The Odd Podcast with Joe Parisi

A deep dive into the 2004 classic Napoleon Dynamite.  Join Joe Parisi and Trevor Snarr (who played "Don" in the film) for a fun look back at this highly influential movie.

F_ _ _ FACE!  In 1989, Fleer released their annual set of baseball cards, having no idea what was about to happen and what had slipped past them.  A few weeks after the cards started being sold, word started to spread that the Bill Ripken card  in the set featured a very explicit phrase written on the handle of the bat he was holding in the picture.  As the company scrambled to halt production, save face, and edit the card, a frenzy among collectors broke out and copies of the card became highly sought after.  30 years later, people still actively search for this card and many questions still remain unanswered.  Over the years, many of the stories and explanations have been changed. Join Joe Parisi for a deep dive on this historic incident that changed the trading card industry forever.  We're also visited by Jon Pederson who runs the website dedicated to this card, www.billripken.com 

Dissecting the 1985 John Hughes classic "Weird Science".   Joining Joe Parisi is longtime Hollywood character actor Britt Leach who played the father of "Gary" (Anthony Michael Hall) in the film.  Also, Rhonda Wong joins the show.  Rhonda worked as a background performer in the iconic party scene at the end of the film and was in the blue kitchen!  

Joe Parisi is joined by Brian Pocrass for a deep dive on 1991's odd coming of age hit "My Girl".  

Join Joe Parisi and Brian Pocrass as they dissect the 1991 cult classic Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead.

Join Joe Parisi, Brian Pocrass and Jen Chaney (author of the book "As If: The Oral History of Clueless as told by Amy Heckerling, the Cast and Crew") as they take a trip back to 1995 and explore this influential teen film.

The unlikely story of an unlikely hit: LFO's Summer Girls.  Joining Joe to explore this 1999 hit is LFO member Brad Fischetti.

Exploring the Punky Brewster show which originally ran from 1984-1988.  Along for the ride is Hollywood insider and filmmaker Brian Pocrass and Hollywood dog trainer Robert Weatherwax (who worked with "Brandon" on multiple occasions).  

DC The Brain Supreme joins me to look back at the party anthem that took over the world in 1993, Tag Team's hit single "Whoomp (There it is).  We also discuss the song's resurgence thanks to the Geico ad campaign featuring Tag Team.  

A deep dive into The Karate Kid 3.  Join Joe Parisi and Brian Pocrass as they examine the strange third installment in this classic film franchise.  Cast member William Christopher Ford (who played "Dennis", a sidekick of Mike Barnes) joins the program to share some behind the scenes stories.   Will the Cobra Kai series start bringing in cast members from The Karate Kid 3? Brian and Joe make their predictions.

Ice Ice Baby took the world by storm in the fall of 1990.  But it was more than just another hit song.  On this episode I'm going to present a theory that this turned out to be one of the most influential songs in pop culture history.   Join Joe Parisi and DJ Earthquake (who produced and appears on the track) as they sort out the fact, the fiction and the incredible legacy of "Ice Ice Baby".

Joe Parisi and Brian Pocrass take a deep dive on a little known Christmas film from 1991 called "All I Want for Christmas".  Why is it that so many Christmas movies from this era have become "classics" but this film has been widely forgotten?  

A look back at the career of the late-great Jonathan Brandis.  He made so many cool contributions to pop culture throughout the 90's.  Join Joe Parisi and Brian Pocrass for a trip back to the 90's! 

Darryl Vidal has the incredible honor of being one of the people who competed on-screen in the 1984 "All Valley Karate Championship" in the movie The Karate Kid.  In fact, he went all the way to the semi-finals in the film where he faced off against Johnny Lawrence.  Well, Darryl played a much larger role than anyone really knew as he is also credited as the creator of the Crane Kick as we all now know it. Join me and Chinese Kenpo Grandmaster Darryl Vidal as we hear his first hand account of working on this classic film.

Exploring the 1985 cult classic "Heaven Help Us" with actor Jay Patterson who played "Brother Constance".

Robert Weatherwax is a 3rd generation Hollywood dog trainer.  Between his grandfather, his father and himself, this family has trained some of the most famous and beloved dogs in all of film and television.  Lassie is just the tip of the iceberg!

  Exploring the history of Our Gang/The Little Rascals and the life of Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer.

Johna Stewart famously had her nail broken in the 1992 movie Ladybugs.  Her Hollywood journey as a child actor landed her in Beverly Hills 90210, Boy Meets World, Pacific Blue, The Legend of Galgameth and more!

  Our guest is Lori Fetrick who was "Ice" on the 90's television show American Gladiators.

A 2 hour long deep dive into and appreciation of Pee Wee's Playhouse.  Guest include George McGrath who was a staff writer and also voiced "Globey", "Cowntess" one of the flowers and one of the fish AND Vic Trevino who played "Ricardo". Discussing everything from the Penny claymation sequences, the Christmas special, the Del Rubio Triplets and more!

Actor Matt Doherty is here to talk about life as an actor...the Mighty Ducks franchise (where he played Averman), So I Married An Axe Murderer (where he played Heed), Home Alone and more! Follow Matt on Instagram @archiedohman   

Exploring the 1990 John Hughes Christmas classic...the film that turned Macauley Culkin into an international superstar.  Brian Pocrass joins the show to tell some incredible stories about the locations used.  I also dive into the Elvis conspiracy theory.   Home Alone Filming Locations Film Crawl Video By Brian Pocrass- https://youtu.be/ALK7pdBaBBY 

Exploring the 1984 John Hughes film "Sixteen Candles" with the help of Debbie Pollack who played "Marlene" (the girlfriend of Long Duck Dong)  

Exploring the 1978 comedy classic Animal House with the help of Mark Metcalf who played Doug Neidermeyer in the film.  We chat with Mark about the making of this iconic film and about his memorable guest role as "The Maestro" on Seinfeld.  

Exploring the 1988 cult classic "Hobgoblins" with help from creature creator Kenneth J. Hall.  Kenneth made the actual hobgoblin puppets used in this film and he has worked on several of the classic creature films from the past 3 decades. Join us as we take a deep dive into Rick Sloane's odd little film.   Find Kenneth online at https://www.totalfab.com 

Taking a deep dive into the 1990 film Kindergarten Cop.  Our guest in Christian Cousins, who as a young child played "Dominic".   This episode looks at everything from Arnold's early 90's string of hit films to the large number of child actors who slip into complete anonymity as adults.  

We take another look at 1985's Stand By Me. Our guest is actor Andy Lindberg who played the role of "Lardass Hogan".  Andy and I chat all about how he ended up in this film, the ins and outs of filming the pie eating contest scene and a whole lot more! https://www.andylindberg.com/

Exploring the 1990 action movie LIONHEART. Joining us is Sheldon Lettich (the writer & director) & Jeff Langton (Cynthia's Fighter "Sonny"). We discuss everything from casting choices, the various interesting fight venues, how filmmaking differs today and more!  

Exploring the history of the legendary Sunset Strip hotel, Chateau Marmont.  Best selling author Shawn Levy has just completed his book "The Castle on Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art and Scandal at Hollywood's Chateau Marmont" and he is with us to share some incredible stories from this Hollywood landmark's history. From Bogart to Belushi to Britney, we cover a lot of ground in this short quick 45 minute episode. www.shawnlevy.com 

Examining the 1990 Tim Burton classic "Edward Scissorhands".  Joining me are the film's production designer, Bo Welch (4 x Oscar Nominee) and Michael Burmeister- the film's location manager.  They take us back to that crazy-colored neighborhood and teach us all about this one-of-a-kind film, how they pulled this off logistically and much more!  

Martial Artist, Fight Choreographer, Kumite Fighter and the man "Bloodsport" was about joins us. We talk about some of your favorite martial arts movies, Ninjas, conspiracies within the martial arts community, what really happened in that tournament and more!

Diving into the 1988 Cannon Films cult classic "Bloodsport".  Joining me are two of the men who fought in "the kumite".  Bernard Mariano is with us, he played "Hossein".  Also, Mohammed Qissi is with us.  Mohammed played "Suan Parades"...the fighter who suffered the nasty leg break at the hands of the evil Chun Li.  

Exploring the 1987 classic "Ernest Goes To Camp" with two of the "second chance kids" from the film..."Bobby Wayne" aka Patrick Day and "Chip Osgood" aka Todd Loyd. We chat about Jim Varney's history working as a commercial actor, Lyle Alzado, Iron Eyes Cody and much much more!  

Examining the 1988 classic film "Big" with actor David Moscow who played young Josh Baskin in the film. Learning about the history of "Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Pop", fortune teller machines and more.  Plus, David gives us some great stories about what it was like living as a child actor in Hollywood in the 80's.  

Scott Michaels (Findadeath.com & Dearly Departed Tours) drops in to talk about his life, his career as the "curator of the macabre" and some of his favorite strange Hollywood stories. Scott has been the owner/operator of the wildly popular website findadeath.com since the late 90's and also owns and operates Dearly Departed Tours in Los Angeles.  You've seen him on "Hollywood Death Trip" on E!, Ghost Adventures, Anthony Bourdain's "The Layover", "The Girls Next Door" and more.  He's an authority on all things weird Hollywood.

Take a step back with us to the late 80's as we look at one of the coolest and most successful commercial campaigns of all time...The California Raisins.  Joining me is Seth Werner, the advertising executive who came up with the idea and Webster Colcord, a claymation guru who worked on the Raisins tv commercials and tv specials.  

Diving into the 1985 classic "The Goonies" and learning a TON of cool info about it.  Our guests include cinematographer/cast member Nick McLean (Mouth's Dad), Ted Grossman (Dead FBI man in the freezer/stunts), John Robotham (Jake Fratelli stunts) and Randall Widener (Sloth stunts).   PLUS I dive into a mystery involving the true identity of "Chester Copperpot".

Be Kind...Rewind.  Examining the rise, fall, facts and fiction surrounding Blockbuster Video.  Best selling author, speaker and business advisor Greg Satell has written about this in Forbes magazine and joins us to discuss.   Visit Greg's online home at www.digitaltonto.com 

Discussing Zoolander with the hilarious, scene stealing actor who played "Todd"... Nathan Lee Graham. We discuss Nathan's life as an actor and grammy winning performer, Zoolander trivia, Webster University, how 9/11 impacted the path of Zoolander more.   

Catching up with legendary actor Mark Holton...the man who brought "Francis Buxton" in Pee Wee's Big Adventure and "Chubby" in the Teen Wolf movies to life. Mark has been in about a million things since the early 80's.  He famously yelled "Hey, It's Enrico Palazzo" in Naked Gun, he played Ozzie in Leprechaun and even appeared on an episode of Seinfeld. Well, in the early 2000's Mark essentially vanished.  Luckily I was able to track him down and the conversation we ended up having was so much fun!

Discussing the 80's tv show Small Wonder with two of the show's stars- Martha Pennington and Jerry Supiran.  This sci-fi sitcom blazed its trail in first-run syndication aired from 1985-1989 and featured a robot in the form of a 10 year old girl.   It was weird and fun and everybody remembers this show.  

This episode explores the 1984 classic "Ghostbusters".  We discuss filming locations, original script ideas, how various special effects were pulled off, the soundtrack and more.   Who you gonna call?  Well, in this case I called 3 people who worked on the film.  You'll hear long form interviews with Jennifer Runyon (the student doing the ESP test), Bill Bryan (creator of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man suits who was also the guy in the suit on screen) and Mark Bryan Wilson (the Slimer puppeteer). Are you the Keymaster?  

Eraserhead was released in 1977 and has gone on to become one of the most highly regarded "midnight movies" of all time.  It was David Lynch's first feature film and the movie that made Jack Nance a cult icon.   Our guest on this episode played "Mary X".  Charlotte Stewart has appeared in everything from Little House on the Prairie to Tremors and she has some incredible stories to tell about her life and the years she spent working on the set of Eraserhead.    

Loners...Rebels...It's time to take a deep dive into the legendary 1985 film "Pee Wee's Big Adventure".  We research several of the supporting cast members who have dropped off the radar, learn about filming locations and then do a few interviews.  We'll chat with one of the film's writers (Michael Varhol), one of the "Satan's Helpers" (Terri Bolo), "Chuck" (Daryl Roach), Stephen Chiodo (Special FX) and none other than "Francis Buxton" himself, Mark Holton.   If you love this movie, prepare to learn a TON of cool stuff about it!

In June of 1998, the teen movie genre was reborn thanks to a film called "Can't Hardly Wait".  It's a film that takes place over 24 hours- and covers high school graduation, the massive blowout party that night and the next morning where they all begin their new post-high school lives.   We have SIX guests on this episode.  Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont wrote and directed the film...they join us.  Victor Togunde played "Reminiscing Guy"...he joins us.  Joel Michaely played "X-File Guy #1"...he joins us.  And from the music department, music supervisor Ralph Sall and music clearance executive Suzan Mann join us. Prepare to learn A TON about this beloved teen classic!

Actor & Voice Actor Charlie Schlatter joins us to talk about life, the Ferris Bueller tv show (where he played Ferris), "18 Again" where he starred alongside George Burns, "Police Academy Mission To Moscow", Kick Buttowski (the famous animated character Charlie voiced), Shameless and much more! Charlie is currently raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and you can visit his fundraiser page at this link: http://pages.mwoy.org/calso/los18/cschlatter  

He has people skills...can't you understand that?!?? Richard Riehle has appeared in over 350 movies and television show episodes.  He is without a doubt one of the most successful "character actors" in history.  He was the inventor of the "jump to conclusions mat" as "Tom Smykowski" in Office Space.  You've seen him in The Fugitive, Casino, Bridesmaids, Ferris Bueller the tv series, Grounded for Life and over 350 other things. Richard gives us his story and some really fun stories about some of your favorite films.     Thanks for listening!  

Dean Cameron has appeared in so many incredible movies.  He was "Chainsaw" in Summer School, he was the lead in Ski School, Miracle Beach, Rockula, and countless others that you've probably seen a few hundred times on cable tv. Dean shares a little bit of his 30+ year Hollywood story with us and gives us some candid behind the scenes stories surrounding some of those films we know and love.  

One of the all time great martial arts films was released in 1989.  Kickboxer was the second hit film to star Jean Claude Van Damn and to this day it remains a favorite among many action & martial arts movie fans.  On this episode we interview three of the film's stars: "Tong Po" who was played by Mohammed Qissi, "Mylee" who was played by Rochelle Ashana and "Winston Taylor" who was played by Haskell Anderson. Prepare to hear first hand what it was like to make this film and learn all sorts of fun Kickboxer trivia!  

Today we dive down the rabbit hole to learn about the bizarre 2003 independent drama/cult classic THE ROOM.  Our guest is Rick Harper, a filmmaker who made a documentary all about this movie called Room Full of Spoons.   There are a lot of mysteries surrounding The Room and Rick's documentary answers most of the big questions...but the courts are preventing him for showing the movie anywhere!   Tune in and learn all about this bizarre little indy flick that completely went off the rails and earned it's rightful spot as a cult classic.