I love TV, but for better or worse I can’t watch it all the time. So what do I do to pass the time between waking up and prime time or DVR viewing? – I listen to podcasts about TV.
While it’s damn near impossible to watch TV at work, podcasts are a great way to get your TV (or general entertainment) fix without losing an entire day’s worth of productivity. So here are my three favorite TV-related podcasts.
Entertainment Podcasts – Just Like TV Minus The Pictures
In the last few years The A.V. Club has toyed around with a few different incarnations of podcasts – most recently they’ve settled on a shorter format that lends itself to more frequent episodes and a diverse array of topics. Currently called Reasonable Discussions, the podcast is excellent for those with a random array of interests or entertainment ADD. It’s not all about TV, but come on – I do watch movies and listen to music too! Plus, every now and then Amelie Gillette (a former A.V. Club staff member and current writer on The Office) drops back in to do a very special episode of The Hatecast – an awesomely sarcastic take on what’s currently going on in the world.
Then there’s the weekly NPR podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which posts new episodes every Friday. The usual team of entertainment gurus include Linda Holmes, Trey Graham, Glen Weldon, and Stephen Thompson. Like Reasonable Discussions, PCHH bounces around from music and movies to TV and comics, and even books. But regardless of the weekly topics, I eagerly await each new episode because I enjoy the camaraderie of the roundtable and often find myself interested in something that I otherwise wouldn’t have sought out for myself.
And lastly there is the Nerdist Writer’s Panel, which I only recently found thanks to Pop Culture Happy Hour. Unlike the other two podcasts, the Nerdist Writer’s Panel is all about television and film and features a different group of writers each week. A revolving door of hosts keep things moving as the panel of writers discuss how they got into the business, shows or films they’ve been involved with (for better or worse), and more candid stories about the creation and execution of a script.
Guests on the panel include Bill Lawrence (Scrubs & Cougar Town), Jane Espenson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Once Upon A Time), Shawn Ryan (The Shield & Last Resort), Winnie Holzman (My So-Called Life & Thirtysomething), David Fury (Angel & Lost), Dan Harmon (Community), Liz Meriwether (The New Girl), Peter Gould (Breaking Bad), and many more.
All of three of these podcasts are available on iTunes so plug in some headphones, start downloading, and enjoy!
