EPISODE 272 - Ash To Ash

Over the past six years we’ve had a number of ‘firsts’ on the show. The first sneeze, first time I didn’t hit record, our first female guest-host, etc. And tonight we’ve got another one! We smoke some cigars for the first time while doing the show. And it’s the first time I’ve EVER smoked a cigar. Probably not the best idea as I had to keep it lit and talk at the same time. Somehow I managed though. And it’s a good thing I did, because this was a jam packed show! We had a blast. We owe it to you all after a few weeks of missing personnel. Charlie gets a little loopy off of his halfway through the show and goes full hate, Charlie-style on… everything. Hilarity ensues. After the new DVDs it’s onto some movie news starting with a sequel to THE PURGE. Since the movie was “meh” at best, this sequel doesn’t seem terribly interesting. There’s another sequel though that seems, well, just terrible. Another BEETLEJUICE has been greenlit. Part of me wants this, but a bigger part doesn’t. The good news so far is that Michael Keaton is onboard. Some other good news is that they aren’t going with that ‘Beetlejuice goes to Hawaii’ plot Tim Burton came up with back in the early 90s. We’ll be watching this one closely. In streaming news, an announcement came down this past week that Marvel, Disney and Netflix are teaming to produce a number of new Netflix exclusive shows as well as making the streamer the premier source for making available future Marvel, Disney and Pixar films first. There are four series in the works starting with Daredevil. Following him will be a show about Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and then Luke Cage. Each will get 13-episodes all culminating in a Netflix mini-series based on “The Defenders” comic books. You can expect this first of the series, focusing on Daredevil, sometime in 2015. And speaking of movies, series and streaming… Blockbuster Video is closing all of its remaining corporate-owned stores. It’s around 300 in all. Franchised locations will still be around. Are there even any of those left? Not sure the Blockbuster business model is a one to show the bank when applying for that small business loan to open your own location. About 2,800 people will be laid off. DISH Network, which owns the video rental company, says the DVD-by-mail service will shutter in December, the stores in January. The Blockbuster streaming service that’s available on DISH Network will continue. We haven’t checked in on Michael Bay in quite some time. He’s been shooting TRANSFORMERS 4 in Hong Kong. And he’s apparently been dodging air conditioning units. A group of street vendors heckled the film crew while they shot a scene on a narrow street. One of them used an AC unit as a weapon… and then bit a shoe. Tune in for this one. We all know a cheapskate or two. Some are more extreme than others, and they belong on a new TLC show cleverly called, EXTREME CHEAPSKATES. One guy on this program takes penny-pinching a little too far. He’s willing to have one of his testicles removed for a scientific study in exchange for $35,000. He’s no stranger to studies and clinical trials. He says he does them all the time and has saved over a $150,000 in the last couple of years in medical checkups and whatnot. Still, having a ball removed for money? That won’t grow back. And unless you invest that money in Twitter or something, eventually it’ll be gone and won’t come back either. This is just one of several ridiculous procedures he’s willing to go through for cash. We run down all of them and discuss whether we’d do them on today’s show. And lastly, we may be a little out of it due to the cigars and beer, but not like the guy in our Breaking News segment. He got totally shit-faced and ended up on a desert island with no memory of how he got there. He told police he just remembered swimming for a really long time. Jabari points out that he must’ve been drinking alone, otherwise you’d think his friends would’ve stopped him. Or maybe they were just assholes who would have no problem watching their friend drown. Luckily, the island he ended up on sits in a river that runs through Charleston, South Carolina. Folks driving on a nearby bridge saw him falling over on the isle and phoned authorities. What about you? Any wild day-after drinking tales you’d like to tell? Send it to us and we’ll read it on-the-air. Show Links: StarWars.com Buy “The Purge” on DVD Seth Grahame-Smith on IMDb – He’s writing “Beetlejuice 2″ TMZ: Michael Keaton On “Beetlejuice 2″ Marvel.com: Disney’s Marvel and Netflix Join Forces… Blockbuster Video – Closing up shop(s) DISH Network – The only thing keeping Blockbuster alive now MichaelBay.com: Hong Kong Incident TLC’s “Extreme Cheapskates” (Clinical Trials)