The Blob Show!: Recent Episodes
Tony Pellum
Hey Blobheads! Charley and Tony discuss all things Blob in THE BLOB SHOW!
Charley is a 6-year-old punching above her weight in discussion on classic monsters, regional horror, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, retro Nintendo systems, genre fare, and the long arc of how The Blob has infiltrated popular culture.
Tony, her dad, curates the programming, holds an MAS in Film Studies and is a firm believer that movies play an important part in our cumulative cultural development as a species.
Jo discusses her age-inappropriate love for Michael Myers and distracted-boyfriend-memes herself, crowbarring John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN as a gateway to Jason Voorhees.
In an interesting experiment in self-sabotage, Tony and Charley record a chess game for the audio medium.
Our resident NES aficionado Joey takes her co-hosting duties very seriously in our overview of Capcom's Mega Man (1987), Mega Man 2 (1988), Mega Man 3 (1990), and Mega Man 4 (1991).
Please enjoy a brief automated reading of the history of The Blob Show which serves as the hype trailer for our return.
The whole gang is back to compare and contrast two evil teams of animatronic robots posing as entertainment at children's dining establishments. We're talking Blumhouse's FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S (2023, d. Emma Tammi) and the Nicolas Cage vehicle that tried to steal its thunder, WILLY'S WONDERLAND (2021, d. Kevin Lewis).
Charley and Tony shake off the rust in their return to exhaustively spoil the ineffable Motern Media double-featch HEARD SHE GOT MARRIED (2021) and HEARD SHE GOT MURDERED (2023). Still keeping it niche in 2024, Charley even invites Matt Farley to perform in Arizona.
Charley and Tony unveil their favorite films of 2022 and talk a lot about feelings and grief!
In another instance of my offspring trying to out-esoteric me, Jo selects her ten favorite movies of 2022.
It's 2023 and we have Super Mario Bros. 2 fever. Joey tries her best to conquer its idiosyncrasies while Charley and Tony wonder at its unique world design and character play. In a collective effort, we try not to body shame Luigi.
Charley and Jo commandeer the program to measure their parents against the silliness quotient.
Tony, Charley, and Jo marathon the entire series of ARCHIE'S WEIRD MYSTERIES including the Blob-themed episode "Beware of the Glob."
Welcome back to PoochiTubi, the Blob Show sub-podcast where Charley navigates dog-themed family films available on the Tubi streaming service. Today's episode covers six more entries: BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE (d. Wayne Wang, 2005), ARMY DOG aka LEAP (d. Ezra Kemp, 2016), THE RETRIEVERS (d. Paul Schneider, 2001), PANCHO, EL PERRO MILLONARIO aka MILLIONAIRE DOG (d. Tom Fernández, 2014), DOGGY DAYCARE: THE MOVIE (d. Matty Johnson, 2015), and ROBO-DOG (d. Jason Murphy, 2015). Most of these films are unwatchable but I'm committed to the bit.
In celebration of Judy Garland's centennial birthday, The Blob Show unearths a very special, unlistenable episode from the archive: a feature-length The Wizard of Oz commentary recorded in 2020. Please sync up your listening device with the 1939 MGM classic for intended, punitive results.
Charley and Tony dissect the 1990 sequel to A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia after Uncle Marky leant us a Super Game Boy. ASMR fans rejoice; the jellybeans are back.
Charley doesn't let Tony get much of a word in edgewise in her breakdown of Tommy Lee Wallace's miniseries STEPHEN KING'S IT (1990). We also detour into such light subjects as original sin.
Welcome to PoochiTubi in which Charley navigates dog-themed family films available on the Tubi streaming service. In today's episode we cover UGLY BENNY (2014), WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS (1974), THE DOG WHO SAVED HALLOWEEN (2011), and LITTLE HEROES (aka PAWS TO THE RESCUE) (1999).
Charley and Tony return to count down their favorite films of 2021. Spoilers in the remaining show-notes.
Films mentioned: Strawberry Mansion (d. Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney); Psycho Goreman (d. Steven Kostanski); The Worst Person in the World (Verdens verste menneske) (d. Joachim Trier); Dead Till Death (d. Will Carsola); Skater Girl (d. Manjari Makijany); Saint Maud (d. Rose Glass); Agnes (d. Rickey Reece); Muppets Haunted Mansion (d. Kirk R. Thatcher); The Beatles: Get Back (d. Peter Jackson and Michael Lindsay-Hogg); The Legend of Luo Xiaohei (罗小黑战记) (d. MTJJ); The Power of the Dog (d. Jane Campion); Encanto (d. Jared Bush, Byron Howard, and Charise Castro Smith); Can't Get You Out of My Head (d. Adam Curtis); Mixtape (d. Valerie Weiss); Memoria (d. อภิชาติพงศ์ วีระเศรษฐกุล, Apichatpong Weerasethakul); Bad Seeds (Mauvaises herbes) (d. Claude Cloutier); Spencer (d. Pablo Larraín); Petite maman (d. Céline Sciamma); Mandibles (Mandibules) (d. Quentin Dupieux); Drive My Car (ドライブ・マイ・カー) (d. 濱口 竜介, Ryusuke Hamaguchi); The Adventures of Bandit and Wild Wes (d. Travis Mills)
In which we discuss the prototypical slasher/late-Universal monster and celebrate Ricou Browning. Please forward your well-wishes to the Gill-Man actor here:
Ricou Browning
5221 SW 196 Lane
Southwest Ranches, FL 33332
In honor of our Michigan listeners, we delve further into our exhaustive coverage of Oz On Film this week exploring the two-strip Technicolor silent record of The University of Michigan League's 1936 freshman pageant OZ UNIVERSITY. At least two pressing questions are raised: Is this Professor Wogglebug's first (only?) film appearance? How does Dorothy's trouble with villainous anthropomorphic architecture connect to the Link's quest for the Mask of Scents? I thought this was a pretty esoteric episode until Charley had me hold her beer.
Charley and Tony hand the reins to our new showrunner, Joey. A companion piece to episode #092, our resident Goosebumps expert recaps the television adaptation of R.L. Stine's THE BLOB THAT ATE EVERYONE (d. Randy Bradshaw) and conducts a brief interview with Goosebumps himself. You wouldn't understand.
Sub-amateur birders Charley and Tony discuss some recent desert spottings including the Canyon Towhee, Abert's Towhee, Gambel's Quail, Cactus Wren, and the invasive Great-tailed Grackle.
Tony tries to marshal some arrangement in this rocky episode as Charley and Joey chase the pie-in-the-sky fool's errand of synopsizing PAW Patrol: The Movie ("not the show, the movie"), though some may call their recap rubble. Behind the scenes, Tony continues his investigation into whether "PAW" is an acronym justifying its title formatting; more to come.
Charley and Tony get literary with a bedtime review of the fifty-fifth book of R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series: The Blob That Ate Everyone.
Charley draws parallels between the Depression-era 2000 Coen Brothers screwball musical and the politics of Rafael Pérez Grovas's 1981 film SANTO AND THE BORDER OF TERROR (Santo en la frontera del terror) proving The Blob Show is always a good place to call out white supremacy.
We celebrate our new Poland listens by providing commentary over Zbigniew Rybczyński's 1975 experimental animation OH! I CAN'T STOP! (Oj! Nie mogę się zatrzymać!) and discuss whether its POV monster should be invited into the blob canon.
Charley struggles to bridle her enthusiasm though we are only seven episodes into John R. Dilworth's COURAGE THE COWARDLY DOG.
Charley bookends her THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: MAJORA'S MASK coverage drawing parallels to Wang Chu-Chin's 1988 Taiwanese action-fantasy THREE-HEAD MONSTER aka GINSENG KING. We surprisingly cover a lot of serious topics (genocide, omniscience) and big feelings in an episode about zombies and giants, but maybe that's to be expected from a purported NEVERENDING STORY knockoff.
HEY! HO! BLOB SHOW! Here is an episode where we talk about death, punk, and fascism. We also draft Ramones and speculate as to whether Japas, the bass player for THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: MAJORA'S MASK house band The Indigo-Go's, is modeled after Johnny Ramone.
The gripping conclusion to Charley's THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: MAJORA'S MASK walkthrough in which she defeats the titular villain's various incarnations and reminisces on the Skull Kid's redemption.
Charley muses on the emotional weight of THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: MAJORA'S MASK's most protracted side-quest: Link runs around for three days playing matchmaker for two star-crossed lovers only to reunite them in time for the apocalypse. She has been replaying this side-quest all week and was also tickled to see the end of Sakon's narrative arc.
It wouldn't be The Legend of Zelda if it didn't get a little spooky. In part four of our MAJORA'S MASK miniseries (The Blob Show's own sidequest), Charley explores the Ikana Graveyard, Canyon, and Castle while encountering lots of zombies, mummies, ghosts and skeletons.
Episode 3 of our THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: MAJORA'S MASK miniseries. Charley talks swimming with the Zora, sneaking around the pirate fortress at Great Bay Coast, and the different bosses of the Great Bay Temple including an encounter with fiendish blob Mad Jelly (that's Schizo-Schleim for our German listeners).
Episode 2 of our THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: MAJORA'S MASK miniseries. Charley talks about Goron life, Snowhead Temple, and the wonders of Romani Ranch.
The first part of the miniseries in which Charley excitedly talks about the 2000 Nintendo 64 release THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: MAJORA'S MASK. This episode roughly charts the introduction of basic gameplay as well as a walkthrough of the Southern Swamp, Deku Kingdom, and Woodfall Temple.
Blazing a distinctly narrow trail in the genre of family-friendly splatter, Steven Kostanski delivers a fully-populated monsterverse in PSYCHO GOREMAN: a practical-effects-driven '80s pastiche which reads as insouciant STRANGER THINGS. Charley and Tony discuss how it subverts the tropes of suburban fear and breakdown of nuclear family in... scratch that... they narrate a funny toilet scene, diss STAR WARS, and complete an exhaustive PG monster draft.
Did you know monkeys aren't the only flying anomaly in Oz? Tony and Charley discuss the troubled production behind the scenes of the 1939 MGM production (going through directors Norman Taurog, Richard Thorpe, Busby Berkeley, George Cukor, Victor Fleming, and King Vidor) and give commentary on the extended (and sadly cut) Busby Berkeley-choreographed "If I Only Had a Brain" in which the Scarecrow flies. Lastly, we find out who has the brain when Charley takes the Wiz Quiz.
Charley and Tony dive into the Jackie Chan/Sammo Hung vehicle WHEELS ON MEALS and its readymade-franchise-seeking-movie-tie-in video game KUNG-FU MASTER (SPARTAN X, d. Takashi Nishiyama).
With summer just around the corner, it's Spielberg season again at the Blob Show. Charley and Tony talk JAWS and trauma, quickly review the blue raspberry SHARK BITE LOLLIPOP, and then embark on a tour of LJN's JAWS released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987, a game loosely structured after JAWS, THE REVENGE.
Charley and Tony report on location at Lake Como in Fort Worth, Texas where they saw many birds uncommon to their desert home. They discuss their corresponding plates in John James Audubon's The Birds of America, which these two dudes were able to tick. They also experience a tornado warning.
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Northern Cardinal
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Baltimore Oriole
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Red-winged Blackbird
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Black-crowned Night Heron
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Great Egret
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Black Vulture
Charley goes solo for analysis of SANTO IN THE VENGEANCE OF THE MUMMY (Santo en la venganza de la momia, 1971) d. René Cardona.
Nothing brings our family together like a creature feature. Tony and Charley discuss Frank Marshall's directorial debut ARACHNOPHOBIA (1990), a second-tier release from Amblin Entertainment in which the sum of its parts may be greater than the whole. We also play the eponymous 1991 spider shoot 'em up developed by BlueSky Software.
Sometimes the universe just gives you the best things like Santo and the blob in the same movie with a Jesús Zarzosa spy score.
After some early dismissal from Charley that this short documentary was "only talking," your hosts discuss the antics of fanaticism and the fun possibility of visiting the Phoenixville Blobfest one year.
And a happy birthday to The Blob Show! We recorded this episode on the one-year anniversary of our premiere. Charley immediately suggests we cancel the program and start a new podcast reviewing our favorite episodes of the first year of the Blob Show. So it gets a little meta.
Thanks for listening!
Joey joins Charley and Tony is this chaotic exploration of RKO's KING KONG (1933). We also review Rocket Fizz's King Kong Cola, speculate on the unrealized film projects of stop-motion animation pioneer Willis H. O'Brien, and debrief the intellectual property woes of director/creator Merian C. Cooper, Universal City Studios LLC, and Nintendo Co., Lt. in a long-winded segment titled King Kong Legal Corner.
The tables quickly turn on Charley's lighthearted Hyrule romp when the ReDead appear in the Nintendo 64 version of THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME. Tony and Charley talk the importance of sound design in the construction of fear, different Link appearances in the Zelda canon, and the 1989 Atlus/LJN Nintendo release FRIDAY THE 13TH.
An amorphous Greek casserole becomes mutated after being mistakenly struck by a UFO beam. Tony and Charley investigate the 1999 Blob parody THE ATTACK OF THE GIANT MOUSSAKA (d. Panos H. Koutras) while baking their own eggplant dish.
As we approach the one-year anniversary of The Blob Show— and my phone approaches insufficient storage— I thought I'd compile an olio of segments I couldn't bear to trash. These are largely from the show's early development when Tony and Charley were trying to find their voice and Joey was, literally, trying to find her legs.
Charley and Tony discuss three film adaptations of Frances Hodgson Burnett's THE SECRET GARDEN including those by Marc Munden (2020), Fred M. Wilcox (1949), and Agnieszka Holland (1993). And death.
With the magic of editing, Tony usurps Charley's experimental maze cartography episode to discuss the dichotomy of maturity and nonsense in Jan Švankmajer's 1971 stop-motion adaptation of Lewis Carroll's JABBERWOCKY (with a little help from Ringo Starr).
Tony and Charley discuss highlights from MGM's Tom and Jerry shorts of the Fred Quimby, Hanna/Barbera era including: SPRINGTIME FOR THOMAS (1946), THE YANKEE DOODLE MOUSE (1943), MOUSE TROUBLE (1944), QUIET PLEASE! (1945), THE LITTLE ORPHAN (1949), THE TWO MOUSEKETEERS (1952), MOUSE IN MANHATTAN (1945), THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1941), THE CAT CONCERTO (1947), JOHANN MOUSE (1953), and PUSS GETS THE BOOT (1940). We tie it all together with a Blob Bites segment discussing "What About Blob?", a 2019 episode of Boomerang's The Tom and Jerry Show.
Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2, S. 244/2 is performed by Martha Goldstein, CC in the public domain
https://musopen.org/music/44101-hungarian-rhapsody-no-2-s-2442/
After months of trying to figure the game out, Tony and Charley finally finish the 1989 Nintendo puzzle adventure DAVID CRANE'S A BOY AND HIS BLOB: TROUBLE ON BLOBOLONIA. This episode quickly devolves into an excuse to eat jellybeans and also has the strange coincidence of featuring an appearance by Daft Punk on the day they announced their breakup: further proof that The Blob Show will stop at nothing to drive a well-regarded property into the ground.
An homage to our Norwegian listeners, Charley unearths her first found-footage movie-- André Øvredal's TROLLHUNTER (Trolljegeren)-- and grapples with the medium. We also discuss the differences between being 4 and 5 years old, whether or not one can believe Valentine's Day, and the differences and similarities of TROLLHUNTER's Norwegian trolls and FROZEN's Norwegian trolls.
In the latest episode of Charley-on-Charlie, we celebrate a couple of birthdays: Charley turns five (as a reminder to change the show description) and Charlie Chaplin's THE KID turns 100!
Charley introduces Tony to the Paul Rudish's shorts series MICKEY MOUSE and we discuss our favorite surrealist slapstick moments from season one. We also walk through the Capcom/Hudson Soft release MICKEY MOUSECAPADE (Mickey Mouse: Fushigi no Kuni no Daibouken;ミッキーマウス 不思議の国の大冒険 1987/1988) for the Nintendo Entertainment System and tease a future crossover episode discussing Floyd Gottfredson's Phantom Blot and how it morphed into the blob-related Shadow Blot in another Mickey Mouse video game, EPIC MICKEY (2010).
Also discussed: The Adventures of Captain Comic (1988), Ub Iwerks, Osamu Tezuka, Robert Clampett
Charley and Tony count down their top ten films (+1) of 2020. Spoilers in the remaining show-notes.
Films mentioned: Shadowed (d. Lotta Losten and David F. Sandberg), The Haunted Swordsman (d. Kevin McTurk), Death Blood 4: Revenge of the Killer Nano-Robotic Blood Virus (d. Chris DePretis), Nomadland (d. Chloé Zhao), Sonic the Hedgehog (d. Jeff Fowler), Driveways (d. Andrew Ahn), Stargirl (d. Julia Hart), The Kid Detective (d. Evan Morgan), Soul (d. Pete Docter and Kemp Powers), Possessor (d. Brandon Cronenberg), Over the Moon (d. Glen Keane and John Kahrs), Lovers Rock (d. Steve McQueen), System Crasher (Systemsprenger d. Nora Fingscheidt), The Mortuary Collection (d. Ryan Spindell), Scoob! (d. Tony Cervone), I'm Thinking of Ending Things (d. Charlie Kaufman), WolfWalkers (d. Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart), I'm Your Woman (d. Julia Hart), Onward (d. Dan Scanlon), The Invisible Man (d. Leigh Whannell), The Slug Finger (d. Lily Shaul), The Painter and the Thief (Kunstneren og tyven d. Benjamin Ree)
Tony gets emotional in the time of COVID-19 talking The Muppets with Charley who, despite Tony's protests, has shown little affection for the felt troupe. We also make a triumphant return to the format discussing Muppet Babies in a Blob Bites segment of episode "Invasion of the Muppet Snackers."
In this latest installment of Charley-On-Charlie, we cover the the 1928 Chaplin film THE CIRCUS and its similarities to the 1984 Konami action arcade game CIRCUS CHARLIE (サーカスチャーリー, Sākasu Chārī) as ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System (1986). We haven't watched the kid one yet.
A special Charley-on-Charlie episode of The Blob Show in which Charley discusses Charlie Chaplin's 1925 film The Gold Rush and the potential of a Charlie Chaplin-themed birthday party next month.
Happy New Year from The Blob Show! This week Charley and Tony give the full scoop on some of the important animated features of 2020. We're talking Aardman; we're talking Pixar; we're talking WolfWalkers; we're drafting Lupin's crew.
Films discussed: A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2019), Shaun the Sheep (2014), Soul (2020), Inside Out (2015), Onward (2020), Over the Moon (2020), Up (2009), Gnome Alone (2017), Lupin III: The First (2019), WolfWalkers (2020), The Secret of Kells (2009), Song of the Sea (2014).
On this sixth day of Christmas, Charley and Tony cover the 1926 Robert F. McGowan Our Gang short Good Cheer and NBC's animated The Little Rascals' Christmas Special directed by Charles Swenson and Fred Wolf in 1979. This is followed, at Charley's suggestion, by a completely impromptu countdown of our six favorite Christmas films which turns out much smoother than expected.
Films discussed: Good Cheer (1926), Gremlins (1984), The Little Rascals' Christmas Special (1979), "The Little Rascals" (1955), Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (1977), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Remember the Night (1940), The Grinch (2018), A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), Frozen (2013), Batman Returns (1992), It Chapter Two (2019), Joker (2019), "PJ Masks": Gekko's Nice Ice Plan (2015), Black Christmas (1974), WolfWalkers (2020), Babes in Toyland (1934), Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983), "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse": Mickey Saves Santa (2006).
The Bird Show returns with a look at the 19th Century lithographs produced/commissioned by British ornithologist John Gould of birds featured in the Christmas carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas".
Pieces discussed include:
·Mute Swan, Birds of Great Britain Pl. 289 by Joseph Wolf, 1862
·Red-breasted Goose, Birds of Europe Pl. 351 by Edward Lear, 1832-1837
·Black Ouzel, or Blackbird, Birds of Europe Pl. 72 by Elizabeth Gould, 1832-1837
·Grey Junglefowl, Birds of Asia Vol. 7 Pl. 66 by William Matthew Hart, 1877
·Turtle Dove, Birds of Europe Pl. 246 by Elizabeth Gould, 1832-1837
·Barbary Partridge, Greek Partridge, Birds of Europe Pl. 261 by Gould/Lear 1832-1837
Charley and Tony are joined by special guest and frequently-referenced member of the Blob Show family, Uncle Marky to discuss one of his childhood Yuletide fears: Joe Dante's GREMLINS. This is a rare film that scratches every Blob Show itch: it is structured like THE BLOB, references THE WIZARD OF OZ, is full of practical effect creatures with a strong in-world mythology, and is seasonally appropriate to boot!
Charley gets introduced to the comedic power duo Laurel and Hardy through their 1934 Christmas feature BABES IN TOYLAND aka MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS. Charley has some very strong feelings as to whether this qualifies as a Christmas film, and Tony waxes nostalgic for his introduction to Stan and Ollie at a young age. We also draft nursery rhyme characters, sort of.
Charley and Tony cover the nearly-forgotten stop-motion animation films of Snap The Gingerbread Man created by John Burton at Kinex Studios for distribution to in-home subscribers to the Kodak Cinegraph service. It's likely these pictures never screened theatrically or on television, but that can't snap the Blob Show from its comprehensive gingerbread coverage.
Films covered in the program:
IN WILDEST AFRICA or WILDEST AFRICA
THE MOON SPECIAL
MUSH ON
THE WITCH'S CAT
CLIMBING THE ALPS
THE CANNIBAL ISLE
HINDU MAGIC
Charley and Tony creep up on the holiday season with versions of Hansel and Gretel by three different masters of stop-motion animation. We compare and contrast Ray Harryhausen's THE STORY OF 'HANSEL AND GRETEL' from 1951, Lotte Reiniger's HÄNSEL AND GRETEL from 1954, and Tim Burton's Disney Channel Halloween special HANSEL AND GRETEL from 1983.
Charley kicks off the Christmas season with a telling of the classic folktale The Gingerbread Man. Consider this a teaser for an episode about the much-maligned Robert Altman legal thriller that we'll hopefully cover in 2030. We also discuss L. Frank Baum's JOHN DOUGH AND THE CHERUB and the different--now lost-- film iterations of the tale. John Dough may be cinema's first Gingerbread Man, tying it all back into our comprehensive Oz coverage here at The Blob Show. What I wouldn't give to have seen FAIRYLOGUE AND RADIO-PLAYS (1908).
Charley and Tony enjoy Thanksgiving weekend with some anthropomorphic houses. We compare Vladimir Popov's animated short from 1976, GNOME LEFT HOME (O tom, kak gnom pokinul dom, О том, как гном покинул дом) with Gil Kenan's 2006 animated feature MONSTER HOUSE. We also introduce a few new games to the world including family favorites STEP ON and GET OFF MY LAWN.
Charley and Tony are visited by very special guest and musical connoisseur Auntie Kara to discuss Tom Hooper's Andrew Lloyd Webber's T.S. Eliot's CATS. Apropos of the subject matter, we apologize for being plagued by dogs during the recording.
This movie stars Francesca Hayward, Judi Dench, Idris Elba, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, James Corden, Jennifer Hudson, Jason Derulo, Rebel Wilson and anyone else you want to hashtag here for potential search results. They play Jellicle cats.
Charley wanted to mix it up with some special coverage of the watercolor paintings of John James Audubon. In this episode we discuss the following birds within plates 271-277, primarily water fowl.
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Frigate Pelican, or Man-of-War
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Richardson's Jager, or Parasitic Jager
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Cayenne Tern, or Royal Tern
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Semipalmated Snipe, or Willet
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Noddy Tern
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King Duck, or King Eider
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Hutchins's Barnacle Goose
A double-dose of dem bones! This week Charley and Tony discuss shared community in the 2001 b-movie parody THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA (d. Larry Blamire) and tip our hats to our Irish audience by covering the 2018 short film THE THING AT 2:37 (d. Ray Sullivan).
Welcome to MUMMY TALK. It's Imhotep v. Harold as Charley and Tony compare and contrast the O.G. DCOM Under Wraps (d. Greg Beeman) with Stephen Sommers's adventure reboot, The Mummy. While it's not explicitly stated, there is a strong, repeated suggestion that a refrigerator makes the best sarcophagus.
Disney Channel Original Movie, Brandan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, Ghost, Mummy Dust, Universal Monsters
It's our most fast-and-loose episode yet: Irresponsible to our listeners because we had no gameplan, irresponsible to my family because my 4-year-old watched Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING! In my defense, it was a cable television edit. Also in my defense it was 100% my wife's responsibility. We also get closer than ever to having an actual episode about THE MUMMY (1999).
Charley watches the 1922 silent F.W. Murnau vampire epic NOSFERATU and requests dad be silent as well. That's right: Charley takes the reins for this unscripted/unrehearsed/mostly-unedited (sorry!) Halloween extra. Silent German cinema not your thing? Hopefully eating Fun Dip into the microphone is!
We hope you enjoy this extended Addams Family episode where Charley and Tony discuss the 1991 Barry Sonnenfeld film (starring Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd and Christina Ricci) as well as the three Nintendo Entertainment System games that feature the family: FESTER'S QUEST (1989), THE ADDAMS FAMILY (1992), and THE ADDAMS FAMILY: PUGSLEY'S SCAVENGER HUNT (1993). Say what you want to say and let us know who you think won the Addams Family Draft!
Charley and Tony talk DEATH BLOOD 4: REVENGE OF THE KILLER NANO-ROBOTIC BLOOD VIRUS (d. Chris De Pretis), a proud b-movie sci-fi romp out of Pleasanton, California. It's a real sequel in a fictional franchise and-- if that wasn't confusing enough-- wait until you hear Charley grapple with multiple dimensions, the bigfoot, her love for both female characters, and plumbing infrastructure. There's a lot going on here.
DEATH BLOOD 4 is available now on Amazon Prime http://amzn.to/2ZR7WtJ
A twofer! Charley and Tony hope you don't get too spooked this October despite our double-dose of scary coverage. First up, 本多猪四郎 (IshirōHonda) threatens earth with ominous star GORATH (妖星ゴラス, Yōsei Gorasu, 1962). It's more like a blob than you'd think.
Next, Charley watches MICHAEL JACKSON'S THRILLER (John Landis, 1983) for the first time. She's got a lot to say about this one and, despite some speculation that it was Thriller-filler to avoid bedtime, she's got some substantive arguments to make about the music video's narrative structure.
Charley is introduced to Scooby Dooby Doo in this experimental episode featuring the consumption of a 24" sandwich fit for Shaggy Rogers. We discuss the 2020 animated film SCOOB! (d. Tony Cervone) as well as "The Haunted Candy Factory," a 1973 episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies featuring Mama Cass and the Green Globs.
Walking skeletons and possessed appliances! The Blob Show hits the ground running with spooky October screenings. Today we visit William Castle's HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL and thank our Massachusetts listeners by covering a regional short, Michael Savino's ATTACK OF THE KILLER REFRIDGERATOR [sic] from 1984. We also, apparently, find out the order in which members of our family should be thrown into a vat of acid.
Attack of the Killer Refrigerator | The Tingler | Vincent Price
Ten seconds before starting the recording for a Scoob! episode, Charley insisted that we instead talk about our new favorite Japanese kaiju movie The Magic Serpent (d. Tetsuya Yamanouchi). It was not a wrong decision.
Charley and Tony give a definitive overview of blobs in the Pixar universe. From the creepers and leapers of Monstropolis in MONSTERS, INC. (2001) to the green gelatinous cube in ONWARD (2020), and the transformation of Buzz Lightyear and Mira Nova in the 2000 episode of BUZZ LIGHTYEAR OF STAR COMMAND: "The Crawling Flesh", we think we covered them all.
Tony and Charley discuss parents and agency in the great Hayao Miyazaki's (宮崎 駿) 2008 feature, PONYO. This is Tony's favorite movie to watch with Charley and, as luck would have it, this turned out being what would be The Blob Show's "For Your Consideration" episode.
Charley and Tony finally pay tribute to local Arizona filmmaking with a review of MAX RELOAD AND THE NETHER BLASTERS featuring Greg Grunberg and Kevin Smith (who shot his scenes about ten days before his "widow-maker" heart attack). The film, directed by Scott Conditt and Jeremy Tremp, drips with '80s retro-gaming nostalgia so we paired it with a Blob-Bites review of 1981's Commodore 64 release CRUSH, CRUMBLE AND CHOMP!, oxford comma be damned.
Spoilers abound. For example, characters have red eyes.
MAX RELOAD AND THE NETHER BLASTERS http://www.cineforgemedia.com/maxreloadmovie.html
Happy Labor Day! Charley and Tony celebrate the traditional end of summer with a salute to the workforce in Charlie Chaplin's MODERN TIMES. It's Charley's first Charlie and hopefully the beginning of a beautiful friendship. If you're into our niche poor sound quality, you're in for a real treat today with a guest spot from the neighbor's dog.
Charley and Tony complete the Spielberg hat-trick as we delve into LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK.
And then JURASSIC PARK III, JURASSIC WORLD, JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM, BATTLE AT BIG ROCK, LEGO JURASSIC WORLD: THE INDOMINUS ESCAPE, LEGO JURASSIC WORLD: THE SECRET EXHIBIT, LEGO JURASSIC WORLD: LEGEND OF ISLA NUBLAR, Ocean Software's JURASSIC PARK (1993, SNES), and Universal Studios' JURASSIC PARK: THE RIDE.
It's been a busy few weeks. Apologies to Colin Trevorrow for my pronunciation.
Charley and Tony cover a lot of ground in this episode. So much ground you might call it extra-terrestrial. We come at you with a surprise back-to-back Spielberg episode, delve into the ASMR subgenre, and give a shout out to our Wisconsin listeners with regional highlight THE DUNDEE PROJECT, the short 2017 UFO-hunting documentary by Mark Borchardt.
In this over-produced episode Charley and Tony get serious with a talk about dyno-DNA: First in a blob-bites segment discussing an episode of "Godzilla: The Series" and later gabbing about one of the biggest blockbusters of all time. I didn't know Charley would then give an exhaustive walkthrough of "Super Mario Bros. 2," but the episode keeps on giving.
Remember, if you scream at just the right time, it might just save your life! Charley breaks down one of her favorite movies, William Castle's THE TINGLER starring Vincent Price. If you're thinking, "that's great, but where has all the blob content gone?" you're in luck! We also reprise (and rename) our Blob Bites segment, discussing S1:E16 of the Canadian program MONSTER WARRIORS: "Beware the Blob Thing."
Special guest Joey, the world's biggest fan of the moon, drops by to discuss the 1902 Georges Méliès film A TRIP TO THE MOON. Charley and Tony also discuss various remakes including Segundo de Chomón's 1908 shot-for-shot remake EXCURSION TO THE MOON and the 1996 Smashing Pumpkins video "Tonight, Tonight" directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris.
Music featured in this episode:
Amazing Plan - Distressed Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Welcome to The Björk Show! Charley and Tony draft Björk's music videos through the '90s. We're talking Debut, Post and Homogenic with directorial influence from Michel Gondry, Stéphane Sednaoui, Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham, Sophie Miller, Danny Cannon, Jean-Baptiste Mondino, John "John K." Kricfalusi, and Alexander McQueen. Charley doesn't have much time for small talk in this one, probably because her draft strategy is laser-focused.
Charley and Tony return to Oz for the silent swashbuckling slapstick WIZARD OF OZ from 1925. Silent clown Larry Semon stars in (and writes, and produces, and directs) this auteur piece alongside Spencer Bell, Oliver Hardy, and Dorothy Dwan, and we break down the gags while getting haunted from the other side of the rainbow. Is it the ghost of Larry Semon who some suspect may have faked his own death? Will a mule kick the scarecrow over a fence into a cactus while he tries to get his lollipop back from a duck? Join the anarchy.
The first in, hopefully, an extended series of Godzilla coverage, Charley and Tony discuss all the monsters attacking in Ishirō Honda's GODZILLA'S REVENGE as well as their desire to try some sukiyaki and a strange pivot into the 2014 Adam Sandler film THE COBBLER.
Thank you, Montana! We don't know our devoted Montana listeners, but we've tried to honor them with an episode in which we discuss two films shot in Big Sky Country. Charley discusses The Carrot Monster's many doors in 1951's THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD and we rap about a much friendlier alien in 2020's SONIC THE HEDGEHOG.
Charley and Tony are back together discussing the symbolism of Superman in the Fleischer Studios/Famous Studios animated cartoons (1941-1943): the highs of noir/sci-fi and the lows of WWII propaganda.
Charley takes the reins in this special mini-ep discussing the 1941-1943 Fleischer Studios/Famous Studios SUPERMAN animated films.
Where's the bonbon? Tony introduces Charley to his long-standing Independence Day tradition of viewing SOME LIKE IT HOT. There's boats, there's yachts, there's trains, there's bicycles, there's getaway cars; this movie has it all. Despite Tony punting at the question, "who's drag?" Charley sums it up best: "A perfect movie, a perfect Blob Show."
Who has time for a battle of the sexes when there are plenty of ghosts to talk about? Charley and Tony discuss the fan favorite, 1984's GHOST BUSTERS and the 2016 film GHOSTBUSTERS which proved said fanbase is a garbage can. Which will be their favorite? Something strange, indeed.
Following a request from Auntie Kara, Charley discusses her first experience viewing a film based on a stage musical: the Sidney Lumet-directed and Joel Schumacher-written 1978 film THE WIZ. Tony forces the conversation to systemic racism and whether the "over the rainbow" promise of the American dream works for everybody under hypercapitalism, and things get heated as Charley wants to talk monsters and says "you're wrong. I'm right. That's not a part of the movie."
Charley extrapolates-- in great detail-- a dream she (claims to have) had which we transition into the topic of dream imagery in Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid's MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON (1943), and music video copycats "Gentleman Who Fell" by Milla Jovovich and "Tightrope" by Janelle Monáe.
We introduce a new segment "Blob Bits" to discuss the influence and reach of blobdom in media that doesn't warrant a full episode. First up is the 1960 episode of The Gumby Show: "THE GLOB." Next, Charley and Tony discuss whether the lessons learned in 1954's THEM! will provide useful alternatives in their domestic ant problem.
Tony and Charley discuss the exploits of Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, and "Humper" the Hunchback on their search for gold treasure, formation of a rock band, aerobics class attendance, love of chili beans, and time travel plot. This is a real movie: FRANKY AND HIS PALS.
Charley and Tony dig into two much-maligned B-movies: 1960's Horrors of Spider Island and 1964's The Horror of Party Beach.
Charley and Tony discuss toxic masculinity in the 1935 Universal monster film Bride of Frankenstein and discuss whether Kirby is a blob in the 1996 Super Nintendo game Kirby Super Star. Charley also stumps Tony in a rousing rendition of Mystery Screening Room.
What is this amorphous, gooey horror who beat the Blob to the silver screen by four months? Tony and Charley rap about the 1958 Japanese sci-fi monster, THE H-MAN. He is definitely the H-Man, not the Blob, and there is no confusion about his name or his game.
In a combo video game/movie review, Charley gives Tony a motivational speech about trying to tackle the notoriously bad Wizard of Oz video game. After a brief caffeine respite, they talk about feelings, monsters, and sisterhood in My Neighbor Totoro.
Charley and Tony discuss the David Bowie concert film Glass Spider (AKA Bowie 2) as well as another famous cinematic spider. Please don't alert CPS.
Charley and Tony go deep with the 1986 Henson/Lucas/Bowie joint Labyrinth with a creature draft and Charley challenges Tony to another round of the mystery screening room.
16-bit Special! Charley and Tony tackle the Jelly Blob and the Giant Baby in the Super Nintendo game Zombies Ate My Neighbors.
An experimental segment goes awry as Tony tries to guess a movie Charley has recently seen.
Welcome to The Green Blob Show! Today we discuss the problematic Flubber and answer such questions as "what constitutes a blob?", "who flies the Blob's spaceship?" and "what happens when the Blob rips out your bum?"
Charley and Tony discuss the cartoon films of John C. Lange including Joshua in the Box, Joshua and the Blob, Joshua's Harvest and The Yolk.
Subscribe to our Patreon to hear the outtake in which we discuss Joshua and the Shadow for 25 seconds.
Charley and Tony are back to discuss the 1972 sequel Beware! The Blob AKA Son of the Blob AKA A Chip Off the Old Blob
Episode 1 of Tony and Charley's The Blob Show in which we discuss Irvin Yeaworth's 1958 monster film The Blob.