Sleep Podcast: 90s TV, Nostalgia & Growing Up | The Insomnia Project

Can't sleep? Let nostalgia do the heavy lifting.
This episode of The Insomnia Project is a gentle walk down memory lane — the kind of unhurried, familiar conversation that gives your restless mind something soft to follow while you drift off to sleep.
Amanda and Marco revisit the small but vivid moments of growing up: first email addresses, rotary phones, and the particular joy of discovering you could binge an entire TV show. The conversation meanders naturally into Marco's swimming lesson story and a surprisingly calming life lesson — that the more relaxed you are, the better you perform. From there, Amanda steers things toward Party of Five, and the two hosts ease into a slow, soothing cast review: who played who, what their characters were called, and what the actors have been up to since.
It's the kind of trivia you can close your eyes to.
Perfect for: falling asleep naturally, quieting a racing mind, 90s nostalgia lovers, Party of Five fans, and anyone who needs something gentle and unhurried to wind down with tonight.
The Insomnia Project is a sleep podcast and sleepcast for overthinkers. New episodes every week — free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.

The Insomnia Project helps you relax and drift off to sleep

Marco Timpano:  Welcome to the Insomnia Project. Sit back, relax, and listen as we have a calm, mundane, even conversation to help you relax and drift off to sleep. I'm your host, Marco Timpano, and I'm drawing hearts. You're drawing hearts?

Amanda Barker: r: That's a hard thing for my Bostonian tongue to wrap its mouth around.

Marco Timpano:  I detected a little accent there.

Amanda Barker:  I'm drawing hearts. But I. I think I almost said I'm drawing hats.

Marco Timpano:  It sounded like that. Now, are you drawing or are you doodling hearts?

Amanda Barker:  What's, uh, the difference?

Marco Timpano:  Well, drawing would be like drawing a beautiful heart.

Amanda Barker:  I never draw. I only doodle.

Marco Timpano:  You only doodle? There you go.

Amanda Barker:  Yeah, I learned to doodle. Learn to doodle. I'm sure there's a class on learning to doodle, but I started doing that back in my radio days.

Marco Timpano:  Oh, okay.

Amanda Barker:  Um, because there were three of us on the mic, and it was a good place to put my energy when I wasn't speaking.

Marco Timpano:  Sure.

Amanda Barker:  Because I realized, um, for various reasons at that point in my life, that I wanted to talk a lot and that it was probably only appropriate for me to talk a third of the time that I wanted to. But where to put all my other thoughts and energy and impulse to speak with Will? I put them in my doodles. By the way, it's Amanda, and I'm giving you full permission to relax, drift off, and go on the ride with us.

Marco Timpano:  Fantastic. And, Amanda, you're wrapped in a blanket right now.

Amanda Barker:  I wanted to be cozy tonight. I wanted a cool drink and a soft blanket around my body. I have succeeded in getting both.

Marco Timpano:  What's your cool drink?

Amanda Barker:  It is a Maison Perrier.

Marco Timpano:  Oh, Maison Perrier.

Amanda Barker:  Knowing that name change happen. But anyways, it's a Perrier sparkling water in a can. It feels, uh, very bougie.

Marco Timpano:  Sure.

Amanda Barker:  And very. Do you remember when Perrier became a thing in the 80s?

Marco Timpano:  I mean, I remember Perrier. I don't remember it becoming a thing in the 80s, but I do remember it.

Amanda Barker:  I remember that there were yuppies. Remember yuppies on some sitcom? And they're like, can we get you anything to drink? And the two. I don't remember what sitcom it was. And the two yuppies said together in unison, perrier. A twist of lemon.

Marco Timpano:  Ooh.

Amanda Barker:  And that was the joke that yuppies drink Perrier and look at me, I'm a yuppie.

Marco Timpano:  If you remember the name of that television show, feel free to, uh, send us a message with it.


You know, it's funny, Amanda, I've been updating all our episodes

You know, it's funny, Amanda, I've been sort of updating all our episodes on the YouTube channel.

Amanda Barker:  Not sort of. You have been.

Marco Timpano:  I have been. And so I'm going through each episode and. And I'm adding a. A sort of tag off the top and, you know, don't forget to subscribe at the bottom type thing. What I realized is we have two episodes called you've Got Mail. So I changed one, and I was like, I can't believe in our 400 episodes, we have two episodes called you've Got Mail.

Amanda Barker:  And neither is about that movie.

Marco Timpano:  No, neither.

Amanda Barker:  I bet.

Marco Timpano:  And I bet people who. There's a generation, um, of people who don't even know that was a movie or a thing. Or a thing.

Amanda Barker:  Because that was messenger.

Marco Timpano:  Aol.

Amanda Barker:  Aol Messenger.

Marco Timpano:  It had even a pling or something to it.

Amanda Barker:  Uh, yeah, it did. And it went, you've got mail. That was like the automated voice.

Marco Timpano:  And that meant you've got an email, folks. That's how long ago they were doing that to inform you.

Amanda Barker:  M mean, was it for an email or was it for the little. Remember, there was a couple years. There were like, messenger was a big thing. Was it just on. It was before Facebook.

Marco Timpano:  I thought it was, you've got an email, and they'd be like, you got mail. I think you're right, because email stands for electronic mail.

Amanda Barker:  Yes, it does. Uh, and I think you're right. That was the AOL thing, when everybody had AOL mail because all the companies tried to hop on the email craze, if you can believe it. You young Gen Y and Gen Z and millennials.

Marco Timpano:  And there was a time, folks, and this is for people who are younger who might not realize this, where the general episode.

Amanda Barker:  I see what's happening. We're just gonna talk about how old we are, and I'm here for it.

Marco Timpano:  As children say, uh, there was a time where the general population didn't know that the at symbol was called the at symbol or that hashtag was the hashtag symbol.

Amanda Barker:  But that. But hang on. Because you're getting a lot of angry people.

Marco Timpano:  Okay.

Amanda Barker:  That symbol is not called a hashtag.

Marco Timpano:  No, it's called a, um, something else. It's called a number sign.

Amanda Barker:  I don't know. Crooked number sign.

Marco Timpano:  No, it's called something. It's not called a hashtag.

Amanda Barker:  That's not the name of that. That just became a thing when I think Instagram started.

Marco Timpano:  Oh, yeah, number sign. What is it officially called? I'll look it up.

Amanda Barker:  It does have an official name, and that name is not hashtag. I know, because I saw I think a buzzfeed or an article on it. Remember when buzzfeed articles were all the rage? I mean, but, um, no. There was a device that was around the MySpace years and it predated Facebook. This I remember. Um, it was before anybody really had Facebook and it was a Messenger type of device that would be the same as, like, what Facebook messenger has become. Maybe Facebook bought it and it had its own little noises. I wasn't on it very long, but I was on it, I believe, in the summer of, uh, 2005 or maybe 2006.

Marco Timpano:  Okay.

Amanda Barker:  I do remember various sketches, a sketch that I had to learn that was based on it.

Marco Timpano:  So that symbol, Amanda. Um, and I was gonna say it, I'm kicking myself that I didn't say it is called the hash symbol.

Amanda Barker:  Oh, it's just called hash symbol. Oh. So a hashtag, I guess that makes sense because you're tagging people, but a hashtag means you're tagging a, you know, event or concept or whatever.

Marco Timpano:  Right, right.

Amanda Barker:  You, uh, know people have them for their weddings. We didn't do that.


What are some things that were popular that don't exist anymore

Marco Timpano:  What are some things that were popular that don't exist anymore? Like, for example, you know, back in the day, everyone had a rotary phone.

Amanda Barker:  I know. And that was the whole thing. And this is what's funny, is because you and I did improv way back in the day. As we say, we would mime. Like if we were doing a scene and we had to call somebody, we would mime either doing the press touch tone dial from a dial pad on a phone. Remember those?

Marco Timpano:  Love them.

Amanda Barker:  Or of course, the old rotary loopdy loop pulling the, pulling the thingy to the number. The old school ones. But we also used to do in all of our object work in mime, um, pretending to roll down windows.

Marco Timpano:  Oh, yes, I still do that.

Amanda Barker:  And what cars have roll down windows, other than like vintage old cars.

Marco Timpano:  Roll down windows are the best. Windows, Really?

Amanda Barker:  I mean, I don't think so.

Marco Timpano:  Um, I remember they're a lot of work. I remember doing, uh, some, some improv where I would put a VHS tape into a VCR or a beta machine and press it down for it to go down.

Amanda Barker:  Remember you'd, you'd make the mixtape and you just listen to the radio and wait for the beginning of like the song. You really want to catch it at the beginning of the song to hit record. But you kind of didn't want the radio announcing. There's a name for the way the radio announcers used to talk into the intro of the song. But not so far in that they

Marco Timpano:  would cover the COVID First line, vocals.

Amanda Barker:  Um, yeah.

Marco Timpano:  Uh, I was talking to you recently. We heard a song and I was like, you know, I had that on a mixtape and it followed another song and hearing that song made me remember the other song. It's really funny.

Amanda Barker:  Yeah. Tape. Cassette tapes, right?

Marco Timpano:  Remember when you, if you had the double cassette tapes where, like you had a stereo system which had two, so you could record off one onto the other.

Amanda Barker:  That was like, that's how you pirated your tapes.

Marco Timpano:  That was like magic. I remember getting one and being so thrilled about it.

Amanda Barker:  And CD burners. That was a big things. Burn a CD with all your favorite songs that you would illegally get from Napster. That came later, of course.

Marco Timpano:  Floppy disks.

Amanda Barker:  Oh, my God. Floppy disks. I think I still have some.

Marco Timpano:  Oh, I'm sure.

Amanda Barker:  What, I mean, it's all antiquated stuff, right?

Marco Timpano:  It's true. It's true.

Amanda Barker:  Can you, can you get any of that info off of them? I don't think so anymore. I hear you thought you were saving it forever on the floppy disk.

Marco Timpano:  Well, if you have an old school computer, you could put the floppy disk in and I'm sure it would read.

Amanda Barker:  It wants that. Nobody has that. Uh, I'm sure there's a floppy disk computer. Really?

Marco Timpano:  I'm sure there's a, a connected device you could put into your computer and it could access various formats.

Amanda Barker:  So funny technology, the technology that you're just used to.


Do you remember sending your first email

Do you remember sending your first email?

Marco Timpano:  I don't remember sending my first email, but I remember, I remember someone asking me if I had an email address. And at that point I didn't know what it was.

Amanda Barker:  I remember there was a system in 1993, my, uh, first year of university, called the VAX system. And it was all those old like, DOS computers with the black with the orange writing. And that connected you to anyone else who was on the VAX system at that time. So it was like early messenger, but you had to be on the university computers. And then you could message whoever was on the system and chat with them.

Marco Timpano:  Wow. And would you know that person?

Amanda Barker:  Uh, sometimes you did, sometimes you didn't. But you'd be like, oh, Rob's on the VAC system. I'm gonna send him a message. And they'd be like, I'm chatting with him right now. Can you believe it? I remember that. And then my second year was when email happened. My second year university was when email happened. And I do remember sending my first email. Eudora Mail.

Marco Timpano:  Oh, my goodness.

Amanda Barker:  What my university had. And I actually sent it to, funnily enough, my friend Rob's friends, Katherine, uh, and Sonya. I sent them emails because I was like, hi, I'm Rob's friend and I'm sitting next to him in the computer lab and he said, I could send you an email because he had their queen's emails.

Marco Timpano:  I see.

Amanda Barker:  I wonder what happened to them.

Marco Timpano:  So if you want to reach Amanda, you can email her at amandabarkeryadora.tagtag.com. uh, whatever.

Amanda Barker:  Eudora. I know. It was long. It was a long email.

Marco Timpano:  My goodness.

Amanda Barker:  Address. Yeah. I remember my final year university just finding theaters on the Internet that was new. And then emailing them and just reaching out and being like, I'd like to work for you. Didn't really work out, but I thought that was a good way to be an actor for a theater. Just randomly email. Go to the like button and email a theater. It's crazy when I think about it now.

Marco Timpano:  I love it.

Amanda Barker:  I know.

Marco Timpano:  I remember a friend of ours sponsored a program at a theater. So you get. Your company can sponsor different things.

Amanda Barker:  I know what you're gonna say. This was my show.

Marco Timpano:  I know. So Amanda was in a show and our friend, graciously, I wasn't the producer,

Amanda Barker:  but I was in it.

Marco Timpano:  Sponsored a part of the program. And so it had her company name. And what had happened was she had sent the logo and the company name and part of her. What do you call it? Signature.

Amanda Barker:  Her email signature had a little Buddha

Marco Timpano:  or Gandhi quote, teach a man to fish and he'll fish forever.

Amanda Barker:  It was be the change.

Marco Timpano:  No, it was fish. It was.

Amanda Barker:  It wasn't fish.

Marco Timpano:  No, it was fish.

Amanda Barker:  It was be the change you want to be.

Marco Timpano:  Or something like that.

Amanda Barker:  Yeah.

Marco Timpano:  And somehow her signature ended up in the, in the program with her company.

Amanda Barker:  And she said, here it is. So they just printed the whole thing, including her email sign off quotation.

Marco Timpano:  And I said, why would she put that. And I asked her and she's like, that wasn't supposed to be in there. And it was a funny, funny moment.

Amanda Barker:  Sure. It was a really profresh looking program. I mean, that's kind of how you and I met. You wanted me to sponsor one of your programs. I did one of your shows.

Marco Timpano:  You can have all those, uh, apps to meet people, but the best way to meet a person is ask them to sponsor your show and then marry them.

Amanda Barker:  And then marry them many years, many years later. Because that would have been like 2004, 2005. I think that you asked me to do that.

Marco Timpano:  So I learned. So I'm taking 2003, actually, I'm taking swimming lessons.

Amanda Barker:  You are? Yeah.

Marco Timpano:  And I learned something about swimming that I didn't know previous to swimming.

Amanda Barker:  Tell me, by the way, great segue.

Marco Timpano:  Was it?

Amanda Barker:  No, I like, uh, you just went.

Marco Timpano:  So it's just. It just came to me. And that is if you want to swim, the more relaxed you are in the water, the easier it is to swim.

Amanda Barker:  A hundred percent. And that's why you need to take swimming class, because otherwise you're not relaxed in the water. And floppy freak out. People don't do so great.

Marco Timpano:  No, they don't.


What's the difference between a cuttlefish and a squid

And that was me. And now I'm the most relaxed in the swimming pool.

Amanda Barker:  I love it.

Marco Timpano:  And all my classmates, a lot of them are not relaxed. And I want to tell them, relax, But I also don't want to step on the teacher's toes, uh, and tell people to relax when I see them tensing.

Amanda Barker:  Well, everyone has to learn when they're ready, at their own time and at their own pace.

Marco Timpano:  And I'll say this. When I get splashed water in the face, I forget to relax. Amanda.

Amanda Barker:  And then what do you do?

Marco Timpano:  Tense up and sink.

Amanda Barker:  I know when you get excited when we snorkel and you see something that you really want to see, that's when you get really splashy. And of course, that's the counterintuitive part, because then whatever it is, you've. Whatever, you know, um, cool fish under the water, life you've seen, they're probably gonna flit away or shrink down or whatever that particular fish would do.

Marco Timpano:  You know, we saw calamati one time when we were swimming.

Amanda Barker:  I always associate calamari with the version that you eat, so it's funny.

Marco Timpano:  Squid. We saw squid fried rings floating around. We saw a school of squid.

Amanda Barker:  Yeah, but wasn't it cuttlefish?

Marco Timpano:  No, they were squid.

Amanda Barker:  What's the difference between a, uh, cuttlefish and a squid?

Marco Timpano:  It's a really good question. So squid, when you look at squid, it has a more torpedo body.

Amanda Barker:  Okay.

Marco Timpano:  So it's kind of longer and slender towards the tip of its. Let's say its head.

Amanda Barker:  Okay.

Marco Timpano:  Whereas a cuttlefish is more flat, squat, and a bit more chunky.

Amanda Barker:  Oh, yeah.

Marco Timpano:  And the cuttlefish has a bigger cuttlefish bone in it versus the squid. It's the backbone. And the cuttlefish bone. If you have a parakeet, uh, or canaries, you can buy them at the pet store. And canaries and, and. And parakeets and birds. Like that. Like to. Like to nibble on the, um.

Amanda Barker:  Cuttlefish bone?

Marco Timpano:  Yeah, cuttlefish bone. It's a white. Pure white.

Amanda Barker:  Really?

Marco Timpano:  Yeah, pure white bone that's kind of soft. You can. You can make an indentation with your finger in it.

Amanda Barker:  That is a random fact that parakeets eat cuttlefish bones. How did you know that? Because you had birds.

Marco Timpano:  Canaries. And. Yeah, they love them.

Amanda Barker:  I can't believe you guys had canaries.

Marco Timpano:  Canaries are wonderful animals. They have a beautiful song.

Amanda Barker:  You don't seem like bird people to me.

Marco Timpano:  Well, we were.

Amanda Barker:  And you guys never talk about them. That's why when you're like, oh, yeah, we had birds, it's like I was part of this family for a long time, and then suddenly, out of nowhere, you owned birds. I didn't know this.

Marco Timpano:  Yeah, we had canary.

Amanda Barker:  Just a, uh, canary or two.

Marco Timpano:  We had, I think two canaries. Like, we had one canary and then

Amanda Barker:  another whose idea was like, let's. Let's be bird people. Let's get canaries. Was it your mother's?

Marco Timpano:  I want to say it was mine. I mean, I was a kid, Amanda. Like, this is hard. This is going way, way back. But before, uh, cell phones and email. An email. We had a canary.

Amanda Barker:  You rotary dialed the canary pet store and said, give me. Give me some. Do you have some in stock? I'd like to come get them. I just think it's interesting because you guys don't talk about your birds very much.

Marco Timpano:  I think we had two. One was named Tootsie, and the other one, I can't remember its name.

Amanda Barker:  Uh, they left an impression. How long did you have these birds?

Marco Timpano:  I don't know. Like, let's say five years and seven years. I've never.

Amanda Barker:  I've never seen pictures of these birds. And you had a dog when you had these birds?

Marco Timpano:  No, I mean, the second one. We had a dog. Yeah, but not the first.

Amanda Barker:  Would the dog go crazy for the bird?

Marco Timpano:  No, I think the dog was fine with the bird. We remember I was more into fish, and so I had a lot of aquariums when I was little.


Growing up, all you wanted was a puppy or a kitten

I liked aquariums.

Amanda Barker:  That's nice. Your parents let you have them. Yeah, I wanted, um, pets, and we never allowed any of them until I was 13.

Marco Timpano:  Oh, okay.

Amanda Barker:  But all, like, growing up, that's all I wanted was a puppy or a kitten. And then finally, when we moved to Canada, um, my parents had sort of dangled the promise of being pet owners if we moved to Canada, I think to entice us to move. And so we took that to heart and. And they went away and I think left us with babysitters, but I don't know, they came back and we were like, well, you said. And then suddenly we had three cats.

Marco Timpano:  Oh, my goodness. Three?

Amanda Barker:  Yeah, we kind of got them all at once. Two were from my brother's first grade teacher, of course. Or, sorry, second grade teacher, I think, because I think he did first grade in the U.S. so my brother's second grade teacher, she had a barn. And so the barn cat had kittens.

Marco Timpano:  Sure.

Amanda Barker:  So we got two of those. And then at the exact same week, my sister's friend's family, their cat had kittens, so we got one of those. I mean, I don't know, I think they were all like. They weren't just born that week.

Marco Timpano:  Okay.

Amanda Barker:  They were old enough that we could take them. But anyway, yeah. So then suddenly she got one from her. I had nothing to do with any of this. And then my 7 year old brother, somehow with my sister, I think my sister went to get him at the school. I think she. She could drive. So she drove to the school and was like, we're coming for the kittens.

Marco Timpano:  Why wouldn't they just get one? Why did they get two?

Amanda Barker:  I don't know.

Marco Timpano:  Because that seems odd.

Amanda Barker:  I think is there's three of us. So the idea was we decided amongst ourselves.

Marco Timpano:  But your parents weren't there to make this decision.

Amanda Barker:  No, we were like Party of Five. But we were Party of three. We're like, well, there's three of us. We each get our own kitten. So.

Marco Timpano:  And when Amanda references Party of Five, that was a television show back in the day for anyone who's like, what does that even mean?

Amanda Barker:  And Party of Five was the first show I ever binged watched.

Marco Timpano:  Oh, wow.

Amanda Barker:  Because, um, this is all full circle. Um, back in the VHS days, I had a friend, Marcie Boyer. I don't know where she is now, but she, um, she was a teacher in Korea, different school, but we had mutual friends and we met, we all became friends. So anyway, she had friends from where she was from, which is Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, of course. And like you do. And her friend in Portage La Prairie recorded Party of Five for her. So she had at that point three, I think, full seasons of Party of Five. I think her friend recorded all the reruns in the summer.

Marco Timpano:  Okay.

Amanda Barker:  And then the new season. And so she had two seasons back to back, and then recorded the next season as it went. Every week she would like, hit the record button at whatever time. Thursday at five. O' clock or what? What? Or, uh, nine o' clock or whenever it was on. And so we pass this around because English television wasn't easy to get when I was there. Now of course it is, but back then it wasn't easy. Right. So it was this hot property that she had these, you know, pirated off the TV videos of Party of Five. And so we all passed it around and what was it was the first thing any of us had ever binge watched. Because that just wasn't even a. Binge watching wasn't a term.

Marco Timpano:  Sure.

Amanda Barker:  You know who I first ever heard the term binge? And I maintain it's who made the term binge. Orange is the new black. In the pilot of Orange is the New Black, she said, please don't watch Mad Men without me. You promised me we'd get together and just binge it together.

Marco Timpano:  I don't know if that's the.

Amanda Barker:  Okay.


Neve Campbell got her big break on Party of Five

Well, that's the first time I ever heard okay. The expression binging on a TV show. Because primarily it was used for food intake. Right. Or drinking.

Marco Timpano:  So on Party of Five, Neve Campbell sort of got her big break. But prior to Party of Five, she was on a Canadian television show called Catwalk.

Amanda Barker:  That's right.

Marco Timpano:  Which I was an extra on for a party scene.

Amanda Barker:  That's right.

Marco Timpano:  Where I was at a club dancing.

Amanda Barker:  Mhm. And let's not forget Lacey Chabert was a young girl on Party of Five.

Marco Timpano:  I don't know who that is.

Amanda Barker:  Well, if you watched Hallmark Christmas movies, you would, because that's what she has made her career doing.

Marco Timpano:  Isn't she the one?

Amanda Barker:  She's also in Mean Girls.

Marco Timpano:  Didn't one of them have a, like a ghost show? She was like a. She could see ghost.

Amanda Barker:  Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Marco Timpano:  Oh, that's right.

Amanda Barker:  So from Party of Five. And then she had a ghost show. And now I don't know what she's doing.

Marco Timpano:  And Scott Wolf, who played Bailey, who's on a show with our friend called Doc.

Amanda Barker:  That's right, he's now on Doc.

Marco Timpano:  Dale Boyer. Not related to that other, uh, Marcy Boyer.

Amanda Barker:  Although maybe they are. And they don't know each other. So.

Marco Timpano:  So there. And then the other guy was on Lost.

Amanda Barker:  Yeah. What was the other guy? Fox.

Marco Timpano:  Scott Fox.

Amanda Barker:  Is that his name?

Marco Timpano:  Scott Fox?

Amanda Barker:  Yeah.

Marco Timpano:  No, Scott Wolf and Scott Fox.

Amanda Barker:  Matthew Fox.

Marco Timpano:  Matthew Fox. There you go.

Amanda Barker:  He was the oldest one.

Marco Timpano:  And then. And then that was it. Right? That was the five of them.

Amanda Barker:  It went the. The actual party of five was Scott Fox and then Nev Campbell and then. And Then, um, Scott Wolf. Sorry, Matthew. Yeah. Scott Wolf was Neve Campbell's boyfriend on the show.

Marco Timpano:  No, they was. They were brother and sister. Oh, it's Party of Five.

Amanda Barker:  Okay. Jennifer Love Hewitt was Scott Wolf's girlfriend.

Marco Timpano:  But we're not making five. Amanda. So there was Scott Fox.

Amanda Barker:  Yes.

Marco Timpano:  Neve Campbell.

Amanda Barker:  Yes.

Marco Timpano:  Scott Wolf.

Amanda Barker:  Okay, it was Matthew.

Marco Timpano:  Matthew Fox. Wait, no, I'm confused. Matthew Fox.

Amanda Barker:  Yes.

Marco Timpano:  Nev Campbell.

Amanda Barker:  Yes.

Marco Timpano:  Scott Wolf.

Amanda Barker:  Okay, the ghost girl, Lacey Chabert.

Marco Timpano:  Lacey Chabert.

Amanda Barker:  And there was a baby.

Marco Timpano:  Oh, there was a baby.

Amanda Barker:  So that's the party of five. Okay, um, but Lacey, uh, but the ghost girl, AKA Jennifer Love Hewitt, was not a family member. She was the girlfriend. Okay, Just for the record.

Marco Timpano:  And what happened to the baby? What's the baby's name?

Amanda Barker:  I can't remember. Oh my gosh. The baby of party of five.

Marco Timpano:  The baby who's now 40.

Amanda Barker:  I gotta look up. Who was the baby on Party of Five? This is important. Stand by.


Amanda recalls binge watching Party of Five when she was younger

Marco Timpano:  All right. While Amanda does that. So Party of Five was this show. I barely watched it, but clearly I know a little bit about it. And Amanda was a big fan because she watched all the seasons and Amanda's looking that up. I'm trying to think of the first show that I binge watched. And, uh, I remember setting the VCR to tape stuff. Uh, mainly videos, if you can. If you can believe it. I videotape. I tape videos and then watch music videos, which we called videos back in the day. What's the answer? Amanda.

Amanda Barker:  Okay, the character name was Owen.

Marco Timpano:  Okay.

Amanda Barker:  Um, I'm trying to remember all the character names. Bailey was Scott Wolf. That much I remember.

Marco Timpano:  I guess Matthew Fox was called Scott because.

Amanda Barker:  No, he was Charlie. Okay, that I remember.

Marco Timpano:  Um, Neve Campbell was called Scott because clearly we've got Scott on the brain.

Amanda Barker:  I gotta look up all the other. The Salinger kids. But a bunch of kids played that baby.

Marco Timpano:  I see. Okay.

Amanda Barker:  Alexander and Zachary Anhurt. Brandon and Taylor. Porter. Andrew and Steven Cavarno. And finally, Jacob Smith. Just all on his own.

Marco Timpano:  Good for Jacob Smith.

Amanda Barker:  I don't know who any of these people are. Did they go on to anything?

Marco Timpano:  And they often use twins when you have young children so that you can swap them in and out because kids can only be on set for so long.

Amanda Barker:  Mhm.

Marco Timpano:  And that's why there's a lot of doubles. And that's why, um, the Olsen twins became famous because they were on. Not Party of Five, the other one. Everybody in the house or whatever. Full house. And they played the same character, but they would Swap them in or did they play twins?

Amanda Barker:  Uh, no, they. They played the same character.

Marco Timpano:  So they played the same character and they would swap them in and out.

Amanda Barker:  Okay. Matthew was Charlie. Scott was Bailey. I think we nev. Was Julia. Lacey was Claudia.

Marco Timpano:  She's now in Hallmark films.

Amanda Barker:  And then Jacob Smith was the baby. Owen.

Marco Timpano:  Okay.

Amanda Barker:  I mean, he. Yeah, he was a baby for, um, for most of it. And then Jennifer Love Hewitt was Bailey's girlfriend, Sarah.

Marco Timpano:  There you go.

Amanda Barker:  Yeah.

Marco Timpano:  So that's all you need to know about Party of Five. Really. And, uh, did you watch every season, Amanda?

Amanda Barker:  I think I did. In the end. Yeah. I mean, I watched those three pivotal seasons, and I remember we all laughed, like, whenever one of us was watching it. There were so many dramatic things that happened on it. Right. There was always some sort of drama that, um, while we were. While somebody was party fiving, binge watching, we'd be like, wow, things are really heavy right now because it was so much heaviness. And we weren't used to binge watching something.

Marco Timpano:  Did you watch Lost?

Amanda Barker:  I never did. Did you? No.

Marco Timpano:  Did you watch Catwalk?

Amanda Barker:  I never did.

Marco Timpano:  Did you watch the Ghost show with Jennifer Lovehuman?

Amanda Barker:  My mother did.

Marco Timpano:  Okay. Did you watch any of the Hallmark films with the other one?

Amanda Barker:  I have with Lacey Chabert. And she is good in Mean Girls too.

Marco Timpano:  Fantastic. Well, there you go. Thank you for, uh, walking down memory lane.


What's the first thing you and I binge watched

Amanda Barker:  So you don't remember the first thing you binge watched? What's the first thing we binge watched? I. Sopranos. No, because you watched that in real time.

Marco Timpano:  I binge watched, like, a couple of seasons and then I watched in real time. I can't think.

Amanda Barker:  What's the first thing you and I binge watched? I wonder.

Marco Timpano:  I don't know.

Amanda Barker:  Oh, I know what it was. The Shield.

Marco Timpano:  The Shield. That's right. We did watch. We did binge watch the Shield.

Amanda Barker:  Cruise ship. Somebody you read? We rented I think the Shield.

Marco Timpano:  I think so.

Amanda Barker:  And watched it on our computer as one in our little cabin. And so we. Yeah, we binge watch the Shield. So there you go. That's our. Our special, uh, love show.

Marco Timpano:  Well, listen, feel free to binge our podcast on whatever app you listen, and if you, uh, feel up to it, give us a five star review and let your friends know. Until next time, we hope this episode took you down memory lane, but also. Also made you fall asleep.

Amanda Barker:  I don't know what you just said.

Marco Timpano:  I don't know. My mouth was all garbled.

Amanda Barker:  Good night.

Marco Timpano:  Until next time, we hope you listen and sleep.