Now We Know

As winter turns to spring, Kevin brings us a 1990 film set in rural Ireland that seeks to plunge viewers into a permanent emotional frost. Namely, The Field, starring Richard Harris, Sean Bean, John Hurt, and Tom Berenger. Spoiler alert: Richard Harris is  really  protective of his field, and young Kevin was not prepared for this desperate, squalid, and decidedly leprechaun-free tale. Happy St. Pa...

Unfortunately, Kevin is ailing, and as such the boys weren't able to whip up a brand new episode this week. But they'd never leave you high and dry without your content ― feast your ears on the decidedly lo-fi, previously unreleased Now We Know pilot episode! This was recorded in late 2017, the very first bit of Now We Know ever produced. And it concerns what was, at the time, the lowest-rated epi...

The very same week Nickelodeon announced it's rebooting Are You Afraid Of The Dark? in October, Kevin and Chris watched a trio of episodes of the 1990s original, a children's creepshow classic of the first water. But how does it hold up all these years later?

In the crossover episode of a lifetime, Colleen from WikiWhy leads Kevin and Chris on a journey through The Borrowers, one of her childhood classics. And to be clear, this is the one with John Goodman, and the gross cheese spray, and baby Draco Malfoy, and that scene where Arietty scoops the ice cream with her hands.

Don Bluth classic The Sceret Of NIMH has charmed, vexed, and harrowed children the world over for decades, including a pint-sized Kevin Werkheiser. Will Chris, who's never properly seen it before, fall similarly under its thrall?

And thus begins season two! Kevin and Chris celebrate the occasion in grand fashion by revisiting the 1983 cartoon classic Inspector Gadget, in which the beloved mechanical G-man is long on bad jokes and light on basic investigatory competence.

Rounding out a rousing first season, and amid the Christmas release of Bumblebee to boot, Kevin and Chris finish out the 2018 year with a look back at the 1986 animated Transformers movie. And it's not light on star power, including Judd Nelson, Casey Kasem, Leonard Nimoy, Eric Idle, and mere days from death, the final performance of Orson Welles.

Special guest Sean Hurlburt brings one of his childhood favorites: Ernest Saves Christmas! Santa needs a replacement, a streetwise teenage runaway needs to learn to believe again, and only the inimitable Ernest can make it all happen. Will he do it, or is the title incredibly misleading? Find out!

Christmas is right around the corner, at least in relative terms, and thus Kevin treated Chris to one of his holiday favorites, a classic of the 1970's Rankin/Bass oeuvre. Namely: 'Twas The Night Before Christmas, which tells the tale of a skeptical (read: atheist) little mouse who ruins everyone's Christmas with his egghead opinions.

In a delightful palate cleanser, Kevin and Chris look back at a handful of TV commercials from the latter's childhood that successfully burned themselves into his brain. it's a nostalgic celebration of that inimitable, "I'm never gonna die" stage of not-quite-late capitalism ― the 80's and 90's.

This time, Kevin and Chris are joined by special guest Miranda Everitt to discuss 1989's Little Monsters, a hybrid children's/freak-out/gross-out/coming of age comedy starring Ben Savage, Howie Mandel, and some pretty peculiar and suggestively dark themes. But fear not, your trusty friends are here to lead you through the night.

In a Now We Know first, the boys discuss a book! And, in keeping with the October Halloween extravaganza, it's a genuine fright: William Hope Hodgson's 1908 supernatural horror forerunner The House on the Borderland, which was hugely influential on H.P. Lovecraft and Chris Tognotti alike. Steel your nerves, for ahead be pig-men!

In a surprise bonus episode, Now We Know continues its fright-filled month of October by looking back at Garfield's Halloween Adventure, a 1985 animated special that clearly left some marks on young Kevin's psyche.

Kicking off an October month of spooktacular episodes to sate your Halloween hungers, Kevin and Chris are joined by Jessica to discuss a movie that haunted her young life ― Pumpkinhead 2: Blood Wings.

For the groundbreaking 20th episode of Now We Know, you'll step into a time warp, hurtling you 20 years into the past to revisit the very first time Chris watched a political debate. And, as it turns out, the in question debate have been a historic one ― you'll never find a political candidate more devastatingly on-message than New York Senator Al D'Amato.

Don't look now, but Paul Reubens is a spaceship and he done stole a kid! That's a brief, wholly unfair description of Disney's 1986 classic film Flight of the Navigator, which Kevin and Chris were all too eager to relive.

This time Kevin and Chris are joined by a very special guest ― Bay Area stand-up comedian Natasha Vinik ― to gaze back at a childhood favorite that'd been kicking around in her head for decades. Namely, 1989's  Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland , a lavishly animated film based on the groundbreaking early 20th century comic strip of the same name.

This week, your humble hosts look back at a tragically unheralded pair of comedy pioneers, Jim Coyle and Mal Sharpe, better known as Coyle and Sharpe. The hilarious duo tormented and tantalized many random San Franciscans in the early 1960s with their absurdist brand of street interviews, and spoiler alert, they are timelessly great.

The Now We Know boys are hurled back into the world of audio drama, as Kevin brings forth a 1975 vinyl album of Batman stories produced by Power Records. You'd be hard pressed to find a more tension-free quartet of adventures for the caped crusader, as your dynamic duo quickly learned.

The next time you're at the checkout counter and you hear the beep, think of all the fun you could have listening to Chris and Kevin talk about Supermarket Sweep!

If you've never seen Chris Elliot's 1990s sitcom "Get A Life," starring Elliot as something of a psychopath manchild, you are either very fortunate or very unfortunate. You'll simply have to listen to this week's episode to find out which!

Chris successfully convinces Kevin to delve into a murky world of conspiracy theories, psycho-sexually motivated cowboys, cyborg ninjas, nuclear-armed bipedal battle tanks, and the Super Baby Method. 

Did you know that NPR created a radio drama of the original Star Wars trilogy, complete with the vocal talents of one Mark Hamill? It's true! Join Kevin and Chris on a warm, cozy auditory jaunt through the worlds of Tatooine, Alderaan, and the decks of the Tantive IV.

This time, Seth Millstein ― of Now We Know intro and outro theme fame ― joins Kevin and Chris for a revisiting of Problem Child 2, in which the entire plot hinges on John Ritter being the most undeniably sexually attractive man on Earth.

This time, Chris plucks a peculiar children's film out of the fog of 1953: The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T, the first and only movie written by Dr. Seuss! Includes tyrannical piano teachers, upbeat musical numbers, unsettling descriptions of torture implements, and a surprising number of extremely direct Simpsons influences.