Shark for Lunch
This series originally started in the Spring of 1999 under the series title, Shark for Lunch. That series was primarily the brain child of Crawford Lyons and Richard Wileczek who wanted to duplicate our weekly lunch discussions on a TV program. The regular members of that lunch crew were Mike Nixson and Crawford's wife, Lynn who were drafted into this regular series on the local York community access channel. Mike Nixson agreed to do the show only to the extent that he would be responsible for "shooting his mouth off." There would be no production responsibilities for Mike. We can only surmise that Lynn was prevailed upon to do the show so she could watch Crawford do and say outrageous things first hand.
The first show was recorded on May 3, 1999 and the subject was Bill Clinton's dirty little war in Kosovo where American troops are still stationed. In general, while many of the subjects were very serious, Crawford in particular brought a levity to each show that was rarely reproduced anywhere else. Like his hero, Howard Stern, you never knew what he would say next.
In July of 1999, Lynn and Crawford announced that they were moving to New Hampshire. While they were still able to do the show, Crawford would only be able to have a limited role in its production, primarily focusing on the content (Crawford was after all always the creative heart of this show). Mike being technically inclined to begin with, began taking over the technical production of the show. In February of 2000, the taping sessions were relocated from the cable access company to Nixson's residence in Manchester township. In November 2000 after 46 shows, Crawford and Lynn discontinued their participation in the show. Selected episodes are available on YouTube.
Over the next 18 months, six shows were produced by Mike and Richard under the Shark for Lunch name and during this period, Mike built a video recording facility. By mid 2002, Richard had moved on to other ventures.
Common Sense
In mid 2002 Mike rechristened the series as Common Sense, taking the title from the revolutionary pamphlet of the same name by Tom Paine. The format of the show was primarily an interview format with Mike the host and one or two guests. Since then, we have produced over 38 shows.