Let's Talk Ten

Just in time for Christmas! It’s the “LET’S TALK TEN HOLIDAY SPECIAL!”, with special guest WILL HARRIS – pop culture journalist (AVClub, Entertainment Weekly) and interviewer for the current best-seller “Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of ‘Airplane!’”. All they want for Christmas is you…to listen to them talk about their Top Ten Christmas-centered movies, TV show and specials, songs, c...

RABBI DAVID KOMEROFSKY (from Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Podcast) is Dan's special guest for a celebration and discussion of HANUKKAH, the Festival of Lights -- from a pop cultural as well as rabbinical perspective.   Topics include:  Adam Sandler’s perennial “Hanukkah Song”, Neil Diamond’s flop film version of The Jazz Singer, very special episodes of “The Golden Girls” and “Friends”, the Ra...

Dan welcomes two very special guests -- his twenty-something children APRIL FISHER and PHOEBE FISHER to compare musical notes on SONGS THAT MAKE ME WANNA DANCE. Though there are some inevitable Boomer/Gen X versus Gen Z/Millenial comparisons,  many of their choices just might surprise you.  Let's just say that Dan wasn't the one who picked a Kool and the Gang song.  He went with Bruno Ma...

Show-business legend GEORGE SCHLATTER – multiple-Emmy-winning creator of “Laugh-In” and “Real People” -- and producer of memorable TV shows and specials for everybody from Judy Garland to Smokey Robinson to Muhammad Ali to Frank, Dean, and Sammy…  …Joined Dan for an exclusive and absolutely delightful conversation about some of the stories from George’s newly-published memoirs, “STILL LAUGHING: A...

JOSH CHAMBERS is not only a key member of the social media team for Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast and a full-time high school English and Communications teacher -- he's also something of a car fanatic.   He joined Dan to talk about their favorite motor vehicles from motion pictures and television shows.  Cars, trucks, vans, motorcycles -- anything with wheels and a motor q...

It's second part of our mini-episode on THE MUPPETS! Muppets historian and author CRAIG SHEMIN, with pop culture fanatic/huge Muppets fan ANDREW LAPOSHA, join Dan Fisher for a panel discussion on the history and enduring legacy of Jim Henson’s innovative and revolutionary little creations. For PART TWO, we go in-depth and behind-the-scenes with THE MUPPET SHOW -- including memorable moments f...

 The first of a TWO-PART mini-episode on THE MUPPETS! Muppets historian and author CRAIG SHEMIN plus pop culture fanatic/huge Muppets fan ANDREW LAPOSHA join Dan Fisher for a panel discussion on the history and legacy of Jim Henson’s fuzzy ping-pong-eyed creations and why love ‘em.   PART ONE starts from the very beginning -- from the five-minute local “Sam and Friends” spots through the guest spo...

Writer FELICE NEALS joins Dan to talk about their favorite spooky cinematic fare.  From old black-and-white classics to some of the current "art-house horror", from gory slasher flicks to tense thrillers, Dan and Felice can't help but ponder: * Why are we compelled to watch stuff that's probably going to scare the crap out of us? * Why does Felice love The Blair Witch Project w...

Dan is joined by SAM PANCAKE – veteran actor (“A Million Little Things”, “Samboyant! A Gay Hollywood Memoir”), podcast host ("Sam Pancake Presents the Monday Afternoon Movie"), and master raconteur -- for a hilarious, Me-Decade-tastic conversation about their favorite “MADE-FOR-TV MOVIES OF THE 1970'S”.   Everybody remembers “Trilogy of Terror” – especially that psychotic little Zun...

In 1966, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, and many other musical greats released albums that would define the 1960's and inspire listeners for decades to come. So who'd the Recording Academy choose to award its  Album of the Year Grammy?    For the third time (!) that decade, Frank Sinatra -- for a warmed-over "greatest hits" package -- where Ol' Blue Eyes spent nea...

Once again, host Dan Fisher looks back on the Oscars -- and whether or not the Academy got things "right" in their choices.  This time, the year is 1982. The Academy would give Best Picture that evening to the three-and-a-half-hour epic biopic Gandhi -- but was that really the best motion picture in a year that brought us E.T. the Extraterrestrial, Tootsie, The Verdict, Sophie's Cho...

Film writer/critic and podcaster ADAM LONG joins Dan Fisher for a free-wheeling conversation about their favorite "CULT MOVIES" -- films that were overlooked, or sometimes outright flops, on their initial releases but that found their (sometimes fanatical) audiences eventually.   No spoilers, but some of their favorites might be familiar,  others a bit more obscure -- but if you're...

Another "mini" episode that's not particularly mini -- there's just too much great stuff to edit out. Renowned cartoonists MIMI POND (National Lampoon, The Village Voice) and TERRY BEATTY (Batman & Robin Adventures, Rex Morgan M.D.) join Dan Fisher for a panel discussion on their shared love of MAD magazine -- its history, their favorite features and artists, and the influe...

A great debut album won't just change the lives of the musicians who made it.  It can change yours too, just by hearing it for that first time. Dan Fisher and Baltimore-based producer/mixer/sound mixer Mat Leffler-Schulman talk about the debut albums -- some well-known, others not so much -- that made  differences in their lives, that changed their perceptions of what music was and what it co...

When is a "mini" not really a mini?  When you get three pop culture fanatics together to have them talk about one of the greatest TV shows of all time, "THE TWILIGHT ZONE".  The conversation was simply too much fun to limit to the usual "mini" length. MICHELE MANTYNEN and JOSH CHAMBERS, social media caretakers for "Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcas...

Like, ZOINKS! To talk about Top Ten favorite television shows for children, Dan Fisher reached out to an old pal and former star of kids TV himself -- Michael Maronna of  Nickelodeon's "The Adventures of Pete and Pete". Because Dan grew up in the 1970's while Michael was a 1980's/1990's kid, they have a lot of fun comparing the programs they each watched in their resp...

Following up on the previous mini episode, "The Grammy Experiment: 1994", host Dan Fisher looks back on the Academy Awards honoring the movies of that year, as well. Having created an imaginary "Parallel Universe" where he can control time and its chain of events, will Dan "right" Oscar's "wrongs" of that night?  Will Tom Hanks take home his second cons...

Property Master KEVIN LADSON ("Malcolm X", "Creed", "30 Rock") joins Dan for a nostalgic and often hilarious discussion of their parallel lives as movie-obsessed kids growing up in the 1960's and 70's -- though Dan hailed from a tiny West Virginia town with no movie theater while Kevin was a city kid from Queens.   Among many other things, they talk about th...

Dan loves awards shows -- while simultaneously considering them utterly ridiculous.  Too often, the "academies" reward the old tried-and-true over the innovators and young upstarts.  Case in point: the year 1994, when the Recording Academy chose Tony Bennett's "MTV Unplugged" as its Album of the Year, over such competition as Nirvana, TLC, Oasis, Nas, and Hootie & the...

Dan Fisher's guest is MICHELE MANTYNEN,  one of the "Social Media Poobahs" for Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast.  She has helped to generate continuing interest in the show and to expand its  internet presence, even after the passing of its amazing, colossal, legendary host.  Thanks to the efforts of Michele and many others, the spirit of Gilbert lives on through th...

Minis will drop every other Monday, alternating with the regular-length "Let's Talk Ten" episodes. Dan Fisher loves cereal more than most people -- for him, it's a 24/7 dietary staple.   He'll sit there crunching away, gulping the remaining milk from the bowl, while he reads  every word on the box -- though he no longer digs around for the prize. In this episode, Dan hosts...

Robyn Kincaid was one of Dan's best friends in college.  She has been hosting her own live, five-nights-a-week podcast, "Head-ON with Robyn Kincaid" for over a decade, on which Dan has been an occasional guest. Now, it's Robyn's turn.  With no script and no discussion beforehand, Dan and Robyn have a blast comparing their favorite pop songs that focus on the legendary live...

Minis will drop every other Monday, alternating with the regular-length "Let's Talk Ten" episodes. For some Minis, host Dan Fisher might talk about a single movie, show, or album that had a particularly strong effect on him.  Some might feature guests, with  shorter and more specific conversations on a single subject instead of LT10's standard format of 10 Favorite Whatevers. ...

H.E. Fisher is the author of two published books of poetry, "Sterile Field" and "Jane Almost Always Smiles."  She also happens to be married to the host of this show. With no script and no discussion beforehand, Helene and Dan have fun comparing Top Ten lists of their favorite strong women characters through cinema history. What does that even mean, "strong"?  How do...