This week Ken welcomes former Higsons’ frontman, novelist, actor, comedian and all around UK comedy royalty Charlie Higson to the show.
Ken and Charlie discuss being built for lockdown, writing books for adults again after a 25 year hiatus, the BREAKING NEWS of Charlie’s new huge fantasy series for the Middle East on MBC, Randall and Hopkirk Decease, Saturday Night Live (UK), Stand up on TV, Harry Enfield, The Fast Show, catch phrases, Paul Whitehouse, the difficulty of exporting comedy, never seeing Gilligan’s Island, The Brady Bunch, the biggest and best American sitcoms, the US tradition of late night talk shows, Craig Ferguson, Vic Reeve’s Big Night Out, Vic and Bob, The Prisoner, The Avengers, the UK tradition of fantasy series, how fantasy series aren’t all for kids, Doctor Who, needing to use humor for characters, translating humor to a foreign language, the beauty of working with restrictions, liking stupid comedy, classic American sitcoms, Swiss Tony, how the US likes to see people good at their job and the UK likes to see people bad at their job, Cheers, Early Doors, Peter Richardson, remaking UK shows in the US, how The Royle Family became The Kennedys, how cool characters aren’t funny, all the US remakes of Fawlty Towers, how difficult it is for UK comedians to make it in the US, Ricky Gervais, English acts bombing at the Montreal Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, Vic and Bob confusing a Canadian audience, The Larry Sanders’ Show, how The Muppets is the anti-Larry Sanders, The Higsons, opening for The Ramones in Chicago, touring America, and how modern tv and movie scores have abandoned “themes” and why that is a shame, Batman Theme and Robison Crusoe from Germany.
About Ken Reid
I’m Ken Reid, a stand up comedian from Boston, MA and a life long television fan. I’ve been twice nominated as the Best Stand up in Boston and I have been featured on Comedy Central, NPR, Nerdist, and MSN. I own every issue of TV Guide. Each week a guest chooses an issue at random, picks their viewing choices from that week and the show is our discussion of the tough viewing choices of our past. We get into stories about growing up, people’s relationship with television, some cultural/media studies dissection and I spit out a lot of trivia.
Note: The Ken Reid TV Guidance Counselor Podcast is rated PG-13 and may contain mild language.
