November 21, 2025 • 9 mins
Dr. Bob Thompson has the latest entertainment news including big money for Bob Ross memorabilia!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right over to the Legacy Retirement Groove dot Com
(00:02):
phone line checking anyway, Doctor Bob Thompson, Professor of Pop
Culture from Sarah Hughes University, Doctor Bob, We're I mean,
it's less than a week until Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Are we starting to see.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Any of the holiday movies pop out on you know,
like the Hallmark Channel?
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Yet?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Oh yeah, there's gonna be a what day is it?
The Hallmark Buffalo Bills Christmas movie? They did one on
the what I think the Chiefs last year. Yes, yes,
So you know how powerful Hallmark Christmas is as an
institution when it's got a deal, now multi year deal
(00:39):
with the NFL, which of course is the biggest pop
culture phenomenon in all the country.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
That's it really is amazing that they have figured out
a way to make money that way.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
But answer your question, yeah, they started Hallmark started playing
their Library of Christmas things in October, and I forget
how many new ones they've got this year, but a lot.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I'm more of a I'm more of a rankin Bass
Holiday special old school guy. Oh yeah, some of the
the old stop motion animation kind of things, and uh,
that's my that's my era.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
And you know those when when when they play on uh,
every year they play, they tend to beat whatever else
is on that same time. Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer,
which came out during the Johnson administration. It's still uh well,
that was watching TV yesterday and a Denny's commercial came
up and there's all the characters from from Rudolph, I
(01:35):
mean that that show and Frosty the Snowman and uh
year without a Santa Claus. I mean really not only
to find the holiday for that whole generation, but then
they forced it upon their kids who liked it and
defined it for generations after that.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yeah, that's that's exactly my situation there. So I'm looking
forward to catching some of these when they pop up.
I see tomorrow night, I believe on PBS, the American
Revolution series wraps up.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
And this is a this is a ken Burns production.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Correct it is, And it's kind of extraordinary what this
guy has done. He started. His first one was in
nineteen eighty one, just one part on the Brooklyn Bridge,
very good thing, and he's done I think what like
forty four things since then, many of them with lots
and lots of parts. Matter of fact, sometimes too many parts.
(02:27):
That Baseball in nine innings went way to felt like eighteen.
But he's done some extraordinary stuff, including he became, of
course spectacularly famous with the Civil War, which he did
in nineteen ninety that I think was five parts. But
he's done other things, including something you guys should be
(02:47):
interested right after the Civil War. He did this really nice.
I think it's a two part history of radio called
Empire of the Air, which really kind of was a
love letter to the whole medium of radio. So check
that out when you're doing your Ken Burns retrospective.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
That's on my list.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
The last of six parts of the American Revolution two
hours in each part, so it was long as long
as the actual revolution.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
But long, and you know, in that same era. Have
you watched Death by Lightning yet? On Netflix? I had
a friend recommend me that one.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, did you like that? I thought that was very interesting.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
I haven't seen it yet. I just I just had
a buddy recommend it. And it's the story of the
assassination of James Garfield. I mean, you talk about Civil
War era and Death by I think it's only like
four episodes.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
It's it should be a quick, easy watch, but was
it any good?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, it's four episodes. I thought it was very interesting,
and you know, one of those things that we kind
of know it happened, we heard about it in school,
but I have to say I knew virtually nothing about
that story short of the fact that it happened.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Once upon a time, right, Yeah, of course James Garfield
from northeast Ohio and some Ohio ties, so.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Of course you've got that connection. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, So I'm gonna maybe get that on the list
for this weekend as well. Speaking with doctor Bob Thompson,
Syracuse University pop Culture. And then Thanksgiving is you know,
like I said, less than a week away, and we've
got the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and that always pulls
in monster ratings.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, you know, and we think of it as this
old fashioned, stodgy and it really is. It looks today
exactly like it looked in the fifties, except that it's
in color. But it really is old fashioned. But it
gets the highest rating of the year for a non
sports entertainment show, forty four million people last year. Now,
(04:45):
I think a lot of times they're not watching. It's
just on while you know, you're making the turkey and
all that kind of stuff. But last year it got
higher ratings than the World Series. It beat the Oscars,
any of the New Year's Eve stuff except for football
and a couple of couple of other sports events. It
(05:06):
was the highest rated show the year. I don't think
we normally think of that because it is so it's
kind of a goofy broadcast.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
And my kids love it because they're they're they're allowed
to watch TV in the morning, which they typically don't do.
So we do exactly what probably every American does is
wake up, make a breakfast, get the turkey going, and
put the parade on.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
In the background.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
You know. It's that is so true. I think so
many people remember, you know, you're in your footy pajamas,
you know, and I think get Threads got the day off.
And it is interesting how there are a number of
holidays that are really centered around a TV show. Thanksgiving
is one of them. Morning thanks TV show and then
(05:48):
afternoon football tall New Year's Eve. Before the cell phone,
you had to turn on the TV or the radio
so that you know exactly when the twelve o'clock came
because you're you know, you didn't have watches that were
synchronized and everything. And then of course Super Bowl Sunday,
which was a holiday totally invented around the TV.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Yeah, those are great points.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
And you know, regarding the parade, Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade,
and you said it was kind of an old, you know,
stodgy kind of thing, but there are some modernizations with
the stranger things flowed and you know, the K pop
Demon Hunters and oh yeah, yeah, all of these kind
of you know, twenty twenty five things that are going
to be making appearances this year.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, you do get us. If you watch that parade,
you get a sense of what's still in the center
of the pop culture. Though a lot of stuff is
the new, the new balloons, what a buzz light Year,
which is celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of twice store Mario,
which is of course celebrating the circa sequel Shrek pac Man.
(06:51):
I mean a lot of these stuff are from when
practically I was a kid.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Not quite right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
I mean I just just give me Snoopy and Santa
Claus and at the end and I'm going that's all.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
It's all.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
By the way, this is the ninety ninth Parade next
year will be wow.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Wow, that'll be a big deal.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
And it's actually older than that, but they took a
few years off during the Second World War. They needed
the rubber for other things.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
I guess. Now, yeah, that would be your time to
book your hotel in New York City. I spared or.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Not to get as far away as possible from.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
It real quick. Bob.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
See, there's a bid for a Bob Ross painting, and
we talked about this a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
It's over a million dollars now.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, so those ones we talked about. I think they
put up the Bob Ross Estate or whatever put up
three and got six hundred and sixty thousand something like that.
John Oliver got them to give one for his auction
to support public radio. And last I checked on their website,
it's three more days remaining. It was at one forty
six thousand.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
So that's that's a lot of money for a little
cabin and six pine trees on it. Pretty sunset. Yeah,
there's let's see, let me count six happy. Well, one
doesn't look so happy, six happy and one morose.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
We talked last time too about you know, with all
due respect to the late Bob Ross. I mean, his
paintings aren't going to be hanging in the louver anytime soon.
I mean I couldn't do that, but I mean they're
they're I guess art is, you know, is all subjective,
and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
No, it is true. But we said this last time,
but it's worth saying again. What was so great about
that show was one he was so mister Rogers gentle.
But the way he the magic of he would he would,
you know, be dabbing on the canvas and all of
a sudden, not only it looked like a tree, but
it looked like a wooden bark with a little chip
(08:48):
out of it. How he could do that with those
little pops of paint. It seemed like it was almost
like a magic trick performance.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, and all while being filmed on you know, for
television too, and you don't really yet the girl
Speaker 2 (08:59):
In his pocket in one case,
All right over to the Legacy Retirement Groove dot Com
(00:02):
phone line checking anyway, Doctor Bob Thompson, Professor of Pop
Culture from Sarah Hughes University, Doctor Bob, We're I mean,
it's less than a week until Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Are we starting to see.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Any of the holiday movies pop out on you know,
like the Hallmark Channel?
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Yet?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Oh yeah, there's gonna be a what day is it?
The Hallmark Buffalo Bills Christmas movie? They did one on
the what I think the Chiefs last year. Yes, yes,
So you know how powerful Hallmark Christmas is as an
institution when it's got a deal, now multi year deal
(00:39):
with the NFL, which of course is the biggest pop
culture phenomenon in all the country.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
That's it really is amazing that they have figured out
a way to make money that way.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
But answer your question, yeah, they started Hallmark started playing
their Library of Christmas things in October, and I forget
how many new ones they've got this year, but a lot.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I'm more of a I'm more of a rankin Bass
Holiday special old school guy. Oh yeah, some of the
the old stop motion animation kind of things, and uh,
that's my that's my era.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
And you know those when when when they play on uh,
every year they play, they tend to beat whatever else
is on that same time. Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer,
which came out during the Johnson administration. It's still uh well,
that was watching TV yesterday and a Denny's commercial came
up and there's all the characters from from Rudolph, I
(01:35):
mean that that show and Frosty the Snowman and uh
year without a Santa Claus. I mean really not only
to find the holiday for that whole generation, but then
they forced it upon their kids who liked it and
defined it for generations after that.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yeah, that's that's exactly my situation there. So I'm looking
forward to catching some of these when they pop up.
I see tomorrow night, I believe on PBS, the American
Revolution series wraps up.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
And this is a this is a ken Burns production.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Correct it is, And it's kind of extraordinary what this
guy has done. He started. His first one was in
nineteen eighty one, just one part on the Brooklyn Bridge,
very good thing, and he's done I think what like
forty four things since then, many of them with lots
and lots of parts. Matter of fact, sometimes too many parts.
(02:27):
That Baseball in nine innings went way to felt like eighteen.
But he's done some extraordinary stuff, including he became, of
course spectacularly famous with the Civil War, which he did
in nineteen ninety that I think was five parts. But
he's done other things, including something you guys should be
(02:47):
interested right after the Civil War. He did this really nice.
I think it's a two part history of radio called
Empire of the Air, which really kind of was a
love letter to the whole medium of radio. So check
that out when you're doing your Ken Burns retrospective.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
That's on my list.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
The last of six parts of the American Revolution two
hours in each part, so it was long as long
as the actual revolution.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
But long, and you know, in that same era. Have
you watched Death by Lightning yet? On Netflix? I had
a friend recommend me that one.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, did you like that? I thought that was very interesting.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
I haven't seen it yet. I just I just had
a buddy recommend it. And it's the story of the
assassination of James Garfield. I mean, you talk about Civil
War era and Death by I think it's only like
four episodes.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
It's it should be a quick, easy watch, but was
it any good?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, it's four episodes. I thought it was very interesting,
and you know, one of those things that we kind
of know it happened, we heard about it in school,
but I have to say I knew virtually nothing about
that story short of the fact that it happened.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Once upon a time, right, Yeah, of course James Garfield
from northeast Ohio and some Ohio ties, so.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Of course you've got that connection. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, So I'm gonna maybe get that on the list
for this weekend as well. Speaking with doctor Bob Thompson,
Syracuse University pop Culture. And then Thanksgiving is you know,
like I said, less than a week away, and we've
got the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and that always pulls
in monster ratings.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, you know, and we think of it as this
old fashioned, stodgy and it really is. It looks today
exactly like it looked in the fifties, except that it's
in color. But it really is old fashioned. But it
gets the highest rating of the year for a non
sports entertainment show, forty four million people last year. Now,
(04:45):
I think a lot of times they're not watching. It's
just on while you know, you're making the turkey and
all that kind of stuff. But last year it got
higher ratings than the World Series. It beat the Oscars,
any of the New Year's Eve stuff except for football
and a couple of couple of other sports events. It
(05:06):
was the highest rated show the year. I don't think
we normally think of that because it is so it's
kind of a goofy broadcast.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
And my kids love it because they're they're they're allowed
to watch TV in the morning, which they typically don't do.
So we do exactly what probably every American does is
wake up, make a breakfast, get the turkey going, and
put the parade on.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
In the background.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
You know. It's that is so true. I think so
many people remember, you know, you're in your footy pajamas,
you know, and I think get Threads got the day off.
And it is interesting how there are a number of
holidays that are really centered around a TV show. Thanksgiving
is one of them. Morning thanks TV show and then
(05:48):
afternoon football tall New Year's Eve. Before the cell phone,
you had to turn on the TV or the radio
so that you know exactly when the twelve o'clock came
because you're you know, you didn't have watches that were
synchronized and everything. And then of course Super Bowl Sunday,
which was a holiday totally invented around the TV.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Yeah, those are great points.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
And you know, regarding the parade, Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade,
and you said it was kind of an old, you know,
stodgy kind of thing, but there are some modernizations with
the stranger things flowed and you know, the K pop
Demon Hunters and oh yeah, yeah, all of these kind
of you know, twenty twenty five things that are going
to be making appearances this year.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, you do get us. If you watch that parade,
you get a sense of what's still in the center
of the pop culture. Though a lot of stuff is
the new, the new balloons, what a buzz light Year,
which is celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of twice store Mario,
which is of course celebrating the circa sequel Shrek pac Man.
(06:51):
I mean a lot of these stuff are from when
practically I was a kid.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Not quite right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
I mean I just just give me Snoopy and Santa
Claus and at the end and I'm going that's all.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
It's all.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
By the way, this is the ninety ninth Parade next
year will be wow.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Wow, that'll be a big deal.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
And it's actually older than that, but they took a
few years off during the Second World War. They needed
the rubber for other things.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
I guess. Now, yeah, that would be your time to
book your hotel in New York City. I spared or.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Not to get as far away as possible from.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
It real quick. Bob.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
See, there's a bid for a Bob Ross painting, and
we talked about this a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
It's over a million dollars now.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, so those ones we talked about. I think they
put up the Bob Ross Estate or whatever put up
three and got six hundred and sixty thousand something like that.
John Oliver got them to give one for his auction
to support public radio. And last I checked on their website,
it's three more days remaining. It was at one forty
six thousand.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
So that's that's a lot of money for a little
cabin and six pine trees on it. Pretty sunset. Yeah,
there's let's see, let me count six happy. Well, one
doesn't look so happy, six happy and one morose.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
We talked last time too about you know, with all
due respect to the late Bob Ross. I mean, his
paintings aren't going to be hanging in the louver anytime soon.
I mean I couldn't do that, but I mean they're
they're I guess art is, you know, is all subjective,
and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
No, it is true. But we said this last time,
but it's worth saying again. What was so great about
that show was one he was so mister Rogers gentle.
But the way he the magic of he would he would,
you know, be dabbing on the canvas and all of
a sudden, not only it looked like a tree, but
it looked like a wooden bark with a little chip
(08:48):
out of it. How he could do that with those
little pops of paint. It seemed like it was almost
like a magic trick performance.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, and all while being filmed on you know, for
television too, and you don't really yet the girl
Speaker 2 (08:59):
In his pocket in one case,
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