Hola, Sneakers! Welcome to Sneaky Dragon – the first podcast to feature AI hosts*!
This week: pro-bionics; a dash of exuberance; dog tales; dialectical material; terrible Canada; skeetering on the edge; his smell; uncomfortable cooking; take your Glicks; Short cuts; social studies; test department; the cheater; elementary questions; map whiz; sweet Marie; bullpen and ink; the talented schlockmeister; health cares; car woes; shit happens; singles going steady; records break; virtually funny; do the robot; RIP Guy MacPherson; it’s Ron Livingstone, ya ding-dongs; RIP Carl Weathers; trivia time; impersonating an officer; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; for the ages; Trimpe the light fantastic; mentor as anything; and, finally, Aussie rules love.
Question of the Week: If you could live in another time, what decade would you choose?
Sub-question of the Week: What’s your favourite spin-off?
Thanks for listening.
*Please note: “AI” stands for “almost interesting”.
Here is the link to David and Ian’s appearance on Guy MacPherson’s excellent podcast What’s So Funny?
David wasn’t lying! Here is the 45 put out by Ian and David’s high school socials teachers!
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Hello Sneakees and Sneakers,
I spent a lot of my youth absolutely entranced by the pop culture of the 60s that I thought I was born too late (I was alive for 2 weeks in the 60s). I now appreciate 60s culture from afar, because the reality is that I may have died in the 60s if I was a young man then. The only reason I would want to live in an earlier time is to not struggle with money. My dad was a baker that worked for independent shops, the supermarkets here in the US didn’t really have functioning bakeries until the late 80s. My mother didn’t work then, so he was able to support us on his salary alone. He paid off our house in 5 years. I was looking at Super 8 film of Christmas 1980, and gifts that I thought were spread out over more than one Christmas were all in that one year. I got a boom box, a 2-XL, a Charlie McCarthy ventriloquist dummy, and my sister and I got an Atari 2600 with 3 extra games. He may have worried about money more than I do now, I don’t know. I do know I am where I’m supposed to be right now, and I wouldn’t fit anywhere else.
As for spinoffs, I have a feeling that if I had watched Better Call Saul, it would be that one. But since I haven’t taken the plunge yet, I will say Laverne and Shirley. Anything that the Fonz liked back then, I liked it too. However, that show followed Happy Days at 8:30 on Tuesday nights, which was my bedtime for the first few seasons of L&S. Occasionally my mom would let me stay up to watch it, but most Tuesdays at 8:30 I was running up to my bedroom crying. I had it real bad for Shirley then, and I of course loved Lenny and Squiggy. I think you guys have talked about the Lenny and the Squigtones album before, if any of the listeners haven’t heard it it is highly recommended.
My condolences to you both on the loss of your friend Guy, and to Edward, I hope everything is okay with your puppy. We always have a house full of pets and losing them is so hard and it doesn’t get easier with time, unfortunately. Much love to all of you ❤️
I’m pretty happy living in a digital age, so I would not go back before the 2010s. I’d still have all the culture from the previous decades to enjoy and I wouldn’t have to write on a manual typewriter or with a pen and ink. The sweet spot would be somewhere around 2014 in a pre-MAGA, pre-pandemic world.
My current favourite spin-off is Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The evolution of the Captain Pike character has been…fascinating. They recycled him from the failed Star Trek pilot for the original series, revived him for the JJ Abrams reboot movies, then took him back to an earlier time for Star Trek: Discovery. Now he’s back on the Enterprise. In this timeline, the Anson Mount iteration gets a premonition about his future incapacitation and has to come to terms with carrying out his duties knowing his fate.
I was sorry to hear about Guy MacPherson’s passing. He was a good supporter of the Vancouver TheatreSports League when I was involved with the company. Theatre reviewers would critique our improv-based formats as plays but Guy reported on them as comedy shows which was a better fit so I would look forward to reading his reviews.
I’m going to have to whole-heartedly agree with you on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Louise, I haven’t enjoyed an entire crew on the Enterprise that much since Next Generation signed off. They really have found their rhythm and seem to be having fun with it, definitely worth rewatching. Also nobody in the galaxy comes close to sporting a coif like Pike’s, I hope he has those locks insured.
You know what Dave, you’re right, the 70’s do see like they’re hanging in kind of a mustard gas haze colored with harvest oranges, dull teals and beige. I don’t think I’d like to relive that decade, once was enough so I think I’ll go with the 1980’s. As garish and vapid as that decade was, I entered it at 15 and left it at 25. 1980 – 1990 totally and firmly encompassed both my high school and college years which were the best of times for me.
This question is something I’ve pondered a lot, so it’s great you’ve asked it this week. Part of me does wish to return to the 70’s almost on a curious dare, to see it through adult eyes and experience a less technical and complicated time…but was it? The energy crisis!! Then I wonder how the 80’s would compare as an adult, then I think of what it would be to go back 100 years and meet the Marx Brothers! I’m torn and struggling with options so I just may have to build myself a way-back machine or borrow a DeLorean from some crazy doctor…
Louise kind of stole my thunder above with Strange New Worlds, so I’ll go back to the 70’s now (see what I did there?) and follow the trail of television breadcrumbs that the brilliant Gary Marshall put me on. “Love American Style” wasn’t a favorite show of mine but it spun-off “Happy Days” which led to “Mork and Mindy”, both favorites of mine. Marshall wrote an episode tilted “Love and The Happy Days” which was an episode of the anthology series “Love American Style”. Every episode of “Love American Style” was tiled “Love and the ________” and I guess it did well in the ratings or maybe the popularity of “American Graffiti” had something to do with it. I read that the episode was sold as a pilot and “Happy Days” was born. I was nuts about that show as a kid, then with the Sci-Fi craze in the late 70’s, “Mork and Mindy” just fit right in. I also enjoyed “Laverne and Shirley” but I’ll have to end the trail there because I remember nothing about “Joannie Loves Chachi.”
A great friend and Dr Pepper co-worker from years ago moved away some years back. I was shocked this week when I saw how close to Canada he lives, almost on the border in Blaine, Washington! How many miles is that from you guys? Originally from Muncie, Indiana, he loves it up there and will probably stay.
I’ll just go and put on some Huey Lewis and the News or Go-Gos now and prepare for the 1980’s…I guess.
Best to all creatures and friends, great, small and sneaky.
Adding to to David’s comments on the look of the 1970’s, take a good look at this designer’s exercise. He writes, “Here’s what I’d do: grab all the modern technology I could find, take it to the late 70’s, superficially redesign it all to blend in, start a consumer electronics company to unleash it upon the world.”
Alt/1977…Brilliant designed tech with all the color cues from the late 70’s. By Alex Varanese.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/545221/ALT1977-WE-ARE-NOT-TIME-TRAVELERS