The Flopcast

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...

It's DragonCon weekend! So while we're flopping around our favorite convention, please enjoy the return of Movies With the Mayor! This time Kevin and the Mayor of Chickentown are watching and discussing the 1987 made-for-TV movie The Spirit! It's based on Will Eisner's classic Golden Age comic book character, and it stars Sam J. Jones (Flash Gordon!) and Nana Visitor (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine!)....

With DragonCon just days away, here is your guide to finding Team Flopcast at the convention! Kevin will be absurdly busy as usual (that's how we like it), appearing on panels and presentations about old stuff (1978's Dr. Strange , 1979's Legends of the Superheroes ), new stuff (the sci-fi comedy series Upload , and the reboots of Cowboy Bebop and Lost in Space ), podcasting, and more. Kevin also...

Laverne & Shirley actress Cindy Williams turns 75 this week, which inspired Kornflake to surprise Kevin with a Laverne & Shirley pop quiz! (This is why the kids love The Flopcast.) Can Kevin identify quotes from various characters, despite not having seen the show in literally decades? And is there a bonus round dedicated to our favorite weirdos, Lenny and Squiggy? Let's find out, as we revisit th...

We're getting ready for DragonCon, the biggest craziest nerdfest of the year! It's so big that it's divided into dozens of separate programming tracks, and we're going through the whole track list. Including: Kevin's favorites (American Sci-Fi Classics! American Sci-Fi and Fantasy Media!), Kornflake's favorites (Brit Track! Kids Track!), and everyone's favorites (PUPPETRY!). We also take a quick p...

It's a super-short super-silly summer show! Kevin is exhausted and weirdly terrified of movie trailers; Kornflake is baking and flopping on a hammock; it's Book Lovers Day, and our friends are writing too many really good books; we're preparing for DragonCon with School House Rock and Electra Woman face masks; and our Ranking the '80s random song game finally lands on a song that we like. So get o...

Over the years, there have been more comic book series based on TV shows than you'd think. Back in the 60s, if your newsstand was sold out of Batman comics, you could still read My Favorite Martian or Petticoat Junction comics, you lucky kid. This week we're diving into the weird world of television-based comics, using the new book American TV Comic Books as our guide. And yes, we made a dumb game...

Taylor Dayne is still telling it to our hearts; Maya Rudolph is a Rental; West Virginia is overrun by surfing chickens; and thanks to the DragonCon American Sci-Fi Classics Track, Mork and Mindy are now soldiers of fortune. It's a short show, but it's a goofy show. Enjoy. We last discussed Taylor Dayne three years ago in episode 361! Shelly the surfing chicken! What If Gilligan Met Gomez? Classic...

It's the middle of stupid summer, so here in Chickentown, it's time for more hot robot talk. But we've turned our annual robot-themed Top 4 1/2 List over to a special guest: it's Chris, creator of the wonderful show Sci-Fi Explosion! (Having someone else make the robot list just means more nap time for us. Why didn't we think of this years ago?) Chris has assembled a crazy fun list of favorite pop...

We're talking about the goofy MTV game show Remote Control, because recently we got to play it! Not the MTV version, but the (also goofy) home game version! We played Remote Control live online with our pals at the DragonCon American Sci-Fi Classics Track, and you can watch the whole crazy thing on YouTube. Meanwhile we're looking back at the original show, live from Ken Ober's basement, with Mari...

One more concert report, this time on a fine evening of synthpop and rock from Freezepop, Carissa Johnson, The Daylilies, and Telelectrix! (We were lurking in the corner, hiding behind a Sleestak mask, but we were there.) And the rest of the episode is also quite musical, including: Happy Birthday to Joan Osborne, Kornflake's weird recipes for Bananarama (and Shakespears Sister) pancakes, another...

It's another concert report, because legendary Australian band Midnight Oil came to Boston. Find out if their beds are still burning, if frontman Peter Garrett is still very tall and very bald, and why we expected to be crushed by an anvil during the show. Also: Happy Birthday to Blues Brother/Conehead/vodka enthusiast Dan Aykroyd, Grape Ape talk with Kornflake and the American Sci-Fi Classics Tra...