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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:14:55 — 72.1MB)

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We’ve been afraid… been VERY afraid… for most of 2020. Now we’ve made it to the New Year – a time of change, of hope, of possibility. But if you’re considering mutating into a human-insect hybrid as your New Year’s resolution, may we suggest… not?

After chilling with John Carpenter’s barf bag classic The Thing in our previous episode, we’re buzzing about another horror maestro’s take on 50s sci-fi – David Cronenberg’s THE FLY remake (1986), starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis as a couple that meets cute, falls in love, and soon has a baby on the way – while daddy is sprouting coarse insect hairs, vomiting milky white acid, and losing his teeth and fingernails in the most graphic way possible. It’s not a good look!

We talk about how The Fly embraces its B-movie roots, while also elevating body horror to new heights of critical and commercial success (plus an Oscar for its all-too-convincing makeup effects). And we admit that, at the tail end of a most unusual year, we can relate to this mad scientist’s unease about becoming a slimy, shriveled hermit. So join us in kissing off 2020 the way it deserves – with exploding baboons, larvae babies, and displaced appendages. You’ll be disgusted… you’ll be VERY disgusted!

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WWWYshow, on Facebook at Facebook.com/WWWYShow and email episode suggestions to wwwyshow@gmail.com. Don’t forget to subscribe and review us on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts so more folks check out the show!

Help us defray the costs of creating this show, which includes purchasing movies/shows/music to review, delivery food to eat our feelings, and producing & editing in-house at the MFP Studio in Los Angeles, California, by donating to our Patreon account at patreon.com/WhenWeWereYoung

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:07:37 — 55.4MB)

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Is this a podcast, or is it merely pretending to be? It’s 2020, so we’re celebrating the holidays a little differently this year. We’ve swapped twitching tentacles for twinkling lights, exploding wolfdogs for red-nosed reindeer, lighting killer space beasts aflame for roasting chestnuts, and a creeping existential dread for jolly good cheer. Ho, ho, ho!

The 1980s saw a revival of 50s sci-fi B-movies, with notable remakes offering similarly bizarre chills and thrills with one major upgrade — some of the most stomach-churning special effects ever put to the screen. John Carpenter’s THE THING (1982) is a horror staple now, but it wasn’t so warmly received when it opened for audiences who had just fallen in love with Spielberg’s cuddly alien pal E.T., and Carpenter’s career never fully recovered.

We discuss how late 20^th century horror masters took the traditions of drive-in camp classics and made them their own with gross-out gore and cringey body horror, then hunker down and contend with The Thing in all its goopy, arm-chomping glory. Did Carpenter’s classic deserve to be left out in the cold? Or was it a masterpiece merely imitating a box office bomb? Zip up your parka, secure your blood bags, and prepare for a not-so-silent night, because this is one story of immaculate reproduction that isn’t so blessed.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WWWYshow, on Facebook at Facebook.com/WWWYShow and email episode suggestions to wwwyshow@gmail.com. Don’t forget to subscribe and review us on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts so more folks check out the show!

Help us defray the costs of creating this show, which includes purchasing movies/shows/music to review, delivery food to eat our feelings, and producing & editing in-house at the MFP Studio in Los Angeles, California, by donating to our Patreon account at patreon.com/WhenWeWereYoung

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:02:02 — 64.1MB)

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If you thought this podcast was done discussing everyone’s favorite gang of pubescent crime fighting reptiles, we’ve got news for you! Less than a year after the first TMNT movie did some major league butt-kicking at the box office, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES II: THE SECRET OF THE OOZE offered a second helping of Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo — plus their furry but wise sensei Splinter, their cutlery-inspired arch-nemesis Shredder, and a whole lot of shameless pizza promotion.

There’s no question that this sequel is more kid-friendly than the original, replacing Judith Hoag’s feisty April O’Neil with the more amiable Paige Turco, ditching the hockey-stick wielding bad boy Casey Jones, and giving our heroes a teenage pizza delivery boy sidekick. It also shows off more of Jim Henson’s creature effects with its super-sized baby villains Tokka and Rahzar. But TMNT II is perhaps best known as the film debut of Vanilla Ice, whose “Ninja Rap” inspires the hip-hop dance number that no early 90s family flick should be without.

And before we’re completely done dining on turtle soup, our hosts reminisce about the video games, action figures, concert tours, and other wild TMNT merch we begged our parents to buy us — and recap their recent viewing of 1996’s SPACE JAM, too. Go ninja, go ninja, go listen to part two of our podcast — back by bodacious demand!

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WWWYshow, on Facebook at Facebook.com/WWWYShow and email your episode suggestions to wwwyshow@gmail.com. Don’t forget to subscribe and review us on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts so more folks check out the show!

Help us defray the costs of creating this show, which includes purchasing movies/shows/music to review, delivery food to eat our feelings, and producing & editing in-house at the MFP Studio in Los Angeles, California, by donating to our Patreon account at patreon.com/WhenWeWereYoung

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:21:15 — 79.8MB)

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The world’s most fearsome podcast team unleashes its most tubular episodes yet, diving deep into the mythos of those lean, green phenoms of yore, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

First, we check out the comic book where it all began, discussing how a black-and-white spoof aimed at adults became one of the most popular children’s franchises of all time. Radical! Next, we revisit the kitschy cartoon series — and the catchy theme song we’ll never be able to get out of our heads, even if our brains are removed from our bodies and placed in awkward bald-guy-in-red-underwear human suits. Righteous! And finally, we return to 1990’s live action TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES movie and debate who, exactly, this mashup of samurai lore, stoner slang, dated movie references, and goofy kiddie humor is supposed to be for. Cowabunga!

Do we still feel the Turtle Power after all these years? Or has this whole franchise aged about as well as April O’Neil’s bright yellow jumpsuit and white go-go boots? Don a trench coat, grab your nunchucks, and head on down to the sewers for another cool (but rude) episode of When We Were Young!

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WWWYshow, on Facebook at Facebook.com/WWWYShow and email your episode suggestions to wwwyshow@gmail.com. Don’t forget to subscribe and review us on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts so more folks check out the show!

Help us defray the costs of creating this show, which includes purchasing movies/shows/music to review, delivery food to eat our feelings, and producing & editing in-house at the MFP Studio in Los Angeles, California, by donating to our Patreon account at patreon.com/WhenWeWereYoung

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:02:39 — 105.8MB)

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Riots. Fires. Police violence. Ruinous bigotry. A cacophony of voices calling for justice for Black Americans. These are all very present in today’s newspaper headlines and social media feeds, and also set the scene for Spike Lee’s seminal modern classic DO THE RIGHT THING, which is no less urgent in 2020 than it was upon its 1989 release.

Lee’s film was praised by most critics but received a backlash from some, who wrongly believed the film itself would incite riots upon its summer release. Instead, When We Were Young happily joins in the thoughtful conversation on racial tensions Do The Right Thing has prompted for thirty years and counting, finding the film not only rightfully angry but also vibrant, loving, insightful, and incredibly funny.

As the world mourns the senseless killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others by those meant to serve and protect, our cohosts discuss just how difficult it is to “Fight the Power” when that power is armed with a license to kill citizens without cause, and debate what “doing the right thing” even means anymore. Black Lives Matter — and that’s the truth, Ruth.

National Bail Fund Network https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/nbfn-directory

Rolling Stone Bail Fund Links: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/george-floyd-protests-bail-funds-police-brutality-black-lives-matter-1008259/

When We Were Young is a podcast devoted to the most beloved pop culture of our formative years (roughly 1980-2000). Join us for a look back to the past with a critical eye on how these movies, songs, TV shows and more hold up now. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WWWYshow, on Facebook at Facebook.com/WWWYShow and email your episode suggestions to wwwyshow@gmail.com. Don’t forget to subscribe and review us on the iTunes and Google Play Stores so more folks check out the show.