Fans of the Lost

Hey, I'm Marta Kristen, and you're listening to Movie Meltdown. Movie Meltdown The following feature has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. It is intended for mature audiences and parental discretion is advised. It's showtime, folks. Enjoy the show.

Our nuclear reactor, pumping out one million kilowatts of power. What's up and welcome. To Movie Meltdown. I'm Brian. I'm Misty.

And we're coming to you live via digital recording from Wonderfest once again. How many years? See, that's what I was going to say. Normally this part of the episode, every year at Wonderfest, we play the How long have we been coming here, game? So this year I'm just going to skip it.

I'm going to bypass all the things that we always talk about. We've been coming here 20 plus years, 22 maybe. And then the one time when Misty's mom married George Romero. Something like that. Anyway, if not, go back and listen to the old stories because we've told that story 28 times.

I don't think Bill's heard it. We've done this a million times, so we don't have to go over this. But this will be interesting because I don't know if we've ever had somebody who we've been here every year. We talk about being here every year. Bill hasn't been here before that I'm aware of.

So this episode, we're going to welcome in Bill. Say hello. Hello. And not first time, because if you've been listening to this a long time, the time we were at the drive-in, we recorded an episode in the car. I remember the car episode.

And you were there. We watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre, original recipe. Thank you very much. We watched Oculus. We watched Oculus.

I think that was the third movie, wasn't it? Because in the middle was another that whatever that Ang Lee Hulk guy. That guy that was in the Hulk. As Beneath So Below or something. Something like that.

It was one of those like animals or something. I didn't. It was that movie and we went, this looks weird. Let's just record now. So the middle movie, if I'm remembering, we turned down the sound and did an entire episode sitting in the car.

I think I did the Spaghetti Yeti too. Yes, you were there for that as well. I was not there for that. Now I remember. I bet I'm surprised a lot of people stuck around.

And I was kind of thrilled with that, but I was just like, I assumed everybody would be like, okay, dorks, I'm out of here. And, like, there was a good amount of people at that show. There was food. Nobody turns down food. Well, I mean, the food part, I understand.

That was expensive. Do you still have any of that food? No, but I still got the debt that came with it. That show was the most cool, maybe, and arguably the one I went the furthest in the hole putting together. Oh, yeah.

That's like the cheapest of meals. But that one was in a real restaurant. And we had the upstairs special private area. And I had to rent equipment to show the movie, which I've never had to do before. I had to rent different sound equipment to go there.

They had a specific place that you had to go get the screen to show it on. That is how they do it, I guess, when they have fancy VIP business groups or some bullshit. I don't know. But yeah, that one was a lot. So that's why I'm not doing live events very much anymore.

By very much, I mean never. Until funding rolls in, which has not happened yet. But either way, welcome back, Bill. Well, thank you. How's it going?

It's going. It's been a while since I've seen you in the real world anyway. That's true. You know, COVID and whatnot. Has that happened?

I forgot about that already. I've actually mentioned that. I was like, I used to run into you somewhere. All the time. All the time.

Hasn't happened in a. Couple of years. Out of that group of dorks that most of which don't exist anymore. I just saw you at the bookstore like two weeks ago. Oh, no.

I run into you. I just haven't seen him. See, I think the last time we were all in the same place was maybe the Vogue closing ceremony. I ran into you at the same bookstore like before that. That doesn't surprise me.

See, individually we run into each other all the time. But, yeah, I think the last time the three of us were together maybe was there. Whatever happened to the Vogue thing? I don't know. Nothing.

Nothing. If you need shoes. No, I mean like the documentary. Was it like a documentary or something? I think they're still doing it.

I don't know. Again, Dave was sort of connected to that, so I'll have to ask him. I'm assuming he's wandering the halls somewhere this weekend, so we'll have to check in with him. But yeah, so this will be an interesting intro because we never have a fresh opinion. You've been to a lot of different things in your life, Bill, but you haven't been here.

So what do you think? How was your first Wonderfest experience? So far, so good. I got to say, I didn't quite recognize you at first. You didn't have the entire black ensemble going on.

Yeah. You were like head to toe not black. It was a little unnerving. I was totally in costume today. Not the true dork or anything.

No, no. Not at all. Since I specifically came here to do a video with the land of the lost people and spend a ton of money that I don't have. Yeah, I've played this game. And it was worth every penny.

Yeah. That's true. You were having the time of your life over there. I saw the video. I'm glad we witnessed a good portion of it.

And I'm still not done. What do you intend to do now? Is there more crap to buy? Oh, I am out of money. Did you spend it all at the Land of the Lost?

Oh, I brought it for that. I mean, we looped around that whole room and I looked over to see, is he still over there getting more stuff? I checked to see. I was like, he might still be at their table. There was a special model kit made. land of the lost one for this and it was pretty expensive and they were like have you seen that and i was like oh yeah like don't show it to me and i was like it's pretty expensive but i'd rather spend it on this stuff and they hooked me up so i could buy a model and i was like nice.

Too cool that's pretty awesome but otherwise yeah i think you've you've just sort of edged your way into it this last uh hour or so. Right there's a lot of stuff that I actually did come here once because Jeremiah was dressing up like a robot because Bob Burns was supposed to be here, but he was sick. So they streamed him on a screen, and Jeremiah built this generic Robbie the Robot kind of outfit. And I had to come help him put it on, and they put the screen and did the whole question and answer. Was this After Hours or during the show?

Because I know he used to do the After Hours movies and stuff. It may have been one of those because there was a question and answer with. Carolyn Monroe and doing Star Crash. Oh, yeah. So I don't know if it was part of that or if it was like right before that.

She was very nice. But yes, I got introduced to her and didn't realize until I got home who it was. She's a Bond girl. Well, see, even for me, I'm a Hammer guy. So I was like, oh my God, that's the taste of blood of Dracula.

I can believe it. Sinbad. She's in one of the Sinbad, yeah. She's awesome. So I met her and was that idiot.

Like, oh, hey, nice to meet you. You're like, what's up? Oh, wait, shit, you're a superstar. Never mind. But.

But yeah, I didn't venture out. I just helped Jeremiah and went home. Yeah. So. He'll get you in that kind of trouble.

You got to watch it. Well, the thing is, like, I should have known better because I like dorky stuff. But when I heard that, you know, it's just mostly models. I was like, I'm not really a model guy. So it never thought it was anything appealing.

That confuses a lot of people. Yeah. Because even when they get here, it's like the the. Merch room isn't the merch room at normal conventions or, you know, horror conventions and stuff. It's usually like all different kinds of dorky stuff, but pretty general and open to anybody that wants to buy movies or t-shirts or that kind of crap.

This is like, here's a $ 300 model kit that is from scratch. You've got to put together and paint it yourself. Have fun with that. I'm just looking at him going, that's too much work. It's too much money.

I'm not going to go down this road. But there is a lot of other collectibles here. There is really good stuff. And it's a lot of pop culture and movie related stuff. And I'm pretty excited.

I haven't looked at everything yet. There's a lot. There's a lot of stuff. So I was surprised. And of course, there's a lot more money I want to spend.

Of course. You know. Just hand them over. Everything is outrageous these days. Yeah.

I can't afford nothing. No doubt. So, yep. You'll just have to give them all your plastic. Be like, here.

I'll be in debt for the rest of my life. Which is pretty much everybody here. Yeah, that's pretty much every day. That's me every day. But yeah, I think everybody here gets themselves in that trouble.

Hey, I only spent $ 10. Thank you very much. Amazing. Not out of here yet. They might tackle you later.

Oh, yeah, you're buying more stuff. I found two bronze horror comics. I'm good to go. That is true. You've got your old school comics.

You're all set. I got my funnies. All right, well. Do we want to, I mean, normally at this point I'll roll into some sort of, what have we been doing? What have we been watching?

But I don't know. I haven't seen anything and you never watch anything anymore. I've got a few things, but I didn't know how much you wanted to launch into land of the lost talk because I mean, that was, the thing i've i watched it and loved it as a kid but i haven't done much with it since then so like when i started getting in there i was just like looking at the stuff going i know this i know this hey look it's a dinosaur i love a dinosaur We all sat on the dice, so let's be real. But yeah, I was just like, then you got to the details of Misty going, wait, what the hell is that? And I'm like, I don't know.

That's diving in too far. And then Bill stepped up and was like, well, let me tell you. Because I have never in my life seen an episode of Land of the Lost. Which I still think is a little weird because it sort of falls in. it definitely falls into your geek interests, but even the timeframe, it was on for a long time and a lot of reruns. They got reran.

For years. I mean, even in the nineties, I think it was on Nickelodeon. It was a sci-fi channel. Like they reran that show my whole life. Yeah.

It's, it was such a favorite and I still like, well, it, you might want to check out some, of course, some of the episodes are better than others. The third season isn't as good as the first season. I think that kind of stuff shows, you know, but, um, you'll be surprised at how, kind of deep. Yeah. Because like, I don't know if you know, since you haven't seen it, but Star Trek writers wrote those episodes.

Yeah. So like, especially for a kid's show, had pretty heavy themes. Yeah. And like, they didn't dumb it down. They just let you like, see and figure it out and you were like whoa instead of just like hey dumb kid this is funny or you.

Know i feel like they didn't do that as much back in the day really like i feel like kids properties in general then were but that one you know bringing in real writers right put it ahead of us. So i mean it has a bit of seriousness about it that i guess as a kid you just felt like you could kind of relate to and you know yeah kind of open your mind to like Figuring things out, I guess. Out in the universe. I was mostly just obsessed with and creeped out by Sleestack. So that was most of my childhood.

Oh, I've got all the trivia. In case anybody doesn't know, I have a Facebook page called Fans of the Lost. What a nerd. What a nerd. I'm all about it.

But there was only three Sleestack outfits. Hold on. Do you have any tattoos? That hasn't happened yet, and it's only because I don't really have that much tattoo space left. If you're not looking at him right now, he's got a lot.

It's hard to say. I mean, there are places I could get it, but you would never see him. There's a perfectly good forehead right there. You could just easily transform that into a. There you go.

Just put a fleece-like mask on one of your girls. Forehead space, I'm just saying. I hope to see. It could happen. No.

You could post Malone this shit. Come on. You have some neck space. Yeah. Sleece tag on your neck.

Wait, just paint my whole face like one. I mean, you've seen guys that do that kind of stuff. Yeah. I don't know if I recommend it, but hey, you're free to do whatever you want. I'll even alter my speech, so I just kiss.

That's me in public. Pretty much, yeah. That was me going through the model room earlier. Yeah. She bailed midway because there were people.

There were so many of them. So many people. It has gotten super popular. Which is awesome. I mean, yeah, it is great.

Cause every year I know anytime we talk to, you know, any of Dave and Bo and all of them, they're always like, everything's booked up, you know, next year they're already booked up on the, on the tables and stuff. But like the crowds have continued to get bigger and bigger. And I think from that comeback on coming back from pandemic stuff, it's just like, everybody's just like doubling down now. They're like, I'm going to, buy more models. I'm going to enter more models in the contest.

Like, I think everybody's just super hyped about it now because they went for a year and didn't have anything and went for two years and couldn't go anywhere. I'm glad that it's happening now the way that it's happening because there's not, you know, everything's kind of back to normal. Like, people will give you hugs and let you put your arms around, arm around them. Oh, not me. Don't touch me.

Don't touch me. Oh, you're not wearing a mask. I'm just talking about, like, I got to, you get to interact with people as to where, like this, my interaction with the stars would have been lame if it was like, covid time yeah you know meeting them with masks standing six feet away from them wouldn't quite be the same experience as having. A good time a little bit of crossover when they first started that and it's always kind of weird at that point it's like at this point let's just call it like why bother i. Interrupted your story earlier i'm.

Sorry oh that story oh i was just saying like the sleaze stacks which of course was probably one of the things that made that show so popular because all the kids were either scared or in awe. Both for me which were you oh i was like. Awesome They were so cool. It's so weird because people are like, it's such a generic outfit, but to me, it's still one of the coolest monsters that I remember from when I was a kid. Even still, I like the design.

I have no idea. Is that its name or is. That its species? It's the species. At some point, it just became Sleazebag.

Do they have individual names? No. Except that we have from the future. There's a guy named Enoch. It was a future version of them.

And he's a little bit different and he could talk. I was obsessed with him too. I was just like, because he brought such a weird element to it and, and was like, he brought the serious of his ancestors. You know, he was just. Like, he was basically exactly a Spock character, but he was like a higher intelligence and always had like words of wisdom, which made.

It even cooler. I thought that guy was cool. But, um, what I was gonna say about the slea stacks is there's supposed to be like this cave full of them. And, uh, Because of the cost of everything, they only had three costumes. And they were so tall that they could only get NBA players to wear them.

So, like, all these famous or became famous NBA players played the Slea Stacks. And every time you saw it, they would, like, be popping out of cave holes. And it seemed like you were just surrounded. But you only ever saw three on screen at a time. Because, like, two would come from over here.

One would come over here. But there was only ever three of you. That's a good trick, though. No, it worked. That is an amazing trick.

It worked out great. Was Wilt Chamberlain ever a sleazebag? No. He was busy hooking up. He didn't have time for that.

That is one of the only old-timey basketball players. I don't know much about sports ball. I don't, but I'll be the first to know. But Bill Lambeer, who is apparently a very famous coach and also. Larry Bird.

I know three things about basketball. Larry Bird's one of them. This is a sports talk. Thanks for tuning in. Yeah.

Larry Bird, Bobby Knight. You're talking to the wrong guy about sports. We're the wrong group of people. It was Bobby Knight. In a sleaze tank.

It was Denny Crow. Rest in peace. Yeah. Well, yeah. That's, I mean, you have to give him credit though.

That's amazing planning. Like, that's what I always say about any like older movies that like were super low budget. It's like, if you can find a way to make it work like it kind of makes it more impressive oh i agree because you know now you can cg whatever the hell you want and it looks like it but like then you just had to be creative and so that lack of money you look at all those directors like their most impressive stuff most of the time is like when they had nothing and they're just scrapping be like all right how do we make those work and it's like that brings out the creativity in so many of these people. Well it's funny i mean it was lower budget than a movie but a lot of people see it now and try to compared to today's center.

Like it's so cheesy. Well, for one thing, look at any other show for kids. So, I mean, come on, that gets a slower budget. Usually it wasn't low budget for television. Like apparently at the time it was like the process that they used to like superimpose them on the screens, like before what's a green screen now was like this cutting edge technology that that was one of the only TV shows doing that.

And so it was like new technology. And then like some of the same people that did the Harry House and stuff did the dinosaurs. So it's like, it was like big time stuff. It wasn't just like, oh, here, you know, this dumb version of this stuff. They had real people on board, you know?

Yeah. People that actually knew what they were doing. Yeah. So, yeah. Again, that's the other thing that suckered me in.

Dinosaurs. Like, who doesn't like dinosaurs? No. Like, it had everything like a kid, especially at that time. Dinosaurs, lizard people.

I like dinosaurs. You know. I think that is part of the– Kind of a space kind of element. Yeah. It was definitely futuristic-y by the time you brought the other dude in and the just weird technology that would pop up sometimes literally.

Like the time traveling and the loopholes and all that. I mean there's a lot to it. And that's what's impressive about it. People just kind of cloudily remember it. But if you watch it, you're like, wow, there's a lot to this as far as the stories go.

A lot of impressive stuff. And I think for me when I was a kid, like Holly was close to our age. She was a little bit older. Yeah. And then Will was older.

He was like a teenager. He was older and playing a little younger. Playing a little younger. But, I mean, the family dynamic is really good if you watch the episodes. Like, it's believable.

It doesn't seem hokey. Yeah. And, like, the way they kind of bicker, and he looks out for her, but same thing. But still is annoyed with her because it's his sister. Right, it's his sister.

They play all that stuff perfect. And, like, the dad has always got the wisdom, and he's always looking out for him. Like, that appealed to me when I was a kid, too. Brady Bunch fighting dinosaurs. Basically.

Basically. And another interesting thing, because I'm a nerd, the first year that that show came out, which was, like, in 74, so I was only, like, 15. I just go all around. I was only 25. I just, yeah, I just, I'm like, look, I'm, like, 80.

Leave me alone. But apparently it was, like, the highest rated show on television across the board, not just, like, Saturday morning. So, like, adults were watching it, too. Did it premiere at Saturday morning time? Yeah, it was a Saturday morning time thing, but it was so...

Liked that it was popular. Yeah. Other than just with kids. That's impressive. Yeah.

So Namaste needs to watch an episode. Oh, come tomorrow. They're playing an episode. I have to work tomorrow. And doing a question and answer.

Here. Jobs are lame. I'm psyched about. I took the weekend off. For once.

Because all I do is work. So for now, we'll take our break and we'll come back with this week's guest. Very special guest. Other than Bill. Obviously Bill.

Does it get more special than me? Special. Holly told me I was special. Wow. We all feel you're special, Bill.

And I informed her that I was special aid. I'm so glad that you're still with us. Broken, but damn, you're still perfect. How are we going to tell people that they need to join the Meltdown Horror Club? I think you just did.

Damn it. We recording this is a good plan well did they know that if they join the club they can get exclusive episodes well that's so cool who wouldn't want to join the horror club that's the only way you can hear all these cool horror movie episodes is if you join the meltdown. Horror club for as little as two dollars. Two dollars two dollars american dollars you know i mean if you go online they can transfer that stuff and yeah switch it out and i don't know wherever it comes from as long as eventually it gets to american dollars i'm good with wherever you can send us foreign monies from the other end just as long as when it gets here two dollars fair enough plus you can help us pick out the movies we're gonna watch we're trying to decide every week we're like what the hell are we gonna watch now We wouldn't have to do that if you joined the club and then you can just give us a movie to watch because that's how we get this list of movies that we're going through.

That's one of the perks of joining the club. You get to give us a movie and then we put it on the list and later we talk about it and you can inflict horrible movies on us or when we're talking about movies that you're like, why? Why are they talking about that movie? You probably have a much better movie in mind that we should be talking about and you could give us that one. Get on it. $ 2 to, like, waste two hours of our lives.

I mean, that's a good deal. And it's only 6.45 cents per day. See, I figured that out. I was trying. I'm fighting really hard to not put together some sort of, like, starving children's tone of, like, you know.

That's why. I'm trying not to do that every week. But I'm like, it always, anytime I have to pitch it, I start feeling like, for only pennies a day, you. Yeah. could keep these poor idiots from watching a dumb movie. You could make them watch something good.

Or vice versa. Or make us watch something really terrible. We're fine either way. We just need to know what to watch, but we need your help to make that happen. And especially, we're trying to get a whole community going.

We've got our fan page. Nobody cares about that. So then, we set up the discussion group. And now, we've got a decent amount of people on there, but I still feel like The discussions aren't flowing as much as they should be. So once you join the club, go over.

It's on Facebook. I can't help it. They won't make anything better to replace it. But then you can join the discussion group on Facebook and we can talk about these ridiculous movies we're watching. Do it.

Do it today. Or tomorrow. But in the relatively near future. That's our tagline? Yes.

I don't think we've got to fight Nike over that one. I hope not. Do it today. Just do it sometime. I don't know, man.

Look, whenever you get around to it, we understand. Get your shit together and do it. Nike. Somewhere that was a pitch meeting, probably. Do you really think we should curse?

Yes, goddammit, George, curse! So anyway, go to moviemeltdown.com, support the show, become a Meltketeer. Hit the weekend. At fun As my days. And my nights Join the club Marshall, Will.

And Holly On a routine expedition Met the greatest earthquake ever known High on the rapids It's just a tiny raft that plunges down, down a thousand feet below. It was the. Land of. The lost. It was the land of the lost.

When I look all. Around, I can't believe the things I found. And now I've got to find my way. I'm lost, I'm lost. Find me living in the land of the lost.

Lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost. I'm living in the land of the lost. So with all this land of the lost discussion, how about if we go talk to the man himself, Wesley Yor, who is, of course... Will Marshall from Land of the Lost. Plus, he was in several movies that I definitely want to talk to him about.

And then, just maybe, if you're lucky, we'll get a special appearance from Holly. That's right, Kathy Coleman. Maybe. But for now, let's go talk to Wesley. So early on, were you interested in entertainment to begin with?

Or was it specific things? Because as you went on, you got into, you know, theater and you went into TV and music. And so, like, initially, what were you drawn to? When I was five years old in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, I stood up on a table and said, I'm going to be an actor. And they all looked at me like I had come from another planet.

They were all educators. Mississippi. Hello. You know, my dad left when I was two. Yeah.

And never came back. So I think I probably... Because I think we go into careers where we need something. Yeah. And I think I needed attention.

I think entertainment in general kind of pulls in very specific types of people. Exactly. Like you see them gravitate towards comedy to fill a hole or, you know, drama to fill a hole. When I played the oak tree in the, I think the sixth grade, I was hooked. I just knew.

I knew that I needed to, okay, pardon this, branch out. This is an episode of puns. Well, that's the root. Never mind. We're never going to stop.

No, no, no, no, no. I'll leave it alone. Anyway, so. But yeah, so I mean, as you got into it, was there, I guess theatrical is usually the easiest way as a kid for like school plays and stuff. Yeah.

And then I always wanted to be, do it. And I started competing in high school and won a lot of major awards and I won the Best Actor of the Year Award in the United States with Northwestern University. And then I went to New York. And my first job was the American Shakespeare Festival at Stratford. I understudied Ariel and the Tempest.

And this was the most major theater company in the United States at the time. And I was understudying Ariel. But, I mean, I'm from Mississippi. I didn't know about Shakespeare, but I had to audition. And they said, you have to do two pieces.

So I went to the library and I learned two sonnets. And I performed. It was all the Juilliard School of Music, which is one of the best in the world. So the head of Juilliard was producing it that year. They were all Juilliard people.

They hired me. And I finally said to the guy, I said, why did you hire me? He goes, Wesley, you were terrible in the Shakespeare. He said, you blew it, but you were so funny. We said, we have to spend the summer with that guy.

There you go. But I got on stage at rehearsal at the Manhattan Club. We rehearsed for a month in New York, and then we, eight months in Stratford, Connecticut. So I went, all hail, grave master, graves to hail, I come to answer thy beck and call, be it to fly, to swim, to dive into the fire. And they go, Wesley, not on our stage.

I go, what's wrong? They go, your accent. I go, what accent? So they got this, Liz Smith was this linguist from Juilliard, and every day for nine months- I had classes. Nine months.

Nine months. That's harsh. And everybody was terrified of her. She was this big bull of a woman. And she would go, instead of going running and jumping, I had to go running, jumping, ghost.

Emphasis. Yeah. Because I did not know there were consonants in the English language. Well, you know, it's Mississippi. I live in Kentucky.

What do I know? She terrified everybody. But she got drunk the last night. When we closed down at Stratford, and she came up to me and said, Wesley, darling, you said the most regrettable experience I've had this entire summer here at Stratford has been to make you lose that wonderful accent. So I got rid of it. of my southern accent.

Well, I don't know. I think if you do an entire cast of Shakespeare full on southern accent, that's got an appeal, right? What happened is that actually the southern accent is the exact accent when Shakespeare wrote the plays. People were talking like this. And we know that because the immigrants that came to the United States lived in the Appalachians, were direct descendants from the English of that period, and they were so isolated that it's the dialect is the same as it was in Old England.

Interesting. See, look, we're learning things. I know. So the British sort of upper, you know, everything, oh, pa-pa-pa-pa-pa. That's an affection, an affectation that happened after Shakespeare.

When the cool people left and came to the Appalachian and they just got crusty and you know boring in england you know exactly exactly so i guess um as far as crossing over into like well i would say eventually film but you you got to tv and then you end up in two different projects kind of simultaneously so how did they both. Come together at the same time well they were both nbc shows so days of our lives and i got that first are. They a little more forgiving because of that yes yeah. Because they had to agree that Days of Our Lives, for the three years I did Land of the Lost, they let me do all my scenes in the morning first. So the cast hated me.

I was like, because I'd go in, shoot my scenes, and leave. And then I'd go over to Days of Our Lives, to Land of the Lost, which is across the valley into Hollywood, Los Angeles, from Burbank. That's a fun day. So it was interesting. So in the morning, I'm crying that my girlfriend is leaving me and...

The mafia is after me, and I'm having sexual problems. And in the afternoon, I'm going, run, Holly, run. There's a dinosaur. So it was the best job. Did you get mixed up and start talking about dinosaurs in the middle of your mafia?

Well, I started talking about Dinah Shore. Then you're fine, actually, given the time period. Do you remember Dinah Shore? I do, actually. I actually did her show twice.

I sang on her show, yeah. See, that's big time right there. Oh, yeah, big time. Dinah Shore. You don't get Dinah Shores anymore.

No. Well, then, I mean, I guess you couldn't have been prepared for the cultural impact of Land of the Lost. Well, who knew? Yeah, I mean, did you even, how seriously did you even take it at the time? Because, yeah, it seems.

Land of the Lost was written by the Star Trek writers. Oh, yeah. David Gerrold was our head writer. He wrote Trouble with Tribbles, created Tribbles. Walter Koenig, Chekhov, the original Chekhov, created Enoch, the Talking Sleeve Sack, who was named after Gene Roddenberry.

Gene backwards. It was going to be Enig, but then they changed it. It says two dead-ons, the Enig. Because Gene Roddenberry was asked to be the head writer at first. So Mike Westmore did all the monsters who did Star Trek.

And Kathy and I do the Star Trek convention in Vegas at the Rio every year. We're the only show they allow in other than Star Trek. But who knew? I mean, who knew? But it was because the scripts are so good.

Shakespeare said, the story's the thing. The effects are 70s. There's no CGI. So they're what they are. Which, again, for old school fans, that's kind of better.

I like it. I love practical. Oh, my God. The blue screen instead of green screen. It's the first time in history they melded the dinosaurs.

We're in film. We were in videotape. And they pushed them together all at once. It didn't work the first. The first episode didn't work.

They called the Disney people in. All the engineers started working on this. And by the second episode, they were able to meld film onto the dinosaurs. Video one yeah that's amazing well again it was kind of pushing the envelope because people hadn't tried to do you know other than films years ago but yeah nobody especially on tv yeah yeah. Totally state of the art and then.

As far as like i was talking about this earlier with bill like the the sleaze stack like i think so many kids it was just like fascinated and traumatized so i mean like when you saw those characters the first time Again, what sort of response was it? Just like, is this going to work? Or was it like. The third episode of the Sleaze Stack came in, the ratings went through the roof. It became NBC's number one show.

Not Saturday morning, but number one show. And so Marty Croft was telling me about that. But, you know, and it's become part of the pop culture. It's referenced people, tall people are called Sleaze Stack. Bill Lambert of the Detroit Pistons, the bad boy of basketball, was a Sleaze Stack when he was in college ball.

And we, Kathy and I, we, we, he was coaching the aces, the women's basketball team in Las Vegas. And we surprised him one day and showed up and he was like, and we did all the photos. Well, cause he was a bad book. You want, if you're a basketball fan, you know how, how nasty Bill would be. And when, when, when he, we finally left, he said, I got to go back to coaching.

And the head of the, the, the league came up to us and said, you know, I've known Bill since he was a college basketball player. And I have never seen him smile so much. There you go. That's the effect of Land of the Lost. Well, then, that kind of poses an interesting situation for you as you're coming out of that.

Because you were already sort of, like, playing a younger character. And so, like, it's still a very, as lovable as the show is, it's a little cleaner than, you know, most things that you're going to get if you're moving into film. Yeah. you end up going straight into horror. Which one did you actually shoot first? Because they both kind of released that year.

You mean Chomps? Well, no, I was getting to that later. But like Jennifer and Toolbox Murders. I did Toolbox. No, I.

Think I did Toolbox Murders first. Okay. Yeah. That's a definitely much darker tone for you. Stephen King once said, if you have to rent 10 movies for Halloween...

Toolbox Murders is one of them. Definitely. I mean, it began the slasher genre at the end of the 70s. And I got to play a very evil character. And it was with Pamela Furtin, you know.

It was quite amazing. Did you question it at the time? Because you're coming from a pretty wholesome project. No, I love it. Because it's so dark by the time you get to the end.

It was so dark. And I had to beg Days of Our Lives to let me do it. Yeah. And it took me about two weeks to get out of the character. I've never played that vicious and horrible of a person, and I kind of got into it.

I tapped into the vicious, horrible part of me, and it took me about two weeks to snap out of it. It's a harsh movie, and a weird layout, more or less, because it starts like one thing, and then you even think you know where it's going, and then. That's what's the great part about it. Spoilers, if you haven't seen it, go watch it now. Yeah, Cameron Mitchell is in it, and it's...

Yeah. You think you know, more or less, what's going on, but you can't figure out with your character, and then it takes a hard turn, so. Yes, and if you've watched the film, you'll remember, Joey, Joey, burning bright, lit the night with firelight. I hope you don't have matches here. That's all I have to say.

If you're selling signed matches, there's a problem going on. Well, and then, I guess that same year, more or less, by release anyway, Jennifer came out, and that... You get the and credit. Was that like something negotiated? No, they begged me to come do the show.

They said, we'll write a part for you. There wasn't a part. That explains it. Because I watched it and I was like, how come you're not in this more? Because I expected more of you.

With Bert Convy and all these people, I get eaten by snakes. It's like, it's Carrie with snakes. That's what I was going to ask. I was like, it's cars. So were you actually driving any of that car stuff?

Oh, yeah, yeah. Because I figured, yeah, they can't afford a ton of stuff. Exactly. And it ended with this. We were in a soundstage with a Mercedes convertible.

And they had a real boa constrictor. It was a bad girl that conjures snakes to kill everybody in high school. Yeah, like most kids want to do. This snake was so big, they could wrap this boa around the Mercedes twice. They told us, stand at the doors, because if the snake gets mad, boas can scoot very fast across the ground.

I did not know that. You don't mess with snakes of any sort. I had one scene where I had snakes wrapped around my head. And I'm screaming and stuff. And right before I filmed that scene, they had a snake wrangler with a big aquarium with different colored snakes.

And they were not poisonous. So the director said, I want that red, you know, whatever color you want it. Visuals. We're just going for good visuals. So I'm about to go film.

And he says, well, here, hold this snake. It was a gopher snake. Well, I'm petting it like it's a puppy. Like petting a snake. You know, snakes don't like.

To be petted. Depends on how you get along with a snake. And this was a guy. His hands were all gnarled from being bitten by snakes over the years. That's for sure.

So I'm petting the snake, and suddenly the snake rears up and strikes at my face. And this guy reaches his hand in, puts it over my face, and the snake bites his hand. And then they say, Wesley, on set time. I'm terrified. They are wrapping snakes around me.

I have to pretend like they're eating, killing me. That wasn't hard to do. So I'm holding all these live snakes all over me and I'm screaming, ah, like this stuff. I scared, I scared the snake so bad they pooped all over me. The smell, you cannot imagine how bad it was.

They said cut. I ran. I found a shower. I jumped in. I'm washing the smell off and the director goes, oh my God, Wesley, that was so fabulous.

We want to do it again. I go, no way. Thank you. Well, I mean, yeah, you don't, it seems like that would be an issue for the studio. Like, wouldn't they put your safety in?

If for no other reason than they have to finish the film, I guess because you didn't have a major role. You wouldn't have done that. With your lead girl. Jennifer wouldn't have been doing that. No, we're just actors.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll just roll him out of the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, where's William Catt? We'll put William Catt in.

Just bring him in. David Castiel, yeah, have David come in. He's in the next studio. Just go get him. Exactly.

Well, yeah, I was not prepared for the end of that either. But then, yeah, you mentioned the other one. That was the one that once I saw you were coming, I was like, as much as I love land of the lost, when I was a kid, I don't understand. No, I do. There's a list of everything that the movie chumps start a guy named Brian, which is my name.

Nobody. I didn't know any movies that had a Brian in it. Who names their kid? Brian. So it's like, it's Brian.

He's into dogs. I love dogs. He loves robots. He's making robots. Who doesn't like robots in sci-fi?

And who doesn't like Valerie Bertinelli? That's what I was going to say. At the tender age that I was, the one thing I knew was Valerie Bertinelli. Hot, hot, hot Valerie Bertinelli. So, yeah, I was suckered in.

Conrad D. Jim Backus. And watching it now, I'm just like, this cast is amazing. Yeah. I was like, how do you get all of these people in this crazy movie about a robot dog?

It was Hanna-Barbera's first movie. That was strange, too. Which was Canine Home Protection Systems. I invent a mechanical watchdog that's a watchdog. It looks just like my real dog.

Conveniently. Conveniently. Or not. As the end movie goes. And I got to give Valerie her first big screen kiss.

I beat Eddie Van Halen. Thank you very much. No, thank you. We don't need him. All right.

He's pretty good at guitar. But you had robot dogs. That's way cooler. Thank you. But, yeah, so, I mean, that's one of those, like, it's such a weird layout, and you're dealing with a really established director at that point.

Oh, my God, yeah. So, how serious was he taking it? The guy who did Pete's Dragon. Yeah, it's like he, well, I mean, he did some of, like, going back to that list, it's like some of these classic films, and I'm just like, and he's doing this robot dog movie. Like, how seriously was he taking it at that point?

Oh, I was taking it serious. Definitely. I was so happy to have it. Yeah. But, yeah, and watching it now, it's such a weird, structure because so much of it is dogs running in slow-mo.

I did not remember as a child. If you watch the movie, they decided after we filmed the movie, instead of a G rating, they wanted a GP. So what they did was the dog's voiceover, the dog's talk, they added a little cursing. There's that one dog. Your dog doesn't even talk.

It's the random dog next door talks. And he says some curse words so they could get a GP rating. They thought it would give them a bigger audience at the time. Oh. But yeah, I mean, I guess going into that with the Hanna-Barbera thing, how did they approach you as like, this is a Hanna-Barbera project, but not really?

Yeah, it was their first movie, their first live action movie. And they called me and I came in and did it. So it was great. Yeah, it's so much fun. Again, it's a weird movie now, but I loved it at the time and it was fun to kind of revisit it lately.

All right. Well, you guys are actually kind of overwhelmed this weekend, so that's amazing. Are you doing this quite often now? Has it become a big push? Well, Kathy Coleman, who played my sister, who is creeping around the corner.

You can come say hello if you'd like. You can come say hi. Hello, Kathy Coleman. She just had her lunch, so here. Say hi.

I'm just swallowing the rest of my french fries, but I wanted to say hello. Who doesn't love french fries? Marshall, Will, and Holly on a routine expedition met the greatest earthquake ever known. High on the rapids, it struck their tiny rafts. Plunged them down a thousand feet below to.

The land of the lost. To the land of the lost. And then Grumpy the Dinosaur goes, roar. Flashbacks. Everyone's having flashbacks right now.

Holly with her blonde pigtails and her red and white check shirt. We were talking about that earlier, actually, out there, like how influential you kind of were, and a girl doing action at the time. There were tons of little girls that didn't really have that on any other shows out there. Was that something that occurred to you then? No, not at the time, but I did sit on a panel at one of these conventions that I do, and I was with all these, like, women of sci-fi, and they were women that were kind of the heroes in the show on some level or they were sort of the sensual woman of the show and they were all my age today but when they started on their tv series they were in their 20s so they had cute outfits and and everything to wear and there i was sitting there in my corduroys and my checkered shirt thinking i wasn't like a sex symbol of any kind but then somebody pointed out that I was one of the first girls to have a role where I was in control of my decisions and I helped the family.

I was a problem solver. And it made me realize I did. I did a lot of stuff on that show. Yeah. And before you saw that, you know, it's like, we see, you see, you know, Ray is the lead in your Star Wars now, but it's like, we didn't really have that.

You were lucky to kind of cram Princess Leia in there a little bit, but like you, you were equally as involved in the adventures as Will was. So yeah, it's like, it's crazy. It was really fun. And yeah, it was cool. Good stuff.

Well, that's what, yeah, I was, I was kind of asking him what, what, This has become, do you guys do this pretty regular now? And if so, can people like keep track to where you'll be coming up? On Facebook, we usually post the shows that we're doing. This year, exceptionally busy. And I kind of think it's going to go into next year as well because it's our 50th next year.

But this year, I think we're doing about 13 shows where normally we do maybe eight, something like that. There's a lot of shows out there, but it gets overwhelming. So, yeah. I would do one every couple of weeks if I could. I love them.

We're interacting with people. We have met some of the nicest people here in Kentucky. You have such a fan base. It's crazy. It is the love that they have for these characters that, yeah, I would assume...

Follows you everywhere you go. It does because it's these like-minded people. And we all grew up in a certain era that no longer exists. It can never exist again. Yeah.

And it's just people clinging to a beautiful memory. And it's an honor to be a part of that memory for people. But a lot of it was the same stuff that we shared in, too. Yeah. I had the poster of David Cassidy on my wall.

I mean, I was. I was all into all that stuff. And that guy was trying to steal his job. I know. I know.

We didn't even get to that. But, yeah. So, yeah. I wrote my book explaining that my life has been just like everybody else. I just have a different job.

Yeah. Because people, when I was in school and stuff, I remember kids would say, well- It must be easy for you being a movie star. First, I had to correct them and say I'm not a movie star. I was on television. I hang out with dinosaurs, though.

Yeah. But yeah, you know, we had all the same struggles and strife that everybody else has had. It's just really all it's. how you pick yourself up after those moments, you. Know, plan on going into that. Like how did you end up in the show?

My mom, you know, people, when I was a kid would say, you need to get that. It's because you know what? It doesn't matter what I do or where I am in life with a job or what have you. I'm an entertainer, and that's what I'm going to do wherever I go. I could be flipping burgers, and my feet are going to be dancing at the bottom of the stove.

Land of the Lost themed restaurant. Wait a minute. I think we're on this thing. Smilax. Toronto burgers.

We can Hanna-Barbera crossover. Hold on. Well, yeah, that was all. I just wanted to see if there was a way for people to come find you. Yeah, Facebook.

Facebook, we usually post the conventions that we're going to be attending as soon as we get the go-ahead. Yeah. From the promoter. We will then post them and let everybody, you know, have a chance to come down and exchange some energy with us. It's fun.

Come hang out. We give out a ton and the people give it right back to us. So it's just we're getting rejuvenated throughout the whole day. It feels great. And you get to climb a raft every few minutes and pretend to go down a waterfall.

Yeah, that just keeps us in shape. Well, this has been fun. So thank you for joining in and giving your take on it. And yeah, definitely you've seen the love when people come find you. So yeah, I'm going to be sure to encourage everyone to come find you and come out to the shows.

And order my book on Amazon. Definitely. Is that the best way or do you have a website? Run, Holly, run. Okay.

Definitely. Go get the book. Thank you. Thank you. You know, that was Saturday morning for kids.

Time doorways and matrices and doppelgangers and stuff. You know, David Gerrold, he was our head writer. He told the writers, D.C. Fontana and all those writers, he said, we're not going to write a Saturday morning show. We're going to write a sci-fi show that airs on Saturday morning.

But it's not a kid's show. And that's why, I mean, I know that the effects look hokey and stuff. It's the 70s, you know, CGI. But it's the stories. I mean, you know, that's pretty heady for a kid's television program.

And that's why it still has. A cult following. Hello, this is Caroline Munro and you're listening to Movie Meltdown. Movie Meltdown Fraulein Mueller is alarmed At. The scratches on her arm And the German homework Is late again Oh no.

She's a sweet stack She's a sweet stack. She's a sweet stack She's a sweet stack I've got one thing I was going to discuss that I wasn't sure if you've seen any of lately. I know years ago you'd watched, but if we're just playing the, what have you been watching lately? Not a movie, but definitely has tons of movie tie-ins. The fact that Riverdale's still on is amazing.

How far back has it been since you've seen any of it? Season one? The last time I saw it is when Dylan from 90210 got shot. That's a long time ago. And it's weird how essential he was and you still feel him missing from the show.

It's a shame, man, because he was pretty cool. And you can tell how much everybody on the cast loved him because they still... bring up his character and like find a way to reference him like regularly where normally there would have been just some like jerk that like got me too out of the show. They just never mentioned him, but like everybody still loves Luke Perry. So, but no, it, I remember last season I was watching and it sort of went through this. They already did like last season, season ago, they did this weird time jump where they jumped ahead into the future, like seven years.

That sounds complicated. Which is interesting. So do they start playing ages that are more appropriate? That's what I was going to say. So then they all caught up with how old they really are instead of pretending they're in high school, which is why this new thing is even weirder.

So yeah, they did a time jump. And normally that I feel like would kill most shows. It was, again, I feel like a lot of people probably were annoyed. I enjoyed it. Like I still feel like they found a way to make that work.

So were they pretending that the other part of the show was earlier or are we now in the future future? It doesn't make any sense. Because at one point they referenced like a current movie being out, which would put it as real time. But then with the time jump, now that doesn't match. So like they've created an altering universe or something.

I don't know. It makes no sense. So I think they weren't planning on this when they did. we're trying to pin down, are we now, are we not? So they were more or less a current show at the time until we get to this new season. So that's a whole new weird thing.

But yeah, I was losing, I think, I don't know if I just was doing something else or they switched days or something, but the end of the last season, I didn't know what was going on and was missing episodes. So I was like, I'll just wait and catch up on it later. But I know at some point the entire town got hit by a comet. Again, I love the insanity of this show. Was there space bimbos involved?

Probably. They are very sexualized on that show. I don't know if you remember, but it has continued to get more and more sexual every episode. So, I didn't even see that. I was trying to catch up over the summer, whatever break we're calling in between seasons.

And I still didn't. I was like, well, I'm just going to jump in and watch this one. So, as they got hit by a comet, it threw them all back in time. They are now in actual Archie times. It actually is taking place in the 50s with all the Archie characters still being Archie.

And originally, Jughead remembered and knew that this was weird. And then by the end of that first season, his brain sort of reset too. And now none of them realize it. And it's really weird. But it's interesting because we know this is the end of the show.

So it gives them this nice way to cap it off. And they get to be super old school about the Archiness of it. Which, again, is pretty minimal compared to the weird... everybody's horny and wanted to get laid and nothing but high, like tons of horror and sci-fi references. So it's, it's just become a weird horror themed thing this last season with a weird 50 spin on it. So I'm kind of loving it.

But this last one though, I was going to tell you about the, the extra movie tie. And actually the one before that, I think they, Veronica buys the local movie theater because she's rich and she does those sorts of things. And she starts running it. And then she like, Her parents are trying to screw her over because that's what they do through the entirety of the show. So they basically won't put in the word and nobody will get her current movies.

So all the movies of the moment that she would be showing, they now won't give her copies of. So the only thing she can find is the crawling eye. So Jughead's like, well, you know, William Castle, that shit. So they put on that nobody wanted to come see the crawling eye. So she created a special 4D experience. which is time and the nerdy kid trying to tell her that and she's holding shut up.

So it's a special three-dimensional where they made giant beach balls into giant eyes and attached them to people and people came out and messed with the audience and it was a full William Castle experience. And I was like, all right, that's already movie geek points. I love that. This last one, it's like it crosses over into Halloween times. They're playing, well, they get there, they're having like a Halloween party at the theater.

They're playing a song and I'm like, wait, I know that song. And I have to look it up. I'm like, cause I know I'm like, that's more recent, right? It's a squirrel nut zipper song that they're playing. And I was like, okay, whatever.

I'm like, that's, that's a weird loophole. So then they get up on stage and there's four coffins up there. And as it kicks in, the one opens up and she comes out and she's doing the floor show from Rocky Horror. Hell yeah. So each of them, Each one opens up.

It's each one of the four. They all do line for line. The lines from the floor show. And then Veronica shows up in like full tux and top hat and does the Frank. All of the Frank performance.

Word for word. Like they don't even doctor it so that it matches what's going on here exactly. Which I was like, this is weird. So number one, you know, Rocky dork. I'm all for that.

But at the same time, I was like, well, they've also like, because they're in this weird alternate universe. That they've been thrown back in time. I guess things from modern era could creep in and you could be listening to Squirrel Nut Zippers in the 50s now. I don't know. It was a weird, weird world.

And one a couple of weeks ago was like a Tales from the Crypt episode. Like they literally, he's working at a comic book place and they did a knockoff. They even had a knockoff Crypt Keeper guy that was like the janitor for the school. And he went around, he's like the key keeper or something. He like goes around and they do nothing but horror. like little snippet stories throughout the, I'm telling you, if you're not watching it, it's a hell of a lot of fun.

Do not plan to take it seriously. I have not seen this show at all. It is so much fun. I've been trying to get caught up on the Orville. I don't know if I talked about that.

I don't think so, but I can talk about the Orville cause the Orville is impressive and I wanted to write it off because of our lead dude, because I'm pretty iffy on him in general as a writer. And as an actor, he's even weirder. I'm okay with his writing, but yeah, his acting, he's not believable as like a leading man. Yeah. But you can tell that's like all he wanted to do as a kid.

Like you can tell when we get into that. Like he was raised on Next Generation. And like you can feel it in him. Like all he wanted to do, he's sitting at home as a little kid going, I just want to be Captain Picard. Like.

Because they do these episodes and it is full-on Next Generation geekery. It is just so paying tribute in an over-the-top kind of way. It felt like in the beginning it was supposed to be kind of a joke. It was supposed to be like, what if it was like Star Trek, only funny? And then real quick he was like, except I kind of just want to write Star Trek episodes.

And it got really serious pretty quick. And every once in a while they throw in something funny. kind of funny, but for the most part, it's just serious sci-fi. And there's a lot of times where, because usually when you have a show like this, you're like, you know, nine times out of ten, you're going to get like, oh, it's going to have a happy ending, everybody's. Going to be happy. Not necessarily.

No, not in the Orville. And it's fantastic, and I love it, but there's some things I'm just like, whoa, that would not fly today. Well, and just in general, the stuff that they're, I guess we'll give Seth a little credit, that he's willing to tackle that real Star Trek would not touch. But it's one of those things, like, there's certain episodes that I'm like, okay, they're just glossing over. Because, like, let's be real.

I'll throw out a scenario. Do you know, at least enough about Star Trek, they have the, like, room that you can go in and you plug in your thing and it makes, like, a fake, you know, you're in a casino. Or you're in the thing they always went into. Simulator. Yeah, simulator of, like, a fake world.

Apparently not. Well, they have that. And you go in and you type in your little computer program and it just three-dimensionally makes real people and an entire immersive world that you're into. Is this Logan's run? More or less.

But, real world question, if you had access to that, where would you be almost immediately? Land of the Lost. Okay, after you did your Land of the Lost simulator. I feel like, much like every technology that's ever happened, specifically computer-based, the first thing on the forefront of it is pornography. So as soon as people had access to that, be like, and I'm getting laid.

And like, so that they would be creating programs around that. They do that in the Orville. They have one where the guy is like basically obsessed with porn in this immersive version. And he keeps going there to so much that it's ruining his marriage. And I'm like, this is a real thing to tackle.

Like, this is a real kind of shit that like, deal with and like you're putting it in this goofy sci-fi show but like no way in hell would Star Trek touch that so it's like this is the kind of stuff that I'm impressed that they're willing to go there. And there's several other weird topics that I'm like, ooh, most shows would not go down this road. And they say, screw it, and they do it anyway. So I'm impressed with the Orville. As much as Seth is an iffy leading man, the rest of the cast is solid.

Yeah. What was it? Alara. I loved Alara. Alara?

Did I get her name wrong? I. I finished season three. I was going to say, it's been a while since I've seen the first season, but yep. Alara.

She was the cutest little badass alien chick. It's, it's, yeah, I'm surprised how impressive it is just story-wise more than anything. And the effects are solid too for a TV show. Like again, I guess it's just because technology is caught up in even lower budget TV shows. Not that this one's that low budget, but compared to like film quality, like it, pretty close sometimes like i'm surprised how well this you know tv show that was on an extra network now i think it's like a streaming network i was like usually that cuts your budget even more that like looks pretty good so i don't know across the board i'm pretty impressed with it there's some geeky talk have you watched anything geeky lately.

Have i have i watched anything geeky no i keep watching documentaries about crazy churches. Cults are you trying to start one I wish I could. Because I kind of, I'm surprised you haven't already, really. Yeah. I joined the cult of buckies.

That is true. I probably could start a cult, but I just don't like talking to strangers, you know? Yeah. See, that's why I've given up on most of these things. I'm just like interacting with people, let alone regular humans.

Ugh. And like, you know, cult leaders kind of feed on dumb people. I kind of get annoyed by it. Yeah. So, I guess I'm out.

This all makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. You just need to back one, I guess. Find some dupe that you can puppet master.

The only thing I've seen that's newer to me, that's somewhat recent, that's nerdy, have you seen Psycho Gorman? I know of it. I've not watched it. Hilarious. It's basically about this little girl that I don't know if it's a demon, but there's like a crystal that gives us its power, but she has it.

So she has power over this thing, and she's like this little brat. And she's telling this earth-destroying demon what to do. It's funny as hell. I liked it. Just check it out.

One more for the list. Anything else we need to attack while we're here? Nope. The clones. Your favorite film?

Is that what you're saying? Attack of the Clones is your favorite film? No. I defend it more than most people. I like the end of it.

It is just a big, dumb pulp. movie. Which one is it? It's the second of the prequels. Which, at the end, there's a giant. Is that the one with the forearm robot?

And the dinosaur monsters? Yeah. That's what I'm saying. By the end, it's just like. I can't keep them straight.

It's like... What's his name that goes to Mars? What's that dude that goes to Mars? Bruno Mars? Bruno Mars, exactly.

John Carter? There we go. It's like John Carter from Mars. It really is like old-timey pulpiness that's like... Cash.

Cash money. But, I mean, it's just big, dumb pulp fun. And, like, if you told me you could have a whole big arena with giant monsters and then a whole bunch of dudes with lightsabers show up to have a fight and Boba Fett's there, I'm like, hell yeah, this is all the best thing I've ever heard of. Fair. It's all there.

Like, you know, you just got to weed through a whole bunch of other crap that comes with it. But you get those moments when I'm like, eh, this part's pretty fun to me. Yeah. Yeah, I'll ride out that last half. It's a lot of fun.

As long as I can sell a toy, it's cool. There you go. That's why they make movies. At this point, that's pretty much where we're at now, yeah. I think it's always been that way by design.

Pretty much. And we were just suckered. We fell for it every time. And I still fall for it. They were slow getting started.

I feel like toys were hard to come by for geeky stuff in the early days. So you get that like, Star Trek kind of wading in and they started making a little bit of stuff for those guys. And then by the time you get to Star Wars, they went, oh. oh, no, this is what we do. This is how we do this now. I was thinking more specifically of the 80s when everything was.

Designed to sell. By the time you get there, that's what I'm saying. Why they made He-Man, right? Oh, it is. And G.I.

Joe. G.I. Joe, Transformers. My little pony. They got my number.

Take your pick. It's like everything is made. G.I. Joe literally made those cartoons to sell the new stuff coming out. How many G.I.

Joe figures do you own? Oh, my God. We don't even have to go there. I have a whole room full of only Cobra stuff. There's so much G.I.

Joe stuff, I can't even collect G.I. Joe. I just got the bad guys. You had to narrow it down. I mean, there's that much stuff.

It's outrageous. A lot. I have definitely over 100 individual Cobra guys. Are they still in the package? Oh, God, I'm not that guy.

I appreciate that. I like to display shit. I've gotten away from. There's a few things I remember buying back when, again, that second wave of Star Wars pushed. And I was like, I need these, and I'm not going to open them.

Oh, yeah. And then later, I'm like, now I have a box somewhere of just unopened figures sitting stored away that I haven't looked at in 20 years. Same thing. I've got storage containers of boxes. And I'm like, why?

Why did I do that? Because everybody thinks one day. And they are. How many sealed Jar Jar Binks figures do you have? Zero.

I can thankfully say zero. Do I have prequel-y stuff? Yeah. I definitely got a Darth Maul. I got the cool stuff when it first came out.

But yeah, that wave was the tail end of it. I was already getting to the point of like, I can't afford to buy crap anymore. Oh, yeah, no. As a matter of fact, I was kind of into Star Wars collecting at that time. Kind of.

It was so bad, it made me turn on them. Yeah, I feel like a lot of people at different points have turned on Star Wars. And it... It started to be that way with G.I. Joe.

I mean, not that I don't still love the old stuff. I still love you, G.I. Joe. Don't take it personally. Yeah, right?

Well, I mean, they're putting out all this cool new stuff that costs more than buying vintage stuff. And it's like, I can't keep up. And they keep blasting it out. It's too much. It's just way too much.

Yeah. I can't even... I can't even keep up with any of it. So it's like, I'm at a point where I'm just like, you know what? Nah.

Now I just go for weird stuff. So I'm still movie dork, but I try to find where does the weird... stuff crossover with movie dork enough that i was telling misty earlier while we were walking around because i saw something that looked like a chalkware frankenstein that was really expensive and i was just like i'm the kind of guy that likes chalkware because of the cheesiness of it and then once i was like but i'm like normally it's just like a weird looking dog or some sort of character that i don't know what the hell it is and then the other day i found one that was king kong and i was like And I have to buy this. New collection. It crossed over. And I'm like, movie geek and old school weird geek crap.

I forgot to mention that Frankenstein had a cape. He is badass. If it wasn't so expensive, I would totally be in the hole on that one. But he's out of my price range. I am too poor for that.

I was pushing it on King Kong. Kong was too much. Because usually the paint job, by nature, chalkware looks like crap. So that was the way they did it. This one was like.

It's old. It's old, too. So it's probably been dropped a half a dozen times. There's jeans everywhere. The fact that this wasn't broken, which it should have been. by this time.

It's from the 50s, I think it said. And supposedly the original paint job. And it looks amazing. So I'm like, damn it, I'm going to have to go for this. And you didn't take a picture?

Oh, I have pictures on me right now. I'm that kind of dork too. But yeah, so it's surprising how well that one has held up and how good it looks compared to, I went on eBay and I was like, the paint job on these look like garbage. So like the same mold is out there somewhere, but whoever they hired to paint this, they paid and Hobo booze or something because, yeah, this is, yeah, the one I got somehow looks good. So that's the kind of dorky stuff I'm buying.

Hobo booze. Hobo booze. Booze, booze, whatever. I referenced that because someone I know told me that's how they got hit up the other day. There was a dude hanging out in front of the liquor store.

And it went from, it wasn't just standard, like, give me a dollar. It was like, hey, can you get me something? And the guy was way more of a sport. I'm like, I'm not talking to you. Go away. he was just like, oh yeah, what do you want?

You want like a beer or something? He was like, um, a couple of shots. And he was like, all right. And then he specifically launched into which kind of booze that he wanted. He named a brand and like, yeah, for a bum asking for booze.

And when he came out and he was just like, he handed him the bottle that he specifically asked for. And he went, um, can you do me a favor? And he's like, no, I just did it. So, Hobos are still out there looking for booze is my takeaway on that. So just know that.

Indeed. Yeah, Joe and that in the world. Watch out. I'm a hobo looking for booze. I believe it, kind of.

But you're more of a will work for toys kind of a thing. Facts. Will work for sleaze stacks. Facts. No, because that'll run out quick.

There's only three. It won't last you very long. There's only three. They keep running around in different directions. Maybe toys.

Well, it's funny because, you know, you talk about the weird stuff you collect. And I was trying to get into like stuff that's kind of rare. Like that's a little bit. Less accessible. And like Land of the Lost was before the Star Wars thing.

So there's not really a whole lot of collectibles. It's very limited. And the things that they do have are almost all carded rack toys. Because they were way cheaper. They would take some generic plastic thing that had nothing to do with the show like moon spinners or like a periscope.

And then they would just slap a tag on it like a cardboard header and be like SC. on TV and I mean it sounds awful but that's what there is and you bought it all outrageously expensive oh of course because it's rare. Of course it is now I mean and you bought it all oh. They're not that easy to find I only have three and there's probably. Like 12 at least. Different things.

The kind of people that would slap it on the back of a knockoff pinball machine. Exactly. Exactly. I say that because you had one in your bag earlier. I got it signed.

That's one of the ones you had. Yeah, I mean, those toys were literally made for a kid to beg at the grocery store because they were so cheap. They were made to go home, open up, goof around with, and then just discard. Break it. Yeah, so there's not.

20 minutes is broken. That stuff just. Doesn't exist if you can find it. And if you look, they did that with, like, Everything marketable, like Bionic Woman, Charlie's Angels, all the superheroes. See, that's what I'm saying.

At that point, they were just trying to figure it out. They were just sticking it on everything. It's not until you get to George Lucas comes along and signed the deal and went, I'm going to make toys and this is where my fortune is going to come from. But before that, everybody else was like, I think we can sell some of this stuff. Because you do see toys, again, here more than anywhere.

They have super old school stuff. You need this pair of Steve Austin shoelaces. Yeah, it's like you get to that stuff. That ties into the show, right? 50s and 60s and even the 70s where they're still just sort of wading in and being like, how about a Man from U.N.C.L.E. board game?

Sound like a thing? Because I saw one of those recently and I'm like, yeah, sure. So it's got like weird original artwork and it's pieced together with photos from the show. It is unbelievable how many like old TV show board games. Dukes of Hazzard.

Or it's a Dukes of Hazzard because I'm pretty sure. Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure. There's a Land of the Lost. One of the few marketed things that they had out there.

Board games. I'm telling you. Which is weird because now there's such a weird board game thing that I guess then they were just pushing it and people were only kind of half buying them. But yeah, that's one of the things they made. People were a lot more bored back then.

You might sit around and play a board game. Sad. Fantastic. Sad. I'm surprised you're not wearing the Crocs today.

I had them on yesterday. You tied your shoes for this event. I did. I put boots on. I shaved my little pointy goatee.

Did not scare Holly. I thought you were going to say you shaved your toes. I shaved my toes. Just for this special occasion. That's something I just saw recently.

Bill shaved toes? No, not that, thankfully. But I'm assuming at some point, I thought you brought it up a long time ago, that you'd seen Idiocracy. I've never seen Idiocracy. Oh.

Well, I hadn't for years. And, like, I finally got around to watching it. But it was online the other day that they brought up that I think when I watched that I didn't notice. But, like, they do this, you know, the genius of pinning down stupidity of mankind that Mike Judge specializes in, as we all know. And, yeah, so this is, like, you know, mankind goes horribly wrong in current days or when the movie was made.

And then we jump into the future and see, like, only the stupidest people are breeding and the entirety of. It has come true. Yeah. We live in the idiocracy times, but like the point in fact is at the time they were trying to figure out, like they didn't have a ton of money for that movie. So they were trying to like come up with basic stuff for like, you know, props and costuming and whatever.

And they've found this up and coming shoe company and they were like, ah, good enough. Just go with that. It's Crocs. They're all wearing these weird orange prison colored Crocs. And I was just like, oh my God, we have caught up with it.

We are the idiocracy now. So. Crocs, that's the end of the days. Well, did you see that one? I think it was called Don't Look Up.

Yeah, that's kind of that same, similar, only a little, a little preachier about it. Oh, yeah. That was my issue with that. I was like, and I don't even, again, it's like, I don't even disagree with what you're saying. I just don't like preachy way you're saying it.

Well, that in its own right is dumbing shit down. Yeah. I was just like, you're telling the audience, you're not smart enough to figure out the cleverness of this. Let me point it out and then put a big flashy neon sign of like, look how dumb. Let me hold it up to your face where it's touching your face.

And again, it's very of the moment of these people. These people in our society are the problem. And I'm like, oh yeah, don't we get enough of that shit? Do I need this in this dumb movie? I get it.

There were moments I really like. mostly the song that they bring in Ariana Grande to specifically sing. I'm like, all right, that, that needed an Oscar nom. I said it on the show. So I don't know what they were thinking on that one. I don't think they can afford it, but, but yeah, so it's, this, we've come to the end of days.

Crocs will do it. That's the end of times. End of days. And that the movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger, is he wearing Crocs in that movie? Probably.

I don't know. Do they make Arnold-sized Crocs? I don't know. One size fits all. Can he fit his ego into a Croc?

I don't know. He still thinks. He's got it. Into the Croc. I mean, he's got his own new TV show now.

So even the old man of the year. Yeah, I just saw the other day. And also Buster Stallone does. Stallone's got the new movie coming out. He has a new reality show, I think.

Well, no, that's right. I saw the ads for those. But no, Arnold has like a new like fake, you know, not documentary show. That looks... I think it's FUBAR?

FUBAR, that's it. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I haven't had time to even wade into it yet. There's too many things.

I can't keep up. Too many things. Too many things. And I don't watch any of it. Yeah.

At least this time we found some things, though. Usually we get to these and we're like, I haven't watched anything. So we found some stuff, at least. We got that going for us. Yay!

Well. If we've worn ourselves out here. Yeah, I'm done. I think we're creeping out the regular people that are hanging around. There's no regular people here.

That's true, though. Wonderfest is a special brand of hardcore geek. I am creepy. But here, I think you blend in just fine. We found our people here, so it's fine.

Still, eventually, they'll want us to move along. I made out good. I didn't get a restraining order put against me. The day is not over. That's true.

The first normal day. We still got plenty to go. The weekend has not yet come to an end. If you are banned from further Wonderfest events after this weekend. This was my first real one.

And last. Oh, Lord. Well, I did want to... Normally, we coordinate this with Dave and I send a thank you out to him for putting it together. But. he's unofficially retired this year.

We would still like to send out a big thank you to Dave for all the years that he has supported the podcast. Definitely. He's helped put these episodes together every year and didn't kick us out when we were standing around doing it like we are right now. And I love his hamburgers. Thanks to, I don't know what you're, thanks to him anyway, but that aside, yeah, he's loitering around somewhere.

He still hangs out here now, but he doesn't have to do all the work. So then I got to this year and went, oh, do you guys still want us to do? I was like, we've been coming here so damn long. I was like, I just am used to coming here, but maybe nobody wants us here. So, um, thankfully, um, we, we, we touched base with Melinda.

So thank you to Melinda. Cause she did say yes. And both saw us earlier and he didn't kick us out. So we're doing okay. We're still semi part of the family.

I've said, we're always, you know, the, the bastard stepchild of this operation. Cause everybody else here is like super tight. Like the people that come here, love this place and come back every year. And like the guests, become constant running guests because they don't want to you know they don't want to miss out so like you see guests come back they'll show up for one year and then they come back and they they actually like enjoy the family atmosphere of this we're there but we're that you know those those weird kids at the family reunion that are sitting over there i'm used to that misty's stirring the kool-aid with her hand you. Know after i put like two or three cups of six.

Cups of sugar need help ripping up the bible So, yeah, we're at least kind of invited, so I appreciate that. So thank you to everyone at Wonderfest for letting us be part of this insanity. We bring the insanity. Everything else here has been pretty smooth, actually. Bill, thank you for joining us.

You're welcome. Misty, you always get roped into this, so good for you. For more on the event, go to wonderfest.com and start planning your trip here next year. I'm sure it's back because I bet they've already booked all the tables. So they will be back with a whole new bunch of people and a lot of the regulars because everybody wants to still be part of the fun.

So that can be you. You could be Bill next year. You could be waiting in for the first time going, this is amazing. Try to control yourself. Try not to get banned.

That's as excited as I've seen you in years. I know. Dude, I've never seen Bill that happy. That is true. Yeah, I was pretty stoked.

You were dressed in khaki with a pith helmet. Yes. And you were giddy. I don't know that I've seen you that happy. What were your feelings about the pith helmet?

That's a good point. Life as an adult gets pretty drab. Yeah. And then it takes something simple like that to just make you feel like nothing matters for a second at least. That's awesome.

I rarely get that. So when I notice it, I try to be like, Just enjoy this for a moment, for God's sakes. Exactly. And you enjoy the coolness of the pith helmet. No.

That is a myth. In case you're considering that being your new look. as a review from Bill, it's kind of toasty. The pith helmet is like a heater on your head. Now imagine if it was black. Just bottles in the heat.

At least it would look cool. Yeah. You'd have like an entire black explorer elf. I'm going to look into this because I'm confused actually. What the hell is that hat for?

Way to go. Well, I kind of always thought that with like most of those, anything you see where people are out in the desert, they're usually wearing tons of layers. And I'm like, I guess it's to protect you from the sun or the sandstorms or, yeah, that kind of stuff. But I always thought that with the cowboy movies too. I was like, they're always wearing like six layers and leather.

And I mean, the hat's at least to keep the sun off your face, but like the rest of it's just too hot. I love it. Those cowboys always find some girl and it's like. You haven't taken a shower in this. Whole movie, man.

Can you imagine? It's so ripe. Yeah, the leather chap smell coming off of you. You just got several people. They were shooting at you.

You're bleeding. Yeah, I was like, I don't understand how people ever got laid in the Old West. So good luck to any of you if you decide to wear a pith helmet, become a cowboy, or move to the Old West. Any of those things. Or possibly all.

Maybe you're the weird cowboy that wears a pith helmet because how cool would that be? A black one. You could be the villain. Oh man, this is coming together nicely. I'm going to start writing the screenplay now.

I don't know what the hell this is going to be, but. You're going to screen it at Wonderfest. They're going to be like, please no. Please no. We'll start a sitcom and I'll get Mike Tyson in it and we'll call it Pithfall.

Hey, it's time to wrap things up here at the old Wonderfest. I'll be here all night. Thanks for joining us. Yep. Come be part of the magic.

Otherwise, that about does it. We will return next time. Same geek feed. Thanks for listening. Bye.

See ya. Do something stupid like some dumbass. Now we've really done it, it's the end of the world Cause I can't. We. Were warned Tonight we're going out, going out like the dinosaur I hope heaven's gonna let you in, but you're gone Now we know that we're all going to good.

Better run, better run. Come with me. Now we're free. Let's all just push the ending. I guess we were once.

Now we're going out, going out like a dinosaur. I guess we were once. We're done and it's the end of the world. So I think of my launch. Now we're better off and we're done.

Come with me. Now we're free. Let's all just play the ending. Where there were all these like female figures and they were all kind of these, you know, like big breasted superhero people. Bimbos.

What's that? Bimbos. Not necessarily bimbos, but just like sexualized versions of heroes. And then she was included and she's just like this girl on a button up plaid shirt and pigtails. I got pigtails.

What do you want from me, man? This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and edited by The Oddity Studios, with opening music performed by The Empires. For more on how to sponsor or support the show, Email producer at moviemeltdown.com. Talk hard! This program is a proud member of the Battleship Pretension Fleet.