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Welcome to Two Old Farts Talk Sci Fi.
And welcome to…

Prisoners of Gravity: The Reunion.

Five people joined Troy and David for this
35th anniversary show…

Host / Co-Creator: Rick Green
Producer / Co-Creator: Mark Askwith
Producer / Director: Gregg Thurlbeck
Associate Producer: Shirley Brady
Most Frequent Guest: Robert J. Sawyer

We hope you enjoy!

BIOS

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RICK GREEN

People may know Rick Green from his days with The Frantics comedy troupe, and as ‘Bill’ on The Red Green Show, which he co-created.

Rick also created History Bites. And, of course, he was ‘Commander Rick,’ host of Prisoners of Gravity.

He is a member of the Order of Ontario and The Order of Canada for his contribution to Canadian culture and mental health.

Rick’s most recent work on his YouTube channel is, ‘Rick Has ADHD.’

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MARK ASKWITH

Mark Askwith is a writer, interviewer, and Television Producer.

After graduating from the University of Toronto, he worked at Coach House Press. From 1982-87 he managed Silver Snail Comics. He left to write comics, and to work on the award-winning documentary Comic Book Confidential.

In 1989 he approached Daniel Richler, tv Ontario’s Head of Arts, and pitched a popular culture show, and Prisoners of Gravity was the result.

In 1997 he became a Founding Producer of SPACE, Canada’s National Science Fiction Channel.

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GREGG THURLBECK

Since retiring from TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, back in 2019, Gregg Thurlbeck has focused on a range of interests including swim coaching and photography.

Gregg was an exhibitor in the Contact Photography Festival and contributes to the international photography site, 52Frames.com. Gregg is also a coordinator with the Life Institute Photo Club, associated with Toronto Metropolitan University.

Gregg coaches the Alderwood Masters, is the VP of Masters Swimming Ontario and was Meet Manager for the 2024 MSO Masters Provincials swim meet in Markham.

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SHIRLEY BRADY

Shirley Brady (Story Editor, Associate Producer, and NanCY!) joined Prisoners of Gravity (POG for short) in season one, with roles including book wrangling, bookcase building, research, booking guests, interviewing and sneaking puns into scripts.

After POG’s untimely demise she moved to Hong Kong, working for Discovery Channel and TIME, and then continued her career as a writer / editor / producer in New York, where she still lives with her family.

She adds: R.I.P. to Lorna Toolis and Sally Millar!

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ROBERT J. SAWYER

Robert J. Sawyer, a member of the Order of Canada, was the most-frequent guest on PRISONERS OF GRAVITY.

He has won the Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards, all for best science-fiction novel of the year, as well as Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards, known as “Auroras,” – He has more of these than anyone else in history.

The ABC TV series FlashForward was based on his novel of the same name. 

His latest novel is THE DOWNLOADED.

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PRAISE FOR THE SHOW THAT WAS NOT AIRED
(we have included the praise that David read during the taping, so those involved in PoG heard this and were very appreciative, but, due to time constraints, we were not able to include these in the audio for the podcast episode)

Mike McKeever:
I wish I remembered when I stumbled upon Prisoners but from that moment on I watched faithfully. Was already a fan of Rick from the earliest days of the Frantics on CBC radio. I learned so much about all the topics and genres discussed. Congrats and looking forward to listening when the pod drops

Bob Milne:
OMG, so many memories! I used to watch that on the old b&w TV in my room, picking up TVO from UHF. Seeing him again years later on Red Green took me right back.
Happy 35th, Rick & Nan-Cy!

Rob McLennan:
that was such a great show

Lloyd Penney:
I was interviewed about Star Trek clubs in the first season…our best to Commander Rick and Mark and Gregg and Shirley, and to all who worked on that great show. I think it needs to be revived.

Shirley Meier:
I loved the interviews done on war and peace. I was talking about bad human designs (Why Things Still Don’t Work) and said you want to give monkey the button? Cut to Jerry Pournelle talking about his fave new weapons system.

Carol Robinson:
I remember having the “So Long Earth” postcard. I have moved a couple of times so I don’t know exactly where it is, but I don’t throw away precious things…
(I am now picturing the final (warehouse) scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark… )

David Simmons:
Amazing show, the interview lineup was unbelievable

Nancy Baker:
One of my favorite shows. It introduced us to so many great writers and creators over the years.

Patrick James Asselin:
I’ve been calling Prisoners of Gravity a proto-podcast for years!

Larry Hancock:
A lot of on screen graphics for the first season came from my collections. I was living in an apartment just a couple blocks away from TVO and they borrowed a lot of items for images.

Ira Nayman:
This is a fantastic idea. I hope it goes very well!

Cally Specht:
Oh how cool

Andre Lieven:
Back when he was doing Harlan Ellison’s Watching for the SciFi Channel in the US, Harlan also expressed his appreciation of PoG:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQvLevjVX50

Matthew Cimone:
This show shaped so much of my career and career aspirations! Just left a big emotional message already on Robert’s wall about this but suffice it so say, I will definitely be keeping an ear out for this episode! Thank you all.

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Welcome to Two Old Farts Talk Sci Fi.
This is our second episode of Season 6.
This season is “Two Old Farts Meet the Glass Teat”

The late great Harlan Ellison wrote a series of essays about TV for the LA Free Press. He referred to TV as a “Glass Teat.”

This is our all-TV season. We will look at shows from the 60s, through the 80s and beyond. The shows and the showrunners.

PT 1 of Irwin Allen looked primarily at

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and,
Lost in Space

PT 2 of Irwin Allen will look primarily at

The Time Tunnel, and,
Land of the Giants

Troy presents a history of Irwin Allen,
and the second two series we are looking at.

Here are some of the things that appear in most Irwin Allen
TV shows. These are his trademark elements that Troy mentions:

On set explosions
On set smoke and fires
Actors throwing themselves to-and-fro
to simulate turbulence and/or being under attack.
Being lost or stranded
Cool vehicles
Female hotties
Child actors
Animal companions
Nefarious villains
Walking vegetables
Use of stock footage
Great merchandise
And a similar design look / opening credits

The Time Tunnel only lasted one season, 30 – episodes.

How it all ends…

Troy and David come up with their own versions of how the Land of the Giants ended.. A lot of series, back in the day, never had an opportunity to plan their end. MASH was able to, and FRIENDS and SEINFELD and BIG BANG THEORY. What did happen to the crew of the Spindrift, according to Troy and David? Listen and find out.

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Welcome to Two Old Farts Talk Sci Fi.
This is our first first episode of Season 6.
This season is “Two Old Farts Meet the Glass Teat”

The late great Harlan Ellison wrote a series of essays about TV for the LA Free Press. He referred to TV as a “Glass Teat.”

This is our all-TV season. We will look at shows from the 60s, through the 80s and beyond. The shows and the showrunners.

PT 1 of Irwin Allen will look primarily at

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and,
Lost in Space

PT 2 of Irwin Allen will look primarily at

The Time Tunnel, and,
Land of the Giants

Troy presents a history of Irwin Allen,
and the first two series we are looking at.

Some beautiful ships in the first two series.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea became a monster-of-the-week.
Including a werewolf and a mummy episode.

With Lost and Space. it aired from 1965-1968. It aired during family hour. It never finished in the top 25 in the years that it ran.

Great themes for the shows, as well.

How it all ends…

Troy and David come up with their own versions of how Lost & Space ended.. A lot of series, back in the day, never had an opportunity to plan their end. MASH was able to, and FRIENDS and SEINFELD and BIG BANG THEORY. What did happen to the crew of the Jupiter 2, according to Troy and David? Listen and find out.

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