Betcha Can’t Have Just One!

Remember the old Lays Potato Chips slogan? “Betcha can’t eat just one!” The marketing geniuses at a multi-billion dollar corporation were on to something.

When you find something good, it’s hard to rein it in.

That’s what happened with “A Doctor and A Lawyer Walk Into A Bar”

See, William and Cody, and Cody and Alex, and William and Dallas were all nerding out back in the day - but separately. And after a handful of conversations that were starting to sound like broken records, it made more sense for all of us to chat together.

That was the impetus for the creation of the show. And over time, we morphed. We grew. We found new hobbies and likes and interests.

And for the sake of friendship, that’s AMAZING. But for the sake of consistency on a podcast…not so much.

One week, we’d spend an hour talking Star Wars. The next week, we’d spend two hours talking Marvel. The next week would be an audio drama. The week after that, we’d be a Harry Potter podcast. The next, a technology episode.

On and on and on we went.

Don’t get us wrong: there’s nothing inherently bad about any of those topics! In fact, we LOVE those topics! But we weren’t consistent. So you all, our fans, never knew what to expect. And while variety is the spice of life, if you fall in love with a show for its takes on Iron Man and the next week is an hour long “Choose Your Own Adventure” dramatization…well…you don’t feel like listening every week.

And as podcasters, we get it! That opinion is 100% valid.

So how did it get that way? And what’s going on now?? And how the hell does this tie back to a Lay’s Potato Chip slogan???

Let me give you a peek behind the production curtain.

We found ourselves throwing around topics we’d want to cover, and inevitably, one of the four of us would ask: “Yeah, but is that ‘us’?”

So it went for years one and two. By year three, we’d had a few heart-to-heart “family meetings” (as we like to call them.) Tempers would flare, opinions would be spouted, lines drawn. But frankly, not much would change.

Then we made the decision to post weekly.

This is where we actually started seeing some success! We hit a stride on production process and we really felt like we were gelling as hosts. It felt good. You could throw us any topic and we could cover it. We started experimenting with run times, formats, hosting combos. We were having fun!

But also - we were bouncing all over the place. So we were in essence one step forward, one step back.

Then came Christmas of 2023.

We took our sabbatical and BOY was it nice. And we knew it was time for another Family Meeting. We faced some truths we weren’t previously ready to face, and came out recharged and refocused.

So here’s what the plan is:

First: We're changing up the format juuuuust a bit.

Not so much that it's going to feel unfamiliar, but enough structure to be sustainable into the foreseeable future. Instead of spending hours and hours nerding out on one specific topic and the very next week doing something completely different, we're going to strike a balance. We're trying to find a new way to make sure we keep everyone as happy as possible, every single week.

The new format will go something like this:

(1) start out discussing “The Dailies” - ya know, like, The Daily Planet, the Daily Bugle, The Daily Prophet? This will be our fandom news section. What’s got us excited about our particular fandoms. Some weeks this will be lighter than others, but the idea is we want to spreeeaaaad out the nerd talk so that it’s not one giant episode that some folks just won’t care about.

Then (2) we’ll play a bar game. The games like “Beer or Band Name” or Trivia Nights or “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” will be that second section. Every week.

And then to cap it off (3) We’ll do a Table Topic, submitted by listeners like you all!

Boom - that’s the new format for the show! Repeatable, and clear for you all as listeners to know what you’re getting every week.

Second: You're going to see some name changes.

That's because we're branching into three different dedicated shows! The bar talk and short games will continue to be D&L. But we're trying to make sure that people who love D&L don't get whiplash every other week as we jump from topic to topic.

This is our Lay’s “Betcha Can’t Have Just One” moment - we can’t have JUST ONE show, because frankly, the ideas are too diverse! So we’re taking the (1) audio drama goodness of our “Choose Your Own Adventure” series and spinning that into “Big Red Button” and (2) spinning off the ever-popular “Magic Month” we do annually into William’s wizarding wildness that is Potter+!

To cap it all off, we doubled down on the insane grapefruit rant that inspired our D&L logo, and decided to become a family of shows, the now aptly-named “Grapefruit Network.”

Third: We want to make sure Patreon becomes a value-add

As we branch out, instead of us trying to gain more Patrons, we're going to make sure the platform becomes more of a social hub. Cody has been curating a really fun time on our Facebook Page (The Pub) but we want to invite everyone from that group to join our Patreon as a member - paid OR free! That way we can bring everyone under one roof.

Finally: We appreciate everyone's support over the past few years.

We've gone from four friends individually nerding out, to two brothers recording their nerd-outs, to four friends recording together, to four friends recording professional-level quality content. Our goal for 2024 is to "trim the fat" and do more of what you all love consistently. And in doing so, your feedback is crucial and so, so, so, so valued on our end.

As we aim to reach new ears, we're thankful for those of you who have listened from the beginning and will constantly aim to have this community at the forefront of what we're making.

So from all of us at "The Grapefruit Network" Happy New Year!

- William, Cody, Dallas, & Alex