The Best/Worst Moments of last night's show

[nec13]

This Morton Downey Jr. movie sounds awesome.

I was in 5th and 6th grade when he came out on Channel 9. I used to watch it with my grandfather (the same one written about in my brother's hit book, A Bad Idea I'm About to Do available at bookstores and e-readers) and, even then, I thought it was insane. I remember talking about the show with my friends in art class in sixth grade. My art teacher looked at me in sort of shock and asked me if I was talking about that show and shook his head.

Channel 9 was THE BEST in retrospect. They had Morton and 9 Broadcast Plaza, which eventually morphed into the completely sublime Richard Bey Show. Channel 9 also had the iconic Lloyd Lindsay Young, Mario Cantone's completely nuts kid's show Steampipe Alley, and was the original home of the Howard Stern Show. There's a video online that Matthew Callan (Scratchbomb) unearthed where Mario Cantone convinced Morton Downey to "eat" insects or something like that.

I miss the days of local TV. It's now a big sea of chain restaurant homogeny.

I loved Channel 9. Downey, Stern, Steampipe Alley, Rolland Smith, Brenda Blackmon, Lloyd Lindsay Young, Russ Salzberg, Ralph Kiner, Tim McCarver, they were all staples of my youth. About the only bad thing I can say about WWOR is that I have them to blame for my Mets fandom and all the accompanying woe and misfortune that's followed.

And like Greggulator, I too miss the days of local independent stations. I think their demise was one of the worst things to happen to tv.

[Epic Soundtracks]

Was "Chiller Theater" on WOR or PIX? Loved that creepy hand intro ("chiiiillllllerrrr")

[buffcoat]

I did a skit for a class where I played Morton Downey. No one, not the teachers, not the other kids, not the people in my group doing the skit, had any idea what I was talking about. I wore a blazer and deck shoes and yelled at people. Good times!

I'd like to imagine this occasioned a very strained and befuddled parent-teacher conference.

No, unfortunately. Probably because it was for the G&T (or had it changed to AG by that point?) class. They just sort of looked at me and said, "There goes buffcoat* again."

I'm on the whole so, so glad that mass taping and phone-photoing was not a part of my childhood and young adulthood, but there are some things I would like to have been preserved.










* I used a different name back then.

[buffcoat]

"Hi, Bob."

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

This Morton Downey Jr. movie sounds awesome.

I was in 5th and 6th grade when he came out on Channel 9. I used to watch it with my grandfather (the same one written about in my brother's hit book, A Bad Idea I'm About to Do available at bookstores and e-readers) and, even then, I thought it was insane. I remember talking about the show with my friends in art class in sixth grade. My art teacher looked at me in sort of shock and asked me if I was talking about that show and shook his head.

Channel 9 was THE BEST in retrospect. They had Morton and 9 Broadcast Plaza, which eventually morphed into the completely sublime Richard Bey Show. Channel 9 also had the iconic Lloyd Lindsay Young, Mario Cantone's completely nuts kid's show Steampipe Alley, and was the original home of the Howard Stern Show. There's a video online that Matthew Callan (Scratchbomb) unearthed where Mario Cantone convinced Morton Downey to "eat" insects or something like that.

I miss the days of local TV. It's now a big sea of chain restaurant homogeny.

Trivia: I appeared on the Richard Bey show in (I think) the summer of 1992.  I was a contestant in an insane game show whose rules I never understood, and I lost immediately.  If I recall correctly, it was basically The Price is Right, but if you won you got a date with one of the models they hired to stand next to the products, which sounded like a horrible night to me.  That didn't stop a couple of meatheads in the green room from bragging about what they were going to do with the models, though.

My dad has it on VHS and my younger brothers keep threatening to post it on YouTube.

[CSW]

I was so hoping that the 2-hour Van Morrison variety TV special, featuring a visibly angry Van the Man, mentioned by Reginald Monroe was real.

If that's the first you've heard of it, I suggest you urgently review all the previous Mathew Tompkins (Shout TV Executive) calls

[CSW]

Jello Man continues his unbroken string of saying nothing that's funny, or interesting, or that gives Tom anything to work with. Worst caller of all time? I haven't been listening from the beginning, so I can't be sure, but: Hoo Boy.

Are you trolling? You've heard actual bad calls, right? You've heard Zach from Richmond make the worst calls ever? You've heard the guy this week call Tom "Bob"?

Jelloman might not be to your taste but he definitely gives Tom Stuff to work with.

Plus he is a unique character living a unique lifestyle and personally I really like his calls and I find his stories interesting. Where else are you gonna hear stuff like that?

[cavorting with nudists]

Are you trolling? You've heard actual bad calls, right? You've heard Zach from Richmond make the worst calls ever?

You're right, I realized as soon as I posted that with the Shit Hamine guy on the books, "worst caller" can never be right. "Most overindulged"? Maybe, but of course that's just from my perspective.  Can you cite me an interesting moment?

[BadGuyZero]

Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie is available on Amazon Instant Video. $6.99 for a 48-hour rental. Cheaper than a movie ticket!

[nec13]

Jello Man continues his unbroken string of saying nothing that's funny, or interesting, or that gives Tom anything to work with. Worst caller of all time? I haven't been listening from the beginning, so I can't be sure, but: Hoo Boy.

Are you trolling? You've heard actual bad calls, right? You've heard Zach from Richmond make the worst calls ever? You've heard the guy this week call Tom "Bob"?

Jelloman might not be to your taste but he definitely gives Tom Stuff to work with.

Plus he is a unique character living a unique lifestyle and personally I really like his calls and I find his stories interesting. Where else are you gonna hear stuff like that?

+1

[nowah]

I've been pretty lukewarm on Jelloman, mostly because he's white hot with Tom and the FOT right now and I'd rather everyone let him simmer for a few years than flame out this summer, but he's finally converting me with his essential admission of tax evasion and how he introduced the notion of peanut butter and Jell-O shot sandwiches to my life.

[CSW]

Are you trolling? You've heard actual bad calls, right? You've heard Zach from Richmond make the worst calls ever?

You're right, I realized as soon as I posted that with the Shit Hamine guy on the books, "worst caller" can never be right. "Most overindulged"? Maybe, but of course that's just from my perspective.  Can you cite me an interesting moment?

Perhaps interesting was too subjective. I think it is but I can see why others wouldn't. Let me revise that to fascinating.

I've found all his calls fascinating. His whole travelling around in an RV, living life on his own terms fascinates me. Sure beats the hell out of sitting in an office all day like I do.

Each call just seems to add layers. It statred out with Jello shots, then progressed to T-Shirts, Gumball machines, PB&Jello shot sandwhiches, raiding campsites for dumped equipment etc.

There's a vague sense of outlaw-ness to it but at the same time it's entirely harmless. I dig that.

[Steve of Bloomington]

I've been pretty lukewarm on Jelloman, mostly because he's white hot with Tom and the FOT right now and I'd rather everyone let him simmer for a few years than flame out this summer, but he's finally converting me with his essential admission of tax evasion and how he introduced the notion of peanut butter and Jell-O shot sandwiches to my life.

That's kind of my take on it too. His calls are interesting in a sociological study, Gathering of the Juggalos kind of way, and the pb&js sandwiches are a pretty funny combination of creativity and entrepreneurship, but the level of hype around him now is starting to remind me of that summer where I was at the grocery store and I suddenly realized Shrek's face was on every third product in the store.

[AllSussedOut]

Ah, Richard Bey.

Meeeeeem-orieeeeeeessss......

[daveB from Oakland]

I've been pretty lukewarm on Jelloman, mostly because he's white hot with Tom and the FOT right now and I'd rather everyone let him simmer for a few years than flame out this summer ...

This is starting to sound like a Walter-White style procedural recipe for the making of illicit product in the Jello Van.