TV Guidance Counselor

February 12-18, 1994 This week Ken travels back to Valentine's week 1994 with the great human and very funny comedian behind the new album "Mixed and Confused" (available everywhere great digital albums are sold/streamed), Christine Little. Ken and Christine discuss if we really want to know how people are doing in 2025, stomach issues, cutting your own hair, funeral barbers, Boyz II Men, weird perverted graphic layout cover artists, Nancy Kerrigan, ice skating, getting "Pullout" on the cover, Ask TV Guide, where the college from Beverly Hills 90210 is located, what pony tailed guys on TV are ok to punch, Luke Perry, 8 Seconds, riding mechanical bulls, posters on your walls, dying doing what you love to do, posthumiously being embarrassed, drunken actors, Lenox Crystal cats, Boomerang, The Mommies, getting a development deal, Sisters, Bone Thungs n Harmony, Schitt's Creek, Charles Bronson Pinchot, Living Single, 900 numbers, Pee Wee Hockey Dads fighting in Boston area parking lots after games, writing your own theme song, graduating in the future, live on television executions, being into psycho-sexual thrillers, Sliver, mail fraud, Fresh Prince of Bel Aire, Point Break, Blankman, Fabio playing Cupid, birds flying into Fabio's face, bird blood, teen idol Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson's house chores, Police Acadamy, Melrose Place, Andrew Shue and how he's persuing a propect doing very well and his kids are very happy, The Truman Show, Jim Carrey, In Living Color, people you know into erotic asphyxiation, Wonder Years, Family Matters, Married...with Children, Hanging with Mr. Cooper, Kids in the Hall, The State, waiting on Fred Savage, waiting on Stephen King, and the gross brilliant nature of The Substance.

Travel back a decade ago, to 2015 as we go week by week through the high highs (and the shocking low lows, some Trigger Warning here re: trauma, suicide, abuse etc, about half way through) of 2015. Is it the year the show peaked? You be the judge.

April 18-24, 1998 This week Ken welcomes actor, producer, director, writer Gregory Lay. Ken and Gregory discuss growing up as a TV Guide guy, calling out sick to school for game shows, cultural markers, pop culture reflections, making the case for what you like, Press Your Luck, Classic Concentration, Savage Steve Holland, One Crazy Summer, why Late Night talk shows are totally useless now, access to stars, actors who started on TV, George Clooney, Elizabeth Shue, Michelle Pfeiffer in Delta House, Meritt Ultra Lights, pay TV channels, Break Down with Kurt Russell, being forever disturbed by Pet Semetary, The Omen, Backdraft, being terrrified of The Incredible Hulk, how people can't stop talking like Hunter S. Thompson or Jeff Goldblum when they hang out with either, failed pilot "My Dad with the President's Daughter", how we'd vote for Dabney Coleman for president, E! True Hollywood Story: Bob Crane, how the X-Files CLEARLY didn't have a plan, the fake Dukes, The Moonlighting problem, realism vs. escapism, shows with all bad people, Shelly Long and Robert Hayes returning to sitcoms, The Brady Bunch films, how irony can be done well, The Prophecy, all the weird religious films around the turn of the Century, Presumed Innocent, when Leslie Neilson stopped being funny (hint: It's when he started to think he was funny), The Omega Man, Frankenstein, Top Gun, the 30th Anniversary of Friends, movies that don't hold up, movies that DO hold up, Steven Segal, Jurrasic Park, CGI, when stories are thrown by the wayside, how Dark City is The Matrix if it was good, being trapped in an elevator, Beyond Belief, memes, Scott Baio's complete lack of selfawareness and reality, Pumpkinhead, Stan Winston, hating crossovers, and why P. Diddy was a sack of garbage even BEFORE we learned about him being a sexual deviant assaulting waste of humanity.

May 19-25, 1979 This week Ken welcomes comedian and old buddy Allen Strickland Williams to the show. Ken and Allen discuss Nick at Nite, Laverse and Shirley, Barney Miller, what kids watch now, Perfect Strangers, Doral II, no tar = small junk, Pall Mall decisions, disco and pyschotic breaks, Fresh sexy t-shirts, AYDS, PBS funding, Mr. Rogers, Jimmy Carter's press secretary's thoughts on Reagan, Dick Cavett, Ed McMahon, Carson, The Amazing Randi, Rubes, miracle secrets for your less attractive wife, El Producto Cigars, CHiPs, Evil Evel Kinevel, Ghost Rider, Ralph Bakshi's The Hobbit sponsored by Xerox, Cool World, faking it til you makin it, Glenn Supper, prog rock, The New Riders of the Purple Sage, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, The Brothers Johnson, Ruth Buzzy on Wayne Newston's having a good time, Guiness Book of World Records, the most women kissed in an 8 hour period, the debut of This Old House, Scared Straight, Oscar Winners, The Golden Age of Variety Shows, Quiz Show, Joker's Wild, A Vacation In Hell, Maureen McCormick, After the Bomb, documentaries on Human Sexuality, Benny Hill Street Blues, In Search of..., Gary Marshall, Lenny and the Squigtones, Ralph Nader, when Tongues Start Wagging, Friends of Eddie Coyle, Dinah Shore, the Beegees parents, That's Incredible!, Real People, Vega$, "Dan Tanna", Barney Miller's terrible font, failed pilots, being terrified of Alan King, loving Robert Mitchum, Gallagher, Bridgetown Comedy Festival, The Rockford Files, drag races with James Garner, Candlepins for Cash, Candlepin Bowling, Eric Estrada: Aztec God, creepy K-Mart ads, not getting the joke "This Beats Flying", and creepy sexy ads.

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.