Podcasts about embassy pictures

By developing two uncommon skills, mindfulness and agility, you can achieve true success in most fields of life and work. You must define success on your own terms, rather than rely on others' metrics or recipes. Imitating others who have been successful works fine to get your feet wet, but it won't make you successful, because the world has new competitors, and you are a different person.Mindfulness practices develop skills in seeing the world more clearly, along with its opportunities and dangers. With mindfulness, we can discover hidden causes more readily, and we can fix problems and exploit opportunities more easily. In a word, mindfulness gives us insight.Agile practices develop skills in low-cost, low-risk experimentation. Insight is great, but to blaze new paths you have to take risks. There are lots of dangers in that unexplored jungle, so we need to learn how to explore safely. In a word, agile gives us innovation.We discuss the challenges of developing mindfulness and agile skills, including the distractions of modern life and the need for ongoing study and practice. We show how mindfulness and agile practices can be applied in different fields and situations, from healthcare to career development to family life.Mindful agility is a practical philosophy—i.e., it is composed of practices and principles. These principles of success encourage you to first think critically about your own goals, then imitate others to get the basics of a field, then use mindfulness to build competence and insight, then use agility to innovate.This episode is chapter 1.1 of the Mindful Agility book under development. CreditsAmelia Hambrecht, Rob Coles, Eve Rubell, Jeff Stuit, and Divya Maez were our beta reviewers, for whom we are super grateful. Early beta review is an agile staple: we make changes to our episode based on feedback. If you ever want to give it a try, reach out to us. If you are reading this, you are in our target audience. Nichols, M. (1967). The Graduate. Embassy Pictures. Amazing movie. Seven Academy Awards.Stinger sound Swing beat 120 xylophone side-chained by Casonika licensed under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) to Mindful AgilityImage of magician backed by Imitation by DALL-EStaff Daniel Greening, host, agile coach, and computer scientist Mirela Petalli, co-host, meditation guide, and neurocritical nursing instructor Dan Dickson, business coach, executive and management consultant Links Mindful Agility Substack (weekly "The Mindful Sprint" brief) Mindful Agility web site Mindful Agility Community Facebook group Mindful Agility Youtube channel

This week, we finish our three part episode on the 1980s distribution company Vestron Pictures. ----more---- The movies discussed on this week's episode are: The Adventures of a Gnome Named Gnorm (1990, Stan Winston) Big Man on Campus (1989, Jeremy Paul Kagan) Dream a Little Dream (1989, Marc Rocco) Earth Girls Are Easy (1989, Julien Temple) Far From Home (1989, Meiert Avis) Paperhouse (1989, Bernard Rose) Parents (1989, Bob Balaban) The Rainbow (1989, Ken Russell) Wonderland (1989, Philip Saville)   TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today.   At the end of the previous episode, Vestron Pictures was starting to experience the turbulence a number of independent distributors faced when they had a successful film too soon out of the gate, and the direction of the company seemingly changes to go chasing more waterfalls instead of sticking to the rivers and the lakes they were used to.   Welcome to Part Three of our miniseries.   As we enter 1989, Vestron is seriously in trouble. More money has gone out then has come back in. It seems that they needed one more hit to keep going for a while longer. But if you were to look at their release schedule for the year, which included a pickup from the recently bankrupt DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group, there wasn't really anything that felt like it could be a Dirty Dancing-like break out, except for maybe the pickup from the recently bankrupt DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group.    But we'll get there in a moment.   Their first film from 1989 is a certifiable cult film if there ever was one, but the problem with this label is that the film tagged as so was not a success upon its initial theatrical release. Bob Balaban, the beloved character actor who had been regularly seen on screen since his memorable debut in Midnight Cowboy twenty years earlier, would make his directorial debut with the black comedy horror film Parents.   Bryan Madorsky stars as Michael Laemle, a ten year old boy living in the California suburbs in the 1950s, who starts to suspect mom and dad, played by Mary Beth Hurt and Randy Quaid, might be cannibals. It's a strange but fun little movie, and even Ken Russell would compare it favorably over David Lynch's Blue Velvet during one contemporary interview, but sadly, it would take far more time for the film to find its audience than Vestron could afford.   Opening in 94 theatres on January 27th, the $3m Parents could not overcome a series of negative reviews from critics, and it would only gross $278k in its first three days. Vestron would not strike any additional prints of the film, and would cycle the ones they did have around the country for several months, but after four months, the film could only attract $870k in box office receipts. But it would become something of a cult hit on video later in the year.   In 1992, British filmmaker Bernard Rose would make his American directing debut with an all-time banger, Candyman. But he wouldn't gotten Candyman if it wasn't for his 1989 film Paperhouse, an inventive story about a young girl whose drawings seem to manifest into reality. British actor Ben Cross from Chariots of Fire and American actress Glenne Headly from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels plays the young girl's parents.   Outside of Gene Siskel, who would give the film a thumbs down on his movie review show with Roger Ebert despite acknowledging Rose's talent as a filmmaker and being fascinated by the first two-thirds of the movie, the critical consensus was extraordinary. But it appears Siskel may have never actually written a review of the film for the Chicago Tribune, as the film still has a 100% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But the film would only earn $6,700 from its single screen playdate at the Carnegie Hall Cinemas when it opened on February 17th, and the film would get little support from Vestron after that. More single playdates in major cities that added up to a $241k box office tally after fourteen weeks in release.   Marc Rocco's Dream a Little Dream would be the third film in The Two Coreys Cinematic Universe. Corey Feldman plays a high school student who, through one of the strangest plot twists in the whole body switching genre, finds himself switching places with two time Academy Award-winner Jason Robards, playing a professor who is looking for immortality through entering a meditative alpha state. Meredith Salinger and Piper Laurie also find themselves switching bodies as well, while Corey Haim plays the goofball best friend with not a whole lot to do. The supporting cast also includes veteran character actors Harry Dean Stanton and Alex Rocco, the latter who agreed to do the film because it was directed by his son.   When the film opened on March 3rd, it would be Vestron's second widest release, opening on more than 1,000 theatres. But just like the previous year's License to Drive, the pairing of Corey Haim and Corey Feldman did not set the box office on fire, opening in fifth place with $2.57m in ticket sales, compared to the #1 film of the week, the Morgan Freeman drama Lean on Me, which would gross twice as much as Dream a Little Dream while playing in 125 fewer theatres. In its second week, the film would lose 56 theatres and 52% of its opening weekend audience, falling all the way to 13th place with a gross of only $1.25m. By week three, the movie would move to dollar houses, and trudge along for several more months, until it closed in the middle of summer with only $5.55m in the till.   In the late 1970s and early 1980s, writer/director Jeremy Paul Kagan had directed and occasionally written several big ticket movies, including the 1977 Henry Winkler drama Heroes, which also starred Sally Field and, in his first post-Star Wars movie, Harrison Ford, and the 1985 Meredith Salinger/John Cusack adventure film The Journey of Natty Gann. Which makes his Natty Gann follow up, Big Man on Campus, such a head scratcher.   A modern adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Big Man on Campus was written by Allan Katz, who had been working in television for nearly twenty years writing for and producing shows like All in the Family, Sanford and Son, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and MASH. Katz would also star in the movie as the titular hunchback, even though he had never once acted on any of his shows. But at least he had a good cast supporting him, including Gerrit Graham, Melora Hardin, Jessica Harper, Tom Skerritt, and Cindy Williams.   I can only find one playdate for the film ever, in Los Angeles at the American Cinematheque in March 1989, so while this mostly qualifies as a direct to video release, I feel compelled to at least give it a token mention here.   Have you ever heard of a movie called The Fruit Machine? Of course you haven't, because that's a horrible name for a movie, no matter what it's about. When Vestron acquired this British drama about young gay men who go on the run after they witness a murder, the first thing they did was change the title to Wonderland. Not that Wonderland gives you any more of an idea of what the movie is about than The Fruit Machine. But, whatever.   Today, the movie has two things going for it. One, an early role for Robbie Coltrane, playing a transvestite who operates a nightclub for gay men and transvestites called, you guessed it, The Fruit Machine. Second, the musical score was written by Hans Zimmer, in one of his earliest film jobs. Ironically, Wonderland would be the the third movie scored by Hans Zimmer to be released by Vestron in a four month period, after Burning Secret and Paperhouse.   Wonderland would open at the Quad Cinemas in New York City on April 28th, to poor reviews but a decent $11,500 opening weekend. But the film would not be able to maintain much of an audience, and after five weeks, Wonderland was out of the Quad Cinemas, never to play another theatre in America, with just $50k in the till.   Ken Russell's third and final film in his contract with Vestron was The Rainbow, an adaptation of a 1915 novel by D.H. Lawrence, whose 1920 novel Women in Love had been adapted by Russell in 1969. Glenda Jackson, who had won the Academy Award for her role in Women in Love, here plays the mother of the character she played in the other film. Here, she co-stars with Sammi Davis as Ursala, the younger sister of Jackson's Women in Love character, who finds herself attracted to Anton, a young man in town, as well as her gym teacher Winifred.   As one would expect from Ken Russell, the supporting cast is top notch, including future Eighth Doctor Paul McGann, regular Russell collaborator Christopher Gable, and Blowup star David Hemmings. The film would open at the Paris Theatre in New York City on May 5th, where it would gross a very good $22k, spurred on by great reviews from most of the city's major critics, several of which noted the film to be Russell's best in a number of years. So it would be sad that the film would end up being the lowest grossing of the three films he'd make with Vestron, only earning a total of $444k after three months in mostly single playdates in major markets.   In 1985, Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum would work together on a forgettable horror comedy film called Transylvania 6-5000, whose name was a pun on a popular 1940 song recorded by Glenn Miller. In 1986, the pair would work together again in David Cronenberg's amazing remake of the cheesy 1950s horror film The Fly. In late 1987, shortly after the pair married, they would work together for a third time, on another comedy, and on a movie that was this time based on an actual song.    Earth Girls Are Easy was the name of a song that appeared on comedian Julie Brown's 1984 EP Goddess in Progress, and was originally developed as a movie at Warner Brothers Studio. The studio would get cold feet when Absolute Beginners, the big British musical directed by music video director Julien Temple, failed big time everywhere in the world except for the UK. Temple was slated to direct Earth Girls Are Easy, and Brown, as the co-writer and co-star of the film, was committed to the filmmaker, even if it meant Warners putting the film into turnaround.   Which they did, in 1986.   It would take nearly a year to get the project back on track, after being rejected by every other major studio and production company in Hollywood, until the French banking giant Credit Lyonnais agree to finance the film, provided they could cut the budget from $14m to $10m, and if the filmmakers could make a distribution deal with the bank's preferred distributor, the then newly-formed DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group.   The film, about a manicurist in Los Angeles who helps three aliens blend into human culture after they accidentally crash land their spaceship into her pool, would begin production in Los Angeles in October 1987. Davis played the manicurist, and Goldblum one of the aliens, alongside Damon Wayans and Jim Carrey, while the remaining cast would include a number of great comedic actors like MASH's Larry Linville, Michael McKean, Rick Overton, and Charles Rocket, as well as Los Angeles media personality Angelyne as basically herself.   While the film was nearing completion in early 1988, the DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group would go out of business, leaving Credit Lyonnais in need of a new distributor for their investment. But after Temple turned in his first cut of the film, Credit Lyonnais would send Temple back into his editing bay, where he and his team would spend nearly another five months  winnowing out various scenes and completely excising a big and expensive musical number based on one of the other songs on Brown's 1984 EP, I Like ‘Em Big and Stupid, because it just didn't work for the film. Additional scenes would be shot, and the budget would end up being $11m.    The film would have its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September 1988, and attract attention from a number of distributors including MGM/UA, New World Pictures and Twentieth Century-Fox, but Vestron would end up putting in the winning bid.   The film would originally be set for a February 1989 release, but would get delayed until May 12th. When it finally opened on 317 screens in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philly, San Francisco, Toronto and Washington DC, the film would gross $893k, putting in twelfth place for the weekend, but its per screen average would be the fourth best amongst the films in the top twenty. The film would fall one place in its second week,  losing 35% of its opening weekend audience, grossing $577k. The film would slowly hemorrhage theatres and box office until the plug was pulled in mid-July with only $3.9m in tickets sold.   The sole lasting legacy of the film is that Damon Wayans enjoyed working so much with Jim Carrey that when Damon's brother Kenan Ivory Wayans was putting together a new comedy television show together thanks to the success of his movie I'm Gonna Get You Sucka, Damon would get his brother to give Carrey a chance. In Living Color would make Carrey and the Wayans Brothers stars, and would change the course of comedy. So there's that…   In late June, the Lightning Pictures imprint would release their first movie in nearly two years, Far From Home. The film starred the then-fourteen year old Drew Barrymore as a young girl traveling cross country with her father, who get stuck in a small desert town in Nevada on their way to back to Los Angeles, who must deal with some very strange characters in the trailer park they're staying in, as they slowly discover nothing is as it's supposed to be. Matt Frewer, Max Headroom himself, plays the dad, who must protect his daughter while he figures out how to get the hell out of town alive.   Truth be told, the movie sucks, and it's really creepy in how it sexualizes Barrymore, but there's one hell of a great supporting cast doing their best to keep the joint from totally stinking the place up. Richard Masur, Academy Award nominee Susan Tyrell, Anthony Rapp from Adventures in Babysitting, Jennifer Tilly, and beloved character actor Dick Miller. When Vestron opened the film in four theatres in third-tier regions on June 30th, it was little surprise the film got some very bad notices, although one unnamed reviewer for Variety felt the need to note that Barrymore, who again was only fourteen at the time, had “a baby face, dreamy eyes and a playboy model's body.” The film would gross just $3,763 in its first and only weekend in theatres.   But that wasn't even the worst news of the week for Vestron.   On the same day as they opened Far From Home, Vestron had been informed by Security Pacific Bank in Los Angeles that the $100 million line of credit the company had with them was being terminated. 140 of the approximately 300 Vestron staff members, mostly from the Los Angeles office, were let go, including the President of Production, the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Distribution, and the Vice President of Publicity and Promotion. While Vestron Video would continue for a while, in large part thanks to a $15.7m payoff during a dispute over home video ownership rights to the 1986 Best Picture winner Platoon, the theatrical distribution unit was effectively dead. Some movies, including the Fred Savage/Howie Mandel comedy Little Monsters, the Harry Dean Stanton-led comedy Twister, and the Kathryn Bigelow-directed action thriller Blue Steel with Jamie Lee Curtis, would be sold off to other companies, but the titles left behind would see their planned theatrical releases cancelled and eventually be released direct to video.   Thanks to some of the legacy titles in their video catalog, including Dirty Dancing, Vestron would be able to stave off the inevitable, but in January 1991, the company would file for bankruptcy, their final film being the Stan Winston-directed fantasy buddy comedy The Adventures of a Gnome named Gnorm. Filmed in 1988 as Upward, the film featured Anthony Michael Hall as an Los Angeles Police Detective who has to team up with a gnome, a puppet created by Winston, the effects wizard who also directed the film, to solve a murder. For Winston, it was deja vu all over again, as his previous directorial effort, Pumpkinhead, found itself in limbo for a while when its distributor, the DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group, filed for bankruptcy in 1987 before they could release that film.   In bankruptcy court, Live Entertainment, partially owned by 1990s mega movie production company Carolco Pictures, would purchase all of Vestron's assets for $24m. Live used the assets as collateral to secure a line of credit from industry friendly banks, so they could start their own production and distribution company, of which their only moment of note was helping to finance Reservoir Dogs when no one else would.   Eventually, Live Entertainment would be sold off to Bain Capital, a private investment firm co-founded by Mitt Romney, in 1997, and they would rebrand Live as Artisan Entertainment. Artisan today is best known as the little independent distributor of The Blair Witch Project, but they also would enter into an agreement with Marvel Comics to make movies for 15 of their characters, including Ant-Man, Black Panther, Deadpool, Iron Fist, Longshot, Morbius, Mort the Dead Teenager, and the Power Pack.   Artisan would produce two movies based on Marvel characters, Man-Thing and The Punisher, although neither of those films would be released by Artisan. Artisan would declare bankruptcy in 2003, and Marvel would be one of the companies to place a bid for them. Lionsgate would end up becoming the winning bidder for Artisan's assets, which is how the vast majority of Vestron titles are now owned by a company that didn't even exist when Vestron closed shop.   Today, Lionsgate is the owner of the assets of a number of the companies we've spoken about on this podcast in the past, and will be talking about in the future, including Crown International, the DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group, Embassy Pictures, and New World Pictures. And it's also a major reason why so many of the movies we discuss in these episodes looking back at past companies are completely unknown today. As big as Lionsgate is, with nearly $3.6 billion in revenue in 2022, they aren't going to be able to keep up with the chain of ownership for every movies from every company they've purchased, and they're not going to put the money in to the movies that are barely remembered today. The Film Foundation, the non-profit organization co-founded by Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, which is dedicated to film preservation, estimates the average cost to do a photochemical restoration of a color feature with sound to between $80,000 to $450,000 dollars, not including the cost of a 2k or 4k digital scan. I'm going to have a link in the show notes on our website at The80sMoviePodcast.com to a November 2018 article from the Science History Institute about the process of restoring films. It's not a long read, but it's a fascinating read. I hope you'll check it out.   So there you have it, the end of the line for Vestron Pictures, and many of the movies they helped to make and distribute, most of which you cannot find today in any form.   Thank you for listening.   We'll talk again next week when Episode 105, on the 1985 teen comedy O.C. and Stiggs, directed by Robert Altman, will be discussed.   Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about the movies we covered this episode.   The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment.   Thank you again.   Good night.

This week, we finish our three part episode on the 1980s distribution company Vestron Pictures. ----more---- The movies discussed on this week's episode are: The Adventures of a Gnome Named Gnorm (1990, Stan Winston) Big Man on Campus (1989, Jeremy Paul Kagan) Dream a Little Dream (1989, Marc Rocco) Earth Girls Are Easy (1989, Julien Temple) Far From Home (1989, Meiert Avis) Paperhouse (1989, Bernard Rose) Parents (1989, Bob Balaban) The Rainbow (1989, Ken Russell) Wonderland (1989, Philip Saville)   TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today.   At the end of the previous episode, Vestron Pictures was starting to experience the turbulence a number of independent distributors faced when they had a successful film too soon out of the gate, and the direction of the company seemingly changes to go chasing more waterfalls instead of sticking to the rivers and the lakes they were used to.   Welcome to Part Three of our miniseries.   As we enter 1989, Vestron is seriously in trouble. More money has gone out then has come back in. It seems that they needed one more hit to keep going for a while longer. But if you were to look at their release schedule for the year, which included a pickup from the recently bankrupt DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group, there wasn't really anything that felt like it could be a Dirty Dancing-like break out, except for maybe the pickup from the recently bankrupt DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group.    But we'll get there in a moment.   Their first film from 1989 is a certifiable cult film if there ever was one, but the problem with this label is that the film tagged as so was not a success upon its initial theatrical release. Bob Balaban, the beloved character actor who had been regularly seen on screen since his memorable debut in Midnight Cowboy twenty years earlier, would make his directorial debut with the black comedy horror film Parents.   Bryan Madorsky stars as Michael Laemle, a ten year old boy living in the California suburbs in the 1950s, who starts to suspect mom and dad, played by Mary Beth Hurt and Randy Quaid, might be cannibals. It's a strange but fun little movie, and even Ken Russell would compare it favorably over David Lynch's Blue Velvet during one contemporary interview, but sadly, it would take far more time for the film to find its audience than Vestron could afford.   Opening in 94 theatres on January 27th, the $3m Parents could not overcome a series of negative reviews from critics, and it would only gross $278k in its first three days. Vestron would not strike any additional prints of the film, and would cycle the ones they did have around the country for several months, but after four months, the film could only attract $870k in box office receipts. But it would become something of a cult hit on video later in the year.   In 1992, British filmmaker Bernard Rose would make his American directing debut with an all-time banger, Candyman. But he wouldn't gotten Candyman if it wasn't for his 1989 film Paperhouse, an inventive story about a young girl whose drawings seem to manifest into reality. British actor Ben Cross from Chariots of Fire and American actress Glenne Headly from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels plays the young girl's parents.   Outside of Gene Siskel, who would give the film a thumbs down on his movie review show with Roger Ebert despite acknowledging Rose's talent as a filmmaker and being fascinated by the first two-thirds of the movie, the critical consensus was extraordinary. But it appears Siskel may have never actually written a review of the film for the Chicago Tribune, as the film still has a 100% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But the film would only earn $6,700 from its single screen playdate at the Carnegie Hall Cinemas when it opened on February 17th, and the film would get little support from Vestron after that. More single playdates in major cities that added up to a $241k box office tally after fourteen weeks in release.   Marc Rocco's Dream a Little Dream would be the third film in The Two Coreys Cinematic Universe. Corey Feldman plays a high school student who, through one of the strangest plot twists in the whole body switching genre, finds himself switching places with two time Academy Award-winner Jason Robards, playing a professor who is looking for immortality through entering a meditative alpha state. Meredith Salinger and Piper Laurie also find themselves switching bodies as well, while Corey Haim plays the goofball best friend with not a whole lot to do. The supporting cast also includes veteran character actors Harry Dean Stanton and Alex Rocco, the latter who agreed to do the film because it was directed by his son.   When the film opened on March 3rd, it would be Vestron's second widest release, opening on more than 1,000 theatres. But just like the previous year's License to Drive, the pairing of Corey Haim and Corey Feldman did not set the box office on fire, opening in fifth place with $2.57m in ticket sales, compared to the #1 film of the week, the Morgan Freeman drama Lean on Me, which would gross twice as much as Dream a Little Dream while playing in 125 fewer theatres. In its second week, the film would lose 56 theatres and 52% of its opening weekend audience, falling all the way to 13th place with a gross of only $1.25m. By week three, the movie would move to dollar houses, and trudge along for several more months, until it closed in the middle of summer with only $5.55m in the till.   In the late 1970s and early 1980s, writer/director Jeremy Paul Kagan had directed and occasionally written several big ticket movies, including the 1977 Henry Winkler drama Heroes, which also starred Sally Field and, in his first post-Star Wars movie, Harrison Ford, and the 1985 Meredith Salinger/John Cusack adventure film The Journey of Natty Gann. Which makes his Natty Gann follow up, Big Man on Campus, such a head scratcher.   A modern adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Big Man on Campus was written by Allan Katz, who had been working in television for nearly twenty years writing for and producing shows like All in the Family, Sanford and Son, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and MASH. Katz would also star in the movie as the titular hunchback, even though he had never once acted on any of his shows. But at least he had a good cast supporting him, including Gerrit Graham, Melora Hardin, Jessica Harper, Tom Skerritt, and Cindy Williams.   I can only find one playdate for the film ever, in Los Angeles at the American Cinematheque in March 1989, so while this mostly qualifies as a direct to video release, I feel compelled to at least give it a token mention here.   Have you ever heard of a movie called The Fruit Machine? Of course you haven't, because that's a horrible name for a movie, no matter what it's about. When Vestron acquired this British drama about young gay men who go on the run after they witness a murder, the first thing they did was change the title to Wonderland. Not that Wonderland gives you any more of an idea of what the movie is about than The Fruit Machine. But, whatever.   Today, the movie has two things going for it. One, an early role for Robbie Coltrane, playing a transvestite who operates a nightclub for gay men and transvestites called, you guessed it, The Fruit Machine. Second, the musical score was written by Hans Zimmer, in one of his earliest film jobs. Ironically, Wonderland would be the the third movie scored by Hans Zimmer to be released by Vestron in a four month period, after Burning Secret and Paperhouse.   Wonderland would open at the Quad Cinemas in New York City on April 28th, to poor reviews but a decent $11,500 opening weekend. But the film would not be able to maintain much of an audience, and after five weeks, Wonderland was out of the Quad Cinemas, never to play another theatre in America, with just $50k in the till.   Ken Russell's third and final film in his contract with Vestron was The Rainbow, an adaptation of a 1915 novel by D.H. Lawrence, whose 1920 novel Women in Love had been adapted by Russell in 1969. Glenda Jackson, who had won the Academy Award for her role in Women in Love, here plays the mother of the character she played in the other film. Here, she co-stars with Sammi Davis as Ursala, the younger sister of Jackson's Women in Love character, who finds herself attracted to Anton, a young man in town, as well as her gym teacher Winifred.   As one would expect from Ken Russell, the supporting cast is top notch, including future Eighth Doctor Paul McGann, regular Russell collaborator Christopher Gable, and Blowup star David Hemmings. The film would open at the Paris Theatre in New York City on May 5th, where it would gross a very good $22k, spurred on by great reviews from most of the city's major critics, several of which noted the film to be Russell's best in a number of years. So it would be sad that the film would end up being the lowest grossing of the three films he'd make with Vestron, only earning a total of $444k after three months in mostly single playdates in major markets.   In 1985, Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum would work together on a forgettable horror comedy film called Transylvania 6-5000, whose name was a pun on a popular 1940 song recorded by Glenn Miller. In 1986, the pair would work together again in David Cronenberg's amazing remake of the cheesy 1950s horror film The Fly. In late 1987, shortly after the pair married, they would work together for a third time, on another comedy, and on a movie that was this time based on an actual song.    Earth Girls Are Easy was the name of a song that appeared on comedian Julie Brown's 1984 EP Goddess in Progress, and was originally developed as a movie at Warner Brothers Studio. The studio would get cold feet when Absolute Beginners, the big British musical directed by music video director Julien Temple, failed big time everywhere in the world except for the UK. Temple was slated to direct Earth Girls Are Easy, and Brown, as the co-writer and co-star of the film, was committed to the filmmaker, even if it meant Warners putting the film into turnaround.   Which they did, in 1986.   It would take nearly a year to get the project back on track, after being rejected by every other major studio and production company in Hollywood, until the French banking giant Credit Lyonnais agree to finance the film, provided they could cut the budget from $14m to $10m, and if the filmmakers could make a distribution deal with the bank's preferred distributor, the then newly-formed DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group.   The film, about a manicurist in Los Angeles who helps three aliens blend into human culture after they accidentally crash land their spaceship into her pool, would begin production in Los Angeles in October 1987. Davis played the manicurist, and Goldblum one of the aliens, alongside Damon Wayans and Jim Carrey, while the remaining cast would include a number of great comedic actors like MASH's Larry Linville, Michael McKean, Rick Overton, and Charles Rocket, as well as Los Angeles media personality Angelyne as basically herself.   While the film was nearing completion in early 1988, the DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group would go out of business, leaving Credit Lyonnais in need of a new distributor for their investment. But after Temple turned in his first cut of the film, Credit Lyonnais would send Temple back into his editing bay, where he and his team would spend nearly another five months  winnowing out various scenes and completely excising a big and expensive musical number based on one of the other songs on Brown's 1984 EP, I Like ‘Em Big and Stupid, because it just didn't work for the film. Additional scenes would be shot, and the budget would end up being $11m.    The film would have its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September 1988, and attract attention from a number of distributors including MGM/UA, New World Pictures and Twentieth Century-Fox, but Vestron would end up putting in the winning bid.   The film would originally be set for a February 1989 release, but would get delayed until May 12th. When it finally opened on 317 screens in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philly, San Francisco, Toronto and Washington DC, the film would gross $893k, putting in twelfth place for the weekend, but its per screen average would be the fourth best amongst the films in the top twenty. The film would fall one place in its second week,  losing 35% of its opening weekend audience, grossing $577k. The film would slowly hemorrhage theatres and box office until the plug was pulled in mid-July with only $3.9m in tickets sold.   The sole lasting legacy of the film is that Damon Wayans enjoyed working so much with Jim Carrey that when Damon's brother Kenan Ivory Wayans was putting together a new comedy television show together thanks to the success of his movie I'm Gonna Get You Sucka, Damon would get his brother to give Carrey a chance. In Living Color would make Carrey and the Wayans Brothers stars, and would change the course of comedy. So there's that…   In late June, the Lightning Pictures imprint would release their first movie in nearly two years, Far From Home. The film starred the then-fourteen year old Drew Barrymore as a young girl traveling cross country with her father, who get stuck in a small desert town in Nevada on their way to back to Los Angeles, who must deal with some very strange characters in the trailer park they're staying in, as they slowly discover nothing is as it's supposed to be. Matt Frewer, Max Headroom himself, plays the dad, who must protect his daughter while he figures out how to get the hell out of town alive.   Truth be told, the movie sucks, and it's really creepy in how it sexualizes Barrymore, but there's one hell of a great supporting cast doing their best to keep the joint from totally stinking the place up. Richard Masur, Academy Award nominee Susan Tyrell, Anthony Rapp from Adventures in Babysitting, Jennifer Tilly, and beloved character actor Dick Miller. When Vestron opened the film in four theatres in third-tier regions on June 30th, it was little surprise the film got some very bad notices, although one unnamed reviewer for Variety felt the need to note that Barrymore, who again was only fourteen at the time, had “a baby face, dreamy eyes and a playboy model's body.” The film would gross just $3,763 in its first and only weekend in theatres.   But that wasn't even the worst news of the week for Vestron.   On the same day as they opened Far From Home, Vestron had been informed by Security Pacific Bank in Los Angeles that the $100 million line of credit the company had with them was being terminated. 140 of the approximately 300 Vestron staff members, mostly from the Los Angeles office, were let go, including the President of Production, the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Distribution, and the Vice President of Publicity and Promotion. While Vestron Video would continue for a while, in large part thanks to a $15.7m payoff during a dispute over home video ownership rights to the 1986 Best Picture winner Platoon, the theatrical distribution unit was effectively dead. Some movies, including the Fred Savage/Howie Mandel comedy Little Monsters, the Harry Dean Stanton-led comedy Twister, and the Kathryn Bigelow-directed action thriller Blue Steel with Jamie Lee Curtis, would be sold off to other companies, but the titles left behind would see their planned theatrical releases cancelled and eventually be released direct to video.   Thanks to some of the legacy titles in their video catalog, including Dirty Dancing, Vestron would be able to stave off the inevitable, but in January 1991, the company would file for bankruptcy, their final film being the Stan Winston-directed fantasy buddy comedy The Adventures of a Gnome named Gnorm. Filmed in 1988 as Upward, the film featured Anthony Michael Hall as an Los Angeles Police Detective who has to team up with a gnome, a puppet created by Winston, the effects wizard who also directed the film, to solve a murder. For Winston, it was deja vu all over again, as his previous directorial effort, Pumpkinhead, found itself in limbo for a while when its distributor, the DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group, filed for bankruptcy in 1987 before they could release that film.   In bankruptcy court, Live Entertainment, partially owned by 1990s mega movie production company Carolco Pictures, would purchase all of Vestron's assets for $24m. Live used the assets as collateral to secure a line of credit from industry friendly banks, so they could start their own production and distribution company, of which their only moment of note was helping to finance Reservoir Dogs when no one else would.   Eventually, Live Entertainment would be sold off to Bain Capital, a private investment firm co-founded by Mitt Romney, in 1997, and they would rebrand Live as Artisan Entertainment. Artisan today is best known as the little independent distributor of The Blair Witch Project, but they also would enter into an agreement with Marvel Comics to make movies for 15 of their characters, including Ant-Man, Black Panther, Deadpool, Iron Fist, Longshot, Morbius, Mort the Dead Teenager, and the Power Pack.   Artisan would produce two movies based on Marvel characters, Man-Thing and The Punisher, although neither of those films would be released by Artisan. Artisan would declare bankruptcy in 2003, and Marvel would be one of the companies to place a bid for them. Lionsgate would end up becoming the winning bidder for Artisan's assets, which is how the vast majority of Vestron titles are now owned by a company that didn't even exist when Vestron closed shop.   Today, Lionsgate is the owner of the assets of a number of the companies we've spoken about on this podcast in the past, and will be talking about in the future, including Crown International, the DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group, Embassy Pictures, and New World Pictures. And it's also a major reason why so many of the movies we discuss in these episodes looking back at past companies are completely unknown today. As big as Lionsgate is, with nearly $3.6 billion in revenue in 2022, they aren't going to be able to keep up with the chain of ownership for every movies from every company they've purchased, and they're not going to put the money in to the movies that are barely remembered today. The Film Foundation, the non-profit organization co-founded by Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, which is dedicated to film preservation, estimates the average cost to do a photochemical restoration of a color feature with sound to between $80,000 to $450,000 dollars, not including the cost of a 2k or 4k digital scan. I'm going to have a link in the show notes on our website at The80sMoviePodcast.com to a November 2018 article from the Science History Institute about the process of restoring films. It's not a long read, but it's a fascinating read. I hope you'll check it out.   So there you have it, the end of the line for Vestron Pictures, and many of the movies they helped to make and distribute, most of which you cannot find today in any form.   Thank you for listening.   We'll talk again next week when Episode 105, on the 1985 teen comedy O.C. and Stiggs, directed by Robert Altman, will be discussed.   Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about the movies we covered this episode.   The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment.   Thank you again.   Good night.

Embassy Pictures released The Lion In Winter on October 30, 1968. Anthony Harvey directed the film starring Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, and Anthony Hopkins. The post The Lion In Winter (1968) appeared first on Movie House Memories.

Embassy Pictures released The Lion In Winter on October 30, 1968. Anthony Harvey directed the film starring Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, and Anthony Hopkins. The post The Lion In Winter (1968) appeared first on Movie House Memories.

Embassy Pictures released The Ruling Class on September 13, 1972. Peter Medak directed the film starring Peter O'Toole, Alastair Sim, and Arthur Lowe. The post The Ruling Class (1972) appeared first on Movie House Memories.

Embassy Pictures released The Ruling Class on September 13, 1972. Peter Medak directed the film starring Peter O'Toole, Alastair Sim, and Arthur Lowe. The post The Ruling Class (1972) appeared first on Movie House Memories.

Embassy Pictures released Godzilla: King of the Monsters! on April 27, 1956. Ishirô Honda and Terry O. Morse directed the film starring Raymond Burr, Takashi Shimura, and Momoko Kôchi. The post Godzilla: King of the Monsters! (1956) appeared first on Movie House Memories.

Embassy Pictures released Godzilla: King of the Monsters! on April 27, 1956. Ishirô Honda and Terry O. Morse directed the film starring Raymond Burr, Takashi Shimura, and Momoko Kôchi. The post Godzilla: King of the Monsters! (1956) appeared first on Movie House Memories.

Embassy Pictures released Swamp Thing on February 19, 1982. Wes Craven directed the film starring Louis Jourdan, Adrienne Barbeau, and Ray Wise. The post Swamp Thing (1982) appeared first on Movie House Memories.

Embassy Pictures released Swamp Thing on February 19, 1982. Wes Craven directed the film starring Louis Jourdan, Adrienne Barbeau, and Ray Wise. The post Swamp Thing (1982) appeared first on Movie House Memories.

Today's episode talks about the DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group, born from the ashes of Embassy Pictures in the fall of 1985, only to spectacularly flame out after two years, but able to make one true masterpiece and several modern classics in such a short amount of time. ----more---- The movies discussed during this episode: The Bedroom Window (January 1987, Curtis Hanson) Blue Velvet (September 1986, David Lynch) Crimes of the Heart (December 1986, Bruce Beresford) Date with an Angel (November 1987, Tom McLaughlin) Evil Dead II (March 1987, Sam Raimi) From the Hip (February 1987, Bob Clark) Hiding Out (November 1987, Bob Giraldi) King Kong Lives (December 1986, John Guillerman) Manhunter (August 1986, Michael Mann) Maximum Overdrive (July 1986, Stephen King) Million Dollar Mystery (June 1987, Richard Fleischer) My Little Pony: The Movie (June 1986, Michael Joens) Near Dark (October 1987, Kathryn Bigelow) Raw Deal (June 1986, John Irvin) The Transformers: The Movie (August 1986, Nelson Shin) Radioactive Dreams (September 1986, Albert Pyun) Tai-Pan (November 1986, Daryl Duke) Trick or Treat (October 1986, Charles Martin Smith) The Trouble with Spies (December 1987, Burt Kennedy) Weeds (October 1987, John Hancock)

Today's episode talks about the DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group, born from the ashes of Embassy Pictures in the fall of 1985, only to spectacularly flame out after two years, but able to make one true masterpiece and several modern classics in such a short amount of time. ----more---- The movies discussed during this episode: The Bedroom Window (January 1987, Curtis Hanson) Blue Velvet (September 1986, David Lynch) Crimes of the Heart (December 1986, Bruce Beresford) Date with an Angel (November 1987, Tom McLaughlin) Evil Dead II (March 1987, Sam Raimi) From the Hip (February 1987, Bob Clark) Hiding Out (November 1987, Bob Giraldi) King Kong Lives (December 1986, John Guillerman) Manhunter (August 1986, Michael Mann) Maximum Overdrive (July 1986, Stephen King) Million Dollar Mystery (June 1987, Richard Fleischer) My Little Pony: The Movie (June 1986, Michael Joens) Near Dark (October 1987, Kathryn Bigelow) Raw Deal (June 1986, John Irvin) The Transformers: The Movie (August 1986, Nelson Shin) Radioactive Dreams (September 1986, Albert Pyun) Tai-Pan (November 1986, Daryl Duke) Trick or Treat (October 1986, Charles Martin Smith) The Trouble with Spies (December 1987, Burt Kennedy) Weeds (October 1987, John Hancock)

The Nerds Amalgamated fishing trip is coming up, and we'll be going to Pluto for some ice fishing. Could Pluto have underground oceans with alien fish, and will they taste good with chips? Unfortunately it'll take a really long time to get there to find out. Maybe we'll have FTL by the next fishing trip.Metal Slug is back, again. SNK have plans to make some new Metal Slug games and not just work on porting the old ones to new consoles.The Huni Kuin tribe of Brazil have become some of the most primitive game developers in the world. Working with a team of anthropologists to preserve their tribal stories in the form of a video game.Cyberpunk 2077 is getting an Anime. The resident weebs are excited. Cross another one off on your Cyberpunk 2077 media bingo card.Billion year old plutonian ocean- https://astronomy.com/news/2020/06/pluto-has-likely-maintained-an-underground-liquid-ocean-for-billions-of-yearsMetal Slug announcements- https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-06-27-brand-new-metal-slug-game-announcedReverse game archaeology: Huni Kuin- http://www.gamehunikuin.com.br/en/abouthk/- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5m88A4oRHo- https://chacruna.net/huni-kuin-game-an-anthropological-adventure/Cyberpunk 2077 anime coming to Netflix- https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2020-06-25/trigger-announces-cyberpunk-edgerunners-anime-for-netflix-debut-in-2022/.161084Games PlayedProfessor– Outer Wilds - https://store.steampowered.com/app/753640/Outer_Wilds/Rating: 3.75/5Deviboy– Half-Life: Alyx - https://store.steampowered.com/app/546560/HalfLife_Alyx/Rating: TBADJ– Valorant - https://playvalorant.com/en-us/Rating: 3/5Other topics discussedOculus Quest: All-in-One VR Headset- https://www.oculus.com/quest/?locale=en_USOculus Quest All-in-one VR Gaming Headset – 64GB at Amazon Australia cost $649- https://www.amazon.com.au/Oculus-Quest-All-Gaming-Headset/dp/B07QY3M3Q4/ref=asc_df_B07QY3M3Q4/?tag=googleshopdsk-22&linkCode=df0&hvadid=341774504578&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9879915795311276137&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1000339&hvtargid=pla-765852518281&psc=1SteamVR (SteamVR is the ultimate tool for experiencing VR content on the hardware of your choice. SteamVR supports the Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality headsets, and others.)- https://store.steampowered.com/steamvrHalf-Life : Alyx (2020 virtual reality (VR) first-person shooter developed and published by Valve. Between the events of Half-Life (1998) and Half-Life 2 (2004), players control Alyx Vance on a mission to seize a superweapon belonging to the alien Combine.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life:_Alyx- https://www.half-life.com/en/alyx/- https://store.steampowered.com/app/546560/HalfLife_Alyx/Why is Pluto no longer a planet?- https://www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/item/why-is-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/Solar maximum (Solar maximum or solar max is a regular period of greatest Sun activity during the 11-year solar cycle. During solar maximum, large numbers of sunspots appear, and the solar irradiance output grows by about 0.07%)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_maximumSolar cycle (The solar cycle or solar magnetic activity cycle is a nearly periodic 11-year change in the Sun's activity measured in terms of variations in the number of observed sunspots on the solar surface. Levels of solar radiation and ejection of solar material, the number and size of sunspots, solar flares, and coronal loops all exhibit a synchronized fluctuation, from active to quiet to active again, with a period of 11 years.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycleGunter (Gunter is the penguin that most commonly accompanies the Ice King. In truth, Gunter is the primordial cosmic entity known as Orgalorg and feared as the Breaker of Worlds.)- https://adventuretime.fandom.com/wiki/GunterTom Scott - We Sent Garlic Bread to the Edge of Space, Then Ate It- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8W-auqg024Tom Scott (British YouTuber, game show host and web developer. Scott is best known for producing online videos for his eponymous YouTube channel, which mainly comprises educational videos across a range of topics including history,science,technology, and linguistics.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Scott_(entertainer)SNK (SNK Corporation is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. It is the successor to the company Shin Nihon Kikaku and presently owns the SNK video game brand and the Neo Geo video game platform. Classic SNK franchises include Metal Slug, Samurai Shodown, and The King of Fighters.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNKMetal Slug (Metal Slug is a series of run and gun video games originally created by Nazca Corporation before merging with SNK in 1996 after the completion of the first game in the series. Spin-off games include a third-person shooter to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the series and a tower defense game for the mobile platform.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_SlugThe King of Fighters (The King of Fighters (KOF) is a series of fighting games by SNK that began with the release of The King of Fighters '94 in 1994. The series was developed originally for SNK's Neo Geo MVS arcade hardware. This served as the main platform for the series until 2004 when SNK retired it in favor of the Atomiswave arcade board.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_of_FightersMetal Slug X (An upgraded version of Metal Slug 2, titled Metal Slug X, was released in March 1999 for the Neo Geo MVS. The game used a modified version of the engine from Metal Slug 3, which eliminated the slowdown problems of the original.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Slug_2#Metal_Slug_XMetal Slug Touch (Metal Slug Touch is a Metal Slug game released in 2009 for iPhones. It is completely controlled only by using the touchscreen and shaking the device.)- https://metalslug.fandom.com/wiki/Metal_Slug_TouchMetal Slug Defense (Metal Slug Defense is a tower defense game created by SNK Playmore for iOS and Android mobile devices.)- https://metalslug.fandom.com/wiki/Metal_Slug_DefenseMetal Slug Attack (Metal Slug Attack, is a tower defense game created by SNK Playmore for iOS and Android mobile devices. The game itself is a sequel to Metal Slug Defense, featuring numerous improvements and brand new game modes.)- https://metalslug.fandom.com/wiki/Metal_Slug_AttackUniversal Entertainment (Universal Entertainment Corporation, formerly known as Aruze Corporation is a Japanese manufacturer of pachinko,slot machines,arcade games and other gaming products, and a publisher of video games. In 2000, Aruze bought out SNK Corporation, maker of the Neo-Geo. In exchange for the use of SNK's popular characters on their pachinko and slot machines, and a few games for the Neo-Geo, Aruze promised financial backing for the failing SNK.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_EntertainmentNeo Geo Pocket Colour (The Neo Geo Pocket Color, is a 16-bit color handheld video game console manufactured by SNK. It is a successor to SNK's monochrome Neo Geo Pocket handheld which debuted in 1998 in Japan, with the Color being fully backward compatible.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo_Geo_Pocket_ColorVirtual Console (Virtual Console also abbreviated as VC, is a line of downloadable video games (mostly unaltered) for Nintendo's Wii and Wii U home video game consoles and the Nintendo 3DS handheld game console. Virtual Console's library of past games currently consists of titles originating from the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES, Game Boy,Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS, as well as Sega's Master System and Genesis/Mega Drive, NEC's TurboGrafx-16, and SNK's Neo Geo AES. )- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_ConsoleThe King of Fighters XIII (The King of Fighters XIII is a fighting game in The King of Fighters series, developed and published by SNK Playmore originally in 2010.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_of_Fighters_XIIIThe King of Fighters XII (In an interview with Fighters Front Line, Producer Masaaki Kukino replies that each character took 16~17 months to complete with a team of 10 different designers.)- https://snk.fandom.com/wiki/The_King_of_Fighters_XII#DevelopmentVirtual Songlines (Bilbie Virtual Labs is continuously pushing the frontier on innovation in our Virtual Songlines development.)- https://www.virtualsonglines.org/Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is a dark fantasy action-adventure game developed and published by the British video game development studio Ninja Theory. Inspired by Norse mythology and Celtic culture, the game follows Senua, a Pict warrior who must make her way to Helheim by defeating otherworldly entities and facing their challenges, in order to rescue the soul of her dead lover from the goddess Hela.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellblade:_Senua%27s_SacrificeNeuromancer (Neuromancer is a 1984 science fiction novel by American-Canadian writer William Gibson. It is one of the best-known works in the cyberpunk genre and the first novel to win the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award. Set in the future, the novel follows Henry Case, a washed-up computer hacker who is hired for one last job, which brings him up against a powerful artificial intelligence.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeuromancerBlade Runner (Blade Runner is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, and written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young and Edward James Olmos, it is loosely based on Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_RunnerRendezvous with Rama (Rendezvous with Rama is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke first published in 1973. Set in the 2130s, the story involves a cylindrical alien starship that enters the Solar System. The story is told from the point of view of a group of human explorers who intercept the ship in an attempt to unlock its mysteries.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendezvous_with_RamaNo Man’s Sky (No Man's Sky is an exploration survival game developed and published by the indie studio Hello Games. It was released worldwide for the PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows in August 2016, and for Xbox One in July 2018. The game is built around four pillars: exploration, survival, combat, and trading. Players are free to perform within the entirety of a procedurally generated deterministic open world universe, which includes over 18 quintillion planets.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Man%27s_SkyAlien 3 (Alien 3 (stylized as ALIEN³) is a 1992 American science fiction horror film directed by David Fincher and written by David Giler, Walter Hill, and Larry Ferguson from a story by Vincent Ward. It stars Sigourney Weaver reprising her role as Ellen Ripley. It is the third installment of the Alien franchise.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_3Alien 3 wooden satellite (Ward envisioned a planet whose interior was both wooden and archaic in design, where Luddite-like monks would take refuge.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_3#Start-up_with_Vincent_WardMiasma theory (The miasma theory (also called the miasmatic theory) is an obsolete medical theory that held that diseases—such as cholera,chlamydia, or the Black Death—were caused by a miasma (μίασμα, ancient Greek: "pollution"), a noxious form of "bad air", also known as night air. The theory held that epidemics were caused by miasma, emanating from rotting organic matter. Though miasma theory is typically associated with the spread of disease.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miasma_theoryThe Simpsons : Apu Headbag of Ice- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe8jOp349P8Futurama : Global Warming- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SYpUSjSgFgThe Simpsons : Skinner and The Superintendent: Aurora Borealis (One of The funniest ever moments of The Simpsons)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1h8cHUnP9kAverage life expectancy in industrial and developing countries for those born in 2018, by gender (in years) (In 2018, the average life expectancy for those born in more developed countries was 76 years for males and 82 years for females. Globally, the life expectancy for males was 70 years, and 74 years for females.)- https://www.statista.com/statistics/274507/life-expectancy-in-industrial-and-developing-countries/Apple I computer now in the Powerhouse Museum is the major branch of the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences (MAAS) in Sydney.- https://collection.maas.museum/object/397247- https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/499154595650600962/728216712675328020/1920px-Original_1976_Apple_1_Computer_In_A_Briefcase.pngWhile You Were Steeping (TNC podcast)- https://thatsnotcanon.com/whileyouweresteepingpodcast/Shout Outs26 June 2020 – Milton Glaser passes away at 91 - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/obituaries/milton-glaser-dead.htmlMilton Glaser, a graphic designer who changed the vocabulary of American visual culture in the 1960s and ’70s with his brightly colored, extroverted posters, magazines, book covers and record sleeves, notably his 1967 poster of Bob Dylan with psychedelic hair and his “I NY” logo passed away. Mr. Glaser brought wit, whimsy, narrative and skilled drawing to commercial art at a time when advertising was dominated by the severe strictures of modernism on one hand and the cozy realism of magazines like The Saturday Evening Post on the other. His designs include the I Love New York logo, the psychedelic Bob Dylan poster, and the logos for DC Comics, Stony Brook University, and Brooklyn Brewery. In 1954, he also co-founded Push Pin Studios, co-founded New York magazine with Clay Felker, and established Milton Glaser, Inc. in 1974. His artwork has been featured in exhibits, and placed in permanent collections in many museums worldwide. “I NY,” his logo for a 1977 campaign to promote tourism in New York State, achieved even wider currency. Sketched on the back of an envelope with red crayon during a taxi ride, it was printed in black letters in a chubby typeface, with a cherry-red heart standing in for the word “love.” Almost immediately, the logo became an instantly recognized symbol of New York City, as recognizable as the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty. He died from stroke and renal failure in Manhattan, New York City.27 June 2020 – Charles Webb, Author of 'The Graduate' Novel, Dies at 81 - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/charles-webb-dead-graduate-author-was-81-1300794Charles Webb, a lifelong non-conformist whose debut novel The Graduate was a deadpan satire of his college education and wealthy background adapted into the classic film of the same name, has passed away. Webb was only 24 when his most famous book was published, in 1963. The sparely written narrative was based closely on his years growing up comfortably in Southern California, his studies in history and literature at Williams College in Massachusetts and his disorienting return home. Webb's fictional counterpart, Benjamin Braddock, challenges the materialism of his parents, scorns the value of his schooling and has an affair with Mrs. Robinson, wife of his father's business partner and mother of the young woman with whom he falls in love, Elaine Robinson. His novel initially sold around 20,000 copies and was labeled a "fictional failure" by New York Times critic Orville Prescott. But it did appeal to Hollywood producer Lawrence Turman and the film company Embassy Pictures. The 1967 movie became a touchstone for the decade's rebellion even though Webb's story was set in an earlier era. Nichols' film, starring a then-little-known Dustin Hoffman as Braddock and Anne Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson, was an immediate sensation. Nichols won an Academy Award, Hoffman became an overnight star and the film is often ranked among the greatest, most quoted and talked about of all time. Webb's book went on to sell more than a 1 million copies, but he hardly benefited from the film, for which he received just $20,000. The script, much of it by Buck Henry, was so widely praised that few realized how faithful it was to Webb, including Benjamin's famous line, "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?" He died from a blood condition inEastbourne,East Sussex.29 June 2020 – Carl Reiner passes away at 80 - https://variety.com/2020/film/news/carl-reiner-dead-died-dick-van-dyke-1234694208/Carl Reiner, the writer, producer, director and actor who was part of Sid Caesar’s legendary team and went on to create “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and direct several hit films. Reiner, the father of filmmaker and activist Rob Reiner, was the winner of nine Emmy awards, including five for “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” Reiner remained in the public eye well into his 80s and 90s with roles in the popular “Ocean’s Eleven” trio of films and on TV with recurring roles on sitcoms “Two and a Half Men” and “Hot in Cleveland.” He also did voice work for shows including “Family Guy,” “American Dad,” “King of the Hill,” and “Bob’s Burgers.” Before creating CBS hit “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” on which he sometimes appeared, Reiner and “Show of Shows” writer Mel Brooks worked up an elongated skit in which Reiner played straight man-interviewer to Brooks’ “2000 Year Old Man”; a 1961 recording of the skit was an immediate hit and spawned several sequels, the last of which, 1998’s “The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000,” won the pair a Grammy. he portrayed Saul Bloom in Ocean's Eleven, Steven Soderbergh's remake of 1960's Ocean's 11, and later reprised the role in Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen. He died at the age from natural causes in Beverly Hills, California.30 June 2020 – Queensland university teams up with NASA to discover new planet the size of Neptune- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-29/usq-nasa-discover-new-earth-sized-planet-a-mic-b/12398056- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2400-z.epdf?sharing_token=3JTENEuQF-T3APeZX4KxB9RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0OtWNw2qcogQBYD10PdZhvxquqAqRChzO1nFKcfFtPKYHAUuZEWATQRM6h9tEKLylR11rM5M00uEqg6rHXXliKmS5mXQef56GLCRaooyb8BXkhcAIrlIx7_Nr2K-gZjizUMUcLFUaO80eRmm9mly099uTj6Gync7Hk-5dw0DGtLhcXtSIQcYAQT4mWbAxkmL5yyaVggBeZwOqhfwy06a8j2CY1WJyMSiFGHGoRGRYSGjqQPoVLcnVYYHq91fqiYaRh2p6hlMJYTKQxNJ4rwx5ud&tracking_referrer=www.abc.net.au Queensland researchers have helped NASA discover a new planet the size of Neptune, "only" 32 light-years away. NASA first spotted the planet two years ago and have been working to confirm its existence with researchers around the world, including a team at the Mount Kent observatory, south of Toowoomba. "It's only 32 light-years away, which means the light we see tonight left it in 1988," said University of Southern Queensland (USQ) astrophysicist, Jonti Horner. The planet, AU Mic b, was found orbiting the young star AU Microscopii (AU Mic), which was trillions of kilometres from Earth in the southern constellation Microscopium. Professor Horner said AU Mic b would not be suitable for people to live on due to its intense heat of more than 1,000 degrees Celsius. The infant planet was discovered by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the recently retired Spitzer Space Telescope. These results were published in the journal Nature.Remembrances29 June 1855 – John Gorrie- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gorrie- https://patents.google.com/patent/US8080John B. Gorrie, American physician, scientist, inventor of mechanical cooling, and humanitarian. Dr. Gorrie's medical research involved the study of tropical diseases. At the time the theory that bad air — mal-aria — caused diseases was a prevalent hypothesis and based on this theory, he urged draining the swamps and the cooling of sickrooms. For this he cooled rooms with ice in a basin suspended from the ceiling. Cool air, being heavier, flowed down across the patient and through an opening near the floor. Since it was necessary to transport ice by boat from the northern lakes, Gorrie experimented with making artificial ice. After 1845, gave up his medical practice to pursue refrigeration products. On May 6, 1851, Gorrie was granted Patent No. 8080 for a machine to make ice. The original model of this machine and the scientific articles he wrote are at the Smithsonian Institution. In 1835, patents for "Apparatus and means for producing ice and in cooling fluids" had been granted in England and Scotland to American-born inventor Jacob Perkins, who became known as "the father of the refrigerator". Another version of Gorrie's "cooling system" was used when President James A. Garfield was dying in 1881. Naval engineers built a box filled with cloths that had been soaked in melted ice water. Then by allowing hot air to blow on the cloths it decreased the room temperature by 20 degrees Fahrenheit. It required an enormous amount of ice to keep the room cooled continuously. Yet it was an important event in the history of air conditioning. It proved that Dr. Gorrie had the right idea, but was unable to capitalize on it.The first practical refrigeration system in 1854, patented in 1855, was built by James Harrison in Geelong, Australia. He died at the age of 52 in Apalachicola, Florida.29 June 1997 – William Hickey - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hickey_(actor)William Edward Hickey, American actor. He is best known for his Academy Award-nominated role as Don Corrado Prizzi in the John Huston film Prizzi's Honor , as well as Uncle Lewis in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and the voice of Dr. Finklestein in Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. His most important contribution to the arts, however, remains his teaching career at the HB Studio in Greenwich Village, founded by Hagen and Herbert Berghof. George Segal, Sandy Dennis, Barbra Streisand, and Sandra McClain all studied under him. He was a staple of Ben Bagley's New York musical revues, he can be heard on several of the recordings, notably Decline and fall of the entire world as seen through the eyes of Cole Porter. Hickey enjoyed a career in film, television and theater. In addition to his work as an actor, he was a respected teacher of the craft. Notable for his unique, gravelly voice and somewhat offbeat appearance, Hickey, in his later years, was often cast in "cantankerous-but-clever old man" roles. His characters, who sometimes exuded an underlying air of the macabre, usually had the last laugh over their more sprightly co-stars. He died fromemphysema andbronchitis at the age of 69 in New York City.29 June 2003 – Katherine Hepburn - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_HepburnKatharine Houghton Hepburn, American actress who was a leading lady in Hollywood for more than 60 years. She appeared in a range of genres, from screwball comedy to literary drama, and she received a record four Academy Awards for Lead Acting Performances, plus eight further nominations. In 1999, Hepburn was named by the American Film Institute the greatest female star of Classic Hollywood Cinema. She was known for her fierce independence and spirited personality. In the 1940s, she began a screen and romantic partnership with Spencer Tracy, which spanned 26 years and nine movies, although the romance with the married Tracy was hidden from the public. Hepburn challenged herself in the latter half of her life, as she tackledShakespearean stage productions and a range of literary roles. Hepburn famously shunned the Hollywood publicity machine, and refused to conform to society's expectations of women. She was outspoken, assertive, and athletic, and wore trousers before they were fashionable for women. She was briefly married as a young woman, but thereafter lived independently. With her unconventional lifestyle and the independent characters she brought to the screen, Hepburn epitomized the "modern woman" in the 20th-century United States, and is remembered as an important cultural figure. She died from cardiac arrest at the age of 96 in Fenwick, Connecticut.Famous Birthdays29 June 1793 – Josef Ressel - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_ResselJoseph Ludwig Franz Ressel,Austrian forester and inventor of Czech-German descent, who designed one of the first working ship's propellers. He worked for the Austrian government as a forester in the more southern parts of the monarchy, including in Motovun,Istria (modern-day Croatia). His work was to secure a supply of quality wood for the Navy. He worked in Landstrass (Kostanjevica on the Krka river in Carniola in modern-day Slovenia), where he tested his ship propellers for the first time. In 1821 he was transferred to Trieste (modern-day Italy), the biggest port of the Austrian Empire, where his tests were successful. He was awarded a propeller patent in 1827. He modified a steam-powered boat Civetta by 1829 and test-drove it in the Trieste harbor at six knots before the steam conduits exploded. Because of this misfortune, the police banned further testing. The explosion was not caused by the tested propeller as many believed at the time. Besides having been called "the inventor of the propeller", he was also called the inventor of the steamship and a monument to him in a park in Vienna commemorates him as “the one and only inventor of the screw propeller and steam shipping”. He was also commemorated on Austria's 500 Schilling banknote in the mid 1960s (P139), which shows him on the front and the ship "Civetta" on the back. Among other Ressel's inventions are pneumatic post and ball and cylinder bearings. He was granted numerous patents during his life. He was born in Chrudim,Bohemia, Habsburg Monarchy.28 June 1818 – Angelo Secchi - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelo_SecchiFr. Angelo Secchi, Italian astronomer by the italian region of Emilia. He was a pioneer in astronomical spectroscopy, and was one of the first scientists to state authoritatively that the Sun is a star. Secchi made contributions to many areas of astronomy. He discovered three comets, including Comet Secchi. He produced an exact map of the lunar crater Copernicus. He drew some of the first color illustrations of Mars and was the first to describe "channels" (canali in Italian) on the planetary surface.Secchi was especially interested in the Sun, which he observed continually throughout his career. He observed and made drawings of solar eruptions and sunspots, and compiled records of sunspot activity. In 1860 and 1870, he organized expeditions to observe solar eclipses. He proved that the solar corona and coronal prominences observed during a solar eclipse were part of the Sun, and not artifacts of the eclipse.However, his main area of interest was astronomical spectroscopy. He invented the heliospectrograph, star spectrograph, and telespectroscope. He showed that certain absorption lines in the spectrum of the Sun were caused by absorption in the Earth's atmosphere. Starting in 1863, he began collecting the spectra of stars, accumulating some 4,000 stellar spectrograms. Through analysis of this data, he discovered that the stars come in a limited number of distinct types and subtypes, which could be distinguished by their different spectral patterns. From this concept, he developed the first system of stellar classification: the five Secchi classes. While his system was superseded by the Harvard system, he still stands as discoverer of the principle of stellar classification, which is a fundamental element of astrophysics. His recognition of molecular bands of carbonradicals in the spectra of some stars made him the discoverer of carbon stars, which made one of his spectral classes. Secchi was active in oceanography, meteorology, and physics, as well as astronomy. He invented the Secchi disk, which is used to measure water transparency in oceans, lakes and fish farms. He studied the climate of Rome and invented a "Meteorograph" for the convenient recording of several categories of weather data. He also studied the aurora borealis, the effects of lightning, and the cause of hail. He organized the systematic monitoring of the Earth's magnetic field, and in 1858 established a Magnetic Observatory in Rome. Secchi also performed related technical works for the Papal government, such as overseeing placement of sundials and repair or installation of municipal water systems. In 1854–1855, he supervised an exact survey of the Appian Way in Rome. This survey was later used in the topographic mapping of Italy. He supervised construction of lighthouses for the ports of the Papal States. He was born in Reggio Emilia.29 June 1861 – William James Mayo - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James_MayoPhysician and surgeon in the United States and one of the seven founders of the Mayo Clinic. He and his brother, Charles Horace Mayo, both joined their father's private medical practice in Rochester, Minnesota, US, after graduating from medical school in the 1880s. In 1919, that practice became the not-for-profit Mayo Clinic. On August 21, 1883, a tornado struck Rochester, killing 29 people and seriously injuring over 55 others. One-third of the town was destroyed, but young Will and his family escaped serious harm. The relief efforts began immediately with a temporary hospital being established at the town's dance hall. The Mayo brothers were extensively involved in treating the injured who were brought there for help. Mother Alfred Moes and the Sisters of Saint Francis were called in to act as nurses (despite the fact they had little if any medical experience). After the crisis had subsided, Mother Alfred Moes approached William Worrall Mayo about establishing a hospital in Rochester. In September 30, 1889, Saint Mary's Hospital opened. In September 1931, Mayo and other prominent individuals of the time were invited by The New York Times to make a prediction concerning the world in eighty years time in the future, in 2011. Mayo's prediction was that the life expectancy of developed countries would reach 70 years, compared to less than sixty years in 1931. “Contagious and infectious diseases have been largely overcome, and the average length of life of man has increased to fifty-eight years. The great causes of death in middle and later life are diseases of heart, blood vessels and kidneys, diseases of the nervous system, and cancer. The progress that is being made would suggest that within the measure of time for this forecast the average life time of civilized man would be raised to the biblical term of three-score and ten.” He was born in Le Sueur, Minnesota.29 June 1868 – George Ellery Hale - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Ellery_HaleAmerican solarastronomer, best known for his discovery of magnetic fields in sunspots, and as the leader or key figure in the planning or construction of several world-leading telescopes; namely, the 40-inch refracting telescope at Yerkes Observatory, 60-inch Hale reflecting telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory, 100-inch Hooker reflecting telescope at Mount Wilson, and the 200-inch Hale reflecting telescope at Palomar Observatory. He also played a key role in the foundation of theInternational Union for Cooperation in Solar Research and the National Research Council, and in developing the California Institute of Technology into a leading research university. In 1908, he used the Zeeman effect with a modified spectroheliograph to establish thatsunspots were magnetic. Subsequent work demonstrated a strong tendency for east-west alignment of magnetic polarities in sunspots, with mirror symmetry across the solar equator; and that the polarity in each hemisphere switched orientation from one sunspot cycle to the next. This systematic property of sunspot magnetic fields is now commonly referred to as the "Hale–Nicholson law," or in many cases simply "Hale's law." Hale spent a large portion of his career trying to find a way to image the solar corona without the benefit of a total solar eclipse, but this was not achieved until the work of Bernard Lyot. He was a prolific organizer who helped create a number of astronomical institutions, societies and journals. He was born in Chicago, Illinois.Events of Interest29 June 1613 – The Globe Theatre in London, built by William Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, burns to the ground. - https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-globe-theater-burns-downThe Globe was built by Shakespeare’s acting company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, in 1599 from the timbers of London’s very first permanent theater, Burbage’s Theater, built in 1576. Before James Burbage built his theater, plays and dramatic performances were ad hoc affairs, performed on street corners and in the yards of inns. However, the Common Council of London, in 1574, started licensing theatrical pieces performed in inn yards within the city limits. To escape the restriction, actor James Burbage built his own theater on land he leased outside the city limits. When Burbage’s lease ran out, the Lord Chamberlain’s men moved the timbers to a new location and created the Globe. On 29 June 1613, the Globe Theatre went up in flames during a performance of Henry VIII. A theatrical cannon, set off during the performance, misfired, igniting the wooden beams and thatching. According to one of the few surviving documents of the event, no one was hurt except a man whose burning breeches were put out with a bottle of ale.29 June 1975 – Steve Wozniak tested his first prototype of Apple I computer. - https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/steve-wozniaks-apple-i-booted-up-tech-revolution-180958112/Apple I was the first computer from Apple. It was fully made by Steve Wozniak with little or no input from Steve Jobs. Apple I came without a keyboard, monitor and even an enclosing cabinet. It was basically a motherboard with chips. At the Homebrew Computer club in Palo Alto, California (in Silicon Valley), Steve Wozniak, a 26 year old employee of Hewlett-Packard and a long-time digital electronics hacker, had been wanting to build a computer of his own for a long time. It didn’t look like much—just a circuit board with 32 chips attached, connected to a video monitor and a keyboard. But when he turned it on? Magic. A cursor appeared on the screen—and better yet, it reacted instantly to whatever keys Wozniak pressed. “I typed a few keys on the keyboard and I was shocked!” he recalled in his memoir, iWoz. It was, he observed, the first time in history anyone had typed on a personal computer and seen the results “show up on their own computer’s screen right in front of them.” The sensation of success—he was looking at random numbers he had programmed—was “like getting a putt from 40 feet away.” The Apple I sold for only $666.66. (Wozniak picked the price because he liked repeating numbers; he had no clue about the satanic resonance.)IntroArtist – Goblins from MarsSong Title – Super Mario - Overworld Theme (GFM Trap Remix)Song Link -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GNMe6kF0j0&index=4&list=PLHmTsVREU3Ar1AJWkimkl6Pux3R5PB-QJFollow us onFacebook- Page - https://www.facebook.com/NerdsAmalgamated/- Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/440485136816406/Twitter - https://twitter.com/NAmalgamatedSpotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6Nux69rftdBeeEXwD8GXrSiTunes -https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/top-shelf-nerds/id1347661094RSS -http://www.thatsnotcanonproductions.com/topshelfnerdspodcast?format=rssInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/nerds_amalgamated/Email - Nerds.Amalgamated@gmail.comSupport via Podhero- https://podhero.com/podcast/449127/nerds-amalgamatedRate & Review us on Podchaser - https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/nerds-amalgamated-623195

CW: Rape, Suicide, Pedophilia It's another Werewolf Week on Pod Sematary! Recommended by listener TheChikapedia, these two movies have some to say about the nature of both humans in general and women in particular, respectively. The Classic Film: The Howling (1981) After a bizarre and near-deadly encounter with a serial killer, a television newswoman is sent to a remote mountain resort whose residents may not be what they seem. When man's animal instincts struggle against their better nature, can they find a balance? The Modern Film: Ginger Snaps (2000) Two death-obsessed sisters, outcasts in their suburban neighborhood, must deal with the tragic consequences when one of them is bitten by a werewolf. The curse of the moon takes a double meaning in this flick focused on becoming a woman. Get more at podsematary.com! Audio Sources: "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" produced by New Line Cinema, et al. "Blazing Saddles" produced by Crossbow Productions & Warner Bros. "Ginger Snaps" produced by Lions Gate Films, et al. "The Howling" produced by Embassy Pictures, et al. "New Year's Evil" produced by Golan-Globus Productions "Pet Sematary" written by Dee Dee Ramone & Daniel Rey and performed by The Ramones

Follow us on Instagram @metal_rock_whiskey Theme song “The Whiskey Always Wins” performed by When Particles Collide. https://www.whenparticlescollide.com Clips from "This is Spinal Tap" copyright 1984 by Embassy Pictures; "Waynes World" copyright 1992 by Paramount Pictures; "Elf" copyright 2003 by New Line Cinema; "Die Hard" copyright 1988 by 20th Century Fox. Song "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" as performed by Helix used under fair use with no infringement intended. Support this podcast

Follow us on Instagram @metal_rock_whiskey Theme song “The Whiskey Always Wins” performed by When Particles Collide. https://www.whenparticlescollide.com Clips from "This is Spinal Tap" copyright 1984 by Embassy Pictures; "Waynes World" copyright 1992 by Paramount Pictures; "Elf" copyright 2003 by New Line Cinema; "Die Hard" copyright 1988 by 20th Century Fox. Song "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" as performed by Helix used under fair use with no infringement intended.

October 3-9, 1981 Today Ken welcomes actor, comedian, voice man Larry Murphy (Delocated, Assy McGee, Bob's Burgers) to the show. Ken and Larry discuss Ken's strange house, growing up with 6 kids in the family, Jiffy Pop, microwave popcorn cancer, saying "weird" too much, Fall Preview, Manimal, lunchbox decisions, Sleestacks, Land of the Lost, Esperanto, second guessing the decision to show your kids Harry Potter, Uncle Granpa, being scared of production company idents, Embassy Pictures, MTM, Newhart, Valerie Bertinelli, Van Halen, David Lee Roth, Walt Disney, Herbie the Love Bug, In Search of. The Amnityville Horror House, The Mandrell Sisters, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Tattoo replacement, racist and insensitive candy, video store hustle, dirty video stores, Eddie Murphy on SNL, talking animal chairs, ChPs, the golden age of stunts, wrestling snakes, Alice, Gambling problems, why cartoons can still be Blue Collar, King of the Hill, Bob's Burgers, Natures wrath as Xmas Ornaments, Mt. St. Helen's, Tiger Woods on That's Incredible at 5 years old, Helen Hunt as Kathy Miller, Monkey bartenders, Them Duke Boys, Three's Company, The Beverly Hillbillies Return, Real People, WKRP in Cincinnati, Two Parters, Alex Rocco, Facts of Life, Friends of Eddie Coyle, loving Robert Mitchum, Mork & Mindy get married, Bosom Buddies, and the Incredible Hulk Out List.