SPUD GOODMAN
Making its mass media debut in February 1985, on a small cable television system in Tacoma, Washington, the Spud Goodman Show was at its inception, merely a marginal vehicle to annoy and entertain the masses. Spud, a former radio disk jockey in Sparks, Nevada had been fired when his all Tony Bennett format failed to catch the fancy of listeners. Undaunted, he pulled together enough money to buy a video camera, and staked his claim on Cable TV.
The Spud Goodman Show was then conceived as a direct response to the burgeoning blight of happy talk magazine shows then on the air.
At the first opportunity, Spud moved the show to Seattle, Washington and established a cult following on Public Access television throughout the West Coast. The show quickly attracted the attention of the local media and press. After several years on Public Access, Spud's show moved to TCI cable's commercial channel where it ran for three more years as the Northwest's most popular cable program. This popularity amazed Spud's critics and fans alike. Always restless, Spud next moved the show to Prime Sports Northwest, a regional 5 state sports network. The new program was called Spud on Sports.
Spud had little use for the hackneyed questioning of the pro sports business and he chose instead to converse with pro atheletes as average people.
This often created interesting exchanges, for example:
Charles Barkley discussing whether he took Flintstone Vitamins every morning, or Don Mattingly evaluating Milli Vanilli and Danny Ainge's opinion on whether Whoopi Goldberg really deserved an oscar for her performance in the movie 'Ghost'.
In 1992, Spud created a new Comedy/Talk show for KTZZ (now KTWB) in Seattle that also showcased his first love, Music. The new Spud Goodman Show allowed Spud the opportunity to work with the best Northwest Bands in addition to touring musicians.
In 1995, the Spud Goodman Show was picked up by FOX NET, the Cable/Satellite distribution arm of the Fox Television Network . Although Spud's boardroom rows with billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch became broadcast industry legend, Spud's show ran for three seasons in worldwide satellite distribution.
In 1999, searching for a media outlet with even less redeeming social value than television, Spud hit upon the Internet, where his program as well as original Web productions were at VirtueTV.com. Moving into his own space, several episodes of the Spud Goodman show are now available here at www.spudgoodman.com.
In 2002, Spud went into retirement, but the Spud Goodman Production
company still lives on with it's current project, The
Tacoma Diaries.
Copyright 2000 Spud Goodman Productions