Clowning Around With It: Welcome To Derry

Dave: [0:04] Do you think somebody could kidnap a kid and keep him underground? My good fault. This is the Extra Hot Great Podcast, episode 586 for the week of October 27th, 2025. I am Troublesome Whispering Pipes David T. Cole, and I'm here with Giant Fucking Mutant Baby Saradine. Tara: [0:34] I'm sorry. Sarah: [0:36] Yeah, I could eat. Dave: [0:37] Totally Normal Car Passenger Tara Ariano. Tara: [0:40] Liver Laugh Love. Dave: [0:41] And Lucky Turtle Josh Gondelman. Josh: [0:44] As opposed to your unlucky rocket ships. Tara: [0:49] Welcome to Extra Hot Great for another week. We will get into the episode in just a moment, but first, it is the end of the month. I will keep this short. If you want to keep receiving all the great perks of Extra Hot Great Club membership, which include ad-free episodes, merch discounts, access to our Discord server, and of course, the big bonus episodes that drop on Fridays this week. It's going to be Talamasca, The Secret Order, Morse Halloween spookiness. Make sure your payment method is current so that you don't miss anything you're entitled to. And if you're not in the club, hey, get the club. It's only $5 a month. We can't make the show without the support of listeners like you. we are also scheduling the drunk dave call-in show soon dave and i were discussing it this weekend we're literally. Dave: [1:32] Discussing it yesterday i've already forgotten such a bad idea. Tara: [1:35] It is but it's happening because you made it happen uh that perk will only be available to club members so find five dollars in your budget if you can throw it our way extrahotgreat.com slash club thank you we love you and dave you had a p.s about the tears. Dave: [1:49] Yes just that when you do subscribe to the club and thank you very much. But if you do it through Patreon, make sure you pick a tier and you don't willy-nilly stick an amount in. Even if you're going for the $5 tier, don't enter $5 in manually. Subscribe to the tier. For whatever reason, Patreon will only give you perks if you're on a tier, not on an equivalent dollar amount. So you could, in theory, give us $5 a month and get really nothing in return except for, you know, warm and fuzzy. Tara: [2:17] Our love. Dave: [2:18] Yes. We want to get you the goods. So make sure you subscribe to a tier. Tara: [2:23] Yes. Tara: [2:24] And now, he is a comic and a writer you've heard with us before. It's Josh Gondelman! Dave: [2:29] Welcome back, Josh! Sarah: [2:30] Thank you. Josh! Dave: [2:31] Now, before we start, I want to go around the horn. Everybody here needs to apologize to Josh. Starting with you, Tara. Tara: [2:38] I'm sorry. Dave: [2:39] For bullying him to being on to this episode talking about it. Welcome to Derry. Go. Tara: [2:45] I know, I'm really sorry. He said he could handle one episode, and I believed him, and I hope that's true, but we'll find out. Dave: [2:50] Sarah, apologize to Josh. Sarah: [2:51] My notes literally read, well, this is super fun, not sorry, Gondelman. So I'm sorry, Gondelman. Dave: [2:58] I'm sorry, too, Josh. We're also very sorry. Josh: [3:01] Well, when I found out who I swapped with, not to pull back the curtain too far, I was like, well, a deserving guest for that episode, and I couldn't feel bad. Tara: [3:12] Yes. Well, let's get into it. We are talking about it, colon, welcome to Derry, because there's a fucked up town in Maine. It's called Derry. Dave: [3:21] That's the theme song. Tara: [3:23] Yeah. Dave: [3:23] There's a fucked up town in Maine. Welcome to Derry. Welcome to Derry. Sarah: [3:29] Sit right down or you'll hear a tale of a fucked up town in Maine. Dave: [3:33] Gonna slice your eyes in little bits on this three hour tour. Tara: [3:37] Anyway. Josh: [3:39] Fucked up town. Fucked up town. Tara: [3:41] I was in the office. If you watch the movies It and It Chapter Two, you know every 27 years, an ancient evil in Derry pops the hell off and starts really preying on townsfolk, mostly but not exclusively on children. Also, it preys on people in between, too. So the 27 years is really just a- Also. Dave: [4:00] It preys on people, too. Tara: [4:02] Anyway, Welcome to Derry takes place in 1962, 27 years before the events of the first It movie. After a boy named Maddie Clemens, played by Miles Eckhart, disappears, his friends start having strange experiences themselves. Lily, Clara Stack, hears Maddie singing a song from from the music man in her bathtub drain, Teddy, Michael Kareem Fiddler, sees his bedroom lampshade turn into stitched together human skin masks that yell at him. At the same time, Air Force Major Leroy Hanlon, played by Javon Adepo, arrives at Derry's Strategic Air Command to test B-52 bombers, and it turns out he's been selected for a very specific reason. The show is inspired by the novel It by Stephen King. It was reimagined for TV by Wonder Woman screenwriter Jason Fuchs, as well as Lock and Key producers Andy and Barbara Muschietti. Only one episode has aired so far. We got access to the first five, but we will be careful about spoilers. Let's do the jet check-in. I think I know the answer, but Josh, should our listeners watch it? Welcome to Derry. Josh: [5:04] It's really good, the pilot. I thought it was really good, but I will not be watching more. Tara: [5:10] Okay, Sarah. Sarah: [5:12] I think it depends on what kind of Stephen King slash Derry-verse fan you are of this general world of material. This is not for me, so I would say no. Dave: [5:24] Dave. First of all, we have to say that Josh is dairy intolerant by the sounds of it. Tara: [5:30] Nice. Dave: [5:31] Thank you. Sarah: [5:31] So we should really be talking about oat. Welcome to Dairy Free. I'm sorry again. Josh: [5:38] Welcome to Dairy Alternative. That's right. Sarah: [5:40] Josh can stay. I'll go. Josh: [5:42] The show about banger, man. Dave: [5:47] So I think this is one for the Fangoria crowd. So if you are in that bucket. Tara: [5:53] And it is a bucket. Dave: [5:56] Yes. If you're in that blood bucket, then I think the ROI is okay for you. And the ROI being sitting through 50 minutes for one or two good gross scenes per episode. Tara: [6:10] Yeah, I watched the first two movies this weekend for the first time. So I guess I'm pot committed now. I have to see how it comes out. And it is a pot. Dave: [6:19] Not a bucket. Can I say something about having watched the last 10 minutes of It Chapter 2, walking into the room and sitting down and waiting for it to end? Tara: [6:27] Yeah. Dave: [6:28] I thought Pennywise the Clown was just some dude that abducted children. and that was the horrible part of it, that he lived in the sewer and he dragged you into the sewer and you were never seen again. That's pretty terrible when you're a kid. Tara: [6:39] That's what he said. And I said, no, that was John Wayne Gacy. Go on. Dave: [6:42] Well, okay, but still. You know, for a Stephen King thing, I could believe it. You know, there's a rabid dog running around. Uh-oh, horror. Like the dog doesn't grow three heads and welcome you to hell or anything like that, as far as I know. Josh: [6:55] Welcome to hell is the next spinoff. Dave: [7:02] And then at the end of It Chapter 2, he turns into the giant fucking hermit crab. Tara: [7:07] I know. Dave: [7:08] And he's got blue orbs running around his head. What is going on? I know. What is this franchise? Tara: [7:14] It's an ancient evil. I don't know what to tell you. Josh: [7:16] I had kind of a Stephen King phase in my youth, which was a bad experience for me, even though I think he's a very good writer. But I do think... He sometimes gets out over his skis with these books and hits page 650 or 1110 and goes, I guess it's a big mystical demon. Tara: [7:36] Yeah. Josh: [7:37] And you read, reading his book on writing where he's not big on outlining, he's just like, you kind of write what you feel. And you're like, I don't know, dog, you should probably have figured out a little bit of where you're going with this. If you always end with like, ah, it's literally the devil. Tara: [7:52] Yeah. Dave: [7:52] Then he takes a nap in the big pile of cocaine on his desk. It's the end. Tara: [7:56] That's the thing. You can definitely tell which books are from the cocaine era. Josh: [7:59] But Cujo is famously one of his cocaine books. And that one, like you said, kind of sticks to dog. Tara: [8:06] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dave: [8:07] That wasn't the original title. Sticks to dog. Josh: [8:11] Sticks to dog. Dave: [8:12] Yeah. Tara: [8:13] The only time it's not a brag to say you read the book first is when it's an adaptation of Stephen King. I'll just say that at the top. And I read it too. I also had it. Dave: [8:22] The last 10 minutes of It Chapter 2 being my introduction to the Itiverse. Tara: [8:26] Yes. Dave: [8:27] Then we go back and watch the first episode of Welcome to Derry. Tara: [8:31] Mm-hmm. Dave: [8:31] So I knew it was a little weird, but then the opening scene is the weird little kid. Tara: [8:36] Matty. Dave: [8:37] As he's introduced. Weird little kid. Tara: [8:38] With a pacifier, even though he's in high school, yes. Josh: [8:41] It took me a little while to figure out how old the children were until we got the kind of like pin in the corkboard of like one of them is getting bar mitzvahed. Right, right. They're like 12, 13. Tara: [8:52] Yep. Dave: [8:53] So he is hitching a ride out of town because he lives in a bad home. And then all this crazy fucking shit happens in the car that he hits her ride into. You know, the weird, the family turns out to be the weird occult family. And everybody's like, the daughter is eating raw liver out of a Tupperware container. The boy's spelling everything. He's a spelling whiz, but he's spelling two and three letter words. And then the mother decides to give birth in the car. And she gives birth to a winged baby with two heads. And it flies around like a balloon with the air coming out of it all around the car. And the kid is just there in the passenger seat in the back. And that was the intro. And then I wrote down, must apologize to Josh Gondelman at the start of episode four show. Tara: [9:38] That is my first question. Did you live to regret your bravado of even watching one? Or can we continue to be friends? Josh: [9:45] I didn't feel any bravado. I was like, I don't really want to do this. But I found that so much more not to my taste than the rest of the episode, which I like. But I was like, if this, if we get like four spikes of this in an hour, I will not enjoy myself. But because it was kind of like a three minute scene, 10 minutes in, and then is all there's very unsettling stuff throughout. But I was like, I'm not in if this is what it means. Tara: [10:14] Right. Mm hmm. Okay. Dave: [10:18] It was gushy. Tara: [10:19] So then my next question is, you know, you expect a TV horror series to be kind of a slow burn, but is this one too slow? Meaning if all you know about it is Pennywise the Clown, you do not see him in the first episode at all. Josh: [10:31] I don't even know if there's going to be a clown in this show from watching the pilot. Sarah: [10:35] The clown is executive producing also. Josh: [10:37] That's right. Well, it's going to be kind of a soft adaptation because they had to get Pennywise's approval. Tara: [10:42] Right, right. Josh: [10:42] And like, that only turns out well when it's Michael Jordan who has to do that. Tara: [10:47] Right. Or Amanda Knox. He's too wild. Josh: [10:50] Yeah. Dave: [10:50] I was getting the sense this was a goopier Castle Rock take. Tara: [10:55] Right, right. Dave: [10:56] That it is sort of like pinned to it, but it's going to like borrow this and that. And this is going to be like a gross fest. It's just like greatest hits of disgusting things we can do. Because there's no, after watching, you know, a couple of these, There's no real true rhyme or reason to what they're doing. Yes, there is a backstory. I'm not that through it. So this isn't a spoiler, but it seems to be on the level of, oops, we built something on the top of an Indian burial ground level Simpsons Treehouse of Terror sort of scenario. Yeah. Okay. And then eventually they fold in the Air Force people into what the kids are doing and it sort of gels that way. But it felt less like moving towards the clown and more like just going along this road. where we can provide you one or two or three goopy scenes per episode. And that is what we're delivering. And that's what I think they succeed on. Like, I don't give a shit if Pennywise the Clown ever pops up because I don't know if he does what, like, are we into the lore of why he began or where he was in the two cycles ago or however long ago this was? Who cares? Tara: [12:01] Right. Sarah: [12:02] Yeah. I mean, it's like agents of shield, but clowns, agents of clown. Josh: [12:06] And also knowing that Pennywise is like clown is just an option, you know, like clown is one version of Pennywise. It makes me less, as David was saying, like less invested in like, what was this clown doing in the early 60s? Where it's like, it's not even a clown. It's just like a force that takes the shape of clown. So who cares what it was doing in clown form in the 60s? Dave: [12:29] Yeah, and I don't want to, like, bag on Stephen King being a terrible writer, but of course, if it was a killer clown, he should be preceded by circus music whenever he's coming after you. And then you would know the clown's coming, and he'd be like, oh, it's clown time. It's clown time, guys. Josh: [12:43] He can eat a clown town. Dave: [12:45] Yeah, clown town. Of course it's clown town, Josh. What was I thinking? So we're not really going to Clowntown because we're not here. Every time Pennywise is coming down with his two knives or whatever he's got. So I'm just saying it's not delivering on Clowntown. So why bother with Clowntown? Let's just have Goopville 24-7. Josh: [13:03] I hope whoever wrote that is so rich. Dave: [13:08] It was an employee of Hearst. So no, Hearst owns the whole thing. Tara: [13:13] Well, if you know two things about it other than Pennywise, you know, it's that the evil is taken down by a group of kids so it's at least a twist that Welcome to Derry seems like it's shaping up to be that and then three of the kids get killed at the end of the first episode. Sarah did the right ones go. Sarah: [13:30] I think so. I mean, my problem here is that I'm operating in the it-verse of the book. Tara: [13:40] Right. Josh: [13:40] Same. Sarah: [13:41] And this is like the it-verse of the recent movies, which are like time-shifted sort of, so that these are like ancestors, I guess, or precursors or grandparents of the people in the movies. But then it's like three years after the events in the book where their kids were doing this stuff. Like, it's a lot. I don't I don't know. Like, I'm just not sure. I'm not sure that timeline works. And but I did I did like the kid performances so far. And so I I think that the kids who I the kids that I liked that were left living after, you know, bat boy. Tara: [14:19] Bat baby attack. Sarah: [14:20] Went ham in the theater. I would say most of the right ones survived. And I think that also the show is a little cagey about, are things dead necessarily that you think died? Disappeared does not mean dead necessarily. I think this is probably a super tricky project to cast, not just to get child actors that you don't want to claw your face off, but also that their parents are going to read the script and be like, sure, this seems normal for a minor child to be allowed to do for money. So yeah, I think they did well. Josh: [15:01] I think Phil was a little much in episode one. The tall kid who was always talking about boobs and conspiracy theories. And that part wasn't even the much. I was like, oh, that's kind of like fun levity. This just like perv kid. But just him always being like, you're going to do it. It's welcome to Derry. You're not going to do it. Sarah: [15:25] Also, we all know you grew up to be a Richard Belzer. We get it. Just put the glasses on. Josh: [15:30] Yeah. Yeah. I similarly thought the kid performances, the two, there's three girls, but the two like teen girls were very good, I thought. Tara: [15:39] Yeah. Dave: [15:39] Yeah, and the lead teen girl, oh, I'm going to say the lead teen girl, the one that went to the asylum previously to the events of the first episode. Tara: [15:46] Yes, Lily. Dave: [15:47] Has a very expressive, and I don't mean this in a bad way, a very expressive Muppet mouth. She has a very long mouth, which she uses to be worried a lot and almost cry and feel really bad all the time. And it really works for her in this role. Tara: [16:03] She has a bad time with some pickles in the second episode, we'll say that. Dave: [16:06] Oh, I meant to get pickles. Josh: [16:07] In the first episode. Tara: [16:08] In the first episode too. Well, you know, they're related. I thought Susie was really funny, but I thought they probably exhausted what they could do with her, the little sister who was like riding off fags in the library. Josh: [16:20] Yeah, great scene, great scene. did not want six of those per episode. Tara: [16:25] Absolutely. Speaking of funny, though, the movies are about a clown, which means there are some gags that are on the line between funny and horrifying. And the comedy writer Rebecca Drysdale is a producer here, I saw in episode two, which suggests there's more funny stuff to come. Was that a note you felt was missing in the first episode? Or did you feel there was enough of that, Josh? Josh: [16:46] I thought that some of it really worked for me and some of it really didn't. Like I thought the kind of natural kid stuff was really good for the most part, like the kind of banter and like the kids bickering and like, and some of it, there was like those kind of comedy horror punchlines of they're all in the dark, pretending they're not crying. And then the movie comes on when all the kids are in there and you could see that they've been crying. And it's like, that's really sad. That's my dog has been woken up from a nap in the other room and is yelling. but I thought like you know some of it felt like a little bit like has to be a joke here so like the girl in the girl's room like farts and then was like it wasn't me and I was like this feels it feels like a little from a different show. Tara: [17:27] Little punch up yeah yeah the air four plotline Nope, not Fort. Dave: [17:34] Airfart? Tara: [17:34] The Airfart. Josh: [17:35] It's a fort. It's also a fort. Tara: [17:36] No, no. The Air Force plotline is how the story folds in Dick Halloran, who we know is the handyman from The Shining. Here, he's played by Chris Chalk, who I love. But at least at this early stage, I feel like that whole setting is the accessory the show could have taken off. Like, I assume it's going to get folded in more, but I felt like that was sort of extraneous. Anyone else? Air Force care? Care no? Dave: [17:59] I mean, I have to talk around it. But in the second episode, I think second or third episode, we discover why not that character, not the chalk character, but the colonel, the major, major. Tara: [18:10] Yes. Dave: [18:11] Why the major character has been summoned to Derry Air Force Base for reasons. It's really silly. Tara: [18:17] It is dumb. Dave: [18:18] Once you find out why he's there and how he's going to be folding into the ancient evil of Derry. Tara: [18:24] Yeah. Dave: [18:24] It's like, all right, we're not here for storytelling. We're here for pickle related horror. Tara: [18:30] Yes. Dave: [18:31] That kind of stuff. I mean, that was the part where it's like, all right, brain off. Don't need to follow the story anymore. I'm just here for gush. Josh: [18:39] This makes me more firm in my decision to not proceed with the show, because I do think one thing that was really impressive about the show. pilot is how there are points of subtle and extreme. Every scene, especially the first half, had points of tension in them, whether they were tension between people who like each other and the two members of the Air Force, the two officers arriving, one Black, one white, and you get them kind of bickering and you go, what is their relationship? Are they always at each other's throats? Are they actually close? And then you find out like, oh, their relationship is actually warmer than you thought. And then when Maddie gets into the car, the tension just goes crazy with this weird family. And even between the friends, there's like, we should have done this, we shouldn't have done this. And I thought the Air Force stuff really folded in well. I think it's just a really good pilot in terms of setting up a lot of interesting stuff. And it's like, okay, there's horror and supernatural, but also there's racism in America in the 60s through present and before the 60s so like i really liked that kind of stuff of like oh there's a uh. Josh: [19:54] A soldier who is not respecting his Black superior. And that becomes a point of tension as well that has a different valence than the two of them squabbling. And I was like, oh, I'm like really, I was very in on this. And then finding out like, oh no, it's because of ghosts and goblins. I'm like, fuck this. I don't give a shit. Tara: [20:12] Well, it is related because one of the story threads, and I don't think this is a huge spoiler either, because it's hinted at in the first episode, which is if there's a town where a whole bunch of kids are disappearing or getting killed or whatever, What is the local police going to do? Find a Black guy and blame it on him. And it turns out, which has already happened to this projectionist because of the Maddie disappearance at the beginning. So that's another thing that ties back to Giovanna Depo, who is from Watchmen, and Cord Jefferson, who's another producer who worked on that show, too. This is a re-team of them. So there is more of that. Josh: [20:46] It makes sense. Watchmen felt like a point of like, okay, we're pinning historical, real history into to this kind of supernatural fiction. Tara: [20:56] I'll just warn our listeners who are sensitive about eye trauma on screen, do not try to watch episode four. That's the one that's airing November 16th. This is my official warning. But other than that, any final thoughts about it? Welcome to Derry. Sarah: [21:10] I just feel like if you have Chris Chalk, who is playing this legendary character in the American book, both literal book and film, you gotta give him more screen time in the first episode and a half like get him out there don't waste Chris Chalk ever. Dave: [21:39] It is time to go around the dial for a stop, Tara. Tara: [21:43] Yes, I'm talking about Married at First Sight. This came up on Extra Extra Hot Great last week. I think I said it was starting this week. It started last week. It's because it's airing on Bravo, but it's really on Peacock. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 2025. Anyway, as part of the change of platform, it used to be on Lifetime. Now Peacock, as I said. They cut a lot of the matchmaking process of this and get straight to introducing the couples and showing their weddings. So we get to the honeymoon by about halfway through episode three. I know that sounds like a lot, but it's a huge improvement. Here are the couples ranked from least to most Doom based on the first four episodes that have dropped so far. First, we got Jalen and Josh. They are in first position. His, no way around it, his mother went to prison when he was a kid. And he only met his biological father via one of the genetic screening companies, 23andMe or whatever, in the past couple of years. Josh is very into being part of Jalen's family. Their biggest issue is he's really into Burning Man, and she's not totally sure what that is, but the way he describes it sounds bad to her. He is also outdoorsy in the sense that he takes her on a boat tour on their honeymoon and then on some kind of gondola situation. She wears high-heeled mules for that. She's a bubbly lady, loves to laugh. He's kind of quiet. Historically, these are the married-at-first-sight matches that tend to work best, so hopeful for them. Dave: [23:06] Sorry. I'm sorry. Did you say there's a character named Josh? And he drives a gondola? Tara: [23:12] He takes her on a gondola. Dave: [23:15] Okay. Tara: [23:15] Yes. Dave: [23:16] Very, very close. Very close, Josh. Very close. Josh: [23:19] They're kind of stealing my whole thing. Yeah. Tara: [23:22] Then there's Belinda and Chad. Guys, get this. Belinda is Jalen's mother. Her main wish for a husband seems to be for him to be taller than she is so that he makes her feel small. And I'm not totally sure Chad is, but she seems to like him, possibly because he stops on their way to the airport for the honeymoon to buy her a diamond engagement ring because the show only got everybody gold bands. He is a retired military something and has previously been married not once, not twice, but thrice. But the experts passed him, so I'm sure it's fine. And he's just bringing everything he learned from his previous three failed marriages to this one. Then there's Rhonda and Pat. There's a couple even older than Belinda and Chad. Rhonda is 63. Pat is 59. By far the oldest people who have ever been on the show. She seems to have had a lot of therapies such that she talks through what she's feeling with a lot of words of affirmation, and he seems dazzled by her, so I think they have a good shot. Megan and Derek. Megan with two N's. Derek with two R's, so I assume they were matched because they were both raised in the extra consonant community. He is the COO of a health and wellness company. He just moved to Austin a few months ago, so red flag that he's here so he could be cast for the show. she loves country music. He's into EDM. This will never work. But seriously, he is extroverted in that kind of startup executive way. And she seems like a dud socially. She invited her life coach to the wedding. I'm just saying. Oh, no. Tara: [24:51] Well, that is basically what I said about Jalen and Josh. It doesn't work when the genders are flipped. Can't have a bubbly guy. It's a quiet girl. He doesn't like it if that's the case in the couple. And she also walked herself down the aisle at the wedding, even though her mother was there because her mother doesn't approve of Meghan doing the show. And we love when that happens. And then when Megan got to the altar, she didn't know what to do with her hands, so she put them on her hips, which made it look like she was waiting for Derek to stop talking so she could tell him why she was giving him a bad tip at the valet stand. There is a picture of this on my blue sky, so you can look that up. Dave: [25:25] Are you sure she wasn't about to do the chicken dance? Tara: [25:27] She might have been. She does have a kind of chicken-like quality. And then there's Brittany and Will. The first sign of trouble for them is when he meets her parents at the wedding, her dad really pointedly asks Will about whether he is Christian or Catholic or what. I assume those are the acceptable answers. And he is way too honest answering. They don't love it when he says he's agnostic or that his parents are not observant either. And when he says he thinks maybe they're Baptist, it reminds him to say this. And I have a clip. Yeah, that was another thing. The Catholic schism killed. Sarah: [26:03] Another woman because he couldn't have he she couldn't bear him a man, so he made a whole new church and that's how the denominations came out of the catholic church okay, people died in the Crusades than any other war ever. And I was just like, oh, you're killing people for what? Okay. All right. Tara: [26:28] We play Domino's. This is at the reception. Sarah: [26:36] Guy, no one wants to talk about the Catholic schism. Tara: [26:40] Anyway. Sarah: [26:41] So many AI sloppy facts. Dave: [26:43] Yeah, I was going to say, that's a real chat GPT. Tell me something. Tara: [26:47] I know. Josh: [26:48] Yeah, tell me something that'll ruin my wedding. Tara: [26:50] Truly. So they have unprotected sex on the honeymoon, and their first sort of fight is about her being like, well, if I get pregnant, it's fine, right? And him being like, uh, and so not really. One interesting thing that comes up in the fourth episode is Rhonda noticing in conversation Pat likes to talk about himself and his interests, but he doesn't ask her anything about herself. like she says for example she usually keeps the tv on all day to make it seem like she's home because her house was broken into a few years ago and his answer is i don't really like tv not oh wow what happened so sometime later she very nicely brings up that she thinks they're doing great they're gonna have a wonderful life but her experience is he could be doing more to learn about her but he's a great person and when he gets defensive she's like you don't have to be defensive because i'm not criticizing you i just wanted to tell you it's something i noticed and he gets better after that. And so when they separately talk about that conversation with the other husbands and wives, Derek is inspired to talk to Megan about her doing that in conversation and she does not take it well. And Brittany does the same thing with Will, but he thinks actually she's the one who's bad at conversations because her questions are too open-ended. I mean, that's Will we just heard talking about the Catholic schism, so I don't know if I trust him necessarily, but... Tara: [28:01] Even though this is not the first season since COVID, it may be they cast an unusually high number of people whose social skills atrophied during lockdown and never came back. I don't know. But it's a strong start to the season. Happy to have a new batch of bozos to watch. And I'm sure I'll be talking about it more on our Extra Hot Great episodes over the course of the season. And Stephanie probably will, too. So join the Extra Hot Great Club, extrahotgreat.com slash club. Dave: [28:29] I have a question. Tara: [28:30] Yeah. Dave: [28:30] As this show has gone along. Tara: [28:33] Yes, this is season 19, by the way. Dave: [28:35] Season 19. People that have watched earlier seasons. Tara: [28:39] Yeah. Dave: [28:39] Don't have the part of the brain that tells them I shouldn't go on the show. Tara: [28:43] That's correct. Dave: [28:44] They're rather like, ooh, me please. Tara: [28:46] Yeah. Dave: [28:46] So are we getting sort of a exponential increase in the attributes that make these people good TV as we go along? If I went back and watched early seasons of Married at First Sight. Tara: [28:58] Would it be like. Dave: [28:58] Well, these people are far too reasonable to be on this, what should be an entertaining show? Tara: [29:03] Yeah. I mean, not unlike Survivor, where in the early seasons, no one knew what they were doing except for Richard Hatch. And then they all started becoming students of the game or something like that. But with the dating show, except they're not dating, they're married. Josh: [29:15] It's so interesting to watch various levels of awareness and various demands of these kinds of reality-based shows, the competition ones versus the just kind of relationship-based ones. When you watch something like the American The Traitors, where you're like, oh, the Survivor Big Brother people come in with deeply thought-out gameplay and allegiances, and sometimes that pays off and sometimes it is blown up by people who are like real housewives of New York. Who are just like going with their gut and stirring up shit for the sake of being interesting on TV. And it's like a wild clash of like, oh, you do the same job, but not really. Tara: [29:56] Right. It's different cultures. Sarah: [29:57] Yes, for sure. Tara: [29:59] Anyway. Dave: [30:00] Reality television loves a good chaos agent. Tara: [30:02] Yeah, absolutely. Dave: [30:06] All right, Josh, what have you been watching recently? People need to know about. Josh: [30:10] Oh, my gosh. My wife, Maris, and I are a little late. We're a few episodes behind, but we started The Lowdown. Sarah: [30:16] Oh, it's so good. Josh: [30:18] We are having a good time. It is the new show from Sterling Harjo, right? Who is also a creator of Reservation Dogs, which is wonderful. And if you haven't watched that, you got to watch Reservation Dogs. It fucking rules. That show is truly the best version I think of I've ever seen of a show where like hanging out with these characters, surrealism, various levels of importance to the plottiness of it. And The Lowdown is in Tulsa, and it is a mystery, sort of. I've seen it described widely as Coen Brothers-y in its inspiration, which I mostly see as extraordinarily evident in Ethan Hawk's lead performance being kind of like the dude, but in the South. And it's great. A big fan of this performance. Great cast ranging from Kyle McLaughlin to Killer Mike to Gene Tripplehorn, a recent Bob's Burgers Halloween joke. Tara: [31:20] Oh, yeah. Josh: [31:22] And it's great, great cast. I'm like, super interested in how this plays out, this kind of milieu of Ethan Hawke as a freelance journalist slash rabble rouser who's trying to get to the bottom of this extremely historically racist Southern dynasty, one of whose scions is running for governor of Oklahoma, another of whom recently committed suicide with a question mark and has left a series of non-suicide notes, it appears. Sarah: [31:53] Yeah. Josh: [31:54] It's just really propulsive. There's grit in a way that it is for adults, but it doesn't revel in grotesquerie. No offense to Welcome to Derry, but it's been really fun so far. I've heard it's very good going forward. So I'm really excited to watch the rest. Ethan Hawke and Peter Dinklage, who appears later, I'm told, are both celebrities I had pleasure of running into on the street while walking my late dog, Busy, and who said very funny things to my elderly pug. So I have a great affection for them for those reasons as well. Dave: [32:30] And that's a good episode, too. Tara: [32:32] That's great. Josh: [32:32] I'm excited. I'm really hyped to keep going. I find sometimes with a show, even in a 10-episode series, sometimes a show like this kind of gets a little too excited to splash around in the world it created. And I find that Sterling Harjo's work resists that and makes everything a real rich experience for the viewer and isn't just like, and they're like this because of something that happened in the past. Yes. It's just like the past stuff is equally well rendered in his work, I think, as the present day. Josh: [33:06] I will also put in a little shout out for another season 19, the not current, but most recent complete series of Taskmaster, which is the one that had its first U.S. resident experience. competitor, Jason Manzoukas. And I think that that is like, it's such a fun show. And that is like a truly great entry point. And it's where it's the first series that Maris was like, oh, I get this. Got it. I'm in. And we'd not not first of 19, but like first one that I had put on. And what do you think about this? Yeah, this one was. Dave: [33:41] Yeah, she really sat through 18 episodes or 18 series of this show. Josh, just his arms crossed on the couch. Tara: [33:48] That. Josh: [33:49] Would be miserable of me to do to her but yeah so that is like i i also recommend that as well. Tara: [33:55] I just started listening to the official taskmaster podcast which is hosted by ed gamble and so they're you know covering every episode of the current season as they go and jason manzoukas was his guest to talk about season uh episode one of season 20 and uh he was so funny they went so long but he's like really still such a fan of the show and just loved getting into all the minutiae of the game, even though it wasn't the one he was playing. And it was really fun to listen to. Josh: [34:21] It's very fun. He's a great podcast guest. He's a great taskmaster, panelist. I accidentally hosted two episodes of that podcast because I got to interview Greg Davis and Alex Horn live. Looking forward to it. I did not have in my head that it would ever be broadcast, and it was. So I hosted a better live event than I did two podcast episodes. Tara: [34:45] Excellent. And tell us your plug. Josh: [34:47] I have two quick plugs. One is my new stand-up special, Positive Reinforcement, is available on YouTube now through Blonde Medicine's YouTube page. And it's also, there's an album version wherever you listen to audio with a little bit of bonus material. And I write a weekly newsletter full of pep talks and jokes, and it keeps you up to date on all Josh Gondelman comings and goings. It's called That's Marvelous, and you can find it at thatsmarvelousnewsletter.com. Tara: [35:12] And in the show notes. Josh: [35:13] Into the show notes. Thank you. Dave: [35:16] All right sarah what do you got for us. Sarah: [35:17] Going back to the stephen king adaptation topic i have mentioned before i think in a semi-recent episode of extra extra hot great join the club that i thought a short story of king's called the road virus heads north would make a good tv fodder adaptation fodder i surely did not realize that that had already been attempted that you uh word used divisively in 2006's short live anthology series Nightmares and Dreamscapes colon from the stories of Stephen King. And I think I was happier not knowing it or having watched it. Tara: [35:54] That's too bad. Sarah: [35:54] Because the writer of the teleplay, Peter Filardi, Flatliners and the Salem Slot miniseries from the aughts, also on his CD, makes a lot of choices that do not work. And some of them are choices that were made not by him that are not helping. First of all, the series was very obviously shot not in the United States. That's not on Filardi. The casting is not quite right either and ages the character's, a bit from the original story, but then the actors are aged down from their character's stated ages. That's weird. The director, Sergio Mimica-Gazan, whose most recent credit is Spaceshow, was unable to convince Tom Barrager or Marsha Mason that Maine is not one of the Carolinas. Accent-wise, that's not really on Filardi. But a decision was made to zhuzh up the basic plot of the original with a possibly terminal diagnosis for the main character. Richard Kinnell, who is written as a barely disguised version of King, off-putting big-shot horror author Stand-In, that doesn't really need another layer, and that is on Filardi. Sarah: [37:03] Showing one of the deaths in Kinnell's wake that tips him that something is capital N not right is also a misstep. The episode is sort of interesting as an object lesson in adaptations, generally, I guess, and trying to fit them into a certain minute-long container. But specifically Stephen King and the fact that King's stories succeed when they do by laying out a careful internal geography, but also leaving enough gaps for the reader to fill in with imagination. Sarah: [37:33] Sometimes an audiovisual version, of course, has to fill in some of those gaps explicitly, but how that's done is what the adaptation relies on to succeed. And some of King's work really needs its interpreters for whichever screen not to freeze up and start telling instead of showing for minutes on end at a time or showing too much and have the monster be laughable instead of scary. And unfortunately, this iteration of this story is not able to stick the landing. I am trying not to spoil the story, which is available to read online for free. I'll link it in the show notes. it's your basic inanimate object turns out to be a very much animate and be very much trying to kill the protagonist i think there actually was a way to do this for a 44 minute anthology episode that trusted the original material more and used less cheesy scoring and didn't kill off a dog named hobo for no real reason this is not that version i can't recommend it but i will link it in the show notes as well. You can watch it on YouTube. Dave: [38:39] What was the full title? Sarah: [38:40] The Road Virus Heads North. Dave: [38:42] Nightmares and Dreamscapes, colon. Okay. Sarah: [38:45] Colon. From the stories of Stephen King. This story, The Road Virus Heads North, was not in the Nightmares and Dreamscapes. Dave: [38:53] Real 2002 CD-ROM interactive multimedia experience title vibes. Josh: [39:00] I feel the same way, though. We're coming back to it. We just got Bruce Springsteen colon deliver me from nowhere. Dave: [39:07] Yeah. All right. Come on, man. Josh: [39:10] Just have him on the poster. Dave: [39:13] What's happening in the bunting verse? Sarah: [39:16] Well, for my plug, first of all, don't title things like that. Just say what it is enough. We're all adults. My actual plug, as we're recording this, Hurricane Melissa has recently made landfall in Jamaica. This is a storm that like the categories stop at five, but based on sort of looking at comparative numbers, this is actually like a category 19 storm. I found a Reddit megathread that looks fairly reliable with resources and support for Jamaica and other nations of the Caribbean, including organizations to donate to. You might find it helpful, And I will link that in the show notes as well. Everybody hang in there. Dave: [39:57] All right. Here's what's coming up on our shows in the near future. This Friday's extra, extra hot grape for... Grape? Did I say grape? I'm going to say grape. Extra hot. Grape. Grape. Episode 380 is going to be Tala Masca. Is that right? Yep. Tala Masca, the secret order. Tara: [40:14] Colon, the secret order. Dave: [40:15] See? It's true. It's part of the rice-a-verse and also another 2002 CD-ROM experience, The Secret Order. See if you can figure out the code that gets you this secret little room off the side. If you're not a club member and you want me to get that and dozens and dozens of other episodes, go to extrahotgreat.com slash club and sign up there. Or you can go and do that directly on Apple Podcasts. If you do that, just the audio perks for that. And then come back here on ESG Prime in one week for episode 587. We're welcoming back Nick Reinwell-Jones to talk about I Love LA, which is a show. And I had something else to mention, but I have forgotten. So I'll just wrap it up there. All right. So see you soon. Love you. Bye. Dave: [41:14] It is time for the extra hot great Canon presenting time. Tara: [41:19] Hello. Tracy Wigfield got a lot of attention and coverage for her 2020 sequel series Saved by the Bell. But it was not her debut as a TV creator. That honor belongs to Great News, a sadly forgotten sitcom from the late 20-teens when no one at NBC knew how to launch a comedy, which maybe they still don't. I'm here to resurrect its memory and talk about season two, episode five, Night of the Living Screen. Here's why I think it deserves to be inducted into the canon. Number one, it broadens Katie's world. By this point, three quarters of the way through the series run, we knew Katie Wendelson, played by Brigha Helan, as a workaholic producer on the cable news show The Breakdown, whose job became even more of a hassle when her mother Carol, Andrea Martin, joined the show's staff as a college intern. Yes, that's really the premise of the show. And no, this is not the time to unpack it. But some tendrils of Katie's old life remain in the form of her childhood friends who remained in New Jersey to be stay at home mothers like Jessica Mancuso, Cecily Strong, whose gender reveal party Katie is attending in the cold open clip one. When are you going to move back to New Jersey like the rest of us? Honestly, I'm just having. Dave: [42:46] Crazy for Doritos contest. Trying to win? They invited me to the cool ranch. Tara: [42:52] Carol is so obsessed with Katie that she has, as previously noted, gotten herself a job at Katie's show, but closer proximity to Katie on a near daily basis hasn't convinced Carol to sign off on Katie's choice to prioritize her career over starting her own family, as Jessica's party reminds them both, clip two. Oh, look at my cute kids, my golden retriever, my shower that's not full of dishes. Tara: [43:46] I love my work hard, play hard, but replace play hard with more work hard lifestyle. Clearly, Jessica is representative of a whole tier of long-ago acquaintances who made Katie feel superior and inferior at the same time. This isn't particularly new for the universe of sitcom plotlines, but it is new for great news, which so rarely leaves the workplace setting that Jessica isn't just the first frenemy of Katie's that we've met. She is the first female social contact of Katie's that we've ever seen. So that also sets this episode apart from the rest. Number two, makes partying look like torture. Left to her own devices, Katie's Leisure Time might be mostly Doritos-based, but she does have access to one of the coolest people in New York, Portia Scott Griffith, played by Nicole Richie, a co-anchor on The Breakdown, and certified scene-stirrer, Clip 3. Have any fun New York plans tonight? Not really. I have dinner at a pop-up sushi. Tara: [44:54] Can never come back. Sure. Glomming on to Portia's glamorous plans has the desired effect immediately, but Katie hasn't thought through what's actually involved. Clip four. That was so much fun. I can't believe someone thought I was your sister. No, they thought you were. Sarah: [45:44] It's only $11.50? What are cents? Tara: [45:51] Soon, Katie is spending all her nights out posting with Portia and paying for it by selling her blood. Before long, Katie is dozing on a pole at a club and getting turned away from the blood bank because what's coming out of her is roughly the shade and consistency of Rosé. If Katie had the money to keep up with Portia, would she be having more fun? Maybe, but I think Katie is more like Liz Lemon from 30 Rock, on which Tracy Wakefield also wrote, and that Katie would rather say yes to life, yes to love, yes to staying in more. Number three, it shows up the smug mom on her own terms. Katie's in the middle of trying to cut her budget by switching her phone plan to Cronk It Wireless when Jessica FaceTimes to needle her clip five. Tara: [46:33] Hey, lady. Hey, girl. Oh, this is so. Tara: [47:36] Morning. Don't talk to her. But someone left this burrito on the toilet. You want it? Portia cautions Katie that her Halloween plans are in a different league Katie is not prepared to play in. Last year, Ariana Grande attended as a life-size Statue of Liberty with immigrants inside her, and Portia herself is going as a fortune teller inside a gigantic crystal ball. But having already talked so big to Jessica, Katie has to figure it out and is so desperate, she hits up a party store for a makeover by a very game clerk named Ricard, played by Jeremy D. Howard. Unfortunately, this ends in her done-up as a very generic Dracula, and she's going to have to live with it because he already threw her clothes away. But then she spots a very Galinda-ish pink princess dress high on the wall, decides she doesn't need the family heirloom crucifix that superstitious Carol gave her to ward off evil during the Halloween season, clip six. Would this settle the debt? Why, yes, my dear. I believe, Girl, this is a party city. Go to the pawn shop, get cash, and come back. With Uber's surge pricing at six times the normal rate, Katie is forced to take the bus, where she naturally gets covered in another passenger's split pea soup. But she somehow still makes it to the party, or rather to the party's door guy, clip seven. I can't let you in. I have a daughter, so it hurts me to say this. Sarah: [48:56] But you are very ugly and extremely disgusting. No, please. I need to get inside, okay? Even if it's just for one picture. The answer's still no. Tara: [49:04] May God have mercy on your soul. So she walks around a hedge and sneaks in. Excuse me. Excuse me. Sarah: [49:20] Some kind of creature. Only my fire will kill it! Oh, what are you guys looking at? Katie? Portia, Portia, I don't have a lot of time. We have to take a selfie before they kick. Tara: [49:46] Oh, because of Gronk get wireless. Gronk get wireless. The next day, Jessica shows up at Katie's office with soup she made from scratch in a tureen she also made from scratch. Just to harass Katie into admitting that she didn't actually get into the party and that the closest she ever got to the Sex and the City lifestyle was dating a guy named Mr. Pig. Jessica could just stop there and walk out victorious, but she can't help getting in a little more humble bragging. Clip 8. Nobody's life is perfect. Look at mine. I mean, between taking care. Josh: [50:46] Faces. Nuh-uh. What do you know? Literally only this. And they didn't take that vacation to Mykonos. She and her husband put their heads through cardboard cutouts at the Jersey Shore. Oh, you think I know what true means anymore? I stare at Instagram for. Tara: [51:27] 19 hours a day. Katie felt oppressed by Jessica's posts, but Jessica feels oppressed by the demands of the platform, too. The episode lets Katie, via Portia, have the last word, but if there's a moral to be taken away here, it's that Instagram is not real life. Worth heeding now, as well as when this episode originally aired eight full years ago. There is also a plot line involving a smart screen that breakdown anchor Chuck Pierce, played by John Michael Higgins, schemes to get out of using by exploiting Carol's superstitious fears, but those parts are pretty forgettable, so let's feel free to forget them! There is someone we shouldn't forget, though, And that's Ricard, clip nine. you can vote this in or you can dishonor ricard's memory that's up to you. Dave: [52:31] Thank you tara josh gondelman why don't you start us off thoughts on the episode thoughts on the presentation. Josh: [52:38] Tremendous presentation loved it i think i felt a little more kindly to the uh genius board. Josh: [52:48] Segment especially the the little bit where at the end um hold on i have it written down because it really made me laugh uh oh she he says uh the only real demon here and she goes demon he says it's a metaphor she says is that the demon's name andrea martin metaphor be gone and really made me laugh me too yeah i really like the show thought it was really unsung in its time it's like one of my favorite series from the 30 Rock family tree. This episode is so fun. I want... I mean, obviously this has so much... Tracy Wigfield brought so much to 30 Rock into this show, but this kind of zippy, slightly surreal comedy feels really absent a lot of the time when someone from this particular lineage doesn't have a show on the air. And I miss it. There should be like 52 weeks a year or something like this for me to watch. And it's like a flavor of comedy that I really, really love and wish there was more of. Tara, one of the things you said about the Instagram is not real life plotline being relevant in a now, it is really impressive that they did something that was so social media heavy, but was so character based that like the elemental truth about social media is just a truth about people. Nicole Ritchie is great. I was blown away by how funny she is. The presence of Horatio Sanz is slightly off-putting at this point in history. Josh: [54:15] But otherwise, I think it's a great show, great presentation, great episode. Big thumbs up from me for the canon. Dave: [54:22] I have a question for you, Josh, because you've been in a writer's room. Josh: [54:26] Yeah. Dave: [54:27] The word Crockett, which is the name of the budget. Josh: [54:30] It's so funny. Dave: [54:32] So my question is, and this comes up a lot in this podcast, because I have a fantasy of being able to be in a writer's room when there is a community effort to come up with the best dumb thing. Josh: [54:44] Yeah. Dave: [54:45] And I'm wondering if Crockett seems like to you something that was sort of crowdsourced in the writer's room and how much time collectively you would spend on something dumb. like that. Josh: [54:58] So it can go a lot of different ways. This could be something that was pulled directly from a draft, right? Or like directly from the initial brainstorm when they're breaking the episode in the room. It could also be something that you took like 40 minutes on and then went back to the initial pitch or something that, you know, people throw it a hundred things and everyone's going crazy and someone goes cronking. You go, where? Yes. Why wasn't it cronking all along? It's so funny. The other individual word in this episode, that's not a real word that made me laugh out loud was Skeleton. She, Andrea Martin, screams at a Halloween direction like, oh, Skeleton. And it's like, it's so funny. And I think like there's people just being, saying and doing things wrong in a way that is just like. idiosyncratic and bizarre it's like so much so present in like tim robinson's work yeah yeah and which we've talked about on the show before i'm like really present here where it's just like people being dumb in a silly way i am. Dave: [55:54] So happy to hear that that actually happens sometimes the way i. Josh: [55:57] Imagine it in. Dave: [55:58] My head because. Josh: [55:59] Yeah yeah. Dave: [55:59] I imagine things like you know when you um say like the simpsons and there's like a a pan of some neighborhood retail area and there's like 14 stupid shop names and like somebody has to like be in a room and come up with those 14 names. Josh: [56:14] Like one of those situations i mean rooms i've been in it's usually like okay everybody get in here and everybody pitch like in a either out loud or in a big doc um where everybody's typing individually and then you get a list of like 100 of them and and then you're like well it's my boss's job to choose which ones they like. Dave: [56:31] Nice excellent i'll go next i think everything about this presentation was spot on. I really would be happy to see great news in the canon because for me, like Josh was saying, it is sort of the truest 30 Rock-ish show that came out of that. It's the closest to 30 Rock. It is a workplace comedy. It is very just off to the side of what 30 Rock was doing at 30 Rock and NBC. But The fact that Tara just didn't mention half the episode. Tara: [57:00] Well, okay. Dave: [57:02] Is the same problem I had with it, which is that whole part of it, I didn't think was that great. And I thought it brought down the whole episode. If this episode managed to be just all about Katie and that part of it, I probably would have been more predisposed to vote yes. And by the way, while we're there, the actress's name again, sorry, I forgot it. Tara: [57:21] Brigha Helan. Dave: [57:21] Why is she not still doing? She is so good in this role. She's really funny. that like it's like she was a student of this school of comedy all along and they just sort of plucked her right from graduation or something and she was like she was so natural she was like there from day one doing this character her comic timing is excellent and then i feel like when this show disappeared she just like deserves something else and i don't it hasn't hit my eyeballs if it's out there yeah which i think is a shame more. Tara: [57:50] Massachusetts greatness josh he's from and that's Right. Josh: [57:53] Andover. Looked it up. I looked at her IMDb page and it's like a bunch of single episode guest appearances and a couple like few episode arcs on shows. But yeah, she's really good in this. And like, it is so hard, I think, to pull off this blend of regular workplace comedy with things no living human could or would ever say. And to sell it as natural and in the same tone as the realistic stuff. And like, she just like takes it all in stride and delivers it all in stride it's. Dave: [58:23] Really wonderful so i guess where i come down to it it's just like that part of it was definitely canon worthy but the other part wasn't so that's where i'm going to probably come down on it so let's see how it's going to shake out with sarah the decider. Sarah: [58:35] The decider that's. Josh: [58:37] What the d stands for. Sarah: [58:38] I yeah exactly decider you hardly even know or i thought both parts of the episode were maybe not equally good but i think they both really succeeded because the the best thing about the show i think is the pace at which everything happens and it's just like screeching around these corners and sparks are flying off and the sparks are just as funny as like watching this vehicle i think that it just like keeps it moving like a lot of sitcoms would sort of stand back from some of these lines of mancusos and like wait for you to admire what they're doing or like you know metaphor is that the name of it be gone you are not wanted here but then they're like on to the next thing some of the throwaway lines about the screen and Andrea Martin's character being like, I talked to Father Kevin. Sarah: [59:32] And it's just like the amount of time that goes into or not understanding that it's like you would call him Father Kevin and that it would be a Kevin and that this character would call father first name and consult with him about this possessed screen. And that the anchor is like, I am going to get out of using this new technology by driving an old woman insane. And he says it in so many words, but it's a pretty narrow tightrope to stay up on, this blend of the surreal and the realistic, where if you don't have the right balance and the right pacing. Sarah: [1:00:12] The viewer will have too much time to be like, this is impossible. This doesn't really make any sense. for someone to be as stupid as, for example, Marie. Not Marie. Sarah: [1:00:24] Why can't I think of the guy's name? On Mary Tyler Moore, the main anchor. Ted, thank you. That it's like, if you think about it for like two seconds, you're like, this person should have a minder. Like he should not be allowed to vote and drive and stuff like that. He's too out there. You don't have that problem on this show. The only problem with this show, honestly, or this episode is that I thought this and Good Morning Miami were the same television program. I am very happy to have found out that they are or not. Josh: [1:00:55] What was Good Morning Miami. Tara: [1:00:57] That's the one with Mark Feuerstein it was another NBC sitcom that. Sarah: [1:01:01] But it was like 15 years before this one and one of the many attempts to make Feuerstein a comedy thing before they're like just put him in a blue sky show everybody's happy and uh that's what worked, I would say. Yeah, this was delightful. I'm sorry that you have to buy the show, but perhaps by the time it floats up from the bottom of the list, now in its 17,000th page, it'll be available on Netflix again. But yeah, this is really not an object lesson, but an excellent example of what you can do and get away with and stuff into 21 and a half minutes if you move fast enough. So I laughed many times. Josh: [1:01:43] I think there is an element of the show that is so, and 30 Rock shares it, that is so traditionally sitcom-y in that everybody learns, everybody hugs. So it's all these rapid fire jokes and nonsense and borderline nihilistic bits, the jokes themselves. But at the end, there's this warmth and satisfaction. So I get on some level where, like, Seinfeld really does it for me, but my parents are like, it's just bad people being bad to each other and everyone's unhappy and I don't like it. And this doesn't have the Seinfeld thing or even the always sunny thing of we're bad and nobody learns a lesson and we destroy everyone in our paths for your entertainment. This is like as quippy and fast and zany as it is, it still comes back to like, oh, you don't have to keep up with other people's image of themselves. and it is mean to try to destroy your colleagues for the sake of your own convenience. And like, we should really like center those real relationships. Dave: [1:02:47] Way to keep it real, Josh. Josh: [1:02:49] Thank you. Dave: [1:02:51] All right, let's put this official vote. Josh Gondelman, truth spinner. What do you got for us? Yes or no? Josh: [1:02:57] I say yes. Dave: [1:02:58] All right, Sarah D. Bunting? Sarah: [1:02:59] Me too. Dave: [1:03:00] All right, it's a no for me, but it don't matter because it's two to one. So, woo! Great news. Season 2, Episode 5, Night of the Living Screen. You are hereby inducted into the Extra Hot Great Camp. Dave: [1:03:23] love a winner. Yep. And will not tolerate a loser. Nope. It's time to discover who is our winner and who is our loser of the week, starting off with Sarah. Who is this week's winner? Sarah: [1:03:36] This week's winner is The Pit, which according to a study at the USC Norman Lear Center, and that's not the winner, but it is a winner. I just love that that name exists. The Pit has inspired more organ donation and end-of-life planning, and that's great. Honestly, being an organ donor on my driver's license got me out of a ticket once. That's definitely not why you should do it, but it was a fun little benefit. So yeah, check off those boxes, people. Give away your organs. Dave: [1:04:05] And Loser of the Week, Tara. Tara: [1:04:07] Well, speaking of giving away your organs, just kidding. This is not related to that at all. It is Losers Are the Stars of Nobody Wants This. I'm going to be talking about it next week for Around the Dial. But in the meantime, first loser, Adam Brody, as co-creator of the show, Aaron Foster said, in an interview last week on Today that their first choice to play the show's rabbi was Nick Kroll, who turned them down. And I hope Adam Brody knew that, because otherwise that's kind of a rough way to find out. Sarah: [1:04:33] Ooh, yeah. Tara: [1:04:33] But also losers are Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell, as old press tour jokes about him hitting her have resurfaced amid her promotion of the show. And she also put up an Instagram post, speaking of Instagram, last week to celebrate their wedding anniversary. And in the caption, she jokingly remembered the time he once told her that even though he's highly incentivized to kill her, he never would. So happy anniversary. What the fuck? Anyway. Dave: [1:05:01] Wow. Tara: [1:05:01] Good luck to all of them, I suppose. And speaking of good luck. Dave: [1:05:05] Yeah. Tara: [1:05:06] Do you know what time it is? Dave: [1:05:07] Is it non-regulation Game Time Tower, Aureano? Tara: [1:05:10] Yes. Dave: [1:05:10] Yeah. Sarah: [1:05:12] Yay. Tara: [1:05:24] We are between seasons, so it is time for non-regulation game time, which Dave gets to play. Dave: [1:05:29] Hooray. Tara: [1:05:30] This game is called Trick or Treat Williams because, as we all know, it's Halloween this week. And when we're not talking about scares, we're talking about candy. What this game presupposes is that TV stars might be just on the verge of licensing their names to existing candy brands because TV stars love to make money. and this would maybe make them more than whatever fucking Courtney Cox and Lisa Kudrow are getting paid for a royal match. Anyway, Michael Bublé for Bubbly Soda is yesterday's news. I have merged the names of TV stars with the names of brand name candies. Some are before and after style. Many are just Frankenstein together like some kind of crazy monster. For example, if I said every dry cleaner and barbershop's favorite freebie lollipop is getting rebranded for the chicest vacationer in the four seasons, you would say... Josh: [1:06:21] Dumb... Coleman Dumb Domingo? Tara: [1:06:23] That's it! Ding, ding, ding! Sarah: [1:06:25] Oh, wow. Good for two points. Dave: [1:06:28] Yeah, why are those always in a barbershop? Tara: [1:06:30] I don't know, but this one made the list because I saw a wrapper of one in your pocket when I was doing the laundry last week. Dave: [1:06:35] Because I got it at Bird's Barbershop. Tara: [1:06:37] I know. Josh: [1:06:37] They come in bags of 600 and never go bad. Dave: [1:06:41] And why, when you get the dum-dums, that is the mystery flavor, it always tastes like cream soda. Tara: [1:06:48] Yeah. Sarah: [1:06:50] Because God loves us and wants us to be happy. Tara: [1:06:52] I got one more practice round because I had to cut a bunch of these. A marshmallow treat is getting rebranded for a star of Your Friends and Neighbors. Sarah: [1:07:02] A marshmallow treat? Tara: [1:07:04] Yes. If you need a hint, you can ask for the name of the star or the name of the treat. Sarah: [1:07:12] Can we have the name of the star? Tara: [1:07:15] Amanda Peet. Dave: [1:07:16] Oh, Amanda Peep. Tara: [1:07:17] Amanda Peeps. Josh: [1:07:18] Very good. Tara: [1:07:19] So some of these are very clumsy. Try to think of how slapdash someone would be if they were putting this game together at about 1130 p.m. on Wednesday. Some of the ones I rejected. Josh: [1:07:30] I almost said Ray Romanomar. Sarah: [1:07:35] Sarah Point. Tara: [1:07:36] Some of the ones I rejected are Jason Clark Bar, Mr. Good Barbara Eden, and Ferrero Rocher Wiggum, which is really more of a Christmas candy than Halloween. Anyway. Sarah: [1:07:47] That's why you rejected it. Tara: [1:07:49] That's why. Sarah: [1:07:50] Oh, boy. Tara: [1:07:50] You can guess at any level. There are no steel meals. We're not doing Grossworth Equalizer Challenge Zones. You're playing for a Halloween treat from me. Let us go to Picky to see who's going first. Dave: [1:08:03] Nope. All right. Let's not go down that one. Sarah: [1:08:05] Use it. Tara: [1:08:10] We will start with valued guest all right so our order is josh dave sarah are we ready to play trick or treat williams yes. Dave: [1:08:22] I am let's do it. Tara: [1:08:23] Okay yes 21 questions on a tiebreaker here we go josh you were up first a candy that gets loud in your mouth is getting rebranded for this kinetic stand comic and Saturday Night Live alum. Josh: [1:08:34] Chris Pop Rock? Tara: [1:08:37] Chris Pop Rocks is good for two points. Dave, a refreshing treat in silver foil is getting rebranded for this star who famously played identical cousins. You can ask for the star or the candy if you need a hint. Dave: [1:08:54] Oh, shit. What's her name? Read it again. Tara: [1:08:58] A refreshing treat in silver foil is getting rebranded for this star who famously played identical cousins. Dave: [1:09:05] Is it York Peppermint Patty Duke? Tara: [1:09:08] It is York Peppermint Patty Duke for two points. Sarah, this bite-sized chocolate and caramel treat is getting rebranded for one of the Guest stars playing billionaires this season on Only Murders in the Building. Sarah: [1:09:23] Hmm. Can you describe the treat again for me, please? Tara: [1:09:28] Of course, it is a bite-sized chocolate and caramel treat. Sarah: [1:09:32] Bite-sized chocolate and caramel treat. Playing billionaires on Only Murders in the Building. Oh my God. No, that's not going to work. That's a steakhouse. Could I have the star, please? Tara: [1:09:46] Logan Lerman. Sarah: [1:09:48] Ro Logan Lerman? Tara: [1:09:49] It's good for one point. Back to Josh. Dave: [1:09:52] Wow. Getting thirsty right away. Tara: [1:09:56] Josh, this famously salty candy bar is getting rebranded for a Friends star. Josh: [1:10:03] For a Friends star? Dave: [1:10:05] Famously salty candy bar? Tara: [1:10:07] Salty. Josh: [1:10:08] Famously salty candy bar. So I'm thinking about candy bars that have peanuts in them, at least. So we got a Snickers, we got a Mr. Good bar. And then we know there's six stars of Friends. And Gunther. And Gunther. Rest in peace, I assume. Yeah. Like, is it sweaty enough to be Lisa Goodrow Barr? Can you give me the treat, please? Tara: [1:10:38] The treat is payday. Josh: [1:10:40] Payday. Matthew payday? Tara: [1:10:45] Anyone else want to guess? Dave: [1:10:47] Payday. Uh... No. Tara: [1:10:51] Hey, David Schwimmer. Josh: [1:10:52] Oh, okay. Tara: [1:10:54] The disrespect. Poor Ross. Sarah: [1:10:56] Oh, okay. Tara: [1:10:58] Back to Dave. Yeah. This chocolate-coated butter toffee bar is getting rebranded for an L.A. Law lawyer. Dave: [1:11:05] Jesus Christ. An L.A. Law lawyer. But we're talking actors, right? Tara: [1:11:10] Mm-hmm. L.A. Law, not law and order. Dave: [1:11:13] Yeah. No. L.A. Law Actors. Sarah: [1:11:17] Oh. Dave: [1:11:18] Toffee. What was it, a toffee? Tara: [1:11:21] Chocolate-coated butter toffee bar. Dave: [1:11:24] Butter toffee. Josh: [1:11:26] That's a great tune of harder, better, faster, stronger. Tara: [1:11:32] You can ask for a hint. Dave: [1:11:33] Yeah, I know, but I really wanted to. But I don't know either part of this. So let's go with the actor. Tara: [1:11:41] Corbin Bernson. Dave: [1:11:45] Corbin Bernson. Tara: [1:11:49] Corbin Bernson. soon. Sarah: [1:11:51] If you don't have it, you're... Tara: [1:11:54] Sarah, what is it? Sarah: [1:11:56] Scorbin Burnton. Josh: [1:11:57] Scorbin Burnton. I like that one. Sarah: [1:12:02] Brutal. Tara: [1:12:03] Sarah, this one is maybe my favorite in the game. These spicy cinnamon bites are getting rebranded for an actor who played an executive on The Morning Show. Sarah: [1:12:12] Executive on The Morning Show. Oh my god. Nope, it's not happening for me. Can I have the actor? Tara: [1:12:25] Greta Lee. Greta Lee. Sarah: [1:12:27] No, that doesn't help. Josh: [1:12:31] Is it Greta Hot Tamale? Tara: [1:12:34] Yeah, I had hot Greta Tamales, but either way, yes. Sarah: [1:12:38] Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry, Greta and Tara. That's good. Tara: [1:12:42] Josh. Josh: [1:12:43] Yes. Tara: [1:12:44] This chocolate and coconut bar that has nuts is getting rebranded for the Star of the Queen's Gambit. Josh: [1:12:51] Oh, I guess I'm trying to think of the best way to do it, but it's Almond Taylor Joy. Tara: [1:12:58] I'll give you that. Anya Taylor Almond Joy. Yes. Very good for two points. Dave, these black licorice bites are getting rebranded, for the Downton Abbey star who's good at car and there are two different versions of this. One Canadian, one American. I'll take either. Dave: [1:13:13] Okay. This is Matthew Good and Plenty. Tara: [1:13:17] That's right. Would have also taken Matthew Goodies, which is the Canadian. Dave: [1:13:20] Oh, yeah, right. Sarah: [1:13:21] Okay. Tara: [1:13:22] Sarah D. Bunting. Sarah: [1:13:23] Mm-hmm. Tara: [1:13:24] Classic Cadbury bar that inspired a sound drop we hear every week is getting rebranded for the bitch queen of the Gilded Age. Josh: [1:13:34] Sorry. Tara: [1:13:36] That's the one. Sarah: [1:13:37] Well, but I'm not sure who the bitch queen is. So Carrie Coon Milk? Tara: [1:13:43] I'll give you that. You got both parts. Cara Milk Coon is what I had, but I'll take it. Sarah: [1:13:47] Thank you. Tara: [1:13:48] Back to Josh. These chewy fruit bites are getting rebranded for the co-creator and voice star of King of the Hill. Josh: [1:13:56] Mike and Ike Judges? Tara: [1:13:58] That's great. Dave. Dave: [1:14:01] Yeah. Tara: [1:14:02] Canada's favorite nice light snack is getting rebranded for the headliner of Nashville 911. Dave: [1:14:08] The headliner of Nashville 911. Tara: [1:14:12] A show you watched. Dave: [1:14:15] Right. Josh: [1:14:17] And Nashville is kind of a character. Tara: [1:14:18] That's true. Josh: [1:14:20] As is 911. Tara: [1:14:21] At least for the pilot. I don't know. They're probably shooting in LA after that. Dave: [1:14:25] Oh, yeah. Okay. What the fuck is that guy's name? He played Batman. No, he played Robin. Is it? Oh, what the fuck is the name of the candy bar, though? Oh, my God. I had so many of them because at one point in time, this is the one I'm thinking of, when I worked at the student newspaper, the chocolate bar company put a get one free coupon on the back. So we had 10,000 of them in our office, and we would just clip them and walk upstairs to the student store and take a box away with us. Tara: [1:14:52] It's not that. It's something else, Canadian. Dave: [1:14:54] A nice light snack. Tara: [1:14:55] Yeah. Dave: [1:14:56] Oh. Sarah: [1:14:57] You can ask for a hint. Tara: [1:14:59] Yeah, you can ask for a hint. Dave: [1:14:59] Okay, so nice light snack. Okay, maybe it's Chris Aroconnell. Tara: [1:15:06] Do you want the candy? Dave: [1:15:09] Am I out now? Tara: [1:15:10] No, you're not. Dave: [1:15:10] Oh, okay. Tara: [1:15:10] You can get us whatever. Dave: [1:15:11] I'll take the, yeah, I guess I'll take the candy. Tara: [1:15:13] Coffee crisp. Dave: [1:15:14] That's a nice light snack? Tara: [1:15:15] Yes. Yes, famously was on the late on the package. Dave: [1:15:18] All right. Coffee, Chris O'Connell. Tara: [1:15:23] I'll give it to you. Coffee, Chris O'Donnell. Dave: [1:15:26] You can't judge if you have a different format every time. Tara: [1:15:29] No, no, it's because his name is O'Donnell, not O'Connell. Dave: [1:15:32] Oh, OK. Tara: [1:15:33] But I'll give it to you. Dave: [1:15:33] All right. I wouldn't, but I'll take it. Tara: [1:15:35] Well, I would have given it to Josh or Sarah either. Dave: [1:15:38] All right. Fine. Tara: [1:15:39] Two. Sarah. Dave: [1:15:40] Very generous. Tara: [1:15:41] And then we'll do a score break. Dave: [1:15:41] And I love you. Tara: [1:15:42] This chocolate caramel and nougat bar is getting rebranded for a star of Whose Line Is It Anyway? Sarah: [1:15:51] I do like this line. Whose line is it anyway? Can I have the star, please? Tara: [1:15:57] Wayne Brady. Sarah: [1:15:59] Milky Wayne Brady. Tara: [1:16:00] Milky Wayne Brady is right for one point. Let's get those scores. Sarah: [1:16:05] It's pretty close. Somehow, in spite of me, I have four points. David Tuchel has five points. And our valued guest, Josh, has six points. Dave: [1:16:14] Let's see how it goes. Tara: [1:16:17] Josh, we're back to you. Josh: [1:16:19] Okay. Tara: [1:16:20] This famously breakable chocolate and wafer bar is getting rebranded for a star of Two Broke Girls. Josh: [1:16:26] Shoot. Oh, Kit Kat Dennings. Tara: [1:16:30] Kit Kat Dennings is good for two points. Dave. Sarah: [1:16:32] Good job. Dave: [1:16:33] Yeah. Tara: [1:16:34] This chocolate bar available with or without almonds is getting rebranded for TV's favorite Nero. Dave: [1:16:40] Okay, read that clue again. Tara: [1:16:41] This chocolate bar, available with or without almonds, is getting rebranded for TV's favorite Nero. Dave: [1:16:48] Chocolate bar with or without almonds. Well, there's a Hershey's bar, but that doesn't fit. I mean, okay. I guess if I very Frankenstein it, it works. Michael Hersheen bar? Tara: [1:16:59] Michael Hersheen is correct for two points. Dave: [1:17:01] Jesus. Tara: [1:17:02] All right. I set up top. Some of them were bad. Yeah, yeah. Dave: [1:17:05] I guess I just was, I didn't venture beyond what I thought was crazy and Frankenstein-y. But here we are, that works, all right, thank you. Tara: [1:17:12] Sarah. Sarah: [1:17:13] Yeah. Tara: [1:17:14] This chocolate peanut, caramel, and chocolate nougat bar that already has a celebrity tie-in is getting rebranded for a Laugh-In Star. Sarah: [1:17:22] For a Laugh-In Star? Dave: [1:17:24] What was the chocolate bar again? Tara: [1:17:27] It's chocolate peanut, caramel, and chocolate nougat. Sarah: [1:17:31] Okay, geez. All right, well, maybe I'm wrong about the candy bar. Could I have the star, please? Tara: [1:17:38] Ruth Buzzy. Sarah: [1:17:40] Oh, baby Ruth Buzzy. I was wrong about the candy bar. Tara: [1:17:43] Good for one point. I had to look it up to see what's in it, because I don't think I've ever had one in my life. Dave: [1:17:48] That sounds gross. Sarah: [1:17:49] It's one of those Halloween-only ones. It's like the other 364, you're like, where would I even get one? Dave: [1:17:55] Zagnut. Tara: [1:17:56] All right, Josh. Josh: [1:17:58] Yes. Tara: [1:17:59] Candy that melts in your mouth, not in your hand, is getting rebranded for the Star of Bones. Josh: [1:18:05] Is it Eminemily Deschanel? Tara: [1:18:08] Yes, it is for two points. Sarah: [1:18:10] Dave. Dave: [1:18:11] Just crushing this. All right. Yeah. Tara: [1:18:13] This hard butterscotch candy is getting rebranded for one of the morning show's co-headliners. Dave: [1:18:19] Oh, fuck. Okay. Once again. Tara: [1:18:22] This hard butterscotch candy is getting rebranded. Dave: [1:18:25] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Reese Withers Original Spoon. Tara: [1:18:33] Basically. Sarah: [1:18:33] Wow. Tara: [1:18:33] Reese Werther Spoon, yes, for two points. Sarah: [1:18:37] It's terrible. Tara: [1:18:38] You thought I would do Reese Peanut Butter Cups, but I didn't. Dave: [1:18:41] Yeah. Sarah: [1:18:41] No. Dave: [1:18:42] Very good. Yeah, you Zagnut did. Tara: [1:18:46] Sarah. Dave: [1:18:46] I don't like that. Sarah: [1:18:48] Yes. Tara: [1:18:50] This pricey sounding bar is getting rebranded for a star of the love boat. Sarah: [1:18:56] Huh. How do I do this? Fred 100 Grandy Bar? Tara: [1:19:02] Yep, that's exactly how you do it for two points. Everyone has one left. Let's get the scores. Sarah: [1:19:10] It remains fairly close. I think I'm out of it with seven. Dave T. Cole has nine and Josh has 10. What? Well, have it. Dave: [1:19:19] Josh has a perfect game, right? Tara: [1:19:20] God. Josh: [1:19:21] No, I missed. Dave: [1:19:22] Oh, you missed one. I missed at least one. Okay, but you've answered everything you did fully. Got it. Okay. Sarah: [1:19:26] Okay. Correct. Tara: [1:19:27] Josh, this chocolate and crispy peanut butter bar is getting rebranded for the one-time Jerry Seinfeld love interest who couldn't spare a square. Josh: [1:19:36] I'm going to ask for the star's name because I think I know the candy. Tara: [1:19:40] The star is Jamie Gertz. Josh: [1:19:44] Oh. Hmm. Dave: [1:19:48] Can you describe the chocolate bar again? Tara: [1:19:49] I can. It is chocolate and crispy peanut butter. Josh: [1:19:53] Chocolate and crispy peanut butter. Oh, okay. Jamie Butterfinger. Tara: [1:19:59] Yes, good for one point. Dave: [1:20:00] Oh, wow. I would not get there. Tara: [1:20:04] Dave. Sarah: [1:20:04] Yeah, okay. Tara: [1:20:06] This fruit chew is getting rebranded for the biggest villain in the boys. Dave: [1:20:12] Biggest villain in the boy. Oh, okay. Fuck, what's his name? Tara: [1:20:18] God damn it oh sandy got. Dave: [1:20:20] It uh sorry sandy. Tara: [1:20:22] Oh anthony starburst that's good wow very good sarah this hard fruit candy is getting rebranded for a non-cop star of boston blue. Sarah: [1:20:37] A non-cop star. Dave: [1:20:40] Isn't everybody secretly a cop on that show even if they're. Tara: [1:20:44] Not presented. Sarah: [1:20:45] As one Kind of. Tara: [1:20:46] I mean, yes, I guess, but. Dave: [1:20:47] You can go lobsters? Tara: [1:20:48] Officially, the star does not go to the station. Josh: [1:20:52] Cop said of the lobster. That's my tagline for Boston. Sarah: [1:21:00] It's a hard fruit candy, you said? Tara: [1:21:02] Sure is. Sarah: [1:21:05] That, okay. Well, then I need the star. Tara: [1:21:07] The star is Ernie Hudson. Sarah: [1:21:10] Life save Ernie Hudson? Tara: [1:21:12] Oh, I'll take that too. I'll give you that. Sarah: [1:21:14] It doesn't matter. Dave: [1:21:15] She broke out. Tara: [1:21:16] I had Jolly Rancher Ney Hudson, but they both worked. Dave: [1:21:19] Wait, what was it? Tara: [1:21:20] Jolly Rancher Ney Hudson. Hudson is what I had. All right, let's get the final scores. Dave: [1:21:26] Kind of final. Sarah: [1:21:26] Oh, boy. Well, the good news is one of us is out of it, and that's me. I finished with eight points, but Josh and Dave both have 11. Oh, no. Tara: [1:21:35] Well, we got a tiebreaker. Yeah. Sarah: [1:21:38] All right. Tara: [1:21:39] Let me read the whole thing and then yell it when you know it. Dave: [1:21:41] Oh, boy. Okay. Tara: [1:21:43] This chocolate nougat and peanut bar is getting rebranded for the breakout star of Happy Days. Dave: [1:21:49] Oh, Henry Winkler, Henry Snicklers? Tara: [1:21:52] Dave got it just ahead. Sarah: [1:21:55] Good job, Dave. Josh: [1:21:56] I didn't say it right. I said Henry Snicklers. Sarah: [1:22:01] Snicklers. Dave: [1:22:01] That was pretty good, though. Tara: [1:22:02] That is pretty good. Good job, everybody. Dave: [1:22:04] Very good. Tara: [1:22:05] Thank you, Tom. Sarah: [1:22:06] Great work. Good game. Josh: [1:22:07] Great game. Dave: [1:22:14] All right. Sarah: [1:22:15] Good job, Dave. Dave: [1:22:16] That is it for this episode of Extra Hot Great. We clowned around talking about the Pennywise prequel It. Welcome to Derry. Before going around the dial with stops, I married at first sight the 2002 Stephen King interactive CD-ROM Nightmares and Dreamscapes. Had a little fun with, what do we have here? Josh brought us the Lowdown and Taskmaster. Tara got the great news into the canon. We crowned winners and losers of the week. And I was a winner of this week's non-regulation game time from Tara. Next up, Tala Masca, The Secret Order. Now available on CD-ROM on this week's Extra Extra Hot Great. Remember. We're listening. I am David Tickel. And on behalf of Tara Arrieta. Tara: [1:23:03] You're all named Katie. Dave: [1:23:05] Sarah D. Butting. Sarah: [1:23:06] What are scents? Dave: [1:23:08] And Josh Gondelman. Josh: [1:23:11] Metaphor? Was that my name? Dave: [1:23:13] Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time right here on X. Awkward. Yes, I.