Laser Time

THE GREATEST YEAR FOR MOVIES EVER. 40 years ago, the greatest year in movie releases went down. Gods were toppled, genres were forged, franchise filmmaking became a thing. For better or for worse, 1982 changed your cinematic world...

With another year of indoor doldrums, at least we had the warm glow of great television to keep us moderately sane. From 90s plane crashes, sloppy steaks, and squid games, these are our very favorite TV shows of the year!

Pigs and Spiders at the Vista Del Mar! Hope that's not giving anything away, since Laser Time's annual tardy tradition of chiming in on the year's best cinematic offerings has finally arrived! Listen, watch, chat, Patreon, etc.

SPONSOR: This episode is brought to you by STORYBLOCKS. STORYBLOCKS makes it possible for content creators like you to bring your stories to life without sacrificing your vision due to time, budget, or resources. Head to storyblocks.com/LASERTIME and let them help tell your story.

It's that time of year again, so this season we're taking the time to reveal all the personally embarrassing little pop culture traditions we've accumulated throughout the Holidays. Sappy songs, irredeemable movies, and unspeakable Christmas specials abound! Have a happy one, everyone!

With Netflix's Cowboy Bebop out in the wild, we're rounding up the handful of previous anime adaptations to see how they stack up. (The WESTERN adaptations. If we tried to talk about live-action anime films made in Japan we'd be here forever.) Spoiler: The results are not great...

SPONSORED: During the 1-900 number craze of the Nineties, one company provided the vast majority of phone sex. American Telnet was an empire founded by the man who called himself “The Telephone Pimp.” He ran the company “like General Motors” and got filthy rich doing it. But for the (mostly) women who answered the calls and delivered fantasies 24-7, it was a different story. The powerful stigma against sex work was always lurking just beneath the surface, until it threatened to tear apart the whole company.

Hosted by Tina Horn (Why Are People Into That?), OPERATOR is an eight-part series about big ambitions, Shakespearean-level corporate backstabbing, men and women at the cutting edge of a technological revolution...and on the front lines of a sexual one.

Listen to Operator now! http://wondery.fm/OP_Laser_Time

It's a star-studded show as we break down some of our favorite moments from the spookiest season on television's longest-running comedic institution. Get ready for some classic Halloween sketches, Saturday Night Live fans. If we missed any of your favorite's let us know!

Norm Macdonald 1950-1961. We lost one of our most gifted, inimitable comedians recently, and it’s difficult to deal with. But before Norm departed our mortal coil, he left us this wonderful audio journey through his whole dang career. Yes, this is a rerun, but you know you’re a Legend when you reach Legendary Status while you’re still alive. Special thanks to the Talking Simpsons guys for elevating the preemptive tribute! 

Great things come in pairs, and comedy is no exception! We're talking about our favorite hilarious duos, and it's all leading up to a wonderful discussion on the greatest movie you've never seen. Eat it with your ears!

What's on TV tonight? Does it matter?! Television shows remain great, while TV itself seems in an unstoppable cycle of decay. Have you noticed your favorite Nature or Music channel look alarmingly similar these days, when you need them most? In this episode we're examining why television channels are desperately abandoning their identity, and yes, it's largely because of the very medium you're listening to this on.

When it comes to cast members who spring boarded from Saturday Night Live into super stardom, there are almost too many names to mention. That's why we're talking about we're talking about kinda the opposite this week! We're looking back the SNL alum you might not even know are SNL alum, because for various reasons, they sputtered out on the show in just a SINGLE SEASON or less, yet went onto become household names anyway. And be sure to check out our companion SNL 2021 Awards podcast on our Patreon! 

Continuing our annual tradition, we've once again watched all the movies nominated for Best Picture at the 93rd Academy Awards so you don't have to! A global pandemic has obviously made a giant mess of the Oscars this year, but there's certainly some viewing pleasure and sketch material to mine from the most depressing crop of films the Oscars has ever recognized. Enjoy!

We love ourselves some long lost subgenres, and film subgenres don't get much deader than the Erotic Thriller. As premium cable mainstays of the 80s and 90s, many of us grew up with sneaky late night HBO screenings as our highest form of titillation. But by the internet age, the American Erotic Thriller was all but extinct, and both porn and puritans are responsible for its demise. Even better, we're joined by Honey Leavitt, of The Honey Leavitt Show, as well as a special appearance by Dan Amrich!

It’s a little late, but just in time for the Golden Globes, Laser Time’s annual TV wrap up is back for another year-end wrap-up. Life outside took a big hit, but streaming services thrived as everyone became of the Scrooge McDuck of indoor time! Let us know your faves below.

Better late than never, our annual tradition of picking out the best films of the year has arrived, if not without a COVID shaped caveat. But a pandemic can't keep cinema down, even if is keeping cinemas closed. There was still plenty to enjoy in 2020, as you'll hear in this week's episode!

Are you a hardened atheist or Holiday cynic who sees no value in Christmas? Well, what about your favorite Christmas movies, specials and TV episodes?! That's what we're here to help with this week, in Laser Time's one billionth annual Xmas special. Hope you and yours have a Merry one!

SPONSORED: Hosted by Taraji P. Henson, Wondery (Dr. Death, Dirty John, The Shrink Next Door) and Universal Music Group present Jacked: Rise of the New Jack Sound. 

The story begins with a keyboard player in the heart of Harlem: Teddy Riley. Teddy’s entire world was music. Playing it. Composing it. Producing it. Teddy and his friend Timmy Gatling followed their dreams and started a revolution in the world of hip-hop and R&B. They crafted hit after hit, and were on top of the world.

Their group’s quick rise to fame came with betrayals and broken friendships. Tensions within the band began to flare, and rivalries with other artists turned violent. As the stakes grew higher, their troubled manager pushed the group past their breaking point, with deadly results.

Listen today at http://wondery.fm/Jacked_Laser

At this point, our second of two episodes, we should probably clarify that we're talking about The Best/Worst of Stephen King ADAPTATIONS. But whatever, the guy is one of the few living authors that's a household name, he's made hundreds of millions of dollars off of his talent, and thus an undoubtedly very big boy. In this final episode of October, we're talking about the worst reviewed, lowest grossing, and our personal least favorite Stephen King adaptations...

Stephen King's obviously one of pop culture's most famous authors, but for our October movie marathon purposes, he's also generated billions of dollars of box office revenue with dozens of film and TV adaptations. We've scoured box office reports, reviews, and the finest in internet user criticism to try and find a consensus of which of Stephen King's cinematic adaptations truly float to the top. In the next episode... we'll tell you about the absolute worst!

Still trying to watch a horror movie for every day in October? Well, have we got a cheat for you! The lost majesty of the horror anthology movie is an easy and wonderful way to ingest multiple stories within a single film! And that's saying nothing of how easy it is to commit to several short stories instead of one big two hour one. So join us as we head back to the heyday of the anthology film, and recommend only the very best for this special time of year....