The Sewers of Paris Holiday Special Special!

December 20, 2018 Matthew Baume

This holiday season, I hope you're surrounded with good cheer, fabulous family and friends, and comforts aplenty to keep you warm in the dark winter nights.

And when it comes to feeling cozy, I can think of no greater experts than Dave White and Alonso Duralde of the Linoleum Knife family of podcasts. Whether it's cooking glorious feasts, binging on cheesy specials, or unearthing obscure wintery films, this husband-and-husband team are the pinnacle of holiday warmth. Dave and Alonso were my guests on the very first Sewers of Paris holiday special back in 2015, sharing their advice for enjoying a jolly holiday, so we're going to start this episode by listening back to that conversation.

Then we'll hear a more recent chat from earlier this month, when Dave and Alonso popped by one of my regular livestreams to talk about how they're celebrating in 2018.

Next, I'll bring you a quick dive into my favorite holiday special -- Christmas at Pee-wee's Playhouse. Every month, I produce a video for my Culture Cruise series where I talk about LGBTQ themes on TV, in movies, in book, games, and more. And for December I took a look at Pee-wee's 1988 special, and it's connection to Judy Garland Christmas specials of the past, Glee episodes of the future, and believe it or not 18th century French theater. Then we'll wrap things up with a traditional Christmas carol sung by some past Sewers of Paris guests!

A Little Space Alien (Ep. 207 - Superman)

December 13, 2018 Matthew Baume

This Week’s Guest: Glenn Kiser

You might not recognize the name Glenn Kiser, but he's had a hand in countless films over the last three decades -- helping to craft films in editing rooms alongside directors like David Fincher, Spike Jonze, and Jane Campion, before moving on to run Skywalker Sound for George Lucas and now the Dolby Institute. As a kid, Glenn would obsess over movies and dream of the day he could make his own. And just like gathering elements of a story in an editing room, he crafted the steps in his career that would take him from living on an isolated ranch in Texas to working at Skywalker Ranch.

And I hope you'll join us for the next Sewers of Paris live chat, with Scott Flanary, winner of The Amazing Race Season 29. It's on Saturday December 29 at 2pm pacific.

The Sewers of Paris is listener supported -- click "support the show on Patreon" join the folks who make the show possible.

And for more queer podcasting, check out Queens Of Adventure to hear drag queens on an epic Dungeons & Dragons quest. And we'll be doing our next Queens of Adventure livestream on Saturday December 22, so head over to QueensOfAdventure.com for details.

This Week’s Recommendation: Auntie Mame

Thanks again to Glenn for joining me. We talked a bit about Auntie Mame, and now is indeed the perfect time of year for that film. Or for the book on which it's based. Or if you're really devoted, the musical adaptation Mame starring, for various reasons, none of them good, Lucille Ball.

None of these works is entirely perfect -- their handling of racial stereotypes is particularly unpleasant -- but they also manage to achieve moments of sheer delight.

Auntie Mame, in whatever form you consume it, is a delightful work of mid-century art. The film is a 1950s romp with bright phony soundstages and bellowing performances that overflow with camp, centered around a wacky aging aunt who lives a life entirely on her own terms, much to the horror of everyone around her.

At times, the movie manages to accidentally anticipate the freedom of the 60s, but gaily depicts it as originating not in youth culture but from a powerful grande dame.

It's no wonder queer folks are drawn to the character -- created by Patrick Tanner, a bisexual man. As Mame, Rosalind Russell emits a perfect form of manic free-spirited energy to demolish what today we would call "the patriarchy" but back then would simply be "life." And although the two movies lean heavily on the uptight heterosexual nephew as a framing device, Mame has no time for the stodgy times in which she lives, and flies from one madcap caper to another.

Whether her story is contained within the context of the Depression, the pre-feminist 50s, or who knows maybe someday a contemporary remake, Mame's refusal to even consider that she might be beaten down by her circumstances is inspiring. Insane, sure. But the inspiring kind of insane.

Stuff We Talked About

Ragtime: A Novel (Modern Library 100 Best Novels)

By E.L. Doctorow

Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story (Perennial Classics)

By Paul Monette

What Do You Do When You're An Over The Hill Baton Twirler? (Ep. 206 - The Sound of Music)

December 6, 2018 Matthew Baume

This Week’s Guest: Henry Goldring

How do you share your story when your story defies belief? My guest this week is Henry Goldring, whose upcoming memoir is entitled Unbelievable and recounts tales of audaciously bluffing his way into getting hired as Joan Rivers' opening act, despite never having performed before; and also getting committed by his siblings. Henry grew up in a generation that didn't have the internet, didn't have public role models, and was decimated by an epidemic. Considering all he's endured, it's no wonder he's got some particularly wild stories to share.

We'll have that conversation in a minute. And I hope you'll join us for the next Sewers of Paris live chat, with the delightful Dave and Alonso of the Linoleum Knife family of podcasts. It's next weekend, and it's a little earlier than usual: Saturday December 8 at 8am pacific, 11am eastern.

Head over to SewersOfParis.com to see clips of the stuff we talk about on each episode of the show.

The Sewers of Paris is listener supported -- click "support the show on Patreon" join the folks who make the show possible.

This Week’s Recommendation: Maude

Thanks again to Henry for joining me. After we recorded our conversation, I went back and looked for a clip of him on that episode of Maude, and found him in the background of a scene. There's a screengrab posted at SewersofParis.com.

And that episode is this week's recommendation -- it's entitled "The Gay Bar," and it aired in 1977, season 6 episode 9. Maude episodes are available to buy on Amazon, and for free from illicit sources. But if you'd like a condensed version, I have a video on YouTube where I show some highlights and talk about the historical context at the time when it aired.

In the episode, there's a gay bar coming to town and Maude's homophobic neighbor Arthur isn't having it. He plans to protest and get politicians involved and shut the place down. The episode is remarkable for a couple of reasons -- it was a particularly compassionate depiction of gay people and the persecution they face; it may be the first time the inside of a gay bar appeared on television; and there's one extra who wears a pink three-piece suit that has to be seen to be believed.

But what really stands out to me when I watch the episode now is that in the end, Maude and Arthur are able to reach a point of mutual respect for each other, despite also having mutual disdain for each others' values. This was a time at which it was considered a virtue to overlook the moral failings of bigots like Arthur in the name of collegiality and compromise. There are a lot of reasons that changed, but by today's standards I'm not impressed by either Maude or Arthur. He ends the episode backing down from his plans to picket but still believing that gay people are a blight; she ends the episode telling him that the consistency of his principles is worthy of respect.

But lets not forget what those principles are: that queer people should be hounded and persecuted to the point that they can no longer leave the house. That might've been a mainstream opinion at the time, but the fact that a supposedly liberal character would tolerate it as recently as 1977 reminds us just how backwards that time was.

Clips of Stuff We Talked About

Unleash the Queen (Ep. 205 - Freddie Mercury)

November 29, 2018 Matthew Baume

This Week’s Guest: Jim Provenzano

I don't know if you heard, but somebody tried to make a movie about Bohemian Rhapsody recently. And it's nice that the film might introduce the band to a new generation, but there are some queers among us who got to live through Queen the first time. My guest this week is Jim Provenzano, author of the novel Now I'm Here, which tells the story of two small town boys who fall in love to the soundtrack of the late 70s. Jim's a product of that time as well, and grew up in a time of innocent homoeroticism, and at times, dangerous disobedience.

Head over to SewersOfParis.com to see clips of the stuff we talk about on each episode of the show.

The Sewers of Paris is listener supported -- click "support the show on Patreon" join the folks who make the show possible.

This Week’s Recommendation: Flash Gordon

Thanks again to Jim for joining me. Check out JimProvenzano.com for all of his work. And if you're in San Francisco, he'll be part of an upcoming celebration of the music of queen on Thursday, December 6th. It's a live show called Now We're Here, and it features acoustic performances of more than a dozen classic Queen songs interpreted by Bay Area musicians.

It's nice to see Queen and Freddy Mercury a topic of conversation these days, my recommendation is that you see the film that really captures their music and their aesthetic. I'm speaking of course of 1980's Flash Gordon, featuring a soundtrack composed entirely by Queen.

The movie both terrible and an absolute gem, a work that cuts corners in some areas and spends lavishly in others. The look is a bizarre 70s fantasy-futurism, the plot is absurd, and some of the performers are upstaged by their hair. But the music is magnificent, not to mention the sheer misplaced extravagance. It's giddy and weird and rarely makes sense, but at no point can you predict what will happen next.

Where bad movies are concerned, I have high standards -- you don't need to waste your life inflicting every single movie like Zardoz and Lost Horizon on yourself. Some films are so bad they're just bad. But Flash Gordon is a stupid delight -- not as queer as Barbarella, but a camp pleasure nonetheless. The over-the-top music, starting with the perfectly gaudy theme, set the tone for an experience that is wonderful and ridiculous. It takes an incredible talent to make such an incredible mess.

Stuff We Talked About

This Boy is a Deviant (Ep. 204 - Jaymes Mansfield)

November 22, 2018 Matthew Baume

This Week’s Guest: Jaymes Mansfield

How much do you know about the people who paved the way for you? We all benefit from foundations laid by those who came before, but so often -- and particularly for queer people -- those forebears are lost to history. But my guest this week is dedicated to shining a light on the incredible queer pioneers who led unimaginably fascinating lives and blazed the trail we now walk. You might know Jaymes Mansfield from her appearance on Drag Race Season 9. And these days you can catch her on YouTube, where she's become one of the internet's leading drag historians with her series Drag Herstory, shining a light on the people and stories that you won't believe you've never heard about before.

We'll have that conversation in a minute. First, a quick reminder -- I hope you'll join us for the next Sewers of Paris live chat, with special guest, performer Timmy Roghaar. That's this weekend -- Saturday November 24 at 2pm pacific. There's a link at the top of the Sewers of Paris twitter feed.

The Sewers of Paris is listener supported -- click "support the show on Patreon" join the folks who make the show possible.

And for more queer podcasting, check out Queens Of Adventure to hear drag queens on an epic Dungeons & Dragons quest. That’s at QueensOfAdventure.com.

This Week’s Recommendation: Drag Herstory

Thanks again to Jaymes for joining me. I cannot recommend her series Drag Herstory highly enough. They're well researched, insightful, educational and entertaining. I thought I knew a lot about queer history but I've learned so much by watching this series.

In particular, check out Episode 2, "A Brief History of Drag Queen Music," a fascinating look at artists like Sylvester and Divine. I also felt a particularly satisfying frisson of nostalgia from Episode 6, "A Brief History of Drag Queens of the 90s."

So far there are 19 episodes in all, and after every single one I find myself thinking, "why haven't I ever heard about this before?" Drag is one of the far-flung frontiers of queerness, where you can find some of the most daring experiments into gender, performance, and art. So of course, some drag has often gone over the head of mainstream audiences and even other queers, disappearing into obscure history.

That's why I'm so glad we have Jaymes to excavate those forgotten or just under-appreciate creators who blazed a trail over the last century. Folks like Charles Busch, Lily Savage, and the performers of Finnochios never became household names, in part because they came along at a time when one didn't discuss gender outlaws in polite society. But today, it's clear that they were visionaries whose work not only withstands the test of time, but outdoes many of the icons we're familiar with today.

We owe it to those pioneers to remember them. And we owe it to ourselves to indulge in their art.

Bonus Episode: Beyond the Sewers of Paris! We Were Born for This Moment (Ep. 203 - Annie)

November 22, 2018 Matthew Baume

This Week’s Guest: Kate Kendell

Thanks to everyone who supports The Sewers of Paris on Patreon -- with your pledges I'm able to release monthly bonus episodes like this one. This week we'll be going beyond The Sewers of Paris with someone for whom I am truly grateful. Kate Kendell is the outgoing director of the National Center for Lesbian rights. Over the last 22 years of history-changing moments for LGBTQ people, she's not only had a front row seat, but she's been one of the key figures pushing those moments forward. I'm so excited to bring you this conversation, ranging from the moment she discovered live theater, to proudly working for the most hated organization in Utah, to becoming an LGBTQ community leader, and what she sees next for queer liberation.

And BTW, I hope you'll join us for the next Sewers of Paris live chat, with special guest, performer Timmy Roghaar. That's this weekend -- Saturday November 24 at 2pm pacific. There's a link at the top of the Sewers of Paris twitter feed.

Head over to SewersOfParis.com to see clips of the stuff we talk about on each episode of the show. And for more queer podcasting, check out Queens Of Adventure to hear drag queens on an epic Dungeons & Dragons quest. That’s at QueensOfAdventure.com.

This Week’s Recommendation: Sonnet 116

Thanks again to Kate for joining me. I'm just so inspired by the work she does. In fact, Kate was one of the people who inspired me to become an activist. I was living in San Francisco in 2004 when the city began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples on Valentine's Day. My bus went right past City Hall on the way to work, and I remember seeing the couples lined up around the block. And I remember seeing the photo on the front page of the Chronicle -- Mayor Gavin Newsom, now the incoming governor of California, marrying lesbian pioneers Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, and in the background Kate Kendel looking on overcome with emotion.

I'm torn on what to recommend this week. If you want to relive that incredible time, you should definitely look up some of that news coverage from 2004, featuring stunned activists and couples racing to marry. Or look up the infamous clip of Kate Kendell swearing on live TV in reference to Proposition 8. Or you might want to check out my book, Defining Marriage, which includes stories from couples who lived through that time as well as Kate's experience fighting Prop 8.

But I think my main recommendation this week is going to be a Shakespearean sonnet that Kate mentioned, Sonnet 116, which begins, "Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments." Often read as a declaration of same-sex love, it was set to music by Rufus Wainwright -- you can find that with a quick YouTube search -- and it's absolutely lovely. "Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove," the sonnet goes. Out of all of humanity's attempts, over the centuries, to explain in words what love is, I think this might be my favorite.

Stuff We Talked About

Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street

By Herman Melville

The Beast in the Jungle

By Henry James

To Kill a Mockingbird

By Harper Lee

What Happens in a Gay Bar (Ep. 202 - Lady Gaga)

November 15, 2018 Matthew Baume

This Week’s Guest: Bryan Lowder

This week's episode is going to be a bit of a song and dance. My guest is Bryan Lowder, associate editor at Slate and co-host of the Outward podcast. Known now for his cerebral essays and thoughtful analysis of queer culture, as a college student Bryan was drawn to New York's underground dance clubs, where years ago he found inner peace, and also encountered up-and-coming artists like Lady Gaga.

And the next Sewers of Paris live chat is this weekend -- Saturday November 17th at 2pm pacific. I hope you'll join us for a fun friendly chat about whatever entertainment has been changing YOUR life lately. And then mark your calendars for the next livestream, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, November 24th. There's a link at the top of the Sewers of Paris twitter feed.

Huge thanks to everyone who makes The Sewers of Paris possible with a pledge of a dollar or more a month on Patreon. There's rewards for folks who back the show -- just click "Support the Show on Patreon." Or you can support The Sewers of Paris for free by leaving a review on your podcast platform of choice -- that really helps people find the show.

This Week’s Recommendation: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Thanks again to Bryan for joining me. Check out his Outward podcast wherever podcasts are casted. And for my recommendations this week, take a look at the recent season finale of the show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Normally a cynical sitcom where everything goes wrong and everyone's the butt of a joke, the last episode of season 13 takes a surprisingly heartfelt and sincere turn.

For most of the episode, the character of Mac, who's been out for about of year, laments that he doesn't know what his place is in the gay community. And what's worse, his adoptive father Frank tells him that he just doesn't get the whole gay thing. That leaves Mac with nowhere to turn, and no words to express himself.

So he stops trying to use words. The episode culminates in, of all things, an interpretive dance that should be funny and stupid and a fiasco but instead it's a powerful expression of turmoil and confusion and abandoning language to simply express oneself through their body.

Watching it in isolation, it might come off as cheap sentimentality -- but because of a context, a sitcom sacrificing its trademark cynicism for real heart, I think it comes off as brave. And that's why it feel so lovely when Frank, the adoptive father, finally whispers at the end, "Oh my God, I get it."

Stuff We Talked About

What Makes You Have a Fabulous Life (Ep. 201 - Madonna)

November 8, 2018 Matthew Baume

This Week’s Guests: David and John

How do you measure your success? For a lot of us it's career or fame or money or family, but the common theme among all of those is happiness. That is, what makes you happy? But often happiness as a goal gets drowned out by the things that we think are supposed to get us there. My guests this week are John and David, a husband-and-husband team behind the Queer Money podcast. They met on the dance floor and formed a bond that's only grown stronger for more than a decade. And one secret to their relationship's longevity has been some honest, and at times difficult, conversations about whether they needed to change everything about how they were living their lives.

BTW, I hope you'll also join us for the next Sewers of Paris live chat on November 17 at 2pm pacific. There's a link at the top of the Sewers of Paris twitter feed.

This Week’s Recommendation: Marilyn Monroe & Madonna

Thanks again to John and David for joining me. It's a real pleasure to have double guests every now and then, and I have a double recommendation this week as well. Start with Marilyn Monroe in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes -- specifically the number Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend, in which she's wearing a pink strapless grown and is presented with all manner of riches by tuxedoed chorus boys. Then once you've watched that, jump over to Madonna's music video for Material Girl, shot 30 years later, in which she wears a pink strapless gown and is presented by riches while surrounded by chorus boys.

Both songs are beautiful, but there's an interesting contrast between them. Marilyn's character is enamored with riches, while Madonna -- despite the song's lyrics -- dismisses them in favor of simple romance. Madonna clearly employed comparisons to Monroe throughout her career in the 80s, and but she never overdoes it -- it's never an imitation, but instead a reference from which she quickly diverges.

Madonna's agreeing to Marilyn's sex appeal, but she adopts a third-wave feminist spin by turning herself from an object to be acquired into a sexual being whose needs must be met. As the lyrics conclude, it's her experience that's made her rich -- built her personality -- and that's a greater value than any diamond.

Thanks to everyone who's rated and reviewed The Sewers of Paris. Thanks to all the listeners who keep the show going -- there's rewards for backers. Head over to SewersOfParis.com and click "Support the Show on Patreon" to join the folks who make the show possible.

Stuff We Talked About

She Made me Dress up as the Pink Carebear (Ep. 200 - Kevin Yee)

November 1, 2018 Matthew Baume

This Week’s Guest: Kevin Yee

We're going back into the Sewers of Paris archives this week, for an interview with ex-boybander Kevin Yee. Kevin's new comedy special recently premiered Hulu, as part of the Comedy InvAsian series. He's been a performer for almost all his life, with his career taking a wild twist in his teens when he was cast in a 90s boy band. Three years later, things hadn't quite turned out as he'd hoped, and he thought his dreams of performing were over before he had even reached adulthood.

These days things are looking a bit better -- in addition to his Hulu special, you can hear him on the podcast 2 Dope Queens, and at the upcoming Cucalorus Festival and Dead Crow Comedy Comedy room in November. And you can get the story of his journey from boy band to stand up right now in our conversation.

Quick reminder that the very first Queens of Adventure livestream is coming up -- November 4 at 1pm pacific. It's a game of Dungeons and Dragons played live, with queens in full drag; and it's a fundraiser to benefit Seattle Children's Hospital. Get the details and watch us live at bit.ly/extralifeseattle.

This Week’s Recommendation: Double Life

I met Kevin a couple years ago, long after he put the boy band and clothing store behind him and found his calling in comedy. He is even more fun and funny in person than he is on stage, and I'm so glad I know THAT Kevin, the real Kevin, and that as awful as his time in the band surely was, that it only strengthened his resolve to live a life that's genuine.

And as glitzy and glamorous and gay as showbusiness is, it's long had a way of forcing people to repress their true selves, forcing queer entertainers to adopt a straight facade. That a disservice not just to artists, but also to audiences -- whether and actor or a singer or painter or a poet, art need honesty in order to work.

For my recommendation this week, I'd like to check out the book Double Life, by Alan Shayne and Norman Sunshine. The two men met in June of 1958, when Norman spotted Alan onstage on the Broadway show Jamaica. And over their six decades together, they've worked onstage, in television, in advertising, in visual arts -- and the memoir they wrote a few years back is a meticulous chronicle of how their lives were shaped by the various closets they endured.

Double Life is a fascinating glimpse at the ways that the entertainment industry forced gay men to remain closeted, to deny their own existence. It's also a tender love letter between two men who shared each other's lives, often through times when only they and their closest friends could know what those lives truly were. And it's a reminder of how lucky we are to live in a time when artists and their art can be honest, and are no longer forced to wear a straight face.

Stuff We Talked About

You Were Great in Lawnmower Man (Ep. 199 - Neuromancer)

October 25, 2018 Matthew Baume

This Week’s Guest: Adam Koebel

This week's guest is an imaginary creature -- or at least, that's primarily how the public knows him, though character and places he invents. Every day, Adam Koebel runs role-playing games where players invent new personas, work together to solve problems, and tell stories that exist in their collective imaginations. He's also the co-creator of Dungeon World, a game that's driven by the relationships between characters. As a result, a lot of Adam's time is spent inhabiting roles and expressing fantastic identities -- but in all of them, there's a little germ of who he truly is -- the strange outcast who left a corporate job to spend every day playing games.

And we're just a few days away from our weeklong livestream of games, a fundraiser for Seattle Children's Hospital! Starting on October 28, I'll be hosting a big gay game of Dungeons & Dragons featuring Comedian Bryan Safi, Culture Critic Carlos Maza, Writer Anthony Oliveira, and Scholar Bryan Wuest. Then I'll be streaming games every day from October 29 to November 3. And on Sunday, November 4th, join us for another game of D&D featuring the drag queen cast of Queens of Adventure in full drag! We'll be serving looks, interacting with viewers, and encouraging everyone to donate to Seattle Children's Hospital -- 100% of everything you give goes straight to the hospital. Get the details and watch us live at bit.ly/extralifeseattle. See you starting October 28.

BTW, I hope you'll also join us for the next Sewers of Paris live chat, with special guest Seattle drag superstar Arson Nicki. It’s Saturday October 27 at 2pm pacific. There's a link at the top of the Sewers of Paris twitter feed.

This Week’s Recommendation: Once More into the Dungeon… World

Thanks again to Adam for joining me. We talked a bit about how Adam runs he games, makes room for people to express themselves, and encourages folks to explore their connections with each other. And my recommendation this week is to watch that first hand -- you can follow Adam on Twitch, or check Twitter to see when he'll be going live. But a particularly fun game that I recommend happened a few months ago at GenCon, and so I suggest you check out his session Once More into the Dungeon... World. There's a link to the video at SewersOfParis.com.

One of the things that stands out to me in the session is how kindly Adam presses the players to open up about their characters. It's not easy to share something creative that you made, especially after you whipped it up right there on the spot in front of an audience of strangers. So Adam takes it step by step, throwing out a few questions to each player at the start and then sitting back while they talk, occasionally signaling when they're on a particularly fun track.

Why does it matter if people have help playing games? Well, because games -- particularly role-playing games -- are really stories we tell about ourselves, even when it looks like they're about monsters and halflings. When we put on disguises, try out new accents, give ourselves a new name or a new species, that doesn't just come from nowhere, it comes from someplace deeply personal within each of us. And often it's a place we've been reluctant to reveal before a game came along to give us a safe place to show it off.

It's a strange tension that games offer -- one one hand an expression of the imaginary, but on the other sometimes more personal and revealing than we are in our normal lives. That's the beauty of play, and why games have the power to connect us to each other. And it's why it's such a pleasure to watch Adam at work.

Stuff We Talked About

Neuromancer

By William Gibson

Dungeon World

By Sage LaTorra, Adam Koebel

About The Sewers of Paris

The Sewers of Paris is a podcast about how queer lives are shaped by our favorite books, movies, music, and shows. Each week, guests open up about their secret struggles, hidden passions, and surprising triumphs by plucking a piece of entertainment from their past and answering the question: What’s the entertainment that changed your life?

About Defining Marriage

Each week on Defining Marriage, hosts Matt Baume and James Morris chat about what's happening with marriage equality, featuring frequent digressions into pop culture, silly banter, and the jokes and quibbles that have kept them together as a couple for over a decade.

The first eighteen episodes of the podcast contain the complete audiobook version of the book Defining Marriage, which traces the decades-long evolution of marriage through the personal stories of those who lived through it, featuring personal insights from the lives of Evan Wolfson, Dan Savage, Ken Mehlman, Dustin Lance Black, and many more.

About Matt's So-Cast Pod

Revisit the iconic '90s drama My So-Called Life, one episode at a time. Every week, host Matt Baume & his guests delve into the teen angst, the grown-up turmoil, and the endless flannel of the 90s -- and examine the show's impact on television and our lives.