[MUSIC]

Hi, welcome back to the SPS Shortlist. This is William Moran. Today we’re going be interviewing Tuco Dixon. He’s a big TV show kind of connoisseur TV shows up as far to say that he’s just the absolute person you want to listen to if you’re looking for a TV show to watch. So without further ado, Tuco:

TD: My favorite TV show if I had to pick one would have to be Community created by Dan Harmon. But I would also like to mention, the TV shows Archer, I’d like to mention Family Guy. So let’s get into what’s good about these shows.

Okay, well, what’s good about Community? So let’s just start with let’s start with Dan Harmon. He’s  a very talented writer, so you’re gonna hear a lot about Dan Harmon because while he might be hard to work with, but something that he’s kind of notorious for, he really knows how to produce his content — his shows are really, really great. It cements Community’s place as one of my favorite shows. I can watch so many of these episodes, just over and over again. It really never gets old. Because the writing is just so smart. You’re going to discover new things, every single time that you’re watching this TV show.

Archer, I like for a very different reason. Although there’s somewhat similar comedy, what I like about Archer: first of all, it’s excellently animated, it’s very realistic, and it’s very ahead of its time in animation. Additionally has some of the greatest run-on jokes that you could ever find in any TV show.

Moving on to Family Guy a while so family guys, not a great TV show. Okay, we’re gonna be honest here. Family Guy is not great. But it’s really efficient, if you look at it from that way. The amount of jokes told in every episode of Family Guy has to be in the hundreds, and so if you think about it, you know, his batting record is probably 10% but 10% of 110 laughs every episode, with every episode lasts 20 minutes. That’s basically a laugh every two minutes. And that’s not a bad day. And so Family Guy was really diminished in the recent years. I really just like when I’m playing Xbox with my friends, when I’m jamming or whatever, you know, I turn on Family Guy, because Family Guy, you don’t have to pay attention to and then it’s just gonna catch you off guard with these little things.

So what I really value with Family Guy is, one, I think it’s the greatest background noise that any person could have. You don’t have to focus on it at all and it’s just gonna snap; it’s gonna hit you in the face, and you’re going to be laughing. Second, it’s just really efficient. And additionally, you have to admire? No, because no one cares about what happens to Family Guy. They’re going to do whatever they want, which is really clear with the quality of the show and what they do in it. Like they’re just crazy people.

TD: Coming back to Community, comparing these two shows, these two shows both to whoever they want, but they do it for two completely different reasons: Community has such high expectations that they’re going to do whatever they want, that they have to do, like these outlandish things. Because they’re Community but because no one expects anything from Family Guy, there’s no expectations from a Family Guy so they will just do whatever they want. They’ll do whatever they think is funny.

I discovered this back… so I first watched Community, maybe back in 2019. I was fine with it. I really liked Archer when I first watched all but I didn’t completely get it. I’ve liked Family Guy for a very long time.

TD: You know, in middle school, if you watch if you just watch Family Guy, you’re a cool kid, right? You’re cool for watching Family Guy because inappropriate. I mean —  it’s really not I mean — totally inappropriate. In like, an absurd way. Like that. They just do crazy things sometimes, but like, I first watched me 2019 I was fine with it. But then, like 2020 2021 No 2020 For sure.
I was like “Hey, mom, let’s watch Community. And so this is a show that me and my mom watched together. So not only do I have very fond memories — because it’s an extremely good show, it’s just very well done –but additionally, I have all these memories of just you know, being with my mom tied to it. Because family got or family is a really important thing to me when I’m enjoying a really great TV show. Like community I get to watch with my mom I get to enjoy this experience with someone that means a lot to me. And this is true for a lot of my family members.

So who introduced me to Community… well, no one really introduced me to Community; is was kind of my idea to watch with my mom. I heard good things about it from like… I’ve seen some YouTube videos that were talking a little bit about it. I didn’t really know much about it, but I watched. We just started watching it and it was just so fantastic but knowing really introduced me to it.

TD: On the other hand, my mom introduced me to Archer and that show I probably have watched more than any other show just because it’s just so easy for me to enjoy. I can just turn it on. And it just clicks; it’s so fast. It’s like it’s so fast like button a completely different way from like I because it’s so thoughtful and meticulous with the way that its comedy is constructed. It’s a really smart show. There’s just some crazy stuff in Archer that is great.

TD: So moving on to what genre they’re all comedies: Community is more of a sitcom, Archer is like a workplace comedy, but it’s about you know, a spy agency with a twist and Family Guy… well, I don’t need to get into that.

Favorite episodes? That is so hard to say for Community — just like something with Troy or Ovid? It would have to be a video game episode where they’re playing a video game. But like literally there’s just too many moments in Community to single anyone out.

My favorite moment from Archer? That’s also really, really hard. But I like in Season two, Episode two, when Sterling [Archer’s mom] Mallory is planning on selling ISIS — ISIS is the name of the spy agency, it’s not like the terrorist group — she’s planning on selling ISIS to Odin, a rival spy agency. And they’re sitting… Sterling and his friends Pam, Cheryl, Krieger her of course, they’re all sitting in the meeting room, and they’re making a plan on how they’re going to stop this sale from happening. It’s one of my favorite back and forthsthey have. Cyril’s like popping these pills and Cheryl calls him out. He says, “These are from a doctor. And Cheryl says “Well, Krieger’s a doctor.” And Cyril says “Not the medical kind.” and Krieger comes in and he says “Not even the other kind.”

There are just these wonderful paradoxes that Archer creates within it. Like, for example, when Cyril tells are sure that they have that Lana and Cyril will eat stir fry on Friday, so stir fry on Fridays, and he asks Archer what he thinks they call it and Archer says “stir Friday” which is like the obvious answer that anyone who would think of, right? And Cheryl says, “Oh, that’s actually better.”

Like, what? What did they call the day before Archer said stir Friday, right? Like that’s just… it’s just so smart.