I guess the question is whether you want the topic to result in the most views, or the best material. I love the niche stuff you write about (which is why I'm a subscriber), but if you want that filthy lucre, then maybe find a topic that gets a lot of engagement elsewhere.
I know it's not a 1:1 comparison, but I watch a lot of YouTube reviews & reactions, and the obvious Gen X favorites seem to get the most views, i.e. The Alien, Terminator, Predator, and Rambo series. Then again, I don't know what more you can say about those (except perhaps by highlighting the diminishing creative returns in all of those).
My personal preference would be a series on Charles Band productions, since you are so well-versed on the subject, and there is so much material to be mined.
I had suggested Charles Band movies, too, but limited to the ones he personally directed. If you widen it to films he produced, it would be too wide in scope.
Roger Ebert walked out of four movies in his entire life as a critic. Caligulia, The Statue, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and Tru Loved. It's time for you to walk into them, and see what he missed.
Wasn’t there a story about him buying a sealed laserdisc of Salo (which he had not seen) which he eventually realised there would be no circumstances in which he would ever watch it.
The movies released in 1992 to coincide with the 500 years since Christopher Columbus’s voyage. As far as I’m aware there’s only four. There’s Ridley Scott’s 1492: Conquest Of Paradise, starring Gerard Depardieu. This was frequently confused at the time with Christopher Columbus: The Discovery produced by the Salkinds.
The German animation The Adventures of Pico and Columbus. The English language dub is called The Magic Voyage and has the voices of Dom DeLuise as Columbus and Corey Feldman as Pico the talking woodworm.
Carry On Columbus was a resurrection of the old British comedy franchise with the members of the surviving cast who agreed to be in it and various British comedians who were famous in the early 1990s and happened to have an afternoon free. There will also be an appearance by the great Larry Miller.
Wow, I love this idea. I've only seen trailers for the first two, and never heard of the other two!
I remember when the trailer for "1492" came out, and it had an appropriately somber atmosphere (despite the use of Enigma's "Sadeness Part I"). And then I was at a theater that played the trailer for Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, and that trailer made Columbus look like a swashbuckling rake. The audience chuckled at that one.
Unless you’re an old British person there’s no way you’d know what a Carry On film is. Carry On Columbus did get a lot of attention in the UK when it was announced because it was a return of a famous (in one particular country) old cinematic franchise with a new generation of comedy stars. Those films were only worth watching for the original cast and by 1992 most of them were no longer with us. It’s 91 minutes but it’s a very long 91 minutes. There’s nobody better than Larry Miller when it comes to classing up a lowbrow comedy. He managed to sprinkle a little dignity and finesse to his scenes in Foodfight. But even a class act like him can’t do much with what he was given here.
I'm a USAian, but I definitely know the Carry On movies; they used to play them on a local Los Angeles TV station occasionally when I was growing up. (Channel 9, now known as KCAL, showed a lot of British content...that was their niche for a while.)
Even so, I definitely had no idea that they had made a Carry On movie in the freaking 1990s! I guess I could see how that idea *might* work (sort of like Brain Donors), but it sounds like it definitely did NOT work.
Hmmmm John Carpenter's ouvre? All the Will Vinton or Ralph Bakshi films? All the terrible, terrible Dr. Seuss live action adaptations? Nightmare fuel children's films like The Peanut Butter Solution (not something you can do exhaustively but I know you're a fan)?
If you really don't want anyone but me to read it you could cover all of Steve Oedekerk's Thumb films starting with Thumb Wars: The Phantom Cuticle!
Not sure if you're a Bond fan, but on our podcast (www.leaguepodcast.com - always be plugging), my friends and I did a "carousing Through Craig" series where we reviewed all the Danial Craig installments leading up to the latest, and worst of the lot, "No Time to Die." We also did a Bounding through Brosnan series, and are working on Rogeirng Through Roger. We may have a problem
This would be an exceedingly deep dive, but you could watch all the daytime episodes of Dark Shadows and then the follow-up movies. But again, that's a LOT.
I just thought of another that I only hesitate to suggest because it's going to be so dire. It's the complete set of Disney/DreamWorks/Bluth knockoff DTV animated features made by GoodTimes Entertainment in the 90s-early 2000s.
Seems like a lot to talk about: one of the best films of all time followed by one of the worst films of all time (a MYOF revisit!), plus a cult classic, and that weirdness with the 4th one being made twice by 2 different directors, Justice League-style. Plus a new, potentially non-terrible entry coming out this year.
A suggestion, not a topic: maybe make "Nathan Rabin’s Bad Ideas’ Questionable Exercises in Completism" a book SERIES, with each entry shorter and focused on one "Exercise" -- so a book on the SNL movies, then a separate one on Fast and Furious, then one on Ernest, etc. Sell 3 books for $6 > 1 for $15, you know? Plus I think it would get more readers -- people interested in SNL are more likely to notice something with SNL in the title, especially in the age of targeted advertising and the almighty algorithms.
I guess the question is whether you want the topic to result in the most views, or the best material. I love the niche stuff you write about (which is why I'm a subscriber), but if you want that filthy lucre, then maybe find a topic that gets a lot of engagement elsewhere.
I know it's not a 1:1 comparison, but I watch a lot of YouTube reviews & reactions, and the obvious Gen X favorites seem to get the most views, i.e. The Alien, Terminator, Predator, and Rambo series. Then again, I don't know what more you can say about those (except perhaps by highlighting the diminishing creative returns in all of those).
My personal preference would be a series on Charles Band productions, since you are so well-versed on the subject, and there is so much material to be mined.
tl;dr - target Boomers & Gen X for the money,
I had suggested Charles Band movies, too, but limited to the ones he personally directed. If you widen it to films he produced, it would be too wide in scope.
This is a quick one, but.....
Roger Ebert walked out of four movies in his entire life as a critic. Caligulia, The Statue, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and Tru Loved. It's time for you to walk into them, and see what he missed.
Maybe expand that idea further to movies that Ebert gave zero stars, from "Africa, Addio" to "Human Centipede 2". 86 movies in all.
Wasn’t there a story about him buying a sealed laserdisc of Salo (which he had not seen) which he eventually realised there would be no circumstances in which he would ever watch it.
I am fascinated by the Air Bud /Air Buddies franchise that has somehow made a dozen films from a dog playing basketball
The movies released in 1992 to coincide with the 500 years since Christopher Columbus’s voyage. As far as I’m aware there’s only four. There’s Ridley Scott’s 1492: Conquest Of Paradise, starring Gerard Depardieu. This was frequently confused at the time with Christopher Columbus: The Discovery produced by the Salkinds.
The German animation The Adventures of Pico and Columbus. The English language dub is called The Magic Voyage and has the voices of Dom DeLuise as Columbus and Corey Feldman as Pico the talking woodworm.
Carry On Columbus was a resurrection of the old British comedy franchise with the members of the surviving cast who agreed to be in it and various British comedians who were famous in the early 1990s and happened to have an afternoon free. There will also be an appearance by the great Larry Miller.
Wow, I love this idea. I've only seen trailers for the first two, and never heard of the other two!
I remember when the trailer for "1492" came out, and it had an appropriately somber atmosphere (despite the use of Enigma's "Sadeness Part I"). And then I was at a theater that played the trailer for Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, and that trailer made Columbus look like a swashbuckling rake. The audience chuckled at that one.
Unless you’re an old British person there’s no way you’d know what a Carry On film is. Carry On Columbus did get a lot of attention in the UK when it was announced because it was a return of a famous (in one particular country) old cinematic franchise with a new generation of comedy stars. Those films were only worth watching for the original cast and by 1992 most of them were no longer with us. It’s 91 minutes but it’s a very long 91 minutes. There’s nobody better than Larry Miller when it comes to classing up a lowbrow comedy. He managed to sprinkle a little dignity and finesse to his scenes in Foodfight. But even a class act like him can’t do much with what he was given here.
I'm a USAian, but I definitely know the Carry On movies; they used to play them on a local Los Angeles TV station occasionally when I was growing up. (Channel 9, now known as KCAL, showed a lot of British content...that was their niche for a while.)
Even so, I definitely had no idea that they had made a Carry On movie in the freaking 1990s! I guess I could see how that idea *might* work (sort of like Brain Donors), but it sounds like it definitely did NOT work.
Would love you see you do a postscript of your Ernest series by writing about the character's film debut, Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom
Beam. If you wanted you could round it out with his tv show and some commercials.
Hmmmm John Carpenter's ouvre? All the Will Vinton or Ralph Bakshi films? All the terrible, terrible Dr. Seuss live action adaptations? Nightmare fuel children's films like The Peanut Butter Solution (not something you can do exhaustively but I know you're a fan)?
If you really don't want anyone but me to read it you could cover all of Steve Oedekerk's Thumb films starting with Thumb Wars: The Phantom Cuticle!
Yes to Ralph Bakshi. That's "Control Nathan Rabin 4.0" list if I ever win the lottery.
This might be too big, but what about a deep
dive into every movie branded as “National Lampoon”? Or maybe all the American Pie movies.
All the Ninja Turtle studio movies? With spooky season coming up, Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street, or Halloween franchise.
That was my idea too, 80s slasher movies would make for a fun nostalgia trip.
Not sure if you're a Bond fan, but on our podcast (www.leaguepodcast.com - always be plugging), my friends and I did a "carousing Through Craig" series where we reviewed all the Danial Craig installments leading up to the latest, and worst of the lot, "No Time to Die." We also did a Bounding through Brosnan series, and are working on Rogeirng Through Roger. We may have a problem
You should watch the Bond-adjacent spy movies, like the brief Detonator series, The Matador, and Thr Tailor of Panama, as well.
I like the Ninja Turtles suggestion. I would like to suggest the Saw movies. There is another one coming out this year so it's timely.
This would be an exceedingly deep dive, but you could watch all the daytime episodes of Dark Shadows and then the follow-up movies. But again, that's a LOT.
Peter Sellers’ films, maybe? Or a decade-defining heist movie since movies became the main entertainment medium? Agatha Christie adaptations?
I just thought of another that I only hesitate to suggest because it's going to be so dire. It's the complete set of Disney/DreamWorks/Bluth knockoff DTV animated features made by GoodTimes Entertainment in the 90s-early 2000s.
Busby Berkeley movies are cool.
Do people like reading descriptions of kaleidoscopic dance scenes?
For a series idea: The Exorcist franchise.
Seems like a lot to talk about: one of the best films of all time followed by one of the worst films of all time (a MYOF revisit!), plus a cult classic, and that weirdness with the 4th one being made twice by 2 different directors, Justice League-style. Plus a new, potentially non-terrible entry coming out this year.
A suggestion, not a topic: maybe make "Nathan Rabin’s Bad Ideas’ Questionable Exercises in Completism" a book SERIES, with each entry shorter and focused on one "Exercise" -- so a book on the SNL movies, then a separate one on Fast and Furious, then one on Ernest, etc. Sell 3 books for $6 > 1 for $15, you know? Plus I think it would get more readers -- people interested in SNL are more likely to notice something with SNL in the title, especially in the age of targeted advertising and the almighty algorithms.