Tim Goodman's TV Talk Machine

We took a couple of weeks off but now we're back, more stupid than ever. But let's face it -- Question Boy (Joe Garofoli) was way off his game in this one. His impersonations were all messed up. Banjo? Awful. Bill Walton -- worse than mine, even. Al Gore? Lame. On and on it went. On the plus side, it was perhaps his finest moment ever reading the e-mail questions. As for Manny (Benny Evangelista),...

After feigning politeness for much of Part 1 with Jennifer Gomez (aka Jengo) as Question Girl, the true colors of Question Boy (Joe Garofoli) come to the surface. Lots of questions, lots of anger, a couple of answers. Way better than we usually do.

Question Girl No. 2 joins the TVTM podcast. We decide not to be so lame. We may have failed. Actually, "first runner up" Jennifer Gomez (aka Jengo) helped fuel a surprisingly upbeat, informative and far-reaching two-part TV Talk Machine podcast. We raised our game in honor of her in-Pod Cave appearance. We have Part 1 today, Part 2, tomorrow and then -- because we have pledged to you our word to b...

After a long winter holiday break, I have regrouped with Question Boy (Joe Garofoli) and extended the contract of Benny Evangelista to "man the knobs" as we go forward with the most popular, least professional and most dangerously stupid podcast in San Francisco Chronicle history. The TVTM plods on, even when it's (cough!) blocked by Question Boy's inability to read the questions right, or, for th...

Yes, Virginia, there is a podcast. And a bunch of other pointless stuff. Well not a "bunch" per se. I've got some random bits of info, sure. But mostly I'm throwing this up there to let you know that I recorded a podcast with Question Boy (Joe Garofoli) and Manny/Knobby (Benny Evangelista). After a long layoff, we were all a bit rusty. But the shorty robes were seasonal and festive. And short. Tha...

I talked with Michael C. Hall, star of "Dexter," on Monday and here it is as part of my latest TV Talk Machine podcast. Ah, talking with the stars. Never an actual interest of mine. But as I noted previously, the whole idea of the TV Talk Machine podcast was to talk with people I actually liked, who were doing great work, and having that as archive material for years. More and more people are bein...

You can hear the dulcet tones of Mandy again! We continue to dominate all of America, Canada and the rest of the world by taking calls from around the globe, including "near Oakland" and our first from Harlem. Or was it Brooklyn? Hell, I couldn't even get Mandy's whereabouts in Oregon correct. But we rallied, as usual, and we hope that TVTM will entertain you. It remains free. And we remain unpaid...

Well, it took some time -- alright, a long time -- but Amandapants our winner in the long forgotten Question Girl battle royale -- finally makes an appearance on the TV Talk Machine podcast. Mandy Murphy survived all of our jibes and jokes and lies and slander to appear with us. And she even had a great time. Such a great time, mind you, that we've split the podcast into two parts. Yep, you add so...

Well, we were just hoping to kick back and do Bill Walton impressions and talk about shorty robes in this one -- plus mock the fact that our new Question Girl is AWOL. But, as they usually do, things went sideways. First, we had too many questions -- both e-mail and by phone. It's actually becoming work now, this podcast...And we had to fess up that Amandapants, our Question Girl winner, isn't 100...

These days Ricky Gervais is a busy man. He's making movies. He's doing live comedy concert tours. He's writing books, appearing on "The Simpsons," and making perhaps the most popular podcast (and the funniest) in the medium's short history. On and on it goes. In this podcast, recorded on his day off from shooting a film, Gervais talks about the "Extras" finale, why he and Merchant wanted to make t...

I interviewed David Duchovny today about his role in Showtime's acclaimed "Californication" series. Duchovny did the interview while keeping his eye on the TV news -- the Southern California fires are rapidly encroaching on his home (he also noted, with some sad irony, that his latest movie is "Things We Lost In the Fire"). "Californication" has two episodes left -- one tonight (repeated this week...

Mood swinging mayhem; future celebrity appearances, efficient rambling. It's the TVTM! Indeed it is. Yet another podcast without our new Question Girl, so it comes back, yet again, to Question Boy (Chronicle media writer Joe Garofoli) and your Cultural Commissar to deliver the goods (or the averages) on yet another TV Talk Machine podcast. There are more Q's and A's here than ever before and all t...

Question Girl winner! Question Boy survives! Actual questions answered! Plus anger, etc. Yep, that's about the gist of it. Plus, Joe Garofoli sings as Juan Antonio Samaranch. We get yelled at. We forget things. But there's a happy ending (no, not that kind) and a lot of phone calls and e-mails get answered. Plus we bash Benny, who, as you know, is "manning the knobs." It's quite fun, actually. And...

Carnage! Sucking up! Sultry voices! Hating on Question Boy! It's Attack of the Question Girls! Boy, is it. The highly-touted, hotly anticipated throwdown to become the Once and Future Question Girl (and, in the process, firing Joe Garofoli as Question Boy -- but not really) led to a bloody TV Talk Machine podcast. Hear all about it below. So many people participated, that we now have a controversy...

Uh, yeah. Question Boy (Chronicle media writer Joe Garofoli) was angry. I was angry. Ignoring us only makes us -- what's the word? -- cranky. We had a lot of letters. But we had no calls. So we went off. Later we talked about shows. Joe sang (the Pittsburgh Steelers fight song...God help us.) We did vocal impressions. We talked about fall shows and, specifically, series premiering this week. I put...

Actual answers! The return of the shorty robe! An attack on Question Boy! It's the TV Talk Machine podcast. Oh, hell yes it is. We go off! And then we catch ourselves and correct course. Mostly we realized that the show seemed too professional, too helpful, too effortlessly informative. So we ruined it. Or tried to. Next week it'll be lousy again -- promise.

Here -- after a lengthy absence -- is the return of the TV Talk Machine podcast!

Tim's down in L.A. at Death March with Cocktails, where he met up with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. Tim took the opportunity to chat with Burns about his upcoming seven-part series, "The War," which airs on PBS starting Sept. 23. In the interview, Burns talks about how he handled criticism from those who said his series didn't do justice to the role of Latino soldiers in World War II.

Even more listener calls about the "Sopranos" finale!

Well it's been quite a few days of post-"Sopranos" speculation and chat. I did five radio interviews on Monday including 40 minutes on "Talk of the Nation" and that finale was, indeed, the talk of the nation. No doubt the finale will live on in pop culture history as a great debate. Did Tony live or die? I love that it has prompted so much discussion and creative (insane?) deconstruction. And now...

Chronicle readers react to the "Sopranos" finale.

Well, we're back bigger and stronger and less awful this week! And we're hot for Cougars! (theme song forthcoming). Even though Question Boy (Chronicle media writer Joe Garofoli) can't read an e-mail to save his life this time out, he rallies as we both tout the merits of older women, aka, "elder hot," aka "Cougars." Now, you might not think this is relevant to anything -- and normally that doesn'...

Worst. Podcast. Ever. Well, so far. I had a really bad headache and lacked sleep. Question Boy sucked at reading questions. Well, not really, but I like to blame him for everything. We were angry. I had the Cranky Pants on instead of the shorty robe. We made a stab at man-love and retreated. We didn't have any crazy-ass callers in a dark place. Benny "The Podfather" Evangelista, who we like to bla...

Well, let's just get right to it. Question Boy and the Cultural Commissar admit to "reimagining" Lindsay Wagner, "The Bionic Woman," in their younger days. Yes, in that way. Hey, it's Tim Goodman's TV Talk Machine! (well, that's the official title, so technically I'm not referring to myself in the third person but don't tempt me! Because I'll do it, like, all the time!) If you listen to no other T...

Well, if ever there was any doubt that the TV Talk Machine was a flinty little operation with almost no managerial oversight, staffed by lazy, dumb and probably dishonest employees, well, this podcast will prove it definitively. It's the price of free, people. But you know what? There's a lot of love in it. There's even a shorty robe. And a man's chest. There are wayward metaphors, the inclusion o...