Podcast Like It's ...

In 1999, one artist released an Album and Music Video so popular and influential that its aesthetics and attitude dominated pop culture throughout the the earlier parts of the next decade. A meteoric rise of popularity was the consequence for its star who thrived as one of the biggest stars on the planet off the back of this record. She's had her ups and downs but now 20 years later we have begun to re appreciate her music and her stardom. The album and music video is ...Baby One More Time and the artist, well, its Britney bitch!

Get ready to get taken for a ride cause this episode Phil, Kenny, along with guests Ashley Lyle(Narcos) and Melissa Lora talk DRIVE ME CRAZY, Melissa Joan Hart/Adrian Grenier high school comedy. The boys and guests take a trip down memory lane and have a lively conversation about what DMC gets right about the High School experience, digging themselves in a deeper hole with the 10 Things I Hate About You fans, talk about the boys and how cute they may or may not be and GASP! at Phil’s lack of familiarity with Clarissa Explains It All.

A hard boiled crime movie taken away from its director. A star whose then future, now past makes it hard to watch. This Week, Phil, Kenny and guest Ben Acker (Thrilling Adventure Hour, Supernatural) talk about Payback, a film that would be up all their alleys if not for a good amount of tonal confusion, it having two cuts that neither of which completely fix it and some sexism disguised as genre trappings. Oh, and its star is also an abusive anti-Semite.   We dig deep on Mel Gibson’s Controversial career, Lucy Liu’s treatment by Hollywood, Ben Acker’s love of the Parker books (inspired by the movie), Director’s Cut v Theatrical Cut shenanigans, the biggest gap in 99 in ratings for a movie we’ve ever had.

HEAT VISION AND JACK, an experimental comedy pilot which was exposed to inappropriate levels of irony which made it the world’s most ahead of its time 30 minute TV episode. PODCAST LIKE ITS 1999, the podcast with the brains of two TV writers. Together (this week) try to analyze, joke about and appreciate Heat Vision and Jack’s place in the comedy landscape of the time and its influence on 20 years of comedy since.  THE PILOT is viewable on Youtube here https://youtu.be/6lWgXDOAJ5s, watch it quick before the deadly ABC and NBC corporations attempt to stop you.

The 1999 movie SIMON SEZ features a brief scene where Dane Cook sports Dennis Rodman cosplay, and it is not even among the top 10 most painfully dated, over the top and out of place moments in this glorious vanity project for sadly, the person keeping US and North Korean relations afloat.  Listen as Kenny, Phil and returning Guest Teddy Bressman dissect the arc of Dennis Rodman’s career as an actor, the rise and fall of Dane Cook’s star and get behind the scenes info from one of the screenwriters on the experience of taking 5 months in France having to write a movie where an Interpol agent is friends with two hacker monks one of which refers to himself as Free Willy.

So, Podcast Like It's 1999 wasn't 'spose to be this way We did Analyze This, The Matrix, and a Bride who Ran Away!  The movies of 9-9 are great, that's clear But so many other things went down each week and month of that year, so...   We'll do TV, too! Like Friends Season 5 We'll do TV, too! Soon West Wing, Sopranos and more We'll do TV, too! 'Cause we're running out of mooooo... vies...

If you’re a fan of set design, boy do we have a movie for you!  Jarett Weiselman (Netflix social media) comes back to the podcast to discuss Jan de Bont’s “The Haunting.” Now, if you’re a fan of logic, dramatic tension, character development, believable motivation, legitimate scares, special effects, utilizing the strengths of your actors or proper villains, look elsewhere.

In 1999, there were three distinct takes on the modern American mafia.    One, The Sopranos, was wildly successful both commercially and creatively and remade both American's understanding of the Italian Mafia, as well as the entire television industry.   A second, Analyze This, performed respectfully at the box office and among critics, providing audiences with both unexpected laughs and pathos.   A third, Mickey Blue Eyes, had Hugh Grant trying to talk like an American gangster, which sounded like a man choking as he attempted to gurgle marbles.    Join Phil and Kenny as they discuss the least successful, but silliest (!), entry in the late 20th Century mafia canon.

This week, Podcast Like it's 1999 takes a pass at it's stated goal of expanding its field of coverage beyond their home turf of movies and TV to include the beautiful game and one of its most legendary teams, the 1999 Women's Soccer Team.   Barbara Friend (Station 19) teams up with Phil and Kenny to kick around topics such as feminism, equal pay, progress in sports in America, representation, the similarities and differences between the 1999 and 2019 World Cup Champs, and the use of soccer puns when blurbing.

Tea with Mussolini is Franco Zeffirilli's 1999, semi-autobiographical film about his upbringing in WW2 Italy by a group of British ex-pats of a certain age (played by the Dames Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Joan Plowright) and a couple of American women (played by the Goddesses Lily Tomlin and Cher).    It is also no better than the 10th date Phil, Kenny and guest Barrett Doss (Station 19, Broadway's Groundhog Day) would like to share with historic, brutal tyrants, following:   - Irish Coffee with Muammar Gaddafi - Hot Cocoa with Nicolas Maduro - Egg Creme with Idi Amin - Chardonnay with Pinochet - Pabst Blue Ribbon with Kim Jong-Un - Cosmopolitans with Genghis Khan - Red Dot with Pol Pot - Bee Pollen with Joseph Stalin  And - Champagne with Saddam Hussein