Sunday, October 19, 2025

Flopcast 702: Weather Bird Treasure Bird

We're back from a quick visit to Albany, New York, where Kevin ran a half marathon (finishing in 309th place, probably not qualifying for the Olympics) and learned the shocking truth about Alice from The Brady Bunch. Now here in Chickentown, we're looking at an odd 1959 comic book called Weather-Bird. It stars a chicken and a goat, and the whole thing is a promotional gimmick to sell children's shoes. We love it. And we were reminded of some other weird comic book shoe ads. Several 1970s ads star a shoe-themed superhero called the AAU Shuperstar. One of his enemies is called Missile-Toe. And we can't stop thinking about them. We might have a problem.

Sunday, October 12, 2025

Flopcast 701: Super Wicked Awesome

It's no secret that we're rather obsessed with the 80s around here, so this week we're chatting with author Debby Meltzer Quick. Debby's first novel (the first of several!) is May I Have Your Attention Please, a mid-80s high school romance set in Eastboro, Massachusetts. Kevin and Debby discuss the novel itself, how much pop culture nostalgia to include in a story, how to draw from one's own life without getting too autobiographical, and much more. Including: 80s movies both well-remembered (The Breakfast Club) and largely forgotten (Give My Regards to Broad Street); going to the Worcester Centrum to see Van Halen, Ratt, and U2 (but alas, not Journey); getting up early for Underdog cartoons; working at the cookie shop at the mall; the weirdness of Orange Julius; early video game systems; bad coffee; new Coke; and the dining room carpet Debby has not been allowed to walk on for forty years and counting. We really enjoyed this conversation, and you will too. And if you can find Eastboro, Massachusetts on a map, please let us know.

Sunday, October 5, 2025

Flopcast 700: Flop Like the Wind

We didn't make any big plans for our big 700th episode, because that would have required effort, which is frowned upon around here. Instead we have a hastily assembled pile of random stuff, just for you. Including: Our ongoing cluelessness about Buc-ee's! An update on our favorite Bugaloo from Dragon Con! The 700th biggest song of the 1980s (according to our Ranking the 80s book)! The 700th biggest movie of all time (according to some list we found)! The upcoming Jukebox Thrillers anthology of 80s music-inspired short stories! And a Chickens in the News segment about Nike the rescued rooster! Hope you enjoy it. Hey, give us another 700 episodes, and maybe we'll start to get our act together.

Sunday, September 28, 2025

Flopcast 699: Dragon Con Review Part 3 - Chicken Grease

Our Dragon Con review finally concludes, just in time for us to get ready for next year's Dragon Con. We're looking at the last two days of the convention, including: Muppet talk with Muppet performers/designers Bill Barretta, Kevin Clash, Bonnie Erickson, and Dave Goelz! Actual trick-or-treating in the American Sci-Fi Classics Track room at Halloween Con! The science of Severance (it seems like a good idea)! Our British New Wave panel (with nary a Duran in sight, alas)! Our Hollywood Hits the Arcade panel (during which Joy Sticks was finally recognized as a cinematic masterpiece)! The Agatha All Along panel! Another wonderful Sci-Fi Explosion presentation, featuring Sico the Robot and drunk Ewoks! Another Roll-a-Panel, featuring the spectacular failure of our Ghost singalong! The Peacemaker panel! And our annual Dragon Con costume review, with Jaws costumes, Devo costumes, Caddyshack costumes, a Labyrinth Firey, a Bugaloo (!!!), and a whole lot of chickens. It was magnificent. See you next year, weird people!

Sunday, September 21, 2025

Flopcast 698: Dragon Con Review Part 2 - Misfits of Science Fiction

Our coverage of Dragon Con (Atlanta's massive Labor Day weekend nerd convention) continues! Thrill to every single weird thing we did on Friday and Saturday! Including: The Geek Girls Run! The Muppet Mayhem tournament! The return of the Music Video Book Club (during which Carly Simon hooked up with Sico the Robot)! Fantastic Four cartoons with Chris from Sci-Fi Explosion! The return of Classic Sci-Fi Court (during which Kevin defended a lost Justice League TV pilot)! ESO's Misfits of Science Fiction TV 1985 presentation (basically an excuse to make Courteney Cox badge ribbons)! The Mayor's Severance panel! Remy's Jaws panel! Kevin's Creature Commandos panel! Dave's Batman Forever panel! Even more panels with the casts of The Magicians, Arrow, and the Muppets! A late night show by nerd-funk band Raspberry Pie! And, of course, much more. And we're still not done! But next week we'll wrap up the whole silly weekend. Hopefully.

Sunday, September 14, 2025

Flopcast 697: Dragon Con Review Part 1 - Potatoes

Here we go with the first of three (yikes, let's hope it's just three) episodes reviewing everything we did at Dragon Con, the ultimate gathering of geeks over Labor Day weekend in Atlanta. Including: A visit to the Center for Puppetry Arts, where we found members of Emmet Otter's Jug Band and the Riverbottom Nightmare Band! Turtles and Muscovy ducks at Piedmont Park! All our weird friends from the American Sci-Fi Classics Track! Our guided tour for new Dragon Con attendees, during which we were secretly recorded for nefarious purposes! Dangerous fake Oreos! Classic arcade games and Geek Singalongs with Kate from Strange Animals Podcast! And some Molly Ringwald-style antics at the 80s Prom and the 120 Minutes dance party! Okay, that sounds exhausting enough, and we're just getting started. Come back next week as the silliness continues...

Sunday, September 7, 2025

Flopcast 696: SNL FlopFight Part 4 - Girlybirds

It's the shocking conclusion of our second Saturday Night Live character FlopFight tournament, and Dragon Con American Sci-Fi Classics Track co-director Joe Crowe is still here providing expert commentary. Our competitors may include a pair of insecure bodybuilders, a simple caveman, a lady with a less-than-positive attitude, and perhaps even the devil himself. It all leads to a showdown with last week's winner, and we shall determine the ultimate SNL character champion. (Spoiler: It's not Massive Head Wound Harry. Probably should have been.)

Sunday, August 31, 2025

Flopcast 695: SNL FlopFight Part 3 - Absolutely Marvelous

A few months back, to celebrate Saturday Night Live's 50th anniversary, we did a whole FlopFight tournament of SNL characters. (If you're keeping score, the winner was Will Forte's Falconer. Of course.) But since so many classic characters didn't get to play, we thought we'd just do it again. And since this is Dragon Con weekend, we thought we'd bring in a special guest: Dragon Con American Sci-Fi Classics Track co-director Joe Crowe! Joe will help us sort through this new field of goofy competitors, which just might include a visit to Fernando's Hideaway, a terrifying ride with a driving cat, and a showdown with the man they call... Johnny Canal. So join us and learn which SNL weirdo is advancing to next week's final round. Meanwhile, if your doorbell rings, go ahead and answer it. It's probably just a candygram.

Sunday, August 24, 2025

Flopcast 694: Dragon Con Preview Part 2 - See You in Court

We're just days away from Dragon Con, Atlanta's massive annual gathering of the geeks! And the full schedule of all eight zillion Dragon Con events has been released. So this week, after a quick guest update (Simon Pegg is in! Tom Wilson is out!), we're looking at our individual schedules, so you'll know how to find us or (more likely) avoid us. Including: The Dragon Con walking tours; the Geek Girls Run; the Sci-Fi Music Video Book Club; Classic Sci-Fi Court; a tournament of Muppets; panels about Severance, Peacemaker, Creature Commandos, new wave music, video game movies; and more! We'll even have weird badge ribbons for you. So hop on a midnight train to Georgia and get ready to party like you're the biggest nerd in the world. Who knows, perhaps you are...

Sunday, August 17, 2025

Flopcast 693: Dragon Con Preview Part 1 - We're Already Exhausted

Our Dragon Con coverage officially begins, and it might never end! Dragon Con is our favorite nerd event of the year, it's almost here, and this week we're looking through the guest list. Among those tentatively scheduled to appear are stars from Back to the Future, Daredevil, Buck Rogers, Star Trek, The Magicians... and even some actual Muppet performers. Also appearing will be many fine writers, artists, musicians, scientists, and humble podcasters, including a bunch of maniacs from right here on the ESO Network. Also: The 120 Minutes dance party! The return of Sci-Fi Explosion! The debut of HalloweenCon! And our weird idea for a gym teacher panel! Next week: More thrilling Dragon Con preview action! You might want to get to Atlanta and start standing in lines right now.

Sunday, August 10, 2025

Flopcast 692: Summer Blorgs

With a free week before we start like eight months of nonstop Dragon Con coverage, Kevin and the Mayor are trying something new: We're recording the show from outside Chickentown Studios, in the great and filthy outdoors. Hopefully this will provide a more festive summertime atmosphere, until the mosquitoes and bats and angry villagers show up. So with nothing better to do until a search party arrives, we offer a couple of new movie reviews (Superman and Fantastic Four), recommend a TV show or two, and plug Kevin's recent guest appearance on the EnterpriseSplaining podcast. And that's it! Next week, we'll have our first Dragon Con preview show. And we'll probably be back inside. It's scary out here.

Sunday, August 3, 2025

Flopcast 691: Recycle Your Robots

If you've just been waiting all Summer long for The Flopcast's annual robot-themed Top 4½ List... well, first, what's wrong with you? Go to the beach or something. But also... here it is! Our theme this year is "recycled robots." Sometimes a robot would be designed for some movie or TV show, and then later repurposed for some other movie or TV show. Forbidden Planet's Robby the Robot is the prime example. Robby had a decades-long career popping up in one project after another. A few oddball robots even started making appearances in the real world, so you could meet them at nightclubs or shopping malls. We'll look at a few of these jobbing journeyman robots (four and a half of them, to be exact), and we have a special guest to show us the way. Our old pal Chris Cummins, host of Sci-Fi Explosion and expert on all manner of bizarro pop culture, is back! Chris knows a thing or two about weird robots. And now you will too.