With Masters Of The Air, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg have, once again, teamed up to tell a story of troops in the Second World War; Jeff Drake returns to discuss whether it soars, or never quite leaves the runway. Around The Dial takes us through a midseason Married At First Sight check-in; Season 1 of The Traitors; Bluey; and an Edgar Allan Poe episode of Homicide: Life On The Street. Jeff presents the Colin From Accounts episode "Toyota Cressida" for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that's fun much more than a third of the time. Fasten your seatbelt and listen!

Lead Topic: ✈️ Masters Of The Air

Around The Dial: 👰‍♀️ Married At First Sight

Around The Dial: 🔪 The Traitors

Around The Dial: 🔫 Homicide: Life On The Street

The Canon: 🦮 Colin From Accounts S01.E03: Toyota Cressida

Winner & Loser: 👍 Kate Hudson

Winner & Loser: 👎 Bravo

Game Time: 3️⃣ Third Word Problems

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🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 496 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🌤️ Jeff Drake on Bluesky

😬 "All Of The Allegations Against Director Cary Fukunaga" at TheCut.com

😆 Tara at Cracked.com

🛬 Jet Lag: The Game on YouTube.com

😡 The 9 Chickweed Rage podcast

🔫 Homicide: Life On The Street S04.E07: "Heartbeat" on Dailymotion

🦢 Feud: Capote vs. The Swans prep list at Best Evidence at Reality Blurred

📷 Photo: Apple

We are off this week due to a family emergency but we bring you a couple choice cuts from the EHG Club archive.

Remember the 70s and 80s when our greatest collective fear was that bikers would just grab a waitress from a diner and make her join their gang?

We close out our “Dry January” Forcening miniseries with Dave’s imposition on Tara: an episode of Ancient Aliens all about how desert geoglyphs were probably definitely designed by aliens as a way for humans to communicate with them. “Why?” Shut up, that’s why!

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🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 495 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🍽️ Watch Alice S06.E01: The Wild One on YouTube

👽 Watch Ancient Aliens S13.E05: The Desert Codes on Hulu

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Mon dieu: Dashiell Hammett's legendary P.I. Sam Spade is back on AMC -- and because he's now noiring it up in the south of France, legendary Gallic guest Mademoiselle Caroline is back to talk about it. Is the limited series too long, or not long enough? How well does star Clive Owen contend with the character's, and Humphrey Bogart's, legend? And should we strike until we get the full-frontal outtakes from the swimming scenes? Later, we went Around The Dial with Mr. Bates Vs. The Post Office, So Help Me Todd, and For All Mankind, and Tara tried to paint a pretty picture of a King Of Queens episode for the Canon. Clone High won, Julia lost, and WE may have gotten lost in translation in a French-themed Non-Regulation Game Time. It's an all-new Extra Hot Great, and c'est magnifique.

👤 Caroline Lefloch

Lead Topic: ♠️ Monsieur Spade

Around The Dial: 📬 Mr. Bates Vs. The Post Office

Around The Dial: 🤦🏻‍♂️ So Help Me Todd

Around The Dial: 🛰️ For All Mankind

The Canon: 🤴🏻 The King Of Queens S08.E17: Present Tense

Winner & Loser: 👍 Clone High

Winner & Loser: 👎 Julia

Game Time: 🥖 Ah Ah Ah, En Français

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🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 494 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

📜 "How A Script Doctor Found His Own Voice" in The New Yorker

🧑‍🚀 The For All Mankind Canon presentation in EHG 486

👑 The first King Of Queens Canon attempt in EHG 240

🦤 King Of Queens's top 50 episodes ranked at Vulture

🧸 Tara on Ted at Cracked.com

⚔️ Tara demands justice for Son Of Zorn

🎾 Joe on Break Point

🔪 How true-crimey is Leonardo DiCaprio's c.v.?

📷 Photo: Jean-Claude Lother / AMC

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AppleTV+'s latest very polished drama, Criminal Record, is about race and corruption in London's Metropolitan police force; Brandi Brown takes a break from cozy mysteries to discuss whether this copperganda is worth watching. Around The Dial takes us through Grimsburg, Julia, The Gilded Age (including a Tiny Triumph from Brandi), Break Point, and The Bob Newhart Show. Past guest Ilan pitches Shoresy's "Players Wanted" for induction into The Canon. Then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time about screens big and small. Make yourself a nice cup of tea and join us!

👤 Brandi Brown

Announcement: 📢 Club Campaign Update

Lead Topic: 💂🏻 Criminal Record

Around The Dial: 🤷‍♂️ Grimsburg

Around The Dial: 🥖 Julia

Around The Dial: 🎭 The Gilded Age

Around The Dial: 🎾 Break Point

Around The Dial: 🛋️ The Bob Newhart Show

The Canon: 🏒 Shoresy S02.E04: Players Only

Winner & Loser: 👍 Jeremy Allen White

Winner & Loser: 👎 Pat McAfee

Game Time: 🎬 Small Silver Screen

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🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 493 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🌤️ Brandi Brown on Bluesky

📸 Brandi on Instagram

🤷‍♂️ Tara's review of Grimsburg at Cracked.com

🥇 Tara's interview with Shea Serrano at Cracked.com

🎟️ Buy tickets to see Brandi Brown with headliner River Butcher at Acme Comedy Company in Minneapolis February 7-10

🎙️ Comedy Night at The Mudd Room in Mendota, MN, where you can see Brandi on February 14

🕵🏻‍♂️ The Best Evidence newsletter

📷 Photo: AppleTV+

Some of you might have made a New Year's resolution to watch less bad TV. Couldn't be us: we've decided to face bad TV head-on with this special all-Nonac episode. Sean pitches an infamous Survivor about sexual harassment among players. Erica dares us to watch a Monty Python's Flying Circus that breaks from both standard episode structure and good taste. And Françoise tries to exorcise the nadir of her House rewatch. You may need to suspend Dry January to get through this one, but we hope that won't stop you from joining us!

The Nonac: 🏝️ Survivor S39.E08: We Made It To The Merge!

The Nonac: 🎪 Monty Python's Flying Circus S03.E08: The Cycling Tour

The Nonac: 👨🏻‍⚕️ House S02.E13: Skin Deep

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🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 492 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🪔 "Julius Caesar On An Aldis Lamp" on YouTube

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It's about to be a new year, so what better topic could there be for a Thunderdome than...the new? With that in mind, we've assembled a list of 27 TV people with "new," "neu," or "noo" in their names, and are subjecting them to mortal combat in rounds of three contestants at a time -- standard Thunderdome stuff -- to see which of them will survive into the new year. Grab your newest headphones and join us!

Lead Topic: ⚡️ New Thunderdome

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🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 491 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

We are off this week but we bring you three great presents in the form of three Extra Extra Hot Great episodes from the club vault.

Sequels to The Santa Clause and A Christmas Story have come to TV this week, so we're sharing the holiday programming of yesteryear we want to see reimagined for TV, and how.

What ads were ABC viewers subjected to during an airing of the Olsen twins-starring TV movie To Grandmother's House We Go? Thanks to YouTube, we know, and we're going to talk about them.

We'd just been talking about Snack vs. Chef with Adam on the main podcast, so we were glad he could join us for a look waaaay back at the grandmama of cooking shows, The French Chef. In this episode, filmed in black and white and aired at the end of 1963, Julia Child rants about crappy kitchenware, coughs on stuff, grosses us out with canned ham...but is her usual welcoming, soothing self, full of practical tips for last-minute appetizers (and trying valiantly not to swear on camera). Join us for a fond reminiscence about monoculture public television and midcentury decor, and Happy New Year!

Lead Topic: 🎄 Reimagining Classic Christmas TV

Lead Topic: 🤑 December 6, 1992 Commercials

Lead Topic: 👩🏻‍🍳 The French Chef S02.E04: Bringing In The New Year!

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🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 490 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

👼 "It's A Wonderful Plot" at TVTropes.org

🍇 A Claymation Christmas Celebration on DailyMotion.com

🪨 "Christmas In Clay" at Tedium.co

💰 "ABC TV Commercial Breaks - Dec 6th 1992 - Part One" on YouTube

👩🏻‍🍳 Watch The French Chef S02.E04 on Pluto TV (it's free!)

🍴 Watch the show Julia on HBO Max

🎥 Watch the documentary Julia, also on HBO Max

We made some of our Valued Guests stick around after their tapings and muse about TV in our version of a What If? Find out where their imaginations took them in this very special episode!

Lead Topic: 🧠 Guest Thought Experiments

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🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 489 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

Do you know what time it is? It's Non-Regulation Game Time, courtesy of our friend Nick Rheinwald-Jones! Get out your No. 2 pencils, because Nick found a vacant high school gym, sat your co-hosts down, and administered The TV SATs. Whose scores will qualify them for consideration at prestigious Hillman College, and who's going to have to settle for Bovine University? Listen to find out!

👤 Nick Rheinwald-Jones

Game Time: 🎓 The TV SATs

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🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 488 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

For years, you've heard us sing the D.B. Cooper song; now you're going to hear us talk about him. Just because no one knows what actually happened to Dan Cooper after he jumped out of that plane with a bag full of cash doesn't mean TV writers can't speculate about it in their entirely fictional shows. Three shows -- Leverage, Prison Break, and NewsRadio -- had three very different versions of how he could have ended up; we're leaping in to all three with today's very special episode!

Lead Topic: 🪂 Leverage S05.E06: The D.B. Cooper Job

Lead Topic: 🏰 Prison Break S01.E11: And Then There Were 7

Lead Topic: 🎥 Buntsy's D.B. Cooper Doc Recs

Lead Topic: 📻 NewsRadio S05.E06: Jail; S05.E07: The Lam; S05.E08: Clash Of The Titans

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🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 487 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🪂 Leverage S05.E06: The D.B. Cooper Job on Freevee

🏰 Prison Break S01.E11: And Then There Were 7 on Hulu

📻 NewsRadio S05.E06: Jail on The Roku Channel

📻 NewsRadio S05.E07: The Lam on The Roku Channel

📻 NewsRadio S05.E08: Clash Of The Titans on The Roku Channel

🫵 I Am DB Cooper on Prime Video

👀 Sarah's review of I Am DB Cooper at Best Evidence

🛩️ The Mystery Of D.B. Cooper on Prime Video

✍🏻 Sarah's review of The Mystery Of D.B. Cooper at Primetimer

💸 https://www.primetimer.com/quickhits/the-mystery-of-db-cooper-gives-an-old-case-new-life

🤔 Sarah's review of DB Cooper, Where Are You?! at Best Evidence

🕵🏻‍♂️ Unsolved Mysteries S01.E05 on Freevee

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