5.09 /// Answering randomly generated questions...

What happens when you let a random topic generator dictate your podcast episode? Join me, Stephen, on Infinite Prattle as I embark on this spontaneous adventure. I'll share my aspirations and dreams for the next two years, from jet-setting travels to America and Japan to climbing the professional ladder with new courses and a potential promotion. Plus, there's a book about my dog in the works, as well as five other writing projects simmering on the back burner. Balancing all this with financial goals like shrinking my mortgage and boosting my savings, this episode is a candid journey through planning, dreaming, and embracing the unpredictable twists of life.

Take a nostalgic trip back in time with a look at the mid-2000s gem, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." This Aaron Sorkin creation, starring Matthew Perry, gave us a tantalizing peek behind the curtain of a fictional sketch comedy show, yet was tragically canceled after just one season. I'll recount my personal connection to the show and how I discovered its charm through a holiday promotion. As I consider revisiting it on Amazon Prime, I'll also touch upon the enduring bonds of friendship with a heartfelt nod to my oldest friend, Louise, whom I've known since nursery school. This episode is a tapestry of reflections on past and present, weaving together the joys of storytelling and cherished relationships.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Random Generator Questions and Goals
• 7:12 Long-Standing Friendships and Cancelled TV Show

Transcript

Stephen: 0:00

Hello, welcome to Infinite Prattle on today's episode. If you saw the live earlier today, I did a bit of a sneak peek and today's episode is just using a random generator to ask me questions.

Stephen: 0:11

So yeah, stay tuned for that. Hello and welcome to Infinite Prattle, Unscrupted, unedited prattle, on everything Hosted by me, Stephen, Listen like, share, subscribe and enjoy the show.

Stephen: 0:39

Happy Sunday to you. If you are indeed listening on a Sunday, I hope this will go okay. If you did see the live video, I did a quick live basically saying how disorganized I am and how messy my room is, and I took my setup apart at the beginning of this week, after recording the last podcast, with the idea of stripping all my workspace down, simplifying it and removing my microphone, trying to get it set up for trying to practice a video podcast. Um, that did not go to plan, uh, basically, um, yeah, I haven't even set my microphone up, so I'm sat holding my own microphone today, uh, so hopefully you'll be able to hear any things like that bouncing around. Um, I will try my best for you. I will try my best.

Stephen: 1:27

Yes there's a day episode, today's episode. Oh, firstly, how are you? I hope you're well. I'm doing all right. Been volunteering today at the Heritage Centre in Crewe for Railway Heritage. So nice interacting with some nice people today and, uh, talking about trains, which I have mixed feelings about anyway.

Stephen: 1:52

Um, yeah, so today's episode is I have just found the first random topic generator and conversation starter thing in Google. Other search engines are available and use the first one just to generate some random topics. Some of them were weird, so I skipped a couple. So this isn't the first three I generated, because some of them were like what does your office look like? Which I thought was really boring and you wouldn't want to know, because it's the same as any office, and some of them were weird. So I picked the first three, which, to be fair, I've only only didn't use four, so this was like probably seven goes, and I've used three out of seven, so that's not bad, is it? So yeah, let's get into that.

Stephen: 2:39

So the three questions are a tv show that you love and want to bring back and why? Now it doesn't say one that was cancelled, the one that just finished. So I'm going to use one that's cancelled, so stay tuned for that. Who is the oldest, who's your oldest friend and how did you meet them? And the last one is what are your goals for the next two years? And I think I'll start with that one. Actually, I think I'll start with the third one I've read out because you know I don't like it when you're in order, that's.

Stephen: 3:08

I'm a I'm a off the cuff kind of like spontaneous person who struggles to tidy his desk, apparently, um yeah, so what are your goals for the next two years? Well, two years is quite a while, isn't it?

Stephen: 3:23

it's like, it's like. Time is weird, isn't it?

Stephen: 3:24

because, like, two years is uh quite a while, isn't it? It's, it's like, it's like time is weird, isn't it? Because, like, two years is a long time, but it also goes past really quickly, like this last year, I think has been. This last year has been super, super quick for me and, um, I, I would say, over the next year I definitely want to go to America, hopefully Japan. So I don't know if I've managed both in the two years, but hopefully. So depends on how much money we have. Um, but I definitely want to fulfill my uh aspirations of going back to america, um, maybe to the east coast again, or even maybe over to california. Uh, me and my mate have been trying to plan a road trip for years, so maybe we'll do both maybe we could go Philly for a few days and then fly over to California.

Stephen: 4:09

Who knows? But I'd love to love to get that planned in and actually accomplish that. We were going to do it this year and we turned 40 last year. We were going to do it for a 40th and decide to postpone it, maybe to the beginning of this year and, lo and behold, it's October. We've done bugger all so and we're 41 this month, sorry, scott.

Stephen: 4:28

Um, yeah, definitely holiday to America, and I'd love to go to Japan. So if we can get over to Japan in the next two years, amazing. If not, a nice couple of holidays somewhere else would be lovely. Um, career wise, I'd just like to have a job. So if I can stay where I am or maybe get a promotion, then fantastic. Um, I'm quite happy with doing what I'm doing at the moment getting loads of getting loads of experience. I am doing a couple of courses. So I'm doing an ebosh course, which is a health and safety course, so I'm doing that next year which I've, which I've wanted for a while, and I I've also considered trying to apply for some other courses. So maybe a bit of an educational journey for work over the next two years.

Stephen: 5:10

I'd like to publish my book. I've written a book about my dog and I'd like to publish that. I'd like to get that sorted and see if we can get that published and actually make progress with the other five books I'm currently writing, because, again, I can't focus on one thing. Yeah, and just make sure I'm paying my bills and try and pay a bit of my mortgage off if I can. I've got a bit of savings and I'm really wanting to try and reduce my mortgage down and pay that off as soon as I can. So, yeah, so, holiday, holiday, some training at work, publish a book and, um, pay some mortgage off, is that?

Stephen: 5:51

unachievable.

Stephen: 5:52

I don't think so. Oh, and probably lose some weight again. Actually I'm gonna throw some, lose some weight there, because fortunately I said I was never gonna get fat again and I'm fat again, so anyway, uh, maybe lose a few stone, at least two, at least two. Keep, keep, keep, keep them aspirations low, steven. Okay, so I'll go. I'll flip back to the TV question now.

Stephen: 6:17

I was thinking about this because I'm literally only just done this. I'm literally done this. The first, the first show that came to my mind, is the one I'm gonna to talk about, but I thought about some others. I thought, well, some that have been cancelled or some that you know just finished, and I think the only one that I would have wanted to bring back, apart from you know one that finished. Normally I love Friends, but like I think that kind of finished in a good place and as much as I'd like to see where them characters are, I think sometimes when they bring it back, it's it's, it's forced. And then the only one other one I'd want to brought back was Frasier, but like that's come back and I actually don't mind it. I've got yet to watch the second season, but yeah.

Stephen: 6:55

I like the first season of that uh, different dynamic and such thing. But yeah, yeah, I enjoyed the first season. So I think for me that would have been the one I would have chosen. Obviously, they've already brought it back, so for me it would be Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Now, this is a program. I don't even know what year this came out. It's got to be way back in like 2007, maybe even 2006. And it starred Matt. Oh my God.

Stephen: 7:31

His name's gone and he played Chandler in Fence. He passed away last year. Or was it this year, matthew Perry? Sorry, yeah, matthew Perry. Was it this year? Was it this year, matthew Perry? Sorry, yeah, matthew Perry. So it was a.

Stephen: 7:46

It was a TV show, um, that was. It was kind of based on like a Saturday Night Live kind of program, so it followed the inception from like the, the previous show, finishing to the writing of the next show and all the political things and all the in-house things that went on in that seven days, and there's a big countdown clock on the wall and, um, it was written by, um, the chap that did, oh my god, aaron Sorkin. He did West Wing and and loads of other stuff. To be fair, he's done so many different things. West Wing, he's written films. I think you've got a few good Matt, a few good men. Yeah, moneyball Hero, I think as well. He's written screenplays for all these things.

Stephen: 8:35

But Studio 16 on the Sunset Strip was a brilliant show and it is. I've just just googled it and it was 2006 to 2007, and, yeah, it was basically a behind-the-scenes look at a sketch comedy show like Saturday Night Live, and I just loved it. It was just brilliant, it was well written. It was dramatic. It flowed well. The characters were, you know, relatable and, if not likeable, watchable. Matthew Perry was great in it. He played one of the writers with some issues, and it's got really good ratings on Internet Movie Database.

Stephen: 9:14

Like a lot of people reviewed it, you know, give it 10, 9 and 10, out of 9 and 10, out of 10, which is great. And it did one season and I believe the reason it didn't do any more was because it didn't get the ratings they were expecting. And I don't know you know what ratings they were expecting, because I think from what they were saying, it was averaging like 30 million viewers or something, but apparently for America that's not great and they wanted 40 million, something like that. I remember seeing something at the time and just thinking that's bonkers, because it's such a good show and I I how I got into it was this um, the pilot episode was given away when Apple used to do that like 12 days of Christmas. They used to give free things away and they give an episode of that away in the 12 days of Christmas and I downloaded it, watched it, thought it was great. It wasn't on TV in the UK at the time, so I can only watch that one episode and I really enjoyed it, yeah.

Stephen: 10:24

I really really liked it. So when it was available to download the whole lot, I watched it. And then I was waiting for the new season to come out and I think it had been like 6 or 7 months and I was thinking it's been well over a year since that last season. And then I googled it and it was like, yeah, it's been cancelled. And I was well disappointed because it was just such a good show, um, the characters in it, um, yeah, just just the whole, you know, the whole whole cast. So Matthew Perry played um one of the writers, um Bradley Whitford, um, he played another writer and producer I think he was just a producer, I don't think he did writing and Amanda Peet's in it, steven Weber, sarah Poulsen Like loads of people, like recognisable faces. And DL Hewley, yeah, steven Weber. Yeah, I've said Steven, haven't I faces? And, uh, d d l hugh hughley, uh, steven, yeah, steven weber, yeah it's just I said steven, I'm not, uh, he'll send it, that you'd recognize.

Stephen: 11:30

Oh, it's just loads. It's just loads. It's just a great show, um, yeah, and it's just very. It's just very, uh, well written and very much an Aaron Sorkin, if you like the West Ring. I mean, I've never really seen the West Ring, but I've seen bits of it and it's very written, obviously in that style because it's the same guy. But it's just very fast-paced, very witty subtext and, yeah, just great. And I was pretty good when I I realised, when I googled it, um, that it hadn't been, hadn't been renewed. Um, pretty gutted, really pretty gutted. Um, yeah, it still makes bit sad now and I'm going to re-watch it. Actually I might re-watch it. I've not seen it in ages because I saw it when it was out, so I watched it at the time and a few years later I re-watched it, but yeah, I think it's on Prime Video at the moment, actually the whole season.

Stephen: 12:40

I've said I've put it on iTunes, but I think it might be on Amazon Prime. I don't know. But anyway, if you get a, chance to watch it, then watch it. If you like the West Wing and stuff like that, I don't think you'll be disappointed. Yeah, it's good behind the scenes of a show, how that goes about as well.

Stephen: 13:04

I enjoyed that side of it too.

Stephen: 13:08

And the last question. What is the last question? Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes, oh yes. Who is your oldest friend and how did you meet them? Okay, so I'm quite lucky.

Stephen: 13:18

I have quite a few long longevity friends, as I would call them. My oldest, oldest friend is called Louise and we met when we were about four years old, in nursery preschool for my American friends. So we were about four years old and we were kind of friends back then, even though I think it's probably weird. Like well, maybe when you're really young it's maybe not weird to have a friend that's a girl, but then I think boys and girls kind of like separate into their own groups because it's a natural divide between boys and girls until they you know, the hormones kick in in high school and they start trying to awkwardly interact again.

Stephen: 13:59

Um, louise has been a friend for years and we went to separate junior schools, but then when we came back together in high school, we became best friends and she's my friend still. We still see each other. In fact, we're going around on Friday, this Friday, to see her and see her kids and yeah, so we've known each other now scarily for like 37, 38 years, 37 years. Yeah, we're 37 years this year, trying to work out how old I am. So, yeah, 37 years it'll be nearly. Which is which?

Stephen: 14:37

is amazing which is amazing, that, like I never, I never thought I'd see 30, let alone have a friend that I've known for 37 years. And, yeah, we met in nursery school. And my other longest friend, who I met probably like a year or 18 months later, is Neil. And I still keep in contact with Neil and I've seen neither of them as much as I would like to, but family life takes over. They've both got kids. But Neil I've known since we were about five or six and again same thing nursery, nursery school, preschool kind of thing.

Stephen: 15:17

Um, because I used to go to two like one worked at one, so if I could get dropped off at one, I would. If I went to the other one, um.

Stephen: 15:25

So yeah, so it was. So they're my longest, longest friends. I still. I still see them now, which is really lovely. And then my other friends. My other longest friends are from college. So Scott, who's been on the podcast, who did the Star Trek couple of episodes part one and part two with me. I've known Scott since 2002, when we started college 2000 since we started college, 2002 is when we left um, so I've known him for nearly 25 years uh 20 24 years this year, isn't it?

Stephen: 16:01

yes, yeah, so it'll be 24 years. Currently. They'll be going into 20, 25 year anniversary next year. So I'm very lucky to have some friends that have known me all my life and grew up with me and know me so well, um, and even though I don't see Louisa Neal as much as I'd like to I don't even see Scott as much as I'd like to I see him more regular, more regularly than the others. Um, yeah, it's, uh, it's still nice when we do see each other. We just pick up where we left off.

Stephen: 16:29

And, uh, and one of my other mates, phil, uh, I've known him pretty much like 23 years, uh, and, again, don't see him as much, but he lives in, he lives in chester, which is a little bit further away from me, and he does have three kids. So I can, I can figure him a little bit for his time being taken up. Um, but you know, when you grow, when you grow older, like time seems to get away from you a little bit, like you kind of when you're young, you kind of have that, let's just say, the effort to see people, but it kind of it seems easier, I think, to like socialize when you're younger and when you get older, you're just happy to sit in your chair and drink a cup of tea and watch a bit of telly and chill out. And I don't even have kids yet, so, uh, god knows what I'll be like when I do. I think I'll become completely reclusive if I do have children.

Stephen: 17:11

Yeah, so just three randomly generated questions there. What would your answers be to them? What would be a TV show that you would bring back and why? Who's your oldest friend and where did you meet them? And what are your plans for the next two years? Think about them yourselves and let me know in the comments what your answers would be. Let me know you can also text me as well. Buzzsprout, the host that I use, have used a thing where you can text me directly. It doesn't involve any numbers If you press the text thing, it just allows you to send a text to me. I can't reply to it, but it's nice to have an interaction and I might be able to give you a shout out on the next podcast. So, um, yeah, well, I hope you enjoyed that. It's just something different today.

Stephen: 18:01

It's not a cop-out, it wasn't a cop-out episode. I just thought I've got loads of topics written down for once, uh, in my phone, but I just thought, oh, wouldn't it be interesting to just do a random generated question, see what weird stuff could come out. And unfortunately it was generating boring stuff rather than interesting stuff. So, uh, they were the three most interesting ones. But maybe I should. Maybe we should have clicked through for longer. In fact, let's have a click now, at the end of the episode. What would be the next question it generated when is the most beautiful place near to where you live? Not a bad question. I don't even know the answer to that. If it's a place with a vista, probably Beeston, because you can see quite far when you go up the hills at Beeston. If it's just a town, nantwich If you could meet anyone in history, who would it be?

Stephen: 18:51

That's a good one. What? Are you best at. I'm not touching that one and on that I'm going to finish because I'm a jack of all, master of none. I hope you've enjoyed today's episode. If you do like, please share. Do all the usual stuff that people always moan at you and bang on for you to do, but I appreciate you listening. Go back and listen to some other episodes if you haven't already. And yeah, you know, keep prattling.

Stephen: 19:18

You've been listening to Infinite Dreadful. Thanks for listening. If you liked this episode, go back and listen to some others and please continue to listen. Your support is much appreciated. Please like, share, comment and subscribe and I'll speak to you all again soon. Take care.