New Hellbent, Orville, and Mystery Movie Night podcasts

It's been a super busy week, podcast-wise:

Hellbent for Letterbox | Day of Anger (1967)



Pax and I talk about the 1967 spaghetti western starring our favorite, Lee Van Cleef! And in "Whatchoo Been Westernin'?" we briefly discuss the graphic novel Abbadon, the Pinkertons TV series, and the 2012 Wesley Snipes film, GallowWalkers.



Once you're done with that episode, stay tuned for a special Hitchin' Post where we recast Day of Anger with modern actors.



Planetary Union Network and Nerd Lunch's Orville Extra Helping

If you like The Orville, there are a couple of podcast episodes you should listen to.

Early this week, the latest Planetary Union Network came out in which Joe and I talked with The Orville's costume designer Joseph A Porro. Like everyone from the show whom we've talked to, Joseph was super nice. We talked about the special fabric used on the crew's uniforms, the inspiration for the departmental colors, and the challenges of designing clothing for an alternate version of 21st Century Earth.

Then yesterday, Nerd Lunch released an Extra Helping where Jeeg, CT, and I talk about the first season as a whole: why we started watching, why we kept at it, our favorite characters and episodes, and what we'd like to see in Season 2.



Mystery Movie Night | The Third Man (1949), The Muppet Movie (1979), and Ed Wood (1994)



And finally, Erik, Dave, David and I wrapped up the Mystery Movie Night year talking about sewers, Sweetums, sweaters, and the secret connection between them.

00:01:39 - Review of The Third Man

00:18:09 - Review of The Muppet Movie

00:50:56 - Review of Ed Wood

01:12:15 - Guessing the Connection



That's a lot to listen to, but you have a long weekend, so enjoy! And Happy New Year!

Planetary Union Network | Bruce Broughton and "Majority Rule"

On the latest Planetary Union Network, we had the pleasure of interviewing composer Bruce Broughton, who wrote not only the Orville theme, but tons of classic movie scores from Ice Pirates and Monster Squad to Silverado and Tombstone. He was a great guy to talk to and I love the passion with which he answered my question about the many scores he wrote for Disney theme parks. The best part though is when he talked about the difference between scoring Westerns and Science Fiction and then demonstrated on the piano! The episode is worth listening to just for that.

But if you're into The Orville and wanna hear us talk about "Majority Rule," my favorite episode since "About a Girl," then there's that, too.

Planetary Union Network | "Krill"

On the latest episode of Planetary Union Network, we talk to David A Goodman, Executive Producer of The Orville and writer of last week's episode, "Krill." David's a great guy (he was on an episode of Starmaggedon, too, back in the day) and he offers some insight to the development of the show, the current writing process, and striking the right balance between drama and comedy. And of course there's also plenty of talk about "Krill" itself.

Planetary Union Network | "Pria"

Guess who was a guest on the latest episode of the Planetary Union Network podcast?

Sadly, a last-minute schedule change prevented me from joining that part of the conversation, but it's a really cool interview. Frakes compares directing the Orville cast with directing the cast of Next Generation and talks about the similarities and differences between The Orville and Star Trek: Discovery. He's got a great take on it.

After the interview, I joined Dan and Joe to talk about the Orville episode that Frakes directed: "Pria." Among other things, we discuss Isaac's character development in the episode and the casting of Charlize Theron as the title character.

Introducing Planetary Union Network: The Orville Fan Podcast

If you've had a chance to listen to the most recent episode of N3rd World, you know that I've fallen in love with The Orville. Go check that out to hear my full thoughts, but the short version is that when I first heard about the show, I wrote it off as not for me. And when the early reviews came out, I felt justified in my dismissing it. Nobody seemed to like the show. But then it finally premiered and the fans got a chance to see it.

Fan response has been very different from the professional critics and one of the loudest of those fans was my pal and N3rd World co-host Dan Taylor. He got me curious about it, so I caught up last week and now I'm totally hooked. I joined Dan and his co-host Joe Quickle on their Planetary Union Podcast this week to talk about The Orville Episode 4: "If the Stars Should Appear."

They were slumming by having me on. Their first couple of guests were people who've actually appeared on the show: Patrick Cox (Justin the Ogre) and Brett Rickaby (the spiny-headed alien from Episode 2). And they've got other awesome people from the show coming later. What I have that those folks don't have though is availability to be there every week, so when Dan and Joe graciously offered me a regular spot on PUN after we recorded, I jumped at it. If you're an Orville fan, you should definitely check out the show. It's gonna be a good one.