January 1, 2019 • 56 mins
Dani and Ify give you their favorite moments from 2018 in part 1 of this Holiday Clip Show!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hey, what's up. How you doing? Uh? You know, it's
Ernie's for you on a nerd fam. Yeah, what's up,
nerd fam? Are you doing? Uh? You know right now,
Danny's on the beach with her toes, you know, tinkling
up in the sand, and I'm probably driving to my
(00:30):
dad's house. And it's what that means is it's Christmas time.
So we're gonna drop a couple of our favorite clips
from a couple of our favorite episodes so you can
enjoy them. I think back on the good times before
for the holidays, when we were Akupato and Danny was
living life lavish on the Bahamas somewhere. I was trying
(00:56):
to figure out where you were going with the Yeah, yeah,
but yeah, enjoy the US clips. They're gonna be fun.
Let's talk about the history Deep Deep. We still don't
have our sound, I know, I look, I just like
repeating deep Dive. We'll just clip that for next time.
(01:19):
The earliest it looks like known table top game was
a series of forty nine small carved painted stones that
were actually found at the five thousand year old I
think this is by Burial Mound in southeast Turkey. Um
and those are the earliest gaming pieces ever found. Yeah,
(01:41):
and similar pieces have been found in Syria and Iraq
and seem to point to a board games originating in
the Fertile Crescent and other early origin Dice games were
created by painting a single side of a flat stick.
These sticks would be tossed in unison in the amount
of painted side showing would be your role Mesopotamian ice
were made from a variation of materials including carved knuckle bones,
(02:03):
would painted stones, and turtleshell. You know what this kind
of adjacent to this reminds me of cornhole? Do you
know the history? Of course this is according at least
to my ex whom religiously so he's from He's from Ohio,
which that when dating him, I was exposed to cornhole.
I didn't know. I grew up in southern California. I
(02:24):
don't know if it was a big thing or not. Um,
but I wasn't aware of it. And then they would,
like literally the kids in his town would make their
own corn holes and paint them. That sounds so bad.
So if you don't know what cornhole is, it's like, um,
it's like a flat surface, um ramp that has a
hole in it that you then toss bean bags into.
And what my ex told me was that the history
(02:45):
of it is that they used to throw corn cobs
into our houses. I don't know, we might need our
researcher to look into that, but that's the history of
I like that history, though, I think I think I'm
down with the corn cob and to an out. Yeah, yeah, no.
I learned cornhole from the white improv community that I'm
(03:05):
a part of out here that showed up at parties
and because yeah, growing I don't know about you, but
growing up in something so cow, our big thing was like,
uh no, I was gonna beer pong. Yeah, yeah, that's
the big like party game I'm aware of. But cornhole
seems way more chill, like a backyard barbecue, through a
little sack into a hole, through a corn cob into
(03:27):
a toilet bowl. Okay, but let's jump down this timeline.
So thanks for our researchers, we have a brief time
line of game history, and it starts in b C
E with SENA. It's s an an et, which is
either senate or sane. I'm fancy, so I'm gonna call
it sane. It's discovered in the Pre Dynastic and First
(03:49):
Dynasty burials of Egypt. Senate is believed to be the
world's oldest board game, meaning game of passing. Seney consisted
of a grid of thirty squares arranged in three rows
of tin and two sets of ponds, though the exact
rules are the source of much debate. A copy of
the game was found buried with Tuton Common which is
funny because I feel like that's tabletop to a t
(04:13):
which is arguing over what the rules actually are. Yeah. Yeah,
a lot of things buried with him, yeah, yeah, oh yeah,
all of his animals and I think like friends. Also
that thing you always keep that Yeah, okay, So moving
on the fourteen hundred b C. We see dice. Actually so,
Sophocles claimed that Palamedes invented dice in about four b C,
(04:36):
and sure enough they found cubicle stones and clay dice
during that period. But in truth, it's possible that dice
were actually developed independently by many ancient cultures around the world.
I believe that. Did you know that alcohol was also
developed independently around major cultures? I took a history of
this was in my deep weep phase. When I was
(04:58):
in community college, but I took it was Japanese, but
I also took like the history of Japan, and they
were talking about how Korean in Japan and almost every
country you found alcohol on their own. So there had
to be that one weird guy and every culture who
was like, let's taste this rotten juice. It might also
(05:18):
be I mean, I'm sure someone will correct us, but
I imagine also it's just like their limited resources, where
like if something did go wrong or it was like fermented,
it was like, we don't have the resources to just
throw this away. You know that sounds like a very
educated guest. And then and then eventually what ended up
happening was that the water supply was so bad that
they just ended up having to drink alcohol, which is
(05:38):
something we should cover. We should cover nerds getting drunk. Well, well,
we should definitely cover um the science behind not even that.
But remember when everybody was making their own beer like
like that still I mean still yeah, people real nerds
about that, Like it was like, oh man, I made
my own beer micro brewing. Well, let's dip over to
(05:59):
for a game that sounds kind of familiar. Snakes and Ladders,
I love it. I wish they had kept that name.
Snakes and Ladders originated in India as a game based
on morality, where the progression up the board was to
teach children about good and evil, with climbing up ladders
representing good and sliding down snakes representing evil. During the
British rule of India, the game made its way back
(06:20):
to the Assures and it was taken the US as
Shoots and Ladders in ninety three by Milton Bradley. Should
have been snakes. That's gentrification one on one right there,
like all right, I'm gonna take the snakes out, We're
gonna add some shoots. We're gonna move on to the
first board game, Millionaire. This is one of the most
(06:40):
fascinating stories that we encountered coming across this topic. In
nineteen thirty five, we got Monopoly and a lot of
people wrongly credit Charles Darrow as being the soul designer,
And what actually happened is Charles and his wife Esther
actually went in nineteen thirty two to the home of
(07:01):
his friend, who was a Philadelphia businessman named Charles Todd
and his wife Olive. So he went over to their
place and they played a real estate board game that
they had recently learned, and they became fascinated by it,
and Charles Todd his friend made the Daros a set
of their own, and then the other Charles, so many
(07:24):
Charles in this. Okay, so Charles Darrow, listen this because
this is where the sneak that sounds like a character
from Downton Abbey. By the way, Charles d Charles, Charles Daru,
and I've made some board games for you. A Todd,
I gotta say, on paper sounds hello, whack uh. You know,
it was like, hey, on paper sounds really whack. Like
(07:45):
to be like, hey, you guys wanna play a real
estate board game? I'm like, na, son, let's bring out
the magic the gathering. Why are you bringing this trade?
Win was prohibition? Let me see if they were bored?
Very good question. Right. We want to go and tell
you the best selling Nintendo games of all time, which
(08:07):
nice shock people. Yeah, it shocked me for sure. So
I'm gonna give you all, you know, a few seconds
to yeah, yeah, to brace yourself to think what you
think it is. Yeah, we'll do the top ten and
we'll start from ten, and we'll work our way up,
so let's get it started. Number ten, which I'm real
proud about because I've been talking about this game starting
(08:28):
now is Duck Hut, which is twenty eight million, which
I don't know if that really counts since it came
with the system, but you know, i'm gonna give it.
I'm gonna give it the crown. Yeah, yeah, Yeah. So
number nine is we Play super Popular y point oh
two million, just just barely edging out Ducats. And number
(08:49):
eight is Tetris for the Game Boys, speaking of which
yet million. Okay, so number seven new Super Mario Bros.
On the Wei. Yeah, I'm fascinated by how many of
these are we related. So that's thirty point eleven million. Yeah,
and then the New Super Mario Bros. Which was the
same game but on the DS. Uh or I wonder
(09:12):
if it was the other way around. I think it was.
It came out on the d S and then they
made it for the Wei. We'll look into that, but
that was thirty point eighty million. Pokemon Red Green Blue
for Game Boy, thirty one point thirty eight million, We
Spicy Diety, and then uh We Sports Resort thirty three
(09:34):
point zero six the We Sport really is like, how
is this now? Picture in your head every Nintendo game
that you know, and We Sports Resort beat it, well,
at least most of them. It's at number four. Number three.
Of course we have Mario Kart. This was Mario Kart
we specifically, so thirty seven point two million. It makes sense.
(09:58):
I guess with the popularity of the Wei and game
like kind of where we're at now that the majority
of these are for WE. But I still find that
really fascinating. And number two is Super Mario Bros. For
the NES and g B A forty two point fifty
one million. Okay, brace yourself. Number one. Who what would
(10:19):
you have thought number one would be the number one
selling I would have thought Pokemon. But Pokemon is pretty
high up there there in the top five at least. Yeah,
that's true. I guess for some reason, I thought it
would be Super Mario Bros. Um well, it was. It
was until this game came out. It was number one
until this game came out. This game being We Sports God, yep,
(10:42):
the thing that you pull out after every Thanksgiving when
your family and that's my family, when like uncle's passed
out asleep and who's going to break out the WE Sports.
I know it's surprising, but not surprising because I feel
like WE Sports is the one game that across the board,
whether you're a gamer or not, everyone is aware of.
Everyone has seen the video someone playing tennis or someone
(11:03):
doing the golf. I feel like those videos going viral
like many of them did, has just made people flocked
to we'se. I can't believe that Super Smash Brothers didn't
even like get Super Smash Brothers number ye yeah, yeah, god,
oh yeah. I mean I just played that religiously in
Super Mario sixty four is all the way down at
(11:25):
number forty. That was my favorite game growing up. It's
just really knocked this back down to PEG. But that
is something that's very interesting. I want to talk about
the WEE a bit and the Wei. I feel like
inside like gamer culture shook the gaming set guys, because
you had the WE kind of dropped around the time
the PS three and the Xbox three sixty came, so
(11:48):
everyone was waiting for Nintendo's next gen console. So someone
thought that they were going to compete with something that
is that has like ten a D p h D graphics,
very powerful new controller, and they came out with this
WE console that was used a remote emotion. I mean,
but it was very it was extremely interactive. What it
was was approachable for a lot of people. I feel
(12:10):
like when people see controllers, they're like what, but everyone
uses a remote, So I think that made it approachable
for just the general kind of you know. Yeah, it's
one of those things where I think, like, I can't
remember in the commercials if they did this, but it's
it's people of all ages essentially, Like you could give
your grandma a WE remote and she can just use
her body like she can swing, you know, the golf
(12:31):
club or bowl. I was really great at bowling. And
so I agree, like you said, if it's it's you
don't have to worry necessarily too much about a lot
of the buttons. Uh, it's you know, largely based on
your body movement for a lot of things. So I
did think, and it's and it's interactive, it's like a
family you know, a lot of the WE games are
encouraging for others to play kind of as a group.
(12:54):
So and and I think you had it right in
what she said is a family console. It was a
big deal where they finally came around and had an
imerated game. The the WE typically tried to be just
fun for all, and they tried to steer more towards
family friendly game, which a lot of people thought that
was a bad move, but an the end, I think
it was a good move because you have these two
(13:15):
giant uh consoles compete with each other, the Xbox and PlayStation,
and they were coming out neck to neck with exclusives,
shooter games, action got of war, violent games, and then
you have this like fun console that you can bring
out in the whole family wants to play. And I
think that's where they capitalize. And you know, the WU
wasn't very successful because I feel like it it just
(13:37):
kind of one I don't think personally it was that
much of an advancement. It was literally just a better
version of the Wei, which you can say what you
will about them doing that, but that's basically what the
Xbox one X in the PlayStation four pro is at
this point. But then they made the Switch, which was
(13:57):
another innovative game on SOL where it was it can
be both portable and a console game you can play
at home. So it seems like that's always been Nintendo's
kind of drive is to find innovative ways to play
versus trying to just be the best at what the
current status quo is. Yeah, and I know that we
skipped forward to WE, but I just wanted to mention
(14:20):
the gaming systems that came before that. So we talked
about the NES. So the difference with that was that
it was an eight bit system. Yeah, um, and so
that was then they upgraded to sixteen bit and that
was in one with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. I
think I remember having that one as well. And then
(14:40):
my favorite and if you're a nineties kid, I mean
this was our home base. Nintendo sixty four greatly improved
three D graphics and new controller at the modern joystick.
We have to do an entire episode on and sixty four.
I mean we'll probably do an entire episode on most
of these. But that came out, and then we of GameCube.
(15:02):
I remember GameCube in two thousand and one, so that
also had enhanced graphics, new controller. Um. The games came
on a mini disc and it was Nintendo's first home
console to use solely disc format for their games. And
it was also the first and only Nintendo system to
require additional memory cards in order to save Do you
(15:23):
remember that? Oh man? Uh? And then they had the
Panasonic Cue, which was kind of like a hybrid version
of Nintendo GameCube that was in two thousand and one,
but that could also that kind of change things because
it could also play DVDs, audio CDs, MP three's and CDs.
So they were trying to catch up. I feel like
they were trying to also do like what PlayStation was doing.
(15:44):
And then we have the Wei in two thousand and six,
so the newer black, red, and blue models were dubbed
the Wee Family editions, so they were really capitalizing on
the family market. We had the WE Mini, which was
a smaller version of the WE console that was we
had we you Yeah, we had so many Wee's which
was like a game pad with a touch screen built
(16:05):
into it, and that was also in We had the
NES Classic edition totally did you get that iffy? Oh? No,
I didn't do you play anybody's No. I wasn't going
to fight the crowd crowds, oh man. So if y'all
don't know, I mean just totally capitalizing on our nostalgia
at this time. The NES Classic was a mini console
(16:28):
that was basically bringing back all your childhood of playing
a NES. It included thirty classic n S games, but
was also compatible with the we uh controller a week
classic controller. So and then we have the Nintendo Switch,
which do you have one of those? Yeah, yeah, it's yeah, yeah,
(16:50):
the Nintendo Switch, um, and that was in seventeen. It
was kind of like a hybrid of a lot of
the of the home and the portable gaming of their
consoles and uh. And then we also have the Supernintendo
Entertainment System Classic Edition or SNS Mini, and that was yeah.
(17:13):
So so they've they've dropped quite a few bangers, and
the Switch is doing well. It had a great year.
Breath of the Wild swept the game of the years,
all of them, every almost every every publication game of
the Year had Breath of the Wild. And so there,
I'm excited to see where they go with the Switch. Yeah.
That wasn't even getting into all the different iterations of
(17:35):
game Boy that they had, but yeah, well we'll probably
do We will do an entire episode on game Boy.
Oh yeah, we definitely just handhelds, just into no handhelds,
but we'll talk a little bit more. But before that,
I think you guys need a break or at least
we do. So we'll talk to you when we come
back with our guests after this. All right, and welcome
(18:04):
back to Artificent. We are talking about violence and video games,
going down the history of it, talking about all the
studies to strike down whatsoever. Just so much info just
disproving this, but we have it here all in one
place for you. But Danny wanted to h wanted to
say something up top. Yeah, that a p a uh
(18:25):
study that we were talking about. The American Psychological Association.
So they had actually looked at four meta analysis that
reviewed more than a hundred and fifty research reports published
before two thousand and nine, and then of the ones
published between two thousand nine, and they looked at a
hundred and seventy articles to come up with their research.
(18:50):
And again it said, while there's some variation among the
individual studies, a strong and consistent general pattern has emerged
from many years of re search that provides confidence in
our general conclusions. As with most areas of science, and
the picture presented by this research is more complex than
it usually include in news coverage and other information prepared
(19:11):
for the general public. So that's another sector of it
is what the media decides to latch on. What is
shown is like they played video games, or they played
violent video games, which they're not looking at the full picture. Yeah,
well because that's such as simple. Yeah, of course they
played video games, because everyone their age plays video games.
(19:31):
That isn't you know, shocking And it's funny because you
would think, after you know, that huge study and even
Scalia kind of like shutting it down, it would end.
But most recently Trump went ahead and set that video games,
the video games, the movies, the interactive stuff is so violent.
He went ahead and set that, and it kind of
(19:52):
re ignited this dead argument because at this point it
is officially dead. I feel like it's reached as it's
not I mean, it's alive, but it's you're beating a
dead horse. That is is not true. It is like
it's having that Berenstein Bears argument. We've already proved, We
already proved to you that the name was what it was.
(20:15):
I need to tell you something. Did you see on
the White House YouTube channel, which if you didn't know,
the White House has a YouTube channel, they have something.
They have a video up that's titled violence in Video Games.
It has um over a million views. Uh, if you,
I will show it to you. It is literally there's
(20:37):
no introduction to it. It is just the most not
the most, but it is just violent excerpts taken from
video games of people like hitting each other with hatches
or or shooting someone in there some pretty prolific scenes
in video games. Because these are some games I've played
and it and they're really it is funny. They got
(20:59):
Dead by Day, which is a horror game where you
play a slasher. It really is like but there's no introduction.
There's literally nothing that that introduces this this video. It
just is on their YouTube page with clips of violent
you know, violent particular points in videos. They're taking old games.
(21:20):
They took the extremely controversial No Russian and it was
the scene where you're you literally go and do a
mass shooting like that is the scene in the context
of the story, it makes sense and actually, as the player,
you do have the option to not shoot anyone. You
actually get an achievement if you do that whole episode
and shoot no one. Here's that whole Yeah, it's fascinating.
(21:43):
One of the comments that has over two thousand likes says,
I mean some of those clips you showed are unplayable
cut scenes, So shouldn't you therefore be making the same
argument against movies and television. Yeah, I think that's the
same thing. And I do want to point out that
the first half of that video, no one was using guns.
It was all just access growing us like it was
(22:06):
no real like I think two people got shot and
the rest were with other weapons other than guns. So
you're just taking in somebody else. Somebody else said I
play a lot of fantasy games and for that reason
and planning to tame and write a dragon. You know,
I'm not trying to necessarily make fun of people who
are concerned about violence and video games, but I do
(22:28):
want to say it is dangerous. It is dangerous that
when we have went through the proper means and the courts,
your own justice, the one who is on the side
of the Republicans has doesn't agree with you, and you
go and you post that like that is that is dangerous?
It is on the White House on the White House. Yeah,
(22:49):
channel I agree, and with no explanation, I feel like
that's another like it's irresponsible is exactly what it is.
It's irresponsible, and it's denying all the world that everyone
has done and all the facts that are out there
that proves this is just not true. I do want
to play this clip from the Daily Site guys because
I feel like, you know, they have a fun way
(23:11):
Daily Zeite guys, another show on the How Stuff Works Network.
We're gonna have to bleep a lot of it because
they are some potty mouse. You know. When I'm on there,
I never cuss. I don't cuss in my whole life.
But yeah, this is kind of I feel like instead
of kind of repeating what has happened and what is
said during the recent shootings, would be good to just
(23:32):
kind of give you you all just a clip and
you know, if you don't already listen to the Daily
Site guys, hopefully this will make you want to go
peep those guys out. You know, me and Danny have
both been on it talking point. It seemed like on
all the Sunday shows because the n r A had
to get all their people out to start spending this
recent shooting to be anything but the guns. Uh seem
to be mostly video games and movies now was like
(23:54):
the I guess Scapegoat Jour and riddling. Yes, so I
guess the first step new one. Yeah, Ali North, who
is the new n r A president and O G
Gunn smuggler of America. He went on Fox and yeah
blamed riddling in a bunch of check out this explanation.
We're trying, like the Dickens, to treat the symptom without
treating the disease. And the disease in this case isn't
(24:17):
the Second Amendment. The disease is youngsters who are steeped
in a culture of violence. Uh, they've been drugged in
many cases. Nearly all of these perpetrators are male and
their young teenagers in most cases, and they've come through
a culture where violence is commonplace. All we need to
(24:38):
do is turn on the TV, go to a movie.
If you look at what has happened to the young people,
many of these young boys have been on riddle in
stance they were in kindergarten. H that's such a hard
left on. Like it's like he even started like making
a good point of like all these young shooters are male,
all these young like that that could be a discussed
(24:59):
about what toxic masculinity is and things like that, right,
but then it turns into a ridin. Yeah, So like
they at this point and I think hearing that also
lets you know that it really isn't video games. It
really isn't. What it really comes down to is anything
but smarter gun control laws, Like that's what. And it's
(25:20):
so funny because no one. I feel like a few people,
a few fringe people might have said ban all guns,
but no one is saying ban all guns. What we're
saying is make it harder to get these killing machines.
I want to start just with the war because it's
very interesting. It's it's almost like you know when you
(25:42):
read some people's biographies and you're like, oh, this is
this is gonna be a good movie one day. I
feel like Rod Serling has one of those. But that's
kind of fascinating. I guess he hasn't. No one has
played him yet, like officially in a huge film. I agree.
He is so instrumental. I feel like in um, not
only science fiction, but just yeah, I know that he
(26:04):
gets compared Black Mirror gets compared a lot to Twilight Zone,
and that's accurate. And then, and of course we're gonna
also visit the fact that Jordan Peel is now making,
which I think he's perfect for. It is going to
be on the CBS platform. Yeah, because like get Out
would have been the perfect like episode of Twilight Zone
in the same like cutting just um, what's the word
(26:27):
I'm looking for criticism? What I was gonna say is, actually,
Jurassic Park fits a lot people forget, but that fits
a lot of like, yeah, the original Drastic Park well,
and I would say drastic the last one Draassic World
Falling Kingdom um where they start to kind of or
or they hint at using dinosaurs as weapons. That to
me is also kind of like what would we do
(26:48):
with this technology? Um where it could also be like
a Black Mirror episode. But yeah, Rodster. As far as me,
like I grew up with the Twilight Zone marathons, my
parents would party and essentially leave us alone. On New
Year's Eve, we had watch it on Sci Fi my
brothers and I. I now, if he has been to
my place, Melow, you are welcome to come to my place.
(27:10):
I have a Twilight Zone wall um which I will
tweet with different artwork and original artwork that's signed by artists.
I have rod sterling up there. I have m many
of the episodes, including one of the most famous ones,
which is I have the Beholder, but also I had
an artist a lot of the other ones that don't
have as much artwork, so I commissioned an artist to
(27:31):
do my favorite. Well it changes as the years go on,
but my favorite is The Howling Man is one of
my absolute favorite episodes. Uh. And also Satan's kind of hot.
He's kind of hot in it. Uh he is, he
looks good. Um. So yeah, so let's talk about the
history of Rod Sterling. Yeah, I was, and I just
wanted to start in high school. He funny enough, He's
(27:52):
always been a right or not funny, I mean just
I guess as expected always. He was writing for the
school news paper and he was kind of like amped
up about World War two and he was kind of
encouraging other students to enlist. And he actually wanted to
enlist before he graduated. But then it was actually his
Civics teacher, Gus Youngstrom, who said war is a temporary thing.
(28:14):
It ends an education doesn't without your degree, where will
you be after the war? So he actually finished school, graduated,
and as soon as school ended, enlisted. Now there's a
fun detail in his enlistment that kind of really I
think sets up who Rod Serling is. So originally he
(28:36):
was sent to um California, which man he was going
to fight the Japanese instead of you know, the the Germans,
and he was actually angry about it because he wanted
to fight Hitler and so so he was like, forget
the Japanese, I need to fight this guy, this horrible, bigoted,
racist guy, like that's who he wanted. And I feel
(28:57):
like that kind of set the tone for his life. Eventually,
Lee he actually grown bitter about the war because it
seemed like such a young thing to do, to be like, oh,
I'm gonna go join the army, I'm gonna fight the
bad guys. But he found out that, you know, he
was seeing death every day. And then there were a
lot of freak accidents. There was this huge freak accident,
like there was there was a Jewish private name Melvin Levy,
(29:20):
and Levy was delivering a comic monologue for the platoon
as it as like he was standing under a palm
tree and a food crate was dropped from a plane
above and it decapitated him. And so Startling actually let
the funeral services for Levy and placed the Star of
David over his grave. So like, not only are you
seeing the death of the war, but you're also seeing
(29:41):
freak accidents like that. I can imagine that's not only
kind of making you bitter towards the war, but that
I feel like there's no way to not have this
kind of morbid, kind of creative thought when you see
things like that, you know, like, yeah, I would say
also during the time, UM, I think like you were
saying too, that he was exposed to this idea of
(30:04):
good verse evil and then evil not necessarily being evil
or are we the evil actually? Um? Was something that
I think that he tackled a lot pretty often. UM.
Human nature as well as during this time. Just the
amount of racism that he saw was definitely influential in
his writing. And something that's really fascinating is we can
(30:25):
we can link this in our footnotes. But I watched
a YouTube video of him a couple of years ago.
Uh that sounded weird. It wasn't a YouTube video of him.
It was him doing an interview that was helping on
YouTube Uncle Rod doing an unboxing bid. Uh. Here can
(30:46):
you imagine can you imagine him like doing having a
selfie stick? I would love to see him nowadays, like
his commentary on us um would be so fast. His
daughter is still alive. But what I was gonna say
is I watched the video on YouTube of him where
(31:07):
he was talking about censorship and how CBS had centered
the writers and what they were trying to get away
with and a lot of the times. Of course, his
commentary was on on people of coloring, the treatment of
people of color in marginalized groups in general, where they
would end up having to make them like an alien
or you know, a monster or something for you to
like feel for them because they weren't they weren't able
(31:28):
to make them people of color. And uh, he actually
says that you eventually start to censor yourself where you're
not even writing those stories. So if you already know
it's it's kind of fascinating, like the brain will just
start to center and and not even create those stories anymore.
It was it's a really fascinating interview, and we'll link it.
(31:48):
But yeah. He ended up volunteering at w NYC in
New York as an actor and writer in the summer
of nineteen forty six, and then the next year he
worked at a station as a pain intern in Antioch
work study program and then took a couple of odd
jobs and other radio stations in New York and Ohio.
He said, I learned time writing for a medium that
is measured in seconds. He also worked at the Antioch
(32:10):
Broadcasting Systems Radio Workshop and was managing the station within
a couple of years. Dan let He's Moving Up movie.
He was a hard worker. Uh. He wrote and directed
the programs and acted in them as well. Um, this
is kind of fascinating. So I actually read the twilight
Zone Companion highly recommended. There's a couple of different Twilight
Zone books out there. Have you read that one? Mellow? Oh,
(32:32):
I think you would like it. There's so much behind
the scenes for each they go through each episode. So
I actually got it inaudible, and I would listen to
it when I would clean and drive and stuff. But
it's behind the scenes of like how did this get made?
How this almost didn't get made? Other freak accidents that
happened in the episodes. Uh. And also he didn't write
(32:53):
all of them. Um. I know a lot of people
think that he wrote all of them, but a lot
of them were actually bought from They were teleplays or
they might have been a short story in a magazine
and he would buy the rights to it and then
adapt it. Uh, sometimes he would, and and then he
had other people working on his team as well. And
I can imagine like he wrote like an insane amount
or believe at the age of he had written forty
(33:16):
or forty nine episodes by that point, and he was like, Okay,
I finally need another writer. Yeah. Yeah, And well he
just wanted to be a writer. I don't know if
you know that, but they talked about that in the
book where he just wanted to be a writer for
the Twilight Zone and he didn't intend to be the host.
And looking at him like, you were the perfect host.
You're like handsome, but you're creepy and you're like stern
(33:39):
and have like a parental thing to you, but you're
also like, you know, ominous and uh yeah, I think
and he has gorgeous lush eyebrows. Um, so yeah he
But originally he actually just wanted to be a writer,
and he didn't because when he was hosting, he didn't
have an acting like he didn't have as much time
to dedicate to writing. Uh, and I know that bothered him.
(34:02):
But hopping back into the past, while in college, Serling
won his first accolade as a writer. The radio program
Dr Christian is starting an annual scriptwriting contest. Eight years earlier,
thousands of scripts were sent in annually, but very few
can actually be produced. So certainly want a trip to
New York City and five hundred dollars for his radio
(34:22):
script to live a dream. He and his new wife
attended the awards broadcast on May eighteenth of ninette, where
he and the other winners were interviewed by the star
of Dr Christian, Geene Herschel. One of the other winners
that day was Earl Hamner Jr. Who also earned prizes
in the previous years, and later Hamner wrote scripts for
Sterling's The Twilight Zone. Also, I just wanted to drop
(34:46):
this fun fact. Five hundred dollars in ninety nine has
the same buying power as five thousand, one hundred and
fourteen dollars has today. It's like a nice little something
came up. I mean, you get that much in college,
you like? Hold up, that's true, that's true. We're about
to throw a dorm party. I would love to see
Rod Serling partying. Oh yeah, yeah. I wonder if any
(35:09):
of those cigarettes who's always so, if any of them
were blunts. Ever, you never know, uh so, Sterling said
of his time as a staff writer for radio. From
a writing point of view, radio ate up ideas that
might have put food on the table for weeks at
a future freelancing date. The minute you tie yourself down
to a radio or TV station, you write around the clock.
You rip out ideas, many of them irreplaceable, they go
(35:30):
on and consequently can never go on again. And sold
them for fifty dollars a week. Gosh, And he was
saying that back then. I mean, that seems small to us,
but you can't afford to give away ideas. They're too
damn hard to come by. If I had to do
it over, I wouldn't staff right at all. I'd find
some other way to support myself while getting a start
as a writer. Holy crap, I'm like going through a
(35:51):
midlife crisis as we're as we're discussing this right now. Yes,
I know how many writers in our lives do you
think would agree with this as well? That you're kind
of just giving your ideas a for to a studio
for like such little pay, And especially his because he
was so like transformative, like the thought that he wrote
forty nine scripts by himself, and all of them anthology episodes.
(36:12):
It's pretty much on the equivalent of, like you wrote
a pilot like twice a week, so we'll we'll just
jump all the way to what we're here to talk about,
which is, uh, the Twilight Zone. And it had an
interesting kind of start, just kind of shows you how
old Hollywood used to work. I don't think the w
g A existed at this point because Sterling submitted the
(36:33):
time element to CBS, intending it to be a pilot
for his new weekly show, The Twilight Zone, but instead
CBS used the science fiction script for a new show
produced by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball the Westinghouse Desilu
Playhouse in ninety eight. The story concerns a man who
has vivid nightmares of an attack on Pearl Harbor. The
(36:54):
man goes to a psychiatrist, and after the session, the
twist ending, a device which Sterling became known for, reveals
the patient had died at Pearl Harbor and the psychiatrist
was the one actually having the vivid dreams. The episode
received so much positive fan response that CBS agreed to
let Sterling go ahead with his pilot for the Twilight Zone. Oh,
(37:15):
I'm sorry. I'm sorry that my work that you yank
for me did so well that you agree to let
me keep making this thing that people are excited. I'm sorry.
I couldn't stopped laughing at the idea of Lucio ball
in this like serious job. What's so interesting here is
that that's such a sandwich and it's such a perfect
(37:36):
like wrap up to who Sterling was and into Twilight Zone,
because I mean, dreams about a World War two, Like
he said, the war left him with nightmares. So this
is really him, like just the beginning of him taking
what he was actually dealing with, putting it on paper,
and then making it into something amazing. I also just
(37:59):
wanted to be like, what a twist that was all
of the No, not all of them, but that was
a lot of his his most famous ones, I feel
like had a pretty big twist. Um and some of
them I still feel like you can't always tell. Some
of them you can tell, but some of them you can't.
And that was always my favorite things about a lot
of the He was just so what a fascinating, interesting
(38:20):
man um. But yeah, let's talk about the Twilight Zone. Um,
after these messages, Yeah, let's do it. After these messages. Hey,
what's up y'all? Welcome back, and as promised, we are
(38:42):
backed with a power Ranger. Yeah. It is my buddy,
my friend, Peter Sdars. So how are you doing? Good? Dude? Good? Yeah, Peter.
When he walked in, he was like, so what are
we talking about? You are the worst. I love you.
We're just such different co host. I feel like where
I would have had like an email and here's the
(39:02):
parking situation, and here's like I called him for parking
actually just ouside. I was like, is it okay for
me to park just like one? Peter, we have a
spot for you? What the lot is full today? And
all the even the one I was going to pay
the dumb eight dollars to part that's full. So I'm
like out on vine me too. Yeah down there. Yeah,
I don't know what's going on in Hollywood. I feel
(39:24):
very short. Look at my chair right now. What we
do have to talk about something? This is Peter's first
ever podcast ever. I'm just a little bit. I'm nervous,
Like you like, do live on camera stuff constantly. Yeah,
you know you did hyper Force and then you did
like the real Power Rangers. I mean, you're yeah, you're
(39:45):
one of the Power Rangers who got to be in
multiple iterations of Power Rangers super like, Um, my goodness.
I don't know. I mean, I'm not sure how it.
I guess because I think they're very different audiences, Like
most people who watch Hyper Force aren't aware like my
Ninja Seal stuff. So it feels like there are two
different things completely. It doesn't feel like they're both like
Power Ranger and all in like one little thing. Oh nice. Well,
(40:06):
let's back it up a little bit and let's talk
about when did you first start hearing about Power Rangers.
Because we know all of us if I started talking
about that, we're gonna be here for like an hour.
What was your first introduction when you first remember seeing
Power Rangers. Um, I grew up in Indonesia, so my
first introduction of Power Rangers was actually Super Sentai. Yeah,
and you're like, yeah, I'm just I'm just on the
(40:28):
other side. But yeah, I think I remember it when
I was like super young, and then I kept watching
it and I grew up just watching it, you know,
So it's always been in my life. And then uh,
to get into the whole power ranger acting industry side.
It was actually Yoshi, Yeah, your older brother, right, yeah,
he's also done in Charge Blue. Um. He got into
(40:49):
the industry from doing like stunt stuff, so he did
like the suits and all that stuff and for the
live action shows, and so he got to meet some
of the rangers and from then on he was like, hey, guys,
how do you how do you get into this industry?
I want to be a power ranger, you know, because
like he could do flips, so they requirement, Yeah, that's
what you need to be able to do. We're out fips.
(41:14):
Sang me too. They're actually casting for it right now,
right now, it's down the street. I hit our manager up,
excuse me? Why was a sentence? No? But so he
did that and then so he got the casting raised
email and we legit just cold shot an email. And
we weren't in the acting industry at this time. I
(41:35):
was a student of architecture and my brother was doing mathematics.
He was just like, hey, can we audition and she
was like yeah, sure, So we came in and we
saw her and then we got really lucky. I think
it was just things just kind of worked out really well,
and we continued on all the way to screen testing
both me and Yoshi. Then they canned it because they
were like, actually there's a bit too they'd be testing it.
(41:56):
So um, come back in like six seven months, like
all right, cool, we came back No a megaphorce. That's
the first time that I actually got a taste of
the industry. Is like, because like you guys, you guys
act to you guys know, like the whole right when
you see those papers, you see how much you're gonna
get paid, Yeah, and the promise like fantasizing in your head. Yeah,
(42:16):
just so people because people outside the industry don't know.
So when your audition to act, usually like in a
pilot or a bigger show, first you do your auditions
than you do your call backs, than what you do
is like a screen test slash chemistry test. What that
usually is. It varies for different studios, but mostly let's
just talk pilot season since it just happened and it's
easy to talk about. Um, the studio exects come in
(42:37):
and watch you do your auditions. It's a lot, and
they're like just most of them at the time will
be like stone cold, like yeah, it's just like the
SML auditions, they don't laugh. But before you do your
before you do your screen test, you get the contract
and you see how much you're going to be making
per episode. You see that money, and so that that
(42:59):
just ups to stay even more because now you know
how much you could be making and you don't even
have the job yet, but you're already seeing how much. Yeah,
you start to like imagine this life, you know. And
since that was like an architecture, I have been living
like non industry life for all my life. Seeing all that,
I thought that the contract itself was like binding and
I was like, oh god, my life has changed, you know.
(43:21):
And at the end of it, I got super close
and it was done like me when one other person.
And it got to the point where like I accidentally
got upload on IMDb before I heard back that I
didn't get it. So I was like, oh my god,
Oh my god, who did that? That's the worst you
could get in Big trouble for the thing is like
the Power Rangers fan base and communities super passionate. So
(43:42):
they found out who was. Yeah, they found everything out,
and so like they speculated, then eventually one by one
people found out who got casted and it was down
to like the last person and then they were like,
I think Peter got it, So I think they put
on IMDb, so I thought I got it, didn't get it.
It was like first ever audition and it was like
(44:05):
first ever like rejection, and no one warned me how
how bad it would be. Like I've been through breakups,
but there is nothing like a heartbreak, you know, I
don't know. I would take twenty heartbreaks from like from
my partner then like a live dream. Yeah, that's hilarious. Wait,
so you this is so fascinating me. You have no
(44:26):
action background. Wow, I mean now people are gonna be
running out here like la la land this. That was
my first time with MEGAFORCET and then after that I
got into the industry from like commercial modeling because I
didn't I still don't have a theatrical and when you're
completely out of it, you have no idea how to
get any of this stuff. Even Google barely helps. Yeah.
(44:46):
So then I did that and then next season was
Dino Charged. That was two years later, and then by
this point I had gotten a little bit of practice
some commercials, but I've never gotten like actual training. So
we did that, and we went to producers and we
both got cut, me and my brother. And at this
point I was already friends with the casting driver, so
I like begged it. I was like, please please please
give us another show. Please, I swear to God we
will do better. Yeah, when she gave us another shot,
(45:08):
which was super kind of her, eventually went down to
me against Yoshi was going out for Blue and I
was going out for Red, and they couldn't have two
Asians on the cast at that time. That I don't know.
So yeah, you actually eventually got it. Wow. This is
when I realized, like, oh, this industry isn't just fun
and games. Yea. When he left, I was like majorly depressed.
(45:33):
I took like I spent like fifteen thousand dollars eventually
in like classes. I drowned myself in classes. But that
ultimately helped me actually get into this industry. Series. Yeah,
you know, well, I think what you did, You know
this is taking a step from nerd talking, going towards
actor talker just industry talk. What you did is you
took the positive route to deal with it. I feel
(45:54):
like a lot of times when people face rejection in
this industry, they want to blame the industry and not
themselves better. But what you did is you took the
classes and you made yourself undeniable and then it paid off,
and that was That's kind of how you have to
treat rejection. Instead of like being like, these people aren't
giving it to me, you have to be like, Okay,
then I'm gonna get better and better until the point
you can't say no. You look bad if you say
(46:16):
no to me. Yeah. It's like it's like the audition
that we were talking about this morning, Like had I
known she wasn't going to read the lines, I would
have just been better. You know what, man, You know,
there's so many things I've been I feel like, if
you like, because we're both in classes, and I feel
like as comedy, well I can only speak for myself,
but I feel like being in comedy you kind of
like you coast off of that for a little bit,
Like you can make them laughing auditions, you can do that,
(46:38):
but then you start to realize you're not getting it
because you don't have the acting technique that they want, Like,
and then when you're in acting classes, you're like, oh, yeah,
I never thought to do literally any of that you know.
And it's so funny because the same thing as a comedian,
like looking at acting classes. You know, it's hard for
a comedian to take anything seriously, especially they're acting like
and you're like whatever, But it all it takes is
(46:58):
that one moment of you like do in the line,
and then that teacher giving you the adjustment and then
seeing how it pops and you're like yeah, You're like
maybe this is uh yeah, and we'll just opens up
your range. I feel like to other now I can
go for drama roles, which is like I never ever
would have and I didn't even want to. Like when
they my acting teacher like made me take this like
(47:19):
drama course, I'm like, I don't want to do this.
I don't want and then I was like, oh, I
love it. I didn't realize I could cry on cute. Yeah,
well I'm so living out here in this town. I
can cry at any time. I didn't realize I could
use that in my acting. Okay, so so yoh got it.
And then and you didn't And so you were here
and you took all these acting classes. Well at that
(47:41):
time too, I started taking a lot more seriously, not
just acting classes, like I started um writing my own scripts,
like phoning my own stuff. I started YouTube channel because
of that and which now has already died down. But
you got busy, Yeah, I got busy. Well after leaving
Pott Rangers, it just no one else took over it
and I couldn't like but um so I started doing
(48:01):
that to actually like progressively do stuff. And I ended
up getting a manager from one of the auditions that
I did from like a self tape. And so after that,
the pilot season came when Ninja still was coming up,
and at that time I had booked two pilots. One
of them was like an ABC free form the other
one was Disney, and I was like, I think I
think it might be okay. I think I might be
okay in this acting industry, even if I don't get
(48:21):
Power Rangers, you know, like I'm gonna be sweet. Then
when Power just came along and I was like, I
can't do this again. I don't want to break my
heart another time, you know, like it was so gut
wrenching the first second and third time, like this time,
I don't want to go through it again. And my
brother was like, you know what do you just gotta try,
because like, what's the worst that can happen? You book it? Yeah,
I mean yeah, I guess you're right. So then I
(48:42):
went into it and I was like, I'm not gonna
get invested. I already got two pilots going on. I'm sweet,
you know, and lo and behold. Of course, you always
get invested. Always. There's no like at first audition, you know,
maybe you could be like, Okay, cool, I'm done, you
can let it go. When you get a call back,
you're like yeah. So like incrementally, it's like first you're
(49:02):
like maybe invested five percent. The next thing you like,
next you know, you're like two thousand percent. What just
happened there? So all that happened and I got all
the way to the point of screen testing again. And
at this point I was there, there were like two
other dudes who were like way better looking than me,
way younger than me, and they were like amazing at stunts.
I saw them doing it and I was like, frick,
They're not gonna have two Asian dudes on here, you know.
(49:24):
So I was just like feeling a little discouraged, but
I did it. Anyways, after all that was done, it
was quiet and you know, you guys know the screen
testing thing with the test option of like your time
is here to here, and once like you reach like
June or whatever, you have to be released from the
test opic. So that means you at least know when
you don't get it, as opposed to like prior to.
So it got to the point of like I think
(49:45):
it was May no, no, yeah, it was June June three,
which was the day that it cut off. And it
was June twenty two at night, and I had not
heard anything back. And I was on on a shoe
that day. I was on a shoe with my brother
and we were on film and uh, it was like
ten o'clock and of text from the producer saying like, um, hey,
I'd like to talk to you. And at this point
I was like, twenty second, what is going on? So
(50:08):
I went up to my brother and I was like, hey,
do you check this out? Is either really good news
are really bad news? Hoping that he'd be like he ha, yeah,
you should call him yeah, and so I was like yeah,
and then he was like oh um and at that
point his face just dropped, like completely dropped. He You
could you could tell when somebody's not joking you, Like,
no matter how good of an actor they are, in
real life situations, you could tell when somebody ken. So
(50:30):
he was like, dude, um, you didn't get it. And
I was like, what, don't screw with me, dude, Like
this is you know how big this is to me,
how important this is to me. Like if if you
screw around with me right now, I will break down.
We're on set. I can't afford the breakdown. And he
was like, no, dude, like a Chip called me actually
two hours ago and told me like, hey, Peter didn't
(50:52):
get it. How should I tell him that he didn't
get it? And I was like, oh my god, I
guess that's how. I was like, you gotta be joking.
So he called me and he was like, hey, you
didn't get it. Um, I don't have much time right
now because I'm actually in a meeting and I know
that you're on a shoot. Let me call you back.
I just want to talk to you because I do
really care about you as a person, and I want
to let you know why you didn't get it, just
(51:13):
so you understand that's not yeah exactly. And I was
like at that point, I honestly didn't care to talk
because I was so upset. But which one was for this? Again?
This was for Ninja Seal okay. Yeah, so this was
two years ago, I think, and so I was like, well,
if he was kind enough to go out of his
way to say that, I might as well just talk
to him, you know, and like at least maybe it'll
make me feel a little bit better why I didn't
(51:35):
get it. So after the shoet was done, this was
two in the morning, I was driving home and I
finally called him and he was like, hey, Peter, okay, um,
I really want to talk to you. If you're on
the on the street, can you pull over something? And
I was like alright, So I pull over and he
was like okay, well, um, the reason why you didn't
get it, Peter, or should I say Preston is because
(51:55):
you're Ninja Seal Blue. And I was like what what
what do you? What do you say? And I legit,
I don't know if I could cuss on here, but yeah,
we'll belie it. I was like, don't and he turns
out I got it. And the reason why he told
Yoshi that was because he wants to surprise him no people.
(52:17):
I love it. It's funny because I like, I know
that they surprised Yoshi, but I was still I know.
That's why. That's why I took it for granted, because
you don't hear like executives doing that, Oh good thing.
You didn't like cuss somebody off. I've given you my
heart and my soul. But man, you gotta that person
(52:41):
was really good because because because if he would have
been like, don't tell your brother, but you did get
it and you were on set, you would have let
it slip. There's no way you would have been at it.
So he was like, I gotta wait till they get
off set, and he's like, all right, this is what's
going down, So tell tell the story because I really
like it's very cute, and we're gonna post to send
(53:02):
me the video so we can pa. You can actually
look it up. It's it's on Bethany's like she has
like all the back ends of it too. But so
after that, I had to wait two weeks before yos
she could know, because after that it was two weeks
until Power Morphicon, which is coming up soon. That's when
they do to reveal. So up until that time, I
was like still playing DND with my brother and I
was like trying to put little hints and stuff, you know,
(53:24):
but we're playing DND and like we passed by like this, um,
this martial arts gym right by because I play an
Emerald Nights and there's this martial arts place called a
Blue Dragon Martial Arts. And the day before Power work
On we drove past it and my sword, by the way,
it's a blue Dragon, so yo. She was like, hey, Peter,
look at that Blue Dragon Martial Arts, like just like that,
(53:47):
just the way I just said it. And I was like,
does this guy know It's like is he screwing with me?
So then the day of Power Morphicon came and uh,
I was gonna go down the thing and they were
like reading the names. They wanted to read me last
because they wanted to do the whole like surprise with
the Ocean. At that point, I was already annoyed because
I was like, man, yeah, he's pointed out multiple things
(54:08):
that shows me that he knows, like I know he knows,
and um the moment that like my name was supposed
to get called up, so it was like this person, uh,
this color, this person, this color is this person. There
was like a beat, a pattern, you know, And then
it got to me and it was like and the
Blue Ranger and yeoh, she was supposed to read my
name and all I heard was and I was like, what,
what's going on? And then that's when I knew that
(54:30):
like he didn't know. Yeah, then he called my name
and he could even say my name, Like the dude
just started breaking down. And even to this day, like
every time I watched it, I still get feelings just
because of how raw his emotions were. Yeah, I'm pulling
it up for Danny right now. It's like the cutest. Yeah. Yeah,
we will definitely post it. I'm gonna get it. So
(54:52):
how crazy was it? Like? Right after that? What was
the Because their fan base is pretty ravenous in eat
up everything. They're extremely passionate, and that's the one thing
that I will say, like I love about the Ranger
fan base. Like, but the thing is like I've already
kind of always been in semi spotlight with them because
the Mega Foresting when they put me up on IMDb.
(55:13):
So a lot of the Ranger fans actually have like
stayed with me since eleven, Yeah, since two thousand eleven.
Until I booked in two thousand sixteen, and then a
lot of them were like, dude, you've been here since
day one and your brother was the last year, so
that it just it just worked out really well in
my favorite So I hope that you enjoyed the visit
(55:38):
down memory lane some of our favorite moments from Notificent,
and next week we will also have a couple more
of our favorite ones. Let us know what your favorite
episode and moments were from this past year. Yeah, yeah,
because we love hearing from you, you know, Stay, it's
(56:00):
such a th
Hey, what's up. How you doing? Uh? You know, it's
Ernie's for you on a nerd fam. Yeah, what's up,
nerd fam? Are you doing? Uh? You know right now,
Danny's on the beach with her toes, you know, tinkling
up in the sand, and I'm probably driving to my
(00:30):
dad's house. And it's what that means is it's Christmas time.
So we're gonna drop a couple of our favorite clips
from a couple of our favorite episodes so you can
enjoy them. I think back on the good times before
for the holidays, when we were Akupato and Danny was
living life lavish on the Bahamas somewhere. I was trying
(00:56):
to figure out where you were going with the Yeah, yeah,
but yeah, enjoy the US clips. They're gonna be fun.
Let's talk about the history Deep Deep. We still don't
have our sound, I know, I look, I just like
repeating deep Dive. We'll just clip that for next time.
(01:19):
The earliest it looks like known table top game was
a series of forty nine small carved painted stones that
were actually found at the five thousand year old I
think this is by Burial Mound in southeast Turkey. Um
and those are the earliest gaming pieces ever found. Yeah,
(01:41):
and similar pieces have been found in Syria and Iraq
and seem to point to a board games originating in
the Fertile Crescent and other early origin Dice games were
created by painting a single side of a flat stick.
These sticks would be tossed in unison in the amount
of painted side showing would be your role Mesopotamian ice
were made from a variation of materials including carved knuckle bones,
(02:03):
would painted stones, and turtleshell. You know what this kind
of adjacent to this reminds me of cornhole? Do you
know the history? Of course this is according at least
to my ex whom religiously so he's from He's from Ohio,
which that when dating him, I was exposed to cornhole.
I didn't know. I grew up in southern California. I
(02:24):
don't know if it was a big thing or not. Um,
but I wasn't aware of it. And then they would,
like literally the kids in his town would make their
own corn holes and paint them. That sounds so bad.
So if you don't know what cornhole is, it's like, um,
it's like a flat surface, um ramp that has a
hole in it that you then toss bean bags into.
And what my ex told me was that the history
(02:45):
of it is that they used to throw corn cobs
into our houses. I don't know, we might need our
researcher to look into that, but that's the history of
I like that history, though, I think I think I'm
down with the corn cob and to an out. Yeah, yeah, no.
I learned cornhole from the white improv community that I'm
(03:05):
a part of out here that showed up at parties
and because yeah, growing I don't know about you, but
growing up in something so cow, our big thing was like,
uh no, I was gonna beer pong. Yeah, yeah, that's
the big like party game I'm aware of. But cornhole
seems way more chill, like a backyard barbecue, through a
little sack into a hole, through a corn cob into
(03:27):
a toilet bowl. Okay, but let's jump down this timeline.
So thanks for our researchers, we have a brief time
line of game history, and it starts in b C
E with SENA. It's s an an et, which is
either senate or sane. I'm fancy, so I'm gonna call
it sane. It's discovered in the Pre Dynastic and First
(03:49):
Dynasty burials of Egypt. Senate is believed to be the
world's oldest board game, meaning game of passing. Seney consisted
of a grid of thirty squares arranged in three rows
of tin and two sets of ponds, though the exact
rules are the source of much debate. A copy of
the game was found buried with Tuton Common which is
funny because I feel like that's tabletop to a t
(04:13):
which is arguing over what the rules actually are. Yeah. Yeah,
a lot of things buried with him, yeah, yeah, oh yeah,
all of his animals and I think like friends. Also
that thing you always keep that Yeah, okay, So moving
on the fourteen hundred b C. We see dice. Actually so,
Sophocles claimed that Palamedes invented dice in about four b C,
(04:36):
and sure enough they found cubicle stones and clay dice
during that period. But in truth, it's possible that dice
were actually developed independently by many ancient cultures around the world.
I believe that. Did you know that alcohol was also
developed independently around major cultures? I took a history of
this was in my deep weep phase. When I was
(04:58):
in community college, but I took it was Japanese, but
I also took like the history of Japan, and they
were talking about how Korean in Japan and almost every
country you found alcohol on their own. So there had
to be that one weird guy and every culture who
was like, let's taste this rotten juice. It might also
(05:18):
be I mean, I'm sure someone will correct us, but
I imagine also it's just like their limited resources, where
like if something did go wrong or it was like fermented,
it was like, we don't have the resources to just
throw this away. You know that sounds like a very
educated guest. And then and then eventually what ended up
happening was that the water supply was so bad that
they just ended up having to drink alcohol, which is
(05:38):
something we should cover. We should cover nerds getting drunk. Well, well,
we should definitely cover um the science behind not even that.
But remember when everybody was making their own beer like
like that still I mean still yeah, people real nerds
about that, Like it was like, oh man, I made
my own beer micro brewing. Well, let's dip over to
(05:59):
for a game that sounds kind of familiar. Snakes and Ladders,
I love it. I wish they had kept that name.
Snakes and Ladders originated in India as a game based
on morality, where the progression up the board was to
teach children about good and evil, with climbing up ladders
representing good and sliding down snakes representing evil. During the
British rule of India, the game made its way back
(06:20):
to the Assures and it was taken the US as
Shoots and Ladders in ninety three by Milton Bradley. Should
have been snakes. That's gentrification one on one right there,
like all right, I'm gonna take the snakes out, We're
gonna add some shoots. We're gonna move on to the
first board game, Millionaire. This is one of the most
(06:40):
fascinating stories that we encountered coming across this topic. In
nineteen thirty five, we got Monopoly and a lot of
people wrongly credit Charles Darrow as being the soul designer,
And what actually happened is Charles and his wife Esther
actually went in nineteen thirty two to the home of
(07:01):
his friend, who was a Philadelphia businessman named Charles Todd
and his wife Olive. So he went over to their
place and they played a real estate board game that
they had recently learned, and they became fascinated by it,
and Charles Todd his friend made the Daros a set
of their own, and then the other Charles, so many
(07:24):
Charles in this. Okay, so Charles Darrow, listen this because
this is where the sneak that sounds like a character
from Downton Abbey. By the way, Charles d Charles, Charles Daru,
and I've made some board games for you. A Todd,
I gotta say, on paper sounds hello, whack uh. You know,
it was like, hey, on paper sounds really whack. Like
(07:45):
to be like, hey, you guys wanna play a real
estate board game? I'm like, na, son, let's bring out
the magic the gathering. Why are you bringing this trade?
Win was prohibition? Let me see if they were bored?
Very good question. Right. We want to go and tell
you the best selling Nintendo games of all time, which
(08:07):
nice shock people. Yeah, it shocked me for sure. So
I'm gonna give you all, you know, a few seconds
to yeah, yeah, to brace yourself to think what you
think it is. Yeah, we'll do the top ten and
we'll start from ten, and we'll work our way up,
so let's get it started. Number ten, which I'm real
proud about because I've been talking about this game starting
(08:28):
now is Duck Hut, which is twenty eight million, which
I don't know if that really counts since it came
with the system, but you know, i'm gonna give it.
I'm gonna give it the crown. Yeah, yeah, Yeah. So
number nine is we Play super Popular y point oh
two million, just just barely edging out Ducats. And number
(08:49):
eight is Tetris for the Game Boys, speaking of which
yet million. Okay, so number seven new Super Mario Bros.
On the Wei. Yeah, I'm fascinated by how many of
these are we related. So that's thirty point eleven million. Yeah,
and then the New Super Mario Bros. Which was the
same game but on the DS. Uh or I wonder
(09:12):
if it was the other way around. I think it was.
It came out on the d S and then they
made it for the Wei. We'll look into that, but
that was thirty point eighty million. Pokemon Red Green Blue
for Game Boy, thirty one point thirty eight million, We
Spicy Diety, and then uh We Sports Resort thirty three
(09:34):
point zero six the We Sport really is like, how
is this now? Picture in your head every Nintendo game
that you know, and We Sports Resort beat it, well,
at least most of them. It's at number four. Number three.
Of course we have Mario Kart. This was Mario Kart
we specifically, so thirty seven point two million. It makes sense.
(09:58):
I guess with the popularity of the Wei and game
like kind of where we're at now that the majority
of these are for WE. But I still find that
really fascinating. And number two is Super Mario Bros. For
the NES and g B A forty two point fifty
one million. Okay, brace yourself. Number one. Who what would
(10:19):
you have thought number one would be the number one
selling I would have thought Pokemon. But Pokemon is pretty
high up there there in the top five at least. Yeah,
that's true. I guess for some reason, I thought it
would be Super Mario Bros. Um well, it was. It
was until this game came out. It was number one
until this game came out. This game being We Sports God, yep,
(10:42):
the thing that you pull out after every Thanksgiving when
your family and that's my family, when like uncle's passed
out asleep and who's going to break out the WE Sports.
I know it's surprising, but not surprising because I feel
like WE Sports is the one game that across the board,
whether you're a gamer or not, everyone is aware of.
Everyone has seen the video someone playing tennis or someone
(11:03):
doing the golf. I feel like those videos going viral
like many of them did, has just made people flocked
to we'se. I can't believe that Super Smash Brothers didn't
even like get Super Smash Brothers number ye yeah, yeah, god,
oh yeah. I mean I just played that religiously in
Super Mario sixty four is all the way down at
(11:25):
number forty. That was my favorite game growing up. It's
just really knocked this back down to PEG. But that
is something that's very interesting. I want to talk about
the WEE a bit and the Wei. I feel like
inside like gamer culture shook the gaming set guys, because
you had the WE kind of dropped around the time
the PS three and the Xbox three sixty came, so
(11:48):
everyone was waiting for Nintendo's next gen console. So someone
thought that they were going to compete with something that
is that has like ten a D p h D graphics,
very powerful new controller, and they came out with this
WE console that was used a remote emotion. I mean,
but it was very it was extremely interactive. What it
was was approachable for a lot of people. I feel
(12:10):
like when people see controllers, they're like what, but everyone
uses a remote, So I think that made it approachable
for just the general kind of you know. Yeah, it's
one of those things where I think, like, I can't
remember in the commercials if they did this, but it's
it's people of all ages essentially, Like you could give
your grandma a WE remote and she can just use
her body like she can swing, you know, the golf
(12:31):
club or bowl. I was really great at bowling. And
so I agree, like you said, if it's it's you
don't have to worry necessarily too much about a lot
of the buttons. Uh, it's you know, largely based on
your body movement for a lot of things. So I
did think, and it's and it's interactive, it's like a
family you know, a lot of the WE games are
encouraging for others to play kind of as a group.
(12:54):
So and and I think you had it right in
what she said is a family console. It was a
big deal where they finally came around and had an
imerated game. The the WE typically tried to be just
fun for all, and they tried to steer more towards
family friendly game, which a lot of people thought that
was a bad move, but an the end, I think
it was a good move because you have these two
(13:15):
giant uh consoles compete with each other, the Xbox and PlayStation,
and they were coming out neck to neck with exclusives,
shooter games, action got of war, violent games, and then
you have this like fun console that you can bring
out in the whole family wants to play. And I
think that's where they capitalize. And you know, the WU
wasn't very successful because I feel like it it just
(13:37):
kind of one I don't think personally it was that
much of an advancement. It was literally just a better
version of the Wei, which you can say what you
will about them doing that, but that's basically what the
Xbox one X in the PlayStation four pro is at
this point. But then they made the Switch, which was
(13:57):
another innovative game on SOL where it was it can
be both portable and a console game you can play
at home. So it seems like that's always been Nintendo's
kind of drive is to find innovative ways to play
versus trying to just be the best at what the
current status quo is. Yeah, and I know that we
skipped forward to WE, but I just wanted to mention
(14:20):
the gaming systems that came before that. So we talked
about the NES. So the difference with that was that
it was an eight bit system. Yeah, um, and so
that was then they upgraded to sixteen bit and that
was in one with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. I
think I remember having that one as well. And then
(14:40):
my favorite and if you're a nineties kid, I mean
this was our home base. Nintendo sixty four greatly improved
three D graphics and new controller at the modern joystick.
We have to do an entire episode on and sixty four.
I mean we'll probably do an entire episode on most
of these. But that came out, and then we of GameCube.
(15:02):
I remember GameCube in two thousand and one, so that
also had enhanced graphics, new controller. Um. The games came
on a mini disc and it was Nintendo's first home
console to use solely disc format for their games. And
it was also the first and only Nintendo system to
require additional memory cards in order to save Do you
(15:23):
remember that? Oh man? Uh? And then they had the
Panasonic Cue, which was kind of like a hybrid version
of Nintendo GameCube that was in two thousand and one,
but that could also that kind of change things because
it could also play DVDs, audio CDs, MP three's and CDs.
So they were trying to catch up. I feel like
they were trying to also do like what PlayStation was doing.
(15:44):
And then we have the Wei in two thousand and six,
so the newer black, red, and blue models were dubbed
the Wee Family editions, so they were really capitalizing on
the family market. We had the WE Mini, which was
a smaller version of the WE console that was we
had we you Yeah, we had so many Wee's which
was like a game pad with a touch screen built
(16:05):
into it, and that was also in We had the
NES Classic edition totally did you get that iffy? Oh? No,
I didn't do you play anybody's No. I wasn't going
to fight the crowd crowds, oh man. So if y'all
don't know, I mean just totally capitalizing on our nostalgia
at this time. The NES Classic was a mini console
(16:28):
that was basically bringing back all your childhood of playing
a NES. It included thirty classic n S games, but
was also compatible with the we uh controller a week
classic controller. So and then we have the Nintendo Switch,
which do you have one of those? Yeah, yeah, it's yeah, yeah,
(16:50):
the Nintendo Switch, um, and that was in seventeen. It
was kind of like a hybrid of a lot of
the of the home and the portable gaming of their
consoles and uh. And then we also have the Supernintendo
Entertainment System Classic Edition or SNS Mini, and that was yeah.
(17:13):
So so they've they've dropped quite a few bangers, and
the Switch is doing well. It had a great year.
Breath of the Wild swept the game of the years,
all of them, every almost every every publication game of
the Year had Breath of the Wild. And so there,
I'm excited to see where they go with the Switch. Yeah.
That wasn't even getting into all the different iterations of
(17:35):
game Boy that they had, but yeah, well we'll probably
do We will do an entire episode on game Boy.
Oh yeah, we definitely just handhelds, just into no handhelds,
but we'll talk a little bit more. But before that,
I think you guys need a break or at least
we do. So we'll talk to you when we come
back with our guests after this. All right, and welcome
(18:04):
back to Artificent. We are talking about violence and video games,
going down the history of it, talking about all the
studies to strike down whatsoever. Just so much info just
disproving this, but we have it here all in one
place for you. But Danny wanted to h wanted to
say something up top. Yeah, that a p a uh
(18:25):
study that we were talking about. The American Psychological Association.
So they had actually looked at four meta analysis that
reviewed more than a hundred and fifty research reports published
before two thousand and nine, and then of the ones
published between two thousand nine, and they looked at a
hundred and seventy articles to come up with their research.
(18:50):
And again it said, while there's some variation among the
individual studies, a strong and consistent general pattern has emerged
from many years of re search that provides confidence in
our general conclusions. As with most areas of science, and
the picture presented by this research is more complex than
it usually include in news coverage and other information prepared
(19:11):
for the general public. So that's another sector of it
is what the media decides to latch on. What is
shown is like they played video games, or they played
violent video games, which they're not looking at the full picture. Yeah,
well because that's such as simple. Yeah, of course they
played video games, because everyone their age plays video games.
(19:31):
That isn't you know, shocking And it's funny because you
would think, after you know, that huge study and even
Scalia kind of like shutting it down, it would end.
But most recently Trump went ahead and set that video games,
the video games, the movies, the interactive stuff is so violent.
He went ahead and set that, and it kind of
(19:52):
re ignited this dead argument because at this point it
is officially dead. I feel like it's reached as it's
not I mean, it's alive, but it's you're beating a
dead horse. That is is not true. It is like
it's having that Berenstein Bears argument. We've already proved, We
already proved to you that the name was what it was.
(20:15):
I need to tell you something. Did you see on
the White House YouTube channel, which if you didn't know,
the White House has a YouTube channel, they have something.
They have a video up that's titled violence in Video Games.
It has um over a million views. Uh, if you,
I will show it to you. It is literally there's
(20:37):
no introduction to it. It is just the most not
the most, but it is just violent excerpts taken from
video games of people like hitting each other with hatches
or or shooting someone in there some pretty prolific scenes
in video games. Because these are some games I've played
and it and they're really it is funny. They got
(20:59):
Dead by Day, which is a horror game where you
play a slasher. It really is like but there's no introduction.
There's literally nothing that that introduces this this video. It
just is on their YouTube page with clips of violent
you know, violent particular points in videos. They're taking old games.
(21:20):
They took the extremely controversial No Russian and it was
the scene where you're you literally go and do a
mass shooting like that is the scene in the context
of the story, it makes sense and actually, as the player,
you do have the option to not shoot anyone. You
actually get an achievement if you do that whole episode
and shoot no one. Here's that whole Yeah, it's fascinating.
(21:43):
One of the comments that has over two thousand likes says,
I mean some of those clips you showed are unplayable
cut scenes, So shouldn't you therefore be making the same
argument against movies and television. Yeah, I think that's the
same thing. And I do want to point out that
the first half of that video, no one was using guns.
It was all just access growing us like it was
(22:06):
no real like I think two people got shot and
the rest were with other weapons other than guns. So
you're just taking in somebody else. Somebody else said I
play a lot of fantasy games and for that reason
and planning to tame and write a dragon. You know,
I'm not trying to necessarily make fun of people who
are concerned about violence and video games, but I do
(22:28):
want to say it is dangerous. It is dangerous that
when we have went through the proper means and the courts,
your own justice, the one who is on the side
of the Republicans has doesn't agree with you, and you
go and you post that like that is that is dangerous?
It is on the White House on the White House. Yeah,
(22:49):
channel I agree, and with no explanation, I feel like
that's another like it's irresponsible is exactly what it is.
It's irresponsible, and it's denying all the world that everyone
has done and all the facts that are out there
that proves this is just not true. I do want
to play this clip from the Daily Site guys because
I feel like, you know, they have a fun way
(23:11):
Daily Zeite guys, another show on the How Stuff Works Network.
We're gonna have to bleep a lot of it because
they are some potty mouse. You know. When I'm on there,
I never cuss. I don't cuss in my whole life.
But yeah, this is kind of I feel like instead
of kind of repeating what has happened and what is
said during the recent shootings, would be good to just
(23:32):
kind of give you you all just a clip and
you know, if you don't already listen to the Daily
Site guys, hopefully this will make you want to go
peep those guys out. You know, me and Danny have
both been on it talking point. It seemed like on
all the Sunday shows because the n r A had
to get all their people out to start spending this
recent shooting to be anything but the guns. Uh seem
to be mostly video games and movies now was like
(23:54):
the I guess Scapegoat Jour and riddling. Yes, so I
guess the first step new one. Yeah, Ali North, who
is the new n r A president and O G
Gunn smuggler of America. He went on Fox and yeah
blamed riddling in a bunch of check out this explanation.
We're trying, like the Dickens, to treat the symptom without
treating the disease. And the disease in this case isn't
(24:17):
the Second Amendment. The disease is youngsters who are steeped
in a culture of violence. Uh, they've been drugged in
many cases. Nearly all of these perpetrators are male and
their young teenagers in most cases, and they've come through
a culture where violence is commonplace. All we need to
(24:38):
do is turn on the TV, go to a movie.
If you look at what has happened to the young people,
many of these young boys have been on riddle in
stance they were in kindergarten. H that's such a hard
left on. Like it's like he even started like making
a good point of like all these young shooters are male,
all these young like that that could be a discussed
(24:59):
about what toxic masculinity is and things like that, right,
but then it turns into a ridin. Yeah, So like
they at this point and I think hearing that also
lets you know that it really isn't video games. It
really isn't. What it really comes down to is anything
but smarter gun control laws, Like that's what. And it's
(25:20):
so funny because no one. I feel like a few people,
a few fringe people might have said ban all guns,
but no one is saying ban all guns. What we're
saying is make it harder to get these killing machines.
I want to start just with the war because it's
very interesting. It's it's almost like you know when you
(25:42):
read some people's biographies and you're like, oh, this is
this is gonna be a good movie one day. I
feel like Rod Serling has one of those. But that's
kind of fascinating. I guess he hasn't. No one has
played him yet, like officially in a huge film. I agree.
He is so instrumental. I feel like in um, not
only science fiction, but just yeah, I know that he
(26:04):
gets compared Black Mirror gets compared a lot to Twilight Zone,
and that's accurate. And then, and of course we're gonna
also visit the fact that Jordan Peel is now making,
which I think he's perfect for. It is going to
be on the CBS platform. Yeah, because like get Out
would have been the perfect like episode of Twilight Zone
in the same like cutting just um, what's the word
(26:27):
I'm looking for criticism? What I was gonna say is, actually,
Jurassic Park fits a lot people forget, but that fits
a lot of like, yeah, the original Drastic Park well,
and I would say drastic the last one Draassic World
Falling Kingdom um where they start to kind of or
or they hint at using dinosaurs as weapons. That to
me is also kind of like what would we do
(26:48):
with this technology? Um where it could also be like
a Black Mirror episode. But yeah, Rodster. As far as me,
like I grew up with the Twilight Zone marathons, my
parents would party and essentially leave us alone. On New
Year's Eve, we had watch it on Sci Fi my
brothers and I. I now, if he has been to
my place, Melow, you are welcome to come to my place.
(27:10):
I have a Twilight Zone wall um which I will
tweet with different artwork and original artwork that's signed by artists.
I have rod sterling up there. I have m many
of the episodes, including one of the most famous ones,
which is I have the Beholder, but also I had
an artist a lot of the other ones that don't
have as much artwork, so I commissioned an artist to
(27:31):
do my favorite. Well it changes as the years go on,
but my favorite is The Howling Man is one of
my absolute favorite episodes. Uh. And also Satan's kind of hot.
He's kind of hot in it. Uh he is, he
looks good. Um. So yeah, so let's talk about the
history of Rod Sterling. Yeah, I was, and I just
wanted to start in high school. He funny enough, He's
(27:52):
always been a right or not funny, I mean just
I guess as expected always. He was writing for the
school news paper and he was kind of like amped
up about World War two and he was kind of
encouraging other students to enlist. And he actually wanted to
enlist before he graduated. But then it was actually his
Civics teacher, Gus Youngstrom, who said war is a temporary thing.
(28:14):
It ends an education doesn't without your degree, where will
you be after the war? So he actually finished school, graduated,
and as soon as school ended, enlisted. Now there's a
fun detail in his enlistment that kind of really I
think sets up who Rod Serling is. So originally he
(28:36):
was sent to um California, which man he was going
to fight the Japanese instead of you know, the the Germans,
and he was actually angry about it because he wanted
to fight Hitler and so so he was like, forget
the Japanese, I need to fight this guy, this horrible, bigoted,
racist guy, like that's who he wanted. And I feel
(28:57):
like that kind of set the tone for his life. Eventually,
Lee he actually grown bitter about the war because it
seemed like such a young thing to do, to be like, oh,
I'm gonna go join the army, I'm gonna fight the
bad guys. But he found out that, you know, he
was seeing death every day. And then there were a
lot of freak accidents. There was this huge freak accident,
like there was there was a Jewish private name Melvin Levy,
(29:20):
and Levy was delivering a comic monologue for the platoon
as it as like he was standing under a palm
tree and a food crate was dropped from a plane
above and it decapitated him. And so Startling actually let
the funeral services for Levy and placed the Star of
David over his grave. So like, not only are you
seeing the death of the war, but you're also seeing
(29:41):
freak accidents like that. I can imagine that's not only
kind of making you bitter towards the war, but that
I feel like there's no way to not have this
kind of morbid, kind of creative thought when you see
things like that, you know, like, yeah, I would say
also during the time, UM, I think like you were
saying too, that he was exposed to this idea of
(30:04):
good verse evil and then evil not necessarily being evil
or are we the evil actually? Um? Was something that
I think that he tackled a lot pretty often. UM.
Human nature as well as during this time. Just the
amount of racism that he saw was definitely influential in
his writing. And something that's really fascinating is we can
(30:25):
we can link this in our footnotes. But I watched
a YouTube video of him a couple of years ago.
Uh that sounded weird. It wasn't a YouTube video of him.
It was him doing an interview that was helping on
YouTube Uncle Rod doing an unboxing bid. Uh. Here can
(30:46):
you imagine can you imagine him like doing having a
selfie stick? I would love to see him nowadays, like
his commentary on us um would be so fast. His
daughter is still alive. But what I was gonna say
is I watched the video on YouTube of him where
(31:07):
he was talking about censorship and how CBS had centered
the writers and what they were trying to get away
with and a lot of the times. Of course, his
commentary was on on people of coloring, the treatment of
people of color in marginalized groups in general, where they
would end up having to make them like an alien
or you know, a monster or something for you to
like feel for them because they weren't they weren't able
(31:28):
to make them people of color. And uh, he actually
says that you eventually start to censor yourself where you're
not even writing those stories. So if you already know
it's it's kind of fascinating, like the brain will just
start to center and and not even create those stories anymore.
It was it's a really fascinating interview, and we'll link it.
(31:48):
But yeah. He ended up volunteering at w NYC in
New York as an actor and writer in the summer
of nineteen forty six, and then the next year he
worked at a station as a pain intern in Antioch
work study program and then took a couple of odd
jobs and other radio stations in New York and Ohio.
He said, I learned time writing for a medium that
is measured in seconds. He also worked at the Antioch
(32:10):
Broadcasting Systems Radio Workshop and was managing the station within
a couple of years. Dan let He's Moving Up movie.
He was a hard worker. Uh. He wrote and directed
the programs and acted in them as well. Um, this
is kind of fascinating. So I actually read the twilight
Zone Companion highly recommended. There's a couple of different Twilight
Zone books out there. Have you read that one? Mellow? Oh,
(32:32):
I think you would like it. There's so much behind
the scenes for each they go through each episode. So
I actually got it inaudible, and I would listen to
it when I would clean and drive and stuff. But
it's behind the scenes of like how did this get made?
How this almost didn't get made? Other freak accidents that
happened in the episodes. Uh. And also he didn't write
(32:53):
all of them. Um. I know a lot of people
think that he wrote all of them, but a lot
of them were actually bought from They were teleplays or
they might have been a short story in a magazine
and he would buy the rights to it and then
adapt it. Uh, sometimes he would, and and then he
had other people working on his team as well. And
I can imagine like he wrote like an insane amount
or believe at the age of he had written forty
(33:16):
or forty nine episodes by that point, and he was like, Okay,
I finally need another writer. Yeah. Yeah, And well he
just wanted to be a writer. I don't know if
you know that, but they talked about that in the
book where he just wanted to be a writer for
the Twilight Zone and he didn't intend to be the host.
And looking at him like, you were the perfect host.
You're like handsome, but you're creepy and you're like stern
(33:39):
and have like a parental thing to you, but you're
also like, you know, ominous and uh yeah, I think
and he has gorgeous lush eyebrows. Um, so yeah he
But originally he actually just wanted to be a writer,
and he didn't because when he was hosting, he didn't
have an acting like he didn't have as much time
to dedicate to writing. Uh, and I know that bothered him.
(34:02):
But hopping back into the past, while in college, Serling
won his first accolade as a writer. The radio program
Dr Christian is starting an annual scriptwriting contest. Eight years earlier,
thousands of scripts were sent in annually, but very few
can actually be produced. So certainly want a trip to
New York City and five hundred dollars for his radio
(34:22):
script to live a dream. He and his new wife
attended the awards broadcast on May eighteenth of ninette, where
he and the other winners were interviewed by the star
of Dr Christian, Geene Herschel. One of the other winners
that day was Earl Hamner Jr. Who also earned prizes
in the previous years, and later Hamner wrote scripts for
Sterling's The Twilight Zone. Also, I just wanted to drop
(34:46):
this fun fact. Five hundred dollars in ninety nine has
the same buying power as five thousand, one hundred and
fourteen dollars has today. It's like a nice little something
came up. I mean, you get that much in college,
you like? Hold up, that's true, that's true. We're about
to throw a dorm party. I would love to see
Rod Serling partying. Oh yeah, yeah. I wonder if any
(35:09):
of those cigarettes who's always so, if any of them
were blunts. Ever, you never know, uh so, Sterling said
of his time as a staff writer for radio. From
a writing point of view, radio ate up ideas that
might have put food on the table for weeks at
a future freelancing date. The minute you tie yourself down
to a radio or TV station, you write around the clock.
You rip out ideas, many of them irreplaceable, they go
(35:30):
on and consequently can never go on again. And sold
them for fifty dollars a week. Gosh, And he was
saying that back then. I mean, that seems small to us,
but you can't afford to give away ideas. They're too
damn hard to come by. If I had to do
it over, I wouldn't staff right at all. I'd find
some other way to support myself while getting a start
as a writer. Holy crap, I'm like going through a
(35:51):
midlife crisis as we're as we're discussing this right now. Yes,
I know how many writers in our lives do you
think would agree with this as well? That you're kind
of just giving your ideas a for to a studio
for like such little pay, And especially his because he
was so like transformative, like the thought that he wrote
forty nine scripts by himself, and all of them anthology episodes.
(36:12):
It's pretty much on the equivalent of, like you wrote
a pilot like twice a week, so we'll we'll just
jump all the way to what we're here to talk about,
which is, uh, the Twilight Zone. And it had an
interesting kind of start, just kind of shows you how
old Hollywood used to work. I don't think the w
g A existed at this point because Sterling submitted the
(36:33):
time element to CBS, intending it to be a pilot
for his new weekly show, The Twilight Zone, but instead
CBS used the science fiction script for a new show
produced by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball the Westinghouse Desilu
Playhouse in ninety eight. The story concerns a man who
has vivid nightmares of an attack on Pearl Harbor. The
(36:54):
man goes to a psychiatrist, and after the session, the
twist ending, a device which Sterling became known for, reveals
the patient had died at Pearl Harbor and the psychiatrist
was the one actually having the vivid dreams. The episode
received so much positive fan response that CBS agreed to
let Sterling go ahead with his pilot for the Twilight Zone. Oh,
(37:15):
I'm sorry. I'm sorry that my work that you yank
for me did so well that you agree to let
me keep making this thing that people are excited. I'm sorry.
I couldn't stopped laughing at the idea of Lucio ball
in this like serious job. What's so interesting here is
that that's such a sandwich and it's such a perfect
(37:36):
like wrap up to who Sterling was and into Twilight Zone,
because I mean, dreams about a World War two, Like
he said, the war left him with nightmares. So this
is really him, like just the beginning of him taking
what he was actually dealing with, putting it on paper,
and then making it into something amazing. I also just
(37:59):
wanted to be like, what a twist that was all
of the No, not all of them, but that was
a lot of his his most famous ones, I feel
like had a pretty big twist. Um and some of
them I still feel like you can't always tell. Some
of them you can tell, but some of them you can't.
And that was always my favorite things about a lot
of the He was just so what a fascinating, interesting
(38:20):
man um. But yeah, let's talk about the Twilight Zone. Um,
after these messages, Yeah, let's do it. After these messages. Hey,
what's up y'all? Welcome back, and as promised, we are
(38:42):
backed with a power Ranger. Yeah. It is my buddy,
my friend, Peter Sdars. So how are you doing? Good? Dude? Good? Yeah, Peter.
When he walked in, he was like, so what are
we talking about? You are the worst. I love you.
We're just such different co host. I feel like where
I would have had like an email and here's the
(39:02):
parking situation, and here's like I called him for parking
actually just ouside. I was like, is it okay for
me to park just like one? Peter, we have a
spot for you? What the lot is full today? And
all the even the one I was going to pay
the dumb eight dollars to part that's full. So I'm
like out on vine me too. Yeah down there. Yeah,
I don't know what's going on in Hollywood. I feel
(39:24):
very short. Look at my chair right now. What we
do have to talk about something? This is Peter's first
ever podcast ever. I'm just a little bit. I'm nervous,
Like you like, do live on camera stuff constantly. Yeah,
you know you did hyper Force and then you did
like the real Power Rangers. I mean, you're yeah, you're
(39:45):
one of the Power Rangers who got to be in
multiple iterations of Power Rangers super like, Um, my goodness.
I don't know. I mean, I'm not sure how it.
I guess because I think they're very different audiences, Like
most people who watch Hyper Force aren't aware like my
Ninja Seal stuff. So it feels like there are two
different things completely. It doesn't feel like they're both like
Power Ranger and all in like one little thing. Oh nice. Well,
(40:06):
let's back it up a little bit and let's talk
about when did you first start hearing about Power Rangers.
Because we know all of us if I started talking
about that, we're gonna be here for like an hour.
What was your first introduction when you first remember seeing
Power Rangers. Um, I grew up in Indonesia, so my
first introduction of Power Rangers was actually Super Sentai. Yeah,
and you're like, yeah, I'm just I'm just on the
(40:28):
other side. But yeah, I think I remember it when
I was like super young, and then I kept watching
it and I grew up just watching it, you know,
So it's always been in my life. And then uh,
to get into the whole power ranger acting industry side.
It was actually Yoshi, Yeah, your older brother, right, yeah,
he's also done in Charge Blue. Um. He got into
(40:49):
the industry from doing like stunt stuff, so he did
like the suits and all that stuff and for the
live action shows, and so he got to meet some
of the rangers and from then on he was like, hey, guys,
how do you how do you get into this industry?
I want to be a power ranger, you know, because
like he could do flips, so they requirement, Yeah, that's
what you need to be able to do. We're out fips.
(41:14):
Sang me too. They're actually casting for it right now,
right now, it's down the street. I hit our manager up,
excuse me? Why was a sentence? No? But so he
did that and then so he got the casting raised
email and we legit just cold shot an email. And
we weren't in the acting industry at this time. I
(41:35):
was a student of architecture and my brother was doing mathematics.
He was just like, hey, can we audition and she
was like yeah, sure, So we came in and we
saw her and then we got really lucky. I think
it was just things just kind of worked out really well,
and we continued on all the way to screen testing
both me and Yoshi. Then they canned it because they
were like, actually there's a bit too they'd be testing it.
(41:56):
So um, come back in like six seven months, like
all right, cool, we came back No a megaphorce. That's
the first time that I actually got a taste of
the industry. Is like, because like you guys, you guys
act to you guys know, like the whole right when
you see those papers, you see how much you're gonna
get paid, Yeah, and the promise like fantasizing in your head. Yeah,
(42:16):
just so people because people outside the industry don't know.
So when your audition to act, usually like in a
pilot or a bigger show, first you do your auditions
than you do your call backs, than what you do
is like a screen test slash chemistry test. What that
usually is. It varies for different studios, but mostly let's
just talk pilot season since it just happened and it's
easy to talk about. Um, the studio exects come in
(42:37):
and watch you do your auditions. It's a lot, and
they're like just most of them at the time will
be like stone cold, like yeah, it's just like the
SML auditions, they don't laugh. But before you do your
before you do your screen test, you get the contract
and you see how much you're going to be making
per episode. You see that money, and so that that
(42:59):
just ups to stay even more because now you know
how much you could be making and you don't even
have the job yet, but you're already seeing how much. Yeah,
you start to like imagine this life, you know. And
since that was like an architecture, I have been living
like non industry life for all my life. Seeing all that,
I thought that the contract itself was like binding and
I was like, oh god, my life has changed, you know.
(43:21):
And at the end of it, I got super close
and it was done like me when one other person.
And it got to the point where like I accidentally
got upload on IMDb before I heard back that I
didn't get it. So I was like, oh my god,
Oh my god, who did that? That's the worst you
could get in Big trouble for the thing is like
the Power Rangers fan base and communities super passionate. So
(43:42):
they found out who was. Yeah, they found everything out,
and so like they speculated, then eventually one by one
people found out who got casted and it was down
to like the last person and then they were like,
I think Peter got it, So I think they put
on IMDb, so I thought I got it, didn't get it.
It was like first ever audition and it was like
(44:05):
first ever like rejection, and no one warned me how
how bad it would be. Like I've been through breakups,
but there is nothing like a heartbreak, you know, I
don't know. I would take twenty heartbreaks from like from
my partner then like a live dream. Yeah, that's hilarious. Wait,
so you this is so fascinating me. You have no
(44:26):
action background. Wow, I mean now people are gonna be
running out here like la la land this. That was
my first time with MEGAFORCET and then after that I
got into the industry from like commercial modeling because I
didn't I still don't have a theatrical and when you're
completely out of it, you have no idea how to
get any of this stuff. Even Google barely helps. Yeah.
(44:46):
So then I did that and then next season was
Dino Charged. That was two years later, and then by
this point I had gotten a little bit of practice
some commercials, but I've never gotten like actual training. So
we did that, and we went to producers and we
both got cut, me and my brother. And at this
point I was already friends with the casting driver, so
I like begged it. I was like, please please please
give us another show. Please, I swear to God we
will do better. Yeah, when she gave us another shot,
(45:08):
which was super kind of her, eventually went down to
me against Yoshi was going out for Blue and I
was going out for Red, and they couldn't have two
Asians on the cast at that time. That I don't know.
So yeah, you actually eventually got it. Wow. This is
when I realized, like, oh, this industry isn't just fun
and games. Yea. When he left, I was like majorly depressed.
(45:33):
I took like I spent like fifteen thousand dollars eventually
in like classes. I drowned myself in classes. But that
ultimately helped me actually get into this industry. Series. Yeah,
you know, well, I think what you did, You know
this is taking a step from nerd talking, going towards
actor talker just industry talk. What you did is you
took the positive route to deal with it. I feel
(45:54):
like a lot of times when people face rejection in
this industry, they want to blame the industry and not
themselves better. But what you did is you took the
classes and you made yourself undeniable and then it paid off,
and that was That's kind of how you have to
treat rejection. Instead of like being like, these people aren't
giving it to me, you have to be like, Okay,
then I'm gonna get better and better until the point
you can't say no. You look bad if you say
(46:16):
no to me. Yeah. It's like it's like the audition
that we were talking about this morning, Like had I
known she wasn't going to read the lines, I would
have just been better. You know what, man, You know,
there's so many things I've been I feel like, if
you like, because we're both in classes, and I feel
like as comedy, well I can only speak for myself,
but I feel like being in comedy you kind of
like you coast off of that for a little bit,
Like you can make them laughing auditions, you can do that,
(46:38):
but then you start to realize you're not getting it
because you don't have the acting technique that they want, Like,
and then when you're in acting classes, you're like, oh, yeah,
I never thought to do literally any of that you know.
And it's so funny because the same thing as a comedian,
like looking at acting classes. You know, it's hard for
a comedian to take anything seriously, especially they're acting like
and you're like whatever, But it all it takes is
(46:58):
that one moment of you like do in the line,
and then that teacher giving you the adjustment and then
seeing how it pops and you're like yeah, You're like
maybe this is uh yeah, and we'll just opens up
your range. I feel like to other now I can
go for drama roles, which is like I never ever
would have and I didn't even want to. Like when
they my acting teacher like made me take this like
(47:19):
drama course, I'm like, I don't want to do this.
I don't want and then I was like, oh, I
love it. I didn't realize I could cry on cute. Yeah,
well I'm so living out here in this town. I
can cry at any time. I didn't realize I could
use that in my acting. Okay, so so yoh got it.
And then and you didn't And so you were here
and you took all these acting classes. Well at that
(47:41):
time too, I started taking a lot more seriously, not
just acting classes, like I started um writing my own scripts,
like phoning my own stuff. I started YouTube channel because
of that and which now has already died down. But
you got busy, Yeah, I got busy. Well after leaving
Pott Rangers, it just no one else took over it
and I couldn't like but um so I started doing
(48:01):
that to actually like progressively do stuff. And I ended
up getting a manager from one of the auditions that
I did from like a self tape. And so after that,
the pilot season came when Ninja still was coming up,
and at that time I had booked two pilots. One
of them was like an ABC free form the other
one was Disney, and I was like, I think I
think it might be okay. I think I might be
okay in this acting industry, even if I don't get
(48:21):
Power Rangers, you know, like I'm gonna be sweet. Then
when Power just came along and I was like, I
can't do this again. I don't want to break my
heart another time, you know, like it was so gut
wrenching the first second and third time, like this time,
I don't want to go through it again. And my
brother was like, you know what do you just gotta try,
because like, what's the worst that can happen? You book it? Yeah,
I mean yeah, I guess you're right. So then I
(48:42):
went into it and I was like, I'm not gonna
get invested. I already got two pilots going on. I'm sweet,
you know, and lo and behold. Of course, you always
get invested. Always. There's no like at first audition, you know,
maybe you could be like, Okay, cool, I'm done, you
can let it go. When you get a call back,
you're like yeah. So like incrementally, it's like first you're
(49:02):
like maybe invested five percent. The next thing you like,
next you know, you're like two thousand percent. What just
happened there? So all that happened and I got all
the way to the point of screen testing again. And
at this point I was there, there were like two
other dudes who were like way better looking than me,
way younger than me, and they were like amazing at stunts.
I saw them doing it and I was like, frick,
They're not gonna have two Asian dudes on here, you know.
(49:24):
So I was just like feeling a little discouraged, but
I did it. Anyways, after all that was done, it
was quiet and you know, you guys know the screen
testing thing with the test option of like your time
is here to here, and once like you reach like
June or whatever, you have to be released from the
test opic. So that means you at least know when
you don't get it, as opposed to like prior to.
So it got to the point of like I think
(49:45):
it was May no, no, yeah, it was June June three,
which was the day that it cut off. And it
was June twenty two at night, and I had not
heard anything back. And I was on on a shoe
that day. I was on a shoe with my brother
and we were on film and uh, it was like
ten o'clock and of text from the producer saying like, um, hey,
I'd like to talk to you. And at this point
I was like, twenty second, what is going on? So
(50:08):
I went up to my brother and I was like, hey,
do you check this out? Is either really good news
are really bad news? Hoping that he'd be like he ha, yeah,
you should call him yeah, and so I was like yeah,
and then he was like oh um and at that
point his face just dropped, like completely dropped. He You
could you could tell when somebody's not joking you, Like,
no matter how good of an actor they are, in
real life situations, you could tell when somebody ken. So
(50:30):
he was like, dude, um, you didn't get it. And
I was like, what, don't screw with me, dude, Like
this is you know how big this is to me,
how important this is to me. Like if if you
screw around with me right now, I will break down.
We're on set. I can't afford the breakdown. And he
was like, no, dude, like a Chip called me actually
two hours ago and told me like, hey, Peter didn't
(50:52):
get it. How should I tell him that he didn't
get it? And I was like, oh my god, I
guess that's how. I was like, you gotta be joking.
So he called me and he was like, hey, you
didn't get it. Um, I don't have much time right
now because I'm actually in a meeting and I know
that you're on a shoot. Let me call you back.
I just want to talk to you because I do
really care about you as a person, and I want
to let you know why you didn't get it, just
(51:13):
so you understand that's not yeah exactly. And I was
like at that point, I honestly didn't care to talk
because I was so upset. But which one was for this? Again?
This was for Ninja Seal okay. Yeah, so this was
two years ago, I think, and so I was like, well,
if he was kind enough to go out of his
way to say that, I might as well just talk
to him, you know, and like at least maybe it'll
make me feel a little bit better why I didn't
(51:35):
get it. So after the shoet was done, this was
two in the morning, I was driving home and I
finally called him and he was like, hey, Peter, okay, um,
I really want to talk to you. If you're on
the on the street, can you pull over something? And
I was like alright, So I pull over and he
was like okay, well, um, the reason why you didn't
get it, Peter, or should I say Preston is because
(51:55):
you're Ninja Seal Blue. And I was like what what
what do you? What do you say? And I legit,
I don't know if I could cuss on here, but yeah,
we'll belie it. I was like, don't and he turns
out I got it. And the reason why he told
Yoshi that was because he wants to surprise him no people.
(52:17):
I love it. It's funny because I like, I know
that they surprised Yoshi, but I was still I know.
That's why. That's why I took it for granted, because
you don't hear like executives doing that, Oh good thing.
You didn't like cuss somebody off. I've given you my
heart and my soul. But man, you gotta that person
(52:41):
was really good because because because if he would have
been like, don't tell your brother, but you did get
it and you were on set, you would have let
it slip. There's no way you would have been at it.
So he was like, I gotta wait till they get
off set, and he's like, all right, this is what's
going down, So tell tell the story because I really
like it's very cute, and we're gonna post to send
(53:02):
me the video so we can pa. You can actually
look it up. It's it's on Bethany's like she has
like all the back ends of it too. But so
after that, I had to wait two weeks before yos
she could know, because after that it was two weeks
until Power Morphicon, which is coming up soon. That's when
they do to reveal. So up until that time, I
was like still playing DND with my brother and I
was like trying to put little hints and stuff, you know,
(53:24):
but we're playing DND and like we passed by like this, um,
this martial arts gym right by because I play an
Emerald Nights and there's this martial arts place called a
Blue Dragon Martial Arts. And the day before Power work
On we drove past it and my sword, by the way,
it's a blue Dragon, so yo. She was like, hey, Peter,
look at that Blue Dragon Martial Arts, like just like that,
(53:47):
just the way I just said it. And I was like,
does this guy know It's like is he screwing with me?
So then the day of Power Morphicon came and uh,
I was gonna go down the thing and they were
like reading the names. They wanted to read me last
because they wanted to do the whole like surprise with
the Ocean. At that point, I was already annoyed because
I was like, man, yeah, he's pointed out multiple things
(54:08):
that shows me that he knows, like I know he knows,
and um the moment that like my name was supposed
to get called up, so it was like this person, uh,
this color, this person, this color is this person. There
was like a beat, a pattern, you know, And then
it got to me and it was like and the
Blue Ranger and yeoh, she was supposed to read my
name and all I heard was and I was like, what,
what's going on? And then that's when I knew that
(54:30):
like he didn't know. Yeah, then he called my name
and he could even say my name, Like the dude
just started breaking down. And even to this day, like
every time I watched it, I still get feelings just
because of how raw his emotions were. Yeah, I'm pulling
it up for Danny right now. It's like the cutest. Yeah. Yeah,
we will definitely post it. I'm gonna get it. So
(54:52):
how crazy was it? Like? Right after that? What was
the Because their fan base is pretty ravenous in eat
up everything. They're extremely passionate, and that's the one thing
that I will say, like I love about the Ranger
fan base. Like, but the thing is like I've already
kind of always been in semi spotlight with them because
the Mega Foresting when they put me up on IMDb.
(55:13):
So a lot of the Ranger fans actually have like
stayed with me since eleven, Yeah, since two thousand eleven.
Until I booked in two thousand sixteen, and then a
lot of them were like, dude, you've been here since
day one and your brother was the last year, so
that it just it just worked out really well in
my favorite So I hope that you enjoyed the visit
(55:38):
down memory lane some of our favorite moments from Notificent,
and next week we will also have a couple more
of our favorite ones. Let us know what your favorite
episode and moments were from this past year. Yeah, yeah,
because we love hearing from you, you know, Stay, it's
(56:00):
such a th
Nerdificent News
Hosts And Creators
Dani Fernandez
Ify Nwadiwe
Show Links
AboutPopular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.