3 Episodes

[Autumn Pitz]

Episodesis a television sitcom created by David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik and produced by Hat Trick Productions.[1] It premiered on Showtime in the United States on January 9, 2011[2] and on BBC Two in the United Kingdom on January 10, 2011.[1] The show is about a British husband-and-wife comedy writing team who travel to Hollywood to remake their successful British TV series, with unexpected results. It stars Matt LeBlanc portraying a satirical version of himself. LeBlanc made his regular return to television for the first time since he was on NBC's Joey.

On June 10, 2015, it was announced that Showtime had renewed Episodes for a fifth season, which was due to begin filming in London in 2016.[3] On April 11, 2016, Season 5 was confirmed to be the show's last; it consists of seven episodes and premiered on August 20, 2017. The series finale, Season 5's "Episode Seven", aired on October 8, 2017.[4]

After married couple Sean (Stephen Mangan) and Beverly (Tamsin Greig) Lincoln win yet another BAFTA Award for their successful British sitcom, Lyman's Boys, they are persuaded to move to Hollywood and remake their series for an American audience. Unfortunately, the network starts to make changes (including the title, now Pucks!), and pressures the couple into casting Matt LeBlanc in the lead role, a part that Matt is largely unsuited for.

Sean becomes friends with Matt, while Beverly is less impressed. Continuing changes to the scripts threaten to damage the show and other pressures result in difficulties in Sean and Beverly's marriage.[1]

Beverly was originally to be portrayed by Claire Forlani, but she left the cast in April 2010 when the series was in pre-production.[9] LeBlanc was to play a "larger than life version of himself" as character Matt LeBlanc.[8] Thomas Haden Church was also to have a role in the series as Merc Lapidus, the American television executive who commissions the remake, but he left due to scheduling conflicts,[9] and was replaced by John Pankow.

The response of American critics was positive.[13] Robert Bianco of USA Today called the show "easily the best new sitcom of the season"[14] and The Boston Globe's Matthew Gilbert said that "Each of the season's seven half-hours is a little sliver of pleasure."[15] A Boston Herald review by Mark A. Perigard was lukewarm; he said he feared that the show would never achieve a broad audience,[16] and David Wiegand from the San Francisco Chronicle praised the performances of the actors but felt that the series simply was not funny.[17] Alan Sepinwall of HitFix went further declaring the show to be one of the worst TV moments of 2011.[18] The UK critics' response to the first episode was broadly lukewarm while remaining optimistic.[19][20] More screentime for Matt LeBlanc was eagerly anticipated by some,[21] with The Independent's Brian Viner believing that this might improve the series.[22]

The second season received positive reviews from critics.[23][24] Henry Goldblatt of Entertainment Weekly called the second season "a terrific second season of this industry-set sitcom."[25] USA Today said of the show: "As smartly written as it is played, Episodes offers the comic pleasures, not just of clashing cultures, but of contrasting comic styles. On one side you have LeBlanc, who handles the big laughs and the broader humor, and does it so well, it serves as a reminder that he was under-appreciated during his years on Friends." Ed Bark of Uncle Barky praised the season saying it was "a thoroughly entertaining romp, with the television industry as a combination Tilt-A-Whirl/merry-go-round."[26][27] On the Firewall & Iceberg podcast Alan Sepinwall and Dan Fienberg commented on the second season, saying that the "self-congratulatory, obvious" show that is "oddly tone-deaf about the business that it was trying to satirize" is "not about anything" and "as a result is better for it," but is still "groaningly unfunny".[28]

The series premiered in Australia on Nine on July 3, 2012,[37] with season two returning on September 4, 2012.[38] The first two seasons were replayed by subscription television network BBC UKTV (as opposed to Nine which is a free-to-air network), premiering January 28, 2014.[39][40] Unlike the first two seasons which premiered in Australia on Nine, season three premiered on pay TV. Although originally set to air on BBC UKTV,[41] the series premiered on BBC First on September 12, 2014,[42] and returned for season four on September 7, 2015.[43] On November 14, 2016, it was reported that the fifth and final season would have its premiere on streaming provider Stan in 2017. This move is believed to be the result of BBC no longer being a co-producer of the series and that Stan has an output agreement with Showtime.[44]

Who would have thought facilitating payments for Beanie Baby trades could be so lucrative? The only acquisition on our list whose value we can precisely measure, eBay spun off PayPal into a stand-alone public company in July 2015. Its value at the time? A cool 31x what eBay paid in 2002.

Ben: And we are your hosts. This episode is a very unique one for David and I. Good friend of the show, Andrew Marks, organized a little dinner for us with Charlie Munger and a few other folks at Charlie's home in Los Angeles. You can hear Andrew a few times in the background asking Charlie questions. We are pretty sure that this is the only podcast that Charlie has ever done.

Charlie, aside from being one of the most prolific investors of all time alongside his partner Warren Buffett, is 99 years old. He will turn 100 on January 1st. Of course, our conversation was interesting because he's freaking Charlie Munger, but also because it was interesting to get the perspective of someone who has seen the last 99 years of human history.

We talked with Charlie, of course, about Costco, his history investing in retailers over the last 50 years. We also got to hear his views on what it takes to build a great partnership, what's gone wrong in the global securities markets these days, the concept of investing versus gambling, and where investment opportunities remain in the world today.

David: Ben, this was such a special life experience for you and me. You and me together to do this, and the fact that we got to record it and now share it with the world for posterity, just icing on the cake, and the whole thing was unbelievable.

With that, join the Slack. There is an awesome discussion of every episode and the news of the day at acquired.fm/slack. If you sign up for acquired emails, you will get episode corrections and follow-up from previous episodes, plus hints at what the next episode will be, that's acquired.fm/email. We have only one sponsor for this interview.

David: A special conversation deserves a special sponsorship. Longtime listeners will know that there's only one company in the Acquired universe that is truly appropriate, because everything they do is modeled after Charlie and Warren, and that's Tiny.

Ben: Tiny is the Berkshire Hathaway of the Internet. Literally, they are such huge fans that they started a company that makes bronze busts of Buffett and Munger themselves, but more on that in a minute.

David: Berkshire, as we know, started as a textile mill in Massachusetts nearly 200 years ago. Almost 20 years ago, Tiny founders, Andrew Wilkinson and his partner Chris, took their version of an internet textile mill, the premier design agency MetaLab, which designed the UIs for Slack, Uber, Tinder, Headspace, Coinbase, and others. They asked themselves, what would Charlie and Warren do if they were us?

That led to the realization that just like Berkshire discovered in the physical world, the Internet also has wonderful niche businesses with great cash flows. In fact, they tend to be even better than the old days of See's Candies and Blue Chip Stamps because they require zero capital reinvestment, have software margins, and can build global brands much faster than the 50 some years it took See's to expand around the world.

Ben: Andrew and Chris took the extra cash flow from MetaLab and their other businesses, and created Tiny, the world's first and best permanent holding company for wonderful internet businesses, and boy did it work.

David: Fast forward to today, and thanks to Tiny's success, this opportunity is no longer a secret. Many people have caught on to the idea that this can really work. But just like Berkshire itself, no one else has the combination of experience, temperament, access to capital, and frankly, reputation that Andrew and Chris have built over the past two decades.

We're investors in Tiny ourselves alongside Bill Ackman and Howard Marks. Just like the two of them, Tiny is really the long-term buyer of choice in their niche. Anyone who's looking for a permanent home for their profitable internet business or who needs a capital partner for a co-founder or VC cap table buyout, would be lucky to work with Tiny.

David: Thanks to Tiny. This is the only sponsor, as Ben said, that you'll hear on this episode, and just like Berkshire, it'll be here in perpetuity. Tiny just became a public company earlier this year, and they can now do deals ranging anywhere from $1 million all the way up to $250 million. If you want to get in touch, just shoot them a note at h...@tiny.com and just tell them that Ben and David sent you.

Ben: Oh, and one more thing. The Bronze Charlie Busts, the perfect daily reminder in your workspace to ask what would Charlie do? Just head on over to berkshirenerds.store to buy your own. They also have plenty of some guy named Warren, too.

Okay, now without further ado, this is not investment advice. David and I may have investments in the companies we discuss, and this show is for informational and entertainment purposes only and on to Charlie Munger.

Charlie: Well, of course, Renaissance, the first algorithm was so simple. They sifted all this data for the past and what did they decide? Up, up, which were two closing prices, and down, down were more common than down, up, or up, down.

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