Comedy, Cinema, and Sitcoms(Hour 1)

You're listening to Civic Media.

You can tune in to any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.

Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Peach Waba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now a guy who still likes to build a fort.

Pete Schwabba.

Welcome to Nightlight, ladies and gentlemen.

Hey, oh, we got a great show tonight.

So it's good that you're here.

It's a Tuesday night here in the beautiful state of Wisconsin.

Kind of a... Kind of a toasty day-to-day con, don't you think?

Yeah, just a little bit.

You could tan out there if you wanted.

No, I freckle.

I couldn't get a tan.

I can get a bronze if I try really hard, but it's just not worth it.

You know, this is the first year where my, like, arms actually kind of got a little color.

It just didn't burn.

Yeah, you probably burned too, right?

You got the kind of fair skin.

I was told by, you know, when I went in to get my haircut the other day that my brown hair turned a little light brownish.

From

sun?

Yeah.

Oh,

wow.

All right.

You ever dye your

hair?

I...

When I was like 12 or something, I put blue highlights in my hair.

But it didn't last long at all.

That was kind of the thing when I was a kid, too.

We would put a product called Sun-In, where you put lemon juice in your hair and it was supposed to lighten it.

I think it did sun in once.

I kind of looked sort of like an albino.

Didn't really turn out that well.

That's an insult to me, not albinos.

So anyway, hey, I noticed you put on the sheet.

We have a show sheet, folks, and we put guests on and all that kind of stuff.

And then we always list the days of the years.

You updated this.

I did not.

What is Stroop Waffle Day?

Stroop Waffles are amazing.

OK.

It's those little waffle things that you can dip in coffee.

Oh, yeah.

Like a cookie, really.

Kind of like a cookie.

Yeah.

That's what it is.

That's a Stroop Waffle?

Yeah.

They're so good.

And they have a national day?

Yeah.

They deserve it.

Oh, apparently.

Take you right to Flavor Country.

All right, very good.

Well, happy Stroop Waffle Day to Conrad and all.

That is Conrad Krieger working the board.

I am Pete Schwab.

It is great to have you here, folks.

A really fun show tonight.

We're going to cover two topics I love.

Obviously, I love entertainment, and I love all things movies, TV, comedy, music, everything.

And I love sports.

So we're going to talk about all of that tonight.

At 635, Chris Foran, the recently retired Conrad, did you know that?

I did.

He wrote for the Journal Sentinel down there in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for years and years, I want to say decades, and did great work there.

Chris was the guy who, he did an article on Nightlight.

When we launched the show, it was on, and I didn't even know Chris at the time, and he just said, civic media.

is putting on an entertainment show hosted by Pete Schwab.

It was great.

It was a little publicity.

So I thought, you know, I bet he'd be a good guest.

And Chris has been on the air with us now for close to two years, lots of fun, very informed, and a big fan of movies and TV.

So Chris has also seen the movie I went to see today, one battle after another.

And I cannot wait to talk about it with Chris.

I'll give you guys the highlights in just a minute, but really solid film.

Maybe my favorite of the year.

It's probably between that and Sinners.

I haven't seen everything though.

So we'll talk to Chris about that at 635 and some other things.

I might ask him for a fun story he covered over the years.

And then at 720, Nightlight Sidekick, Sean Hannish will be here.

Sean's been on the show a lot.

He's great.

He's so much fun to talk to.

Nightlight Bestie.

Nightlight Bestie for sure.

Sean is the director of Just A Bit Outside, the story of the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers.

And now Sean finds himself kind of in the distribution business a little bit.

He got behind a film.

I don't technically know how it happened, but we'll talk to Sean about this.

He got behind the film, No Packers, No Life, which we've discussed on this show with the film's director, Craig Benzine.

He's been on the show two or three times.

And Craig goes by the YouTube handle, Wheezy Waiter.

He's got over a million followers.

I think this is Craig's first film, No Packers, No Life.

really fun film about Japanese Packer fans.

And we've talked to Craig about it, and now we're gonna talk to Sean about it, because the film is coming to Marcus Theaters in a couple weeks.

And Sean is kind of the driving force behind getting the film into, or on the big screen, so to speak.

So it'll be fun to talk to Sean and catch up, and we'll tell you what also is happening with Adjust A Bit Outside.

So the Brewers have a buy, right?

Yeah.

And the Cubs are, they already won today.

I thought so.

I saw they were winning.

But is that a best of three?

Yes.

Well, actually, they got a one, yeah, best of three.

Best of three.

They got a one, two games.

Then they'll play the Brewers.

Then they'll play the Brewers.

That's a seven game, right?

That's a five.

That's a five.

And then

it's seven and then seven.

Sorry.

We know we're on opposite sides of the glass here, literally and figuratively.

As a Brewer fan, the Brewers kind of walked away with the division, but the Cubs won the season series.

What do you think what would you be more comfortable with Conrad a five game series or a seven game series?

I like the you know, honestly, I I hate that they do this stupid For the first wild wild card, you know, it's like all right.

Yeah,

you can do best out of three But I think it go it should go right to seven.

I'm not a fan of the five and then seven and seven

I Would think a seven would favor the Brewers because I think they have a better

Well, they have better pitching, right?

Yeah.

It seems like a seven game series would, I don't know.

It should be interesting.

It's just going to be a dynamite series.

Yeah.

I-94 series.

I love it.

That'll be fun.

Assuming the cups can get past the old properties.

Well, yeah, we gotta stop on the brakes, you know?

I'm already buying my tickets.

Get Chris Morrill on the blower.

I want the loge out of the seats.

I want the Brewer tickets.

You can't do that for the playoffs probably, huh?

I don't think so.

All right.

So there you go, folks.

Fun guests tonight.

Chris Foran and Sean Hannish, two swell guys.

It's kind of a Milwaukee show, too.

Sean is a native Milwaukeean, and Chris has lived there for many, many years, so he got a big Milwaukee slant.

You

know, tomorrow we kind of have a little Madison, too.

I know.

Sometimes it works out that

way.

Now it's rivalry, right?

Yeah, although Dan Davies is from Appleton.

He's got big news.

That's why Dan was on the show a few weeks ago, but he's got big news.

So we're going to bring him on for a quick segment tomorrow night after 7 30.

And Catherine Lake is going to talk about the Godfather of Green Bay screening.

And Greg Bach is going to talk about the Milwaukee Comedy Festival.

There you I just pitched all of tomorrow night show here.

And we've got so much to get to tonight.

I can't waste that kind of time.

Did you see this?

Yachty kidnapper hoax.

And,

you know, I

saw the, you know, the

collect bait kind of thing on Instagram.

I didn't click into it.

But is it true?

No, it's a hoax.

That's why I said hoax.

No, it's so weird because I saw this and the guy is just a strange looking guy.

He's got, you know, like the bowl hair, the dumb and dumber haircut.

He's got fire engine red hair and a weird expression on his face.

And it says he kidnapped 27 people to play Yahtzee for 36 hours.

which doesn't even make sense.

If this were 20 years ago, I would have thought, oh, it's a joke.

That's an onion headline, whatever.

But the way things are now in the world and how weird and crazy people are acting, I bought it.

I was like, oh, that's really weird.

That's a big Yahtzee game.

It's a huge Yahtzee.

That's a lot of Yahtzee.

That's a lot of, you're gonna hear dice.

No wonder

why it was 36 hours.

You

can hear dice in your head for a week.

But anyway, it was a hoax.

Kind of a funny hoax.

But the 27...

You gotta aim a little smaller.

That's what made it a little implausible.

Five people.

Five people.

And made them play yatsu overnight.

That I could buy.

So it wasn't true.

So that's good.

Hey, I think it's time, Con.

We gotta get to the night light question of the night.

Let's talk about the question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

Questions.

When you think mediocre sitcom what show comes to mind Let me know what you think folks It can be a bad sitcom, but I'm looking more for the like milk toast kind of Like you see the ad on TV and you're just like whatever I'm not watching that like when even the trailer is just kind of barely Evokes a smile and that's supposed to be the funniest stuff

So that's the nice question.

When you think mediocre sitcom, what show comes to mind?

855-752-484-2855-75 Civic.

You can text us on the Civic Media app, or you can drop us a stream comment at YouTube, X, or Facebook.

So I'll go first.

I'm going to say the show Dharma and Greg.

Those ads would come on in the 90s.

And the 90s was a good time for sitcoms.

Streaming wasn't around yet.

There was tons of opportunities, tons of variety on the networks.

You had the big three networks, but you also had the UPN network, the WB network.

Fox had just kind of started like in the late 80s, whatever, putting out entertainment like The Simpsons.

And I just remember whenever Dharma and Greg would come on, it was Thomas Gibson and Jenna Elfman.

And I was just like, oh, she's the quirky hippie and he's the straight lays.

It just never... And I did check it out a couple times.

And man, was it mediocre.

My runners-up are mad about you.

Anything with Scott Baio.

And this might be a little bit controversial.

Not because of Bill Cosby.

Just because I think a lot of people considered Cosby a good show.

I liked the pilot a lot.

I was excited.

And I liked Bill Cosby stand-up.

When I was a kid I had the albums and I would listen to them and I really liked him as a stand-up.

This is before anybody knew he was a creep But Cosby I just I kept watching I'm like this isn't that funny like they tackled serious issues Wasn't a huge fan of home improvement either But I would say Dharma and Greg is my front-runner.

That is my most mediocre sitcom.

You got one con

Yeah, and I say this goes out to kind of it branches out to different shows too is

any show that was really popular and they branch off to a different show after after the fact that that show is done it's like a spin-off and it's absolutely terrible just ruins kind of the the show that was popular yeah and I think one that comes to mind is Netflix why did you make a spin-off of that 70 show

so that was I saw your answer here on social media that 90s show it is so bad

I never even heard of that.

I knew they did that 80s show, and that didn't last long either.

That 90s show is, you know how when SNL does a skit and it's like they try to do bad acting?

Yeah.

That's how that whole show is.

Oh my God.

That's terrible.

And

that was a Netflix show.

That wasn't even like a... Netflix has made some stinkers.

Oh

yeah.

They made a Rob Schneider show.

That's called Real Rob.

stinkeroo I can't imagine like Rob Schneider He's a little crazy now, but back he was a good stand-up like in the late 80s Rob Schneider was a very good stand-up, but anytime they put that guy in a movie.

It's like oh my god He either has the worst representatives or just can't carry a movie or something, but man is he bad.

Yeah, no that that show was So bad it

was

supposed to be like a family comedy like him going with this family and stuff like that, but it's just terrible

Let us know, folks, what you think, what comes to mind when you think mediocre sitcom?

That's our question of the night, 855-752-4842.

Text us on the app or drop us a stream comment.

We got a text last night from Bud in Jamesville who is out and about between four and six a.m.

down in Madison.

He says, hey, Pete and Conrad, I knew that.

Don't you think, though, I could at least get thrown into the basket for a chance?

at the grand prize.

Chance, of course, was last night's keyword, and he says, tolerating your show, wink.

Bud from Jamesville.

He's not happy.

He doesn't qualify.

Well, he just needs to listen to any shows on the Civic.

Got to set that alarm.

During those times.

I know.

So Bud, of course, is referring to the Civic Media.

multi-state text-to-win contest go for the green and gold.

I'll give you details on that as we progress here in hour number one.

And of course, the keyword coming up in hour number two.

We are coming right back.

Lots of fun tonight.

Coming up next, folks, I'm going to tell you about a movie I saw today that is outstanding and I can't miss.

It's Pete Schwabba in 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.

It's Civic Media's Go For The Green And Gold, multi-state text-to-win contest, folks.

We have four more nights of it, if you include Nightlight here.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

It ends on Friday.

It's our Go For The Green And Gold, multi-state text-to-win contest.

Such a fun time.

So many.

Did you hear earlier today, like a lot more people are doing it this time?

Conrad, the numbers are way up.

And it's very exciting.

We have great prizes.

All you have to do folks and we'll give you the keyword after the top of the hour and hour number two a few minutes after is Text in the keyword you just have to have the civic media app in order to do it So I'll give you the keyword in hour number two text that in and then when you get a confirmation link click on that and Sign up for a civic media today or the newsletter or our social media platforms and you will heighten your chance to win 200 bucks cash and gold jewelry how cool is that and it will also

Even a daily entry will make you eligible for our grand prize of club level tickets, right Conrad?

Have you ever set club level?

I have once.

Just once?

And it was a lot of fun.

Yeah, those are good seats.

For November 23rd at noon, it'll be the green and gold taking on the purple and gold.

And that's professional football, folks, right here in Green Bay.

It's a $1,500 plus value because we're throwing in gas money, too.

Very exciting.

So keyword coming up in hour number two.

I came down early today.

We don't have matinees in Marinette where I live, movie matinees after the kids go back to school.

We have them during the summer, but like September 1st, they go away.

So I have to come down to Green Bay to do my movie watching during the week.

And I've been talking about this movie a lot on the show because it was a...

highly kind of anticipated movies.

Paul Thomas Anderson, great director.

It got incredible reviews.

I think a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Sean Penn, Leonardo DiCaprio, Regina King, Taiana Taylor, Benicio del Toro, and this newcomer, is her name, Infinity Chase or Chase Infinity.

She's excellent.

So the movie is outstanding.

And Chris...

Foran and I are gonna talk about it at 6.30, but I cannot recommend this movie enough.

It's got a 96% from critics.

It's two hours and 40 minutes long, and it's one of those films that's long, but I wanted it to keep going.

There's all kinds of parallels to Star Wars.

I think that was Joe.

When Joe was on the show Friday, my son, he gave a quick review of it, because he had seen it Thursday night, and I totally see those similarities.

We'll ask Chris Foran if he noticed those as well.

Really fun action.

And remember, Khan, how we talked about, for me, action comedy usually is a recipe for a bad movie.

I never feel like the comedy delivers, the action's cheesy.

This is an action thriller first.

And there's no jokes.

It's just the comedy comes very organically out of the situations and out of the characters.

They kind of take shots at everybody.

Those on the left, those on the right.

It's a really good movie.

Very excited to talk about it with Chris Foren, but I can't recommend it enough.

Our question of the night is, when you think mediocre sitcom, what show comes to mind?

Let me know.

Oh, that was, okay, so Conrad, I just asked Conrad too.

This is kind of cool.

So that's our question of the night.

Let me know what comes to mind when you think mediocre sitcom.

Tony Bennett was indicted, inducted,

I'm having one of those days where I have not talked to anybody today.

I lead a very solitary existence during the day, and then I go to a three-hour movie.

Yeah, sometimes in those movies, you just gotta talk.

I think I do.

You gotta warm up the pipes.

If it was a bad movie, I might have.

Tony Bennett was inducted into the national, was not inducted, what is he?

Oh, he was inducted into the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association, Hall of Fame.

All right, that's cool.

I guess he played at Preble.

I thought he played high school ball in Stevens Point.

Obviously, his dad, Dick Bennett, a coaching legend here in Wisconsin, coached at Stevens Point, coached at Green Bay, then coached UW Madison, went to the Final Four in like maybe 0-2, 0-3.

Tony was part of that team.

And then, man, did I want him to come back here and coach the Badgers a few years ago.

But he stayed in Virginia.

And this is really interesting.

This is kind of the sign of a good coach.

His team was the first team to lose as a number one seed to his 16th seed, I think.

First or second?

That's always

a good thing.

Okay.

That's a bad thing.

It's infamous.

It's infamy.

And I felt bad for Tony Bennett because I liked him.

Well, guess what?

He comes back and wins the national championship.

Yeah.

So he totally erased that scar on his record and it's almost even more impressive.

that you overcome adversity like that.

Love the guy.

We still love to see him coaching in Madison at some point.

You know, it's March Madness, you know.

Anything can happen, so.

Absolutely.

So let's go to the text line.

Do we have a text counter?

I gotta keep up.

We do.

Let's read our social media text first.

Let's do that because people put these out throughout the day and I love kind of peeking and seeing what people say.

Daniel Wheeler says, night court.

He says mediocre because I'd watch it but never looked forward to it.

That's a great answer And I don't disagree with you Daniel.

I I didn't watch night court much if I remember correctly must see TV on NBC on Thursdays in the 80s was Cosby Family ties I think then cheers and then night court Cosby was like the number one show on TV

I think and then Cheers came along, but those first three were ratings beneath and I think night court did well too because it had great lead-ins But I kind of agree with you Daniel.

I never thought it was that funny Although we do like John Larriquette Jay on social media says according to Jim or any of the clones of that That's great.

Thank you Jay and I agree Chicken are the egg photography.

We know Chris.

He says American dad does animation count it absolutely counts Chris

I mean chicken or the egg photography.

Thank you for the text.

My pal Boris says the single guy.

Jonathan Silverman.

Yeah.

Agree with that one too.

Civic Media's own Tony Zimmerman.

Hey Tony.

He says superstar.

Never watched it but always felt like they were trying to recapture the magic of the office and Parks and Rec.

100% agree Tony.

I might even say Parks and Rec.

I didn't love it as much as the office.

All right.

We're coming right back with our pal Chris Foren from the formerly from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Talking Movies.

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

Network.

I'm Pete Schwabba.

Great to have you with me on this Tuesday night edition of Night Light.

We are asking the question tonight, folks.

When you think mediocre sitcom, what show comes to mind?

I say Dharma and Greg with a couple of, with a couple of runners up and mad about you and Cosby.

I said it and anything with Scott Bale.

Conrad says that 90s show.

Just why.

Yeah, I didn't even know it was on, so that must be mediocre at best.

All right, it is my pleasure to welcome back to Nightlight, one of our frequent fliers here.

He is the former entertainment reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and he joins us periodically to talk movies and TV.

And now he's retired, so we'll see if he's slowed down at all in his opinion.

But I doubt it.

Mr. Chris Foren, hey, Chris.

Hey, Pete, how are you?

Good.

How is retirement finding you?

Um, I'm going to box this quote.

I, I, I, I quote philosopher, Freddie Prince, Jr.

From, uh, from she's all that where, uh, says, I don't know what I'm going to do next, but I'm kind of liking the idea.

Okay.

Um, it's, it's okay.

It's, um, but I've got two very young grandchildren.

So I've been spending a lot of time having acid flashbacks for how challenging it is to spend a lot of time with three year olds.

So.

Well, congrats

on a long career.

That's how long were you at the Journal Sentinel?

Well, this time I was there for 30.

I was there 30 years and I think 11 days.

But I had worked.

I had freelance for the old morning paper, the Sentinel, and as a concert reviewer mostly in 81 and 82.

And then I was what I described as the lowest form of human life.

I was a replacement intern.

They had an intern quit and needed a body, so I got hired for that in the summer of 83.

And then I made the transition to being a clerk on the newspaper's business desk.

And I did that for about a year.

OK.

And

then I went to grad school and worked at the business journal for a while.

Came back and worked at the business journal for a while.

And then I ended up at the journalism.

So it doesn't sound like you're done yet, though.

You sound like you are open to doing something else.

Maybe.

I'm trying to keep my head working.

That's to be helpful.

I have no problem doing nothing.

There's a lot to be said for being lazy.

It should have been a sign to me that it was time to go when Ozzy Osbourne died.

My first concert, my first writing for money was reviewing Ozzy Osbourne at the Riverside in Milwaukee in May of 1981.

Oh

my gosh.

Wow.

Oh, that's kind of cool.

That's a nice

That's that's that's that's that's before internet and what we used to do for concert reviews is we would Because we often reviewing shows that no one ever bands with no one ever it reviewed before So we go over to the great record store downtown called radio doctors and we would look at the albums for song titles and things like that

So that's so great a

little

easier now.

It's so it's easier now, but I have to say There's nothing wrong with waiting overnight to see how a concert was

Reading about it the next day, you know, we don't need that's the kind of information we don't need immediately, right?

Right.

Well, I think our experience was that that the people who really wanted reviews, especially in print, were people who went to the show,

right?

They wanted that print validation that they actually were there, you know, right?

Not a friend of the show, you know, Piat Levy just does a great job.

He does.

reviewing concerts and putting it all in context and, um, he, he, he makes them accessible for even for bands that, that I haven't heard of.

I understand what he's talking

about.

Piano is so great because he, sometimes you just meet someone.

I don't know him well, but.

And you go, this guy is doing exactly what he should be doing.

He's very passionate about reporting about music.

He's great at it.

Well, he's, he's very engaged and, and, and, and in that kind of, in any kind of.

arts or entertainment criticism.

It's easy to get jaded or in a rut and you know, they're, you know, like they're jazz writers who will say, well, this is what defines jazz, you know, that kind of thing.

And Pied is open to anything.

And, uh, yeah, he's a fan of everybody from, you know, the newest act to, to here come the mummies to, you know, he gets, he's engaged on a basic level, personal level.

Chris, when you, I did, uh,

an interview recently at my hometown paper in Marinette.

And I remember going in there and there used to be 20, 25 people in there.

It looked like a newsroom like anywhere else.

It's certainly not as big as yours or Madison or even Green Bay, but there was activity and there was a buzz.

And I've seen other newsrooms where it's just depressing.

What was the journal set in the like when you left?

Like, was it still kind of humming?

I mean, it's much bigger than Marinette or even Green Bay, but or did you notice a huge drop off?

Inactivity

no, I would say that the the paper now is as act is active and vital of staff is when I started there's a lot fewer people.

So that world is gone, but there's been a really impressive group of especially young reporters and writers like jet who are really engaged.

and and care about the community and care about the things they cover and which is this is a bonus and this is not always true.

They care about each other

and

then they look out for each other and you know and then in that business that's tough you know especially if you're you know for the if you're a woman reporter they get this the amount of abuse they get sometimes and some of those beats is unbelievable and um I know I am uh my dad I

I was born into the business.

My dad had been at the old journal afternoon paper years before.

And he and I have a long-running conversation about how we don't cover things.

And I say, yeah, we do.

It's right here.

And I think it's a little different now than it was even 15 years ago, because we have the ability to work remotely.

And so you don't always have a full compliment in the office.

I think it's just as vital a place as it was before.

That's great.

Do you have a story before we move into some movie talk here that sticks out over the years, like maybe it was your favorite to cover other than the launching of Nightlight, of course?

Or an article you wrote that you're really proud of or something that a memory you can share?

You mentioned that.

There are a couple.

I mean, particularly for this show,

I didn't do as much celebrity interviewing as some of my colleagues did.

But I remember, I don't know, four years ago, I think I interviewed Carol Burnett.

And it was just like the most lovely conversation ever, you know, and she was exactly as you would think she would be.

And I was telling a colleague about this, I interviewed Jane Fonda once.

For shoes gonna be coming to town to do some speaking engagement.

She's been in Milwaukee issues when she was in more activist Person in the early 70s.

She'd been a walkie a couple of times and at the end of the con any interview I she has said I Don't know what this I don't know what to call this

this conversation.

I said, well, I think we're going to have a conversation.

You said, no, the event I'm speaking at, I don't know what to call it because I don't know what it is.

And they ended up canceling it.

So maybe that was a good idea.

But when you mentioned that question, one of the first ones that comes to mind, and I told this story among my colleagues many times, one of the things I first thought of was an interview I did at the business journal in Milwaukee, probably

35 maybe more years ago.

It was a story about because it is actually relevant today.

It's a story about there was some mystery buyer buying up properties along Water Street on Wisconsin off Wisconsin Avenue with the heart of downtown.

It's what is now the I think it's so called 100 East building.

But at the time it was just somebody who's buying up all these properties.

And I.

I just cold calling businesses to find out what they had heard.

And I talked to a woman named Lorraine Smuckler, who would, in addition to being the best name ever, she, she owned, she owned a women's, uh, professional women's clothing store, close for women to where to work.

Did that such thing in the eighties called Milwaukee cloak and suit.

And she said, yeah, this guy called me and he wouldn't say who he is representing.

I think you, I thought it was going to be Donald Trump at least.

And this is in 1988.

After thanking her for giving me my lead, I always think of things like that.

I've been lucky to do a lot of different things.

The last couple of years, I've been doing a lot of history stories.

The last, I did a couple, worked ahead because the FBI worked on these ahead of time.

The last one I believe is running next week.

And it's basically a deep dive into a photo that one of my colleagues, Bill Schultz, who does great archival mining of our photo libraries, found of just a staged photo of 10 beer schooners, you know, those big goblet type

things.

Along a bar, each of them is holding a small puppy.

And it ran on the front page of the local section on a Sunday in 1953.

And it was almost no information.

And so I started digging into trying to find out where it came from.

And it was really clear that the guy had set it up to promote as he had a bar on National Avenue on the south side of Milwaukee.

And the caption on the picture, which ran across the bottom of a page, didn't mention the guy's bar, which I thought was really great.

They mentioned the guy, but not like, oh, this is his bar.

Go have a beer there.

And it was fun doing that kind of things.

Those were fun to do to kind of investigative history type stuff.

That's so great.

That's kind of sounds like an improv game, like just a puppy and a big goblet, write a story around it or create something.

Right.

Well, sure.

Yeah, they used to do that, you know, write the caption for crazy pictures.

Yeah.

Well, congratulations, Chris, on a great career.

I'm glad I got to know you at the tail end of it, and I look forward to whatever it is you do next.

But I hope you'll still come back and talk to us about movies and TV periodically, because we

enjoy it.

Absolutely.

One thing of some priority is sneaking in movies, more movies when I can.

Oh, there you go.

Well, let's start there, because I saw, it's funny, I had an ulterior motive when you said,

I live in Marinette.

I come down to Green Bay.

There are no more matinees in Marinette when the kids go back to school.

So I had to come down to Green Bay to see my movies a little early.

And I just didn't feel like coming down early today.

So I said, did you see one battle after another?

And you said, yes.

So I thought, all right, I got to get off my butt and go see this movie today.

And I did.

And I loved it.

What are your overall thoughts?

I should preface it by saying for movie people that there is a

There is a cult of Paul Thomas Anderson, who's the writer and director.

Yes, one battle after another.

He is one of those brand named directors for a certain group of people because of them.

A lot of because of the movies he made like book, especially Boogie Nights and Magnolia are like they really made him out to be this kind of almost mythical figure.

And

I honestly have not been a huge fan.

I feel like he'll have a great idea.

A lot of people love they there will be blood, for example.

Right.

For me, a lot of his movies, they, they go in a direction and then the end is like, is almost a different movie, you know, like, yeah.

I mean, it almost makes sense to be kind of this weird reigning of frogs and things.

But, you know, like at the end of there will be blood where one character beats another character to death.

And the soundtrack is like, you know, I'm not seeing the humor here, you know, and.

I went to see this because I thought I should a lot of talk and it would be important to see it.

And I had a window, which is usually how I go see things.

And I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't have that problem.

I thought it moved very fast for a movie that's two hours and 45

minutes

long.

Good car chase scenes, great performances, pretty coherent.

It's it's it's based on but not like an annotation of a Thomas pension novel from 1990 called Vineland.

He made Paul Thomas Anderson made a movie about an out of another pension novel called Inherent Vice a couple years ago.

And that one was set was written in 1990 but it was set in 1984 where the group of radicals who do something to something their plot goes off the rails and then it's we look.

Maybe flash forward into the future.

Let's pick up.

Hey, Chris, we got to do a quick thing here.

Let's pick up right there.

We're going to do a very short break.

Chris Fore and formerly from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is here.

We're coming right back on

Nightlight.

I'm Pete Schwab, and this is Nightlight.

Our question of the night is, when you think mediocre sitcoms, what show comes to mind?

Vince Moranto on social media says, anything with Tim Allen in it.

Totally agree, Vince.

Especially the later stuff, snooze and drama.

I didn't even love home improvement that much either.

I mean, he had a couple laughs, but, and it was highly rated.

I just didn't think it was that great.

Rachel on social media says, Seinfeld.

Oh, we're gonna talk to Chris about that.

Either way, Rachel, that's fine.

And my pal Boris says, Joey.

Yeah, that show sucks.

Any of the friend spinoffs are bad.

That's a great one, though.

Thank you, Boris.

My guest is Chris Voron, formerly of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

He joins us here every so often to talk movies and TV, and he was in the middle of telling us about, Chris, you were telling us about your thoughts about one battle after another and Paul Thomas Anderson.

Yeah, I was gonna say, I did the...

TLDR version.

I enjoyed it as a movie.

It would, like I said, a lot more action than you see in a typical Paul Thomas Anderson movie.

His last movie was Licorice Pizza.

It was kind of a mess, I thought, and I thought this was a lot more coherent, great, good performances.

There's some

some goofy survive.

One thing I thought was really interesting is that a lot of people are focusing on the idea of this underground revolutionary group and battling fascists, basically, and looking for modern day parallels.

And I thought it was really interesting that the two central organizations that you see in the movie are both under the radar, like super secret societies, one.

you know, the power elite and to the other one, you know, that even even the group that the Venezia del Toro leads, sanctuary city, you know, helping undocumented immigrants.

It's the premises, yeah, these things are there, you know, and it's not shocking.

It's not like, oh, wow, this is a revelation.

It's like, yeah, it's just part of the landscape.

I thought that was, I thought that was really interesting.

It was, it is a lot of time, but I think it's, I thought generally it was worth it.

I noticed the New York Times keyed on some of the soundtrack choices, which I thought were pretty good.

Yeah,

same.

He always picks good

music.

You'll see Steely Dan and the Charelles in a movie too often.

Right.

I noticed my son talked to me about Star Wars parallels, which was interesting with the Death Star and the Rebellion.

And even, you know, I said to him today, I said, what was with the bathrobe?

Why didn't Leo DiCaprio take the bathrobe off at some point?

He's running all over the place.

And then I realized he's got the bathrobe on in a ponytail, because he's a hippie.

And he kind of looked like Qui-Gon or something in one of the Star Wars.

I wonder if there was a

parallel.

the dude or the dude

exactly.

Yeah,

he's an

anti hero like the dude.

He's kind of a stoner.

He's placed into this thing where he has to sort of try to be the hero.

Yeah, I really liked it.

I thought it was good.

Yeah, no, it's definitely I mean, it's going to get a lot of attention.

It's deceptive because those all the movies are going to be at the end of the year.

10 best they're all coming out now.

I mean, the next couple of weeks are already movies that

Even this week, there'll be movies that are going to be in theaters that are all that's going to be on everybody's nomination list.

Yep.

Well, it's interesting.

I liked I like the film and I like when I like Paul Thomas Anderson, I like him a lot.

I thought Punch Drunk Love was kind of forgettable, loved Boogie Nights, loved Hard Eight, liked Magnolia.

And I'm kind of with you on There Will Be Blood.

I was just sort of waiting.

I don't know what it was about that movie.

I just thought it was just very OK.

Yeah, I would agree.

Yeah, it had Daniel Day-Lewis though, so that's good.

Right.

So, all right, so the other movie I want to ask you about, well, there's a few, but is the movie Hymn?

I know Jordan Peele is one of the producers.

It had a lot of kind of buzz about it, and it just kind of took a nosedive with critics, but you saw it.

I have not seen it.

I don't know that I will, at least anytime soon,

but

what was the

problem with it or did you have it?

I didn't love it.

I went to see it today, actually, and a big caveat is I'm not a big horror guy, although I realize, realize the other day that I've seen a lot more horror.

Usually I only see a couple of horror movies and theaters a year.

I watch Wait for Throne to be on streaming or whatever.

It's just not my thing.

It's a very ambitious movie.

Jordan Peele described it as an anti-sports horror movie,

which

you know, as the low soul Wisconsinite who is not a football fan, I was okay with that, you know.

And I've always said that there's no organization in America that hates its employees or its customers more than the national football league.

And there's a lot of that.

Then it kind of goes in some directions that I didn't quite get.

I guess maybe I'm not smart enough.

And it is

very grizzly in that sense.

I mean, it makes this point about, you know, the desire for competitive to be competitive and you have to sacrifice everything to be.

You know, be a star or sports, whatever, but.

Yeah, it wasn't it wasn't my jam

We have about it.

Can we keep you through the news Chris?

I have a couple more movies I want to ask you about and I want it we're watching the same TV show on HBO I want to ask you about that too, but in about a minute Can you tell me what you liked about weapons?

I liked weapons a lot, too And you just said you're not a horror guy, but that that's obviously when you

say yeah, I what I liked about it I liked I liked the different point of views points of view of the story.

I Honestly, I thought the last

story that they told was the least interesting of the three or four

and

if they had put them all together it would have made that they would have not been as interesting a movie I thought.

It was an innovative way to tell that story I thought.

Interesting.

All right.

Chris Foren is here, folks.

He's going to stick with us through intermission and for a few minutes of Act II, I will give you contest details when we come back and the keyword closer to the end of that first segment in hour number two.

Our question of the night is when you think mediocre sitcoms, what comes to mind?

What show comes to mind?

By the way, Conrad, Aunt Carla is back.

Did you know that?

Yeah, I saw the text.

She kind of ditched us for a while.

No, I'm kidding, Carla.

She says, get to listen to you two again while driving home from work.

That's awesome, Carla.

Thank you.

And we'll read some more mediocre sitcoms, too, in hour number two.

Keep those texts coming.

It's Pete Schwabba in Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.

The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.

Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.

With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.

Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.