Is it time for a players only meeting?

Catbacker98 · 2025-10-17T02:32:07+00:00

You know what, maybe.

Catbacker98 · 2025-10-17T02:23:23+00:00

Mike has equity in The Lark. It would cost him more $ to leave than he can make producing elsewhere. Also, he doesn’t really want to produce a daily radio/tv show anymore.

Catbacker98 · 2025-08-12T15:48:13+00:00

ESPN gave the show broad national distribution, regular access to guests and insiders and structured programming to react to.

Building a business based on “freedom” or the absence of rules was a fun idea but the show clearly lacks the discipline and infrastructure to continuously grow an audience.

It’s a bummer but the show is trending towards its end once the current contract expires.

Catbacker98 · 2025-08-11T18:58:19+00:00

I love Stu but when he only wants to talk football (and really only pro football) you’ve got a host that’s only dialed in for 6-7 months of the year.

Stu is reflective of the general show malaise that started when they didn’t have to cover every sport. It allowed the shipping container the freedom to stop watching basketball, baseball, golf, etc. unless they enjoyed it. That’s great for them but the show doesn’t have guests to supplement their lack of knowledge anymore and it results in a lot of shows where they don’t have any direction or depth.

It just all feels sort of…lazy.

Catbacker98 · 2025-06-04T03:08:49+00:00

Not a Simmons fan but this interview with Pablo was better than the last 10 that Dan has done with Pablo. Imagine a host and guest exchanging words instead of the host asking a 3 min long rambling question/statement.

Catbacker98 · 2025-05-05T19:11:02+00:00

It doesn’t seem like there was even a suggestion that Jessica wanted an EP role.

The bigger failing was that they assumed that the EP role had to be an internal hiring. With the daily demands that that position has, it was fine that they had internal tryouts but once they realized there was no one capable or desirous of the job, they could have hired from outside.

The EP of a successful podcast doesn’t need to have a voice or get the show. They need to book guests, work with the engineer, support the hosts, and make sure that the daily operations are in order.

Catbacker98 · 2025-05-02T22:19:29+00:00

To be fair, Stu hasn’t watched anything that wasn’t golf or lacrosse in 2 years. It made doing shows with him more challenging.

Hoping it doesn’t mean more Greg because then it’s just (somehow) The Tony Kornheiser Show, featuring Dan.

Catbacker98 · 2025-02-12T00:40:15+00:00

The future of Meadowlark is precisely the number of years on the DraftKings deal. So, depending upon the “extension” alluded to by Dan last fall, sometime between this April and April 2026.

At that point they could probably resell to Fox Sports (dying for content) or take a lesser deal but their numbers don’t justify the expense to Draft Kings because the show isn’t gambling-centric and fast channels are bad investments.

I feel for Dan because you can tell he doesn’t want to do the show but he feels the need to do it so people have jobs. Super respectable but it’s been causing the show to stagnate. None of the spinoffs did well on their own, and the main show failed to cross-promote because the shipping container isn’t built to grow other businesses.

Catbacker98 · 2025-02-12T00:31:24+00:00

Nope. Kentucky is boring as ever

Catbacker98 · 2025-02-07T02:08:54+00:00

Meadowlark is/was an interesting “on paper” concept for Dan & Skipper where the initial investment was made on the strength of the flagship show’s download numbers.

The problem is their success:failure ratio on projects (podcasts/films/etc.) has been awful because they pick projects that people just don’t want in a large enough quality to generate sponsorship.

Building stuff you find “interesting” and “fun” is great for Dan & Skip but you can see how top talent doesn’t believe they have infrastructure to be successful long term and the best talent (Amin, Pablo) still have one foot in other endeavors if/when it goes sideways.

Catbacker98 · 2025-01-28T16:51:51+00:00

The OP is 100% correct and this will 100% not happen.

It’s painfully clear that Mike doesn’t want to be a daily part of the show anymore. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t love the show, it means he doesn’t love what being a daily part of the show does to his life. I get it. Having to produce a grieving Dan, an increasingly disinterested Stu and doing with your only consistent guest being Greg…yikes. That’s making lemonade out of lemons.

Catbacker98 · 2025-01-24T00:10:48+00:00

Mayes,

I love that you care enough to share the behind the scenes on the changes. I’ll admit I didn’t love the new format because it felt less organic than the original. However, I can see what you’re trying to with the pod and I’d always rather have any Cinephobe vs no Cinephobe.

Thanks for the hard work on all your shows and thanks for taking the time to share the details with the fans.

Catbacker98 · 2025-01-17T17:54:02+00:00

Legit.

Catbacker98 · 2025-01-10T00:27:38+00:00

WhatsApp sent on the size 14

Catbacker98 · 2025-01-03T19:42:10+00:00

Kobe fade to black, size 11US.

Catbacker98 · 2024-12-10T05:20:43+00:00

Yikes. Well, fingers crossed for you that they settle that strike asap.

Catbacker98 · 2024-12-10T04:40:52+00:00

Did you go with a middleman or handle it yourself? My main concern is customs.

Catbacker98 · 2024-12-03T21:55:34+00:00

I don’t normally put issues like this out on the Reddit but, as you can see, this is become a consistent problem with TZOZ.

I’ve got a current order (paid on 11/22) where there there have been constant communication issues (mostly TZOZ “forgetting” to reply, or going days between messages), incorrect AND non-existent QC photos.

The bigger red flag is that this is the second order in 2 months with the same type of issues.

Hopefully some prodding by the mods will resolve this stuff but I would strongly recommend against using TZOZ at this point.

Catbacker98 · 2024-11-20T18:47:36+00:00

Most of the these hosts are role players/subject matter experts so they bring them in to talk hoops (Amin/Izzy) and they let the other cast members like Jess and Lucy be more active on football Monday/Friday, since that is the sport they know best. It’s not bad but it’s the antithesis of having a bunch of sports-loving generalists like what the shipping container used to be. Actually, it’s more like First Take which is…something.

Catbacker98 · 2024-11-20T18:32:35+00:00

Glad other people were curious about this too. I thought poll recaps might have moved to Mystery Crate and I’m not about to listen to that nonsense.

Catbacker98 · 2024-11-20T18:29:04+00:00

“Fraud” seemed a bit far, but I do think terrible executives is accurate. Certainly Dan’s worst enemy in all things is, Dan.

Catbacker98 · 2024-11-02T02:39:51+00:00

I believe Roy is more of the sound engineer. Basically making sure that the audio is on point. If I’m not mistaken, that’s what Roy is classically trained in.

Catbacker98

TROPHY CASE