Early Installment Weirdness/Radio

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • The earlier episodes of Stu's Show (from 2006 and some of 2007) had a more laid-back feel. Stu was more calm and collected, interviews were more straight-laced (but still had humorous moments here and there), phone calls from listeners was more regular, and Stu often had trivia contests for listeners (usually just before commercial breaks). The contests have since been relegated to the New Year's Eve or Christmas specials, as contests tended to detract from the interviews.
  • When True Capitalist began, Ghost was a fairly ordinary (if rather extreme) conservative talk show host. It wasn't until the more bizarre personalities like the Internet Buttstalker and the Ghetto Capitalist showed up that he fully became the Large Hambone that we know today.
  • The early installments of The Goon Show had four people (the regular three plus Michael Bentine), and were written as multiple short sketches rather than the extended if incoherent stories featuring a Commedia Dell Arte Troupe of madmen that became the show's typical structure later in its life. It also took quite a while for Ned Seagoon, Bluebottle and Grytpype-Thynne to show up.
  • Early episodes of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar starring Charles Russell in the title role didn't have nearly every episode begin with a phone call, nor was every episode titled 'The (something) matter'. In addition, Johnny was often written as more of a Sam Spade knockoff, and did a number of things it was hard to imagine the later Johnny Dollars doing. For example, Russell's Johnny Dollar was more likely to pad his expense account with frivolous items than his successors.