June 27, 2025 • 10 mins
Dr. Bob Thompson has the latest entertainment news including a really bad idea by theaters! Trust us, this is NOT a good idea!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's jump right in.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Bob Thompson, Professor of Pop Culture, Syracuse University. Robert, good morning,
How are you, sir?
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Good morning? Pretty well, how about you good.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I want to start with the passing of Bobby Sherman
a couple of days ago, the teen idol from the
sixties and seventies. He was a little before my time, Robert,
What do you remember from Bobby Sherman?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
You know, and I think he's one of those, you know,
everybody kind of even if it weren't around, remembers.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
David Cassidy and you.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Know, some of these other big teen idols, But Bobby
Sherman's one of those people, even though he continued to
work for many, many years after his reign as tea idol.
If you talk to anybody, I don't know, under the
age of about probably sixties sixty five, they probably don't remember.
But I remember when I was in elementary school, middle school.
(00:52):
He was a huge, huge heart throb and really one
of the first you know, we'd had obviously heart throbs
and teen idol in the twenties and the rest, but
he was kind of the new modern tiger beat version
of that. He started out. Actually he got to sort
of discovered on a television series called Here Comes the
Brides on ABC. He played he was twenty five, I
(01:14):
think somewhere around there, and he played this younger brother
in a Seattle lumberjack family. But then he an actor.
Salmonio kind of took him under his wing, got him
some recording stuff, and he had by seventy two, like
seven gold singles, ten gold albums, a platinum single, Julie
(01:37):
do You Love Me? One of the bubblegummiest of songs.
I remember. I don't remember the brand of cereal, but
we had some cereal in our kitchen and it had
a Bobby Sherman record on the back and you can
cut it out and put it onto the turntable and
by gosh, it would play. That wasn't the first time
that had happened or the last.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I actually remember those two, and that brilliant there by
the way you can buy a box of cereal, and
typically we're used to seeing, you know, go in and
get a cheap piece of junk toy inside, but to
actually attach a record to a cereal box, it's is
brilliant marketing cool.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
And you know, back then these were the analog days.
You had to work for it. You had to get
a scissors, you had to take that little wax lining
out with the cereal had ben flatten out the box,
cut it out, Try not to fold it because then
the needle would go over it. It was a half
day's entertainment.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
That's so funny. And I don't think they put toys
in cereal boxes anymore.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Do they. Well, you can still get envelopes with I
think sometimes it's like stickers and fold outs and stuff.
The greatest toys. Of course they don't, because the best
toys in cereal were the ones you could choke on.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
It's doctor Bob Thompson, Professor of pop Culture, Syracuse University.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
And you mentioned Tiger Beat.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Do they still they don't think they published Tiger Beat
magazine anymore?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
You know, I don't know. It's been a long time
since I had a subscription. No, I actually never did.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
But it ended in two thousand and seven.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Kind that you don't, I guess I don't know what
the state of Tiger Beat was. I remember Shittendig, No,
you'd be too young for that. Bobby Sherman, actually, even
before he was on Here Come the Bride, was these
shows that were kind of like American Bandstand, but they
were primetime programs what was called Shittendig, and it was
(03:26):
catching in all the emerging new music and that was
such a popular shows on twice a week, two nights
a week. Bobby Sherman did a bunch of performances on
that as well.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
You'll be surprised to know that Tiger Beat Magazine's last
issue was in the winter of twenty nineteen, so not
that long ago.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Surprising all.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Oh, so a COVID casualty.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, which you would think everybody home during COVID you
would want to.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Have the magazines for the teens.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yeah, at that time.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
But yeah, twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Are they still online or are they completely.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
It's probably an Instagram account by now. Tiger Beat ended
in nineteen teen. Beat ended in two thousand and seven,
so those but those were around a lot longer than
I thought they.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Would have been.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, No, I'm surprised.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
The other story.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
You've got f one the movie in theaters this weekend,
and I don't go to the movie theater that often.
It's got to be something that I'm really interested in.
And I'm not a big racing fan. I mean, I
pay attention very casually. But for some reason, I love
racing movies and I will be going to see Brad
Pitt in the theaters this weekend.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Interesting how you're not a movie or not a racing
person and this is still because this is a racing movie. Yeah,
but you like racing movies.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Okay, I like racing movies.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I don't really necessarily watch NASCAR or any kind of
Formula one or anything like that regularly. I'll watch Daytona
five hundred, maybe I'll check in or the Indie. But
for some reason, racing movies get my heart pounded, and
they're incredibly action packed, and I'm excited for this one.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, no, they are, and it's so controllable because it
all happens at a you know, can find a space.
This has been getting good review. It's been out for
what ten days, I think it'said playing at Radio City
in New York, and then finally Tonight's it's big, big
opening and obviously considered one of the huge summer summer movies.
(05:17):
Although what Jurassic World is just around the corner and
Superman and all of that.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Well, I was gonna say, so you've got f one
the movie opening up this week widely. Next weekend is
Jurassic World Rebirth, followed by Superman on July eleventh, and
it just keeps going. A Fantastic four has got a
movie towards the end of July. So we really are
in that blockbuster movie type season right now.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Yeah, it's summertime here it is.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
And then so that with am I seeing this story
right that AMC Theaters has kind of start running commercials
before movies.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, so just in time for all
these movies you just named, and as we go into
the fiftieth blockbuster summer after Jaws, AMC. Now, anybody's been
to the movies for the last long time knows there
are commercials before the things play. But it was around
twenty nineteen in some ways, in response to the challenges
(06:12):
of COVID and everything, that a couple of the big
movie chains started showing commercials not just before the designated
start time of the movie, but afterwards as well. And
AMC made a big deal that they weren't going to
do this, and somebodys were playing five six minutes of
commercials after the time that it said the movie was
(06:32):
going to start. Well, AMC now has buckled. They're the
biggest chain and they're going to start doing this as well.
So you know now, and I'm sure you've done this.
People try to psych it out. They know if the
movie says it starts at seven thirty five, that you
generally have at least ten minutes, sometimes as much as
twenty and thirty in some markets before the movie actually plays.
(06:58):
But to me, for all of the different ways that
movie theaters are trying to get people back into the theaters,
having six minutes of commercials after the time it said
the movie was going to start, doesn't sound like a
great idea.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Well it's a great point.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I mean typically, I mean you and I growing up,
you'd go and you look forward to the previews of
the movies that are coming out, you know, maybe at
Christmas time this fall, and then a little message about
hey be kind and don't you know, turn yourself on
off and go get a coca and a popcorn and
all those That was the biggest advertising was for the
concession stand or the snack bar.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Exactly, and of course those are still playing. It's all
part of the big the big mix. And I go
back even as far when I was a real little
Kid where you'd have cartoons before the features. Well, that
hasn't been done in a long time, although Pixar does
you know, started that up again as part of their
big releases.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
And it's interesting you mentioned the actual movie time start.
I think there was some push I don't know but
when it was some sort of legislator somewhere or somebody
was trying to get movie theaters to publish the actual
start time of the movie of like, hey, we'll run
you know, the projector goes on at seven thirty five,
but the actual movie starts at seven fifty five or whatever.
(08:15):
I don't know where that ever went, but that would
be good information to have.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, well it would be, but of course that would
completely take out the defeat, the point that they're trying
to get another income when I'm waiting to happen and
I don't think this is going to but you can
begin to see when you read stories like this about
you know, six minutes of ads after the designated time slot, somebody,
at some point is going to get the brilliant idea
(08:40):
of why not once we've got everybody in their seats
watching the movie, have a little intermission in the middle
of the movie and put an ads in there, which
would make it back to the days of television.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah, that's that's a bad idea.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
I think it's a terrible idea. But that doesn't necessarily
stop the movie industry.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, I get their struggle, and they need to figure
out how to bring people back to the movies. I
mean they could start by creating really good movies. That
would be a good start. But you know, with the
way streaming works now, and why would you ever want
to leave your own living room?
Speaker 1 (09:12):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
But I will be in attendance to see F one
at some point with the boys this weekend, so I'll
give you I'll give you a review at some point.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Hey, one quick thing, we shall we talked about the
death of Bobby Sherman. We really should mention at least
Bill Moyers, who was considerably more important than Bobby Sherman.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Yes, yeah, I mean he just passed the other day,
didn't he.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yeah, I think maybe I think I heard about it yesterday, Yeah,
yesterday afternoon or something.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah. Bill Moyer's So it's funny.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
You get to a certain age, Bob, and you start
people start going in chunks.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Well, and you know, the other one the guy who
wrote the theme song to Mission Impossible.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
That's right. His name escapes me as.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
You're watching the Chase and Bullet with the saxophone and everything.
That was Schiffrin's work as well. Wow yeah Mannix's theme
really yeah wow Jesse h Jesse film TV theme guy.
You know.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
And that's another whole topic, is the the the art
of the TV theme song is dead people. There's no
there's not really any like catchy opening theme songs anymore.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Yeah, we should do a whole thing about that, because
I mean, there are fancy ones like you know, Game
of Thrones all those HBO things, but I wouldn't call
those theme songs like the Come and listen to a
story about a man named Jed, or here's the story
of a lovely lady.
Let's jump right in.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Bob Thompson, Professor of Pop Culture, Syracuse University. Robert, good morning,
How are you, sir?
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Good morning? Pretty well, how about you good.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I want to start with the passing of Bobby Sherman
a couple of days ago, the teen idol from the
sixties and seventies. He was a little before my time, Robert,
What do you remember from Bobby Sherman?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
You know, and I think he's one of those, you know,
everybody kind of even if it weren't around, remembers.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
David Cassidy and you.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Know, some of these other big teen idols, But Bobby
Sherman's one of those people, even though he continued to
work for many, many years after his reign as tea idol.
If you talk to anybody, I don't know, under the
age of about probably sixties sixty five, they probably don't remember.
But I remember when I was in elementary school, middle school.
(00:52):
He was a huge, huge heart throb and really one
of the first you know, we'd had obviously heart throbs
and teen idol in the twenties and the rest, but
he was kind of the new modern tiger beat version
of that. He started out. Actually he got to sort
of discovered on a television series called Here Comes the
Brides on ABC. He played he was twenty five, I
(01:14):
think somewhere around there, and he played this younger brother
in a Seattle lumberjack family. But then he an actor.
Salmonio kind of took him under his wing, got him
some recording stuff, and he had by seventy two, like
seven gold singles, ten gold albums, a platinum single, Julie
(01:37):
do You Love Me? One of the bubblegummiest of songs.
I remember. I don't remember the brand of cereal, but
we had some cereal in our kitchen and it had
a Bobby Sherman record on the back and you can
cut it out and put it onto the turntable and
by gosh, it would play. That wasn't the first time
that had happened or the last.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I actually remember those two, and that brilliant there by
the way you can buy a box of cereal, and
typically we're used to seeing, you know, go in and
get a cheap piece of junk toy inside, but to
actually attach a record to a cereal box, it's is
brilliant marketing cool.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
And you know, back then these were the analog days.
You had to work for it. You had to get
a scissors, you had to take that little wax lining
out with the cereal had ben flatten out the box,
cut it out, Try not to fold it because then
the needle would go over it. It was a half
day's entertainment.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
That's so funny. And I don't think they put toys
in cereal boxes anymore.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Do they. Well, you can still get envelopes with I
think sometimes it's like stickers and fold outs and stuff.
The greatest toys. Of course they don't, because the best
toys in cereal were the ones you could choke on.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
It's doctor Bob Thompson, Professor of pop Culture, Syracuse University.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
And you mentioned Tiger Beat.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Do they still they don't think they published Tiger Beat
magazine anymore?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
You know, I don't know. It's been a long time
since I had a subscription. No, I actually never did.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
But it ended in two thousand and seven.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Kind that you don't, I guess I don't know what
the state of Tiger Beat was. I remember Shittendig, No,
you'd be too young for that. Bobby Sherman, actually, even
before he was on Here Come the Bride, was these
shows that were kind of like American Bandstand, but they
were primetime programs what was called Shittendig, and it was
(03:26):
catching in all the emerging new music and that was
such a popular shows on twice a week, two nights
a week. Bobby Sherman did a bunch of performances on
that as well.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
You'll be surprised to know that Tiger Beat Magazine's last
issue was in the winter of twenty nineteen, so not
that long ago.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Surprising all.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Oh, so a COVID casualty.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, which you would think everybody home during COVID you
would want to.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Have the magazines for the teens.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yeah, at that time.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
But yeah, twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Are they still online or are they completely.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
It's probably an Instagram account by now. Tiger Beat ended
in nineteen teen. Beat ended in two thousand and seven,
so those but those were around a lot longer than
I thought they.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Would have been.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, No, I'm surprised.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
The other story.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
You've got f one the movie in theaters this weekend,
and I don't go to the movie theater that often.
It's got to be something that I'm really interested in.
And I'm not a big racing fan. I mean, I
pay attention very casually. But for some reason, I love
racing movies and I will be going to see Brad
Pitt in the theaters this weekend.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Interesting how you're not a movie or not a racing
person and this is still because this is a racing movie. Yeah,
but you like racing movies.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Okay, I like racing movies.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I don't really necessarily watch NASCAR or any kind of
Formula one or anything like that regularly. I'll watch Daytona
five hundred, maybe I'll check in or the Indie. But
for some reason, racing movies get my heart pounded, and
they're incredibly action packed, and I'm excited for this one.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, no, they are, and it's so controllable because it
all happens at a you know, can find a space.
This has been getting good review. It's been out for
what ten days, I think it'said playing at Radio City
in New York, and then finally Tonight's it's big, big
opening and obviously considered one of the huge summer summer movies.
(05:17):
Although what Jurassic World is just around the corner and
Superman and all of that.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Well, I was gonna say, so you've got f one
the movie opening up this week widely. Next weekend is
Jurassic World Rebirth, followed by Superman on July eleventh, and
it just keeps going. A Fantastic four has got a
movie towards the end of July. So we really are
in that blockbuster movie type season right now.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Yeah, it's summertime here it is.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
And then so that with am I seeing this story
right that AMC Theaters has kind of start running commercials
before movies.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, so just in time for all
these movies you just named, and as we go into
the fiftieth blockbuster summer after Jaws, AMC. Now, anybody's been
to the movies for the last long time knows there
are commercials before the things play. But it was around
twenty nineteen in some ways, in response to the challenges
(06:12):
of COVID and everything, that a couple of the big
movie chains started showing commercials not just before the designated
start time of the movie, but afterwards as well. And
AMC made a big deal that they weren't going to
do this, and somebodys were playing five six minutes of
commercials after the time that it said the movie was
(06:32):
going to start. Well, AMC now has buckled. They're the
biggest chain and they're going to start doing this as well.
So you know now, and I'm sure you've done this.
People try to psych it out. They know if the
movie says it starts at seven thirty five, that you
generally have at least ten minutes, sometimes as much as
twenty and thirty in some markets before the movie actually plays.
(06:58):
But to me, for all of the different ways that
movie theaters are trying to get people back into the theaters,
having six minutes of commercials after the time it said
the movie was going to start, doesn't sound like a
great idea.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Well it's a great point.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I mean typically, I mean you and I growing up,
you'd go and you look forward to the previews of
the movies that are coming out, you know, maybe at
Christmas time this fall, and then a little message about
hey be kind and don't you know, turn yourself on
off and go get a coca and a popcorn and
all those That was the biggest advertising was for the
concession stand or the snack bar.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Exactly, and of course those are still playing. It's all
part of the big the big mix. And I go
back even as far when I was a real little
Kid where you'd have cartoons before the features. Well, that
hasn't been done in a long time, although Pixar does
you know, started that up again as part of their
big releases.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
And it's interesting you mentioned the actual movie time start.
I think there was some push I don't know but
when it was some sort of legislator somewhere or somebody
was trying to get movie theaters to publish the actual
start time of the movie of like, hey, we'll run
you know, the projector goes on at seven thirty five,
but the actual movie starts at seven fifty five or whatever.
(08:15):
I don't know where that ever went, but that would
be good information to have.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, well it would be, but of course that would
completely take out the defeat, the point that they're trying
to get another income when I'm waiting to happen and
I don't think this is going to but you can
begin to see when you read stories like this about
you know, six minutes of ads after the designated time slot, somebody,
at some point is going to get the brilliant idea
(08:40):
of why not once we've got everybody in their seats
watching the movie, have a little intermission in the middle
of the movie and put an ads in there, which
would make it back to the days of television.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah, that's that's a bad idea.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
I think it's a terrible idea. But that doesn't necessarily
stop the movie industry.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, I get their struggle, and they need to figure
out how to bring people back to the movies. I
mean they could start by creating really good movies. That
would be a good start. But you know, with the
way streaming works now, and why would you ever want
to leave your own living room?
Speaker 1 (09:12):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
But I will be in attendance to see F one
at some point with the boys this weekend, so I'll
give you I'll give you a review at some point.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Hey, one quick thing, we shall we talked about the
death of Bobby Sherman. We really should mention at least
Bill Moyers, who was considerably more important than Bobby Sherman.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Yes, yeah, I mean he just passed the other day,
didn't he.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yeah, I think maybe I think I heard about it yesterday, Yeah,
yesterday afternoon or something.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah. Bill Moyer's So it's funny.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
You get to a certain age, Bob, and you start
people start going in chunks.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Well, and you know, the other one the guy who
wrote the theme song to Mission Impossible.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
That's right. His name escapes me as.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
You're watching the Chase and Bullet with the saxophone and everything.
That was Schiffrin's work as well. Wow yeah Mannix's theme
really yeah wow Jesse h Jesse film TV theme guy.
You know.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
And that's another whole topic, is the the the art
of the TV theme song is dead people. There's no
there's not really any like catchy opening theme songs anymore.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Yeah, we should do a whole thing about that, because
I mean, there are fancy ones like you know, Game
of Thrones all those HBO things, but I wouldn't call
those theme songs like the Come and listen to a
story about a man named Jed, or here's the story
of a lovely lady.
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