By now it’s pretty evident that our television viewing experience is vastly different than that of our parents’. Besides advancing from monotone to color, boxes to flat screens, and primetime to on-demand, our generation has achieved something way more iconic and progressive: the positive portrayal of homosexuals as leading characters on TV, not merely trusty sidekicks providing comic relief by allowing us to poke fun at their differences.

KoldCast TV’s new comedy series Acting Out follows the antics of Bogie, a young gay actor trying to avoid being typecast by “faking it straight” to everyone but his closest friends. The neurotic Bogie is wildly insecure, has a purely pastel wardrobe, and a seriously high-pitched voice. It quickly becomes clear that living a double life will be a serious challenge and the misadventures come fast and furiously.

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In 1995, homosexual characters accounted for 0.6% of the TV population. Today major networks like MTV and ABC Family lead the forefront on LGBT-inclusive content with over 40% of hours including LGBT impressions. But how did we get here? Let’s take a look at some standout gay TV characters of the not-so-distant past:

Hot L Baltimore

Homosexual characters were just beginning to make their mark on television in the mid 70’s, but they were all ancillary roles that weren’t exactly championed. In fact, Norman Lear’s (All in the Family, Sanford and Son, Maude, Good Times, The Jeffersons) first failure was also the first show to feature a gay couple, Hot L Baltimore. The missing “e” is for the rundown hotel in which the show took place, which housed prostitutes, illegal immigrants, and a big fat warning before the opening credits about its mature themes. ABC put up their “No Vacancy” sign, cancelling the show after thirteen episodes.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show

These days it’s hard to imagine Emmy-winning talk show host Ellen DeGeneres having a tough time gaining acceptance, but doesn’t a story of struggle accompany all great icons?  Ellen started out in the 1994 ABC sitcom These Friends of Mine, renamed Ellen after its first season. In 1997 Ellen’s character and DeGeneres herself revealed that they were lesbians. Very meta. ABC’s affiliate in Birmingham, Alabama, refused to air the landmark episode and some of the show’s sponsors, including Chrysler, withdrew their advertising. It was the 90’s... The show was canceled the following season due to declining ratings. The same went for Ellen’s stint on CBS’s The Ellen Show, released in 2001. Ellen finally struck gold two years later with the release of her daytime talk show, Ellen: The Ellen DeGeneres Show. That put fifteen Emmys under her belt during its first three seasons. You go girl!

Will & Grace

After Ellen was canceled in the 90’s, Will & Grace took over the role of representing gays on prime-time television with its debut in 1998 on NBC.  Gay rights advocates and media critics applauded the program for its positive portrayal of two gay men, both with polar opposite personalities. In fact, just last week Vice President Biden cited the show as the most influential educational tool for debunking gay stereotypes in the last decade, before President Obama stole his thunder. Will, the first gay male lead character on network TV, was a lawyer with a masculine, straight and narrow persona. Will’s close friend Jack was extremely flamboyant, the epitome of a gay stereotype. The show used humor to break through people’s prejudices of homosexuals, and for that we salute them.

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy

One of the most talked-about programs of 2003 follows a team of five gay men collectively known as the “Fab Five” as they perform a makeover on a straight man’s man, revamping everything from his wardrobe and grooming to his food choices. Queer Eye put Bravo TV on the map, particularly as a gay-friendly network. The most notable cast member is Carson Kressley, who works wonders on participants’ wardrobes. Although Kressley doesn’t breakthrough many stereotypes with his flamboyant fashion statements that include zebra print shirts, hot pink lined jackets and teeny-tiny Speedos, he does transform lives with humor and flair! Some have even argued that he ushered in the whole, “it’s-in-to-be-out” era with his fearless ability to talk about his sexuality and sex life with an untouchable level of integrity. Although the show received criticism for “reverse-discrimination” or making it seem as though all gay men can cook, clean, dress, and do hair, its sheer popularity is attested by the advances made in the cultural acceptance of the gay man after it aired.

Glee

And this brings us to Fox’s Glee, the most recent television hit that has made an unsurpassed mark on our society’s acceptance and understanding of homosexuality. The cast has three main gay characters that couldn’t be any more different from one another. The most stereotype-shattering of the bunch is Sebastian, a gay villain. He’s a new type of character that audiences haven’t seen before. Although most wouldn’t pinpoint him as gay at first glance, he is not at all ashamed of his sexuality. He’s very confident and comfortable with who he is and what he wants. He’s a guy’s guy, popular, and a total lacrosse bro who just so happens to be gay. Blaine and Kurt, the other two gay characters in the show, are in a romantic relationship. They are each other’s puppy-love high school sweethearts. Glee does a great job showing that both straight and gay couples go through the same trials and tribulations that accompany first love. Kurt and Blaine’s totally normal teenage relationship is inspirational to gay youth in a way that has never been seen before.

The New Normal

Great trip down memory lane, huh? Now let’s journey to the future. This fall, NBC will premiere The New Normal, a dramedy by Ryan Murphy, the brains behind Glee. The show’s premise follows a gay couple desperate for a baby, who find their surrogate mother in Goldie, a disillusioned single mother restarting her life and career after the hubby is caught cheating. Goldie’s mom doesn’t approve, as she’s so conservative she makes Betty Crocker look like a hippie. The series is the first to address the current hot-button topic of gay marriage and equality to a mainstream audience while providing plenty of laughs and heart.

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Dana Smith, a Syracuse University alum, bleeds Orange. She had an unhealthy obsession with Pinterest and Pug puppies. When she’s not scheming up ways to “puppynap” one from an unknowing passerby, she likes to work out and drink coffee.

While we may never know what outrageous tactic The Marriage Counselor will use next or from which school of thought his zany methods are derived, we can always count on something thoroughly shocking if not downright disordered when he attempts to guide the couples that come to him for treatment. In any case, The Marriage Counselor has a style all his own, untainted by traditional perceptions of what pop culture has taught viewers to think shrinks are all about.

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As entertainment has evolved, the conventional television or movie therapist has evolved right alongside it. Dr. Bellows of I Dream of Jeannie introduced TV viewers to psychiatry in the NASA setting and provided the stepping stone for more intense psychiatry in the form of M*A*S*H*’s guest shrink, Dr. Sidney Freedman. Drs. Lilith and Frasier Crane whetted our appetites in the 1980s on Cheers to the less serious side of neurosis and left us open to the likes of Dr. Sobel of Analyze This and Analyze That and Dr. Tobias Fünke of Arrested Development.

The evolution of pop culture psychiatry was made possible with footholds carved out by the following primetime shrinks, all of whom seem to have their own issues to deal with.

Dr. Alfred E. Bellows, aka Hayden Rorke – I Dream of Jeannie, 1965-1970.

Dr. Bellows was cool as a cucumber in every bizarre situation from which he always seemed to find Major Nelson trying to extricate himself. Under that cool exterior though, was a keen eye for the extraordinary and a suspicious nature that were the driving force behind his pursuit of uncovering exactly what Nelson and his Jeannie were up to at any given time. His psychiatric training did very little to assuage his inner conflict that he himself might just be a wee bit mad, as he was never really able to figure out their antics.

Dr. Sidney Freedman, aka Allan Arbus – M*A*S*H*, 1973-1983.

A good egg that penetrated the soul, Dr. Freedman could always get to the heart of the matter, even when dealing with the deep themes of surviving the horrors of war. From the cross-dressing to the delusional, Dr. Freedman either freed or forged acceptance of the tortured souls of the M*A*S*H* unit with his kind demeanor, gentle probing and sometimes clever deductions. Compassion is the key trait that comes to mind when Freedmen, who upon having met the cross‐dressed Corporal Klinger asked, “What’s your name, honey?”

Dr. Frasier Crane, aka Kelsey Grammer – Cheers, 1984-1993; Frasier, 1993-2004.

Aside from Marshall Matt Dillon of Gunsmoke, there is no other TV character that has enjoyed the duration of a twenty-year stint portrayed by the same actor. Dr. Crane was the psychiatrist we loved to analyze. Delightfully pompous with an overblown ego derived from his Oxford education; pop culture’s beloved Frasier was able to put aside his personal neuroses to share his calmer, more thoughtful side with his clients and as a radio host. His gullibility and trust in others were his most endearing qualities, overriding his personal battle with negativity, which often revealed itself through crisp sarcasm.

Dr. Ben Sobel, aka Billy Crystal – Analyze This, 1999; Analyze That, 2002.

A doctor that knows none of his own boundaries and faces plenty of his own personal challenges, Dr. Sobel was a persistent, hands‐on kind of guy. He allowed his panic-stricken mafia patient to delve into his personal life and then plot to murder him. Sobel always believed he could help his patient in Analyze This and then again in Analyze That. Helping the same mob guy akin to a much lighter side of The Sopranos, Sobel took full ownership of his patient; he had him released from the penitentiary to his custody for therapy and surprisingly found himself on the right side of the greater good.

Dr. Jennifer Melfi, aka Lorraine Bracco – The Sopranos, 1999‐2007.

The Dr. Melfi character was almost singlehandedly responsible for elevating a drama series to a penetrating depiction of the inner workings of a stressed and conflicted mob criminal. Her struggle with her revulsion for his lifestyle was only enhanced for us by her fascination with his struggle. Her complete understanding of how Soprano’s mind worked made us look forward to their sessions as much as we looked forward to the next designated hit.

Dr. Charles Kroger, aka Stanley Kamel – Monk, 2002-2008.

As calm as Dr. Bellows and as completely immersed in his patient’s dilemma as Dr. Sobel, Charles Kroger is tolerant to a fault. He barely bats an eye when Monk has his pre-sorted garbage delivered to this patient man’s home. Even when Monk can’t help but let the crazy come out, Kroger uses his incisive understanding of Monk to literally talk him into sanity, which is a good thing for both Monk, and the San Francisco crime detail.

Dr. Tobias Fünke, aka David Cross – Arrested Development, 2003-2006.

Dr. Tobias Fünke’s psychiatric issues are as outrageous as they are brilliantly funny when portrayed by David Cross. Although Dr. Fünke lost his license to practice when he gave CPR to a man who didn’t need it, he still considered himself a therapist whose true calling was to be an actor. While Fünke failed miserably in his pursuit of a thespian career, he succeeded in entertaining us with demonstrations of his various phobias – the least of which was “never-nude” syndrome. His frequent Freudian slips about gay sex called his knowledge of his own sexuality into question as well as his success in the gay community with his self‐help book, “The Man Inside Me”. Laughable to tears, we hope that Dr. Fünke is the physician who does NOT heal himself.

Dr. Linda Freeman, aka Jane Lynch – Two and a Half Men, 2004-2011.

Only two and a half men, but a full caseload of crazy for Dr. Freeman. She was originally the caring character counselor that would see Jake through his adjustment issues involving his parents’ divorce. She was also slated to help Alan with his anxiety. And then she was there for Charlie. Charlie Harper and Dr. Freeman were bound by an alchemic comic relief. The combination of the doctor’s dry wit and the patient’s apparent mother issues, as well as the need for a good insanity defense, should the need ever arise, gave us an artful and cleverly entertaining look into the character of Charlie Harper – and perhaps Mr. Sheen.

Dr. Benjamin “Ben” Harmon, aka Dylan McDermott – American Horror Story, 2011.

Dr. Harmon was the guy we loved to hate. He was handsome. He was masculine. He was a sensitive therapist. He cried a lot. He cheated on his wife and moved his family into a house that eventually became haunted by the college co-ed with whom he cheated. But we still watched Dr. Ben as he juggled the taming of his own monsters while deftly medicating the monsters that had appointments.

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CT Goodson is an independent writer from Chicago. She is an active board member of a Chicago area writers group that promotes the education and support of writers of all genres. She is currently working on a novel and deftly managing life’s chaos with the help of a little fictional psychiatry.

Keeping Mitch St. Pierre on topic can prove to be an arduous task. That’s because there are clearly more important things to discuss. I spoke with Mitch over a crackly Skype call to Cambodia about his life’s journey, a true adventure that’s earned him titles of world traveler, filmmaker, and hotelier. His latest passions are political. Mitch is intent on heightening awareness for social ills in third world countries, and like a shrewd politician, he steers our conversation toward his cause when the opportunity presents itself.

In KoldCast TV’s riveting travel-adventure series UnRestricted, Mitch and his team of close friends cum documentary filmmakers bring audiences to the true hidden treasures of our planet. The first episode follows their trek through the magical country of Cambodia. They hunt down ancient ruins, chaotic bazaars, bamboo trains and floating villages, encountering sharp surprises along the way. A routine stop for some fruit becomes a fried tarantula-eating contest. A group of six-year-olds huddled on the street are revealed to be gambling with real cash.

Travelling the far reaches of the world is simply Mitch St. Pierre’s hobby. He goes about each exhaustive adventure with ease, the way most people treat a round of golf or an evening spent cooking. The man has visited over 40 countries by his ripe old age of 28. In an attempt to grasp the special ingredient that allows someone to do so much in such little time, I came to realize the strongest motivator is often what you lack. In Mitch’s case, it’s the use of his legs.

THE SIXTH WALL (T6W): Let’s start at the beginning of your filmmaking career. You have so many different areas of focus, from advocacy, to politics, to travelling. When did you start to put it on camera, and why?

MITCH ST. PIERRE: Ever since I was a kid in elementary school, I’ve always been fascinated by cameras. I remember going around with one of those huge rented school cameras you could pop a VHS tape into and making home movies with my brother and our friends. The real first film we made was Await the Freight. The three of us who are in KoldCast’s Unrestricted hopped a freight train in Canada.

T6W: That’s you, Skot Sanderson, and Shawn Kazda?

MITCH: Yes that same crew. We decided to explore a hobo lifestyle, sleep under bridges and hitchhike. The big finale of the film is hopping a freight train boxcar with me in the wheelchair. We made it on successfully, but of course the conductor saw us do it, stopped the train, and called the police. It was a great adventure though. That aired on CBC back in 2006 and got me started in filmmaking. Since then I’ve done politically motivated stuff – Burma, Thailand, Venezuela, Cuba. We tried to do one in the Dominican –

T6W: Let’s get there in a moment. What inspired you to mimic a hobo’s life in the first place? Was the idea bent towards advocacy, or were you guys just having fun without realizing you were exposing people to part of society’s underbelly?

MITCH: Well Shawn is a train junky. He’s always talking about trains. Since day one he was telling me, you should hop a freight train with me one day. I always refused, but one day I said ok let’s go on an adventure. I’m the kind of guy who loves an adventure. I usually never refuse to go anywhere so I said let’s do it. We got the camera together and took off. It was quite the experience.

T6W: The climactic scene of you boarding the train is actually animated, in contrast to the rest of the film. Why did you end up doing it that way? Was it just too hard of a shot?

MITCH: Yeah. The thing is it was at nighttime and we had to be very sneaky. To evade security we couldn’t have lights on or the camera rolling. To get a wheelchair on the train was incredibly difficult too. We figured an animated sequence would add a bit more character.

T6W: So you do your own stunts.

MITCH: Of course!

T6W: With this movie under your belt, you then decided to get more involved in the political sphere and use filmmaking as an advocacy tool?

MITCH: When I watch documentaries that make it big, like Michael Moore’s films for example, it’s so inspiring. I’ve learned so much about the world from watching documentaries, and just figured I’d do it on my own and tell these stories myself.

T6W: There’s a common theme in your stories of visiting third world countries, interacting with impoverished people, and exposing their way of life. What have you found from going on these trips?

MITCH: I’ve travelled to so many places in the world. Anywhere I go, from a tiny country like Belize to a giant country like Brazil, there are so many fascinating people and stories. I’m in Cambodia, as we speak. I always thought about how great it is when people get outside of their own worlds and experience other people’s worlds.

T6W: How are you usually received? With open arms, or has there ever been some hostility?

MITCH: I’ve been robbed in dangerous places around the world and in safer places like my hometown of Ottawa. Because I’m a guy in a wheelchair, people are so interested in talking; about my life and how I got here. They want to have such long conversations. And the kids! They always swarm me. They’re looking at this wheelchair, which they probably think is a big toy, and they want to push me around. Sometimes I even give them my wheelchair to play around with. In certain countries, those with disabilities are disregarded.

T6W: You’re breaking their paradigms. Do you think you’ve changed people’s perceptions of what someone with a physical disability is capable of accomplishing?

MITCH: Oh for sure. It gives people a new perspective. You just don’t see wheelchairs like mine. It costs about $4,000 and was specially made in California. The governments in most of these countries won’t pay for a wheelchair. I always see people in these dilapidated things. I’ve been approached with requests for wheelchairs, for peoples’ grandparents or whoever. I have to tell them I bought mine in Canada. When they ask how much, I don’t say, because first of all the government pays for it, but it’s really sad too. I remember being at a marketplace in Lima, Peru and I saw this guy with no legs, rolling himself around on a skateboard. He’s looking at me thinking, where did he get this wheelchair? Why does he have one and I don’t? To me that’s a tough thing.

T6W: There must be a sense of heartbreak from always seeing people without. Are you constantly denying people’s requests, who you wish you could give to?

MITCH: Almost everyday. Especially when I go to the market, where you find many poor people. There was an experience I had a couple of weeks ago. I went to a club in the city and was refused entry because I was in a wheelchair. I thought to myself, this is like 1950’s discrimination in America. I wrote to the local newspaper about what happened. That spooked my staff because the nightclub owner is a very rich man. It’s not just about me getting into this club. Cambodia is the most disabled country per capita because of the war. The genocide that took place and the landmines hidden around the country are some of the very many reasons why people are disabled here. So things are still sort of backwards, but there’s not much you can do about it.

T6W: Do you find that your disability in one sense empowers you to go up against powerful people like this, serving as an armor of sorts?

MITCH: Yeah, for sure. Like I said, what I was trying to get across in this article was that it’s not just about me. It’s about this country. If people are going to discriminate against this large segment of the population, it’s just not allowing the country to move forward. That’s why I wanted to go ahead and print the story even though I was told not to. People really do need to advocate for these kinds of issues.

T6W: What was the story’s impact?

MITCH: Wow. I was scared. Everybody here was telling me this guy was going to shoot me. For a couple of days I stayed in my room wondering why I had such a big mouth.

T6W: Do you regret your decision?

MITCH: No, no. The journalist wrote me a couple of days later about what I was going through. He said don’t worry about it, that people get overly paranoid sometimes. It wasn’t even a big deal for the nightclub owner. He’s got all the money in the world compared to others here.

At this point our audio feed cuts out. I watch an episode of UnRestricted while I wait for it to restore. Young children run around amongst sessile crocodiles, wearing snakes as makeshift scarves. Mitch, Scot and Shawn rocket through a vast field on a rickety bamboo train – a few wooden planks nailed to an engine – that makes Coney Island’s Cyclone seem like a playground tire swing. Another clip shows them at a gun range operated by the military for fundraising. AK-47s and RPGs are on the menu. I think to myself, why on earth are these guys over there?

Click to watch a segment from UnRestricted, “Eating Tarantula’s”

Watch the first episode of UnRestricted, “Lost Rails: Into The Kingdom”

T6W: You mentioned a staff. What have you hired them to do?

MITCH: Well, actually, from making the UnRestricted episode in Cambodia, we fell in love with the country and decided to come back and buy a hotel. So now we’re running it here in the city; a 36-bedroom hotel, with about 22 staff members for now.

T6W: That’s very interesting, and a lot of work! What compelled you to run a hotel?

MITCH: I love Cambodia. I’ve been here many times before and just thought, why not do something crazy that would allow me to stay?

T6W: What’s your clientele like?

MITCH: Mostly Europeans, some Canadians, Americans. We have a restaurant and a pool. It’s a really nice place.

T6W: How’s business?

MITCH: Great! We’re in the slow season right now and it’s still pretty good. The rainy season is coming up soon so that should be interesting. Our major attractions aren’t parasailing or jet skiing or anything like that. This location attracts more of the Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider tourists. Adventure-seekers. The tours that we sell at the hotel are for thousand-year old ancient temples, elephant treks through the jungle, or floating villages – all these adventures that you can go on.

T6W: Your journey from filmmaker to traveller to hotel owner seems to have developed pretty organically out of a love for what you do and where you happen to be. What’s next on your agenda?

MITCH: What I realized in the last couple of years is that if you keep an open mind and have this “just go with it” mentality, your life can change drastically within a moment. Who knows what’s next?

T6W: Maybe you’ll come to Hollywood.

MITCH: Maybe…

T6W: How did you partner up with KoldCast? UnRestricted started off as an hour-length feature film before being broken up into individual episodes.

MITCH: We sold it to a Canadian broadcaster at first, but wanted a different avenue to sell it through in the United States. Someone recommended KoldCast and I thought the website was very interesting. David Samuels had some great ideas on how to showcase it, so that’s how the distribution model came about.

T6W: What has the response to the series been?

MITCH: It’s been amazing. We’ve had interviews with different papers and media outlets on UnRestricted. The footage is so incredibly foreign. Every time I show people, they’re just in awe of what they’re seeing. We worked with a cinematographer who I think is one of the best. It shows you how wild this country is. Hopefully it will make people want to come to Cambodia.

Click to watch a segment from UnRestricted, “The Bamboo Train”

Watch the first episode of UnRestricted, “Lost Rails: Into The Kingdom”

T6W: As UnRestricted is a documentary, many of the series’ great moments are caught on tape. Were there any stories from filming that stand out, perhaps behind the scenes?

MITCH: Six of us came to Cambodia and all of us were good friends. It was hilarious and pretty wild at times. We like to have fun and to party. There was this typical cliché filmmaking story where Shawn and I got into a big fight at the end. I don’t even talk to him anymore. Scott’s still here at the hotel with me. It’s kind of a shame that something like that would happen. I don’t know if it’s inevitable.

T6W: The pressures of extreme situations create a ripe opportunity for a blowup. What was the falling out over?

MITCH: It was just arguments about small things that added up. The same sort of thing happened in Await the Freight. We didn’t talk for six months after that film. You’re traveling for a long time together and things like that can happen.

T6W: Was there ever a hierarchy established while filming UnRestricted as to who would make creative or logistical decisions?

MITCH: No, and I think that’s probably where the arguments started. One person gets a strong opinion and it starts from there.

T6W: People who are wheelchair bound, even in the United States, rarely take on this adventurous lifestyle you’ve created for yourself. You’ve also met with numbers of influential figures and celebrities to champion your causes. One can argue you’ve set a bar for disabled people. Do you see yourself as a figure that people could look up to in pursuit of their dreams?

MITCH: I’ve always been about getting people to constantly see more and do more. There are so many able-bodied people who don’t seem to care. They’re kind of schlumping about. That’s fine. People live their own lives and everyone’s different. There are also people I know who want to attain their passions though. I think it’s really important in life to have an attitude of doing whatever it takes. If people see our stories, maybe it will change their minds. Just the other day I was an ancient temple. I was dirty and sweating, waiting for my buddies to get back. This Korean woman stands in front of me, pulls out her purse, and hands me a one-dollar bill. It was the funniest thing in the world. She probably thought I was a poor Cambodian beggar.

T6W: That’s a big lesson on the power of perception. What you do and how you present yourself has an impact on people.

MITCH: It’s one of these life lessons. When you look at somebody at face value, you really have no idea. I look at people and prejudge them with an assumption of what is going on in their lives.

T6W: It’s human nature. Are you at the hotel right now?

MITCH: Yeah, I use one of the rooms here. The hotel is situated right outside the town. We’re in a very rich part of Cambodia and right nearby people are living in these huts, making $30 a month. We really try to get involved in the community and take part in different projects. Five minutes from our hotel is another hotel where Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt stay. It costs $1,000 a night at minimum. Five minutes down the road! Just outside the gates of that hotel are conditions in squalor. That’s the contrast of this country. You have such rich people and absolute poverty right next door.

T6W: It’s nice to know there are some people there trying to bridge the gap.

Ariel Nishli is the Editor-in-Chief of The Sixth Wall. He’s got a big apple in his heart but moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. After graduating from Vanderbilt University in 2007, he worked in the motion picture literary department at ICM, then moved on to feature film development at Parkes MacDonald Productions. Ariel’s wardrobe has steadily devolved from designer suits to worn out slippers, as he now focuses on screenwriting and journalism when he’s not obsessing over this blog.

It was the middle of the night and I was wide-awake, locked in a three-person sleeper compartment on a Slovenian overnight train rocketing through the pitch-black European countryside. Two of us were racked with food poisoning, and through the paper-thin walls we could hear our belligerently drunk German conductor crash around his cabin.

As relatively inexperienced hostel-hoppers, we’d make a few bad decisions that turned an otherwise fantastic Eastern European backpacking trip into a Continental comedy of errors. Things would only get worse, but that’s how fast things can turn on you when you’re traveling abroad and don’t get the inside scoop.

Though he’s yet to touch down in Europe, Jon Olson has been all over the globe with his insightful, accessible, and educational travel show Next Stop. From Walla Walla to Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo; Mexico to Kelowna and British Columbia, Olson gives an in-depth tour of his destination’s can’t-miss sightseeing attractions as well as deep-cut local finds like ceramic tile-making artisans and working coconut plantations. No matter where he goes, Olson has the bead on that location’s coolest spots, and equally as important, he knows how to travel smart.

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When done intelligently and safely, travel is one of the most rewarding experiences out there. You enjoy a new culture, eat weird food, party with hopefully attractive foreigners, and generally sample the best a country has to offer. But when your jet setting acumen lacks the benefit of Olson’s years of experience, you may find yourself trapped in a rickety railcar, staring down submachine guns held by Slovenian border guards. Let’s take a look at some of my missteps, and how Olson gets the most out of each of his trips while avoiding a similarly harrowing fate.

Do: Make sure the restaurant is quality before you try local foods. Olson is always sure to stop off at a curated selection of dark taverns, white-tablecloth chophouses, and bustling street bazaars when he’s in country to sample the best of what the locals are eating and drinking. From lush crates of fruits at the Zihuatanejo Market, to five-star mixology at Australia’s finest cocktail bar, he finds top-notch cuisine of all calibers.

Puerto Vallarta

Don’t: Order the “Serbian Meat Platter”. Fresh off a turbulent flight from the beachside resort town of Dubrovnik, Croatia, we set off on a mission to locate something greasy and heavy to sop lingering hangovers from a Fourth of July spent partying with expats. In Zagreb, the Croatian capital, there was no shortage of options.

On the menu at a cafe off the main square was something called the Serbian Meat Platter. As invincible Americans, we felt compelled to try it. What followed from downing this mountain of sausages, schnitzels, and bratwursts was an almost Biblical bout of food poisoning. I’ll save you the gory details, but suffice it to say that enduring it with only a filthy train bathroom at our disposal was a categorically grotesque experience.

Do: Double-check your transportation arrangements well in advance of your trip. As a television host, Olson travels in style with Alaskan Airlines and Qantas, as well as by chartered boat, bike, and car. He knows the rule of the road — always make sure you know how you’re getting where you want to go.

Alaska

Don’t: Wait ‘til your train is leaving the station before discovering you don’t have tickets. When waiting for our night train in Zagreb, we made a terrible error, mistaking our reservations (effectively, seat assignments) for tickets (your pass to actually ride the train). After the fateful meal, and a brief-but-intimidating encounter with a beefy Croat who looked like Jaws from Moonraker, our train finally arrived. Upon settling into our tiny cabin (more on that in a minute) we met our not-yet-drunk German conductor, who, using his very limited grasp of the English language, informed us that the slips of paper we handed him were mere reservations, and we’d need tickets to ride the train.

By now, night had fallen in Zagreb, and we realized that if we didn’t catch this train — leaving in 10 minutes — we’d be stranded in the Croatian capital overnight with no place to stay but the station or a last-minute (and thus, assuredly high-quality) hostel. We barreled back into the station, where we cut a line of kindly peasant folk and paid an exorbitant number of Croatian Kuna for tickets. With time ticking down we filled out the forms, swiped our credit cards, and sprinted back to the train, barely making the doors as they were shutting.

Do: Find the best accommodations you can afford. It’s worth it. No matter where he goes, Olson always sniffs out cool digs at places like Sydney’s Kirketon, Chicago’s Conrad Hotel, and the Eden Roc Renaissance in Miami Beach. Part of what makes Next Stop so cool is that it gives you an insider’s look at accommodations you could only afford if you were really splurging, but even if you’re traveling on a budget, there’s probably a high quality – or at least, clean room out there if you look.

Eden Roc Renaissance, Miami Beach

Don’t: Try to save on a hotel by booking a night train. You won’t sleep a wink. By the time we got situated in our prison cell-sized, three-person cabin (it was kind of like this, except disgusting, wet and smaller) it was late, and we were exhausted. Keeping us from sleeping were several factors. The lowest of the three bunk cots – calling them “beds” would be a gross exaggeration – doubled as the bench seat, and it took us about 45 minutes of fumbling with various levers and latches to convert it to a sleeping platform.

Then there was our neighbor, the German conductor, who broke into a liter of vodka as soon as we’d pulled out of Zagreb. He thrashed about his cabin like a caged animal, and could be heard alternatively singing and groaning well into the wee hours of the morning.

Conductor’s Kalashnikov Vodka

Do: Read cautionary signs before making decisions.

Nonetheless, our biggest obstacle to catching some z’s was the security in the cabin itself. Our door had literally four different locks on it, each more suspect than the one below. This begged the question of “what in the scary hell do we so desperately need to keep out of our room?” We then stumbled upon a posted warning that thieves and gypsies often boarded the train illegally and robbed passengers. Apparently we shouldn’t open the door under any circumstances unless we knew the person knocking. Insomnia inspiring.

Don’t: Argue with anyone sporting an automatic weapon.

We ultimately did not get gypsied, but were treated to a middle-of-the-night interrogation by submachine gun-toting Slovenian border guards. They were less than thrilled, it seemed, at a few foreigners who seemingly boarded a train without intending to buy tickets. Sleepless-induced retorts at the subpar conditions didn’t get us anywhere either. Our new friends decided to keep us close a while, effectively detaining us on our ride.

At about 5:30 a.m., just as the sun was coming up and we were finally dozing off, our now very hung over conductor pounded down our door to inform us that the train would not be traveling to our destination of Prague. Apparently there weren’t enough Prague passengers to warrant that stop anymore, but they’d happily let us out to find “other means of traffic”.

Forget the fact that our tickets – for which we’d paid thousands of Kuna — clearly read Prague. We were actually relieved when, after much deliberation in German and Czech, the engineer decided on a compromise: they’d attach our sleeper car to the back of a Prague-bound freight train…

So would I go back to Eastern Europe on another trip? Hell yeah. But not before I explore several of the cities Olson has been to, armed with a foolproof itinerary from each episode of Next Stop.

Click to watch Next Stop, “Cabo”

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David Infante is the Merchandising Editor at Thrillist. He’s a lover of reality TV, Rangers hockey, and Elmore Leonard stories. A graduate of UVA, his affinity for cheap beer is matched only by his staggering collection of button downs.

For many of us now well-adjusted adults, high school was one of the most memorable, yet emotionally scarring times of our lives. The halls of America’s teen educational institutions can be a rough place for underdogs and skinny, strung-out underachievers. Thankfully, we all had our trusty principals there to make the experience a bit less traumatic. Principals help shape the high school experience for better or worse. Sometimes we needed these extra pals to lean on as home life or Algebra class could get rough, but when we wanted to let loose our inner Spicoli, they were a real monkey on our back.

KoldCast TV’s comedy series Homeschooled follows Mickey, a delinquent teenager recently expelled from his high school, who discovers that everything he hated about that prison seems to have followed him home. Mickey’s former principal didn’t take to his liberal weed smoking habit too cheerfully. Low and behold, his new principal, Ed – who also happens to be his stepdad – isn’t so into recreational drugs either. Defacing school property with the underappreciated art of male genitalia is another of Ed’s grievances. It’s obvious this is a no-nonsense guy from his outfit alone. A bowtie means business.

You are watching the first episode of Homeschooled, “Homeschool Sucks”.

Watch the second episode of the television comedy series Homeschooled

Is Ed’s hybrid status as Mickey’s principal and his mom’s lover simpatico?  To find out, we turned to our trusted wellspring of wisdom, TV and the movies! While we concede that no revered onscreen principal has ever worn a bowtie, not a one of ‘em, we found that the truly impactful ones are all inherently good guys who developed a bond with their students. Problem is, they too tended to get creepy after trying to bond a little too hard. Here are the fictional principals of yore whose relationships with their students walked that fine line between nurturing and unsettling.

Mr. Duvall, North Shore High School (Mean Girls)

This guy is a total bad ass. Not only did he control a school full of psychotic, violent girls after the notorious Burn Book scandal, he also helped exonerate Ms. Norbury, played by Tina Fey, from drug charges with some thorough investigative research. He may be tough, but he’s also totally up on the latest gossip, crossing boundaries left and right with lines like, “I hear Regina George is dating Aaron Samuels again. The two were seen canoodling at Chris Isen’s Halloween party… they’ve been inseparable ever since.” He should not know that much about the goings on of a senior house party. Inappropriate, sir.

Mr. Richard Belding, Bayside High (Saved by the Bell)

Mr. Belding was pretty chummy with Zack and Co., almost to the point where it seemed like he eagerly wanted to be part of the gang. He went above and beyond when it came to putting the “pal” in principal, and even took his work home. The man spent half an episode hanging out in Morris’ room to get away from his wife! They even ordered a pizza. No principal we’ve ever known would make time to hang out at a student’s house for any good reason, let alone to flee from a dysfunctional marriage. To make matters worse, he basically stalks the gang all the way to Hawaii for Jesse’s fathers wedding, claiming he was in charge of a “Principals’ Retreat” at the same location. Desperate, anyone?

Also View Mr. Belding (Dennis Haskins) in the Karate Kid music video, Sweep the Leg

George Feeny, John Adams High (Boy Meets World)

Every ‘80s baby grew up watching Corey, Shawn and Topanga form a bond with their beloved Mr. Feeny during the never replicable TGIF lineup. He may have played favorites with Corey and gang since he was actually “Mr. Matthew’s” neighbor, but Feeny went beyond the typical role of a principal by acting as a leader, teacher and mentor to the threesome for virtually every personal situation. Remember when Shawn joined a cult? He’d still be swigging Hemlock if it weren’t for Feeny. The guy was so devoted to this gang that after graduation, he retired from John Adam’s High to become their college professor. Endearing and devoted, or straight up obsessive? We just can’t judge sweet old Feeny, so we’ll let you decide.

Willard Kraft, Westbridge High (Sabrina the Teenage Witch)

Mr. Kraft was a wee bit strict. He gave Sabrina detention for admiring his Old Spice scent. “What’s my crime?” she asked. “Smelling the Vice Principal!” The girl just wanted to buy the same cologne for her boyfriend. Sheesh! The special scent may have accounted for between-the-sheets action he was getting with not one, but both of Sabrina’s aunts. Get it Mr. Kraft! He even temporarily moves in with Sabrina, Zelda and Hilda… Relationships with relatives of a student may not officially be prohibited, but we’re pretty sure it was distracting for Sabrina, and go out on a limb to say it was probably detrimental to her studies.

Ed Rooney, Shermer High School (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off)

Rooney will do anything to keep track of his students, even traveling way, way off campus to chase them down. Aside from breaking into Bueller’s home, Rooney rides the bus where he shares snacks with the student body – questionable behavior at best for an authority figure. His home invasion doesn’t really pan out after Ferris’ disgruntled sister – enlightened after a conversation with a drug addict played by Charlie Sheen – blackmails Rooney with the wallet he mistakenly left in their house. This principal may be straight up creepy. Hard to find the nurturing bone here.

Also Read: 10 Reasons We Love Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (#7)

Seymour Skinner, Springfield Elementary (The Simpsons)

Principal Skinner has ruled his cartoon school for over twenty years, longer than any other principal on television. We have to give kudos to anyone who can put up with children for two decades, especially when they don’t age and it’s his job to discipline El Barto. Regardless of how much grief Bart gives him, Skinner still acts as a mentor and father figure to him, as Homer tends to fall short from time to time. Besides the fact that Skinner still lives with his mother, he’s sort of a ladies’ man too, boasting a passionate fling with Ms. Krabappel. Before he was ever an elementary school principal, Skinner served as a Green Beret sergeant in the United States Army. We salute you, Seymour!

There you have it. We hope we haven’t ruined your childhood academic heroes. They may be a little overbearing, but think, if we only had such real influential figures in our own lives, we might be more upstanding, learned citizens today. Or we could’ve just been homeschooled.

Watch Homeschooled from the beginning of the series

Dana Smith, a Syracuse University alum, bleeds Orange and has an unhealthy obsession with Pinterest and Pug puppies. When she’s not scheming up ways to puppynap one from an unwitting passerby, she’s either working out or drinking coffee.

At 1:00 PM, filmmaker Julio Ponce Palmieri looks fatigued. It’s understandable, as the burly man, sporting a hint of restrained menace, has stayed up all night. Palmieri works as a seasoned bouncer at one of Toronto’s most exclusive nightclubs, a job that demands he play the part of enforcer holding the respected velvet rope.

Yet when the man starts to talk, what comes through those tired eyes is a gentle, surprisingly energetic spark, like that of a child athlete engrossed in a story about his winning soccer goal. Looks can be deceiving, a truism that describes the greatness behind Palmieri’s Internet TV series 2012, recently honored in the 16^th annual Webby Awards.

THE SIXTH WALL (T6W): How does your job as a nightclub bouncer translate into your role as a filmmaker?

JULIO PONCE PALMIERI: Well what happened was when I was 21 years old – a long time ago – I actually ended up going to school for hospitality. Due to the fact that I was out of school, I went into the nightclub industry hoping to become a manager. I started out as a bouncer in 1995, and that’s been my job ever since. I stumbled upon filmmaking by meeting Edward James Olmos [Battlestar Galactica, Miami Vice, Blade Runner] one evening when he showed up at the club. We talked briefly, about him being a Latino; we spoke in Spanish and he introduced me to his son. He mentioned the word “script” to me but I had no idea what he was talking about. It was a casual encounter. I never saw him again. I went home after work – this was in 2000 – and searched “what is a movie script?” I printed three scripts, rented the movies, and watched while I read. I said, oh this is what they mean by narrative, dialogue, etc.! I tried writing one on my own and it snowballed from there.

Edward James Olmos

T6W: How serendipitous. What was that first script about?

JULIO: First thing I heard was that you have to write about what you know. It was very interesting because everything kind of comes full circle. The first script I wrote about was about bouncing. It was about a group of bouncers who end up having to rat out one of their own because he got involved in the wrong kind of business. I got a request from a guy in LA who was very interested in it. He said an A-list actor was looking for that type of material. I ended up meeting with this producer and he signed me up for a two-year deal. He was very helpful with several of the scripts I wrote in that time period. It was a fellah by the name of TJ Mancini, deeply connected with Vin Diesel, who recently produced his own online series, The Ropes about nightclub bouncing.

T6W: Were you writing traditional feature films at that time?

JULIO: Online series weren’t that popular back then. I never got around to getting my first feature script produced because of budget demands, so as the years went by I started making my own films. A lot of trial and error in the beginning but once I got the hang of it, a lot of fun.

T6W: These were short films?

JULIO: I started out doing a couple of shorts, and made my first feature in 2005. Made a few shorts after that and did my second feature in 2007. Made my third feature film in 2009, called Rabid Rage, which cost me $400. It actually went theatrical in Guatemala, playing alongside Michael Jackson’s This is It and Megan Fox’s Jennifer’s Body.

T6W: What does a $400 budget go towards?

JULIO: Food! I eat a lot! What I did was write a script I knew I could produce. That’s how I operate. I custom tailor scripts to meet my production abilities. With Rabid Rage I basically wrote a story that needed a handful of characters set in a forest. I shot for ten days and once I had the footage, I edited it myself. I basically just needed money to eat. I support my filmmaking career with my job until I can finally do it fulltime.

T6W: How did you get the idea for 2012? It seems like there might be some culturally relevant subject matter there. And what made you decide to make it a short-form Internet TV series?

JULIO: I’m originally from Guatemala. I immigrated to Canada with my mother when I was around 15. I always had that cultural influence from Guatemala, always loved the Mayans, the ancient cities and all that. I ended up writing a feature script. My intention was to shoot a feature film. It was just one of those things where I ultimately felt the genre needed a big name. What I did was take some actors with me on a trip to Guatemala and shoot some scenes down there. As the years went by and the script lost momentum, the web series format became more and more popular. During one random meeting with Alex Freitas, my co-producer on 2012, he showed me how he learned to create special effects. I asked him to come on board a project with me. He was pretty nervous so what I did was ask him what he could do in terms of VFX, and wrote it into the script knowing it could be done. Then he came on board. It was just the two of us – no money, no crew, and a lot of pizzas.

T6W: How did you first hear about KoldCast?

JULIO: A filmmaker friend told me about it. I started following KoldCast on Twitter, and got in touch with David Samuels [KoldCast’s CEO], who said he’d like to see the show. Then it snowballed that way. The way they promoted the shows and how they were set up was great. You bring your own fan base with you to KoldCast, and then it gets shared with many other shows’ fan bases. It’s a strong community.

T6W: What is it about the end of the world that interests you? How did you come up with this take on an apocalyptic crisis?

JULIO: The cultural significance was first. It also allowed me to combine genres of an alien invasion and zombie apocalypse. There wasn’t a show out there that combined them both with a specific purpose. For example, Fallen Skies is about aliens who want to take over the world, but why? And in The Walking Dead, zombies take over the country, but there’s no reason for it. So I combined the genres and gave it a reason – 2012 – the end of the Mayan calendar, the misconceptions and differing theories. I obviously took it to an exaggerated place and made it as grim as possible, but there are a lot of new theories about enlightenment and a new age of creation, a new beginning. I focused on the negative.

T6W: So the Mayan mythology served as the backstory, the engine so to speak, for a more conventional story of zombie and alien invasions.

JULIO: There’s also a very religious, ethical undertone behind the alien invasion, the fact that they’ve been citizens of earth at one point. Now that they’re back, they find a race of selfish, greedy humans who’ve gone against the scriptures. There’s a bit of a message for us to use the end of the world as a sign or deadline for an awakening, to become aware of what’s wrong with the world so we can change it. My thing is not being prophetic in any way, it’s just more of a wake up call to tell the world, hey, we’re behaving like zombies and losing sight of the important things. We need to follow certain ethical guidelines in order to evolve.

Click to watch the first episode of SciFi series 2012, “Arrival”

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T6W: Is it important to you as a filmmaker to infuse your stories with a social message?

JULIO: In a lot of my stories, especially in my shorts, I choose to tell a social or spiritual message, so that the audience can think about what they’ve seen as opposed to just saying, oh that was pretty cool. I like to leave the audience with something to think about. In my other show on KoldCast, Machiavelli’s The Prince, there’s a philosophical question being raised. I do use the medium to send a message.

T6W: It’s clever because explosions, zombies, and aliens make it easier for people to receive those messages. If you were preaching it wouldn’t work at all.

JULIO: Last thing I want to do is have my films feel like documentaries. I’m fortunate to have found talented actors to help carry them. I also have a great time doing it. It’s never been under pressure or a negative influence. It’s like playing a soccer game. You want to ensure you win, but you’re really out there to have a great time, and everyone cheers at the end.

T6W: Seems like you found your calling as a filmmaker!

JULIO: I think so. There are scripts on the shelf that can’t get made until I come up with the budget to pay big name actors, but that’s what I love about Internet TV series. Right now it’s becoming more popular, and there isn’t a necessity for a huge star. They are getting into the format more often though. It’s going to be a bigger area of competition.

T6W: Well you’re now getting some recognition in the space as well.

JULIO: Yeah, we were just named an honoree in the 2012 Webbys, alongside Mortal Kombat, which was an inspiration for me. That series was amazing – all the makeup and special effects. It inspired me to get involved in this format. To be there with them was such a wonderful honor. It was a slap on the back, saying keep going!

T6W: What does this honor mean for you going forward?

JULIO: There’s really no impact just yet, but it’s a great thing for the resume and a sign that I’m on the right track. I enjoyed the concept of 2012 and thought other people would too. After seeing the numbers on KoldCast and now with the Webbys, I felt validated. It’s a motivator to know my concepts are working and that I’m doing the right thing with my career in film.

T6W: Were you surprised to hear the news?

JULIO: I knew we were competing against bigger Hollywood productions with budgets in the hundreds of thousands and even millions. Nobody knows 2012 has no crew or money.

T6W: That’s the amazing thing with Internet TV. People are becoming adept at working within enormous budget constraints to create innovative shows.

JULIO: 2012 was made by two passionate guys who could wolf down a lot of pizzas, battling it out every single night, as colleagues and friends.

T6W: So, December 21^st 2012. Do you believe that’s truly the end?

JULIO: I think every culture in the world has a – let’s call it a new cycle. Hindus have the Kali Yuga. We’re currently in the Kali Yuga, the age of destruction. We’re going to enter into the Yuga soon, according to the Hindus. I believe the Mayans, because they were so learned in astrology, found a time period when a new cycle would take place. I think the date just represents when there will be a change within the spiritual consciousness of the world. It’s not gong to happen overnight. You can’t build a house overnight. You have to lay it down, brick by brick. I think that date indicates the start of something better. It’s the first brick.

T6W: So not the end of the world as we know it?

JULIO: No, it can’ t be. Then there won’t be anybody around to watch my show.

Click to watch the second episode of SciFi series 2012, “Discovery”

Watch the next episode of 2012, “Veritas”

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Ariel Nishli is the Editor-in-Chief of The Sixth Wall. He’s got a big apple in his heart but moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. After graduating from Vanderbilt University in 2007, he worked in the motion picture literary department at ICM, then moved on to feature film development at Parkes MacDonald Productions. Ariel’s wardrobe has steadily devolved from designer suits to worn out slippers, as he now focuses on screenwriting and journalism when he’s not obsessing over this blog.

Detective work is one of the most prestigious and respected assignments on a police force. Officers must work their way up the department ladder, putting in hard time on the beat before earning a coveted spot as an investigator. They must display the keen insight of Monk, the tenacious nature of Kojak, and, ideally, the smart pantsuits of Jessica Fletcher. An affable Columbo-esque nature doesn’t hurt, either.

It takes a special individual to gracefully combine all these attributes – a grace that typically comes with the wisdom of age. Thing is, a handful of young tykes out there in TV and Movieland, eager to get to the bottom of things, have been usurping that notion for years. They have the detective skillset all wrapped up… and a healthy work-life balance.

KoldCast TV’s Ruby Skye P.I. is the latest and greatest. Whether she’s trying to parse out the truth behind an internet scam or negotiate the delicate social web of high school, this teen investigator follows in the footsteps of several famous young gumshoes who came before her. Take a look back at some of pop culture’s wee sneaky sleuths, who prove you don’t need the body hair of Magnum P.I. to bring the bad guys to justice.

Click to watch Chapter One of Ruby Skye P.I., “Animal Farm”.

Missing brownies. A nutty neighbor starving her fake pets. A disappearing best friend. A mysterious scam. Just a normal day in the life of Ruby Skye P.I.

Nancy Drew

There are volumes upon volumes of feminist literary critique about dear, sweet Nancy, trying to assess the impressive impact and influence she has on American women. She is an expert driver and boat captain, proficient with firearms, a fluent French speaker, and, if book jackets tell us anything, really knows how to work a smart plaid skirt. Nancy Drew is the girl next door with a little more. She possesses brains and feistiness that set her apart from other female characters of her day. Though she may have undergone a few makeovers since her creation in 1930, Nancy has never lost the independent spirit that makes millions of girls stay up late, reading under the covers to find out just what happened to that Old Clock, or on Larkspur Lane, or in the Whistling Bagpipes.

The Scooby Doo Gang

Sure, they had kind of stupid haircuts and neckerchiefs, and sure, there was more action in the van between Shaggy and Scooby than between any of the other three (seemingly) able-bodied teens.  But those meddling kids and their inexplicable dog companion charmed us every afternoon with their wacky ghost chase montages. We didn’t question it then, but the biggest mystery in of all this is why the heck they have a semi-verbal dog!  Why didn’t any of the sneaky old men, (you know, the ones that were always caught trying to project swamp monsters onto castle walls), just grab Scooby, throw him into the back of an unmarked van, and hit the carnival circuit?

Encyclopedia Brown

He might seem a little dated now, what with his quarter-a-day expenses and garage-based headquarters. But back when he first appeared, Leroy “Encyclopedia” Brown introduced millions of kids to the mystery format we recognize today. With the help of his “bodyguard” Sally, (Oh, you can cut the tension with a knife in that relationship! Sigh. Not really.), Brown uses brains, not brawn, to take down the neighborhood baddies by seeking out mistakes and inconsistencies in their stories and alibis. The popular books inspired a comic strip and a brief HBO series, neither of which caught on.  We think a modernized re-boot is in order. Perhaps they could call him “Wikipedia Brown’?

The Bloodhound Gang

If your parents only let you watch PBS while all your friends were watching He-Man, you’ll understand the following phone greeting: “Bloodhound Detective Agency. Whenever there’s trouble, we’re there on the double. Mr. Bloodhound isn’t here.”  It’s not the quickest way to take a call, but it sure lets folks know they hadn’t dialed the bakery. The teenage mystery solvers of “3-2-1 Contact”, along with their younger sidekicks, used their knowledge of basic science concepts to solve crimes. Wearing super shiny windbreakers, they ran all over the city, evading danger, sneaking around behind dumpsters, and being accompanied by funky guitars. The segment was officially dropped from the show in 1986, but it took the cast until 1989 to hear the news, because it took them that long to finish answering answer the damn phone.!

Click to watch Chapter Two of Ruby Skye P.I., “Kay Eye Ess Ess…”.

Here’s what Ruby knows so far: someone scammed Mrs. Gooje out of a lot of money and the scam email was sent from Ruby’s school, the Dragon Academy. So Ruby is on the lookout for someone at school who recently came into money.

Harriet the Spy

This spunky 11-year-old first showed up in the beloved 1964 book by Louise Fitzhugh. Her story, of a girl whose fantasy to become a real spy causes trouble and hurt for the people she cares about most, is so relatable to tweens that she continues to appear in updated incarnations. A 1996 movie featured “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”s Michelle Trachtenburg in the lead role, with Rosie O’Donnell as her beloved nanny, Ole Golly. And the covert spying action of the 2010 version was centered around blogs, so we can only imagine that the focus of the next one will most likely be… someone hacking Twitter.

Mighty Max

So apparently this kid Max received a magic ball cap inside a chicken statue, and somehow, that made him start traipsing around the universe with a bird-man and Viking, solving paranormal and historical mysteries. Sounds weird, but trust us, it worked. Mighty Max may have started as a marketing ploy to sell a toy line, but its dark, creative story lines set it apart from other children’s programming of the early ‘90s. Whatever. Anything that stars Tim Curry as something called “Skullmaster” is okay by us.

Penny

Sure, Inspector Gadget had all the cool toys, but everyone knows that his niece, the studious, pig-tailed Penny, was the reason he didn’t ever accidentally steamroll himself when he tried to reach for a roll of toilet paper. With a faithful assist from Brain the Dog, Penny used the forerunner to the iPad, her secret book-computer and wristwatch-communication-thingie, to make sure the Inspector got the job done, and often placed herself in danger in order to do so. We sincerely hope she took a break from all that nonsense to go to college, (preferably MIT), and that Brain retired to a humdrum doggie life of sniffing, scratching, and pooping on the carpet.

Spy Kids

Carmen and her brother Juni think they’re living a totally boring suburban existence, until they discover that their totally boring suburban parents are actually retired super-spies. When their folks are kidnapped by the host of a bizarre children’s show, the duo are thrown into a world much more exciting – and dangerous – than the one they thought they were in. This is a wonderfully weird movie, featuring creatures with bodies made of thumbs and creepy child robots. We wouldn’t expect anything less from a children’s movie written and directed by Robert Rodriguez.

Click to watch Chapter Three of Ruby Skye P.I., “Break-In”.

Ruby proves herself a master of the art of distraction – and pretty good at Rock, Paper, Scissors too. Hailey does some hacking. And the clues all point in the wrong direction.

Veronica Mars

Mixing teen angst with small-town murder is always a tricky task, but this smart series did it with fun and grace from 2004-2007 – a far too brief three seasons. Following the murder of her best friend Lily Kane, Veronica’s father Keith Mars is ousted as sheriff of their town for implicating the victim’s father in the crime. Keith and Veronica start up a private investigation firm and get to work solving smaller mysteries, all the while trying to find Lily’s true killer. Though its run was short, Veronica Mars launched the career of Kristen Bell and Amanda Seyfried, for which scores of adolescent boys will be forever grateful.

Busytown Mysteries

Richard Scarry’s anthropomorphic critters are doing more than teaching the alphabet these days. They’re finding out who stole all the red roses off the bushes in Granny Goat’s garden (SPOILER: it was the robot), or who took a giant bite out of the Mouse Family’s cheese car (SPOILER: it was us. Sorry, we just love cheese.). Huckle Cat, his sister Sally, and their wormy friend Lowly use mystery solving to teach the scientific method, and they always get the job done, despite the interference of those annoying brats, Pig Will and Pig Won’t. Hey, toddlers deserve intrigue, too.

Honorable Mention: The Hardy Boys

The Boys get a runner-up trophy here because though they debuted before Nancy, and their popularity was the reason she was created, they’re just…not as cool. Sorry boys. We’re sure you have a lucrative career in real estate ahead of you, though.

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Annie Cooper is a writer, armchair public transportation advocate, and aspiring taco critic. She has written columns and specialized training materials related to children with special needs, parenting issues, and early childhood development. Her writings are geared toward therapists, social workers, and teachers of young children with complex medical and developmental issues. She recently left her job in social services in an effort to become part of the problem, rather than the solution. Annie lives in Los Angeles, but she’s not from there – nobody’s from there.

I was watching the latest episode of Heroes of the North, KoldCast’s TV series about a crack team of Canadian superheroes – none of whom are ten-foot tall, syrup-swigging lumberjacks or Ryan Gosling. They are proud Canadian heroes charged with defending their borders from an international terrorist organization, and they’re damn good at it. These heroes got me thinking about other superhero teams that have nationalist tendencies, even if they’re not explicitly stated.

The Avengers, for example, a superhero team with a gigantic movie coming out tomorrow starring Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, and Scarlett Johanssen (after Googling random pictures of her, she looks great regardless of what anyone says), are a distinctly American team, though they are obviously charged with protecting the world at large.

The Heroes of the North, their Canadian counterparts, deal with worldwide threats when Canada is also involved. If the evil organization they fight, Medusa, opened up a base in Kansas City, there’d probably be a roundtable discussion about plane tickets and extradition before taking any action.

Click to watch Episode 1, “Canadian Shield” of Heroes Of The North

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Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?

Despite the fact that their tagline is “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”, there’s no denying that The Avengers have a big, fat “Made In America” tag under their uniforms. Their mansion is based in New York City, for crying out loud. It’s paid for by Iron Man Tony Stark, who can only afford the place because he makes weapons of mass destruction in America, for the express purposes of defending America. Hell, they have Captain America among their ranks.

Earth’s mightiest heroes are, in fact, really America’s mightiest heroes. It’s like how we call The World Series, “The World Series”, despite the fact that only American baseball teams are competing. The question is whether the superhero group lives up to its grander title.

The movie version of The Avengers team consists of “Iron Man” (Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey, Jr.), “Thor” (Donald Blake, played by Chris Hemsworth), “The Incredible Hulk” (Dr. Bruce Banner, played by Mark Ruffalo), “Captain America” (Steve Rogers, played by Chris Evans), and “Hawkeye” (Clint Barton, played by Jeremy Renner). All are American by birth, save for Thor, though he did come into his own as a hero in the good old American Midwest.

Apple Pie Border Control

The Avengers of the original comic book series have always fought “the foes no single superhero can withstand”, but we never saw them traveling to the Middle East to break up civil wars. They’re not responsible for the rogue cable car that goes off the tracks in St. Petersburg headed straight for that oil refinery! They leave these issues for other superheroes to handle, superheroes loyal to their own nations. The Avengers respond to American threats, and if American interests aren’t at stake along with the rest of the world, the Avengers haven’t really dealt with it.

This is of course because comic book readers are primarily American. It only makes sense for the material to cater to the audience. The Heroes of the North defend Canada from a worldwide terrorist organization, and rarely spend time outside their Maple-adorned nation, but that’s ok because they’re Heroes of the North, not Earth.

Heroes Of The North

The Avengers, on the other hand – they’ve accepted the endorsement of “Earth’s mightiest heroes” from Earth’s mightiest country. They, like the United States, are the biggest fish in the biggest pond. They may not have forward bases in Saudi Arabia, but they don’t need them. They’ve got the Hulk.

The Firefighter Model

Look, I’m not trying to stir the pot. All I’m trying to point out, on the eve of this massive blockbuster film about American superheroes fighting a so-called worldwide threat, is that there’s an interesting dynamic going on between the consumers and creators of comic books, one that’s been going on ever since Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Avengers back in ‘63. It’s entirely possible our expectations of a crime-fighting team like The Avengers could shed some much-needed light on our collective nerd view on world policy, and the place of our country in it.

If the Avengers really were concerned with saving the world at large, with truly being Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, they’d take an afternoon to come up with a serious, comprehensive method of determining where the most possible good could be done and go do it. They’d say, “Okay, Storm. You’ve got the power over the weather. Let’s send you to Africa and deal with this horrible Ethiopian drought.”

But that’ll never happen. Because, for one, that’d be relentlessly boring, and for two, because that’s not what we expect from our superheroes. The Avengers, like most superheroes, are reactionary. They’re like firefighters, lingering in their hideout until some great villain rears his ugly head. In the interim, they hang out. Live their lives. Practice their catchphrases. You rarely meet a superhero, or a superhero team, that is actively using their superpowers to solve problems before they arise.

Comic Book Politics

Perhaps The Avengers exist in a world where there aren’t many domestic issues, and the biggest problems they have to deal with really are intergalactic demons turning people inside out or whatever, but we’re led to believe they live in our world as it stands, with the aliens thrown in. So you have to wonder why “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”, who are capable of defeating nearly any enemy that comes their way, are so passive when it comes to Earth’s Mightiest Problems.

Is it possible I’m totally overthinking this popcorn movie? You bet. And rest assured, I’m horrible on first dates. But I stand by my belief that all you have to do is take a close look at the philosophy behind The Avengers to see how comic book readers and presumably blockbuster moviegoers view America’s place in the world.

The Avengers are all about the preservation of the status quo. It’s right there in the name. If anyone tries to change the way things are for the worse, they’re going to Avenge your ass. Their number one priority is to protect the world and the American way of life. In this day and age of topical, grown up comic book movies, when the Dark Knight is playing politics against the mayor of Gotham City, and even the Men In Black are thrown into the social turmoil of the 60s, the world’s mightiest heroes should be a little worldlier.

Thomas Chandler was born and raised in a small town outside Seattle. He’s currently writing a screenplay about two robots striving to reform the American educational system.

This scoop is huge. Your source is scared. The city needs to know. And your editor just moved your deadline up because he’s getting squeezed by some corporate folks with powerful friends, who’d rather see your story on the cutting room floor (and maybe you alongside it).

Is this the real life of the investigatory journalist? Hell if I know. I write entertaining stories for a living. But regardless of its veracity, Hollywood has done a letter-perfect job of crafting the “isolated reporter” archetype. They live in an economy studio piled high with well-read books and unread bills, drink sh*tty coffee to shake off hangovers borne from drinking sh*ttier booze, and haven’t dated since (liberal arts) college because they live for the work. As Tommy Gavin crows about firefighting, so too does Hollywood about reporting. “It’s not a job, it’s not a career… it’s a calling.” A calling that turns upside-down the lives of those who pursue it.

You’re watching Episode 1 “The Syndicate” of the thriller series The Vetala

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In Koldcast TV’s supernatural thriller series The Vetala, aspiring journalists Lily Callahan and Alex Reed get sucked into the maelstrom as they try to break a story about the gun-smuggling activities of a clandestine crime organization known as The Syndicate. The two college reporters throw themselves headlong into the story, but it soon becomes clear that The Syndicate’s illicit operations are only a small part of a much larger, much weirder story.

In Episode 1 “The Syndicate”, Lily Callahan, played by Candace Chase, heads downtown for a face-to-face meet with an anonymous source, only to be jumped by a mob-affiliated gunman looking to silence her with a silencer. In the ensuing chase, she’s shot twice, and sputters her last gasps on the cold poured cement of a parking garage floor. Despite her mortal wound, she reawakens hours later completely unharmed to read a headline claiming that her attacker was thrown to his death from the very same parking structure. Instead of throwing in the towel after her near-death experience, she and Alex dig deeper and discover the mysterious footprint of The Vetala, a demonic Hindu spirit that possesses different hosts and wreaks havoc in their mortal world. With caution sufficiently thrown to the wind, they dive down the rabbit hole to get the story.

Even if it’s not ancient Sanskrit spirits that they’re chasing down, silver screen reporters have tackled a host of insidious social and personal demons. Below, check out five of my favorite journalism-centric flicks, each featuring a different investigative reporter whose unrelenting tenacity would make Geraldo Rivera so jealous he’d pluck out his own mustache.

All the President’s Men (1976)

Winner of four Academy Awards and nominated for another four, this political thriller defines the cultural landscape of the DC in the mid-Seventies, when interparty espionage was an alien idea and no one yet knew just how tricky Dick was. Adapted from a nonfiction bestseller by two Washington Post beat reporters (Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein) All the President’s Men follows the pair as they tug on the Watergate sweater, unraveling a massive political cover-up that cuts to the very core of American integrity.

Badass reporter quotient: Extremely High. You’ve got a spry Robert Redford playing against an equally youthful-yet-neurotic Dustin Hoffman on a love-to-hate-each-other reporting team. A quintessentially skeptical editor (Best Supporting Actor Jason Robards) breathing down their necks because the story feels thin. A riddle-spinning source that goes by Deep Throat. And a scandal that will eventually own the POTUS. Plus, Hoffman sports better hockey flow than Ron Duguay in his playing days, there’s not a single love interest in the entire movie, and they bang everything out on vintage typewriters, which is unassailably cool.

The Mean Season (1985)

In this post-The Wire world, authenticity in fictional storytelling is put at an absurd premium. Ever since David Simon bridged the gap between his real-life 12-year career covering crime on the Baltimore Sun City Desk and the oh-so-real realm of Avon, Stringer, and Hamsterdam, we’ve expected our crime stories to deliver more, more authentically. Before Simon wrote the first line of Season 1, there was Mean Season, an adaptation of Miami Herald columnist John Katzenbach’s novel In the Heat of the Summer. This thriller follows Malcolm Anderson (Kurt Russell), a burned-out crime reporter who gets ensnared in a series of grisly homicides committed by a sadistic serial killer. The perp makes Anderson an accessory to the murders by tantalizing him with information about the next attack.

Badass reporter quotient: Above Average. Though a fictional story, the producers went overboard to nail down the real look and feel of a newsroom by shooting in the Miami Herald’s offices at the frenzied hours from 10:30pm to 6:30am, hiring columnists as on-set consultants, and sending Russell to shadow the Herald’s veteran crime reporters.

The Pelican Brief (1993)

Some people might disagree with me here, but I think The Pelican Brief outstrips both The Firm and The Rainmaker as the best adaptation of a Grisham novel. What other movie would have the guts to blow up Sam Shepard with a freakin’ car bomb in its opening few scenes? He’s Sam Shepard, dammit! The Right Stuff! But where lesser films might falter, Brief steamrolls onward with Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington, a Tulane Law student and a political reporter mired in a conspiracy involving slain Supreme Court Justices, endangered waterfowl, and a whole sh*tload of oil.

Badass reporter quotient: High. Julia Roberts’ character is the target of not one, but two car bombs in this flick. For gutsy political law-student do-gooders, these are like positive quarterly reviews from your boss, a comforting affirmation that you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing. Also, Denzel Washington does what he’s supposed to do, which is be incredibly cool and one step ahead of everyone else on screen.

The Insider (1999)

First Big Oil, then Big Tobacco. Except this turn of the century thriller is based on a true story about a former Brown & Williamson chemist named Jeffrey Wigan (played by Russell Crowe) who, wracked with moral opposition to his industry’s deceitful marketing tactics, decides to blow the whistle on their subterfuge. He contacts Lowell Bergman, a producer at 60 Minutes played by the unparalleled Al Pacino. The film chronicles the tooth-and-nail battle the two endure to try to get their story on the air, despite vicious, from-all-angles legal and illegal counterattacks by self-interested parties.

Badass reporter quotient: Extremely High. Wigand’s life disintegrated around him because he chose to get his story out. His wife left him, his company sued him for millions, and he was the victim of invasions of privacy. What’s worse, the 60 Minutes segment that reached the air in 1995 was a watered-down version of the original that stopped well short of a damning condemnation. Pressure from then-owner of CBS Lawrence Tisch (who also owned a controlling stake in tobacco corporation Lorillard) had led the network’s legal counsel to flex their muscle and force Bergman to castrate the segment. Though the segment finally aired in its original form in 1996, the movie’s negative depiction of 60 Minutes reporter Mike Wallace did damage to his journalistic integrity. As Pacino put it, “What got broken here doesn’t go back together again”. That’s actually just one of about five unforgettable Pacino one-liners in this movie.

State of Play (2009)

Back to Russell Crowe yet again, but this time the versatile Aussie is a reporter himself. An adaptation of a six-part 2003 British mini-series, SOP is – you guessed it – a political thriller that follows Crowe as Cal McAffery, an old-school print journalist locked in an investigation of the death of a congressman’s young female aide. Leveraging his personal relationship with the congressman (Ben Affleck), McAffery gets deep into a plot of billion dollar defense contracts, rooftop snipers and unstable assassins, and barely escapes with his life.

Badass reporter quotient: Above Average. Crowe drives around in a crappy jalopy with notepads and old coffee cups strewn across its dashboard. Beneath the driving force of the main plot, there’s a subtext of old journalism vs. new; Crowe is reluctantly saddled with the task of training up a green blogger (Rachel McAdams), to whom he makes perfectly clear that he doesn’t approve the modern turn journalism has taken.

Do you understand that the world does not revolve around you and your do-whatever-it-takes, ruin as many people’s lives, so long as you can make a name for yourself as an investigatory journalist, no matter how many friends you lose or people you leave dead and bloodied along the way, just so long so you can make a name for yourself as an investigatory journalist, no matter how many friends you lose or people you leave dead and bloodied and dying along the way?

- Derek Zoolander

There’s a fundamental dilemma in, on the one hand, thinking “How can I intrude on these people at the moment of exquisite agony?” and, on the other hand thinking, “My God, I’m sitting on a terrific story!”

- John Katzenbach

Original song “A Lot To Live For”, from The Vetala, featuring Jonny Hetherington of Art of Dying.

David Infante is the Merchandising Editor at Thrillist. He’s a lover of reality TV, Rangers hockey, and Elmore Leonard stories. A graduate of UVA, his affinity for cheap beer is matched only by his staggering collection of button downs.

If you live in the big city, odds are you have a roommate. And if you didn’t have a ton of friends when you moved to the city, odds are you found a relative stranger to live with. Then all of a sudden you’re pulling each other’s hairs out of the bathroom faucet. This can lead to some sticky situations, literally and figuratively. I got lucky. I went through Craigslist to find a roomy. The most annoying thing my roommates do is bring home girls they met on the Internet.

Craigslist housing deals could go a hell of a lot worse. Ash from KoldCast TV’s comedy series Girl Parts ends up living with not one, but three subpar actresses – a hellish situation that I wouldn’t wish upon even my worst enemies. Ash happens to be a former child star, which leads to an interesting dynamic between the four roommates. She was once famous; her roommates want nothing more than to be famous.

You’re watching Episode 1, “The Flare-Up”, comedy series Girl Parts

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There are a slew of influential people in today’s spotlight who have at one point shared a common wall. After all, isn’t it possible that one of the three girls Ash lives with could actually turn out to be talented, and end up becoming a movie star a few years down the line?

Well, probably not. You’ll see. Doesn’t mean we can’t use our imaginations though! Here are some real celebrities who’ve lived together in their younger days.

Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling

The first pair of former roommates that comes to mind is Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling, mostly because they’re a couple of dream boats and there’s rarely a moment when their boyish yet grizzled features aren’t bouncing around somewhere in the back of my head. I also like to imagine two twelve-year-olds getting all their unwholesome, Mountain Dew-chugging, stripper-slapping behavior out of the way in a tiny Orlando bungalow between rehearsals for Mousketeer skits.

Since actors moonlight as cultural diplomats, you won’t get the truth about what happened in Justin and Ryan’s pubescent Mickey Mouse days from the source, so there’s no knowing what kind of relationship the two had. However, Ryan’s mother had to leave the country and return to Canada midway through the Florida adventure. This forced Mrs. Timberlake to take on Ryan as her ward, so we may assume it was the tremendously talented Justin who took on his first Alpha Dog role to teach a foppish Ryan how to sing, dance and act.

Ving Rhames and Stanley Tucci

Suffice it to say, tons of actors and musicians roomed together before they were famous. Stanley Tucci is regarded to have been the one who shortened Ving Rhames’ name from “Irving”, though Ving didn’t return the favor, otherwise we’d be calling him Stan Tucci, which would save us a boatload of time when recapping The Devil Wears Prada.

Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve

Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve lived together in college, a situation that unfortunately never led to a much-desired Superman vs. Mork crossover. Little did they know the wardrobe in their hallway closet would one day change from button downs and bellbottoms to elderly women’s dresses and bright blue tights.

Bill Clinton and Strobe Talbott

Bill Clinton and Strobe Talbott lived together at Oxford, in what was surely a quiet, studious environment full of high-minded political theory, with a dash of brandy here or there, if only to heighten the philosophical conversations. That, or Bill was bringing home a different girl every night to engage in a friendly Lincoln-Douglas about women’s liberation, specifically whether or not this woman should be liberated from her pants. Meanwhile Strobe was in the kitchen, munching on a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios as he read about Glasnost in the latest edition of Time magazine. Decades after living together, Strobe became Clinton’s Deputy Secretary of State, which goes to show you that you can’t take for granted who you bunk up with, especially if you have a years worth of privileged information concerning the Commander in Chief, and whether or not he did, in fact, inhale.

Paula Abdul and Kara DioGuardi

American Idol judges Paula Abdul and Kara DioGuardi bunked up as well, in a studio apartment I’d dub “Hairspray Manor”, if those a-holes on Wikipedia wouldn’t keep flagging my changes. Paula and Kara going from sitting around a shared space heater was probably great practice for sitting around to share unfounded opinions on the talents of complete strangers.

Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones

Then there’s Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones, the former not so much an actor as a vice president turned documentarian, the latter not so much an actor as a grizzled man who shows up on set and complains about politics.

George Papandreou and Antonis Samaras

Also in the wide world of politics, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and Antonis Samaras roomed together back in the day, which – unlike Clinton and Strobe — ended up being an adversarial relationship, with Samaras being the Leader in the Opposition to Papandreou during his tenure. But the odds of you caring about two obscure European politicians are pretty low. In fact, you’re probably still thinking about Timberlake and Gosling living together in their Orlando bungalow, huh? Do you think they ever got their toothbrushes mixed up accidentally? OH MY GOD IS RYAN WEARING HIS HAT BACKWARDS!?

Dan Brown and Harlan Coben

Anyway, perhaps my favorite roommate pairing is that of The Da Vinci Code best-selling author Dan Brown and Tell No One best-selling author Harlan Coben. The relationship probably revolved around Dan leaving clues upon clues for Harlan to decipher in order to get to his half of the rent, only to realize that he himself is the rent! Coben, confused and infuriated and then confused again, would return to his word processor and type out an impossibly complicated scheme to kill Brown that only former basketball player turned sports agent Myron Bolitar could uncover.

I wish I could go on longer, but I think my roommate brought home another girl from OK Cupid and he’s going to totally flip when he sees all the eggs I left in the sink.

Thomas Chandler was born and raised in a small town outside Seattle. He’s currently writing a screenplay about two robots striving to reform the American educational system.