The Complete Guide to Everything

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The Complete Guide to Everything, sometimes abbreviated to TCGTE, is a free weekly podcast featuring Tom Reynolds and Tim Daniels of Brooklyn, New York City. It is typically 60–90 minutes long and released every Sunday. The show has been described as "the next Wikipedia, in podcast form." Most episodes cover one overarching topic, which serves as a jumping off point for off-topic conversations about cultural observations. This is often preceded and/or followed by recurring segments, such as "Tim and Tom Solve Your Problems."

History

24cast

24cast^[1] began in January 2006 and lasted 23 episodes. It featured Tom and Tim, who later went on to create The Complete Guide to Everything. The podcast was primarily about the Fox Television show 24 but frequently covered many other topics and issues. Episodes were released in a somewhat sporadic manner. The show also gathered a reputation within the 24 podcast community, where it frequently billed itself as the "only explicit podcast about 24."^[2]

It was also featured as one of the Top 100 Most Subscribed to Podcasts of 2006 by iTunes.

The Drudge Report Report Report

This follow up to "24cast" was not well received by most podcast critics; however, many "The Complete Guide to Everything" fans and former 24cast fans enjoyed this short-lived podcast, which has gained a cult following. This four-episode series consists of hosts Tom, Tim, and Chris reading articles printed off Drudgereport.com^[3] and making humorous comments about them. This style resembles the eventual "The Complete Guide to Everything" podcast.

Pop Everything

In the Complete Guide to Everything episode "Electronic Dance Music" Tim and Tom announced they would be producing a new podcast coming out on Thursdays that would focus more on Popular Culture topics like movies, books, comics, and TV.^[4] On October 17, 2013 the first episode of Pop Everything was released on iTunes and Soundcloud, the episodes are generally 45 to 60 minutes long and tend have more spoilers than an average podcast of The Complete Guide to Everything.

Publicity

UK

The podcast was featured prominently on the UK iTunes podcast directory in August 2009 and has remained in the Staff Favourites section ever since. This has led to an overwhelmingly British audience for this US-based show, which is frequently referred to and acknowledged in the show itself. The podcast has been consistently in the UK iTunes Top 100 podcasts for the past two years.

US

The podcast was featured on the homepage of the US iTunes podcast directory in March 2012 which may lead to a more transatlantic following in future months.^[5]

General

In 2010, the podcast was a shortlisted nominee in the 'Entertainment' category at the Podcast Awards.

Show segments

Tim and Tom Solve Your Problems

Introduced in the episode 'Life on the Road' the hosts answer emails sent to thecompleteguidetoeverything@gmail.com asking for advice. The topics typically pertain to advice relating to social behavior or relationships. Of all of the show segments listed, 'Tim & Tom Solve Your Problems' (sometimes referred to as "TandTSYP") is the most regular and longest running.

Fifty Shades of Tim

Introduced in the episode Fears: Elevators. After many weeks of Tom attempting to get Tim to read the book Fifty Shades of Grey in order to do a Fifty Shades episode, Tom finally gives up and begins the arduous but hilarious process of summarising the book to Tim chapter by chapter over the course of many episodes. The segment was discontinued due to the excessively graphic nature of the novel.^[6]

The Mundane Bucket List

Introduced in the episode 'Underwear', the Mundane Bucket List is a tongue-in-cheek take on the popular motion picture "The Bucket List". Each week, Tim and Tom take turns to propose something that they would really like to do before they die but (unlike the extreme activities featured in the movie) would be considered by most people to be mundane. Entries to the mundane bucket list are below.

The Gauntlet

Introduced in the episode 'Colon Health and Final Destination' the hosts run through a range of topic suggestions gathered primarily via their Facebook Fan Page^[7] but also occasionally via email, Twitter^[8] and their forums.^[9] The hosts read through suggestions for future topics, often giving a quick opinion about the topic suggested. It was implied that topics that passed The Gauntlet would go on to become future full length episodes, however the hosts have since announced this was never their true intention. The segment has now been discontinued.

You're Awful

Introduced in the episode 'Public Services (Or An Excuse To Talk About Poop)' the hosts drew on reports from listeners of instances where they had pointed out to a member of the public that the behaviour they had seen that person exhibit was unacceptable by saying "You're Awful"; as clarified in later episodes, the aim of the segment was to encourage listeners to point out to those people who should, and in fact do, know that the behaviour is unacceptable in a social setting but have developed (often without realising) a sense of being 'above the rules', with businessmen and old ladies being specific examples cited.

Over the course of several episodes, the segment morphed into its current form, where the hosts draw on articles from The New York Times for further examples of "awful" behaviour. The segment is also referred to as "A Particular Kind of Asshole You Didn't Know Existed Until The New York Times Pointed It Out To You." The segment recurs on an irregular basis.

Episodes

Episode list

Pre-audio, video podcasts (unavailable):

Many of the earlier episodes are no longer available for downloading from iTunes.

Live shows

The first ever live versions of the show (hosted by regular hosts Tom Reynolds and Tim Daniels) took place in London, England on 7 & 8 May 2011 and were held at the Hen and Chickens Theatre^[12] and Kings Place^[13] respectively. Tickets for the event sold out within 4 hours of release. A short 5-minute video of the first live show^[14] was released in lieu of the full recording of the show, which was lost during 'the London Incident' (see below).

Additionally, the show has done one live after-show following the 1990s Sitcoms: TGIF (ABC) edition that appeared on UStream.tv.^[15] The aftershow took place at a bar via the (at the time) newly released UStream.tv iPhone application.

After Dark Episode List

For a short period of time The Complete Guide to Everything had a premium subscription service, in which listeners would pay a small monthly fee to get an extra podcast throughout the month. The After Dark episodes consisted of interesting people that Tim and Tom knew, the conversations more focused on the person being interviewed similar to The Nerdist Podcast. After some time and changes made, Tim and Tom decided to discontinue to the premium subscription but all the episodes are still available to purchase at TCGTE online store. Occasionally in the Complete Guide to Everything Online Store there will be a USB with all the After Dark episodes and other bonus episodes.^[16]

Other episodes available by purchasing the TCGTE USB:

Pop Everything Episode List

London incident

In the "International Travel" episode (17 May 2011) Tim and Tom discussed the theft of Tim's property, a bag containing (but not limited to) an iPad, MacBook and speakers, causing Tim distress and affecting his night's sleep. While some speculation was made during the "International Travel" episode about the possible culprit, a lack of evidence has hindered any serious progress to identify and prosecute the offender. Tim's travel insurance status is at present unknown so measuring the lasting financial damage is difficult to calculate although Tim and Tom estimated the cost to be around $2000. However Tim made it clear that he was emotionally damaged by the incident and his view of London had been tarnished.

Episode artwork

On an ad-hoc basis some "official artwork" based on the content of an episode is produced by Natalie Al-Tahhan (flailingwithink.com) and this is displayed on tcgte.com along with the show notes. The artwork consists of brief cartoons depicting what the artist considers to be the most humorous aspects of the subject episode.

iPhone application

A free official iPhone application giving access to every episode, the TCGTE blog, the host's blogs, the host's Twitter accounts and a messaging facility is available on the Apple App Store.^[17] On 24 June 2010 the app was downloaded 6,000 times following a feature by Apple^[18] and was named as the 'Staff Pick' in the Entertainment Category in Volume 6 of the iPhone App Directory magazine.^[19]

TCGTE conventions

The first gathering of TCGTE fans took place at Porterhouse Brewery in Covent Garden, London in October 2010 and host Tom attended. The official TCGTE website refers to the gathering as "the first international meet up" of TCGTE fans.^[20]

References

External links

• tcgte.com