The Flopcast

Live from the horrifyingly cold mid-January Boston waterfront, it's our annual report on our favorite local science fiction/fantasy convention, Arisia! Kevin was locked in for all four days of Arisia, moderating discussion panels, meeting the awesome costumed people, and just observing all the glorious geekery. Meanwhile Kornflake almost couldn't make it, but still managed to arrive for a surprise...

Okay, let's wrap up our tribute to the pop culture legends we lost in 2019. (We've been drinking so many shots in their memory that we're almost out of coffee. And that frightens us.) Part 2 includes more movie stars (Peter Fonda, Sid Haig, Danny Aiello), sitcom stars (Valerie Harper, Bill Macy, Philip McKeon), rock stars (Eddie Money, Ric Ocasek, Ginger Baker), and, uh, Star Trek stars (DC Fontan...

You know we do this every year... yes, it's the first of our two-part look back at all the pop culture legends we lost in 2019. And yeah, a couple of our favorite Peters (Tork and Mayhew) are on this year's list, along with stars from TV (Tim Conway, Katherine Helmond, Luke Perry), movies (Albert Finney, Rutger Hauer, Doris Day), music (James Ingram, Leon Redbone, Dr. John), wrestling (KING KONG B...

Yes yes yes, it's our 400th episode! To celebrate, we're drinking lots of black coffee. (Hey, it worked for the first 399 shows.) We're also reviewing how we spent the stupid holidays, including a couple of festive movies (Knives Out and the new Star Wars, which needed more Bea Arthur), a couple of festive concerts (Dar Williams and Freezepop), and a very Robolar Christmas card. We also have a few...

As we creep up on the end of 2019, Kevin and Kornflake relax and look back on the whole stupid year. We review our Flopcast segments (Capes or Apes!) and guests (Train Talk with Ed!), as well as concerts (Taylor Dayne! TAYLOR DAYNE!), conventions (hey, Arisia returns next month!), and lots more. Plus: National Whatever Day, a new novel from Matthew Dicks, the return of the Kornflake Book Club, a v...

Last week was Part 1 of our bizarre Rankin/Bass tournament, in which characters like Rudolph, Snow Miser, and Burgermeister Meisterburger competed in events like breakdancing and air hockey. The results were surprising, to say the least. This week, eight more Rankin/Bass characters are randomly drawn to do battle in equally ridiculous events. Will Santa Claus and Heat Miser have to play Hungry Hun...

Kevin and Kornflake are taking their obsession with classic Rankin/Bass Christmas cartoons to a ridiculous new level, tournament-style. We're randomly fishing names of Rankin Bass characters out of reindeer-shaped coffee mugs, and determining who would win in various silly events. Who would make a better Lyft driver, Santa or Frosty? What if Heat Miser and Charlie-in-the-Box were in a rap battle?...

Kevin and Kornflake review their Thanksgiving weekends, which involved multiple dinners (Hobbit-style!), a movie trivia game (where the answer is always Footloose), a Sharpie car, concerts from Gustafer Yellowgold and Niki Luparelli, turkey-themed wardrobes, and turkey-themed wardrobe malfunctions. Plus: Happy Birthday to Jakob Dylan of the Wallflowers, a ridiculous New Zealand edition of Chickens...

It's a special show to ring in the goofy holidays, featuring our interview with official Rankin/Bass historian Rick Goldschmidt! You know Rankin/Bass. It's the legendary animation studio that produced all those classic holiday shows, starting with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in 1964. Lots more wonderful cartoons followed, including Santa Claus is Comin' To Town (which gave us Burgermeister Meis...

It's a surprise Flopcast recording live from the middle of Super Megafest! (Kornflake wasn't even supposed to be there, so we were all just shocked and delighted.) We discuss our whole silly day at the convention, wandering around eyeballing the celebrity guests, including Spider-Man's Nicholas Hammond, 3rd Rock's French Stewart, MASH's Loretta Swit, The Munsters' Butch Patrick, wrestlers Tony Atl...

We're a few weeks late, thanks to all those weird train-themed shows, but it's finally time for our annual review of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees! The short version: We're happy to see Pat Benatar and Whitney Houston on the list, but in our hearts, we just want everybody to Wang Chung tonight. Come on, Hall of Fame. WANG CHUNG. Also: Kornflake hits the road with attack chickens and atta...

Okay, let's take a break from all that controversial train talk! It's finally time to catch up on some non-train stuff, including: Kornflake's Halloween (featuring a Yip-Yip costume, a giant boot, a Stan Lee pumpkin, and a jug band), Kevin's Halloween (featuring a classy chicken costume, weird movies in Vermont, Swamp Thing artist Stephen Bissette, and a turkey), Calista Flockhart's birthday (one...

This week we're joined again by Ed, longtime friend of The Flopcast, Sponge Awareness Foundation keyboardist, and train expert from the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway Museum! So yeah, that means more nerdy train talk! Learn the shocking truth behind the trains in pop culture classics like Stand By Me, Polar Express, Dumbo, School House Rock, and lots more. Does anyone know what happe...

This week Kevin and Kornflake are joined by special guest Ed, from The Sponge Awareness Foundation! But Ed is not just the other half of Kevin's old comedy band. Ed is also a train expert, and today we're talking trains. HEY, WAIT, COME BACK. This is The Flopcast, so specifically we're talking about trains from old movies, TV shows, and cartoons! Anyone else remember the short-lived 1979 show Supe...

It's another Flopcast Halloween show, and we're counting down our favorite ghosts in a terrifying Top 4 1/2 List! We have ghosts from cartoons (where Shaggy screamed "ghost" with like eleven syllables), comics books (learn which ghost Kornflake wants to cosplay), sitcoms (we just saw the most beautiful ghost in the world), music, video games, and of course... breakfast cereal. (Not every cereal ma...

It's sort of a Halloween-themed show, but not really! Including: A concert report on super-cool garage pop band Bleached! (Their album Don't You Think You've Had Enough? might be our favorite record of the year...) Another concert report on a Beatles tribute supergroup, with Todd Rundgren, Christopher Cross, Badfinger's Joey Molland, Chicago's Jason Scheff, and Micky Dolenz! (Micky sang "Rocky Rac...

It's time to flip through another issue of the magazine we all bought through our school book club long ago, Dynamite! And this 1981 issue is an amazing one, because the cover features a hero of ours, and someone you've heard on The Flopcast: James "The Amazing" Randi! Did Randi teach any Dynamite kids to avoid being scammed by faith healers and psychics? Let's hope so. Let's also hope the kids ke...

With our DragonCon coverage out of the way (finally!), it's time to catch up on every other silly thing we've done lately. Kornflake reports on Napkin Poetry with Jim's Big Ego, gum jingles with Marc With a C, Pac-Man Battle Royale at Funspot, and giant bugs at Gillette Stadium. Meanwhile Kevin attended a rare Boston performance by George Hrab (who covered a Wham song!) and spotted an Archie Bunke...

From the American Sci-Fi Classics Track at DragonCon 2019 (just a few weeks ago - we're still sleepy), here's a fun panel called "Cousin Oliver Was Framed: Classic Sci-Fi Sidekicks"! Joining Kevin on the panel are The Fortress of Baileytude's Michael Bailey, novelist and Cop Rock enthusiast Michael Williams, and Classics Track co-director Gary Mitchel! And yeah, we're talking kid sidekicks, as wel...

This week we cover the second half of our favorite and most exhausting event of the year, DragonCon! (If you noticed a shortage of geeks in your area over Labor Day weekend... they were all in Atlanta. And they were all ahead of us in the line at Starbucks.) Including: The Geek Girls Run; Classic Sci-Fi Court (good luck, 1984 Supergirl movie); stars from Doctor Who, Cobra Kai, V, and The Magicians...

It was five weird days with 85,000 weird humans... we have so much to cover from DragonCon that we're splitting it into two episodes! This week's review includes: The DragonCon Newbie Walking Tours; the ESO Network Meet and Greet; Doctor Who's David Tennant; legendary comic book artist George Pérez; Rankin/Bass animation expert Rick Goldschmidt; the Sci-Fi Explosion show (featuring Billy Ocean, be...

Our ten-part 80s celebration continues with a quick look at the Top Ten songs this week in 1982! It's an odd list, with a couple of veteran 60s acts (Paul McCartney and Crosby, Stills, and Nash), a couple of soft rock classics (from Chicago and our true love, Air Supply), and a rather awful song in the top spot. (It wants to reach out and grab you, creepily.) The 80s music talk continues with Kevi...

We're taking a break from our frantic DragonCon preparations to look at the Top Ten songs this week in 1981! The Pointer Sisters wanted a slow hand, the Greatest American Hero was walking on air, there was no getting over Ronnie Milsap, and there was no avoiding a pair of classic duets (one from Stevie and Tom, one from Diana and Lionel). Meanwhile Kornflake grabs a box of doughnuts and hits the r...

We're just days away from that massive annual gathering of the geeks, DragonCon! Why not spend Labor Day weekend in Atlanta with 80,000 of your closest and weirdest friends? In this, our DragonCon preview show, we run through the convention's various programming tracks, and yikes, there are a bunch: Animation, Comics, Costuming, Horror, Puppetry, Science, Skeptics, Video Gaming, and dozens more. Y...

All dumb things must come to an end, and you don't get much dumber than watching all the sequels to the summer camp comedy classic, Meatballs! But our goofy summer project ends now, as we chomp on pizza pie and somehow get through 1992's Meatballs 4: To the Rescue! Still no Bill Murray, of course, but a new hero emerges (on water skis) to put a bullet in the Meatballs franchise: Corey Feldman. Yes...