The Flopcast

It's another "66" episode, which always reminds us of V66, Boston's late great 1980s music video channel. (You've all seen the documentary Life on the V, right? RIGHT?) This time we decided to party like it's 1985 and watch a bunch of music videos from the V66 era. If you want to jump on YouTube and watch along with us, VJ Kornflake's playlist is: "Obsession" by Animotion, "Invincible" by Pat Benatar, "Live is Life" by Opus (???), "Dancing on the Ceiling" by Lionel Richie, "Goonies R Good Enough" by Cyndi Lauper, and "A View to a Kill" by Duran Duran. Or just relax and enjoy our idiotic commentary. V66 didn't last long; it was soon replaced by the Home Shopping Network, because Bostonians desperately needed cubic zirconia. But we'll keep staring at these goofy videos forever, even if Rowdy Roddy Piper only appears in some of them. Also this week: Comic book trivia with Earth Station One, a DragonCon American Sci-Fi Classics Track panel about rabbits (?), and Happy Birthday to 80s naughty girl Samantha Fox.

The V66 documentary, Life on the V!

Eric's latest short documentary, Video Visions!

Kevin is back on Earth Station One for comic book trivia!

The American Sci-Fi Classics Track bunny panel!

VJ Kornflake's 1985 music video playlist:

"Obsession" by Animotion

"Invincible" by Pat Benatar

"Live is Life" by Opus

"Dancing on the Ceiling" by Lionel Richie

"Goonies R Good Enough" by Cyndi Lauper

"A View to a Kill" by Duran Duran

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 promo: Double Edged Double Bill!

This week's other promo: Timestreams!

For no good reason, the name "Johnny" is the subject of our latest Top 4 1/2 List. (Has it been a slow week around here? What do you think?) We have characters named Johnny from movies, TV, songs, and even more goofy DC comic books. There might even be a robot on the list, since Ally Sheedy assures us that Johnny 5 is very much alive. Plus: Dueling Johnny songs from Chuck Berry and Men at Work, dueling Johnny songs from El DeBarge and "Weird Al" Yankovic, Greg Brady vs. Johnny Bravo, Charlie the Tuna vs. Mr. Peanut (?), and more. Did we miss your favorite Johnny? Let us know! The best way to reach us is by canal. Just ask Johnny Canal.

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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 promo: The Best Saturdays of Our Lives!

Our examination of every "backdoor pilot" episode of The Facts of Life continues... because we know what the people want. "Brian and Sylvia" was an odd 1981 attempt at a Facts of Life spinoff series. The premise: Tootie's Aunt Sylvia is a Buffalo TV news anchor, and Brian is her husband, a hockey coach played by pre-MacGyver Richard Dean Anderson. So if you're looking for early 80s mixed-marriage jokes that have not aged particularly well, this sitcom delivers the goods. Our conversation somehow also includes Willona from Good Times, the short-lived Sanford and Son spinoff Grady, a weird Thanksgiving at Plimoth Plantation, suffering through Godspell in junior high, and Tootie's aunt as a space princess on Jason of Star Command. Also: Kornflake is on Earth Station One (to discuss The Commitments), Kevin is on The DragonCon Report (to discuss, you know, DragonCon), and it's World Backup Day. So back up.

Kornflake on Earth Station One!

The DragonCon Report!

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 promo: Earth Station Trek!

Quick show this week (because we're exhausted), including: Kornflake at virtual MarsCon; Kornflake and Kevin in a silly new music video (from Power Salad and the great Luke Ski); baseball, blues, and spider movies with William Shatner; old TV talk (Facts of Life, Leave It to Beaver); new TV talk (WandaVision, Ted Lasso, Taskmaster); and for the first time in eight years, Kevin was right about something.

MarsCon Comedy Music Track: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday!

"Red Beans and Rice" video by Power Salad and Luke Ski (with a cameo by your goofy Flopcast hosts)!

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 promo: The Soul Forge Podcast!

For more than 80 years, DC Comics has brought us legends like Wonder Woman and Batman... as well as sillier characters like Kite Man and Bat Mite. There's a long rich history of goofy characters at DC, and we love them all. So that's the subject of our latest Top 4 1/2 List: goofy DC characters. And we invited an expert to play along: Drew, co-host of the Earth Station DCU podcast! Our goofy list includes some Bat-villains, of course, as well as a crime-fighting chimpanzee, a teen president, a hippie mannequin, dogs in space, cab drivers in space, and more. This could have been a Top 400 List, because we didn't even get around to Matter Eater Lad, Mr. Tawky Tawny, Quisp, Bird-Boy, Mer-Boy, and all the residents of the Bizarro World. In fact, this episode just might go on forever... unless you can trick us into saying "Kltpzyxm."

Drew and Cletus talk DC Comics every week on Earth Station DCU!

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 promo: Metal Geeks!

This week's other promo: ESO Network Patreon!

Twenty years ago, Kevin and Kornflake first visited the great state of Michigan for the comedy music convention Dementia 2001! (Kevin's band The Sponge Awareness Foundation performed, then quickly returned to their rightful place in total obscurity.) And our guest this week is the organizer of Dementia 2001, our old friend Blasted Bill! We're talking weird Michigan trivia with Bill, and the conversation includes the invention of breakfast cereal (all thanks to Cornelius the Corn Flakes rooster), fun with soda (or "pop," as the locals call it), Yoopers vs. Trolls, a post office that floats, painted turtles, angry dentists, Freaks and Geeks, Dave Coulier, and lots more Upper Midwest silliness. Blasted Bill is largely responsible for The Flopcast even existing (though he's understandably reluctant to admit it), so we're happy he could join us and help Michiganify the show. (Here's one more fun fact just for you: Michigan is not actually the most mitten-shaped state. That honor goes to Wyoming. Assuming you have freakish rectangle-hands. And we think you do.)

The Flopcast website!

The ESO Network!

The Flopcast on Facebook!

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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 promo: We Be Geeks!

This week's other promo: MarsCon!

"The Backs of Life" is our stupid new project for the stupid new year! The plan is to examine each "backdoor pilot" episode of The Facts of Life in excruciating detail. (You know backdoor pilots. It's when an episode of an existing TV show is used to introduce a potential new spin-off show. This happened on The Facts of Life... a lot.) But we're starting with a 1979 episode of Diff'rent Strokes (season 1, episode 24, "The Girls School"), because The Facts of Life itself started there as a backdoor pilot. Thrill to Mrs. Garrett making the move from housekeeper (for a rich dude) to housemother (for a bunch of crazy girls). We meet some future Facts of Life regulars (Blair with a cigarette! Tootie on rollerskates! MOLLY RINGWALD!), some girls we'd never see again (Jennifer? Laura?), and a headmaster played by the cranky guy from The Bob Newhart Show. We also get generic disco music, a frog named Leon, Dana Plato as a ballerina (sort of), Gary Coleman in a donkey costume, and another mysterious Fake Brady Girl connection. Also: More TV talk with ESO Board Silly, more Rock and Roll Hall of Fame talk with Pop Culture Cosmos, Happy 100th Episode to The 42cast, and Happy Birthday to a Cobra Kai sensei.

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 promo: Cosmic Pizza!

This week's other promo: But First, Let's Talk Nerdy!

Inspired by the discovery of some ancient Sponge Awareness Foundation music, we're flashing back to the very early 90s - specifically, this week in February 1990. Top 40 radio was dominated by pop/R&B ladies like Janet Jackson, Expose, and (along with our hero MC Skat Kat) Paula Abdul. At the movies, your options ranged all the way from Clive Barker horror to a Disney mermaid. And a weird week of television included a Love Boat reunion movie (with Rowdy Roddy Piper!), a very special Saturday Night Live (Wayne and Garth meet Aerosmith!), episode six of The Simpsons (introducing Bleeding Gums Murphy!), and a bizarre Brady Bunch revival (with Martha Quinn and Fake Marcia!). Our beloved 1980s were just a few weeks behind us, but there was no turning back. Before long, we'd settle into a steady diet of Crystal Pepsi and Zima, and hope for the best. Also: We unveil a Flopcast project that starts next week and includes a homework assignment for you. (Most homework assignments do not involve goofy old sitcoms, but this one totally does.)

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 promo: Nerdbliss!

Longtime Flopcast listeners (those poor souls) know that every year we examine the new list of nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, even though it's stupid. But this year's list is surprisingly strong and diverse, and includes some Flopcast favorites. (Our beloved Go-Go's are way overdue for induction. And as society collapses right on schedule, we must acknowledge Devo. They warned us.) And hey, Tina Turner had better make the final cut, or we'll see you in the Thunderdome. Also: William Katt has a greatest American birthday, the Mayor of Chickentown returns to Oz, and the retro video game-style Flopcast t-shirt is suddenly a thing that exists.

The American Sci-Fi Classics Return to Oz panel, with the Mayor of Chickentown!

The ESO Network TeePublic store has a new Flopcast t-shirt!

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 promo: Earth Station One!

This week's other promo: MarsCon!

Let's wrap up our Facts of Life FlopFight, the tournament that somehow captures all the excitement of a girls' school and/or a gourmet food shop. Our combatants include the classic four Facts of Life girls (Blair, Jo, Natalie, Tootie), the lesser known Facts of Life girls (if you can possibly consider Molly Ringwald "lesser known"), and even a couple of Facts of Life guys (one of whom may have become a huge movie star). Only one shall survive; for the rest, the world never seems to be living up to their dreams. And because it's a FlopFight, this tournament involves chicken suits, submarines, candlepin bowling, ducks, and other perfectly normal competitions. Also: Happy Birthday to a Canadian pop star, Kornflake makes her DragonCon American Sci-Fi Classics Track panel debut, and we say farewell to the legendary Cloris Leachman.

The American Sci-Fi Classics Track panel on The Last Unicorn and 70s Animated Fantasy, featuring Kornflake!

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 promo: Earth Station DCU!