What Did We Miss?

It's Christmas, and what better way to spend the day than podcasting about jolly old St. Nick. Matt and Tony revisit 1985's Santa Claus: The Movie. Unlike previous topics, Matt and Tony have both seen this movie before, but it's safe to say it's been about 30 years. It's a holiday "classic" that doesn't get a lot of attention, and it's easy to understand why - this is a very weird movie.

Fans pointed out that WDWM's Phish episode was missing a key component of what makes them so passionate about the band: seeing Phish live. When Matt and Tony recorded the episode over the summer they didn't know that an opportunity to see a Phish show was in the cards, but as luck would have it the band ended up doing two nights in Rhode Island the weekend after Thanksgiving. In this bonus follow up episode, the guys talk about their expectations and experiences after seeing Phish live at the Dunkin' Donut Center in Providence, RI on November 30.

Cats. It's coming to a theater near all of us later this month, but it's been a meme-worthy punching bag all year thanks to early trailers and the internet's never-ending hunger for things to ridicule. Sure, the new movie's CGI cast of cats looks kind of creepy. But do Matt and Tony have any skin in the game to either mock or stick up for Andrew Lloyd Webber's feline phenomenon? Nope, so here it is - the What Did We Miss? Cats episode.

Despite recognizing the characters, Matt and Tony have never read a single Archie comic book. This week they fix that by sitting down with classic tales of teenage antics as drawn by Dan DeCarlo, the Archie artist who established the house style and solidified the characters' iconic looks. Joining them is Ayla Ahlquist, a Providence-based comedy writer and performer who was raised on the adventures of the Archie gang. Ayla regularly performs improv comedy at Wage House Comedy Theater in Pawtucket, RI (with Tony no less!) and is a cast member of The Empire Revue, Providence's long-running monthly variety show.

The discussion covers Archie's origins and DeCarlo's deceptively simple style, growing up on Archie, Ayla's bias against the CW's modern reimagining of the characters, how Matt and Tony know as little as they do about the characters without ever having read any of the comics before now, and how easily the simple formula of Archie stories allow the gang to crossover with zombies, The Punisher, and the Predator.

Biker gangs, dead tech heiresses, and world-weary young gumshoes: Welcome to Veronica Mars.

100 years makes a world of difference, especially when it comes to film. But the more things change, the more they stay the same, and even in the century since its release you can still see and feel the macabre influence of Robert Wiene's 1920 classic of the silent era, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. When people talk about German Expressionism in film, this is the movie they're talking about. Its DNA appears in everything - from Citizen Kane to Edward Scissorhands, from Dr. Seuss to Rob Zombie - and after years of hearing and reading about its impact on so many artists, Matt and Tony are happy to finally cross this one off their lists.

For part three of our run of horror episodes, we take their first steps into the New England Gothic world of Shirley Jackson. Jackson, whose The Haunting of Hill House was adapted by Netflix last year, has had a lasting influence on horror. For this episode, we're beginning at the end, with a deep dive into Jackson's final novel, the chilling, 1962 tale of two sisters and a house: We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

We're in week two of Horror Month, and our guest Jarret Blinkhorn is here to talks us through the HBO horror/comedy anthology, Tales From the Crypt.

This week's episode kicks off Horror Month at What Did We Miss? with four straight weeks of creepy, crawly episodes. Kicking things off is the 1974 slasher classic, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which introduced to world to director Tobe Hooper and one of cinema's most enduring horror icons, Leatherface. For Matt, this is easily an all-time favorite. For Tony, well, he saw the remake if that counts (it doesn't).

Ken Reid is a standup comic from Boston, MA and the host of the podcast TV Guidance Counselor, where he welcomes a guest to flip through an old issue of TV Guide and talk about what would have been watching that week. Ken is a well of TV and pop culture knowledge, making him the perfect guide through the '70s workplace-cop-sitcom, Barney Miller.

We discuss, among other things: how Ken collected such a massive collection of TV Guide issues, the grit and grime of '70s TV, Barney Miller and its ability to tackle big, progressive issues head on, Night Court as Barney Miller Jr., and lastly, as we head into October, Ken talks about a few of his favorite Halloween episodes of classic TV.

Follow Ken on Twitter and Instagram: @TVGuidance