{"id":912,"date":"2014-08-08T11:46:15","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T15:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/?p=912"},"modified":"2014-08-10T23:35:08","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T03:35:08","slug":"watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/2014\/08\/08\/watch\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch It: &#8216;Park Bench&#8217; with Steve Buscemi on&#8230;AOL?!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ah, remember the halcyon days of the internet? The sound of your computer\u2019s dial-up modem connecting you via AOL to all of those fun chat rooms and Live Journal pages? Good times.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2014\/08\/AOL-rebus.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-917\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2014\/08\/AOL-rebus.jpg\" alt=\"AOL rebus\" width=\"685\" height=\"253\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2014\/08\/AOL-rebus.jpg 685w, https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2014\/08\/AOL-rebus-300x110.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 685px) 100vw, 685px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>These days, no one except your parents (or possibly even grandparents) begin their web surfing on the AOL homepage though, right? And certainly no one pays for their AOL service anymore, RIGHT? (You do all know that it\u2019s free and has been free for years). Heck, some of you might even be surprised to know that AOL still exists. But, as of last year, in an effort to stay relevant and keep up (somewhat) with the Joneses, AOL has started to produce original programming. Featuring such familiar names as <strong>Hank Azaria<\/strong>, <strong>Nicole Richie<\/strong>, and <strong>Steve Buscemi<\/strong>, each web series takes on topics unique to the celebrities: Azaria\u2019s <em>Fatherhood<\/em> gives us a look inside his home life as he navigates the uncertain waters of being a dad. Nicole Richie\u2019s series deals with fashion.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2014\/08\/park-bench-with-steve-buscemi.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-916\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2014\/08\/park-bench-with-steve-buscemi.png\" alt=\"park-bench-with-steve-buscemi\" width=\"698\" height=\"389\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2014\/08\/park-bench-with-steve-buscemi.png 698w, https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2014\/08\/park-bench-with-steve-buscemi-300x167.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 698px) 100vw, 698px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>And then there\u2019s Steve Buscemi, who goes from <em>Boardwalk<\/em> to the park with <em>Park Bench<\/em>, a web series where he basically interviews other celebrities on park benches (an idea that Chris Rock casually throws his way in the premiere episode). However, it\u2019s not a talk show. As Buscemi points out, \u201cit is a talking show. Talk<em>ing<\/em> show.\u201d In each episode Buscemi, along with his jovial sidekick Geo, interviews such popular celebrities as <strong>Michael Shannon<\/strong>, <strong>Rosie Perez<\/strong>, <strong>Chris Rock<\/strong>, <strong>Fred Armisen<\/strong>, <strong>Janeane Garofalo<\/strong>, <strong>GZA<\/strong> from the <strong>Wu-Tang Clan<\/strong>, and the <strong>Beastie Boys<\/strong>. He even sits down with <strong>Dick Cavett<\/strong>!<\/p>\n<p>And it was nominated for an Emmy for \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/corp.aol.com\/2014\/07\/10\/aol-original-park-bench-with-steve-buscemi-nominated-for-prime\/\">Outstanding Short-Format Nonfiction Program<\/a>\u201d. It\u2019s in contention with <em>Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Jay Leno\u2019s Garage,<\/em> a History channel web program and the ESPN series <em>30 for 30 Shorts<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s similar in scope to the premise of Seinfeld\u2019s <em>Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee<\/em>, although there\u2019s also a touch of the surreal <em>Curb Your Enthusiasm<\/em>-ness, show-within-a-show dynamic to <em>Park Bench<\/em>, where Buscemi is being himself, but then there\u2019s his brother Michael (also playing himself), who keeps popping up five minutes behind Steve to basically film his own <em>Park Bench<\/em>-style talk show (called <em>Bench Talk<\/em>), often stealing Steve\u2019s guests away from his own park bench.<\/p>\n<p>Check out the first episode here.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"702\" height=\"395\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S3RYW54aCkg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The episodes are short (each a little more than 10 minutes long); you can even watch them all in the time it takes to watch an episode of <em>Boardwalk Empire<\/em>! The entire series can be watched for free on <a href=\"http:\/\/on.aol.com\/show\/park-bench-518173474\">AOL<\/a>, on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/aolonoriginals\/videos\">AOL\u2019s Youtube<\/a> page, or even via Apple TV.<\/p>\n<p>Want to root for Nucky? The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.emmys.com\/\">Emmy Awards<\/a> will be broadcast on Monday, August 25 on NBC.<\/p>\n<p><em>Header image via AOL.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ah, remember the halcyon days of the internet? The sound of your computer\u2019s dial-up modem connecting you via AOL to all of those fun chat rooms and Live Journal pages? Good times. These days, no one except your parents (or possibly even grandparents) begin their web surfing on the AOL homepage though, right? And certainly<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/2014\/08\/08\/watch\/\" title=\"Read More\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":157,"featured_media":915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,176],"tags":[509,510,511,514,518,515,516,513,517,519,508,512,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-television","8":"category-television-reviews","9":"tag-aol-series","10":"tag-beastie-boys","11":"tag-chris-rock","12":"tag-dick-cavett","13":"tag-emmy-award","14":"tag-fred-armisen","15":"tag-gza","16":"tag-michael-buscemi","17":"tag-michael-shannon","18":"tag-outstanding-short-format-nonfiction","19":"tag-park-bench","20":"tag-rosie-perez","21":"tag-steve-buscemi"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/157"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}