The Flopcast

With our DragonCon coverage out of the way (finally!), it's time to catch up on every other silly thing we've done lately. Kornflake reports on Napkin Poetry with Jim's Big Ego, gum jingles with Marc With a C, Pac-Man Battle Royale at Funspot, and giant bugs at Gillette Stadium. Meanwhile Kevin attended a rare Boston performance by George Hrab (who covered a Wham song!) and spotted an Archie Bunker's Place cast member at Granite State Comicon (alas, no Wham songs there). Also: The Top Ten songs this week in 1986, and (to get caught up) the Top Ten songs last week in 1985. Huey Lewis and Tina Turner are on both lists, and they're happy to be stuck with you beyond the Thunderdome. Plus: Barry Williams has a birthday this week, and we want to build a giant Greg Brady robot. But you probably could have guessed that.

From the American Sci-Fi Classics Track at DragonCon 2019 (just a few weeks ago - we're still sleepy), here's a fun panel called "Cousin Oliver Was Framed: Classic Sci-Fi Sidekicks"! Joining Kevin on the panel are The Fortress of Baileytude's Michael Bailey, novelist and Cop Rock enthusiast Michael Williams, and Classics Track co-director Gary Mitchel! And yeah, we're talking kid sidekicks, as well as our beloved Cousin Oliver from The Brady Bunch, and all those other kids desperately added to long-running sitcoms. (Sorry, Sam from Diff'rent Strokes, but you were a problem.) Our discussion includes: Robin, Wonder Girl, and the rest of the Teen Titans; Indy's Temple of Doom sidekick Short Round; a defense of Wesley Crusher; Twiki the robot sidekick; Marvin and Wendy vs. the Wonder Twins; the weirdness of the Mr. T cartoon; Goonies, Monster Squad, Stand By Me, and the kid adventure genre; a rare sci-fi turn from Molly Ringwald; the horrors of Scrappy Doo; and lots more. Oh, you should have been there. Those who survived the panel received Flopcast Cousin Oliver badge ribbons, as well as a strange desire to wear a bright red and yellow costume and stand next to Batman when the bullets start flying. What could go wrong?

This week we cover the second half of our favorite and most exhausting event of the year, DragonCon! (If you noticed a shortage of geeks in your area over Labor Day weekend... they were all in Atlanta. And they were all ahead of us in the line at Starbucks.) Including: The Geek Girls Run; Classic Sci-Fi Court (good luck, 1984 Supergirl movie); stars from Doctor Who, Cobra Kai, V, and The Magicians; puppeteer Allan Trautman (from Dinosaurs and yikes, The Letter People!); Tai Chi with Silver Spoons star Erin Gray; our panels on Krypton, Doom Patrol, Pennyworth, Russian Doll, Kidd Video (!), and podcasting for authors; RetroBlasting with 1980s ninjas; a pie-fueled ESO Network gathering; the 30th anniversary of Weird Al's movie UHF; and lots more convention silliness. (Did we find people in costume as the Miser Brothers, the Price is Right yodeling guy, and Toonces the Driving Cat? Yes, yes, and yes.) Also: Ed Begley Jr.'s birthday, and the Top Ten songs this week in 1984. (Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" was at number four... and the future attendees of DragonCon were listening.)

It was five weird days with 85,000 weird humans... we have so much to cover from DragonCon that we're splitting it into two episodes! This week's review includes: The DragonCon Newbie Walking Tours; the ESO Network Meet and Greet; Doctor Who's David Tennant; legendary comic book artist George Pérez; Rankin/Bass animation expert Rick Goldschmidt; the Sci-Fi Explosion show (featuring Billy Ocean, believe it or not); the DragonCon parade; the cast of Gotham; unpopular opinions with MST3K's Bill Corbett; our Sci-Fi Legends memorial panel; a Batman-themed Roll-a-Panel; Kevin's other panels on Arrow, Titans, Gotham, the Planet of the Apes cartoon, and Cousin Oliver (!); the Mayor's panel on Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure; robot rock band Cybertronic Spree; late nights with Crusher, Picard, and Good Enough Cosplay; the DragonCon premiere of the documentary Troublemaker (starring our friend Dave); and yes, lots more. And that's just the first half! More DragonCon silliness next week, if we ever stop napping.

Our ten-part 80s celebration continues with a quick look at the Top Ten songs this week in 1982! It's an odd list, with a couple of veteran 60s acts (Paul McCartney and Crosby, Stills, and Nash), a couple of soft rock classics (from Chicago and our true love, Air Supply), and a rather awful song in the top spot. (It wants to reach out and grab you, creepily.) The 80s music talk continues with Kevin's concert report from the Lost 80s Live tour, featuring a fun assortment of one-and-two-hit wonders from our favorite decade: Boys Don't Cry, Real Life, The Motels, When in Rome, The Vapors, and A Flock of Seagulls! (The frontwoman of The Motels is Martha Davis, and we have a shocking revelation about her hat, which just leads to more questions.) Plus: Kornflake on a pirate ship! Also: It's International Enthusiasm Week... but who cares.

We're taking a break from our frantic DragonCon preparations to look at the Top Ten songs this week in 1981! The Pointer Sisters wanted a slow hand, the Greatest American Hero was walking on air, there was no getting over Ronnie Milsap, and there was no avoiding a pair of classic duets (one from Stevie and Tom, one from Diana and Lionel). Meanwhile Kornflake grabs a box of doughnuts and hits the road again for a concert from TV's Kyle, Linzilla, Devo Spice, and OK Glass! While wandering around New York, she also finds Donny Osmond and a weird chicken, so we're calling this a successful trip. And we're celebrating Radio Commercials Day! Kornflake loved radio commercials (and could even be heard in a few!), while Kevin just suffered through them, waiting for more Juice Newton.

We're just days away from that massive annual gathering of the geeks, DragonCon! Why not spend Labor Day weekend in Atlanta with 80,000 of your closest and weirdest friends? In this, our DragonCon preview show, we run through the convention's various programming tracks, and yikes, there are a bunch: Animation, Comics, Costuming, Horror, Puppetry, Science, Skeptics, Video Gaming, and dozens more. You Will Not Be Bored. Hundreds of guests will be there too, including stars from The Karate Kid, Shazam, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Doctor Who, Gotham, iZombie, Star Wars, Star Trek, and everything else. (But who cares -- they had us at Karate Kid.) Meanwhile Kevin and the Mayor will be participating in various panels and presentations, and we share our (tentative) schedules here. (If you think we're not going to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Weird Al's movie UHF, you don't know DragonCon's American Sci-Fi Classics track. There will be spatulas.) Lots more ESO Network personnel will be on hand as well; find us at the Thursday night ESO Network Meet and Greet! Get a weird Flopcast badge ribbon! (Your friends will FREAK OUT.) Also this week: We're celebrating the 50th birthday of Kornflake's second favorite star of Friends, and we're counting down the Top Ten songs from this week in 1980. How timely of us. See you in Atlanta.

All dumb things must come to an end, and you don't get much dumber than watching all the sequels to the summer camp comedy classic, Meatballs! But our goofy summer project ends now, as we chomp on pizza pie and somehow get through 1992's Meatballs 4: To the Rescue! Still no Bill Murray, of course, but a new hero emerges (on water skis) to put a bullet in the Meatballs franchise: Corey Feldman. Yes, he's a Goonie, he's a Frog brother, and now he's at Camp Lakeside teaching us to play Strip Charades. But just in time to ruin everything, here comes our villain, and yikes, she's a Superman II Phantom Zone villain! The evil owner of the rival camp is Ursa herself, Sarah Douglas! Great to see Corey and Sarah, but how's the movie? Join us as we sort it all out, and rank all four Meatballs films. Meanwhile you'll hear thunder crashing in the background, because Mother Nature is displeased by our movie night selection, and you know, she has a point. Also: Happy Birthday to noted late night talk show host Magic Johnson. We remember.

For no good reason, every summer we present a Top 4 1/2 List of robots! So it's time for our eighth annual robot list, and the theme this year is... tiny robots. We have tiny robots from movies, television, music, toys, comic books, and even the real world, where someday soon you could be injected with millions of nanobots and forced to do their bidding. And that day... will be a great day. We're also celebrating actor Sam Elliott's birthday, because we strongly suspect that his mustache is actually a tiny robot. And along the way we somehow get distracted by a Grizzly Adams poster, which is the exact opposite of a tiny robot, but you know, these things happen.

It's summer concert report time, because our white and nerdy hero "Weird Al" Yankovic just came through New England with his "Strings Attached" tour, featuring an entire symphony orchestra! Kornflake and Doornail scored VIP tickets to the New Hampshire show, where they ventured backstage and met Weird Al himself (plus a bunch of Stormtroopers). Weird Al's Boston show was next, at an outdoor venue on a nasty hot day, but we all dared to be stupid and showed up anyway. (Hey, it was the 30th anniversary of Al's movie UHF; our plan was to beat the heat by drinking from the fire hose.) Anyway, if you've always felt that Weird Al shows suffered from a lack of oboe players... do not miss this tour. Also: We're freaked out by giant crazy sea birds, and we're celebrating Hilary Swank's birthday, because she will always be our next karate kid.