Public Access Television

In the 1990's, when I should have been working hard at my college classes, I was instead putting energy into a ton of creative projects. Some of those were more painful to observe than others. Probably the worst was my stint on public access TV. It turned out that to encourage creation of content (this was way before YouTube was a thing) the local cable company would let just about anyone sign up to make shows. So a friend of mine and I ran around town for a few months with a couple of cameras and I found out I enjoyed editing video (and was better at that than in being actually IN the video.) We came up with "The Self Righteous Brothers" which was essentially various skits and bad jokes, including a segment common to each show that we called "Cook 'n Bake with Clint 'n Nate" where we made things like cereal and minute rice.

All in all we made thirteen episodes that were mostly thirty minutes long (with one longer one at the end) and then decided to make a movie based on the show. All of these ran repeatedly on the public access channel. We were a small hit with the ten to twelve year old immature boy demographic, and that was about all the impact we had. But, it was a lot of fun at the time. If you watch any amount of these now, it might help if you have a few drinks first.

For the record, most college kids at this age are doing a lot of dumb things, we just happened to videotape some of our moments and broadcast them on local television. (Just imagine if somebody at that party you barely remembered actually had videotaped it and posted it to youtube several decades later. Ding dang.)

Some of the poor quality of these shows is baked in, being what it was, but the video was just barely rescued off the old VHS tapes that I'd been lugging around for decades, so there's some technical issues with loss of media integrity, etc. (Meaning some of the tapes are in the process of either demagnetizing or melting or whatever old VHS tapes do when they sit on a shelf for a quarter of a century.)

If for whatever possible reason you might have you would like to see some of it... they are embedded below. But don't say I didn't warn you!

Episode 1: The premiere on Marquette public access TV of The Self Righteous Brothers. Watch as a troll is murdered by a naked man from Houghton; Nathan plays with gun on campus for a few seconds that would have gotten him arrested these days; Clint discovers the women's bathroom; a drunken new years skit becomes actually drunk; Clint practices his pickup lines; Nathan sleeps off a hangover on campus; Clint shares a joke; Nathan coaches Clint on how to call a woman; Nathan hopes jazz makes a bad joke better but is still drunk; Clint has a private dance party with Bugs Bunny; Cook 'n Bake with Clint 'n Nate shares how to make poptarts.

Episode 2: Nate & Clint find themselves in the shower for some reason; Clint shows himself to be the life of the party; Kent loves on a plant; Nate & Clint interview interview the guitar player from Mainstream Blondie; audience feedback; Nate & Clint encounter a winter omen; Cook 'n Bake with Clint 'n Nate bring you the recipe and guide for instant oatmeal; and more audience feedback.

Episode 3: Nate & Clint work out; Clint & Nate check out the Marquette night life; Cook 'n Bake with Clint 'n Nate bring you blueberry bread.

Episode 4: Nate & Clint get the results of their first user survey; Nate & Clint check out the night life of Northern Michigan University; Nate schools Clint in SRB101; Clint makes another phone call for a date; Clint & Nate goof off in class; Clint tries to befriend a dead wolf; Gary opens a box; Cook 'n Bake with Clint & Nate brings you 4.5 hour minute rice along with a TenderHeart Tissue infomercial; and Clint & Nate read newspapers then leap to their doom.

Episode 5: Clint challenges the women of Northern Michigan University to arm wrestling matches; Nate's kids try to get dad out of the TV; Nate & Clint talk about viewer mail from the set of Cook 'n Bake with Clint 'n Nate; and Cook 'n Bake with Clint 'n Nate brings you soup.

Episode 6: Nate & Clint get locked out of the Self Righteous Brothers studio; for some reason Nate & Clint have a long fight scene; Nate & Clint are overrun by stuffed animals; Cook 'n Bake with Clint 'n Nate brings you Romulan Noodles; and Clint & Nate give away free pizza (and other junk food) to Northern Michigan University college students.

Episode 7: Clint's solo introduction; Clint gets rejected after a pickup line; Nate & Clint check out the night life of Negaunee; Cook 'n Bake with Clint 'n Nate bring you some kind of chicken soup; The Bunny from Monty Python's Holy Grail movie makes an appearance; Slap & Happy bring you a disclaimer; Nate sniffs a marker; and Clint pitches an idea for a segment on the show.

Episode 8: Slap & Happy rob an ATM; Clint & Nate interview Nathan & Clint from Reality Shock; and Cook 'n Bake with Clint 'n Nate brings you an Appetizer for Trouble.

Episode 9: A meeting of Actor's Anonymous; Cook 'n Bake with Clint 'n Nate bring you cereal and a song; Slap & Happy act out depression; Clint & Nate enjoy the McDonalds playland; and Clint does his own winter stunts.

Episode 10: The 5:00 news; Nate loses his sled; Clint practices his pick up lines; Cook 'n Bake with Clint 'n Nate make PBJ; Clint goes sledding with the same success Nate had; and Clint & Nate go to counselling.

Episode 11: An out-takes episode... in case you thought the previous episodes were actually more well put together...

Episode 12: The final episode... Clint & Nate leave the bar; Clint & Nate interview the members of Reality Shock; Cook 'n Bake with Clint 'n Nate bring you the recipe for Orange Juice with a commercial for The Ball; and Nate & Clint are given a vision commanding them to make a movie.

Episode 13: The final final episode... previous episodes were roughly 30 minutes each, this one is an hour and is made up of "the best" of (yes I said that with a straight face) previous episodes. It's a clip show. Every series does it.

A Geek Posse Production - The Self Righteous Brothers star in The Day The Aliens Failed. Back in the 1990s, thirteen episodes of mind numbing public access television made in Marquette (Michigan) wasn't enough, so a movie was made. Watch as the Self Righteous Brothers spend an hour and a half running around town fighting off an alien invasion.