Constant Comedy With Art Bell & Vinnie Favale [Season 1]

Art and Vinnie sit down for part two of our interview with Comedy Channel aliumni and famed sitcom writer Betsy Borns.

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Art and I worked with Betsy Borns at the launch of the Comedy Channel in 1989. While there she was a producer on one of the network’s signature pieces called “Thirty, Sixty, Nineties”.

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Her career skyrocketed after she left us. Art and I remained in a quiet, steady orbit, watching her success from a distance…so basically, we were Michael Collins [may he Rest In Peace] to her Neil Armstrong.

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She was a writer and producer on two of the greatest sitcoms of all time, Roseanne and Friends. She wrote the classic Friends episode "The One with the Baby on the Bus" that featured the now famous “Smelly Cat” song. She went on to write and produce a wide variety of sitcoms including Bob Newhart’s return to prime time with “George & Leo” and in 2003 Betsy co-created…with Will Smith and Jada Pinket… the long running sitcom “All Of Us”.

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She has a new book out called “Talking To Myself” which has an origin story that rivals Bruce Wayne’s Batman origins! Besty is also the writer of “Comic Lives” a book that came out in 1987 which is an incredible deep dive into the world of stand-up comedy. Betsy spoke to EVERYONE on the comedy scene from the 60s,70s and 80s and jam packed so much information and back stories making it a perfect time capsule of a seminal period in the history of stand up.

Art and Vinnie sit down with Comedy Channel aliumni and famed sitcom writer Betsy Borns.

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Art and I worked with Betsy Borns at the launch of the Comedy Channel in 1989. While there she was a producer on one of the network’s signature pieces called “Thirty, Sixty, Nineties”.

-

Her career skyrocketed after she left us. Art and I remained in a quiet, steady orbit, watching her success from a distance…so basically, we were Michael Collins [may he Rest In Peace] to her Neil Armstrong.

-

She was a writer and producer on two of the greatest sitcoms of all time, Roseanne and Friends. She wrote the classic Friends episode "The One with the Baby on the Bus" that featured the now famous “Smelly Cat” song. She went on to write and produce a wide variety of sitcoms including Bob Newhart’s return to prime time with “George & Leo” and in 2003 Betsy co-created…with Will Smith and Jada Pinket… the long running sitcom “All Of Us”.

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She has a new book out called “Talking To Myself” which has an origin story that rivals Bruce Wayne’s Batman origins! Besty is also the writer of “Comic Lives” a book that came out in 1987 which is an incredible deep dive into the world of stand-up comedy. Betsy spoke to EVERYONE on the comedy scene from the 60s,70s and 80s and jam packed so much information and back stories making it a perfect  time capsule of a seminal period in the history of stand up.

Art and Vinnie sit down with Comedy Channel's power couple, Nick and Robin Bakay.

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Love was in the air at the launch of the Comedy Channel back in 1989. Robin Bakay was a key member of the on air promo team whose difficult job at the time was to define this brand new, 24 hour comedy network with promos that reflected the programming. It was difficult at the time because our programming consisted of short comedy clips and old black and white comedy shorts. But Robin and her team (lled by Marc Chusid} delivered incredible, short bursts of comedy image pieces which made the newtwork look much cooler and funnier than it actually was.

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At the same time, her furture husband Nick Bakay was an essential on air component of Comedy Channel's programming including writing for (and co-hosting) the "Alan Havey Show." Nick also dveloped and hosted "Sport's Montster."

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Nick and Robin got married and left Comedy Central for much greener pastures, settling in LA where they continued to write and perform on "Sabrina The Teenage Witch" and "Mom" (among their many other credits.)

Art and Vinnie sit down with their favorite therapist, Jontahan Katz. You will feel so much better about your life after you listen to this interveiw.

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It was Art's turn to write up the intro for this week's guest Jonathan Katz. He called me in a panic and said; "Vinnie, I have a confession to make. I know it was my turn to write the intro for todays’ guest, but after hours of research I still don’t know how to do this intro."

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I encouraged Art to make that confusion part of the intro. Art's frustration is that he found Jonathan's web bio unhelpful and that his Wikipedia write up "read like it had been hacked by a team of Russian surrealists"

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I can't blame Art. One minute, Katz is a comedian, but the he's hanging with David Mamet and writing screenplays with him.

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Then he's fronting a hip NYC jazz combo "Katz and Jammer", while also working as Robin Williams' Music Director!

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We only knew him as the beloved Dr. Katz on Comedy Central's long runnig, ground breaking animation series.

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Take a listen and you'll find out the real story as well as some fascinating new information!

Art and Vinnie talk to Art's Swarthmore College buddy, Michael J. Weithorn about his incredible thirty plus years as one of Hollywood's top sitcom writers. \

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Michael J. Weithorn has over thirty-five years of experience as a television comedy writer, executive producer and series creator, most notably having co-created and EP’d the CBS show “The King of Queens” from 1998 – 2007. Prior to that Weithorn created and executive produced the FOX sitcom “Ned & Stacey,” which ran for two seasons from 1995-97. With Ralph Farquhar, Weithorn created and executive produced “South Central,” an edgy, dramatic half-hour which aired to great acclaim on FOX in the spring of 1994. Additionally, Weithorn served as Creator and Executive Producer of the FOX sitcom “True Colors” from 1990-92 and as Creator and Executive Producer of the ABC series “The Pursuit of Happiness” in 1987.

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Weithorn’s free-lance writing credits include multiple sketches for “The Tracey Ullman Show”, an episode of “The Wonder Years,” (for which he earned an Emmy nomination in 1989), and an episode of “Cheers” (for which he won the 1984 Writers Guild of America Award).  From 1982-86, Weithorn spent four years as head writer and producer on the hit NBC series “Family Ties.” He received three Emmy Award nominations for producing and another Emmy nomination for writing the two-part 1985-86 season premiere, “The Real Thing”.

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In the animation realm, Weithorn co-created the web series about two lovable testicles,  “Baxter and McGuire” for Comedy Central’s Mother Lode, which was nominated for an Internet Emmy award in 2007.

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In 2010, Weithorn wrote and directed the indie feature, “A Little Help” starring Jenna Fischer and Chris O’Donnell, released theatrically in the summer of 2011 after winning Best Feature in several notable film festivals.

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In 2013, Weithorn directed and co-produced (with Rob Benedict) the short film “The Sidekick”, starring Benedict, Ron Livingston, Lizzy Caplan, Martin Starr and Jordan Peele. The film debuted to great acclaim at the 2013 Comic Con convention, and was released digitally by FilmBuff in 2014.

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During the 2013-14 television season, Weithorn served as Consulting Producer for the ABC series, “The Goldbergs”, writing two episodes.  In the 2014-15 season, Weithorn created and executive produced the Fox comedy series, “Weird Loners.”

Art and Vinnie have front row seats to the force of comedy nature, Judy Gold.

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Judy Gold has been a staple on the comedy scene for years and her stand-up specials have been featured on HBO, Comedy Central and LOGO. What year did LOGO come out of the closet?

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She has written and starred in two critically acclaimed, Off-Broadway hit shows: The Judy Show – My Life as a Sitcom and 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother 

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She guest starred on CBS’ Madame Secretary and on the Showtime series I’m Dying Up Here and has had recurring roles Netflix’s Friends from College and TBS’ Search Party.

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Judy is also the host of the hit podcast, Kill Me Now.

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She has appeared on The Late Show, The Tonight Show and I don’t know if she remembers this, but we were both guests on Howard Stern’s radio show.

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Judy hosted HBO’s long running series, “At the Multiplex with Judy Gold” and I must add, her show pre-dates “Billy On The Street” by ten years!

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Judy also won two Emmy awards for writing and producing The Rosie O’Donnell Showand has made numerous appearances on The View, The Today Show, The Wendy Williams Show, and The Steve Harvey Show.

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She often pops up on The Food Network and per her website she asks that we not mention Chopped All Stars or Rachel vs. Guy…which of course we now have to ask her about those!

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Judy can also be seen on the new FX Documentary HYSTERICAL.

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Judy’s newest comedy album, Conduct Unbecoming, and her previous albums, Kill Me Now and Judith’s Roommate Had a Baby are available wherever you get your music.

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Judy Gold is the author of of a terrific AND timely new book titled; YES I CAN SAY THAT – When They Come for the Comedians We’re All in Trouble.

Art and I first met Nancy Geller when we all worked together at Comedy Central.  Art Bell had the original idea for a twenty-four-hour comedy network, and it was Nancy Geller who was a key figure in overseeing the slate of original comedy that defined and cemented Comedy Central's place in cable history and launched the careers of many seminal comedy figures that she continues to work with.

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Her shows at Comedy Central included Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, Dr. Katz Show, Exit 57 Sketch and Women Aloud.

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As an agent she represented a long list of comedy legends including Jim Carey, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal and Catherine O'Hara

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As NBC's Vice President of Late Night and Specials she oversaw Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Tom Snyder and a memorable TV special, Steve Martin, Live from 8H 

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She was a producer on what was arguably one of the funniest shows in television history...SCTV

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At HBO she was responsible for developing and overseeing all Music and Comedy events and Late-Night Programming including;

Real Time with Bill Maher HBO, The Chris Rock Show HBO, Lady Gaga Live from Madison Square Garden, The Inaugural Concert for Obama and Robin Williams: Live on Broadway [just to name a few!)

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She's been nominated for eleven Emmy Awards and has a busy slate including working on the standup tribute which will be part of the must-see National Comedy Center museum in Jamestown, New York.

Wayne Federman is a true renaissance man. He's a comedian, actor, producer and now the author of a terrific new book; "The History of Stand-Up: From Mark Twain to Dave Chappelle".

Wayne has performed stand up on just about every network and syndicated comedy show in the seventies and eighties including Comedy Central’s A-List and Two Drink Minimum.

He made his Tonight Show debut in 1994 and in 2009 helped launch Late Night with Jimmy Fallonand was the monologue head writer during its first season.

In addition to a prolific stand-up career Wayne has done lots of TV commercials, voice overs and numerous guest star appearances.

On the TV side, you may remember him as Garry Shandling’s brother on the Larry Sanders show or Larry David’s next-door neighbor on Curb Your Enthusiasm or his starring role in a special episode of the X-Files written and directed by David Duchovny

Wayne has also been in some of the biggest comedy movies of the last twenty years and has become known for appearing in just one scene in a film and then disappearing; he calls this the "Federman-and-out".

He produced two favorites of ours: The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling and the award-winning web series with Don Rickles, Dinner with Don.

Wayne is the busiest man in comedy, guesting on over 80 podcasts and hosting his own History of Stand-Up podcast which has spawned his fascinating new book; The History of Stand-Up: From Mark Twain to Dave Chappelle.

Wayne Federman is a true renaissance man. He's a comedian, actor, producer and now the author of a terrific new book; "The History of Stand-Up: From Mark Twain to Dave Chappelle".

Wayne has performed stand up on just about every network and syndicated comedy show in the seventies and eighties including Comedy Central’s A-List and Two Drink Minimum.

He made his Tonight Show debut in 1994 and in 2009 helped launch Late Night with Jimmy Fallonand was the monologue head writer during its first season.

In addition to a prolific stand-up career Wayne has done lots of TV commercials, voice overs and numerous guest star appearances.

On the TV side, you may remember him as Garry Shandling’s brother on the Larry Sanders show or Larry David’s next-door neighbor on Curb Your Enthusiasm or his starring role in a special episode of the X-Files written and directed by David Duchovny

Wayne has also been in some of the biggest comedy movies of the last twenty years and has become known for appearing in just one scene in a film and then disappearing; he calls this the "Federman-and-out".

He produced two favorites of ours: The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling and the award-winning web series with Don Rickles, Dinner with Don.

Wayne is the busiest man in comedy, guesting on over 80 podcasts and hosting his own History of Stand-Up podcast which has spawned his fascinating new book; The History of Stand-Up: From Mark Twain to Dave Chappelle.

Kevin Murphy was a writer and performer on the legendary comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000 which was the Comedy Channel's break out hit when we launched the network in 1989.

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In addition to writing for the show he was the voice of Tom Servo for most of the show's ten seasons on both Comedy Central and the Sci Fi Channel as well as the aptly titled feature film Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie.

After a run one hundred and ninety-seven episodes, Murphy took a sabbatical from watching and commenting on bad movies and in 2001 spent the year by going to a different movie every day and wrote a book about this experience, entitled A Year at the Movies: One Man's Filmgoing Odyssey.

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In 2006, he joined fellow MST 3k alumni Mike Nelson and Bill Corbett on Riff Trax whose stated goal is "WE MAKE MOVIES FUNNY".

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Kevin, Mike and Bill have riffed on 431 feature films, 387 film shorts and 16 TV shows.

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Riff Trax has such a huge fan base that have been able to raise over three million dollars on Kickstarter which allowed them to license and riff on a higher caliber of bad films,

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They also perform as Riff Trax Live where they host in-theater special events. These events are filmed in front of a live audience and simulcast to over 700 cinema screens all over the country with their partner Fathom Events.

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You can watch RiffTrax 24/7 on the Pluto streaming service where they have their own channel!