Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, episode 124: 'Veep,' FOX's 25th anniversary, 'Mad Men' & more
Dan and Alan also review the 'Justified' finale and answer your mail
On this week's Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, Dan and I talk about 25 years of the FOX network, review the marvelous satire and profanity of HBO's "Veep," look back on the "Justified" finale and last night's "Mad Men," and answer some of your mail.
The line-up:
25 Years of FOX (00:00:40 - 00:22:00)
"Veep" (00:22:00 - 00:31:50)
Listener Mail - Ashley Judd's "puffy face" article (00:32:10 - 00:38:20)
Listener Mail - "The Office"/"Parks & Rec" (00:38:25 - 00:45:45)
Listener Mail - "Suburgatory" Emmy chances (00:46:00 - 00:50:30)
"Justified" finale (00:51:35 - 01:04:50)
Sunday's "Mad Men" (01:04:50 - 01:20:30)
As always, you can subscribe to The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast over at the iTunes Store, where you can also rate us and comment on us. Or you can always follow our RSS Feed, download the MP3 file or stream it on Dan's blog.
And as always, feel free to e-mail us questions for the podcast.
Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
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Login or create a HitFix account Login Signupchakrabs
April 16, 2012 at 6:10PM EST Reply to CommentMan, it pains me that you guys don't discuss Game of Thrones as well, especially after such a strong episode yesterday.
sepinwall Please see the last several weeks' worth of podcast posts where we explain and explain and explain why we're not doing it.
April 16, 2012 at 6:34PM ESTMickey zanatoli Zing!
April 16, 2012 at 7:13PM ESTRU Serious Maybe you want to explain and explain and explain why you were such a dick in answering the question, jeez, maybe it's a new lister. You'd think Chakrabs violated the spoiler alert with that terseness. Come on man, you're the likable half of the team.
April 18, 2012 at 7:26AM ESTalex
April 16, 2012 at 7:39PM EST Reply to Commenti havent listened yet, but i hope the fox retrospective contains talk of Whoops, the post apocalyptic Gilligans island with giant ants.
odessasteps
April 16, 2012 at 7:46PM EST Reply to Commentsports request for next week: the growth (so far) of nhl playoff ratings on nbc cable channels.
Joe
April 16, 2012 at 8:58PM EST Reply to Comment1:06:38 may just be my favourite exchange on these podcasts so far.
"SHUT YOUR MOUTH."
aamadis
April 17, 2012 at 2:30AM EST Reply to CommentL.A. Complex!!!!!! Yeeeessss!!!! I can't wait.
JREinATL
April 17, 2012 at 9:49AM EST Reply to CommentAlan - Your dis of "Second Chance" (retooled as "Boys Will Be Boys," natch) will only be ameliorated if your "Best of Fox" article includes "Werewolf."
NJMark
April 17, 2012 at 11:31AM EST Reply to CommentBy observing the 25th anniversary in April, is Fox just completely refusing to acknowledge its October 1986 debut with "The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers"?
Stations couldn't just take the show as if it were syndicated - they had to become affiliates of the new 4th network. For all of the problems that surrounded the show (Joan's eventual firing, her producer/husband Edgar's suicide, and its replacement by "The Wilton North Report"), "The Late Show" was the foundation of what they're celebrating now.
It deserves a mention.
sepinwall You could look at it as them celebrating the primetime anniversary, as the original Sunday lineup (Tracey Ullman, et al) debuted on April 5.
April 17, 2012 at 11:42AM ESTodessasteps I remember, in hindsight rather stupidly, writing an article praising Brisco County as great outside the box TV on Friday night Fox and completely downplaying the show about the FBI and ALiens, calling in the new Project BLue Book. D'oh.
April 17, 2012 at 4:47PM ESTREALLY?
April 17, 2012 at 2:15PM EST Reply to CommentAm I the only person here old enough to remember Ashley Judd flashing her naked vajayjay across my television screen live at the Academy Awards maybe 10-15 years ago?
While I appreciate the spirit of her current article, I find her indignation both laughable and hypocritical. The message of not judging women by their bodies/faces would be much better delivered and received from someone who didn't reveal her bajingo LIVE in front of my entire family, grandmother, young nieces and nephews, everyone, on a WORLDWIDE telecast.
Lest you think I'm making this up, I found a YouTube clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBCpwcx7Hsw
Any feminist credibility she had was lost in that moment, I don't care how many honorary degrees she racks up or how eloquent her writing is.
Will Cute.
April 17, 2012 at 2:17PM ESTCol Bat Guano Yes, that might invalidate her message...if you were a 12 year old boy.
April 17, 2012 at 3:28PM ESTdan Really? - That's not actually what the message of Ashley Judd's article was, but since the entire point of your comment was that two seconds of walking across the stage a decade ago means that Ashley Judd's message has no credibility, it isn't surprising that you didn't bother to get the message correct. So... Well played?
April 17, 2012 at 4:05PM EST-Daniel
RU Serious I disagree that her showing us God's Country on the awards show invalidates her opinion here, but I gotta say, it sorta smacks of "waaaa....no one think I'm hot anymore! Time to make a statement about how screwed up our body images are! Waaaa."
April 18, 2012 at 6:30PM ESTNJMark Her complaint was that people were asserting as "obvious" things they actually had no knowledge of. It's a fair complaint.
April 19, 2012 at 11:07AM ESTShitegeist
April 17, 2012 at 3:14PM EST Reply to CommentAs a proud Brit, and someone who has been a fan of Armando Iannucci since his early 90s radio days, I delighted that Veep appears to be living up to expectations. Can't wait to see it.
Billy
April 17, 2012 at 7:45PM EST Reply to CommentA conversation about FOX and no mention of their brilliant move to snatch the NFL from CBS. As far as impact I think it's right up there with Idol. Also the MLB but to a much lesser extent.
Andrei Absolutely - THAT, more than any other moment, was when FOX became a "real" network!
April 18, 2012 at 9:00AM ESTAndrei By the way, why is it standard for FOX to be written in all caps? I don't think it's an abbreviation...
April 18, 2012 at 9:08AM ESTDo you have to shout the word when you speak it, too?
dan Andrei - It clarifies the distinction between the FOX network and 20th Century Fox broadcasting. It's industry trade-standard and I carried it over from my days at Zap2it, where it was also standard...
April 18, 2012 at 9:55AM EST-Daniel
Andrei Thanks Dan - I thought it just had to do with the size of Rupert's ego....
April 18, 2012 at 3:10PM ESTgb
April 18, 2012 at 3:18PM EST Reply to CommentMy favorite 1 season Fox show that nobody talkes about was the Adventures of Brisco County Jr . Then there was Firefly, which everyone talks about as a show cancelled after 1 year or less.
odessasteps I always hoped carleton cuse would slip in a brisco county reference in Lost.
April 18, 2012 at 4:54PM ESTScott B.
April 18, 2012 at 5:39PM EST Reply to CommentWhen you talk about Fox, HOW can you not mention when they acquired NFL football?!?! That was THE MOMENT it went from small to BIG, and when not only did they add new stations, they took affiliates from what was the Big 3, causing station changes all over the dial!!
laura
April 18, 2012 at 5:57PM EST Reply to CommentAre there no "Parker Lewis Can't Lose" fans here ...
~Laura
NJMark The first two years, especially with their jabs at NBC's "Ferris Bueller." The Fox knock-off actually did it much better.
April 19, 2012 at 11:09AM ESTChris
April 19, 2012 at 7:39AM EST Reply to CommentIn regards to your Mad Men discussion: you and Dan debated who was Roger's source for telling him the Ken has a writing career. Isn't is possible it could have been Don? Don and Roger seem to be pretty chatty this season and it is possible Don let it slip as conversion. Just a thought. Love the podcast!