December 28, 1996 – January 3, 1997
This week Ken welcomes NPR TV critic, musician and author of the great book Race-Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation, Eric Deggans to the show.
Ken and Eric discuss Eric’s smooth radio voice, growing up in Gary Indiana, being a touring musician, becoming a TV critic in 1996 in Florida, getting sick of pop music, how hard jobs were to get as a teenager, Letterman, watching TV late night, being a fan of weirdo comedy, SCTV, Ernie Kovacs, being signed to Motown, making sure you always have an HBO Subscription, touring Japan, getting a VCR, the importance of phone trees when black people would be on TV, the paranoia of Dark Skies, the importance of criticism, Siskel and Ebert, Cybill, committing mail fraud with Columbia House to exponentially increase you record collection, experiencing White Rock Music, Quincy Jones, The original Bill Cosby Show, Saturday Morning Cartoons, Saturday Night Live, Eddie Murphy, jamming, In Concert, The Midnight Special, Meet The Press, all the people we’ve lost, Tim Russert, Regis, Steve Harvey, stand up sitcoms, Robert Townsend, how wrong The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer was, Larry Wilmore, difficult stars, Bernie Mac, NYPD Blue, anti-heroes, re-examining shows you liked, Ellen, good and bad network notes, lack of diverse casts, suspension of disbelief, and the absolute greatness of Homicide Life on the Street.
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.