Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers is coming at you, to open up the 2024 season. They boys are winging it this week since the tape got stuck and shredded in the VCR, having an off-the-cuff discussion about anything that comes to mind, which is usually about the good old days of childhood. Come have a listen as Blake and Dion head back down the alley yet again, in this very special installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
Welcome to the 2020 Halloween Edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! J. Blake and Dion Baia are going way back to 1982, and unpacking this groundbreaking but sometimes forgotten horror movie classic, the Tobe Hooper/Steven Spielberg extravaganza, Poltergeist ! The boys analyze the many conspiracy theories and controversaries surrounding the film, while talking about the novelization which is jammed packed with supplemental information and binary storylines that did not make the final movie cut. It’s all going down on this all new, exciting and fun installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
The boys are back for their monumental anniversary podcast, and boy is it a whopper! J. Blake and Dion Baia are going way down the alley and discussing a classic near and dear to their hearts, The Maltese Falcon, from 1941.
As usual, they go all-out unpacking this massive topic, first going over Dashiell Hammett‘s groundbreaking and game-changing career. They hit the rise of the ‘gentlemen detective‘ of the 1930s, and how this 1941 film influenced and begot us film noir and the hard-boiled detective. It’s a jammed pack, lengthy podcast- their longest to date… (and boy does Dion talk a lot!). But this topic is right in their wheelhouse, and it’s their anniversary. Blake and Dion also talk about their new upcoming books. So kick back your heels, get comfortable and grab your favorite drink, cause the fellas are analyzing one of the their favorite topics, on an all new anniversary edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers, which is now is also on Patreon!!
Dion Baia and J. Blake continue in their impromptu summerSide-Casts series, this time around returning to a classic and doing a supplement edition for The Terminator, from 1984. They dive into the original novelization, (which they had not read for their original podcast episode that covered this iconic film). The boys also expand their discussion of the Brad Fiedel soundtrack, utilizing interviews Blake has done with the legendary composer. Blake and Dion highlight tidbits from the novel that add a lot of dimensions to the characters, and unpack the elements of the fabulous Fiedel score- even chatting about the three pop songs supplied by the pop rock group, Tahnee Cain & Tryanglz. It’s all going down on this special, surprise edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
The boys are back, for a quick *new* special, revisiting a cult classic, Disney’s The Black Hole, from 1979!
DionBaia and J.Blake are dropping a brand new add-on to their 2015 podcast on this iconic film. They’ve now read the Alan Dean Fosternovelization, the Jack Kirbycomic newspaper strip translation, and the Whitman comic book adaptation– which also goes Beyond the Black Hole. The fellas learned a crap load more that answer a lot of questions they posed in their 2015 episode, and even see what supposedly happened once crew of the Palomino passed through the black hole! They also go deeper into the John Barry’s soundtrack and the journey to get it reissued and remastered. Come on down for this special companion piece ‘update‘ on an all new edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
*Dionat one point referred to Robert Forester as William Forester… his apologies.
Welcome back to another exciting edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers ! J. Blake and Dion Baia are throwing up an episode a week early to coincide with the Saint Patrick Day holiday, and to surprise and celebrate a film that’s been on the boy’s short-list since the inception of the SNMS podcast– the 1959 Walt Disney classic, Darby O’Gill and the Little People!
After some present giving, Dion and Blake jump right in, unpacking this epic masterpiece. They discuss the 1959 Magical World of Disney Television episode, I Captured the King of the Leprechauns, where Walt Disney and Irish actor Pat O’Brien venture to Ireland as a setup to convince King Brian Connor of the Leprechauns to star in Mr. Disney‘s big budget Hollywood film. This incredible marketing ploy, along with the astounding Special Effects which used a combination of matte painting and forced perceptive, came together to create one of the best fantasy movies of all time with effects that still hold up some 60+ years later. So settle in and listen to the lads take a journey to County Kerry, Ireland and visit their old mate, Darby O’Gill, on this much requested Saint Patrick’s Day installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
“They say Eddie Egan(aka Popeye Doyle) stepped on the gas and that SonnyGrosso would step on the brake- no… Back then, Eddie was the Doberman Pinscher and Sonny held the chain.” -Randy Jurgensen
Randy in the 1977 TV film, Contract on Cherry Street
Randy Jurgensen has lived an amazing life. The former NYPD Homicide Detective, Korean War veteran turned film consultant, producer,writer and actor worked on some of the biggest cases in New York City’s history and also some of the biggest and most important films of the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s.
With the passing of his lifelong friend and formerNYPD partner Sonny Grosso, Randy sat down exclusively with Dion Baia to discuss the loss of someone who was also able to seamlessly transition into the film industry, becoming a producer, actor and writer, and most memorably was played by Roy Scheider in the 1971 classic, The French Connection.Randy unpacks his friendship with the legendary detective and film icon, and discusses their intertwining careers that involved some of the most notorious cases in NYC‘s history. He talks about the memories he’s never disclosed publicly, and his recollections of some of the biggest films they worked on together. He chats about how Sonny got his nickname “Cloudy“, and how Eddie Egan got the nickname “Bullets” and “Popeye“. He also explains their singular contributions to the original Godfather film. Along with the amazing stories, Randy also relays the biggest regret Sonny had about TheFrench Connection movie. It’s an incredibly insightful, fascinating and exclusive interview that you’ll only find here, on Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
Welcome back to week two of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers’ 2019 Horror Movie Extravangza! Dion and Blake are back and trying to fill a tall order, doing an old double feature this Saturday Night. They’re heading back to the well, tackling the films that bred life back into the historic EC Comics property–the Amicus classics Tales From the Crypt from 1972 and Vault of Horror from 1973!
Blake and Dion jump right in, laying out the lengthy and fascinating history of EC Comics, and how a British Company named Amicus reinvigorated a forgotten franchise that’s still going strong, almost 70 years on. They also utilize both novelizations to help breakdown these incredible double-features. So gather round your streaming devices as the fellas act as pseudo “horror hosts”, to take you through this week’s spooky and ghostly installment of SaturdayNight Movie Sleepovers!
Welcome back to another episode of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! J. Blake and Dion Baia are celebrating the 5th anniversary of the podcast and after wrapping up the critically acclaimed 2019 Summer of Sequels, the boys figured they’d perform an encore to close out the season! And what better way to celebrate their anniversary then by exploring the iconic and legendary superhero sequel Superman II, from 1980!
Dion and Blake unpack the lengthy history of the Superman character, and do their best to lay out the timeline of lawsuits by creatorsSiegel and Shuster in their attempt to regain the rights to the character they created. The fellas then segue to Superman II and discuss the tension while filming the incredible sequel, and compare and contrast the different cuts of this film, juxtaposing the theatrical cut, to the television cut and the notorious Donner Cut. And Dion relays his fun Dean Cain story as well. So it’s a fun, fact-filled and lengthy, high-flying anniversary-installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
Welcome back to another all new edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers’ Summer of Sequels! This week J. Blake and Dion Baia are getting crazy with the cheese whiz, and doing an epic double-feature! They’re taking on a film that has been called the most watched movie of all time, the MGM1939 classic, The Wizard of Oz, AND its unofficial Disney sequel which has now become a cult classic, The Return to Oz, from 1985!
In their longest running podcast to date, Dion and Blake attempt to do this massive topic some justice. On the 100th anniversary of author L. Frank Baum’s death, they discuss the original book published in 1900; the fellas unpack the 1939 MGM movie that turned 80 this year; and analyze the 1985 film which people deemed too dark and scary for a Disney film, even though it was the closest rendition of the Baum material to date. They chart what is faithful to Baum‘s original work and the incredible impact his book series has had on the world. So you better hit the bathroom now and do some stretching, because this is gonna be a long one as the boys ‘ease on down that yellowbrick road with Dorothy, in an all new exciting, hilarious and informative edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
*(Okay, with a podcast this long, the boys are bound to misspeak: They accidentally referred to the 1900 bookThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz as The Wonderful World of Oz. They regret the error. Also, Dion misspoke when bringing up Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre, calling it Shelley Winters’ Faerie Tale Theatre–-which would be a completely different thing; Dion also accidentally referred to Jack Haley as the Cowardly Lion when discussing the make-up scars on Bert Lahr‘s face; and, when mentioning Deanna Durbin‘s 1945 film Lady on the Train, Dion called it The Stranger on the Train– his apologies.)
Welcome back to another epic edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers’ 2019 Summer of Sequels! And this week Blake and Dion are covering a true epic, the 1984 Steven Spielberg / Harrison Ford classic, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom !
The boys jump right into unpacking the multiple layers of this groundbreaking installment in the Indiana Jones series. Theylayout the backstory infused within the novelization. Dion and Blake also discuss the surrounding events and controversy (before and after) that this film generated, and connect and analyze the similarities Temple of Doom shares with the 1939classic, Gunga Din. Plus, they sneak in their hilarious Harrison Ford story. So grab your popcorn and Indy voodoo dolls because Anything Goes as the fellas head all the way to Asia in an all new, massive and comprehensive installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
Welcome to Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers’ 2019 Summer of Sequels! To open up the season, J. Blake and Dion Baia figured they’d kick start the summer with an absolute classic, and a film that is not only considered one of the best sequels of all time, but also revolutionized the movie industry. This week the boys are talking about the James Cameron epic, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, from 1991!
Dion and Blake unpack this masterpiece and put into context, just how big of an event this was when this movie was released in 1991. They discuss the Guns N’ Roses“You Could Be Mine”music video, the Kenner Toys and trading cards, the Universal Studios Park 3D Ride, and the film’s breathtaking CGI. They also utilize the novelizations for both Terminator 2 and the original Terminator, breaking down the extra layers of story that were developed within both. So make sure you secure your Time Displacement Equipment, because Blake and Dion are sending themselves back to 1991 in this all new edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
Welcome to another exciting edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! This time around, J. Blake and Dion Baia are kicking in an all new installment of Kung Fu February (minus the Kung Fu this year), and this week the boys are mountain climbing, and chatting the Clint Eastwood, Cold War/spy/espionage thriller, The Eiger Sanction, from 1975!
The fellas jump right in, discussing the original 1972 novel by the famed author Trevanian and the differences between the movie and source material. They chat about all the practical stunts Eastwood and his crew performed on the legendary Eiger mountain, back before CGI when you just had to go out and do the stunts yourself… and the many “un-P.C.” aspects to the film that don’t age so well. So grab your climbing gear, some meal bars, and your courage, because Blake and Dion are headed up the Eiger Death Bivouac in this all new episode of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
Welcome to another Holiday Edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! To close out 2018 J. Blake and Dion Baia are showcasing a cult Christmas classic that is getting some much-deserved love in recent years. They’re tackling the Jim Henson holiday classic, Emmet Otter’s Jug~Band Christmas, from 1977!
The boys lovingly unpack this once lost holiday gem that is celebrating its 40th anniversary in ‘the states’ this year. Dion and Blake utilize the original 1971 source book by Russell and Lillian Hoban for reference, and can’t hold back their utter amazement at the technical prose of the Jim Henson team and the unbridled magic they are able to create. Mixed with the genius that is Paul Williams and his music, they layout a Christmas Special that may have more film cuts than Blade Runner. So come pull up a chair and a have a listen as the boys grab their Mom’s washtub and head down to Waterville and Frogtown Hollow, on an all new holiday installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
It is Halloween and we have something very special to celebrate the holiday and one of horror’s greatest film series, Scored to Death’s Alan Howarth Halloween Special: The Uncut Sleepover Edition!
Originally posted in 2 parts on Scored to Death: The Podcast and presented here uncut and in its entirety, Blake sits down with sound designer, composer and former John Carpenter-collaborator Alan Howarth, to discuss his work on the Halloween films (2 through 6); plus listeners get an inside peak into the working relationship between Alan and Carpenter, the making of some of their greatest scores…and much much more!
