Why ‘Jason Takes Manhattan’ was Now Playing Podcast’s toughest show
To mark the 10th anniversary of Now Playing Podcast in 2017, hosts and staff are looking back at defining moments throughout the show’s history.
On February 4, 2009, Now Playing Podcast released one of its most memorable early episodes. On the eighth anniversary of the Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan review, host Arnie Carvalho reflects on the behind-the-scenes craziness that listeners never heard on the air.
Friday the 13th Part VII was our most loved show on that series. It was also our first big failure. It was our third recording on a Sunday night. We suddenly learned recording this many shows is exhausting, even for shorter shows. We made a ton of jokes about Friday the 13th but there was no content. More, it was our shortest recording of the series by far.
I walked away from the conversation with my sides hurting from laughter, but exhausted and frustrated the show wasn’t better. Stuart the e-mailed me and said he didn’t think the show was very good either. We roped Brock into the conversation, he agreed, and we re-recorded that show top to bottom.
BUT… that attempt wasn’t very good either. We were much better about explaining the beats of the movie, but we had told each other all of our jokes, and the fun wasn’t there.
I spent about 60 hours working on that show. I took both versions into the editing software and I took the funny from Recording No. 1 and put it with the thoughtfulness and the structure of Recording No. 2. The result was what some people still call our funniest show.
By the way, while doing the series it was Brock that started pushing for Star Trek. He seemed as excited for the Trek reboot as I was for the Friday the 13th one. I wasn’t feeling it, but then when we saw the download numbers for Friday the 13th, and when we realized how much fun we were having, we were all excited to boldly go into our next retrospective!
Now Playing Podcast’s Friday the 13th Retrospective Series was released from January 9 to Feb. 20, 2009. The 13 episode series can be heard on the Now Playing Podcast website.
This Summer NOW PLAYING is Now Playing in Theaters!
When Now Playing Podcast’s X-Men: Apocalypse episode arrived last week, it kick started a summer schedule stacked with week of release reviews for the 9-year-old show and its panel of hosts.
In a way, Now Playing is going back to the beginning.
Longtime listeners will remember the early days, when the show launched with the goal of reviewing a just released flick every week. Those 2007-08 era shows are notable for their shorter run times (the first Iron Man review runs a little more than 8 minutes) and films that would never fit in Now Playing Retrospective Series (reviews of Fever Pitch and 21 are standout examples).
Show creator and producer Arnie Carvalho reflected on that time. “The original idea for Now Playing was to be weekly, recorded off-the-cuff immediately after stepping out of a theater. There was to be no editing, just a ‘live on tape’ show. We’ve come a long way since those days. First came editing, then came retrospectives, then came lots of editing!”
Having established its popularity and found its footing with the first retrospective (for Friday the 13th) in 2009, the show has stuck to its celebrated formula – review every film in a series leading up to the latest release. In summer that usually means a handful of new release reviews wrapped inside the longer retrospectives. Summer 2015, for example, was largely dedicated to the Mad Max and Mission Impossible franchises, with appearances by Marvel heroes and that Terminator sequel we’ve all forgotten.
The summer slate that begins with the aforementioned X-Men review will see the hosts back in theaters for eight new releases over the next 11 weeks, reviewing everything from the latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Star Trek sequels, to DC Comics’ Suicide Squad. Three new retrospective series’ will make their debuts this summer, with Matt Damon’s Bourne films taking up the most space on the calendar, and the Independence Day and Ghostbusters franchises offered as a bonus in Now Playing’s bi-annual donation drive.
“The shows we do within days of their US premiere are simply more difficult shows,” Carvalho said. “In three days or less we have to do research that would usually take a week. We have to coordinate our (busy) schedules to find weekend recording time. Then the editor has 20-40 hours of work to cram into just two days. But we are very excited to be doing the films we are, and our listeners match that anticipation, so all of the work is worth it. It looks like a good summer. Out of these eight movies, I’m very excited for six of them!”
Listeners may even be in for a surprise or two, the host hinted. What that means is anyone’s guess, as the calendar turns to June and Now Playing’s summer schedule is stacked through Suicide Squad. The current schedule can be seen at the show’s website, and if you look closely your eyes are not deceiving you – there are two reviews coming for The Bourne Identity. Listeners who love Now Playing’s completist approach to Hollywood franchises will be delighted to know there was a 1988 television movie adaptation of the story, starring a post-Alan Quatermain Richard Chamberlain and former Charlie’s Angel Jaclyn Smith. That should be good.
“Our listeners love when we go obscure. So Chamberlain in a mini-series that hews more closely to the original novel than the Damon films? We’re in!”
What’s on tap for Now Playing Podcast in 2016
Looking ahead to what will be the ninth year of Now Playing Podcast, I don’t know how you top 2015. In terms of franchises — Fast & Furious, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Mad Max, Star Wars — I’m not sure you can get any bigger. But, thanks to Hollywood, there’s never been a better time to be a franchise-focused podcast, and so the show will go on!
So, listeners will hear more Marvel, DC, and Star Wars in 2016, for sure. There are even Star Trek and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sequels to look forward to. But the Now Playing Podcast calendar is constantly in motion, so here’s a peak at what you’ll definitely hear in the coming months.
January: The Grindhouse Universe
Machete don’t podcast. But Now Playing does!
After taking listeners inside 2007’s Grindhouse experience, Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob will get even bloodier with two characters spawned from the film’s faux trailers: Machete and Hobo With a Shotgun. The former stars the great Danny Trejo, who finally got to headline his own film in 2010, and returned for a sequel, Machete Kills.
While not a runaway success, the first Machete was well received and, as this article correctly points out, was “tailor-made for the current political climate.” The sequel, released three years later, was not as well received, and that’s about all I’ll say about it. Oh, it had Mel Gibson as a villain.
The idea for Hobo With a Shotgun came from another Grindhouse trailer, but one you would have only seen if you saw the film in Canada. The feature length Hobo stars Rutget Hauer, who you might remember from 1992’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or possibly some other films.
January-February: Listener Requests
Our heroes, ladies and gentlemen.
Things will get really interesting in late January. That’s when we’ll hear reviews of listener requests made during 2015’s Kickstarter campaign to fund the show’s first book, “Underrated Movies We Recommend.” Listeners who supported the book at a certain level had the option to choose a film for the hosts to review, and the first one to be covered is 1987’s Masters of the Universe. It’s been almost 30 years and they still haven’t gotten a new He-Man movie made, so this is all we’ve got to hang onto folks. Just Dolph Lundgren and Courtney Cox and the lady who played Bruce Willis’ cheating wife in The Last Boy Scout as Teela. It’s a treasured memory, to some people.
If you’re looking to do some extra research before the Now Playing review, I recommend checking out Electric Boogaloo: the Wild Untold Story of Cannon Films. Cannon is the company that made the film, and Electric Boogaloo is a great behind-the-scenes documentary for film industry buffs. It’s on Netflix now, as is Masters of the Universe, coincidentally.
On the heels of He-Man, Now Playing will take up another listener request, a review of 1997’s Japanese anime epic Princess Mononoke.
February: Pool, Dead.
It’s the part I was born to play baby!
The first Marvel character to make it to the screen in 2016 is not part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and if he were it’s unlikely Disney would allow him to exist in a hard R film. Ryan Reynolds takes his fourth turn in a superhero flick with the part he was born to play — and played a version of in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but the less said about that one the better.
February-March: DC Heroes Return
This happened.
The first really big retrospective of 2016 will feature a cadre of characters that aren’t connected in the same cinematic universe, but they’re all part of Now Playing’s ongoing DC Comics series. Listeners can look forward to hearing the hosts talk Stardust, American Splendor, and the animated Gen 13; as well as the 2003 adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and the highly requested review of Zack Snyder’s Watchmen, which leads into the release of his Man of Steel follow up, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Also featured in this retrospective is a real treat for DC Comics fans, a review of 1979’s live-action Legends of the Superheroes TV specials. Decades before the CW made quality DC shows (and I’m hoping for more of the same from Legends of Tomorrow), NBC took Adam West and Burt Ward – more than a decade removed from Batman – and gave them headlining gigs in shows that also featured appearances by Green Lantern, Sinestro, Solomon Grundy, The Huntress, The Flash, Hawkman, and somebody named Ghetto Man, according to Wikipedia. Alas, two of DC’s biggest superheroes were missing from the lineup, because they were busy starring in blockbuster films and on CBS.
If you don’t know what Legends of the Superheroes is, just watch the intro on YouTube. The whole concept has a Star Wars Holiday Special feel about it, and I can’t wait to hear how this thing came about.
So that covers the first few months of Now Playing Podcast in 2016, and that’s just on the air. I can’t forget to mention that behind the scenes the hosts are furiously finishing their work on “Underrated Movies We Recommend.” It’s set to ship in the second quarter, and you can pre-order it now at the Now Playing Podcast website.
Maybe 2016 will be Now Playing’s biggest year after all.
First looks at Bond, ‘Terminator’ sequels
Thursday brought back-to-back looks at sequels for two iconic film franchises that will be on the Now Playing Podcast calendar in 2015.
Director Sam Mendes introduced the cast of the 24th “official” James Bond film at a news conference in the United Kingdom. The sequel’s title, SPECTRE, was also announced, and a one-sheet for the film was released online.
SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) battled Bond throughout many of the early films in the series. It’s not yet known what role the organization will play in the sequel, or if SPECTRE will have any ties to Quantum, the group introduced in 2006’s Casino Royale and exposed by Bond in Quantum of Solace.
While SPECTRE is the 24th film in the Bond series, the Now Playing Podcast review will be No. 26 in our James Bond Retrospective Series. In 2012, Arnie, Stuart and Brock reviewed all of the Bond films, including 1967’s Casino Royale and 1983’s Never Say Never Again.
To find out how those films fit into the Bond universe, and to hear reviews of the others, check out the retrospective at NowPlayingPodcast.com.
By the way, if you want to catch up on some classic Bond, Netflix and Amazon Prime just added a handful of films from the series to their libraries.
HE’S BACK
Now to Terminator: Genisys. The first trailer went online Thursday morning, and was met with a largely negative reaction on the Now Playing Podcast Facebook page.
As one fan pointed out, it appears the filmmakers are taking a page from 2009’s Star Trek and attempting to reboot the series within itself, creating an alternate timeline where the Arnold Schwarzenegger T-800 has been protecting Sarah Connor for years and preparing her for the arrival of Kyle Reese and the Terminator in 1984.
Judging by the early reaction, fans are ready to hate Genisys. But it’s just one trailer and a couple of really unimpressive magazine covers. There’s still plenty of time to make a better impression between now and July 1, 2015.
Terminator was one of the first series’ covered by Now Playing Podcast, back in 2009 when McG helmed the hated Terminator: Salvation. It’s worth going back to that retrospective not only to hear the reviews, but also to see just how far the show has come since those early days.
Arnold’s been waiting for you.
‘Corn Connection’ finds A-lister among ‘Harvest’ players
Every actor has to start somewhere, and somewhere is often low-budget horror.
There are plenty of examples; Leonardo DiCaprio in Critters 3, Seinfeld’s Jason Alexander in The Burning, and Jennifer Aniston in a film Now Playing Podcast donors can hear about very soon.
As for this week’s Now Playing Podcast review of Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest, we managed to find some famous faces among the cast. Okay, make that one star, some genre actors and a couple of extras you might recognize if you watch a lot of bad flicks.
But I’m not here to reprint IMDB resumes; the Corn Connection shows you where to find the actors and actresses within the Now Playing archives. So let’s get going.
Charlize Theron (Young Woman/uncredited) – Alien Retrospective Series
Harvest was Theron’s first film, before she went on to become a superstar in movies like Mighty Joe Young, The Legend of Bagger Vance and Aeon Flux. Also Monster.
It’s crazy to think that an actress like Theron was only referenced on Now Playing Podcast once, but it’s true; back during the 2012 donation drive, when the hosts covered Prometheus as part of the Alien Retrospective Series. Unfortunately, that series is no longer available.
Michael Ensign (Father Frank Nolan) – Superman Retrospective Series
Ensign is an actor you’ll recognize, although maybe not for his role as a newscaster in 1978’s Superman. I’m sure he gets more looks from fans who loved him as the snooty hotel manager in Ghostbusters, or in his role as the evil bus driver in License to Drive.
Ed Grady (Dr. Richard Appleby) – Children of the Corn Retrospective Series
Does it count if your Now Playing moments came twice in the same retrospective series? Because that’s the case with the late Mr. Grady, who played the same character in the second installment, Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice. Maybe someday the hosts will cover Grady’s role in The Notebook.
Rance Howard (Employer) – Psycho Retrospective Series
Howard, like Theron, has had roles in major blockbusters (his son is Splash director Ron Howard). Howard, like Theron, only appears once in the entire history of Now Playing Podcast (1998’s Psycho). And Howard, like Theron, appeared in a donation series that’s no longer available on the main feed (bummer).
Rif Hutton (Arnold) – Star Trek Retrospective Series
Hutton’s resume includes a long list of television and film credits, but only one of those movies was featured on Now Playing Podcast. So look for his role as a Klingon guard the next time you sit down to watch Star Trek: Generations.
Anthony Hickox (Hans, also executive producer) – Return of the Living Dead Retrospective Series
Hickox appeared as Dr. Hickox in Return of the Living Dead 3, another film that’s currently locked in the Now Playing Podcast archives. But he’s also a director, with a resume that includes Waxwork, Waxwork 2: Lost In Time and Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth.
Brian Peck (Jake Witman) – X-Men Retrospective Series, Return of the Living Dead Retrospective Series
Peck’s resume lists a number of genre films, but his role as Hot Dog Stand Patron in X-Men and News Reporter in X2: X-Men United made him part of the Now Playing universe. He also appeared in the first three Return of the Living Dead films as the characters of Scuz, Special Zombie and Ballistic Technician, respectively. Unfortunately, those Living Dead shows are locked away in the vault.
So there you have it. A few more recognizable actors than the previous Corn film, but many who only have connections to Now Playing donation series’. Wondering how you can become a donor? This way.
Did we miss anyone? If you spot an actor or actress with a connection to Now Playing Podcast leave a comment and help a fellow listener!
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