Did you know that Growing Pains and Mr. Belvedere both had holiday episodes titled "A Christmas Story"? We pit them against each other in the ultimate battle for 80s sitcom supremacy!! This is a truly epic episode we think you'll all enjoy, even if you're too young to remember these trash shows, and if you're too young to remember our 30 minutes or…

In this episode two ancient critics believed dead discuss two other ancient critics believed dead! We're back to update you on our sad lives and talk about some standout episodes of Siskel & Ebert. Is this the beginning of a new renaissance?!By Ed Dougherty & Rusty Stark

And now for something completely different! This Christmas we're discussing the classic Top of the Pops Christmas special from 1984! We've got Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Duran Duran, Band-Aid with "Do They Know It's Christmas" and many more! Will Ed find the treasure in his backyard? Will Rusty appreciate art made after the year 1992? The special i…

We return with our most shocking episode EVER! News will be revealed, bank accounts will be destroyed, Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN 2 will be occasionally mentioned! If you've been listening all along you won't wanna miss this episode!By Ed Dougherty & Rusty Stark

We're back with the cult favorite 1987 fight film THREE O'CLOCK HIGH. Director Phil Joanou, all but forgotten today, was the hottest name of the mid-80s, he was supposed to be the next Spielberg! We talk about how that all went wrong when he defied Spielberg with the (great!) direction he took this film. We also talk about classic topics like Ed's …

By Ed Dougherty & Rusty Stark

We're doing a deep dive into this obscure 80s comedy, recently restored by Vinegar Syndrome. Can a film with Eddie Deezen getting top billing ever disappoint?! Is this the secret classic Rusty's been looking for? Has Ed pissed his pants since our last recording, whenever that was?! As always please rate and review and follow @80stimeportal on insta…

School's out for the weekend, and for summer, and FOREVER! We disagree heartily on the greatness of the Carl Reiner cable classic SUMMER SCHOOL. How does Rusty's 27 pages of notes stack up against Ed's similarly volumnious research?! Why did they spend so much time researching this dreck?! Is there any details about the actors' lives they DIDN'T me…

We return with a discussion of the 1985 Kiwi sci-fi classic, THE QUIET EARTH. What would you do in this situation? How quickly until you devolved into complete madness? How many stories about plumbers will Rusty tell this week? All this and more on episode 62 of Viewmasters!

Wow! Do you remember this podcast? Well, it's back, and we are talking about NEW YORK NINJA (1984/2021). What did we think of Vinegar Syndrome's unique experiment? Why are the streets so full of rage? Do we still remember how to podcast?! All this and more as Rusty returns to tell us where he's been and what's happened to us so far in 2022.…

RUSTY IS MISSING! We are joined by our childhood friend and author Daniel Maunz (Questions of Perspective) to ponder the mystery of where Rusty has been. The long delay in episodes is due to the very, very real and not a joke disappearance of Rusty (who is feared DEAD!) Speaking of death, it's time to delve into the only Mortal Kombat movie that ma…

Do you remember when Megatron boarded that shuttle and wasted all that autobot slime? Or when Unicron ate that planet of annoying looking robots? Today we are talking about the only Transformers movie that matters -- the animated film from 1986! Featuring a cast with more stars than in the skies above Cybertron and more deaths than we have here on …

Film writer/historian Lee Gambin returns to tell us all about the history of the very special sitcom episode! We count down 5 of the wildest episodes as Lee explains the social and historical history behind these educational, wild, and controversial departures from the typical television sitcom plot. His new two volume book "Tonight, on a Very Spec…

For our first episode of the new year, we talk for over 3 hours about the classic film THE KARATE KID. Not only is this our longest episode ever-- it is also our cleanest! This episode was requested by Ed's nieces, who recently discovered the film and loved it. As a result, all curses have been bleeped. Yep this is fun for the whole family. Yet it …

It's Christmas at the Playhouse and Pee Wee's newest friends, Ed and Rusty, drop by and share their thoughts on all things Chairry, Conky, Pterri and the Del Rubio Triplets? On this episode, we share our own Christmas memories, Ed tells the story of when his dad went toe-to-toe with the New York Jets in a game of no holds barred charity basketball …

Ed had an ALLIGATOR poster as a child, but does he still love the film? Join us in our 56th episode for an exploration of the Lewis Teague-John Sayles classic, as well as a lot of xmas talk (even though this couldn't be less of a xmas movie). We talk the animal attacks genre and speculate a lot about if our friend Lee Gambin likes this film. We als…

Why travel this Thanksgiving, endangering yourself and others, when you could instead safely implant the memories of dry turkey, tense political conversations, and struggling to turn off the motion flow setting on your relative's TV?! On this epic episode we revisit one of our favorite films, the peak of peak Arnold: TOTAL RECALL! Do we have 5 kids…

The box art for DEMON WIND (1990) is iconic. We have fond memories of admiring it in the video stores of our youth. But is the movie any good? We wanted to choose a less obvious title for right before Halloween, and we wanted something sort of corny, like HELLGATE or DOOM ASYLUM. Did we choose correctly, or will we regret this film for the rest of …

Could a movie as recent as 2015 be considered iconic? We argue that IT FOLLOWS can, as we break down the sex follower masterpiece during our October horror month. We ask all the annoying logistical questions everyone does, while Ed comes up with the ultimate loophole. David Robert Mitchell is just one of the many people who should never listen to t…

After a summer spent watching Buffy/Angel and frequently mentioning it on this podcast, it's time to revisit the film that started it all: the movie version with actress turned political scientist Kristy Swanson! This early 90s gem plunges us into all kinds of despair about getting older as we contemplate why Joss Whedon hates this likable film so …

Let's do time warp again -- for the first time! Once again Ed is seeing a classic for the first time, as we dive into the 1975 cult classic that's one of Rusty's favorite films. He'll guide Ed through Transylvania, discussing along the way his strange confidence in facing athletes of the past, Ed's horrible dating life and impending misadventure of…

For our historic 50th episode, what could we choose except the film which cleaved our lives in half? On one side, we were young. We were Star Wars fanatics, excited for whatever George cooked up. On the other side, we were the bitter, doomed individuals we are today. Of course Phantom Menace reviews have been done to death, so this isn't that at al…

Well, it's finally here. Ed has seen Pee Wee for the first time in his life and he's here to explain all of the references he finally gets. We talk quarantine life, the production history behind this film, and of course so many far too revealing digressions about our life. Please rate and review the show and we'll get episode 50 in July we promise!…

There's a Theory For You - Rusty Stark - 6/28/2020 AM Worship by Carlisle church of ChristBy Carlisle church of Christ

Father to Father - Rusty Stark - 6/21/2020 AM Worship by Carlisle church of ChristBy Carlisle church of Christ

When we recorded this two weeks ago, the world was a much different place. This seems frivolous to post now, but maybe it can bring you some entertainment in a horrible time. In this epic episode, with a length I don't think we've hit since VAMP, we tackle the cursed film GHOULIES, which is NOT a GREMLINS rip-off! We talk about the making of the fi…

Lee Gambin is the author of many great books about horror and cinema in general, including Nope, Nothing Wrong Here: The Making of Cujo, Studies in the Horror Film: The Howling, Hell Hath No Fury Like Her: The Making of Christine, We Can Be Who We Are: Movie Musicals from the '70s and Massacred By Mother Nature: Exploring the Natural Horror Film. H…

Continuing to put up some old episodes as Rusty contends with a newborn, I came across this episode about Diff'rent Strokes - The Peacemaker and I really like it! Never has a gun at school been treated so casually! Featuring the screen debut of Andrew Dice Clay, this episode is filled with amazing moments and plunges us into a discussion about 80s …

On this episode we visit one of the most classic episodes of The Wonder Years -- "Goodbye"! Yep, this is the one where Kevin's teacher DIES! Lessons will be learned, math will be taught, and Kevin will have at least 3 audience alienating freakouts. We're going to be back with regular Viewmasters soon once Rusty recovers from giving birth.…

I'd been sitting on this episode for a minute when I heard it was Charlotte Rae's birthday. Wow! You should have seen me scramble out of my seat to honor this amazing day! On this episode Mrs. Garrett teaches the girls about a topic all too relevant today-- fanaticism. Tootie is determined to go to the Jermaine Jackson concert -- by any means neces…

“This is the future. The world as we know it is gone.” Harrowing words from the opening sequence in this week’s episode TURBO KID. We recorded this episode a couple weeks ago and the world has changed a lot since then. What has remained the same is our love for Apple...and Ed’s hopeless quest to someday building a similar companion to travel the wa…

By Ed Dougherty, Rusty Stark & Po

By Carlisle church of Christ

By Carlisle church of Christ

By Carlisle church of Christ

By Ed Dougherty & Rusty Stark

By Ed Dougherty & Rusty Stark

We've returned to deliver an epic episode about one of the most formative films of Ed's life-- Ralph Bakshi's much-hated adaptation of THE LORD OF THE RINGS. If he thinks it's pretty horrible, why does Ed love it so much? Why is so much crammed into so little? Why is Boromir a viking? What exactly did Peter Jackson borrow from this? How many of the…

It's Halloween and what better way to celebrate than to conjure up some 300 year-old Salem witches. The cauldron is bubbling and our spell book is opened to our favorite page because we're discussing the 1993 children's Halloween classic -- HOCUS POCUS. We desecrated hallowed ground on this one as Ed shares a tale of his first time coming into cont…

We're going way back, further into the past than we ever have before, all the way to 1966 to talk the animated classic IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN! Just in time for Halloween comes the tale of a deranged boy named Linus trying to inflict his fringe views on his loved ones. Do we even like this kid? Why does Charlie Brown get so many rocks…

Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, we call this tale The Endless Banter of the "30 Minutes or Less" Crew. Come join us around the campfire to discuss one of the most beloved episodes of ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK? -- The Tale of the Dead's Man's Float. Also, one of the few episodes to actually feature a malicious spirit. On today's…

We are returning from underground by going spelunking with Neil Marshall's classic tale of a caving expedition gone wrong. Who are the crawlers? What's that pool of blood for? Is this one of the few films where the fan theories are actually plausible and cool? Find out all this and more as we gear up for our all horror October. Please rate and revi…

We're officially back from our hiatus and what better way to return than to discuss the 1980s teen comedy classic --JUST ONE OF THE GUYS! Ed was in Australia for this one fulfilling his dream of reenacting Crocodile Dundee. You should see his knife. On this episode, Ed shares some stories from 'down under' and we also discuss having crushes on ALVI…

After watching the GROWING PAINS episode titled "Second Chance" we have to ask ourselves if Matthew Perry would've gotten a second chance on the show had the writers known that he would go on to become a huge star. This episode was a rollercoaster ride of emotions and what better way to approach it than to make jokes about Tracey Gold's thick Long …

On our epic 40th episode we revisit the Ron Howard/George Lucas classic -- WILLOW! We talk about what it was like to be kids when this came out, the horrible toys (but great NES game) it produced, the origins of how it all came together, why the Brownies are so annoying and how many people in the cast are wearing wigs. We also explore pressing issu…

It's time to tackle "Cherie Lifesaver", the most famous episode of Punky Brewster-- the one where Cherie gets locked in the fridge! Join us as we discuss the realities of dying inside a refrigerator, why Punky's dog had such an odd name and how the Punky theme song stacks up compared to the rest of the 80s classics. This is probably the best sitcom…

We shouldn’t have buried him because Freddy Mania is not dead. This episode we’re sharpening our finger knives, popping on the Ray Bans and hitting the beach to discuss A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER. Is this movie the best of the series? With a writer’s strike and absent script, Renny Harlin manages to deliver a charismatic, lovable…

Welcome back to the second episode of 30 Minutes or Less where we are facing an absolute classic of our childhood, unfortunately at the beginning of its final season. Does Evie and her motley assortment of friends and family have any time-stopping miracles for us in store or are they all out of tricks? Find out as Rusty, Ed and Po watch the season …

Now you're playing with power. T-U-R-T-L-E POWER! We're joined this week by BEYOND THE GATES director Jackson Stewart to talk one of the best comic book movies ever made: TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (1990). I'm not sure that we've ever been as united in our praise for a film as we are with this one, although I'm not sure what that says about us. A…