The Unpaid Programming Podcast is a podcast that airs on Anchor, Stitcher Radio, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, iHeart Radio, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts hosted by Lawrence Watson and two of his high school friends, who happen to be twin brothers, Jeff and John Kirk. Originally, they were also joined by John and Jeff's older brother Doug, but he was quickly replaced by new cast member, Tim Williams who joined the crew in episode six. The four grew up in and around Pittsburgh and much of their humor and stories revolve around Yinzer-y topics. The show was originally called The Lawrence Watson Show, but changed due to the desire to not put one of them above the others. Recently, Tim has taken a teaching role in Thailand and will not return until March of 2020. His role was then assumed by Mike, a friend of John and Tim's. Mike eventually started cutting back on his appearances due to work and family commitments, leaving the original trio as hosts.
You can find episodes here: https://anchor.fm/unpaidprogramming
The show went on hiatus in 2021 after 48 episodes when they began working on a different podcast called The Unscripted Scripts Show. The hosts have stated that they plan to do two more episodes in the future before bringing the show to a finish after 50 episodes sometime in the future.
This podcast provides examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Copious amounts of alcohol are consumed during taping. John, Jeff and Tim always have a few beers during tapings, usually Pittsburgh's infamous Iron City.
- Lawrence abstains entirely from alcohol due to past problems with it. He usually indulges in his trademark favorite soft drink: Pepsi.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Jeff and Lawrence sometimes engage in Ham-to-Ham Combat when performing a very bad script.
- Bad Impressionists: All of them to some extent, for which they deride each other.
- It is averted with certain impressions though. Jeff's Mike Ehrmantraut, Lawrence's Marlon Brando and Bernie Sanders, and John's Morgan Freeman are all regarded by the others as being good.
- Butt-Monkey: John is usually the target for the others' abuse because of his Talkative Loon nature and "boring stories". Lawrence also assumes the mantle from time to time.
- Catchphrase: Lawrence always begins each episode with "Hello, Good Evening, and Welcome".
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Doug, who appeared on the first episode hasn't appeared since after being "fired".
- Subverted when Doug appears again in Episode 8.
- Downer Ending: The story told by Tim in his first appearance involving hearing an old Korean man tell the story of beating the family dog to death in order to feed it to the family's sick mother, who did not live. Lawrence, Jeff, and John were deeply shaken by the story at first.
- Lawrence discovering that his mother had possessed the extremely rare and valuable "Butcher Cover" of The Beatles' "Yesterday and Today" and that it had been stolen from the house she'd grown up in.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: Their loving parody of old time radio murder mysteries, "Parts Unknown", which is entirely populated with old wrestlers.
- Four-Philosophy Ensemble:
- Gasshole: Each of them being caught burping into the microphone was a brief running gag. Also, Lawrence's health scare story turned out just to be a case of tremendous gas.
- Hippie Teacher: Tim was a teacher abroad and he definitely is a hippie.
- Insistent Terminology: John sometimes becomes "Tired and Emotional", which means he's had too much to drink.
- Large Ham: John is probably the largest, but Lawrence as well.
- Nice Mean And In Between: Lawrence and Mike are the Nice, Jeff is the Mean, John and Tim are the In-Between.
- Pittsburgh: Much of the discussion revolves around life in and around Pittsburgh, especially Pittsburgh sports.
- Pro Wrestling Episode: Since Lawrence is a fan of pro wrestling, several episodes involve him telling wrestling stories or answering the others' questions.
- Running Gag: The show is full of them. The originally poor audio quality of episodes recorded on cheap equipment is a recurring gag. Also, Jeff regularly derides the quality of the show.
- Also, the show being produced by John's dog, Henry or Jeff's cat, Wade.
- Much is made of Lawrence's Ringo Starr-like limited vocal range when singing karaoke compared to Jeff and John who are better singers.
- Jeff's terrible impersonation of Lawrence's significant other, Laura, who has an Australian accent.
- Putting over the Honky Tonk Man at least once an episode.
- The Korean Dog Story.
- Listener Fan Mail.
- Funny Ads. So much so that the gang sometimes releases them on their Youtube channel by themselves.
- Self-Deprecation: Everyone with the exception of Jeff engages in it.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: The four of them each have a spot on the scale.
- Jeff is the the most outwardly cynical about the world in general, and he's apt to be the most snarky.
- Tim is less cynical than Jeff, but he falls on the cynical side of the fence as well, likely given that he's the most widely traveled of the four.
- Lawrence is on the idealistic side, although he has a deep streak of pessimism that reveals itself on occasion.
- John is the most idealistic of the four, always looking for the good in everything and everyone. He sometimes borders on being The Pollyanna.
- Straight Man and Wise Guy: Lawrence and John act as straight men to Jeff and Tim's wiseguys. Unlike Tim, Mike does not fit into this pattern as his sense of humor is more earnest.
- On episodes where it's just Lawrence, John and Jeff, John will usually be the straight man to Jeff and Lawrence's wise guy.
- Strictly Formula: The show started out expressing the desire to adhere to a specific structure and failed miserably at it. The four of them do have very specific roles though that could be described as Lawrence is the driver, John is riding shotgun with the map, and Jeff and Tim are in the back kicking the seats.
- Talkative Loon: John sometimes veers into this territory, only to be derided by the others for it.
