“It’s after seven and I haven’t fed the kids. I think I’ll
just make some tollhouse cookies and call it night.”
Wendy Snyder, mother of two
You’re a television development executive. You’ve been charged by the head of your network with finding the next great TV family sitcom. The next Roseanne or Home Improvement. The next Everybody Loves Raymond or Arrested Development.
This is your lucky day. I’m here to tell you that the raw material for the next great TV family comedy is just lying out there in the open on the digital landscape. This family comedy would be fiction, but based in reality. And you can clearly hear the potential for it via a series of real-life podcasts known as SnydeRemarksRadio.
Wendy Snyder is a veteran of Chicago radio. She’s been a rock ‘n roll DJ, a talk show host, a news anchor and a comedic sidekick to radio legend Steve Dahl. Currently, she’s part of the Don Wade and Roma morning show team on WLS radio.
Wendy’s husband, the much-younger Jimmy McInerney, also works in radio, doing commercial and promo production work for WERV in Naperville, Illinois. He also co-produces and co-hosts The Force-Cast, an internet radio show devoted to Star Wars.
Wendy and Jimmy Mac have two sons (Michael, 10 and Dylan, 7). They recently adopted an Australian Shepherd/Bernese Mountain Dog Mix named Tiki. They all live happily together in their suburban Chicago home.
And, once a week, after five grueling days of making and broadcasting professional radio, Wendy and Jimmy lock the kids away in their room, break out the cocktail mixers and fire up the podcasting equipment. And then, it’s game on.
If you listen to their SnydeRemarksRadio podcasts, you’ll learn a lot about the Snyder-Macs (like, that they are known as the Snyder-Macs) and the way they live their very funny lives.
Wendy, a self-described “avid hypochondriac and a bit of a bitch”, has to get up every day at 2:30am for work. Thus, when it comes weekend podcasting time, she can be a tad erratic.
Wendy has revealed that—out in the real world—she will not be ignored or denied by anyone, be they bank teller or sales clerk (”You know I need to talk to people!”) and that that can lead to trouble (like the tomato-smashing incident with the cashier at the local supermarket).
Wendy says that when sees people out and alone on the streets of Chicago, she creates “sad back stories” for them in her head which, in turn, makes her feel sad.
Once in while, Wendy will have a thought and then leave that thought for herself as an iPhone messages, so she can play it back on the podcast.
Before she got into radio, Wendy worked at the Brookfield Zoo and, thus, knows stuff. She can launch into a dissertation about the difference between African and Indian elephants or simply regale her audience with the true-life story of the Brookfield zookeeper who had his scrotum ripped off by a crazed kangaroo named Creampuff.
Wendy appears to have an affinity for unmotivated non sequitors (”I love the game of Yahtzee!”) and has been known to yell out “Jeez, Louise” when she’s flabbergasted.
Most of Wendy’s ire is directed toward her husband/boy toy, Jimmy Mac. During one podcast, she admonished him for “almost spilling red wine from my Crate and Barrel glass on my beige couch!” (As a result, they no longer podcast from that room.)
Sometimes, when Jimmy Mac frustrates Wendy in the middle of the podcast, she will scream out things like: “God, I hate you today!”
Truth to tell, Jimmy Mac can be just as frustrating. Whereas Wendy is a loaded grenade, set to explode for any and all reasons, Jimmy is extraordinarily laid back. Nothing is a big deal. (The dog ran away? Well, there’s no getting him back now. Tomorrow, we’ll go get another dog…)
The differences in Wendy and Jimmy Mac’s personalities can be heightened when Jimmy tries to solve problems by using lessons he’s learned from pop culture. The Three Stooges, Star Wars and the Ghostbusters were his teachers and therapists. This causes Wendy to get irritated, leading the couple into situations like their nasty squabble over H.R. Pufenstuf.
As mentioned, Jimmy is a Star Wars fanatic. An entire room of the Snyder-Mac home has been given over to his Star Wars toy and action figure collection. This year, Jimmy chose to blow off his wedding anniversary plans with Wendy in favor of jetting out of town to attend the Star Wars Fan Days convention in Plano, Texas.
He made it up to her with a successful birthday, Wendy-style (”Go out for the night, wake up on the sofa”), but blew it on Valentine’s Day when he gave a Wendy a bag of Peanut Butter M&Ms instead of Peanut M&Ms. Wendy refused the gift, saying they didn’t need to “celebrate the Hallmark holidays”, to which Jimmy declared: “I could give a rat’s ass about Valentine’s Day!”
Their sons, Michael and Dylan, are not part of the podcast. They are talked about (the infamous What To Do If Your Kid Gives Another Kid A Wedgie On The Playground show), but are not heard. They are, in fact, frequently dispatched to other areas of the home and bribed with gifts to, as Wendy says, “leave us alone to podcast”
When the boys do act up during the recording, Jimmy is dispatched by Wendy to “go kick some ass”. When that goes horribly wrong, Jimmy and Wendy, take full responsibility for their parenting style and recognize the situation for what it is (Wendy: “All hell is breaking loose in this house!” Jimmy: “This is a train wreck!”).
Still, they do seem like a happy family, even attending Catholic Mass on (most) Sundays. The Snyder-Macs “enjoy people-watching during Communion” at what they call their “Godspell Church” where, Wendy tells us, the “bread is made by the Fifth Grade Catechism class!”
Food looms large in the world of Wendy Snyder and Jimmy Mac. Whether they are discussing their favorite local Led Zeppelin tribute band or reminiscing about the fight they got into on stage at the neighborhood Open Mic Night, food talk is never far away.
There was the night Wendy closed the door on a group of Christmas carolers singing “Silent Night”, because her Mexican food was getting cold.
Jimmy Mac once revealed that he likes to hit the sample tables at Sam’s Club around noon, as a way of scarfing a free lunch.
Both are wary of the recently re-opened Trader Joe’s (Jimmy: “It seems very California…”).
They’ve debated the virtues of Spam vs. Underwood Deviled Ham, Wendy’s passion for Sloppy Joes and frozen, crinkle cut French fries, and Jimmy’s lust for Li’l Smokey wiener wraps.
When Wendy excitedly reported on her Facebook page that “McRib is back!”, she was unprepared for the McRib-backlash she was hit with from busybody parents who were concerned about what the Snyder-Macs might be feeding their kids.
But, ultimately, when it comes to food, Jimmy and Wendy are not afraid to take a few risks (Wendy: “The Snyder-Macs like to hang onto expired canned goods on the off chance the Food Drive folks come calling!”).
Once, they decided they wanted taste-test Vegemite, the Australian bread-spread. After she snapped a photo of the yeast-extract food paste (”It looks like black peanut butter!”), Wendy took a small bite, spit it out (Jimmy: “She’s spitting it out!”) and declared: “That’s horrendous! It’s like somebody crapped in a jar!”
Maybe they just needed a drink. As evidenced by the time they took with the “Am I An Alcoholic?” quiz, the Snyder-Macs like to imbibe.
Wendy’s good with just about any “screw-top wine”, while Jimmy is very specific about his drink of choice: “Blue collar beer! Miller light. Bud light. In cans. No imports. No micro-brews!”
Sometimes, Jimmy will attempt to branch out, but it rarely works out. Like the time Wendy impugned Jimmy’s manhood by calling his Bailey’s Irish Cream “a woman’s drink”.
But there are signs that Wendy might be going “all fancy” herself. She recently purchased their first bottle of Grand Marnier, the bitter orange liqueur. Confessed Wendy: “It’s a cognac, which I feel snobby to have! But I kind like that feeling, so when I opened the little foil top, I wanted to save it. Our first bottle of Grand Marnier!”
Personally, I think there’s a lot more than Grand Marnier in the Snyder-Macs’ future, which brings me back around to the premise of this piece.
I see a real and riotous TV family sitcom based on the adventures of Wendy and Jimmy. Imagine the cougar-wife and the boy-toy hubby who work all day together at the wacky radio station and discover that they only way they can communicate at home to solve problems is via podcast (which would act as a very organic time-lapse/flashback device).
If someone in Hollywood or Burbank besides me is not thinking in that direction, they should be. I would advise any and all development execs at FOX (home of The Simpsons and Family Guy), ABC (Modern Family), NBC (Parenthood), ABC Family (”a new kind of family!”) and everyone else from CBS to TBS to Comedy Central to give a listen to Wendy and Jimmy on their SnydeRemarksRadio podcasts on iTunes. I think you’ll hear the same thing I hear…the raw material for one the best Mom-centered sitcoms since Roseanne.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go register this pitch with the Writers Guild so I can get myself paid when this show gets greenlit. Break out the screw-top wine…
