Mon, 25 April 2022
This week, a shocking season finale! You won't believe the cliffhangers! For the final season 1 episode of Enjoy Stuff, we look back at some memorable TV and movie cliffhangers of all time. Will everyone survive? Tune in next time...
We celebrate our season 1 finale by looking back on some other memorable finales and the origin of cliffhangers. Hang on for dear life as you Enjoy Stuff!
News Tom Hanks teams up with an old cast(away)mate to throw out the first pitch at the Cleveland Guardians game Netflix Releases Love, Death + Robots Season 3 Trailer
What we’re Enjoying Jay is channeling his inner brick while playing the recently released LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. As always, this LEGO interpretation of the films is fun and extensive. Shua finally got around to watching the latest and final season of the Netflix series Lost in Space. It’s tons of fun and another good interpretation.
Sci-Fi Saturdays/MCU Location Scout Be sure to check out Jay’s articles on Retrozap.com. This week he skips the decidedly non-sci-fi Groundhogs Day to check out the obscure 1993 film Nemesis, so named because “the inescapable agent of someone’s or something’s downfall” was too long for theater marquees.
Enjoy TV! Cliffhangers! These days they make us want to binge entire seasons of shows. But as early as the 70’s they gave us something to talk about in the long months leading up to the next season premiere.
According to Master Class, “A cliffhanger is a plot device in which part of a story ends unresolved, usually in a suspenseful or shocking way, in order to compel audiences to turn the page or return to the story in the next installment.” It began in 1873 in a Thomas Hardy novel called “A Pair of Blue Eyes”.
But in 1978, the writers of the TV series “Soap” saw it as an opportunity for audiences to be so intrigued at the outcome, that they will wait on pins and needles for the next season. Voila! Instant underground hype!
Fast forward to 1980 and the writers of the nighttime soap “Dallas” shot the main antagonist of the show and made just about everyone a suspect. ‘Who Shot JR?’ was on everyone’s lips in 1980 and is still one of the most successful cliffhanger endings in history.
Over the years many shows have used this technique to keep fans returning and to build an even bigger fanbase with word-of-mouth. “The Good Place”, “Friends”, “Walking Dead”...Even people who don’t watch the show could probably tell you about a memorable cliffhanger.
In 1990 a syndicated show used this in a way that had never really been done before. “Star Trek: The Next Generation” created a memorable cliffhanger that may have contributed to the continuing future success of the entire franchise with one word, “Fire!”
Movies can use this method too. “Back to the Future part II”, “Avengers: Infinity War”, and of course, “The Empire Strikes Back” gave us months or even years to speculate what solutions could possibly be created to satisfy us.
What are some of your favorite cliffhangers? Do they make you want to come back for more? Did you read all the way to the bottom? First person that emails me with the subject line, “I shot JR” will get a special mention on the show. Let us know. Come talk to us in the Discord channel or send us an email to podcast@enjoystuff.com |
Mon, 18 April 2022
Celebrate the birthday of the one and only Jovial Jay by taking a trip to Califor-Ni-Ay! Jay remembers all the great places he would visit growing up in the Golden State. It's a celebration of another trip around the sun on Enjoy Stuff!
Come with us on a visit of Jay’s favorite places in California that helped make him the man he is today. It’s a birthday celebration!
News Help wanted at Antarctica base to manage gift shop and count penguins Robbers steal $22,000 worth of cheese, and that’s no gouda! The new Netflix film Operation: Mincemeat looks good! I comes out May 11 A new, wicked trailer for Stranger Things season 4 looks amazing!
What we’re Enjoying Shua has been reading the latest fantasy novel from Antony Soehner called The Prince. An intriguing story about Prince Theo who has to deal with a wicked king. Check it out on antonysoehner.com. Jay checked out a new HBO Max series with Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi. It’s not what he expected, but he’s enjoying it so far.
Sci-Fi Saturdays/MCU Location Scout Be sure to check out Jay’s articles on Retrozap.com. This week he revisits the 1992 Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren action flick, Universal Soldier. It is a surprising film that attempts to blend action/sci-fi with a social conscience. Make sure you check his articles out each week!
Enjoy Life! Today is Jay’s birthday! And what better way to celebrate than reminiscing about your childhood! It’s a TechnoRetro trip back to the state that made the man, California.
First we find out if there could possibly be any other events of historical significance besides the birth of the Jovial one. I guess there might be a few things that happened. Then we see if any well known people go around bragging that they share a birthday with the famous Jay.
And then the fun begins. What were some movies that were released around his birthday throughout the years? Where did Jay like to go see these flicks?
Next we cover TV. CHiPs, Hulk, and Manimal were just a few that influenced him. But can HE turn into a variety of animals? We may find out.
And finally, how did the fair-haired comic book fan entertain himself during the 80s? Bowling, mini-golf, and video games were the catalyst for genius.
We are so lucky that the world gave us Jovial Jay. So let’s crank some tunes as we party the week away in celebration of the birthday boy!
Did you enjoy any of the things that Jay did growing up? Is it your birthday? Do you ever read all the way to the bottom of these write-ups to read these questions? Let us know. Come talk to us in the Discord channel or send us an email to podcast@enjoystuff.com |
Mon, 11 April 2022
Have you ever turned a song on the radio and instantly been transported back to a specific scene in a movie? We have. It's these songs that have been indelibly ingrained into our memory and associated with that movie forever. This week we look at some of our favorites and the movies that go along with them on Enjoy Stuff!
Quick! What does this song remind you of? Jay and Shua give each other clips of 10 songs and quiz each other to see if it makes them think of the same movie.
News Bruce Willis retires after almost 40 years of Film and Television due to aphasia. Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind at Epcot opening date announced Cracker Jack Introduces a new Cracker Jill line New cast for season 3 of Picard announced
What we’re Enjoying Jay, along with millions of us, tuned into the newest Disney+ Marvel series ‘Moon Knight’. It’s a pretty unique and mind blowing story. But he’s also been digging into the comic book origins and inspirations too. We recommend it. Shua has been killing random seconds of free time a day playing the ios app Mario Kart Tour. A fun distraction with a lot of fun, creative content and characters.
Sci-Fi Saturdays/MCU Location Scout Be sure to check out Jay’s articles on Retrozap.com. He may not be able to recommend the movie this week, but we can for sure recommend the Retrozap article on the 1992 movie Freejack. This forgettable film stars Emilio Estevez, Mick Jagger, and Anthony Hopkins and had an interesting premise, but a less than perfect execution. The latest Marvel series on Disney+ is here! Now go check out some great filming locations for Moon Knight on MCU Location Scout.
Enjoy Movies! Do you remember your high school science lessons on memory? We sure don’t. But we do know that memories are important for reminiscing about the great stuff we grew up with. All that school learning is something called ‘explicit’ memory. It’s memory that you can remember by thinking about it. Book learning. But the memory you get when you smell that pine and think of a special Christmas, or the song that takes you back to that first make out session is called ‘implicit’ memory.
Implicit memory can be triggered by your senses. These outside stimuli trigger a thought back to another time that you might have been experiencing those senses. Strangely enough, the strongest time of a person’s life that is likely to have these memories is between 10 and 30 years old. Meaning all that nostalgia people have when they are in their 40s is actually a psychological norm.
We love when a particular song triggers a memory of a movie. So Jay and Shua each put together a separate list of songs that take them back to a film. And they try to guess each other’s pick. Are they enough alike that they can match them all?
Do you have songs that make you think of a movie? What kind of emotions do those trigger? Let us know. Come talk to us in the Discord channel or send us an email to podcast@enjoystuff.com |
Mon, 4 April 2022
What are you lookin' at butthead? We're looking at Back to the Future because it's always fun to look back at our favorite films, especially if they're about time travel. Join Jay and Shua on a journey to the past, present, and future to get a taste of nostalgia on Enjoy Stuff!
Time travel stories have been around for quite a while, but Back to the Future made it more popular than ever before. Let’s revisit Back to the Future!
News A new Lego Back to the Future Delorean set is available now! One of only two original prototypes for the home Pong console just sold for more than you’d probably pay for it What is the new Pop Tarts flavor? Snickerdoodle! What do you think of the new Top Gun: Maverick trailer?
What we’re Enjoying Shua and his lovely wife decided to check out the new Sandra Bullock action comedy, ‘The Lost City’. They were pleasantly surprised how much fun it was. Jay has continued his western film viewings with a classic Sergio Leone spaghetti Western, ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’. A classic movies that set up a lot of details in movies that followed it.
Sci-Fi Saturdays/MCU Location Scout Be sure to check out Jay’s articles on Retrozap.com. Sci-Fi Saturdays has a great article on Terminator 2: Judgment Day.The latest Marvel series on Disney+ is here! Now go check out some great filming locations for Moon Knight on MCU Location Scout.
Enjoy Movies! Back in the early days of cinema, time travel movies were far and in between. In 1960 we got a cinematic interpretation of HG Wells’s classic story, “The Time Machine”. “Planet of the Apes” revealed itself to be a time travel movie in 1968.
The 70’s and 80’s gave us some more modern day methods of riding a time wave with things like “Time After Time”, “Somewhere in Time”, and “Timerider”
But Time Travel became mainstream and common after a brand new idea in 1985 when Robert Zemeckis was finally able to bring his vision to screen in “Back to the Future”.
We talk about why we enjoy this classic film, from the frenetic pace to the performances to the new rules of time travel, this story seemed to strike all the right notes.
November 22, 1989 brought us the first of two sequels that were filmed back to back. Part II took us to a future that was fun and cheesy, but actually a little accurate. It also took Marty back to the past in 1955 where he had to find a way to save Doc, who was even further back in the past in 1885.
Just a few months later on May 25, 1990 we got the conclusion where we see Hill Valley when it was just getting started in the old west. The finale focused more on Doc than Marty, and it raised the stakes of getting back to 1985.
Jay and Shua remember times they saw it, even a trilogy marathon before the premiere of part III. Make sure you check out Jay’s write-ups on Retrozap.com about the whole trilogy!
Are you a fan of Back to the Future? Let us know. Come talk to us in the Discord channel or send us an email to podcast@enjoystuff.com |