Will Leitch is back for a very sportsy episode, as we contemplate Will Ferrell’s new golf sitcom, The Hawk — as well as when Ferrell got in a rut and how he could get out, why the universe thinks we need TWO golf shows right now, and what the show could have done to avoid wasting talented co-stars (“been a movie instead” is probably the answer). We went Around The Dial with The Five Star Weekend, Breaking Bad, and High Potentialbefore Sarah teed up a first-season Sports Night for Canon consideration. The New Yorker won, Big Bang Theorylost, and we waded into the ever-proliferating recap-podcast water hazard for Game Time. Crank the speakers on your golf cart and have a listen!

GUESTS
👤 Will Leitch

TOPICS
Announcement: 🧑‍💼 Salesperson Draft Results
Lead Topic: ⛳️ The Hawk
Around The Dial: 🗓️ The Five-Star Weekend
Around The Dial: 👨🏻‍🔬 Breaking Bad
Around The Dial: 🫆 High Potential
The Canon: 🥌 Sports Night S01.E16: Sally
Winner & Loser: 🌲 Paige Williams
Winner & Loser: 🙄 Jim Parsons
Game Time: 🎧 Leave It To The Professionals

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NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
📕 Get Will Leitch's book, Lloyd McNeil's Last Ride, in paperback
🏌️‍♂️ Talking about Stick in EEHG 357
🤑 The second Commercial Pitchman Draft from EHG 622
💄 Listen To Sassy Club
🧠 Our original discussion of High Potential in EHG 528
📚 Speaking of paperbacks, they're on sale at Exhibit B. Books
📷 Photo: Colleen E. Hayes / Netflix

Little House On The Prairie has been one in a series of historical memoirs and a TV series that premiered in 1974, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for more adaptations: Kim Reed, possibly the world’s biggest franchise fan (or at least the biggest in our acquaintance) returns to talk about Netflix’s new version, which has already been renewed for a second season. Around The Dial takes us through The Other Bennet Sister, Big Brother S28, House Of The Dragon, Squatters, and Human Vapor. Tara pitches the Mad About You episode “Bedfellows” for induction into the Canon. Then, after naming the week’s Winner and Loser, it’s on to a Game Time with an extensive bibliography. Grab a peppermint stick and listen!

GUESTS
👤 Kim Reed

TOPICS
Announcement: 🤷‍♀️ Non-Announcement Announcement
Lead Topic: 🌾 Little House On The Prairie (2026)
Around The Dial: 👒 The Other Bennet Sister
Around The Dial: 👁️ Big Brother
Around The Dial: 🐲 House Of The Dragon
Around The Dial: 🏚️ Squatters
Around The Dial: 🧖‍♂️ Human Vapor
The Canon: 🏥 Mad About You S02.E03: Bedfellows
Winner & Loser: 🫆 Task
Winner & Loser: ✈️ Kristin Cavallari
Game Time: 📖 Hey! It's That Author!

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NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
🦋 Kim Reed on Bluesky
🌴 The Again With This Club
🏚️ Sarah on Squatters
🫱🏻‍🫲🏽 Information on the EHG Mutual Aid Vault at our FAQ
📷 Photo: Eric Zachanowich / Netflix

Though it’s never been easier to avoid commercials if that’s what you prefer, some do deserve applause. That’s why we’ve assembled to choose our favorite TV commercial characters in product categories from fast food to hard drinks to drugstores and beyond. We also stay on-theme with a pitch for the Tiny Catchy Commercial Jingle With Punchable Child Canon AND a Non-Regulation Game Time all about the stars who’ve used their celebrity to promote everything from worthy non-profits to hands-free toilet cleaners. We’ll be right back after these messages!

TOPICS
Lead Topic: 🤑 Commercial Pitchman Draft II
Tiny Canon: 🥊
Game Time: 🗯️ Talk Isn't Cheap

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NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
📊 Vote for your favorite commercial pitch lineup
🔥 Commercial Pitchman Draft in EEHG 098
🐑 "Volkswagen Tiguan - Commercial: Sheep 'Break Free' (2022; 0:30)" on YouTube
😴 "Nathan Lane 1990 NyQuil Commercial" on YouTube
🌴 Again With Again With This
💄 The Listen To Sassy Club
🥣 "Quaker Ready To Serve Oatmeal Commercial 1987 With Timmy" on YouTube

Larra submitted a late-season DS9 about baseball — in which bunting figures heavily! — for this month’s Forcening, so we stepped up to the plate for Worf homers, MLB nepo casting, and practicing strike-three calls. Ask EHG invited us to write our own Drunk History eps and set Emily Gilmore up on dates, and Tara hung a funny hat a Simpsons Tiny Canon pitch; then we named Not Quite 11 tennis episodes and show-title dog names, just in time to go back to school with TV’s most important academic administrators. Raise the roof; raise it — for an all-new episode of EEHG!

TOPICS
Forcening Pool: ⚾️ Star Trek: Deep Space Nine S07.E04 Take Me Out To The Holosuite
Ask EHG: 😤 TV families on Family Feud
Tiny Canon: 👒 The Simpsons S04.E07: Marge Gets A Job
Not Quite Top 11: 🐕 Show Titles You Can Use As Dog Names With Dave's Permission
Not Quite Top 11: 🎾 Tennis Episodes To Send You Into The US Open Finals This Weekend
Not Quite Top 11: 🧢 Other Baseball Episodes
Extra Credit: 🧑🏽‍🏫 Important TV Principals
Mini: 🏈 The Most Electrifying Quiz In Sports Entertainment

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NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
🥎 Buddy coaching a lesbian softball team on Kids In The Hall
🕊️ How Curb saved a guy from prison
🍎 EEHG 065 on bad TV teachers
📷 Photo: Paramount Television

Who better than EEHG’s Green Screen correspondent Stephanie Early Green to discuss Freeform’s new reality show about the super-rich Snugli set — Million Dollar Nannies. Sarah actually didn’t hate the show in theory, but in practice, we found the premise non-credible, the nannies suspect skills-wise, and the richie clients were the Forbes 400 equivalent of Vrbo text art. We left the mysteries of Daddy Moke behind to go Around The Dial with Sugar‘s second season, Ludwig, and a From marathon update before Stephanie climbed into the Canon-pitch cockpit with an episode of Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal. Simon Says won, Project Runway lost, and Monty hoped we’d score Alfred E. Neuman points in Game Time. Shred those NDAs and hop in the designer pram for an all-new Extra Hot Great!

GUESTS
👤 Stephanie Green

TOPICS
Lead Topic: 🍾 Million Dollar Nannies
Around The Dial: 🍭 Sugar
Around The Dial: 🧩 Ludwig
Around The Dial: 🚧 From
The Canon: ✈️ The Rehearsal S02.E03: Pilot's Code
Winner & Loser: 💬 Simon Says
Winner & Loser: 👗 Project Runway
Game Time: 😜 What, Me Query?

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NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
💚 More from Stephanie Early Green at her website
🍬 EEHG 291 on Sugar's first season
⛴️ Tara's burning questions about Widow's Bay S02 for GQ
🛣️ EEHG 415 on From's series premiere
🛹 Sarah's Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator review at Best Evidence
📷 Photo: Disney

CLUB-ONLY NOTES
🔥 EHG Club Perk Links & How-To
💬 Get On Our Community Discord

A whole passel of alt-comedy superstars got together to make a comedy feature for Hulu about the class of 2008 having to redo the last two weeks of their senior year. Should they…maybe not have bothered? Brandi Brown returns to discuss it (and we hope will return again after we made her endure this). Around The Dial takes us through Miss You, Love You; Office Romance; a viral video of the cast of The Gilded Age pausing a shoot to celebrate the Knicks winning the NBA championship; Carl The Collector; and Mad Men. Sarah pitches the Law & Order episode “Everybody’s Favorite Bagman” for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week’s Winner and Loser, we close on a Sorkin-ass Game Time. Put your senior high school yearbook away and listen!

GUESTS
👤 Brandi Brown

TOPICS
Lead Topic: 🎓 Never Change!
Around The Dial: 💖 Miss You, Love You
Around The Dial: 📌 Office Romance
Around The Dial: 🏀 The Gilded Age
Around The Dial: 🦝 Carl The Collector
Around The Dial: 🥃 Mad Men
The Canon: ⚖️ Law & Order S01.E06: Everybody's Favorite Bagman
Winner & Loser: 🔫 Stephen Falk
Winner & Loser: 🍷 Milania Giudice
Game Time: 🍄‍🟫 Sorkin-Ass Names

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NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
🦋 Brandi Brown on Bluesky
💥 "Widow’s Bay Creator Tells All After Explosive Finale" by Tara at Daily Beast
🏀 The cast of The Gilded Age reacts to the news of the Knicks winning the NBA championship
📆 Brandi's imminent standup dates
📚 The #majorcase sale at Exhibit B. Books
📷 Disney / Brett Roedel

Interview With The Vampire returns with a tonally shifted, maximalist third season — and Caroline Framke also returns to talk about the show’s new POV character, in-universe songcraft, when scenery-chewing works, and how vampires’ greatest trick was convincing the world they don’t exist. We went Around The Dial with Not Suitable For Work, Love Island UK, Gardener’s World, and Michael Jackson: The Verdict, and we wondered Will Dave Hate This? about an upcoming The Littlest Hobo remake; Tara may have had an anxiety dream about her Canon pitch for a fifth-season Hacks episode; and La Brea won (for once), while short-sighted executives lost (as usual). And heaven COULDN’T wait for another iteration of Dan Cassino’s faith-based-TV Game Time. Stage-dive into an all-new Extra Hot Great!

GUESTS
👤 Caroline Framke

TOPICS
Lead Topic: 🎸 Interview With The Vampire
Around The Dial: 🤬 Not Suitable For Work
Around The Dial: 🏝️ Love Island UK
Around The Dial: 🪴 Gardener's World
Around The Dial: ✨ Michael Jackson: The Verdict
Will Dave Hate This?: 🐶 The Littlest Hobo
The Canon: 🍷 Hacks S05.E07: Montecito
Winner & Loser: 🕳️ La Brea
Winner & Loser: 👯 Brothers & Sisters
Game Time: 🙏 Thou Shalt Guess The Title, Book II

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NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
🎥 Caroline Framke goes behind the scenes with reality-TV producers for Bustle
☘️ Tara's interview with Kate O'Flynn at The Daily Beast
😬 Sarah's Michael Jackson: The Verdict review at Best Evidence
🐕 Maybe Tomorrow by Terry Bush
📷 Photo: Frank W. Ockenfels III / AMC

While the counter-history of For All Mankind was going on, what counter-historical events were occurring in parallel in the U.S.S.R.? The spinoff Star City is here to dramatize it, and new guest Sophie Brookover is here to say whether it’s a “da” or a “net.” Around The Dial takes us to Make That Movie, The Tower, Deli Boys S02, and Instadocs. Wendy pitches the Designing Women episode “How Great Thou Art” for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week’s Winner and Loser, it’s on to a bookish Game Time about big- and small-screen adaptations. Find any of the many listening devices hidden in your home and join us!

GUESTS
👤 Sophie Brookover

TOPICS
Announcement: 🏳️‍🌈 Pride Month Gift Exchange
Lead Topic: 🚀 Star City
Around The Dial: 🎥 Make That Movie
Around The Dial: 🏢 The Tower
Around The Dial: 🥪 Deli Boys
Around The Dial: 📹 Instadocs
The Canon: ⛪️ Designing Women S02.E20: How Great Thou Art
Winner & Loser: 👍 Anna Kendrick
Winner & Loser: 🦆 Jorge R. Gutierrez
Game Time: 📚 Screen Sizes

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NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
🦋 Sophie Brookover on Bluesky
👯‍♀️ The Two Bossy Dames newsletter
🏳️‍🌈 Pride Month gift exchange information and signup
👀 "Why You Should Be Watching Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed" at GQ
🛎️ Downton Abbey on the Telly Visions podcast
📺 "9 Shows For '80s And '90s PBS And Masterpiece Kids" at Two Bossy Dames
📹 Sarah's Instadocs review at Best Evidence
🕰️ Sarah's Woman Of The Hour review at Best Evidence
🚪 Anthony Bourdain in Narnia at An Archive Of Our Own
📷 Photo: Apple

CLUB-ONLY NOTES
🔥 EHG Club Perk Links & How-To
💬 Get On Our Community Discord

The Stranger Things team (among others) is back with a similar “a community of X bands together against a supernatural force” story in The Boroughs, which features an all-star cast (Alfred Molina, Alfre Woodard, Lester from The Wire) going up against [redacted] AND their own aches and pains. Does the actors’ group chemistry carry the story, or did it need to take one thing off? And have we maybe seen these ideas in other properties like The Descent and Man On The Inside? If that pairing of references didn’t give you whiplash, come Around The Dial with us for Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, Animaniacs, The Bear‘s trip to Gary, IN, and a Drunk Dave recovery report before Dave takes us to a DIFFERENT old-folks home with his Aqua Teen Hunger Force Canon pitch. BAffleck won, Tom Hardy lost, and we all hoped Game Time would tie the whole episode together. Barge on in with a six-pack and some gossip: it’s an all-new Extra Hot Great.

GUESTS
👤 Devindra Hardawar

TOPICS
Announcement: 📢 Club Update
Lead Topic: 👴🏻 The Boroughs
Around The Dial: 😃 Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed
Around The Dial: 🗼 Animaniacs
Around The Dial: 🐻 The Bear
The Canon: 👨‍🦽‍➡️ Aqua Teen Hunger Force S03.E06: Little Brittle
Winner & Loser: ⚾️ Ben Affleck
Winner & Loser: 😡 Tom Hardy
Game Time: 🔌 Also Also Also Connect

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NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
📺 Devindra Hardawar talks new TV tech on the Engadget podcast
🔥 The Extra Hot Great Club page
🌃 Tara on The Late Show finale at GQ
💥 Sarah's review of The Crash at Best Evidence
📷 Photo: Netflix

The last of the Emmy-begging shows are nearly behind us, which means it’s time to look ahead to what has historically been TV’s silliest season: summer! Alan Sepinwall and Kathryn VanArendonk, co-hosts of the new podcast TV Is Good, join us to share the shows they’re into; the shows they should be into but aren’t; the shows no one should be into; and the “Good For You!” shows that aren’t for them but have a right to exist. Wendy pitches “Take My Finals, Please” from The Facts Of Life for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week’s Winner and Loser, we close on a Non-Regulation Game Time worth singing about. Close all your blinds against the blazing sun and listen!

GUESTS
👤 Alan Sepinwall
👤 Kathryn VanArendonk

TOPICS
Lead Topic: 🏖️ Summer TV Preview
The Canon: 📙 The Facts Of Life S04.E22: Take My Finals, Please
Winner & Loser: 🤠 The Lowdown
Winner & Loser: 🎙️ AMC
Game Time: 🎼 Tube Tunes XVII

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NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
🦋 Alan Sepinwall on Bluesky
🦋 Kathryn VanArendonk on Bluesky
🦋 The TV Is Good podcast on Bluesky
📺 The TV Is Good podcast
🔥 EEHG 407
⛴️ “Why Widow’s Bay Is The Horror Comedy You Should Be Watching” at GQ
☘️ “Breakout Horror Comedy Star [Kate O’Flynn] Is Giving TV’s Best Performance” at The Daily Beast
🪞 Serling: A Journey Into The Twilight Zone With TV's First Visionary at Hachette
📰 The Best Evidence newsletter
🐽 Popular Mechanics at Fandom's Muppet wiki