July 18, 2025 • 10 mins
Dr. Bob Thompson has the latest entertainment news including a Superman review and the cancellation of Stephen Colbert
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's kind of an addiction with me, but Friday mornings
me in conversation with doctor Bob Thompson. He's a professor
of pop culture at Syracuse University. For some reason, he's
like my minutia soulmate. You and I. I swear I
don't think I could stop talking to you. If we
were in a room together, the room would never have
(00:21):
to open because we could go forever.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
You know, I would not take you on though in
a privia contest. It takes me a while to bring
these things up to my head. I think I would
lose that contest.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
No, I don't know. Well, we'd have you know, you
say something that inspires memory and me and vice versa,
and that just that's how it goes when you, I
don't know, when you love this kind of stuff so
very much, and I know that you span more decades
than you have been here. And I guess we'll start
with the quick, sad news. And that is the uh,
the loss of Connie Francis, who, although she hasn't done
(00:55):
anything of note in a couple of decades, she is
she is legendary and had her definite place of music history.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
She did and again, yeah, You're right when you talk
to people. What anybody younger than me practically is not
going to remember Connie Francis. However, they're going to have
heard those songs at some point in their in their life.
Those songs played in enough movies that younger people have seen,
and dentist's offices and elevators and commercials and all of
(01:28):
that kind of thing. So I think we could say
that Connie Francis is safe, that she is part of
the soundtrack that continues to be heard today.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
My instant mental reaction to her name is where the
boys are. And it's not because I actually heard the
song or remember the song. It's because of Ktel selling
a Connie Francis album on television when I was a kid,
and that was the first song in that commercial.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Okay, that proves everything you said in the beginning of
this conversation, because I remember those k Tel commercials very well.
I remember that particular one, yes, very well. And I
have to say that's probably blee what most of what
I know about Connie Francis. I was born in nineteen
fifty nine. Most of what I know was after the fact,
with those record offers.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
We don't even sell music on TV anymore, which is
a shame because I mean, America without boxcar Willie commercials
is just not America.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
And remember they used to be long. They were like
some of those record commercials, like three minutes long.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Oh yeah, they'd buy the entire brain record, put it
all in there, box Car, slim Women, all that stuff.
Man in the box office this week, can't be is
particularly thrilled. I know that you two have ventured into
the arona of the theater to see this new Superman movie.
I've been hesitant, but everything I've heard so far has
been good.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, it was a fun, kind of family friendly dog
and all that kind of thing. And needless to say,
Warner Brothers, who had been on a long period of
not so good speculation about what their future was, they've
now had what a minecraft movie, Sinner's Final Destination f one,
(03:11):
I might be forgetting one, and now Superman. So they've
done over two hundred and fifty million since July eleventh.
So I think a pretty good movie and looks like
a good start for this whole complete reset of DC.
I hold. I think Supergirl has already shot, wonder Woman
is in production, and.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
We've been talking about Supergirl. You know, I loved actually
the the CW TV series Supergirl. I thought was very
well done. I like the actress that played Supergirl. But
I just said, can't be a video last night that
I found online of an old Supergirl movie. He actually
remembers this. I didn't even know we had made a
Supergirl movie, and apparently it was so bad that they
(03:53):
cut like twenty five minutes out of it and had
said it to Europe.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Now I'm I can think of nothing but finding the
twenty five missing Supergirl minutes.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
It's the international version. Apparently they've made it a I
think was it Warner Brothers.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, it's one hundred and twenty six minutes long, Doctor Bob,
and you can. I think they have a platform where
you can find the original release of it. But that
one was not very good. But you know, we're gonna
ruin this a little bit for Chuck. They do do
a cameo at the end of the movie of who
the Supergirl is going to be?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Brings out it's gonna be good.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
I think it's gonna be a good shot French show.
I like that character Supergirl, and I think, especially in
twenty twenty five. You know, we're all about equality and
so forth. I'm surprised it's taken us this long to
put a Supergirl on the big screen and do a
good job.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
No, we're still calling her Supergirl.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Okay, she's super woman or she super empowered person of
feminine who knows it'll be good. Also, Crypto, I was
mentioning this to Campy earlier too. Apparently there are a
couple of stories out there indicating the interest and adopting
dogs has surged five since the release of the Superman movie.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. And in some of the
cases that will result in dogs getting wonderful homes. In
some of the cases, it'll be people who suddenly get
interested in adopting a dog after you see Superman, lose
interest a week later, and the poor dog wonders why
they don't love aren't loved anymore?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Well, because you can't drive drag your master back to
home after a hard night out. That's why you remember.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
If I'm not mistaken, I might be remember this wrong.
But wasn't the very first trailer we got for this movie,
Crypto was I think featured prominently the very first seconds
we saw this film when they dropped the trailer.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
All when he was lying in the snow and called
to cry. Yes, that was the first one I saw. Yeah,
so I'm gonna go see it because of you and
can't be liking it so much. I will see this movie.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah, that's a fun movie.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
What I will not see it about a year from
now is Stephen Colbert's face on the television screen at night.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
That was a huge bombshell for the TV industry yesterday
it was late when it dropped. Colbert, of course, just
what a couple of days ago, got an Emmy nomination
again for his show. He's been on the top of
the ratings in his time slots. He's ties rate of
the broadcast shows. He's got a Peabuddy Award under his belt.
(06:18):
So somebody has been doing very well for that show
and CBS. And we get the announcement that the show
will be canceled, not Steve Stephen Colbert, but the entire show.
There will be no CBS Late Night Show, which, if
you recall, goes all the way back to ninety three.
(06:39):
Remember when Leno and Letterman were fighting late night wars.
Leno one Man an NBC and got the night show,
and Letterman then went to CBS, and CBS has had
that late night show ever since Letterman first and then
Colbert in twenty fifteen, and they're going to cancel the
(07:01):
whole franchise.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
There's got to be a backstory here that will probably
never ever hear. And I won't miss him because I
don't like him, but from a business standpoint and ratings
and revenue and so forth, this makes no sense without
some hidden backstory.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, well, CBS claims it's completely a financial thing. I
think I would give two pieces of evidence, excuse me
for either side. The obvious one, and this is what
everybody is talking about is Paramount wants this merger with Skydance.
The federal government has got to approve that. It's why
(07:38):
the big sixteen million was paid out over the CBS thing.
And the biggest argument is Stephen Colbert is a very
anti Trump person and part of this whole thing to
get this merger through the theory is to get rid
of them. And just on Monday Show, Colbert had complained
a lot about how the Paramount deal was behind the
(08:01):
sixteen million, behind the payout over the sixty minutes deal.
So that's one obvious thing, and that makes perfect sense. However,
you could make the other argument, if you wanted to
believe CBS this was financial is if you recall they
already got rid of their late late night franchise a
(08:22):
couple of years ago. Remember when James Corden used.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
To follow Yes, and I thought, in spite of his
off camera image, I thought he was wonderful on screen.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah, he was a typical late late night, very odd show. Anyway,
that when he left, they did not replace him on
that late late night show. They replaced it with a
cheaper kind of talk show comedy thing called what Is
It After Midnight? So CBS had already kind of begun
to retrench from their presence in old school late night
(08:56):
talk shows, and now it's moving even earlier, and come
May they won't have any of them in late night,
which in nineteen ninety three they didn't either, although they
had one white hot before that. Remember Pat Sajak.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Oh, yes he tried, he did.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
That was CBS, if I'm not mistaken. Eighty nine to
ninety didn't last pretty long, and then they got out
of talk shows again. And then when Letterman became available,
they paid him all that money and brought him over
and that was a big time.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
I'm wondering if perhaps Worldwide Pants will not find a
way to broker this time and do something you know,
letterman esque, maybe with him behind the scenes, because I
think CBS, in homage to what David did all those years,
might actually they've got to do something with this. We've
got a big block of time now that's going to
need to be filled with something.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, and you know, even if even if it is true,
the late night watching when it's on kind of thing
is getting to be an old model in the thing
of streaming. But those things have value besides just the ratings.
They're able to promote all the people are on their
own network shows. I mean, it's their presence and they
(10:05):
get written about even if only whatever three million people
or two million people watch at night. Whenever I get
my feeds from various news sources, including The New York Times,
it has a little summary of what all the late
night hosts said in their monologues. The night bef
He's kind of an addiction with me, but Friday mornings
me in conversation with doctor Bob Thompson. He's a professor
of pop culture at Syracuse University. For some reason, he's
like my minutia soulmate. You and I. I swear I
don't think I could stop talking to you. If we
were in a room together, the room would never have
(00:21):
to open because we could go forever.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
You know, I would not take you on though in
a privia contest. It takes me a while to bring
these things up to my head. I think I would
lose that contest.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
No, I don't know. Well, we'd have you know, you
say something that inspires memory and me and vice versa,
and that just that's how it goes when you, I
don't know, when you love this kind of stuff so
very much, and I know that you span more decades
than you have been here. And I guess we'll start
with the quick, sad news. And that is the uh,
the loss of Connie Francis, who, although she hasn't done
(00:55):
anything of note in a couple of decades, she is
she is legendary and had her definite place of music history.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
She did and again, yeah, You're right when you talk
to people. What anybody younger than me practically is not
going to remember Connie Francis. However, they're going to have
heard those songs at some point in their in their life.
Those songs played in enough movies that younger people have seen,
and dentist's offices and elevators and commercials and all of
(01:28):
that kind of thing. So I think we could say
that Connie Francis is safe, that she is part of
the soundtrack that continues to be heard today.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
My instant mental reaction to her name is where the
boys are. And it's not because I actually heard the
song or remember the song. It's because of Ktel selling
a Connie Francis album on television when I was a kid,
and that was the first song in that commercial.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Okay, that proves everything you said in the beginning of
this conversation, because I remember those k Tel commercials very well.
I remember that particular one, yes, very well. And I
have to say that's probably blee what most of what
I know about Connie Francis. I was born in nineteen
fifty nine. Most of what I know was after the fact,
with those record offers.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
We don't even sell music on TV anymore, which is
a shame because I mean, America without boxcar Willie commercials
is just not America.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
And remember they used to be long. They were like
some of those record commercials, like three minutes long.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Oh yeah, they'd buy the entire brain record, put it
all in there, box Car, slim Women, all that stuff.
Man in the box office this week, can't be is
particularly thrilled. I know that you two have ventured into
the arona of the theater to see this new Superman movie.
I've been hesitant, but everything I've heard so far has
been good.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, it was a fun, kind of family friendly dog
and all that kind of thing. And needless to say,
Warner Brothers, who had been on a long period of
not so good speculation about what their future was, they've
now had what a minecraft movie, Sinner's Final Destination f one,
(03:11):
I might be forgetting one, and now Superman. So they've
done over two hundred and fifty million since July eleventh.
So I think a pretty good movie and looks like
a good start for this whole complete reset of DC.
I hold. I think Supergirl has already shot, wonder Woman
is in production, and.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
We've been talking about Supergirl. You know, I loved actually
the the CW TV series Supergirl. I thought was very
well done. I like the actress that played Supergirl. But
I just said, can't be a video last night that
I found online of an old Supergirl movie. He actually
remembers this. I didn't even know we had made a
Supergirl movie, and apparently it was so bad that they
(03:53):
cut like twenty five minutes out of it and had
said it to Europe.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Now I'm I can think of nothing but finding the
twenty five missing Supergirl minutes.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
It's the international version. Apparently they've made it a I
think was it Warner Brothers.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, it's one hundred and twenty six minutes long, Doctor Bob,
and you can. I think they have a platform where
you can find the original release of it. But that
one was not very good. But you know, we're gonna
ruin this a little bit for Chuck. They do do
a cameo at the end of the movie of who
the Supergirl is going to be?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Brings out it's gonna be good.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
I think it's gonna be a good shot French show.
I like that character Supergirl, and I think, especially in
twenty twenty five. You know, we're all about equality and
so forth. I'm surprised it's taken us this long to
put a Supergirl on the big screen and do a
good job.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
No, we're still calling her Supergirl.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Okay, she's super woman or she super empowered person of
feminine who knows it'll be good. Also, Crypto, I was
mentioning this to Campy earlier too. Apparently there are a
couple of stories out there indicating the interest and adopting
dogs has surged five since the release of the Superman movie.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. And in some of the
cases that will result in dogs getting wonderful homes. In
some of the cases, it'll be people who suddenly get
interested in adopting a dog after you see Superman, lose
interest a week later, and the poor dog wonders why
they don't love aren't loved anymore?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Well, because you can't drive drag your master back to
home after a hard night out. That's why you remember.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
If I'm not mistaken, I might be remember this wrong.
But wasn't the very first trailer we got for this movie,
Crypto was I think featured prominently the very first seconds
we saw this film when they dropped the trailer.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
All when he was lying in the snow and called
to cry. Yes, that was the first one I saw. Yeah,
so I'm gonna go see it because of you and
can't be liking it so much. I will see this movie.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah, that's a fun movie.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
What I will not see it about a year from
now is Stephen Colbert's face on the television screen at night.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
That was a huge bombshell for the TV industry yesterday
it was late when it dropped. Colbert, of course, just
what a couple of days ago, got an Emmy nomination
again for his show. He's been on the top of
the ratings in his time slots. He's ties rate of
the broadcast shows. He's got a Peabuddy Award under his belt.
(06:18):
So somebody has been doing very well for that show
and CBS. And we get the announcement that the show
will be canceled, not Steve Stephen Colbert, but the entire show.
There will be no CBS Late Night Show, which, if
you recall, goes all the way back to ninety three.
(06:39):
Remember when Leno and Letterman were fighting late night wars.
Leno one Man an NBC and got the night show,
and Letterman then went to CBS, and CBS has had
that late night show ever since Letterman first and then
Colbert in twenty fifteen, and they're going to cancel the
(07:01):
whole franchise.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
There's got to be a backstory here that will probably
never ever hear. And I won't miss him because I
don't like him, but from a business standpoint and ratings
and revenue and so forth, this makes no sense without
some hidden backstory.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, well, CBS claims it's completely a financial thing. I
think I would give two pieces of evidence, excuse me
for either side. The obvious one, and this is what
everybody is talking about is Paramount wants this merger with Skydance.
The federal government has got to approve that. It's why
(07:38):
the big sixteen million was paid out over the CBS thing.
And the biggest argument is Stephen Colbert is a very
anti Trump person and part of this whole thing to
get this merger through the theory is to get rid
of them. And just on Monday Show, Colbert had complained
a lot about how the Paramount deal was behind the
(08:01):
sixteen million, behind the payout over the sixty minutes deal.
So that's one obvious thing, and that makes perfect sense. However,
you could make the other argument, if you wanted to
believe CBS this was financial is if you recall they
already got rid of their late late night franchise a
(08:22):
couple of years ago. Remember when James Corden used.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
To follow Yes, and I thought, in spite of his
off camera image, I thought he was wonderful on screen.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah, he was a typical late late night, very odd show. Anyway,
that when he left, they did not replace him on
that late late night show. They replaced it with a
cheaper kind of talk show comedy thing called what Is
It After Midnight? So CBS had already kind of begun
to retrench from their presence in old school late night
(08:56):
talk shows, and now it's moving even earlier, and come
May they won't have any of them in late night,
which in nineteen ninety three they didn't either, although they
had one white hot before that. Remember Pat Sajak.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Oh, yes he tried, he did.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
That was CBS, if I'm not mistaken. Eighty nine to
ninety didn't last pretty long, and then they got out
of talk shows again. And then when Letterman became available,
they paid him all that money and brought him over
and that was a big time.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
I'm wondering if perhaps Worldwide Pants will not find a
way to broker this time and do something you know,
letterman esque, maybe with him behind the scenes, because I
think CBS, in homage to what David did all those years,
might actually they've got to do something with this. We've
got a big block of time now that's going to
need to be filled with something.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, and you know, even if even if it is true,
the late night watching when it's on kind of thing
is getting to be an old model in the thing
of streaming. But those things have value besides just the ratings.
They're able to promote all the people are on their
own network shows. I mean, it's their presence and they
(10:05):
get written about even if only whatever three million people
or two million people watch at night. Whenever I get
my feeds from various news sources, including The New York Times,
it has a little summary of what all the late
night hosts said in their monologues. The night bef
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.