I first met Andrew Goldberg in the beginning of 10th grade at White Plains High School. He went to a private Jewish school for K-8th grade and lived on the other side of town, and it took a year of high school for us to finally cross paths. He was so funny, I remember getting a ride home with him one day from school and the two of us were in the backseat of our mutual friend Mike Friedland’s older brother’s car, and I could not stop laughing at his wisecracks. From that ride home on, we became great friends.
Sometime around the winter of 10th grade, we got the idea to start our own TV show. The school had its own TV studio, but no students used it for anything other than a fairly lame Television Production class. We wanted our own show. Our idea was to make it kind of like the Tonight Show, with Andrew as the host and me as the co-host on the couch with the guests. We also had ideas for skits, kind of along the lines of Saturday Night Live. So we wrote up a proposal and pitched it to the head of the TV studio. She loved the idea, and before we knew it, we were approved by the Asst. Principal to give it a shot.
The first Prime Time with Dan and Andrew show aired in the late winter of 1994, towards the end of our 10th grade year. We filmed it during lunch, and it featured a bunch of our friends sharing their special talents and us laughing along beside them cracking jokes. It wasn’t exactly a hit, but it was a decent start (and pretty entertaining).
By our second episode we were starting to get a bit of a following in the community. Our teachers were tuning in, and of course students and parents were too. It was becoming something special. The second episode started with a skit called “Name That S.T.D.”, a game show all where the contestants had to match the symptoms with the correct sexually transmitted disease, followed by this important info from sources like STD aware STD tests – www.STDAware.com/. It was hysterical. That same episode we aired a bit where Andrew played a character called “Grandpappy Goldberg”, and he was quite outlandish. Check out both clips…
Turns out some people on the Board of Education in White Plains were offended by our taste in humor, specifically “Name that S.T.D.” and “Grandpappy Goldberg”, and it looked for a second like we were going to get pulled off the air. But we had major support in the community and from our advisor at the TV station, so in the end the administration let us keep our show. So we continued, though I believe they pulled those two skits off the re-run version of the second episode. Here’s a couple clips of our guests from that second episode for you to watch. First, Dave Epstein, a big time fan of Prime Time, told us he would do anything to get on the show. So we let him. And to close out the show, our regular magician “Magic Mike” left us stunned as usual…
By our third episode, we had ourselves an SNL style intro and everything, and had a crew now called the Prime Time Players, made up of student friends who appeared on the show. It was official. Check it out…
We managed to interview the principal on the show, host an entire episode from Santa’s lap at the Galleria Mall, do a “Best Of” episode, and even get into some more musical acts. I’m still trying to get a hold of the Holiday Episode, but for now, check out these two musical doozies. First is our very own version of the Grease Classic “Summer Lovin'”, and after that is myself, Matty B, and Jiggs Telfair doing a remix of the Beastie Boys’ “Sure Shot”…
As of now, we have over 20 clips from the show up on our brand new Youtube channel. I’m still trying to get a hold of the missing episodes but for now I hope you loyal Westcheddar readers check out what we’ve got. There’s some funny stuff, clever and original, and way out there too. Not bad for a bunch of High School kids with too much free time on their hands. I recently interviewed Andrew, who is now a staff writer on The Family Guy, check that out too. Buh Bye!
Westcheddar 
I’m totally in love with all of you. Now I understand better why Tim had such a hard time balancing his girlfriend vs. boyz time. Such innocent creativity! I love it!