This is TOF’s second Live Show. The first one was a celebration of their 50th episode, and had the theme of Time Travel. This live show is all robots. Each season TOF will host a live show.

This show was recorded on Tuesday, December 19th, from 8 pm – 9:30 pm, Eastern Time. 13 or 14 or so attended the event, including five previous guests: Sandra Kasturi; Ira Nayman; Robert J. Sawyer; Jerome Stueart; and, Maaja Wentz.

Dan Miwa attended, and will be a guest for our forthcoming Spaceballs episode, that will be released on May 4th, 2024. He talks a bit about the film during this episode.

Stephen Humphrey attended, and is a forthcoming guest, and we will be looking at Neuromancer, likely in March of 2024.

David and Troy reveal their top ten robots.

Some discussion of what a robot and an android are. What counts as a robot and what does not.

Some of the robots mentioned in this episode include:

Robots from Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman.
GORT from The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Huey, Dewey, and Louie from Silent Running.
Robocop – does not count – a cyborg.
The Cylons from Battlestar Galactica.
Robot from the Let’s Kill Hitler episode of Dr. Who.
Sandra recommends the flesh robots from
Weird #66: “In the Hills, The Cities” by Clive Barker (1984)
Marvin the paranoid android from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Nomad from Star Trek.
Twiki from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
Promo the Robot from Rocketship 7.
Wall-E.
Hymie the robot from Get Smart.
The robot from Metropolis.
Mechagodzilla and Mechani-Kong.
Dolores from Westworld.
The Terminator from The Terminator.
Robbie the Robot from Lost in Space.
K9 from Doctor Who.
Rover from The Prisoner.
No. 6 (played by Tricia Helfer) from BSG.
The Daggit from the original BSG
Ash, and other androids from the Alien movie franchise.
The Nazi scientist (Karl Ruprecht Kroenen) in Hellboy.
The Major from Ghost in the Shell.
The replicants from Blade Runner.
The Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz.
Proteus from Demon Seed.
Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
A.I.
The Iron Giant.
C3P0 and R2D2 from Star Wars.
Brainiac, Vision, and Red Tornado.
T1000.
Bender from Futurama
Dot Matrix from Space Balls.
Minsky from Fargo, season 3.
Martha Wells Murder Bot Diaries.

Was Twiddle Twaddle the greatest science fiction series of all time? Was it better than ST:TNG? Star Trek Classic? Doctor Who? the Prisoner? BSG? Buffy? Many think so.

David Clink (one-half of Two Old Farts talk Sci-Fi) moderated a panel about the show, back on November 5th, 2022. The guests were Adrienne Kress (the fourth fart?) and Ira Nayman (affectionately known as “The Third Fart”). This episode is a recording of that panel. The panel was held at Astronomicon, in Rochester, New York, run by super fan Wayne Brown.

Adrienne is a huge Twiddle Twaddler! She fell in love with the show watching it in reruns as a kid on Saturday mornings, and it’s still her favourite comfort show to return to time and time again. She also loves to cosplay Furious Francesca (maybe not the best Twiddle Twaddle medic, but surely the most entertaining!)!

Ira Nayman wears a pony tail as an homage to Tony, the cross-eyed mailman, who was a regular in season five of Twiddle Twaddle. Fans of the show will know that his character, like all of them, were killed off at the end of the season because the new show-runner wanted to take the series in a different, more science fictiony direction. Heartbroken, Ira never fully recovered

Adrienne Kress is an award winning and internationally published author, actor and screenwriter based in Toronto, Canada. Her most recent novels include The Explorers adventure trilogy and the horror novels Dreams Comes To Life, The Illusion of Living, The Lost Ones and the upcoming Fade to Black based in the world of the Bendy and the Ink Machine video game. Her first graphic novel, Ghost Circus, illustrated by the amazing Jade Zhang, will be out in 2025!

Ira Nayman is the published author of eight novels, 25 short stories and 14 collections of Alternate Reality News Service (“When we break the news, it stays broken!”). He was also the editor of Amazing Stories magazine for three years. His dream is to build a time machine so he can go back to 1979 and be a member of the writers’ room for Twiddle Twaddle.

Mystery Men was a film released in 1999. It is based on a comic book series (1939-1942), and more of a direct connection from a comic book series in the 1980s. From the web site….
http://20yearsb42000.blogspot.com/2021/01/a-brief-history-of-mystery-men.html
“In 1987 the Mystery men made their debut in Flaming Carrot comics #16. This band of unreal heroes was brought together, well because no one else wanted them. Their powers are weird, their tempers are high and their clothing choices are questionable, but that never stopped them from trying to save the world. The roster has included such classic characters as The Shoveler, Mr. Furious, Screwball, Bondo man and The Spleen to name a few.”
Posted by Spyda-Man at 3:30 AM – January 21, 2021

For those who have seen the film, they either think it is a great film or a not-so great film. That phrase, “You either love it or you hate it” was never more applicable. The most notable character appearing in The Dark Horse comic “Mystery Men” created by Bob Burden that was not included in the movie was “The Flaming Carrot.”

So, why watch the 1999 movie?

Because, you may be one of those that absolutely loves it. The main cast and supporting cast are terrific.

Cast (in credits order – from IMDB)

Hank Azaria … Blue Raja / Jeff
Janeane Garofalo … Bowler
William H. Macy … Shoveler / Eddy
Kel Mitchell … Invisible Boy
Paul Reubens … Spleen
Ben Stiller … Furious / Roy
Wes Studi … Sphinx
Greg Kinnear … Captain Amazing / Lance
Geoffrey Rush … Casanova Frankenstein
Lena Olin … Dr. Anabel Leek
Eddie Izzard … Tony P
Artie Lange … Big Red
Pras Michel … Tony C (as Prakazrel Michel)
Claire Forlani … Monica
Tom Waits … Doc Heller
Louise Lasser … Violet
Ricky Jay … Vic Weems
Jenifer Lewis … Lucille

Beyond the cast, there are moments of hilarity. If you are someone who likes the reviewing of Roger Ebert, he recognized its brilliance, but was also aware of its failings:

“Mystery Men” has moments of brilliance waving their arms to attract attention in a sea of dreck. = Roger Ebert
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mystery-men-1999

Ira Nayman joins Troy and David as their special guest for this episode. Please see his bio below. Ira has made an appearance on TOF in each of its three seasons, and is affectionately known as “The Third Fart.”

ALSO:

Troy and David and Ira will look at recasting the film, with a “Dream Cast” = the best actor or actress, living or dead, to play the roles; and a “Schrodinger’s Cast” = unusual casting. Please note that David mentions three films that have won all four Oscars for Best Film; Best Director; Best Actor; and Best Actress, and he made a mistake. The three films that won all those awards are: It Happened One Night; One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; and The Silence of the Lambs. David mistakenly put in “As Good As It Gets” instead of Cuckoo’s Nest. His excuse: “We are all getting old.” As Good As It Gets won both feature actor categories (Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt), but best film and best director were both won by Titanic.

Ira Nayman writes humour featuring a heavy dose of satire.

The Ugly Truth, his 8^th novel with Elsewhen Press, was published in June, 2022.

His two dozenth published short story, “Girls Rule the Steampunk World” appeared in Brave New Girls: Chronicles of Misses and Machines.

In September, 2022, Ira will be celebrating the 20^th anniversary of the weekly publication of Les Pages aux Folles, his web site of political and social satire.

Ira was our guest for two previous episodes:

season one, episode five podcast:
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

season two, episode eleven podcast:
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai
Across the 8th Dimension.

Buckaroo Banzai

This is a cult film that must be seen to be believed.

Troy Harkin and David Clink invite back Ira Nayman (see bio below) for their episode that looks at a film that Gene Siskel predicted would become a cult classic.

The witty dialogue, the unusual plot developments, and John Lithgow’s manic delivery make this film very watchable. With each viewing, you get more out of the film, you see more, and you realize that there is a lot to it. There is method in the madness.

Peter Weller plays Buckaroo Banzai, a scientist and rock star. He develops a device that allows him to travel through matter, and this opens up a whole can of worms.

Jeff Goldblum is a piano playing surgeon / cowboy. Will he join the Hong Kong cavaliers? Will Buckaroo and his motley crew save Earth from the Red Lectroids? Is Penny Priddy somehow connected to an old flame from Buckaroo’s past? And why are there so many people called John? And what about that watermelon? Listen to the podcast to find out.

Ira Nayman is a writer who keeps getting speculative fiction in his humour.

His eighth novel, The Ugly Truth, will be published by Elsewhen Press in 2022.

His 21^st short story, “Girls Rule the Steampunk World!”, will be published in the next Brave New Girls anthology in July, 2022.

Les Pages aux Folles, Ira’s website of social and political satire, will celebrate 20 years of weekly updates in September, 2022.

He was the editor of Amazing Stories magazine for three years.

Before he was a prose geek, Ira was a script geek. He took three years of screenwriting for his undergrad degree at York University and wrote for Creative Screenwriting magazine.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is many things, but most of all, it is Douglas Adams. It was a radio play, a book, a series of books, a stage show, a TV series, a comic book series, a video game, and a movie, among other things. This international multi-media phenomenon has sparked legions of fans to devour all things Hitchhiker, fans who are aware of the importance of the number forty-two, and the phrase: “DON’T PANIC.” Fans also celebrate National Towel Day, which occurs on the 25th of May, each year.

https://nationaltoday.com/towel-day/

Troy Harkin and David Clink will do a deep dive on The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, with special guest Ira Nayman (see author bio below).

Ira Nayman

Ira Nayman writes speculative humour. His seventh novel, Bad Actors: The Alien Refugees Trilogy: Second Pi in the Face, will be published later in 2021 by Elsewhen Press. He will also be self-publishing his 12th original Alternate Reality News Service collection, Welcome to the Insurrection (The Inconvenience IS the Point), and the second ARNS omnibus, Advanced Idiotocracy for Dummies. For two and a half years, Ira was the editor of Amazing Stories magazine. Yes, that Amazing Stories magazine.