Shaping Opinion

Plan on watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation this holiday season? Listen to the film’s director Jeremiah Chechik talk about the impact that movie has had on him and on our holiday entertainment traditions. He’ll talk about the making of the film and why the Griswold Family have become a staple in holiday viewing. This episode was originally released on December 2, 2019.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/shapingopinion/Encore_-_Christmas_Vacation_Movie.mp3

Are there any movies you just have to watch every year during the holiday season? Maybe you like to watch Frank Capra’s classic called It’s a Wonderful Life that featured Jimmy Stewart. Or, perhaps your favorite move is one of the Home Alone films, written of course by John Hughes.

Or, just maybe your holiday season wouldn’t be complete without inviting Clark Griswold and family into your home.

It’s been 30 years since John Hughes wrote the script for National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, which itself was the third sequel in a series of National Lampoon Vacation films, starring Chevy Chase.

The film was based on a short story that John Hughes wrote for National Lampoon in December 1980. That story was called, “Christmas ’59.”

The movie was no small budget affair. And it featured an ensemble cast of already established actors, and a few who would become A-list Hollywood stars.

In addition to Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo played Clark’s wife Ellen. Juliette Lewis played their sarcastic teenage daughter. Johnny Galecki played their son, Russ. Randy Quaid delivered an unforgettable performance as Cousin Eddie, and he was joined by an all-star ensemble cast that included Miriam Flynn, who played his wife, and John Randolph, Diane Ladd, E.G. Marshall, Doris Roberts, who played the parents of Clark and Ellen. Other notable actors who made their mark on the film were William Hickey, Mae Questel, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brian Doyle-Murray.

Christmas Vacation debuted at number-2 at the box office, grossing nearly $12 million that opening weekend. It would top the box office charts three weeks later, eventually grossing over $71 million in the United States. And that was before it hit the home video market and landed its place on our list of holiday season traditions.

For Jeremiah Chechik, it was his first chance to direct a full-length feature film, and a comedy.

Please Thank Our Sponsors

Please remember to thank our sponsors, without whom the Shaping Opinion podcast would not exist.  If you have the need, please support these organizations that have the same taste in podcasts that you do:

* BlueHost Premium Web Hosting

* Dell Outlet Overstock Computer Center

* Philips Hue Smart Home Lighting

Links

* National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, IMDB

* Jeremiah Chechik

* An Oral History of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Rolling Stone

* Christmas Vacation Movie Facts, Good Housekeeping

About this Episode’s Guest Jeremiah Chechik

Jeremiah Chechik was born in Montreal, Canada in the fifties and grew up surrounded by books, home made radios and every issue of Popular Mechanics and Popular Science. He got himself a scholarship to McGill University in ...

Dr. David Weill joins Tim to talk about those life-saving transplant surgeries, the patients, the system for care and the challenges it faces, and what it’s like to be a doctor of second chances. Dr. Weill was the Director of the Center for Advanced Lung Disease, and the Lung Transplant Program at Stanford. Today he operates the Weill Consulting Group, where he focuses on improving the delivery of transplant care.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/shapingopinion/Doctor_of_Second_Chances.mp3

The first time doctors were able to transplant a human organ happened in 1954. That’s when a kidney was transplanted successfully. In the decades to come, medical pioneers would master the medical art of transplanting livers, lungs, hearts, pancreases and other vital organs.

While these surgeries are never described as routine, they are no longer uncommon.

In the early years, individual hospitals and certain organizations managed everything from organ recovery, to transport, to transplantation. In between, they had to learn how to allocate valuable, life-saving organs for the most viable patients.

In some respects, not much has changed, and that’s a problem.

Dr. David Weill has spent his career in organ transplantation with a focus on lungs helping those with severe lung disease.

He ran the Lung Transplant Program at Stanford, and he wrote a book called “Exhale: Hope, Healing, and a Life in Transplant.”

Links

* Weill Consulting Group (website)

* Dr. David Weill, Tulane Medicine website

* Supply Isn't the Problem with Organ Transplants, Wall Street Journal

* Exhale: Hope, Healing, and a Life in Transplant, by Dr. David Weill (Barnes & Noble)

* Opinion: Of course unvaccinated people should be barred from receiving transplant organs, Washington Post

About this Episode’s Guest Dr. David Weill

Dr. David Weill has been in the forefront of developing and running some of the most successful lung transplant programs in the country. He served as Director of the Lung and Heart-Lung Transplant Program at Stanford University Medical Center from 2005-2016. He also developed the Stanford Center for Advanced Lung Disease which provides care for hundreds of patients with cystic fibrosis, interstitial fibrosis, pulmonary hypertension, and emphysema. During this period, he also directed a rebuilding effort of the lung transplant program, producing some of the best outcomes in the country, while increasing the transplant program volume more than three-fold.

In addition to his medical practice, Dr. Weill has testified before the U.S. Congress regarding occupational lung diseases. He has also published extensively in the medical literature regarding lung transplantation, occupational lung disease and advanced lung disease.

He and his wife Jackie recently moved to his hometown of New Orleans with their two daughters.

Television host and producer Marc Summers joins Tim to talk about the classic Nickelodeon show that put him and the Nickelodeon cable network on the map, Double Dare. Before Double Dare, kids didn’t have their own game show and the Nickelodeon network was not as widely known as it would become after this crazy, messy, green slimy “party” that millions of millennials would rush home after school to watch. This episode was originally released on March 16, 2020.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/shapingopinion/Encore_-_Marc_Summers_and_Nickelodeon.mp3

It was the first game show for kids on the Nickelodeon cable network. It premiered in 1986 with Marc Summers as its host. Double Dare.

In the show, two teams would compete to win money and prizes by answering trivia questions and completing physical challenges that amounted to an organized mess.

The original version of Double Dare ran from 1986 to 1993. Two subsequent versions relaunched in 2000, and then from 2018 to 2019.

Double Dare had more than tripled viewership for Nickelodeon in the afternoon. It was the most popular original daily program on cable television.

Because of that show, Nickelodeon was able to take its place as a major player in cable television, and game shows for kids a thing.

The show remains Nickelodeon’s longest-running game show. In January 2001, TV Guide, ranked the show number 29 on its list of 50 Greatest Game Shows.

Please Thank Our Sponsors

Please remember to thank our sponsors, without whom the Shaping Opinion podcast would not exist.  If you have the need, please support these organizations that have the same taste in podcasts that you do:

* BlueHost Premium Web Hosting

* Dell Outlet Overstock Computer Center

* Philips Hue Smart Home Lighting

Links

* Marc Summers

* Double Dare, Nick

* Double Dare, Fandom

* Five Things to Know About the Green Slime on Double Dare, Newsday

About this Episode’s Guest Marc Summers

Marc Summers is a veteran television host and producer, and a comedian. His long list of television credits include: host and producer of Double Dare on Nickelodeon, Unwrapped for the Food Network, and as executive producer of the Food Network’s Dinner: Impossible and Restaurant: Impossible.

Over the year’s he’s hosted other shows, such as the syndicated Couch Potatoes, Nickelodeon’s What Would You Do?, and as a talk show host on the Lifetime network’s Our Home program.

He remains active in new projects across several networks and platforms.

 

 

Seth Shostak joins Tim to talk about the serious scientific search for intelligent life beyond Earth.  Seth is the senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, which was created by NASA and is located in Silicon Valley. It is dedicated to the search for life beyond Earth. In this episode, Seth talks about what we’re learning about the potential for finding intelligent life, not only within our solar system, but well beyond it.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/shapingopinion/Space_-_Searching_for_Life_auphonic.mp3

The SETI Institute was created on November 20th, 1984 as part of NASA.

NASA located it close to its Ames Research Center in Northern California. Its mission has been as ominous as it has been ambitious, to look for intelligent life beyond our planet.

Before the SETI Institute, NASA had funded a small project in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, but it quickly realized the job was bigger than it had anticipated. NASA wanted to find ways to put more money into research without too much overhead.

That led to the idea of creating a nonprofit organization that would focus on research and education around the search for extra-terrestrial life beyond Earth.

This vision was born in 1984 with the founding of the SETI Institute.

Since then, the SETI Institute has spun out from NASA and has grown in many ways.

Seth Shostak is the Institute’s senior astronomer. In addition to his work on the Institute’s research programs, he’s also an author on books about astrobiology. He’s published hundreds of articles, and he’s a regular contributor to NBC News. He’s also the host of the SETI Institute’s weekly science radio show called, “Big Picture Science.”

Please Thank Our Sponsors

Please remember to thank our sponsors, without whom the Shaping Opinion podcast would not exist.  If you have the need, please support these organizations that have the same taste in podcasts that you do:

* BlueHost Premium Web Hosting

* Dell Outlet Overstock Computer Center

* Philips Hue Smart Home Lighting

Links

* The SETI Institute (website)

* Seth Shostak (website)

* Big Picture Science Radio Show and Podcast

* Contact (motion picture), IMDb

* The Drake Equation, SETI Institute

* Allen Telescope Array, SETI Institute

* James Webb Space Telescope, NASA

About this Episode’s Guest Seth Shostak

Seth Shostak directs the search for extraterrestrials at the SETI Institute in California - trying to find evidence of intelligent life in space. He is also committed to getting the public, especially young people, excited about astrobiology and science in general.

Seth is the host of “Big Picture Science,” the SETI Institute’s weekly radio show. The one-hour program uses interviews with leading researchers and lively and intelligent storytelling to tackle such big questions as: What came before the big bang? How does memory work? Will our descendants be human or machine? What’s the origin of humor? Big Picture Science can be found in iTunes and other podcast sites.

The voice of the Detroit Lions Dan Miller joins Tim to talk about America’s Thanksgiving football tradition and life as a pro football play-by-play announcer. Dan is the Sports Director at Fox 2 TV in Detroit, and he’s been the play-by-play radio voice of the National Football League’s Detroit Lions since 2005. In this episode, Dan talks about a Thanksgiving tradition that dates back to 1934. The annual Thanksgiving Detroit Lions football game.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/shapingopinion/Detroit_Lions_Thanksgiving_auphonic.mp3

In 1934, baseball was America’s pastime, but American football was starting to gain momentum.

That’s the year that a Detroit radio executive named George Richards organized a group to buy a pro football team in Portsmouth, Ohio and move it to Detroit.  In order to generate interest and ticket sales, he came up with an idea.

So, he approached George Halas.  He was the owner of the Chicago Bears.

Richards wanted his newly christened Detroit Lions to play the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving morning. He was successful. Then, right after that, he convinced the NBC Radio Network to broadcast the game across the country to its 94 local radio stations.

That year, the Lions were 10 and 1, and the Bears were 11 and 0. The star players on the Bears were Red Grange and Bronko Nagurski.

The game was a sellout, with 26,000 fans in attendance in a stadium on the campus of the University of Detroit.

This was the largest crowd that had ever watched a game in Detroit.

The game was a hit. The national radio broadcast – also a first – was a hit as well.

The Bears won the game 19 to 16.

That game was the start of an American Thanksgiving tradition.

Dan Miller (left) with former Detroit Lion and Pittsburgh Steeler QB Charlie Batch. (Source: Dan Miller)

On most Thanksgiving days in the past 87 years, the Detroit Lions have played football. The only exceptions were from 1939 through 1944, which were the World War Two years.

The first nationally televised Thanksgiving game was the one between the Lions and the Green Bay Packers in 1953.

Still, the Lions weren’t the first pro football team to play on Thanksgiving. In 1920, the Elyria, Ohio Athletics took on the Columbus Panhandles for a scoreless tie.

And from 1922 through 1933, the Chicago Cardinals and the Chicago Bears had played each other on Thanksgiving.

In more recent times, the Dallas Cowboys threw their hat into the ring. In 1966, the NFL decided to add a second Thanksgiving game to the schedule, featuring the Dallas Cowboys.

Then in 2006, the league added a third game to the Thanksgiving schedule, though both participants in that game change from year to year.

As voice of the Detroit Lions, Dan Miller has been a part of America’s Thanksgiving football tradition since 2005.

Links

* Dan Miller Bio, Fox 2 TV, Detroit

* Why Do the Lions Always Play on Thanksgiving, Pro Football Network

* This is Why the Lions Always Play on Thanksgiving, Buzzfeed

* Why do the Lions Always Play on Thanksgiving Day?, Forbes

 

The founder of the band Wild Cherry and the creator of the iconic song “Play that Funky Music,” Rob Parissi, joins Tim to do an anatomy of a funky song. That funky song, which has been named one of the top 100-performing songs of all time. Rob tells stories and gives a hint why new generations are embracing it even today.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/shapingopinion/Encore_-_Play_that_Funky_Music.mp3

The song is one of the best known of the disco era by one of the best-known bands of the disco era. But while so many other songs have faded along with the entire genre of disco music, this song continues to endure.

The song Play that Funky Music continues to find new fans decades after it was written.

Rob Parissi, one of the founders of the band Wild Cherry, and who wrote many of the band’s songs, tells us what it was like at the peak of the disco era and what it was like to write that one disco song that has stood the test of time.

Please Thank Our Sponsors

Please remember to thank our sponsors, without whom the Shaping Opinion podcast would not exist.  If you have the need, please support these organizations that have the same taste in podcasts that you do:

* BlueHost Premium Web Hosting

* Dell Outlet Overstock Computer Center

* Philips Hue Smart Home Lighting

Links

* Play That Funky Music – Songfacts.com

* Play That Funky Music – SeventiesMusic.com

* The Number Ones: Play That Funky Music – Stereogums

* Wild Cherry – AllMusic.com

About this Episode’s Guest Rob Parissi

Robert “Rob” Parissi is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist, perhaps best known as frontman for the American funk group Wild Cherry, best known for their 1976 Parissi-penned chart-topper “Play That Funky Music”. He was born in 1950 and raised in the steel mill town of Mingo Junction, Ohio. He graduated from Mingo High School in 1968. Rob formed the band Wild Cherry in 1970 in Steubenville, Ohio, one mile north of Mingo Junction along the Ohio River.

The band played the Ohio Valley region, Wheeling, West Virginia and the rest of the Northern West Virginia panhandle, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After Wild Cherry disbanded in 1979 without another major hit, Parissi became a producer and dedicated himself to adult contemporary music. In 2017, he retired from the music industry, but continues to manage the properties he created during his career.

Milton Riess joins Tim to talk about the recent Alec Baldwin shooting and what it means to safety on the Hollywood set going forward, along with standard safety protocols for filmmakers. Milton is a writer, filmmaker and a college professor who has worked on nearly 300 film and television productions over 35-plus years. Milton talks about working conditions and safety on the set of Hollywood film productions.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/shapingopinion/Hollywood_Safety_auphonic.mp3

By now, you may have heard of the tragic shooting on the movie set where actor Alec Baldwin shot and killed the cinematographer of the movie he was making. The movie was called, “Rust,” and not only did Baldwin shoot the cinematographer, but the same bullet wounded the film’s director.

Here’s a summary of what we know happened on that day in October.

Baldwin was on the movie set in a make-shift church, rehearsing a movement where he pulls his gun and shoots in the same direction as the camera.  He was rehearsing his moves for an upcoming scene.

For background, six crew members objected to working conditions and walked off the set hours before the fatal event. Before that, there had been at least two accidental gun discharges on the set.

The gun that Baldwin used, a real Colt 45, was handed to him by the film’s assistant director. He had taken the gun off of a cart, where it was placed by the movie’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. When the assistant director gave the gun to Baldwin, it’s said he told the actor the gun was “cold,” which means safe to use with no live ammunition.

Other reports have revealed that certain safety protocols were ignored. Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said that 500 rounds of ammunition, which included a mix of blanks, dummy rounds, and possibly live rounds were mixed together.

Veteran film armorers who commented on the shooting in various news reports have said that it’s widely understood that there should not be live rounds anywhere near a movie set. Some said it’s not acceptable to leave a gun on a cart or anywhere unattended during filming.

Investigations are now under way to determine what went wrong, who is responsible, and perhaps how the film industry can learn and change from this for the future.

Please Thank Our Sponsors

Please remember to thank our sponsors, without whom the Shaping Opinion podcast would not exist.  If you have the need, please support these organizations that have the same taste in podcasts that you do:

* BlueHost Premium Web Hosting

* Dell Outlet Overstock Computer Center

* Philips Hue Smart Home Lighting

Links

* Milton Riess, IMDB

* "Rust" Film Set Shooting "Puzzling" not "Surprising," Fox News

* Milton Riess, Santa Fe Community College

* Alec Baldwin's "Rust" Gun Left Unattended for Two Hours Before Halyna Hutchins was Fatally Shot, New York Post

About this Episode’s Guest Milton Riess

Milton Riess has about 35 years of professional experience deep inside the hard and fast trenches of the Film and Television industry. He is currently a Lead Professor and Co[1]Chair of the Film Department at Santa Fe Community College,

Author and historian Rachel Yarnell Thompson joins Tim to talk about the man with a plan, George Marshall, whose “Marshall Plan” reshaped Europe and the world after World War Two. After playing important military roles in winning both World War One and World War Two, he was tapped for what would become his most well-recognized legacy, the rebuilding of the free world. Rachel is the author of: Marshall—A Statesman Shaped in the Crucible of War. This Encore Episode was first released on November 11, 2019.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/shapingopinion/Encore_-_George_Marshall.mp3

George C. Marshall was named the Army chief of staff in Washington on the day that Nazi tanks rolled through Poland on their way to near complete domination of Eastern and Western Europe. He was the first five-star general in American history.

From that day forward, he transformed the American military into a level of power never before seen. He oversaw the country’s and the allies’ military strategy that led to unconditional victories in Europe and in the Pacific.

In addition to Europe and the Pacific, he oversaw military operations in China and the Mediterranean.

He had the respect of world leaders that included President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, and of course throughout all of the armed forces.

He was credited with finding the generals who would win the war, including generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley and George Patton.

He was one of the architects of the D-Day invasion and was set to command the invasion of Normandy, when FDR decided to keep General Marshall in Washington.

FDR said to his general, “I didn’t feel that I could sleep at ease if you were out of Washington.”

George Marshall’s accomplishments are many. Once the war ended, he retired from the military, and in one day was called upon by President Harry Truman to address China’s civil war as the president’s special envoy. President Truman tapped Marshall to serve as his Secretary of State, dealing with the Berlin Blockade, and then to develop and implement the European Recovery Program, better known as the Marshall Plan.

Along the way, George Marshall would become president of the American Red Cross, and President Truman’s Secretary of Defense during the Korean War. He earned the Nobel Peace Prize.

George Marshall was a study in contrasts. He was the commander of the most powerful military the world, yet he was seen as a man of quiet, even humble confidence in his own ideas. He operated in a highly political environment with the world’s leading politicians, yet he refused to become political.

Often, when he was asked of his own party affiliation, he said he was an Episcopalian.

In the process, he won the respect, admiration and the trust of both Democrat and Republican leaders.

Our Gratitude

Our thanks to Rachel Yarnell Thompson and the George C. Marshall International Center for providing their time and resources in support of production of this episode, including photo depictions.

Links

* The George C. Marshall International Center

* The George C. Marshall Foundation

* George C. Marshall’s Nobel Prize Biography, The Nobel Prize Committee

* George C. Marshall, History.com

* The Marshall Plan, Secretary of State Office of the Historian

* The Marshall Pla...

Author and neuroscientist Dr. James Fallon joins Tim to talk about the dark side of the human brain and how common psychopathy may really be throughout society. And his story has a twist. Dr. Fallon is a neuroscientist, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior, and an author of the book, “The Psychopath Inside: A Neuroscientist’s Personal Journey into the Dark Side of the Brain.”

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/shapingopinion/The_Psychopath_Next_Door_auphonic.mp3

I’m going to say a word, and I want you to focus on the first thing that comes to mind. Are you ready? OK, here’s the word.

Psychopath.

What came to mind. Did you think about a killer? Perhaps a serial killer?

It makes sense. Many, if not most of the most notorious serial killers in history were psychopaths. Ted Bundy. Jeffrey Dahmer. David Berkowitz, also known as the Son of Sam. Edmund Kemper, who we discussed on last week’s episode with Justin from the Generation Why Podcast.

These were all famous serial killers. And they were all psychopaths.

So, what exactly is a psychopathic personality?

That’s one of the first questions I had to ask Dr. James Fallon.  He’s a neuroscientist at the University of California at Irvine.

He’s done extensive research in this area, and he’s the author of a book called, “The Psychopath Inside: A Neuroscientist’s Personal Journey into the Dark Side of the Brain.”

Please Thank Our Sponsors

Please remember to thank our sponsors, without whom the Shaping Opinion podcast would not exist.  If you have the need, please support these organizations that have the same taste in podcasts that you do:

* BlueHost Premium Web Hosting

* Dell Outlet Overstock Computer Center

* Philips Hue Smart Home Lighting

Links

* The Psychopath Inside: A Neuroscientist’s Personal Journey into the Dark Side of the Brain, by James Fallon (Barnes & Noble)

* Killed Strangely: The Death of Rebecca Cornell, by Elaine Forman Crane (Barnes & Noble)

* James Fallon, Ph.D., (University of California, Irvine)

* The Neuroscientist Who Discovered He was a Psychopath, Smithsonian

* Lizzie Borden, The Crime Museum

* The 1673 Murder of Rebecca Cornell and the 'Good Fire,' New England Historical Society

About this Episode’s Guest Dr. James Fallon

James Fallon, Ph.D., is a neuroscientist and Professor Emeritus of Anatomy and Neurobiology at the University of California, Irving. He has several areas of expertise, including adult stem cells, psychiatry, and the relationships between brain imaging, genetics and a range of psychiatric conditions. These include schizophrenia, depression, addictions and psychopathy.

Justin from the popular true crime podcast called Generation Why joins Tim to talk about America’s obsession with true crime and his podcast’s role in shaping the growing genre. Justin and his best friend and co-host Aaron launched their podcast in 2012, helping to pioneer the true crime podcasting.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/shapingopinion/Justin_Evans_-_True_Crime_Obsession_auponic.mp3

For a lot of people when they think of podcasts, they think of true crime. And for a lot of people, when they think of true crime, they think of podcasts.

Aaron (left) and Justin (right) from Generation Why

But it’s not just podcasts. True crime magazines were a thing for well over 50 years. TV programs like Dateline have made true crime their focus for decades. Streamers have produced a steady stream of documentaries like “Making a Murderer,” and then there are the motion pictures and the streaming dramas, like “Mindhunter.”

In the podcasting world, true crime continues to be one of the fastest-growing genres.

And as we’ve already mentioned, the Generation Why podcast has pioneered the form. Generation Why released its first episode in 2012. It’s co-hosted by best-friends Aaron Habel and Justin Evans.

Each week, they select a specific case, almost always involving a murder or a missing person, to study and analyze, and perhaps most importantly, help the listener come to their own conclusions.

About four years into their own podcasting journey, Justin and Aaron saw a boost in listener interest when a podcast called “Serial” hit the scene. Serial is largely credited for helping to blast off podcasting to a new level of popularity and awareness.

The Generation Why podcast remains one of the top true crime podcasts today.

Please Thank Our Sponsors

Please remember to thank our sponsors, without whom the Shaping Opinion podcast would not exist.  If you have the need, please support these organizations that have the same taste in podcasts that you do:

* BlueHost Premium Web Hosting

* Dell Outlet Overstock Computer Center

* Philips Hue Smart Home Lighting

Links

* Generation Why Podcast (website)

* This American Life Podcast (website)

* Joe Rogan Experience Podcast (website)

* WTF  with Marc Maron (Marc Maron podcast)

* Podcast Audiences: Why are Women Such Big Fans of True Crime Podcasts, BrandWatch (this is the article Tim mentioned in the episode

Music Credits for this Episode

The following tracks are featured in this episode under the terms of Creative Commons via the Free Music Archive:

* Deep by Bio Unit

* Death Note by Audiobinger

* PointsOfView by Ketsa

* Agency by Metre

* Apogee by Metre

* Sidewinder by Frequency Decree

* Insomnia by VibesByDRVN