#11. 'Wandavision,' PLUS: A Sitcom Ranking! (Multiple Sitcom Rankings, In Fact)
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The main topic is the first two episodes of WandaVision on Disney+, the MCU's experiment that drops Wanda and Vision into a sequence of era-perfect sitcom parodies wrapped around a slow-burn Lost-style mystery. JVL is its loudest champion: he calls Elizabeth Olsen revelatory (nailing each decade's specific sitcom acting style while the show simultaneously parodies the genre), praises Paul Bettany and the tight writing, and delights in the dark undertow — Wanda making Mr. Hart choke when his questions get uncomfortable, Mrs. Hart stuck looping a line — plus a long, loving briefing on the House of M comics as a possible roadmap. Sonny's big-boy review is warmer than his own logic allows: he argues it doesn't fully work as either parody or mystery box, yet the Bettany/Olsen performances make it genuinely charming, and he's just happy to have the MCU back after an 18-month drought. Vic admits he cheated by reading ahead, is warming to it, but joins Sonny's standing complaint that Scarlet Witch's "she can just do anything" powers are incoherent. The back half delivers the promised sitcom rankings: JVL's after-school UHF classics (Gilligan's Island #1, with a Paul Cantor/Sherwood Schwartz story), Sonny's post-Seinfeld single-camera list (Curb Your Enthusiasm #1, while trashing Arrested Development and The Good Place to JVL's horror), and Vic's gloriously bleak "top five very special episodes" (Diff'rent Strokes' "Bicycle Man" #1, All in the Family's "Edith's 50th," Family Ties' "Uncle Arthur"). The hangout covers Sonny soundproofing his new podcast room amid the insane escalation-clause D.C. real-estate market, and Vic's "gift" to wife Kate for her birthday: being her designated driver for one night.
From the show notes
On this Very Special Episode of the Sub-Beacon, the gang discusses how to make your home more attractive to potential buyers, how to plan a special birthday dinner for your loved ones, and, of course, how to appreciate the new Disney+ show Wandavision . Part parody of sitcoms past, part Lost- style mystery box, the new show scratches that MCU itch and does so much more. And is if that weren't enough, the guys also have put together a very special series of sitcom rankings. RANKINGS. Who doesn't love a good ranking or four? Leave your favorites in the comments. (Note: We're also sending out a truncated version of this episode over the iTunes feed for the stragglers who have yet to sign up for the Patreon. So, just FYI, if you see two episodes pop up in your podcast app, listen to the one that's 60-some minutes instead of the one that's 40-some minutes.)
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00I mean, the other side could be dirty.
Mike00:00:02Pardon me, is this the neighborhood watch meeting?
Guest00:00:06Oh, hiya, Vision. Didn't expect to see you here. This is sort of a members-only type deal.
Mike00:00:16Ah, certainly, right. Well, I'll just stay here and be as quiet as a church mouse till you open up the floor for new business.
Guest00:00:25Well, in truth, we were just getting to new business.
Mike00:00:27Oh, splendid. Could you tell me how often you rotate security patrols? Do you interface directly with local law enforcement? What are your protocols regarding threats such as burglary, graffiti and reckless driving?
Guest00:00:36No, Vision.
Mike00:00:37I know these are indeed grave matters.
Guest00:00:40New business actually means another round of Danish.
Mike00:00:44Raspberry or cheese filled? Oh, neither for me, thank you. I don't eat food.
JVL00:00:57Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of the Sub-Beacon. I'm your host, JVL, along with Sonny Bunch and Victorino Matus. Just a reminder, the Sub-Beacon is available exclusively on Patreon at subbeacon.com. We also have a store where you can buy Sub-Beacon merchandise ranging from onesies to headache shirts. Visit tpublic.com and search Sub-Beacon. You'll easily find us. Please buy shirts, tell your friends to subscribe, and leave us reviews, suggestions, bad ideas at subbeacon.com. Sonny, how are you?
Sonny00:01:38I'm good. I'm trying. I'm currently in the process of totally soundproofing this room that you see me in. You know, we were doing a little bit of construction and I've got a small office space that's really only useful as a podcast studio slash book depository. And
?00:01:56so I am now I'm now in the middle of a podcast studio. I'm in the middle of a podcast studio. And so I am now I'm now in the middle of a podcast studio slash book depository. And so I am now I'm now in the middle of a podcast studio slash book depository. And so I am now I'm now in the middle of a podcast studio slash book depository. And so I am now I'm now in the middle of a podcast studio slash book depository. And
Sonny00:01:57so I am now I'm now in the middle of a podcast studio slash book depository. And I'm investing
Vic00:01:58every week and more and more foam. I was gonna say, are you creating your egg creating the room?
Sonny00:02:03I'm putting foam all over and I was wondering I was curious as homeowners yourselves and serious podcasting forces serious forces in the in the world of podcasting. What how much value would you put on a podcasting room? If you were if you were looking to buy a house, you know, because every house has bathrooms and walk in closets and but if you if you came across a house and you're like, Oh, a podcast studio, that's at least 20 or $30,000 more. So for example, if your house if you were
Vic00:02:35selling your house, right, you had like an open house where people get to, you know, like, clients and whatnot, or P prospective buyers, you think that they if they saw the room with with the foam around it, they'd be like, Oh, yeah, oh, I wasn't sure I was on the fence. But now that I see he has
Sonny00:02:50a podcast room, well, obviously, you would have to you'd have to sell it as a podcast studio and not as a like, sex dungeon. or with foam, so nobody can hear your screams insane asylum mock up to keep the crazy people inside, you know, you'd have to be you'd be searching for a very specific kind of clientele. And I think I honestly think it would be a big value add to a house, especially since everybody has a podcast. And everyone's got a podcast. And we're all working from home. We've all got our little little studios. You laugh, Sonny.
JVL00:03:26But in the current climate, I don't know what real estate is like down in Tejas. But in the Washington DC area, we are in this insane place. And I know this because my sister is trying to buy a house where prices go up every single week. Houses are listed on a Thursday, there's an open house on a Saturday, and then offers are taken on Monday morning. Nobody does inspections anymore. Yeah, the offers are all cash like it's 2004. Like it's 2004. And if you don't know what the hell it is, I don't know what it is. But if you don't know what it is, if you don't go a minimum of 10% above the list price, you don't even have a prayer. That's right. Which seems totally sustainable, because what I what I have taken away from the last year is that the economy is red hot, and people are just drowning in money because they're just working all the time. And here they
Vic00:04:13are. Great. Here they are. And again, two words that I hadn't heard in a while I'm hearing again, when I talk to people, and that is escalation clause. Oh, yeah. Oh, oh, escalation clause.
Sonny00:04:23So when we sold our house in Virginia, and we sold our house a year ago. So this is, this is like, you know, this is not in the current exceptionally hot market, which it seems still to be. The people that ended up getting our house had an escalation clause in their in their offer. And it really made my it made my whole year that little that little bonus. Well, I
JVL00:04:46would just like to people tend to think that things always go up. We bought our first house at the peak of the bubble, like eight months before the crash. That was that was a genius move. We we escalation clause and all those things. We held it for eight years. And when we sold it after eight years, we had only lost 30%. So these things can, you know, the they can take a long time to come back. Yeah. It depends where and what? Well, this was Old Town Alexandria. This was, you know, the
Sonny00:05:32ritziest, fanciest place in the world. I do. I do think that I do. Well, I mean, who knows? I think everything, everything comes down again. But the the market has been insane.
Vic00:05:41So I honestly, ours, ours has gone up every year since we bought it in 2006. There hasn't
Sonny00:05:47been there hasn't been a dip. I kind of want to put my house on the market just to see what sort of bonus I would get for my podcast room.
JVL00:05:53Well, that's what I'm saying. My point in all this on it was that in this climate, we're everybody's working from home and zooming, I actually think the podcast room is at least as valuable as, say, an outdoor hot tub.
Sonny00:06:08Oh, now, not not an outdoor pool. What is the difference between a hot tub and a jacuzzi?
Vic00:06:13What is the hot? Is it jacuzzi? Is that just an old person's thing? And no one calls it that anymore? No. Is jacuzzi very specific?
JVL00:06:21Well, jacuzzi is a brand name. Oh, of a hot tub. Right. I mean, but but I think jacuzzi connotes jets. Oh, both hot water and jets. But when people say hot tubs, they mean jets like they don't just mean like a pot of boiling water.
Vic00:06:38No, no, no, no. You got to have the jets. You got to have the jets. Yeah. Because you could sit on it. Oh, boy. It's great because you can't actually see me on this particular episode.
Sonny00:06:48Yeah, sadly, sadly we've lost Vic. I'm expecting Vic to to pull like a piece of tape off his camera in midway through the show to surprise him. Jesus fools you all with with his with his vision cosplay. Victorino, how are you, sir?
Vic00:07:03I'm doing fine. I'm doing fine. It was Kate's birthday earlier in the week. And speaking of jacuzzis, jacuzzis, we got together with some friends on Saturday night and I gave her what I consider to be the greatest gift I could possibly give. Oh, boy. Designated
JVL00:07:26designated. Sunny, what time is it?
Vic00:07:27Designated driver. That's that was my gift.
JVL00:07:31Oh, you made her the designated driver. You let you let her drive home. What do you want?
Vic00:07:36I'm confused. One night a year. I will be the responsible one. And and by that you mean
Sonny00:07:42you'll only have like three drinks. That's sorry. How's how's that a present for her?
JVL00:07:46Well, she can drink one at a year. You'll take your wife out and get her drunk so you can then come for your home and have your way with her. Yeah, I know. That's happy birthday,
Vic00:07:53Kate. When she gets home, that it's just pass out time, which is perfect. For me. No, no, no, no. I'm just kidding. It's so it is. I was I was so I had to temper
JVL00:08:02myself. I'm like, OK, she wakes up. Why am I wearing a Hogwarts skirt?
Vic00:08:09That's right. That's right. That's right. Hufflepuff. Anyway, that's that's that's what I that was that was my that was my gift is big. That's wonderful. Where did you guys go? We go to the Palm. No, no, no, no, no. We went to visit friends. We always go. We always see the McCormick's. Because John has the same birthday as my wife. We always do a joint birthday. And with Lauren and me there, we swap gifts. Again, it's great because you can't actually see me. I can only see your reactions. This is great. Oh, boy. Yeah. No, it's really good thing. Andrew Agger doesn't have the same birthday as Kate, too. Things will get interesting. OK, so there you go. Oh, hey, wow. Wow. You got that. I just put that together. Yeah. You like that? Took a minute. Well, that can be arranged. OK, thank you. Let's move on because this is not going well. OK. All right. Well, I
JVL00:09:08would like to tell you people that I got a number of texts and emails over this past week agreeing that the Godfather 3 version of Sofia Coppola was a smoke show, a prime piece of gabagool, a slice of prosciutto. The type of girl you meet at the Bridgewater Commons and then take you to the Rainforest Cafe for dessert. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Sofia Coppola was an absolute vision. Speaking of visions. Wow. Hey, A plus. A plus. This week we're talking about the new Marvel series, WandaVision, which is a terrible name. And I am interested in Sonny's attempt at a big boy review. Well, it's not actually too hard
Sonny00:10:08to give a big boy review except for the fact that we've only seen two episodes. And I have thoughts about the the tendency of critics to review television shows after two to three episodes. We can get into that in a bit. But the show is essentially a parody or a pastiche of 1950s and 1960s sitcoms. The idea being that every episode is parodying a new show to the point where they actually did a unique titles and theme songs for every episode in the season, which we will see as as the show goes along. But each episode is a parody or a again, a kind of pastiche of these these specific areas. It stars the shows star Vision, who is played by Paul Bettany, and is a android capable of shifting his mass and all sorts. And he can lift Thor's hammer. Those are the only things I remember about Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff, who is played by Elizabeth Olsen. And again, they are playing kind of standard 1950s, 1960s sitcoms roles. They are they are the new couple and fish out of water, and they're trying to figure out how to make sense of this crazy world that they find themselves in. It is that and it is also a Lost style puzzle box, a Twin Peaks style, or at least as Twin Peaks as a Marvel product can get, which is to say not very, it's more lost, a sort of puzzle box type show where we are trying to figure out why Wanda Maximoff and the Vision are stuck in this weird alternate reality where somebody is watching them on TV as they progress through their lives and apparently have children in forthcoming episodes. It is, the show itself, I don't think would work on either of these levels separately. I don't think that the parody is funny enough to work on its own, even though it is occasionally quite amusing. And I don't think that the mystery box aspect of it is nearly sophisticated enough to keep our attention or our interest. Though, it is teasing just enough to make me not want to turn it off. It's good. It's good, is my big boy review. I enjoy it. I enjoy it on a couple different levels, despite the fact that I don't think it works on either of the levels, really, that it's trying to work on. And the reason it works is because Paul Bettany is so funny. Paul Bettany is exceptionally funny. Elizabeth Olsen is exceptionally funny. There's this great supporting cast, which includes... One of my all-time favorite character actors, Fred Melamed, who people will remember as Cy Abelman in A Serious Man, if they're one of the hundreds of people who have seen A Serious Man.
Vic00:13:07Is that the boss?
Sonny00:13:08Yeah, that's the boss from the first episode. That's the boss from the first episode. He's also in every... Mr. Hart? Yes, Mr. Hart. He's also in every S. Craig Zoller movie, which is funny in and of itself, but that's neither here nor there. The... Yeah. So, the show... My short big boy review is that I like it, actually. I think it's actually funny and charming, and the performances are very winning. Again, it's a nice relatively short show. It's 25 minutes sans credits. The credits go on for six or seven minutes. You can safely skip them. There are no bonus little sneaks that you're missing out on. And it's fun, and it's nice, and it's neat, and it's cute. And the other thing it is, I had not realized how much I was missing the Marvel Cinematic Universe in my life. And it is a little bit of a normalcy after 12 months of lockdown or whatever we're in right now. Without a Marvel movie. It's been 18... No, it's been almost 20 months since the last Spider-Man movie. Yeah. Or no, 18 months. So we are ending a drought of Marvel stuff. And it's funny, on the other podcast, one of the other podcasts I do, one of the many podcasts that I do, I joke that we were talking about this being the first MCU TV show, which it actually is not. No. All of those Netflix shows were also MCU series. Yes. Jessica Jones. Kind of. Luke Cage, Daredevil. Except they never really interacted with the MCU in a serious way. They were their own little self-contained universe. So I don't think...
JVL00:14:53Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Sonny00:14:54I don't think... Which was on ABC. That's right. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
JVL00:14:58too, I told them about that. And which I believe is canon.
Sonny00:15:00Yeah. I don't know. So...
JVL00:15:03Vic, I have a question for you. JVL. Did you understand it?
Vic00:15:08Yeah. I mean, I did some cheating, so I know that... I mean, obviously, I remembered he died, so clearly she has created some sort of a universe...
JVL00:15:19Did you cheat before or after you watched it?
Vic00:15:21Before. Before.
JVL00:15:23Before. Because I would have paid money to watch you coming to that 100th episode. 100% cold. Oh, wow. Because we would have gotten the classic "What happened?"
Vic00:15:32"What happened?" I don't think so. I do remember, obviously, that he died, right, because he got the stone ripped out of his head.
Sonny00:15:44He dies twice. He dies twice in Infinity War. Does he really? First, Wanda kills him, and then Thanos brings him back to life with the Time Stone and kills
Vic00:15:52him again. It's great. And then rips the thing out. Right. Okay. I understand what she's trying to do in her own little world. She's living in a universe. The question is who's trying to reach her, because you hear this voice. It sounds like Captain America's voice, but I'm sure it's not, where they're trying to reach her, and there is a moment where this beekeeper comes out of a manhole and she just says no, and then she rewinds and it's back to where it is. But she seems to be very comfortable in her sitcom world based on her knowledge of sitcoms, I guess. I don't know. That I got. And I think her home, their home changed from episodes one to two, even though it's black and white and then partly black and white, and episode two is more of a bewitched theme. So I think it helped that I watched a gazillion sitcoms growing up so that I felt very comfortable in that way. And I mean, so the writing and the plot, and I mean, it's very, it's just very classic sitcom of that time plot, but obviously they're, they're, they're acting, she's act, they're both acting and she's acting in this, in this way because they're, they're, they're missing information or they, I don't know, maybe they made themselves forget that there's this other world. So where is she right now? You know, I have no idea, but in her mind, this is what we're, we're in her mind is that's what I think JVL.
JVL00:17:19You really like, I'm impressed, I'm impressed. I, uh, well, I love, I love the crap out of this thing. Okay, good.
Vic00:17:27I thought I found the first episode to be so, so I really liked the second episode.
JVL00:17:32The magic show in the second episode is really funny.
Sonny00:17:38Very funny.
JVL00:17:39Yes. So it's, so yes, there's a, there's an aspect of lost, but it is, you know, it's more bewitched meets Twilight Zone. You know what else?
Vic00:17:51Lost even.
JVL00:17:52It also meets Pleasantville. Pleasantville. Yeah, yeah. You know, with, with I Dream of Jeannie. And also some lost thrown in. I really like that it is, it's full of Easter eggs, but it's, those are, they're really all throwaways. You know, the Stark toasters and the Strucker watches and the Wentworth department store. Those really are just little bits of fan service.
Vic00:18:15I didn't get the Wentworth department store.
JVL00:18:17What is that? Yeah. Wentworth is a super villainous who is, blah, blah, blah. You don't need to. The Hydra watch I got. Yeah. Well, that's Baron Von Strucker.
Guest00:18:27Right.
JVL00:18:28Um, but, uh, what I like, so I have not seen Elizabeth Olsen in anything I can remember other than the Marvel movies. I really liked the character of Scarlet Witch from the comics a great deal. I think it's a very interesting character and I have hated, hated everything that she has done with the character to this point. Um, nails on a chalkboard, it pissed me off watching her.
Sonny00:18:56She is revelatory in this.
JVL00:19:00She's just great. And she, she gets the character, right? She gets all of the sitcom acting, right? Yeah. Like it's a specific, you know, she comes from a family of professional sitcom actors. And the writing is great. Paul Bettany is great. Cause it does this, this thing where it is both a sitcom and a parody of the sitcom. So you know, so what sitcoms do is you're supposed to have a laugh on every page, right? Every page of dialogue has to have a joke on it. You have to have callbacks. There are formulaic aspects to the sitcom and this does all of those and, but it pays them off as often as not as, uh, as meta jokes about the sitcom itself. Like for instance, the, the callback they do with the lobster in the first episode, right? The lobster gets thrown out and then the lobster shows up as the door knocker, which is funny in a certain absurdist sense, but is then even funnier as an absurdist. Of course, this is the sitcom. This is how the foreign works. Right. Uh, and you need to have the laugh track. Yeah. The laugh track is fantastic. Uh, the, the theme song was done by the Lopez, uh, family who, who did the frozen. Uh, I dunno, I, I just loved every damn thing about it and I really like how dark it is because when in the first episode she, she makes Mr. Hart start to choke to death because he's asking questions that are making her uncomfortable.
Sonny00:20:38Does she? I didn't realize that.
JVL00:20:40Oh yes. I thought he just choked. I just thought he choked. No. She, she makes him choke. Hmm. Really?
Vic00:20:47Uh, and the other thing is, and as you notice, uh, Deborah, Joe Rupp, the great character actress who plays the wife, the wife.
JVL00:20:55Oh yeah.
Vic00:20:56From the 70 show, right? Yes. Yeah. She, she is locked into a dialogue where she just repeats the same line over and over. She can't break out of her character. Yeah. When that's happening.
JVL00:21:07The, so Vic, I know the answer to this question is no, for you, Sonny, did you read House of M?
Sonny00:21:14No, I didn't. Okay.
JVL00:21:16So after my time. So Marvel does, you know, once a year, Marvel does like everybody else, a mini series, which is a large comic book universe. Event, which then shifts the plot for the whole, the whole, and not MCU, but the comics universe in a particular direction for a year or so. And House of M is a Scarlet Witch centric event from, God, it's gotta be 15 years ago. But the, the idea of it is this, so Scarlet Witch whose powers have always been terribly portrayed on screen, right? In all the Avengers movies, she just like, she shoots stuff. She shoots red beams out of her hands. It's like the stupidest fucking thing. Um, but what the Scarlet Witch's power is to alter reality, right? And in the House of M series, she, uh, is going crazy because the, the having, she's a mutant and having the power to alter reality has, has given her, has made her have a total psychic break and, uh, Charles and her father, Magneto, are trying to figure out what to do with her. And Charles comes up upon realizing that he can no longer control or Charles comes back to New York to Avengers tower. He brings the Avengers and the X-Men together and says, we got to figure out what to do with her. And Emma Frost, one of my favorite characters says, well, we gotta put her down. It's just like this big fight until like Wolverine is like, yeah, let's just go kill her. And so they, uh, they go to kill her. And when they get there, she's gone and she has changed the world by altering the world so that mutants are in control of everything. And she alters all the, you know, the fabric of all reality thinking that this will save her. Right. If she, if she could just mutants can be in charge of everything and only slowly, you know, brick by brick, does this alternate reality come apart? And it's, I mean, Spider-Man is the first one to figure out, wait a minute, something's wrong because most everybody in her alt, the alternate reality she's constructed. It's like the matrix. Everybody has gotten what they want. Everybody has a good life. Everybody has realized that this thing is, is fake. Uh, and at the end of it, as this thing is being pulled apart, brick by brick, she goes in the opposite direction and she, uh, right before she is killed, she says no more mutants. And this sets in part the next, you know, the mutant, the next year of Marvel content
Sonny00:23:46where there were no more means.
JVL00:23:47I mean, the, the point is there is a house of M thing going on with this story. And it is not clear to me. I don't think. This is no more mutants, but I think it's possible. This is the beginning of what will eventually be Avengers versus X-Men, which is I think the phase four of Marvel, uh, you know, because clearly there is an alternate reality that she has set up, uh, whether by accident or on purpose to keep her husband alive. And the two of them are in this alternate reality together, uh, and it is likely to have consequences, but I love it. Anybody who is listening to this, who has not read house of them. One don't walk. I think you can read it for free on Amazon prime. I think it is a Kindle. You can, the Kindle version of it that you can just, you know, download to your iPad is so free on Amazon dot Amazon prime. So go do it. Thank goodness.
Vic00:24:43You can't see me cause I was actually sleeping during the last question at JBL.
Sonny00:24:48My understanding though, was that to get Wanda Maximoff into the MCU, she had to not be a mutant. Yes.
JVL00:24:56No. I thought that no, I'm pretty sure because the two mutants who have always been part of the Avengers.
Sonny00:25:05Right. Right. I understand Quicksilver. Right. Brother. I, I understand that except for the fact that the way they gave Quicksilver and Wanda Maximoff her powers, it's explained in the movies, right? It's like experiments by a Baron Zemo or somebody, right? So is she, my point is she's not actually a mutant.
JVL00:25:23Uh, yeah, I guess she's not.
Sonny00:25:26Probably. I'm sure you can retcon all of this with a line of dialogue, uh, in a, in a, in a movie or whatever.
JVL00:25:32One of my, in the Marvel ultimate universe, which was a totally separate universe of Marvel set up the, did you ever read the ultimates? No, Sonny, no. Wanda Maximoff and her brother Pietro are basically doing it and it is creepy as shit. And it's awesome. It's so it's, it is such a, it's Mark. I think he comes up with that take on the character. Anyway, it's just great. It's great. Go read the house of them. Everybody.
Vic00:26:03It's free.
JVL00:26:04Godfather.
Sonny00:26:05Three of them. Yeah. I, uh, yeah, I, I don't have a ton of thoughts on this except for the fact that the problem with the Scarlet Witch character to my mind has always been the, the basic problem of magic in, in any medium, which is that once, once you can, once you can do anything, there's no, there's no point to the character. And this is like. I, I, I don't understand what her actual powers are in the Marvel universe.
Vic00:26:30I was about that. That's part of my question. I actually wrote down question.
Sonny00:26:33It actually, it just, it just, it just doesn't make any sense. She just shoots sparkly light.
Vic00:26:38You know what JVL, uh, Elizabeth Olsen has a small part in a really, I really liked this movie. It's extremely dark, but, uh, wind river with Jeremy Renner is, uh, and John Burnfield was
Sonny00:26:51in it too.
JVL00:26:52It's her part on daily motion.
Vic00:26:53She's well, there's a part where she changes from one effort to another. And it is amazing. I love Elizabeth Olsen asked me how much do I love her? How much do you love her? Victory? I love her so much.
Sonny00:27:05I want to go army hammer on her cannibalism joke for everyone.
Vic00:27:09That's a cannibal. Oh, Jamie, did you, uh, but you probably missed this with the, the stories about it was nevermind. Okay. It's a joke. If you're, if I actually don't know, come on, I'm not a can. I'm not a cannibal. Just want a little bite. Just a little bite. Just a little. Okay. She's great. She's wonderful. No question. What are their powers? Because it's like between the two of them, they could pretty much do anything. It's like, it's like Elizabeth Montgomery and be, which just, or Jean just make things happen. Okay. So fine. But I don't find it too bothersome except for that. They can just do things.
Sonny00:27:41And that's, and that's why, that's why it's actually kind of funny in the bewitched parody is because she's just doing things. It's like, okay, that, that actually makes, and it's, and it's funny also because the stakes are so low. It's not like she's altering the fabric of reality to, you know, save the world from, uh, uh, invasion of aliens, right? It's like she's altering the fabric of reality to make sure that nobody can tell her that her husband is a drunk.
JVL00:28:03He's doing magic. That's right.
Sonny00:28:05And he's doing magic. He's doing like actual magic.
JVL00:28:07That's the real, the real funny in that is that all the magic is being done to prevent people from understanding that there's magic being done.
Vic00:28:16And you, once you, you know, once you realize that, you know, the, the effect of having gum inside his system is basically that he's drunk, which is great.
JVL00:28:23It's great. Then, uh, the cartoon cutaway. Yeah.
Vic00:28:27Perfect. It's perfect. And the, and then the audience, or at least I got into, how is she going to get him out of this mess? Oh, he's flying or he's doing that. That's great. Okay.
JVL00:28:38So I like that. Wasn't there an episode where Darren was drunk?
Vic00:28:40I don't know.
JVL00:28:41I don't know. I feel like Darren got drunk once for some important meeting.
Vic00:28:45And then, and then suddenly he was, and suddenly he was no longer Darren, right? It was, it was Dick Sargent and then he became Dick York. Uh, the other question I had, did you understand the helicopter? No. Did she find? No, you didn't. Okay. Wow. I thought I, you guys, oh, you must be.
Sonny00:29:02Well, I mean, that's part of, that's part of the puzzle box. That's part of the.
Vic00:29:05Right. That's part of the. The beekeeper. The beekeeper and they have the same insignia, but that's not an insignia neither of you recognize. Oh, I didn't notice.
Sonny00:29:12Okay. Sword. Sword.
JVL00:29:15Sword. S-W-O-R-D.
Sonny00:29:17Oh, I know all about sword. Is that the Scarlet Witch? Something.
JVL00:29:20Something. No. Sword is the alien version of shield. So shield is like. M-I-5 and M-I-6.
Sonny00:29:28Ooh.
JVL00:29:29No, no. So it is the sword is the, the companion to shield where it is run, you know, out of the earthlings to protect us from all the crazy ass people in space. So to protect us from the Crees and the scrolls and all those.
Vic00:29:42Like the men in black.
JVL00:29:44Yeah. In, in that way. And Abigail. Okay. God, what is the, the, the class? So the sword was invented, I believe by Joss Whedon in his ex astonishing X-Men run. Wow. And I'm trying to remember. I'm trying to remember the name of the agents, Abigail, something, but he sort of created the, the character at a whole cloth. And so, so we.
Sonny00:30:03So is this who, is this who Catherine Han is?
JVL00:30:05Yes. I was gonna say. Who's Catherine Han?
Sonny00:30:08The neighbor. The, the neighbor.
JVL00:30:10Uh, man. Comedian. I, I doubt it, but maybe who knows? We'll find out. It's interesting.
Sonny00:30:18I didn't see the sword logo. I, I, I'm pretty sure it was sword. I might, I might, I might be, I might be misremembering. I don't know. That's what I got for you.
JVL00:30:24Yeah. All right. So the other thing we wanted to do with this episode was talk about sitcoms because Wanda
Sonny00:30:31vision is at heart, a sitcom and I thought we should do a bunch of rankings, maybe.
JVL00:30:40I'm Ron Burgundy.
Sonny00:30:41Question mark. Sure.
JVL00:30:43So here are the thoughts I had that there are so many sitcoms that you can't do a global ranking of sitcoms. You can't say that. Doesn't make sense. Right. So you have to separate it out. Like I think animated sitcoms should get their own totally own separate. Thing, right? You can't. You can't consider the Simpsons and South Park and Bojack Horseman in the same way that you consider Gilgit's Island. I have for myself, the one true ranking I did was the best after school UHF sitcoms of my youth, which is a going to hit all of your pleasure centers.
Vic00:31:15Victorino. Yeah, I know. I think Sonny can take a break. You need to use the bathroom. Sonny or refill your drink. Help yourself.
JVL00:31:21But then there's there's the best 70 sitcoms, right? Like the late night 70s. There's the best 80s and 90s. We're truly run from MASH up until the beginning of Seinfeld. And then I think it makes sense to evaluate post Seinfeld sitcoms because Seinfeld I'll never forget this Larry Larry Miller said this to me once Seinfeld created the nuclear nuclear winter of situation comedy. It broke the sitcom because it was so perfect there was simply nothing else to be done in that format and in order for it to be reborn, people had to essentially invent a new form
Vic00:31:56which is why you got the one camera I was going to say no, that is 100% wrong because after Seinfeld, I believe Union Park square square square square so who who where would
JVL00:32:13you guys like to go? Would you would you do you want me to start out with my after school?
Vic00:32:18I want to save my ranking. I have I created Yes, I have a very specific kind of ranking but I'll save mine for the at the end. What are yours? So what did you guys want to talk about?
Sonny00:32:29Well, I had ranked I told you over text that I was going to rank the best single camera sitcom.
JVL00:32:34Okay, so that's essentially the post Seinfeld sitcom.
Sonny00:32:36Yeah, basically everything after Seinfeld.
JVL00:32:37Okay, Victorino. Do you have a ranking?
Sonny00:32:39I do.
JVL00:32:40I have.
Sonny00:32:41Okay.
JVL00:32:42Well, let's you go last then. Because yours will be the best.
Sonny00:32:44No. Everyone loves it. All right.
JVL00:32:47So I'll so that Sonny stays involved. I'll start first then Sonny can go so these are when you watch channel 17 or channel 29. When we were kids. Mm hmm. There were a bunch of shows which were really old. Yes. Which were on in the afternoon after school.
Vic00:33:05Well, that's the JVL I when I was in kindergarten, it was a half day. And so I'd come home. Yes. I'd come home and my parents of course, the basement was our the doctor's office was the basement. So but so was the TV room. So I go downstairs into the TV room for the rest of that, you know, for part of that afternoon. While my parents Were working. And then I would watch either 17 or 29 and it was a full lineup of like that gold golden age from the 50s and 60s.
JVL00:33:35So the way I rank them, my I'll start from the top. Yes. Is what you'd like me to go? Usually from like least to most, right, least to most.
Sonny00:33:43So least five, five, number seven, number seven, seven, Gomer Pyle, I would rather read a book.
JVL00:33:51I would rather read a book than watch Gomer Pyle. Ah, that is the one show. So when it came on, I just quit. I just, you know what? Forget it. I'll go do math. I'll go do a math worksheet.
Vic00:34:02Even watch this. Even by the way, even then we had similar, uh, our, our, our tastes were similar because I love Gomer Pyle surprise, surprise, surprise. Yeah.
JVL00:34:11I lied. My favorite Martian. Number six. Just as bad. I wouldn't watch my favorite Martian either. Ray Walston and Bill Bixby. No pass. I hated that show.
Vic00:34:19Number five. McHale's Navy. Oh, that's a good one.
JVL00:34:22I love McHale's Navy.
Vic00:34:23You know what was interesting? Uh. Yeah. Ernest Morgan and the con and the constant reference to the nips. The nips. Yeah. And they were, they were black and white and then color. So you, you could tell when I was strictly a black and white guy also, uh, Admiral Binghamton who was played by Joe Flynn, who was also a, a, a Disney character actor. And his right hand man was Ensign Parker played by who Tim Conway.
JVL00:34:51Oh, that's right. Tim Con that. Right, right, right. Uh, for me, number four was Hogan zero. Heroes. And I would say as a seven or eight year old child in Southern New Jersey in 1982, I had a very distorted view of world war two because of, because of Hogan's heroes, because of Hogan's heroes and McHale's Navy, I just thought, no, I just thought between Hogan's heroes and McHale's Navy, it just seemed like a lot of war, the coolest war ever, a lot of fun
Vic00:35:21and antics if you were involved in, in the second old war antics and it couldn't be that
JVL00:35:26bad because if you got captured, you just wound up with the, you know, I know nothing, I'm the curtain clink. You had your tunnels, you know, you get to go on missions and it was such a, it was,
Vic00:35:36it was the greatest, the hodgepodge of prisoners in one stallion and all from different, right? There's the Frenchie, you had the, you had the black American soldier, you had the Frenchie and then you had, of course, the Brit played by Richard Dawson, the RAF pilot. Yeah.
JVL00:35:53That's fantastic. Number three. So number three and number two. I would flip flop depending upon the day and they are bewitched and I dream of Jeannie. Yes.
Vic00:36:01And they're like, to be very honest, I think they were competing in different networks,
JVL00:36:05I think. Well, where they, where they flip for me was once I started being interested in girls and that's when I was like, all of a sudden it went from being like, eh, to, oh, oh, in which
Vic00:36:17I imagine Jeannie has the edge because of the, well, she has the edge just because of
JVL00:36:21the midriff.
Vic00:36:22Yeah. I know. Barbara Eden, Barbara Eden, Barbara Eden.
JVL00:36:26Who the, the, the truth is the, who, the lady who played the lead in bewitched was awfully cute too.
Vic00:36:32Elizabeth Montgomery. Elizabeth Montgomery.
JVL00:36:34And. It looked like Anne Margaret almost.
Vic00:36:36And Dora. She was so hot. Who is, uh, the, the, uh, the mother, uh, or Darren's mother-in-law was a great actress who no surprise, John Podhortz could tell you all about her.
JVL00:36:45Of course. Of course. Uh, and number one, number one, Gilligan's Island. Oh yeah. I could watch, I could watch back to back to back to back episodes. Of Gilligan's Island. Even if I'd seen all four of the episodes before and never be bored.
Vic00:37:01You know, sometimes Jay, that's a great list JVL. And sometimes some of those JV, uh, some of those, um, Gilligan's Islands episodes will come up in my mind for some random reason, including the finding like the C cable. Do you remember that one? Yeah. And they were able to tap into it and, and like try to make phone calls.
JVL00:37:19Great stuff. So Paul Cantor, Sonny, did you ever take a class with him?
Sonny00:37:24Uh, I did not. Based out of all English classes, uh, at UVA.
Vic00:37:29So did I. And it's a big mistake. I, I really regret that.
JVL00:37:32Yeah. So Paul Cantor, Shakespeare professor at UVA wrote a really long essay about Gilligan's Island arguing that it is a, the quintessential America and the design of it is about the, the greatness of America with each of the castaways representing a particular archetype. And uh, he told me once when I was, uh, I was editing a piece of his. You know, many, many years later and we were talking about this essay, which I loved, and he told me, help me Victorino, the, the guy who's the creator and producer of Gilligan's Island. Sherwood Schwartz. Sherwood Schwartz. Brady Bunch as well. So he's, Paul Cantor said that he got a call from Sherwood Schwartz after his book, Gilligan Unbound was reviewed in the Los Angeles Times.
Vic00:38:21Oh, okay.
JVL00:38:22So the LA Times Book Review reviewed it and Sherwood Schwartz tracked him down and at UVA called him and said, thank you. You understood what I was trying to do. And it was one of these fight where Paul had this gigantic complicated theory of, you know, explaining the true greatness of Gilligan's Island and Sherwood Schwartz said, yes, I meant every one of those things.
Vic00:38:42Oh, that's great. That's great.
JVL00:38:46So that's my list.
Vic00:38:47Black and white Gilligan's Island, I sometimes think was better than, uh, in color because in some ways it weird.
JVL00:38:55Color.
Vic00:38:56Color. But it, yeah, but there was a great, she was, she, you know, and she hated, she hated that because she, she really, the actress really felt like, uh, was her name Tina Grant. She felt like, uh, it ruined her career. Like she really did want to become a real star and she felt like that, that, that type caster. Uh, but I was going to say the, uh, early, uh, Gilligan's Island. There was an episode that involved, um, a Japanese soldier who didn't know the war ended.
JVL00:39:27Yes. It's wild. Yeah. It is. Oh. All right.
Sonny00:39:33Santino, what do you got? Uh, I went with the, uh, single camera sitcoms. I went from an era, uh, when TV was good instead of an era when TV was bad, uh, which is, is the era that JBL just covered, uh, my number one, or I'm sorry, my number five choice we're going on, we're going five, five down to is the first one of these shows that I ever actually watched. And, and it's the first one I can really remember being. A, a relatively big hit, not sports night, which was fine. I, I, I, sports night, it gets a lot of accolades in this regard, but, uh, was, was always a little too sure of itself for my taste, but Malcolm in the middle, Malcolm in the middle, which has a, which had a, a, a much more sitcom that is not a JBL show, uh, much more sitcom premise, but also had this kind of, uh, had a real style to it that no other sitcom to that point had had. I mean, it was, it was shot like a bus, uh, it was shot like discreet little, uh, pictures.
Vic00:40:32I never thought of, Hey Sonny, uh, really quickly. Could you, could you sing the first line from that? The theme song? Uh, no, I don't think I couldn't be, maybe no. Right. Could you repeat the question?
Sonny00:40:45Sorry. Uh, no, I can't do that. I'm sorry. I, I refuse to do that. Um, number, number four for me is 30 rock, which is a show that I love, uh, and is, is again, very, uh, very funny and smart. Uh, this is actually a smarter show, uh, than, than Malcolm in the middle, but it is, uh, the, the, the, uh, the idea of Tina Fey leaving SNL to do a show that just straightforwardly mocks the whole concept of SNL, uh, always kind of amused me and the, the, the depiction of Jack Donaghy as the kind of, uh, or Reagan era conservative trying to manage this, uh, house of horrors. Really always very, very amusing, uh, to me. Um, number three, uh, is the show community, which, uh, is, is on Netflix now very much. I was a very late comer to this. I did not watch it until a couple of years ago. It's very funny and it's very, it's very clever and it's very meta. It's got the, it's got the whole kind of every episode is doing a breakdown of a certain thing or a certain, uh, idea, uh, in, in, in the popular culture. Um, and it's fun. It's fun and funny. Joel McHale is fantastically good in it and, uh, all sorts of great stuff. Um, uh, number two for me is Veep, uh, the, the, uh, HBO show about the vice president who, uh, who's bumbling cascaded of errors only, uh, served as a, a preview of our, uh, not too distant future at the time. Um, and, uh, finally, number one is Curb Your Enthusiasm, which of course is from the creators of Seinfeld, uh, and it, and, and it is, it is probably no, no, uh, no great wonder that the masters of the, uh, three camera sitcom were able to come around and make what is almost certainly the best single camera sitcom, just the funniest and kind of meanest and, and nastiest, uh, also, uh, of the, of, of the single camera sitcoms. It's just, it, it, it, it, it, it manages to break down all of the ticketing, uh, ticks and weirdnesses of the, the format that hadn't even formed yet. I like in the first season, they're already like, uh, just, just destroying tropes that would become more commonplace as the years went along. That's right. Um, so, uh, I love Curb Your Enthusiasm, love all these shows.
JVL00:43:15That's the garbage list.
Guest00:43:16Wow. Absolute garbage. Wow, that's terrible.
JVL00:43:19Number four, Silicon Valley. Number three, 30 Rock. Number two, The Good Place. Number one, Arrested Development. I don't know how you could do a one. One camera, one camera list and not include.
Sonny00:43:29Arrested Development doesn't hold up because the last two seasons are garbage.
JVL00:43:33No, those aren't, those aren't seasons. No, those, those aren't seasons. Those, those exist. No, no, no. No, I'm sorry. Don't dilute it. Don't dilute it. And even, even the third season is questionable.
Sonny00:43:41Even the third season is questionable. I, like. With the Little London, the Little. Arrested, Arrested Development had a couple, had a couple of funny ideas in it, uh, and the show kind of was garbage, really. Oh, wow. You're going to get canceled for this. Wow. No, I mean, look.
JVL00:43:55Hour after hour. People are not going to like this.
Sonny00:43:57I, I like Arrested Development. It's fine. It's perfectly fine. It has some good memes. It has some good gifs. But I am looking for a little more out of my comedy than memes and gifs. Wow. I'm glad that you, I'm glad that that's good enough for you. And The Good Place, The Good Place, again, The Good Place, totally fine. Its head is way up its own ass, uh, in terms of, you know, trying to, oh, look at how smart we are. Every episode, it's a, it's a. The, the philosophical construct, ooh. I am, give me a break.
Vic00:44:31Jeez. I was about, I haven't written down here that, uh, Arrested Development is probably the last sort of sitcom that I really enjoyed, but that, but I also like Curb Your Enthusiasm a lot too. So I can bring you two together. That's great. Okay. Victorino.
Sonny00:44:44What list is Vic doing?
Vic00:44:46Uh, I, I was, I took this in a totally different way. Uh, and I made my own ranking of the top five of all sitcoms of all time. Uh, for me, for me, uh, top five, very special episodes.
Sonny00:45:01Oh, that's interesting.
Vic00:45:03Careful. Cause it takes a really dark turn, but I'm just going to say, I'm just going to say it's interesting. Okay. So it's a, some of it's light and then it gets really dark, but it's provocative and the networks should get some credit for that. Okay. Edgy. Uh, so number five is a, one of my personal favorites. It's probably one of my favorite episodes of Three's Company. Uh, and it was entitled some of that jazz and it's where Janet. Wants to become a real dancer, but it turns out the instructor just wants to get with her. And so it was a me too episode and it culminates with Janet, who I actually liked. Yes. You know what? I liked Janet. Joyce DeWitt was great. She was cute. Uh, with that short hair, the thing going, I, I mean, obviously love Chrissy, but
JVL00:45:45Janet with, he wants to get with G yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Vic00:45:49Okay. So it's not like he had a choice between Janet and Chrissy, but Janet was, you know, trying and she was like, oh, I want to be a real dancer in the fact. As Joyce DeWitt is actually a very, was a very, very good dancer. So that was kind of funny in any event, it's a me too thing. And he puts the moves on her and then she has to push them off. And, and, and then he has the, this line, the instructor says, you know what? I don't, you don't have what it takes to be a dancer. And she says, yeah, well, you don't have what it takes to be a human being. Oh yeah. Bird, bird, right? Bird. Oh my God. And then Jack happens to come in at the end. And because he was trying to warn her about this guy. And then she says, you don't have to say it. I know. And then, and then he just says, no, all I want to say is, would you like to have this dance?
Guest00:46:31And that's how it ended.
Vic00:46:33It was a real tearjerker. And here's the great thing, JVL, uh, the actor who played the instructor, uh, then said, what do you mean you're dancing with her? You're gay. He was played by, um, an actor named Michael Bell, who also a few years later provided the voice of Duke on GI Joe. Oh, that's so good. You like that? So when you hear him say these things, it's like, oh my gosh, it's Duke. It's Duke talking. Okay. So that was number five. Number four, I think is a classic. It was the what's happening now. Uh, do be or not do be episode. It's the doobie brothers two parter. And that's where, um, these, uh, agents, uh, music age, you know, they're actually not agents, but there's these guys who want to, they convince rerun to bootleg the doobie brothers concert. And he does it with an enormous tape recorder that he puts in a trench coat.
JVL00:47:25It's a very special episode about copyright law.
Vic00:47:28That's exactly what it was. That's exactly what it was. And it's, and of course he gets caught and then they end up, you know, working in a sting operation where he gets wired and the whole deal. And then they bring the bootleggers down because bootlegging is bad.
JVL00:47:41This would have been Sonny's favorite, favorite episode of any sitcom ever.
Sonny00:47:47This already sounds like something I wish I had seen, frankly.
JVL00:47:50Well, where did, where did rerun go?
Vic00:47:52Whatever happened to rerun? He became like a minister. He became a minister. Good on him. Yeah. Uh, the, there's a line in there.
JVL00:47:58He delivered the benediction at Joe Biden's inauguration.
Vic00:48:01I missed that. Uh, he, uh, there's a line there where, uh, uh, I think it was D the sister says, which do be, they meet the Doobie brothers. And Michael McDonald is there because he's the Doobie brother, uh, one of the Doobie brothers. And she was like, which Doobie you be? And I interviewed, um, for an unrelated story, one of the Doobie brothers, uh, Jeff Skunk Baxter, because he became this military, you know, uh, analyst, uh, nerd. And when I, when I caught interviewed him on the phone, I said, I have to ask you about the what's happening episode. And he immediately just goes, let me guess, which do be you be? And I said, yeah, that's it. Sorry. I was going to answer that. Okay. This whole life.
JVL00:48:39Jay Nordlinger. Jay Nordlinger is enjoying this episode. Yeah.
Vic00:48:42No, absolutely.
JVL00:48:43Huge. What's happening. Yeah.
Vic00:48:45We saw he, Jay and I saw, uh, Shirley Hemphill who played, uh, Cheryl at the, at the comedy club. She was great. Okay. May she rest in peace. Um, no. Number three, uh, this is that we're taking a dark turn here. Number three is family ties.
JVL00:49:00Yes. Yes.
Vic00:49:02No, no, not, not that one.
JVL00:49:05Um, hold on, hold on, hold on. Alex taking the diet pills to stay awake.
Vic00:49:10No, although that's good too. This one is called give your uncle Arthur a kiss. And it was where, um, the father's friend, the quote unquote uncle then puts the moves on Mallory. And it was like, oh, my God. It was like really creepy. Uh, you don't, I, you don't expect it. And then it happens and they were having this big farewell party for a minute. It's like, does she say anything? Of course she does. They find out, but it's, you know, it's really uncomfortable. But Justine Bateman, who can blame uncle Arthur? Really? Anyway, speaking of rest of development, she was great in that.
JVL00:49:44Did, uh, did family ties do more very special episodes than any sitcom ever?
Vic00:49:51Uh, yes, there was a short lived sitcom called Sydney. With Tony Randall and a little girl and that one, that was also every, every episode was a special.
JVL00:50:01Cause I feel like once or twice a season would be a very special episode.
Vic00:50:07Yeah. The one with speed where he's taking drugs at that. That's a big one too. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Number two is the darkest of them all. And that, well, no, maybe not. Yeah, it is. It's the, uh, all in the family, Edith's 50th birthday in which Edith gets raped. If you can't believe that it's, I know it's Norman Lear. Uh, yeah, it's that happened. Yes.
JVL00:50:28That Edith on a sitcom.
Vic00:50:30Yes. That was a shocker.
JVL00:50:33Like she could have, like, people don't understand how bad the seventies were today.
Vic00:50:37It was really, it was shocking. And like, they're like, where is she? They're having this birthday. She couldn't leave the house. And then the guy was there and it was just, he pretended to be a detective. It was just Sonny.
JVL00:50:47Let this be a lesson to you. The time Vic and I grew up in was so terrible that the number one situation comedy in America had a very special episode, which involved a 50 year old grandmother getting raped.
Sonny00:51:00I mean, I, I, this, this all sounds terrible. You guys, everything that you guys are talking about right now.
Vic00:51:05And then number one, while those are the Carter years, if you think, if you think, if you think that was bad, Sonny, number one, of course, uh, is different strokes, the bicycle man episode. Right. And that is of course, where the great Gordon jump from WKRP in Cincinnati, uh, plays the child molester and I, and the victim turns out to be Dudley, uh, that's right. Playing the game. Of, uh, Neptune in the shower. It was horrible, but, uh, but again, it got a lot of, uh, great reviews, I think at the time. And Conrad Bain, uh, speak, like he talks before the episode and, you know, warns everybody that what is about to happen. So, I mean, that is, it's a public service. That's a public service.
JVL00:51:45These things were probably all paid for by the U S government.
Vic00:51:48You mean like, like the CIA funding national, like, uh, was it no, I would bet anything
JVL00:51:54that there is some, some. Some corner of the government, you know, public affairs, something out of DHS or something where the HHS where they were, yeah, you know, give, give NBC $80,000 to give us a, I mean, people care about, uh, sexual abuse. Do a, do an episode on that.
Vic00:52:13Uh, in the Todd bridges memoir, killing Willis. Uh, he talks about the Nancy Reagan episode, you know, the just say no. And he talks about, yeah. And then after that, uh, he and Dana Plato just, uh, got high.
JVL00:52:25So can I very quickly, I would ask you guys, which sitcoms you find to be the most wildly overrated man, because I had one, two, three, four. I had five that jumped out at me. One of which was Malcolm in the middle.
Vic00:52:44Another, which was, how dare you was Frazier guys are right. Okay. I didn't really watch it.
JVL00:52:51So I can't have an opinion on that modern family, which was just a housebroken version of rest of development. People loved it. That's 70s show married with children. Okay. Are you ready? Are you ready?
Vic00:53:03Are you ready for this? I would throw in sitcoms that I maybe only watched a few minutes of. So this is really bad of me and people are hate me for this. Maybe. But the ones that were enormously popular in the last few years on CBS, the, what is it?
JVL00:53:18Everybody loves rain. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Big bang. Big bang. How I met your mother. So I was going to say big bang theory.
Sonny00:53:25I would say people, big bang theory. Nobody thought was actually good. It just had great ratings. Yeah. Like no, like critics, critics hated that guy. My sister's going to kill you.
JVL00:53:34Sorry.
Vic00:53:35They were making a lot of money too. Those guys made a ton.
Sonny00:53:39I'm not saying people didn't watch it. It was the most watched show in America.
JVL00:53:41Would you think the guy who plays Sheldon is probably the fourth richest man in the world? Basically behind Elon Musk. He does not have to do anything.
Sonny00:53:50He and JK Rowling get together and throw 20s at homeless people to get them to fight.
Vic00:53:55And the other guy too, the other guy in the big bang theory, the other guy who was on Roseanne, Jonathan, not Jonathan. What's his name?
Mike00:54:03I forget his name now. Sorry. Yeah, I know who you're talking about.
Vic00:54:04They get a ton of money, I'm sure, especially on syndication. Question to you. Is MASH a sitcom? Yeah, but it's weird. It's definitely a sitcom. I found that overrated as a sitcom.
Sonny00:54:20Roseanne. Roseanne's a show I never cared for.
JVL00:54:22No, hated it. Did nothing for me.
Sonny00:54:25Oh, you know what? Oh, you know what? One show that I loved, and I think is back on Disney Plus now, Dinosaurs. Remember Dinosaurs?
JVL00:54:32Yeah. I don't remember Dinosaurs at all.
Sonny00:54:35With the puppets, the dinosaur puppets. You don't remember that show?
JVL00:54:40It's a Henson thing. That's why it's on Disney Plus, because they own it. By the way, Sonny, 30 Rock, basically a direct parallel of The Muppet Show.
Sonny00:54:51Yeah.
JVL00:54:51Where Liz Lemon is Kermit the Frog, trying to keep her show running.
Sonny00:54:55Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah, I don't know.
Vic00:55:00Did you have more JVL, or that was your...
JVL00:55:02No, those are just the ones of the last 20 years that really jumped out at me, that people loved. Will and Grace.
Vic00:55:09Oh, pass.
Sonny00:55:09Will and Grace is such a garbage show. God, I'd rather put a gun in my mouth than watch 20 seconds of that show.
JVL00:55:15The way people genuflected in front of that, in a way which I would say is not true of Friends. So, Friends was a beloved show, but which for at least the first 30 years, four or five seasons, was quite good.
Vic00:55:28Yes. I was going to say that. I think I stopped... I didn't watch the end, the last few seasons.
JVL00:55:32Yeah, well, it's got all into relationshiping. That's right. You just all take turns. As these things always do, right? Right. If it lasts... Oh, Jesus, Vic. What? What did I say? All just taking turns. Did I just say that? Yes. There was a...
Vic00:55:47Yes, that is exactly what you said. There was a great... It might have been a critic from... Oh, you know what it was? It might have been Lisa DeMora. Or maybe it was a critic in Variety who had said, at some point, you're waiting... Okay, when is Monica going to get it on with Ross? Because really, that's the only thing left. Really, everyone's taking...
Sonny00:56:07Once again, Godfather 3 comes back into the mix.
JVL00:56:11Yeah. Wow. Well, that's... Yeah. Man, you know, MASH is a really interesting thing because... And that was last track. And that was last track. So it's a sitcom... Here's what I would say about MASH. First of all, it's a... It's not a one-camera show.
Sonny00:56:27It's not a three-camera show.
JVL00:56:29And I would say it is the format of a sitcom, but it is, under the hood, not at all a sitcom. Under the hood, it's a social commentary show.
Sonny00:56:40Even though it's Korea, but it's Vietnam. Written like a drama.
JVL00:56:42Yeah. You know, I mean, it's a sitcom in which multiple people die every single day, and it's full of blood. Right. And everybody is unhappy and attempting to drink themselves to death.
Sonny00:56:53So it's funny, just like life.
JVL00:56:54Just like life. I have to say, Vietnam did not look, when I was a kid, as much fun as World War II. Yeah, right. When I was a kid, and I was thinking about which wars looked like the fun wars. Easily, easily. Funnily enough, though, as a kid, it didn't even register to me that MASH was Korea. Right, you just assumed. It was such an obvious parallel that my brain didn't even know.
Vic00:57:17And I also love how, even though this is supposed to be in a war in the 1950s in Korea, that his hair was still from the 1970s, right? He didn't have a shirt. You know, his hair was always this long hair. It just was like, ah, whatever.
JVL00:57:32Yeah, and what a weird thing for it to come from that movie. Yeah. Because the movie's not, I mean, the Altman movie is not a comedy at all. It's such a, that was, again.
Sonny00:57:41It's a very dark comedy. It's a comedy. It's funny, but it's very, very dark.
JVL00:57:45Is this the only long-running series TV show to spring from a movie? The other thing, the other way it's happened, right? You get the Charlie's Angels movies through TV shows, right? You get movies out of TV shows.
Sonny00:58:02How many movies? How many movies turn into TV, and turn into monster hit TV shows?
JVL00:58:08I mean, for a long time, the final episode of MASH was one of the highest rated. That's right. You know, half hours in American TV history. Everybody talked about it. Yeah. It was a crazy dark final episode, too. I tried to watch it. Oh, my God. I mean, it was, it was. Alan Alda's character kills a crying baby on a bus.
Vic00:58:30Oh, was that also in the last episode because of the chicken?
JVL00:58:33Because he's gone crazy because he has murdered an infant. I didn't realize that was the last episode. Yeah. Okay.
Vic00:58:39Wow.
JVL00:58:39Again, Sonny, you have no idea what you missed. This is what you don't understand being a millennial.
Sonny00:58:45You know what else was dark was the end of Dinosaurs, which had the end of the world. Was it the meteor? The meteor came, and it was the end of the world.
Vic00:58:51Oh, that was very dark.
JVL00:58:53Oh, that's funny. All right, Spirit of the Week. I think, Sonny, you're the only person drinking.
Sonny00:58:58That sounds about right. I'm drinking Kayo whiskey, which is a Japanese whiskey, which I quite enjoy. I don't know if it's K-A-Y-O or Kayo. I don't know. K-A-I-Y-O. Can you do it with the accent? Kayo.
Vic00:59:16No, that was very subtle of you, Sonny. I got, you know, for Christmas, I got Hatazaki. Yes. I don't know that one. Yeah, no. I believe it's a relative of Hattori Honza. No, it's a very nice whiskey, Hatazaki.
Sonny00:59:32Yeah, I really like the Kayo. I don't drink a ton of Japanese whiskey. It's the only bottle I get because it's relatively affordable. I think this is like 40 bucks a bottle.
JVL00:59:43Wow, that is affordable. Is Japanese whiskey amazingly good? Yes. Because I would assume that, like everything they do, once the Japanese get into something, they perfect it. That's exactly right. That's a Japanese watch. That's exactly right.
Sonny00:59:54I would say. I prefer Japanese whiskey to Scottish scotch. Wow. I do not prefer Japanese whiskey to American bourbon. Yeah. It's a different flavor profile.
Vic01:00:04If you're comparing scotch to Japanese, what happened was like in the early 1900s, the first Japanese distiller had actually come from Scotland. I mean, he learned to trade in Scotland. And he actually brought home a Scottish wife, which was kind of a big deal back in the day. And of course, he made his distillery, I believe, like an exact replica. You know, to the square reach. That's very on brand. Yes.
JVL01:00:30Is Santory a real whiskey?
Vic01:00:34They have products underneath it. So it's like an umbrella, I think. So I mean, Santory.
JVL01:00:37So you could get a bottle of Santory for a good time at Santory time?
Sonny01:00:41Yeah.
JVL01:00:42Because that's what I want. Santory?
Sonny01:00:45I don't see. I don't think you see it too often in America, like the actual Santory whiskey. I've seen it. Is it T-O-K-I? But I think. Don't they own. Don't they own Jim Beam now?
JVL01:00:56Yeah. Yeah. Beam Santory. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. No, I want a bottle of Santory whiskey. That's what I want. All right. Any corrections, additions, shout outs from you, fellas?
Vic01:01:06A friend, a listener friend gave us a little revelation about, which friend was it, though? I can't remember anymore. Was it Stephen Phillippe or was it somebody else who was telling us? Or was it.
Sonny01:01:17We're talking about Godfather.
Vic01:01:18Yes. Adam Novak. Oh, it was Adam.
JVL01:01:20Adam.
Vic01:01:21Please, Victorino, go ahead. The disjointed scene involving. The apartment at Vincent's with Bridget Fonda. We were correct to notice how off it seemed because, in fact, there was a separate screenplay that was written with that particular scene in mind, and they kept that part. Adam has a better explanation of it.
JVL01:01:42Yeah, but it was the only thing. Yes. It was a whole separate screenplay. It was like the only thing from the whole thing. They threw out the whole thing and kept.
Sonny01:01:47He put it in the comments of our Patreon. So if you go to sub-beacon.com, go to the Godfather part three.
JVL01:01:53What that smells of to me. That story smells of a favor to the writer of the original screenplay holding on to a scene so that it satisfies some guild rule in order for him to get some percentage of something or credit somewhere somehow. All right. Well, I would say this. I, this week, have been feeling particularly grateful, and I am super duper grateful for all the people who have come and subscribed to the show, which has been beyond anything of my wildest dreams. I am shocked that there are more than 10 people who wanted to hear our nonsense. And so I'm, I'm deeply and sincerely grateful to all you guys for, for supporting us and for listening to the show and hanging out with us for, what is this?
Sonny01:02:40Don't cry on us. Is this year, year six?
Vic01:02:43Yeah. And I, you know, do you remember? It's crazy. I said, no, no, we started in October of 2016. Rogue One was our first big episode. We started October 2016. So yeah. I remember thinking when, right before we started, oh, what did we say? If we could get 50 of our friends to listen, that would be fine.
Sonny01:03:05Yeah.
JVL01:03:05No, I'm, I'm all done crying this week, so I won't do any more tears now.
Sonny01:03:09I just want to do a quick correction. The only writing credits on Godfather Part Three are Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola.
JVL01:03:15So maybe it wasn't that then. All right. That's all the time we're giving you this episode. Questions, comments, complaints, compliments, tweet us at Sonny Bunch at Victorino. Victorino Matus at JV last.
Sonny01:03:27He's back. He's back on Twitter. He's, he's, he's there all the time.
JVL01:03:30He's not true. I am done saving the, our democracy. And so I'm back off the Twitter. Leave a comment at sub beacon.com. We're there. Tell your friends until next time. Victorino. Yes. Have you noticed the very subtle way? In which I have taken your script and adhered perfectly faithfully to all of your tones and inflections for several weeks, but then gradually backed off of that until now it is no longer you. Now it's just me, but I didn't want to be me. I didn't want to be me right off the bat because I knew people would.
Vic01:04:16When you, when you take over anything, you give it a, you know, you, you give a little transition there. It's like.
Sonny01:04:21You got to kick the tires and see what works. That's right.
Vic01:04:24And it's so, it was. It was so subtle JV. I didn't even notice. You see?
JVL01:04:27Yeah. I've, I've made it my own, but I had to do it slowly out of respect, respect for the, for the master. Respect. What do you guys have? Somebody's got to have something.
Vic01:04:38I got, uh, I, I'm excited to announce that in, uh, at one of my new year's resolutions at the end of 2019 was that I was going to finally finish the guns of August by Barbara Tuckman, which I started in 1992 in sophomore year in college, 93. Is that a book? Yes. And shockingly, but it's like over four, it's like almost 500 pages. Almost 500 pages. It is like small print. Holy shit. And I have to tell you, uh, I am less than a hundred pages away. And I, if you read the book, if you read the book, don't tell me how it ends.
Sonny01:05:13In 20, in 27 years, you've made 80% progress. Yes.
Vic01:05:16So you should average it out to how many pages a day that would come to. I have to also say it's just dense. Uh, but, uh, Thank you. I'm just really excited because, uh, uh, with 80 pages left, the Germans are about 16 miles away from Paris. And I think, well, I think I know how this is going to end. So.
Sonny01:05:34Well, they're going to take it.
JVL01:05:37So hold on. You should not finish it though. Right. It's been 27 years. Oh, well, I like, I should wait to finish it on the 30th anniversary of beginning it. Don't, don't go blowing through it now.
Vic01:05:48Oh, wait till 2022. Wait till 2022. Wait till 2022 to finish it. It's now done. Just read a page a week. Well, I am not. Read one page per week. Definitely not. I read it to fall asleep. So I go, I get, you know, I get into bed and then I'll read a page and I'll try to make it to turn the page. It's like, so I'll try to get two pages, but it doesn't help that you have British guys with French names and French, French guys with like, some of them have.
Sonny01:06:12Sounds horribly complicated.
Vic01:06:13Russian. The Russians have French names. It's very weird. Uh, but it's, it is interesting. So.
JVL01:06:19Did you, did you read it at bedtime on Kate's birthday after you got, got Kate upstairs and into bed?
Vic01:06:26Yeah. Yes. Believe me, I, I did. So anyway, I'm sure it's fine.
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