The Flopcast

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...

We have a special concert report this week, because the pioneering German electropop band Kraftwerk came to Boston! Kevin was there, wearing official Kraftwerk 3-D glasses, because this was not a normal show. We also recall the time Kornflake saw a very different German act in Boston many years ago. (We wish we could say it wasn't Lou Bega, but it was TOTALLY LOU BEGA.) Also: We check out that new...

We just noticed that 1997 was a quarter century ago, so we thought we'd celebrate with a FlopFight tournament of 1997 pop songs. (It's not quite an official FlopFight; we've relaxed the rules a bit, because we're sleepy.) The competing songs are a mix of pure pop (Spice Girls, Hanson), alt-rock (Cranberries, Third Eye Blind), Lilith ladies (Sheryl Crow, Paula Cole), and crazy goofy weird stuff (ge...

Inspired by our friend Jon Sloan's comic book series Jim & Celeste, we have a Top 4 1/2 List of movies to watch while stranded on an island. The catch is that the movies must be from 1975-1985. Which should be fine, because that's when all the good stuff happened. But we still manage to make some terrible choices. (How many blaxsploitation, vansploitation, car wash, and Gary Coleman movies would y...

While Kevin relaxes in the background making sarcastic comments, Kornflake presents a Top 4 1/2 List of weird superheroes! Including: a rejected Legionnaire (even goofier than Chlorophyll Kid), a Perhapanaut, a Mystery Man, an Aquabat, and more. Along the way Kevin chimes in with Captains Carrot and Marvel (Split!), as well as Turnipman (a hero so obscure he was invented by us). Not weird enough f...

Kevin and Kornflake have concert reports from two different "Weird Al" Yankovic concerts! (That's right, we actually left the house. Still a rare event these days...) This is Weird Al's Ridiculously Self-Indulgent Ill-Advised Vanity Tour, with a constantly changing set list of obscure album tracks, so we saw two very different shows. Included in our reports: The remarkable Emo Phillips opens the s...

It's our big silly tenth anniversary show! Yes, we have released a Flopcast episode every week for TEN YEARS. (Also, yes, we're sleepy, and yes, we're completely out of ideas. But here we are.) And we're celebrating with a special tenth anniversary FlopFight! Kornflake provided the contestants, and it's a bizarre randomized assortment of characters from sitcoms, movies, cartoons, and more. The com...

After a too-long break from the show, the Mayor of Chickentown is back as our special guest co-host! (It's more court-ordered community service, we assume.) We start with a look at the recently-announced 2022 inductees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (We're happy about Lionel, Dolly, Pat Benatar, and all those Durans. On the other hand, still no 38 Special, but we can dream...) Then Kevin repo...

Kevin is being watched by enemy birds; Green Day coffee is on the way; Hit Parade celebrates five years of podcasting (with a quote from the Mayor of Chickentown!); The Flopcast celebrates ten years of podcasting in a couple of weeks (but we don't know what we're doing); we lightning-round through a bunch of TV talk (about Atypical, Picard, Derry Girls, Stranger Things, Girls5eva, Russian Doll, Um...

One again we've let the Chickentown Studios Supercomputer randomly determine our discussion topics, which means we're talking about "Talking Out of Turn" (an obscure 1980s single from a classic rock band), Action Jackson (the 1988 movie sadly not based on the Mego action figure line), The Young Rebels (a 1970s Revolutionary War-era TV series with Louis Gossett Jr.), and The Young Riders (a 1980s w...

It's a Chickens in the News follow-up report! We're revisiting the rogue hen that tried to break into the Pentagon a few weeks back, but now we have the official incident report to examine. (Has the Freedom of Information Act ever been put to better use?) And we've unearthed some startling new details, which may or may not involve a parking lot salad bar. Also: Kornflake is reading about a lost do...

Special guest Blasted Bill is still here, and our favorite vehicles from 1980s pop culture are still doing battle in our latest FlopFight tournament. Some major players were knocked out last week (farewell, A-Team van) as Airwolf flew straight into the finals. Can anything stop that high-tech TV helicopter? The train from Silver Spoons and the station wagon from Nation Lampoon's Vacation are sure...

Our old pal Blasted Bill returns, and Bill is here for a FlopFight! The subject is 1980s vehicles, so your favorite cars, trucks, vans, and bikes from 80s movies and TV shall do battle. (Mr. T has the van. And if Jan Michael Vincent brings the helicopter, Hasselhoff will supply the talking car.) And it's a FlopFight, so the battles will be weird. (Which vehicle would make the superior birdwatcher?...

It's just more random silliness, just for you. We imagine a world in which Kornflake is in control (it'll be all Howard Jones concerts, all the time), and Kevin recalls racing a turkey through the mean streets of Chickentown (the turkey won, of course). Then our supercomputer forces us to discuss Capitol Critters (the short-lived cartoon series with Doogie Howser as a field mouse in Washington DC)...

Another quick random show, including: Happy Birthday to Matthew Broderick (star of Ladyhawke) and Elton John (star of the "Nikita" music video); Kevin has a pile of 80s movie promo buttons ("Free Johnny Dangerously!"); Gloria Estefan is a cat; Madonna is not a mermaid; the American Sci-Fi Classics Track hosts another Battle of the Fictional Bands (former champion Dr. Teeth was excused this time);...