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Sunday, December 8, 2019

Flopcast 396: Turkeyed Out

Kevin and Kornflake review their Thanksgiving weekends, which involved multiple dinners (Hobbit-style!), a movie trivia game (where the answer is always Footloose), a Sharpie car, concerts from Gustafer Yellowgold and Niki Luparelli, turkey-themed wardrobes, and turkey-themed wardrobe malfunctions. Plus: Happy Birthday to Jakob Dylan of the Wallflowers, a ridiculous New Zealand edition of Chickens in the News, and A Very Nancy Drew Christmas. It's a quick show, because the winter has already crushed us.

Sunday, December 1, 2019

Flopcast 395: Snowmen and Snow Misers - Talking Rankin/Bass with Rick Goldschmidt

It's a special show to ring in the goofy holidays, featuring our interview with offical Rankin/Bass historian Rick Goldschmidt! You know Rankin/Bass. It's the legendary animation studio that produced all those classic holiday shows, starting with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in 1964. Lots more wonderful cartoons followed, including Santa Claus is Comin' To Town (which gave us Burgermeister Meisterburger), The Year Without a Santa Claus (which gave us the Heat Miser and Snow Miser), 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (that's the one with the mice and the clocks), and yes, Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey. Beyond the holiday specials, Rankin/Bass was also responsible for Mad Monster Party, The Hobbit, The Last Unicorn, ThunderCats, and so much more. Rick's first book, The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass, is an invaluable resource for nerds like us, and his latest book celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Frosty the Snowman. Here on the Flopcast, Rick discusses the amazing talents behind the scenes at Rankin/Bass, many of whom he knew and worked with, including: character designers (and Mad magazine artists) Jack Davis and Paul Coker, Jr.; voice actors Paul Soles (Hermey the elf!), Bradley Bolke (Jangle the elf!), and Larry Storch (come on, LARRY STORCH!); composer Maury Laws; writer Romeo Muller; and the guys who started it all, Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass. Also discussed: Rick's experience as a guest this year at DragonCon, his picks for a couple of lesser-known Rankin/Bass projects we should all see, and his appearance on the TV show Collector's Call with Lisa Welchel! (That's right, Blair from The Facts of Life. You know we needed details.) Also this week: A holiday concert (and a new holiday EP) from Boston alt-rock legends Letters to Cleo, Speedy Ortiz, Grant's Advent Calendar, and Marisa Tomei. (Frosty would have a special message for Marisa: Happy Birthday.)

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Flopcast 394: Super Megafest 2019 - My Tony Danza Moment

It's a surprise Flopcast recording live from the middle of Super Megafest! (Kornflake wasn't even supposed to be there, so we were all just shocked and delighted.) We discuss our whole silly day at the convention, wandering around eyeballing the celebrity guests, including Spider-Man's Nicholas Hammond, 3rd Rock's French Stewart, MASH's Loretta Swit, The Munsters' Butch Patrick, wrestlers Tony Atlas and Ted DiBiase, practically everybody from The Warriors, all three Dukes of Hazzard cousins (Bo, Luke, AND Daisy)... and Kornflake's 80s sitcom hero, Tony Danza. (After Kornflake's historic meeting with Tony, we may have figured out who the boss really was.) Plus: Rubber Chicken Comics, Muppets, Legos, bootleg DVDs, a photo op with HR Pufnstuf and Sigmund the Sea Monster, and a surprise cameo by one of our favorite local costumers. You should have been there. It was just ridiculous.

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Flopcast 393: Notorious Martika

We're a few weeks late, thanks to all those weird train-themed shows, but it's finally time for our annual review of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees! The short version: We're happy to see Pat Benatar and Whitney Houston on the list, but in our hearts, we just want everybody to Wang Chung tonight. Come on, Hall of Fame. WANG CHUNG. Also: Kornflake hits the road with attack chickens and attack lobsters, Kevin almost survives SoulCycle, and Happy Birthday to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Tina Turner. We don't need another hero. We have Tina.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Flopcast 392: Topiary Joe

Okay, let's take a break from all that controversial train talk! It's finally time to catch up on some non-train stuff, including: Kornflake's Halloween (featuring a Yip-Yip costume, a giant boot, a Stan Lee pumpkin, and a jug band), Kevin's Halloween (featuring a classy chicken costume, weird movies in Vermont, Swamp Thing artist Stephen Bissette, and a turkey), Calista Flockhart's birthday (one of us knows Calista from Ally McBeal, and one of us knows her from Supergirl — you figure it out), and the long-awaited return of Chickens in the News! A giant chicken-shaped structure is being built in the middle of Georgia. And yeah, that probably means... FLOPCAST ROAD TRIP. Get in the van.

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Flopcast 391: Train Talk With Ed, Part 2 - Trainsplaining

This week we're joined again by Ed, longtime friend of The Flopcast, Sponge Awareness Foundation keyboardist, and train expert from the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway Museum! So yeah, that means more nerdy train talk! Learn the shocking truth behind the trains in pop culture classics like Stand By Me, Polar Express, Dumbo, School House Rock, and lots more. Does anyone know what happened to the train from Silver Spoons? (The shocking answer: No.) Can you ride a Boston train today that Next Karate Kid star Hilary Swank climbed on top of 25 years ago? (The shocking answer: Yes.) And which classic rock stars are also huge train geeks? (The shocking answer: Just about all of them, apparently.) All this plus plenty of immature giggling about "hump yards"! (It's a train thing.) So, you know, all aboard. You don't have to slip into a fancy train conductor uniform like Ed did... but it would be nice.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Flopcast 390: Train Talk With Ed, Part 1 - All Aboard, All Alone

This week Kevin and Kornflake are joined by special guest Ed, from The Sponge Awareness Foundation! But Ed is not just the other half of Kevin's old comedy band. Ed is also a train expert, and today we're talking trains. HEY, WAIT, COME BACK. This is The Flopcast, so specifically we're talking about trains from old movies, TV shows, and cartoons! Anyone else remember the short-lived 1979 show Supertrain? (It was Love Boat on a train, essentially. We miss it terribly.) Can you name the movies that had Jack Lemmon and Jon Cryer racing through Boston's South Station, just like Kevin and Ed did when being chased by screaming Sponge Awareness fans? Want even more details about that train scene in our favorite obscure summer camp show, High Feather? Ed has tracked down some fascinating facts about all this and much more. It's scary and fun. (Mostly scary. Happy Halloween.) Also: A Super Megafest preview and World Numbat Day, both of which we somehow make all about trains. Why, we might even keep the train talk going next week. You've been warned.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Flopcast 389: Space Ghost, Ghost to Ghost

It's another Flopcast Halloween show, and we're counting down our favorite ghosts in a terrifying Top 4 ½ List! We have ghosts from cartoons (where Shaggy screamed "ghost" with like eleven syllables), comic books (learn which ghost Kornflake wants to cosplay), sitcoms (we just saw the most beautiful ghost in the world), music, video games, and of course... breakfast cereal. (Not every cereal mascot sounds like Peter Lorre... but they should.) Also: Our 10-part 80s music series concludes with the Top Ten songs this week in 1989, including Kornflake's beloved New Kids, a dance music act Kornflake can't believe Kevin saw live, a seed of love, and some naughty elevator music. Plus: Happy Birthday to Weird Al! And what is Al's mysterious connection to a shady outfit known as the Classy Chickens? Listen and find out... if you dare.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Flopcast 388: He Reminds Me of Frankenstein

It's sort of a Halloween-themed show, but not really! Including: A concert report on super-cool garage pop band Bleached! (Their album Don't You Think You've Had Enough? might be our favorite record of the year...) Another concert report on a Beatles tribute supergroup, with Todd Rundgren, Christopher Cross, Badfinger's Joey Molland, Chicago's Jason Scheff, and Micky Dolenz! (Micky sang "Rocky Raccoon," and no one else is allowed to sing "Rocky Raccoon" anymore.) Kornflake hits the road again, does not find the Swan Boats, but does find coffee approved by the Godfather of Punk! We wish a Happy Birthday to one third of Wilson Phillips! A Halloween edition of the Pudding Pages leads to a discussion of something truly terrifying, the McRib! But nothing is more terrifying than the Top Ten songs this week in 1988! Seriously, it was 31 years ago, and we still wake up screaming...

Sunday, October 6, 2019

Flopcast 387: Hogwash!!

It's time to flip through another issue of the magazine we all bought through our school book club long ago, Dynamite! And this 1981 issue is an amazing one, because the cover features a hero of ours, and someone you've heard on The Flopcast: James "The Amazing" Randi! Did Randi teach any Dynamite kids to avoid being scammed by faith healers and psychics? Let's hope so. Let's also hope the kids kept reading, because this magazine also includes cat cartoons (Heathcliff, Garfield, and those odd B. Kliban cats), the Facts of Life girls, a Disney World tenth anniversary contest, Count Morbida's puzzle pages, how to buy a Speak & Spell, how to write to Donny Osmond, a couple of weird posters, and of course, Dynamite Bummers. This is a fantastic magazine; we recommend that you travel four decades back in time and renew your subscription. Also: The Top Ten songs this week in 1987 (look out, here comes the hair metal), and Happy Birthday to one of our three favorite Van Halen frontmen.