Scandal Water

The Dating Game… The Newlywed Game… The Gong Show. Chuck Barris created some of TV’s most enduring and beloved game shows, at one point supplying network TV with 27 hours worth of game-show programming a week.  Did he also work as a contract killer for the CIA, assassinating government targets during the 1960s and 1970s? According to his 1984 book “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” and the 2002 mo...

What better way to celebrate Tax Day than with a look at some of Hollywood’s most sensational tax scandals? Which revered Hollywood star had her house repossessed by the IRS? How did a legendary actress finally receive vindication decades after she was jailed for tax evasion? What’s the real story behind the much-publicized Operation Varsity Blues? And what does Nicolas Cage have to say about the...

Caution: This episode is not intended for all audiences. Who killed Elizabeth Short, dubbed the Black Dahlia by the press?  76 years after her brutal murder, investigators still don’t know… although some people think they do. In part 2 of this episode, we focus on the murder investigation of the Black Dahlia case.  Who was the man believed to be the last person in Elizabeth Short’s company? What t...

Caution: This episode is not intended for all audiences. On January 15, 1947, a mother was out with her 2-year-old daughter in a Los Angeles neighborhood when her eye was drawn to something lying in the grass of a vacant lot. At first, the mother thought she was seeing a mannequin because of the figure’s unnatural paleness and ghastly pose. Horrified, she suddenly realized she was looking at the b...

Spiders and snakes? Scary settings like graveyards or abandoned houses? Bogeymen hiding in the shadows? What ranks high on your list of scary elements in horror movies? For many of you, creepy dolls and clowns would be right at the top. But how did two common things generally associated with children and originally intended to provide comfort and entertainment come to be so feared? Join us as we e...

The term “Jekyll and Hyde” can be found in the Merriam-Webster dictionary and the plot spoofed in everything from “The Simpsons” to “Saturday Night Live” to “Scooby Doo.” The characters Jekyll and Hyde have achieved a prominent spot in pop culture.  But the story of how Robert Louis Stevenson came to write “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is almost as strange as the novel itself.  Join us...

After her husband Percy’s death by drowning, Mary Shelley kept his heart, wrapped in a bit of fabric along with an excerpt from one of his poems. And that’s not even the strangest part of this story. In this fascinating episode, Candy and Ashley discuss everything from the birth of “Frankenstein,” which was sparked by a competition among Mary’s writer friends and fueled by a dream, to the way the...

You’ve seen Godzilla in movies, video games, anime series, and cartoons; worn his image on your t-shirt and lunch box; and played with his action figures. The reptilian monster with the atomic breath is a beloved pop culture icon. In fact, “Godzilla” is the longest continuously-running movie franchise in history, with 2024 marking its 70th anniversary. But on what animal was Godzilla’s appearance...

It’s not every day you get to hang out with life-size dinosaurs and their trainers, but that’s just what Ashley and Candy did when they took a field trip to Jurassic Quest, a touring exhibit that has been called “the #1 dinosaur experience in North America.” In this T-Rex-sized episode, you’ll first get to hear Ashley’s entertaining and lively interview with Safari Sarah and Dino Dustin, two Juras...

When buddies Erik Archilla and Steven Walters decided John Wilkes Booth would be the focus of their college project, they had no idea it would eventually lead to a hit podcast that now has over 6 million downloads.  A People’s Choice podcast award nominee in the category of Storyteller Drama, “1865” is a historical fiction podcast that follows Edwin Stanton in the wake of the assassination of Abra...

If your plans for Valentine’s Day include a classic romantic comedy, chances are you’ll also be spending your evening with Nora Ephron.  Writer, humorist, and director Nora Ephron is credited with being the creator of the modern rom-com. Her long list of hit films includes “When Harry Met Sally,” “Sleepless in Seattle,” and “You’ve Got Mail.” But how did Nora’s own heartbreak lead to her bestselli...

While he lived only 43 short years, Chadwick Boseman’s impact will be remembered forever. Chadwick was the man chosen to bring to life the first Black superhero in US comic book history, the Black Panther.  Along with the other members of the predominantly Black cast and crew of “Black Panther” (2018), Chadwick was part of the first superhero movie to be nominated for a best picture Oscar. He was...

“Art can permeate the very deepest part of us, where no words exist.”  ~Eileen Miller Between 2016 and 2020, the number of children ages 3-17 years diagnosed with anxiety grew by 29% and those with depression by 27%, according to a recent study in JAMA Pediatrics.   Children are struggling with mental health issues now more than ever, and you might be surprised to hear one of the resources that ca...

As Marty McFly, Kelly Bundy, and Tony Stark, they ruled the world.  But in real life, actors Michael J. Fox, Christina Applegate, and Robert Downey, Jr., have all faced very serious challenges.  In this episode we not only delve into the personal battles faced by each of these celebrated actors– Michael J. Fox’s diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease at the age of 29, Christina Applegate’s diagnosis of...

CW: Discussion of Suicide/Self-Harm, Substance Abuse For millions of people, Robin Williams will live forever as “Oh Captain, My Captain” and the beloved Genie in “Aladdin.” But the comic genius who rose to meteoric fame after being cast as the charming alien Mork in “Mork and Mindy” and starred in blockbusters like “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “Jumanji” tragically died in 2014 of asphyxiation caused by h...

CW: Discussion of Suicide/Self Harm  Today Vincent Van Gogh is one of the world’s most revered artists, with one of his paintings selling in 1990 for $82.5 million. But Vincent’s life was one of struggle… struggle to decide his career path, to perfect his painting techniques, to find love, to make a name for himself as an artist, and most of all, to feel in control of his mental health.  In this v...

“A bend in the road is not the end of the road…Unless you fail to make the turn.” ~Helen Keller Most of us know Helen Keller as the deaf-blind woman who was able to break out of her “double dungeon of darkness and silence” through the teaching and determination of young Anne Sullivan, who herself struggled with partial blindness. But less well-known are other fascinating details about Helen Keller...

Candy & Ashley have recorded a new opening to this favorite episode from the 2021 Scandal Water archives including details of the recent visit Ashley & Brian made to the Behringer-Crawford Museum to tour their traveling exhibit featuring costumes from the film “White Christmas” on loan from the Rosemary Clooney House. Ashley recalls a few details from the bonus experience of getting to hea...

In the early 1800s Christmas was not the festive holiday it is today. Queen Victoria and Charles Dickens helped change that. In fact, through Victoria’s influence on popular culture and Dickens’ literary reach, these two important figures helped create and spread many of the holiday traditions that we still follow today. In this special holiday episode, Candy and Ashley (along with their husbands,...

“You’ll shoot your eye out.” If you immediately recognize this line, you might be one of the 40 million Americans who tune in every year for at least part of the 24-hour marathon of “A Christmas Story.” The 1983 film had a modest start, but over the decades has grown into one of the most popular Christmas movies of all time. And now, nearly 40 years later, for the first time ever Peter Billingsley...

Judy Garland, perhaps best known for her moving performance as the red-slippered Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” would have turned 100 this year. But unfortunately, her life was cut short when she died in 1969 of an accidental barbiturate overdose. She was only 47.   One of Hollywood’s brightest stars and a singularly talented singer, Judy Garland might have seemed to have it all. Yet she was tortu...

Can you picture the scene in the spooky abandoned house, Michael Jackson’s innocent date watching terrified as he and his zombie posse advance on her, the beat of “Thriller” pounding in the background? How about the beautiful girl being pulled into a comic book love story by the handsome lead singer in A-Ha’s “Take on Me” video? If so, then this is the episode for you! Today’s MTV looks nothing li...

Thanksgiving is a time for family, food, and fun… which in this case means some personal recommendations from your friends at Scandal Water! In hopes of adding some extra flavor to your holiday, this week Candy and Ashley surprise their listeners (and each other) by highlighting some of their favorite entertainment-related things.  The catch? They each had to create their list of items by using th...

For many Americans, the name Eliot Ness conjures up images of a young Kevin Costner in 1987’s film “The Untouchables,” or perhaps Robert Stack’s version from a few decades earlier. Our younger listeners may not recognize the name at all. But for a time, Eliot Ness was legendary, famously taking on Al Capone and the Chicago mob, leading daring raids as a Prohibition agent, cleaning up the Cleveland...

Eleven. Justice for Barb. The Upside Down. Bob. “Running Up That Hill.” Eddie. Recognize these references? Then you are probably one of the millions of fans who just celebrated “Stranger Things Day” on November 6th (the day in 1983 that Will Byers went missing) Join us as we discuss this “love letter to 80s cult classic movies” and one of the most popular series of all time, tracing it from its be...