The Flopcast

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... The Flopcast website! The ESO Network! The Flopcast on Facebook! The Flopcast on Instagram! The Flopcast on Bluesky! The Flopcast on Mastadon! Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts! Email: info@flopcast.net Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation!   This week's promo: Tales From Hollywoodland!    

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.) The Flopcast website! The ESO Network! The Flopcast on Facebook! The Flopcast on Instagram! The Flopcast on Bluesky! The Flopcast on Mastadon! Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts! Email: info@flopcast.net Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation! This week's promo: Have Coffee, Will Travel!      

A few months back, to celebrate Saturday Night Live's 50th anniversary, we did a whole FlopFight tournament of SNL characters. 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 the man known only as... 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. And our regular links... The Flopcast website! The ESO Network! The Flopcast on Facebook! The Flopcast on Instagram! The Flopcast on Bluesky! The Flopcast on Mastadon! Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts! Email: info@flopcast.net Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation! This week's promo: Earth Station Who!  

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... The Flopcast website! The ESO Network! The Flopcast on Facebook! The Flopcast on Instagram! The Flopcast on Bluesky! The Flopcast on Mastadon! Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts! Email: info@flopcast.net Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation! This week's promo: Earth Station Boo!      

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. The Flopcast website! The ESO Network! The Flopcast on Facebook! The Flopcast on Instagram! The Flopcast on Bluesky! The Flopcast on Mastadon! Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts! Email: info@flopcast.net Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation! This week's promo: Earth Station Trek!    

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. Kevin was a guest on EnterpriseSplaining episode 46! And episode 47! And our regular links... The Flopcast website! The ESO Network! The Flopcast on Facebook! The Flopcast on Instagram! The Flopcast on Bluesky! The Flopcast on Mastadon! Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts! Email: info@flopcast.net Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation! This week's promo: Cosmic Pizza!      

If you've just been waiting all summer long for The Flopcast's annual robot-themed Top 4 1/2 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. Sci-Fi Explosion on Twitch! Ex Astris Scientia, our source for recycled Star Trek robots! And our regular links... The Flopcast website! The ESO Network! The Flopcast on Facebook! The Flopcast on Instagram! The Flopcast on Bluesky! The Flopcast on Mastadon! Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts! Email: info@flopcast.net Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation! This week's promo: Monkeeing Around!  

We're packing all our summer concert reports into one big show! First it's Aimee Mann in New Hampshire with her regular opener (and no stranger to the nerd world) Jonathan Coulton. (As longtime Aimee fans, we're still a little grumpy about missing the recent 'Til Tuesday reunion show...) Then we have two shows from the same exhausting weekend! First up is "Weird Al" Yankovic, who brought his Bigger and Weirder Tour (with weird opening act Puddles Pity Party) to a giant casino in Connecticut. Then the very next night, there was REO Speedwagon (sort of) and Styx, with opener Don Felder of the Eagles, at Great Woods back here in Massachusetts. (Mr. Roboto, we've missed you.) It was a fine bunch of super-fun nostalgic shows (including some random meetups with old friends of the Flopcast), and now we're ready to flop over and relax until Dragon Con. But do you still have any summer concerts coming up? If you're planning to Wang Chung tonight, do please let us know. The Flopcast website! The ESO Network! The Flopcast on Facebook! The Flopcast on Instagram! The Flopcast on Bluesky! The Flopcast on Mastadon! Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts! Email: info@flopcast.net Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation! This week's promo: The 42cast!      

After ten long silly weeks, we've arrived at the end of our 1980s-themed episodes. And 1989 was a huge year at the movies, so we thought we'd play one more round of our Movie Recasting Movie Character Movie Game. That means we're pulling characters from randomly-selected 1989 movies, and then inserting them into other movies. This usually results in much weirder movies. (Speaking of weird, a certain comedy musician starred in a 1989 movie...) Who gets to play this time? Batman? Indiana Jones? A Ghostbuster? A Heather or two? Harry and/or Sally? So many possibilities. And to help us sort it all out, please welcome returning Flopcast guest Blasted Bill! 1989 was a big year for Bill, and not just because he is constantly mistaken for Young Einstein. Blasted Bill's NEW TikTok account! And our regular links... The Flopcast website! The ESO Network! The Flopcast on Facebook! The Flopcast on Instagram! The Flopcast on Bluesky! The Flopcast on Mastadon! Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts! Email: info@flopcast.net Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation! This week's promo: EnterpriseSplaining!    

We're using our 1988 episode to finally wrap up our Backs of Life series, in which we review every backdoor pilot episode of classic 80s sitcom The Facts of Life. And this final two-part backdoor pilot from April 1988 is actually the end of the whole show! (Farewell, Tootie...) We start with a fleeting glimpse of the regular cast (which by this point also includes Australian moppet Pippa), but soon we're solidly in backdoor pilot territory. Eastland, the girls' old school, is in danger of closing, so Blair buys the place, and welcomes boys to enroll as well as girls. Then we see a whole new crop of young Eastland students, including some future stars: Juliette Lewis, Mayim Bialik, and Seth Green! Did this backdoor pilot lead to another beloved long-running series? Of course not. But does it end with the girls meeting a giant chicken? Well, kids, sometimes the world really seems to be living up to our dreams. The Flopcast website! The ESO Network! The Flopcast on Facebook! The Flopcast on Instagram! The Flopcast on Bluesky! The Flopcast on Mastadon! Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts! Email: info@flopcast.net Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation! This week's promo: Earth Station DCU!  

1987 was a transitional year in comic books. DC successfully relaunched Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Justice League in their new post-Crisis universe. Marvel started a new universe too, which they called, uh, "New Universe." Also at Marvel, Spider-Man got married, an event so big that an actual wedding ceremony was held at a baseball stadium. Meanwhile, Alan Moore wrapped up his brilliant run on Swamp Thing, American Splendor's Harvey Pekar appeared on Late Night with David Letterman, Max Headroom made the cover of Mad Magazine... and Peter Porker the Spectacular Spider-Ham met the nefarious Dr. Chickenstein. And hey, our pal Kevin Cafferty (from Gleaming the Tube and The Best Stuff in the World) is here to help us figure it all out! Because it's been 38 years, and comic book nerds like us are still waiting for the next issue of Sonic Disruptors... Gleaming the Tube! The Best Stuff in the World! And our regular links... The Flopcast website! The ESO Network! The Flopcast on Facebook! The Flopcast on Instagram! The Flopcast on Bluesky! The Flopcast on Mastadon! Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts! Email: info@flopcast.net Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation! This week's promo: Luke Ski's Animation & Stuff Podcast!    

Returning to the Flopcast after a full decade away, it's our old pal (and comedy musician, podcaster, animator, storyboard artist, and voice actor) the great Luke Ski! Luke came up with the subject for this week's Top 4 1/2 List, and it's a long one: The Top 4 1/2 Songs Made For A Movie Where The Title Of The Song Is Also The Title Of The Movie And The Lyrics Of The Chorus Of The Song! Got that? And since this is our 1986 episode, all of Kevin's movies and songs are from 1986. Luke's choices are also mostly from the mid-80s, which seemed to be the peak of this very important cinematic trend that no one else has ever noticed. It's a wild list which just might involve aliens, nerds, and a certain duck. Enjoy! And watch for episode 5 of the new Luke Ski's Animation & Stuff Podcast, also out this week! Kevin is Luke's guest over there, and we do another Top 4 1/2 List that's even weirder than this one. Find links to ALL of Luke's stuff right here! And our regular links... The Flopcast website! The ESO Network! The Flopcast on Facebook! The Flopcast on Instagram! The Flopcast on Bluesky! The Flopcast on Mastadon! Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts! Email: info@flopcast.net Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation! This week's promo: BatChums!      

It's the 40th anniversary of Live Aid, and we have a guy who was there. Our friend Rich Wilhelm takes us on a deep dive through his long day at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia for the biggest charity concert in history. Including: General admission tickets at the shocking price of thirty-five dollars! Rich's mom carefully recording the whole show on VHS! The unknown kid who talked his way into opening the concert! Philadelphia hometown heroes like Hall & Oates, Patti LaBelle, and The Hooters! The globe-trotting antics of Phil Collins (and Cher)! Led Zeppelin reunited! Our favorite loverboy, Billy Ocean! Tina's wardrobe malfunction (with a little help from Mick)! And the surprise Lionel Richie finale! Plus Madonna, the Cars, REO Speedwagon, Rick Springfield, Tom Petty, Run-D.M.C., Duran Duran, and pretty much everyone else! Hey, if you're gonna be trapped in an overcrowded stadium for sixteen hours on a hot summer day, you could do worse. These days, you can find Rich writing about music for PopMatters.com. But on July 13, 1985, Rich was at Live Aid. And the line to be super-jealous of Rich starts right here. Find Rich at PopMatters! And our regular links... The Flopcast website! The ESO Network! The Flopcast on Facebook! The Flopcast on Instagram! The Flopcast on Bluesky! The Flopcast on Mastadon! Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts! Email: info@flopcast.net Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation! This week's promo: The Watch-A-Thon of Rassilon!    

The Mayor finally gets a week off, because we have a special guest. Judy is one of Kevin's running buddies, and she teaches us all about ultramarathon running! (Have you ever run 100 miles in a day? Judy has. Don't you feel completely exhausted just reading that?) Then for some 1980s talk (which does happen occasionally around here), we explore the world of 80s fashion. Hopefully you still have your leg warmers and giant shoulder pads ready to go. And finally, since this is our 1984 episode, Judy shares her Top 4 1/2 List of favorite movies from that magical year. Is Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo at the top of her list? Probably not, but let's find out together... Follow Judy's running adventures on Intragram! The Best Stuff in the World covers Raiders of the Lost Ark! Gleaming the Tube covers Record City! And our regular links... The Flopcast website! The ESO Network! The Flopcast on Facebook! The Flopcast on Instagram! The Flopcast on Bluesky! The Flopcast on Mastadon! Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts! Email: info@flopcast.net Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation! This week's promo: Modern Musicology!  

Flopcast episode 683! As our 1980s-themed episodes roll along, we return to the weird movie game we played a few weeks ago. But this time we're looking at the movies of 1983. So we're yanking characters from randomly-selected movies, shoving them into different movies, and seeing what happens. Our participants are characters from Return of the Jedi, National Lampoon's Vacation, Superman III, Flashdance, and many more. Including... D. C. Cab. So yeah, that means Mr. T might get involved. And he already pities all of us. And our regular links... The Flopcast website! The ESO Network! The Flopcast on Facebook! The Flopcast on Instagram! The Flopcast on Bluesky! The Flopcast on Mastadon! Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts! Email: info@flopcast.net Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation! This week's promo: Dragon Con Report!