It's uncharacteristic of us to ever turn serious in regard to the TV Talk Machine, but we thought it was time to tell you the good news about some recent bad news. On March 4, our friend, colleague and producer, Benny Evangelista, had a heart attack. He's now out of the hospital and well on his way to recovery, but we thought you should know -- with Benny's blessing -- why he's been absent and could be for a couple of more weeks or until he's feeling good enough to come back to work. By all accounts, Benny got really lucky and caught some breaks (we'll spare you the details, but Benny says that if you're feeling chest pains, even some you might not think are related to a heart attack, take action right away...We think Benny's love of "Scrubs" contributed to him being drawn to a hospital and the early arrival did more than you could ever know). We're happy to report that Benny, aka Manny, aka Chocoknobs, is feeing much better. Enough so that he confirms that all those missing MP3s and such are in a special place and he'll try to get them to Justin Beck, our super-sub producer, when he can. Also, Joe Garofoli -- aka Question Boy -- and I would like fans of the twisted humor of the TVTM to rest assured that once we found out Benny was going to make it, we took the opportunity to make fun of him. When Justin and Marcus Chan set up a digital recorder so that people at the Chronicle could wish Benny well when he was in the ICU, Joe and I recorded a message that started, "Well, we hope you're laying down for this....It's going to be 47 minutes." We told him that "faking" a heart attack was the sleaziest stunt we'd ever seen to bring back "Benny's Corner." And we told him that the "Save Benny's Corner" fan page on Facebook had been changed to a more simple "Save Benny." We also promised a lingering, inappropriate hug in his hospital shorty robe. In all seriousness, we'll definitely welcome back our essential podcast partner with a warm embrace when he's ready. In the meantime, grant us -- and Justin -- a little slack if we came up a little short in the two podcasts this week. Also, you may have noticed that we cooled it on the plans to have a big TV Talk Machine beer bash at the 21st Amendment in San Francisco. Just when we were ready to drink, Benny had to go and ruin it by nearly dying (yep, they had to use the paddles on him.) But never fear, when the time is right, we can now turn it into a Welcome Back Benny/TVTM Birthday bash and the fine folks at the 21st Amendment have generously agreed to let our extended family of listeners come in, perhaps even to our own area, and fill the place with bad Bill Walton impressions.