Then Is Now Podcast

Here on Then Is Now, we strive to discuss pop culture of the past (THEN) and how it relates to the present (NOW). Today's episode is the perfect example of that! On September 8, 1974, daredevil Evel Knievel attempted to leap the mile-wide chasm of the Snake River Canyon in Twin Falls, Idaho, on his specially engineered rocket motorcycle. His parachute malfunctioned and opened on take-off, causing...

While soap operas are dwindling, they haven't fully disappeared from our collective zeitgeist, and the ones that are surviving are definitely thriving in the pop culture. On today's show, we have a guest who is more than just a soap actor. He's a writer, producer and motivational speaker and has dabbled in so many facets of the entertainment industry that you will be surprised to learn what he's b...

My special guest on this episode is the amazing podcaster Rod Barnett host of both the Naschycast and The Bloody Pit. We actually recorded this in January, and due to a technical issue with one of the files, it took me until this week to finally get rid of most of the static in Rod's voice, and made it fine for listening. And that's important because you're going to want to listen to this episode:...

Dedee Pfeiffer is an incredible actress who has been in movies and TV shows since 1985. She's been in a bunch of horror movies, played Cybill Shepherd's daughter on the sitcom, Cybill, and is currently starring in the ABC hit show, Big Sky. She has proven her worth in Horror, Sci-Fi, Comedy and Drama. A versatile talent, she has bridged film and TV from The Midnight Hour, Vamp, and Falling Down (w...

Then Is Now turns 50! Episode 50, that is! On today's show we are doing a wrap-up of the Abominable Dr Phibes 50 th Anniversary Celebration and to that end we have special returning guests William and Damon Goldstein, as well as new guest, Peter Fuller from the Vincent Price Legacy UK! We also have some other guests who show up including Daniel Crowther from the Lions of Legend Podcast, and Then I...

As we continue to introduce the next generation to all the cool stuff they may have missed out on, there are many Directors, Writers, Actors and Actresses, that people should know, who have been entertaining us for decades, and still do. One such person is Dee Wallace, who was mom to a generation, an undeniably strong woman in several horrific situations, and someone who not only continues to act,...

Rebel Without a Cause (1955), starring the iconic and legendary James Dean, is a classic film that everyone MUST see! Lucas from Denmark returns to the show to help me break down this great piece of cinema. We had fun previously exploring American Graffiti, and once again we get a fresh perspective on James Dean's opus, not only because Lucas is from Denmark, but also because he's 19 and we like t...

While science fiction has never left our pop culture, there are many science fiction films, TV shows, and books from the past that have not been introduced to the younger generation. There are also plenty of TV Shows of all different genres from the past that need to be re-introduced to today's youth. Luckily, thanks to various DVD makers and streaming apps, shows like ‘How the West Was Won'...

The 50 th anniversary of the Horror Classic, The Abominable Dr Phibes is upon us, and so is the Phibes 50 th Anniversary Online Celebration! Phibes creator William Goldstein and his son Damon return to the show to discuss the event which is mere days away! So join us on this episode to learn not only how you can participate in the 50 th Anniversary Celebration, but also about the expanding Phibesv...

Arriving this week on VOD and streaming services is the new Thriller called Painkiller, directed by Mark Savage and written by Tom Parnell and Mark Savage. It is a very timely tale about vigilante justice versus the creators and pushers of opiods. In the past, we were always guaranteed a movie in any given year starring one of the great horror icons like Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushi...

We've discussed Drive-In Theaters in the past, and while many indoor movie theaters have closed down because of Covid-19, the outdoor Drive-In Theater has not only thrived, but is experiencing a resurgence! This past weekend my wife and I had the good fortune to be able to attend the 2021 April Ghouls Drive-In Monster Rama at the Riverside Drive-In in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania. It was 80s weekend...

As we've discussed on the show, comic books and superheroes are a part of our pop culture that have never disappeared from our collective zeitgeist. Batman first appeared in 1939 in Detective Comics, and continues to be hugely popular 81 years later. On January 12th, 1966, the ABC network premiered a TV series that would not only catapult the character of Batman into the mainstream Pop Culture, bu...

As many listeners already know, we strive on this show to present cool pop culture of the past to a new generation who may have missed out on those things. Comic books have been around for about 90 years, and are still going strong. Most modern audiences are familiar with the Marvel and DC movies that have been popular for the last decade, as well as the various superhero shows on TV and on stream...

As we continue to introduce younger listeners to all the cool Pop Culture stuff of the past that they may have missed out on, TV Game Shows are certainly on that list! Game shows from the 60s to the 80s were wildly popular throughout those decades, and viewers of those shows have fond memories of them to this day. The Price is Right, Match Game, Family Feud, Hollywood Squares, Let's Make a Deal, a...

50 years ago on May 8th, 1971, a movie came out that was not your average horror picture; a blend of horror, humor, and music put together in a way that it seems perfectly natural and yet unlike any movie before it. It's a tale of revenge by a man driven insane because of the death of his wife, and the fantastic and horrific ways in which he exacts his revenge, told in a story that's shrouded some...

It's always fun when you can find a new series of films, or even a genre, that you didn't know existed. I'm sure some of our listeners have heard or even seen exploitation films, but I'll bet a vast majority of you don't know what one is, or you may not even know that you've already seen one! Exploitation is a unique and fascinating genre that pretty much goes back to when film cameras were first...

On our Dungeons and Dragons episode, we discussed how Role Playing Games never really disappeared from our Pop Culture, and in fact are thriving. The same can be said for Comic Books. While early comics can be traced back to 18 th century Japan, comic books as we now know them first truly became popular in the 1930s. The term comic book comes from the fact that newspaper comic strips (also known a...

Since the beginning of Then Is Now, I've been talking about pop culture that is disappearing from our collective consciousness. One of my go to lines has always been that people should know who Fonzie is. Arthur Fonzarelli, aka The Fonze, was a HUGE part of our pop culture for several decades, but if you ask a kid today who Fonzie is, they don't know! And that's very sad. Fonzie was a character on...

While many Horror movies tend to re-use common tropes and over and over again, there are those rare ones that manage to not only come up with an original idea, but also take those tropes and turn them on their ears. It Follows, a horror movie from 2014, manages to do all that as well as present a multi-layered film that delivers chills and horror with maximum effect. It has been described as not o...

Happpy Valentines Day 2021, everyone! In this episode, filmmaker Chris Esper and I dive deep into one of our all-time favorite films: Casablanca from 1942! It's not a sappy romance movie, but an incredible tale of a guy who has been trying to shed his past while the Nazis are creeping in, and a woman from his past who comes back into his life, shattering all the emotional barriers he's built up! C...

As regular listeners know, Then Is Now is a show in which we discuss pop culture that is disappearing from our zeitgeist and present it to today's audience – an effort to show people all the cool stuff they may have missed out on. The film, American Graffiti from 1973 directed by George Lucas of Star Wars fame, is an important film in our culture and film history. This is a movie that NEEDS...

One of the fun things in our pop culture that has not only NOT disappeared from our collective consciousness, but has also experienced a resurgence due to the stay at home orders of 2020 is RPGs, or Role Playing Games. The famous table top games as we know them today were first created by Gary Gygax in the early 1970s with his still insanely popular Role Playing Game, Dungeons and Dragons! The amo...

Last time Jack Gorey was on the show, we covered the modern Christmas Classic, Rare Exports. This episode was recorded before we did Rare Exports, but we wanted to put out a Christmas themed episode first. In today's show, we cover the classic Sci-Fi/Horror film, Alien from 1979! A space merchant vessel receives an unknown distress call and upon investigation, find that they inadvertently brought...

Our second entry in the sub-series, Classic Sci-Fi Films, focuses on a gem from 1953: Invaders from Mars! A film that you SHOULD have seen! Filmmaker Joe Lemieux joins me again as we discuss this amazing film in great detail! A young boy named Jimmy uncovers an alien plot to take over humans to prevent us from entering the realm of space exploration! This picture I a classic on so many levels, and...

Part 2 of our series on How to Get a Younger Person into Horror is here, to start 2021 off right! Filmmaker Chris Esper joins me as we continue our journey to help you, the listener, get someone to enjoy Horror movies! If you start them young enough, we have recommended starting with the Universal Horror Classics: Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, and the Creature F...