Shows
The TV RoomCisco Pike (Part 1)Special guest Ian Rosen joins the podcast for a review of the 70s cult classic film Cisco Pike (1971). Starring: Kris Kristofferson, Gene Hackman, Karen Black.2022-03-071h 02The TV RoomRemembering John Denver on His 75th BirthdayThe early 1970s were angry times. From Kent State to Watergate, from Vietnam to Patty Hearst, society was polarized, and arguably no figure was more polarizing than mild-mannered, bespectacled singer-songwriter John Denver. By the late '70s Denver had found mainstream success as a Hollywood leading man and a new life's hobby--flying experimental aircraft...2019-01-0818 minThe TV RoomGoliath Starring Billy Bob Thornton: An Impressionistic ReviewVenice beatniks, gambling ships off the Santa Monica Pier, Raymond Chandler stories, the Gidget phenomenon, Jim Rockford's trailer, Jack, Janet, Chrissy, the Ropers, and Fletch too, have all shaped the cultural geography that defines the character of Billy McBride and the landscape of Goliath.2018-10-0458 minThe TV RoomMay 2018 Monthly UpdateA quick update on the upcoming TV Room season (it's about Patty Hearst and the SLA!). Remembering Tom Wolfe and Philip Roth, by comparing them to Hunter S. Thompson and John Updike, and revisiting the New Journalism of the 1960s.2018-06-0413 minThe TV RoomTV Room Status Update2018-05-0104 minThe TV RoomTania: The Story of Patty Hearst and the S.L.A. (pt 1)Could there be a stranger time and place than the Bay Area in the 1970s? The saga of Patty Hearst and the SLA would seem to say no.
In this two-part episode of the TV Room, we revisit those events and review some of the tapes Patty and the SLA released to the media throughout the ordeal, which the public eagerly lapped up, and which chronicled the transformation of a frightened 19-year old kidnap victim into a gun-toting revolutionary.2018-03-071h 16The TV RoomStranger Things (….That ’80s Show??)A spoiler-free review of Stranger Things Season One. Topics discussed on this episode include: Digital Natives vs. Digital Neanderthals..How a little startup called Netflix killed off the 20th Century...1983: Whose year was it anyway? 1983 was Time's Year of the Computer, but with shag carpeting, plaid furniture, and breadbox-sized telephones...Freaks and Geeks, Risky Business and WarGames...The Upside Down qualities of water and electricity...The return of Winona Ryder and the return of Matthew Modine...and the timelessness of kids on bikes.2017-12-1959 minThe TV RoomRemembering Tom Petty (and Video Concert Hall)In 1980, album oriented rock was high art, radio was king, and music videos were mere novelty items featured on an obscure cable program called Video Concert Hall. There was no better embodiment of these ideals at the time than Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and their breakthrough album "Damn the Torpedoes," particularly the single "Here Comes My Girl," which stands out as a great love song as well as a breakout music video from before there was even MTV.2017-10-1617 minThe TV Room11. The Yellow Kid Arrives on the SceneA century before Bart Simpson, another cleverly drawn little boy burst upon the scene. He caused such a sensation in his day that Yellow Journalism was named after HIM, not the other way around. He was the Yellow Kid.2017-09-1548 minThe TV Room10. The Era of Yellow Journalism: PrologueHearst, Pulitzer, Jacksonian Democracy, the Fourth Estate. New York City in the 1890s. Tabloid media concentrates its power, and becomes unchecked and unbalanced.2017-07-1236 minThe TV Room9. Hearst v. Pulitzer: Rise of the Daily NewspaperMedia wars are nothing new. In the 1880s modern journalism began under the auspices of Joseph Pulitzer. By the 1890s, "ratings wars" between Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst pushed newspaper publishers into increasingly reckless territory. This is where our modern media culture begins. Listen in on this episode of the TV Room as we revisit the heyday of Pulitzer's New York media empire, when he was able to use his newspapers to confront the excesses of the Gilded Age and help usher in the reforms of the Progressive Era that followed. We then set the table for Pulitzer's feud with...2017-05-1944 minThe TV Room8. The 19th Century: Our Modern World BeginsIn 1800, nothing went faster than a sailing ship or a team of horses, not even communiques. Electronics did not exist and machines were unknown. By 1900, you could talk by phone to different cities, take a subway to go see a movie, and drive a car. Millions of people were on the move, leaving the old world behind and going to where the jobs were, in factories with machines that ran around the clock.
Their grandparents lived and died in a world that hadn't changed much since Medieval times, and their grandchildren would grow up with rock n roll and television...2017-03-0341 minThe TV Room7. The First Information Age: From Telegraph to Television.Did the upset election of 2016 mark the death knell of journalism? From telegraph to television, newspapers to newscasters, telegraph cables to cable news, how Morse Code was the binary code that started the first Information Age, and why cable TV news might be the end.2017-02-0733 minThe TV Room6. The Electoral College & YouIn this episode of the TV Room podcast, with the shadow of the 2016 Presidential election looming large, we ask and attempt to answer:
What's up with the Electoral College System anyway, and why do we still use it?
When did "these United States" become "the United States"?
How is this nation different from other nations?2017-01-1027 minThe TV Room5. Trump. A TV Antihero is PresidentOn this episode of the TV ROOM PODCAST: Donald Trump takes the White House...What started with JFK looking more presidential during a televised debate with Richard Nixon in 1960 has led 56 years later to a TV personality shattering the glass screen to become Commander-in-Chief. Is this the moment everybody who described television as a 'vast wasteland' was afraid of?2016-11-2436 minThe TV Room4. The Summer of Love (Part I)In this episode of the TV Room:
The Jefferson Airplane visit American Bandstand…..The Beatles turn on…..San Francisco talent + L.A. marketing = Monterey Pop…..Rolling Stone turns pro…..Bewitched goes hippie…..And the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour boldly goes where no show has gone before.2016-10-2550 minThe TV Room3. The Turbulence of 1968: RFK, MLK, Vietnam, LBJLyndon Johnson won the 1964 Election in a landslide, and managed to get landmark legislation passed early in his term. Yet, by early 1968, the Vietnam War had become so unpopular that Johnson decided not to run for a second term as President. Four days after he shocked the country by pulling out of the race, Martin Luther King was assassinated. Two months later, Bobby Kennedy was gunned down, and the Democratic Party limped into their Chicago convention, where open rebellion and brutal suppression broke out. It was the Year that Everything Changed.2016-09-301h 01The TV Room2. Did TV Invent the Rock Star?On the second episode of the TV ROOM PODCAST, we notice that the phenomenon of the rock star came about just when the television was arriving en masse in American living rooms, and we wonder if this was mere coincidence or something more?2016-09-3041 minThe TV Room1. The Age of Television (1948-??)On the very first episode of the TV ROOM podcast, we discuss: What exactly is the Age of Television? What are its origins? How did it change us? When will we know it's over?2016-09-3024 min