After Lunch: Recent Episodes
Michael May
Michael May, Rob Graham, and Friends discuss TV, movies, comics, games, and anything else they happen to think of.
Michael, Rob, and Pax continue their journey through the Predator movies - and officially add the Alien movies to the project - with Paul WS Anderson's Alien vs Predator, starring Sanaa Lathan, Lance Henriksen, and Raoul Bova.
Pax, Rob, Michael, and Evan talk about infant clowns, Hitchcock movies, The Odyssey, The Other Bennet Sister, and the insane magic of love. And Jacob Bean-Watson stops by to talk about some movies and update us on his meeting Steve Guttenberg and Ally Sheedy.
Michael and Rob welcome Delaney Graham, Doug Frye, Evan Hanson, Jody Collins, Kay, Michael DiGiovanni, and Robert Zerbe for another round of the Cast List card game, where contestants have to come up with the names of actors based on a list of movies they've been in.
Evan, Pax, Rob, and Michael talk about becoming cats, British TV, Supergirl comics, contractor caution, and secret identities.
After Lunch Irregulars Michael, Rob, Pax, and Jacob follow Sherlock Holmes into the 1940s for the first of Universal's B-movie takes on the character, Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror. The movie has Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Holmes and Watson, teaming up with Evelyn Ankers and Reginald Denny to investigate a Nazi propaganda radio program that's demoralizing Britain.
Continuing their year of Stephen King novels, Michael and Jess dig deep into the Pet Sematary. We talk mostly about the book itself, but also a little about the '89 movie, its sequel Pet Sematary Two, the 2019 remake, and the 2023 prequel Pet Sematary: Bloodlines.
Michael, Evan, Pax, and Rob talk about beans, Disclosure Day, Mandalorian and Grogu, Masters of the Universe, Supergirl, opera, Spider-Noir, touring Hawaiʻi, and the 007: First Light video game.
Michael and Rob are joined by Evan Hanson and Shawn Robare to assemble a team of their favorite anthropomorphic animal characters... and then try to craft a story around them.
Rob, Michael, Evan, and Pax talk about Supergirl by Sophie Campbell, the TV show After Life, artificial intelligence, and Wrestle Heist by Kyle Starks. And our friend Jacob Bean-Watson stops by to chat about meeting celebrities and the difference between Action and Adventure.
Our Predator series continues as Pax, Rob, and Michael talk about the 2025 animated anthology (but not really an anthology) feature, Predator: Killer of Killers.
Michael and Jess continue their year-long exploration of Stephen King with the 1983 novella, Cycle of the Werewolf, illustrated by Bernie Wrightson. We talk about favorite characters, scariest moments, and of course the 1985 movie adaptation, Silver Bullet.
Michael and Rob welcome the amazing Chris Schweizer who's currently serializing his new swashbuckling fantasy comic Outlaw's Apprentice. We talk about the comic and its inspirations, but also our favorite swashbucklers in that time-honored tradition of putting them into brackets and voting on them.
We hope you enjoy the tournament, but please do also check out Outlaws's Apprentice, because you'll enjoy that even more. And once you're hooked on the comic, visit Chris's Patreon page for cool behind-the-scenes updates on the story's creation.
Pax, Rob, Michael, and Evan return to the lounge to talk about hitchhiking, Mortal Kombat II, The Devil Wears Prada 2, giving money to people on the street, music videos, Agatha Christie's Seven Dials, Rob's Disney cruise, Hacks, and Beethoven's 6th.
The After Lunch Irregulars (Jacob, Michael, Rob, and Pax) reconvene for a double episode, starting with an in-depth, spoiler-filled discussion of Guy Ritchie's Young Sherlock. If you're not ready for those spoilers yet though, skip ahead an hour to hear us talk about Disney's Holmes homage, The Great Mouse Detective!
Evan is back in the lounge! Joining Pax, Rob, and Michael to talk about Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, an identity crossroads, Kevin Smith writing Green Arrow, King Sorrow by Joe Hill, and ever so much more.
Our dear friend and frequent podcast guest William Bruce West passed away on April 12. We miss him dearly. Part of the grieving process has been to talk about our friend and share memories of him, so the podcast community that Will was such an important part of has put together this tribute episode. There are personal reminiscences, but also many, many clips of Will's appearances on various shows through the years.
After Lunch is so pleased to present this episode, but we can't leave unrecognized that it was entirely produced - from initial concept to final edit - by Adam Pope, Will's regular podcasting partner these last few years. Thank you so much, Adam. And Godspeed, Will. Rest in Peace
It's Game Night! We've formed two teams of movie fans: Jaime Hood, Joanna from Bloody Popcorn, Noel Thingvall, and Rob Graham on one team; Becky Tyler, Pax Holley, Jacob Bean-Watson, and Ben Graham on the other. We're playing The Cast List, a card game in which Michael acts as host, giving each team a list of movies to see if they can name an actor who has been in all those movies. Some of them are easy, some of them are quite hard. Play along and see how many you get!
We talked about the movie Predator 2 earlier this week and the novelization by Simon Hawke came up a few times. To dig deeper into that, Pax is graciously allowing us to re-run the episode of I Read Movies where he explored the book and compared it to the movie.
Pax, Michael, and Rob continue their exploration of the Predator movies with Stephen Hopkins's Predator 2. Set 10 years after the first movie - and during another heatwave - a group of Predators come to Los Angeles to hunt drug gangs and maybe a maverick cop or four.
Jess and Michael talk about a novel by some guy named Richard Bachman. (whisper It's really Stephen King!) We're walking long this episode, but do we know why?
Having officially dubbed ourselves the After Lunch Irregulars, Pax, Jacob, Michael, and Rob talk about another Sherlock Holmes movie. This one is Herbert Ross's The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, written by Nicholas Meyer, starring Nicol Williamson as Holmes, Robert Duvall as Watson, and Alan Arkin as Sigmund Freud.
As Jess and Michael continue to explore Stephen King novels this year, they discuss one of their favorite of his books, The Shining.
Michael, Pax, and Rob finish this month's lounge talking about chocolate, Groundhog Day theories, writing, The Bride!, a new job, and Dark Horse Indiana Jones comics.
Expanding on our Spaceships Sweet 16 from Episode 398, we've temporarily narrowed the focus to the biggest vessels. Michael and Rob welcome sci-fi comics writer Corinna Bechko and fan extraordinaire Siskoid to help determine the greatest Large Spaceship of All Time. Future episodes will concentrate on Medium and Small ships, leading to the Ultimate match up where we'll pit our Final Fours from each size category against each other.
Michael, Pax, and Rob are back in the lounge a little early this month talking about Silver Age Etta Candy, Scream 7, Tom Selleck's memoir, how Les Misérables plays in 2026 Minneapolis, The Will of the Many by James Islington, and Tom Selleck movies.
In the first of many episodes rerunning Carlin Trammel and Michael May's old Dragonfly Ripple podcast that they hosted with their kids, here's the show's debut in which Carlin shares Flash Gordon (1980) with his daughter Annaliese and Michael shares Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) with his son David.
Michael, Rob, and Pax take a detour from the main Fast and Furious series to explore the ridiculous roads, spectacular cybernetics, and inspiring islands of David Leitch's Hobbs & Shaw, starring Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, and Vanessa Kirby.
Rob, Pax, Jacob, and Michael are back on Baker Street, this time with Edward "The Equalizer" Woodward and John "Higgins" Hillerman as Holmes and Watson in the 1990 TV movie, Hands of a Murderer.
Rob, Michael, and Pax wrap up this month's lounge with talk about new Dresden Files, what makes something a "classic," movies that make us cry, High Noon, Part II: The Return of Will Kane, Wuthering Heights (2026), and judging art "objectively."
Michael and Jess take a trip to 'Salem's Lot to talk about what works and what doesn't in Stephen King's legendary second novel.
Rob, Michael, and Pax re-enter the Lounge to talk about the Wonder Man TV show, Black Canary: Best of the Best, Dungeon Crawler Carl, eternity, death, and Rocky IV.
As is annual tradition around this time of year, Michael, Pax, and Noel Thingvall look back at the movies of 10 years ago and talk about their favorite (and also least-favorite) films of 2016.
Jetpack Tiger returns! Carlin and Dashiell Trammel watched last year's live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon and you recorded themselves doing it. So queue up the movie, sync with this episode, and enjoy the Jetpack Tiger How to Train Your Dragon (2025) Commentary Track!
Michael, Rob, Pax, and Jacob gather one more time in Dartmoor to discuss the first Basil Rathbone Holmes film: 20th Century Fox's The Hound of the Baskervilles. Last month we talked about the Hammer version from 1959, so we do some compare/contrast to that as well as the Conan Doyle novel.
In the second half of this month's Lounge, Pax, Rob, and Michael discuss Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Rob and the Ramblin' Man, our reading origin stories, our Star Wars homeworlds, and Ella McCay.
Pax, Rob, and Michael talk about a lot of things in this first half of this month's lounge: The Rise of Skywalker, Wonder Woman on TV and in comics, Stranger Things Season 5, Stephen King and Maurice Sendak's Hansel and Gretel, and Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox, for example.
We also talk about our good friend (and frequent podcast guest) William Bruce West, who - we learned the day after recording this - recently suffered a stroke and is currently in the hospital. We hope and pray that he's going to be okay, but in the meantime, there's a GoFundMe campaign in progress for Will and his family as they start to navigate the uncertainty of what lies ahead for them. We hope that you'll consider donating.
Starting a new project for the new year where we read 12 Stephen King novels, Michael and Jess talk about all things Carrie. And not just the book, but also all the movies, and even the musical.
Michael is joined by Pax, Kay, and Robert Zerbe to look back on the art and pop culture of 2025 and also to peek ahead at what's coming in 2026.
Michael, Rob, and Pax embrace their f8 as they talk about The Fate of the Furious, the first post-Brian movie in the series and the beginning of #JusticeForHan. Can we forgive Deckard Shaw for his crimes? And if we do, can we forgive ourselves?
While Pax remains in London to close a different case, Jacob, Michael, and Rob hit the moor to talk about the Hammer adaptation of Hound of the Baskervilles, starring Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes, André Morell as Watson, and Christopher Lee as Sir Henry Baskerville.
Michael and Jess talk about the horror! We start with a little on The Menu and A Ghost Story for Christmas, then a little more on Ted Naifeh's first Courtney Crumrin volume, The Night Things, and then a lot on Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell and Jack the Ripper in general. That finishes our 2025 of horror comics, so we also talk about our focus for 2026.
Better late than never, but Michael, Pax, and Rob finally complete last month's lounge with conversation about Christmas podcasts, werewolf movies, Universal Monsters comics, Hamnet, an update on Pax's Young Guns signatures, and movies we've never seen on the big screen, but want to.
Merry Christmas, everyone! Preston A Whitmore II's This Christmas may not be a super popular holiday movie, but Michael thinks it's underrated and under-discussed, so he's invited William Bruce West and David May to watch and talk about it. The movie stars Loretta Devine, Delroy Lindo, Idris Elba, Regina King, Keith D Robinson, Mekhi Phifer, and others as members of a family coming together for the holidays after a few years apart and everyone has secrets. Shhh!
Michael and Rob welcome Sue London and Michael DiGiovanni to come help build a cinematic multiverse out of our favorite Christmas specials. We've assigned each other a couple of specials each to crossover, then once we've revealed our mashups, we work together to create an Avengers-style feature combining all eight of the original ideas. It's nice, it's occasionally naughty, but most of all it's fun. Merry Christmas!
In the first part of a sort of crossover with the Advent Calendar House podcast, Mike Westfall joins Michael and Rob to talk about an unusual version of A Christmas Carol. From CBS's 1954 anthology variety show, Shower of Stars, it features Fredric March as Scrooge, Basil Rathbone as Marley, and bunch of questionable songs. And be sure to tune in next Sunday to ACH for Part Two in which Michael and Rob will join Mike to discuss another musical Christmas Carol, 2004's A Christmas Carol: The Musical starring Kelsey Grammer, Jason Alexander, Jane Krakowski, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jesse L Martin, and Geraldine Chaplin.
Michael and Rob invite Jody Collins and Jacob Bean-Watson over to put up the Christmas decorations and talk about the Ernst Lubitsch classic, The Shop Around the Corner. The movie stars Jimmy Stewart, Margaret Sullavan, and Frank Morgan. And it was of course the inspiration for You've Got Mail. We talk about all of those people and the other characters, as well as the remakes and just how much of a Christmas movie it even is.
Michael and Jess talk about lots of horror stuff including A Ghost Story for Christmas, Lost Boys, Mike Mignola's Hellboy comics, and Dan Brereton's Nocturnals.
Our Sherlock Holmes panel reconvenes as Pax, Jacob, Michael, and Rob talk about the Spielberg-produced '80s favorite (and self-admittedly non-canonical), Young Sherlock Holmes.
Michael, Pax, and Rob talk about lots of stuff including Silver Age Wonder Girl, Man-Wolf, Hell House by Richard Matheson, three Shirley Jackson novels, podcast apps, and Predator: Badlands.
To celebrate the 400th episode of After Lunch (give or take), Michael welcomes back the original Nerd Lunch crew - CT, Jeeg, and Pax - to wrap up some unfinished business from the Nerd Lunch days. In June 2019, Jeeg led the gang, including Michael in the Fourth Chair, in an Overs/Unders exercise to predict what might happen in the proposed Gambit movie starring Channing Tatum. Of course, we never got that movie. Or... we didn't until Deadpool & Wolverine came out last year. It's finally time to tally up the scores and see who is the Best Channing Tatum Gambit Movie Predictor of All Time. And stay tuned to the end for a rerun of the original episode in which we made our predictions.
Michael, Rob, and Pax continue their occasional look at pulp and superhero serials with The Adventures of Smilin' Jack. It's one of Michael's favorites, but will Rob and Pax feel the same way? Starring Tom Brown, Keye Luke, and Rose Hobart.
Michael and Rob are joined by Ben Graham and new guest Nick Casbarro to talk about Nick's novel, Vitalerium: Descent into the Void, and then to determine the greatest spaceship of all time. And of course we determine that the only way we know how: by listing 16 of our favorites, putting them into tournament brackets, and voting on them until only one remains.
Michael and Rob are joined by Joanna from Bloody Popcorn and Shawn Robare to create teams of horror-themed athletes and terrifying events for them to compete in. Who will win the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals? The Hex Pistols? Scare-istocracy? The Grisly Grahams? The Hellboy Hooies? Pick your favorite team and root them on!
Rob, Michael, and Pax finish up this month's Lounge talking about The Oracle Year by Charles Soule, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Superman comics, Batman: Resurrection by John Jackson Miller, Zach Cregger's Weapons, KPop Demon Hunters, and more!
Michael, Rob, and Pax continue their occasional series covering the Predator movies by talking about the original film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, and the introduction of one of the coolest-looking monsters in cinema history. And stay tuned after our conversation for a special rerun of Pax's I Read Movies episode covering the Predator novelization by Paul Monette.
It's Lounging Time again as Rob, Michael, and Pax talk about whatever's on their mind, including French Silk pie, Wonder Woman's daughter, and different ways to use the Pop Culture Eraser.
Michael and Jess talk about Halloween and other spooky things, including the comics Vampire Hunter D: Message from Mars and 30 Days of Night.
Rob, Pax, Jacob, and Michael reconvene our Sherlock Holmes panel to talk about lots of Holmes stuff, including Murder by Decree starring Christopher Plummer and James Mason as Holmes and Watson on the trail of Jack the Ripper.
Michael, Rob, and Pax go back into the Fast and Furious timeline to watch Better Luck Tomorrow, an early Justin Lin film that both he and actor Sung Kang have retroactively declared to be the first appearance of Han from the Fast and Furious series. It's a crime movie, it's a high school movie... it's a Fast and Furious movie? We talk about how well it works in all three of those categories.
Michael, Rob, and Pax welcome very special guest, Tyler Mane (X-Men, Rob Zombie's Halloween) to resurrect an old topic from After Lunch's early days. We each nominate fighters, locations, and complications and discuss Who Would Win? Of course Sabretooth vs Michael Myers comes up, but there are many more epic battles to talk about and argue over.
Be sure to check out Tyler's new graphic novel, The Last Spartan: Red Tape, co-written with Christopher Priest.
Kolchak: The Night Stalker started as a couple of TV movies, but when it became a TV series it struggled and only lasted 20 episodes, finally becoming a cult classic thanks to late night reruns. Michael, Rob, and guests DeAndre and Sophie discuss how they would tweak the series to be even better than it was. And also about what they love and wouldn't want to change.
This is the part of the show where Michael and Jess talk about horror, including this month the graphic novels Heathentown by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman and Plunge by Joe Hill and Stuart Immonen.
For this month's Sherlock Holmes movie, Michael, Rob, Pax, and Jacob go way back to the silent era for Sherlock Holmes starring John Barrymore as Holmes, Roland Young as Watson, and Gustav von Seyffertitz as Moriarty. It's also William Powell's first movie and features Reginald Denny in a small, but important role.
Finishing this month's Lounge, Pax, Rob, and Michael talk about the novel that inspired Gymkata, amusement parks vs theme parks, cozy video games, work spaces, the new Ultimate Spider-Man, and meeting Oscar Goldman.
In this month's Lounge (last month's Lounge, actually, but Summer travelling slowed us down a bit and we're behind), Pax, Rob, and Michael dig deeper into the Superman and Fantastic Four movies than we were able to last time, plus Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Gymkata, and Fantastic Four podcasts, Appaloosa by Robert B Parker, Bono’s memoirs, and more.
Returning to a classic Nerd Lunch topic, Michael, Rob, Becky Tyler, and Ben Graham each pick a single element from a movie or TV show that we want the rights to. And we of course explain what we would do if we had those rights.
Michael and Jess talk about horrific things they've been watching and reading, including the comedically bloody Grizzlyshark comics and the vampire Western graphic novel West of Sundown.
Michael, Rob, and Pax grab their gas guns and hop back into the buzzing car to watch The Green Hornet Strikes Again. Even though it was released in the same year as the serial it's a sequel to, there's a new actor playing Green Hornet (Warren Hull this time, instead of Gordon Jones). But Keye Luke is back as Kato, Anne Nagel as the awesome Case, and perhaps less excitingly, Wade Boteler as the bumbling stereotype Michael Axford. We didn't all love the first Green Hornet serial, so let's see how this one compares.
Jacob, Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about the TV movie Sherlock, aka Sherlock: Case of Evil starring James D'Arcy as the sexiest Holmes at the beginning of his detective career. Vincent D'Onofrio plays Moriarty, Richard E Grant is Mycroft, and Gabrielle Anwar shows up with some crucial information.
Michael, Pax, and Rob finish this 50th Lounge episode talking about celebrities who represent us, Interior Chinatown, X-Men/Star Trek crossovers, Jurassic World Rebirth, the Beastie Boys Book audiobook, and Stinker Lets Loose! by Mike Sacks (aka James Taylor Johnson).
On this 50th Lounge episode, Michael, Pax, Rob - and introducing PJ Holley! - talk about history podcasts, unproduced Superman movies, Sharks Of The Corn, Indiana Jones, The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie, Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books, and how to invade an ensemble TV show.
Carlin Trammel brings a special episode presenting a recent panel he moderated at Infinity Con Tallahassee, talking with monster makers Christopher Burdett and Mark Maddox about their approaches to crafting compelling creatures in art.
Michael, Rob, and Pax start a new series of episodes in which we'll sporadically visit all of the Predator and Alien movies. In chronological order. So first up is Dan Trachtenberg's Prey, starring Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, and Coco as Sarii the Wonder Dog.
Michael and Jess talk about some horror movies they've been watching, then a classic collection of Charles Addams comics and Junji Ito's Gyo, Volume 1.
Returning to the classic Nerd Lunch topic, Michael and Rob are joined by guests Dan Taylor (Catacombs & Comedians) and Ron Ankeny to talk about actors we'd like to see in something again. First we play casting agents, each bringing an actor who hasn't had enough work lately for our tastes. We discuss each one and the kinds of roles they play, or that we would like to see them play. Then we enter the Writers Room and create an idea for a movie to showcase them all. It's a great time and we created (we think) a great movie.
Our Sherlock Holmes panel Pax, Jacob, Michael, and Rob talk about Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce's second outing as Holmes and Watson. They'd appeared together in The Hound of the Baskervilles earlier that same year, but this one's an original story (loosely based on a play by William Gillette). It's still a Victorian adventure before the series changed studios and went modern with the next film. It also stars Ida Lupino as Holmes' client and George Zucco as Moriarty.
Rob, Michael, and Pax finish up this month's Lounge talking about retirement, the After Lunch lounge schedule, Guy Ritchie's Fountain of Youth, the fall of the Jedi, the Lilo and Stitch remake, and our experiences as young nerds.
Michael and Jess talk about the comics anthology The Dark Horse Book of the Dead and Something is Killing the Children by James Tynion IV and Werther Dell'Edera. Among other horrory things.
Rob, Michael, and Pax sit around talking about Ballerina, You Rang: An Addams Family Podcast, more Final Reckoning, Star Trek: Open a Channel - A Woman's Trek by Nana Visitor, Pride and Prejudice, Redshirts by John Scalzi, and whatever else comes up.
Following up on a topic from Nerd Lunch Episode 181 (which was also the first appearance of Wolverine), Michael, Rob, Pax, and David May create more cinematic universes around movies (but not just movies) that don't already have them. Tune in and check out our ideas for series built on WarGames, Capcom, Anchorman, and The Last Voyage of the Demeter.
Michael, Rob, and Pax cover Paul Walker's emotional, final ride with his Fast and Furious family in Furious 7. The movie also features Jason Statham back as Deckard Shaw after his brief appearance in the previous one, a couple of other cameos from earlier films, and the introductions of Kurt Russell and Nathalie Emmanuel to the series.
Michael and Rob watch the latest (and last?) Mission: Impossible movie starring the whole gang from the last movie plus Angela Bassett, Tramell Tillman, Hannah Waddingham, Katy O'Brian, and Nick Offerman. Spoilers abound of course, but considering that the movie is generally getting positive reviews, it seems right to provide an additional warning that neither of us loved the film. We loved some things about it and talked freely about those, but there are also many, many things that frustrated us, and we talked freely about those as well.
Our James Bond project is complete, now let our Sherlock Holmes project begin. Rob and Michael are joined by Pax and Jacob Bean-Watson in order to explore the Great Detective as portrayed on Film and TV. We're not taking a methodical approach, but just taking turns picking whatever adaptation strikes our fancies. Rob is up first and chose the 1976 TV movie, Sherlock Holmes in New York starring Roger Moore as Holmes, Patrick Macnee as Watson, John Huston as Moriarty, and Charlotte Rampling as Irene Adler.
Pax, Rob, and Michael continue this month's lounge talking about Cobra Kai, A Stitch in Time by Andrew J Robinson, Golden Age Wonder Woman, All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai, pop culture Mount Rushmores, and the Agatha Christie mini-series Towards Zero.
Pax, Rob, and Michael talk about autograph collecting, Thunderbolts, podcast wives, the podcast Heist with Michael Caine, the Goldie Vance graphic novels by Hope Larson and Brittney Williams, and more Sherlock Holmes. And Michael's son David stops by to talk about the One Piece* manga and other things.
To celebrate the conclusion of our massive James Bond project, our panelists Michael, Rob, and Karen welcome fellow Bond fans Becky Tyler, Jacob Bean-Watson, and Jody Collins for a fun game, reviewing our favorite elements of the series. We draft our favorite Bond actors, villains, gadgets, and features from a dozen other categories to create our own inter-era Bond mash-up films. We laughed, we gasped, and we hurt each other's feelings in this super fun episode about everyone's favorite super spy.
Michael, Rob, and Pax get back in the cars to talk about the return of the Fast and Furious family as they try to rescue an amnesic Letty from the machinations of supervillain Owen Shaw (Luke Evans).
Michael, Rob, and Karen finish (for now) their James Bond movie project with the final Daniel Craig and the final Eon Productions entry in the series. It's No Time to Die, also starring Léa Seydoux, Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Jeffrey Wright, Ana de Armas, and the usual cast of allies.
Michael and Jess talk about the comics Fangs by Sarah Andersen and Rachel Rising: The Shadow of Death by Terry Moore.
Michael, Pax, and Rob finish this month's Lounge talking about an Irene Adler novel, Kraven the Hunter (2024), Anora (2024), Black Doves (2024), Young Guns autographs, and the scariest things to crawl on you and/or haunt your house.
In the first half of this month's Lounge, Michael, Pax, and Rob are visited by Noel Thingvall. Topics include pets, death, Kraven the Hunter comics, Sherlock Holmes stories, Kamen Rider, X-Men comics, old Nerd Lunch episodes, Peter Dinklage as Hercule Poirot, and Ruth Ware's One Perfect Couple.
Following up on our C2E2 conversation about things that could be improved by monkeys, robots, or Michael Caine, please enjoy this special rerun of the first time that topic appeared on the Atomic Geeks podcast. With special thanks to Carlin Trammel for the idea and Christian Nielsen for the audio and permission.
You don't put Christian Nielsen, Michael DiGiovanni, Carlin Trammel, Shawn Robare, William Bruce West, Rob Graham, Michael May, Jeeg, and Paxton Holley in a room together and not record a podcast. While at C2E2, the group (minus Jeff Somogyi who sadly was not feeling well that evening) gathered in Christian and DiGio's hotel room to revive the classic Atomic Geeks topic: "Monkey, Robot, Michael Caine." Each person suggests a movie, TV show, event, etc. and discuss what would best improve it: a monkey, a robot, or... well, you'll see.
In 2015, the Nerd Lunch crew met up with most of the Atomic Geeks and assorted members of the Fourth Chair Army at C2E2 in Chicago. Ten years later, it's time to get together again with even more friends. The group this time included Carlin Trammel, William Bruce West, Jeeg, Paxton Holley, Jeff Somogyi, Shawn Robare, Michael May, Rob Graham, Christian Nielsen, and Michael DiGiovanni. In this audio diary, we learn about how the trip came together, check in with the attendees at various points of the weekend, and tease a very special podcast episode that we recorded there and will be Coming Soon.
Michael and Rob invite Michael DiGiovanni, Christian Nielsen, and Paxton Holley to help cast an imaginary remake of Silverado. Each of our five casting directors have scoured Hollywood for the perfect actors to update the roles of Emmett, Paden, Mal, Jake, Rae, and Cobb, plus other characters we wanted to think about. We've brought our top candidates to the conference room to make final decisions, but also to discuss possible tweaks to the script and even suggest a director.
Michael, Rob, and Karen discuss the penultimate Craig Bond film, Sam Mendes's Spectre, co-starring Léa Seydoux, Christoph Waltz, Andrew Scott, and Dave Bautista.
Rob, Michael, and Pax wrap up this month's Lounge talking about The Lost Adventures of James Bond, Mothra, podcasts, Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Treason, Snow White (2025), and finding a Holy Grail.
Rob, Michael, and Pax talk about many things including The Electric State (2025), Sherlock Holmes, Space Ghost comics, “every second counts,” ‘70s JSA comics, and Companion (2025).
Inspired by the 2001 sitcom Emeril, Michael, Rob, Carlin Trammel, and Tim Lybarger assign each other similarly unlikely celebrities to build sitcoms around. Get ready for pitches for shows starring Bob Ross, The Cure's Robert Smith, Willie Nelson, and Theresa Caputo so that you can decide... would you watch this show?
Michael and Jess talk about the comics "Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?" by Harold Schechter and Eric Powell and The Ring, Volume 1 by Hiroshi Takahashi and Misao Inagaki.
Happy Saint Patrick's Day! We're celebrating with that most Irish of superheroes: The Green Hornet! Michael, Rob, and Pax watch and talk about the 1940 serial starring Gordon Jones and Keye Luke.
Pax, Rob, and Michael finish this month's Lounge talking about the Star Wars Holiday Special, Captain America: Brave New World, the Star Wars: Clone Wars / Revenge of the Sith viewing order, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Daisy Ridley in Cleaner (2025), and more.
Pax, Rob, and Michael talk about many things including Universal Studios Florida, Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, the Siskoid Cinema Battles podcast episode about Bond Girls, Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller's new movie The Gorge, a comic called Major Holmes and Captain Watson, and the niftiness of subscription services like Marvel Unlimited and DC Universe Infinite Ultra Extreme Radical Far-Out Super-Cool. All this and more, including a special guest appearance by William Bruce West!
Continuing a year of horror comics, Michael and Jess talk about Richard Sala's Cat Burglar Black and Junji Ito's cat diary, Yon & Mu.
Michael, Rob, and Karen are halfway through the Daniel Craig era as we talk about the series-changing film Skyfall by Sam Mendes.
Michael, Pax, and Noel Thingvall talk about our favorite movies from ten years ago. 2015 was a great year for blockbusters, but a lot of smaller films made our lists as well. We also talk about some stinkers and honorable mentions.
Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about Fast Five, basically the Avengers of the Fast and Furious series in which characters from all the previous films team up to pull off a heist while avoiding capture by The Rock. This is where the series becomes The Series and we're excited to finally be here.
Michael, Rob, and Karen return for a look at the first direct sequel in the Bond series: Marc Forster's Quantum of Solace. While the Bond films have always been nominal sequels to each other, Quantum of Solace closely continues Bond's story begun in Casino Royale. Bond fans had never seen anything like it and not everyone appreciated the new experience. We talk about that and editing and villains and Olga Kurylenko and everything else.
Kay, Robert Zerbe, Pax, and Michael look back at their favorite movies, shows, and books of 2024, check in on their pop culture predictions and resolutions from the year, and make new ones for 2025.
Michael and Jess talk about a couple more horror comics this month. First is Becky Cloonan's dark fantasy short story collection, By Chance or Providence. Then Witch for Hire, a high school mystery by Ted Naifeh.
And we also talk a little about the movies Nosferatu (2024) and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957).
Michael, Pax, and Rob wrap up this month's Lounge talking about Ghost Stories: Stephen Fry's Definitive Collection, Batman: Resurrection by John Jackson Miller, Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, Sure I'll Join Your Cult by Maria Bamford, what makes a good Sherlock Holmes pastiche, and more.
After a loungeless December, Michael, Pax, and Rob are back to talk about lots of things including the TV series Rome, stand-up comedy albums, Transformers One, Red One, Wicked, and another superhero TikTok game.
Michael, Rob, Pax, and special guest The Bald Tiger (who strangely disappears whenever Rob's around) talk about the 1940 serial The Shadow starring Victor Jory, Veda Ann Borg, and... Roger Moore?
Michael, Rob, and Karen Flieger begin the new year with a new era in the Bond series. We're finally watching Daniel Craig and talking about Martin Campbell's reboot, Casino Royale. Or is it a reboot? What about M? Continuity is on the agenda as well as action, character arcs, and ambiguity about who the heroes and villains are.
Michael and Jess start a series of episodes focusing on horror comics. In this one, we talk about Junji Ito's adaptation of Frankenstein and Emily Carroll's short story collection, Through the Woods.
We also discuss the movies Smile (2022), Talk to Me (2022), Eyes Without a Face (1960), and Kuroneko (1968).
Merry Christmas! As our very special gift to you, Michael, Rob, Michael DiGiovanni, and Jody Collins don't just talk about our favorite Christmas songs. We put them into brackets and vote on them until we determine the Greatest Christmas Song of All Time!
Michael and Rob welcome Jeff Somogyi to talk about Les Mayfield's remake of Miracle on 24th Street, starring Mara Wilson, Richard Attenborough, Elizabeth Perkins, and Dylan McDermott. We have differing opinions about its quality. How much does it makes sense? How does it compare to the original? And how well does it communicate its ideas about faith, truth, and capitalism? We get into all of it in this funny, thought-provoking conversation.
With this episode, all of the Sleigh Bell Cinema archives are now included in the After Lunch feed. Michael and his wife Diane talk about Jon Favreau's hilarious and heart-warming modern classic, Elf starring Will Ferrell, James Caan, and Zooey Deschanel.
In this penultimate rerun of old Sleigh Bell Cinema episodes, Michael talks with Jeff Somogyi about the hilarious and underrated Ernest Saves Christmas.
In the second of this week's Sleigh Bell Cinema reruns, Michael and Dan Taylor talk about killer robots, polar bears, and Martian uprisings in Nicholas Webster's notorious Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
In this rerun from Michael's old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast, he talks with Mike Westfall about the 1947 classic Miracle on 34th Street starring Edmund Gwenn, Maureen O'Hara, and Natalie Wood.
Michael and Rob welcome back Jacob Bean-Watson to discuss what's either a tangential Christmas movie or a Christmas ghost story, depending on your point of view. It's The Curse of the Cat People, Val Lewton's controversial follow-up to his noir horror film Cat People from a couple of years earlier. Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph, and Elizabeth Russell return from the earlier movie, joined this time by child actor Ann Carter, Lewton-favorite Sir Lancelot, and Julia Dean.
Michael and Rob welcome David May back to the show to discuss this year's Holiday Spirit movie. For us, Holiday Spirit films are undeniably about Christmas, but without any fantastical or magical elements. And this one is Office Christmas Party starring Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, TJ Miller, Jennifer Aniston, and Kate McKinnon, while also featuring Courtney B Vance, Rob Corddry, Randall Park, Sam Richardson, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Jillian Bell, Vanessa Bayer, Karan Soni, and Jamie Chung.
In accordance with tradition, Mike Westfall from the Advent Calendar House podcast returns to help Michael and Rob kick off the Christmas season right with another Christmas Carol adaptation. This year, we're watching the classic 1951 version (titled Scrooge in the original British) starring Alastair Sim.
Rob, Michael, and Pax finish up this month's lounge talking about Agatha All Along, Seasons 4 and 5 of Fargo, lots of podcasts, a game in which Rob has Pax and Michael create new MCU characters, Tears for Fears' new concert film, and much much more.
In the first half of this month's lounge, Rob, Michael, and Pax talk about movies for Native American Heritage Month, recent movies Heretic and Woman of the Hour, books like The Daughters of Block Island by Christa Carmen, What Moves the Dead by T Kingfisher, The Devil You Know by KJ Parker, and ever so much more.
After a few episodes determining the best TV themes from various genres, Michael and Rob are joined by Jacob and KC from The Movie Connection podcast to discuss the top four from each category and decide which is the Ultimate TV Theme Song of All Time.
Michael, Rob, and Pax watch the fourth Fast and Furious movie. It's a prequel to the third one, but it also starts putting the disparate first three movies together to move the series towards what it's going to become. It's crazy, it's exciting, but is it good? And what about its own prequel, Los Bandoleros, directed and co-written by Vin Diesel?
Michael, Rob, and Karen finish the Brosnan Bond films with the most hated Bond film of them all. Or is it? It's Die Another Day co-starring Halle Berry, Rosamund Pike, Toby Stephens, a ton of references to earlier Bond films, and that song by Madonna.
Michael and Jess talk about a couple of vampire movies from Mike Mignola's list of favorite horror movies. After revisiting The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), which we'd both previously seen and disliked, we try Neil Jordan's Byzantium (2012), starring Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton, to see if we like it any better.
Pax, Rob, and Michael finish this month's lounge talking about Scream: The TV Series, Universal’s Dracula and Frankenstein movies, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, Friday the 13th with Gourley And Rust, The Witch (2015), Salem's Lot (2024), and more.
Pax, Rob, and Michael talk about haunted apartments, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, layoffs, Holmes/Poirot, taking breaks from comics, Lone Women by Victor LaValle, Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson, and cetera.
Michael and Rob welcome back Joanna from Bloody Popcorn and Becky Tyler to talk about our favorite pop culture witches. And of course also to put them into brackets and vote on them until we decide on the ultimate witch of all time.
Michael and Jess continue watching Mike Mignola's 20 Horror Movies That He Can't Live Without. This time it's all ghost stories with The Innocents (1961), The Haunting (1963), and The Others (2001).
If you especially like movies about ghosts, this makes a phantasmic follow up to Episode 286 where Michael, Jess, and their friend Darla discussed three other ghost movies: Poltergeist (1982), The Orphanage (2007), and The Woman in Black (2012).
Michael, Rob, and Pax continue drifting the Fast and the Furious drift with the third drift: Tokyo Drift. It's time to drift goodbye to Brian and drift hello with Sean, Han, and Twinkie.
After a fun exercise in which they create their own one-off Bond films, Michael, Rob, and Karen discuss the tone, the villains, and the Christmas Jones of Pierce Brosnan's third Bond film (and Desmond Llewelyn's last), The World Is Not Enough. Also starring Sophie Marceau, Denise Richards, and Robert Carlyle, and directed by Michael Apted.
Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about the Scream movies, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Agatha All Along, Sherlock Holmes live theater, Alien: Romulus, relistening to yourself on podcasts, Yellowjackets, Omen movies, and more.
Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about rescuing princesses, refrigerator delivery, Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey, comfort media, Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein by Anne Eekhout, Pax's revisiting early Nerd Lunch, Kill Creek by Scott Thomas, and so much more.
Michael and Rob welcome back Carlin Trammel from last week and also John Vanover to nominate and vote on TV themes from dramas or any other genres that didn't fall into one of the previous categories we've covered. It's an especially eclectic hodge podge of musical styles this episode (making it particularly difficult to vote) in our road to determine the greatest TV theme song of all time.
These TV themes Sweet 16s aren't getting any easier. This time, Michael and Rob are joined by Paxton Holley and Carlin Trammel to agonize over, nominate, and vote on our favorite opening themes from action and mystery shows. It may be an impossible mission, but we'll open a bottle of magnum and try to become the greatest American heroes as we reveal the unsolved mystery of the best action/mystery theme ever.
Michael and Rob travel back to the late 1930s for the first screen adaptations of the pulp hero The Shadow. The Shadow Strikes (1937) and International Crime (1938) both star Rod La Rocque as the Shadow, or at least Lamont Cranston. Or Granston. We'll get into it.
After largely agreeing about GoldenEye, Michael, Rob, and Karen are divided once again. We differ about the enjoyability of Tomorrow Never Dies, Pierce Brosnan's second turn as James Bond with Jonathan Pryce as an over-the-top villain, Michelle Yeoh as a butt-kicking rival agent, Teri Hatcher as the never-before-revealed love of Bond's life, and a heart-breaking tale of two theme songs.
Michael, Rob, and Pax stay up late talking about The Alienist, Avenue 5, Presumed Innocent, Sugar, The Six Million Dollar Man, Batman: Caped Crusader, Cleopatra movies, The Cat from Outer Space, Zardoz, Murder on the Orient Express movies, the Time Bandits TV series, Mayor of Kingstown, Deadpool & Wolverine, Knox Goes Away, Under Paris, generation gaps, The Man from Atlantis, Sealab 2020, Borderlands, Jackpot!, Guitar Hero, and more.
After a quick conversation with Evan about ancient history, Michael, Rob, and Pax discuss Jedi gloves, Tomb Raider, Star Trek video games, salsa, Masterpiece by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev, DC's Dark Knights of Steel event, a Ghostbusters oral history, Starter Villain by John Scalzi, Charlesgate Confidential by Scott Von Doviak, Sisters of the Neversea by Cynthia Leitich Smith, Ensign Flandry by Poul Anderson, The Space Between by Corinna Bechko and Danny Luckert, Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, when to quit a book or TV series, and more.
Michael and Jess talk about a couple of Mike Mignola's favorite movies about witches: Black Sunday (1960) and The Witch (2015). Plus Spirit Halloween, Maxine Minx, remakes, and strangely enough: Tarzan.
The Return of Jetpack Tiger! In response to our episode on the Cartoons and Kids TV Show Themes Sweet 16, Dashiell and Carlin Trammel critique the decision to include the medium of animation as a separate category that competes with live action genres like sitcoms and action shows. Should animated shows be included with live action shows of similar genres?
Michael and Rob welcome Ben Graham, Kay, and Pax to talk about the greatest cartoon and kids show theme songs of all time. Only sixteen tunes can go in the brackets, but there are honorable mentions galore. Even so, we've undoubtedly left out some great ones, so let us know your favorites!
Michael, Rob, and Pax ditch Dom and Mia for Roman, Tej, Monica, and Suki. And talk about whether or not that was a good move.
Michael, Rob, and Karen watch Pierce Brosnan's introduction as James Bond and talk about how well GoldenEye rebooted and reinvigorated the series after a few years' break post-Licence to Kill. Directed by Martin Campbell, the movie also features Sean Bean, Izabella Scorupco, Famke Janssen, Joe Don Baker, Robbie Coltrane, Alan Cumming, and introduces Judi Dench as the new M.
Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about Marvel’s Indiana Jones comics, DC/Marvel crossovers, Marvel novels, Deadpool and Wolverine pre-work, movies about the Greek Empire and the rise of Rome, the Despicable Me movies, Tár, the Ti West/Mia Goth Maxine movies, Clone Wars, Kimba the White Lion, Marvel’s Blood Hunt event and other comics, Ernest Hemingway, favorite movie props, IF, the final season of Star Trek: Discovery, Season 3 of Bridgerton, Delicious in Dungeon, John Lennon's supergroup The Dirty Mac, and ever so much more.
Michael, Rob, Pax, and Evan talk about snakes, TV shows and documentaries about politicians, Lawmen: Bass Reeves, sequel novels to Star Trek TOS episodes, Classic Nerd Lunch, Furiosa, Brats, the Beverly Hills Cop movies, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1, The Boys, Cobra Kai, X-Men cartoons, Ripley, space cat novels, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? and other stuff by Agatha Christie, The Acolyte, and much much more.
Michael and Rob welcome Jeeg and Mike Westfall to help nominate 16 favorite TV sitcom theme songs, then vote on them until we determine the single greatest TV sitcom theme of all time. This was crazy hard with some impossible decisions, so let us know what we forgot and which themes should have advanced further in the tournament.
Michael and Jess discuss their love for Samara Morgan in Gore Verbinski's 2002 US remake of Ringu (1998). They also talk about whether the sequels are any good: the short film Rings (2005), The Ring Two (2005), and the feature-length Rings (2017).
Michael, Rob, and Karen wrap up 1980s James Bond as well as Timothy Dalton's too short time on the series with Licence to Kill. It's one of Rob's favorites, but not so much one of Michael's. And it's Karen's first time seeing it. So there's a lot to unpack as always.
Michael, Rob, and Pax are going to kill time between Fast and Furious episodes by watching some old superhero stuff. We're starting with the wildly influential Superman cartoons released by Paramount in the early 1940s. The first nine were produced by Fleischer Studios and their fingerprints are also all over the eight that followed by a renamed studio under different leadership. Because of that, all seventeen are usually referred to as the Fleischer Superman cartoons and we talk about the whole set: what worked, what didn't, and what went on to inspire not just future cartoons, but even the comics themselves.
We continue our celebration of The Shadow's 30th anniversary with this special podcast crossover episode! Paxton Holley brings his I Read Movies podcast to After Lunch for a special look at James Luceno's Shadow novelization, based on the screenplay by David Koepp.
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Russell Mulcahy's The Shadow, Michael and Rob welcome superfans of the movie, Paxton Holley and Adam Pope. The conversation covers the ups, the downs, and the impressive cast featuring Alec Baldwin, Penelope Ann Miller, John Lone, Peter Boyle, Ian McKellen, Tim Curry, Jonathan Winters, James Hong, Al Leong, John Kapelos, Max Wright, Ethan Phillips, and Robert Trebor.
Rob talks with Michael and Pax about his recent visit to France and England with his wife to celebrate their 30th Wedding Anniversary. There's sightseeing in Paris and the French countryside, mealtime scheming on the cruise ship, and a trip to Highclere Castle (aka Downton Abbey)!
Michael and Rob are joined by Carlin Trammel and Michael DiGiovanni to talk about collectible movie tie-in glasses. They discuss various ones they've collected over the years, including recent ones. But the highlight of the episode is when each panelist creates a whole line of four glasses for a movie that never got them. Carlin even created mock-ups of his line, which you can see below.
Carlin Trammel returns to the podcast feed for a special interview with David Heringer, organizer of the Infinity Con entertainment convention. They talk about the history of the show, why events like it are necessary, and the next one coming to Tallahassee, Florida on July 6 and 7.
Michael, Rob, and Pax begin a new series of episodes covering the Fast and Furious movies, starting of course with the introduction of Brian, Dom, Mia, and Letty (and alright, Vince) in Rob Cohen's The Fast and the Furious. And because it's just the way we are, we also talk a little about John Ireland and Edward Sampson's 1954 film of the same name that also stars Ireland and Dorothy Malone.
Michael and Jess investigate a couple of movies on Mike Mignola's 20 Horror Movies I Can’t Live Without. A lot of the movies on Mignola's list have common themes - vampires, witches, ghosts, etc. - but The Thing (1982) and Jacob's Ladder (1990) were outliers, so we decided to start with them.
Michael, Rob, and Karen welcome Timothy Dalton to the James Bond films in The Living Daylights. After the mostly over-the-top Roger Moore era, the series gets back to basics with Dalton's realistic, angry, but also charming take on 007.
In this rerun from the old Filthy Horrors podcast, Michael, Jess, and Darla eat at a haunted restaurant and then talk about three of their favorite ghost movies: Poltergeist (1982), The Orphanage (2007), and The Woman in Black (2012).
Michael, Pax, and Becky wrap up this month's Lounge talking about whether adapters of things need to be fans of the original material, X-Men movies, giant monster movies, John Hughes movies, Challengers and other sports movies, Monkey Man, Boy Kills World, The Fall Guy, Bridgerton, and more.
With Rob out of the country, Becky Tyler joins Michael and Pax in the lounge to talk about LiveJournal, The Phantom Menace, Gold Diggers of 1933, Lisa Frankenstein, Abigail, The First Omen, Late Night with the Devil, Immaculate, old Nerd Lunch episodes, the Fast and Furious movies, Jed MacKay’s Moon Knight, Remo Williams, God of Fire by Helen Steadman, The Princess Bride by William Goldman, PG Wodehouse's Jeeves stories, and more.
The After Lunch Planet of the Apes movie panel joins the After Lunch Planet of the Apes TV panel to talk about the all-new Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes! Michael, Rob, Pax, and Jacob Bean-Watson welcome the new trilogy of Planet of the Apes films with this first entry directed by Wes Ball and starring Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Peter Macon, and Kevin Durand.
After four episodes determining our favorite villains from literature, comics, TV, and movies, Michael and Rob welcome Joanna from Bloody Popcorn and Pax to help decide the ultimate villain from all media types. Rather than nominate candidates, the panel works together to seed the Final Fours from each of the previous match-ups (episodes 132, 209, 263, and 275, if you like) into brackets. And then, as usual, we vote on them until we reach the ultimate champion.
Michael, Rob, and Karen dance into the fire and board the iceberg submarine to talk about Roger Moore's final performance as James Bond in A View to a Kill. Also starring Grace Jones, Christopher Walken, Tanya Roberts, and Patrick Macnee.
After discussing the horrors of car repair and the new Omen prequel, The First Omen, Michael and Jess finally wrap up their exploration of the Universal monster movies. They talk about the last two mummy movies (both from 1944): The Mummy's Ghost and The Mummy's Curse.
Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about more Harry Palmer, Matt Helm, and Mannix, The Marvels and the state of the MCU, lots of podcasts, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, the Mr and Mrs Smith TV series, Doctor Strange comics, John Byrne’s Superman, the Sherlock Holmes Expanded Universe, Predator Vs Wolverine, Jason Copland's Full Tilt, and ever so much more.
Michael, Rob, and Pax are back in the Lounge to talk about generational differences, local pro wrestling events, Darth Vader, the Godzilla x Kong novelization, Van Halen, Cinderella (2015), Bottoms (2023), the '70s Amazing Spider-Man TV series, MacGruber, Renegade Nell, Wilkie Collins, Road House (2024), Silo, Argylle (2024), and real estate.
Michael and Rob catch up with kaiju fans writer Corinna Bechko (currently of The Space Between) and David May about the new entry in Legendary's MonsterVerse series, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Godzilla vs. Kong's Adam Wingard returns to direct and brings along his The Guest star Dan Stevens to join returning MonsterVerse actors Kaylee Hottle, Rebecca Hall, and Brian Tyree Henry.
Michael and Rob welcome Shawn Robare and Jacob Bean-Watson to nominate 16 legendary movie villains, then match them against each other in a tournament to determine the greatest movie villain of all time.
Michael, Rob, and Pax discuss director Matt Reeves' arrival on the Planet of the Apes with Dawn. The second movie in the reboot trilogy is set 10 years after Rise and stars Andy Serkis, Toby Kebbell, Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Gary Oldman.
Michael and Jess finish Universal's Invisible Man series with Invisible Agent (1942), The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944), and Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951). And Jess discusses the merits of Butterfly Kisses (2018).
Michael, Rob, and Karen talk about the Johnny English prequel that also happens to feature Sean Connery's last performance as James Bond. It's Irvin Kershner's alternate reality 007 film, Never Say Never Again, also starring Kim Basinger, Barbara Carrera, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Bernie Casey, and Max von Sydow.
Michael, Rob, and Pax wrap up this month's Lounge talking about Bodyguard, The Brothers Sun, Poker Face, The Bear, Michael Caine's Harry Palmer movies, Mannix, Red Hood comics, the Disney Villains books by Serena Valentino, brand loyalty, Drive-Away Dolls, Death and Other Details, and 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Michael, Rob, and Pax meet in the Lounge to talk about hot towels, plastic cups, Dune 2, Oppenheimer, Past Lives, Marvel's Midnight Suns video game, King Kong and Godzilla movies, Thin Man movies, The Beekeeper, Wonka, Napoleon, The Artful Dodger, the live-action Last Airbender series, the first Perry Mason novel, Kitty Pryde comics, and much more.
Michael and Jess watch House of Frankenstein (1944), House of Dracula (1945), and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), the movies where Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, and the Wolfman all share the story together. But first, we catch up on other horror movies we've been watching like Burnt Offerings (1976), Strangler of the Swamp (1945), and Lisa Frankenstein (2024).
Michael, Pax, Evan, and Noel reconvene the Top 10 Years Later panel to look back at their favorite movies from 2014. And, in some cases, re-evaluate if those films are still favorites.
Continuing our Planet of the Apes series and moving into the modern prequels, Michael, Rob, and Pax discuss Rupert Wyatt's Rise of the Planet of the Apes. It stars James Franco, Freida Pinto, David Oyelowo, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, and Andy Serkis as Caesar.
The villain is a cliché, Bond is a clown, and the name of the movie is just embarrassing. Michael, Rob, and Karen talk about whether or not those factors affect the enjoyability of Roger Moore's penultimate Bond film.
Michael, Rob, and Pax finish this month's Lounge talking about the first book in Seanan McGuire's October Daye series, Gargoyles comics, Greek mythology novels, The Wind in the Willows meets Agatha Christie, more Narnia, Gray Man, and Dresden Files, the hardest foods to give up from each food group, Argylle, Lisa Frankenstein, Dune movies, Madame Webb, Hilda, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and Pax's bad day.
Michael, Rob, Pax, and Evan talk about important topics like backing into parking spaces, automatic windshield wipers and headlights, imaginary friends, The Holdovers, The Artful Dodger, jazz, Three Musketeers movies, Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition by David Nirenberg, Moriarty: The Devil's Game, making time to write, and podcasts about JFK and Jack the Ripper.
Michael and Rob are joined by Adam Pope and William Bruce West from the Remember That Show? podcast to discuss and vote on comics' greatest villains, ultimately arriving at the Greatest Comics Villain of All Time.
Michael and Jess talk about Bela Lugosi as Dracula in Tod Browning's 1931 classic, but also the famous vampire's children: Gloria Holden as Dracula's Daughter and Lon Chaney Jr as Son of Dracula.
But first, discussion of other horror (or horror-connected) movies: Gretel & Hansel (2020), The Midnight Meat Train (2008), The Sadness (2021), The Belko Experiment (2016), The Mean One (2022), and Poor Things (2023).
Having experienced the extravagance of Moonraker, Michael, Rob, and Karen are not upset at all when the Bond series goes back to basics in For Your Eyes Only. John Glen makes his directorial debut, Roger Moore returns as an age-appropriate Bond, and there are plenty of twists and turns with Carole Bouquet (sigh), Julian Glover, Topol, and... is that Charles Dance?
Michael, Rob, and Pax revisit Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes reboot to see if it's as bad as conventional wisdom and our panel's own memories say that it is.
Michael and Jacob Bean-Watson talk about Fox's final effort to get a Planet of the Apes TV series going, this time with a Saturday morning cartoon on NBC. (Michael probably says CBS in the discussion, but that was the live-action show. Fox partnered with a different network for the cartoon.) Return to the Planet of the Apes featured animation by Jonny Quest creator Doug Wildey and the voices of Austin Stoker (MacDonald in Battle for the Planet of the Apes) and Fred Flintstone himself, Henry Corden.
There are plenty of problems with the cartoon, but also lots of fun. Especially when Jacob and Michael spontaneously create their own Planet of the Apes sitcom.
Michael, Rob, Pax, and Evan wrap up this month's Lounge with talk about Red Dead Redemption 2, revisiting Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Gran Turismo, Meg 2, the Scream movies, more Elvis flicks, The Orange Years: The Nickelodeon Story, Season 2 of Reacher, Lupin, The Gilded Age, retirement plans, old technology, finishing the Philip Marlowe novels, Middlegame by Seanan McGuire, Star Trek: Memory Prime by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Christmas heist movies, Noelle, The Mean One, Poor Things, manufactured backstories in movie series, May December, Knock at the Cabin, Apostle, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and the Legendary MonsterVerse, Echo, Columbo villains, Hercules movies, the DC Cinematic Universe, and adaptations of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Michael, Rob, Pax, and Evan - yes, Evan! - sit around talking about neckties, JFK, the Script Apart podcast on Midnight Mass and Mission: Impossible, the Planet of the Apes, Rob’s new car, ice cream, salad dressing, vampire hairstyles, an oral history of Nickelodeon, Meddling Kids, variations on A Christmas Carol, Godzilla Minus One, Little House on the Prairie, American Nightmare, Mickey7, The Dresden Files, Changing the Way We See Native America, Brambly Hedge, Miss Marple, and The Chronicles of Narnia.
Michael and Jacob Bean-Watson watch the short-lived, but (let's just spoil it) excellent live action Planet of the Apes TV series starring Roddy McDowall, Ron Harper, James Naughton, and Star Trek's Mark Lenard.
Michael, Rob, Kay, and Robert Zerbe look back at their favorite movies, shows, and books of 2023, check in on their pop culture predictions and resolutions from the year, and make new ones for 2024.
Michael, Rob, and Pax finish their exploration of the classic Planet of the Apes series with the fifth and final entry, Battle for the Planet of the Apes. There are budget issues and a confusing timeline to talk about, but also some great characters and cool dilemmas.
Michael, Rob, and Karen Flieger kick off the new year with one of the most infamous Bond movies. James Bond goes to space and pigeons do double-takes in the over-the-top, Star Wars-inspired Moonraker. Is it fun? Is it garbage? Or is it both?
Happy New Year! We took a little break from our Apesathon during the holidays, but we're back with the penultimate entry in the original series: Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. It's a bold, challenging movie with some things to say about power and the civil rights movement. It also has a couple of endings and some continuity issues. Which all means that there's plenty to talk about.
Michael and Jess talk about the first three movies in Universal's Invisible "Man" series: The Invisible Man (1933), The Invisible Man Returns (1940), and The Invisible Woman (1940). Including that last one turned out to be a controversial decision, so we talked about that, too.
Merry Christmas! On this 25th day of December, we're sharing our 250th episode of After Lunch and it's a jolly one. Michael and Rob are joined by Pop Culture Retrofitters Michael DiGiovanni and Christian Nielsen to nominate and vote on their favorite movie and TV Santas. We've made our lists and checked them twice; it's time to decide who is the best representation of Santa Claus.
Wrapping up this season's series of Sleigh Bell Cinema reruns, Michael and Rob talk about one of their favorite Christmas movies, Love Actually. The movie's celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, so we're ending these reruns by showing it some love (while also talking about its faults).
We’re down to our last two Sleigh Bell Cinema re-runs for this season and these are biggies. Today it’s one of Michael's family’s absolute favorites: a movie that they cannot safely get through the holiday season without watching. We’re talking about Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen in White Christmas. And since it’s such a tradition with Michael's family, it’s appropriate that he talked about it with his wife Diane.
It's a clinker! This last week before Christmas we have three final Christmas Spirit movies to discuss and they’re all biggies. This first one is the cable classic A Christmas Story from 1983 and talking with Michael about it is the one and only Paxton Holley.
This episode will be the last of our daily releases for the month. From here to Christmas we’ll be going every other day. But we think we’ve saved the best for last. Not the best conversations necessarily. Those have all been great and so will these. But like Home Alone yesterday, these next few movies are some of Michael's favorite holiday films. True classics like While You Were Sleeping, which Michael talked about with his friend Erik Johnson.
Yesterday we shared an episode where Evan Hanson and Michael talked about the movie Krampus, where a kid gets irritated with his family and then has to defend his home from malignant forces. That’s also what happens in today’s movie as Michael and his son David discuss the classic, Home Alone.
Yesterday we shared an episode where Chad Young and I talked about the Christmas slasher film Silent Night, Deadly Night in which a young man has a twisted image of Santa as a being who ruthlessly punishes the naughty. Because of that, I mentioned in the episode that it would make a good double-feature with the 2015 movie Krampus, which is also about a vengeful holiday spirit who punishes the naughty. So that’s the movie that Evan Hanson and I talk about in this episode.
It stars Adam Scott and Toni Collette, is occasionally funny, occasionally scary, and as Evan points out, actually pretty important.
Yesterday we got a little dark with Bad Santa, but today we’re getting really dark with our favorite Christmas slasher movie, Silent Night, Deadly Night. Talking with Michael about it is Chad Young (aka HorrorMovieBBQ), who knew a lot more about it and its sequels than Michael did. They had a really fun conversation, so don’t be naughty. Give it a listen.
We’re moving out of silly comedy territory with this episode, but till in the comedy genre for now. This one’s a little bit darker though. From 2003, it’s Bad Santa, starring Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Lauren Graham, Bernie Mac, and John Ritter. Talking with Michael about it is his pal and occasional podcasting partner, Dan Taylor. This one might get a little naughty.
Yesterday, Michael DiGiovanni and Michael May talked about Christmas Vacation and how - during their prep for that conversation - they discovered the existence of a weird sequel called Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure. Of course they had to come back and talk about it. And they invited Paxton Holley to do that with them.
We’re re-running a stretch of silly comedies from the Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast, so of course we can’t get too far into that without talking about National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. That’s exactly what Michael May and Michael DiGiovanni did and Michael May's opinion of the movie changed as a result.
Yesterday we shared a discussion of the 1994 movie Mixed Nuts, so we’ll stick with the silly comedies for a bit. In this episode, Michael and his son David talk about Seth Gordon’s Four Christmases starring Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn and an awesome cast of co-stars like Mary Steenburgen, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, Jon Favreau, and Kristin Chenoweth.
The last couple of days, we reshared discussions that Noel Thingvall and Michael had about the classic Christmas in Connecticut and its remake. Today we’re making a trilogy of it and sharing Noel’s other appearance on the show where he introduced Michael to a Christmas comedy he'd never even heard of before. It’s Mixed Nuts starring a huge cast that includes Steve Martin, Madeline Kahn, Liev Schreiber, Rob Reiner, Parker Posey, Robert Klein, Juliette Lewis, Adam Sandler, Rita Wilson, Jon Stewart, and Garry Shandling.
Yesterday we re-ran a conversation between Noel Thingvall and Michael about the 1945 classic, Christmas in Connecticut. We mentioned a couple of times in that conversation that there’s a remake of that movie, so of course Michael and Noel also had to talk about that one. The remake was a TV movie from 1992 starring Dyan Cannon, Kris Kristofferson, and Tony Curtis. And most remarkably, directed by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Yesterday we re-ran a conversation that Rob and Michael had about the 1949 movie Holiday Affair on Michael's old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast. Today, it’s another movie from the ‘40s and even more of a classic. From 1945, it’s Christmas in Connecticut starring Barbara Stanwyck. Our guest for the episode was Noel Thingvall, who’s also been on After Lunch a few times in the last couple of years.
This Christmas season on After Lunch - like with the last couple of years - we’re going to be re-running a bunch of episodes from Michael's old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast. This is going to be an especially busy year though, because we’re running discussions of what we call Holiday Spirit movies.
Unlike Tangential Christmas movies, these are undeniably about the Holiday Season, but without a lot of fantastical elements like Santa or his elves and reindeer. If there’s magic, it’s going to be subtle or ambiguous. There are a lot of these movies though - it’s easily the biggest category that we talked about on Sleigh Bell Cinema - so we’re going to be running an episode a day for the next couple of weeks. To kick this off, we want to start with a movie that Rob and Michael keep referring back to. In fact, it’s come up in the last three episodes on the show. From 1949, it’s Holiday Affair starring Janet Leigh, Robert Mitchum, and Wendell Corey. And featuring Colonel Potter himself, Harry Morgan, in a small role. It’s one of Michael's favorite Christmas movies, but you’ll have to stay tuned to find out what Rob thought. So please listen and enjoy and let us know whether you’re Team Steve or Team Carl.
This year on the podcast we're going to be all about Holiday Spirit movies: films that are undeniably about Christmas, but don't heavily feature supernatural or magical elements like toy-making elves or flying reindeer. We'll be re-running a bunch of discussions of these kinds of movies from Michael's old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast, but to kick things off, Michael and Rob talk about Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis in Happiest Season. The movie seems like a standard romantic comedy at first, but there are plot twists and a fantastic cast that includes Mary Steenburgen, Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza, Victor Garber, and Dan Levy.
And stay tuned for a spoiler-filled discussion of Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas at the end.
Michael and Rob welcome back Jacob Bean-Watson to talk about another tangential Christmas movie this year. Though it may be more than just tangential. It's Roy Del Ruth's It Happened on Fifth Avenue, a charmingly relevant story about a group of homeless people who take shelter in a mansion over Christmas (although unbeknownst to most of the group, some of them are the house's actual owners). The movies stars Victor Moore, Hazel's Don DeFore, Gale Storm, Ann Harding, Charlie Ruggles, and Gilligan's Island's Skipper himself: Alan Hale Jr.
As the Christmas celebrations continue on After Lunch, Michael and Rob welcome back Jody Collins to the show to talk about one of his favorite Christmas movies. It's Serendipity, starring John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale, Jeremy Piven, Molly Shannon, Bridget Moynahan, and John Corbett. The movie is a sweet and funny love story with some lovely surprises, but it also raises philosophical questions about fate, free will, and the romantic notion of The One.
Happy Holidays! To kick off a busy Christmas season on the show, Michael and Rob welcome back Mike Westfall (Advent Calendar House) to discuss this year's Christmas Carol adaptation. It's Edwin L Marin's 1938 film starring Reginald Owen as Scrooge and Gene Lockhart as Bob Cratchit. The movie makes severe cuts to the story while adding other plot elements, but that's not all. There are also bad wigs, the most cheery Fred ever, a super cute Ghost of Christmas Past, and much much more.
Michael, Rob, Jody Collins, and Becky Tyler each create a mixtape with ten of their favorite '80s songs. Some songs have personal importance, others are simply iconic, but all 40 help define the decade musically for our panel. Listen and let us know which playlists most reflect your taste and what songs (whether we mentioned them or not) best exemplify the '80s for you.
Michael and Jess finish Universal's solo Frankenstein movies with The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) before checking out the introduction of Lon Chaney Jr's iconic werewolf character in The Wolf Man (1941). Then they wrap up with the creation of Universal's Monster Cinematic Universe in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943).
Michael, Rob, and Karen continue their Bondathon with a game-changing entry in the series, The Spy Who Loved Me. Co-starring Barbara Bach and featuring Caroline Munro, it introduces new recurring characters like Jaws and General Gogol while also raising the bar for sheer spectacle. But is it also good?!
Michael and his wife Diane visited upstate New York for Halloween. They eventually ended up in Sleepy Hollow to spend time with the Headless Horseman, but also got to visit with one Mr Rob Graham and his wife Collette. In this special in-person recording, Michael and Diane talk with Rob about their Sleepy Hollow adventure and Rob shares his and Collette's recent spooky trip to Universal Studios and Disney World in Florida.
Moby the Bard and his Bunnymen companions check into an inn to clean up after their recent griffin hunt. But their sleep is interrupted by screams and murder, leading the trio to investigate and assist a former pirate accused of the crime as well as his adopted daughter.
Dungeon Master Ben Graham leads Rob Graham, Jeff Somogyi, and Michael May in their first full Dungeons & Dragons adventure together. Be sure to check out Episode 183 for the players' discussion of their histories with the game and the introduction to Ben's world. And visit the After Lunch website to see maps from the adventure: The City of Trellan and a sketch of Jackson's exploration of the Drop Inn.
Michael and Jess open the sarcophagus on Universal's first three Mummy movies: The Mummy (1932), The Mummy's Hand (1940), and The Mummy's Tomb (1942).
With the recent release of Mike Flanagan's adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher, it seems like a good time to rerun this conversation about Edgar Allan Poe between Michael, Jessica Hickman, and Darla Ecklund from the old Filthy Horrors podcast.
The episode begins in a cemetery as we dig into "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Masque of the Red Death," and "The Raven," with side-trips to other Poe stories and favorite adaptations of his work. Note: It was windy at the cemetery and the sound overwhelms the discussion a few times during that section of the episode. We cleaned it up as best we could, but if it's bothersome, you might want to skip ahead to about 21 minutes into the show. At that point we've moved inside and the audio is clear for the remainder of the episode.
Happy Halloween! Michael, Rob, Pax, and Becky finish the Underworld films with a visit to the ice vampires as they talk about whether Blood Wars is a satisfying conclusion to the series.
Michael, Rob, Pax, and Becky return to the main Underworld timeline to briefly check on the Underworld: Endless War animated shorts before seeing what happens when humanity discovers the existence of vampires and werewolves in Underworld: Awakening.
Michael, Rob, Pax, and Becky travel back in time to the Dark Ages to witness how the war between the Underworld werewolves and vampires began. And whether the lack of Kate Beckinsale at all affects their enjoyment of this prequel to the previous two films.
Michael, Rob, Pax, and Becky return to a look at the second Underworld film to see how well it deals with the awakening of Marcus from the end of the previous movie, adds to the world of the series, and develops Selene's relationship with Michael Corvin.
Michael, Rob, Pax, and Becky Tyler are talking about the Underworld movies in this week leading up to Halloween. Starting, logically enough, with the first one starring Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Michael Sheen, and Bill Nighy. It's an old favorite for some of the panel, a second look for one, and a brand new experience for yet another.
Michael, Rob, and Pax wrap up this month's Lounge with conversations about shark movies, ZZ Top, The Fall of the House of Usher, Ahsoka, Only Murders in the Building, After Party, “buying” digital movies, Haunted Mansion, Us, To Be or Not To Be: A Chooseable-Path Adventure by Ryan North, finishing the Harry Potter series, Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss, Totally Killer, the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina TV series, From Dusk Till Dawn sequels, Batman ‘66, Black Mirror, favorite museums, Reservation Dogs, The Changeling, the Criterion Channel, The Creator, The Pope’s Exorcist, It Lives Inside, and No One Will Save You.
Michael, Rob, and Pax gather again in the Lounge to talk about things they hate (and their tolerance for people who like them), favorite comics artists, re-visiting favorite art vs seeking out new art, appearing in documentaries, The Classified Dossier: Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula by Christian Klaver, Edgar Allan Poe, Joe Hill, James Bond comics, high school reunions, the surprising relevance of gothic stories to modern society, Jason X: The Experiment by Pat Cadigan, and The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay.
Michael and Rob welcome Joanna from Bloody Popcorn and Shawn Robare to create a horror-themed streaming service. Each panelist controls a sub-channel that includes 5 favorite horror films, 5 favorite horror-related TV series, and an original series created by the panelist themself. Listen and see if your favorites are available!
(Special thanks to Shawn for the name: 'screaming service'.)
Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about the third Planet of the Apes movie in which the series keeps going in spite of the planet's literal destruction at the end on the previous film. How convincing is the continuity? How well does the bold, new direction work? And what do Victor Newman and Khan Noonien Singh have to do with it?
Michael, Rob, and Karen discuss fun houses, slide whistles, kung fu nieces, and Mary Goodnight's espionage skills in this comprehensive conversation about Roger Moore's second Bond film. It's The Man with the Golden Gun, starring Christopher Lee, Maud Adams, Britt Ekland, and Hervé Villechaize.
After spending a lot of time talking about the Conjuring and Amityville Horror movies, Michael and Jess finally get around to discussing the three Universal Frankenstein movies starring Boris Karloff as the Monster: Frankenstein (1931), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and Son of Frankenstein (1939).
This month's After Dinner Lounge concludes with Michael, Rob, and Pax talking about video game encyclopaedias, the new Birds of Prey comic, Jughead, books and comics by Charles Soule, Greg Rucka, Ryan North, and Kieron Gillen, Harry Potter, ‘80s Spider-Man comics, The Pope’s Exorcist, more Elvis movies, Batman ‘66, the cancelation of Winning Time, breakfast preferences, Blue Beetle and the current state of superhero movies, the second seasons of Dark Winds and The After Party, the Equalizer movies, Bottoms, and A Haunting in Venice.
Michael, Rob, and Pax gather again in the lounge to discuss what they've been listening to, thinking about, reading, and watching. And Evan Hanson stops in for a bit!
In this episode, they dig into their favourite video games and Autumn traditions, various podcasts (including the impressive, new Remember That Show?), Jimmy Buffett, the second seasons of Foundation and Good Omens, Justified, X-Men and Star Trek comics, Asteroid City, Werewolves Within, The Menu, 1917, Attack the Block, Twitter vs Bluesky, Early Autumn by Robert B Parker, The Cincinnati Kid, John Hughes movies, and Hardy Boys shorts.
In preparation for an upcoming episode of After Lunch After Midnight in which Michael and Jessica Hickman discuss the first three Universal Frankenstein movies, here's a rerun of a 2019 episode of the Filthy Horrors podcast where they and Darla Ecklund talked about the Mary Shelley novel and several adaptations of it.
Following up on Episode 132 from last year when we determined the Ultimate Literary Villain of All Time, Michael and Rob welcome Ben Graham and Paxton Holley to do the same with TV villains. Each panelists nominates four favorite boob tube baddies, then we put them into tournament brackets to discuss and vote. Will you agree with our choices? Did we leave off a favorite of yours? Listen and let us know!
Michael, Rob, and Pax return to the Planet of the Apes and dig deep into its subterranean (and substandard) sequel.
Michael, Rob, and Karen discuss Roger Moore's first go as Bond and the mixing of British spy adventure with the blaxploitation and hicksploitation genres. It's a messy film with plenty to talk about in terms of what works and what doesn't.
Inspired by last episode's Dracula discussion, we're rerunning another episode of the old Filthy Horrorspodcast. Michael, Jess, and Darla talk about all things Dracula: from the original novel to their favorite movies, comics, games, and more.
Michael and guest Becky Tyler take a bat-driven carriage through an overview of Dracula movies from 1922's Nosteratu to this year's The Last Voyage of the Demeter.
As mentioned in Episode 199, After Lunchis starting a new series of horror-themed episodes that we're calling "After Midnight". Jessica Hickman joins Michael to kick off with a discussion of Universal's trilogy of Creature from the Black Lagoonfilms: Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Revenge of the Creature (1955), and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956).
Michael, Rob, and Pax wrap up this month's Lounge talking about Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, playlists for running, the Wham! documentary, Barbie, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, video games we've been playing, the Jungle Cruise movie, Justified, Secret Invasion, They Cloned Tyrone, and Classic Doctor Who.
Michael, Rob, and Pax chat about how reading goals affect reading enjoyment, death and funerals, life as a cartoon animal, Matthew Reilly’s YA book (The Secret Runners of New York), Old Habits (a Die Hard spec script turned novel), Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent, Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse comics, The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz, Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely, current Star Trek comics, and Elvis and Ann-Margret movies.
Michael, Rob, and Pax visit the Planet of the Apes! Kicking off a bunch of discussions about the simian series, we start with a quick conversation about Pierre Boulle's novel before exploring the 1968 movie that started a phenomenon.
Michael, Rob, and Karen Flieger close out the Sean Connery era of the Bond films with Diamonds Are Forever. They talk about the return of Connery, whether it's a worthy follow-up to On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and the wisdom of hiring a jazz musician and Crispin Glover's dad to play assassins. The movie's directed by Goldfinger's Guy Hamilton and also stars Jill St John, Charles Gray, Lana Wood, and Jimmy Dean.
We're soon going to start a new horror-focused series of episodes called After Lunch After Midnight featuring Michael and his pal Jessica Hickman. It's sort of a spin-off of another podcast called Filthy Horrorsthat they did together with their mutual pal Darla Ecklund. So to introduce After Midnight, we thought it might be good to rerun the first episode of Filthy Horrorsin which Jess, Darla, and Michael talk about their history with horror, the kinds of horror they like, and lots of examples of favorite horror movies, TV shows, books, and comics.
Michael and Rob wrap their Mission: Impossible movies watch-through (for now) with the new entry in the series: Dead Reckoning, Part One. They talk about all the spoilers and whether second viewings changed their perspective on anything. Well, one thing in particular, but sure, everything else, too.
Michael, Rob, and Pax finish this months Lounge with discussion about their personal movie rating systems, Sherry Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series, Daniel Pemberton movie scores, The Haunting of Bly Manor, the second season of Schmigadoon!, more about Ted Lasso, Kate Beckinsale in Love & Friendship, Nimona, modern Luddites, The Flash, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Alamo Drafthouse, their top three favorite comic book artists, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, maybe a little bit about the new Mission: Impossible movie, and much much more.
Michael, Rob, and Pax chat about farting soulmates, '90s revamped superheroes, Pax’s idea for a Batman ‘66 Season 4 crossover, Philip Marlowe in The Little Sister, Hammer Frankenstein and the Hammer House of Podcast, Men both Gray and Thin, weekly comics reading, crappy Spider-Man novels, the darkening of the Harry Potter books, and lots of other things.
Michael, Rob, and Delaney Graham continue their Star Trek Trek with season 4 of Discovery. Find out what we thought of the butterfly people, the new Federation President, all that jargon (The DMA! Species 10-C! The Orb! The Hyperfield!), and the most contentious element of the season: Zora.
As Hasbro begins building its cinematic universe in real life, Michael and Rob welcome Jeeg and David May to talk about how theywould do it. Following the MCU model, each person has picked a Hasbro game or toy to adapt into a movie that then connects somehow into the other movies, all leading to an Avengers-style crossover blockbuster. Madness or genius? You decide!
While Michael and Rob wait for Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One to come out, they follow up Henry Cavill's performance in Fallout with another Cavill spy movie, Guy Ritchie's The Man from UNCLE.
Since we just talked about On Her Majesty's Secret Servicelast episode, now seems like a good time to revisit this conversation from Michael's old Sleigh Bell Cinemapodcast in which he talks with Carlin Trammel about the movie and how (or if) it functions as a Christmas movie.
After some Goldfinger and Thunderball trivia that you can play along with, Michael, Rob, and Karen Flieger talk about George Lazenby's grounded and human James Bond, Diana Riggs' lovely and kickass Tracy di Vicenzo, and Telly Savalas' tough and brutish Ernst Stavro Blofeld. It's an unusual entry in the series, but is it also good? Once they settle that, the panel wraps with some On Her Majesty's Secret Servicetrivia, too.
Michael, Rob, and Michael DiGiovanni talk about The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Star Wars Visions Season 2, Ted LassoSeason 3, Unicorn: Warriors Eternal, the Our Man Flint movies, Hammer's Frankenstein movies, Peter Pan and Wendy (2023), streaming service avatars, Fast X, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Silo, Disney’s Stan Lee documentary, how our buying and reading of comics has changed, aging and wisdom, budgeting entertainment time, and other things they've been watching and thinking about.
As Pax recovers from vacation, Evan returns to the Lounge for a bit with Michael, Rob, and guest-lounger Michael DiGiovanni. In this first half of the discussion, the conversation includes butt tattoos, underwear preferences, Joe Hill, nepotism, how horror works in books vs film, jazz trombone, William T Riker, Fourth Chair Carryover Questions, the difference between the book and movie versions of Prisoner of Azkaban, The New Classic Film Jerks, the Off Panel comic book interview podcast, the Purple Stuff podcast, letting your kids introduce you to new music, celebrity podcasts, Action Comics, Dawn of DC, Star Trek: Double Double by Michael Jan Friedman, Cassandra Cain as Batgirl, and X-Men comics.
Michael and Rob welcome Erik Johnson and Noel Thingvall to create a fourth season of the Adam West Batmanseries by crossing it over with other late-'60s TV shows. In addition to the new guest-characters, some of the stories also include new villains pulled from comics of the day and played by popular actors of the period.
Michael and Rob finish their Mission: Impossiblemovies catch-up with a discussion of Fallout. Henry Cavill, Vanessa Kirby, and Angela Bassett join the series while other favorites return. But is that, plus emotional closure and fantastic stunts, enough to make this one of our favorite in the series?
This extra-sized episode opens with Michael, Rob, and Karen Flieger answering trivia questions about Dr Noand From Russia With Love. The questions are multiple choice, so play along as you listen. After that, the panel returns to the official Bond film series with Sean Connery's first last appearance in the role. And they are not in agreement about the quality of this film. They'll talk about why before wrapping up with more trivia, this time about You Only Live Twice.
Michael, Rob, and Pax experienced some technical difficulties in the lounge before they got around to thinking about anything this month. But they did get to talk about what they've been watching, including Perry Mason, Season 2, John Wick, Chapter 4, The Super Mario Bros Movie, Renfield, Sisu, Strange New Worlds, Air, Fast X, Bruce Lee, Philip Marlowe, The Black Phone, and Star Trek: Lower Decks.
Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about what they've been listening to and reading, including their favorite podcasts and comics, but also Harry Potter audiobooks, Cameron Crowe's novel Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story, Circe by Madeline Miller, Raymond Chandler's The High Window, and additional thoughts on Rogue Nation and Picard, Season 3.
All of this, plus a new Ask Us Anything segment thanks to listener voicemail from our pal Jody Collins.
After Michael, Rob, Jeff Somogyi, and Ben Graham talk briefly about their various experiences playing Dungeons & Dragons and their expectations for the game, Ben leads the rest of the party into a quick encounter with a sheep-stealing griffin. Assuming the group survives, this is the first of a series of adventures that will also see William Bruce West joining the fun in future episodes. Roll a d20 and make a Fun Check.
Michael and Rob are joined by Michael DiGiovanni and William Bruce West to imagine a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie that includes characters from the wide array of toys, movies, and TV series that Marvel Comics has licensed over the years.
Michael and Rob continue watching their way through the Mission: Impossiblemovies with Christopher McQuarrie's debut in the series, Rogue Nation. Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Jeremy Renner are back, but how does Sean Harris measure up as the villain? And then there's Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust. Is this the entry that will supplant Mission: Impossible IIIas our favorite? Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to tune in and find out.
Michael and Rob welcome Michael's friend and Kill All Monsterspartner Jason Copland to talk about Jason's new graphic novel, Full Tilt. Successfully funded on Zoop in an hour, the book is a non-stop scifi noir action thriller. Jason talks about its inception and the creation process, but there's also some Kill All Monsterstalk and we wrap up with a discussion of some of our favorite other "full tilt" stories in various media.
Full Tilt promises to be a unique story in a beautiful package and there are currently no plans to publish it traditionally, so please be nice to yourself and order your copy on Zoop right away.
Michael, Rob, and Karen Flieger wrap up their digression into 1967 unofficial Bond movies with a look at Charles K Feldman's spoof, Casino Royale, starring David Niven, Ursula Andress, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, and Orson Welles. It's a classic train wreck of a movie, but does that mean that it's no good? We talk about what happened behind the scenes during production, critique the jokes, and try to make sense of the plot.
Michael and Rob reunite with their old friend Carlin Trammel to talk in a very spoilery way about the recent, third season of Star Trek: Picard. This isn't part of After Lunch's official Star Trek Trekdiscussions, because those won't get to Picardfor a long time. We just couldn't wait that long to talk about the season.
And again, lots of spoilers in this episode.
Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about what they've been watching and thinking, leading to conversations about New Girl, Shrinking, Star Trek: Picard, Shazam: Fury of the Gods, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, John Wick, Chapter 4, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Ted Lasso, The Mandalorian, Murder, My Sweet, Nope, The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek, former fandoms we used to enjoy, Easter traditions, and dream RPG settings.
Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about what they've been listening to and reading lately, leading to topics like the intersection of faith and feminism, different approaches to film podcasting, the novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Bono's memoir Surrender, Pax's reaction to Michael and Rob's Ghost Protocol episode, Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely, ‘90s Batman comics, and Batmobiles in general.
Check out the After Lunch website for images of some of the Batmobiles that come up.
Evan wasn't able to join us last episode when Michael, Rob, and Jody Collins rebooted Marvel Comics, so in this episode, he shares his ideas for all-new versions of Thor, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Hulk, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men.
Back in Episode 165, we speculated what Marvel Comics might be like if they took a year off from publishing superhero comics and focused on other genres instead. In this sequel episode, Michael, Rob, and Jody Collins return to imagine how Marvel might reboot their most classic superhero series with brand new, completely different concepts and characters. Evan wasn't able to join us for this one, but stay tuned for an upcoming episode in which he reveals his own ideas for reboots of all eight series.
And stay tuned at the end of this episode for important information about the After Lunchdress code.
Michael and Rob continue their journey through the Mission: Impossible films with the fourth in the series, Brad Bird's Ghost Protocol.
Michael, Rob, and Karen Flieger take a detour from the main James Bond series to watch Italy's OK Connery(aka Operation: Kid Brother) starring Sean Connery's younger brother as a famous secret agent's younger brother who's pulled into a spy caper. Thanks to the super popularity of Goldfingerand Thunderball, lots of Bond spoofs and rip-offs came out around this time, but OK Conneryis unique for including iconic actors from the actual Bond movies, including Lois Maxwell, Bernard Lee, Daniela Bianchi, Adolfo Celi, and Anthony Dawson. But is it any good? Our panel may not all agree.
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax talk about what they've been watching and thinking about. Topics include The Last of Us, Quantumania, Marlowe, Adam Driver vs dinosaurs, Bono and the Edge talking to Dave Letterman, Pumping Iron, Party Down, Creed 3, behind the scenes making a major Disney animated movie, villains as main characters, buying cars, engaging with ridiculous ideas, and the difference between openness and vulnerability.
A couple of episodes ago, Michael and Rob talked about JJ Abrams' Mission Impossible III and the TV show Lostcame up. Michael mentioned an episode of the old Dragonfly Ripplepodcast where Annaliese Trammel shared her thoughts on the first two seasons with her dad, Carlin. It was a wonderful bit of podcast history, but it's not easily available anymore, so we're rerunning it. Please enjoy.
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax talk about what they've been listening to and reading. Topics include teenage stupidity, pocket symphonies, which Enterprise we'd want to serve on, De La Soul and music licensing, annotated books, Barry Allen goes to Marvel, Batman: White Knight, The Big Sleep, and Nothing.
Michael and Rob talk about JJ Abrams' contribution to the Mission: Impossibleseries, starring Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michelle Monaghan, Billy Crudup, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Maggie Q, Simon Pegg, Laurence Fishburne, and Keri Russell.
Michael, Rob, and Karen Flieger talk about Sean Connery's fourth adventure as James Bond in Thunderball. Lots of music discussion in this one, praise for Paula Caplan and Fiona Volpe, and awe at Largo's impressive sense of fashion.
Michael, Pax, and guest Noel Thingvall (with input from Evan as well) recall their favorite films of 2013 and how they feel about them now. And they might get into some of the big stinkers of 2013 as well.
Michael, Rob, Evan, and guest Jody Collins imagine a reality in which Marvel Comics takes a year off from publishing superhero comics to focus on other genres. What genres should they pick? What stories should they tell? And what creators should write and draw them?
Michael wraps up his series of solo episodes about Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels with his last book: The Man With the Golden Gun. Heavily influenced by the three films that had come out by then, it's a hint at the direction the series might have taken had Fleming lived long enough to write more. Whether that's a good thing or not is up for discussion.
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax talk about what they've been watching and thinking about, including Willow, Velma, The Last of Us, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Ford v Ferrari, Black Adam, Gotham Knights, The Banshees of Inisherin, Pluto TV, Shrinking, how faithful adaptations should be, sleep, where we live, and planning a Sleepy Hollow trip.
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax talk about Marvel's Old Man characters, Martin Short's I Must Say, how to listen to movie review podcasts, malls, live action kids TV shows, John Carter of Mars, why our playlists are so awesome, the Fantastic Four, the UK’s rudest walk, epistolary books, Greek mythology, redcaps, mystery novels vs short stories, Star Trek comics, and other things they've been listening to and reading.
Michael and Rob get through John Woo's stylistic sequel, but is it really as bad as they remembered? There's guitars, slow motion, sunglasses, and doves, but also Anthony Hopkins, Thandiwe Newton, and Ving Rhames.
CT, Jeeg, and Pax reunite to look back at their very first Nerdstradamus episode and the predictions they made 10 years ago in Jan 2013.
Michael, Rob, and Karen don their golf togs and hit the green to talk about the film that changed the James Bond series forever. But are those changes all for the better? That's just one of the many topics under discussion, so pour yourself a glass of indifferently blended brandy and settle in.
At last! Michael, Rob, Evan, Robert Zerbe, and Kay look back at their favorite pop culture, predictions, and resolutions for 2022 and make a few predictions and resolutions for 2023 as well.
Michael and Rob get ready for this summer's Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One with the first in a series of episodes covering the Mission: Impossiblemovies so far. In this one, they talk about Baby Tom Cruise, the fate of Jim Phelps, the charming Max, and whether any of this makes sense.
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax reminisce about their favorite things they watched this year, do some thinking about the past and the future, and open some presents.
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax talk about their favorite things that they listened to and read from 2022. And whether they'd be willing to pay the horrible price of teleportation.
Michael, Rob, and Delaney skip ahead to the 32nd Century in their chronological Star Trektrek with Season 3 of Discovery. As the crew tries to locate the remnants of the Federation and acclimate to life in the future, our panel talks about favorite characters, plot threads, and themes of the season.
Michael, Rob, Pax, and David May reboot TV shows based only on brief descriptions of their premises.
Carlin and Robert Try to Put Right What's Going Wrong with the new Quantum Leap!
Theorizing one can get a few things off his chest, Carlin Trammel leaps into the podcast time stream. His only guide on this journey is Robert Zerbe, a fellow observer of the new Quantum Leap TV series airing on NBC. So both podcasters find themselves watching each episode of the new series and extensively making notes on what can be done to put right what is going on and hoping that Scott Bakula will also leap home! Be sure to check out the King Thunder Stickers and other King Thunder merchandise!
Michael continues his solo exploration of Fleming's Bond novels with the next-to-last in the series, You Only Live Twice. Following the tragic events of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, M sends Bond to Japan on an impossible diplomatic mission that becomes something much more bizarre and personal.
Michael and Rob and Karen Flieger board the Orient Express to speed up the frequency of their Bond movie discussions this year, starting with Sean Connery's second appearance as Bond in From Russia with Love. The trio talks about the characters, music, quips, clothing, gadgets, and everything else that makes this one of their favorites.
Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about what they've been watching: TV series like Midnight Club, Andor, Stargirl, Wednesday, Mythic Quest, Willow, Perry Mason, Mare of Easttown, and A-Team “Christmas” episodes. Then there are movies like A Christmas Story Christmas, the Cannonball Runsequel Speed Zone, the Underworld series, The Shop Around the Corner, Ernest Saves Christmas, and a White Christmas live production.
Finally, the loungers are thinking about Christmas movies. Specifically: what makes a Christmas movie, favourite Christmas movie characters, and the future of Christmas movie discussions on After Lunch.
Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about annoying Christmas Songs, Christmas mysteries and ghost stories, Lindsey Stirling music, book forewords and introductions, Mount Westmore, X-Men: Inferno, Batman: Three Jokers, and other things they've been listening to and reading.
Michael and Rob welcome Mike Westfall from the Advent Calendar House podcast to discuss a pair of the oldest adaptations of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. From 1910, it's the silent version from Thomas Edison's production company. And then we talk about the 1935 film starring Seymour Hicks.
And be sure to check out Mike, Rob, and Michael's Advent Calendar House discussion from earlier this season about the 1971 cartoon that brought back Alastair Sim as the voice of Scrooge.
In a completely original idea - Nerd Lunch definitely did notdo this exact same topic on Episode 320 of their show - Michael and Rob welcome Evan Hanson, Paxton Holley, and Michael DiGiovanni to help a few restaurants create special menus inspired by Christmas movies.
This is the final rerun of Tangential Christmas Movie discussions from the old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast and it seems appropriate to close with the poster child for these kind of movies. People love to argue about whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie, so we wouldn’t dream of spoiling where Jeeg and Michael fall on that topic.
Today we’re wrapping up Week 2 rerunning discussions of Tangential Christmas movies from the Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast. We’re actually not quite done yet, because there’s one more on Monday and it’s a doozy. But first, Jeeg and Michael talk about the Denis Leary vehicle, The Ref, from 1994.
And if you want to hear even more on The Ref on this very feed, check the old Nerd Lunch Extra Helping episode from December 2012 where Jeeg talks about it with Carlin Trammel.
Long before there was ever such a movie as Die Hard, the idea of Tangential Christmas movies was introduced by It’s a Wonderful Life. It gets played at Christmastime and has an important Christmas scene, but is it a Christmas movie? In this rerun from Michael's old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast, he and Carlin Trammel talk about that very question.
We’re still doing reruns about Tangential Christmas movies from the old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast and on this episode Michael talks with Lizzie Twachtman about a Bing Crosby classic. With Fred Astaire and Marjorie Reynolds, it’s 1942’s Holiday Inn.
Continuing our reruns about Tangential Christmas movies from Michael's old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast, this episode welcomes back Siskoid to talk about a movie that he mentioned in our discussion of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. From 1940 and starring the legendary team of Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, it’s Remember the Night.
Kicking off our second week of reruns about Tangential Christmas movies from the old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast with a discussion Michael had with our friend Kay about the 1934 classic whodunnit, The Thin Man starring William Powell and Myrna Loy.
Wrapping up this first week of reruns about Tangential Christmas movies from the old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast, Siskoid introduces Michael to an excellent French film, Jacques Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, starring Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo. If you’ve never seen it, we highly recommend it, but you don’t need to have seen it to enjoy the discussion.
In our next Sleigh Bell Cinema rerun, Michael talks to Shawn Robare about Savage Steve Holland's Better Off Dead...(starring John Cusack, Diane Franklin, and Curtis Armstrong) and how much it actually has to do with Christmas.
In another rerun from the former Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast, Michael talks with Nerd Lunch's Jeeg about the Joe Dante almost-Christmas classic, Gremlins.
This Christmas season is all about Tangential Christmas Movies on After Lunch. After our discussion of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang last episode, we're going to spend the next couple of weeks re-running discussions of other Tangential Christmas Movies from Michael's old Sleigh Bell Cinemapodcast. Starting with this one about Shazam!with Michael's son, David May.
Officially kicking off the Christmas season on After Lunch, Michael and Rob welcome back Jacob Bean-Watson (The Movie Connectionpodcast) to discuss the tangential Christmas movie, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Directed by Shane Black and starring Robert Downey Jr, Val Kilmer, and Michelle Monaghan.
Michael, Rob, and Pax finish this month's lounge discussion with what they've been watching and thinking about, including She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Mike Flanagan movies, Black Adam, The Sound of 007, Clerks 3 and the View Askewniverse, elderly action heroes, Jack Ryan, the recent Halloween trilogy, in-universe canons, and Twitter.
Michael, Rob, and Pax gather in the After Lunch After Dinner Lounge to talk about what they've been listening to and reading this month, including Agatha Christie, early Marvel comics, and James Tynion IV.
Michael, Rob, and Pax gather in the After Lunch After Dinner Lounge to talk about what they've been listening to and reading this month, including Agatha Christie, early Marvel comics, and James Tynion IV.
Christmas is a time for ghost stories. And though it may not be Christmas season for everyone yet, it's never too early for a haunted tale. Michael and Rob kick off what they hope is a new After Lunchtradition of November ghost stories by talking about Doctor Sleep, in which one of their favorite film directors adapts a book by one of their favorite authors.
Michael and Rob welcome back Chris Bailey (aka Charlton Hero) to the show to match up the greatest literary villains of all time in an ultimate showdown to determine the absolute best. Also featuring picks from Evan Hanson, who sadly couldn't join us for the recording.
Michael debriefs Rob about his recent trip to Disneyland in (extremely) sunny California. Rob talks about what he liked and what he didn't, Michael adds some thoughts from his own trip there a few years ago, and they both compare it with Florida's Walt Disney World, which they're much more familiar with.
Happy Halloween! To celebrate, Michael and Rob welcome Bloody Popcorn's Joanna back to the show along with everyone's old buddy, old pal Jeeg to create the ultimate team-up of horror characters. Each panelist nominates two members of the team as well as a bunch of honorable mentions to flesh out the cast and come up with a story worthy of them all. And possibly even tie in with the Avengers of Science Fiction, you never know.
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax gather in the lounge to talk about what they've been watching and thinking about, including mummy movies, zombie movies, what monsters they'd want to fight and what curses they'd prefer to have, and the scariest topic of all: cash.
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax gather in the lounge to talk about what they've been listening to and reading, including Elvis, harpsichord music, Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula, and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Michael, Rob, and Evan confront vampires and theology in writer-director Mike Flanagan's 2021 mini-series, Midnight Mass. They talk about how the show handles vampire lore, its Stephen King influences, and the characters it creates, but mostly how it discusses big themes like faith, knowledge, addiction, sacrifice, and forgiveness.
Rabbit Holers Carlin Trammel, Jeff Somogyi, and Paxton Holley reunite to celebrate the release of Carlin and artist Bill Wiist's fan-made Super Powers Superman mini-comic with an all-new Down the Rabbit Holeepisode exploring the Super Friends Wiki. With guest Michael May, the group sets out to get from the mini-comic's wiki page to... Ed McMahon? Find out if they're successful and while you're at it, download both the Superman mini-comic and the newly released second issue featuring Green Lantern.
Michael, Rob, William Bruce West, and David May board the Bus for a deep dive into the first season of Agents of SHIELD.
Michael, Rob, Pax, and Christian wrap up their Lounge conversation with what they've been watching and thinking about. Topics include The SandmanTV series, the resurgence of the murder mystery genre, the US healthcare system, and Mortality vs the Relentless March of Pop Culture.
Michael, Rob, Pax, and Christian wrap up their Lounge conversation with what they've been watching and thinking about. Topics include The SandmanTV series, the resurgence of the murder mystery genre, the US healthcare system, and Mortality vs the Relentless March of Pop Culture.
Michael, Rob, and Pax welcome Christian Nielsen to the Lounge to talk about what they've all been listening to and reading. Among many other things, subjects include James Patterson and Brian Sitts' The Shadownovel, comics artist Art Adams, a 1970s Fantastic Four radio show narrated by Stan Lee and featuring [REDACTED] as the Human Torch, and a lot of Star Warstalk inspired by Adam Christopher's Shadow of the Sith novel.
Michael, Rob, and Pax welcome Christian Nielsen to the Lounge to talk about what they've all been listening to and reading. Among many other things, subjects include James Patterson and Brian Sitts' The Shadownovel, comics artist Art Adams, a 1970s Fantastic Four radio show narrated by Stan Lee and featuring [REDACTED] as the Human Torch, and a lot of Star Warstalk inspired by Adam Christopher's Shadow of the Sith novel.
Michael, Pax, and Evan (yes, Evan!) welcome Noel Thingvall to the show to talk about each of their Top 10 Movies of 2012 as ranked in 2012. How do the four lists compare and are the movies on them still favorites?
Michael, Pax, and Evan (yes, Evan!) welcome Noel Thingvall to the show to talk about each of their Top 10 Movies of 2012 as ranked in 2012. How do the four lists compare and are the movies on them still favorites?
Building on Episode 27, in which an After Lunchpanel created a science fiction themed amusement park, Michael, Rob, Mike Westfall, and John Vanover add to that with new lands devoted to various fantasy books and games like Assassin's Creed, Legend of Zelda, The Dresden Files, and Tolkien's Middle Earth.
Building on Episode 27, in which an After Lunchpanel created a science fiction themed amusement park, Michael, Rob, Mike Westfall, and John Vanover add to that with new lands devoted to various fantasy books and games like Assassin's Creed, Legend of Zelda, The Dresden Files, and Tolkien's Middle Earth.
Michael, Rob, and Delaney continue trekking through Star Trekwith the first couple of seasons of Star Trek: Discovery. How does it fit into other Star Trekcontinuity? How comprehensible are the plots? How good are the characters? It's not quite a five-year journey to uncover the answers, but it's close in this extra-long episode.
Michael, Rob, and Delaney continue trekking through Star Trekwith the first couple of seasons of Star Trek: Discovery. How does it fit into other Star Trekcontinuity? How comprehensible are the plots? How good are the characters? It's not quite a five-year journey to uncover the answers, but it's close in this extra-long episode.
Michael, Rob, and Pax continue their rambling conversation, touching this time on Stranger Things, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Thor: Love and Thunder, art criticism, favourite vacations, Fourth Chair Carryover Questions, and breakfast cereal traps.
Michael, Rob, and Pax continue their rambling conversation, touching this time on Stranger Things, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Thor: Love and Thunder, art criticism, favourite vacations, Fourth Chair Carryover Questions, and breakfast cereal traps.
With Evan on hiatus, Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about James Bond radio plays starring Toby Stephens, the current state of ComiXology, the Superman ‘78 and Batman ‘89 comics, and many many other things.
With Evan on hiatus, Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about James Bond radio plays starring Toby Stephens, the current state of ComiXology, the Superman ‘78 and Batman ‘89 comics, and many many other things.
We're not promising that Ocean Master actually comes up in the episode, but a bunch of other comics characters sure do. Michael, Rob, Pax, and new guest Jody Collins (the Ramblin' Manpodcast) each draft a comic book Ocean's 11-style heist team to liberate a priceless artifact from an unassailable location defended by powerful guards. Listen to the episode, then head over to Twitter to vote on which team you think will succeed in the heist.
We're not promising that Ocean Master actually comes up in the episode, but a bunch of other comics characters sure do. Michael, Rob, Pax, and new guest Jody Collins (the Ramblin' Manpodcast) each draft a comic book Ocean's 11-style heist team to liberate a priceless artifact from an unassailable location defended by powerful guards. Listen to the episode, then head over to Twitter to vote on which team you think will succeed in the heist.
Michael, Rob, and Pax do a flyby (a very long, in depth flyby) on the 1986 icon, Top Gun, as well as its 2022 sequel, Top Gun: Maverick.
Michael, Rob, and Pax do a flyby (a very long, in depth flyby) on the 1986 icon, Top Gun, as well as its 2022 sequel, Top Gun: Maverick.
Erik asks Michael, Dave, and David to guess the secret connection between the James Bond classic From Russia with Love, "Space Seed" sequel Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and Pixar's Monsters, Inc.
If you haven't seen one or more of the movies, feel free to skip to the discussions of your choice: 00:01:49 - Review of From Russia with Love (1963)
00:21:55 - Review of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
00:42:40 - Review of Monsters, Inc. (2001)
01:05:59 - Guessing the Connection
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax convene for one last (with this configuration, for now) conversation about what they've been watching and thinking about. Topics include Moon Knight, the Jurassic Parkseries, fatherhood, and a special announcement from Evan.
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax gather in the lounge for another rambling conversation about what they've been listening to and reading. This time, the discussion touches on (among many other things) Henry David Thoreau's Walden, the history of Nerd Lunch, Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury, and Paper Girls by Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang.
Michael and Rob welcome back old friends Carlin Trammel and William Bruce West to discover who the Ultimate Fictional Musician is. Each panelist nominates four bands or solo musicians to face off against each other Sweet 16 tournament-style. There can be only one champion, but the real fun is in the discussion and laughter along the way.
Michael and Rob welcome new friend Jacob Bean-Watson of the Movie Connectionpodcast to start a series of conversations about high school movies. They talk a little about high school movies in general before digging into the characters and themes of their first pick: Dead Poets Societystarring Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, and Ethan Hawke. If it's been a while since you've seen the movie, it's time to rewatch it and listen to this great discussion.
Michael continues his solo exploration of Fleming's Bond novels with On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Written after the release of the Dr Nofilm, OHMSSreferences the movie is some interesting ways while also continuing the Blofeld saga begun in the novel Thunderball. And then there's Tracy Draco, who may or may not be as cool in the book as she is in the later film adaptation.
Featuring music by Hugo Montenegro, as well as David Arnold and Iggy Pop.
Michael, Rob, and Evan welcome Michael's long-time friend DeAndre to the podcast to create the ultimate team of science fiction characters. Plucking favorite characters from various sci-fi subgenres, the panel not only creates an amazing all-star team, but also an adventure worthy of them.
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax continue this month's Lounge discussion with topics like live music, changing attitudes with age, and of course... multiverses. They talk about their own personal multiverses, but also lots of spoilery conversation about Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. If you haven't seen Doc Strange 2 and would like to be unspoiled, it's best if you see the movie before listening to this episode. But if you'd like to listen to the rest of the podcast and skip the bulk of the Doctor Strange discussion, the biggest spoilers are between 00:32:35 and 00:51:07, and then again from 01:13:31 to 01:32:10. Though we can't promise that something didn't sneak in outside those time frames.
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax chat about what they've been listening to and reading lately with special attention given to old comic strips, Star Treknovels, Percy Jackson vs The Kane Chronicles, and Michael's audio quality (for which we apologize). This week's musical guest is Death Cab for Cutie. No Infringement is Intended.
Michael and Rob are joined by Michael's son, David May, to talk about the first season of the Avengers Assemblecartoon, how it compares to the MCU, and whether or not they'll ever speak of this again.
Michael, Rob, and Karen Flieger discuss the first James Bond feature film: how it compares to the Fleming novel while setting the stage for the 60-year (and running) series of movies about the world's favorite super spy.
Evan asks Dave, David, Erik, and Michael to find the hidden connection (other than the fact that none of them are English-language films) between Solaris (1972), Le Dîner de Cons (1998), and Force Majeure (2014).
If you haven't seen one or more of the movies, feel free to skip to the discussions of your choice: 00:02:10 - Review of Solaris (1972) 00:16:12 - Review of Le Dîner de Cons (1998) 00:30:57 - Review of Force Majeure (2014) 00:51:24 - Guessing the Connection
Michael and Rob welcome back Corinna Bechko and Ben Graham to adapt books and movies into Star Trekholonovels. Each panelist picks a character from the source material that they want to play and then invites Star Trekcharacters to take on other roles. But in true Star Trekfashion, everything does not go smoothly on the holodeck and strange glitches occur to complicate and change the stories.
Opening and closing music by Andrew Allen.
Evan, Michael, Pax, and Rob ramble about the Hardy Boys, Batman, kids, surprising personality traits, and how to watch TV. Among many other things.
Evan, Michael, Pax, and Rob enjoy a rambling conversation about The Sandman, Ringu (and The Ring), Cyclops’ heat vision, Black Panther comics, and ever so much more.
Michael and Rob gather in the study to talk about an odd Sherlock Holmes movie. Michael Caine plays Holmes and Ben Kingsley is Watson in this parody where Watson is the brilliant detective and Holmes just a fictional character portrayed by a failed actor.
To commemorate the hundredth episode of AfterLunch, Evan, Michael, Pax, and Rob discuss the evolution of the show over the last couple of years and think about where it might possibly go from here. But it's not all just looking at belly buttons and they finish the episode talking about the 100th installments of Alpha Flight, Batman('66), Bob's Burgers, and Marvel Team-Up.
Michael, Rob, and Evan welcome Christian Nielsen (Pop Culture Retrofit) and new guest Siskoid (The Fire and Water Podcast Network) to guess movie titles based on one-sentence descriptions of the plot. It's kind of hard, fairly chaotic, and completely fun.
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax talk about The Book of Boba Fett (with SPOILERS), the Oscars, Married Couple Origin Stories, and professional caregivers, among other things they've been watching and thinking about.
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax gather for another wandering discussion about what they've been listening to and reading. Conversational stops along the way include fan-made audio plays, radio, Ain’t It Cool News, and the ComiXology-Amazon merge.
Michael talks about the most unusual James Bond novel of all, The Spy Who Loved Me. No Jaws. No Russian spy on a revenge quest. No underwater lair. Just a heartbroken girl, a remote motel, and a couple of thugs sent to kill her.
Opinions are divided when Michael, Rob, Pax, and Lizzie cover the second Thorfilm on their conversational journey through the MCU.
In this solo episode, Michael talks about the four James Bond short stories collected after Ian Fleming's death as Octopussy and The Living Daylights. In addition to the two title stories, later editions also included "The Property of a Lady" (commissioned by Sotheby's) and "007 in New York" (to placate American readers after a rather cranky essay Fleming wrote about the city).
Rob, Pax, Evan, and Christian Nielsen form teams and test their superhero knowledge as Michael asks them questions from a card game he got in his Christmas stocking. There is triumph and there is defeat, but mostly there's a lot of laughter.
Michael continues exploring Ian Fleming’s James Bond books with Thunderball, a controversial novel with complicated origins that finally introduces Ernst Stavro Blofeld and SPECTRE to the series.
Michael continues exploring Ian Fleming’s James Bond books with the eighth in the series. For Your Eyes Onlyisn't a novel, but a collection of five short stories. Elements of all five have turned up in various films though, whether it's the titles of "Quantum of Solace" and "From a View to a Kill" or the villains of "Risico" and "The Hildebrand Rarity" or the revenge-seeking daughter of "For Your Eyes Only."
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Delaney wrap up their look at Star Trek: Enterprise. The show tried some new things in its final season, so the panel talks about whether or not that worked to improve things for them. And then there's that series finale...
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax chit chat about The Beatles, The Morning Show, the post-Endgame MCU, and whether or not the Supernatural is real.
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax gather again to talk about what they've been listening to and reading. And their favorite flowers. Lots of recommendations, but in the process of meandering the conversation occasionally settles into topics like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the Fast and Furious movies, and gritty super hero comics.
Michael continues exploring Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels with the seventh in the series, Goldfinger. Like with the film version, the novel introduces a lighter tone than had been in the series so far. But is that a good thing or bad?
Michael, Rob, Evan, Pax, Kay, and Robert Zerbe reconvene to see how they all did on their pop culture resolutions and predictions from 2021. And to make new ones for 2022.
Michael continues exploring Ian Fleming's James Bond novels with the sixth in the series, Dr. No. It's the pulpiest so far, but also has big character development for Bond and a surprising thematic connection with Pierre Boulle's novel, Planet of the Apes.
Michael asks Dave, David, Erik, Evan, and special guest Rob Graham to find the hidden connection between A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968), Running Scared (1986), and V for Vendetta (2005).
If you haven't seen one or more of the movies, feel free to skip to the discussions of your choice:
00:02:36 - Review of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968)
00:33:31 - Review of Running Scared (1986)
00:52:25 - Review of V for Vendetta (2005)
01:16:45 - Guessing the Connection
The AfterLunch Star Trek Council reconvenes to discuss Enterprise's attempt at a serialized story in its third season. Michael, Rob, Evan, and Delaney talk about the Xindi, the Expanse, and spatial anomalies in addition to Archer's darkening, Reed's insecurity, and whether there's such a thing as too much time travel.
Michael discusses the fifth Bond novel by Ian Fleming and it's a bold entry in the series. Fleming spends the first half of the book on the villains and their plan, not introducing Bond until halfway through. And then ends the story on a cliffhanger.
One, last Christmas episode of the year and it's about Last Christmas. Michael and Rob talk about Paul Feig's film from a couple of years ago, co-written by Emma Thompson and starring Emilia Clarke, Michelle Yeoh, Emma Thompson, and Henry Golding. And also featuring of course the music of George Michael.
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax continue their conversation from last episode. They talk about (and unwrap) Christmas presents, break a tie, discuss shows like Hawkeye and Cowboy Bebop, share some Christmas traditions, and address the Bitsy McBitserson in the room.
Just before the Christmas holiday, Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax gathered to talk about what they've been listening to and reading. As always with these Lounge discussions, the conversation goes its own way, but major topics include how to read short story collections, irritating things about interview podcasts, The Force Awakens and the whole Star Wars sequel trilogy, and of course lots and lots of Christmas music.
A Christmas Carol week concludes with Michael talking with his brother Mark about the irreverent remake, Scrooged, starring Bill Murray, Karen Allen, Alfre Woodard, Bobcat Goldthwait, Carol Kane, and a bunch of other stars. As with the rest of this week's adaptation discussions, this originally aired on the former Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast.
A Christmas Carol week continues with another old Sleigh Bell Cinemadiscussion. This time Michael and Paxton Holley triple the run time of the movie they're talking about when they dig into the short Mickey's Christmas Carol starring a plethora of Disney characters in the various Dickens roles.
Christmas Carol week continues (and we hit Episode 75 of the podcast) with another Sleigh Bell Cinemadiscussion about one of the world's favorite Christmas Caroladaptations: The Muppet Christmas Carolstarring Michael Caine as Scrooge. This was the very first episode of Sleigh Bell Cinemaand featured frequent Nerd Lunchand AfterLunchguest Mike Westfall, whose Advent Calendar House podcast was a direct inspiration for Sleigh Bell Cinemain the first place.
A Christmas CarolWeek continues with another re-run from Michael's old Sleigh Bell Cinemashow. This time Michael and his wife Diane talk about the TV musical The Stingiest Man in Townstarring Basil Rathbone as Scrooge. And if you'd like to hear Michael talk about the '70s Rankin-Bass animated remake starring Walter Matthau and Tom Bosley, be sure to check out his guest appearance on Mike Westfall's Advent Calendar Housepodcast.
A Christmas Carol week continues with this re-run from Michael's former Sleigh Bell Cinemapodcast. Michael talks with Carlin Trammel about one of their favorite Christmas Caroladaptations: Clive Donner's TV movie from 1984 starring George C Scott.
Michael and Rob welcome new guest Nikki Rollier to talk about ghost stories, their connection to Christmas, and especially the most famous Christmas ghost story of all, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. They talk about favorite characters, scenes, and adaptations, and even a thing or two that don't work so well for them.
Michael covers Ian Fleming's fourth James Bond novel, Diamonds Are Forever, in another solo episode. Bond returns to the United States to bust up a mob-run diamond smuggling operation, but how do these hoods measure up as a threat to a spy used to taking on mad industrialists and agents of the Soviets' assassination bureau? And what about Tiffany Case?
Back on Episode 15 of the old Fourth Chair Army Invasion show, we imagined a live-action TV version of a DC Super Hero Holiday Special comic. Now it's Marvel's turn as Michael and Rob welcome Michael DiGiovanni, Mike Westfall, and Ben Graham to assign each other super heroes and holiday elements to turn into segments on a Marvelous Holiday Special.
Michael’s solo again with a short episode about the third James Bond novel, Moonraker. It's a unique entry in the Bond series, offering a glimpse at Bond's daily life while also sending him to solve a murder at a remote country estate where he meets one of the most remarkable women of his career.
Michael's brother Mark returns to the podcast along with third brother Matt to talk about one of their favorite '80s bands. Starting with The Cure's debut Three Imaginary Boysalbum and covering up through 1985's The Head on the Door, the brothers talk about their own experiences with the band, favorite and not-so-favorites songs, the group's evolving sound, and the three "genres" of music that the group tends to make. It's a different sort of episode for AfterLunch, but whether you're already a Cure fan or merely Cure-ious, we hope you'll enjoy this detailed look back at the early days of Robert Smith and Company.
Michael is joined by his brother Mark to start a journey through the filmography of one their favorite actors, Kiefer Sutherland. In this first episode, they cover Sutherland's career from his first jobs in Max Dugan Returns (1983) and The Bay Boy (1984), his revelatory 1985 performance in Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories, and all four of his 1986 movies, including his blink-and-miss-it part in At Close Range, the wildly varying-in-quality TV films Trapped in Silence and The Brotherhood of Justice, and finally his breakout role as Ace Merrill in Stand By Me.
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax continue their ramble through various topics spurred by what they've been watching and thinking about. Discussions include big, spoilery discussions of Ted Lasso's second season and the first of Only Murders in the Building as well as deep thoughts about holiday travels, the importance of Thanksgiving, and celebrity crushes.
Loungers Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax gather again for another drifting discussion about what they've been listening to and reading. Big topics this time include superheroes Daredevil and Jason Todd, listening through musicians' discographies, and when it's appropriate to start celebrating Christmas.
Everyone loves Robin Hood and we're no exceptions. Michael and Rob welcome Pax, Sue London, and - making his podcasting debut - Sue's husband Devin for the first in a series of episodes about the legendary merry man. Starting with the panel's experience with the Robin Hood legend in general, the conversation then moves to the classic 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood. Starring of course Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, and Claude Rains.
On the last episode, where our MCU panel talked about Iron Man 3, Michael mentioned that he and William Bruce West had a conversation about the same movie for Michael's former Christmas movie podcast. Even though they did talk about how Iron Man 3 works in some Christmas themes, most of the conversation was about the movie in general. So for that reason, and because William Bruce West is awesome, we thought you might enjoy hearing that discussion.
The AfterLunch MCU Panel - Lizzie, Pax, Rob, and Michael - reconvene to talk about the final film in Marvel's Iron Man trilogy: how it builds on themes from the previous films and whether or not it flows well into what came later. And of course, there are its controversial villains, kid sidekick, and whether or not that ending works super well.
Michael's back with another short, solo episode, this time about the second James Bond novel, Live and Let Die. Listen to how it differs from the film while also influencing other Bond movies like License to Killand For Your Eyes Only.
We hope you haven't finished eating all your Halloween candy yet, because Michael and Rob are joined by Joanna from Bloody Popcornand new guest Ron Ankeny to determine once and for all, Sweet 16 bracket-style, what the ultimate Halloween treat is. Whether it's what you pass out to trick-or-treaters or what you serve at your Halloween party, it's the season for sweets. And you bet there's some discussion of other Halloween traditions along the way.
After a brief intermission, the AfterLunch Loungers finish their wandering conversation with thoughts on horror movies, DC superhero shows, acting better than you feel, and relationships with technology.
We're trying something different with the latest After Dinner Lounge conversation. Rather than drop another 3+ hour conversation on you, we're splitting it into two, smaller chunks. In this part, Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax talk about what they've been listening to and reading, with the conversation meandering into Dracula comics, film canon, murderbots, and Nerd Lunch's lost Brenda Starrepisode.
David asks Erik, Michael, and Dave to find the hidden connection between Fargo, Jingle All the Way, and Pokémon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back. If you haven't seen one or more of the movies, feel free to skip to the discussions of your choice:
00:01:24 - Review of Fargo (1996)
00:13:03 - Review of Jingle All the Way (1996)
00:32:09 - Review of Pokémon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back (1998)
00:51:05 - Guessing the Connection
Michael goes solo this episode to talk about the first James Bond novel, Casino Royale.
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax gather in the library for another rambling discussion about what they've been listening to, reading, watching, and thinking about, including breakfast cereals, megamixes, musical theatre, and bad office jargon.
Michael and Rob welcome back Chad Young and Jeff Somogyi for another few rounds of throwing improbable contestants into battles and arguing about who would emerge victorious. If our panel can stay on topic, that is.
In the first of a series of James Bond episodes, Michael and Rob are joined by Karen Flieger to talk about Bond's first screen appearance in 1954's Climax!TV adaptation of Casino Royale. How watchable is "Card Sense" Jimmy Bond's team up with Clarence Leiter to take down Peter Lorre? Grab a seat at the table and we'll be glad to deal you in.
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax convene for another meandering conversation about what they've been listening to, reading, watching, and thinking about. As always, recommendations abound and lead into other discussions, this time about perfect albums, anticipation for Shang Chi, method acting, and V’Ger's eternal question.
September 9, 2021 is the 10th anniversary of the very first episode of the Nerd Lunch Podcast. The original Nerds get back together to talk about it. And maybe make a quick Movie Menu.
The AfterLunchMCU panel wraps up Phase 1 with an in-depth discussion of the improbably excellent Marvel mash-up film, The Avengers. Among the many important topics are Iron Man's hubris, Black Widow's agency, Hawkeye's archery technique, and Captain America's costume.
AfterLUNCH's 50th episode coincided with Michael's road trip south to see a bunch of friends he hasn't seen in a long time (and one he's never met face-to-face before). Some of them grew up in the South, some transplanted there, and some transplanted away from there, so Michael talks to them about Southern living and what movies, TV shows, and books best represent it.
Following up on some discussions in the After Dinner Lounge episodes, Michael and Evan welcome Evan's daughter Sarah to talk about favorite manga and anime. Some of the manga discussed are:
- Black Butler
- Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun
- Moriarty the Patriot
- Bungo Stray Dogs
- Silver Spoon
- Akira
- Samurai 7
- Anne Freaks
- Children of the Sea
- A Silent Voice
And anime like:
- Jujutsu Kaisen
- Death Parade
- Yuri on Ice
- Cowboy Bebop
- Grave of the Fireflies
- The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
- Mary and the Witch’s Flower
- Your Name
- And of course, the films of Hayao Miyazaki
Back on Episode 35, we sexified some stories for the CW. On this episode, we do the opposite as Michael and Rob welcome Karen Flieger and Adam Pope to turn material for grown-ups into kid-friendly fare.
On the second episode of AfterLUNCH, we reran a discussion of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl from an old podcast that Michael and his son David used to have. In addition to Michael and David, the panel featured Lizzie Twatchman, Mike Westfall, and Ron Marz. Now, the panel finally reconvenes (and with 100% more Rob Graham) to take a critical, but fond look at the second Piratesmovie, Dead Man's Chest.
Lizzie, Pax, Rob, and Michael drill into the first Captain America movie like a SHIELD laser drills into ice.
In the first of a series of Sherlock Holmes episodes, Rob and Michael talk about their history with and love for the character as well as favorite adaptations. And somewhere along the way they get really sidetracked into a discussion of board games.
Michael, Rob, and Pax raise a glass to the sadly absent Evan and get into yet another meandering discussion about what they've been listening to, reading, watching, and thinking about. Topics are diverse, but much time is spent on Thanos, Stephen King, Star Trek vs Star Wars, and spontaneity in podcasting.
Dave asks David, Evan, Erik, and Michael to find the hidden connection between An American Werewolf in London, The Butterfly Effect, and X-Men: First Class. If you haven't seen one or more of the movies, feel free to skip to the discussions of your choice:
00:02:16 - Review of An American Werewolf in London (1981)
00:14:22 - Review of The Butterfly Effect (2004)
00:27:58 - Review of X-Men: First Class (2011)
00:49:59 - Guessing the Connection
Our MCU panel (Lizzie, Pax, Rob, and Michael) are back to talk about the middle two movies of Marvel's Phase 1: Iron Man 2and Thor. Opinions are certainly divided on the first film and there's also some disagreement about who Thor should be dating, so get your opinions ready and see who you agree with.
Michael and Rob welcome Rob's son, Ben Graham, to the show to create situation comedies in which each panelist is a character surrounded by other characters from existing sitcoms. As opposed to the non-existent sitcoms that we're imagining. It'll make sense when you listen, I promise.
The plan was for Lizzie Twachtman, Paxton Holley, Rob Graham, and Michael May to briefly discuss each of the films in Phase One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But in a shocking turn of events, the panel had a lot to say and only got through the first two films (plus some opinions about Ang Lee's Hulkfrom 2003). Clearly we're not going to get through this project as quickly as we originally imagined, but please enjoy this in-depth discussion of the first two films in the MCU and we'll be back soon to talk about a couple more.
Sue London, Jeff Somogyi, Rob Graham, and Michael May make another movie out of whatever's trending on Twitter at the time.
The AfterLUNCH Star Trek crew return to debrief about the second season of Enterprise. Delaney, Evan, Michael, and Rob discuss the continuation of the Temporal Cold War, the introduction of the Romulans, the return of the Borg, and all the other plot developments. They also update their opinions about the crew and of course discuss favorite and least-favorite episodes.
What secret connection do 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Being There (1979), and Clueless (1995) have in common? Erik Johnson asks Evan Hanson, Michael May, Dave Roof, and David May to find out.
As always with Mystery Movie Nightdiscussions, opinions and spoilers abound, so if you haven't seen a film and prefer not to listen to that part of the episode, here are the time stamps to help you skip to the parts you want to listen to:
00:02:38 - Review of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
00:23:25 - Review of Being There (1979)
00:46:20 - Review of Clueless (1995)
01:06:51 - Guessing the Connection
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax gather for another after-dinner conversation sparked by what they’ve been listening to, reading, watching, and thinking about. Discussions start from the following topics, but meander:
- Podcasts like Bonanas for Bonanza and The Untitled GenX Podcast.
- Albums like Disney's Heigh-Ho! Mozart, Yesterday's Wine by Willie Nelson, and This Is What I Live For by Blue October.
- Other audio material like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series and SiriusXM
- Books like Growing Gills by Jessica Abel, The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis, Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, and The Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule.
- Comics like The Essential Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson, Baltimore by Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, and Ben Stenbeck, Winter Soldier by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting, Truth: Red, White, and Black by Robert Morales and Kyle Baker, and Eternals by Peter Gillis, Sal Buscema, and Walt Simonson.
- Movies like Romeo and Juliet (1968) and the trailer for Shang Chi.
- TV shows like Reign, the Disney+ MCU shows, The Witcher, and Invincible.
- And real talk about Planning for the Future, Fears and Anxieties, Self Checkout Aisles, and Social Ills and Process Improvements.
In response to The CW's producing sexy, modern versions of Jane Austen stories, Michael, Rob, Sue London, and Evan Hanson made their own sexy CW shows based on things that weren't super sexy to begin with. Be sure to tune in for hot versions of The Ropers, IKEA, the life of Richard Milhous Nixon, and Richie Rich.
Be sure to visit MichaelMay.Online or NerdLunch.Net for show notes including part of the script that Sue wrote for the pilot episode of The Ropers and Evan's proof-of-concept visual for sexy IKEA.
To quote David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel, "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever." In this episode, Michael and Rob are joined by Sue London and Jeff Somogyi to test that line by workshopping a movie based on whatever was trending on Twitter at the time.
Michael and Rob welcome some new AfterLUNCH voices to talk about Legendary Entertainment's MonsterVerse in general, while drilling deep into the Hollow Earth and the current Godzilla vs. Kong film. Joining the panel are a trio of giant monster super-fans: Sophie (a long-time friend of Michael who lives in the UK), Corinna Bechko (who not only writes cool comics like The Expanse and Smithsonian Dig It: Dinosaurs & Other Prehistoric Creatures, but also has a background in zoology and has worked professionally with both giant lizards and primates), and David May (Michael's son and frequent podcast partner).
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax gather for another after dinner conversation sparked by what they've been listening to, reading, watching, and thinking about. Discussions start from the following topics, but meander:
- Podcasts like The Classic Tales, Writers/Blockbusters, Judge John Hodgman, and The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps.
- The poetry of Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes
- Books like The Exploits of Arsène Lupin by Maurice Leblanc, the Darth Bane trilogy by Drew Karpyshyn, and Marvel Classic Novels - X-Men and the Avengers: The Gamma Quest Omnibus by Greg Cox.
- Comics like the Thor Eternals saga, A Silent Voice, Vol. 1 by Yoshitoki Ōima, and Star Trek:Year Five.
- Movies like April Fool's Day, A Star is Born, and Godzilla vs Kong.
- TV series like Lovecraft Country, Bleak House adaptations, Resident Alien, and The Haunting of Hill House.
- And real talk about wedding rings, racism, pets, and staying young.
Michael and Rob steal a popular Twitter meme with the help of both fresh and familiar voices. Michael's college pal Faith Regn makes her podcast debut alongside our good friend Kay and the Muppetational return of Carlin Trammel! Our sensational, inspirational, celebrational panel creates five new Muppet movies by picking existing non-Muppet films, keeping one or two human actors, and replacing the rest of the cast with Muppets. Tune in for new Muppet capers and mysteries and maybe even some Muppets in space.
The Mystery Movie Night podcast moves to AfterLUNCH! If you're new to the format, one of the panelists picks three movies with some sort of secret connection. Everyone watches the films and talks about them, then the other panelists try to guess the common element. In this inaugural AfterLUNCHepisode, Evan Hanson picked Empire of the Sun (1987), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), and Sacro Gra (2013).
For listeners who haven't seen all the movies and want to avoid spoilers, here are the time stamps for each review, including the guessing part in case you want to skip straight to that:
00:05:37 - Review of Empire of the Sun (1987)
00:23:18 - Review of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
00:36:32 - Review of Sacro Gra (2013))
00:49:49 - Guessing the Connection
Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax gather for another after dinner conversation sparked by what they've been reading, watching, thinking about, and - new with this episode - listening to. Discussions start from the following topics, but meander:
- Relationships with music
- Books like the Don Camillo stories by Giovanni Gerserchi, the Jane Austen detective series by Stephanie Barron, Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, and The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle.
- Comics like Aster of Pan by Merwan Chabane and Joshua Williamson’s Flash run.
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters and movies about Queen Elizabeth I.
- TV shows like The Clone Wars, The Expanse Season 2, Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes, Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy, Queen’s Gambit, WandaVision, and the 90s Flash series.
- And finally, real talk about Family, Loss, Identity, and Spring.
Having discussed humanity's first contact with the Vulcans, our Star Trek Trekpanel reconvenes to talk about the souring of that relationship and how it affects Earth's first human-populated mission into deep space. Delaney, Evan, Michael, and Rob talk about how the first season of Enterprisefits into continuity while also getting around to what they think of the various characters and episodes.
Michael and Rob are joined by Joanna from Bloody Popcorn and new-to-AfterLUNCHDan Taylor to create a science-fiction-themed amusement park with lands devoted to Twilight Zone, Firefly, the works of Philip K Dick, and Planet of the Apes.
Michael and Rob talk with one of their favorite writers. Kelly Thompson has written novels like Storykillerand The Girl Who Would Be King, but she's most known for great, funny, character-driven comics like Marvel's A-Force, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Captain Marvel as well as series featuring popular characters like Jem and the Holograms, the Pink Power Ranger, Nancy Drew, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Kelly shares huge aspects of her writing process, but also geeks out about other things that she's enjoying watching and reading.
Evan, Michael, Pax, and Rob reconvene to talk about what they've been reading, watching, and thinking about. As always with the After Dinner Lounge, the conversation meanders, but topics begin with:
- Books like Carthage Must be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Mediterranean Civilization by Richard Miles, Redwall by Brian Jacques, the Horatio Hornblower series by CS Forester, The Tournament by Matthew Reilly, and Storykillerby Kelly Thompson.
- Comics like The Eternalsby Jack Kirby and Marvel's Killravenseries.
- Movies like Mank, the Schwarzenegger Conan series, and Legendary Pictures' Godzilla and Kong MonsterVerse.
- TV shows like Ted Lasso.
- And real talk about Heist Stories, Separating Art from Artist, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Truffles.
Michael May, Rob Graham, Delaney Graham, and Evan Hanson begin their journey through the various movies and TV shows of Star Trek, in chronological order. In this first episode, they discuss humanity's introduction to the larger galaxy in 1996's First Contact. It's a controversial place to start since it's neither the first adventure of the time travelers who are trying to protect the historic meeting, nor is it the earliest time period that these travelers have visited. So our panel also discusses other Star Trekmovies and TV episodes in which Starfleet crews (and the occasional Ferengi) go back in time.
Lizzie Twachtman, John Vanover, and Jeeg join Rob and Michael to create an historical period film with an all-star cast of actors known for their historical period films. And if that's not enough for ya, stay tuned to the end for Real Talk about New Math and Arrested Development.
Paxton Holley joins Michael May, Rob Graham, and Evan Hanson in the lounge for another meandering talk about what they've been reading, watching, and thinking about. Topics start from:
- Books of fairy tales and the works of Ray Bradbury and Italo Calvino
- Comics about Spider-Man and the third Green Goblin, Red Hood and the Outlaws, and The Shadow
- TV shows like Dickensian, The Expanse, The Great, Queen’s Gambit, and the eighth season of Mad About You
- Movies like Overlord and the Marvel films leading into WandaVision
- And real talk on Boat Names, Book Formats, Family, and Spheres of Influence
Annaliese Trammel, Paxton Holley, and Jeeg join Michael and Rob to hunt down Mandalorians and Jedi and -- ooh! side quest! -- on this in-depth, episode-by-episode symposium on the second season of The Mandalorian.
After Michael May and Robert Zerbe check in on their resolutions and predictions from last year's Nerdstradamusepisode, Rob Graham, Evan Hanson, Kay, and Paxton Holley join the fun to look back on the books, movies, and TV shows of 2020 and forward to what's potentially coming in 2021. This episode is full of resolutions, recommendations, and reckonings. And a little bonus something we like to call "Tea Talk."
Opening song by Andrew Bird.
Michael May, Rob Graham, and Evan Hanson reconvene for another informal conversation about what they’ve been reading, watching, and thinking about lately.
Topics meander merrily, but start from:
- Books like Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, Charles Dickens' Christmas Books, The Devil’s Due by Bonnie MacBird, The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, and Becoming by Michelle Obama.
- Comics like Silver Spoon by Hiromu Arakawa
- Movies like the original Black Christmas, this year's Fatman, and the documentary Pilgrims.
- TV shows like Dicktownand Truth Seekers
- And real talk on Holiday Traditions, Movie Theaters, and This Podcast.
Christian Nielsen and new guest Karen Flieger join Rob and Michael to talk about their favorite Christmas episodes of TV shows. In discussions of The Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, Friends, and Justice League, the Clampetts learn about the politics of gift-giving, the Stephens' help an orphan boy discover the spirit of the season, Ross tries to teach his son about Hanukkah after a lifetime of Santa, and Superman invites Martian Manhunter home for the holidays.
Featuring music by Straight No Chaser.
With Disney's recent announcement that there's a new Fantastic Fourmovie coming that will be part of the MCU, it's a great time to discover a lost podcast episode about the four FF films so far. From the no-longer-with-us Geek Fallout: The Comic Book Episodes, host Erik Johnson leads a discussion with Nerd Lunch/AfterLUNCHregulars Paxton Holley and Evan Hanson about Fantastic Four (2015), Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), and The Fantastic Four (1994).
Mike Westfall and Michael DiGiovanni join Michael May and Rob Graham to create Rankin-Bass stop-motion Christmas specials that never existed, but should have. Lots of holiday spirit AND SINGING in this episode, so gather the family, get some hot chocolate, and enjoy!
In the first of hopefully many such discussions, Michael May, Rob Graham, and Evan Hanson have a very informal conversation about what they've been reading, watching, and thinking about lately.
Topics lead to unpredictable places, but include:
- Comics like X of Swords, Batman: Three Jokers, and The Orville.
- Novels like The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty, The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton, and Bonnie MacBird's Sherlock Holmes series.
- TV shows like The Good Wife, Dark Shadows, and Police Squad!.
- Movies like the Omen series, Tremors: Shrieker Island, and The Gumball Rally.
- And real talk on Getting Old, Biblical Apocrypha, and COVID and Thanksgiving.
On this very special episode, Rob talks with Vivian Lee, writer and executive story editor on Lost in Space(2018) about her behind-the-scene experiences helping to create the show.
Evan Hanson joins Rob and Michael to talk about the first season of the 2018 Lost in Spaceseries streaming on Netflix. We don't all agree about the show, but we do love talking about it and we talk about everything. If you'd like to be unspoiled, be sure to watch the season before listening to this conversation. We bury ourselves in it like a Robinson buried in ice.
Remember Scooby's All Star Laff-A-Lympicswhere various Hanna Barbera characters crossed over to compete against each other in Olympics-style events? Even if you don't, it was really fun, so Amanda VanHiel, Shawn Robare, Rob Graham, and Michael May imagine what that would be like with characters from '80s TV shows and movies.
Kay returns to introduce Rob and Michael to the '90s cult classic Hocus Pocus starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, and Thora Birch.
Last October, we created an Expendables of Horror movie featuring only living actors. This year, Joanna from Bloody Popcorn, Evan Hanson, Rob Graham, and Michael May resurrect their favorite deadactors to create an all-star cast. They pick the actors, discuss the types of roles they'd play, and Evan writes a plot. Listen and imagine The Evil Hunters... IF YOU DARE!
Michael May, Rob Graham, Paxton Holley, and Jay Ryan have bats on the brain. Three months after the death of director Joel Schumacher, AfterLUNCH tries to solve the riddle of Batman Foreverand Batman & Robin. What do they do well, what do they do poorly, and how do they compare to other versions of the character?
Michael May and Rob Graham welcome Michael DiGiovanni and Kay to revisit a classic Nerd Lunchtopic. We put together movie triple-features around the themes of witches, soundtracks, walking away from explosions, and movies that make us feel alive.
A palliate is something that reduces or eases the symptoms of something horrible. In this special episode of AfterLUNCH, Rob Graham talks to AfterLUNCH guests and listeners to learn what has brought them joy or relief during the uncertainty and isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tune in and find out what movies, TV, video games, creative activities, and other things your podcast friends have been into to get them through.
Before we run out of summer, let's talk about another Disney pirate movie. In this second flashback to the dead 'Casting Offpodcast, Michael and David May are joined by Rob Graham to blather about Blackbeard's Ghostfrom 1968 starring Peter Ustinov, Dean Jones, and Suzanne Pleshette. But before we get to that, we also have a quick announcement about AfterLUNCHitself.
Michael May, Rob Graham, Jeff Somogyi, and Chad Young hit the playground to argue about who would win in four legendary match-ups between various characters. Gandalf vs Sasquatch is just the first competition (and not even the weirdest) in this hilarious discussion.
The Magnum PI panel reconvenes to discuss Season 2. It's Evan Hanson, Jeeg, Michael May, Rob Graham, and William Bruce West talking about their favorite episodes, who they ship, TC's photography skills, and of course Higgins' half-brother from Texas.
Adam Pope pitched the idea and Michael May dug it, so they invited Chris Bailey, Rob Graham, Evan Hanson, and Christian Nielsen to help create teams of fictional police characters. Each team has a leader, a detective, a ballistics expert, a wild card, a scientist, an undercover expert, a dispatcher, and a beat officer. And as an added bonus, we had to record late at night for logistical reasons, so the panelists are extra loopy.
While AfterLUNCH is officially a monthly show, Michael has been thinking about how to have fun things to listen to in the weeks between episodes. One has to do with a short-lived podcast that he and his son David did called ‘Casting Off, about nautical adventure stories. We won't rerun the whole series on AfterLUNCH, but there are a couple of episodes with some guests who’ll be familiar to Nerd Lunch listeners.
This first one is a deep dive into the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl. There’s already been an official Nerd Lunch drill-down on the first four movies of the Pirates series, but this conversation is different enough that hopefully it'll be worth listening to. In addition to Michael and David, the panel includes Nerd Lunch Fourth Chair Army members Lizzie Twachtman and Mike Westfall, as well as comics writer Ron Marz.
The plan was always to have this same panel come back and talk about the rest of the Pirates movies, but that never happened. Part of the reason for sharing this episode though is to set the stage for finally continuing the series, hopefully sooner rather than later. Whatever happens with that, this was a fun conversation and we hope you’ll enjoy it.
Paxton Holley pitched the idea for this episode in which he, Adam Pope, Michael May, and Shawn Robare each try to sell an idea for a movie, TV show, or product, then modify that idea based on notes from the other panelists. It's a weird and funny episode; the perfect way to kick off the new, but familiar AfterLUNCH podcast.
And very special thank you to the legendary Mike Westfall for creating the AfterLUNCH logo.
On this final episode of Fourth Chair Army Invasion, members of the Fourth Chair Army talk about what they love about Nerd Lunch, their favorite episodes, and say goodbye to the show. But all is not done. Stay tuned to the very end for details about the new monthly show that will replace Invasion on the Nerd Lunch feed.
After almost nine years of podcasting and over a year of build up, the moment has come. We have made it to the final episode of the podcast. This one is special, Lunchketeers. In fact, so special, that I'm not going to give you an outline of what you get on the episode. You're just going to have to listen.
Special thanks to Adam from SequelQuest for his musical contribution.
It's been a blast to do the show. We hope you enjoy the finale.
CT and Michael May make an announcement about the schedule for the remaining Nerd Lunch episode and why you should continue subscribing to the Nerd Lunch feed even after you've listened to it.
Mike Westfall, Michael DiGiovanni, Annaliese Trammel, and Paxton Holley join Michael May for another round of the classic Nerd Lunch feature: "Turning Movies into TV Shows." After a discussion of what movie-based TV shows have worked (and which haven't), the panel pitches TV shows based on A League of Their Own, Gremlins, Xanadu, Tomorrowland, and Pretty in Pink.
One more episode to go after this!!
In this episode, the final guest episode, we are joined by Nerd Lunch's very first 4th Chair Army member, Shawn Robare. And we are talking about pop culture things that a) We Just Can't Quit and b) That We are Done With.
CT welcomes PLee back. After a quick discussion about the first episode of Star Trek: Picard, the two of them launch into one of their nerdiest discussions ever. They run through possible options for Deep Space Nine if different Next Generation characters had joined the cast instead of Worf. And there's even a quick run through with Voyager.
For our 350th episode and our next to next to last episode, we wanted to do something special and extravagant, but decided to discard extravagant and just do something special. Jeff Somogyi and Jonathan DeMuth return one last time to resurrect the ol' Rabbit Hole. Can we get from the page for the Five-Second Rule to the page for Death? Only one way to find out. Well, two ways. You could listen or you could have someone listen for you and tell you.
If you're bummed about No Time to Die getting pushed back to November, have no fear. William Bruce West, Doug Frye, Evan Hanson, Rob Graham, and Michael May have created the best spy movie in the world and you can enjoy it right this very second in your imagination.
Finishing out the Nerd Lunch Hip Hop show series I am joined by two of the hip hop show veterans, Jaime Hood from the Beastie Boys show and Eclectik from the NWA show. We are talking all about The Fat Boys, their music, their movies, and their legacy.
For this final meeting of the Nerd Lunch Star Wars Panel, we discuss our favorite and least favorite aspects of the sequel trilogy as well as the two anthology movies. We talk about favorite new characters, favorite legacy characters, what other anthology movies we'd like to see and what we think is coming next for Star Wars. Listen to us finish out the panel the way we started, with a roundtable discussion.
The Nerd Lunch Star Wars panel is back to talk about The Mandalorian, Cara Dune, and the cuteness of The Baby That's the Same Species as Yoda.
The Star Wars Panel reconvenes for the last time to discuss a Star Wars movie. And we are going to talk about the finale to the Skywalker Saga, Rise of Skywalker.
Mike Westfall, Lizzie Twachtman, and CT join Jeeg for a final round of Real Life Scenarios. Listen for answers to compelling hypotheticals including:
- Which real life billionaire is most likely to open a wildlife park for dinosaurs?
- Which real life app will predict when you die?
- Besides HG Wells, what real life author is most likely to use a time machine to travel back to stop a serial killer?
Along the way the crew also addresses several completely unrelated questions such as who was supposed to thaw out Walt Disney’s head and which seasons of Lois and Clark were the good ones?
Jeeg, Robert Zerbe, and Michael May look back on some of their favorite movies, TV shows, and books from 2019 while also predicting what their favorites of 2020 might be. They also make some pop culture resolutions and maybe even a Nerdstradamus prediction or three.
CT and Jeeg run down the results from the Nerdstradamus 2019 predictions and crown our last ever Nerdstradamus Champion. After that Pax crashes the show and the plans for the home stretch of Nerd Lunch are revealed.
Michael Digiovanni returns to the Fourth Chair for one last Christmas sleigh ride. To bring everything full circle with Digio, this year we redo Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Should this sequel have been a fairy tale in New York? Was Mr. Duncan a ghost or should he be? And who the hell is Harv?
Listen for the answers to these burning questions and more as we attempt to fix this Christopher Columbus joint.
You know those DC Superhero Holiday Special comics? Wouldn't it be cool if they were a live action TV special? That's exactly what Evan Hanson, Lizzie Twachtman, Rob Graham, and Michael May imagine on this episode of the Fourth Chair Army Invasion.
For this final installment in the Nerd Lunch Ninja Day series, we are joined by Evan Hanson and Jon Cross to discuss the first two movies in the American Ninja franchise starring Michael Dudikoff and Steve James.
Brand new episode! Talking about The Beastie Boys with guests Tim Lybarger and Jaime Hood (shezcrafti).
Leading up to a brand new Hip Hop Show tomorrow, we are reposting the second Hip Hop Show today where we talked all about N.W.A, Eazy-E and the whole Ruthless posse with guests Tim Lybarger and Eclectik.
Leading up to a new Hip Hop episode on Wednesday, we are reposting the very first Nerd Lunch Hip Hop Show where we did a drill down on Run-DMC with guests Tim Lybarger and Matt Ringler.
Christian Nielsen and Kay join Michael May to talk about a phenomenon that's plagued nerds since the beginning of time (or at least, nerd time). Why do we latch on to some series or characters so hard that we feel compelled to watch or read even iterations that don't look that appealing to us? Looking at specific examples like The Addams Family, Batman, Robin Hood, and Star Wars, the panel attempts to figure this out.
Earlier this week we had our good friend Doug Frye on the podcast. Doug was one of the four guys who used to appear on the now defunct Schlock Treatment Podcast. They recorded that show in person and about four years ago I was in New York City for a work trip and had the chance to break away from that and join them for the evening. It was a great time and I wish I could have recorded the whole evening because after we did the show, all of us went to dinner together and I got to have my very own private Schlock Treatment podcast in how I was just able to listen and watch them all interact. I’ll always cherish this chance to meet these guys. And now we present it to you as a bonus episode of Nerd Lunch.
Earlier this year, I (CT) produced a video showcasing Infinity Con Tallahassee. It was a fun video and I got a chance to meet and talk with David Herringer as a part of that. Well, David has been connecting a lot of different individuals and creative outlets in the state of Florida and connected me with the folks at Cosmic Times Comics with operates out of Florida. Martin Pierro is the publisher of Cosmic Times Comics and I had the opportunity to chat with him about the history of comics, including his stint running a fanzine, and we talk about where things are heading in the industry. Cosmic Times is currently running a Kickstarter. Check out CosmicTimes.net for more information about that and everything else they have going on.
Four topics, one drilldown. What could possibly go wrong? Join Doug Frye, Jeeg, Pax, and CT in the Nerd Lunch Labs for yet another experiment in podcasting.
Jeeg, CT, Brad Sammut, Adam Pope, Josh Monken, and the unseen hand of Pax conduct a tournament to crown the best third movie of a series.
Jeeg and Pax are joined by Jay and Robert Zerbe to create our own Halloween themed restaurants.
For the spoooky 13th episode of the Fourth Chair Army Invasion, Chad Young, Evan Hanson, and Rob Graham join Michael May to assemble a super team of iconic horror movie actors. Who stars in this all-star screamfest? Who appears in cameos? What characters are they playing, what are they doing, and who directs this amazing piece of cinema history. Tune in and find out... if you DARE!
Ned Lurch returns for the final time as the Nerd Lunch Podcast crew welcomes William Bruce West and they come up with the "WORST ACTION FIGURE LINE EVER."
On this episode of Nerd Lunch Jeeg and Pax are joined by Dubba and Tim Lybarger to draft our own football teams with players from movies and TV.
Talk to me, Johnny! Adam from SequelQuest and William Bruce West join Michael May to rap about Lt. John J Rambo's adventures in Washington, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Myanmar, and maybe even a little with the Force of Freedom. What are the high and low points of the series? Does it deserve the attention it's received? And what expectations does it create for the upcoming Rambo: Last Blood?
It's the first ever Nerd Lunch commentary / watchalong episode as Jeeg, CT, and Pax take in the Italian superhero flick They Call Me Jeeg. Toxic waste, sparkly shirts, abandoned streets, and pudding cups; this movie has it all. Fire up a video stream and join the nerds for one of their worst ideas ever.
The Nerd Lunch crew is joined by podcasting veteran Chris "Tank" Tanksi and they create different pop culture halls ofs fames. Hear what merits getting inducted, the layout and the judges criteria for the slasher, novelization, 80s action figures and Starfleet officers halls of fame.
Michael May welcomes Walt Disney World superfans Corey Chapman, Lizzie Twachtman, and Mike Westfall to talk about their favorite parks, rides, resorts, and food at The Most Magical Place on Earth. They also create some attractions, lands, and even a movie or two that they'd love to see.
On this episode we are joined by Digio from Classic Film Jerks to add more lands to the Nerd Lunch World Amusement Park. Come find out what rides and attractions exist in Ninja Land, He-Man Land and more!
It's the fifth Tuesday in July and the Sweet Sixteen is back to crown the best ice cream flavor. Joining Pax and CT are Dubba from On Second Scoop, Josh Monken from the You May Contribute A Verse podcast, and a bedridden Jeeg via text message. Hang on to your waffle cone because this tournament bracket does not dish up what you expect.
Back by popular demand, its ASK THE CHAP.
In this episode, Corey breaks down his favorite Tarantino flicks, shares his thoughts on Season 3 of Stranger Things, discusses possible Star Wars fatigue and so much more.
The new podcast episode sensation that is stunning the world. The audio masterpiece with sounds like never before. Cheer the young(ish) podcasters who alone take on the evil warlords of Internet audio. Hear one incredible onslaught after another. Come prepared for the thrill of a lifetime as the nerds pay a visit to 5 Fingers of Death (AKA King Boxer).
Fourth Chair Army members Evan Hanson, Rob Graham, and Michael May are joined by Nerd Lunch's Jeeg to talk about the original Thomas Magnum, TC, Rick, and of course Higgie Baby. They noodle over noir influences, gab about guest stars, and figure out favorite episodes. Does the show hold up? How does it compare to the new reboot? Finding out won't even cost you your tennis court privileges.
CT and Jeeg welcome Rob Graham and Pax's notes for the final time they will do their movie menus topic. Predator, Three Amigos, and more get discussed!
Hear the entire panel CT was on at Infinity Con Tallahassee in podcast form. Along with Jon Reddick and George Sumpter from GenXGrownup and Shagg from Fire and Water, the podcasters have "classic geek debates."
Also, be sure to check out the Nerd Lunch Visits video available at nerdlunch.net!
On this episode of Nerd Lunch we are joined again by the Batman 75 rhyme team of Jay and Michael May to discuss the two Tim Burton Batman movies for the 30th anniversary of the 1989 Batman.
Are they excellent scifi comedies, disposable popcorn flicks, or a threat to all life on this planet? Annaliese Trammel, Chris Bailey (aka Charlton Hero), and Michael May drill deep into the first three Men in Blackmovies as well as the comics (thanks to Chris!). They talk about what works, what doesn't, and what it all could mean for Men in Black: International.
Join Jeeg, CT, Pax, and Michael May for some predictions about everyone's favorite Cajun superhero, Gambit, and his standalone movie that will never be made.
The nerds reminisce about their experiences with the Internet in the 90s. Dial-up, AOL discs, USENET groups, MUDs, and crappy search engines made for a special time indeed. WARNING: Do not take a drink every time Netscape is mentioned in this episode.
IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ENDGAME OR WATCH GAME OF THRONES, do not listen to this episode! This month, Corey welcomes long time friend and professor (!) Matt Dunn to the show to discuss the final chapter of the Avengers saga, Endgame. They then take a deep dive into Season 8 of Game of Thrones. They discuss plot twists, character arcs, and the shows legacy. Their discussion is spoiler filled, so be warned!
It's the 20th anniversary of Star Wars Episode I, so Pax talks to several members of the Fourth Chair Army to get their own remembrances of experiencing Episode I back when it was released in 1999.
It's the final time the Nerd Lunch crew visits the 50 Cent Bin!
We thought last time would be it, but Adam from SequelQuest Pod pitched a new ideas so it's ONE MORE TIME for the bin. This time, the podcasters (including additional guest William Bruce West) have to take two 50 Cent Bin comic book characters and combine them into one. Creativity abounds in this 50 Cent Bin finale!
For this episode we are joined by first time Fourth Chair Retromash as well as Fourth Chair vets Christian Nielsen and Shawn Robare to draft ourselves a heist team. We are each given 9 positions to fill and we pop culture fantasy draft ourselves a team to steal the Classic Film Jerks Golden Microphone.
Inspired by the upcoming Godzilla movie, Michael May invites Chad Young, Jeff Somogyi, and Evan Hanson to recast giant monsters and giant robots in other genres. The conversation occasionally runs off-topic like a giant lizard in downtown Tokyo, rampaging through eBay, stadium seating, summer camp counseling, and Blue Apron chase variants, but ultimately our fearless team is able to create a kaiju musical, film noir, roller coaster, and a season of Real Housewives: Terror Tooth.
The original Star Wars Celebration in Denver, CO turned 20 years old on April 30, 2019. Pax is joined by his friend Jason Collier to talk about their trip out to Denver back in 1999 and their memories of the historic event.
It's tournament time on this fifth Tuesday as Jeeg convenes a panel to crown the best Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Joining the crew for a fun stroll down IMDB lane are Shawn Robare, Peter Kuebeck, and the Awesome Grace Jones.
CT, Pax, and Mike Westfall play America's favorite game show, "Name That Fourth Chair Army Member", with host Jeeg McJeegerson. How good are they are identifying Fourth Chair guests from their first tweets or Instagram photos? You might be surprised, unless you've listened to one of our Nerdstradamus episodes.
With the new Shazam! movie fresh in theaters, Michael May, Evan Hanson, and Paxton Holley go back to 1941 to talk about the Big Red Cheese's first movie appearance. It's a deep dive into the classic movie serial as well as discussions of comics, the '70s TV show, and expectations for the new film.
It's a postscript to March as The Chap Report's March episode finds itself in the beginning of April. Corey welcomes back Carlin Trammel of "Nerd Lunch Prime." The two talk A LOT about planes which includes a metaphor for Carlin's post-Nerd Lunch Podcast career, LOST and what it's like to fly on planes. Also, Carlin makes an impassioned plea to not quickly move on to the next national story.
Remember the massive amount of devastation that has hit our country over the past couple years. Lots of people still need help. You can read just a few of the stories about Mexico Beach at NeverForgottenCoast.com as just one example.
As an addendum to our Star Trek VI drilldown in episode 327, Pax does a special episode of I Read Movies where he discusses the Star Trek VI novelization by JM Dillard.
Evan Hanson joins us to finally complete our series of Star Trek movie drill downs. We dive into The Undiscovered Country by quoting lots of Shakespeare and uncovering a Shakespeare conspiracy theory. What did the Nerd Lunchers like, what did they not like and are they glad this is the last film with the full original cast.
In the newest episode of Nerd Lunch Prime we are joined by Kay to create brand new toylines for movies.
Disney loves making live-action versions of its cartoon library, but how many of them are actually good? Geek Kay and Christian Nielsen join Michael May to talk about the phenomenon and also figure out how they'd approach remaking Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Hercules, The Three Caballeros, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Robert Zerbe joins us once again in the Fourth Chair. After catching up with Robert about his podcast, And Movies For All, we take the Pop Culture Eraser out for a spin. Unfortunately the years and the mileage have taken a toll on the Eraser and we can only delete items associated with certain colors and letters. If you have a vendetta against the color brown, this is the episode for you.
This month, instead of asking guests questions, he has to answer listener questions! No question is off limits! From favorite Halloween costume to biggest life decision you didn't make, make sure you check out this episode. Who would be the ultimate celebrity guest? Who would play Chaps in the movie about his life? Listen and learn....
Way back in episode 228, we did Nerd Lunch Civil War. Now, eclectik comes back on the show to host a sequel. The Nerds are presented with popular divisive topics and must pick a side and argue why they pick it. Monopoly or Scrabble? Brosnan or Moore? Michael Jackson or Prince? And so much more.
Shawn Robare, Evan Hanson, and Michael May unpack Unbreakable, sift through Split, and get into Glass. They also converse on the career of M Night Shyamalan, wondering if one of us has made a gross error and wasted the other person's valuable time.
The Star Wars panel is back to discuss the Solo movie that they didn't talk about in May 2018.
Andrew Bloom of Classic Film Jerks returns to the podcast pitching a topic of his own. In this episode we swap the casts from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe films. How many times will we cast Jeremy Irons? Only one way to find out---listen now!
Evan Hanson, Jay Ryan, Paxton Holley, and Michael May hang out in the sinister Bats Cave, talking about the first screen appearance of the Dark Knight in the 1943 serial, Batman. There are thrills and there are shudders, but mostly there’s a lot of laughter as the panel spelunks deep into the Caped Crusader’s history.
Our annual festival of prognostication returns to start off 2019 with Rondal Scott as our Fourth Chair guest soothsayer. After crowning the 2018 Nerdstradamus champion, we make predictions for the coming year in TV, fast food/junk food, a wildcard category, and play Avengers Endgame Overs and Unders. Also listen for a trio of big Nerd Lunch announcements in this episode.
On this December/January episode of The Chap Report, Corey is joined by Chris "Tank" Tanski as they take a look back at the movies of 2018. They reveal their Top 10 films of the year, discuss the ones that just missed the cut, and geek out about what movies they are excited for in 2019.
The holiday tradition continues as Michael DiGiovanni returns to the Fourth Chair for the 2018 Nerd Lunch Christmas spectacular. This year we're giving the holiday treatment to our Movie Menus franchise topic and creating Christmas movie tie-in menus for some popular restaurants. Where will reindeer pastries be on the breakfast menu? Which burger chain will be the place to go for this year's hottest toy? Why do restaurant executives get nervous when we do this topic? Get answers to all of these questions plus a plate full of Christmas cheer in this episode.
It's the final episode of Nerd Lunch presents Down the Rabbit Hole. We visit the Lord of the Rings wiki and welcome CT's daughter Annaliese from Dragonfly Ripple to join Jeff, Pax and CT. Savor this episode like lembas bread, because once it's over...it's over!
It's the annual Ninja Day episode! This year we are joined by Evan Hansen to discuss the 1997 Chris Farley martial arts vehicle, Beverly Hills Ninja.
This month, The Chap Report welcomes eclectik, the mysterious podcast and pop culture aficionado. Corey and e reminisce about the UnderScoopFire days, talk about the Art of Podcasting, debate streaming television versus traditional viewing, and plot out future collaborations. Its not only a fun trek down memory lane, but a hopeful look to the future.
In this extra helping Pax does a very special episode of I Read Movies to cover the 1989 novelization to Star Trek V by JM Dillard.
Author Sue London returns to the show and we inch our way one step closer to finally completing our Star Trek movies Drill Down series. We chat about Star Trek V, what our first experience was with the movie, what went wrong, what went right, what also went wrong and try to come up with a few ways it could have been improved. Also: #Werehorse!
It's the PENULTIMATE episode and for those who don't know, "penultimate" means "next to last." Jonathan DeMuth returns for maybe the final time and we fulfill one of Carlin's dreams...to do an episode at IMDb. Are we successful? Well, this here is an episode, isn't it?
Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when disks were floppy, graphics were VGA, and gaming was great. Jeeg, Pax, and guest Christian Nielsen discuss some of their favorite computer game soundtracks, goofy gaming violence, lame cutscenes, and more.
It's an all-Mike episode when Michael DiGiovanni, Mike Downs, Mike Westfall, and Michael May discuss their favorite pop culture Mikes, then drop said characters onto a Battle-Royale-style island to fight to the death. Who is the ultimate Mike? Only one way to find out!
In this months episode, Corey welcomes pop culture sage William Bruce West to the show. They cover topics ranging from the possible West Week Ever Podcast to Halloween and scary movies as well as the experience of watching a wrestling event in person. It is ALWAYS a good time when WBW guests on a podcast, and this time is no different!
Jeeg and Pax are joined by Sexy Armpit Jay and Michael May for the 2018 Halloween episode. In this episode we select 16 movie monsters, put them in tournament brackets, and debate until we get a winner. And there are some good discussions in this one. Download and find out for yourself!
This month on Nerd Lunch presents Down the Rabbit Hole, we are joined by onsecondscoop.com's Dubba and we talk about treats and no tricks on Wikipedia. Okay, some tricks, too. But what is no trick is this is an episode that you are not going to want to miss because there's a very special announcement. And when a podcast says there's a special announcement...you know what that means. Listen and find out if you're right!
On this episode we are joined by Shawn Robare to do a drilldown on the Ready Player One movie released this year. This is a followup to episode 97 where we did a drilldown on the original book by Ernest Cline.
Deleted discussion from episode 97 about an eventual Ready Player One movie from back in 2013.
This month's episode of The Chap Report is a discussion with Sarah, known to the UnderScoopFire world as former Brian Hail Mary redacted. We had deep conversation about Sarah's journey: her childhood, her married life, her struggles, and her decision to follow her heart. Its a pretty straight forward talk about being transgender.
Adam from SequelQuest and our old co-founder PLee hop on the show to rifle through some old cheap comic bins and create super hero teams again. This time, it's all young characters as we form the 50 Cent Bin Teen Titans.
Andrew Bloom from Classic Film Jerks returns to the Hole and we do a "classic holin'" by visiting Wikipedia and giving ourselves no theme. We learn about all the things Ben Franklin invented along the way. Hashtag education!
John Vanover joins us in the Fourth Chair this week to spend the 99 Jeegbucks we've each earned as our Nerd Lunch appearance fee. The catch is those bucks can only be spent in the online store assigned to us by another member of the podcast panel. Listen to find out what oddities make it into our shopping carts.
Mike Westfall completes some sort of milestone as he guests on the new episode of the Chap Report. Corey talks with Mike about all things Disney World.
On this episode of Nerd Lunch the guys are joined by William Bruce West to create a University based on the podcast. We talk about a location, a mascot, and we round table our ideas for classes and professors. It's a fun discussion we think you'll enjoy.
During Carlin's recent trip to New York City, he and his wife, Janay met up with Jeff and his wife, Emily. And they all mutually decided to sit down and record a podcast together. Except not exactly that. But close enough. Listen to this first-time, in-person recording of Rabbit Hole where they try to get from one New York City-themed page on Wikipedia to another. Also, you may want to empty your bladder before listening to this one.
Carlin and his wife head to the Big Apple with a recording device in tow. Along the way, they meet up with Jay from the Sexy Armpit, Jon from the After Movie Diner and Jeff from Down the Rabbit Hole and Talkin' Chopp. Hear about the activities that occurred during these meet ups. Also, hear about the best "Fictional New Yorks."
After weeks of texting back and forth about the rumored Picard TV series, CT and PLee got on the internet phone to discuss the confirmation of the news that Picard is indeed coming back. They speculate on what might happen, give ideas for what the show could cover and offer opinions about themes the show should delve into. They answer questions like what other Next Generation cast members should show up, what's should the first shot be of the series and what about Q? It's a rare moment when our podcast is jumping in on the discussion. So strike while the iron is tea Earl Grey, hot!
While CT, Pax, and Jeeg are off saving the world, the Fourth Chair Army steps in to fill your podcast feed. This time, Evan Hanson, William Bruce West, Rob Graham, and Michael May take a good, long look at the first season of The Dukes of Hazzard, trying to figure out what holds up and what doesn't have the sense the good Lord promised a turkey.
This month, Corey welcomes screenwriter, singer, and whisky drinker Mo Moshaty to the show to discuss:
- The Golden Girls (now streaming on Hulu!)
- the Top Trailers released at SDCC
- the James Gunn controversy
- the new Dr. Who
- and so much more!!!
Mo can be found on Twitter @MoMoshaty Visit her website https://www.momoshaty.com/
Tim Lybarger from The Neighborhood Archive joins us in the Fourth Chair this week to discuss Won't You Be My Neighbor?, the recent Fred Rogers documentary. We touch on our history with Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, anticipation for the film, favorite elements, and how we were affected by it all. Listen in to find out why Won't You Be My Neighbor? is a must watch.
The Rabbit Hole crew welcomes Nintendo expert Amanda VanHiel from Zelda Universe to the show and they jump into the Nintendo wiki. But not before talking about metal bikini cosplay first. Also, Jonathan DeMuth is missing and the Nerd Lunch search and rescue team must find him. Avoid a turtle shell and listen to this now!
This week on the show, we welcome back Jason Gross from Rediscoverthe80s.com and we decide to each form our own Space Forces using a draft. The catch this time is that picking a character for our team completely removes that character's franchise from the board for future picks. So we get pretty deep on this as we choose Space Force Chief of Staff, Field Commander, Chief of Medical and more.
On this months edition of The Chap Report: Corey is guest-less! Thats right, you have to endure 42 solid minutes of his rants, with NO ONE to shut him up! His diatribe includes talking about a life changing health scare, Kate Spade & Anthony Bourdain's suicides, summer movie reviews, Chris Hardwick, and more! Its a real uplifting show! Trust me, its good. (its alright) (he needs a guest next month) (please)
Pax came to Tallahassee to visit CT and it required a podcast being recorded. So they talked about their day together and along the way talked about bathrooms, GeoStorm, Muppets, pizza and a local diner.
On this episode we are joined by Christian Nielsen and Shawn Robare to select 16 video arcade games that need to go into the Nerd Lunch Video Arcade Museum. Does your favorite make it? Probably not.
Jay from The Sexy Armpit and The Purple Stuff podcast joins the Rabbit Hole crew. In doing so, Jay complete the "Nerd Lunch Grand Slam" and to celebrate, they pick pages that are purple.
The Internet has been buzzing and nerds everywhere have an opinion, but the wait for the definitive take is now over. This week we welcome back Michael May to break down the tent pole film Solo. Enjoy the type of analysis that only the Nerd Lunch crew can provide.
While CT, Pax, and Jeeg are off saving the world, the Fourth Chair Army steps in to fill your podcast feed. In this episode, FCA members Michael May, Liz Twachtman, Mike Westfall, and Evan Hanson each introduce another panelist to something they've never tried before. Listen and see if the newbies are convinced about The Americans, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Attack the Block, and Meet the Robinsons.
It seems like every time you turn around, something is getting rebooted. From Halloween to Spiderman to Star Trek, what is old is new again. And that goes for television as well. From Twin Peaks to The X-Files to...Star Trek?
On this episode of The Chap Report, Corey welcomes blogger and podcaster Chad Young from HorrorMovieBBQ.com to discuss the current and impending reboots on television.
This week we are joined by Atomic Geek Michael Downs. We all know the trope of all the R-Rated movies that were adapted into kids cartoons; Robocop, Police Academy, Rambo, etc. This week we are reversing that. We all pick an 80s cartoon and adapt an R-Rated movie out of the show's concept.
The Rabbit Hole crew welcomes back Jonathan DeMuth and they ASSEMBLE a team of Avengers using their links choices from the Marvel Wiki. PLEASE NOTE: This episode contains copious amounts of Avengers: Infinity War spoilers for no good reason.
After years of teasing it, the Nerd Lunch Crew finally do it. They rewatched all the Matrix movies and finally have that discussion. The first allegedly changed the face of filmmaking, but the follow up are a bit more controversial in what they delivered. Michael DiGiovanni from Classic Film Jerks joins the show to do a structured "Drive By" discussion on the series.
CT and Pax have seen it so check out their raw and spoiler-filled discussion on the 19th installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise.
Remember, I said spoilers.
“The Chap Report," the timeless pop culture podcast that did not break any new ground nor dominated ratings in its original run, will returns to the podcastwaves with all-new episodes, in a special 90 minute premiere, TUESDAY, APRIL 24. “The Chap Report” will air in its regular time slot, the fourth Tuesday of each and every month on The Nerd Lunch feed.
Featuring the show’s original (and only) host Corey Chapman, the revival will explore television, movies, music, technology, politics, and everything in between.
On the premiere episode, Corey sits down with CT from Nerd Lunch to discuss how the reboot came to fruition. Then he welcomes Chris Tanski to the show, as they break down the 2018 Summer Movie season.
One upon a time, a certain commercial featuring Martin Scorcese had a very special impact on CT and Jeeg. Learn more about that in this Extra Helping and maybe maybe maybe maybe you'll learn something about yourself too.
Thanks to Derek Dahlsad for saving this gem for posterity and for posting a whole bunch of 80s and 90s goodies on his YouTube channel.
It's a three way dance where Jeeg, Pax, and CT discuss some of the first and most recent personal and pop culture events in their lives. The nerds cover basics like first car and first movie theater experience, but along the way veer into oddities like George Bush erasing the Flash, navigating life without TV Guide, the joys of 14.4 modems, and more.
On the new Rabbit Hole, we welcome our good friend and pop culture blogger, William Bruce West. He lives up to the motto "he's forgotten more than you know" when we jump into the Power Rangers Wikia and he becomes the Zordon to our Rangers. Join us on a journey as we learn that when it comes to podcasting, the power of teamwork overcomes all.
Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to CT's daughter, Annaliese!
This week we are joined by our good lawyery friend Evan Hansen and we return to the topic We Meet Again and talk about actors that have appeared together in multiple projects over the years. We discuss ones we liked, ones we disliked and ones we'd love to see happen in the future.
The nerds reunite Nosh Show originals Dubba and Eric for a tournament to crown the best pizza topping. Along the way, pizza preferences are laid bare, the merits of Hawaiian pizza are discussed, and more things are revealed that Dubba won't eat. Cheer on your favorites in the big dance and listen for the one greasy moment that makes every Sweet Sixteen special.
To celebrate the madness that is March, the regular Rabbit Holes talk about that one special hole...the basketball goal. They visit basketball.wikia.com which turns out to be one of the worst officiated wikis we've run across. Due to the fast-paced nature of basketball, we try to hit all the pages we brought. Is it a slam dunk or are we denied?!
Jeeg, Michael May, William Bruce West, and Liz Twachtman break down Marvel's latest home run, Black Panther. Spoiler alert: we reveal things about the plot. Spoiler alert: we like this movie A LOT.
This week we are joined by Mike Westfall to draft a basketball team filled with players from movies, TV shows and cartoons. We all create our own semi-professional teams, including names/mascots, and we start a snake draft picking players to play on our teams.
Our friend Liz Twachtman from NerdintheCity.com joins the cast for Hole Time this month and we dive into the Star Wars wiki to talk about Sarlaccs, Midicholorians and Luke Skywalker. Plus, this episode features the return of Paxton Holley AND, we are without Jeff this episode in a Rabbit Hole first. Thankfully Jonathan DeMuth was still in our studio from last time so he force jumped in like Yoda.
Our plans to talk about the 18 Coy and Vance episodes of the Dukes of Hazzard have yet again crashed into the ravine. Instead, find out what happens...during the show.
Jay from The Sexy Armpit and The Purple Stuff Podcast returns and the podcasters come up with ideas for shows that have the word "new" in them. Hear about "The New Cheers," "The New Just Shoot Me!," "The New Head of the Class," and a NEW version of Married with Children.
Also, be sure to come back next week for episode 300!
The Nerds take a quiet moment before the big 'Triple C' arrives to answer questions from friends and Fourth Chair Army members. Lots of transparency and fun discussions. Plus, hear our friend Eddie Jimmy Olmos again.
John Vanover returns to the Fourth Chair for our annual Nerdstradamus predictions show. After revisiting our amazing soothsaying performance from last year and crowning the 2017 Nerdstradamus champion, we prognosticate about 2018 and play overs and unders for Avengers: Infinity War. Prepare to be amazed!
This week the Nerd Lunch Star Wars panel reconvenes to discuss the latest in the Skywalker saga, Star Wars The Last Jedi. There are a wide range of opinions on this divisive entry in the franchise, so buckle up for a wild ride! And by wild ride I mean "a pretty low key, rational discussion of the movie".
Jonathan DeMuth returns to Down the Rabbit Hole and there's a new twist this episode. Jeff and Jonathan each have to follow their own separate tracks to see who can get to the page for "tricorn" first! Lots of questions are asked and then immediately answered with nonsensical questions in this episode!
Welcome to 2018! It's a brand new year and a brand new world. One wear Disney owns everything. The Nerd Lunch crew welcome Robert Zerbe and eclectik back to the show to discuss the Disney acquisition of FOX. What are the pros and cons? What will change? What will stay the same? And in traditional Nerd Lunch fashion, we decide to come up with a few Disney/FOX mergers of our own!
Jeeg, CT, and Michael May discuss the first season of Seth MacFarlane's sci-fi love letter, The Orville. The nerds discuss what drew them to the show, their favorite characters, episode highlights, and what they're hoping to see in season 2.
Andrew Bloom from the Classic Film Jerks podcast joins Carlin and Jeff for a Christmas-themed episode of our show. Hilarity ensues as we see if we can get from the "Scrooged" page on Wikipedia to "Bethlehem, PA."
It’s the most wonderful time of the year as we once again welcome Michael DiGiovanni to the Fourth Chair for the Nerd Lunch Christmas spectacular. This year we create Christmas specials for characters and celebrities that never had them but should have. First on the docket are pitches for an idea we joked about last year: The Doof Warrior Christmas Special.
After you’ve enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out DiGio’s previous Christmas appearances dating back to 2012.
This week is the annual Nerd Lunch Ninja Day Special. We are again joined by Keith Rainville from VintageNinja.net and this time we discuss the bananas on bananas ninja vs kaiju movie, Magic Serpent from 1966.
Back in 1996, CT and a friend from college, Carl, worked as grips on an episode of the syndicated show Sightings. In this extra helping, CT and Carl reminisce about their weekend working on this show. Additionally, CT tracked down the director of the episode, Patrick Taulère, and talked to him about some of what happened behind-the-scenes of Sightings (including how Happy Days' Henry Winkler was involved). Get your incense ready and take a listen to this special episode!
The nerds welcome Tim Lybarger back to the Fourth Chair to talk about things they completely missed the boat on. That acclaimed movie that everyone loves? Never saw it. The hot gadget that changed everyone's life? Never got one. That popular show everyone talked about it in the office? Never watched an episode. If you want to find out how out of touch the guys are, don't miss the boat on this episode.
Jeeg from "Nerd Lunch Prime" makes his Rabbit Hole debut and we boldly go into new territory with a three-man crew for the first time. We explore the Star Trek Wikia and try to get from Mintakan Leader Nuria to Data's evil brother Lore in less than seven pages. We also play some dom-jot along the way.
Michael May returns to the show and the podcasters create "Nerd Lunch World" a new amusement park funded with an infinitely huge grant. Each of the podcasters gets to create one land in the park. What does Oz Land, Rock and Wrestling Land, Star Trek Land or Thundarr Land look like? Well, we'll show you by telling you so look with your ears at our latest episode now!
This week Pax is flying solo and is joined by Digio, Evan Hansen and Charlton Hero to draft our own supervillain teams. The only rule, they have to be villains that can be regularly found in the bargain bin comics of your local comic shop or comic convention. Come listen to some awesomely obscure villains!
This is the annual Nerd Lunch Halloween Special. Matt and Jay from Purple Stuff podcast return to discuss the 1986 Elvira MTV Halloween Special. It's four hours of amazing 80s nostalgia and discuss it all including the skits, the music videos and even the commercials!
CT recently visited his old college campus and was invited to speak at a class. And it all happened because of the 1995 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie. Curious? Check out his presentation and be inspired!
The Nerd Lunch crew welcomes Brad aka FijiMermaid on Twitter back to the show to do a Drive By on the Alien films. We spend a few minutes on each entry in the franchise, what our history is with it and where we want to see it go. We speed by the AvP films for now, saving them for a future Predator Drive By. Lots of fun mini-discussions on these movies. Listen now. Don't wait until after you wake up from your cryogenic sleep!
It's hole time with BloodyPopcorn.com's Joanna joining the show at we head down the Headhunter's Horror House Wiki and try to get from The Fear: Resurrection to some box that Jeff chose. Oh the box from Hellraiser. I, CT, just don't feel like looking up the spelling. Also in this episode: how to say "Horror"!
Shawn Robare visits again and the crew creates their own new Saturday Morning Cartoon Line-Up. Each podcaster comes up with three shows they'd like to see and the combined roster of shows becomes a brand new Saturday Morning line up. Grab a bowl of Nerd Lunch Crunch and sit in front of the TV for five hours straight of greatness.
This week we are joined by first time 4th chair guest Adam from the SequelQuest Podcast. He is joining us to bring back old TV shows. We are each tasked with picking a show that's been cancelled for at least 10 years and crafting a new, sequel series featuring members of the original cast. Expect lots of fun, surprising choices like Learning the Ropes, Journeyman and Star Trek Deep Space Nine.
In our first "Drive-By," a sister topic to the Drill Down shows, we discuss the Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist TV shows that are on Netflix. Borrowing from "Down the Rabbit Hole," we set up a timer and spend designated amount of time discussing each season all the way through The Defenders. We are joined by Robert from To the Escape Hatch and Dubba from On Second Scoop and The Nosh Show for this MARVELous discussion!
CT and Pax survived. Here's a bit more information about how they fared in Irma and what's to come as a result of her wrath.
In celebration of the 30th Anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Nerd Lunchers welcome new Fourth Chair guest Zaki Hasan and the four of them do a pseudo-drill down on the series. There's a lot to cover and only so much time to do it. And we also got caught in a time loop while recording, but that's neither here nor there.
Back from summer hiatus, the Nerd Lunch crew is joined by Rondal from Strange Kids Club to pitch a reboot of the road race movie Cannonball Run. All of us take turns pitching celebrity teams and talk about who we think would win.
We valiantly tried to complete a quartet of reunions, but alas, there was one that was impossibly elusive—the Under Scoop Fire podcast. Someday we'll have to tell the story of scheduling woes, but that's another podcast. Instead, we present this pseudo-rerun. Back in November of 2015, the USF cast appeared on Nerd Lunch as a part of a crossover. And Nerd Lunch appeared on USF, too. For the first time in this feed, here is episode 147 of the Under Scoop Fire podcast with guests, the Nerd Lunch cast.
Summer Reunions 2017 continues with the last of our full-fledged reunions. The guys who inspired the Nerd Lunch gang to hop on the podcast train...The Atomic Geeks. A year after their final episode, the full crew of DiGio, Downs, Christian and Andrew return for a podcast reunion.
Summer Reunions 2017 continues with a show takeover! Kirk Howle, Matt Ringler and Doug Frye from the late, great Schlock Treatment podcast take over Nerd Lunch with their version of a Nerd Lunchish topic. The trio comes up with their own schlock movies in what they are dubbing "Build-A-Schlock." Summer Reunions 2017 continues next week!
Down the Rabbit Hole jumps in on the #NerdLunchSummerReunion fun by reuniting Jeff's old podcast crew from Your Weird. The podcast crew picks some weird links off of Wikipedia.
Nerd Lunch kicks off a special month of shows. It's a three-way dance as the Fourth Chair-less trio discusses TV show reunions such as the Duke of Hazzard, Bionic duo and Gilligan's Island movies. Plus, this episode features a very special announcement about the rest of Nerd Lunch's "Summer Reunions 2017" shows!
Member of the Fourth Chair Army, Michelle Houghton, attended San Diego Comic Con this year and was fortunate enough to get into the elusive "Hall H" panels. Hear about her report from ground zero of nerd culture in this extra helping of the show.
It's been a while so the Nerd Lunchers decided it was time to create some Movie Menus again. With D23 in our recent history and our guest being Liz from NerdintheCity.com (who happens to be a big Disney fan) we decided to focus on Disney movies for this episode. After catching up with Liz on her first "numbered episode" appearance, we dive in and craft some great stuff. We'd tell you the line up, but half the fun is the reveal, so you'll just have to listen!
The Star Wars Panel reunites for the daunting task of discussing the two Ewok movies, "Caravan of Courage" and "Battle for Endor." Dreams about where Ewoks live were dashed, the duplicate side of Endor was created, and Burl Ives narrates it all.
Jeeg and CT welcome Mike Westfall and Will Webster back to the show for a discussion of friendships in pop culture. The nerds just scratch the surface of some all time favorite movie and TV friendships and then choose best friends for some iconic loner characters. From Stephen Root to wizarding conspiracy theories to Orko, this episode definitely goes to some weird places.
After the show, be sure to check out Will's site to learn more about his team-up with Evil Kat Comics to support No Kid Hungry.
The Rabbit Hole is joined by comic book writer Christopher Hastings (Gwenpool, Deadpool, Dr. McNinja) and the crew explores the Marvel Wiki in honor of a new Spider-Man movie out this month. Can the crew get from the page for X-51 to Loki in just six jumps? And what's the deal with ROM? Jump on into the Rabbit Hole with us and find out!
Returning to the show after an over 100 episode hiatus is the character of Ned. N. Lurch. Ned is trying to break into "the biz" but his rich stepdad doesn't want him to. So he's hired a panel of experts whose job it is to help Ned think he's coming up with great ideas for a comic, but in actuality, they're trying to lead him astray. Listen now to them come up with the idea for the "worst comic ever"!
Returning guests Dubba and Charlton Hero join the nerds this week for the first ever Nerd Lunch Sweet Sixteen. The mission this time is to crown the king of all cartoon dogs. From classic Hanna-Barbera to obscure Saturday morning pups of the 1980s to the USA Network Cartoon Express to Marc Singer, this episode covers a lot of ground before a champion is named.
Some funny preshow banter featuring Googling for pictures of intimate dancing, riding on the Doof Wagon and Patreon support.
This week on Nerd Lunch we are discussing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 with Evan Hanson and Michael May. Expect to hear lots of talk about Baby Groot, Ego, Ego's planet face and The Hoff!
The Rabbit Hole crew welcome CollectingCandy.com's Jason Liebig to the show. This time, they head back to Wikipedia but add the restriction that they can only use junk food links to get around. This episode is full of sugary goodness!
No guys allowed on this extra helping of Nerd Lunch! Following the cue by the Alamo Drafthouse, Nerd Lunch turns the reigns over to some of the ladies of the Fourth Chair Army. Returning guests Stacey Rader and Michelle Houghton, along with new guest Liz Twachtman, form the official Nerd Lunch review panel of Wonder Woman starring Gal Gadot and directed by Patty Jenkins. Lasso yourself this extra helping by downloading now!
Jeeg and Pax welcome John Vanover back to the show for another screening of Kung Fu Theater. This time the nerds tackle a long overdue discussion of the legendary Jackie Chan centered on the first of the Three Dragons movies, Project A. Co-starring Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, it features plenty of action, a healthy dose of comedy, an almost satisfactory amount of pirates, and one of Jackie's most epic stunts. Listen and find out if you can't spell awesome without 'A'.
In this episode, CT and Pax are joined by returning guest William Bruce West and new guest, Vincent from therobotspajamas.com and they talk about deaths of major characters in pop culture. They also talk about some of the deaths that didn't stick. And then, in classic Nerd Lunch fashion, the crew each kill off a major character themselves. Goodbye Santa Claus, Captain America, Michael Knight and Harry Potter!
This week we are joined by Evan Hansen to draft a baseball team. A baseball team filled with characters from movies, TV, comics and books.
It's "Hole Time" again! And this time the Rabbit Hole crew tackles the DC Wikia with guest Dr. Andrea Letamendi of the Arkham Sessions podcast. Throughout the discussion they answer (or don't) such questions as how do you pronounce "Mxyzptlk," has Dick Grayson ever been Batman and what's a "Ma Hunkel"? Special thanks to our friend Michael May for filling in for Pax this episode!
It's storytime with Pax! As an addendum to our Star Trek IV drilldown, in this extra helping Pax is talking about the movie novelization by Vonda McIntyre. Lots of extra plot tidbits to be had. Check it out!
The Nerd Lunch crew continues it's seemingly never-ending Star Trek Drill Downs, this time with Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home aka "The Whale One." They welcome Quinn Rollins onto the show and the four discuss how this funny movie took a long time to be funny, Spock's quirkiness and the pregnancies of Saavik and Gracie. Say "Hello computer" and ask it to download this podcast for you today!
Jeeg is back! Plus we are joined by Jaime Hood in the fourth chair to talk about board game movies. We talk about how few there are and if it's a good idea to begin with. Then we each are assigned a board game and have to pitch a movie version of it.
This week Jeeg is still out saving kittens and puppies and we are joined by Shawn Robare and Andrew Bloom for another round of Filmmaker Roulette. Everyone is assigned a movie and then randomly assigned a new director and we have to remake our assigned movies in the visual style of our new director. It's a lot of fun!
Carlin, Jeff and Pax welcome to "Hole Time" Kay from Hyperspace Theories and Fangirlblog.com. After establishing that she is the first returning Rabbit Hole guest since the first returning Rabbit Hole guest, the crew jumps back into Wikipedia trying to get from The Thin Man (Film) to Street Hawk. And prepare for a first in Rabbit Hole history.
This episode, CT and Pax are joined by Nerd Lunch founding member PLee and co-host of Classic Film Jerks and the new Pop Culture Retrofit Podcast, Michael DiGiovanni, to create super hero teams. Not just any super hero teams, but teams made up of characters commonly found in comic shop and convention discount bins. Lots of deep cuts and obscurities mentioned on this one, but not so many that we're out more than $5 total.
CT and Pax welcome back to the show Thom Holbrook from the poobala TV Crossovers website to talk about movies that were based on TV shows. Talking about both the movies that served as sequels and extensions and those that were reboots, the crew outline some of their favorites and least favorites. Then they end the show taking TV shows and giving them movie treatments of their own. What would The Wild, Wild West done right be like? Or a movie version of The Prisoner? Better yet, what about an edgy, cinematic Hardcastle & McCormick? Listen now and find out! (Because it's probably the only version of these movies that will ever be made...)
Matt and Jay join CT and Pax for a trip into the Black Hills to talk all about the Blair Witch franchise. The main discussion is about the movies but we also manage to discuss found footage movies, the pop culture influence of the movies, movies that aren't Blair Witch sequels that should be Blair Witch sequels and much, much more. Come join us, if you can find us.
Hey! It's "Hole Time" again (well, let's double check with Jeff first to be sure) and the Rabbit Hole crew welcomes Quinn Rollins, author of "Play Like a PIRATE: Engage Students withToys, Games, and Comics" and also Muppet fan extraordinaire. The hole we jump into this time is the Muppets Wiki. Can we get from the "Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem" page to the "Janice" page? Well, yeah, but can we make it interesting? Listen and find out.
As a part of our "Real Life Scenarios" discussions, the Nerd Lunch crew welcomes Mike Westfall on to discuss who we think the real life Vice Presidential Action Rangers are. Based on the premise from Futurama's "Anthology of Interest I" where Al Gore reveals a VP's job is to protect the space-time continuum, we determine the rosters of Sprio Agnew, George Bush, Dan Quayle, Dick Cheney, Joe Biden and Mike Pence's Action Rangers. Be assured that the space-time continuum is in good shape for the most part.
We finally revisit the topic which brought the world the LorenzoWatch and one of CT's most epic Photoshop mashups. This time Robert Zerbe and Tim Lybarger join CT and Jeeg for a new round of Internet creeping after long lost celebrities. Ever wonder what happened to some of your favorites from Lois & Clark, American Gladiators, the Cobra Kai, and Star Trek Voyager? Listen to this episode and all will be revealed.
This week we are joined by former TAG Christian Nielsen and current Sexy Armpit Jay. We are all assigned two pop culture things and have to combine them into one pop culture thing. Listen to see what I'm talking about.
Improv comedian Jonathan DeMuth joins the Rabbit Holers for another competitive episode. Jeff, Pax and Jonathan all have a Wikipedia link to get to and CT starts them off with a content management website link. Can they get from Drupal to anywhere? Well, yes, they can get to Zune as it turns out. So if you are a Zune-lover, beware!
The Nerd Lunch Indy panel completed the Indiana Jones trilogy, but found out there was one more Indy movie to cover. Apparently in 2008, there was another Indiana Jones movie made called Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Okay...okay, we knew they made it, but we try to forget it. Alas, we remember it one more time so we can discuss the over-the-topness of this final (for now) installment of the franchise. What do we think about Marion's return? Indy having a son? A Russian enemy who has the special ability to not have a consistent accent? Listen now and let's nuke this fridge together.
This week the nerds welcome back Doug Frye (Rest in Podcast, Schlock Treatment) to the Fourth Chair. They also welcome back the You've Got The Rights topic as it climbs towards franchise topic status. On the docket for fresh project pitches are an 80s loose cannon cop, a superhero martial arts icon, a member of 24's CTU, and a Saturday morning cartoon favorite. Along the way, the conversation veers into lots of nuts, Nancy Drew, and Hillbilly Jim.
Nerd Lunch presents Down the Rabbit Hole. Carlin Trammel, Jeff Somogyi and Paxton Holley welcome Michelle Houghton, Disney fan extraordinaire, to dive into Disney.Wikia.com. We learn about movies that are a mix of live action and cartoons, giggle buttons, pin trading and why you never want to watch a movie with Jeff. Listen now!
This week the Nerds return to their annual topic where they make up stuff about the coming year that won't come true. That's right, it's Nerdstradamus 2017. After a recap of the pathetic showing for 2016, the show welcomes Tim Lybarger to make predictions with them about TV, fast/junk food, and a wild card category. Then, they delve into an exercise of guessing which songs will show up on the second Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack. Plus: Nerd To-Dos return!
This week we are joined by Engineernerd John Vanover to create some toys! Each podcaster was assigned a movie or TV show and is tasked to come up with a full line of toys to support our assignment. The assignments are split with two TV shows and two movies. Who got what? Listen to find out!
Nerd Lunch presents Down the Rabbit Hole. Carlin Trammel and Jeff Somogyi welcome guests Evan Hanson and Michael DiGiovanni (Classic Film Jerks Podcast) to dive into Wikipedia. This time, Jeff, Evan and Michael each came with a mystery link. Can any of them work the conversation from Wikipedia's "nutmeg" page to their link? Only one way to find out! Listen now!
Nerd Lunch's holiday celebration begins this week as Michael DiGiovanni returns to the Fourth Chair to continue our Christmas tradition. This year we pay homage to holiday themed TV episodes. Rather than recounting our favorites, we create Christmas crossover events that we wish existed for specific TV lineups of years gone by. If you ever wanted to know how the shows of the 1985-86 NBC primetime lineup might spend the holidays together (and who didn't?), this is the episode for you. It's a fun discussion that wanders into the room full of crazy more than once along the way. Happy Holidays from all of us at Nerd Lunch!
In this extra helping continued from our Ninja Day episode, we all start discussing the 80s ninja boom in America including such classic films like Revenge of the Ninja, American Ninja and Ninja III: The Domination.
This week on Nerd Lunch we are celebrating that most holiest of days, Ninja Day! For this very special episode we are joined by Evan Hanson and first time guest Keith Rainville from VintageNinja.net to discuss the 1962 Japanese ninja classic, Shinobi-no-Mono. Keith takes us through the movie and we have a pretty deep discussion on the impact of this classic and how it influenced movies for generations to come.
Michael May and Andrew Bloom join Jeeg and CT to go back to their "Give That Guy Some Work" topic. This time, they're focusing in on folks who have passed away that should have gotten more work while they were alive. Grace Lee Whitney, Kevin Smith (the other one) and Don Knotts are among those we employ in the great casting couch in the sky.
Welcome to the first episode of the "show within a show," Nerd Lunch presents Down the Rabbit Hole. Carlin Trammel, Jeff Somogyi and Paxton Holley welcome guest Corey Chapman (The Chap Report Podcast and formerly Under Scoop Fire and Mad Men Podcasts) to dive into Wikipedia. Can they get from Harvey (Play) to Charles Rocket? Or even more importantly, can they stretch it out so there's enough of a show? Dive in and listen!
Pax jumps in to talk about the differences between the novelization and the movie for the second Indiana Jones sequel.
The Nerd Lunch Indiana Jones panel reunites for the third installment in the franchise. They discuss the River Phoenix Indy origin story, the fact that plot is overshadowed by fun and how Sean Connery and Harrison Ford have great on-screen chemistry. If you download and listen, you chose wisely.
The boys are out of Shawn's fridge and back in the studio this week. They get back into the swing of things after Episode 250 by fielding questions from listeners and the Fourth Chair Army. Garbage Pail Kids, celebrity encounters, Muppets, podcasting IRL, and Draculas are just part of the ground covered in this wide ranging discussion. Thanks to everyone who submitted questions this time!
This week Nerd Lunch is celebrating their 250th episode! To mark this special occasion Shawn Robare and Jaime Hood have invited Pax, CT and Jeeg over to Branded HQ for dinner. While touring the house, the fellas get trapped in Shawn Robare's Ecto Cooler Cooler and begin reminiscing about all of their favorite episodes of the podcast.
Jeeg and Pax are joined by Jay from Sexy Armpit and Will from Casserole of Disaster to discuss Scary Movie Menus. We are each assigned a scary movie and a restaurant and we have to come up with an appropriately themed menu. Expect to hear Trick or Treat, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, White Castle and Shoneys.
Since Pax did not have a chance to give his rebuttals to the regular Nerd Lunch Indy panel, he assembled an alternate panel for this special "B-Side Edition" of a Temple of Doom discussion. Joined by Rob Graham, John the Engineernerd, and new guest Brad (@FijiMermaid on Twitter), they counter and balance the discussion from episode 247 with more loving thoughts on this second installment in the Indiana Jones franchise.
CT and Pax welcome Michael May and Stacey Rader to have a discussion about Wonder Woman in order to celebrate her 75th birthday. Talking through the first encounters with this monumental character to how the crew continued to follow her adventures. Favorite stories, villains, artists and more are covered, plus a look at the complexity of the character and why that's made her so challenging to translate into other media over the years. Put on your satin tights and listen now!
Todd from JunkFed and Kay from Hyperspace Theories return to the Indiana Jones panel for a discussion on the second in the series, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Hear our thoughts on the prequel aspect of the movie, eyeball soup, and Willard Scott. And Todd gives us a two word answer for why all problems happen in our life.
The nerds delve into the weird world of food mascot families with Fourth Chair guest Dubba from On Second Scoop and The Nosh Show. First up is a discussion of actual in-canon family members of mascots from burger chains, cereals, and baked goods. Then the crew creates families for some lonely food mascots that need them. From McDonaldland to the dairy department, it's a family reunion not to be missed.
Continuing the Bourne discussion, Pax and CT talk about the newest Matt Damon-Paul Greengrass joint.
CT, Jeeg and Pax are joined by Robert Zerbe to talk about the Jason Bourne movies. We discuss the first three Damon ones and then we talk about the Jeremy Renner one. And you'll also hear lots of Moby. Like, LOTS.
Due to what we thought was an error in recording, we wound up doing a take two on the Rabbit Hole episode. But it turned out we had the original recording. Sooooo...you get the actual last time we're doing Down the Rabbit Hole on Nerd Lunch. Also, this is funnier if you've already listened to episode 244.
CT and Pax welcome back Jeff Somogyi and invite new guest Mike Westfall on for our final "Down the Rabbit Hole." Wait...FINAL?! Yes, but fear not, this episode has a special announcement about plans for our rabbit holes. For this episode, the twist is that we have three links from good ol' Wikipedia. Can we get from one to another and work in the third in the middle? And a new rule for the game will bring greater challenges and fewer Channing Tatums. Also...stay tuned for an extra helping later in the week for our actual final Rabbit Hole episode as this particular show is a miracle episode.
In celebration of the fifth anniversary of the Nerd Lunch Podcast, CT and Pax visit Dragon Con in Atlanta. They are under the impression they are to be hosting a live Nerd Lunch panel as a means of celebrating five years, but things don't go how they expect. Along the way they meet Evan Hanson and Geek Kay. Celebrate five years of Nerd Lunch with this very special episode.
Get in the ring with Jeeg and a wrestling roundtable featuring Jay Ryan, Charlton Hero, and Mike Downs. The fellas discuss their all time favorites in several obscure categories including pre-match attire, foreign objects, and wrestling video games. Almost all corners of the pro-wrestling world from 1980s WCW to present-day WWE to Japan are covered in this heavyweight episode. Grab your favorite steel chair, tear open a turnbuckle, and enjoy.
The Nerd Lunch crew is taking a little hiatus but instead of leaving you without our fabulous voices for four weeks, we're dipping into the old archives and sharing some of our favorite shows with you again...or for the first time! After being kicked off with new bonus content, we present to you the time we build a Christmas special. Enjoy!
NEW SHOW NEXT WEEK!
The Nerd Lunch crew is taking a little hiatus but instead of leaving you without our fabulous voices for four weeks, we're dipping into the old archives and sharing some of our favorite shows with you again...or for the first time! After being kicked off with new bonus content, we present to you the time we did a drill down on Ninja III: The Domination. Enjoy!
The Nerd Lunch crew is taking a little hiatus but instead of leaving you without our fabulous voices for four weeks, we're dipping into the old archives and sharing some of our favorite shows with you again...or for the first time! After being kicked off with new bonus content, we present to you the time we put Michael Bay on trial. Enjoy!
The Nerd Lunch crew is taking a little hiatus but instead of leaving you without our fabulous voices for four weeks, we're dipping into the old archives and sharing some of our favorite shows with you again...or for the first time! After being kicked off with new bonus content, we present to you the first time we did the Movie Menus topic with our guest Steve from Food Junk. Enjoy!
Nerd Lunch concludes our Star Trek series with a return to our series of drill downs on the movies. Next up...Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Pax and CT welcome Rob Graham and John Vanover and they get into all sorts of nerdy discussions. How old is the Enterprise? Why are the Grissom's cushions pink? Just how pon farr did Saavik have to go with Spock? We answer some of those questions and none of them.
Also, stay tuned for a special programming note for next month.
Continuing Star Trek Month, the nerds sit down with Michael May to discuss the character Q. We discuss our first exposure to him, our thoughts on him as a plot device and what our favorite episodes are. We even talk about whether we feel Q should be brought back for the new Trek show.
Star Trek month continues with Sean Kelley from the Improvised Star Trek podcast returning to the show as Fourth Chair. This week the nerds share some of their favorite minutiae from the Star Trek canon. And while favorite Captain or alien race might seem like minutiae to some, for Nerd Lunch it means geeking out about favorite musical performance, game or sport, or holodeck scenario in Trek.
Star Trek Month begins! The Nerd Lunch crew kick off a four week long celebration of the 50th anniversary of Star Trek. They welcome William Bruce West and postulate on the future of Star Trek. What will the new series be like? Where does Star Trek need to go in order to survive another 25 years? Great nerdy discussion!
We begin a new series of movie drill down, this time, we dig deep into the Indiana Jones series. Starting with the first film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, we are joined by Kay and Todd to find out what we liked about the pulp serial-inspired film. And as a bonus, here lots of real and fake facts from Todd!
DiGio from The Atomic Geeks drops by to keep the Fourth Chair warm. The podcasters, inspired by the "Original Ghost Busters" from the 1970s decide to concoct other things that were the "original" versions of popular pop culture properties. Hear about the "original" Veronica Mars, the "original" Transformers, the "original" Preacher, and the "original" Knight Rider. Also, find out how long the crew can go without using the TAG googling music.
While the finished Nerd Lunch Podcast always sounds like a well oiled machine, we occasionally run into technical difficulties. Like this bit before we recorded Episode 235.
Join the nerds and Fourth Chair guest Evan Hanson as they discuss the third movie of the Ip Man series starring Donnie Yen and, of all people, Mike Tyson. The conversation heads in all kinds of directions from Bruce Lee to cliché British stereotypes to the importance of umbrellas in kung fu. This week's show also features the not-so-awaited return of Nerd To Dos including Harry Potter, Hanna-Barbera comics, vintage arcade gaming, the Pod James Pod podcast (whatever that is), and DragonCon.
More discussion from episode 234 featuring fan fiction reviews and a surprising amount of JK Rowling discussion.
This week the Nerds are joined by Atomic Geek Christian and they once again return to the wonderland that is FanFiction.net. Everyone is assigned random movies that are combined into crossover subjects that are then selected from FanFiction.net's crossover movie story section. It's lots of weird complicated fun where we discuss stories involving Tinkerbell, James Bond and Nightmare on Elm Street. Join us!
Jeff Somogyi returns for a new episode of Down the Rabbit Hole. This time, we set our course for Wookieepedia instead of Wikipedia and our Star Wars panel of Geek Kay and Michael May tag along. Can we get from the page for Jessa Vandangante to Pilk Mukmuk in the span of our show? There's only one way to find out!
This week Jeeg and Pax return to a topic called Kill Me Now in which we talk about movies/TV shows we've been forced to watch by our family or significant others. Returning to the show to join us in this discussion are engineernerd John and bizarrojimmyolsen Evan.
This week Jeeg takes CT and Pax back into the wacky world of infomercial and catalog products. Join the nerds as they use all their powers of deduction to determine if the others would buy gimmick coffee mugs, kitschy microwave cleaners, toilet decals, and more. As a bonus, the Nerd Lunch Captain America: Civil War mini-review is also included in this episode.
This week Pax, CT and Jeeg are joined by good friend Robert Zerbe for a fun exercise we call Filmmaker Roulette. First, we jump back in time one week to hear ourselves get assigned iconic movies like Forrest Gump and Splash and then be given brand new directors like Zack Snyder and Terry Gilliam. Then we flash back to the present and we have to envision our movies with these new directors. It's lots of fun, come check it out.
The Nerd Lunch crew finally finishes construction on their multi-million dollar Danger Room project where they host icons of pop culture to be trained by podcast members and eventually fight. The Nerd Lunch crew welcome Rondal from Strange Kids Club to give the first test. And also admire Chachi in his tank tops.
The Nerd Lunch Trio goes without a Fourth Chair guest this weekas they work out some issues amongst themselves. The long-boilingtensions have risen and they decide to finally hash out somearguments. Are you on #TeamCT, #TeamPax or #TeamJeeg when it comesto these classic nerd disagreements? Let us know in the commentsbelow or on social media!
David Pietrandrea of Your Weird and Robox Studios joins the nerds in Fourth Chair this week. They are wielding the pop culture eraser yet again, but this time with a twist. The mysterious stranger demands that balance be brought to the universe and the nerds must erase people and items from categories not of their own choosing. From Star Trek to Hollywood directors to 1980s sitcoms, pop culture will be forever altered after this episode.
Pax. Tim and Eclectik discuss the 2015 Oscar nominated Straight Outta Compton movie that chronicles the origins of the rap group, NWA.
Pax is joined by his Hip Hop Crew, Tim Lybarger and Eclectik to discuss the groundbreaking gangsta rap super group, NWA. We talk about our first exposure to the group, we talk about the group's albums and we dive into all of the group's members' solo albums. We even discuss the greater NWA Legacy and many of the groups directly influenced by them like Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Above the Law and even get a few Tairrie B and HWA mentions.
CT and Pax welcome back The Chap Report's Corey Chapman and the trio discuss what's on deck for this coming summer. Movies, TV, reading, trips and more are all discussed as they get into what they are looking forward to in the Summer of 2016.
CT is off this week so Jeeg and Pax invite Evan Hanson to talk about the Jet Li movies Once Upon a Time in China 1 and 2. We talk about our intro the series, what we liked, what we didn't and we heap a whole lot of love on Donnie Yen.
After years of talking about the DC cinema plans, the Batman v Superman movie has descended upon us like a vigilante in the night. And Pax and CT have now seen this along with friend from The Atomic Geeks, Michael DiGiovanni. And boy, we all have got some things to get off our chest. Disclaimer: These are our opinions and should not be construed as us imposing our beliefs on you. I know that's the popular thing to do on the internet, but we're interested in genuine discussion.
While other podcasts talk about superheroes fighting, this week Pax and Jeeg wax poetic about the recently completed British costume drama, Downton Abbey. Joining them in the Fourth Chair is first time guest John Vanover from the Action Figure Blues podcast and tvandfilmtoys.com. What did it mean for Lady Edith to find happiness? Could they forgive Barrow's dastardly deeds? Should Lady Mary have ended up with Gillingham, Blake, or Talbot? Were there enough tissues to mop up the tears during the series finale? The nerds tackle all these questions and more in a conversation worthy of a free tote bag.
During the after discussion of episode 222, the guys start talking about 227 and essentially do a drilldown.
This week Shawn Robare returns to the show to reminisce about video rental stores. We talk about the first video rental stores we remember popping up in our towns, we discuss renting the actual VCRs, VHS vs Betamax and what the brick & mortar video rental situation currently looks like for us. Join us for a fun, nostalgia filled discussion.
CT and one of his co-hosts from the Dragonfly Ripple Podcast descend upon Tallahassee's very own pop culture convention...ALT*Con Florida. There they talk to writers, artists, cosplayers, and actors showcased at this convention now in its fourth year. Also, be sure to check out the Dragonfly Ripple feed for a companion piece to this episode.
The Nerd Lunch court is called back into session and this time, director of Man of Steel, 300, Sucker Punch, The Watchmen and the upcoming Batman v Superman, Zack Snyder, is being put on trial for his crimes against entertainment. Is Snyder a hack or does he truly have a vision? Evan Hanson prosecutes, Nerd Lunch's very own PLee defends while Andrew Bloom of the Classic Film Jerks judges. Jon Cross from the After Movie Diner and Robert Zerbe of 2 The Escape Hatch are called as witness in this historic trial. Listen now!
In the spiritual sequel to our Man Crushes episode, Kay from Fangirl Blog takes over the hosting duties along with an all-woman panel to talk about woman crushes. Hear Kay, Jen Usellis Mackay, Stacey Rader and new guest Kelly Knox talk about current woman crushes as well as those who have passed, those who are cartoons and an assortment of other categories.
Marvo from the Impulsive Buy and the Nosh Show takes over the Fourth Chair this week as we discuss some of our favorite and weirdest knock-off and store brand foods. We also put each other to the test in creating new knock-offs for some beloved brand name products. This episode's Nerd To-Dos feature the Fantastic Four movies, the Force Awakens (again), Chappie, and Triumph's Election Special.
This week on Nerd Lunch we are joined by Jason Gross from Rediscover the 80s and the Recurrent Events podcast. Everyone is assigned a movie from someone else and we are tasked to create toys based on these movies. Expect comedy, action and spy movies to appear starring such actors as Mel Gibson, Chris Farley and Sammo Hung.
Doug Frye from Schlock Treatment joins us again in the Fourth Chair as we plumb the depths of Craigslist for crazy collections and flat out weird stuff. Listen to find out if Craigslist can produce any treasures to top the crown jewel of our first run at this topic, Bill the trampoline deliverer. This week's Nerd To Dos include Dragon Con, The Force Awakens, the Australian version of Rake, and a marathon (Hint: it's not Jeeg's to do).
We return to the USS Sexy Armpit, but this time our replicators are fine. It's the Space TV we've been using that has a very long and unnecessary backstory for why we must now pick ten, and only ten, movies that we will be forced to watch over and over again until our derelict ship is rescued. The entire crew of the ship unites to make these decisions as Captain Jay and On Second Scoop's Dubba both guest. Find out which ten we choose by listening!
Jeff Somogyi returns and we go down that rabbit hole again. This time we're ready for lawyer traps as we bring our friend Evan along, too. It's our first fan-submitted version of this show. Thanks to everyone who suggested starting and ending links. (Please note: No cast members from Star Trek: Voyager appear in this episode!)
Michael May completes his four week Nerd Lunch tour of duty and we make his dream of guesting with William Bruce West come true. Then, in the spirit of Fuller House, Girl Meets World and Coach, we get into an exercise of coming up with ideas for TV show revivals, some more deserving than others. We bring back Magnum, PI, Blacke's Magic, Small Wonder, Amen, and Murphy Brown. Nerd To-Dos feature some comic book reading, TV watching and taking a kid to go see that new Star Wars movie.
It wouldn't be the start of a new year without our yearly crop of predictions. After recapping some stellar (?) 2015 prognostications and the results of The Force Awakens Overs and Unders, the crew and Michael May predict the year to come in the realms of TV, fast food, and more. Plus, we tee up a new set of Overs and Unders for Star Trek Beyond! This week's Nerd To Dos include #fitness, Straight Outta Compton, scifi/comic convention plans, and Orphan Black.
May and Kay come back to the show to discuss Star Wars The Force Awakens. We talk about how many times we've watched it, we discuss what we liked, what we didn't like and we speculate what could be coming in further movies.
May and Kay join Pax in a discussion about the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Expect us to discuss mostly the books but there is some discussion on the comics. We discuss our first entry into the books, some of our favorite books, some of our favorite characters and we break down some recommendations for Star Wars book newbies.
Continuing our holiday tradition, Michael DiGiovanni from The Atomic Geeks joins us to ring in the holiday season. On the docket this year is a quest to assemble the ultimate Hallmark Channel or ABC Family quality Christmas romance movie. We don't quite get there, but we do pitch four excellent examples of the genre and empty IMDB's reservoir of 90s D-list celebrities in a stunt casting exercise you won't want to miss.
CT and Jeeg welcome back Rob Graham and the podcasters do a Drill Down on oft-overlooked Star Trek series, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. They talk about the legacy of Captain Sisko, the other main characters, the Dominion War, the station itself, the Defiant, favorite episodes and of course, Garak. This one is for all the Niners out there.
Returning after a long absence from our show is both guest Sue London and the "franchise topic" of Give That Guy Some Work (see episodes 5, 44 and 86 for previous installments). We discuss some actors and actresses that we haven't seen on our screens in awhile and discuss ideas for roles we'd like to see them take on. Nerd To Dos include some video gaming, Jessica Jones, and the new brand for our friends at UnderScoopFire. Also, our new theme song debuts on this episode!
We once again celebrate the Day of the Ninja. This time Jeeg and Pax give a spin to the Wachowskis styled modern classic, Ninja Assassin. This movie has it all: katanas, ultraviolent action, a Korean pop star, fusillades of shurikens, a connection to the britcom Coupling, and Sho Kosugi. Of course we love it. Stick around for Nerd To Dos that include the unique pairing of James Bond and Aquaman.
This week we are again joined by Michael May and Kay to discuss the final installment in the Star Wars prequels, Revenge of the Sith. We discuss watching it for the first time, what we liked, what we didn't like, we even have a short discussion on the Clone Wars micro series that debuted before the movie. Lots of fun discussion had within!
Nerd To-Do is done! CT, Jeeg and Pax join forces with UnderScoopFire's Corey, eclectik, and Tank to create the greatest crossover since Thomas Magnum met up with Rick and A.J. Simon. On the Nerd Lunch side of the equation, the sextet discuss celebrities they would want to encounter in various everyday and not-so-everyday situations. Be sure to check out episode 147 of the UnderScoopFire podcast to hear the Nerd Lunchers join the USFers for a discussion about finales. This is podcast history in the making!
Making good on the claim to create a new podcast together, our guests from episode 204, Andrew Bloom (Classic Film Jerks) and Jeff Somogyi (Your Weird), join forces to create a new podcast...AWKWARD SILENCE! They live up to half of that description while talking about karaoke, what things are better when shirtless and a little bit of genealogy to boot. Also, apologies in advance to anyone named Glintor.
Do you ever go to Wikipedia looking for information on one thing but find yourself 20 minutes later having visited 20 other pages? Well, that's what we do on this episode of Nerd Lunch. Pax and CT are joined by Andrew Bloom from Classic Film Jerks and Jeff Somogyi of sommerjam.com and the Your Weird Podcast and once again we play a game of "Down the Rabbit Hole." Can we get from the page for RadioShack to the page for London After Midnight (film) within the show? There's only one way to find out...listen now!
This week its finally time for Nerd Breakfast. We return to our version of sportsball drafting, but this time for fast food breakfast items. Rounding out the panel are the previous draft champion (just ask him), Dubba from On Second Scoop, and Nick from Dude Foods. Along the way we discover perhaps the longest fast food item name in history, debate which items can be eaten with a spoon, categorize the types of baked good plunderers in the office, and discuss the relative merits of quinoa.
This year Pax and Jeeg are joined again by Jay and Matt from the Purple Stuff Podcast to celebrate the 2015 Halloween season. For this episode we all watched two of Rankin-Bass' Halloween Specials. First we discuss Jack-O-Lantern from 1972 and then we talk about the Mad Monster Party movie from 1967.
In this edition of Drinking with Wrestlers, Mike Downs recounts a tale of drinking with Kevin Nash at a hotel bar in Chicago during the height of the Monday Night Wars.
Rasslin' talk takes over Nerd Lunch once again as Jeeg, Mike Downs from the Atomic Geeks, Chad Young from Horror Movie BBQ, and RD Reynolds of WrestleCrap fame come together to wax poetic about the 1990s battle for pro-wrestling (and cable TV) dominance between WCW and WWF/WWE. One episode is not enough to tackle the topic, but the crew hits the highs, lows, and aftermath of this golden age of wrestling. Enjoy and let us know your favorite moments of The Monday Night Wars!
They said it shouldn't be done, but we did it anyway. With just over four years behind us, the Nerd Lunch crew hit a milestone episode number of 200 shows. With no idea what to do, we were rescued by Fourth Chair Army generals Jay from The Sexy Armpit and Shawn from Branded in the 80s and they put together a special "Roast & Toast" of CT, Pax and Jeeg. You don't want to miss this one as it is chock full of questions, memories and special guests:
- Michael May
- Kay
- Evan Hanson
- Howie Decker
Plus hear from:
- Rielly
- Jen Usellis Mackay
- Aaron Nix
- Robert Zerbe
- William Bruce West
- Andrew Bloom
- Rob Graham
- Jeff Somogyi
- Rondal Scott
- Tim Lybarger
- The Retroist
- Doug Frye, Matt Ringler and Kirk Howle of Schlock Treatment
- Michael DiGiovanni, Mike Downs and Christian Nielsen of The Atomic Geeks
Special thanks to everyone who participated and everyone who has joined us in the Fourth Chair over the years. Also, thanks to all of our listeners. We hope you enjoy this monumental episode. We'll be back with more next week.
So we had plans for a really great show where guest Aaron Nix would return after a long absence. The topic we had planned was great and would have been the greatest show ever. But computer problems and the like kept Aaron from joining us. Instead, we present you with this conversation that occurred between the Nerd Lunchers while waiting to start the show.
The Nerds are again joined by May and Kay to drilldown on the second Star Wars prequel movie, Attack of the Clones. We discuss our first time watching the movie, we scrounge deep down into our souls to discuss the things we liked about the movie and then we discuss things we had issues with, which may not be some of the things you're expecting.
Come check it out, along with our insightful commentary you'll hear lots of audio issues, several of us have problems remembering words and CT confesses his hatred for 50s diners. All in this week's action packed episode!
Pax and CT welcome back Evan for a fun, creative exercise in modernizing some of the wacky characters from the Golden Age of comics. Amazing-Man, the Vagabond, and Fantomah all receive updates to transform them into characters for 2015 and beyond. Nerd To-Dos feature Star Wars reading, the Flash on Blu-ray and the upcoming Nerd Lunch rebrand.
The Nerd Lunch Crew are visited by the Cult Film Club crew to talk about the newest installment in the Mad Max franchise, Fury Road. We gush love all over the movie for an hour and a half. Come follow us and ride eternal, and enter Valhalla, all shiny and chrome. WITNESS ME!!!
Michael DiGiovanni from The Atomic Geeks and Classic Film Jerks returns for a second look at Film and TV tropes. We did this before on episode 142 and there are so many, we have to do it again. How tropey. Sewers, murder-solvers, funerals, and insane people are among the topics discussed. Nerd To-Dos feature Supernatural, Person of Interest and an update on Lorenzo Lamas.
This episode also marks the fourth anniversary since the debut of the Nerd Lunch Podcast.
The Nerds are once again joined by Michael May and Kay to discuss the Star Wars prequels, starting with Episode I: The Phantom Menace. We talk about the first trailer in Nov 1998, the build up to the movie in May 1999, we talk about Celebration I in Denver and then we start digging into what we liked and didn't like. Lots of talk about Jake Lloyd, George Lucas' writing and of course, Jar Jar Binks.
Kirk Howle and William Bruce West guest on this episode where we jump out of "internet group think" and make a case for why some characters, actors and movies get a bad rap. Hear us defend the Spice Girls, John Doggett, the Keanu Reeves Constantine movie, and Star Trek: Enterprise...just to name a few.
Jeff from Your Weird guests in the Fourth Chair and we return to an old topic of ours, the Listbuster. This time we target Screen Rant's 10 Most Influential TV Shows of All Time and decide if we feel the list is good or needs busting (hint: it mostly needs some busting). Then we come up with some alternatives of our own to add to the list. Nerd To-Dos feature some talk about the Lay's Do Us a Flavor 2015 set and serves as a prequel to an Extra Helping later this week.
Shows discussed: The Wire, The Simpsons, Sopranos, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Saturday Night Live, I Love Lucy, The X-Files, Seinfeld, LOST, and Law & Order.
The nerds return to the Movie Menus franchise topic this week with Eric Huang from Junk Food Guy and The Nosh Show. Inspired by Denny's latest go around with the Fantastic Four menu, each podcaster must come up with a themed menu using a movie and a restaurant chosen by other members of the panel. Our Nerd To Dos this week feature Ant Man, Agents of Shield, Rogue Nation, and supporting Fourth Chair Army member Rondal Scott's Strange Kids Club Kickstarter.
This week the Nerds welcome back Jay from Sexy Armpit. They are returning to franchise topic Real Life Scenarios in which we have to pick a real life person to exist in a pop culture scenario from movies or TV. In Nerd To Dos we talk about Halloween, THX-1138, Ernest Cline's new book and we get another LorenzoWatch 2014 update.
In this episode, CT drives around Texas and has actual nerd lunches with members of the Texas Fourth Chair Army. First up, Jasmin from 1 Fine Cookie and we did a round of Andrew Bloom-inspired "would you rather?" questions. After that, Rondal from Strange Kids Club was up and he talked about the relaunch of his Kickstarter and we talked through some "Muppet scenarios." Last, but not least, lunch with Miss M from Diary of Dorkette and the Eclectic Mayhem Podcast contained talk of some "action figure scenarios." Don't worry, at no point in the podcast did CT mess with Texas.
CT and Pax continued some nerdy discussions with Christian and Evan after this week's show. Here's 10 minutes of that discussion.
You're welcome, Internet.
CT and Pax welcome Christian Nielsen from The Atomic Geeks and Evan from Bizarro Jimmy Olsen's Mid-Life Crisis Blog to celebrate 75 years of The Flash. Jay Garrick, Barry Allen and Wally West are all discussed. Earliest memories, favorite runs and craziest villains are among the topics when talking about comics. Then the attention turns to the TV shows, both the 1990 version and the 2014. PLUS: We play a game of "The Flash: Dead or Alive?!"
Jeeg and Pax welcome returning guest Rob Graham and the trio discuss famous acting duos who showed up together in more than one project. Hepburn and Tracy, Wilder and Pryor, Pegg and Frost! Find out who the Nerds like, who they don't like and who they want to see more of. Nerd To-Dos feature vacation plans, Star Wars and Pink Panther 2.
Michael May and Kay return to discuss the last of the original Star Wars movies, Return of the Jedi. We talk about the first time we saw the movie, our favorite scenes, our least favorite scenes, the Special Edition changes and more.
Drawing inspiration from all those movies, TV shows and comics that are "X meets Y," we create new pitches based on random properties meeting other random properties. Robert from To the Escape Hatch joins us and we create movie and TV show ideas based on Smurfs, Zapped, Pac-Man, WKRP, Harry and the Hendersons and more. Nerd To-Dos feature a new Lorenzo update and remembering James Horner.
Do you ever go to Wikipedia looking for information on one thing but find yourself 20 minutes later having visited 20 other pages? Well, that's what we do on this episode of Nerd Lunch. Pax and CT are joined by Tim Lybarger from TimLybarger.com and Jeff Somogyi of sommerjam.com and the Your Weird Podcast and we play a game of "Down the Rabbit Hole." Can we get from the page for Karate Cop to the page for Tom Sawer (song) within the show? (Pre-apologies to all die-hard Rush fans...) There's only one way to find out...listen now!
CT invites Kay to join him in this celebration of the 11th Doctor's premiere appearance. Together they try fish fingers and custard. CT even made his own custard using this recipe.
Ryan from Grub Grade and The Nosh Show joins the nerds this week as they try to find alternative work for some junk food and fast food mascots. Who should shill for Cheetos if Chester Cheetah was laid off? Who should ascend to the throne of King Vitaman? What other product could an unemployed Hamburglar represent? All these questions and more are answered in this week’s show. Our Nerd To Dos include Fury Road, The Americans, Akira, and Trader Joes Peruvian Inca Corn.
For this extra special Extra Helping Pax is joined by Shawn Robare to discuss the 1990 cartoon sequel, The New Adventures of He-Man which followed up and rebooted the classic mid 80s cartoon. We talk about our first exposure to the property, we discuss a few of the episodes and how the show differs from the earlier incarnation and we even discuss the toys.
Michael May and Geek Kay drop back by Nerd Lunch Studios for our second Star Wars drilldown, this time on 1980's Empire Strikes Back. We talk about when we watched it first, some of our favorite characters and scenes, and who did Yoda mean was their "other hope"?
The Nerd Lunch crew welcomes two guests this week, Michael DiGiovanni from The Atomic Geeks and Classic Film Jerks and Todd from JunkFed.com. Along with CT and Pax, the foursome take inspiration from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and create their own "cinematic universes" based on existing movie franchises. Hear about the Mad Max, Muppets, Mike Mignola and (Universal) Monster cinematic universes. And find out why Guillermo del Toro and Uncle Deadly are going to be busy.
Diamonds are not forever in this episode of the Nerd Lunch Podcast. We welcome James from thejamesbondsocialmediaproject.com to help us break out the ol' Pop Culture Eraser again. After meeting him and talking way more about Pod, James Pod than I intended, we erase people and things such as Sean Connery's Diamonds Are Forever, Star Trek: Enterprise, Crisis on Infinite Earths, the return of Barry Allen, David Carradine, Joel Schumacher, Chris Hardwick and Ryan Seaquest...I mean Ryan Seacrest. Nerd To-Dos feature Mad Max: Fury Road and other stuff not as important as Mad Max: Fury Road.
CT and Jeeg welcome Doug Frye of Schlock Treatment back to the show to discuss characters they hate and love to hate. The nerds talk all manner of despicable and lovable villains from Alex De Large to David Lo Pan to Dolores Umbridge to Cobra Commander. Also revealed are some classic characters we were supposed to love, but turned out to be hateable. Listen to find out which of the crew hates Wesley Crusher, Xander Harris, or Orko. This week's Nerd To Dos include David Letterman's very last show, The Winter Soldier, and Fury Road.
This week we are joined by Geek Kay and Michael May to talk all about the first Star Wars movie. We discuss the first time we watched it, our favorite characters and all of our favorite scenes. We even discuss things we don't like and all the changes made for the Special Editions and later for the Blu-Ray.
Together in person at C2E2 2015, The Atomic Geeks and Nerd Lunch decide who would win in certain battles.
Nerd Lunch invaded the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo (C2E2) and while there, they met up with several Fourth Chair guests who have been on the show. Questions were asked, projects were promoted, laughs were had. Thanks to the following guests on this show:
- Michael May
- Geek Kay
- Todd from JunkFed
- Elliott Serrano
- Andrew Bloom
- Sean Kelly
- Jen Usellis Mackay
- Christopher Rathjen
- Stacey Rader
- Christian Nielsen
- Michael DiGiovanni
Also, read more about Dan Cooney's Tommy Gun Dolls Kickstarter project.
Shawn from Brandedinthe80s.com and Rielly from RiellyGeek.com return to the show and join us in our somewhat annual Summer #NerdToDos discussion. We talk about the summer movies, TV, trips and eating we're looking forward to.
In celebration of the forthcoming Strange Kids Club Magazine #5, Rondal Scott takes up the Fourth Chair this week. After talking about the new hero of the magazine issue, BRONARR: SPACE BARBARIAN, Rondal takes the nerds deeper into the world of scifi-fantasy by leading a retrospective on 1983's Krull. The panel kicks around what works, what doesn't, and what the heck is up with the glaive. It's a podcast episode light-years beyond your imagination! Nerd To-Dos include Orphan Black, Furious Seven, SilverHawks, Daredevil, and a lot of C2E2 talk.
CT and Pax are again joined by Robert Zerbe from To the Escape Hatch to continue our discussion from Episode 155 about X-Men movies. This time we are talking about the two newest movies, First Class and Days of Future Past. We talk about the cast, we talk about the settings, we talk about what we liked and didn't like. We even discuss a little bit about the upcoming Apocalypse movie. Lots of good discussion this week.
CT takes the reigns of the show and rides without Pax and Jeeg this week. A three way dance still happens as Kay returns to the show for the long awaited Doctor Who discussion. Also joining them is Todd from JunkFed.com. The trio ride the TARDIS for an extra long episode discussing the past ten years of the show. The highs, the lows, the weird and the really weird. This is the second time we've done a drill down on Doctor Who. Don't feel like you HAVE to listen to the first one though. This is a complete regeneration of the topic.
In this segment that was too hot for Episode 172, the nerds discuss celebrity offspring who eclipsed their parents. Only not all of the podcasters are sure which celebrities are real.
It’s a three way dance this week as CT, Pax, and Jeeg discuss follow-ups which exceeded the original. Movie sequels and reboots, TV spinoffs, soft drinks, and fast food items are all on the docket. This week’s Nerd To-Dos feature Age of Ultron packaging collections, a follow-up on Chupacabra vs the Alamo, prep work for C2E2, and rewatching the 90s Flash TV series.
CT and Pax welcome back fan-favorite Fourth Chair guest William Bruce West back to the show. The trio discussion television series finales. What makes a great finale? What are some of the best? What are some of the worst? Plus, we complete our musical intro hat trick thanks to the amazing efforts of frequent Fourth Chair guest Geek Kay.
This week the nerds are joined by Jay from SexyArmpit and Tim from Neighborhood Archive to discuss their favorite fictional bands. Expect lots of talk about bands like The Pinheads, The Folksmen, The Guys Next Door and Sexy Lingerie. Plus lots more.
At the end, in our lightning round, listen to us try to guess what movie/TV show obscure fake band names come from.
Jen from Klingon Pop Warrior returns to the show as the crew talk about musicals! After a discussion on musicals in general, the podcasters turn several non-musical properties into musicals. Nothing is safe. There's Running Man: The Musical, Big Trouble in Little China: The Musical, Young Guns: The Musical and The Dukes of Hazzard Musical. Also listen to the biggest opening bit the Nerds have ever pulled off.
Kay from Hyperspace Theories and Fangirlblog returns to the show and CT leads a discussion about The Rockeeteer. What made the story great? Was there chemistry between Cliff and Jenny? Should villains abandon pottery? And how many times in movies do they explain the demise of the "land" in "Hollywoodland"? Nerd To-Dos feature Doctor Who, more podcasts, and X-Men.
In a creative exercise that didn't make it into Episode 167, the nerds put together an infomercial circa 1998 for a product that deserved one. The segment got a little weird, but Charlie's Angels fans are sure to love it.
Tim Lybarger joins the nerds for an in-depth discussion of TV's truest art form, infomercials. The guys reminisce about all time favorites from Ginsu knives to the Ronco rotisserie, name some favorite pitchmen, and highlight the most ridiculous infomercial products. This week's Nerd To Dos include Brisco Country Jr., Seventh Son, True Detective, and a special Lorenzo Watch 2015 live reading.
This week the nerds are joined by Nick from Dude Foods and Jess from Burger Mary to create movie menus. Each person is assigned a movie and a restaurant from someone else and they must create a custom themed menu with only the items from the current menu of their restaurant.
In an "Extra Helping" of the Nerd Lunch Podcast, CT talks to writer/artist Gregg Schigiel about his new comic Pix (which was reviewed just yesterday), his podcasts, and their days when they were at Marvel together. Plus, hear CT actually acknowledge the existence of the Pod, James Pod Podcast and find out whether or not the food was poisoned.
You can learn more about Gregg at Hatter Entertainment. Learn about Pix by visiting PixComic.com. Contact your local comic store and ask them to order item code DEC141546. Or, order it from Amazon.
Jon Cross from the After Movie Diner returns and together the podcasters come up with a pitch for the next SyFy monster movie. They determine the monster or monsters, the story, the cast and a whole slew of other details. SyFy Channel, are you listening? "Monstergeddon, WI" is bound to make you MILLIONS! Also: This episode features the invention of the "Steampunk Light Orchestra." Make sure your podcast app settings allow for the awesome you'll hear on this episode.
Banded together from remote corners of the blogosphere are four of the most sinister bloggers of all time—The Fourth Chair Army of Doom! Dedicated to a single objective, the conquest of the Nerd Lunch Podcast. Branded in the 80s' Shawn Robare, along with Jay from The Sexy Armpit, Jaime from Shezcrafti and Rondal from Strange Kids Club, lead a successful coup to takeover the Nerd Lunch Podcast. And of course, they make their topic all about cartoon villains. Will the Nerd Lunchers ever get their show back, or has evil really triumphed? There's only one way to find out—listen now!
Matt Ringler from Schlock Treatment returns and the Nerds return to the scenario first executed in episode 129. CT takes on the persona of idiot Ned N. Lurch who is being fooled into thinking he's being given a chance to brainstorm a TV show project that will be pitched to Hollywood. Unfortunately for Ned, his powerful step-dad has partnered him with consultants tasked with pitching horrible ideas to him in an effort to creat the "WORST. TV SHOW. EVER."
Dubba from On Second Scoop and Nosh Show fame returns to the Fourth Chair this week as the nerds don the Nerdstradamus turban to make their annual predictions. Listen and be amazed at the range of psychic insights about TV, fast food/junk food, and celebrity news for the year to come. Plus the guys play a game of Overs and Unders about Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Nerd To Dos include the Houdini mini-series, the podcast We're Alive, the podcast Dragonfly Ripple, and roller derby.
CT leads the podcasters into a three-way dance discussion where they come up with the casts of two new "Expendables" movies. First, they figure out the cast to "The Expendables of Teacher Movies" and follow that up with "The Expendables of Sports Movies." Programming note: The podcasters are taking a two week break from regular episodes. Look for potential extra helpings and the return of the regular show in mid-January.
Digio from The Atomic Geeks drops by for his seasonal visit to spread some holiday podcasting cheer. This week the nerds put together some Christmas themed triple features of movies and TV specials. Not surprisingly the discussion features a lot of Rudolph, The Year Without a Santa Claus, and other Rankin/Bass specials, but somehow the Flintstones, Star Trek: Generations, Drew Barrymore, and Pierce Brosnan come up as well. This week's Nerd To Dos feature Orphan Black, The 100, The Battle of the Five Armies, and some basketball memoirs (?).
The nerds are joined this week by Shawn Robare and Evan Hanson to discuss our memories growing up before the Internet and going to comic book shops. We talk about a few of our favorite comic book shops and we talk about some of the more choice employees of these comic shops back in the day. It's a lively discussion that I think you're going to enjoy.
The Nerd Lunch crew welcome back returning guest Kay from Fangirlblog.com and the Hyperspace Theories Podcast. After actually discussing a little "Geek News" (™The Atomic Geeks), the podcasters talk about two classic Muppet Christmas productions, Muppet Family Christmas and A Muppet Christmas Carol. In the discussion are thoughts on how they work as annual viewing traditions, their overall quality and their place in history as one of the last Jim Henson Muppet projects and one of the first without him. You could call "Nerd To-Dos" "Nerd To-Whos" this week as there are two Doctor Who items. Also Star Wars book reading and additional Christmas special watching makes the lists.
The nerds are joined this time around by Michael May for a drill down on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. As the crown jewel of the Trek movies, you might expect this episode to be a full-on love fest. And you'd be mostly right, but listen anyway to find out exactly why Wrath of Khan is so great. Our Nerd To Dos feature some Muppets, analyzing A Christmas Carol, hardcore legend Mick Foley, and lots of podcast editing.
Tim Lybarger and Jaime Hood join Pax and Jeeg for an episode that is truly party fun for all ages. Yes, it’s our long anticipated discussion of the classic 8-bit Nintendo. We share memories of first getting our hands on the NES, our favorite and worst games, and the weird and wonderful world of NES accessories. Our Nerd To Dos include more of The Shining, the Hardy Boys novels, a vintage vinyl collection, and one blockbuster #LorenzoWatch2014 update.
CT and Pax are joined by frequent guest Robert Zerbe to discuss the first three X-Men movies from 2000, 2003 and 2006. We discuss our history with the movies, what characters we liked and which ones we didn't. We discuss our favorite scenes, least favorite scenes, what worked and what didn't. And we start it all off by ranking the movies from favorite to least favorite.
Inspired by fourth chair carryover question from Rob Graham, we invite Rob back on the show to talk about movie scores. After getting some awkwardness out of the way, the podcasters talk about their favorite action, horror, drama, comedy, animation and sci-fi movie scores and composers. Nerd To-Dos feature Horns, Interstellar and The Shining. Plus, the power of the Lorenzo Watch 2014 is revealed!
Despite having delved into Star Wars topics during the previous three years on the show, the Nerd Lunch crew have never really "set the table" on Star Wars as a whole. CT and Pax welcome back returning guest Michael May and new guest Kay (from FANgirl Blog and Hyperspace Theories) to do just that. We talk about our favorite and least favorites of the movies, characters, ships, aliens and more. Nerd To-Dos this week features Snowpiercer, Supernatural, Doctor Who and Halloween wrap up.
Jay from The Sexy Armpit joins Jeeg and Pax for second Halloween treat to bask in the awesomeness that is KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park. Without question it’s the best movie with KISS and sparkly cloaks and magical talismans and robotic doubles and lifeguard chairs and Michael Bell voiceover work. Only the 70s could produce something this special and these nerds love it.
Jeeg and Pax are joined by regular Jay from Sexy Armpit and very special guest Matt from Dinosaur Dracula in his very first podcast appearance. The Halloween nerds spend some time discussing some of our favorite Halloween retail items like Mt Dew Pitch Black and Entenmann's Halloween donuts. Then we all begin creating our own Halloween versions of existing products. Lots to discuss and have fun with in this 2014 Nerd Lunch Halloween Spectacular.
CT and Pax sit back and discuss the first two seasons of CW's Arrow show. We talk about our favorite and not so favorite characters. We discuss the actors portraying the characters and how the CW has translated Green Arrow to the screen. We even discuss the first episode of season three as well as the spinoff show The Flash.
Lots to discuss in Nerd Lunch's primer for Arrow.
CT and Pax are joined by the co-hosts of Classic Film Jerks, Digio and Bloom, to help kick off their new podcast experiment, The Recast. In The Recast Digio and Bloom are joined by a guest to recast famous and not so famous movies with currently working actors. This week they join us to recast one of all of our favorites, the Steven Spielberg Robert Zemekis joint, Back to the Future. Expect our picks to be all over the map, most especially for Doc Brown. It's a lot of fun and an interesting discussion.
Take a trip back in time to the first podcast the Nerd Lunch trio recorded together. Unreleased until now, hear our test show where we discussed unaired pilots. On the discussion: Heat Vision & Jack, Lookwell, Justice League and Global Frequency. My oh my...how young we were...
CT, Jeeg and Pax return to the beginning in their 150th episode. Taking the topic they used in the unaired pilot they recorded when they first started forming what this podcast would be, the trio talk about some unaired pilots they tracked down. The 1960s Batgirl, Superpup, Mercy Reef/Aquaman and the David E. Kelley Wonder Woman are all discussed. Nerd To-Dos feature Arrow, Doctor Who arguments, and more on what Lorenzo Lamas is up to.
Programming note: Next week, we will release our unaired pilot as a special "extra helping" episode. We'll then take another week off and be back with episode 151 in two weeks.
Hurtled 10 months into the future, our long lost 110th episode has finally been retrieved out of the time stream. CT and Pax welcome back to the show Tim Lybarger in this special episode. The three members of the podcast are thrown back to three different points in their history where they must survive ten months with nothing but the clothes on their back. How do they survive? What friends do they make in the past? What do they change? All these questions are answered and more! Plus, Nerd To-Dos feature Doctor Who, Thor and Christmas.
Jeremy from GeekChunks takes up position in the Fourth Chair this week as we put together a Battle of the Network Stars for a new generation. New "networks", people approximating "stars", and more extreme events put the Nerd Lunch stamp on this old favorite. Our Nerd To Dos feature the newest Jumper book, The Strain, The Winter Soldier Blu-ray, and a #LorenzoWatch2014 update.
This week on the show, we are joined by Jess from BurgerMary.com and she joins the crew of the "U.S.S. Sexy Armpit" first talked about on episode 9 and again on episode 96 of our show. After finding out about our new Australian friend and this awesome thing she's doing called a Carnivore's Ball, we take another stab at fixing our replicators, but this time, can only add five burger toppings. Which will we choose? The answers may surprise you! Nerd To-Dos feature more Image Comics reading, Supernatural, and yet another update about Lorenzo Llamas.
This week CT, Jeeg and Pax are joined by Steve Dupuy, a longtime friend of Pax. In this episode we hear CT sing, lots of love for unknown comic artist Craig Brasfield, some sweet love music and we listen as the fellas try to come up with TV shows, movies and comics based off a single pop culture character like Johnny Cage from Mortal Kombat, Vici from Small Wonder and Bubo from Clash of the Titans. Nerd to Dos include Auburn football, more Clash of the Titans and another Lorenzo Watch 2014 update.
In this episode of Nerd Lunch, the Lunchers welcome first time guest Nick from On Second Scoop. It's uncertain if Dubba let Nick out of his ice cream cage or if Nick snuck out, either way, it's a good time as the crew comes up with fictional foods based on pop culture properties. TMNT, Lizzie McGuire, Kool-Aid, Twizzlers, and more are all discussed. Nerd To-Dos feature Image Comics, Muppets Most Wanted and another installment of "Lorenzo Watch 2014."
CT and Pax are joined by Shawn Robare to discuss the new Marvel movie, Guardians of the Galaxy. We discuss our history with the property, what we thought of the movie and if there was anything we didn't like about the movie. And we talk about Howard the Duck.
Pax and Jeeg are joined by Carlin from the Pod James Pod Podcast and Jay from Sexy Armpit for a nerdy discussion I like to call Poor Man's Podcast. We all discuss the phrase 'X is a poor man's Y' where we fill in X and Y with our own ideas. We also take turns assigning another member of the podcast part of the poor man's equation. It's a lot of fun plus you have to listen to Jay's special Nerd Lunch intro.
This week we're joined by the cohost of the Classic Film Jerks podcast, former Atomic Geek and multiple time Fourth Chair guest, Andrew Bloom. On the docket is an exploration of the special kind of crazy that is best found on the classified site Craigslist. We track down some interesting nerdy collections and posts that are just plain bizarre. Obscure comic books? Collections of VHS tapes? The Fun TV? Junk food promotion items? We've got it all covered. Our Nerd To Dos feature the 2014 Lays Do Us a Flavor contest, Snowpiercer, Guardians of the Galaxy, and another #LorenzoWatch2014 update.
This week on the podcast, CT and Jeeg welcome back to the show, Howie Decker from UnderScoopFire.com. After checking in with Howie about how he's been, the trio discuss some of their favorite "man crushes." They look at current men, older men, dead men and cartoon men. You'll find out more than you'd ever care to know about the Nerd Lunch Podcast team this week. Nerd To-Dos includes talk about Nicholas Meyer, Do Us a Flavor and Game of Thrones.
CT took the opportunity to reconnect with an old colleague of his from the days he interned at Marvel, Dan Cooney. Dan is the writer and illustrator of Valentine, wrote Atomic Yeti and he teaches art at the Academy of Art University. In this episode, hear about his thoughts on how SDCC has changed, his experiences at this year's SDCC, his projects and what he's got coming up in the future.
This week on the show, we are joined by Michael DiGiovanni of The Atomic Geeks and we talk about some of our favorite and most annoying tropes from movies and TV. We cover a bunch including wedding tropes, hospital security, car chases through fruit cart districts and getting back to see the family in the Old West. Nerd To-Dos feature the Fast and Furious, Dollhouse and more. Plus, we kill off a segment and replace it with an exciting new one.
As mentioned on the podcast and social media, CT recently returned from a family vacation across country. Enjoy this audio travelogue about one of the exciting adventures from that trip.
This week the fourth chair is taken once again by Matt Ringler from Schlock Treatment. Together we delve into the whereabouts of some of our favorite obscure celebrities. Ever wonder what happened to your friends from Renegade, The Last Dragon, Hercules The Legendary Journeys, or Perfect Strangers? No? Never? Well, the four of us did and with some perseverance/Internet creeping we were able to find out. This week's Nerd To Dos feature Disney marathons, YA fiction, Chicago style hot dog hossin', and documenting the Superman museum.
CT is absent this week so Jeeg and Pax invite Shawn Robare and The Retroist over to talk about video arcades. We talk about our earliest memories of arcades, we talk about some of our favorite games, we talk about games we actually beat and we even have a good discussion about Showbiz Pizza. Nerd to Dos include D&D, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and, of course, Jeeg's Real Life Problems.
This week on the show we take on the task of burying time capsules so we welcome back a man from another time, Brian from Plaid Stallions. After we give our reasons for doing a time capsule, we each select a printed matter item, moving picture item, 3-D object, food item and an episode of our podcast to stick in the time capsule. Future generations have a lot to look forward to thanks to us. Nerd To-Dos feature vacations, books, Orphan Black and Starblazers.
This week we welcome Pax's buddy Dr. Mike back to the fourth chair for another Star Trek movie drilldown. Somehow our serious analysis of Star Trek: The Motion Picture devolves to include Billy Zane, Chris Pine's arm hair, giant sphincters, and talking like we're in a wormhole. Just the sort of high critique you can only get from Nerd Lunch and the rest of the Internet. Our Nerd To Dos feature a book about the BMX movie Rad, the Shannara fantasy novels by Terry Brooks, more of Jeeg's real life problems, and a Netflix cleanup project.
The Fourth Chair is crowded this week as returning guest Dubba from episode 96 brings with him three of his friends. The ENTIRE crew from The Nosh Show joins us and we do a Fast Food Draft. The rules were simple, we each had to pick a burger/beef entree, chicken entree, side item, drink (something you can suck through a straw) and a wild card item from the QSR top 20 list of fast food and quick service restaurants. There was drama and intrigue and by the end we were all very hungry.
You can also hear the entire crew of Nerd Lunch on episode 32 of The Nosh Show.
This week on the show, Nerd Lunch is down a Pax, but the Fourth Chair is occupied with Classick Materia from the Cold Slither Empire. In celebration of Jack Bauer's comeback as well as the comeback of the Cold Slither Podcast, CT, Jeeg and Classick have a discussion on some of the best and worst comebacks. And they craft a few of their own.
Be sure to check out CT on a recent episode of the Cold Slither-produced Anutha Twenny Fo podcast.
The podcast welcomes its second guest from The Improvised Star Trek, Sean Kelley. Inspired by Sean's blog, the podcasters take you through a journey of current nerd social issues and pontificate on ways to be a better nerd. Addressed in the discussions are treating geek girls with respect, internet hate, and nerd pride. Nerd To-Dos feature lots of television watching including Veronica Mars, 24, Orphan Black and Arrow.
This year Batman turns 75 years old. So, like we did for episode 90 in which we talked about Superman on his 75th birthday, we spend this episode talking all about Batman. And joining us for this celebration is Jay from Sexy Armpit and Michael May from Michael May's Adventureblog and the comic Kill All Monsters! We discuss Batman across all media, starting with comics and moving to movies and then TV. We cover so much ground that this episode clocks in over 2 hours! So enjoy all the awesome Batman talk. So much content within that I have to say just download and dig in.
The ringleader of the Strange Kids Club, Rondal Scott, joins us once again in the 4th Chair this week. With Rondal on board we return to the topic in Episode 87 and create more Ultimate Triple Features. We solve plenty of cinematic quandaries while assembling trilogies around given themes, but perhaps no one greater than what does one pair with Howard the Duck. This week's Nerd To Dos feature sword and sorcery novels, the Beastmaster and Barbarella, 24, and Godzilla.
The nerds are joined this week by another TAG Network member, Evan, co-host of the Geek Fallout: The Comic Book Episodes podcasts. Evan is here to help us discuss the works and legacy of one Alan Moore. We talk about our favorite books. We talk about our least favorite books. We talk about Moore's attitude toward adaptations of his work and we even discuss Mr Moore's legacy in the history of comics. It's a good roundtable on one of the more recognizeable creators in comics.
Mistakes were made. A lot of mistakes. And a new one is being made right now by this being posted. Let's just leave it at that.
Come and knock on our door, we got streaks on the China and what would we do baby without us? The Nerd Lunch Podcast welcomes back William Bruce West and we have what we're calling the "First Favorite TV Show Theme Songs" discussion. The crew chats about some of their favorite cartoon, sitcom, action, and drama theme songs. With sample clips, this might be our most copyright infringiest show yet! Also, we do something we rarely do and talk current events by following up on recent late night talk show news and Star Wars news. Nerd To-Dos include a double dose of murder mystery games and a double dose of Fringe.
CT returns this week along with frequent Fourth Chair Soldier Robert Zerbe from To the Escape Hatch. In their first ever "Nerd Lunch Theater," the crew puts on a show as CT takes on the persona of Ned N. Lurch, the idiot stepson of a famous movie studio executive. Ned has managed to convince ol' stepdad to give him a shot at producing a big budget movie. In an effort to make sure this project fails, Ned is set up with three consultants who have been instructed to feed ideas into the project that will turn this into the "worst movie ever." Nerd To-Dos this week includes a whole bunch of stuff, but most importantly a rather lengthy sidebar about Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
CT is away once again this week, but luckily Pax and Jeeg are able to contact Jay from The Sexy Armpit on the Sludgephone. On the docket for this week is a discussion of some of the worst things the nerds have been subjected to by their significant others. The gang is all here: rom-coms, costume dramas, boy bands, quaint weekend destinations, and regionally popular card games. Our Nerd To-Dos include Captain America 2, the Bates Motel, and more Veronica Mars.
CT is out this week so Pax and Jeeg invite Jon Cross from the After Movie Diner to come discuss the Donnie Yen Ip Man movies. We talk about our favorite fights and favorite characters. We even discuss all the other Ip Man movies that have come out due to the popularity of the Donnie Yen movies. Nerd to Dos include the new Captain America movie, Arrow and Fringe.
Saved for posterity here on Nerd Lunch, Carlin Trammel and Mark Dury host a look back at five years of The Atomic Geeks. This show features some of the greatest clips from one of the best podcasts of all time.
In the early part of March 2014, Atlanta was shaken to its core when the Nerd Lunch Podcast crew all met together in person for the first time. Also joined by Shawn Robare (Branded in the 80s) and Jaime Hood (Shezcrafti) of the Cult Film Club Podcast, the fearsome five recorded a podcast. Hear a report about the escapades of the crew during the visit in Atlanta and then follow that up by listening to them talk about what they are looking forward to seeing, smelling and doing this summer!
Michael DiGiovanni wraps up our Atomic Weeks theme month by joining us for a drill down on breakfast cereals. As part of our balanced breakfast, we catch up with DiGio a bit and get details on the upcoming 250th episode of The Atomic Geeks podcast. Then we cover our all time favorite cereals, highlight some of weirdest and worst, discuss the best and worst cereal mascots, and then pitch a pop-culture themed cereal for a property that never had one. Along the way we make copious use of the awesome resource that is Mr. Breakfast. Our Nerd To-Dos feature The Wire, a double helping of Fringe, the Clone Wars cartoon, and the New Adventures of He-Man.
"The Atomic Weeks" continues with guest Atomic Geeks podcaster Christian Nielsen! After the wackiest opening we've ever done for the show, we get into a discussion about our favorite late night talk shows. We cover all the greats including Johnny Carson, David Letterman and Conan O'Brien. We also cover some of the not-so greats like Pat Sajak, Chevy Chase and Jay Leno. And, find out which one of us had a letter read on Late Night with David Letterman and which two of us attended tapings of Late Night with Conan O'Brien!
Special thanks to Rob Graham for his invaluable help on this episode!
Week 2 of Nerd Lunch's Atomic Weeks celebration. This week we are joined by Mike Downs to discuss movie toys. More specifically we are creating our own movie toy lines for some of our favorite movies that never got toys. Expect to see things like The Rocketeer, The Cosby Show franchise and From Dusk till Dawn.
It's another set of theme shows for Nerd Lunch as we begin "The Atomic Weeks!" We celebrate along with The Atomic Geeks as they surpass their five-year mark by having each of them as a guest on our show. First up, former Geek, Andrew Bloom (now of Classic Film Jerks) joins us to discuss the Nerd Lunch take on Lent. We are each tasked to come up with something we'd give up from the "nerd" and "lunch" arenas. Besides tomatoes, what could we possibly live without for 40 days?! Nerd To-Dos feature books, Burn Notice and talk of a Nerd Lunch trip.
What better way to pass time during an evening in Atlanta, Georgia than watching a Dukes of Hazzard Double Feature? CT and Jeeg did just that on their recent trip to Georgia and present to you this podcast/warning. First up, discussion about the 2005 Dukes of Hazzard movie starring Johnny Knoxville, Sean William Scott, Jessica Simpson, Burt Reynolds, and Willie Nelson. Then, a discussion about the direct-to-DVD pseudo-prequel starring a bunch of nobodies and Willie Nelson.
The Dukes of Hazzard/The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning
In this week's Nerd Lunch, we return to one of our favorite franchise topics... FAN FIC REVIEWS! Thrice before we've done this topic (18, 62, 95) and each time we've had a blast. For our fourth foray into fanfic (suddenly this has turned into narration from the Batman TV show…sheesh), we do something a bit special so be sure to listen to find out our approach this time. Our guests were the returning Claymation Werewolf and Miss M from the Diary of a Dorkette blog. Nerd To-Dos included Mad Max, being a nerd, buying She-Ra action figures and Burn Notice.
If you'd like to read the stories we reviewed, here are links:
- The Special Cheese (Chef!/Rastamouse crossover) by Haywir3d
- Adora and the Golden Book (She-Ra) by "sadcakes"
- World Without Tomorrow (Star Trek: The Next Generation) by Rad Ghostal
- Young Guns Forever (Young Guns) by "snowmann"
This week on the show, we have two returning guests, Sue London and Doug Frye and we return to a topic we delved into before back on episode 56 where we turned movies into television shows. Each Nerd chose a movie and gave it a TV show spin along with a new cast and ideas for future story lines. Wrestling! Aliens! Shadow creatures! Wacky adventures! They're all a part of this exciting episode of Nerd Lunch.
This episode features talk about Groundhog Day so we have retroactively dedicated it to Harold Ramis. Also, please note that some of the audio in this is not quite up to our desired quality. Apologies in advance for that. See Pax for a refund if you're unhappy.
This week we are joined by Jaime Hood from the Cult Film Club podcast to talk all about board games. We talk about some of our favorites, we talk about our least favorites. We talk about games we wish we had and we have a lengthy discussion about board games based on movies and TV shows. Nerd to Dos involve Downton Abbey, nerd lairs and Grandmasters.
Jeeg, Pax, and CT welcome Tim Lybarger back to the 4th Chair for a long anticipated discussion about TV game shows. We run through some of our all time favorites, hypothesize a bit about the state and future of game shows, and then Jeeg subjects the nerds (and you the listener) to a round of Nerd Jeopardy. This week's Nerd To-Dos include a TV trifecta of The Wire, Silver Spoons, and Downton Abbey.
This week on the show, the regular podcasting crew is joined by one of the founding fathers of Nerd Lunch...PLee! After catching up with PLee about some music projects he has in the hopper, the Nerds discuss what they would be like in various alternate realities? Who is Jeeg in Star Trek's Mirror Universe? How is Pax's life affected in the alternate, Biff-dominated timeline in Back to the Future part II? And what does the Earth-2 CT do for a living? All this and a ton more!
The Nerd Lunch Podcast welcomes geek master, Elliott Serrano to the Fourth Chair. Elliott is a writer at the Geek To Me blog at RedEye Chicago and has also written Army of Darkness comics from Dynamite Comics. After getting acquainted with Mr. Serrano, the podcasters delve into the wide topic of super heroes on television. From the George Reeves Superman, to the Adam West Batman, to Lois & Clark to Smallville and even Big Foot and Wild Boy (?!), the past was well-covered. But fret not, the crew also talked about the current state of super heroes on television (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Arrow) and what is on the horizon (Gotham, Constantine, and the Marvel Netflix deal). Listen now!
Pax hosts this week and the nerds are joined by returning guest Jason Collier for a roundtable discussion on Disney's Star Wars Episode VII. We talk about the first time we heard that Disney bought Lucasfilm and that they were going to make all new Star Wars movies. We talk about what we know about the new movies, we talk about what we think we know. We also talk about what we'd like to see and what we don't want to see. We examine the news and rumors of the new Star Wars movies in great detail and we even talk about the rumored solo movies and what Disney plans to do with the the voluminous Expanded Universe.
After we revisit last year's amazing predictions and discover who was the true Nerdstradamus of 2013, the crew welcomes Rob Graham to the 4th Chair for another round of prognostication. What does the coming year hold for TV, movies, fast food, and celebrities? Only those who gaze into our crystal balls will know. This week's Nerd To-Dos include catching up on Arrow, introducing children to Bond and Star Trek, an acclaimed book about pro-wrestling, and a novel about Krampus, of all things.
For a special holiday treat, the nerds get together to discuss the UK's hottest import, Downton Abbey, ahead of its season 4 premiere in the US. Yes, 50 minutes of middle aged nerds talking about a soap opera. Join us to be swept away by the drama, romance, and our inability to keep all the plotlines straight. Happy Holidays, everybody.
The Nerd Lunch Podcasting crew are once again joined by Jasmin Fine of 1finecookie.com. Together, the foursome delves into crafting more movie-themed menus for national restaurant chains much like Denny's has done for The Hobbit. As before, movie assigments and restaurants were assigned at random so the kitchens start to get messy and pants start coming off. Nerd To-Dos include checking out Beyond the Rails, a book written by friend of Nerd Lunch, Jack Tyler.
It's the holidays so the Nerd Lunch crew decide to spend this episode with members of the family...The Atomic Geeks Podcasting Network family. CT, Jeeg and Pax team up with DiGio, Christian and Downs from The Atomic Geeks for this special Christmas episode. In it, they give each other the Secret Santa gift of a Gunpoint Review. Each podcast team must watch and review a Christmas movie assigned to them. The Atomic Geeks report on 1960's (or is it 1959's) Mexican-produced Santa Claus while the Nerd Lunchers report on 1964's cult classic Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Be sure to check out the special closing song on this episode, "12 Days of Geekmas" by Andrew Bloom.
The guys return to a topic they haven't done since Episode 4; Guilty Displeasures. And they do it in a three way dance. Things the fellas feel they should enjoy but don't include Mt Dew flavor extensions, zombies, comic books, Agents of SHIELD and peppermint. Lots to reveal and discuss.
CT and Pax, along with regular guest Jay from The Sexy Armpit, welcomes returning guest Jason Liebig of Collecting Candy. After checking in with Jason about how things at his blog have been progressing, the four embark on a discussion about their experiences at comic book, sci-fi and other genre conventions. Topics include earliest con memories, celebrity encounters, and the ever-changing convention experience. Nerd To-Dos include Christmas-prep, Batman comics, and the "Twinkie McRib."
The Nerd Lunch crew return to their arrogant franchise topic of putting a polarizing director on trial. But since Jeeg and Pax were called away, CT shown the signal in the air and the Legion of Substitute Nerd Lunchers answered to fill in. Aaron Nix of Movie Hodge Podge and the Pod, James Pod Podcast takes on the challenging role of defending M. Night Shyamalan. Aaron faces off against his mortal enemy, CT, who brings the case against the the much maligned director. Together, they both call on the expert witness of Michael May (of Kill All Monsters and the Michael May Adventure Blog) and argue their cases in front of Judge Andrew Bloom (Classic Film Jerks). It's the most legal dramatastic episode of the Nerd Lunch Podcast yet! Nerd To-Dos include Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, TCM, and G.I. Joe Retaliation.
This week we are joined by show regular Shawn Robare from Branded in the 80s to discuss the idea of movie prequels. We talk about our initial thoughts of prequels, we discuss what prequels work and what prequels don't. We even come up with a few ideas for prequels we'd like to see. Nerd To-Dos include Funko figures, Bond movies, Witches of Eastwick and M. Night Shamalayan.
Strange Kids Club's very own Rondal Scott returns to the 4th Chair to help us give the franchise treatment to a topic we first did back in Episode 78. Again we're choosing the real life people best suited or most likely to end up in fictional scenarios from movies, TV, and other media. Listen to find out which real life news reporter we think is actually the Last Son of Krypton, which real life pro-wrestler moonlights as a monster fighter, which real life astronaut married a genie, and more. In our Nerd To-Dos, we get a little Stephen King, some M. Night Shyamalan, a Cher movie, and a guest appearance to do some ice cream reviewing.
It's the final episode of Brucetober and we're joined by Bruce Campbell expert extraordinaire, Jon Cross from The After Movie Diner. For the end, we go back to the beginning and talk about the first big Bruce Campbell project...Evil Dead. When did we first see it? What makes it a classic? What would we change? How about those crazy sequels? And should Jon ever break down and watch the remake? Our Nerd To Dos includes a spirited discussion about Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the foreshadowing of a future podcast appearance the Nerd Lunch crew is going to be making. And be sure to listen carefully for the answer to whether or not Robert Zerbe's mom likes Bruce Campbell.
Programming note, check out episode 15 of The Nosh Show which features guests CT, Jeeg and Pax.
Bruceober continues and the Nerd Lunch crew look at the false memoirs of the man they're celebrating this month. CT, Jeeg, and Pax welcome Robert from To the Escape Hatch to talk about the second Bruce-penned book, Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way. In the book, Bruce rights about a fictionalized version of himself and wacky antics ensue. The crew break down the good and bad of the book and also talk about what could possibly follow this up. Nerd To-Dos include more about the Cool and Collected Magazine, Gosford Park, Jack in the Box, and finding out whether or not Robert's mother likes Bruce Campbell.
Brucetober continues! This week Pax hosts a look at the Bruce Campbell vehicle, Bubba Ho-Tep in which Bruce stars as the aging and still alive Elvis Presley who must defeat a resurrected Egyptian mummy who is feasting on the denizens of a Texas old folks home. We are joined for this episode by Kirk Howle of Schlock Treatment. Nerd To-Dos include the Buckaroo Banzai novelization, the Man of Steel novelization and the movies Gravity and the 36th Chamber of Shaolin.
This week's episode kicks off our first ever theme month, Brucetober, in which we'll be dedicating all of our episodes to nerd icon Bruce Campbell. This time around we welcome Mike Downs from The Atomic Geeks podcast back to the 4th chair and pitch some post-Burn Notice projects for Bruce. Somehow we end up putting Bruce in everything from a cartoon to time travel TV show to an Oscar contending drama about a dad dying of cancer. In our Nerd To-Dos, we get updates on Agents of SHEILD watching, hear about some pepakura projects, and get a sneak peek at the Cavalcade's AWESOME-tober-fest 2013.
CT recently had the opportunity to review Make Art Make Money: Lessons from Jim Henson on Fueling Your Creative Career by Elizabeth Hyde Stevens. As a creative type and a fan of Jim Henson's Muppets, the book spoke volumes to him and he had to take the chance to speak with Liz a bit more about this creation. This book is available on Kindle Serial and is highly recommended to anyone with creative passions, fans of Jim Henson, and especially anyone fitting both criteria. The book goes through ten lessons and gives great depth and insight into the mind of Henson and how he was able to live his life of pursuing art and make money at the same time. This discussion with Stevens for this extra helping goes into depth about the book, how she came to decide to write it, and how it can help you.
It's the triumphant return of the Nerd Lunch Podcast after their post-episode 100 hiatus. Jeeg, Pax and CT welcome their 50th guest to sit in the Fourth Chair on the show. Brian Heiler of PlaidStallions.com and the Pod Stallions Podcast joins them to discuss his origin story along with the myriad projects he's involved with. Inspired by his book Rack Toys: Cheap, Crazed Playthings, the crew invent their own ideas for rack toys they would love to see produced. Post-hiatus Nerd To-Dos feature Downton Abbey, Marvel Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Fringe, and The Wire.
Next week, the crew returns with their first theme month. Come back for Brucetober, shows all built around actor Bruce Campbell.
In this extra special helping of Nerd Lunch, Pax celebrates the 25th Anniversary of Run-DMC's fourth album, Tougher than Leather. For this episode Pax is joined by show regulars Tim Lybarger and Matt Ringler. We all discuss our history with rap and Run-DMC, we talk about our favorite albums and songs and we even discuss the forgotten Tougher than Leather movie.
Break out the Doritos and Mountain Dew, the Nerd Lunch Podcast had reached triple digits! It's episode 100 and to celebrate, CT, Jeeg and Pax welcome the two other members of the Nerd Lunch Family. Joining as guests are Nerd Lunch blog co-founder PLee and Nerd Lunch: The Web Series co-host Savannah Staverosky. However, the show honors many of our past guests by including a look back at several Fourth Chair Carryover Questions from the past year. Find out who never watched Saturday Morning cartoons, who doesn't like Seth Rogen, who (sort of) ran a 5K to save the Clock Tower, who watched the royal wedding and who likes Foofur a bit too much. Also...who is 'Saint Cosplay'? All that and more!
With this episode, we end "season 2" of the show and we'll be taking a slight break before returning with episode 101. Look for bonus content in the meantime and we'll be back with new, full episodes soon.
Special thanks to everyone listed below for awesome questions that we had fun revisiting on this episode:
Rondal Scott
Brian Adams
Christian Nielsen
Michael DiGiovanni
Jen Usellis Mackay
Thom Holbrook
Jon Cross
Robert Zerbe
Shawn Robare
Matt Ringler
Doug Frye
Kirk Howle
Des Taylor
Michael May
Tim Lybarger
Jasmin Fine
Andrew Bloom
The Retroist
Vic Sage
Aaron Nix
Kristin Rielly
William Bruce West
Steve from Food Junk
Matt Young
Claymation Werewolf
Howie Decker
Ryan Hewson
Jay from Sexy Armpit
Only one show left until episode 100, but we're bringing the fun this week by bringing back long-absent guest Jay from sexyarmpit.com. After apologizing to Jay for not having him on for so long, he forgives us by giving us the greatest Nerd Lunch rap you'll ever hear. It's worth turning the show off after that, but don't! We then move into a return to our "Expendables of Other Genres" topic once before covered on Episode 22 of our show. The podcasting crew assemble an ultimate nerdy/geeky/techie movie cast as well as the ultimate cartoon voice cast. It's our most copyright-infringing episode yet! Nerd To-Dos feature, among other things, a big discussion about Firehouse Subs.
Also, this episode contains news about what to expect for next week's 100th episode!
CT, Jeeg, and Pax get a dose of culture this week with a visit from Sue London, author of Trials of Artemis (The Haberdashers Book One). After getting the lowdon on what Sue has been doing and what she will be doing, the four of them discuss various couples in the nerd genres including power couples, mismatched couples, married couples, and love triangles. The romance discussion ends with an exercise in "create-a-romance" where The Matrix's Trinity sees a lot of action. Nerd To-Dos involve d20Monkey, a real Millennium Falcon, more Game of Thrones talk, and the consuming of a free Quarter Pounder from McDonald's.
This week CT, Jeeg and Pax are joined by show regular Shawn Robare to discuss the nerdarific book, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. We talk about our pre-knowledge of the book, what we thought of the characters and what we thought of all of the 80s pop culture references that are strewn throughout the text. We quite thoroughly discuss this book. Nerd to Dos involve bootleg Powell-Peralta skate tapes, William Shatner's Gonzo Ballet, and more Game of Thrones, Farscape and Burn Notice viewing.
This week's episode returns us to the starship from our ninth episode. Our food replicators are still broken, but on the plus side we've managed to find some aliens who can add the recipes for 5 condiments to our replicator. We've also encountered the roguish freighter captain Dubba from OnSecondScoop.com and The Nosh Show. After learning a bit about Dubba's ice cream expertise, we set out to reach consensus on the sauces, spreads, and dressings we'll take for the remainder of our journey. Unfortunately for us, consensus is about as easy to find a cloaked Romulan Warbird. In our Nerd To-Dos we hear about cell phone upgrades, hatred for Farscape, catching up on Dr. Who crossovers, and basking in the glow of Game of Thrones.
During the 2013 Summer Crossover, Nerd Lunch and The Atomic Geeks switched casts. With The Atomic Geeks podcast now defunct, we have this gem available for you. CT, Jeeg and Pax took over the show and did Gunpoint Reviews.
It's a very special episode of Nerd Lunch! This week on the show, CT, Jeeg and Pax take off for the Great White North and are replaced by The Atomic Geeks. Michael DiGiovanni (aka MD), Christian Nielsen and Mike Downs take over Nerd Lunch and welcome Fourth Chair Ryan Hewson from The Perpetual Geek Machine Podcast. The four of them do their take on the Fan Fic Reviews franchise topic (previously done in episodes 18 and 62). Stories from FanFiction.net covered include Knight Rider meets The Incredible Hulk, Police Academy, Good Omens, and Buffy meets Kill Bill. Nerd To-Dos include new podcasts and blogs and networking appliances.
And be sure to check out CT, Jeeg and Pax on this week's episode of The Atomic Geeks where they do their take on Gunpoint Reviews!
This week on the Nerd Lunch Podcast, we do something we've never done before--EAT LUNCH! CT and Pax got together in person and were fortunate enough to have regular Fourth Chair guests Shawn Robare and Robert Zerbe join them as well. We talk a bit about the Fake Geek Girls thing and then launch into how our summers are going so far and just chat. We eat, drink and are merry while sitting at 4Rivers Smokehouse in Jacksonville, FL. Warning! There is a ton of ambient noise so bear with us on this episode.
This week, Jeeg, CT and Pax are joined by Brian from Cool and Collected. This episode, CT removes the famous Pop Culture Eraser from "the vault" and we each get to erase from existence 1 thing and 1 person. We get some controversial results from the group as we discuss the future ramifications of erasing things like Jay Leno and The Next Karate Kid from our pop culture landscape. Lots of Nerdy goings on in the To Dos including TV show and movie watching.
This week on the podcast, Pax and CT welcome two guests once again and find that they've invented the next "peanut butter and chocolate" with returning guests Tim Lybarger and Matt Ringler. After discovering one of the guests is short on originality, CT asks everyone to channel that unoriginality into a reboot challenge. The podcasters then each pick a beloved (and some not so beloved) property and update it for modern audiences. Moving, Burn Notice, and more in the Nerd To-Dos.
Recently, we had guest Jon Cross from the After Movie Diner on our show and the previous guest, Jeremy from Geek Chunks asked a particularly volatile Fourth Chair Carryover Question. This question turned into a 20 minute discussion about Star Trek, reboots, opinionated fans, "hate," and poutine. (Actually, poutine never came up surprisingly...) We decided to cut that discussion out of the show in an effort to get to the main topic discussion quicker, but it was entertaining enough that you might enjoy listening as a second helping.
Warning, there are spoilers for Star Trek Into Darkness and Flight of the Navigator in this. (Actually, Flight of the Navigator never came up...)
This week on the show, CT and Pax welcome back Shawn Robare of Branded in the 80s and Cult Film Club and new guest Howie Decker of Under Scoop Fire to discuss the G.I. Joe action figure line. We chatted about the figures we collected, the ones we never got, and what inspired the way we played with our toys. Nerd To-Dos this week featured Man of Steel, animation cels, and Retro Con.
This week on the podcast, we celebrate a 75th birthday and the release of Man of Steel with a discussion about this long-enduring granddaddy of all super hero characters, Superman. CT and Pax are joined by Michael May and Thom Holbrook for a look back at what the character means to all of us from all media. We talk comics, radio, television, movies, and even get a chance to finally play "Superman: Dead or Alive." Nerd To-Dos this week feature talk about Downton Abbey, Creepshow, Battlestar Galactica, and Burn Notice.
Also, if you want to win a print of the above piece of Superman art by Des Taylor, sign up for our Nerd Lunch Newsletter by July 1, 2013 and get entered for a chance to win it. Easy peasy.
This week on the show, the Nerd Lunch crew are joined by Fourth Chair guest, Claymation Werewolf where they take a trip down memorylane and relive the glory days of Saturday mornings. No obligations, cartoon lineups on three major networks, and hours upon hours wasted watching cel-painted goodness (and badness). From earliest memories, to favorite shows, to things that might have been canceled too soon, a lot of great shows were covered. Nerd To-Dos include more home improvement reports, animation projects, and summer TV plans.
This week we finally take another crack at the Listbuster topic first heard back in Episode 17. In our crosshairs is IGN's list of the Top 25 Action Movies and riding shotgun in the fourth chair is Jon Cross from the After Movie Diner and Dr. Action and The Kick Ass Kid podcast. After a healthy discussion about just what an action movie is, we tear IGN's list to shreds and then reveal our top 10 action movie lists. In our Nerd To-Dos we get the lowdown on the Superman III novelization, a goal to chat with Steve Guttenberg, and a mini review of The Hobbit (hint: it's a long movie).
We welcome Jeremy from Geek Chunks back to the fourth chair this week to put together our ultimate triple features around specific themes. What 3 Schwarzenegger joints, alien invasion movies, or facial hair flicks will make our lists? Indeed, inquiring minds (or maybe just Jeeg) do want to know. In our Nerd To-Dos, we hear about losing the fire for The Walking Dead comic, unpacking old treasures from the garage, and home screenings of The Hobbit and ParaNorman.
This week on the show, Pax, Jeeg and CT are joined by improv actor Matt Young to chat at great length about his role as Captain Julius Valentine Baxter on the Improvised Star Trek Podcast. After the Nerd Lunchers get the scoop on the process, history, and Sixpence None the Honor's HIchop! (aka Klingon version of Kiss Me), the podcasters move into another installment of "Give That Guy Some Work." British actors abound this time as the crew comes up with a brand new show you won't be seeing on your TV anytime soon. Nerd To-Dos this week feature Horns by Joe Hill, My Life in Stripes, Fringe, and Arrested Development.
CT, Jeeg and Pax each made a trip to their local theater and got a chance to see that swanky new Iron Man movie that the kids are talking about these days. Since all three of the Nerds can answer "yes" to the question, "have you seen the latest billion dollar maker?" they decided to spend a few minutes talking about this movie. Fear not fans of disagreement, while most of the comments are positive, there are a few points where the Nerds did not see eye-to-eye. They talk about everything from how Robert Downey, Jr. did in the role again to where they think this franchise is heading. Avengers! Guy Pearce! Armor! Download and listen!
Rondal Scott returns to our fourth chair this week to mull over what to do if we actually had time machines. We discuss a variety of self serving time travel activities: which model time machine would we choose, what movie premieres we’d go back to see, what long lost fast food items we’d want to try, classic toys to pick up, changes we'd make in our personal lives, and it wouldn't be a complete episode without talk of killing Hitler. Our Nerd To-Dos feature the Seduction of the Innocent, The Dark Knight Rises, the 1930s version of King Kong, and birthday related plans to see Iron Man 3.
This week's Nerd To-Dos encompass the entire episode. It's a three way dance as Pax, Jeeg, and CT set out their overall to-do lists for this summer. We start off discussing the summer blockbusters we plan to hit in the theater, which will have to wait for Blu-ray, and which aren't of interest at all. We then move on the TV shows we hope to catch up on over the summer. Finally we wrap up the show with other media we're looking forward to, planned nerd outings, and home projects.
Steve from Food Junk (foodjunk.wordpress.com) saddles up in our fourth chair this week as we build movie themed restaurant menus in the vein of Denny's 2012 menu for The Hobbit. What do you get when you combine a fictional serial killer and a casual dining chain? Or an ice cream shop and an 80s cult classic? Podcast gold, that's what you get. Our Nerd To-Do's feature a bit of Korean vengeance cinema, The '80s documentary from Nat Geo, Family Matters, and the Injustice game on iPad.
Pax, CT, Jaime Hood (www.shezcrafti.com and Cult Film Club), and William Bruce West (www.williambrucewest.com) review the sitcom greats (?) of the 90s. This episode asks and occasionally answers the hard hitting questions that everyone has wondered about. Why were Uncle Jesse and Uncle Joey still living with the Tanner family? How on earth did Saved By The Bell: The New Class last 10 seasons? Why is the finale to Seinfeld so damned important? What is French Stewart’s tour de force performance? Which 90s sitcom character would we want to take the place of, date, or have for a neighbor? Not to be left out, our TV driven Nerd To-Dos include the Larry Sanders Show, Game of Thrones, Burn Notice, and The Walking Dead comic.
We all have social events we'd rather not attend. Kristin Rielly joins us to talk about who we'd send in our places if we could get away with it. Listen to find out which Muppet would show up at the office Christmas party, which dead celebrity would handle the in-laws' family reunion, which fictional character would endure a toddler's birthday party and more. This week's Nerd To-Dos feature Superman IV, Downton Abbey (NOT Downtown Abby), The Hunger Games, and a comic book fire sale.
Following on our analysis of G.I. Joe back in Episode 39, this week we give the test of time to Marvel Sunbow's other iconic 80s cartoon series, The Transformers. Riding along in the fourth chair with CT, Pax, and Jeeg is Geek Fallout co-host and self confessed Transformers fanatic, Jeff Brown. Are giant transforming robots as badass as they were in 1985? Does the voice acting live up to the names on the IMDB page? Can an episode about a female robot ninja possibly be bad? Will we talk about Michael Bay? As the Earthlings say, "Maybe". In our Nerd To-Dos, we get doses of miniature painting, Alias, Return of The Living Dead, and Dexter's Laboratory. And in a Nerd Lunch first, this episode gets a little sponsorship action from Kill All Monsters! and our friend Michael May.
After 20 months of doing the podcast, we finally decide it's time to cover Joss Whedon's sci-fi western classic, Firefly and the follow-up movie Serenity. And to occupy the fourth treadmill (?) for this conversation we call in our own big damn hero, Mark Dury. We recap our history with Mr. Whedon at the time of Firefly's premiere, personal introductions to the show, favorite episodes, favorite characters, thoughts on Serenity as a wrap-up to the show, and whether it should ever come back. After our main discussion we give our own take on the Star Trek TOS crew / Firefly versus match up from Episode 200 of The Atomic Geeks. In our Nerd To-Dos, we hear about Cowboy Bebop, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, The Transformers: The Movie, and a rewatching of Farscape.
CT, Jeeg, and Pax welcome Aaron Nix back to the fourth chair this week. After checking to make sure everything is OK with Aaron, we try to figure out which real world people or things would be best suited to some scenarios from movies, TV, or comic books. Which real life American football player would save the Earth from Ming the Merciless? Which real life US president would fly a fighter jet and lead Earth to victory over the aliens in Independence Day? Which real life band is most likely part of a Cobra plot using subliminal messages in the music? You get the idea. In our Nerd To-Dos, we hear a mini review of Star Wars Scoundrels, a plan to visit Dickey's BBQ Pit, some love for Life of Pi, and a revisiting of Dark Knight Rises.
This week, CT abandons us and we are instead joined by The Retroist in his second appearance and Vic Sage, who is one of the head writers on The Retroist blog, in his first appearance on the show. We brought in these retro experts to discuss one of the greatest gaming systems of all time, the Atari 2600. We talk about our history with the system, some of our favorite and least favorite games and whether any of us scored one of those bad ass Master Gamer Patches. For our Nerd To Dos we discuss Twilight Zone, Crusader Kings II, Wreck-It Ralph and the book Star Wars: Scoundrels.
The show is a three way dance this week as Pax, Jeeg, and CT discuss of all things: sports. After spending a few minutes throwing bouquets at Huey Lewis, we talk about our histories watching and playing actual sports, delving into fantasy sports, and collecting sports memorabilia. Then we move on to a discussion of best and worst sports movies. Our Nerd To Dos include Josey Wales books, an Angel watching update, and something called Improvised Star Trek.
Atomic Geek and co-host of The Classic Film Jerks, Andrew Bloom, saddles up in our fourth chair for this week's episode. After getting an update on Bloom's bathroom renovations (seriously), we exchange ideas on what to do if we had the rights to a classic character but not the rest of the universe. Listen to find out how we would repurpose the likes of Galactus, Bigfoot, Jack Burton, Jambi the Genie, and more. In our Nerd To-Dos we hear about one geek's desire to quit Clash of Clans, one nerd's reaction to Snow Crash, one nerd's first forays into Apple TV, and one nerd's plans to watch Lipstick and Dynamite.
Jeeg makes his much anticipated return (whatever) to the show to talk party food with CT and guest Jasmin Fine from 1FineCookie.com. After getting the 411 on 1 Fine Cookie and debunking the rumor that Jasmin is related to Fran Drescher, we put together a nerd party with themed versions of our favorite appetizers / finger foods. And really what would a party be without snacks based on The Walking Dead, Mork & Mindy, or Buffy? This week's Nerd To-Dos feature a nerd's quest to live without a TV, Pie Day celebration plans, and the BBC show Ashes to Ashes
Cap'n CT and first mate Paxton Holley are joined by Long Jay Silver from the Sexy Armpit and the Dread Pirate Robert from To The Escpae Hatch to talk about the four Pirates of the Caribbean movies. They swab the deck on the cast, story, effects, what was good and where things went wrong. In the Nerd To Dos, the long lost treasure of Jumpin' Jack Doritos has finally been found. Also, what is the demand on a Twitter handle named "zerbert"?
Once again, Jeegless, this week Pax and CT are joined by Tim Lybarger of the Neighborhood Archive. Tim is here to discuss live-action kids' TV shows. We discuss our favorites and our not-so favorites. Some of the shows discussed include Sesame Street, Electric Company, Mr Rogers, Reading Rainbow, 3-2-1 Contact and many, many more. Nerd to Dos include Eerie Indiana, Red Dwarf, The Hobbit, Ted and Ghost Writer.
The Nerd Lunchers return to their own take on an Atomic Geek franchise topic. Once again re-doing a TV show, they pick the oft-maligned Star Trek: Voyager. Joined by Twitter pal of Jeri Ryan, Rob Graham, the premise, cast, writers, and designs get torn apart and put back together again in a much more satisfying way. In the Nerd To-Dos, more discussion of Star Trek takes place as well as the elusive Jumpin' Jack Doritos.
Michael May from Michael May's Adventure Blog joins us for a discussion of non-Super Hero Comic Books. We talk about some of our favorites, why they are our favorites, what ones we read and what ones we think suck. Nerd to Dos involve two separate Star Trek TV shows, Pirates of the Caribbean, James Bond and The Bionic Woman.
It's a very special episode on this week's Nerd Lunch Podcast. While Pax and Jeeg both are off fighting bears and building robots respectively, CT is joined by Jay from The Sexy Armpit and together they host a chat with UK comic book artist Des Taylor. Des, known for his simplistic and retro-style of illustration, is the creator behind self-published titles The Vesha Valentine Story and The Trouble with Katie Rogers. He has also had several pieces of his super hero art go viral on sites like GeekTyrant.com, io9.com, BleedingCool.com and our friends at the Retroist. In the show, Des talks about his history, upcoming projects, his thoughts on the New 52 and who he'd want to force choke.
For this episode of the Nerd Lunch podcast we are joined by another member of the Schlock Treatment podcast, Kirk Howle. We are also joined by 4th chair regular Shawn Robare since Jeeg is called away on assignment to do the thing he does best. This week we talk about movie toys. We talk about movie toys that worked and use that knowledge to then talk about movie toys that didn't work. We talk about why these toys worked or didn't work and then we all propose our own movie toy line that should have happened. Some of the movie toys discussed include Star Wars, The Shadow, Dick Tracy and The Lone Ranger. Our Nerd To-Dos feature Masters of the Universe figures, cartoon animation, more Wizard of Oz stuff and Jumpin' Jack Doritos.
We kick off the new year by peering into the future with fourth chair Doug Frye from the Schlock Treatment podcast. Using all the tools at our disposal from tarot cards to the Magic 8 Ball, we each make predictions for 2013 in the realms of TV, movies, and fast food. We also start up the Nerd Lunch Dead Pool and predict which celebrities will kick the bucket this year. Our Nerd To-Dos feature Star Wars Angry Birds, Battlestar Galactica, Six Million Dollar Man, and Jack in the Box.
Jeeg calls CT away from decking the halls to talk about the overlooked (even by us) holiday movie The Ref starring Denis Leary.
We welcome Digio from The Atomic Geeks Podcast back to the show to help us put together a TV Christmas Special for the ages. Drawing on favorite cartoons, classic Rankin Bass specials, historical Christmas lore, and some cool holiday ideas of our own, we turn out one tasty fruitcake of a special. This week's Nerd To-Dos feature the impending arrival of a next generation nerd, the announcement of Digio's 2013 Geek Resolution, a Walking Dead follow-up, and one final mention of Skyfall.
We return to the Nerd Lunch courtroom for this episode with guest Matt Ringler from Schlock Treatment. Director Tim Burton stands accused of crimes against movie viewers everywhere. Overseeing the proceedings is the Honorable Judge CT, with the prosecution being presented by Matt Ringler, the defense counsel offered by Jeeg, and star witness duties fulfilled by Pax. Will the likes of Pee-wee's Big Adventure and Ed Wood be enough to outweigh Dark Shadows, Alice in Wonderland, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Will Helena Bonham Carter make an appearance in this episode? Will Matt Ringler be able to lock up Burton for good and justify missing the recording of Schlock Treatment Episode 102? Grab your seat in the courtroom gallery and find out! In our Nerd To-Dos we discuss Laurel & Hardy, iTunes, Walking Dead trade paperbacks, Christmas movie viewing, and Django.
This week we are joined by Jaime from shezcrafti.com for a very special Ninja Day episode of the podcast. For this episode we all have watched and spend our time talking about the 1984 ninja classic Ninja III: The Domination starring Sho Kosugi and Lucinda Dickey. Expect discussions on the supernatural nature of 1980s ninjas, old shaolin temples on the outskirts of Los Angeles, the ridiculous Bigfoot body hair of the male lead and, of course, V8. This week's Nerd-to-Dos include even more mentions of Bond, Halo 4, Ninja Sex Party and 4 Rivers Barbeque.
We’re joined this week by Claymation Werewolf for a very special episode on 80s sitcoms. Rather than going straight for the Kate & Allie drilldown, we go around the horn reminiscing about the shows we watched regularly, our favorite shows, memorable episodes, and more. The usual suspects like Cheers, Family Ties, and The Golden Girls are mentioned, but we get to Mama's Family, A Different World, and Major Dad a lot faster than anybody would expect. Our Nerd To-Dos feature real life screenwriting, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, an upcoming gathering of the nerds, and Black Friday shopping plans.
Kristin Rielly, formerly of Geek Girls Network, returns to the show to help us review more stories from fanfiction.net. This time we focus on movie based stories with more vampires, dragons, imaginary friends, and super scientists than you can shake an iPod at. And fear not listeners, we do accidentally run into some slash fic. Yeah, accidentally. Our Nerd To-Dos this go around include some more Bond (will it ever stop?), a different flavor of Red Rock soda, Kingdom Hearts, and holiday move planning.
While housesitting at The Atomic Geeks Network HQ, we decide to put the Super Fight Dome to good use with our own twist on a Versus episode. CT acts as matchmaker while Pax, Jeeg, and Jeremy from Geek Chunks bring their hand chosen combatants to the battle. It's a fight card for the ages featuring celebrity chefs, giant robots, sitcom dads, Jean-Claude Van Damme characters, and more. Our Nerd To-Dos this time around include Christmas planning (already), a run through The X-Files series, and a bunch of Bond including planned outings to see Skyfall.
It’s a special time of the year in America when campaign ads flood radio and TV, signs fill front yards, and three nerds take to the Internet to draft fictional governments made up of characters from pop culture. We couldn’t do worse with Starfleet captains, Robocop, the Dukes of Hazzard, or characters from Teen Wolf. Or could we? Find out by casting your vote for Nerd Lunch today! In this week’s Nerd To-Dos, we discuss The Last Castle, Stephen King’s 11/23/63, and Freaks and Geeks.
To celebrate the season Pax and Jeeg call in our Halloween experts, Shawn from Branded in the 80s and Jay from The Sexy Armpit, to discuss two LEGENDARY Halloween TV specials. Up first is the 1976 Paul Lynde Halloween special with 70s guest stars aplenty including Tim Conway, Florence Henderson, and KISS. You can find it on YouTube, Amazon Instant Video, and DVD. Then we tackle 1986's The Worst Witch starring Fairuza Balk and featuring gonzo performances by Tim Curry and The Facts of Life's Charlotte Rae. It is also available on YouTube (in multiple parts) and DVD. This week's Nerd To-Dos include a screening of some classic Universal monster movies, a quest for episodes of CHiPs, some fawning over Emma Watson, and Bond movie watching.
Robert from To The Escape Hatch returns to our fourth chair as we put together the ultimate team for the zombie apocalypse from characters across the horror genre. Robert Kirkman, Ridley Scott, John Carpenter, Valve Software, and others provide nominees for our party. Once the team is assembled, we determine the order that members get picked off, who gets infected, and who, if anyone, survives. We then rinse and repeat with a party composed of The Atomic Geeks Network crew. In our Nerd To-Dos, we hear what digital comics can be had by trading in Miami Vice Blu-rays, some Halloween costume planning, a mini lovefest for Ben Affleck, and plans to see The Hobbit already getting started.
In preparation for James Bond’s return to the big screen, we have our first discussion of the classic spy franchise. Bringing his expertise and British class to the fourth chair is Jon Cross from The After Movie Diner blog and podcast. Since there are 50 years and 22 movies worth of 007 to cover, we save the drilldowns for later and cover the whole series by ranking our best and worst Bond actors, individual movies, Bond girls, villains, gadgets, and more. There are a number of revelations along the way including Pax & Jeeg not backing Telly Savalas and the fact that CT has never seen Smokey & The Bandit. This week’s Nerd To-Dos feature more of The Strain series, Bionic Commando Rearmed, Ready Player One, and voiceover work for an audiobook.
Thom Holbrook of Poobala.com returns to join Pax, CT, and Jeeg for a discussion of TV shows based on movies. After a brief trip around the horn to mention some of our favorites and what made them work, we all pitch concepts using movies that have never been translated to TV. We come up with some good ideas, but also end up featuring more secret agents, high school teachers, and little people than any sane person should expect. In our Nerd To-Dos, we talk about The Strain, The Avengers Facebook game, Avatar The Last Airbender, and poutine (again).
When Pax is called away on a top secret mission for Colonel Sanders and The Hamburglar, CT and Jeeg break the "in case of emergency" glass around Movie Hodge Podge and bring out fourth chair regular Aaron Nix. The three of us welcome back Nick from Dude Foods to discuss cheap eats in the already cheap world of fast food. We kick around our favorite value menus and promotions of yore from McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Subway, Arby’s, and more. Then we turn our attention to the current state and future of fast food deals where social media promos, coupons, and big box store eating have taken hold. In our Nerd To-Dos, we plan a delicious potluck of James Bond, Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, Halo, and Cheerwine.
We dive neckfirst into the realm of southern vampires this week as Jen Usellis Mackay returns to the show to guide us through the first Sookie Stackhouse book, Dead Until Dark. Will we declare it a D-U-D (see what I did there?) or be won over to the supernatural romance genre by Sookie’s moxie, Eric’s debonair ways, and Bill’s “Billness”? In our Nerd To-Dos, we tackle some Jason Bourne, Halloween preparations, World of Warcraft, and 24.
The Atomic Geeks’ very own Cosmic Viking, Christian Nielsen, joins CT and Pax for a blockbuster sized discussion of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. We cover all the bases from plot to casting to Batman’s throaty voice to "giant, black phallic symbols". Listen to find out what we liked, what bones we have to pick, and what Nolan could have learned from the Rocky movies. This week’s Nerd To-Dos feature the yin and yang of the Morning Glories comic book and the Six Million Dollar Man TV show.
William Bruce West settles into the fourth chair this week as we attempt to formulate a strategic plan for DC Comics' movie franchises. We delve into DC's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for success, and threats to putting together a successful run. We debate how much DC should crib from Marvel, the much rumored JLA movie, crossing over onto TV, and whether there should be a shared DC movie universe at all. In our Nerd To-Dos, we hear about one nerd unloading part of his comic book collection, learn of a foray into True Blood, and discuss the impossible logistics of 24.
We welcome Brian Adams from CoolAndCollected.com to our fourth chair this week for another session of Does It Live Up to the Hype. Each of us catches up on a hyped item that we somehow missed. On the docket this time around are the original Star Trek movies, Pulp Fiction, Breaking Bad, and Chick-fil-A. Our Nerd To-Dos include some Edgar Rice Burroughs, some C. S. Lewis, some L. Frank Baum, and something called bulletproof coffee.
We cap off the first year of the Nerd Lunch podcast with a session of Ask Us Anything where questions from some of our listeners fill the role of the 4th chair. We tackle pressing issues such as our favorite Starfleet captain, last meal choices, dream guests, why the 80s are so popular, and more. Our Nerd To-Dos really run the gamut this week by including both The Chronicles of Narnia and Piranha 3DD.
Every podcast has to have a guilty pleasures episode and this week we finally do our take. Joining us for the confessions is our favorite strange kid, Rondal Scott. Who enjoys the worst reality TV show? Who likes an emasculating rom-com? Who revels in cheesy flicks from an 80s action star? Listen for these revelations and so much more. In our Nerd To-Dos Jeeg reads a book, Pax plans a Movie Man-athon, CT keeps buying digital comics, and Rondal plans an epic run of SNL viewing.
The Atomic Geeks Podcast is no more, but this first installment of the TAG Network Crossover lives on when Pax and Jeeg visited with Christian and Andrew and talked about Geek Mashups.
Nerd Lunch's second entry into this year's [expletive] TAG Network Summer Crossover Series features a whole cast of guests. CT is joined by both Michael DiGiovanni and [expletive] Michael Downs from the Atomic Geeks and Kristin Rielly from the Geek Girls Network and they have a big ol' [expletive] discussion about Doctor Who. Who was the best [expletive] Doctor? The best [expletive] companion? And find out what the phrase "those garbage cans have terrible voices" means. This week's Nerd To-Dos features talk about Batman, G.I. Joe and the relaunch of a new [expletive] website. Find your [expletive] sonic screwdriver and download now!
Pax, CT, Shawn Robare, and TAG Irregular Mark Dury provide our take on expanded universes. We discuss our favorite EUs from Star Wars to the Buffyverse, talk about what works or doesn't work in EU, and offer up some properties we wish had EU. When we're done here, be sure to check out this week's episode of The Atomic Geeks podcast for even more speechifying on EUs. Our Nerd To-Dos feature a Formula 1 racing documentary (huh?), new TMNT toys, more Planet of the Apes, and some Dark Knight Rises.
We're joined this week by Pax's longtime buddy Dr. Mike for an in depth discussion and/or thrashing of Star Trek Insurrection and Star Trek Nemesis. Find out what we think of the HMS Pinafore, F. Murray Abraham, clones, B-4, and the infamous Enterprise bridge joystick. We also offer up suggestions on how these, er, gems could have been polished. In our Nerd To-Dos, we hear about an upcoming Dr. Who episode of Nerd Lunch, a can't miss Ben & Jerry's flavor, Pax's mini-review of MIB 3, and the Dawn of the Jedi comic book.
Pax is vacationing in the Phantom Zone, so Aaron Nix from Movie Hodge Podge and Matt Ringler of Schlock Treatment join Jeeg and CT for this week's episode. Each of us choose one person and one pop culture item to erase from existence and then discuss the consequences of that removal. We go for the jugular with some of these, but luckily it's all hypothetical... as far as you know. Our Nerd To-Do's feature a follow-up on Pixar's Brave, somebody named Richie Brockelman, Atomic Robo, and one nerd's quest to watch the original Star Trek movies for the first time.
Rob Graham settles into the fourth chair this week and we do another round of Give That Guy Some Work. This time around we put together one TV show and one movie using actors and actresses that aren’t getting the exposure they deserve. Our Nerd To-Dos include a Star Trek novel, the Sherlock TV series, Pixar’s Brave, a vampire hunter, and Planet of the Apes.
We gather around the lunch table this week with Steve from foodjunk.wordpress.com. On the menu is a discussion of our favorite salty snack foods from chips to pretzels to crackers. We can't seem to agree on many snack food picks, but perhaps we'll concur on favorite high blood pressure medicines in a later episode. In our Nerd To-Dos, we hear about Steve's run through the Godzilla movies, CT's third viewing of The Avengers, Pax's review of Solomon Kane, and Jeeg's glacial progress through Angel and Farscape.
It's a three way dance as Pax, CT, and Jeeg plan out 48 hours of a nerd weekend. Where would we go? What would we do? What would we eat? Listen to find out if our perfect weekend looks more like The Hangover or Weekend at Bernie's. This week's Nerd To-Dos are a who's who of sci-fi franchises with nods to Prometheus, Planet of the Apes, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Because the people demanded it, one more round of Would You Rather questions with Jeeg, CT, Pax, and Andrew Bloom. Actually nobody demanded it, but the conversation does include more Mark Dury talk and that alone is worth a listen.
The Atomic Geeks very own Andrew Bloom takes over the fourth chair this week and runs Pax, Jeeg, and CT though a little game of Would You Rather. The questions cover topics that are fun for all ages: the Nerd Lunch crew dying in various ways, the Nerd Lunch crew killing various pop culture heroes, the Nerd Lunch crew in ambiguously gay situations, and CT’s beard. The only question remaining is would you rather keep reading this description or listen to the episode already?
This week CT and Jeeg have to soldier on without the Nerd Lunch ironman, Pax, who has been kidnapped by our arch-rival Valley High. But it’s all right, ‘cause we’re saved by the bell and two returning guests: Aaron Nix of Movie Hodge Podge and Jay from The Sexy Armpit. We spend the episode reminiscing about our favorite moments, the most attractive female cast member, and Casey Kasem’s epic Cosby sweaters. Be warned, it’s such a lovefest that we're not even fazed by the fact that the show also sounded the death knell of Saturday morning cartoons. In our Nerd To-Do’s, we get some love for TV’s Dallas, Sherman Hemsley, Taco Johns restaurants, and the Back to the Future iPad game.
Doug Frye from the Schlock Treatment podcast signs on as the fourth member of an elite commando unit with Jeeg, Pax, and CT. Our mission is to determine if the 1980s GI Joe cartoon still holds up. Listen to find out if the Joes can defeat the most lethal foe of all, Father Time. In our Nerd To-Dos we hear about Keifer Sutherland's debut in the D&D universe, the Solomon Kane movie (again), novel writing, and the arrival of some nerd progeny.
Perhaps the Internet's leading expert on TV crossovers and the founder of Poobala.com, Thom Holbrook, joins us for a great episode this week. We discuss what makes a crossover great, run down some of our favorites, and then propose some crossovers we wish would happen. Our conversation is a roll call of great TV from Bob Newhart to The Bionic Woman to The Drew Carey Show to Mork and Mindy. OK, maybe great isn't the best description. In this week's Nerd To-Dos, we get our first genealogy related to-do, a re-commitment to comic book reading, and more Avengers items (it might take us awhile to get over that one, folks).
Shawn Robare rides his stunt motorcycle over from Branded in the 80s to join us for a discussion of the original trilogy of Muppet films: The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, and The Muppets Take Manhattan. We start with our personal histories with the Muppets and where they fit into our nerdom. Then we step through each movie taking a look at the playhouse style setup, plots, music, puppetry/effects, and favorite scenes. In addition to some pre-Avengers talk brought to you through the magic of Internet time travel (check out episode 36, people); this week’s Nerd To-Dos feature a box of magic surprises for CT, more soda can collecting, and one nerd’s quest for movie novelizations.
Join us for a very special episode of Nerd Lunch all about the blockbuster that is Marvel’s The Avengers. In a double barreled conversation, CT and Pax chat after hitting the theater in Florida while Jeeg and original Nerd Luncher PLee offer their post-screening assessment from Illinois. Is it the best of the Marvel movies? Is it the best superhero/comic book movie ever? Is it the greatest achievement in the history of mankind? Remove your Asgardian helmet with the giant horns, pop in those earbuds, and find out.
Pax and Jeeg welcome CT back from his sojourn in the wilderness and guest Robert Zerbe from To The Escape Hatch for a discussion of real life issues that can dampen one's enjoyment of nerdy things. Celebrity meltdowns, marketing oversaturation, obnoxious product placement, annoying theater patrons, and more make our lists. This week's Nerd To-Dos features a lot of Avengers talk, e-readers, Doritos, and the last (?) of CT's Young Justice updates.
Jeeg and Pax welcome a tag team of guests, Atomic Geek Mike Downs and Jay from The Sexy Armpit, for a no holds barred conversation about WrestleMania. We cover our favorite matches, celebrity appearances, commentating team, and more. In the words of Gorilla Monsoon, "It's a donnybrook!". Our Nerd To-Dos this week include Mötley Crüe as well as a motley crew of KISS, Mr. Rogers, Teen Wolf, and Zantac 75.
While CT is away on a vision quest, Pax and Jeeg bring in Jeremy from Geek Chunks to discuss kung fu movies (and one samurai movie) from the last 20 years or so. After touching on our introductions to the martial arts genre and the grandaddy of them all, Enter the Dragon, we talk about the 90s kung fu resurgence led by Jackie Chan, the crossover appeal of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and some of our recent favorites from Donnie Yen, Tony Jaa, and Michelle Yeoh. Finally, we channel our qi power into some Nerd To-Dos covering Avengers opening weekend, Sliders, and Wrath of the Titans.
Our old buddy Fitz returns to the show for our companion piece to Episode 148 of The Atomic Geeks, "Geek Dads!". We spend the first part of the show talking about our upbringing and the formative experiences that made us nerds, geeks, dorks, and poindexters. After that we briefly touch on how we hope to raise the next generation of nerds. In our To-Dos this week, we learn about Fitz's initiative to crowdsource toy shopping, hear CT's latest update on his quest for Young Justice action figures, and get a mini-review of "Return to Oz" from Pax.
Our fourth chair is empty this week, so it's a three way dance with Jeeg, Pax, and CT. This time around we're coming up with bucket lists of must-do nerdy, lunchy, and podcast related items. When we’re not making callbacks to almost all of our previous episodes, we uncover Jeeg's fascination with Lance Bass, praise the Kool-Aid Museum, and play a Superman related round of the "Dead or Alive?" game. To wrap up, we fantasize about what we'd eventually like to do with this here podcast. Get to listening and cross this episode off your bucket list now!
Rondal from the Strange Kids Club returns to help the Nerd Lunch crew drug CT's milk and put Jeeg in the hosting chair. Up this week is a very special episode about one of our favorite franchises, The A-Team. We spend the first part of the episode discussing the original and what made it one of the iconic shows of the 1980s. Then we turn our attention to the 2010 reboot movie and lament the fact that we won't be getting sequels to that flick. In our Nerd To-Dos, we learn about Trash Can Trolls and somehow get a reference to the 90s kung-fu cop show Martial Law.
Chris (@drquest on Twitter) from the What To Watch and Stuff We Like podcasts climbs aboard our Lambda class shuttle for the 29th episode of Nerd Lunch. After playing a little dream interpretation theater with Pax, we continue a discussion that started on the Cavalcade of Awesome about those Star Wars characters that are immensely popular yet had very little to do in the movies. You know who were talking about: Admiral Ackbar, R5-D4, the bounty hunters from Empire, and even Darth Maul. What is it about the Star Wars universe or fandom that has led to these characters being fan favorites and will Jeeg have his nerd card revoked for even asking this question? In this week's Nerd To-Do's, we learn about an epic quest to watch all 700 episodes of a TV show and hear what lengths Pax will go to watch the unreleased Solomon Kane movie.
This week CT, Pax, and Jeeg are joined by blogger and Atomic Geeks superfan Chris Lockhart for a discussion of how Star Trek could have changed if some key events worked out differently. What if Scotty was Irish instead? What if Riker hadn't grown a beard? What if Janeway's animal guide had been a lemur? Actually we don't talk about any of those scenarios, but the possibilities of a Star Trek without Shatner, the 1970s Phase II series, and Captain Riker are all on the agenda. In our Nerd To-Dos, we find out which nerd is already making plans for season 2 of Sherlock and talk more about the Ghost Rider sequel than anyone could have expected.
It's our first cavity inducing episode. Well, maybe our second cavity inducing episode after Episode 19 about sodas. Anyway, Jason Liebig from CollectingCandy.com occupies the fourth chair for a discussion of all things candy. We learn about Jason's collection/obsession, talk over some of our favorite candies, and eventually find our nougaty center. This week's Nerd To-dos include a nerd's quest to visit Popeye's Chicken and a special story about hanging out with one of the Jimmy Olsens from Lois & Clark.
On this week's episode we turn our attention to some of the technology that was cutting edge during our youths. We're joined by the best retro expert we could ask for, The Retroist himself. During our conversation we stroll past all manner of tech gravestones including the Kodak Disc camera, Atari 2600, audio cassettes, the VCR, and the Super Bowl Shuffle (huh?). In our Nerd To-Do's, we learn a little about table-top wargaming and find out which nerd is attempting to assemble the Young Justice version of the Hall of Justice.
It's our big 25th episode and to celebrate we're not only borrowing a signature topic from our podcasting brothers The Atomic Geeks but one of the Geeks as well, Michael DiGiovanni. DiGio sits in for our own take on “Its A Re-Do” as we tackle America’s favorite teen angsty Superman show, Smallville. Listen to find out if we think the show needed more tights, more flight, or more Degrassi High. This week’s Nerd To-Dos run the gamut from Buck Rogers to DC Comics, plus the weekend for Pax’s viewing if Episode I in 3D has finally arrived.
In what we hope will be a franchise topic, we have our guest guide us through an examination of some new territory. Up first is our old friend Shawn Robare from Branded in the 80s to lead us into anime with the Hayao Miyazaki film "Spirited Away". Listen to find out what three anime newbies think of one of the most celebrated Japanese movies of all time. Plus in this week’s Nerd To-Dos we get CT’s review of the Star Trek TNG “The Next Level” Blu-ray sampler and learn about Shawn’s growing OMFG addiction.
We gotta get back in time! No, we’re not revisiting episode 2 about Back to the Future, but we are talking about some of the best and worst uses and methods of time travel in pop culture. Of course, Doc Brown and his DeLorean are mentioned, but we also dig up some gems like The Final Countdown and Timecop. In our Nerd To-Dos, we hear about Pax’s preparation for seeing Phantom Menace in 3D, find out why CT will soon be hanging out on the Banzai Institute Facebook page, and discuss a little news (gasp!) about the long rumored Star Wars TV show.
We steal from the playbooks of Sly Stallone and guest Aaron Nix this week by assembling our own superstar teams for movie genres. First up is a Western where we come up with a list of stars worthy of the obvious headliner Clint Eastwood. Then we put together a Rom Com cast which includes the “John Wayne of romantic comedies” and that should strike fear into boyfriends and husbands everywhere. In our Nerd To-Dos, we find out which nerd has a gold Yoda Pepsi can in his collection and hear Pax’s review of the dreck that is Transformers 3 (Hey kids, can you guess who’s writing this episode description?).
While Jeeg is off jet setting overseas, Pax and CT take advantage and welcome Vanessa and Erika from girls-gone-geek.com to discuss "comic book scenarios." The podcasting crew discuss super powers, sidekicks, and which characters should be killed and stay dead. Plus, one member's "Nerd To-Do" reveals a desire to finally do some Black Canary cosplay. No...it's not CT's to-do, but just saying that paints a picture you'll never get rid of. You're welcome, Internet.
The Nerd Lunch crew is back together with Robert Zerbe for a bigger, louder, and uncut episode. After hearing about the latest happenings at To The Escape Hatch, we dive into movie sequels. We discuss what makes a good sequel, debate the differences between movie series and sequels, give our favorites and least favorites, and propose our own sequels for movies that don’t yet have any. In this week’s Nerd To-Do List, we offer a heaping helping of British TV and Pax provides an update on the Star Trek/Quantum Leap fanfic story mentioned in episode 18.
Podcast regular Shawn Robare occupies the fourth chair for a discussion of sodas, pops, fizzy drinks, cokes, or whatever you might call them. We kick around our favorite and most hated carbonated beverages, wade into the cola wars, and talk about ill conceived soda disasters. Crystal Pepsi, anyone? Plus in the Nerd To-Do List, we finally get an Earthworm Jim reference and CT's review of the Green Lantern movie.
Jay from The Sexy Armpit returns to our guest chair to kick off a new year of the podcast. Jay joins Pax, Jeeg, and CT in an exploration of the terrifying majesty that is FanFiction.net. After coming to grips with the site, each of us selects a fan fiction story for a favorite property, does our best to actually read it, and offers up a review. If you ever wanted to know who wears the pants in Hordak's Horde family or were curious about Amy Allen's dating life, this is the episode for you.
Lists have become the one of the Internet's favorite ways to cook up easy content and generate views. They're also one of our favorite ways to cook up easy episodes and generate downloads. In this week's episode we turn our critical eyes to a list of the top 25 sci-fi movies and tear it to shreds... or do we? In hindsight we probably should have decided what if meant to bust a list before we started.
Director Michael Bay stands accused of crimes against movie going audiences everywhere. Arguing the case for the prosecution is Jeeg, leading Bay's defense is CT, acting as star witness is Jeremy of Geekchunks.com, and presiding over our podcast courtroom is the honorable Judge Paxton Holley. Find out if Transformers, Bad Boys, Pearl Harbor, and the rest warrant keeping Bay off the streets and out of the director's chair. To paraphrase the late Johnnie Cochran (well, not really), "if the earbuds fit, you must listen to this."
Our original idea for Episode 15 was a great one, but it was shelved. Instead our old pal Fitz from Episode 8 returns to talk about great TV shows that were axed too soon. Of course Firefly and Arrested Development come up, but we delve into an interesting selection of other shows including nerd favorites Veronica Mars, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., and Cleopatra 2525 (huh?). Grab this episode now before the suits at The Atomic Geeks Podcasting Network get wind of our ratings.
Access Hollywood's Ultimate Star Wars Fan, Jason Collier, accompanies us to Kashyyyk for our first (and last?) annual Life Day celebration. Rather than invoke our rights under the Geneva Convention, we endure the Star Wars Holiday Special for you. Harvey Korman's bad comedy, Carrie Fisher's singing, and Chewbacca's dad's "special time" with Diahann Carroll only scratch the surface of this TV disaster. Listen and find out why George Lucas wanted to smash every copy of the special with a sledgehammer and why each of us would gladly drive him to Home Depot to buy a sledgehammer.
Kristin from the Geeks Girls Network joins CT and Pax to discuss characters that would animate our cels, so to speak, if we were also cartoons. Find out who we choose as the one to reject, the one who got away, the ideal bad girl/guy, and the true love. Also listen for the patented TAG Network creepiness detector to alert when we consider the ages of some picks, discuss "He-Man's sword", delve into cross species dating, and think about the prospect of cartoon babies. Plus in the most unexpected twist of the week, one of the Nerd To-Do Lists includes a marathon... in real life... involving actual running.
This week we follow in the footsteps of Weird Al Yankovic and program our very own UHF stations. None of us are bold enough to reboot the Volcano Worshiper's Hour, but we devise some interesting line-ups regardless. As long as it’s nerdy, we’ve got it all on NerdHF. A local creature feature host? Check. Classic 80s cartoons? Double check. Star Trek reruns? Of course. Angel reunion movies with David Boreanaz? Sure, why not. But wait, there’s more! All listeners will also receive the new Nerd To-Do List segment at no extra charge.
Cast member and official tweeter for A Klingon Christmas Carol, Jen Usellis Mackay, joins us at the lunch table this week. Jen gives us the inside scoop on what it's like to work on the first play performed in the Klingon language, how to get in on this year's performances in Chicago, and Yo-Yo Ma's Romulan music project (not really). Later the Nerds get a mini language lesson from Jen and we all play a few rounds of "our favorite Klingon things". Listen and find out why tlhutlhlu'meH QaQ jajvam!
Shawn Robare of Branded in the 80s returns to join CT, Jeeg, and Pax. We discuss the Masters of the Universe toys of our youth including favorites, disappointments, and those figures or vehicles we wanted but never got. Along the way we learn about our collective obsession with Faker, the dirty hippies employed by Mattel, and Shawn's quest to create a topless Evil Lynn. Last but not least, Atomic Geek Christian Nielsen makes an unexpected appearance by the power of Grayskull (or some evil sorcery called Skype).
On this week's episode CT, Pax, and Jeeg embark on an excursion under the command of starship captain and pop culture blogger Jay Amabile of The Sexy Armpit blog. When a wormhole flings the ship across the galaxy and damages all systems, some hard choices have to be made. Jeeg can get the damaged food replicator back online, but with only 10 recipes. The guys have to come together to decide what will be on the menu for the next several decades and, to nobody's surprise, it won’t be health food. Hopefully Jeeg can fix the Emergency Medical Hologram program next.
Long time friend of Nerd Lunch, Fitz, occupies the fourth chair this week. In this episode the guys outfit some rooms with the finest in nerd decor. Fictional decorating budgets are blown on vintage pulp magazines, a replica lightsaber hilt, a Magic d20 of Destiny, and a Pimp Daddy Destro action figure amongst other items. Then things get really geeky when the exercise is repeated with a blank check. Eat your heart out, Ty Pennington.
[Begin HYPE mode] Robert Zerbe joins the guys on what is assuredly the greatest podcast episode ever recorded! After Robert fills us in on his blog, "To The Escape Hatch!", and how Bruce Campbell rolls, we catch up on a few of the most hyped movies and TV shows from the last 15 years. Can reality possibly match the buildup for Braveheart, The Wire, Mad Men, or The Walking Dead? Find out in the funniest and most insightful 71 minutes of audio on the 'Net! [End HYPE mode]
Nerd Lunch contributor Cordy Stepp sits in with Jeeg, Pax, and CT for an examination of the first two Star Trek: TNG movies, Generations and First Contact. Shocking revelations are disclosed when CT declares that he doesn’t like First Contact, Pax admits to playing Data’s "life forms" song on his computer keyboard, Jeeg defends Alfre Woodard, and Cordy questions why Data hasn't been "buttering everyone's popcorn" for years. Plus the question of who likes Generations is finally answered (Here's a hint: none of us).
Ringleader of the Strange Kids Club, Rondal Scott, joins the Nerd Lunch table this week. After hearing about the happenings over at strangekidsclub.com, we play agent and casting director for some favorite actors that haven't been in the spotlight recently. Find out who we want to see more of, what would be a good comeback role for each, and what sort of show or movie could accommodate our motley crew of favorites. If web sites can get migraines, IMDB may have one after this episode.
Nicole Wakelin of TotalFanGirl.com joins the Nerds to expose some shocking revelations about nerdy franchises and icons that they feel they should like, but don't. Star Trek Voyager, The Watchmen, Stargate, and Game of Thrones are all on the hit list of at least one of the panelists. Plus we chat about Dr. Manhattan's "little doctor" for the first and hopefully last time.
In this week's episode, Paxton, Jeeg and CT are joined by Nick, the genius behind DudeFoods.com. Nick explains the origins of DudeFoods, what it's like to go viral, his unique method for conducting a taste test, and more. Later in the show, these four fast food fanatics discuss some of the best, worst and creepiest fast food mascots and marketing campaigns.
Hey! We've doubled the amount of Nerd Lunch episodes available to you. In episode 2, the guys are joined by Shawn Robare from Branded in the 80s for an in-depth discussion of the Back to the Future franchise. Favorite movie? Favorite scene? Should there be a Part IV? Do the temporal mechanics make sense? Hang on to your flux capacitors, it’s going to be a nerdy ride.
Announcing the newest venture by Nerd Lunch...a podcast!
That's right, we're taking the discussions we've made infamous one step further and having them in auditory form. Jeeg and I will be joined by our good friend Paxton Holley from the Cavalcade of Awesome to hash out nerdy and foodie topics. And on occasion, we'll be joined by other special guests as well.
We are happy to be the first podcast to be released under the banner of The Atomic Geeks Podcasting Network. A couple of podcasts today, tomorrow the world.
In episode one, CT, Jeeg, and Paxton get to know one another a little better by taking some Internet personality tests. Find out which nerd is C-3PO, which is Chuck Norris, and who could survive the longest if chained to a velociraptor. Plus one of the nerds reveals an impressive and somewhat frightening knowledge of the Care Bears.
If you want to play along at home, you can check out the quizzes we took here:
- BrainFall.com
- Oatmeal Quizzes
Check out the first episode and let us know what you think.