Episode 128 - Hellfire and Brimstone

L: Peter Wyngarde as Jason King. C: Jason Wyngarde and Jean Grey in Uncanny X-Men 132. R: Jason Wyngarde and Diana Rigg in The Avengers. Imitation and flattery, et cetera.

It’s been a while, but we are happy as heck to welcome back writer, journalist and From the Sublime editor Iain Hepburn back to the show for a long chat about some classic British popular culture (and other stuff).

We start with the recent passing of film and tv music composer Laurie Johnson at age 96. Although probably best known for The Avengers (and New Avengers) themes, he had a long career that includes Jason King and The Professionals on TV and films including Dr. Strangelove. We talk about his career and other British TV composers like Ron Grainer (The Prisoner and Doctor Who) and Edwin Astley (Randall and Hopkirk Decased, Danger Man). This leads into a chat about 1960 British shows, the ones that made it to the US and the ones that didn’t and the fun of spotting actors on those before before they were famous.

Then, there’s plenty of chat about Doctor Who and the return of Russell T. Davies to run the show. We talk about how the vast Doctor Who library is now on BBC iplayer, the Tales of the Tardis special featuring classic cast members, modernizing old episodes for a contemporary audience and the hunt for missing episodes. This segues into a chat about physical media, streaming services, the phenomenon of Talking Pictures TV in the UK, preservation and restoration of older programs, how that relates to classic wresting TV shows and more.

There’s also chat about Iain’s magazine From the Sublime, who third/fourth issue is currently in production. We talk about the previous issues and some of the topics, including a Buck Rogers-themed restaurant in Glascow in the 1980s and futbol kit culture, including an unexpected discussion of the NASL and MLS. If you want a copy of From the Sublime and you order from their website, enter “WINTERPALACE” for 15% discount.

It’s always great to talk to Iain about stuff, so hopefully it won’t be more than eight years before he is back on the podcast.

Episode 125 - Sweet F.A.

The famous 1974 photo of Exotic Adrian Streeet and his coal mining father.

It’s always great to welcome back birthday twin Kevin Day (@kevinhunterday) to the show. First up, once I learned Kevin had been a fan of World of Sport wrestling growing up, I knew that would be the subject of his next appearance. Since he was casual fan watching, he brings a different perspective to the business than most of our usual guests, who are historians or competitors themselves. We talk about how it evolves over the 20+ years it was on ITV in the UK and chat about most of the well-known names: host Kent Walton, Big Daddy (no HOF talk here), Giant Haystacks, Mick McManus, Kendo Nagasaki (I explain to Kevin about his Japanese namesake in 80s American wrestling), Johnny Saint, Steve/William Regal, Robbie Brookside, Catweazle and others. But we spent a lot of time talking about Adrian Street. (Kevin was originally going to do the pod right after Adrian’s death earlier this year). We talk about his career in the US and the UK, the famous photo (seen above) with his Welsh coal mining father in 1974, his influence on glam rock, how the character was presented at the time and now in present day and, of course, his infamous showdown with a certain disgraced UK TV presenter.

From there, we discuss Kevin’s new book he co-wrote with former guest Kieran Maguire and their Price of Football producer Guy Kitty called “Unfit and Improper Persons.” We discuss how the book came about as a way to discuss the myriad of issues in the world of football finance without it being just a textbook (since Kieran already wrote that book). Here, the three of them start a fictional football team named West Park Rovers and we follow their journey from pub team to Europa League participant. Along the way, they discuss many of the issues plaguing the modern game: financial fair play, sustainability, accessibility, inclusivity and, of course, amortization. There’s also some chat about Lionel Messi in MLS, David Beckham, Pele, The New York Cosmos, Once in a Lifetime, the NASL, the NFL and other American sports.

Wrapping up, we learned on the Price of Football that both Kieran and Kevin were also gamers and both were playing the new Zelda game, “Tears of the Kingdom.” We heard from Kieran a few months ago about his thoughts on the game and now we hear Kevin’s opinions having finished the game and how it compared to its predecesor “Breath of the Wild.”

And, by happenstance, we recorded the show the night before our two teams played in the Premier League, so there’s some brief chat about the fortunes of our two clubs this year.

I love talking to Kevin about old school British popular culture, as he provides an eye witness account on shows and sports I either watched here in the US on PBS with no cultural context (Monty Python, Doctor Who) or only discovered years later (Randall and Hopkirk, Dad’s Army and Department S/Jason King for example).

Episode 123 - It's Full of Stars

It was a Starfield wedding and the old folks wished them well.

I’m excited to welcome back Jason Plays (@jasonplaysNMS) to the show to discuss a variety of topics.

First up, Starfield has been out for about a month now and we were both super looking forward to it. How has Jason found the game so far, his likes and dislikes, comparing it to both past Bethesda games and space operas like Mass Effect. I’ve been slow playing, where Jason is on his fourth playthrough, so while there are discussions of characters and missions, a lot of the big spoilers are not discussed, since I haven’t gotten to them yet.

Then, of course, we talk about No Man’s Sky, which dropped an update and expedition right before Starfield’s launch. How did Jason cope with trying to consume and play both at the same time? We discuss the most recent expedition and how it feels like Hello Games just might be making adventures to put a burr in the saddle of speedrunners.

We also chat about the upcoming Metal Gear Solid remastered releases. Jason was a huge Solid Snake fan in the day, so we talk about our memories of the games both good and bad (Raiden, I’m looking at you).

Then we shift gears for a long chat about the James Bond franchise. We discuss our favorite Bond actors and films, the out-of-continuity movies, serious spy films vs funny/campy pictures, other favorite spy properties and more. There’s also a lot of random popular culture chat, including (again) the greatness of Green Acres, the early years of having a VCR, life as a video game streamer and attracing an audience and other stuff.

I want to thank Jason for his time for doing a long episode, especially since we started late, thanks to a seemingly interminable traffic jam on my way home from work, which pushed back the recording time.

The Plot Podcast - Episode 15 - Serpentine (RIP Alan Arkin)

The Plot looks back at the career of the late, great Alan Arkin, who recently passed away at the age of 89.

We talk about his folk music career before getting into acting and then play some clips from a number of our favorite films in which he starred, from “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming” to “Grosse Point Blank.” Did you know Arkin was on both Sesame Street and The Muppet Show in his career? Whether comedy or drama, one of the best actors of the last half-century. Rest in Peace.

The Plot Podcast - Episode 12 - Year of the Domino

Subliminal Messaging as seen by Reuben Flagg in American Flagg issue 1. (c) Howard Chaykin

We take a look at the use of subliminal message in two classic 1980s pieces of science fiction - Howard Chaykin's American Flagg comic from 1983 and the original British pilot for Max Headroom from 1985. We discuss the history of each project, how subliminals were used in the plot and just ahead of their time both projects were and would fit right in today's culture in 2023.

Episode 114 - Louisiana Hayride

Al’s new book. Go buy it.

We’re happy to welcome Al Getz (@AlGetzwrestling) back to the show to discuss a variety of topics, but most importantly his new book, Charting the Territories: The 1971-1973 LeRoy McGuirk Oklahoma/Louisiana Wrestling Almanac.

We talk about the process of putting the book together from all of Al Getz’s into the 20+ year history of the territory and the use of his wrestling statistics to look at where people worked on a card and how prominent their feuds were during a particular time. We look at some of the familiar names in the territory, like Bill Watts and Danny Hodge, superstars working there regularly like Dusty Rhodes and the Spoiler and youngsters in the infancy of their careers, like Bob Backlund and Pez Whatley.

Al also talks about his odyssey this year to visit every Major League Baseball park and some of the minor league stadia as well. We learn what state Al visited for the first time, as well as some of the atypical ballpark food he ate during the course of the year.

We wrap with a cursory look at the new Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame ballot which had just been released when we recorded the pod. Rather than discuss individual candidates, we talked about some of the procedural changes implemented this year, increasing the number of votes and the inclusion of many tag teams and how that could effect people’s voting.

The Plot Podcast - Episopde 7 - Ultraviolet (1998)

The Ultraviolet team in their prison vault. Don’t call it a cemetery.

The Plot Podcast in Hallowe’en Month at the When It Was Cool Network goes from tongue in cheek to deadly earnest. We’re joined by Odessa Steps Magazine contributor Justin Jones (@xPrimusPilusx) to discuss one of his all-time favorite TV shows, 1998’s Ultraviolet. The British show, written and directed by Joe Ahearne, stars Jack Davenport, Susannah Harker, Philip Quast and a young Idris Elba as a team trying to fight the good fight against … well, they call them Code V’s or leeches, but those monsters who want our blood to stay alive. We discuss how we both found the show here in the early 2000s, the premise of the show, and what we love about it. Since there are only six episodes, we discuss each one in detail, so spoilers ahoy. We rave about the quality writing and acting on display, some of our favorite scenes and more. It’s a Valentine in October to a program I often describe as “The X-Files and Blade fight Vampires.”

The Plot Podcast - Episode 6 - 1960s Spy Shows and ... Creatures?

Martin Landau as Count Zark in The Man From UNCLE’s “The Bat Cave Affair.”

As part of When It Was Cool’s Hallowe’en Month, the pod looks at some of its favorite 1960s spy TV shows and what happens when they run into some creatures. Or do they?

First, we have the Man from UNCLE and the second season episode “The Bat Cave Affair.” What is THRUSH’s “Operation Night Flight” and why does the agent behind it, Count Zark (Martin Landau using his Bela Lugosi impression 30 years before Ed Wood), seem to be dressed as a certain Transylvanian nobleman? Can Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Ilya Kuryakin) stop him from grounding the world’s aircrafts?

Next up, it’s the Avengers and the fifth season episode "Never Never Say Die.” When a man hit by a car doesn’t stay dead, it’s up to Steed (Patrick Macnee) and Mrs. Peel (Diana Rigg) to find out how and what does it have to do with the secret government lab run by Professor Frank N. Stone (Christopher Lee)?

Finally, we go full on spy spoof with Get Smart and the first season episode “Weekend Vampire” (not to be confused with the band of a very similar name). When CONTROL agents are being found dead with two puncture marks on their necks, Max (Don Adams) and 99 (Barbara Feldon) are sent to investigate the disgraced scientist Dr. Drago (Martin Kosleck).

We’ll be back soon with a slightly more serious look at spies and the undead in the 1999 British TV show Ultraviolet starring Jack Davenport, Susannah Harker and a young Idris Elba. It’s The X-Files plus Blade vs Vampires in the next episode of the podcast.

The Plot - Episode 4 - Inspector Clouseau / The Inspector

The Inspector and The Matzoriley Brothers, from The Great De Gualle Stone Operation. (C) 2022 MGM.

In this episode, we look at what happens when a studio makes a sequel without its creator and without its star and its more successful cartoon analog.

In 1968, Mirisch Films decided to make a third Pink Panther without Blake Edwards, Peter Sellers and Henry Mancini. And we got Inspector Clouseau, directod by veteran comedy producer/director Bud Yorkin and starring Alan Arkin, in between making The Russians Are Coming and Catch-22. If every a film was less than the sum of its parts, it’s this film, which just doesn’t work on so many levels. But its an interesting study in what happens when you remove the creators that make something special.

We also take a look at The Inspector, the animated film/tv series that actually preceded the aforementioned film by three years. The second animated spin-off series from the Pink Panther franchise debuted a year after the first Pink Panther cartoon won an Oscar. The Inspector (and his assistant Doux-Doux) are voiced by Pat Harrington Jr and The Commissioner is originally voiced by the recently-departed Larry Storch and later by Paul Frees. There were 34 cartoons eventually made for either the movies or Saturday morning TV, with such great episodes titles as Napoleon Blown Aparte and Toulouse La Trick. Full of traditional cartoon gags like exploding bombs and surrealistic situations, your tolerance for them in 2022 may be determined by your tolerance for comedy French and Spanish accents.

The Plot - Episode 3 - Secret Six / Showcase 43

Introducing the team in Secret Six issue 2. (2) 2022 DC Comics.

We’re back with a new episode of The Plot and it’s back to the spies, this time in comic book form with two topics for discussion

First up is Secret Six, the seven-issue DC Comics from 1968 and 1969. We look at the creation of the book, its fairly obvious inspiration (see Episode 1), the members of the team, their mysterious leader and an issue-by-story description of their missions. We talk about the book’s premature end, the unsolved mystery surrounding Mockingbird and how that was unofficially resolved and how to read it today. (Note: This is about the Silver Age team, not the Gail Simone books of the 2000s.)

And then, it’s Showcase 43, cover dated April 1963, the DC Comics adaptation of Dr. No, the first James Bond movie starring Sean Connery. We look at the comic’s original home, how it got to DC Comics. how were it’s sales since it was published before the movie was released in the US and some of the major and minor changes back to the movie versus the comic. We also touch on, 60 years after being published, it’s quite the rarity in the collector’s world.

Special shout out to comics scribe and font of knowledge Mark Waid for research help. Check out the Irredeemable Kickstarter still going on as this episode debuts. And remember to check out the other podcasts on the When It Was Cool network.

The Plot - Episode One - Mission Impossible 1966

What happens when a safecracker breaks his hands? Willy (Peter Lupus) and Terry (Wally Cox) from the Mission: Impossible pilot episode.

We’re happy to debut a new podcast series in conjuction with the When It Was Cool network with the first episode of The Plot. What’s that, you ask? It’s going to be an examination of the spy/heist genre. It will look at film, television, comics, cartoons and whatever else that can fall under that umbrella.

First up, we go to the very top of the genre for me, the original Mission Impossible TV show, which ran on CBS from 1966 to 1975. Naturally, we start with the Pilot, which starred Steven Hill as Dan Briggs, the team leader, along with regulars Barbara Bain, Greg Morris, Peter Lupus, Martin Landau and guest star Wally Cox. We look at the background on the show and then some brief chat about the episode itself, where the team goes to a Caribbean country to stop a dictator from using newly-acquired nuclear warheads against the United States.

We also look at arguably the most-remembered episode of the show, Season 3’s The Execution. We have Peter Graves in his second year as Jim Phelps, the regular team and guest villains Vincent Gardenia, Val Avery and Lew Askew. The team needs to get the goods on a mobster trying to control food prices and must get a hitman to rat out his boss by making him believe he is days away from being killed in the gas chamber.

This episode was a little shorter than we planned, but didnt want to just add filler. It was the demo episode, so please forgive any hiccups or glitches. We’ll be back soon with another episode.

Thanks to Karl for the invitation. Make sure you sample the other shows on the When It Was Cool Network.

Episode Ninety-Nine - The Night of the Affair Affair

Barbara Feldon and Robert Vaughn from the Man from UNCLE

There were two choices for what to do for episode 99 - hockey or female spies, so we chose the latter. To talk about Agent 99, Mrs. Peel, April Danger and lots others, we’re happy to welcome back to the pod John Champion (@DVDGeeks) from the Mission Log Podcast amongst other shows.

We start, of course, with Agent 99 herself, Barbara Feldon and Get Smart, including the start of the show, her role as straight woman/love interest, the evolution of the show , the 90s Fox sequel/revival and the Numb Bomb movie which noticably did not have Feldon in the cast.

Feldon’s appearonce on the Man from UNCLE led us into discussing The Girl From UNCLE, the one-season spiin-off starring Stefanie Powers. This segues nicely into a chat about the number one female TV spy, Mrs. Peel, played by Diana Rigg on the Avengers. We talk about what made her so special and tallk about some memorable episodes.

Naturally, this brings us to James Bond, where we start with the whole notion of “the Bond Girl,” and how the term has outlived its usefulness in 2021. We discuss our favorite from the movies, whether they were leading ladies or dastardly femme fatales. And that includes some of the lesser-known characters over the years, not just the obvious ones.

(editor’s note: Shamefully, we forgot to discuss Barbara Bain and Mission: Impossible. My apologies)

We end the show with some brief Star Trek talk. Mission Log recently reviews the Deep Space Nine episode “Far Beyond the Stars,” so we discuss how that episode still holds up 30 years later. There’s also some brief chat about season two of Star Trek Picard and the new Roddenberry podcast “Sci Fi 5.:”

As we mentioned on the show, episode 100 is next and hopefully we will be having someone as a very special, after literally years of them asking to do the show. Tune in next time to see if they are here.