Funny / '80s All Over

1980 episodes

May 1980

• In the discussion of Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown, Drew straight-up stating that "Charlie Brown movies are bummers" as a lead-in to pondering how melancholy the Peanuts franchise actually is, especially for children's entertainment.

June 1980

• The Children marks Drew and Scott's first encounter with Troma, which picked it up for distribution. Drew is no fan of the company's output: Their films "look like they smell bad."
• Drew cites Herbie Goes Bananas having such plot points as "Herbie adopts a Mexican child as his son" and "Harvey Korman tries to murder Herbie by dumping him into the ocean" as proof of how screwed up The '80s were.

1981 episodes

April 1981

• Drew and Scott can't make any more heads or tails of George A. Romero's Creator's Oddball Knightriders than when they were teens, and frequently laugh while they discuss it: It's the saga of a traveling Renaissance faire that uses motorcycles instead of horses for its Arthurian legend-inspired jousts, and gets in trouble with overzealous law enforcement while on the road ala Easy Rider.
  Drew: It's not plot-aggressive; it is certainly not a film that, that wants to get somewhere.
  Scott: Nor is it character-based, which is interesting!
  Drew: (laughing) Events happen and people are in it!

July 1981

• Drew's anecdote about convincing his mom to take him to see Comin' at Ya! without letting slip that it was an R-rated Western. About 20 minutes into the screening, she freaked out ("THAT'S IT! ENOUGH! WE'RE OUT!") and hauled him out of the theater, whereupon they saw Arthur (1981) instead. Decades later, he finally saw the entire film and couldn't figure out exactly what set her off, though he concurs with Scott that it is a violent film.
• Drew enjoyed Escape from New York so much that he dressed up as Snake Plissken for Halloween '81! Everybody thought he was dressed as Indiana Jones. Ultimately he gave up, went home, slapped on a fedora, and just rolled with it.

September 1981

• Drew sums up the first of several horror films featured in the episode: "Seriously, though, Don't Go in the Woods, it's a very silly place."

October 1981

• Regarding Paternity:
  • Drew describes the likely thought process behind the unbearable title theme song:
  Drew: (as a snooty British producer) I hate Nilsson and I want you to write something that makes other people hate Nilsson because it sort of reminds them of him, but shitty.

The Best of 1981

• Regarding the #4 box-office hit of the year, Arthur (1981):
  • Drew brings up how the film's success was partially attributable to its theme song becoming a radio smash, and how it became common for hit movies and their theme songs to have a give-take relationship over the decade. Scott casually replies "Arthur, he does what he pleases, man."
  • Drew declares John Gielgud's Oscar-winning performance as Servile Snarker Hobson his favorite (if unofficial) Alfred Pennyworth on film! Scott adds "And that's funny if we consider Arthur Bach as Bruce Wayne."

1982 episodes

April 1982

• Scott and especially Drew don't buy the Glurge-filled Inspirationally Disadvantaged Fratbro hijinks of If You Could See What I Hear. Two quips from Drew: "You'll wanna punch a blind man in the face!" and (speaking as the protagonist) "I'm the first blind man EVER!"

October 1982

• Drew casually refers to the fourth Rambo movie as Rambo Kills Thailand.

November 1982

• Drew admits that he didn't secure a copy of Heidi's Song in time for the episode. While Scott watched the whole thing, Drew had to make do with excerpts on YouTube — namely the musical numbers, and thus he can't figure out the plot connecting them "on a bet!"

December 1982

• An imagined conversation between a kid (Scott) and mom (Drew) has the kid asking: "There's this movie with Richard Pryor and he's a black man who gets bought by a rich white man for his spoiled rotten kid — can we see that?" And the mom says yes!

1983 episodes

January 1983

• Drew marvels over the opening sequence of the horror Western Sacred Ground featuring an actual bear eating a horse and chasing an actor! This leads into two sidebars: 1) Scott and Drew act out the film's producer requesting a horse to be fed to a bear, and 2) a mock '70s All Over segment where Scott asks Drew about the movie Grizzly.

February 1983

• The host introductions are a little different:
  Drew: Hi, everyone, I am the video word made flesh and I am your co-host for '80s All Over. (static) Long live the new flesh.
  Scott: Wow. That is Drew McWeeny making a Videodrome reference and I am Scott Weinberg accepting said Videodrome reference.
• Scott and Drew manage to make a Running Gag out of the pod people screech from Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), using a soundbite of it three times: first to introduce the gentle hard sci-fi film Threshold (because it features the two male leads from Invasion), second to discuss how over-the-top the score of Table for Five becomes when the big Plot Twist is revealed, third as The Stinger — albeit capped off this time with an intonation from Videodrome.
• Scott and Drew's 'pitch meeting' intro to the Jon Voight vehicle Table For Five:
  Drew: (as Jon Voight, kicking the door open) Oh my god, Irv!
  Scott: (as the executive) I-
  Drew: Irv!
  Scott: Oh, Jon.
  Drew: I just came from the theater! I saw this double feature! I saw Kramer vs. Kramer and then I saw Author! Author!! WHY THE FUCK AM I NOT MAKING A MOVIE WITH KIDS?!? LOTS OF KIDS, NOW!!
  Scott: You're so loud, Jon Voight. How much coke do you have in you right now?
  Drew: ALL OF IT! FIVE KIDS, NOW!!!

May 1983

• The shortest of the formal episode descriptions: "Ewoks, man. Ewoks. There are other movies, too."
• Scott sings about two similarly-titled horror films: "Masoleum and Mortuary/They go together like...milk and...I don't know."
• When discussing how Blue Thunder inspired Airwolf, Scott makes an interesting inquiry:
  Scott: Was there ever an episode of Airwolf in which they dealt with a werewolf? They'd call it... Airwolf... lycanthrope.
  Drew: (long pause) ...no.
  Scott: Alright. (Airwolf theme plays)

• Scott and Drew open up their discussion of the Dan Aykroyd vehicle Doctor Detroit by doing impressions of one another:
  Scott: (as Drew, in a low, authoritative voice) Growing up as a Saturday Night Live aficionado, I could not wait to see Dan Aykroyd in his first starring role, and even as a fourteen year-old, I could tell that this film was turgid. Yes, I said turgid. My intelligent friend Scott Weinberg taught me that word. He teaches me things all the time. He's great.
  Drew: (as Scott, in a rough, scratchy voice) My sister took me to see this at the theater with her, and we had to pretend we were going to see Yellowbeard, so we went to see Doctor Detroit, and I remember there were a lot of boobs, so it was uncomfortable, and, uh... Dan Aykroyd in this... Um, I don't like pimps! Uh, the end.
  Scott: (laughs) I don't really sound like that.

September 1983

• During their discussion of The Big Chill, Drew mentions a Twitter user musing that Jeff Goldblum's subsequent career has largely been Revenge for being cast as the only one of the eight principal characters whom no one wants to sleep with.

October 1983

• Drew's son Toshi had a breakthrough watching The Dead Zone. Christopher Walken looks like the Special Effect Failure puppet standing in for Arnold Schwarzenegger in one scene of The Terminator...all the time. Drew adds "And now I can't unsee it!"

1984 episodes

April 1984

• The episode description starts with: "You know what kids love? Comedies about poop and tax laws!"
• With two movies involving horse racing this month (Champions and Phar Lap) Scott introduces the Drew-hosted segment "Horsey Horse Movie Horse" to cover them. To their mutual surprise, they get to bring the segment back in the March 1985 episode for Sylvester.

July 1984

• Drew and Scott have a controversial discussion about The Neverending Story. Neither of them are fans, especially not Drew.
  Drew: I think this movie is ugly. I think this is one of the ugliest studio movies of the decade. I think it looks like it was designed by eurotrash cokehead child molesters.
  Scott: Even Falcor?!
  Drew: Oh, are you kidding?! The giant white penis dragon?! It’s the ugliest thing!
  Scott: It's a puppy face!
  Drew: It’s despicable. I hate the design, and this thing looks like it was directed by Wolfgang Petersen while trying to start a gang war between the first and second unit. He wouldn’t tell them what the other one was doing, and then he’d insult- “First unit said that your footage sucks.” It’s awful.
• Drew acknowledges that the death of Artax was a traumatic moment for many a child who saw the film, but he doesn’t buy it as an earned tearjerker moment.
  Drew: I get it, you cried as a child when you saw them kill a horse. If you give me a horse and a room full of children, I will make them cry by killing that horse, that is not difficult.
  Scott: Nobody give this man a horse and a room full of children!
  Drew: That is not hard to do! I can make them cry, damn it!
• Scott and Drew's 'pitch meeting' intro for Electric Dreams:
  Scott: (kicks the door open) Hey! I’m a screenwriter and I’ve got something for you, producer!
  Drew: (in a gravelly, sleazy voice) I am so excited to hear that. Let me hear it.
  Scott: Oh good god, I’m not pitching porn!
  Drew: Yeah! Bring it on!
  Scott: Alright, you see that computer that you have there in your corner?
  Drew: I do.
  Scott: That giant 1984 PC that does nothing but collate recipes? You see that?
  Drew: Yes.
  Scott: What if that computer… was Cyrano de Bergerac?
  Drew: I would kill it! I would drive a stake through it’s heart! That’s terrifying!
  Scott: I’ve got this screenplay, it’s about a guy who spills wine on his computer, it wakes up and falls in love with his upstairs neighbor as played by Virginia Madsen. It’s a romantic comedy called Electric Dreams.
• Dabney Coleman's appearance in The Muppets Take Manhattan is as a con artist who even physically mistreats Gonzo and takes Camilla hostage! Since Coleman is the patron saint of the podcast, Drew and Scott treat this as a What the Hell, Hero? moment, with Drew reproachfully saying "Dabney, how dare you!"

October 1984

• Drew recounts his favorite meeting with James Cameron: the one where he revealed to the director that The Terminator was the first R-rated movie he showed his kids, who loved it. Cameron was quite amused, noting that the first two times it was submitted to the MPAA, it received an X rating — and complimented Drew on his parenting skills with that in mind.

November 1984

• Scott takes the reins to transition into Night of the Comet… only to realize that they already did their intro for the film just moments ago, at which point he and Drew break down laughing, with the latter begging their producer Bobby to leave the flub in.

December 1984

• Drew and Scott kick off the reviews by pretending they don't know how to pronounce Pinocchio, which saw a reissue that month.
• Drew recounts how on the opening night of Dune (1984) he and a friend of his who worked at a multiplex watched people buy their tickets, find out they were also getting a glossary of terms provided by Universal Pictures, and then switch those tickets to some other movie.

1985 episodes

January 1985

• The episode description is mostly a rant about the movie with toilet monsters on the poster turning out to be a case of Covers Always Lie, and this concern carries over into the actual discussion of the film.

April 1985

• While poignant in hindsight given it was never produced, the On the Next spiel for May 1985 has Drew note that they will try to make sure they cover movies besides Gymkata.

Bonus episodes

• In the interview with critic Carrie Rickey, she has many reasons she loves The Fly (1986). Some are less serious than others. Sure there's the wonderful acting and the "insect politics" monologue, but also, "Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum look like twins." And "It also helps that Jeff Goldblum looks like a fly!"^note She is not the only one to point this out. The key, as Steven Benedict points out in his podcast discussion of the film, is that Goldblum's eyes appear too large for the rest of his face, being "slightly protruding".
  • When Scott asks her how it felt for her, as a mega-fan of David Cronenberg, to anticipate the preview screening of the film she notes that she asked her fellow Philadelphia Inquirer critic if she could be the one to tackle it. Said colleague replied "Oh, you can have it!"
• The Halloween Episode has Scott argue that since so many movies themed to the holiday have used the phrase "Trick or treat" or variants thereof for their titles, someone needs to make one called Smell My Feet.
• Drew's conversation with former collaborator Rebecca Swan has her reveal that she tricked her daughter into watching the Romancing the Stone trilogy: Romancing the Stone, The Jewel of the Nile...and The War of the Roses! About 20 minutes into the third film, the daughter realized something was amiss. Drew then admits he'd love it if the films actually constituted a trilogy and it all wrapped up with the romantic leads working through a divorce.
• In "The Evolution of Movie Foods" episode featuring Junkfood Cinema's Brian Salisbury filling in for a sick Drew, he describes Danny Elfman's "Breakfast Machine" score cue for Pee-wee's Big Adventure as sounding like it's sneaking up on the listener, then kidnapping them to sell to the circus!
• In "Musicals", Scott initiates a very brief discussion of Bruce Willis's album/video The Return of Bruno. Drew sums it up as "An avalanche of smug", imagining Willis saying "EVERYTHING I DO IS ADORABLE!"