Will & Grace co-creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick are back with a throwback multi-cam sitcom that isn’t Gay Golden Girls, but isn’t NOT Gay Golden Girls. Would we travel down the road and back again for more? Joe Reid joins us to talk about it. Around The Dial takes us through Last One Laughing UK, Shrinking, Adolescence, The Pitt, and Gone Girls. Joe pitches the Simpsons episode “Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious” for induction into the Nonac. Then, after naming the week’s Winner and Loser, it’s on to a Game Time that’s more hard work than usual. Put down the cottage cheese and listen!
Moving In To Mid-Century Modern
Joe Reid returns to talk about Hulu’s new Palm Springs chosen family sitcom!
Episode Rundown
Lead Topic
Around The Dial
Announcement
The Nonac
Winner & Loser
Game Time
Other Tags
Episode Notes
Episode Tags
Episode Transcript
Episode Transcription
Dave:
[0:15] This is the Extra Hot Great Podcast, episode 556 for the week of March 31st, 2025. I am the show that killed Linda Lavin.
Tara:
[0:30] David T. Cole.
Dave:
[0:31] And I'm here with emotional support chicken, Sarah D. Bunting.
Sarah:
[0:35] Putting the cock back in.
Dave:
[0:38] Chavette innkeeper, Tara Ariano.
Tara:
[0:41] It's French.
Dave:
[0:41] And Fisty's regular, Joe Reed.
Joe:
[0:44] Come here often?
Tara:
[0:50] Oh my God. Welcome to Extra Hot Great, the most tasteful podcast you listen to.
Dave:
[0:57] Love, she's dead. She's not going to know.
Tara:
[0:59] You know what? I feel like she would find that pretty funny, honestly.
Joe:
[1:02] She didn't.
Sarah:
[1:03] Yeah.
Joe:
[1:03] Yeah.
Sarah:
[1:03] I hope so.
Tara:
[1:04] Joining us, he is a writer and a game maker at Vulture. He is a co-host of the podcast that's had Oscar buzz and Demi, myself, and I. And he is our beloved, dear friend. It's Joe Reed. Welcome back to Joe Reed.
Joe:
[1:17] Yay! It's Joe, Joey Apollo. Thanks for having me.
Tara:
[1:21] We're delighted to have you to talk about Mid-Century Modern in which, after George dies at home in Palm Springs, his best friend Bunny, Nathan Lane, invites the other two members of their squad, flight attendant Jerry, Matt Bomer, and ex-Vogue editor Arthur, Nathan Lee Graham, to give up their homes in Atlanta and New York, respectively, and move into Bunny's Bungalow. Already living there is Bunny's mother, Sybil, Linda Lavin. So yes, in case you were wondering, the Golden Girls comparisons are very intentional. Also, the guys are all gay and dating, not each other. The show was co-created by David Cohan and Max Muchnick, who previously made Will and Grace together. Ryan Murphy is among its executive producers. All 10 episodes dropped on Hulu on March 27th. We may talk about events from any of them. We've already talked about events from one of them.
Joe:
[2:11] Let's do the check-in.
Tara:
[2:13] Joe, should our listeners watch Mid-Century Modern?
Joe:
[2:17] Short answer, yes.
Tara:
[2:19] Sarah?
Sarah:
[2:20] Short answer, yes.
Tara:
[2:21] Dave? okay it's a yes for me as well i thought it was fun let's get into it joe i i don't think it's doxing you to say you do a regular trip to palm springs with friends who are also gay guys what.
Joe:
[2:37] Was it like to.
Tara:
[2:38] Watch your real life.
Joe:
[2:39] Depicted on screen like this i was gonna say thank you for inviting me to talk about a show about uh gay people who aren't getting any younger moving to palm springs because it does feel like in a best case scenario this feels like my future I do love it every time I go to Palm Springs I do have the thought of I should live here, it would be so nice it does it as well as a sitcom can do it it has the it doesn't really get into just how quirky Palm Springs is there's the lifers there it's an odd collection of folk not even exclusively just the gay folk but there are kooky straight folks who live out there too, but I think it gets into the spirit of, you know, what it would be like for, you know, in a sitcom, you know, in the idiom of sitcom for these three later in life men. Asterisk with Matt Bomer. Matt Bomer is significantly.
Tara:
[3:36] And Nathan Lee Graham, who's probably like only in his 50s.
Joe:
[3:39] They make it make sense. And I think that's one of the things that I think is good about it. I think one of the things that I like about this show existing as a fairly traditional sitcom is like those kinds of shows, it coalesces as it goes. It finds itself as it goes. It's not quite fully formed when you first get to it. And I find that charming. I think certain performances get better. I think Bomer finds his character a little bit more. I think they draw the relationships of the characters to each other more specifically as the season goes along. It's not this great show. I described it the other day to somebody as like the perfect, I'm too hungover or too tired to leave this couch TV show.
Dave:
[4:23] What an endorsement.
Sarah:
[4:25] Look, that has its uses.
Tara:
[4:27] Yeah.
Joe:
[4:28] Yeah. I'm into it. I enjoyed it. I hope it comes back.
Tara:
[4:31] I do, too. I agree with everything you said. I thought it was really charming. And the fact that the creators knew that Linda Lavin wasn't well meant that they sort of had built in a contingency plan, as it were, for what did eventually happen, which is she passed away while they were mid-shooting the season. And so the ninth episode is about her character's death. And they used her, Linda Lavin's actual last words to her husband as her last words. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, when she said, I want you to live, that's what she actually said to her husband.
Joe:
[5:01] Too, on the way to the hospital.
Tara:
[5:03] Which is, you know, that's sweet. I know.
Joe:
[5:05] So sweet.
Tara:
[5:06] But the contingency plan, I think it's pretty obviously Pamela Adlon, who plays Bunny's sister, Mindy, a divorcee who is not totally sold on Palm Springs, but they talk her into moving there. And so at the end, it's like, you should move into mom's room. And she's like, no, but I feel like if there's a season two, it's going to be probably, yeah.
Joe:
[5:25] Seems likely. Seems likely. Or at the very least, she'll just be there local enough that she's a constant pop-in.
Tara:
[5:32] She's around.
Joe:
[5:32] That'll serve the same function.
Tara:
[5:34] Exactly. Sarah, you were short answer yes was the long answer.
Sarah:
[5:37] The long answer is that I don't think we need another iteration of the Golden Girls. We have the Golden Girls.
Sarah:
[5:47] TV Land is basically the Golden Girls channel at this point. Parentheses, complimentary. so we don't need this but i will say like if you feel like you're going to be bothered by how many parallels there are and how close it is in all the ways that tara just mentioned in the rundown on top maybe that's not going to be for you if that's going to be like off-putting or you think there's going to be an uncanny valley thing but if you're gonna rip rip from the best And they do like it is actually I don't think it is trying to be a copy, but I think it also understands that that is the parallel that is the comp. And so they made us might as well do it as thoroughly and well as they can. And I think it succeeds. These are very likable performers. The Golden Girls is a classic, and I still love it. And so maybe this isn't necessary to do it in this iteration, but it was such a sort of welcoming experience that it's like you understand all these rhythms, you understand all these people and what they tend to do. And you understand that it's like technically the Rose slash Matt Bomer is like too dumb to live on his own. But in the context of this sitcom, which has very traditional things that it is trying to do and succeeding, I think it really works.
Joe:
[7:15] The other thing I was going to say is I sort of walked into this show pre sort of I had my my walls up a little bit because the Will and Grace reboot really.
Tara:
[7:25] Yes.
Joe:
[7:27] I was and I was excited for that to come back to and I really felt kind of burned by that. And I was very wary of this idea of Max Muchnick and David Cohan sort of talking about one of the things that I thought was so bad about the Will and Grace reboot was it felt like it had this responsibility to like address every aspect. of gay life from this like generation gap perspective and whatever. And I thought like, oh God, this, you know, because so much of mid-century modern is about the fact that they're older. I was like, is this just going to be like, we don't understand young gays for 10 episodes in a row. And it pulls back, it doesn't really go there in that direction at all. And it actually has a few instances in where it is in which it seems sort of like a little bit wise about those kinds of things but mostly it just sort of like stays in its lane yeah in a way no pun intended but in a way that like i appreciate it it doesn't try so hard to like speak to the moment with one exception which i think is probably the weakest episode of the season where they have the the congresswoman played by um stephanie koenig who the tone is off in that episode and and even that episode sort of ends on a sort of refreshing level of like, you're not giving me, you had the head fake towards like, we're going to have a message. And at the end, it's just like, oh no, like we're blackmailing her.
Tara:
[8:52] Yeah, fuck this bitch.
Joe:
[8:53] She was pegging Matt Bomer, which like, who among us?
Sarah:
[8:57] Yeah.
Tara:
[8:58] I mean, there's a way in which a multicam show like this, you can summarize the storylines in three words, like, or four. Arthur needs a job. So he, you know, bunny lost it, blackjack. Like it doesn't have to, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. And this is not to be yelling at the bear again, but like everything doesn't need to be important. You know, air quotes important. Like sometimes things can just be stupid and fun and that's also fine.
Joe:
[9:26] And even the episode where like, I mean, it's another four word or like Jerry meets his daughter, but like even that one, I think has a really good balance of that more serious stuff. And then it's like Arthur's playing flight attendant, which is so funny. And Sherry O'Terry is, I think, kind of a hoot as the other flight attendant. So I think that kind of stuff, you know, works in the show's favor. It's not refined. It's not, you know, elevated in any way.
Tara:
[9:54] Yeah.
Joe:
[9:54] But I think within that milieu, it sort of works.
Sarah:
[9:58] My notes had something along the lines of no low-hanging fruit is left unharvested. But that's fine. It's hanging right there. You have to pick it. And you do.
Joe:
[10:10] Also, as somebody who has vacations in Palm Springs, we're not above dumb top bottom jokes.
Tara:
[10:17] We're just not.
Joe:
[10:18] We can pretend that we're too good for that. And I roll my eyes at those with the best of them. But we all succumb to the low hanging fruit. Again, no pun intended.
Tara:
[10:29] Well, that is something I wondered about, whether your impression of it would be that this was a show about gay characters for a straight audience, like Will and Grace, I think, probably mostly was, especially in its day. So, as the only person here that's qualified to answer that, tell us what you think. And bear in mind, you're speaking for your whole community. Your words have a force of law.
Joe:
[10:51] I was going to say, I am an excellent representative of all aspects of the gay community.
Dave:
[10:59] Why we call joe the ambassador.
Joe:
[11:00] Smooth joey ambassador i do feel like there is a i think there is a sort of relaxedness about it which feels which at least communicates to me less of an uptightness about we have to make sure that we are pitching our comedy to everybody and we're making this understandably enough there's it's not this like it's not you know levels deep something like the other two, for example, which I think is a great show about lots of things. But one of the things it's about is like, it's some real, if you know, you know, stuff like about like gay community jokes. This doesn't go that deep, but I think there are certainly certain jokes in it that feel like they don't have, they don't feel like they have to over explain. You know what I mean? Like fisties can just be fisties and it just sounds funny. You know what I mean? And they don't have to really feel like they have to, you know, go that extra mile and explain it. And I think there are a lot of jokes like that. And it just feels a lot more, again, relaxed than the Will and Grace reboot, which felt so manic all the time. And so sort of like it existed in quotation marks. It was like Will and Grace, you know what I mean? And it felt like not of itself. And this feels a lot more comfortable with itself.
Tara:
[12:20] Yeah, 100%. Will and Grace, the revival definitely felt like everyone is counting on us to get this right. And it's like, no one is counting on you for anything. You're fucking Debra Messing.
Joe:
[12:31] Right, right.
Tara:
[12:32] Shut up, first of all.
Joe:
[12:33] Yeah, yeah.
Tara:
[12:34] Nathan Lane, what a gift. still such a great physical comedian like the turning a line of course he's a stage star of course he's going to be good in a multi-cam setting like which is like a little play of sorts but like there's a moment in i think the second episode where someone startles him in the kitchen and he like sprays up all the cereals he just finds so many moments like that he's he's so good And like, of course, this is beneath him air quotes like he ran and has done more elevated stuff than this. But it's so it's just nice to see him seeming like he's enjoying himself, you know, goofing around in this setting.
Joe:
[13:13] Did he ever do like a sitcom in the 90s for any length of time?
Tara:
[13:18] The sitcom you might be thinking of is Charlie Lawrence from 2003, six episodes in which an opera singer who loses his voice goes to live with his mother and sister in Napa Valley where they run a winery.
Joe:
[13:31] Opera singer sounds familiar. I didn't watch it, of course.
Tara:
[13:34] Again, great cast. Ted McGinley. T.R. Knight, pre-Grey's Anatomy. Laurie Metcalf, guys.
Joe:
[13:42] Wow.
Tara:
[13:44] I think you're not a nice person, but give me a hug anyway. your families now the official tagline for my life also a joy in this um i don't know if anyone else watched far enough to see the episode where she has dinner with her at the country club with her friend judy who's played by rhea perlman rhea.
Joe:
[14:02] Perlman i did see that.
Tara:
[14:03] They they have a fight and then when they later see each other they're like on opposite sides of the dining room flipping each other off in various elaborate ways like linda laven is so.
Joe:
[14:13] Committed to the turning a crank middle.
Tara:
[14:15] Finger gag that like she gives it just their.
Joe:
[14:17] Ultimate utmost you know if that's one of the last you know comedic bits she puts in her career put it on the reel because it's worth it.
Dave:
[14:33] It is time for Around the Dial, but before we start, I forgot to mention one thing, which is don't put a doorknob in the middle of your door.
Tara:
[14:41] But that is a California thing.
Dave:
[14:42] I don't care where you are. Doorknobs, doorknobs in the doorknob place. It's doorknob and Eve, not doorknob and Steve. All right, found the dial time. Tara, you're first.
Tara:
[14:58] So because i write for comedy site i've been dimly aware of the last one laughing series on prime video i've never been interested in checking out the versions from italy mexico ireland spain denmark australia or canada which has both an english and a french version but then last week we all got lol uk and when i saw the cast of mostly taskmaster alumni i knew we had to watch at least one oops we watched the whole season this weekend basically it's only six episodes. It's Big Brother, except A, all 10 contestants are comedians. B, they're only in the fake house environment for six hours, which is why it's hilarious. They make them all come with a little suitcase. You're going to be gone by dinnertime. It's fine.
Sarah:
[15:39] Full of beer. Sure.
Tara:
[15:41] Perhaps. And C, the many hidden cameras are monitoring everyone because they're not supposed to laugh, as the title suggests. The last one to get through it without laughing wins a cheap trophy and bragging rights. And these are naturally funny people who like to laugh and who all know each other at least a little, if not personally, definitely professionally. So it's possible they might eventually just let their guard down naturally and laugh in conversation. And that happens pretty quickly with a couple of them before they start to figure out, oh, I actually have to pay attention. The first time a player laughs, the game stops down so that everyone can laugh as they watch the footage of the laugh and talk about it. And then the host, Jimmy Carr, comes in to give them a yellow card. And the second time a player laughs, they're out and And they have to go sit with Jimmy and his honestly mostly useless co-star Roshan Conaty in a sort of control room lounge to watch and comment on the rest of the shoot. But since the first couple of boots would probably make everyone pay more attention to their reactions, there are structures in place to make people more likely to break. Everyone is supposed to have arrived with what they're calling a joker, where they go to a stage and they perform a little prepared bit. Harriet Kemsley does a comic stripping routine. Bob does magic. It's like very bad. He keeps going, shh, for no reason.
Dave:
[16:54] Bob Mortimer.
Tara:
[16:55] So stupid. Yeah, Bob Mortimer. These are extremely stupid in a way I can't clip for the audio format. Players also get challenged in minigames, like when Lou Sanders and Joe Lycett have to get on stage, maintain eye contact, and give each other compliments. And I almost clipped this one, but I didn't want to spoil it. It's so funny. Or Joe Wilkinson has to stay put on the naughty chair, well, or the naughty stare, rather, while everyone whispers in his ear, stuff like that. So at some point, Daisy Mae Cooper locks in on the strategy of just arranging her face to look really mad. So whenever the camera cuts to her, clearly chewing her cheeks while scowling, it's very rewarding. And truly, that's it. There's hardly anything to the show other than seeing people being pleasurably tortured and the joy of it is similar to what you get out of watching a blooper reel. Seeing people having fun is fun. And the stuff that makes them laugh, that actually makes them break, it's unpredictable every single time. So the whole season's up on Prime. I'm already fantasy casting future UK seasons while still not caring at all about any version from any other nation.
Joe:
[17:56] When they get eliminated, is there a giant sound effect of Jimmy Carr's very weird laugh?
Tara:
[18:02] No, but he talks about that in like the first two minutes of the show. Yes.
Joe:
[18:06] Okay.
Tara:
[18:06] That he's the perfect person to do this because everyone wants him to not laugh. Something like that.
Dave:
[18:12] Yeah.
Tara:
[18:12] For my plug, I also reviewed SideQuest, which is the spinoff of Mythic Quest. And you can read what I thought about that. The show notes.
Dave:
[18:22] I watched one of them, and it was the least funniest thing from a comedy property I've seen in a long time. It was so... But it wasn't, like, offensive or, like, bad. It was just, like, seriously, I was like, why did that just happen?
Tara:
[18:38] Yeah, exactly.
Dave:
[18:39] Why was that produced?
Joe:
[18:40] Content for content's sake.
Dave:
[18:42] I guess.
Tara:
[18:42] Well, I mean, my theory about it, and I wrote about this, is, like, everyone, in my opinion, overpraises the Mythic Quest episodes that are, like, the departure every season, where it's like, this one is off-model. This is like not even characters from the show. Isn't this so interesting? It's like, sure. Like those are never my favorite.
Joe:
[18:59] So many shows that happens to so many shows. It's crazy.
Tara:
[19:02] So I feel like this was just like four pitches for departure episodes of the regular show. And then we're like, none of these is good enough to be in a mythic quest season. So let's just do this because Apple's throwing money at us, I guess. And, you know, fine, I guess.
Joe:
[19:19] I'm going to report back to Catherine Van Arundonk that you've been using departure episodes correctly which is she'll be very happy she'll send you a fruit basket or something i.
Tara:
[19:27] Mean i know that she has a drone sniper that's just.
Joe:
[19:30] Circling the house all the time she's right off camera with just like a gun just pointing anything that even rhymes with bottles she's gonna lay up.
Dave:
[19:41] All right, Ambassador Joe, what do you got?
Joe:
[19:44] Yes. So we're one month past the Oscars, which means I have flipped the dial from Oscars to Emmys.
Dave:
[19:51] He's got to get his fix. Put it in me.
Joe:
[19:57] And mostly this means that now that I've stopped catching up on movies, I now have to start catching up on TV shows. All the shows that I was like, I'll watch it once the Oscars are over. And now it's like, God, they're all here. And there's so many of them. And I have a horrifying spreadsheet that I have, where I've listed each individual episode just so I have the satisfaction of being able to check them off. So I feel like I'm making some progress. But there have been some good ones I caught up on all of Shrinking, because I had never even started that one. And Tara, I know I texted you about this. I didn't expect it to have as much of a Cougar Town vibe as it does. It is, in its best moments, it feels very hangout-y in a way that Cougar Town was. It sort of scratches that itch.
Tara:
[20:43] Yeah, shrinking is great when it's not about psychiatry.
Joe:
[20:47] Yeah, no, you're absolutely right.
Tara:
[20:49] Again, everything doesn't have to be important. It's like, stop fucking this up.
Joe:
[20:53] 100% agree with you. Another Ted McGinley, good use of Ted McGinley on TV. He fits in really well with that ensemble.
Tara:
[21:00] My favorite character.
Joe:
[21:01] Oh, I mean, yeah, obviously. I watched, it was only four episodes, but then the Netflix limited series Adolescence, which is about the aftermath of a elementary school or junior high kid who kills someone. And it is, as you might expect, dark. And it's all each episode is also filmed in fake one take, which deeply annoyed me from the start, but I thought really works in one of the four episodes. it only being four episodes it was nice to sort of like get in and out with that and i liked it by the end better than i thought i was going to at the beginning that's going to be i think a big emmy contender this year sort of doing the um oh what the hell baby reindeer i think it's going to sort of like follow the baby reindeer trajectory
Joe:
[21:47] but the one i liked the best and i know you've talked about this on this podcast before but i am so into the pit.
Tara:
[21:53] Yeah so good.
Sarah:
[21:54] It's so good.
Tara:
[21:55] Show of the year.
Joe:
[21:57] I caught up with it because i was by the when i started watching it it was like 11 episodes in i have access to the screeners but i do like watching up to where uh live is so i can talk about it with other people and since i don't have to write about it at this moment i don't need to get ahead but i caught up to live and that's why i watched last week's episode and now i'm like I'm white-nuggling it to this next one. I'm just like, we've got to go to the next one!
Sarah:
[22:22] And we're at such a crucial moment. It's like the phone alarm that's like, here it is!
Joe:
[22:26] It's so good. I immediately clocked, what's her face, Dana, as being the cop from the Seinfeld episode where he gets the lie detector test about Melrose Place, which is one of my favorite, if not my favorite, Seinfeld episode of all time. There's a whole bunch of people. One of the other things I've been doing in Trump version 2 is watching old soap opera episodes on YouTube to sort of escape. And there are so many little one-off soap opera actors who show up on the pit in a way that really reminds me of old school Law & Order, where you can just watch any old Law & Order, and it's just soap stars just popping up everywhere. It's so satisfying. And I was sort of worried that, especially in binging the show, that it was going to sort of hit me in my medical anxiety place, where I watch a medical show for too long, And all of a sudden I'm self-diagnosing like crazy. And it's just like.
Sarah:
[23:19] It gets really, really bad. I have ovarian cancer.
Dave:
[23:21] I'm positive for rats.
Joe:
[23:23] Right.
Tara:
[23:24] Well, you know, you and your sketchy Korean moisturizers. You're always going on about.
Joe:
[23:30] Yeah. Yeah. No more.
Dave:
[23:32] It's a problem, Joe. We got to talk about it.
Joe:
[23:34] But it really, I think it's so satisfying on a process level. And it feels like you are in, even with, you know, first year residents and these really sort of like green folks. You do feel like you're in the hands of a very overwhelmed, but still dedicated, you know, group of professionals. I need to know just very quickly, thumbs up or thumbs down, where are we on Santos at this point?
Dave:
[23:58] In what regard? Do we like them?
Joe:
[24:00] Do we like her? Do we like her?
Dave:
[24:01] I'm pro Santos.
Joe:
[24:03] Okay. I was very anti-Santos and they're just starting to maybe bring me around on her. But even in this last one where she just goes fully ahead with this insane, risky procedure or whatever. I'm just like, you're going to get someone killed. You're loose cannon. I don't know.
Dave:
[24:19] I mean, you're not supposed to like her. I mean, obviously she's written to be the heel of those four.
Joe:
[24:25] She was right about the drug addict, but he was also right about her. She's not a team player. And you've got to be a team player for this one.
Sarah:
[24:32] But I do appreciate that, that it's like...
Joe:
[24:34] Oh, me too.
Sarah:
[24:35] I don't know. They're just willing to leave everyone kind of like, oh, this is like anybody. Sort of like three quarters of the time you're good, and then the rest of the time you're a jackass.
Joe:
[24:43] Yeah, I like that.
Dave:
[24:44] And to be sure, I like a bad character.
Tara:
[24:46] I mean, you're on record. Pete Campbell is your favorite.
Dave:
[24:49] Pete Campbell is the best part of Mad Men. Santos is a great part of the pit. Exactly.
Tara:
[24:53] No, it's true. The show needs someone with that to bring that energy to it. And, you know, there would definitely be at least one person like that in a group of medical students.
Dave:
[25:03] Right. But she's not, like, cartoonish. Like, she has, she concentrates on her craft. But then also there's all this other sort of medical conspiratorial stuff going on around her. The electrons going around her head all the time are like, you know, Freemasons from the country. And I enjoy that alchemy.
Tara:
[25:22] Yeah. I look forward to seeing what they do with her in season two.
Joe:
[25:25] Yeah. Same. Same. As far as plugs, you mentioned my cavalcade of podcasts, I Have This Had Oscar Buzz, still going strong. We are approaching our annual May miniseries, which we haven't announced yet, and we're still sort of fine-tuning, so I won't say what it is, but every May we do sort of a group of themed episodes, so I'm looking forward to what that is.
Tara:
[25:47] I'll Tom Wopat.
Joe:
[25:49] Yeah, exactly. I'll Tom Wobet all the time. Demi, Myself, and I is my podcast on the films of Demi Moore that turned out to be even better timed than I thought it was going to be this year.
Sarah:
[26:03] I'll say.
Joe:
[26:04] We are just now, most recent episode was on the film Striptease, so we are now getting to the point where her sort of leading lady days are ending. So it'll be an interesting period of time as we move ahead. And then at Vulture, I am doing, like I said, I'm doing Emmy Award stuff. I'm doing Cinematrix. I'm doing all sorts of stuff. I'm really enjoying myself. I love working there. So come read me over at Vulture.com.
Dave:
[26:34] Sarah, what have you been watching?
Sarah:
[26:36] I watched Gone Girls, not all of it. This is the Netflix three-parter on the Gilgo Beach serial murder case. Comes to us from director Liz Garbus. I really hoped that I would have kinder things to say about it, not least because I really wanted to have kinder things to say about the previous run that she took at this case five years ago that was Lost Girls, a scripted outing based on Robert Kolker's brilliant book. And it was kind of more about the living victims of the killer who, at that point, we still didn't know who it was.
Joe:
[27:09] Is that the one with Amy Ryan? Sorry to interrupt you.
Sarah:
[27:11] It is. I did watch that. Sorry, it was, I talked about it on the Blutter Presents.
Sarah:
[27:17] We, it was like me and Kevin Smokler being like, why don't we like this? Like, very gently sort of trying to tap around, like, why don't we like this? Because we really like her. I didn't love that. I respected what it seemed to be trying to do. And I really hoped, because she is better known as a documentarian and has done brilliant work in the genre, produced the adaptation of Elon Green's Last Call for HBO, and I thought that was extremely well done, this updated look at the case will probably deliver, right? Well, I mean, yes, but the key information here is not so much what it's about or who it's from, but where it is and how many parts it is. And the Netflix three-parter part, unfortunately, is the key intel. Like I said, I haven't quite finished it, but it does have a bunch of true crime AV cliches already. It does seem like it could have done what it needed to in a single 110-minute serving versus three at 50 minutes each. And if the rubric here is whether this true crime is worth your time, this isn't. If you have followed the case or consumed other materials about it, there are half a dozen other ways to come at the story that make points that want making about law enforcement intransigence, profiling sex workers in the crimes committed against them, profiling them as criminals, the limits of behavioral profiling period.
Sarah:
[28:45] Long Island's culture. But unfortunately, there's like a flattening, like a Netflix-ing that can occur in defiance of the creator that just kind of flattens out the story into like, well, here's that shot of someone way over to the side of frame with all the tech visible. And it's like, why are we doing this? And also, why is Robert Kolker agreeing to do this? I mean, it's just kind of a predictable three-part shape. And so, yeah, if you have been following the case, you don't need it. And if you haven't been following the case, I would actually start with the A&E version made by Josh Zeman, if you can find it, because they at least... I don't know, like tried to do something different before the network networked and was like, no, you're not allowed to do anything creative on basic cable.
Sarah:
[29:37] Anyway, yeah, that's Gone Girls on Netflix and no rush watching that. For my plug, if you are not on our Patreon, I really feel that you should be. But there's some economic uncertainty in the world right now. Maybe you heard something about that. So the original Admiral Anonymous, our anonymous donor to the ExtraHotGrate Mutual Aid Vault, has been joined by a whole fleet of Admiral Anonymous. me. And so if you would like to join us on the Patreon or renew your subscription, but you feel like you can't afford it, there are deposits in the bank of Extra Hot Great waiting for you. So whether you want to withdraw or deposit to the vault, just get in touch with me, bunting at tomato nation dot com by email. Or if you are already on the discord, you can direct message me there.
Dave:
[30:35] Are we a federally insured bank?
Sarah:
[30:39] Uh, no.
Dave:
[30:40] Okay, good.
Dave:
[30:43] All right, here's what's coming up on this Friday's Extra, Extra Hot Great. We were talking about Mobland. That is one word, intercapped, Mobland. I believe intercapped so it doesn't look like Mobland. Is it Mobland or is it Mobland? We will discuss this Friday. You can catch it yourself before we start talking about Paramount+. Extra, Extra Hot Great drops every Friday. It's available to club members. Go to extrahotgreat.com slash club to join up or contact Sarah If you want to take advantage of the mutual aid vault that we have running here and then come back next week right here on EHG Prime, we'll be talking about the TV show Dying for Sex. And we have new guest Katie Rich joining us.
Tara:
[31:24] Yeah, Joe, not familiar.
Joe:
[31:27] I was going to say who?
Dave:
[31:29] Quick, quick plug for me. Season two of Glowing Briefcase is going to start next Monday. As you were hearing this, I'm happy to say Dan Casino is in for game creation. We are going to adopt, we're going to test a easier to more difficult Monday to Friday schedule. And Dan will be handling Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. And I have read his first Friday quiz. And at the end of it, I was a little bit mad about it. So if you love pop culture and trivia and you are listening to this and you're a club member, that's who we were letting in at the moment while we do these beta tests. So either you can sign up on the Discord. There is a post from last month on our Patreon. Just search for Glowing Briefcase. You'll find it. Sign up directions there. And we hope to see you. It is, in theory, a competitive landscape. But we try to have more fun than we do worry about leaderboards there and stuff like that. So some of the scoring is a little silly. Some of the questions are a little silly. If that feels like it's your jam, we would love to see you there.
Dave:
[32:37] Oh, that spooky backwards music can only mean one thing. It is time for the extra hot great Nonac in which we take a show that is usually well regarded and we discuss whether a particular episode is cram it with walnut style. Presenting this week, it is Mr. Joe Reed. Joe, take it away.
Joe:
[32:54] Before I get started, I feel like there's a quick parameter setting that I feel like probably has to be done, which you are free to accept or not in your deliberations as you see fit. So I'm presenting an episode of The Simpsons for the known act. Now, The Simpsons is a show that is quite literally on its 36th season. I am breaking no ground by saying that the show has not been able to maintain its standard of quality over its entire run. I stopped watching many, many years ago. I imagine everybody on some level or another followed suit. There does seem to be somewhat of a widely accepted notion that there is classic Simpsons and there is modern Simpsons. And we often talk about them as if they are two separate shows. While there isn't a universal agreement over which seasons constitute the so-called Simpsons golden age, the first 10-ish seems to be within the margin for error of this. And if I came to the table with a Simpsons No-Next submission from, say, season 19 or 22 or 400 or whatever, that wouldn't make a ton of sense since a Dud Simpsons episode from that era doesn't exactly stand out. What I'm submitting is a Dud Simpsons episode from that so-called golden age or thereabouts. And I'm hoping you'll be able to evaluate its relative merits from within those parameters.
Dave:
[34:08] I agree to your terms, Jo.
Tara:
[34:10] Yep, that makes sense. I assumed some kind of table setting like this was done.
Joe:
[34:14] So I'm going to take us back to season eight of The Simpsons. At this point, we haven't gone off the cliff yet, but the quality has become a bit more uneven. The balance of good episodes to not good is still very much in favor of the show. We get some incredible highs this season. This is a Millhouse Divided, which is, of course, the very first canon episode that we ever did. The Twisted World of March Simpson, my beloved Pretzel Wagon episode, Itchy and Scratchy and Poochies this year, Homer's Phobia, Brother from Another Series, etc. And then there are some that feel tonally off. I talk about my sister, my sitter a lot, where Lisa babysits Bart and nearly kills him or whatever. There's a lot of like, oh, maybe Lisa will date Nelson. Maybe Marge and Reverend Lovejoy will run a church helpline. Maybe Mr. Burns will get into recycling. You know, these episodes may show strain, but they're not awful. And even if I might sometimes skip them to get to a really good episode, if I find myself seated with the remote far enough away from me, I won't try to rig an elaborate Rube Goldberg-ian contraption to try and get the remote back in my hand so I can hit the episode forward button.
Tara:
[35:16] Is this when you're hungover, like you were mentioning earlier?
Joe:
[35:19] Exactly, when I'm in a real mid-century modern mood. The exception to this rule and the lowest point by a good margin in this season, and And I would also venture in the so-called Simpsons golden era is episode 13 of season eight titled Simpson Califragilisticexpiala Annoyed Gruntius. So point number one, even the episode title is annoying. The inside joke is that annoyed grunt is what they put in the script for when Homer says dope. So it's supposed to be Simpsons Califragilisticexpiala docious and it's A title like that already has two jokes in it. It simply cannot bear the weight of a third additional joke. It just cannot. Just call it the one with Sherry Bobbins and get the hell on with it already. So the nutshell plot description is that the needy and slovenly habits of Homer, Bart, and Lisa, Maggie, largely innocent, are driving Marge's hair to fall out in large, unseemly clumps from stress. And so the family decides to get a nanny and thus plunges the episode headlong into a Mary Poppins parody complete with a brand new character named Sherry Bobbins, voiced by Maggie Roswell.
Joe:
[36:25] And songs all very thinly adapted from the original Disney film. I'd elaborate on the plot further, except that's kind of just it, which segues into my next point, which is there is not any story here beyond just tracing the lines of Mary Poppins. I understand that this is not the show's first foray into Marge's put-upon and underappreciated as a wife and mother. It's been tackled at everything from Marge in Chains, where she accidentally shoplifts a bottle of Colonel Quickie Mart's Kentucky bourbon, gets sent to jail, or Marge on the lam, where she strikes up a friendship with the next-door neighbor, and they stay all night shooting antique cans and driving into the grand chasm. It does feel like writers Al Jean and Mike Reese's solution to finding something new to say on this topic is to just head fake towards Marge losing her hair before abandoning Marge entirely in favor of this flimsy Mary Poppins parody. Bart and Lisa are sort of generally ill-behaved and lazy in this episode, but everything they do feels so sweatily retrofitted to the Mary Poppins narrative.
Joe:
[37:22] Starting with their song about nanny requirements, which is clip number one.
Joe:
[38:25] So this brings me to my next and I think most damning point, number three. The songs are not funny. Like, shockingly so not funny. Eat My Shorts is a joke in the eighth season, not funny. The Simpsons set a high standard for itself when it comes to its songs, from the monorail to the stonecutters to the maison derriere. And the offerings in this episode are just way below standard. Cut Every Corner is a gloss on a spoonful of sugar, whose best punchline is a tired beat about American laziness. Clip number two. All right, children, let's clean up this room. Oh, man. Do we have to?
Joe:
[39:35] It's the American way. I'll grant that the hook of this episode is, you know, get a load of how the irreverence of the Simpsons sows chaos within the parameters of even a Disney classic. But if that's the case, that is a dusty old notion that feels better suited to seasons two or three, back when like George H.W. Bush was railing against Bart Simpson for teaching our kids too much sass mouth or whatever. There also isn't time for very many songs in a half an hour episode. So it feels weird that the show chooses to prioritize, for example, a Feed the Birds knockoff rather than the more memorable songs like Chim Chim Chari or the actual supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. But I guess that would have deprived us of Barney being hilarious in clip number three.
Joe:
[40:53] Just as an aside, I know Matt Groening has talked about or talked about a lot about how he hated the Barney character and sort of the one noteness of his sort of alcoholism. And I think moments like this were sort of made to sort of press on those buttons and just shove it in your face, essentially, that like you're laughing at an alcoholic. But regardless, not funny. Point number four, Sherry Bobbins is on a character level inconsistent and unfunny. Obviously, they need to do something with Sherry Bobbins to differentiate her from the movie character, but the writers never seem to land on what that is. Sometimes she's impatient with the kids and snaps at them about not being a bloody jukebox. Other times she's placid and impervious, like when she encounters X-Flame Groundskeeper Willie in the park. Still other times she's wasted away in Margaritaville. Unsurprisingly, the Groundskeeper Willie stuff is the one thing in this episode I did find funny, so I clipped that for number four. Sherry Bobbins, is that you? Hello, Willie. You'd know her? Hey.
Tara:
[41:58] Man in Glasgow wasn't good enough for her. It's good to see you, Willie. That's not what you said the first time you saw me!
Joe:
[42:06] Justice for Willie. The episode arrives at a fake ending two-thirds of the way through, where it seems like Sherry Bobbins has gotten the Simpson family ship-shape and Marge's hair is secure in her beehive. But mere seconds after she leaves, the house descends into anarchy, and with a weary sigh, Sherry checks back in for another shift at the Cracker Factory. Because she's so dedicated to her job? Like, what happened to cut every corner? What happened to not being a bloody jukebox? Is the idea that Sherry Bobbins is a budget Mary Poppins who isn't all that virtuous, or does she genuinely want to help, but is thwarted by the indomitable dysfunction of the Simpsons family? Who is this character? Why should I care if she's frustrated? Point number five, this episode requires The Simpsons to be awful people and not in a fun way. I'm not going to delve deeply into jerk-ass Homer theory, except to briefly say that it posits that at one point, the balance of the Homer character tipped from dumb oblivious, occasionally small-minded, but mostly well-intentioned, to egregious jerk whenever the show needs him to be. This episode sits uncomfortably in that pocket, and it applies that quality to pretty much the whole family, and without good jokes to make up for it, the effect feels just weird and mean in clip number five. Hey, Bobbins, I want another beer. Well, you know, Homer.
Joe:
[43:34] Lady, the man asked for a beer, not a song. Don't rate me for so. The episode ends with another unfunny song about how the Simpsons are happy being the lazy jerks that they are. And I guess Marge is just going to have to pony up for a lace front because nothing gets solved. And the tone of the song feels pretty defiant about it all. Clip number six. The episode even ends on an Armin Tamzarian-esque mandate to never revisit the story again, with a departing Sherry floating up into the sky and getting sucked into a jet engine.
Sarah:
[44:34] That did make me laugh so much.
Joe:
[44:37] Fair enough. Fair enough. I do really hate this episode, though. It is both lazy and mean-spirited. It is slavish to its parody in a way that drains the lifeblood from the story, yet it offers no insight into the thing it's actually parodying. and to make matters even worse it has a really underwhelming Quentin Tarantino joke in it's itchy and scratchy interlude clip number seven what I'm trying to say in this cartoon is that violence is everywhere in our society.
Dave:
[45:01] You know it's like even in breakfast cereals man, that clip is funnier just audio than it is on this.
Joe:
[45:07] Show, uh otherwise that is my case um I I will grant the possibility that this might just be a me thing and it just gets under my skin. But I'm eager to hear what you all feel about the Sherry Bobbins episode of The Simpsons.
Tara:
[45:24] Well, since Dave and I are obviously the more Simpsons sickos here, I feel like Sarah should go first.
Sarah:
[45:31] Happy to. I was surprised initially that this was a known act.
Sarah:
[45:35] I did recognize the episode for what it was. And there are a couple of elements in it that I forgot were in it that have definitely like escaped into like bunting family heavy rotation like shut up landers like when my brother and his family and i all live together that was in that was in regular like multiple times a day adaptation the you have my full attention and then homer in the turkey i do like that too thing i think you see that on social media as a meme a lot yeah and like her just getting sucked into a jet engine but like here's the thing that bit at the end where it's like i'm sure she'll be back someday and then in the background it's like it's compact it gets in and out of the joke and that's something that is not happening most of the rest of the episode that the songs are extremely pleased with themselves extremely like i don't know think they're very funny but are have no sense of humor about themselves and their own existence i mean you basically said this but like it's just a pacing issue for me and especially in this era of the simpsons where as noted i think it is a little more hit or miss than in like season five say but it's still more hit than miss and when it's hit it's because the joke density is correct and.
Sarah:
[47:02] After a certain point, I think I was at like season nine when even my super fan, then boyfriend was like, I don't think I can do this anymore. It's not funny enough for enough of the time. So I think we quit after the season premiere that year. But this is what people are talking about when they compare like golden age versus, I don't know, brown age, turd age. This isn't bad. It's just nowhere near as good as Golden Age Simpsons could be. And it feels a lot longer than the runtime.
Sarah:
[47:39] The songs are not funny. You're absolutely right about at a certain point in that last act when she is returned to the house and they're all just being twats to her. It's like, but this isn't even like if you're going to sort of character assassinate your entire core cast, maybe I should have laughed at any point in the last seven minutes. And I didn't really. So I think this is a really good presentation. And I think that you nailed everything that is like no neck worthy about this. That it's not that it's that terrible. It's that it just misses on timing things. And as a result, it misses by a mile at the same time. This was not a good episode, but it was interesting to sort of tease out like, okay, what is the nonac? What's the pitch here? How is Joe going to argue this? And then by, I don't know, one third of the way through, I was like, yeah, I think I got the idea. And then there was another song that was so stentorously presented that I was like, oh, my God, like, open a window and stop smelling your own farts. Anyway, I think that you and I agree. Who is next?
Tara:
[48:46] I'll go next. To go back to what I said about Mythic Quest and getting overpraised for Departures, I feel like we're starting to see this where in early Season 8, and it's going to get worse, is when they're trying to go back and play the hits. And this is clearly an attempt to recapture the magic of See My Vest, which was from Season 6.
Joe:
[49:06] Yeah.
Tara:
[49:06] The Sherry Bobbins episode is not the first time they went to the parodying Disney well and it was certainly done better the last time. Yeah. With a combined 101 Dalmatians and Beauty and the Beast mashup, which like, you know, that's clever. This is just like a straight up parody of songs that barely changed, right melody even well.
Joe:
[49:28] And the visuals and see my vest is like a whole thing whereas.
Tara:
[49:30] Like it doesn't.
Joe:
[49:31] It's not even like that ambitious on a visual level in this thing.
Tara:
[49:33] Yeah and this is the problem like when you watch this episode there are funny stuff that the you know the black and white cartoon turkey is draw hilarious uh the reindeer wolf castle wiener ad still makes me laugh the willy moment made me laugh as well like it's not that there aren't jokes it's that when you right when you actually watch it through a critical eye and i you know maybe this is why people hate critics sorry but like there's, there's stuff in here that's like bad Maggie Roswell's English accent bad the animation on Marge's like skull when she's in Dr. Hibbert's office like it's caved in like you can see the joke is that you can see through her beehive because there's huge holes have fallen out but like it just doesn't conform to even cartoon reality of what a skull looks like but.
Dave:
[50:22] I thought like the asides you know the joke asides.
Tara:
[50:25] In this.
Dave:
[50:26] Episode feel very unearned compared to other episodes. So for me, you know, it predates it. It feels like it's drifting into family guy territory in this episode. It has that vibe to it, which is, here's a funny notion. What does it have to do with what we're doing? Almost nothing. So what? Let's put it in.
Tara:
[50:46] Right.
Dave:
[50:46] And some of those are funny unto themselves, but like, don't really gel into a full episode where you're like, well, that was a solid piece of business. Right.
Tara:
[50:54] I mean, like, if you compare the quality of this to even an early episode of the same on the same theme, like Rancho Relaxo or the one where where Marge leaves Homer and then he makes he makes a hedge March and his chatters rags get caught on her coffee table like all or when she she doesn't leave. She kicks him out.
Dave:
[51:17] Kiss your birth mother.
Tara:
[51:19] Kiss her. Kiss her. Like, there's there's so many better ways to do this episode that, like. And I'm not I'm not one of the people who's like the Simpsons should be more real. Like, it's I don't care. It's fine if Homer goes to space, like whatever.
Joe:
[51:32] Right.
Tara:
[51:33] But but if you're going to do this theme, like, do you know, you need to do something that is better than what we've already seen you do on this. As you pointed out, exact storyline that's not repetitive, even including in the movie. Like, that's basically what the Simpsons movie is about, too.
Dave:
[51:48] Doesn't need to be real.
Tara:
[51:50] Right.
Dave:
[51:50] Absolutely agree. The elastic reality is what broke Simpsons out from most of the other stuff that had come before it. But they still have to be a family.
Tara:
[51:58] Right.
Dave:
[51:58] Like, that's the basis. It doesn't have to be real, but at the core, it still has to be about a family trying to get along or move forward or whatever. And this episode is absolutely not bad.
Tara:
[52:10] Right. Right. And to your point about the family guy thing, like when Eat My Shorts makes it into the song, it's like the line from the episode where Lisa makes friends with the cool kids at the beach house and then you know bart overhears her say don't have a cow man and mark is like you haven't said that in years same with eat my shorts like it's that was a t-shirt a slogan that got run into the ground by 8 000 t-shirts you know so yeah you made a perfect case for this episode and and like just to comment before i throw it to dave what a land of contrast season eight is we've got you only moved twice one of the best simpsons episodes of all time, followed immediately by The Homer They Fall, which is the one where it's like the fake Mike Tyson that's... the Dredrick Tatum who's gotten a whole character redesign since the last time Dredrick Tatum was on the show. And I do hate it when they break continuity. And I am a nerd for that shit.
Joe:
[53:06] And it references that moment where the guy with the fan backpack parachuted into the boxing match, which is such a weird thing that nobody ever thinks about now. And the only reference I have for it is a Simpsons episode now.
Tara:
[53:20] Yeah.
Joe:
[53:20] Oh, boy. Yeah.
Tara:
[53:21] Yeah. Anyway, so there are good episodes in season eight. This is definitely one of the worst. Dave.
Dave:
[53:27] The general problem with this episode is they do a half-assed job, like the line from the song. It's just not running on all cylinders. They're not hitting, and you can tell from watching it. And the things that do land are just these quick asides that don't add to the value of the whole. Like the Andy Griffith-Charles Bronson mashup, where he's going to go to Emmett Fix-It shop to fix Emmett is funny. It makes me laugh, but it has nothing to do with why we're here.
Joe:
[53:56] I like every Charles Bronson joke they ever do on The Simpsons.
Dave:
[54:00] Yes. But, you know, there's lots of little goodies like that. Like, for some reason, Homer, like, Marge has got a beach umbrella in her hair. And Homer gets turned on. It's like, go upstairs. They're like, all right, just let me take up this beach umbrella. No, leave it in.
Tara:
[54:14] That's funny.
Joe:
[54:16] Yeah.
Dave:
[54:16] You know, the milk and butt scratch thing is crass and dumb. But, you know, it's funny when Marge is at the doctor and the phone rings for her on two different lines. and Bart's like, I need a glass of milk. She hits line two. Me too, says Lisa. Like these are all quick, punchy, funny jokes.
Tara:
[54:32] Mm-hmm.
Dave:
[54:32] But they don't really add to what's going on in the core of this episode. And the fact that everybody emotionally is off-model really sort of ruins the Mary Poppins of it all. I mean, including Mary Poppins as a model. But The Simpsons, they are too mean here, like all of them. We know Homer has gone from being a doofus to kind of a jerk sometimes now in season eight. But even so, like that whole beer thing was like over the line for Homer, I thought. so there's a lot of like missteps like that and when you added all these things up it is exactly a half-assed job like it is very disappointing in that regard and especially because like mary poppins is very very parable like very right and you should be able to do a good job with it but the songs they just weren't there or they went too long or there were one note so it just like unfortunately just didn't pull together oh can i be a booze hound not till you're 18 another moment I like, but I couldn't tell you what episode that was in if I just didn't watch it. Like, is that the moon landing episode? Maybe.
Tara:
[55:36] Right.
Dave:
[55:37] It feels like it could have been one of those. So that's the problem with this. It's just like the Mary Poppins stuff is poor and the parts that are funny are sprinkled in from like the joke shaker they have in the office and it has nothing to do with what's going on in this episode. So, all right. Let's make this official. Sarah D. Bunting, no knack worthy or not.
Sarah:
[55:58] Shut up, Simpsons. Yes, absolutely no-knack worthy, in my opinion.
Dave:
[56:03] And Tara?
Tara:
[56:04] No-knack.
Dave:
[56:05] All right. So what do you want, Joe? You want classic no-knack success? You want karaoke version or you want the Bonanza version?
Joe:
[56:14] Oh, God. Give me the karaoke version. Da, da, da.
Dave:
[56:30] All right, that means The Simpsons, Season 8, Episode 13. Oh, fuck me. Simpsons, Califadre, let's say, expiala, and no gruntless. You are hereby inducted into the extra hot, great, no-dacky.
Tara:
[56:45] Da da da da da da da.
Sarah:
[56:50] Da da Americans love a winner and will.
Dave:
[56:59] Not tolerate a loser nope all right it is time to discover who is the winner and loser of the week Sarah has this week's winner.
Sarah:
[57:05] I do I have a couple it's a true crime casting coups uh the first one is that Apple TV Plus's true crime con artist series Stow Away has cast Oscar Isaac as its lead. So really, the winner is me. And as well, the Murdaugh Sons have been cast in Hulu's upcoming scripted Murdaugh Murder series, which I'm not sure that we need that, but Reacher alum Johnny Birchtold, is that how you pronounce that? Has been cast as one of the sons. So yeah, I guess these things are moving along. I had forgotten all about the con man one and i'm excited so that's a that's a winner.
Dave:
[57:43] America's love affair with true crime will never die i.
Sarah:
[57:48] See what you did there.
Dave:
[57:48] And who's our loser of the week tar well.
Tara:
[57:51] I've been probably the foremost citadel hater in culture i.
Dave:
[57:56] Feel you had business cards made up i did you're.
Sarah:
[57:59] In the conversation.
Dave:
[58:00] They had embossing and everything it was just like that scene from american psycho in every way.
Tara:
[58:06] So Citadel got renewed, I think, largely because they had spent so much money. They were like, we at Prime Video that we can't we can't not continue with this. We have to double down on this bet. Literally, it also had multiple international spinoffs. Diana and Honey Bunny. I hate to even say it every fucking time. But anyway, Jennifer Salke, who greenlit all this is out at Amazon. And now in her absence, they're like, just kidding. about this other Citadeliana that was supposed to be coming. So the main show is getting its second season pushed. The spinoffs are on hold, and I think they were going to do more as well. So, you know, kind of a mixed bag. Of course, I'm happy for this as a person who hated the show and doesn't think it should have happened and doesn't want more and doesn't want anyone else exposed to it ever, other than the times that I threatened to show it to Dave just so he can see what I'm so mad about. But all of that is good. The bad part is, oh, no, we are in a recession for real. They're not throwing any more money at this project.
Dave:
[59:08] The Citadel Confidence Index is in play.
Joe:
[59:11] Yes.
Dave:
[59:14] The solution to this would have been to go back at the start of Citadel. Yeah. And instead of doing whatever they did, they should have taken that same model, which I will remind you, I pitched well before Citadel was a thing. This whole regional versions of the core show. It should have been G.I. Joe. It should have been G.I. Joe, the core, and then G.I. Joe, Japan, G.I. Joe, India, and G.I. Joe, whatever. And that should have been the show because then you have an IP people will actually watch.
Tara:
[59:43] Yes.
Dave:
[59:43] And you probably won't have to burden yourself with the, and I'm going to say it, Tara, the Russo-So brothers. And then you got a hit on your hands.
Sarah:
[59:52] Amazon.
Joe:
[59:53] Dave, what if the alternate pitch to G.I. Joe is to do it Yellowstone style, do like G.I. Joe 1923, G.I. Joe 1910.
Dave:
[1:00:03] And they all have their weird little stupid names and their little gadgets and stuff.
Tara:
[1:00:09] Yeah.
Joe:
[1:00:09] Yep.
Dave:
[1:00:10] Okay, what would a G.I. Joe guy from the 20s be? Oh, Skidoo, the Skidoo guy, 23 Skidoo.
Joe:
[1:00:15] He's on Skidoo. Okay, good.
Dave:
[1:00:18] All right, I'm glad we cracked that one. Well, speaking about cracking that one, do you know what time it is?
Tara:
[1:00:22] Let's get it.
Dave:
[1:00:22] Let's get it. Let's get it. This has been a very close season, all season long. We're at our 10th game of the season. The scores are 3-3-3. Everybody has three.
Tara:
[1:00:43] My God.
Dave:
[1:00:44] Crazy, crazy, crazy. Today, we are playing Butcher Baker Candlestick Maker from Amy Allen Spock, who earns herself yet another extra credit topic of her choosing, plus a free shirt from our store at throughmethods.com. She writes, in Butcher Baker Candlestick Maker, you will be tested on both occupations portrayed on television and the actress who played them. Your first clue will be two occupations that were played by the same actor on two different TV shows. Name the actor for three points. If you don't know it, play moves to the next person in line who gets a third occupation also played by that actor. Name the actor here for two points. If that player doesn't get it right, play moves to the third person in line who gets all the TV show titles in question. Answer here, one point. All right. Can I get a steel meal count, please, Tara?
Tara:
[1:01:41] Yes. Sarah has three. I have three. Valued Guest has Eric's Meal, so one.
Dave:
[1:01:46] All right. And that does expire at the end of the day, so there's no penalty for future Valued Guest if you use it, Joe.
Joe:
[1:01:51] That meal is rapidly moldening on the countertop. You better eat it soon.
Tara:
[1:01:57] Right.
Dave:
[1:01:58] Steel Meals can only be used today after the one-point question, just because of the nature of the game and how we switch who is answering. All right, that's how you play it. Let's turn with the picky to see who's going first. We will start with Sarah. All right, we'll go Sarah, Joe, Tara. Remember your order in the queue so that you're ready if one person botches their guests. You will be on deck. We've got 24 questions today. We're going to do one Grossworth Equalizer Challenge Zone right in the middle. were three or six points, depending on how well you do. Question, Sarah D. Bunting.
Sarah:
[1:02:31] Oh, actually, never mind.
Dave:
[1:02:33] Yeah, that's right.
Tara:
[1:02:34] You only get one guess.
Dave:
[1:02:35] Gotcha. All right. Are we ready to play Butcher, Baker, Candlestick, Maker?
Tara:
[1:02:41] Yes.
Dave:
[1:02:42] All right, here we go. Sarah D. Bunting, I'm giving you two occupations. They were played by the same actor. You get one guess at it. No hints. Auditor and communications director. This actor, that is what you have to give me, played an auditor on one show and a communications director on another.
Sarah:
[1:03:03] Communications director?
Dave:
[1:03:05] Yes, who is that actor?
Sarah:
[1:03:08] Alison Janney?
Dave:
[1:03:11] Moving to Joe, your third occupation is firefighter.
Joe:
[1:03:18] Oh.
Dave:
[1:03:19] Auditor.
Joe:
[1:03:20] That changes.
Dave:
[1:03:21] Communications director.
Joe:
[1:03:22] Oh.
Dave:
[1:03:23] Firefighter.
Joe:
[1:03:24] Is it Rob Lowe?
Dave:
[1:03:28] It is. He was an auditor on Parks and Rec, communications director on the West Wing, and on 9-1-1 Lone Star, he was a firefighter slash station chief.
Tara:
[1:03:37] RIP that shit.
Joe:
[1:03:38] All right.
Dave:
[1:03:38] That is two points for Joe. And Joe, you are now going to get your poll question. You've got deputy mayor and attorney. So this actor played a deputy mayor and an attorney.
Joe:
[1:03:55] Okay. Michael J. Fox.
Dave:
[1:03:59] It is a three-point answer. Yes, we also had student. That was a deputy mayor from Spin City, attorney from The Good Wife, student from Family Ties. Being a son, not an occupation. But being a parent is, guys.
Joe:
[1:04:12] The best.
Dave:
[1:04:15] The biggest adventure. Parenthood. All right. Tara.
Tara:
[1:04:22] Shout out to my mom, who's probably listening to this. I talked to her this morning, and she told me she would listen to last week's episode.
Joe:
[1:04:28] Shout out Tara's mom.
Tara:
[1:04:29] Having just finished watching.
Sarah:
[1:04:30] Shout out to my mom, who's now going to haunt Dave.
Tara:
[1:04:33] She finished watching The Residence and then was like, oh, but we said it was really interesting. I was like, oh, sorry.
Dave:
[1:04:40] All right, Tara, your two occupations are waitress and former psychologist.
Tara:
[1:04:46] Kaley Cuoco.
Dave:
[1:04:48] Is a three point answer. Also had cabin crew member from flight attendant, psychologist from Harley Quinn and big bang theory waitress. Another three point answer back to Sarah. You've got doctor and lab supervisor and director. That is one job, lab supervisor slash director.
Sarah:
[1:05:11] Uh, John Noble.
Dave:
[1:05:13] Is not correct.
Joe:
[1:05:15] Good guess, though.
Dave:
[1:05:16] We move to Joe, who gets bar owner.
Joe:
[1:05:21] Lab supervisor slash director. Doctor.
Dave:
[1:05:26] Bar owner.
Joe:
[1:05:27] Bar owner. I'm going to guess with bar owner, Ted Danson.
Dave:
[1:05:33] You are correct. That was a doctor from Becker. Lab supervisor director from CSI, Original Rays, Vegas. and bar owner from Cheers, Ted Danson.
Sarah:
[1:05:44] Right.
Dave:
[1:05:45] All right, Joe, you've got your two occupations are prime minister and detective superintendent.
Joe:
[1:05:51] Sounds British. I suppose plausibly Canadian.
Dave:
[1:05:56] Those guys.
Joe:
[1:05:58] I'm going to throw out a guess and say Rory Kinnear.
Dave:
[1:06:03] That's incorrect.
Sarah:
[1:06:04] That's what I would have guessed.
Tara:
[1:06:05] Way to play your judge.
Joe:
[1:06:06] Though.
Sarah:
[1:06:07] Rory. Tara.
Tara:
[1:06:09] Yeah.
Dave:
[1:06:09] The third occupation is FBI agent.
Tara:
[1:06:13] Oh, no. Now I feel like I'm further away from it.
Dave:
[1:06:16] So, Prime Minister, Detective Superintendent, FBI agent.
Tara:
[1:06:20] Yeah. This isn't right, but Peter Capaldi?
Dave:
[1:06:25] It is not right. All right, Sarah, I'm now going to give you the shows involved. Prime Minister on The Crown, Detective Superintendent on The Fall, and an FBI agent on The X-Files. Who is that actor for one point?
Sarah:
[1:06:39] That is Gillian Anderson.
Dave:
[1:06:41] That is good. Nicely done.
Joe:
[1:06:42] The doctor was his mother. His mother.
Sarah:
[1:06:47] Tara.
Tara:
[1:06:47] Yep.
Dave:
[1:06:48] Captain and senior attorney.
Tara:
[1:06:52] Really wanted the next thing you said to be Tennille. Captain and senior attorney. Andre Brower.
Dave:
[1:07:00] To Sarah with police officer. Captain.
Sarah:
[1:07:04] William Shatner.
Dave:
[1:07:05] You are correct for two points.
Tara:
[1:07:08] Different strokes.
Dave:
[1:07:09] Kirk from Star Trek, awesome legal attorney, police officer, of course, T.J. Hooker, everybody's favorite William Shatner property. Sarah, here's your full question. Your two occupations are gym owner and writer slash book editor.
Sarah:
[1:07:27] Leah Thompson? I don't know.
Dave:
[1:07:30] All right. Joe gets the third occupation, which is vice president.
Sarah:
[1:07:35] Okay.
Joe:
[1:07:35] Okay, um, gym owner.
Dave:
[1:07:40] Gym owner, writer, book editor, vice president. Name the actor.
Joe:
[1:07:44] Man, New Adventures of Old Christine is a very different show if she's a gym owner, so I'm gonna guess that's not it. Vice president. I'm going to say Gary Cole.
Dave:
[1:08:00] All right. Now, wait, hang on.
Tara:
[1:08:02] Because I know it.
Dave:
[1:08:03] Okay.
Tara:
[1:08:04] What job do you think she has in New Adventures of Old Christine?
Joe:
[1:08:08] Oh, that's a very good question.
Dave:
[1:08:10] She seems her job occupation is being too old.
Joe:
[1:08:14] It's mom.
Dave:
[1:08:17] I'm going to give you a hint, Joe. It's something I just said.
Joe:
[1:08:19] Is it a book editor?
Dave:
[1:08:21] No.
Joe:
[1:08:21] Oh.
Dave:
[1:08:23] It's gym owner.
Joe:
[1:08:24] No, is it really?
Dave:
[1:08:26] All right, who are we talking about?
Tara:
[1:08:27] Me. It comes to me, and it's Julie Louis-Dreyfus.
Dave:
[1:08:30] Yes, gym owner from New Adventures of Old Christine.
Joe:
[1:08:32] Are you fucking kidding me?
Dave:
[1:08:33] Book editor from Seinfeld.
Joe:
[1:08:35] She owns a gym.
Dave:
[1:08:36] And vice president from Veep.
Tara:
[1:08:38] Yeah, she owns like a curves gym, a gym for women.
Joe:
[1:08:41] Could have had an hour to guess what she does in New Adventures of Old Christine. I wouldn't have gotten a gym hour. That's crazy.
Tara:
[1:08:47] You know what, Joe? Next time you're hungover, check that show out. You'll like it.
Joe:
[1:08:50] I know. I know. I know. Man, I'm going to have to do a lot of drinking to watch all these shows hungover that I'm promising I'm watching.
Dave:
[1:08:58] All right, Joe, here are your two occupations. This is your question. We have police inspector and cult leader. Cult leader.
Joe:
[1:09:07] Okay.
Dave:
[1:09:08] Not something you usually see on an employment forum, but that was their occupation. Police inspector, cult leader.
Joe:
[1:09:14] Cult leader on TV.
Dave:
[1:09:18] Any idea? Nicole Kidman Alright Tutara Police inspector Cult leader Advertising executive.
Tara:
[1:09:37] Oh my god Oh jeez Rich Summer.
Dave:
[1:09:44] You're going to be mad at this one I'm sure I will Sarah D. Bundy for one point I'm police inspector from the division never heard of it.
Tara:
[1:09:51] Oh, God.
Dave:
[1:09:53] Cult leader from unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt horse and advertising executive from Mad Men home of P. Campbell.
Tara:
[1:09:59] Why didn't I just say it?
Dave:
[1:10:02] Who's that actor?
Sarah:
[1:10:05] Jon Hamm.
Dave:
[1:10:06] Jon Hamm is correct for one point indeed.
Tara:
[1:10:08] One Hamon.
Dave:
[1:10:10] All right, Tara.
Tara:
[1:10:11] Yeah.
Dave:
[1:10:11] Your two occupations are first lady and comedian. Who's that actor?
Tara:
[1:10:20] Jean Smart.
Dave:
[1:10:21] Jean Smart is correct for three points. First Lady from 24, Comedian from Hacks, Receptionist, Office Manager from Designing Women, Jean Smart. Nice get. Sarah, here is your two occupations. Spy and Forensic Psychologist.
Sarah:
[1:10:43] Spy and Forensic Psychologist. Anna Torf.
Dave:
[1:10:52] To Joe with the addition of paleontologist.
Joe:
[1:10:57] Spy, forensic psychologist, paleontologist.
Dave:
[1:11:00] Yeah.
Joe:
[1:11:04] Okay.
Tara:
[1:11:05] I was about to say don't overthink it, but I'm not that confident.
Dave:
[1:11:09] All right. Spy, forensic psychologist, paleontologist. Who is that actor, Joe?
Joe:
[1:11:15] Literally the only paleontologist I can think of Is Ross on Friends So I'm just going to say David Schwimmer No.
Tara:
[1:11:22] That's what I thought too Alright Tara for one point.
Dave:
[1:11:27] Spy from Archer Forensic psychologist from Criminal Minds Paleontologist from Friends.
Tara:
[1:11:34] Aisha Tyler The second paleontologist The other paleontologist But he also was a spy in some British show With Nick Muhammad That's why I thought it would be him.
Joe:
[1:11:44] Was he really?
Tara:
[1:11:45] Yeah.
Joe:
[1:11:45] Oh, okay.
Tara:
[1:11:46] Mm-hmm.
Dave:
[1:11:46] All right, Joe, here's your full question.
Tara:
[1:11:48] Something.
Dave:
[1:11:48] You've got cabinet member and private espionage operative.
Joe:
[1:11:56] Cabinet member, private espionage operative.
Dave:
[1:12:00] Yeah.
Joe:
[1:12:02] Fancy-ass way of saying spy. Uh, I'm gonna say Taylione.
Dave:
[1:12:11] To Tara.
Tara:
[1:12:12] Yep.
Dave:
[1:12:13] We're adding former agent of the counter-terrorist unit. Or just agent of the counter-terrorist unit.
Tara:
[1:12:19] Okay.
Dave:
[1:12:19] I don't know why I get so fancy.
Tara:
[1:12:21] Key for Sutherland.
Dave:
[1:12:21] You are correct, Key for Sutherland. Cabinet member, designated survivor. Remember that shit?
Joe:
[1:12:25] Sure. Yeah.
Dave:
[1:12:26] Private espionage operative. Anybody remember this one?
Tara:
[1:12:29] It's that show we watched.
Dave:
[1:12:31] We didn't watch it, but we saw lots of- Oh.
Tara:
[1:12:33] It's like Rabbit Hole or something?
Dave:
[1:12:34] Rabbit Hole. Like Key Arc at the top of Paramount+.
Tara:
[1:12:37] Right.
Dave:
[1:12:38] And, of course, 24 for counter-terrorist unit. All right, this will take us into our score break. It is for Tara to start. We've got forensic analyst and pediatric surgeon.
Tara:
[1:12:50] Forensic analyst. Pediatric surgeon. Marg Helgenberger.
Dave:
[1:12:59] To Sarah, we are adding funeral director. Forensic analyst, pediatric surgeon, funeral director. Who is that actor? pediatric surgeon yeah i'm gonna get hung up on that one i've never heard of the show oh okay although you put all these things together it sounds like a real make work project that's true yeah.
Sarah:
[1:13:25] Um oh i'm just very torn between which one it is so let's go with peter krause.
Joe:
[1:13:33] The other one.
Dave:
[1:13:34] It's the other one. To Joe, forensic analyst from Dexter, pediatric surgeon from SAFE.
Joe:
[1:13:41] Sure, SAFE.
Dave:
[1:13:41] And funeral director from Six Feet Under.
Joe:
[1:13:44] Michael C. Hall.
Dave:
[1:13:45] Michael C. Hall is correct for a one-point get, and that will take us into our score break. So at this point, I'm asking for the scores.
Tara:
[1:13:52] Thank you, Dave. I have 10. Joe has eight. Sarah D. Bunting, four points.
Dave:
[1:13:57] All right. So that means Sarah D. Bunting, you are in the Grossworth Equalizer Challenge. Zone. Sarah D. Bunting, pick a number between one and seven to discover what brand of card you will be answering from.
Sarah:
[1:14:16] Number two.
Dave:
[1:14:18] I'm happy to inform you you missed the new Trivial Pursuit Friends Edition by one number.
Tara:
[1:14:25] And I was not rooting for you to get that, although it would have been funny for me. Good luck!
Dave:
[1:14:32] This is the 80s edition, 80s edition Trivial Pursuit. Going to take six questions from the TV category. If you get three of them, you get three points. If you sweep, we double that to six points. So you could get six points here. Let's see what happens.
Tara:
[1:14:46] This could change everything.
Dave:
[1:14:48] What series featured Stephen Baldwin and Josh Brolin as young Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickok?
Sarah:
[1:15:00] In the 80s.
Dave:
[1:15:01] Yeah, in the 80s. So says Totally 80s Edition Trivial Pursuit.
Sarah:
[1:15:06] Young Guns, the TV show.
Dave:
[1:15:08] You are close. The Young Riders. The Young Riders.
Sarah:
[1:15:13] Oh, all right.
Joe:
[1:15:14] Young Guns knockoff show. Yeah.
Dave:
[1:15:16] What former newsman, when Dan Rather stormed off the air, coolly noted, I would have fired him. Who would have fired Dan Rather from walking off the news set?
Tara:
[1:15:26] Some bitch.
Sarah:
[1:15:26] Gosh.
Dave:
[1:15:28] What a cunt.
Sarah:
[1:15:31] Fred Friendly?
Dave:
[1:15:34] Walter Cronkite.
Tara:
[1:15:35] Oh my. I was right. Some bitch indeed.
Dave:
[1:15:40] What NBC series centered on a probationary angel named Jonathan Smith? Wasn't Jonathan Smith also the name of the guy from Lost in Space? Wasn't that Jonathan Smith? The doctor? No. To be an angel.
Sarah:
[1:15:55] The Highway to Heaven?
Dave:
[1:15:57] Correct.
Tara:
[1:15:58] Nice.
Dave:
[1:15:59] What Growing Pains spinoff sent Coach Lubbock to California with his wife and eight kids?
Sarah:
[1:16:06] Just the 10 of us?
Dave:
[1:16:07] That's correct. It's going to be one of these last two to get you three points. What quarrelsome comic book author was banned by David Letterman after appearing on the show in a Boycott NBC t-shirt?
Sarah:
[1:16:21] Quarrelsome comic book author?
Dave:
[1:16:23] Quarrelsome comic book author.
Sarah:
[1:16:26] I don't fucking know. Crumb. Our Crumb.
Tara:
[1:16:30] Close.
Joe:
[1:16:31] That would have been my guess.
Dave:
[1:16:32] Harvey Picard.
Tara:
[1:16:33] Harvey Picard.
Sarah:
[1:16:34] Oh, right. Yes. Jesus.
Dave:
[1:16:36] All right. You need to get this one then. What series starred Jan Michael Vinson as a cello playing recluse named Stringfellow Hawk? And Hawk is spelled with an E. Stringfellow Hawk.
Tara:
[1:16:49] My God.
Sarah:
[1:16:51] I don't know. Lady Hawk? Airwolf?
Dave:
[1:16:57] Airwolf is the correct answer.
Joe:
[1:16:59] No, really?
Tara:
[1:17:00] Oh, wow.
Dave:
[1:17:02] Heartbreaker. All right, no points. So we're back to the game for the second half. I have flipped the order after Sarah just to give everybody somebody else to play off, but we're still going with Sarah. So Sarah, re-engage that brain. Your two occupations are fashion editor and neurologist. Fashion editor and neurologist. Two occupations from two different shows played by the same actor. Name that actor.
Sarah:
[1:17:34] Fashion editor and neurologist.
Dave:
[1:17:41] I'll give you a hint.
Sarah:
[1:17:43] Ellen Pompeo.
Dave:
[1:17:44] All right. I won't give you a hint.
Tara:
[1:17:47] Wendy Malick. I'm next.
Dave:
[1:17:52] Okay. But like, let's play the game.
Tara:
[1:17:54] Okay. Sorry.
Dave:
[1:17:57] All right, Tara.
Tara:
[1:17:58] Yeah.
Dave:
[1:17:59] In punishment for your insolence.
Tara:
[1:18:02] Okay.
Dave:
[1:18:03] First of all, I'll give you the hint. Former soap opera star.
Tara:
[1:18:06] Yep.
Dave:
[1:18:07] I'm asking for the actor, but you have to say it in a very funny voice.
Tara:
[1:18:11] Wendy Malick.
Dave:
[1:18:12] That's not that funny.
Tara:
[1:18:13] But whoops.
Dave:
[1:18:14] So that's for the impression. That's for the voice. But that's for the answer. All right. So that was fashion editor on Just Shoot Me. neurologist from shrinking and soap opera star comma former from hot in cleveland, tara this is your actual question try to answer after i give the information try to not be a.
Tara:
[1:18:33] Dick about it okay i will.
Dave:
[1:18:34] If you can grade me grade me i'm ever so good, your two occupations are homemaker and captain.
Tara:
[1:18:45] Tony danza all.
Dave:
[1:18:48] Right this will go to joe homemaker captain nurse.
Joe:
[1:18:54] Homemaker captain nurse kate mulgrew that's what.
Sarah:
[1:19:04] I would have answered.
Dave:
[1:19:05] Sarah you've got homemaker in married with children a captain in Futurama, and a nurse from Eight Simple Rules.
Joe:
[1:19:14] Wow.
Sarah:
[1:19:15] Katie Seagal.
Dave:
[1:19:16] You are correct for one point. Good pickup.
Tara:
[1:19:19] Nice.
Dave:
[1:19:20] Back to Joe. Your two occupations are police commissioner and ophthalmologist. Ophthalmologist.
Joe:
[1:19:31] Police commissioner.
Dave:
[1:19:33] Yeah.
Joe:
[1:19:34] Ophthalmologist. It's a very specific type of dog.
Dave:
[1:19:39] In a medium resplendent with ophthalmologists.
Joe:
[1:19:42] I was going to say. I was going to say.
Sarah:
[1:19:45] Resplendent now.
Joe:
[1:19:46] Be able to zero in on that. I don't know. Keira Sedgwick?
Dave:
[1:19:52] All right. This will go to Sarah. Police commissioner, ophthalmologist, private investigator.
Sarah:
[1:20:00] That's Mr. Tom Selleck.
Dave:
[1:20:01] That is Mr.
Tara:
[1:20:02] Tom Selleck.
Dave:
[1:20:02] We've got police commissioner from Blue Bloods, ophthalmologist from Friends, and private eye from Magnum P.I.
Joe:
[1:20:11] There we go.
Dave:
[1:20:12] Sarah, your two occupations to start us off are plastic surgeon and orthopedic surgeon.
Tara:
[1:20:19] Talk about running the gamut.
Dave:
[1:20:22] Try the surgeon special. It's delicious.
Sarah:
[1:20:30] Uh rick rosevich love it.
Dave:
[1:20:35] All right thank you thank.
Sarah:
[1:20:37] You very much yep.
Dave:
[1:20:38] Plastic surgeon orthopedic surgeon sure secret service special agent.
Tara:
[1:20:46] Mark Harmon.
Dave:
[1:20:47] That is correct.
Joe:
[1:20:48] Good poll.
Dave:
[1:20:49] Plastic surgeon, St. Elsewhere. Orthopedic surgeon, Chicago Hope. And of course, he's doing that Secret Service special agent thing navally on NCIS. That is Mark Harmon.
Tara:
[1:20:59] You guys need to know how close I was to St. Timothy Busfield. Because I knew it was someone from West Wing.
Sarah:
[1:21:06] And then I was like, is it Ron Butterfield? What is the picture's name? Which I could never remember.
Tara:
[1:21:12] Nope, me neither.
Sarah:
[1:21:13] I can never remember.
Tara:
[1:21:14] That guy.
Dave:
[1:21:14] Tara, you're in the hot seat for question 17.
Tara:
[1:21:17] Spread Eagle.
Dave:
[1:21:17] We've got a captain. Lots of captains here.
Tara:
[1:21:20] Mm-hmm.
Dave:
[1:21:20] And a gynecologist.
Tara:
[1:21:25] Jonathan Silverman.
Dave:
[1:21:28] To Joe, captain, gynecologist, mystery novelist.
Joe:
[1:21:38] Captain, gynecologist, mystery novelist. Probably not Angela Lansbury.
Dave:
[1:21:47] Vagina she wrote.
Joe:
[1:21:48] I'm just going to say Angela Lansbury Because I'm going to feel dumb On the Julia Louis-Dreyfus rule If I don't So just say wrong I don't know Okay Giving up No he said Angela Lansbury You're already.
Dave:
[1:22:00] Correct there Alright so we move to Sarah for Captain from Firefly Gynecologist from Desperate Housewives And mystery novelist from Castle Who is that.
Joe:
[1:22:11] Actually?
Sarah:
[1:22:11] I am pretty fucking mad that Angela Westbury was sought at Firefly. They wouldn't have to talk shit about it if she were. But she wasn't. That was Nathan Fillion.
Joe:
[1:22:20] Nice.
Dave:
[1:22:21] Another one point get. Back to Joe. We've got advertising executive and press secretary.
Joe:
[1:22:31] I'm really hoping this is Heather Locker.
Dave:
[1:22:36] You are correct. Three points.
Tara:
[1:22:37] Nice.
Dave:
[1:22:38] Apertensive executive from D&D from Melrose Place. Of course, that's right. Knowledge retrieval, brain working.
Joe:
[1:22:45] This is, this is.
Sarah:
[1:22:46] This is, this is.
Dave:
[1:22:47] Press secretary from Spin City.
Joe:
[1:22:49] From Spin City.
Dave:
[1:22:50] And your third was gonna be rookie police officer from everybody's favorite Shatner property, TJ Hooker.
Sarah:
[1:22:55] TJ Hooker, nice.
Dave:
[1:22:56] All right, this is question. This is for Sarah. Your two occupations are drug trafficker. It's a job. And VP of Northeast Sales.
Tara:
[1:23:12] It's not a job. It's a calling.
Dave:
[1:23:14] Yeah, that's right.
Sarah:
[1:23:16] Drug trafficker and VP of Northeast Sales. This sadly is not as narrow as it should be. So I'm going to open the bidding with Brian Cranston.
Dave:
[1:23:27] All right. Decent guess. Not correct. We go to Tara with drug trafficker, VP of Northeast Sales, Detective Chief.
Tara:
[1:23:40] Wagner Moura.
Dave:
[1:23:42] All right, Joe, you get the shows. Do you need them, Joe?
Joe:
[1:23:47] Yes.
Dave:
[1:23:47] Would you like to hear them like a good contestant? Great. Drug trafficker from The Wire, VP of Northeast Sales from The Office.
Joe:
[1:23:56] Okay.
Dave:
[1:23:57] Detective Chief from Luther. Who played all those characters?
Joe:
[1:24:01] This would be Idris Elba.
Dave:
[1:24:03] You are correct for one point. All right, we're getting down to the end here. Only five questions left. Let's make them count. Tara.
Tara:
[1:24:10] Yep.
Dave:
[1:24:11] Librarian. Receptionist.
Tara:
[1:24:18] Librarian.
Dave:
[1:24:19] Yeah.
Tara:
[1:24:20] Pretty sure it's not Anthony Stewart Head. Okay, I'm just going to say it Anthony Stewart Head. I don't have a better answer.
Dave:
[1:24:27] Yeah. Incorrect move to Joe, librarian, receptionist, and caterer.
Joe:
[1:24:34] Okay. Oh, it's got to be Megan Mullally.
Dave:
[1:24:40] You are correct. Librarian from Parks and Rec, receptionist, Will and Grace, caterer, party down. Good for two.
Joe:
[1:24:47] Nice.
Tara:
[1:24:47] Never think of her having a job on that show.
Joe:
[1:24:50] I know.
Sarah:
[1:24:51] I know, right?
Dave:
[1:24:52] All right, Joe, let's see if you can get a three-point on this one.
Joe:
[1:24:55] Okay.
Dave:
[1:24:55] Occupation number one, inmate. Occupation number two, psychiatrist.
Joe:
[1:25:03] All right. Oh, I'm going to guess this is the Oz to Law and Order Pipeline, and it's J.K. Simmons.
Dave:
[1:25:14] You are correct. That was those two shows. We also had Assistant Police Chief from The Closer waiting in the wings.
Tara:
[1:25:21] J.K.
Dave:
[1:25:21] Simmons 3.0.
Sarah:
[1:25:22] Oh, wow.
Dave:
[1:25:23] All right. This is everybody's last question, so let's get scores.
Tara:
[1:25:26] Well, it was close at one time and now it's not anymore. Sarah has eight. I have 14. Joe has 18.
Dave:
[1:25:35] Oh, wow. Okay. Let's finish it up with Sarah's question. She is on deck with nurse and police officer.
Tara:
[1:25:43] The two genders.
Dave:
[1:25:46] Nurse and police officer.
Sarah:
[1:25:50] Juliana Margulies.
Dave:
[1:25:53] To Tara.
Tara:
[1:25:54] I would have said that too. Yes.
Dave:
[1:25:55] Alright, this next is a giveaway so you should get two points here.
Tara:
[1:25:58] Okay.
Dave:
[1:25:59] Nurse, police officer, salon owner slash money launderer.
Tara:
[1:26:06] Niecy Nash.
Dave:
[1:26:08] Niecy Nash is correct for two points. And you also have the start of the next question, Tara.
Tara:
[1:26:14] Okay.
Dave:
[1:26:15] DEA agent and Prince.
Tara:
[1:26:19] And Prince?
Dave:
[1:26:21] Yeah. You just sort of fell into the job That's still a job.
Tara:
[1:26:27] Oh god Pedro Pascal.
Dave:
[1:26:33] You're correct What?
Joe:
[1:26:35] He's a prince of Game of Thrones?
Dave:
[1:26:36] He's a prince of Game of Thrones And we had Bounty Hunter waiting in the wings there for you From the Mandalorian Alright three point answer, nicely done Joe Last question, Your two occupations are gangster and stick up man.
Joe:
[1:26:56] Boy again running the gamut uh-huh uh-huh gangster and stick up man.
Dave:
[1:27:04] Originally this game was give them all three occupations and let them figure it out but I'm being cool and I'm reserving the giveaway for the last one so I.
Tara:
[1:27:15] Don't know if the giveaway for J.K. Simmons was police chief who the hell remembers the fucking close well sometimes i just want people to get it.
Joe:
[1:27:21] Gangster and stick up man yeah well i'm just gonna say if gangster isn't the giveaway then it's probably not james gandolfini, but i'm gonna so i'm gonna say maybe but if it was buscemi would be like bootlegger, rather than gangster just permit me to work this out for like.
Dave:
[1:27:41] A second Got.
Joe:
[1:27:42] Nothing but time.
Dave:
[1:27:43] Joe.
Joe:
[1:27:44] Yes. World's ending. Nothing but time. No, I'm going to probably say it is probably Sopranos, and I'm just going to say it's Michael Imperioli.
Dave:
[1:27:53] Michael Imperioli!
Tara:
[1:27:55] No!
Joe:
[1:27:57] Oh! You used the tone of voice that said I got it right.
Dave:
[1:28:04] Sarah. Gangster. Stick-up man. College biology teacher. No. I don't know if that one's going to help Sarah in particular, but I think for most people, that would be a giveaway. All right. So once again, gangster in one show, stick-up man in a second show, college biology teacher in a third show. Who's that actor?
Sarah:
[1:28:28] I got nothing but this. It's like blotted out all of their names in my brain. So Michael K. Williams.
Dave:
[1:28:35] You're correct.
Joe:
[1:28:36] Michael K.
Tara:
[1:28:37] Williams is correct.
Dave:
[1:28:38] Gangster, Boardwalk Empire. Remember that? He played Scratchy or Chalky or something like that. stick-up man, obviously, Omar Little from The Wire, and then college biology teacher was from his stint on Community. That was Michael K. Williams, and that is regulation. So it's time for our final scores.
Tara:
[1:28:55] Mika, Sarah finished with 10, Joe 18. Pulling Pedro Pascal out of my ass.
Joe:
[1:29:03] That's incredible.
Tara:
[1:29:04] That's the place to pull it.
Sarah:
[1:29:05] I know.
Dave:
[1:29:06] Better luck next time. All right. I've got the tiebreaker here. So first person to shout out the correct actor name. I'll just start dripping information. Gets a steel mill for future use. Here we go. Occupation number one, newspaper features writer. Newspaper features writer. If you actually get it just on one, I'm going to give you three steel mills.
Tara:
[1:29:33] Kyle Chandler.
Dave:
[1:29:33] No, incorrect.
Tara:
[1:29:35] Okay, I'm out.
Dave:
[1:29:36] Newspaper features writer and secondly, aspiring actor. Newspaper Features Writer.
Joe:
[1:29:45] Matt LeBlanc?
Dave:
[1:29:47] Nope. Newspaper Features Writer. Aspiring Actor. Regional Manager.
Joe:
[1:29:54] Steve Carell.
Dave:
[1:29:56] Nope. Buy your clothes. You gotta take a trip. Anybody can answer here. Everybody. Let's go. All right, here we go. Newspaper Features Writer from the TV show Afterlife. Aspiring Actor from Extras. Ricky Gervais is your answer.
Joe:
[1:30:16] Oh, Jesus.
Dave:
[1:30:17] Joe, you America-centric pig.
Joe:
[1:30:19] Damn.
Dave:
[1:30:21] All right. Today belongs to Tarahari.
Dave:
[1:30:28] Tarah. Tarah.
Joe:
[1:30:29] Tarah.
Dave:
[1:30:30] Wow, great game. Well done, everybody.
Sarah:
[1:30:32] That was fun.
Dave:
[1:30:33] Thank you, Amy.
Joe:
[1:30:34] Yeah, that was good.
Tara:
[1:30:34] Thank you, Amy.
Dave:
[1:30:35] All right. That is it for this episode of Extra Hot Great. We decorated the podcast with a little mid-century modern before going around the dial with stops at Last One Laughing UK, The Pit, Adolescence, Shrinking, and Gone Girls. Joe successfully scaled the peaks and valleys of the Simpsons' Mary Poppins parody for the Nonac. We crowned winner and losers of the week. And Tara was the winner of this week's Game Time from Amy. Next up, Moblin' on Extra Extra Hot Great. Remember. We're listening. I am David Teagle and on behalf of Tara Arellano If.
Tara:
[1:31:13] We're done here I'm going to go put Pedro Pascal back in my ass.
Dave:
[1:31:15] Sarah D. Bunting.
Sarah:
[1:31:19] Oakley Doakley Doo.
Dave:
[1:31:20] And Joe Reid.
Joe:
[1:31:22] Palm Springs Here I Come.
Dave:
[1:31:24] Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time right here on Extra Hot Great.