Seen on the Small Screen Podcast: Recent Episodes
Becky and Jake
Greetings and welcome to Seen on the Small Screen. In this podcast, hosts Becky and Jake talk about movies made for television cinema. Listen as they ramble aimlessly, attempting reviews of television movies, pilot episodes, direct-to-DVD releases, and streaming service movies. They'll watch video movies from any decade, both past and present. Nothing is safe so long as it's exclusive to your home or pants pocket viewer of choice. New episodes will be released during the first full week of the month.
In the 1980s, he was a celebrity icon that defined a decade from the Land Down Under. His name was Paul Hogan, the star of Becky, Jake, and Sammy the Cat's latest movie discussion—The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee. This movie has no characters, only actors playing themselves, far from their caricatures. For Paul Hogan, he finds it's rough trying to get by in 2020, mostly due to leaving the massive shadow of his Australian counterpart. Either the public thinks he's Dundee...or they find it difficult to believe he's still even alive. The solution to this and other problems Mr. Hogan faces, at least according to his manager, is a knighting by the Royal house in England. But things are never easy and for Paul it means being in the wrong place at the wrong time and winding up as the top story in the tabloid headlines. Yet, what does our loveable everyman Aussie really want for himself? Simple retirement away from the glamor of Hollywood—relaxation on the shores of a forgotten Australian beach. But, with a mounting hill of troubles and misfortunes, how can he possibly hope to achieve his dream?
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There are those who say that life here, began out there...with producer Glen A. Larsen who presented a story of star colonies far beyond our own...and all without looking like they rode the coat tails of another space opera epic released a year earlier. Don your space Egyptian helmets and frack the turbo boosters, because Becky, Jake, and Sammy the cat are going to discuss the first of the pilot movies that launched the classic 1978 series Battlestar Galactica. The story begins with a space politics truce signed between the human star colonies and a race of chrome-domed stormtroopers known as the Cylons. But Commander Adama of the Battlestar Galactica suspects foul play and sends a single patrol out to test the galactic waters. What the patrol gets in return is an ocean filled with enemy ships who have forgotten to entirely give up on their "destroy all humans" ways. In one swift stroke, the battlestars are destroyed and the human colonies are laid waste, leaving the Galactica at the head of a survivor fleet in search of a lost colony, a shining planet known as Earth. But, the search may be over before it begins for a lack of food and fuel. The solution to both problems is a rendezvous with the mysterious planet of Carillon, a casino world that doubles as a fuel depot in the middle of nowhere, a little like Vegas. Commander Adama's Cylon sense starts tingling and he suspects a trap despite those around him feeling they've finally found a refuge. What happens next involves the greatest cover-up of all time and a nightmare-fueled elevator ride into the depths of an alien world. Can the gallant warriors save their space folk and shoot their way out of dodge before the enemy's full hand is revealed?
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To begin this episode summary, we have a question: What do Disney, Karens, and being stranded on deserted islands all have in common with each other? The answer is the cinematic subject material of June's episode, a Disney vault classic remade for the small screen—Beverly Hills Family Robinson. As mentioned in the title, we meet a family with the last name of Robinson: they're an entitled family of proto-reality television stars who allow their camera crew the right to film them during a companied-sponsored vacation. But, when they wake up a day out to sea, they find their ship hijacked by a crew of three pirates, the likes of which are easy to subdue in a few hours and set adrift in a life raft. It's not piracy but foul weather and rogue waves that inevitably drive the ship onto the shores of an uncharted island without a single luxury aside from a perfectly functional hydro-electric grid that in turn powers a host of other modern conveniences. And when their castaway pirate pals show up as uninvited guests, it's up to the Robinsons to defend their new tree pad, even if they have to resort to every trick in the Home Alone playbook. Doug Robinson, the family patriarch, is an orthodontist after all. Novocain needle traps and nitrous oxide bombs, anyone?
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It's back through the wardrobe for a second round, a chance for Jake, Becky, and Sammy the Cat to prove their wit discussing the final part of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. When we last left our group of youthful adventurers, they were hiding while one of their beaver guides went to investigate a disturbance, which turns out to be a visit from none other than Father Christmas, the Jolly Old Saint Brit himself, and his toy bag filled with non-plastic weaponry. Thusly armed and with winter on the thaw, the children sally forth and meet the next creature on their journey, Aslan the lion and a host of creatures ready to do battle with the White Witch and her army of XP-heavy monsters. But, for there to be a victor in this conflict, a sore battle must be waged for the fate of all. And to the victors go the thrones of Narnia, their heavenly laser crowns, and a surprise trip in time at the end. And why must the land of Narnia be the only locale in the multiverse that has a flying lion attraction?
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Prepare to enter a world of fantasy, something like the NeverEnding Story with the special effects of Classic Doctor Who, an origin story so well known that Becky, Jake, and Sammy the Cat may as well be talking about the origin story of Batman. What we're talking about here is a BBC adaptation with actors speaking in bona fide accents, all to be found in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The time period is the Second World War and siblings Peter, Susan, Edmond, and Lucy are taken by train from London to a rustic English manor. There they find little to do, that is until they find a wardrobe that transports them to another world, a surreal locale populated with fawns, witches, elves, and a host of other humanoids trapped in a perpetual replay of Neverwinter Nights. First Lucy, then her brothers and sister, brave the magical wardrobe and meet a pair of beavers eager to supply them with hefty dinner portions and exposition about a lion. Afterward, they leave as fast as they can when they find out that brother Edmond has pulled a maneuver worthy of a stealthy Robert the Bruce. From there, it's a rush against time and the literal elements as the party flees on foot, pursued by a pack of wolves and the one of the best wolf roars our podcasters have yet heard on this show. And this is just the first part in a children's fantasy yarn full of heroism and hexploration.
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Around 38 episodes ago, Becky, Jake, and Sammy the cat set out on an adventure to watch all the films in a heart-warming franchise about some dragons and their medieval buddies. That enterprise now continues in, Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer's Curse. In an alternate history of England we have Hadrian's Wall, built more like the Wall of China, effectively keeping the northern tribes and magic users in their neck of the hood. Meanwhile, in a random southern settlement with no name, a knight-in-training named Gareth goes off in search of a prophetic meteorite that has fallen on the wrong side of the wall. His solo hex crawl nearly gets him killed; but, it also nets him a few party members and an unlikely, albeit enchanted bond with an interstellar dragon—the keeper of a bunch of brood eggs stolen by a rogue druid. After a raid on the enemy camp, the party flees south with their Fabergé haul towards the wall and a final showdown with the arch druid and the dragon afflicted with a curse, one that will enslave the mystical creature with a desire to burninate the castle and its knight defenders unless our typical band of heroes can find a way to stop it.
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February's episode of Seen on the Small Screen welcomes back a special guest, meaning the only guest to have graced the mics with Becky, Jake, and Sammy the Cat. Our good friend Gregg Paschall (welcome any time he wishes) has brought along with him a movie among movies from wealthy architect turned movie-maker Neil Breen directing, producing, and starring in the film Fateful Findings. The greatest journey to uncover the truth begins in a forest with two kids making the discovery of a lifetime—a mushroom that morphs into a geo cache. They take a bracelet and an onyx d6 out of the magical box and put some pebbles lying nearby back into it, fulfilling the code of the cache. Years roll by and we find one of the children, whom I'll call Neil, walking to his car on a random day when he's sidelined by a lady in a black Rolls Royce we never see again. Fighting his way back from death in a hospital room that looks more like someone's house, our man immediately unplugs himself from life support and heads "home" where he makes out with his wife in the shower, still sporting hospital gauze and corn syrup blood. Bizarre imagery aside, Neil fully recovers and goes back to his old job of writing the next bestseller among the many hardcover props he has all over his office. And he's got a new side gig; he's on the Internet, determined to hack government and corporate websites for all their buried secrets. And no amount of friend trouble, drug use, personal affairs, kidnappings, psychic powers, shadow councils, or mental black garbage bag rooms will stop our friend Neil from standing before us, all in order to expose the greatest conspiracy of all time. Act now. It's our only hope for the future. (Awkward, distant clapping follows)
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Happy 2026, everyone! In today's audio program, Becky, Jake, and Sammy the cat ring in the new year talking about one of many attempts by Marvel Comics to bring their mainstream characters to the big and small screen. Today's movie marks one of those endeavors with action star Reb Brown (of Space Mutiny fame) donning the shield, helmet and star-spangled outfit of Captain America. This movie takes the slow road in its approach to the hero's origin, chronicling one Steve Rogers, fresh out of the military with nothing better on his mind than a desire to wander the country and make art in his fully-carpeted, wood-paneled masterpiece of a van. But, trouble comes finding him when he's drawn into an investigation involving a friend's death, leading to highway hijinks that ultimately land our loveable lug in a hospital bed on life support. The solution? Pump his veins full of a serum that has killed every participant except for Steve's dad. Such risky speculation transforms Steve from mild-mannered ex-military man into the equally ultra-calm superhero Captain America. Fortunately, his opposition, a group of greedy individuals who want to explode a big bomb, are pushy enough that our man has no choice but to don his super skivvies and spring into action. By motorbike or stylish nomadic van, Captain Steve Rogers will see the fight through while rarely using his iconic shield. Still...Captain America. This is what Steve Rogers must inevitably become; the only man capable of prematurely birthing the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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(Editor's note: I wanted to apologize that this installment of the podcast took a few days more to release. The backup of work following a holiday week sometimes builds on itself like a Black Friday shopping line. But the wait is over. Listen on and enjoy the episode!)
How does a Halloween spook convert to Christmas spiritualism, especially when he's the friendliest ghost you know? Becky, Jake, and their stalwart companion Sammy the cat certainly ain't afraid of no ghost, but that is a question they must deal with on today's special holiday episode: Casper's Haunted Christmas. This isn't a run-of-the-mill animated cartoon or a comic book experience, because Casper the Friendly Ghost and his crew have gone full CG for this video movie. At the start, we find the ghost with the most kindness at a generic movie drive-in a little too late to stop his uncles, the Ghostly Trio, from scaring off the theater's clientele. But things take a turn for the worse when the Slimer twins—Officer Slimer and Big McLarge Huge Slimer—show up and tell Casper he has to scare at least one person by Christmas Day or else he and all the specters in his family will face eternal torment in a netherworld of nihilism. But, even with the help of his uncles who disguise his cousin Spooky as a duplicate Casper clone, they fail time and again to fulfill their overseer's best wishes. It's Christmas Eve, judgement day's coming, and no amount of pop-culture references can save the ghostly five from the worst punishment a slimer spook can grant, even for one who doses on protein shakes, gym candy, and always skips leg days because he's not fully manifested below the beltline. A happy holiday season to one and all and a happy new year!
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Happy November, everyone. We're in deep in the grip of the fall season with a wait of a few short weeks until we're at the time of the holiday season. And what better way to celebrate than listening to a story of giving as only our saurian brothers, the dino kids can—the kind that Becky, Jake, and Sammy the Cat have recently viewed and reviewed in The Land Before Time 3: The Time of the Great Giving? Since the end of the last movie, life in the Great Valley has been...well, great for the dino kids. But things are about to get a little post-apocalyptic for the world's first gated community when a giant rock in the sky crashes to the earth ending the valley's waterfall and liquid refreshment supply. While the adults act according to type by sitting on their tail spikes and complaining about the issue, Little Foot and his pals form a literal grass roots movement to save the grass roots and set off on a journey to get the water back. It will take passing through fire and raptor attacks, but believe us when we say that there's a holiday tie-in somewhere in all this. And while we have no mewing from Sammy the cat this time, there are plenty of her personal mic rubs to let you know she's on the prowl. Have a satisfying and happy Turkey Day!
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For this Halloween episode of Seen on the Small Screen, Becky, Jake, and Sammy the cat have once again interrupted the flow of their own podcast schedule to give an extra injection of holiday day cheer for the month when pumpkins grin, no doubt at the prospect that by next month they'll be pie. This time around, they're going to channel the creepy, the kooky, the mysterious, and not to mention the spooky with a late 90's attempt at rebooting another franchise—The Addams Family Reunion. This one starts with an anxious Gomez Addams—played by the venerable Tim Curry—receiving a book in the mail. Calling a family counsel, he reveals it's a book that lists every person with the last name of Addams who ever lived. With this knowledge and a 5,000 dollar fee, they send out feelers for living relatives to enlarge the spooky family circle of weirdness with a +2 modifier. What they get is an invitation to a family reunion, one with an obviously mistaken spelling of Addams. There the Addams meet the Adams, a family of scheming lowlifes out to fleece their patriarch dad of all his wealth. And, Doctor Phillip, the family's oldest son, conspires with his greedy siblings to undo the weird newcomers. Can the Addams Family members find it within themselves to rise and reunite in a film with the word reunion clearly used in its title? Enjoy your journey through fall at this most excellent time of the year.
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He's the man. Catch him if you can. Beat him if you can. Love him if you can. So goes the overlooked ballad of Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar man in the second of the TV show's pilot movies called Wine, Women, and War. This installment finds Steve Austin knee-deep in his position as an agent for OSI, albeit a little closer to James Bond territory. After an tough though successful mission in Alexandria, Oscar Goldman, Steve's new boss, wants to send him out into the field for some follow-up action. Acting a little perturbed, Steve tells Oscar to get bent, bionics his way out of the hospital, and heads to the tropics for a self-appointed vacation and a little mental healing. What he finds there though leads him into a plot involving an arms dealer who's planning the downfall of the Free World. And when Steve's captured while trying to infiltrate the enemy basement that's really a Bond Villain lair, it's up to bionics and 007 puns to save the day and answer the story's big question: is the bionic man on a job or a vacation? And only Steve knows the answer to this, because as we mentioned above, he's the man. Six Million Dollar Man.
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As the title of today's program states, this is the tale of the Brady Bunch sisters, the hybrid of a reunion movie and a last-minute, executive-driven television pilot called The Brady Girls Get Married. Much time has passed for the Brady clan since the show's final episode, enough of it in fact for Carol and Mike Brady to see their youngest daughter Cindy off to college. But, their relaxation as empty nesters is short lived for the elder Brady girls, Jan and Marsha, have found romance; Jan over the course of a long courtship and Marsha in just seven days. Jan's husband-to-be is about as boojie as they come while Marsha's fiancé is a fast-talking stalker who sells toys, which instantly takes away the taboo; yet, both siblings get on board with the idea of tying the knot in the same ceremony. This leads to an assumption on the girls' part as to what their ideal wedding should be: the status quo or 1960's-inspired rebellion? With that and Peter Brady flying Air Force maneuvers on the day of the wedding, can the plot work out a satisfying series end of tying the knot a second time? The Brady's inherent unluck when it comes to weddings point to hijinks and nods to the original series. And about halfway through the episode, Sammy the cat comes a calling with a jingling bell around her neck that Jake and Becky may or may not have forgotten to remove before they began the recording. They, of course, plead plausible deniability to that claim.
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Across the hot desert sands, our intrepid podcasters travel towards a city they've braved once. This is the town of Agrabah and within its walls lies the story of today's episode, the third movie in the Aladdin series, Aladdin and the King of Thieves. It's a happy day in town as the day of Aladdin and Princess Jasmine's wedding day arrives with the return of a voice actor from the first movie, the great Robin Williams contributing his voice talents and matchless one-liners. But humor isn't enough to save the wedding as it's immediately interrupted by a group of bandits who turn out to be the legendary 40 thieves from an entirely different 1,001 Arabian Nights story. It turns out their leader is after a scepter, a magic artifact that possesses the power to grant the answer to any question. Aladdin chooses to ask about his dad, which leads him into the den of the 40 thieves and ultimately a final spin on a magic carpet bound for the greatest treasure that isn't a trite platitude like knowledge or chocolate coins. And why is it that this movie shares so many odd similarities to the movie Krull from the previous episode? Disney magic could be an off-handed explanation for this.
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This program heralds in a series of new beginnings for our podcasting team. The first of these would be an episode odometer reading of an even 50 episodes. The second is another oddity of its own, a new cinema offering that we're calling Beyond the Small Screen. When this little selection comes up, our podcasters have a chance to talk about a movie that was released for a wider audience in a colossally larger theater house. This time, Becky, Jake, and Sammy the cat have chosen a 1980's classic of high fantasy and science fiction, the feature-length movie Krull. In a world light years beyond imagination, the fantasy world of Krull is being invaded by aliens known as the Slayers and their space fortress of teleporting unobtanium. When Colwyn, prince of Kingdom A, tries to wed Lyssa, princess of Realm B, their marriage alliance is interrupted and literally gate crashed by the invading E.T.'s who wound the prince and abduct his bride. This forces Colwyn to assemble a band of misfits and brigands to help in the task of locating the spawning Slayer lair through various obstacles and on the backs of fiery Clydesdales. All of this culminates in a daring dungeon crawl through the enemy stronghold and a final confrontation between the Slayers leader and Jake's childhood weapon of choice other than a lightsaber—the glaive. It's high adventure, romance, swordplay, and laser pew-pewing at its finest—the perfect way to welcome in a milestone episode.
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The Seen on the Small Screen crew don their steward gear and take flight with an episode of Emergency!: The Final Rescues, the 2nd in this run for our intrepid podcasters titled, Survival on Charter #220. Sadly, there's not much Johnny and Roy in this one, although most of the doctors from Rampart General are still around. Instead, we get two carbon copy guys who have the look of the original Johnny and Roy, but not much in the way of charming banter as compared to their counterparts. Meanwhile, in another part of country, we get a tale of two planes: one filled with government officials, the other with soap opera extras—both doomed to collide at the breakneck speed of advancing glaciers. And while this is going down, Johnny and Roy get called to help a girl who desperately needs to get to the hospital, only it happens to be the part of the town where two planes meet and crash in a fiery blaze. That means it's up to Team B to rush in and save the day. Honestly, this humble writer is making this sound more exciting than it actually was. Don't believe it? Jake and Becky have recorded proof from the movie itself.
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Greetings, true bat believers! This installment of Seen on the Small Screen drops us off on the tough streets of Gotham City during the sunset of its psychedelic splendor before eternal night was declared there by DC executives. It's Becky, Jake, and Sammy the cat's chance to utter an innumerable amount of bat prefixes as they discuss the DC cartoon movie, Batman vs. Two Face. Adam West is back, voicing everyone's favorite groovy crimefighter alongside Burt Ward as Boy Wonder Robin. After Batman suggests poetry to reform his on-and-off galpal Catwoman (voiced by Julie Newmar), he's off cavorting with the likes of Doctor Hugo Strange and his new invention guaranteed to suck all the evil out of Gotham's worst criminals. But, as it often happens in comic book stories, things don't go as planned. In this case, it's Gotham DA Harvey Dent (voiced by William Shatner) who gets hit with a dose of evil juju and turns into the maniacal gun-wielding villain, Two Face. And just when Batman thinks his old friend Harvey might be free of his curse, a new shadowy mastermind leads Batman and Robin on a whirlwind race around Gotham with only one intent: capture Batman and sell his secret identity to the highest bidder. The boffs and bazooms with the fisticuffs abound as Batman embarks on his craziest caper yet!
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It's something that's happened on this podcast on a few rare occasions, an event so monumental that Becky, Jake, or Sammy the kitty haven't done it over 10 episodes. Today, they'll be talking about a TV film that was made within our current century, a comedy caper that started life as a television show named Psyche: The Movie. This film picks up after the ending of the television program and finds super psychic detective Sean Spencer in his new digs in San Francisco hot on the trail of his girlfriend's wedding ring, which leads him into trouble with a ring of the thieving variety. But, before he can sort things out with the bandits who want him dead, he's interrupted by another complication: an SFPD officer is shot and winds up at the hospital. Who are the persons who would commit such a crime? Hot on the trail of this second gang leads to a final showdown at Alcatraz and the Psyche team might just run into an old character who's so obscure that it takes Jake and Becky a few minutes to figure out her identity, not to mention an encounter with the best template idea for a hired assassin our podcast trio has seen in years.
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Out in the vastness of space—nowhere near a final frontier or a galaxy far away—lies a port of call and refuge for humans, aliens, and nerds alike. It's the setting for a pilot movie and one of the most successful science fiction television franchises of the 1990s. The name of the place is Babylon 5. Within this space station nexus of galactic civilizations, a council of ambassador representatives wait in eager anticipation for the arrival of the final alien race to join their interstellar coalition. But fresh out of the airlock, they find their visitor on his back and poisoned with foul play as the motive, which finger of blame spins and points to the earth leader of the station, Commander Sinclair. That leaves his chief security officer and the rest of his crew burdened with the task of figuring out who the real culprit is before Sinclair is shipped off-station to an alien armada for their own brand of space justice. And before that begins, we get another head-scratching round of TV Trivia Time with the repeated theme of finding redemption; and, that occurs about the same time Sammy the cat rubs against the mic stands for about a 60 seconds, starting from the 2:00 minute mark of the episode.
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Happy 2025, everyone. It's a new year, a time for resolutions. Are we ready for a return to Perfection, not in human character but a move back to everyone's favorite hillbilly hangout in the American Southwest, the place Becky and Jake refer to as New Arizada? The podcast hosts have their bus tickets in hands as they review the third movie in the Tremors franchise, Tremors 3: Back to Perfection. Michael Gross dons his urban survival gear yet again as Burt Gummer, back in his hometown after working as an international graboid exterminator. Eleven years have gone by since the first renowned graboid invasion and things seem dull in the old town, but all that's about to change. From out of the desert sands, a new generation of ground-dwelling worms emerge and begin a new round of terror with an insatiable appetite to eat all they see and mutate into their second form: the shrieker. And things get even more tense when it's discovered that perhaps those wascaly ground burrowers have a spare form they didn't bother to let anyone know about until now, a mutation with a name so ridiculous, it gives Becky and Jake pause to even say it. Keep an ear close to the radio dial for all the excitement and Sammy the cat as she delivers her own conjecture and rubs the mic stand to prove her point throughout the episode.
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May jingle bells rock and bring joy to the world because the season of Christmas is officially here along with some Halloween leftovers; at least, that's what Becky, Jake, and Sammy the cat find out when they watch and review suburbia's premier family of Hollywood horrors in a movie called The Munster's Scary Little Christmas. When the holiday season comes to Mockingbird Heights, the Munster family gleefully anticipates the coming of Christmas, all except everyone's favorite Preteen Wolf, Eddy Munster. In an attempt to raise his holiday spirits, the family comes up with a plan to bring snow to their home but instead summon Kris Kringle and two of his elven helpers. These little guys, acting according to their fey-like natures, are sick of working for Santa and hatch a plan to delay his attempt at getting back to the North Pole in time for Christmas Day. Can Herman Munster, a crew of rowdy bikers, and the greatest gift idea of all time cure Eddy of his yuletide blues and help Santa save the jolly season? And...can Jake keep his maintain his wits as he talks about an ending befitting the Fox Network of the mid-1990's? Regardless of whether you can answer either of these rhetorical questions, the crew of Seen on the Small Screen wish you all a merry little Christmas and happy new year in 2025.
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The time of witches, ghosts, and pumpkins has arrived, dear folks. Welcome to our spooky special, uploaded under the wire and in time for the holiday season! In tonight's tale of macabre, Jake, Becky, and Sammy the cat take you to an unlikely place for cursed creatures—the haunted halls of our nation's capital as seen in the 1973 tv special, The Werewolf of Washington. Jack Whittier, played by Dean Stockwell, is a reporter who is summoned back to Washington D.C. with a job he can't refuse from the president of the United States. What Jack doesn't mention is that he's been the victim of a vicious wolf attack that leaves him a teensy bit inclined to howl at the moon. What follows is a retelling of the classic werewolf story as if it were to happen in the heyday of American politics back in the 70s: all Jack wants is to leave the president's Hotel California, but things aren't going to be that easy when you're trying to appease the most powerful man in the free world by day and terrorizing our nation's citizens and the president's political opponents by night. It's a tough life for a lycanthrope regardless of the era or the political regime they happen to live in. And lastly, a big shout out and thanks to our friend John for the suggestion that made this episode possible!
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The hour has struck, everyone. It's time to brush the dust off our badges, shine our spurs, and....oh wait. We did all that in the last episode. At long last—about a month by my reckoning—the time's come for us to mosey down the dusty trail with Becky, Jake, and Sammy the cat as they take on the second part of Kenny Rogers as The Gambler: The Adventure Continues. When last we left our heroic buckaroos, they were looking to effect a rescue on the final member of their gang from a crooked Sherriff and his odd sense of justice. Whether successful or not, they still have a ways to travel until they reach Jubilee and the final confrontation with the villainous outlaw Charlie McCourt and his band of hooligans. And bandits aside, the trail still holds a court of intrigue for our heroes: love triangles, betrayals, gunfights, double crosses, poorly explained character motivations, and a slew of other dangers until all the final poker hands are revealed at their final destination. Who will win the day and make off with the greatest prize of them all? All this and more is brought to you by the Gambler franchise, now with 175% more camping scenes!
This month's episode is proof that good things can come in pairs, card pairs preferably, or a pair of deuces if the odds favor you. And good fortunes are ever in the court of Kenny Rogers in his second outing as gambler Brady Hawkes in The Gambler 2: The Adventure Continues. In this first part of a three-hour film, Kenny Rogers and Billy Montana are back, on board that faithful train rolling down the track to the big poker tournament. But they're in for a bit of layover when a gang of thieves show up and kidnap Kenny's son Jeremiah as hostage for a gold shipment bound for Jubilee, Arizona. That means it's time to perform a heroic rescue, a task that Kenny Rogers tries to do on his own; however, he changes his mind when he realizes he's up against a band of 60 and even at his best, he could not hope to defeat so many. In the end, he agrees to go at them with Billy Montana and a handful of experts, the last of which is a female hired gun who may be headed to an untimely demise before Kenny can enlist her in his cause. Stay tuned to the next episode for the sensational solution to this climax and other perplexing paradigms...same gambler time, same gambler channel.
When twins aren't enough to cause mayhem among their parent's choice of fiancés, why not increase the number of identical kids for an extra dose of abnormal? That's the formula Disney followed in the third movie of their Parent Trap saga, Parent Trap III, which is the topic of discussion for today's podcast episode. When triplets Lisa, Jessie, and Megan come back home after separately studying abroad over the summer, they find one of their number has brought with her an enigmatic boyfriend known only as Hawk...and then they find out well after the airport that their dad met someone while they were out and is tying the knot. Things get weirder from there, as we're introduced to Susan, played again by Haley Mills, who comes on the scene as the interior decorator for daddy Jeffrey's home, courtesy of his bride to be. Oh, and did we mention that Lisa left a boyfriend at home who wants continue where they left off? Her solution, of course, is to play the old Parent Trap game of "Switch the Lookalike," essentially enlisting her sister to make the moves on her old boyfriend while she continues her infatuation with the ultimate surfer/biker, Hawk. And if that isn't enough, think about what happens when the triplets decide to fix Susan up with their dad mere days before his wedding? With a plot like this, what's the use of social media feeds? And if you feel so inclined, hang about until the ending of today's show for a special announcement that will shake up Becky and Jake's choice of future episodes.
Today's episode of Seen on the Small Screen finds Jake and Becky heading back to school, transferring from the public education sector to military school as they talk about the 1986 television movie Combat Academy. When high school jokers Max and Perry cause enough mayhem to get suspended from school and arrested on the first day of class, they find themselves attending the town's local military high school on a courtroom mandate. Lucky for them, they're bringing a hefty A-list of television celebrities in full roles and cameos along with them, like, say: Jon Ratzenberger, Bernie Kopell, Sherman Hemsley, Robert Culp, Jamie Farr, George Clooney, and Richard Moll. Trapped in the microcosm of military school, the boys soon find out their normal pranks only lead to misery and more pushups. And in due time, a plane of cadets from the Soviet Union is going to land, not to invade, but take on their American counterparts in a war game that might very well determine the fate of the Cold War. All that may happen unless Max and his military squad can forge a plan to win the day for everyone. While this movie may appear like a family-friendly version of Police Academy, it's not all that bad even if it is trying to be a unique IP traipsing in camouflage and face paint as another IP.
Take a trip back to the groovy decade of the 1970s with Sammy the cat, Jake, Becky, the EMTs of Station 51, and the doctors of Rampart General Hospital in the first of many TV movie from the television show Emergency! (And most of the original cast are back, which is pretty good for a near reunion TV film.) When a sketchy painter, a bunch of inflammables, and his cigarette mix together in a skyscraper stairwell, the resulting cocktail starts a conflagration the likes of which summons a host of firefighters, paramedics (including John Gage and Roy de Soto), and three whole battalion chiefs. This isn't a series of rescues from a variety of places like from the Emergency! series. Here you have one building and all its potential victims: office gals in distress, a fellow paramedic with a feather-weight noggin, and a rather odd if not entirely oblivious coin collector. Daring heroics and a treacherous climb down an elevator shaft are the only way Johnny and Roy can survive the raging steel inferno, which has nothing to do with an Irwin Allen inferno of the same name. The boys in blue and their fine slip-proof dress shoes are back!
Another day, another beginning, this time of another DVD value pack purchased from the wonderful world of Wallymart. Our feature is the third in a series of films about a St. Bernard from the 90's and 00's, a dog named for a classical composer. It's Beethoven's Third, kicking off your summer of vacationing with the further adventures of the Newton family, though sadly not the original bunch from the first two films. Meet Richard, brother to George Newton, played by the prolific Judge Reinhold. Richard's clan has has a state-of-the-art RV circa 2000 with it's own portable DVD player and a single movie library. (What can we say? Movie discs were expensive back then.) They're all but ready to depart on their summer journey when a non-descript crate is left on their front lawn. What could be in the box that looks a lot like a raptor's cage? It's Beethoven, arriving just in time to turn the lives of these new Newtons upside down as they travel from locale to locale on their way to a family reunion where they'll turn the St. Bernard back over to George. What could possibly go wrong other than a dog running amok? Well, there is something actually, because two crooks on the trail of a special DVD code have tracked it to the Newton's trailer, then do their absolute worst to get a hold of it. Now we can definitively ask the question. What could possibly go wrong?
So it ends...one of the funniest television series from the 1960s fast forwarded to the far off year of 1991. It's the final television movie based on the I Dream of Jeannie series titled as if by anagram, I Still Dream of Jeannie, and Sammy the Cat, Becky, and Jake are on hand to grant your every wish, at least as it pertains to reviewing this episode. After Colonel Anthony Nelson is called into deep space on a mission of the utmost importance, our resident Jeannie goes on a quest to zap him back at the request of their son, Tony Jr. Unfortunately, the only way to get him back is to pinpoint his exact location from a dossier residing in a NASA fortress. And added to the difficulties, Jeannie's informed by her extra-planar boss that her time as a genie is set to expire, and to in order stay, she'll need to get an adult master who's under 21 and single. Cue a long series of events with wannabe bandits, bad tv cops, and Bob, Tony Jr.'s high school guidance counselor as they help and mostly hinder Jeannie from attaining a solution to all her problems in a timely 90-minute manner. The rules of the genie realm will never be the same!
Steve Austin.
Astronaut.
A Man Barely Alive...
So it begins...one of the most iconic television series of the 1970s. The only irony is these opening lines are nowhere to be found in the pilot episode, The Six Million Dollar Man, today's offering by bionic lovers Becky, Jake, and Sammy, the "laser-eye" kitty. When test pilot and all-around good guy Steve Austin runs into a mishap while flying an experimental craft for NASA, he finds himself in rough shape. Enter Dr. Rudy Wells with an idea and Mr. Oliver Spenser, a representative from government with six-million buckaroos to burn. Combine the two and we get Steve Austin repaired and back on his feet, breaking all sorts of treadmill records as the world's first bionic man. But what's the price tag? It's Steve being dropped into the middle of a desert crawling with terrorists and nothing but the will to survive when everyone wants him dead, including his boss...Mr. Spenser? Yep, 'fraid so. Can the newly commissioned bionic man overcome the depression of being different from the rest of humanity? What could Sammy the cat's meows and rubbing of the mic stand mean in regard to this television classic? And could a crossover with The Six Million Dollar Man and Stephen King's The Shining be the very idea Hollywood needs to jumpstart another golden age of cinema?
What's grooving, everybody? Becky Jake and Sammy, the original cool kitty, have your number and a pleasant trip back to the early 2000s with another animated Disney sequel. What sets this one apart from the other Disney sequels the SoTSS crew have watched is the soothing tones of hip jazz music. And the name of this wacked-out cinema feature? 101 Dalmatians: Part II: Patch's London Adventure. When the owners of the 103 spotted dogs, Roger and Anita put their plans in motion of moving their pooches to the dalmatian plantation of the first film, everything works accordingly except for one problem: they leave one puppy behind, home-alone style. But that's okay, because the lost puppy Patch is having a bit of an individuality crisis among a hundred other siblings. His solution? Travel to the big city and team up with the TV dog of his dreams and help him do heroic deeds to retain his starring role. And so, no one is surprised more than Patch when he realizes that one of their rescues involves them sneaking into a beatnik artist's studio to save all 100 of his siblings from the clutches of doggie nemesis Cruella De Vil and her band of Baduns.
Don your swimming gear and swim the depths of the deep blue in a banana-colored swimming suit because Jake, Becky, and Sammy the cat have the television movie Man from Atlantis in their periscope sights. In this 70s science fiction pilot film, young Patrick Duffy plays a John Doe who washes up on the beach after a storm—a man barely alive. A group of navy scientists quickly find out this is no ordinary land-dwelling individual: he can swim faster than a dolphin and his body can withstand ocean pressure that would crush steel drums like a soda can. Knowing a fall guy when they see one, the navy brass enlist the man they name Mark Harris on a mission to recover a lost submarine. What Mark uncovers at the bottom of the ocean is a secret, one that could be described as another movie entirely, like say, something out of a James Bond film. Such are the adventures of a man, his cat-like contact lenses, and chiseled abs on display for nearly all the movie's final act.
Season's greetings to everyone from Becky, Jake, and sometimes Sammy the cat. They've got the tinsel on the tree, mistletoe by the manger and a movie to discuss, that singular thing we all think of during the happiest time of the year...tornados? That's right, and the film's name is Christmas Twister. The holiday hijinks start when Ethan, a meteorology professor, is forced to make his university rounds at 3am to figure why out-of-season tornados are touching down all over the Fort Worth, Texas area. When he fails to convince the television station through his wife that anything's the matter, Ethan will take the twisters by the overshoots and head out to rescue every member of his family from the storm's fury. Wait, we are talking about a Christmas flick, aren't we? The decorations in the backdrop, Santa Claus, and the Dickensian-dressed carolers appear to indicate a holiday special. Just listen to the story and come to your own conclusions. No judgment calls from us.
The cast of Seen on the Small Screen want to wish you all a happy Christmas season. We hope to greet you all again on the flip side of another new year.
The gals from the Facts of Life are back for a trip to another exotic locale and Becky, Jake, and Sammy the Cat will be the tour guides as the hosts talk about the movie, The Facts of Life Down Under. On a summons from their sister school counterpart, the crew tag along for a free vacation with Natalie who will be giving a graduation speech in Australia's capital city. In the days they have until that time, the girls get up to norm in sitcom hijinks: Blair and Jo have a jeweled mystery caper, Tootie travels to the Outback to hang with the indigenous peoples, and the girl's new matron Beverly Ann and her ward Andy travel to sheepherding country to look up one of Beverly's old flames. Meanwhile, Natalie finds romance with a rugged-looking cattle rancher named Ren, but when their Dundee truck lookalike breaks down, she finds herself trapped in the middle of nowhere with no apparent way to get back to Sydney. And, resting in her bag is the very jewel that will get Blair and Jo out of their predicament.
From all of us at Seen on the Small Screen, have a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday.
Return with Becky, Jake, and Sammy the Cat to a city of magic and monsters in a world set apart from ours until the night when America's sugar threshold goes into overdrive; It's the sequel to Halloween Town, simply titled Halloween Town 2: Calebar's Revenge. A few Octobers have passed for the heroic Cromwells of the first film, when a pair of strangers, Alex and Cal, come calling to their Halloween party and do some poking around. In the heist that follows, Cal steals Debbie Reynolds's book of spells and uses it to turn the city of Halloween Town into a monochrome paradise and its happy monsters into hopeful members for the Squaresville fan club. That leads the Cromwells on a search through space and time for the back-up spell book, a tome that could be the only thing keeping the powers of darkness from closing the portal between the worlds and ruining a perfectly spooky high school dance. And this episode may be a record on how early Sammy takes the spotlight, yearning to mew for you all. Have a happy and safe Halloween season!
What do you get when you mix a cast of misfits with burrowing sand creatures who have nothing whatsoever to do with the geriatric spice melange? What you get is the movie Tremors 2: Aftershocks; and, Becky, Jake, and Sammy the cat are on hand to get you on rocky ground by any means they can. When Earl, played by Burt Ward from the first film, falls on hard financial times with a failing ostrich farm, a lucrative offer from a Mexican oil company lures him and a spunky young man (not Kevin Bacon) to go on a graboid hunt. Armed with RC cars and TNT, they declare war on the less intelligent relatives of the first film's underground monsters. But when a graboid mutation pits them against an entirely different creature, Earl is forced to call in an old friend with a truck load of explosive firepower. A literal truck load. And even then, what's that against creatures who have Predator infrared vision and can form cheerleading pyramids? And...Becky and Jake have a small surprise to reveal at the end of the episode, so keep that expensive ear bud stuck in the ear canal and tuned in, so that it won't slide out and vanish into the grass.
String the lyre and gather, oh listener. Gather round and hear a tail of tale involving a Disney animated sequel from the 2000s. The story's narrated by none other than Becky and Jake; the movie's name is Lady and the Tramp 2: Scamp's Adventure. (And of course, Sammy the Cat makes a cameow or two as well.) When Scamp, the mutt offspring of Lady and the Tramp wants something more than his provincial life of being chained in the backyard, he'll run away from home and meet the junkyard dogs, a group of transient pooches who are far more dexterous than their homebound kin. But, to align with this crew, our lone hero must perform a series of labors to prove his mettle involving a big ogre dog, romance, betrayal, and multiple run-ins with a dog catcher who sounds like Don Knotts—affectionately called the Don Knotts Catcher. But when things turn for the worse with a trip to the pound, it's up to the old home guard to swoop in and give young Scampules one more shot at choosing between the streets and a loving family. And stuck in the middle of it all, listen as our fearless podcasters sing a duet while serenading one of the movie's many musical numbers. Plus, there's another installment of TV Trivia Time, another chance for Becky and Jake to prove their pop culture quality to the denizens of podcast land.
It's around the year 1987 and a group of somebodies in the Hannah Barbara animation studios have decided to answer the ultimate question for their ultimate franchises. The question they intend to answer is this: What would happen if the modern stone-aged family met the ultra-modern family of the future? What we get is The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones, the movie Becky and Jake will be discussing with guest "cameows" provided by Sammy the cat. After being simultaneously fired from their respective places of employment, both families take a much needed getaway; the Flintstones depart to the backwoods and the Jetsons go on a time travel trip that sends them to prehistoric times where they run into the band from Bedrock. Elroy Jetson, super kid genius, attempts to fix the broken time machine but winds up sending the Flintstones and the Rubbles into the future where they become corporate sponsors, which leaves the Jetsons stuck in the past with an awed populace ready to worship their marvels of technology. Can the timelines be set right between these cartoon clans before a butterfly is harmed, causing true damage to the spacetime continuum? Stay tuned for the exciting outcome and find out if the gods of chaos will be benevolent to Jake and Becky after giving them a pair of easy questions from the previous episode. How long can their luck hold?
Editor's Note: This episode was recorded with equipment I hadn't used before in order to connect three microphones. Because of that, the sound levels clipped a lot during the recording. I did my best to lower the loud audio during the post process, which took away most of the peaked audio. However, there are a number of spots where the audio sounds washed out and crackly. But with that said, enjoy our discussion of High School USA!
Just in time for the end of the school year, take a step back in time with Becky, Jake, and Gregg Paschall of Gregg's Guide to New Music, right in time for the start of a new school year, the year of 1983 at High School USA. This charming time capsule unites the star power of Michael J. Fox, Crispin Glover, Nancy McKeon, Todd Bridges, and Dana Plato to name but a few in the high school classroom of yesteryear. Beth Franklin (McKeon), a regular girl, is given the chance to climb the school social ladder when she starts dating the school's premier alpha jerk, Beau Middleton played by Anthony Edwards. And it's around that time she meets J. J. Manners (Michael J. Fox), a laid back latchkey kid who does nothing to hide the fact that he's a slacker like his father if his dad ever appeared onscreen, which he doesn't. When Beau catches J.J. chatting it up with his gal on the ferris wheel, he puts a plan in motion that will pit the patrician alpha kais against the plebian geeks and losers in a car race. Sure, that may sound like the plot of every other 80s school movie out there, but it really doesn't matter. The collective starshine here is more than enough to vaporize the clouds of all the teen dramady troupes it uses. Bottle this film's nostalgia like fine wine for enjoyment on a chilly night.
Ep. 25 Bats v Supes in Technicolor
Good evening Mr. and Mrs. America and all meta humans fighting for truth and justice. Welcome to a special edition of the Metropolis evening news. We have a breaking story on hand courtesy of cub reporters Becky, Jake, and their trusty companion, Sammy the cat. The Joker, Gotham City's notorious super criminal, has stolen an ancient curio made of the green meteorites that men of steel tend to steer clear of. Word is that he's prowling the streets of our fair city with a bat-hooded vigilante tracking him, Harley Quinn, and a band of goons to several LexCorp factories. As usual, multi-billionaire business mogul Lex Luthor had nothing to say about this connection. My word to the viewers is this: can the Batman and Metropolis's favorite son set aside their differences and put and end to this menace before our city suffers a horrible fate? We can only muse. Now back to our regularly scheduled program.
Welcome friends to this, the 25th episode of the Seen on the Small Screen podcast. In yet another go-round of TV Trivia Time, Jake and Becky grasp at bunches of straws in an attempt to come up with plausible answers. Also, as part of this quarter milestone, they're pleased to introduce a new kind of film they'll be putting into their rotation of cinematic choices, which movies may not have much in common with being on a tiny screen at all.
Well, I'll be hornswoggled! Not that anyone on this podcast presently is; I just wanted to use that term in some context and today's episode makes it possible. It's a journey to the time of the Old West, and you'll be riding with the likes of Becky and Jake who will reckon the adventures of country star Kenny Rogers in The Gambler. Taking a cue from one of his own songs, Kenny Rogers plays as gambler Brady Hawkes and his journey to aid "not a bullfrog" Jeremiah—the son he never knew he had. Hopping aboard the local train bound for Yuma, Mr. Rogers assembles his adventuring party: a young married woman with a mysterious past as the healer and a shifty young gambler who plays the rogue with little to no skill in deception, or hornswollgery, if you will. On this train these brave should will have random encounters with bar ruffians, business moguls, assassins, and of course, a high stakes game of poker before their train comes rolling into town. And at the end of the line, there's a man from Mr. Roger's past who would love nothing more than to prevent the old gambler from playing the game for their lives. Nothing to do here but hold'em and fold'em, then calmly walk away before breaking into a canter. Plus, there's a chance to see if Becky and Jake can rise from utter defeat in another installment of TV Trivia Time. Perhaps a special appearance from Sammy the cat can help them do just that.
If we hold on together, Becky and Jake just might stand a chance as they begin their perilous journey through The Land Before Time series, starting with the second film, simply titled, The Great Valley Adventure. Join the dino gang: Little Foot, Cera, Duckie Petrie, and Spike as they're forced into premature adulthood via the task of raising a dinosaur hatchling. The only problem is, this newborn thunder lizard has a mouth full of razor sharp teeth and will eventually grow to roughly the height of six Andre the Giants stacked on top of each other. Plus, fresh over the mountainous wall of the Great Valley gated community, there come two raptorlike creatures who chase the dream of sampling tasty dino eggs followed by a duo of concerned T-Rex parents in search their offspring. What follows for the dino kids is a grand adventure and a hidden lesson in tolerance, which is surprisingly deep for a kid's movie; at least, that's the conclusion that Jake came to. But do come along for the fun and the musical numbers sung by the dino kids who are just playing and having a good time. For Becky and Jake though, they must travel on, following the golden circle for twelve more Land Before Time movies before they can say their trip to huge valley is done.
(And contrary to what you may hear, Becky and Jake's ability to correctly identify dinosaurs by their species is actually on par with what a preschooler knows since they identified only two out of the all the species shown in the film. Correcting this information may very well be part of their journey too.)
The title for Becky and Jake's latest small screen review may be the most bizarre yet—the movie, Robocroc. What is a Robocroc? It occurs when a rocket payload of flea-like robots crash land in the middle of a crocodile enclosure in the oddest amusement park ever conceived by humankind. And only Duffy, played by Parker Lewis Can't Lose alum Corin Nemec, and his crew of biologists can save the day. Along the way, they make a shaky alliance with a military team run by a likeable Colonel and a not-so-likeable Doctor determined to thwart their every move; that is, until they're mollified by a few random science facts. Together, they attempt to subdue the croc as she uses a super-convenient sewage system to wreck terror on the unsuspecting patrons at the zoo, the water park, the ATV course, and the fishing pond of No Name Park. But when your robocroc generates armor plating strong enough to repel bullets like pesky flies, what hope do the heroes have of stopping her? And why, pray tell, does Jake have such a hard time of pinning the gender of the movie monstrosity throughout the episode? Probably because he didn't check the croc's underside; not that he'd even want to.
So strap in and hold tight. This will be a clunky gear-grinder of a ride.
Welcome and well met, traveler. Your quest is to assemble a party of podcasters: Jake, Becky, and Sammy the kitty. They have been chosen to unravel the yarn of Dragonheart: A New Beginning, a direct sequel left with the task of continuing a story meant to be a singular cinema experience. When Geoff, Christopher Masterson's Francis from Malcom in the Middle, takes up a rogue's quest to ransack a dungeon in order to become a knight, he meets Drake, a dragon who is more cartoon than terrifying boss encounter. With the help of a monk and a duo of traveling martial artists, they'll strive to unlock Drake's kid-friendly abilities of spitting ice and flatulating fire to counter a prophecy that foretells a disaster of dragon-sized proportions. With epic music played from the start, this is the story of how one's to trade away one's dragonheart. Enjoy all this plus the redemption a player finds in this month's go-round of TV Trivia Time, all in January's edition of Seen on the Small Screen.
Have a happy, healthy, and safe new year!
(Editor's Note: The sound quality on Jake's microphone suffers a bit in this episode. The truth is our mixer was dying a slow death, but we didn't realize that until a few more episodes had gone by. We apologize for the inconvenience.)
If you're feeling the chill of winter setting in this holiday season, take an imaginary desert trip on a magic carpet and listen to Becky and Jake's interpretive take on Disney's Aladdin: The Return of Jafar. In one of the first animated direct-to-video sequels for good ol' Disney Corp., we find Aladdin and company chilling in Agrabah, foiling thieves and kindling romances with full transparency. But, out in the desert, from under the dunes, an evil vizier-turned genie is fighting his way back from the Cave of Wonders with vengeance as his ultimate goal. And, to make matters worse, he'll have to do it without his wise-cracking, singing parrot. But that's no problem. Jafar will pick up a new goon in the form of a middle-aged man down on his luck with self-esteem issues; it's Jason Alexander reprising his role as the relatable thief, George Costanza. Together, they'll put the squeeze on Aladdin and his companions, making their revenge the best kind of dish—a cold one. And while you're listening, keep an ear out for a series of bell jingles throughout the episode, mostly when Becky and Jake are trying to talk. It's another round of musical collar cameos by Sammy the cat, and for this time of year, it's strangely appropriate.
Have a happy and safe holiday season from all of us here at the Seen on the Small Screen Podcast!
This month's TV movie takes us into the time machine for an extra long trip, traveling further back in time than Becky and Jake have gone before. It's the year 1971 in the greater Los Angeles area. Here we meet Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto, two firefighters who join a pilot program to become something new in the world of emergency services, a fireman who can render medical aid under a doctor's direct supervision—a paramedic. But not everyone is in favor of this change. Only the head of Rampart General Hospital's emergency unit, Doctor Kelly Brackett, stands in the way allowing a bill to pass which would allow fireman the legal permission to perform medicine in the field. Is there no way to change his mind? Could perhaps a piano serenade be the answer? A sudden surprise cameo by two fictional Adam police officers made flesh is more than enough to make this television pilot one of the flagship television series of the 1970's. It may seem commonplace nowadays, but the idea of getting paramedical attention was brand new in the 70s, making way for an informative and very entertaining 90-minute PSA.
(Disclaimer: It happened again. Much as the Munster oddity before it, we recorded the Halloween Town episode earlier this year, and it was entirely due the lottery of titles we randomly select, again at the time of recording. If there is blame is to be placed, it should fall to Random.org. But we're happy to present you with another offering that's relevant to the pumpkin season. Enjoy!)
Through a swirling vortex of green colors and flashing lights, your destination awaits. Your means to get there? A yellow magic school bus. Your final stop is the quaint locale known as Halloween Town, a refuge for monsters and magic users settled in safety from the human race. Into this Norman Rockwell spook town we have the Cromwell clan, helmed by Debbie Reynolds with her daughter and three grand children. When a guy in a scarecrow mask and a dementor's cloak causes the good folk of the town vanish, it's up to Team Reynolds to solve the mystery of the villain's identity and defeat the malevolence before his curse can engulf the town. Can they complete the kid-inspired fetch quest and discover the secret to Halloween Town's magic in time? Those fans of movies in the Disney universe should be all too familiar with the answer to the second question. Hint: It has something to do with a band and their Journey(capitalization fully intended). We at the Seen on the Small Screen podcast wish you all the best this Halloween season. Happy haunting!
(Disclaimer: This episode came up in the manner we chose our most recent episodes, from the ether of random chance. We recorded this back in January and had no idea it would be released this close to Halloween. So, enjoy this unintended near-to-Halloween treat!)
New this month, we ring in the Fall season with the Halloween hijinks of America's favorite monster sit-com family in The Munster's Revenge. Another TV reunion film, you may ask? You better believe it, with the likes Fred Gwynne, Al Lewis, and Yvonne de Carlo back in their roles as the Frankenstein father, vampire Grandpa, and the Promethean's bride. When your friendly neighborhood wax museum of horrors turns out to be a front for the mad Dr. Diablo and his army of monster robot criminals, it's Herman and Grandpa who get pegged by the police as the culprits. It becomes the Munster's job to fix the status quo by taking a trip to Transylvania, searching for a potion that will foil the doctor's plans to steal a priceless museum collection. Can the Munster clan succeed and get back home in time to celebrate All Hallows Eve with carols of arsenic and garlic around the Halloween tree? Does it sound like a typical plot from the Munster's television show? Sure, with some bits from Gilligan's Island thrown in for good measure. And be prepared as Jake and Becky introduce yet another segment to the show where they test their breadth of small screen knowledge in a new tv trivia feature.
Gather round good people of the soil and listen to a ballad of the year 1990 and a return to chores, stores, fresh air, and Times Square Super Mario Bros. time capsules in the television film Return to Green Acres. In yet another movie that reunites most of a television cast past their primes, we find Oliver and Lisa Douglas still struggling to make a living in their quaint though dysfunctional country home. But the norms of simple country life come to an abrupt end when a greedy land grabber rolls into town, and with the help of local swindler Mr. Haney, the land deeds of everyone in the town are taken, which forces the farm folk to pack up and face the tough streets of the Big Apple. It's up to the Douglas family save their country domicile and the make the final decision on where they'd rather stay. And be sure to tune in at end of the episode for an all-new segment where Becky and Jake use the powers of randomness to determine the watching material for their next episode.
Who traps the parent trapper? This is the phrase foremost on Becky and Jake's mind as they discuss today's tv Sunday Movie by Disney: The Parent Trap 2. In yet another sequel that takes place decades after the original, we find the Haley Mills twins all grown up and far removed from the success of reuniting their parents in wedded bliss. When Sharon, twin no. 1, sends her daughter Nikki to summer school, the girl makes the best of things in remedial English by becoming insta-bestie's with fellow classmate Mary. Together they hatch a scheme to get their single parents together and not because they're estranged siblings. The truth is they want to be sisters real, real bad. To aid them in this quest, they enlist the help of aunt Susan, twin no. 2, and ask her to be her sister so as to move the romance along its natural course. The outcome of Nikki and Mary's byzantine plans causes a comedy of errors which would make the Barber of Seville find another line of work. And when the dust of the intrigue and masquerade has settled, will the mood be favorable to marriage lightning captured not once, but twice in a bottle?
In a cookie cutter house in the middle of suburbia, there is a stairway. At the top of those stairs is an attic with a dark scientific secret. Will you, the listener, walk those steps and risk the shrinking machine? Today, Becky and Jake are talking about Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves, a Disney adventure of miniaturized people who have no affiliation to the MCU. When a girl's weekend out and a boy's space shuttle launch event don't go as planned, The adults in the Zelenski clan are shrunk to a quarter of an inch in stature. Trapped in their own house, they're forced to master matchbox thrill rides, bubble travel, chip dip butterfly strokes, and spider diplomacy, all to make it known to their partying teenagers that they've seen and heard everything they've done over the weekend. Can this and more product placement than a Superman film return things back to the 5'10 status quo?
Greetings, weary traveler. Do come in and shake the rain from your cloak. Take a place near to the hearth and sip on honeyed mead while our resident minstrels, Jake and Becky, perform for you a perceived interpretation of table top role-playing games in their 1980's infancy. The tale's name? Mazes and Monsters. It stars a young Tom Hanks and some other college students who experience the perils of relationships and their own imaginations when a "dress as your character" gaming night in a cave causes young Tom to fail an intelligence check and suffer psychic damage. Follow Hanks's tortured journey into inexplicable confusion as he wanders the streets of New York attacking punk ruffians and attempting to complete a dream-induced laundry list of touristy places to visit. Will the power of gaming friendship be enough to save him? But, rest deep in you chair, dear friend. Maze controllers Becky and Jake have the dice and will make your stay in this audio inn as cheery as possible.
When you take the good and the bad along with a slew of chances, there you have this episode's subject material, The Facts of Life go to Paris. In a movie placed in the middle of the television series, the girls from Eastland Academy and Mrs. Garrett pack their bags and head for vacation and study in the land of the brie. But after being sentenced to a month of hard academic labor instead of seeing the sights, the girls hatch a scheme and ditch their head mistress in the most obvious way possible. It then becomes Becky and Jake's task to parse out four simultaneous story lines, each dealing with one or two teenagers who wander around Paris and the French countryside all by themselves. Journey along with reckless abandon for a study abroad school trip which may be the best or the most perilous vacation in tele-played television history.
In a world where criminals operate above the law and mullets reign supreme, Jake and Becky talk about an attempted spinoff of the Knight Rider television series titled "Code of Vengeance." When martial arts dramas and westerns mix together, we get Dalton, a war veteran with a mysterious past who might as well be the man with no name. Dalton's vagabond travels take him to a small Arizona border town filled with smugglers, romance, angry townspeople, and a magic stick at the end of it all. Wait, a magical stick? Yep, a mystic branch artifact in a cowboy world. Listen on and find out if Dalton can save the town from the drug/gun runners and just how much he has in common with Michael Landon's angel character John Smith from Highway to Heaven. Does our hero have the stuff to get the job done?
Children's musical theater and tv stars assemble one last time for Lewis Carroll's nearly never adapted journey of Alice going through the looking-glass. Pursued by a monster bred of her fears, Alice gets temporarily distracted from going home by taking on a pawn's quest, advancing to queenhood by reaching the vaunted eighth square. But Looking-Glass Land is governed by a different reality: everything's as backwards there as Bizarro World. So, endings are beginnings and cakes are cut and served in reverse. Join in once again for further fun and heartfelt farewells to childhood companions as Alice's travels come full circle in a final confrontation with a relentless personal demon.
In this episode, your hosts discuss musical mishaps in the first part of a live-action adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, brought to us by the disaster master of film, Mr. Irwin Allen. With a story familiar to many, this particular version of Alice's journey is chock full of song and dance routines, fantastic costuming minus one lizard outfit, and big star cameos. From the rabbit hole to the Queen of Heart's court, Alice repeatedly asks that ponderous question rarely found in the books—will she ever get home? A fearsome Carroll creature of poetic fame will do its best to make sure that she won't.
Sit right back again, or stand, if that's your preference, and hear a tale of how two intellectual properties joyfully collide in the third TV movie installment of Gilligan's Island, The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island. This time, the castaways delve deep into Fantasy Island territory, inviting to their tropical nest the basketball kings of mirth along with Martin Landau and Barbara Bain. Trading in his moon base for a luxury yacht, Captain Landau hatches a scheme of attempted murder and drunken intrigue to get his hands on the property rights to the island and a magical uber element he dubs "supremium." It all culminates in a proto Space Jam face off, pitting the loveable Globetrotters against a team of invincible robots dressed in knee-high tube socks. Who will win this mammoth struggle, so typical of the decade from whence it came?
Becky and Jake are joined this time around by special guest Gregg Paschall from the Radio Ronin network. Check him out on his own podcast project Gregg's Guide to New Music and as co-host on the comedy show podcast Radio Ronin, all available for your listening pleasure on Radioronin.com.
Sit right back and hear the tale your hosts relate as they visit everyone's favorite castaways in Rescue from Gilligan's Island. One decade and a half after they were originally shipwrecked, a hut boat and a non-Russian satellite's golden CD enable the gang to escape their island prison and travel to the far-off future world of 1978. Will bumbling Badenov spies allow the castaways to build a life apart from their uncharted desert isle? Will universal karma coax them into another three-hour tour? And last of all, how many rhetorical questions can be asked in a episode description before they become redundant? Find out as you listen.
Today's small screen offering is the magical adventure “I Dream of Jeannie,” with the 15 years between the original series and the movie built right into the title. After a spell of hiding her powers, Jeannie Nelson is forced out of housewifery to match wits with her evil twin and Haji who plot to break up the Nelson family, including young son T.J. who must decide if the magical path is meant for him. Follow the tension as Jeannie fights with magic to maintain the love of her life. And see how one actor's preference for the green hills of California, Texas swayed him not to return and reprise his role. Will it take an act of cosmic power to save this production? Listen on, dear audiophiles, to find out.
In this episode, your hosts dare you not to have a feeling whilst gazing into the soulful eyes of Benji, the stray canine from the tearjerker movies of the 70s and 80s, now starring in a new Netflix movie. Is this film a reboot or a remake? Regardless of what your opinion might be, this a great option for anyone, young or old, who believes that dogs have super powers. Prepare to be astounded as Benji reveals his hidden abilities to teleport into trolley cars, keep pace with getaway vans, fight bad guys, save kidnapped kids, and tug on the heart strings of anyone who doesn’t like dogs—or, at least manipulate them into it for all the human hells this adorable pooch must traverse.
Join your hosts as they make silly sound effects and talk about “The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman." In a reunion movie that takes place many years after the original series, retired OSI agents Steve Austin and Jamie Sommers are given another chance to rekindle their relationship and bond with the long lost son no one knew Steve had. At the same time, they are recruited by OSI head Oscar Goldman to go mano a mano against Martin Landau and the goons he sends after them in a sensible station wagon. Brilliant bionics are back, baby!
Jake and Becky experience pure cinematic chaos in this episode's offering, “Moontrap: Target Earth." Made as a sequel to a movie released over 30 years ago, this film features a shred of the original storyline and none of the original cast. Join Scout, code named Susan, as she races to uncover the secrets of an ancient alien artifact while escaping the machinations of Charles Shaughnessy and the Evil Corp. Council. In one scene her boyfriend is assassinated by an Apache Helicopter. Cut scene and her boyfriend is alive again. (No, he's not) Now Scout's naked on the moon, witnessing Rock'em Sock'em Robots battle for the ultimate prize--a blooming flower on the lunar surface. Feeling overwhelmed? Fear not. Join the hosts for these and other unrelated subplots and continuity inconsistencies.
It's a typical episode zero. The hosts say hello and mention a few ground rules for the podcast. No real surprises here.
Follow along as Becky and Jake review two Charlie Brown television specials you're guaranteed not to find in a movie clearance bin. In “You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown,” the Peanuts gang experience the gaffes and frustrations of the election cycle as they advance their reformatory man of the people, Linus Van Pelt, into the office of student body president. “It’s Arbor Day, Charlie Brown,” teaches Sally Brown and her friends the zen of horticulture, permitting mother nature herself to don those old sports cleats and assist Charlie Brown's baseball team. From social satire to environmental advice, you will be entertained. Laugh at the electoral process. Go plant trees, flowers, and crops. The power of Dolly Madison compels you.
In the premier episode of Seen on the Small Screen, Jake and Becky discuss the pilot episode of “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century,” which is based on the 1930s comic book series. Frozen in time for 500 years, Captain Buck Rogers finds the Earth of the future is not as he knows it. On his many adventures, Buck encounters seductive space vixens, cursing robots, Lite-Brite tribunals, triforce art, and one strong but silent Tigerman. For the lover of spandex-driven 70s space opera, this film is sure to entertain.