A Geek History of Time - Episode 182 - V the Leftist Allegory Turned Fascist Dogwhistle Part IV

Episode Date: October 29, 2022

Like they they advertise one match when crashing a car into one of the wrestlers. Not a total victory of Russia, which now we're seeing. He goes on. He's got a gigantic bag of flaccid dicks. Sorry, contident. Which when you open them up, you find out that they're all cockroaches and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if anybody else is ever going to laugh this hard at anything we say.

Probably. We can actually both look out my window right now and see some very pretty yellow flowers that I'm going to be eradicating. Nu-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti- This is an 8 sixth grade, where we start talking about early humanity and specifically the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods and agricultural revolution. And what I've done last year and now this year for that unit is one of the first things I do is I show my students a video about Utsi, the ice man, because I mean it's fucking fascinating.

Like, yeah, if you're any kind of an archaeology nerd, you already know what I'm talking about. But the short version of it is that in 1991, a group of hikers really, but really high altitude hikers, because they're close to 11,000 feet. So like in that weird zone that's not quite mountain climbing and not quite hiking, they found a body in the Utsal mountains, which is part of the Alps, in Italy, but close to the border with Switzerland. And the authorities showed up and started digging this body out. And first they thought it was just going to be a hiker. And then they figured out, no, this is not just a hiker. And and lo and behold, it was the body of a stone age traveler, which, which then got even more complicated 10 years later when they figured out no, he didn't die in a storm. He, he was shot in the back with an arrow. And so there,

was shot in the back with an arrow. And so there's so many layers to the story that can be things that I can pull on, to get the kids interested and engaged and the kids eat it up because it's amazing. And so today, or tonight this evening, talking with my wife and my son about how our days went, I mentioned that today you know, today was the day I got to show the video about Utsi D. Iceman. And my son is now old enough that like he knows

who Spider-Man is his favorite superhero. And everything, like anytime we play any kind of game, everybody has superhero powers. And I've got ice powers and fire powers and water powers. And I've got, I've got ice powers and fire powers and water powers and, you know, and so I mentioned Ootsie the ice band and he says, well, who, who, who was this? And I explained to him who he was. And, you know, why it's a big deal and it's really cool and everything. And I try to leave out the parts about him being shot in the bag with an air on and like us trying to still figure out this earliest homicide case in literally human history as far as we know. And then my wife and I move on to another object of another topic of conversation. And my son pipes up. Well, where did he get his powers?

Blink, blink. What? What? What do you mean? Well, he said he's, would see iceman. Okay, no, that's, sorry, kiddo, that's, that's not where he got the name from. He got the name because they found him in the ice. Oh, okay. I wish there really wasn't super heroic ice. Yeah, I do too, you know. Oh, I'm just, there was this moment of profound disappointment from, and yeah, that's what I've got going on.

Uh, in my life right now is trying to bridge that gap between explaining to him, but that's not really how the real world works. And it would be really cool, maybe sort of sometimes if that was the way it did. So how about you? Who are you and what have you got going on? Well, I'm Damien Harmony. I'm a Latin and US history teacher at the high school level up here in Northern California. And I, in addition to the show that I always plug at the end of this show, the live pun show, capital punishment, in addition to that, I also take place in a number of other

pun shows internationally online. Recently, I was on one. You could probably find it. It's a UK... It's not the UK pun off, although it's tertiary to that, or it's related to that. It's called UK Out Punch, and it's hosted by Ian McDonnell, a friend of mine from Scotland. So that show is very similar to the format of my show. So you know, quick rapid fire, you're, you're duly. And it's basically winter stays kind of gauntlet matches. So let's say that you and I are on and the topic is, I don't know, rivers. And we go back and forth, back and forth until one of us takes too long and the host boots you.

rivers and we go back and forth, back and forth until one of us takes too long and the host boots you. And then the next person comes on. And so I'm staying and we go back and forth, back and forth until one of us, you know, bombs out and then and then the next person. Right. So it's a four or five person show. And I set the record the first two times that I was on it and then another person set a record. And the way I did it was I never left. People just came up and lost. It came up and lost. It came up and lost. Because of course you didn't leave. Right. So I went coast to coast, but you know, so you and I are A and B, but in the next round B and C will start. And so I have to wait my turn to get on there.

So other people might go coast to coast, you know. Yeah. And then the next round, it's C and D will start. And then the next round, D and A will start. And I'll be back, you know. Yeah. So there are ways to qualify it. So I set the record and then I set the record again.

And then I was told that somebody that I used to have on my digital show set the record. And I was super happy for her. And I thought it was awesome. And I couldn't wait till I get a chance to go against her. And she's a wonderful woman. I'd love her out there, Susan, if you're listening. Thank you, first of all, and hope the pregnancy is going well. But she, she and I were A and B. And I think I think she got booted and I stayed. And so I went coast to coast one round. And then

the next round I bounced out immediately because the host, and this happens every single show. The host didn't understand my pun. And so now too smart for the room. Yeah, and it's a two minutes for the room. Yeah, no smart. Yeah, at least for the judges. But, uh, but so here's the thing, I don't, I detest arguing on a show. It's a competition, yes, but it's a goddamn pun to competition, take your lump, move on. Yeah. Now, I will tell you that if I get booted

and then it's proven that later that that was a pun, they give me the point. But what happens is I've lost the opportunity to go coast to coast and just gather all the points. Yeah. So I lose out on a lot, right? Yeah. But again, nobody tunes into a pun tournament or a pun competition to discuss legalism. So I Nobody. No, I don't. I hope not. Jesus. Okay. Yeah., I hope not so I throw it into the group chat that cannot be seen on the screen I said, yo this this was a pun and here's what it was. I got the point Next round

I do it again And it's another one he doesn't get so no problem I just shoot him. It's your lump, shoot a bass. So then the next round, I get real like, like, you know, then they bring us all back out. And I'm like, you know, they're like, oh, and Damien had this one because it was upon

and, you know, the host Ian, he's like, oh, I didn't understand that bubble. I'm like, yeah, and it's nice that I can teach you things. So I'm a little passive aggressive, but in a funny way. Yeah. And so then, so then I'm back up. And I made a pun about a breed of cat called the Scottish fold. Yeah.

And, but I said, you know, it's interesting to see the map of who's from where there's somebody from, uh, from London on the show, but also there's two of you above the Scottish fold of the map um, and then I immediately went into my microphone and said that's a breed of cat Ian and so because you couldn't not right because you couldn't just be like being legalistic I'm not arguing No, no, no, no, but you're making a dig. Yes. And I think that it's funny.

Well, it was. But so I do it again for the next three puns. And then suddenly I get booted suddenly. And you proved me to so then, but then yeah, go ahead. You didn't deserve it, but you had it coming. No, I deserved it. So, okay, had it coming. No, I deserved it. So, so that's nice.

That yeah, oh, I was, I was jabbing him. So then it comes back around to me being on and I show up on screen and then he immediately boots me. He does this for the next two rounds. Wow. End of the game. I'm still winning. And I've got, okay, so the record is 69. Nice. Thank you. And I have 64. And now we're in the final round. There's no God damn way in the world

that I'm not going to shatter this record. But he changes the rules on the fly just to fuck with me. Cause he doesn't like Star Wars or Star Trek. So he said, we're gonna do Star Wars and Star Trek. And for every pun I don't get, I take away a point. And I said, there's no way to get more points. He's like, nope, God, fucking damn. So I had to do the most basic-ass puns. It's moved.

Oh, it's so hilarious. It was so good. It was so good. It was so good. And like afterward, you know, you know, everyone's like, you called that, you know, and that happened. I'm like, I thought that was brilliant. That was fantastic.

Even if I lost, it would have been because he contrived my loss. Like, it was, oh God, it was so fun. It was so gratifying. So that's a wonderfully British kind of petty. Yeah, yeah. And he's a Scott. So it was, oh God, it was so fun. It was so gratifying. So that's a wonderfully British kind of petty. Yeah, yeah. And he's a Scott. So it's,

Yeah, well, yeah, yeah, it was still British Isles. Like, yeah, no, that works. So, oh God, it was a fun thing. So you can find that on YouTube actually. That show. Yeah, it was, it was the September version of the UK outpunched. Okay. Cool. So go check UK outpunched.

Okay. Cool. Cool. So go check it out. Cool. Yeah. So that's what I got going on. All right. In the meantime, last time we spoke of the Sandinistas

and a mini series that was a money grab that could have been something that wasn't, but... Yeah. You still had enough of the culture that it kind of fed into some stuff. Well, if you were fed into or fed off of, fed off of, I think, probably were better. Yeah. But if you recall, the Warner Brothers studios wanted a series. And so they said, yeah, go ahead and do the mini series so that it's a pilot for the series. Yeah.

So, and that's what happened, right? Yeah. So now let's turn our attention to the two series. We'll probably only cover the one series in this episode and the next episode. And possibly the one after that because there's a lot of shit that goes into that final series. Yeah. I just find it fascinating that goes into that final series. Yeah.

I just find it fascinating that we haven't let it go. We tried this show four times. Four times. And each time it taught us something different about ourselves. Each time it shows us a different fun house mirror. Well, okay, here's the thing. Mm. Kind of kind of my-emptive hot take.

I don't know if it could really be considered re-emptive, because we've already talked about the first too many series. But whenever you wind up talking about authoritarianism, authoritarianism is the y-axis on the chart. Mm-hmm. And anytime you start talking about the high end of the y-axis on the chart, people on both sides of the x-axis are gonna point fingers at the other side. Mm-hmm.

And so it's really easy if you're talking about any form of are going to point fingers at the other side. And so it's really easy, if you're talking about any form of authoritarianism, it is really easy for somebody to get behind the funhouse mirror to use your metaphor. And and bend it in a new way to paint the other side as the people doing the distortion. Maybe, but what I've noticed with this series, yeah, nobody's that clever. Johnson was the first time and then Tartikov was like, yeah, but make it spacey. And, and then he did lizard people. Yeah. And then after that, it's just been like, lizard people, lizard people, lizard people.

And each time it's roughly the same plot, and each time it shows us something different, incidentally about ourselves. And I think it's because you don't have a singular writer who is guiding the vision. You have it by committee each time after the first time. That makes sense. Yeah, and I think that's really the thing. You've got a high-mind and a high-mind will pull from the environment more. And yeah, well, and there's also the issue of that high-mind dealing with a shifting over to the window.

Exactly. Over time. Yeah, although the first three occurred within two years of each other. Well, yes. So this is true. But I'm thinking, I'm thinking mostly of the shift between the third one and the last one. Oh, well, we got to get this.

With Marina Bacarion, but we got to get there first. So here we go. So the first, uh, the first of the two series, the first series, not the many series, but the first series is called V the series. It's clever title. Um, oh, yeah. Originally, it premiered on October 26, 1983 and it ran until March 22, 1984. It was exactly one season minus one because it was that final episode was canceled before production began. Wow. It did that well. Yeah. And it certainly wasn't planned as only one season because they fast-tracked kind of the plot a bit for the penultimate, then the ultimate episode.

And it ended on a cliffhanger. It was just a super weak cliffhanger. That said, they had to know by the end that it was pretty likely not to get picked up again, though, because shit was getting terrible at the end. It just unraveled. So at the outset, Vee the series was faced with contradictory set of conditions. The budget was slashed hard by Warner Brothers, and the cast was rather large.

The settings were on location quite often, and the special effects and makeup were extensive. And notice I didn't even get to the writing yet. That's because the writing wasn't Johnson's at all, save for a couple of excerpts that actually ended up just getting reused. Like they literally just took footage and reused it. The writers were many and mostly who were they were folks who had made a living writing episodes for other shows throughout the 1960s and 1970s and into the 80s and 90s. The best that I can describe it is that view of the series wanted to be it can't happen here, fascism under Reagan, but it turned into soap opera science fiction right quick. I'm going to argue that it didn't turn into it. It was that out the gate. My memory of the, this week, right in Iter,

whenever it was, it was on, and the kind of TV trailers they'd show of clips from it, was like, no, no, this is totally Falcon Crest with lizards. I'm gonna disagree. Well, first couple episodes. Like out the gate, it was trying to do what can't happen here. Okay. And then, yeah, it went quick.

It went quick. Okay. I mean, admittedly, I was like nine. Ah. Gotcha. Maybe ten. But yeah. So the thing that this particular series had going for it, though, is that the theme of

collaborators in an occupied territory was the hot thing. And frankly, this was the most fascinating approach that the series took, and ultimately, I think, it made it intellectually more worthy of note than the final battle-many series, which was largely spy versus spy. The basic beginning plot is an overarching plot to some extent for the series is this. Liberation Day is now an international holiday, celebrating the defeat and kicking out of the visitors as we saw in view the final battle. Diana has been

captured and is going to be put on trial for her crimes or her atrocities. Very Nuremberggy feel to the whole thing, actually, and the rest of the resistance has all but fizzled away going their separate ways again, and the same thing with the Fifth Columnist. However, the leader of the company that mass-produced the Red Dust decides that Diana should be captured and root to the trial and secreted away to a cabin in the woods above LA. His name is Nathan Bates, and he's played by Lane Smith, whom you might recognize as the Mayor route to the trial and secreted away to a cabin in the woods above LA. His name is Nathan Bates and he's played by Lane Smith, whom you might recognize as the mayor who collaborates in Red Dawn.

Okay. Yeah. Talk about typecasting, I guess. Yeah, no kidding. All right. He plays the CEO of Science Frontiers. And what I find interesting here is that the scientists were the ones who were the first to be disfranchised in the original miniseries, right?

And while they were helpful to the cause when it was occupied, now that it's over, a big-ass company of capitalist science is now heubristic and nefarious and willing to work with the villains toward mutual gain, as I'll explain in just a second. But also, they're the same company that now produces the antidote to the Red Dust for visitors who are still on the planet, which by the way is a single pill every 12 hours. The press also used to be sharply divided, either heroes like Donovan or Quizzlings like Christine, and now in the series, they are all predatory and aggressive stalking Elizabeth in the first episode. Donovan is no longer a reporter

in any way. Diana gets shot and wrote to her trial in a very Reagan getting shot kind of way. She's whisked away on a stretcher. And Donovan and the fifth columnist Martin both go looking for the ambulance. They steal a helicopter to do this because you can do that. And it turns out that Bates orchestrated the whole thing with the help of a very well paid ham Tyler in order to offer Diana a deal. His plan is to offer Diana better accommodations and not a trial in exchange for her expertise and help so she can give him alien technology. He's promised Ham Tyler, a shit ton of money, and that when he does kill Diana, Ham Tyler can be the one that kills him.

All right. So the, the Diana half of that equation is very operation paperclip. Yes, it's like corporate operation paperclip. Yes. We want to, we want to get what's in your head. Yep. And so we're willing to give you a free pass on all of the terrible shit you did. House arrest, but you don't get put on trial.

Yeah. Absolutely. All right. horrible shit you did. House arrest, but you don't get put on trial. Yeah. Absolutely. All right. Now, Donovan and Martin try to track her down in a helicopter that is stole, like I said. Martin absolutely wants to kill her because he knows that she'll signal the fleet as the fleet hasn't left.

Donovan wants to have proof that she's alive and then to get that to the police. Martin knocks him the fuck out. And when Donovan wants to have proof that she's alive and then to get that to the police. Martin knocks him the fuck out. And when Donovan comes to, the cabin is burning and Diana has taken Martin's last pill. Martin crawls to Donovan to die in his arms. Eventually Diana gets to a tracking station where she sets up a homing signal. Tyler and Donovan are again working together for slightly different aims, but they fail

to recapture her and she escapes starting everything off. It turns out the visitors were just hiding behind our moon. Oh, also Elizabeth ends up growing up into an adult by the next episode. Well, okay. So I know that that's a trope. I don't know what the trope is. Well, okay, so I know that that's a trope. I don't know what the trope is. But you go from toddler to fucking adult. Well, obviously getting around labor laws. Well, one hiring and a one right off the bat. Yeah, two, it had already been established

that a growth rate was mutant like and not natural. Yes. So it's not. It's not outside the realm of possibility. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a justified broke. Yes. To use, again, TV Trips language, you know, because on, on soap operas, it's like, well, okay, no, we need to introduce new characters and the kids of the old characters are the

best ones to do that with. So we're just going to like randomly every couple of years age the teenagers up into you know 20 some things right you know and and that's just how soap operas have worked since time immemorial. Yeah. Here there's at least the the McGuffin of well you know she's half alien and we don't know right right you don't know right yeah you So, you know, I'll give them, I'll give them that. And, and then I will take it away by saying that right there is a very early sign, like an instantaneous one of, oh, I know where this plot is going. Yep.

Like, John Ruaiz, where, oh. We're totally, totally getting away from political discourse into suds. This is this is going to be, you know, Calgon, take me away time. Oh, there's going to be a love triangle because now she is physically the same age as her mom. Oh, no. Oh, yes. Oh, John Ringo. No. So in the first episode, we've set things up nicely with a few more cool things meant to come. First, there's going to be the Freedom News Network, which I love. This is the thing that I loved about each episode. And at the beginning of each episode, after a few episodes, you see the Freedom News Network. It's really cool. Secondly, we now know that we're seeing businessmen working specifically against the law to advance their own needs and find some way to collaborate

with our former enemies in 1984. In the second episode, Diana meets Lydia, the blonde version of herself, who is the, who was Janine in Spital Tap, which I never got over. And their hair, oh, their hair. Well, it was 80 85 84 so 84. Yeah, and Aquinette was a thing was a Titan of hair fashion at this point. Now Elizabeth is a full grown woman and she's getting around the past, you know, and this this again this does get around production laws. Absolutely like cast a woman instead of a child. The police actively start shooting almost immediately at Donovan, giving him a reason to lie with him. Tyler again. And the visitors try to kidnap Elizabeth, but the Red Dust is still a problem until Diana

figures out a pattern. Environment matters and that the Red Dust needs a dormant season to keep itself active. I don't get it, but okay. This means that she has to reinvade LA in order to keep more red dust from being put into the atmosphere because that's where it's being produced. Okay, McGuffin. Cool. So, yeah.

So they blow the shit out of LA from their mothership and the invasion begins anew. Okay. Yeah. However, because of Nathan's control of science frontiers, Diana needs him because he produces the antidotes. And L.A. becomes a kind of a free city. And, uh, this is named Nathan. Yeah. No.

I always, okay. So his name, the, the actor's name is, um, oh, God, I said it just a second ago, too. It's killing me. Um, oh, his, the actor's name is Lane Smith and his character's name is Nathan Bates. And I want to say Nathan Lane, the whole goddamn time, which would absolutely change the tone and the tenor of the show. Oh, the better. Oh, the better. Oh yes. Oh yes. Okay.

Nathan Bates. So she needs him because he's still making the thing, right? And so LA becomes a free city because Bates essentially says that if he's got this like wrist pulse reader and if it's destroyed or removed from his rest or it detects that he doesn't have a pulse, red dust gets released everywhere into the atmosphere. And therefore no armed visitors are allowed in LA and he'll give her back her mother ship in exchange. Wow, that's a magnificent bastard move right there. It is. So he's created a free city. He is trying to benefit from her.

And ultimately he's keeping people protected by protecting his own self. Now, when Diana leaves, Julie calls out Nathan for selling out who then admits to her, he says, this is a bluff. Red dust has actually been proven to be harmful to humans and he's just as worried about that as anything else. So he sets up LA as an open city with himself and science frontiers as the most powerful player in said city.

Of course, the resistance gets started again. They steal the mothership in advance of the visitors getting it. And Robyn's dad, Robert, rams it into the, he rams the super special triax laser that would have destroyed LA. Okay. So, stalemate again, and now the visitors are checking people's cars outside of LA's city limits. Okay. By the third episode, there's a concentration camp or a forced labor camp,

and it's clear that this is not the only one. And the collaborationist government is struggling to keep the precarious balance between the resistance and the occupiers. And that's science frontiers. That's Nathan Lane. Or Nathan. It's Nathan Bates. Nathan Bates. I wish I keep a ding-tile tally. You have a hotel bell over there. That's one. Yeah.

I'm knowing that. So he's trying to keep this balance and with him and power, right? By the fifth episode, the visitors are running a youth corps that uses collaborators to then train children to fight on behalf of the visitors are running a youth core that uses collaborators to then train children to fight on behalf of the visitors. Bates institutes a curfew to curb resistance activity, and we trudge on seeing Kyle who hates his daddy. Bates, so Kyle's is Nathan Bates's son. Son. Okay. So his middle name is who hates his daddy.

But he's working with Ham and Donovan and Julie by this point. And he's a heartthrob. And Julie is working because he has to be. Yeah. And Julie's working for Bates, but spying on Bates and Bates is trying to keep the piece but clearly keens toward the visitors because they have power and he has to kind of, you know, be in bed with them. And at this point, it's still not that vampy, it's not that so proper, E because it is still kind of thriller. Okay. It is kind of interesting. You have this open city where a resistance movement is illegal, but at the same time, they

do want to do like resistance shit. And the visitors want to do shoot people shit and eat people shit, but they can't with an LA, but outside of LA and Bates is like, I can't take care of outside of LA. I can take care of LA. And his own son is now a part of the resistance movement. Very Casablanca. Ding. Like exactly what I thought. Yeah. Um, also Lisbon. That too. Yeah. Yeah. So after about the seventh or eighth episode, the plot does start to swing around into a lot more ridiculous polls.

And it makes sense because to make this series, they had half the money per episode as the mini series did. And they had half the time to produce those episodes as the mini series did. And the mini series only had three episodes. So you're doing half the budget and half the production time, and you're supposed to do 24 episodes. So it became as the

St. Louis Postus batch called it, quote, a silly loathsome mess. It must surely rank as one of the worst TV sci-fi experiments ever. What was once a pretty decent science fiction saga with good drama, humor, and suspense ends up becoming dynasty with lizard makeup and laser guns. Okay, that's very concise. Yeah. There's not a whole lot more

critically speaking to be said there right I I will so so I remember two things vividly about the V TV series I remember the Crummy like even by the by the standards of the 80s. Sure. Bad special effects of the shuttle craft flying. Almost all, I'm going to call it stock footage, but those were almost all footage from the mini series. Just be focused. Yeah, okay. And be cut. And be cut and badly so.

So there you go. Yeah. One, I remember that really clearly. And just the the craft design. I remember. It was it was intensely 80 it. It resaged the design of the Ford probe like it was it was all all these rounded semi-organic kind of curves and yep like yeah I remember that

vividly and then I remember one of the because I never watched any of the episodes of the actual show, because it was after my bedtime, if I remember right, and the mini series, just a couple of moments of the mini series I'd caught had had fucked me up enough. There was no way I was going to get anywhere near the show. But I remember seeing, there was some episode of the TV series where there was some like super lizard. I remember the actor, there was a clip of an actor in lizard face makeup, like taking off a robe. And it was this big muscular dude.

And I just, I remember, I remember that clip. I mean, there were, there are a couple weddings. There were a couple trials. Okay. Again, it gets really bad. Okay. And there, what, what I, what I, what I remember from the clip was it was like there was some resort or some secret, like hideaway. And, and I remember women in swimsuits and this one Alien taking off a robe. Oh That might have been in the the one where they they ran into the fat chef in a white outfit trope Okay, yeah

Anyway, yeah, I just stick with me on Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, I just that's that's that's that's that's the one the way because I remember I remember as a 10 year old nine year old. Mm hmm. What is that going? Wow, that's bad. Like, like even even of that age just like that is not where this show started. You know. No. So yeah, those are my two endearing memories of anything having to do with the VTV series. And from what you're describing about the first couple of episodes, it actually sounds like there was some meat on that bone at the beginning. Well, there's so much good stuff. It really was. Don't get me wrong.

It was still really high stuff. It really was. Don't get me wrong. It was still really high melodrama pretty early on. Like Elizabeth develops telekinetic powers almost immediately and it gets weird. But well, okay. I mean, she'd already used 1980s energy powers to diffuse a thermonuclear weapon. So it's again, I'm going to justify that like, oh, yeah, you don't know. So it's again, I'm going to justify that like, oh, yeah, you don't know. Right, right. You know, you have half human half alien baby. You can do anything with that. That's true.

That's true. Especially if soap opera logic applies, you can literally do anything. Yep. At that point. And I think even with all of the meaningful good stuff that was going on in the writing of the first couple of episodes, there was still deep down the lurking potential for soap opera. Yeah, because of all the circumstances, probably because of the prior experience of the writers. So, somewhat. Yeah, a lot of them had been previous sci-fi writers.

Okay. So, you know, it's not like $6 million man was immune from a immune to, you know, melodrama. So, true. And I'll not like $6 million man was immune to, you know, melodrama. So, true. And I'll get into the ridiculous of this, religious, ridiculousness of the second half of the series in a few minutes. But first, I want to pay off the opening news reports, the Freedom News Network broadcast that I loved. At first, we see it on a TV in the background.

You know, it's the TV with them TV with people watching it, right? But after that first time, it shows up up it actually shifts to being the beginning part of the episode. It's not a cold open. It's the thing after the credits though. Okay, and each time it's with Howard K Smith as the anchor. Okay. Now in the third episode, he mentions that Israelis and Arabs combined forces, but returned back by a counterattack. They also straight up compared LA to Lisbon in World War II, which the resistance denounces. And then it finishes with a story of a high school senior in Ohio who led a successful attack in Bears Point, Kentucky.

Now there's an interesting moment in the third episode that I found rather jarring too. The visitors who were actually eating us didn't fire on unarmed kids at all who ran away from them. Perhaps having visitors would actually be better a thing for us now it is. Anyway, in the fifth, so the people who are eating humans treated people better

while armed around them. Now, the fifth episode sees the Freedom News Network broadcasts kind of settle in. It's used to establish where the visitors are succeeding and failing and that there's a large narrative, a larger narrative that we're seeing play out in LA. Quote, the Freedom Network Medal of Valor is awarded this week to Anna Horowitz, who led a contingent of gray panthers on a raid on a visitor armory where they destroyed the control panels of 16 visitor sky fighters with baseball bats

before escaping unharmed. Nice. Yeah, so it's stuff like that. And it's just really cool like sets the table for us. There's also like I said, a blooming romance triangle between Kyle and Elizabeth, who's really only just two years old, but they claim that she's eight, even though she's actually a full adult now. And her mom Robin, who has all the bad judgment when it comes to men always remember she was seduced by Brian and she was a 16 year old So she's a teen mom. Yeah seduced by Brian This time she ends up getting seduced by another visitor before leaving the show halfway through and moving up

Now back to the the freedom News Network quote, the Freedom Network Medal of Aller is awarded this week posthumously to Miguel Ramirez, a migrant worker who with his fellow workers barricaded themselves in the Alamo and held out against fierce visitor fighting for two weeks. Miguel elected to blow up the Alamo rather than let it fall into visitor hands. Which there's some there's some remarkable 80s-level dissonance going on there. Yeah, yeah, or not. I mean, dissonance might not be the right word.

Remarkable 80s level. Right. Cultural blindness. Well, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, or is this kind of a subversion? I mean, this time, they're not letting the visitors take over the fucking Alamo. All right, fair. You know, could be interpreted a couple of ways like, yeah, that could be really subversive like, yeah, or it could be you, you did not actually pay close attention to who was fighting at the Alamo. Right. Let it see.

And and and and and right now, living in the decade, we're living in, my knee, jerk reaction is the ladder. Yeah. Really? So, home bread, like, yeah, okay. In that same episode, Bates made the possession of firearms in LA, a capital offense, which is just wild to me, given that it started with a very pro Texas Freedom Network report and mentioning successful fights in Texas but also concentration camps there also baits is a self-appointed

CEO of a business that created the very thing that could kill everyone and he's like hey no guns or will kill you also in this episode and this might have been been the episode that you're remembering, rich humans are intermixing with the visitors at a luxury party in the LA Hills. And some people are actively being chased and brutalized, literally within view of them, and they do nothing about it. The visitors have come up with a new way to process the meat of humans, complete with a fat chef and a white visitor outfit. And also by this point, firing an uzi from the crotch is all the rage.

It's like uzi's and ninjas and that's the 80s. Like there were no ninjas in this TV series, but that's the only thing that was missing. It was uzi's and ninjas growing up. Yeah. Yeah. And we get the thesis statement from Nathan Bates. It's his ego driving it Here's a series of quotes from him and his fixer fixer Mr. Chang Whom he has torture his own son Kyle later Quote I intend to keep the peace in the city no matter the cost Mr. Chang and the cheapest ways to wipe out the resistance Nathan Bates, it's the only way.

I would just point out that neutrality always favors the oppressors. Now, the news broadcasts are pretty regular occurrence. Bangkok fell, but the rest of Southeast Asia keeps on fighting, which is interesting because I figured they'd say that Vietnam fell, but it kind of showed how serious, just to show how serious it was, you know, Birmingham bought the visitors and set them all on fire, which, and then Philip K. Dick says, Philip K. Smith says, it is said that you can hear the rebel yell in the streets of Dixie tonight. So close.

So close. Here's another one to Freedom Network Medal of Valor awarded this week to Dr. Harvey Walkman of, yeah, it was Walkman of Kansas City, Missouri. Dr. Walkman freed 12 boys from a visitor youth camp, youth core camp and reunited them with their families in Chicago. And it was around this episode,

which is about episode eight of the series, that the trend to soap opera was 100% inescapable. By this point, Diana has a lizard Latin lover that she kills by the end of the episode. Elizabeth uses her telekinetic powers, which is, I still say weird, to keep Kyle from getting shot by opening a car door into the shooter because love. And the only two black characters in the episode Elias is a series regular and Glena, who is a resistance leader from a different cell, well, they fall for each other immediately because she is a black woman working with the resistance.

Then she then betrays them for herself gain to take over a cobalt mind that the visitors need for themselves. And she takes it over to charge a higher price to the visitors. She calls it liars fool in that 1980s kind of way. In the next episode, the blending of technology and religious searness overlaps quite a bit. There's some sort of four-digit code that that allows Nathan Bates free entry and exit from LA, but the rest of the population of this free city faces disintegration if they try to leave due to a force field.

A force field that has a four digit code to get through. And it's four digit on our keyboard code that the visitors came up with. The code, the code of course is Kyle, which is sweet. Also, to start off the whole episode, there was this report on how the visitors took over Athens. And resistance in quote citizen towns continues to grow. Here's some more freedom news network stuff. Quote the freedom network medal of allers awarded this week to Janet Weinberg, a Daytona beach

computer programmer who let arrayed on a visitor detention camp freeing over 200 American prisoners. Pretty cool. The freedom network medal of allers awarded to Maryland, George of Bologna, Mississippi, who rammed and sank a visitor patrol boat with her husband's boat. That was for the Christmas episode. The Freedom Network also celebrated Philippine resistance, lamented the failures of Brazilian resistance and celebrated resistance outside of Taoist New Mexico. In this episode, the visitors are regular visitors to Elias. He has a front club, so he went back and started his own business and it becomes the front for the resistance. And it turns out it was an LA speak easy back in the day. So there's an underground to it.

It's, you know, good rank, I would say, actually, it's cool. And it's called Club Creole, which cool. It's absolutely safe house for resistance underground. So under the ground, you've got the resistance again Above them. You've got all the visitors coming to that specific club and They bully Willie into not playing a song on the piano because they don't like his version of deck the halls because remember his thing is to get words wrong. The visitors start singing their national anthem. I think I couldn't quite figure that part out, but it seems like that. And at that point, Julie starts singing America the beautiful. And even during the singing, Donovan is moved. He's moved in such a way. Here's the thing.

Mark Singer playing Michael Donovan. Moves around as though every single thing is a dramatic action. So, you know, I hear the cat scratching at the door. What was that? I need to zip my fly. Oh, here I go. Like I pull my shoulder nine, nine on the scenery. Yeah, just just huge, huge,

manful bites. He's moved to move that way during America, the beautiful. Like it is, I mean, literally, it like, you know how the Reiker maneuver is kind of a funny maneuver, right? Yeah, puts his leg over there. This guy like finds ways to double jump out of a bed of a truck. Like, or grabs the trunk of a tree and swings around just a little bit extra. Like so extra. And I mean, and the riker maneuver in in Jonathan Frick's defense, the riker maneuver for that because the poor sunbitch couldn't sit properly in chair. Yeah. So, but yeah, but he moves his head and body like it's a goddamn action sequence even even during America the beautiful Yeah, one of the only constants of this series is his torsion based movement for everything and that his shirt ends up

His torsion based that's good. I like that And the funny thing is I can I can picture literally his body language throughout the entire mini series. And I'm like, yep, you're completely not wrong. Yeah. And it's really pronounced in the series. And also his, you know, his shirt ends up on button to his zyfoid process. Like, it's... Well, you know, because in the 80s, he was hot. That was, you know, his body tap was the thing. Yeah. So for the Christmas episode, they end up blowing up Club Creole,

which means that the resistance has to go on the run after that. Also, Elizabeth has a clone that Diana creates, who then goes feral and attacks people in the park. Ham gets really mad about orphans and some of his backstory comes out and then he ends up dressed up like Santa Claus at the end. Okay. That was their Christmas episode. So back to the Freedom Network Medal. The Freedom Network Medal of Valor is awarded to Dixie Riley, a high school science teacher, who used his home computer to hack into the visitor security system and use the information that he learned to prevent a sneak attack on Memphis, Tennessee. Additionally, there's a resistance in Italy

along the Appian way, some specifically Midwestern success, Ron Bishop Commandos and Grand Canyon. And I couldn't figure out if Ron Bishop was either a reference to the motorcycle Daredevil or a British archer. Because both kind of bits. I'm gonna bet. Yeah, but I'm gonna bet based on 80s in the US.

I'm going to say motorcycle there devil. Yeah. Yeah. The freedom network, the freedom network metal of valor is awarded this week to Benny Schalini, an insurance salesman from Atlanta, Georgia who derailed the train carrying 600 human prisoners to a visitor labor camp. Half of the prisoners were able to escape, which is kind of bleak, but a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Also, yeah. So, it occurs to me, one of the, one of the narrative issues with this particular device

is when you go naming Mr. Scalini as the guy who derailed that train that makes it a lot harder for him to stay anonymous and derailed more train. This is very true. Like, I mean, I understand narratively why you got to do that. On the other hand, think a little bit about how exactly the format of this works. It is a morale booster and at the same time, I sure hope he has some pseudonyms. I really, yeah, like all of them. Yeah. Yeah. Also, Cordova is the last free city in Spain, complete with savage street battles and Spain for the Spanish and deaths of visitors in graffiti. Also, Bates has placed L.A. and

Marshall Law and he's outlawed the resistance and that makes the news. And that means he's going to die soon because he's taking sides. And sure enough, there's a subplot about discrediting and subdividing the resistance, complete with the brutal resistance crew that carries out assassination attempts on Nathan Bates at a prisoner exchange to close the episode. But don't worry because there's a computer generated avatar of him still pretending to rule the city by video screen. And it's really being run by Mr. Chang, his fixer and the visitors. And in that episode Elias gets disintegrated.

He dies and we're starting to see the cast is getting shrunk. You're getting rid of Nathan Bates. You're getting rid of Elias after the Christmas episode. Then the Freedom Network Medal of Valor is awarded this week to Franky Weatherwax, a mechanic from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Frankie single-handedly stopped a visitor attack on a junior high school by taking over a laser cannon and turning it on the visitors. Also there's a Hawaiian resistance and an English resistance, of course, called the Robinhood

Brigade. And at this point I started to notice that all the visitors vehicles were white. They were white jeeps, white fans, white limousines. They all kept driving white things. Just kind of, would you think that's a budgetary thing? Yeah, it's a budgetary thing and it's a quick signal that like, you know, it's kind of like when you see six black SUVs driving very close to each other on the road. Oh, those are bad guys. So this was just that.

Also, good marketing in case you do want to make toys. So the next one is the Freedom Network Medal of Valor is awarded this week to Stuart Kaminsky, who ran an underground railroad between Atlanta and Philadelphia. Stuart was able to save over 300 people from the visitor work camps in Georgia. And then after that, there's no more Freedom News network. So what I want to talk about is why it's pretty cool that Howard K. Smith lent his talents to the show. Do you, does the name at least ring a bell for you? Do you, does the name at least ring a bell for you? vaguely. Oh, yeah, it is kind of like a this must be an old man anchor name, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Well, he was originally one of Murrow's boys. You've heard of the Murrow boys, right? Yes, Edward R Murrow's report. Yeah, Edward R Murrow. I know. Edward R Murrow. Yeah. And they worked with him specifically under him and with him across various fronts in World War II. Prior to the American entrance into the war, Smith had actually interviewed Hitler, Himmler, and Gervals. And that means I've got two people in the V series who have in this podcast who have interviewed him. Okay. You know, Ms. Thompson and Mr. Smith now. In the spring of 1941, Edward Armurrow had brought Smith into the CBS Berlin Bureau, where he was soon in trouble for refusing to broadcast propaganda that the Nazis inserted into his scripts. The Gestapo seized his notebooks and threw him out.

Sorry, is it Gest a po just just yes, stop. Oh, he's paladil. You're not a not not paladil. Glotl. Blotl. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. The Gestapo. They seized his Nazi books. No notebooks. And they threw him out. And so he left for Switzerland the day before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor this yeah and once you Talk about close run things yeah So once the US entered into the war Smith continued to work in France and in Switzerland

And he was among the reporters who were in Berlin in May 45 recapping the German surrender. And after the war ended, Smith, Howard Smith, spent covered the Nuremberg trials, where the horror of Nazi atrocities left a lasting impression on him, which affected many of his later actions. He took over the London Bureau from Murrow, reporting sympathetically on the 1945 labor governments' developments of the welfare state in dispatches that were not too well received by an American audience. And then across Europe, reporting on conditions throughout Europe. Once the Aaron Curtin had fallen, he was one of a few Western reporters who went behind

the curtain to examine life there too. Smith wrote the state of Europe, which is his book, in it he reported showing that the US and the US's are were both missing the point and that social reform and political liberty were sorely needed in both spheres of control. Now naturally, this gets him named in something called the red channels, which was a document published by a journal called counterattack, whose stated goal was to quote, expose the most important aspects of communist activity in America each week. And to compile factual information on communist communist fronts and other subversive organizations. And finally to assist consult consult with, and provide factual information on communist activities.

Counterattack got started in 1947, it ran until 1955. Its founders were American Business Consultants, Inc. President, and former FBI agent John Keenan, American Business Consultants, Inc. Vice Vice President and former FBI agent Kenneth Beerley and textile importer Alfred Colberg who just happened to be a member of the anti-communist China, the anti-communist group called the China lobby. And he was the main founder of the American Business Consultants Inc. and an original member of the National Council for the John Birch Society. There it is. Okay.

So, these are the people who are targeting Smith. According to the Columbia Journalism Review, counterattack, quote, had two missions. One, ostensibly journalistic, the other vigorously interventionalist. First it set out to expose everyone it could find who had any connection, however dubious or tenuous, to anything or anyone associated with communism, socialism, the Soviet Union, or progressive ideology. Then more significantly, counterattacks sought to rally its subscribers to action against the individuals targeted. In its assault on performers in production personnel and radio and television, counterattack

sorted its readers to write protest letters to the corporate sponsors of programs featuring actors with purported links to the left. So in short, they're doxing people in the 1950s. So counterattack, which from the beginning, had had already denounced Henry A. Wallace, the progressive party, the American labor party, the National Farmers Union, the amalgamated clothing workers of America, and the Congress of Industrial Workers in 1947. And with two years was denouncing the scientific and cultural conference for world peace in 1949, and they published the red channels in June of 1950. Ed Sullivan had already been consulting these folks

so as to avoid booking any pinkos. By the way, in a congressional hearing, they admitted to a subscription list of about 15 to 2000, 1500 to 2000, and that's it. That's it. That's all they fucking had. And with that subscription list of about 1500 to 2000 people, they were able to deny work to people by targeting them through the red channels. And at their peak, at their peak, they reach 7,500 subscriptions. 151 actors, writers, musicians, broadcast journalists, and others were accused of communist leanings and manipulation of the entertainment industry.

And almost all of them ended up on the blacklist. Yeah, I was going to ask. so when does the segue into McCarthy? Here's a few excerpts from the red channel's introduction. Several commercially sponsored dramatic series are used as sounding boards, particularly with reference to current issues in which the party is critically interested. Academic freedom, civil rights, peace, the H-bomb, etc. With radios in most American homes and with approximately 5 million TV sets in use, the common form and the Communist Party USA now rely more on radio and TV than on the press

and motion pictures as belts to transmit pros-soviatism to the American public. And of course, more quotes. No cause which seems calculated to arouse support among people in show business is ignored. The overthrow of Francois Spain, the fight against anti-Semitism and Jim Crow, civil rights, world peace, the outlawing of the H-bomber are all used. Around such pretended objectives, the hardcore of party organizers gather a swarm of reliable and well-intentioned liberals to exploit their names and their energies. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, and again, their subscription at its peak was 7,500 people.

So, so why is it? Why is it that media and entertainment are always the enemy, the proclaimed enemy of the right. Like, I mean Hitler started with mind-conf and he decried modernism. And so I think that there's, I don't think that's the creator of this trope, but I think that it that kind of scratches at it. I think the idea that art reflects culture and the right wants to shape culture. Okay. I suppose, yeah, that makes sense,

but it's just it strikes me as being like the same shit all over again, every fucking time. You know what I mean? Yeah, I do. And I don't understand how any movement that wants to try to build its audience is going to make people whose job is to build an audience into the enemy.

Like TV writers get paid to get eyeballs on a screen. Right. Musicians get paid to get people to listen to them. So like making those people your enemy does not seem like the way to grow like if you know, you want to co-op those, it's like the line from, I want to say Michael Collins, the George Clooney movie about the lawyer. I'm not the guy you kill. I'm the guy you buy. Yeah. I'm not the guy you kill. I'm the guy you buy. Yeah. I'm nothing I you kill.

I'm the guy you buy. Right. You know, it's desperately cynical, but like. Yeah, I'm not the guy you make an enemy. I'm the one you go up. Right. Absolutely. You fucked this play up.

I think he's doing it. Well, I think it does come down to it comes down to desperate control. And it comes down to this idea that you remember, they have their reactionary. So they're reacting against something that they see is inherently insidious and impressive. And this was in their minds, this was a defensive tactic because according to red channels, quote, articulate anti-communists are blacklisted and smeared with the venomous intensity, which is characteristic of red fascists alone. Okay, hold on. I'm going to reach you to the next line, pause to let Ed go on for five minutes.

I'm going to reach you to the next line. Pause to let Ed go on for five minutes. I wrote that. Yeah, I'm sure you did because you know me. Okay, wait. So, so the quote is, articulate anti-communists are blacklisted. Yes. Okay. No. No. Articulate anti-communists may or may not have people look at them and go, you know, you sound like a fucking Nazi.

That's not the same thing. Like the people who were blacklisted were no-chit blacklisted. They was, you are not going to work because you've been implicated in this political movement. We don't want to be associated with because it terrifies people. And so you're not gonna,, we're going to starve you to death.

That has demonstrably not ever happened to any right wing thinker in this country literally ever. Oh, but it could. No, fuck you. No. No. Oh, but it could. You know, fuck you. No, like no. When when when people make fun of Jordan Peterson or Ben Shapiro No, that's not that's not That isn't blacklisting that is pointing out that clearly Ben Shapiro has just never given his wife an orgasm

And he never will Right and like we feel bad for her because holy shit. Yeah, that's that's not the same thing by any stretch of measurement As actually saying you are not ever going to work in this industry again. Mm-hmm Um telling Uh Jordan Peterson in what's his name? Trent Stevens. I'm not sure. I'm trying to know what the guys,

there's some sexist asshole on all over TikTok. But who's been, I wanna say he's been deep platform off of Twitter because the shit he says is just fucking toxic and And so deeply misogynistic And it's like no you just can't spread your shit here But every but but like on the right that's like oh my god

Oh my god, then Nazis are coming. No, you're the god damn Nazi Oh my God, oh my God, the Nazis are coming. No, you're the God damn Nazi. And we're telling you we don't want you sitting at our table because if we let you sit here, that makes all of us Nazis too. No, I think that the cancel culture of anti-communists is very characteristic of red fascists. Okay, and now, and now,

red fascists, let's talk about that for a second. How politically illiterate is that shit? Red fascists. No, I don't think... Fascists are not red. No, no. I don't think it's politically. You're illiterate. I think it's clever branding.

It's you are conflating two things in most people's minds who just, I don't pay attention to these things. Both sides are obviously equally wrong. And then you have co-opted their silence. And or you've paved the way for fascists to be just as valid as reds. I wish I could say you were wrong. Yeah.

But it, it, it calls me on such a deep seated level. I had, I only took a couple of courses in political science in college, but I took a couple. And one of myism. And and somewhere along the way some part of his know I will fucking fight you. Got somehow I picked up part of that because the definition of fascism is now something that I get So deeply got the man worried about And and I'm like no you don't get to fucking do that words have a fucking meaning Mm-hmm And red fascists. No, you want to say red dictators? Okay, red authoritarians. Okay fine

You want to simplify even more than that. Red bullies. Okay. But no, you don't get to say red fascists because they're not the fucking same thing. No, they're not. So this didn't stop Smith from what he'd set out to do, by the way. This didn't stop Smith from what he'd set out to do, by the way. After being blacklisted and then that ended, he wrote a report for CBS called, quote, who speaks for Birmingham. He did this in 1961. In it, he uncovered the bull Connor, the KKK connections, and that led to them being allowed to beat up, well, let me try this again. He uncovered the connection between bull Connor and the KKK that allowed freedom fighters to get beat up, uh, as well as a plenty of other black folks in Birmingham. Freedom fighters are freedom writers. Freedom

writers, I apologize. No worries. Uh, Smith also ended the report documentary with the aphorism attributed to Edmund Burke. The only thing necessary for the triumph of the evil is for good men to do nothing. The network's head of news insisted that Smith was editorializing and told him to delete the reference. Smith argued that there was right and there was wrong. Right was not a halfway point between good and evil. For his troubles, he was suspended and fired by CBS President William S. Paley, who did so in a response to the fact that Birmingham TV affiliate to CBS disaffiliated itself and CBS got sued. self and CBS got sued. So after this, Smith went to ABC. So he'd held his guns and been fired for it. And CBS paid the price a bit because the, you know, in Birmingham's a big audience. And this is,

you know, when CBS is nascent, you know, is a, is a, is a 61. So after this, Smith went to ABC. And he was the anchor when it was reported that Robert Kennedy was shot in 1968. Smith also moderated several debates between Buckley and Vidal. And during the Vietnam conflict, however, Smith began keening rightward in his commentaries and his editorials. And he was in full support of the war effort through the rest of his career. He saw the war as an important preemptive strike and contrasted it with against the failure to do so against Hitler in the 1940s. So he's starting to buy the red fascist thing.

I disagree with him shockingly enough, but at least this guy was somewhat consistent in his reasoning. He should have done it against Hitler and we should do it here. Yeah. It wasn't blind jingoism and it wasn't based and it was based on his own experience. Nixon granted him a one hour interview in 1971. And at that point, I'd have reconsidered my positions, whatever. So Smith seems to have retired by 79 somewhat bitterly at the changing shape of his news broadcast

So having Howard K Smith play himself in a news broadcast that reported on behalf of the resistance in a country and a world occupied by alien colonizers Really added a lot of gravitas to the early parts of the show Which unfortunately was in short supply given what I've already said about the series turned toward Melodrama and soap operas. Here's a quick rundown of all the major plot lines. Like I said before, it started as a post-occupation fought off post-occupation fought off resurgence of the bad guy. And it settled into a main plot about having a free city with self-appointed businessman and charge.

Definitely, there's some 1980s vibes in there. By the late 1970s, CEO salaries had risen roughly from 17 times to 23 times the average worker salary. By 1989, it would rise to 45 times the average worker salary. So having your CEO is a bad guy. And that's more than just doubling it seems to be in 10 years, by the way. Adjusting for inflation, CEO pay has risen 90 times faster than workers earnings. But that's just the money. It's not like money can affect politics, right? If we, you fucker. I went down such a rabbit hole for this part and then I was like, I don't need to write 150 pages on this thing.

Let's cut it down to 99. So I'm just going to give you this skimming of this part. If we look at just LA, the history of the mayorship in LA, and that's where most of your writers are located, right? Since LA is the main chief executive of the city, if you go all the way back to 1900, LA has quite often had some form of businessman turn politician in it. From 1900 to 1983, of the 11 or so mayors that they had seven of them were business tycoons owners of big businesses Though one could argue that Richard Reardon was the prototype for Nathan Lane as he was very much a businessman Private equity yeah private equity specifically

Before running for mayor. However Reardon doesn't come to power until 1993, a decade after, so I cannot honestly say that art imitated life with him despite the similarities. The series starts pulling the visitors religion into things too. During the Christmas episode, there was talk of their main deity, Zon. The visitor's deity who says that all creatures seek to reunite with those we care about in Goodwill and Brotherhood.

We made Jacob, who is a blind pacifist who also is a technical wizard who knows that someday Amon, the high priest of Zon, will find Elizabeth. And at one point Charles maneuvers Diana into marrying him so we see a bit about marriage ceremonies which costs probably most of the budget on costuming that looked entirely 1980s. They involved the biting the head off of the ceremonial mouse. We also learned that prior to a marriage, the bride has a ceremonial bath with ceremonial eels. Okay. Yeah. And that after the marriage ceremony, there's a ceremonial cups of steaming something or another. And then there's the feast of Ramalon where you sacrifice the Angus warrior because reasons. In the plots, they also put sexiness into it, mostly for Diana and Lydia to fight over.

First, it's somebody named Laird and then Charles whose uniform is uniform shirt is buttoned down even further than Donovan's regular shirts. Charles even, Charles even has a hoop earring in 1983. It's quite something. The love triangle exists for Elizabeth and Robin and Kyle, which is gross. Then Robin falls for Bruce Davidson at one point, because he's in the movie or in the TV series, who is a resistor, but actually he's a visitor working for Diana Elizabeth does telekinetic things to Kyle's body like. Okay.

Body. Got it. Yeah. Wow. Alright. There's, there's also inside agents similar to Martin, but since Martin's twin Philip is now there not only to hunt down the resistance, but also to put Lydia on trial and to keep Diana in line to make sure she and Lydia follow all

of the cultural strictures. And so they use that to push legalism buttons. There's a whole trial aspect of the visitors under Philip that involves snakes, a hot stone, and weirdly exploding sticks. It turns out you can appeal your judgment of guilty by challenging someone to mortal combat for the visitors. So of course we see Diana and Lydia fighting very, very, very poorly. Yeah. Oh my God.

Oh my God. Like it was so bad. Also Phillip later has a change of heart when he finds out how Martin felt about the resistance. So there could be a reunion of sorts, because it's the same actor. And there are a few different episodes that dealt with setting up and reaching out to various resistance cells everywhere, but none of the episodes ever really built on each other. They're just using it as a vehicle to introduce new one-shot characters to the main cast.

And of course, the father and son stuff between Kyle and his dad, which resolved just before dad dies off. By the middle of the series, they killed off Elias. They had moved Ham and Robin to Chicago and they were whittling down the resistance and visitors to just the core four. Julie, Mike, Elizabeth, and Willie with Kyle on the side. with Kyle on the side. The amount of faith that was shown to this series dwindled quickly, causing it to plummet even quicker in the ratings, and then it was over. The final episode wasn't even written, and as the show was canceled, it was canceled while they were in production for what became the final episode, so they did some rewrites. They still made it a bit of a cliffhanger like I said, Dana has put a bomb aboard the leader's shuttle, which is carrying Elizabeth back to the visitor homeworld with Kyle Stodobord.

At its very core though, this series was about a free city in an occupation with all the melodrama that accompanied it. Okay. So that's the series. That's, I spent 26 hours of my life that I will not get back. Okay. Okay. Okay. I applaud your dedication to watch all of it

because, wow. And you heard that plot. I mean, it just, and, well, yeah, don't. And okay, so Donovan does the torsion based movement, right? Yeah. Yeah. And, and Diana are skull fucking each other with their eyes. And they're smothering in this.

Be careful, Diana. The snake that bites has venom. Oh, Lydia, only a young snake wouldn't know how to control its venom. How dare you? It's that kind of... Wow. Yeah, I mean, just like, okay, just like,

just just get it over with, start tripping already. Yeah, come on. But of course, see, like, moderately, there'd be, like a lesbian subtext to that because obviously. Yeah, but in the 80s, but in the 80s, you couldn't get away with that. So we have to just look at it and go,

they didn't intend for it to be there, but holy shit. Yeah, right? Yeah. And while we were talking about some of that, I actually tried to look out Diana wedding V And in a course, everything I got was princess Diana. Ah, followed by images of Diana and Lydia as you say skull fucking each other with their eyes still fucking each other with their eyes, like the hairstyles.

Right, I told you, right? What the, what the, what? You know what you do? Look up when you get a chance. Look up pharmacist on, on mothership V. The outfit that that woman wore was like, it looks like um really shitty household appliance efforts to dress like a borg like oh wow corrugated that's unflasged tubing everywhere

really yeah it's that's unfortunate and i sorry, but any any movie that makes Bruce Davidson the the sexy hunk for any number of episodes. Yeah. We're done. Good. This is just not working for me. I mean, if you don't remember who Bruce Davidson was, he played the the racist senator in the first X-Men movie. Well, okay, I mean he was a lot younger when he was on. So, you know, but still, I get what you're saying. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, I got really,'t have much else other than that. What comes to me though, thinking about it, is I'm, you know, looking to the photos I was looking at online, there's a really weird, very 80s, steadivist, that actually V had in common with Buc Rogers.

Yeah, I think they had like the same seamstress and budget. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of body suits. A lot of body suits and the kinds of fabrics that were used. Princess, what is your name? Princess Ardala. Oh, buck Rogers.

The femme fatale from Bucarodgers, like lots of her outfits in my memory anyway. I was looking at what Diana had on. And I was thinking that it reminded me really strongly of like everything Princess Ardala ever wore. It was all the same kind of, you know, in the 80s, it was, it was a new thing, you know, shiny synthetic kind of fabrics. Yeah, you know, with, with, with, you know, like today, it looks ridiculous, because it's plasticky and crinkly looking, but back then it was, it was, you know, cutting into futuristic and whatever. And, and it's just an interesting example of Z-Rust because if you were to like anybody

listening to this right now, seriously go look up Diana VTV series and just look at any of the costume pictures they show. And you will immediately go, wow, that's really 80s. Well, and you go back, I mean, honestly, unless you're too young to remember what the 80s were in which case you'd be like, wow, that's shitty. But it's, it's very faithful to the original series, though, in terms of the costuming. And we talked about that a couple episodes ago, where like, if you look at the costuming, it is that that brutalist pro-fashee, we're just going to use red instead of black for all the black parts. And then black instead of red for all the red parts.

Yeah. Kind of outfit. You got the jack boots, you got the triangle, you got all that kind of stuff. In many ways, you know, a triangle is cheaper probably to create because you can make more of them from a stripper cloth for multiple outfits. Yeah. And there are, and then they start getting into using vests as well. And I believe Charles, I'm pretty sure it was Charles. He is played by the guy that I always confuse with Apollo. Um, but he, he dressed, I think, all in black. And he, he definitely had the A's, you know, BG's hair going on.

But yeah, he wore all black. There's some people that wore a little bit of black and gold. Like, you could distinguish like who the really, really important players were based on like, oh, they have a different outfit from everybody else. But you're right. Like the outfits are what the 80s saw as being, you know, the future and alien. And yeah, I see why you confuse that actor with Apollo. Yeah. Like, yeah, facial structure,

I can kind of see that. So, all right. So what'd you get out of this one? what did you get out of this one? That, um, uping the number of episodes and not increasing the budget leads to shitty TV. Oh boy, yeah. Yeah. Like, you know, um, and, and when you pointed out to me that all of the, the shuttle clips were just taken straight from the from the many stories and it's like spliced in. Yeah. It really didn't surprise me at all. And what really struck me was they didn't even have a season of the show. They were there were season minus one. Like you said. And they still wound up relying on stuff. Clip shows.

They still wound up having like, you know what, we're just going to take a bunch of shit from, from, you know, back when we had a budget and we're going to use it. You know, when you, when you look at the runs of any of the Star Trek series, when you get close to the end of a season and the budget is running low, you wind up having an episode where Rikers unconscious and they have to try to dig memories up out of his brain to fight off some infection or whatever, whatever the hell it was. And it's just, oh, so we're just going to spend the whole series revisiting everything we did. We're gonna spend the whole episode revisiting shit we did like earlier this season. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Last season. Like, wow, either everybody in the writer's

room got the flu on the same day or you're running out of money. Yeah, you know, that's one of the more famous examples too. Yeah, yeah. Wow. And every and I mean, every science fiction show winds up doing it at some point. But when you have to rely on it as an integral part of every episode, that's a pretty bad home. Yeah. I mean, you know, there's so much of the plot where like it's almost like the studs were good but nothing after that was good. Like we got really good framing but everything we did after that is yeah. Yeah. Because I mean it is fascinating to have like what would happen if a CEO took over a city. What would happen if you had a free city? Well, you know, and I am even in favor of like, hey, kill off people. That's fine. But

let's swing in a mess like repeatedly, repeatedly. I mean, she's I didn't even cover when Donovan and Kyle ended up helping a horse rancher fight against a crooked sheriff who's helping the visitors. Like that was an that was a whole episode. You know, and it sounds like there was also probably pressure on the writer's room to keep things as bottle episode as as you know each episode is self-contained

episode. As, as, you know, each episode of self contained, don't spend too much time on this overarching story arc. We need people to be able to tune in and tune out and not have to keep track of all this shit. Oh, most certainly. Which, which like, okay, from a business standpoint, I totally understand that. But at the same time, this is a story about an invasion and a war. Right. This is a story about an invasion and a war right You you you can't do that There was a whole episode that was centered around the fact that Mike would be dropping off supplies soon And so they had to keep the skies clear for him

Like he was the McGuffin, and he barely showed up in it, and then he like, you know, parachuted down or whatnot and the plane crashed. Yeah, it's just the whole thing, just top to bottom was very, very flawed. Yeah, that's sad. Yeah, yeah, because's sad. Yeah, yeah, because it had had a chance.

And again, a free city is fascinating to take a look at. So, but yeah, all right. So what are you reading? I am reading at the same time that I'm working on the memoirs of Elysses S. Grant, which I mentioned last episode. I am reading Two Gun Witch by friend of the Shabish Pocom. And highly recommended, it is an amazing story rooted in things that happened in our history, but original and riffing on them in a very creative way. And yeah, highly, highly, highly recommended.

So that's my reading right now. What about you? So there actually is a a couple of V books But God damn defecare remember their names because if you just look up V you're gonna end up with a bunch of VC Andrews shit so But there are V books that continue the story and it's apparently canonical but there are V books that continue the story and it's apparently canonical and as much as such a thing exists. So I'm gonna recommend people go out

and find that stuff. That might be kind of fun. So. All right. Cool. Where can we find you on the social medias? I can be found on social media at Mr. Underscore Blalock on TikTok.

I can be found as eHblal on Twitter, where I mostly spend my time retweeting other people's stuff. Because that's a lot easier than trying to come up with any kind of original thought. And like, there are a lot of people that I agree with. So that's where I can be found. We can be found at www.geekhistorytime.com on Twitter. We collectively can be found as Geek History Time. And since you are listening to us, you have found us on one of these services on which we are available, whether that's the Apple Podcast app or Stitcher. And wherever you have, or in the, are we, we must be in the, not Google, Android, podcast app, storm, whatever that is.

Wherever it is that you've found us, however you are listening to us, please subscribe and give us the five stars that you know we have earned. Early to the Damien turn, I'm Brian's co-tails, regularly enough, but give him the five stars he certainly deserves. And like, I'll happily continue to write his co-tails. But yeah, that's where we collectively can be found.

Where can you be found, sir? You can find me on Twitter or Instagram at the Harmony, there's two Hs in the middle. Also, November 4th, we're doing capital punishment at Luna's in Sacramento, $10 in proof of facts. So that should do it. Yeah. Cool. Well, for a geek history of time, I'm Damien Harmony. And I'm Ed Blalock. And until next time, keep rolling 20s.