The Flopcast

We're reviewing another old Dynamite magazine, compliments of our pal Chris from Sci-Fi Explosion! This is a 1977 issue, and the cover features ill-fated sitcom couple Pinky Tuscadero and Fonzie. (Yes, we're talking about Happy Days again. Yes, we have a problem.) Also in this issue: A superhero named Jive Turkey! Skateboarding! She-Monsters! Disgusting pancakes! Jodie Foster! Magic Wanda! The DC...

At last, it's the end of our Dragon Con coverage, just in time for us to start working on our zombie steampunk Mrs. Roper costumes for next year. Our look back at the last two days of the convention includes: Panels about witchcraft in fiction, comedy in science fiction, Superman meeting Spider-Man, and Justice League Unlimited! A dramatic reading of a Manimal script! More fun with Electra Woman a...

Saturday was our longest, busiest, silliest day at Dragon Con, the massive convention of pop culture nerdiness that takes over Atlanta every Labor Day weekend. Including: Saturday morning cartoons! Our Krofft Supershow 50th Anniversary celebration! Our Pee Wee's Playhouse 40th Anniversary celebration! An actual Bugaloo! Electra Woman and Dyna Girl versus the Empress of Evil! The Battle of the Fict...

Our Dragon Con 2026 coverage continues, as we cover every goofy thing we did on Friday at our favorite annual gathering of weirdos. Including: The Geek Girls Run! An American Sci-Fi Classics Track Tournament of Villains! American Sci-Fi/Fantasy Media Track panels on Pluribus, Lanterns, and Supergirl! The cast of Land of the Lost! A meeting with Tron! The Dragon Con Hustle! And a late night parade...

After another long weekend among 75,000 other nerds in miserably hot and humid Atlanta, our Dragon Con 2026 review begins now! (Warning: This might be a four-parter. There's a lot of ridiculousness to cover.) Including: A weird new way to get to the airport! The nightmarish badge pickup line! The Skeptics Guide to the Universe crew! A surprise reality TV star! The Tim Curry tribute panel! Dancing...

It might be Dragon Con weekend, but it's still summertime, and you know what that means around here. It's time for our annual robot-themed Top 4 1/2 List! And it's a weird one. In honor of this year's new Supergirl movie, we're counting down robots on the covers of Supergirl comic books. (What?) Along the way, we'll meet a robot man named Robotman, a four-armed robot bank robber, a robot who climb...

With Dragon Con just days away, let's look at our official schedules, because Kevin and the Mayor will be busy with panels, presentations, and miscellaneous silly things. Including: Panels on Pee Wee's Playhouse, Supergirl, Pluribus, Lanterns, and more! A tournament of villains! The Geek Girls Run! Fandom Feud! A celebration of Sid and Marty Krofft! Script readings from Saturday Night Live and Man...

Hey, it's almost time for Dragon Con! Nerds, geeks, and weirdos from around the globe shall descend upon Atlanta for a long weekend of mirth, merriment, antics, hijinks, and perhaps even a shenanigan or two. And this week our Dragon Con coverage begins with a preview of what you can expect to find there. Including: Stars from Land of the Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Smallville, and The Jef...

Our American Sci-Fi Classics buddy Joe Crowe is still here, and we're still exploring the odd world of made-for-TV reunion movies. In this week's batch of ratings-grabbing silliness: The Duke boys go to Hollywood, the Facts of Life girls get back together (except for Jo!), a Gabor sister (still not sure which one) returns to Green Acres, the Eight is Enough dad has multiple 50th birthdays, somebod...

Back in the day, when your favorite goofy TV show was cancelled, it was not necessarily the end. Years (or even decades) later, it just might be resurrected in the odd format of the made-for-TV reunion movie. Thus we returned to Mayberry to catch up with Andy and Opie, we reconnected with Gomez and Morticia in the disco era, we attended the double wedding of Jan and Marcia... and we even learned t...

We have one more summer concert report for you, because thanks to an old friend, Kevin and the Mayor had VIP tickets to see John Mellencamp! (Are you like us? Do you still miss the "Cougar" part?) So today we're breaking down the whole show for you. Including: Pre-concert South Shore bar pizza with a kissing waitress! The Mellencamp VIP tent, featuring Mellencamp memorabilia, a Mellencamp video ga...

Our friend Judy is here again, and we're looking back at the supermodels of the 1980s! They popped up in movies and music videos, they sold jeans and shampoo, they married rock stars, and we just couldn't get enough of them. So to pay tribute to Cindy, Christie, Paulina, and the rest, Judy has prepared what might be our sexiest Top 4 1/2 List ever. (That's if we don't count our list of cartoon rob...

We have another summer concert report, because "Weird Al" Yankovic's Bigger and Weirder Tour returned to New England! Also: Retro 80s games at the Free Play Bar Arcade in downtown Providence! The Logan Awards for Excellence in Comedy Music! The return of Chickens in the News, in which we learn about a farm where you can gamble on chicken races! (Correction: This farm is in Boulder, Montana, not Bo...

We're still looking at Happy Days spinoffs, because that's what the kids are excited about these days. There was Joanie Loves Chachi, of course, in which the two worst singers in the world dream of making it big. But does anyone else remember Out of the Blue, a sitcom about a guardian angel named Random? No, just us? Whatever. Then there were the Saturday morning cartoon spinoffs: Fonz and the Hap...

From the middle of a horrifying Chickentown heatwave, we present a Top 4 1/2 List of summer songs of the 80s! (Yes, this is ground we've covered before. If you thought we were ever going to stop yammering about Belinda Carlisle, you really don't know us.) And for more 80s summer music action, we also have a Sammy Hagar concert report! Sammy's show featured plenty of Van Halen classics, Joe Satrian...

As promised/threatened, we're looking at all the TV series that can be considered spinoffs of Happy Days. And yikes, there are so many that we're splitting them into two episodes. So this week, we're covering: Laverne and Shirley! (Remember when Laverne, Shirley, and everyone they knew all moved from Milwaukee to Los Angeles together?) Mork and Mindy! (Remember when Mork gave birth to a weird old...

Our series of Wizard of Oz adaptation reviews brings us to 1978's The Wiz, an ambitious reimagining with an all-star all-Black cast led by the great Diana Ross. Also featuring: Richard Pryor, Lena Horne, Nipsey Russell, Mabel King, graffiti Munchkins, crow monsters, poppy girls, and way more long slow musical numbers than anyone really wanted. (Seriously, they could have cut the running time in ha...

Flopcast episode 736! It's another quick fill-in show as we await the return of the Mayor! Including: Kevin's recent guest appearance on Monkeeing Around to discuss a weird obscure Micky Dolenz movie! The new book Raised on Radio, an oral history of the arena rock bands of the 70s and 80s! (Worried that you don't know quite enough about REO Speedwagon? Well, here you go.) And we just saw Devo live...

Sixty years ago, The Monkees debuted as a TV show about a band, quickly grew into a real band, were wildly successful for just a few years, then faded away. Forty years ago, reruns on MTV inspired a new generation of Monkeemania, and so Micky, Davy, and Peter hit the road for the big 1986 Monkees reunion tour. Kevin saw them on that tour, and our guest this week did too! We're joined by Elaine, co...

In the early 80s, video games were so popular that they inspired a weird pack of Saturday morning cartoons. The Pac-Man cartoon was first, and was soon followed by Saturday Supercade, Dragon's Lair, and Pole Position. Saturday Supercade featured short segments based on several games: Donkey Kong (both original and Junior), Frogger, Kangaroo, Pitfall, Q*Bert, and Space Ace. And this week we're join...

Our ongoing series of Wizard of Oz adaptation reviews reaches Journey Back to Oz, an animated movie that Filmation started producing in 1962. However, they ran out of money, and the movie sat around unfinished for a full decade, until Filmation had some cash rolling in from their cheapo Saturday morning cartoons. Was Journey Back to Oz worth the wait? Yeah, sort of. It boasts an all-star cast led...

Inspired by last week's Happy Days cast reunion event (which we attended as part of our court-ordered community service), we're finally taking a deep dive into this classic goofy sitcom of the 70s and 80s. Including: How Happy Days and American Graffiti sort of created each other! The Happy Days pilot episode of Love, American Style! Tom Bosley on Wait Till Your Father Gets Home! The mystery of Ch...

We actually left the studio a few times this week, so this show is just a quick recap of our various silly activities. Including: Beloved folk singer-songwriter Dar Williams live in concert! The Footloose musical live from New Hampshire! Losing at trivia to Britney Spears's lower back tattoo! And a live Happy Days cast reunion with Henry Winkler, Anson Williams, and Donny Most! This is The Flopcas...

The Flopcast Book Club is back in session as we discuss Even the Good Girls Will Cry, the new memoir from Melissa Auf der Maur. Melissa was just a young photography student in Montreal when she was recruited to play bass in Courtney Love's band Hole, and suddenly found herself in the eye of the 90s alt-rock storm. And yikes, she has stories. We'll learn about life on the road with Hole (yeah, it w...

A few months before the debut of their classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer cartoon, Rankin/Bass produced their very first prime time animated TV special. And it was very, very different. So this week we're looking at yet another Wizard of Oz adaptation: 1964's Return to Oz. The animation was simple, but a little of that classic Rankin/Bass weirdness was already present. Including: Munchkins who...