Two Geeks Two Beers

We’ve done Batman, Hulk, X-Men, and now it’s time to web-sling back to the ‘90s to revisit an animated outing for Spider-Man.

This time, Morgan pens a podcast love letter to his childhood and adoration for the 1994 animated version of Peter Parker and his pals.

We look at the potentially murky history behind the epic theme tune creators, the bizarre censorship rules to protect children, and its utterly bonkers multiverse ending.

Spider-Man The Animated Series ran on the Fox Kids Network from 1994 to 1998, with a total of five seasons and sixty-five episodes.

Starring Morgan’s hero Christopher Daniel Barnes as Peter Parker, and Two Geeks favourite Ed Asner as J Jonah Jameson, the series was massively popular and helped cement Spider-Man as a hugely popular superhero years before Tobey Maguire brought it to the big screen.

It really shouldn’t work, and many at the time said it didn’t, but a movie based on the Cluedo board game was a childhood favourite of Tom’s back in the day.

As Morgan has never seen 1985’s Clue, or even played Cluedo, for the latest episode Tom gives a mini history lesson on the crime caper starring Tim Curry.

The boys discuss the film’s groundbreaking different endings, a potential remake, and why Monopoly is the worst.

Directed by Jonathan Lynn with a script by Lynn and John Landis, the black comedy mystery film starred a fantastic ensemble including Christopher Lloyd, Tim Curry, Madeleine Khan and Michael McKean.

Ahead of its time in many ways, Clue had three possible endings, and while it wasn’t a huge success at the time, it has gone on to become a cult favourite (in true Two Geeks fashion).

Look into our eyes…

For this episode, we’re heading back to the ‘90s with a ‘splat’, as we fall back under the spell of The Demon Headmaster, investigating the vintage CBBC series, the recent reboot and the books that inspired them both.

Morgan teaches Tom all about the classic kids’ show that is still rather terrifying, and share our own harrowing stories of teachers. Tom’s broken ruler story will send shivers down your spine…

Based on the series of books by Gillian Cross, The Demon Headmaster ran on CBBC from 1996 to 1998. It starred Terrence Hardiman in the title role, becoming one of the most feared TV characters for 90s kids everywhere.

It was brought back as a sequel series in 2019, with Hardiman returning in later episodes, much to the joy of total nerds like us.

As we’re all feeling like our lives are not quite in control right now, and we’re (mostly) stuck at home and being told what to do and when… you could say that your life feels like a bit of a simulation. Yeah, that’s a really crap link isn’t it?

For this episode, Tom is taking Morgan back to the year 2000 and his teenage obsession with The Sims – the first iteration of the hugely popular Sims video game franchise.

We go through the first Sims era, its creation from depressing circumstances, its long list of expansion packs, what the heck Simlish is, and why it’s not a great party unless Drew Carey turns up.

Created by Will Wright after he had an idea sparked by a house fire of all things, the Maxis game series The Sims launched in 2000 on PC.

Since then, it has spawned countless sequels, expansion packs, spin-offs and more, and has become one of the most successful game franchises of all time.

Long ago, when we were all free to roam the streets, we’d planned an episode to tie into the June 2020 release of Wonder Woman 1984…

Since then, society has collapsed and that film has been postponed till August, but despite that, we still wanted to celebrate a cultural milestone.

Here, we explore the wonderful world of Wonder Woman, specifically the 1970s television series starring Lynda Carter. We tackle Diana’s somewhat strange flight plans, the show’s trio of awesome theme tunes, and how it tackled the sexism of the era.

Based on the DC Comics superhero character, Wonder Woman was a big success in the second half of the 1970s.

Starring Lynda Carter and Lyle Waggoner, Wonder Woman’s first season aired on ABC and was set in the 1940s during World War II.

The second and third seasons moved to CBS and were set in the 1970s, with the title changed to The New Adventures of Wonder Woman, and a complete change of cast other than Carter and Waggoner.

In our first regular episode recorded during lockdown, Tom takes Morgan back to 2006 (or so we thought) to the underrated entry in the Fast & Furious saga: Tokyo Drift.

We try and work out the film’s timeline, discover hilarious character names in the credits, and hear Tom’s god awful Channing Tatum impression.

Also, hear the grumpy hilarity that ensues when almost half the episode has to be re-recorded due to Zoom malfunctioning!

Tokyo Drift was released in 2006 as the third film in the Fast & Furious franchise. However, it didn’t star Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, but drifted over to Japan for a new adventure starring Lucas Black as Sean Boswell.

Introducing a new cast including Sung Kang as Han, the film became something of a cult favourite with fans, and managed to just about keep the franchise going, before Vin and Paul returned for 2009’s Fast and Furious.

With the upcoming Fast 9 set to bring back Sean and other Tokyo Drift characters, it’s a treat to go back to when flip phones and Devon Aoki were cool.

In this very special episode of Two Geeks, we had a fantastic chat with geek hero – Red Dwarf co-creator, director and writer Doug Naylor, and producer Richard Naylor.

In our third interview special (check out our Jamie Anderson and Nicholas Briggs episodes too), we spoke to Doug and Richard about their brand new feature-length Red Dwarf episode The Promised Land, the future of Dwarf, unanswered questions and more.

Despite us all being on lockdown, it was fantastic being able to speak to Doug and Richard over video chat – and we hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed recording it.

And make sure to check out our previous Red Dwarf-themed episode, when Tom took Morgan through a potted history of the sci-fi sitcom.

Now, we didn’t plan this, but our next episode is all about a movie that delves into the end of the world, Armageddon. Whoops.

Yep, it’s time for Tom to teach Morgan all about 1998 Michael Bay/Bruce Willis disaster movie explosion fest Armageddon! AKA the highest grossing movie of 1998.

In the episode, we discuss the film’s frankly amazing cast, Ben Affleck’s hilarious disparaging DVD commentary, and we hear Morgan’s Donald Trump impression. What more could you want?

We recorded this episode before the whole coronavirus pandemic became a thing, but we reckon it’s strangely apt to be discussing something so… end of the world-y. So, at least whatever’s happening in your life right now, at least the fate of the world isn’t in the hands of Bruce Willis and his oil drilling pals.

Podcasts can be a great comfort or distraction in times like these, so while we’re sure everyone has bigger concerns, we hope we can provide some small feeling of comfort and a bit of a giggle.

To mark the upcoming release of No Time To Die, we’re returning to the world of 007, with Morgan taking Tom through a history of James Bond video games!

We travel from Bond’s early text-based games, through the height of GoldenEye 64 and to Morgan’s three favourite original Bond games, peaking with 2003’s Everything or Nothing.

Tom has several rants, Morgan explains how he spoke to Pierce Brosnan in his pants, and we look at the current state of Bond games.

Note: We apologise for a few sound issues caused by a rogue mic during this episode!

For our first episode of 2020, Tom takes Morgan back to the 1990s once again, as the boys discuss the nostalgia rush that is Live and Kicking.

We go through a brief history of Saturday morning kids’ TV from Tiswas to SMTV, debate the Andi Peters/Emma Forbes vs Zoe Ball/Jamie Theakston eras and try to remember which one was Trevor or Simon.

We also recall John Barrowman’s involvement, memorable phone-in jingles, and what signaled the demise of a TV institution.

Live and Kicking launched in the early 1990s, and became an institution in the UK when it came to children’s TV.

Saturdays were not complete without a dose of Live and Kicking and its cartoon lineup of X-Men, The Raccoons and more.

Check out our previous shows based on 90s kids TV, including The Animals of Farthing Wood, ReBoot and Batman The Animated Series.