TV Guidance Counselor

Today Ken welcomes actor Donovan Scott (Police Academy, Popeye, Sheena) to the show. Ken and Donovan discuss California weather, Robin Hood, San Francisco, playing as a kid, why Saturday was the best day, cartoons, Popeye, The Little Rascals, Laurel and Hardy, Lassie, Fury, The Wonderful World of Disney, a life in the theater, variety shows, Zen Boogie, Red Skelton, physical comedy, Martha Ray, drinking with Martha Ray in Vietnam, the Navy, Jimmy Stewart, Mary Tyler Moore, Lynda Carter's two big specials, Faerie Tail Theater, Lily Tomlin, The Incredible Shrinking Woman, being an early VHS adopter, Better Midler, 1941 with Steven Spielberg, X-Files, Alakazam the Great, Frankie Avalon, a love of Christmas specials, playing Santa, Mr. MaGoo, The Bishop's Wife, the TV vs Movie actor divide, Shelley Duvall, Robert Altman's Popeye, Robin Williams, South American Top Cat, playing the moon, Lou Costello, Tatum O'Neal, Zorro The Gay Blade, Police Academy, Sheena, Marc Singer in V, children's cartoons based on R rated movies, Savannah Smiles, Mark Miller, Life with Lucy, Lucille Ball, Maui, directing movies in Soviet Russia, fighting a woman over a toilet seat, being dubbed in a foreign language, Night of the Meek, being a modern day Art Carney, Miracle on 34th St, Santa Claus the Movie, a love of Sci-Fi, Stranger Things, Fringe, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Homeboys in Outer Space, Buster Keaton, and working with animals.

April 26th - May 2, 1997 Today Ken welcomes comedian and Roast Battle Champion Mike Lawrence to the show. Ken and Mike discuss teenage years, the 13th floor, being stuck in a Fraternity Conference, The McGinley Curse, Married...with Children, watching TV with Dad, television's role with divorced parents, the horrors of seeing movies with your own money, Counting Crows' August and Everything After, Soul Asylum's Grave Dancer's Union, Star Wars The Phantom Menace, Sweeps Week, Tom Hanks, Cindy Crawford, The WB, UPN, the golden age of Fox Television's Sunday Night Lineup, 1990's The Flash, Captain Cold, comic books on TV, "The Hulk Out List", Pirates of Darkwater, pre-8am Saturday Morning Cartoons, Marvel Action Universe, Fantastic Four as cartoons, Batman the Animated Series, ComicCon, Justice League, Daffy Duck as the best character, Animaniacs, why The New Doug is like cutting, Superman, The Mask vs Ace Ventura, Goosebumps, Waynehead, Life with Louie, The Tick, budget restraints, CBS Storybreak, Cleopatra 2025, Hercules, Xena, Thunder in Paradise, Rob Reiner, The Simpsons, Mr. Sparkle, Unhappily Ever After, Steve Harvey, King of the Hill, Bullethead, being into big fat black guys, CGI Gimmicks, Robert Englund as the Devil, Ink, Alex Desert, Nickelodeon, Homeboys in Outer Space, The Drew Carey Show as the Blue Collar Seinfeld, Smart Guy, Thelma Frye, Sherman Helmsley, Amen, The Wayans Brothers, series finale stunts, Rock N Roll Gymnastics, Seinfeld, Unsolved Mysteries, cyber stalkers, Step by Step, Forever Night and being terrified of Millennium before the Millennium.

In this very special Holiday Episode Ken welcomes returning guest Myq Kaplan to the show to discuss the Jewish television experience around the Holidays. Ken and Myq discuss their friendship, returning, vegan squeaky toys, turkey trots, contraception vs conceptual, Howie Mandel's rubber glove incident, neglecting the Jews, hannukkah, cultural Christmas, Atheism, Pump N Pray, brain radios, The Big Bang, String Theory, New Jersey, private school, Christmas Pageants, 8 Crazy Nights, The OC, Chinese Food and Movies, Consumerism, helping the less fortunate, hating labels, KISS's Love Gun, Non-PC "Merry Christmas", not being "into" happiness, doing it "for the children", Brooklyn Bridge, how Boston Jews begat Boston Irish, looking Jewish, virgin births, Picket Fences, Lois and Clark - The New Adventures of Superman meeting The Jeffersons, redemption of villainy, The War on Christmas, Gary Gulman, Jewish Carols, Christmas Songs, Chinese Restaurants, Love Actually, why Myq and Unaccompanied Minor reminds Ken of Christmas, Die Hard, universal messages, Christmas Death Squad, irredeemables, A Hobo Christmas, homelessness, A Buffy The Vampire Slayer Spike Christmas message, Friends' Thanksgiving Episodes, Nathan Lane's Racist Vaudeville SNL sketch, society's lack of context and intent, Objectivism, Ayn Rand as ruiner of society, Steve Ditko's Mr. A, and why he can do it but you can't.

This week Ken welcomes actress Kelli Maroney (Chopping Mall, Night of the Comet) to the show. Ken and Kelli discuss Boston accents, losing your native accent through paying old women to fall asleep, Minnesota, Shakespeare, Ryan's Hope, Manhattan, Soap Opera snobbishness, 50s New York vs. 80s New York, Night of the Comet, being the inspiration for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Jim Wynorski, being Kimberly, improving with F. Murray Abraham and William H. Macy, impostor syndrome, Family Feud, being a master of quiet suppression, Maria Bamford, Prince, Star Trek, The Brady Bunch, watching old black and white movies with your mom, Hollywood Glamour, Bette Davis, Mary Woronov, Chopping Mall, Barbara Crampton, keeping your personal life personal, Law and Order, marathoning television when you're sick, innovation in low budget movies, ripped from the headlines, cannon fodder, the original Dawn of the Dead's superiority to the remake, After School Specials, Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic, Scott Baio is Stoned, the convention circuit, YouTube stars, the importance of Unions, being branded as an "80s actress", and the 21st Century's aversion to story development.

December 21 -27, 1974 Today Ken welcomes musician and sometimes actress Britta Phillips to the show. Ken and Britta discuss subscribing to TV Guide, being limited to two hours a day of television, constantly moving, growing up in Eastern Pennsylvania, being a shy kid, childhood fist fights, pro-hippies, having a huge Christmas Celebration, favorite Christmas Carols, Sleigh Bells, variety shows, All In the Family, Norman Lear, poverty on TV, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, Carol Burnett, I Dream of Jeanie vs. Bewitched, The Mod Squad, loving Claire Danes, Peggy Lipton, Herbie Hancock, Manhattan, being really into farms and science, wanting to marry a horse, Flicka, man and beast, The Odd Couple, Family Affair, sophisticated game shows, Gore Vidal, intellectuals on television, David Susskind, Dick Cavett, JEM, singing for a cartoon, Satisfaction, Justine Bateman, Julia Roberts, Dennis Farina, Crime Story, old Las Vegas, Aaron Spelling's Nightingales, Bell Tower, living in the UK, MTV's glory days of music, Scrooge, rewatching Christmas specials over and over again, Rankin Bass Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Albert Finney, good taste in hip hop, working in a heavy metal bar, Anthrax, waiting on Gene Simmons, loving Disco, M.A.S.H., "Suicide is Painless", The Midnight Special, The Cars, being scared of Star Trek, a grandparents' Christmas, The Doctor Who theme, Tony Orlando and Dawn, Land of the Lost, obsession with the Amish, a desire to time travel, The Jetsons, Little House on the Prairie, The Waltons, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, never having been on a cruise ship, 70s cop shows, and the 50 something Golden Girls effect.

March 7-13, 1998 Today Ken welcomes comedian Mark Gallagher to the show. Ken and Mark discuss Ken's collections, the thrill of obtaining things, TV on DVD, depression based purchases, horror video games, Custard's Last Stand, dirty Atari, St. Patrick's Horror, Haverhill, being Burn Notice babysat, John Malkovich, Dawson's Creek, Flash Dad, Michael J. Pollard, Superman, The Funspot, Hercules, Bloopers, Aaron Spelling, Cop Rock, SNICK, lack of bedtime, The Real World Boston, Batman cartoons, Freakazoid, South Park, movie tie-in songs, being raised by Stolen Cable, Sega games, anad Swamp Thing.

Today Ken welcomes writer, actress Angela Featherstone (Friends, Con Air, Dark Angel the Ascent) to the show. Ken and Angela discuss Canadian geography,Guy Madden, Roman Polanski, being a teenage model, Paris, video store education, Fearless Vampire Killers, The Italian Beatles, Hermann Hesse, Bertolucci, Opera, German Radio, learning Japanese, John Woo, forbidden television, Dallas, Black Beauty, Cat People, The Wall, The Story of O, Secretary, brutal movies, the feeling vs the detail, Ray Donovan, Dark Angel The Ascent, The Kids in the Hall, The Chicken Lady, Army of Darkness, Romania, Charles Band, feral countries, quiet internal still acting, Milos Forman, Flopping around, being the copy girl on Friends, Seinfeld, watching yourself, The Wedding Singer, sitcoms, Cracker, avoiding dark material, doing what's best for you, understanding White Trash, Girls, House of Cards, allegories, being a social worker at heart, "floundering", suffering from "dehydration", being a foster child, Children's Action Network, The Heart Gallery, PTSD, people seeing more in you than you see, bitches junkies & whores, Lena Dunham, Jenny Konner, and beautifully damaged sweet people.

On this special Jet Black Friday Holiday edition Ken welcomes author and Christmas TV History expert Joanna Wilson (Tis the Season TV, The Christmas TV Companion, Triple Dog Dare) to the show. Ken and Joanna discuss watching and surviving a 24 hour marathon of A Christmas Story, The Waltons, The House without a Christmas Tree, Sad Christmas vs. Funny Christmas, Scrooged, It's a Wonderful Life, charity, homelessness, being a life long TV junkie, carving out a niche, Rankin Bass, emotional connections to Holiday TV, why holiday and Christmas specials are not just for Christians, Holiday Traditions, Christmas Ghost Stories in the UK, Yule Logs, Cleveland, The Dick Van Dyke Show, the "Show within a Show" sub genre, Variety Shows, Family Ties, The Famous Teddy Z, The Six Million Dollar Man, Spenser for Hire's Hopes and Fears, Bank Robbing Santa Claus on Police Woman, Monsters' Glim Glim, Tales from the Darkside, The Simpsons, shoplifting at Christmas, Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge, learning to appreciate the thought over the gift, Good Times, Bewitched, The Partridge Family in a Western Ghost Town Christmas, personal greetings from your favorite shows, Saturday Night Live's Christmas Merrython, SCTV Christmas, John Waters, Cheers and It's a Wonderful Life, Seinfeld's Festivus, and why The Twilight Zone episode "Night of the Meek" may be the greatest Christmas episode of all time.

May 30- June 5, 2004 Today Ken welcomes comedian and mad about town Sean Tumblety to the show. Ken and Sean discuss New Jersey vs. New Hampshire, 'zines, sexy Gillian Anderson, Cult TV Shows, X-Files, Sean's industrious youth, converting people to Breaking Bad, Ken's insults at Sean for not knowing who Max Headroom is, TV Pirates, studying film, Deja Vu, Pee Wee's Big Adventure Playhouse, Xena, showing your kid movies of your youth, Monty Python, flea market birthdays, Inside the Actor's Studio, Jay Leno, Jackie Chan, Ender's Game, WC Fields, Jaws, Surfing, bedtimes, Antiques Roadshow, comic book collecting, being banned from science experiments, Survivor, Cops attack Mars, Miss Universe, when the Knockin ain't right, 16 Foot Tall Blenders, pimpin', Tarantino movies, finding your true friends, Ninjas, Point Break, atheism, Tom Papa's canceled series, Lost not having a plan, loving snakes, hating teenage girls, the first 5 minutes of an R-Rated Movie, Marked for Death, being scared of dogs, Spanish terror, and the golden age of David Letterman.

May 13-19, 1989 Today Ken welcomes author, comedian, podcaster and filmmaker Negin Farsad to the show. Ken and Negin discuss outdoor podcasts, Harvard University, transcriptions, tax law, living abroad, barista as dream job, French TV, watching US Shows in foreign countries, TV sign offs, The Yule Log, hotel room channels, being politically active, Making White People Laugh, being Muslim, the dark side of American History, Fashion vs Fascism, Iran, growing up in Palm Springs, CA, identifying as African American despite not being African American, A Different World, thirtysomething, My So-Called Life, single vs three camera, How I Met Your Mother, Coupling, watching TV alone, the wonders of sleep timers, insomnia, naughty Golden Girls, clip shows, COPS, sleepovers, SNL, MTV's The Real World, The Tracy Ulman Show, Sunday night movies, Dynasty, Peter Jennings, ABC News, 70s stunts, Murphy Brown, Roseanne, Growing Pains, Cagney and Lacey, Geraldo's longevity, Cheers, Dear John and the cultural amnesia surrounding Beauty and the Beast.