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Scandalous Games
Scandalous Games is a video game history podcast that takes a closer look at video game related controversies. Every episode, historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story about a scandalous event from gaming's past to his friends who offer commentary on moral panics, ill-advised advertising campaigns, unusual figures, and any and all topics related to video game scandals and how they shaped the medium. New episodes drop on the first and third Tuesdays of every month! Check out more info, including show notes and sources, at http://scandalousgamespodcast.wordpress.com.
Scandalous Games
Double Dragon-mentary (Scandalous Games Summer)
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Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends, but we like to take it easy during the summer months for Scandalous Games Summer, where we offer a syncable audio commentary track of a video game related movie. This month, in light of the recent (as of the recording) passing of Double Dragon creator Yoshihisa Kishimoto (https://www.ign.com/articles/yoshihisa-kishimoto-creator-of-double-dragon-and-renegade-dies-at-64). Kevin, Kate Lynch, and Ryan Weaver have some fun riffing (and offering historical context) for the silly 1994 adaptation of Double Dragon (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106761/). Listen along and learn just how many Bimmy jokes we cram into one commentary.
If you want to skip our intro and get right to the commentary, skip to 06:49.
Kevin went down a fun little rabbit hole about Ed Feldman and Joe L'Erario, the guys fro the Jack City advertisement in the movie. They were the hosts of a set of furniture restoration shows that started on public access in Philadelphia and eventually made their way to cable. You can learn more about them at: https://www.thefurnitureguys.tv/.
If you want to learn about the Cuyahoga River's habit of catching on fire and eventually help spark the environmental movement of the 1970s, see: Lorraine Boissoneault, "The Cuyahoga River Caught Fire at Least a Dozen Times, but No One Cared Until 1969," Smithsonian Magazine, June 19, 2019, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/cuyahoga-river-caught-fire-least-dozen-times-no-one-cared-until-1969-180972444/. See also: Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, "Stop what you’re doing and watch this 1994 Cuyahoga River boat chase scene from 'Double Dragon,'" Medium, August 6, 2019, https://neorsd.medium.com/stop-what-youre-doing-and-watch-this-1994-cuyahoga-river-boat-chase-scene-from-double-dragon-3dd23e9c4355.
You can also check out Joe Pesci's 1998 album Vincent LaGuardia Gambini Sings Just for You here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lWQE3xSKa5nQX72ahEU8u8GP46MMANjT0
A couple of corrections:
Longtime stuntman and film henchman Al Leong has a lot of film credits, but John Wick is not one of them (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0502959/), although Double Dragon co-lead Mark Dacascos was in John Wick 3: Parabellum (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001092/).
Jerry Brown had been Governor of California. However, he was not when Double Dragon released, serving from 1975 to 1983 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Brown). Fun fact, he was later reelected in 2011 and was the namesake for the landmark 2011 Supreme Court case Brown, et al. v. Entertainment Merchants Assn. et al., which granted video games free speech protection in the United States (https://www.oyez.org/cases/2010/08-1448; check out our previous episode to learn more).
More info, including show notes and sources at http://scandalousgamespodcast.wordpress.com.