Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Radioactive Man

Episode Date: January 31, 2018

Put on your goggles and plunge deep into the world of 1990s movies and comic books in this week's podcast. We explain every deep reference, every screwing the audience gag, the power of acid, and so much more. What else can we say except "Jiminy Jillikers!"  

this week's episode is brought to you by patreon at patreon.com slash talking simpsons not only you get access to every episode a week early and ad free but we have tons of extras including our two newest interviews we chat with mike scully about his time executive producing the show i ran it through seasons 9 through 12 which I always characterize as the four most consecutive seasons of the show. And we talked with writer Mimi Pond about what it was like to write the first episode of The Simpsons. You know, and I get to be the turd in the punch bowl every single time I tell this story,

because nobody wants to hear anything bad about The Simpsons. You can find all that and more exclusively on patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy, everybody. Radioactive Man and who else chris antista and i missed when google was just four people and today's episode is radioactive man which aired on september 24th 1995 and as always chris will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. Oh, my God. Oh, my Bobby. The 47th annual Primetime Emmys airs on Fox, where Frasier wins and Simpsons doesn't get nominated. Oh, really?

Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Wonder What's in the Box, and David Fincher's directorial debut, Seven, and Ubisoft's original mascot, Rayman, debuts on consoles. Yeah! That is not the sound, Rayman. That's actually... Yeah! It's so awful. Yeah!

Yeah, so much too. Yeah! Fucking John DiMaggio as Rayman. I wrote about games for over a decade, and I will tell you, this is related to 7, by the way, gamers are so stupid that a bad French man remade 7 into a video game 13 years later, and they all loved it.

And that game was called Heavy Rain, and it sucks, and you're wrong to have ever liked it. It's always been bad. You are bad, and you should feel bad. And every review was like, I'm a dad, and as a dad, you don't know what being a dad is like, so A+. 10 out of 10. I am tired of hearing from dads, Tuckett. We're all childless here. Yeah, you don't know what my Am is like so a plus 10 out of 10 i am tired of hearing from dad stuck we're all childless here but yeah you don't know what my amiibo collection means to me

but what if your amiibo got lost in the mall and you were you were helpless uh and john doe quite uh scary he's even scarier now than he was then i know it sucks that like all these things is like i just want to like this why why must. Why must I be tainted by sexual harassers at every turn? It was more interesting that David Fincher, making his directorial debut. Well, he did do Alien 3 before this. Oh, I'm sorry, you're right. He took his name off and put it back on.

I mean, we should pretend it wasn't David Fincher. What an age in which Kevin Spacey and Gwyneth Paltrow were appealing. Now Gwyneth Paltrow went from movie star to selling rocks you put in your vagina. Yeah, so look. Yeah, there's a lot of things you can make fun of Gwyneth Paltrow for,

rightly so, but she's not a criminal like Kevin Spacey. Selling pseudoscience is pretty bad, but not sexual harassment. Or also putting up stories like, it's easy to eat healthily, everybody. Come on. It's like, you have a personal chef. First hire a dietician. And I'm glad you're...ily, everybody. Come on. It's like you have a personal chef.

First hired dietician. And I'm glad you're... Hey, look. Good segue. We're dishing on Hollywood. That's true. This is the Hollywood classic episode. Before we start, though, I want to mention the animation is different for this episode.

It's crazy. It is digitally colored by a company called US Animation, a pioneer in digitally coloring animation for America. They worked on shows like Ren and Stimpy and Beavis and Butthead. So the digital Ren and Stimpy's... Obviously not Dr. Katz. Not Dr. Katz.

No, that's some old Amigas they threw together. But the digital Ren and Stimpy's look good. If you remember episodes such as Stimpy's Cartoon Show, my favorite episode, that I got the director to draw me a scene from that episode. It looks great. And the Royal Canadian Killed the Yaksman. They did good work on Ren and Stimpy.

That episode, it looks beautiful. That's one of the best looking episodes they did. I think it's because the line quality is different on that show than it is on The Simpsons. It's much thicker lines, much bolder lines. I didn't know why it looked different to me as a kid, but even in first viewing at 13, I was like, this is different. Yeah, the colors look a bit muted, and Chris will love this. They also digitally colored We're Back. A dinosaur story?

That's it. That's the one. Wow, yeah. The very same. It's a good thing I described it in full. Jay Leno, John Goodman star, Steven Spielberg. Jay Leno was in that? I think so.

Wow. I remember Walter Cronkite. Walter Cronkite. That's right. Okay, so the Simpsons experimented with digital animation a bit before they pretty much had to go into it because no one was left to color the cells with paint. Al Jean says it 800 times on commentaries. Yes, it was officially season 14 was when they went into digital, which Futurama beat them to digital by about four years. It's true. They were digital from day one, which fits because it's a futuristic show.

I mean, Rough Draft was doing digital animation with the Macs in 1994, 1995. So they were pioneers back then. They experimented with digital coloring once in 1995 with this episode. Again, with the awful episode, Tennis the Menace, in which there's an Oedipal thing going on with Bart and Marge and Homer. Oh, God. Yes. It's really bad. Bet you didn't see that coming.

Yeah, we didn't because it's terrible. Sorry, Mike Scully. It's okay. We love you, Mike Scully. Please come back. But also, as Henry said, the first episode to just go full on digital was The Great Laos Detective, which was a Sideshow Bob episode that had Frank Grimes Jr. in it.

It was the first digital coloring episode. But now that the show is HD, it's fun to listen to the new commentaries on the Season 18 disc, and they're like, they missed this digital animation. Now that they're in HD, they're using animation tools instead of having everything be drawn and then colored. So it's sort of like the Flash-style animation. By Flash, I mean programs like Toon Boom and things like that.

That is disappointing because we talked with Ian Jones-Cordy yeah the creator of okko who also works on steven universe and he said in both those cases like they still draw for both those shows they draw line art then digitally animate that so it's that's why it looks better than modern day simpsons in like in animation alone it's astonishing how modern this one episode looks out of the bunch because it does look a little cleaner. I miss the dirt, though. I love the dirt. That was the weird thing

because I just assumed they were using paint bucket tools and the coloring because some of the lines have a Disney Xerox 101 Dalmatians quality. It's weird, though. If you go to the later digital episodes where they started doing all the digital coloring and everything,

they actually add a cell go to the later digital episodes where they started doing all the digital coloring and everything, they actually add like a cell flare to the to the cells. They actually add like a little tiny, like very subtle shadow around the cells like you would see when you're photographing cells on paper. Which I just got the fucking Charlie Brown Christmas in 4K. Oh, my God. And I'm watching it. It wasn't even done in 4K. But it was done on film. So I guess I could restore it but like you blow it up on a big screen and like the shadows are so huge and I was like

pointing out the see that's why I bought this version because look at Lucy's face going through the psychiatrist stand this the shadow extends across the entire pole I love self-aware it's those moments when you realize like oh yeah I'm looking at photographs of cell paint that's what i'm looking at here and that's beautiful in a way in the new hd simpsons which has been going on for like seven or eight years now they don't bother to emulate the physical flaws or like the physical artifacts of traditional animation so it looks different like this digital era not this era but the the pre-hd digital era they did try to emulate some of the physicality of cell animation. I imagine it would be a hard transition for some people.

We're talking like almost 100 years of this medium. But they weren't sold on this how it looked, so they didn't stick with it. They could have done season 7 in the same way, but that's why this one's so late. This is the last season seven production episode. This is like the 17th production episode or something weird like that. Yeah. And this is directed by Susie Dieter,

who had last done A Star Is Burned. She worked on that. She also directed an episode of The Critic. She was kind of straddling the fences on that there. Okay, so this is, as Marge would say, this is Henry's time to shine. Henry's got his mop in his bucket. But yes, this is a comic book episode.

If you are new to the show, I am a huge comic book geek. I would say equal to being a Simpsons geek, perhaps even more so than a Simpsons geek. I'm a comic book geek. It's true. He's wearing a Spider-Man t-shirt, folks. Oh, shit. I am. Intentionally?

I love comic books, and Radioactive Man was always their way to do comic book jokes. And I went nuts when we did the three men in a comic book episode, which is about radioactive man. It's true. We did commit Henry. And this one is too. And you have to remember that this came out in 1995 before Marvel movies were all movies. Yeah. 1995, before Marvel movies were all movies.

Producing a comic book movie was a risky thing people didn't really do. It wasn't all fucking movies. A lot of this is an allegory for Batman 89, right? It absolutely is about Batman 89. Right down to the casting of Rainier Wolfcastle. Yes, who would be, Arnold Schwarzenegger would be Mr. Freeze. In the highest grossing movie of this year. Well, no, Batman Forever was this year. Batman and Robin is 97.

But yes, it's also funny that this episode came out, the year of Batman Forever, even though this is more based on the Tim Burton experience of making Batman films, not the Schumacher ones, though the director in this is clearly just Schumacher. I want to dig that up and do like a little podcasty documentary of like when it was announced tim burton was doing a batman and wouldn't be using adam west what was eventually to be the

internet went fucking crazy oh yeah like how dare you how dare you recast batman warner executives were so mad they weren't sure you could make a non-campy batman yeah that they made an internal video with uh all the people on the production including tim burton and bob kane the creator of batman hey where's your boy bill and they're all on camera saying like no it's okay that it's dark batman's more than adam west it really is please believe us don't cut funding from this movie that's how desperate they were to prove you can make a batman that isn't campy so much so that the dc had run away from batman being a campy character a long time ago a long time only recently did they re-embrace 66 batman

they had the rights and they got the rights back but it's it's great because it allowed the adam west to celebrate it just a little bit more before we lost. Speaking of 4K, Cesar Romero's mustache in 4K under that paint. Well, I'd like to think that's where the reference comes from. Romero himself at the time, a closeted gay man. Yes. Well, they filmed the movie. They filmed the show on film, so it looks incredible.

I have the Blu-rays that I bought when Adam West died. And a little bit of marijuana, I can in like an entire disc of that shit especially if catwoman's around oh i love it so much uh but a quick history on radioactive first appearance was in bart the genius in the second episode of the series and much like crusty he was envisioned as a hero for bart who is similar to homer but bart doesn't realize it. Another, he is a radioactive man like Homer who works at the nuclear power plant and his costume is an inverse of Homer's

stubble. His mouth is meant to be the stubble and his head is supposed to be shaped like the bald head of Homer. All that shit is far more clever than I ever would have imagined. And I said this in Three Men and a Comic Book I will say this again you have to read the original radioactive man comics that bongo comics published in 1994 1995 it is collected in a hardcover that is all the radioactive man comics they did

some are funny after 95 but the ones from 94 95 by steve advance cindy vance and bill morrison are some of my favorite. They're the best Simpsons comics ever because they are a total mindfuck in that there are six issues, but they are published in Radioactive Man number one, and then the next issue of Radioactive Man 62, and then Radioactive Man 200,

up to Radioactive Man 1000, and each perfectly, and I mean perfectly parodies and encapsulates the art style of the time it was supposed to come out. The 1950s issue works just like a 1950s Superman comic. The 1960s issue is just like

a Marvel Silver Age comic. The 70s one is just like a Dennis O'Neill and Neil Adams Green Lantern Green Arrow comic. It's down to the camera angles and line weight. The next one is a parody of Uncanny X-Men and the Dark Phoenix Saga perfectly. The next one is a Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen parody down to the panel. And best of all, the one after that is the 90s parody of Spawn number one. And it gets all the bad spawn art.

They're like, here's the terrible panel layout that Doug McFarlane did in Spawn. I have to go back to these. I was not into superheroes as a kid or now, but I know a lot about them just through friends. Now I want to go back because I liked these as a kid because it was like owning a piece of the Simpsons universe. This is the same comic Bart would want or buy. They are comics that were read in-universe by the people of Springfield. There's also ads. There's fake ads in it. In the 70s one, there is a fake ad for Radioactive Man 3, the movie, starring Troy McClure as Radioactive Man.

Wow. And he's holding Richard Pryor. It is the Superman 3 cover. That's awesome. And we should not forget, uh radioactive man is the star of possibly the worst simpsons game bart meets radioactive man it's real fucking bad and that's saying something to be the worst simpsons game i've never seen him i cannot get that far you can be like speed level one try and i'll just say it on this podcast i want to interview steve

vance just about these radioactive man comics so he did a ton of other great comics. And also in the Radioactive Man comics, a long-running joke in it is about the Red Menace and Republicans, especially Richard Nixon, chasing down socialists in America and is about the destruction of socialism in America. I had Steve Vance on Twitter confirm to me

that he was putting socialist messaging in the comics oh it's awesome i saw the uh the marxist itchy and scratchy panels he posted yeah and he or he was joking to me i really want to interview steve vance about this stuff and lastly in that comic it ends the the original run ends with richard nixon's head in a jar being reanimated. So, I don't know, Mac Reigning, did you get an idea for that? Yeah, the hardcover is still available on Amazon. It's worth every penny. It has. So in that collection is every Radioactive Man comic they did.

So they did a ton of backup issues and stories with Radioactive Man as well that were also in the same style as, oh, this is Radioactive Man 300. They even do recreate the fake issue that was in Three Men and a Comic Book when the imaginary tale when Radioactive Man marries Larva Girl. They do that comic as a comic. So that's all in there.

Totally worth it. Dude, these covers are hilarious. Fall Out Boy holding Radioactive Man like Robin. There was never a Radiation Dude a radiation dude no there was not yes and this this episode was produced actually right after the comic book boom busted but that's why there's so many comics on the newsstands in springfield all these new superheroes suck none of them can hold a candle to radioactive man Man. The only decent new one is Radiation Dude. Nah, he's just a cheap imitation of Radioactive Man. Explain!

The similarities are subtle, but many. For example, Radioactive Man has his famous catchphrase, Up and Atom! With Atom spelled A-T-O-M in a delicious pun. Go on! But Radiation Dude has a similar, but lamer catchphrase, Up and Let's Go!

So you kids fancy yourselves experts, eh? Well, between us, we've read all 814 issues of Radioactive Man. Yeah, and we both have a special limited edition issue where he and Fall Out Boy get killed on every page. Well, I suppose you know then that Hollywood is planning a feature film about Radioactive Man. I have got to do something about that air conditioner suction. Yeah, they're mysteriously wearing hats at the beginning of this episode i was like oh that

joke is coming up until the commentary i didn't get the man boy joke as a kid i thought it was just another cover it is it is a gay magazine on this place oh i thought it was a reference to the people who are reading comic books who would care about these references. I guess it's both that, but no, I think it's supposed to be a game. Yeah. And the reference to, while I love Milhouse's Goa. He's still not convinced. I wish you had a friend who talked to you like that. Explain.

Please, man, explain this to me. And the issue where they die in every page is obviously a reference to the Death of Superman comic. But more so that it wasn't just a reference to the death of superman comic but more so that it wasn't just that it was the death of superman it was that each page was a splash page which they never did in comics then oh wow and so that's why the every page reference is extra deep there and then that spawned like six new comics for each superhero superman replacement yeah the people i've seen uh the argument made that that's what killed the comic boom, including by a gross dude who made a video with his famous friends. Anyway, but the argument was that people thought Superman was really dead, though comic fans knew, oh yeah, he's coming back. But people bought those comics thinking, this is the death of Superman, he's never coming back and so i better read this i better buy this comic and collect it when he came back for the dead and not only that but they

created four more supermen to make you buy more comic books i think they also thought it would be worth money exactly yeah but it's like no they made enough for everyone to buy they will never i mean i'm sure it's like has a has a street value of like what a nickel a penny a dime i mean it's if you two dollars if you still got it in the bag with the black armband i bet you get 10 bucks okay i was i was already a marvel guy at this point this this just got me back over to dc oh really the death of superman did yeah i was reading i started reading dc because the death of superman so hey it worked on me i started with superman oh really and every i was a spider-man guy. Only in TV was Batman my first hero. But yeah, Superman.

And hats flying up is one of the best jokes in the show. And then we get to just lovely... Up and splice. Those toaster screensavers. What's a flying toaster? This stuff here with comic book guy also was very real to me because in the 90s, you kids don't know this, but at the comic book store, if you were a kid, you probably didn't have the internet. Your comic shop owner was one of the first horrible nerds on the internet, so they had all the secrets. All the info, including prints.

Yes, but your comic store owner would totally say, you know, I heard this is coming up soon. It's just because they read an alt.tv.simpsons that you couldn't read. I was a big Usenet user in the late 90s, a few years after this. And I got to say, alt.nerd.obsessive is not a real news group. But there are several real news groups on his computer, including alt.pictures.binary.erotica that I went to plenty of times. Let me tell you, that's the Wild West for porn. Well, look, I didn't have as good internet when I finally got it. I was more alt text dot sex dot repository dot com.

I was a prodigy, baby. You make me feel real. It was easier to download and delete erotica than photographs from it. So I went with, I usually went with the text. You let this JPEG download overnight. I was a big user of rec dot arts dot MST3K. Wait. Rec Arts TV MST3K MISC. I was a big user of rec.arts.mst3k. Wait. Rec.arts.tv.mst3kmisc.

It was the biggest fan group for MISTIs online for a while. That might be what got me online. Yeah. Mr. Science Theater. Yeah. Simpson fans, MST3K fans, the first fans on the internet after Star Trek, I would bet. I love the waddle to the computer as well from him here. Who's going to play Radioactive Man?

I will tell you in exactly seven minutes. Okay, here we are. Alt.nerd.obsessive. Need no star. R.M. Pick. Yes, his flying toasters. It's from the After Dark collection of PC screensavers that you paid for.

That was exciting to go buy. You bought screensavers. Can you believe it? When those went out of fashion, so did CompuServe. My first screensaver I actually remember loving was it was a free download off of the Garfield web page of the Garfield screensaver where it would be all black and then Garfield would open the refrigerator to get food and then it'd go back to black. I just remember them being

they were kind of the first things to get kids excited about computers because we all knew it could play video games but you couldn't really cue a cartoon yourself. Whereas you'd get the screensaver collection of like 90 screensavers. What does the fishbowl one do? I got to know. Go back to the spaceship one.

It's way cooler. We would just fixate on these things for hours in the early 90s. Speaking of MST3K, one of the ones I had on my computer was, or my family's computer was, the official movie screensaver. I think I have it too. It includes a rock version of the song that was never in the movie. And also like six clips from the movie, which whenever they come up in the movie,

my brain does a weird thing. It's like, I've heard that clip a million times on my screensaver. I'm not an alien. I'm not an alien. I had that same... Yeah, I did that too. I also... Well, I've said this 800 times on this podcast,

but Mitchell. Mitchell. Mitchell. They were... Every sound my computer could make for a certain time was Mitchell. Mitchell. But I feel like this... mitchell mitchell they were every sound my computer could make for a certain time was was mitchell uh but i i feel like this thanksgiving tradition i felt like this was a aim at alt.tv. Oh for sure yeah this is maybe the first time on the show that patreon interview with

bill oakley it was did that go out to everybody yeah yeah that he talks about he was aware of the internet like while he was working on the show and I think what him and Josh probably the only ones yeah they would come in and they would they would print out the reviews of the show from all TV dot Simpsons and show them to the writers like to the president I can't go without it for one episode

the sentence will be right back when you really care about someone The Simpsons will be right back. When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird, I don't remember saying that part. Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care. Did I mention that we care? Jiminy Jelliker's Radioactive.

Man, this has been a great month for patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. Not only did we have our first ever live shows as part of SF Sketch Fest, not only did we get to interview Dana Gould, a writer for the show and an incredibly accomplished stand-up comedian, but we also hit one of our funding goals.

Now we make enough a month that bob and i can justify doing another animation podcast weekly which we'll be making available soon we just got to get all our ducks in a row and we're going to be starting a new patreon exclusive podcast futurama we are going to have be doing the entire first season of futurama in talking simpson style and it will be available exclusively on Patreon.com Talking Simpsons. How to get your hands on all of that podcast goodness

as well as all the other amazing extras we have on the Patreon. Just give us $5 a month or more and you can get access to all of that. You'll get a special RSS feed that lets you download those podcasts and your podcatcher apps. So many more awesome, awesome things there, including our complete series of Talking Critic,

where we went through every episode of The Critic. All of that and more is at patreon.com slash talking simpsons. Hey, we want to thank everybody who came to our live shows. They were so much fun that we hope to do another one sooner than you think. But you know what's a cool thing to wear to a live show, if you ever get to go to one? A Talking Simpsons t-shirt. We have them, and you should have them too. The Talking Simpsons t-shirt is available

at shirt sickle that's shirt sickle like popsicle you can go either to shirt sickle.com and look up the talking simpsons t-shirt or go to tiny.cc slash talking shirt and you will find a link to it there it's designed in the style of ion springfield by the wonderful friend of the show nina matsumoto in a wonderful sky blue design. I think it's definitely worth the $19.99 that it costs at the base level. It comes in multiple different sizes and styles and ships relatively internationally.

That's tiny.cc slash talking shirt. Hey, this is Sideshow Luke Perry. You're listening to Talking Simpsons on Laser Time. Is the world of today getting you down? Well, then why not check in on some of the good stuff that happened this week in movies, TV, games, and more 30, 20, and 10 years ago this very week with our show 302010. Here's a clip from 1987. Oh, I love obscure dumb forgotten Christmas specials.

Yes, so I saved this for last because, Chris, I want you to tell me, do you know about Santa Bear's High Flying Adventure? No. Okay, oh man. Aired on CBS, it's a sequel to Santa Bear's First Christmas and the Dayton Hudson Corporation, which... I love it when a corporation

brings me something. I'm going to assume they are a maker of fine epoxies. Just something really boring. And I'm sure they specialize in a lot of great things about how glue is a great Christmas gift. It features the voices of Kelly McGillis, because it's 1987. Right. Bobby McFerrin. Oh, boy. John Malkovich as Santa Claus.

What? He's all over the place. Oh, my God. And Dennis Hopper. No. I need to deliver toys. Dude,alkovich as Santa Claus. What? He's all over the place. Oh, my God. And Dennis Hopper. No. I need to deliver toys. Dude, you're not far off. We're going to play a clip of it in just a second.

Jump into the past with 302010 every Thursday on LasertimePodcast.com or iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Five, four, three, two, one. podcast as a kid uh the prince didn't read as prince to me in the first shot it's like not it didn't feel like how you would draw prince well i guess it's just like a non-sequitur like isn't it weird that such a famous person would be on the internet? Maybe that could be. I just didn't know if Prince had an early web presence. I did. Speaking of early web presence, I forgot to mention this.

In our very long Who Shot Mr. Burns, I did mention that they opened Springfield.com up for Who Shot Mr. Burns. Oh, yeah. And they got half a million hits almost immediately. It was one of the most popular websites on the internet. What happens when you go there now? I don't know. Let's look it up.

And nothing. Nothing happens. Not even a 401 or whatever. Just like... I mentioned the Prince thing because Prince... Okay, never mind. This is not important.

But remember, look up the video for Batdance. And maybe now that he's dead, you'll be able to find it. But he scrubbed the whole world of his music. He hated the internet. He eventually hated the internet. I just don't...

I wasn't into Prince in 1995. I'm curious. But I'm wondering if Batman Connection here, maybe that's why they had Prince. That's why I felt okay bringing him. Oh, okay. That makes sense. But yes, then we travel across the internet to see the man hiding under the Hollywood... This is the internet. Even for me, it's difficult to imagine the internet pre-Go man hiding under the Hollywood. This is the internet.

It's even for me, it's difficult to imagine the internet pre-Google. And that's what this is. It's as if everything operates on like a group of Harry Knowles and cool news. Do you remember competing search engines? Yes. Hot Vista,

baby. The best porn results. Yeah. All to visa is the best. Actually, uh, God, this is a,

this is a digression, but at our last job, uh, a new boss came in and, he had worked at Yahoo. Yeah, AltaVisa is the best. Actually, God, this is a digression, but at our last job, a new boss came in, and he had worked at Yahoo, and they were talking him up like he's going to save our company, guys. He was at Yahoo. He was at Yahoo.

Everyone had the front page of Yahoo as their homepage all the time. Am I right? Yeah, like 1997, maybe. Yeah. I can't believe they tried to peddle that lie. And we just had to be silent like, wow, I've heard of Yahoo. He was king shit at Lycos.

All right, so then we get to the casting chat of Ray Octoman. And like we said earlier, in real life, Tim Burton had to work very hard to convince Warner to let him make a serious, though if you've seen this film, they're not that serious. And the world, there are news articles about people being upset about the potential recasting of Batman. To them, Batman is only a joke. And it's not funny to see

that Batman has become so serious that they can make a Lego Batman movie that is all about mocking Batman again. Where we live now. Specifically the Nolan film. Yeah, where we live now, Warner Brothers officially made its own Naked Gun movie. I am astonished by that.

I finally watched it over the break. It's fantastic. It's a laugh a second. Superman is his ultimate enemy, and Joker's like, what about me? We're not anything. I don't see why Rainier Wolfcastle should be the star. I think we should bring back Dirk Richter. Kids will want to see the original Radioactive Man.

I keep telling you, he's 73 years old and he's dead. Granted, but... Besides, we want to stay as far away from the campy 70s version as possible. Billowing backpacks, Radioactive Man! It's the worst villain of them all! The Scoutmaster! I see him, Fallen Boy. billowing backpacks radioactive man it's the worst villain of them all the scout master i see him fall apart come get him scouts let's just dance along

oh who boards condensed this is not a bad parody of The Adam West Batman show Of course and Snuh are in there Paul Lindis playing into the stereotype of Scoutmasters Scoutmasters as Norm Macdonald would say Homosexual pedophile Easy we got a ton of trouble for saying that apparently Oh really? That's Norm Macdonald's joke It's a quote you're quoting Norm Macdonald

But that is the joke why would a super gay man be a scoutmaster The joke is yes but it's also Just the campiness of it. And that on Batman 66, which one thing there, they say the campy 70s version of the show is a 60s show. The campy 70s DC show is Wonder Woman. But anyway, in 66, Batman 66, super campy. And I was surprised Paul Lynn never was a guest on the show. Because it was a big deal to have guys like Vincent Price on as villains like Egghead.

Yeah, I mean, I felt like a rabbit hole of Paul Lynn drunk on Hollywood Squares clips because – That's what I got. I mean, you could tell he's drunk, but Gilbert Gottfried was on Hollywood Squares for a long time, and people who had worked on the show in the 70s would tell him all these stories of Paul Lynch just being fucking smashed and one time he was just drunk off his ass backstage going the fucking Jews ruined my career. Yeah.

Like apparently he wasn't he was he didn't like the Jews. Don't forget to use your Michigan book. Yes. Most of his jokes on camera are just about like

I'd like to have a sleepover with Burt Reynolds. We were I remember a long time ago Henry and I and someone else were talking about doing a episode about secret gays we're like gays in society weren't totally embraced yet people like paul lind charles nelson ryan the world loved them and like yeah he he is not even being shy about it this is not a waylon smithers is he or isn't he he's being

the clip i had what he never said was i am gay yeah he never said i am a gay man just this what it's one line he does it just like the scout master for five hundred dollars false true or false there is now a travel agency that specializes in nude cruises to europe i bet i know how to pick the captain. Yeah. I think he's the basis for Roger on American Dad. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I think it's him and Charles Nelson Reilly, the lesser known all in. Yeah, that reminds me of Alec Baldwin.

The best thing he ever did on SNL was playing Charles Nelson Reilly on Inside the Actor's Studio. Oh, that's right. In case you want to know how close that was to the real Batman 66. Surf music, baby. Here is a random fight scene from a Batman season two episode. Vladimir Putin. You wouldn't hit a man with glasses, would you?

You're not wearing glasses. Oh, I'm not? Zowie I assume the sound effects censored the violence But it happens after the punch Which is a good observation Yeah it was a humorous way on the show To do live action Comic book sound effects That's why they would do it.

If I could make my once per show Mr. Show reference, it's the basis for taint. It's a transition for taint. So in case you forgot, Dirk Richter died in a bullet ridden bullet riddled bordello. Yes. Dirk Richter was a beautiful man. Can't you

vultures leave him alone? Buddy Hodges would not appear in Radioactive Man. I love that bit of continuity. I keep telling you he's 73 years old and he's dead. I love that Hank Azaria voice for this episode

by the way. It's weird that they're not guest voices. It's Dan Castaneda and Hank Azaria doing the two Hollywood guys. But the Dirk Richter though in

Three Men in a Comic Book when they showed it it was much more the George Reeves Superman black and white in the 50s so much Book when they showed it. It was much more the George Reeves, Superman, black and white in the 50s so much. Also dying in disgrace. Yes, yeah. Though he killed himself, maybe.

Maybe. It's a mystery with George Reeves. Watch Ben Affleck in his best superhero role in Hollywoodland. It really is. That movie's great. So as a kid, I also laughed at the continuity real hard at seeing Bort and Snuh reappear.

Yeah, Snuh's a deep cut. It goes from Marge vs. Itchy and Scratchy, right? Yep. Springfieldians for nonviolence in... Oh, man. Springfielders for nonviolence understanding and helping. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Chris.

And yes, Bort, of course. I also laughed pretty hard at Newt and Mint. Mint really made me giggle quite a lot felt very topical to me and also just the animation just the get i giggle so much at the animation of the especially radioactive man doing and one of the scout masters henchmen just like his arms moving side to side jerkily cajerkily. Herky-jerky dancer. Cesar Romero was the gay villain yet every single villain in Batman

is way gayer than him. They're most, yeah, they're all, I mean, the Joker like, woo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo. The Riddler,

holy shit. The Riddler was cooler than Joker. Like, they did Riddler first. The man who played the Riddler, Frank Gorshin,

he was the biggest star of the first season, really. And another unconfirmed Gilbert Gottfried story that he tells repeatedly about Cesar Romero. He says that all the time.

Every podcast, he brings up the fact, if it comes in the conversation, he brings up the fact that allegedly Cesar Romero would pay young men to throw orange slices against his bare ass. It's fun, man. It's never been confirmed. Come on. I'm sure it is, but it needs to be confirmed. I don't like to eat my citrus.

All right. So they decide where they're going to film this movie. So where can we shoot this picture? We need a city that has a nuclear reactor and a gorge and can guarantee us the full cooperation of city officials. I'll check variety. Wow, look at that ad. All right, this place must be hot. They don't need a big ad or even correct spelling. I'll check variety. Wow. Look at that ad.

All right, this place must be hot. They don't need a big ad or even correct spelling. I agree with that logic. Give me two plane tickets to the state that Springfield is in. I agree with that logic. There's an alarming amount of continuity in that one scene. There is. Yeah, I love it. And Flim Springfield, quite an advertisement.

I just love that. Flim Springfield. And I don. I just love that. Flim Springfield. I don't know. It's not unlike Atlanta, the way we've seen Atlanta explode. That was the biggest city close to me growing up. It's a tax shelter. It is a tax shelter, but it's where Marvel shoots everything. Again, a shout out to Baby Driver, one of my favorite movies of the year that I didn't

get in the best of that I've watched again. They just made it the right shoot in Atlanta. He's like, oh, I'll just change all the locations to Atlanta locations and streets. And it's this little celebration of Atlanta. I think he fell in love with Atlanta because he was going to film Ant-Man there. And then he didn't make Ant-Man. But it was written for LA. It was written for production there.

I also love, well, okay, speaking of Ant-Man and big budget movies, $30 million is all their budget for Ant-Man. That's astounding. That's Jonah Hex's budget right there. That's a small comedy. You could make 10 minutes, five minutes of Marvel Infinity War with $30 million. What are the budgets on those movies?

I don't remember. I mean, they're over $200 million. Yeah, they don't talk about it anymore because if you include the marketing of it, the idea that like, how the fuck is Daisy Ridley on every channel right now? How did you get her all over the world? I love for Star when you get double ads you're like well this is a car commercial

but also star wars the official car of rogue one yeah i was just walking by the airport like fucking delta skyline mall like why is darth maul behind this glass door like well and it's also something though why movies like justice league can make 600 million dollars and they're like man didn't make it's it's not good enough yeah at a certain point in time i think like everyone knew what movies cost they would be able to publicize like this was an 80 million dollar movie or 100 million dollar movie notorious movie we can mention later on oh yeah yes yes we will but that's when people freaked out like, Titanic cost $100 million. It'll never make it back.

Shows you they didn't know the king of the world was. Didn't either. That guy's always. I keep telling him, don't do those Avatar sequels. Just walk away. Just walk away right now. Don't do it. And I'm wrong every time.

So this may be my line of the show. I don't know. Let's play it and see what you guys think. I like it. Students, I have an announcement. One of your favorite comic book heroes, Radio Man. Radio Active Man, stupid! Strange, I

shouldn't have been able to hear that. Anyway, Hollywood Studios decided to film the Radio Active Man movie here in Springfield. Yay! And they will be holding auditions to find a local youngster to play Fallout Boy. Oh, and the air conditioner will be holding auditions to find a local youngster to play Fallout Boy. Oh, and the air conditioner will be fixed this afternoon.

I do enjoy the Skinner's reaction to that. I shouldn't have been able to hear that. I don't think the air conditioner joke doesn't work without the callback in the first act. It's seeing all those hats fly off is quite great. Almost everyone is wearing a hat in that scene. I love that Skinner's like, I shouldn't have been able to hear that he just rules with it just moving on so the casting of fallout boy i think is also based on a real world batman event which was in 1992 for a long time the rumor was in batman returns they were going to have robin oh i didn't and that robin was going

to be played by marlin wayans no way people really he was tim burton's pick for robin but they didn't do it and so they were going to save it for tim burton's third batman film which for a time he was still going to direct the third batman film he did not he leaves the project though he's still a credited producer on it and joel schumacher would take over and it would actually come out the summer before this episode aired but i found out from this that not only did schumacher would take over and it would actually come out the summer before this episode aired. But I found out from this that not only did Schumacher replace Marlon Wayans with his favorite twink, Chris O'Donnell, but also that Marlon Wayans, thanks to his deal, he gets residuals for Batman Forever. Because they officially had signed him up for the film to be Robin. That if he wasn't Robin, he still got money for it.

So Marlon Wayans made money off of Batman Forever. Was America ready for a black Robin? Can you imagine now how people freak out on Twitter about a black Robin recasting? A black Robin in 1992? Robin, though, there's been like 90 Robins. Not one of them black. Yeah, I guess. And in 1992, everybody's like,, well yeah, Robin is Dick Grayson

even though if you're reading the comics all the time Robin was actually the third guy. The internet always finds new ways to disappoint me. In this episode, Fall Out Boy had been featured in other ones, but this is the Fall Out Boy episode and I never listened to the, I can't name a song by the band Fall Out Boy. I'm not even that old.

I feel like I'm too old to have ever liked Fall Out Boy. I know one. The theme from ssx3 i don't i'm guessing i'm just guessing that's probably likely i mean they they were named by a fan i think that's how they were named fallout boy simpsons reference but uh yeah fallout boy is a clever reference though of course to nuclear fallout right it fits with the nuclear theme and uh then in a very random scene we find out that mo is at least 70 years old yeah wow you mean you were one of the original little rascals yeah which one were you the ugly one were you the ugly one no i was the tough kid smelly my stick was looking into an exhaust pipe and getting a face full of soot. Nobody could do

that better than me. Of course, it was kind of hard to think of reasons for me to look in that exhaust pipe every time, but, you know, we had good writers. William Faulkner could write an exhaust pipe gag that would really make you think. If you were such a big shot, why aren't you still making movies? Mo?

Mo? Oh, no, my favorite Aggie You stole my bit That's my bit You stole my bit Cut! Oh my god He's killed the original Alfalfa Luckily Alfalfa was an orphan owned by the studio. Oh, I see.

So much to unpack. The William Falkner thing is great because winning the Nobel Prize in Literature was not paying the bills. Writing The Sound and the Fury was not paying the bills. He had to be a miserable staff writer for Hollywood Studios for 30 years. Uncredited! And he became a miserable drunk, just like a fucking nightmare drunk. The best depiction of that is in Barton Fink.

That's right, John Mahoney. John Mahoney plays a William Faulkner type. I love, except all he can write are plays about fishmongers. I love when, in Barton Fink, when he's watching the wrestling movie clips of like, I will destroy you. Such a beautiful scene. And Augie's a marble.

Carl Schweitzer played Alfalfa, and I wish he died that's less tragic oh i read about that he really went terrible yeah that is also the real arguing music from how roach's little rascals which i think is public domain which is why you can hear it while you name yourself an earthbound they could afford that music though too i i also think though that was a reference to robert blake being in our gang shorts as well he was ricky in later ones not in the post hal roach era robert blake first played a child in it by like the third alfalfa yeah like child actors seem to have i think that stereotype's almost gone like child actors have a lot seem to be surviving a lot more in the post culkin period yes yeah how's bob's culkin still sticking around man he only looks like a hero really i feel like he's gonna die one day we'll be like oh yeah of course it

was heroin he's doing heroin college report uh but that now that joke's even darker when you think of like is this a robert bl Blake reference? The man who murdered his wife? And I was like, no, I didn't. Moe is now in his 70s at this point in the show. And it's weird because I was just watching a season 18 episode. And I don't like when they do this, by the way. But it's like, no, all the characters are the same age. They all went to the same school together.

They all experienced the same things at the same times. I like that it's kind of a little Archie thing. But I hate that they like, oh like oh yeah they all went to school cookie kwan went to the same um a camp as them in the 60s like i prefer the more oakley and weinstein observational thing where it's like in uh mother simpson chief wiggum is not the same age as homer chief wiggum is in high school while homer is a little kid so they're different ages he's like 50 he's an older dad i like how easily it's passed over that Mo's like, oh, yeah, I beat to death another kid, and I don't even care.

I killed him. The look on Mo's face when they say, this is the first time I noticed it, when they say, you've killed the original Alpha Alpha, Mo's look on his face is like, he deserved it. He stole my joke of like, you murdered someone, Mo. It's a kickoff to all this inside baseball about Hollywood. The Simpsons doesn't always go this close to it. This is what sitcoms love when they can have a movie production come to town so they can do all the L.A. and Hollywood jokes they love so much.

Did you guys ever watch Our Gang or Little Rascals? Absolutely not. All the time. I watched Little Rascals, the 90s movie of the Little Rascals. Also featured in Baby driver but it was you are so beautiful okay that's right they're real fast i i watched uh i was just tnt or yeah i was just talking about it with my dad because we were watching the grinch and just the idea that like that the kids didn't have three hours to themselves. And Turner was like, fuck that shit.

Here's a giant block of stuff just for kids. Like Three Stooges? It meant Looney Tunes and then down to Ant and the Yardvark and then the Three Stooges and Little Rascals. I'm going to burn that Blu-ray. Remastered. It's been here for months. You're free to burn it, yeah.

I know you'd love a copy. Oh, gosh. No. No, I'm not with you. I have a copy. My savoir-faire is everywhere. I like the gag, though, of the... I think of Little Rascals as bottom of the barrel,

and I love the joke in Homer the Smithers of March saying that Homer's up at 6 a.m. to watch the Little Rascals, because that's when you dump shit. You're like, well, this will fill time at 6 a.m. Well, it also wasn't like half an hour, so it fit snugly in between cartoons, so it played a lot on Turner. I'd seen it packaged as like 30

minute collections or however they could forget it into they were mostly always shorts but but also barney talking over mo remembering like mo mo i love every joke dealing with the reality of someone having a flashback that the audience is seeing well that's that's the kind of joke you don't really get into the simpsons seventh, where they're just talking about the vessel for the joke. And also, though, this episode, when they do the opening bit there of everyone, they reuse every talk show they ever had on the show. Including Conan. Conan, Brad Goodman, Birch Barlow, and Hear Me War, the network for women. They also have that in the background, from lisa versus the homer versus

they come in it's such an odd thing to do and i really feel like it was cut out in syndication just because i don't remember i don't remember that as well as i remember the rest of the episode yeah it's it's kind of a nothing i mean it's a cute joke especially like y'all like one extra but doesn't really it isn't particularly needed i also love the headline the bad headline joke of who will be fall Boy who will be Fallout Boy where is Diana to judge this headline she's great you should follow guest of the show Le Cine Nerd on Twitter

I wish she was here but I can kind of make her proud because this I can't think of an actual example of this because that's one of the reasons I think it's a great episode because it is tailored around like they're casting a nobody to be in your favorite thing and how cool that would be if you were a kid and had that opportunity and i was trying to think about a

big budget movie that like publicly cast a nobody and i can only think about because i listen to you must remember this a fantastic old hollywood podcast about the story of gene seberg who won oh i love a random person who won like a lead role an Otto Preminger movie, and she became famous overnight before the movie was ever out. But it also meant because she was a nobody, the director treated his star like total shit, and she had nobody to go to bat for ever. And if you ever just look up that clip, Joan of Arc, Gene Seberg, they just set her on fire.

She is set on fire, and they use it in the film because something explodes in her face, and it's just a woman being hit with fire and like trying to and she's in chains my god when you're done listening to this listen to uh you must remember it's really good yeah i think it's gene and jane jane fonda yeah the blonde series i have a uh more recent example that's not exactly plucked from obscurity but uh in the case of The Last Jedi, the actress who plays Rose, she had been on the Comedy Bang Bang podcast. They talk about how she had one acting credit before being cast in The Last Jedi, the Comedy Bang Bang TV show. And so it would always be like Kelly Marie Tran, then in parentheses, Comedy Bang bang bang because that was her only other credit really wow and they tell a story of how they wanted to bring her back for a second

episode and her agent told them i'm sorry she's working on a movie and they joked in the writer's room like i bet it's a new star wars and it was a new star wars on the podcast you must remember this they were they interviewed an actor or comedian who was up for that role. I think it was Lauren Lapkus. And she didn't get the part. I mean, there's tons of people up for roles. I listened to this pro wrestler podcast where they've talked like twice now of, I was auditioning for something I think was a Marvel movie, but I can't tell you if it was or not.

Let's hear some of those Fall Out Boy auditions. At last, the world is safe. Hey, Fall Out Boy. Let's hear some of those Fallout Boy auditions. At last the world is safe. Eh, Fallout Boy? What's for lunch tomorrow? Next. Chicken next? We're never going to find... Wait a minute. That child has the exact qualities we're looking for. He's perfect. What is his name?

I don't know. He just came along with one of the others. He didn't sign up officially. Oh, forget him then. It wouldn't be fair to the other children who filled out their application forms in full. Next! At last the world is safe, eh, Fallout Boy? Watch out, radioactive man! Brilliant reading again.

Watch out, radioactive man! Fantastic! One more time! Watch out, radioactive man! Congratulations, Bart Simpson! You're our new Fallout boy! That's what I'd be saying to you if you weren't an inch too short. Next! Man, what an act break.

Bart is triple screwed in this episode. Well, first off, I love that Doris Grau is the one doing that, or Lunch Lady Doris is, who is two months away from passing away. Yes, enjoy enjoy why she lasts folks yeah but so i just love that gag that like the meta commentary is obviously the plot you write for an episode of the simpsons is bart is cast in the radioactive man movie duh that's what's supposed to happen and three times this episode they're like time to go the obvious thing zag nope not doing it i can i if there was an internet like this today they're like time to go the obvious thing zag nope not

doing it i can i if there was an internet that like this today they'd be treating it like the last jedi how dare you do that exactly i fucking i listen to a laser time which we haven't recorded yet but i have a real theory on why people hate the last jedi on unfairly it's it's really good but anyway yeah it's i also love that gag that dave murkin he's a guy who had made live action films and would actually leave the simpsons to return to live action films including romeo michelle's high school reunion it's really good i love so much i just love the commentary that you would oh he didn't sign up officially then we can't cast just apparently martin is the perfect follow-up boy There's so many movies, stories of hearing like,

Oh, my friend auditioned and I came with him and they cast me. It wouldn't be fair to the other children. But this time they're like, no, we got to be fair. Did remind me of that fucking scam. And I'm sorry,

we're all off topic. This is a fun episode. This thing that would come to the local Tallahassee civic center. We're scouting for models. Just pay $30 to come inside. And I went with my girlfriend and some of her friends. And it's just like this parade of crying women and they were just like

trying to get and they were just trying to get validated and told they were pretty because there's like this fake shit like now you have to pay for an agent we happen to have one right here and then you need to program and like yeah no one got a fucking modeling job sorry really infuriated me I hope they don't exist anymore

and if it wasn't now their talent shows you assume that exists but you also assume they wouldn't be advertised on network television show up at the fucking civic center where garth brooks plays and take up that much room but yeah that is the ultimate david murkin joke uh it's like here's the exact thing you and bart wants to hear actually i meant the opposite goodbye act break uh yes it's like that's what i'd be saying to you if like no opposite goodbye act break yes just like that's what I'd be saying to you if like no one talks no one would

talk like that yeah you would say that and also yeah yeah it's it's also weird that this is looking into the the logic of this episode a little too closely but

they're filming in Springfield but they also feel obligated to cast in Springfield at the same time yeah you would not cast in Springfield but they want a local kid to

play Fall Out Boy which would never happen. They wouldn't cast. They don't cast unknowns for Marvel movies. Except for Todd Holland. He had a couple credits, too, Mike. Nobody has no credits. So, actually, that's the behind-the-scenes scuttlebutt on Solo, a Star Wars film, is that the guy they played to play han solo who they just hired him because

steven spielberg's like this guy's good on the set they're like this guy can't act man like this guy sucks like ron howard saved the grinch oh never mind no he can't save anything that movie was on in a bar and i was just like this is the nightmare it's only bet it only looks better now because cat in the hat is much worse speaking of burton it's like you wanted to be tim burton with this movie it's like every angle is a dutch angle and like the production oh yeah never mind look forward to my grinch podcast i like bart with his growth chart it's really cute him drawing over his hair which had been done before in the burt when it was his birth episode and the timmy o'toole down the well one

that's how homer measures his height as He did grow half an inch in one day. Pretty good. Pretty good, which is the same rate that Grandpa is shrinking, which Grandpa has never been that short before or since. His height is pretty constant, but I like that. It's a nice visual gag. Then Bart has his ability to look fake tall, which is what real movie

stars do when they're not tall, which most movie stars are not tall. Tom Cruise is always standing on an apple crate. That image, especially, I just saw it memefied again because Robert De Niro is making a new film with Al Pacino.

What is this movie? It's called The Irishman. It's the next Scorsese show. He has a striped suit and lifts in his shoe and a dog on a leash. It's beautiful. It's the most unbelievable thing The Simpsons has ever predicted. And it's on a leash. It's like, yes, it's, it's beautiful. It's the most unbelievable thing the Simpsons has ever predicted. And De Niro. It's hard to photograph for someone to look more ridiculous than Al Pacino,

but he doesn't. I refer to them by their new names, dirty grandpa and Dunkachino. Remember that they were acting, acting gods. They're like, man, it's De Niro.

Well, that's what, that's what happened. We talked a little bit with Jerry Lewis. They're a royalty that lived too long. Yeah. They, they both should have died in the're like, man, it's De Niro. Well, that's what happened. We talked a little bit with Jerry Lewis. They're a royalty that lived too long. Yeah, they both should have died in the 90s. After Casino. So then Bart Shirley must be cast as Fall Out Boy now.

Good news, gentlemen. I've grown that extra inch you wanted, plus several feet more. We found our new Fall Out Boy. And he's right over there. Damn it. Ladies and gentlemen, meet America's new fallout boy. Out of the way. Millhouse, baby!

Lionel Hatch, your new agent, bodyguard, unauthorized biographer and drug dealer. Keep her away. Leave me alone! Mom! Dad! Make them stop! What is all this stuff? We've heard you've become a star. We decided we better start living in the fast lane. What if I'm not a success?

How will you pay for all this? I'm sorry, I can't hear you, son. I'm not a success? How will you pay for all this? I'm sorry, I can't hear you, son. I'm wearing a jacuzzi suit. The jacuzzi suit is awesome. It's a sequel to Speak Up and Wearing a Towel. Yeah. Also, The Last Jedi literally has a jacuzzi suit

in it. The second I saw Finn in his outfit, I was like, that's a jacuzzi suit. Exactly. So, I forget, I don't have this written down, did we see millhouse audition or no okay we do see him being taken to the audition by luann and she takes off his glasses right beautiful eyes which that was not the first time he has been glasses list previously in bart the murderer at the chocolate factory his glasses fall and he's like my glasses and they're just two dots he has no irises with the akbar and jeff uh dots exactly which this is a slight step up

from two dots you'd never see a character with two dots at this point in the simpsons it's like it's too weird it's too comic strippy but yes millhouse is immediately famous and already being destroyed just that introduction of like here's the person who's famous now. Destroy them. Like, here they are. He's being chased and his parents have already sold him out. And the Lionel Hutz wants to be the thing a famous person, a famous child actor has. An exploiter.

An immediate exploiter. It's like, oh yeah, I'm going to exploit everything about you. And the parents too are just like, yeah, we're going to be rich now. We're your parents. We get all your money. I'm sad we didn't get more of Lionel Hutz in this episode. He's just there for that one line, keep her away. I know.

We always mention Mr. Show every episode. But the drug dealer keep her away does remind me of the pumpkin-y sketch of the E! True Hollywood story. Just him saying, like, nobody told me the money would go away. The money, it's the money it's the money's fault uh which made fun of cory feldman before he became just a sad yeah man okay let's explain this line which if there was this is almost my line of the show but i just love bart's delivery on it i just missed out on the greatest opportunity of my entire life george burns was right show business is a hideous bitch goddess.

So Bob and I both did the same research on this. How about Bob? We read the same Tumblr post that explained three different reasons why this joke is funny. So I think it is A. Bart should not know a George Burns quote offhand. B. George Burns would be funnier

than just saying hideous bitch goddess. It would be like a George Burns style joke. And he loves Hollywood. He loves show business. He would not say he hates it. He wasn't show business for 93 years. So we can assume he loves it. Also, it is a loosely based

on a Tennessee Williams quote in which he called success a bitch goddess. Not a hideous bitch goddess, but a bitch goddess. The quote is understandable in onlooking citizens only as a symptom of the moral is understandable in onlooking citizens only as a symptom of the moral flabbiness born of the exclusive worship of the bitch goddess success

and we missed this line earlier but as a kid in catholic school i love the i love the quote i can suck up to him like the like the religious people suck up to god yes that is great i was like that's so blasphemous i love it and that uh lisa's explanation of what bart being in the entourage would be is actually a complete reversal of bart's imagination of being a rock star all right in uh the spinal tap episode he even throws a whiskey bottle at millhouse when he's feeling blue in the slag offag off. Used to be about the music, man. And I love those gags. So then we get the warning that you should

never let anyone film in your home. Guess what, kids? They're gonna pay us $50 a day to film some of the movie here. We'll run that cable through here. Careful now. Hey, didn't you direct a natural discretion? Well, yes, I did.

Hoo-wee! Woo! Oh, you know, I never walk out of a movie, but yeah! I've got an idea, Mr. Simpson. Why don't you get something to eat from our food truck? Hey! Mr. Simpson? The gag about telling a director, like director like oh didn't you direct this that was horrible homer has some standards no filmmaker wants to hear that and it's though

it's funny that like homer wouldn't know any director he he's not he maybe he became more of a film cricket after that's true he realized how easy it was but that that scene there where he's so proud of directing a natural discretion that i was like okay you're joel schumacher like you joel schumacher also had that same ponytail just done falling down at this point is that title a parody of basic instinct maybe or sorry falling down was yeah it was like 92 well no a natural discretion is totally fatal attraction Attraction. Fatal Attraction, yeah. It's one of those two. Basic Instinct, I blame for derailing the career of Paul Verhoeven

because Paul Verhoeven fucking rules. And then after that, they're like, oh, you make Cinemax porn, right? He's like, well, not really, but all right. I'm good at it. He is good at it. Yes, we just talked about Basic Instinct in the last episode as well. So I also love the little detail of all the crew wearing the Radioactive Man is good at it yes we just talked about basic instinct in the last episode as well so i also love the little detail of all the crew wearing the radioactive man crew shirts and hats with a

lightning bolt in it it's really nice so here's another very inside joke i believe when crusty goes to say yeah you gotta catch me as crispy the clown that is sean young demanding yes she said that tim burton promised her she'd be Catwoman in the Batman sequel. He then didn't cast her, and she very embarrassingly, for her, went on talk shows dressed as Catwoman to be like, You promised me, Tim Burton. It's like, this is really not helping your career, Sean Young. What's that sound? It's phone calls of directors wanting to work with you now. i think more importantly we're missing the fact that this movie has three

clowns in it four clowns oh yeah crusty will play three of them yes he'll be dr clownius silly sailor angry the clown angry the clown which that's another great subtle joke is it's a joke on headshots that yeah having a headshot where you're in four moods just to be like, oh, you'll definitely be cast for each of those moods. Microscope Krusty. I want that action figure. Oh, it's beautiful. And then even Krusty can admit he's got to let him down on Silly Sailor. He's not good enough for that.

Him being told like, I told you, you're wrong for the part. That feels so much like Sean Young and Tim Burton. Allegedly Robin Williams was like, really wanted to be the Riddler and everybody told him no. He almost seems too big for the Riddler because he would have been. You're supposed to be. He probably would have cost too much. Jim Carrey steals that film from everyone. Yeah.

Though that story of why Tommy Lee Jones hated him just because your movie made more money than my movie. It's just like, come on, at least hate Jim Carrey for being, like, a screen hog or something. But, yeah, so. Oh, great. Okay, is this line in the show? That's the joke. Up and at them. Up and at them.

Up and at them. Up and at them. Up and at them. Up and at them. Up and at them. Up and at them. Up and at them. Better. He just gets louder. He just gets louder. Well, I think, because to McBain, he's saying, yes, I am saying what you're saying.

His diction coach, that is so beautiful. And again, we thought this was a joke. Rainier Wolfcastle cast in a superhero movie yes meanwhile the next batman movie i think arnold got his highest payday if i'm not mistaken because he didn't want to do it he's like i don't want to do a batman movie like 20 million dollars and you're on screen for people were bragging 17 minutes jim carrey's making 20 million he made 25 million but wow but as a result it's like but you got to do whatever we say awful lines and you're in this makeup the whole time with contact lenses i've told this story a million times but i love it

that when george clooney was on the david letterman show when arnold was running for governor david letterman's like what do you think of this stuff were you ever him running for governor you ever in a movie with him and then george clinton says, yes, I was in Batman and Robin, remember? And the whole audience laughs. Yeah, he's like, yeah. The very idea is it's a joke. We all forgot that. It's a bad movie,

but it's such a fun bad movie to watch. It's a great watch. Yeah. Man, the advertising they spent on that, it was everywhere. Inescapable. And then we get another double fake out. I love this so much. Hiescapable. And then we get another, like, double fake-out. I love this so much.

Hi, Milhouse. Hey, I want you to know that I'm glad at least one of us got the part. Milhouse! I didn't do it. I wished him well. I wished him well! Stupid dummy wasn't supposed to explode yet. There's the real Milhouse. Milhouse! Hey, you're not Milhouse.

No, I'm just Milhouse when he gets hurt. Okay, let's get the real Milhouse over here under the X-ray truck. Hi, Bart. Hey, cool, Milhousehouse you get to be crushed by a truck it sounds like more fun than it really is hey i think i'm lying on a broken bottle beautiful use it yeah that director and his friend is they're never named are they no they are none of them they don't have names but the god damn it the double joke of like mill Milhouse explodes like, oh, there's Milhouse. He gets run over. It's Estonian dwarf.

And then I have an extra giggle like, there's no reason the director would say, let's get the real Milhouse in here other than for Bart's sake. So let me know it's a real Milhouse. I think this episode could be the king of the screw the audience jokes. It might be. There's just so many of them. And they're all at bart's expense too as i said on the season wrap up them getting punchier later in the season is them going like we'll do so many screw you audience jokes we're gonna do it over and over again and uh then we find out how fallout

boy gets his powers action thanks for the help, mysterious stranger. Say, I think those x-rays gave me superpowers. That was perfect! Let's do it again. Uh, these aren't real x-rays, are they? Good question! We'll check into that. Okay, x-ray machine to full power. Action!

Director, it's all about realism. Real acid, real x-rays, real broken glass in your spine. X-ray machine to full power and so that the x-ray machine thing is very much in the Marvel 60s way of radiation equals superpowers

which in the 60s in the post-Atom Bomb era, who knew what radiation does? Maybe it does give you powers. It's a new time. It was a Tom Servo joke. And as we all know, it can only hurt if you touch it. That's right.

That's right. It's also odd that Milhouse is acting in his street clothes as Fall Out Boy. They just use it. They're like, you know, this costume is... It's weirder later that they have a scene of Fall Out Boy in costume just sitting on a couch. Yes. But that, They're like, hey, you know, this costume. It's weirder later that they have a scene of Fall Out Boy in costume just sitting on a couch. Yes. But I will say, though, in the comic books, that is not Fall Out Boy's origin.

In the comic book I gushed about earlier. All right. What is it? His origin is he is in a parody of Spider-Man's origin being at a science experiment, a live science experiment, a radioactive man and his civilian identity saves him while holding onto this radioactive laser. He holds onto it and then is holding onto Fall Out

Boy in his arm with his other hand and it conducts energy through him to give Fall Out Boy a small amount of radioactive man's power. Sounds like My Hero Academia. You know it is! It's pretty silly, man. It's all for all you anime nerds. Alright, we gotta do that before Weeb

Simpson steals it from us. That's right. That's one of my favorite Twitter accounts, folks. Weeb Simpsons. It'll make no sense to you unless you watch all anime and all Simpsons. Start 20 years ago. But the x-ray machine is so powerful you can see Milhouse's skeleton he has some sort of

cancer in his brain now he's he he's gonna die soon but uh then we have a bit about cows versus horses which i don't know like specifically what it is but the idea like things look different on film than they do in real life like it makes me think of how they use like mashed potatoes to make ice cream yeah and well there's actually a page on the website Snopes about this that is there to fool you it is like one of the zebra one yeah it's one of the fake pages they made where it's just like don't believe

like just because it's an authority don't believe it so there's an entire page on Snopes it's like Mr. Ed was a zebra because horses didn't I mean because the stripes would not show up on black and white TVs or whatever which is total bullshit, of course. I've read it so many times. God damn you, Snopes.

It was driving me crazy because I was looking at it for this. I'm like, that's so made up. Why is this on Snopes? And then I click through. It's like, oh, this is all a joke. This is all a joke on the reader saying, don't believe it just because it's on a website. This is one of our fake pages we made.

Maybe change your fucking web layout, though. Yeah. No, it's slightly better. It's now like circa 2001. Okay, great. Web design. I gotta say, as a kid, I never got jokes about Teamsters. I was just like, what is a Teamster?

I don't get jokes about unions. You see, Henry, they're in a union, so they're allowed to be lazy. Yep, that's the only thing unions are for, to allow people to be lazy and mooch off you. I think it's also because Teamsters were connected to organized crime, so you could be more shiftless if you had a mob backing you. That's also true. Yeah. You guys working a movie? You're saying we're not working.

Oh, I always wanted to be a Teamster. So lazy and surly. Mind if I relax next to you? I just love that scene. It's like a zombie movie. It has new meaning when there's no picture. The intense relax off is nice. They're trying hard to relax on the commentary you can hear murkett kind of walk it back like but we love our teamsters

could make movies without them like simpsons can make fun of teamsters because it's made without them they don't have to work with them then we get a little glimpse into how frustrating it is to actually make a film wow you really got it made now, Milhouse. This is living. Is it, Bart? Yes. Is it really? Yeah.

Ever since I became a movie star, I've been miserable. I had to get up at 5 a.m. just for makeup. I like the way the blush brings out my cheekbones, but it's not worth it. And making movies is so horribly repetitive. I've said Jiminy Jelliker so many times, the words have lost all meaning. We've got to do the Jiminy Jellica scene again, Milhouse. But we already did it. It took seven hours, but we did it.

It's done. Yes, but we've got to do it from different angles. Again and again. And again and again and again. Ah! Yeah. different angles again and again and again and again and again yeah millhouse should listen to marge it's his job to be repetitive yeah it's his job i've i've never been i've never been in a movie guys but when i have done things for like videos on the internet and a you don't want to do two takes of an Oscar sketch.

When a video producer has told me a third time, well, let's do it again. I'm like... When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you. We care about you. We care about you. home and auto insurance personalized to your needs weird i don't remember saying that part visit dejaden.com care and get insurance

that's really big on care did i mention that we care you fucking have it like i become miller it's like we did it it's done i will not do a third take like chris you've done the closest thing to a actual film of us the zombie it's just one thing that sucks that i can only i only have that thing to bring up but it's they put money into it and made it an actual film shoot so what that we were starring in and i was in makeup and yeah i had that one i tell that story when people, I used to bitch about people like, oh, this guy turned on a roll because he wouldn't wear makeup.

We had to shoot in a restaurant in the summer, and so the machines wouldn't pick up on camera. They turned everything off. So it's 150 degrees. I'm in full makeup. My makeup is, my sweat is pooling around my nose and eyes to where it's spilling over inside my open eyes.

I'm like, do we have this yet? I'm like, no, we've got to move the camera around. And I almost cried. I almost broke down. It was really, really hard. I tried my best to remain professional about it, and I just ripped everything off after I got off. People were yelling at me. That's what you get for colluding with game publishers, Chris.

I'd do it again, too. Please call us. So that's the real skill of acting, folks, to have to do something 800 times uncomfortably and pretend, even the 500th time, like, no, I'm in a spaceship and I'm in outer space, and that lightsaber's right in front of me. I'm talking to a tennis ball on a stick. It's subtly brought up by Nancy Cartwright.

Her just repeated read of Look Out Radio, it's different every time, but she does it only, that's what a real actor does. So they can hit the same beats in a different way. I can't do that. And Jiminy Jelliker's is a, you know, it's not a direct reference to any one thing. It's something like Great Caesar's Ghost or.

Holy Rusted Metal Batman. Yeah, Holy Rusted Metal Batman. It's like a hokey exclamation you'd see in a comic. Exactly, yeah. It's like all those Will Ferrell things you quote. I think there's a double joke there of that. So they say the Jiminy Jellicors line. Then next we see them watching footage, the dailies in the industry term.

And it's him saying Jiminy Jellicors, and it's so nothing. It's like, why would you spend seven hours getting this shot? But it's also a very direct mockery of Waterworld. That's right. Yes. Which had just released that previous summer. Dude, it had been out for like six weeks by the time the show aired. Yeah, but the production problems were apparent like a year in advance.

Before, I can't think of anything else like this other than maybe that Christopher Plummer, kevin spacey movie where where the behind the scenes were so well publicized because titanic had that but waterworld had even more because its set got destroyed by a hurricane a director got fired people came on to rewrite directing it himself they're rewriting as they do it when you watch the movie i watch the movie in theaters because i just want to see like what's all that money look like you see it you see every single dollar it's it's it's something I really appreciate about the film. It's probably not great, but it looks amazing. That's why.

As a result, you got to visit the Simpsons in Universal. They still have a Waterworld live show, and it looks phenomenal. At least they got rid of the backdraft ride, right? Or the backdraft room you stand in. And the extra gag in this episode is that they spent all that money to build that set for him, for Radioactive Man to just say, I can't believe that we were captured and put on the water.

They built it for that scene alone. And I think there's a little meta joke there. That's how expensive the movie is. They built a Waterworld stage. Yeah, which, why'd they do that in Springfield? Like, why would they? They never use the gorge. They say they need to go a place with a gorge,

and like, never in the episode do they go to the gorge. That's true. Waterworld was the most expensive movie ever made at the time. Do you know what the current one is? It's so dumb. It's either Tangled or Pirates of the Caribbean 3. It's Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides. On Stranger Tides, yeah.

Why is it that much money? It's $378.5 billion. Boats, man. Boats and water cost a lot Caribbean 3. It's Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides. On Stranger Tides, yeah. Why is it that much money? It's $378.5 billion. Boats, man. Boats and water cost a lot of money. That's true. I honestly think when it comes to these Disney tent poles, it's like, yeah, just spend what you want. Money is no object. If you've got to go over, you go over.

It's insane those Pirates movies still make money, even though I think it's over. You can tell Johnny, well, I hope it's over for Johnny Depp. I'd like to never see him in a movie. And I'm like, you just take care of it. Come on, you love scarves and wine stained teeth. I am so pissed off he's still Grindelwald. Like, if I may Harry Potter out a little bit. Grindelwald was like, I've been waiting forever.

Spoiler. Who would Grindelwald be? And it's like, him? No. No. It completely took me out of Fantastic Beasts. And that, like, what does poor Colin Farrell have to think? Just let it be Colin Farrell!

What does he think? Who are you playing? Who will eventually be Johnny Depp? The guy who Johnny Depp is. I was pretending to be not Johnny Depp. It's so weird. It's like, does Colin Farrell die in the middle of this production? Why did we do this? I'm looking at a list of the top five highest budget movies of all time,

and I'm looking at this one, and I'm like, John Carter, is that a Denzel Washington movie? And then I click through. It's the fucking Mars movie. That's why it failed. You named it John Carter. We need to do an update of that episode of Laser Time. It's one of my favorites I've ever thought of and done. The most expensive anything.

The most expensive everything. We try to find what costs the most. I think, like, the Beach Boys' Smile is the most expensive album if not for guns and roses 20 year in the making chinese democracy anyway that's plugs are a classic episode i love i i liked john carter as another example of disney trying to make a marvel film before they just like why didn't we why don't we just buy exactly what it is why did did we trust a Pixar animator to make a great film about a character? John Carter, making a John Carter movie is just like making a Tarzan movie now. It's like no one actually cares about this.

Same with a Zorro movie or The Phantom. Whatever you are, Valerian. No living person cares about these characters anymore. No one's even heard of them. And they predict that Milhouse will be Gabby Hayes big, which if you'd like to know who Gabby Hayes is, I've got some clips. No Rory Calhoun.

Oh, leave me alone. I ain't had so much fuss made over me since the mule kicked my teeth out. One more. And if there's 900 Shetland ponies in that darn thing, I'm a railroad man myself. Almost positive Dan Castellana has done that voice on an episode.

See the My Precious Cans guy? We did. Henry helped me out with the definitive guide to Robin Williams' genie impressions. It's either him or Walter Brennan. It's kind of a little. You finish a gallop in a hodge. I guess he's a little more cartoonish. That's more Walter Brennan, but Gabby Hayes

was the sidekick in many John Wayne films. I'm just like, ooh, I'm the jokester here. Back when you could play a coot. I'm gonna need a pie with my forehead. A guy to hit his knee, to hit his head on his knee, like, oh, shit!

Someone's gotta fall in the horse trough so that in case you've always wanted a gabby hayes is that's who it is i wrote down a colorful bearded sidekick yeah so i gotta say if this were a real movie oh yeah the story of the making of the acid scene would enthrall me just like you worked that hard to make it's it reminds me of the story in the movie where burt rannells played a stuntman and that hooper hooper where he had to drive the car and almost be smashed by a falling like a tower it's fucking nuts you don't even mind that movie shot like fucking a tony jaa movie where they show every stunt 16 times because like yeah

here's a bunch of people who are almost almost actually murdered might as well show this again you can't make a movie like that anymore it's why Jackie Chan movies in America once he came to America sucked because it's just like

well no we have insurance and you can't die on this movie so no you can't you're going to have to do a much more boring stunt well shit can you kick an umbrella stand

careful careful careful Jackie your knee can I kick an umbrella stand? Careful. Careful. Careful, Jack, your knee. Can I kick this umbrella stand near a car? Nope, can't do it. No, no, no. We're going to have to put the car in a dolly. Get O'Shea in here.

But yes, it is real acid. Full Out Boy will untie Radioactive Man and pull him to safety moments before he's hit with a 40-foot wall of sulfuric acid that will horribly burn everything in its path. Now, that's real acid, so I want to see goggles, people. Real acid? Okay. Roll film.

Tip the acid vats. And action. Only Fallout Boy can save me now. Where's Fallout Boy? Fallout Boy? Uh-oh. My eyes, the goggles do nothing that's my line that's the joke what i like about this scene i'm just realizing it now it seems as if the

director is explaining this to everyone for the first time no one was briefed on this very dangerous son just like okay here's what you're doing in this scene. A million dollar scene. Yeah. At a certain level, this is the director's fault. He shouldn't have rolled action when he doesn't know that Milhouse is in place. If everything went fine, Milhouse almost would die in it. It's the goggles. He's up to his neck in like 800 gallons of acid.

Cheap pool goggles. And it's using that moment to complain. I love, they have to fudge it because obviously he should be a skeleton. He shouldn't even be saying words. His underwear don't dissolve though. The way that the metal is destroyed by the acid is beautiful. And he says that it cost a million dollars.

I wish there would have been a scene of him negotiating with Burns to destroy that much of the nuclear power plant. God, it kind of conflicts with the message of this show in that the Hollywood people are honest and good and pure, and the small-town people are out to get them. But this is so negligent. That has become my favorite joke about the episode, though, at this point. We'll get to that. The goggles.

No, no. Act three is when they become more innocent yeah we we did we have kind of skipped over the clips uh just a couple of the them ripping off the tat the town folks ripping them off with constant uh constant taxes the puffy director's pants tax i do love the shot of mill house running away like it's like such a hero shot like totally for the commercial or trailer use that zest in the film that might be the the image for one of the images for this episode on the site too and uh so then we get a joke that's uh honestly rooted in the death of brandon lee oh yeah thanks to modern editing techniques we can use existing footage to complete the film without Milhouse. Watch.

Looks like we're in trouble for that boy. Jiminy Jelliker's radioactive, man. We'll have to fight our way out. Are you ready? Yes. Seamless, huh? You're fired. And with good good cause the guy just owns it he's like you should fire me i bet so that's and that's another i don't remember in modern times we're not this mired with behind the scenes muckety muck we just brought up last jedi we didn't hear anything about the movie was shot like two years ago yes and like we didn't hear anything about the movie was shot like two years ago yes and like we didn't

hear anything about it it was great after the film came out that then ryan johnson and all these interviews were just like i'll tell you everything yeah it's out now i'll tell you everything about the porgs are us covering up puffins like i love that yeah but this was one that had to come out before the movie because brandon lee the son of Bruce Lee, was accidentally killed on the set of The Crow, a comic book film that made an okay comic book film become a lot more important. Not unlike when, say, Jeff Buckley dies before his album comes out.

Everybody's like, oh, this album's so good. Jeff Buckley, like, is it? Or are you just, like, enhanced his death? It's not that good. Actually, in college, I met a guy, and we were talking about comics. He's like, oh, have you read The Crow? It's my favorite comic ever.

That's impossible. Mike W. Barr's Crow. I was like, no, let me borrow it. I read it. I was like, wow, this guy's in his 20s, and he likes this. Yeah. Now, if you read The Crow, you'd be like, well, this is a cute little Tumblr post, but I mean, you need to improve a lot.

We talked about that on Laser Time and Cape Crisis, that Hollywood had been dying to get comic book movies on the screen but marvel and i don't know what marvel and dc's problem was they didn't seem to want to i would say marvel's problem is that they trusted stan lee to negotiate deals for them in hollywood and he didn't he did a very bad job and you can listen to a podcast one of my favorite podcasts i did in 2017 that's great was explaining oh how complicated it was spider-Man got to make a movie, why it took until 2002 for Spider-Man to have a movie. Again, not to plug another show,

a laser time we did about actors who died on set. If I'm not mistaken, the story is, and this sucks, and it feels really stupid, that blanks and guns are bullets with the bullets removed. There's still the casing and the powder. It looks like a bullet. And in most cases, I'm pretty sure, just put a single frame of flare over the gun in post. Yes.

It doesn't need to come from the actual gun. That wasn't the case. Someone had been behaving irresponsibly with the gun on the set of The Crow. And I think it was an issue of something got inside of that casing. And guess what? Anything that gets inside of the casing, it becomes a bullet. A projectile will fly out of it. Yeah, an origami flamingo, a pebble,

like that's just another bullet that fired into Brandon's heart. It was the stunt coordinator's fault. It was. They didn't check the gun. And also he was murdered, not in cold blood, accidentally by Michael Massey, the actor, who died last year, 2016. Or two years ago, rather. And I feel terrible for that guy.

Like, you killed Brandon Lee. Like, I know. But I didn't want to. I was acting in a film. What I thought was tragic is, like, every obituary when this guy died, this actor died, is like, oh, yeah, he was the guy that did this. It's like, don't put that on him. Yeah. He was given a prop.

He was given a prop that malfunctioned. And I'm too terrified to go back and watch The Crow. It's not good. But I know on YouTube you can watch special features and how they made it happen. And what fascinates me more is that it's like, we always hear about films insuring something. We rarely see what happens

when that insurance has to kick into place. So I'm sure an effects guy will correct me on this because it's not true, but the money for the Crow's insurance kind of helped pioneer a lot of digital technology because it's money they wouldn't have spent to madden a human being that doesn't exist in the scene.

Because they filmed some of him, but not all of him. I forget how convincing that was. I did see the movie. Well, it helps that it's a very dark film. It's a dark film and it's never a CG character. It's him being digitally moved to another scene and minor alterations made on his position in lighting. But it's almost always randomly in the shot, taken from other takes.

Yeah, which it was extra... If you were a Bruce Lee fan, it was extra creepy when he died, because people were like, is there a curse on bruce lee and then his son is murdered on a movie too just like you shouldn't act in movies people thought brandon lee would be the next big star like he was on his way to being the next bruce lee people thought rapid fire enjoyable film at the time ken and also what happened in the crow happened to bruce

lee when he died he had an incomplete film they included him fighting Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The scenes came out and it was cut together into basically 18 different films. There were multiple versions of whatever that film was supposed to be. It was a very sad thing for Brandon Lee, too. We just went through the modern version of that with

the second most recent Fast and the Furious film, which people say you can find the seams i wasn't looking for the seams when i watched that film but it seems pretty clear that paul walker you can tell when it's his brother or when it's just recycled footage it's a peter cushing robot most of the time it's kind of he has kind of a different haircut yeah but someone just loves the fast series and yet the end of that movie i was like the fast series which i thought was a terrible joke when they get to the end of that movie I was like, the Fast series, which I thought was a terrible joke,

when they get to the end of that movie saying goodbye to Paul Walker I was like, I'm kind of crying here. How dare this movie be able to make me feel everything. I hate you. How dare you. See you again. Well, speaking of car crashes, Bart goes looking for him at Slot Car Heaven, which I wish they looking for him at Slot Car Heaven,

which I wish they'd go back to Slot Car Heaven. I enjoy that Otto is racing his Slot Car school bus, and he just seems to want to destroy it. He doesn't want to win at all. Yes, yeah. And that Slot Cars do suck. Like, I had a Slot Car. If I may complain about a toy given to me as a child,

an expensive toy. You son of a bitch. I did not like the Slot Cars I had. My parents never bought me one. They were no fun. Buddy Shit Steve got me on this. Never knew this. He's he's like yeah you want to see something else cool like put your cheek on it and like okay and then just like hit both things at the same time and electrocuted my face yeah i'm glad these things don't exist long live anki hot wheels are way better man they don't

have a peg in the bottom of it you can play with them when they're not on the slot car yeah that's right they couldn't really roll around without no they're they they suck compared to just a hot wheel and a in a loop-de-loop a nice nice orange one so uh then this is almost my line of the show too but i i just love this go okay we can all stop worrying now these dogs never fail but will they just find millhouse or will they find him and kill him? Well, when they find him, they'll, um, um, um, um, um, um, um. Excuse me, you didn't answer me. You just trailed off. Yeah. Yeah, I did kind of trail off there, didn't I?

I do like the animation of him going, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um. All right, this is coming up. There are some Simpsons, I would call them J-list characters, that I would like to get to know better. Dr. S is on my list with Hugh Jazz as a character I want a whole episode about. What an avable man. Yo, Dr. S, have you seen Milhouse today?

No. Okay, thanks. Wait, did you seen Milhouse today? No. Okay, thanks. Wait, did you know that there's a direct correlation between the decline of Spirograph and the rise in gang activity? Think about it. I will. No, you won't. Dr. Spiro exists for 15 seconds. They build an entire, well, build.

They draw an entire factory and an interior, and you can see all those mad designs. But did you guys ever have a Spirograph? I didn't, but every single free summer camp and after school program i did yeah you did spirographs are lame they're they're they're an arts and crafts project but it's like it just draws i mean you just pretty cool basically if you've never seen a spirograph before it is a kind of just a frame that you put a shape into and when you put a pen or a pencil into one of the holes in the shape and you move it around the circle, it creates a geometrically perfect design. Putting a pencil

inside a gear of moving parts so you can make these really cool designs. But once you've seen a few of them, you're like, eh, okay. I had a pocket Spirograph I got when I was nine, eight or nine. No, you didn't. In the late 80s, there was a resurgence of Spirograph. Well, it's

never gone away. It's still around. It is okay, yeah. Yeah, it's still owned by Hasbro. Dr. Spirograph feels like he lives... It's Dr. S, but you don't know what his full name is. Dr. S, I think, exists in a commercial. Bart walks up and like, say, the Tootsie Roll Pop thing. Hey, Mr. Owl. Hey, Dr. S.

Have you seen... But it's funny that there's an established relationship between Milhouse, Bart, and Dr. S. It had never come up before and would never come up after. It's honestly a scene that could be easy to cut, but I just love how stupid it is. It's so great. And here is a classic commercial from Spirograph. Amazing. These are just a few of the designs that can be made with Spirograph by Kenner.

Change wheels. Change wheels. Change colors. Make a million multicolored designs, each so beautiful your eyes won't believe what your hands have done. Spirograph by Kenner. So much fun you'll never want to stop. Spirograph. The world's most fascinating new toy. It's fascinating.

Kenner comes a bird. Kenner! It's fun! Who needs drugs when you can trip out on Geometry Man? I just watched the Toys That Made Us.

You get to see that Kenner bird a lot. I got to watch that. I haven't seen it yet. Kenner was so lucky they got Star Wars. It's crazy. It bought them an

existence? Holy shit, it's crazy. Were they purchased by anyone or did they go out of business or what? No, I think they just went out of business like not having Star Wars killed their business

because of this mysterious deal they signed with George Lucas, which at the time was unprecedented. Watch it. It's on Netflix. It's good. Spirograph just celebrated its 50th anniversary as a toy. Wow. So it's been around for a long time. Kind of neat, but kind of one note.

It feels more like a Happy Meal toy. So it does, yeah. This thing to do one thing forever can i pretend with it no you cannot there's nothing you can do with it can i lose a piece and not be able to draw anything not at all sir all right so then bart finally finds millhouse in the magical six-sided four-sided uh treehouse another great fu audience joke but the yeah millhouse's reason for quitting is that it is so phony. He's like,

I'm not cut out for this. Hollywood's so phony. And he believes in the real heroes, which like, then Bart, in a very pre-9-11 joke, gets to talk about how all heroes are real heroes are garbage.

Being a star is every patriotic American's dream. Not mine. It's a sham, Bart. You get up on that movie screen pretending to be a hero, but you're not. The's a sham, Bart. You get up on that movie screen pretending to be a hero, but you're not. The real heroes are out there, toiling day and night on more important things.

Television. No! Curing heart disease and wiping out world hunger. But Milhouse, they haven't cured anything. Heart disease and world hunger are still rampant. Those do-gooders are all a bunch of pitiful losers. Every last one of them.

Want results? You have to go to the Schwarzeneggers, the Stallones, and to a lesser extent, the Van Dams. I do like Bart talking up TV in comparison to movies. Him being in a TV show helps. That is what's better now. Television is better than movies. Though now there's honestly just too much TV. I can't watch it.

I want to watch that Toys to Made Us thing,. I can't watch it. I want to watch that Toys and Maters thing, but I have like eight other shows I need to finish first. Like, I need to finish The Good Place. Get up to date on that.

Like, there's too much fucking television. But there's a guy. So there's someone who comes from a time before television sucked up our lives. Is it Death Jingle time?

Oh, yes. I believe it is. Oh, no. Death stalks you at every turn. There it is. Death. Mickey Rooney, the Mixter. Mickey Rooney.

Hi, Milhouse. The studio sent me to talk to you, being a former child star myself, and the number one box office draw from 1939 through 1940 wow spanning two decades how'd you find us uh they tapped your treehouse phone so first off i would like to say i missed that joke for the longest time that spanning two decades i thought the joke was bart doesn't know what years are but technically he is spanning two decades, the 30s and the 40s. He is right. So Bart is correct there.

I just thought it was a joke that Bart is stupid and confuses years and decades. No, it's a confusing statistic that Mickey Rooney was a famous actor during 10 decades. Yes. 10 decades. But he never lived to be 100. He was just acting since he was four. And I do have a fun clip of Dana Carvey as Mickey Rooney. Probably more famous than Mickey Rooney at this point, but it's an NBC clip, so it's going to be impossible to play, but we'll try.

So this is a sketch from 1991 called Theater Stories. It's a bunch of doddering old British actors and Hollywood people telling stories about acting, and they're all senile and insane. We're going to play the part with Dana Carvey playing Mickey Rooney but after that I want you to leave it on because Mike Myers does two jokes in a row that he will later use in Austin Powers. Incidentally for your edification, I tried to sell

a script to Mr. Dustin Hoffman and he never called me back. And I've been in the business 68 years. Jeremy? I was the number one star in the world. Bang. The world. I made $200,000 in 1937, and by 1945, I was broke.

And I went to my accountant, and I said, I'm broke. And he said, Mickey, you can't be broke. You were the number one star in the world. You hear me? Bang. In the world. Yes hear me? Bang. In the world. Yes, I quite agree.

I've been married five times to the same wonderful man. Here we go. Yes, yes. That reminds me of a story that is in no way related. I was working with Sir John Gilgud in a production of Troilus and Cressida. When I discovered I had no control over the volume of my voice. Austin Powers? Really? Really?

You know, I've always felt that John Gielgud had a certain, as the French say, I don't know what. So you had two Austin Powers jokes in a row. You could tell this sketch was written by Mike Myers because he mined every one of his sketches for Austin Powers. I believe Dana Carvey mined his work with Mickey Rooney on a short-lived sitcom he got before SNL where he was like Mickey Rooney's son or something like that. Oh, you're right. Oh, God. We brought up You Must Remember This, the podcast.

Dana Carvey plays Mickey Rooney on the podcast. He does, just like Patton Oswalt played Boris Karloff recently. That's beautiful. She gets big guys to do it. I know. I always wanted to ask you,

do I have a microphone? If you need a James Mason. So we just lost Mickey. Well, not just, but we lost Mickey Rooney. But it was one of those things of like, let's not talk to him. He'll probably say something racist. He appeared in the Muppet movie. It was pretty great seeing him in the Muppet movie

just as like, I just need to see him one last time and say goodbye it put mickey rooney back in a number one film for his 10th consecutive decade yeah like just that little can number one star i was looking up clips of him and late in life like right before he died he was speaking out against elder abuse because he was a victim of elder abuse by his caretakers. And I felt so bad for the Mixter. Out. Victim of elder abuse for 40 years. He's been old for that long.

I got to say, the only way, I know he was a Disney favorite. The Disney company in the 50s and 60s used him quite a lot into the 2000s. Laurel and Hardy of the Simpsons. I really know him only in relation into the 2000s but from laurel and hardy the simpsons i really know him only in relation to the wonderful judy garland like oh i love judy garland so much but he's they were in a million movies together phenomenally sensitive role in breakfast they were both pumped full of amphetamines forced to perform for 80 hours and pumped full of sleeping drugs and then eventually woken up uh but he did a bunch of movies with her i think if ever they needed somebody to play a jockey

in a film, I'm like, well, you're short enough. So then we got Vern Troyer and he was out of business. So yeah, see, I love that the kids immediately are like, Mickey, Rudy, like no 10-year-old in 1995 knew who Mickey Rooney was. Yeah, probably not. No way. It had to be

explained to me and I had watched that Dana Carvey sketch before. It's that Dana Carvey sketch. But Mickey Rooney is here to save the film, and he's very right about the foreign markets only became more important over time. Oh, for sure. Listen, you can't quit this movie. I've seen your work. It's good. Very, very good.

Van Johnson good. I know I'm good. Movie stardom is just so hollow. Hollow? The only thing in show business stardom is just so hollow. Hollow? The only thing in show business that's hollow is the music industry. Come on, Milhouse, you have to do this. If not for yourself, then for the movie-going public and for the foreign markets that are more important than ever nowadays.

And finally, for me, the mixture. No! All right, I tried. finally for me the mixture no all right i tried fortunately we have a perfectly good fallout boy right here jiminy jellickers jiminy jellickers jiminy jellickers we're shutting down production that's great the foreign markets are more important than ever these days don't you feel for the foreign markets? I love the evangelization of Hollywood in the third act of this film. It becomes so great. They've got to mesh with you one more time.

Is Bart going to finally be Fall Out Boy? No. I didn't read it like that, but that's great. That's so great. We've got a perfectly good Fall Out Boy right there. It shows Bart of like, yes, he's saying bart's finally gonna be fallout boy no they cast mickey rooney i think it's that i've seen this so many times that i know mickey rooney is gonna end the end the movie so just like i just expect it but yeah that's another screw you

it's like the fifth one in a row of bart almost getting to be fallout boy yes and just uh i gotta give it to mickey rooney his his delivery and acting in this episode is great and just is like i'll say jiminy jokers all day jiminy jokers jiminy jokers and then he's kind of putting on his like disney movie voice of like i can be a shilly guy yeah he's kind of buddy hacking it up great and pete's dragon i think the only full mickey rooney films i've seen were like uh pete's dragon and he is in Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World but so is every human. Mike, yeah, he's...

Go Lillipede! I cannot remember the trailer we played but it made me laugh so much. A stem twister. A stem twister. I hope you're all satisfied. You've bankrupted a bunch of naive movie folks. Folks from a Hollywood where values differed. They weren't thinking about the money.

They just wanted to tell a story, a story about a radioactive man. And you slick small-towners took him for all they were worth. Do we give them some of their money back? No. Hurry, Mr. Rooney. We've got a disenchanted little girl in a Jell-O pudding commercial. I could play that. So, Milhouse, it must be a little tough giving up all that glamour and coming back to school, huh?

Quiet. Maybe I can get my citizenship. That gag almost feels like it was their original ending. They're like, no, that's not. We need a stronger ending. It almost feels like I'm trying to get my citizenship. But where is Milhouse in all this? Where did he go?

I guess he never came back. Estonian dwarf replaced him. He made a deal with the Estonian dwarf. I just love that slick small towners took him for all they were. A radioactive man. A radio. And just just it is beautiful it is so the other way around of the reality of hollywood that is a perfect parody of they just cared about the story they're from a simple place a hollywood different values different so the ascending dwarf uh i should remember this but is he playing the crusty burglar

yes he was. So he's alive. Homer did not kill him. He did not kill him. The medical alert bracelet probably saved him. And Alfalfa would live to a glorious 30 before he stabbed over $20. Yes. Now it's time for the Hollywood ending.

This is so fun. We know you don't have any more money left but that doesn't matter just take whatever you need from our boutiques until you can get back on your feet thank god we're back in hollywood where people treat each other right lean on me that's so great it's like when you fail in hollywood you're automatically welcomed back and everyone still loves you. Our boutiques and boudoirs. They have a sign up that says, like, welcome, failed production. Instead of Hollywood, where

in Hollywood, everyone wants everyone to fail and they mock you. Like, the second you have one failure, you're in director jail. You don't get to make instead of the jail directors really should be in where they maybe commit crimes they you're you made a failed movie you don't get to make another movie for a long time like that's what happened to um the woman who directed girl fight and then eon flux

the terrible eon flux movie but i don't blame her she then didn't get to direct another film for like a decade because like well you directed eon flux it's terrible it's like i did what you executives told me to make the terrible film that's why i'd be compensated you exist for another 10 years without a job yeah so it's it's what happens all the time a failed production this there is never to my knowledge on the scale of radioactive man there's never been a comic book film that never got made that big that they filmed stuff of superman lives is the closest or the donner superman the the donner superman where they try to film two back to back yeah well it was that eventually came out yeah the plan of it was the producers this how fucking crazy it was that warner brothers owned superman was like

we own superman but why make a Superman movie? So instead they went to the Suskinds, producers who had made very popular in the 70s Three Musketeers films that no one remembers now. But they were popular then. And one of their budget-saving things was, we're going to film the sequel and the movie back-to-back. And so they're like, we'll do the same with Superman. But Richard Donner didn't want to make a bad film.

He wanted to make a good Superman film, and that cost a lot more money. So when he's working on the second film, they're like, you're costing too much money. You're fired. We're going to put the guy who directed the Three Musketeers on this. It's an insane story. But maybe Superman lives, except they didn't actually get into production. You just see some pre-production stills

in the suit the suit Nicolas Cage in the suit yeah but there's like no set or anything it's just him like in a warehouse or whatever

in my life there has never been a good live action Superman film and I would really like to we got flashes of it no pun intended in Justice League

it's one of the only redeemable things about that movie the more I think about it there's ten minutes a good superman in that if you ignore his face but other than that a very good superman and i hope someday there will be a good superman i have nowhere else to say it but i've put on guardians of galaxy 2 for my dad i forgot the movie opens up with like a pitch perfect young kurt russell i'm like, what the fuck, Superman's mustache? What the hell? We could do this.

We can de-age a man, but hair on a lip? Yeah, like, what the fuck? That must have been some film to watch with a father. My dad loves Guardians. Oh, cool. Well, I'm just saying, because that movie is all dad all the time. It's true. It's all about dads.

Also, like Logan. You and your dad hug afterwards. Like, no. Chris Pratt is a large son in that movie. We're never going to do that. Yeah, so this episode. Wow, this was a long episode. Holy shit.

We apologize. Maybe if you like this, then don't apologize. But I got to say, I love this episode. I never cared more about movies than 1995. I was reading Entertainment Weekly. I was all into how much movies cost, how much they made, everything like that, which is why this movie meant a lot to me as a kid. And I still like it now. I just remember all that 1995 lot to me as a kid. I still like it now.

I just remember all that 1995 stuff going on. I do. I had to see everything, no matter what it was. If there was an advertisement for it, oh, a movie's out. That's good enough. And as a comic book mega nerd, I loved this episode. This is one of the most comic book-y ones ever. Three Men in a

Comic Book is still the ultimate comic book episode of The Simpsons until, I guess, when Stan Lee stanley's on but honestly they want it too much like yeah they were able to do this one without bringing in stan lee which i find impressive though the commentary on that episode with stanley is worth it it's great just to hear al jean be a nerd to stanley where he's like um you know why did the watcher say he never helps anybody and then he helped reed richards and stanley is like um well uh and that's when al jean should have realized he has he cannot be mad at simpson's pedants because he is a pedant he really is he really is but i have to say uh we are in season seven but the next episode begins the reign of

bill oakley and j and Josh Weinstein in a much different tone for the show. And I'm so excited to get into that stuff. It is almost night. This episode is insane. And the next episode is so purposefully grounded. It makes this one seem even wilder in, by comparison.

I did watch them back to back when doing this research. I was like, wow, this is a huge shift, but they're both excellent takes on the same show. Yes. And we will be getting into that in in production season seven when it begins yes you get it early though oh yeah on patreon.com

please explain talking simpsons where for five dollars a month you get access to every episode a week early and ad free go on and you also get access to the entire first season of talking simpsons all of our season wrap-ups including the season six wrap-up we just did, along with deleted scenes videos or audio versions, and us going through every short of The Simpsons as well for $10 and up premium, folks. But at the $5 level,

you also get access to every episode of Talking Critic, our completed reviewing of every episode of The Critic, and we just did a holiday special of a Talking Futurama. If you've been like, man, when are these dorks going to get to Futurama? We did it, and it's only five bucks to hear it, baby!

Yes, thank you so much for listening, folks. I've been your host, Bob Mack. You can find me on Twitter as Bob Servo. My other podcast is Retronauts. You should know it by now, but if you don't know it, it's been a classic gaming podcast for 11 years, and every week we go into the past and find a video game topic worth talking

about we've all talked about Simpsons games in this room but if you want to get into the show go to retronauts.com or look for retronauts in your podcast machine and

pick a topic you're interested in or just get interested in anything related to retronauts I'm sure you'll like it Chris yeah laser time 30 2010 and video game

apocalypse all fun shows if you like the structure of this one and the people on it odds are you're gonna enjoy that those two check them all out at laser time podcast.com or follow us on facebook just put in laser time you can't miss it you see me and hank dressed up like superheroes

thank you so much for listening we'll see you next week with home sweet home diddly dumb doodly see you then Sometimes in our lives, we all have pain, we all have sorrow. But if we are wise, we know that there's always tomorrow. Always tomorrow Lean on me When you're not strong And I'll be your friend I'll help you carry on For it won't be long Till I'm gonna need somebody to lean on.

Please swallow your pride. If I have faith, you need to borrow For no one can fill Those of your need That you won't let show You just call on me brother When you need a hand We all need somebody to lean on I just might have a problem that you'll understand

We all need somebody to lean on Lean on me When you're not strong To lean on, lean on me. When you're not strong, and I'll be your friend. I'll help you carry on. For it won't be long till I'm gonna need somebody to lean on You just call on me brother when you need a hand We all need somebody to lean on I just might have a problem that you'll understand.

We all need somebody to lean on. If there is a load you have to bear that you can't carry I'm right up the road I'll share your load If you just call me Call me If you need a friend Call me Call me Call me if you need a friend. Call me, call me.

Call me if you need a friend. Call me if you ever need a friend. Call me, call me. Call me, call me. Call me, call me. Call me, call me, call me, call me, call me. Oh, here he comes. What is it now, Quimby? Nothing, nothing. Only the city has just passed another tax on puffy directing pants.

But I don't wear puffy pants. I meant the tax on not wearing puffy pants. Oy. I'm sorry.