She's A Bon Vivant!

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Only available with TurboTax Live full service. Hey bestie, I'm a snow angel.

And I'm here to tell you, you are more beautiful than the snow bestie.

Let it snow.

Let it snow.

On this episode of the commercial break.

I want to be a bon vivant. How do I get to be a bon vivant? Brian Green and his longtime co-host and bon vivant, Percy O'Seay, sit around and stare at penises as they're slowly revealed behind a curtain.
Look, that bon vivant is uncircumcised. These are true bon vivant.
The next episode of The Commercial Break starts now. Yeah, boy! Oh, yeah, Cass and Kittens, welcome back to The Commercial Break.
I'm Brian Green. This is the Teresa to my Frankie.
Kristen Joy Hoadley. Best to you, Chris.
Best to you, Brian. Best to you out there in the podcast universe.
Thanks for joining us. We're all back in studio after a fart of snow here in Atlanta.
Took the entire town down for three solid days. We did not get a fart of snow.
We got a huge covering, Christina and I, down where we live. Yeah, but what would you say? Like a total of two inches? Yeah, but it was a big blanket.
yeah yeah it was beautiful it's amazing i sent

you the picture yeah i saw the pictures i lots of traffic jams yet again happened yet again the

city still can't get it right but i mean you know these meteorologists they tell you it's going to

happen late in the afternoon or in the evening so everyone figures okay let's go to work let's go to

school let's do the things the truckers are driving through atlanta everyone's having a good time

and then of course

these fucking nudniks

can't get it right

I mean I love the weather guys

I know that they have a hard job

and I understand

that weather's really hard

to predict

but they got it wrong again

by like four hours

so of course

it starts snowing

at 10 a.m.

not 5 p.m.

and everybody gets stuck

out there

on the fucking roads

they're killing each other

out there

trying to drive

in ice and snow

in a town

that's ill prepared

for any event

whatsoever Thank you. stuck out there on the fucking roads.
They're killing each other out there trying to drive in ice and snow in a town that's ill-prepared for any event whatsoever. And so there you go.
So now- What about Florida? Well, that's true. That's a different animal altogether.
They didn't even have snow plows. They don't even- Snow plows.
They don't even have long-sleeved shirts. No, I know.
Let alone snow plows. What? Yeah, Florida, New Orleansleans all that gulf area houston i just saw that amelia island one of my favorite places got a good more than a dusting of snow and that's like the first time in 30 years that that's happened i mean it has to be really fucking it has to be a really weird event for snow to happen in florida which is usually no know, it's usually never below freezing there.
I mean, I can't think of a time when I've been down in Florida and I've spent a lot of time there when it's actually been below 32 degrees. Maybe one night during the winter, maybe.
But then they got snow. That's crazy.
And the crazier part is I am literally four miles from three inches of snow. Do you know what I'm saying? I am four miles from three inches of snow.
But I guess that's how the weather works. Why are we talking about the weather again on this show? I feel like we're one step away from the weather.com.
Well, it was a big event. It was a big event.
It was a big event. It took us all down.
And the reason why it's a big event is because then I have to deal with my children three days in a row. Fucking stir crazy and absolutely nothing to show for it.
Like we say it's a snow day and they fully expect they're going to be out there making snowballs and there's nothing. And it was just too cold to go outside.
It was really cold. Too lazy to bundle them up.
So I said, hey, make the best of it. Drive yourselves.
Drive yourselves. You and Astrid got in the studio together? We did.
We got in the studio together. We managed to have some.
And thank you so much to Astrid. I mean, I literally am just like, okay, you're on.
Like, what are you talking about? And she hates the microphone. I know she does.
But she does a great job. She does.
It was a back-to-back it was gustavo on saturday gustavo on saturday yeah astrid on thursday wednesday or thursday well thursday what day is it i don't know well the episode yes the episode is a thursday episode so there you go and uh yeah another reel about venezuela going viral out there on the internet good yeah i think we're just gonna start speaking spanish on this i think we're gonna put a venezuelan classes it's gonna be called the maduran break that's what we're gonna call it from now on uh those venezuelans are just lovely and they're so loyal like once you once you show affection to them they will show affection back to you. Unlike our American listeners, can't be bothered to click follow on Instagram.
I know. I feel like we've become part of the family.
We're in the fold. There's no doubt.
Now we have our naysayers. We have some people who call me kind of like in Spanish it would be, they would, it would be an idiot and a dunce, a slow person, if you will.
Yes. I'm a dunce.
I'm an idiot. But you know, you got to take the heat when it comes your way, you know, when you're riding the waves, chance it's going to crash.
You can't make everybody happy. That's right.
So we've had a number of reels go viral, and most of them are because I say something about Venezuela. Yes.
But eventually we're going to get backlash. So I figure we stop while we're ahead.
But stop all the Venezuelan reels. So let's just stop while we're ahead.
Let's just leave it at that we love the people, and it's a beautiful country. That's it.
And then we'll slowly watch as our Instagram following goes back down again. Perfect.
So much fun. So much fun.
Speaking of Instagram following, I don't know if you had a chance to stop by JD Vance's page and follow him recently, but I noticed you were. Just throw that out there.
Yeah, that was not me. Yeah.
Wow. Unbelievable.
Seems like Meta made some changes. Meta made some changes.
The old Zuck Zuck. Yeah, the old Zuck, the old fuckerberg.
He's up to no good again. The old Zuck Cuck is what I'm going to call him because he's currently cuck holding the administration that just got.
Listen, vote for Trump. Cool.
That's your right. I will fight for your right to vote.
And I don't care who you vote for. That's the way it works.
Sometimes the cookie crumbles your way. Sometimes it does not.
I'm not here to cry over spilled milk. But I will say that the amazing amount of dick sucking that is going on on behalf of the big technology companies into Trump's, directly into Trump's zipper is unbelievable.
It really is very blatant. It's blatant.
It's unbelievable. This used to happen behind the scenes when we couldn't know about it.
Therefore, we weren't so stressed about it. But the fact that Zuckerberg or somebody made an actual decision that anyone who's not following J.D.
Vance or Donald Trump

should be, so we're going to go ahead and do that for them, is insanity at the highest levels

in a company that is run by insane people. Meta is for insane people, truly people who want to

run the world. They want to control you and own you and everything about you.
And it's just insane

to me

that I wake up in the morning to all this kerfuffle that everybody's following J.D. Vance and no one followed J.D.
Vance. And I thought to myself, come on, guys, let's stop crying, right? Let's stop being big babies about this.
And then I go and I'm following J.D. Vance.
It's un-fucking believable. I was like, holy shit, it's true.
Oh my God, it happened to me. It was and it is.
I wasn't following DJT.

I wasn't following him, but I was following JD Vance, JDV. Not DJT, but JDV.
I was following him. And then I noticed that a lot of my friends were following him.
It says also followed by. And there's just some people who I know would never make that.
That's correct. I know their finger finger would never press that button yeah and as a rule on our particular like our our company account the commercial break the podcast account we don't follow people who don't come on the show and that's just one of those things like it's no offense to anybody it's just like if you come on the show we follow you otherwise we don't and that's for our personal accounts that's who we follow we follow all youbs on our personal accounts.
We can't be seen messing around with the people who have less than 3,000 subscribers because we have more than 3,000 subscribers, according to social media experts. By a tiny bit.
So anyway, I say this not to sound elitist. I say this because I know for a fact that we would not have followed one of those accounts.
And were and it was just unbelievable to me now here's what i've also noticed i've also noticed that we have a thousand or so people following us on threads oh yeah the twitter knockoff that yeah i like threads too but i guess it's part of meta too yes i also know for a fact that those thousand people did not follow us on threads because we haven't posted anything on fucking threads. So how did we get a thousand followers? It took us four years to get a thousand followers on the commercial break.
How do we magically appear with a thousand? They are auto subscribing people, auto following people that follow us on the commercial break account. How they make the decision about who that is, have no idea maybe someone that has a threads account then it automatically follows them but that's just a shitty business practice i think you yeah like i don't want to be auto following people i just want to like follow the i have made my algorithm into a national treasure yes you've been working on that.
Toil and trouble, through blood, sweat, and tears, many long nights of anxiety, I have made my algorithm something to behold. Many bikinis and thongs.
Yes, many nipples later, I have my algorithm right in the sweet spot, or as Christina loves me to say, on fleek. Now, I don't want it to be fooled around with by Zuck Zuck, Zuck Cuck, and his friends over there at Meta.
And I don't give a shit if he hears this. He doesn't because he lives in a plastic bubble.
People roll him around on his private yachts or jets or whatever. That just seems like a really boner move to me.
Don't do that, dude. Don't do that.
Keep your fingers out of the pie. How's that? Don't seem so oblivious.
I know. It's been in the pie.
I know. Always a part of the pie.
What's that new one? Blue Sky or something? I'm going to get on that. Blue Sky's good.
Blue Sky's good and there's only like six people over there right now so you can probably get a following. That's only like six people.
I have a Blue Sky account. I got a Blue Sky account.
I think I got one for got one for the commercial break yeah it's like it's twitter basically is what it is um but it's you know supposedly the better twitter like not as ruckus as twitter has become because twitter's i mean twitter's always been kind of like a a rough place to be if you're going to get in those waters you really got to know what you're doing yeah you gotta have a very thick skin and it's been that way long before elon musk took over just to be clear about that but there was some semblance of like reciprocity or you know it seemed like there was an even hand somewhere over there at twitter when before elon owned it now now it's just like it's literally the wild west so and i don't want to bash on everything that, you know, Trump does or Elon does or JD does or whatever. I don't care about that part.
I'm not going to talk about that part, but I do not care for these billionaires getting so close to the seat of power. And apparently it feels like they're buying the seat of power.
Feels like they're buying into a clear path to do whatever the fuck they want, whenever the fuck they wanted. And I do believe that there needs to be some checks in place.
I believe in your right to be a billionaire. I really do.
I'd love to be one. I'd like to be a billionaire.
It'll take another 6,020 episodes of the commercial break before we even get to 100,000 there. But just know this will also fight for your right to be a billionaire but there needs to be some course there needs to be some like just like guardrails you know what i'm saying like don't be so obviously bending over with your ready to have your bell rung by you know everybody in power it's just so i didn't watch the inauguration, but apparently they were all, I guess, right there up front, like even closer than some other people.
Oh, Chrissy, they had box seats. And I'm sure that those box seats were sold to them by somebody.
Yeah. But don't worry, you can use Melania coin to buy a Melania coin.
I was talking to Astrid about this, or the preacher who was up there giving the whole sermon, you know, the sermon that was much ballyhooed online. He went right off stage into the backstage area and then announced his own altcoin, too.
Because, you know, we should all prosper under the Lord or some shit like that. I mean, it's unbelievable.
The grift is unbelievable. It's really crazy.
The grift is on. Everyone's got their hands in the piggy bank.
These meme coins do nothing but just make other people rich. It's just unbelievable.
And there's a sucker born every minute, I suppose. I told Astrid, I think we should have a TCB coin.
We should have a TCB coin so that we can get in on the action. What are we doing? What are we doing? We're sitting around here like idiots working for a living.
I know. Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah.
Why are we doing that? I don't know, Chrissy. I don't know.
Well, I did see that some of the cryptocurrency pioneers or people that are high up in it were mad because the Trump and Melania coins, because it just, it does not lend legitimacy. It bastardizes the whole thing.
And a meme coin has very little, if any, utility whatsoever. You cannot walk into Kroger and spend your Melania coin on milk, okay? It does not take in anywhere.
It's simply a vehicle. It's a pump and dump scheme.
That's it. Let's call it like we see it.
And all meme coins really are at the end of the day. Some of them have some utility, but really, no, they don't have any utility.
And so people who get in at the beginning, who make these, who hold on to a large portion of it, they control the price. And when the coin gets released or it gets really high or they they pump it, then they dump it and everybody else is left holding the bag, hoping that one more idiot behind them is going to come in willing to buy it at a higher price than they bought it.
But people always get left holding the bag, always. And when the people who make the laws who make sure that people don't get left holding the bag are in fact holding the bag, what do you do? Nothing.
I don't't know it's sad to me it's just sad to me and there are millions i was looking the other day like that melania coin had 53 billion dollars worth of transactions happen in a 24-hour period 53 billion dollars and uh who's money is that? Are people buying? Buying and selling. Buying and selling.
Buying and selling. If I was smart, I would have bought.
You know what I'm saying? If I was smart, I would have bought. Maybe I'm just mad because I didn't buy any.
Maybe I'm just mad because I didn't make any money on Melania coin. I'm just jealous.
Where's the Biden coin? I'm waiting for it. I'm waiting for it.
I'm waiting for the Joe coin. That's Joe coin.
I'm waiting for Joe coin to drop. I don't know.
There's got to be a, you know, Kamala, Kamala coin. Buy the Kamala coin.
It's all coming. They're all going to go the same way.
It's all happening. I'm telling you, I see this coming down the tracks.
The liberals protest right now, but they're soon going to be willing to get into bed also with the billionaires and the oligarchs to make themselves personally enriched. And none of us are going to have representation anywhere.
Be careful what you ask for. It will appear.
They're all doing that already with stocks. Well, they've been doing that for thousands of years, right? It'll be Nancy Pelosi.
She'll be the first one. Listen, absolutely.
Absolutely absolutely it's been shenanigans going on for years and the democrats are just as guilty as anybody they're all in cahoots they're all doing it you think they go sit up there and work together because they really enjoy doing the work of the people sure i'm sure a few of them do true servants of this country yes the john mccain's of the world and stuff like that the people who

give a fucking shit but there's this whole other side of life where you can be fabulously rich if we could just pull a few strings here and push a few buttons there and insider trading 101 here let me give you that class i'm sure they get that the second they become a senator or whatever and the And then we all are here voting them in term after term after term after term after term and they're making the laws that push the buttons and make the power and make themselves more rich and now it's out in the open there's no more hiding anymore it's out in the open and all of them are guilty of it or most of them are guilty of it and we are all going to suffer

because already we have uh you know whatever i know i know no i i i honestly honestly i just had to say something i just like my top just popped i haven't watched news in first in forever i know but when i started reading about melania coin and then I'm following people I never followed.

It just made me incensed. It really did.
It made me incensed. And so next week, we're going to have a very special guest come on the show.
And for one day, you guys are going to have to suffer through talk about politics. Do you hear me? The break is over.
The break is over. The commercial break has broken.
You've done broke the commercial break. How do you feel about that, Mark Zuckerberg? Fuck you.
We'll be back. If you were wondering, obviously you were.
Yes, we did finally surpass 5,000 followers. But now here we are thirsty for more.
So follow us. We are at the commercial break on Instagram and at TCB podcast on TikTok.
And we'd love you the most if you liked our videos and subscribe to our channel on YouTube at youtube.com slash the commercial break. And if social media isn't for you, just go to our website, tcbpodcast.com because everything we have ever done lives right there.
Now,

let's take a listen to our sponsors, and then we'll get back to the show. All right, and we're back.
Brian had to take a couple of minutes, go outside, spin around three times, take a deep breath, look at my children, say, everything's going to be all right, Brian. Everything's everything's gonna be all right you know back in the day now we now I think because of the internet and media and the way that we have to get involved in everybody's back in the day we used to have to run to the corner grocery store, talk to grandma about who was fucking who.

Now you just look at that TMT.

Back in the day.

Did you mean TMZ?

No, I meant TMT.

Oh, okay.

What's TMT?

I don't know, but I just made it up.

But I mean, I don't know who grandma is or who the corner grocery store is either.

I was going somewhere in my mind. Okay, I'm following you.
It just didn't – I had to stop. Because I didn't want to completely derail the show, as I'm doing right now.
Okay. So, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous was probably our first rich porn.
Right. I remember growing up with it.
The 80s were kind of like like it is today money and greed above all else yes everyone's screwing everybody else as long as i got mine greed is good and that was literally the vibe for some period of the 80s and people were doing very well there was a lot of money flowing around um ball street was really taking off as a place where you could make your money and there were were a lot of people, that money, that kind of that hedge fund money, savings and loan money, it filtered down. And everyone felt good.
They had an attitude, an error that they too could be rich someday if they just got this real estate course from the late night TV. Yes.
Like Brian did. Like Brian got his dad to pay for it.
But I would say that Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, the show that aired from about 84 to 95, starring Robin Leach, produced by Robin Leach, was our first rich porn, where we were really gawking at people who had fabulous amounts of money and hoping that's beyond hope. You were getting an inside look.
You were getting an inside look at what it was like to fly a private plane or be inside of a mansion. Yeah.

It wasn't, Instagram wasn't showing this to us every other reel.

As some dipshit, you know, some 13-year-old in Colorado paid $100 to a pilot of a private plane to make it pretend and seem like he had a Learjet.

Do you know what I'm saying?

Yes.

We didn't have all of this, that's all the way I can say it, money porn that goes around today.

And so, but that show was fascinating.

I mean... We didn't have all of this, that's all the way I can say it, money porn that goes around today.
And so, but that show was fascinating. It was so good.
It got me just like it got everybody else. And I was very young when this first came on, but I remember it for a good chunk of my adolescence.
Me too. And I loved it.
I loved it when it came on. The story is that Robin Leach had this idea to do this television show to showcase some of his friends' fabulous wealth, but no one would bite.
There was no company that would bite. So Robin paid to have these shows produced at first on his own.
And then I think he continued to do that, and he would syndicate it on whatever television show. Yeah, it was all over the place.
It was all over the place. You would see it in the mornings.
You would see it in the afternoons. It would be on late night television.
It ran a lot. And there were many episodes, I think.
I think they ended up doing like 180 episodes or something. So I thought, after my little diatribe on segment number one, that it was only fair to, I think, go back to the beginning when we all started looking at these rich people as status icons, so to speak.
Let's look at some rich porn from 1980s, kids. We're going all the way back.
I was trolling on the internet. As you do.
As I oftentimes do. And guess what I found? Get ready for another incredible lifestyle.
Your VIP journey into the lives and loves of today's winners who really know how to enjoy the great things of life.

Oh, look at that.

Sexy fashion models, large pools,

breasts a-breasting.

Helicopters.

Oh, helicopters.

I love helicopters.

Nothing like a helicopter shot to get your morning wood going.

That is the Breakers Resort in Miami, by the way.

I know that because I one time saw a picture of it. Oh, Polo.
Polo. We know how I feel about Polo.
Yachting. Sailing.
Sailing. Gaudy gold tables.
Oh. Oh.
That's like a model T. Yeah, we're watching the intro.
And by the way, this is like season number one or two or something. So this is one of the older episodes.
Model T. It is.
I think it's a model T. I think it's a Rolls, but it's the fancy.
Oh. Host is Robin Leach, who circles the world to bring home the stories people will never stop talking about.
What a fun job. Good for Robin.
What a fun job. And I think he was kind of like a nobody television producer before that.
I don't know. One time I saw a documentary about Robin Leach, but they don't show those anymore because I don't think, you know, he didn't really live on and people of our age know about him.
Right. But it's not like Robin Leach went on to be super famous.
He did this show and that's what he was known for and he hosted a couple of other things i think he did the game show but so this guy pretty much glommed on to everybody else that was rich he would just visit their house and take a camera yeah people love showing off how much money they make what was the mtv mtv cribs the cribs yeah it was like cribs before cribs cribs before cribs

uh lifestyles before lifestyles. Utah trad wife before Utah trad wife.
Big Ben chimes to a whole new beat now. Debbie Gibson is a Londoner.
America's songbird inspires a retro rock fashion. Debbie Gibson on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.
Now, my ears are perked. Yes.
In my old hometown by juggling two careers. There's a new big wheel on the River of Dreams.
The captain of the ship is Merv Griffin. Oh, Merv! Oh, Merv Griffin! Wow.
Merv Griffin made every game show you ever watched. Yeah, that's still around.
Yeah, that's still around. That's Jeopardy, right? Wheel of Fortune.
Wheel of Fortune, yeah. That is ever watched.
Yeah. And still today.
That still is around. Yeah, that's still around.

That's Jeopardy, right?

Wheel of Fortune.

Wheel of Fortune, yeah.

What is Lady Luck?

Hit the jackpot on his brand new floating casino.

Is that his real first name?

Merv?

Merv?

Yeah, it's...

Baby Merv?

Yeah, what's Merv?

Somebody named their baby.

Merv the Perv.

That's what they used to call him back in the day.

This is 1984, and

he looks 90 there. I know.
And didn't he

live until just a couple years ago? I think so.

He was like 107

when he died. People,

again, they just looked older back then.

They did. Mervin is the name.

Mervin. M-E-R-V-Y-N.

Mervin be pervin.

Mervin stays pervin. Mervin stays pervin.

A Brazilian bombshell has landed on children's television. Meetervyn B.
Pervin. Mervyn stays Pervin.
Mervyn stays Pervin. A Brazilian bombshell has landed on children's

television. Meet Shusha!

Shusha!

Ah, good old Shusha. A Brazilian

bombshell has landed on children's

television. Okay, you don't hear that

every day. We've hyper-sexualized

half of Australia.

With these beautiful breasts,

you can't go wrong. The kids will be sucking at the TTs of Sha Sha.
...who's out to bump off Barney, choke off Lamb Chop, and slaughter Sesame Street. Wow.
Can Latino Spitfire pull it off? You be the judge. Slaughter Sesame Street.
Wow, do you think she sat around in meetings and was like, we're going to slaughter Sesame Street. The other life of entertainment tonight, John Tash.
Wow, first of all, what I have to remember about these television shows from the 80s and 90s is they had extraordinarily long intros. We're already seven minutes into the show and we haven't seen one bit of content.
The man behind the mic, a former shy boy who muscled his way into not one, but two super successful career. Yeah, by the way, John Tesh is one of the most successful musicians that ever lived.
And that's a fact that befuddles me to this day. Really? He sold like 180 million albums or something.
It's insane. Oh, diggity dog.
You're not going to believe the platinum lives of Pampered Pets. Creatureure comfort takes on new meaning for the four-legged friends of the stars

and to their world of luxury unlimited.

Oh, there was Richard Simmons.

Oh.

To lavish multi-millions of...

How much stuff can you fit into an hour-long television show?

Jewelry, spas, passions, and parties.

A dog life?

Don't you believe it?

Ah!

These amazing stories and even more when Lifestyles returns in a moment.

Stay with us.

Returns in a moment, yeah, because we're just intro'd forever.

Guess who we found in London town?

You better shape up, because I need a man.

And my heart is dead on you.

America's teen idol Debbie Gibson grew up to conquer a whole new continent. She even inspired a retro rock fashion craze from Bermond Z to Bethnal Green by starring in the English production of a classic American musical.
Between eight shows of Grease each week, she also found time to explore the rockiest little city of Europe. She also found time to be a normal person, walking into stores with cameras all around her.
I remember going to Covent Garden on a day off from rehearsal and walking around. And what amazed me in general about London, especially that area, is how people are just all out from the street.
It's kind of like the equivalent of... What amazed me is that there's people on the streets debbie and now she's juggling debbie that's one of the dumber things i've heard said there were people on the streets i know now she's juggling well she's got talent debbie gibson by far was my favorite teen pop star chick for sure yes who was the other one uh tiffany there was tiffany and deb was Tiffany and Debbie.
In the argument between the two, I would go Debbie all day week. Debbie, Debbie, Debbie.
Debbie is from New York, only more central. Debbie's first surprise? Penises in Italy.
Language and cultural parallels, it is most definitely Europe. She also discovered thatome london wasn't built in a day either there seems to be there's a lot of culture here i mean this is probably what every american says i'm gonna sound really redundant right now but there's so much history around not every building is shiny and new you could drive through in a cab and there's history about everything to be told.
It's nice. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Let's get to the good stuff. Show me what you're driving.
Yeah, I love that blossom hat, by the way, she's got on. So 1984.
Except you gotta do something about the weather. Summer was like last Wednesday and that was it.
You're right, and that's why I moved to America. Taking a rain check on tourist hotels, Debbie checked into an elegant address that's a favorite for discerning visitors who stay for a while.
The place I'm staying at was an old house, apparently, so it doesn't have that impersonal hotel feel. Instead, I feel like I'm in a house that happens to have room service and maid service.
Instead, the water's cold and it smells like rat shit. I can't cook and I'm a slob.
That is very helpful. I love what I get waited on.
Entitlement. With a spacious suite doubling as an office, the Dynamo and her manager Worked double time for a new generation Of British fans Look at that laptop computer back there That is highfalutin for 1984 Yeah it was You do not find a laptop I promise you That had the memory The same kind of memory as Christina's computer It was like 1.2k Between shows She'm getting her a new one.
Stop texting me. I hear you already.
I can hear you pounding away on that keyboard. Whoa, she wrote a thousand songs? And what's Blimey Limey? I don't know.
I don't know either. Yeah, Blimey Limey.
I think I was post Blimey Limey. Yeah.
You have to be a real Debbie Gibson fan to know what Blimey Limey is. I don't think I could really choose a favorite as far as recording and doing concerts and doing theater goes because they're both very different.
Theater's a very different thing from, let's say, recording, in the sense that the producers... In the sense that there's people out front.
I wanted to see the yachts. Show me the actual yachts.
Shit, I don't want to hear about your recording. I don't care.
The director, everyone has to be confident that you can get out there eight times a week. Though immortalized on film, Debbie had no hesitation about reprising her character on stage.
Reprising. Reprising.
Reprising. Get it together, Robin.
Sandy, since I was eight years old and saw the film, I was just dying to do a West End show. So I remember this being a show that showed you all the glitz and glamour, and what this really is is one big promotional tool for her for her off-broadway show grease what's that no we'll keep on rolling with it why not hey listen this episode couldn't get any worse than my grandstanding in segment one so to be a part of that it's just it's like being a part of history it's unbelievable i think people will always love the 50s era the upbeat kind of of feel that Grease has, I think, is timeless.
People do love Grease. People do love that Grease.
Do you like Grease? I like Grease. Do you like Grease? Oh, yeah.
Jeez. There's something wrong with you people.
Rocks in your socks or something. Triumphant return to her mega million dollar mansion in one of the Big Apple's Ritzy.
Here we go. The mega million.
Incredibly, Debbie was just 18 years of age when she parlayed royalty revenues into this 20-room, 10,000... 20 bedroom.
At 18. She was 18 years old.
Did he say 20,000 square foot house? 20,000 square foot house? I think so. That's 32 of these houses.
...square foot home. The house that hits Belk is sweet sanctuary for the girl who was destined for stardom.
Picking out songs at age two, she quickly learned to play five instruments and was performing publicly by age 13. Wow.
The meteoric rise was so swift that only as an American songbird in London was she truly able to take stock of her accomplishments. Over there, Debbie looked around at a new triumph in a new land, and she liked what she saw.
No time for him on stage, and I look up and read it. Okay.
This is one big fluff piece. Speaking of PR.
Yeah. And I go, I'm Jane Greaves in London.
This is how Robin got himself invited himself invited to all these places because everybody knew he was just going to do one big jack me off session yeah the west exactly i'm enjoying my personal life my professional life yeah and i do kind of go is this really happening you know because it's just it's one of those times in my life where i feel like i'm exactly where i want to be doing exactly what I want to be doing around the people I want to be around which doesn't come together that often in life you know so when it does it's like oh I don't know look at any Instagram of any influencer and it seems like everything is going swimmingly for them also yeah it comes right together appreciate it and enjoy it alright good for you next move on to the next one You showed one shot of her house. That's not the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.
That's Debbie Gibbs. Buy tickets here.
In London. Shame on you, Robin.
I remember this show being much better. If relocating's on your mind, look no further than the foothills of northern Georgia.
Oh. I remember this.
Beaver Dam Farms. Beaver Dam Farms.
farms huh i think that went out of business yeah yeah i don't know what beaver dam farms is but i georgia do you see it is it still there christina i mean clearly there's like a multi-million dollar house sitting hold up hold up hold up this is a real estate agency so beaver dam farms oh. 900 plus acres of pure resort perfection.
Let's see about that. Oh.
Just outside of Athens. Up for auction in 2016.
Oh, no. Well.
Okay. All right.
Well. I don't know.
Didn't all work out. Beaver took its arm.
It'll go for auction on the 16th of, sorry, 2016. Estimated replacement cost between $30 and $40 million to be sold to the highest bidder at or above $3.5 million.
Now that's drama. Wow, that is $3.5 million for how many acres? Man, I wish I would have.
900 plus. Yeah, if I only would have known as a six-year-old boy watching this episode.
It does look beautiful. But golf courses are famously hard to maintain.
They're money pits. money is this is somebody's private it's like a resort abode oh no you know you can stay there yeah and there's a number of people here in georgia and i knew one guy's name was harrison he was a lovely real estate developer and he had this dream one last hurrah what he would develop like he helped develop like sun city west out in phoenix okay so he's like a true real estate developer who knows what the fuck he's doing master plan communities and he bought a bunch of land down south of the airport yeah to do this huge resort with houses and restaurants and hotels and blah blah blah blah you know 17 square miles or whatever it was going to be he's going to make his own city his own disney world is have rides and all this other here yes here and this guy couldn't he couldn't get two nickels to rub together to make this happen because everyone's like you're a dumb who the fuck is going to come out here to go to your resort when there's nothing to do here like there's nothing to do who's going to be the first one to come down here and essentially he was he built his own house there and he was lonely because he was the only guy that lived down there but now i remember why there's a commercial inside of this go ahead sorry um i'm just reading it uh formerly was the estate of kenny rogers oh kenny rogers and then it sold to a buyer in texas and then they used it as a private family retreat and home for a few years which is crazy and then it was later sold to corporation.
A land corporation. Yeah, meaning the hedge fund who then bought this for $3.5 million.
The reason why there's a commercial inside of this is because he was funding this all himself. So he would embed commercials into the show.
Smart. Smart thinking, Lincoln.
Beaver Dam Farm is an old sweet song of Kenny Rogers. A 350-acre spread he designed and lovingly built with his country music, Millions.
Like no other working farm, it's a masterful balance of practical luxury, of shadows and light beneath soaring ceilings. There's a 3,000-square-foot master...
This must have been one of, like, the very first season. I'll engine the stream.
That is where we are. Lots of cocaine.
And I'm at the bar. Suite, professional kitchen, and movie star pool.
Just for openers. The property also contains the world's largest privately owned horse barn.
Can you customize all 72,000 square feet of blue ribbon design? From marble entrance to brass rail show arena. Wow.
It's quite impressive. It is huge.
Now, this is Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. This was owned by Kenny Rogers.
Owned and built by Kenny. And just a few short steps away, Chrissy.
We didn't even know. Celebrity visitors.
A five-bedroom guest house with every imaginable luxury. Elegant salon.
Jeez, if someone gave me that guest room in their house. Five bedroom.

Unbelievable.

Guest house.

Guest house.

Gymnasium and bar.

Look at that.

There is like a cheers-sized bar in that guest house.

In the guest house, yeah.

Oh, there's Kenny.

Oh, there's Kenny.

He's doing some golfing.

That's Payne Stewart. Guest house.
In the guest house, yeah. At the par 72 18-hole golf course.
Oh, there's Kenny. Oh, there's Kenny.
He's doing some golfing. He's brand enough to draw headliner pals to the Peach State just to play a few holes in Kenny's backyard.
A hard drive from the green, you'll find a regulation-sized tennis court where visiting Hollywood chums came to work on their backhand. Was that Woody Harrelson? It was.
Wow. Okay, this is Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.
The guy's got an infinity pool, an 18-hole golf course, the world's largest horse barn, all right there in the luxury of his own backyard. That's what I'm talking about.
Kenny Rogers is rich. Debbie Gibson is paying the mortgage.
Kenny's favorite spot? A gazebo by the lake, where he and his son spent lazy afternoons playing hooky. Playing hooky.
And a helicopter landing on your backyard. ...moving on, and Beaver Dam Farm is on the market.
Yours for $13 million. $13 million.
That was a deal back then. Right.
In 1984, that's probably the equivalent of one million Melania coin. Directly ahead, one man.
Okay, we're going to check out Merv Griffin's riverboat. Steamboat.
Gambling boat. Merv Griffin was into a lot of shit.
He's probably into S&M, too. But that's just my interpretation.
No offense to the Griffin family.

With a name like Merv.

If you want me to host one of your gigs, if Ryan Seacrest should keel over at any point,

you need me to do that Wheel of Fortune gig?

I think I could do that.

I was telling my son, who loves the Wheel of Fortune, I said, son, I could be the host of the Wheel of Fortune.

And he said, I think I like Ryan better.

That's what he said.

Well, that's just the first in a long line of disappointing things you'll say to me, son. And this is one of them.
We'll be back. One of my New Year's resolutions is to hear more of other people's drama.
So help a girl out and tell us your drama at 212-433-3822. You can text it or if it's extra juicy, leave us a voicemail with the full story.
And don't forget to follow us on Instagram at The Commercial Break and on TikTok at TCB Podcast. And watch our video episodes at youtube.com slash thecommercialbreak.
But also, you can find everything I just mentioned and more on our website, tcbpodcast.com. Okay, let's listen to our sponsors and send us your drama.
All right, and we're back with the lifestyles of the rich and famous. We just saw Kenny Rogers trying to unload his amazing resort.
That thing was amazing. I mean, $13 million.
It was huge. It was huge.
What'd they say? They said it was like 900 acres or something? 1,000 million. Over 900 acres.
900 acres in between Atlanta and Athens. That has got to be worth some money now.
Some hedge fund made a killing on that. All right.
Let's see what Merv Griffin is up to. He's the guy who started all the game shows you love.
Make a million dollar gamble. Mighty mogul Merv Griffin goes for broke with a little help from a company.
He does look like a jolly old man, doesn't he? He does. He's filthy rich.
He's filthy rich. Hook superhero.
Stay with us. Call Merv Griffin, Mr.
Entertainment, with the Midas touch. The super showman turned mighty mogul says his secret of big business success is all down to an attitude.
I still have that wonderful optimism about life. I live by the philosophy that there were two stone cutters.
I live by the philosophy that there's two young men, two young chiseled stone cutters. And they said to them, what do you do? And one of them says, well, I cut stones and I make blocks.

And the other one said, I'm on a team that's building a beautiful cathedral.

I like the second one.

Everybody sing!

Everybody sing!

He's getting down on that piano.

Everybody gather around, Grandpa, for one last hurrah. Your billionaire grandpa.
He's seen Vanowatt's titties. All right, listen to him play Hootie Dootie at the Howdy Daddy.
The Razzmatazz, an innate savvy that built Merv Griffin Enterprises. An empire captained by someone who's never been afraid of going against the stream.
Merv, can I... Yeah, I would say of all the things your financial advisor would tell you to get involved in, riverboat gambling, probably not one of them.
It's worse than a restaurant. A joke that he sold himself down the river on his newest gamble.
Well, riverboats are going to be a thing of the 90s. I mean, there's no question about it.
All the states are... Oh, yeah, no question about it.
They took off. They're in the 90s.
All I can remember about the 90s was riverboat gambling. Gaming, and most of them are naming the fact that they have to be riverboats with the paddle wheel and all.
A floating palace to lady luck. Players Riverboat Casino boasts three restaurants, entertainment, and a 20,000 square foot gaming floor with room for 1,200 passengers.
This really just is an advertisement now for him. Now I see just how fragile my young mind was.
I always felt like the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous was a fun show showcasing. They became about that later.
That's what I was saying. I think so.
I think this had to be a really early episode. This is.
This is an early episode. It's season one or season two.
I can't remember which one I pulled. But yeah, this is just one big commercial for Merv Griffin's riverboat and his big gamble on the wave of the future.
Riverboat gambling. Bang roll.
The $18.5 million ship has every reason to toot his own horn. Wait, hold on.
It's $18.5 million to buy that riverboat gambling. Bankrolled the $18.5 million ship as every reason to toot his own horse.

Wait, hold on.

It's $18.5 million to buy that riverboat ship

and it was only $13 to buy Kenny Rogers,

world's largest horse barn facility?

I would have bought Kenny Rogers.

Yeah.

That means somebody won a jackpot.

Classed up in a speeding bullet,

Merv established the Super Casino's corporate headquarters

somewhere rather fittingly.

The tiny northern town put on the map by a superhero.

I guess the name Metropolis came first, I guess,

when they were doing the strip in the papers of Superman.

They took the name of Metropolis.

The paper here is the planet.

It's not daily.

It's a weekly planet. They have a statue.
I did not know this of Metropolis. The paper here is the planet.
It's not daily. It's a weekly planet.
And they have a statue. I did not know this about Metropolis, Illinois.
And I do not care. I really don't.
I wonder if they still have that statue there. It's probably a Banksy at this point.
But the tourists do cut this to it right in the town square. When he's not wheeler-dealing, Merv's having fun, usually with longtime companion Ava Gabor and his family.
That's right. A world explorer and bon vivant, his favorite travel companion.
Bon vivant. Bon vivant.
I want to be a bon vivant. How do you do? How do I get to be a bon vivant? Brian Green and his longtime co-host and bon vivant,si hoadley sit around and stare at penises as they're slowly revealed behind a curtain look that bon vivant is uncircumcised he's a true bon vivant bon vivant this is a fucking elitist bon vivant, fuck you Bon vivant Son and daughter-in-law They're a dream couple, they're great fun They're fun to travel with, they're fun to be with They're fun to be friends with Other than being And my son-in-law is sucking all my money He's sucking up all my cash Close family It's nice to go traveling Oh yes, like Someone pointed out on the internet the other day They said shit started to go wrong in this world When sexy saxophone Stopped being played in music And he like He actually put a timeline together Of how the Slowly the sexy saxophone went away from music And slowly things got worse around the world Oh yeah I think he's think he's onto something here, actually.
Who doesn't love a little slow saxophone? Listen, sexy sax... I used to play the saxophone.
Of course you did. It was one of my first instruments.
Of course. Alto saxophone.
I was second chair because Russell was first chair. Russell.
He was much more talented than I was. Oh, so nice to come home to a choice of free dream West Coast addresses.
My main headquarters is in Beverly Hills. I love Carmel Valley, where I have been for many, many years, and I have my vineyard there.
Bon vivant! My vineyard with my bon vivant. My whores and poo boys.
I swing either. I'm a wild Roman man.
I'm a bon vivant. All the spots in the world are 1,700 feet high on a mesa with the Big Sur Mountains up against me.
He was living the life. Oh, he was.
This guy was a billionaire before. Yeah.
He wasn't. I don't think he probably would be now a billionaire.
His company's got to be worth a billion dollars at least.

He owns all those rights to all those famous television shows.

But he's embedding restaurants into the side of a mountain.

He's got golf courses everywhere.

Vineyards.

Vineyards.

And he's got bon vivants.

He's eating olives with toothpicks.

This guy's really into something. I live in the wintertime.

He's even got a La Quinta hotel.

La Quinta.

La Quinta.

That's what bon vivant say, Chrissy.

Yes, they do.

La Quinta.

I say La Quinta.

And I'm really crazy about both of them.

When the islands call Day-O, Murph follows the tray brings and splashes. Day-O.
Day-O. Day-O.
That's from Beetlejuice, not the islands. She's down at a balmy hideaway.
It's the greatest tonic in the world. To come here.
And you, sleep here I sleep here with many people I sleep here He's got an island in the Bahamas? He's got an island in the Bahamas I have an island in the Bahamas Islands in my dreams I'm very comfortable here He's come a long way From a 50's crooner singing for his supper risking a steady 125 a week gig merv went solo and scored a number one hit what he flirted with movies until a chance fill in as a host spun him into the living rooms of the first television generation that's right he was he was like the guest host on the jack parr show then he did the he did the Merv Griffin show The whole world passed through that talk show In those 23 years It was a kind of show 23 years He had that show for 23 years Wow He was 107 when he died Did you spit that out of your mouth? It was part variety. It was part heavy conversation.
It was part everything. Just like an episode of a commercial break.
You were saying the same thing. It was all improvised.
That's what I love. Don Louise? Or what was his name? Yeah, that is Don Louise.
Don, uh... Or Dom DeLuise.
Don Deuise. That's right.

Isn't he like Gallagher?

Didn't he have a brother, twin brother that would go around?

I don't know.

Dom Deluise.

Dom Deluise. Not Don.

No, Dom.

Dom with an M.

Such flamboyance made his low-key 1986 farewell all the more poignant.

We will not be right back after this message.

That's all, folks. We will not be right back after this message.
That's all, folks. We will not do that.
That's how I am ending the commercial break. Remember this moment, girls, because it might come sooner rather than later.
When Brian says, we must say, we will say, we won't be right back. Behind the scenes, he created and launched the two most successful game shows in television history.
That are still on. That are still on to this day.
Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, still extraordinarily popular. No game has ever in the past or ever will do what Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy have done.
I mean, I think he might be right. Yeah, no, he's right about that.
They're the two longest running television shows, aren't they?

And then The Simpsons or something?

Those shows.

Oh, I guess The Tonight Show and 60

Minutes and CBS This

Morning and

BBC World. Okay, there's a lot of other

shows. Sorry, Merv, it didn't work out how you

anticipated.

In 1986,

Coca-Cola made Merv an offer he couldn't refuse.

$250 million for both shows.

Oh, Coca-Cola balls?

I thought, I'm going to have some fun.

There's plenty for my son.

You'll never have to worry.

So why not have some fun?

And I went out and just started buying things.

I didn't know Coca-Cola owned the show. I had no But it makes sense I guess Merv's spree began with $102 million For a West Coast hotel Oh, he owns the Beverly Hilton Wow Okay Chrissy and I are really impressed with Merv Griffin He's the kind of billionaire we can fall in love with Well, he is dead Yeah well yeah he's like that old school pedo that no you know just he's kind of bothersome but he really didn't do anything bad and you know he just stepped over a few people's heads to get there and ruined a couple of thousand acres of land and stuff like that but you know they were old you could give him a break it was a different time it was It was a different time.
Now he owns the Beverly. He owned the Beverly Hills.

Now his son does.

And his son's probably.

Never mind.

For renovations.

If it's going to be an extension of me, I want to know what's going on in the place.

And I want input to it.

I'm not a passive owner.

I don't want to own things and then sell them.

His next purchase sparked a bidding war from Atlantic City Casino.

Did any when Merv beat out Donald Trump?

Oh!

I don't know if it'll ever be rectified

with Donald. I didn't bother at all.

Oh my God.

There's a young Donald Trump.

Merv Giff Griffith unbothered

by Donald Trump.

While he was running around saying,

I want, I want, I want, I want, I was in the back of the house with my sleeves rolled up, working on projects and getting things done. Whoa.
The shame. The shame.
You're for it. Wow.
Trump getting shit. Trump being called out early by Merrick.
Four years ago. That's right.
Winning bid of $365 million won in Resorts International Casino. And more.
With it came an 80% stake in another moneymaker in the Bahamas. With a roll of the dice, the showman muscled his way onto the cutting edge of big business.
Yet, despite his mover and shaker status, Merv remains a maverick. A mogul whose eye isn't totally focused on the bottom line.
Now, some people do it for money. I don't do it for money.
It's very nice. I'm sure that it comes in.
If someone says, what are you worth? I have no idea. If somebody said, how much money do you have in the bank? I have no idea.
Oh, God, God, would that be nice? God bless. Just for one day, I want to wake up and not wonder what's in my bank account.
Do you

know what I'm saying? Not wonder how I'm going to pay the bill. Not wonder who's going to call me next for money.
Not wonder any of this, or not worry who's going to call me next for money. Not worry about any of that.
I just want to be Merv for one day. I want to wake up and go, I don't know how much I have in my bank account.
Well, that's true. I don't know how much I have in my bank account.
I do that, but it's only because I don't want to look. Yeah, I do.

I do.

I do ignore my bank account. I do that, but it's only because I don't want to look.
I do ignore my bank account largely because when there's a minus, when you open up your app, you just kind of forget about the rest of the numbers. Merv Griffin enjoying the fruits of success by spanning the worlds of showbiz and big bids.
Good for Merv. Wow, good for Merv.
I do think I like Merv very much.

Merv lived well.

Merv lived well, and the fact that he beat Trump out for a couple of hotels makes me even more joyous on this day of our Lord, whatever day it is today.

Is that important?

You have to take that?

No.

Okay.

I think someone is calling you.

They are.

Is that who I think it is? Yes. You're kidding me.
No. How long has it been since you've talked to her? A while.
A long time. Yes.
Yeah, she's probably listening to the show going, what are these two fucking morons up to? I won't mention who because she might not want to be on this show. But hey, listen.
Okay, there's the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. We may not revisit that one, but we did it once.
That's all I got to say. I think if we go to a later i think so too i think we gotta go later yeah when it's more like rich porn right i can pre-screen for you yeah thank you i appreciate it i and there aren't not every episode is out there on uh you know on the platform on the youtube on the interweb yeah, see if we can find one closer to like 1992 or 93.

And one of those I might remember.

Like this I don't remember.

I was too young for all of this.

But anyway, all right.

Bonviant to you.

Bonviant, viant.

Bonviant, viant.

A bovino, bonviant.

A bovine fool, otherwise known as a bonviant. Okay, well, that's it.
We're back in studio. Thank you to Astrid for jumping in.
Yes, thank you, Astrid. Jumping in for joy.
There you go. I do love her dearly.
That's good. I do love her dearly, but I do thank God that you're in this seat six hours a week instead of her.

She probably does too.

Oh, yeah.

No, definitely.

Why do you think she... Part of her hates the podcast.

The other part likes that I'm occupied with something besides talking to her.

Also, Astrid and I talked about this yesterday,

about kind of the TikTok and creator economy.

Some people will text in and they'll say,

love the show.

If there's anything I can ever do to help, let me know. There is something you can do to help share the show share it with a friend share it with a neighbor share it with the boss you don't intend to be employed to with for very long just send it to someone you don't care about uh sharing is caring and if you can share the show that's the biggest favor in the world you can do biggest compliment pay us.
Also, you can follow us on Instagram at the commercial break. We're posting content there now constantly, it seems like.
Yeah. At TCB podcast on TikTok.
I do try and post there as frequently as possible. Though TikTok's another scene altogether.
And I just don't get it. Yeah, I think we have less than 100 followers.
I'm sure. That does not surprise me.
How impressed Roy Wood Jr. must be when he goes to our TikTok and he sees less than 100.
Anyway, 212-433-3822, 212-433-3TCB. Questions, comments, concerns, content, ideas.
We're taking them all right there. And TCBpodcast.com.

All the audio, all the video.

YouTube.com slash the eCommercialBreak for every episode now available on video.

Chrissy, that's all I can do for now.

I think so.

I'll say that I love you.

And I love you.

Best to you.

Best to you.

And best to you out there in the podcast universe.

Until next time, Chrissy and I do say, say we will say and we must say goodbye Thank you.