February 16-22, 1980

This week Ken welcomes musician, author and man behind the new lp "Ghosts of Vroom III", Mike Doughty.

Ken and Mike discuss how 1980 was a good poignant television year in Mike's life, being a military kid, how a year of no Mork & Mindy leads to a year of no TV at all, The American Forces Network, the outro credit song on WKRP in Cincinnati, finding out what music you like from Sitcoms, Angel Witch, the consistency of television, moving a lot, how we'd all be better off as accountants, the exciting and elusive world of commercials, Zapping your Zinger, living in Germany, specific PSAs made for AFN by the original cast of SNL, how TV reporters made the world worse by trying to sign off impressively, The Superbowl, learning about American culture via Commercials, Norman Fell, six ways to cry, dramas spun off from comedies, Lou Grant, Cop Rock, Quincy M.E., Skag with Karl Malden, Last Resort, CHiPs, dripping in Orchestral disco, how analog synth lasers make everything better, theme songs that chart, Starsky and Hutch, Mr. Smith, the prevalence of Orangutans and apes in television and movies, CB Radios, BJ and the Bear, Citizen's Band, pretending to be a doctor, how comedy never works on live music shows, how music often DOES work on comedy shows, avoiding OJ Simpson's acting work, Alice, Linda Lavin, the 70s shows that went well into the 80s, the horror of the word "booger", being Dr. Johnny Fever, Barney Miller, seeing TV sitcom actors on Broadway, coded gay characters, The White Shadow, Goldie and Liza Together, Bob Newhart's sketch comedy special, Real People, how the death of disco lead to mud wrestling and wet t-shirt contents, being confused for a real people person when you're a Real People person, when political debates became roast battles, Dragnet, The Rockford Files, young Powers Booth, old fashioned typewriters, Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk, The Hulk Out List, doing Bill Moyers, dueling Merv Griffins, the made for-TV movie Detour to Terror, buses, photos of Lorenzo Lamas, and recommending Blacke's Magic.