Mystery to Me

Airing on May 8, 1952, "The Big September Man" is the eleventh episode of Dragnet's first season. And this isn't the jolly, strange colorized Dragnet that you may be used to. This is a drab, black-and-white, barely-out-of-radio program!

Starring creator Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday, this episode also features Barney Phillips, Stacy Harris, George Sawaya, Eddie Firestone, and Jonathan Hole.

In this episode, Friday catches a case of brutal homicide. A young woman has been beaten to death with a pipe. Suspicions fall on the alcoholic acquaintance of the victim, but is something even more sinister at play?

Áine and Kevin chat about lunch, dramatic horns, and the mystery of the Dragnet masters.

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"Fire Island" is the twenty-third episode of Naked City's first season. Directed by Disney veteran Norman Tokar, this procedural first aired on March 3, 1959, and stars John McIntire, James Franciscus, Henry Hull, Harry Bellaver, George Maharis, Michael Conrad, and Guy Raymond.

Tensions smolder as a gang of moonshiners hunker down for the winter in a little Fire Island shack. But the sociopath of the bunch is about to spark a calamity for the criminals. Meanwhile, the Naked City detectives bundle up and descend on the deserted resort town in order to investigation a vicious murder.

In this episode, Áine and Kevin sit around the fire chatting about boastful producers, Prohibition and moonshining logistics, The Cat from Outer Space, and character actor Michael Conrad.

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Won't you take me to Freaktown?

Boomtown was a short-lived police drama set in Los Angeles that came out in 2002 to critical acclaim. It's artsy claim-to-fame was its non-linear approach to storytelling, with episodes featuring different points of view, including the perspectives of detectives, patrol cops, lawyers, reporters, paramedics, victims, and criminals.

Airing on November 3, 2002, "The Freak" is a pivotal episode of this series. This episode focuses on Mykelti Williamson's Detective Bobby "Fearless" Smith, with Donnie Wahlberg, Neal McDonough, Gary Basaraba, Lana Parilla, Nina Garbiras, Jason Gedrick, Annika Peterson, and Miguel A. Núñez Jr. rounding out the ensemble.

In this episode, Fearless promises to protect a mother and child after they witness a Russian mobster gun a man down in a restaurant. But ... what's this? Our charismatic detective keeps sadly looking off into the distance, while music from La Strada plays in the background? Could it be that an old friend from the war has returned from beyond the grave to remind Fearless of the importance of keeping promises?

Buckle up, because things are about to get freaky. We're talking ghosts-and-guns-akimbo freaky. Because we're not in Boomtown anymore.

Tune into Áine and Kevin getting their freak on and losing their damn minds talking about this wild episode of television.

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Good morning, angels!

Airing September 22, 1976, "Hellride" is the first episode of the heavenly seventies TV staple Charlie's Angels. Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith, and Kate Jackson star as a trio of beautiful badasses who ditch a sexist police department to join the Townsend Agency and get to work solving real cases. The outfit is run by the eponymous, mysterious, and faceless Charlie, and also staffed by David Doyle's Bosley.

In this episode, the Angels must face off against some devilish racers after a young lady dies in an "accident" at the speedway.

Listen to Áine and Kevin lap one another discussing presidential curses, Jack Webb, Irish politicians, Fast & Furious, and seventies hairstyles. 

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Murder on the Orient Express is a 1974 film conducted — er, directed — by Sidney Lumet, featuring a first-class-car-load of stars, including Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Vanessa Redgrave, John Gielgud, Anthony Perkins, Jacqueline Bisset, Michael York, and Wendy Hiller. The flick is a highly faithful adaptation of Agatha Christie's famous 1934 classic.

Albert Finney stars as Hercule Poirot, a mustachioed detective settling in for a leisurely train ride on the Orient Express. But for one mysterious fellow passenger, the ride proves to be a one-way-ticket to murder town. Tasked with capturing a vicious killer on the snowed-in locomotive before the local police can railroad someone, Poirot finds himself untangling a web of sinister clues, which all point to connection to an infamous crime from years ago.

Listen to Áine and Kevin stay on track discussing Amtrak, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and Mafia hits.

Fun fact: Christie herself appreciated the movie's faithfulness, although she allegedly wished that Finney's facial hair was more fulsome.

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Blondes at Work is a 1938 film directed by Frank McDonald, featuring Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, and Tom Kennedy. It's the fourth film in the Torchy Blane series. 

In this installment, journalist Torchy Blane must get to work on a tough story without the assistance of her fiancé and favorite source, Steve McBride. But the intrepid fair-haired reporter has a few tricks up her sleeves when it comes to cracking the case of a murdered retailer. And all of them involve banter and ghastly breeches of journalistic ethics. 

Listen to Áine and Kevin work through newsies cosplay, contempt of court, journalism, and The Bon-Ton Stores.

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When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for two newlyweds to buy National Treasure at Half Price Books and watch it after their honeymoon, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare their opinions of said film and the feelings which impel them to view it on or around the Fourth of July.

Remember when dumb conspiracy theories were fun and revolved around Masonic scavenger hunts instead of celebrities drinking blood? National Treasure  remembers.  

This 2004 action-adventure flick from director Jon Turteltaub stars Nicolas Cage, Harvey Keitel, Jon Voight, Diane Kruger, Sean Bean, Justin Bartha, and Christopher Plummer, and centers around a historical mystery.  Cage plays rogue historian Benjamin Franklin Gates, who must steal the Declaration of Independence in order to save it from a band of criminal treasure hunters. While on the run from the bad guys and the G-men, he must decipher the clues leading to a glorious treasure dating back to the days of the Founding Fathers.

 Listen to Áine and Kevin squabble like Continental Congress over school field trips, historical heists, the History Channel, Clive Cussler,  and lemons.

Sorry the audio features some odd abuses and usurpations, we didn't warm up the mixing machine enough after letting it sit idle for a while. Also, forgive the mistaken dates at the start of the episode. We submit ourselves to be tarred and feathered for the error. 

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This episode will leave your sanity on the ropes!

"The Lady on Thursday at Ten" aired on January 1, 1978. Show star Pamela Sue Martin rang in the year with her last ever appearance on The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, with John Karlen, Nicholas Hammond, Tony Burton, and Simon Oakland also featuring in the show.

Nancy Drew's efforts to escape from New York take a tragic turn when she seemingly runs over a man in one of Manhattan's dark alleyways. Police officers at the scene assure her that the fellow was a nasty piece of work who'd escaped the Tombs. But the next day, the sleuth finds the authorities skeptical of her story. After all, no one has escaped from the Tombs in years!

As she attempts to unravel the mystery, Nancy encounters crooked cops, fiendish nursing home aides,  a character not-at-all inspired by the classic sports drama film Rocky, and a band of ethnically-stereotyped, singing boxers.

Trust us, it's even nuttier than it sounds.

Listen to Áine and Kevin trade jabs on hat-throwing hijinks,  New York City subway posters, and one host's sick brand of interrogation tactics. 

Nota bene: We recorded this episode a few months ago when we were still in Brooklyn, and still figuring out podcasts. The show sort of broke us, the recording took place at around 2 a.m., and we then forgot about the whole thing until a few days ago! So please forgive that, the references to us living in Brooklyn, and the general ineptitude you've come to expect from us! 

If you're not done with us forever after this one, please follow us on the usual social media suspects:

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Finally, a plucky reporter who's not afraid to say, "Damn the journalistic ethics, full speed ahead!"

The Adventurous Blonde is a 1937 film directed by Frank McDonald, featuring Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, and Tom Kennedy. It's the third film in the Torchy Blane series. 

Farrell stars as Blane, a glamorous, golden-haired gal with a gift for gab and getting scoops through her guy, Detective MacBride. But the rest of the fourth estate isn't too happy with her success. A group of mischievous journos puts together a plot to embarrass Ms. Blane and drive her from the police beat for good. The only problem with the hoax? The scheme to trick Blane and MacBride into investigating a fake murder ends up producing a real-life, real-dead corpse.  

What ensues is a mystery that manages to be both fun and mind-bogglingly dumb. Listen to Áine and Kevin break news on the name "Mugsy," a hypothetical clash of retail titans, Marlon Bundo, and our new hipster startup, the Brooklyn Telegraph Company.

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Joe Friday of the LAPD redefines intelligence by targeting the dumbest terrorist alive.

"Intelligence: DR-34" is the twenty-seventh episode of the third season of Dragnet — also known as Dragnet 1969. This episode aired on April ,17 1969, and starred show creator Jack Webb as the stalwart Sergeant Joe Friday.

An awkward night school reunion takes a disturbing turn for Friday when a Scotch-swilling militiaman approaches him with a request. This right-wing nut-job wants LA's finest to illicitly secure him a special license, to aid in his international gun smuggling operation. 

But not to fear. Despite the episode's title, this Minuteman wannabe is not long on brains. He comes from the same venerated tradition of American insurrectionist as the dolts who posted pictures of themselves breaking into the US Capitol on Facebook.

So any cat-and-mousing between the gunrunner and Friday comes off more like an adult demolishing a toddler in a game of Battleship. Listen to Áine and Kevin put their heads together on topics like hippies, Webb's politics, and uncomfortable interactions.

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