Nerd Lunch

It’s a special time of the year in America when campaign ads flood radio and TV, signs fill front yards, and three nerds take to the Internet to draft fictional governments made up of characters from pop culture. We couldn’t do worse with Starfleet captains, Robocop, the Dukes of Hazzard, or characters from Teen Wolf. Or could we? Find out by casting your vote for Nerd Lunch today! In this week’s Nerd To-Dos, we discuss The Last Castle, Stephen King’s 11/23/63, and Freaks and Geeks.

To celebrate the season Pax and Jeeg call in our Halloween experts, Shawn from Branded in the 80s and Jay from The Sexy Armpit, to discuss two LEGENDARY Halloween TV specials. Up first is the 1976 Paul Lynde Halloween special with 70s guest stars aplenty including Tim Conway, Florence Henderson, and KISS. You can find it on YouTube, Amazon Instant Video, and DVD. Then we tackle 1986's The Worst Witch starring Fairuza Balk and featuring gonzo performances by Tim Curry and The Facts of Life's Charlotte Rae. It is also available on YouTube (in multiple parts) and DVD. This week's Nerd To-Dos include a screening of some classic Universal monster movies, a quest for episodes of CHiPs, some fawning over Emma Watson, and Bond movie watching.

Robert from To The Escape Hatch returns to our fourth chair as we put together the ultimate team for the zombie apocalypse from characters across the horror genre. Robert Kirkman, Ridley Scott, John Carpenter, Valve Software, and others provide nominees for our party. Once the team is assembled, we determine the order that members get picked off, who gets infected, and who, if anyone, survives. We then rinse and repeat with a party composed of The Atomic Geeks Network crew. In our Nerd To-Dos, we hear what digital comics can be had by trading in Miami Vice Blu-rays, some Halloween costume planning, a mini lovefest for Ben Affleck, and plans to see The Hobbit already getting started.

In preparation for James Bond’s return to the big screen, we have our first discussion of the classic spy franchise. Bringing his expertise and British class to the fourth chair is Jon Cross from The After Movie Diner blog and podcast. Since there are 50 years and 22 movies worth of 007 to cover, we save the drilldowns for later and cover the whole series by ranking our best and worst Bond actors, individual movies, Bond girls, villains, gadgets, and more. There are a number of revelations along the way including Pax & Jeeg not backing Telly Savalas and the fact that CT has never seen Smokey & The Bandit. This week’s Nerd To-Dos feature more of The Strain series, Bionic Commando Rearmed, Ready Player One, and voiceover work for an audiobook.

Thom Holbrook of Poobala.com returns to join Pax, CT, and Jeeg for a discussion of TV shows based on movies. After a brief trip around the horn to mention some of our favorites and what made them work, we all pitch concepts using movies that have never been translated to TV. We come up with some good ideas, but also end up featuring more secret agents, high school teachers, and little people than any sane person should expect. In our Nerd To-Dos, we talk about The Strain, The Avengers Facebook game, Avatar The Last Airbender, and poutine (again).

When Pax is called away on a top secret mission for Colonel Sanders and The Hamburglar, CT and Jeeg break the "in case of emergency" glass around Movie Hodge Podge and bring out fourth chair regular Aaron Nix. The three of us welcome back Nick from Dude Foods to discuss cheap eats in the already cheap world of fast food. We kick around our favorite value menus and promotions of yore from McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Subway, Arby’s, and more. Then we turn our attention to the current state and future of fast food deals where social media promos, coupons, and big box store eating have taken hold. In our Nerd To-Dos, we plan a delicious potluck of James Bond, Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, Halo, and Cheerwine.

We dive neckfirst into the realm of southern vampires this week as Jen Usellis Mackay returns to the show to guide us through the first Sookie Stackhouse book, Dead Until Dark. Will we declare it a D-U-D (see what I did there?) or be won over to the supernatural romance genre by Sookie’s moxie, Eric’s debonair ways, and Bill’s “Billness”?  In our Nerd To-Dos, we tackle some Jason Bourne, Halloween preparations, World of Warcraft, and 24.

The Atomic Geeks’ very own Cosmic Viking, Christian Nielsen, joins CT and Pax for a blockbuster sized discussion of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. We cover all the bases from plot to casting to Batman’s throaty voice to "giant, black phallic symbols".  Listen to find out what we liked, what bones we have to pick, and what Nolan could have learned from the Rocky movies.  This week’s Nerd To-Dos feature the yin and yang of the Morning Glories comic book and the Six Million Dollar Man TV show.

William Bruce West settles into the fourth chair this week as we attempt to formulate a strategic plan for DC Comics' movie franchises. We delve into DC's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for success, and threats to putting together a successful run. We debate how much DC should crib from Marvel, the much rumored JLA movie, crossing over onto TV, and whether there should be a shared DC movie universe at all. In our Nerd To-Dos, we hear about one nerd unloading part of his comic book collection, learn of a foray into True Blood, and discuss the impossible logistics of 24.

We welcome Brian Adams from CoolAndCollected.com to our fourth chair this week for another session of Does It Live Up to the Hype. Each of us catches up on a hyped item that we somehow missed. On the docket this time around are the original Star Trek movies, Pulp Fiction, Breaking Bad, and Chick-fil-A. Our Nerd To-Dos include some Edgar Rice Burroughs, some C. S. Lewis, some L. Frank Baum, and something called bulletproof coffee.

We cap off the first year of the Nerd Lunch podcast with a session of Ask Us Anything where questions from some of our listeners fill the role of the 4th chair. We tackle pressing issues such as our favorite Starfleet captain, last meal choices, dream guests, why the 80s are so popular, and more. Our Nerd To-Dos really run the gamut this week by including both The Chronicles of Narnia and Piranha 3DD.

Every podcast has to have a guilty pleasures episode and this week we finally do our take.  Joining us for the confessions is our favorite strange kid, Rondal Scott.  Who enjoys the worst reality TV show?  Who likes an emasculating rom-com?  Who revels in cheesy flicks from an 80s action star?  Listen for these revelations and so much more.  In our Nerd To-Dos Jeeg reads a book, Pax plans a Movie Man-athon, CT keeps buying digital comics, and Rondal plans an epic run of SNL viewing.

The Atomic Geeks Podcast is no more, but this first installment of the TAG Network Crossover lives on when Pax and Jeeg visited with Christian and Andrew and talked about Geek Mashups.

Nerd Lunch's second entry into this year's [expletive] TAG Network Summer Crossover Series features a whole cast of guests. CT is joined by both Michael DiGiovanni and [expletive] Michael Downs from the Atomic Geeks and Kristin Rielly from the Geek Girls Network and they have a big ol' [expletive] discussion about Doctor Who. Who was the best [expletive] Doctor? The best [expletive] companion? And find out what the phrase "those garbage cans have terrible voices" means. This week's Nerd To-Dos features talk about Batman, G.I. Joe and the relaunch of a new [expletive] website. Find your [expletive] sonic screwdriver and download now!

Pax, CT, Shawn Robare, and TAG Irregular Mark Dury provide our take on expanded universes. We discuss our favorite EUs from Star Wars to the Buffyverse, talk about what works or doesn't work in EU, and offer up some properties we wish had EU. When we're done here, be sure to check out this week's episode of The Atomic Geeks podcast for even more speechifying on EUs. Our Nerd To-Dos feature a Formula 1 racing documentary (huh?), new TMNT toys, more Planet of the Apes, and some Dark Knight Rises.

We're joined this week by Pax's longtime buddy Dr. Mike for an in depth discussion and/or thrashing of Star Trek Insurrection and Star Trek Nemesis. Find out what we think of the HMS Pinafore, F. Murray Abraham, clones, B-4, and the infamous Enterprise bridge joystick. We also offer up suggestions on how these, er, gems could have been polished. In our Nerd To-Dos, we hear about an upcoming Dr. Who episode of Nerd Lunch, a can't miss Ben & Jerry's flavor, Pax's mini-review of MIB 3, and the Dawn of the Jedi comic book.

Pax is vacationing in the Phantom Zone, so Aaron Nix from Movie Hodge Podge and Matt Ringler of Schlock Treatment join Jeeg and CT for this week's episode. Each of us choose one person and one pop culture item to erase from existence and then discuss the consequences of that removal.  We go for the jugular with some of these, but luckily it's all hypothetical... as far as you know.  Our Nerd To-Do's feature a follow-up on Pixar's Brave, somebody named Richie Brockelman, Atomic Robo, and one nerd's quest to watch the original Star Trek movies for the first time.

Rob Graham settles into the fourth chair this week and we do another round of Give That Guy Some Work.  This time around we put together one TV show and one movie using actors and actresses that aren’t getting the exposure they deserve.  Our Nerd To-Dos include a Star Trek novel, the Sherlock TV series, Pixar’s Brave, a vampire hunter, and Planet of the Apes.

We gather around the lunch table this week with Steve from foodjunk.wordpress.com.  On the menu is a discussion of our favorite salty snack foods from chips to pretzels to crackers.  We can't seem to agree on many snack food picks, but perhaps we'll concur on favorite high blood pressure medicines in a later episode.  In our Nerd To-Dos, we hear about Steve's run through the Godzilla movies, CT's third viewing of The Avengers, Pax's review of Solomon Kane, and Jeeg's glacial progress through Angel and Farscape.

It's a three way dance as Pax, CT, and Jeeg plan out 48 hours of a nerd weekend.  Where would we go?  What would we do?  What would we eat?  Listen to find out if our perfect weekend looks more like The Hangover or Weekend at Bernie's.  This week's Nerd To-Dos are a who's who of sci-fi franchises with nods to Prometheus, Planet of the Apes, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.