“Remember” what it was like before the zombie apocalypse? Rick and his fellow survivors find themselves trying to do just that when the promise of a safe haven seems fulfilled at long last. But does this walled community offer salvation or is it just another trap? Join Arnold and Scott as they stick together, pick out their houses, and decide what was good, what wasn’t so good, and what sort of grade the Doctor thinks the episode deserves!

Show Music: “Bitter Pill” (feat. Vosmoy) by Still Pluto.

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We finally pick up our look at each of the actors to play the role of the Doctor on the long running British series, Doctor Who.  This time around, we're looking at the seven year run of Tom Baker.  We're talking his early years, his companions, his reluctance to be involved in Whodom for so many years and then his explosion in audio and on TV.  It's all here, hosted by Keith DeCandido with John S. Drew sitting in as guest joined by Gary Mitchel of the Revcast and the American Sci-Fi Classics Track at DragonCon.  Get your jelly babies ready as we set the TARDIS controls to the 70s and discuss Tom Baker!

Comment on this episode here or by writing john@chronicrift.com.  Please rate the episode using our star system at the bottom of this entry.

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Focus didn't stay in focus for very long as a quirky movie about a robot took the top box office honors last weekend.  But can it last?   Michael Falkner has the answers, plus more comic movie news and The Expendables on TV on a new Weekly Podioplex.

Comment on the episode or write weeklypodioplex@gmail.com.

Weekly Podioplex Notes for March 10, 2015

Introduction

Opening Clip: Cinderella

Box Office Report

Top Ten

#1 – Chappie
#2 – Focus [-1]
#3 –The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
#4 – Kingsman: The Secret Service [-2]
#5 – The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water [-2]
#6 – Fifty Shades of Grey [-2]

#7 – McFarland, USA [-1]
#8 – The Lazarus Effect [-3]
#9 – The DUFF [-1]
#10 – Unfinished Business

(New Release) [Change]

Tops From the Past

2009 – Alice in Wonderland
2004 – Robots
1994 – Outbreak
1984 – Witness
1974 – The Towering Inferno

Box Office Premieres for the week of March 13th, 2015

Wide

Cinderella – [PG]

Run All Night – [R]

Limited

It Follows – [R]

Seymour: An Introduction – [PG]

Home Entertainment for the week of March 13rd, 2015

New Releases on DVD and Blu-Ray

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb – [PG-13]

TV on DVD and Blu-Ray

The Legend of Korra: Book Four: Balance (2014)

The Red Tent (2014)

Quincy, M.E.: Season Eight (1982)

Shane: The Complete Series (1966)

Gomer Pyle: USMC: The Complete Series (1964-1969)

Blu-Rays From the Past

The Sound of Music (1965)– [G]

Podcast Promos

The RevolutionSF RevCast

An online magazine and community dedicated to celebrating the best in science fiction, fantasy, comics, anime, and gaming, RevolutionSF is created by professional columnists, artists, animators, and humorists from the most prominent genre-related websites and magazines around. Tough love for sci-fi.

Quick Flicks

• Comics News: DC, Marvel, Valiant
• Expendables on TV
• Indy PopCon:A Salute to Asylum
• Programming note: More Star Wars coming soon

Links

Visit the Chronic Rift site
Leave voicemail toll-free: (888) 866-9010
Send e-mail
Tweet on Twitter:  The Chronic Rift and The Weekly Podioplex
Listen on Stitcher Radio

Leave a review on iTunes:  The Chronic Rift and The Weekly Podioplex

Shop the Rift’s Best Bets or search our Amazon Store.

Shop for Batman (1966) on DVD and Blu-Ray, and Batman: The Movie on DVD and Blu-Ray

Michael’s blog at Creative Criticality

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John sits down with the writer and director of Co-Creator: Bill Finger - The Man Behind the Bat.  They discuss the origin of the the play, Finger's legacy, his contribution to Batman 66, and more.  Take a listen and learn how you can attend the premiere of the play in April.

Also, listen in as John and Dan Greenfield of 13th Dimension fill you in on the newest Batman 66 contest they've got lined up.  It's a contest in conjunction with the upcoming East Coast Comic Con - April 11 and 12.

Lenny Schwartz is the writer/ director of such plays as Subject 62, Buster Keaton: Fade to Black, Lucy, The Wire Game, Higher Methods and Fidelity as well as many others. He is also the screenwriter of with Scorpio Film Releasing's film Murder University which is available on DVD in national distribution as well as the films Normal (going around to film festivals) and Accidental Incest (premiering March 22 2015 in RI) as well as Breaking Branches Pictures release Subject 62. He currently lives in RI and directs his plays in RI and NYC.

Links

Daydream Theatre on Facebook

Arctic Playhouse Theatre

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We celebrate March by honoring the Girl Scouts and the Irish.  First up on The Burns and Allen Show, George Burns experiences more than the usual amount of befuddlement when wife Gracie Allen signs up to be a Girl Scout troop leader.  This March marks the 103rd anniversary of the founding of the Girl Scouts by Juliette Gordon Lowe.  Then on Quiz Kids, there’s a lot of blarney thrown around in preparation of St. Patrick’s Day as the young prodigies field questions about Irish history and other famous guys named Patrick.

Episodes

The Burns and Allen Show

“Gracie, the Girl Scout Leader”

March 10, 1949

3:27

Quiz Kids

“St. Patrick’s Day Diamond”

March 11, 1951

30:15

Will Rick and Co. go “The Distance?” Newcomer Aaron is offering a sanctuary, but after so many misfires, can our survivors learn to trust again? And will they hear salvation on the other side of that steel wall…or nothing at all? Join Arnold and Scott as they talk about trust issues and decide what was good, what wasn’t so good, and what sort of grade the Doctor thinks the episode deserves?

Show Music: “Bitter Pill” (feat. Vosmoy) by Still Pluto.

The first in our series of interviews with those who worked on Shazam! and/or Isis starts with author Donald F. Glut.  Donald is the writer of the first season Shazam! episode, "The Brain".  Donald talks with us about how the episode came about, why he never wrote for Shazam! after his highly rated episode aired, and about his near opportunity to work with Jackson Bostwick on another iconic character.

It's all here and we want to hear from you on what you think of the episode.  Write us as ShazamIsisPodcast@gmail.com.

DONALD F. GLUT has been professionally active in both the entertainment and publishing industries since 1966.

Born in Pecos, Texas, Don grew up in Chicago, IL.   At age nine, already bitten by the film-making “bug,” he made Diplodocus at Large, the first of 41 amateur movies featuring dinosaurs, human monsters (Frankenstein’s Monster, Teenage Werewolf, etc.) and superheroes (Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, etc.)  Some of these films made during the late 1960s (e.g., Spy Smasher vs. the Purple Monster) were eventually shown in theatres and on TV.

Moving to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California, Don professionally entered show business as an “extra” (a POW) in the movie Von Ryan’s Express (1965), the first of several such “roles.”  He began his professional writing career in 1966, writing articles for and finally editing the magazine Modern Monsters. In 1967, after graduating from the University of Southern California with a BA degree (for Cinema) in Letters, Arts and Sciences, Don worked as a musician, singer and songwriter in The Penny Arkade, a rock band produced by “Monkee” Michael Nesmith.  Shortly after that he briefly furthered his acting career, having a speaking role in a national television commercial starring Dick Clark.

However, most of Don’s professional life has been as a freelance writer.  To date he has authored numerous motion picture and television scripts (Shazam!, Land of the Lost, and animation, e.g., Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends, Transformers, G.I.Joe, Duck Tales, Jonny Quest, X-Men, others), comic-book scripts (Captain America, Tarzan, etc., including creating for Gold Key Dagar the Invincible, The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor and Tragg and the Sky Gods), more than 35 novels and nonfiction books, also numerous short stories, articles, songs, album-liner notes, etc.  The Dinosaur Dictionary(1972) and Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia (1997), two of Don’s many non-fiction books about dinosaurs, both were listed by the American Library Association among the best reference books of their years of publication. With The Dinosaur Dictionary Don created the much-imitated book format based upon an alphabetical listing of dinosaur names.  Perhaps Don is best known for his novelization of the movie The Empire Strikes Back (1980), the nation’s No. 1 bestseller for almost two months, which to date (still in print) has sold over 3.5 million copies. In 1982 he created characters and back story for Mattel’s “Masters of the Universe” toy line.  Among his more recent books is Chomper, an entry in the popular “Dinotopia” series.

Don produced, wrote and directed various videos (including the documentaries Dinosaur Movies and Hollywood Goes Ape! and the music-video compilation Dinosaur Tracks®), theatre and movie projects.  He has worked as a consultant on numerous other video,  film and TV projects, and was “Dinosaur Consultant” on Roger Corman’s movie Carnosaur (1993).

In 1990, Don and Pete Von Sholly founded Fossil Records, which has already produced a half dozen albums.  These include Dinosaur Tracks®, More Dinosaur Tracks® and Dinosaur Tracks® Again, featuring paleontology-related rock music written mostly by Don (Dinodon Music/BMI), performed by Don and Pete (as the Iridium Band).

More recently, Don became president of Frontline Entertainment (www.frontlinefilms.com), for which he wrote, directed and co-produced the comedy/fantasy motion picture Dinosaur Valley Girls™, followed by a series of campy/sexy/horror movies, which have already achieved “cult movie” status, and Before La Brea, a documentary commissioned by the George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries in Los Angeles.  In 2000, he was commissioned by Irena Belle Productions to direct the movie The Vampire Hunters Club, featuring an all-star genre cast.

In addition to his entertainment and publishing fields work, Glut is known internationally for his work with dinosaurs (see http://www.donglutsdinosaurs.com to see Don's "prehistoria" collection), a subject he has been seriously interested in since the age of seven.  He has lectured on dinosaurs at museums, universities and other institutions in the USA and Europe, and often appears on TV and radio talk shows, and in videos, discussing dinosaurs, monster movies and other topics.  Regularly he speaks at seminars for actors.  In 1999 and 2000, respectively, he became a volunteer at both The Field Museum (Chicago) and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Among Don’s many interests are paleontology (obviously), movies (especially the older horror films, Westerns, serials and film noir), science fiction and fantasy, music (playing and listening), comic books, motorcycles, reptiles, stage magic, electric trains, the Three Stooges, Jackie Gleason, old-fashioned amusement parks and side shows, partying and “holy relics."

Learn even more about Donald by visting his website - http://www.donaldfglut.com/

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Aired December 28/December 29, 1966

That European criminal, The Sandman, is in Gotham City with a scheme to rob the millions of heiress J. Pauline Spaghetti. But he needs someone to run interference with Batman and Robin while he lays out his plan.  Who better than the Catwoman?

But is this story as exciting as it sounds?  Is it as well executed as earlier Catwoman stories?  These questions and more will be answered in this podcast review.

Joining John to talk about first of several villain team-ups the series would feature is author Robert Greenberger.

Comment on the episode here or write thebatcavepodcast@gmail.com

Get your hands on the Batman 66 series via our link here on Amazon.  In doing so, you not only have this excellent, remastered set that you can watch and follow along the podcast with, but you support the podcast as well.

Comment on the episode here or write thebatcavepodcast@gmail.com. Take a moment to rate the episode by using our star system at the bottom of this entry.

Robert Greenberger (born July 24, 1958) is a writer and editor.

Greenberger was born in Brooklyn in New York City, the son of Edwin L. Greenberger and Joan Greenberger. A lifelong fan of comic books, comic strips, science fiction and Star Trek, he drifted towards writing and editing, encouraged by his father and inspired by Superman’s alter ego, Clark Kent.

While at SUNY-Binghamton, Greenberger wrote and edited for the college newspaper, Pipe Dream, moving from general assignment writer to Arts Editor, Managing Editor and ultimately Editor-in-Chief.  He served an internship at Gannett’s Binghamton Sun-Bulletin as a feature writer and reviewer.

Upon graduation, he worked for Starlog Press as Managing Editor of Fangoria.  He was also an Associate Editor for Starlog and while there, created Comics Scene, the first nationally distributed magazine to focus on comic books, comic strips and animation.  The magazine lasted 11 issues before its first cancellation at which time Greenberger went to work on their sports magazines.

In 1984, he joined DC Comics as an Assistant Editor, working with Len Wein and Marv Wolfman on DC’s Golden Anniversary projects Who’s WhoandCrisis on Infinite Earths.  He went on to act as assistant editor to numerous titles for each editor until he was promoted to editor.  During his tenure, his titles included Star Trek, Suicide Squad, Warlord, Doom Patrol, Lois Lane, Action Comics Weekly, Time Masters, Secret Origins, The Hacker Files and others.

By 1990, he had given up editing to become the company’s Editorial Coordinator, helping grow the Editorial Administration department.  When he left the company, he was Manager-Editorial Operations.

In March 2000, he left DC to become a Producer for Gist Communications, television news and listings web site. After ten months there, he learned some new skills and got out before the dotcom bubble burst.

In January 2001, he joined Marvel Comics as Director-Publishing Operations.  During his year with the company, he oversaw editorial schedules, Production, Manufacturing, the Print Library, and other departments.

In January 2002, he left Marvel and rejoined DC in May 2002 as a Senior Editor-Collected Editions.  He helped grow that department, introducing new formats and improving the editions’ editorial content. He also managed DC’s ElfQuest publishing program.

He left DC in January 2006, becoming a freelance writer and editor.  His clients included Weekly World News, Platinum Studios, scifi.com, DC and Marvel. By June, he was offered the post of Managing Editor at Weekly World News where he helped transition the newspaper from being produced jointly in Florida and New York to just NYC.

When the paper folded in August 2007, he resumed his freelance career which continues to this date.  Along the way, he helped revitalize Famous Monsters of Filmland and served as News Editor at ComicMix from August through December 2008.

He is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America and theInternational Association of Media Tie-In Writers.  He served on the final Nebula Short Fiction Jury.

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50 Shades of Grey took quite the tumble in the box office this week, beaten out by new release Focus and two previous releases.  But what's in store for this week?  Michael Falkner has the answers, plus his thoughts on the passing of actor Leonard Nimoy on a new Weekly Podioplex.

Comment on the episode or write weeklypodioplex@gmail.com.

Weekly Podioplex Notes for February 24, 2015

Introduction

Opening Clip: Focus

Box Office Report

Top Ten

#1 – Focus

#2 – Kingsman: The Secret Service [Even]
#3 – The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water [Even]
#4 – Fifty Shades of Grey [-3]

#5 – The Lazarus Effect
#6 – McFarland, USA [-2]

#7 – American Sniper [-1]

#8 – The DUFF [-3]
#9 – Still Alice [+2]

#10 – Hot Tub Time Machine 2 [-3]

(New Release) [Change]

Tops From the Past

2009 – Alice in Wonderland

2004 – The Pacifier

1994 – Man of the House

1984 – Beverly Hills Cop

1974 – At Long Last Love

Box Office Premieres for the week of March 6th, 2015

Wide

Chappie – [R]

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – [PG]

Unfinished Business – [R]

Limited

Merchants of Doubt – [PG-13]

Compared to What: The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank – [NR]

Home Entertainment for the week of March 3rd, 2015

New Releases on DVD and Blu-Ray

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part I – [PG-13]

Ask Me Anything – [NR]

Foxcatcher – [R]

TV on DVD and Blu-Ray

Da Vinci’s Demons: Season Two (2014)

Outlander: Season One, Volume One (2014)

Longmire: Season Three (2014)

CHiPs: Season Three (1979)

Hill Street Blues: Season Four (1984)

Blu-Rays From the Past

Kiss Me Kate (1953)– [Approved]

Podcast Promos

Geek Radio Daily

Geek Radio Daily is your one stop shop for all your geeky goodness. Check out Billy Flynn, Flynnstress, and Saucy on GRDsWeekly, the sometimes weekly podcast. All the geek without the wait!

Quick Flicks

Leonard Nimoy (1931-2015)

Links

Visit the Chronic Rift site
Leave voicemail toll-free: (888) 866-9010
Send e-mail
Tweet on Twitter:  The Chronic Rift and The Weekly Podioplex
Listen on Stitcher Radio

Leave a review on iTunes:  The Chronic Rift and The Weekly Podioplex

Shop the Rift’s Best Bets or search our Amazon Store.

Shop for Batman (1966) on DVD and Blu-Ray, and Batman: The Movie on DVD and Blu-Ray

Michael’s blog at Creative Criticality

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A 2012 Parsec Finalist

Please call the listener line at 1.888.508.4343

Email us at scifidinerpodcast@gmail.com

or visit us on Twitter @scifidiner.

Facebook Fan Page.

And check out our YouTube channel.

We are a part of the Chronic Rift Network of podcasts.

Tonight’s Diners: Scott, Miles, and M

Welcome to the Diner

If you have listened to the show for sometime, we would love to have you leave feedback on iTunes. We know not all of you use iTunes, but for those that do, it helps us become more visible. If you don’t use iTunes, your feedback is still valuable. Visit our webpage at http://scifidinerpodcast.com and leave a comment on the show notes or email us at scifidinerpodcast@gmail.com We want to know what you are thinking about what we are saying and what shows you are watching.

Tonight's Menu

Colin Ferguson

Colin Ferguson (born July 22, 1972) is a Canadian film and television actor, director, and producer, best known as Sheriff Jack Carter on Syfy’s Eureka and as Lewis on Then Came You, and his role as the latest Maytag Repairman. He can currently be seen on Haven and The Vampire Diaries.

He was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, and is a graduate of Appleby College and McGill University. Since he was born and raised around Montreal which predominantly speaks French, he is bilingual speaking both French and English. Although he was born in Canada and therefore a Canadian citizen, he is also a citizen of the United Kingdom, and recently became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

Career

On September 5, 2011, he appeared on the podcast Disasterpiece Theatre to discuss what Eureka might have looked like if it had been directed by Michael Bay. In January 2014, Ferguson became the newest “Maytag Repairman”.

Ferguson is a Montreal Canadiens fan, and he contributes to NHL.com as a celebrity blogger.

Jay Smith

Jay Smith is the creator and executive producer for the Parsec Award-winning audio drama series HG World. Since 2009, Jay and his company of players and producers have been telling the story of survivors in the middle of a global zombie uprising. Now in its third season, this “satellite” production has featured dozens of actors across four continents making it a production truly on a global scale. Since its debut, episodes of HG World and its spin-off series, the Parsec finalist The Diary of Jill Woodbine and The Googies have been downloaded close to a million times.

Hidden Harbor Mysteries is a pulp era adventure with a stellar cast of voices produced by award-winning producer Bryan Lincoln. Check it out at www.hiddenharbormysteries.com

Jay’s books include the gamer-geek satire Rise of the Monkey Lord, Blue Collar Gods, Seven ‘til Sunrise, The Diary of Jill Woodbine, HG World: The Audio Scripts, and Hidden Harbor Mysteries: Anatomy of A Modern Audio Drama Series.

Jay holds a BA in Creative Writing and is working on his Master of Fine Arts from Seton Hill University’s innovative Writing Popular Fiction program. He attends and speaks at various science fiction and literary conventions about podcasting, writing, audio drama, and zombies.