Maximum Fun Forum

Daniel Handler delves into his memories of young love to pen the novel “Why We Broke Up” -- the twist? He writes the girl's side of the story. The Sklar Brothers talk about their new comedy album – from performing as identical twins to broadening their sports-nerd base. Plus Jesse suggests the Canadian TV show The Newsroom, Mark Frauenfelder of Boing Boing offers his recommendations and American composer Nico Muhly shares the song that changed his life.

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn: Daniel Handler, The Sklar Brothers, Mark Frauenfelder and Nico Muhly

This week's show runs to almost 74 minutes. I assume that it contains clips that were excluded from the radio version. Should we expect more "uncut" episodes in the future?

Our policy is to cut the interviews to their best length first, make a podcast, then cut them to the length of a radio show second for the radio. Sometimes that'll mean a few extra minutes on the podcast.

This week, we had to cut about ten minutes of Sklars that we didn't want to cut from the radio version to fit the show on the air, so we left it in for the podcast.

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The bums will always lose.

That show with the Sklars is going to make me go back on my promise to never watch the History Channel again. Been a big fan of those two for a long time AND the premise sounds interesting (and actually educational, which I thought that network had outlawed.)

Roger that, Jesse. I'm glad you gave us more Sklars; I quite enjoyed that interview.

Any chance of getting Daniel Handler on JJGo? The quick bit about you guys revealing the Golden Gate Bridge as a 'hidden treasure' had such a JJGo feel.

He lives in San Francisco.

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The bums will always lose.

Any other Newsroom fans here?

If there's a more overlooked comedy classic of the past 15 years or so, I don't know what it is.

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The bums will always lose.

I've only listened to a couple episodes of TSOYA via podcast in the past, and they all tended to be about 30 minute one on one interviews (with a little over 5 of those being promotional, intros, etc..) so it's hard for me to tell what's changed from TSOYA to Bullseye, and what's just a result of me listening to incomplete (I'm guessing) podcast episodes.

BUT I just wanted to say that I LOVE this new format. "The Song That Changed My Life" is a concept that I've always been fascinated by (this similar book is a favorite) and the way you do it is great. The interviews with Daniel Handler and the Sklar Bros were great, especially considering my previous lack of interest in them. Great episode, I can't wait to go back and listen to the rest of them.

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I do a film podcast.

HUGE Newsroom fan here. Whenever I have occasion to say "Holy shit," I have to forcibly stop myself from adding "Jim Wolcott" afterwards.

I saw that Bullseye made the "Staff Favorites" list today on the iTunes podcast page. Nice work guys.

Cool episode, especially Daniel Handler. I've never read any of his books but he sure is good at talking to Jesse.

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- Women sense my power.

I picked up a "Newsroom" VHS box set years ago at Half-Price Books. I remember liking, but not loving it. Maybe I should bust it out again.

Just catching up on my Bullseyes, so I'm a little late to this party. I consider The Newsroom to be the best television show (excluding sketch comedy series like SCTV and Kids in the Hall) ever produced in Canada. That being said, it's not for everyone. If you like The Office, Curb (as Jesse mentioned) or, I would add, Larry Sanders, you'll probably like The Newsroom.