Lies, “Lunch”, and…’Lationships

They say to let sleeping dogs lie…I say let’s dig up the present!

    A story that starts out talking about BUT-A-FOO-KOH (someone I didn’t really know much about until writing this) uses a simple “screw-up” to scratch the surface of the staff of WNYX. While I won’t waste time talking about what’s up with Mr. B, it is interesting to see what is going on with our old friends from NewsRadio.  

“...a good boss has got to loosen up every now and then...”

DAVE FOLEY (Foley Twitter) - (Canadian!) If you didn’t know this yet…well, surprise. He did a movie finishing this year, called Live Nude Girls…I didn’t really look too deeply into this one, it looked straight to the point. But Mr. Foley in this one plays a guy named ‘Harry.’ Pretty fantastic details, huh?! Also this year he makes cameos in Hot in Cleveland, The Middle, & Justified. Recently, he started a role on a Canadian TV show, Spun Out, where he’s THE BOSS at a PR firm.  Guess what…his name is ‘Dave’ again! Heheh, and something I find reminiscent of NewsRadio is that one of his co-characters on this show is named ‘Nelson’…methinks it a secret reference! …or not.

MAURA TIERNEY - She is in The Affair this year. Maura Tierney is also on Broadway with Tom Hanks in Lucky Guy, the story of a New York tabloid columnist. It’s nice to see her back on the stage after her hiatus from acting after breast cancer treatment as her workload seems to have decreased. Maura news on chemo

STEPHEN ROOT – 7 Chinese Brothers, Fargo (TV), Turn, Adventure Time (my niece’s favorite), Justified, Dreamworks Dragons, Idiotsitter, Kung Fu Panda…he’s EVERYWHERE!! Stephen Root is THE MAN! Seems like you can find him on any show you watch and he is always different—definitely not one to be pigeon-holed. Many faces of Root

ANDY DICK (ADick Twitter) – He is currently a part of Run Like the Devil, Hollywood Friends, Deadly Punkettes, L.A. Slasher, Life Coach, a guest on Tom Green Live, he’s in Live Nude Girls with Dave Foley, and (get excited now) Sharknado 2…yeah they’re filming another one. I’m just waiting for a weekend of sharks in a tornado, snakes on a plane, and old ladies feeding giant alligators in their backyards! Heck, if we’re lucky “they’ll” mix ‘em all together into one “great” flick. Mr. Dick has been said that he has been making big changes in his life, as he stated while on Dancing With The Stars (my mom loves that show) however he seemed to have a “run-in” with security there recently. Just this month, at the 2^nd installment of the 21 Jumpstreet movie series (22 Jumpstreet) premiere, Andy Dick showed up yet appeared to be quite civil.

JOE ROGAN (Rogan Podcast) – A couple episodes of Meat Eater, of course a commentator for UFC, he has his stand-up, and The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast. He is well versed in the world of MMA, which always reminds me of the NewsRadio episode in which he and Matthew enter the so-called “Octagon of Horror.”   (Rogan Twitter)

KHANDI ALEXANDER (Khandi Community Facebook) – She is working on a film about blues artist Bessie Smith, The Case Against Sam, and TV series Scandal. She also spent a successful few years on Treme, a rough and tough post-Katrina story.

VICKI LEWIS (Vicki Twitter)- Lewis jumps out on the TV this year in Complete Works, Turbo Fast, Doll & Em, and See Dad Run. Also she has plans to do voice work in a Finding Nemo sequel in 2016 called Finding Dory, something sure to draw in the kinder-crowd.  Upcoming V. Lewis Movie

PHIL HARTMAN (Hartman Fan Twitter) – I miss him. You miss him. I can’t see his acts without laughing then getting a little silent…he was posthumously awarded a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2012, and he is now finally due to receive one on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame as well, later this year.

“Case-in-point me, I’m half loaded right now!”

 “and that’s ‘Where they are now’ with Matthew Brock!”

    Well, back to talking specifically this 2^nd episode…or the 1^st, depending on how you look at it. Matthew leaves everybody speechless for accidentally dropping the F-bomb on the air repeatedly. This is where we get to see the beginnings of everybody’s relationships: Dave & Lisa, Bill & Catherine, Jimmy & Joe, Matthew & Beth… Dave and Lisa are just one of the obvious ones, as the title of the episode, ‘Inappropriate’ defines their relationship in the workplace…literally. Bill snaps at Dave as he and Catherine go back and forth throughout the episode fighting about Catherine’s birthday. It turns out, he says, it’s all due to their “secret office romance” from four years prior. It’s funny, that happened to be a topic the writers often considered turning into a side story…could’ve been interesting. Would it have been funny? 

 "...case-in-point me! I'm half-loaded right now."

    Jimmy and Joe seem to be opposite sides of the same coin, as they both claim to have gone to college just for partying only later to drop out; however, Joe appears to have drawn the short straw in that deal. Matthew and Beth are odd…literally. They don’t do anything. And not in the way that the rest of the staff doesn’t do anything. Yeah Beth gets coffee and Matthew is on the air at the beginning of THIS episode, buttttttttt… they are two of the employees that seem to know nothing, and get paid next to nothing, left to live off of Saltines and ketchup packet soup. This episode also brought to mind (in a comical and serious manner) the way people lie. Beth catches Dave’s “tell” as he fidgets with his tie (Foley happens to be a big fan of poker apparently) which causes him to leak certain details about his developing relationship with Lisa and unsuccessfully augmenting his attire accordingly. Of course there’s conflict everywhere but in the end Dave and Lisa find a way to lie to the entire staff. The scratch on the surface of the WNYX staff reveals lies, monstrous wealth, hidden romance, and what seems to be a pretty tight knit group of crazy people. Analysis is……good times, and thank God for a group like this getting together even for a little while.

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WNYX Piloting Success: The Pilot

"Pick it up Dave."

 

These are just words and words cannot make up for seeing the actual episodes…especially an episode on a show where we see nobody actually doing their jobs.

    Dave Foley almost wasn’t Dave. Joe Rogan almost wasn’t Joe. Stephen Root almost wasn’t Mr. Jimmy James! NewsRadio almost wasn’t the WNYX we know and love. Stephen Root created a new “bent guy” for Zbornak & Simms for the Jimmy James character. Then there’s Rick…and the actor who was NOT cast (I will leave you to do a touch of research as to what big actor it was)…it just seems that Joe was perfect as the Rick/Joe character...I dunno, maybe that's just me. Once you find out who the actor was to be 'Rick' you can almost see an entirely different show slowly develop around them…kind of a bizarro world. The characters each handpicked, what some may see as happenstance or accident, or chance, I think ended up painting a great five season portrait.

    When we meet Dave, he is trying to get to work exactly on time...(GPS here anybody?) He arrives at WNYX as a frantic squirrel; or a deer in the headlights only to spaz-out in front of the current soon-to-be fired news director, Ed, whose position Dave is there to fill. Dave tries to “jokingly” convince Ed to trade jobs while Ed unknowingly is guilting Dave with his note about the job giving him “full medical” and the job taking his mind off of the pain. We get Rick’s foresight about Dave & Lisa’s relationship with his crack about the production booth (“well hello young lovers”) and Lisa’s foresight about her managerial position change…although her timing is way off. We get to see Dave as a fresh-faced, mild-mannered, thrown into the deep-end-of-the-pool kind of guy. When we meet Bill, he is shown to be manipulative and a ready liar (“I’ve heard good things about you…I heard your demo tape…clean delivery”) and the fact that he has an excellent ear and eerie insight into Dave. Jimmy is enjoyably flippant with his wealth (“Buying a sports store, or rather buying the whole chain”, “I own a lot of Euro-Disney”) and comes back with various sports equipment through the episode.

"Do the pandas make any kind of noise that would be interesting on the radio?"

    As the pilot moves on, Dave happily takes the smooth way out as Ed gets fed up and “quits,” instead of Dave firing him as ordered. Mr. James continues to exercise his goofy nature with a tennis racket and Matthew his emotional instability and inability to keep secrets. (Dave tries to build confidence in his new staff by telling Matthew about the coming regime change and covering for Lisa) Beth’s few words show her carelessness and as one with some sort of odd “street smarts” in the neighborhood of acting crazy and beating prisoners with chairs (personal favorite of mine). Bill’s attempts to help Dave while he's in the booth are the bare minimum--and probably only to keep his talent at top key and in the spotlight. The great hilarity and “power of Dave” come to show when Dave gets “fired” by Ed and enters his office to explain “the meaning of irony.”   (Network notes stated that the “kid’s gotta have a victory” at the end of each episode—which we get to see here—and in further Dave/Jimmy, Dave/Lisa moments.)   We can always count on Matthew to break tension with what should be made a common day “–ism” (Matthewisms/being a "SPAZ") when he states that it is always sad when a member of the family has to be terminated… a way that only a character like Matthew could formulate thoughts. It seems that they appear in every episode and have kept me laughing for years. After Dave gets pelted with a paper ball, the previously silent place-holder for Catherine Duke says her one and only not so memorable line for this episode. Bill now shows himself to be willing to do anything to keep his job, from “sucking up to backstabbing” (as he puts it). Even with his lack of lines in this episode, his confident acting spills over with comic genius. Ed exits the office and shows his complete lack of knowledge of radio as Matthew and even Rick know more about what’s going on!

 "Hiring, firing...…what have you."

    As the pilot comes to a close, Mr. James comes to speak to Dave and of course Dave sees the world through rose colored glasses (for now), but Mr. James seems to see it as more of a wacky game he is playing with his little puppets. Lisa enters and overflowing with confidence in her future as WNYX’s next news director, she and Dave have their first of many awkward moments (a Dave Foley addition). Last of all, things come full circle as a new employee introduces himself to Dave—the newly settled news director—and introduces himself as Jeff Adams, “the new guy, sports,” Dave’s previous cover job to take Ed’s place. An ending to a pilot recorded roughly 3 months AFTER the rest of the pilot, yet executed with seamless hilarity as Dave Nelson can only imagine his entire day looping over again with him as the firee! More news after this!

God bless the year 1995 and the staff of WNYX, a living memorial to Phil Hartman!

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The News about WNYX

    “Why ‘NewsRadio?’” you ask…well instead of the simple answer of “Why not?” I will go back 14 years ago when I saw the show for the very first time. It had been recorded off of the television onto videotape in an attempt to preserve its awesomeness (and to skip the commercials). This was back before 9/11, it was the year of Y2K (nothing happened so people had a bunch of survival crap stored up), I enjoyed it with “the champagne of beers” and the sarcasm was addictive immediately! ...the sarcasm of the show, not the beer. 

    I only really recognized one actor the first time I watched, and that was Mr. Phil Hartman. Bill reminded me of his ridiculous SNL characters like ‘Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer,’ his commercials for ‘Colon Blow,’ and all the voice over work he did on ‘The Simpsons.’ But soon I became a fan of all the NewsRadio cast. Of Dave, Joe, Andy…I saw them everywhere! Vicki Lewis I remember seeing in ‘Godzilla’ of all places! Not to mention Stephen Root! He was all over the place!! It was great! I recognized Maura Tierney from ‘Liar Liar’ and ‘E.R.’; Andy Dick from ‘In the Army Now’; we all know Joe Rogan from 'UFC', ‘Fear Factor', and of course his stand-up. Khandi Alexander moved on to roles a little more “scientific,”(also cast on E.R. & on CSI) but I still saw her on smaller office comedies like ‘Better Off Ted.’ Most people knew Jon Lovitz from SNL, although he also had a cartoon where he almost seemed to play as Max Lewis—were Max actually a “foodie” as he so eloquently claimed on NewsRadio. Dave Foley also had a recurring medical character role on the comedy ‘Scrubs’ as a happy-go-lucky therapist…kind of a “drunk Dave” character, it seemed, heh heh. But all that these shows did was remind me of good ol’ NewsRadio and how much I missed that whole bunch…

    So, over the next roughly 3 months, I will be looking back over each episode independently giving them each some due attention. I do not ask that the show be remade or changed in any way, it is great! I only ask that those who have forgotten about it take another look and maybe introduce some friends and family. I will see you all at Jimmy’s small town radio station up where the real news is made! For those of you who decide to stop at this point here and trek no further…have fun with Matthew and Dave back in NYC. God Bless!!

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SPRING DISCOUNT!!!

Discount for game at ChooChoo8MitMit with coupon code " EASTER15 ", I noticed all of the craziness on AMAZON and it's apparently spring madness!!! Anywho, yeah, the discount lasts until Easter (4/20/14) for all who are interested! I checked out KEENE/FX as well and they are doing some discounts on their items as well. Kudos to all, have a great spring and Easter!