Stay ConnectedEvery week, author and pop culture writer Mike Vago pitches stories that Hollywood needs to bring to the big screen, with guests from the pop culture writing world.
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Copyright: © Mike Vago
In the '80s and '90s, Spider Robinson wrote a series of books about Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, a watering hole whose regulars included time travelers, aliens, mythological creatures, and the occasional talking dog. Ethan Poschman, co-host of the podcast A Special Presentation, Or Alf Will Not Be Seen Tonight, joins us to talk about why this story about storytelling needs to be a movie, or a series, or a little of both.
In the mid 1980s, baseball had a coke problem, as cocaine use was rampant throughout the major leagues. When Commissioner Peter Ueberroth cracked down and banned several players, one enterprising minor-league owner struck on a seemingly brilliant idea—sign up a bunch of disgraced players to attract fans. Could this ragtag of misfits band together and learn the meaning of teamwork during a thrilling season? They could not, and were in fact one of the worst teams in the history of baseball. Screen Scholars editor Jason Thurston joins us to talk about why fans just said no to the 1986 San Jose Bees.
Greetings, true believers!!! The cultural dominance of Marvel Comics has made Stan Lee a beloved American icon, but his creative partner through Marvel's formative years, illustrator/writer Jack Kirby, who co-created the Hulk, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and whose ambitious storytelling and energetic artwork came to define the superhero comic for generations. Comic book writer Ted Anderson (Moth Whisperer, Orphan Age, Adventure Time, My Little Pony) joins us to talk to us about everything from the impossibility of artistic credit being distributed fairly, to Judaism underlying the medium of superhero comics, to why it's always good to punch Nazis.
Graham Greene wrote 1949's The Third Man, considered one of the best films of all time. But at the end of his life, Greene became fixated on a real-life story that parallelled his movie, when two British spies defected to the USSR in the 1950s, and Mi6 suspected they had a third man who had tipped them off. That man, Kim Philby, let a remarkable life of ambition, betrayal, and secrets. Scott Bunn (Steve Sax Syndrome, now available in podcast form!) joins us to talk about the real-life Third Man, and why Philby's story needs to be a movie.
King Arthur can pull a sword from a stone, unite the Britons, and quest for the Holy Grail... but can he surf? Bitter Karella, creator of graphic novels including Misunderstanding Comics and Malleus Maleficarum; co-host of the podcast A Special Presentation, or Alf Will Not Be Seen Tonight, which revisits '80s cartoons based on newspaper comics; and mind behind the @midnight_pals Twitter account, joins us to pitch a throwback to trashy '80s comedies... with a throw-even-further-back to Camelot!
Those hip new neighbors you've been hanging out with? They might be aliens. And they want you to play their role-playing game. Author and interactive fiction game creator Steph Cherrywell joins us to talk about Interstellar Pig, William Sleator's 1984 YA sci-fi book, and why it needs a big-screen adapation.
The king is unwell. His sister is insane. Her son, the heir to the throne, is in the thrall of an all-corrupting villain. His sister is the kingdom's only hope, and to save her, please the gods, and ensure the kingdom's future, our hero has to die for his country. Four times.
Author and action-movie-fight-scene reviewer TG Shepherd (@tgshepherdvan, tgshepherd.com), takes us through Lois McMaster Bujold's award-winning fantasy series and why it needs to be the next Game of Thrones.
In May of 2020, a blundering American private security company tried to invade Venezuela. It went even worse than you'd expect, with their speedboat-based invasion thwarted by a local fisherman. Doug Woycechowsky returns to talk about why this has the makings of a great absudist comedy, drawing on everything from Airplane! to the Marx Brothers to It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, as we start season two of Why Is This Not a Movie?
Somen Banerjee was a classic American success story — in founding Chippendales, the male stripper troupe, he tapped into a brand new market for exotic dancing that had previously catered only to men. But when the competition showed up, things got ugly, as Banerjee threatened to burn down clubs that booked rival acts, and eventually had a partner-turned competitor murdered. subjectmedia.org Culture Editor Jay Bharathan takes us through a story that has everything—incompetent criminals, male strippers, and a darkly absurd tale of murder!
After this episode we'll be taking two weeks off, but will return in the New Year with Season 2 of Why Is This Not a Movie?
While Shakespeare was putting on some of the most revered theater in history at the Globe, across town the Red Bull Theater was putting on bawdy comedies, scandalous political satire, plays that were just the funny bits from other plays, and letting women perform on stage. London-based comedian Paul Savage takes us back to a 17th-century London where everyone was drunk all the time, everything stank to high heaven, and a scrappy troupe of actors broke all the rules in service of the most important rule of all — get butts in seats.
While Paul's stuck not performing live during the pandemic, he's started a Kickstarter to fund his third book of comics. Get more info and chip in at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulsavagecomics/paul-savage-new-comics
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