Sunday, January 11, 2026

Flopcast 714: Memorial Show Part 2 - Flo!

Here's the second half of our memorial show, celebrating those we lost in 2025 from the world of pop culture and beyond. And yes, this week's list includes both actresses who played Flo, the sassy waitress at Mel's Diner, in the movie and TV versions of Alice. We also cover the mom from Lost in Space, the receptionist at WKRP, the sarcastic little sister on What's Happening!!, a Phantom Zone villain, a Spinal Tap keyboardist, a ghost-busting gorilla, a Cricket, a Turtle, a Spaceman, heavy metal's Prince of Darkness, and Buck Rogers. Plus many more. So get a beverage, get comfortable, and get a few Tom Lehrer songs stuck in your head.

Sunday, January 4, 2026

Flopcast 713: Memorial Show Part 1 - Norm!

We do this every year - time to look back and remember the people we lost in 2025 from the world of pop culture and beyond. This week's list includes favorites from music (Roberta Flack, Brian Wilson, Sly Stone), television (Ruth Buzzi, Loretta Swit, George Wendt), movies (Gene Hackman, David Lynch, Val Kilmer), comics (Peter David, Jules Feiffer, Jim Shooter), and many more. And we're not done, so come back for Part 2 next week. As always, bring plenty of beverages.

Sunday, December 28, 2025

Flopcast 712: Another Stupid Year

For our final show of 2025, we're just relaxing and reflecting on another year of this, the most popular podcast in the world (if you don't count every other podcast). So we're looking back at Flopcast subjects, segments, and guests, as well as concerts, conventions, and whatever other weird junk kept up occupied all year. We also reveal our New Year's Resolution. It will shock you.

Sunday, December 21, 2025

Flopcast 711: Everybody Knows a Turkey

It's our annual holiday spectacular! And once again we're talking about old Christmas cartoons, because that's all we care about. But this time, we're looking at a couple of cartoons we've never discussed on the show before, and they're both based on classic comic strips. (They're also both on YouTube, if you want to play along.) From 1979, A Family Circus Christmas features a ghost Santa, a candy cane farm in the clouds, a busty mom, and plenty of crazy jazz flute. And from 1982, Ziggy's Gift features the scrawny tree from Charlie Brown Christmas, the Irish cop from Frosty the Snowman, a creepy gray guy, and a million screaming turkeys. Both are magnificent. Also: A glitter bomb Christmas card from Panda! A Manos: The Hands of Fate Christmas card from Jacob! A lost Ziggy pencil sharpener! A lost TV show described as "Mission Impossible meets The Love Boat"! And the Mighty Morphin Figgy Pudding Pages! So please throw up the sash, turn with a jerk, and enjoy.

Sunday, December 14, 2025

Flopcast 710: Bless the Pugs and Chickens

It's the stupid holidays, so 'tis the season for a Top 4 ½ List of our favorite holiday dogs! Of course our list includes dogs from Christmas cartoons (compliments of Charlie Brown, the Grinch, the Simpsons, and more), as well as Christmas books and even a goofy Christmas song. If we missed your favorite holiday dog, let us know! Or just keep it to yourself! That works too. Also: An evening with the stars of Stand By Me (they brought along plenty of cherry flavored Pez), and a holiday show with a Carpenters tribute band in Woonsocket, Rhode Island! It's all just so festive that we can't stand it.

Sunday, December 7, 2025

Flopcast 709: Melt My Christmas This Christmas

Every year, dozens of ridiculous identical holiday movies are unleashed by Hallmark, Lifetime, Netflix, and the like. (They're so cookie-cutter that many of them literally involve cutting cookies.) And every year, we try to fix them by making them weirder. So we've selected a few new Christmas movies, and we're discussing their plots (featuring time travel, glassblowing, and pickleball) and casts (featuring, as always, Lacey Chabert). Then we're randomly inserting some strange new element (a camel with wings, perhaps) into each movie so it meets our strict weirdness standards. There, we just saved Christmas. Pass the figgy pudding.

Sunday, November 30, 2025

Flopcast 708: Amanda Runs This Town

Before we plunge into weeks of holiday silliness, here's something different for you! Five years ago, our friend Amanda decided to run at least one mile in each of the 351 towns and cities that make up Massachusetts. A month ago, she finished. And she's here to tell us all about the whole project. Including: Covered bridges, waterfalls, murder roads, World War II bunkers, Jaws filming sites, an alleged UFO encounter site, Myles Standish's legs, a chicken with a backpack, sweaty women on a bus, and much more. It all wrapped up in the geographic center of the state with dozens of friends, special Running Massachusetts t-shirts, and beer. But even if you weren't there, you can still help Amanda support Voices Against Violence; we'll have a link for you. Next week we'll be back to our usual festive shenanigans. Please bring eight gallons of egg nog.

Sunday, November 23, 2025

Flopcast 707: Holiday Torso Mishaps

As we creep into the holidays, once again we're looking back at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades of the past. (Debbie Gibson is scheduled to perform at this year's parade, so you should all be road-tripping to Manhattan RIGHT NOW.) We start with the 2015 parade (featuring that top-hatted honey-roasted freak, Mr. Peanut), then keep jumping back ten years at a time, all the way to the premiere of the Underdog balloon in 1965. (Underdog has been watching us from above ever since, and he is most displeased.) Along the way, we'll meet some of our favorite pop culture stars (even Alice from The Brady Bunch shows up), and we'll pay our respects to the giant balloon characters that were torn apart by trees and lamp posts. (Now we know why Kermit the Frog and Pink Panther hate Thanksgiving.) So fix yourself a festive plate of popcorn, jelly beans, pretzels, and toast, and enjoy.

Sunday, November 16, 2025

Flopcast 706: This Girl Loves Her Air Supply

When our favorite 1980s soft rock band comes to the town where we spent the 1980s, you know we'll be there. And so Kevin has a report from the sold out Air Supply concert at the Stadium Theatre in Woonsocket, Rhode Island! (We were front row center. Close enough to catch an official Air Supply guitar pick? You bet.) Also: The Mayor of Chickentown joins the Early Birds Club! Kevin accidentally runs a half marathon! And Finnish nannies sing Badfinger! Next week we'll have some holiday stuff. This week we're just being goofy.

Sunday, November 9, 2025

Flopcast 705: Flopless in Seattle

We're back with our full report on the city of Seattle, which turned out to be way over on the other side of the continent. (Probably should have packed a bag or something...) How many weird and silly activities could we squish into just a few days out west? Let's find out. Including: Retro-futuristic fun at the Space Needle! A robot on the monorail! Angry otters at the aquarium! A massive collection of nerd stuff at the Museum of Pop Culture! Giant trolls! A visit to Archie McPhee's Rubber Chicken Museum! A visit to filming locations from Twin Peaks and Northern Exposure! A fortune-telling psychic chicken! And yikes, even more. Why, we'll even teach you the proper way to pronounce "Seattle," if you believe everything from The Brady Bunch. And we do.

Sunday, November 2, 2025

Flopcast 704: Dopey and Soapy

It's been about a year since we killed a whole episode flipping through an issue of Dynamite, that classic magazine for kids of the 70s and 80s, so let's do it. We have an issue from 1976 (compliments of Chris from Sci Fi Explosion!) and on the cover are America's favorite toothy Mormons, Donny and Marie Osmond! Also in this issue: Fashion tips direct from Medford, Massachusetts; an Elton John pinball machine; a remarkable new gadget called the Betamax; the adventures of the Dynamite Duo and their new superhero pal, Jive Turkey; Magic Wanda in her painter's pants; a visit to Marvel Comics to learn about Spider-Man; weird nicknames for Ron Howard; how to start your own sky-writing business; how to cook ping pong balls; a sad trombone player; Dynamite Bummers; and much more. It's fantastic. So when your teacher hands out this month's school book club order form... you know what to do.