March 19th, 1994

This week Ken welcomes TV producer, writer, and author of the new novel "The End of All Things", Sandra Chwialkowska to the show.

Ken and Sandra discuss moving from Canada to the US to work in television, growing up in Toronto, the US Canadian co-productions of the 90s, the beauty of telling stories on television vs in films, the complexity of character, the move to serialized storytelling in North America, how 1994 changed the way we see television and film, fan petitions, the monumental cultural shifts of 1994, the weird wild west of 90s TV, body positivity, My So-Called Life, toxic advertising, smoking to lose weight, Home Improvement, watching television with your parents, The Oscars, The Barbara Walters specials, the golden age of the high stakes action comedy, tentpole pressure, Jurassic Park, The Fugitive, Spielberg, how difficult it is to adapt a serialized television show into a three act film, The War Room, Philadelphia, The Remains of the Day, John Hughes, the sad death of John Candy, when your child brain evolves to liking complex narratives, The Bride in Black made for-TV movie, Susan Lucci, the strange job of trying to buy life writes of people to make television movies, LifeTime Movies, The USA Network's original comedy line up on Saturdays, Rain Man, Weird Science The Series, Duckman, The Jon Stewart Show, George Carlin's sitcom, ridiculous character names, Snake Pliskin, writing for Hilary Swank, Alaska Daily, The Lost Girl, Letterman's Top 10 Lists, Robin Williams, tonal bizarreness, In the Line of Fire, never seeing cultural touchstone shows, having never seen Mork & Mindy, missing Norman Lear's body of work, The Adventures of Pete and Pete, the ratings game, My So-Called Life Goes On, realizing somebody wrote what you love, blank slate idiots, Stepenwolf, Laury Metcalf, suburbia, visiting filming locations, South Pasadena, re-editing movies in your head while you watch them, re-booting Magnum, Hart to Hart, The Hardy Boys, NOVA, loving procedurals, Bono and Martin Lawrence's live tv potty mouths, and how innocent people are never in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

This week Ken welcomes actor, writer, and all around great human Amy Stoch to the show.

Ken and Amy discuss fabled central time, growing up in Ohio, Love Boat, having a 9pm bedtime, the Clevland Browns, the artistic nature of Clevland, Clevland Playhouse, PhD studies, Mary Martin in Peter Pan, Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, coming into the acting business as a model, Star Search, catalog work, having a sense of humor, how to stand out from the pack, A&P, Rosie O'Donnel, Sinbad, Rebecca Bush, the acting competition on Star Search, the power of a live audience, being discovered, moving to LA for the first time, going out on audictions, the good old days of Hollywood, seeing behind the scenes, walking Hollywood Blvd, The Hollywood Hills, Chicago, how the pros always fly into Burbank, how commercial work has changed, the power of unions, being paid for your work, Chicago productions, taking the time to look back and recognize all the cool things you've gotten to do, working with Andy Griffith, Gunsmoke, how amazing James Arness is, being able to give back to your parents through your work, having a comedic apetitude, Summer School, working with Carl Reiner, the Bill &Ted series, Soul Man, Steve Miner, seeing Barbara Streisand, when they film in Boston, being killed off on Days of Our Lives, being allowed to improv, the new smart dumb genre ushered in in the late 80s, doing or not doing nudity on film, being credited as "girl in bed", keeping momentos from your work, getting your script signed by everyone you worked with, the difference between movie and TV acting, having women behind the scenes on your side as advocates, and how different the entertainment world is today. 

Radio Times UK May 29 - June 4, 1993

This week Ken welcomes YouTuber, maker, do-er and fellow horror fan Dan Does to the show.

Be sure to follow Dan on YT https://www.youtube.com/@Dan_Does/

Ken and Dan discuss road tripin' in America, The Hitcher, driving, Roger Ebert's review of The Hitcher, royalty, The Queen, TV Times, Wales editions of the Radio Times, Jubilees, growing up in Essex in South East London, being a miserable teen, how Ken is so much older than everyone, punk rock, playing guitar, Robbie Williams, Take That, odd haircuts, Busted, The Fight for Market Basket, loving supermarkets, hating for profit businesses, making obscure horror creatures, Spookies, From Beyond, jiggle Mr. Barlow, The Brain, Funny Man, Gremlins, flame throwers, Little Devils: The Birth, Rawhead Rex, Ken's grandfather's non-verbal review of The Exorcist on VHS, Halloween in the UK, "Penny for the Guy", ghost stories, how Christmas in the UK is all about spooky ghosts, when horror films get shown, Killer Tongue, Ken's cut off point for Japanese Anime, Parenthood the TV series, no not that one, the first one, BBC Radio, FAST, Stroke jokes, carnies, Alton Towers, hating fun fairs and rinky dink rides, John Carpenter's Vampires, how James Woods can never replace Kurt Russell, but Kurt Russell could replace James Woods, Simpsons cameos, Deadwood, class distinction, Singers and Swingers, Birds of a Feather, "common" accents, racist comedians, Les Dawson, how absolutely amazing Bob Mortimer and Vic Reeves are, Shooting Stars, Abel Ferrara, Driller Killer, Harvey Keite's schlong, The Good Sex Guide, dirty Teddy Ruxpin, US candy vs US candy, owning a sweet shop, how parents handle kids being bullied, did IT rip off The Perils of Punky from Punky Brewster?, horrifying PSAs, Red Dwarf, Kate Bush's Experiment IV, The Comic Strip, The Young Ones, US remakes of UK shows, and the strangeness of Today's Headlines. 

It's an annual tradition as Ken goes week by week through the last year and tells you all the dirt. PLUS Listener questions and a preview of 2025!

This week to celebrate the Holidays Ken welcomes Taffeta Darling back to the show.

Ken and Taffeta fullfill their greatest Christmas wishes as they browese three, count em THREE Sears Wishbooks, from 1983, 1989 and 1994 and each pick 12 gifts they would like from that year.

Follow along by snagging the PDFs of these catalogs for FREE if you are a Patron over at patreon.com/tvguidancecounselor

Happy Holidays!

July 21-27, 1990

This week Ken welcomes film producer and host of the Hollywood Gold podcast, Daniela Taplin Lundberg.

Ken and Daniela discuss growing up in show business with an actress mother and producer father, producing Mean Streets, La Bamba, hating Coach, Murphy Brown, Action Jackson, the teen TV stars of the 80s and 90s, Hollywood poor, going to events for the food, Doogie Howser PI, the movie guide in the back of TV Guide, Premiere Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Tom Hanks, Bosom Buddies, telling stories you think make you look good that don't actually make you look good, Different World, Wonder Years, Square Pegs, Northern Exposure, Beauty and the Beast, The Facts of Life, backdoor pilots, Ken's trivia weak points, TV Horror Hosts, NBC Pictures, target audiences, SNL's best cast, Life Goes On, Our House, Newhart, The Elliot comedy legacy (Bob, Chris, Abbey, Bridey), loving thirtysomething and Sisters, Battle of the Network Stars, Who's the Boss, Living Dolls, Mona, Charmed, Head of the Class, Hollywood it couples, Brad Pit, not connecting with Neil Patrick Harris, Silver Spoons, Jason Bateman, Ricky Schroeder being mean to you, Cosby, Grand, mid-season replacements, loving Bonnie Hunt, disliking Full House, being social on Friday Nights, Miami Vice, the beauty of Crime Story, before they were stars, the greatness of not binging shows, and My So-Called Life. 

December 8-14, 1979

This week Ken welcomes former Farside singer/guitarist, voice actor, and all around good dude Popeye Vogelsang to the show.

Ken and Popeye discuss disrespecting the Fonz, leaving a legacy, where Potsy and Ralph Malph ended up, knocking out Paulie Shore, nicknames, ADR, voicing for video games, smoking, putting allen wrenches in cigarette filters, low tar, lower tar, even lower tar, growing up in Orange County, 80s SoCal punk rock, Watt, being innocent, Dick Cavett, SCTV, the greatness of Dave Thomas, Christmas with Cigarettes, how all women love Robert Redford, The Jane Fonda Workout, piledriving, non-sequitur movie ads, "coming this Christmas", Norman Fell, putting two names in alphabetical order incorrectly, Hanna Barbera characters singing We Are Family, Farrah Fawcett and Jeff Bridges in the beloved Christmas classic "Somebody Killed Her Husband", candlepin bowling, The Return of the Pink Panther, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, being confused by Heart playing with Smokey Robinson and Olivia Newton John, A Charlie Brown Christmas, 8-Tracks, menthol, getting interviewed by Ali G, Surgeon General C. Everett Coop, Happy Days, The Wild Wild World of Animals, Fight or Flight, Lorenzo Lamas, Chuck Berry's weirdness, Real People vs That's Incredible, whistling through your navel, washing coins, Donahue after dark, Doug Henning, how you can't top Martin Short, boxing head injuries, Laverne and Shirley, the god like powers of Michael McKeon, Lenny and the Squigtones, Dom DeLuise, renting VHS tapes to Donny Osmond, Rockford Files, Jaws 2, Summer Without Boys, 30 Minutes: the kids version of 60 minutes, the Christmas miracle of Adam Rich, subversion on television, how massive Hart to Hart was in the UK, being a Presto household, never having to do laundry thanks to promotional t-shirts, and the value of just screwing around. 

This week Ken welcomes the fantastic author (The Keeper, The Reformatory, The Wishing Pool), Screenwriter (The Twilight Zone), educator and producer Tananarive Due to the show.

Ken and Tananarive discuss how they are doing these days, how allegory serves marginalized people, genre pieces, growing up in Florida, reading your first Stephen King novel at 16 (The Shining), Nancy Drew, Encyclopedia Brown, the golden age of sitcoms, Columbo, Emergency!, recognizing an indigenous person on TV, when Emergency 1 was replaced by CHiPs, when a show that isn't a show for kids becomes a kid's show, Randolph Mantooth, writing fan fiction, out of control foley on Dragnet, hyper real fire fighting, loving it when the lead character gets injured, using your journalism credentials to interview Randolph Mantooth, no answering fan mail, Satanists, Starksy and Hutch, learning story structure, sad sitcoms, playing TV themes on keyboards, Good Times, being raised by civil rights activists, ripped from the headlines plots, representation on TV, how 1970s TV may have been more progressive than today's TV, Made for-TV Movies, Roots, Holocaust, V, pitching a fascist takeover of the united states, Donald Mantooth, The Seekers, Kliph Nesteroff's books, The Night Stalker, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, how human evil is the scariest, not understanding the motivation of hate, Jordan Peele, laughting through the end of the world, Get Out!, the comedy and horror connection, how hard it is to break into show running, the difficulty of getting ANYTHING on television, Horror Noir, how to pitch, Fugue State, Tony Todd (RIP), the greatness and intent behind Stephen King's work, Japanese Animated Horror, Pokerface, Elsbeth, needing to watch stand up to unwind and Ken's Candyman/Good Times mashup.

April 11 -16 , 2004

This week Ken welcomes Bridge 9 Records and Sully Brands impresario Chris Wrenn to the show.

Ken and Chris discuss their shared Boston punk rock history, the 2004 Red Sox World Series victory, regional variations, Ken's complete lack of sports knowledge, very specific niches, T-shirts that are hard to explain, building a community space, the sports punk rock overlap in Boston, vending outside of Fenway park, how weirdly horny 2004 was, JJ Jackson's death, being stuck in traffic outside a game, John Sayles, indecency on television, the Janet Jackson Justin Timberlake Superbowl incident, the Red Sox vs Yankees rivalry, the long history of novelty sporting sayings in New England, Stephen King's book about the 2004 Red Sox season, Fever Pitch, The Celtics, Mel Gibson, Quantum Leap, Outlander, the TV on DVD phenomenon, offensive cigarette discount stores, Ms Pac Man, Running your own dorm room video store, Gilmore Girls, working at Tower Records, making art projects, Yao Ming, when terrible things make money, The Town, DIY ethos, when TV Guide switched formats, and Romeo Must Die. 

May 2-8, 1981

This week Ken welcomes the amazingly talented artist, painter, and kindred spirit Eric White to the show.

Ken and Eric discuss mutual friend Moon Zappa, BYOTVG, Eric's last solo show in NYC, worshiping garbage, saving things meant to be thrown away, Made for TV movies, Someone I Touched, Real People, That's Incredible!, Jefferson's flashbacks, prog rock, a mythical 1970s, TV things that terrified us as children, 1973, Chaka, The Kroft Bros, SCTV, magazine design, SNL, making deals with your parents to watch TV, Jim Henson, the mystery of Central time, Solid Gold, not having a subscription to TV Guide, CHiPs, Ripley's Believe it or Not, Jacque Cousteau, nature shows, streaming, the bizarre first year of SNL, Mr. Bill, WFMU's Best Show, things that only aired once, Archie Bunker in the electric chair, Sharpling and Wurster, the infamous episode of Too Close for Comfort, the infamous episode of Little House, Dick Cavet, Iggy Pop and Bowie on Dinah Shore, the trauma of the final episode of M*A*S*H, Charles Nelson Riley, Lady Elaine Fairchild, not knowing who bought your paintings, Star Trek, Happy Days, Night Gallery, the paintings from Night Gallery, the complicated TV watching politics involved in navigating divorced parents, Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Sha Na Na, the creepy real life end of Bob Crane, how sad The Architects of Fear episode of The Outer Limits is, the opening credits to Mystery, Edward Gorey, Mork and Mindy, Waltons, renting a VCR, Blade Runner, being obsessed with miniatures, Barney Miller, Sneak Previews, and the glory days of PBS. 

FALL PREVIEW ALERT

FALL PREVIEW September 13-19, 1997

This week Ken welcomes certified TV Genius, Saint behind the Strategic Sitcom Reserve, the man behind the Sitcom People Twitter and co-host of the Random Access Television Podcast, Zach Wilson. 

Ken and Zach discuss Plex, the Jackie Thomas Show, the mystery of how Zach found TVGC, how sometimes things just make sense, Zach's early love of comedy and sitcoms, capsule reviews, jumping from show to show, the "no more than 10 episodes" rule, Suddenly Susan, NBC's late 90s Monday Night Lineup, The Naked Truth, Ken's love of Tea Leoni, the bizarre second season opening of Working, George and Leo, Sleepwalker, 90s Marvel Comics, Kurt Fuller, The Good Wife, The Good Fight, the end of Saturday Night action shows, The Profiler, The Pretender, chasing that Law & Order Money, Total Security, Ed O'Neal, all the James Browns, the weird horniness of 90s Rolling Stone, The Mystery Science Theater Hour, Ally McBeal the half hour sitcom, not getting Ken started on Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr, the tv to movies transition, Eugene Levy, people overlooking people being awful people if they like their show, the trend of sitcoms about people trying to make it in Hollywood, when everyone wanted to be the Gen X Dick Van Dyke show, when drama drags down sitcoms, Tony Danza, Taxi, John Larroquette Show, The Walking Dead, Between Brothers, US remakes of UK shows, Coupling, when a Scott Baio show was so bad it was canceled before it even aired, having never watched the US Office, Meego, Step by Step, Gregory Hines, the late days of TGIF, You Wish, Larry King falling asleep on the air, Crimes of Passion: One Hot Summer Night, real made for TV movies or fake made for TV Movies, Dean Cain, confusing Gary Busey and Nick Nolte, Jack Elam, The Emmys, True Lies, hitting the bottle, bringing your own TV Guide, Michael Palin's travel specials, how Al and Wilson are great sitcom characters that redeem Home Improvement, how Zach doesn't love 80s punk, Wings, how Bonnie Hunt never clicked with Zach, SCTV, Clifford, Space Ghost Coast to Coast and how it changed the world, only playing characters that have the same name as you do, The Pits, the weird decline of multi cam sitcoms, the laziness of cutaways, Superior Donuts, and Zach's fantastic podcast Random Access Television.