BREAKING: new evidence for the historical Great Pumpkin
Tim and Jen enlist the help of Bitter Karella to wade through the 22 minutes of treacle that is the forgotten faux-Peanuts special, Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.
William Conant Church, brother of Francis Church, did indeed help found the NRA in 1871, in an effort to improve marksmanship amongst the broader American militia. He and brother Francis co-founded several news publications, including the New York Sun, and he also co-founded the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Additionally, Frank Church was not the volcel depicted in the Yes, Virginia special— he was married to a woman named Elizabeth Wickham. In spite of Tim’s joshing, it appears that Church did not have a severe yet shapely assistant who browbeat him into publishing the editorial addressed to Virginia O’Hanlon. The O’Hanlon letter was passed on by Edward Page Mitchell, the real-life editor-in-chief of the Sun.
Finally, if you want to pretend that it’s 1974 again and you’re spinning some 45s, you can hear the theme song for the special sung by a piercing li’l Jimmy Osmond.
Want more weird cartoons? Check out Tim & Jen’s riff on the animated short “Eveready Harton” from 1975’s Self Service Girls, or one of our other episodes on trauma-inducing animation.
Jen and Tim are doing misogyny again! They DO NOT support women…filmmakers who make bloodless, smarmy takes on rape-revenge flicks. Kind of like Promising Young Woman!
For audiences clamoring for Star Wars, Sorcerer was a bridge too far
Tim and Jen finally give the departed William Friedkin a proper sendoff with a discussion of his once-maligned masterpiece, Sorcerer. Guest Darren Herczeg provides his usual able assistance.
To clear up an anecdote Jen related during the episode: she says that Paramount president Charles Bluhdorn freaked out when he spotted himself in the group photo of oil company executives in a scene from Sorcerer. The source of this story is screenwriter Walon Green, who describes Bluhdorn as having had a “shit hemorrhage” during the screening. However, a review of the offending scene reveals only other Gulf+Western execs, not Bluhdorn.
“To me, they looked like a bunch of thugs,” Friedkin said (as quoted in Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls).
Catch the documentary Friedkin Uncut on Tubi, where the man himself evokes Hitler in the first five minutes. We’ll miss you, Billy.
If you’re curious, you can watch the Pet Shop Boys’ head-scratcher of a longform music video,It Couldn’t Happen Here, at the Internet Archive. It looks like it was ripped from someone’s VCD copy of a Hong Kong laserdisc, but it still has plenty of bops!
31 films when a lesser series would have gone limp!
Tim and Jen seek aid from wacky funster Bitter Karella to explain a film series as British as lousy weather and inedible food: the Carry On series! Also, Tim positively bursts with Carry On-related research.
The fittingly-titled Cor, Blimey! telefilm dramatizes the affair between Sid James and Barbara Windsor, set against notable Carry On moments of the ’60s and ’70s.
If you’re not familiar with the canon and want to sample the world of Carry On for yourself, stop by the Internet Archive. Be warned, though: if you’re as susceptible to broad comedy as Tim seems to be, you might end up Carry On-pilled too! Cor blimey!
Jen and Tim do a deep dive into the canned pumpkin pie filling that is Shudder’s Ghoul Log! Are we serious with this shit? You tell us! However, all of the usual outlets appear to trick-or-treat it with the same gravitas afforded to, say, the latest Terrifier installment. To wit:
“While some fans might be disappointed that this year hasn’t embraced a specific horror property, it still marks a great way to capture the atmosphere of Halloween night.” – Patrick Cavanaugh
“It’s charming, but it’s also a bit distracting. If you want the Ghoul Log to serve as background filler – as I do – this isn’t the way to go, as the constant interruptions will pull you away from whatever it is you’re doing.” – Chris Evangelista
Tim and Jen bring back one of horror’s heaviest (lol) hitters to talk about a movie William Friedkin couldn’t be bothered to mention after he made it, The Guardian!
Tim’s quip about Q’s on Wilshire refers to a 2000 incident in which screenwriter and director Eric Red plowed his Jeep into a crowded bar following a fender bender, killing two people, then attempted to slit his own throat with a piece of glass. The linked LA Weekly article draws some tenuous conclusions between Red’s work and the bloody mess at Q’s, but as of 2023 he appears to have stayed out of trouble and written several novels.
KCRW memorializes Deirdre O’ Donaghue’s incredibly influential playlists with its Bent By Nature podcast.
The ballerina clown of Venice remains in situ, where it has been since 1989. Presumably, it makes the CVS underneath it easy to find for out-of-towners.
Do you love Tim and Bitter Karella, but have had enough of Jen? Hear the former two discuss a beloved childhood favorite in our Ernest Goes to Camp episode!
Spooky psychological horror from one of the modern British greats
Jen is pleasantly surprised when Tim suggests a horror movie that’s actually pretty good: the eerie anthology with a twist, Ghost Stories (2017). Also, Tim gives an impromptu lecture on the deeper meaning of American zombie movies. (He also seizes an opportunity to wedge in his love for League of Gentlemen. C’mon, that was 20 years ago!)
Read an interview with Ghost Stories co-writer Derren Brown about his new stage show. He also confesses that he used to be a cape guy (“a bit intense, and a bit socially maladroit,” according to the article). No surprise there! He also has a YouTube channel if you would like to see him hypnotize people into giving him their wallets.
Need another spooky fix? Try our free episode on another slept-on horror anthology 50 States of Fright!
Lussier does not appear to be alone in liking the film, since a recent post from MSN claims that Universal intends to remake The Frighteners. Maybe we’ll get that franchise after all!
If you can’t get enough of movies that are ‘spiritually’ about Ghostbusters, check out our review of Return of the Ghostbusters.
