The Best Show: the future

[stubing]

Tom said he wants the show to go on in some form. I have no doubt Tom and Jon and their circle will come up with something great.
I want to chime in on my dream for what the future would be: I would pay for a subscription to a podcast that is something like the Best Show. I would pay for a gold-level subscription, because I love those Best Show premiums, and if I could pay more to get a t-shirt or a seven inch every once in a while, I'd totally shell out some more dollars.

[TrapNeuterReturn]

Gimme Gimme Gimme...

Something like the Best Show could pump life into the sinking ship NPR. Tom,  Jon, and AP Mike could get some of that Click and Clack money. Spinoff opportunities  galore- Spike on Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, Jason from Huntsville usurps Garrison Keilor's throne, Gary takes over for Terry Gross, This American Life focuses on authentic America: Bayonne. It is unfortunate that those pseudo-intellectual Ira Glassholes over there have no vision.

[Gamma Gamma Ray]

i would love to see a Newbridge animated series.

[erg79]

I noticed that the bios for Tom and Jon on the Stereolaffs website (which are current) that Tom is developing a show for Amazon. Hope this happens!

[MiddleBro]

i would love to see a Newbridge animated series.

I have often thought something like this would be great, or maybe a comic series, given Tom's fondness of the medium.  As a live-action Newbridge thing would likely be impossible, being that Jon is the majority of the population.  Of course, maybe a puppet show...


   -Zach

[stubing]

Come on, guys. I know Tom has not asked. But I bet he would like some free market research.

[stubing]

And when I say guys, I mean gals, too. Hey gals!

[Chad from The Woodlands]

If a thousand folks paid $5  a month it would be a great start for a podcast.  If Adam Car-rollo can do it,  The Best Show can.

[Nicholas Tanek]

i would love to see a Newbridge animated series.

I was thinking the same thing. This way Jon Wurster can do all his characters and the animators can make them all look different.  The only thing is that him being a radio show host was such an essential element to the show. I can see Tom interacting with characters from Newbridge at the Starbucks, Radio Hut, Lady Foot Locker, etc. Although it would still work, I think it would be weird if Tom was not doing a radio show in the series.

Of course, Tom playing the straight man against all the citizens of Newbridge is also essential.

[gravy boat]

If a thousand folks paid $5  a month it would be a great start for a podcast.  If Adam Car-rollo can do it,  The Best Show can.

I'll support Tom & Jon & Mike in anything and totally would be in for $5-10 per month. If I lived to be 600, it would not even begin to pay them back for all the hours I spent on the FMU archives and podcast.

My bit of market research is that I hope it would not be a straight podcast.  There are so many facets to what Tom does, but one of the most enduring has been his crackling interactions with the great callers (Paycheck, Fred, the Southern Gentlemen, drunk Coco, sober Coco, et al.) and the not-so-great. Even one that I didn't think was that bad at the time (shop for a coffin guy) Tom's alchemy turned it into comedy gold for a few weeks. So, to make it short, for the future Best Show, I hope there would be live callers.

[roman]

If a thousand folks paid $5  a month it would be a great start for a podcast.  If Adam Car-rollo can do it,  The Best Show can.

I'll support Tom & Jon & Mike in anything and totally would be in for $5-10 per month. If I lived to be 600, it would not even begin to pay them back for all the hours I spent on the FMU archives and podcast.

My bit of market research is that I hope it would not be a straight podcast.  There are so many facets to what Tom does, but one of the most enduring has been his crackling interactions with the great callers (Paycheck, Fred, the Southern Gentlemen, drunk Coco, sober Coco, et al.) and the not-so-great. Even one that I didn't think was that bad at the time (shop for a coffin guy) Tom's alchemy turned it into comedy gold for a few weeks. So, to make it short, for the future Best Show, I hope there would be live callers.

I think Tom and Jon and Mike can do something awesome without it necessarily being a rehash of The Best Show.  If they did it on satellite, or if they had a podcast it would just be a different show.  And that's fine.  We should support their evolution in whatever form it takes.  They haven't steered us wrong yet!

Maybe they take a break from the show for a few years and then come back better than ever.  Maybe they start doing a show tomorrow.  Maybe they don't do a show ever again but they all have awesome creative things to support that are not Best Show related.  I'm in for all of it.  But I don't want to sit around holding my breath for The Best Show to come back the exact same way that it was.  That doesn't seem particularly healthy as an audience, and it would likely stifle the creative direction and possibilities of the show.

[JesseFromVegas]

I'd love to see Tom just adopt the Rifftrax/Never Not Funny model pay-wise (and maybe a little bit contentwise, the idea of "seasons" of the Best Show Mk 2 with like a long-running storyline going through the Tom & Jon calls really piques my interest), maybe do a call-in show every once in a while but the rest could just be him doing whatever strikes his fancy.  I thought today about how great it would be to listen to Tom try to watch/listen to some TV show or band he's bagged on in the past and listen to him riff on that (my first thought was hearing Tom react to Doctor Who).  Sort of an expanded version of the Stroszek commentary.  If he owns the rights to the archives, having a pay-wall protected thing where we can download old shows and maybe some of the older WFMU premium things (I'd love to be able to see Fantasia in Best Show Minor) would be good too, but all of that would be a massive undertaking IT wise.  I'm not even sure how he'd do the call-in show without the WFMU studios - Skype?  Would it work as well?

Whatever Tom does and wants to do, I will support him in any way I can, and I don't want him to just make "a little money" as he's said recently, I want Tommy Wonderful to be rich as Reese's, and I will follow and shell out my cash for whatever he wants to do.  Really, he could do anything he wants, he need not restrict himself just to finding a new way to do the show, he could branch out easily.  There's so many options, I'm really excited for him and for the future - the possibilities are almost endless!

[DadHasADD]

I was thinking that using the Never Not Funny pay model would be good for them too. I think they have the fan support to do a for-pay podcast (I would pay), and it would probably give them the most control over what they wanted to put out there.

[bigoteetoe]

artisanal cat naming

[MiddleBro]

i would love to see a Newbridge animated series.

I was thinking the same thing. This way Jon Wurster can do all his characters and the animators can make them all look different.  The only thing is that him being a radio show host was such an essential element to the show. I can see Tom interacting with characters from Newbridge at the Starbucks, Radio Hut, Lady Foot Locker, etc. Although it would still work, I think it would be weird if Tom was not doing a radio show in the series.

Of course, Tom playing the straight man against all the citizens of Newbridge is also essential.

Maybe the show would be bookended by Tom in the studio taking calls, then going out into the world, bumping into different characters, and then storylines can branch out from there.  It could sort of be like the standup bits in Seinfeld, but different.


   -Zach