WE MISS YOU BARRON

Barron Blackman, a good friend and former business partner passed away recently. Many knew him affectionately as "Bar".  For fans of Rob and Bill's Talkshow he was known as the creative whip who made sure Rob and Bill actually completed a show.

Everyone who knew Barron knew that he was very creative and talented but few people really knew that he was the very reason Rob and Bill ever made it to Network television at NBC.  It was Barron who laughed at the early tapes and actively pushed the 2 friends from Winston Churchill High School to get off cable access (as well as the couch) and make the jump to network television.

Barron was the firecracker who helped the boys get picked up by NBC, ESPN, Sci-Fi Channel, a national talent firm and a really great law firm in Los Angeles.  It could be said that Barron is the reason that Rob and Bill's odd blend of creativity was unleashed on the world. 

Now, Whether that is good or bad is left to everyone's own opinion but one thing is not in doubt and that is that Barron Blackman was a highly talented and energetic friend. He was as gifted behind the production set as he was on stage and in front of the camera.  His laughter, intellect and wit was inspiration to all who knew him.

Bar, you will be truly missed.
We love you and while your final curtain call has gone down you will always hold a special place in our hearts.

May God Bless you!

LINK TO YOUTUBE TRIBUTE TO BARRON
Barron's Tribute

Reality TV and Sexism

Has society gone over the top with political correctness or should we be concerned with sexism today? And is it really sexism if the person being sexified approves? And is sexified a word?  And is it sexist if cats stare at other cats purely as objects?  So many questions and so little time.

Rob and Bill did an entire reality episode on the topic of sexism.  This is true reality.
CLICK HERE
Rob and Bills TalkShow Sexism Episode Pt.1

Earth Day Part 2

OK, so the first Earth Day post didn't catch Bill with his shades off because Bill is always with shades. It's like 2 things that always go together -- baseball and apple pie, Earth Day and green stuff, Lady and GaGa. In any case, this part of the show really has something very significant to offer the viewers in terms of ways to help the world learn to be more environmentally responsible. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle -- People, Planet, Profit -- Homer, Simpson, Re-runs. Really important stuff.

And so, Earth Day part deuce...

Earth Day Part One

Happy Earth Day! It's amazing what scientists can do these days. They have actually pinpointed that today is the actual day that the earth began with a big bang at the hand of the mighty creator. Amazing. It's like CSI for the beginning of time. Now if they can only figure out when and where Spam came from all would be right with the world.

Needless to say Rob and Bill have always been at the cutting edge of taking care of their planet mother earth. Why just last week Rob was seen petting a fern. This post highlights the first time Rob and Bill decided to feature the big blue planet and bring attention to Earth Day as an event. Here is part one and the show open where Rob attempts to catch Bill for the first time ever without his shades.

Death And Taxes

So it's that time of year again where we voluntarily give the fools in Washington DC our money so they can waste it on $900 toilets and $300 cheese. One thing is for sure, since the Boston Tea party Americans have become so busy that we barely even think about how much money we give away despite the endless reports on how much waste politicians can keep producing. We've even forgot that we will actually die some day.

Rob and Bill know that there are 2 things in life that none of us will escape, death or taxes. Rob and Bill decided to educate us all on the importance of a deeper understanding of both. April 15th is coming soon so don't delay. errr, uhhhh....don't delay in paying your taxes. You can delay the death part as long as possible but in the end, you will have to pay the grim reaper both.

Macro Dog - Close Up and Personal

What is funnier than food? Nothing really. Americans eat just about anything and it should be celebrated. Some cities are thinking of boycotting meat one day a week but Rob and Bill think that's anti American. Perhaps in those tofu towns it would make more sense to put chili on broccoli and add bacon to the green beans. Rob and Bill celebrate funky food, with or without meat, for or against tofu, and with or without extra fat. Today we celebrate the Macro Dog.

Back to School - Cool Words And How To Use Them

It's the new year and kids everywhere have gone back to school. Sometimes after the holiday break they pick up new lingo, phrases, and words. Every once in a while a word will stick. Like dude. Who invented that word anyway dude? Dude, man. Dudeman. It can be used so many ways to convey so many emotions.

One day Rob and Bill ran into a dude man who gave us all a lesson on how words can be used and how cool words can be if they are put in the right place the right way. Listen up class, professor Dallas is teaching...

ROB

Isn't Rob kinda like "Madonna" now? I mean, when you say it, people the world over just know who it is. Rob. What else is there. Surely nobody thinks of a material girl or an iron bra but they must think of things like fortune cookies. Right?

Anyway, here are the top 5 Rob-isms...

1. Always use your condiments.

2. They see us, they know us they love us, it's all about talk show staff badges.

3. Is Mr. Potato Head fried?

4. Hey, watch that pickle Mr.

5. Isn't a moldy mushroom redundant?

Amazing New Language Discovery on Frat Row

On every college campus there are fabulous organizations called Fraternity's. Often times the greatness of these intellectual groups of men go overlooked but Rob and Bill discovered how language is often developed within the walls of these fine establishments.
This clip highlights where the phrase, "Cling," originated. Since the beginning of time, man has been looking for a word to define this characteristic of human male behavior and Rob and Bill's investigative reporting uncover this amazing word fact.
Enjoy.

Pull Rob's Nob

OK, so we invented a segment called, "Rock Review of the Week," and met a bunch of cool and insane musicians. Some of them, like Rod Abernathy of Arrogance and about a thousand other bands, had toys. This one we found quite interesting so we did an interview with the toy. So cutting edge it is hard to imagine. The toys name was Rob, imagine that...

Back To School -- Street People

Every year in every town in America it is "back to school" time. We love that time of year and always had fun leaving the television studio and going out into the world to see what was happening as school was about to start. Colorful characters appeared almost everywhere we went and this particular afternoon was no exception. Meet Berferd.

Weird Man

Several years ago, actually before reality TV proliferated the airwaves, we met with a television executive in Los Angeles. As we were discussing double cheeseburgers, the saltiness of fries and the potential to syndicate Rob and Bill's TalkShow, he told us that he thought we should film in a studio behind a desk like "traditional" talk shows. For some reason he didn't think that people would ever watch reality TV. He said the public was just too sophisticated to watch television that wasn't high quality production value and not scripted. I guess the public became less sophisticated.

Rob and Bill "lived outside the box," "broke the TV rules," "changed the game," "shifted paradigms" and a bunch of other over used business bingo phrases.

Take "Weird Man." Now that was just plain old unscripted genius and reality fun.

Back to School - The A,B,C's

Whoa. So, some trojan virus snuck into the Rob and Bill computer and sucked the life out of the hard drive and the blogging was temporarily halted. maybe it was the pig flu? Heaven forbid that Rob and Bill could not blog. No burgers, no fries, no greasy buckets of chicken. Sorry for the lack of drivel but with all the pap on television you had plenty to do. Now where were we?....

Oh yeah, from our back to school episode we found this amazing talent.
I wonder if Elmo heard this guy if he would be on Sesame street or Talk Soup?

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)