77: Planet Hollywood; Or, Die Hard Rocky Cafe

If there's one thing America's great at, it's franchising literally anything. Self-help book series, TV show spinoffs, Subways - we love a good franchise. And when it comes to America's global influence, the movie industry continues to be one of the biggest cultural exports from the USA to other countries. So, given that American films and movie stars have so much cultural cachet, and that quintessential love of franchises, it would be brilliant to build a restaurant chain all around worshiping movie celebrities, right? It's a fool-proof, can't-fail concept? Right? 

Ray teaches Rob how two venture capitalists took the idea of a Hollywood-themed restaurant chain and ran with it, then ran it into the ground; why celebrities bought into the Planet Hollywood hype; the unexpected places people store old movie props (check your backyard gardens); a chicken dish that Rob now really wants to try; and why Planet Hollywood, and themed restaurants in general, have faded since their glory days. 

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TEAM

Ray Hebel

Robert W. Schneider

Mark Schroeder

Billy Recce

Daniel Schwartzberg

Gabe Crawford

Natalie DeSavia

ARTICLES

EPISODE CLIPS

Michael Aspel with Stallone, Schwarzenegger & Willis about Planet Hollywood

Planet Hollywood Opening 1996

Planet Hollywood - Saturday Night Live

Planet Hollywood Comes Home (ABC Special 11/4/95)

Planet Hollywood Karaoke Track

ADDITIONAL MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS

"Happy Bee"

• Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

• Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Additional Sound Effects from Final Cut Pro, iLife, and Logic Pro