Episode 9 - Fall Television, With Donald Trump And Zombies
Title: Fall Television, With Donald Trump And Zombies (September 24, 2010)
This episode tackles the dismal 2010 fall season television lineup. Each panelist chooses a returning show that they’re excited to see again as well as a new show that they’re kind of interested in seeing.
Returning Shows: The Venture Bros. for Glen, Dexter for Trey (though he mentions Glee and American Idol as well), Season 10 of The Apprentice for Stephen, and Parks and Recreation for Linda.
Sort of Interesting New Shows: Mike & Molly for Stephen, Hawaii 5-0 for Trey (bleep his dad watched!), The Walking Dead for Glen, and My Generation for Linda. Among the shows they talked about, only My Generation was cancelled on its first season.
Other Episode Highlights
- The first part is a callback to the last episode, where Stephen offered to send a Bachelor Pad Recap to interested listeners.
- Linda laments the poor showing of Fox’s Lone Star, a prestige drama that was eventually canceled after two episodes. Trey mentions Linda’s September 2010 piece for All Things Considered.
- Linda on Lone Star’s failure and Fred: the Movie’s box office success: “This just proves that we get the television we deserve.”
- “I am either too old and/or too not high to enjoy these shows.” - Glen Weldon’s commentary on the Adult Swim roster. Stephen responds by saying, “One of those is a problem that you can solve.”
- Glen Weldon mentions The Venture Bros.’ allusion to Automan about a cop and a hologram who fight crime.
- Stephen objects to the whole idea of The Celebrity Apprentice, alleging that there are no stakes for the contestants. He busts out his Donald Trump impression for the very first time.
- Trey attempts to coin the phrase “the affable drunks” to refer to fans of PCHH. This is a reference to their discussion on episode 8 of The Great Food Truck Race.
- Parks and Rec’s 2010 season was pushed back in order to accommodate Outsourced (discussed in a previous episode) into the Thursday lineup, a scheduling move that Linda considers a gigantic mistake. They expounded on why the treatment of people of color in Outsourced was off-putting. Trey mentions an episode of KCRW’s The Business where the show’s creator defended the show.
- While acknowledging that Mike & Molly is a standard Chuck Lorre sitcom, Linda still praises Melissa McCarthy (who ends up winning an Emmy for her performance on the show) and Billy Gardell.
- “Well, that was sanctimony plus entrails!” - Glen Weldon’s view of the typical horror fare. He also mentions his apprehension towards The Walking Dead showrunner Frank Darabont’s tendency towards mawkish sentimentality. Glen also busts out his The Shawshank Redemption-era Morgan Freeman impression.
- However, Glen highly recommends the comic book series The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman about a zombie apocalypse.
- Stephen mentions that he has purchased The Hunger Games though he has not “scaled the Mt. Everest that is reading the book.” Linda chimes in to say that she has smelled Glen’s copy of The Hobbit. (Callbacks the the Stephen Reads a Book project and Linda’s Pop Culture Blind Spot)
