Tag: television

The Greatest Teams, Blind Dates, and Relationships with Dads

The Greatest Teams, Blind Dates, the Man City Ted Lasso episode, and Relationships with Dads on this episode of the Torg Stories Podcast. Recorded Sunday, January 19, 2025.

Summary and discussion questions for Season 2, Episode 8 of Ted Lasso. The episode was titled “Man City.”

  • We open with Dr. Sharon on a video conference with her therapist. She says Coach Ted Lasso is driving her crazy. It’s clever writing that allows us to hear her evaluation of Ted and herself. Her therapist says Ted isn’t going to make himself vulnerable unless she meets him halfway.
  • Dr. Sharon has a bike wreck.
  • We go to the Coaches office. Ted hasn’t shown up for work. They’ve got maybe the biggest match in the history of the club coming up at Wembley, the FA Cup. Roy leaves too. Beard agrees to let Nate plan training.
  • We start to see more of Jamie’s dad with some weight room texts. We also get the contrast of Sam’s Dad. There’s quite a bit about relationships with Dad. What would you say about your relationship with our dad? How did it work? How did it not work?
  • Rebecca and Sam, who still don’t know they are texting each other in a dating app, make plans to meet. (I haven’t really seen this trope in shows. Have you?)
  • Ted goes to check on Dr. Sharon in the hospital. The doctor thinks they are married. Ted says, “Let me help you out with that sweetheart.” I found this to be one of the funniest (like this example) most emotionally moving (the Roy hug Jamie) episodes of the season.
  • I wish I was keeping track of funniest scenes, best lines, best episode, most emotionally moving moments.
  • Roy needed to go to school for Phoebe. LOL: Phoebe calls classmate an apathetic shart effer. The teacher has a great line: You know the influence you on her. Use it.
  • Ted and Sharon walk home. She left him a bunch of voice notes.
  • Issaac gives a special haircut. Maybe I should call practice training. What if you only have “textual chemistry”?
  • Jamie’s dad planning on coming to Wembley. Higgins in an office. “I try to love my dad for who he is and forgive him for who he isn’t.”
  • Roy in car with Phoebe. Here’s her house. Because of you, I stand up to bullies. Roy goes in for one game of Princess and Dragon.
  • Ted at Sharon’s house. Kind of inspect’s it. “It’s temporary, she says.” What isn’t? Ted responds. Kyrie joke. Get to see Sharon closed up.
  • Rebecca waiting outside the restaurant and not going in. Rebecca and Keeley really good friends. We get the Sam and Rebecca blind date.
Sam and Rebecca go on a blind date
  • Ted calls to check on Sharon. She tells him she was scared about not being able to ride her bike.
  • The team goes to Wembley and Ted tries to recreate the speech from Hoosiers. This is like what they did with the Iverson practice speech. It’s remixed in a really funny way. I did the same last year when we played at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum. I even yelled Watauga into the stands like Jamie yelled Richmond.
  • Jamie’s dad wears Man city stuff. Ted breathing exercise. Me too! Ted makes himself vulnerable by telling the staff about his panic attack. Everyone confesses stuff. Do you remember any of the confessions?
  • The announcing before the kickoff is fantastic. Those are real announcers. They refer to Manchester City as one of the great teams of all time. I asked you to name the greatest teams you remember watching. Mine appear below.
  • Nate the great calls the official Mike Dean a name and gets a yellow card. This is a big no no for assistants. The official is a real official and has now moved into working in the replay center. Love how un emotionally he gives the yellow card. Richmond is really routed. This happens. It’s a hard thing to endure and requires some special mental work.
  • Jamie’s dad comes into the locker room and Jamie ends up punching him. It’s a completely humiliating experience and a tough one to apply Higgins’s advice to. Roy hugs Jamie. Beard throws Jamie’s dad out. We’re starting to see that Coach Beard might be a tough guy.
  • Ted is inspired by what he sees Roy do that he goes outside, calls Dr. Sharon and tells her that his dad killed himself when he was 16.
  • Coach Beard essentially tells Ted that he needs to go out and blow off some steam. This sets up the next episode, “Beard After Hours.” This is the episode in addition to the Christmas Special that the writers came up with when Apple ordered two extra episodes. It’s also based somewhat on the actor Brendan Hunt, who plays Beard, his time in Amsterdam.
  • Ted calls out to Beard, “Hey Coach, bird by bird.” This is an allusion to Anne Lamott’s book on writing, Bird by Bird. That line shows me all that is probably there that I don’t see and that they would bring in that book I love is probably a sign that my tastes have great connections to the writers’ tastes.
  • Love what Sam says in his press conference about the loss at Wembley. He’s talking about football and he’s talking to Rebecca. We tried. Did you try? If you try, you can end up losing a lot. Sam gives her his address.

Greatest Teams Ever I Remember:

  1. 1986 Bears Super Bowl Champs: Walter Payton. Mike Singletary. Mike Ditka. Didn’t get Peyton a touchdown in the Super Bowl.
  2. 1986 Boston Celtics: Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Danny Ainge, Dennis Johnson, and Bill Walton.
  3. 1995-96 Chicago Bulls. 72-10. Jordan, Harper, Longley, Pippen, Rodman, Kerr, Kukoc
  4. 2017 and the 2018 Golden State Warriors who repeated as champions: Curry, Thompson, Green, Durant. KD was the 2017 and 2018 Finals MVP. Off ball movement and screening. The shotmaking.
  5. 2007 New England Patriots. 16-0 and lost in the Super Bowl to the Giants. Brady, Moss, Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel, Wes Welker
  6. Honorable mention for me: 1987 Indiana Hoosiers with Knight coaching, Alford, Keith Smart hits the shot, Daryl Thomas, Dean Garrett, Joe Hillman, Ricky Calloway

LA Fires with Anne, Our Cell Phones and Us, and Clingy Relationships on Ted Lasso

LA Fires, Our Cell Phones and Us, and Ted Lasso Clingy Relationships on the Torg Stories Podcast.

I read an opinion article in the New York Times titled, “As a Climate Scientist, I knew It was Time to Leave Los Angeles.” Peter Kalmus, a climate scientist now living in Chapel Hill, NC moved out of the Altadena community two years ago. His old home burned in the fire. Here’s a paragraph from that article that has a lot of connections to the Torgersons:

  • “No place is truly safe anymore. A few months ago, Hurricane Helene pummeled the western part of my new state and the city of Asheville, which many once considered a climate haven. The Pacific Northwest seemed safe until the 2021 heat dome. Hawaii seemed safe until the deadly fires on Maui in 2023.”

Anne, I was landed in Maui as Lahaina was on fire, I was with mom coming home from our dad’s funeral as hurricane Helena destroyed region where I live in the mountains of North Carolina, and as my wife Megan said, we’re sitting out the LA fires but we’ve got you there representing the Torgerson family. What do you have to say about the fires?

  • Where are you in proximity to the fires?
  • Is the lack of water and dryness ever too much for you? Are you LA to the end?
  • Also from the NYT: The area burned by the various fires has grown to more than 36,000 acres — larger than the footprint of San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Boston or Miami. About 100,000 people are under evacuation orders, and more than 330,000 electricity customers are without power.

Summary and Discussion Questions from Ted Lasso Season 2, Episode 7 titled “Headspace.”

  • The episode opens with football star Roy Kent either being really sweet and devoted or very clingy depending on your perspective.
  • Assistant Coach Nate the Great goes to visit his parents house and has an exchange with his father about Nate being called the Wonder Kid in the newspapers.
  • Quote from Nate’s Dad: Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking about yourself less.
  • Last episode Coach Ted Lasso had a panic attack and left the pitch during an important match. Now Ted makes his first attempt at meeting with with Dr. Sharon for a therapy session. Ted does a whole fidgeting around stalling tactic and then leaves when he is asked about what happened the other night.
  • As Ted stalls, he uses the word accoutrement meaning items of dress or equipment. Ted means the things that decorate Dr. Sharon’s office. Click here for web pronunciation and definition.
  • Anne, I love Dr. Sharon’s office that looks out on the pitch. I am in two of my favorite home and work offices right now. St. John’s was very good. I had a bathroom at North Miami. My old App State and the basement in Stratford, CT were bad. Work spaces matter a lot.
  • The next scene is on the practice field. Beard says the only face they should have on is their, “Game face baby!” Reminds me of Knight’s game faces press conference. Our dad loved that. The players tease Coach Nate because he is in the news. Nate takes offense at Colin (who you always have trouble remembering) teasing him. Colin repeats his mantra to himself, “I am a strong and capable man.”
  • Sam the football player for Richmond continues to message with Rebekah the owner of the team on a dating app and they don’t know who each other is. Sam’s favorite movie is Ratatouille. I have seen it and ridden the Disney ride at EPCOT! Higgins gives an astute diagnosis of Rebekah’s mental state. There is so much mental health in Ted Lasso at the moment.
  • As Higgins and Rebekah talk about relationships in the boss’s office, it comes up naturally that Keeley is feeling that she is with Roy an awful lot. Roy walks in on the conversation and Higgins jazz scats with Rebekah to stop the conversation. Roy doesn’t care that people are talking about him. “Big whoop.” Two things (1) talking about relationships with friends and (2) the fun workplace shown and that I think exists among the cast.
  • Here’s another clingy montage. Roy is reading Dan Brown’s The Da Vincci Code.
  • Coach Ted and Dr. Sharon give it a 2nd try. What do you make of the drinking bird on Dr. Sharon’s desk? Ted tells Dr. Sharon off about her profession.
  • Rebekah and Sam are messaging each other on their phones and bump into each other. There’s a quote about devices separating us. What would you say are the top impacts of you owning a cell phone?

Pro cell phone for me:

  1. Connection to family. Where is everyone?
  2. Meet ups: mall, amusement park, park, college
  3. navigation
  4. podcast listening, streaming music

Cell phone negatives for me:

  1. Immediately accessible at almost anytime to do stuff for basketball. The common complaint that we’re always available for work.
  2. The posting of stats and game day stuff. I think it matters less than it did pre-Elon’s X but it’s still an expectation. (Anne likes the stats; that helps me a little!)
  3. I wouldn’t mind putting aside the smaller moments (2-8 minutes) where I pick up my cell phone while I wait.

Summary and Discussion Continued:

  • Nate is mean to the equipment manager and to Colin who checks in about what happened on the field previously. Beard hears it. Beard is starting to seem to have an appear / disappear power that is fun for me. Kind of a mystical “Beard is everywhere” feeling.
  • What’s your diagnosis of Nate?
  • Everyone gathers in the boot room! Rebecca says to Keeley, “Stop auditioning your complaints.”
  • Keeley and Roy have a blow up at home. Do they live in Keeley’s house? Does Roy have a house?
  • You have been waiting for this. Beard confronts Nate on his behavior. Do better.
  • Roy and Keeley are fighting. They arrive separately to work and don’t talk.
  • Sharon and Ted give the session the third try of the episode. Ted stills the drinking bird. Sharon says, “I can’t be your mentor without occasionally being your tormenter.”
  • Back to practice. Nate apologizes. I think Nate is taking for granted what it is to be on this team. Because he hasn’t been on teams, he doesn’t know how special this one is. Ambition is eating him up. Football becomes a metaphor for life. Jamie says he needed to give his teammate space and Roy realizes he just needs to give Keeley space.
  • The team gives Nate a Wonder Kid gift.
  • Ted runs into Trent Crimm the reporter at Mae’s pub. Ted lies to Trent about what happened.
  • Roy does 1 more pretty clingy needy thing as a kind of giving her space but it works out great.
  • The episode ends and Nate berates the kit man for the Wonder Kid jersey.

Thanks for checking out this episode of the Torg Stories Podcast!

The Roy Kent Effect, If People Can Change, and Whether or Not You Should Say Something

On this episode of the Torg Stories Podcast, Anne and I discuss The Roy Kent Effect and a team’s confidence, whether or not we think people can change, and if you should say something to your friend about their relationship.

Season 2, Episode 5 Summary and Discussion Questions:

  • Richmond add Roy Kent as an assistant coach and the team starts to believe.
  • Cut to Rebecca sleeping with some guy from dating apps while also texting with someone on Keeley’s BANTR app. Do you believe in guardian angels? Naked guy in kitchen. That okay? Rebecca’s mom shows up and says she’s leaving her husband.
  • Coach Lasso arrives to work. He knows everyone by name and stuff about their lives. Call back to laughing Liam. We’ve heard about him. Mantra for Collin: “I am a strong and capable man.” Doctor Sharon pushes Ted to do an appointment with her.
  • Who is Mr. Pufnstuf? It is a 1970 American comedy fantasy musical film produced by Sid and Marty Krofft Enterprises and released by Universal Pictures. It is based on the children’s television series H.R. Pufnstuf, a show that features a cast of puppets on a “living island.”
  • Into the coaches office. FA Cup. March Madness Tournament. NBA Cup. Pearl Jam vs. Ticketmaster. Higgins pokes his head in the office. Beard is exhausted. He and Jane got back together. Higgins is against this. None of the other guys will say anything. Higgins feels like they should. None of the guys jump in to defend Higgins saying something.
  • We learn Nate the Great’s dad told his HS girlfriend that she could do better. “Stupid barking means the meeting is over, right?” asks Roy. Now Jane is moving in.
  • The practice field: Jamie positive. The team believes in the Roy Kent Effect. Roy won’t catch Jamie. Roy says they can take 4% of his check. Roy and Beard play secret sandwich switch every other Friday. Ted goes to lunch with Rebecca and her mom. She lists her sort of bio… Let’s come up with three adjectives to describe ourselves and each other.
    • Ted has something with his son at school. Henry forgot his lunch. Freaks out for a second. His ex wife shows up and it’s okay. Jamie comes in and says someone needs to tell Roy to coach him. Keeley gives advice: she agrees with everything he says. Try that Jamie. I like this…let whatever they say sit. Jamie had called the coaches Philistines. Beard tells him he’s going to want to look up Philistines. Ted Lasso is a show that has a lot you could look up.
    • What do you think of Rebecca’s mom? They are in Mae’s bar. Ted gives the advice, “to leave people well.” The boys are yelling at a baking show like it’s a football game.
    • Ted says, “People can change.” Can they? “Poor little cake” chant.
    • We see Jane on a face time call. She’s going to Cafe Solo to meet Finn for a coffee. He’s an underwear model. How is this relationship looking? Higgins overhears the conversation.
    • Jamie tries out the agreeing with everything Roy says advice. Roy makes him say a bunch of things such as, “I am an ugly, ugly boy.” Roy takes Jamie’s side. Roy says Ted messed him up by making him a team player. The team needs Jamie to get into people’s heads. He has to go back to being that way sometimes. Roy says they will give him a signal.
    • Rebecca texting with the guy she was sleeping with and still getting texts on the BANTR app. Mom skipping game and going to a reading. Mom will make Rebecca’s favorite. Any memories of mom making stuff for you?
    • Back to football. Trying to win match to go to Wembley to play in final. Shot of the pub watching the game. Funny bar joke, “If we win I will channel my enthusiasm in ways to help my community.” The coaching staff gives him the signal which is everyone flipping him off. “We apologize for the fruity sign language.” Jamie calls his shot which seems like Larry Bird and Jason Sudeikis certainly has the basketball background to know about that. In our book, it says that Jamie hits this shot on the first try. Real celebration that followed.
    • Jealously among coaching staffs…among work teams / staffs.
    • Higgins has a gagging noise he makes when he’s stressed. Jane lurks around the car park. Tipsy Reese Witherspoon. One of the big questions of the episode, do you say anything? Lots of stories of how it doesn’t work out. Higgins says, “You have to keep trying.” Dad and my first marriage.
    • Ted has a panic attack. What factors would you say are contributing to this? He hustles off. Love the third fan, “Be kind, he looks poorly.” The team is mostly sympathetic.
    • Nate takes over. Spits. “Park the bus.” Nate is assertive. Obisanya to Tart and he scores and they win and they are going to Wembley. Emotional moment for Rebecca about Ted in the locker room and the team comes celebrating in. Roy passes along the credit to Nate. He’s a team player. Nate is all dressed up. Nate messes up the saying and says he’s not some kind of Wonder Kid. It catches on.
    • Higgins. You’re a great man. Does Jane make you greater? Beard seems to appreciate it.
    • The flip off signal. Hand signals are difficult as a coach, just to get enough, especially that can be signaled with one hand.
    • Nate scrolls social media. Roy, “Great fucking work today.” Do we understand how this can happen to Nate?
    • The team asks Dr. Sharon to go out with them. It’s a team!
    • Rebecca calls Ted on the way home. Offers help. Ted is laying in Dr. Sharon’s office.
    • Rebecca was right about her mom. Her dad bought her mom a Tesla. She sees if the guy on BANTR has left a message. He hasn’t and so she calls Hunky Luka. It’s revealed that it’s Sam who has been texting her. Like the Ginobili reference in that Drake song. “I wanna make an appointment,” says Ted to end the episode.
    • What happened? Where are we going?

Hope you had a great holiday and we wish you a happy New Year! Thanks for listening to the Torg Stories Podcast!

Christmas Special: Gift Exchanges, Fav Songs and Shows, and Ted Lasso Christmas Episode

Ted Lasso homage to the Rankin-Bass Christmas Specials
click on player above to listen to the episode

It’s the Torg Stories Christmas Special! We talk gift exchanges, favorite songs and shows, the Ted Lasso Christmas Special, and Anne calls Taylor Swift fans “Little Detectives.”

Podcast discussion topics for “Carol of the Bells.” Ted Lasso Christmas special season 2, episode 4:

  • Anne, some background on season 2. It was inspired by the Empire Strikes back when Darth Vader attempts to turn Luke to the Dark Side. In this case, Rupert (Rebecca’s ex husband, tries to turn Nate to the dark side.)
  • After the season was fully conceived, Apple wanted an extra two episodes. Here’s some info on that from Jeremy Egner’s book Believe: The Untold Story Behind Ted Lasso, the Show that Kicked its Way into Our Hearts: “Of course, not all of the Empire Strikes Back season was so weighty. The fourth episode, ‘Carol of the Bells,’ was sweeter than a sugarplum dipped in chocolate inside a rock-candy shell. Essentially a Christmas special—even though it first aired in August 2021—it had almost nothing to do with the show’s larger narrative because it was one of two episodes added, at Apple’s behest, after the season was mostly conceived. As a result, it and the other bonus, the wildly eccentric ‘Beard After Hours,’ the ninth episode of the season, are essentially stand-alone stories.”
special opening credits for Lasso Christmas Special
  • The show opens with two gift exchanges. The team is having one in the locker room and the coaches are having one in the coach’s office. Anne, the main gift was booze. There was a scarf in there. Are you involved in gift exchanges?
  • Jamie doesn’t bring a gift and he messes up the Dickens Christmas Carol blessing: Not God Bless us, every one BUT God Bless Me.
  • Christmas plans are discussed. Lots of family time for everyone. Higgins having people over who don’t have anywhere to go. Ted plans to do face time with his son in United States.
  • Anne, you’ve done some Christmases alone, right?
  • Roy and Keeley are doing sexy Christmas. I hadn’t really thought about adult no kids Christmas. Phoebe’s mom has to work and she comes over with a really bad breath problem.
  • Ted loses his son to go play his toys. Rebecca shows up at Ted’s and spells his name outside the window. She tells him he’s going with her to donate toys to kids’ houses.
  • A big crowd shows up at Higgins house. There is a dramatic Nerf gun war.
  • Fun fact: all of the foods that are brought to Higgins house are favorite foods selected by the actors from their home countries / cultures.
  • We have three stories going: bad breath trying to get solved, Ted and Rebecca donating toys, and the Higgins Christmas Party.
  • Anne, I learned a selfie is called an “usie” in England. Someone wants one with Keeley, right? Character based on girlfriend of Sudeikis. She also plays the character Bex.
Keeley, Roy, and Phoebe walking in Richmond
  • Roy uses poster boards so Phoebe can make signs to call out the boy who was making fun of the bad breath. This reminds me of the INXS video for “Mediate” but it reminds Izzy of a Taylor Swift song. Allusion to film Love Actually.
  • Higgins gives a really good speech to those at his house and then this toast: “To the family we were born with, and to the family we made a long the way.”
  • Ted and Rebecca show up at Higgins party to sing outside. They sing snows coming down and snow is coming down. We get a shot of Santa’s sleigh zooming by and reminds me of Elf.
  • Stand alone episode, right Anne?

SNL is my favorite holiday programming to watch:

  1. NPR’s Delicious Dish. Baldwin’s character Schweddy Christmas ball treats
  2. “I wish it was Christmas Today” song. Fallon, Tracy Morgan, Horation Sanz, and Chris Kattan
  3. Eddie Murphy’s North Pole News Report. Santa knew the fences were down and a polar bear eats some elves.
  4. Bring it on Down to Wrappinville. Fallon and Timberlake have a sing off.
  5. Glengarry Glen Christmas: Elf Motivation. Baldwin says, “Always, Be, Cobblin'”
  6. Adam Sandler “The Chanukah Song”

Christmas Songs I like:

  1. “Christmas Wrapping” by The Waitresses
  2. “Father Christmas” by The Kinks
  3. “Merry Christmas (I don’t want to fight)” by the Ramones
  4. “Last Christmas” by Wham

Trophies for Winning Nothing: Ted Lasso Season 2, Episode 2

We’re using the TV show Ted Lasso to spark conversation. This week we discuss if it’s ever time to give up on a player, heavy is the head that wears the visor, our favorite books, and I tell my Pat Conroy story.

Ted Lasso Season 2, Episode 2 summary with observations and discussion questions. The episode was titled “Lavender.”

  • We open with the dating reality show called Lust Conquers All during which former Richmond player and boyfriend to Keeley is kicked off the show. We cut to a talk show in the vein of the Today Show during Jamie is being interviewed. He is called a loser on the show and is also informed that his old team Manchester City doesn’t want him back. Question: Do you watch these dating shows?
  • Cut to the Richmond coaches offices where Beard has spent the night after his girlfriend thew his keys in the river. Ted runs out of the office. Later, we find out that he has gone to ride the lawn mower. Nate goes off on the kit manager, whose name I think is Will Kitman!!!, for adding a lavender smell to the team’s laundry. Question: everyone is picking up on Nate? No one challenging him yet?
Ted rides lawn mower to help with his Sciatica
  • Keeley arrives to the Richmond practice facility with Roy. Is that a G Wagon? I think those start at $148k. Roy barrels out of the parking lot before anyone can speak to him. Question: any trouble adjusting to the time when sports were over for you?
  • Doc-tor Sharon has been hired for the rest of the season to work with the team and sports psychology. There’s a funny bit with Ted and Director of Football Operations Leslie Higgins. Check in with me. You don’t have to check in with me.
  • Cut to Jamie at his agency. Almost no one wants him for anything. He seems to have an offer for a reality television show where he’d take ecstasy everyday. Question: any reality show watching for you? I watched last season of American Idol. Does that count?
  • Ted barges into Doc-tor Sharon’s office with biscuits and is scolded. Ted refers to Santa Monica as a godless place, in part because there are people there who don’t eat sugar. Ted does a bit about video games where he was depriving himself of something that just makes him happy. Question: what makes you happy?
  • Ted goes to see the owner Rebecca and he gives her her biscuits that he actually just tried to give to Sharon. Rebecca notices the bite out of the biscuit but eats it anyway. Rebecca doesn’t sound like she is on board with not eating sugar. They ask each other if they have anything to get off their chest.
  • “Isn’t that why we have friends? To burden them with our insecurities and anxieties?” – Rebecca
  • Jamie follows Keeley for her whole lunch hour because he wants to talk. He’s deleted her number. He tells her he wants to come back to Richmond to play for the team.
  • We’re back with Roy and his girls youth football team. One of the girl’s moms has bought participation trophies. The girls are really excited. Roy says, “It must be nice to just burn through cash,” and “Enjoy your trophies for winning nothing.”
  • Roy returns home from his game to find Keeley laying in bed and watching his retirement speech. Keeley pushes Roy again to become a pundit. She says he’s different now that he’s not around the game. I hear the word “oi” again and take the time to look it up. It’s a harsh exclamation to get someone’s attention.
Jamie and Ted meeting shared on social media
  • Jamie meets Ted in the pub. He has saved the little plastic toy soldier Ted gave him a long time ago. He tells Ted the soldier is named Ted and after pausing adds that he named him after Ted Danson in the TV show Cheers. The pub owner Mae seems to be in favor of Jamie’s return and she tells off the fans who stare from the other end of the bar. “Old people are so wise,” Jamie says, “they’re like tall Yodas.” We get a fair amount of Star Wars references in this show. Ted tells Jamie it’s not a good idea to rejoin the team.
  • Did you know Sudeikis / Ted is the nephew of George Wendt, Norm on Cheers? (son of Wendt’s sister) George 76 and still alive.
  • At practice the next day, Sharon observes. The training is especially chippy. The players have seen a picture of Ted and Jamie at the bar and assume he is returning to the team. Sam goes off on Ted. Ted admits everyone on the team is better than him at everything unless anyone wants to play finish that Jimmy Buffet lyric. Sam retreats to the locker room. They have a long talk about the team which includes Sam having a good dad. Turns out Leslie Higgins has heard the whole thing as he moves his work area all over the clubhouse. Bring Jamie back? What are the challenges?
  • It’s in the show that Ted knows there is a Twitter account for his mustaches. Click here to connect to that.
This Twitter account for Coach’s mustache got a mention in the show
  • Roy tries being a pundit. He needs reassurance from Keeley before he goes on. He walks out to “Anarchy in the U.K.” by the Sex Pistols. He’s blunt and bold on air including saying players showed “abject terror, like children waiting in line for the handsy Father Christmas.” He makes a splash. Anne, how does that life look, somebody like Terry Bradshaw or Stephen A. Smith?
  • Ted calls the staff of men the Diamond Dogs. This is not so unlike my college “Brothers in Pursuit.” They discuss bringing Jamie back. Ted notes we talk in sports a lot about never giving up. He asks shouldn’t this include people too? Beard notes Jamie is like “poop in the punchbowl.”
  • Ted comes across Sharon leaving the practice facility. It is after dark. Here we see both have worked long days. Sharon tells Ted what a good job he is doing but challenges him on all of the matches without a win. She says Ted can call her Doc. She tells him that her favorite book is the Prince of Tides. She also says, “Heavy is the head that wears the visor.”
Jamie Makes Return to Richmond Club to play for Coach Lasso
  • Last scene of the episode: Sharon, Keeley, Rebecca, and Leslie are talking in the owner’s office. Leslie is distracted by something he sees on the field. It is snowing outside. Heavy metal music plays. Cut to Jamie walking down the tunnel and out on to the field in the snow to Queen’s song “Tear it Up.” Jamie has returned to play for Richmond.

What are your favorite books? Ted’s was The Fountainhead. Doc’s was Prince of Tides. A few of mine…

  1. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
  2. Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield
  3. Wonderboys by Michael Chabon
  4. The Death of the Great Santini by Pat Conroy (also A Losing Season)
  5. The Sportswriter by Richard Ford

Finish that Jimmy Buffet lyric:

  1. But at night I’d have these wonderful dreams, some kind of sensuous treat, not zucchini fettucini or bulgar wheat…but a big warm bun and a huge chunk of meat
  2. You got fins to the left, fins to the right and… you’re the only girl (or bait) in town.
  3. Nibblin’ on sponge cake, watchin’ the sun bake…all of you Parrotheads covered with oil.
  4. This morning, I shot six holes in my freezer, I think…I’ve got cabin fever. (Boat Drinks)