Episode 105: Arc Shows - The Inevitable Filler Episode

...And then the main characters found themselves embarrassingly in medias res without a chance to properly adjust. Such has become the lot of the television protagonist, their stories creatively non-linear, their issues never resolved in a single episode, their tales always working in the most convoluted of twists.

This week the Kids from the 80s, for it is they, look at the phenomenon of prestige television in all its forms, from The Wire to Breaking Bad, from Abrams to Kring, all the big hitters are here. Asking the questions that must have occurred to all modern viewers of the telly box at some stage the kids pontificate about the problems of making things up as you go along and the limiting factors of studio interference and actor contracts.

Incidental Music by incompetech.com


Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/105ArcShowsTheInevitableFillerEpisode/105%20-%20Arc%20Shows%20-%20The%20Inevitable%20Filler%20Episode.mp3

Episode 92: Space - The Final Boxset

This week the 80s Kids are strapping on their rocket packs, putting on their best rock quarry hiking boots and setting their story arcs to stun. Yes, this week we're discussing the long running space operas of the Noughties.

A quick glance at the rows of boxset on my groaning DVD shelves reminds me this will cover such things as the sexy obsessive and strangeness of Farscape, to the overly serious plot rambling Battlestar Galatica reboot. From the dismal inbred mutant that was Enterprise to Roddenberry's illegitimate spawn Andromeda.

From Stargates Atlantis to Universe and back again. Strap in tight as we set nostalgia to lightspeed, it's time to fly out into the great beyond and seek out new opinions and insights as we boldly return to where many a geek as gone before. Incidental music by incompetech.

Direct Link:https://archive.org/download/092SpaceTheFinalBoxset/092%20-%20Space%20the%20Final%20Boxset.mp3

Episode 53: The Wasteland of early 90s TV

This week our Trio rummage deep into their old, dog eared copies of the TV Times and cast their minds back to the Genre TV series of the early 90s. For the UK it was a poor offering, having axed Dr Who the BBC deemed it unnecessary to replace it with anything. Red Dwarf seemed the only game in town, that and the cripplingly dire "Crime Traveler" or the misshapen "Bugs". Science fiction seemed to bubble out on anything but actual drama, surviving on game shows like "Interceptor" or "Crystal Maze."

The doctrine was clear, post Star Wars people expected special effects with their Sci Fi and TV couldn't do that, it was American imports like "Star Trek - The Next Generation" or do without. Thankfully Next Gen was prospering quite well, along with "X Files" and any other half way decent Genre show on Sky Satellite channels. For terrestrial viewers they had to make do with the lack lustre also rans like "Sea Quest" or the 'little low budget show that could', "Babylon 5".

The thing is America was also having a hand in special effects lite fantasy shows like "Early Edition" or "Quantum Leap" which frankly made a mockery of the idea Genre TV was too expensive. Anyway ... "New Adventures of Superman", "Hercules" and "Xena" also rolled about being objects of enjoyment for at least some period of their run. But really this is the bit in history that TV makers of the future would refer to as "Before Buffy" and after that everything changed. But that's a story for another time. For the moment it's very much make do and mend.

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/053TheWastelandOfEarly90sTv/053-the-wasteland-of-early-90s-tv.mp3

Episode 7: 70s TV - The Cultural Cannibal's Larder

It turns out during the course of this week's show that, despite the fact that not one 80s kid was properly old enough to remember 70s TV the first time round, repeats, reboots and remakes have ingrained the TV of the 70s into all of our minds.

Of course some of the stuff that we pull out of the great ideational toy box of the 70s doesn't look quite the same as it did when we put it in there, BSG, I'm looking at you, but it is pretty staggering the sheer amount of stuff from the 70s that we're still plundering for our entertainment today. Then, there are a few notable exceptions. Won't you join us at the buffet table?


Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/00770sTVTheCulturalCannibalsLarder/007-70s-TV-The-Cultural-Cannibals-Larder.mp3