Goodbye

Series
Online
Original Broadcast Date
12/30/2006
Cast
Lester Nafzger, Gideon Brower, Michal Story, Larry Block, Mike Fremuth, Joe Frank
Format
Telephone, 55 minutes
Preceded by:	Bad Faith
Followed by:	Just An Ordinary Man
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"Please don't give me any bad news, Joe."

Goodbye is a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series Online. It was originally broadcast on December 30, 2006.

Synopsis

Joe tells a friend (unnamed) about the failure of his kidney. He gets weepy and tells Joe he'll give him one of his kidneys.

3:00: Joe says he feels not alone on an airplane, thinks he might like to die with the other passengers.

3:40: Joe talks to his mother. They talk about what she eats, including a champagne brunch.

6:10: Michal Story and one of Joe's physicians discuss Joe's condition.

9:40: Joe describes the ominous markings on a chalkboard in his hospital room.

11:10: Joe and Mike Fremuth discuss dealing with life's problems: acceptance, melancholy, depression, whether Joe deserves his bad luck.

16:30: Joe sings:

I know a little place called Bo J Dee's
They got fine burritos and smokin' jack cheese,
crisp fried chicken and collard greens,
mashed potatoes and lima beans,
a meatball sandwich, a pizza pie,
pickled tomatoes, and a turkey thigh.

Hey baby what's that hangin' off the wall?
It sure smells funny and it's eight feet tall.
I got me a gun but don't be afraid -
I just have it for protection.

17:30: Joe and Lester Nafzger talk about Lester's health, his father's death young, his mother when old. They talk about what happens after death, their vanity.

23:20: Joe sings:

You got that wild-looking thing that makes me want to shout.
Come on baby, why don't you pull it on out?
We'll go to a movie or maybe a bar.
Come on baby, just hop in my car.
There's a flick on Sunset with some movie star - what's his name anyway?
I read about him in the 'Enquirer'.  He was doing something to somebody.

24:00: Joe and Lester discuss being treated patronizingly by young people because they're old. Lester suggests tactics for preventing it.

26:00: Joe and Lester discuss ending a phone conversation, how neither wants to be the person to end the conversation. Joe's mother never says goodbye. She doesn't wave to him after she drops him off at the airport after a visit.

29:50: Joe sings:

Bent by life cares and woes, I envy the lot of Eskimos.
I wish that I were born an Episcopalian.
I wish that I could dance and sing and not be ashamed of the clumsiness of my body.
I remember how Maureen Best laughed when I asked her for a date after class.

My love is like the morning dew.
Your smile is like a golden shower.
If the tinkling of your laugh were not so annoying I'd still be on West 88th Street.

30:50: Joe talks about great paintings in museums with Larry. Joe says the paintings remind him of death because the artists and their subjects are all dead. Joe goes on to say that living people are better than paintings simply because they're alive. Joe and Larry speculate about putting live people on display in the museum, carrying paintings around to look at them. That people would rather look at a live nude than a painting of one. They compare the value of a painting to Larry. Larry calculates his value as cat food.

38:30: Mike Fremuth memorializes his friend Jim Adams: playing baseball at Princeton, exchanging humorous letters, the yearly golf tournament.

47:40: Joe sings

I woke up this morning feeling so grim
I put my pants when my shirt should have been
walked on my hands all the way to the train
with a heat of the sun and the sting of the rain.

48:10: Gideon Brower tells of a fancy wedding in Santa Barbara marred by the ash from a nearby forest fire.

51:10: The songs from earlier: 16:30, 23:20, 29:50, 47:40, are played again.

Legacy Synopsis

"Goodbye" is a program that addresses illness and death in a reflective and humorous way. The show is based, almost entirely, on philosophical and absurd phone calls between Joe and friends. "Goodbye" begins with a friend's shock and emotional meltdown at hearing of Joe's illness. Joe, in a state of depression, considers his own passing. He speaks with his mother at her retirement home, while she waits impatiently for a champagne brunch. Mike Fremuth and Joe discuss the idea of "heroic melancholy." A series of comic conversations with Lester Nafzger concerning illness and old age conclude with Joe's description of being left at the airport after visiting with his parents in Florida. Joe and Larry Block discuss the idea of hanging people instead of paintings in museums, and Gideon Brower recalls attending an outdoor wedding during a forest fire. Also included are conversations with a doctor which took place shortly after Joe experienced kidney failure, and an excerpt from Mike Fremuth's moving eulogy of a friend.

Music

• "Humming Chorus" - William Orbit (from Hello Waveforms, 2006) | YouTube [2:46]
• Original music: Todd Tragar on guitar, Tony Merrill on bass, and Joe Frank on vocals

Additional credits

The original broadcast credits state: "With Lester Nafzger, Gideon Brower, Michal Story, Larry Block, Mike Fremuth, and Joe Frank. Musicians: Todd Tragar (guitar), Tony Merrill (bass), and Joe Frank (vocals)."

Miscellanea

This is the first show Joe produced since March 2005. Concerned about the title - was this to be his last? From an excellent source:

The program is about illness and, in particular, death, and the title (and material) reflects this. Specifically, the title was drawn from the conversation with Lester, in which Lester and Joe discuss the awkward problem of saying "goodbye". "Goodbye" is not Joe's swan song. Another show will follow.

Gideon Brower is the man behind Fish Burglars. (Note Joe's picture here)

Shared material

Blues Singer, Sleep, Road To Hell