TV Guidance Counselor

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TV Guidance Counselor Episode 565: Margo Donohue Feb 06, 2023

Show notes

March 17-23, 1990

This week Ken welcomes co-host, co-creator, editor, and producer of the podcasts Book Vs. Movie, Dorking Out, Not Fade Away, and What a Creep, the Brooklyn Fit Chick and author of the new book "Filmed in Brooklyn" Margo Donohue.

Ken and Margo discuss doing it the best you can, how 1990 is Ken's favorite year, going to college in the Bay Area, banning Captain Underpants, two Margos, parents being very upset about Bart Simpson's sass, life in a Pre-Simpsons world, being conscripted into working at the Mall in Cali, NY vs CA pizza, Margo's book on Brooklyn, moving to Park Slope, shows shot in NYC, Brooklyn Bridge, heist movies, The Hot Rock, Criterion Channel, making sure you have your favorite movies on Physical media, the Providence/Boston/NY Maffia, buying Jesus Statues, thirtysomething, replacing cigarette ads with prescription rx ads, Midnight Caller, the greatness of Greg Proops, MTV's Remote Control, The Real World, how Kevin Powell was right all along, Mere Winningham, Martin Short Goes Hollywood, Miracle Mile, Anthony Edwards, Valerie Harper vs. The Hogan Family, Frankenhooker, Who's the Boss?, Murphy Brown, doing the homework, Unsolved Mysteries, Night Court, the greatness of China Beach, Ken's love of Grand, LA Law, Craig Bierko, Valerie Bertonelli, missing John Candy, after school specials with an REM soundtrack, developing actual film, John Waters on 21 Jump St., Julia Duffy, Seein' Double, being inappropriately angry at Robert Mitchum, The Wizard of Oz, and how much people hate starring in a movie with Judy Garland as the star.

TV Guidance Counselor Episode 564: Traci Lords Jan 30, 2023

Show notes

This week Ken welcomes to incredible actor, singer, author and all around impressive human Traci Lords to the show.

Ken and Traci discuss the long road to making this episode happen, Ken's Twitter banter, how Ken amuses Traci, if social media is bad or good, the toxic nature of society, love/hate relationships, how sometimes things are stupid and suck, insults, knowing how to take a selfie, how filters change the world, how life is a show, being a good person, being an introverted extrovert, how the access to celebrity has changed Hollywood, reality TV, how having a name can give you opportunities but also can hinder your growth as an artist, being a musician, having the freedom to fail, Radioactive Records, Perry Farrell, Moby, After Hours at Lollapalooza, the wisdom of age, self promotion, public pressure, stand up, Bob Saget, swimming as fast as you can, the importance of a hair toss, how Traci has been in TV Guide at least 21 times, The Tommyknockers, Crybaby, Married...with Children, the freedom of the 90s, inappropriate sitcoms, Roseanne, ensemble casts, John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sandra Bernhardt, being shocked how high your voice was in your 20s, getting thrown in the deep end of being in front of a live audience, layers of panic, being so happy when you first book gigs, being more calm about it now, how acting is a blue collar profession, never Googling yourself, Hollywood poor, how amazing John Waters is, playing Tim Blake Nelson's wife, getting to play a Karen, finding that comedy works for you, trying to take the best roles offered to you, playing a fortune teller on MacGyver, Wiseguy, having your lines from gigs 30 years ago burned into your brain, the secret to learning lines, studying at The Actor's Studio, Joanna Cassidy, being on an airplane with Farrah Fawcett, Charlie's Angels, the paparazzi, all the contraptions you have to have when you have a newborn, why you should always say yes to working with John Waters, Patty Hearst, how John Waters' sets are like a family, First Wave, Francis Ford Coppola, working on Black Mask II in Thailand for Tsui Hark, being in a movie and having no idea what is going on, Excision, Nicole, Her Ex & the Killer, Providence, how weird working during and semi-post pandemic has been, loving actors who disappear in parts, figuring out what you want to do and what you want to spend your time doing, realizing life is short, Scooby Doo, doing voice over, cartoon characters, having a home studio, watching Game of Thrones twice while eating hot wings and pizza every night, how Scooby Doo goes so well with ice cream, Love Boat, being on a cruise with Charro and Tony Danza, and never wanting to go on a cruise again even though it's just eating and sex.

TV Guidance Counselor Episode 563: Troy Devolld Jan 23, 2023

Show notes

Just 23-29, 2008

This week Ken welcomes television producer, author and speaker whose credits include stints on popular shows like The Surreal Life, Dancing With the Stars, Basketball Wives, and Hollywood Game Night and author of the books Reality TV: An Insider's Guide to TV's Hottest Market (MWP) and And Another Thing: A Beginner's Guide to the TV Notes Process, Troy DeVolld.

Ken and Troy discuss 2008, modern TV, Ken's Birthday, Troy's regretful choice, having your own show get savaged in Cheers and Jeers, spending 20+ years in reality TV, growing up in Florida, having an accidental career, loving sitcoms, MTV's Fear, being afraid of orangutan, why you should always read the credits on reality TV, how stories come together in editing, Mr. Smith, being in the Lancelot Link black hole, Tampa, Flipper, Miami Vice, Seventh Heaven, why it's not hard to be sexier than Tampa, Hollywood East, Donna Reed, Get Smart, home sick TV, fighting for respect, the mean spirited reality TV boom, The Surreal Life, Top Gear, Larry Tate, The Dana Carvey Show, Wizards of Waverly Place, awards shows, The Grammys, Saturday Morning Shoot Out with Peter Gruber, Larry King, Charlie Rose, hotel chain moguls, the story of Vamp, Dancing with the Stars, creating packages, the greatness of Tom Bergeron, getting to see your work with an audience, So You Think You Can Dance?, Lizard Lick Towing, when Bobby Dies, Starsky and Hutch, Roots, The State, Thomas Lennon, How to Make Movies for Profit, Weeds, Eddie Peppitone, Emerson, Kevin Bright, American Dad, Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs, The Bachelor, owning Marlon Brando's vest, collecting remote controls, The Philco Mystery Box, Richard Pryor's Moving, recognizing Jimmy Kimmel, Denise Richards Kaju, Larry Storch, asking your mom to stop sending you clippings, begrudgingly being the go to interview to discuss reality TV horror stories, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Sledge Hammer, the magic of Chuck McCann, paying it forward, running into the cast of Barney Miller throughout your life and identifying the Zenith Space Commander Six Hundred as being the remote control on Cheers.

TV Guidance Counselor Episode 562: Rockne S. O'Bannon Jan 16, 2023

Show notes

April 29 - May 5, 1967

This week Ken welcomes director, producer and writer (Evil, Farscape, The New Twilight Zone, V, Seaquest DSV) Rockne S. O'Bannon to the show.

Ken and Rockne discuss Ken's long time love of Rockne's work and how often it comes up on the show, 1967, the amazing nature of not aging since 1967, the boom of sci-fi TV in 1966, Film reboots of classic TV shows, quantum entanglement, growing up in LA, Rockne's mother being a Busby Barkley dancer, Rockne's father being a gaffer at Warner Brothers, writing your first pilot script at age 10 for The Boy from U.N.C.L.E., realizing people make television at an early age, Isaac Asimov's essay on how sexy Mr. Spock is, Lawrence Welk swimsuit issue, innovation in animal training, Raven with a Gun, writing for streaming shows and dealing with not needing the convention ad break structure, Sci-Fi Channel movie templates, Laugh-In, Hollywood Teletype, commissioned art, the rise of hippy culture in the mainstream, TV Guide's incredibly detailed listings for everything including reruns and sports, Frankenstein Jr, Space Angel, Clutch Cargo, The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke shows status as the greatest TV sitcom ever, Pistols & Petticoats, Gunsmoke, Tom Skerrit's week, The Avengers, Johnny Carson reruns, Saturday Night Live, TV shows about television, It's About Time, Ed Sullivan, the pre-muppet Muppets, Roger Miller's variety show, FBI, Rockne's Dad taking home TV scripts for him to study, the horror of pay tv, white guys as Native Americans, westerns, Steve Allen's invention of everything, Mr. Terrific, Captain Nice, Buck Henry, Get Smart!, The New Twilight Zone, "Wordplay", "The Shadow Man", Darkroom with James Coburn, Joey Bishop, Don Herbert is Mr. Wizard, TV Close Ups, The National Science Test, The Saint, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Girl from U.N.C.L.E., Red Skelton, The Invaders, pinkies, playing it cool around celebrities, Albert Brooks, Night of the Meek, The Afterhours, Fame is the Name of the Game, Lost in Space, Batman '66, Fringe, Evil, time travel, Time Tunnel, being the new Irwin Allen by mistake, gadgets, I Spy, Wild Wild West, Honey West, Green Hornet, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, F Troop, Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker's chemistry, not wanting to talk to Milton Berle, short lived shows that had an outsized impact on pop culture, the power of villains, vigilantes, Bob & Ray, Tim Conway, "you're very pleased to meet me", Patrick McNee's secrets to life, nudists, Mod Tampons, TV Teletype, and Chuck Connors, as a Cowboy in Africa.

TV Guidance Counselor Episode 561: Thom Shubilla Jan 09, 2023

Show notes

FALL PREVIEW ALERT! September 10-16, 1966

This week Ken welcomes author of the new book, Primetime 1966-1967: The Full Spectrum of Television's First All-Color Season, Thom Shubilla.

Ken and Thom discuss Ken's slaughter of Thom's last name, Batman '66, knowing the Fall Preview well, the year TV was born, shaking off radio, Westerns, the first TV season everything was in color, classy Miller High Life ads making Ken and Thom want to drink, commissioned art, murals, Joe E. Ross, It's About Time, how The Moon Landing both ruined and improved sci-fi, Sherwood Schwartz, The Monkees, The Jackie Gleason Show, "The Lost" Honeymooners, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Get Smart!, Mission Impossible, Secret Agent Man, Patrick McGoohan, Hollywood Palace, Ed Sullivan, Ken's love of Robert Loggia, T.H.E. Cat, a show of all wacky neighbors, Lost in Space, being a Ginger or a Maryann, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeanie, the long terrifying decline of Lucy, that one episode of Route 66, Big Eye paintings, The Green Hornet, Occasional Wife, That Girl, poorly translated JFK triangles, Green Acres, the truth about nerve deafness, F Troop, loving Larry Storch, heists, Irwin Alan, Time Tunnel, hating Milton Berle, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Burt Reynolds as Hawk and not as Marlon Brando, Larry Cohen's Coronet Blue, needing satisfaction on a show, The Fugitive, and how absolutely awful the Tammy Grimes show was.

TV Guidance Counselor Episode 560: John D. Hancock Jan 04, 2023

Show notes

This week Ken welcomes writer, director John D. Hancock to the show.

Ken and John discuss the end of the world, extreme weather, John's Dad being in the NBC Radio Orchestra in Chicago, the transition from radio to TV and how it effected musicians, going to Harvard in the 1950s, Dr. Timothy Leary, Gus Van Zandt, pretending to know what actors are talking about, The Berliner Ensemble, running the Actor's Theater in San Francisco in the 1960s, directing Off Broadway plays, being in East Berlin, Bertolt Brecht, getting a grant from the AFI to do a short, businessmen who play touch football in central park, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, Bang the Drum Slowly, Robert DeNiro, William Wyler, Michael Moriarty, how only names sell tickets these days, platforming movies, optioning Regiment of Women, Warren Beatty, California Dreaming, having an awful experience on Jaws 2, Jan Michael Vincent, never having directed multi cam television, learning new skillsets directing on television, Hillstreet Blues, Cover Up, theater vs film, being sold a bill of goods by AIP, editing, running previews, why it's not always best to go with your gut, Weeds, trying to get Weeds re-released, Dino DeLaurentis losing the negative, Wolfen, Prancer, what films you show students, teaching at Second City, Wild Tales, and how young people will not do love scenes these days.

TV Guidance Counselor Episode 559: Lew Schneider Jan 02, 2023

Show notes

July 14-20, 1990

This week Ken welcomes comedian and writer Lew Schneider to the show.

Ken and Lew discuss growing up in Brookline, MA, Boston accents, Michael Dukakis, picking up garbage, the Pope of Brookline, Lew's concerns for Ken, Ken's misspent youth and wasted potential, being in a Summer replacement series, Sinbad, giving Grape Nuts a try, hosting Nickelodeon's Make the Grade, TV starts with unpronounceable names, doing improv in Chicago with Bob Odenkirk, the blue collar job that is being an actor, realizing being a writer is a smarter move, how Winter takes years off your life, the benefit of Vitamin D, how TV is a writer's medium, Ray Ramano's dramatic acting career, Men of a Certain Age, The Goldbergs, Phil Rosenthal, 1-900-925-KELLY, Bob Denver: Phone creep, The Geo Metro, who the hottest women on TV are circa 1990, Kadeem Hardison is a Doctor, how Ken is a jew who isn't a jew, Hester St, Ken's crush on Alyssa Milano, Comic Strip Live!, doing a show just for a cool jacket, Emma Thompson, Star Trek The Next Generation, befriending Brent Spiner, original TV Guide art, Wish You Were Here, auditioning for Northern Exposure, how weird Loren Michaels is, The Wonder Years, what ifs related to The Gambler, having a deal at Disney, The George Wendt Show, the golf hazards at the US Open, Richard Lewis, Anything But Love, Later with Bob Costas, getting a Hungarian work visa, Down the Shore, Everybody Loves Raymond, The Ben Stiller Show, The Edge, getting paid badly to be on a CBS TV show, being too early for Netflix, loving Succession, Love on the Spectrum, Evil, The Good Fight, The Good Wife, and 101 Fun Things to do in Melbourne with Children.

TV Guidance Counselor Episode 558: 2022 Year in Review Dec 23, 2022

Show notes

What has become an annual tradition, at least for the last four years, it's our 2022 Year In Review. In which Ken goes solo to go through 2022 almost day by day to talk about the show, his life, what he's been doing, what he's been watching, your questions, and whatever else comes to mind.

As mentioned, here are all Ken's social media links:

https://linktr.ee/kenreid

And a link to the TV Guidance Counselor YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/kenreidcomedy

and our Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/tvguidancecounselor

Happy Holidays, Happy New Year and let's all have a better 2023.

TV Guidance Counselor Episode 557: Marc Sheffler Dec 19, 2022

Show notes

This week Ken welcomes comedian, actor, and writer Marc Sheffler to the show.

Ken and Marc discuss Columbia, Daylight Savings Time, going to New York first so you can learn things before going to California, doing stand up in the late '60s, London Lee, going from driver to opener, Last House on the Left, the Borscht Belt, just wanting to do it once, being the start of the aluminum siding world, Pittsburgh, hiring the Three Stooges for your 10th Birthday party, being anointed into show biz by Moe, Curly Joe Diritta, Roger Ebert's review of Last House on the Left, David Hess, picking up girls, lying about being a script writer, being in ads, snakes on a bus, moving to LA with money in the bank, and apartment and a car, Being There, Tim Thomerson, getting up at the Comedy Store, Mitzy Shore, David Letterman, Robin Williams, Marc Summers, Jimmy Walker, How Bugs Bunny Won the West, why Warner Bros stopped having live action wrap arounds on recycled Looney Tunes specials, Co-Ed Fever, how amazing Heather Thomas is, Du-beat-e-o, Joan Jett, Marsha Warfield, smoking pot, Richard Pryor, Johnny Dark, Steve Ladesberg, opening for Tower of Power in 1977, Charles in Charge, Harry and the Hendersons, producing Everything Is Relative, the 1988 Writer's Strike, doing an impression of Brett Goldstein, living in England, Ted Lasso, Lee Lacey, the wonder of improv, and the weird weird world of stand up comedy.

TV Guidance Counselor Episode 556: Steven Jay Rubin Dec 12, 2022

Show notes

October 19-25, 1968

This week Ken welcomes author of The Twilight Zone Encyclopedia and host of the Podcast "Steven Jay Rubin's Saturday Night at the Movies", Steven Jay Rubin.

Ken and Steve discuss being in space, seeing the Twilight Zone for the first time, how 1968 is the sweet spot, not talking for a year, Night Gallery, the lack of product placement in the Twilight Zone, Combat, color TV, The Wild Wild West, writing for Cinefantastique, being a feature film publicist, working on Weekend at Bernie's II, working for Showtime, not knowing director's credits, Clark Gable films, being a contestant on The Joker's Wild, later writing for the Joker's Wild, being on Sale of the Century, taping old movies audio only on reel to reel, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, growing up in LA, being a baseball fan, Get Smart!, the darkness of today's film, having never seen The Prisoner, Assault on a Queen, Fall Previews, Peyton Place, Laugh-In, Lancer, porpoise vs dolphin, actors in WWII, Russ Meyer being a still photographer on the Twilight Zone, Green Acres, The Olympics, competition shows, reality TV, Star Trek the original series, visiting film sets, Logan's Run, The Wonderful World of Disney, being on the Sony lot when Spielberg was directing Hook, The Entity, ghost hunting, Twilight Zone: The Movie, how The Twilight Zone doesn't work in color, Anne Frank's cat, and the amazing Sam Fuller.

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