Hitting a Few Buckets

Now that The Masters is over and everyone is thinking about hitting a few buckets out at the range it seemed appropriate to post some early Rob and Bill golfing video. The hosts did not have the cash at that time for ProV1's. Please leave your comments and any instructional tips you might have.

Grease Of The Week

Perhaps there is no segment more universally understood than grease of the week. Franchisees used to think it was a negative slang but no way. Grease means love in Rob and Bill language. Gazillions and gazillions sold means it's good. Either that or there is crack inside the bun. When someone tells you they are tired of bad fast food let's just face the fact that they are lying. There is nothing better on the planet when someone is really hungry (or hungover) and wants to chow down than America's own fast food joy. Here is a little video montage on some of the first greasy segments ever done. Let us know what your favorite fast food is and why.

The World's First 37 Minute TalkShow

Early in the show's life we decided to title the program "The Worlds First 37 Minute TalkShow." That was because when we finished the first show it timed out to be 37 minutes. But more importantly, we didn't have any other title. True genius. So it stuck for a while, even when the episodes were 54 minutes, 43 minutes or 29 minutes. We really weren't sticklers for details at that time. Then one day we decided to do a show with a theme. Seemed like it just happened really. It think it was about the 6th or 7th show on Cable Access. It was called The Brain Dead Episode (more on this episode later). We welcome and encourage any comments on this one for sure. The best comment will get a full blog entry dedicated to the person and the entry.

A Talk Show Without Desks

Seems like every talk show host sits behind a desk. What's up with that? That's like being in school or something. We decided early on that our show was about being out in the streets, with the public, not behind a desk. Our Motto, No Desks. This clip highlights that core belief.

The TalkShow Theme Music

Rob and Bill's TalkShow needed a theme song for the opening of the show because, how could a great show exist without a great opening. We had written a song titled, "I'm Just An Insect on The Windshield of Life," and the tune seemed to have a nice catchy music break that felt fun and silly enough for the show so it stuck. Fans from all around know the the melody line from the song's break (sax played by band member and buddy Doug) because they heard it every week when the show opened. But not everyone knew the entire song or saw the spectacular video that the hosts created one night after hours of sleep deprivation. Here for your enjoyment is the incredible video.

Mold of The Month

In search for new "segments of the Week" this one seemed obvious. Bachelor Refrigerator of the Week was spawned in the first episode and we saw Rob's pickle. It wouldn't be long before we started finding very moldy items left by bachelors that didn't really know that refrigerators should actually be cleaned much less understand the concept that they should throw away old food products. On our second show we found a young bachelor who had some fun things in his fridge other than the 12 pack and the light.

The Great Jumping Spider of Death

The first ever Rob and Bill's TalkShow was a little "loose" even by our own standards since the show was basically total stream of consciousness even for the unconscious. Basically, the show was reality TV long before "reality TV" was on TV showing prepackaged and made up reality. I have never really seen reality where there are producers and camera people lurking behind every door but maybe that's the world we live in today, who knows. This was real reality. Unplanned, unscripted, "gee we should make a show but we don't know what to make it about, who cares, turn on the camera," kind of stuff. Just 2 guys and one cheap home video camera.
The very first night of shooting the very first show ever to air on Cable Access there was a large spider in Rob's house. It was totally distracting so it became the focus of a segment. "Spider of the Week" because of course everything had to be something of the week. The next week after the show aired we had people calling us or stopping us on the street and saying, "Hey dudes, did you guys really air 20 minutes of a trapped spider?" Yes we did. Here's just a piece of that ground breaking video.
(Posted by Bill, for Rob and Bill)

What's Up With The Shades?

People always seem to ask the question, "What's up with the shades?" It' pretty easy, since the dawn of film and television every star has always worn some sort of sunglasses. Duh. Nobody ever asks Brad Pitt, Bono, or Lindsey Lohan why they are wearing shades so why do they always ask us? Rob may be the only 3 letter name with the same instant recognition as Modonna and Bill, well, I mean Bill, ... uh, errrr,.... uh,... um,... well, you get the picture. Shades = Stardom. Either that or it means you have something to hide. And...to be honest, that's more likely the reason we started wearing shades. It wasn't a pre-planned "marketing strategy" it just sort of happened. Besides, Rob and Bill were the marketing "team" and the most that the duo were thinking about at the time was if they should get an apple pie with thier burger and fries.

TV That's Just Stupid Enough

As many people know, it all started at Cable Access. What most people may not know is just how that happened. Seems we were just screwing around playing with video and music and stuff down at the local Raleigh NC cable access studio, (we might have been trying to get a macro shot of a cockroach chasing down a cookie crumb in the back corner of the studio or something, who knows) when the head of the place, "Lisa the Cable Babe" as we later named her blurted out, "Hey, you guys are funny, why don't you do a cable show?" It seemed nuts to us but that's when the wheels started turning.

At the time on cable access God and the Mayor were the 2 most watched programs. Pretty stiff competition. We figured that we could be number 3 for sure. Besides, general television was filled with virtually any idiot babbling on and on about all kinds of things and we thought, "Hey, we're no worse than anyone else," and there you have it. We didn't think we were too stupid, or not stupid enough, we figured that we were just stupid enough. And so, the concept behind our show and our tag line was born. Television That's Just Stupid Enough.