October 17, 2025 • 10 mins
Dr. Bob Thompson has the latest entertainment news including a new movie about the Magic 8-ball!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
At eight thirty nine over to the Legacy Retirement Group
dot com phone line. He is the professor of Pop
Culture Sarah Huse University and a lot of ground tocover
this morning with doctor Bob Thompson. And we'll start with
doctor Bob Good morning. We'll start with the passing of
Kiss guitar player Ace Freely.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yeah, and to someone my age, Kiss was I guess
I was late high school in college when that band
was enormous, filling up arenas, filled with people. I know
what I'm going to do though, for my Halloween screening
next week. All of Kiss appeared in nineteen seventy six
(00:37):
on the Paul lynd Halloween special. I how does it
get better than this nineteen seventy six Paul lynde all
of Kiss performing with all the seventies commercials. It's going
to be like being a junior in high school all
over again. And of course Eighth Frehley was the lead guitarist,
(00:59):
and I think the founder. I think he was kind
of the brains behind that group, wasn't he?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah? He along with Paul Stanley where the where the two? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:07):
And then of course Gene Simmons came aboard and drummer
Peter Chris, and you know, they got into the makeup
and all of the pyro and and I think you've
got me by a couple of years, doctor Bob.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
So I was you know, I was probably.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Still in in elementary school when Kiss kind of came
on the scene, and.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I was actually afraid of them.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
When I was younger, I was more of a you know,
do wop beach Boys, Beatles, whatever mom and dad were
listening to. And then Kiss comes along, and then you know,
they got they got long tongues and there's fire, and I'm.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Like, who are these guys? Let's and I didn't get
into them until later on.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I was about to say elementary school might have been
the perfect age to be introduced to Kiss, But I'm
sorry that they frightened you.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
They did.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
They did either way they were there was no bigger band.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
I mean that nineteen seventy five A live album was.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Really well, oh yeah, put them on the map and
uh yeah, A's Freely and he was still touring too.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah. Yeah, I was surprised. What what was your favorite
Kiss song? Mine is still the anthem Beth was very
different than a lot of the other stuff.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
It sure was I don't know. I mean I like
the hits.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
I mean, you know, Doctor Love and Lick It Up
and Detroit Rock City and all of those absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
So and were a lot of hits.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah they were, and they were and they really changed
the way that music it made. It now was more
theatrical with the makeup and the stage shows and all
of that. So this might be a good weekend to
go listen to some kiss the other one and we'll
go briefly on this was the passing of Diane Keaton.
That was the last weekend though.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, and you know that we came. It was right
on the heels of Robert Redford. Uh, And I think
they had they had a lot in common. I mean,
his body of work might have been bigger than hers,
but they both, you know, really were at their peak
or around the same time. She became a director as
he did as well, maybe not as extensively, but they
(03:07):
were both giants of that era. And if nothing else
but the Godfather movies and those eight films that she
did with Woody Allen, that itself would be a huge legacy.
And of course she was still working till the very end.
There were twenty twenty three projects, twenty twenty four projects
(03:27):
that she was on, So she had by no means disappeared.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
No, No. And the cause of death I think was
revealed this week. It was complications due to pneumonia. Because
you're right, she was still working. I think she had
lost some weight and there were maybe some concern there,
but then she got sick. And yeah, she was a classic,
no doubt, won an Oscar for her performance in Annie
Hall in nineteen seventy eight. Diane Keaton, So let's talk
(03:54):
about it.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And the kiss e exactly right. Yeah, that whole core
of seventies culture is slowly beginning to disappear.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah, it's sad, isn't it. It's sad, But.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
As we point out every time we talk about this
kind of stuff, Bob, it does give us the opportunity
to reminisce and remember and get a little nostalgic, which
I think is always kind of fun to do.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
That's right. And Annie Hall and the live album those
are never going to go away and be able to
listen to those as long as there's machines to play
them on.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
We will always have the art that these folks created.
Let's talk about a couple of movies that are being
developed right now. We mentioned yesterday Jim Carrey is likely
to play George Jetson in a live Jetson's movie.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, that sounds like pretty good casting. Of course, we
remember back in the nineties when Jim Carrey was what
was that, four movies in one year, when he was
just the biggest star. It seems like on Planet Earth
Jetsons is I think a challenge. I mean the nineteen
sixty two series, of course, anybody who's ever seen it,
(05:00):
especially if they were watching it the first time around,
very nostalgic whatever. And then that got rebooted a couple
of times in the seventies and the eighties. But as
a movie, there was an animated movie in about nineteen ninety.
There were three other projects that never met it to completion.
(05:20):
So Justice has been kind of struggling in its other iterations,
like The Flintstones, which I thought, even though John Goodman
fred Flintstone, what perfect casting. Yes, but so was Robin
Williams as Popeye. I can't think of nobody better to
play Popeye. And neither of those movies did very well.
(05:40):
I think Popeye was a brilliant movie that didn't do
very well. I think The Flintstones was a bad movie
that didn't do.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Very well, and I think we were kind of due
for one of these types of movies. Though it's been
I feel like it's been just really serious and dark
and deep, and I think just a silly, dumb popcorn movie.
I don't know any details on it other than Jim
Carrey's being talked about. And you know, Jetsons were set
in the year twenty sixty two. This was back in
nineteen sixty two, so one hundred years into the future.
(06:08):
So I just wonder how they're going to play that out,
if if they're going to still have you know, the
flying cars and the three day work week and the
you know, the robot assistant, because that doesn't seem too
far off, right now.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
That's right. I mean watching the original Jetsons, with the
exception of the flying car and the offices in space,
is kind of like watching an episode of night Rider.
It's like, what's the big deal? So it could be
they could do all kinds of things because since it
is so tech oriented and we're in this era you
(06:39):
started before you talk to me of the technological apocalypse,
when we can put homeless people in our living room,
right thing. The Jetsons could actually really be a cutting
edge movie. I'm not sure how they pull that off
or whether we would care to see it, but it
could do a lot of interesting things in that we
are slouching towards twenty sixty two. Yeah, there are people
(07:03):
on earth right now that will be alive in two thousands.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yes, yeah, absolutely, Doctor Bob Johnson from Syracuse University, professor
of Bob Culture. So that's the future. And then there's
another movie that's going back. This is a big piece
of part of my childhood. There's a whole movie that's
being created based on the Magic eight Ball.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Oh yeah, and they just announced the director, none less
than m Night Hyamalan. I mean, this is pretty That's
a pretty big name to take on what seems to
be a ridiculous idea. But of course we know what
they can do. So that toy, which I suppose everybody
knows where you shake it and it gives you a
(07:42):
bleak answer, has been around for seventy five years, so
that's been around almost as long as the Jetsons will
have been around. But you know, I can understand Mattel
makes a movie of Barbie. Barbie's a person, she had
a dream house, she had all these professions. There's a
lot to work with. This was just a ball that
(08:02):
answered questions, but we don't we know that. The director,
of course did the sixth sense, so it's going to
have all of these psychological thriller I think he said
supernatural drama that blends psychological intensity with cultural intrigue, was
what Mattel said. So, you know, put an eight ball
(08:23):
in the hands of me and I shake it and
I get a dumb answer and put it down. Put
it in the hands of m Night Shamalan, and who
knows what he's going to do with it, but probably
somebody is going to be seeing dead people.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
I'm a Shamalan fan, so I'm really interested in this one.
I think it's going to be interesting. And yeah, and
you can kind of write the plot in your head
of the magic eight ball starts actually predicting the future,
and it starts at people's fortunes come true or whatever,
and you know, you know, certainty unclear, ask again later
or whatever. I always got asked again later. I'm like,
darn it, why can't you give me an answer now?
(08:56):
Magic eight Ball.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Ask again if I wanted dead answer, right, could have
asked my mom, that's.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Right, not now, honey, I'll ask again later.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
The other one, the TVO, remember the tv O box
the it was the the early DVR. This would would
have been I think maybe late nineties, nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah, early two thousands, and so do those still exist?
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Well, the announcement was that as of October first, they
are no more longer manufacturing their DVR, so they'll they'll
continue to maintain them and have customer service, which is
good news if you were dumb enough to sign up
for a lifetime plan. So for now anyway, they're going
to have service and all of that, but they're no
(09:42):
longer making them. And I remember when TiVo well, and
I never owned a TVO. I had a DVR that
was supplied by my cable company, right, But the word
TVO was kind of like the word kleenex. You use
kleenex to describe any tissue, you use xerox to describe
any photo copying, And TVO was kind of that, Oh,
(10:02):
I'll TiVo it. I remember we use that as a
as a verb for probably a good ten fifteen years.
And here's the thing, that was great about the TiVo
or the other DVRs. If you've still if you're still
looked up the cable is, you could go zipping through
the commercials, and you can't do that on streaming. You've
(10:24):
either got to pay to get no commercials, or you've
got to sit through them.
At eight thirty nine over to the Legacy Retirement Group
dot com phone line. He is the professor of Pop
Culture Sarah Huse University and a lot of ground tocover
this morning with doctor Bob Thompson. And we'll start with
doctor Bob Good morning. We'll start with the passing of
Kiss guitar player Ace Freely.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yeah, and to someone my age, Kiss was I guess
I was late high school in college when that band
was enormous, filling up arenas, filled with people. I know
what I'm going to do though, for my Halloween screening
next week. All of Kiss appeared in nineteen seventy six
(00:37):
on the Paul lynd Halloween special. I how does it
get better than this nineteen seventy six Paul lynde all
of Kiss performing with all the seventies commercials. It's going
to be like being a junior in high school all
over again. And of course Eighth Frehley was the lead guitarist,
(00:59):
and I think the founder. I think he was kind
of the brains behind that group, wasn't he?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah? He along with Paul Stanley where the where the two? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:07):
And then of course Gene Simmons came aboard and drummer
Peter Chris, and you know, they got into the makeup
and all of the pyro and and I think you've
got me by a couple of years, doctor Bob.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
So I was you know, I was probably.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Still in in elementary school when Kiss kind of came
on the scene, and.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I was actually afraid of them.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
When I was younger, I was more of a you know,
do wop beach Boys, Beatles, whatever mom and dad were
listening to. And then Kiss comes along, and then you know,
they got they got long tongues and there's fire, and I'm.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Like, who are these guys? Let's and I didn't get
into them until later on.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I was about to say elementary school might have been
the perfect age to be introduced to Kiss, But I'm
sorry that they frightened you.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
They did.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
They did either way they were there was no bigger band.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
I mean that nineteen seventy five A live album was.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Really well, oh yeah, put them on the map and
uh yeah, A's Freely and he was still touring too.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah. Yeah, I was surprised. What what was your favorite
Kiss song? Mine is still the anthem Beth was very
different than a lot of the other stuff.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
It sure was I don't know. I mean I like
the hits.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
I mean, you know, Doctor Love and Lick It Up
and Detroit Rock City and all of those absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
So and were a lot of hits.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah they were, and they were and they really changed
the way that music it made. It now was more
theatrical with the makeup and the stage shows and all
of that. So this might be a good weekend to
go listen to some kiss the other one and we'll
go briefly on this was the passing of Diane Keaton.
That was the last weekend though.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, and you know that we came. It was right
on the heels of Robert Redford. Uh, And I think
they had they had a lot in common. I mean,
his body of work might have been bigger than hers,
but they both, you know, really were at their peak
or around the same time. She became a director as
he did as well, maybe not as extensively, but they
(03:07):
were both giants of that era. And if nothing else
but the Godfather movies and those eight films that she
did with Woody Allen, that itself would be a huge legacy.
And of course she was still working till the very end.
There were twenty twenty three projects, twenty twenty four projects
(03:27):
that she was on, So she had by no means disappeared.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
No, No. And the cause of death I think was
revealed this week. It was complications due to pneumonia. Because
you're right, she was still working. I think she had
lost some weight and there were maybe some concern there,
but then she got sick. And yeah, she was a classic,
no doubt, won an Oscar for her performance in Annie
Hall in nineteen seventy eight. Diane Keaton, So let's talk
(03:54):
about it.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And the kiss e exactly right. Yeah, that whole core
of seventies culture is slowly beginning to disappear.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah, it's sad, isn't it. It's sad, But.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
As we point out every time we talk about this
kind of stuff, Bob, it does give us the opportunity
to reminisce and remember and get a little nostalgic, which
I think is always kind of fun to do.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
That's right. And Annie Hall and the live album those
are never going to go away and be able to
listen to those as long as there's machines to play
them on.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
We will always have the art that these folks created.
Let's talk about a couple of movies that are being
developed right now. We mentioned yesterday Jim Carrey is likely
to play George Jetson in a live Jetson's movie.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, that sounds like pretty good casting. Of course, we
remember back in the nineties when Jim Carrey was what
was that, four movies in one year, when he was
just the biggest star. It seems like on Planet Earth
Jetsons is I think a challenge. I mean the nineteen
sixty two series, of course, anybody who's ever seen it,
(05:00):
especially if they were watching it the first time around,
very nostalgic whatever. And then that got rebooted a couple
of times in the seventies and the eighties. But as
a movie, there was an animated movie in about nineteen ninety.
There were three other projects that never met it to completion.
(05:20):
So Justice has been kind of struggling in its other iterations,
like The Flintstones, which I thought, even though John Goodman
fred Flintstone, what perfect casting. Yes, but so was Robin
Williams as Popeye. I can't think of nobody better to
play Popeye. And neither of those movies did very well.
(05:40):
I think Popeye was a brilliant movie that didn't do
very well. I think The Flintstones was a bad movie
that didn't do.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Very well, and I think we were kind of due
for one of these types of movies. Though it's been
I feel like it's been just really serious and dark
and deep, and I think just a silly, dumb popcorn movie.
I don't know any details on it other than Jim
Carrey's being talked about. And you know, Jetsons were set
in the year twenty sixty two. This was back in
nineteen sixty two, so one hundred years into the future.
(06:08):
So I just wonder how they're going to play that out,
if if they're going to still have you know, the
flying cars and the three day work week and the
you know, the robot assistant, because that doesn't seem too
far off, right now.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
That's right. I mean watching the original Jetsons, with the
exception of the flying car and the offices in space,
is kind of like watching an episode of night Rider.
It's like, what's the big deal? So it could be
they could do all kinds of things because since it
is so tech oriented and we're in this era you
(06:39):
started before you talk to me of the technological apocalypse,
when we can put homeless people in our living room,
right thing. The Jetsons could actually really be a cutting
edge movie. I'm not sure how they pull that off
or whether we would care to see it, but it
could do a lot of interesting things in that we
are slouching towards twenty sixty two. Yeah, there are people
(07:03):
on earth right now that will be alive in two thousands.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yes, yeah, absolutely, Doctor Bob Johnson from Syracuse University, professor
of Bob Culture. So that's the future. And then there's
another movie that's going back. This is a big piece
of part of my childhood. There's a whole movie that's
being created based on the Magic eight Ball.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Oh yeah, and they just announced the director, none less
than m Night Hyamalan. I mean, this is pretty That's
a pretty big name to take on what seems to
be a ridiculous idea. But of course we know what
they can do. So that toy, which I suppose everybody
knows where you shake it and it gives you a
(07:42):
bleak answer, has been around for seventy five years, so
that's been around almost as long as the Jetsons will
have been around. But you know, I can understand Mattel
makes a movie of Barbie. Barbie's a person, she had
a dream house, she had all these professions. There's a
lot to work with. This was just a ball that
(08:02):
answered questions, but we don't we know that. The director,
of course did the sixth sense, so it's going to
have all of these psychological thriller I think he said
supernatural drama that blends psychological intensity with cultural intrigue, was
what Mattel said. So, you know, put an eight ball
(08:23):
in the hands of me and I shake it and
I get a dumb answer and put it down. Put
it in the hands of m Night Shamalan, and who
knows what he's going to do with it, but probably
somebody is going to be seeing dead people.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
I'm a Shamalan fan, so I'm really interested in this one.
I think it's going to be interesting. And yeah, and
you can kind of write the plot in your head
of the magic eight ball starts actually predicting the future,
and it starts at people's fortunes come true or whatever,
and you know, you know, certainty unclear, ask again later
or whatever. I always got asked again later. I'm like,
darn it, why can't you give me an answer now?
(08:56):
Magic eight Ball.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Ask again if I wanted dead answer, right, could have
asked my mom, that's.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Right, not now, honey, I'll ask again later.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
The other one, the TVO, remember the tv O box
the it was the the early DVR. This would would
have been I think maybe late nineties, nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah, early two thousands, and so do those still exist?
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Well, the announcement was that as of October first, they
are no more longer manufacturing their DVR, so they'll they'll
continue to maintain them and have customer service, which is
good news if you were dumb enough to sign up
for a lifetime plan. So for now anyway, they're going
to have service and all of that, but they're no
(09:42):
longer making them. And I remember when TiVo well, and
I never owned a TVO. I had a DVR that
was supplied by my cable company, right, But the word
TVO was kind of like the word kleenex. You use
kleenex to describe any tissue, you use xerox to describe
any photo copying, And TVO was kind of that, Oh,
(10:02):
I'll TiVo it. I remember we use that as a
as a verb for probably a good ten fifteen years.
And here's the thing, that was great about the TiVo
or the other DVRs. If you've still if you're still
looked up the cable is, you could go zipping through
the commercials, and you can't do that on streaming. You've
(10:24):
either got to pay to get no commercials, or you've
got to sit through them.
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