Superman II, 1980
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 creators Siegel 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!
Please go check out this week’s sponsor, KEEPS!
(*At one point Dion accidentally referred to Sarah Douglas as Susannah Douglas– his apologies.)
Extras!
For those who didn’t know the reference, here is the 1980s toy, MUSCLE Men.
Here’s Blake having some fun with them, HERE, and HERE.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
So for this SNMS special, Dion brought back his old cohorts to have a trip down memory lane and reminisce about the toys they grew up with and a time that children nowadays sadly may never know about: how awesome it was growing up in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s- a time when kids had a gun aisle in their local toy store, and could go buy candy cigarettes they could then ‘smoke’, just like their parents. The trio begin with chatting about the cartoons they grew up on, and some of the toys that came out of those francheses. They talk about the Mego toy empire of the 70s that had a monopoly on everything, and the segue that occured in the 1980s with the unstoppable titans Mattel, Hasbro and Kenner and their strong hold over the market, before others like Playmates and Galoob moved into the field. Along with toy figures, t
hey also chat about building sets like Legos, Construx and Girder and Panel, and even touch on model-making and specifically superhero and movie character models, and the exciting products that were put out by companies like Aurora in the 70s and later on by Horizon in the mid 1990s. They also challenge each other by posing the ‘white whale‘ question: was there a toy they always wanted and never received? And how about the toy(s) that in theory were great but practically, either because of design or toy-playing, was frustating and annoying to say the least. Yes, they’re all over the spectrum in this special, Christmas time edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepover‘s Side-Cast. Come have a listen today!
Dion Baia and J. Blake go into an in-depth analysis of the 2nd in the post-Incredible Hulk series TV movies, which was originally supposed to serve as backdoor pilot for a potential Daredevil TV series, which also starred Lou Ferrigno, Rex Smith and lastly John Rhys-Davies as Wilson Fisk himself. And because they are tackling Daredevil’s small-screen origins, the boys include the 1994 Spiderman Animated Series two-parter from Season Three, which debued the Man Without Fear to cartoon viewers everywhere. They also discuss the resurgence in popularity that has occurred in the past fifteen or so years for the superhero film (and television show), as well as strive to showcase the genius thespian and director that was Bill Bixby, or as they affectionately call him, “the Bix“. Come on down and enjoy a sporadic, exciting and highly informative installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
