The Futile Podcast

Deconstructing 80's & 90's action movies. Relating them to comics, TV, and cartoons from then and now.

Favorite TV Characters list

Lost – Jack I just saw the first ep as a rerun and it is very clear that he is the one to follow.

Magnum PI – Higgins. Hunter – Hunter they named the show after him for christ’s sake.

JLU (Justive League Unlimited) – The Flash he hides a warrior’s pain behind humor.

The Simpsons – Krusty the Clown, when TV was banned by Side Show Bob Krusty went the extra miles and broadcasted from the Alkali Badlands.

Futurama- The Professor because he’s always got “good news”

Looney Tunes – Fog Horn Leg Horn because he reminds me of me sometimes.

Disney Tunes – they are all mostly lame but Dark Wing Duck was pretty cool I mena “when in trouble call on DW.”

Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex – Togusa he’s fighting heavy armoured cyborgs in a natural body and with a mullet that’s just cool.

Superman the animated Series – Lex Luthor voiced by Clancy (the Kurgan) Brown good stuff.

South Park – Dr. Alphonse Mephesto he hasn’t been in it since the NAMBLA ep but damn it they need to bring him back and Kevin too.

Samurai Jack – Aku he’s pure evil and Mako has one of the best voices around.

Battlestar Galactica (2004) – Commander William Adama, it’s Edward James Olmos doing his thing.

The Office (UK) – Tim Canterbury, the regular guy but he has some great faces of sheer I have no mouth and I must scream quality and that’s funny.

The Office (USA) – Dwight Schrute he captures a certain type of person perfectly.

Scrubs – Dr. Perry Cox McGinley is a great actor that up until this show was under appreciated. I just hope that they get Oliver Stone to do an episode someday.

Ed – Dr. Mike Burton the $10 bets were always classic.

Venture Bros. – Master Bill Quizboy

The Sopranos – Paulie ‘Walnuts’ Gualtieri after seeing him in some Quaker State ad I spent a month mastering the index pinky point s I could be just like him.

Curb Your Enthusiasm- Fuckin’ Richard Lewis oh I hate fuckin’ Richard Lewis fuck!

Clerks: The Cartoon – Leonardo Leonardo

Avatar: The Last Airbender – Appa he’s a flying bison.

Gungrave – Harry McDowell he’s got the Scarface syndrome the gensis of that sort of lust for power and how such a character “takes it to the limit” is always compelling.

Deadwood – Doc Cochrun Brad (Chuckie) Dourif is another under appreciated actor and he does a great job as the ambivalent alcoholic (who isn’t on that show, man the drinking game probably kills whole waves of Frat guys every year) doctor who is really the only decent guy on that show.

Freaks and Geeks – Bill Haverchuck he didn’t take any crap and he spoke his mind with a sense of humor.

Arrested Development- Job Bluth that show worked really well as an ensemble but Job stood out always with that sinister over the top smile and intonation that seemed so out of place.

Family Guy – The Chicken

American Dad – The Chicken just you wait he’ll be in there.

Transformers: Robots in Disguise – Soundwave I mean he had those tapes that would become Ravenge, Laser Beak, and one other one damn it I don’t remember. I don’t know why he was hanging around with the decepicreeps in the first place when it was pretty clear that he should be running the show.

Thunercats – Panthro he built all the cool shit that they had and his theme when he was rising up on fools like the Mutants and Hammer Hand in the Thundertank was the best.

Voltron: Defender of the Universe – Lance he was the Raphael of the Lion Force.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Raphael

Last Exile – Captain Alex Rowe of the Killem All Silverna you can’t go wrong with a stoic captain tortured by nightmares of past battles.

Firefly – Captain Malcolm Reynolds you can’t go wrong with a stoic captain tortured by nightmares of past battles.

Babylon 5 – Captain Jonathan Sheridan you can’t go wrong with a stoic captain tortured by nightmares of past battles.

The X-files – Melvin Frohike, it was always a good one if he was involved and Tom Braidwood was also an assistant director on the show.

Cheers- Cliff he also reminds me of me sometimes.

Home Movies – Jason he was consistently funny H. Jon Benjamin is a hero of mine a pioneer in hyper-irony check out the extra stuff on Home Movies Season 1.

Batman: The Animated Series – The Joker Mark Hamill is great.

Samurai Champloo- Jin a samurai with glasses.

Lupin III – Inspector Kouichi “Pops” Zenigata the classic trenchcoat and hat look that’s how inspectors should be.

Walker Texas Ranger – C.D. Parker

Twin Peaks – Dianne

Northern Exposure – Chris from KBear in the Mornin’.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast – Locar

Thunderbirds – there was this aligator in this one episode that was supposed to be a giant mutant because of the scale but it was really just a regular aligator not like Aligator 2: The Mutation.

Outlaw Star – Gilliam ships computer he was a real talker.

7th Heaven – Happy the dog

The Tick: Cartoon – Human Ton with Handie who promoted reading with his references to The Iliad.

You Can’t Do That on Telvision – Barth I always thought it was Barf when I was little but they probably were playing with innuedo back then what a word to use.

Cowboy Bebop – Ein he’s a Data Dog and he talks can talk to cows. Man being the voracious carnivore that I am I wish I could do that.

That should do fine. I’m going to watch TV now.

Cafe 80’s 9 Years Away


I just caught a bit of BTTF II (Back to the Future II) on the Super Station or whatever. It was right at the part were Marty was about to intercept and replace Marty Jr. at Cafe 80’s (an 80’s themed retro caffee with Reagan and pinball). So today I got this clock radio speaker thingy that I can connect to my i-Pod which is some pretty high tech stuff and that’s something. It’s 2006 now that’s right so really we’re just 9 years away from 2015 (the setting of the future part of BTTF II). We are quickly approaching the hooverboards (which were given big ups on Empire magazines top 200 things that rocked their world) flying cars, and self drying clothes I find myself longing for Cafe 80’s. I don’t know when Solid Gold Oldies will be Thomas Dolby but I can’t wait for Cafe 80’s and it’s fast approaching.

Non-Faith Based Hopeful Society

In the recent State of the Union Address the President spoke in regards to the US regaining competitive strength in the world economy by increasing the math and science skills of young students. Last night on Charlie Rose Norman Augustine and Roy Vangelos, members of the National Academy, were talking about a report they had just finished which laid out a plan for the US to regain this competitive edge. The report was published as: Rising Above the Coming Storm a pdf for free download can be found here: http://books.nap.edu/catalog/11463.html

Also, since TV is twice as fast at information you can watch Augustine and Vangelos on Charlie Rose via Google(double twice as fast) video here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7533029211333433510&q=tvshow%3ACharlie_Rose

One of the biggest issues discussed by Augustine and Vangelos is that of improving K-12 education in the math and science fields. Augustine does briefly and jokingly address one issue about the problem of inspiring the youth towards interests in these fields that I think might be the real crux of the problem. In the US math and science are not viewed, or portrayed in the media, with the reverence that they are in other parts of the world. This is a critical concern. I wonder if there is enough money (as that is all the government can really offer as a remedy) to produce teachers that will inspire kids to dig math and science as much as American Idol (which has been pretty lame this season)? Ultimately it will be up to the kids. I just hope (fingers crossed) that the society will not be inhereited by ambivalent malcontents . . . or Communists.

Nobody Tells Me Anything

In my ongoing search for “cool things” I have encountered Channel 101 http://www.channel101.com/ This is a site where people have posted shorts and ideas for television shows. It seems that it has been around for quite awhile (guess I’m out of the subculture loop here). I recently pilaged some of the stuff after Andy Samberg, a new cast member on SNL, was on Conan talking about how he did a project called “the ‘bu”. It sounded right up my “anything goes” sense of humor alley. A quick look at all the stuff on the site leads me to believe that it isn’t all great but much like Channel Frederator I find inspiration in how the web has become a way for people to get their stuff seen and heard. Hopefully this will lead to a greater amount of talent and a higher proportion of “coolness” out there. So check the site out for what it’s worth, you might find a special gem OR you know there is the irony of bad crap angle.