Last updated on April 12th, 2017

Recently, I got the chance to speak with Foxman, co-founder and co-host of Boob Tube Buddies. Despite the tongue-in-cheek name, this is a safe for work podcast focusing on in-depth TV episode breakdowns. Also, as the name might suggest, this isn’t your grandpa’s TV review podcast, there’s a heavy dose of humor and satire in each episode.

Foxman and I got the chance to discuss the origin story for Boob Tube Buddies, along with taking a peek behind the curtains to see how the episodes get made.

Here’s our Q&A:

Discover Pods: How did your podcast get started?

Foxman: I spoke with a friend and said that I’d love to start a podcast centered around episode-by-episode discussions of television shows. He was interested and had graduated from Full Sail, a good recording school. We bought equipment and were off to the races.

DP: Why did you choose a podcast over other mediums?

F: I have been obsessed with podcasts for about 8 years now. I make excuses to listen in my house (by doing chores, walking the dog more often than is totally necessary, etc) and listen at least an hour in the car everyday too. My co-founder is a big podcast fan and he actually had a tech-based newsletter he was putting out at the time, so I knew he might be interested in a passion project.

DP: You gave some examples of how you listen to your favorite podcasts, do you have any feedback into how people are mostly listening to yours (commuting, working out, etc.)?

F: This is a great question and one that I wish I knew the answer to. We’re on episode 172 (as of today) and are about 8 months in. At our one year anniversary, we were planning on sending out a survey to our listeners to ascertain what their listening habits were.

DP: What’s unique about your podcast? Why do your listeners keep coming back?

F: We are not even close to the only podcast covering television shows episode-by-episode. However, I found most of them to be VERY dry. I wanted to make one where we mainly focused on providing an entertainment experience to enhance the fandom of people that enjoyed those shows. We do deep-dive into theories and reviews, but we really focus on making it funny. We do original songs, games, and all sorts of fan interactions.

DP: Are there specific TV shows you found your audience is more engaged with either by numbers or feedback?

F: Westworld garnered a lot of fan feedback. More than any other show, Black Mirror did but I was also heavily engaged with their subreddit, so it wasn’t totally organic. Certain shows, like The Walking Dead, are ripe for people to trash it or write in about a specific part, but not so much for plot dissection.

DP: What’s next? Where do you want to take your podcast?

F: We want to grow and improve the sound quality. We’ve already begun to get a few celebrity listeners who write in, so we feel like we’re onto something, despite not being a big name yet. Our sound quality is admirable with our slapdash setup, but we aren’t Serial or Joe Rogan yet. We’re really starting to hit our stride in terms of content though.

DP: Where do you physically record?

F: I record in my living room, generally with a 2nd host sitting across from me. We have other hosts too, all of which record at my house with the exception of the co-founder, who records at his house. My recording setup may or may not involve a series of tv trays…

DP: What are your favorite 5 podcasts?

F:

  1. Hardcore History
  2. A Mediocre Time With Tom and Dan
  3. The Starters
  4. Last Podcast on the Left
  5. What’s The Fuss (I know the hosts of that one, so I have a heavy bias).

Anything else you want to add?

On our website you can see all of the shows we have done. Also, we make completely original Audible and Blue Apron ads. They can all be found on this page on our website. I think they’re funny, at least the ones I’ve made.

We have lots of random little call back jokes, like we have “Robo Foxman” who is a robot that initially was really helpful in creating ads and doing bits for shows. Then he developed a drinking problem and now ruins segments/ads all the time.

Where can listeners find you?