Alex Biese

@ABieseAPP

Brace yourselves, podcast fans: "The Thrilling Adventure Hour" is returning to New York City.

The hit series, self-described as a "new-time podcast in the style of old time radio," concluded its decade-long run of monthly Los Angeles performances in early 2015. But creators Ben Acker and Ben Blacker and their cast of WorkJuice Players are reuniting at the troupe's East Coast home, the Bell House in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, for two shows on July 23.

"We’ve got all new episodes and it’s like visiting old friends just writing the characters," Acker said. "We’ve got the actors in our heads as we’re writing them, so it’s a bit of a reunion before the reunion, if that makes sense.”

Among the players returning to the "Thrilling Adventure" world is Philadelphia native actor and comedian Paul F. Tompkins.

It's been more than a decade since Tompkins and co-star Paget Brewster began starring in the "TAH" segment "Beyond Belief" as "merry mediums" Frank and Sadie Doyle. Think of "Beyond Belief" as "The Thin Man" meets "The X-Files" as the paranormally gifted Doyles — very much in love and constantly inebriated — use their wits and gifts to solve mysteries.

“I think my favorite thing in the world to do is play those characters with Paget Brewster," Tompkins told the Asbury Park Press' "Fan Theory" podcast. "We’ve been good friends for years, and from the moment we started playing them they felt like people we’d known for years. It always just feels like putting on a comfortable old pair of shoes and getting drunk in them.”

While the other main recurring segment of "The Thrilling Adventure Hour," the literal space Western "Sparks Nevada: Marshal on Mars," is a heavily serialized affair, the stories of "Beyond Belief" remain episodic and largely self-contained.

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However, there is one incredibly powerful through-line that has stayed in the series after all of these years.

“The constant is the relationship, and it never feels like it’s the same thing time after time even though Frank and Sadie remain always on each other’s side, they remain a team, always," Tompkins explained. "And I think that’s kind of the idealized version of marriage; that’s your challenge as a married couple, to keep your relationship feeling fresh.

“But I think what makes a good marriage is remembering why you love each other and always seeing in that other person’s face that person you fell in love with. That’s what you have to look for in a marriage when times are tough, when things get hard or if they get boring. If you’re going through a thing that your partner is not going through, what you have to do is look in that face for the person you fell in love with, and if you’re really trying you can always find it, even when things are bad.

“And I think it’s also the also the excitement of playing characters who are still in love after all this time, who care for each other so deeply, who complete each other in such a perfect way, that keeps the life in it for us. It’s a pleasure to inhabit the skin of these people who care for each other so very deeply.”

In an increasingly ever-crowded podcast landscape, it's the potent combination of silliness, heart and careful character work that makes "The Thrilling Adventure Hour" distinct.

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“We came up watching 'Sports Night' and 'The West Wing' and 'Deadwood' even," Acker said. "The shows that influenced us had strong characters at their core and whether it’s serious or light or with the genre elements of a 'Buffy' or whatever, character stories are the ones that engage us as both audience and creators.

"And there’s no downside to writing as layered and grounded and emotionally invested characters for the actors that are playing them, they can land any note we can hand them.”

THE THRILLING ADVENTURE HOUR

WHEN: 6:30 and 9 p.m. July 23

WHERE: The Bell House, 149 7th St., Brooklyn

TICKETS: $30 to $40 general admission, $100 VIP

INFO: 718-643-6510 or www.thebellhouseny.com