Tom Scharpling's "Best Show" Back on the Air as a Podcast

One of the great cult classics of latter-day radio comedy, the Best Show on WFMU, gave us the inimitable pairing of Tom Scharpling (writer/producer for the comedy series Monk) with Jon Wurster (drummer of "Superchunk", writer on a number of Adult Swim comedy shows.) Their style was the "reverse prank call", with Wurster calling Scharpling on air at WFMU as a number of characters who become progressively unglued during their calls, sometimes conferenced with regular callers.  Their inital shot across the bow was "Rock, Rot & Rule", done in 1997 before the Best Show existed:

After that, a mythos began emerging around the fictional town of Newbridge, New Jersey, with Scharpling "moving" the Jersey City-based WFMU to the town and Wurster voicing everybody who lives there, to the point where there is now a "Newbridgctionary" website listing them all.

Tom Scharpling would also have guests on, such as Paul F. Tompkins (member of the Mr. Show sketch troupe.) Above, Tompkins and Scharpling rip apart a radio ad for the 2009 "Gathering of the Juggalos" at Cave-In-Rock, Illinois.

The show lasted thirteen years, shutting down on New Years Eve, 2013. After an near-two year hiatus, the show returned as the podcast Best Show, and has been taking calls and letting Philly Boy Roy Ziegler do his thing every Tuesday from 9PM to Midnight, PST.

The original WFMU Best Show recordings.

The new website (episodes availible on iTunes.)