F**kface Blindside
Bonus · published 2023-06-17 · archive #184

[0:00:09] Geoff: Hello, and welcome to what these idiots think is another episode of the F**kface Podcast. It should be 158, but it's not episode 158. It's a brand new show that we're doing on F**kface called Blindside. Gavin and Andrew, guess what? You just got blindsided. Eric?
[0:00:28] Andrew: Is this a fever dream? What? Is this related to Chungle?
[0:00:32] Geoff: Congratulations. You thought we were going to be doing another episode of the F**kface Podcast, but we're not. We're going to be playing Blindside. It's a new show where I have you watch something, and you don't have a f**king choice. You have to watch it with me. Today, we're going to be watching the 1986 episode, season 2, episode 16 from January 31st, 1986 of Mr. Belvedere. It is called Wesley's Friend. That's all I'm going to tell you. Wait a second.
[0:00:57] Andrew: We can go ahead and get started. Oh, no. I have a few questions before, please. Was this what we were supposed to do last week? Yes, it is. This has been moved three times.
[0:01:06] Geoff: So, that's why you guys have been blindsiding me over and over and over to get it, and you have no idea. Just been mad about this for weeks.
[0:01:16] Gavin: That's why you've refused to put less than two calendar invites in every week since this.
[0:01:22] Geoff: I have been so mad. I was so mad when Andrew was. We were right there about to do it, and Andrew said, I don't feel like doing two today, which is fine. You were sick. I understood. And then Eric changed the fucking schedule from yesterday to today because he had family from out of town. A show where I blindside you idiots with something, and instead you blindsided me over and over to the point where I almost didn't want to fucking do it anymore. But I said, it's today or nothing. We're going to watch Mr. Belvedere together. All I'm telling you about this episode is that it's called Wesley's Friend. Have you ever seen Mr. Belvedere? Andrew? Andrew. No, but the name sounds very familiar for some reason. Gavin.
[0:02:00] Gavin: No, I feel like I've heard the name. Never seen a single frame of it. Nick. Not even a little bit, no.
[0:02:06] Geoff: Eric? Yes. Okay. It ran for six seasons. It was on ABC. It ran from like 1984 to 1990. So like those six seasons. And this would be season two. The premise of Mr. Belvedere is this guy, Mr. Belvedere, is a British gentleman who comes over to America. He used to work for, I think, Winston Churchill. He comes over to America and he becomes like a butler, like house helper for this American family of the dad is Bob Euchre. He's like a sports commentator. The mom is cool. And then there's an older son who's in high school, a daughter who's in middle school, and a son, the youngest son, whose name is Wesley. He's like nine or ten. And he's like a Dennis the Menace, like Bart Simpson type character, pre-Bart Simpson, obviously. Just like a little like, little like rapscallion kid who's always like up to, he's always scheming. He's a schemer. He's always up to no good. He's always doing, he's always breaking the rules. And I was desperate to be him when I was a kid. He was like my hero.
[0:03:08] Geoff: Okay. And there we go. I'm ready to start whenever you guys are.
[0:03:11] Eric: You guys are going to have to let me know how the volume is because I haven't tested this in particular.
[0:03:15] Gavin: What are the rules when it comes to cooling a blindside? Like can we now all blindside each other? You're all able to blindside.
[0:03:21] Eric: Okay. We all got one in the chamber. Yeah. I mean, you can work with me and Nick if you need to, but if you need to do your own blindside without us, then you're welcome to do that as well. Well, it's great. Okay. I'm excited about this.
[0:03:32] Andrew: How does it feel to be blindsided? I'm glad that it happened this week and not last week. I don't think I would have processed what being blindsided meant at all. I would have thought I just missed something.
[0:03:45] Geoff: It was clear you weren't up to it, so we pushed it.
[0:03:48] Andrew: I'm excited about this. I feel like there's a possibility. I've seen Mr. Belvedere. We'll find out it's just a black screen currently. I'm very curious as to why we are watching episode 16 of season two specifically.
[0:04:00] Geoff: Well, you'll find out soon. I just think it's a pretty good one. Interesting subject matter. Gavin, I want you to pay special attention. Mr. Belvedere is British. He's a famous British person you may or may not have ever heard of. And this show has a phenomenal intro song. So when it comes up, pay special attention. It's a really good song. I have one question.
[0:04:21] Gavin: Yeah. Did they ever put this episode on vinyl?
[0:04:25] Eric: I don't believe they did. I don't think so. I don't think so.
[0:04:29] Gavin: Interesting.
[0:04:30] Eric: Okay, please let me know if the volume's okay. And here we go now.
[0:04:40] Unidentified: Yeah. It's the 80s, so everything is vaguely homophobic. Yeah. Do you guys know... There's Wesley. Do you guys know who Bob Uecker is? No. Yeah. No. Oh, man.
[0:05:41] Unidentified: I thought that was Belvedere.
[0:05:47] Geoff: The joke is he's a British butler, but he's seven. Yeah. He's really excited about...
[0:05:53] Unidentified: That's Mr. Belvedere. Oh, okay. Do you recognize Mr. Belvedere, Gavin? Is he famous in England? I don't recognize him.
[0:06:18] Geoff: Bob Uecker is just as much of a national treasure as Don Zimmer was, and we should get into Uecker at some point. I agree. Yeah. Is he padded up, or does he just look like... Yeah.
[0:06:29] Unidentified: I was going to say, he seems very stiff. I don't know. He moves like an action figure. Oh, what? Wait, what? Wait, somebody has AIDS? Kid just dropped an AIDS bomb. Right into the intro?
[0:06:58] Gavin: That's the hook? This is a sitcom, and they just... What's happening?
[0:07:08] Unidentified: Oh, no. Jeff, why are you making us watch this? It's Mr. Belvedere, man. He's the best.
[0:07:18] Geoff: Okay. And I think it's important to see how we dealt with things like AIDS in the 80s. Did Mr. Belvedere deal with AIDS? Is that... Do we need to credit him medically? I wonder whatever happened to Bryce Beckham. I wonder if he had a career after this. He was so good as Wesley. Bobby Uecker's name looks like a typo. Oh, definitely. Have you ever seen the movie Major League, Gavin?
[0:07:44] Gavin: No.
[0:07:44] Geoff: Oh, that's my favorite movie. Bobby Uecker's great in it.
[0:07:48] Eric: That's one of mine, too.
[0:07:49] Gavin: Is this a super rich family? I don't think so.
[0:07:51] Eric: No, this is just how things were in the 80s.
[0:07:54] Andrew: Yeah. So he hitchhiked there, and now he lives with them for some reason?
[0:07:59] Unidentified: Thanks, God.
[0:08:04] Eric: This is a pretty successful blindside, Jeff.
[0:08:07] Geoff: Yeah, I wanted to blindside you in a lot of ways. I don't think anyone's more blindsided than Danny, though.
[0:08:12] Unidentified: That's a tough... That's a big blindside. It's usually... What's he doing with AIDS? What's he doing? He does? Does he? That's very specific. Also, you can't have chewing gum? Oh, nothing's good. Yeah, getting caught with chewing gum is bad, apparently. Could you...
[0:08:55] Andrew: For the rest of his life, you'll remember this moment in that outfit. Yeah.
[0:09:10] Unidentified: I can see, Jeff, why this was your hero. Oh, he's my hero, man. It's a lot like shoplifting. That's pretty close. Are we, like, six minutes into this? Yeah, it's a...
[0:09:51] Geoff: It's a doozy.
[0:09:53] Unidentified: It's brutal. It's real rough.
[0:10:00] Geoff: After this episode, which I have watched twice to get ready for this, I watched... I just let it run, and I watched, like, 20 other episodes. They're all way funnier than this one.
[0:10:10] Unidentified: Oh, yeah? That's not shocking. Yeah. Why? I guess is my main reason so far.
[0:10:24] Andrew: Is this a thing where, like... Why does he have AIDS? No, like, why did they decide to make this? Well, that was a plug. Is this a phase of, like, sitcom episodes where characters get AIDS as, like, an educational tool? Like, what was the reason?
[0:10:38] Geoff: Yeah, this is how we handled complicated subjects in the 80s when there wasn't shit like the internet, and you had to explain to people what they were.
[0:10:46] Gavin: Yeah, like, that really bummer episode of Fresh Prince where it's all about, like, drink driving and stuff.
[0:10:51] Eric: Yeah.
[0:10:52] Geoff: Exactly. Or, like, the 21 Jump Street about AIDS. Or the Quincy about AIDS.
[0:10:57] Eric: Like, very special episodes was just what we did with TV.
[0:11:03] Geoff: Yeah. It really was a big... It seems silly now, but it really was a... This was a very special episode of Mr. Belvedere, and that was code for we're dealing with something that's very culturally tumultuous and difficult.
[0:11:17] Unidentified: Yeah.
[0:11:17] Geoff: Maybe Fauci will walk into the house. Dude, he was still fucking... He was fucking working in his job back then. Yeah, he works on AIDS.
[0:11:25] Unidentified: Yeah. Yeah. Against AIDS. They're just doing other stuff in this episode also, and that's crazy.
[0:11:40] Gavin: Has Mr. Belvedere moved his arms yet?
[0:11:45] Geoff: British people don't move their arms, Gavin. You know that. They keep them sturdily at their sides.
[0:11:56] Unidentified: Ew.
[0:12:08] Andrew: It is an interesting thing of, like, we're going to cover AIDS, but also let's find room for fun.
[0:12:13] Eric: Yeah, it's still a sitcom, right? I mean, like, this is why there's a writer's strike, right? Like, to be able to do this and move between your A story and then your insane B and C stories is, I mean, not easy.
[0:12:28] Geoff: I was wondering if putting this on would... Jesus. ...would completely floor you guys and leave you tongue-tied, and I think it has. I'm kind of happy about that. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
[0:12:40] Gavin: I'm blindsided to the moon.
[0:12:42] Geoff: That's kind of what I was going for.
[0:12:43] Unidentified: Yeah. Uh-oh, Kev. Always use his arm. Wait. This is the AIDS kid? Yeah. Oh, God. Jesus! It's honestly that moment that I wanted to watch this show. Wow! They gave this kid AIDS and a deviated septum. It's so unclear. Oh, this is tragic. Yeah. It's really sad. Oh, my God.
[0:13:37] Andrew: Was Danny a regular character to this point? I don't...
[0:13:42] Unidentified: That's a great question, and I don't know the answer. I bet he wasn't. Wesley doesn't want to touch it, because, yeah. You didn't do anything wrong, Danny.
[0:14:09] Geoff: It's just Wesley's prejudice. And it's just fear. He doesn't understand.
[0:14:14] Eric: But that was, like, such a big thing, right? Like... Yeah. Remember? Was it, like, Princess Diana?
[0:14:18] Geoff: Yeah. It was a big deal when she touched... Yeah, when she came and, like, hugged and embraced people with AIDS. Yeah. Yeah. It actually did a lot of good in the world at that moment.
[0:14:29] Eric: But, again, because at this point, we needed very special episodes. On how to handle this stuff.
[0:14:36] Geoff: I just think it's, like... This was mentioned on Reddit recently, and I went down a rabbit hole of reading about it, and then remembering how much I love Mr. Belvedere, and watching all the funny episodes of Mr. Belvedere, the show's still great. But I just couldn't get over, like... I had forgotten about how this is how we used to deal with stuff as a society, and at least in America. And I thought it was just kind of, like, a fascinating look back not that long ago.
[0:15:01] Eric: Plus, Gavin's right. He has not moved his arms, like, at all. No, he opened the door.
[0:15:06] Andrew: He's so stiff.
[0:15:07] Eric: But, like, it's so low. Like, a door is so low. He's a big man. You know what I mean? Like...
[0:15:13] Gavin: Yeah. Maybe that's butlering 101 is... Lock up the arms.
[0:15:23] Unidentified: Oh. I would love to talk to someone who...
[0:15:40] Andrew: Who... This was their introduction to what AIDS is. Like, this was the conversation.
[0:15:45] Geoff: You might... You might be. Like, part of why I wanted to watch this is because this is one of the first times I remember hearing about AIDS.
[0:15:54] Eric: Oh, wow.
[0:15:55] Geoff: Yeah. I was 11, maybe, when this came out. 10 or 11. How new was AIDS when this came out?
[0:16:01] Eric: Well, this was 80... Probably, what? 85?
[0:16:04] Geoff: 86, I think, yeah. January of 86.
[0:16:07] Eric: So, this was, like... I think it had been, what, in the news for, like, a few years at this point, but, like...
[0:16:14] Geoff: Probably about four or five years.
[0:16:15] Eric: Yeah, and it became a culturally, like, really significant thing at this point.
[0:16:20] Geoff: This was definitely, like, right at the ramping up of the height of the irrational hysteria. Yes.
[0:16:29] Andrew: So, when you watch this, or something like this, was it... Were you aware that this was going to be a special, like, one-off, very specific episode? Or were you just... Were you blindsided in the same way Gavin and I were?
[0:16:44] Geoff: No, they were promoted as, like, coming up on Thursday on a very special episode of Mr. Belvedere, Wesley's friend deals with a complicated medical mystery, or something like that, you know?
[0:16:55] Eric: It would be that, and then they would cut in moments from the episode of, like, little pull quotes, and it was probably, like, dealing with something very difficult, and then it would be a hard cut of the kid going, I got AIDS, but other than that, I'm okay, and it would be like, oh, what the fuck? That's just... Shit was crazy. TV, insane in the 80s. Crazy.
[0:17:16] Gavin: I mean, I just watched three adults try and dance around anal in front of a kid.
[0:17:25] Geoff: It's like, they would do this, or they would have after-school specials. That was the other way we presented stuff. Like, I learned about bulimia and anorexia from an after-school special. I remember, like, I remember watching it and being like, oh, that's what those things are. I had no idea. And these were, I mean, I think these were pretty culturally important sitcoms like this and the way they handled stuff, because there really was so much paranoia and so much misinformation. I mean, I was Wesley's age when this came out, you know, essentially. And we didn't really know about... I mean, our parents weren't telling us shit. Nobody watched the news. It was boring for old people. So this is how we found out about stuff.
[0:18:06] Andrew: So, from a content perspective, is it, is it, they're gonna, people are gonna listen to us watch this episode and they will sync up, or what is...
[0:18:29] Eric: I think so. Yeah. I'll put the link in the description.
[0:18:33] Geoff: We're just watching a YouTube video. Like, it's just a YouTube, yeah. I just didn't know. I didn't know if we were including Mr. Belvedere on our channel. No. I don't know that we'll even release this. This is just a test. I just wanted to see how it went. Back to our quirky B story.
[0:18:49] Eric: Yeah, the B, like, oh my God.
[0:18:52] Geoff: The B story is, Kevin's doing girl stuff, but it's okay, he's not gay.
[0:18:58] Eric: That's definitely what this is. It's 100% what this is.
[0:19:02] Geoff: It's just so, it's, it's no wonder so many people, like, it's no wonder my generation's all fucked up.
[0:19:07] Unidentified: Yeah. God damn. Oh, he's moving his arms. He can when he absolutely must. But only when he absolutely must. Oh, he stopped again. What is the matter? Ugh. No. That's fucking heartbreaking. That's, that's, that's really rough. Ugh.
[0:20:02] Geoff: It's weird to think that, like, at least this generation, but probably others, but at least my generation, we learned our morality from fake families on TV. Yeah. I mean, it's a useful place to learn about shit, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, I guess. I guess it is. Kevin made that. Kevin made it.
[0:20:25] Gavin: He looks like the fourth doctor.
[0:20:26] Eric: A soupy sales reference. Awesome.
[0:20:39] Geoff: I thought about, because I watched so many episodes of Mr. Belvedere, I thought about making you guys just watch a really funny good one, but that didn't seem like as much of a blindside as you started, uh, this is giving me great ideas for other blindsides. Good. Yeah. I want you guys to blindside the shit out of each other and me as well. What the fuck is going on?
[0:21:10] Andrew: Can you imagine Lincoln on spring break in Tijuana? I'm just imagining if that was the hat he wore when he got killed.
[0:21:17] Unidentified: I was going to say I can't now.
[0:21:19] Gavin: Oh, yeah. See, he's one of the ones that got bipped, isn't he?
[0:21:21] Geoff: Lincoln at the donkey show. Yeah. Oh, God. They gave that poor little kid the worst glasses and haircut on earth.
[0:21:33] Eric: Oh, I think that's just probably what he looked like.
[0:21:36] Unidentified: Looks like a little Rick Moranis. Yeah, he does. Come on, Wesley. I got to look out for number one over here.
[0:21:59] Eric: Jesus, this is.
[0:22:00] Andrew: Oh, the concept of like him growing up and then reflecting on like these.
[0:22:05] Unidentified: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
[0:22:25] Eric: That's awesome. Oh, my God. Dude, that's a movie. Don't blindside us with Porky's, please. We can't. No, we can't. No, no, no.
[0:22:34] Geoff: Oh, dude, it's. Oh, no. It is a movie that did that wasn't aging. Well, when it was coming out. I saw it when I was seven, maybe. Way like about 15 years too young. I would love to. I would.
[0:22:52] Gavin: I can't imagine this happening in England where everyone gets up and dresses up as old prime minister. They don't do this in England. We don't really glorify our politicians like this.
[0:23:04] Geoff: Dude, I would say that every American, including the other two Americans on this podcast, have had to wear a Pilgrim uniform or a President Lincoln uniform at least twice in their childhood.
[0:23:18] Unidentified: Oh, there he is. Please be John Wilkes Booth. He fucking lost the plot. When did school go out of fashion? That's a great. That's a great question. Yeah, it is. Yeah. See, he learned and now he's teaching us. I'd like to think so. I've seen this episode a bunch.
[0:24:20] Unidentified: This is great because Danny is in every way a kid. I can learn that. You see the boom, Mike? The boom.
[0:24:30] Geoff: What Danny is wearing there is a members-only jacket. That is what every kid in America wore in 1986.
[0:25:00] Unidentified: Look at that big-ass peanut. Wesley looks like a croupier. Or a flamingo dancer. They both look like tiny adults.
[0:25:25] Eric: They don't have the proportions of children or something. They look strange. Yeah. Maybe it's like the way the clothes fit. Yeah. Well, they say the camera adds 10 years.
[0:25:44] Geoff: I'm so glad we don't have haircuts like that anymore. Right. Should we all do it? For summer of 98? Maybe if we do a summer of 89 someday, we'll do a bowl haircut.
[0:26:06] Unidentified: Yeah, they're going to Gettysburg. Of course, Wesley would be the South.
[0:26:11] Andrew: So, Danny wasn't a regular before, but now clearly this episode about acceptance and having him around. He'll be in later episodes, right? We'll see Danny again. Won't we?
[0:26:23] Geoff: That's a great question, Andrew. We'll have to tune in to another episode of Blindside to find out again.
[0:26:31] Unidentified: It's okay, Danny.
[0:26:39] Geoff: This is how I learned about British people.
[0:26:44] Andrew: Oh, here it is. If Mr. Belvedere was on tone in the hole, Gavin, how long would he last? Oh, I think he'd last multiple episodes. Really? Wow.
[0:26:58] Geoff: Is this how every episode ended? I wonder if the people in England knew about Mr. Belvedere when it was running in America.
[0:27:06] Eric: Good question.
[0:27:07] Geoff: Is this like Jerry's final thought? Yeah.
[0:27:11] Eric: It was him sort of wrapping it up.
[0:27:13] Geoff: He writes in his diary at the end of every episode. Did he eventually get a laptop? No.
[0:27:20] Unidentified: Mr. Belvedere's not a laptop kind of guy. Too much movement. What the hell?
[0:27:30] Geoff: I hope you all learned something from this episode.
[0:27:35] Andrew: Do you think that Noam Pitlick was really excited to direct that, and then he got the script? He's like, I booked a Mr. Belvedere, because this is big, right? Yeah, it was a big show. Oh, man.
[0:27:46] Geoff: For sure. There you go. That was Mr. Belvedere. A very special episode of Mr. Belvedere. Usually a lot more irreverent. This one was a little serious. But I think it's important, because I wanted to teach you guys a little bit about compassion and understanding. You wanted to teach us about compassion and understanding? Yeah. I feel like you could use a little helping of compassion and understanding. Wow. Thanks, man. No problem. I don't remember that.
[0:28:16] Eric: So, that was F*** Face Blindside. Let's break this down. Let's debrief a little bit.
[0:28:31] Andrew: Initial thoughts? I'm incredibly blindsided. I think the audience should be equally blindsided. I don't think there should be any reference to this existing, and I think it should just come out as is.
[0:28:43] Eric: What do we call it?
[0:28:45] Gavin: You have to call it Face Episode 157, so the audience is also blindsided.
[0:28:50] Eric: So, we are calling it an episode, like, it comes out in place of an episode? I don't know.
[0:28:54] Gavin: And then, after this, Episode 157 Actual should come out.
[0:28:58] Andrew: Well, this is 158, but yeah.
[0:29:00] Gavin: Oh, that's right.
[0:29:02] Andrew: Could there be, like, Episode 157 with, like, an asterisk next to it, maybe, or whatever? 158? Like, a little indication? So, you're saying put out 158.
[0:29:14] Eric: But put this out first.
[0:29:16] Andrew: This is going to release on a Friday, right? So, it won't release on a normal day.
[0:29:20] Gavin: I assume it's a Friday. Put this out as 158. It'll be blindsided for a day. Or it'll be that for a day, and then change the name to Blindside Episode 1.
[0:29:28] Geoff: Okay. I think we might be fucking ourselves over if we... What if we just put it out with no title?
[0:29:36] Unidentified: What do you mean?
[0:29:37] Eric: What do you mean? No, I have to write something. I have to write... There has to be a description and a title. There has to be something.
[0:29:46] Geoff: What if the title is just watch?
[0:29:49] Eric: What? And it's audio?
[0:29:51] Andrew: There's no visual component to it? What if the title is just titles?
[0:29:55] Gavin: These are the kind of ideas that Jeff would bust into my bedroom with back in the day. And I loved it.
[0:30:00] Eric: They're always great. So, what if... I'm going to propose this. When we put this out... I'm not sure the date. We'll have to look at when we can get this edited and turned around and everything. But, what if this comes out? We're not putting it out like when an episode comes out. We'll do it on the Friday-Saturday cadence like we usually do. And we'll put it out, and the title will just be watch. And the description will just be a YouTube link to the Mr. Belvedere episode. And that's it. That's great.
[0:30:26] Gavin: And we need to make it clear to the audience that up until half an hour ago, we thought we were about to record episode 158.
[0:30:34] Eric: Is that what we're doing, then?
[0:30:38] Geoff: I don't know. Or maybe instead of watch, maybe it's like, uh... Listen? What about question mark? Yeah, can you just... Can you put a question mark?
[0:30:48] Eric: I can try.
[0:30:50] Geoff: Maybe just why? If you can't... Why? If you can't just put a question mark, can you write the word question mark?
[0:30:56] Eric: Question mark? Yeah. Okay. Okay.
[0:30:59] Andrew: I'm going to be blindsided in a different language.
[0:31:01] Eric: I'm not putting blindsided in a different language. But blindsided in Chinese.
[0:31:07] Geoff: This is one of those ideas, like Gavin's saying, that I would bust into his room. I'd say about 60% of those ideas never got made. I was really on the fence about this one, and I've had a lot of time to second-guess it since I had the initial idea, because it's about two and a half weeks old now at this point. Right. Is this good enough to release? Is this a good enough idea? Because if you told me no, I would completely understand.
[0:31:30] Andrew: I think it's so weird, it has to. I think that this opens up opportunities for other things. I agree.
[0:31:37] Geoff: I agree. I actually had... I'm not going to do it, but I had a double blindside that I initially planned. You can't double blindside.
[0:31:45] Eric: Yeah, I don't think you can double blindside.
[0:31:47] Geoff: I was going to blindside Eric after the episode with a second episode of a different thing that Eric wouldn't be aware of, so that he was blindsided. But I just figured that was pushing my luck.
[0:31:58] Eric: Yeah, I agree with you.
[0:32:00] Gavin: So we can blindside anyone at any time, or just while we're filming?
[0:32:05] Eric: I think it's got to be when we have recordings set.
[0:32:07] Geoff: Yeah, I think so. I think you just got to clear with Eric or whatever to make sure we've got the space to do it in. Yeah. But I don't want it to be a thing where every time we have to record two episodes, everybody goes in expecting somebody's going to blindside somebody. Although maybe that ushers in a new era of a different kind of paranoia, which could be interesting. We're definitely getting back into our paranoia era.
[0:32:31] Andrew: Yeah, no, I'm definitely, I got some ideas for how to make this blindside work. I got some thoughts.
[0:32:36] Geoff: I definitely have the next blindside I want to do, and I'm fucking jazzed to get to it. Do they all have to be AIDS themed? No. No, they don't have to. They could be. They could be if you wanted, but they don't have to be. The next one was that I'm going to do isn't necessarily AIDS focused. Is it necessarily, but it might be? I mean, it's it could encompass a lot of things. OK, but more than anything, I want this. I just want your creative wheels turning because I I'm excited to think about what Andrew would blindside me with the problem.
[0:33:10] Andrew: So now this is how my brain works. Now I'm not expecting it to be ridiculous in any way or like serious in any way, because you kind of teased it might be serious. So that would no longer be a blindside if you hit me with another. Like if there was a cancer episode of some other show, that wouldn't be a blindside because I kind of anticipate it. Right.
[0:33:30] Geoff: You will not anticipate the next thing I would show. OK, interesting. I can't imagine in. I got some good ideas for a blindside. I got it. I got to figure this out.
[0:33:40] Andrew: We don't have to overdo it.
[0:33:41] Geoff: We might not do another blindside for six months, but it's out there now.
[0:33:45] Andrew: I'm just saying, you know, the wheels are turning.
[0:33:46] Geoff: I wanted to blindside the audience and y'all at the same time. And I had a lot of different choices for what I could have gone with that might have been a little funnier and a little more like, you know, a tuxedo condor man. Sure. MVP two vibes. But I thought going hyper serious in a comedic space would be a little more difficult to navigate.
[0:34:08] Eric: It was more impactful.
[0:34:09] Geoff: Yeah. Yeah.
[0:34:10] Eric: So definitely more impactful.
[0:34:13] Andrew: I guess if you would have asked me when I started the day, what are things I would do during this day? Mr. Belvedere would never be on the list. I agree.
[0:34:24] Geoff: Man, what a fucking cool character. Mr. Belvedere was. Is he just like? Yeah, man, it's just like an awesome, like paternal, like a grandfatherly fucking dude presence in their lives that helps them all keep the train on the tracks and like, because apparently they're, they're dads useless.
[0:34:43] Gavin: Yeah. When he interrupted and totally emasculated the dad in front of the kid, that was great. Yeah. I think you'll find what your dad means.
[0:34:53] Geoff: Mr. Belvedere, he's got a little, he's got a little bit of that British sass in him, you know? Well, he rolls his R's. Is that a, no, let me ask you a question. Is he really British? Oh. Like, does he, do you buy him as British?
[0:35:06] Gavin: I buy him as like a really posh Brit. Okay. I don't think people talk like that necessarily anymore, but I buy him as British. Is he British?
[0:35:15] Geoff: His name is, his name is Christopher George Hewitt and he's an English, he was, he's dead, but he was an English actor and theater director known, best known for his role as Lynn Aloysius Belvedere in the ABC sitcom, Mr. Belvedere.
[0:35:28] Gavin: Aloysius?
[0:35:29] Geoff: Yeah. He was born in, uh, he was born in Sussex, Worthing Sussex.
[0:35:34] Gavin: Okay.
[0:35:35] Geoff: Um, and it has a wife. Uh. What'd he die of? Uh. You will not believe it. A devout Catholic and lifelong bachelor, Hewitt served at St. Victor's Church in West Hollywood. During his later years, he suffered from arthritis and diabetes. He died from complications of diabetes.
[0:35:54] Andrew: The arthritis does check out because it did feel like every time he moved, it aged him 17 years. He did not like movement.
[0:36:02] Eric: I'm on his IMDB page right now because I wanted to see what was up. 1921 and 2001. Rest in peace. Um. It's a picture of him as Mr. Belvedere and there's a video that auto-played right next to it and it's a trailer for a movie called Rat Boy where it's a, it's just a very rat looking boy. Like he looks like a big rat.
[0:36:26] Geoff: And he's in it and he plays like a coach or something, right?
[0:36:29] Eric: It's, yeah, I just don't, it's not what I thought was going to play when I came to his IMDB page and he's dead. I didn't think the trailer for Rat Boy.
[0:36:38] Gavin: Is that the movie that you're bringing to the table, Eric?
[0:36:41] Eric: Are we going to watch Rat Boy? No, I don't want to look at this movie. Oh. This is, I'm watching the trailer and I don't want to see it anymore.
[0:36:49] Geoff: It was directed by Sondra Locke who I have recently read a ton about. That's wild. She was like a long time girlfriend of Clint Eastwood but they never got married. He like cheated on his wife with her and then they were together for like 10 years and he bought her a house and he put her in a bunch of his movies. Like I just watched the movie Any Which Way You Can or Every Which Way, but one of those two, Every Which Way But Loose where he's got the orangutan Clyde that punches people, Clint Eastwood, and she was in that. That's where they fell in love. And then he ended up cheating on her with another woman and started a family with her and then threw her out of the house and left her with nothing and she had to sue him and there was this like crazy lawsuit and she ended up, he ended up like, she ended up like backing off the lawsuit because he gave her, he helped her get a directing deal in Hollywood, like a three picture deal, which is all she wanted to do is direct and then she had a deal for like three years and then they wouldn't green light any of her movies and then she died of cancer.
[0:37:50] Geoff: Oh my God. Wow. It was like she got, like the whole back half of her life got completely fucked over by Clint Eastwood pretty much.
[0:37:57] Gavin: I will say Belvedere didn't, he didn't have a lot of screen time for being the titular character. He did. Well, this was a very special episode.
[0:38:06] Andrew: He also wasn't in a lot of things. I'm surprised he's only in 25 credits for IMDb and out of those 25 credits, he's in the elephant man and rat boy. So he really, he had a thing. He really liked a specific genre.
[0:38:19] Geoff: He was in a lot of TV. Like he was in Fantasy Island. He was in the Mike Hammer show. He was in Murder, She Wrote. He was in Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.
[0:38:28] Eric: Nice.
[0:38:29] Geoff: He was in California Dreams. He was in the Jackie Gleason show. And he almost always played a butler, I feel like. It's what we do. He was like, he was in a made for, he was in an ABC afterschool special where he played the butler in an episode called Seven Wishes of a Rich Kid, whatever the fuck that is. Yeah. Interesting career.
[0:38:54] Eric: So we'll have to discuss blindside and how exactly we want to do it. I think we have it figured out mostly. This was, this is definitely something. I'm kind of speechless as to what we watched.
[0:39:08] Geoff: I feel the same. Yeah. I was going for a little bit of shock and a little bit of awe. There's a lot of that. This is great.
[0:39:16] Andrew: This is a very successful blindside, Jeff. I'd say you nailed it on your first one.
[0:39:19] Geoff: I was also going for a little bit more of a helping of comedy on top of those two things. I don't know if we delivered, but I hope we did in some capacity.
[0:39:29] Andrew: It's a big ask. I know. Drop a kid's AIDS diagnosis and is like, you know what? I think we'll pepper in some good. I feel they failed as well.
[0:39:38] Geoff: Without being disrespectful to the disease or to the people that suffer from it. Right. No, it's definitely a difficult task to undertake.
[0:39:49] Eric: They just get to it in like the first four minutes.
[0:39:53] Geoff: I think it's part of why I wanted to show it to you guys. It's just so it's presented so ludicrously and in such a shocking way. Yeah. That kid walks in and he's like, pretty good. I got AIDS anyway. And you're just like, what?
[0:40:07] Gavin: I've had a lot of people watching at home just spit all over their dinner.
[0:40:10] Geoff: Oh, yeah. Do you think do you think there were more or less than 100,000 spit takes? Oh, way more country. Way more. Because this is back. This is back when shows got numbers. You know, this is back. Yeah. Sitcom like that would pull in like 15, 20 million people. Yeah. Back when there was much less to watch.
[0:40:30] Andrew: If I send you a link, could you share your screen for a minute, Eric? This reminded me of something I saw.
[0:40:35] Eric: Do you want to just send it in the chat here?
[0:40:37] Andrew: Yeah, I'll just post in the chat and then we can watch it through you. So we're synced. This is something that came up. I think it's another great display of like the strange specificity of like TV of that time.
[0:40:49] Eric: Yes. This is definitely what I was talking about when it's this kind of thing. Hang on. Let me get this screen shared here. This is definitely like the example that I would use for this. Okay. And here it comes. And here we go. And here it goes. And hang on now. Here we go. Okay. Three, two, one.
[0:41:18] Geoff: That's a great documentary.
[0:41:19] Andrew: That's a great documentary. I haven't seen that documentary. But just the, I love that, the teasing of like these serious themes. It's really something.
[0:41:29] Eric: It's really like. Just mixed in. It's so, it's great. It's great.
[0:41:34] Geoff: You never, you never do what you were getting when you tuned into your sitcom. Like you're like, I'm going to turn on Tim, the tool man, Taylor. What's he going to, is he going to supercharge his lawnmower with a, with a jet engine this week? No, no. His kid's dying. Oh Lord. Oh, I thought it was going to be related to the dishwasher, but they didn't let that breathe at all. No. No.
[0:41:55] Eric: If it's a T it's in like the TV trope thing of like very special episode is like such a, such a thing, such a thing.
[0:42:06] Andrew: I pulled up the IMDb for the actor that played Danny. He's in like 20 ish things. A lot of them are sitcoms, one episode roles. Do you think that's the worst thing that happened to him as a character he played? Or do you think he played a string of characters that all died in horrific ways as like educational tools? That's a great question. I think I'm going to try to watch every episode that that actor worked for sitcoms.
[0:42:30] Eric: Andrew's blindsides are just going to be that actor in stuff. Yes.
[0:42:34] Geoff: I mean, that's totally, that's totally, uh, that would be totally regulation blindside.
[0:42:39] Andrew: Oh man.
[0:42:40] Geoff: Completely allowable. That's great. Thank you so much, Jeff, for, for, I'm sorry. I accidentally delayed this. No problem, guys. It's no, it's better that you did because it drug out longer. Uh, let me just say, I'm glad that it went, it went about as well as I could have hoped. It didn't go as bad as I feared. I'll say that. And I'm happy, I'm happy to have birthed into the, our universe, a show with which you can now use to fuck me over.
[0:43:06] Andrew: Oh, it's great. And I can't wait to see the audience reaction to this.
[0:43:09] Geoff: Yeah. Everybody, everybody, all five of us are able to blindside whenever it makes sense to the schedule. You just got to go through it, I guess.
[0:43:18] Eric: Yeah. Uh, so can we do two episodes next week? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I guess we, because we do still need to actually need to. Yeah. Okay. I'm sending the invite. Thank you. Just making sure.
[0:43:30] Gavin: Eric, did you change today's calendar invite to blindside?
[0:43:32] Geoff: Just now. Yeah. Do you think it's going to be like, Gavin, this will only apply to you and I, but do you think it's going to be like in, uh, when Achievement Hunter would play GTA and you would call up Lamar to send somebody to, to mug you and you would, and Lamar would be like, can't do it, homie. Uh, somebody else is already on the way to mug him. You think we're going to have, just be stacking up blindsides. You're just never going to be able to find a window.
[0:44:04] Eric: Blindside and, uh, really something, really, uh, Jeff, anything you want to say is the, uh, starter of the blindside.
[0:44:13] Geoff: Thanks for listening to the inaugural episode of the blindside. Uh, we hope to see more and, uh, guess what? You just got fucking blindsided.
