Live Hot Puppet Chat gained its initial popularity on a student-run college television station (SRTV) in the Fall of 2005 at the University of California, San Diego, with a series of shows they titled "Season 2" (never having really had a first season). The episodes were written and performed by Tristan Newcomb, and each episode had a different host: they were, in broadcast order, Skiddles, Prickle, Al the Slug, Reducey-Risk Reindeer, Barry Bible, and Dobo Disty (aka Nintendobo).