TV Guidance Counselor

June 28-July 4, 1997 This week Ken welcomes comedian and poet Wes Hazard. Ken and Wes discuss Ken's hoodie collection, shared celebrity birthdays, Ken's 17th birthday, Agent Orange, the you now and the you at 17 having different tastes, Cops, America's Most Wanted, the scariest Unsolved Mysteries Ken ever saw, learning gay pick up spots from Farley Bros movies, Fashion Bug, Dress Barn, Snick, Robin Williams, Ernest's career, Krull, Beastmasters of the Universe, Early Edition, being introduced to 70s Green Arrow by your doctor, The DC Animated Universe, Isabella Rosellini, Kablam!, Charles Burns' Black Hole, Oddville, Ken's punk rock teenage band days, banning the Simpsons, Ken's arguments with the dude from Dashboard Confessional, Real World vs. Road Rules, King of the Hill, Seinfeld, Paul Reiser, Big Top vs. Big Adventure, Fargo, Unhappily Ever After, The Wayans Bros, rare diseases, the over lap of Kids Inc and Children of the Corn, UPN shows, L.L. Cool J's unplugged comeback, Broken Arrow, John Woo's US career, Pump Up the Volume vs. The Superbowl, working in the media section of a library vs living in the media section of your own home, Bad Brains, Henry Rollins' movie career, roommates with Flea (s), Ruby Wax, Strongest man in the world competitions, ER, snuff tapes, real life death scenes, TV Week, TV Guide Channel, Bewitches, Nick At Nite, Get a Life, Newhart, Secret World of Alex Mac, Roseanne, Dictionary dicks, Tanya Roberts, The Naked Truth, the greatness of Tea Leoni, Home Improvement, Neneh Cherry, Can't Hardly Wait, Point Break, meeting Kelsey Grammer, Hazard Mail, HP Lovecraft's Curse, The Experts: World's greatest cold war movie, Parker Lewis, Beach MTV, Step by Step, Cutting Class, adult cartoons, One Crazy Summer, and the glory of Independence Day.

This week Ken welcomes actor/comedian Allan Havey to the show. Ken and Allan discuss the beauty of Santa Monica, growing up in Miami, working blue, Catholic Families, watching the Tonight Show with Dad, playing a priest at 5 years old, the magic of hearing your own voice for the first time, kids being seen and not heard, The Three Stooges, the early silent comedies, The Twilight Zone, watching anything and everything on TV, 57 Channels and nothing on, the cornucopia of choice in the 21st Century, Louie, marathoning shows, Sunday Night Family viewing, watching football at double speed, Mad Men, not rewatching your own stuff, starting stand up in New York City, Lorne Michaels' "The New Show", SNL replacements, Letterman, having the same joke as several other people, the validation of being on TV in the eyes of the public, other people defining your success, buying into the 60s counter culture, meeting JFK and the shock of the Kennedy Assassination, the power of prayer, the generation gap, National Lampoon Magazine, Alan King, Carlin, Pryor, Steve Martin's stadium career, setting goals with a time line, training, West 57th St, the early days of the Comedy Channel, Rich Hall's Onion World, Rachel Sweet, Tommy Sledge, "Night After Night", Ha!, being in the moment, not taking things for granted, Punk'd, diversifying your creative endeavors, never giving up on Stand Up, having an immediate outlet, the "audience of one", differentiating yourself from the glut of other talk shows, Warren Zevon, Free Ride on Fox, always having stand up, The Comedy Cellar, Catch a Rising Star in Cambridge, MA, the gold mine in Burgers, how things sometimes just work out, the fleeting nature of live performance, fixating on bad gigs, how comedians are like chefs, how someone else's success has nothing to do with you, Chelsea Lately, Seinfeld, the exciting world of web TV, UK TV, not living in the past too much by re-visiting your youth, and the wonder of Mad Men.

May 15-21, 1993 This week Ken welcomes comedian, TV host and author Max Silvestri to the show. Ken and Max discuss Cheers, having your own wing of the house, sneaking wrestling, waiting to get the good cable channels, Sci Fi Channel, living in the 'boro, being an early adopter of the internet fandom age, TiVo, being a Nielsen Family, saving genre shows single handedly, being an only child, Prodigy vs. Compuserve vs. AOL, Ken's major award of a custom Mr. Show Bowling Shirt, Ken's collector mentality, cast and crew jackets, being burdened by your interests, Bloopers, practical jokes vs. flubs, Cops, Max's visceral aversion to the underclasses, Empty Nest, being wise beyond your years, Jerk offs, Code 3, Mad About You, Newsradio, Murder She Wrote, Wild Palms, Max's love of British child murder, Virtual Reality taking over the world in 2007, Epic Made for TV Events, Humanity as a bummer, Championship Skating, Evening Shade's series finale, Murphy Brown, why there are no great young movie stars anymore, 1-900 numbers, Sierra's inventory based puzzle games, Full House. Disney's shameless cross promotion, Rescue 911, Robocop 2, Bob, the 90s Chromium age comics boom, why Bob Newhart should never have kids, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, Comics Only, Ken Ober, the multi-talented Fred Wolf, Home Improvement, Tim Allen as the new Bible, Mark Russell's political parodies, Unsolved Mysteries, The Bradys, peas, Munsters, Ann Magneson, Kung Fu, like the update better than the original, Cheers, watching TV at school, Tom Selleck's Runaway, If anybody has seen Richie, abstaining from masturbation, Jeering non Regis and Kathy Lee co-hosts, and the MTV Movie Awards.

This week Ken welcomes comedian and actress Mary Lynn Rajskub to the show. Ken and Mary Lynn discuss technical spring, Detroit, odd parental choices, punk rock, being shaken to your core, Ken's unusual positivity and not Jesus complex, Gone Baby Gone's accuracy, stand up comedy road work and it's relation to your family, early bed times, central time privilege, Lou Grant, Cagney and Lacy, art school brains, being moved to tears by the Rockford Files, The Love Boat, Gold Rush, HGTV, Spider-Man, Cupcake Wars, Donut Pride, ignoring the death of a parent, 24, The Walking Dead, childhood fears of adult good times that happen after you fall asleep, the excitement of the early days of MTV, HBO's monthly catalog, Mr. Show. The Larry Sanders Show, Veronica's Closet, being outed as famous, Simon & Garfunkel live in Central Park, renting out room in your brain, hypnotism, moving to San Francisco, Tic Tac Dough, how Netflix spoils children, weird daytime PBS, Slim Goodbody, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, the odd pursuit of stand up comedy, performance art, Gallagher, Whoopie Goldberg's One Woman Show, Monty Python as concept album, romancing the notes in class, Freaks and Geeks, Mork & Mindy, Pac-Man, Atari, Moonlighting, why Ken stopped paying attention after the turn of the century, Xanadu, Gene Kelly, Ken's experiences with Lady Gaga, realizing your time was the 80s, SiriusXM Radio, First Wave, Kadjagoogoo, "Survivor" reality shows, killing chickens, Flip or Flop, Flipping Boston, UK TV, The Kardashians as palette cleanser, Damages, TV Sign Offs, The British production model, more Mr. Show, quirky auditions, Marc Maron's worries about Mary Lynn, being pitied by Meredith Baxter, Mary Lynn loving her Bob, Family Ties, Mardi Gras/Spring Break/Cruise Ships as punishment, Three's Company, Soul Train and the blight of Candlepin Bowling.

In this week's episode Ken welcomes comedian Paula Poundstone to the show. Ken and Paula discuss the 60s Batman and it's death traps, Liberace, TMZ, Jennifer Aniston's possible pregnancies, America's desire to see celebrities fail, idolizing the wrong people, how actors are able to continue to work with bad material, awards shows, Roasts, Alex Trebek's hidden humor, Betty White's unauthorized backstory, Lost in Space, The Twilight Zone, Billy Mumy, banning television for children, going through life without an immunity to advertising, programming your children's tastes, The Three Stooges, experiencing comedy as a collective experience, technical failures increasing comedy, cartoon adaptations of live action sitcoms, Wacky Races, Boston's WSBK TV38 and it's phenomenal afternoon line up, the sanctity of a girl's underwear drawer, Gilligan's Island, taking credit for Sherwood Schwartz's work, re-enacting the story of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for the stage, OCD leading to marathoning shows, M.A.S.H., forsaking food for bus station TV watching, The Harvard Square Movie Theater's Double Feature education, Animal House, running into Donald Sutherland, being babysat by television, Romper Room, Captain Kangaroo, Child World: the World's Greatest Toy Store, I Love Lucy, Mr. Rogers, Mary Tyler Moore, Lily Tomlin, The Dick Van Dyke Show, the cold harsh truth about taking care of 16 cats, Laugh In, The Smothers Brothers, getting away with the nipple, Love American Style, Carol Burnett, doing stand up on SNL, waiting for one or two good laughs on a sketch show, the loss of the 90 minute format TV show, Gene Barry in The Name of the Game, the world shattering depression that you get when your favorite series ends, forsaking prime time television, being hooked by The Mentalist, Boardwalk Empire, checking out of pop culture, being a contestant on Jeopardy, Angie Dickinson's unrealistic expectations of Alex Trebek, Cybill Shepherd, taking classes at the Groundlings, Paula's ABC Variety Show, The Malibu Fires, Joel Hodgson's Oreo cookie based ratings calculator, the Saturday Night death slot, letting shows have time to figure it out, CNN, the enraging ridiculousness of the 24-Hour News Cycle, and how technology is making us dumber.

In this episode Ken welcomes Irish comedian and television personality Maeve Higgins to the show. Ken and Maeve discuss theater basements, Tuba based misunderstandings, RTE 1 and 2: Ireland's only television, TV in Zimbabwe, The Tracy Ullman Show, seeing the Simpsons for the first time, 7 Brides for 7 Blues Brothers, books as dick fuel, Home & Away, Australian soaps, parental hypocrisy, hidden camera shows, why the Irish are uniquely positions to be willing victims on hidden camera shows, Airplane, slapstick humor, Only Fools and Horses, not being able to identify with all male comedy shows, Irish Babysitters, living in the suburbs as a nanny, Kathy Griffin, Margaret Cho, Two Fat Ladies, Fancy Vittles, My So-Called Life, capturing teenagers spirit, American feelings, awful first kisses, not revisiting your childhood favorites, NYC on TV, Friends, Seinfeld, The Late Late Show: The Longest Running Chat Show in the world, Terry Wogan, leaving Ireland for fame and fortune in the UK, Graham Norton, Father Ted, heavy conversations as party killer, The Kroll Show, Peter Davidson, never seeing Doctor Who, The Cosby Show, The Most Irish Show of all time, Ear to the Ground, Nation Wide, TV as home sickness cure, Pride and Prejudice, Colin Firth's sexy swimming, Robert Mugabe's terrifying totalitarian television, Moone Boy, the luxurious experience of hair and makeup, Love/Hate, overcover undercover cops, and Ken's first time recommendation of someone not needing to watch more TV.

June 3-9, 1989 This week ken welcomes former Boston, current LA Comedian Laura Crawford. Ken and Laura talk about Ken's technology paranoia, Oprah, Richard Bey and the other trashy talk shows, Rickie Lake's Urban fanbase, Living Single, how Ken might have been a young black woman, MTV Dating shows, picking the mom over the daughter, remaking geeks into chic, mean high school nicknames, the "boy with A.I.D.S", Donut burns, lobbying congress for better sexual education, the Robot Revolution, Real Genius, Night of the Creeps on USA's Saturday Nightmares, the Horny Hot Dog the Movie, edited teen movies, Arye Gross is not Ari Meyers, COPS, being falsely accused of being a child prostitute, living Beyond Tomorrow, why It's Gary Shandling's Show is better than Larry Sanders, how great hair is the single deciding factor in how attractive a woman finds a man,being a fashion innovator.Star Search, Whitey Herzog, Ed McMahon filled donut shops, Ken's sweet on booze, insulting drag queens, Night Court, Big Trouble in Little China, Billy Graham's AIDS, Sex in the 90s, ALF, childhood speech impediments, Ken's college thesis film "Alien Love Form", The Frugal Gourmet and his "Troubles", late '86, after school programming, Comedy Central, Laura's unnatural love of the Simpsons, comfort shows, A Current Affair, the sleaze infection, sex, more sex, phone sex, VCR sex, pornography as technical innovator, Ken's Phil Donohue impression, TV's love of Frats, MacGuyver is not Matlock, the lovable drunk Arthur, involuntary singing, Russian signs of the world going to hell, people never guessing Ken's age right, Mind Control, Laura's belief in psychic phenomenon, James Randi's professional debunker status, jerking off dudes for money, Head of the Class goes to Russia, Degrassi Jr. High, wild Wallabies in the woods of New England, why animals won't eat tattoos, Cheers and Ken's two universal rules, sibling TV fights, The Real World, why Dad's love Fox Sunday night programming, Ken's Real World reasoning for moving to London, NBA and love of sports culture, Teen Pregnancy, Perfect Strangers, The Quaid Bros vs. the Howard Bros, Highway to Heaven's Watergate, Dack Rambo: Horny School Bus Driver, Just the Ten of Us, Dean Cain's TV racism, Laura's hatred of Wiseguys, Patty Duke's head double, and nailing CBS. Sex.

Saturday December 18, 1993 This week Ken welcomes back to the show comedian and author Anthony Scibelli. Ken and Anthony discuss Winter Phlegm humor, sexy adult cereals, The Hack Handbook, Jay Leno's penis, Christmas week for half jews, Eastern Religions, weekend routines, gravitating towards old time comedy, the importance of B&W, cartoon voice over legends, Comic Book: the Movie, The Animaniacs, Abbot and Costello, cheap VHS tapes, robotic Three Stooges, Sexy Joe Besser, accidentally signing up for the army, Mousercize, the White Shadow, Burgess Meredith, Bullwinkle, Hot Air Balloons, the creepiness of Jay North, Dennis the Menace, when Nick at Nite shows air during the day, Ducktales, the mutant animal phenomenon, Biker Mice from Mars, Street Sharks, why kids love Toxic Waste, Turtle Pies, Hostess, Ninja Turtles, Pooh Corner, Fraggle Rock, The strangeness of Jim Henson, The What's Up Network, Captain Planet, Eco-Cartoons, Ken's love of Doctor Blight, Mighty Max, Polly Pocket, Monster in my Pocket, favorite cartoon theme songs, sexy Cleo the Cat, the Today Show, NBC's abandonment of cartoons, age differences, why there are more bad cartoons than any other art, liking Cheers and the Odd Couple as a kid, Tony Randall, The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, Gremlins, BeBe's Kids, Arena, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter II, Clarissa Explains it All Marathons, SNICK, Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers, Bazooka Joe, Twinkle: The Dream Being, Droopy: Master Detective, Anthony's Secret Dream, Bobby's World : the only good ting Howie Mandell has ever done, Young Comedians Specials, TNN's Backyard America, Carl Reiner's Summer Rental, Eek! the Cat and the Terrible Thunderlizards, Bill Nye vs Beakman, Tiny Toons, Tales from the Cryptkeeper, Tazmania, Super Nintendo vs. Sega Genesis, California Dreams, Bugs & Tweety, The X-Men Cartoon, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, shows based on comic books, Ken's favorite Batman, Saved By the Bell: The New Class, Young Charlie Chaplin, Animals Testifying before Congress, and Ken's hatred of the Disney Muppets.

This week Ken welcomes actress Molly Hagan (Herman's Head, The Nutt House) to the show. Ken and Molly discuss the speed of television, Herman's Head, Election, cringing, auditioning in front of your rivals, Northwestern University, growing up in Indiana, coming from a big family, Johnny Quest, Clutch Cargo, being too young to negotiate, Bob Newhart Show, Mary Tyler Moore, The Carol Burnett, All In the Family, the conundrum of Archie Bunker, Homefront (the name of the show Ken and Molly can't remember), television as escape, private concerns, American obsession with pulling back the curtain, blue collar actors, High School Reunions the cost of living in LA, Some Kind of Wonderful, The Nutt House, getting starstruck at work, working with Harvey Korman, The A.L.F. Christmas Special, getting into personal arguments with carpet samples, Mr. Sunshine, Jeffrey Tambor, Alan Spencer, Mel Brooks, "Ringmaster", Jerry Springer, the glut of talk shows in the 90s, the forgotten exploitation past of Oprah's television show, why Phil Donahue was a good guy, EPKs, disengaged interviewers, watching yourself, Friends, Seinfeld, being on something you're a huge fan of, Matt LeBlanc, Episodes, how being a psychotic murder is easier than comedy, Bloopers Shows, swearing in front of children, Ken's awful commercial auditions, ER, stunt work, parental judgement, Ken's status as a futon, Yoga, not singing and dancing meaning you move to LA, Dallas: The Early Years, being recognized by the public, iZombie, Castle, Social Media, Spoilers, not having a TV, Alf's Sad fate, the female version of Herman's Head, Dream On, Dark Angel aka "I Come In Peace" as the greatest 90s action movie, Brian Benben, Wendy Malik, fact checking in the internet age, Ken's spite fuel, and the fluidity of memory.

September 21-27, 1985 This week Ken welcomes Boston Comedian, and fellow former punk rock teen Matt Kona to the show. Ken and Matt discuss strong coffee, cookie plates, sweeps week, micro-film, George Burns Comedy Playhouse, UHF vs VHF, WLVI Kids' Club, Ken's Teenage Punk rock band, hardcore bands named after Nintendo names, TV horror anthologies, The Christian Broadcasting Network, Stacey Keach's cocaine use documentary, George Clooney's introduction to the Facts of Life, boxing, watching The Golden Girls with a Golden Girl, York Beach Maine and beach arcades, The Prisoner, UK Sci-Fi, why "Used Cars" is one of the best comedies of all time, Dennis the Menace, the Emmys, Crazy Like a Fox, TV Bloopers and Practical Jokes, tattoos, Family Ties in the UK, Turkey Television, pubes and their relation to professional wrestling, history with Tony Danza, the debut of Growing Pains, Ken's memorized Growing Pains scripts, Boxcar Willy, TV series based on movies, Hell Town, Flip Wilson, SCTV, Billy Vera and the Beaters romantic soundtrack, Cheers, Night Court's connection to the Clash, The Glass Teat, Mr. Belvedere and his fan club, and the mystery of The Bushies.