Tag: Free Episode

136 – 50 States of Fright

Rachel Brosnahan in "The Golden Arm"
bury me with my out-of-context viral video clip

Tim holds forth on the mind sickness that led to short-lived streaming service Quibi before diving into a review of short-form horror anthology 50 States of Fright. Jen just tries to keep up!

This AV Club article is pretty emblematic of the unkind response to the first episode of the series, “The Golden Arm.”

Watch Tim’s video work over at YouTube! Hit Like and Subscribe!

Oh I almost forgot to post the funny dog fart video

For more anthology horror, check out our episode on Hammer House of Horror!

133 – The Jericho Mile

Tim and Jen effuse about an early Michael Mann joint for television, the prison story The Jericho Mile!

You can buy a beautiful blu-ray of the film from Kino Lorber, but if you just can’t wait to see it, it’s on YouTube. And we highly recommend it!

The 1977 film Short Eyes, based on Miguel Piñero’s incendiary play, is free with ads on Tubi.

For more Michael Mann, check out our episode on The Keep!

130 – Loose Cannons

Jen and Tim enlist favorite guest Mike Rosen (bitterkarella on Twitter) to explicate the inexplicable Dan Aykroyd/Gene Hackman buddy cop comedy, Loose Cannons!

Not to get all fact check dot org on you all, but the Dissociative Identity Disorder website has science-based information on what was misrepresented as “multiple personality disorder” in the movie.

Busy Inside is a compassionate documentary about people with DID.

Read an article about the Southern California Sorcerers, a writer’s group which included future Loose Cannons scribe Richard Matheson and some other guys like Rod Serling, Ray Bradbury, and Harlan Ellison. Excelsior!

Hear the closing theme sung by Katey Sagal (!), ripped “straight from the uncompressed Laserdisc track.”

127 – Bamboozled

Damon Wayans examines a racist collectible in Bamboozled (2000)

Tim and Jen welcome back Sean Morris to discuss one of Spike Lee’s most fascinating and controversial trainwrecks, Bamboozled.

Per Sean’s recommendation, check out the official video for “Lovin’ It” from Little Brother’s “too intelligent” album The Minstrel Show.

If you’re curious about the camera Spike Lee used to make Bamboozled, you can read a history of the Sony DCR-VX1000 here.

In 2005, Dr. David Pilgrim wrote a powerful essay about the collection that became the foundation of the Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan. In “The Garbage Man: Why I Collect Racist Objects” he reflects on the emotional toll collecting exacted on him, as well as the anger and sadness the objects still inspire and the lingering stain of anti-black bigotry in the United States.

Watch the Levi’s 501 button-fly jeans commercial directed by Spike Lee and starring…Rob Liefeld lol

124 – Outland

Lobby card featuring Sean Connery in a scene from Outland, 1981

Jen and Tim revisit an old favorite, Peter Hyams’s “High Noon in Space,” aka Outland!

Jen is incorrect when she asserts that John Wayne was considered for the part of Marshal Will Kane in High Noon; Kramer and screenwriter Carl Foreman wanted a hot young star like Brando or Gregory Peck. Wayne, along with other Hollywood reactionaries including Hedda Hopper, did pressure Gary Cooper into withdrawing from a proposed production company headed by High Noon screenwriter and HUAC target Carl Foreman.

The story of High Noon and Carl Foreman is told at length in Glenn Frankel’s book High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic. You can read an excerpt on the Vanity Fair website.

By the way, you can browse the Outland press kit!

For more sci-western fun, try our episode on The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.!

121 – Fight Club

LEGO Fight Club soap by Tim Heiderich (timtoonstudio on Instagram)

Jen and Tim talk about a movie that people still like to misinterpret wildly even twenty years later: Fight Club!

Read Alexander Walker’s excoriating review from the Evening Standard.

‘The movie gradually makes its analogy with Nazi Germany even more overt. Pitt and Norton raid liposuction waste dumpsters at night, retrieving “the richest cream fat in the world”, that’s been siphoned out of the obese, and rendering it into red soap tablets they then flog to exclusive boutiques. It’s unbelievable any film would dare use, even as such a sick gag, a sequence reminiscent of that chapter of the Holocaust in which Nazi thoroughness rendered the Jews down into similar, no doubt less pricy soap bars. But Fight Club has no reticence, no memory, no shame.’

Alexander Walker on Fight Club

The artist Tim evoked but couldn’t name while discussing performance art is Tehching Hsieh. Watch his reminiscence on his remarkable work One Year Performance 1980 – 1981 (Time Clock Piece) on Vimeo.

Also, don’t miss our recent discussion of the unloved Aykroyd joint Nothing But Trouble with Chapo Trap House’s Matt Christman!

118 – Martin

John Amplas in the titular role of George Romero's Martin (1976)

Tim and Jen welcome show mascot Mike Rosen (@ bitterkarella on Twitter) to talk about George Romero’s melancholy 1976 vampire masterpiece, Martin.

Read a 2020 interview with lead actor John Amplas, in which he reminisces about Romero and working on Martin.

Some exciting news that broke the day we recorded this episode— the 3-hour black-and-white director’s cut of Martin has been found!

Info on Martin (1976) found director's cut

Check out Mike’s satirical horror microfiction account Midnight Pals on Twitter, as well!

113 – The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

Bruce Campbell as Brisco County Jr. with one of the horses who played Comet
wonder which “Comet” that is

Jen and Tim revisit the greatest unfairly-cancelled single-season sci-fi western TV series of all time: The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.! If you thought we were going to say “Firefly” you have obviously never listened to our show before. Also Jen is finally able to air her feelings about Dixie for a mass audience. Spicy!

Drake meme with Firefly in the "no" position and Brisco County Jr. in the "yes" position
sorry, we’re correct


Check DVDTalk for information on the complete series on home media.

Whether you lived through it or not, you can peruse the 1993-94 prime-time television lineup for yourself.

For more cult TV, try our episode on Hammer House of Horror!

110 – Cool World

Cool World is not cool. Emma Bowers (@hyenasandgin) returns to commiserate with Tim and Jen about a very bad animated feature. Turns out this movie did significant psychological damage to young Tim.

Watch Emma’s Full Metal Alchemist video!

BAWWWWW!

Compare and contrast: this interview with Ralph Bakshi, and this one with writer Michael Grais. Bakshi claims malfeasance from producer Frank Mancuso, Jr. (to the point of violence). Grais calls Bakshi a liar, essentially. What’s the real story? Who knows?

The Tex Avery doc Tim alluded to is called Tex Avery, the King of Cartoons.

Bakshi puts in this pissing stuff, and toilet stuff. I didn’t like that sex attitude in it very much. It’s like real repressed horniness; he’s kind of letting it out compulsively.

R. Crumb on Ralph Bakshi and the Fritz the Cat feature film

If we haven’t dissuaded you, you can watch Ralph Bakshi’s most recent animated work, The Last Days of Coney Island, on YouTube.

For more animated shite, listen to our episode on Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure!