Flatliners (1990): Because Med School Wasn’t Scary Enough + Retro Trivia

This week on SlashBack Cinema, we flatline with Flatliners—the glossy 90s thriller where med students stop their own hearts to see what comes next… and don’t love what follows them back (including small children who beat the snot out of you). We discuss the killer cast, iconic scenes, and why this near-death cult classic is still remembered decades later.

Also in the episode, we've got a retro trivia segment! Play along and let us know how you did.

Transcript

Copy

Shanny Luft: 0:00

Shanny, welcome back to slash back cinema, where we resurrect the best and weirdest horror from the 70s and 80s and sometimes wander into gems from the 90s. I'm Shanny

Ryan Dreimiller: 0:12

and I'm Ryan. This week, we're flatlining with kefir Sutherland, Julia Roberts and Kevin Bacon, because nothing says med school bonding, like taking turns dying.

Shanny Luft: 0:22

It's a stylish, moody, existential thriller full of guilt, ghosts and great hair,

Ryan Dreimiller: 0:28

so grab your defibrillator and moral compass.

Shanny Luft: 0:31

So flat liners. Do you remember seeing this movie? This is the year we graduated high school and started college. Yeah.

Ryan Dreimiller: 0:37

You know, I don't think I ever saw this movie. And it's like, hard to believe that I never saw this movie like it was, like, right in the space of, like, Jacob's Ladder. I kept thinking of that movie when I was watching this and Ghost. And I mean, what in 90 like, there's a stack of movies that came out that I was sitting there watching it like I never saw this movie. And I don't know how I did not see this movie. Did you see it back

Shanny Luft: 1:00

Yes, I did see it back then, and I it's funny, I had the same thought you did. I wrote in my notes that this was the same year that Jacob's Ladder came out, and it was also the same year ghost came out. All three of these movies, ghost, Jacob's Ladder and flat liners, they look really similar to each other. They all have this dark, gritty city. There's always like, very anxious anxiety producing like train sequences where there's like monsters on trains, or your train is descending into hell. You walk along the street and there's like trash cans on fire.

Ryan Dreimiller: 1:34

Yeah, totally is. Every time they were, like, walking from point A to point B, apparently they had to take the sketchiest garbage ridden trash can on fire alley, where you're like, This is really the only way Chicago.

Shanny Luft: 1:46

The thing I wanted to point out to you was it's not just the visual that makes all three of these movies, Jacob slider, ghost and Flatliner similar. They also all three have this supernatural theme of when you die, there is something beyond that. They're just it's surprising to me how, in 1990 these three big movies dropped, and they all look similar, and they all have this similar kind of supernatural vibe, yeah, and it's about letting go of your past and accepting your future and who you really are.

Ryan Dreimiller: 2:16

It's yeah, that's that hit me. And those three, those three movies together like I was thinking the same thing.

Shanny Luft: 2:22

Flat liners is directed by Joel Schumacher, and he directed another movie that we talked about. Yeah, yeah. So we'll get into it, but let's do our our summary first.

Ryan Dreimiller: 2:33

So flat liners from 1990 so this was the original one. It's a story about this group of ambitious medical students, and they're led by this guy, Nelson, who decides he's going to engage in these experiments that involve near death experiences. And they intentionally are stopping their their hearts to glimpse what's beyond death, but when they come back, something's coming with them. And so the story sort of follows their experiences dying and then coming back, and what's coming through from their past, their sins, and the terrifying ways that what they did and the guilt that they carried over these years happens to catch up with them, with these near death experiences.

Shanny Luft: 3:15

I'm shocked that you did not see this movie. I think that'd be possible.

Ryan Dreimiller: 3:20

So I don't know why. It's definitely a gap. I apologize to our listeners and to you

Shanny Luft: 3:26

personally, the reason why this seems like a Ryan movie is it's a horror movie, plus it has that like supernatural element to it. You were just your whole life. You've been fascinated with what happens when you die, or is there a way to, like, reach into another kind of plane of existence. And so this movie just seemed totally up your alley.

Ryan Dreimiller: 3:45

Yeah, definitely. And what a cast, too.

Shanny Luft: 3:48

For Sutherland, Julia Roberts, William Baldwin, Oliver Platt and Kevin Bacon, who we we remember him from tremors.

Ryan Dreimiller: 3:56

And I feel like that. The guy, Oliver Platt never gets any love. So good job Oliver for showing up in this one too.

Shanny Luft: 4:03

Really, I have the question, why is Oliver Platt in this movie? In my notes, he seems like the least relevant character. He's the only one in the group that doesn't go under and that like die and get brought back, and he's just like recording it, but he doesn't move the plot forward. He doesn't experience any trauma from his childhood. He felt, it felt like, to me, like his whole character could have been cut out. Was he supposed to be the comic relief of this movie? I felt I didn't get unclear.

Ryan Dreimiller: 4:31

Yeah, he sort of buzz kill, like, Come on, dude, you know, ever get with the program, you know, get on the table. Stop your heart. You know, why you dragging down the party.

Shanny Luft: 4:41

Do you remember in the movie Aliens, the guy that goes, We're doomed, man, we're dead meat, we're gonna die.

Unknown: 4:46

Man, game over. Man, it's game over. The fuck are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do?

Shanny Luft: 4:51

That was Oliver plaid in this movie. All he ever did was say, just a terrible idea. We're never gonna make it. Oh, we can't bring him back.

Ryan Dreimiller: 4:59

What the school's. Gonna kick you out. What's this doing to your future?

Shanny Luft: 5:02

Yes, right? I don't know. So I didn't I didn't get it. I didn't understand, like, why is he even in this movie? Yeah, it seemed like they could have cut that right out of the script, speaking of things they could cut out of the script. So Kiefer Sutherland has this idea that he needs to die, and then his friends are gonna bring him back, and then he'll come back and explain what the afterlife is like, and then they all decide to do then Julian Roberts is like, I want to try it. And then bacon's like, I want to try it. And part of what was fascinating about watching this movie is I did not remember it correctly. So that's that's always really interesting when you and I go back to one of these movies and realize, oh, it's not how we thought it was. So I thought, what were you misremembering? Yeah, what I remembered is that when one of the characters dies, and these are all like kids in medical school, so they're like, medically killing them by, like, injecting something into them, but then they're using the paddles and bringing it back and doing CPR and intubating. My recollection was they easily brought back each one of them, like it was like, he dies. They basically push a button, they bring it back to life, and then they talk about it. But no, there's like four scenes in this movie where a character, where one of their friends goes under, dies for two to five minutes, and then all the people that are alive, who are in medical school are panicking, trying to bring them back every time.

Audio Clip: 6:17

All right, active. Reintroduce a truckload.

Shanny Luft: 6:20

Dave, come on back. And all of the people who go under have seen their friend go under and barely come back, and they just repeat that scene like four times. I couldn't believe how often that happened, and also how they every single time they barely managed to bring the guy back. And there was like, this long sequence of panic, and they're all screaming medical jargon to each other.

Audio Clip: 6:45

Three minutes starting CPR, one, one-thousand, two one-thouand.

Ryan Dreimiller: 6:52

Keep filming. Yeah, at one point they had a needle full of some something. They're like, you're gonna fry her.

Audio Clip: 6:58

Man, moving to bertilium. No, it's the only way. No, it's our last chance. Don't do it. You will fry her.

Ryan Dreimiller: 7:07

Seems like they should have a better system in place if you're really volunteering to go longer and be the next in line. Because whatever they've set the time target as for being dead, it always runs over because they can't get their shit together, right?

Shanny Luft: 7:20

So they keep nearly killing their friends.

Ryan Dreimiller: 7:23

Let me ask you this question, because watching this movie, and I thought it was definitely an interesting premise, but I watched the whole movie thinking to myself, two thoughts on this Nelson played by Kiefer Sutherland, I never really understood what his motivation was to do this. Like, they didn't really sell it to me as, like he had some compelling reason to do this experiment. I think they start the movie, and he's like, Oh, today is a good day to die. And it's like, well, why? Like, right? And, but they build Julia Roberts Roberts character Rachel, there's a little bit more depth to her story as to why she might want to participate in this activity with her father and whatnot from her past and her childhood. But with Nelson, I was like, why is he doing this? Like, what's his motivation? So what was, what was your take on that?

Shanny Luft: 8:09

My take was, there's problems with this script. Like, like, all of the characters, their motivations for doing a lot of things they do is a little questionable, like they're just not very well written characters. I mean, these are like kind of Brat Pack period actors, Billy Baldwin, Julia Roberts, who look so young in this movie, and wow, Kiefer, Southern, I thought look younger in this movie than he did in the vampire movie. I just couldn't believe they they're supposed to be all in medical school, and they look like children. It might be, because when I saw this movie in 1990 I was 18 years old, and so they were like 25 right now I'm twice as old as them, and they're exactly the same age. So all of them look like children to me. I'm like, I would not trust this group of people to bring me back to life from the dead. I did remember this. Julia Roberts has this, like, trauma with her father, who had killed himself, and so she's obsessed with the afterlife. But the rest of them, I mean, Kiefer Sutherland just talks about, he wants to go in the history books as someone who has, you know, like, explored, like, there's a speech in the movie about how we've explored the oceans, we've explored sky, right? But that's it. One thing I was really curious to ask you, if you had the ability to, like, stop your brain for two minutes, and then if you could be 100% sure that you could definitely be brought back. Would you do this thing that they're doing to see what happens when you die?

Ryan Dreimiller: 9:37

I don't think so. I think I would. I'd rather get a hold of some DMT or look at toad and have that type of experience, versus like, feel like I'm intentionally killing myself, like I feel like that's gonna happen eventually. There's no need to rush it.

Shanny Luft: 9:53

That's interesting. I feel like, had I asked college Ryan, he would have been like, if I if there's 100% chance I could be brought back. I. I might give it a shot. I might take a swing at that bat.

Ryan Dreimiller: 10:03

Yeah, you know, I feel like, as I've gotten older, my appetite to jump out of planes and bungee dive has been curtailed a bit. So this is the reasonable elder statesman at this point, providing, well, I mean, would you

Shanny Luft: 10:22

No, no, nothing these characters did in this movie appealed to me at all.

Ryan Dreimiller: 10:28

All right, so let's we've got a lot of notes, but let's jump into scenes. And I think one of the ones that stood out to me, I'm not gonna put his favorite scene, because I don't know. Like when I was watching this movie, I was expecting more Jacob's ladder type, yes, which was, as we talked about in that in that episode, very disturbing. It really gets under your skin, and just does such a like, you felt like you went to a different place, right?

Shanny Luft: 10:55

You're expecting it to be more surreal and more like, yeah.

Ryan Dreimiller: 10:58

So when the film shows Nelson, our main protagonist, he goes Kiefer, he goes under, comes back, and then he comes around the corner, and there's this kid there, and this was a kid from like this vision that he had when he was dead. I'm sort of expecting some demon shot or whatever, but the scene is basically this kid that he terrorized, Billy Mahoney back in his day, who just, like, starts beating the shit out of him. Yes, you're just watching it, and you're like, a it looks so ridiculous. You're just like, what?

Shanny Luft: 11:35

Like Billy Mahoney, who I'm pretty sure in the movie they indicate, is eight years old. I don't think that actor was eight years old, and the kid has, like, supernatural strength, Kei for something, goes flying,

Ryan Dreimiller: 11:47

right, gets him with a hockey stick in one scene, another scene, he's trying to take him out with some ice pick thing or whatever. Yeah, it was perplexing. Like, I kept my notes. I was like, why is the afterlife just filled with kids from the playground that you gave shit to back in the day. The other bacon, yeah. Kevin Bacon scene, like, is him having this interaction with this girl that he pulled it in school. And it's like, I was like, What is going on with this movie? It didn't get interesting to me until they really kind of got the Rachel Julia Roberts character. Like, I thought that was a much better done, yeah?

Shanny Luft: 12:21

But so Kevin Bacon is like the first guy to realize that he needs to apologize, and he does. He goes back to he tracks down the woman, he apologizes, and then, like, the trauma ends, like his horror movie is over at that point. Way to go, yeah,

Ryan Dreimiller: 12:36

like, end of story. Right now. It's a little bit more complicated for David because, or sorry for Nelson because the guy that you come to find out that the kid he was given a hard time too, he actually killed him, yes, whoops.

Shanny Luft: 12:52

It is weird that like half the cast were horrible bullies in high school, yeah, or middle school even, yeah, they were terrible people. Yeah, there's he throws rocks at a kid. A kid climbs up in a tree to get away from him, and then little Kiefer Sutherland throws a rock. The kid falls out of the tree. Not filmed especially well, so weird, like, 10

Ryan Dreimiller: 13:11

minutes of falling arms are like, kind of branches are coming down, and then they had to show the branches, because one of the branches actually crushes, right? His dog also. So it's like a double whammy, like, yeah, you killed a kid and you hurt your dog, you maimed your dog. Like, this guy's, he has a piece of shit, right? Yeah. So the final scene with Nelson Kiefer's character, essentially, he go, he goes back and has this interaction with, oh, was the kid's name, Billy Mahoney that he was tormenting all these years, and he's the one that gets cornered in the tree, right?

Shanny Luft: 13:46

So the way the movie fixes it is Kiefer goes under a second time, and then Billy Mahoney knocks him out of a tree, and then Kiefer dies. And then, like, maybe there's one version of the script where, like, that's how it ends, and then Kiefer Sutherland dies. But no, because Kevin Bacon is such an extraordinary doctor, he does that thing that you see in movies where they do everything they can to try to save him, and then when Kiefer's character is dead, it's been like 10 minutes he's been brain dead, Kevin Bacon just starts punching him in the chest, which I'm not sure that is medically. I don't know that many doctors would encourage that technique.

Ryan Dreimiller: 14:22

Well, no, doesn't cry the PALS, they shock somebody's like, wailing on them. And you're just like, well, easy, easy buddy.

Shanny Luft: 14:38

It's a funny idea that, like, if you're a bully in the afterlife, somebody has to bully you then, and then you're you're square, you're even. It's all worked out. Yeah, you just gotta it. Just got to go through it. And then I did remember Julia Roberts plot. The thing that's traumatizing her is that her father committed suicide, which is, like, really different than what the other kids are going through. And so. Kind of being haunted by her dad. Was there anything scary when, like, her dad would come back, or, like, at one point, there's a body on a table, and it rises up and it's her dead dad?

Ryan Dreimiller: 15:09

Yeah, I actually thought that was probably the creepiest stuff in this film, where just got under his skin the most was that that whole because when her dad starts coming back, she's, she's like, seeing him in the mirror, sees them on the table, come back, and then they keep flashing to the scene. I thought it was actually a well portrayed childhood trauma with she would it's clearly her home from her childhood. And then you're seeing these steps, and there's toys in the steps, and something happens in the bathroom with her dad, but you can't quite see. You just keep seeing him from the back, and then the mom's yelling, and eventually they do show this scene of, essentially, when he takes his own life, that happens outside, but when she goes back in that final, that final time, and then goes into the bathroom and then actually sees what's happening. It's like her dad is back from, you assume, Vietnam or something, and he's shooting up heroin in the bathroom, and and then she starts crying, and then they they hug like, I actually thought that was, I was moved by that scene, really. That worked for you. I thought that was pretty powerful and held up like that was the only moment in the film that I was like, wow, this is, like, got some heavy duty kind of Jacob's Ladder esque level type stuff.

Shanny Luft: 16:25

Yeah, drama. It's similar to, I thought, the Billy Mahoney thing, where the way it's solved is she just has to, in the afterlife, have a single interaction with her dad, like he's appearing as this kind of, like, malevolent figure who's frightening her, but similar to Jacob's Ladder, they're only frightened because they don't understand what they're seeing, or they don't understand that these like beings from their childhood are reaching out to them like her dad was not trying to harm her. And then they do the cheesy thing where, like, she looks in a mirror, and then she sees her dead dad standing there, and she turns around and he's gone. I felt like, wow, there's a lot of cliches. Of the scares in this movie were almost all jump scares. They were almost all and then I did not find many sequences to be like the gurney scene in Jacob's Ladder, which is just surreal and horrifying and just gets more and more frightening the more you watch it. There was nothing here that was like scary, and then just kept getting more and more intense. Every frightening scene just basically ends pretty quickly.

Ryan Dreimiller: 17:25

Yeah, I would not really call this a I know they put this one psychological horror category, but yeah, it's pretty light on the horror. Going back to the Rachel thing, I will say, like with her dad, I thought what worked about that is, and happens a lot with ghosts or ghost stories is like they keep coming back because there's something unresolved. So right in terms of he was never able to say goodbye, or she was never able to say, you know, I love you like so it that felt much more believable to me, that scene where they were resolving this thing that was unresolvable, but being brought together in that moment like that. If there was more of that in this movie, I felt like it would have been a lot stronger. One thing I wanted to just bring up, and I was thinking about, was I was a bit let down by how they brought the afterlife to life in this film. Like, like, I feel like a movie, like altered states, which was, like, just kind of wild to the other side, and just, like, just so wacky and bonkers. And I feel like this came up in one of the reviews that I write about this film, like saying that had such, just like a vision and style to it around, like accessing things that are beyond the normal state of consciousness. And in this one, I felt like it was, like, you said, it was a little bit wizard of Ozzy, like, in terms of falling from a tree and Joel Schumacher. And this actually had the same kind of, like, flying camera over the landscape thing that showed up in Lost Boys through the clouds. Like I was like, as like, for as interesting as some of the sets were in this film, and the lighting and stuff, when they got to the afterlife stuff, I was like, it's kind of, I feel like the vision wasn't there, right? I wasn't impressed.

Shanny Luft: 19:12

Yeah. It's funny when people think of Joel Schumacher, I don't know how long this is going to be stuck to him, but what they remember is he directed two Batman movies, and then one of them Batman and Robin, he put nipples on the bat suit, and Batman fans lost their ever loving minds. And so to people our age, who I feel like, who are into comic books and comic book movies, I feel like Joel Schumacher is persona non grata. He's hated for what he did in that Batman and Robin movie, but he also did a lot of, like, famous movies that had a lot of that were really popular and successful. He did st aimless fire. He did the Lost Boys. But there's not much about his directing style that I thought was like that interesting. And you're right. His, his vision of, like, what the afterlife is. I mean, even granting that in the 80s, the what you can do with special effects is pretty limited. I didn't find it all that creative. I feel bad talking about him this way because he died.

Ryan Dreimiller: 20:14

But sorry, Joel, didn't realize we were disparaging your your legacy.

Shanny Luft: 20:19

But, and he had this, like, enormous career, like he started directing movies in the 70s, and then was directing straight through the 2010s so he was around for 40 years.

Ryan Dreimiller: 20:29

We are totally host man, because when we both die, we're gonna, like, be running into Joel Schumacher in our afterlife experience, and he's gonna be beating us up in the hall talk smack about my movie. Okay, you're like, you like Jacob's Ladder flat liners. What the hell no.

Shanny Luft: 20:47

What we're gonna say is, oh, Joe, we love the Lost Boys. Maybe he's a fan of the podcast, but he stopped listening after like the first 10 episodes. So yeah, the way we gush about the Lost Boys, he we, I think we should just if we're covered, I think we should ask for his autograph. Yes. Okay, all right. And Joel, if you're hearing this, sorry to bring up that nipple thing again. I know it's really been following you around. You want to give us a stab you score? Are we there?

Ryan Dreimiller: 21:10

Yeah, let's do it, as we often talk about. And people are probably sick of us saying this, but you are thinking about stabby scores the whole time you watch it. There's, there's two, I would say, frameworks for what we do here on slash back cinema. One is the land of schlock, which we know these movies are going to be bad, but that's part of what makes them good. And it's, you know, it's a whole package. It's a whole framework and a way to think about a film enjoying its badness. Then the other bucket is these more mainstream grade a Hollywood films, and I feel like that brings a different lens to how you watch and experience a movie like I think to think this is going to be rated in the same way as, say, the uninvited, it's probably not a fair way to judge this film. So they're two different buckets. So we're here in grade a Hollywood film and watching this.

Shanny Luft: 22:10

So let me set this up. Yes, so instead of stabby scores, I think we should do how many beeps you give this on the vital signs monitor from the hospital, because the movie is obsessed with that machine. So, okay, how many, how many beeps would you give this movie? Right? I'm gonna

Ryan Dreimiller: 22:26

provide this movie with the vital signs framework, three beeps It's got a great cast. It's very stylish in terms of set dressing and cast and all that. It's great. I think the afterlife, like I said before, is a total letdown, like the fact that at the afterlife Isn't this like surreal thing. It's kind of the bullies or the kids you bullied come back and physically beat you up in this world, sort of like what? And I still don't even know why they did all these experiments. The only one that was believable was Rachel. So, you know, I've given it three vital signs, three acts,

Shanny Luft: 23:16

really interesting because you had never seen it before. At least you don't remember having seen it. I do remember seeing it, and in my memory, it was great. And then I watched it last night in preparation for this conversation, and it was just the number of beeps were dropping like this patient was slowly expiring. Fucking flat lines. Yes, exactly. So I give it two beeps, two beeps. The only time I've given a movie one beep is when I'm sorry I watched it at all, and it actually made my life worse to have seen it. I didn't feel that, but I thought it was way too long. It was not very creative, it was not very scary. Some of the dialog was like wince inducing, and then even really good actors like this could not pull it off. Okay, I got a question for you, yeah, shall we play a game? I'd love to play a game. So this flat liners came out in 1990 and to come up with a quiz idea, I thought, Who famous died in 1990 who flatlined that I could generate some quiz questions about and I was horrified to see that a hero of mine, maybe of yours, Jim Henson, died in 1990 Wow. Talk about a guy that did not have to there's no way Jim Henson ever bullied anybody. He didn't have any reckoning at his death. I think he just goes straight to heaven. He takes the except Excella train and just goes right up there. That's a good man that. Jim Henson, yeah, all of my questions today are about the TV show from the late 70s and early 80s, The Muppet Show. Were you a fan of The Muppet Show?

Ryan Dreimiller: 24:54

Ryan, I was a fan, although I wonder I'm questioning the. Extent and depth of my Muppet Show knowledge, but I'm game. Yes, bring it on. Okay.

Shanny Luft: 25:04

So first question, what were the names of the two Muppets that sat in the balcony and criticized everyone? I have four options for you, but do you think you know it without me giving you an options,

Ryan Dreimiller: 25:17

I need a prompt. All right,

Shanny Luft: 25:21

they're the old old dudes. I'm really glad that you're asking for this, because I did really enjoy coming up with names for these guys. Ryan were their names, Stetson and Walcott were their names, Statler and Waldorf were their names, stapler and waldash, or were their names, Stanley and walthrop, Tony?

Ryan Dreimiller: 25:41

Do it again. It's either the second or the fourth one.

Shanny Luft: 25:45

Second one is Statler and Waldorf, and the fourth one is Stanley and walthrop.

Ryan Dreimiller: 25:51

I'm going the last one, Stanley,

Shanny Luft: 25:54

Stanley and walthrop is incorrect. It was Statler and Waldorf,

Ryan Dreimiller: 25:59

damn it.

Shanny Luft: 25:59

I found out that they were named after New York hotels. Oh, interesting. Okay, I didn't know that. What would you know, you old fool? Okay, well, Ryan, I thought that was an easy one. See how fast this thing goes downhill. Question number two in the TV series The Muppet Show, Rolf, the dog, is mainly seen playing what kind of musical instrument, saxophone, guitar, drums or piano. Do you remember Rolf the dog?

Ryan Dreimiller: 26:27

Yes, saxophone.

Shanny Luft: 26:31

He played the piano. All right. This third one here, piece of Cai, setting it on fire here. There's no way you get this wrong. On The Muppet Show, there was a science fiction parody. What was it called? Was it ham wars, was it swine trek? Was it Pigs in Space, or was it oink Star Galactica?

Ryan Dreimiller: 26:55

Go through it again?

Shanny Luft: 26:57

Ham wars, swine trek, Pigs in Space or Oink Star Galactica.

Ryan Dreimiller: 27:04

I feel like it's either ham words or Pigs in Space. I'm going Pigs in Space.

Shanny Luft: 27:12

It was Pigs in Space. You don't remember the theme song Pigs in Space. I thought maybe that would stick in your head. No, I'm sorry to say, these might be getting a little harder, but let's see. So I found out there are very few Muppets that actually used human hands as part of their puppet, but one that did needed human hands because he would manipulate things so carefully and hilariously that they needed they couldn't do it with those little felt arms. They need an actual human hands to actually manipulate stuff. So which Muppet is the only one that utilizes actual human hands? Was it the Swedish Chef? Was it animal, or was it big bird?

Ryan Dreimiller: 27:52

Oh, damn. I thought Kermit, the frog had a hand in there.

Shanny Luft: 27:56

He had these little felt wavy hands. Don't you remember him doing it?

Ryan Dreimiller: 27:59

Yeah, but he had a hand in him, manipulating his but you're talking about

Shanny Luft: 28:03

actual five fingers, like a human hand that was manipulating stuff to interact with it,

Ryan Dreimiller: 28:08

Swedish Chef.

Shanny Luft: 28:11

It was the Swedish Chef. Yeah. A question that I rejected was, what was the Swedish chef's famous tagline? Do you happen to remember what it is? Because you practically just said it, yeah. You practically just said it. He would say this little words, and then he would say, Boink, Boink, Boink! All right. The next question is, about Frank Oz. Frank Oz, he was a director. He was also the voice of Yoda. My question for you about Frank Oz, which Muppet did? Frank Oz not voice. So I'm going to give you four choices. He voiced. Three of them did not voice. One of them, was it Miss Piggy? Was it Fozzie Bear? Was it animal, or was it Gonzo?

Ryan Dreimiller: 28:54

It's either animal or Gonzo. I think it's Gonzo.

Shanny Luft: 29:01

It was Gonzo. Yes, I think you got three, right? You got Pigs in Space, Swedish Chef and Gonzo. Yeah, you're actually getting stronger as you go. She said the warm up, all right, this one is going to be a musical question, and so not only will have to share my screen, but I'm going to have to like, share my audio. Okay, so Ryan, The Muppet Show, opening theme song. Do you remember that it's time to light the it's time to play the music. It's time to light the lights. Okay, so the song ends. I'm gonna play for you the ending of the song. The build up, and I beeped out one of the words, and then I'm going to tell you what four possibilities are the word, and I'll play it for you twice if you need it twice. You ready? Okay, this is the end where, this is the ending of The Muppet Show theme song. You ready?

Audio Clip: 29:55

Okay, it's time to get things started on the most sensational inspiration. Generational celebration.

Shanny Luft: 30:10

Okay, Ryan, I'm going to tell you the four possibilities, and then I'll play it one more time. Ready? What word did I beep out there? Ryan, this is the thing that took me. This is why we started late today. I had to download that song, isolate that word and then beep it out. So what is the missing word in the closing lyrics of The Muppet Show theme song? Is it motivational, muppetational, recreational or educational? All right? Motivational, muppetational, recreational or educational. Ready? All right,

Audio Clip: 30:44

it's time to get things on the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational [beep].

Shanny Luft: 30:57

They say most stational, inspirational, celebrational. And then is the next word, motivational, muppetational, recreational or educational.

Ryan Dreimiller: 31:06

It's either motivational or muppetational.

Shanny Luft: 31:09

Well, you've got it down to 50-50, every time.

Ryan Dreimiller: 31:13

Anyway, you know, I'm feeling like it's motivational because I don't think Muppets lived in the land of Smurfs. It was like, you know, Smurfs, reputational,

Shanny Luft: 31:24

the actual Correct answer is muppettational. So then I had to sit around this morning and come up with words that rhymed with muppetation. Well, well, played all right, here's your last question. So right after the end of the song, you may remember that the logo comes down, and then one of the characters blows a trumpet, and then something wacky happens. It doesn't make a trumpet sound, or it makes a weird animal sound, or an explosion happens. So my question is, who is the character that blows that trumpet and things go haywire. Was it Gonzo, fuzzy bear, scooter or animal who blows the trumpet at the end of the song?

Ryan Dreimiller: 32:08

When things go haywire, it's either scooter or Gonzo. I'm going Gonzo.

Shanny Luft: 32:13

It was Gonzo. Oh god, I think so you got Gonzo then you got Frank. Oz voice, Gonzo. You got the Swedish Chef. You got Pigs in Space. So that's a four, four out of seven. Yeah, not, you know, no bad. I mean, yeah, sort of flat liners, scholar. But you know what? You pulled it out

Ryan Dreimiller: 32:44

that wraps up another trip down memory lane. Hopefully you enjoyed revisiting flat liners as much as we did.

Shanny Luft: 32:50

Be sure to visit slashback cinema.com where you'll find our merch store, as well as a link for donating to the show. Every bit helps, and we promise not to spend it all on defibrillators and medical malpractice insurance.

Ryan Dreimiller: 33:01

And we do want to hear from you got a favorite memory from the 70s or 80s, or maybe even the 90s, a classic car movie you'd love us to dissect. Drop us a line at slashback cinema.com. Your suggestions. Keep the conversation alive. Now, I do want to know fans who said it better me or Shanny, me or Shanny. Send us a note. Let us know.

Shanny Luft: 33:21

Thanks for tuning in to slash back cinema. See you next week, assuming we make it back from the other side.

Ryan Dreimiller: 33:30

Well, you know, Jen has accused me of having a strong I don't see affinity, or like more of a likeness, to a certain Muppet character.

Shanny Luft: 33:41

Which, can I ask you, which character that would be? Do you have a favorite Muppet?

Ryan Dreimiller: 33:46

I'm just, if you look at me and you know me, Well, is there a certain Muppet that comes to your mind when you think of me?

Shanny Luft: 33:53

That's it. So, just just physical look or personality? Maybe both. Yeah. How interesting the personality? The method that comes to mind in looks, but not in personality, is scooter?

Ryan Dreimiller: 34:07

Scooter Interesting, okay, well, Jen accuses me of being the character beaker being crafted around me.

Shanny Luft: 34:21

Well, now that you see it, it's hard to unsee it.