The Bechdel Cast - Air Bud with Lindy West and Meagan Hatcher-Mays

Episode Date: July 24, 2025

On this episode, Jamie, Caitlin, and special guests Lindy West and Meagan Hatcher-Mays break all the rules in the podcast rulebook by discussing Air Bud (1997)! P.S. grab tickets to the Bechdel Cast midwest tour at linktr.ee/bechdelcast Follow Lindy on IG at @thelindywest, Meagan at @importantmeagan, and their podcast at @textmebackpodSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. United by Passion. Podcasts that amplify the voices of women in sports. Thank you for supporting I Heart Women's Sports and our founding sponsors, Elf Beauty, Capital One, and Novartis. Just open the free I Heart app and search I Heart Women's Sports to listen now. The Girlfriends is back with a new season. And this time, I'm telling you the story of Kelly Harnett. Kelly spent over a decade in prison for a murder

she says she didn't commit. As she fought for her freedom, she taught herself the law. He goes, oh God, Harnett, jailhouse lawyer. And became a beacon of hope for the women locked up alongside her. You're supposed to have faith in God, but I had nothing but faith in her. I think I was put here to save souls

by getting people out of prison. The Girlfriends, jailailhouse Lawyer. Listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2020, a group of young women found themselves in an AI-fueled nightmare. Someone was posting photos. It was just me naked.

Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts. This is Levittown, a new podcast from iHeart Podcasts, Bloomberg, and Kaleidoscope, about the rise of deepfake pornography and the battle to stop it. Listen to Levittown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just like great shoes, great books take you places. Through unforgettable love stories and into conversations with characters you'll never forget. I think any good romance, it gives me this feeling of like butterflies.

I'm Danielle Robay and this is Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club, the new podcast from Hello Sunshine and iHeart Podcasts where we dive into the stories that shape us on the page and off. Each week, I'm joined by authors, celebs, book talk stars, and more for conversations that will make you laugh, cry, and add way too many books to your TBR pile. Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club

on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the PectoCast, the questions asked if movies have women in them video app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello listeners. Just jumping in at the top of this episode for a reminder about our upcoming Midwest tour We are so excited about this. We are coming to Indianapolis Chicago Madison and Minneapolis We have never done live shows in any of these cities. So you simply must come Starting with our Indianapolis show on August 30th

That's a Saturday matinee. And then later that night, Jamie is doing a solo show. This is all for Let's Fest. Then the following night we have a show in Chicago on Sunday, August 31st. Following that is a show in Madison on September 4th. And then finally our Minneapolis show on September 7th We are very close to announcing the movies. We're going to be covering on this tour So be on the lookout for that check our Instagram The ticket links for the shows will also be updated shortly with the movie choices and speaking of those ticket links You can access them at link tree slash Bechdel cast. Grab those tickets before they sell out. We're going to pull out all the stops for this first ever Midwest

tour that we're doing. You don't want to miss it. We will see you there. And in the meantime, enjoy the episode. The Bechdel cast. Woof woof. I'm a dog who wants to host a podcast. Check the rule book, it doesn't say a dog can't host a podcast. Woof. Maybe just cover the podcast in olive oil and we'll be able to host it no problem.

The podcast will slip right out of our mouth, careen into the air and slam dunk into a fully exported MP3 file. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah. Thank you so much.

It's dogs can do anything, but should they? A question that will come up much today. Welcome to the Bechdel cast, Arf Arf. My name is Jamie Loftus. Woof, my name is Caitlin Durante. This is our show where we examine movies through an intersectional feminist lens using the Bechdel test as a jumping off point.

It feels silly, but you're going to be shocked at the things that come up today. I'm still recovering. I watched this movie three days ago and I've been thinking about it so much. There's a lot to say. It took us, so if you've been a longtime listener of the show, I Feel like through this conversation, you'll understand why it took us nine full years to cover this movie. We really had to know ourselves better

We needed to know the medium fully. Yes, we needed to have hard discussions We needed to develop our skills as critics and grow as people before we could have the episode discussion that we're going to have today. It's our Air Bud episode. Yeah, I would say that our Flubber episode walked so that our Air Bud episode could run. Yeah, because Flubber, there's a lot going on in Flubber and you can listen to that episode.

But I wouldn't have been emotionally prepared to have the Weinstein brothers introduced in the opening moments of the film five years ago when we covered Flubber. I think I needed the time personally. I needed to go through my Saturn return before I could have this conversation. Wow, yes, yes, exactly.

So we're covering Air Bud and we're so excited about our guests today. They are two real life best friends and hosts of the podcast, Text Me Back. It's Megan Hatchermaze and Lindy West. Welcome. Yay. It's true. It's us. Two real life best friends. We are so excited to be here. Oh, my gosh. We're so excited to have you. We, we're so excited to have you. We're so excited.

Everything you've said about Air Bud is like exactly what I have written down in my four to five pages of notes that I took while watching this film. There's so much going on. I will first. Okay, before we get into it, tell us a little bit about your podcast, because I know the conversation is going to get quite serious very soon. Oh, yes, okay, before we get into it, tell us a little bit about your podcast, because I know the conversation's gonna get quite serious very soon. Oh, yes, yes. Of course.

Our podcast is a very silly podcast about two best friends who live on opposite sides of the country, and we, Megan works in politics and is very depressed, and so on the podcast, we try to have a little bit of fun. Yeah. Love it. And I am not a serious person. And so a lot of the podcast is me coming to Megan

with a news story I heard, parentheses, a TikTok I saw about how there's an ice wall around. Did you know that the earth is flat and Antarctica is actually an ice wall around the rim of the earth? Yeah, a lot of people don't know that. I didn't know that. There previously had been a race of human dog hybrids,

which somehow proves the existence of the flat earth ice wall. Anyway. Well, can they play basketball though? Can the dog human hybrids play basketball? We're about to find out. Well, they can, the question of whether they can play basketball and whether they may play basketball,

that's two different questions. Okay. Yes. But yeah, we've been best friends since high school and which was 25 years ago, 25 beautiful years ago. And our show is just like stuff we think is really funny. It's really hard to describe, but it's like, when you call your best friend

and you don't really have anything on the agenda and then you talk for two hours and then your tummy hurts from laughing. That's a Text Me Back podcast guarantee. That's right. That sounds lovely. And unfortunately, though, if you're looking for fun and silliness on this episode on Air Bud, you won't find it. Think again. No, the fun ends now because and silliness on this episode on Air Bud, you won't find it.

Think again. No, the fun ends now because, Megan and Lindy, what are your personal histories with Air Bud, the movie, the franchise, et cetera? None. I have no history. I mean, clearly I'm aware of the existence of Air Bud. I'm aware of a very poorly drafted middle school basketball handbook

that by virtue of its silence allows dogs to play middle school basketball. Like I'm aware I'm aware of the impact Air Bud has had on our culture. But I've never saw I mean, we were 15, 14, 15 when this came out. So we're a little too cool and old to be watching Air Bud. You know what I mean? And I figured it was just a silly children's movie slash franchise slash IP, you know, because now there's like a bunch of offshoots

in the sequel, he plays football, apparently. One of many sequels, yes. Something to think about. So I didn't know what to expect going into this. I will say I was knocked flat on my ass when it was revealed that it was executively produced by Harvey Weinstein. I did not, that was a major curve ball for me.

Really unpleasant, yeah. These things happen in Hollywood, baby. You know? Lindy, how about you? It did not, we were not children anymore when it came out. I did not watch it. It was one of those things that you're just very aware of because it's an outlandish premise.

Definitely a piece of pop culture that I was, that was in my vocabulary, but I don't think I'd ever actually seen it until yesterday. And it really, I mean, I know we'll get into all this, but really contained a lot more evil clown and a lot less basketball than I had anticipated. Also, I did not realize that this is a Pacific Northwest classic. I didn't know that either. Yes. And I consider myself an encyclopedia of Pacific Northwest media. Well, we grew up in

Seattle for the record. And so we're like, 10 things I hate about you. Obviously, that was more our era. I had no idea that Air Bud was a great Seattle company. I did not know that. So jealous. I'm so excited to talk about this movie with you having kind of no background with it. I sort of assumed that the reason you chose this movie is because you have a deep connection to it. No, we just thought it would be funny. No, you're so true. And that's enough. You're so true.

And that's so valid. Jamie, what's your history with the movie? So I thought I could have sworn I had seen this movie, but it turns out it was a case of cultural osmosis. I was four when this movie came out, so I was in fact the target demographic. of cultural osmosis. I was four when this movie came out, so I was in fact the target demographic. So I guess I just assumed, because these movies were so ubiquitous

in the late 90s into the early 2000s. I knew all of the like spin-off titles off the top of my head. Now I don't, wait, I have to pull up, they're all so funny. Golden receiver. Golden receiver, iconic. There's one that says, Air Bud spikes back. That's the volleyball one.

He's basically using the basketball skills again, not to criticize him, but you know. Let's be serious. Also not the original Air Bud because he died. He died after the first one. Yeah. His final film. Yeah. Oh yeah. I have a lot of thoughts about this.

All right, Air Bud World Pup, Air Bud 7th ending fetch. No, it turns out the movie that I did see that is somehow involved in the Air Bud expanded universe because it stars the same kid slash eventually man, Kevin Zeekers, Josh Fram, is I was thinking, I definitely saw and owned MVP Most Valuable Primate, which is about the chimpanzee that plays hockey. I guess my dad was a hockey reporter,

so that was the one that we owned. I assumed I'd seen Air Bud, and I could have sworn this was a movie about a dog that joins a basketball team. That is not what happens in the movie. It is more a serious family drama where a dog plays basketball a few times. I was so shocked at how willing to go there,

the movie Air Bud. It's really special because it's directed, the characters, especially the adults, they are basically Disney Channel adults where they're very cartoonish, they're very like the characters, especially the adults, they are basically like Disney Channel adults where they're very cartoonish, they're very over the top, but they have very real world problems where it's like the goofy villain is struggling with alcoholism and it's obvious. There is a goofy coach who turns out to be an abuser of children.

Yeah. He's just whipping basketballs at this kid. It's just, I just don't know. I have so many thoughts about what's going on. There is no real plot to the movie, except it seems like Josh is just trying to get through this year of his life, and a dog becomes his father, basically, is what happens.

Because his father died in a plane crash. Exploded, his father died in a plane crash. His father literally exploded. By the way, we find that out because Josh keeps a framed copy of an article about how his dad died. Yes. It's not even just a picture of your dad.

It's the O bit. Josh. Oh, Josh. Josh is unpacking his room. They've moved to a new town. He's unpacking his room. They've moved to a new town. He's unpacking his room and he pulls out a framed newspaper article that's like, man explodes. And it's his dad.

But not his obituary. No, it's like the article about him exploding. It's like an article reporting the death, yes. Josh, this poor kid. And also one of my favorite tropes of kids movies, disappearing toddler, younger sibling, who actually becomes very important later in the franchise. She later becomes the leading character, Andrea. Well, anyways,

she's also very important to this podcast because I believe she might be, she might be involved in the only incidents. Bechdel test of passing the Bechtel test. It's true. I have one other possibility, but we can get into that. I didn't mean to jump ahead, but I don't wanna. No, you're fine. You're fine.

This movie, yeah, this is ultimately, this is a great example of ultimately all movies are somehow about fathers and sons, no matter what the premise is. And Air Bud is not an exception to that role. So anyways, it turns out I had not seen this movie, and I was really, I was a gog. Yeah.

It goes way harder than you expect, and it's also, I think, way better than this kind of movie made now. I feel like it's better written, it's better acted, it's better directed, and it would be true slop just filled with product placement and the worst pop culture references. You know what I mean?

I agree. There are moments of real comedy in this movie where I was like, ha ha ha, Air Bud. There's some slapstick happening. They're goofing off. And it looks good. Like the cinematography, it's colorful, it's beautiful. Like I was very, I don't know,

my fiance came in while I was watching it. He's like, why does Air Bud look better than like most movies that come out now? Like, I don't know. It's shot on film or something. Shot on film, $3 million budget. No excuses excuses everyone. Your movie should look at least as good as Air Bud.

Practical effects by the way, at the very end it's like no special effects were used in the dog basketball sequences. Air Bud did all his own stunts and that is so important. He's a legend. You gotta put that down in the history books. He's a legend. I was really, and we'll talk about Buddy.

I was concerned when I was on the Wikipedia page and Buddy had his own Wikipedia page. You're like, this is either really good or really bad. When an animal actor has their own Wikipedia page. I was thinking about the last animal actor we really talked about in any detail, Caitlin, was Jimmy the Raven. Oh, from-

Remember him? From- It's a Wonderful Life and The Wizard of Oz. I was like, that Christmas movie, can life in the Wizard of Oz like that Christmas movie can't remember the But but yeah buddy buddy's life is complicated I feel for buddy We'll talk about it Caitlin. What's your history with our bud? I am the only one who had seen this movie before brag I definitely watched it a couple times as a kid although the dog movies that were a bigger part of my childhood were Beethoven and Homeward

Bound. Air Bud wasn't quite a staple in my house. I probably saw it once or twice as an 11 year old which is how old I was when it came out. Never saw any of the sequels. And yeah, haven't seen this movie in 25 or more years. So I'm, I also, I was remembering it, you know, not correctly, I was like, yeah, he joins the team way earlier. He plays a lot more basketball with them. Yeah. And that doesn't happen.

And it's really just like that climactic sequence. He's basically not on the team. I was so disappointed. Yeah. He's the mascot for he's a sideshow. It takes a full like 30 minutes for Josh and Air Bud to even meet. Yeah, you know, he has to like lure him out of the abandoned church with tapioca. And then it's like it takes another hour for airbud to join the team, which by the way, I'm not complaining.

It's a great movie. It's a really good movie. Okay, I want to say I want to push back a little bit because I think it's actually like gorgeous restraint and artistry to not have airbud be on the team. I love that like this movie is not camp. This movie is telling a serious story and it's not realistic for a dog to join the basketball team.

Yeah. It's much more grounded to have the dog, well not to spoil it, but show up at the 11th hour when half the team has fouled out or been injured and just step in and save the day. And or move to Spokane. I mean, it really subverts your expectations. Who you are thinking is this gonna be a series of like high adrenaline dog dunks, but it's not, not at all.

They make you really work for it. Yeah, yeah yeah and he plays real basketball you know yeah with his face yep I was so impressed buddy he's he truly was a good boy r.i.p. r.i.p. to buddy yeah well let's take a quick break and we'll come back and do the recap My Uncle Chris is definitely somebody worth talking about. He was the kind of guy that lived in a trailer with an ex-con and a retired stripper, left loaded machine guns laying around, drank a bottle of whiskey a night, claimed he could kill a man with his bare hands, drove a garbage truck for a living, spoke fluent Spanish with a thick southern accent,

and is currently buried in a crypt alongside the founding families of Panama. Listen to the Uncle Chris podcast to hear all about him and a whole lot more. Wild stories about adventure, romance, crime, history, and war intertwine as I share the tall tales and hard truths that have helped me understand Uncle Chris. This collection of stories will make you laugh, it'll make you cry, and if I do my job right,

they'll let you see the world and your place in it in a whole new way. I can't wait to tell you all about Uncle Chris. Listen now to Uncle Chris on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. — Kelly Harnett spent over a decade in prison for a murder she says she didn't commit. — I'm 100% innocent. — While behind bars, she learned the law from scratch. — Because, oh, God, Harnett, jailhouse lawyer.

— And as she fought for herself, she also became a lifeline for the women locked up alongside her. — You're supposed to have faith in God, but I had nothing but faith in her. — So many of these women had lived the same stories. — I said, were you a victim of domestic violence? And she was like, yeah. — But maybe Kelly could change the ending. — I said, how many people have gotten

other incarcerated individuals out of here? I'm gonna be the first one to do that. This is the story of Kelly Harnett, a woman who spent 12 years fighting not just for her own freedom, but her girlfriends too. I think I have a mission from God to save souls by getting people out of prison. The Girlfriends, jailhouse lawyer. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In 2020, a group of young women in a tidy suburb of New York City found themselves in an AI-fueled nightmare. Someone was posting photos. It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts on my body parts that looked exactly like my own. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. It happened in Levittown, New York.

But reporting the series took us through the darkest corners of the internet and to the front lines of a global battle against deep fake pornography. This should be illegal, but what is this? This is a story about a technology that's moving faster than the law and about vigilantes trying to stem the tide. I'm Margie Murphy. And I'm Olivia Carville. This is Levertown, a new podcast from iHeart Podcasts,

Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope. Listen to Levertown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to. There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond.

And left a woman behind to drown. There's a famous headline, I think, in the New York Daily News. It's, Teddy escapes, blonde drowns. And in a strange way, right, that sort of tells you. The story really became about Ted's political future, Ted's political hopes. Will Ted become president? Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control.

And he's not the only Kennedy to survive a scandal. The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it. So is there a curse? Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family. Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Arf Arf, we're back. And here's the recap of the movie. So we meet a man who works as a clown, whose act is called Clown and a Hound, because his partner is a golden retriever. But this clown is a piece of shit who is cruel and abusive to his dog. They arrive at a kid's birthday party, but this clown is a flop when he's

doing his solo act. But then the kids love it when the dog gets involved and does a bunch of tricks with balls and we're like, okay, Chekhov's ball handling skills. That's right. But the clown is such a flop that he ruins the whole thing and gets kicked out of the party and he blames his inadequacies on his dog. He's projecting. Really, truly. Shame. And he goes to take the dog to the pound,

but then the like crate slash dog carrier thing falls off the clown's truck. And a family happens upon the dog crate and hits it with, like hits it with their car. We're like off to the races already. We know that Air Bud is in an abusive situation with a clown, which is fascinating. And then he's almost hit by the protagonist of the movie.

Right away, I'm so stressed out and I'm so sad. You know, I hate to see a dog in a stressful situation. And here we have, you know, the so far unnamed golden retriever, you know, working as like an indentured servant to an incompetent clown, although he's wearing the cutest little outfit you ever saw in your life. This like the pathos radiating off of this retriever. I was like, I don't know if I can watch this.

What's going to happen? And by the way, the evil clown, when he's like, he's not just taking the dog to the pound, he's on the phone with the pound being like, I'm bringing you a vicious bad dog. Yeah. Implying that he's going to have that dog executed. Yeah. Yes. Oh, he's trying to get Air Bud put down. He's trying to build up some receipts for the inevitable RIP-ing of Air Bud

when he gets to the pound. That's right. Evil. And then, yeah, the crate falls off the clown truck and then is hit by the protagonist. And then, this is the weirdest scene in the movie to me, right off the bat. Josh, our main boy, looks out the window of the car,

sees a clown dog sitting on the side of the road, like two feet from the car. Josh says nothing. Nothing. No reaction. Lindy, his dad just exploded. His dad just exploded. He's in it. He's too depressed.

I'd be like, oh my God, a dog in a clown costume. He's like, I guess we'll just roll on. There's a very David Lynch-y quality to that sequence. I was going to say, because the opening, I have a provocative question. The opening scene is a canary sitting on a tree branch. It's very reminiscent of the opening credits of Twin Peaks where the red-breasted Robin is sitting on a tree branch as well, and then you find out that this is in fact taking place somewhere in the Pacific Northwest,

outside of Seattle somewhere, and I was like, question, is Air Bud happening in the same universe as Twin Peaks? Is this like eight years, or excuse me, like six years after the death of Laura Palmer, and here comes Air Bud. We can only hope. Also, is the canary the dad's ghost?

Because they show the canary again at the end of the movie and I was like, what the fuck is the significance of this bird? I did not notice that, wow. It just occurred to me when you were saying that Megs. For sure. It's implying the way they use the canary at the beginning sort of implies that this bird is like

bringing the Air Bud magic to the boy. You know what I mean? Yeah, a cosmic gift from dad, yeah. I was expecting the bird to like swoop down and give Air Bud a little kiss on his head or something to like, but then you find out he was just trained by a clown to do ball stuff, but anyway,

I think the bird is the exploded dad's spirit. I believe it, because Air Bud takes on so many like angel-like qualities throughout the movie. He can smell a child in trouble. Like, it's, and I didn't know, I didn't recognize this actor, but I was like, who is committing fully to the role of Norm Snively?

And it turns out, queer icon Michael Jeter is committing fully. Rest in power, rest in power. Yes, he passed in 2003, but he was like, he was a character actor who was like, known as like the sweetest guy in the world. He was in Hair. He's a successful Broadway actor

and he was out for much of his life. And we love him for that. And relevant to my interests at the time, he was on Sesame Street as Mr. Noodle's brother, Mr. Noodle. And, Mr. Noodle. And those who know, no. He also was in Sister Act Two, along with the mom, Mrs. From, who I always think is Ileana Douglas,

but then it isn't. Instead, it's Wendy McKenna. AKA Ileana Douglas was not available. And yes, correct. Yes, she plays Josh's mom. Josh, again, has no reaction to seeing this dog in a clown costume. And then they just drive away. And then the family arrives at the new house they're moving into.

We've established already that Josh's dad had died the previous year. He was a test pilot. He exploded. And Josh used to play basketball with his dad, but he's lost interest in that ever since his dad's passing. And then he starts at a new school.

His mom tries to get him into some extracurricular activities like playing the trombone. A lot of band kids slander here. And I just, I wanna say we as a podcast don't stand by that. You know, that's more of a, sure Josh's dad exploded, but it's more of a him problem, I would say. And then one day after school, Josh walks by an abandoned church, which has a crusty

old basketball court. And he's... Again, one of the many religious qualities to Air Bud, there's a lot of religious imagery associated. I have a question. I was not raised in the church. Is it common for churches to have a basketball court? In the back?

Or, I don't know. I don't know. Is this unique to this particular church? My church had a playground, but not a basketball court. I was like, who was out here balling when this church was still in business? There's one of those cool youth pastors who's like, I know,

I'll get the kids here. Doing some crossover stuff. Yeah, he's like, big JC, you know it. Yeah, to me, it's like it's you can imagine a church having a basketball court, but this church seems to only have a basketball court. Like there's not like a graveyard or a play structure or anything. There's no parking lot, nope.

It's just a haunted ass church with a basketball court. Very normal. And Josh starts shooting hoops and not to bully this child, but he sucks at it. He's not good. He's really bad. And the ball goes flying into the bushes. And then there's some like rustling and dog sounds, but all he can find is a scrap

from the dog's clown costume. Eventually when they do meet, did it remind anyone else of ET? Like their meeting felt very ET coded to me. Oh yeah, cause he's luring the creature with sweets. Yeah. Yeah, those little puddings. Yeah. Out of the bushes. Yeah. But then it's like just a golden retriever. No offense to Buddy.

Can we quickly address, so Lindy, I'm so curious Lindy, your emotional state watching Air Bud, because Lindy herself owns a golden retriever. His name is Barry. Reveal. Or Air Barry. Yeah. Oh yes. Now Barry is more of a copper toned prince. And I would say Air Bud is a little bit more blonde. But so there's so much Barry, Air Bud personality crossover. Yeah. The whole time I was watching this movie, I was like, I feel as though Lindy is going to be emotionally devastated just at the mere sight of Air Bud, because he's so Barry like. And I am just curious, would Barry successfully be lured by tapioca pudding or like how exactly would you get him to come out onto the basketball court?

Yeah, watching this movie was rough and I will say that it it's extremely accurate to my you know it matches up with my experience, the vibe and the energy of Air Bud. Visibility, representation, yeah. Barry would eat an unlimited number of pudding cups. He would come out of the bushes for any amount of pudding cups, SpaghettiOs, the other thing. By the way, Josh not doing a great job

of taking care of this dog. No, really bad. It's too of taking care of this dog. No. Really bad. It's too much pudding for a dog, for sure. I was thinking that where I was like, God, you know that there's a bunch of kids that really took that to heart. Yeah.

I mean, but the thing about Barry, it's hard to say because Barry has lived a soft life of pure leisure. Not one bad thing has ever happened to him. He's been coddled since birth. He's never been abused by an evil clown. So the idea that Barry would ever even hide from a human and not immediately attack them and knock them over so that they will pet him,

Barry would never be in the bushes waiting to be lured with pudding. Like if Barry saw a boy with pudding, the boy is toast. Like, there's no hope. So I don't know, but all the chaos that Air Bud causes is very familiar to me. Which we'll get to. Yes, it's coming soon.

But we have seen him cause one scene of chaos at the birthday party. But that was more the clown doing all the chaos. Yeah, I mean, the clown was not talented. Well, here, Bud was exceptionally talented at catching those little balls in his mouth, you know? Okay, I'm sorry, perhaps we've watched different movies. What I recall is that Air Bud is doing his little ball tricks, then the clown throws a bigger ball at Air Bud. Air Bud boops the ball back straight at the clown's nuts. He deserves, which he deserves.

Injures the clown in his privates, and then the clown starts flailing and screaming. And then Air Bud is not helping. He's racing around, He's hiding under tables. The clown is chasing him. I'm just saying, obviously the clown is to blame. As they say in the law, contributory negligence. There is some contributory negligence I'm just saying. Sure. But yeah, that's what my dog is like as well. And also, I mean, the reason Air Bud does all that is because to quote Josh screaming,

which he does a lot towards the end of the movie, he hates him. He hates him. He hates him. Air Bud hates that clown's ass. So much. Josh, oh my God, he's doing so, I mean, he's a child. Shout out Kevin Ziegler, Seegers, because he's doing so much. He's really selling. My dad just exploded.

Honestly, I'm surprised we haven't seen more of him. Where'd he go? He was on Gossip Girl. Oh, good. Good, good, good. Because there's a part later, sorry, spoiler, but like, spoiler. There's a part later where he talks to this girl at school.

And I'm so sorry to her, but you can really see the difference between a real actor and a Canadian child that they hired to deliver one line. Because, true, Josh is a frickin' pro. He's a good child actor. He went full method for this. He blew his dad up. Um... He's also in most of the sequels.

Oh, shout out to him. If not all of them. He's in, okay, I hate that I, he's in the first four, and then he's the protagonist, I think, of the first three, and then the fourth, there's a grand passing of the baton between Josh and Andrea. Josh goes to college, and so he's in the movie,

but he's not the protagonist. And then that's when Andrea takes over. She misses baseball at this point. Gotcha. Right, right, right, right. The extra homework I did for this was learning about the expanded Air Bud universe, which encompasses 12 movies.

Well, because there's all the Air Buds, and then- Air Buddies. Then there's a spinoff of air buddies. So and then which becomes snow buddies, space buddies, super buddies, Santa buddies, treasure buddies, spooky buddies and Santa buddies. The legend of Santa Paws, which then spins off into Santa Paws and Santa Paws 2, the Santa pups. Okay. You can't tell by this small, you know, this very intimate family drama that we're talking about. The eventual Air Bud universe will have global implications

across literally time and space. Yeah. And then in real life, it resulted in Disney killing over a dozen puppies, which I will get to. The most famously evil thing you can do, be responsible for the death of puppies. Which I think we all learned from a Disney movie. Yes. Called 101 Dalmatians. Yeah, but that's not until 2008

during the production of Snow Buddies. Oh boy. I'll sidebar later. Oh brother. It's, you know, since we have this Golden Retriever, as soon as the movie started, my partner Roya started was like, I can't watch it. I can't watch it.

Something's going to happen to the dog. Something's going to happen to the dog. I was like, nothing happens to the dog. I can tell you because there's 900 sequels, including we know that Air Bud is extremely virile and has like a hundred children. So many puppies. Who go on to play every sport on earth. So she's like, she couldn't calm down.

She's very stressed, almost in tears, even when like all the dogs doing is playing one on one with a boy. Meanwhile, she's reading out loud the most horrific facts from Buddy's Wikipedia page. Yes, she's like dead puppies. Oh, this is his last film. He dies of cancer at age 9. I was like Sorry

Are making me depressed about things that really happened to a real dog Meanwhile, you're freaking out about things that aren't even gonna happen to a fictional dog Anyway, it's really sad. It's really and and they go on and like Buddy. Buddy is the only buddy has two stunt doubles I think in this because he did not want to walk on the roof of the house and that's fair. He didn't. That was the cutest part though. It was so funny. But in future air buds Buddy would be played by four or five or six dogs which feels more ethical. Yeah this is, this is Buddy's only, um, this is Buddy's only film. It's like when they hire twins to play kids,

babies and a single kid on a sitcom. Buddy's fascinating because I feel like he's this part of this like star system that doesn't exist anymore. Um, where he kind of becomes famous the way that some comedians become famous, where he was on Letterman a lot in the early 90s. He's not on Pee-wee Herbyn, and that he was on Letterman a lot, and then he got his own starring vehicle. Nice. Shout out to him.

Yeah. Okay, so then Josh tries out for the basketball team at school. He doesn't make it, but- Okay, he doesn't even, he just sits on the bleachers like a weirdo, he doesn't even do the tryouts. Right, I was like, did we see that off screen or did he just like-

No, he just sort of is just like sitting there at first, although like in between there's a janitor who you can tell has sort of a mystical air about him. And the janitor like sees something in Josh. He's like, why isn't Josh trying out? Meanwhile, Josh, so then Josh becomes the, first he becomes the manager of the team. Right.

Wherein he is bullied by Larry. Honestly, if I was told that I was the manager of the basketball team, I'd be like, I'd just rather not do any of this. Yeah, yeah. This coach makes him do like basketball child labor at night in the basement. I'll go play the trumpet.

You need to stay after school until 10 p.m. and you need to wash your bully's dirty underwear that he threw on your face. Like that's, I don't think that's allowed. I don't think that's a real job. No. Also the way that this coach is written, we'll get into, is so severe turned,

but he has this wild line during, I think his first scene, where he says, if you can win on the courts, you can win at life. Which is just a really intense thing to say. No, that's true, Jamie, that's true. Well, I, it's not for him. I also like the, there's, when Josh first comes into the gym for the, for the tryouts, I think the reason he doesn't try out

is because he's immediately bullied, which also just is weird because he just is another boy who looks the same as all the, it's like, why are these people picking on him? But he has this red, white and blue basketball. And then Larry, the bully goes, you look like you stole that from the Harlem Globetrotters or something like that and it's like nice.

Yeah, that's a famous basketball team. That's cool. Like Larry. What's your damage Larry? What the hell? Larry, you would never make it onto the Harlem Globetrotters Larry. Larry's just mad because his father is an actual cartoon character. Larry's father being introduced, father is an actual cartoon character. Larry's father being introduced.

The guy, the guy's having a blast. He's like, my son's got to get on the court. Like his, his face is so elastic. It's very distracting. Also the coach is like, Hey, I need a manager. I noticed that you just sat on the bleachers and you didn't try out. That's fine. You're clearly a loser who wouldn't make it. I do need a manager. It's a ton of work, you gotta get here before the team and leave after the team, anyway you're hired. First of all, you're not selling it, that sounds horrible.

And Josh doesn't even agree, but then the coach is just like, he just conscripts him to be his servant. Yeah, and Josh's mom is just like, I need childcare, yeah, this is what's gonna happen just like, I need childcare. Yeah, this is what's gonna happen. Yeah, that works. Josh's mom, I have such a complicated, such complicated feelings around Josh's mom

because sometimes I'm like, she's doing her best. Her husband exploded. But then other times she's so harsh with Josh in ways that, and Air Bud, like I was like, she acts like Air Bud blew her husband up Like the way that she treats him sometimes. Yeah, she does I mean there's a scene where like like meanwhile while this is all happening Josh is like becoming the basketball coach manager Whatever Air Bud is still hiding out at the condemned Church basketball court

And then eventually he wins him over with the tapioca and he brings Air Bud in for like a makeover montage, you know? Yes. And then Air Bud escapes. It turns out Air Bud is hot. He takes off Air Bud's glasses. Yeah, they take off Air Bud's glasses and he's a hottie under there. He's not a nerd.

So anyway, he escapes from the bathroom after his makeover and then runs into the living room and knocks over the ladder that has all the paint and wallpapering supplies on it and paint and glue go everywhere. Now, here's a question. I find that most stressful. Mom, why did you leave paint cans with no lids on out like that all day? Because she's just come home from work and I was like, what is wrong with this? This is not on airbud at all.

Yeah. No. This is on you fake Ileana Douglas. She does not take accountability for this. She blames it on airbud entirely. Outrageous. And then the thing that really stuck with me, I guess we are just sort of continuing the recap. Yeah.

This is where the movie's going. Josh obviously is like, I want this dog. And I'm just like, I'm sorry. This kid just lost his dad. You have to give him anything he wants. That is the rule. Give him the fucking dog. My friend, Grace, friend of the pod, Grace Freud,

I just saw her one person show about, she lost her dad when she was 10 or 11. And she, there's a great joke about how she was like, I knew I was gonna to get a PS2. And that was really powerful. And it's like, because you have to give the grieving child the thing they want. Just got to shower with gifts for a little while, I think.

Yeah. And Josh's mom is like, absolutely not. And then even when Josh gives him a little cardboard box, she's like, tear it up. She's such an tear it up. She's such an asshole about it. I know you're trying to make a home for Air Bud and I won't stand for it. Josh is like, can the dog just live

in this wet box in the yard? And she's like, absolutely not. No. No. But like, I want to say a couple things because I feel like this is important for later. Despite this adversity, Josh really does do his due diligence.

He puts up the found dog posters all over the town, which by the way, this is the first instance of me genuinely laughing. Josh is putting up the found dog and it's like a picture of Air Bud and Air Buds is running up, snatching those things right off the telephone pole. And I was like, I was watching it just

going, ha ha ha, air bud, that is so funny. And he's just putting them up all over the town. So he really, I mean, even though he really, really wants this dog, he is like doing what is necessary to like find his home if such home exists. Even though he deserves that damn dog. He does. Lord, let the deserves that damn dog. He does. Oh, Lord, let the kid have the dog. I was so frustrated with her. I know. Yeah, absolutely.

Also, if we haven't made this clear yet, Josh discovers that the dog can kind of play basketball. Oh, yes. He discovers air, boat, can ball. Like, immediately. At the abandoned church. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Immediately, because actually, the thing that wins the dog over is not the pudding.

The pudding lures him out of the bushes, but then Josh notices that the dog is fixated on his Harlem Globetrotters basketball. And so then he's like, do you like this ball, boy? Do you like this ball? And the dog is like, haha, haha, haha. I like that Air Bud has to be convinced of Josh, not the reverse, because he's like, oh, you ball. I think I'll stick around.

Well, then OK. It's OK. OK, player. Let's play. Oh, by the way, can I really quickly, there's also this part where Josh cleans up the landscaping on the basketball court and for some reason decides to kick over this fence.

And then immediately on the other side of the fence is a beautiful lake with a mountain glacial. Yeah. And it was shot in Vancouver, which makes sense. Because that is kind of what it looks like up here where I live outside Seattle. But I'm sorry, not a good thing to have next to your basketball court. A gaping hole where the ball can go through. The ball is immediately going to go into the. You know, a gaping hole where the ball can go through.

The ball is immediately gonna go into the lake, especially if a dog is playing basketball. Well, this dog is so good. It's almost like the church knew what they were doing when they put that fence up. It was the purpose of it. Also, I love that the church was like, ugh, can someone cover up that view?

Larv. Do I want to look at God's wonders while I preach? No, I don't. This church is not about God's wonders. This church is about one thing and that's basketball. That's basketball church, baby. I also, I mean, it's like, and it's also presented as if like, Josh is not aware of where he lives. Like he's like, oh, there's water here. I was like, well, you know that. You know that. Oh my god. He gets on a boat later to an island. The water taxi. Yeah, he gets on a little tugboat or little water taxi.

I'm kind of obsessed with the water taxi guy later, because he looks like he is from another century than the movie takes place in. And never speaks and just takes his kid back and forth. I was like, what is his story? He didn't realize he was even in a movie. He just like, you want to ride? Okay.

He's like a grizzled teenage mariner. He's wearing a Newsy cap. I was like, what movie are you in? Trench coat. It's frightening. But I think, you know, with like the gentle coaching of Air Bud, Josh learns how to ball. Like he gets a lot better.

And it really is because, you know, Air Bud is out here booping and crossing over and assisting and Josh was like, wow, I get it now. I get the fundamentals of basketball. Thank you, Air Bud. So it's pretty sweet, you know? It's pretty nice, yeah, yeah. So now Josh's Air Bud.

And his mom is like, you can't have this dog. And then she says, if no one claims the dog by Christmas, which is about two weeks away, she'll take him to the pound. One of the many false conflicts of the movie, because then, boom, it's Christmas. With another weirdly, like, the Christmas montage is so weird to me, where it's like a montage where the mom is speaking in voiceover about like Santa,

but she's talking about Santa like he's Jesus. Yeah. Yes. It's really bizarre. Is that, is she reading from like a miracle on 34th Street or something? She's like reading from a book, but it is weirdly. It's weird, yeah.

It is very Christian. Christian. Coded. Yes. Yes. Okay, but before we get to Christmas, there's the moment when, a moment when I genuinely left so loud, which was when they're making the deal, the mom is like, okay, he can stay in the yard for two weeks, but he's not allowed in the house.

And if you ever sneak that dog in the house, this is over. Do you understand? You are not allowed to sneak the dog in the house. And Josh was like, I totally understand. And then there in the foreground, in the background, teeny tiny at the top of the stairs, you can just see Air Bud's little face peeking through

the slides. Air Bud has already sneaked into the house. He's on it. I was crying. He's been living in this house. Josh doesn't even know. Josh doesn't even know. I was weeping at this.

It was so funny. Just like the visual of like the mom being mad at the concept of Airbud being in the house and Airbud just being like, ha ha. It's so funny. And so I took a picture of my TV and I was like, once Lindy watches it, I'm gonna send this to her. And then in unison, we were like, this part killed me.

And we sent each other the same picture of Air Bud in the background, like mugging the mom. I was like, this movie freaking rocks. I love it. It's funny. It is great. It's so good. It was so great.

Thank you. A great visual gag. I mean, good Anya creators of Air Bud. Mm-hmm. Harvey Weinstein. Yeah, shout out to Harvey Weinstein. Oh God. I hope he was never on set.

This movie was directed by Charles Martin Smith. Yeah. Who? Okay, you're being a hater because he's, a TV and film's Charles Martin Smith, of course. Oh, sorry. He's a, I don't know. His biggest role was in American Graffiti,

which I still haven't seen. But he is an actor turned director, who I think is, I always enjoy this career note, where he directed Air Bud is very successful. But then I think he had that moment where he's like, wait a second, I'm an artist. I can't just direct Air Bud movies. And so he does not return for Air Bud is very successful, but then I think he had that moment where he's like, wait a second, I'm an artist, I can't just direct Air Bud movies. And so he does not return for Air Bud movies

and then ends up directing a bunch of movies very much like Air Bud anyways. Tough business. How dare you? He ends up directing Dolphin Tale and Dolphin Tale 2. Oh, interesting. I'm sure he's rich as hell from Air Bud. I hope so.

So good, good for him, I hope so. He deserves it. Because he made something really special, he gave something special to hope so. He deserves it. Because he made something really special. He gave something special to the world. He really did. Yeah, it's true. Okay, so then one evening, as Josh is in the school basement

doing, you know, basketball laundry, he sees an old Nick's jersey and a photo of a basketball player from back in the day, and he realizes these things belong to the janitor at the school, Arthur Chaney played by Bill Cobbs and that he was a former basketball star. So Josh asks Arthur to sign his like collector card that he has of Arthur. But he was like, no, that isn't me. That guy died a long time ago.

But then later, Josh sees him shooting hoops and Josh is like, wait a minute, that is Arthur Chaney. So that's that beat. Just a couple of things about Arthur Chaney. First, Bill Cobbs, you will recognize him if you see him. This man was in everything from like 1992 to probably 2003. He was in everything. There's nothing funnier to me than a Knicks legend

keeping his 1956 Knicks jersey in his locker at school. That's where we keep them. Just so he can deny it when confronted about it. Just he can be like, no, I never played for the Knicks. I just keep this here. Like that is so funny to me. I keep my jersey in a cupboard in a dirty basement of the middle school where I work as a janitor.

In the boiler room of the middle school, I guess. By the way, not to make things too dark, but how bad of a gambling problem did Arthur Cheney have? Why did he go from NBA star to working as a... I know the salaries are probably not as high in the 50s, but I mean, he was a real star as we find out later, not to spoil anything. He's like recognized on site, like he's a legend.

Yeah, there's so many conflicting tropes with Arthur Cheney that it's like hard to really know where to begin, because it's like there's a lot of tropes around, I feel like black actors that are put in there where he has this mystical quality that is completely unnecessary. Yes, I was going to say, like, not to get too serious about a children's movie where a dog plays basketball, but they really do play what they call

the magical Negro trope. And like as soon as this man appears on your screen, you know, that's the role he's going to play because like the first scene you see him and he's kind of in shadow, but they're using a recognizable actor so you know he's going to have a bigger role in the movie. And of course, and like this trope is basically like a black character who will do anything to further the goals of the white protagonist. And it was some sort of magical flavor. And in this case, his magical skill is that he used to play for the Knicks. But of course, he's kind of hiding that from Josh and all this other stuff. It's not as pronounced as it is in other movies where like

the legend of Bagger Vance, but usually this character is like a janitor or a caddy or in the case of Ghost, a psychic driving Miss Daisy as another really famous example. Green Mile. Exactly, or an inmate, yeah. What was that shitty movie that came out recently? Mahershala Ali won an Oscar for it, but it sucked. Oh, Green Book? Yeah, where he's like Viggo Mortensen's driver.

Yeah, and he's like that too, where they'll sacrifice themselves for the greater good of the white protagonists or protagonists, and it's not that serious in Air Bud. I mean, in this case, it just deploys as he helps Air Bud at the end. But like here you have this man who was like a next legend. And now he's a janitor. He has all these incredible skills as like a coach and as a leader and as a person.

And he uses it to like reunite a dog with a young boy. I mean, it's kind of like the classic magical Negro trope being deployed in this like children's movie. And it's like, man, 10 year olds are just, eight to 12 year olds are being immediately introduced to this like ridiculous stereotype that we see in like lots of different movies.

But the fact that you see it in a kid's movie is kind of disappointing. Although I do love that guy. He's great. No, he's great. This is not the only, I mean, we've talked about this trope many times on this show over the years, but this is not the only children's basketball movie

in which we have discussed this trope. We also discussed it years ago in our episode on Full Court Miracle. Right. The DCOM, the Disney Channel original movie about the, I think also middle school basketball team that has, I mean, I don't remember that many details about it

because it's just a movie that leaves you the moment it's over. But yeah, like this trope is like all over kids' media. It's wild. Yeah. There's also this angle in this movie where when they first go into his boiler room secret office They pan across all his stuff and it's like oh you thought he was just a janitor

Well, I bet you didn't think he would have a chess set and a book about Engineering and it's like oh, he's a a janitor but he's also a genius and then whoa and you know in that moment when they're like he's a janitor but something else something more he also reads books like I wrote down in my notes you know this man is the one who's gonna deliver the line there's nothing in the rule book yeah that says a dog can't play basketball. Because you know he's read the rule book because he likes to play chess.

And he, like I was saying before, I mean, he's like the only one who can sort of magically mystically see Josh's potential. And like, you know, it's just the way it's deployed to, he can use his powers to help Josh, but he himself remains. But he's not able to change his own life. Yeah, right. In case I'm not being clear, yeah, janitors can play chess

and know how to read. Yeah, right. It's allowed. I don't know what brought Arthur Cheney from the NBA to the basement of Greenfield Middle School or whatever the school is called. Fernfield. Fernfield.

Where anything can happen. But real people do all kinds of jobs and it's normal. Yeah. Yeah. So we get this like very common hackneyed blend of a racist trope with a classist trope by this great actor. And it's weird because I think ultimately, Arthur and Air Bud, and this can't be good, end up filling a similar role in Josh's life

where they help him realize his potential. And they believe in him and care about him when it seems like no one else does. Arthur's a fascinating character to me because I feel like there's so many opportunities to try, at least try things with this character, but he just disappears for long stretches. Also, you're telling me that an American public school

has a former NBA player working as the janitor and they choose to hire a random man to be the basketball coach who ends up being physically abusive. I mean, that's why Arthur ends up becoming, he does end up becoming the coach of the boys middle school basketball team in Fernfield, a suburb of Seattle, I guess, because he does have a Sonic's basketball mug, RIP to my Seattle supersonics. And also that kid Stewart has a piece of or he has Scottie Pippen's orange peel.

So yes, so they are close enough to Seattle to go to Sonic's games. And Dennis Robbins gum. Yeah. Yeah. He does eventually. And Sean. Because Sean Kemp's garbage. Sorry. And Sean Kemp's apple core. Yeah. And he does eventually get hired as the coach because the previous coach gets caught physically abusing Stewart. He's like chucking basketballs at Stewart's head. And then even then the principal is like,

well, we're thinking about letting Larry's dad do it because he volunteered. And Josh has to be like, I have a suggestion. How about former Knicks legend, Arthur Chaney? Maybe he could do it. I just think in no universe would Arthur not have already been the coach. I mean, this is absurd.

Right. Yes. It's true. I mean, so let's get up to there. Where do we leave off, Caitlin? Oh, right, right, right. Okay, so I think we're at like, it's Christmas morning and his mom lets Josh have Buddy.

So that conflict of he will never live in this house is. False conflict. Because Air Bud won her over with the power of ball. Because Air Bud, every night Air Bud sneaks into the house by jumping up a lattice across the roof and into Josh's bedroom. And one night he goes to do it and nobody's home and Air Bud's like, what the fuck?

So Air Bud finds the middle school. He escapes and finds the middle school, he escapes and finds the middle school and he goes to the basketball game, disrupts the whole thing, it's hilarious by the way. I know this needs to happen for the plot to work, but Air Bud is just like loose. Like he's just, this dog has never seen a leash in his life. I'm worried about Air Bud, you know?

If the mom's so worried, why is she like, okay, you could keep him, and we don't really need to take care of him the way you'd expect. Yeah, I have a genuine question. There are several scenes, multiple scenes after the Christmas scene when Air Bud has supposedly been brought into the family,

where Air Bud is like, is locked out of the house and he's still climbing up the trellis and sneaking through the window. Two questions. First of all, I'm sorry, it's Christmas time in the Pacific Northwest and the window is open. And,

True, true. We would never do that, yeah. And there's like people having a picnic outside on the ground, but whatever. Yeah. But question number two, is Airpods still not allowed to live inside the house? I think he's not allowed to go in the house.

I think she's still like, yeah, we can keep the dog, but he, cause at one point they do build him a dog house and paint buddy on that on the dog house. So I think he's still technically supposed to live outside permanently. That is deranged. It's evil. Not nice. But he like breaks, he breaks up the middle school basketball game, causes a kerfuffle. It's hilarious by the way. And I'm not, I don't mean that ironically. I was laughing. Gen, real laughs. Again, slapstick comedy. It's great.

And then that's when they realize he can ball. I think that Josh does the thing where he he's making an airbud follow the ball and then he they do like an alley oop. They hear the ball swish and the whole crowd goes, oh, what? This dog can't ball? And before that, Josh, he gets invited to try out for the basketball team again, but this makes him sad. And he's like, yeah, I don't want to play, buddy,

you can play. And then he like kind of nonchalantly tosses the ball to the side and then buddy shoots and scores a basket. So Josh rediscovers that he can play basketball or at least like shoot hoops. And so with this renewed enthusiasm for basketball, Josh tries out for the team. He's suddenly very good at basketball

and he makes it on the team. And then this is like the first game where Buddy comes crashing in cause he's just like, woof woof, why not my best friend Josh home? And so he comes to the school and he sees Josh playing, so he runs out on the court, he wreaks havoc, everyone's falling down,

everything is falling over, everything's getting knocked around, and everyone's like, whoa, he should be the mascot, and he should do that trick during the halftime show. It's a huge honor to get invited to be the halftime entertainment at the middle school basketball game because we find out later that they televised these things

and they report the outcome on the front page of the newspaper. So this is a big deal for Air Bud man. And also because I, oh, what am I, this is like so kids movie in the best way. The middle school basketball team is on the front page of the newspaper every single day.

I love it. The Timberwolves. There's nothing going on in this town. I love it. Not that Mrs. From would know, because there's a subplot that Buddy has been stealing and hiding her newspaper every day for a month because he's traumatized. He has PTSD from the evil

clown bapping him with a newspaper. I know. But that's why the mom is like, oh, he can stay because he's so, oh my God, you guys love each other due to basketball, just like you and your dad. And also that was a sweet trick, I think his mom thinks. And so then Josh gets to keep Buddy at Christmas and it's really genuinely very heartwarming and then Josh makes a Air Bud a pair of sneakers so a pair two pairs thank you I was thinking about things that because it is true that Mrs. Frem is just completely separate from the world uh she has no idea what's going on she makes it sound like the newspaper is the only way she could learn news even though I think they have a television from the world. She has no idea what's going on. She makes it sound like the newspaper

is the only way she could learn news, even though I think they have it television. But no, I like to think that she, like after the events of Air Bud, like learns that Heaven's Gate happened. And she's like, Oh my God, I had no idea my golden retriever Air Bud has been taking all my newspapers. She learns about Princess Di. Like, it's just a lot happened in 1997. Do you think that there is, there are feminist implications to the fact that she works at a napkin factory? I missed that. Yeah, she works in napkins.

What? She's like a napkin sales person. She runs a napkin factory and that's why they moved to Fern Field. She's a napkin girl boss. Not only that, she apparently has a second job because she's on the phone with her mom and she's like, no mom, it's not called moonlighting. You're allowed to have two jobs. So I'm like, what is her second job? To me, that was the only evidence I could find of a Bechtel test passing moment where she says to her mom, I have two jobs. And I was like, nailed it.

And we never, well, we never hear her mom speak, I don't think so. Oh, you can't, oh, that's true. She could be like, your father is great at fucking. But I'm just guessing that they needed to give her a lot of jobs because they need a reason for her to never be home so that she doesn't notice her son is always playing basketball at a haunted church.

I don't know what's going on there, but she has a three-year-old toddler at home. And it's like, who is taking care of that child? And no childcare that we see. And it's like, again, this could be, in a movie that's not afraid to get serious, this could be an element that comes up is like, you know, Josh is kind of like a latchkey kid.

He, because his mom works so much, where is his sister? Why bother giving him a sister if we're just gonna drop her halfway through? Because she doesn't even go to the games. No, she's too young. No, no, that was when I noticed Andrea was gone. I was like, where the hell is this kid? But to his mom's credit, I mean, she doesn't miss a game.

She is there. True. Usually with some like pretty great outfits too. She's coming straight from the napkin factory looking hot. Yeah, very, very big business, you know, very sisters doing it for themselves, you know, she looks great. A lot of statement hats.

Napkin Factory, huh? Yeah, anyway, so to answer your question, Lindy, I think that is feminism. She works at a napkin factory. Great. Okay, this is one where we see Coach Joe hurling basketballs at one of the players, this kid Stewart, who

will eventually become Josh's best friend in the later sequels. So then Coach Joe gets fired off screen because the next thing we know, the school is looking for a new coach. Okay, wait, so I know this is, I know we keep interrupting, but like the acting job that actress Nicola Cavendish is asked to do here as Principal Pepper is I stopped it and showed it to Grant because I was blown away at how, because she's doing, again,

like the Disney Channel adult character where she's like, oh my gosh, you have a dog and he's gotta come to the game. And then the next line out of her mouth, she's witnessing the coach, you know, doing this sort of like coded abusive behavior, but he's also whipping basketballs at a kid. And then her voice lowers an octave and she goes,

that's enough, Joe, that's quite enough. And that's like, oh. Like she's seen him do it before almost, or she's like, it's not necessarily surprising to her to see this coach behaving poorly. I know it's a very weird scene. I was surprised. I was happy at least that they do fire the coach,

but it's like, they should have gone farther. Yeah. They should go to the weird court that we learned later is in this town. I love the court scene. My favorite scene. From basketball court to judicial court. Yeah.

It's so amazing, cause it's like at that point, you're like the movie should have just ended, but it's still happening. Right. I love it. There's a whole other sequence. Anyways. Okay, I'm gonna try to speed through the rest of this.

So eventful. So much happens. Okay, so Arthur Cheney gets hired as the new coach and he does a great job getting them to work together as a team. Then there's the next game where Buddy does his trick at the halftime show. And it's partly because Josh is so nice. He's not like that abusive evil clown. He encourages Buddy, because initially he has performance anxiety, but he does, and he's like,

no, no, no, you're such a good boy, you can do this. And he does the trick and everyone cheers. I loved that. I loved that Air Bud was like, they added that little beat for him, because it's so, and it's like, it is all very ironic that part of the lesson in the movie is like, oh, we maybe shouldn't force

this dog to perform when in fact that is why the movie exists, is forcing a dog to perform. But I like that Josh was, of course, Airbun would get nervous then. When he's been in performance settings before, it had been right before he was going to be abused. It's traumatizing. Yeah, that's a little guy.

That makes sense. But now he's a star. Truly. So then there's. Yeah. That's a little guy. That makes sense. But now he's a star. Truly. So then there's another game. There's a couple of seconds left. I think the team is one point down. Josh has the ball. He tries to make a three pointer.

He biffs it, and they lose. So Josh is kind of beating himself up about it. But Coach Arthur gives Josh a pep talk to play from the heart. And so the team starts playing really well. They qualify for finals against the opposing team that that bully kid Larry is now on because his bully dad pulls him off the team and moves them to-

Moves their whole family to Spokane, Washington, which is in Eastern Washington. You know this is taking place in Western Washington because of the lush greenery. Eastern Washington's on the other side of the mountains entirely, moves their whole family to Spokane so that Larry can play middle school basketball

for the Warriors. That's wild, Larry's dad. That's really something. Level of pettiness, here to forenseed. Spokane is really far away. It's not like they moved to a different suburb of Seattle. They moved to the far corner of the state, it's like at least a six hour drive.

They crossed a mountain range to get away from Air Bud and Arthur Cheney and Josh, okay? It's like reverse Oregon Trail to the opposite side of the state. It's almost Idaho. Like it is, you can go do your grocery shopping in Idaho if you live in Spokane. It's true.

It's like, I mean, not that this movie has any interest in doing this with the bully character, but you're like, that's gotta be tough on Larry with a dad whose self-worth is so tied up in your youth basketball career. Frankly, explains everything you need to know about Larry and his behavior. I feel bad for the guy. Poor Larry. Poor kid.

Yeah. So then the clown, whose name we finally learn is Norm Snively, pretty good villain name. He gets wind of the fact that the team mascot of this middle school basketball team who can shoot hoops, because there's like this whole news story about it. Yes, he finds out about it because the middle school basketball game is on TV. Is on TV. Frontage news. And he's like, wait a minute, that's my dog. So Norm goes to Josh's house and talks to his mom, Jackie, to be like, you have my dog. See, here are his papers. And Jackie's in a vulnerable moment.

She's feeling a little bit resentful of the dog because she has just found all of her buried newspapers in the yard. Yes, which Air Bud had buried due to newspaper based PTSD. Can I say a couple of things about the scene? First of all, Norm is so menacing in it. He walks into her backyard, so he's fully on her property, scares her a little bit, because she's discovering the newspaper situation

and doing some gardening, and then holds up a flyer of him and Air Bud. Could be any golden retriever. This is not proof of anything, by the way. And then it's like, that's my dog. I have the papers to prove it. First of all, fake Ileana Douglas, you start with get the fuck off my property.

I don't know who you are. I'm calling the police. Instead, she hands the dog over. Which is pretty wild to me. Immediately, no resistance whatsoever. And you know, I know that as women, we're all taught to be compliant, but not me. When it comes to airbud, I'd be fighting back. And I also would like to say

something else. I conferred with a lost dog expert, my husband who works at the animal shelter here in the DC area. And I was like, this would never happen like this. The person would not just show up and be like, this is my dog. I have a single picture of it. And then when I tried to get it to come to me, it growls and goes bananas when it sees me. And he was like, no, you'd be asking, this is what my expert said. He said, you'd have to, I mean, there's

like no due process going on here. Hello? OK. So you'd be asking like, Norm, what have you done? Can you show me loss reports? Did you report the dog lost to local animal shelters? Is the dog microchipped? I don't know what the microchip situation was in 1997, so we can let that one go. But do you have photos of you and this dog and he has one and it's airbud in a clown costume? Again, that could be any golden retriever. OK? You'd really need to show some evidence that not only is it

your dog with that you had gone through some sort of process to find your lost dog, which Norm has not done until he thinks he can make a buck off of it. Meanwhile, again, I would refer the court to earlier in the movie, when Josh is doing his due diligence, he's hanging up the found dog posters. Okay, now, sure, did Air Bud tear him down? Yes, but that's not on Josh.

He did his part. He tried to find this dog's owner. If anything- And now it's been months. If anything, Air Bud tearing the flyers down is more evidence that he should not go with the clown and he should stay with Josh. I mean, he doesn't have any witness, like Norm doesn't have any witnesses should not go with the clown. Yeah, and he should stay with Josh. I mean, he doesn't even he doesn't have any witness like

Norm doesn't have any witnesses that saw him with this dog. Like he just doesn't do anything except show up menace this woman and wave a piece of paper in her face and then take the dog. It never would happen this way. I just want the audience to understand. Another very, very disappointing thing from Miss Jackie Fram letting down the family yet again. She's mad that she Another very, very disappointing thing from Ms. Jackie Fram. Letting down the family yet again, she's mad that she doesn't know about Heaven's Gate.

Well, guess what? Like, borrow a paper at the napkin factory, turn on the news. Go to the library, Jackie, come on, man. Literally, this dog is raising your child for you. Could you find an ounce of effort to fight for him? Can I say something else? Like, what is the plan here, Norm?

As if Air Bud is going to do basketball for you? You're such an asshole to him. Air Bud has autonomy. We've seen it. He hates him. He hates him. He hates him. He hates him.

OK, so the whole thing is driving me nuts. I'm like, there's no way that not only is Air Bud going to willingly go with Norm, but that he's gonna do basketball for this man in commercials. I don't think so. And at the Sonic's game, please give me a break. The next time we see him,

because what happens is Norm takes Buddy and Josh is devastated. So Josh goes to Norm Snively's house where he's keeping Buddy chained up in the mud next to a stack of Budweiser cans. Very Wizard of Oz vibes here. And Norm is on the phone being like, we can't shoot that commercial on April,

we're going on tour. And it's like, how did you? How did you book a tour already? Did you get a dog agent all of a sudden? Well, and also just, I mean, whatever, like these movies are always contradictory. But like, again, just having Norm Snively do essentially what Buddy's trainer is doing, you know, be like,

oh, let's get this dog to work in the entertainment industry, which is presented as the act of a sicko in this movie, when again, we wouldn't be watching the movie if someone had not done that. And we'll talk about his trainer too, because there's a lot of lore that going on there as well. Yeah, there's actually this part where when Josh misses his three pointer

and then he gets a pep talk from the coach, where the coach is like, look at Buddy. He doesn't care about his point average, which by the way is 100% from the field. Buddy does not miss one single shot. I'm sorry, but you don't know that about him. You don't know that about him. You don't know that about him. But he's like, this dog doesn't care about being MVP.

He's doing it for the love of the game. Like, no, he is not. He's doing it because you guys are making him do it. It's the only way that he receives love from people. Right, yeah. It's sad. It's so complicated. Yeah. It's sad. It's so complicated. Yeah. Anyway, so Josh rescues Buddy from Norm. They run off. Norm is chasing them in his clown truck, which is actively falling apart.

The brakes, the steering wheel, all this stuff are falling off. Back when we were a proper country and we invested in a proper car chase in the middle of a movie that does not require it. Yes. Beautiful. Loved it. Yes. And then Norm drives his truck into a lake because the steering wheel and brakes are gone. Fly off.

One third of the movie's budget right there. No reason. Josh realizes that if he brings Buddy home, Norm will just come back and take him again. So he has to like set him free. He does the whole like, go on, get. I don't want you anymore. Don't you understand?

What's that movie with the Sasquatch? Harry and the Hendersons. Okay. They Harry and the Hendersons Buddy so much harder than you need to. I, this was actually unbearable to watch. I couldn't. With my own baby boy curled up like a donut

in his bed next to me. I was like, I can't. And I was screaming at Josh, talk to one adult. Because the evil clown has just committed attempted vehicular. Man slaughter. Dog slaughter.

Dog slaughter. If not first degree homicide. And this man is not getting the dog back. It's just so hairy. It's the most Harry and the Hendersons I've ever seen. It's so terrible. And the greatest devastation of all is that Josh violates Air Bud's trust. He uses the basketball for evil. He's like trying to get Air Bud to,

he like hires the water taxi to take him to some random islands. Where he leaves Buddy on an island. Yeah, and he's like, go away, don't you understand? I don't want you anymore. And he's like trying to get him to, like somehow you roughing it in the woods for the rest of your life is better

than just us figuring out between human beings where the dog should live. Controversial opinion! The dog's better off living with the clown than fending for himself on an island! In western- there are bears, okay? Dude, what the hell? So anyway, so then Josh cannot get Buddy to leave him alone because they're best friends, Josh. So he chucks the basketball into the woods to get Buddy to go chase it. And I was like, oh, that is unforgivable, you demon child. I was just like, if this dog gets in the water

and starts paddling, I'm gonna fucking lose it. And sure enough, he gets in the water and I was sobbing. I was so annoyed just watching this because I was like, you think getting the water taxi is gonna stop a golden retriever from swimming after you? And of course the air bud jumps into the water and is like, Josh, come back. The dog playing basketball, I could believe.

The golden retriever not swimming all the way across whatever, uh, Channel. Fjord this was, Yeah. To chase the boy home, no chance. That dog. Not believable. That dog would not, like Buddy gives up swimming after 1.5 seconds and it's like no, not the golden retrievers that I know. I don't think so honey. I don't think so. I don't think

so. I, he would, that dog would swim all the way back to Josh's house I'm just saying. Fernfield. Yeah. Where everything is possible. No one treats Buddy right. Everyone, like, Buddy, he's just been through it. Everyone leaves. Everyone leaves him. Yeah. It's so sad. It's so unnecessary. Yeah.

And I hate that thing where a child in a movie will just go rogue and think that he knows best. Talk to a lawyer before you abandon your dog on an island. I would say in Josh's defense, look at whose behavior is being modeled at home. The clown could print out on a laser jet, I'm allowed to hit this dog with a car, and she'd be like, sorry Josh, there's nothing I can do.

I guess. There's nothing that can be done. The law's the law, Josh. I know Yeah, we'll talk more about his mom, but after Josh Abandoned buddy on an island. We cut to the finals basketball game It's Josh's team versus the other team that that little shit Larry is And Josh's team is losing pretty bad.

Two players on Josh's team are injured. Another one gets a foul and has to sit out. And then the rest of the team is out with chickenpox that we learn in a throwaway line of dialogue. Deus ex chickenpox. Yes, of course. So now they only have four players, but just then Buddy shows up.

Does anyone see where this is going? They put Buddy in uniform to play in the game and the refs and the opposing team are like, what the heck, dogs can't play basketball? And then coach Arthur is like, check the rule book. You won't find anything that says a dog can't play. And then the ref is like, he's right. There's nothing in the rule book that says a dog can't play and then the ref is like he's right there's nothing in the rulebook that says a dog can't play basketball. So Buddy starts playing in the game and he's just what the

team needed because they make a huge comeback and Buddy nearly ties the game with a couple foul shots and then Josh has the ball with a few seconds left in the game. It's sort of like a mirror from what we saw earlier. And he takes the shot and this time he makes the three pointer and they win the game. But that's not the end of the movie. No, it's not, but just really quickly, the whole, that final basketball game is so funny. The other team is so despondent that this,

they're just getting, this dog is running wild on their asses, like air but is everywhere. He's a real threat in the paint. He's a threat from outside. Like he has he's been playing for two minutes and already has three assists. He's a he's a menace on the court. OK. And the other coach is just yelling, well, someone guard that dog guard that dog. So funny. And my husband was just like,

D up, Larry, D up! And then fucking Larry fouls Air Bud in what might be like the saddest foul I've ever seen. I was shocked that they were willing to have a child foul Air Bud. It was so nuts. And then, yeah, but then they win and it's very funny at

the end because Larry walks off like sort of comically hunched over like a like if you were just taking improv and learned that that's what you should look like when you're sad sort of like sort of like Michael Cera walking home and Arrested Development when they play Christmas time is here. My husband and I call that when people are sad like that, we call it Christmas time because that's the song they play when George Michael is like walking home. So Larry's just like despondently hunched over leaving the court. But that's what you get for moving your whole family to Spokane, I guess. You know, I'd like to say that Air Bud not only has basketball skills, he also has basketball IQ. He uses his mind and he uses his dog wiles to help win the game.

Like there's a part in the game when Air Bud has to do a jump ball and Air Bud is standing at two foot six. A jump ball is where there's a contested ball and so the ref throws the ball in the air and two players, if you're not a basketball head, there's no way Air Bud's winning this jump ball. But then the moment of truth, Air Bud goes woof woof and then the opposing player is like, what? He's so startled. He's playing 5D chess. He's a great player. I love that sequence so much. They directed the hell out of it. Air Bud is a star, it's funny, he's playing.

Larry fouling him really took me out. I was not, I was like, this, this, and then he still lost the love and respect of his father anyways. Mm-hmm. Like. Air Bud's out there in his little sneakers like, eat shit Larry, eh.

Like it's so good. You assaulted and then got dunked on by a dog. Like Larry's never gonna recover from this. Well and the dog also gets Ram's Larry right in his nuts too. Yes. It's true. In what should have been a foul, but Air Bud does not get fouled at all.

There's no rule that says a dog can't ram into a fellow player's private. It should have been a flagrant, should have been a technical, come on. Also, when they were first checking the rulebook and they decided that the dog could play, that Buddy could play. My husband goes, well, there's probably a rule that you're not allowed to have your dick out. You have to wear bottoms. Yeah, because the Airbus is not wearing bottoms. No, he's loose.

Yeah, he's Donald Ducking it. Just tops. What a great film. So this is the, so the movie's not quite over. It seems like the movie's about to be over, but the movie's like, buckle in because there's 10 unpredictable minutes coming up. Yeah. Because Norm the Clown has shown up to the game demanding Buddy back, but his papers

claiming Buddy is his property are all soggy from when he fell in the mud in the lake. By the way, whichever one of you it was that said that that car chase served no purpose. That's direct your attention. That's the Ziploc of soggy dog papers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Plant and pay off. Which before, of course, before they were soggy would have definitely solved it. It's not a DNA test. Come on, man. I don't know what papers he's talking about. I mean, dogs do have papers. I had to turn in papers for my dog recently, and it was this really...

But I had to prove that he was, I had to prove that he was mine, and then I had to prove that he had been fixed. And I knew he'd been fixed, but I couldn't find like a record of him being fixed in 2019. So I had to go to the vet and literally, it's the funniest piece of paper I had,

it's hanging on my fridge. It says, wait, I'm gonna go get it, hold on. Okay. Okay. Like also, what did the papers say? Because it becomes clear that Norm never named, he never gave Air Bud a name. Right. Because when he confronts the mom in the backyard, What did the paper say? Because it becomes clear that Norm never named. He never gave Air Bud a name. Right.

Because when he confronts the mom in the backyard, he's like, that's my dog. And then they say, oh, it's blue because he sees it on the paint can. It's like, what does what do the papers say? You never named the dog norm. Great point. Maybe the papers might sound something like this. Dear sirs, I examined Sunny on March 26 2025. Sunny has no testicles, which is which is which is consistent with having been neutered in the past. And then just the doctor's signature I depends on $40 to give me that piece of paper. It is the funniest thing that

I've ever paid for. Amazing. I hope that that's what Norm is. Dear sirs, Air Bud has no testicles. This unnamed dog has no testicles. Okay, so Norm is like, I'll see you in court. Okay, so Norm is like, I'll see you in court. And then we cut to court and it's a hearing that is goofy as hell, but basically Norm is like, this dog is legally mine. And Josh is like, oh, but he doesn't even like Norm because he was abusive. And then coach Arthur shows up to be like,

let the dog decide. So everyone goes outside. Okay, can I just say, hold on. Coach Arthur walks into the courtroom. He was not there for most of the hearing. He comes in at a pivotal moment, and he's like, I have something to say. The coach is like, are you Arthur Chaney from the Knicks? Yeah, the judge is like, I remember you.

I was at the game against the Celtics when you hit that turnaround jump shot. And then Arthur Cheney is like, yeah, that's right. That's me. I think that you should let the dog decide. The judge has no context for why he's there. It's like if Sean Kemp walked into a random court hearing. Like divorce proceedings.

Yes! And was like, let the teenager choose where he wants to live. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh. I didn't think of that. It's so funny. It's so funny. It's so funny.

Well, the whole court situation is why. Well, I eventually realized why so many people were there, but there's never anyone just sitting in the gallery of a courtroom. And I was like, there's truly nothing going on in this town. If the whole town is showing up to a dog custody battle. Like, what is this? So awesome. What is this? This whole courtroom is run on vibes, and they don't really make any any if it's like the judge what is the thing he says where he's like normally I wouldn't do this but this is hilarious and so he's like I guess people come in my courtroom all the time with terrible ideas about how I should

rule yes and this time I like it so he's just like let's do a silly one yeah. So let's do it. He's just like, let's do a silly one. Yeah. Court case. Let's keep it wacky. Let's keep it light. Yeah. It'll be fun. Yeah. So because he agrees to this, everyone goes outside. They gather around Buddy. We're not sure who he's gonna choose at first

because Buddy's like kind of going over to norm the clown because he has a rolled up newspaper, but it's only so that Buddy can rip the newspaper to shreds. And then he goes over to Josh. So the judge awards custody to Josh of Buddy the dog. And that's the end of the movie finally. So. It's, what a film.

And then the judge is like, bailiffs remove this clown. And then like three cops like pick the clown up and carry him away At this point they're outside on the front lawn. Where are you removing him to he's outside Let him go home. I think he has to go to clown prison. Oh clown jail. Sure. That makes a lot of room I just I loved it and as a credits for role, as you know, as Lindy mentioned earlier, they go out of their way to tell you the basketball scenes were not CGI. Air Bud really did do all that stuff.

They did not use any sort of like trickery, CGI trickery. It's really impressive. In all sincerity, I found the basketball scenes believable. I felt like the dog- He's good. Yes, and it felt like he wasvable. I felt like the dog. He's good. Yes, I felt like he was really playing basketball. And like I've seen other similar, you know, cinema done with puppets and trickery.

And it's not as satisfying and it's not as believable. I really felt these practical effects. I loved it. Not even practical effects, just a dog playing basketball. Just a dog playing basketball. Just a dog playing basketball. Just a dog shooting the J. You love to see it. Let's take another quick break, and then we will come back

to discuss further. ["The Time of the Year"] My Uncle Chris is definitely somebody worth talking about. He was the kind of guy that lived in a trailer with an ex-con and a retired stripper, left loaded machine guns laying around, drank a bottle of whiskey a night, claimed he could kill a man with his bare hands,

drove a garbage truck for a living, spoke fluent Spanish with a thick southern accent, and is currently buried in a crypt alongside the founding families of Panama. Listen to the Uncle Chris podcast to hear all about him and a whole lot more. Wild stories about adventure, romance, crime, history, and war intertwine as I share the tall tales

and hard truths that have helped me understand Uncle Chris. This collection of stories will make you laugh, it'll make you cry, and if I do my job right, they'll let you see the world and your place in it in a whole new way. I can't wait to tell you all about Uncle Chris. Listen now to Uncle Chris on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Kelly Harnett spent over a decade in prison for a murder she says she didn't commit.

I'm 100% innocent. While behind bars, she learned the law from scratch. Because oh God, Harnett, jailhouse lawyer. And as she fought for herself, she also became a lifeline for the women locked up alongside her. You're supposed to have faith in God, but I had nothing but faith in her. So many of these women had lived the same stories. I said, were you a victim of domestic violence? And she was like, yeah. But maybe Kelly could change the ending.

I said, how many people have gotten other incarcerated individuals out of here? I'm going to be the first one to do that. This is the story of Kelly Harnett, a woman who spent 12 years fighting not just for her own freedom, but her girlfriends too. I think I have a mission from God to save souls by getting people out of prison. The Girlfriends, Jailhouse Lawyer.

Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2020, a group of young women in a tidy suburb of New York City found themselves in an AI-fuelled nightmare. Someone was posting photos. It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts on my body parts that looked exactly like my own. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. It happened in Levittown, New York. But reporting the series took us through the darkest corners of the internet

and to the front lines of a global battle against deepfake pornography. This should be illegal, but what is this? This is a story about technology that's moving faster than the law and about vigilantes trying to stem the tide. I'm Margie Murphy. And I'm Olivia Carville. This is Levertown, a new podcast from iHeart Podcasts,

Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope. Listen to Levertown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to. There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond.

And left a woman behind to drown. There's a famous headline, I think, in the New York Daily News. It's, Teddy escapes, blonde drowns. And in a strange way, right, that sort of tells you. The story really became about Ted's political future, Ted's political hopes. Will Ted become president? Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control. And he's not the only Kennedy to survive a scandal.

The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it. So is there a curse? Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family. Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. I mean, wait, can we talk, can I, can we talk about the real buddy for a second? Because it is a very complicated story,

but there is a lot of history, a lot of lore attached to the dog, Buddy, born approximately in 1988, past February 10th, 1998. He was, I don't quite know how to say this last name. He was found by Kevin DeCicco, DeCicco? DeChico, DeChico, yeah, no idea. I don't want to call him De Sico. So I'm gonna say De Sico. Kevin De Sico I'll guess. He was found in the Sierra Nevada in the summer of 1989, pulling from scholarly journal Wikipedia here. De Sico adopted the golden retriever

and brought him to San Diego, where he quickly, per Kevin, because Kevin does write a memoir about this in 2012, called Go Buddy. And he says that he learned that like, basically what Buddy does with the basketball is like, it's covered in olive oil and he nips at it and it flies and he learns how to do this and pretty quickly there are to me some

like circus vibes where like Kevin DeSico knows he has an opportunity with this dog and he starts I did some like background research into sort of how this came to be and it was like Kevin was very trying to make this happen. He appeared at local events, then it was state events. Eventually Buddy gets onto David Letterman and people are loving Buddy. Buddy in the early 90s was on, it is so wild because I just did an episode of Yurok about Paul Rubin's and their arcs are just so similar. So he works and works and works and he gets on Letterman, people love him on Letterman, they're like,

let's give this dog a movie and that's how this comes to pass. So there is like show animal vibes to this. But Kevin himself is a complicated figure because he gets basically cut out of the Air Bud franchise in spite of the fact that he did create it in a way, he didn't write the movie, but he was Buddy's handler, it's because Buddy was so popular on TV

that this movie was written, but then Buddy passes away and Kevin sort of has no involvement from what I can tell with the franchise moving forward. It seems like he's had a very difficult life moving forward from there. There were a few articles about him last year about him having health struggles.

He was unhoused for a time. Like he's had a challenging life post Buddy, but then there's also very complicated stuff that we've talked about before. I think we talked about it a lot during our babe episode, I think, of just- I think so. That we don't need to fully unpack here

because there's so much to talk about. But just the idea of using real life animals in movies, it's always gonna be a hard sell for me. But like Air Bud is such an effective sell. Like, cause Buddy is incredible. He's so good at basketball and he seems like he's having a great time. But in a way it's like this conversation we're having

about should we use child actors for anything at all ever? Probably not because there's just, I mean, that's a little bit different it's very ripe for exploitation and abuse that is the exploitation piece and the abuse piece also very true for animals yeah equating children with animals I guess but it's like vulnerable performers yeah yeah and there's not really a lot that's like been said about this with regards to buddy specifically I feel like probably because of the time it came out, but just reading, I don't know,

the directors did a lot of fun 20th anniversary, 25th anniversary retrospectives about Air Bud, and they're mostly fun. It seems like it was a fun set. Everyone had a nice time, but then you just, I don't know. I read an anecdote where he was talking about Air Bud getting the hoop at the end of the basketball game at the climax of the movie,

and that it took 30 takes to get it and everyone was getting frustrated, and you're like, oh, this little guy. You know? Air Bud alone. Yeah. I also read that Kevin DeSico claimed

that he was not paid anything for the first film. Damn. And then, yeah, it was basically cut out of the franchise after that. So he doesn't have like an ownership stake in the IP of Air Bud in any way, even though like he was the one who originally trained this dog to do all the stuff. Really tragic. And there was there was an animal, a professional animal trainer on the set, luckily, who was also helping with Air Bud's

like doubles. But yeah, I also saw that Kevin De Sica wasn't paid, which I'm like, I don't understand how that could have happened when he was literally Buddy's handler. I'm like, did Buddy make money? Like, I'm assuming he did. Air Bud LLC, Air Bud LLC. But I'm also like, Buddy Making Money

is basically Kevin DeSico making money? I don't know. He's a very confusing character to me. I know Buddy had to have been paid. There's no world where Airbud was not compensated. Yeah. It just feels so different now, you know, in the social media era.

Sorry to sound like my own grandmother. But like, you know, animals go super viral online. And then there are in fact, animal agents that will help you monetize your pet. And then like, the worst thing is when you follow them on Instagram, and they start to get old, and then you start to get sad because you know, eventually like, oh, grumpy cat died 10 years ago. Yeah. But these days, I don't know, maybe in 1997, it just was different. It's like if you think about it, if if Air Bud were on Letterman during the Instagram era, like think of all the brand deals that Air Bud would have had with farmers dog or whatever.

But it's like, I guess dog agents didn't exist. Should dog agents exist? And now I think it's all AI slop dogs anyways, like I don't even know if real dogs are working anymore. And how do you feel? I like, how do, is it not bad? I don't know. I don't know.

I feel bad though now that I, cause I was the one who went really hard for how good it was to watch the real dog play basketball. And I just want to say. It was though, it was fun. But like like maybe we don't have to do it again. Maybe we don't have to do a live action remake of Airbun. Definitely not. There's a lot of art from the past

that we don't need to remake or revisit or redo, but we can still appreciate for what it was. I feel like there's other things like that where it's like, I don't know, they're like, in the 50s, they used radioactive waste as blush. And look how beautiful all the movie stars looked. And you can be like, yes, they looked beautiful. And we don't have to do that.

And they died moments after a rap. And may they rest in power. We can appreciate the beauty and then we can say, we're going to probably not do that. But let's not keep doing that. We're going to CGI the dog. Which we don't need to, Ed. We'll put the link in the description. If you wish to know more about the horrific production circumstances of the 2008 directed

DVD film Snow Buddies. You can read that in the description. Was Paul Walker involved in that one? No, he was. That's a different Snow Dog movie. I think that one might just be called Snow Dogs. That's the Kubo Gooding Jr. one. Oh, wait, what's the Paul Walker one?

I don't know what the Paul Walker Snow Dogs movie is. I thought he was involved in the one where the dogs died, but I must have made that up because- Oh, God. I hope there's not two of them. Oh, he- Okay, Paul Walker is in the movie called Eight Below. Okay. Oh, that's right. I assume all the dogs survived. Let's hope so.

Let's hope. Yeah, the last thing to say about Buddy, so he does pass away of cancer. It does not seem that his illness is related to performance at very least, but it's sad. He dies a year later. Yeah, he only got to enjoy his fame for like a year, it sounds like. And to add insult to injury, he was nominated for one award and only one award. It was a kids' choice award for best animal and he lost to Salem the cat. Oh, that's not even a real cat. It was a puppet.

He lost to a puppet. Insulting. An unbelievable snub. Horrific. Oh my god. That's like Chadwick Boseman losing to Anthony Hopkins after he died, the Oscar. It's bad, yeah.

Oh, I hate that. Yeah. So that's buddy. Now we know. You know, I think Kevin has a case, by the way, to get some kind of retroactive, like life. They should have to buy Kevin's life rights or something to use for the entire franchise. Yeah. And I think the key is Kevin should take the Disney Corporation to court and all he needs is Arthur Chaney as his attorney. Yeah.

Speak on it. Speak on this. To show up and tell the judge what's up. And he says to the judge, let the royalties choose where they want to flow. That's right. To Kevin or to Bob Iger. I think, I think we know where the royalties are going. Yeah.

I, I hope, I hope, Yeah, I hope Kevin's well. It seems like he's having a hard time. Yeah, poor guy. I hate that. I really hate that. Yeah. I just want to say, Kevin, I know we're very we're feeling very fraught about the animal entertainment piece of this, but you did a real good job training that dog. Yeah. And he brought me a lot of happiness when I was watching air. But I just want you to know if you're listening, which I'm sure you are. Thank you. Thanks Kev. Thank you, Kevin Yeah

Can we talk about I guess Jackie Josh's mom sure what yeah, what else what else is there to say about? Jackie well, okay. This is a Disney movie with an alive mom Well, okay, this is a Disney movie with an alive mom. There is a parent who has passed away and it's the dad this time, which is pretty unusual for a Disney movie. There's always at least one dead parent in a Disney movie, right?

Almost always, yes. Canon. Now, this happened recently where this, where Jackie's husband passed away very tragically and violently. Did it need to be that bad? I don't know. I don't think so. But this does not seem to be affecting her or if it is the movie doesn't care to explore that in any meaningful way. She's busy with her napkin job and then

her second job whatever that might be. Her whole storyline in the movie is like where are my newspapers? Again, this movie could have easily explored something a little. And I get it, it's a kids movie. You don't want to go too heavy and deep on too many things. But it's right there. Like, why wouldn't there be some sort of like moment in which she and Josh bonded over the loss of, over like grieving for Josh's father. Like it just is so goofy. Yeah, they don't show her struggling or grieving. And maybe that's just, that is her coping mechanism

is to be sort of like relentlessly positive and happy. But really the only time she brings up the dad, she's just talking, saying to the principal like, oh, he hasn't spoken since his dad died, which, oh, Jackie, hello. And then she's like, but maybe he hasn't spoken since his dad died, which, oh, Jackie, hello. And then she's like, but maybe he just needs a hobby, like the tuba or something. And that's really, and she doesn't even have that conversation with Josh. She's like talking to the principal.

I think she just signed him up for band without him knowing. And again, it's like she's in a very difficult circumstance. I want to show Jackie grace where I can, but she's just, like, her bedside manner is not good. Like, she, there's that scene where she goes up to Josh and he's upset because he's also, like, I don't know, I know it was for her job, but like, moving after a loss that's severe and like being away from your family and friends

has to be really hard, but she says, quote, your dad wouldn't want you being all mopey unquote. So manipulative, so evil, I know. And then make the dog sleep outside. I was like, she's a bit evil at times. Like I, yeah. Her emotional regulation is definitely questionable. I understand why, but it is very,

it's almost like kind of evil stepmother. I mean, I know she's his actual mother, not stepmother. I mean, she I know she's his actual mother, not stepmother to be like, I don't think your dad would like that very much. You know, it's weird. I think it's a case of the movies, which is what so many movies do caring more about the male characters, the little boy's relationship with his father than it does about any women or girls in the movies. They're just like, well, he has to have a mom. She's going to be at work all the time at napkin factory, and she's going to be in a few scenes here and there. But mostly it's just going to be an unsupervised child walking around and shooting

hoops with a dog. Like Josh spends so much time unsupervised by walking around and shooting hoops with a dog like Josh spends so much time unsupervised by an adult. He's always just loose in the world. The dog is similarly loose, just going all over the place. Yeah. It's also never explained how airbud makes it back from that remote Island in time for the basketball game. This is where Mr. Water Taxi comes in. What's his story? Or maybe he really did just swim the whole expanse of that body of water, I don't know. But yeah, they're both just kind of out there, just doing whatever, you know?

And then we've already touched on this, but like the little sister, even to a lesser extent, gets characterized and just just she is ignored. I don't even know her name. Oh, Andrea, but it's only because I read stuff about the sequels that she's in. Andrea, yeah, she is not, based on the Air Bud fan YouTube videos I was watching, she is not a fan favorite.

She's pretty dis, they're not fans of Andrea. They're like, she's a flop. She is bad at, but like her brother, she is bad at every sport she tries, which is an interesting creative choice. Yeah, good for her. There's this family is just like full of losers. Anyways.

The other big thing I wanna talk about with this movie is its depiction of class, especially in regards to Norm the Clown, because we have maybe the most cartoonish villain of all time in a live action movie to the point where he's literally a clown. He is abusive to animals, he hates children. There's all this stuff that makes him completely unlikable and unsympathetic to the audience. And on top of that, he is poor. And that's supposed to be another thing that we don't like about him. I think which is a very common trope. I feel like especially in children's media, but

across all media, I'm thinking of like, Sid and Toy Story. Right. He lives on the wrong side of town kind of thing. Yeah, and therefore he's bad. And I feel like the idea here is that the character is poor and it's his fault rather than any systemic issue. And I feel like movies like this imply that the character being poor is part of what makes them a bad person.

Yeah. Okay, I don't, can I just, okay look, this is spicy, not to be spicy. I agree with all of that. I think that that's a real trope. I think that this movie is certainly engaging in that trope. On the other hand, can I just say to Norm the Clown, get a real job? Or be a better clown. Right.

He's not even committed to his craft, you know? But it's not like he's like, I'm, you know, I can't work. He's going out and working birthday parties. He just doesn't like it, so he's doing a bad job. Yeah. Like, it's like, I don't know, man, maybe go work at the napkin factory. I, I, I'm not saying that any of this is your fault.

Yeah, I guess I've kind of fallen in the middle there because it is interesting that the reason he is poor is ostensibly because he is an artist, quote unquote. Like he's in the arts, which many such cases, and also that he, I don't know, he's just like a pile of tropes, and I don't know, he's just a pile of tropes, and I don't know what to make of him. The performance is so campy.

I agree that, yeah, the class tropes are very present, as are the, again, just adding something that just feels unnecessarily complicated for the kind of movie this is, making him an alcoholic as well. And just throwing that in there. I don't know what to make of him. I do agree that it's like, the fact that it's,

I guess I am glad that he isn't being given like a working class job to imply that he's a bad person. And we also do have, I mean, in Arthur's character, we have another working class character who's subject to many other tropes. I don't know. Yeah, it's like so campy and over the top that I don't really know what to make of it.

How did he get into clowning? Did he used to have a passion for it, but he lost it? I mean, he's into clowning enough that he used to have a passion for it, but he lost it? I mean, he's into clowning enough that he has a custom truck that has a giant professionally made clown head on the top. So well, he's invested. He had one. Well, until he drove it into that lake.

Was it the family business? Yeah, maybe his, speaking of fathers, maybe his father was moved the whole family to Spokane to force him to go to clown college. Oh something to think about. Yeah, we don't know. It's just yeah, just one trope on top of the next And it's all very cartoonish and again like a character who's struggling with addiction The movie's also like and that's also why he's a bad person And I know that this is a complicated matter where people who are dealing with addiction do behave sometimes in ways that is harmful to themselves and others.

But movies like this never approach that with any nuance. And it's just like, well, he's an alcoholic and he's poor, therefore bad. Yeah. They're for villain. Also I'm sorry I said that Arthur might have a gambling problem. I was just trying to I thought that was in the movie. Are you just made that up? I just made that up. I was trying to hypothesize how you lose all of your NBA money. And I mean, that's what Michael Jordan dealt with in real life, right? So maybe exactly. He says that it's not a gambling problem. If you don't run out of money and he has

never run out of money. Therefore, he doesn't have a problem. That's what he says. And I'm paraphrasing, but that's basically what he said. Addiction is a motherfucker. It's it's wild out there, folks. Yeah, I get it. It's like and I would be so shocked if the writers of this movie were even remotely doing anything but just like like, pulling well-worn tropes out of their ass in that way. But I'd like to say that Arthur could have been swindled by an unscrupulous agent.

There are many things that could have happened to Arthur. I mean, I can't imagine it was a picnic to be a black player in the NBA in 1956. Absolutely, yeah. And also, also like shoe deals, endorsement deals, that stuff where athletes actually make most of their money. Like none of that stuff existed until like the seventies and eighties. So that's right. Poor Arthur. And then, but also that he felt like he had to hide his accomplishments from people. Just, it just makes you sad. And then he kind of applies his great wealth of knowledge to help some random, I

mean, I don't know. Yeah, obviously, Josh is going through a lot too. But it's like, Arthur, heal thyself, sir, you know, it really is. Yeah, like Arthur could be there's a whole separate very overly serious family drama about Arthur, that is just sort of left on the table there. Not so much about Norm. I don't know if there's enough runway for a full movie there. Maybe though, I don't know. There's maybe a Bobcat Goldthwait movie in there. I don't know.

We could, you know. Absolutely, yeah. I mean, isn't that kind of what Baskets is about? There you go, there you go. Yeah, it's like, it's frustrating when it's like, I love being shown a tropey character when they're doing something with it, but that's not the kind of movie we're really watching.

No. Except with regards to Golden Retrievers, in which case. We got a real nuanced look at what dogs are capable of, I think. So true. In this film. It's true. Another tropey character I felt was the judge at the end.

It felt like a lot of ageist tropes were happening there where like he can't see, he can't hear, he doesn't seem to understand what's going on around him. He's horrible at his job. However, speaking of having controversial takes about judges specifically, if you have been appointed for life to a judgeship and You don't know where you are or what's going on Please retire and please retire when Barack Obama is president a judge of any stature at any time. Yes

If you could just go ahead and not wait until Donald Trump is president to retire slash die That would help us all out a great deal. Thank you Just throwing that. It's not about age. It's about ability. We'll just put it that way. The ability to judge. Just throwing that out there. This judge, it's so funny because I feel like you don't even need those tropes because the character- The situation is goofy enough. And I just love that the character is like, I don't give a fuck. I'm going to do it feels good. And I just love that the character's like, I don't give a fuck, I'm gonna do it feels good.

Like that's fun enough on its own. Like him just being like, whatever, today is, today doesn't count, today's a silly one. Like that's fun. Today we're making a TikTok on the front lawn of the court house. Right, yes. Yes.

We talked a little bit about the sequels, but the thing I was curious about them is that, because I knew nothing about, I don't know if it was the same cast, even the same dog, you know, I knew nothing. And I was curious about, is it ever girls playing sports? Yes. And the answer is kind of, um, so Air Bud Golden Receiver, the sequel that immediately follows this one is about American football and it seems to be all boys. Air Bud World Pup is the soccer slash real football movie where it is a coed team, but it does seem to be mostly boys. There is I think at least one girl on the team, maybe she is the only one I didn't watch the movie, hard to say.

And then when the focus comes to Andrea, then we get to. In the next one, Seventh Inning Fetch, which is the baseball movie, again, seems to be a coed team, but I was scrubbing through the movie on Disney Plus, and it seems to be mostly boys again. And then the next one is Air Bud Spikes Back, the volleyball movie. Also a co-ed team, although it almost doesn't seem like an official like a school sports team. I think they're just

sort of like casually playing beach volleyball and Air Bud gets involved. I can't really tell, but this one also centers Andrea, Josh's sister. So girls do get more meaningfully involved in the franchise as it goes on. The Air Bud universe. But it is still mostly centering boys playing sports and dogs playing sports. Is the dog ever a girl?

So no, Air Bud gets a girlfriend. They literally miss his Air Bud her. As far as I know, Mrs. Air Bud does not play sports. She's a stay at home Mrs. Air Bud. I'm not totally sure. I do know that in the third or fourth one, he gets a girlfriend and then- I think that's world pup.

It's world pup, okay. I believe you. And then he, I don't like how they talk about dogs having babies. He sires puppies, sires, that believe you. And then he, I don't like how they talk about dogs having babies. He sires puppies, sires, that's nasty. But he does have puppies who become the stars of Air Buddies. I see, I see. Well, the legacy of Title IX is in tatters

in the Air Bud universe. It's true, it's true. Title IX, more like K9, whoa! Nailed it! It's true. It's true. Title nine more like canine. There it is. I don't have anything else to say about the movie. I just want to say that this was a gift. I know we have a lot of fraught feelings about the ethics of airbud, but boy, I haven't laughed like that in months. I think Air Bud cured my very severe depression. Glad to hear it. To him I say I salute. To Air Bud and his progeny, I salute you. It was a very funny movie. I laughed a lot.

Does anyone have anything else they want to talk about? Well, are we going to talk about the Bechdel test? Because I have something to say about that. Did anyone pass? Honestly, I wasn't really paying attention. I don't know. I don't know if this counts. But because I actually didn't clock the mom on the phone. So I guess it could have been.

I don't think that counts because she wasn't. We don't see her. We don't hear the grandmother speaking. OK, so to me, the only one I noticed is when they first get to the new house and the mom says to both kids, so what do you think? What do you think? So what do you think of the house?

Does that count? Does little baby Andrea respond? She kind of goes, ah. I think it counts. I don't think, usually then we'll kick it to like, does it spiritually pass? And I just feel like, no way. No way. Does it spiritually pass?

Like there's a part when the mom talks to the principal, except they're talking about Josh. Yeah. And his dad. And his dad, yeah. Yeah. And his recently exploded father. So yeah, I think that's a no on the Bechtel test.

But I'm standing by mine where the mom asks the baby if she likes the apartment. Okay, fair, fair, fair. I think that was pretty good. I just wanted to throw in here really quick because we sometimes, I don't know, sometimes enemies, sometimes friend of the show, Roger Ebert, gave this movie three stars,

which I just thought was very out of three out of four out of four pretty high score and he is his whole I do like his reviews that are like this he's like look I went in expecting to have a bad time and I was moved yep and so and so I have no choice but to give it three stars I was like good for you good for you for recognizing. That's how I feel. I agree. He's right on.

My only disagreement is that I would give it four. Well, speaking of giving the movie a number of things on a scale. So it's our nipple scale. We rate the movie zero to five nipples based on examining the movie through an intersectional feminist lens. And while this is a romp and while this has some great dog acting and basketball abilities, I would say on the nipple scale, it gets one nipple because their mom is there, but based on all the things we've talked about regarding tropes surrounding

poor characters and black characters and everything that we've discussed, yeah, I think only one nipple, and I will give it to Buddy the dog. Yeah. I think I would give it, I would give it two, although I'm not super familiar with the scale, so I could be off, but I just feel like thinking

about the era and like the time that we grew up in and. Yeah. Like there's so much media that is, that doesn't just use tropes, but is like overtly offensive. True. And like degrading and derogatory and what. I, it doesn't have any of that.

It's just sort of like ideologically insensitive and clumsy, I think. I guess maybe the bar is on the ground for media that came out in the 90s, but it's like a lot of stuff you can't go back and watch, cause there's like the use of slurs and just like wild comments about people's weight or whatever, like really out of pocket jokes

that are just like completely racially based or just outright racist or whatever. And so like a lot of the issues that I, if you even wanna call them issues, I cannot emphasize enough, I love this movie so much. I really loved it. It's like stuff that you learn about later, like when you go to college and then when you rewatch something, you're like, oh, that's that tro that you learn about later, like when you go to college,

and then when you re-watch something, you're like, oh, that's that trope I learned about in my film studies class, which I took by the way. You know, so like, yeah, is there this like sort of ridiculous and often harmful magical Negro trope? Yes, is it the worst one I've ever seen? Not by far. You know what I mean?

So it's like, I'm on a human scale, I'm giving it four stars. On the feminist intersectional scale, I will also, I will give it two as well. Because to Lindy's point, there was nothing happening in it where that was like active pointed, like stuff where you couldn't show it to a kid today which a lot of stuff from that era fits into that category like you can't show it to a child because they're like oh god you watched this yeah totally there's nothing really like that that happens in air but it's a sort of like a absentee mother really I was too busy at the napkin factory. Yeah. And like I really and they could have done a much better job giving coach Arthur Chaney a full nuanced and inner rich life. And they don't do that, which is too bad. I thought maybe the mom and Arthur were going to get together.

Hello. That was the thing. I was getting it's like it's giving the movie credit for what it doesn't do versus what it does. But I was surprised that they didn't toss in a boyfriend. I guess it'd be pretty insensitive due to her husband just exploded, but a lot of movies would, a lot of movies would. And that eventually does happen, that happens literally in the next movie.

Oh, good, good, good, good, good. She meets a new guy right away, and she's like, I'm over it, I'm over it, enter Patrick. I'm gonna be a coward and split the difference at one and a half. And that's gonna be my choice. I wanted to say one more thing that I think that the true villains of this franchise,

if we're talking about people that are profiting off of animal performers with animal standards that get worse and worse as time goes on. Two brothers produced this movie, which I always find to be a little bit evil. Show business brothers, I just don't like it. The Vince brothers, Robert Vince and William Vince, they have, William Vince has produced like real movies,

quote unquote, no offense, but like he produced, movies we've covered on the show, he produced Saved, he produced Capote, whereas Robert Vince especially seems to have made a fortune exploiting animals for movies. He produced MVP Most Valuable Primate, he did all the earbuds including the one where five puppies died,

and more recently has been doing stuff like Monkey Up, Pup Star. Like it's like this is someone who probably owns a house in Beverly Hills based on exploiting animals. So. I know he hated to watch Chimp Crazy, that documentary on HBO. He was wringing his hands. I know that hated to watch chimp crazy that documentary So that's the last yeah, I just would say I those guys freaked me out also just in general brothers freaked me out

Conceptually. Yeah, I think boo to brothers. Yeah, I give zero nipples to brothers I don't like movies about brothers. I don't like, I don't know. My fiance has a brother. I'm like, don't hang out with him. It's a scary bond. Break up. Some human bonds should not be preserved. Yep, totally. Yeah.

Thank you to the both of you for being here. What would you like to plug? Where can people follow you? We're gonna follow the show. Please follow our show. If you thought this was fun, you'll love Text Me Back podcast. We're on all of the social medias, I think,

although speaking of abandoned haunted churches, that's what our TikTok is basically. But we do have a TikTok. But we're on Instagram and all the places that at Text me back pod. We are an independent podcast. We make it ourselves. It's very hard, but we love doing it.

So if you listen to the show and you like it, you can support us at patreon.com slash text me back pod. So check it out. Yeah, just come give us a listen. Yeah. We're so fun. We have lots of lore. We have a thriving discord.

There's all kinds of things to dig your little teeth into. If you want to learn more about Barry, if you're into Golden Retrievers, yeah, baby, we got Barry. OK, so come check this out. Come check this out. Yeah. And Megan has a special little friend. I do. Well, I have one dog behind me right now as I'm recording. Her name is Margie. She's so sleepy. And I assume the editor will cut this out, but you may have heard dog behind me right now as I'm recording her name is Margie she's so sleepy and I

assume the editor will cut this out but you may have heard my dog Kevin barking in the background of this while we were recording he's a Pomeranian from Amish country and he is diseased in the mind. I like that you carefully chose your words there. He came from hell and I love him so much, but he does not believe in quiet time for podcast recording. He does not believe in that. No, no, no. And that's his prerogative.

Yep. I'm not here to exploit Kevin and make him do stuff he doesn't want to do. You know what I mean? Like be quiet. And good for you. Oh goodness. Well, thank you again so much. Come back anytime. Thank you. This was a joy.

It was the delight. Thank you so much. Oh my gosh. You can follow us on mostly Instagram at Bechtelcast. You can subscribe to our Patreon, aka Matrion, where we cover two bonus episodes every single month, always centering a genius theme. And that's all for $5 a month. And you can check out soon, we're going on tour at the end of the summer in the Midwest. So if you live in Chicago, Minneapolis, Madison, Wisconsin,

or Indianapolis, Indiana, you can come and see us. And if you live close by, get in your car, get in your clown car and get to the show. And don't drive in a lake. And with that, let's get on this water taxi with this mysterious stranger. And leave our dog behind. And abandon our dog on an island.

So sad. Okay, bye. Bye. The Bechtel Cast is a production of iHeartMedia, hosted by Caitlin Durante and Jamie Loftus, produced by Sophie Lichterman, edited by Mo Laborde. Our theme song was composed by Mike Kaplan with vocals by Catherine Voskrasensky. Our logo and merch is designed by Jamie Loftus. And a special thanks to Aristotle Acevedo. For more information about the podcast,

please visit linktree slash Bechtelcast. Join iHeartRadio and Sarah Spayne in celebrating the one year anniversary of iHeart Women's Sports. With powerful interviews and insider analysis, our shows have connected fans with the heart of women's sports. In just one year, the network has launched 15 shows

and built a community united by passion. Podcasts that amplify the voices of women in sports. Thank you for supporting iHeart Women's Sports and our founding sponsors, Elf Beauty, Capital One, and Novartis. Just open the free iHeart app and search iHeart Women's Sports to listen now. The Girlfriends is back with a new season

and this time I'm telling you the story of Kelly Harnett. Kelly spent over a decade in prison for a murder she says she didn't commit. As she fought for her freedom, she taught herself the law. He goes, oh God, Harnett, jailhouse lawyer. And became a beacon of hope for the women locked up alongside her. I was supposed to have faith in God, but I had nothing but faith in her. I think I was put here to save souls by getting people out of prison. The Girlfriends, Jailhouse Lawyer.

Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2020, a group of young women found themselves in an AI-fueled nightmare. Someone was posting photos. It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts. This is Levertown, a new podcast from iHeart Podcasts, Bloomberg, and Kaleidoscope, about the rise of deepfake pornography and the battle to stop it. Listen to Levertown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast.

Find it on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just like great shoes, great books take you places. Through unforgettable love stories and into conversations with characters you'll never forget. I think any good romance, it gives me this feeling of like butterflies. I'm Danielle Robay, and this is Bookmarked

by Reese's Book Club, the new podcast from Hello Sunshine and iHeart Podcasts where we dive into the stories that shape us on the page and off. Each week I'm joined by authors, celebs, book talk stars, and more for conversations that will make you laugh, cry, and add way too many books to your TBR pile. Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.