its own good for American TV, I think. You know, for a culture that's giving us, Are you smarter than the 50? Grader. Also, this might, for an American reality show, need too much cooperation between contestants. So, I just feel like between those two things, just like You sort of like when you watch Jeopardy from 20 years ago versus today, and how much easier the questions are. I figure that trend isn't going to stop anytime soon. So I think just the genius has got too many moving parts for American TV. So if they would do it. But it would be like the world's simplest escape room. That's what it would turn into. Instead of being called the high B minus instead of the genius, exactly. Precisely, Tara. Well, there was a one season show called Ambassadors, which starred David Mitchell and Robert Webb of Peep Show and that Mitchell and Webb look, and now a new show on Channel Four called Back, which Dave and I flew to England to watch the first episode of Intriguing So Far. Perhaps we will have more as the season goes on. But anyway, Ambassadors was about being posted to a Central Asian Sort of sketchy, yeah, Fakistan type of place where there's lots of different kinds of predictable corruption. The way that this would get screwed up is the State Department officials, which they would be if it were American, would be a lot dumber, a lot more venal, probably have much less resources, although that part would be true to life. But the worst offense would be that because Mitchell and Webb played the PC and Mac in those Apple ads in England. Their roles would be played in the American adaptation by John Hodgman and Justin Long, which no one wants to see. Omar. Mine is Garth Marenghi's Dark Place, which I think Fox would pick up and screw it up completely by putting Seth McFarlane in it. He would cast himself as actual Stephen King and turn it into a sort of not really scary horror anthology with some randomly misfired jokes. Wakey, wakey, Mr. Spock! It's your big day!
Dave:
[1:11:16] Whoops. Fuck. Wrong button. Oh, no, no.
Clip:
[1:11:19] Holy shit, what? Get to the basement, kids.
Sarah:
[1:11:23] Stead No, let's leave it.
Dave:
[1:11:24] Okay. Let's try that again.
Tara:
[1:11:27] Why