Episode 14 - JINGLE ALL THE WAY

Not your typical heartwarming holiday tale, Jingle All the Way is an alternative Christmas classic that pokes fun at that most sacred value of the season: materialism.  Surprisingly cynical for a family film, it’s a skewering of crass consumer culture (thanks to an uncredited rewrite by Home Alone director Chris Columbus) that includes bomb threats, brawling Santas, and a suburban lothario played by the late, great Phil Hartman.  The bug-eyed, grunt-y performance of Arnold Schwarzenegger as a harried dad who’ll do anything to nab the perfect gift for his son is simply icing on the cake.

Jingle All the Way (1996)

Directed by Brian Levant

Produced by Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan, and Mark Radcliffe

Written by Randy Kornfield

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sinbad, Rita Wilson, Jake Lloyd, Jim Belushi, and Phil Hartman 

Episode 13 - HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS and MICKEY’S CHRISTMAS CAROL

What’s Christmas without some stocking stuffers?

We’re so full of the holiday spirit that we created a bonus episode revisiting two our of favorite Yuletide perennials: the 1966 animated TV special Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas and the 1983 Disney short film Mickey’s Christmas Carol.

And as an extra-special Christmas treat, our good friend Daren Sprawls - the man behind our incredibly catchy podcast theme song - recorded his own acoustic cover of the holiday standard "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch."

Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Produced by Chuck Jones and Theodore Geisel
Starring Boris Karloff, June Foray, and Thurl Ravenscroft

Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983)
Directed and produced by Burny Mattinson
Starring Alan Young, Wayne Allwine, Hal Smith, Eddie Carroll, Patricia Parris, and Clarence Nash

Episode 12 - THE PRINCE OF EGYPT

DreamWorks Animation in the pre-Shrek era is a fascinating subject.  Before it became known as the home of the arched eyebrow, the studio aimed to provide a sleeker and slightly more mature alternative to Disney's family fare - think of the neurotic worker drones in Antz and the sly POW parody of Chicken Run.

Against that backdrop, DreamWorks' earnest Biblical epic The Prince of Egypt doesn't seem like the anomaly it appears to be.  It's a sweeping account of the prophet Moses - who, as the film's title cards helpfully point out, is a figure central to three major world religions - from his wicker basket ride down the Nile to his parting of the Red Sea.  And because this is an animated movie in the '90s, it's also a musical.  (Can't leave that soundtrack lucre on the table.)

In this episode, we investigate what The Prince of Egypt brings to the re-telling of this ancient story and how it's placed in a context with everything from The Ten Commandments to Exodus: Gods and Kings.

The Prince of Egypt (1998)
Directed by Simon Wells, Brenda Chapman, and Steve Hickner
Produced by Penney Finkleman Cox, Sandra Rabins, and Jeffrey Katzenberg
Written by Philip LaZebnik and Nicholas Meyer
Starring Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Michelle Pfieffer, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Goldblum, Patrick Stewart, Danny Glover, Steve Martin, and Martin Short

Episode 11 - BLANK CHECK and RICHIE RICH

Money can't buy you love, happiness, or class...but it can buy you a lot of Nerf guns and four-wheelers.  That's one thing we learned in our financial double feature of Blank Check and Richie Rich, two 1994 films designed to teach children that though materialism is an empty pursuit, it can sure fill your house with awesome stuff.  (Gotta start 'em early!)

In the spirit of this season of excess, enjoy a super-sized podcast covering everything from the surprising duality of Preston Waters and Richie Rich to the comfort of having a sidekick from a different English-speaking nation.  Also, having to choose favorites in this pair of financially-obsessed (though ultimately family-oriented) films finally puts us at odds...in a strictly collegial way.

Go ahead, help yourself to seconds - it's a special Thanksgiving episode of What Were We Watching!

Blank Check (1994)
Directed by Rupert Wainwright
Produced by Gary Adelson, Craig Baumgarten, and Tony Shimkin
Written by Blake Snyder and Colby Carr
Starring Brian Bonsall, Karen Duffy, Miguel Ferrer, James Rebhorn, Tone Lōc, and Michael Lerner

Richie Rich (1994)
Directed by Donald Petrie
Produced by Joel Silver and John Davis
Written by Neil Tolkin and Tom S. Parker
Starring Macaulay Culkin, John Larroquette, Edward Herrmann, Christine Ebersole, and Jonathan Hyde

Episode 10 - STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE

Where were you in '99?  If you were like us, you were on the Internet gobbling up every morsel of information and hearsay about the first installment of a new Star Wars saga, eagerly speculating how it would echo and expand upon the original trilogy.

It's safe to say that few were expecting what was in store for us: a weird mishmash of Jar Jar and Jake Lloyd, parliamentary motions and midi-chlorians.  But that's what makes The Phantom Menace a uniquely fascinating film.  It's one of the most idiosyncratic mega-blockbusters ever made, and perhaps the last massively commercial film that so deeply expressed a singular creative vision.

Our friend and fellow Lucasfilm obsessive Eric Wheeler joins our expansive discussion of Episode I, the first installment of a plan to cover all six Star Wars films before the series returns to theaters in 2015.  (We're scattering them over a whole year to avoid Force fatigue.)  The hour-plus episode is our longest and most absorbing conversation yet as we take our first steps into the mercurial mind of George Lucas.

Now this is podcasting!

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)
Written and directed by George Lucas
Produced by Rick McCallum
Starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ahmed Best, and Ian McDiarmid

Check out the rest of our series on the Star Wars saga:
Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Episode IV: A New Hope
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Episode VII: The Force Awakens
Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

Solo: A Star Wars Story
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Star Wars: Clone Wars
Star Wars Holiday Special
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure

Episode 9 - ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?

Well, are you?

Muster up some courage for the show that divided the schoolyard between the kids who reveled in tales of the weird and grotesque, and the kids who changed the channel promptly at 9:30 pm on Saturdays.  For seven seasons and 91 episodes - a programming warhorse by Nickelodeon standards - Are You Afraid of the Dark? served up chilling ghost stories, creature features, and middle school social dynamics in a tween-friendly anthology series.  It’s an intriguing experiment in kiddie horror, cutting against the grain of the popular Goosebumps formula of swerves and surrealism - a narratively-focused show that usually featured a moral, not a monster, at the end.

Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, it’s a What Were We Watching? Halloween Special!



Are You Afraid of the Dark (1990-1996)
Created by D.J. MacHale and Ned Kandel

“The Tale of the Frozen Ghost”
Directed by Ron Oliver
Written by Naomi Janzen
Aired August 14, 1993

“The Tale of the Dead Man’s Float”
Directed by D.J. MacHale
Written by Will Dixon
Aired October 7, 1995

Episode 8 - THE WITCHES

What better way to celebrate the Halloween season than with the work of Roald Dahl, whose eccentric tales have been amusing and scarring children for generations?  The Witches contains plenty of prime nightmare fuel for the elementary school set - a crummy vacation at a crumbling old hotel, poisoned candy, and scores of bewigged British biddies.  With a dash of Henson Creature Shop magic and director Nicolas Roeg’s insistence on shooting like he’s making a low-budget ‘70s horror film, The Witches is a movie that appears to be at cross-purposes but endures with its unique combination of dark intensity and kid-friendly kookiness.

The Witches (1990)
Directed by Nicholas Roeg
Produced by Jim Henson, Mark Shivas, and Dusty Symonds
Written by Allan Scott
Based on the novel by Roald Dahl
Starring Anjelica Huston, Jasen Fisher, Mai Zetterling, and Rowan Atkinson