Archives
132: “Cue The Sun” – The Truman Show
Podcast: Play in new window | Download ()
Subscribe: RSS
Can you imagine living in a world where millions of people are glued to their screens 24/7, watching the life of an ordinary person unfold while being bombarded with advertisements that are disguised as part of the entertainment?




Of course you can! It’s 2024, and we’re already there. But back in 1998, the premise of THE TRUMAN SHOW was still a pretty radical idea, giving moviegoers a glimpse of the future shortly before the reality TV boom of the 2000s and long before the rise of social media. Audiences who thought they were in for a summer comedy starring Jim Carrey found themselves instead confronted with deep philosophical questions about freedom versus choice, artifice versus authenticity, surveillance versus privacy, and other heady topics – unaware that they were witnessing the rise of the world’s first influencer.





The film stars Jim Carrey as likable everyman Truman Burbank, who’s lived his entire life unaware that every move he makes is broadcast to adoring fans across the globe. His mom, his wife, his best friend, and everybody else in town are in on it. The Truman Show gave Carrey newfound credibility as a dramatic actor and showcases peerless supporting performances from Laura Linney as Truman’s increasingly unhinged wife and Ed Harris as the God-like “creator” behind this massive production.






There’s no question that Peter Weir’s fable-like film was ahead of its time in numerous ways, which only lends itself to an even richer conversation than was possible back in the late 90s. But how does this unusual blend of comedy, drama, and satirical science fiction hold up as entertainment now that there are millions of Truman Burbanks among us? Is the movie held back by dated technology and a plot that hinges on 1990s broadcast television, or is it time to hail The Truman Show as a timeless masterpiece?





Follow When We Were Young 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 (or wherever you get your podcasts) so more folks check out the show!


Help us defray the costs of creating this show, which include recording remotely, 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



128: “Say Goodnight To The Bad Guy” – Scarface
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:23:03 — 85.0MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | RSS
Bright lights, joyful music, expensive baubles, and white powder everywhere! Could it be Christmastime again? Or is it perhaps a sweltering, sweaty drug war in Miami, circa 1983?

Actually, it’s both, as When We Were Young celebrates the holidays the only way we know how – with narcotics, chainsaws, and expletives galore, all courtesy of Brian De Palma’s ultraviolent crime classic SCARFACE.



Americans have a long history of looking up to men who aren’t the best role models. That explains why Tony Montano, the Cuban crime lord unforgettably embodied by Al Pacino, became an unlikely role model for millions of moviegoers who turned the controversial gangster flick into a stone cold classic over the four decades that followed its release. Some viewers find inspiration in Tony Montana’s upwardly mobile immigrant story, while others find the film’s execution of the American dream to be even more crass than the capitalist excess it’s critiquing. And then there are those who just really like the F-word and machine guns!



To celebrate the film’s 40th anniversary, Chris, Becky, and Seth sample from Scarface’s many extremes, exploring everything from the incestuous implications of its sibling relationship to the over-the-top carnage of its finale – all set to a throbbing disco soundtrack, of course. Do we still consider Scarface to be a lil’ fren’ to cinema? Or is Tony Montana a bad guy we prefer to say “goodnight” to indefinitely?

Follow When We Were Young 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 (or wherever you get your podcasts) so more folks check out the show!



Help us defray the costs of creating this show, which include recording remotely, 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


127: “NOW A Warning?!” – Death Becomes Her
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:14:54 — 71.2MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | RSS
Death comes to us all – unless you’re Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn. These two actresses have found the secret to living forever: being immortalized in one of the most beloved horror comedies of cult cinema, DEATH BECOMES HER (1992).

Robert Zemeckis broke new ground with the movie’s mind-bending Oscar-winning (and neck-twisting) special effects, and the film was a hit at the box office despite critics not being too impressed by the literal death-defying antics of these two frenemies.

Has time been kind to Mad(eline) and Hel(en) in the last 30 years? Or is “Death Becomes Her” just a rotting corpse covered in spray paint? Join us as we revisit the past and share our own insecurities about aging. Bottom’s up!


Follow When We Were Young 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 (or wherever you get your podcasts) so more folks check out the show!

Help us defray the costs of creating this show, which include recording remotely, 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

126: “I Award You No Points, And May God Have Mercy On Your Soul” – Adam Sandler’s 90s Comedies
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:03:45 — 112.3MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | RSS
Put on your yarmulke, it’s time to celebrate ADAM SANDLER! In the third and final installment of our series Saturday Night Leavers – Celluloid Man-Children Of 90s Cinema, we revisit Adam Sandler’s most memorable Saturday Night Live sketches, from Canteen Boy to Opera Man.



Then we dive into his big-screen adventures in BILLY MADISON, HAPPY GILMORE, and THE WEDDING SINGER, where Sandler plays men who range from romantic losers to (arguably) lovable idiots with anger issues. Adam Sandler has perfected the art of buffoonery in his decades-long, billion-dollar-earning career, but does his first chapter as a leading man still bring the laughs? Or are we all now dumber for having listened to it?






One last question: Do you have any more gum?



Follow When We Were Young 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 (or wherever you get your podcasts) so more folks check out the show!





Help us defray the costs of creating this show, which include recording remotely, 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





125: “Fat Guy In A Little Coat” – Chris Farley’s 90s Comedies
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:18:23 — 135.6MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | RSS
Saturday Night Live is not just a TV comedy institution but also an incubator for some of the brightest comedy stars of the silver screen. In our three-part miniseries Saturday Night Leavers – Celluloid Man-Children Of 90s Cinema, we are surveying the careers of three men who left the show in 1995, and who took their SNL fame to new heights by becoming movie stars.



In Part Two of the miniseries we discuss Chris Farley, one of the hottest stars to ever burst out into national fame from Saturday Night Live. Farley took his unforgettable comedic persona and superstardom to the cinema immediately after SNL fired him in 1995, but his career was tragically cut short by his death in 1997 at the age of 33.



We begin by discussing our own childhood needs for attention and approval from strangers, and then we investigate Chris Farley’s upbringing as a hell-raising but sensitive and devoutly Catholic boy in Wisconsin, his meteoric rise in improv comedy, and our own favorite moments of Farley’s career in SNL and beyond. Then we revisit Chris Farley’s two best known film roles: co-starring with SNL alum David Spade in 1995’s hit brake pad sales comedy TOMMY BOY, and in 1996’s less-than-hit political(?) comedy BLACK SHEEP. How do these movies hold up now?




Whether or not you knew him as a “heartbreaker” or “not hygienic,” and whether or not he ever really lived in a van down by the river, Chris Farley was an inescapable staple in American homes throughout the 1990s. And quotes from his sketch and movie characters were on the tongues of countless grade-school youth, including at least one host of this podcast. Do… do you remember that? It was awesome!




Follow When We Were Young 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 (or wherever you get your podcasts) so more folks check out the show!



Help us defray the costs of creating this show, which include recording remotely, 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