Episode 62: Reflection Selection w Steve Shackelford

It's KT and Steve with JJ Jackson this week, featuring Steve's sister Chrissy zooming in for some insight on the writer's strike

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
If you want to keep up,then you gotta catch up. Find out
every important thing that happened in theworld this week on Katie's Reflection selection.
Hey, Hey, Hey, let'sget funky DFW. I'm kat Kevin,

(00:24):
kat Turner is my name. I'mon the Speakeasy seven to eleven am Monday
through Friday morning, and joining meevery Saturday at this time is my good
friend Strip Mall, Steve, Hello, Strip Maul, Steve Shackelford, Hello,
Katie. Why are you still here? Every week? I come in
expecting you, like the end ofGoodwill Hunting, to just be gone.

(00:48):
That's what I expect. I likethat when I on the episodes that I
do miss of this Saturday show,I don't tell you that I'm not going
to show up before. It's justlike hey, and then I have to
rename the show. At nine am, I'm like, let me go recut
an intro here because it's Steven themthis week. You know, me a
big believer in improv exercises and reallylike committing to the bit and things like

(01:10):
that. It's true and you're you'recover from the same cloth, I believe.
I agree. What I like todo is wear a new article of
clothing to distract you each and everyweek, if at all possible. I've
noticed that, and today you're wearinga loincloth. It's a loincloth, but
it covers everything it needs to cover. I looked from multiple angles. I
put cameras on the ground. Iwalked around, and I'm like, hey,

(01:32):
I'm good, I've seen the coverage. I'm good. G Money has
passed away. He's dead. He'scome home in the in the literal sense,
Garrett. I'm sorry, I loveyou, Garrett. We're sorry.
I misunderstood everything. So he's notdead. He has chicken pox. I

(01:53):
think he got the pox. Finally, you didn't get it as a kid,
So yeah, and when you getit when you're older, then it's
severe and it's taken a toll.Do we all get shingles because of that?
I don't know what those commercials mean, but it's basically a form of
shingles. That's since I had chickenpox as a kid, am I like
doomed to get shingles later? Oris it the opposite, Like I didn't

(02:15):
get it at the as a kid, I'm going to get shingles. It's
it's the opposite, Although shingles arestill possible to get later on, but
you have a better chance of notgetting shingles if you got the chicken pox
as a kid. Does every rooferhave shingles? No, that's not true.
Every roofer has shingles, Steve,Is there a market for shingle jingles?

(02:38):
There a market for roofer jokes?Like? You're right? In these
trying times, I can never betoo too careful. I need to maintain
sensitivity to the roofer at large.Just you ever done some roofing. I've
never roofied anyone, but I haveno sleeping pill and like stayed up like
den some roofing. Oh okay,can't talk about row hippanol in this room.

(03:02):
Okay, you can't give that topeople. I think that's illegal,
Katie. So No, I havenot roofied anyone, nor have I done
any roofing. Oh gosh, thatcould work the same for Darren Sharper,
and break down the Darren Sharper storyfor Masterson. Okay, Oh, dannyfing,

(03:23):
I believe he probably was alleg roofying. Sound guilty, right? I
mean? Was it always pills?I thought a lot of those people just
like slipped something in people's dream thatwas like that was I mean, Cosby's
the face of that, right,I never understood Again, I was not
in the forget me not seeing itis weird that Cosby became the face of

(03:44):
that. Louis ka became the faceof what he did. Any time you
ever hear a story of someone elsedoing that, like, oh, Luis
Kadam, that is to these guyscould have just who was the tube and
guy you know he zoomed that claimedhe accident on a zoom call. I
don't think that was an accident too, Ben. Have you ever had that
happen on a company zoom call?Not okay, but keep in mind,

(04:08):
I don't want attend a lot ofthe company zoom calls, so so I
do work in tech. I havenever had that happen, but I was.
I wasn't attendance when a man didjoin a meeting shirtless and then had
to quickly turn the turn the cameraoff and unfortunately I'm like the boss where
I am, and I just burstout laughing and the entire room lost it

(04:30):
and I've never gained control back overthe office. They've had no respect for
me ever since. That's okay,you don't want them to respect you.
It's true. It creates a fun, more fun work dynamic. I do
prefer that they think I'm a moronand they have to work harder to make
up for my incompetency. Exactly,you have to do less, exactly right.

(04:50):
We have a special treat this weekend. J J. Jackson is in
the house. Hello, JJ,what guys, Thank you for goofing around
with us today. And I'll justapologize ahead of time. Oh no,
no, I'm excited to be here. He's not apologizing for me, only
himself. I'm on my best behaviorand no apologies are necessary. Okay.

(05:12):
So J. J. Jackson isthe resident movie expert for the station.
We're gonna talk some movies in thisfirst segment. We're gonna do some birthdays
and all good stuff too. Let'sgo ahead, and let's go ahead and
cut to it. The Guardians ofthe Galaxy three came out yesterday, or
technically Thursday. I nearly get theWild Hair on Thursday and said, let's
go do this seven o'clock showing,but the Stars played at eight thirty and

(05:36):
I felt like I needed to watchthat, and I was just tired,
so I didn't go, and thenI haven't made it yet. So JJ,
did you see Guardians of the Galaxythree? I did not. I
had a busy week. I'm excitedto see it, though I hear it's
so good, an emotional and justis gonna leave us in a wreck.
Okay, now, I really likedthe first one. Okay, yes,

(05:59):
I didn't love the second one,but I was fine because I think I
like the series. But I'm notlike Marvel guy. Like, I haven't
seen all of the Marvel. Marvelmovies. I've seen quite frankly, probably
between five to ten, and Idefinitely saw oh my gosh, yeah,
I probably saw End Game. Ithink I saw the last one. Definitely
fell asleep during it. Yeah,I saw the Ramie Spider Man with the

(06:20):
upside down kiss. And that's it. On Marble the movies, I've not
seen any Marble. That's what IYEA Marvel movies, Marvel movies, what
I've seen all of them. You'veseen all of them? Oh my gosh,
really yeah? Yeah? Yeah,Marvel Universe because the sam even with
the Toky Maguire Spider, that's notnecessarily a part of like with the phases

(06:41):
that they're doing now. This iswhy I don't watch Marvel right for this
exact commentary that I always hear.Right, obviously, it is still Marvel,
but it's not a part of thewhat they're doing right now. But
what with all the phases and MCUright now, I've seen I'm pretty I
think I'm pretty much seen all ofthem, every every movie, Okay,
incredible, me kind of have tobecause you're you're the movie actually, and
I love Marble, Yeah, Iam big. So here's my heyday of

(07:05):
movies and like it's I'm excited towell, okay, actually it's my favorite
movie of all times. Billy Madison, why don't we make comedy movies anymore?
I think there's some on the docketcoming up. They're trying, they're
trying to go back to the goodold fashioned comedy movie. I mean,

(07:26):
I think a lot of it hasto do with TV. And I think
speaking of TV. At eleven thirtyish in the second segment, Steve's sister
Chrissy, who has won three Emmys, um in this world for more or
maybe more, I don't know anymore. I mean she gets can probably credit
for some of the team Emmy's rightand things like that. She laps me
all the time. That's all Iknow. You know what, when she

(07:46):
starts talking about her Emmies, doyou kind of do the same thing that
I do when Skin talks about hisEmmys for his lone Star emmis. Yeah,
because I just kind of roll myeyes like, Okay, cool,
okay, lone Star Emmies, right, not not a real deal. And
as you should, as a TexasRadio Hall of Famer like yourself over there,
you should roll your eyes at Skinslone Star Emmys. And I'm but

(08:07):
hurt that our old TV show Sportsand Such, which Steve was the head
rider on one of the head riderson I was called everyone head rider.
We didn't want to make every likethat's how I got Let's get Everyone in
an accelerated title. And I reallythought that when we wrote a full episode
based on getting a lone Star Emmyand then submitted that for the lone Star

(08:31):
immis, I thought they would getit and give us one. And they
didn't even nominate us. No,and I saw who was nominated. It
was a bunch of old guys leadingfishing shows or something like that. It
was garbage. The whole thing wasgarbage, something called DFW Indoorsman. I
don't even Okay, hold on,well, Julie's on that show. I
think that's a different one. No, not Indoorsman. She's on the outdoors

(08:52):
OK. You're saying that's what Ithought. I was like, I think
the Outdoorsman is her show. TheIndoorsman was some bathroom remodel or guy or
something was. I was like waiting. I was like, look, I'm
not gonna be the guy. Idon't care who Wednesday Ward, but being
nominated for it was gonna be sofunny. I think we should have had
more sex appeal, Katie. I'mgonna be honest with you, dude,
I lost like thirty pounds to dothat TV show. What are you talking

(09:13):
about? I'm not talking about you. Well, I mean you were great
out there. I just think weneeded more like one Tree Hill style drama,
or like some real meat to someof those interviews where maybe an episode
where the dog eats the heart anda hospital. Now we're talking, I
would have tuned in for that.If you get Dan Scott's heart in somebody's
mouth and I'm there, sorry,a dog a dog's mouth, incredible,

(09:37):
Okay, so you do your kidslike Marvel stuff. How are your kids?
They are you always do this time, man, It's always in between
some random dates. So I likethat. You never know. It's eleven
and seven and eleven months in twoweeks, so one of them is almost
eight in like two weeks. Soit's really eleven and eight is what I'll
call it. So they're kind ofwatched some of them. They do.

(10:00):
They don't go gaga over them,like, they don't dress up like them.
They're more into the nineties Power Rangersright now. Well, yeah,
the nineties Power Rangers was awesome.Yeah, but we will be at Guardians
of the Galaxy tomorrow. We willsee that this weekend. Did you know
that Amy, Joe Johnson and Ithink David Yost which was the Red Ranger,
Okayson, because Tommy passed Yeah,Green Ranger, White Ranger has passed

(10:24):
on to it, Jason the RedRanger who eventually went Green in honor of
Tommy at the end, Oh,Amy Joe Johnson or at Collected Cohn and
Fort Worth? Is that Fort Worth? I remember you bringing that up earlier
in the week on the warm up. I did not know where that was.
Is JJ go Oh my god,I didn't know about this. I
love that was the that was thejam in the day. Yes, I

(10:46):
have a Power Ranger shirt. Ohyeah, yeah, a Pink Ranger.
Me and my cousins are you allthe time? We were both Pink Rangers,
you know what I was? So, you know the whole thing.
You grow up with your cousins orwhatever, your friends, and you start
picking who is who, and Iwas over time. I got the Blue
Ranger, like I was the smartguy, but I didn't have any cool
powers or anything outside of being thesmart guy. Okay, what Ninja Turtle

(11:07):
were you? I was? Youknow, I just say David, Yes,
was the Blue Ranger. He's theone that's with Amy Joe Johnson for
worth. What Ninja Turtle? Iwas Leonardo? You were Leonardo? Yeah,
which is kind of the leader's badass. But like, um, my
cousin Blake was Donna Tello and mycousin Ty was Raphael. And then we
had another friend who would be Michelangelo, the party dude, and he was

(11:31):
kind of the rule breaker. Whatyou need. I was a Michelangelo guy.
Give me the Michelangelo toys please.I kind of did have Leonardo tendencies.
Hey guys getting together. JJ.Did you ever identify with one of
the Ninja Turtles. No, II watched a little bit of the show,
and I've seen the movies. Butnow, you guys didn't play Ninja

(11:52):
Turtles growing up? Yeah, youknow, I thought maybe it's just said
in my age here and that gotsome bubble voice. Hold on, Oh
my god, Katie's dying. I'lltake it over for the rest of the
character. Don't worry about it.Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The original well,
yeah, the original five. Andthen they did try to expand,
right, and so we're good.You're taking on the Putties. You gotta

(12:13):
take down Rita. We know,we know the monsters grow, they fight.
Cool, Okay, now we're gonnabring in Lord Z. The Putties
are a little different. You gottahit the Z on their belt. Makes
sense. And then all of asudden, it's like, well, guys,
we've got a chance to expand.And I think corporate greed is what
led to that, you know,franchise falling apart because they started extending into
all these other franchises and they justweren't as good. Exponential growth is bad,

(12:39):
Katie than you why weren't they justhappy with the profitability they had and
continued to pump life into a greatfranchise in the original format. I don't
think they needed to expand. Iagree all they needed was more writing.
Maybe you could have maybe added somecharacter art to Bulkan Skull. You needed
younger characters. You needed like oneunder two junior characters like that, all

(13:01):
of her kid in the Brady Bunch, and then you just kind of train
them up as they go. Thatway, you can have your legacy characters
age out gracefully and you've got anew cast coming up. What were the
name of the little kind of sothey weren't like real important characters, but
they were kind of read a repulsesa little um. You know. The
guy had kind of a big head. I don't. Yeah, her little

(13:24):
workers, her little workers, basically, Yeah, because those guys could have
had more, you know, theycould have They could have knocked out three
or four more seasons and getting deepinto it, they left meat on the
bone there. They did leave meaton the bone. I can't believe they
did one hundred and forty five episodesof that though, did you That's what
I'm saying, did y'all ever seethe twenty seventeen Power Rangers movie that they

(13:46):
made. I did not, Yeah, because they tried to kind of red
vamp but kind of make it kindof like a universe and bring it back.
They decided not to do a secondone. I think that the twenty
seventeen version was very underread it.I liked it. I liked the storyline
that they did with it and howthat it was a little different. Um,
but I think they could have gaveit. They should have gave it

(14:07):
more of a chance. And I'llgo back to that one. I feel
like I saw it. I don'tknow that I sat down and watched it.
Elizabeth Banks was reader roposo. Okay, it's pretty cool. I like
Elizabeth Banks. Okay, So theyjust did one this year too, right,
they did. It's kind of likea kind of like paying homage to
the Mighty morphin Powerminger Show and youknow the movie, and they kind of
I didn't really watch it. Yeah, it's on Netflix. Um, that's

(14:30):
what it seemed like, like kindof just like a them paying tribute to
themselves but also still fighting. Theylook old. I'm sorry. They probably
like some of the originals back andI was like, y'all looking really Oh,
I love you guys, rough butyeah, it's on Netflix. I
haven't getting sense yet. If we'recounting, um, Tommy as one of
the originals, then we have six. Oh so Tommy's dead trainee passed away

(14:56):
a while back. Correct, Yeah, um, Saber two, Tiger Yellow.
But I think this one was Zachthe Black Ranger, Billy the Blue
Ranger, and Brian Krantz and hissword on which because he was in the
movie. Okay, right, Um, kind of interesting. I don't know.
I don't think they kind of mixedin other Power Raders from other from
the other show. That's the problemis weird. It's like, no one,

(15:20):
no one, none of us watchedthat. I have no understanding.
And maybe we have younger siblings,cousins, family members, friends who might
have got into Power Rangers sub zero, but I don't. I don't know.
Space they did Power Rangers in Space. They did They did so many
different shows, Dinobs, Dino Forceor whatever. Yeah, they got weird.

(15:46):
Um, Okay, so Guardens isthe Galaxy. Yes, let's get
back to it. Your kids docare, don't care. They're kind of
medio. They don't buy Marvel gear. You like the first Gardens the Galaxy,
I did. I do not rememberthe second one one, so I
probably saw it, but I don'tremember the plot points one bit. I
remember a lot about it. ButKurt Russell comes in as his dad,

(16:06):
and Kurt Russell just ruined the wholemovie. Was Kurt Russell in any other
Marvel movies or is that his onlyone? No? He played like his
dad because I remember in the firstone like he kind of got uh he
got taken from from Earth, right, and that's how he ended up in
the Galaxy, Okay, and sohe's just no, he didn't. Okay,
I'm sorry, all right, Idon't know. I'm going off here.

(16:30):
Yeah, the second one was itwas cool. I think the first
one was was really good. Itwas definitely like I remember that one a
lot more, for sure. Ijust remember Chris Pratt jumping around and having
more fun, and I'm like,all right, I did this. This
is a cool thing. A lotof people are saying this is the best
trilogy and Marvel so oh okay,yeah, wow, what what would go
up be up there with it?Iron Man? True? I mean,

(16:52):
trilogy wise, the only movies thatI mean The only characters I do have
a trilogy is Thor, iron Manand then now Guidings of a Galaxy.
I'm not too sure if they're goingto do another Black Panther movie. I
don't. I'm assuming they are becauseof how it ended. I'm assuming.
Did you like the second one?I didn't see the second one. I
did. I love the second one. It was so emotional. Yeah,
I was almost scared to see itbecause of the emotions. Yeah, I

(17:17):
love the first one. I don'tknow if I can go back, like
the way that they were able toeven just keep this going and find a
different like a plot, a storylineto keep going, because you gotta,
you know, he's gone, Like, you gotta figure out, you know,
a way to keep keep it alive. But you know, if you
follow the comics, you kind ofunderstand what they were gonna do, what
they did, and what they weregonna do anyways, in the future,

(17:38):
it just came. It came tomorrow, you know what I mean, Like
it came a lot sooner than itwas supposed to. Hold on a minute,
Katie, have you had a genuineemotion in your life? Are you
scared to emote? Have you cried? Before in movies, not recently.
Okay, man, you know,what do you feel like your short circuit
or break down your face melt?I think I might have to break character

(18:00):
for a minute. Okay once.The last time you cried in a movie
was it Guardians of the Galaxy one? And that's why you're worried. This
is a safe space. Nobody's listening. That might be right. We don't
have listeners. You're fine, superMario Brothers, Oh my god. Cry
In the movie scene you came onthe air and told me the Princess Pete

(18:23):
wasn't attractive enough for you, andnow you're in here telling me you cry.
Yeah, yeah, that's what Iwas sad about. Okay, that's
a good reason to cry. I'mjust not you know, never been you
know, Rundo Blonds. You know, I never pointed points the part where
Luigi is getting bullied a little bitand his brother comes in and saved him,

(18:47):
and I was imagining it being CharlieKelly. I always sunny, getting
Charlie that is rough. I'm prettymuch crying every movie, everything, everywhere,
all once, all the time.It's all happening. Got me.
That one got me? Yeah,that's you never get you never made it
to that hunt, Steve. No, I have kids. I fall asleep

(19:08):
eight minutes into any program I'm watching. I will cry during the commercials and
the previews leading up to those movies. But no, I don't make it
through the movies. Yeah, it'stough when you get older. I guess,
well, you've got an arcilepsi,so you're on a different kind of
pills. I've got epilepsy, soI'm just on sedatives all the time.
I can't make it through movies anymore. I do need a pause button,

(19:29):
just like, look, I'm gettingtired. I need ten minutes and I'll
be good. But like I was, I also gripe at people when they
say things. But oh, themovie wasn't that good? And now I'm
like, where'd you watch it?Did you watch it home? Or in
the theater? This is made youwatching a theater? Did you watching the
fort Worth? It's not gonna begood? Hey, yeah, it was
maybe to be seated at a theaterin Grand Prairie. One like Jeff didn't

(19:52):
like everything everywhere all at once,and Jeff Kavan I was in the morning
show with me um I and Iwas not surprised by that. But i'
people talking about the Queen movie,even which granted you can't tell that story
in two hours. We all knowthat. I mean movies, you're all
different. Or the Elvis movie,which I like the Elvis movie, okay,
but like it was a fine watch, fine watch. But like those

(20:15):
movies have to be watched in theater. You have to you're watching it at
home. There's no way that's true. Your windows are open a little bit
maybe, or at least the shadesare open, some lights, natural lights
getting in. Who knows how goodyour speaker system is for me. I
don't have one. It's just notimmersive. There's something about the immersive experience
that is inimitable and your home experience. Unfortunately, it just it can't compete.

(20:40):
But it is nice not paying thatmuch money to go to the movie
that's animated. Movies. Yeah,like once some streaming services will release it
in theaters and on the streaming serI would go to the movies over the
streaming service because I want that experience. Yeah, I want that full theater
like movie experience. I would.I would go to them to the movies.

(21:02):
Question one time, trying to watcha movie at home, and I
was like, I'm gonna go buya big bowl because I'm gonna do okay,
like I'm gonna pop two bags ofpopcorn, and I want to.
I want to see if I canrecreate the movie experience in my house.
You gotta get those old Orville Redenbackerlike microwavable buckets that you just shove in
there from Blockbuster. Today, Juliefound out that you can go to a

(21:25):
movie theater and just order the popcornand leave if you can. They've got
an Uber eats like stand a chaoskfor Uber Eats. People buy popcord.
I'd like watch the kids. Ididn't have time, but I wanted to
get the popcorn. I was like, all right, I get it.
Yeah, actually genius it is.Um. We're gonna talk to Steve's sister,
who's an Emily Emmy Award winning writer, TV writer, TV writer.

(21:45):
Yes, about the Hollywood shrik.Let's do um, Let's do Birthday Steve
George Clooney sixty two. Quick question? Does he still have it? Your
thoughts? Katie? Okay, Ihaven't seen him in much lately, and
by it you mean it. Inever even not really knew what he had.
Oh you know what he had,You know what he had it?

(22:10):
He had it nineteen ninety six.Clooney had it. So er being good.
He's got a cocky doctor. Wedid Michelle Phifer last week and I
declared that One Fine Day was maybemy favorite film. That is Clooney film
and Phifer together. He had it. That's how we got the Batman.
But if you could stretch your conceptof how many hours you're in a day,

(22:33):
that is a great movie. You'reright, It's like super Bad but
without the cussing. Yeah, Superbadtakes place in a day. No,
I don't hold hold anybody thinking it'sthat. Yeah. Jason Witten forty one,
he blows another rabbit out of hishead. Isn't that his number?
Oh? No, he was eightytwo. It's half of his number,
right. I'm always amazed that healways talks like he just got punched in
the stomach. He always out ofbreath. He burst his long years ago

(22:56):
or something didn't. Oh that's dangerous. Chris Paul NBA basketball player, Yes,
okay, Chris Paul known for hittingpeople in the groin. Oh,
he's that guy. Ironically, willmiss games three through five of this series
because of a groin issue. Doeshe do it when people are jumping up

(23:17):
or when he's dribbling by him?He's pretty smart about it. He's pretty
subtle and clever about it. Likeif you're gonna hit a guy in the
nuts, like, you know,don't get caught. I mean you're eventually
gonna get caught it anyways, youknow, but like he does a pretty
good job in the moment of notgetting caught. And I think they oh
they won last night, so sunsdown one two they won without him?

(23:38):
Oh my goodness. And he's gettingold thirty eights up there for a he's
slowed down for sure. All right, holds it or sorry, jose L
two? Who's he? He's acheater for the Astros or the thing on
his the device inside his shirt.And then when he hit a home run
because it would buzz if it wasgonna be an off speed pitch and it
would buzz. And then he hitthe home run and the house and the

(24:00):
guys trying to go rip his shirtoff, but he was like holding it,
like don't don't stop. You know. It's like, if you're gonna
cheat, shouldn't the whole team?No to not go rip your shirt off
because there's a device on there.Great point, Katie, is cheating a
team effort or can you cheat individuallyfor the team? Should the team be
complicit in you're cheating? Should betransparent? Okay, that's cool. Do

(24:23):
you subscribe to the if you aren'tcheating, you aren't trying? No,
Okay. Some sports guys are like, hey, look, I'm all about
it all right? Uh Tom bergeronsixty eight. I kind of feel like
he annoys me. Yeah, he'snever been a good host. What does
he get so many jobs? Hemust know how to play the game.

(24:45):
He does like you're not You'll nevertop Bob Saggett and Alfonso Roberos America America's
Funny some videos. Then he jumpedin on Hollywood Squares and then whatever else
was Dancing with Stars? He didDancing with the Stars, y out you
skipp one, Oh Meek Mill thirtysix. It's always wild to me that
he's just hanging out with Bob Kraftall the time. I didn't see Bob

(25:08):
Craft in any of his featuring credit, so I didn't know they were hanging
out another Bob. Speaking of Bob'shere, we've got Bob Seeger at seventy
eight. I can hear that saxophonenow, the sacks in that terrible guitar
tone on down on Main Street isjust it cuts through me. I'm just
not a fan. He know there'speople that like you might, just I

(25:29):
don't. He doesn't bring a lotto the table anymore. A good little
songwriter back in the day. Iknow Skin's wife's a big fan. Is
still the same, right, isn'tthat her jam songs? Interesting? Looks
like you would be in the movieOne Fine Day. It does. Hoyan
Morrison song Hollywood Knights gets it goinghard. I don't get you going.

(25:49):
Uh. Willie May's ninety one,yes, still alive. I was amazed.
I know it's like I got acheck because Willie Mays still with us.
Uh. And then we got Orrisonwells dad, he's dead at one
hundred and eight. Unfortunate. Tryto prank everyone, right, He pranked
everyone with those aliens coming to Earth. A bad move. Him and Ronald
Reagan, We'll try to do somebad pranking is hard, you know,

(26:14):
I said, you got to bevery delicate about it. You have to
pick a blogger from Washington or something. Yeah, you got to pick the
right people break a sports guy,not the entire country. Yeah, it's
gonna be tough. And then somefinal TV dates since we are getting towards
a season finale dates at the endof the year. The final episode of
I Love Lucy aired on this dayin nineteen fifty seven. I remember when

(26:37):
Nick at Knight used to show itback in the day, but I don't
remember much about it other than thatI thought, you're gonna say you remember
when it aired? That was thebetter. It's like, oh, Kates,
he's gonna go hard on this layused to be like that in Dragnet
used to air on my early daysof Nick at Knight. I did watch
a ton of Dragnet and confused theheck out too. I did not understand
no. And then the movie withTom Hanks was out, like from eighty

(26:59):
seven, and it was more orlike Goofball comedy, and I was like,
I don't understand the drag Nick Concert. I didn't understand Nick at Night
for the longest time, like whowants this just air more cartoons that well.
I dunked some nicke a Knight stuff, but there were some times and
I was like I don't understand this, and then a couple other TV things,
and we'll jump out of here andget into some tough TV talk with

(27:19):
my sister here on the WGA strike, final episode of Married with Children in
ninety seven, and the big one, the final episode of Friends in two
thousand and four, and then TVstopped being good forever, and then how
it worked the end of TV orthe beginning? Good call, and we'll
talk to your sister about what whenwas the end of TV's great question?

(27:41):
For many? It was Sunday night. Um. Chrissy is Steve's sister.
She is a writer. She's wonEmmy's for her work on Last Week Tonight
with John Oliver, and she willjoin us next to discuss what the heck
is going on? Why is therea strike? What it means? On
ninety seven one, The Freak Factor, Dainties Reflections Selection, Painties Reflection Selection.

(28:11):
Here on ninety seven one, TheFreak Saturday. Looking quite beautiful out
there, even though it is awarm one. A little after eleven thirty
five here according to this screen that'sin my studio, I don't have a
friendly mercantile tower bank on me.Yeah, but yeah, we're having a
fun. I believe we have aspecial guest here if I'm not mistaken,

(28:33):
to discuss the ongoing writers strike forthe Writer's Guild of America. This is
someone I've known their entire life.She is my favorite Emmy Award winning sister.
She is known for her work onLast Week Tonight with John Oliver,
whyatt Senacs, Problem Areas and Disney'sthe Big fib Please put your hands together

(29:00):
for Chrissy Shackelford. Wow, thankyou so much. There's a lot of
people listening, Chrissy million. Theywere putting their hands together. They were
It's like the soup audience. Wemake people come in here that are just
camera people and they just stand overthere even though we don't have cameras.
Yes, Chrissie, how are you? I loved the soup audience. I'm

(29:23):
I'm okay. I'm on strike.It's a very strange feeling, correct,
And that is kind of why webrought you on to talk about you,
or talk about what's going on,because we've covered it throughout this week.
And I will say Katie's probably donethe best job at breaking down some of
the differences between O seven twenty three, but you certainly have a lot more

(29:48):
information about just the different sets ofwriters that are involved in the Writer's Guild
of America, and that's where Iget kind of confused. So, in
your words, what's the biggest differencebetween the oh seven strike and twenty three
for the guild? Yeah, sothe seven h strike was, from my

(30:08):
understanding, the sort of hot buttonissues there were residuals on DVD sales and
specifically having the Guild having any sortof jurisdiction over the Internet, which was
just sort of emerging and was callednew media was kind of like at that

(30:30):
point just kind of YouTube clips,like using shows that were on television and
putting them on YouTube and clips ofthem from YouTube, and there was the
fight was for the guilt to haveany sort of jurisdiction over the Internet,
and they won that fight obviously aswe know. But this fight is is

(30:53):
there are actually so many issues atplay in the twenty three strike that so
I would say the major difference isthat the big issue with this one,
just in a broad sense, isprotecting writing as a profession and as a
career. So you said you werelike unaware of like what are all the

(31:15):
different writers covered under the guild.So yeah, like the day rate writers.
I didn't mean to cut you off, but like, what's the difference
between a term writer and a dayrate writer on a like sitcom versus a
screenwriter for film. Like that's whereI get confused sometimes exactly exactly, And
that's what can make like this strictsort of tricky to talk about, is
because there's so many moving parts.So there's feature writers, so writers who

(31:40):
write feature film screenplays. There aretelevision writers who are doing I guess we'll
call them narrative as opposed to comedyvariety. So like I fall under a
comedy variety writer. That's Last WeekTonight, that's Tonight's show, Stephen Colbert,
that's SNL writers, that's comedy variety. And then there's television writers so

(32:02):
that can be sitcoms, that couldbe procedurals, and so each of those
sort of factions have their own differentissues that are going on. So for
the comedy variety. So the bigissue that's happening for us in this strike
is that across all of those,across features, TV writers and comedy variety
writers, we have something that theGuild puts in place called minimums so it's

(32:25):
like a minimum wage. So ifyou do this, there are some minimum
prices. Comedy variety writers have aminimum week salary that they have to get
paid, and you know, everynegotiation we renegotiate this deal with the studios
every three years, every negotiation weask for a little bit more on those
minimums to sort of match inflation andyou know, things like that. That's

(32:49):
not really the thing that's at issuehere. Obviously they're negotiating that, but
they'll come to a middle on thatand we'll be fine. The big thing
with comedy variety writers this time aroundis it there is no minimums for streaming
comedy variety. That has just neverbeen part of the studio agreements. And
now that streaming comedy variety shows arehappening like the Amber ruff And Show on

(33:12):
Peacock, that is a that isa talk show that was a late night
talk show, but it only airson Peacock, those writers have no protection
for a minimum, They have nominimum rate, they have no residual package
in their deals, which is justsort of a huge oversight. We all
kind of went into this negotiation thinkingthat'll be an easy one for them to

(33:35):
give us. The studios to giveus because that seems like an oversight.
It seems like that's the exact samework. They should have minimums, they
should have residuals, and they don't, and those writers can end up making
like half of what they would bemaking if that show were aired on NBC,
which, by the way, sometimesthey did air Amber Rouff and show
on NBC. They would just likeput it in to a one thirty am

(33:59):
time slot just to try it out. So the studio's response to that was,
we will We're not going to dothat that that is unprecedented, and
instead we'll do a day rate.YEA, saw some of that stuff out
bad, right, and it isbad. Is the day rate also tied
to like median writers room averages.I kept seeing stuff about that, like

(34:22):
you could only hire three people insteadof a minimum like eight that they're required
to. Now how does that allfactor in? Great question? Okay,
so that so the comedy writer thing, they offered a day rate for our
biggest issue on the comedy writers side, they offered a day rate and wouldn't
even talk about Minimum's first comedy varietyon streamers, which was unacceptable to the

(34:45):
guilt because it just feels like they'renot really negotiating. Yeah, the minimum
number of writers that is actually forthat was more under TV writers. So
comedy variety is TV. But let'sjust talk about narrative, like procedural sitcoms,
things like that. So what's beenhappening And I'm going to borrow a

(35:07):
lot of language from Adam Conover whojust died a podcast. He's on our
negotiating committee and he did a podcaston the Town which is a ringer podcast.
It was very good. What's sortof been happening over the industry over
the past ten years with the boomof streaming because there were a lot of
norms in TV writing, Like there'sa writer's room for a show. That's

(35:30):
a that's been a norm. Youhave like eight to twelve to however many
writers depending on how long the showgoes in a writer's room, breaking the
stories, writing the shows, andover time that's been sort of squeezed out.
So what has been happening over thepast few years is studios will buy

(35:55):
a show from a creator. Theyusually buy a pie script. They might
ask putting a deal that they wantto back up script. Then before they
even greenlight that show, they willsay, you know what, how about
we put together a mini room.So that's one of more big things,
a mini room and bring in likefive writers. Will pay them at the

(36:15):
lowest minimum that we can, evenif they have twenty years of experience.
We'll put them in this mini room. They'll break the whole season. So
when I say break, that meanslike plot out every storyline for every character,
like basically outline how the season's goingto go. It's the hardest part
of writing a television show. They'lldo that. Then that mini room will

(36:36):
end. Then the creators, showrunner, the studies will just say, and
now you can write all the scriptsif you want, you can freelance the
script out to a writer. Soessentially what that one has really eroded the
profession of writing as a career becauseinstead of you getting staffed on a television
show where you would write for,you'd be in a room and have employment

(36:59):
for twenty weeks. You would breaka whole season of television in that twenty
weeks, and you'd write an episodethat would go on television. They are
doing these mini rooms where you don'teven know if that work that you do
for that very limited amount of time. Is going to go to television because
the show hasn't even been green lightyet. And then the showrunner the creator

(37:22):
has to write all the scripts ontheir own or freelance out to a couple
other people. So rooms are becomingsmaller and smaller. So the guild was
really trying to the guild as thewriter's guild. They were trying to negotiate
with the students of hey, wewant some protections because you've eroded some of
these norms that we've had. Theywere never codified into anything, but they

(37:43):
have been how television has worked forthe past, you know, eighty years
or something, and you've now erodedthis to try to save money and squeeze
as much work out of writers asyou can. And it's making it very
hard for television writers to make aliving because they're in the short rooms.
They're having to find work way morethan they would Finding work is the hardest

(38:06):
part, and because these rooms areshorter, they're having to constantly be looking
for work and in the middle ofI don't need to cut you off,
how I mean, please, I'mtalking, You're good our That's what seems
crazy is that it's not. Itdoesn't seem crazy, but there seems to
be more content than ever. Yeah, Like that's what's wild. It's like
it seems like they would need writersmore than ever to get these types of

(38:30):
shows out because it's more intense dramasthat feel like there's more plot points than
ever, even if the shorter seasonsdon't go twenty two episodes or whatever.
Yeah, I mean, and that'sI think that's what's hard for people,
maybe not in the industry to wraptheir head around with, like, oh,
why are writers complaining there are moreshows than ever? Well, the

(38:52):
problem with there being more shows thanever is because whether it's a mini room
or whether it's a so a pregreen light mini room, or whether it's
a post green light writer's room,because episode orders are shorter now, so
they're used to sure, I meana network they still do twenty episodes,
but there are less There are morestreaming shows that are around eight to thirteen

(39:14):
episodes a season because those are shorter, the studios are like, well you
hire less writers. Okay, thatdoes make sense, but because of that,
there are there are tiers of writersin a room, and that's sort
of codified in the guilt you're thelowest level in a writer's room is a
staff writer, then it is executivestory editor than writer producers. So there

(39:39):
are tiers that you go up becausethese rooms are shorter and they're happening so
like happening more often but in ashorter period of time. There is you're
incnsivised to, you know, havemore seasoned writers in there to sort of

(40:00):
squeezing out the lowest level the staffwriter position because Okay, well, I
guess I can only have a roomfor five weeks, I might as well
bring in someone I know who's like, is really experienced, or you have
one slot for a staff writer.And so the sort of existential fight of
this is making sure that one peoplecan move up the ranks and two that

(40:23):
they can even get into the industryto move up the ranks and have a
sustainable career, right, And Iwould see why studio heads would a lot,
like my tech industry bosses say well, why do I need a low
level writer where there's this new toolcalled AI that will just do that kind
of stuff for me on the creativeprocess because they're not seasoned, So can't

(40:45):
I get the same thing out ofthis tool that just emerged three months ago?
So that is probably also seen alot about that Twitter and in the
news. This was so I haveto be honest. I was in New
York for the past two months.I was going to all of our union
meetings prenegotiations to hear what our patternerof demands do. All the Q and
as with the union membership, everyoneis bringing up AI, and I personally

(41:07):
was just like, I don't thinkit's taking our jobs, guys, Like,
I just don't think it can't writescripts as good as us. It's
not, but I thought it wasa good thing for us to go in
and get this basic protection, youknow, cover our basis. Hey,
let's just make sure that. Idon't think anyone believes AI can write a
script as good as a human can. They can probably do a serviceable job,

(41:29):
but you know, I don't thinkdirectors want to direct an AI script.
I don't think actors want to bein a script written by AI.
Don't you have a new thing,I'm sorry, Christy, don't you like
have a new agreement every three yearstoo? Every three years, so like,
who knows years we renegotiate this,Yeah, so like who knows that
that could look like in three years? So you might as well get protected.
Now that's wild as they budge ona three year agreement for just AI

(41:52):
because we don't know how fast itwill develop for baseline stuff. But I
agree with you. For any creativeoutput, I would not trust artificial intelligence
writing tools for that, So Iwholeheartedly agree to you. I don't see
it as an existential threat to creativecomedy writing or great filmmaking screenwriting. No,

(42:14):
but yes, I don't think it'san existential threat to creative writing.
But because they just the studios wouldn'teven negotiate it on it, that makes
it now an existential threat to work. Yeah, just the bare minimum of
work. So the studio the guiltsaid, what we want is we want
to just codify it. We wantto say you can't use AI to write

(42:37):
scripts, you can't use AI torewrite scripts, and crucially you cannot use
AI as source material. Sure,so essentially, like I think the fear,
there is some exact, some developmentexact could be like, oh,
you know what, algorithmically people reallylove scripts where there's a woman who has
this kind of job and a guidehas this kind why don't I put that

(42:59):
into an AI? They'll write meout like a blurb a treatment. Essentially
we'll give that, we'll hire awriter, then we'll use that AI produced
blurb and consider it IP intellectual property, a source material, and throw it
to a writer. So we essentiallywanted, Hey, we're just gonna put
on the table. You can't dothat, especially because AI, as we

(43:22):
all know, there is it isplagiarism like it. AI is fed by
material that is already out in theworld, so there is you cannot use
IP that is essentially sourced from thethings that AI learns from, which is
other writers scripts. So Chrissy,we only have like a minute left because
of oh my god, I'm sorry, no, no, no, this

(43:43):
is not this is like there's likea lot here. And honestly, if
I was I probably should have thought, hey, we should have done both
segments on this, but you know, maybe maybe we can find another time
soon to have you on because Ithink it's all sorry, no, no,
don't apologize. And I also didnot want to get out of here
without sending everyone to last squeak Tonightdot com. That was incredible and um

(44:05):
it gave me a radio segmentum to. Katie did a whole segment on it,
that's right, and then without evenknowing that you had written it,
and then Steve goes, oh,yes, you wrote that as a what
are you kidding me? So,yeah, the Chuck E Cheese story.
Chrissy wrote that, and we haveto go others with others. I cannot,
yes, of course. Well yeah, but you know we don't.

(44:28):
We're not related to any of theothers. Yeah, exactly, I'm gonna
take credit. I'm not gonna gobrag about the other ones. Yeah,
I'm so sorry. I rambled solong. I feel like I didn't say
anything of substance. No, you'regood. No. Essentially, the studios
are not negotiating with us, andthat's why the strike is happening. This
is this is a bummer, andthey need to negotiate with you. We
have to be gone in thirty seconds. So we want to thank you for

(44:50):
your time, and we'd love tohave you back on the station soon because
I learned a lot and want tolearn more about this, and I think
many others will as well. Sothat is a thank you for your time.
Chrissy. We love you. Thankyou for your time. Okay,
Steve, say goodbye to your sister. I will goodbye, Chrissy. If
anyone wants to hear more of me, Sorry Chrissy. I am on from
one to three with Ben and Skinon Monday, so I will try to

(45:13):
squeeze you back in here for asegment. If I can, I'll go
beg Skin, we gotta go down. Bye and bye to you. Have
a good week and everyone