February 26, 2025 • 53 mins
The last full month of winter is almost over, but we’ve got plenty of nostalgia to keep you warm! Episode 184 brings back childhood chills, cardboard heartbreak, and the flavors of restaurants we wish never closed.
📖 Bunnicula: The Vampire Bunny That Bit Into Our Imaginations – A bloodsucking rabbit? The Bunnicula series had just the right mix of humor and horror to captivate Gen Xers and older Millennials. We’ll revisit this beloved (and slightly spooky) children’s classic.
⚾ Overhyped '90s Athletes Who Ruined My Baseball Card Collection – If you grew up in the '90s, you probably got burned by the hype train. We’re looking at the athletes who were supposed to be legends but left collectors (and fans) disappointed. Were any of these guys in your stash?
🍽️ The Rise and Fall of Casual Dining Chains – Some places seemed like they'd be around forever… but then they vanished. This week’s Top 5 covers some of the most missed discontinued restaurant chains. The twist? A few might be making a comeback!
🕰️ This Week in History & Time Capsule – A jazz-infused journey back to the very first jazz records and how they changed music forever.
Hit play and step into the time machine! 🚀
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Helpful Links from this Episode
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- In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod Travel Guide(2nd Edition)
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- DJ Williams Music
- KeeKee's Cape Cod Kitchen
- Christopher Setterlund.com
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- Subscribe on YouTube!
- Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog
- Webcam Weekly Wrapup Podcast
- CJSetterlundPhotos on Etsy
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 00 (00:00):
Hello, world, and welcome to the In My Footsteps
podcast.
I am Christopher Setterlund,coming to you from the vacation
destination known as Cape Cod,Massachusetts, and this is
episode 184.
We are finishing off the monthof February, the last full month
(00:22):
of winter.
We're finishing it off strongwith so much nostalgia I can't
wait to get into.
We're going to kick it off withsome of my favorite books from
my childhood, and maybe yourstoo if you grew up in the 80s,
and that is the Benicula booksabout a vampire rabbit.
We're going to go way, way backin the day to a segment about
(00:43):
overhyped 1990s athletes, a.k.a.
the sports commentators.
I thought were going to beworth way more than they are
today.
There'll be a brand new topfive looking at the top five
discontinued casual diningchains.
You likely ate at some of thesein your childhood.
And there'll be a brand newThis Week in History and Time
(01:04):
capsule looking back at the veryfirst jazz music records ever
recorded.
All of that is coming up rightnow on episode 184 of the In My
Footsteps podcast.
So what are we going to talkabout this week?
How February's ending, springis only a few weeks away.
(01:25):
There is so much fun stuff toget into this week, I can't wait
to start.
Of course, I couldn't start offmy podcast without giving
shoutouts to all my Patreonsubscribers.
Lori, Mary Lou, Ashley, Kevin,Leo, Marguerite, Neglectoid,
Crystal, and my newestsubscriber, Matt.
(01:47):
Thank you for coming aboard andthank you all for being my
Patreon subscribers, my biggestbackers.
$5 a month gets you access tobonus podcast episodes.
It gets you early access toYouTube videos.
It gets you access to othercontent that I'm coming up with.
One thing I'll share is thatwhat I'm going to start doing is
(02:10):
kind of remastering my withouta map live stream videos that I
did during the early days of thepodcast.
They would be streamed live onInstagram, and then some of them
would get put up on YouTube,but they kind of got lost in the
shuffle with all my hundreds ofvideos up there.
So what I'm doing is takingthose videos, I'm remastering
(02:32):
them, making them look better,adding more visuals to it, maybe
fixing the sound with them, andthen putting them up for my
Patreon subscribers.
That is my latest new projectto put on my plate.
You've heard me say it so much,I try to make room on my plate
to do everything, and thatsometimes means removing things
(02:53):
like the webcam weekly wrap-uppodcast that I didn't have time
for, but I end up replacing itwith something else.
These should be fun to do,these live streams, remastering
them.
But whether you're a Patreonsubscriber, whether you're a
free tier subscriber...
Whether you are a loyallistener since day one or you're
(03:13):
just coming aboard now, thankyou all so much for being here,
for making me a part of yourweek.
I'm glad so many of you sharemy enjoyment of the good old
days, of the nostalgia.
I'm Gen X, born in the late1970s, so you kind of get my
reference point.
I always mention child of the80s, teen of the 90s, but I try
(03:38):
to make this a little moreinclusive.
where I dip back into the1960s.
I'm now getting into the early2000s because that is now the
old days, which, God, I can'tbelieve it.
I've got so much more funcontent to come, and if you
think there's something that'sbeen missing from my shows,
maybe check my archives.
(03:59):
184 episodes means there's 183more that you can check out if
this is your first time.
Oh, but let's kick this showoff with something I've wanted
to talk about for a while.
It was, I had to use restraintto wait this long to talk about.
One of my earliest memories ofchildhood, of reading, one of my
(04:19):
favorite book series as a kid,and that is the Benicula series
of children's books.
So let's dive into thosestarting now.
In my early days as a writer,when I was doing e-books and
putting them up on the AmazonKindle store in 2007, one of my
dreams was to be a children'sbook writer.
(04:41):
Some of you that know me in thereal world know that one of my
first books, one of my firste-books I wrote was something
called Goot's Mittens.
So a quick description of it,it was a book about my Nana's
cat.
Her real name was Mittens, butmy father, his siblings, when
they were growing up, they had acat named Goot.
G-O-O-T.
(05:02):
He was an orange striped cat.
My Nana's cat, Mittens, haddouble paws.
Big feet, looked like she waswearing baseball mitts on her
front paws.
And I thought to myself, ohman, Mittens, we could call her
Goot in the book because it's aunique name, and I could use
Goot.
animals, pets that I grew upwith to make an interesting
(05:23):
children's book.
I mean, I think it is.
And this sort of wacky storydidn't come out of nowhere.
Yeah, it's based in reality.
But my love of writing, mycreativity, it began early on in
my life.
And one of the original books,the original children's books
that was so wild in its premisethat made my creative juices
(05:44):
flow had to do with a vampirerabbit.
It sounds like something out ofa Monty Python sketch.
But no, this was a series ofbooks, and the name of the
vampire rabbit was Bunnicula, abunny-Dracula combination.
These books were some of myfirst memories of being in
(06:04):
school, of childhood, some of myfavorite books to read and get
lost in.
And as I said a minute ago, ittook all of my restraint to wait
this long to talk about it.
Those of you that grew up inthat same time as me, 70s, 80s,
few children's book seriescaptured your imagination like
Benicula.
(06:24):
It was a quirky blend ofmystery, humor, light horror,
and it introduced kids to theconcept of the supernatural
through the eyes of a lovablehousehold pet.
The Benicula series was writtenby Deborah and James Howe.
And these books remain anostalgic favorite for Gen X
(06:45):
like me, early millennials.
What I love about the originsof Bunnicula is it starts in the
mid-1970s.
James and Deborah Howe, amarried couple, they were
inspired by a casual joke abouta vampire rabbit.
It just makes me think aboutwhen I was in high school
creating skits with my camcorderwith my friends.
(07:08):
We'd sit around and we wouldtell these jokes or tell these
stories, come up with theseideas that got more and more
progressively weird until it wasjust the perfect amount of
absurdity that it would be thefunniest thing to us at least.
For James and Deborah Howe,their love of storytelling led
them to develop a humorous yeteerie tale narrated by Harold,
(07:30):
who was a dog, alongside hisfeline companion Chester, and
they become convinced theirfamily's new pet, a small black
and white rabbit, might actuallybe a vampire.
The story would end up beingcalled Bunnicula, A Rabbit Tale
of Mystery.
with the original manuscriptcompleted by James and Deborah
(07:51):
Howe in 1977.
Tragically, before the bookcould even be published, Deborah
Howe was diagnosed with cancerand passed away in 1978 at the
age of 31.
That could have easily killedthe book right there, but James
Howe was determined to honor hiswife and honor their shared
vision.
So he saw the book through topublication, and it was released
(08:14):
in 1979 by Athenium Books.
Upon its release, Benicula wasmet with enthusiastic praise.
It was a unique premise, filledwith humor and light suspense,
which would resonate with kidsand parents.
You know, it's a really fineline to walk when you're trying
to introduce kids, likely 10years old and under, to horror
(08:38):
and scary things.
You could go from scaring themjust a little to then scarring
them for life.
Deborah and James Howe workedit perfectly.
The story's charm lay in itsgentle parody of the horror
tropes, making the spookyelements accessible rather than
frightening.
With the characters of Haroldand Chester, the dog and cat,
(09:01):
providing a compelling comedyduo.
Harold was the easygoing,food-loving narrator.
Chester was the neurotic andhighly intelligent cat who takes
his vampire suspicions toabsurd lengths.
As the Benicula book gainedpopularity, it became a staple
in elementary school librariesand book fairs throughout the
(09:22):
80s.
That's where I come into thepicture, elementary school.
And seeing this really nicepainted cover of this black and
white rabbit with kind of redeyes hopping away where the
shaggy brownish dog, Harold, iskind of sleeping and Chester's
poking his head out behindHarold looking at the bunny
(09:43):
that's hopping away.
And I think me being seven,eight years old, the title
Bunnicula was an interestingword and the cover was
interesting.
So I was immediately hooked.
And it wasn't just me that washooked in the early 80s.
Benicula earned severalliterary accolades, including
the Dorothy Canfield FisherChildren's Book Award.
(10:04):
It was the combination ofmystery, humor, and the animal
protagonists that made Beniculaa hit among young readers.
Many of them were also fans ofScooby-Doo and other
lighthearted mystery stories, sothis fit right in.
Encouraged by the success ofthe first book, James Howe
continued the series withmultiple sequels, further
(10:27):
exploring the quirky antics ofHarold, Chester, and Benicula.
There were six more titles inthe series.
The first sequel was HolidayInn from 1982, which was a
hilarious take on the spookymansion trope with Harold and
Chester staying at a petboarding facility filled with
(10:48):
strange new characters.
Then in 1983, there was TheCelery Stalks at Midnight, where
Chester remains convinced thatBenicula is a threat, leading to
another mystery-filledadventure.
The third book in the serieswas Nighty Nightmare in 1987,
where the pets go on a campingtrip.
They encounter eerie legendsand an apparent werewolf.
(11:11):
In my memory, I believe thiswas the last book when it came
out that I immediately read, sothe first four books in the
series were must-read for me.
But by the time Return toHoliday Inn came out in 1992, I
mean, I was 15 years old, so Iwas a little bit out of the age
range for Benicula books.
(11:31):
To round out the series, therewas also Benicula Strikes Again
from 1999 and Benicula MeetsEdgar Allan Crowe from 2006.
The cultural impact of Beniculathroughout the 1980s was huge.
It became a beloved children'sfavorite, often found on
(11:52):
scholastic book orders and inclassrooms.
And then in 1982, there was ananimated adaptation, which aired
as a television specialnarrated by comedian Louis Nye.
It didn't launch an animatedseries or any films, but
Benicula remained popular enoughof a property that in 2016, the
(12:14):
Cartoon Network and BoomerangNetwork debuted a new animated
series loosely based on thebooks.
This version, it reimagined thecharacter of Benicula with a
more mischievous, overtlysupernatural edge, which
modernized the concept for a newgeneration.
One of the reasons why Beniculahas remained a favorite is its
(12:35):
timeless humor and engagingstorytelling.
I would say if you're out thereand you have kids that are ages
5 through 9, 5 through 10, youcould hand them the original
Benicula book now, or maybe thee-book version.
And they would be instantlyengaged with it.
Kids love rabbits.
Kids love dogs and cats.
(12:57):
It's a pretty easy sell.
And I'm not getting acommission on these if you go
and order them for yourself.
But I think kids today wouldlove the books.
As for James Howe, he went onto write other well-received
children's books, includingPinky and Rex and The Misfits.
But Benicula and that series,that's his enduring legacy.
(13:19):
It started off as finishing offcarrying out the dream that he
and his wife Deborah had in themid to late 1970s, and it's now
turned into a series of booksand a character that has
captured the imagination of kidsfor decades.
For many kids in the late 70s,early 80s, and beyond, Benicula
(13:41):
was a gateway into the world ofreading.
It offered you just the rightmix of laughs and mild thrills
to keep young minds engaged.
Like I said, this book, thefirst four books that I read
religiously really opened up mymind with creativity.
Like if you could have avampire rabbit, why couldn't you
(14:01):
have a cat named Goot with bigfeet?
But you out there listening,did you read the Benicula books
when they first came out?
If you're around my age, ifyou're anywhere from 40 to 60,
and if you did, have you hadyour kids read them?
Or if you're younger, have youread the Benicula books?
Have you seen the animatedshow?
(14:24):
Decades after its firstpublication, the Benicula series
still finds new fans, provingthat a vampire bunny, a nervous
cat, and a lovable dog are arecipe for literary success.
This week in history, we aregoing back 108 years ago to
(14:49):
February 26, 1917, and the veryfirst jazz records ever
recorded.
On that date, a group ofmusicians from New Orleans
walked into the Victor TalkingMachine Company studio in New
York City and made history.
The original Dixieland JazzBand, with jazz spelled J-A-S-S,
(15:13):
recorded what are widelyconsidered the first jazz
records, Livery Stable Blues andDixie Jazz Band One Step.
These recordings introducedjazz to a national audience,
helping to shape the genre andforever changing the course of
popular music.
Jazz music was born in themelting pot of New Orleans,
(15:34):
Louisiana in the late 19th andearly 20th centuries, blending
African-American blues, ragtime,jazz, brass band traditions,
and Creole influences.
The city's diverse cultural andmusical heritage provided the
perfect environment forexperimentation, which led to
the syncopated rhythms,improvisational spirit, and
(15:58):
energetic performances thatdefine jazz.
New Orleans musicians likeBuddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton,
and King Oliver played in thecity's dance halls and clubs,
developing the style that wouldbecome jazz.
But it wasn't until theoriginal Dixieland Jazz Band
recorded their songs that jazzreached a mass audience outside
(16:21):
of the South.
The original Dixieland JazzBand, led by Cornettist Nick
LaRocca, was a group of whitemusicians who had adopted the
New Orleans jazz style.
Their groundbreaking recordingsession produced Livery Stable
Blues, a lively track thatfeatured animal-like sounds from
the instruments, and Dixie JazzBand One Step, a driving dance
(16:46):
number.
These albums were released inMarch 1917, with the record
becoming a sensation, sellingover a million copies and
introducing jazz to listenersacross the country.
Despite the success, theoriginal Dixieland jazz band was
controversial, as manyAfrican-American musicians who
(17:07):
had been playing jazz longbefore them were left out of the
recording industry due toracial barriers.
Jazz pioneers like King Oliverand Louis Armstrong would later
bring a deeper complexity andemotional depth to the music,
but the original Dixieland jazzband's recordings marked a
turning point by making jazz anational phenomenon.
(17:29):
These records, they changedeverything.
They established jazz as acommercial genre, proving that
this energetic improvisationalmusic had mass appeal.
It encouraged record companiesto seek out more jazz musicians,
which paved the way for futurelegends like Louis Armstrong,
Duke Ellington, and BessieSmith.
(17:50):
Throughout the next decade,jazz evolved rapidly, moving
from the Dixieland style to themore sophisticated swing of the
1930s and the bebop revolutionof the 1940s.
For me, I was introduced tojazz at a young age with my
grandparents, Nina and Grandpa,being jazz singers, performing
(18:12):
with and hanging out with all ofthe jazz legends that those who
grew up on Cape Cod who arelistening would remember.
like Lou Colombo, Dave McKenna,Dick Johnson, and more.
And I'm sure a lot of you outthere listening who are jazz
fans have your own personalfavorites.
But those very first jazzrecords, Livery Stable Blues and
(18:35):
Dixie Jazz Band One Step,recorded by the original
Dixieland Jazz Band, happened108 years ago this week in
history.
We'll keep the good timesrolling here with a brand new
time capsule.
We're going to go back 66 yearsago this week to February 26th,
(18:58):
1959.
What was going on in the worldof pop culture back then?
Well, let's find out.
The number one song was StaggerLee by Lloyd Price.
This was an American folk songabout the murder of a man named
Billy Lyons by Stag Lee Shelton.
(19:19):
on Christmas Day in 1895.
Lloyd Price was nicknamed Mr.
Personality after his 1959 hitPersonality.
This song was covered by almosteverybody.
Ike and Tina Turner, theRighteous Brothers, even the
Grateful Dead would play it inconcert.
The number one movie wasSleeping Beauty, and you could
(19:43):
get into the theater with aticket costing 51 cents.
This is the classic Disneyanimated film about the evil
witch Maleficent cursingPrincess Aurora to die on her
16th birthday.
The film took nearly a decadeand $6 million to finish and was
(20:03):
actually released to mixedreviews, although now it's 90%
fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
And it made more than $51million at the box office on
that budget of $6 million.
The number one TV show wasGunsmoke.
This is the famous Western TVshow that was on for 20 seasons
(20:25):
from 1955 to 1975.
About Marshall, Matt Dillon,and Dodge City, Kansas.
The show actually began as aradio show in 1952, and for a
few years it was on as a radioand television program.
It finished with a total of 635television episodes, which was
(20:48):
the longest running TV show everuntil The Simpsons broke that
in 2018 with their 636thepisode.
And as of the end of last year,2024, The Simpsons had 781
episodes and was still going.
And if you were around backthen, February 26, 1959, maybe
(21:11):
you were out watching gettingsome groceries at the local Stop
and Shop, which was small andbrand new in the Massachusetts
area at the time.
You want to get a littlesomething extra with your
groceries?
Well, you're in luck.
Because at this point in time,Stop and Shop was selling
records.
Great music is what they calledthem.
(21:31):
There were eight great titlesto choose from, with the first
album costing 49 cents and allthe other ones costing $1.49.
Now, before you get excitedabout what possible titles there
could have been for you to buyat Stop and Shop at the time,
it's all orchestral music,London Philharmonic and other
(21:53):
orchestras like that.
There was no Elvis.
There was no Jerry Lee Lewis.
There was no Buddy Holly.
Just loads of classical, butthey call it great music.
So go to your local Stop andShop.
And that'll wrap up anotherTime Capsule, another This Week
in History.
Maybe you're listening to thisshow late in the afternoon and
(22:14):
you're starting to think aboutdinner plans for the night.
Well, these places we're goingto talk about you can no longer
go to as we look at the top fivediscontinued casual dining
chains starting now.
Back in episode 128, I did asegment about discontinued fast
(22:37):
food chains.
And I knew it was only a matterof time before I did this
segment about casual diningchains.
Because some of them, they canblur the lines, but there
definitely are differences.
For one, fast food usually hasdrive-thrus.
Casual dining chains do not.
Although you probably havenoticed in the last 20 years...
(22:58):
The emergence of fast casualrestaurants that literally are a
blend of the two types.
The one I think of is Chipotle.
That's usually what you thinkof with fast casual.
There's also Panera Bread, FiveGuys, Moe's Southwestern Grill,
those types of places.
The casual dining restaurantwas a place where you could go
(23:21):
there dressed however you wantedto, but still get good food.
It wasn't fine dining where yougo in a suit or you go in a
dress and you sit in the dimlylit candle lit places with the
nice white tablecloths.
Casual dining, they could befancy-ish, but usually they had
bars.
(23:41):
Usually there'd be a lot ofscreaming kids in there.
What I'm going to do here islook at the top five
discontinued casual diningchains.
Bring back a lot of memories.
Just researching this andlooking at some of the old
commercials, man, it broughtback a lot of memories.
With most of these top fives,they're in no particular order,
(24:03):
and there are some honorablementions.
In my memory, I think I ate atthree of these places.
But I think that's mostly dueto my age and where I grew up
here on Cape Cod.
What we'll do now is jump intothe honorable mentions.
I will try to quickly glossthrough these, but still give
you a little bit of what theywere for those of you that
(24:25):
aren't familiar with them.
So first honorable mention isBeefsteak Charlie's.
This was a New York City-basedrestaurant that was open for
nearly 100 years and had upwardsof 60 restaurants at its peak.
Another honorable mention isValley Steakhouse.
These were located in thenortheast from the early 1930s
(24:49):
to around 2000.
And this one stuck out to mebecause in my baby book, my
mother wrote that I loved theValley Steakhouse commercial
song from the late 1970s.
So there's my memories of thatplace.
Another honorable mention wasBugaboo Creek.
These were Canadian-themedsteakhouses opened from the
(25:10):
early 90s to about nine yearsago, 2016, and they were based
in Providence, Rhode Island,which is probably why I remember
them a lot.
Another honorable mention wasOld Country Buffet, which if you
want more information about OldCountry Buffet, in episode 139,
I did a whole segment justabout the Country Buffet as I
(25:32):
reviewed an old employeetraining video, The Meat Carving
Guy.
And the final honorable mentionwas Lums.
They were based out of Floridaand hit their peak in the 1970s
when they had commercialsfeaturing comedy legend Milton
Berle in them.
So there's the honorablementions.
Did you eat at any of those?
(25:53):
It seems like in the 1990s youcould have eaten at all of
those.
Well, except Lums.
They went out of business in1982.
Oh, but are you ready for somemore...
Casual dining, sad last days.
Let's get into the actual topfive with number one, Sambo's.
Speaker 02 (26:23):
Sambo's
Speaker 00 (26:29):
was founded in 1957 in Santa Barbara, California.
by two men, Sam Battistone andNewell Bonnet.
So they formed the name Sambo'sfrom parts of their names, but
it has very overt racialconnotations from the book
Little Black Sambo.
And these two, even though theydidn't name their restaurant
(26:53):
after the book, they leaned intoit and they decorated the walls
of the restaurants with imageryfrom the book.
At its peak in 1979, there weremore than 1,100 locations of
Sambo's, but the backlash keptgrowing.
Eventually, they changed theimage of the restaurant,
(27:14):
family-friendly with Sambo nowbeing more of a chef, a big,
fat, white chef with glasses wholooked like one of the Cinnamon
Toast Crunch bakers.
But by the late 70s, early 80s,it was already too late.
In doing my research, they weregoing to open a Sambo's on Cape
Cod by the airport rotary.
(27:35):
I think they actually did openit, but it was immediately
protested and the company filedfor bankruptcy in 1981.
The company was sold in 1984.
Interestingly though, theoriginal location in Santa
Barbara, California remainedopen and remained named Sambo's
until 2020 when it was finallyrenamed Chad's.
(27:58):
Number two is Steak and Ale.
Speaker 01 (28:03):
Steak and Ale welcomes you back to the old
country inn.
Comes up with us at Steak andAle, we're hearty dining about.
This takes me back to the olddays, a place to relax and enjoy
a good hearty meal.
Speaker 00 (28:15):
The original Steak and Ale was opened in Dallas,
Texas in 1966 by Norman Brinker.
It was billed as an upscalesteakhouse with lower prices.
At one point, Steak and Ale wasowned by the Pillsbury Company,
and at their peak in the late1980s, they had about 280
locations.
In 2008, the Steak and AleCompany's parent company, their
(28:40):
owners, went bankrupt, so all ofthe Steak and Ale restaurants
were closed.
But this story has aninteresting twist.
In 2015, Paul Mangimelli andhis wife Gwen began the
rumblings of a comeback of Steakand Ale.
They purchased the intellectualproperty.
And on July 9th, 2024, thefirst new steak and ale
(29:03):
restaurant opened in Burnsville,Minnesota.
I still had to include steakand ale as discontinued because
there's one restaurant that hasopened.
There are rumblings of a secondone, but it's faced delays.
So it's sort of, we're waitingto see if the new steak and ale
takes off again.
Number three is Howard Johnson.
Speaker 03 (29:25):
This
Speaker 00 (29:39):
was an icon of Americana.
It was opened as an originalsingle location by Howard
Deering Johnson in Quincy,Massachusetts in 1925.
Fun fact is the first everfranchise of Howard Johnson's
was in Orleans, Massachusetts onCape Cod, about 20 minutes from
me.
You couldn't go anywhere in the1950s and 60s without seeing
(30:04):
one of these blue restaurantswith the orange roof.
It was like a slice of comfortand home, even when you were on
a trip far away.
At its peak in the 1960s and70s, there were more than a
thousand Howard Johnsonlocations.
They were usually locatedaround airports or travel hubs,
and the restaurants werefranchised differently from the
(30:27):
hotels.
Howard Johnson, they startedfading away in the 90s and
2000s, but the very lastlocation in Lake George, New
York, held on until 2022.
I always found it interestingthat in the early 2020s, you
could theoretically go to aHoward Johnson's and a
Blockbuster video, even thoughneither chain had been relevant
(30:50):
in like 20 years.
Number four is the GroundRound.
Speaker 05 (31:00):
This
Speaker 00 (31:09):
here Ground Round, they were an offshoot of Howard
Johnson's.
They opened in the late 1960s.
At its peak in 1985, they had215 locations.
This is another one I wasfamiliar with because they were
headquartered in Massachusetts.
Growing competition fromChili's and Applebee's started
(31:30):
to cause their business todwindle.
When they filed for bankruptcyin 2004, there were 71 locations
left.
This here is one that is kindof a cheat.
It's kind of like steak andale.
Because there are fourlocations left, but we're
looking at four from well over200.
And I really don't know whatthe future holds.
(31:52):
I'd love to see Ground Roundmake a comeback.
It definitely reminds me ofchildhood.
But we'll have to wait and seeif these four locations last
through 2025.
Or if by the end of the year,I'm eating my words and there's
a dozen and it's growing again.
And lastly, number five on thelist of top five discontinued
(32:13):
casual dining chains isChi-Chi's.
Speaker 04 (32:17):
Chi-Chi's
Speaker 00 (32:34):
was a Mexican-style casual restaurant founded in
1976.
It was founded by MarnoMcDermott, whose wife's nickname
was Chi-Chi, and former GreenBay Packers football player Max
McGee.
At its peak in 1995, there were210 Chi-Chi's locations.
There was a one-two punch thatdoomed Chi-Chi's, though.
(32:57):
In 2003, they filed forbankruptcy, and a month later,
they had a huge hepatitis Aoutbreak, and that basically
closed them down in 2004.
Now, we're batting 1,000 withthis list here because the rumor
is that Michael McDermott, theson of original owner Marno, is
(33:17):
restarting the Chi-Chi'sfranchise sometime in 2025.
So we could end up with thistop five having steak and ale,
ground round, and Chi-Chi's allcoming back and thriving.
All we need then is to reviveHoward Johnson's.
We can leave Sambo's out.
But there you go.
Did you eat at any of thesecasual dining chains?
(33:39):
Are there any I missed that youwish would come back?
We'll check back on this topfive in a year and see how many
of these casual dining chainshave made a comeback.
When I was growing up, morespecifically when I was in my
(34:01):
early to mid-teens, I had thiscrazy fantasy that my baseball
card, my sports card collectionwas going to make me rich
someday.
That I was going to find allthese diamonds in the rough
players, get ahead of the curve,have all these rookie cards,
and then later on be able to payfor my college education off
(34:24):
the backs of some of theseplayers.
I loved collecting baseballcards.
But today, looking back, thereare very few that I have that
are valuable.
They're kind of like my BeanieBaby collection, where the
memories are more valuable thanthe thing themselves.
What I thought would be fun todo for a segment here and
(34:44):
probably a few other segments islook at overhyped athletes of
certain decades and how thattranslated to me trying to hoard
all of their cards.
What I'm going to do here isI've got 10 athletes from the
1990s that I consider to beoverhyped.
Maybe it's my own stupiditythat I saw how good they could
(35:06):
be and I spent so much moneythat I didn't have on their
cards.
I did my best with theseoverhyped athletes of the 1990s
to have representatives from allfour major sports, basketball,
football, hockey, baseball.
Since I collected baseballcards, you'll see that four of
the ten are baseball players.
(35:26):
Those of you that grew up thatare around my age will see how
many of these athletes gave youdreams of making money on their
cards only for them to beflushed down the toilet.
When I was thinking ofoverhyped athletes of the 90s
combined with baseball cardsthat I thought would be
valuable, the first name thatpopped in my head was a baseball
(35:49):
player named Kevin Moss.
He was drafted by the New YorkYankees, so it was, ooh, he's a
Yankee prospect.
He's got to be good.
His rookie season was 1990, andthe hype was off the charts for
this guy.
He finished second in theRookie of the Year voting in
1990, batting .252 with 21 homeruns.
(36:11):
He followed it up in 1991,batting .220 with 23 home runs.
So even then, it was like,well, he's got the power.
I had probably half a dozenrookie cards of his, just
thinking all he needs is a fewmore seasons and he's going to
be up there with the elites.
But oh no, he fell off a cliff.
(36:34):
He had 1992 and 93 with theYankees.
With his numbers falling, heplayed less and less.
He was out of Major LeagueBaseball in 94 and attempted a
comeback with the MinnesotaTwins in 95.
He batted 193 in 22 games andnever played in the majors
again.
I still have all his rookiecards, though.
(36:56):
Maybe they're a cautionarytale.
We move on to basketball.
Not all overhyped athletesweren't successful.
When I think of overhyped, Ithink of Larry Johnson from the
NBA.
Those of you that grew up inthe 90s might think of him as
Grandmama, his character.
which was on Family Matters andin Converse commercials.
(37:20):
Maybe it's because he waseverywhere in the mid-1990s, but
he, to me, seemed like somebodythat never reached the
potential for all the attentionhe got.
In the mid-1990s, when you haveMichael Jordan, Hakeem
Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal,you've got this guy that was
(37:41):
kind of a mid-level player, buthad all this exposure because of
endorsements and appearances onTV.
That's why I'm saying not alloverhyped players were bad.
I mean, he averaged 16 points agame and was a two-time
all-star.
But I feel when I was in highschool that Larry Johnson was
shoved down my throat way toomuch.
(38:02):
But your opinions may vary.
Let's go back to baseball,though.
When I was thinking of thesports cards that I was
collecting where I thoughtthey'd be valuable...
Another one that popped into mymind was pitcher Todd Van
Poppel.
Todd Van Poppel was a majorprospect for the Oakland
Athletics when they were thejuggernaut in baseball.
(38:24):
He was so hyped out of collegethat Oakland signed him to a
major league contract instead ofa minor league one.
That was kind of the downfallbecause he had only so many
options down in the minors.
They had to bring him up atsome point.
He was so hyped, but it wasthat lack of seasoning down in
(38:45):
the minors that was kind of hisdownfall.
I just remember going to thecorner store and getting packs
of baseball cards and gettingTodd Van Poppel.
You would have thought that Ibought a scratch ticket that won
a million dollars.
It was all systems go when hemade his major league debut on
September 11th, 1991.
He proceeded to give up fiveearned runs in four and
(39:08):
two-thirds innings.
He ended up pitching 11seasons, mostly as a middle
reliever, and his best seasonwas in 2001 with the Chicago
Cubs, where he went 4-1 with a2.52 ERA.
By that point, though, hisbaseball cards were worth about
three cents.
We'll stick with baseball,though.
(39:30):
Another majorly overhypedathlete of the 1990s was Brian
Taylor, another baseball player,another New York Yankee.
reading things like SportingNews or the Beckett Baseball
Price Guides back then.
Brian Taylor was the secondcoming of Roger Clemens, Nolan
(39:51):
Ryan.
He was one of those hypedathletes that I would have gone
to the baseball card store onMain Street in Hyannis near me
and bought one of his cardsrather than trying to get it in
a pack.
He signed for $1.55 millionwith the Yankees and was
considered the best high schoolpitching prospect that people
(40:11):
had ever seen.
His issues didn't come from histalent.
It came from an altercationdefending his brother in 1993.
Taylor basically destroyed hispitching shoulder getting in a
fight.
After that, he was never thesame again.
He never reached the majors andspent four years in A-ball,
(40:32):
which is low, low minor leagues.
Another overhyped athlete, andit's probably not his fault, we
moved to basketball andChristian Laettner.
He played at Duke University,won back-to-back national
championships, had that famousshot in the tournament, the last
second shot to win the game.
I immediately saw him asoverhyped because I was a North
(40:55):
Carolina fan, so I didn't likeDuke.
But also he was picked to be onthe dream team, the Olympic
basketball team, instead ofShaquille O'Neal, who was my
favorite player.
It was like, here's the dreamteam and Christian Laettner.
Like I said, it's not hisfault, I think, but he was
immediately behind the eightball there.
He needed to come out in theNBA and be like a top five
(41:18):
player to be worthy of all thoseaccolades.
He had a respectable career,playing 13 seasons and making
one All-Star game.
He averaged about 13 points andjust under 7 rebounds a game.
So when you look back at theDream Team and you put all their
career stats up there, you cansee he sticks out like a sore
(41:40):
thumb.
Some athletes, it's not theirfault.
They don't live up to the hype.
Others, it's absolutely theirfault.
We look at Ryan Leaf, thefootball quarterback.
All you have to do is GoogleRyan Leaf or look on YouTube and
find the video of him screamingat the reporter in the locker
room.
That sums up his career rightthere.
(42:00):
He was the number two pick inthe 1998 draft behind Peyton
Manning.
I mean, you talk about afalling off.
I'm sure at the time nobodyknew how badly he would do.
In his rookie year of 1998, hehad two touchdowns against 15
interceptions.
And I guarantee you there aresome of you listening out there
(42:23):
right now who could have playedin the NFL and had better
numbers than Ryan Leaf.
And then he missed all of 1999with an injury, and that was
about it.
He played four seasons with atotal record of four wins and 17
losses and 14 career touchdownsagainst 36 career
(42:43):
interceptions.
I didn't collect Ryan Leaffootball cards.
But the next person on thelist, I did collect theirs.
And that's Jeff George.
He was the first pick in theNFL draft by the Indianapolis
Colts, a quarterback with majorheight.
So much so that when I got hisrookie card, I said, oh, there
(43:04):
you go.
It's like a down payment on myfirst car.
Now it's not even a downpayment on a matchbox car.
His first year in 1990, it wasnot terrible.
It was slightly mediocre.
He was 5-7 in his starts, 16touchdowns, and 13
interceptions.
I mean, Ryan Leaf would havekilled for those numbers.
(43:26):
And he was an All-Pro thatyear, which only increased the
hype and the value of hisfootball cards.
He played 12 seasons in theNFL, and he was an All-Pro one
other time.
So he's not the worst numberone pick ever, but I guess you
had to be there in the early1990s with the hype around him.
thinking somehow he was goingto be Joe Montana.
(43:50):
The next one, this one hitsclose to home.
We go back to baseball, myhometown, Boston Red Sox, and
their overhyped prospect, PhilPlantier.
This outfielder, his rookieseason was 1990.
He was hyped like he was thenext Jim Rice or Dwight Evans or
(44:10):
Carl Yastrzemski.
So naturally, I had to run outto the store and try to get some
of his rookie cards, just incase he was.
He wasn't.
He finished eighth in theRookie of the Year voting in
1991, but the Red Sox gave up onhim after three years.
My dreams almost came true.
His first year with the SanDiego Padres, he hit 34 home
(44:34):
runs and had 100 RBIs.
So I was like, oh, here we go.
He's going to live up to thehype, even if it's not in
Boston.
So he had 34 home runs in 1993.
He played four more seasons andhit 39 home runs combined.
He was out of Major LeagueBaseball in 1997.
We near the end and we moveinto hockey.
(44:57):
Alexander Daigle, he wasdrafted first overall by the
Ottawa Senators in 1993.
He had so much hype.
I didn't really watch hockey.
I didn't really collect hockeycards.
But the hype around him made mego get hockey cards.
He is one that if he wasn't thefirst draft pick, if you looked
(45:20):
at his career stats, you'd belike, oh, he was, you know,
serviceable.
But with the hype around him,his numbers were terrible.
10 seasons in the NHL, 129total goals.
But he was hyped like he wasgoing to be a 40 goal a year
scorer.
He was out of the league acouple of times for a year or
(45:41):
two years and kept trying tomake comebacks, but finally
retired at age 30.
Finally here, my last overhypedathlete of the 1990s, we go to
basketball and Sean Kemp.
Just because you can dunk theball hard does not make you
great.
Said by someone who can't dunkthe ball.
(46:02):
He was a power forward, 6'10",could do these amazing dunks
that would just rock the hoop.
So when he came into the leaguein 1989 with the Seattle
Supersonics, I was all on board.
I was all into the hype, theRain Man, his nickname.
He is one of the best dunkersever, and he made six all-star
(46:24):
teams.
Like I said, just because he'soverhyped doesn't mean he wasn't
good, but he was a dunk guy.
He was a spot-fest guy.
I didn't see him being astalented as the other guys like
Jordan, Olajuwon, Ewing,Barkley, Drexler.
But he got just as much hype.
He's one, maybe you fall in thecamp that he was better than
(46:47):
his hype.
Maybe you think the same aboutLarry Johnson.
But I also look at my sportscards and what aren't valuable
anymore.
These are the names that I cameup with.
But who do you think were themost overhyped athletes of the
1990s?
They don't have to have beentotal busts like Kevin Moss or
Todd Van Poppel.
This was fun to do.
(47:08):
I will definitely do lists likethis for the 70s, 80s, for the
2000s.
Maybe I'll go through mybaseball card collection and
finally get rid of some of thesecards.
But until next week, that'sgoing to do it for episode 184
of the In My Footsteps podcast.
I hope you don't think thispodcast is overhyped.
(47:31):
Although I do a lot of hypingof it on social media.
If you haven't seen that,follow me all over social media.
I'm on Instagram, Threads, BlueSky.
I have a Facebook fan page.
I have a YouTube channel withhundreds and hundreds of videos.
I am easy to find.
You can become a Patreonsubscriber for $5 a month.
(47:54):
You can also go there and justcheck out the free tier.
I try to make sure I do havesome stuff on the free tier so
that you can see kind of whatit's all about.
I didn't want to have myPatreon be everything behind a
paywall.
You can always buy me a coffee.
Those you can send as little asa dollar, which I don't think
(48:14):
will buy me a coffee, but still.
There are lots of ways tosupport me, my content, my work.
I put in 15 hours a week,usually.
Editing, recording, marketing,anything I do.
It's going to continue in a bigway next week with episode 185.
We're going to look at the 35thanniversary of one of my
(48:38):
favorite movies from myformative years, that being
House Party, the kid and playmovie.
We're also going to look backat a time when Poppin' Fresh,
the Pillsbury Doughboy, had hisown restaurant.
And of course, I'll go way morein depth about Poppin' Fresh,
the icon that he was and is.
(48:58):
So stick around for that nextweek.
March is coming up in a fewdays.
That's when I really get in theweeds as far as my first ever
acting gig, my filming myscenes.
I'm excited but also nervous.
So it's interesting.
I create scripts and notes forthis podcast so that it's not...
(49:19):
Usually not me rambling allover the place.
And I spent a lot of yearscrafting skits with my camcorder
in high school.
So I'm no stranger to thestructure of creating films and
scripts and stuff.
But as far as memorizing linesthat I didn't write, I'm finding
(49:40):
it harder than I imagined.
So what I did, I put all myscenes together, copied and
pasted them out of the script,So that I could study them.
My genius move.
I guess to help me memorize.
Was to print them out again.
But in bigger font.
It's like speaking to a dog.
(50:02):
And then saying what you saidslower.
Like that's going to make thedog understand you.
That's like what it is with meprinting out these scenes.
In March though there will beway more hype about my filming
debut.
I'm going to be doinginterviews with people from the
movie.
I'll probably interviewproducer Frank Durant again.
(50:24):
I try to make these thingsvideos on YouTube.
So be on the lookout.
And also be on the lookout forspring.
Ooh, there's a segue.
It's only a little while.
We turn the clocks ahead again.
Spring will be here for most ofthe country.
Like I said, Cape Cod doesn'tget spring really until late
April.
(50:44):
But still, get out there as thetemperatures start to get
warmer.
Enjoy the vitamin D.
Enjoy being outside.
It hasn't been a terriblewinter on Cape Cod.
It was definitely colder thanlast year, but we still haven't
gotten that much in the way ofsnow.
Now I'm jinxing us.
But a little bit of cold andsnow makes you appreciate
(51:05):
spring.
And speaking of producer FrankDurant, A special happy birthday
to him, today the day thepodcast goes live.
From a total cold call messageon Facebook about talking about
the Lady of the Dunes, to nowalmost four years later, my
first film role.
Frank opened up a whole newworld to me of just opportunity.
(51:29):
Anytime we talk, there's alwayssomething interesting going on
that I'm usually included in.
That's why when it comes to anyprojects, if Frank mentions it,
I'm like, yeah, whatever it is,I'm in.
So I'll always appreciate himreaching out, taking a chance on
me to write the book basedaround his documentary that he
(51:50):
worked so hard on.
He might not get the creditthat he should with his
documentary, but he helped tosolve the Lady of the Dunes case
because of what he did with hisdocumentary.
No matter what you hear fromanybody else.
So happy birthday to Frank, theproducer, and Frank, my friend.
(52:10):
And remember, in this life,don't walk in anyone else's
footsteps.
Create your own path and enjoyevery moment you can on this
journey we call life.
Because you never know whattomorrow brings.
Thank you all again for tuningin.
This has been the In MyFootsteps podcast.
I am Christopher Setterlund.
(52:32):
You already knew that.
And I'll talk to you all againsoon.
Hello, world, and welcome to the In My Footsteps
podcast.
I am Christopher Setterlund,coming to you from the vacation
destination known as Cape Cod,Massachusetts, and this is
episode 184.
We are finishing off the monthof February, the last full month
(00:22):
of winter.
We're finishing it off strongwith so much nostalgia I can't
wait to get into.
We're going to kick it off withsome of my favorite books from
my childhood, and maybe yourstoo if you grew up in the 80s,
and that is the Benicula booksabout a vampire rabbit.
We're going to go way, way backin the day to a segment about
(00:43):
overhyped 1990s athletes, a.k.a.
the sports commentators.
I thought were going to beworth way more than they are
today.
There'll be a brand new topfive looking at the top five
discontinued casual diningchains.
You likely ate at some of thesein your childhood.
And there'll be a brand newThis Week in History and Time
(01:04):
capsule looking back at the veryfirst jazz music records ever
recorded.
All of that is coming up rightnow on episode 184 of the In My
Footsteps podcast.
So what are we going to talkabout this week?
How February's ending, springis only a few weeks away.
(01:25):
There is so much fun stuff toget into this week, I can't wait
to start.
Of course, I couldn't start offmy podcast without giving
shoutouts to all my Patreonsubscribers.
Lori, Mary Lou, Ashley, Kevin,Leo, Marguerite, Neglectoid,
Crystal, and my newestsubscriber, Matt.
(01:47):
Thank you for coming aboard andthank you all for being my
Patreon subscribers, my biggestbackers.
$5 a month gets you access tobonus podcast episodes.
It gets you early access toYouTube videos.
It gets you access to othercontent that I'm coming up with.
One thing I'll share is thatwhat I'm going to start doing is
(02:10):
kind of remastering my withouta map live stream videos that I
did during the early days of thepodcast.
They would be streamed live onInstagram, and then some of them
would get put up on YouTube,but they kind of got lost in the
shuffle with all my hundreds ofvideos up there.
So what I'm doing is takingthose videos, I'm remastering
(02:32):
them, making them look better,adding more visuals to it, maybe
fixing the sound with them, andthen putting them up for my
Patreon subscribers.
That is my latest new projectto put on my plate.
You've heard me say it so much,I try to make room on my plate
to do everything, and thatsometimes means removing things
(02:53):
like the webcam weekly wrap-uppodcast that I didn't have time
for, but I end up replacing itwith something else.
These should be fun to do,these live streams, remastering
them.
But whether you're a Patreonsubscriber, whether you're a
free tier subscriber...
Whether you are a loyallistener since day one or you're
(03:13):
just coming aboard now, thankyou all so much for being here,
for making me a part of yourweek.
I'm glad so many of you sharemy enjoyment of the good old
days, of the nostalgia.
I'm Gen X, born in the late1970s, so you kind of get my
reference point.
I always mention child of the80s, teen of the 90s, but I try
(03:38):
to make this a little moreinclusive.
where I dip back into the1960s.
I'm now getting into the early2000s because that is now the
old days, which, God, I can'tbelieve it.
I've got so much more funcontent to come, and if you
think there's something that'sbeen missing from my shows,
maybe check my archives.
(03:59):
184 episodes means there's 183more that you can check out if
this is your first time.
Oh, but let's kick this showoff with something I've wanted
to talk about for a while.
It was, I had to use restraintto wait this long to talk about.
One of my earliest memories ofchildhood, of reading, one of my
(04:19):
favorite book series as a kid,and that is the Benicula series
of children's books.
So let's dive into thosestarting now.
In my early days as a writer,when I was doing e-books and
putting them up on the AmazonKindle store in 2007, one of my
dreams was to be a children'sbook writer.
(04:41):
Some of you that know me in thereal world know that one of my
first books, one of my firste-books I wrote was something
called Goot's Mittens.
So a quick description of it,it was a book about my Nana's
cat.
Her real name was Mittens, butmy father, his siblings, when
they were growing up, they had acat named Goot.
G-O-O-T.
(05:02):
He was an orange striped cat.
My Nana's cat, Mittens, haddouble paws.
Big feet, looked like she waswearing baseball mitts on her
front paws.
And I thought to myself, ohman, Mittens, we could call her
Goot in the book because it's aunique name, and I could use
Goot.
animals, pets that I grew upwith to make an interesting
(05:23):
children's book.
I mean, I think it is.
And this sort of wacky storydidn't come out of nowhere.
Yeah, it's based in reality.
But my love of writing, mycreativity, it began early on in
my life.
And one of the original books,the original children's books
that was so wild in its premisethat made my creative juices
(05:44):
flow had to do with a vampirerabbit.
It sounds like something out ofa Monty Python sketch.
But no, this was a series ofbooks, and the name of the
vampire rabbit was Bunnicula, abunny-Dracula combination.
These books were some of myfirst memories of being in
(06:04):
school, of childhood, some of myfavorite books to read and get
lost in.
And as I said a minute ago, ittook all of my restraint to wait
this long to talk about it.
Those of you that grew up inthat same time as me, 70s, 80s,
few children's book seriescaptured your imagination like
Benicula.
(06:24):
It was a quirky blend ofmystery, humor, light horror,
and it introduced kids to theconcept of the supernatural
through the eyes of a lovablehousehold pet.
The Benicula series was writtenby Deborah and James Howe.
And these books remain anostalgic favorite for Gen X
(06:45):
like me, early millennials.
What I love about the originsof Bunnicula is it starts in the
mid-1970s.
James and Deborah Howe, amarried couple, they were
inspired by a casual joke abouta vampire rabbit.
It just makes me think aboutwhen I was in high school
creating skits with my camcorderwith my friends.
(07:08):
We'd sit around and we wouldtell these jokes or tell these
stories, come up with theseideas that got more and more
progressively weird until it wasjust the perfect amount of
absurdity that it would be thefunniest thing to us at least.
For James and Deborah Howe,their love of storytelling led
them to develop a humorous yeteerie tale narrated by Harold,
(07:30):
who was a dog, alongside hisfeline companion Chester, and
they become convinced theirfamily's new pet, a small black
and white rabbit, might actuallybe a vampire.
The story would end up beingcalled Bunnicula, A Rabbit Tale
of Mystery.
with the original manuscriptcompleted by James and Deborah
(07:51):
Howe in 1977.
Tragically, before the bookcould even be published, Deborah
Howe was diagnosed with cancerand passed away in 1978 at the
age of 31.
That could have easily killedthe book right there, but James
Howe was determined to honor hiswife and honor their shared
vision.
So he saw the book through topublication, and it was released
(08:14):
in 1979 by Athenium Books.
Upon its release, Benicula wasmet with enthusiastic praise.
It was a unique premise, filledwith humor and light suspense,
which would resonate with kidsand parents.
You know, it's a really fineline to walk when you're trying
to introduce kids, likely 10years old and under, to horror
(08:38):
and scary things.
You could go from scaring themjust a little to then scarring
them for life.
Deborah and James Howe workedit perfectly.
The story's charm lay in itsgentle parody of the horror
tropes, making the spookyelements accessible rather than
frightening.
With the characters of Haroldand Chester, the dog and cat,
(09:01):
providing a compelling comedyduo.
Harold was the easygoing,food-loving narrator.
Chester was the neurotic andhighly intelligent cat who takes
his vampire suspicions toabsurd lengths.
As the Benicula book gainedpopularity, it became a staple
in elementary school librariesand book fairs throughout the
(09:22):
80s.
That's where I come into thepicture, elementary school.
And seeing this really nicepainted cover of this black and
white rabbit with kind of redeyes hopping away where the
shaggy brownish dog, Harold, iskind of sleeping and Chester's
poking his head out behindHarold looking at the bunny
(09:43):
that's hopping away.
And I think me being seven,eight years old, the title
Bunnicula was an interestingword and the cover was
interesting.
So I was immediately hooked.
And it wasn't just me that washooked in the early 80s.
Benicula earned severalliterary accolades, including
the Dorothy Canfield FisherChildren's Book Award.
(10:04):
It was the combination ofmystery, humor, and the animal
protagonists that made Beniculaa hit among young readers.
Many of them were also fans ofScooby-Doo and other
lighthearted mystery stories, sothis fit right in.
Encouraged by the success ofthe first book, James Howe
continued the series withmultiple sequels, further
(10:27):
exploring the quirky antics ofHarold, Chester, and Benicula.
There were six more titles inthe series.
The first sequel was HolidayInn from 1982, which was a
hilarious take on the spookymansion trope with Harold and
Chester staying at a petboarding facility filled with
(10:48):
strange new characters.
Then in 1983, there was TheCelery Stalks at Midnight, where
Chester remains convinced thatBenicula is a threat, leading to
another mystery-filledadventure.
The third book in the serieswas Nighty Nightmare in 1987,
where the pets go on a campingtrip.
They encounter eerie legendsand an apparent werewolf.
(11:11):
In my memory, I believe thiswas the last book when it came
out that I immediately read, sothe first four books in the
series were must-read for me.
But by the time Return toHoliday Inn came out in 1992, I
mean, I was 15 years old, so Iwas a little bit out of the age
range for Benicula books.
(11:31):
To round out the series, therewas also Benicula Strikes Again
from 1999 and Benicula MeetsEdgar Allan Crowe from 2006.
The cultural impact of Beniculathroughout the 1980s was huge.
It became a beloved children'sfavorite, often found on
(11:52):
scholastic book orders and inclassrooms.
And then in 1982, there was ananimated adaptation, which aired
as a television specialnarrated by comedian Louis Nye.
It didn't launch an animatedseries or any films, but
Benicula remained popular enoughof a property that in 2016, the
(12:14):
Cartoon Network and BoomerangNetwork debuted a new animated
series loosely based on thebooks.
This version, it reimagined thecharacter of Benicula with a
more mischievous, overtlysupernatural edge, which
modernized the concept for a newgeneration.
One of the reasons why Beniculahas remained a favorite is its
(12:35):
timeless humor and engagingstorytelling.
I would say if you're out thereand you have kids that are ages
5 through 9, 5 through 10, youcould hand them the original
Benicula book now, or maybe thee-book version.
And they would be instantlyengaged with it.
Kids love rabbits.
Kids love dogs and cats.
(12:57):
It's a pretty easy sell.
And I'm not getting acommission on these if you go
and order them for yourself.
But I think kids today wouldlove the books.
As for James Howe, he went onto write other well-received
children's books, includingPinky and Rex and The Misfits.
But Benicula and that series,that's his enduring legacy.
(13:19):
It started off as finishing offcarrying out the dream that he
and his wife Deborah had in themid to late 1970s, and it's now
turned into a series of booksand a character that has
captured the imagination of kidsfor decades.
For many kids in the late 70s,early 80s, and beyond, Benicula
(13:41):
was a gateway into the world ofreading.
It offered you just the rightmix of laughs and mild thrills
to keep young minds engaged.
Like I said, this book, thefirst four books that I read
religiously really opened up mymind with creativity.
Like if you could have avampire rabbit, why couldn't you
(14:01):
have a cat named Goot with bigfeet?
But you out there listening,did you read the Benicula books
when they first came out?
If you're around my age, ifyou're anywhere from 40 to 60,
and if you did, have you hadyour kids read them?
Or if you're younger, have youread the Benicula books?
Have you seen the animatedshow?
(14:24):
Decades after its firstpublication, the Benicula series
still finds new fans, provingthat a vampire bunny, a nervous
cat, and a lovable dog are arecipe for literary success.
This week in history, we aregoing back 108 years ago to
(14:49):
February 26, 1917, and the veryfirst jazz records ever
recorded.
On that date, a group ofmusicians from New Orleans
walked into the Victor TalkingMachine Company studio in New
York City and made history.
The original Dixieland JazzBand, with jazz spelled J-A-S-S,
(15:13):
recorded what are widelyconsidered the first jazz
records, Livery Stable Blues andDixie Jazz Band One Step.
These recordings introducedjazz to a national audience,
helping to shape the genre andforever changing the course of
popular music.
Jazz music was born in themelting pot of New Orleans,
(15:34):
Louisiana in the late 19th andearly 20th centuries, blending
African-American blues, ragtime,jazz, brass band traditions,
and Creole influences.
The city's diverse cultural andmusical heritage provided the
perfect environment forexperimentation, which led to
the syncopated rhythms,improvisational spirit, and
(15:58):
energetic performances thatdefine jazz.
New Orleans musicians likeBuddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton,
and King Oliver played in thecity's dance halls and clubs,
developing the style that wouldbecome jazz.
But it wasn't until theoriginal Dixieland Jazz Band
recorded their songs that jazzreached a mass audience outside
(16:21):
of the South.
The original Dixieland JazzBand, led by Cornettist Nick
LaRocca, was a group of whitemusicians who had adopted the
New Orleans jazz style.
Their groundbreaking recordingsession produced Livery Stable
Blues, a lively track thatfeatured animal-like sounds from
the instruments, and Dixie JazzBand One Step, a driving dance
(16:46):
number.
These albums were released inMarch 1917, with the record
becoming a sensation, sellingover a million copies and
introducing jazz to listenersacross the country.
Despite the success, theoriginal Dixieland jazz band was
controversial, as manyAfrican-American musicians who
(17:07):
had been playing jazz longbefore them were left out of the
recording industry due toracial barriers.
Jazz pioneers like King Oliverand Louis Armstrong would later
bring a deeper complexity andemotional depth to the music,
but the original Dixieland jazzband's recordings marked a
turning point by making jazz anational phenomenon.
(17:29):
These records, they changedeverything.
They established jazz as acommercial genre, proving that
this energetic improvisationalmusic had mass appeal.
It encouraged record companiesto seek out more jazz musicians,
which paved the way for futurelegends like Louis Armstrong,
Duke Ellington, and BessieSmith.
(17:50):
Throughout the next decade,jazz evolved rapidly, moving
from the Dixieland style to themore sophisticated swing of the
1930s and the bebop revolutionof the 1940s.
For me, I was introduced tojazz at a young age with my
grandparents, Nina and Grandpa,being jazz singers, performing
(18:12):
with and hanging out with all ofthe jazz legends that those who
grew up on Cape Cod who arelistening would remember.
like Lou Colombo, Dave McKenna,Dick Johnson, and more.
And I'm sure a lot of you outthere listening who are jazz
fans have your own personalfavorites.
But those very first jazzrecords, Livery Stable Blues and
(18:35):
Dixie Jazz Band One Step,recorded by the original
Dixieland Jazz Band, happened108 years ago this week in
history.
We'll keep the good timesrolling here with a brand new
time capsule.
We're going to go back 66 yearsago this week to February 26th,
(18:58):
1959.
What was going on in the worldof pop culture back then?
Well, let's find out.
The number one song was StaggerLee by Lloyd Price.
This was an American folk songabout the murder of a man named
Billy Lyons by Stag Lee Shelton.
(19:19):
on Christmas Day in 1895.
Lloyd Price was nicknamed Mr.
Personality after his 1959 hitPersonality.
This song was covered by almosteverybody.
Ike and Tina Turner, theRighteous Brothers, even the
Grateful Dead would play it inconcert.
The number one movie wasSleeping Beauty, and you could
(19:43):
get into the theater with aticket costing 51 cents.
This is the classic Disneyanimated film about the evil
witch Maleficent cursingPrincess Aurora to die on her
16th birthday.
The film took nearly a decadeand $6 million to finish and was
(20:03):
actually released to mixedreviews, although now it's 90%
fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
And it made more than $51million at the box office on
that budget of $6 million.
The number one TV show wasGunsmoke.
This is the famous Western TVshow that was on for 20 seasons
(20:25):
from 1955 to 1975.
About Marshall, Matt Dillon,and Dodge City, Kansas.
The show actually began as aradio show in 1952, and for a
few years it was on as a radioand television program.
It finished with a total of 635television episodes, which was
(20:48):
the longest running TV show everuntil The Simpsons broke that
in 2018 with their 636thepisode.
And as of the end of last year,2024, The Simpsons had 781
episodes and was still going.
And if you were around backthen, February 26, 1959, maybe
(21:11):
you were out watching gettingsome groceries at the local Stop
and Shop, which was small andbrand new in the Massachusetts
area at the time.
You want to get a littlesomething extra with your
groceries?
Well, you're in luck.
Because at this point in time,Stop and Shop was selling
records.
Great music is what they calledthem.
(21:31):
There were eight great titlesto choose from, with the first
album costing 49 cents and allthe other ones costing $1.49.
Now, before you get excitedabout what possible titles there
could have been for you to buyat Stop and Shop at the time,
it's all orchestral music,London Philharmonic and other
(21:53):
orchestras like that.
There was no Elvis.
There was no Jerry Lee Lewis.
There was no Buddy Holly.
Just loads of classical, butthey call it great music.
So go to your local Stop andShop.
And that'll wrap up anotherTime Capsule, another This Week
in History.
Maybe you're listening to thisshow late in the afternoon and
(22:14):
you're starting to think aboutdinner plans for the night.
Well, these places we're goingto talk about you can no longer
go to as we look at the top fivediscontinued casual dining
chains starting now.
Back in episode 128, I did asegment about discontinued fast
(22:37):
food chains.
And I knew it was only a matterof time before I did this
segment about casual diningchains.
Because some of them, they canblur the lines, but there
definitely are differences.
For one, fast food usually hasdrive-thrus.
Casual dining chains do not.
Although you probably havenoticed in the last 20 years...
(22:58):
The emergence of fast casualrestaurants that literally are a
blend of the two types.
The one I think of is Chipotle.
That's usually what you thinkof with fast casual.
There's also Panera Bread, FiveGuys, Moe's Southwestern Grill,
those types of places.
The casual dining restaurantwas a place where you could go
(23:21):
there dressed however you wantedto, but still get good food.
It wasn't fine dining where yougo in a suit or you go in a
dress and you sit in the dimlylit candle lit places with the
nice white tablecloths.
Casual dining, they could befancy-ish, but usually they had
bars.
(23:41):
Usually there'd be a lot ofscreaming kids in there.
What I'm going to do here islook at the top five
discontinued casual diningchains.
Bring back a lot of memories.
Just researching this andlooking at some of the old
commercials, man, it broughtback a lot of memories.
With most of these top fives,they're in no particular order,
(24:03):
and there are some honorablementions.
In my memory, I think I ate atthree of these places.
But I think that's mostly dueto my age and where I grew up
here on Cape Cod.
What we'll do now is jump intothe honorable mentions.
I will try to quickly glossthrough these, but still give
you a little bit of what theywere for those of you that
(24:25):
aren't familiar with them.
So first honorable mention isBeefsteak Charlie's.
This was a New York City-basedrestaurant that was open for
nearly 100 years and had upwardsof 60 restaurants at its peak.
Another honorable mention isValley Steakhouse.
These were located in thenortheast from the early 1930s
(24:49):
to around 2000.
And this one stuck out to mebecause in my baby book, my
mother wrote that I loved theValley Steakhouse commercial
song from the late 1970s.
So there's my memories of thatplace.
Another honorable mention wasBugaboo Creek.
These were Canadian-themedsteakhouses opened from the
(25:10):
early 90s to about nine yearsago, 2016, and they were based
in Providence, Rhode Island,which is probably why I remember
them a lot.
Another honorable mention wasOld Country Buffet, which if you
want more information about OldCountry Buffet, in episode 139,
I did a whole segment justabout the Country Buffet as I
(25:32):
reviewed an old employeetraining video, The Meat Carving
Guy.
And the final honorable mentionwas Lums.
They were based out of Floridaand hit their peak in the 1970s
when they had commercialsfeaturing comedy legend Milton
Berle in them.
So there's the honorablementions.
Did you eat at any of those?
(25:53):
It seems like in the 1990s youcould have eaten at all of
those.
Well, except Lums.
They went out of business in1982.
Oh, but are you ready for somemore...
Casual dining, sad last days.
Let's get into the actual topfive with number one, Sambo's.
Speaker 02 (26:23):
Sambo's
Speaker 00 (26:29):
was founded in 1957 in Santa Barbara, California.
by two men, Sam Battistone andNewell Bonnet.
So they formed the name Sambo'sfrom parts of their names, but
it has very overt racialconnotations from the book
Little Black Sambo.
And these two, even though theydidn't name their restaurant
(26:53):
after the book, they leaned intoit and they decorated the walls
of the restaurants with imageryfrom the book.
At its peak in 1979, there weremore than 1,100 locations of
Sambo's, but the backlash keptgrowing.
Eventually, they changed theimage of the restaurant,
(27:14):
family-friendly with Sambo nowbeing more of a chef, a big,
fat, white chef with glasses wholooked like one of the Cinnamon
Toast Crunch bakers.
But by the late 70s, early 80s,it was already too late.
In doing my research, they weregoing to open a Sambo's on Cape
Cod by the airport rotary.
(27:35):
I think they actually did openit, but it was immediately
protested and the company filedfor bankruptcy in 1981.
The company was sold in 1984.
Interestingly though, theoriginal location in Santa
Barbara, California remainedopen and remained named Sambo's
until 2020 when it was finallyrenamed Chad's.
(27:58):
Number two is Steak and Ale.
Speaker 01 (28:03):
Steak and Ale welcomes you back to the old
country inn.
Comes up with us at Steak andAle, we're hearty dining about.
This takes me back to the olddays, a place to relax and enjoy
a good hearty meal.
Speaker 00 (28:15):
The original Steak and Ale was opened in Dallas,
Texas in 1966 by Norman Brinker.
It was billed as an upscalesteakhouse with lower prices.
At one point, Steak and Ale wasowned by the Pillsbury Company,
and at their peak in the late1980s, they had about 280
locations.
In 2008, the Steak and AleCompany's parent company, their
(28:40):
owners, went bankrupt, so all ofthe Steak and Ale restaurants
were closed.
But this story has aninteresting twist.
In 2015, Paul Mangimelli andhis wife Gwen began the
rumblings of a comeback of Steakand Ale.
They purchased the intellectualproperty.
And on July 9th, 2024, thefirst new steak and ale
(29:03):
restaurant opened in Burnsville,Minnesota.
I still had to include steakand ale as discontinued because
there's one restaurant that hasopened.
There are rumblings of a secondone, but it's faced delays.
So it's sort of, we're waitingto see if the new steak and ale
takes off again.
Number three is Howard Johnson.
Speaker 03 (29:25):
This
Speaker 00 (29:39):
was an icon of Americana.
It was opened as an originalsingle location by Howard
Deering Johnson in Quincy,Massachusetts in 1925.
Fun fact is the first everfranchise of Howard Johnson's
was in Orleans, Massachusetts onCape Cod, about 20 minutes from
me.
You couldn't go anywhere in the1950s and 60s without seeing
(30:04):
one of these blue restaurantswith the orange roof.
It was like a slice of comfortand home, even when you were on
a trip far away.
At its peak in the 1960s and70s, there were more than a
thousand Howard Johnsonlocations.
They were usually locatedaround airports or travel hubs,
and the restaurants werefranchised differently from the
(30:27):
hotels.
Howard Johnson, they startedfading away in the 90s and
2000s, but the very lastlocation in Lake George, New
York, held on until 2022.
I always found it interestingthat in the early 2020s, you
could theoretically go to aHoward Johnson's and a
Blockbuster video, even thoughneither chain had been relevant
(30:50):
in like 20 years.
Number four is the GroundRound.
Speaker 05 (31:00):
This
Speaker 00 (31:09):
here Ground Round, they were an offshoot of Howard
Johnson's.
They opened in the late 1960s.
At its peak in 1985, they had215 locations.
This is another one I wasfamiliar with because they were
headquartered in Massachusetts.
Growing competition fromChili's and Applebee's started
(31:30):
to cause their business todwindle.
When they filed for bankruptcyin 2004, there were 71 locations
left.
This here is one that is kindof a cheat.
It's kind of like steak andale.
Because there are fourlocations left, but we're
looking at four from well over200.
And I really don't know whatthe future holds.
(31:52):
I'd love to see Ground Roundmake a comeback.
It definitely reminds me ofchildhood.
But we'll have to wait and seeif these four locations last
through 2025.
Or if by the end of the year,I'm eating my words and there's
a dozen and it's growing again.
And lastly, number five on thelist of top five discontinued
(32:13):
casual dining chains isChi-Chi's.
Speaker 04 (32:17):
Chi-Chi's
Speaker 00 (32:34):
was a Mexican-style casual restaurant founded in
1976.
It was founded by MarnoMcDermott, whose wife's nickname
was Chi-Chi, and former GreenBay Packers football player Max
McGee.
At its peak in 1995, there were210 Chi-Chi's locations.
There was a one-two punch thatdoomed Chi-Chi's, though.
(32:57):
In 2003, they filed forbankruptcy, and a month later,
they had a huge hepatitis Aoutbreak, and that basically
closed them down in 2004.
Now, we're batting 1,000 withthis list here because the rumor
is that Michael McDermott, theson of original owner Marno, is
(33:17):
restarting the Chi-Chi'sfranchise sometime in 2025.
So we could end up with thistop five having steak and ale,
ground round, and Chi-Chi's allcoming back and thriving.
All we need then is to reviveHoward Johnson's.
We can leave Sambo's out.
But there you go.
Did you eat at any of thesecasual dining chains?
(33:39):
Are there any I missed that youwish would come back?
We'll check back on this topfive in a year and see how many
of these casual dining chainshave made a comeback.
When I was growing up, morespecifically when I was in my
(34:01):
early to mid-teens, I had thiscrazy fantasy that my baseball
card, my sports card collectionwas going to make me rich
someday.
That I was going to find allthese diamonds in the rough
players, get ahead of the curve,have all these rookie cards,
and then later on be able to payfor my college education off
(34:24):
the backs of some of theseplayers.
I loved collecting baseballcards.
But today, looking back, thereare very few that I have that
are valuable.
They're kind of like my BeanieBaby collection, where the
memories are more valuable thanthe thing themselves.
What I thought would be fun todo for a segment here and
(34:44):
probably a few other segments islook at overhyped athletes of
certain decades and how thattranslated to me trying to hoard
all of their cards.
What I'm going to do here isI've got 10 athletes from the
1990s that I consider to beoverhyped.
Maybe it's my own stupiditythat I saw how good they could
(35:06):
be and I spent so much moneythat I didn't have on their
cards.
I did my best with theseoverhyped athletes of the 1990s
to have representatives from allfour major sports, basketball,
football, hockey, baseball.
Since I collected baseballcards, you'll see that four of
the ten are baseball players.
(35:26):
Those of you that grew up thatare around my age will see how
many of these athletes gave youdreams of making money on their
cards only for them to beflushed down the toilet.
When I was thinking ofoverhyped athletes of the 90s
combined with baseball cardsthat I thought would be
valuable, the first name thatpopped in my head was a baseball
(35:49):
player named Kevin Moss.
He was drafted by the New YorkYankees, so it was, ooh, he's a
Yankee prospect.
He's got to be good.
His rookie season was 1990, andthe hype was off the charts for
this guy.
He finished second in theRookie of the Year voting in
1990, batting .252 with 21 homeruns.
(36:11):
He followed it up in 1991,batting .220 with 23 home runs.
So even then, it was like,well, he's got the power.
I had probably half a dozenrookie cards of his, just
thinking all he needs is a fewmore seasons and he's going to
be up there with the elites.
But oh no, he fell off a cliff.
(36:34):
He had 1992 and 93 with theYankees.
With his numbers falling, heplayed less and less.
He was out of Major LeagueBaseball in 94 and attempted a
comeback with the MinnesotaTwins in 95.
He batted 193 in 22 games andnever played in the majors
again.
I still have all his rookiecards, though.
(36:56):
Maybe they're a cautionarytale.
We move on to basketball.
Not all overhyped athletesweren't successful.
When I think of overhyped, Ithink of Larry Johnson from the
NBA.
Those of you that grew up inthe 90s might think of him as
Grandmama, his character.
which was on Family Matters andin Converse commercials.
(37:20):
Maybe it's because he waseverywhere in the mid-1990s, but
he, to me, seemed like somebodythat never reached the
potential for all the attentionhe got.
In the mid-1990s, when you haveMichael Jordan, Hakeem
Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal,you've got this guy that was
(37:41):
kind of a mid-level player, buthad all this exposure because of
endorsements and appearances onTV.
That's why I'm saying not alloverhyped players were bad.
I mean, he averaged 16 points agame and was a two-time
all-star.
But I feel when I was in highschool that Larry Johnson was
shoved down my throat way toomuch.
(38:02):
But your opinions may vary.
Let's go back to baseball,though.
When I was thinking of thesports cards that I was
collecting where I thoughtthey'd be valuable...
Another one that popped into mymind was pitcher Todd Van
Poppel.
Todd Van Poppel was a majorprospect for the Oakland
Athletics when they were thejuggernaut in baseball.
(38:24):
He was so hyped out of collegethat Oakland signed him to a
major league contract instead ofa minor league one.
That was kind of the downfallbecause he had only so many
options down in the minors.
They had to bring him up atsome point.
He was so hyped, but it wasthat lack of seasoning down in
(38:45):
the minors that was kind of hisdownfall.
I just remember going to thecorner store and getting packs
of baseball cards and gettingTodd Van Poppel.
You would have thought that Ibought a scratch ticket that won
a million dollars.
It was all systems go when hemade his major league debut on
September 11th, 1991.
He proceeded to give up fiveearned runs in four and
(39:08):
two-thirds innings.
He ended up pitching 11seasons, mostly as a middle
reliever, and his best seasonwas in 2001 with the Chicago
Cubs, where he went 4-1 with a2.52 ERA.
By that point, though, hisbaseball cards were worth about
three cents.
We'll stick with baseball,though.
(39:30):
Another majorly overhypedathlete of the 1990s was Brian
Taylor, another baseball player,another New York Yankee.
reading things like SportingNews or the Beckett Baseball
Price Guides back then.
Brian Taylor was the secondcoming of Roger Clemens, Nolan
(39:51):
Ryan.
He was one of those hypedathletes that I would have gone
to the baseball card store onMain Street in Hyannis near me
and bought one of his cardsrather than trying to get it in
a pack.
He signed for $1.55 millionwith the Yankees and was
considered the best high schoolpitching prospect that people
(40:11):
had ever seen.
His issues didn't come from histalent.
It came from an altercationdefending his brother in 1993.
Taylor basically destroyed hispitching shoulder getting in a
fight.
After that, he was never thesame again.
He never reached the majors andspent four years in A-ball,
(40:32):
which is low, low minor leagues.
Another overhyped athlete, andit's probably not his fault, we
moved to basketball andChristian Laettner.
He played at Duke University,won back-to-back national
championships, had that famousshot in the tournament, the last
second shot to win the game.
I immediately saw him asoverhyped because I was a North
(40:55):
Carolina fan, so I didn't likeDuke.
But also he was picked to be onthe dream team, the Olympic
basketball team, instead ofShaquille O'Neal, who was my
favorite player.
It was like, here's the dreamteam and Christian Laettner.
Like I said, it's not hisfault, I think, but he was
immediately behind the eightball there.
He needed to come out in theNBA and be like a top five
(41:18):
player to be worthy of all thoseaccolades.
He had a respectable career,playing 13 seasons and making
one All-Star game.
He averaged about 13 points andjust under 7 rebounds a game.
So when you look back at theDream Team and you put all their
career stats up there, you cansee he sticks out like a sore
(41:40):
thumb.
Some athletes, it's not theirfault.
They don't live up to the hype.
Others, it's absolutely theirfault.
We look at Ryan Leaf, thefootball quarterback.
All you have to do is GoogleRyan Leaf or look on YouTube and
find the video of him screamingat the reporter in the locker
room.
That sums up his career rightthere.
(42:00):
He was the number two pick inthe 1998 draft behind Peyton
Manning.
I mean, you talk about afalling off.
I'm sure at the time nobodyknew how badly he would do.
In his rookie year of 1998, hehad two touchdowns against 15
interceptions.
And I guarantee you there aresome of you listening out there
(42:23):
right now who could have playedin the NFL and had better
numbers than Ryan Leaf.
And then he missed all of 1999with an injury, and that was
about it.
He played four seasons with atotal record of four wins and 17
losses and 14 career touchdownsagainst 36 career
(42:43):
interceptions.
I didn't collect Ryan Leaffootball cards.
But the next person on thelist, I did collect theirs.
And that's Jeff George.
He was the first pick in theNFL draft by the Indianapolis
Colts, a quarterback with majorheight.
So much so that when I got hisrookie card, I said, oh, there
(43:04):
you go.
It's like a down payment on myfirst car.
Now it's not even a downpayment on a matchbox car.
His first year in 1990, it wasnot terrible.
It was slightly mediocre.
He was 5-7 in his starts, 16touchdowns, and 13
interceptions.
I mean, Ryan Leaf would havekilled for those numbers.
(43:26):
And he was an All-Pro thatyear, which only increased the
hype and the value of hisfootball cards.
He played 12 seasons in theNFL, and he was an All-Pro one
other time.
So he's not the worst numberone pick ever, but I guess you
had to be there in the early1990s with the hype around him.
thinking somehow he was goingto be Joe Montana.
(43:50):
The next one, this one hitsclose to home.
We go back to baseball, myhometown, Boston Red Sox, and
their overhyped prospect, PhilPlantier.
This outfielder, his rookieseason was 1990.
He was hyped like he was thenext Jim Rice or Dwight Evans or
(44:10):
Carl Yastrzemski.
So naturally, I had to run outto the store and try to get some
of his rookie cards, just incase he was.
He wasn't.
He finished eighth in theRookie of the Year voting in
1991, but the Red Sox gave up onhim after three years.
My dreams almost came true.
His first year with the SanDiego Padres, he hit 34 home
(44:34):
runs and had 100 RBIs.
So I was like, oh, here we go.
He's going to live up to thehype, even if it's not in
Boston.
So he had 34 home runs in 1993.
He played four more seasons andhit 39 home runs combined.
He was out of Major LeagueBaseball in 1997.
We near the end and we moveinto hockey.
(44:57):
Alexander Daigle, he wasdrafted first overall by the
Ottawa Senators in 1993.
He had so much hype.
I didn't really watch hockey.
I didn't really collect hockeycards.
But the hype around him made mego get hockey cards.
He is one that if he wasn't thefirst draft pick, if you looked
(45:20):
at his career stats, you'd belike, oh, he was, you know,
serviceable.
But with the hype around him,his numbers were terrible.
10 seasons in the NHL, 129total goals.
But he was hyped like he wasgoing to be a 40 goal a year
scorer.
He was out of the league acouple of times for a year or
(45:41):
two years and kept trying tomake comebacks, but finally
retired at age 30.
Finally here, my last overhypedathlete of the 1990s, we go to
basketball and Sean Kemp.
Just because you can dunk theball hard does not make you
great.
Said by someone who can't dunkthe ball.
(46:02):
He was a power forward, 6'10",could do these amazing dunks
that would just rock the hoop.
So when he came into the leaguein 1989 with the Seattle
Supersonics, I was all on board.
I was all into the hype, theRain Man, his nickname.
He is one of the best dunkersever, and he made six all-star
(46:24):
teams.
Like I said, just because he'soverhyped doesn't mean he wasn't
good, but he was a dunk guy.
He was a spot-fest guy.
I didn't see him being astalented as the other guys like
Jordan, Olajuwon, Ewing,Barkley, Drexler.
But he got just as much hype.
He's one, maybe you fall in thecamp that he was better than
(46:47):
his hype.
Maybe you think the same aboutLarry Johnson.
But I also look at my sportscards and what aren't valuable
anymore.
These are the names that I cameup with.
But who do you think were themost overhyped athletes of the
1990s?
They don't have to have beentotal busts like Kevin Moss or
Todd Van Poppel.
This was fun to do.
(47:08):
I will definitely do lists likethis for the 70s, 80s, for the
2000s.
Maybe I'll go through mybaseball card collection and
finally get rid of some of thesecards.
But until next week, that'sgoing to do it for episode 184
of the In My Footsteps podcast.
I hope you don't think thispodcast is overhyped.
(47:31):
Although I do a lot of hypingof it on social media.
If you haven't seen that,follow me all over social media.
I'm on Instagram, Threads, BlueSky.
I have a Facebook fan page.
I have a YouTube channel withhundreds and hundreds of videos.
I am easy to find.
You can become a Patreonsubscriber for $5 a month.
(47:54):
You can also go there and justcheck out the free tier.
I try to make sure I do havesome stuff on the free tier so
that you can see kind of whatit's all about.
I didn't want to have myPatreon be everything behind a
paywall.
You can always buy me a coffee.
Those you can send as little asa dollar, which I don't think
(48:14):
will buy me a coffee, but still.
There are lots of ways tosupport me, my content, my work.
I put in 15 hours a week,usually.
Editing, recording, marketing,anything I do.
It's going to continue in a bigway next week with episode 185.
We're going to look at the 35thanniversary of one of my
(48:38):
favorite movies from myformative years, that being
House Party, the kid and playmovie.
We're also going to look backat a time when Poppin' Fresh,
the Pillsbury Doughboy, had hisown restaurant.
And of course, I'll go way morein depth about Poppin' Fresh,
the icon that he was and is.
(48:58):
So stick around for that nextweek.
March is coming up in a fewdays.
That's when I really get in theweeds as far as my first ever
acting gig, my filming myscenes.
I'm excited but also nervous.
So it's interesting.
I create scripts and notes forthis podcast so that it's not...
(49:19):
Usually not me rambling allover the place.
And I spent a lot of yearscrafting skits with my camcorder
in high school.
So I'm no stranger to thestructure of creating films and
scripts and stuff.
But as far as memorizing linesthat I didn't write, I'm finding
(49:40):
it harder than I imagined.
So what I did, I put all myscenes together, copied and
pasted them out of the script,So that I could study them.
My genius move.
I guess to help me memorize.
Was to print them out again.
But in bigger font.
It's like speaking to a dog.
(50:02):
And then saying what you saidslower.
Like that's going to make thedog understand you.
That's like what it is with meprinting out these scenes.
In March though there will beway more hype about my filming
debut.
I'm going to be doinginterviews with people from the
movie.
I'll probably interviewproducer Frank Durant again.
(50:24):
I try to make these thingsvideos on YouTube.
So be on the lookout.
And also be on the lookout forspring.
Ooh, there's a segue.
It's only a little while.
We turn the clocks ahead again.
Spring will be here for most ofthe country.
Like I said, Cape Cod doesn'tget spring really until late
April.
(50:44):
But still, get out there as thetemperatures start to get
warmer.
Enjoy the vitamin D.
Enjoy being outside.
It hasn't been a terriblewinter on Cape Cod.
It was definitely colder thanlast year, but we still haven't
gotten that much in the way ofsnow.
Now I'm jinxing us.
But a little bit of cold andsnow makes you appreciate
(51:05):
spring.
And speaking of producer FrankDurant, A special happy birthday
to him, today the day thepodcast goes live.
From a total cold call messageon Facebook about talking about
the Lady of the Dunes, to nowalmost four years later, my
first film role.
Frank opened up a whole newworld to me of just opportunity.
(51:29):
Anytime we talk, there's alwayssomething interesting going on
that I'm usually included in.
That's why when it comes to anyprojects, if Frank mentions it,
I'm like, yeah, whatever it is,I'm in.
So I'll always appreciate himreaching out, taking a chance on
me to write the book basedaround his documentary that he
(51:50):
worked so hard on.
He might not get the creditthat he should with his
documentary, but he helped tosolve the Lady of the Dunes case
because of what he did with hisdocumentary.
No matter what you hear fromanybody else.
So happy birthday to Frank, theproducer, and Frank, my friend.
(52:10):
And remember, in this life,don't walk in anyone else's
footsteps.
Create your own path and enjoyevery moment you can on this
journey we call life.
Because you never know whattomorrow brings.
Thank you all again for tuningin.
This has been the In MyFootsteps podcast.
I am Christopher Setterlund.
(52:32):
You already knew that.
And I'll talk to you all againsoon.
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