Ken Reid and Ken Levine

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Today Ken welcomes writer/producer/podcaster/sports announcer Ken Levine to the show.

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Ken and Ken discuss Ken’s Hollywood home, Hirshfelds, Emmys, the golden age of television of the early 70s, the horrors of working as a radio DJ, getting laid off before Christmas, forgetting a person’s real name and calling them by their actor name, David White of Bewitched, Erin Murphy, being in the army reserves, moving into writing for TV, reverse engineering scripts via bookstore remainders and reel to reel audio recorders, writing for The Jeffersons, M*A*S*H, being in the audience for Mary Tyler Moore’s “Chuckles Bites the Dust”, how getting laid in 1973 would have ruined Ken’s career, Rhoda, writing a spec Mary Tyler Moore, having your Rhoda spec rejected twice, Charlotte Brown being your neighbor, shows going more than four seasons getting weird, Newhart, cliche Holiday episodes, The Odd Couple, showrunning M*A*S*H, keeping 95% of your actual writers’ draft, the lazy writing of current sitcom comedy, Cheers, Fraiser, Almost Perfect, reworking the concept of your show, when Norm didn’t hit until Cheers started airing, Grant Tinker, Cheers almost getting canceled, NBC, the Sam vs. Diane dynamic, your show getting canceled despite it doing well, the loss of Big Wave Dave’s, dating a Neilson family, and Ken’s podcast.

 

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.

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.