Happy Holidays from your hosts, darlings! This year, we dig a little deeper into the bottomless pit of 80s TV Christmas specials and find one of Jim Henson's lost gems...1986's The Christmas Toy!
When favorite toy, Rugby Tiger (voiced by Dave Goelz), finds out that it is Christmas Eve and he is slated to be replaced by a new favorite toy come Christmas morning, he embarks on a journey to restore himself to the gift box and hold onto his coveted title! Accompanied by cat toy, Mew (voiced by Steve Whitmire), Rugby must avoid being caught out of the play room or risk being frozen forever! When his fellow play room dwellers discover his mission, they start a mission of their own...to stop him from ruining Christmas and potentially getting them ALL frozen forever!
This was one of the lesser known ABC Christmas specials, but one that Chrysten grew up watching on VHS, recorded off of TV. And, of course, Dan has never seen it. Will the Christmas magic still be alive in this special for our hosts? Join us and find out! And don't forget to RATE, REVIEW & SUBSCRIBE!
**Here's the link to the AV Club article that we referenced in the episode: https://tv.avclub.com/the-christmas-toy-presents-the-darkest-holiday-of-jim-h-1798242551
Sharpen up your skates, darlings...this month Dan & Chrysten are revisiting the ultimate sick day movie: The Cutting Edge! Just reading the title makes you feel it, right? The smell of the ice, the thrill of competition, the excitement of young love!
When captain of the 1988 USA Olympic hockey team, Doug Dorsey (D.B. Sweeney) sustains an injury during a game, he thinks his career on the ice is over. Until he receives an offer to become the figure skating partner to notorious ice queen, Kate Moseley (Moira Kelly). Sparks fly between well-bred, uptight Kate and relaxed and groovy blue-collar Doug immediately...but will their feelings for each other as well as a controversial and dangerous move called the Pamchenko help them to win Olympic gold? Will your hosts give this movie a perfect 6.0? Join us and find out! And don't forget to RATE, REVIEW & SUBSCRIBE!
Please check out our guest episode on the ScreamQueenz podcast and donate to their fundraiser for New Alternatives!
CLICK THE LINK: https://fundraise.newalternativesnyc.org/fundraiser/1706592
Do you like scary movies? Ah, a question that has become so deeply a part of the lexicon that it almost rivals Hamlet's "To be or not to be?" This month, your hosts delve into the film that many credit as single-handedly saving the entire horror genre...Wes Craven's 90s horror/comedy hybrid Scream!
Starring a hot, young cast of 90s idols, our story focuses on Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), a normal teenage girl in a normal American small town, Sidney faces the same daily trials that every normal American teenager faces: should she have sex with her boyfriend Billy (Skeet Ulrich)? Should she go to that drunken party at a friend's house? But after a few of Sidney's classmates are brutally murdered, Sidney starts getting a series of threatening phone calls from the supposed murderer. And we come to find out that things in Sidney's life aren't nearly so simple anymore! With a cast rounded out by Rose McGowan, Matthew Lillard, Jamie Kennedy, Courteney Cox, David Arquette and Henry Winkler, Scream promises everything that title indicates!
Now, Dan has never seen it and Chrysten hasn't seen it since she was a teenager. After watching, will our hosts be able to answer the age old question posited above? Join us and find out! And don't forget to RATE, REVIEW & SUBSCRIBE!
P.S. Link for the ScreamQueenz Podathon fundraiser for New Alternatives is right here: https://fundraise.newalternativesnyc.org/fundraiser/1706592
Last month, if you remember, darlings, Dan issued a challenge to Chrysten: to watch the 90s shagadelic comedy Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery*, a film which she has never seen and yet, somehow, knows all of the references to because every eighth grade boy in the world was running around shrieking "Yeah, baby, yeah!" at some point in their adolescent lives.
Cryogenically frozen in the swingin' 1960s, English super-spy, Austin Powers (Mike Myers) is defrosted in the now much less shagadelic 90s to fight his nemesis, Dr. Evil (also Mike Myers). With the help of absolute smoke show and extremely capable spy, Vanessa Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley...yowza!), Austin must adjust to life as an anachronism, while also falling hard for Vanessa and stopping Dr. Evil's nefarious plot to hold the world hostage for...one BILLION dollars! Goofs, spoofs and James Bond references abound!
But will Chrysten's sophisticated sense of humor be able to resist Austin Powers' charms? Join us and find out! And don't forget to RATE, REVIEW & SUBSCRIBE!
*NOT Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, as both of our dum dum hosts originally said in the intro of this episode. Dum dums.
Just when Dan thought it was safe to record another episode... Chrysten attacks with one of her family's favorite 80s comedies, the Mel Brooks sci-fi spoof Spaceballs!
When Druish princess, Vespa (Daphne Zuniga), and her faithful droid, Dot Matrix (voiced by the late Joan Rivers, RIP) run away from Vespa's arranged marriage to Prince Valium, they are attacked by Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) and his crew of idiot Spaceballs. Vespa's father hires Lone Star (Bill Pullman) and his mawg (half-man, half-dog...he's his own best friend!) Barf (John Candy) to save them! Pursued by Dark Helmet and the Spaceballs, our heroes crash land on a desert planet where they are aided by Yogurt, the everlasting know-it-all (Mel Brooks). Gags, groans and so many Star Wars references abound!
Dan is notoriously unfamiliar with the Mel Brooks oeuvre...will this film be the one that sways him to the dark side forever? Join us and find out! And don't forget to RATE, REVIEW & SUBSCRIBE!
Watching movies in a medically induced coma, while fun, does not always allow you to appreciate a film and all of its subtle and deep nuances...such was the case for Dan and the 1980s comedy classic Caddyshack. So we decided to go back and give this one a go and see if it's worth the hype!
Starring comedy powerhouses Chevy Chase, Bill Murray and Rodney Dangerfield and directed by Harold Ramis (RIP), Caddyshack is the story of a young caddy named Danny (Michael O'Keefe) who scores a scholarship to college through a teen golf tournament at the club where he works. But when the club owner (Ted Knight) catches Danny fooling around with his niece (Cindy Morgan), his scholarship is in jeopardy. Now Danny must play a super high stakes golf game against the club owner and his rich a**hole friends in order to secure a cash prize or say goodbye to his college career! Also Bill Murray is there and he is chasing gophers...? I dunno I'm not into sports...
By now, you know our hosts are not huge fans of over-the-top comedies...but will Caddyshack score a hole-in-one? (That's good, right? AGAIN, I'm not into sports!) Join us and find out! Also, don't forget to RATE, REVIEW & SUBSCRIBE!
*NOTE: The audio on this ep is pretty spotty. Still listenable, but not as pristine as it could be. Sorry, darlings!
Time to hang up that whip and fedora, kids...because we have FINALLY come to the end of our deep dive into the Indiana Jones quadrilogy! That's right, darlings! After all the hype, your fearless hosts are finally watching the famous/infamous fourth Indiana Jones flick...Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull!
Taking a jump several years into the future, this film is set in the 1950s and the Red Scare is ON! Indy (now and forever played by Harrison Ford) is back, a little older and a little more worn, but still able to do all of the stunts. On a quest to find the mysterious Crystal Skull of Akator, as well as save old friend and colleague, Professor Oxley (John Hurt), Indy is joined by wannabe greaser Mutt <audible groan> Williams (played by Shia LaBeouf) <even louder audible groan>. All the while they are pursued by a ruthless Communist agent (Cate Blanchett) who wants to use the skull to take over the world! Also, somehow, aliens? I know, I know...but maybe it will be ok? I mean...Karen Allen is back, so at least we've got that, right?
So will our hosts let Dr. Jones live or die? Join us and find out! And don't forget to RATE, REVIEW & SUBSCRIBE!
Oh, hey jokes! We didn't see you there during Temple of Doom. Glad to see you've finished your vacay and are back for the next film...Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade!
This month your hosts are joined by a very special guest...our good friend Kate Holland! She's a big fan of this third Indy film and Dan & Chrysten were so happy to have her come and share her memories, opinions, a few laughs, and a few drinks, if we're being honest!
In the third installment of the Indiana Jones franchise, our titular hero (again played by Harrison Ford) finds himself once again fighting Nazis (#punchanazi). But this time it's to save his father, Henry Jones, Sr. (played by James Bond himself, Sean Connery) AND to find the cup of cups, the one and only Holy Grail!
This is the Indiana Jones film that Dan & Chrysten remember the most, and the one that Kate and her hubby quote back and forth to each other. Will it break the curse of suckage imposed upon the good name of Indy by Temple of Doom? Join us and find out! And don't forget to RATE, REVIEW & SUBSCRIBE!
Continuing their adventures in franchising, your hosts are watching the second installment in the Indiana Jones quadrilogy: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom!
In this second adventure (which is technically a prequel, set one year earlier than Raiders), Indiana Jones (a far more jacked Harrison Ford) finds himself in India. Joined by sidekick, Shortround (played by the delightful Jonathan Ke Quan) and former nightclub singer, Willie (played by the abducted-against-her-will Kate Capshaw), Indy has to venture deep into the Temple of Doom to recover magical missing stones to save a small village!
Once again, neither of your dum dum hosts remember thing one about this flick, but, hey, Raiders was a delightfully fun surprise, so they're feeling optimistic! But will this film live up to the hype of the first one? Join us and find out! And don't forget to RATE, REVIEW & SUBSCRIBE!
Cue the John Williams music, because this month we are finally tapping into one of the most beloved 80s adventure franchises! No, not THAT one...the OTHER George Lucas franchise: INDIANA JONES!
Now, as the internet informs us, the original title for this movie was just Raiders of the Lost Ark, but after the success of the franchise, when it was re-released it was then dubbed Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Either way, it's still the story of a supposedly mild-mannered archaeologist who steals artifacts for the museum in his downtime. Bonafide hunk, Harrison Ford, stars as the titular scientist. In the first iteration of his adventures, he races against Nazis to obtain the Lost Ark, the ancient vessel that holds the Ten Commandments (yes, THOSE Ten Commandments)! Along the way, he reunites with old flame, Marion Ravenwood (the always luminous Karen Allen), and pal Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) to prevent the Nazis from getting their hands on one of the most powerful artifacts of all time!
Now, both Dan AND Chrysten remember nothing about this movie, but know they definitely watched it as kids so...this oughta be interesting! Will this Steven Spielberg adventure live or die? Join us and find out! And don't forget to RATE, REVIEW & SUBSCRIBE!
Well, we got this one in just under the wire...Speaking of wires! We had some minor sound issues with this episode, but it's still pretty funny, so hang in there, darlings!
Dan has been pushing to watch this movie for months...so after Chrysten made him sit through My So-Called Life, it only seemed fair to let him watch one of his favorite 90s properties...
Dr. Daniel Jackson (James Spader) is approached by a mysterious woman who asks him to assist her in translating ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. After he successfully translates the hieroglyphics (in what feels like a matter of minutes) he finds that he has uncovered the gateway to another dimension, also known as Stargate! Accompanied by Colonel Jack O'Neill (does Kurt Russell ever NOT play a guy named Jack?) and several other military types, they travel through the gateway into space and discover a whole new world that closely resembles ancient Egypt, presided over by a fierce (and fabulous!) ruler named Ra (Jaye Davidson). We could tell you more about the plot here, but it's really difficult to explain, so you're better off just listening to the episode! And don't forget to RATE, REVIEW & SUBSCRIBE!
This month your hosts are going a little off format and doing an entire series! Calm down, don't give them too much credit...it was cancelled after one season. We are, of course, talking about the most 90s show to have ever 90s'd in the 90s...My So-Called Life! Strap in, darlings, because this is a long one!
Focused on the teen life of Angela Chase (Claire Danes) and her friends, Rayanne (AJ Langer) & Rickie, My So-Called Life aired on ABC from 1994-1995. Angela and her friends face all of the every day trials of 90s teens: drug overdoses, sexual harassment, gay bashing...not to mention midterms! Plus Jared Leto is there in all his pre-Joker glory!
This show was one of Chrysten's absolute favorites as a teen. Dan, always keeping things on-brand, has never seen it. So will he, like, love it...or whatever...? Join us and find out! And don't forget to RATE, REVIEW & SUBSCRIBE!