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The Department of Tangents Podcast

Years ago, playing a sort of improv game with friends in which we all picked super powers based on our personalities, I dubbed myself “Tangent Lad.” I was not a very strong superhero, and I could not defeat a super villain on my own, but I could distract them with Monty Python quotes and football trivia. I have many times since apologized to an interview subject in my capacity as a journalist by saying, “I am either very good or very bad at tangents, depending on how you feel about tangents.”

I had a rough time coming up with the concept and naming this blog/podcast. I knew I wanted to create a place where I could address things I’m passionate about – comedy, music, and horror. Finding a name that communicated all three of those things proved a bit impossible. I bugged my friends, and they all tried to help. To no avail. Then I thought, maybe I’m approaching this from the wrong angle. Maybe my lack of focus should be the focus.

As a journalist, I have written for The Boston Globe since 2000, starting out writing CD reviews and then writing a regular column on comedy for seven and a half years. I still contribute there, and to Kirkus Reviews, and other publications. I’m also a musician, and released my debut full-length album, Blue Skies and Broken Arrows, in March of 2015. And I’ve been publishing short horror fiction for a couple of years.

I like to climb into things I love and see how they operate. That’s what the Department of Tangents is for. The main thing here is love. To talk about the things that make I’ve loved forever, and some new things that might stand the test and be around, at least for me, for decades to come. I’ve had to be critical in my writing at times, and it might not all be nonstop roses here, but in the end, what I really want to talk about is the good stuff. That’s why I will regularly write about things I think are “Perfect,” even if someone can demonstrate empirically that they are flawed. Still perfect to me.

Also, fish.

I hope you, dear anonymous surfer person, will come to expect only the highest-quality, free-range, grass-fed tangents. And I hope some of you love the same things I do and find it useful. Or at least a welcome distraction until the others get here.

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  2. Department of Tangents Minicast Interview Flashback - MST3K Reunion Edition

Department of Tangents Minicast Interview Flashback - MST3K Reunion Edition

Jun 28, 2016

Tonight is a very exciting night for fans of the beloved movie-riffing show, Mystery Science Theater 3000. Stars from the show’s past and present are gathering at the State Theatre in Minneapolis for <a href="http://www.rifftrax.com/live" target="_blank">RiffTrax Live 2016: MST3K Reunion</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/michaeljnelson?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank">Mike Nelson</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/kwmurphy?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank">Kevin Murphy</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/BillCorbett?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank">Bill Corbett</a> of RiffTrax will be joined by MST3K creator <a href="https://twitter.com/JoelGHodgson" target="_blank">Joel Hodgson</a>, as well as <a href="https://twitter.com/TraceBeaulieu" target="_blank">Trace Beaulieu</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/FrankConniff" target="_blank">Frank Conniff</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryJoPehl" target="_blank">Mary Jo Pehl</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/bridgetjnelson" target="_blank">Bridget Nelson</a> from the show’s original run, plus Jonah Ray, who will be the host when the show begins anew in the not-too-distant future.

Over the years, I’ve gotten to speak with Hodgson a few times, once with Beaulieu at a presentation for M.I.T. in 2009 where they were interviewed by members of that vaunted institute’s comparative media department. And I spoke with Pehl for Kirkus Reviews. This minicast features a few bits from those interviews.

<img src="http://nickzaino.com/departmentoftangents/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/mst3k_signing_three_NEW.jpg" alt="mst3k_signing_three_NEW" width="300" height="267" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-659" />Unfortunately, the audio for the interview with Hodgson and Beaulieu is lost, but I do have a partial transcript. I waited for probably close to an hour after the lecture as a long line of fans got things signed, showed off their homemade bots, and shared their memories of the show. It was clear they were touched by their fans’ display.

“They’re loyal and dedicated,” said Beaulieu. “We wouldn’t be successful without the fans adopting the show. It wasn’t like a network show that got shoved down your throat. This was discovered and harvested by those guys.”    

“There was one kid that came up,” said Hodgson, “and he said, yeah, somebody had the Comedy Channel and we didn’t, and so when they’d come at Christmas they’d bring a bunch of tapes. And they said after we’d open presents we’d sit and watch Mystery Science Theater. So you kind of go, oh, wow, that’s really amazing. It’s part of people’s lives.”

I also got to ask about the rumor that Joe Don Baker said threatened physical violence against the cast after the beating he took for Mitchell, Hodgson’s final episode before turning the jumpsuit over to Nelson. “It’s not true,” Hodgson said. “Not that I know of.

“I think that’s been largely inflated,” added Beaulieu. “It’s fun to think about.”

That story is no longer online, so here’s a little bit of it:

<blockquote>Joel’s original inspiration for the concept of a lone man out in space came from a Bruce Dern film, “Silent Running.” When Joel showed clips from the pilot (“The Green Slime,” if you’re wondering) and “Silent Running” back to back, it’s obvious what Joel took from it, from the geodesic construction of the Satellite of Love to Dern’s hairstyle. So obvious, that Trace laughed, calling it “A frightening copy, a rip-off.”

The pilot also wasn’t nearly as funny, but it was funnier than what Joel originally had in mind, concentrating on the lonely man in space concept that he ultimately decided was “too bleak.” He designed the robots – Crow and a Servo-like robot named “Beeper” with a candy tub for a head that housed what looked like a single eye – and ramped up the interstitial sketches. Joel was obviously a tad embarrassed by the pilot, stopping it after a few minutes and saying, “So it just goes on like that.”

Joel and Trace talked about the changes, especially to Beeper, who only communicated in weird blurting beeping sounds. “We could tell right off the bat that this robot was just awful,” said Trace. Beeper got a major redesign, closer to the wisecracking gumball machine fans came to love on the Comedy Central and Sci-Fi series. And the writing started to focus a bit more on the jokes, inching closer, said Joel, to the “600 jokes a show, which is what it became.” </blockquote>

Keep track of the new MST3K on the <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mst3k/bringbackmst3k" target="_blank">KickStarter Web site</a>.