The Flopcast

DragonCon, our very favorite annual gathering of the geeks, was a virtual-only event last year. But this year we're creeping back down to Atlanta and doing it for real! It'll be (mostly) business as usual: five days of nonstop panels, concerts, gaming, costumes, and all manner of nerdy fun. Celebrity guests include actors from Doctor Who, Star Trek, Smallville, Batwoman, Pinky and the Brain, Superman and Lois, and (our favorite) Land of the Lost. Safety protocols are in place, so if you're masked, vaccinated, and know how to play well with others, come on down. Kevin will be busy again this year with lots of silly panels and presentations, and we run through his whole schedule. (Warning: Since this episode was recorded, that schedule has already changed. Check our social media posts for the corrected version.) And we have new Flopcast badge ribbons for you too! (Also on this week's episode: Television of 1986, the Watch-A-Thon of Rassilon, and Barry Gibb's beard.) See you at DragonCon! Beware of Sleestak. And, you know, everything else.

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This week's promos: The Monster Scifi Show! Doctor Geek's vaccination PSA!

Our ten-episode salute to the 80s creeps along with a quick look at the pop chart from this week in 1985! Dire Straits were computer-animated movers, Phil Collins was an Ocasek-style housefly, Wham met a weird kid in China, and Casey Kasem was very angry about the Pointer Sisters. Then we flip through a summer 1985 issue of Mad magazine, featuring a movie parody (Witness), a TV parody (Kate & Allie), a song parody (We Are the World), hippies vs. yuppies, Beta vs. VHS, Don Martin vs. the Boston Celtics, and lots of cartoon naked people. Also this week: For the first time in a million years, we sneaked out of our underground Chickentown bunker for some actual live music! We were double-masked and socially distant, but we attended the long-delayed album release show from our favorite synthpop band, Freezepop! (Also performing were impressive local metal band Worshipper and our glam rock heroes Sidewalk Driver!) Plus: Stifler's mom's birthday, more Suicide Squad talk with Earth Station DCU, and the Flopcast couch-to-5K-to-intense-pain training program.

More Suicide Squad talk on Earth Station DCU!

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Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation!

This week's promos: The 42cast! Doctor Geek's vaccination PSA!

Welcome to our TENTH annual summer robot Top 4 1/2 List! (It's an odd tradition, but it's all we have.) This year's theme is... 80s robots. Of course, lots of notable 80s robots have appeared on previous lists, so they're not included this time (sorry, Johnny 5) to make room for some all-new, all-weird entries. We have robots from 80s cartoons, 80s television, 80s movies, 80s commercials, and even a bizarre 80s PSA from Canada. In the 1980s, robots were completely ridiculous, and we loved them, so let's count them down. Also: The music and movies of 1984, Earth Station One's review of The Suicide Squad, and nerds on a roller coaster.

Earth Station One reviews The Suicide Squad!

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Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation!

This week's promos: Metal Geeks! Doctor Geek's vaccination PSA!

We're celebrating 1983, which the history books already call "the year of Mr. Roboto, and not much else." But we did notice that a bunch of actors who played comic book characters (Spider-Man, Thor, Superman, Lois, Luthor, Wonder Woman, and more) were born that year. And we run through some our favorite 1983 movies (DC Cab, The Outsiders, Wargames), 1983 comics books (Batman and the Outsiders, Omega Men, Alpha Flight), and 1983 music (new wave, new wave, and new wave). Also: The Kiss guys take the makeup off, the Teen Titans replace Robin with the Protector, Kornflake rides a party bus to Hooters, and we have questions about the anatomy of the Kool-Aid Man.

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Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation!

This week's promos: The Soul Forge Podcast! Doctor Geek's vaccination PSA!

We're up to 1982 in our series of 80s-themed episodes, and it's time to review another Facts of Life backdoor pilot! This one looks eerily similar to a previous backdoor pilot, as the boys of Stone Academy get another shot at a spinoff series! But this time instead of a school dance, the plot involves a school boxing tournament. (Back in 1982, viewers probably thought they were watching Rocky III.) And the cast has been expanded to include a pretty nurse, a scary kid named Mongo (probably working for Ming the Merciless), a cameo by (then unknown) Crispin Glover, and 80s supernerd Eddie Deezen! (You know Eddie from Grease, Wargames, and a billion other things. He out-nerds us all.) Did it all work? Of course not. But it's magnificent. Also: 80s trivia with the ESO Network Board of Directors, and Happy Birthday to Tootie's real life mom. Next week: 1983. Of course.

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Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation!

This week's promos: Earth Station DCU! Doctor Geek's (NEW!) vaccination PSA! FumpFest!

Our ten-part series about the 1980s continues with a look at all the TV shows that debuted in 1981! Prime time soaps were on the rise (Dynasty, Falcon Crest), the Six Million Dollar Man became the Fall Guy, and Hill Street Blues premiered alongside 600 other (instantly forgotten) detective shows. We had a Brady Bunch spin-off (with Marcia, Jan, and their goofy husbands), a Jeffersons spin-off (Florence gets her own show... for a month), and an almost-but-not-quite Little House on the Prairie spin-off (the even-weirder-in-retrospect Father Murphy). Only one long-running sitcom started in 1981, and it was... Gimme a Break! (Congratulations to Ms. Carter and Mr. Sweet.) Love, Sidney and Private Benjamin lasted a couple of years, which isn't bad compared to the stuff only Kevin remembers, like Best of the West and Open All Night. Then there were some truly obscure short-lived oddities starring Gabe Kaplan, Sam Jones, and the Smothers Brothers. It was a weird year, but that's how we like it. And we give special attention to our favorite 1981 series, The Greatest American Hero. Kornflake saw the extra-long pilot episode for the first time just this week. Believe it or not.

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Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts!

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Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation!

This week's promos: Cosmic Pizza! Doctor Geek's vaccination PSA!

We're kicking off ten weeks of 80s-themed shows... because when do we ever get to talk about the 80s around here? And this week we're looking at the year 1980. It was the year that brought us Flash Gordon, Caddyshack, Pac-Man, the Rubik's Cube, and a cheater in the Boston Marathon. (Some of us also cheated at the Rubik's Cube...) We also review the Billboard pop chart for this week in 1980, and find Billy Joel's first number one song, a couple of Xanadu favorites from Olivia and ELO, country rock from Eddie Rabbitt, early new wave from Gary Numan, and just a massive heap of yacht rock. (So... much... Ambrosia.) Also this week: Taskmaster is a Black Widow villain AND Kornflake's favorite game show; Baby Yoda is a Chia Pet; and Happy Birthday to our favorite Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter. All the world is waiting for you.

More Flopcast 1980 talk! Kevin and the Mayor covered new 1980 TV shows in Flopcast 408 and 409!

And Kevin and Kornflake reviewed 1980 Saturday morning TV in Flopcast 417, 419, and 421!

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Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts!

Email: [email protected]

Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation!

This week's promos: The Best Saturdays of Our Lives! Doctor Geek's vaccination PSA!

With the long-delayed release of Black Widow this week, many humans finally returned to actual movie theaters, where the $14 boxes of Raisinets had been waiting patiently since last year. Meanwhile Kevin and Kornflake are flopping back to 35 years ago, when the only Marvel movie in theaters was... Howard the Duck. We run through a big crazy list of movies from 1986, including some all-time favorites (Stand by Me, Karate Kid Part II), science fiction classics (Aliens, Star Trek IV), fantasy classics (Big Trouble in Little China, Labyrinth), and random oddities (Maximum Overdrive, My Chauffeur). The Brat Pack was out of control, Molly was pretty in pink, Kevin Bacon was a bike messenger, Jeff Goldblum was a fly, Johnny 5 was alive, Rodney went back to school, Ferris did not, Peggy Sue got married, and Audrey II just wanted to be fed. Yikes. In 1986, the only time we left the theater was when the government forced us to participate in Hands Across America. Also this week: Kornflake brings you... the Weird Eyeball Game. Talk to your favorite optician before playing.

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Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts!

Email: [email protected]

Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation!

This week's promos: Double Edged Double Bill! Doctor Geek's vaccination PSA!

Just some miscellaneous silly talk this week, including: Kickball with Kornflake; cursing your enemies with R2D2 ceramics; TV talk (we recommend Girls5eva, Rutherford Falls, We Are Lady Parts, and This Way Up); punk rock with The Linda Lindas; crazy screaming peacocks; fun with a giant book of 80s pop chart stats; fun with Wallace and Gromit on Earth Station One; Happy Birthday to the kid from One Day at a Time and Jennifer Slept Here; and after an entire year (!), as demanded by absolutely no one... the return of Chickens in the News.

Kornflake talking Wallace and Gromit on Earth Station One!

And our regular links...

The Flopcast website!

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The Flopcast on Twitter!

Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts!

Email: [email protected]

Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation!

This week's promos: Nerdbliss! Doctor Geek's vaccination PSA!

Kevin and Kornflake are enjoying the new comic book-based Netflix show Sweet Tooth (we like hybrids), and we have an entire "sweet"-themed Top 4 1/2 List just for you. Our list includes cheap Halloween candy (of course), as well as a Sweet sitcom star, a cartoon dog, 90s music, a giant Muppet, and lots more silly sweet stuff. Your dentist will hate this episode. (Except for the part about Air Supply, based on the music they play in their waiting room.) Also: We have a major correction from last week (sorry, Family Ties star Michael Gross), we've seen a combined total of two Mel Brooks movies (are you impressed?), and we've been hanging around the DragonCon American Sci-Fi Classics Track again.

Flopcast Train Talk with Ed! Part 1 and Part 2

American Sci-Fi Classics panels: Joe's Birthday Potluck! From Darth Vader to Darkseid: Sci-Fi Dads!

And our regular links...

The Flopcast website!

The ESO Network!

The Flopcast on Facebook!

The Flopcast on Instagram!

The Flopcast on Twitter!

Please rate and review The Flopcast on Apple Podcasts!

Email: [email protected]

Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation!

This week's promos: Ring of Thunder! Doctor Geek's vaccination PSA!