The EscapeGoat Podcast

This week, I welcome back both Rich and Dru to the show, for an extremely enjoyable discussion of the classic Warner Bros Chuck Jones-directed Road Runner cartoons! We have a general chat about why we think they're so brilliant, talk a bit about the context of their creation, and get shamelessly in-depth about some of our favourite gags from the series (particularly from the first 10 films in the series, 1949-1957) and why we think they are enduringly fantastic and creative. Had such a good time doing this!

After Dru leaves us, me and Rich then have a quick chat about the 2015 movie Bone Tomahawk, which I have watched since Rich recommended it on a previous episode.

0.00 The Road Runner cartoons

0.46 The first 10 films and their highlights

1.36 Bonus discussion of Bone Tomahawk

You can find the show on Twitter at @EGoat_pod (or tweet at me on @D_Faggiani) and email us with any feedback on [email protected]. All our episodes so far are now on Spotify, our YouTube channel, and Apple Podcasts! Do spread the word!

If you enjoyed this, check out Episode 03, where Rich and I discussed Westerns and Episode 08, where we discussed The Pixies. Dru was previously on Episode 07, talking about Who Framed Rodger Rabbit?

All original intro, outro and other incidental music in this and prior episodes recorded and made available by kind permission of Richard Gilbert.

NOTES

Anyone wishing to see as well as hear the classic 'Earthquake Pills' bit that I dropped in as an audio feature in the middle of the episode can view it here. It's genius. I hope the sonic experience alone was memorable! Also, this recent Village Voice piece about Chuck Jones and the aesthetics of his cartoons is well worth a read.

This week, my friend Daniel joins me for the first time, to discuss a shared passion of ours, the stories of Roald Dahl!

In the first half we focus pretty closely on discussion of Dahl's longish short story The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. In the second half, we broaden the scope to talk a little bit about Dahl's other works, particularly some of his more popular children's fiction, and their ideas around retributive and 'childish' justice. Works discussed include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, The BFG, Fantastic Mr Fox and several others.

0.00 The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

0.54 Dahl and the nature of justice in his stories

You can find the show on Twitter at @EGoat_pod (or tweet at me on @D_Faggiani) and email us with any feedback on [email protected]. All our episodes so far are now on Spotify, our YouTube channel, and Apple Podcasts! Do spread the word!

All original intro, outro and other incidental music in this and prior episodes recorded and made available by kind permission of Richard Gilbert.

NOTES

We'll almost certainly end up doing another podcast about Roald Dahl some other time - probably focusing more on his more nominally 'adult' stories, which Daniel and I have a lot to say about.

Just to highlight - we (very briefly) mention Dahl's pretty unpleasant antisemitism in this podcast, but don't really go on to examine it at all. We're not wanting to minimise it - it will definitely be a topic of proper discussion next time we do a cast about Dahl.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar can currently be found on YouTube here, read by Martin Jarvis. I think this is the version I listened to growing up, and, yes, Jarvis does basically do a (fairrrrrly restrained) 'Apu voice' in Indian accent when voicing Imrat Khan. I know Andrew Scott has narrated a more recent version - I have no idea if he does the same (let us know!)

The author Jack Graham, who I mention towards the end of the cast, touches on his conception and defence of 'childish' politics (in a good way) in this piece, and I think in others. Apologies if I misrepresented his views in any way on the cast, I hope I got the basic gist across!

In our 10th episode, Cat returns to talk to me about how the US TV industry has been faring since we spoke in April, and a little bit about how US Politics is shaping up ahead of the November Presidential, and in light of the continuing COVID chaos.

We then get on to the main topic of discussion, that of romantic comedy movies. We mainly focus on 500 Days of Summer (Marc Webb, 2009), When Harry Met Sally (Rob Reiner, 1989) and Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977). Other films we touch on include Me Before You, While You Were Sleeping, Isn't It Romantic...and a few others! Was a fun conversation!

0.00 US TV/US Politics in 2020

0.40 500 Days of Summer

1.24 When Harry Met Sally

1.50 Annie Hall

You can find the show on Twitter at @EGoat_pod (or tweet at me on @D_Faggiani) and email us with any feedback on [email protected]. All our episodes so far are now on Spotify, our YouTube channel, and Apple Podcasts! Do spread the word!

Cat works in TV editing in Los Angeles. She is the co-host of The Anime Movie Podcast. You can listen to Cat's previous episode (on Ex Machina and Upgrade) here.

All original intro, outro and other incidental music in this and prior episodes recorded and made available by kind permission of Richard Gilbert.

NOTES

Obviously, there has been a lot written about Romantic Comedy tropes! Here's an introductory piece from 2013 about the Manic Pixie Dream Girl cliche.

On this episode, Matt returns, to discuss with me a film double-bill about the perils and pitfalls of getting ahead, knowing who to trust and being an older actress in the theatre world - that is, All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950) and Meet The Feebles (Peter Jackson, 1989).

After that, we have a brief and hopefully mildly-amusing post-show chat about Star Wars!

0.00 All About Eve

0.56 Meet The Feebles

1.36 Post-show chat

You can find the show on Twitter at @EGoat_pod (or tweet at me on @D_Faggiani) and email us with any feedback on [email protected]. All our episodes so far are now on Spotify, our YouTube channel, and Apple Podcasts! Do spread the word!

Matt can be found on YouTube with his regular co-hosted movie analysis show 'Matt and Mike Pull Focus'. Matt previously appeared on Episodes 1 and 4 of this podcast, where we discussed Zombies and South Park, respectively!

All original intro, outro and other incidental music in this and prior episodes recorded and made available by kind permission of Richard Gilbert.

NOTES

Meet the Feebles is, for some reason, currently available on YouTube in its entirety.

Friend of the show (and previous guest on Episode 7) Dru has also put together the Eve/Feebles mash-up poster below, which I'm slightly in love with.

On Episode 08 of the show, Rich returns!

We chat for a while about some television we've been watching recently (and some old associations with it).

We then move onto the meat of the episode - a discussion of the early (1987-1992) recording career of the utterly seminal US Alt Rock band The Pixies. We meanderingly traverse their discography, pick out some track highlights, and debate what the band meant to us and what they mean to us now!

0.00 Intro/TV discussion

0.35 The Pixies: Come on Pilgrim, Surfer Rosa and Doolittle

1.44 The Pixies: Bossanova and Trompe Le Monde

If you enjoyed this, check out Episode 03, where Rich and I discussed Westerns.

You can find the show on Twitter at @EGoat_pod (or tweet at me on @D_Faggiani) and email us with any feedback on [email protected]. All our episodes so far are now on Spotify, our YouTube channel, and Apple Podcasts! Do spread the word!

NOTES

The 1988 Simon Reynolds piece on The Pixies I refer to in the show can be read here. The 1989 interview with Black and Deal can be watched here. And, for the curious and bold... here is the music video for 'Sign O' The Times' by Prince.

On this episode, I sit down with my friend Dru to gush lovingly about the live-action/cartoon LA noir classic Who Framed Rodger Rabbit? (Robert Zemeckis, 1988).

In Part 1, we blether on about various fantastic aspects of Rodger Rabbit, the work of Bob Hoskins and Christopher Llloyd in the film, and some of the political resonances of Doom's plan and of the existence and treatment of the Toons in general, as well as our idea for a prequel comic.

In Part 2, we get a little bit more into some of the technical innovations of the movie, including several specific scene highlights and how they were realised, as well as talking about Jessica Rabbit, Eddie's visit to Toon Town, and the general influence of Rodger Rabbit on the film and TV industry - including brief discussion of Cool World (Ralph Bakshi, 1992), which I kind of stan for.

We hope you enjoy the discussion as much as Dru and I did - it was fun to do!

0.00 - Part 1

0.58 - Part 2

1.54 - Outro

(Content warning - towards the end of Part 1, we do briefly discuss visual and plot elements of the movie that evoke the Holocaust. Just so you know...)

As always, you can follow the show on Twitter at @EGoat_pod (or get David on @D_Faggiani) and email us with any feedback on [email protected].

NOTES

Who Framed Rodger Rabbit? is currently available to stream on Disney+, and you can purchase it at various other places. You might enjoy this documentary on the making of the movie which was originally a VHS extra, available on Youtube, as well as this shorter clip regarding a deleted scene from the film.

If you want to read up about the real-life history of the LA public transport system in the 20th Century, this Curbed Los Angeles article by Elijah Chiland is a good starting point!

In this installment of the show, Isobel returns, and we discuss All Good Things, the classic finale episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994). We talk about what makes All Good Things such an effective and emotional episode of television, and touch on its themes of trauma, healing and solidarity.

We then move on to kvetch about a few things which arguably provide a less-satisfying capstone to the Next Generation story - namely, the four TNG movies (1994-2002) and the recent Star Trek: Picard (CBS/Amazon Prime, 2020-).

0.00 Intro

0.04 All Good Things

0.58 The TNG movies

1.30 Star Trek: Picard

You can find the show on Twitter at @EGoat_pod (or get David on @D_Faggiani) and email us with any feedback on [email protected].

Isobel is a full time Nomad who travels from home to home, house-sitting and exploring new places - although less so at present, sadly. Her blog, house-sitting booking form, and online shop can be found here: https://www.thenomadlifestyle.co.uk/. She previously appeared on Episode 2 of this podcast, where we discussed Star Trek: Voyager - check it out!

NOTES

Obviously, rather a lot has been written about All Good Things in the last 26 years! Two fun takes to start with might be those of Zack Handlen and Josh Marsfelder.

For a contemporary (July 1994) take on why Star Trek:TNG ended, and made way for the movies, whilst still pulling huge audiences in, check out this archived NY Times piece.

Also, more recent immediate takes on ST: Picard are copious - a few that are enjoyable are The Pensky Podcast, Richard Jackson at Val Verde Broadcasting, and the guys at Trekabout, one of whom mounts a defence of Picard based on its groundings in Jewish mysticism. It didn't quite convince me to like the show, but it was interesting!

In this episode, I'm joined by my friend Cat Hamilton, from LA. We talk a little bit about the current state of the US TV industry (which Cat works in), its short-term reactions to the current Covid-19 crisis, and the future directions it might evolve into, to survive.

Speaking of evolution and survival, we then move onto the primary focus of the episode, in discussion of two sci-fi/AI-focused movies from the 2010s, Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2015) and Upgrade (Leigh Whannell, 2018), and our thoughts about them. We liked one of them a bit more than the other one. We also conversationally stray into Lethal Weapon, Dracula, Psycho, Red Dwarf , Arsenic and Old Lace and... Fawlty Towers, for some reason. I blame lockdown.

0.00 Intro

0.05 The state of the TV industry (in April 2020)

0.28 Ex Machina

1.20 Upgrade

2.28 Post-human chatter

You can reach the podcast on Twitter at @EGoat_pod (or tweet at me on @D_Faggiani) and email us with any feedback on [email protected].

Cat works in TV editing in Los Angeles. She is the co-host of The Anime Movie Podcast.

All original intro, outro and other incidental music recorded and made available by kind permission of Richard Gilbert.

NOTES

I thought this piece, by Jaylan Salah Salman, was a good intro to some of the more feminist themes in Ex Machina. You might also want to check out Sympathy for the Other: the Science Fiction Horror Film in the Brexit/Trump era, by Darren Mooney.

This week, I welcome Matt back to the podcast, and am also joined by Olivia Broome, to talk about South Park (1997-, Comedy Central) in general, as well as conducting a full episode-by-episode retrospective on Season 5 of the show, which aired over the course of 2001, and contains episodes including Scott Tenorman Must Die, Super Best Friends, Kenny Dies and Butters' Very Own Episode.

We discuss the approach and attitudes of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's work as a whole, as well as their development of South Park in the early years, including the move South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (Trey Parker, 1999). We attempt to examine whether Season 5's status as my personal peak of the show holds up to scrutiny. We also debate how our fandom has evolved over the decades, the show's influence on us, and our current varying assessments of the show in 2020.

Content warning - in discussing the show, we do very occasionally use the words 'Jew', 'F*g' and some other terms that could be considered slurs, in quoting from the show or the ancillary materials. Just to make you aware.

0.00 Intro/general discussion of South Park

0.26 South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut

0.43 Season 5, episodes 1-8

1.19 Season 5, episodes 9-14

1.55 Wrap up

You can find the show on Twitter at @EGoat_pod (or tweet at me on @D_Faggiani) and email us with any feedback on [email protected]. All original intro, outro and other incidental music recorded and made available by kind permission of Richard Gilbert.

Matt can be found on Youtube with his regular co-hosted movie analysis show 'Matt and Mike Pull Focus'. Matt previously appeared on Episode 01 of this podcast, where we discussed Zombie movies (especially Day of the Dead) and World War Z. Listen to that episode here. Olivia can be reached on Instagram via @oliviaxbroome.

NOTES

The short commentaries on Season 5 by Parker and Stone (which are fascinating) can be found currently on the South Park Studios UK website, and I imagine on other global equivalent sites. The full movie Cannibal: The Musical (Parker, 1993) can at the time of this posting be watched in full on the Troma Youtube channel, which I just discovered is a thing. Be assured, the three of us watched it (remotely) a few nights after recording this show, whilst drinking bloody maries.

This week, I'm joined by Richard Gilbert to discuss a fairly broad swathe of Westerns. First, we talk Sergio Leone and the 'Dollars Trilogy', with particular focus on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Leone, 1966). We definitely touch on mythological tropes, and we probably get a bit pretentious. We then chat about the first three episodes of The Mandalorian (Disney+, 2019-) and especially how it echoes Leone stylings and themes.

We then move on to me interviewing Rich about his experience playing the two Red Dead Redemption games (Rockstar Games, 2010/2018), and his take on their scope and influences, from both film and videogames themselves. The idea of Western simulations then leads us into a brief discussion of Westworld (HBO, 2016-) - primarily, Season 1, because neither of us have watched further (because neither of us liked it).

Somehow, neither me nor Rich even utter the word 'Deadwood' throughout this entire episode, which is extraordinary, as we're both massive fans.

0.00 Sergio Leone/The 'Dollars Trilogy'

0.53 The Mandalorian

1.06 Read Dead Redemption/Red Dead Redemption 2

1.37 Westworld

1.52 Recent recommendations/wrap up

You can find the show on Twitter at @EGoat_pod (or tweet at me on @D_Faggiani) and email us with any feedback on [email protected]. All original intro, outro and other incidental music recorded and made available by kind permission of Richard Gilbert.

NOTES

The book Cult Movies by Danny Peary (first pub. 1982) can be purchased on Amazon, via this link, as can The Immediate Experience by Robert Warshow (first pub. 1962), via this link. Listeners might also want to check out this 2018 YouTube clip of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, because it's joyous.