Rainy Nights and Wire Delights(Hour 1)

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Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay, this is Night Light with Peach Wabba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now a guy who once tore his ACL playing chess, Pete Schwabba.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Night Light.

Hi, I'm Pete Schwabba.

Great to have you with me on this.

Well, at least in Northeast Wisconsin, it is like monsoon type rain.

I've never been in a monsoon.

I don't want to offend people who have, but I just took, it was about 20 to six, and I said, I'm going to take a 10 minute walk.

So I went outside.

And I set my timer and I thought, I'm gonna get five minutes and then I'll just turn and come back.

Right when I got to where I was going, I'm not kidding, literally.

And I know people say literally like, not literally, literally.

It was like a tornado of rain and trees bending and it was insane.

I'm soaking wet.

Yeah, it looks like you just jumped into a pool.

We have a shower here.

We have two showers here at WGBW at the Civic Media Studios here and no towel.

Because I would have taken, I probably would have taken a shower.

I'm soaking wet.

You could

use paper towel.

I've never done the show Barefoot before, but I have, I'm doing it barefoot.

Dan Marcus, who will come in here tomorrow morning.

All I can say is I'll try to wipe up.

Barefoot

Conrad.

When you were walking in and I was, you know, editing the B2, I heard your, your shoes just squeaking and I'm like, what's, what did he

step into

something?

That's gotta be an app or something.

And I was like, is it raining?

It's horrible and yeah, yeah, it's

I mean it's coming down.

I don't like I actually like Supposedly getting caught in the rain.

It's kind of fun and when it's warm out.

It's not too bad But when you're about to take Mike in hand and go in the air, it's a little off-putting So we'll get through this though folks.

It's keep trying your toes You're nice and dry and toasty.

That's good.

Conrad Conrad Krieger working the board tonight folks.

We have a really fun show tonight

Don't ask me how I did it folks, but I booked a colleague here at Civic Media Founder of the Recombobulation area and he is our Civic Media political writer commentator Dan Schaefer will be here tonight at 635 the last time Dan was on the show We talked about or I think we discovered on the air we both have a love for this show the wire which was an HBO show I want to say it ran from like

2005 to 2012, something like that.

Phenomenal show, one of my favorite shows of all time.

Oftentimes referred to as the best TV show, the best episodic ever.

And it would be hard to argue with that.

They cover everything.

They cover the police city hall.

In one season they covered the dying Baltimore Sun, the newspaper and journalistic integrity.

It's just a show that...

I mean, it was executed well, written well, created well by David Simon, a former Baltimore newspaper columnist.

And it just, it bangs on all cylinders.

So if you haven't checked out the wire, you might want to give it a watch or listen to my conversation with Dan at 635.

We're going to do a dive into the wire and you can listen to that and see if it's to your liking.

And then in the second hour, our pal, Rob Brankenridge, he was going to be here in the studio.

Yeah.

But he made a wise... I don't think it was weather related.

He told us earlier in the day he couldn't commit.

He has to do it by phone, but I don't think... Maybe

he's psychic though.

Maybe.

Rob's got a lot of talents.

He has a funny... God, do you follow him on any socials?

His TikTok is so funny.

He's got his mom all the time.

Yeah, I follow his TikTok.

He's great.

And he's a very funny comic.

And he's a great guest.

So he will be here at 720 looking forward to having Rob.

This is kind of cool.

We just found out today.

With Naked Gun, the new Naked Gun in the theaters, folks, I said last week on the air, I'm partial to the original Naked Gun.

I just don't think Leslie Nielsen can be taught.

And as great as Liam Neeson is.

And he's a phenomenal actor.

And he does a lot of different genres.

I know he's big in the action genre the last 25 years, but he's a really solid actor.

And he's got good comedy chops.

And he was funny in the Naked Gun, but Leslie Nielsen, I don't think...

The writers of this naked gun matched the writers of the original naked gun.

And speaking of that, David Zucker will be on the show Monday night at 6.35 p.m.

A native Wisconsin son who, along with his brother and other Midwest writers like Jim Abrams, who's a Wisconsin guy, Pat Proft, who is a Twin Cities guy.

Those guys went out to Hollywood and made some amazing films.

So David Zucker will be here at 6.35 on Monday looking forward to that.

He made one of...

the best sports movies ever.

What was it?

Baseball.

Oh, I thought that was the South Park guys.

You're right though.

David Zucker was EP on that, right?

Yeah.

Well, and I mean, if you really want to dive into his, like some of his earlier work, I'm gonna look it up before I make a, I do consider myself a journalist.

Conrad, I don't know, you might not.

But Kentucky Fried Movie, that's one I think you should check out.

It's John Landis directed it, but David Zucker, Jim Abrams, and Jerry Zucker were the writers.

That's three Wisconsin dudes.

And it's just this crazy, I'm gonna give it a rewatch before I talk to David on Monday, because I haven't seen it in years, but it's very, very funny, groundbreaking in many ways.

And I think probably put he and his brother on the map in 1977.

So that will be fun.

We'll talk to David Zucker on Monday.

Tonight, lots of fun though, the wire.

Have you seen the wire at all?

I have not, dude.

It is so good.

It's just, it's fantastic.

It's a great show.

So we'll talk about that.

The characters are great.

The storylines are great.

There's just enough action, just enough sort of, you know, intellectual type stuff going on, heady stuff at times.

So we will, that'll be fun to talk to Dan.

Dan and I have been trying to line this up for a while.

He's a busy guy, Conrad.

I don't know if you knew that.

He definitely is.

He is.

He's a busy dude.

So we're happy to have him.

I will say our question.

Let's do the question.

Here's the question of the night, ladies and gentlemen.

Let's talk about the question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Question.

Questions.

What is your least favorite professional sport?

This is not inspired by any day of the year or big birthday or anything like that.

It just comes down to the fact that you and I, about a week ago, we were talking about the Cubs and the Brewers and Mike Clemens is on.

We were talking about NFL training camps and then NHL and NBA startup in like six weeks or so.

There is that window where there's four professional sports happening.

And then if you include golf, which I don't,

That's five and you know, all kinds of stuff.

WNBA maybe, I don't know what else, but it got me thinking, what are you least likely to watch?

What is your least favorite professional sport?

And I say golf.

I just, having said that, all right, golf is my least favorite to watch on a regular basis.

That doesn't mean if it came down to one hole and two guys duking it out, I love that kind of stuff.

It's right now, it's the playoff.

So it's just exciting time in

golf.

In golf?

Yeah, the

BMW championship is this week.

And then after that, it's the race to the FedEx Cup.

All right.

The race for golfers?

Okay.

Those hydroelectric golf carts.

I also think I would say golf, then hockey, then tennis, then baseball, then hoops and football.

But I would say probably golf for me.

What do you say, Conrad?

Professional water polo.

Yeah.

That's gonna be a popular one tonight

Have you ever watched water polo on TV I have I watched it on you know the Ocho

See, it's oh, yeah ESPN Ocho

Ocho is hilarious because you can find just random sports on there You can find professional cornhole on there professional axe throwing.

Yeah snooze dodgeball

Cuz snooze

like you know on them in the movie dodgeball.

They're actually on the ocean on the ocean

Oh, that's right.

Yeah, but it's

actually real They do do dodgeball on it and then there's also darts on the ocean too that anything you can think of probably this is on the ocean at some point

I don't I mean all of those Yeah, I don't know water polo I've watched that's a talent staying afloat while you're trying to do all that stuff I love frisbee ultimate some of these are off, but I mean I don't know if

I think there are people that make money at those things.

But I guess I'm talking about the bigger sports.

So I say golf, what do you say?

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5 Civic.

Let us know what your least favorite professional sport is.

You can also text us on the app.

Or if you're watching on the stream, drop us a stream comment too.

Be part of the show, folks.

Always more fun that way.

All right, so we were going to talk about...

We just know the movie's bad.

I don't I'm not even gonna watch it like sometimes if something is so bad I'll check it out because I'm curious about how bad it is But the new war of the world, I don't know why they had to redo this movie starring ice cube Got a 3% on Rotten Tomatoes That's 3% more than everybody who never made a movie got They edged us out by 3% And you saw a really bad were you able to find that

clip?

it's

It's not

really available

yet.

Well, it is it's just that it's not really a radio radio friendly because it's like You have to watch Okay in this in the scene like he's on the phone.

I think that's a popular thing in a movie like they're always on the phone or

something Oh, yeah, it's like supposedly a virtual.

Yeah, it's all computer screens or something like that.

Yeah, and Ice Cube is watching a son get chased by an alien thing He's like run

Run!

Run!

Get out of there!

And then he dies.

The kid.

Yeah, Ice Cube just puts his hand on his head and just like... That's it.

That's the scene.

Wow.

Nothing like, oh my god, my son died.

He's not sad or anything.

He's just like, oh... Well, that's...

That would be bad dialogue in that situation too, though.

Oh my god, my son died.

It got, I mean, just tortured by critics, 3% on Rotten Tomatoes.

And it's packed apparently with product placement, which I don't mind a little bit of that, but when it looks like it's just a vehicle to sell products, please go away.

Can't stand it.

One critic called it a cinematic atrocity for the ages.

Another says H.G.

Wells is probably turning in his grave and finally another critic said,

irredeemably bad, even for a pandemic movie.

So I am curious, but I also, like, if this were 20 years ago, I probably would have just checked it out for a laugh or to see just how bad it was, but I'm not even gonna bother, like, when it's that much of a consensus, no way.

I'm not

watching.

Yeah.

I got better things to do.

We have a phone call?

Yeah, Mark from Prayer to Sack.

Mark from the Sack.

Hey, buddy, how are you?

Hey, doing okay, yeah.

Back in the 70s, and I actually first heard this on the jukebox down the beer bar.

at UW Superior there, but Jeff Wayne actually did a musical of War of the Worlds.

It was actually pretty decent and actually the illustrations on the album and the booklet that came with the album actually were closer to the descriptions of War of the Worlds.

I actually read the book back in sixth grade.

Back I got it from Scholastic Book Club, but I mean that it actually is a pretty decent narration of

War of the Worlds.

So it's a musical though, you said, Mark?

It's a musical version of it.

I mean, they've got people singing some of the roles of it, like the Parsons wife, you know, that, yes, the whole complete thing, but it kind of goes through the whole, tells the whole story.

Mark, you just saying that is worth easily 4% if I'm reviewing it.

So you've already outdone the latest War of the Worlds just with a phone call to a radio show.

I will look around for that.

That sounds actually kind of fun.

Thank

you so much for the call.

I've actually gotten on DVDs.

Oh my gosh.

On CDs, so occasionally I toss it in there and listen to it because it's actually a fairly decent iteration of it.

I am so curious now.

I'm going to see if I can stream it.

Thank you, buddy.

Appreciate the call, Mark.

You're welcome.

All right, later.

That's Mark from Prairie to Sack, and now there's another iteration of War of the Worlds.

It's a musical.

Check it out.

We are coming right back to read your texts and we're going to hear a little bit.

I don't know.

Should we tease Rob or Dan's?

We got great clips.

We'll figure it out.

It's Peach Wabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.

This is Night Light.

I am Pete Schwabba and you've got the Civic Media radio network.

We are trying to stay dry here in Northeast Wisconsin tonight.

I hope it's nicer in various other parts of the state wherever you're listening.

But we got soaked and I got soaked.

And we got a comment apparently.

I got some sympathy from a listener.

Tom from New Berlin says, Pete, what's worse, getting wet in the rain without a towel or no toilet paper after you realize there's no toilet paper?

Well, funny you should say that, Tom.

I also needed toilet paper when I took my walk.

No, I don't know, I would say probably.

I know that's kind of hypothetical, but I'm soaking wet right now, but that's okay.

I guess getting caught without a towel is worse, or not as bad.

All right, so our question of the night is what is your least favorite professional sports?

There's a window coming up where we're gonna have professional football, professional baseball,

hockey and basketball.

I don't know when the WNBA starts, do you?

It's not the same exact.

No, I think it starts later,

correct?

I think it's in the playoffs soon.

All right.

Yeah, because I don't know if you heard about the whole thing with the WNBA right now.

I did

not.

What people are throwing on the court.

Oh, I did hear that.

It's happened more than like three times now.

My wife is wondering what happened to hers.

So.

Did

you go to a WNBA

game?

She just cleaned out her drawer and went to town.

Well, yeah, what is the deal with that?

Why are they doing that?

Did they say?

I

don't know.

It's just jokes, I guess.

One of them actually got arrested for

it.

Yeah?

Yeah.

I could put on an eye.

Sophie Cunningham

actually

joked about it and said that could hurt someone.

Oh, seriously?

Yeah.

Well, depending.

And people

thought she was serious, but she was joking.

people need to get a life.

I don't know why they would do that.

I mean, you could hurt someone theoretically and their sex toys is what we're talking about.

That's what people are throwing in the court, more specifically one that starts with a D and I don't know if we could say

that.

Yeah, they could trip over it and you could roll, be like marbles or something, you know?

In that case, size truly doesn't matter because you could, someone could turn an ankle.

That's not good.

So what is your least favorite professional sport?

855-7524-842-8557.

Five Civic, let us know or drop us a stream comment or text us on the app.

So there's Mark's text.

We just talked to Mark on the phone.

I want to check that out.

A musical of the war of the world.

It has to be better than the new movie.

Conrad's mom checks in and says any type of wrestling or boxing.

Now that's interesting.

She hates professional wrestling.

What which one like WWE professional quote end quote.

Yeah,

okay.

Well, I don't like it.

Yeah, you know what I would put that below golf Frankly, I apologize to the golfers.

Thank you.

I'm gonna say pro wrestling Boxing I like there's a serious skill to boxing.

Yeah,

Jake's

all kind of know I know you like watching

them.

I do and I guess MMA you'd have to throw in there, too I Used to love MMA now.

It's just knuckleheads

Yeah,

UFC is

crazy, but there's some, you know, sometimes I'm really excited for some of those fights that they say, but

I still like there's an artistry to the fighting, but I just can't, I can't stand the,

you know, I don't know if you heard this, they're going away from pay-per-view now.

Yeah, they bought Paramount Plus, right?

Yeah.

So that's kind of, I mean, that's kind of cool for, I mean, everyone's going to still do the same thing that they do for it.

I know they're going to jack up the prices on Paramount Plus.

Probably, if I had to guess.

So if you wanna watch like a Taylor Sheridan show or MMA, you need Paramount Plus.

So I'll tell you right now, I'm not gonna pay more for Paramount Plus just to watch UFC.

I already don't watch UFC, it's too expensive.

Yeah, I mean, you could do, you know, just go to the- Pirate it.

Yeah, the Stream East.

Stream East.

We're totally out of the Stream East.

Love that site.

Mark for Prairie to Sex says, the only thing worse than watching golf on television is having to play the damn game.

Oh,

come on.

It's a love-hate relationship with the game.

It really

is.

Even if you're good at it,

you can be really furious.

You can be really furious.

There's days you can be bad.

Absolutely.

Tom from New Briland says, professional paper football.

Okay.

Tom apparently has some sponsors.

I didn't know they paid those guys.

That was a fun game to play when you were kids, though.

Thank you, Tom.

Anna from Madison says, hi, Pete and Conrad.

My least favorite sport is soccer.

It was good to hear you on John and Gordy this morning.

Well, thank you, Anna.

Thank you for listening.

John and Gordy are my pals.

That was a fun spot today.

We we had a good time Conrad.

You should have been there.

You should have gotten your butt out of bed.

No, I was I was definitely sleeping

I had the coffee going at like seven

cuz I didn't

want to

like

just sit there and be a dope and not say anything You know, I had to wake up a little bit.

Love John and Gordy.

That was fun Thank you for listening and I'm thank you for listening tonight Matt from Middleton says underwater basket weaving is the silliest.

Well, yeah, I would agree with that I'm looking at actually a thing.

I'm looking at pictures and there's actual pictures of people doing that

Why?

Anything

can

be a sport.

I guess so, but can't you do it above water?

You need snorkeling equipment to make a basket?

Yep.

Lame.

Tyler from Wisconsin Rapid says, football, the point system numbers are pointless.

Everybody should be allowed to kick the big balls like in DC.

I saw something about that in the news.

I still don't know what he's talking about though.

I'll have to go back and do some research.

Thank you, Tyler.

Nick from Marshall says, my least favorite sport is NASCAR.

Oh, I forgot about the racing.

And if you have not seen the bit with Jeff Dunham and his puppet sweet daddy D, I highly recommend looking it up from his first movie, arguing with myself.

We could do a Google on that con.

And then our guest from last night, Fallon, who was here in the studio, creator of the show Instability says, unfortunately for me as a Wisconsinite, my least favorite sport is football.

So why is a Wisconsinite though?

I don't think Fallon would like football if they were probably in any state.

They continue to say, and sadly, especially because domestic violence increases during football season.

Yeah, I've heard that's true.

I would imagine it's even worse for MMA, like, I don't know, go out and throw a ball around, right?

Yeah, go tackle each other.

Go rough house out, out of doors.

Thank you, Fallon, for the stream comment.

Let us know, folks, be part of the show.

Let us know what your least favorite professional sport is.

There are no wrong answers.

There are only your answers.

Great night here tonight.

Rob Brackenridge is here at 720, one of my favorite comedians.

Unfortunately, he will not be in the studio.

We had to do that.

He's coming in, or he'll be here via phone.

But in just a few minutes, folks, after Civic Media's news team keeps you informed, Dan Schaefer will be here.

We're going to talk about the wire.

He is the founder of the Reconbobulation area in an outstanding political commentator and he's coming up next.

It's Pete Schwab and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

That's

what I'm talking about right there.

That is some, uh, the theme music from the show, The Wire.

And it's a perfect lead in, folks, because, uh, my next guest is a big fan of the show, and you know him from Civic Media, his amazing work he does here.

He is the founder of the Recombobulation area here at Civic Media, but you also know him as a good Milwaukee guy, a lover of all things sports, entertainment, and specifically...

politics.

Mr. Dan Schaefer joins us now on Nightlight.

Hey, buddy.

Mr. Schwab,

wonderful to finally join you here to talk about the greatest show of all time, HBO's The Wire.

It's fantastic.

I have been looking forward to this.

How are you?

How are you doing tonight?

I'm doing well, you know where it's been a crazy week in and around Milwaukee with the floods that

we've been

experiencing here We're we lucked out.

We were not really didn't have any any damage at our place We live on the top of a hill

on the west side

of Milwaukee So right up but just down the river or just down the hill from us is the Menominee River And right up there is where you've seen a lot of these flood videos from you know downtown Wauwatosa the Tosa village area and up and through

river there.

I spent some time today getting some video and footage for the news team here in Germantown where there was water covering like four lanes of traffic on a fairly large road.

It's

just been absolutely crazy.

And so, yeah, it's been a lot, but wonderful to join you here to talk about.

A little escape

for you, Dan, maybe?

A little escape.

Yeah, there

we

go.

Do you have a least favorite professional sports or least favorite professional sport?

Yeah, I saw you you guys were talking about that before that beforehand here.

I Think I'm gonna agree with you Pete.

I'm not a golf fan.

I'm

not a I'm not a golfer I you know, I played a little bit when I was younger But I just like I couldn't really get into it at all and then watching it.

It's just like watching paint dry.

It's just it's just the most boring

perfect sport to be watching at all.

And it's just like you quiet watching the guy walk up to the to the tee and it's just it's the most boring one to watch.

But you know what, I will say though that I think this is a really I'm kind of fascinated by like all the weird sports that you guys have been talking about too.

Yeah.

And just like I really like watching Sports Center this time of year because you're like in the middle of August and there's no, you know, there's no drama happening in any professional sport right now.

Right.

We're past the all-star break in baseball.

We're not quite yet to the postseason, you know, preseason football is just getting started.

The NBA is fully in its offseason mode.

So you just don't have anything going on.

And it's just funny to see, you know, these sports center anchors try to fill time, you know, talking about whatever is going on here and whatever, you know, and you just get a good variety.

Like I like seeing some WNBA highlights because I'm a big basketball fan.

Yeah.

Just seeing like random baseball highlights.

It's from around the country.

That's always good.

But it's a weird time of year for sports.

And the fact that we haven't had, you know, it's not an Olympics year.

There's no World Cup.

Like this has been a very slow summer for sports.

But you're right, though.

The best thing is watching news anchors try to really sell it.

You know, there's just not a lot going on.

I get a kick out of that.

But yeah, golf is the same.

The best thing that ever happened to golf, in my opinion, was the movie Catty Shack.

So that's my love for golf right there.

100% with you there.

All right, so let's jump in.

Oh, I wanted to tell you too, Dan.

I think you had a big influence.

Pardon me, I'm Governor Evers deciding not to run again.

I don't think so.

I'm not going to say it was all you, Dan, but you're a pretty influential guy, and I just hope you don't say the same things about the host of Nightlight because I like this gig.

I'm

all for another term for Pete Schwab on Nightlight.

Let's jump into the whole reason you're here.

Well, we'd have you here anyway, but the show The Wire.

Tell me what you love about it and how you first discovered it and why you love it, Dan.

Well, I really do think you know, we're in this kind of golden age of TV, right?

Yeah past, you know, however many years You know starting to get kind of like this cinematic type of approach to television that really began I think with HBO in the early 2000s in a lot of ways and so I I didn't

And and I think one of the shows that I loved at the time was lost And once I started getting into lost then I started like branching out into other shows And I found

I found the wire.

I want to say it was like late 2007 early 2008 when I was in college And just really started to get it.

I don't I don't watch a lot of like the law and order type shows typically But people kept telling me to check this one out.

So I got into it and once I got about halfway through the first season I was just absolutely hooked.

I had to watch everything as fast as I possibly could The characters are so rich.

The acting is so well done.

The writing is on another level.

It's like a

I really do think it's kind of the great American novel.

of this era that David Simon and the rest of the team there were able to portray and then each season just kind of revealing another layer of the city of Baltimore.

The first season really starting with the police and the drug trade and that element of how that impacted the city and then really opening things up to the port in the second season and really taking what seemed like a kind of a wild left turn.

But it just goes I think that the you know the real kind of through line theme of the show is that all the pieces matter and they really went through all of the pieces in so many rich detailed

And often funny ways

like

that.

You know, I don't think people really think of the wire as a funny show on the surface, but so many, so many of the characters, all of any bunk McNulty scenes,

you

know, there's so many great stuff throughout the show.

And I think it does.

I think the fact that it has a little bit of a sense of humor to it makes it all the more real and really brings it all home.

And then, of course, you know, I'm the political editor here, right?

So once they start getting into the politics of it all, I was super.

interested in that.

And I still think the fourth season of the show, when they bring on this cast of kids who are, what is it, middle school age kids.

kind of this coming-of-age piece of it and how that was conflicting with, you know, the rest of what was going on in Baltimore that they were showing.

I think that is still the single greatest season of TV ever made.

And it's such a great, very well said, Dan, but that's such a great season, too, because isn't that, didn't they call back the Presbyluske character?

in the way they worked him back in.

He was a cop and I think he shot a couple people or his gun went off and he had to leave.

Now he's a teacher and they worked that back in.

So they're great at that too, but you said something I really agree with.

What I love about the wire is it's got

a little bit of everything but it also takes its time.

Like there's no big action sequence or they HBO let them do what the producers wanted to do.

Like and you mentioned comedy and it's great but it's realistic when they cut

cut their ties off, like when one of them falls asleep and they'll cut their coworkers.

And I think somebody cuts Bunk's tie off and kisses the tie and sticks them.

It's just, it's a treasure.

The show is just, and like you said, to go five seasons, but 12 episodes, they're not doing the broadcast TV 26 episodes where they're just pulling at everything to try to make it entertaining.

All the seasons are tight.

And from the first time we meet Avon Barksdale and his crew in season one, I would, I would agree with you.

I love the season with the kids in four, but I think my favorite is probably season three when Bunny Colvin becomes a character and.

For those of you listening, my guest is Dan Schaefer.

He is our political editor here at Civic Media and the founder of the Reconbobulation Area.

He does such great work.

Follow him on Twitter, follow him here at Civic Media, and he is a huge fan, as am I, of the show, The Wire.

So that's what we're talking about here tonight.

Bunny Colvin in season three shows up, and he gets the go-ahead to make a certain area where people can buy drugs.

and they hand out condoms.

And all this stuff happens in this one area and the crime rates and the rest of the city go down.

But they have an issue.

What did you think of that season, Dan?

Really, Bunny Colvin is on the very short list of my favorite characters on the show,

and

I thought that was such a smart way to to bring these things in and the way that you know he was just kind of being this like renegade police captain and then eventually that conflicted with what was happening in City Hall and with the campaigns and you know how it even impacted you know that just kind of like

you know, the junky characters that they had on the show too.

And it's just like all of a sudden there's, you know, some public health component to get like a, like you said, their condoms are clean, you know, different things like that.

So yeah, I thought that was, that was so interesting.

And the way that, you know, that that connected to the following season too, because Bunny Colvin tried the whole

thing with Amsterdam that they called it in season three, season three.

That's right.

And then the way it connects to he also goes back to one of the schools in season four and talks to the talks to the boys.

And I thought, you know, it's not a show that has a lot of happy endings.

Right.

It's not it's it's a tragedy in a lot of ways.

Correct.

The story, the arc that has a true happy ending involves Bunny Colvin.

And one of the boys from that that fourth season and that final shot of you know the Of what was it named was that his name?

I'm bad with names that the boy that basically bunny Colvin had taken in by the end.

Oh, yeah

And there's that shot.

They're at the nice part of Baltimore and they're just looking over the street corner and it's just like this serene image and he just finally made it.

And that just really sticks with me.

It's just, you know, the payoff of that, you know, you have the, like you said, everything is so dense and detailed and rich.

And these storylines really pay off.

And that's one of them with Bunny Colvin and all the struggles that he went with as a police captain with city hall, all the, all of the different things.

And the fact that, you know, he is part of one of the positive.

storylines in the show, I thought was just phenomenal.

Absolutely.

Bunny Colvin, played by Robert Wisdom, he's one of my favorite.

characters too, and he has that great, you're right, he's really, I identify him with season three more, but you're right, he had a big part in season four.

Here's a clip of Bunny Colvin, I wanna play this, it's about a minute and a half long, and the character Bubbles, who is such a, another tragic character that you just love.

Do we have time for the clip, Con?

We can play it coming out of the break if we don't.

Yeah, we gotta.

It's about a minute and a half, and we got two minutes left.

All right, so if we keep talking like this, we're running out of time.

Yes.

We'll play it when we come back from the break.

But Bunny Colvin, in the clip, I'll just set up, Bubbles is a great tragic character.

And you're right, Dan, the show is a tragedy, but the little victories are what make it worth watching.

And

it's

just like real life.

You have this great thing, and you've got this police captain or lieutenant, whatever Bunny was, who thinks outside the box.

And Bubbles is teaching a guy how to scavenge.

Basically what happened in season three, they had this, I don't remember what they called it, but it was the place where you could go buy condoms and drugs and there was no violence.

And police weren't beating on people and the drug dealers weren't robbing each other.

And it was like, things had calmed down.

But for political reasons, they knocked down the entire, it was like a four block city, a four block radius.

And it's Bunny just standing there, looking over the wreckage of this,

concept that he had that worked and then Bubbles teaching a guy a fellow drug addict how to scavenge and look for metal and turn that in for money and he and Bunny have such a great

Just a great report.

They have this quick little conversation, and we'll play that right when we come back.

Dan Schaefer is here, folks.

I also forgot Dan Jamie Hector's in that show, and I love Jamie

Hector.

He plays Marlowe.

So we'll talk more about the wire with our guest Dan Schaefer after this very short break, and we're gonna play the clip I was just discussing.

It's Pete Schwabba in Nightlight, and it's great to have you here on this Tuesday night in the beautiful state of Wisconsin.

You're

listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website,

civicmedia.us.

with Bunny and Bubbles.

Dan Schaefer is here.

Here's the clip, folks, that I was talking about right before we went to break with Bunny Colvin and Bubbles that I just described right before the break.

Go ahead,

Con.

I hope you're listening, because I'm trying to school you here.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

You don't want to know.

Or you think you're blind, but you're still green.

How you doing?

That's something, huh?

It's like it took a bigger race and we're up to cross it.

Yeah.

Number four, a dope fiend come down here, cop a little something.

They narrate it so hassler.

How about them police?

They just let him be.

That's a good thing, huh?

Yeah, I'm just saying.

People probably don't know, but there's love out there, baby.

Got to be back banging on you.

Hoppers, we messing with

you.

Yeah, thank you.

Coppers and hoppers, Dan.

They were leaving people alone.

Bubbles is so funny.

I love the way he used to say.

Hey, McNulty.

Hey, McNulty.

Hey, McNulty.

He's

hard to

understand sometimes, but he's such a great character.

And that's an example of what I was saying before about how the show just takes its time.

They're just looking over this wreckage and they're letting it breathe.

Absolutely.

So few shows really do that, the

way

that the wire does.

And I think that's part of what makes it so great.

People will do their list of the best shows of all time, and it'll be The Sopranos or Breaking Bad or whatever it might be.

Whenever people ask me that, it's just like the arguments for a second.

The wire is number one if we want to have the argument about you know what whether it's the you know Sopranos or Mad Men or whatever the show is that second place we can have that but nothing really has approached what the wire was able to do and with such a

You know each season added so many characters to the cast too and

you

get all the way to the end and they're weaving so many of these storylines And through it and it's just just remarkable storytelling

Were you familiar with David Simon's work before the wire Dan either on homicide life on the street or his work as a reporter?

He's such a fascinating guy the creator of the wire

I mean, I knew of homicide life on the street.

It wasn't a show that that I really watched a whole lot of But yeah, you know, I learned about his All of his stuff through the wire and like I got all the DVDs when they came out back when there were DVDs and all

of

like the behind the scenes inside looks I just like ate all of that up and there was a guy that he worked with there.

I Think his name was Ed Burns.

Yeah,

who was an actual police detective with

that he had worked with, that he was like basically a source for-

And a

teacher.

And a teacher so he was able to really bring that knowledge of you know I think they based a lot of characters off of real people in Baltimore and all of that too and And I think there were some characters too that just they just leapt off the screen And they made them regulars like the Omar character who I think is probably the most iconic character from

the show

at this point like he was he was not supposed to survive past the first season and he became

and the late Michael K. Williams, phenomenal, phenomenal actor.

It's brought so much to that role that they were just like, well, we've got to keep him on.

We've got to keep Omar going.

And of course, we've got so many of the most iconic scenes from the show are Omar scenes.

In those of you listening, Omar is a character who robs drug dealers.

And he makes no bones about it.

He walks down an alley in whistles to let people know he's coming.

And he's also gay.

He's just a very complex, cool character.

Like, not cliche in any way.

He was just such a diff- And I always meant to Google or research if that was based on a real person.

I don't, I'm not sure that it was.

I

think

his character was kind of like a combination of a few different people from Baltimore.

But like that, that character, that type of character, I mean, this show came out in 2002.

Right.

You know, you have- Yeah.

a gay black guy who robs drug dealers being like the most lovable character of the show who came out in 2002.

It's just a sub groundbreaking at so many levels.

Do you

have a favorite character?

Everybody always has like a favorite character question.

It's funny, Dan.

I tried to make a list earlier and I had Bunny first.

I had Bunk and McNulty.

A tie is kind of a package deal because they were so funny.

Love, Omar.

Lester Freeman is kind of a forgotten character.

And he's the guy that actually runs the wire.

And he's just kind of this old weathered kind of wise dude.

So he was on my list and I love Lieutenant Daniels Lance Reddick who passed away also.

And I loved him on Bosch.

So, but what about you?

Well, you mentioned him.

Lester Freeman is my favorite character.

on the show.

The guy who has all the knowledge and all the patience to follow everything through, and I think he was the guy, the real moral compass of the police group, because McNulty would be taking things too far in certain ways, or whatever it might be.

Other guys might be focused on the wrong type of objective in their mission.

Lester was always kept it cool, always kept it focused, and he was always the smartest guy in the

room.

Very cerebral, yeah.

I liked Kima, Gregg's too.

She has such a cool voice and she was just like this gritty street cop, loved her character as well.

Can we keep you for a few more minutes after the news, Dan?

I've got a great clip of Omar in court and so we'll do that.

I know the clip you're talking about.

Yeah, and I want to get your opinion too when we come back, Dan, of the season where they

deal with the Baltimore Sun and the dying newspaper.

Because I thought that was maybe not the most exciting season, but fascinating in its own right.

Dan Schaefer is here, folks.

He is the political editor here at Civic Media and the founder of the Recombobulation Area.

We are talking about the wire, and we'll have a few more minutes with Dan when we come back.

Our question of the night, if you want to get in on the fondant, it's not too late, is what is your least favorite professional sport?

On social media, Scott Lieberman says NHL.

I guess that would be a close second for me, too.

But we're going to do all of this more even bigger.

When we come back, folks, we're talking the wire.

Dan Schaffer's here.

We got a clip.

And I'm going to ask him, what else Dan likes on TV before we let him go?

It's Beach Wabbit and Nightlight, act two coming up next on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

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