The Old and the New: Three Years Passed

Dodge Intrepid and the Pages of Time was born out of a love for coffee. In 2005, when I had a lot more time on my hands, I would visit my local coffee shop, Cafe Kolache, almost every-other-day. Usually I would go with a couple of my friends from the Cellar Dwellers, the Pittsburgh-based comedy troupe. One Sunday afternoon, I was hanging out at the cafe to catch a 5k race that was going on throughout the town (the shop is never open on Sundays, so I didn't want to miss the rare chance for some coffee). While there, I got to talking with Kristi, the cafe's owner, who asked me when I was going to bring the Cellar Dwellers to perform there. The cafe is much too small to have a 5-8 person improv troupe perform in, but her request gave me a better idea.

I decided that same day that I would try and put on some sort of radio show in the cafe. Not wanting to take on things all by myself, I brought the idea to James, whose love of literature and writing made him a perfect companion. Together, we brainstormed about pulpy adventures, listened to old episodes of Captain Midnight, and created an homage to the hay-day of Beaver County and the beloved library system.

The original four episodes set out to introduce the main characters, the idea of time traveling with a book, and stress the differences between Beaver County then and now. Despite having some authentic Captain Midnight scripts to study, and years of comedy writing under our collective belts, we were learning as we went. We asked our good pal Christoph to join the team to provide us with extra voice talent and technical-production skills that we lacked. We recorded the first set of episodes in the Cellar Dwellers' theater, located a floor above a bowling alley. If you listen closely, you can occasionally hear the faint rumblings of the bowling alley in the background of our archaic recording.

The success of that first show, which was performed on Saturday, August 27th 2005, was amazing. Since then, we have performed over a dozen times, releasing more than fifty episodes in both studio and live recordings.

Tomorrow, James and I, along with Michael Hinzman, will be celebrating the three-year anniversary of Dodge Intrepid at Cafe Kolache. We've rewritten the original four episodes, giving them new life and humor (without breaking the continuity of the show). So if you've always wanted to listen to the show, but have been intimidated by our large selection of episodes, this is your chance to get in at The Beginning.