The Plot Podcast - Episode 13 - Don't Mess Around With Jim

If you come at him, you better not miss.

Although we cover sports (and pseudo sports) here, we felt it was better to have our tribute to the late great Jim Brown, who passed away this week, was to analyze a small part of his popular culture career, by looking at some of his most-famous Blaxploitation films.

Brown made two films as the Green Beret turned Mob enemy Slaughter, in Slaughter (1972) and Slaughter’s Big Rip Off (1973). In the first, he squares off against the psychotic Rip Torn and in the second, the mob boss tried to take out Slaughter is … Ed McMahon?

Maybe Brown’s best known genre role was as Jimmy in Three The Hard Way, which is like The Blaxploitation Avengers, where he teams up with Fred “The Hammer” Williamson and martial artist Jim Kelly to fight a white supremacist group out to poison the black population of Los Angeles, Detroit and Washington, DC.

If you like old school 1970s violence with plenty of fights, shoot outs and car chases, along with some gratuitous nudity, these pictures are for you. (That presumes you all know about all the cultural mores of the genre, especially the language and the racism.)

We had planned on including the Richard Pryor routine about Jim Brown, but it was just too many bleeps to add for a five minute routine. Listen to it when you get the chance; one of my favorite all-time favorite comedy albums.

The Plot Podcast - Episode 10 - Singing Cowboy Xmas Movies

Gene Autry and “Santa” (Hank Patterson” deliver Xmas presents in The Cowboys and the Indians.

What better way to celebrate the holiday season than looking at two very loosely Christmas-themed singing cowboy pictures?

First, it’s Roy Rogers and “Trail of Robin Hood.” There are no merry men or archery contests, but we do have a turkey shoot in a story about a businessman, his daughter and their nefarious foreman trying to corner the marker on Christmas trees. Leave it to Roy, Trigger and Bullet to put a stop to it.

Then, it’s Gene Autry in “The Cowboys and The Indians.” For 1949, this is a fairly progressive picture about the maltreatment of Natives on reservations, in this case by a villainous and greedy trading post owner. Gene teams with a female doctor and a local tribesman to try and expose the corruption going on. The Christmas stuff doesn’t come until the end when Gene sings one of his famous holiday songs (we won’t spoil which one he sings).

Episode Eighty-Six - Kaos Theory

The high point of Star Trek Picard: the reunion with Riker, Picard and Troi.

With the Splendid Isolation mini-series ended, we are back to regular episodes. Thanks to those who listened while I tried to keep busy.

We welcome back John Champion (@dvdgeeks) from the Mission Log Podcast (@missionlogpod) to discuss the recently-completed Star Trek Picard season one. We chat about what we liked and what was problematic and where the show might go in future seasons. On the Trek front, we talk about the changes to Mission Log, with Ken Ray departing and Norman Lao arriving at the beginning of the year.

From there, it’s lots of spy talk, starting naturally with Get Smart (since it’s episode 86). From there, it’s a cornucopia of shows on the docket, including Mission: Impossible, the Man from UNCLE and more. With the passing of Robert Conrad, we of course discussed the Wild Wild West, including why the show was so fun. And with the recent death of Honor Blackman, we talk about the Cathy Gale version of The Avengers, as well as her role in Goldfinger.

To round up the show, it’s some other British programs to examine, including Danger Man, the Prisoner, Randal and Hopkirk Deceased (which John had not seen before) , Department S, Jason King and how the star of the last two shows had a connection to the Bronze Age X-Men comic books.

Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy the show.

Episode Seventy-Eight - Authentic Frontier Gibberish

Why yes, my RDR2 Online character is Dum Dum Dugan.

Only a few months late, we finally do an episode about the greatness that is Red Dead Redemption 2. And to share in our joy, we welcome in YouTube gamer Tag from @TagBackTV. We start off by discussing the new updated Online mode, which finally went live officially a few weeks ago: what is new, what did they fix, what did they not fix yet and what is coming in the near future and maybe down the line. There’s also chat about RDR1 vs RDR2 and what we both preferred about each game, including story, game play, free roam and the beauty of Monument Valley. We also discuss the ins and outs of being a full-time YouTube gamer. Do you get to play games for fun? What happens when a game you like doesn’t get enough views and a game you don’t like does? Also, the frustrations when a video gets copyright claimed and how that can disrupt plans. We also mention what’s coming in the future that might be worth checking out and what recent title turned out to be a major disappointment. Be sure to check out Tag’s channel (TagBackTV) for daily RDR2 videos, live streams and more.

Also, thanks to everyone we chatted with at the TMPT3 Convention in Richmond. It was cool to catch up with some friends from Virginia and chit chat with some of the wrestling legends from 1980s Jim Crockett Promotions. Hopefully, we lined up some future podcast guests while talking about King Curtis Iaukea, Gino Hernandez and Phil Hickerson, among other folks from the past.