TV Guidance Counselor Episode 86: Bill Janovitz

July 4 -10, 1974

This week Ken welcomes Buffalo Tom frontman Bill Janovitz to the show.

Ken and Bill discuss TV Theme Songs, Bill's writing of the Mike O'Malley theme, Yes Dear, This Old House, growing up in New York, 80s NYC vs 90s NYC, how the gay part of town is always where the interesting stuff is going on, Beverly Hills and it's Welcome Sign, why LA is great, Fabio, Tim Reid (no relation), All in the Family, staying up late in the Summer, three camera sitcoms, how the faux-documentary style is played out, Blackish, the shared experience of television as a kid, Seinfeld, the generation gap, Maureen Stapleton vs. Jean Stapleton, Those Were the Days, Melancholy TV music, TV with multi-generational appeal, Norman Lear, the occasional brutality of 70s family television, VCR culture, quoting movies, gold fish memories, The Jeffersons, the mystery of the Good Times theme song, The Midnight Special, the seeds of wanting to be a rock star, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, SNL, Fear's Halloween Saturday Night Live set, Rock Fantasy Camp with Graham parker, Kate Pierson, Soul Train, My So-Called Life, Why Catwalk, Devo on Square Pegs, why MTV is not the maffia, No Alternative, The Monkees, The Jackson 5, music cartoons, KISS, Tony Orlando and Dawn, 8 Tracks, The Golden age of variety shows, Pink Lady and Jeff, The Brady Kids Variety Hour, Telma Hopkins, The Osmonds, the creepy nature of Little Jimmy Osmond, Linda Carter, Ann Margaret, Wild Kingdom, The Wonderful World of Disney, Adventures in Satan's Canyon, 70s obsession with canyons, Battle of the Network Stars, Suzanne Somers running around, Dan Hagerty's pecs, ESPN's World's Strongest Man competitions, Kojak, 70s TV noir, adding homicide to arson, Alex Rocco, why Facts of Life is Ken's Kevin Bacon, Candid Camera, Bloopers, watching football bloopers on 8mm at the library, Maude, Rhoda, Norman Lear, Bill's textbook deadpan, the sexless-ness of Maude, Happy Days vs. Good Times, bongos, Dynamite Magazine, Barnaby Jones, Hawaii Five-O, Welcome Back Kotter, Taxi, James at 15, TVT Recrods TV Theme Song LPs, the right age for nostalgia, covering money with the Rembrandts, hanging out with Rick James watching the Cheers finale, David Lynch, The Robb Brothers, Hank Shocklee, The loss of shared family experience, The Waltons, the mechanics of a joke, SNL's 40th, being part of the comedy generation, SCTV, Harry Shearer, Jon Stewart, Streets of San Francisco, The Simpsons, being surprised by embarrassing commercials watching television with your kids, Sanford and Son, Truck Stop Comedy Tapes in the tour bus, Quincy Jones, The Saint, The Rockford Files, Police Woman, Dads loving Angie Dickinson, Get Christine Love, and watching The Honeymooners after 10pm.