Episode 03: Trap Jaw vs. Mr. Bill

Why from New York. It's Saturday Night and the Master's Only Universe. I am Adam, Prince of Eternian, defender of the secrets of Castle grace Gull. This is Cringer, my fearless friend. Fabulous secret powers were revealed to me the day I held aloft my magic sword and said by the power grace Gull, Fringer became the Mighty battle Cat, and I became hey Man, the most powerful man in the universe.

Only three others share this secret, our friends the Sorceress. Together we defend Carsel Grayskull from the evil forces of skill. Hello, and welcome to Cambridge and was Sean the show about two guys, obsessions, passions and hobbies. We're still back in our childhood obsessions and on this episode we are only talking about one item a piece, so we're slowly whittling things down here. We did three the first time, two last time, and we're only doing one this time because these are pretty big deals for the both of us.

If we keep going this way, next time, we won't be talking about we won't talk about anything next time. I'm sure people would love that would be a really short show. So yours is something that has continued or restarted, and mine is one that didn't stick with me. We'll get into all that, but this came up for me on the first episode. I said something, mentioned something, and I'm like, oh, yeah, I got to talk about that, And then since then, finding all these threads and connections, I was like, oh, this is oh yeah, this is a long discussion for me.

So that's why I asked you to pick one that you could talk about for a while before we get in any of that. Do you have any corrections or ad endoms or clarifications from the first two episodes? Nope, not from the last not last time. Oh yes, I noticed that I used the word weird like twenty thousand times in that episode. How funny.

I'm going to try to not use the word weird as much today, though it's definitely going to happen. That happens a lot when I'm editing Wake Up Heavy, especially back in the old days. I'm like, oh, you sure did get stuck on that word mark. Yeah. I was like, wow, that's like, okay, it's been two minutes.

I've said it twenty times. I didn't even notice that. Okay, I do have some corrections and etcs. This goes back to the first episode. We were talking about Beyond ormsby Book and that Checkel and Hide makeup trick, and I mentioned that there was a movie that used it really effectively, and I see the clip for it every couple of months, and I said, Oh, it's called something like The Octopus, and it was a foreign film, so I was partly right.

It's called The Octopus from nineteen thirty seven and it's an American film, and it's described as a comedy mystery thriller, and the description on IMDb actually sounded really interesting. So I'm going to try and track it down and watch it. At some point. This was on the second episode when we were talking about things that we had gotten recently that tied into the past, and I was like, I think I have something else, but I couldn't remember what it was, and it was the retro C three PO three and three quarter inch figure from the Droids series they reissued. Yeah, C three PO rt G two and Boba fette on those cards.

Droids is something that was like out of my per review back then. I knew nothing about the Droids show, never watched it. It's on Disney Plus for anyone that's interested. Clear and I watched the first episode. It's a kind of interesting.

It's a very eighties everybody has mohawks, and so yeah, it's I got a real kick out of it. And actually, when I rewatched it, because I found it on Disney Plus two we watched it, I was like, Oh, the thing that I hated about the Boba Fett mini series on Disney Plus the recent one were those motorcycle kids, the cyborg motorcycle kids. I was like, Oh, crap, that's like straight out of Droids. And so then I was like, all right, I can kind of accept it a little bit more now. It's a distinct nod to that super eighties cyber punk stuff happening in Droids.

So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure that I vaguely remember hearing that because I saw the complaints. Oh yeah, I thought it was pretty funny. I'm like, oh, we've got mods now all the Yeah, I just thought of quadrophenia. Oh for sure, for sure, But that makes a lot of sense. I have a question for you.

Where'd you find the three pio from the drug on Amazon? They had it, I think it was like ten bucks or something, so it's the new the new version. Yeah, it's the new version. Okay, cool, it's a retro reproduction, nice lot. Oh yeah yeah.

And that R two D two listing was released sketchy on there. It made it sound like you might or might not get it on a card. You might just get a loose figure. So I didn't do that. And the Boba Fett I don't think was available.

I'm sure that's also about hours, right. I did find the Black Series version of the Boba fet in the color scheme of the Droids design, and it comes with like a Droids packaging and stuff like, oh pretty cool. So also from last episode when I was talking about the Wall and Bob Geldoff's hair, I forgot to mention I was also really obsessed with his sunglasses in that movie. Oh yeah, I bring that up today because it's going to play a part in the thing I'm going to talk about on this episode. In regard to sunglasses, he had those kind of round tortoiseshell sunglasses, and I swear to god, I looked for those everywhere that had sunglasses.

I looked for something like that, never found anything like it. And then the last thing I brought up your talent in multidisciplines, and I kind of brought it up for a reason because I don't think we've mentioned this. We play out most of the episodes except for this one with your old music for IG eighty eight. You mentioned the writing and the art, and my point was going to be that the player image is a detail from one of your recent paintings. Oh yeah, so we'll be using and I have some at home that I can use as well.

Details from Ronnie's art are going to be the player images until further notice. So the player art, and if you go to Spreaker, it's the whatever the heck they call that up on top that is called a cover image mark of the page is another detail from another painting that. Yeah, we're just in the show you had last week, Yeah, thanks for coming. I think it turned out to be pretty good. And the previous show you had, Oh yeah, we'll segue into what you're going to talk about today.

So you've had two shows in the last two months that I know, and I'm exhausted to be honestly. So that's all of the corrections I have. No you know, what I did think about a correction. I think I mentioned Tim Burton for the Batman eighty nine movie, but I kept referring to it as Batman eighty nine, and I feel like I got to give props to Tim Burton because that's his vision. And I know I talked about how it started a Tim Burton obsession, but what I didn't talk about was how awesome Joe Dante is and now his vision for Gremlin's really made that movie what it is.

So I need to say like, Joe Dante's a master of his craft, and didn't. I didn't say that enough in that episode. I think people infer that from what you were saying. Yeah, we're recording on Super Bowl Sunday. Do you guys have any big plans for Super Bowl Sunday?

I just had to look up who's playing, because honestly, I had no idea. Yeah, well that ari Yella and the girls. That actually ari Yella and Faith my wife and daughter. Faith. They're more into sports than I am, and that gabbiar other daughter is.

But now we're not going to do anything for Super Bowl. How about you? You and your family? We go over to my sisters and it's an excuse to eat basically, Oh yeah, for sure. All I knew about it is that there are two brothers, one on each team.

Yeah, that's just seeing that on the news. But other than that, I think that's pretty exciting. I know we're going to be like looking at the stats as we as a day progresses. Alrighty, well, let's get into the big topics for this episode. Take us all the way back to when this began for you.

So my obsession, for anybody that's familiar with my Skelevator YouTube channel, one of my ongoing obsessions has steadily been, you know it waxes and wanes a little bit. It's been just as steady as Star Wars has been Masters of the Universe. And I didn't start getting into Masters of the Universe until Wave two of the Action Figures in nineteen eighty three, but it was sort of in my periphery. Wave one came out in nineteen eighty two, and I first got it interested in nineteen eighty three when I saw a trap jaw on the shelf at Toys r US. There's very few memories that I can remember this distinctly from my childhood.

I remember walking in there with my dad and I had a few dollars allowance money and I was going to get something. I wasn't sure what I was going there to get. But when I walked in right across from the you know how in toys r us so, it had this sort of hallway. It was sort of like you walk down this hallway and then the anticipation right, and then you turned the corner and then you're in the space. And as soon as I turned that corner, they had a whole wall of Masters of the Universe figures.

And I had seen my friends had some of those figures from Wave one, but I wasn't really into it. I saw a trap Jaw in Wave two. There was Evil Lynn, Faker Manny Faces, Ramman, trap Jaw, Ey Clops. It was trap Jaw called to me right from across the way. I walked right over to it.

I knew that was what I was going to get. He has that articulated jaw, the switchable weapons on the right arm, and the color fluorescent green, bright blue, black, maroon. Such a cool figure. And that's where it started for me. And I hadn't started watching the cartoon.

The cartoon came out in nineteen eighty three as well. I just poured over the pages in the mini comic that he came with. That's where I can say this at forty six years old. My lifelong obsession with Masters began on Battlehead and he Turnean snailed to move fist than this. Then I started getting into the TV series, and then I started really wanting to find the figures from Wave one beast Man, Skeletor, the original he Man.

Those figures were near impossible for me to find. I never ended up finding a Skeletor or getting a Skeletor as a gift, or a beast Man. My interest in trap Jaw quickly transferred over to Skeletor and beast Man, primarily beast Man. When you're a kid, you have day dreams. I would just think about how cool the coloration of beast Man was.

I would just think like, I would love to be beast Man for Halloween. I love the action figure a beast Man. I did not really wasn't keen on his cartoon version as much as I was of his action figure, and same with Skeletor and trap Jaw. And I started watching the cartoon and when I'd go to the babysitters house after school, We've watched the cartoon and even back then, I was always a little disappointed in how a lot of characters did not show up. It was just main like the core characters that were in the show, and even then you wouldn't get trap Jaw in every episode and other characters in every episode, and waiting Man and waiting for Beastman and waiting for trap Jaw to show up is really frustrating.

And they didn't look like the action figures, and there wasn't a sort of barbaric, weird there's weird again, sort of edgy aspect that you got in the mini comics. Even back then there were There was sort of that ongoing elation and disappointment, back and forth, elation and disappointment, elation and disappointment that continues to this day for fans of the franchise as well. The newest Kevin Smith version of Masters of the Universe that started in twenty twenty one, Revelation, A lot of fans just really were frustrated with that. My big argument is that when has that not been the case for Masters at the Universe. You have all these different designs and different characterizations.

I mean, certain characters like Stratos, you weren't sure if he was a villain or a hero in the beginning, and then in the cartoon he became obviously a hero. And for those of you that listen to this podcast, because you are a fan of the Skelevator YouTube channel, you know that Masters of the Universe is huge is huge obsession for me, and it's always been there. I'm a huge fan of the super weird early nineteen the nineteen ninety New Adventures show that put Heman in space. I hated it at the time because I was like going through puberty and I wasn't into action figures. Then when I saw the figures on the shelf, I was like, that's not Heman.

That's not my Heman. That's not my Heman. Right, that's the elation and disappointment thing back and forth. I've since grown to appreciate it, similar to like Droids, Right, you were just mentioning the Droid's cartoon came out. I was like, not interested at all because it wasn't my Star Wars.

It was super cheesy. Yeah, and for me, I was sixteen when it came out. Oh yeah, certain, I was not watching cartoons anymore. I'm pretty sure I was not watching cartoons anymore. Yeah, well I still was sneaking.

I was still watching cartoons, but I just would never confess that to my friend. Well, you would have only been like nine or something. So what I mean is when I was sixteen. Yeah, yeah, not willing to admit that I would be watching cartoons. But Looney Tunes are for every age.

Oh I don't think I was actively watching Saturday Morning cartoons at age sixteen. Oh, we're definitely going to be talking about Looney Tunes down the line. The show. I'm curious because this is a thing that totally passed me by. Knowing that the show started in eighty two, so I was thirteen, I was already tossing off the that's not a good term dismissing, you know, the stuff that I had been into, as far as comics and action figures and toys and stuff that was going by the wayside by thirteen.

For me, for sure, probably wasn't really going to toy stores at that point, so I missed the whole thing. I think there was a documentary and it may have been on either Prime or Netflix at some point. The show was created for the toys. I'm correct about that, right, Yes, for sure, it was one of those backward engineering things where we've got this idea for this toy line, let's create the show around that. So it sort of makes sense that a lot of those characters maybe didn't show up all the time.

It's the inverse or reverse of Star Wars, where in those movies, and I'm specifically talking about the first three films, where even the most background of background characters that you see for a split second would become a toy, as opposed to let's just create all these toys and then maybe find a spot for them in the show from time to time. So the documentary you're talking about was Power of Gray Skull, The Definitive History of he Man and the Masters of the University. Yes, it was briefly on Netflix, and it's awesome. Rob McCallum, who I'm in contact with every once in a while, he directed that along with another fellow I can't remember his name, but it talks about how the cartoon was really a commercial for these action for you.

The figures come out, there's a whole series of mini comics that go with each figure. Was so cool is that each figure came with a different mini comic, which was awesome. And then the cartoon comes out as a commercial for these figures, and it's not the same. I know, I came to the line a little late, like a year later, but I still wanted when I first saw the cartoon, I still wanted it to be like the mini comics, and I wanted the figures to the characters in the cartoon to look like the action figures. So, yeah, you're right.

It started off as a toy line that it turned into this cartoon, and the cartoon lasted from what was it eighty three to eighty five and was exactly like the Gijoe cartoon in the Transformers cartoon. These commercials for toys, and how different that is from previous ips. Even Star Wars the movie was first, right, and then the toys came. You had to wait for the toys if you wanted to know the first way. We'll get into that at some point.

Oh yeah, for sure. It all started with Star Wars and then Mattel's like, you know what, we're gonna do it differently. We're gonna do these action figures and then have this cartoon to sort of support that. It's funny because it was totally reactionary, because Mattel initially passed up on the Star Wars IP and they regretted it. So Masters is a reaction to that.

They never appealed to me as figures. I kind of hate that wrestling style body figure. I understand that it's curious to me. I have a few Masters of the Universe figures, but they're like that initial prototype pact that Super seven did of the reaction figures that they've probably produced in multiple colorways by now, but it was just you know, solid colors, not muscle figures. And then some of their little vinyl things.

I like the look of Skeletor and Heman and a lot of the other figures as far as their clothing, but that muscle body wrestling style figure where everything's kind of bent and even it seems like they're bent at the waist, you're like in a crouching position. It just never appealed to me. I don't know. I guess probably because Megoes were so big for me that anything that wasn't just a straight static figure bared me, which seems weird, say, but well, no, it makes a lot of sense. And really that's the first action figure line that experimented with.

Here's an action stance, which is different from the static like the Star Wars figures. The Mego figures, they're fairly static. The articulation you can have them lift their arms and move their legs. The muscle bound Barbarian thing totally came from the Conan, the Barbarian phase that was happening. There was sort of controversy of how he Man was a theft of the whole Conan thing, and there's definite influence on the line from Conan.

I was less interested in the muscles. It's funny, I'm connected with fans out there that it's all about the muscles. To me, it was all about the odd color choices, the odd combination of action features of space and barbarian. That aesthetic really appealed to me. That's part of the reason why I'm with you on the reaction style version of those figures.

I feel like it's less about the muscles. It's more about the strange design, the colors of these figures. I'm one of the masters of the universe bans that appreciates those reaction figures, and I've got a lot of them. You know what, It would be interesting. I just thought of if Mego ever did them.

It would be fantastic. I've been thinking about that forever. I would absolutely love that because Mego figures for characters that show a lot of skin, it's often turned into like a costume He Man and the Villains, and there's a lot of skin color differences. So it would be these really great cloth costumes on the Mego figures. Unfortunately, in this day and age, they probably wouldn't do that.

I would love that, Like taras Ad, I have a taras I't had one as a kid. It's a full body suit. Yeah, instead of just trunks. Yeah, they would probably do trunks and stuff now, but they have a muscle body. I mean, I don't know if they've used it.

I know that Figures Toy Company has used the muscle body on some figures. Migo had the whole kind of thing back in the seventies. That muscle body would work for a lot of most of the figures. I think, yeah, I think they should do it. It would be a hit, it would be huge, it would be interesting.

I'm curious. I mean, I'm sure that's a really expensive license. But they don't have any other figures in that scale currently as far as I know. No in fact, they've closest thing to that scale with a twelve inch Mattel did a reaction to the Gentle Giant Star Wars thing where they did twelve inch figures based on the original action figure design. So they've never had add figures in the what is it eight inch?

For Mego, they haven't done figures in the eight inch scale. They get. The closest they get is seven inches, and some figures are a little bit taller than seven But with those seven inch figures, the classics and the master verse figures of the more recent it's all about high detail. It's all about statuesque renditions of these characters that you want to just put on the shelf and have them be static. The Mego version of these characters would be all about the vintage Mego thing, So that would be similar to reaction that would provide a whole new retro angle to these characters designs.

I think that would be amazing. I've thought about that too. The other consideration besides scale is that they would be cloth figures. I think that would help. If anybody for Mego is listening, get on that license.

I'm sure it's really expensive, but they have some other expensive licenses to Oh my god, I mean with Marvel and DC. Well, they don't have nobody's doing Marvel eight inch figures. I'm not sure. Well, I kind of well that's another. Oh that's true.

They have for another thing, the recent ones have DC. Huh, that's right. But I mean they have other They've done Happy Days and Wizard of Oz and oh yeah, for sure, do a bunch of horror ones and Planet of the Apes and yeah, I'm sure that to get the rights to produce the Scream Ghost and Freddy Krueger and stuff like that, I can't be cheap. Yeah, I agree. Did you stick with this stuff like through high school?

When you got older? I kind of like strayed from it. I couldn't talk about it with friends. I mean, that's how it becomes in high school. You just don't talk about I mean my experience, I've heard from people that were like, yeah, I had friends and we talked about that stuff.

They were nerds. They were nerds. And my school experience is weird because I went to high school in the mountains and there were these very distinct factions and I was always never figuring out which group I belonged to, and I hung out with drama kids and hung out with punk kids, and no toy nerd groups. There were no toy nerd groups. They were video game nerds.

I was not really that interested in that stuff either. I went through a Nintendo phase that that faded quickly, and I took a break from Masters of the Universe, but it was always in the back of my mind. When the nineteen ninety line came out, I had very strong feelings about not liking that stuff. Around the late nineties, right before the two thousand and two cartoons started, they reissued they did a commemorative series of action figures that they reissued the vintage figures, and I was like, Okay, that's rad. But I was out of high school.

I don't know if you remember this, but you know, late nineties out every once in a while to throw a party and put on a VHS of Masters of the Universe cartoons, try and embrace the cheesiness of those filmmation cartoons in a young adult setting, drinking and laughing. I don't have very clear memories of too many of those parties. You won't get into right now. Me neither. That's a whole other story.

You won't get into that stuff on this show. In today's story, Elena tried taking a magic potion, which she thought would help her. Well, she found out there aren't any magic potions. And you know what, there aren't any magic drugs either. Anytime you take one from anybody but your parents or your doctor, you're taking a very big chance.

You're gambling with your health, maybe even your life. Drugs don't make your problems go away, They just create more. Do you want to switch back to you because I got more to talk about, but we can switch to you and talk about it. Yeah, if you want to do that, break it up. Yeah, let's break it up.

Tell us about your obsession choice for today. Okay. So, as I mentioned at the top of the show, this popped into my head and we've both mentioned this as well, where especially on that first episode, I've got my list of things that I've already thought of, and as we were talking, things would pop up. Oh yeah, let me write that down. Sorry, remember, let me write that down.

On that first episode, I mentioned because of the Sesame Street discussion that I had that Ernie plush that's sitting right with my homemade mister Bill plush that my mom made for me when I was a kid, and so I wrote down SNL stuff Mister Bill, and it just snowballed from there. So between the recording of that first episode and recording today, I just thought of all this other stuff that Saturday Night Live touched in my life as a young kid, and I just kept growing and growing and I would remember this and I'd remember that. And there were two big components of that. One of them was the little Mister Bill book that came out in nineteen seventy nine, which was easy to track down. I've looked for it in the past.

I think it was when I found that Mister Bill plush actually in the rafters, which was last year or the year before. We were looking for Carlita's old albums that she's convinced she saved, couldn't find those. I found that stuff, and I was like, oh my god. I had that book, looked it up on eBay, just didn't pull the trigger. The other thing was a book that I remembered having around the same time.

I had no idea what the title was, didn't know what to search for. I knew that it was an oversized, like coffee table sized book, so fullio sized and that it had on the cover the cast in that hand tinted picture style that they used for the opening of the show for a number of years. But I had it in my head that it was called the Not Ready for Prime Time Players. I remember that phrase distinctly because at the time when I got the book, I didn't know what that meant. I didn't know what primetime meant in regard to TV, and so I didn't know what not Ready for Primetime meant, And so I would put these search items in Google or on eBay, not Ready for Primetime Players Coffee table book.

The only things that would come up were this issue of Marvel Comics, and I forget what it is. It's not what If, but it's a Spider Man team up. I think it's a Marvel team up. So they had Spider Man and so and so this person and so it was Spider Man, and they not Ready for Prime Time Players with pictures of the cast on there and John Belushi as the Samurai front and center, kind of like, well, isn't that And then the only thing that kept coming up repeatedly was this Rolling Stone item called Rolling Stone Visits Saturday Night Live, And I'm like, well, that's not it either. The picture was kind of right.

It was one of those hand tinted pictures, but I had no recollection of Rolling Stone being on the cover, being in the title, So I kept ignoring that, kept trying to search for it. Did another like SNL book nineteen seventy something to see what would come up. And a few of the writers of the show made a book in the late seventies, but it was like scripts of skits and some pictures, and I'm like, no, that wasn't it. And so finally I went to the Internet archive, or one of the links to that Rolling Stone book led to the Internet Archive. You can quote unquote checkout books from there.

I went through the first couple of pages and it still wasn't clicking. I'm like, God, I just don't think Rolling Stone was involved in this. I signed up. It's a free sign up thing. I signed up on the Internet Archive so I could look at the rest of the book.

And I didn't get very far in and I realized, oh, yes, this is the book I had. So down in the corner there's a little ribbon and it says they're not ready for prime time players. Interviews with the Blues Brothers blah blah blah. I'm like, oh, so it wasn't even a title, It wasn't the subtitle, it was just the phrase that stuck with me. Paged through the whole thing on that Internet archive, it's like, oh, well, yeah, this is absolutely it.

Every picture hit that memory receptor in my brain, Pictures of the Blues Brothers. There's one picture of mister Bill in there. You know, they talked with some of the hosts, the famous hosts from that first five seasons. So there's Steve Martin pictures and Henry and all this stuff. And I was like, oh, this is absolutely it.

So I went to eBay. There was tons of copies on there, found one that was in very good condition for a nice price, got that got their Mister Bill book. They both arrived within two or three days. So that book and the Mister Bill Book encompassed this idea of where I didn't really watch this show. It was all peripheral, kind of like with you discovering this action figure, not having been really watching the He Matt Show yet.

So the show started in seventy five, I was six, obviously had no idea, didn't watch it, but I would say by nineteen seventy eight. I was aware of the show, probably because of seeing kids wear shirts of the characters, because I know there was a cone Head shirt. I remember that distinctly. And I remember ads in comic books for posters and T shirts. For a kid, the cone Heads would be intriguing because it's weird looking, right, right.

And so you hear about this stuff, and I'm sure there were clips on the news or stuff in the newspaper. You know, this is all pre Internet. It's like, where do you get this information? It has to be from other kids, It's got to be from the people around you, has to be from seeing something on the news. The first thing that I can distinctly remember being connected to Saturday Night Live was Animal House.

That was because of John Belushi. That came out in seventy eight. I was only nine. There's no way mom was going to be taking us to that. A friend of mine, though, had the soundtrack, and I borrowed it and fell in love with that soundtrack.

Yeah, it's got little clips of the movie in between the songs, but it has all those great early sixties songs Louie Louie and then the stuff that Otis Day and the Night sing, and I think I borrowed it indefinitely. And I know that I was still pretty young because my sister didn't have her record player yet, so I had to listen to that tape out in the family room on my parents old clunky wood grain to set player receiver combination. Listened to it constantly, Probably one of my first musical experiences that wasn't influenced by my parents. You know. It wasn't Neil Diamond or the Carpenters.

It was something that was my own, and I could hear a little bits of the movie because of it. It's good to know there are other people out there raised on Neil Diamond and the Carpenters who I love to this day. All this music, Animal House, Neil Diamond, Carpenters, Simon and Garfunkel. They're all on my phone for me add in the stand by Me soundtrack, but that came later. I have a question for you, and I've been thinking about this actually since you and I have been talking a little bit about early SNL.

We had mentioned in passing briefly that the phenomenon of knowing who Truman Capodia is and Andy Warhol and these characters from pop culture, knowing who they are without knowing who they are as kids, and the same thing that's Saturday Night Live. Though I do not believe that phenomenon still exists for Saturday Night Live today, and I could be wrong because I'm not kid anymore, but I feel like there was a quality that the early seasons of Saturday Night Live carried, which was which kids would pick up on the Jaws, Shark at the Door, who is it? Rand Shark, Oh Walter, the Cone Heads, John Belushi as the Samurai King, tut Steve Martin, like all those things we maybe found out about it from our parents.

There was a pop culture phenomenon that kids could pick up on related to Saturday Night Live too, which just doesn't exist to anymore. There are probably other things like video games and five Nights at Freddie's or something like that, I'm pretty sure as an adult geared game, but kids pick up on it because of the character design. So stuff like that still happens. It's just in the ether and just somehow absorb it. I think the first episode I ever saw, and I probably didn't see it all the way through, and it may have been a rerun of the episode because it's season two, episode eight, so that was seventy six sometime in nineteen seventy six, and I still would have been too young to be staying up that late.

But I remember very distinctly when Paul Simon was the host. I might have been his second appearance as host, where he comes out in a turkey suit, plays a song in a Turkey suit, and then he and George Harrison perform a couple of songs together. And I was also getting into the Beatles at the time, and I just remember it confusing me because I knew who Simon and garf Uncle was because my parents had that Greatest Hits tape and they did Here Comes the Sun. I knew that song, but i knew it was a Beatles song, and I'm like, why are these two? Were these two together at some point, well, what's going on?

But I that is one of the most vivid memories I had, though, was watching those two guys perform that song together. I don't know when I watched it, but it would have been sometime between when it aired and probably nineteen eighty or so. Maybe Every once in a while when my parents would go out on a Saturday night, we had a babysitter, or even after they came home and let's say me and my sister were still up, we might have caught the first half hour or so of the show. Watching it in Toto wouldn't come until years later. But picking up on all those pieces and those characters and the actors that made those characters was the big thing, because a lot of what I would then explore or look for involved John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Chevy Chase and Bill Murray, etc.

You know, Animal House is one of those things. You mentioned King Tut, the Steve Martin bit, and it was played on the radio. How this is interesting because I think it was last year there was this Twitter hubb Steve Martin was trending because somebody had posted that clip of him doing King Tut on Saturday Night Live, and they're like, why is this funny? How do you convince somebody that something's funny? But that wasn't really the point.

Yeah, I mean it's a funny, so I think it's funny. But the point was that it was tut Amania at that time. When that King Tut exhibit traveled across the country, it was a huge deal in whatever seventy seven seventy eight, so I think we got the forty five of King Tut. But what eventually happened is his album A Wild and Crazy Guy came out in nineteen seventy nine. Because of King Tut, we asked my mom to get it for us.

So in seventy nine, I was ten, my sister was twelve, and this story in my head all takes place in one afternoon. Mom brings the album home. We're listening to it. She goes and visits some family friends of ourists who have older sons, a couple of years older than my sister, quite a few years older than me. She goes mentions that she bought us the C.

Martin album, or maybe one of them had it. I don't know. She's like, oh, I just got that for the kids, and they mentioned to her, oh, it's very naughty. Oh. I had this idea in my head that she's then racing home and they lived very close to us, coming home, coming in just as we're listening.

By this time, I think my sister had her record player, because I remember sitting in her room and listening to it. Get towards the end of the album and there's this one joke. Now, this doesn't happen very often, but about three weeks ago, I met a girl and she was real nice and she invited me for apartment. So I went over there and she had the best pussy I have ever. Oh not, come on, I'm talking about her cat Now.

That makes me sick right there. Now, you can't say anything anymore that people don't take it dirty. And I'm sorry that discussed me. That kat was the best. Fuck.

I don't think she took it away from us or anything. I remember, I've listened to almost the whole album. You can get it on iTunes. Yeah, I know that. I listened to it quite a bit because I was finishing the jokes.

I was saying that punchlines as it was playing. Unfortunately, I don't have that album in my records that survived childhood. I think we have that record in our collection. We found it at we found I have to go look over there, but we did find a Steve Martin record, and I think that's the one. We found it at a thrift store.

It's black and white and he's coming out, had some really big speakers with his bunny years on. Yep, that's the one. We haven't. Yeah, so it's part of the clip called an expose. So if you get to that track, it's like in the middle of that spiel.

So there was that, and then movies were starting to come out, you know, Chevy Chase left early in the second season to do movies, so something like foul Play would come out, which I saw in TV and really liked. Still my favorite Cherry Chase movie because he's not an idiot in it. He's kind of an idiot, but not bumbling. That stick has never really appealed to me. Really, Some of my favorite moments are him just bumbling, being total idiot.

You know. The First Vacation is one of my favorite comedies of all time. It wears thin on me. Sometimes I can handle it, but it gets old for me after a while. I can see why Animal Housuck I mentioned.

And then, of course the next Big One or the next Big two I'll say, because he's both came out in nineteen eighty and they both starred Saturday Night Live alum. And by this time in nineteen eighty all of the original cast was gone and Lauren Michaels. So The Blues Brothers comes out summer of nineteen eighty and Caddyshack comes out the summer of nineteen eighty. Oh yeah, so I'm eleven. My sister's thirteen.

For whatever reason, my mom decides first star rated movie pick was between those two movies. At least for me and my head, it was between those two movies. I think we made the wrong choice. We went and saw Caddy Shack, which I liked, but it's much raunchier than The Blues Brothers, So it was a little uncomfortable being eleven and seeing that stuff. But I got really into the Blues Brothers.

Missed my chance to see the movie. Their look with the sunglasses. Here come the sunglasses again, the suits, everything. I don't know if i'd seen any clips from them on this show or not at that point. Again, this is the peripheral stuff.

Didn't see the movie. I got the soundtrack, and I got the novelization. I don't know how many times I read that novelization, but I read it quite a few times. Listen to the album constantly. And the novelization is great because it's basically dan Ackroid's bloated, over written script that was like three hundred and fifty pages.

It's basically that every band member gets their side story. They don't find half of them at the Holiday Inn like they get in the movie. They have to track down every member of the band, and of course it came with pictures, so I would look at that, listen to the album, read the book, and that is the one thing that I couldn't well, I found it. I couldn't get because apparently it's very coveted and rare. The cheapest I could find a copy of that and it's just a paperback.

Yeah, it was just ended up in grocery stores and stuff. For sure. It's like fifty nine dollars. No way, I'm going to keep looking. If I can find one under twenty, I might actually get it, because I'm really curious.

I know that there's so much more in the book than is in the movie, and so much more in the book that's even in the extended versions of the movie, and to reread that would bring that whole experience back to you. Oh yeah. The first time I saw the movie, which was probably on TV, I was like, wait a minute, they're like five of them are in the band and at the Holiday Inn. That's not fun. It makes sense for the movie they did that whole thing, that whole stick.

When the Muppets came back and they did that movie The Muppets where they had to find all the original members of the Muppet Show go around and find them in their odd jobs and bring them back into the fold, that whole thing again shows up there in that movie. Well, I'm sure that that is a nod to the blueprint. There is a definite connection between Saturday Night Live and the Muppets. Oh, certainly they were on Well, we'll get to that. So I kind of skipped over something and went a little bit out of order here.

But actually, the first movie that I saw with Saturday Night Life people in it was nineteen forty one, and I saw that in the theater and I'm pretty sure it was because of John Belushi and dan Ackroyd being in it. And I absolutely loved that movie, and I know that I rented it a lot. It's on Crackle right now for anybody that's interested. Steven Spielberg's flop. Apparently it still holds up for me.

I still think it's absolutely wonderful. I haven't seen that since I was a kid. I need to see that again. I don't think when I saw it well, I know I hadn't seen Jaws yet because the opening didn't ring any bills except for the music, which, of course everybody knows was associated with Jaws. So he's spoofed himself at the beginning of the movie, got the same girl back and everything.

I don't think I knew. I just think it was somebody spoofing Jaws. I didn't even know it was a Steven Spielberg movie. For Steven Spielberg movie I saw in the theater, and I didn't know until years later that it was considered a failure, you know, after Jaws Close Encounters. I can understand that it didn't fail at the box off.

It made money, but people are like it, it's over, you know, it's bloated it. I loved it. Then I think it holds up and it's due for a reappraisal. But that was definitely that nineteen seventy nine, nineteen eighty eighty one. I was really heavy into all the people from the show at some point, and I don't know how I got his address.

You mentioned finding Jack Nicholson's house. Yeah, yeah, I probably wrote. I'm pretty sure I wrote to at least Steve Martin and Chevy Chase for autograph pictures. I don't know where I got the addresses or where I sent it. Could have been from an ad in a comic book.

Again, I don't know, you know, getting side autographs from these. I did get a signed Chevy Chase picture when I was a kid. Whether it was signed by him, I have no idea, just a headshot. I don't even think I said two mark. He probably just sat at a desk and signed his name on hundreds of pictures.

Do you still have it? No? I think it ended up being stored in that Saturday Night Live book. I have none of that Saturday Life stuff survived except for my mister Bill Plush Animal House nineteen forty one. Those two books and then catching maybe little bits and pieces of the show up until that point were my experience with it.

I'm currently reading that book. I don't even know if I actually read the book it was a kid. I think I just looked at the pictures. There's the samurai, Like I said, mister Bill, I think there is a King tut picture, Bill Murray and Gilda Radner as those nerds. It's funny seeing that stuff out of context.

A lot of what I would be into as a kid was out of context, and then you finally get to it, which by the time I was in high school, with the reruns that they would show and the newcasts Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo and Billy Crystal, that's what I'm old enough to be aware of it and to watch it. And the other thing I remember seeing again, I don't know if it was at first run or a rerun. I think for a lot of years I thought this was a fever dream or something that I made up in my head. But in the mid seventies there was a Beach Boys special on NBC. They were becoming real popular again because that Endless Summer Double LP Greatest Hits Collection had come out.

NBC does this special. I think it's most famous for showing Brian Wilson, who's gotten quite heavy now full beard, laying in bed and talking to the camera. I've seen that clip and it's just phenomenal, no wonder right, I mean, that's epic, epic. I distinctly remember Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi's showing up and dragging him out of the house to make him surf, and thinking how weird that was. Well found out just yesterday.

Act Lauren Michaels produced that special. He was a big fan of The Beach Boys. Brian Wilson hosts at some point. I think in the second season, Brian Wilson was the musical guest, not the host. On episode of nine of season two, he brought along Blush and Eckwood.

I'm sure there's other SNL people on that thing as well. It would be interesting to watch that whole thing again. I remember watching it as a kid, but like I said, I don't know when that's amazing I rewatched it or I watched it for the first time about ten years ago. I don't even remember where I found it. I may even just rented it from the video store I was working at, or found that clip on something that I rented from that video store because we had a lot of like bootleg stuff there.

That's seeing Blushi and Dan Eckwood dragging him out to the beach is just phenomenal. Yes, And of course they weren't even surfers so or at least and Wilson. Dennis Wilson might have been, but you know, they weren't really surf guys. So funny. The other movie and I always forget about this one.

So that I went and saw in the theater was How to Beat the High Cost of Living. I don't know if you've ever seen it or ever heard of it. Jane Curtin, I hear it, Yeah, Susan Say James and Jessica Lange, And I don't know if it's something that I asked to go see just because Jane Curtin was. I could see Center Live being that much a draw that I'd be like, Oh, one of the cast members is in this PG, please take me to it. The only thing I remember about that movie is that Jane Curtin, well, her body double flashes her tits.

It was nineteen eighty I was eleven. Nineteen eighty was a big year for me and boobies because there's definitely boobies in Caddyshack yea, and there's boobies in How to Beat the High Cost of Living. And then I believe Dragon Slayer nineteen eighty Come on, dragon Slayer was released in nineteen eighty one, another good year for movie boobs. You know, Disney Hello shown boobies and dog that's seen in Dragon Slayer is burned into probably marking singularly marking my official graduation into having boy thoughts about yeah girls, Yeah, yeah, that was a stunner. That was a very shocking reveal.

And I'm sitting there, you know at that point mostly I don't know. I mean, we got dropped off at movies, but yeah, I have a feeling my mom was there and it's like, oh yeah, mortified to be eat watching boobies. But I've shown that to Cleo. That's another one that holds up. And that dragon and that movie is amazing.

It's the best dragon I've ever seen in a movie ever and still to this day. And I'm talking about the amazing special effects in Game of Thrones. Those dragons are great too. It's not the same. It's just not the same.

CGI is not the same as practice goal effects. I don't care what people say. The dragon in Dragon Slayer is perfect. It's pretty amazing. It's also just a really it's just a damn good movie.

Like the movie's got it's a lot of fun. So I have a few of the things that will get too when we switch back. So let's get back to your moto obsession. Start King Randa Skeletarte, King Randa, come in your royal bulb, as I was saying, like I it was always kind of a back and forth with me and Masters of the Universe, back and forth, back and forth. Right around the time where the new show, the Mike Young Productions version of the show came out in two thousand and two, I was getting ready to move to New York.

The figures were coming out and I got a couple of them and then and I would watch an episode here and there. I believe it was on Cartoon Network. In two thousand and three, I was living in New York City. I was working at a fancy pants hotel health center, and I would go in. I'd get there at five o'clock in the morning and get it set up for people who would come in who wanted to go in and use the treadmills and stuff like that.

And I'd get there early enough to get the fruit and fused water all gussied up and the place looking good and the towels folded. And while I was doing that, I would turn on Cartoon Network that was still showing reruns of this show, and I would get to have it was not it was natural and it's funny, sort of like Saturday Night Live for You or and many of these these ips just naturally I'm drawn to it. So I know that somehow I had looked up the schedule, the air dates and times of these shows, and it turned out that that was the right time to watch it. I've turned it on, it'd beyond while I was working, and then I've got to make sure that it's off by the time the first person comes in to use the facilities.

But I really enjoyed that brief period of time where I was living there and reconnecting with my childhood through this new version of the show. The two thousand and two Mike Young Productions series did a lot of the stuff that I wanted to be in the filmmation show, which would spend a lot of time with characters, give them their origin stories, and it was really a refreshing rendition of the stories of Masters of the Universe characters. And then after that it was a long break again. Then Masters of the Universe classics started coming out around two thousand eight ish, they reissued the Filmmation cartoon, and I just got interested again and I bought a few animation cells, and I couldn't afford the action figures, but the animations were super cheap.

I still have have you shown me those? I don't think so. I had them in storage for many years. When I moved back to Fresno, they were still in storage when we moved in here and Fowler, I was able to pull them out and I got them hanging up. Next time you're here, i'll show you.

They're pretty cool. There's two of them. And then I couldn't really afford the classics action figures because money was tight, so I missed out on that whole thing. And for those of you that don't know, there was a whole run of action figures that Mattel came out with starting around two thousand and eight that were deluxe, highly detailed versions of the original action figures, and then later on a lot of figures that were never released, a lot of nods to the different cartoon iterations. That's a franchise, and I picked up a couple of those along the way.

And then finally when I got a real job, I was able to start collecting again, and I would that brings us to the most recent, like maybe about five years worth of re establishing my vintage collection, buying some of the new stuff since twenty twenty, there's been a the Origins line that's come out, the Master Verse line that has come out, the new cartoon from Kevin Smith, a new CGI cartoon for kids, and it seems like with the fortieth anniversary having just passed and it's been this like huge resurgence and it's been so much fun. I'm getting ahead of myself, kind of like you did a little bit like I be four twenty and twenty and twenty nineteen, I was like, I need to I want to build a Castle Gray Skull.

I want that Castle Gray Scull to be three dimensional, four walls with access to different levels, with stairways and rooms, and big enough for the seven in classics figures in the accommodate in a fairly realistic scale the vintage figures as well. There had been a classics version of the Castle Grade School released, which was way out of my league as far as spending money on a playset, so I wanted to build one myself. I had messed around with sculpture as an artist before a little bit, not to this extent, and I was nervous, but I had to do it. We joke about it in our household, but it was very much like this. You know that scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

That was what was coming into my head already. Yeah, Richard Dreyfuss making that mashed potato mountain, or have the one Maurice tearing everybody's yards apart so he can make the big one in his house at Yeah, but that you know, that first scene where he's putting the mashed potatoes on the plate and his wife's like, oh my god, what's going on? And then the camera hands over to his kids and one of the kids is crying. Yeah, And I'm like, our daughters were not, you know, they weren't that affected by it, but I know that my wife was like a little worried about what was going on. Me going out, me gathering these materials and salvaging star from from old packages and getting stuff from home depot and watching these YouTube videos on how to make dioramas.

It was really that is the marker for when my interest in Masters of the Universal reinterest in Masters the Universe sort of entered midlife crisis territory, kicked it up to another level, totally kicked it up to another level. That's when our daughters were like, you should make a YouTube video. Our youngest helped me develop the Skelevator name, because you know, I like Star Wars villains and I like Masters Villains. Smart kid, very smart kid. So I started documenting everything and that's where it all began.

I went on to make a Snake Mountain and Fright Zone, and as you were talking about at the beginning of this episode that in January, I had an exhibit where I got to show those off. They all now belong to other people. I was offered the opportunity to put them on exhibit and was able to let people come and experience those gigantic yeah, bigger than I even realized from what the videos are seeing pictures. So oh yeah. So that one behind you though, isn't the one you made, is it?

No, that's a reissue of not a reissue, but the newest version of the Castle Grad School playset that came out for the origins line. It's the same scale as the vintage one, but a slightly different design. Didn't Super seven also do a play set? They did Snake Mountain and that one was pricy two right, Yeah, it was very pricy. That's kind of what got my got me motivated to make a giant Snake Mountain two.

It was those two places. Classics Gray Skull is huge and expensive. Mattel did that one, and then when Super seven took over the rights to create Classics figures, the last thing that they released after they returned the rights to make those figures to Mattel was their Snake Mountain. Their Snake Mountain was huge and incorporated aspects of the original play set and aspects of Snake Mountain that we only saw in the cartoon, because there were two very different snake mountains, the one in the cartoon versus the playset toy the original vintage one, so they incorporated aspects of both, and it's enormous. It's like, you know, i'd say three feet wide by two and a half feet tall maybe Wow.

I was like, forget it. I'm gonna do four and a half feet wide, four and a half feet tall, nearly five feet tallow, and I wanted it to have do the same thing, incorporate aspects of the vintage place that a little bit, but mostly showcase the Zion elements of the filmation cartoon. Yeah, that that place set from I finally saw one in person. I don't know if you watched my video walk through I went to. I reconnected with an old friend from the Fresno music scene, James.

He actually reconnected with me because he's been experiencing a renaissance of masters of reinterest in masters. He did purchase that Super seven Snake Mountain and I finally got to see one in person. And no, I didn't watch that one. I'll check it out. Yeah, check it out.

It's last month. January put out so much stuff that's hard to keep up. Ronal. You do too. I like when I see a new thing pop up for you because I'm like, oh, think you haven't put anything out in almost a month.

Well, I've been listening to the Police Squad episodes. Those are good. There's that, and it's actually been making me think it's funny because you're talking about in that. Not to change the subject, change it. Who cares.

No one's listening to this ship you were watching? If you yes, and if you are thinking you were watching Police Squad episodes, rewatching them before you watched them. For these episodes you're doing with Mike and Chris and what was that like two years ago? Yeah, sometime in the last couple of years. Yeah, me, too.

It's weird. I started watching them again around the same time. We never talked about it. It's so funny. Yeah, those are great.

I'm enjoying those. Got another month to go on that stuff, so check that out from the files of Police Squad, also on weird Inway media dot com. That's right, it's good stuff. Yeah, that exhibit was crazy seeing the actual scale of things, even though I know I've watched the build videos and everybody who's listening who doesn't know about Ronnie's YouTube channel, it's always linked in the show notes, So check that out and you can see him building a lot of these items and they're pretty crazy. I just got a commission to do a new snake mountain, so this guy in Bakersfield put it down payment on a snake mountain that's going to be four by four so four feet fall by four feet long.

You can watch those videos starting here probably the end of February. I start building, and you've got videos for toy hunts, videos for figures that you've purchased, all kinds of stuff and not just Masters of the Universe as well. There's a lot of stuff in there. Yeah. Weekly Weirdo every Sunday and toy Frenzy.

I talk with some other folks about toys every Thursday night. So yeah, there's a lot going on over there. Yeah, man keeping busy MT. But I'm gonna put in the Palmer Simpson NERD clip right. Yeah, that's perfect.

And you're still finding figures, Oh yeah, all these different lines. Are you getting the space laser versions from the nineteen ninety to show that you mentioned, Yeah, the vintage ones are are a little pricy if you find them complete. But I did pick up an incomplete skeletur from the nineteen ninety line and Slushhead, who's got like a goopy green guy in his head's in an aquarium shaped dome, and another figure that's his head's an eyeball. I got those if I run across them at an affordable prize. It's very hard to resist.

Those villains from the nineteen ninety line are super strange. They take the weird to a whole, whole other level. I'm gonna ring a bell through the episode. Whenever you say weird, I'm gonna ring a bell. Yeah, absolutely, it's my favorite word.

I can see the cogs churning. Oh yeah, and you're trying to avoid it, but I just slipped through. I'm gonna embrace it. I'm gonna get a T shirt with his weird I didn't even notice it. So if I didn't notice it, no one else will.

Because I gotta listen to this thing like three times and at it, and it takes forever. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Yeah, there's a lot of those, even the ones that I see either on your videos or I just come across toy stuff. They've got some pretty funk design. Yeah, it's like people, people just pushing the limits as far as design goes with the Master's characters, and I love that.

Why not. They are strange. It's a fantasy realm. Go for it, go for it. But you're good God.

You were a whip scientist and you put your whip women. So one of the for me, one of the culminations of this early fascination that was probably really just strongest between seventy nine and eighty one was my sixth grade year, so that was eighty to eighty one. I was eleven going on twelve, and this was when I switched schools, or they switched schools for us, the MGM program switched from Easterby to the new school Air which it just opened. This is what they used to call it, mentally gifted Miners. Now it's Gate, or it was Gate for a long time.

Yeah, that's right. I forgot about that. So it was a magnet school. So you get kids from all over the area to go to these schools. And we got the most feared sixth grade teacher of all.

This is little John. I love that. That's so great. She was pretty ruthless, but she got incredibly sick very shortly into the school year. She was diagnosed with cancer, so she was gone for a good chunk of the year.

So we had this rotating lineup of subs because I think they would get rid of them after certain points so they didn't have to pay them more. If your long term sub, you get paid more per day. So we had like three or four subs that would be there for weeks on end. At one point. I used this to our advantage because subs didn't really and I was a sub for a long time, so I know this.

Subs don't really know the full routine or what's going on necessarily, So I convinced one of our subs that we were putting on a play that we were practicing for writing, doing all this stuff for a play, and I was the writer and the producer and I guess the director of this play. And it was my riff on Saturday Night Live skits. So I'd seen enough, absorbed enough the humor that more of the absurd type humor like land Chart, like you mentioned, like cone Heads, just some of the offbeat stuff was what really took hold with me. The only thing I can remember from it we did Weekend Update and everything, so it actually, I mean, we actually ended up doing this. I took this excuse to get me and my friends out of class and actually created a play and performed it for the rest of the class.

I remember the Weekend Update or having a weekend Update segment. And then the only skit I remember, and it's because of the title, was the Satanic scarf of Santa Claus. For me, that just sums up in my head what I thought about Saturday Night Live. And I don't know if if it's a direct rip off of something from Saturday Night Live, it very well could be. I'll get to that eventually because I'm working my way through the show right now.

I used Saturday Night Live as an excuse to get out of class at some point in sixth grade. Oh my gosh. And again by this point, like even with the book, that book came out shortly before that original cast all left Lauren Michael's left. I remember stuff I mentioned, you know, Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo and Believe Crystal were kind of the big names of that in between phase. But the season that I remember watching for the first time all the way through, I think it's the eleventh season, and so this was eighty five to eighty six, I'm assume, and it's considered probably one of, if not the worst season of the show.

Michael's came back fired everybody that was there before, which was probably, like I don't know, Christopher Guest and Julia Louis Dreyfus and all those people fired. All those people brought on Joan Cusack, Robert Downey, JR. Naura Dunn, Anthony Michael Hall, Randy Quaid, what, John Levitts, Dennis Miller, Terry Sweeney, and Deny your Vans. That's interesting. So I must have started watching after that.

Well, Dennis Miller was still on, yes, and John Lovits was still on, but those other people had left. That's fascinating. I watched it because of Anthony Michael Hall and Robert Downey Jr. Of course. I mean I watched the show because I was sixteen by that point, and I could stay up if I wasn't out with my friends or at somebody's house, or even if I was at somebody's house.

I was old enough to stay up now past eleven thirty and actually watched the show. The other reason is because we had a VCR by then, so I could record it if I wasn't home. So that is the first season that I remember watching all the way through, right, I really liked it. I'll get to that eventually and see just how bad it is, because, like I said, it's one of the most reviled seasons. Yeah, so I'm curious to see.

But I remember going to join a lot of the skids, and so Dennis Miller, John Lovitz, and Nora donn are the only people that returned the next season and continued for quite a while, I mean didn't. Smiller was probably the most popular weekend Update host since Chevy Chase, and John Lovitz has created just amazing character. I think that first episode of that season that he was on. His pathological liar character was presented on that first episode, so brilliant. People that maybe don't know some of the Brat Pack were in a season of Centering Live for some inexplicable reason.

That is so funny. I don't know how I missed that completely. The other thing that happened was I remember when John Belushi died and where I was. We had gone to dinner at the old Spaghetti Factory when it used to be out on Ventura Street, right underneath the overpass of forty one there, and I think my dad mentioned it and I was like, what, I'm pretty sure by that At that point, I was still really into then as just I mean, I saw Continental Divide for Pete's sake. Yeah, I enjoyed him as an actor and as a character and a lot of the stuff that he created from that show and beyond.

I liked him in movies and would watch that, And I know I was still interested in the Blues Brothers at that point, So that was one of the first. Like John Lennon a couple of years prior and then John Belushi were ones that sort of hit me really hard as a kid. So that multibiit effect will creep back up here in a little bit when we close out. I think I mentioned already that you know, I got the book, so I'm reading through it again. Kind of disheartening that they talk about the female cast members wait so much in the book.

It just makes me think of the time that it was written and stuff. They were all, yeah, Jane Curtin, especially Ray Newman and Gilderadna were like rail thin, yeah back then in the show. And they mentioned not only that, but how they were all heavy girls when they were younger, and you know, all this stuff, and it's like, we really need to talk. Are we talking about Chevy Chase's weight when he was a kid. No.

So I'm reading through the book, probably for the first time in full. And I'm also because of all this thinking of this doing this for the show, I realized I've never actually sat through the first five seasons of the show completely. I've seen famous skits from them. Obviously, they've released you know, those best of compilations like Best of Dan Ackroyd, Best of John Belushi, so you see all their big hits. I never actually watched those episodes all the way through.

So I'm up to so in the morning when I'm working, I had that on in the background. It's pretty hit and miss for a lot of the first season, but there's classics stuff on there. My favorite Garrett Morris bit is on there. Geld Samurai shows up early, the precursor to the Blues Brothers when they perform, and d Outfits is on there. Yeah, you know, Chevy Chase as the weekend update host.

His cold opens every episode. So a lot of it's already there. But some of the episodes are really weird, like the Paul Simon episode his first appearance is just all music and some commercials. There's no skits. That's strange.

George Carlin doesn't really perform in any of the skits, he just does stand up stuff. And then of course had the Coffment's on that first episode. But there's so there's classic stuff. The last one I watched was season two, episode five, Steve Martin's first appearance, which I was really excited about, but it was kind of a dud. Elliott Gould's been on a couple of times, Beck Henry all this stuff.

So I'm working my way through at least those first seasons with the original cast. I don't know. I will probably watch that eleventh season out of curiosity at some point, but I really wanted to watch that original stuff. I haven't gotten to cone Heads yet, but they're coming up the season. I haven't gotten to Jane You ignorant sleut yet.

Just something I remember from a childhood. Had no idea what Slet meant, but I remember hearing or seeing that clip Janie ignorant Slut. So many office fans will never understand where that came from. They'll just think it's Michael Scott exactly exactly. Father Grido Sarducci.

I always remember enjoying him when he was on. So I'm working through all that stuff. We'll probably finish the book and those episodes of the show. But it was, Yeah, it was just one of those pop culture phenomenons. They won the Emmy that first season.

It was just in the ether, in the zeitgeist, and it affected a lot of what I liked. I still watched The Blues Brothers constantly. I watched it like three times between recording last time and this time. Oh wow, if I catch that movie, I have to finish it. I need to watch it again.

It's been a very long time since I've watched that all the way, I have to say, it has got to be one of my favorite movies of all time. And I mentioned Caddyshack being raunchy and being kind of the wrong choice. There's swearing in the Blues Brothers, but it's all it's almost childlike. It's almost like a kid made this movie. Yeah, it's very innocent.

Even though their convicts and all this stuff, it has a very innocent feel to it. I remember that from watching it. Remember that feeling that innocence is what gives it. It's sort of like a dreamlike quality, and also like a level of enthusiasm behind the whole thing that doesn't exist in a lot of movies, you know, in similar veins. And the last thing I mentioned the ray bands, but those I looking for Bob Geldoff's between that and these came first because this came out in nineteen eighty Sunnyside Pharmacy just write down the strip mall from the Sunnyside Library and right next to Christensen's Market.

You know, they had sunglasses, yea all the and I would just stare at those ray bands and they were pretty pricey even back then. Oh yeah, but I did eventually in high school get ray bands, and it was because they were popular again in the mid to late eighties those in Varney's for people that remember that. But I did eventually get ray bands, and they are mentioned so many times in the novelization. I don't know if they used a little trademark symbol in the book, but it was always like with their ray bands, this rayband, right, so I knew what they were because of the novelization. It explained so much of their style.

I don't walk around in black suits and pork pie hats, no, but the Ravens right now, that covers Saturday Night Live for me. I'm actually I'm looking at my notes and I never get to everything in my notes, but I think I did this time. So people, if you've gone through both of our lengthy I'm sure mine is lengthier discussions on these two topics. Thank you so much for sticking with us. I think I got through all my list too.

It's good for things like this, Masters and SNL. They'll always come up in our conversations in some in some way because I feel like there's something that makes such a big impact. It's a through line. Yeah, I know, it'll always pop up, which is what I was realizing as Yeah, for sure, from writing that little note down the first time we talked to two months later and just you know, going out and how to beat the high cost of living. I haven't thought about that movie ages, but yeah, now I'm curious to watch it again.

It apparently flopped, but it's got boobies in it, So what do you know? So they're gonna got to watch what are you gonna do? So what's your location? What's your local locale. It's interesting because I didn't.

You brought up the spaghetti factory, and that's something I had already thought about a little bit, mainly because there was that one location, which was underneath the overpass. It was like venturing into a different city whenever we would go to eat there. There was a nightclub there later on in the nineties called the Cadillac Club, actually earlier than that, because I saw guns and Roses there in nineteen eighty seven. I went to a lot of a lot of punk shows there. It was right next to the spaghetti factory and that area, that warehouse, I'm putting it in air quotes.

No one can see that warehouse district of downtown Fresman say, quote unquote, this is an audio medium. It was a fascinating area and eating there and then going to see PUNC shows there in the same building. I have very fond memories of that location. It is a weird spot, and now it's bit Wise, which our friend Jason Cooksie, I don't think he works at that location, but he works for bit Wise, that's true, and I'm glad that it's still the building is still there. I mean, it's been overhauled completely, but the bones of it are still kind of there.

And for those of you that have old spaghetti factories, you kind of know how it doesn't matter what the outside looks like because when you get in there, it's the wood paneling. It's usually they have a train caboose in there that you can sit in, recycled furniture from you know, antique stores and stuff like that. Because we went to one in Portland once when we were visiting my mom's family, I'm like, it's the second thing as the one in Fresno. Weird location right on the edge of downtown Fresno, which at that time was not the best place to be. Parking lot was just dirt if I remember correctly, right around the corner from there Valley noveltiesn't don't say it, don't say it.

Don't say it, because that's my place today, still on my thunder this time. So my place, which is right around the curve one of the few bindy streets in Fresno's Ventura Street, right around that curve was Valley Novelty. Yeah, which again because of that location, I didn't really go to very often. Like you never think about it, I would never think about it. I know I went a handful of times, and it lasted in one form or another up until twenty seventeen, so it closed not that long ago by that point.

Like you mentioned when we I think we talked about it before it was basically just a party favor maybe costume store. But back then they definitely had costumes, and I know they had rubber masks. Oh yeah, I remember looking at those rubber masks and just going whoa, because he would see those in the comic book ads too, you know, and back and see them in real life and it's heyday. It was a really cool place to go find all that kind of novelty stuff. But then that phased out eventually, and it was just sort of like a party rental place.

Yeah, as you were mentioning, but they kept that Santa Claus up there on the top. You got to mention that. Yeah, I was going to mention the funky it's not even a blowmold. He can look up pictures of it. It's still up there.

Yeah, he's a plaster sculpted Santa Claus. Kind of disturbing hanging awkwardly off the top of the sign. Exactly. The reason I brought it up is because it ties in to this whole Saturday at Live thing in a way, because that is where I got my arrow through the head gag that's Steve Martin popularized. When I just watched that Saturay at Live episode.

He threw it on while he was playing the banjo, and probably in the exact same model and design. Yeah, because he got it from a novelty shop. And as I mentioned to you, also, it was kind of funny watching one of the short films on Saturday Life visiting a novelty shop in New York and showing a lot of these items Joy Buzzer snakes in a can, which why it was peanut brittle. I don't know, but I had that. I don't think I got it from Valley Novelty.

I think that was an order through Comic Book Ada. But anyway, so I got the arrow through the head there, and I also got the invisible dog on a leash gag you can still buy go on Amazon and you can buy those where. It's this corded rope that they have applied. I don't know glue. I think there's a wire in there.

No, it was made stiff with a product with glue or something so interesting. And then it had the not just a leash on the end, but like that full body harness. Oh you could walk around with it in front of you and make it look like you were walking an invisible dog. I don't know why that one is true. I mean they probably had joy buzzers and all that shit there.

Why I got those two things, why I understand the error. Why I got the invisible dog leash thing, I don't know. Well, I bought a joy buzzer there, one of the few things that I got. Joy buzzer and clown makeup. See, I should have gotten more stuff there and visited more often.

It just was a weird locale and I just think I didn't think about it enough. Yeah, that whole area of Fresno has changed so much, but the buildings remain. I have a lot of fond memories of just that particular one block radius, and I don't think we really ventured past no that curve right until I was old in my late teens early twenties and stuff and going to shows there at Cadillac Club like you mentioned. Yeah, yeah, I was a little sketchy, weird edge of downtown area. Love it.

I'm glad that the building remains. I'm glad that bit wise kept the building, But I am a little bit sad that to go to spaghetti factory now you got to go to a you gotta go a little bit more north of Fresno area, Clovis area. That's right by my office. Actually, oh yeah, it's right by your office, right by Presno State. Yeah, right by your office too.

Basically, that's right. We should have lunch there sometime. We went there a lot. My niece would pick that for her birthday dinner for quite a few years and hundred of a long time. I gotta say I love their spaghetti and meatballs, just the basics.

I'm serious. Man must mair, I would like I would like to feed your fingertips. To feed your fingertips through the wolverines. So you pick up any pop culture items? Yes, yes, and no yes, because no items of real significance unless I talk about all of them, So I won't do that.

I'll generalize it, but yes, there have been a few. The notable thing that relates back to what we talked about today is that there's a new version of a character called Too Bad that was always one of my favorites. He was recently re released or a new version was released, and it's amazing. I'm really it's the master verse too Bad, and it's one of my favorite things I've gotten all year. I already know what you're going to say.

So whatever I just said right now has carries no weight compared to what you're going to say. What do you think I'm going to say? I have an idea. I'm not going to give it away, though. The two Saturday Night Live books, the Big Coffee Table Book, which I'm currently reading through I'm actually reading, This is Me explains a lot about me.

You can download that stuff off the Internet archive if it's something that you check out for fourteen days it has to be converted into a PDF. So I had my friend Mike White from the Projection Booth and from the files of Police Squad converted into a PDF for me. So I'm actually reading the PDF version because I don't want to break the spine on the one I bought, because it's actually in very good shape. So that explains my brain, along with the Mister Bill book, which will be playing out the episode. For those of you listening right now, you could tell I hear the whole four minutes of the book as it was read on the little Flexi disc that it came with.

I've already mentioned my Mister Bill plush that I had my mom make with non canonical green pants, but still I think I attempted to make him with modeling Clay. I was convinced that he wasn't made out of Plato, but I think it was just Plato might have been modeling Clay. But anyway, failed attempts and then finding them on made a plush for me. You got me the Luke Skywalker protot Target exclusive figure. I got a four pack of Switchblade combs.

Yeah, that's what I knew you were gonna say. And I love that you got that and you found that, because that's something that One of my first purchases from a comic book was that, and I remember eyeball in it. I was fascinated with switchblades as a kid, such a cool thing. Do you remember that comic? And it turned in I think it was a movie too, called The Cross and the Switchblade, like a true story.

It's a Christian thing. A lot of kids growing up that way knew about it. Yeah, I didn't know that, So I think that ended up turning me onto switchblades. That's so funny. Not crosses.

No, I'm finding the thank very therapeutic. If I'm stressing out, I come in here and I flip it a couple of times and I feel better. Anything they can work for that, And this is now. I have you and I don't really have a lot of hair on the top, but I have a beard, and I'm very anxious to get my Yeah, so I can start using the switch action as a stress relief. But then also the repetitive combing of the beard.

I mean, it's actually perfect for a beard because it's got very short teeth. That's right. If I still had mine, That's what I would be using it for for sure. Now's the reason to grow a beard back now too itchy. Yeah, so that's a lot of fun and that's cool stuff.

Definitely worth it, folks. You can buy a four pack on Amazon for eight bucks. I think they have even bigger packs. Buy it in bulk and get them to your friends. Start a greaser gain.

I'll get yours to you somehow. We got to reconnect time soon anyways, in the in person just to hang out. Yes, it's been well, have another art show and I'll pop by again, all right, So to do it just for that reason so you can get Yeah, I'll do that for you. I'll do it for you. Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

You've kind of already mentioned the Sclevator YouTube channel. I'll mention wake Up Heavy recollections of horror again from the files of Police Squad, Yes, both of which can be found on Wardingwaymedia dot com or at wake Up Heavy dot com or wherever you listen to podcasts. That's right, So anything else before we say goodbye, Ronnie. No, this has been a lot of fun. I like being able to like dig deep.

I liked hearing what you had gathered in your experience as SNL and saying it ready for prime time players, which I now understand. Yeah exactly. Rime time is h confused me for the longest time. It is all about educating ourselves or re educating ourselves. Right.

I enjoyed hearing all that stuff because I haven't really heard it before. I know you like master than the universe, but why Yeah, so now everybody knows. Thanks everybody for listening. Thanks to Ronnie for joining me as always, listen to this amazing mister Bill book on the way out. Yeah, I hey, kids, it's time for the mister Bill show because we're work at my family.

Whoops, say, mister Bill, here's your family album. Mister sure, mister Bill. You know you're from a show business family. Your grandfather was Vaudeville Bill, and he worked hard, hoping one day to become a big star. And before long, mister Bill, he became so good he brought the house down every night.

Grandma, And you know, mister Bill, your father was also in show business and started out in the movies as a stunt man. But your father found being a star even more hazardous than being a stuntman, so he quit show business to settle down and raise a family. And he took your mother's hand in marriage, and like your grandpa, he brought the church down. Say, and before you know it, along came little Billy. That's your mom and dad were out in the backyard picnicking that day when all of a sudden, the glorious event happened.

And as it often happened in those days, your father died during childhood. Oh what a rotten way to come and give a world. And then, mister Bill, you received the slap of life. Then, mister Bill, that very evening, during a terrible rainstorm, another glorious event occurred with a shivering little stray dog scratched on the door, and we took Spotty and to stay forever. Here comes mister Bill.

But you know, mister Hans could seemed like I remember we didn't have any tonguels to dry him off. Oh I took care of that, saying talking about drying off, do you remember your first diaper and how I helped out when your mom didn't have any safety pins? Oh? Yeah, how can I forget that? Oh?

And you know it was also the time you spoke your first word. Soon your mom had to go out shopping, so you got your first babysitter, and he slug off. She wasn't a babysitter, she was just leaning to me. But mister Bill, she ironed your clothes for you, and she fed you, and then she brush your teeth, but I didn't have any teeth. Well, mister Bill, it wasn't long before you were up and on your feet and ready to take your first step.

But why did you make me take it in to dry? And soon your hair got too long and you got your first haircut. Oh, mister Hans, I had a rough childhood. I suppose I made it to my first doctor. Well, mister Bill, as we all know, things get worse, like when you had to go to the doctor for your first check up.

First he checked your reflexes, but I didn't have any reflexes, And then he took your temperature. Well, mister Bill, at least your blood pressure was normal. But the worst thing that happened was what he gave me, the vaccination all the kids in town. But mister Bill, you've never gotten polio. Now, come on, mister Bill, things weren't that bad, Like remember what a charge you got out of Christmas?

Always happened up, the right up, the Christmas free up. But mister Bill, remember all the fun you had at the playground, like when you played Buried Treasure with your pars. Wasn't any treasure now, man? And remember the seesaw? And how about all the great girls when you played catcher in the Little League.

Most of the well, mister Bill, you finally become a young man. And remember your first day at school? Yeah? I remember. And you know something, mister Vance, I'm beginning to think that maybe you haven't been such a good friend of the family what you say you are.

And you know, you might see one more time you helped the soup. I might get really mad. Oh well, I'd better shut the family album. Then, oh no, you're in the family album, mister Bell, Bye bye,