Sunday, May 15, 2022

Flopcast 523: The World Forgot to Stop Us

It's our big silly tenth anniversary show! Yes, we have released a Flopcast episode every week for TEN YEARS. (Also, yes, we're sleepy, and yes, we're completely out of ideas. But here we are.) And we're celebrating with a special tenth anniversary FlopFight! Kornflake provided the contestants, and it's a bizarre randomized assortment of characters from sitcoms, movies, cartoons, and more. The competitions are equally ridiculous, involving jug bands, ant farms, and an Etch A Sketch. The results will shock you! Unless you've been listening all these years. Then it's pretty much what you'd expect.

Sunday, May 8, 2022

Flopcast 522: You Sleepy Podcaster

After a too-long break from the show, the Mayor of Chickentown is back as our special guest co-host! (It's more court-ordered community service, we assume.) We start with a look at the recently-announced 2022 inductees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (We're happy about Lionel, Dolly, Pat Benatar, and all those Durans. On the other hand, still no 38 Special, but we can dream...) Then Kevin reports on this year's Watch City Steampunk Festival, where amongst all the geared and goggled humans, we found old friends Jessica, Sergio, and Panda! (Jessica gave a stunning performance as festival queen, she and Sergio are working on new music with their metal band Anaria, and Panda is actually Draculina in the comic books now. Our friends are pretty ridiculously amazing.) Kevin also picked up some weird old paperback books, including Mad books by Al Jaffee and novels based on Leave It to Beaver and The Brady Bunch. (Just try to keep us away from a Brady book. We'd read one about Fake Jan alone.) Also: A surprise caller on the Flopcast Hotline! (You'll probably recognize the voice.) Next week: Our tenth anniverary episode. Do not get excited.

Sunday, May 1, 2022

Flopcast 521: Everything Went Wrong, Sir

Kevin is being watched by enemy birds; Green Day coffee is on the way; Hit Parade celebrates five years of podcasting (with a quote from the Mayor of Chickentown!); The Flopcast celebrates ten years of podcasting in a couple of weeks (but we don't know what we're doing); we lightning-round through a bunch of TV talk (about Atypical, Picard, Derry Girls, Stranger Things, Girls5eva, Russian Doll, Umbrella Academy, Bridgerton, Is It Cake?, Vegetable Soup, The Monkees, This Is Us, Taskmaster, and especially Diff'rent Strokes); and things get weirdly musical when Kornflake breaks out... the Orba.

Sunday, April 24, 2022

Flopcast 520: A Not-So-Hot Gabfest

One again we've let the Chickentown Studios Supercomputer randomly determine our discussion topics, which means we're talking about "Talking Out of Turn" (an obscure 1980s single from a classic rock band), Action Jackson (the 1988 movie sadly not based on the Mego action figure line), The Young Rebels (a 1970s Revolutionary War-era TV series with Louis Gossett Jr.), and The Young Riders (a 1980s western TV series totally not inspired by Young Guns). Also: Classic rock keyboardist Chuck Leavell has a birthday, and Kornflake rides the prog rock school bus.

Sunday, April 17, 2022

Flopcast 519: CHICKEN IS IN CUSTODY

It's a Chickens in the News follow-up report! We're revisiting the rogue hen that tried to break into the Pentagon a few weeks back, but now we have the official incident report to examine. (Has the Freedom of Information Act ever been put to better use?) And we've unearthed some startling new details, which may or may not involve a parking lot salad bar. Also: Kornflake is reading about a lost dog, Kevin is reading about Dazed and Confused, Ricardo Montalbán is reading to the children, comic book creators are stealing Kornflake's dreams, and there's a surprising connection between rare insect species and the stars of Baywatch. Just a typical Saturday morning here in Chickentown.

Sunday, April 10, 2022

Flopcast 518: 80s Vehicle FlopFight Part 2 - Light Up the Letters

Special guest Blasted Bill is still here, and our favorite vehicles from 1980s pop culture are still doing battle in our latest FlopFight tournament. Some major players were knocked out last week (farewell, A-Team van) as Airwolf flew straight into the finals. Can anything stop that high-tech TV helicopter? The train from Silver Spoons and the station wagon from Nation Lampoon's Vacation are sure gonna try. Surprise upsets and random moments of silliness are guaranteed. Also: Happy Birthday to legendary voice actor Billy West! If the Red M&M were a 1980s vehicle, Billy would easily win the FlopFight.

Sunday, April 3, 2022

Flopcast 517: 80s Vehicle FlopFight Part 1 - Bike on Bike Action

Our old pal Blasted Bill returns, and Bill is here for a FlopFight! The subject is 1980s vehicles, so your favorite cars, trucks, vans, and bikes from 80s movies and TV shall do battle. (Mr. T has the van. And if Jan Michael Vincent brings the helicopter, Hasselhoff will supply the talking car.) And it's a FlopFight, so the battles will be weird. (Which vehicle would make the superior birdwatcher? Let's discuss.) Also: Happy Birthday to Billy Dee Williams! Time to party on Cloud City.

Sunday, March 27, 2022

Flopcast 516: Carrie Is a Problem

It's just more random silliness, just for you. We imagine a world in which Kornflake is in control (it'll be all Howard Jones concerts, all the time), and Kevin recalls racing a turkey through the mean streets of Chickentown (the turkey won, of course). Then our supercomputer forces us to discuss Capitol Critters (the short-lived cartoon series with Doogie Howser as a field mouse in Washington DC), Arcade (a Tron-like movie starring Q from Star Trek and Ralphie from A Christmas Story - how did we miss this?), and another mystery pop song from the 1980s. Can you guess the song before Kornflake? Probably.

Sunday, March 20, 2022

Flopcast 515: Dedication to Pie

Another quick random show, including: Happy Birthday to Matthew Broderick (star of Ladyhawke) and Elton John (star of the "Nikita" music video); Kevin has a pile of 80s movie promo buttons ("Free Johnny Dangerously!"); Gloria Estefan is a cat; Madonna is not a mermaid; the American Sci-Fi Classics Track hosts another Battle of the Fictional Bands (former champion Dr. Teeth was excused this time); they're rolling D&D dice on But First, Let's Talk Nerdy; and of course, we're celebrating Pi Day. With pie.

Sunday, March 13, 2022

Flopcast 514: Say We're Wrong

Time for a hugely important correction: Last week we got a couple of obscure Julian Lennon videos mixed up. (The "we" means Kevin. Kornflake was innocent this time...) But it's an excuse to revisit the wonderfully ridiculous "Stick Around" video, featuring cameos by stars from Square Pegs, Family Ties, The Karate Kid, and Saturday Night Live. Then we look at the week that "Stick Around" peaked on the pop chart in May 1986. Julian only reached number 32, while Flopcast favorites like The Outfield, OMD, Whitney, and Janet had top ten hits. If you managed to look away from MTV that Saturday night, your options included Gimme a Break, The Facts of Life... and the 1986 Miss Hollywood beauty pageant. (We checked - the whole thing is on YouTube, and it's hosted by Alan Thicke. You know what to do.) Meanwhile the Brat Pack continued to dominate the big screen, with Ally Sheedy starring in two of the top four movies. (Johnny 5? Yeah, he's still alive.) So pop in a Pet Shop Boys cassette and flop back 36 years with us. Also: World Frog Day is this week. Celebrate by hopping into traffic.

Sunday, March 6, 2022

Flopcast 513: Take the Chickens Bowling

This week we let the Chickentown Studios supercomputer randomly determine our discussion topics. (Does this mean we're completely out of ideas? Oh, that happened six or seven years ago...) The result is an even weirder show than usual. Including: The 40th anniversary of Pac-Man Fever; songwriter Carole Bayer Sager's tribute to Mac and Me; Julian Lennon music videos (Correction: Kevin confused "Say You're Wrong" with "Stick Around"); how Wayne and Garth inspired Kornflake to pierce her ears; a 1980s sitcom Kornflake does not remember but hates anyway; Michael J. Fox's stunt double; Sheena's sugar walls; and oh yeah, a mystery date with a bowling chicken. Clearly our little experiment was a huge success, and humans should not be in charge of podcasts anymore.