The Flopcast

It's a rather random 1980s-themed show, as a coin toss leads to our celebrating the birthday of 80s one hit (or maybe two hit) wonder Eddy Grant. Then we flip to a random page in our Ranking the 80s book and discuss a song about (possibly inappropriate) touching. (Yes, we know we just described every song.) Finally we break out a book that just arrived here at the studio: Single Season Sitcoms of...

After a quick break for a couple of less weird episodes, it's time to wrap up The Weird Al Game, in which Kevin and Kornflake try to guess each other's favorite "Weird Al" Yankovic songs. (Hey, who comes up with better games than us? Please don't answer that.) This time we're covering Al's records from 1993 through 2014, so get ready for a cavalcade of giant TVs, phony calls, word crimes, Canadian...

Kornflake has the week off, but we have a special guest in Chickentown to fill in: It's our big podcasting bossman, ESO Network Director Mike Faber! And we're talking music again. Mike has been to more concerts than Kevin and Kornflake combined, and has prepared a Top 4 1/2 List of his favorite concerts ever! Some of Mike's picks, while impressive, will not shock you. (REM in 1983! Springsteen in...

We're taking a break from our Weird Al game, because it's time to review this year's list of nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Kate Bush is back on the list, perhaps due to her Stranger Things-fueled resurgence. A couple of Kornflake's favorites are newly eligible nominees: Missy Elliott and the White Stripes. Since Dolly kicked in the door last year, another country legend is in the ru...

We've had "Weird Al" Yankovic on our minds lately, probably because Kevin just participated in an American Sci-Fi Classics panel all about Al. (Check it out! We have a YouTube link just for you.) So we just invented The Weird Al Game, in which Kevin and Kornflake try to guess each other's favorite Weird Al songs. This week we're covering Al's first seven albums. Does Kornflake want a new duck? Wil...

We are back from Arisia, Boston's annual convention of science fiction, fantasy, and general geekery. So here's our full report, including Kevin's comic book panels (on comic book memoirs and the history of Image Comics), the Mayor of Chickentown's Age and Fandom panel, and our pal Kevin Cafferty's Year in TV and Year in Star Wars panels! Also: The Post Meridian Radio Players with another fine gen...

This weekend we are at Arisia, one of our favorite local fantasy and science fiction conventions. If you drop everything and run screaming towards Boston RIGHT NOW, you may be able to catch Kevin moderating a panel about Image Comics. (Bring your mint condition CGC-slabbed Walking Dead #1. We'll sign it and ruin it.) And yes, we have goofy badge ribbons for you. Watch for our full report on Arisia...

Let's wrap up our annual two-part memorial show, because we just can't take it anymore. This week's list includes: a couple of animation legends (Jules Bass and Paul Coker Jr.), a couple more 80s comedy stars (Judy Tenuta and Gallagher), beloved television actors (Nichelle Nichols and Tony Dow), beloved singers (Olivia Newton John and Irene Cara), another Goodfellas star, another Sesame Street sta...

Our annual two-part memorial show begins here, as we recall the pop culture legends we lost in the first half of 2022. Including: actors (Sidney Poitier, Sally Kellerman, William Hurt, Ray Liotta), musicians (Ronnie Spector, Meat Loaf, Vangelis), comedians (Bob Saget, Louie Anderson, Gilbert Gottfried), artists (Neal Adams, George Pérez), a Gorgeous Lady of Wrestling, the moms from Seinfeld, the g...

Last show of the year! So it's a quick one, as we look back on another goofy year of Flopcasting, including our 2022 Flopcast guests (all four of them), our strict cupcake and lobster roll diet program, and our ongoing obsession with Canadian PSAs. Plus: Happy Birthday to Ted Danson! Part 2 of our holiday podcast crossover with But First, Let's Talk Nerdy! (Warning: May contain Sponge Awareness mu...

Lots of weird holiday mirth and/or merriment this week! First we celebrate National Hard Candy Day with a True Tale of Ribbon Candy. Then Kornflake's annual pilgrimage to the Trap Tree yields startling results. Kornflake also has a new favorite holiday special, and of course the star of Footloose is involved. We also flip through Holly Jolly, a wonderful book of pop culture Christmas history, and...

It's no secret that we're obsessed with holiday cartoons, and this week we're diving into Frosty the Snowman and its sequels. Everyone knows the 1969 Rankin/Bass original, in which Frosty and Karen hitch a train to the North Pole so Frosty can melt away while Karen freezes to death. Then there's Frosty's Winter Wonderland from 1976, with Jack Frost serving as Best Man at a bizarre snow-person wedd...

For our holiday shopping, we're traveling back to 1981 and looking through an advertisement flyer from Child World, a toy store chain that just happened to have a Woonsocket, Rhode Island location. Kevin and Kornflake have selected 4 1/2 gifts for each other, but we used very different shopping strategies. Kornflake thoughtfully chose classic video games, Star Wars toys, and super hero action figu...

As is tradition around here, we're taking a bunch of those Hallmark-style made-for-TV holiday movies, and we're fixing them. Over 150 goofy new holiday movies are debuting this year, and they're all the same: random big city career women are returning to their hometowns to save their grandfathers' stuggling figgy pudding shops while also falling in love with flannel-shirted dudes who run kitten or...

We're creeping into the holiday season with a concert report, because Boston rock heroes Letters to Cleo are back for their annual homecoming shows. This year they brought along super-cool Brooklyn-based band Thick to open the show, and Cleo frontwoman Kay Hanley is clearly a fan. Throw in a surprise Cleo horn section, and a festive time was had by all. We're also looking ahead at the goofiness of...

Inspired by our recent discussion of synthpop band A-ha and their massive hit "Take On Me," we're making a list of other 1980s songs with iconic keyboard parts. Plenty more synthy new wave acts are on the list (such as Eurythmics, Soft Cell, and Men Without Hats), but several rock bands better known for their guitars actually provided some of the decade's most memorable keyboards. (One obvious exa...

Join us as we flip through another old issue of your favorite magazine from the school book club, Dynamite! This one is from way back in 1976, and the cover just might feature an arm wrestling competition between the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman. We have so many questions. Inside the magazine we'll find Robolar's cousins, the truth about mummies (and baboon mummies), disco with KC a...

It's a good old fashioned Flopcast Top 4 1/2 List, and the subject is bears. We have bears from TV (remember Grizzly Adams and his pal Ben?), cartoons (you know the Care Bears, but what about the Wuzzles?), songs (in case you were wondering how Lyle Lovett feels about bears), breakfast cereal (Sugar Bear really wanted to fatten up the children), and more. This is the goofiest bunch of bears you've...

More goofy Halloween fun this week, as we flip through the book An Old School Halloween and learn about the costumes of Ben Cooper Inc. This was the company that sold those quick simple Halloween costumes (a cheap plastic mask and vinyl smock) at discount department stores for decades. We discuss the odd history of Ben Cooper's Spider-Man costume, why Yoda was blue, how Fonzie's catchphrase was bu...

Our pal Blasted Bill returns to the Flopcast for some Halloween talk! Bill shares his memories of Halloweens past as well as the 8,000 Halloween events he has planned for this year. (That certainly beats our big Halloween plan to do nothing...) Including: Superman, Ghostbuster, and red crayon costumes; hay rides vs. straw rides; trick-or-treating aboard the beer tractor; a defense of Necco wafers;...

Welcome to a very special Flopcast, because for the first time in almost three years, Kevin and Kornflake are together in person! We're not on Zoom! It's a weird outdoor recording session on a chilly October night up north at Chickentown Outpost! But we have coffee, so it's just like old times. Including: National Decorate a Cake Day (which we celebrate by devouring a couple of boozy cupcakes), an...

It's a weird mix of topics for this quick little show, including: Kornflake mini-golfing in a hockey uniform; fun with standing desks (we've cleared the studio of silly old-fashioned chairs); International Teachers Day (just an excuse to celebrate Welcome Back, Kotter); the new season of Cobra Kai (and Kornflake's controversial Swank theories); ESO Network updates (300 episodes of Earth Station DC...

Let's wrap up our review of our long wacky weekend in Atlanta for DragonCon! Including: More Sci-Fi Explosion (with Fonzie, Spider-Woman, and maybe even Robolar from Mars); more Flash Gordon panels with Sam J. Jones and Melody Anderson; the return of the Manimal Panimal; the cast of Doom Patrol; the George Pérez memorial panel; the 10th anniversary of the ESO Network; more late night fun with Good...

We survived DragonCon 2022, more or less, so it's time to review the first half of that wacky weekend! Including: Kevin's Flash Gordon panel with Sam J. Jones and Melody Anderson; Kevin's other panels on Cowboy Bebop, Lost in Space, and Upload; The Mayor's Severance panel (and Severance costume!); Kornflake's Elton John panel; Sci-Fi Explosion fun with Billy Ocean; the Geek Girls Run; an Aquaman-s...

We're back from DragonCon, but not quite ready for our DragonCon review show. (Hey, we were surrounded by Yip-Yips for several days. Readjusting to reality is a process.) Meanwhile, we have this special episode previously available only to ESO Network Patreon members. And the subject is appropriate, considering our favorite guests at DragonCon this year. For you see... Kornflake had a deep dark se...