Advertise on podcast: The First Ones

This month Queen Mel, Sarcastro and Mr. The Slayer watch and discuss the 1992 premiere episode of Hangin' with Mr. Cooper as was chosen by the Dice of Destiny.  The show stars Mark Curry as the titular Mr. Cooper, an out of work failed NBA hopeful turned substitute teacher who is sharing a house in Oakland with his childhood friend, Robin, played by Dawnn Lewis and her other close friend from later in her life, Vanessa, played by Holly Robinson-Pete.   The gang has a few questions about Mark's qualifications to be a substitute teacher, his behavior towards Vanessa and her dating life and if he'll ever gain the respect of his students.   Theme song to The First Ones written and performed by Elysium/@elysium_music Have a suggestion for a sitcom you want us to cover in the future, send us an email at [email protected] or you can visit us at www.tfopodcast.com and submit a suggestion through our site. Want to send us a hand drawn picture of the cast of The First Ones podcast in the theme of any of the shows we've covered?  You can do that by sending those drawings into us at the following address: The First Ones PO Box 14 Salfordville, PA 18958 Follow us on Instagram @thefirstonespodcast Also be sure to check out Queen Mel and Mr. The Slayer on their Buffy the Vampire recap show, The Sunnydale Diaries, on the various podcast and YouTube feeds or at The Sunnydale Diaries Podcast website. You can also support Queen Mel and her artwork by visiting her Etsy store Bright Blossom Glass

To open season three of the show, Mr. The Slayer joins Sarcastro and Queen Mel as the newsest co-host and they are discussing the family  sitcom, Growing Pains starring Alan Thicke as a psychiatrist and very sexually tuned up father of three who is navigating being a work from home dad while his wife played by Joanna Kerns returns to the workforce after a fifteen year hiatus spent raising their kids played by Kirk Cameron, Tracey Gold, and Jeremy Miller.  In the episode Kirk Cameron's character betrays the trust of his parents which Sarcastro can relate to the angry outburst that Alan Thicke's character has on his son's betrayal.  They also introduce the new method for picking the next show from ABC's TGIF lineup for the rest of the season. Theme song to The First Ones written and performed by Elysium/@elysium_music Have a suggestion for a sitcom you want us to cover in the future, send us an email at [email protected] or you can visit us at www.tfopodcast.com and submit a suggestion through our site. Want to send us a hand drawn picture of Sarcastro and/or Queen Mel in the theme of any of the shows we've covered?  You can do that by sending those drawings into us at the following address: The First Ones PO Box 14 Salfordville, PA 18958 Also be sure to check out Queen Mel and Mr. The Slayer on their Buffy the Vampire recap show, The Sunnydale Diaries, on the various podcast and YouTube feeds. You can also support Queen Mel and her artwork by visiting her Etsy store Bright Blossom Glass

This month for the season two finale, Sarcasto and Queen Mel are joined by Mr. The Slayer to discuss his suggestion of covering Just the Ten of Us.  A spin-off of Growing Pains in which a New York high school gym teacher who lost his job at the school attended by the Seaver children in that show and blindly accepts a new job as a coach at a Catholic school in Eureka, California.  Queen Mel questions her long time friendship with Mr. The Slayer over this pick (only in jest) based on the writing and acting of the shows first episode.  The whole group wonders about the logistics of how Coach Lubbock interviewed and what research he did into the school he was going to work at before finding out that it was an all boys school and he was moving his small militia of daughters to also presumably attend.  Then they share the results of where this would go on the Benson-Blansky scale which complete and solidfies the rankings for this season and they also come up with the outline of season three of The First Ones.     Theme song to The First Ones written and performed by Elysium/@elysium_music Have a suggestion for a sitcom you want us to cover in the future, send us an email at [email protected] or you can visit us at www.tfopodcast.com and submit a suggestion through our site. Want to send us a hand drawn picture of Sarcastro and/or Queen Mel in the theme of any of the shows we've covered?  You can do that by sending those drawings into us at the following address: The First Ones PO Box 14 Salfordville, PA 18958 Also be sure to check out Queen Mel and Mr. The Slayer on their Buffy the Vampire recap show, The Sunnydale Diaries, on the various podcast and YouTube feeds. You can also support Queen Mel and her artwork by visiting her Etsy store Bright Blossom Glass

This month, Queen Mel and Sarcastro dive into the world of 1980's southern interior decorating with the first episode of Designinig Women.  A show about four thirty to forty somethings that run thier own interior design company in Georgia while also navigating the tropes of love, friendships and trust.  This show features a cast of strong actors including Delta Burke, Dixie Carter, Annie Potts, and Jean Smart who run Sugarbaker and Associates and navigate their way through a plethora of adventures during their tenor. Theme song to The First Ones written and performed by Elysium/@elysium_music Have a suggestion for a sitcom you want us to cover, send us an email at [email protected] or you can visit us at tfopodcast.com and submit a suggestion through our site. Want to send us a hand drawn picture of Sarcastro and/or Queen Mel in the theme of any of the shows we've covered?  You can do that by sending those drawings into us at the following address: The First Ones PO Box 14 Salfordville, PA 18958 Also be sure to check out Queen Mel and Mr. The Slayer on their Buffy the Vampire recap show, The Sunnydale Diaries, on their podcast and YouTube feeds. You can also support Queen Mel and her artwork by visiting her Etsy store Bright Blossom Glass

This month Queen Mel and Sarcastro are joined by Mr. The Slayer to visit a place where everybody knows your name as they discuss the first episode of Cheers from 1982. Starring Ted Danson, Shelly Long, Nicholas Colasanto, Rhea Pearlman, and George Wendt, it was a sitcom that proves to the group that it can stand the test of time, at least for their generation.  Queen Mel and Mr. The Slayer also discuss their trip up to the actual bar in Boston that Cheers was based on in the exterior shots.  Where does it rank on the Benson - Blansky scale?  Well, you will need to listen to find out.  Theme song to The First Ones written and performed by Elysium/@elysium_music

This month Queen Mel and Sarcastro gather around with friend of the show, Mr. The Slayer, to talk about the pilot episode of the 1972 series, M*A*S*H.  From the comedic approach to a terrible situation for the characters to be put in is fantastically acted out by the cast which in this episode was made up of Alan Alda, Wayne Rogers, Loretta Swit, Larry Linville, McLean Stevenson and Gary Burghoff.  The laugh track opens up a conversation on the use of those in modern shows and how sitcoms found the laugh tracks they wanted to use and if this podcast should start using one.  Theme song to The First Ones written and performed by Elysium/@elysium_music

This month Queen Mel and Sarcastro watch Hogan's Heroes, the comedic portrayal of a group of Allied POWs in a stalag from 1965 who get up to a lot of mischief in getting over on their German captors.   The show starred Bob Crane as the titular Col. Hogan; Werner Klemperer as Col. Klink the man in charge of the camp; John Banner as Sgt. Schultz, the only German officer in the camp who knows about the hijinx of the Allies; The show also co-starred Robert Clary, Richard Dawson, Ivan Dixon and Larry Hovis rounding out the rest of the heroes in Hogan's troupe.   Theme song to The First Ones written and performed by Elysium/@elysium_music

This month Queen Mel and Sarcastro watched Sledge Hammer! which aired it's first episode in 1986 and starred David Rasche as the titular Sledge Hammer, a slightly (or more than slightly) unhinged from rational thought police inspector, who is joined by his more level-headed partner Detective Dori Doreau played by Anne-Marie Martin.   This show had them questioning is it a sitcom based on the way it was shot compared to the other sitcoms they've watched on the show and if it was really as funny as the laugh track on Queen Mel's copy of the episode would have you believe.  Theme song to The First Ones written and performed by Elysium/@elysium_music

This month Sarcastro and Queen Mel are sitting down with Mr. The Slayer to discuss his recommendation of the Out of This World, a sitcom that premiered in September of 1987 and was about a girl who finds out on her thirteenth birthday that she's half alien and begins to get powers from her absentee father's side of the family.   So many questions, What powers will she gain?  Will she use them for good or evil?  Why did the mom lie about the father for so long?  What the heck is an enoch?  Intro and outro interpreted and performed by Banky on behalf of Sarcastro.

This month Queen Mel and Sarcastro sit down with Mr. The Slayer to talk about the first episode of Charles in Charge from 1984.  In this episode we learn that Scott Baio as the titular Charles is in fact in charge of the lives of three young children in New Jersey and takes his job as their live-in manny very seriously even when faced with the dilema of having to cancel a date with his dream girl, only to have the mother of the family suggest his date come to the house while she has to go to a last minute work assignment for the evening.  Also it would appear the father may be expecting Charles to be some sort of enforcer or heavy for anyone who tries to steal his daughter's virtue.  What we don't learn is why Charles doesn't like to be called sincere as it seems to set him off when people say that he is.   Intro and outro interpreted and performed by Banky on behalf of Sarcastro.

This month Queen Mel and Sarcastro sit down with their guests, The Slayer and Fatty, to discuss the first episode of 1981's Gimme a Break which starred Nel Carter as some sort of live in housekeeper/cook/mother figure to a gruff police chief and his three daughters.   After observing the family dynamic and seeing that Nel is appartetnly the only character who isn't a fish out of water they determine if this could be remade today and if so, would it still be a sitcom.  They also rate it on the Blansky-Benson scale to see where it will earn it's place is The First Ones history.  Intro and outro interpreted and performed by Banky on behalf of Sarcastro.

This month Queen Mel and Sarcastro are joined by Fatty and Mr. The Slayer (Mel's co-host on The Sunnydale Diaries) to discuss the first episode of WKRP in Cincinnati from 1978 which is about a struggling AM easy listening station that's getting a facelift to become a rock station and it's quirky cast of characters.  Somehow it's a show that everyone except Sarcastro had seen growing up.  Queen Mel also introduces the new season rating board where she and Sarcastro will determie the best shows reviewed each season.   Intro and outro interpreted and performed by Banky on behalf of Sarcastro.

This month Queen Mel and Sarcastro discuss the first episode of the sitcom Benson from 1979.  A spin-off of the series Soap starring Robert Guillaume as the titular Benson DuBois who has been hired as the head of household for fish-out-of-water Governor Gatling of a never confirmed state played by James Noble.   Benson meets some of the staff of the mansion consisting of the Chief of Staff, Secretary to the Governor and a sizeable German woman who appears to handle most of the duties of the house staff as the housekeeper and cook.  Benson spends this episode solving a problem for the Governor who is trying to do what he thinks is right in saving wildlife but puts him on the outs with his daughter.  Intro and outro interpreted and performed by Banky on behalf of Sarcastro.

In the season two opener of The First Ones Sarcastro and Queen Mel are joined by guest commentator Fatty and producer Banky to talk about Blansky's Beauties, a Garry Marshall show that was so good at getting cancelled they made the same show twice using several of the cast members under a different show name and on two networks.  Starring Nancy Walker of Rhoda and The Dick van Dyke Show fame, as Nancy Blansky, a showbiz veteran who is spending her twilight years raising her nephews (played by Eddie Mekka and a very young Scott Baio) while managing a group of show girls at what may be one of the seediest hotels in Las Vegas.  Oh did we mention there's a Great Dane named Blackjack in the show, because, why not?   Intro interpreted and performed by Sarcastro

This month in the season one finale of The First Ones, Sarcastro is joined by Queen Mel who has become part of the POoRCHoices family and the official co-host of the show moving forward.  Fatty and Banky also sat in on the episode to talk about Mork & Mindy from 1978, based on a cameo character on another Garry Marshall show, Happy Days, and helped to launch the career of Robin Williams and co-starred Pam Dawber.  Intro and outro performed and interpreted by Sarcastro with an assist from Banky.