The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills premieres despite the suicide of cast member Russell Armstrong, and we discuss the code of reality-show ethics suggested by NPR's Linda Holmes. From there, we talk about some surprising bright spots—that aren't Louie or Breaking Bad—in an otherwise dire summer for television. We wrap things up with a discussion of Twitter's impact on comedy, via the case study of one Patton Oswalt, who swore off Twitter in The A.V. Club in 2009, only to talk about Twitter's funniest people here last week. We close, of course, with another raucous/inappropriate Extracurricular Activities, continuing our streak of bad British accents in the podcast to three.
:00 – Intro
:36 – Linda Holmes, Scott Tobias, and Tasha Robinson discuss Holmes' suggested code of ethics for reality shows
15:46 – Todd VanDerWerff on summer TV's surprises
25:53 – Genevieve Koski and A.V. Club contributor Steve Heisler talk about Twitter's effect on comedy vis à vis Genevieve's Patton Oswalt interview
38:13 – Extracurricular activities with Genevieve, Erik Adams, and Kyle Ryan