The Legend of Billie Jean (1985)
The boyz discuss The Legend of Billie Jean.
Comments (74)
I remember this being a big HBO morning rotation movie. Free weeks they offered on a regular basis / once my parents could afford HBO. I'd watch it in chunks at like... 7am while I put on my too much high school makeup
I 100% believe the staircase wife was killed by an owl
It was a fun surprise to see Martha Gehman (aka Andy in F/X) again here, as Ophelia
Just bought "nick of time" on blu ray! Always loved the movie. Totally 90s! Johnny Depp and Chris walked star plus a huge amount of future talent. Please consider! Thanks for the laughs!
The 2018 Bumblebee movie was OK. Better than the Bay Transformers movies, I thought.
Wouldn’t Gabrus have been in high school when Beast Wars dropped
I think about the BBQ song everyday
I was getting major Vincent and Catherine vibes when he’s watching her in the wolf man suit
Hell yeah
Great ep!
I see Carlos Danger on a semi-weekly basis. Walking his dog. You’d think he’d have a dachshund. It’s just a dog.
Bechdel Cast gave this 3.75 nipples! That is really good for that podcast. This episode was in 2018, they maybe have gotten tougher, but still they said for the time this movie was pretty progressive.
The other famous movie Binx character that immediately came to my mind was the cat/boy from Hocus Pocus. Anyway, as someone who always felt kind of underwhelmed when my parents showed me the John Hughes stuff I think I would've eaten this up as a kid. I agree that the faulty comedy holds it back, but I also think it might just be too much of a tonal/genre blend for some people.
My now-wife and I did a long distance year while dating, and days before I was set to rejoin her she literally fell down the stairs at her parents' place. Broke her shoulder, a bunch of screws in there now. Our long-awaited reunion occurred in a hospital recovery room, she was super drugged, and Every. Single. Nurse. was murdering me with their eyes. It still happens every time she mentions the injury to new people, and I have no idea how to say "it wasn't me!" without making light or seeming like a textbook abuser.
That's rough. I have the (nowhere near as bad) inverse of this where my boyfriend's shoulders are very messed up so he's been in and out of a sling for the past 5 years and every. single. time we visit his family someone jokes that I'm abusing him. He's like 15" taller than me so everyone thinks it's hilaaaarious.
This was a regular viewing on hbo as a kid lol.
to Stanger’s point about this movie not being relatable, i think that might be more of a boy thing. i found the premise of men in power feeling like they can get away with doing anything to you as a teenage girl very relatable and i loved that the film took it so seriously, a rarity in the 80s.
That’s a great point. I was trying to hypothesize why it wasn’t regarded in the same way that John Hughes movies were. I guess I was trying to articulate it that it wasn’t a traditional coming of age movie but I’m sure whatever I said was reductive
A love letter to Transformers.
Dark of the Moon IS the Best of the Bays. I stand with Gabrus ✊🏼
This is the kind of movie that might be best enjoyed in random 20 minute chunks on HBO. For a long time I didn’t even know the name of it, but in my head it was one of the greatest movies ever made since I had to piece together the main set pieces out of order.
Helen Slater is painfully beautiful in this movie. The only way I could not feel like a complete perv watching it was to put myself in my middle-school mind (when it was released) and thankfully later read that she was 20 or 21 when it was filmed.
I disagree that this movie isn’t funny, I think just about every scene has some great one liner dialogue. It’s a bit of a mess especially as the movie veers into teen fantasy territory of what the fugitive life is like but it’s got a lot of moments of wit, a great soundtrack, good performances and a lot of fun wardrobes for our 80s teen rebels.. definitely worth a watch
“Billie Jean is not my lover She's just a girl who claims that I am the one But the kid is not my son (hee-hee-hee).” 😁
Rodgers’s Cuomo impression is spot on.
Every time he busts out a impression I'm floored.
Peter Cullen played Optimus Prime. Frank Welker played Megatron. Frank Welker was also the voice of Fred on Scooby-Doo and Bronx, the dog Gargoyle on the cartoon show Gargoyles.
Definitely have never seen/heard of this one. I am totally going to watch it with my tween daughter cuz I think she will love it. Also the talk of kids ratting on each other reminded me of being in 2nd grade in Ohio in the 80s and our teacher would make “rats” wear a wooden sign with a chain around their neck that read “tattle tale” on any kid that told on another kid for any reason. Times were different but we didn’t have no rats.
Was this more common in the 80's than I realized? When I was in kindergarten our classroom had the "Tattle Tail" which was a paper mache animal tail that a kid had to wear if they told on someone.
Peter Coyote has a great voice made better with civil war viola playing in background.
His narration in Ken Burn's The Vietnam War is perfect too.
it sucks I feel compelled to post this here but are the ABZ aware that Wieger was an extra in The Insider? Was filmed at his high school. Cameron Diaz, buddy. Will shoot myself like J. T. Walsh in A Few Good Men now, thanks.
Tiger Wiger?!
It’s nice to know I wasnt the only idiot kid to put a pencil into his hand. That was extremely relatable, Rodgers. Much appreciated.
I still have a piece of lead in the web of my hand.
Corpus listener here, born and raised. Yes there are many shops like the surf shop in the movie, they sell a mix of souvenirs, beach gear and fishing tackle. I loved this move growing up because it was one of the only depictions of my hometown in popular media. I think the movie captured the city perfectly. It’s this small city that looks like it has been run down for decades. The city is a mix of lower and middle class hispanics and rich white retirees. The retirees run the town. They oppose any and all progress. Being a young person in corpus is pretty hopeless and it’s why a lot of younger people leave. I did. I always identified with the kids in the movie. And the characters captured the people well. Other than the retirees and hispanics you also had these cowboy surfer punks. They dressed in jeans and cowboy boots but had hawaiian shirts on and punk haircuts. Only corpus has that kind of trashy. My favorite scene is the chase scene in sunrise mall with the billy idol in the background. I can’t hear that song without thinking about that scene.
Was that thing where parents come to school and talk about their careers a real thing? I’ve only seen it in TV shows and movies. I don’t remember it being a thing in the 80s when I was in elementary school. When I was a kid, my dad was a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley Lab and when I told people what he did, nobody believed me. I would have loved for him to come in and and bore everybody to death with Radiation Biophysics talk and been like “See?? Fuuuuck you. I told you.”
I did it in one of my kids classes. When I showed them an Among Us trailer I produced the music for they freaked out. I was a celebrity.
True Crime Fan here. If you're looking for the Cold Standard- try Cold podcast, season 1, "The disappearance of Susan Powell". Her husband and father in law are freaks. #releasethestangerbot
Kept waiting for the tennis part. Wrong Billie Jean.
I kept waiting for Michael Jackson
At my Grade 8 Confirmation the Bishop adopted a "Batteries Not Included" theme to his sermon and while not explicitly stated, I think it was because the movie had just come out. Please note: I am no longer Catholic.
And everyone sound off: what was your confirmation name? Mine: Peter.
There are tons of good Joan of Arc movies but this one is in the top 20.
Sorry episode should be popping up in people's RSS feeds now.
I had to listen on the Patreon app on the way to a VA medical appointment. hadababyitsaboy
West Egg is Kings Point. Rich, mansion filled part of Great Neck. East Egg is Sands Point. Rich, mansion filled part of Port Washington. Stanger is right that one Egg shits on the other Egg because one is old money and the other is new money. I think East shits on West but could be the other way around.
East shits on West as a rule of thumb on Long Island.
I’m never going to call in with it, so here’s my Christian Slater story: My gf’s aunt is a fairly big time literary agent, and in the early 2000s Slater was doing a play in the West End and for the duration he stayed with her at the family home in the countryside outside London - the idea being that it would help keep Slater away from, umm, certain ‘influences’. So on the first day or so she took him for a country walk, show him some natural beauty, but at some point he stopped, pointed and asked ‘what’s that?’ It was a sheep.
Video Factory/Batman vhs news item: https://youtu.be/AWVl1EdqwW8?feature=shared
So wait they SOLD videos, didn't rent em?
Thank you boyz for doing the podcast all these years!
As my drill instructor used to say, "I don't need you to thank me. The shadow wolves thank me once a month with a patreon payment."
This was on Encore back in the late 90s all the time.
So many characters who just look and act like gulf coast weirdos. It’s really just like that down here.
God damn what a classic!
anyone else not getting this episode in their RSS feed?
Yeah me too :(
Had a blast w this one
Insane Question: Do they say my name? At 1:30:40 I swear Stanger says "Dictated but not read by Stewmungous". Can someone please listen and tell me if they hear the same? I am the kind of asshole they are talking about at that moment, but I have no idea how "Stewmungous" would be a name on their radar. If anyone is willing to listen to that 5 seconds of the episode and verify or deny what I heard it would be appreciated. Thanks.
They didn't say your name but did read aloud your social security number.
Born and raised in Corpus Christi and go back often to visit my Mom. Stanger was right about Mr. Pyatt’s shop, it’s basically an institution called Dockside Surf Shop out in Flour Bluff, just outside of CC. It’s been there since before I was born and hasn’t ever really changed. https://www.docksidesurfshop.com/ Sadly, Sunrise Mall where they leave all the IOU’s, was torn down last year. The mini golf course where they hide out is long gone, and Harbor Bridge, that it was built under is scheduled for demolition later this year. The replacement bridge, right next to it, is a monster and opened up a few months ago.
This one was fun! I laughed out loud when I heard Corpus Christi! I have family there and have been a few times.
Do you guys slap the Corpus Christi on your tongue or do you just let the priest hand it to you?
Every listen I put a whole can of nicotine gum packets like and teeth whitening gum… just grinding and listening!!!!! Brother!!!!!
I don't know about other places but growing up here in Iowa it seemed like everybody over 50 had a ocean themed bathroom. Same reef fish style shower curtain, same shell shaped soaps that were only for looks, and some kind of bullshit netting or buoy-ish things on the wall.
That was probably just the only shit they sold at like Kmart
Really enjoyed this one Boyz, thanks for the pic! I feel like tonally it’s pretty damned unique, and if you’re in a forgiving mood, it pulls it off!
Well time to begin my slow destruction of my concrete gun safe in my floor. I hope you all are doing the same in protest of the RSS feed
You can soak Zyn in alcohol and it'll get you real fucked up.
I remember HDTGM mentioning this movie in there Rad episode & I was curious who was going to cover it first.
Yo what a blast! Had never heard of this one.
Thank you! It's not showing up in my podcast feed
Same issue here