'80s All Over

It's hard to believe we're already wrapping up December 1982, especially because it's jam-packed with so many films that it seemed like it took 14487300347 hours to record. Dustin Hoffman in a dress! Meryl Streep out of one! The best Paul Newman performance ever! A Richard Pryor movie that will make you weep! And not one but two Jessica Lange films! There's almost no way to do justice to how dense this month is, so jump in, get busy, and we'll see you back here in a week for our best of episode so we can wrap up the third year of this ten year project.

Drew and Scott come together with a bunch of notes, a head full of memories, and full hearts full of nothing but a whole lotta love for a very important movie to both of them, Terry Gilliam's twisted fairy tale Time Bandits. They get into how the film came together, how innovative its making was, the charms of its myriad stars, and how it still packs a powerful punch all this time later.

As the year starts to wind down, the line-up stays wild and diverse. You want to see the movie that ended the career of Fred Zinneman? It's a Sean Connery film and it's terrrrrrible. How about the movie that ostensibly started the career of James Cameron? It's a sequel and it's also terrrrrrible. We've got lots of awful kids films, including one of Gary Coleman's theatrical features and another rancid Bugs Bunny compilation, and we've got kung-fu comedy and slasher movies and Kristy McNichol and Sting and Cher and Mia Farrow singing.And if that last one didn't scare you... then how about Creepshow? Oh, man... why aren't you already listening?!

Oh my god, are we really almost done with another year's worth of episodes? Are you ready for not ONE but TWO movies by Ted Kotcheff in one month? CAN ANYONE REALLY BE READY FOR TWO TED KOTCHEFF MOVIES IN ONE MONTH? EVER?! It's a definite improvement after the bizarre nightmare of September 1982, but it's still a weird line-up. How weird? Nope. Not going to ruin it. But I will say you get your introduction to Rambo at the end of the month, so you've got that to look forward to. And Burt Young's back. So you know what that means. Dig in.

The good news is there are nine thousand movies that came out this month. The bad news is that most of those nine thousand movies were all over the place in terms of quality. Sure, there's a great Jeremy Irons film you may not already know. Sure, there's a pretty solid teen sex comedy that manages to somehow combine the sleaze of Porky's with the honest of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. And, man, if you're a fan of arch weird comedies that feel like John Waters probably vaguely approves of them, you are in luck. But, man, we are navigating some truly ugly waters this month. I have two words for you: Luciano. Pavarotti. And I have one more word for you. Inchon. Peter O'Toole, it's up to you to save us from September of 1982.

There is no better intro for this episode than the one Scott himself freestyle-sang within the first 30 seconds of the bonus beginning. To quote: "It's Mail Bag! Number Three! And we're here to s-- (breath) uh-- DO SOME LETTERS!" Think of it as a tasty pre-Christmas morsel before 2018 kicks in, full force.

Can you believe Bill Hader agreed to sit (and hit it and quit it) with Drew to talk about all his favorite '80s films? We couldn't either. But he did, and if you thought "I bet Bill Hader likes some pretty weird and obscure '80s flicks," guess what - YOU'RE RIGHT! If you were also thinking "I bet this bonus is full of joyful Bill Hader-y goodness..." RIGHT AGAIN. Get listening already!

After the dizzying high of the summer of 1982, it was perhaps inevitable that we would experience a drop-off, but at least it's an interesting one. After all, we've got Fassbinder remaking the film that put Marlene Dietrich on the map. We've got Charlton Heston both writing and directing a strange riff on a Humphrey Bogart classic. And we've got a really crappy Friday the 13th sequel! But beyond that, we've got one of the strangest Ralph Bakshi films, we've got a terrible Cheech and Chong movie, we've got a Don Coscarelli cable mainstay, and we've got Mazursky riffing on Shakespeare. All of that, plus one of the greatest teen comedies of the decade? Totally awesome!

In this special Patreon Bonus, Drew goes one-on-one with a childhood friend with whom he shared many a formative filmgoing experience... a friend who just so happened to grow up and become the Executive Creative Director for Marvel Games, a guy named Bill Rosemann. You could only imagine the sort of '80s-era movie adventures they had, but that's the whole point of this bonus episode - you don't have to imagine. You can hear them!

In July of '82, things were all over the place, and this is one of our weirdest episodes yet as a result. We've got the creator of Happy Days chasing the success of Airplane!, we've got the start of the big S.E. Hinton landrush with Disney's Tex, and we've got one of the weirdest Chuck Norris films of the era. And that's just to warm up. If you've ever wondered what it would have been like if George Lucas had starred in Smokey and the Bandit, you can finally find out. You want Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton in a big fat musical love story? We've got it. And it's time for Ron Howard's ascent to power to start with a comedy about hookers starring Michael Keaton. You'll learn the weird origins to two of the biggest power anthems of the '80s, and you'll hear Drew cry about one of his favorite movie stars. All that, and we'll throw in Raw Force, the single craziest film we've covered so far, all for the low low price of free. Who loves you? '80s All Over does, baby.

Despite their best attempts to empty the mailbag in the first Mail Call, the bag was not only UN-emptied, it just kept filling up, like Mickey Mouse had put on a cone-shaped hat and goofed around with a book of spells or something. Not only are questions answered, but Scott gets the chance to play God... MOVIE GOD. Which classic gets smited? SOMETHING MUST BE SMITED! Listen and learn!

Has there ever been a month quite like June of 1982? Honestly, when we started talking about this podcast, we knew this would be a big episode, but I don't think we had any idea quite what that meant. I mean, we could just take two movies from this month -- Blade Runner and The Thing -- and that would be more than enough to discuss for an entire episode. But the point of this show has always been that there is so much more to the '80s than the canon that we've all accepted, and this month is the case that proves that. I don't even want to spoil it. Suffice it to say, this is a full two hours, and it could easily have gone two hours more. Seriously. This is bananas. You'll see.

It was a foregone conclusion that '80s All Over would spend some time talking film with Joe Lynch: Not only is he one of Drew's friends, but he's also one of his favorite directors (Wrong Turn 2, Everly, Mayhem) and Mr. Lynch is also a podcaster, co-hosting the must-listen The Movie Crypt with Adam Green. And after launching into a... questionable Scott Weinberg impersonation, Lynch brings to the table a list of '80s movies he truly treasures on a personal level, and helps invent a guest format that will continue into future bonus episodes.

CONAN! WHAT IS BEST IN LIFE? Well, May of 1982 was pretty great. Sure, you had nonsense like the bizarre Sean Connery "satire" called Wrong Is Right, but you also had the amazing John Milius version of Conan The Barbarian, so... We're ramping up now into one of the best summers of the decade, and we've got live performance films like Urgh! A Music War and The Secret Policeman's Other Ball to spotlight what pop culture was like at that time. You've got little-seen gems like The Escape Artist. And, yeah, summer arrived, and that means big movies. You want a great Steve Martin comedy? We've got one. You want a mediocre adaptation of a giant hit musical? Yep. Check. And, oh, sure, we've got one of the best action films ever made. Pull up a razor-edged boomerang and take a seat. This one's all kinds of good.  

Everyone loves a reaction video right? Well, maybe not everyone, but enough people for it to be a viable income stream on YouTube, because that's how we gauge success in the 21st Century. Well, this is kinda like that, except what's happening is that listeners are watching movies that have been covered on the show, and sending in their reactions, and then Drew and Scott react to those reactions! It's all part of the wonderful journey of (re-) discovery the show goes on every month.

Holy shit! Diner! I mean -- sorry, that's obviously not the only thing that came out in April of 1982, but it's one of the films we are delighted to finally be able to discuss. April was a crazy month overall, with terrible comedies making fun of gay people, Chuck Norris fighting a Frankenstein monster, weird mutants in baskets, and three-bladed swords. Also, we have further proof of our ongoing theory that Hollywood failed Richard Pryor completely. We're still just heating up, too, because it's a hell of a year overall. But for now, enjoy this one. And Diner!

Drew and Scott spent a very long time preparing for this episode... and then with less than a few hours before the scheduled record, Drew had to go to the doctor for some sort of radical back-replacement procedure... or something like that. So in the face of such short notice and no real alternative, their producer makes his first and only on-mic appearance, where he and Scott draft their five favorite soundtracks of the decade — an endeavor that is a lot harder than it sounds, considering the '80s is basically when the movie soundtrack became an artform unto itself.

Ahhh... March. As we settle into the third season of the show, 1982 starts to heat up. If the only movie we were discussing this month was the marvelous Blake Edwards comedy Victor/Victoria, that would already be one of the best episodes we've done. If the only movie we were discussing this month was the terrific Sidney Lumet thriller Deathtrap, that would be one of the best episodes. One of the things that makes the show so much fun for us is the insane diversity every episode. Where else are you going to hear about Jill Clayburgh's pill habit, the best terrible Jaws ripoff of all time, and Richard Pryor at his most incendiary, pun fully intended? We've got documentaries, an amazing movie about Nazi Germany, and, yes... we've got Porky's. Let's light this candle!

Cavemen, Charles Bronson, and the motherlovin' Swamp Thing! We are off and running with the second month of our third season of the program, and now we're really cooking. Look at how diverse this month's titles are: We've got a great little-seen Western starring Gary Busey and Willie Nelson. We've got a passion project (and you know what that means) from the Oscar-winning writer of The Sting. We've got the passion project to end all passion projects (and you definitely know what that means) from the Oscar-winning director of The Godfather. And you want a submarine movie? OF COURSE YOU DO. AND YOU WILL LOVE IT. Roger Daltrey. Hot air balloons. And Pia freakin' Zadora. Stop reading. Start listening. It's February 1982.

Listeners already know about the first two test episodes of '80s All Over, set in the last year of the '70s, but while you might think those two episodes are where the show began, that's not really the truth. This episode, recorded in 2010, inside a Toronto hotel room, after the premiere of John Carpenter's The Ward, is essentially this show's secret origin. Drew hit record on a career-spanning conversation he and Scott were going to have anyway, and the late night experiment not only succeeded, but it eventually led to the creation of their own show.