Nerd Lunch

After 20 months of doing the podcast, we finally decide it's time to cover Joss Whedon's sci-fi western classic, Firefly and the follow-up movie Serenity. And to occupy the fourth treadmill (?) for this conversation we call in our own big damn hero, Mark Dury. We recap our history with Mr. Whedon at the time of Firefly's premiere, personal introductions to the show, favorite episodes, favorite characters, thoughts on Serenity as a wrap-up to the show, and whether it should ever come back. After our main discussion we give our own take on the Star Trek TOS crew / Firefly versus match up from Episode 200 of The Atomic Geeks. In our Nerd To-Dos, we hear about Cowboy Bebop, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, The Transformers: The Movie, and a rewatching of Farscape.

CT, Jeeg, and Pax welcome Aaron Nix back to the fourth chair this week. After checking to make sure everything is OK with Aaron, we try to figure out which real world people or things would be best suited to some scenarios from movies, TV, or comic books. Which real life American football player would save the Earth from Ming the Merciless? Which real life US president would fly a fighter jet and lead Earth to victory over the aliens in Independence Day? Which real life band is most likely part of a Cobra plot using subliminal messages in the music?  You get the idea. In our Nerd To-Dos, we hear a mini review of Star Wars Scoundrels, a plan to visit Dickey's BBQ Pit, some love for Life of Pi, and a revisiting of Dark Knight Rises.

This week, CT abandons us and we are instead joined by The Retroist in his second appearance and Vic Sage, who is one of the head writers on The Retroist blog, in his first appearance on the show.  We brought in these retro experts to discuss one of the greatest gaming systems of all time, the Atari 2600.  We talk about our history with the system, some of our favorite and least favorite games and whether any of us scored one of those bad ass Master Gamer Patches.  For our Nerd To Dos we discuss Twilight Zone, Crusader Kings II, Wreck-It Ralph and the book Star Wars: Scoundrels.

The show is a three way dance this week as Pax, Jeeg, and CT discuss of all things: sports. After spending a few minutes throwing bouquets at Huey Lewis, we talk about our histories watching and playing actual sports, delving into fantasy sports, and collecting sports memorabilia. Then we move on to a discussion of best and worst sports movies.  Our Nerd To Dos include Josey Wales books, an Angel watching update, and something called Improvised Star Trek.

Atomic Geek and co-host of The Classic Film Jerks, Andrew Bloom, saddles up in our fourth chair for this week's episode. After getting an update on Bloom's bathroom renovations (seriously), we exchange ideas on what to do if we had the rights to a classic character but not the rest of the universe. Listen to find out how we would repurpose the likes of Galactus, Bigfoot, Jack Burton, Jambi the Genie, and more. In our Nerd To-Dos we hear about one geek's desire to quit Clash of Clans, one nerd's reaction to Snow Crash, one nerd's first forays into Apple TV, and one nerd's plans to watch Lipstick and Dynamite.

Jeeg makes his much anticipated return (whatever) to the show to talk party food with CT and guest Jasmin Fine from 1FineCookie.com. After getting the 411 on 1 Fine Cookie and debunking the rumor that Jasmin is related to Fran Drescher, we put together a nerd party with themed versions of our favorite appetizers / finger foods. And really what would a party be without snacks based on The Walking Dead, Mork & Mindy, or Buffy? This week's Nerd To-Dos feature a nerd's quest to live without a TV, Pie Day celebration plans, and the BBC show Ashes to Ashes

Cap'n CT and first mate Paxton Holley are joined by Long Jay Silver from the Sexy Armpit and the Dread Pirate Robert from To The Escpae Hatch to talk about the four Pirates of the Caribbean movies. They swab the deck on the cast, story, effects, what was good and where things went wrong. In the Nerd To Dos, the long lost treasure of Jumpin' Jack Doritos has finally been found. Also, what is the demand on a Twitter handle named "zerbert"?

Once again, Jeegless, this week Pax and CT are joined by Tim Lybarger of the Neighborhood Archive.  Tim is here to discuss live-action kids' TV shows.  We discuss our favorites and our not-so favorites.  Some of the shows discussed include Sesame Street, Electric Company, Mr Rogers, Reading Rainbow, 3-2-1 Contact and many, many more.  Nerd to Dos include Eerie Indiana, Red Dwarf, The Hobbit, Ted and Ghost Writer.

The Nerd Lunchers return to their own take on an Atomic Geek franchise topic. Once again re-doing a TV show, they pick the oft-maligned Star Trek: Voyager. Joined by Twitter pal of Jeri Ryan, Rob Graham, the premise, cast, writers, and designs get torn apart and put back together again in a much more satisfying way. In the Nerd To-Dos, more discussion of Star Trek takes place as well as the elusive Jumpin' Jack Doritos.

Michael May from Michael May's Adventure Blog joins us for a discussion of non-Super Hero Comic Books.  We talk about some of our favorites, why they are our favorites, what ones we read and what ones we think suck.  Nerd to Dos involve two separate Star Trek TV shows, Pirates of the Caribbean, James Bond and The Bionic Woman.

It's a very special episode on this week's Nerd Lunch Podcast. While Pax and Jeeg both are off fighting bears and building robots respectively, CT is joined by Jay from The Sexy Armpit and together they host a chat with UK comic book artist Des Taylor. Des, known for his simplistic and retro-style of illustration, is the creator behind self-published titles The Vesha Valentine Story and The Trouble with Katie Rogers. He has also had several pieces of his super hero art go viral on sites like GeekTyrant.com, io9.com, BleedingCool.com and our friends at the Retroist. In the show, Des talks about his history, upcoming projects, his thoughts on the New 52 and who he'd want to force choke.

For this episode of the Nerd Lunch podcast we are joined by another member of the Schlock Treatment podcast, Kirk Howle.  We are also joined by 4th chair regular Shawn Robare since Jeeg is called away on assignment to do the thing he does best. This week we talk about movie toys.  We talk about movie toys that worked and use that knowledge to then talk about movie toys that didn't work.  We talk about why these toys worked or didn't work and then we all propose our own movie toy line that should have happened.  Some of the movie toys discussed include Star Wars, The Shadow, Dick Tracy and The Lone Ranger.  Our Nerd To-Dos feature Masters of the Universe figures, cartoon animation, more Wizard of Oz stuff and Jumpin' Jack Doritos.

We kick off the new year by peering into the future with fourth chair Doug Frye from the Schlock Treatment podcast. Using all the tools at our disposal from tarot cards to the Magic 8 Ball, we each make predictions for 2013 in the realms of TV, movies, and fast food. We also start up the Nerd Lunch Dead Pool and predict which celebrities will kick the bucket this year. Our Nerd To-Dos feature Star Wars Angry Birds, Battlestar Galactica, Six Million Dollar Man, and Jack in the Box.

Jeeg calls CT away from decking the halls to talk about the overlooked (even by us) holiday movie The Ref starring Denis Leary.

We welcome Digio from The Atomic Geeks Podcast back to the show to help us put together a TV Christmas Special for the ages. Drawing on favorite cartoons, classic Rankin Bass specials, historical Christmas lore, and some cool holiday ideas of our own, we turn out one tasty fruitcake of a special. This week's Nerd To-Dos feature the impending arrival of a next generation nerd, the announcement of Digio's 2013 Geek Resolution, a Walking Dead follow-up, and one final mention of Skyfall.

We return to the Nerd Lunch courtroom for this episode with guest Matt Ringler from Schlock Treatment. Director Tim Burton stands accused of crimes against movie viewers everywhere. Overseeing the proceedings is the Honorable Judge CT, with the prosecution being presented by Matt Ringler, the defense counsel offered by Jeeg, and star witness duties fulfilled by Pax. Will the likes of Pee-wee's Big Adventure and Ed Wood be enough to outweigh Dark Shadows, Alice in Wonderland, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Will Helena Bonham Carter make an appearance in this episode? Will Matt Ringler be able to lock up Burton for good and justify missing the recording of Schlock Treatment Episode 102? Grab your seat in the courtroom gallery and find out! In our Nerd To-Dos we discuss Laurel & Hardy, iTunes, Walking Dead trade paperbacks, Christmas movie viewing, and Django.

This week we are joined by Jaime from shezcrafti.com for a very special Ninja Day episode of the podcast.  For this episode we all have watched and spend our time talking about the 1984 ninja classic Ninja III: The Domination starring Sho Kosugi and Lucinda Dickey.  Expect discussions on the supernatural nature of 1980s ninjas, old shaolin temples on the outskirts of Los Angeles, the ridiculous Bigfoot body hair of the male lead and, of course, V8.  This week's Nerd-to-Dos include even more mentions of Bond, Halo 4, Ninja Sex Party and 4 Rivers Barbeque.

We’re joined this week by Claymation Werewolf for a very special episode on 80s sitcoms. Rather than going straight for the Kate & Allie drilldown, we go around the horn reminiscing about the shows we watched regularly, our favorite shows, memorable episodes, and more. The usual suspects like Cheers, Family Ties, and The Golden Girls are mentioned, but we get to Mama's Family, A Different World, and Major Dad a lot faster than anybody would expect. Our Nerd To-Dos feature real life screenwriting, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, an upcoming gathering of the nerds, and Black Friday shopping plans.

Kristin Rielly, formerly of Geek Girls Network, returns to the show to help us review more stories from fanfiction.net. This time we focus on movie based stories with more vampires, dragons, imaginary friends, and super scientists than you can shake an iPod at. And fear not listeners, we do accidentally run into some slash fic. Yeah, accidentally. Our Nerd To-Dos this go around include some more Bond (will it ever stop?), a different flavor of Red Rock soda, Kingdom Hearts, and holiday move planning.

While housesitting at The Atomic Geeks Network HQ, we decide to put the Super Fight Dome to good use with our own twist on a Versus episode. CT acts as matchmaker while Pax, Jeeg, and Jeremy from Geek Chunks bring their hand chosen combatants to the battle. It's a fight card for the ages featuring celebrity chefs, giant robots, sitcom dads, Jean-Claude Van Damme characters, and more. Our Nerd To-Dos this time around include Christmas planning (already), a run through The X-Files series, and a bunch of Bond including planned outings to see Skyfall.