Part of what got me into being an “active” participant in the Twilight fandom, rather than just a lurker, was listening to the Team Jack podcast. I started late in the game (as I do with most things) and began listening a few months before Breaking Dawn Part 2 was due in theatres. Actually, it was right around the time that the Twilight cast was making their final appearance at Comic Con in 2012. Of course, trying to glean as much as I could about whatever Twilight-related content was available, I went back to the beginning and listened to alllll the podcast episodes. (Twilight-realted tidbits are kept to a minimum and scattered amongst a vast array of various general movie/Hollywood-centric topics.) I maintain, to this day, that without the Team Jack podcast, I wouldn’t have been inspired to crack my way into the online community and would still be hiding deep in the depths of my Twi-closet. From that, I owe my closest friendships and the life I now live, to this podcast.

All of that said, and Twilight crap aside, I LOVE Jack’s podcast. It’s not only a fascinating look into movies, movie-making, Hollywood life, etc. but also Jack himself is a treat. I appreciate so much his drilling down into the minutia of detail regarding time and place and his sense of humour and the fact that he really does ‘get’ all of us crazy Twihards – because obsession is obsession, no matter what form it takes. He understands and that’s apparent in everything he talks about.

So, yeah… I’ve been a Team Jack fan for quite awhile. I used to interact with Jack and his ‘team’ of girls on Twitter, back when I was actually active on Twitter and the podcast was airing regularly. (I even won a trivia contest they held and got myself a lovely Bill Condon autographed magazine! Hahaha.  Oh yeah, and I was also in attendance for the recording of episode 49 in LA during BD2 Fan Camp. That was pretty freaking cool.)

Much later on, when the podcast was on indefinite hiatus, I got in touch with Jack, due to his involvement in the Forever Twilight in Forks events last year through the Facebook page and offered my assistance in maintaining the FTF Pinterest account (which I still do – albeit a lot more spottily than last year ) and then, when he asked if I’d help out with the Team Jack Pinterest account too, I added that as well. Take a look at both of those if you want. I’m kind of proud of them.

Around that time, while I was perusing the ‘visually annotated episode guides‘ for pictures to use for his Pinterest stuff and was re-listening to all the old episodes again (research, of course), I decided to try my hand at making my own version of an episode guide, following their format. (They started later on, around episode 30-something-ish, I think, and then went back to the beginning to start with back-dated ones. As it is right now, there is a gap from episode 10-to-wherever they started of missing guides.) It wasn’t something I was doing to share. Just for my own enjoyment and love of organizing stuff. Although, I liked it when it was complete, I still kept it to myself.

But… the podcast has recently starting recording episodes again after a long, two-an-a-half year break. I figured that the new episodes would have guides made to go along with them and thought it was possible that they’d get back to making the missing back-dated ones as well. Since I had one finished, I messaged Kathleen, who does the guides, and offered to send it to her and that she was free to use as much or as little (or all or none) of what I had come up with.

I’m not sure if they will end up using any of what I sent for the Team Jack Podcast website but, as I like to do with all the stuff I write that is posted elsewhere, I wanted to share it here on my own personal blog as well. As I said, I do like how it turned out.

If you a fan of movies at all, I highly suggest that you check out the Team Jack podcast either on iTunes or SoundCloud. They are very informative and entertaining.

Team Jack 11: “All Dogs Go to Heaven” – originally aired December 21, 2011
In which Jack, Yolen, and Cohen try to find meaning in it all.

Guests:
Jack Morrissey  
Greg Yolen
Matt Cohen

Annotated by: kmah 

 

1: 55       Last episode before the Christmas holidays – Greg will be returning to “the wilds of Vancouver” and Matt will be heading to Manhattan Island to partake in 4 Phish concerts around New Year’s where, for once, Madison Square Gardens will be ‘greener’ than Central Park.

An interesting conversation about Phish-specific carnival barkers and the type of activity that happens at such concerts ensues.

7:55        After Matt makes reference to Gwen Turner’s movies, Greg wants to point out that “we love lesbians” on this podcast. All Jack knows about lesbians is that they like jicama.

9:13        When Matt interjects that Kim Jong Il was a big fan of All Dogs Go to Heaven before Greg can explain the reason for the episode title, it spawns a tangent about the recently deceased dictator’s movie obsession and whether or not Kim Jong Un will be better or worse for the world.

Kim Jong Il clip from Team America

 

12:08     Matt suggests The Vice Guide to North Korea on vice.com.

Part 2, Part 3

13:48 Jack is very upset to learn he was just in Great Neck, the town where the Friedmans were from, for a wedding and could have gone by their house but didn’t know it.
(kmah’s note: From Wikipedia – Francis Ford Coppola graduated from Great Neck High School North. Sid Caesar, Maurice Chevalier, Oscar Hammerstein II, Andy Kaufman, and the Marx Brothers were also residents. It is said that F. Scott Fitzgerald, after living there for many years, modelled West Egg, the town where Nick in The Great Gastby lives, after Great Neck.)

Capturing the Friedmans is a “remarkable, fascinating, disturbing documentary”, according to Greg. All three of them love it. But “you won’t feel good about humanity afterwards”, Matt adds.

15:58     Greg reviewed Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol for his stevenspielblog.com. Check it out and the (super creepy and gross) shirtless picture of Tom Cruise.

Matt’s reaction when he sees it: “WTF?! He looks like some sort of Guillermo del Toro creature from Pan’s Labyrinth!”

(kmah’s note: It reminds me of when the alien breaks out of John Hurt’s stomach in Spaceballs – sans shirt. It looks like something is wiggling around inside him and about to break free.)

But Greg says the movie is good and really fun nonetheless.

21:10 Quick run through of the MI movies.
Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible II
Mission: Impossible III
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

They do the whole iconic dropping and not hitting the ground bit in all of them.

26:04     J.J. Abrams always uses “the magic box” as the key to all his storytelling endeavors.

The only good Abrams movie is Star Trek – because it’s basically Star Wars.

27:35     Matt says he loves Star Trek TOS because it is the worst TV show ever made.
Greg: “You should all see Jack’s face right now. He is just staring death into Cohen.”
It’s low budget but charming.

28:41     Philip Seymour Hoffman playing Tom Cruise being Philip Seymour Hoffman for five minutes is the best part of MI3. Greg wishes it would continue throughout the rest of the movie.

28:48     Trying to figure out the correct pronunciation of Synecdoche (Sin-eck-da-key – not Sin-oh-douche).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383028/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synecdoche

30:03     Beware. Neti pots (or nose douches), if improperly used, can kill you. Emily, the evil amoeba will eat your brain!

33:35     Interesting that Jeremy Renner is primed to take over both of the major spy franchises – Mission: Impossible and Bourne.

34:55     Jack liked the original Matrix movie. Greg hated it. Matt liked it at the time but it doesn’t work anymore. It was a movie of its time. Now Keanu is just sad – which leads to a discussion of memes.   knowyourmeme.com is awesome and a wealth of information.

(kmah’s note: Please Google “Jumping Rob“. Hilarious.)

37:15     ‘Downfall parodies‘ are a great example of internet memes.
How many movie Hitlers can you name?

39:35     Seamless segue from Hitler to Hulk (via Eric Bana movies), as only these three can do. Greg will defend Ang Lee’s and Greg sides with Louis Leterrier’s.

43:03     Jack isn’t a fan of when they trade up actors of franchises he’s actually invested in.
Examples:
Rachel Lefebvre vs. Bryce Dallas Howard as Victoria in the Twilight saga movies

Roger Moore vs. Sean Connery vs. …everybody else as James Bond (Greg’s)

Lara Flynn Boyle vs. Moira Kelly as Donna Hayward in Twin Peaks (Matt’s)

Kirstie Alley vs. Robin Curtis as Saavik in the Star Trek movies (Jack’s)

45:15     Did you hear the new Star Trek rumor? Jack’s favorite part of podcasting is when these two tell him things he’s too lazy to look up.

Someone was just cast in Star Trek 2 and they are saying whoever it is will probably be Janis Rand.

Who will be Kahn? Nester Carbonell replacing Benicio del Toro.

47:05     Matt has a great idea for a Star Trek parody – Bones treating Kirk for green VD. Don’t steal his idea.

48:25     The best things about Abrahams/Zucker Brothers movies. Notice how they almost all have exclamation marks in the titles.

52:00     Leslie Nielsen’s headstone actually reads “Let ‘er rip” and other funny grave markers.

52:51     Jack and Bill’s beloved dog, Pigpen, has made the journey to wherever he’s going beyond this world.  😦

55:11      Pet parents and the decisions you don’t think about having to make.

1:03:55  The joy of outdoor movies. Hollywood Forever Cinespia is hugely popular. Matt says Devil’s Night Drive-In is also really cool.

1:08:45  Greg is heading back to Vancouver tomorrow morning. Jack suggests he eats a Beaver Tail when he’s there. They were introduced to Jack by Ian McKellan and are delicious.
(kmah’s note: Beaver Tails are a Canadian festival and theme park staple. So yummy.)

1:11:08  Have a happy holiday!