#199 Crossing The Streams Gets Macho (Bonus Ep46) – Great TV binge watching suggestions!

CTS Announcer 0:01

Looking for your next TV show or movie to binge? Well buckle up, grab the remote and settle into your couch for this special edition of crossing the streams. We're here to help you tune in and get the most out of those 50 monthly streaming channels you're currently paying for. So without any further ado, here's your host of crossing the streams. Jeff Dwoskin

Jeff Dwoskin 0:29

Hey, oh, is it Jeff Dwoskin your host so classic conversations and your guide through this bonus episode of crossing the streams. This bonus episode is segments from our live show, which we do every Wednesday at 9:30pm. Eastern time. We have over 100 hours currently available on our YouTube channel of TV binge watching suggestions what is crossing the streams? We exist to answer the universal question I just finished watching something and now I gotta watch something else. What should that be? Well, we got your back. We've got a plethora of TV binge watching suggestions for you. You can watch full episodes on our YouTube channel or you can just sit around on the podcast feed and we'll feed random segments to on our bonus episodes. This bonus episode has segments from our LIVE Show, Episode 4447 and 93. In this bonus episode, we're covering macho the Hector Camacho story the grinder and Curb Your Enthusiasm. That's a lot. That's a lot to pack into one episode. Each one of these segments is pulled right from the live show. It's the banter of the hosts and guests that were on that particular Live episode. Their goal is to make you aware or make you re aware of an amazing show you should be binge watching. All right, let's kick things off from Live episode 93 comes the grinder I'm taking lead on this one. Take it away me. I want to talk about shows that I think is one of the funniest shows ever. That was taken off here though. And that is the grinder. So if any of you guys seen the grinder

Howard Rosner 2:07

episodes, yes, no, my wife keeps deleting it off my phone.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:12

That's just grind. Where is the grind? Oh, so this is 2015 It's one season now normally I wouldn't Harken or kind of say go watch one season of a show that was canceled. However, this season of the grinder Season One of the grinder is one of the finest 22 episodes seasons, I think of any show I went to just rewatched the pilot recently and was laughing my ass off. So the whole premise of the show is it's a family show. It's family. It's sort of a, you know, a reboot your life journey. And that journey is is being taken by Rob Lowe, who is a star of a TV show in the show that happens to be called the grinder and the grinder is a legal drama in the show. Right? And so that show ends and so he comes home to his family. He's now he's the big star and he's coming home to his family in this small town. And his brother and his father are actual lawyers. So Rabelo played this character on the grinder who is like a really top notch killer always gets his man lawyer and then comes home where his real family are real lawyers and the humor comes from Rob Lowe, truly believing that his time on this fictional legal drama qualifies him to be part of the family law firm. Now his brother on the show is Fred Savage. And this drives him crazy. It drives him crazy. He can't understand how because everyone's so enamored because it's Rob Lowe, the star of this show is now right how anyone can be taking his brother seriously. He was a legal lawyer on TV. He can't actually practice law, but the father is William devayne. Of Knott's landing and other fame. William devayne plays Rob Lowe and Fred savages father and he's also with the law firm, but he thinks it's the greatest idea in the world and completely condones and encourages everything Rob Lowe does Okay. In there, and the whole dialogue and the workings between the characters Rob Lowe, and Fred Savage and Fred Savage, his wife, Mary, Elizabeth, Alice and their kids. And it's just so, so funny. It's and there's, it's a crazy cast who I mean those like Jason Alexander was a reoccurring character. At one point, Timothy All the fans is a main character because he's now in the reboot of the grinder. Yeah, he plays Rob Lowe's. You know, like causing or something in the grinder New Orleans so now there's that whole

Tony Berardo 5:06

How did that not make it what happened with it? I mean I was cancelled but for

Jeff Dwoskin 5:10

a reason Rotten Tomatoes ahead of 93 credit and 81 audience, but it no one watched it, it had less than 2 million people watching it. This was a fox show. So those numbers just in carry now they also thought it might have been a little too meta, though it's meta in the same way that reboot is right now. I think reboots being from what I can tell just between Howard Knight and we it's one of the best shows ever. But it's also younger. Yeah, it's also kind of a TV meta kind of show. But that to me that never that never really kind of took over. I mean, it was you read articles Entertainment Weekly called it one of the funniest comedies around I mean, it was just like, it was just claimed it just nobody watched it, which is a shame because I mean, the the cast and the talent on this show, we even the extra characters, like I said, we're Jason Alexander, Camille Nanjiani, Maya Rudolph, I mean, it's just like Steve little who you'd recognize was like, an ongoing character. It was just one of these shows, it was just so funny. And it was all the kind of back and forth between Rob Lowe, who's this, you know, finds drama and everything and all this kind of stuff. And Fred Savage, the brother who could barely speak in front of a jury, you know, and it's just like, and him having to deal with everyone who thinking that his brother's a better lawyer than him even though he's not a lawyer. He just played one on TV, and it's just, it's just, it's just really really, really funny. It's on Hulu and get on Hulu. Nice. Yes another

Tony Berardo 6:53

thing too, I mean, you know, similar to a lot of other series that were on Fox and ABC and things like that in the in the early 2010s 2020s. You know, streaming wasn't so prominent as it is now. I mean, people would rather stream than watch something on Fox so that to me was the reason I wasn't watching shit in 2015 right like if there was like shits Creek and Parks and Rec and all that then I would watch it but now there's so many options streaming and that could be reason why it wasn't getting the ratings It was as if it was only streaming exclusively I'm sure it would crush it you know that's that's why a lot of series fail.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:28

All right, that was the grinder. We talked about the grinder on the classic conversations episode with Rose Abdu, who was one of the guest stars on the grinder. So definitely check out my conversation with Rose and the grinder up next from Live episode. 44 Macho that Hector Camacho story, Bob Phillips is taking us through the world of boxing as only he can take it away by macho the Hector Camacho

Bob Phillips 7:55

show. Yeah. Yeah, everybody. Even a casual boxing fan remembers the name Hector macho Camacho. He was quite a character. He was a Puerto Rican kid that moved to New York City. And during his youth won everything there was to win in the amateur ranks Golden Gloves, New York City championships and turn pro in 1980 and fought for 30 years. Think about that. That is that is an insane number to take punches to your head for three decades. But no, there's a reason for that. And that happens to a lot of Bach like my marriage. Yay. Go first one.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:36

Sorry,

Howard Rosner 8:36

the first. Let me say that again. The first

Unknown Speaker 8:41

one. The first one. Yeah, say it loud. So the one behind you doesn't come up and whack you with a shoe.

Bob Phillips 8:48

So that's that's a common thing for fighters, you know, to leave the game too late. But I suppose because Hector like so many of those before and after him did not take care of his money even though he won $100 million in the ring or something like that. I mean, he he was the prototypical kid out of the projects. And he was a very interesting cat because he won three titles coming out of circumstances that would have broken most people. No father around. They had a loving mother but lived in an apartment where there were like seven other people and people coming and going all the time. Drugs were rampant. There was every reason for him to fold up his tent and just be another statistic right. But he was insanely talented. He was one of the fastest boxers that ever lived and he compiled a record he won the junior lightweight title, the lightweight title and then Junior welterweight. That's a feat in itself to win three titles in three different weight classes. But he did it in such a way that he infuriated people because he did it all his way. He was such a little showman, and he was so funny and so odd. He'd always come into the ring he would come I'm in in a gladiator outfit, you know with full helmet and you know the brush and and then he'd heard he'd have a Scottish kilt on, and for some reason, you know, and he would just be fuddled these other boxers that just could not deal with the speed and his his pure talent he was 37 Oh at one point which is outrageous for that's an outrageous number for somebody in the lighter weight classes because usually someone comes along and you know after you use if you're a good fighter you know they they get you up to 1518 20 wins and no losses and then they the angle for a fight and then if you're going to win a title, you do it at 20 No 22 Well, he wanted sooner than that. And he defended his title and just chill act people but he didn't really he wasn't the kind of guy that hurt people. He wasn't a knockout artist. He was just so blazingly fast he would just pop up pop and rattle off 10 punches to your head and then he'd be gone and people couldn't touch him. And he was an ad I remember you know, being a huge fight fan. I loved and hated this kid because he was infuriating. He was just infuriating, because guys that were huge punchers. You thought, okay, someone's gonna come in and shut Hector's mouth tonight. I can't stand him flapping his gums anymore. And 37 times they went up and 37 times they went back with their tail between their legs because he utterly embarrassed them. Well, things start to get a little rough for him. He had a fight with one of his countrymen a guy named Edwin was Aereo. And Edwin was a huge puncher. And I think this was his 37th fight. It was the first time that Hector got knocked around a little bit he bled, he actually got hurt. And he he said later on in his career that it changed him It just changed him inside. He he didn't feel invincible anymore. It didn't feel like he could do the things he needed to do to survive. So we started screwing around, he wasn't training and then a loss right? And then a couple more wins and then another loss and then the drugs and the booze and all the kinds of stuff you hear in you know the tragic, prototypical boxing story. Well, Hector was eventually he was murdered in Puerto Rico let's say nine years ago

Unknown Speaker 12:12

Bob hold on for one second.

Unknown Speaker 12:26

Barney Howard was perfect timing was right when you said murdered for someone.

Unknown Speaker 12:36

He was gonna Tim Johnson

Bob Phillips 12:38

wiping out the young ones. The poor guy was he fell on hard times he lost all his money as happens a lot in that game. There was nobody to counsel him there was no one Don King was through them. He kicked him to the curb, as Don King does. And he wound up going back and forth from Puerto Rico and and selling drugs and doing drugs. And he was shot in the head on a on a street in Puerto Rico and they found like nine pounds of cocaine in the car, but it was a slow it was a slow descent for him. It was uh, it felt really bad for him because he was one of these guys that like, like I said, he infuriated me as a boxer sometimes, because he was he was always yapping always Ba ba ba ba ba ba and nobody could touch him. But then after a while you started to appreciate what what a huge talent it was many knocked out Sugar Ray Leonard, you know, he knocked him out for good. He's been Roberto Duran twice. Roberto's career. He'd be the lot of good fighters. He beat legends, but he didn't get the credit he deserved because like I said he was he was kind of like a mosquito. he annoys everybody you have to this documentary. What I love about it is that it teaches people if even if they're not into boxing to look at this guy from the time he was a kid and then just on sheer raw talent to catapult himself into being one of the most popular successful fighters that ever lived. He obviously had ended tragically. But he came from nothing and nowhere and it was all here. It was just him and I I just didn't I looking back I admire this guy so much. I truly do. And it was a sad ending but it his career in retrospect

Jeff Dwoskin 14:19

is amazing. I tell him so channel is the macho documentary.

Unknown Speaker 14:24

This was on Showtime.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:26

Is it a documentary or movie?

Bob Phillips 14:28

It's a it's a documentary came out. Less than a year ago. I think earlier this year it came out we'll add

Jeff Dwoskin 14:34

that to our must watch list. Another great boxing suggestion from the amazing Bob Phillips check him out on the sell and Bob podcast. Our final segment for this episode is from Live episode 47 Curb Your Enthusiasm Howard Rosner shines a light on this classic show obviously been around for a long time. but wants to make sure that you stayed with it if you never dug in and you start to dig in, or they just keep on watching it, take it away rise. Alright, let's talk about Curb Your Enthusiasm. Yeah.

Howard Rosner 15:11

So you know, it's it's funny The reason I chose to do Curb Your Enthusiasm, which I know is not a new show, it's starting two episodes into its 11th season. But people have talked to lately about the show, you know, maybe watch years ago, but haven't watched the last couple of seasons. So I thought it was relevant. So we'll just start with you know, again, HBO, HBO, Max has all the seasons and for those who are totally unfamiliar, created and starring Larry David, who was the CO creator, along with Jerry Seinfeld of Seinfeld, the voice of George Steinbrenner famously in Seinfeld episodes, and the George Costanza character very, very much based on Larry David himself. So if you liked that Curb Your Enthusiasm is George Costanza. uncomfortableness to the nth degree. It centers on Larry David who plays himself basically an expanded elaborate version of himself. The show is absolutely hysterical and absolutely uncomfortable. Every episode he is hysterical. But one of the worst people his character is one of the worst people in the history of mankind. He says whatever comes to his mind does whatever comes he wants to do, it's always getting him in trouble. Every episode is very similar, just like a Seinfeld episode. There's multiple plot points, multiple points of discomfort that somehow you know by the end of the episode are going to intertwine and they always do. The other thing that I love about the show. The other two major things I love about the show is number one, you know that a significant portion of it is improv. And they're getting people who are big time actors and actresses to do improv that are not traditionally in Proverbs, and it's great pull them out of their element. And it's great. The other major thing that I love is every season is set up the same way. In the first episode of the season, they launched a kind of general background story that becomes the focal point of the season, at least a thread that runs through the entire season. And then by the end of the season is a more prominent plot point. For example, this season, in the first two minutes of the first episode, somebody breaks into Jerry's into Larry's house and then trying to escape after robbing him falls into his pool and dies drowns in the pool, because Larry did not have the permit required five foot or four foot high fencing around the pool. And in that first episode, the brother of the guy who died blackmails Larry into forgetting about it and not bringing a huge lawsuit because of it if Larry will cast his daughter who has only done high school theater, and is atrocious as the lead in his new series on Netflix, and that is going to be a general theme throughout this whole season. The seasons before one of the seasons. I think it was season seven was them deciding to do a Seinfeld reunion. And so all the characters are there throughout the year. Maybe my favorite season was season nine, I believe it was where Jerry or Larry I keep calling him Jerry, Larry was writing a musical called called fatwa that was a theatrical, hysterical version of the Salman Rushdie situation and goes on Jimmy Kimmel to kind of make jokes about it. And then the Ayatollah actually puts an actual fat tois on him commanding Muslims to kill him. So that he's, you know, it's the themes are always hysterical. So that's the gist of it. The the characters in the show, he's great, but some of the main characters in the show, JB Smoove plays and Leon Black, who lives with Larry's kind of his right hand best friend. Sort of now he and you know, everything he does is improv and it is incredible. His timing is impeccable, comically. It is just fantastic. Jeff Garlin who plays his agent is great as well. But how Susie Essman who plays Susie, Jeff Garland's wife in the show how she has not won and a Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Emmy is beyond me. She and Larry when they argue and they insult each other. It is the funniest shit i kills me. I'm literally laughing out loud in front of the TV. It is just one of the best characters on television. Sadly, the other great character for the first nine In seasons of the show was Bob Einstein played Super Dave Osborne and played Marty Funkhouser in the show passed away a few years ago. He was the other great character Richard Lewis. Stand up has been on since the beginning of the series playing one of his best friends. He is great every time he's on this year, the list of a list stars that are slated to be on the show is spectacular. There's already been a couple and there's going to be even more. Jon Hamm was on an episode last year and he was in the first episode of this season. It's just great. They take great actors and take them out of their comfort zone to do this comic improv if you have not watched Curb Your Enthusiasm go back and watch the entire thing there's a handful of episodes that are moss Crazy Eyes killer is a fantastic episode. Palestinian chicken is the best episode of the show in my opinion by far good but go back and watch it and if you used to watch and haven't in a while get off your ass and get caught up strong. There you go.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:00

I haven't watched it since the Seinfeld reunion. Season. I watch that that that was brilliant. My favorite joke though, that I remember ever seeing on it is I think he's with his rabbi and he points to a picture on the rabbi's desk. He says Oh, that's my nephew. We lost him on 911 And he says which tower he says oh no, he was a nine streets. He got hit on 911 the whole episode is about him trying to get the point across is that you can't say that like that. You lost when 911 And then they're like can we bring a survivor to dinner survivor and the other guy brings Colby from search.

Howard Rosner 21:41

Yeah, I mean, there's so many other fantastic episode is the one where Larry has to he picks up a hooker because he is trying to get to the Dodgers game and he knows he's going to be stuck in traffic and to drive in the carpool lane. He has to have another person in the car so he picks up a hooker make sure to have a game with him there's so many episodes that are like that

Ron Lippitt 22:05

are the one where it's friend died with his golf club and he got buried he got buried with his favorite golf club and golf club out of the casket before the very

Howard Rosner 22:15

end if you have not watched Jeff I you know you're an example of like six seven seasons and haven't watched the last couple of it is as good if not better than it has always been

Jeff Dwoskin 22:27

all right rise wait to shine a light on a classic and of course coincidentally in my Rosa do interview we talked about her amazing time on Curb Your Enthusiasm So yet another reason to watch Curb Your Enthusiasm. You got a lot of homework. Yeah Curb Your Enthusiasm, the grinder macho that Hector Camacho story. I don't want to keep you any longer from your next binge watch. So go hop on the couch, grab the remote cross your own streams, and we'll see you next time.

CTS Announcer 22:58

Thanks for listening to this special edition of crossing the streams. Visit us on YouTube for full episodes and catch us live every Wednesday at 9:30pm Eastern time. Now turn this off and go watch some TV. And don't forget to tell your family yeah, I'll be busy for a while.

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