The Occasionalists Podcast

New month! You know what that means...new theme and a new year to cover!
For Movie May, we are jumping into the blockbuster films of 1980. A truly great year for film.
HOWEVA — We need to make a detour through the late 1970s to see exactly how films, marketing, technology, and even the business model changed in just a few short years. 

Once again, we are using the spatial anomaly that has taken up residence in my house to explore the future. This time, we are getting what appears to be a series of previews for the Summer slate of programming on the newly formed mega-network, SkyMount Universal on Verscovery Bros+.
We are getting a rare glimpse at a new Yellowstone spinoff, and it looks like a grittier reboot of Star Trek.
How exciting! Let's see what this media conglomerate is offering us in just a few years.

Our final TV in 73 episode for Boob Tube April finds us doing a mini-review for the gritty, visceral, macho cop show, Police Story.
Abandoning escapist storylines for something more real and borderline cynical, Police Story broke new ground in the early 1970s with a true-to-life approach to the criminals and cops that make up the Los Angeles crime world.
There are few happy endings in Joseph Wambaugh's vision of policing in LA.
Let's get to it!

Boob Tube April rolls on!
Our next episode of TV in 73 explores how the shift from escapist, light-hearted entertainment changed drastically over a few years. It was perhaps best exemplified by the massive popularity of the Watergate Hearings, where the American people watched in droves and in real time as all goodwill between them and the institutions they had come to trust evaporated over 47 days.
Plus, bonus coverage of one of the greatest docuseries of all time (The World At War) that digs into the atrocities of WWII and how easily an entire country was turned over to a madman and his desires for power and vengeance.
Serious Television, indeed!

Our first breakdown for Boob Tube April finds us taking a deep dive into the seminal docuseries An American Family. A first-of-its-kind show that followed the everyday lives of the Loud Family of Santa Barbara, CA, and put all of their strengths, weaknesses, triumphs, troubles, and turmoil on display for millions of Americans every night.
A controversial and groundbreaking series, the show is widely credited as the first reality TV show.
Depending on who you ask, of course.
If you haven't already, let's meet the Louds!

Our first episode of April has us examining the TV landscape in the year 1973.
A turning point for emerging TV technology, the Golden Age of the Sitcom, and some landmark programming that marked the first steps toward shows recognizable even today.
Television...That's what makes America great, buddy.

Once again, we are tapping into the astronomical anomaly in my house to peer into the future. This time, a much nearer future as we hear some of the big headlines from March 31st, 2028.
 

We are back to wrap up this week's minisodes on the demise of physical media with a brief chronicle of the most vicious device ever created. The smartphone!
Vicious in the sense that it ruthlessly killed its biggest competitor in less than a decade and then began killing other everyday devices that had enjoyed their place in the consumer marketplace for decades.
The smartphone takes no prisoners and shows no mercy.