This week we take a look at the latest money grab opportunities that Disney is going after. From the re-release of Avengers: End Game to snatch another $45 million to the raising of annual passes at Disney World by as much as 25%. We'll scratch our heads as we try to figure out how a company that makes more money than God needs even more money. Even paying the outrageous salary of their CEO can't justify these latest money grabs.
In Entertainment News we'll take a look at Robert Downy Jr. once again donning the mantle of Tony Stark in his latest outpouring to one special fan. Then we'll take a brief look at the life of Gloria Vanderbilt as we mark her passing. We'll also explore how idiotic one particular Christian Fundamentalist group proved they are by righteously demanding a show they found offensive be removed from a streaming network that it wasn't even available on, proving just how clueless they were on the subject.
We'll finish up with our Insightful Picks of the week including the aforementioned "offensive show" and a fantastic show to silence some of the conspiracy theorists out there. We then plug another local pop-culture show coming to our area that we're anxious to attend for the first time. Another great information filled podcast!
This week we take a look at the latest money grab opportunities that Disney is going after. From the re-release of Avengers: End Game to snatch another $45 million to the raising of annual passes at Disney World by as much as 25%. We'll scratch our heads as we try to figure out how a company that makes more money than God needs even more money. Even paying the outrageous salary of their CEO can't justify these latest money grabs.
In Entertainment News we'll take a look at Robert Downy Jr. once again donning the mantle of Tony Stark in his latest outpouring to one special fan. Then we'll take a brief look at the life of Gloria Vanderbilt as we mark her passing. We'll also explore how idiotic one particular Christian Fundamentalist group proved they are by righteously demanding a show they found offensive be removed from a streaming network that it wasn't even available on, proving just how clueless they were on the subject.
We'll finish up with our Insightful Picks of the week including the aforementioned "offensive show" and a fantastic show to silence some of the conspiracy theorists out there. We then plug another local pop-culture show coming to our area that we're anxious to attend for the first time. Another great information filled podcast!
Insightful pocket by informative post insights podcast network
Speaker 2:[inaudible]
Speaker 3:come to insights into entertainment, a podcast series, taking a deeper look into entertainment and media. Your hosts, Joseph and Michelle Waylon, a husband and wife, team of pop culture, phonetics are exploring all things from music and movies to television and fandom.
Speaker 4:Welcome to insights into entertainment. This is episode 19. Greedy Omens. I'm your host, Joseph Waylon and my brilliant and talented and beautiful haute cohost, Michelle Waylon. Well, thank you honey. Hello Babe. How you doing today? I'm fantastic. How are you? I'm doing good. So this was an easy week for this show because things just kind of happen. They just sort of rolled right out of the headlines this week. So this week in our Disney detective, we're going to focus mainly on Disney's greed. This was all you. I, I wouldn't have been that. It just kept jumping on it right now probably. I know. So we'll talk about a rerelease of a popular marvel movie. Uh, we'll talk about the random and hardly ever happening. Disney raising prices on any authorizes, never. And then in our entertainment news, uh, we have a call for the removal of good omens, a show we actually like[inaudible] from Netflix, um, which it doesn't actually run on, but we'll get to that. Then we have, um, a fashion icon and artists or Vanderbilt's death. We have some, some information on that. And then we will talk about, uh, Robert Downey jr once again dawning his alter ego was Tony Stark and a great outreach. Did he did, we'll finish up with our insightful picks of the week, uh, and some brief afterthoughts from there. So good show. Are we ready to get going? Sure, let's do it. Let's do it.
Speaker 5:Oh,
Speaker 4:go for Disney detective. So this was actually something that popped, that you told me about
Speaker 6:and then I heard about it after. The fact is that a vendor's end game is going to be rereleased big shocker because you know, it didn't make enough money because I didn't make enough money. And in case you didn't already see it, you thought you were going to miss out and have to see it on DVD. No, you can actually go to the theaters and see it. But they are changing it a little bit. They are rereleasing it with some post credit scene. So really not changing much of anything. So basically they announced at a recent Spiderman far from home junket that Disney was putting a vendor's end game back in theaters on June 28th. Um, the rerelease we'll include some new post credit scenes attribute and a few surprises. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Yeah. Yeah. Well the interesting thing was they had talked about the, the new Spiderman not really giving much away as to the direction the MTU is going. Um, and I think the post credit scene that they threw in here was basically to help bridge that, that gap. It was that, and it was basically so they could make a few more dollars because basically it needs to make 45 million more at the global box office before it can declare itself the highest grossing movie of all time. Dethroning Avatar, which was at 2.7800000000000002 8 billion, which is also a Disney movie since they acquired the assets of 20th century. Right. But at the time when you know, Avatar made it, it wasn't a Disney movie. The next three sequels of Avatar will be Disney movie. Right. And honestly, I don't think the next three sequels are going to make anywhere near your provisional. So a lot of people were puzzled why the original one made isn't watches. Right, exactly. And wasn't that good of a movie. And that's the thing is the people that like were so into it, we're like so into it and saw it like 10 times, you know, in the theater where I think like marvel and star wars fans, like all right, maybe you get a couple that see it twice in a theater or you know, I know I have a couple of friends that they like to see it in Imax and then they like to see it in regular, you know, so I could see, okay, they're going twice, but they were people that were going to Avatar like double digit times I guess. I don't know. I just didn't, I didn't say, which I get, I get a laugh. You go to animal feces on. That's what's so funny. That's, that's running around with the tails playing within us. Like you guys do realize they were sexual organs, right? That was, I remember a, a bunch of Disney cast members, uh, friends of mine were posting that going, yeah, you really, really want your kid what? Run in her home with that. Yeah. So we'll see how it
Speaker 4:does,
Speaker 6:you know it, it's gonna open, you know, a couple of days before Spiderman far from home opens on July 2nd. So maybe you know, it's one of those, you watched them one to kind of refresh what happened.
Speaker 4:Well and I have to wonder is it going to steal some of the thunder of the new Spiderman movie? Because remember Disney doesn't own the rights to spider man. It says Sony Coordination. So just kind of a slap in the face to Sony's cooperation with Disney, with Spartan man.
Speaker 6:Well I think you have a lot of people who are interested in seeing Spiderman. You know, obviously once we saw the new trailer for it, you know, cause the first trailers that you saw for it, where before end game even came out. So you didn't really know what, you know this new spider man was going to be like. You were kind of like, all right, here's another Spiderman. And then obviously how end game ended. And then the new trailer that came out, you know, the second trailer that came out for Spiderman made you go, okay, this is, this is going to be interesting. How, you know, how does everything play off after you no end game happens.
Speaker 4:Right. So it, you know, so maybe, or you get the people that, oh, you know what, let me see it. You know, it's been awhile since I saw it. I want to refresh myself and then go, you know, and see Spiderman suit. You don't know. We'll see. It just strikes me as kind of lean that are putting it back out there literally for the sole purpose of scraping another 45 million. And it's not even because they're looking to get more profit. It's just so they can take the title and you know, it's going to happen. But a, and the worst part is it's just so childish. It really is. It's Disney honey. Yeah. Okay. This, this is why Bob Iger is making$157 million year cause he makes decisions like this I guess. Right? I don't know. That's probably probably wasn't his decision. Let him pay the 45 million so that I can just one ticket for$45 million guys. One ticket please. That's 45 and$5. Let him buy the golden ticket. There you go. So should we go onto the next happy Disney star? One more story to Bash Disney. I'm all for it.
Speaker 6:And again, this was another one that I, I heard rumors about and then it obviously came out. Oh shocker. Walt Disney world. Not, you know, at any the whole corporation, just Walt Disney world is hiking the annual pass price ahead of star wars land. Okay.
Speaker 4:Because they were so low to begin with and Disney has so hurting for money,
Speaker 6:right? So on Tuesday, Disney increased the prices on most annual passes as much as$150. Um, the price increases obviously come ahead of the August 28th opening of Disney World Star Wars, galaxies, ed. So this is actually going to be the second price hike this year already. Um, but the first for the annual passes, now the first a price hike that actually happened was actually, um, based off of the daily park tickets. Um, so what they did was they started a surge pricing system. Basically what it is is depending on the time of year, multiday tickets would cost more during like the holiday seasons. So like Easter or Christmas park tickets would be more than obviously during their quote, quote off season. So based on that logic, why didn't they lower the price tickets on the days that the park isn't as popular? Right. You would think you would because Disney doesn't lower price. They never do that. And honestly, we've been there multiple times throughout, you know, various times a year and there really is no slow season. Right. You know, there's always some, you know, massive group of, of whatever down there. Yeah. Granted you might have, you know, days or weeks, like right now for some reason happens to be a slow time. I'm not really sure because pretty much all the schools are out, you know, um, you know, all the kids are out of school right now. So you would think things would be picking up. But it's also a very hot time of year right now too. So you have, you know, maybe that's why, and maybe because galaxy's edge is and open yet people are like, well I might as well just wait. And that's a good point. That's one of the things that irks me about this practice that Disney has. They're going to, because they spent all this money on galaxy's edge, they're going to hike ticket prices. Well, the fact that they shut down literally half of the park to do construction for three years, they didn't lower the ticket prices. Right. People who are paying for tickets to go to Hollywood studios, we're still paying full price for half the experience. Right. And we talked about that even now, there are hiking prices now and the entire area isn't even open. They still have opened the second ride and yet they're hiking the prices. Right, right. So just to give you an idea of the pricing. So they do a non Florida resident prices and then Florida resin prices. So if you're a non Florida resident, there's two different types of passes, the platinum pup plus and the regular platinum. So the platinum plus is going to be going up 23%. That's ridiculous. The platinum is going up 25%. Like how do you justify that? I guess they do. I do. What do you expect to make all your money back in the first year? I Dunno. 25% increases and saying, oh I know. So now for the Florida residents there's a whole boatload. So they have the platinum plus that's actually going up 18% versus 23% for non Florida residents. Oh that's damn gender. Right. Um, then there's the platinum again is 20% of an increase over the 25 that the non Florida resident gets. Now for non, for Florida residents they have smaller ones, which as DVC members we were actually able to get um, the gold. So basically what it is is for any of these others, there are certain blackout dates that you're not allowed. So like, um, not Halloween, Christmas, um, New Year's, um, Easter, you know, so it, there's few and far between. Um, so for the gold annual passes, it's going up 15%. Then they have a silver pass, which has even more blackout dates that's going up 8%. Then they have a week day select pass, which is obviously just good Monday through Friday and that's going up 9%. And then they also have an Epcot after four pass. That's obviously just good for Epcot. And of course galaxies head, you can't use it because it's
Speaker 4:justify increasing and increasing.
Speaker 6:And that one's going to 7%. Well because there's new stuff coming into Epcot too. But of course it's not going to be, you know, within this year. But even that is going up 7%
Speaker 4:overall. I, I think I've had my fill of Disney at this point in time. They just, they don't deserve my money at this point cause they, they have no respect for me as a consumer. You know, they're, they're nickel and diming you, whether it's the parking or chipping there, cops or doing away with the free refills for popcorn. I mean, it's ridiculous. The nickel and diming that they do at the parks and they make more money than God. They have absolutely no justification for trying to get that kind of money at it.
Speaker 6:Yeah. It's, it's really big. It's becoming now more so that once in a lifetime trip. Yeah. You know, you save up for a couple of years, you do a nice Disney trip and then you never do it again. Where it used to be,
Speaker 4:this highlights even more the egregious pay that that someone like Bob Iger is getting 150 some million dollars and they've got the gall to raise their annual ticket sale phrases as much as 25% it's insulting.
Speaker 6:Yeah. And the sad thing is there are people that we'll, you know, we'll still do it and there are people that, you know, see the value in it. Unfortunately, there are some that, there are some that are obviously starting to reconsider and, and, and contemplate. Not doing it. Yeah.
Speaker 4:And that's the thing about galaxies, edges, it's not star wars, it's Disney's version of star, right. Goes out of its way to basically erase anything from the star wars of my childhood. Right? So why do I want to support that? Right. You know, you're ruining a franchise that I've been a fan of for 40 some years now. I'm not going to give you money and encourage you to do that. No. And that's,
Speaker 6:that's what you can do is not choose to go. And then, you know, there are obviously a whole lot more
Speaker 4:people that are willing to welcome to take my place. In fact, you know, I'd be more than willing to give up my DVC and someone can buy me out of my DVC cause I really don't even feel comfortable giving up do's. Right. DVC At this point, they just don't deserve it. Okay. That's enough bashing a Disney. Okay, you're done. Thanks. I'm glad I had to get that out of my system. Okay, sure. Okay. Onto our regular entertainment or regularly scheduled entertainment news lists, rent brought to you by Disney.
Speaker 5:Oh.
Speaker 4:So the first thing we have in our entertainment news is I'm a protests protest petition to have good omens removed from a streaming network that it doesn't even appear on. Yeah. That, that's the kick in the pants. So why don't you lead this story helps.
Speaker 6:Sure. So more than two 20,000 Christians ask the wrong streaming service to remove the show. Good Omens. So there was a petition started by a Christian organization calling for the removal of the show. Good Omens. And it totally missed the mark. Uh, it was signed by more than, as I said, 20,000 people and it called for Netflix to pull the fantasy series from its platform. Just one problem. Netflix doesn't offer the show. It's on Amazon prime. Dun, Dun, Dun. So, um, the petition basically said this series represents devils and Satan, it says normal and even good where they merely have a different way of being and mocks God's wisdom. Um, so, and some of the petitioners qualms included the fact that God is voiced by a woman. Oh my goodness. The antichrist is portrayed as a normal kid and the four riders of the apocalypse,
Speaker 7:her
Speaker 6:portrayed as a group of bikers. Yeah. Okay. So yeah. So basically it was please sign our petition telling Netflix that we will not stand silent as they destroy the barriers of horror we have that we still have for evil. And the, the petition, you know, stopped loading on there. Uh, the Christian returned to order website on Thursday. Um, cause that was when they kind of realized, whoops, they were sending it to the wrong place. Um, so if you don't know the story of Good Omens, I'm good. Omens follows, um, an angel, um, uh, zero fell and a demon Croley. Um, as they attempt to save the world from the apocalypse, um, by coming, um, the apocalypse from starting because there is the antichrist to once he turns 11, he's gonna take his rightful place. So basically they're doing well these different things to stop it from happening. It's actually based off of the 1990 fantasy novel of the same name. And the mini series just debuted last month. I'm the coauthor of the book. Um, took the petition in stride and actually posted on Twitter saying, I love that they're going to write to Netflix and try and get good omens. Canceled. Um, it's, uh, it's uh, says it's, it is all really, um, it, it all. Um, I says it all really. Um, and it was funny because they, they showed like a picture of the script, um, on the, on the tweet with like all the writing and saying, you know, like where it says something about them being good friends. The two, the angel and the demon being good friends know they're really in love and he just kind of laughed because you're sending it to the wrong, the wrong place. So that, that was kind of funny.
Speaker 4:Well, and I think, you know, this deserves about as much mockery as I can muster at this point in time because again, it shows bigoted Christians who clearly are chauvinistic cause they can't comprehend the possibility that a woman, God could actually be portrayed as a, as a, as a woman, never minding the fact that if you go back to ancient times, you had incredibly powerful female gods in the Greek and Roman and other cultures. So it's not like it's a new idea. Right. Um, and you know, the fact that it's a biblical prophecy that they're making fun of the pro, the, the um, apocalypse prophecy that's in the Bible, which the writers here didn't write just for the record. I hate to spoil the ending, but you know, that's been around a lot longer. Um, and it's an interesting, the show itself is an interesting take because it's good and evil working together hand in hand to stop the destruction of the planet. God forbid we actually do that. Right?
Speaker 6:Exactly. And what's funny is how you have the different angels who are like, no, no, we can let it happen because we know we're going to win the war. And you have, you know, all the demons who are like, come on, let it happen were, you know, and you have these two who don't want it to happen because they don't want to see the end of the world and all these people dying and, and everything happening. And you know, the, the four horseman, you know, it's kind of interesting how they're portrayed as well, you know, like famine, you know, he was basically, you know, it's, uh, it was kind of, uh, almost seen as a, um, like a corporate, the plant based food, you know, it's food, but it's, it wasn't plant based. I can't remember what they called it. It was like, it's nothing based and you know, this is, there is basically no food. You're going to eat all this, but you're still going to be hungry because you know, and so it was an interesting, you know, take on that and then the pollution, you know?
Speaker 4:Yeah. You don't have pestilence as one of the four horsemen anymore. It's pollution. It's pollution and you, it's a commentary on our societal. Yeah. So you look at and go, yeah, you whore. Horsemen were suppose if they were to show up today, this is what they would, they would rally love Christian fundamentalists here who can't get over themselves enough to realize that the message of the show is actually one that promotes peace, promotes environmentalism, promotes, you know, loving and forgiveness and peace and people getting along. It's like, okay, if you're Christian, what values do you portraying at that point of you're against all of these. Exactly. It's just, and, and you know, the coauthors says, yeah, it says it all really the fact that they clearly don't watch the show because they don't, didn't even know what services stream being Google that to see what, you know, it's one of these things where someone said something to them and all of a sudden Ben attache it was, yeah, it was their turn to be offended and start a petition right before even watching an episode of it. And you know, if nothing else, this is another example of just what's wrong with our society is everybody's entitled to be offended by something. And I want to get my 15 minutes of fame now, even though I made an ass out of myself. Yeah. So, yes. Mock the mall anyway, neck.
Speaker 6:Um, so on Monday morning, Gloria Vanderbilt fashion icon and artists died at age 95. Um, her son, Anderson Cooper actually was the one to kind of report it. Um, it's funny, I've, I've known the story of Gloria Vanderbilt. I think most people, our generation younger, nowhere for her jeans. That was really, you know, where she kind of took off for the most part. And that was in, you know, the seventies and eighties. But really her story goes obviously much beyond that, you know. Um, they were many books written about her, um, many different documentaries and things. Um, she was known as the poor little rich girl. Um, her father actually died when she was a baby. Um, and that's where, you know, she, she inherited her money from then there was a custody battle between her mother and her. Um, her aunt and her aunt actually won the custody battle and the, um, woman who basically her, her nanny, um, the, the, and basically fired. So any semblance of, you know, her normal childhood, you know, it was kind of ripped away from her. Um, you know, was moved all around, you know, didn't really like being in the public eye, but because of her name and everything, you know, she always had it follow her. Um, so, you know, as soon as she was old enough, you know, she was 17 when she first got married. Um, basically, you know, kind of found the first person married him basically to kind of get away from, from her aunt. And then when she turned 21 was when she was able to get, start getting her trust money. She divorced the one husband and married, you know, the next husband had two kids with him. Then, you know, basically kind of started her art career. Um, divorced the second husband and married the third and kind of got involved in a little bit of acting. Um, she did a couple of, of parts in movies and stuff. Then divorced the third husband, married the fourth husband and had two kids. And that's actually where Anderson Cooper, um, you know, it's funny, not a lot of people when they hear Anderson Cooper about what, um, what was also interesting was that her, her logo for her jeans, which was a swan actually was based off of her first movie part. Um, so that was kind of the little link that she always had. And it was one of those things that she kind of fell into the fashion stuff. And that was really where the majority of the people, you know, newer from, you know, unless you knew about the stuff from the Great Depression and, and whatnot. And you know, she, she, you know, had a very public life, but she also, you know, had that very, she was a very private, very private person, you know, as well. Um, her fourth husband unfortunately passed away, um, on an operating table. She never remarried. Um, and then her, her son from that husband, her oldest son, Cooper's, um, older brother, he had actually committed suicide, um, at a young age as well. So really it became Anderson and her, like they were very close. Um, CNN actually played, you know, uh, an obituary, a video obituary, and I believe there had been a documentary on HBO that most of the scenes had had come from, um, and Anderson, you know, added to, um, and he showed, you know, she, she had, she ended up being diagnosed with stomach cancer and it was basically, you know, by the time they diagnosed it, it was so advanced, she didn't have much time. And it was so sweet because he showed a video of her in the hospital and you would've never recognized her, you know, no makeup, you know, whatever. And he said for the first time he realized his laugh and his Mo, he knew where he finally knew where he got his laugh from. It was his mother's lap. And it's a video of her just laughing and he's laughing too. And it's the same, you know, laugh. And it was just, it was sweet. It was very Sweden. And, um, just kinda touching to, you know, that she was such an icon. And again, a lot of people probably didn't even know, you know, half of what she had gone through. Um, but she lived a very full life and you know, always loved, um, you know, being in love and you know, Anderson had said, you know, she trusted to freely and to completely and suffered tremendous losses, but she always pressed on and always worked hard and always believe the best was yet
Speaker 4:to come. Yeah. She's, uh, an incredible inspiring story. Um, especially, you know, from a female empowerment standpoint, like, oh yeah, you know, yeah, she came from a privileged background, but it wasn't that privileged background that made her who she was. Uh, there was a separate article that I had read where Anderson Cooper said, you know, there's not going to be an inheritance from her. She didn't believe in it, even though she was a recipient of it herself. She did not believe in it. And she didn't believe in it because she was afraid that had her children thought that there was going to be an inheritance or a trust fund, there would've been nothing to inspire them to, to greatness, to do what they did. And, and Cooper actually thanked her for that because he said, had I known that I could just sit back and wait for the money in the flow in, I would have never done what I've done. You know, he credited his mother with so much of his success and you know, some people might think that's kind of a, of a cold approach to things. Um, but it was effective.
Speaker 6:Right. And you figure, you know, everything that she went through in her life, you know, and all the people that were nice to her did things were, you know, because they knew she was going to get a trust fund and she was going to come into money and it was like, oh, well let's, you know, pay attention to the cash cow and, you know, wait for her to come of age to be able to take advantage. So,
Speaker 4:yeah. So unfortunately to see your passing. Yeah. So one more entertainment article. What did we have now?
Speaker 6:So this was one that you told me about, which I kind of laughed. I was like really? And it just seems as you mentioned in, in our opening that Robert Downey jr is just becoming more and more like Tony Stark every day. Yeah. Um, so last couple of weeks ago we had mentioned that he was starting this, this coalition, um, to, you know, get people more involved in the environment and doing all this, you know, Nano technology and all these other different things. Um, so there was a story out of North Carolina where a teenager, uh, lost her leg in a shark attack. Um, and basically the, the father had, I guess tweeted out or send something to Instagram saying, hey, you know, sent it to, um, Robert Downey jr saying, Hey, my daughter is a huge fan. You know, it'd be awesome if you could start following her on Instagram. Well, he decided to take it one step further and he actually uploaded a video addressed to her. And we're going to play it for you
Speaker 8:this winter. Is that you? Hi[inaudible].
Speaker 9:Good Morning Robin. Good Morning America. This is a heroic story of resilience.
Speaker 8:I got to tell you, and you're not alone,
Speaker 9:uh, but not just because of folks who've had similar stuff happened, but also because of your interest in a sustainability and preservation of our oceans and marine life and all that stuff. I'm fan.
Speaker 8:Can I tell you,
Speaker 9:uh, and of course, yes, I will follow you on Instagram. All right, let's get that out of the way. But also kind of like a Tony with Peter Parker a few years back, I'm in a bit of a recruitment mode, so I want to see if you would join my footprint coalition and be my North Carolina ambassador.
Speaker 8:Take your time. Yes, no, maybe. Great.
Speaker 6:So I'm pretty sure she said yes. How could you exactly. You're not just recruited by Tony Stark is that, you know, and the biggest thing was that, you know, she's very much a supporter of animal rights. And Shark Conservation. And she had[inaudible] promoting the Hashtag. Sharks are still good people. Even after getting the shortcut, you know, being attacked by a shark, she basically, you know, didn't feel like it was the sharks fall. Right. You know, and here you have this horrific thing happen and you know, your dad sends a message to Robert Downey jr say please follow her on Instagram, which is probably your biggest fan. And then all of a sudden he out and sends a video message in, Hey, I'm going to recruit you to lead my coalition in North Carolina. So iron man's ambassador. Yeah, that's pretty cool. And you know what, it, it's nice to, you know, see that he's still living that, you know, it's, it's not like, oh, I'm done. I don't need to be that anymore. You know, and as we've talked about him, you know, countless times before, you know, with the children's hospital and, and you know, the kids with the limbs and stuff and all the different things like that, it, you know, I think he appreciates who he's become too, knowing that he had such a checkered past. Sure. When he was younger and starting out in Hollywood and you know, all the times in Rehab and basically, you know, so many people giving up on him and you know, thinking he was done. It's almost
Speaker 4:like a born again Christian getting very real vicious on it instead of finding God and changing his life. Robert Downey jr found on your own man and it changes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's that served as that inspiration to him. Yeah. Um, and you know, it doesn't really matter where you get your motivation from. Yeah. It doesn't matter what motivates you as long as you're motivated the change the world. And I think it's a fantastic thing. Yeah. Yeah. So Kudos to him again. Very cool. So insightful picks, insightful picks. Here we go.
Speaker 5:Oh,
Speaker 4:and you my dear. So
Speaker 6:I probably don't have to tell a whole lot about my insightful pick because I'm guessing if you paid paid attention, I got, you might know what I'm going to pick. So this week since I've pick for me is a show that's not on Netflix. So don't write to Netflix and complain about it if you're going to complain. It's Amazon prime and it's the show. Good Omens. Um, so it's a fantasy series where we see fussy angel, a zero, a zero fell and his loose living demon Croley team up for an unlikely duo. The two have become overly fond of life on earth and now they're forced to make an alliance and attempt to stop the approaching Armageddon. Um, to do that they have to find the missing antichrist. And 11 year old boy who was unaware that he is even meant to bring the end of days upon humanity. Um, has a great cast. Uh, Michael Sheehan, David Tennant from doctor who, uh, Jon Hamm from mad men, um, our star on the series, which is based on a book of the same name. Um, and again, as mentioned, the shows on Amazon prime, not Netflix, and it's actually only episodes and I think we're on episode five. I believe. So. Um, so we're actually almost done with it. We're almost to the end of the world. We're almost to the end of the world. It's, it was definitely, it's done a lot different than most of your typical shows. It does a lot of back and forth, uh, not time traveling, but, um, of backstory telling back story telling, you know, it kind of starts out in the here and now, then it goes back 11 years. Then it even goes back to the garden of Eden and then kind of, you know, one episode was basically just kind of taking you from the beginning of time until now and basically seeing what this relationship between the, you know, this angel in this demon, you know, how it's cultivated, you know, throughout time and, and, and whatnot. I think, I think it took us maybe two episodes to kind of really get into it just because we didn't know what we were signed up for.
Speaker 4:You know, it's kind of an off the wall plot, the dialogue, some of the dialogs difficult, right? It's a very British economy.
Speaker 6:Yes, yes. It definitely, even though there are some very American aspects to it and American actors in it, the main character's, you know, are British or Scottish. Um, and you know, so they do have that, that thick accent. So you're like, Oh wow, why did he say it? And the humor is a very dry, very dry. Yeah. So if you're a fan of that type of humor, then you'll definitely, you know, you'll definitely go along with it. And just, you know, you have the, the witch finder and you have the witch and then, you know, this last episode, you know, there were aliens that showed up and you're like, ah, how'd that happen? You know, it was just like it, you know, there were some aspects when we were, when we were watching it, that kind of reminded us of like a goofy, um, twilight zone episode. Right. You know, cause in Monty Python, Monty python, you know, flair to it. So,
Speaker 4:you know, it's, it's based on a book and it's written by Neil Gaiman. So it has a very, Neil Gaiman feel too, if you ever read any of his works.
Speaker 6:Yeah. So it's, it's definitely, you know, I'm looking forward to it and kind of upset that it's only six episodes. When I realized that and like, oh, we're almost done. Yeah. Well, you know, you're just rid the world. Do you really don't have a secret or come back to her? Yeah, there's no second one. Yeah. I guess not. Could pick though.
Speaker 5:Oh.
Speaker 4:Almost immediately after the successful and triumph in Apollo 11 moon landing nearly 50 years ago, they were skeptics who refused to accept that human kind could accomplish such an enormous undertaking. Signs Channel representative set the statement. Astonishingly, some of those downs persist today despite the enormous scientific progress that has been made since then. My pick of the week this week is truth behind the moon landing a six part a six episode series which premiered on June 2nd on the science channel. It'll air Sundays through June and July. It will focus on several space related conspiracy claims among them, whether we actually landed on the moon 50 years ago. On July 20th, 1969, uh, former astronaut Leland Melvin joins a group tackling conspiracy theories about the moon landing. A Melvin cohost, the show with two others and Iraq war veteran and former FBI agent Chad, Jenny Jenkins and the bestselling author Mike Barrow. They uncover evidence and apply the scientific method to several conspiracies the trio. We'll discuss topics such as the fatal Apollo one fire in 1967 a lunar lander prototype that Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon use for training and the capabilities of Hollywood's visual effects in the late 1960s. What's interesting about this show is, um, Mike Bara, who is the bestselling author and cohost of the show is a conspiracy theorist and he presents the perspective of the conspiracy folks out there. And what they do is they take these various conspiracy theories that he puts forth and they test them and they'll, you know, one of them was, uh, about the Apollo one fire and they went into a lab and they recreate it in the lab. The conditions under which that fire occurred to see if the description that NASA gave for the fire, you know, with a coolant leaking on the exposed wires, a hundred percent oxygen environment and the, the velcro and other material in there if it could have causes. And you know, they, so far they've proved every one of these theories as bogus. So everything from everyone may have. So many people have seen the footage of Neil Armstrong as he's flying. What they affectionately turned the flying bedstead. It was a prototype lunar lander that had the same controls as the lunar excursion module that they would have landed on the moon with, and it used a jet engine on a Gimbal to simulate the weightless that the g the gravity of the moon so that you could simulate maneuvering and so forth. And there was very famous footage of him flying at one point in time. He loses control dramatically. Objects from the craft and the craft crashes in is destroyed, will they? The theory was all, well, if you couldn't control that here, there's no way you could have landed on the moon. Well, they actually go to JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and they investigate this. They talk to an engineer that actually worked on it. They bring out one of the two prototypes that they had, so they have a surviving. One of the things that you would think would be in a museum somewhere, right? Not like, hey, we got it in the garage. It's in a hacker. Yeah. And then we'll this thing out and um, uh, Leland Melvin climbs up in scientist thing and he's hands on with the controls and everything on this thing. I mean it's that realistic, the investigation and they talk to the engineer and the engineers as well. It was human error and of course they dramatically done to commercial and the dramatically suggested, oh Neil Armstrong didn't fight us right. And comes back and it turns out there was no instrumentation so he couldn't see fuel, fuel, fuel or anything like that. It turns out some guy on the ground was supposed to be monitoring the fuel, got distracted, he ran out of fuel. And that's why a craft goodness. And even though that's the only footage, another guy was texting while he was driving the original text, her and driving, even though that's the only footage did people ever see is him crashing. It turns out he had over 20 successful flights and if they work flawlessly, just the one, but it never surfaced. So, um, like Barbara, who is the conspiracy theorists is open minded enough to hear this information. And except this as, okay, well it makes sense, you know, and they explained, here's why the conspiracy theory came out because this information never got out. Um, and it turns out a lot of that information had it been released would have immediately put to bed a lot of these conspiracies. So the thing that I like about the show is it's all fact based. They use a scientific method to go out and prove why these theories, these conspiracy theories are wrong. And it's less about justifying the fact that the moon landing occurred. You know, beyond the shadow of doubt. This show proves that it has, it's more of a behind the scenes look and attribute to the Apollo program itself. And it gives you almost a hands on feel for it. You know, they, they, they bring engineers and scientists out who worked on the Apollo program, who, you know, these guys are getting up there and these are the unsung heroes of Nasa who never got, you know, they weren't the guys in front of the cameras, like the astronauts. These were the guys in the back, right? That we're making all this happen. And the great thing is, is you have someone, an astronaut, a former astronaut in Melvin, who was up in space twice on the space show. He's Kinda, he's seen as a hero even to these engineers. And he's showing up talking to these guys and thanking them for doing what they did that allowed him to be honored to do what he did. Right. Right. And it's a very touching, closing the circle type thing. And it's a great behind the scenes look at some of the stuff that just never sees the light of day because, you know, it's just, it's not the, the super critical, really interesting, uh, headline grabbing stuff that you would normally see. Right. But it's the stuff that was critical for this program to work.
Speaker 6:Yeah. And I think that's also something just in terms of when you look at how,
Speaker 4:okay
Speaker 6:popular and how just, uh, um, you know, attention grabbing the whole Apollo missions were you had Pete, you know, kids that stayed home, you know, schools that the, that, you know, weren't open and you had, you know, all these viewing parties and people, you know, sitting, you know, buy a TV, you know, one TV and a whole neighborhood sitting in watching or listening to a radio and, and people stopping and, and you know, as, as a country, as, as the world, we were all so enthralled and we, you know, did they make it there? You know, and just for like the simplest thing that now it's like, oh yeah, there and back, it was a big deal back then. You know, and even now, unfortunately with, you know, a lot of the space shuttle, you know, take offs and landing, you know, some people didn't even know that it was happening. It wasn't as televised. It wasn't as, as you know, news worthy. Right. It became so many routine.
Speaker 4:Even the Apollo program fill to that worship, right during the Apollo 13 mission that nobody even knew what was[inaudible].
Speaker 6:Right, right. And that's when everybody, you know, started watching it again and you know, praying and doing whatever to, you know, so it, it's interesting that, you know, there's, you know, there's still that love yeah. You know, there and that, you know, these, these, you know, shuttle astronauts who really again get, you know, a lot more fame and glory are appreciating. Yeah. You know, and that to me, when they came
Speaker 4:to me, I think that's the biggest takeaway. It's like the conspiracy theory is just a, a driver to do these things, but it's great to see these engineers and these, these, these guys who were such a crucial part, finally get some of the spotlight and get the right, get the appreciation, the even lighter than they deserve.
Speaker 6:And that's even like the movie hidden figures, you know, here's, you know, a group of women who if they weren't around, we wouldn't have gotten based on a true story, you know, where, where we were, you know, so how many years did it take? You know, it's Friday. I don't want things to,
Speaker 4:I don't want to politicize it, but you know, you see the make America great slogan all over the place and there's no substance to it. Right? You know, when was America great, when do you want to, where, where are you referring to? And, and this time, you know, despite the rampant discrimination and segregation, um, this was when America was great, when, when the entire world looked to us and, and, and we were the leaders and, and we were able to put aside these petty differences of race and, and, you know, sexism and stuff like that to accomplish this common goal of putting this impossible goal really, which is where these conspiracies come from, is that it was so inconceivable that we would put people on the moon that these conspiracy theories had to be born. Right, right. And as, as one people, we were able to overcome it, you know, that's when America was great and that's what we should be focusing on. Yeah. So anyway, uh, truth behind the moon, landing on science channel on Sundays, uh, check your local listings. Good Tech and we will come back with are afterthoughts and to you, my dear.
Speaker 6:So this one with that was one that actually just popped up because last weekend as we had mentioned, uh, was, uh, Philadelphia wizard world, um, which is an annual convention, uh, that, that's held in Philadelphia in other locations as well. Um, and we did not attend it because it's, you know, unfortunately priced out for us, for, for what we go for it. Uh, I did have a coworker who went and he said it was okay, you know, it wasn't, it wasn't horrible, you know, like if he had to do it again, he probably wouldn't have just again, because of how much it cost and you know, really what they did for you know, the money. Um, but something that was kind of funny that popped up that I didn't even know about, and obviously it's been happening for a couple of years, is another comic con in the Philadelphia area called keystone comic con. Um, it's a, it's a little bit smaller. It's actually going to be at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. So the same location that Philadelphia comic con or wizards is done. Um, it's going to be the end of August. It's August 23rd through 25th. Um, tickets actually aren't that bad. They're like$35,$15 for kids. Um, it, they, they're still announcing celebrities that are there. So if you're the type of person that that is into the celebrities, um, you know, every couple of days it seems they're introducing new ones. Um, they have three people from three different star tracks that are going to be there. Michelle Nichols, I'm Michael Dorn and, um, Merita startups. Um, so I'm sure there's going to be some sort of star wars panel that'll be there. Uh, there's some Harry Potter, um, celebrities there. You know, we just won't tell her. Um, you know, and then of course the voice actors, you know as well. Um, but from, you know, different reviews that I saw, you know, people posting about it, they said it was a very organized, it was one of their favorite ones because, you know, it almost sounds like it might be like the um, pen, the Pennsylvania common, the Greater Philadelphia comic con that we went to that we really enjoyed. It was, it was a decent size. You didn't feel overwhelmed. Um, and actually had some, some panels. So I don't think they've announced any of the panels yet cause it's still a little far out and I'm guessing they're probably gonna announce, um, some more celebrities, you know, before, before it gets closer. But if you're interested, uh, the website is keystone comic con.com. So again, if you're in the Philadelphia area and you know, you're interested, check it out.
Speaker 4:Awesome. We'll have to take some pictures of the footage and bring it back for the show. Yep, absolutely. Awesome. I think that does it first, uh, today I think it does another great podcast and, uh, we'll be back next week with another one. Sure. Well, uh, why did want to have one programming note though, last week I wanted to apologize. We had some technical difficulties, um, posting our, uh, podcast up to our sites. We typically record over the weekends and we'll post out on a Monday mornings at eight. We had some issues getting this stuff out. We had some problems with our upstream bandwidth here, which also complicated the actual streaming of it on twitch, our twitch channel on Sunday night. I apologize for that. And uh, hopefully we won't have that issue this week. Fingers crossed. Yeah, that's all I got. All right. See you next week. Have a good one, guys. Take care.
Speaker 2:[inaudible].