Was E.T really the greatest sci-fi movie of 1982? We go down the rabbit hole of where E.T. fits in the summer that changed sci-fi.

In Episode 84 of Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Nick, Georgia, and Mary welcome back returning guest and boxing glove artist Chris Guzman(@theboxinggloveartist) to the Basement Studio to talk E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Was it really the greatest sci-fi film of the summer of ’82, or just the most sentimental?

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Episode 84 Transcript

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Previous RHOR Episode(s) with Chris:

Gremlins and Holiday Science

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Where to find Chris Online:

• Art: Instagram: @theboxinggloveartist
• Food: Instagram: @stupidgoodgrill
• Facebook: Chris GuzMan

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Georgia and Jim’s Touch of Noir 2027 Wall Calendar —

12 months of all-original art by Jim and Georgia; orders are open now, with mailing expected in September

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Check out what the RHR crew is creating:

Joe:

• Named by the Guild Literary Complex as one of the 35 Writers to Watch!
• Red Line: Chicago Horror Stories Anthology featuring a story by Joe!
• Joe’s Sci-fi physiological thriller Novel: Will You Still Love Me If I Become Someone Else?
• Joe’s Rom-Com Novella: Tomorrow May Be Too Late

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Future Events to Hang with the Crew:

Podcast Cross-Appearances

• Joe on GoIndieNow: 21grams with Joe Compton talking about villains.
• RHR Crew on This Podcast Will Change Your Life with Ben Tanzer

Events & Conventions:

Joe:

• Maud’s READINGS at Printer’s Row Wine on Sep 19th 2-4pm
• Art show Ultrastructure: Science is Fun, with Carol Estes at Promise You Art House in Highland IN, October 10th, 10-3pm
• Family Day: Seeing the Invisible World to Build a New One; in conjunction with the fall exhibition: teamLab: Everything Exists in Infinite Continuity, at the Smart Museum of Art In Hyde Park, IL, Nov 14th, 11-3pm
• Art and Science lecture about Zombies: Dec 10thGeorgia:The inaugural 4th Street Print Fest at Chesterton Art Center on Saturday, October 3, from 1–4 PM

It’s Science for Weirdos

Want to support the show? Tell your friends. Follow us on social media, Discord, share the podcast, and let us know what topics you are excited about. Leave a Comment. And for email alerts sign-up for the Substack newsletter and never miss an episode, exciting updates or the bonus images we talk about on the episodes. 

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We discussed these questions on the episode and now want to Hear From You (leave a comment):

• Was E.T. the greatest sci-fi film of the summer of 1982, or does another film on that list take the crown?
• If a real extraterrestrial landed in your neighborhood, would your first instinct be to help it, or call the government?
• We named a few in the episode, but do you have a favorite friendly alien story? Favorite hostile alien?

Drop your thoughts in the comments. We read them all, and your ideas often shape future episodes.

Leave a comment

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Future Episodes

• Episode 86: Disability in HorrorGuest: Grace Daly (Bram Stoker nominee)
• Episode 88: CraziesRecorded at Reed’s Local with Melissa and Luc
• Episode 90: Witch PleaseGuest: Bill Halliar (@skeletongue)

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Show Notes & Fun Facts 

Stuff crew said they’d put in shownotes

• E.T. novelization by William Kotzwinkle — novelization that goes deeper into the E.T lore.
• The Thing Expanded (CreatorVC)— 5 hour Kickstarter documentary — Joe is in the credits as a supporter.
• Drew Struzan — Poster artist that designed the iconic The Thing poster, passed away October 2025.
• Armistead Maupin’s Maybe the Moon — Georgia mentioned Armistead Maupin based this novel on his friend Tamara De Treaux, one of the performers inside the E.T. suit.
• E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears — was the cancelled, horror-themed sequel Chris had mentioned. written by Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Melissa Mathison

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Movies

• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
• Poltergeist (1982)
• The Thing (1982)
• Blade Runner (1982)
• Tron (1982)
• The Road Warrior (1982)
• Alien (1979)
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
• Star Wars (1977)
• Gremlins (1984)
• Starman (1984)
• Back to the Future (1985)
• Ghostbusters (1984)
• Cocoon (1985)
• Flight of the Navigator (1986)
• Mac and Me (1988)
• Men in Black (1997)
• Paul (2011)
• Alien Nation (1988)
• District 9 (2009)
• Alien Romulus (2024)
• Prey (2022)
• V/H/S/85 (2023)
• Under Siege (1992)
• They Live (1988)
• Tommy Boy (1995)
• Mars Attacks! (1996)
• Starship Troopers (1997)
• The Iron Giant (1999)
• Planet 51 (2009)
• Battle for Terra (2007)

TV

• Mork & Mindy
• My Favorite Martian
• V (miniseries)
• Stranger Things
• Alien Nation
• ALF

Books

• Roadside Picnic — Arkady & Boris Strugatsky (1972)
• Maybe the Moon — Armistead Maupin
• Farewell to the Master — Harry Bates (1940) 
• Childhood’s End — Arthur C. Clarke (1953)
• First Contact — Murray Leinster (1945) — coined the term “first contact” in fiction
• Dear Devil — Eric Frank Russell (1950)
• A True Story — Lucian of Samosata (2nd century AD) — arguably the first sci-fi alien story
• The War of the Worlds — H.G. Wells (1898)
• The Germ Growers — Robert Potter (1892) — credited as the first alien invasion novel
• Two Planets — Kurd Lasswitz (1897)

Video Games

• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Atari, 1982)
• Pitfall (Atari)
• Centipede (Atari)

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Fun Facts to Impress Your Friends With:

1. The summer of 1982 may be the greatest 8-week run in sci-fi film history.Within roughly two months, theaters saw Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (June 4), Poltergeist (June 4), E.T. (June 11), The Thing (June 25), Blade Runner (June 25), Tron (July 9), and The Road Warrior (August). Both The Thing and Blade Runner bombed on release and are now considered all-time classics. E.T. became the highest-grossing film ever made and held that title for 11 years until another little film replaced it (Jurassic Park).
2. Wood frogs freeze solid every winter and come back to life in spring. When E.T. appears to die and revives, it’s not as far-fetched as it sounds. Real organisms like wood frogs and tardigrades (water bears) can enter cryptobiotic states — no heartbeat, no breathing — and be fully revived. Tardigrades have survived being frozen for 30 years.
3. Atari buried 700,000 unsold E.T. game cartridges in a New Mexico landfill — and for years people thought it was an urban legend. The E.T. game was rushed out in five weeks, widely considered one of the worst games ever made, and helped trigger the video game industry crash of 1983. The burial was confirmed by excavation in 2014.
4. The first half of E.T. was deliberately shot so adults are never seen from the waist up — a tribute to the cartoons of Tex Avery, the MGM animation director behind Daffy Duck, Droopy, and the phrase “What’s up, Doc?” It was Spielberg’s way of keeping the entire film locked in a child’s point of view.

Episode Highlights

00:00 Basement Studio Chaos — Full house, and the show immediately goes off the rails before Joe can even start.

00:40 Guest Roll Call — Returning guest and boxing glove artist Chris Guzman is back for E.T. with Reese’s Pieces and artwork.

03:02 Summer 1982 Sci-Fi Run — Joe lays out the most extraordinary 8-week run in sci-fi history: Star Trek II, Poltergeist, E.T., The Thing, Blade Runner, Tron, and The Road Warrior all within two months.

06:43 Thing Poster Tangent — Chris calls for a moment of silence for Drew Struzan, the greatest poster artist of all time.

08:15 E.T. Origins and Studio Pass — Joe traces E.T. back to Spielberg’s childhood imaginary alien friend, the unmade Night Skies project, and Columbia Pictures famously calling it “a wimpy Walt Disney movie.”

10:49 Columbia’s Missed Hits — Chris drops the bombshell: Columbia also passed on Back to the Future and Ghostbusters (then called Ghost Smashers).

13:32 Reese’s Pieces and Atari — M&M’s said no, Hershey said yes, and Atari buried 700,000 unsold cartridges in a New Mexico landfill and nearly killed an entire industry.

17:37 Hot Takes: E.T. Debate — Joe admits he wasn’t impressed as a seven-year-old, Chris nearly walks out, and the basement studio divides hard on whether E.T. holds up.

19:30 Defending E.T.’s Heart — Mary watched it again the night before and cried her eyes out; Georgia argues it’s not a kids movie, it’s a human movie.

26:10 Government Hazmat Logic — Joe makes the case that the real government response would have quarantined the entire town, taken Elliott in for studies, and put E.T. in a BSL-4 containment facility.

31:20 Product Placement List — Chris stopped counting the products in the first ten minutes: Coca-Cola, Fresca, Tab, Fritos, Raid, Sun-Maid raisins, Chutes and Ladders, Star Wars toys, and Coors…

32:26 E.T. as Jedi — Is E.T. a Force-sensitive Padawan? The Halloween scene where E.T. recognizes Yoda and says “home” may be proof E.T. was a Jedi in training.

33:39 Spielberg-Lucas Easter Eggs — The Lucas-Spielberg profit swap bet, E.T. species appearing in the Phantom Menace senate, and Rob Bottin (The Thing practical effects designer) performed in the Star Wars cantina band.

35:42 Science vs. Movie Magic — Joe points out the Handwavium needed for the bicycle-and-moon silhouette. in short the whole thing is impossible.

37:33 Psychic Link Plot Holes — If E.T. and Elliott are psychically linked, why does Elliott lose track of him?

38:37 Candy, Plants, and Biology — Joe points out that the dying flower E.T. revives is a reproductive organ.

40:22 Drew Barrymore’s Heart — Chris reveals that Drew Barrymore’s “I don’t like his feet” reaction was completely unscripted.

42:22 80s PSAs and Framing — The crew riffs on “Do you know where your children are?” and the connection to Tex Avery cartoons.

44:32 Gremlins Origin Story — Chris connects E.T to Gremlins as an original script written about what would happen if E.T.’s species came back and weren’t so cuddly.

46:02 Friendly Alien History — Joe lists aliens through history.

54:23 Alien Stories and Metaphors — Mary recommends Alien Romulus, and Joe brings up Roadside Picnic as the ultimate alien-artifacts-without-contact story.

57:34 Peter Pan Influence — Mary makes the case that E.T. has threads of Peter Pan.

01:01:09 E.T. Autopsy Science Talk — The crew discusses whether E.T.’s “death” is similar to tardigrades and wood frogs in biological stasis.

01:03:52 80s Alien Movie Roll Call — Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Cocoon, Flight of the Navigator, and Mac and Me.

01:06:38 Dark Turns and Autopsies — Nick points out that the scientists could have started cutting the moment E.T. appeared to die.

01:09:21 E.T. Suit Performers — Georgia’s points out that Armistead Maupin’s novel Maybe the Moon was written in Tamara’s honor.

01:14:32 Corey Feldman Cut — Chris reveals Corey Feldman was originally cast as Elliott’s best friend, cut, but Spielberg put him into Gremlins instead.

01:15:11 Fannish Halloween Meltdown — Chris tells the story of his tantrum on the floor over a E.T. costume.

01:18:19 Merchandising and Toy Wars — Joe traces the merchandising revolution of movie toys.

01:21:32 Stranger Things Influence — Georgia connects Stranger Things’ bike rides and creature design back to E.T. and Joe points out that the Demogorgon looks like something out of The Thing.

01:22:27 Alien-Predator Cage Match — E.T. versus a xenomorph. Predator versus E.T. and what if E.T. encountered The Thing? Who Goes There?

01:26:56 Why E.T. Still Works — Chris: “It’s a feel-good movie and one of the first summer blockbusters I ever experienced.” 

01:35:53 Wrap Up and Where to Find Chris — Instagram: @theboxinggloveartist and @stupidgoodgrill, Facebook: Chris Guzman. Go buy some boxing gloves.

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“Stay curious, stay safe… Love Y’all!”

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Transcript

00:00:00 joe: Hey, welcome back to the Rabbit Hole of Research. Down here in the basement studio, we are all crewed up

[00:00:10] georgia: Full

[00:00:10] nick: house. Everyone in

[00:00:12] georgia: even… There’s not even room to move. There’s

[00:00:15] joe: not even room to move There is not room to move.

[00:00:17] Mary: I don’t

[00:00:17] joe: I don’t know. Yeah.

[00:00:18] nick: Georgia, I don’t know what you’re doing over there. Why can’t you

move?

[00:00:20] joe: Yeah,

it’s

[00:00:21] nick: it’s like,

uh- There is plenty of

[00:00:22] georgia: room only.

[00:00:24] joe: Well, yeah, standing room only.

We got a live studio audience. I don’t know.

[00:00:30] Mary: have Phoebe Cates.

[00:00:31] joe: Yeah. Well, hold on.

[00:00:32] Mary: Okay, wait. Okay. Now-

[00:00:33] joe: pre-show conversation. Let’s, uh-

[00:00:35] nick: wait. Sorry,

[00:00:36] Chris_G: If that’s the intro, this is gonna be something.

[00:00:39] Mary: this

[00:00:39] georgia: gonna do something. Well,

[00:00:39] Mary: be something. Well,

[00:00:40] joe: you’ve got me,

Joe.

[00:00:42] nick: I got Nick.

[00:00:43] georgia: You got Nick.

Georgia.

That’s-

[00:00:46] nick: Jesus. We

[00:00:46] Mary: you got Mary. We’ve

[00:00:47] joe: got Mary, and we have

A return- Oh, Mary’s here, you guys

yes, returning. Came back for a little more punishment.

[00:00:53] georgia: punishment.

He

[00:00:54] nick: He loved it.

[00:00:55] Chris_G: had such a great time last time y- you put it out there for me, and I said [00:01:00] absolutely.

[00:01:00] joe: You gonna name yourself, or are you just gonna… people have to go and listen through

to all the episodes?

[00:01:04] Chris_G: call in and guess.

[00:01:06] nick: Oh, yeah, we do have the

new phone line, yep.

[00:01:08] joe: That’s right. Yeah.

555-5555. Yeah.

[00:01:09] Mary: 555-5555.

[00:01:12] Chris_G: Yeah.

Wait, w- I gotta write that

[00:01:13] georgia: down.

[00:01:14] Chris_G: That’s a

[00:01:15] joe: That’s a good ’80s one. But anyway, we got the boxing glove artist, Chris Guzman himself here.

[00:01:21] Chris_G: How is everyone?

[00:01:22] Mary: Woo-hoo … on

[00:01:23] georgia: Yay. Woo … in our Gremlin episode.

[00:01:24] nick: That was-

[00:01:25] Chris_G: that was a quality

[00:01:27] joe: movie.

[00:01:27] Chris_G: evening.

[00:01:28] nick: Yeah.

[00:01:28] joe: And he came back. And well, he- he gave himself his own- invite back, ’cause he was like

[00:01:36] nick: we we’re gonna talk about E.T.

[00:01:38] joe: And then it was like, oh, that’s a great idea. And then now here he is and we’re gonna be talking about E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,

[00:01:45] Chris_G: There’s gonna be a l- there’s gonna be a little bit of Gremlin talk, too.

[00:01:48] joe: probably will be, yes. There has to be, yes. No

I have a, I have things queued up, so yes.

They’re clawed hand in

clawed hand. They, indeed they are. And there it is. We’re already-

[00:01:57] georgia: finger in strange finger.

[00:01:58] Mary: Oh,

[00:01:59] joe: okay. [00:02:00] Well, let’s, phew. Yep.

[00:02:02] Mary: Man, we went off the rails fast.

[00:02:04] joe: just Super fast.

[00:02:05] nick: in strange finger. Oh, okay. Let’s, yep. Man, we went off the rails. Well, I’ll get us down from that. Didn’t take long for this episode.

[00:02:06] joe: was the ’80s. This is still PG-13. I mean, according to the ’80s, this is all-

you know.

[00:02:12] Mary: was PG-13. That was one of the ’80s. It was you know-

[00:02:12] georgia: Oh, boy.

[00:02:14] joe: Well, great. This episode I, I don’t have, I’m not gonna do my- Oh,

[00:02:18] nick: no monologue?

No monologue

[00:02:19] joe: in this one.

[00:02:20] nick: Not gonna be talking about how we’re talk- you know, talking to

aliens.

[00:02:24] joe: I

just gotta

get, I’ma go right into it.

You’re throwing me, man.

I’ma

go

[00:02:27] Chris_G: I’ve been

[00:02:28] georgia: I’ve been

studying.

[00:02:28] joe: That’s

right.

Yeah.

[00:02:29] Chris_G: what he does.

[00:02:30] joe: what I like doing, throwing out. Ah. But I think this one here, I just wanna, I wanna get in. I got a few lists. I do have lists. I’m list heavy in this episode, so I feel like I need to balance that out, and I’ma come right

[00:02:40] georgia: out. And Mary’s happy you’re not doing

[00:02:42] nick: doing a

[00:02:43] joe: Sheesh.

[00:02:44] georgia: I m- What

[00:02:45] joe: of, what do you guys

talk

[00:02:46] Chris_G: looks overjoyed.

[00:02:47] joe: I know. It’s like-

[00:02:49] georgia: like- I’m just teasing … if we

[00:02:50] joe: had

room

to move, she would shear her arms

[00:02:53] georgia: in this. But Mary s- she does give you a hard time about your monologues. But,

[00:02:56] joe: right. But,

[00:02:56] Mary: Yeah. You know. Yeah,

[00:02:57] georgia: w-

[00:02:58] joe: was gonna say that I wanna start out [00:03:00] with the list and then we can go back, we can loop back.

But I think the summer of ’82

[00:03:04] Mary: ’82

[00:03:05] georgia: is

[00:03:05] joe: probably one of the most, you know, extraordinary eight to 10-week runs in sci-fi film history that’s just, I’m gonna lay that out there. I’m gonna give the list of what came out, and then we can move and get back to E.T., ’cause I think this is gonna set up a whole lot of conversation here.

But you start the summer off with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which may have been one of the best Star Trek movies in the

series.

[00:03:28] nick: this is gonna sound naive, but I didn’t know that movie was in theaters.

[00:03:33] Mary: It just,

[00:03:34] joe: they didn’t go straight to video back

then.

[00:03:37] nick: many. What are you talking about?

[00:03:38] Mary: They did, yeah.

[00:03:39] joe: What are you talking about?

They did, yeah. This is ’82.

No way.

[00:03:40] nick: movies

went straight to-

[00:03:41] joe: already start out with- I’m

[00:03:41] Mary: it’s like

Maybe you thought it was a TV movie. I thought it was a

[00:03:42] nick: VHS … V-

[00:03:43] Mary: Okay. All right. I’m sorry.

[00:03:45] Chris_G: List of one? We’re already in a ditch? Nick, come on,

[00:03:49] joe: ditch? We, out the gate, we are, we’re in controversy

[00:03:52] nick: right now. This is gonna be a whole controversial

episode. All

right. All right. I

[00:03:56] Mary: until 3:00 AM.

[00:03:57] joe: So, and that

was the, that was- one of the

first

feature [00:04:00] films

to use an entirely computer-generated sequence, the Genesis effect. That was, if people remember that movie.

I’m not sure if everyone

[00:04:06] georgia: obviously Nick doesn’t.

I’ve seen it.

[00:04:08] joe: I’ve

[00:04:08] nick: I’ve seen it, I just didn’t know that it was in theaters. No. It was a little before my time, guys. I’m

so sorry.

[00:04:15] joe: June 4th, at the same, it was marquee with Star Trek II, was Poltergeist. And interesting fact that tethers into all this is Spielberg wrote it.

I didn’t know that until I started doing research. And some people consider it the evil twin of E.T. And so we’ll probably… I see Chris shaking his head, so we’ll get him there. June 11th, the next week, we had E.T. come out. Immediately the biggest movie ever made. It held that title for 11 years until another Spielberg movie came out called Jurassic Park in ’93.

June 25th, my homie John Carpenter came out with The Thing.

Yes.

It came out the same day as Blade Runner. It bombed on release. Mm-hmm. But now it’s considered one of the greatest horror movies ever made. [00:05:00] Blade Runner, which came out, Ridley Scott, also an OG, bombed

Bombed on release

now considered one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made.

[00:05:09] nick: Wait, both of them bombed?

[00:05:11] joe: of them bombed. Yeah.

[00:05:12] Mary: Thing bombed,

[00:05:12] joe: did.

[00:05:13] nick: I’m sorry, Chris, I didn’t mean to offend you with that one too. I’m

[00:05:17] Chris_G: I’m not of- I’m not offended.

I felt sorry for a moment. No. We’re fine.

[00:05:21] nick: fine.

[00:05:22] joe: July 9th

you know, Tron

[00:05:24] georgia: Oh

[00:05:24] joe: out, so Nick’s, one of Nick’s favorite movies. It was the first major studio film that extensively used CGI. August, The Road Warrior to cap up the summer. So one of the g-

[00:05:34] Mary: My goodness

[00:05:35] joe: run of

movies

[00:05:36] georgia: figured out when you asked what, where, when do you wanna time travel to 1982. Just want- Summer 1982 … to go right now in

[00:05:46] joe: with

a pocket full of old school coinage. I don’t know. Can’t take dollars, fag. It’s

like I think

the

[00:05:51] Chris_G: the way it works out is that children that were seven years old at the time

[00:05:56] joe: are just naturally Yeah

[00:05:57] Chris_G: gifted individuals. Oh, yeah. ‘Cause you’d’ve had to have been [00:06:00] born in 1975

babies born in 1975 had, have a distinct advantage.

I think we figured that out

[00:06:06] georgia: I

[00:06:07] joe: correct. I would whole-heartedly agree with that.

[00:06:09] georgia: Yeah.

[00:06:10] Chris_G: Yeah. You would?

[00:06:11] joe: I would, indeed.

greatest year to be born. What

[00:06:15] nick: What year were you guys born again? I’m sorry.

[00:06:17] Chris_G: I don’t remember. I was way too young. I was way too young.

[00:06:20] georgia: was

[00:06:20] joe: young.

[00:06:21] Chris_G: No. But

[00:06:21] nick: well,

[00:06:22] joe: but yeah. I like the, I, I that’s where I’ma start it all at. Put

[00:06:26] georgia: Put it in context.

[00:06:27] joe: put it

in context, and we can now talk a little bit about E.T.,

and then I’ma- You couldn’t wait

[00:06:33] georgia: to mention The Thing.

[00:06:34] joe: Like

[00:06:34] georgia: You have

[00:06:36] Mary: mention The Thing in every episode, and rightly, I think.

[00:06:39] joe: We do. Yes. That’s right. Yeah. That’s right.

[00:06:40] nick: Yeah. I mean, it is in our contracts.

[00:06:42] joe: that’s right. Yes.

that’s right. John Carpenter,

[00:06:44] Chris_G: Moment of silence for Drew Struzan, who did the poster for The Thing. Oh. And lots of other posters. He’s the greatest poster artist of all time,

[00:06:54] nick: Yeah, he passed away-

[00:06:55] joe: That’s right. Yeah. Last year.

[00:06:57] Mary: Oh, recently. Yep, yep. Oh. Yeah, it was. Yep,

[00:07:00] in Wisco. Yeah. RIP.

[00:07:00] joe: right. And that, and The Thing, it was a rush job. I don’t think that was… It wasn’t, it was like a week or so like you gotta get this done and it

[00:07:09] Chris_G: weren’t gonna put the image of The Thing-

[00:07:11] joe: That’s right. Well, there

is no… What is the-

[00:07:12] nick: is

[00:07:13] Chris_G: What

would the image be?

[00:07:14] joe: right. And I think that was the problem and some of the- you

[00:07:17] georgia: you might-

politics … you might ask, how do we know all these facts about the Thing?

[00:07:22] Chris_G: might ask.

[00:07:22] joe: these facts about The Thing? You might ask. Yeah.

I just, I,

[00:07:24] Chris_G: I just watched the-

[00:07:26] georgia: Joe might tell us … creator

[00:07:28] joe: CV extended The Thing three hour and a

half- The Thing documentary ex- Thing expanded Kickstarted you know, so yeah, my name’s in the credits if you go check it out.

It was a, it, yeah, it’s a watch.

[00:07:38] nick: Oh, look at that. You’re in the, you have credits now? No. Do we have an IMDb page for you yet? I

[00:07:43] Chris_G: Yeah.

He was just a supporter, but- I

was

[00:07:46] joe: supporter, but- I was a

[00:07:46] georgia: but the day it came it was, “Oh, we must Yes, we did. a three-hour documentary on The Thing.

[00:07:52] Chris_G: The Thing. Well, I was unaware we had celebrities in the house tonight,

[00:07:55] joe: night. Yeah. Well, the Rabbit Hole of Research is, has a page.

Oh, we do?

We do, [00:08:00] yeah. Oh. People in on it.

[00:08:01] nick: I didn’t know this. Oh, now I gotta look myself up.

Hold on. I gotta get

my star

[00:08:05] joe: I didn’t say your name was in it,

but- …I just said

Rabbit Hole of

[00:08:08] Chris_G: didn’t say Rabbit Hole- Put the phone back down.

[00:08:10] joe: Yeah.

I’m gonna- He’s gonna fill it in. He’s gonna be like,

“Hey, you

know it.”

Yeah.

[00:08:13] Mary: Sorry.

[00:08:14] nick: All right.

[00:08:14] georgia: All right.

[00:08:15] joe: No.

so E.T. Spielberg- concept came from an imaginary alien friend he invented after his parents divorced in the ’60s, so some mirroring there.

A lot of people, and even himself, it’s semi-autobiographical, the film of E.T. It was two unmade projects that kind of was a synthesis of E.T.: Growing Up, which was an autobiographical shelf project due to production problems on 1941

Spielberg’s World War

II comedy in ’79, and Night Skies, the unproduced sci-fi horror film kind of the darker sequel to Close Encounters Of the Third Kind. [00:09:00] So it was, like, an aggressive alien terrorizing a farmhouse with one friendly alien named Buddee or Buddy. It depends on the spelling in the script. But yeah, so, so that was where it came from, like the ideation. Columbia Pictures originally passed on E.T. After developing it for about 10 months and investing a million in there.

The studio chief Frank Price, said it was a wimpy Walt Disney movie, opting to focus on their adult-oriented film, Star Man, 1984. Carpenter, who directed that,

[00:09:34] Chris_G: A,

[00:09:34] Mary: very good movie … it

[00:09:35] joe: a g- it was a good movie. Yeah. Yep, that’s right. All

[00:09:37] georgia: All right, Joe. And the- This kinda sounds like a monologue.

[00:09:40] Chris_G: Maybe

[00:09:41] joe: sounds like a monologue.

Maybe it is. See, I just…

I said, “List. Lists turn into monologues.” No

I just got couple- a couple more

[00:09:46] nick: all written down.

[00:09:47] joe: Columbia retained 5% of net profits in that deal with Universal, who did E.T., and that 5% made Columbia more money that year than any of their other films,

[00:09:57] georgia: Just 5%?

[00:09:58] joe: That’s 5% of E.T [00:10:00] Mm-hmm. The

film’s working

title was A Boy’s Life. It was used to hide the plot.

And

Gremlins, and then I don’t know, Chris, if you had this one, the 1994 horror film, comedy, Christmas comedy, Gremlins- Check out our episode on that. The, the Kingston Falls movie theater marquee had two movies on it: A Boy’s Life, which was the alternate title for E.T.,

and Watch the Skies, which was the alternate title for Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Okay, I’m done.

So there

[00:10:32] georgia: go. That was a lot

you just threw in there.

[00:10:35] nick: pretty

sure Chris didn’t know that. Don’t worry.

[00:10:37] Chris_G: to, I’m trying to

[00:10:37] nick: Chris-

[00:10:38] Chris_G: of them. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I

think- That was half my material right there.

So, I’ll be seeing y’all.

[00:10:43] Mary: I know. I’m

[00:10:44] joe: this all out

because it’s gonna get pretty controversial real fast, so I’m just gonna, I’m just trying to-

[00:10:49] nick: Oh, did Georgia tell you my hot takes already?

[00:10:51] joe: did You tell- tell already- You’re t- hear my hot

takes so- As long as we’re slamming Columbia. Can I throw [00:11:00] in some nuggets here?

like to say the rabbit hole of research didn’t slam Columbia, but Not yet.

[00:11:07] Chris_G: The human beings in this room- definitely are giggling at their expense. And I’m one of them, and I’m loud and proud. Yeah, Columbia passed on E.T.

[00:11:16] joe: Mm-hmm

[00:11:17] Chris_G: ‘Cause Starman was more important apparently.

[00:11:19] georgia: never heard of.

[00:11:20] Chris_G: well, yeah.

They also passed on Back To The Future.

[00:11:23] joe: Yeah. Wow.

[00:11:24] Chris_G: They did not think… Columbia had it on a silver platter and said, Yeah … I’m not quo- I’m not quoting anyone, ’cause there’s no actual quote, but the overall feel was that they did not think that a time travel movie would would equal dollars at the box office.

Right,

[00:11:39] joe: Right. Wow. Yeah.

[00:11:41] Chris_G: yeah … strike

[00:11:42] joe: two.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

[00:11:44] Chris_G: Then they get this, this really awesome script called Ghost Smashers.

[00:11:50] joe: Ooh, I wonder

what that could become.

[00:11:51] nick: a

[00:11:51] Mary: that

[00:11:52] Chris_G: become. It was a working title. It got tweaked a little bit towards the end, but yeah, Ghost Smashers. They said it was gonna be way too expensive.

And- they

[00:11:59] georgia: that down, too?[00:12:00]

[00:12:00] Chris_G: They turned down three of the biggest movies of that decade-

[00:12:05] joe: Wow.

[00:12:06] Chris_G: for business reasons. …

[00:12:07] georgia: IPs. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

[00:12:10] joe: Yep. Yeah.

[00:12:11] Chris_G: Weak sauce. Side order of weak sauce. Wow.

[00:12:13] joe: But they did smartly keep 5% of th- that E.T. money, so that was a

they weren’t that, It was

like how do we hedge

our bets here?”

[00:12:21] Chris_G: should tell you something, that their biggest money maker- … was them not even doing it.

[00:12:26] joe: That’s right, yeah. So sometimes that’s the best money, right? Where you just sit

back

[00:12:29] georgia: sit back

[00:12:30] Mary: and Collect those residuals.

[00:12:32] joe: That’s

right, yeah.

[00:12:32] georgia: then you start calculating this is 5%. Now, let’s see.

[00:12:36] joe: true.

[00:12:36] georgia: what would have

[00:12:37] joe: Yeah. What’s Columbia doing these days?

[00:12:39] Chris_G: Three Men And An Old Lady. I don’t know what they’re doing anymore.

[00:12:43] nick: I mean, what? Didn’t they put out the Spider-Verse films

[00:12:47] joe: No.

Isn’t that, um-

[00:12:49] nick: Sony Columbia

[00:12:49] joe: Isn’t that Sony? Columbia. Sony bought Columbia then. Yeah, so, right, so they’re not their own thing anymore.

[00:12:55] nick: that I’m just

[00:12:55] joe: Okay. Oh, well, I’m just saying.

They probably would’ve bought Sony if they made these

[00:12:59] georgia: [00:13:00] So you’re gonna make it controversial, huh, Joe?

[00:13:03] joe: Yeah I mean, I don’t…

[00:13:04] Chris_G: I…

[00:13:05] joe: Chris, do you got things to say about E.T.?

I

[00:13:08] Chris_G: I have things- …

on an ET

[00:13:10] nick: about ET?

[00:13:10] Mary: podcast to plug-

[00:13:10] joe: on

the E.T. Podcast.

Yeah, please go.

I mean, you’re the guest, so I

talked a lot. I’m

getting r- i- people said I, you know, I talk too much, and so

[00:13:17] Chris_G: No one thinks that.

[00:13:18] joe: No, truly. Truly no one thinks

don’t. Well, does.

[00:13:21] Chris_G: Well, I can’t speak for

[00:13:22] joe: Let’s ask our studio audience. What do you guys think? No.

[00:13:24] Mary: So what’s another fact about E.T. that you would like us to know?

[00:13:28] Chris_G: Oh, sweet Jesus.

[00:13:29] joe: You’re-

[00:13:29] georgia: or an opinion.

[00:13:31] joe: Yes, or opinion. I

mean,

[00:13:32] Chris_G: i- if we’re gonna talk about roads not traveled,

[00:13:35] Mary: Mm-hmm

[00:13:35] Chris_G: they offered-

[00:13:38] joe: That’s right … M and Ms You’re right.

[00:13:40] Chris_G: to be the candy of choice for a pretty-

[00:13:44] joe: Yeah. And M and said that little-

it was too scary. They thought E.T. was just too scary.

[00:13:49] nick: those of you not with us here in the studio, Chris was holding up a box of

[00:13:54] Chris_G: See?

Have little cameras in my face. I thought we were on

[00:13:57] nick: know what I’m right a joke. He [00:14:00] also brought us packs of Reese’s Pieces, as

[00:14:02] joe: well Yeah. Yeah, yeah, And some artwork.

That’s

right

[00:14:05] Chris_G: road not traveled.

[00:14:06] joe: Yeah.

[00:14:07] Chris_G: What kind– I mean, M&M’s def- and Mars is not hurting.

[00:14:12] joe: No. They, they did all

[00:14:13] Chris_G: of the boost they could have gotten in the summer of ’82 at every movie theater.

[00:14:17] georgia: But at the same time, look at Reese’s Pieces, what that did for them.

[00:14:21] Mary: Right.

[00:14:21] joe: yeah.

[00:14:21] Chris_G: they’re

hanging their hat on that E.T. money. Yeah.

[00:14:23] joe: are. Yep. Atari also. I mean, where

[00:14:26] nick: Oh, geez

Louise.

[00:14:28] Chris_G: whiz.

[00:14:29] joe: That led to

the, what the video game collapse in

[00:14:32] nick: almost killed the whole industry …

[00:14:34] joe: And you know, they … Atari buried-

[00:14:36] georgia: back and explain this,

[00:14:38] Chris_G: and explain this? This is one of the greatest stories

in Atari

[00:14:41] Mary: you…

[00:14:41] Chris_G: Will you?

Oh.

[00:14:42] Mary: Yeah,

[00:14:42] joe: yeah. Well,

[00:14:43] Chris_G: first of all, they made this movie… Excuse me. They made this video game in, like, it looks like it was made in an afternoon. It,

[00:14:50] joe: Yes,

[00:14:50] Mary: It,

[00:14:50] Chris_G: It was- Atari did? It’s- I have it on emulator. I was

[00:14:52] georgia: Atari did?

[00:14:52] joe: think I have it on emulator. I was gonna try to have it running for us- It- … but it didn’t work

out. But

[00:14:57] Chris_G: people that, that will die on the hill [00:15:00] of the E.T. video game is the worst video game of all time. I purposely, I personally don’t feel that way, but it is, it’s

[00:15:06] joe: in the conversation. It’s pretty.

[00:15:07] nick: It’s got some contenders against

it, yeah.

[00:15:09] joe: fun.

I remember, I will say

my neighbors, Al and Willie, they had it, and I r- and my parents weren’t gonna get me a video game. I didn’t get one till like Nintendo, so that was a little

There was a little gate. But they had E.T. And I would just go over. I mean, compared to Pitfall and Centipede, i- you know, it

wasn’t

The

graphics, it wasn’t like, “Oh man, its graphics

is what drug it down.” it was just kind of, it was

a

[00:15:35] Chris_G: poor- There were graphics?

[00:15:36] Mary: game,

[00:15:37] joe: Yeah.

[00:15:37] Chris_G: There were graphics on yours, okay.

[00:15:39] joe: yeah. So it was just, it was a poorly conceived, but I remember excited about going and play it, and I, and you know. We’ll get in-

[00:15:45] Chris_G: I thought it w- it

[00:15:46] joe: Drop my hot hot take, but go

ahead.

[00:15:48] Chris_G: It was fun-ish. Yeah. It

[00:15:50] joe: was Yeah, yeah. it was, Yeah … you know- Right … yeah …it, had- But it got a rise in

[00:15:51] Chris_G: you know- For

[00:15:52] nick: but for the, price of it man

[00:15:54] Chris_G: Rotation of m- of all my Atari games, yeah, at the time.

But apparently the, the story goes, the [00:16:00] lore, is that they made way too many. They made, like, thousands of percent more than they needed. They thought there was gonna be this giant rush because the movie was so hot. Mm-hmm. And stores started sending them back ’cause they had so much unsold stock of it.

Yeah. They had

[00:16:17] joe: Yep

[00:16:18] Chris_G: countless hundreds of thousands of copies of this video

[00:16:21] nick: As well as people returning it, yes?

[00:16:22] georgia: game.

now, would it be worth want-

[00:16:24] nick: No.

[00:16:25] joe: I

mean- Is it

still-

Well, so-

[00:16:26] Chris_G: If it’s

sealed

[00:16:28] joe: what happened was Atari buried 700,000 unsold cartridges-

[00:16:34] georgia: actually buried

[00:16:35] joe: In

a

New Mexico landfill. And it was u- rumored. Like, people… It was, like, c- a very hot, controversial topic. Did they do it? Didn’t they do it?

And

some people said it was, like, millions, but it’s come down to, like, about, you know, 700, which still is a lot.

[00:16:49] nick: ’cause what? A couple years back, they- They excavated- Yeah

[00:16:51] Chris_G: in 2020- You did see that documentary.

Yeah. That was so

[00:16:55] joe: Yeah, that’s right.

Yep, yep. So, but yeah, no, that was that was… And we were talking about some facts [00:17:00] on the Reese’s Pieces and talking about product placement.

Their sales jumped over 65% within two weeks of the movie release, so that was the-

[00:17:07] Chris_G: They had nowhere to go but

[00:17:08] joe: up. Yeah, yep. So that was the big one. Oh, huge.

[00:17:12] Chris_G: Huge. I l- I love that. I love that M&M’s… How many people didn’t see what this movie could’ve been? Joe.

[00:17:20] joe: No. Yep.

[00:17:21] Chris_G: Okay. How many people underestimated this movie? Saw the… No, figured it out? I mean, these are industry giants that are like, “Eh, I’m not gonna go with that. No.” I think M and Ms

I mean, like you said, Eminem said that this is gonna be too scary of a movie, yet Columbia said it’s gonna be too namby-pamby of a movie.

[00:17:37] joe: All right. So I

really can’t, I can’t hold my guns anymore.

[00:17:40] Chris_G: He’s

[00:17:40] georgia: gonna say something that’s gonna piss you off. I, just you’re

[00:17:43] Chris_G: lucky I even came back for this

one.

Because,

[00:17:46] joe: this

[00:17:46] nick: movie.

[00:17:47] Chris_G: ’cause we know collectively what you actually thought of this back in ’82.

[00:17:52] joe: ’82. Y- you’re right. I went and saw The Thing. I begged my dad to take me to it as a seven-year-old. I

loved …it.

Yeah. I did see E.T., and I must admit [00:18:00] I wasn’t impressed.

As a seven-year-old, I just recently watched it as a much older adult,

[00:18:06] Chris_G: Push that waah,

[00:18:07] Mary: button.

[00:18:07] georgia: And it

[00:18:09] joe: a

good mo- I think it was a family-friendly, simple plot movie, but I didn’t think, in terms of a movie,

there was nothing great about it.

[00:18:20] georgia: I agree. Oof.

[00:18:20] joe: Mm-hmm. I-

[00:18:21] Chris_G: don’t think it …was

[00:18:21] joe: it was some great

[00:18:22] georgia: Oh my gosh. Like, it’s still great.

[00:18:24] nick: at least- It’s a kids movie.

Like- You

[00:18:26] joe: this up

with the ’82 movies- that

were

[00:18:29] Chris_G: all

[00:18:30] georgia: all

[00:18:30] joe: innovative

in

[00:18:31] Chris_G: I think Chris feels like-

[00:18:32] joe: E.T. was the only one on

that list that wasn’t very innovative.

[00:18:36] Chris_G: It was

[00:18:37] georgia: was innovative.

What in the heck are you talking about? Well,

[00:18:41] joe: So

that’s where

[00:18:41] nick: has

left the studio. Oh, geez.

He’s

breaking things. Chris,

stop.

[00:18:46] georgia: It

[00:18:47] joe: a

good

[00:18:47] Chris_G: He’s, He’s

[00:18:47] nick: a Halloween

costume. I, I have to disagree. And sh-

[00:18:48] Mary: his E.T. mask-

[00:18:49] Chris_G: has

[00:18:49] Mary: He has an E.T. Hal- like a Halloween mask on.

[00:18:52] georgia: have

to

disagree. I disagree.

[00:18:54] joe: his ET mask- What? … he had like a Halloween mask and then she- I have to disagree. I disagree. Oh, that’s

fine. I’m

sure- I

[00:18:56] georgia: loved

[00:18:56] joe: how many billions

of dollars disagree with me, but

[00:18:58] georgia: I

[00:18:59] joe: I didn’t. think it [00:19:00] was,

[00:19:00] georgia: at the time, and I might’ve been a little ol- older than seven but I loved it at the time, and I still love it. I just, I don’t… How can you-

[00:19:09] nick: But is it because you like children’s media?

[00:19:12] georgia: Like No.

[00:19:14] nick: are you

a

child? Joe gets the

[00:19:16] Chris_G: children- Are

[00:19:16] joe: you a children’s

librarian by any chance?

[00:19:18] Chris_G: any chance? No. I’ve- Some feelings are gonna get hurt tonight, folks.

[00:19:21] joe: All right. All right.

[00:19:21] Mary: Oh, yeah.

[00:19:22] Chris_G: Starting with mine.

[00:19:23] georgia: starting with mine.

[00:19:24] nick: Here

it comes. I,

[00:19:26] georgia: I

know. I, I- Okay, Mary, where

[00:19:28] Chris_G: Please, Mary,

save

[00:19:29] joe: anything yet,

[00:19:29] georgia: Yes.

[00:19:30] Mary: I wanna defend E.T. because I-

[00:19:33] joe: it …I

[00:19:33] Mary: if defend it, well, from Joe who’s being so mean.

[00:19:37] joe: being so mean.

[00:19:38] Mary: I watched the vlast…

We went to go see it, it was, you know… Well, I lived in rural Virginia, so going to the movie theater was an event. , you had to get dressed up and… I mean, not like in your Sunday best or anything, but you know, you…

It

was-

[00:19:52] georgia: was- It was an event

[00:19:53] Chris_G: it

[00:19:53] joe: was,

you

had to…

[00:19:54] Mary: Yeah, exactly. You had to make an effort to get to the movie theater. And oh, my [00:20:00] gosh, just loved it so much. And I just thought, “You know what? The heck.” I haven’t actually seen it since I was 10, right, when I first saw it in the

[00:20:08] joe: Oh, maybe you should. And

[00:20:10] Mary: I did. I saw it yesterday, and I loved it.

I just I, yeah, no notes. It was j- it was just great. Yeah there’s holes in it- Yeah … but that’s okay. I don’t care.

[00:20:20] georgia: And I didn’t feel like it was just a kids movie. No.

[00:20:23] Mary: No, not at

[00:20:23] georgia: it was like a human movie. Yeah. Which is funny ’cause it’s about a human and an alien.

[00:20:28] Mary: It’s very sentimental, yeah. And that was

[00:20:31] joe: point of it, right? And, Yeah

explore humanity through this alien that came-

Well-

[00:20:36] nick: Elliot right away starts teaching it the worst things.

Like he teaches him about war. He goes ahead and shows him the f- food chain. He goes, “This is a fish. He’s mine, but the shark eats the fish, and no one will eat the shark ’cause he’s on top.”

[00:20:54] Mary: Well,

[00:20:54] joe: that’s

[00:20:55] georgia: true.

[00:20:55] nick: Yes, but he’s teaching this to an alien

who

would essentially [00:21:00] be on top of the food chain considering they’ve made it here. And guess what? They can invade the whole planet because they’ve already been here.

[00:21:07] Mary: And they didn’t. But

[00:21:09] nick: E.T.

was a- no. No. no. no.

[00:21:11] joe: Yeah.

[00:21:11] Chris_G: Negative Nancy.

[00:21:13] joe: Yeah.

[00:21:13] Mary: Right.

[00:21:14] nick: Not yet.

[00:21:15] joe: Right.

right.

ET could have been a-

Four years … …a youth, a adolescent,

and-

[00:21:21] nick: Or the

[00:21:22] joe: The adults,

[00:21:23] nick: of them … a scientist, right Like, they were there gathering information about us. Why

[00:21:27] joe: think more evidence is that he’s- You know?

a youngster

Wasn’t

[00:21:30] Chris_G: he a

scout?

[00:21:31] joe: A scout. Yeah.

His powers weren’t

quite under control. He had some, you

know-

[00:21:35] nick: He almost killed Elliot.

[00:21:37] joe: the

whole psychic link thing was kind of,

[00:21:40] Chris_G: Which time?

[00:21:41] Mary: Which time?

[00:21:41] georgia: Which time?

[00:21:42] nick: Thank you for that one.

[00:21:45] joe: But yeah, I think that was a-

[00:21:47] nick: Oh, got it.

[00:21:48] Mary: So what was your experience like watching E.T. for the first time, Chris?

[00:21:53] Chris_G: Oh, I thought you were throwing it over to

[00:21:55] Mary: to me? Yeah, no, yeah. You

[00:21:55] joe: the shirt. I mean, you’re decked

out. I mean, you

[00:21:57] Mary: wanna ask our guests.

[00:21:58] Chris_G: here. Yeah. I

said [00:22:00] this during the Gremlins

[00:22:00] joe: podcast.

[00:22:01] georgia: podcast.

[00:22:01] nick: podcast.

[00:22:01] Mary: podcast- … that

[00:22:02] georgia: That I-

[00:22:03] Chris_G: have been friends with Joe- when we were seven in ’82. He’d have been over to my house for lunch. Maybe not dinner,

[00:22:11] joe: but

definitely

[00:22:12] Chris_G: lunch. Because- Sleepovers

[00:22:14] Mary: an image.

[00:22:15] nick: Not

[00:22:15] Chris_G: well- Lunch

[00:22:16] joe: Yeah, right.

[00:22:17] Chris_G: The problem is y- you are a seven-year-old that has seen The Thing, that has seen movies that I definitely-

[00:22:25] joe: Fangoria, be like, “Here you go.” I like

[00:22:27] Mary: not at seven. I was-

[00:22:29] joe: At seven, yeah. Yeah. Heavy

Metal.

[00:22:30] nick: Yeah. Wait, you didn’t have a friend who you went to their house and they showed you the films that your parents wouldn’t let you watch?

[00:22:37] joe: at seven.

[00:22:38] nick: Oh, yeah.

[00:22:39] Chris_G: At nine and 10, yes.

[00:22:41] joe: Yeah,

[00:22:42] Chris_G: nine and 10, I’m starting to watch you know, Revenge of the Nerds, the movies that are showing a little more skin than your average.

[00:22:48] joe: Hey, Millie, let’s watch Alien.

Let’s go. Let’s do it.

[00:22:52] Chris_G: all about it. It- That’s it … when I was seven, though, and I’m collecting Garbage Pail Kids, and, you know, I’m, I’m-

[00:22:59] joe: yeah, no, I did

[00:23:00] that, too. Yeah.

[00:23:00] Chris_G: I got Hot Wheels on

[00:23:01] joe: the I got, yeah, Hot Wheels, Transformer. Well, that would’ve been a little bit, you know, close, but yeah.

[00:23:05] Chris_G: trying to make us different, and he’s like, “I had that too.

[00:23:07] joe: Yeah. Next.” Yeah.

yeah.

[00:23:09] Chris_G: “I had that too. Next. What

[00:23:10] nick: are you

We’re the exact

same. You just didn’t watch The Thing. Right.

[00:23:12] joe: I

was just

[00:23:13] Chris_G: of-

[00:23:13] joe: Expressing, you know, kind of the psychological trauma.

[00:23:16] georgia: could you

[00:23:17] Chris_G: Could you still be friends with

[00:23:20] georgia: The fact he didn’t like E.T., would you still be friends with him?

[00:23:24] Chris_G: That might have been a deal breaker-

[00:23:25] georgia: Yeah.

[00:23:26] Chris_G: in

’82. breaker. Yeah. And

[00:23:28] joe: I, it just wasn’t… It didn’t rate up. I thought it was an okay mo- Actually, I didn’t really enjoy the movie when I- No,

I, I thought you said it was a good movie

You’re

[00:23:33] georgia: you said it was a

good movie- Yeah, but that’s- And now you’re saying an okay movie

I did

[00:23:37] Chris_G: not- Don’t

romanticize it

[00:23:38] georgia: it …I

[00:23:38] joe: not enjoy the movie. I really didn’t. Like, I would watch, I mean,

The Thing. Any of these movies on the list,

you know, Blade Runner, I mean, I watched all those movies. Star Trek, Wrath of

[00:23:49] Chris_G: I mean- You brought up Wrath of Khan. I, I, in my research for tonight, I didn’t realize that those two were on the same- yeah

within the same m- Yeah … 60 days or so. Right, yeah. The [00:24:00] complex that movie gave me every time I put a Q-tip.

[00:24:04] joe: the

[00:24:04] Mary: right?

Yeah.

[00:24:05] joe: That’s right, the ear- Oh. We had talked about doing a earworm episode, not only earworm, as in sounds that get stuck in your head,

but- Bro … literally an earworm. That’s a real earworm. I

[00:24:14] Chris_G: time. Every

[00:24:15] joe: season

[00:24:16] Chris_G: That’s daily. Yeah. Get on in there, and you’re like, “Okay.

[00:24:20] joe: yeah.

God! Yeah.

[00:24:21] nick: You want them out.

[00:24:22] joe: It is one of the…

I, yes, no.

[00:24:24] Mary: Nothing is better than a Q-tip in the ear.

[00:24:26] joe: No, except a-

[00:24:27] Mary: It’s the

[00:24:28] joe: except some sort of mind-controlling worm. No. Speaking of

mind

controlling, that was

E.T.’s thing, right?

[00:24:33] Mary: Anyway, so, back to your ex- your experience watching E.T. It

[00:24:36] Chris_G: the greatest. Yeah. I walked out of that, oh, man.

[00:24:41] Mary: I- Magic

[00:24:42] Chris_G: I

forgot to eat the popcorn, Joe. That’s how enthralled I was in this. And by the way, it is an exercise in product placement.

It

is. Sweet Lord, I stopped writing them down. I watched this movie last night or the night before.

[00:24:55] joe: yep.

Yeah, we were t- you t- yep.

[00:24:57] georgia: kind of beer was E.T.

drinking?

[00:24:59] Mary: What[00:25:00]

[00:25:00] Chris_G: of beer was E.T. drinking? Yeah.

‘Cause I was drinking Miller Lite while I was watching it Who knows? He was drinking Coors?

[00:25:04] georgia: I wanna say it was Coobers. It was Coors.

[00:25:05] joe: it was Coors. Yep. Yeah.

[00:25:06] Chris_G: Yeah. Yeah. And,

[00:25:08] joe: and-

yep, yep.

yep.

[00:25:10] Chris_G: Yeah, and-

and- He can &spell …

sending that

[00:25:12] joe: and

[00:25:13] georgia: Oh, I

[00:25:13] Chris_G: list. I have- it’s an ugly it’s an ugly

[00:25:16] joe: a list, we

love

[00:25:16] georgia: had

[00:25:17] Mary: Oh, yeah. What’s

[00:25:18] nick: Star Wars? I’m

[00:25:19] joe: I’ma

get my Mac and Me

list- Yeah … ’cause that

was

[00:25:21] nick: Oh.

[00:25:21] joe: pla-

[00:25:23] Mary: Oh, Mac and Me.

[00:25:26] Chris_G: my goodness.

[00:25:26] joe: Yeah. Oh, man. was, that was- the best,

that

[00:25:27] Chris_G: best, that was the better- So I don’t think- I feel like I’m being dared

[00:25:29] nick: think, I don’t think- I remember being dared

to watch that.

[00:25:31] Chris_G: say, I don’t think

[00:25:32] georgia: Chris will ever come back.

So- All

[00:25:34] nick: All right.

So- I don’t act- I didn’t see E.T. in theaters, right? I saw it with my brother on VHS in the ’90s. He’s already seen it,

[00:25:44] Chris_G: That’s acceptable, by the way. Like,

[00:25:46] nick: it wasn’t the same experience that you guys were all able to have, like. Right. And then seeing it last night I would gladly show my daughter, because it’s a kids friendly movie that I can be like, “Yeah, sure. Why not?” But as [00:26:00] an adult, I’m like, again, I’m old and cynical and I hate everything.

[00:26:04] Mary: Except Spider-Man movies.

[00:26:05] nick: It was too- Exactly.

It was

[00:26:07] georgia: It was too sweet for you then. It was,

[00:26:09] nick: like-

seeing

the stuff and being like, “Oh,

I’m

noticing the flaws in it this time.” Seeing the scientists coming in astronaut suits. Why are they

coming- you would do that … their hazmat suits are available at

this time.

[00:26:24] georgia: because of

the-

[00:26:25] joe: They have a

[00:26:26] nick: a full astronaut suit.

I

[00:26:28] joe: I

think the… Right. The, I

think- This- … hazmat suits would’ve

been, but in ’82 we gotta think.

’82?

You would wear- They were available

hazmat suits.

You would be concerned about planetary contamination. That breaks down though that they knew E.T. had been on the planet for a few weeks, a month, and did nothing about it. So we now have a potential biohazard just roaming around-

[00:26:54] nick: is when hazmat suits were made. Maybe. Or generally.

[00:26:57] Chris_G: that’s not true.

[00:26:59] joe: [00:27:00] contact.

[00:27:01] Chris_G: Oh. Michael J. Fox had a hazmat suit in 1955- Yeah … in a barn next to a DeLorean.

[00:27:05] joe: 40s,

[00:27:06] georgia: Yeah, I said

[00:27:06] Chris_G: I will have you know. Yeah?

[00:27:07] joe: said 40s. That’s before 50.

[00:27:10] Chris_G: ’50. Oh, yeah. Oh, I don’t teach

[00:27:12] joe: sorry.

[00:27:12] Chris_G: I don’t teach math.

[00:27:13] joe: I was like, “

Oh,

[00:27:15] Chris_G: I swear I thought you said 60.

I apologize. I swear I thought you said 1960. I’m glad we

can edit. ’50. I’m glad we can edit this

[00:27:24] nick: Nope, that’s, that all stays in, man. Chris is ready d- no, what, what year did you say? I swear you said ’60. Oh.

[00:27:31] joe: He did say 40s. Yeah. He did say 40s. Yeah. yeah. My But anyway, that’s okay.

[00:27:34] Chris_G: Yeah, that’s okay. My

[00:27:34] joe: do a lot of research, but when he does it’s I

I think about it

[00:27:38] georgia: And it just seems like those, the, the scientists, like, in the, like, whoever Peter Coyote’s character would’ve been and all them, it seems like they would’ve came to that house- They would’ve come to see him

and they would’ve just rushed in, and not waited until they left

[00:27:54] joe: would’ve taken Elliot

[00:27:55] georgia: Elliott away. Don’t you think? They

[00:27:56] joe: house. They just, like, come in- I don’t know why he was

allowed to be

[00:27:58] georgia: They would just, like, [00:28:00] come in and, “

[00:28:00] joe: the

room. Let ’em,

let this kid have…” No,

all of that,

the

whole mi- And …that, that was

I think that was a Spielberg kind of thread though from Close Encounters. I watched Close Encounters also ’cause, you know, some people say that’s the prequel to E.T.

and now Disclosure is the end cap of the trilogy. Yeah. And I haven’t seen Disclosure Day, so. But watching, Close Encounters there was a mistrust of the government. Well-

[00:28:23] nick: they were also listening in to their citizens

[00:28:26] joe: and the

movie, and I don’t know which several countries had banned E.T.

because they thought it led to mistrust between adults and kids and the military and government complexes. So it was like, “Oh, we don’t want that kind of-“

But

then, Um,

[00:28:41] georgia: they

[00:28:41] joe: and it-

was interesting that you had that

[00:28:44] georgia: worse, or much more- You

[00:28:45] joe: have watched the thing.

I mean, that’s

[00:28:47] georgia: No, what I’m saying, though,

[00:28:48] Chris_G: I’m from the government, I’m here to help

[00:28:50] joe: right.

[00:28:50] georgia: What I’m saying is that those government scientists and those, you know, the government- Yeah … and the scientists, they could’ve been a lot- More [00:29:00] forceful and a lot more But

[00:29:01] joe: they probably

would’ve been, right?

Yeah. I I think if E- the, the real situation, ET came, they knew he landed or it landed. I don’t know if, I think it was a male. But you know, you would’ve, they would’ve taken it immediately to some complex to study.

Elliot,

if they realized had some psychic link, would’ve been taken. His whole family, that house would’ve been quarantined.

That town, I think it would’ve just been shut down because E.T.,

not only

he was in the environment, so microbes birds, plants, dirt, soil samples, other people he interacted with, the stuff they interacted with that he interacted with. He was laying in a water source,

probably

contaminating it- … dying. So now we got decaying, dead alien material in a water

source, and no one even told the town.

They’re

just drinking their cups of water, happy

as can be, man. I think , they just went along with

[00:29:54] Chris_G: I think the move is put a giant Ziploc bag around the entire house and just let them all cook.

[00:29:59] georgia: [00:30:00] That’s

[00:30:00] joe: giant zip lock bag around the entire house and just let him all cook. Right, that’s what

I’m saying. I think the movie didn’t handle that correctly.

[00:30:03] nick: They didn’t do a good job at that

either. They

[00:30:05] georgia: They did

[00:30:05] Chris_G: not handle it at all.

[00:30:07] joe: They did not handle it at all. No, right,

[00:30:08] Chris_G: they just,

[00:30:09] nick: They-

[00:30:09] Chris_G: they wrapped it in Saran Wrap and said, “We’re gonna deal with it later.”

To

[00:30:12] joe: of plot, they just kind of-

[00:30:13] georgia: They did

[00:30:14] joe: deal with that

[00:30:14] georgia: bag around it … they did have actual doctors though playing those, that scene where they were like w- you know-

[00:30:21] Chris_G: So

[00:30:21] Mary: the chatter would be more realistic, what they’re talking about? Yeah. And

[00:30:24] joe: And the whole

[00:30:25] nick: Can you confirm something for me?

[00:30:26] joe: can

[00:30:27] nick: In the or- original, I remember them shooting at them while on the bikes. Is that-

[00:30:32] Mary: Is that-

[00:30:32] georgia: right. Is that- Mm-hmm …

like,

[00:30:34] Chris_G: I m- They definitely had guns drawn. If they fired or not, I couldn’t

[00:30:38] joe: didn’t fire

[00:30:39] georgia: they fired. They fired,

[00:30:39] Mary: don’t remember

[00:30:41] joe: redid.

[00:30:42] Chris_G: He-

Well …

[00:30:42] joe: edited. Oh, go ahead. Oh. No, that’s what… Yeah, he edited, yeah, He

[00:30:45] Chris_G: redid it in, in-

[00:30:46] nick: he-

[00:30:46] georgia: And he put walkie-talkies,

[00:30:48] Chris_G: CGI’d walkie-talkies into the thing.

[00:30:49] nick: there were more guns,

[00:30:51] joe: were more guns,

[00:30:51] Chris_G: Oh, right when the boys take off- That’s

[00:30:53] joe: right.

They all

draw

[00:30:54] Chris_G: guns. in

[00:30:55] nick: only seen one shotgun in that film. Yeah,

[00:30:57] joe: have guns. When

they go into

the van, they have the guns [00:31:00] drawn. They’re looking at, you know. So yeah, the

guns

[00:31:01] Chris_G: a very deliberate ch. I mean, there was

[00:31:03] joe: shotguns. The guy, he’s the…

[00:31:05] georgia: Yeah. When the one-

[00:31:06] joe: said he he didn’t, that’s the one thing he feels bad about when he redid it, and he tells people, “Go watch the original. Don’t watch the reissued movie because, .”

[00:31:15] Chris_G: Well, we’re different now, too.

[00:31:17] georgia: up there.

[00:31:17] joe: Yeah, well, yeah. Yeah, we’re circle back. But- List. List.

We should be

listing. Yo, you got a list?

[00:31:23] georgia: Go

[00:31:23] Mary: ahead, please.

[00:31:24] joe: please. Yep.

[00:31:24] Chris_G: Like right off the top. I mean, th- this is ridiculous. Like, what would it take for even, like, a sitcom to have this many products- in the first 10 minutes? I mean, the, the whole fridge. I mean, you can see everything.

Coca-Cola, Raid, Fresca, Fresca, Tab. Oh, y- you can- Tab. Oh, love me some Tab. Tab. Sun-Maid raisins, Fritos, Hills Brothers Chutes and Ladders, Stratego, the Star Wars toys. And if you watch the same- Oh, yeah … The same documentary that I did on the making of E.T., just

[00:31:55] joe: the little

[00:31:55] Chris_G: cat and mouse that they did with

[00:31:57] nick: right George Lucas?

[00:31:58] Chris_G: Spielberg and Lucas.

[00:31:59] joe: had

a bet, [00:32:00] right? From Star Wars and was it Close Encounters? I’m trying to think which two movies, but they made a bet which one would be bigger, and then they lost the bet. So that was,

[00:32:10] Chris_G: a- I think George wins right there. Well-

Like, by a lot.

[00:32:12] joe: Yep. Well,

[00:32:13] georgia: I guess George Lucas put in E.T.

characters in one of his films.

[00:32:18] Chris_G: in one of his films. Oh, definitely. Phantom Menace. Right? Oh, yeah.

[00:32:20] georgia: So,

and then- Which

[00:32:21] Chris_G: me to a question that I’m pointing right at Nick. I was gonna wait. I was gonna throw

[00:32:25] joe: the- They had one

[00:32:26] Mary: one.

[00:32:26] Chris_G: Is E.T.

[00:32:28] joe: a Jedi?

Right.

Because he

[00:32:30] Chris_G: he is- Oh …

[00:32:32] joe: Right

[00:32:32] Chris_G: in the Star Wars universe. Oh, yeah. Look at his abilities.

[00:32:36] nick: I don’t think he’s a

[00:32:36] joe: a scene-

[00:32:37] nick: Jedi, but I do think that are, there are people, or creatures in his species that could be, just because

he looked at Yoda-

[00:32:46] georgia: he’s not a Jedi? Because he’s too young.

[00:32:47] joe: Jedi? Well,

[00:32:48] nick: ’cause he’s too young

[00:32:49] joe: I was

[00:32:49] Chris_G: he’s a Padawan.

I

[00:32:50] nick: Padawan.

Yes Like he

[00:32:50] Chris_G: He’s possibly on his

[00:32:51] georgia: become

[00:32:52] nick: he’s also has he feels love and stuff. So if he does go down the-

[00:32:57] joe: gonna say,

in the

[00:32:58] nick: If he does

go down this lane, [00:33:00] he will become a Sith Lord because- no, no

yes, because he has love- Well-

Which means-

[00:33:05] Chris_G: cynical. All right. all

right. I wanna

[00:33:06] joe: Hold on. Can I add something

here?

[00:33:08] Chris_G: why I threw

[00:33:09] nick: Hold on. Can I interject in here? Why I threw it in.

[00:33:11] joe: bolster that.

In

the movie when you watch it, during the Halloween scene,

[00:33:15] nick: sees Yoda

[00:33:16] Chris_G: he

[00:33:16] joe: says Yoda- Of course …

and he

looks at him and he goes, “Home.” Yeah. He goes, Home.”

Home.” So is

Yoda

in… You know, if he’s now on the council and he knows that, is a, is he a Padawan? Is he being trained? Is he b- I’m just adding that in for the listeners that if they haven’t

watched

a movie, that

th-

this connection isn’t

just loosely Spielberg, Lucas.

But it was, there, there

actually- was this,

[00:33:38] nick: in. I

think-

[00:33:38] Chris_G: Yep. Yep. So.

But in the first showing that George Lucas saw in a theater with Spielberg sitting next to him- All, all Spielberg told Lucas was, “There’s something in this movie.

There’s something in this for you.”

[00:33:50] joe: Lucas and Spielberg both had their movies coming out in ’77.

Yeah. And Lucas was convinced Star Wars w- would flop, and Spielberg’s movie was a guaranteed hit. [00:34:00] So talk about people mis- misreading the

[00:34:02] Chris_G: the room.

[00:34:02] joe: They made a friendly bet. Each gave each other 2.5% of the respective film profits.

Wow. Lucas lost catastrophically.

So yeah, so, so yeah. So they’re really good friends.

They had this kind of relationship going and yeah, no, so you, you see that in their movies and back and forth with the product

placement and have that. And they’re in the same universe, obviously, E.T.

and-

Oh, yes … Yeah …right. Because

in In the council scene, you have ETs in there.

[00:34:31] Chris_G: So- Him being able to lift

[00:34:33] joe: Wars, the

[00:34:33] Chris_G: by thinking about it. He’s, he can read minds. He can t- he

can tell

[00:34:38] joe: can heal. Yeah,

[00:34:39] nick: Yeah,

[00:34:39] Chris_G: he can heal.

[00:34:41] joe: Yeah, handwaviums.

Well,

[00:34:43] Chris_G: I’m Telling

[00:34:43] nick: you. what was

[00:34:43] Mary: gonna

[00:34:44] joe: Handwaviums . I

[00:34:44] georgia: say? Oh, I was gonna say,

[00:34:45] Chris_G: If it walks like

[00:34:46] joe: a duck,

[00:34:47] Chris_G: quacks like a duck…

[00:34:49] georgia: know there’s an animated E.T. show, right? Isn’t there? There

[00:34:53] nick: there is.

[00:34:54] georgia: I think there is.

[00:34:55] nick: Are you talking about ALF?

[00:34:57] georgia: No, I

think there’s an actual

[00:34:58] joe: Oh, man.

[00:34:59] Chris_G: But [00:35:00]

[00:35:00] georgia: I was gonna say is-

[00:35:01] Chris_G: Oh,

[00:35:02] nick: No. I think it’s- … I don’t remember what I was gonna say. Oh, sorry, Chris. That one hurt

wasn’t…

[00:35:03] Mary: sigh heard round the

[00:35:04] nick: was gonna ask, do

[00:35:06] georgia: do you think they could make an E.T. m- an E.T. movie, another one?

Like, could they connect it? Could they? Yeah, could they

[00:35:13] nick: it?

We’ll make

[00:35:14] Chris_G: anything. We’ll throw- Could they- … a new version of something out

[00:35:17] georgia: out? Could they do it well?

[00:35:18] joe: Spielberg- Yeah …would-

Yeah …it

[00:35:20] Chris_G: would be over his dead body.

[00:35:21] joe: Yeah. Yeah. I, I think he thought about, there

was a sequel he thought about, but I think it, he just thought

it would

[00:35:27] georgia: part of the Star Wars- Yes

universe.

[00:35:30] nick: That’s also owned by Disney now- I know

and George Lucas gave up his

[00:35:34] georgia: E.T.

[00:35:34] nick: E.T. versus

[00:35:35] Chris_G: Predator

[00:35:36] georgia: But I

[00:35:39] joe: E.T. versus Alien. We can just go, we can run through…

I got some notes and all, but I was gonna talk about the telekinesis scene and the bikes and the moon. Can’t happen. The perspectives are all wrong.

So you

really can’t have the bikes. The moon size would mean the moon would be too close to Earth, which would be catastrophic, [00:36:00] and it just wouldn’t…

They’d be too high. It just wouldn’t, it just wouldn’t work.

It was

[00:36:04] Chris_G: deGrasse Tyson in the room

right now. So good to meet you, sir.

[00:36:08] joe: that’d be doctor,

cause, so

[00:36:10] Chris_G: Oh, b-

[00:36:11] georgia: What’d you s- what did

[00:36:13] Chris_G: With a Scottish accent? Whoa. Dr. deGrasse.

[00:36:14] georgia: deGrasse, Doctor,

[00:36:15] joe: DeGrace, Dr., you know, Taylor,

Dr. Austin.

Yes, that’s right.

[00:36:19] nick: I don’t think Joe

has ever pulled the

doctor

card.

[00:36:22] Mary: Doctor.

[00:36:23] Chris_G: If he pull, if they pull the mister

[00:36:24] nick: card.

[00:36:25] joe: whoever the hell it is. yes. Ever pulled doctor. Doctor … and people, they pull a Mr. Card and

I gotta pull like, you know-

[00:36:27] Chris_G: I gotta pull the doctor. It’s like

[00:36:28] joe: on

the draw

four down,

right?

[00:36:30] nick: Joe’s come for blood this

episode. Well, yeah. But you have

[00:36:33] joe: you have the

whole- Come on

I mean, I think the, the silhouette is probably there.

The just the geometry wouldn’t work

[00:36:39] Mary: You’re right. I hate it now.

[00:36:41] nick: yeah. That’s all we were looking for this episode.

[00:36:46] Chris_G: this

[00:36:46] georgia: gonna say, is there any other science that we can talk about?

We could talk about the,

[00:36:50] Chris_G: talk about the

[00:36:51] georgia: the

[00:36:51] joe: you get- The- The, the psychic link

[00:36:53] georgia: and- We could talk about that kind of- And then he goes and it

[00:36:55] joe: even work. There’s

no-

[00:36:57] Chris_G: Oh my

[00:36:58] joe: Get out. Is it [00:37:00] chemical?

[00:37:00] Chris_G: Gee. All

[00:37:01] joe: All right. here’s my

proof how bogus. Even in the movie …they ruin…

[00:37:05] georgia: wasn’t.

[00:37:05] Chris_G: they

ru-

[00:37:06] nick: Oh my God … they,

[00:37:07] joe: All right, listen.

Chris,

[00:37:08] Chris_G: check

it

[00:37:08] Mary: out- I can’t imagine, like, watching any… Did you… When you watched The Thing, did you go, “That would never happen”?

[00:37:15] Chris_G: You

know what? You know what?

You know

[00:37:16] joe: can, yeah.

[00:37:17] Chris_G: You

[00:37:18] Mary: okay.

[00:37:18] joe: never-

Okay … go-

[00:37:19] Mary: and go, “Wait

[00:37:20] joe: and go, “Wait a second … a little bit longer. We’ll give it a little bit-

[00:37:21] nick: Okay. So- Little bit

[00:37:21] Mary: does somebody detach their own head and go scrolling around?” Okay,

[00:37:26] joe: Go listen to

The Thing episode.

We dug in all that. I am I pass out the handwavium checks to everyone.

But

the

psychic thing really, even in the m- in the show, in the movie, you have it. They got this connection, they get drunk together, they do all this stuff, but E.T.’s dying somewhere. Elliott goes off, and then he can’t locate

him.

Like, what happened to your link now? Where’s your link at? Like why’s …your

brother gotta go out and do this whole thing? And then you link back up. I think the whole thing there, it was like a total plot handwavium device and it [00:38:00] just… That, that part, if you’re gonna keep consistent.

Elliott should’ve been like, “Oh, he’s at the river, the, the creek-

[00:38:06] Chris_G: Need some

[00:38:07] joe: lotion. Get out there

[00:38:09] Mary: He has

counselor Troy Powers.

[00:38:10] nick: all right.

In defense of E.T. Tan rubber

[00:38:12] joe: man

[00:38:13] Chris_G: Tan rubber man comes down from space.

[00:38:15] joe: finger glow.

[00:38:16] Chris_G: His belly and his finger glow, and he can do all this awesome stuff, and Joe’s problem-

[00:38:21] joe: can’t use it. He doesn’t have

[00:38:23] Chris_G: is the telekinesis.

[00:38:26] nick: doesn’t have GPS yet. It’s

[00:38:27] Chris_G: Sorry, Dr. Joe. No. I was way off.

[00:38:30] nick: problems also- I was way off. Sorry

[00:38:31] joe: breathes

our

air,

eats our food, metabolically… No, all that’s a problem, too. I ain’t even getting into the life. Georgia brought up the psychic link, and that’s why I went

[00:38:39] nick: now that

[00:38:40] joe: But now you brought up

the food

issue. Yes,

all that is also a a pro- I’m gonna chew

[00:38:48] georgia: Pieces

[00:38:48] Chris_G: That’s a Reese’s piece of

[00:38:48] georgia: for

[00:38:49] Chris_G: my candy right into your

[00:38:50] nick: Those are

M&M’s. Product

[00:38:53] Chris_G: Oh,

are you eating the

[00:38:54] nick: Oh, you’re eating the M&M’s?

Yeah, he doesn’t like Reese’s Pieces after the movie.

[00:38:58] joe: M&M’s? Yeah. Oh my gosh. After the

[00:38:59] Chris_G: movie.

[00:38:59] georgia: [00:39:00] I like these. That’s traitor. These are the best

[00:39:01] Chris_G: That was

the point. It was

supposed to be M&Ms. Mm-hmm.

[00:39:04] joe: That’s Traitor. Yeah, after the movie. That was the point. That was supposed to be M&M. Mm-hmm. The plants

also was an issue for me. I think that was a-

[00:39:08] Mary: that- Oh, like when it, when he was dying the

[00:39:10] joe: Star Trek thing. Yeah, the plants, the whole thing.

[00:39:12] georgia: and then when

[00:39:12] joe: because those weren’t plants. Those

are flowers, which I think leads

to a really interesting point about the species of E.T.,

because the flower is a reproductive organ, and it’s a terminal organ, so it produces the next generation of life. It was the issue I had with The Gremlins. That’s why I think it was a bioweapon, ’cause there was no cycle of life there. And so with the flower, which was interesting, is that he rejuvenated a reproductive organ that would produce new

life,

right?

So the

flower is

dead.

[00:39:43] georgia: what, Joe? That’s

when, that’s when- I don’t- …

it should

[00:39:46] Chris_G: I don’t- That should

[00:39:46] joe: that’s what…

That should die. I

mean, that,

the, the flower should die to give

to the seeds, and the seeds then you plant, and you get a new plant. So by him reactivating

or, or

[00:39:56] georgia: you know what?

[00:39:57] Chris_G: know what? Ladies and gentlemen, next week tune

[00:39:58] joe: in.

[00:39:59] nick: week tune in- … [00:40:00] to discuss

[00:40:00] Chris_G: the Easter Bunny.

[00:40:02] georgia: Is

that what

[00:40:04] Mary: lays eggs.

[00:40:04] georgia: said? I

mean, Joe, it could’ve just been a simple device

[00:40:09] joe: do you say? I mean, Joe, it could’ve just been a simple device

[00:40:10] georgia: Very

visual to show something dying and then something coming back and

living Exactly. You can use the

[00:40:16] Chris_G: plant

[00:40:16] joe: Why not just have

the plant do that?

why

[00:40:18] nick: Wait, what movie did

[00:40:19] Mary: do that? Yeah. Right? Or a bird. Wait, movie-

[00:40:19] nick: bird?

[00:40:19] joe: blooming and

[00:40:20] Mary: and the f- the flowering. Oh, yeah. Can I have another hot take?

Yes. Okay, I think that it’s really great. Okay, first of all, Drew Barrymore is so wonderful.

[00:40:30] georgia: I love her so much Yeah. Oh,

yeah.

She makes that

movie.

[00:40:33] Mary: really is. She reminds me so much of my sister. They’re about the same age, you know,

alligators in the sewer. They’re just so nutty. And

[00:40:41] nick: repeating

everything.

[00:40:43] Mary: I love that in ET…

Well, that ET starts to become more verbal through Gertie, through, through

[00:40:51] georgia: through Drew,

[00:40:51] Mary: Drew Barrymore’s

character, and he starts to feel, that’s fine.

[00:40:56] joe: He starts

[00:40:57] Mary: to feel pretty. He starts

to get in touch with his inner [00:41:00] girl, with, you know, he starts to dress up and I just love it. He starts

[00:41:03] joe: he like that? Or was that like when you- I mean, he starts- … you make up the dog …he starts to like And it’s just, full on-

and-

[00:41:08] nick: That’s how it Elliot was to

him.

[00:41:09] Mary: he seemed so happy how do you know if he was happy or I

[00:41:12] georgia: And

[00:41:13] nick: not?

[00:41:13] joe: assigning some emotions to him … he was so happy. He was just standing there, like, with

the wig on and

the,

[00:41:17] Mary: he was like, he starts he’s more verbal. He’s more engaged with his environment

[00:41:22] georgia: goes, “I taught him to talk.” I know.

I

[00:41:24] Mary: I know.

[00:41:25] georgia: so cute.

[00:41:26] joe: sweet.

[00:41:27] Mary: sweet.

Oh, I just,

[00:41:29] nick: you

know- Be good.

[00:41:30] Mary: buckets. Oh my gosh. Well, I, when I was 10, I was like, “I must not cry in this movie.” And like yesterday I was just,

[00:41:39] georgia: just let it go

[00:41:40] Mary: let it go …just let it go and just cried my eyes out.

[00:41:42] georgia: the fact that the mom was so frazzled that she just didn’t, like,

notice anything.

Well,

[00:41:47] Chris_G: hey, let’s

give- a- At all. Yeah.

[00:41:49] nick: Was

a single

mom right there.

We- She was doing a great

[00:41:53] joe: the

[00:41:53] Chris_G: She was doing a great job. And the beer cans, empty

beer cans. Yes. Thank you.

She looked

[00:41:56] nick: them and noticed. She was like, “Oh, these weren’t supposed to be emptied.”[00:42:00]

[00:42:00] joe: weren’t supposed to be empty.”

How does- Well, right,

the beer cans are all over. She didn’t really comment on that, and there

was a lot of beer cans

[00:42:04] Mary: you know what? She has three kids and she’s working. You know, stuff is gonna

[00:42:09] georgia: going on. And she’s dealing with-

[00:42:10] joe: And

she’s dealing with them. I mean-

[00:42:11] Mary: Exactly.

[00:42:11] georgia: She’s dealing with her hus- And

[00:42:12] Chris_G: 6,000- She’s dealing with her son

getting- Gertie was all of a sudden a foot shorter- Yeah … under a sheet.

[00:42:17] Mary: You know what?

[00:42:18] nick: Ooh. eye holes

[00:42:19] Chris_G: holes that were

15

feet away from each

[00:42:22] joe: you

remember these commercials?

[00:42:23] nick: You remember these commercials? Yes. And- And the wall

is good … that arm length. Ah. Do

[00:42:27] joe: you remember… Do you know where your children are?

[00:42:29] Chris_G: Of course.

[00:42:30] Mary: Oh,

[00:42:30] joe: so that’s the c-

so

[00:42:32] Chris_G: yeah. Oh, yeah.

[00:42:32] nick: Oh, yeah.

What was that?

[00:42:34] joe: In the ’80s.

What age are the kids? that

[00:42:37] georgia: 9, or 10. o’clock?

[00:42:38] joe: nine or 10 o’clock? Nine or 10. I don’t know. Maybe

both. And

they

[00:42:41] Mary: they

[00:42:41] georgia: And they’d be like, and they’d play it on the TV- Commercials … and they’d go,

and It wasn’t even a

commercial. It was like a PSA.

[00:42:46] joe: Yeah, and Like, stars. do you- They were like

[00:42:48] georgia: Do you know

where your children are?”

Yeah. Yeah. Grace

[00:42:51] joe: Jones was on it. I think she was one of them. Like, it’s like, “Do

you know-“

[00:42:54] Chris_G: run away from Grace Jones.

[00:42:56] joe: Do

you know where your

[00:42:56] Mary: would run

[00:42:57] nick: No. I got no clue.

[00:42:59] joe: [00:43:00] Yeah.

I was

[00:43:00] Mary: Jones is awesome.

[00:43:01] Chris_G: She

actually scared me

[00:43:03] joe: I was gonna point out something She does scare me …about the

adults in there. Something I had seen was that the first half of the film was shot so adults are never seen from the waist up. Mm-hmm. And it’s an interesting thing, and it was a tribute to the cartoons of Tex Avery.

And Tex Avery was the director of cartoons at MGM from like ’42 to ’54. Pretty much every cartoon that didn’t feature Tom and Jerry was his. And so Daffy Duck, Droopy, S- Screwy Squirrel, George and Junior, Chilly Willy, and he even coined, “What’s up, Doc?” at Bugs Bunny. So-

[00:43:33] nick: Rocky and Bullwinkle?

[00:43:35] joe: I don’t think that was- Oh.

[00:43:36] nick: Oh.

[00:43:37] Chris_G: If he just 15

[00:43:38] joe: That’s right, Yeah, big TV cartoons- I named Yeah. Be like, how about 16?

[00:43:43] nick: Yeah, I,

[00:43:43] georgia: I, I-

[00:43:44] nick: Well, I’m just saying-

[00:43:45] Mary: guess he’s not that

[00:43:46] nick: the art style

[00:43:46] Chris_G: looks…

[00:43:47] joe: Six- Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. I, I- Well, I

[00:43:48] nick: No, it’s that the art style looks very similar. That’s the only reason why I,

[00:43:51] joe: he do Mickey Mouse?

[00:43:52] Chris_G: That was some other guy.

[00:43:53] Mary: Yeah.

[00:43:54] joe: Yeah. but no, that was

[00:43:55] Chris_G: actually watching Tom and Jerry.

[00:43:57] joe: Okay. Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. They are. In in the living

room. [00:44:00] They are, yeah. Mm-hmm. yeah. But I

[00:44:01] Chris_G: the beer party starts.

[00:44:02] nick: artist- That was,

[00:44:03] joe: is that something… I mean,

[00:44:04] nick: he- ET

[00:44:05] joe: right up on that as an artist, I mean, and that style, and- Oh-

[00:44:08] georgia: Oh, they were watching, yeah … that slapstick and sat-

[00:44:10] joe: satirical humor that was in that.

I think that was something that was in there that they try,

[00:44:15] Chris_G: mean- It was definitely a zany scene … yeah.

[00:44:18] joe: right.

[00:44:19] nick: So Chris.

[00:44:20] joe: And

[00:44:20] Chris_G: alien

[00:44:20] joe: the beer, right. …That’s

right, yeah.

Yeah. That, that part of it was that whole, I think that was a nod back to, you know-

[00:44:27] Chris_G: I

would agree.

Yeah. I got you there. All right, Nick. Send it

[00:44:31] joe: back.

[00:44:31] nick: Yeah.

So you’d mentioned that there was connections to Gremlins.

How deep are these connections? What do you got? Like, I… You teased it real hard, and I wanna know now.

[00:44:42] Chris_G: Well, we touched upon it a few months back, that after E.T. was such a success, even though Spielberg said, “I’m not

[00:44:53] joe: 100%

[00:44:53] Chris_G: 100% sold on doing a sequel,” because he thinks he nailed it.

That, that was kind of gonna be his his swan song. Not [00:45:00] swan song, but his definite his masterpiece

That doesn’t mean scripts don’t get written because there’s script writers around every corner. So scripts were definitely written about what would happen if His species came back, and they weren’t all sweet

[00:45:15] nick: We did talk

about that.

[00:45:16] joe: they

weren’t

[00:45:17] Chris_G: quite as cuddly- Oh … as E.T.

And that became this, and that became this. In 1984, we got Gremlins. So that’s kinda- Nice … it’s kinda how that happened. Yeah,

[00:45:29] nick: So I had that

[00:45:30] Chris_G: out of the sky … like,

[00:45:33] nick: hot damn.

Really?

[00:45:35] Chris_G: Yeah. Yeah. I

[00:45:37] Mary: think that E.T.

is fascinating because how many movies do you see about aliens where the alien is friendly?

[00:45:46] joe: Oh.

[00:45:46] nick: Monsters vs. Aliens.

[00:45:48] Chris_G: And me, he’s got it

[00:45:49] nick: and Me.

[00:45:50] joe: Yeah, he’s

got it. I’ve got it, yeah.

[00:45:51] nick: Geez louise. Actually

[00:45:52] joe: you’re absolutely

[00:45:53] Mary: two more.

[00:45:54] joe: Most- most

[00:45:55] Chris_G: most aliens- So this does, yeah

[00:45:56] joe: you’ve led me right into a list. Thank you.

[00:45:58] Mary: All righty, please [00:46:00] do.

Well, I haven’t finished my… But go ahead, yes. In

[00:46:02] joe: cinema, The Day the Earth Stood Still. Mm-hmm. In 1951 that was a, a friendly, I mean, ish alien that came down. Came in peace and goodwill. Wanted people to chill.

[00:46:16] Chris_G: I was giving you that face because I was confusing that with War of the Worlds. Oh, right.

Pardon me.

[00:46:21] joe: I have another list that’s on, but in 1940 you had Henry Bates’ short story Farewell to the Master. So that was that was the original story for The Day the Earth Stood Still.

You had Arthur Clarke in ’53 Childhood’s End. You had the overseeing human evolution, you had just a, a kind, sweet alien. You had Murray Leinster’s First Contact in ’45. That was the first scientific concept and use of coined of the term first contact was in there. And it was a human and alien meet in deep space.

Neither can leave without risking the other going home, so they kinda were, there was a [00:47:00] standoff. There was no villain. It was just there. And then you had,

[00:47:02] nick: Mork and Mindy

[00:47:03] joe: Frank Russell’s Daredevil. What Mork and

[00:47:05] Chris_G: Mind- That’s in 1950.

[00:47:06] joe: 1950. I’m going

back.

[00:47:07] nick: sorry. I was confused by your timeline.

A lot

[00:47:09] joe: of these

were Cold War kind of aliens coming in to kind of, you know, “Why don’t you guys squash all the beef?”

And so a lot of these stories were in that vein. But you’re right. Up until these stories most the alien contact was was hostile, going all the way back to the 2nd century with Lucian of Samosata,

[00:47:29] nick: Samosata

[00:47:29] joe: a True Story,

which describes a visit to the moon and a war with the sun. And so that was kind of the first sci-fi

alien

kind of movie.

[00:47:40] Chris_G: All right, my research didn’t go quite-

[00:47:43] Mary: Back that far? Yeah.

[00:47:44] Chris_G: year two.

[00:47:45] joe: H- H.G.

Wells Yeah …is

where we think

a lot about and that was 1898, The War of the Worlds. People think that was the first kind of alien invasion, but you actually had a couple stories before that. Two Planets by Kurd [00:48:00] Lasswitz.

It was invaders.

[00:48:01] nick: Wait, I thought we were going friendly.

Wait … benevolent.

[00:48:03] joe: Well, I’m going to now… Pre the ’50s, most of the stories were about aliens coming down and just– And a lot of them were because of imperialism, colonialism, mirroring human dominance over another, going somewhere new, and then what would that look like in that ,

so War of, you know, kind of War of the Worlds.

And then The Germ Growers was in 1892 by Robert Potter, and that was credited as the very first alien invasion novel, featuring shapeshifting extraterrestrials that land in Australia outback to cultivate a deadly plague to wipe out humanity. So that’s that was there. So you

had- trust the Australians anyway.

And then all of this broke loose with the, Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast October 30th, 1938, which was this kind of bulletin, Martian invasion of New Jersey. You had this panic [00:49:00] Probably, , over- a little overblown. People did get freaked out, but most people knew it was a piece of fiction.

But you did have this thing where you could convince people that… And the frame it all, ’38, that was about 11 months before World War II started, so, it was tense. People thinking about invasions, things like that. So, but that’s it. So this is about, 44 years before E.T. The friendly…

But, you have this history of aliens coming, and they’re not here to make peace.

[00:49:28] Mary: And I think it’s interesting too when we have, like, those moments of, like, like panic, you know, you know, there’s times in our history that we welcome the str- the stranger.

[00:49:39] Chris_G: And

[00:49:39] Mary: there are times where we just assume that anyone different from us is hostile. Right.

[00:49:44] georgia: Right.

[00:49:45] Mary: So, and, I mean, have we had,

[00:49:47] joe: a…

[00:49:47] Mary: a…

Are

there any friendly alien movies that aren’t about,

[00:49:52] joe: you

know,

[00:49:53] Mary: that, like, expressly for kids?

[00:49:55] nick: Paul.

[00:49:55] Mary: Paul? Paul,

[00:49:56] nick: with Seth Rogen Simon Pegg, and Nick [00:50:00] Frost. Okay. Paul is an alien, and he just gets high with them all the time. It’s a really fun movie.

[00:50:05] Mary: Oh, that

[00:50:06] nick: They are

nerds that are, they write science fiction books

and- A

[00:50:10] Mary: with Simon Pegg?

[00:50:11] nick: I know, right? I- Oh. Normally he’s, like, the jock, right?

[00:50:15] joe: yeah. Yeah.

[00:50:15] Mary: yeah. Yeah.

[00:50:16] nick: Okay.

But highly recommend. It’s a good film. Okay.

[00:50:18] joe: Yeah.

[00:50:19] nick: and then Mork & Mindy came out b- before-

The ’70s,

E.T. ‘

[00:50:24] georgia: 70s, ‘

[00:50:24] Chris_G: 70s, yeah. Oh,

[00:50:24] joe: Yeah.

[00:50:24] nick: So that was a friendly alien before E.T.

[00:50:27] Mary: Yeah, and we’re sort of,

[00:50:28] joe: Was it My

[00:50:29] georgia: fave- my favorite Martian.

[00:50:31] joe: was what I was thinking. My

[00:50:32] georgia: was yeah, he was friendly.

[00:50:34] joe: Yep. Yeah.

Well,

I mean,

[00:50:35] Mary: like, dur- during, like, times where we… Well, I, actually there’s, during the ’50s famously intolerant of the stranger. But,

[00:50:42] nick: Yeah.

[00:50:42] Mary: I

[00:50:44] georgia: th- wonder, like- Yeah

yeah, like, immigrant rights- Mm-hmm … and, letting people, like, how that, like-

[00:50:50] joe: The,

[00:50:50] Mary: the panic around anything that’s, you know- Right … different, you know, that kind of thing. There is a … Well, I wanna go back. Oh, a couple minutes ago when we were talking about that [00:51:00] PSA, “Do you know where your children are?” You know, that kind of thing. It appears in a movie called V/H/S.

[00:51:06] joe: was…

Right. I

know. That was like, uh- Oh, Lord.

[00:51:08] Mary: Thank you.

[00:51:10] joe: It’s a …

[00:51:11] Mary: Have you, has anybody seen V/H/S/85?

[00:51:14] Chris_G: Yes.

[00:51:15] Mary: That’s a fun movie.

[00:51:16] Chris_G: No.

[00:51:17] nick: Love those movies. They do a great

job.

[00:51:19] Chris_G: just watched

[00:51:19] joe: I know what you’re talking about, but I haven’t, yep … VHS 85

[00:51:21] Mary: is probably one of my favorites probably because I was, like, at a … I was, like, 13 at, in ’85, so it was kind of formative for me. But, so I’m recognizing a lot of the stuff.

But in the movie, definitely for sure the alien is something- … Not to be trusted. Or maybe it’s coming in, and we assume it’s friendly to our detriment, that kind of thing.

[00:51:43] georgia: thing.

[00:51:43] Mary: If you … Yeah. If you’re … It’s a really as a … It’s a very uneven horror anthology, but I really recommend V/H/S 80- ’85 if you wanna

You know, it’s good and gory and scary

[00:51:57] Chris_G: and-

I’m gonna check

[00:51:57] Mary: and fun, and funny, too, so I like it a [00:52:00] lot.

[00:52:01] joe: There’s a- another

one- I had- Men In Black … oh, go

ahead. Men In Black, yep …but

[00:52:04] nick: just for you Chris, that Paul was very heavily inspired by E.T. Steven Spielberg shows up in the film as a cameo.

[00:52:12] Mary: Oh, man, what a score.

[00:52:13] nick: thought I’d let you know, because he ends up having a lot of the same Ending up having a lot of- … the aliens are, I mean, a lot of the aliens in there at the cantina hanging out, Rob Bottin was one of the cant- the players there in the band. But Rob

[00:52:26] Chris_G: Rob Bottin

[00:52:26] joe: who did all the practical effects for The Thing and

[00:52:29] georgia: had

[00:52:29] joe: other movies,

[00:52:29] georgia: in there.

[00:52:30] nick: man, are we talking about that

[00:52:31] Chris_G: bucket But I was gonna

[00:52:31] joe: I was gonna

say Star Wars, though,

was one where you had , the aliens were friendly. Close Encounters, they’re kind. They were friendly.

[00:52:38] Mary: Feel like the ’70s maybe were just a, maybe a friendlier time

[00:52:43] joe: I mean, maybe.

I don’t know.

It’s kind of- Yeah, yeah.

I know, yeah. I mean-

Yeah

[00:52:47] Mary: compared to now, I mean, the bar is on the floor now,

[00:52:50] georgia: Yeah.

[00:52:51] joe: yeah. Okay.

Yeah. And

[00:52:52] georgia: you know what I thought

[00:52:53] joe: you ha- you

also had in the ’70s Ridley Scott’s Alien. Which you know,

probably- Paul Rhodes

[00:52:58] georgia: That’s right.

[00:52:59] joe: right, yeah. So [00:53:00] you have that, so talking

about Alien- Well, that was the, the

and going in, you

know, that wasn’t a friendly

encounter.

[00:53:06] Mary: but I th- I would argue that the real villain in the Alien franchise is the company.

[00:53:11] nick: The corporation.

Yeah.

[00:53:12] Chris_G: Yeah.

Well, I mean- All

[00:53:13] joe: Yeah, that’s right. yeah. All

day long.

yeah. Yeah. Yes. yes.

Yeah. I’m just saying that we think of the alien in there, but they weren’t.

[00:53:20] Mary: Oh, yeah. How great is Alien Romulus? The greatest?

[00:53:23] Chris_G: greatest? So good. It’s definitely up

[00:53:24] Mary: So good? Okay. Anyway, all right, back to Al- back to ET. Okay, here we go.

[00:53:28] joe: Not my, Sorry …Harrison

[00:53:29] Chris_G: Ford was in a deleted scene- What?

[00:53:32] georgia: Oh, yeah. Is that right? yeah. No. He was a principal. He

was a principal.

That’s all I’m

[00:53:37] nick: it.

[00:53:37] Chris_G: Oh,

[00:53:38] Mary: the principal, excuse me.

[00:53:39] Chris_G: this goes to what you were saying about waist up not being seen on a character, because it was the callback to all the old animation. They got, like, one shot over his shoulder. You saw a little bit of the side of his head, and the rest of it was his knees to his feet. Yeah. They ended up taking that scene out all together.

[00:53:58] joe: said that he thought it would be distracting [00:54:00] ’cause s- Harrison Ford was coming off of, you know-

[00:54:02] Chris_G: He was hotter than anything right

[00:54:04] joe: so

it was kind of distracting from E.T.

[00:54:07] Chris_G: It kinda tore into the story

[00:54:09] joe: saved the movie I

if he was in it, so

[00:54:11] georgia: Oh, geez.

[00:54:12] nick: We always have to have

[00:54:17] Mary: have to have one contrarian in the group.

[00:54:19] georgia: vegetarian in the

[00:54:20] Chris_G: 1975.

Come on, man.

[00:54:21] joe: Yeah.

[00:54:21] georgia: Yeah.

[00:54:23] joe: was gonna,

I was gonna mention a, a Alien story which I really, I enjoyed, and it’s interesting ’cause it’s about, more, like, about alien artifacts, but it was Roadside Picnic in 1972. It was the Strugatsky brothers that wrote that novel, and it was about aliens- Going past Earth, stop like a roadside picnic, leave their debris,

and then

us humans are trying to figure out what the debris does.

And there was like this kind of device there, this kind of wish, wish machine, I guess, that it would make anything you want come true. And people would go out into the [00:55:00] field, and you would hire someone, and they’d go out and try to find new artifacts. So it was really… It was a really good book where you had alien…

They, they visited, but it wasn’t really confirmed, and they didn’t communicate with them. So you also had this story in there where kind of, you know, that was one of the things that you also

[00:55:17] nick: in

[00:55:18] joe: time, so,

[00:55:19] nick: It’s

[00:55:20] joe: happening

[00:55:21] georgia: Do you

got a- That wasn’t me.

Oh.

I was away

[00:55:21] joe: wasn’t me.

Oh.

[00:55:23] Chris_G: away from the

[00:55:24] nick: the

[00:55:24] Chris_G: why

[00:55:24] joe: like, it was like, all right. It was my turn. What’s happening

[00:55:25] nick: I don’t know why

you look at

[00:55:26] Chris_G: me.

Yeah, this won’t happen. Oh. This won’t

happen.

[00:55:30] georgia: It was

[00:55:30] Mary: like,

[00:55:30] nick: love-

[00:55:31] Chris_G: Cleared my throat there. I’m sorry.

[00:55:33] georgia: What’s happening here? You- I think of, like- Yeah … I know he’s not an alien, I mean, he’s a robot, but I- Iron Giant.

[00:55:38] joe: Yeah, you can see that.

[00:55:39] georgia: a very similar- Mm-hmm … kind of story.

[00:55:42] joe: yeah. The humanity. It’s finding your humanity and- Yeah.

[00:55:46] Chris_G: Mm-hmm, yeah.

[00:55:46] joe: Kind of- Or your- …putting

a spotlight

on that, I think- Right … To your point. , Mary, you were Area touching on this a little bit I think.

Mm-hmm. Is that how do we find, see ourselves, hold a mirror up to society- Mm-hmm … and that’s reflected via [00:56:00] these alien. ‘Cause the Iron Giant was an alien, technically, ’cause it came from somewhere else. It wasn’t Earth… Well, we assume it wasn’t a terrestrial creation and it came down, and it did that, so

[00:56:12] Mary: our attitudes towards aliens, you know, reflect how we feel about, you know, the stranger and the anxiety and the panic around that.

[00:56:20] joe: And- There’s a movie, Planet 51, right? Isn’t that, Erie 51. Erie f- Or the one, the animated one.

[00:56:25] nick: Oh, no, not the one I’m thinking

of. Oh,

[00:56:27] georgia: Tera.

There was that,

[00:56:28] joe: There was a Battle for Terra, right?

Um,

Then you had, that was, like, Avatar animated.

[00:56:32] georgia: Which one are you talking about? The- It

[00:56:34] joe: It was, like, Area for the little aliens. I think it was Planet 51

[00:56:37] nick: I was thinking of District 9, actually.

[00:56:39] joe: District 9?

[00:56:40] nick: Which- Yeah … they were just enslaved aliens. Well,

[00:56:43] joe: was

totally

[00:56:44] nick: not enslaved, but like- Like immigrant

[00:56:46] joe: Alien Nation.

Came out somewhere in the early ’80s. I wanna say ’84-ish, ’85.

[00:56:52] Mary: TV series, by the way

[00:56:53] joe: the, the movie was really good also. Yeah.

[00:56:55] Mary: Yeah,

[00:56:56] Chris_G: I get that confused with V.

[00:56:58] joe: Oh,

V. Yes, Yeah.

[00:56:59] Mary: Now [00:57:00] That’s a

that’s

[00:57:00] joe: now that was one that

left some scars,

[00:57:02] Chris_G: Oh,

yes. with

V. As long as

[00:57:04] joe: they Live, right?

‘Cause They Live, V, you had that, that you don’t know,

you know, it was

[00:57:09] Chris_G: brought us Robert Englund, too.

[00:57:11] Mary: Yeah, that’s true.

I remember him from the TV ser- or from the mini-series and the TV series. So I wasn’t really that s- I wasn’t really that scared of him

[00:57:21] Chris_G: Yeah. He was a

[00:57:22] joe: a nice-

[00:57:22] Mary: remembered him being just a cuddle bug.

[00:57:24] Chris_G: He was a sweet guy

in

[00:57:26] Mary: a sweet, absolute sweetheart in V

[00:57:28] Chris_G: Until he wasn’t.

[00:57:29] Mary: Yeah.

[00:57:30] joe: Yeah. Well,

[00:57:30] Mary: you know, everyone gets pushed beyond their limits Even

[00:57:33] joe: got pushed.

[00:57:34] georgia: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:57:34] Mary: So but you know what, there was another … I, and I haven’t s- well, it’s gets touched on a little bit when we talk about E.T., but Peter Pan is, has an enormous influence on this movie in my opinion

[00:57:46] georgia: on

This movie, in my opinion. Okay. How

[00:57:49] joe: how so,

please?

Well, the,

Well-

It

[00:57:53] Chris_G: it,

[00:57:54] Mary: it start,

especially at, when you get to the end, you realize, oh, you know, it’s E- ET is [00:58:00] asking him if he, “Will you come with me?”

And he’s like, “No I have to stay here.” You know, there’s this idea that, , there was, to fly away and just live in this perpetual fantasy world. But no, he, you know, he has responsibilities here on Earth. The flying through the sky, that kind of thing. The, the lost boys, you know, join them in the bike ride.

You know, that kind of thing. When mom is reading to Gertie,, “Clap hard if you believe in fairies.” just a little illusion there. But y- you don’t really see adults as much. You know, this is the, this is a world of children. And- Very much … but, and it’s assumed to be temporary. This is a this is just a, like a, just a moment in time.

[00:58:46] Chris_G: a

stop. Yeah,

[00:58:47] Mary: That, yeah, that we don’t, and we’re not going to revisit this again. You know, like ET leaving and going into the shape.

[00:58:53] georgia: losing innocence?

Yeah. Interesting.

[00:58:55] Mary: Yeah.

yeah, he’s like putting, yeah, this is, like, the end of one part of his [00:59:00] childhood. And ET has healed him in more than one way.

In a m-

[00:59:04] nick: killed him in more than one way.

[00:59:07] Mary: All right.

[00:59:07] joe: The healing

[00:59:08] Chris_G: me…

I’m

[00:59:09] nick: That was-

[00:59:09] joe: the healing

[00:59:10] Mary: But

[00:59:10] joe: hand-waving.

The

[00:59:12] Chris_G: the idea that he-

[00:59:12] joe: Fingerwavium. A

[00:59:16] Chris_G: A subset.

[00:59:18] georgia: Yeah,

[00:59:19] Mary: that, you, yeah, we rarely see adults. You know, adults are, , from the waist down. But the, the whole movie is like a celebration of childhood, but it’s also exploring the pain that this family is having, the the pain of these chi- these children trying to figure out why the adults in their lives are, have upended it.

[00:59:37] joe: And he-

[00:59:38] Mary: And he-

[00:59:39] georgia: that makes… Yeah. Yeah.

[00:59:40] Mary: And so it just, it’s just a, it’s a celebration of, like, just the ephemerality of this, this moment, and he’s healed at the end of

[00:59:48] georgia: I think of that like, and I’m sorry, I don’t remember his character’s name, but Peter Coyote again.

[00:59:54] Chris_G: Mm-hmm.

[00:59:55] Mary: Yeah. I don’t think Nerfada had anything. He was a scientist

[00:59:57] georgia: remember when he was talking, he goes…

And he was [01:00:00] alluding to his own childhood and

[01:00:02] Mary: Oh, when he was

[01:00:03] georgia: that. Yeah.

And I think that, yeah.

[01:00:06] Mary: Oh, that’s right. I forgot

[01:00:07] Chris_G: about

that He came to me, too. That was- also- Yeah. He came to me, too. Yeah. You know?

[01:00:10] georgia: what

[01:00:10] joe: like a callback to Close Encounters.

Little bit. Yeah. You had that. When I watched that, ’cause I watched- Yeah … we watched ET, and then I watched Close Encounters, and I thought about some of those scenes and what he was talking about. It was like, oh, he got visited. And then it was like, oh, if you watch Close Encounters, there was that, where people had these visions.

And there was a scene in that movie where it was like, there could be many people who aren’t watching TV and see the mountain, and then they’re coming to that, but they have these feelings that they’ve been visited, and they have seen something. So he could’ve been one of the younger people who’ve seen that- Mm-hmm

and couldn’t put it in context. And then

[01:00:45] Chris_G: when

[01:00:46] joe: when ET comes, he, this is what led his career, his involvement in the sciences potentially- Yeah … in looking for extraterrestrial life. And then here it is, and it’s like, you know what? And that’s the [01:01:00] only reason I think- They would’ve given him, , that clear the room, let him have…

I was m- poking fun of that, but I was thinking that he was at that point. But I think on the other hand you have this incredible specimen There was no way.

I

just think

[01:01:15] Chris_G: that

[01:01:16] joe: It just wouldn’t, it wouldn’t happen that way.

[01:01:18] Chris_G: The science doesn’t work for

[01:01:19] joe: right, yeah.

It would come in- That’s right … and they would …be “

like, Nope we’re shutting this all down. Little boy, oh, you wanna go along? We’re taking you for some studies also because it’s like you’ve been linked to an alien now.”

[01:01:30] Chris_G: when he dies-

[01:01:31] Mary: Yeah.

[01:01:32] joe: Yeah

spoiler,

[01:01:33] Chris_G: sorry.

[01:01:33] Mary: Yeah.

[01:01:34] Chris_G: he comes right back. He comes right back. That’s right.

[01:01:36] nick: back.

[01:01:36] joe: That’s right. And you know

[01:01:37] Chris_G: you know because the indicator

[01:01:38] joe: Why don’t,

[01:01:39] Chris_G: mean why are we doing-

of the BS- … human- … geranium

[01:01:41] joe: things on

an alien? I mean, it’s like let’s push, you know, you know, da, let’s do this. Like Georgia said, they had real doctors in there doing stuff, but it was like, it’s an alien.

What, how do we know classic sci-fi and Mars Attacks pokes holes in this, where it’s like, “You know what we know about the aliens.” you know, so Starship [01:02:00] Troopers, it’s like all of a sudden you have this whole playbook about the aliens’ biology and what they can do from a, a, you know, brief, a brief encounter.

Like, you know what, I think it’s like these are the male parts and these are the female parts and da. So-

[01:02:11] Chris_G: the aspirator

[01:02:12] joe: right yeah.

[01:02:12] Chris_G: on the nose.

We’re giving that’s right, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Do we that’s

[01:02:15] joe: where

[01:02:15] Mary: Where’s the chest? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,

[01:02:17] Chris_G: It was

[01:02:17] joe: just glowing a second ago.

I

mean, it’s kind of- I think and all ashen. You

know, it’s like a-

When

[01:02:23] Mary: E.T. dies I’m wondering, , like I’m looking back at it thinking, “Well, we don’t, we know so little about their biology. Maybe this is kinda like a de- defense mechanism.” Right. Maybe his species can play dead to such an extent that, you know, they, he looks dead.

[01:02:39] joe: And that’s real. That’s- you

know? They’re real, there’s real organisms

that do that, that can go into stasis. You have like the tardigrades. They can- Yeah … g- they can go down- Water bears …

[01:02:46] georgia: They were trying to be

[01:02:48] joe: You have the wood frogs that in the Arctic they can actually f- over freeze and then come, be

revived.

Right. So you have these, Playing-

You do have organisms that do, I mean, right, you

also,

playing possum. Right.

So

you,

[01:02:59] nick: that could [01:03:00] have also backfired real hard on them. Like-

[01:03:02] joe: I think

[01:03:02] nick: would

they could have just been like-

[01:03:04] Chris_G: Instant dissection …

[01:03:05] nick: dead. Let’s start cutting in. Let’s

figure out what’s in

[01:03:07] joe: didn’t

[01:03:07] georgia: Let’s start cutting in. Let’s do it. But Joe, remember the whole DNA thing, and then they talked about his DNA. Yeah. And then they showed the computer screen, and then they

showed

[01:03:15] Mary: he has more DNA

or

[01:03:17] georgia: it was like-

[01:03:17] joe: Something about- Nucleotides … something

about nu- yeah, it was

[01:03:19] Chris_G: yeah, it

[01:03:19] georgia: then they were separating,

[01:03:20] Chris_G: him. But I was like- Six nucleotides-

[01:03:22] joe: I was like

[01:03:23] Chris_G: But I was like- … instead of a mere four like us mortals here. Yeah.

[01:03:25] joe: I don’t, yes, that’s right. The

ATCG. They don’t

[01:03:27] Chris_G: name the extra

[01:03:28] georgia: And then you could see on the screen them

[01:03:30] joe: like,

[01:03:30] nick: a- So they did

get DNA samples, yes?

[01:03:33] Chris_G: Element. Like Fifth Element- They’re gonna make new ones?

[01:03:36] nick: Yeah,

[01:03:36] georgia: and, They’re gonna make new ones?

Yeah. Yeah, like- Jurassic Park … they-

[01:03:38] Chris_G: gonna have a backyard

[01:03:39] joe: full of gremlins You know?

[01:03:40] Chris_G: and ETs.

[01:03:41] nick: and ETs. Well, I was actually going if they start going the Jurassic Park route and start,

[01:03:45] georgia: know-

Oh Yeah.

[01:03:47] joe: I was thinking of Fifth Element and the Mimo groups. We got

[01:03:49] nick: got- … all this

[01:03:50] joe: They got

all these Mimo, which means nothing. It was like, “What are you talking about?” But we were talking about some movies, and I did have a few others that I thought about here.

Killer Klowns [01:04:00] from Outer Space. I’m going to the ’80s. Yay. The Hidden also

[01:04:03] Mary: I haven’t seen that one.

[01:04:04] Chris_G: I haven’t

[01:04:04] nick: I don’t know that.

[01:04:05] Chris_G: Cocoon

[01:04:05] joe: in ’85

[01:04:06] Mary: yeah.

[01:04:07] joe: Which I think, you know, we were just watching The Bourgh which I think had

some callback to that. The Wally Wolodarsky series

I loved it

[01:04:12] georgia: Flight of

[01:04:12] nick: it,

[01:04:13] joe: so you know Flight of the Navigator.

[01:04:15] nick: What?

[01:04:16] joe: What? Which was Flight of the Navigator,

oh, in ’86. It was like a boy, he was abducted, and then he comes back and then it’s a time dilation thing where he come… Yeah, so it’s a good movie. It’s solid. So, like a good E.T.-inspired kind of movie there.

[01:04:33] Mary: Mean-

[01:04:34] joe: there’s also Mac and Me, but only Nick enjoys that.

[01:04:37] Chris_G: That movie has been

[01:04:38] georgia: named

[01:04:38] nick: times

can you police that? That

[01:04:40] Chris_G: times more than it should be. Yes.

[01:04:42] joe: Did you

[01:04:43] Chris_G: hear,

[01:04:43] Mary: Do you like-

[01:04:44] joe: a

thing with no, Steven Spielberg …

[01:04:45] Mary: you like

[01:04:46] joe: ask him- Do you watch Mac and Me? No, I do not. No. Do

not

[01:04:48] Mary: I

[01:04:48] nick: Thank you for

[01:04:48] Chris_G: trying to set

him

[01:04:49] Mary: up … I was like, I do, I

[01:04:51] joe: Spielberg says,

he goes, they ask him, “Oh, do you ever consider legal action against Mac and Me?”

and He jokingly said,

“I don’t

want to get blamed for [01:05:00] making anyone watch it in order to make a

complaint.” Nope.

[01:05:02] nick: make a complaint.”

That was

[01:05:05] Chris_G: he’s not wrong.

But yeah, the

[01:05:06] joe: Coca-Cola revi- Yeah … I

mean, talk about

pi- but the Coca-Cola revived the alien. Like, it was like a

thing. So as much handwavium

as that, as E.T. but yeah, it was one of those things that was really,

[01:05:17] Mary: I tried to watch it on

[01:05:18] joe: did watch it. We, I

did watch

[01:05:20] Mary: it’s pretty unwatchable

[01:05:21] joe: yeah. With the giant- Yeah. I don’t know why we watched it. We-

[01:05:23] georgia: Oh, God, I don’t know

[01:05:25] joe: I

never saw it,

and it was that joke with, With oh the one- Paul Rudd …

Paul Rudd, that’s right, on, on a

[01:05:29] nick: Conan O’Brien

[01:05:30] joe: goes on and he shows the wheelchair scene.

[01:05:33] nick: Yeah. And I

[01:05:35] joe: I was

like, “You know, I never watched this movie. Let’s watch

Mac and Me.”

[01:05:37] nick: That’s

the

exact

reason. ‘Cause I’m- That is the only reason people see that film … so

[01:05:42] georgia: I love that M- that Mary was gonna hold her tongue- Yeah … if Joe said that

[01:05:47] joe: that

he No.

I was like, “Wait

[01:05:48] Chris_G: a s- ” I mean-

[01:05:49] joe: …E.T. is, like, barely better than Mac and I’m joking. I am joking

about that.

[01:05:52] Mary: to f-

[01:05:53] joe: actually, I actually- Chris is gonna choke me to death. choke me

[01:05:55] nick: to death.

[01:05:55] Mary: to dabble in it? Well, ’cause you kept mentioning it, and I thought, “Well, maybe this is a movie you like b-

[01:05:59] joe: a rise [01:06:00] out it.

[01:06:00] georgia: Maybe he r- Have a ride about it …maybe he really

[01:06:01] joe: rise.

[01:06:01] Chris_G: I’m an easy target.

[01:06:02] nick: I’m fine.

[01:06:03] Mary: Okay. But Chris, you were looking at your phone. What was, you

had

[01:06:06] Chris_G: some other

[01:06:06] joe: were you actually

[01:06:07] Mary: No,

[01:06:07] nick: No, but you

[01:06:08] Mary: No, but you had

[01:06:09] joe: No, but- He’s going to the Mac and Me. convention

[01:06:10] Chris_G: No, not in a bad way No, no, no, no, no, no … like you might be.

[01:06:11] georgia: No.

[01:06:12] joe: Mac and Me. Exactly. The Mac and Me podcast.

[01:06:13] Chris_G: Me podcast. No, we were ta-

[01:06:13] joe: get there? It’s gonna

[01:06:14] Chris_G: How in the world did we get there?

[01:06:17] Mary: Yeah.

[01:06:17] nick: That’s gonna be our next episode with you,

[01:06:18] georgia: right Chris? At o-

[01:06:19] Chris_G: you, right, Joe?

[01:06:19] Mary: Chris?

I’ll be calling in dead. Okay? All right.

[01:06:22] Chris_G: I’m gonna phone that one in. Yeah,

[01:06:24] joe: Are you gonna

phone

[01:06:25] Chris_G: be me in person.

[01:06:26] joe: he actually

says home phone first, right? Almost in a Yoda kinda like. He says home phone, and they correct it to phone home. Yeah. And most people think just phone home, but he actually said home phone. So

[01:06:36] Chris_G: He says both. He

[01:06:37] joe: both … he does say both.

That’s right, yep.

[01:06:38] Chris_G: We were talking a second about when E.T. died, and Nick alluded to the fact that could’ve gone dark real bad. They could’ve started the autopsy right then- Right … in front of

[01:06:47] nick: the-

I would’ve

[01:06:48] Chris_G: I would’ve. We know you would’ve, Nick.

You might not have

waited.

[01:06:52] joe: no. we- He would,

[01:06:53] nick: You know we got one, let’s just… It had become an alien. There you go.

[01:06:55] joe: into Elliott too. Like, “You

know what? Let’s,

[01:06:57] Mary: We’re so We’re sorry, Simon. What an odd parallel though, [01:07:00] because a bit before that, in the classroom scene with all the

Oh,

[01:07:06] joe: that’s right.

[01:07:06] Chris_G: man Yeah … they just put a cotton ball of chloroform in there, and he’s gonna go to sleep.

The p- the- Yep … teacher’s explaining.

[01:07:15] joe: feel no pain, yeah

[01:07:16] Chris_G: And they’re gonna cut these frogs open, and he says, “One of the things you’re gonna notice, that heart will still be beating.” Would that go down in 2026, where you’re cutting open live

[01:07:27] joe: I will see, I will say

[01:07:29] Chris_G: No, it would not.

[01:07:30] joe: I will say when I was in college, in Bio 102, I think it was the practicum You would go station to station and you had to answer questions. There was a question, like, how many chambers does a frog heart have? And you looked into the open chest of the frog, and the heart was still beating

[01:07:49] Mary: Mm-hmm.

[01:07:51] joe: then I was like, “Oh, that’s one, two, three.” So that was,

it

was very

helpful that, ’cause you get, you can watch the

beating.

Yeah. But yeah,

[01:07:58] georgia: two, three … I actually [01:08:00] love that scene- sorry … where he lets all the frogs out.

[01:08:02] joe: little dark.

[01:08:03] georgia: And then they kiss, and it was

just like,

[01:08:05] Chris_G: all the frogs go. Yeah. Yeah. And then they kiss, and it was just like, It turns out Spielberg actually

did that

when he was in school. He secretly let all the

frogs

[01:08:11] georgia: love that. So 30,

[01:08:12] Chris_G: 30,

40 years later, he went ahead and did that.

And by the way, little bit of trivia,

[01:08:17] joe: Nick,

[01:08:18] Chris_G: The little blonde girl that he kisses

[01:08:20] joe: That’s right

[01:08:20] Chris_G: that’s Erika Eleniak. 30 years later, she would jump out of a cake in Under Siege. I

[01:08:28] joe: gonna say, now, is that in Under Siege? Yeah, wow. Yeah, that’s a… She was the Playmate of the Year in that movie,

[01:08:34] georgia: Not in ET. No, in, in Under Siege. I

[01:08:35] joe: No, in, in Under

[01:08:37] Chris_G: Siege.

[01:08:37] joe: I-

[01:08:37] nick: would hope not, Georgia.

[01:08:39] Chris_G: the no, they had the- We’re gonna make a real distinction

[01:08:42] joe: No. Why are you gonna share people that- No. What, was she purring next to you or… Yeah. That’s a

pre-episode callback, but

yeah, no.

[01:08:51] Chris_G: yeah,

[01:08:52] joe: Wow, that’s

a…

Thank

[01:08:53] nick: something up on your phone there? I

[01:08:54] joe: if

[01:08:54] Chris_G: sense to anyone listening.

[01:08:57] nick: you got going on?

[01:08:58] georgia: No, I don’t know, like, if [01:09:00] Joe remembers, I did the monologue about Tamara, you know.

[01:09:04] joe: Yeah. Oh, you can- let people know.

[01:09:06] georgia: yeah, do you remember that?

[01:09:08] joe: I don’t know. So I

[01:09:10] nick: Man, that sounded right. I

[01:09:14] joe: know. Let me, add this in. Yes, I know exactly.

[01:09:18] georgia: but- Man, that sounded great … all right. I know. Let me- … let me listen. Okay. Yeah, I know exactly. The power of editing. No, I’m kidding.

[01:09:21] nick: So I did a

[01:09:23] georgia: a monologue about this woman who played E.T.

She was she was…

[01:09:30] Mary: was…

[01:09:30] georgia: had

dwarfism.

Right. And she was only

[01:09:32] joe: 31

[01:09:33] georgia: 31

inches tall, and she actually played in the ET suit.

But then they weren’t even gonna give… And it was her and this other, this boy

[01:09:42] Chris_G: a few people …

[01:09:43] joe: was three. yeah,

I think three people.

[01:09:45] georgia: And the boy had no legs. Yeah. That was- Yeah … and they weren’t even, wasn’t even gonna give them credit on the… And I think some, something happened. I did notice that they, that her name was in the credits.

Mm-hmm. But Armistead Maupin [01:10:00] was her good friend. Oh,

[01:10:01] Mary: Oh, really?

[01:10:02] georgia: he wrote the book Maybe the Moon, and it’s based on her and about, about her.

[01:10:07] Mary: Oh, I didn’t know that. Oh,

[01:10:09] joe: So I had, um… It

was,

[01:10:10] Mary: of the City is just, yeah, it’s a

[01:10:12] georgia: fantastic. I love him so much.

[01:10:14] Mary: series is great. Anyway,

[01:10:15] joe: in my notes I had Matthew, the, Merritt was the born without legs and walked on his hands for the stumbling scenes.

Mm-hmm. And then Pat Billon was the other one, along with Tamara De Threa, Treau,

what’s, You know what? The French name, like-

[01:10:29] georgia: and it’s a French name that I-

[01:10:30] joe: T-R-E-A-U-X. Yeah. Someone who

speaks French can…

I was gonna say- I don’t know what’s going on over there. Something’s

happening You know exactly what’s going

what. I know something’s happening.

but I…

Mary had brought up War- War of the Worlds, and then we were talking about E.T. being on Earth.

[01:10:54] georgia: I don’t, no,

[01:10:54] Mary: I don’t…

[01:10:55] joe: I don’t… I’m

not looking over there.

[01:10:56] nick: I’ve

already sent it to you, don’t worry … it was,

[01:10:57] joe: is

that the… Okay.

[01:10:58] Chris_G: It’ll

[01:10:59] nick: in the show

[01:10:59] joe: notes.

but that

[01:11:00] was the idea

that, though, interacting with our, you know, some of the handwavium there is that you had E.T.

came, and he could breathe our air almost like he was, naturally fit in, eat our food, metabo- I mean, maybe that’s why he got sick. I don’t know. He was eating a

lot of junk.

But you, you had- Of course …but

in War of the Worlds, you had the alien invasion was stopped because of Earth’s microbes that affected them, right?

So that probably , could that be one of the things that caused him to be sick- Mm-hmm … was that. But then he healed. I mean, that’s, see, this is where you get into the, the plot holes, and he was sick, he’s dying, and then all of a sudden, he’s, , revived.

[01:11:36] georgia: wasn’t the whole point was when he separated from Elliot that he was-

[01:11:40] joe: I think the whole point was that, I got to this earlier, was that he was really a scout, and it wasn’t phone home and all that. They were coming back anyway.

[01:11:50] Chris_G: were all connected.

[01:11:51] joe: yeah. And I think

they- were

[01:11:52] Chris_G: they heard a noise, all their hearts were in sync.

Once he got left,

[01:11:57] joe: Interesting

[01:11:58] Chris_G: point, hot take perhaps, [01:12:00] he linked with the first life form that he came around- He did link with a deer … and it was Elliott that

[01:12:06] joe: it was deer. He, deer, there was all sorts of woodland animals that he came in contact with. Why wouldn’t he link with one of those?

[01:12:13] nick: ‘Cause they’re not at our l-

[01:12:15] Mary: I don’t know

[01:12:15] Chris_G: links with a deer-

[01:12:16] joe: I I’m

[01:12:17] Chris_G: is a four-minute movie.

[01:12:18] joe: Well, I mean,

[01:12:19] Chris_G: That’s- I haven’t even started my popcorn yet, Joe.

[01:12:23] joe: I’m just saying, though. I mean,

that’s, why

[01:12:25] Chris_G: not?

[01:12:26] joe: why

wouldn’t he link with one of those, right?

[01:12:29] nick: That was great. Can E.T. turn invisible?

[01:12:30] Chris_G: Why

[01:12:31] joe: Why

not the plants? That’s-

[01:12:32] Mary: sounds like a riveting

[01:12:33] joe: and the

[01:12:34] Mary: movie. Okay.

[01:12:35] joe: collecting them like they, they love them,

[01:12:37] Chris_G: right? Because Henry Thomas was already signed on. I mean, what do you want me to say? Groot.

[01:12:42] joe: They got Groot there.

[01:12:43] nick: Can he turn

[01:12:44] joe: am

[01:12:44] Chris_G: I agree. Can he what?

[01:12:46] nick: Can E.T. turn invisible?

[01:12:47] joe: Invisible.

[01:12:49] nick: Yes, ’cause in the shack

[01:12:51] georgia: then he would’ve needed the sheet.

What

[01:12:53] joe: he

[01:12:53] nick: he would’ve needed the sheet. What the- Where- No. No, because when he was

in the shack,

he was there

still.

So- But they, all those guys-

[01:12:59] Chris_G: love that [01:13:00] your big answer is, “Then he would not have needed the sheet. Next.

[01:13:04] nick: Back to you.

[01:13:05] Chris_G: What?

[01:13:06] joe: those

[01:13:07] nick: What?

‘Cause what? All those boys went in the shed with the knives, and they didn’t see him?

[01:13:12] Chris_G: was

[01:13:12] joe: The

footprints led out, though. I think E.T. had

[01:13:14] nick: No, his, after they walked away, his hand clings to the corner

[01:13:19] joe: the corner

[01:13:20] Chris_G: He’s really good at hide and

[01:13:22] nick: He must be able to turn invisible. Have

[01:13:23] Chris_G: he’s a champion

[01:13:25] joe: you ever send a kid for something and

they like, “I don’t see it.”

It’s

like-

“It’s right there.

[01:13:29] georgia: being in the closet? He would’ve pretended

to be a doll if he could just make himself

[01:13:34] joe: Yeah. He’s not

The Predator yet.

[01:13:35] georgia: Come on, Nick.

[01:13:36] Chris_G: That got such a

[01:13:37] Mary: such a huge reaction when we… I still remember, like, people’s reactions in the theater.

[01:13:42] Chris_G: When they’re

[01:13:42] joe: across

[01:13:42] nick: the

[01:13:43] Chris_G: the

[01:13:43] Mary: went to the toys

huge pop. You

[01:13:44] joe: pop. You guys

are spoiling it for people. Or-

[01:13:47] Chris_G: the other one

[01:13:48] joe: the other one “

[01:13:48] Mary: I don’t like his feet.”

[01:13:50] joe: his feet.”

That

[01:13:51] Mary: That got a hu-

[01:13:51] georgia: was

[01:13:52] Chris_G: out that

[01:13:52] joe: was

[01:13:53] Chris_G: Barrymore’s

actual

response. Really? That was not written.

[01:13:56] Mary: re- Oh,

no way.

[01:13:57] georgia: I

love- “I didn’t like the feet.” I love that.

[01:13:59] Mary: Oh, that’s so[01:14:00]

[01:14:00] Chris_G: when

E.T. Is hiding in the toys.

And the mom pans across, Mm-hmm and he knows to j- I forgot this is a video. He

[01:14:09] nick: knows

[01:14:10] Chris_G: just look forward. Yeah. Like this and

[01:14:12] Mary: Not to move. Yeah … so

[01:14:13] Chris_G: That moves, yeah. So he looks like a toy. Little callback in Gremlins, by the way.

[01:14:17] nick: In

[01:14:17] Chris_G: the department store.

[01:14:20] nick: Yeah … where

[01:14:20] Chris_G: is s- where is Stripe hiding? Right behind an E.T. doll.

[01:14:24] joe: right. Oh,

Interesting. Yeah. okay.

Yep.

[01:14:27] Chris_G: He’s gotta jump back out, and it’s an E.T. doll that falls out of the way,

[01:14:31] georgia: out of the way, so. Oh, fun.

[01:14:31] joe: Fun. Interesting. There

was

[01:14:32] Chris_G: a young actor, actually, that was going to be cast as Elliott’s best friend, and he was a quirky young kid, and they thought it, it ended up being better that he didn’t have a good friend.

That he was more of a loner, and that actor, they ended up, they Spielberg said I’m gonna cut you from this. We cast you, but we’re gonna cut you. I’m gonna put you in my next movie.” And he put him in Gremlins, because it was Corey Feldman.

[01:14:57] georgia: Oh, my gosh. Oh, wow.

[01:14:59] Chris_G: And I [01:15:00] did that for Georgia.

[01:15:01] georgia: Aw.

[01:15:02] joe: it is.

Wow.

[01:15:04] Mary: is. Yeah.

[01:15:05] Chris_G: ‘Cause we spent 20 minutes on Corey Feldman the last time I was down here.

[01:15:09] Mary: time I was down here. Oh, my. So what is the most fannish Chris, what is the most fannish thing you’ve done? , well, you, besides m- making the, oh, it’s an E.T., you know, in, in, in front of a, yeah, Reese’s box. Those, we’re looking at an illustration that Chris ha- has made.

But what are what other fannish things have you, you’ve done in the name of E.T.?

[01:15:30] Chris_G: A lot of artwork. Three or four different Reese’s Pieces boxes. Mm-hmm. But the, I think as far as fanish stuff, Mary, I think I peaked in, I think I peaked in ’82. Mm-hmm. When, now I’m gonna,

[01:15:45] nick: I’m

[01:15:45] joe: gonna

educate

the,

[01:15:46] Mary: When the movie

[01:15:46] Chris_G: I was- Like

I could not go above what I did in ’82, is what I’m trying to

get at. Okay. All right.

I’m gonna educate some of the younger folks in the room

[01:15:54] joe: very that You singled out.

[01:15:56] Chris_G: This is a service that we provide. A service we provide. [01:16:00] If you did not have $1,000 to buy, and that’s relative, but if you didn’t have the means to go and buy a mask and the whole outfit, you could go to a place called JO-ANN Fabrics and they would sell patterns.

[01:16:14] joe: They

[01:16:15] Chris_G: sell an, a, a literal paper packet of patterns. You take it home, and maybe Mom is good with a sewing machine. What they had was a mannequin with a head-to-toe E.T. outfit with a little pen light in the finger.

[01:16:29] Mary: wow.

[01:16:30] Chris_G: Ooh. And

this glowy thing inside here that was a battery pack, and I saw that and I said, “Hot diggity, I am gonna be E.T.

for Halloween.” And they knew what they were doing. They saw me from a mile away. ‘Cause I mean, we had just seen it that summer, so now to put that out in August for October, hook, line, and sinker

Yeah.

[01:16:51] nick: Yeah.

[01:16:52] Chris_G: And I looked at the little packet, and the packet was selling for $1.99. My chimpanzee brain of age [01:17:00] seven equated that the costume cost $1.99.

That’s just the pattern. Oh. You then have to b- Yeah

And

a-

I wasn’t sophisticated enough to put that all together. I’m like, “It’s $1.99.”

[01:17:12] Mary: you’re seven. It’s, you’re- Yeah, I know … You’re forgiven.

[01:17:14] Chris_G: The I w- I am not forgiven, however, Mary. For what I did.

When I was told, “No, that’s not happening,” I laid down- in Jo-Ann Fabrics and had a real tantrum.

[01:17:27] Mary: Yes.

[01:17:28] Chris_G: And Pat Guzman, my mom, did what needed to be done.

[01:17:31] joe: Yep.

[01:17:31] georgia: She made it.

[01:17:32] Chris_G: She d- no.

[01:17:34] nick: not where the story goes. She took care of this five-pound, two- Right … she took care of E.T., too. Yeah. She squashed the tantrum.

Mm-hmm. She did.

Yeah. Oh,

[01:17:37] Mary: She took care of my public display. This is ’82. You’re right.

[01:17:38] Chris_G: the, she took care of my public

[01:17:40] georgia: care of my public

display. This

[01:17:41] Chris_G: She took care of

[01:17:42] joe: doesn’t sound like where

This story was going. She took care of it by- This is ’82. Yeah, right … she took care of it. yeah. This is ’82.

[01:17:43] Chris_G: She squashed

the tantrum. She did n- oh, no.

No.

[01:17:48] georgia: Oh, I really like imagining you in that costume.

[01:17:52] Chris_G: did

in that costume. Yeah. Well, the, I don’t wanna mess with your imagination.

[01:17:54] nick: She just wedgied him out of there. Yeah.

[01:17:56] joe: right.

Yeah. Yeah, she gently lifted them out- It did not- … and then made it

[01:17:59] Chris_G: [01:18:00] what happened later did not feel- … like a like a costume was being made for me.

[01:18:04] Mary: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[01:18:05] Chris_G: like a boy was being disciplined. Yeah. That he deserved.

[01:18:09] joe: I went, ’82, I went as The Thing for

Halloween.

[01:18:12] georgia: No,

you didn’t.

[01:18:13] Chris_G: you didn’t. No

[01:18:14] georgia: you didn’t. You’re

[01:18:15] Chris_G: you didn’t. He is so full. But

[01:18:18] nick: cool. But

I,

[01:18:19] joe: No, you didn’t. No, you, didn’t. So good. But, and you

raise a good point though, Chris, about merchandising.

Mm-hmm. And I wanna say that was all the, the callback was probably Star Wars ’cause that started

the merchandising for

kids. And

[01:18:31] nick: That’s what

I was gonna ask next

[01:18:33] joe: story was that Star Wars, they went around asking, like, the big toy makers at the time, and they all said no.

Like, “We don’t we don’t think so.” And Kenner took a risk. A Midwest company kind of took the, for Easy-Bake ovens and Spirograph, that’s what they were

known for,

and they said, “Sure, we’ll do it.” And they made the three and a, 3.75-inch figure that people… I mean, I had a bunch. I know Chris had a bunch and maybe

Georgia and

[01:18:59] Mary: yeah, I had [01:19:00] some.

[01:19:00] joe: Yeah. With the Darth Vader case, if you remember that

[01:19:03] Chris_G: Come on, now.

[01:19:04] nick: So did E.T. have

[01:19:05] joe: you have that.

[01:19:06] georgia: I didn’t

have any. I did

have

[01:19:07] joe: was there.

[01:19:08] Chris_G: I had the case, but I’ve got them in the

[01:19:09] georgia: didn’t have any

[01:19:10] Chris_G: I’ve got E.T. figures in the car. Yeah. I only had so many hands.

That

[01:19:13] joe: made I mean, that made Kenner where they’re at. I mean, and so they sold, like, 40 million units in 1978 alone.

Made 100 million in revenue. The prototype of Boba Fett sold at auction for 1.342 million. The most expensive toy ever sold. With the firing missile. So

that was… Yeah, so that was

[01:19:31] nick: So yeah,

[01:19:31] joe: And

so you have, and then at the same time, then you had Alien. And Alien came out, and they had toys. I actually had a Alien doll.

Um, But- it, they got sued.

The xenomorph. Yeah, xenomorph.

They, and, but they got sued because they, and parents they had to pull it off the shelves because they said it was too scary. They had facehuggers,

they had the

[01:19:51] nick: is, that’s in-

[01:19:51] joe: figure. That’s

[01:19:52] Chris_G: They had

a

point

[01:19:53] joe: yeah. That’s

[01:19:54] Mary: pretty

[01:19:54] joe: they said that they couldn’t- yeah.

that they wouldn’t do it. So when you loop all the way around,

and you

[01:19:59] nick: what was [01:20:00] their

s- lawsuit about?

[01:20:01] joe: Like- It was just kind of pull, they wanted it off the, those shelves. So they said it was just too scary, like, you know, just too hor- horrific-

[01:20:09] nick: Man, what is wrong with those people?

[01:20:11] Chris_G: people? … For our kids. See, there were Gremlin toys- Yeah … ’cause I bought them.

[01:20:13] nick: But-

And then w-

[01:20:15] joe: w- the, E.T. came out, that was the, there was a big nod to marketing, and I think that was somewhat in Spielberg’s head about this is where the money’s at, and how do I do it? So I think these, the, wimpy E.T., you know, wimpy Disney scary M&M’s, I think there was some marketing there.

And

it was

[01:20:35] Chris_G: show you how wimpy I can

[01:20:37] joe: That’s right, let’s make this cute, , very relatable big head, big eyes. Mm-hmm. People don’t, I mean, mammals, that’s what happens. That’s why little kittens are cute, because they have a, their heads are really big, and their eye- , they got the, the big eyes, the big head.

And they look very helpless, like they could barely hold

[01:20:53] nick: that

supposed to be cute.

[01:20:54] Chris_G: supposed to be cute? It is cute. You know

[01:20:56] joe: You know what? I think that

[01:20:56] Chris_G: eyes. that-

[01:20:57] georgia: about?

[01:20:58] Chris_G: I can’t stands no more.[01:21:00]

[01:21:01] nick: But that

was-

I’m not gonna say what I think

it looks like, but,

[01:21:03] Chris_G: well,

[01:21:03] joe: But

that was it. You did have

this very, both

Mary, Georgia, Chris, you guys all

mentioned that.

How emotional you

were at the- Yeah …

[01:21:13] Mary: Yeah, very much so … just

[01:21:14] joe: humanity of it all was emotionally tethering, and you guys got pulled right into that. I mean, I think that’s, and

[01:21:20] georgia: And I’m proud of it.

[01:21:22] joe: No,

you guys should all of that. No, that’s

I did, yeah. Yeah, no, that’s,

[01:21:25] nick: just rejected the love.

It’s

[01:21:27] joe: it.

That’s it. I mean, I didn’t

trust any of y’all. You guys all could be

The Thing at that

[01:21:31] Mary: thing.

[01:21:31] georgia: be a thing. I thought- Now

let’s look

at, like, some of the things that have been influenced by E.T.

The things? I was gonna say Stranger Things. You know that

had a big, huge- But, but- huge-

The, The

Stranger Things was

[01:21:44] joe: have been influenced by E.T.

The things? I was gonna say future things. Oh, okay. You know that- The Demogorgon. Well, the, no. The, the Demogorgon was influenced by

[01:21:45] georgia: Oh, geez

[01:21:47] joe: Rob Bottin and, and,

Hey,

[01:21:48] georgia: you know what, Joe? … practical effects

[01:21:49] joe: in The

Thing

and the dog scene with it splitting open the

…flesh flower.

You can’t- Um,

that’s what, they

[01:21:55] georgia: just have a little E.T.

love. You gotta

throw

[01:21:58] joe: I’m telling you The truth. I’m, I’m just saying

you go [01:22:00] back to the practical effects-

[01:22:02] georgia: in those movies. But you, but

the feeling of Stranger

Things, where

[01:22:05] Chris_G: right to the nastiest

[01:22:06] nick: creature

They all hopped on their bikes- The

[01:22:06] georgia: in that movie. And when they all hopped on their

bikes-

[01:22:09] Chris_G: hopped on their bikes- The bike

[01:22:09] joe: ride

[01:22:10] georgia: they’re riding, it’s E.T.

I mean- I think it was,

[01:22:13] joe: well,

yes.

[01:22:13] Chris_G: There’s

a little Goonies there too.

There’s a little

bit of

[01:22:16] joe: you had that.

Yeah. No, okay.

[01:22:18] Mary: Maybe that’s why I never got into Stranger Things, because I’d already seen The Goonies and I was… I felt satisfied and complete.

I didn’t need it.

[01:22:26] joe: All right. What do

we got? Okay.

Let’s say alien, let’s say alien Xenomorph versus E.T. What we got? What we putting our money on? Cage match. E.T. visits a planet. They’re going, collecting their little botanical samples,

bringing plants back to life, and there’s a

[01:22:40] Chris_G: a

[01:22:41] joe: egg face hugger, E.T.’s. What are they

doing?

[01:22:44] nick: got ETs.

[01:22:45] joe: You got E.T.’s?

[01:22:46] Chris_G: Yep. ETs can lift things from across the room. Yeah.

[01:22:49] joe: But the,

[01:22:49] Mary: know-

He has telekinesis.

[01:22:51] georgia: the

[01:22:51] joe: Alien,

you think they don’t,

[01:22:52] Mary: has healing

[01:22:53] joe: do the… Well, do they have a emotional psychic link to the al- I mean, right? The aliens don’t seem to have that.

The [01:23:00] clamp-

So are they,

[01:23:00] Chris_G: ET was lifting and spinning around in the bedroom. Once

[01:23:03] joe: get,

once you got the parasite in your gut, I mean, they lifting that out, the acid blood. I mean, you guys are going, so you guys are going E.T.’s. Yeah.

[01:23:10] Chris_G: I think ET can handle it.

[01:23:12] joe: What about- Yeah … you got E.T.? What do you got? You got your money on alien or E.T.?

[01:23:17] nick: Jeremy-

[01:23:18] Chris_G: on-

[01:23:18] joe: Georgia’s like, “I don’t wanna do this.”

[01:23:19] georgia: about just the species alien- Yeah … like just one random alien- For me … and one random ET? ‘Cause if it was ET, I

[01:23:26] Chris_G: ET,

[01:23:27] georgia: don’t know. I mean- I think, I think-

[01:23:31] Chris_G: I’m not

sure what I’m looking at over here What

[01:23:33] joe: I don’t know what’s going on.

[01:23:34] nick: that’s incredible.

[01:23:34] Chris_G: in the world?

Micah’s

[01:23:36] Mary: Nick is doing

[01:23:37] nick: Listen, I dropped my putty. Just

[01:23:40] joe: just like the-

[01:23:41] georgia: I think,

[01:23:42] joe: They just show up at

[01:23:43] Chris_G: the

[01:23:43] Mary: the idea-

[01:23:43] joe: They’re there … well,

I

[01:23:44] Mary: think the idea is like if you have something that is cute and cuddly, that-

[01:23:49] georgia: It won’t-

[01:23:50] Mary: of us just shrivel from that, I guess. I, like the idea

[01:23:54] joe: face hugger

doesn’t care how cute you are.

[01:23:56] Mary: you are

[01:23:56] nick: I mean, but look at

the eyes on

[01:23:58] joe: i-

but

[01:23:59] Mary: [01:24:00] It’s tough.

[01:24:00] nick: it’s a predator.

[01:24:01] joe: Yeah. I, I don’t know. So What… So- all right. All

right.

So How

[01:24:05] Chris_G: gonna- That

goes against everything Joe

just went

[01:24:08] joe: Joe

[01:24:09] nick: I was gonna go with Predator.

It’s

Predator

[01:24:11] joe: just witnessed.

I was gonna go with Predator. It’s Predator versus… So Predators go, they’re hunting. They… trophy hunters. Yeah. They go. Would they actually engage the ETs?

[01:24:18] Chris_G: No.

[01:24:19] joe: Because the code, right? And or would

they see the ETs …as a threat? No.

[01:24:22] Chris_G: They would be

[01:24:22] nick: I think they

[01:24:23] georgia: go fight the blank,

[01:24:24] joe: the telekinesis, that they go, “You know what?

Maybe ET’s got a, a rage in him.” And

so they

go, I mean, we don’t know

what’s happening on their

[01:24:32] nick: you don’t know

[01:24:33] Chris_G: a rageful ET.

I mean,

[01:24:34] joe: If you go, and if you know, we look at there’s humans that go out that explore, scientists. They you view an alien and you go, “Man, these humans are super friendly, super nice.

They’re

[01:24:46] nick: Look at that geek. “Studying.”

[01:24:48] joe: But

there are humans who, you know, they are, you know, the military industrial complex. So, are ETs, all the ETs like that? So would the Predators find sport in [01:25:00] ETs who are using their abilities,

fully tuned

[01:25:04] nick: they’re- For, ET’s a person- … ET Seth, Sith Lord? Seth Lord.

[01:25:09] joe: What,

[01:25:10] Chris_G: Sith lord.

[01:25:11] joe: y- yes.

[01:25:12] nick: So what,

[01:25:13] joe: So

let’s say the

[01:25:14] Mary: are so, some of us are so broken that we just can’t watch a heartwarming movie without going, “And then they died, and then they blew up, and then

[01:25:23] joe: they Predators versus-

[01:25:25] Mary: and,

[01:25:25] joe: murdered.” …

ET, right?

[01:25:26] nick: I’m like- Anyway. You know

there was violence in the movie, right?

Like you, True …you- watched this too. …

[01:25:30] georgia: too.

[01:25:31] joe: But I, let’s-

Or were they

not, or

were they, would they actually-

[01:25:34] Mary: If I

[01:25:34] joe: go invisible like

[01:25:35] Chris_G: I am clutching my popcorn bucket so hard right now, Mary.

[01:25:39] Mary: Yeah, I know.

[01:25:40] Chris_G: Well-

Just look at yourself I’m like, “Dad.”

[01:25:42] joe: you’re staying with ET, right? You’re-

[01:25:43] nick: Well,

[01:25:44] Mary: the id- okay, let’s talk about how, well, if we’re gonna talk about Predator, let’s talk about how great Prey is. Okay, that is

[01:25:50] Chris_G: Oh,

[01:25:51] joe: would that- Yeah, that was good. that-

[01:25:52] Mary: that movie- Why are

[01:25:53] nick: are

we jumping

[01:25:54] georgia: really good.

But then that could be, oh- It’s

[01:25:55] Mary: we’re

[01:25:55] nick: great

[01:25:56] Mary: gonna talk about Predator, we’re just

[01:25:58] georgia: We’ve already gone down that [01:26:00] hole “

[01:26:00] Mary: After you watch The Thing, go and put

[01:26:02] joe: they were there, They were there.

[01:26:03] Mary: They were there. Prey

[01:26:03] joe: hunting bears- Bear. They were hunting. Yeah.

So I, I, that, that almost goes to the point that maybe they would still hunt ETs, because they are a challenge. The psychic link, like, if you can…

If you’re a predator and you can withstand the psychic

[01:26:18] Mary: I think the predators would laugh their ass off if you showed up with an ET.

They would be like, “What the fuck, man?”

[01:26:23] joe: be like, “The fuck? Am I just- I, I don’t know.

[01:26:24] Chris_G: I think it

would be,

I think

[01:26:26] joe: it’d be a harder kill than

you’re giving them credit for.

[01:26:28] nick: I 100% agree

with that.

[01:26:30] Chris_G: that- I, I think that-

[01:26:30] joe: ETs would be a

tough takedown.

[01:26:32] nick: don’t

[01:26:32] georgia: the pred- I don’t

know. You’re talking about how soft-

[01:26:34] nick: not

[01:26:35] Chris_G: sure the Predators would engage. You’re talking about

[01:26:37] georgia: You’re talking about how soft and Disney-like ET is, and now all of a sudden you have him winning

[01:26:42] joe: think I said they were soft and Disney-like.

[01:26:44] georgia: Disney-like.

Yes, you did. I said, you know- You said it was, like, nothing special.

[01:26:47] Mary: the CEO of Columbia You said it was like nothing special. That’s true.

[01:26:48] georgia: You said it was

nothing special- I-

[01:26:49] joe: special

is different.

[01:26:51] nick: You said it

was

nothing special. Well, nothing special is definitely- It was like- Yeah you’re crossing streams here.

[01:26:52] joe: you are…

you’re… You

gotta

re-listen to the

[01:26:55] Chris_G: episode.

[01:26:56] Mary: there’s something so magical, too, about just the experience [01:27:00] of watching ET, or especially when I was a kid and watching it in the theater.

It’s just, it was just… It really was. It was, you know, it, not a lot of plot.

[01:27:10] joe: It was-

it was… No,

[01:27:11] Mary: wa-

No,

[01:27:12] georgia: it w- No.

[01:27:14] nick: you

[01:27:14] Chris_G: Well, you

know, what?

[01:27:15] georgia: there are

[01:27:15] Mary: are other movies, like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood doesn’t have a lot of plot, and it’s a fantastic movie. Some movies are not plot heavy, and

[01:27:23] Chris_G: to be and they’re

still good. It’s- Clerks? Clerks. Sure. Of

[01:27:28] Mary: Clerks. Sure, of course.

[01:27:30] nick: I mean, there’s no real plot

there, and it’s a fantastic-

[01:27:33] Chris_G: But- It’s crazy It was a feeling

with like-

[01:27:34] georgia: I- See, I, it- It was a feeling.

[01:27:34] Mary: you

get

[01:27:35] georgia: a, like, yeah … it

[01:27:36] Mary: up in the magic of it. You know? Like

[01:27:38] Chris_G: I agree with you.

[01:27:39] Mary: Oh, it’s just, it… There’s something’s just so special about this family. You start with this family in chaos, and… No, I’m just like-

[01:27:48] nick: also

[01:27:48] Chris_G: It’s just you and

[01:27:49] Mary: Yeah, it’s just… Yeah, that’s right.

[01:27:51] Chris_G: right. I don’t know what’s

[01:27:52] joe: right. That’s it. There’s purring- What? … purring on. my

[01:27:53] Chris_G: but I also think…

[01:27:55] Mary: I

don’t know. I th- I just think that you’re just broken people

[01:27:58] joe: I’m not broken at all. I’m [01:28:00] a realist.

[01:28:00] Mary: Right

[01:28:01] joe: So I’m just I, I’m a, the

[01:28:02] Chris_G: in a- and and

[01:28:03] Mary: i- if there’s like, if you have like a tender feeling, it must immediately be squashed and

[01:28:08] Chris_G: have- Yeah.

[01:28:08] joe: What do you have then

in this whole scenario? The ET… I mean, they’re traveling around the galaxy, and they’re gonna

[01:28:14] Mary: and they’re gonna encounter- Mm-hmm …

[01:28:14] joe: Other species. So what happens when they encounter The Thing?

[01:28:18] Mary: happens when they encounter the Thing? Yeah,

[01:28:19] joe: well,

Are they done? Were they-

[01:28:21] Chris_G: do I know that E.T. isn’t The

[01:28:23] nick: that

thing?

[01:28:23] Mary: right. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:28:24] joe: E.T., now he’s infected all of us. He

got Blair there. We

[01:28:27] Chris_G: get a sequel, E.T. is a sequel. Is the sequel. There

[01:28:30] georgia: Larry, I

[01:28:31] Chris_G: think that’s-

It was their

[01:28:31] joe: It was their

[01:28:32] georgia: where we should end this.

[01:28:33] Chris_G: and

[01:28:33] Mary: where we should end this.

[01:28:34] joe: It was their

ship

that crash landed, and they, you know, that’s what they harvested, so.

[01:28:39] georgia: Mic drop. Well, let’s just, that’s it.

[01:28:41] joe: Yeah. All right.

[01:28:43] Mary: right. Yeah.

[01:28:43] joe: You guys are done. Did we get

anywhere on that?

[01:28:45] Mary: no. Not really.

[01:28:46] Chris_G: Wow.

[01:28:48] Mary: No the, so what do you have any other thoughts on ET that we haven’t talked about yet, Chris?

[01:28:51] Chris_G: It’s a feel-good movie.

It was one of the first summer blockbusters that I ever experienced.

[01:28:58] joe: true.

[01:28:59] Chris_G: I mean, Star [01:29:00] Wars really is what started that in ’77, but I was two. yeah.

[01:29:05] joe: yeah.

[01:29:06] Chris_G: I, I had a, a much I, I had a very padded childhood as opposed to my friend, Dr. Joe. My parents actually took an active interest in what I was watching.

[01:29:17] joe: My

parents did, too. It just, there was just,

you know. I enjoyed The Thing, man

[01:29:22] nick: What?

[01:29:23] Chris_G: I’ve never heard

[01:29:24] nick: heard

you say

[01:29:24] joe: saw Poltergeist The Thing. I saw Po- I mean, yeah. Yeah.

Anyway.

[01:29:30] Chris_G: Loved

it. I also read, there, there was a book.

[01:29:32] Mary: Oh, yeah. William Kotzwinkle wrote it

[01:29:34] Chris_G: There was a really great book.

It was a novelization of what happened afterwards.

[01:29:39] joe: Oh. Okay, Okay.

I mean, E.T.?

Yeah. Oh,

[01:29:41] Mary: I didn’t… What’s it… Do you know what it’s called? Okay. I

[01:29:43] Chris_G: get that to you,

[01:29:43] joe: though. Yeah,

definitely. That’d be awesome. I’ll put that in the show notes.

And

[01:29:46] Chris_G: it was a lot about the gardening. Because these were creatures that were very interested in growing things.

And they did some interior shots of the ship, and there were all these things growing. Interesting enough Spielberg said that when they were doing up [01:30:00] sketchbooks of, he sent it out to a bunch of people, “Show me what’s going on in the chest.” A lot of people are like, “This is probably mammalian or reptilian or what- whatever type.”

And one artist submitted, “I believe it might be plant-like on the inside.” Yeah. And Spielberg kinda latched himself onto that. That interior of that animal would be plant-ish. I don’t know what that looks like. I don’t know what that sketchbook looked like on that day,

[01:30:26] joe: Yeah.

[01:30:26] Chris_G: but there’s so many roads that were not traveled with this.

This movie was underestimated, and it is still talked about to this day.

[01:30:36] joe: Yeah. I was gonna say one is the the skin and the look are more cephalopod, so octopus, squid.

The kind of the, the skin texture, the veiny-ness. If you’ve seen

[01:30:46] Chris_G: What? Nothing.

[01:30:46] Mary: What? Nothing.

[01:30:47] joe: If you’ve seen

[01:30:48] Mary: The peanut gallery over there … Right. Yeah.

[01:30:50] joe: you have that, the color-changing, things like that. That was also inspiration for the outer look of the E.T. In, in the show, so,[01:31:00]

[01:31:00] Chris_G: Thank you for that cephalopod synopsis.

[01:31:02] joe: Thank you for that cephalopod suggestion.

Cephalopod, yeah,

[01:31:02] Mary: Well,

you know what-

[01:31:03] joe: That’s it

[01:31:04] Mary: you know what this conversation reminds me a little bit of is,

[01:31:07] joe: The Gremlins

conversation? No.

[01:31:08] Chris_G: Did you ever,

did anyb-

[01:31:09] georgia: me a

[01:31:10] Mary: Did you ever… Did anyb- did anybody here watch Tommy Boy?

[01:31:13] joe: in

[01:31:13] Chris_G: Oh, very

[01:31:14] joe: very

[01:31:14] Mary: I’ve s- I’ve seen it a million times. Love it. Right. The… Well, the moment where they’re in the car and The Carpenters come on.

[01:31:22] nick: Oh.

[01:31:23] Mary: Like-

[01:31:23] joe: pleasure. lame.

lame. We

[01:31:25] Chris_G: change it if you want. Yeah. You could change it.

[01:31:28] Mary: sure you

[01:31:28] georgia: it.

[01:31:29] nick: it.

[01:31:29] georgia: No, true.

[01:31:29] nick: No, it’s true.

[01:31:29] Mary: remember Tommy. I know. Baby. But just the idea is like God forbid we just like something just tender and sweet

[01:31:37] joe: I know.

[01:31:38] georgia: know.

[01:31:39] joe: mean- I mean, you

can. Okay. No, you can.

Like I said, my, my thing

[01:31:42] Mary: not- It’s a thousand percent … and it’s not a,

[01:31:43] joe: a good movie.

I, said a good movie,

I just don’t think it’s the

great…

In the, the lineup of 82 movies, I just don’t think it was-

[01:31:52] georgia: Why do we have to make that a competition?

[01:31:54] joe: do we have to make that a competition? Well, I mean, because it is.

[01:31:56] georgia: No. That’s not, we weren’t here not what we were- The show’s about [01:32:00] lists. I mean-

[01:32:00] joe: I to g- a- absolutely. Not everyone- Absolutely

[01:32:03] Mary: it’s not for everyone, obviously. But- I

[01:32:04] joe: think the movie- Yeah … because of its it was

I would go, I think it’s one of the first blockbusters that really catered to kids that kids were

seen- as a money maker,

right? Because up to that point,

[01:32:16] Chris_G: Star Wars didn’t cater to kids?

[01:32:18] georgia: I don’t think so.

I

[01:32:19] nick: think- Eh. It

[01:32:20] georgia: those toys

[01:32:20] joe: have the toys. I mean, there was

hands cut off. You’re right, the toys came after, and I think that sparked this whole thing that, oh, you know what? You can have a movie.

But Star Wars was kind of viol- I

mean, it was,

meh, I mean, kids, you know, I watched it with, I mean, when our oldest was five, I mean, he freaked out at the hand cutting off scenes. It was not

[01:32:37] Chris_G: like- No blood,

[01:32:38] Mary: blood, though.

[01:32:38] joe: There was blood though … there wasn’t But- Zero

cauterizing

[01:32:40] Chris_G: blood. Cauterizing

[01:32:41] joe: I think E.T. was kind of the first where it was like, let’s make this a movie and just focus on kids and roll the dice, and I think that’s why it really hit where it hit because it was

[01:32:53] Chris_G: Not just make a movie for kids, and make it in the, in, from the viewpoint of kids, but put real [01:33:00] Hollywood muscle behind

[01:33:01] joe: That’s right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

[01:33:02] Chris_G: yep, yep.

[01:33:03] joe: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But

it also

[01:33:04] Mary: to adults, too. Absolutely.

[01:33:06] Chris_G: all day.

[01:33:07] Mary: went … You know, it’s just, it just struck a chord with so

many-

[01:33:09] nick: right. All

[01:33:10] joe: I will say the point

[01:33:11] georgia: universal, like, I, you know … Hold on. If you

[01:33:13] nick: haven’t seen ET before, would you still have the same nostalgia with it?

[01:33:19] georgia: It’s impossible to really know.

Like, I’m ready

to

[01:33:21] Chris_G: that. I’m gonna give you that Yeah. Yeah. I’m not sure I would

[01:33:24] nick: Like I get it.

I get it.

You guys have so much more nostalgia for it than I do, and

[01:33:31] georgia: I,

[01:33:31] nick: seeing it again,

I just didn’t have that feeling.

[01:33:35] Chris_G: fair.

[01:33:35] nick: It never hit that chord with

[01:33:37] joe: me. yeah. That’s fair. Yeah.

[01:33:38] Mary: You know, not everyone… It’s, nothing is gonna be to everybody’s taste. It’s just the… I don’t know, it just, it’s just, it’s sweet. And, you know, it, there’s a lot of ridiculous things that happen in it. The most ridiculous thing that ever has happened in a movie is at the end of Ghostbusters, okay?

You spend the whole movie, “We shouldn’t cross the streams.

[01:33:58] joe: you coming back for We cross, we cross the stream, and then we’re fine. And then the

movie ends. And Chris was fine. He’s like, “Oh, okay.”[01:34:00]

[01:34:00] georgia: the streams-

[01:34:00] Mary: the

[01:34:00] Chris_G: streams-

[01:34:01] Mary: and then we’re fine.” And then the movie ends, “I guess it was fine.” I’m like, “Okay. All right. Fine.” yeah. Okay. I know. It’s, it’s-

[01:34:07] joe: Chris is

[01:34:07] Chris_G: I think Chris

[01:34:09] Mary: and I were friends up until

[01:34:10] Chris_G: back for that Ghostbusters

episode.

[01:34:12] nick: this

show.

[01:34:12] Mary: And

[01:34:13] nick: back for that

[01:34:14] Chris_G: And you make sure

Mary’s

[01:34:15] Mary: right there. I’m

[01:34:16] joe: was gonna point

out

something,

[01:34:17] Chris_G: I’ll bring two pairs of

[01:34:18] Mary: I for

[01:34:19] nick: what

[01:34:19] joe: it’s-

We’re gonna

[01:34:19] Mary: For what it’s worth, I do like Ghostbusters a lot, but yeah. Yeah. I think

[01:34:23] joe: I think that’s worth an episode. Yeah.

And so there it is. For sure. Chris has it there. Absolutely

But I’ma I’ma point out the point of view, and then we can wrap, but the point of view, something I heard about Jurassic Park and Michael Crichton, who wrote that the first draft of that was actually written from the POV of the kid

And it

was like this great, I mean, it was a great idea.

People were like, “This is the greatest idea we’ve heard. You know, we’re gonna make, take dinosaurs, make an amusement park,” but this POV sucks. And so he went back- Yeah … and wrote it from the adult point of view, and that’s that. So …I

think that helps, and I think ET really benefited from being from the point of view [01:35:00] of the kid.

I think if it was

told from the point of view of the adult, it would’ve been, or as a, you know, anything else, it would’ve slipped into maybe more horror, maybe more psychological. It wouldn’t have been the movie that it was. So I’d think point of view is important, and when that movie came out, that was one where it really focused on that kids’,

you know- Yes point of view is, could make money. I think that was it, and that, that cracked that open for all those movies that came after that that it was like, this is a money maker.”

[01:35:28] Chris_G: There’s importance versus good. Not all good movies are important.

[01:35:31] georgia: they

[01:35:32] joe: it.

I think- That’s, why a lot

of these you know, CEOs and things missed it, because it was written from that, that POV.

[01:35:38] Mary: written for

[01:35:38] joe: And they

just didn’t realize that would work in movie format, not animated. Yeah, animated we get, “Oh, yeah, that, that would work.” But I think this was that these kids would drag their parents there. I mean, except me. I dragged my dad to The Thing. But that was, you know.

But all

right.

Any final thoughts? Chris, you got final thoughts? Then we can go ahead and wrap it up.

[01:35:57] Chris_G: I wanna thank you guys for having me again.

[01:35:59] joe: for [01:36:00]

[01:36:00] nick: thank you for being

[01:36:01] joe: it, yeah. Thank

[01:36:01] Chris_G: very

[01:36:02] joe: now. I got, I’m putting that on

my list. Season four, Ghostbusters.

Fanta-

[01:36:05] Chris_G: Oh, let’s do

that. Yes, Let’s do that. I’ll get a

[01:36:09] joe: net.

[01:36:09] Chris_G: Shower that day.

Like- It’ll be

fantastic. Like,

[01:36:11] georgia: fantastic.

[01:36:11] Mary: Whatever you do, don’t cut the goatee. The goatee is magnificent. Oh. It w- it

[01:36:15] Chris_G: is- Oh … it’s magnificent. My wife is ready to, to

trim this

[01:36:17] Mary: we, it’s, we have a long, white goatee here.

[01:36:19] Chris_G: Ange, you’re gonna listen to this- Okay … in, like, what? September, October.

[01:36:24] joe: like that, Yeah. Yeah.

yeah. It’s coming out right in there, yep.

[01:36:25] Mary: She’s coming

[01:36:26] Chris_G: after Halloween is

when this goes away. Th- this is gonna be a handlebar mustache.

[01:36:31] Mary: Oh. Yeah, you’ll see. There’s a reason for this. So it’s

[01:36:34] Chris_G: be red,

white, and blue in a couple of days. Oh, yeah.

[01:36:36] joe: Oh, yeah.

Okay, wow. So,

[01:36:37] Chris_G: so tune into your Facebook channels for that. Tune in. But it’s gonna be out past my ears by the time I’m done with

[01:36:42] joe: Speaking of that, give your links where people can find you, things like that,

[01:36:45] Chris_G: Oh, I’m on Instagram, theboxinggloveartist. I also have a food page on Instagram called stupidgoodgrill, all one word, and Chris Guzman on on Facebook. Good work. Good artist. Go check out

[01:36:50] joe: food page on Instagram. Yeah. Called

[01:36:52] georgia: Good

[01:36:53] joe: stupidgoodgrill, all

one word. Yeah.

[01:36:54] Chris_G: Yes.

[01:36:54] joe: And Chris Guzman. Yeah. Good griller, good artist. Go check out the artwork.

Go buy [01:37:00] some boxing gloves, ’cause they’re, they are awesome.

[01:37:02] Chris_G: You’re very good stuff, so. Yeah. With that, anyone else have any last words or anything? With that, I’m Joe.

[01:37:08] georgia: You got Nick.

[01:37:09] joe: got Nick. We got Nick. Georgia. We

got Georgia.

[01:37:11] Mary: got Mary.

[01:37:11] joe: We got Mary.

[01:37:13] nick: And we went Down Some Hole. Down some hole. Stay safe. Bye-bye.