How Did We Get Weird with Vanessa Bayer and Jonah BayerRemember Little House on the Prairie? (with Tim Heidecker)
Break out your best bonnet and riding boots because this week on HOW DID WE GET WEIRD? we are joined by comedian/actor/musician Tim Heidecker to discuss the pastoral drama series, Little House on the Prairie. Along the way we discuss Tim's job a la creperie, watching sitcoms made for adult as kids in the eighties and our respective senior superlatives. (Jonah and Tim were most radical/unique while Vanessa won every other one.) We also get in depth about the "explosive" finale of Little House on the Prairie and the possible tax ramifications of this unexpected narrative turn. We also play a round of CHANGE.DORK where we discuss petitions advocating for the return of the original Wonka bar, liberation for high school vending machines and should Metallica play the Super Bowl Halftime show? (You'll have to listen to find out, but Vanessa really doesn't think so.) Don't forget to check Tim out on the Two Tims Summer Tour as well as his upcoming performances with The Very Good Band, both of which are coming to your town soon.
Hi.
I'm Vanessa Bayer and this is my brother Jonah.
We're two siblings who love to talk about our childhood in nostalgia and how it shaped us into the people we are.
Today, who are a pretty awesome great job if I do say so myself.
Welcome to How Did We Get Weird?
So, Jonah, I thought to start off we have such a fun guest today, and I thought that we should start off this podcast with a really fun story from growing up that is absolutely one of my favorite stories from when we were kids.
Do you want to hear it?
Yeah, let's hear it.
Okay, one time we stayed at this hotel in Florida, or we were flying to Florida and we got stuck because there was a hurricane, I don't know. Anyways, we ended up having this unexpected free stay over at a hotel somewhere with our family, and everything was really impromptu. We were just doing whatever the hell we wanted, and we decided to order in chicken wings to our room from room service and that was very fun and so so mom ordered the chicken wings and we're all in this room and I'm gonna say that you and I were like eleven and thirteen.
Maybe then you would think based on what happens now.
Yeah.
Yeah, So as soon as the delivery guy got to the door, the room service delivery guy, you and I were like we should we should hide from him.
So we go to.
So funny, this is.
Before punked, before all those reality shows where people are just pranking each other, if you.
Can believe it.
So we go to the back of the room, behind like both of the double buds, and we just lie down so you can't see us from the door. Okay, So the delivery guy comes in. He knocks on the door and mom answers the door, and then she doesn't have her person her because her purse. And this is where we really things really went wrong.
Her purse is behind the bed.
Her purse was.
Back behind like on the table that was behind the bed. Sure, so she says to the delivery guy, come on in, I just have to grab my purse. So he comes back to the back of the room where these two kids are hiding, and they're not, as we said, they're not really kids. They're kind of more preteen slash teenagers, young adults maybe almost Yeah, so you might think, oh, maybe they're just like taking a nap or maybe they're just like chilling back here. But Mom says to us, Oh, I forgot you too were hiding. So looked at us like these are teenagers. These they're too old to be hiding from us. He accepted the money, you know, he dropped it off the chicken wings. And I've never I think it's the most embarrassed I've ever been in my life because we were hiding.
We were too old to be hiding.
And there's nothing else we could have said we were because Mom said, oh I forgot you too were hiding.
Yeah.
Yeah, And I still have that urge when I delivered. As an adult, I'm able to resist it, but who to hide?
Get it?
Yeah? Yeah, I don't like that whole social Yeah. But anyways, let's get in our guests. Let's let's say what he's got to say about this timeless story.
Okay, our guest today is a supremely talented comedian, writer, director, actor and musician who you may know from the comedy duo Tim and Eric, and he's also appeared in films such as Bridesmaids and Us. Or you might know him from co hosting the web series on Cinema or the Collin Show Office Hours Live, Plus you can see him on his two Tim summer tours starting in late July. Please welcome Tim Hidecker.
Thanks for having me and I enjoyed that story and I could relate to it.
Yeah.
It it just seems like something I might have done. Yeah, would have been that kind of kid.
It's really fun to hide from people, isn't it.
Yeah. I have two kids, and hide and seek as an early game that becomes, you know, something to do. Yeah, totally. I don't know why.
When you've ordered stuff in the past, have you ever hidden from like a delivery person.
I don't think I've done No, I've never done that. Yeah. I do think like they're in my adolescence and even into college that the idea of fucking with service people was just, yeah, that's what you did. That was like how you entertained your friends. And now I feel very bad because then I became a service person. I was a waiter, and I would never I would feel terrible that I would do that stuff. It was innocuous things. It wasn't torturous. It was just you know, like, I don't know. I couldn't even tell you an example. But I'm a great guest, I have good stuff.
What type of place were you a waiter at? Like? What era was this?
Right after college? Well, in high school I was a bus boy at like a family restaurant, and a dishwasher in a family restaurant. And then after college I became a full on waiter in a crepery in Philadelphia. Very nice, oh, very nice. French, yeah, very now as French as you can be.
I went to college in Philadelphia and there was a crape stand.
Oh, it was not very popular.
It was not a stand. I wonder why crapes are so big in Philadelphia.
It was a place called La poo Belle and it was right off of South Street. Where in Philly were you. I was at Penn so we were like, yeah, you were on the other side of town. You would never have come.
We would have gone to South Street for dinner sometime, you know, like we would.
This place was great. I felt very much at home there. The place had just opened when I got I was the first round of hire hiring, you know. And it was these two guys, two gay guys who were a couple, and they started this restaurant and they had never opened a restaurant before. The one guy was the manager. The front of house guy was a filmmaker and into art and this, and the chef was also an artist, like a fine artist. And they decided to open this CREPERI and they were the right as guys, and they created this little family of servers and cooks and you know, wow, very sweet, it's very good, good time.
It's amazing. I mean, Tim, what was your vibe like as a waiter, Like, obviously you're such a funny standup comedian, would you kind of talk to the customers? What would Yeah?
I was very good interfacing with the diners. I was very bad at organizing where I was at in the night, with the different tables and the orders, and I got easily overwhelmed, easily, as they say in the weeds, not very good organizationally. And that led to as charming as I could be, or as sort of funny and pleasant as an actor, I guess you could say that didn't win over anybody when their food was twenty minutes late, you know what I mean? So much charm you can you can slather on those creps, those cold creps.
By the way, were you into a sweeter crep or a more savory Christ.
This restaurant offered the savory and the sweet. I mean, you can't just have a rest you can't have a restaurant if it's just the sweet stuff, that's right, right, So they did the full the buckwheat creps was there what they were known for. They would do these buckwheat creps with you know, chicken and cocavon and all sorts of shrimp and delicious and then so I love them. I love them all. Yeah, I ate a lot of crepes.
Now, I guess a dessert crepe is called a gellet. No, it's called a something else.
It's called a crepe.
I think it's different.
Never heard, No, Well they didn't, they didn't. There was you know, it's funny. There was this one chef in the kitchen who was French, and he was like a classic kind of you know, like like a like a cartoon French, and he was so bitter and dismissive of the idea that crape. So these people come here, they think they eating fine dynam crip is it is a STUDI food it is, you know, it's like it's stupid. They're making a big deal of crep. Just so I didn't realize that it is true. It's like, you know, it's it's like a hot dog in France.
Again, as we had a a crape cart on our campus at school, and they were you know, I don't know if it's politically correct to say this anymore, but people would compare them to and Seinfeld the soup Nazi because they were so mean and if you ordered a cripe and you, like, for one second didn't know what you wanted, they were like gets out of line, you know, like they were so like it was like, I don't I just want this is like a French.
I got to say interrupt you there and say you you spend a lot of time on SNL. Yeah, let's just talk about my French accent versus yours. I think I killed it.
Yeah, I did you know this.
I was a French major in college and I spent a semess and Harry, yeah did you know that?
And and still and yet but.
Yet you still don't do what it's better. It's incredible. I didn't know I had it, honestly, and here we are.
You know, I'm more of a purist, like probably my French accent is better in French.
If that makes sense.
Yes, yes, fair enough, but.
Yeah, ahda a France a jador friends a too late.
Vanessa's good at friends. She tutored me in French when I was two years older, so she's definitely better.
High school, Yeah, I tutored jan and I were in the same French class one year, and we've talked about it. Gave me a lot of credit because people are like, oh, Vanessa's cool older brother is in French class.
With her, even though he's older than all the other kids.
Well not all the other kids, but probably you know.
Anyway, as I like to say on my show, anyway.
I wanted to ask you about music, like what kind of music were you kind of into? Getting back to those adolescent years when Vanessa's tutoring me, what what kind of stuff were you? Were you gravitating towards like Neil Young grifled dead type stuff or was that later? What was sort of your entry points?
Well? Where when are we talking? Like high school?
You've talking like high school?
Yeah, high school? Yeah, I think there was this, uh in the eighth ninth grade, I got into the Beatles big time, like I got like the way kids might get into video games or Star Wars. Or something like that was my hobby most you know, learning about them and reading books and watching the movies and stuff. So that is like the best gateway into other music, or I don't know, it's not the best. It is a gateway into a genre of music. And my dad was a big lover of classic rock and so he had, you know, tapes and records of Pink Floyd and led Zeppelin and all that stuff. So I was really like primed and into that stuff going into high school. That was sort of my thing. And then in high school, I really I kind of dabbled in sort of like the jam band world a little bit, Like didn't really listen to Phish, but I went to a fish concert and what else that Like, Yeah, I mean some embarrassing stuff I did. Really like, all my friends were into like hardcore and punk and metal and stuff, and I never really liked that stuff.
Tell me about it. That stuff, okay, got it just.
Was you know what it did? It made me like I would drive around this in the backseat of this kid's jeep and he would listen to these hardcore tapes and it would make me sleepy. I couldn't understand what they were saying it was like and then like, towards the end of high school, I found Pavement and some and sort of the Matador Records crop of music that was felt more connected to, like the Beatles and the Kinks and British rock. So I found my little like I felt, oh cool, I can like music that's happening right now that's not from forty years ago.
Did you ever get into one of my all time favorites to where I'm mad at or basically that era Silkworm?
Not no, I know the group, but my band's on Matador at the time would have been Pavement, Yola Tango, John Spencer, Blues Explosion and Guided by Voices. I was very into guided by voices?
Yes, awesome.
Can I just I don't mean to take us off subject now please, but do you know how silkworms.
Actually work the shit silk?
I don't know they like make silk, but yeah, they kind of do. But then I'm like, is all silk made by silkworms? And I think the answer is no, Like I think that this is something that every few years I start to think about and I never research it or I maybe I have before, but don't. I'm sure any member of that band would know the answer to this, because it would be really insane for them to name themselves that and not know the answer.
But I probably have synthetic silk, right.
That's what I think.
But silk in general is pretty expensive compared to other materials. I don't Again, I don't mean to take a selk topic, but I just wonder, like, did silk used to only be made by silkworms and that made it expensive? And now if you buy other silk stuff that's synthetic, you're still paying the same price.
Uh yeah, I don't know. Well, definitely something for the internet to figure out for us. Yeah, one hundred percent. I can keep theorizing. But I'm just that's right, that's right.
It's just something that my brain gets stuck on every few years and yet never look I like.
When people go, actually, like my wife, I'm sure we all do this, I think, actually what it is? They're like, why are you thinking like this? There's a definitive answer to this that is literally right here, Like, yeah, at our totally find out in three seconds it's not. I mean, it kind of ruins you know, the art of conversation.
I guess, But yeah, silk is produced from cocoons.
Okay.
Our producer Olivia said.
Silk is produced from cocoons spun by the Bombix mary species of the silkworm, typically reared on mulberry leaves. This highly lucrative fiber is traded internationally but accounts for a relatively small proportion of total fiber use, while the preferred silks can prize of an even smaller share. Okay, So I think this is what people are talking about when they talk about getting the finest silks.
Right. I was reading that with you and then I zoned out.
I know, Yeah, it's hard to It's hard even when you're reading it to really process it's that it's pretty pretty boring.
If this makes it into the podcast, then good because people need to know.
Tim.
I'm asking sort of about this era because I've been listening to your new record, which is High Schools is great, and also the live album, which I think just came out, Yes, And it seems like some of these songs like like Buddy are kind of about maybe that eras at an era you find yourself kind of revisiting with your own music. Was that formative to you? How do you how do you kind of think back on that time.
I didn't think about that time at all for a long time, consciously or sort of intentionally really until I started writing that song. And then that song kind kind of came out of nowhere. I think a lot of the stuff I do. I mean, I don't know if this is true with everybody, but like you don't really sit down to do something, you're just doing, you know, writing something or comes out subconsciously or naturally, and then that sort of informs what you're going to do next or what you want to keep doing. So, yeah, I was singing I call my son buddy, you know, like, hey, buddy, get over here, get over here, you son of a you know, I'm yelling at him, buddy. Hey. But so I was just singing buddy, you know. And but then I started thinking about some friends of mine who had died who were my age, and I don't know, it just kind of triggered some reflecting on my teenage years, which I hadn't thought about in a while, or just more thinking than you usually do, Like what was I into? What did I want to be? What was I Because everything, like the public persona that I've put out there for many years kind of begins with Tim and Eric, and there was this other person back in you know, the nineties who was into all sorts of other things, and I just, yeah, I spent I used that record to kind of to explore that past, and it didn't find There's nothing dramatic about it. It's not like I couldn't write a best selling memoir about that period because I wasn't, you know, abused or anything. It was pretty like it was a good it was a good period of my life, you know. Yeah, But I think when you, you know, you have to have some distance to make it not feel like embarrassing. Like I can look fondly at those times and not be embarrassed by who I was. Yeah.
I read this book called like This is Your Brain on Music, and it's about how we're forming these synapses during that era and that's why the music we love during that time we connect with so much, and why it's so much harder to get into new genres of music as like an adult.
Yeah. Wow, oh totally, I totally relate to that. I mean I can't relate to anything in the pop sphere like I don't. Yeah, I can't believe it. What's going on? But that's what my dad probably said about what I was listening to and all down the line.
Yeah, when you were in high school, did you know what you wanted to do when you grew up? Like, did you have any sense of it or were you.
I was always involved in theater and music, and those are the two things that you could do. I think as a adolescent, like the film wasn't a film and television wasn't there were the tools weren't really there to play with like they are now. Like I mean kids now, My daughter like just she's nine years old and she just like made a movie on her iPad. It's not very good. But you know, like we didn't have that at all. So I could get a band together, I could play a guitar, I could be in a play. You know those are like so I knew I wanted to be in some kind of in the world of performing and making things and yeah, and doing that being obnoxious for a living.
Just to ask, like, do people like who you grew up with, are they not surprised at all that you ended up where you ended up? Was it sort of like, oh, we knew that Tim would kind of do something like this and be successful.
You don't say talked to the people I grew up with.
Do you No, No, of course not.
It was, Yeah, I don't. It doesn't come up a lot, but yes, I think there's a natural Yeah, oh yeah, this was always who you were in a way.
Yeah, that's really I did impressions of my teachers and stuff when I was in high school and stuff, but I wasn't really performing that much. And I remember when I got on SNL, one of my former teachers, the interviewed her on like the local news, and she was like, I cannot believe it. She was like, this is so wild. I can't believe she's on Saturday Night Live.
Like she was like it was so they should have they should have hanned that that one. They don't need to show that.
She was very complimentary and nice about me. But she was like she was like a really good student.
And I don't, I don't know, I don't see it. That's funny. I was voted. Uh. I was annoyed because I wasn't voted funniest in high school in the in the senior yearbook. But I did get most Unique, which now which is sort of like a maybe a bad kid that is so funny and it's me and like the weirdest girl in school, like the total goth weirdo.
Yeah, you know, I got the same thing at our high school. I got most radical. Oh no, that's right, most radical. Do you guys want to hear what I got? Sure?
Yeah, boy knows where this is headed.
Okay, I got best personality, never, most likely to succeed, best smile, and most optimistic.
No, I remember all those. See, I wouldn't have if I had multiple bests. I don't know if I would remember all of them.
Yeah, easier, Yeah, I mean, best personality absolutely is a great one to get, but also you have to like most likely to succeed in most optimistic, like not to you know, but I was. I had leukemia when I was in high school. So these these were really you can kind of see how people really rooting.
They were getting behind ye good, Well you had to.
But I was like out there.
I was like out there with a good But I don't think they were just okay, I take back, but I mean I'm glad I.
Said that because he's had a pretty good personality. Still, that's what I'm trying.
I don't think people.
Were like, well, we should give her these What do we give her these four?
Right?
You know, we've talked about high school a lot, and here I had a very we had a very supportive high school.
They were very nice. But you remember that kids in the hall sketch the I think it might have only been in the movie, but the cancer boy that was Bruce mccullay. Oh, oh my god. He was just like, every day's a gift, you know, yeah, yeah, joke, and no one knew how to en but he's like, I might not make it till tomorrow, you know, and everyone, no one knew how to behave around him, right.
Right right point, Yeah, I think, yeah, Well, I guess if you do know how to behave, you get best personality.
People know how to behave around you. I guess I made them comfortable. So anyways, we're going to take a quick commercial break and we'll be right back with Tim Heidecker. And we're back.
So, Tim, we asked you to come in with a topic today, and you gave us a lot of great ones to think on, and the one that we picked was a little.
Show called Little House on the Prairie.
No, we don't know part of the reason we wanted to talk to about it because we don't necessarily associate you with that show.
Yeah, that makes sense. I was on it for fourteen years. How dare you? It's my first IMDb credit. Wow. I mean, first of all, I get the email about this topic at business, which I'm you know, I got enough emails. You're already pissed.
Yeah, get homework now.
I'm like, yeah, now I get homework. Yeah. I'm on the tram coming back from raging waters the other day with my kids. This is when I decide to do the email to reply. I have a bad habit of like like I don't have to reply to that email right there, but I'm like, I got to do this now or I'm not going to do it. You know, I'm going to forget. And then so I did it, and I just I wanted to be true to this assignment, which was like a nostalgic thing from my high school years whatever. I don't know if I said, I'm not really like a nostalgic guy, like I don't care that much about I don't collect stuff and I don't I'm not like a one of those types. But the truth is, like every day after school for a period of time, my sister and I would like turn on the Little House in the Prairie. I mean, you know, day back in the days when you didn't have much to there's not a lot of options. But we just kind of got into it and kind of got like, kind of watched it as a joke, but then kind of got into it like a soap opera, you know, and we loved the It was on this local channel, so we always like and it always had the same four commercials. I had just heard recently a funny thing that apparently, you know, they're based on a series of books, right, yes, right, So the books were very popular I think in the thirties.
For Laura Ingalls Wilder, right, yeah.
And so what I found out recently is that Laura Ingalls Wilder's daughter was the one who kind of mostly wrote the books, and she was not to get very political here, but she was a very big libertarian type interesting and she when she used those books to sort of push this idea of you know, pull yourself up by the bootstraps and you know, you got to do it yourself, and that sort of idea that I think is probably more in the books than the show. But yeah, so it's sort of like a propaganda piece. The whole world she built, which of course is a very sanitized, very you know, not probably not a true reflection of how life was, what life was like on the prairie.
And you know there's those tears who haven't seen so what is like their day to day like what kind of would be some of the plots that would happen.
So they're on the prairie.
There, you know, the the Ingles family. Charles I didn't do any research leading up to this. I'm pretty sure he did a little, but just well pretty sure a lot of this will come back to me just through osmosis or through whatever it's in my DNA now. So it was sort of the show was through her eyes, Laura Ingles Wilder. It was sort of her growing up in this log cabin. It was on the outskirts of this town called Walnut Grove. The town had you know, a shop, a mill, a church, and a school. That was kind of it. And I'm sure it's where I'm in. I don't know if you guys are in you're in La right. I'm sure it's like one of these you know, Warner Brothers or Disney like ranch lots, like one of these Western lots where it was all built for the show, and so the show would be about, like there are big episodes like they would get I remember the father and his friend got trapped in a whoa. There was an episode where their adopted son, Albert got addicted to opium. But then there were just day to day stuff. There was argument. There was sort of always this rivalry between the Olsens who ran the mercantile. They ran this store, and they were a little bit of a little better than everybody else, you know, okay, and they had to be put in their place every once in a while. Mary, the older daughter, eventually went blind. Oh but she met a lovely man named Alonzo who they became. Like. The thing is this show is one of those shows that went on for so long that they grew up in front of our eyes. Like they started as like nine and eleven and they were like married with kids by the time the show ended. Was one of those shows. Yeah, I have a funny story about the finale of the show, which is I believe true. Of course, impossible to say. If you look up the last episode of the show, where you watch the last episode of the show. The story is that somebody, a big outside firm, somebody bought the town. They bought the land, and they were going to take over the town, and the town didn't care for this. Walnut Grove. The citizens got together and said, we're going to they can't take what's ours. And then somebody said, well then they're not going to take what's ours. We're going to tear it all down. And they blew up the town, they said. And this show, by the way, like the core of the show is sort of this wholesome you know, not overtly Christian, but there was sort of this Christian running you know, do it like in the best sense, like do unto your neighbors as you would want them to do unto you, kind of thing, like really light, like not with a heavy hand. But that was sort of the ethos of the show. And it was like a very warm and sort of wholesome show. I mean, got to be one of the most wholesome shows. But here at the end of the run, they decide to literally put dynamite and TNT in all the buildings. And you know why why because they had to tear down the set, like because in the world of the producers and the crew and the world of like the people running the show, they thought, Hey, we have to tear all this ship down. Let's write it into the show and like make it like worth our time to or you know what I mean, like we're gonna to tear this down. Let's write let's write a story where that this this stuff has to get torn down, so that that's why they did it, which is like the most cynical betrayal of the ethos of the show. And I loved geez. I hope that's true.
It is true. It is true than you because then you type in finale, the first thing that comes up is explosion.
Well, I mean, I hope it's true that that that that's why they did it, because that would that would you know, validate all all that we hate about this town in this business.
Do you remember what they did once it exploded? Did they just like get in there and get out of there?
Yeah, they were I would say they probably made their way to Saint Louis or you know, Minnesota somewhere. The biggest it was all like this idea of like you know, you're going to incorporate into the big city and the dreams of the small town are Gone. I'm going to rewatch that.
That seems like such a weird way to end it, when it's like they could have just ended it in a more normal way and then blown up everything if they were going to do it anyway, I don't know.
Might not have been able to write it off. I don't know, and maybe had right.
It might have been attack saying well, you're right, this industry right.
Yeah. Yeah, So that's it. I mean, that's all I got on that show. I think they're you know, what's his name? The main guy who played Charles Ingalls Michael Landon. Yeah, it was great. He was He was great at crying. That dude could cry so convincingly and he was always crying on that show. A lot of him without his shirt on for the ladies. He's very well built, great hair, and then he was nice as he went on and did another show after that called what's it called The Heaven Show where he was an angel and his best buddy on that show was also his best buddy on Little House in the Prairie. So you had this great you know, you had this land in universe. What was the name of that show? Come?
What was the name of that show, Olivia, do.
We know something something Heaven?
High Way to Heaven, hi Way to Heaven?
Thank you? Right?
Do you remember any of the cameos on the show, Like there's a June in Johnny Cash cameo, or like Jason Young, Jason Bateman.
Yeah, I remember, I did the Thing is for Jason, Jason Bateman and Shannon Doherty. These were I wouldn't call them cameos because this was like before.
They were, right, right, cameos a lot, but like Lewis Gossip, Junior, Ernie Hudson, like a lot of people were kind of made their way through the show. It sounds like over there.
Yeah, it wasn't like the Love Boat or anything where you it was like that was a feature of the show, finding like celebs dropp him by because it would kind of take you out, you know that makes sense, Yeah, take you out of the the fact that you're in the eighteen hundreds. But I remember Johnny Cash. I thought up to look that one up.
Yeah, I watched it. It's he plays a preacher, him and June Carter Cash and there he's playing like a scam artist preacher guy.
Oh, like a snake oil guy. Yeah, that sounds that sounds fun. There was a the main characters were, aside from the family and the Olson's, there was the preacher, and then there was the doctor. The doctor was his name Doc. I think they just called him doc. I mean, I don't know what his full name was.
Yeah, that's there are so many people in the main cast of this show. There's like fifty characters.
Yeah, it was it was a well I don't remember fifty, but yeah, I mean it was an hour. You know, it was a big It was a big deal.
It was a big deal.
Now, speaking of big deals, do you remember, like we're around that era, there were like of those late eighties kind of early nineties shows. Did you have any other fave? This seems like it was a show that wasn't necessarily like your favorite show, but it was on every day after school and you watch it kind of ironically, which Joanah and I would do that after school too. There was a lot of repeats of like love Connection and stuff that we would just watch because they were sort of funny.
Well, there was a lot. I mean, I probably all I did was watch TV. I can't like. I have a song on my new record called what did We do with our time. And it was basically this idea of like what did we do when we didn't have phones and jobs and you know, all these commitments that we have now and the internet. I didn't really have the internet, so it was like, yeah, you watched TV, went to the mall. Yeah, you hung out, you went to movies, you like, drank beer in the woods. I did that quite a bit. And listen to music, like actually just sat and listened. Listen to music was a big part of my life. I mean shows for me, Nicked Night was big. I would watch a lot of Nicket Night. Yeah, SCTV, Fernwood Tonight. Those are the big ones. I don't remember. There must have been other shows that I kind of would have to watch to get to those shows. Yeah, Saturday Night Live, I would make sure. I mean my parents would tell you. They'd be like, at a certain point that was my obsession, and I would, you know, my Sunday mornings would be me telling them what like describing Hans and Franz.
Or right right, yeah yeah.
And then taping it and watching it with them and show like finding the good sketches and stuff. Yeah, those are the big ones. The Simpsons, I mean, what's crazy is my son and daughter. My son is six and my daughter's nine, and they watched the Simpsons now and I was like, I was watching this. You know, I watched Simpsons when I was literally your age, like nine years old. Yeah, so that was always in my life, you know, whatever was I mean, I would just watch like Family Ties and I'd be like, why am I Like, it's like, I couldn't tell you why. It was just on.
It was limited.
It was really because we were Jonah and I were talking about when we were talking about shows from this era, like one that came to both Jonah and his minds immediately was Empty Nest and that I have a.
Great there's a great joke from that show. Okay, but I always remembered again and always loved because it was on after Golden Girls, Yes, for a few years, Like I don't think it lasted as long as Golden Golden Girls, And.
There was some crossover there's a crossover episode.
I'm sure, and there was a there was the the guy that did Joe Azuzu was a cast member on that. I don't know if you remember Joe Iszuzu.
He was is he their neighbor?
Yeah. He was just like an obnoxious SWARMI sort of leathery guy. Yeah, and he was We all knew him because he did this ad campaign. There's a character named Joe Isuzu, like the Azuzu car. I don't I don't even know if they make azuzus anymore. Do they make Azuzu? I feel weird saying the word is.
You don't think so? But I remember that name.
Car, yeah, car. But he was Joe Azuzu and he was like a like a used car salesman whatever. But then he got on this show and it was exciting because I was like a fan of Joe Iszuzu. Yeah, and he was on. He was like, oh he's on TV. That that's the guy. And he had this joke or they had a joke that was he got a personalized license plate and he was into boating. That was part of his character. He was like really into sailing or something, right, So he got his personalized license plate was Sea Lover, but it was spelled C l O V E R and it was green and it just looked like the word clover. Okay, okay, so his license plate just said clover and nobody under Nobody was like, no, it's Sea lover. I love going, you know, like it's Clover dude like and that I don't know, that's that's like very fundamental humor to me. That joke. You know, it's just like word it's like word play. It's like it's also this idea of like how embarrassing it is to like you've you're proud of something and then everyone sees it differently, and you know, yeah, I just thought there's you know, I don't remember a lot of stuff, but there's like annoying things. I'll never ever forget that joke.
That I remember. So the premise of Empty Nest right was he's a doctor.
I have no idea. He's a widower doctor, I think, and.
He has two daughters and they're like main characters on it. But what was interesting about that show was once in a while, I'm sure I wonder if it happened more than once, it probably did, the Golden Girls would go see him as their doctor like some of those characters.
And then also remember that show Nurses. It wasn't as long lived, but it was.
There was a sitcom called Nurses that Lannie Anderson was on, Okay, and that came on after I think Empty Nest for a minute or was on in the same lineup, and it was at the hospital where he worked the Empty Nest.
You know, doctor, they's all the same creator.
Yeah maybe yeah, Wow is that about that show?
Yeah, of the show It's a Living. No kind of wait I have It's a Living? Was this like? Uh? It was like a restaurant comedy set at the top of like a fancy hotel. And it was one of those shows where I would be curious to find out. I don't think it was ever on a network. I think it was like a syndicated sitcom. Interesting, like it was never on one of the major networks. It was like, It's a Living and there was some main It was like three women. It was like Alice, but it was set like in a They took Alice and said, let's put it in like a spinning restaurant at the top of a fancy you know, like a high rise. Wow. We watched that. We watched that. They had like a swarmy There was always a swarmy guy in these shows. Yeah, you had the maintenance guy on one day at a time. Okay, So Schneider, he was like the just kind of you know, he had like a oily rag in his back pocket and kind of gruff, but he had a heart of gold. He's like the cramer. Like there was always a like all these shows on cray right, right, So Suzu was a cramer on the It's a Living. The piano player was the cramer. He was kind of the you know, a dope who was funny and didn't have to care about him. Yeah. Yeah, I mean that stuff was just on all the time. Yeah, yeah, all those shows.
It's interesting, Tim, because you're talking about kind of watching stuff to get to other stuff. Now, people obviously have so many choices. But like, there's a show that used to come on, Mama's Family. I used to cry when it came on because I was not a fan. I had nothing else to watch, and I would just cry and then but I would still watch it and I wait for the next show because it's like, what else am I going to do?
Yeah? I would, I don't. I think I liked Mama's Family. Now. The boob on that show was Tim Conway. I think that was a good boob. That was a good thing.
That's crazy is it was such a good cast and yet I had the same reaction as John. I don't know that I would start crying, but I do remember it would come on like reruns of it, and I would change the channel before it could like start, Like I would be like I got a change of channel, Like I just I think there was something about Honestly, I think it was like the theme song, and it was like the coloring of like the way that it was like really like muted pastel colors and stuff. It just seems so like depressing to me that I couldn't where. It's like there's some really incredible comedians and stuff in it, but I just.
Everyone was doing least, you know. It's like, yeah, like I saw, I took one look at he haw and it's like, no, I don't want this is terrible. Yeah, no, thank you. Yeah. So yeah, it felt like an outcropping of and and then it was like confusing. It was like is this Carol Burnett? Right? No, it's what do you mean? It's seems like it's Carol Burnett. Why it's her best friend.
Right, Victory Lawrence is that she was like she's best friends with Carro And I.
Feel like Carol Burnette.
I feel like Carol Burnett would come on the show sometimes and it would be confusing. Yeah, I agree, because you'd be like, is she what? Because also, yeah, they were really similar, You're absolutely.
Like MoMA's Family was another one that wasn't on regular television. Come on that was not on not that was not a network show, but maybe it was. And then because a lot of these we only saw in syndication, like I never saw them, that's true.
And it's funny because now kids have shows that are so many shows that are like tailored to them, whereas we had sort of cartoons and stuff, and I guess later on we had Saved by the Bell and stuff like that. But really it was just like you would watch Empty Nest because that's kind of what's on. Yeah, yeah, that's right, and you know the Golden Girls, so wow. Yeah.
And then like good stuff did rise to the top and you're like, oh, this is actually really good. I mean, I guess like Seinfeld would be an example of that. We're like, oh, actually this is actually a humor that like I'm actually laughing at this, But you would never laugh at like mister Belvite right, like right, just right, Like mister Belvide was just on and you kind of watched it just to fill the half appen.
It seemed fun.
Yeah, and you know, we were really young when this was on, but silver Spoons.
Yeah.
And then I remember when that guy got on n p D Blue, it was like, whoa rick Schroeder. It was sort of like, I don't know what he did between those two shows.
You know, I was a kid.
I wasn't think he got vative.
Yeah, okay, okay, okay.
And then he got on NYPD Blue and he was not on for a long time. I feel like he was kind of the middle guy. It was what's his name with red hair?
David Yeah, David Caruso.
David Cruso and Jimmy Smith's and I feel like Ricky Ricky. I guess he goes probably by Rick now as an adult little Ricky Schroeder story.
I hope you a little Ricky Schroeder.
He was just on there for a minute, but it was weird being like this guy's going from setting up his little train set.
Yeah. No, I mean it's hard to just it's hard to make that transition from like kid actor to real man.
Yeah, and it's hard to hear that he's turned very conservative.
But very conservative as far as I know.
Okay, well, I think we're going to take another commercial break.
We'll be right back.
But Tim Heidecker, So, Tim, now we're going to play a show. Excuse me, now we're going to play a show. Okay, what am I talking about?
Okay? Who am I? Ricky? Sure doesn't work.
We're going to play a game called change dot door.
Change dot door.
Otherwise known as let's make fun of people who don't know how to use change dot org. And in this game, we're going to bring up three different nostalgic things or nostalgic adjacent things that people are trying to bring back on change dot org. And at the end of this we you know, you don't have to actually go on the site and vote, but we will say which one we would vote for if we had to vote for one of these three. The first petition is called sell real life Wonka bars with the same candy wrappers from the nineteen seventy one film Willy Wonka, and this person says, I won't read the whole thing, but as a fan of the classic nineteen seventy one movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, I was thrilled at the age of five, when Nesli and Wonka worked together to release real life Wanka chocolate bars.
I remembered eating one.
It tasted as rich and delicious as I had expected, and it was a dream come true. Never did I think I get to try an actual Wanka bar. Blah blah blah blah blah. Later on, due to low sales, Wanka discontinued their chocolate bars, and I never got to try another one. Now I'm making a petition to bring back Wanka bars with the original orange, pink, and brown candy wrappers, along with the yellow top hat of the w in Wonka and the word bar.
Highlighted in yellow. Okay this being very specific.
This would bring out of the child and a lot of us and would make so many people happy. It would also be nice that they could release an original Wonka scrum diddly umptious bar, fudge, mellow and edible, everlasting gobstopper with the original colors in shape and maybe even Wanka bar is exactly the same as the one in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Parentheses two thousand and five. But my very top priorities right now is the original Wanka bar and the scrum diddly umptious bar.
Now can I jump in on this or do you want to read jump in? I was all for it. I don't care. It's like sure, why not? And then now I'm like, no, this person should have no satisfaction from this effort. I don't want to see any happiness come his way. Yeah.
Yeah, it's a man right, it was started. It actually doesn't.
Oh yeah, it's a Mia dol Michael and it's gotten twenty two signatures. And he made this petition out to Nesle.
Uh huh. They're busy raping the world of water, raping the world of water. That doesn't make any sense, you know what I mean. They're terrible. They're terrible. Got it? We got it? Yeah? No I don't. I mean, what a thing to give a shit about?
Well, to your point, I at the beginning was like, oh, that's fun. And then this person sort of starts by saying they want the original Wanka bar, and then they kind of start saying all the other and then they start saying how specifically they want it to look like the original one, and then they say, actually I also want the scrum did liumptious bar. And then They're like, actually, would be great to get these other bars too, but now I'm coming back.
I want the Wanka bar and the scrum.
Like it's it's hard, I think for these people to sometimes, these petition writers to organize their thoughts, and.
That's what it needs an edit. It definitely needs an edit, and like, let's take one thing at a time. Let's get one win and take it from there. If that's good, then we can try for the scrum. Did liumptious see where this goes?
Yeah, I agree with both of you. I think if you did bring back the wanka bar, this person's not gonna be happy. They're gonna be but well, what about this? What about it? It's like the world can't just be recreating your favorite movie. We got other stuff going on.
Yeah. Yeah.
And also if they stop making them because the sales dipped, it's going to be I think it's going to be tough to get it going again unless we do a reboot of the.
Charlie and c are just looking at the bottom line.
Another thing that's funny about this podcast is that Jonah burns so many CEOs and companies that I'll never be able to do a commercial again.
Oh no, these are just my opinion, not finesses.
Those top line people aren't listening to it.
That's true, that's true, that's right, all right. Our next petition is called free the vending machines from their mandatory lock. This is from a high school. Hello, people of Niles North High School. Recently there has been a curfew set on the vending machines near the lunch room. This is a cruel injustice to those who learn here. Some of us do not even get a lunch period, meaning these vending machines allow a method of nutrition that's quick and convenient. Not to mention, many students do not have a water bottle, meaning hydration is null, especially those coming from gym and or other physical activities. We the people demand our right to a non timed vending machine. Back posters will be put up in the following weeks to better advertise our petition. Tim what do you think about taking the locks off the vending machines?
Yeah? Absolutely, how to the people there, I'm all for that. I don't know that particular is what caused the lockdown originally. If people are abusing it, they're eating snickers, bars and lab or whatever. Right and so yes, well, you know, of course I don't have all the information to make a full judgment call on this, but it seems like a no brainer. Keep it open and you know, and if you've got policies about food and class, then make sure that that's also being respected.
Right right, right, right right, Yeah, Vanessa, what do you think?
Yeah?
I would agree.
I think that sometimes when schools do stuff like that, and I just want to say this, I just looked it up.
This petition has two.
Hundred and four signatures, so it's doing it's doing pretty well.
Yeah, I mean, if that's that one issue is exactly.
I do think schools sometimes they make rules like this that are so unnecessary. And the way that this kid is coming off is a little bit sarcastic.
And I always get a little annoyed.
By the yea, the people and.
The water hydration is null. You know, but look, this is this is a concern citizen. You know, it might be a teenager, but has a real concern. And I think sometimes high schools do do stuff like that where it's like, you know, someone after school, they're hungry, they want to get a snack, their grown teenager and they can't because like the locks.
It's timed out.
You know, I support this person and I think this is this is the kind of thing that they should be doing at this age, like make a petition and yeah, totally, Jonah, what do you think?
Yeah, I'm with both of you. I think this is a no brainer. Exactly like Tim said, you got the vending machines, that's what they're there for. Let the kids use them.
Okay, now, Jonah, I don't know if you want to read this last one because it seems.
Yeah, I'll read this last one. It's very long and keep it brief. Ask Metallica to be the musical last for the halftime of Super Bowl fifty five. This person loves Metallica. They've broken down many walls and heavy metal, their songs are anthems and NFL a major sports datum across the country. They've won Grammys, they've sold one hundred and fifty million records, rock and a Hall of Fame. There's nothing they haven't done or accomplish, which is why, with zero trepidation, I make the bold statement that is absolutely stupefying that these American pioneers of rock can not been involved with the super Bowl halftime to date, it's time for that to change. And then this person goes on to you know, the sugar pop and candy artists need to step aside and favor of real America metal. Did they play instruments? You know that kind of stuff. Yeah, blah blah, tam. What do you think about Metallica playing the halftime show?
I mean, sure, who gives a shit? I mean, yeah, they seem right on brand. Yeah, I'm not a big fan, but I respect them. I think that they would put probably put on a great show, would be full of pyrotechnics and you know, crazy stage craft and all sorts of stuff. So it's a perfectly benign and innocuous request. It's they can always say no, and you know, I'm sure it could. It's not without Yeah, sure, I mean it's a really reasonable thing to throw into the discourse.
Let me ask you this, and this is something that I feel comes up with the halftime show every year. As people said, the artists say they're not getting paid for it, and then everyone says, well, it's great exposure. What do you think about What do you think about that if you got offered to play but not get paid.
Well, yeah, I've heard the same thing that you actually pay to do it. Okay, whoa, I've heard that. I've heard it as much as that it goes even the other way and that yes, it raises your ticket sales and record sales and profile and all this stuff, And I mean it's the way the system is. It's got to be working for there. I mean, it's just got to be if somebody like who is the last One? Rihanna was that who is the last One? Like, it's got to be working for them for them to do it. They don't need to do it. So yeah, it's just a thing I don't really care about. So I'm doing as much. I'm doing a lot of work to gin up the opinion on it.
We appreciate that.
But I think the guy I would love to see Bob Dylan do the halftime. That's the one guy who I think would be very It would be so strange, just try to picture that. It's just doesn't make any sense, Like it would be very odd. But yet Paul McCartney's done it, The Rolling Stones have done it. He's in that same era and almost as you know, as big or as respected, But to think of him doing it would be it just wouldn't work.
I could don't tell her mom Marylyn.
Yeah, but Metallica absolutely, yeah, totally on brand.
You know what. It is really funny when we say though, because yeah, you do hear this about not getting paid and it's like, I'm sure Rihanna's like financial team knows what's worth it for. Do not do more than some guy?
Yeah? Exactly.
Rihanna is not like do I do it?
What do you?
I don't know if I want the money or not.
Now, Jonah, what do you think about Metallica playing that?
Yeah? Kind of similar to him? I think sure, Like I would probably watch clips of it a few days later, maybe if I saw it somewhere.
Well, you're you're a Metallica fan though.
During my formative years I was a bit of a Metallica ahead, but I haven't really kept up as much on that.
Yeah. Their new album is That I Did. I listened to it once and it's surprisingly like they went back to their like thrash roots okay okay, and it's like, really, it's kind of fun. It's like I played for my kids because it's like listen, it's just like, yeah, you know, it's like crazy, Okay, it's not my kind of music that I like to listen to. But it's like kind of cool and impressive that they can do that. Yeah, anybody could do that.
My favorite thing they've done was a documentary that's some kind of monster thing where.
They oh god, yeah, that's one of the greatest things.
Yeah, so I got to keep watching it. I started it.
Yeah, oh it gets better and better. Yeah.
So so yeah, so I'm gonna say yeah, sure, but yeah, Vanessa, what are your thoughts on this one?
Okay?
I think Johnny, you probably know where I'm going to land on this, which is that it's a no for me. Okay, because Okay, I look, I like some kind of monster. I'm interested in these. We recently rewatched the Unforgiven video and I was so mad at how dark it was that and I just now, I don't know their new album. Maybe, so I shouldn't say it's a no for me, because maybe their new album is a lot more fun.
But like you won't like to be Vanessa, Okay, because.
Interstand fun to me, I'm saying, interstand man, I could see that playing okay in the halftime show, but you're not gonna play Unforgiven or else everybody's gonna including the football players, are gonna all cry and want to go home.
Okay, Yeah, it's like a.
Lot of those songs. I'm like, I don't really want to hear this. It's not gonna pump me up. It's more gonna make me be like, well, I guess I have.
To if you will give me five, give me that song, that would be good.
That song I get.
I just it's like a lot of like scariness and anger, and I that's not what I want in my halftime show. I don't care if it's rock like, I don't mind that. I you know, a rock and roll band great, a lot of fun. But if it's a band that's like, you know, like never.
See, I didn't consider that. I think that's fair. I think it's a fair thing to ask if you're a fan of Metallic. I think it's I think maybe I'm not gung ho about them playing, but I err on like, yeah, sure ask, But I hear what you're saying.
I kind of think, like, maybe do a big metal like.
I don't mind if you want to have a have Metallica play it's some kind of other prestigious event or venue. But I just think the halftime show is sort of supposed to get people in like an mood, and I just don't.
I don't see metallic A lot.
Of minor cords, A lot of minor cords in the Metallica over.
Yeah, a lot of darkness and scariness. And that's you know, as someone who watches primarily for the commercials and the fun of that.
I you know, that's not what I would I.
This is a no for me.
Okay, fair enough.
If you had to sign one of these petitions, Tim, and I'm going to remind you of what they're scond the second vending machines or vending machines, Jonah, I'd.
Want to like chat to the maybe the principal quickly, but.
Yeah, and see see what why it was time the first place. But yeah, I'd want to have that chat too, Jonah.
What about you?
Yeah, also vending machines, but yeah, I'd like to know that. I feel like we're only getting one side of the story. I feel like they wouldn't arbitrarily make this rule, so I'd like to know more. But based on what the information we have, I'm going with that one. What about you, Vanessa?
Same same, I'd love again like Tim said I and like you said, Joan, I'd love to have a quick, quick little chat with the principal kind of see where we're at from his perspective or her perspective.
You know.
But I overall vending machines.
Great, We're really unified.
Tim. We know you're doing a lot of stuff right now, Like what are some things anything you can promote, anything that's coming up for you.
Yeah. Well, I'm on tour this summer starting end of July with my two Tims Extravaganza. It's my stand up persona was not a very good stand up comedian I've seen. If you check out an evening with Tim Heideker on YouTube, you get a taste. And then my band me and the very good band, and we play a range of music from my records and it's a lot of fun. And we did it last summer and we had so much fun that we are doing it again. Great. And you can listen to Office Hours or watch Office Hours live on YouTube or all the podcasts that you subscribe that you use the podcast apps as they say, right, Yeah, And we've had a great run re We've had Mark mayern On, we had Steve Gutenberg, speaking of nostalgia.
Wow, Steve Gutenberg.
We've had a lot of good fun people come in, we just chat. It's live, so we take calls and we take it's like, you know, kind of a morning show vibe, and it's a lot of fun.
Great, amazing, great, incredible.
Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Tim, and to everyone for listening. If you enjoyed that, please subscribe to the podcast and keep an eye up for next week's episode of How Did We Get Weird? Well, we will discuss more stories from our childhood and cultural touchstones like Little House on the Prairie.
Thanks Tim, Thank you so much, Tim, thank you.
Yeah,
