Speaker 1: Welcome back to Midnight Viewing, the Horror anthology podcast, where
Speaker 1: this season we're taking a look at George A. Romero's
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties series Tales from the Dark Side. Sharing the
Speaker 1: Midnight view with me are the Projection Booths, Mike White.
Speaker 2: I Weigh a Million Pounds.
Speaker 1: And the culture cast Chris Statue, I loath, ZOODI fetishes.
Speaker 3: We'll get there.
Speaker 1: Tonight we are taking a look at the final two
Speaker 1: episodes of season four, the final two episodes of Tawnsmen
Speaker 1: The Dark Side. Those are Barter and Basher Malone. Barter
Speaker 1: Season four, episode nineteen, originally aired on July the seventeenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight, Written by Julie Selbo, directed by Christopher T. Welch,
Speaker 1: starring Jack Carter, Jill Duress, and Michael Santiago. This is
Speaker 1: somehow a mashup of the previous two episodes, Going Native
Speaker 1: and Hush. It's a real world I Love Lucy that
Speaker 1: is visited by a door to door salesman who loves Monia.
Speaker 1: What do you think of this one, Mike.
Speaker 2: I actually had a really good time with this one. Obviously,
Speaker 2: fan of I Love Lucy, also fan of Todd Haynes's
Speaker 2: dot get spanked. I could have easily gone the other
Speaker 2: way and been.
Speaker 3: Like boy Jack Carter.
Speaker 2: He was annoying, but I had a good time with
Speaker 2: his weirdo English that he was doing, where I could
Speaker 2: really understand. It was almost like a pig Latin that
Speaker 2: he was speaking with the way that he was talking
Speaker 2: about good, good and all this kind of stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I kind of liked it. I liked the parody of
Speaker 2: I Love Lucy and I Yeah, of course, the kid
Speaker 2: drumming was pretty annoying, but I really empathized with the
Speaker 2: Lucy character on here. And yeah, I think that the
Speaker 2: end was a little weak, but otherwise I was pleasantly
Speaker 2: surprised with this one.
Speaker 3: How about you, Chris, I thought it was interesting to
Speaker 3: have a I Love Lucy parody A left field choice,
Speaker 3: I guess. I just I wonder why is my kind
Speaker 3: of takeaway? It seems like such an oddly specific thing
Speaker 3: to pick and choose and do this. So in terms
Speaker 3: of trying to nail the tone of the show that
Speaker 3: they're parroting, I think they nailed that. It is just
Speaker 3: an alien shows up on I Love Lucy. Okay, if
Speaker 3: all right? I guess I don't need any more explanation
Speaker 3: than that, and none is given, so it's interesting, I
Speaker 3: will say that much. What about you, Father Malone.
Speaker 1: I didn't like it overall because I don't like their
Speaker 1: comedy episodes when they're not in the hands of comedians,
Speaker 1: and for some reason they've decided they're going to close
Speaker 1: out their entire series with a pair of comedy episodes.
Speaker 1: I did notice though, that this dodge, this episode, dudge ah,
Speaker 1: this episode does manage to accomplish in about twenty two
Speaker 1: minutes what the entire mini series of Storm of the
Speaker 1: Century by Stephen King was positing because it's the exact
Speaker 1: same story, right, Like, this stranger shows up, acts weird,
Speaker 1: then demands their child and they have to give him
Speaker 1: to him, and then off he goes. It's like the
Speaker 1: same plot. The ending is when I actually liked about it.
Speaker 1: I liked that he took that kid and fucked off.
Speaker 1: I just wish they had been happier at the end,
Speaker 1: because they seem to rep it's a really weird tonal
Speaker 1: shift at the end. You're not supposed to know, or
Speaker 1: at least I didn't know how to feel, because it
Speaker 1: like they're so sick of the kid, but they're I
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't know what their intention was here
Speaker 1: at the end, but it seemed plenty tales from the
Speaker 1: dark side, and ordinarily they'll lean into the bitterness of it,
Speaker 1: and here they was leaning into the grief of it,
Speaker 1: which was an odd choice.
Speaker 3: I think I agree with you as well, And it
Speaker 3: just goes back to this whole idea of comedy I
Speaker 3: think is much harder to do than most things in writing,
Speaker 3: in terms of screenwriting, especially because again, comedy is so
Speaker 3: subjective from person to person, and if you make somebody laugh, congratulations.
Speaker 3: It is not easy. And the comedy in this is
Speaker 3: again just very specific but broad at the same time.
Speaker 3: And I don't I don't know if I've ever laughed
Speaker 3: at any of these comedy episodes that this show has done,
Speaker 3: because I'm just like, this is not a comedy style
Speaker 3: that really resonates with me, and I don't know who
Speaker 3: it's supposed to resonate with, because it's just say, it's
Speaker 3: broadly unfunny. It just seems misdirected in where it's trying
Speaker 3: to be funny, if that makes sense, Like it it's
Speaker 3: mining the wrong gags, is what is what it feels like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's doing this parody of I Love Lucy, and
Speaker 1: that is a sitcom, so they are hitting all of
Speaker 1: those same beats, and I don't understand the point of that.
Speaker 3: Ultimately.
Speaker 1: Are they trying to point out how hackneyed that the
Speaker 1: show used to be or are they trying to mine
Speaker 1: it for the same laughs. I don't know. I was confused.
Speaker 1: I like you, but Mike, I want to agree with
Speaker 1: you about Jack Carter's performance because I don't not like
Speaker 1: the episode based on that. I think he is doing
Speaker 1: a good job because he isn't like a stand up
Speaker 1: comedian or anything. This is just a regular working character actor.
Speaker 1: So he's really giving us all there and pulling it off.
Speaker 1: I think that's really hard to do. Actually, even like
Speaker 1: just basic English doubles speak is really hard to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I like what he was doing. What normally
Speaker 2: the steam coming from the ears gag is pretty rote.
Speaker 2: But when it happened the first time, I was just like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: that was good. I like that. When it happened the
Speaker 2: second time, I was like, okay, please don't do that again.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I thought that he did a good job.
Speaker 2: And Yeah, like you were saying, that whole don't Open
Speaker 2: the Box. It felt very similar to that, except yeah,
Speaker 2: it was like Ricky Ricardo was. He was more of
Speaker 2: the prick than anybody else in this episode, just with
Speaker 2: this whole like, oh, little Ricky's got to practice as drums.
Speaker 2: And I loved how much stuff she got done without
Speaker 2: little Ricky, like when she put him on pause. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the whole thing of the machine disappearing. I was kind
Speaker 2: of like, Okay, yeah, you guys are really fucked. If
Speaker 2: you keep messing around with this stuff, you're never gonna
Speaker 2: get your son back. And I see. I was waiting
Speaker 2: for there to be a twist, whether it be a
Speaker 2: good twist or a bad twist at the end, where
Speaker 2: three years to this guy is actually like a lifetime,
Speaker 2: or three years to this guy is a minute and
Speaker 2: a half, because obviously, if he's from outer space, if
Speaker 2: he goes out into space and comes back, three years
Speaker 2: for him might have passed in three hundred years here
Speaker 2: on Earth. It's been a while since I've seen an interstellar,
Speaker 2: but that's what I seem to remember from the old
Speaker 2: Einstein concept of time. So I was hoping for something
Speaker 2: just a little extra, h like the little kick in
Speaker 2: the ribs. Towards the end there either like I said,
Speaker 2: a happy twist or just a real fuck you don't
Speaker 2: mess with any of this stuff, Like you really shouldn't
Speaker 2: be bartering with this gentleman.
Speaker 1: It is a cautionary too, yeah, as most.
Speaker 3: Of them are. Yeah, by the end of it, I
Speaker 3: guess I was under the assumption they wouldn't be that
Speaker 3: disappointed that their son was gone because they were annoyed
Speaker 3: by him. But they do seem a little bit more
Speaker 3: put out by it than I have assumed they would be.
Speaker 3: They're bereft. Man.
Speaker 1: She's like playing to Ricky there.
Speaker 2: I know, And I thought she'd be happy because it's
Speaker 2: like when little Ricky's out of the way, she gets
Speaker 2: so much done and she's able to like figure out
Speaker 2: more of these household tints. That was an odd thread
Speaker 2: going through there. But this whole what contest and if
Speaker 2: we win, we get to be on television. I was like,
Speaker 2: that is such a Lucy trope, the whole like her
Speaker 2: just quest for fame and wants to be on television,
Speaker 2: and the worst way.
Speaker 1: I think it's a worthy I think I love Lucy
Speaker 1: is worthy of parody, and particularly this is what like
Speaker 1: eighty eight. At this point, this is the boomer generation.
Speaker 1: They grew up on this goddamn show, and they need
Speaker 1: to take it apart. But I don't think it's I'm
Speaker 1: just repeating. This is an echo chamber now. It isn't
Speaker 1: vicious enough, and it's not or and or not funny
Speaker 1: enough or sentimental enough. It's just there. I didn't hate it,
Speaker 1: but I didn't feel one way or another. I think
Speaker 1: the episode wanted me to feel something at the end there.
Speaker 3: They picked I Love Lucy intentionally and I don't understand why.
Speaker 3: It's like, you don't get me to the point of
Speaker 3: understand why you chose I Love Lucy, which to your
Speaker 3: point is like you should have done something a little
Speaker 3: bit more subversive or a little bit more pointed, and
Speaker 3: you don't. It's just like the most obvious things to parody.
Speaker 3: I'm surprised we didn't get Ethel and Fred showing up.
Speaker 3: We get mentioned of them with Bethel, which is.
Speaker 1: Wow, I love and little Nicky, Little Nicky.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean they already did a really good just in
Speaker 2: a three minute music video like the Ricky video by
Speaker 2: a weird al is freaking fantastic. And that was the
Speaker 2: first time where you got to see weird Al without
Speaker 2: the long curly hair, where he puts on the wig
Speaker 2: for that Ricky character.
Speaker 1: And he looks great in that video.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was a long time before this.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, but I don't remember when Dotty gets Spanked
Speaker 2: came out. But yeah, I agree with you. This was
Speaker 2: the time where I was nineteen ninety three, Yeah, so weird.
Speaker 2: And what year was this one? This was ninety eight
Speaker 2: white okay, so eighty eight, so right in the middle
Speaker 2: between those two. Yeah, I agree. I was just gonna
Speaker 2: say agree with you as far as this is, I
Speaker 2: guess a good time to parody Lucy. But it does
Speaker 2: feel like a strange marriage of the East. And I
Speaker 2: am almost curious to go back to the original short
Speaker 2: story to see how much of the Lucy Ricky stuff.
Speaker 3: Is in there.
Speaker 1: Probably nothing at all, Probably just a brief mention. Sometimes
Speaker 1: she felt like Lucy Ricardo, I know what to do.
Speaker 3: And for me, honestly did they were they not just
Speaker 3: able to get Ray Walston? Is that what it is?
Speaker 3: They were just like Ray Walston, will you come be
Speaker 3: in our episode?
Speaker 2: That my favorite Martian.
Speaker 3: It is It's like I love Lucy meets my favorite Martian,
Speaker 3: but they don't. It's almost like they don't belabor the
Speaker 3: point enough. That's what it is, like, you should I
Speaker 3: don't know. There should have been maybe more of a
Speaker 3: framing device or something. I don't know. Its just it
Speaker 3: does fall a little flat. But what a weird thing.
Speaker 3: I love, Lucy.
Speaker 1: It's straddling this weird line of being the sitcom and
Speaker 1: being a real world version of the sitcom, and it
Speaker 1: can't figure out which one it wants to be, so
Speaker 1: it's neither exactly. Yeah, and finally, oh my god, here
Speaker 1: we are at the end season four episode twenty My
Speaker 1: cousin Basher Malone, written by Peter O'Keefe, directed by Anthony
Speaker 1: Santa Crocy. This was originally aired on July the twenty fourth,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight. Perfect time for a horror anthology series,
Speaker 1: Middle of Summer, starring Vic Tayback, Marie den Brink Stevens,
Speaker 1: and Marlene Cassamento. Are you ready for the match of
Speaker 1: a lifetime? This is not it. It's Basher Malone versus Trag,
Speaker 1: a demon from Hell. Wild you think of this one, Chris,
Speaker 1: you're there, you're a wrestling expert. What did you think
Speaker 1: of this? Fucking fantastic display of.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Start in the trail off there the Stephen Capello, the
Speaker 3: California terminator who tagged with the future and I guess
Speaker 3: at the time now former governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura.
Speaker 3: Stephen Coppello would go on to paint the Governor's mansion
Speaker 3: and paint a portrait of Jesse Ventura for his time
Speaker 3: in the governor governorship of Minnesota. I am a wrestling fan. Yes,
Speaker 3: this is yeah, this is not what what in God's
Speaker 3: name is this? This is wrestling question mark? This is
Speaker 3: something again similarly to the last episode, like high concept,
Speaker 3: strange all over the place, doesn't necessarily succeed completely, but
Speaker 3: it's weird. It's weird enough to have my attention. I
Speaker 3: don't think it gets all the way to a twenty
Speaker 3: three minute episode without like meandering for a minute because
Speaker 3: it is so high concept. But I think it's fine.
Speaker 3: I will say to your point, if this is the
Speaker 3: way you're ending your show, not a good way to
Speaker 3: end your show, one might say, one of the worst
Speaker 3: ways to Drew show. Not the worst way, because I
Speaker 3: think comparative to maybe some of the other final episodes
Speaker 3: we've seen of things It's not as bad as some
Speaker 3: of the other ones, but not a great way to
Speaker 3: end a show that started out really strong about you, Mike.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what a weird thing. This is going to be
Speaker 2: a strange complaint. The music. The music that just keeps
Speaker 2: repeating over and over again.
Speaker 3: It's not a strange complaint when it's that bad.
Speaker 2: And at one point it becomes love theme from Basher.
Speaker 3: It's just it's so strange.
Speaker 2: I was so happy when I saw Victa back in
Speaker 2: this love Victory back. I kept wondering, does he always
Speaker 2: have to have a cigar in his mouth? I guess
Speaker 2: he didn't when he was on Colombo trying to sell
Speaker 2: some shifty art. But yeah, this whole all American boy
Speaker 2: who brings his mother to the games and eats milk
Speaker 2: and cookies and stuff. It's good for a few seconds.
Speaker 2: But then once they get to a big devil type
Speaker 2: match and stuff, and I'm just like, is Victate back
Speaker 2: the devil? Or is he just a horrible person? I
Speaker 2: think he's just horrible. And then apparently because of how
Speaker 2: horrible you are, the guy who he's fighting gains weight.
Speaker 3: He becomes like bane, so the sins he weighs the
Speaker 3: sins weighs the sins.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that victory back has a like the trident
Speaker 2: on his hat and it's what's to say in his shirt?
Speaker 2: It actually says like devil's something on his shirt. I'm
Speaker 2: just like, oh, okay, yeah, what a weird way what
Speaker 2: to end your show? And just a strange episode because
Speaker 2: at one point it just becomes like what a five
Speaker 2: hander of all these people in an empty gym with
Speaker 2: that cool laser effect that they're doing that was pretty expensive.
Speaker 2: You this one, FM.
Speaker 1: PEPSI say, relax, who Yeah, they broke out that laser.
Speaker 1: I will say that the one time the use of
Speaker 1: the laser machine was really cool was when Brink Stevens
Speaker 1: melts down and they have it playing on her as
Speaker 1: if it's electricity, as if she's short circuiting. I thought
Speaker 1: that was such a great effect, and if they didn't
Speaker 1: use the laser at all for the rest of it,
Speaker 1: then it would have been better. Overall, do we really
Speaker 1: need three matches? Does it need to be three falls?
Speaker 1: Are you kidding me?
Speaker 3: It's an Iron Man match, baby, you don't we go.
Speaker 1: To commercial, we come back and we're still fucking fighting.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Had they put both of these into one episode. It
Speaker 2: probably would have been way better just cut both of
Speaker 2: these down by half, but no, we're committed to the
Speaker 2: half hour bit.
Speaker 1: I will say there's a nice circularity to the after
Speaker 1: the pilot the first official episode of Tales from the
Speaker 1: Dark Side was victay Back not remembering or his child that.
Speaker 3: Who is this kid?
Speaker 1: So it's good that he was in the first and
Speaker 1: now he's here back in the last, and that's nice
Speaker 1: and it's always good to see him. But is this
Speaker 1: just some fucking real world version of or some like
Speaker 1: it's Hull Covid, right, I mean.
Speaker 3: It's Hull Covid, and it's Captain Lou Albano, and it's
Speaker 3: and then the guy who's dressed up like Trog is Vader.
Speaker 3: He's literally wearing Vader's outfit with the like the red
Speaker 3: singlet and the mask.
Speaker 1: And then but in nineteen I don't think Vader was
Speaker 1: that big a deal, don't Wasn't he a nineties guy?
Speaker 2: Darth Vader was very big since nineteen seventy seven, thank.
Speaker 3: Very much, heard of Jesus. Sorry, we're talking about the
Speaker 3: wrestler known as a big Van Vader, Sir Darth Vader. Sorry,
Speaker 3: people are real confused all of us.
Speaker 1: He has more than more than one name. I had
Speaker 1: no idea.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Big Van Vader was he was wrestling from
Speaker 3: like the mid mid eighties on. But yeah, he was
Speaker 3: height of his time was in the nineties in the WWE.
Speaker 3: But it is Lou Albano clearly, because the way Vic
Speaker 3: Tabac is rested at the beginning of the episode, he's
Speaker 3: wearing those like bright colorful shirts, just like Albono did.
Speaker 3: And then yes, Stephen Capello, it is just Hulk Hogan clearly,
Speaker 3: Like that's very odd.
Speaker 1: He's basically saying, take your vitamins and say your prayers,
Speaker 1: like there's a variation on that, like that, we're supposed
Speaker 1: to believe that this is what Hulk Hogan would really be.
Speaker 1: Like No, actually, as it turns out, sorry.
Speaker 3: Rac the Devil's dick. He didn't fight the Devil shockingly,
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you would have been like, oh that guy, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's pretty he's got some good ideas if you really
Speaker 2: stop and listen.
Speaker 1: To him, I'm gonna throw the match for Satan or
Speaker 1: they wouldn't do that, brother, But he's good.
Speaker 3: By Oh god, what what an ironic episode to have
Speaker 3: to watch after the passing of Hulk Hogan too. It
Speaker 3: takes on new meaning after the passing of one Terry
Speaker 3: Hulk Hogan. Boleya.
Speaker 1: Are they still doing that Chris Hemsworth movie? Remember they
Speaker 1: were like he was in constant training for Swans and shit,
Speaker 1: I'm like.
Speaker 2: Oh, twenty six inch fons.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you still do an Vince McMahon movie too. You
Speaker 3: can really have this run the circuit of shithead people.
Speaker 1: In the wrestling we all just want a macho man movie.
Speaker 1: Let's face that's true.
Speaker 3: Yeah, which basically they have.
Speaker 1: They have to miss Elizabeth here with Stevens' character.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was nice seeing her. It's always nicee in her,
Speaker 2: but yeah, very nice seeing her in this episode.
Speaker 3: There was weird kind of fac similes for people in
Speaker 3: the real world of wrestling at the time, and if
Speaker 3: you're alive at the time, it's very obvious it's inescapable
Speaker 3: at the time.
Speaker 1: And I just don't know what amounted anything other than
Speaker 1: too many matches. And I really hated our lead and
Speaker 1: I kind of wanted them to all get stuffed into
Speaker 1: that fucking refrigerator of Laserdom.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The final thing when tay Back gets sent through
Speaker 2: the portal with the wrestler and who because they're touching now,
Speaker 2: suddenly he becomes the biggest weight in the world. How
Speaker 2: just like break apart and go their own ways. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 2: that was a really bad.
Speaker 1: Maximilian.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, very very black Sorry dark hole. Yep, you're right.
Speaker 3: They came out of that black hole. I don't understand
Speaker 3: what the problem is with them going back into it. Yeah,
Speaker 3: he just walked out of it before. All right, there's
Speaker 3: the problem, Like.
Speaker 2: Do some walkout music? Yeah, it's just the same theme
Speaker 2: as they played through the entire fucking thing.
Speaker 1: Who's got a bass guitar? Could you just play that
Speaker 1: over there?
Speaker 3: Which of these is trogs entrance music? Please play it
Speaker 3: for me.
Speaker 2: Let's get the music cues from Tales from the Dark
Speaker 2: Side season four.
Speaker 1: I will hunt them down. I know they exist somewhere.
Speaker 1: Donald Wuvenstein will not return my Toels. No, he's been
Speaker 1: very nice. He's just very hesitant to talk. It's unusual,
Speaker 1: and really I just want to talk to his brother anyway.
Speaker 2: So there you go.
Speaker 1: All right, till next time the next episode of Midnight
Speaker 1: yere we're gonna be looking at It's not a series anymore.
Speaker 1: It's We're gonna be looking at the movie Tales from
Speaker 1: the Dark Side, the movie from nineteen ninety until then.
Speaker 1: Where are you working on? People find it? Chris Statue
Speaker 1: looking whoa.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can find all the things that I do
Speaker 3: over weirdingwaymedia dot com, including this show and the Culture
Speaker 3: Cast and Shabby Detective and col check tapes which is done.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of stuff. Everything can be found over
Speaker 3: at wordingwaymedia dot com, other than my patreon which has
Speaker 3: ranked on Bond which Father Malone you were on at
Speaker 3: one point talking about live and let die twice twice.
Speaker 3: That was what to say, and then you came back.
Speaker 3: I know from what we talked about.
Speaker 2: You loly start twice.
Speaker 3: Sorry or so they say. And yeah, you can find
Speaker 3: that on my patreon, which is patreon dot com slash Culturecast,
Speaker 3: or Mike's patreon patreon dot com slash Projection Booth. But
Speaker 3: more importantly, given that this is your show patreon dot
Speaker 3: com slash Father Malone, as we can go to financially
Speaker 3: support you, which you're working pretty damn hard to make
Speaker 3: this show. So I would suggest anyone who's listening to this,
Speaker 3: if you're not already doing it, go and do that.
Speaker 3: So what about you, Mike White?
Speaker 2: Pretty much the same thing. I will just say, go
Speaker 2: on over to Weadingwaymedia dot com and check out all
Speaker 2: the fun stuff.
Speaker 1: How about you FM, as Chris said Patreon dot com
Speaker 1: final slash fond them alone. You get episodes early and
Speaker 1: commercial free. In fact, you're gonna get a whole lot
Speaker 1: of new bonus contacts. Finally got my nose to the
Speaker 1: fucking grindstone. So we've got a comic book horror film
Speaker 1: adaptation fest currently going on. Star Trek Fest is going on.
Speaker 1: We just finished up our Yaucha Fest with a day
Speaker 1: of release of fucking Predator bad Lands. Anyway, go check
Speaker 1: out all that stuff there. Until next time, try to
Speaker 1: enjoy the daylight
Speaker 3: Range as