Tv Talk Machine

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