Tv Talk Machine

We took a couple of weeks off but now we're back, more stupid than ever. But let's face it -- Question Boy (Joe Garofoli) was way off his game in this one. His impersonations were all messed up. Banjo? Awful. Bill Walton -- worse than mine, even. Al Gore? Lame. On and on it went. On the plus side, it was perhaps his finest moment ever reading the e-mail questions. As for Manny (Benny Evangelista), he was asleep at the knobs. If it wasn't for the great calls and e-mail, this would just be our normal offering of warmed-up lameness. But as it turns out, hell, this one ended up being informative and entertaining. Kind of like "edutainment."

After feigning politeness for much of Part 1 with Jennifer Gomez (aka Jengo) as Question Girl, the true colors of Question Boy (Joe Garofoli) come to the surface. Lots of questions, lots of anger, a couple of answers. Way better than we usually do.

Question Girl No. 2 joins the TVTM podcast. We decide not to be so lame. We may have failed. Actually, "first runner up" Jennifer Gomez (aka Jengo) helped fuel a surprisingly upbeat, informative and far-reaching two-part TV Talk Machine podcast. We raised our game in honor of her in-Pod Cave appearance. We have Part 1 today, Part 2, tomorrow and then -- because we have pledged to you our word to be as unprepared and lame as always -- we hope to return, a week later, to rambling nonsense about "untended gardens," "hind parts," "cougars" and bong hits. Have a listen.

After a long winter holiday break, I have regrouped with Question Boy (Joe Garofoli) and extended the contract of Benny Evangelista to "man the knobs" as we go forward with the most popular, least professional and most dangerously stupid podcast in San Francisco Chronicle history. The TVTM plods on, even when it's (cough!) blocked by Question Boy's inability to read the questions right, or, for that matter, to have many coherent questions that don't have a lot of late 2007 dust on them. Undaunted, we did the podcast anyway and even, for the first portion, tried to professionally discuss the WGA strike and its impact on television -- particularly late night -- and elements of our favorite series in the entire world, "The Wire." Then we did some more Bill Walton-as-Santa patter. For the first time in 33 TVTM podcasts, I did not have the shorty robe on, though Joe did. Manny was sick, so he wore a long robe and was put in Pod Cave isolation so not to cough on us. Next week, it's the debut of our second Questio

Yes, Virginia, there is a podcast. And a bunch of other pointless stuff. Well not a "bunch" per se. I've got some random bits of info, sure. But mostly I'm throwing this up there to let you know that I recorded a podcast with Question Boy (Joe Garofoli) and Manny/Knobby (Benny Evangelista). After a long layoff, we were all a bit rusty. But the shorty robes were seasonal and festive. And short. That's all that really matters. If you're hungry for a morsel of stupidity from this podcast, I will tell you: I forgot what my other blog was called, initially. I think I called it TVTG. I corrected this, with the help of Question Boy, by pimping it about 1,249 times. But I want to make clear that when I forgot the title of my own personal blog, I had not been using the bong. I swear. No bongs were involved in the forgetting of my own second blog.

I talked with Michael C. Hall, star of "Dexter," on Monday and here it is as part of my latest TV Talk Machine podcast. Ah, talking with the stars. Never an actual interest of mine. But as I noted previously, the whole idea of the TV Talk Machine podcast was to talk with people I actually liked, who were doing great work, and having that as archive material for years. More and more people are being offered up. Podcasting is becoming more acceptable as it becomes more accessible, I suppose. I have a short list that now must be expanded. But my question is -- who are you interested in hearing? Granted, it has to be someone I like. So you'll have to intuit my likes and dislikes before compiling a list that works. But it can't hurt to ask. You ask, then I'll ask. And we'll see what happens. As you know, a big factor will be my wavering interest level. But now that I'm really tiring of the blog life, this may be a workable sub. Anyway, here's "Dexter," everybody's favorite serial killer (and former gay funeral hom

You can hear the dulcet tones of Mandy again! We continue to dominate all of America, Canada and the rest of the world by taking calls from around the globe, including "near Oakland" and our first from Harlem. Or was it Brooklyn? Hell, I couldn't even get Mandy's whereabouts in Oregon correct. But we rallied, as usual, and we hope that TVTM will entertain you. It remains free. And we remain unpaid.

Well, it took some time -- alright, a long time -- but Amandapants our winner in the long forgotten Question Girl battle royale -- finally makes an appearance on the TV Talk Machine podcast. Mandy Murphy survived all of our jibes and jokes and lies and slander to appear with us. And she even had a great time. Such a great time, mind you, that we've split the podcast into two parts. Yep, you add someone in the booth, even figuratively, and the bloated rambling just gets more windy and lengthy. So, here's Part 1 of Amandapants as Question Girl.In this first installment, Question Boy (Joe Garofoli) takes the high road (he got a nose bleed from being so unfamiliar with the heights) and barely feuds with Question Girl. In fact, they bond. It's nauseating. On the other hand, Benny-Bernie-Manny is, as usual, "manning the knobs" and we discover that he "forgot" a couple of calls (that we know of) to the TVTM, so we resurrect them as "classics." Strangely enough, they are still relevant. There is some strike talk her

Well, we were just hoping to kick back and do Bill Walton impressions and talk about shorty robes in this one -- plus mock the fact that our new Question Girl is AWOL. But, as they usually do, things went sideways. First, we had too many questions -- both e-mail and by phone. It's actually becoming work now, this podcast...And we had to fess up that Amandapants, our Question Girl winner, isn't 100 percent at fault for what is now "Question Girl Is Missing: Week Three." Turns out she was available a couple of Mondays ago but I was interviewing people for the podcast. Then I just forgot to send her questions or even get back in touch with her. Then Monday came and, well, the TVTM must go on. Our only recourse was to make fun of her. And, thankfully, so did her own extended family, via e-mail. A lot of other things happened as well. For instance, Question Boy (Joe Garofoli) took a real beating. I know, he normally does, but this time it was relentless (until a caller -- a cougar is the best guess -- called in a

These days Ricky Gervais is a busy man. He's making movies. He's doing live comedy concert tours. He's writing books, appearing on "The Simpsons," and making perhaps the most popular podcast (and the funniest) in the medium's short history. On and on it goes. In this podcast, recorded on his day off from shooting a film, Gervais talks about the "Extras" finale, why he and Merchant wanted to make this something more than just a comedy, how fame has affected his own life, what he was trying to say through the Andy Millman character, and some "extras" about his own career and work going forward (plus a brief comment on my statement that podcast partner Karl Pilkington just may be "a misunderstood visionary.")

I interviewed David Duchovny today about his role in Showtime's acclaimed "Californication" series. Duchovny did the interview while keeping his eye on the TV news -- the Southern California fires are rapidly encroaching on his home (he also noted, with some sad irony, that his latest movie is "Things We Lost In the Fire"). "Californication" has two episodes left -- one tonight (repeated this week) and then the season finale on Oct. 29. Duchovny talked about why he came back to television, how the difficult-to-describe Hank Moody character -- "he's objectionable" -- is such a challenge to play, how his wife, Tea Leoni, deals with him surrounded by naked women all day, the odd notion of Showtime trying to re-edit "Californication" without the sex and swearing and, yes, what's going on with the upcoming "X-Files" movie, among other topics.

Mood swinging mayhem; future celebrity appearances, efficient rambling. It's the TVTM! Indeed it is. Yet another podcast without our new Question Girl, so it comes back, yet again, to Question Boy (Chronicle media writer Joe Garofoli) and your Cultural Commissar to deliver the goods (or the averages) on yet another TV Talk Machine podcast. There are more Q's and A's here than ever before and all the joyful abundance of swearing, laughing and scoffing you've come to expect. Plus, still more singing. And just so you don't think it's a wankfest of poor production, limited information, terrible humor and time killing wassailing, let it be known here and now that I'll have two upcoming podcasts with David Duchovny and Ricky Gervais. Plus more where that came from. Yeah, so there. Until they appear and get the good stuff with the good questions and the professional sound, please enjoy our normal offering of weekly lameness.

Question Girl winner! Question Boy survives! Actual questions answered! Plus anger, etc. Yep, that's about the gist of it. Plus, Joe Garofoli sings as Juan Antonio Samaranch. We get yelled at. We forget things. But there's a happy ending (no, not that kind) and a lot of phone calls and e-mails get answered. Plus we bash Benny, who, as you know, is "manning the knobs." It's quite fun, actually. And we have now officially destroyed all other podcasts at the Chronicle. Our next goal is world domination -- or getting our loved ones to listen, whichever comes first.

Carnage! Sucking up! Sultry voices! Hating on Question Boy! It's Attack of the Question Girls! Boy, is it. The highly-touted, hotly anticipated throwdown to become the Once and Future Question Girl (and, in the process, firing Joe Garofoli as Question Boy -- but not really) led to a bloody TV Talk Machine podcast. Hear all about it below. So many people participated, that we now have a controversy brewing (or if not, we'll cook it up anyway). Apparently, some Question Girl tryouts might not have made it on air (audible gasp) and some may even have been edited out (hissing from the back) after we picked the six finalists (the what?). Blame for all of that falls to one man, and his name is Not Me. Actually, it's Benny "The Podfather" Evangelista. (He doesn't know that yet. Well, now he does, but still.) Yeah, Benny "Manning the Knobs" Evangelista runs a tight ship. Not only that, in the interest of fairness, a certain someone who shall go nameless -- no, actually her name is Julie King -- noted correctly that

Uh, yeah. Question Boy (Chronicle media writer Joe Garofoli) was angry. I was angry. Ignoring us only makes us -- what's the word? -- cranky. We had a lot of letters. But we had no calls. So we went off. Later we talked about shows. Joe sang (the Pittsburgh Steelers fight song...God help us.) We did vocal impressions. We talked about fall shows and, specifically, series premiering this week. I put the bunting out at the house (and on the shorty robe) in honor of this being the official start week of the fall season. Question Boy was not, in fact, fired. But we decided our long-delayed search for a Question Girl should now be turned into a reality show. The first podcast reality show! (that we know of...and no, we didn't actually check).

Actual answers! The return of the shorty robe! An attack on Question Boy! It's the TV Talk Machine podcast. Oh, hell yes it is. We go off! And then we catch ourselves and correct course. Mostly we realized that the show seemed too professional, too helpful, too effortlessly informative. So we ruined it. Or tried to. Next week it'll be lousy again -- promise.

Here -- after a lengthy absence -- is the return of the TV Talk Machine podcast!

Tim's down in L.A. at Death March with Cocktails, where he met up with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. Tim took the opportunity to chat with Burns about his upcoming seven-part series, "The War," which airs on PBS starting Sept. 23. In the interview, Burns talks about how he handled criticism from those who said his series didn't do justice to the role of Latino soldiers in World War II.

Even more listener calls about the "Sopranos" finale!

Well it's been quite a few days of post-"Sopranos" speculation and chat. I did five radio interviews on Monday including 40 minutes on "Talk of the Nation" and that finale was, indeed, the talk of the nation. No doubt the finale will live on in pop culture history as a great debate. Did Tony live or die? I love that it has prompted so much discussion and creative (insane?) deconstruction. And now I'm on the verge of being very much over the whole thing. Time to move on. But before I do, here s the most recent TV Talk Machine podcast where me and Question Boy (Joe Garofoli) talk about The Sopranos season finale and take listeners calls.