It’s finales and upfronts time, so there’s a whole lot for Jason and Joel to talk about, even as a massive thunderstorm raged outside of Joel’s window, making her network speeds completely inconsistent. But we soldiered through and talked about all the news:

• We started with America’s Got Talent and its new judge, Howard Stern. Howard was just fine, but the first audition shows gave both of us a big ol’ headache,
• We then start talking about some of our favorite season finales. For starters, we talk about how the finale of The Office gives us hope that they’ll clean up the many mistakes the writers made in season eight,
• Then we talk about the finale of Parks and Recreation, and how it’s probably one of the more consistent comedies on TV right now,
• We then have a long discussion about the How I Met Your Mother finale, and how, with maybe two seasons at the most left, Bays and Thomas need to stop with the red herrings and just start telling the conclusion of their story,
• Then talk turns to the 2 Broke Girls finale, a show that declined as the season went on. But maybe they finally gave the side characters some more personality in the hour-long season-ender.
• Finally, we launch into our discussion of the new fall schedules announced by ABC, NBC and FOX (CBS announced theirs this morning). Will Happy Endings and Don’t Trust the B work on their own? Is NBC burning off Community on Fridays? Does Glee need to be propped up by The X Factor? Will all these new comedies work? And where’s all the reality shows?

You can listen to the podcast above (if you don’t hear anything, fiddle with the volume slider), download it via this link, subscribe to our RSS feed, or subscribe via iTunes. You can also find us on the Stitcher radio app for smartphones and iPads.

By the way, the bumper music is “Trevor Trailer Trash” from the late, great band Cropduster.

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Joel did not watch American Idol like he promised last week, so Jason had every right to call him names. They did, however talk about a certain singing show that ended this week, along with a whole bunch of TV-related stuff:

• We started with The Voice finale, and how it became more about Christina Aguilera vs. Tony Lucca than about singing or who won,
• In the middle of that discussion, we talk about how it seems like the watching experience of a lot of reality shows really suffers when you don’t follow things on Twitter, blogs, and other online sources,
• Then we turn to the endless slog that is America’s Got Talent, and why Joel thinks that Howard Stern will not only not take over the show, but be a pretty good judge,
• Joel then marvels at how Stephen Colbert and the Colbert Bump worked once again, this time for Maurice Sendak, only a few months before the great children’s book author/illustrator passed away,
• We then talk about the prospects of Cougar Town shifting to TBS (which was confirmed today). We speculated whether the cast would have to take pay cuts (which won’t happen) and discuss why this show will be so important to TBS,
• We then have our now-weekly Mad Men talk, where we talk about some of the episode’s obvious symbolism, some ominous foreshadowing that might be a red herring, and why we didn’t buy Alexis “Rory Gilmore” Bledel as a put-upon sixties housewife,
• Finally, we preview a few things we might talk about next week, like why the NBA and NHL playoffs have lost their luster, very serious cartoon reboots, and how websites are back doing the “everyone in the office” model of journalism.

You can listen to the podcast above (if you don’t hear anything, fiddle with the volume slider), download it via this link, subscribe to our RSS feed, or subscribe via iTunes. You can also find us on the Stitcher radio app for smartphones and iPads.

By the way, the bumper music is “Trevor Trailer Trash” from the late, great band Cropduster.

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Jason and Joel are joined this week by friend of the ‘cast Will Harris of The AV Club and elsewhere, and we start things by asking him about his favorite Random Roles interviews… mainly because he’s done a lot of them lately. We then go on to talk about the stories of the week:

• We talk about the finalists on The Voice, Christina Aguilera on making the show about herself, and why the American Idol final five are better,
• We then talk about Girls once again, and we try to figure out why everyone else loves it and the three of us only kind of like it,
• Then we have a brief talk about this week’s Mad Men, the BJ scene, and why Kiernan Shipka is breaking out acting-wise this year,
• We talk about two NBC Thursday comedies: the 30 Rock live episode and how the west coast lost the Paul McCartney-Kim K. switch, and Community’s spot-on Law & Order parody episode. Oh, and we lather praise on Jon Hamm,
• We then talk about NBC’s decision to premiere Grimm’s 2nd season and Matthew Perry’s new show directly after the Olympics are over, which gives Will a chance to talk about the time when Matthew Perry ignored him,
• Netflix might revive Jericho. Joel whines that there are too many depressing apocalyptic shows on TV already,
• Will talks about getting immersed in a DVD set of the second season of the original Fantasy Island,
• Finally, we talk about why the life of being a TV critic sometimes resembles high school, especially on Twitter. And the funny thing? It’s mostly geeks shutting out geeks.

You can listen to the podcast above (if you don’t hear anything, fiddle with the volume slider), download it via this link, subscribe to our RSS feed, or subscribe via iTunes. You can also find us on the Stitcher radio app for smartphones and iPads.

By the way, the bumper music is “Trevor Trailer Trash” from the late, great band Cropduster.

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Jason and Joel start the festivities by talking about how Jason can watch shows at double speed, the use of the DVR fast forward button as an editor (which Salon discussed this week) and the dilemma of adding cable/satellite boxes around the house, especially when all of your TVs can handle HD programming. Then we get to the matter at hand, which is, of course, the fun TV stories of the week:

• Jason watched last week’s Mad Men in double time so we could talk about it, mainly because it was such an interesting episode. We talk about all the trips taken in the episode, and how we think Roger’s is the best one of all of ‘em. We also give our own memories of eating/staying at Howard Johnson’s,
• We then talk about the premiere of HBO’s Veep, and why the criticism that the show should give Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ character a political affiliation is bogus,
• We smoothly segue into talking about President Obama’s appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s show (where he “Slow Jammed the News”). We talk about why Obama is appearing on so many late night talk shows when his predecessors never did (at least while in office) and if this diminishes the presidency a little bit,
• We then talk about Girls — of course. We liked episode 2 better than the pilot. But mostly we talk about the backlash, especially the essays about the show’s racial makeup,
• Finally, we talk about why the remaining singers on The Voice aren’t nearly as compelling as who’s left on Idol and why The Voice’s coaches seem to stumble in the live rounds phase.

You can listen to the podcast above (if you don’t hear anything, fiddle with the volume slider), download it via this link, subscribe to our RSS feed, or subscribe via iTunes. You can also find us on the Stitcher radio app for smartphones and iPads.

By the way, the bumper music is “Trevor Trailer Trash” from the late, great band Cropduster.

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Right before we clicked the mics on for this week’s podcast, we learned about the death of TV legend Dick Clark, so we spent the first 20 minutes or so talking about Dick and our memories of American Bandstand. We also discussed his legacy in the business (Pyramid, the AMAs, Bloopers, etc., etc.) and how Ryan Seacrest is already most of the way to becoming the new Dick Clark. We then talked about some other pressing TV matters:

• Neither of us were overly impressed with the premiere of HBO’s Girls, but we seem to be the only ones. We try to figure out whether this is a case of TV critic groupthink or if we’re the idiots and should just keep watching,
• We then talk about the premiere of Veep on HBO this weekend, and why Julia Louis-Dreyfus is so good at taking an unfunny line and making it funny,
• We then discuss the big contestant walk-off on The Biggest Loser and if this might change how reality competition contestants deal with twists in the game,
• We give The Celebrity Apprentice a couple of minutes of our time, mainly because we feel bad for Dayna Mendoza as she gets torn apart week after week by Lisa Lampanelli. We also acknowledge we’re probably the only two people still watching the show.
• Finally, we talk about how The Voice seemed to be winging it with its “instant eliminations” last week, why Christina Aguilera dumped Jesse Campbell, and why we think this year’s crop of singers is not nearly as compelling as last year’s.

You can listen to the podcast above (if you don’t hear anything, fiddle with the volume slider), download it via this link, subscribe to our RSS feed, or subscribe via iTunes. You can also find us on the Stitcher radio app for smartphones and iPads.

By the way, the bumper music is “Trevor Trailer Trash” from the late, great band Cropduster.

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Because he dared to challenge us on our “decline of the recap” discussion a couple of weeks ago, we decided to bring old friend Mike Moody of Screenpunk.net and Badass Digest to come on and talk about why he still thinks the recap is a great read… when it’s done right. We also talked about a bunch of TV news:

• Jason and Joel talked about the passing of Mike Wallace and how every local “scams and schemes” reporter has him to thank for their careers,
• Mr. Moody then joins us to talk about the premiere of the surprisingly funny — and oddly named — Don’t Trust the B—- In Apartment 23,
• We then discuss the second episode of The Killing and how watching it over an entire season instead of all at once might have led to the critical backlash. We also discuss whether Mad Men mania is a problem for this show or not,
• Speaking of season-long arcs, we discuss David Simon’s rant against the glut of TV recapping, and if it’s worth reading reviews of individual episodes is doing a show like The Killing a disservice,
• We then talk about Britney Spears probably singing on for The X Factor, and why the coaches continue to be the story on The Voice,
• Joel lets Jason and Mike geek out on Game of Thrones for a few minutes,
• Finally, we talk about FOX re-airing the pilot of Married… With Children and why it was such a revolutionary show.

You can listen to the podcast above (if you don’t hear anything, fiddle with the volume slider), download it via this link, subscribe to our RSS feed, or subscribe via iTunes. You can also find us on the Stitcher radio app for smartphones and iPads.

By the way, the bumper music is “Trevor Trailer Trash” from the late, great band Cropduster.

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Joel cheated on AFT a bit when he appeared on the TVx3 Podcast, and he was fighting a nasty chest cold, but he and Jason still took on the TV stories of the week with gusto:

• We talked about the season premiere of The Killing and how it basically picked up where season one left off, and maybe not for the better,
• We then talk about how poor January Jones gets depicted on Mad Men, especially after last week’s Fat Betty episode,
• Then we talk about how Mad Men tries to be subtle about the changes in society happening around his characters, which we equate to living during a time when beepers and dumbphones were considered “normal”,
• We then talk about the season premiere of Game of Thrones and how it made everything make sense for Jason,
• Then we turned to the Community battle between Dan Harmon and Chevy Chase and explain why it’s not such a big deal (hint: think of Chevy’s history),
• We talk about this week’s morning show wars, with Sarah Palin and Katie Couric doing battle, and why Couric is such a natural in the mornings (and Ann Curry isn’t),
• Finally, we talk about the possible departures of Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis and Andy Samberg from SNL and who might step up to fill the void.

You can listen to the podcast above (if you don’t hear anything, fiddle with the volume slider), download it via this link, subscribe to our RSS feed, or subscribe via iTunes. You can also find us on the Stitcher radio app for smartphones and iPads.

By the way, the bumper music is “Trevor Trailer Trash” from the late, great band Cropduster.

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This week had some interesting TV news (and non-TV news, namely the Trayvon Martin case), but for the most part the week has been Mad Men, Mad Men and more Mad Men, and that’s what we lead off with:

• We talk about the Mad Men season 5 premiere and wonder if the critics lathered praise on it because it was really good or because they were just extremely happy to see it back,
• We then discuss the emergence of Jessica Pare as the show’s new “star” and what her character might mean to Don Draper’s story,
• Then we talk about this article in Gawker and discuss why writing, editing and reading recaps has lost a lot of the charm it had when TWoP (and TV Squad!) was doing them in the “dark ages” (i.e. 2005-06),
• We then talk about Alcatraz and why Jason felt that the show failed because it didn’t know what it wanted to be,
• We talk about why Terra Nova got cancelled with the same numbers that got Smash renewed,
• Then talk turns to why Smash is so disappointing and what the show can do to improve in season two,
• Finally, Jason convinces me to give Game of Thrones a try (season two starts this weekend) even though I’m not a big medieval fantasy-liking guy.

You can listen to the podcast above (if you don’t hear anything, fiddle with the volume slider), download it via this link, subscribe to our RSS feed, or subscribe via iTunes. You can also find us on the Stitcher radio app for smartphones and iPads.

By the way, the bumper music is “Trevor Trailer Trash” from the late, great band Cropduster.

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We never think we’re going to talk for an hour and a half, but we end up doing it anyway, mainly because we’re both so damned talkative. Anyway, lots of stuff to talk about this week, so the 90 minutes is justified:

• We talk about CBS’ renewals, and why we don’t talk about procedurals on this show very much (but we have an idea for a new NCIS edition if CBS is listening),
• Why Jason is watching House until its bitter end,
• The Walking Dead ended its bumpy second season last week; we talk about the finale and the exciting setup for the third season,
• We also discuss whether people expect AMC shows to be smarter than others because of Breaking Bad and Mad Men, and how that made people angry about the finale of The Killing, which comes back next week,
• We drop some hints about what year it is in the Mad Men premiere,
• Did HBO really cancel Luck because it was too dangerous? We think it was more about bad buzz — or lack of it — rather than about danger to horses. Oh, and no one cared enough about horse racing to watch in big numbers,
• We talk about the Rosie Show debacle, and if we’re happy to see Oprah Winfrey struggling with OWN,
• We discuss why shows like Rob get audiences that blow shows like Community and Parks and Rec away,
• Are there just too many singing and dancing shows? We discuss why The Voice is outdrawing DWTS with the younger audiences (and we briefly discuss Adam Levine being cast on American Horror Story… yes, you read that right).
• Finally, we talk about Marc Maron’s new IFC sitcom and what our motivations were for starting a podcast.

You can listen to the podcast above (if you don’t hear anything, fiddle with the volume slider), download it via this link, subscribe to our RSS feed, or subscribe via iTunes. You can also find us on the Stitcher radio app for smartphones and iPads.

By the way, the bumper music is “Trevor Trailer Trash” from the late, great band Cropduster.

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After Joel had some “issues” last week, we’re back and talking about more fun and games from the world of TV:

• It feels like there’s so much more pilot news than there used to be, right? Or is it more pilots? We wonder why networks (besides CBS) are holding out for their development season to pan out before renewing shows,
• Lindsay Lohan was really bad on SNL, but at this point, it really doesn’t matter, does it? We also talk about how the show is such an institution that it doesn’t make wholesale changes anymore,
• We then go into the (not so surprising) deaths on The Walking Dead and Desperate Housewives, and why they made sense on one but not so much on the other,
• We discuss the Mad Men premiere, because Joel’s already seen it. But we don’t say much about it because of Matt Weiner’s skittish spoiler policy, which we also discuss,
• Then talk turns to why the battle rounds of The Voice are so incredibly awkward, and why the show is really banking on the personalities of the coaches (Cee Lo’s cat, Christina’s head disk and side boob, etc.)
• Finally, we talk about the desperate moves Simon Cowell is making to keep The X Factor relevant while The Voice and Idol reign.

You can listen to the podcast above (if you don’t hear anything, fiddle with the volume slider), download it via this link, subscribe to our RSS feed, or subscribe via iTunes. You can also find us on the Stitcher radio app for smartphones and iPads.

By the way, the bumper music is “Trevor Trailer Trash” from the late, great band Cropduster.

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