Best Friends

This is the Brain, and you're listening to the

GeekCast Radio Network. Yes! It's time for the

Telecast, brought to you by... The GeekCast Radio

Network. for the show, Optimus Solo. and each

one of these supplemental episodes will have

a specific topic. The topic for this first one,

or episode 5 .5 as we're going to label it, if

you will, is characters you would want as your

best friend, or to put it another way, characters

you would want to hang out with. The only criteria

here is that they had to appear in a kids' live

-action show sometime in the 80s or 90s, basically.

It's kind of a loose criteria, but that's what

we're going with. And with me to help on this

episode, making his... Telecast debut, even though

he's been on a few of the other Geekcast radio

shows, is JT from Saskatoon. Hello, sir. How

are you doing today? I am doing good. I'm excited

for our first supplemental episode to see how

this goes. It could be interesting. I've got

a couple on here I think you might enjoy. Nice.

And basically the way this is going to work is

each one of us has come up with our own list

of top ten characters for the topic. and we're

basically going to go back and forth alternating

as we make our way through our list down to our

number one choices. So I think unless you have

anything to say to preface your list, we'll get

right into your number ten choice. Okay, well,

the one thing I'm going to say about my list

beforehand is there are at least two on here

that I'm going to geek out on, if you will, because

it's just like... This is so awesome. Well, if

you can't geek out on the Geekcast radio network,

I don't know where you can. Well, yeah, but I

mean, I had to, like, do some regressive hypnotherapy

to go back to remember, you know, who did I want

as my best friend, you know, that sort of thing.

Yeah. And believe me, when I get to my number

one, I'll just be sitting there just like, you

know, giggling. But, yeah. I'm very interested

to see who's on your list and after I came up

with my list and see who I missed and all that.

I will preface my list by saying there are two

ties. Okay. Like, there's one of them that's,

like, can't, you know, decide between the two

of it, basically. So my number 10 is Beakman

from Beakman's World. Interesting. I thought

about it for a second, but I didn't think of

it. Go ahead. I'm interested to hear your thoughts

on Beekman. Well, I mean, I grew up, like I watched,

I saw a little bit of Mr. Wizard. I always thought

Mr. Wizard was kind of cool. And don't get me

wrong, I love Bill Nye. I mean, Bill Nye is my

boy. But I think it was, I was just like, what,

14 when I first found Beekman. On the bounce,

I live in western Canada, and I could get a CBS

station from North Dakota sometimes. On the old

antenna rotor system, you had to dial a thing

in like a safe. So I got to watching Beekman.

I always thought it was a really cool show because

you mix the comedy with the actual science. It's

kind of the basis for how I learned things later

on in high school. You had to make it fun before

I would pay attention and remember it. And Beekman

always, I always loved Beekman. I mean, I liked

Lester the Rat, although I think I preferred

it when Lester was a puppet and became like this

fat dude in a suit. Yeah. But no, Beekman was

always funny, and he was, you know, he just looked

like absolutely insane, and he made you want

to learn science. And he'd probably be someone

that would be fun to hang out with because he

would know all kinds of different little tricks

or experiments that would be cool for a kid to

take part in. Well, exactly. I mean, growing

up, I always wanted to be like a mad scientist,

you know, mixing stuff up in the lab and taking

over the world. Brain. Yeah. And let's face it,

of all the Saturday morning science dudes like

that, I think Beekman had the best chance. He

was half a supervillain already. Yeah, he had

to look for it. Yeah. No, I just, I really liked

it. I mean, it was also part of the show. It

was very vibrant. You look at the show, it's

like all a lot of color. The sets looked like

an actual lab, like where all this stuff's going

on. He just seems like, you know what, if I want

to have some fun hanging out with a buddy, I

want somebody that can make some stuff up and

we can cause some trouble. Well, my number 10

is very similar. in some ways and very different

than others, but my number 10 is Pee Wee Herman

from Pee Wee's Playhouse. Now, I know he got

into some trouble later on, but we'll put that

aside. If we're just going on who he was when

I was a kid, he was this guy, as far as Pee Wee's

Playhouse went, where it just looked like that

would be all kinds of fun if you showed up at

his... you know, at his place with all his different

guests and friends and whatnot, where he knew

how to have fun. You know, he was that kind of

wacky, crazy, you know, you don't know what to

expect, but there's going to be high energy and

you're going to probably get yourself in trouble.

You know, like I said, I'm discounting his real

self and the actual actor and what happened later.

But if you just were someone who watched Pee

-wee's Playhouse, that looked like somewhere

fun to spend a Saturday. So I know it's kind

of crazy. It's probably my strangest pick out

of my top ten. But I can't think of anyone else

who had the amount of fun that Pee Wee did in

his show, in his environment, in his playhouse.

And he had all kinds of weird characters that

would show up, like the cowboy guy, and just

all kinds of different... personalities that

would show up and it just seemed like, you know,

that'd be kind of fun to be a part of. Yeah,

because I mean, I think my favorite part of the

show was when the king of cartoons showed up.

Yeah. You know, and it's like this old dude walks

in and he's like, I am the king of cartoons.

And as a kid, you're like, you command cartoons?

Awesome. Yeah. So that's my pick for number 10.

Yeah. You got to remember, like for those that

don't, remember peewees that was one of the first

major acting things for morpheus from the matrix

yep mr lawrence fishburne yeah and i remember

years later the cool characters on that show

for sure yeah well years later when i realized

who that was i was like holy crap so but uh i

guess just to move it along here uh my number

nine and Probably one of the first TV crushes

that I will willingly admit to is Clarissa from

Clarissa Explains It All. Ah. Good choice. Yeah.

I didn't quite have a satellite dish when I first

came into contact with Clarissa. Early 90s, my

dad was part of the Lions Club, which is kind

of like the Shriners. And we'd go down to this

international convention in Minot, North Dakota,

and it was around the time that SNCC was starting.

Okay. And, you know, we're sitting in on a Saturday

night, and we're like, me and my brothers are,

like, absolutely obsessed with Nickelodeon. And

the show came on, and I was like, okay, this

seems interesting. She's breaking the fourth

wall like Zack from Saved by the Bell. And I

thoroughly enjoyed the show, and then over the

years that I watched the show, I was kind of

like, you know what? I'd like her. She seems

like the ideal person to be. If you're a guy

and you had to pick a girl to be a friend or

someone that you were going to hang out with,

regardless of if you had feelings for her or

not, Clarissa seems like the cool person to hang

out with. Yeah, because she was smart, she was

funny, she had some attitude. Right, but she

could get along with guys just as well as she

could probably get along. She probably got along

better with guys than some of the girls on the

show. Well, yeah, no, that was the whole thing,

that she was just this very, you know, I don't

want to say bubbly, but she had a personality

that you just couldn't help but like her. She

was really energetic, and she was really honest,

and I really enjoyed that about her. Plus, she

wanted to smack around her brother, and who doesn't

want to smack around their younger brother just

now and again? Yeah, exactly. No, I very much

like that choice. My number nine is actually...

from the show california dreams and it is the

character that was called jake summers on that

show now california dreams obviously was not

as popular as some of these other shows so some

people might not even know who i'm talking about

but jake summers was california dreams is a band

a teenage band basically and it's like a saved

by the bell but it's this california teenage

band group, basically. Jake Summers was a character

that was introduced in the second season, and

he's kind of like one of the main guitarists.

At some points, he's the main singer. He's kind

of your... kind of the tougher guy in the group.

He was a little bit bigger, a little bit more

muscular. He always seemed like he had the leather

jacket or the cool jacket on or whatever. He

was the bad boy. Yeah, he was kind of the bad

boy, but the main reason I picked him... is because

of how much he valued his friends and the other

band members. I remember at the end of that show,

when it was done with its run, I think it only

was around for about three seasons. So at the

end of that last season, a lot of the band members

were getting to the other stages in their life

where they were going to go off to college or

they were going to move to a different state

or country or whatever and kind of move on with

their life. And he was actually offered a band

gig by some producer, et cetera, that was, you

know, in the episode. And, you know, at first

he turns it down because he doesn't want the

band to break up. He doesn't want to lose his

friends. He wants them all to stay together.

You know, and I know that's kind of just kind

of that. in everybody's life where they kind

of have to decide to grow up or move on, but

I just thought it was very cool that he valued

all the other band members and the friends so

much that, number one, he would turn down the

offer, and number two, he was going to great

lengths to try to keep his friends together and

as a group, and I kind of respect that. Jake

was always a guy that I really liked on the show,

but I think, you know, to actually moving along

to number eight. My number eight is also from

California dreams. Wow. How funny that that worked

out that way. Yeah. Synchronicity. Uh, but my

number eight, uh, on California dreams is actually

Tony Wicks, the drummer of the band. Okay. Uh,

the being, cause like I like Jake and I was going

to go with sly cause sly. I really liked you,

but Tony just seemed like a little more, uh,

I want to say down to earth, but again, he was

one of those guys who had a lot of energy. He

was a really nice guy. He was funny. He could

sing. He could dance. Probably learned a thing

or two from him in that regard. But I think overall

he – and I'm not knocking like Mark or Matt,

sorry, or Mark Winkle like Sly's cousin or Jake.

It's just he seemed the easiest to get along

with, the friendliest guy. And I really like

that about the character. Like he was always

there with a smile and a wink and a nod. Yeah,

I can see that. He was a drummer. And when it

comes to bands, I've always been partial to drummers

before guitarists. There you go. He's also a

little bit crazy, which would make for kind of

fun. I'm not crazy in a bad way, but crazy, like

you said, with energy. Yeah, yeah. He's just

completely off the wall some days. He always

had that, like, he'd play like he was, like,

a really smooth character, you know. It's like,

I got this, I got this, and then he would, like,

completely lose his crackers. Yeah, but he was

the type of person where if you were hanging

out with him, you both wouldn't be sitting around

bored, like, trying to figure out what to do.

Yeah. He would know what to do, or he would be

figuring out something or keeping the energy

high so that you would never be bored. Yeah,

free trying to pick up girls. He's like, dude,

go talk to her. And I'd be sitting there. It's

like, no, I don't want to do that. And he's probably

be the type to like, dude, go talk to her. Yeah.

My number eight kind of takes a different direction

here. We're going old school with actually you

had mentioned you have a few ties. I actually

have. This is my one tie on my list. And it's

from the long running Nick show. You can't do

that on television. And I know, again, like I've

said for a couple other ones, this would be one

that if you weren't around in the earlier days

of Nickelodeon, you wouldn't remember. But this

was me and my sisters, one of our favorite shows.

But there's two characters that appeared on You

Can't Do That on television. One was Adam Reid

and the other was Alistair Gillis. I couldn't

really decide between the two of them because

they both kind of played similar parts. One was

a little bit older than the other. But the reason

I put them on my list is because... They were

very much like I was when I was that age. And

what I mean by that is they were smart enough

to know what to say and when to say it, but also

to know where that line was. And they were also

a little bit of smart asses. And, you know, they

would get out of things. They would... I don't

know. You'd have to be familiar with the show,

but there was certain skits where... They would

get out of whatever the parents or the adults

were trying to do to them, or in school they

would try to get out of whatever the teacher

was making them do. So they were the type of

people I would want to hang out with only when

I was that age, because when you're in that age,

you're kind of a little bit rebellious. Not necessarily

doing drugs or doing that kind of rebellious

stuff, but you're... pushing the limits of authority

and stuff like that, and they just kind of did

it in a good way without being complete jerks.

So I kind of just like watching the little skits

that they did on You Can't Do That on television.

I remember the show, but the character I remember

the most from that is Barth, the cook in the

cafeteria. No, that was, like, the kids in that

show always seemed like some, a lot of them seemed

like they'd be fun to hang out with, so. Yeah,

they definitely pushed the authorities and kind

of didn't, you know, they did what most kids

do and stand up to adults, and that was kind

of cool. They went through a metric ton of that

green ooze. Yes, but if you're interested in

more on that, stay tuned for that episode. You

can't do that on television because there's going

to be some fun stuff talked about then. Oh, yeah.

So, I guess moving along, number seven is, at

the time, I thought he would be one of the coolest

guys to hang out with and have as a friend, is

Mr. Ernest P. Worrell. What show is he from?

Well, Hey Vern, it's Ernest. Oh, okay, gotcha,

gotcha, gotcha. I wasn't making a connection

at first because I heard his, you said his whole

first name, I don't think I've ever heard it

referred to as that. And unfortunately, I know

in the years since I've caught clips of the show

on YouTube, I never actually got to watch that

show as a kid. I knew more from the movies like

Ernest Saves Christmas, Ernest Goes to Camp,

Ernest Goes to Jail, which is my personal favorite

because it has the line at the end of it, I came,

I saw, I got blowed up. But just watch through

the show. Again, Ernest is one of those guys,

he's just got this crazy amount of energy. He's

always friendly. He's always got a smile and

a joke. He just seems like the type of guy, he

would go out of his way to make you smile if

you were frowning. I'm not saying I didn't know

people like that growing up, but he just seemed

like one of the guys, you would never be sad

hanging out with Ernest. No, not at all. And

again, it kind of goes back to Beekman that you

see in his movies, you see in the show, he always

has these insane contraptions. You look in Ernest

Goes to Camp where he basically goes MacGyver.

He's MacGyver without being that awesome. You

look in Ernest Goes to Camp, he builds the battle

bus for the take on the construction guys at

the end of the movie. Ernest gets stupid, he

turns the treehouse into a freaking... a armored

fort more or less with like milk cannons and

yogurt slingers and all that. But again, like

that, that's all cool. And it's kind of, besides

the point, it's kind of like Tony from California

dreams. He's just a genuinely nice guy that you

can't help, but want to hang out with. And you're

always going to have some fun with him. And yeah,

sorry. No, I definitely, I agree with you. And

I, and I actually thought, For quite a while

on including him on my list, he didn't make it

in the end. But, no, I can definitely see where

you're coming from. Yeah. It's just, again, he's

one of those guys, like, for me, a friend is

someone you want to hang out with because he's

a nice guy, not because you can get anything

from him. Right. You know, he just seems like

a nice guy. It's like, how could you not want

to hang out with him? Yeah, you either want someone

that's going to be nice and not do stupid stuff

or stab you in the back, or you want someone

that's high energy and a lot of fun, and Ernest

had a little bit of both of those. Yeah. My number

seven is probably the most famous character on

my list here, and for a long time I was going

to have him way closer to number one. But for

my number seven, I'm going with the classic Zack

Morris from Saved by the Bell. Now, there's reasons

he's on my list. There's also reasons why he

didn't make it up to the top couple. The reason

he's on my list is because how can you not want

to hang out with Zack Morris, first of all? I

mean, he is always getting into something. He

always has some scheme or some thing that he's

doing. He's in with the ladies. It's not necessarily

a jock, but he can relate to them. He can relate

to all the different groups. So he just seems

like someone, he is the popular guy at school

that everyone wants to hang out with. The only

reason I don't put him higher on my list is because

he's also probably a little too concerned with

himself over his friends. Now, I know at different

times in Save that Bell, he is concerned with

his friends, and he does go out on a limb for

them, et cetera, et cetera. But you can just

kind of get that feeling that if it's, In certain

situations, if it comes down to, let's say, a

girl or whatever, he's going to leave you in

the dust and go for her. So that's kind of why

I didn't put him all the way up at number one,

two, or three. But I definitely thought he deserved

a spot on my list, so I put him at number seven.

Actually, Zach was going to be on my list a little

bit higher than where you put him initially.

Uh, and eventually I, like I found somebody else

that, you know, I'm not saying I don't want to

hang out with him, but somebody else that, uh,

I wanted to hang out with a little bit more.

Yeah. And, uh, but no, Zach was always a cool

character. I mean, he is a little bit, you know,

narcissistic much. Well, that's the other thing

is I kind of was Zach Morris when I was in junior

high in some aspects, so I can relate to him

a lot. But I was a little thinking that we were

almost too much alike at that age that maybe

we wouldn't hang out. You know what I mean? Because

sometimes you don't hang out with that person

that's so much like you or that's filling that

same role. You usually butt heads with them.

So that's why I wasn't sure I could put him any

higher because I was kind of like him in junior

high. There's really not much more I can say

on Zach. He seemed like a really cool guy. He

got the hottest girl ever, Kelly Kapowski. You

know what? I can't hate him for that. I just

can't. Yeah, you can't hate the guy for that.

All right. So we're on number six now? Yeah.

Okay. Well, actually, from the same show. We're

doing this. I've got to say something. For the

record, folks. We don't know each other's lists.

We're not meaning to back each other up so easily

with a transition to the same show. So this is

all coincidental. Yeah. Like I said, number six

from the same show was Screech Powers. Because

I was one of those guys in high school, or in

school, I was a nerd. I was almost completely

oblivious to how much I was annoying other people.

at the time. I didn't wear really loud clothes.

I did not have a high -pitched voice. I did not

have a jufro. But I identified with the Screech

because I wasn't one of the smarter guys. I was

one of those guys that was just oblivious to

everything around him. I mooned after the girl.

He just seemed like, again, he's a guy that just

seems genuinely nice. You would have no problem

making friends with this guy because he's just

so friendly. Growing up, that was kind of my

problem because I went into a pretty small town

where we had three grades in one classroom. One

row of desks is grade three, another one's grade

four. It was really hard. Once you know everyone

in the school, your social skills tend to atrophy.

Yeah, I understand what you're saying. When I

went to high school, I met Some guys were a little

bit off the beaten path. Screech, not to speak

blue, but that guy was batshit insane some days.

Yeah. No, he was. But again, I kind of like that

you have friends who are nice and a little bit

crazy. Well, and the other thing you've got to

say about him is probably more than anyone we

could possibly come up with, and Screech isn't

necessarily on my list, but... he's got to be

one of the most loyal people that we could come

up with. I mean, how many times does he do exactly

what Zach wants him to do, or how many times

is he there for Zach, or comes through for him?

I mean, there's very rare a time where he will

confront Zach about something or be disloyal

to him, so loyalty is huge. No, and that's the

other thing, that Screech, it doesn't matter

how many times, he's just... absolutely loyal

to his friends. Yeah. And that's a huge category.

Yeah. And you can even see that with Zach at

various episodes where he realizes that, you

know, he's kind of screwed Screech over and he's

just like, oh man, what have I done? Because

he knows that Screech would never do that to

him. Right. Yeah. I think the only thing I wasn't

convinced is in the vein of if I was in junior

high, if I looked at it from this standpoint,

if I was in junior high, would Screech have been

my friend? I'm not sure if he would have or if

he wouldn't have. Obviously, I'm somewhat nerdy

myself as well, and I did have friends that were

fellow geeky or nerdy in ways. I'm not sure if

he would have been the type of person I would

have been friends with or not, just from his

kind of off -the -wall, like you said, batshit

insane stuff sometimes. But if I had to pick

someone that was going to be loyal to me, he'd

be at the top of my list. Well, yeah, and not

to say that he was always insane. It's just when

he comes running up with that shirt, that voice,

he's generally got some science experiment that

he's thrown together. Or that hair. And the hair,

yeah. Oh, you cannot talk about Screech without

mentioning the hair. Right. I mean, especially

later on, like, where he came back from college

and he was, like, vice principal to Mr. Building

and he had, like, the Jufro mullet. And it's

just, it's, wow. That hair was epic. Yeah, it

was. My number six is kind of like my number

seven. My number seven, obviously, was Zach from

Saved by the Bell. My number six is actually

Ted McGriff from Hey Dude. And for those of you

that aren't familiar with Hey Dude, Ted McGriff

basically plays a role that's very similar to

Zach. But the way that it's different is he's

not quite, in my mind, as... As arrogant, maybe?

That might not be the right word, but he's not

as full of himself to me as Zach at some points

is. Ted's the guy that if I was on a summer job

or whatever, or if I was at that dude ranch,

I probably would have hung out with him just

because we would have had a lot of stuff in common.

We would have both been interested in trying

to hook up with different girls. I can see myself

because I had summer jobs when I was... I worked

basically from the time I was almost, let's see,

like 11 or 12, I had a job, and I've had one

basically ever since. And I can relate to the

whole playing practical jokes and being the one

instigating the pranks at work and playing games

with people as far as being bored at work and

stuff like that. So I just think that there was

just certain parts of me that would relate really

well to him. Again, for the same reason I said

with Zach, I'm not going to put him too far up

my list because we do have almost maybe too much

in common at some points. So there might have

been times where we butted heads over a girl

or something like that, but it would have been

fun to hang out with Ted even a little bit more,

I think, than hanging out with Zach. Yeah, honestly,

I'm going to have to let you go on that one because

I never really watched Hey Dude. Most people

haven't. Yeah. I know more about... you know,

salute you shorts than I do. Hey dude. So yeah.

Well, what about your number five then? Well,

uh, my number five is a first of two ties, uh,

on my list and it's the duo and the show of Keenan

and Kel. Okay. Now, like anyone who knows Keenan

and Kel, and if you don't know Keenan and Kel,

Keenan and Kel started on the, Kids Saturday

Night Live, known as All That on Nickelodeon.

Right. And eventually they became so popular

that they graduated to their own, well, not even

a spinoff, but towards their last couple of years

on All That, they started doing their own kind

of sitcom called King and Kill. And it's basically...

Kenan and Kel as like exaggerated versions of

themselves. Kenan's kind of like a Zack Morris

type, like he's a schemer. He's always trying

to get one up on everyone. And Kel is kind of

like screeching that he's like absolutely insane

and almost completely addicted to orange soda.

I must admit that I have a soda, you know, addiction

of my own. Don't we all? But yeah, the show itself

is kind of like the classic one -shot cameras.

Here's a set, here's the scene, go to the next

one. But the characters of Kenan and Kel is what

I love. Like I said, Kenan is kind of a bigger

guy like myself. And as scheming as I try to

be, I am not anywhere near the level of Kenan.

And Kel was just really free. He was happy, he

was friendly, he was energetic. And they got

into so many crazy adventures on that show. Usually,

you couldn't help but see the similarities between

Zack and Screech. There's something about the

way these guys, it doesn't matter what they got

into, they always were in it together. They went

through it together. And to me, that said, how

could you not want to be friends with somebody

who is loyal like that? No, that makes sense.

Like I said, loyalty should always be a big characteristic

that you're looking for when you're trying to

pick out someone that you want as your friend

or someone you want to hang out with. Kenan and

Kel's kind of like Hey Dude was for you. I did

watch it occasionally, I think, but I just didn't

catch enough of it where I remember it. I would

really have to do some digging and watching on

YouTube to remember exactly what they were like.

But I'll take your word for it on this one. Yeah,

no, and I mean, the other thing about the show

is, like, my dad loved that show. Because my

dad, like, I'm addicted to Coca -Cola. My dad

was, like, absolutely addicted to Orange Crush.

Nice. So you see this kid dancing around, like,

a six -foot -tall bottle of orange soda, and

my dad's sitting there, you know what? He's all

right. Yeah, he's all right in my book. For my

number five, I'm actually going back to Saved

by the Bell. and I'm actually going to go with

A .C. Slater on this one, only because this is

the competitor or the athlete in me, I guess,

that would, you know, I played three sports in

high school, and I can just kind of picture him

as someone I would have got along with in the

sports arena type area. He was also, you know,

very cool. He was in with the ladies. He was

a little bit of like the muscle guy, and I have

this pattern of being friends with guys that

are kind of strong and muscular. I don't know

if it's because I grew up as such a tall and

skinny kid that I needed someone to back me up.

I never got in a fight or anything, but I tend

to have friends both in junior high, high school,

and college that were a little bit stronger.

So that's kind of why it made me think I probably

would have gravitated to Slater. I don't know.

It's subconscious, I guess. He was also the cool

kid that would come in and stand up to somebody

else, like Zach Morris or whoever else was in

the school. I kind of respect the person that's

going to come in as the new kid and not be walked

all over and not necessarily be the shy kid,

but stand up for himself. I don't know. I know

Zach was the popular kid, but Slater was kind

of the cool kid. I just would have thought it

would have been fun to hang out with Slater.

Yeah, I mean, you look at Zack and, like, he

was called by Slater as Preppy, which is probably

one of my favorite nicknames on TV, just the

way he's like, why did you shut your mouth there,

Preppy? Yeah, he did it very well. And I always

kind of liked Mario Lopez, so. Yeah. But, I mean,

Mario Lopez, like, the way he played Slater was

really cool. Like, he was a jock, but he was

a friendly jock. He wasn't like the classic nerd.

Right, right. You know, smacking people around.

And he wasn't just a musclehead. He was a pretty

intelligent guy. But he was always friendly.

Again, he's like one of those guys. He just had

that really easy smile. He was always ready and

willing to help his friends. And he'd have your

back. Yeah, exactly. He's a stand -up guy, and

how could you not want to be friends with someone

that's salt of the earth like that? Right. How

about your number four? Well, my number four

is the second and final tie. There we go. On

my list is the duo, the classic duo, dare I say

one of the greatest duos in kids' entertainment

television, Fozzie Bear and Kermit the Frog.

Oh, there we go. Again, to be friends with people,

you kind of got to see a little bit of yourself

in them. I've always been like, when I say sensitive,

I don't mean emotionally sensitive. I've just

been a really touchy guy growing up. Yeah. And

I kind of saw a lot of myself in Kermit because

Kermit was just always running around with his

head cut off. He was trying to run a business,

run herd on all these clashing personalities

and a very overbearing girlfriend. And, you know,

and kind of the antithesis to his problems was

Fozzie Bear, who was, Always smiling, always

got a joke. Not the best material, mind you,

but he always had a joke going. These two souls

just kind of gravitated towards each other. They're

always there for each other. They went through

tons and tons of crap together, but they never

lost sight of the fact that they're friends.

They're always there for each other. It's just

something about the camaraderie. That is Fuzzy's

jokes were, and as close to a nervous breakdown

as Kermit was. They're always there to lend each

other a hand and back each other up. Yeah, and

you just can't go wrong with Kermit or Fuzzy.

They're just such classic characters. They would

be definitely cool. I thought long and hard about

including someone on my list from either The

Muppet Show or Sesame Street. I ended up not

doing it. I was real close to including Snuffleupagus

from Sesame Street just because he was such a

good friend to Big Bird. But, no, I like that

you put Kermit and Fozzie in there. Yeah. You

go through all the permutations. You see them

in the Muppet movies, the Muppet Babies. Since

it's the season, they've got the Muppet Family

Christmas. They'll probably be watching eight

or nine times before next week. You just see

what happens. These guys have gone through more

crap than I don't think any of us have ever gone

to treat them as real people. They've gone through

so much crap that I think lesser souls might

have just called it quits and we'll hang out

and have coffee sometime. For all the crap that

they've gone through in their lives together,

they're still friends almost 50 years later.

It's absolutely endearing, the fact that these

guys can stay friends for so long. Yeah, they've

been through thick and thin. Exactly, and that's

why I would love to hang out with these guys,

not to mention you've got access to everyone

else in the Muppet universe. Right. For my number

four, I'm doing another second character from

the same show. This is the last time I'll do

this, but I'm going back to Hey Dude. I know

you didn't see the show very much, but there's

another character called Danny Lightfoot on there.

And he is not necessarily someone who I thought

I would put on my list at the beginning. But

in thinking more about it, Danny is the prototypical

person that wasn't the popular kid. He wasn't

the kid that was going to get all the girls.

He wasn't a jock. He was actually more of an

artistic guy. But the reason I put him on there

is because he is so down to earth. He was a Native

American on Hey Dude, Native American teenager.

He is so down to earth and just the type of guy

that would be there for you when stuff went bad.

And I thought there was, you know, I've had the

guys like Pee Wee or whatever that... I like

because they would just be fun and high energy.

I've had the Zach Morris and Ted McGriff because

they were kind of the cooler kids, and I kind

of can see wanting to hang out with them. But

Danny is a little different. He's that guy that

would just be there for you through whatever

trauma you're going through. He would give you

advice. He's down to earth. He's not going to

try to upstage you. He's not going to try to

steal your girlfriend or anything like that.

So I just wanted to get someone in my list that

had those characteristics. So that's why I went

with Danny on that one. Well, yeah. Again, I'll

have to go on that because I never saw Hey Dude.

Now you have a reason to go watch Hey Dude. No,

I'm just kidding. Yeah, well, I mean, eventually

there's a few shows like Are You Afraid of the

Dark? I don't think I ever really watched that

show as a kid. Yeah. I watched more of the...

Sorry, getting off topic. I watched more Tales

from the Crypt than I did already Afraid of the

Dark. Well, my number three is the first of two

characters from the Power Rangers franchise.

Did he just say Power Rangers? Contributing to

the delinquency of minors. Mike, when he listens

to this, is going to start cracking up at this

point because he knows I despise the Power Rangers.

But I can understand why a Power Ranger would

make the list. I didn't think about it, but it

makes sense. Okay. Go ahead. First, number three

is Billy, the blue Power Ranger from the first

three seasons of Power Rangers. Okay. And Billy,

again, he was a nerd. Come on, he was a nerd

who was a superhero. This dude was like Peter

Parker without having spider powers. He just,

again, he was a guy, like, growing up, and not

to say that I was completely picked on and I

was a complete, like, basket case. But I found

it, like, once I got into high school, I found

it really hard to make friends. Like, through

most of my first year of high school, like, I

had the odd friend here and there, but I was

pretty much a loner. And I kind of saw that in

Billy. He had a lot of good friends. Over time,

I developed kind of a group like that. Billy

was the guy. He was shy. He could barely talk

to girls. He was a really smart guy. He just

didn't know how to express himself, and that's

just kind of where I was. He seemed like a cool

guy to hang out with, besides the superpowers,

being a superhero. Billy was just like, he was

really honest. I don't want to say forthright.

He was just a dude. He was who he was. There

was no pretense. There was no skeletons in his

closet. He was this guy who was super smart.

He didn't necessarily know how to operate in

society. Well, I raise my hand if someone asks

me if I'm anything like that. No, it makes sense.

I can't really speak much about it because I've

never seen much of the Power Rangers. You know,

I'll take your word for it, and I'll let Mike

laugh in the background. Yeah. My number three

is actually our first. I'm surprised this is

the first time it's happened, but my number three

is actually a duplicate of someone you already

had on your list. So we won't go into a lot of

detail, but number three is Clarissa Darling

from Clarissa Explains It All. So I definitely

agreed with you when you put her on the list.

I have her a little bit higher just because,

I don't know, she just seems so cool. cool as

far as someone you could hang out with that there

wouldn't be any tension. It would be completely

relaxed. She would push you to do things that

maybe you weren't comfortable with, but within

reason. And just like you said when you talked

about her, when you mentioned her on your countdown,

she's just... A cool chick to hang out with.

It wasn't like a chick that you necessarily,

I mean, yes, you might have had a crush on her

at some point, but it wasn't like that was going

to consume you and you couldn't get past it.

You could be best friends with her and still

be cool. So my three is a repeat of your number,

what, nine? Somewhere in there. Well, my number

two is a character you mentioned earlier. Mr.

Snuffleupagus. Oh, nice. Our brainwaves were

thinking the same. Yeah, it's just, like I said,

man, you're thinking, I'm thinking, great minds,

but... Scary. Yeah, well, I mean, Snuffy. And

I never really called him Snuffleupagus. I just

called him Snuffy. Yeah. He just, like, again,

probably one of my all -time, if not my all -time

number one favorite Muppet. And it's just because

he seemed like such a mellow guy. I mean, he's

hanging out with this, you know, eight -foot

-tall talking bird. You know, and just the way

he talked, he had that really slow, like, how's

it? go away. And it just exuded this very calming

kind of effect, because the guy was just a really

mellow character, and he put up with a lot of

crap, because for the longest time, no one believed

he existed on the show. I freaking love Snuffleupagus.

He was one of my favorite Sesame Street characters,

and as a smaller child at the younger ages, for

some reason, even though he's the... You wouldn't

think you would relate to him because he's such

a big, giant character. You know, you would think

you would relate to like a Bert or an Ernie or

someone that was more human type size and looking.

But no, I related to Snuffleupagus more than

any other character on that show, I think. And

I just really loved how much of a good, sweet,

like caring character he is. Like you just get

the feeling that he would do absolutely anything

for someone that he cared about. Well, yeah,

it's almost like you, I don't know how much you

remember Snuffy, but it's almost like he didn't

know how to lie. Right. It's just like he always

told it like it is and not like a really brusque

or obtrusive manner. It's just like, you know.

someone said well why are you sad and it's like

well my mom's going away and it's like well you

still have your dad right like he he just had

this really simple logic about him very innocent

yeah very innocent very simple logic that he

wasn't like he wasn't stupid it's just he didn't

see any reason to worry about stuff that was

beyond his control Right. So he always had, like

I said before, he just has this super mellow

personality that you just kind of gravitated

towards. And the dude was a freaking woolly mammoth.

It's just that you're just looking at Snuffy.

It's like this giant furry beast with a trunk.

Yeah. You don't want to give that guy a hug.

I know. It was down to the wire between him and

Big Bird. And as much as I love Big Bird. You

made the right choice. My number two is actually

going pretty old school on people here. I'm going

to the show before Saved by the Bell. My number

two is from Good Morning, Miss Bliss. A lot of

people probably don't remember that show. But

this was the character that was basically Slater

before Slater came along, and his name was Mikey

Gonzalez. Now, he... had very small parts of

him that were like Slater. And mostly just from

a physical, the way he looked, even though he

wasn't this muscle -bound person because we're

talking about the junior high days of Saved by

the Bell, so obviously all the kids are a little

bit smaller. But he was kind of the friend of

Zack Morris, but sometimes the one that would

butt heads with him. But the reason I have him

so high on my list, even though he's kind of

more of an unknown character, is because... He

had all the good parts that Zach had, plus his

bad parts weren't as defined as they are with

Zach. He wasn't so full of himself and such a

troublemaker. He knew the line a little bit more

than Zach. He would always try to kind of pull

him back a little bit, but he wasn't afraid to

stand up to him at times. And he just seems like,

when I picture who my friends were in junior

high and maybe my freshman year of high school

or even... pre -junior high, like fourth and

fifth grade, he would have been one of them.

And so this is the situation where, not just

saying who I would like to hang out with, but

that this kid would actually match up with some

of the people I did hang out with. So that's

kind of why I put him so high on my list. And

he was just a basically cool character. It was

kind of sad that he didn't go on with the Saved

by the Bell crew. I mean, obviously Slater came

along and he was probably... more popular, etc.,

but I really liked Mikey from the junior high

days. Yeah, I didn't watch a lot of Miss Bliss.

I didn't actually start... I didn't remember

the show at all before I saw Saved by the Bell,

and it was years later on TBS where they would

have fill -in episodes on Saved by the Bell re

-edited so that now 17 -year -old Zach would

come on and intro a classic tale. Yeah. Like,

I remember this one time, and they would flash,

it's basically, they would treat the Miss Bliss

series as, like, flashbacks. Right, yeah, I liked

it when they did that. And I was like, that looks

like a young Zack Morris with the deuce. No,

I remember Mr. Gonzalez saying, yeah, he seemed

like a proto -Slater. Yeah. You know, that he

wasn't as much of a... Wasn't really a jock,

but he was kind of... He had the similar look.

He filled that role. Yeah, definitely. I don't

really know a lot about the character, but he

seemed like a cool guy. Yeah. I should have a

drum roll here. Can we insert a drum roll? All

right, what's your number one? Well, my number

one, I find it highly unlikely that you have

heard of this character. Okay. Or even the show

that he's from. But it's a classic Canadian TV

show that I watched growing up. It was The Hilarious

House of Frightenstein. And my number one character

to be a friend with is the main character, Count

Frightenstein. Now, to understand where I'm coming

from, the show itself is set in the mythical

land of Frankenstone, Canada. which is like the

unknown 11th province. But Count Frankenstein

is the 13th son of Count Dracula. He's been exiled

from Transylvania for a failure to bring to life

his creation, Brucie J. Monster, who's like a

Frankenstein creature. And in order to kill time

until he brings the monster back to life, He

has this castle in Frankenstone that's populated

by the Wolfman, who's basically a Wolfman Jack

radio DJ. There's... bwana clyde baddies like

this uh animal guy for like uh what do you call

him uh goes on safari okay like there's all these

goofy horror kind of horror themed characters

and the whole show is built around a very educational

prospect like all the segments if they're not

straight up comedy they're teaching you something

and the reason i like the count is again he's

like to use my earlier phrase this guy was that

shit insane He's running ostensibly an office

-slash -apartment building. He's trying to bring

his monster to life. His assistant is this big,

balding brute named Igor who's almost completely

incompetent. He's like Zack Morris in the fact

that he's got all these get -rich -quick schemes,

all these failed attempts to bring Brucie to

life. But something about the energy and the...

The energy and the willfulness of this character

that I like, because literally, this guy's been

exiled by his dad to another freaking country.

But he's trying to make the best of it. He lives

in a castle full of monsters. When I was a kid

and I was getting into monsters, this was the

coolest damn thing I could think about. Dracula's

always been one of my favorite characters growing

up. I'm a little more partial to Frankenstein

for personal reasons. But Dracula was always

one of my favorites. And Count Frankenstein,

if you look it up, you can see the character.

He's got this pancake green skin, the classic

Dracula outfit. He wears Chuck Taylors, Converse

All -Star running shoes. Nice. It's just something

about this character. The guy just looked like

a complete lunatic. Well, anybody that wears

Chucks has to be cool. Well, yeah. But this guy,

he had a job. He had a career goal. As a kid,

he just seemed like the coolest character to

hang out with. Now, again, I'm going to say the

show is called The Hilarious House of Fright

and Sight. If anyone is at all interested in

this show, look it up on Wikipedia. Find the

clips on YouTube. The DVDs are out there for

some of the show. I'm sorry. This is my absolute

favorite guy I wanted to be friends with as a

kid. I'll have to look it up and check this guy

out. Yeah, for sure. And again, the guy that

played him on the show, Billy Vann, did like

90 % of the other characters on the show, which

is cool as well as a little trivia factoid. Yeah,

that's great. I'll definitely check him out.

And one of the times when you're on one of the

shows, I'll have to get back to him what I thought

about him. Let's see. Yeah, for sure. My number

one, another drum roll here, is actually from

the very first episode we did on the telecast,

which is Salute Your Shorts. You had Count Frightenstein.

I have Michael Stein. Michael, I did not expect

to put him. at the top of my list at all until

I started really thinking about it and going

through things. Now, Michael was one of the original

characters on Salute Your Shorts, and eventually

he gets replaced, which is when the show becomes

an epic downward spiral failing thing. But Michael,

to me, was the perfect combination of different

things I look for in a friend. Now, number one,

he... Had some of the same interests as I did.

He was somewhat of a jock, but not necessarily

like the uber jock. So I could have played sports

with him and related to him in that way. He was

into the ladies. Now, he wasn't like a ladies

man or like the most gorgeous thing on the world

that the ladies just like swooned over. But he

was into girls and he wasn't awkward about it.

So, you know, I could you know, we could both

go check out girls or whatever. That'd be cool.

But he was also very much down to earth. You

had Bobby Budnick on the show in Donkey Lips

trying to do all kinds of crazy pranks and create

trouble, and at times he would get swayed into

being involved with it, but he would usually

be the one that kind of knew where the line was.

He wouldn't necessarily cross it, or he would

go about things in a little more smooth manner.

And I just kind of appreciated that part about

him. And I could just picture, you know, being

out at some type of summer camp or being like,

for example, hey, dude, being on a ranch or just

being at school with this character and completely

getting along with him. I just think, you know,

we would have had enough similar interests where

we could have just talked forever with each other.

We could have related to each other. And, you

know, I don't know how much you know Salute Your

Shorts, but Michael just seems like the... down

-to -earth, cool guy that I'd like to hang out

with. Yeah, and again, that's another Nickelodeon

show. I watched it here and there, but the only

thing I really remember from Salute You Shorts

is, like, this one, I don't know, it's just this

one episode where they're doing, like, a deep

throat sort of thing, and it's like, the girls

are like, thanks, Donkey Lips, and you see the

outline of him, and he's like... How did they

know it was me? Honestly, that's all I remember,

so I'm going to take your word for it. Yeah.

Well, I mean, it was just like Bobby Budnick

was the complete troublemaker, and Donkey Lips

was the big old guy that was kind of his sidekick.

And Michael was just kind of the voice of reason

amongst the group. But he would still do stuff

and get away with it. But he was just so much

more intelligent or smoother about the way he

went about things. So that's kind of why I went

with him. But hopefully somewhere along the line

through the 19 people that we talked about since

we both had Clarissa on the list, hopefully there's

someone that you related to as a listener, someone

that you might have liked as a friend, maybe

some people we brought up that you wouldn't have

even thought of. Or maybe you have people that

we completely missed or we don't have that you

would have picked as your number one or at least

on your list. So if you have people that we missed

or if you want to react to our choices and tell

us when we're wrong or when we were right, please

do that. That would be great to get some feedback

and to kind of have a little discussion on the

website. You can just go to geekcastradio .com

and click on the telecast. tab and you'll find

the entry for supplemental episode 5 .5 and leave

us a comment and just kind of give us some feedback.

I'm interested to see where you guys think we

went right and where you think we went wrong.

So that would be pretty cool. Do you have any,

you know, final thoughts on the creation of the

list or on any of the choices or just anything

in general? I mean, we're like some of the characters

were like, you know, I'd love to hang out with

Zach. You know, I mean, I don't know if I really

want to, hang out with peewee goes to the whole

like older guy thing yeah it's just not not to

make it creepy it's just i liked peewee but he

i i found him he kind of taxed my weirdness limit

growing up like i love the show and i wanted

to have his house but not so much if peewee was

there that makes sense But, no, I mean, I'd definitely

like to hear what other people, like, what are

maybe some shows that neither of us really recalled

at the time? Yeah. Like, what are some other

people people want to hang out with, reasons

why? Because, I mean, you never know who's going

to be your friend until they're your friend.

Right. And, of course, Mike, I'm sure, will leave

some comments about how he's very happy that

a Power Ranger made it on the list. I'm just

saying that I almost put Tommy the Green Ranger

on here, but, you know, I don't think I could

have hung with him as much as I could have with

Billy. That's it. Get off my bridge! All right,

well, I think that does it for our very first

supplemental episode. I think it went okay there.

I'd like to thank JT for being on with me. Thank

you, sir. Yeah, and thank everybody else for

tuning in and listening to us here on the telecast.

If you want to leave us feedback for the show,

Do me a favor and just listen to any other. telecast

show episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. You get detailed

information on how you can get in touch with

us. The only thing I'll say is, you know, you

can find us on iTunes or go to geekcastradio

.com and click on the telecast tab. And that's

where I'm hoping that a couple people go to this

show's page and leave some comments. But for

now, we hope we succeeded in entertaining you,

informing you, and most importantly, unleashing

the geek in you on this special episode of the

telecast. And we hope that you will tune in for

our next episode when we start up our second

set of themed episodes with Bill Nye the Science

Guy. For now, I am your host, Optimus Solo, with

JT from Saskatoon. And we will see you for another

episode in a few days of the Telecast. Discover

this.