
This is Nightlight Folks.
I am Pete Schwabba.
We are kicking off act two here of this evening's broadcast.
Great to have you with me.
Our question of the night is, what was your favorite hour long drama before the age of streaming?
What show did you watch?
Conrad and I both changed our answers and said 24 after someone on the stream.
mentioned 24.
I had totally forgotten about the show, but as far as network shows go, I loved that show.
So we've heard some great ones.
Please share yours and be part of the fun.
We will read your text on the radio.
We talked a lot with Brian Hicks, our guest in the first hour, who has agreed to stick around for a few more minutes.
Brian is a stand-up comedian based in Chicago and also is the general manager of Zanies in Rosemont and downtown.
two great comedy rooms.
Brian, have you worked Wisconsin much?
You're fine.
I got, yeah.
In fact, Wisconsin, honestly, Michigan, Wisconsin, the whole Midwest, it's really my favorite area to work.
It seems like the crowds are so friendly and they're really accommodating.
I haven't done a ton of stuff elsewhere, but the people in audiences seem a little bit different.
But the Midwest
Wisconsin, especially in Michigan.
They're grateful.
Like
It was Thursday through s time there was like, oh, th the worst storm we've ever going to be snowfall for
20 degrees and I watched the news all weekend long as I was doing these shows and I was supposed to do a show Sunday night and I texted the manager, I go, Hey man, I got to go.
I go, something happened at home.
I got to get out of here and I wanted to get home before the storm hit and I started to go and I made it to Lafayette, Indiana and everything was shut down.
The interstate was shut down.
Everything was shut down and I got stuck there for two days in Lafayette, beautiful Lafayette, Indiana.
Oh,
All right.
That's Brian Hicks.
Check out Brian Hicks, funnybrionhicks.com.
And you can check out Brian's dates if you're in the Chicago area.
And he will keep you.
apprised on his website of where he will be performing, but a good dude and a great comic.
So there you go.
Conrad, all right, so we have a text from last night.
I don't like to miss texts.
So we had Bud, and I think I brought them in here.
I printed up the text because it's easier for me to keep track.
This is Bud, our friend from Jamesville, who texted us at 4.15 a.m.
Bud is out delivering papers in the Madison area and says, hey, Pete, it's nice to be approved.
See, here's the problem, Conrad.
I don't remember when people send a text.
It's hard to remember what we were talking about when they're commenting on it.
Does that ring a bell for you?
My sense of humor loved the show, Bud from Jamesville.
Bud, we love that you listened.
Thank you for texting.
Again, our question tonight is what is your favorite hour-long drama?
Like, network drama, folks.
Think before streaming was the thing.
Because now there's so much, and this goes to show you, like, there are a ton of great TV shows on.
There are episodics you can multiple, many in some cases, on all the platforms.
that are really well done.
And now think back to the 90s or even the 80s, God forbid, there were three channels.
And I hate to say this, but like the shows that are on now on the streaming platforms are so much better.
They take more chances, they're better written, they're edgier.
They make those shows look so lame and thank God we didn't know that at the time.
Like even 24 well done a thriller for a network show that would be eight episodes and it would be so tight because I will say when I gave 24 a rewatch about six years ago There was a lot of streaming available.
It was hard to get through even though when I first watched it I thought it was a great show But it just goes on too long seasons should not be 24 episodes Or even 22.
I love the way the British shows do it
Annie from Watertown says, St.
Elsewhere.
How do you like that?
I never watched that show.
Another medical drama.
Thank you, Annie.
Tom from New Berlin says, Conrad, that's the joy of golf.
You would have been just happy.
You struck the ball clean.
So there you go.
That's a text for Conrad.
Oh, Civic Media's own Luke Mathers.
Love, Luke.
He says, ER.
Yeah, ER.
Honestly, ER is probably, if there was, if this was a contest tonight, if this were a contest, that would probably win if it came to like Emmy wins.
Annie from Watertown says, after ice skating, we settled in and watched the first episode of NYPD Blue.
The ending was, oh my, and she says hooked.
I gotta be honest, Annie, I don't remember what that first episode was, but I remember there was some incredible TV.
and some incredible writing on that show.
The scene where Jimmy Smith's character passes away and he's holding his wife's hand, who I think is Kim Delaney, and they lost a baby.
And then they show him in the afterlife kind of holding his baby's hand.
Oh my God, it was very powerful.
In fact, I had the pleasure, this was fun.
I wrote promos for Army Wives, a show Kim Delaney was on.
And I brought that up to her.
We just had a moment offset and she said, oh yeah.
And I was like, oh yeah, that was like maybe one of my favorite network drama moments of all time.
And it was a gig to her.
Not that she didn't love it or throw herself into the role, but she had worked on so many shows, she barely remembered it.
And it was a pivotal moment in my life.
Anna from Madison says, my favorite pre-streaming drama was the Sopranos.
See, I would put Sopranos in the streaming category, but I guess you're right, Anna.
That was,
Yeah, sure it let's play it if we may play it tomorrow night or something, but yeah, definitely share it with me But that was controversial I remember that love it
We'll have to have a talk about that some night.
And then Tom from Minona, he's in the 608.
He says, loved Freaks and Geeks.
Another great show.
I kind of forgot.
I am doing good.
You guys are great tonight, and I love your comedian.
Oh, Brian.
It's nice to hear something that you can actually hear without having to cover your eyes.
I have two favorites, but I'm not sure if either one of them are being streamed or not.
One was Jag.
Oh,
And the other was Criminal Minds.
my goodness.
Yeah.
I don't have TV.
I haven't had TV for years, but when I worked, I worked out and could watch TV with my clients.
Oh, nice.
do yourself
so much Oli have a
That's
Yeah, I kind of forgot about that one too Jim from Appleton says heroes.
I Don't know heroes.
I Remember it, but I really don't was at the Hayden Penetri show
To go to the Google go to the Google.
Yeah, Tom from New Berlin says back in the day Rockford files Perry Mason and Magnum PI It's interesting there Tom there is a Perry Mason on HBO a remake of the he's still a PI in season one, but it's great It's a little it's much grittier obviously than the network television Version but check it out.
I'd be curious to see if you like it Paul from Spooner says loved Twin Peaks another vote for Twin Peaks
Yeah, Twin Peaks was outstanding.
Just a beautifully shot show.
Todd Michaels, our pal who was on the show last night, says house.
Yeah, forgot about house.
Great show.
Edgy for Network TV.
Annie from Watertown says, I was texting about shows.
It was the first episode of Hill Street Blues that was so, oh my gosh, Hill Street Blues, St.
Elsewhere and NYPD Blue.
I'm getting lost in all these shows that really got me watching.
More television than a busy, socially active, long work hours, et cetera, 20 something.
Oh my God, 30 something.
That was big.
Quite a plethora of shows that kept us watching week after week.
Great text, Annie.
And you're right.
You kind of live for those shows.
You know, you knew it was on Tuesday.
You knew it was on Thursday or any weeknight.
And then you always have that weeknight where there wasn't really a good show on.
So you either slum it or find some other way to occupy your time.
But great text to everybody.
We'll go to the stream here.
Dave on the stream said, MASH.
That wasn't an hour long, but that was a good show, Dave.
Thank you.
And Dallas.
Yeah, Dallas was a big one.
And I said earlier, my wife loved knots landing.
I never got into those dramas that much.
But I did watch Dallas.
Dallas was pretty controversial.
And I remember there was the whole who shot JR episode.
PJ on the stream says, Night Rider and the A team were my favorites.
Remember those very well.
I didn't really watch Night Rider.
I did watch A team when I first came on.
You ever watch those, Con?
I've never watched.
No, I do yourself a favor.
Check out Mr. T in the A team.
You know what, you're not even the guy behind the guy behind the guy anymore.
Now you're just the guy behind the guy.
So you got to earn that back, pal.
Thank you, JB, for the text.
Mark from Prairie to Sex says, Chuck was great.
Yeah, I remember Chuck.
Nice.
And Lori from Hayward says, Hey Pete just climbed into the Way Back Machine and was thinking about watching the Waltons and Little House on the Prairie.
Now that's going back.
And she put this crazy, laughy emoji.
So I don't know if she's joking or not, but I think a lot of listeners would agree with you, Lori.
I don't think I could sit through one of those episodes now, for sure.
But a nice trip down memory lane.
Thank you.
Great text, everybody.
Keep it coming.
When we come back, our pal Todd Alba will be here.
We're going to take a Wisconsin quiz.
What better way to spend a Wednesday night?
What else are you going to be doing, folks?
Face down on a bar?
Doing shots?
No.
Keep it here at night.
We're coming right
I am Pete Schwabba.
So great to have you here on a Wednesday.
This week is all of a sudden.
Remember last night I said it felt like it was going very slow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And now it feels like it's flying by.
I don't know what's going on.
I got some kind of
weird sci-fi thing
happening
here.
Tammy from Eau Claire.
She's in the 715 says if it hasn't been said match was before it's time and writing a classic for sure.
You look I mean.
I was going for one hour dramas, but mash is good and the writing was great.
You're right, Tammy.
Thank you for the text I'm not gonna split hairs Conrad with the listeners.
Otherwise, this is a pointless exercise All right folks, this is exciting.
I'm very excited to welcome back to nightlight He's been on the show several times.
You know him.
You love him You'll listen to his show here on civic media on the network from two to four every day His name is Todd Alba and he joins us now on the stream.
Hey, buddy
It's great.
Well, I heard you guys start the show.
that it was going to be, uh, uh, where, where's Waldo or where, where in the world is it Wisconsin or something like that?
So I thought, well, I really need to do something, uh, to play up on this theme of this quiz we're taking tonight.
So, uh, we fired up the, uh, the Civic Media Satellite.
This is costing the company $75 a minute.
Oh
on the satellite, that's fine.
And we're here, if you, if those watch on the stream, on, on the stream here, the video stream, right down here, I'm pointing, there is a monument right there.
Oh yeah.
Where something famous happened on this street corner in 1977.
Don't be telling you, now or shall we wait?
Or we could do whatever.
No, I'll tell you.
And this is, I did not plan this.
It just happened.
You might have seen we first came on the air.
There are a couple of guys behind me.
Yeah.
That was Wisconsin Historical Society historian Dean Robbins, who's been interviewed by our very own Terry Barr.
for his new book called Wisconsin Idols because and our brand new wonderful news director, uh, uh, shali pitman sent me a story from W. R. T. The community station here in Madison.
They did a story on this site where I'm out right now in 1977 Conrad a, uh, a Elvis, a large Elvis Presley had flown into the Dane County regional airport not too far from where I'm at right now on his way to the Sheraton.
because he was going to play a show here in madison and he came upon these two young yahoos beating the crap out of a smaller kid at this street quarter and he got out of his limo he had the driver stop and uh rumor has it he was wearing a blue kimono and
got out and he gave some of the uh the classic elvis karate chop poses and he started kicking these kids say lay off the little kid
And they recognized him and got up and shook his hand and apologized and Elvis allegedly said, are we good here?
And the kids said, yeah.
And he went on his way to the Sheraton performed here in Madison the next night.
And he died less than two months later.
I was trying to, when I heard Conrad and you guys talking at the beginning of the show, I'm like, I can find someplace cool.
And I just did a search of historical sites in Madison.
I had no idea this existed.
until an hour and a half ago and i'm like all right i'm packing up the gear heading down there i get here and this guy dean robbins and his assistant or whoever it is they happen to come here just out of chance at the same time because they're shooting something for the uh wisconsin state historical society
I think this will be really fun, Todd.
As you know, we're going to do the news at the bottom of the hour first, but we do.
Nine Wisconsin cities were voted in the top 250 at the end of last week.
You may have already addressed this on your show, but we had fun with it last night.
And we thought this would be a fun quiz to do.
So Todd and I, after the news, are gonna take a quiz.
Conrad's gonna read the question and we'll both chime in and we'll see how.
I don't like my chances against Mr. Alba, but we'll have fun with it either way.
Todd is out in nature right now, folks.
It's gonna be awesome.
Do not change that dial.
We are coming right back and keep the track of those mosquitoes.
Todd Alba's here.
What could be better?
It's Wednesday night on Nightlight with Beach Wobble.
We are coming right back on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Wednesday night.
This is how we Wednesday here at Nightlight.
We have a great question and we engage listeners like all of you who have texted in such great responses to our question.
And fun guest to Todd Alba is here.
We will, we, Todd and I are about to take a quiz and it's going to be very exciting.
And then we're going to read some texts.
I will, you know, I probably should read these texts before we take the quiz because I might be demoralized.
But I feel, I feel good.
Todd, is there a
Is there a city in Wisconsin you haven't lived in that you'd like to?
Thank you.
A city that I have not lived in that I like to.
It seems like, you know, Milwaukee, I've never lived there, but I think it's a cool vibe.
I've never lived in that big of a city before.
That'd be kind of cool.
Also, on the complete
Literally and figuratively opposite end of the spectrum.
I've been to Bayfield way up north.
It's a beautiful little community
We got so many texts last night Todd that people said Bayfield they it was like Dorr County in Bayfield and I've never been there, but I have to put it on my list Okay, so here's the other thing before we start I Madison was not even on the list first of all Madison was like the number one place to live in the world
uh, for like 10 years running, seven out of 10 years, whatever it is, Green Bay was the number one place to live under 250,000 or something two years ago.
Green Bay is like 180th on this one.
Madison's not even on the list.
So what do you make of that?
Are these places, are these publications like on the take?
I once worked with a guy named Joe Hassler from Reedburg, Wisconsin, a graduate of UW Madison J School, who lived in New York for a while, wrote for Popular Mechanic and other national publications.
And we had a discussion about this one time.
And he said,
You know, all we do is we just steal each other's lists and we change a couple and that's all we do.
So everything just kind of gives, I don't think any of these reporters actually visit these cities.
It's like, all right, my editor wants me to do another one of these.
Take this one, this one out, find two more, boom.
All right.
Todd Alba is here.
Check out his show every day here on the network from 2 to 4 PM.
He does a great job.
And he has a Conrad, too, by the name of Aaron Zahmers, who is fantastic.
You guys have a great show and a great time.
You're too kind.
Thank you very much.
Very welcome.
All right.
So let's get to this quiz Conrad.
Oh.
The only reason, the only reason that popped into my head is because the now late great Democratic State Senator Tim Cullen is from there and also former House Speaker, Republican Paul Ryan's from there and they work together to do a big revitalization for their parks along the River Rock River and everything.
It was a big, big deal.
Oh wow four to three I did better than I thought
I would but Todd pretty Todd that's fantastic
Sarah Jean
says it was home alone, so she's convinced
He was in the Kenosha kicker.
Yeah.
And then PJ says, Todd has to strike an Elvis pose if he passes the quiz.
Even the dream year.
Remember that one there's an entire season where Patrick Duffy who played Bobby was written.
He couldn't kind of have a contract agreement wherever they wrote him off.
They killed him.
And the way that he brought him back was, hey, viewers, all that time you spent watching every Friday night at eight o'clock, it was all a dream.
That's
You've got Nightlight with Pete Schwabba for a few more minutes here and it's been great having you join us here tonight as always.
Tomorrow night on the show Wayne York, actor Wayne York will make the popcorn pick of the week and then Bob Dennis rolls into the studio.
We're going to talk about connections presidents have had with mafia members.
So that'll be fun.
Bob's a mafia expert and steady Eddie weighs in on the text line on the 608.
He says Pete my favorite one-hour TV drama was NYPD Blues Plurl Eddie goes plural.
He says good writing Interesting characters played by good actors filmed in a creative way.
My favorite character was detective Andy Cipowitz played by Dennis Franz He was a lifelong New Yorker and a hard-boiled cop with a Chicago accent da bears
How did that happen?
I don't
know, steady Eddie.
We got to get to the bottom of that.
That's great.
Tom from New Berlin, he's in the 414.
He says, this is awesome in response to our quiz, which Todd Alba, my guest, hosted the Todd Alba show that you can hear every day here from two to four on Civic Media.
He was victorious.
It
We got tweeted at Pete by one of your fans, Dave Harrison.
There we go.
He's on his way to Green Bay.
Yeah, exactly.
We're at the old intersection of US Highway 51 in East Washington here in Madison, the home or the site where Elvis Presley fought off a couple of bullies.
That's real,
To me, it's like, I'll take that over an autograph any day to stance where that actually happened or where like in the case of Sputnik that landed in Manitowoc.
And I did this when I toured, I think I've told this story on the show before.
I was touring Benjamin Harrison's house in Indianapolis when I was there doing standup.
My wife and I were going through and I was fascinated that this guy took up this space and I was such a nerd.
I was going through the house going this is the bed he slept in oh my god and this is the desk Abraham Lincoln gave it to him and by the end of the tour I said something like this is where he stood when he made that speech this kid
was like 18 giving the tour goes it's just Benjamin Harrison man
like fascinates me and you're where you're standing Elvis not only stood there he broke up a fight
Yeah, two months before he died.
That's incredible.
I
That's Todd Alba probably getting eaten alive by mosquitoes out there in Madison on the corner where Elvis fought.
I love you know what's weird Conrad like there are probably a thousand places like that in Wisconsin and you just don't know about them like
not that the stage had spent a million dollars a year promoting the corner Elvis got into a fight on but like I think it was Otis Redding died in a plane crash in Lake Minona and he was stuck to his seat I think seat belted in and they had to retrieve his body it took two days but like all these weird celebrity or you know sports figures all these crazy little factoids from around the state it would be cool if we had like a site where we could compile that you know
Bridget, Bridget, where is Bridget's text?
I want to read Bridget's text from the 818.
Bridget says FBI and law and order and
Lauren Order SVU, she says, love Olivia Benson.
You know what, Bridget, I totally agree with you.
I love that character.
But I think I stopped loving her, at least from a TV watching experience about 10 years ago.
She's kind of like, they have her written now as like a superhero.
And people in real life that do what she does are superheroes, but it's something about
it on TV, it's just less interesting than it was.
Or maybe they've done all the storylines they can, but it is a great show.
So thank you for the text.
And I don't disagree.
And going into the dream, PJ says, in the movie, Home Alone, John Candy played Gus Polinsky, the polka king of the Midwest, who was the leader of the Kenosha Kickers, a polka band.
Yeah, that's what I was saying, PJ, but Todd thought there was a Sheboygan connection.
And did one of the textures say Uncle Buck?
I
We'll have to do a Google on that overnight.
Maybe an overnight Google.
PJ also says Madison was a great place to live, but it got too expensive.
Madison is crazy expensive.
But you know what?
You want to live somewhere cool, you pay.
You know, good schools, culture, all fun stuff, good sporting events to go to, concerts, that's...
All right, folks, we're doing this all, believe it or not, we're going to sign off in just a few seconds here.
But we're coming back tomorrow, so I hope you'll join us, because it's going to be another fun show.
We're doing the popcorn pick of the week, then we've got Barband Friday night on Friday, all kinds of fun stuff still to come this week on Nightlight.
Great to have you with me.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for your text.
Thank you to Todd Alba, and thank you to Brian Hicks on behalf of the Lovell producer Conrad.
Good night,
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