The Good, The Pod and The Ugly
Long-running film podcast featuring hosts Ken, Ryan and Thomas and numerous guests talking filmographies, oddities, classics and side hustles. Through a thousand seasons they have talked about nearly every movie ever made (verified by PodStats Inc). Currently embroiled in a scandalous international lawsuit with an Oscar-winning director over who owns the phrase "Temporal Pincer Movement."
The Good, The Pod and The Ugly
HACKS: PETER YATES #4 BREAKING AWAY *HACKS FINALE*
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This week, the Italians are coming! For the final lap of TGTPTU’s 16 rounds of episodes this 4x4, we cover hack director Peter Yates’s heartfelt, heartland sports underdog working class summer coming of age bicycle story BREAKING AWAY (1979).
Guest Shannon returns despite no possible book report, the film instead being an original work by author Steve Tesich who would win the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for this melding of two prior scripts based on his college years in Indiana and his bicycling teammate local to the area who’d become the basis for the movie’s lead character Dave Stohler (although he’d prefer to go by Enrico Gismondi for the first half of the film). Dave is portrayed by Dennis Christopher, although the script gives substantial time to each of his three friends who will enter the local bicycle race with him (and even do a few laps themselves): Mike played by a ripped Dennis Quaid; a lanky, goofy Daniel Stern plays Cyril; and actor Jackie Earle Haley of Bad News Bears fame (the one without Billy Bob Thornton) as the vertically challenged Moocher.
In one of the best depictions of a 1970s dad in cinema, Paul Dooley plays Dave’s father, a used car salesman and former cutter (of stones, not self or lines) who doesn’t understand his eccentric son, while Barbara Barrie plays Dave’s mom who encourages his Italophilia and passions, a role she’ll reprise in the short-lived TV prequel series along with Haley.
This week, hear about the state of fridges in AZ along with Republican-bashing by Tobias; Shannon explains the 80s TV show Punky Brewster; Ken identifies with Breaking Away’s dad character and conceives of this film as a bridge to the 1980s; and Thomas reveals the name of Roy Scheider’s (not Rob Schneider’s) wife. By the end of the ep, it is still undecided, although they go around in circles, whether Shannon or Thomas won their off-air bet regarding Ryan’s reaction to the film.
While the hosts might be done with Hacks as their focus, the season continues. Next episode, we’ll be taking the high road in our feud with Chris Nolan over the rights to the temporal pincer movement™️ to test the waters of his new release before wrapping with a return to the 1x1’s to end the 17th Season of the first podcast to record from the PDX airport bathroom and raise former prime minister Margaret Thatcher from hell.
Ciao!
THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.
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Podcast: goodpodugly
Ken: Ken Koral
Ryan: Ryan Tobias
