Extra Hot Great

The Morning Show is back to bring us its version of 2024. Can any of us possibly be ready to go back there? Maybe not, but we don't have the strength to resist gorging on The Morning Show's baloney, either. Morning Show-ologist Christina Tucker returns to talk about it. Around The Dial clicks through Futurama S13, Rivals, and Celebrity Weakest Link, then takes a trip to the cinema for Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. Margaret pitches The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air episode "The Big Four-Oh" -- yes, the one where Aunt Viv slays a dance audition in a clip you've probably watched at least once if not 20 times -- for induction into the Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, we close on a Game Time everyone should swipe right on. Get yourself the strongest coffee commercially available and join us! GUESTS

Will Leitch, sportswriter and newspaper journalist, is back to talk about The Office-verse sitcom The Paper -- and whether you should bother with the season that just dropped in its entirety on Peacock. Has the world moved on from the TV mockumentary? Does this show understand what it is to love reporting? And does any of that matter if the show's not quite funny enough? Later, we went Around The Dial with Only Murders In The Building's fifth season, 30 Rock's YouTube channel, and Love Con Revenge before Will tried to find room in the Canon budget for Dept. Q's premiere episode. Going Dutch won, Selena Gomez lost, and we found out who skips the closing credits in Game Time. Take a break from lining that birdcage and have a listen! GUESTS

We are off this week but present you with this EHG Club unlock of EEHG 324: This Week In Historical TV: September 4-10, 1991. Earlier this year, our Patreon supporters unlocked a new milestone, and with it a new annual BONUS bonus episode: This Week In Historical TV! Since we've gone with September 4-10, 1991 and chosen as our lead topic Cast A Deadly Spell, an HBO TV movie that combines classic hard-boiled detective fiction with the works of H.P. Lovecraft, we had to invite Dan Cassino, a fan of both, to talk about it. Around The Dial takes us through some highlights of our week in programming: the series premiere of Herman's Head; an all-timer Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode on Gamera vs. Guiron; Parker Lewis Can't Lose; and the Merlin Olsen-hosted Fantastic Facts. Tara pitches the S09 Cheers episode "Days Of Wine And Neuroses" for induction into The Canon. Then, after plucking a winner and loser out of the September 6, 1991 issue of Entertainment Weekly, it's on to a Game Time that has us asking many MORE than 19 Questions about the characters, places, and things of the 1991-92 TV season. Send your zombie henchman outside and join us! GUESTS Dan Cassino TOPICS Lead Topic → Cast A Deadly Spell Will Dave Hate This? → The Gambler Returns: The Luck Of The Draw Around The Dial → Herman's Head Around The Dial → Mystery Science Theatre 3000 Around The Dial → Parker Lewis Can't Lose Around The Dial → Fantastic Facts The Canon → Cheers S09.E16: Days Of Wine And Neuroses Winner & Loser → Jack Wagner Winner & Loser → Ramy Zada Game Time → 19 Questions: 1991-92 TV Season Edition SUPPORT THE SHOW Join the EHG Club Shop our store EPISODE NOTES Full episode notes Dan Cassino on Bluesky The Herman's Head pilot on YouTube Mystery Science Theater 3000's episode on Gamera vs. Guiron on YouTube Parker Lewis Can't Lose S02.E04 on YouTube Dark Justice on Wikipedia Dark Justice on the Internet Archive Photo: HBO

We haven't heard much from creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg since BoJack Horseman ended in early 2020, but he's back with a new animated family dramedy, Long Story Short, which has already been picked up for a second season. Are we excited to lengthen our time with it? New guest Eli Yudin joins us to talk about it. Around The Dial clicks through Peacemaker S02, Zach Galifianakis: Live At The Purple Onion, and Smoke. Mlle. Caroline pitches the Andor episode "Who Are You?" for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, we close up with a particularly fraternal Game Time. Grab some kugel and join us! GUESTS

Amanda Knox's arrest for murder in Italy became a sensational true crime story...so of course it is now the subject of a scripted true crime series. Did we find it sensational? Eve Batey joins us to discuss it. Around The Dial lands on North Of North, The Yogurt Shop Murders, Back To The Frontier, and The Fixer. Tara pitches the Friends episode "The One With Russ" for induction into The Nonac. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that knows: triples is best. Put down your old cell phone and your platter of pasta and join us! GUESTS

The Alien-verse has landed on TV with Noah Hawley's re-imagining (or pre-imagining) of the xenomorphic worlds of the film series -- and Andrew Cunningham has landed back in the guest chair to talk about telepathic blackmail, when hearing is scarier than seeing, and acting choices that don't make sense. Is this essential viewing, or should you jump in a shuttle and bail? Later, we went Around The Dial with War Of The Worlds 2025, The Gilded Age, It's Always Sunny, and American Prince: JFK Jr. before the panel stared into the abyss of Sarah's Sopranos Canon pitch. The Yellowstone-verse won, the Sussexes lost, and we kicked off a new Game Time season with a real facehugger. Skip that cryo-nap and listen to an all-new Extra Hot Great instead! GUESTS

Fifteen years after its series finale on Fox, King Of The Hill is back with its fourteenth season, now at on Hulu. Is it worth yelling from the mountains about? We discuss. Around The Dial stops at The Yogurt Shop Murders and S21 of Project Runway. Tara pitches the Close Enough episode "Secret Horse" for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, we close with a Non-Regulation Game Time that's on the level. Grab a can of Alamo and join us! TOPICS Lead Topic:

Critic and podcaster Mark Blankenship returns to The Blankenship Chair to discuss Hitmakers, a reality show about songwriters that needs less contrived drama and more process -- but did appeal to a couple of our panelists as eye candy. Should you give it a try, or wait until one of its pop creations comes on in an elevator? We went Around The Dial with Happy Gilmore 2, Million Dollar Secret, The Challenge 41, and The Gilded Age spoilers before tapping our toes to a Canon pitch for Buffy's musical episode. A nepo Beatty won, Resident Alien lost, and Non-Regulation Game Time struck a chord with another round of Tube Tunes. We don't want to call it "fire," but it IS an all-new episode of Extra Hot Great! GUESTS

Well, we all have a face that we hide away forever, and we take them out and show ourselves when everyone has gone -- even Billy Joel, who has decided to take his out for Billy Joel: And So It Goes, a two-part HBO docu-series about his life and work. Should he have kept it to himself (it's his life)? Daniel Blau Rogge returns to talk about it. Around The Dial takes us through S02 of Digman!, The Comeback, and Billionaire Boys' Club. Dan presents the Hacks episode "The Roast Of Deborah Vance" for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to Game Time, in which we're listening…to celebrity Frasier callers. Say Goodbye To Hollywood and hello to a new episode! GUESTS

Lena Dunham is back with Netflix romcom Too Much -- and so is Maris Kreizman, to discuss Dunham's return to the discourse, whether we can separate the creator from the show, and what the panelists who didn't care for it still think it did really well. We went Around The Dial with American Horror Stories's third season, Veronica Mars's FIRST season, and Ballard, and Tara hoped we'd come to praise AND bury "the Giamatti episode" of Black Mirror for the Canon. Richard Gadd won, Today's Craig Melvin lost (while letting Rick Springfield also win), and getting "home free" proved a challenge in a tagline-based Game Time. Throw a nightie on your favorite pet and join us! GUESTS

In the grand tradition of our drafts for Law & Order and the Star Trek franchise, we're using this special episode to draft teams of staff, patients, loved ones, and inanimate shows from ER -- and who better to join us than Laura Hampton, a PA known to us from our Discord as an ER superfan who recently completed a full rewatch of the entire series? No one, which is why she's here picking a team AND organized the draft with the correct number of each category of character for us to choose from. Now we're going to need YOU to vote for which team reigns supreme! Laura also presents Doug saving Ben from a flooding storm drain in "Hell And High Water" for induction into the Hero category of the Tiny Canon. Finally, we close with an on-theme game about body parts in the names of TV shows and actors. Get listening, STAT! GUESTS

We are off this week but present you with this EHG Club unlock of EEHG 343: Should You Sign On To With Love, Meghan? It's clear the former Meghan Markle wants to do something significant with her British-royal influence; it's also clear her new Netflix homekeeping show, With Love, Meghan, isn't that. Stephanie Early Green is back to talk about why it's so dull, what might have helped, and how Martha Stewart succeeded where Meghan Sussex fails. Ask EHG wondered who would replace Noel Fielding on GBBO and which characters we'd want on our bar-trivia teams, and then Tara pitched a lyrical SNL sketch for the Tiny Canon. And after we listed our Not Quite Winners and Losers of the week, Sarah's Extra Credit polled the panel on important princesses of television. Throw on a $300 linen apron and join us! GUESTS

Like a lot of family-owned businesses, Havenport, North Carolina's Buckley Fishery is having a rough go of it lately. If they can't make their nut and pay all their employees on fish alone, maybe...smuggling cocaine will make up the shortfall? What could go wrong?! Jessica Morgan returns to talk about the ways Kevin Williamson's new show crosses over with the one we know him for best (Dawson's Creek), and the ways it doesn't but that we WISH it would. Around The Dial takes us through Season 3 of The Gilded Age, The Valley, and Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy. Sarah pitches the Law & Order episode "Empire" -- aka "The Julia Roberts One" -- for induction into The Canon. Then, after identifying the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a game that's naming names -- lots of them. Grab a serving of fresh oysters and join us! GUESTS

And that truth is: none of us thinks you should bother, including returning guest Will Leitch, who agrees that We Were Liars moves too slowly; shows AND tells too fart-sniffily; wastes the talents of an impressive cast, including Mamie Gummer and David Morse; and is based on a property whose author sounds fake. We went Around The Dial with the very real The Chicken Sisters, Untold, and The Mortician before Tara's Canon pitch reunited us with Party Down's third-season premiere. General Hospital won, Doctor Odyssey (maybe??) lost, and Dan Cassino got us all a volume discount on long-running shows in Game Time. Cannonball verrrrrry sloooowwwly into our all-new episode now! GUESTS

Summer is upon us, but what are we going to watch? Robert Krut joins us to help make our traditional lists of what we're into; what we should be into but aren't; what NO ONE should be into; and what's fine for others but not for us. Dave pitches the South Side episode "Treat Yourself" for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, we close out with a Game Time that's pure poetry. Find a spot directly in front of a fan and join us! GUESTS

David T.'s beautiful son Taylor S. Cole is back to discuss Dept. Q, a Scottish take on a Nordic-noir book series that has the good sense not to mess with star Matthew Goode's face. Chemistry in trope-y scenes, why Scandi crime stories often have a submarine, whether the mystery needed so many episodes to solve -- we're talking about all of that AND recommending actually Nordic Nordic-noir TV if you liked Dept. Q. Then we're going Around The Dial with Mountainhead, The Rehearsal, and The Last Of Us S01 before seeing whether Taylor can do his entire The Studio Canon pitch before we lose the light. True-crime actors won, late night lost some more, and three was the magic number for one of us in Game Time. Throw on a nubbly sweater and join us! GUESTS

Matt Wolf (The Stroll) got unprecedented access to Paul Reubens, generally better known as his alter ego, Pee-wee Herman; Will Hines joins us to talk about what resulted from their 40 hours of interviews. Around The Dial takes us through Big Mouth's eighth and final season; The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox, and Magic & Bird: A Courtship Of Rivals. Sean makes his pitch for the "Long, Long Time" episode of The Last Of Us to be inducted into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that really knows the score. Put on your reddest bow tie and join us! GUESTS

Vulture's Kathryn VanArendonk is back to talk about Apple TV+'s Murderbot, and whether the books do a better job of exploring questions of gender and essential humanity without Alexander Skarsgard's Ken-doll crotch confusing matters. Should YOU give it a watch? We went Around The Dial with Overcompensating, Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives, and Leverage: Redemption's third season before Anne offered another variation on the Utahn theme with a Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City Canon Presentation. Kelli Giddish won, Tom Hardy lost, and we all tried to survive the process of Venn-diagramming premiere and finale casting in Game Time. Hack into your governor modules and join us! GUESTS

After more than two years, Rian Johnson's Poker Face -- aka "What if Columbo, but a lady named Charlie who's a human lie detector" -- is back for its second season on Peacock. Does it still deliver a pleasing throwback mystery vibe? David J. Roth returns to discuss. Around The Dial takes us through the second season of Conan O'Brien Must Go and Netflix's special Conan O'Brien: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize For American Humor; Killing It; and Untold: Shooting Guards. Mike presents the episode "A Mercy" from The Terror for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, we kick off a new season of Game Time with a very long drive between fictional TV cities in America -- hey, kind of like Charlie! Gas up and join us! GUESTS

Did Alan Alda vehicle The Four Seasons need an eight-part dramedy reboot? The panel -- joined by Alyson Lewis of Cracked -- doesn't think so, although one of us enjoyed returning to a version of a property that aired constantly on HBO in the mid-eighties. But did the story need this many episodes, or this downbeat a tone? Do we enjoy this iteration of a Tina Fey character? And why is a certain actor almost certain to get killed in prestige programs like this? Later, we went Around The Dial with Taskmaster's 19th season, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and The Clubhouse, and Tara hoped Mary (and "That Woman") would make it into the Canon. Kali Reis won, Disney lost, and we synchronized our schedules for a timely Non-Regulation Game Time. Boot up your favorite second-screen farm game and have a listen! GUESTS

Heather wanted us to watch a 29-year-old Sam Elliott playing a cowboy in a Season 2 episode of The Streets Of San Francisco, and who were we to resist? We tell you whether the episode's worth ripping off your pearl snap shirt over. Our latest Ask EHG takes us through questions about, among others, our most out-of-character favorite shows and the strangest places we've ever run into someone we knew. Sarah pitches "Smizing" for the TV coinage Tiny Canon. Then, after sharing a new batch of Not Quite Top 11 lists, we close up by recasting famous original CSI. Find yourself a comfortable bunk and listen! TOPICS Forcening Pool:

Most weeks, we confront our guests with a Thought Experiment to compile for an end-of-year special. But this time, we're the ones in the hot seat. We asked our friends -- past podcast guests all -- to challenge us with TV-themed Would You Rather? They came through in a big way with hypothetical choices that really set us to some soul-searching. Listen to hear what decisions we're being forced to make! TOPICS Lead Topic:

Black Mirror is back with a seventh season packed with miso jam, thronglings, classic film, Christian counseling services, a whole artists' commune, and more; Brandi Brown joins us to discuss what goes down (sometimes...way down). Around The Dial takes us through Hacks, The Syd + TP Show, and Top Chef. Tara attempts to get yet another game night sitcom episode into The Canon with Will & Grace's "Alley Cats." Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, we're trying to get closest to the pin with Return Of The Return Of The Steep Incline Climber. Put that nubbin on your temple and listen! GUESTS

The Ankler's awards editor, Katey Rich, thinks Hulu/FX's new dramedy Dying For Sex -- about dying, kink exploration, and friendship love stories -- might be in line for some awards love. Did the panel agree? Listen for our discussion, plus Holofcener vibes, useless men, and rooting for Dawson's alums. We went Around The Dial with The Amazing Race, St. Denis Medical, and Andy Kaufman doc Thank You Very Much, and Katey lured us onto the corporate jet of a third-season 30 Rock episode. Olivia Munn won, legendary TAR teams lost, and we found out which TV set elements are bigger than breadboxes in a special Katey Edition of Game Time. Invite Neighbor Guy over and listen now! GUESTS

Will & Grace co-creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick are back with a throwback multi-cam sitcom that isn't Gay Golden Girls, but isn't NOT Gay Golden Girls. Would we travel down the road and back again for more? Joe Reid joins us to talk about it. Around The Dial takes us through Last One Laughing UK, Shrinking, Adolescence, The Pitt, and Gone Girls. Joe pitches the Simpsons episode "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" for induction into the Nonac. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that's more hard work than usual. Put down the cottage cheese and listen! GUESTS

Muppeturgy's Adam Grosswirth returns to talk about Shondaland's latest show for Netflix, The Residence, which takes us behind the scenes at the White House via a murder mystery -- but could the stellar cast make up for a too-long runtime and not-funny-enough writing? Do we have an Only Murders In The West Wing copycat problem? And should you bother watching? We went Around The Dial with The Righteous Gemstones, Smash on Broadway, and B-B-B-B-Bosch: Legacy's swan-song season, and Adam hoped he could train the panel to vote a first-season Murder, She Wrote into the Canon. Project Runway won, Netflix lost, and it came down to the wire in a very (equalizer) challenging Game Time. Grab that Audubon off the windowsill and have a listen! GUESTS

Patreon supporters earn the right to "forcen" us to watch TV episodes of their choosing, and while we usually never know what we're going to get, this time we each made a selection from the list of submissions. Was Dave worshipful of The Chosen's "The Rock On Which It Is Built"? Did Tara want to take The Young Ones episode "Bambi" out back and shoot its mom? Did Sarah thrill to the artistry of Hustle's series premiere, "The Con Is On"? Listen, find out, and then (if you haven't already) join us on Patreon to tell us what we should watch next! TOPICS Forcening Pool:

We all love the series regulars on our favorite shows. But the magic of episodic television is that someone can pop into your life for just an hour, or 22 minutes, or maybe even just one scene, and make an impression that lasts a lifetime. Your co-hosts invited Jeff Drake to join us for a special episode in which we winnowed down our Sweet 16 of one-off TV characters to the one that, in this particular bracket, towers above them all. Listen to find out who the ONE one-off champion turned out to be! GUESTS

Obviously, we couldn't have anyone else come discuss Running Point but Krystal Farmer -- so thank God she agreed, and we went deep on everything from the charms of Kate Hudson to how much of a sport a sports-com should show, plus dumb pro-team fonts and believable sibling energy. Later, we went Around The Dial with Grosse Pointe Garden Society, Futurama on Hulu, and On Call, and Tara schooled us with her A.P. Bio Canon pitch. Éanna Hardwicke won, the Oscars' "In Memoriam" segment lost, and we celebrated the leading ladies of TV in Game Time. It's that that that time again: time to listen to an all-new Extra Hot Great. GUESTS

After Suits became a surprise streaming hit a couple of years back, of course NBCUniversal couldn't resist going back to the well, and that's how we got the spinoff Suits LA. Is it facing contempt charges? Kari Race returns to talk about it. Around The Dial takes us through The Baldwins, Ladies & Gentlemen...50 Years Of SNL Music, Dear Child, America Undercover and A Thousand Blows. Kari makes the case for inducting an episode of Kroll Show into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that could spell doom for some. Take your suit off -- or put another one on -- and listen! GUESTS

The White Lotus is finally back, and so is novelist and Variety columnist Dan D'Addario to talk about a new locale for familiar hateful-richies storylines. We also talked about who we think gets killed, the most and least successful guest storylines, David Lynch, and what happens when a pandemic lark breaks big for premium cable, before going Around The Dial with Cobra Kai, Yellowjackets, and Lorne Michaels. Dan couldn't help but wonder if his And Just Like That... Canon pitch would succeed; Queens won and Ray Romano lost (guess everybody DIDN'T love him back in the day); and a familiar Game Time had us flipping through the PICI-to-English dictionary. Before you pass out at the dinner table, have a listen! GUESTS

Family Feud is a game show that has delighted audiences for decades by challenging teams of related players to guess answers supplied by randomly selected survey subjects. Completely unrelatedly, our latest special episode, Kinfolk Kerfuffle, has contestants trying to match poll answers submitted by our Discord members. Dave presides as chosen family Tara, Sarah, Adam Grosswirth, and Kim Reed take on handpicked tribe Taylor Cole, Dan Cassino, Larra Morris, and Nick Rheinwald-Jones. It's time to play the Feud Kerfuffle! GUESTS

After NBC screwed up Charles Star's booking by dropping The Hunting Party series premiere weeks early, it's fitting (?) that he should, instead, join us for a Prime Video original movie about a scheduling snafu: the Nicholas Stoller-written and -directed You're Cordially Invited, starring Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon at war over a wedding venue. Did it leave us wanting to toss rice, or toss our cookies? Listen to find out. Around The Dial takes us to Clean Slate, The Hunting Party (Charles watched it so he might as well warn the community about it), Band Of Brothers, and just a whisper about the imminent third season of Reacher. Sarah pitches "Forks" from The Bear for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that tests our TV and movie knowledge SAT-style. Grab a slice of cake -- hope it's not too dry -- and listen! GUESTS

Sterling K. Brown takes the lead in Paradise, and in the investigation that drives Hulu's new paranoid thriller -- and Rolling Stone's lead TV critic, Alan Sepinwall, is back to discuss both. Do the layered flashbacks work better for this material than for Brown's previous Dan Fogelman project, This Is Us? Does the dumb world-building outweigh the watchable acting? After we talked about how this underground/domed world stacked up against others on TV, we went Around The Dial with Common Side Effects, Mythic Quest, and the latest documentary from the Ken Burns Industrial Complex before Alan carefully constructed a Canon pitch for a Better Call Saul episode. Jennifer Garner won, Don Lemon lost, and what hark through yonder earbud breaks but a Shakespearean Game Time. Pack a bag for Colorado and join us! GUESTS

With Saturday Night Live about to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its series premiere, Peacock has assembled four documentary specials about how the show is made. Do any of them really advance our knowledge about this comedy institution? Omar Gallaga returns to talk about it. Around The Dial takes us through Severance, A.P. Bio, Playing For Peanuts, and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. Omar pitches the Shōgun episode "Crimson Sky" for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time about who stayed standing from series premiere to finale. Finish that bowl of Colon Blow and join us! GUESTS

Various legal proceedings aside, The Pitt is ABSOLUTELY not ER...but if you liked ER, Fug Girl Heather Cocks agrees with the panel that you'll like Max's new and extremely gnarly medical drama. It has all the ingredients that make a doctor show (versus a soap with doctors in it) compelling: solid casting; elegant world-building via medical students; and just enough jargon. We're going Around The Dial with Switching Gears, The Breakthrough, and comfort TV scripted and non- in the form of The Traitors and The Summer I Turned Pretty. We're also interrogating The West Wing's ill-advised 9/11 response episode, "Isaac And Ishmael," to see if it belongs in the EHG Nonac. Sanrio won, the Chrisleys lost, and Dan Cassino brings us below the line with a crazy-credits Game Time. Roll your gurney up to a speaker and listen! GUESTS

Amy is a hard-charging doctor who's alienated almost everyone in her life. Then amnesia following a car accident erases the last eight years of her life from her memory. Can she start over and fix what she broke during that lost time?! Sarah Baker is here to discuss whether Fox's new drama Doc imprinted on her memory at all. Around The Dial takes us through Going Dutch, The Circle, Somebody Somewhere, and Everwood. Mlle. Caroline pitches the Ghosts (UK) episode "The Thomas Thorne Affair" for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time about VERY useless keywords. Tighten up that head bandage and join us! GUESTS

We are off this week for EHG Prime but present you with this EHG Club unlock of EEHG 313: Taking A Journey In The World Of David The Gnome. It's time again for us to submit to the wishes of listeners like you, which is how we've ended up watching the series finale of The World Of David The Gnome. What was clearly conceived as a sweet story about gnomes and animals living harmoniously together in nature takes a WILD turn for its very last episode, so: thanks for exposing us all to that, Matt! Then it's on to your answers to our last Ask Ask EHG question, and our answers to your latest Ask EHG questions about Bryan Fuller's career, whether we are brat, and more. Some Not Quite Winners and Losers get their time in the sun and shade. Then we welcome in the grandpas for cartoon crossovers. Hop onto the fox that transports you around the forest and join us! TOPICS 15s Of Fame:

We are off this week for EHG Prime but present you with this EHG Club unlock of EEHG 296: Showing Proper Deference To Star Maidens. We're in the doldrums of mid-May. None of the week's TV premieres lit us with a fire of passion. What better time for Dave to make us all watch Star Maidens, a mid-70s British sci-fi show about a CRAZY planet where women are in charge and men are their bitter servants. What could go wrong? For Ask EHG, we solicited your DUMBEST questions, and you came through with queries about, among others, how our pets would get in trouble if they went to school and which of the three of us would win in an EHG Thunderdome. We bring you some all-new Not Quite Top 11 Lists in lieu of the week's Winner and Loser. Then we close up with Anthobuzz's Extra Credit submission on updating a Rodman's World Tour poker segment for the decade of our choice. Get in the Hypnomat and join us! TOPICS Lead Topic:

One week out from Christmas, we're bringing you a special all about the holidays. Will festive episodes of The Twilight Zone and Frasier take their place in our TV Hall of Fame? Will a famous failure of a Veronica Mars episode land in our Hall of Shame? Fa la la la la la la la listen and find out! TOPICS The Canon:

It had been far too long since we played Mullendash, one of our favorite games, so we reached out to our network and gathered three people who write jokes for a living: standup comic Brandi Brown; comic and former Desus & Mero head writer Josh Gondelman; and former Last Week Tonight writer Jill Twiss. How good were they at writing bad punchlines that could pass for Jim Mullen's, thus fooling their fellow players? Listen and find out! GUESTS

Once again, we made some of our Valued Guests stick around after their tapings and muse about TV in our version of a What If? Find out where their imaginations took them in this very special yearly EHG tradition! GUESTS

One of the oldest and most venerated game show formats is Password, dating back to well before all your co-hosts were alive. On an entirely unrelated note, for this special episode, we're playing a game called Personal Authorization Code! We've invited our friends Sarah Baker, Robert Krut, Jeff Drake, and Wendy Molyneux to play; since all of them live on the west coast and had to record in the middle of the night, our beloved Joe Reid sat in for Sarah as Tara's partner. Who can do the most with the least...number of words? Listen and learn! GUESTS

Prestige series Dune: Prophecy travels more than ten thousand years into the past to see what put in motion the Dune-iverse events we already knew about. Guest Phil Maciak took the time-machine trip with us to discuss whether the series is only for fans of the existing IP; what the series might have focused on instead of administrative wrangling; and why the club always looks annoying regardless of timeline. We went Around The Dial with A Man On The Inside, Junior Taskmaster, Say Nothing, and a Day Of The Jackel update before Phil appealed to our hearts -- and guts -- with a Somebody Somewhere pitch. Friday Night Lights won, Jenny Mollen lost, and the melody lingered on with another round of Tube Tunes. Cue up your thinking machines and listen now! GUESTS

Superstore creator Justin Spitzer has teamed up with Eric Ledgin for a new sitcom set at an Oregon hospital. Is it goofier than the subject matter demands? Stephanie Early Green returns to talk about it. Around The Dial takes us through Married At First Sight, Anatomy Of Lies, Sister Wives, Cruel Doubt, and The Penguin. Stephanie pitches the 10th episode of Australia's Instant Hotel's first season for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, we close up with a Game Time about TV shows that burned brightly, but too briefly (and...not always brightly). Put your feet up -- in or out of traction; that's up to you -- and join us! GUESTS

We thought a far-out distraction from current events was the way to go this week -- so we went to a fictional White House with accidental president Mike Brady, via 2002 TV movie The Brady Bunch In The White House. Should you take the tour -- or is this second-generation photocopy of an already-mediocre nostalgia brand not a candidate for your attention? We went Around The Dial with the new season of Abbott Elementary, the Criterion Closet series, and Mad Men before Ari wove together a Canon case for a sixth-season Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Tapestry." Prestige casting won, Amazon lost, and we voted early often for film-adaptation shows in Game Time. It's your patriotic duty to listen now! GUESTS

Prime Video's new unscripted show invites product creators to pitch supposed experts from the business world for the chance to get their wares featured in the Buy It Now store; reality TV expert Andy Dehnart returns to discuss what is essentially "Shark Tank, But Crappier." Around The Dial takes us through Somebody Somewhere's final season, The Summit, Four In A Bed, and Raiders Of The Lost Art. Andy pitches the Dating Around episode "Guru" for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time with a lot of love to give. Put down that goop that lets you wash your face without water, and join us! GUESTS

Author, filmmaker, and Listen To Sassy co-host Pam Ribon is back to help us figure out what Hysteria! is trying to do: satirize the satanic panic and witch hunts of a bygone era? invoke Stranger Things and the Church Lady? We're not even sure what genre we should call it, never mind whether you should watch it, but maybe our discussion will help you decide. We went Around The Dial with What We Do In The Shadows, The Change, and Woman Of The Hour before trying to sneak an undercover 21 Jump Street episode into the Ca-- er, the Pamon. Slow Horses won, car chases lost, and we got bogged down in minutiae with rightwood's IMDb-forward Game Time. Take a break from that pentagram copy-edit and check it out! GUESTS

Rolling Stone's chief TV critic Alan Sepinwall is back to talk about Apple TV's latest prestige limited series -- starring Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline, directed and written by Alfonso Cuarón, and maaaaybe a little too fond of its own shot compositions. Is the hinted-at conclusion worth sticking around for -- or are we mostly seeing it through for Kline's cardigan acting? Next, we went Around The Dial with Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage, Happy's Place, Shrinking, and the Platonic (not) ideal of "this should have been a feature" docuserieses, before Tara nominated a third-season Harley Quinn episode for the Canon. An Office reboot won, Succession lost, and a new scoring wrinkle scared the hell out of us in Game Time. Throw your drawers out the train window and have a listen! GUESTS

Three British talents from the worlds of TV comedy (Jon Brown, Armando Iannucci) and film (Sam Mendes) have come together for The Franchise, a look behind the scenes at the making of a fictional superhero movie. Does it shoot up, up, and away into the stratosphere? Devindra Hardawar returns to discuss. Around The Dial takes us to 9-1-1: Lone Star, 9-1-1 (talk about running the gamut), and the second season of Interview With The Vampire. The otherwise absent Sarah makes her pitch for inducting the Frasier episode "The Ski Lodge" into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, we close with a Non-Regulation Game Time that might not be entirely super, but is at least somewhat duper. Hide out in your trailer and listen! GUESTS

ABC's new cruise-ship medical procedural features Dawson's Creek's former Pacey Witter as a hotshot surgeon who sets sail in search of work-life balance; Jessica Morgan returns to discuss whether everything's shipshape. Around The Dial takes us through the Real Housewives of New York, Salt Lake City, AND Orange County before ending on the 30 for 30 episode "My American Son." Anne pitches the 30 Rock episode "Queen Of Jordan" for induction into the Nonac. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that's really taking its (game) time. Put on your life vest and join us! GUESTS