WAR GAMES

20th Century Popcast is a podcast that tries to understand the present by living in the past.  Each week hosts Bob and Tim take a sociological look at the pop culture of the '80s and '90s.  Its a ruining of their childhood that hopefully explains how they became adults.


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RETRO SHOCK:  "Whopper Player One" (1983)  Shall we play a game?  Looks like there's "Mall Madness", "Pizza Party", "Fireball Island."  Or we can listen to Bob and Tim unbox the frighteningly relevant Matthew Broderick thriller "War Games."   Its a thermo-nuclear holocaust for the whole family.

00:00:00 PRE-SHOW PRATTLE - a longer than normal pause
00:01:13  A DAB OF COLEMAN - and a semi-accurate resume  
00:04:50  JUNE 3rd 1983 - 80s Computer Mystique
00:09:34  SKYNET’S THE LIMIT - childhoow fantasies and childhood fears
00:20:23  GOOD MEMORY/BAD MEMORY - or vague memory
00:22:13  MODERN DAY - eat a doomsday burger
00:23:52  BUNKER OF THAT GUYS - a summary of tension
00:27:17  FERRIS BOREDOM - Matthew Broderick hacks a Whopper
00:36:31  NOT THE GOONIES - and that’s not Neil Gaiman
00:38:29  SO NOW WE’RE AT NORAD? - where the pace picks up
00:43:03  SIMULATION OR SIMULACRUM - a programed conscience
00:53:47  PUTTING THE HUMAN IN INHUMANITY - and tweeting a stance against technology
01:01:39  CLOSINGS - contacts, plugs and no catch phrase.

Fall in love as you duck and cover into the original 1983 trailer that posits a teen romcom for the thermo-nuclear age HERE

Hear the film's unused theme song uncharacteristically  composed and performed by Crosby, Stills and Nash HERE.

See who Tim would have preferred as the leads in an alternate universe take on the film's protagonsits HERE.

Tune in to a 1983 news segment about the real world fear of a "War Games" scenario HERE.

Go a little behind the scenes with this making-of short that aired around the film's release HERE.

Learn about the real-life adolescent hackers who were inspired  by an original viewing of "War Games" with the documentary short "THE 414s" available to rent HERE.

Have Dabney Coleman do it like you do it when he does it like they do it at Burger King HERE.

And finally let Burger King to tell you just a little bit more about the Whopper HERE  HERE and HERE.

The use of audio and video clips linked from YOUTUBE are for educational purposes and without the expressed permission of their legal holding companies.  All rights remain with with their original distributor.

This episode of 20TH CENTURY POPCAST was recorded by ZENCASTR, a high fidelity podcast recording platform that records multiple guests from multiple zip-codes all as if they were in the same room.   It was then mastered by AUPHONIC, a web-based post-production service that makes it sound like Bob and Tim are worth listening to.  Log in to each for studio quality recordings NOW! (exclamation point provided by ZENCASTR).  

MUSIC FEATURED IN TODAY’S EPISODE:

“Super Poupi ” (opening theme) and "Poupi Great Adventures: The Arcade Game" (closing theme) performed by Komiku from the 2018 album POUPI'S INCREDIBLE ADVENTURES available at Freemusicarchives.org.   

"Across The Mountainous Range" (Retro Shock segue-way) performed by TRG Banks from the 2018 album RETURN TO DREAMLAND also available at the Freemusicarchives.org

All music featured on this episode is cleared for public domain use through Creative Commons under a CCO 1.0 Universal License

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Contact the show with any questions, suggestions or possible topics at 20popcast@gmail.com, #20popcast on Twitter and the POP TALK section of www.20popcast.com.

Follow ROBERT CANNING @rhcanning on TWITTER. Read his web-comic at  EXAGGERATEDLIFE.wordpress.com and his music blog at superultramegamix.wordpress.com.  

Follow TIM BLEVINS @subcultist on TWITTER and as SUBCULTISTon INSTAGRAM.  

20TH CENTURY POPCAST will return next week with whatever it was we thought we'd be returning with this week when we typed this sentence last week.