Make Me A Nerd with Mandy Kaplan

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Hey folks. Mandy Kaplan here. I’d like to share a bit about my intentions and mission for MMAN if you’ll indulge me. You will? Huzzah! Look, I am a lot of things. I’m a writer, actress, mother, and lover of musicals and cats, but NOT Cats, The Musical. Give me a little bit of credit, would ya? So...throughout my life, I’ve been surrounded (and intrigued) by all things nerd. A sister who plays D&D, a Star Wars-obsessed husband, friends who love anime, comic books, video games, and...well, you get the picture. Somehow, I have always held it all at arm's length. Not to get too deep, but maybe I never thought I was smart enough to follow it. Or maybe I have control issues and have never been able to embrace fantastical things like dragons and time travel. Until now! So, with an open mind and heart, I am ready to join this massive (and beautifully inclusive) club and GEEK THE #%$ OUT! It’s time for all my wonderfully strange friends to baptize me into NERD-DOM. Please join me on this journey. Who knows? Maybe you’ll discover or remember a side of yourself along the way. Or at least make fun of me as I try!

  1. 10h ago

    Sinners with Rhonda Smith

    Mandy Kaplan turned off Sinners a few minutes in, the same week everyone she knew was calling it the best movie of the year. She has been apologizing for that ever since, and this episode is the formal version. Her guide is Rhonda Smith, an Atlanta actress and IT professional who runs the ATL Movie Club and has now seen the film four times, the fourth one the night before recording so she could be fresh. Rhonda brought details. Smoke always wears blue and Stack always wears red, and one of them is left-handed, which Mandy had not clocked despite taking notes. There's a man on a white horse outside the church at the end. The beams in that church are, according to Rhonda's research, arranged as a tribute to Chadwick Boseman, which lands a little differently on a host who has never seen Black Panther.They argue about whether Sinners counts as a musical (Mandy: basically yes; Rhonda: no) and agree completely about the cut from Remmick leaving the ground to the dance floor, which Mandy calls the best filmmaking decision in the movie. Mandy reads a prepared fun fact about Al Capone's hiring practices and demands a sting for it. Hailee Steinfeld gets a full defense that starts at Pitch Perfect. And Rhonda closes with a theory about vampire eye colors that she found online and then went back to the film to confirm, which is the whole ATL Movie Club philosophy in one move. Press play. Guest SpotlightRhonda Smith is an actress and voiceover performer based in Atlanta, originally from Detroit, with a day career in information technology. She started going to movies alone in Houston, started a movie club with friends after moving back to Detroit, and restarted it in Atlanta when her friends there asked why they couldn't have one too. The ATL Movie Club now has more than 200 members across Facebook and Instagram and still meets in person about once a quarter to go through one film at a time.ATL Movie Club on Instagramrhonda-smith.comRhonda M. Smith on FilmFreeway Reference Links FilmsSinners (2025)Get Out (2017)Us (2019)Black Panther (2018)Fruitvale Station (2013)Pitch Perfect (2012)True Grit (2010)Interview with the Vampire (1994) PeopleRyan CooglerMichael B. JordanHailee SteinfeldMiles CatonJack O'ConnellWunmi MosakuDelroy LindoLudwig GöranssonRobert Johnson Concepts and BackgroundChoctawHoodooCross Road Blues (the Robert Johnson "deal with the devil" legend)Chicago OutfitList of accolades received by Sinners Music"Pale, Pale Moon" — Brittany Howard, from SinnersSinners Soundtrack playlist Make Me a Nerd Episodes MentionedSecond Breakfast for Mandy: A Lord of the Rings Rundown with Richard HellsternSensual Creatures: Vampires, Frilly Shirts, and Interview with a Vampire with Jonny Lee Jr.Dracula with Lester Ryan ClarkTwilight with Ben RaffleA Supernatural Crash Course with Krissy Lenz Fact-Check CornerFlags on what was said on air. Nothing here changes the transcript."It won for cinematography and music. It won Oscars." True, and there were two more. Sinners won four Oscars at the 98th Academy Awards on March 15, 2026: Best Actor (Michael B. Jordan), Best Original Screenplay (Ryan Coogler), Best Cinematography (Autumn Durald Arkapaw, the first woman to win that category), and Best Original Score (Ludwig Göransson). It went in with a record 16 nominations."She says her father was African American." / "Or grandfather or something." Neither. At least one source describes Mary as one-eighth Black, which would make it a great-grandparent. "Ryan Coogler made the film in like six different formats." The release did include unusual formats: IMAX 70mm (15-perf) in about ten U.S. theaters and a separate 70mm 5-perf run, plus standard IMAX and digital. Rhonda's "panoramic one where it was all the way around you" is referring to Regal’s “Screen X” format which includes screens on the left and right walls of the theater with extra wide footage. And the format with “blood spraying on you” was not actually blood, but water — along with wind and movement — in the 4DX format. Which was ABSOLUTELY CRAZY — ed.Vampire eye colors (red for Remmick, yellow for the hive, sapphire for Stack and later Mary). The makeup department confirmed custom lenses for Remmick, Stack, and Mary, with Coogler's only stipulation being red for the villain. The rank-based system Rhonda describes is a fan reading; the makeup interview neither confirms nor denies it."Sammie's character is loosely based off of a blues player named Robert Johnson." Supported. Several reviews, including The Independent's, connect Sammie to the Robert Johnson crossroads legend. Rhonda's "I don't know if that's true or not" about the legend itself is the correct hedge. But the coolest addition to this story which they didn’t talk about on the show was in the post-credits scene introducing the elderly Sammie Moore character playing a show in a small blues club. The actor portraying Sammie in that scene was the absolutely legendary blues musician, Buddy Guy. For blues fans like your fair editor here, that was a stand up and cheer moment.  Make Me a Nerd is a p...

    Sinners with Rhonda Smith

  2. Oct 26

    Brazil with Andy Nelson

    Andy Nelson has been sitting on this one. He's been talking about movies on The Next Reel since 2011, and when Mandy asked him to come back and pick anything, he chose the film he has loved most for his entire adult life, because he suspected (correctly, it turns out) that it would require a Xanax. Terry Gilliam's Brazil is a comedy about paperwork. It is also a horror movie about paperwork. A man is arrested in his living room because of a typo, his wife signs for him in triplicate, and the government is very sorry for the inconvenience. Mandy, a mainstream mom with a documented sensitivity to bleak world-building, spent large portions of the film feeling nauseous, anxious, and deeply disturbed, and then cackled out loud at a plumbing joke. That is the whole experience of this movie, and Andy has seen it countless times.What neither of them expected was how little of it would feel hypothetical. The forcible removals, the bombs people step around to finish lunch, the machines that do everyone's jobs badly: Mandy keeps circling back to the fact that she might have enjoyed this ride in a different decade, and Andy, who has carried this film around since high school, hears his favorite jokes land differently in real time. There's also a cameo from Robert De Niro that Mandy considers a bait-and-switch, a Jim Broadbent plastic surgery subplot she diagnoses as a Real Housewives lunch, a studio-mandated happy ending that Criterion preserved as a warning, and a brand-new nightmare creature Mandy would like to name a band after. Press play.Guest SpotlightAndy Nelson is a partner at TruStory FM and co-host, with Pete Wright, of The Next Reel, now in its sixteenth season. He also hosts Cinema Scope, where he brings in an expert to go deep on a single genre, subgenre, or movement, and Movies We Like, which invites industry guests to talk about a favorite film. Before and alongside podcasting he has spent more than 25 years in film, TV, and commercial production, with writing, directing, and producing credits on shorts, indie features, and documentaries, and he teaches screenwriting, producing, editing, and podcasting.Andy Nelson on TruStory FMThe Next Reel Film PodcastCinema ScopeMovies We Like Links & References The FilmBrazil (1985) on LetterboxdBrazil (1985 film) on Wikipedia Terry Gilliam's FilmographyTerry GilliamFilms directed by Terry Gilliam on LetterboxdTime Bandits (1981)The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)The Fisher King (1991)Twelve Monkeys (1995)Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)The Brothers Grimm (2005)The Zero Theorem (2013)The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018) Monty PythonMonty PythonMonty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)Life of Brian (1979)Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983)Michael PalinGraham ChapmanJohn CleeseEric IdleTerry JonesSpamalot CastJonathan PryceRobert De NiroKatherine HelmondJim BroadbentKim Greist The Battle Over the CutSidney Sheinberg — the Universal executive who ordered the "Love Conquers All" recut Other Films MentionedBattleship Potemkin (1925) — the Odessa Steps images Andy says Gilliam is quotingIdiocracy (2006)Blade Runner (1982)Steel Magnolias (1989)A Fish Called Wanda (1988)Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986)Evita (1996)The Breakfast Club (1985)Showgirls (1995)What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)Jurassic Park (1993) Television & StageThe Big Bang TheoryThe Handmaid's Tale (novel)The Handmaid's Tale (TV series)The Penguin (TV series)Miss Saigon ...

    Brazil with Andy Nelson

  3. Oct 19

    Stargate with Jonny Lee Jr. • Ancient Aliens, but More Fun

    Until this week, Mandy Kaplan did not know the word "Stargate" existed. Not the 1994 movie, not the ten seasons of television that followed, not the conventions full of people who can spell Goa'uld on the first try. (She has also never seen an Avengers movie, and she would like that noted as a point of pride.) Fortunately, Jonny Lee Jr. was nine when the film came out, bought it on VHS and then again on DVD, and owns the complete box set of the series, which makes him about the most qualified tour guide you could ask for on a trip through an ancient Egyptian wormhole.Mandy, being Mandy, arrives with theories. Stargate, she argues, is The Wizard of Oz with better pyramids, and she has a He-Man episode to back it up. She also spots a Sesame Street icon wandering the dunes and takes the film's biggest emotional line to task for ending in a preposition. Jonny, meanwhile, has the job of explaining parasitic worm-gods to a woman whose only professed interest in worms is the tape variety. (He handles it with grace.) Somewhere between the Snuffleupagus sighting and the high school teacher who sued over his screenplay, he makes a real case for why Stargate is the gateway for people who swear they don't like sci-fi: it was never really about the technology. Press play.Guest SpotlightJonny Lee Jr. is an actor and singer, a performer in Mandy's long-running Los Angeles cabaret Miscast: Right Singer, Wrong Song, and one of Make Me a Nerd's original guests. He has already walked Mandy through Zelda, Sailor Moon, and Anne Rice's vampires. This time he brings his number-one sci-fi movie, the one he found as an elementary schooler obsessed with Egyptian and Greek mythology and couldn't believe someone had made. He's seen it six or seven times and watched the TV series through three times over.Instagram: @jonnyleejrOn TruStory FM: All of Jonny's episodesSee him live: Jonny joins Mandy for the 49th Miscast: Right Singer, Wrong Song on Sunday, November 8, at 7:30 PM at The Pico in Los Angeles.Reference LinksThe MovieStargate (1994) — LetterboxdStargate (film) — Wikipedia. Production history, the lawsuit, and the box office run.The Stargate score by David Arnold — YouTube Music. The opening credits music Mandy couldn't stop talking about. The FranchiseStargate SG-1 — Wikipedia. Ten seasons, starting on Showtime in 1997.Stargate Atlantis — WikipediaStargate Universe — WikipediaMythology of Stargate — Wikipedia. Where to read up on the Goa'uld, the parasitic worm-gods Jonny explains. The Movie's Cast and CrewKurt Russell — Colonel Jack O'NeilJames Spader — Dr. Daniel JacksonJaye Davidson — RaDjimon Hounsou — Horus, Ra's guardFrench Stewart — Lt. Louis FerrettiRichard Kind — Dr. Gary MeyersRoland Emmerich — director and co-writer The Series' Cast and CreatorsRichard Dean Anderson — Jack O'Neill on SG-1Michael Shanks — Daniel Jackson on SG-1, and per Jonny, the hotter DanielBrad Wright — SG-1 co-creatorJonathan Glassner — SG-1 co-creator, and the "somebody else" Jonny was reaching for Real-World Rabbit HolesThe Stargate Project — Wikipedia. The U.S. Army's psychic-spying program Jonny remembered.Strategic Defense Initiative — Wikipedia. Reagan's "Star Wars."Ancient astronauts — Wikipedia. The pyramids-built-by-aliens idea that predates the movie.Mask of Tutankhamun — Wikipedia. The inspiration Jonny sees in Ra's retracting helmet. Also MentionedThe Crying Game (1992) — Letterboxd. Mandy's homework assignment for Jonny.Interview with the Vampire (1994) — Letterboxd. The film that knocked Stargate off the top of the box office.The Wizard of Oz (1939) — LetterboxdMasters of the Universe (1987) — LetterboxdSphere (1998) — LetterboxdLabyrinth (1986) — LetterboxdThe Da Vinci Code (2006) — LetterboxdThe Breakfast Club (1985) — Letterboxd. The first assignment in Jonny's reverse Make Me a Nerd.Schindler's List (1993) — LetterboxdAvengers: Age of Ultron (2015) — Letterboxd. Spader as Ultron, unseen by Mandy.Indiana Jones — WikipediaMr. Snuffleupagus — WikipediaJohn Hughes — WikipediaRicky Schroder — Wikipedi...

    Stargate with Jonny Lee Jr. • Ancient Aliens, but More Fun

  4. Oct 12

    The Rocky Horror Picture Show with Matthew Fox

    The whole premise of Make Me a Nerd is that Mandy has never seen the thing. Matthew Fox arrives to honor the late Tim Curry with a movie he has attended dozens of times and, by their own count, watched all the way to the ending exactly twice (the back row of a midnight screening has other priorities), only to learn that Mandy was once in it, onstage in New Hampshire, as an emergency replacement Columbia with about four hours of rehearsal and a group of audience members who had prepared a special welcome for the new girl. She also ended up dating Riff Raff. Matthew's first thought is for Magenta.From there we present a generous conversation about a movie both of them freely admit is not good. Matthew explains why a big, hairy, bear-shaped Meat Loaf was the closest thing they had to a role model, and how a midnight crowd in fishnets helped them figure out who they were. Mandy tests the theory of camp she picked up on the Mommie Dearestepisode against Joel Schumacher's Batman movies (the ones with the nipples), and the two of them work through the parts of Rocky Horror, and of Richard O'Brien, that haven't aged well. Along the way, Susan Sarandon refuses to acknowledge the movie exists in front of Matthew's high school, and Mandy treats a mild remark about Steve Martin's looks as an act of treason. Press play.Guest SpotlightMatthew Fox, known online as The Ethical Panda, hosts Superhero Ethics and Star Wars Generations on TruStory FM. They are also one of this season's hosts of Marvel Movie Minute, which is working through Captain America: The Winter Soldier. They find the ethical dilemmas hiding in genre media, and he spent a good part of the '90s at midnight Rocky Horror screenings without seeing the ending. Star Wars Generations returns in January alongside Ahsoka season two. This is their fourth Make Me a Nerd appearance, after The Orville, The Penguin, and The Last of Us.Website: theethicalpanda.comInstagram: @theethicalpandapodcastsBluesky: @theethicalpanda.bsky.socialYouTube: @TheEthicalPandaPodcastsFacebook: The Ethical Panda Reference LinksThe FilmThe Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)The Rocky Horror Show — the 1973 London stage musical it came fromStrange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror (2025) — Linus O'Brien's documentary, the one that sent Mandy and Matthew back to the movieStrange Journey official siteDr. Frank-N-FurterThe Cast & CreatorsTim Curry — Frank-N-Furter, who decided the doctor should sound like the QueenRichard O'Brien — creator, writer, and Riff RaffSusan Sarandon — JanetBarry Bostwick — Brad, in heels, with gustoMeat Loaf — Eddie, and Matthew's role modelPatricia Quinn — MagentaNell Campbell — ColumbiaJim Sharman — directorTrixie Mattel and Jack Black — fans who appear in Strange JourneyThe Frank-N-Furters (and Brad) That Weren'tMick Jagger, David Bowie, and Lou ReedSteve Martin — auditioned for Brad. Mandy will hear no criticism.The Songs"Time Warp" — the eighth-grade dance, pelvic thrust and all"Sweet Transvestite""Hot Patootie – Bless My Soul" — Meat Loaf's number"Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me" — Janet, no longer pushing anyone's hands awayBat Out of Hell (1977) — the album that came after EddieFilms & Shows MentionedClue (1985) — Tim Curry, rain, a mysterious house, strangers at the doorLabyrinth (1986)Legend (1985)The Hunt for Red October (1990) — Matthew's first Tim CurryDead Man Walking (1995)Showgirls (1995)Mommie Dearest (1981)Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957)Batman Forever (1995) and Batman & Robin (1997)The Lego Batman Movie (2017)Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008)Nine to Five (1980)Rocky III (1982) — the other Rocky, brieflyMyst...

    The Rocky Horror Picture Show with Matthew Fox

  5. Oct 5

    Werecats and Beignets: Scooby Doo on Zombie Island with Journie Ma-Johnson

    In 1998, Hanna-Barbera handed a direct-to-video Scooby-Doo movie to a crew of veterans and then, by all accounts, forgot to supervise them. The crew used that freedom to do the one thing thirty years of Scooby-Doo had solemnly promised would never happen: they made the monsters real. Mandy came for the nostalgia — Saturday morning, cereal, the little kitchen TV dragged into the living room — and left having audibly gasped at a cartoon aimed at six-year-olds.Her guide is Journie Ma-Johnson, an actress and vocal coach whose nerd credentials include a weekly D&D campaign run in a room with a fog machine, a competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee career, and a hand-built light-up wig. Together they get into the werecats, the lovingly painted Southern Gothic backgrounds, whether Fred and Daphne were ever actually a couple, and the question Mandy asks with the directness of a woman who has waited fifty years for an answer: what exactly is going on with Shaggy? Press play. Guest Spotlight Journie Ma-Johnson — actress, singer, and vocal coach. Musical theater background, training from New York Vocal Coaching, and a teaching practice built around bringing acting technique into vocal work. Off the clock: weekly Dungeons & Dragons, cosplay (including a light-up Ember wig from Danny Phantom and the Soup Faerie from Neopets), retired competitive Melee, and a deep, defensible love of Scooby-Doo.Journie Johnson Voice — vocal coachingAbout / booking Reference Links FilmsScooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island (2019)The Babadook (2014)Interview with the Vampire (1994)Role Models (2008)The Princess and the Frog (2009) Scooby-Doo CanonScooby-Doo on Zombie Island — production historyScooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost (1999)The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (1985)A Pup Named Scooby-Doo (1988–1991)What's New, Scooby-Doo? (2002–2006)Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! (2022)Scooby-Doo! and Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery (2015)Scoobynatural — Supernatural S13E16 (2018)The Hex GirlsMook Animation — the Japanese studio Journie clocked PeopleFrank WelkerMark HamillCasey KasemTara StrongKen JeongAnansi Music"It's Terror Time Again" — SkycycleSkycycleThird Eye Blind Also MentionedSuper Smash Bros. MeleeDanny PhantomJem (TV series)Ghost HuntersThe Blair Witch Project TruStory FM Cross-PromosThe Babadook-dook-dook with Tommy Metz IIISensual Creatures: Vampires, Frilly Shirts, and Interview with a Vampire with Jonny Lee Jr. Fact-Check Corner "The first feature-length Scooby-Doo movie." Journie hedges this correctly. Several feature-length Scooby-Doo TV movies preceded it in the late eighties, including Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School. Zombie Island was the first direct-to-video feature.The Supernatural crossover. "Scoobynatural" is an episode of Supernatural — season 13, episode 16, aired March 29, 2018 — not a standalone animated movie. Frank Welker, Matthew Lillard, Grey Griffin, and Kate Micucci voice the Scooby cast in it.Velma's girlfriend. Velma's crush on Coco Diablo happens in the 2022 direct-to-video film Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!, not a series.Casey Kasem and the vegetarian clause. Journie has the mechanism right, but it started with this film. Kasem was originally set to reprise Shaggy for Zombie Island and demanded the character go vegetarian; the crew declined and cast Billy West. Kasem did return as Shaggy — vegetarian — for What's New, Scooby-Doo? in 2002."Fred was flirting with Tara Strong." Tara Strong (credited as Tara Charendoff) is the voice actor; the character Fred flirts with is Lena Dupree. Third Eye Blind. They performed the title track, a cover of "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" Skycycle did "It's Terror Time Again" and "The Ghost Is Here."The Hex Girls' lead singer. Thorn describes herself as "one-sixteenth Wiccan on my mother's side" rather than simply pagan. The eco-goth framing is accurate and, yes, extremely 1999.Make Me a Nerd is a production of TruStory FM. Engineering by Pete Wright. Theme song: "Wonderstruck" by Jane and the Boy.Find Mandy on Instagram at @Mandy_Kaplan_Klavens and on TikTok at @MandyMiscast.Leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts and write something — Mandy will give you a shout-out, and it helps more people find the show.Want episodes early and ad-free? Join at makemeanerd.com/join. --- Learn more about supporting this podcast by becoming a member. It's just $5/month or $55/year. Visit our website to learn more.

    Werecats and Beignets: Scooby Doo on Zombie Island with Journie Ma-Johnson

  6. Sep 28

    Super Sentai: The Spandex Empire Behind Power Rangers with Omari Miller

    Mandy spent her son's Mighty Morphin years with one nagging question: why are the Power Rangers wearing their helmets in every single fight? She never asked anyone. This week Omari Miller, actor, singer, and possibly the most caffeinated man in Los Angeles, answers it before she finishes asking. The Power Rangers are a Japanese show with American teenagers taped over the top. Super Sentai has been dressing five people in matching spandex since 1975. Haim Saban saw it on TV during a business trip to Japan, licensed the fight footage, filmed the unmasked scenes back home, and cut his budget to a fraction of anything Marvel had proposed. Stan Lee, by the way, had proposed it first. He had a robot.So, that's the business story. The stranger story is everything Omari has absorbed in the years since he stumbled into this world. Yellow was a boy's color in Japan for decades. A season can run eighty episodes and then spin off a movie because that is simply how Toei keeps you. One show tanked in the ratings and broke toy sales records anyway. A villain grabs two arguing men because he assumes they're a couple, and the joke just… never… lands on them. Mandy learns that the Blue Ranger telling dad jokes on a ladder has a real acting career, that the dinosaur robots are a guy in a suit stomping through miniatures, and that somewhere in this franchise there is a rock-singing villain named Candelilla. Then she and Omari decide to write the musical. Press play. Guest SpotlightOmari Miller is a Los Angeles–based actor, singer, and performer, and a regular in Mandy's long-running cabaret Miscast: Right Singer, Wrong Song, most recently on the bill for Miscast 46 at The Pico. Reference Links The FranchisesSuper SentaiTokusatsuPower RangersKamen RiderToei Company The Episode Mandy WatchedZyuden Sentai Kyoryuger (2013)Power Rangers Dino Charge (the American adaptation)Yamato Kinjo (Kyoryu Blue, later in Kamen Rider Geats)Kamen Rider Geats Series MentionedHimitsu Sentai Gorenger (1975)J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai (1977)Battle Fever JDenshi Sentai DenzimanTaiyo Sentai Sun VulcanChoudenshi BiomanKyoryu Sentai Zyuranger (source of Mighty Morphin)Ninja Sentai KakurangerChouriki Sentai OhrangerPower Rangers ZeoKyukyu Sentai GoGoVMirai Sentai TimerangerPower Rangers Time ForceMashin Sentai Kiramager (the 2020 gemstone season)Hikonin Sentai AkibarangerMighty Morphin Alien RangersPower Rangers TurboPower Rangers Ninja StormPower Rangers Mystic ForceKamen Rider RyukiKamen Rider Dragon KnightMasked Rider (1995 US series)Kamen Rider My-Th (2026) The PeopleHaim SabanStan LeeMargaret LoeschJinkx MonsoonJerome Robbins Films & TVSpider-Man (1978 Toei series)Inside Out (2015)Batman BeyondSailor MoonDoctor Who, "The Devil's Chord"Friends ConceptsReiwa eraKabukiVocaloidHatsune Miku From the Make Me a Nerd ArchiveBatman Pulled a Gun: Batman Beyond with Jason YeungMoon Prism Power, Make Me a Gorgeous Podcaster: Sailor Moon with Jonny Lee Jr.Visiting Doctor Who, Rolling with Krissy Lenz, Finding Danny Bonaduce

    Super Sentai: The Spandex Empire Behind Power Rangers with Omari Miller

  7. Sep 21

    What If There Were Too Many Dogs? The Andy Griffith Show with Breaking Mayberry

    Marty Schneider and Dan Ludwig, hosts of the podcast Breaking Mayberry, explain that they once built two rating scales for The Andy Griffith Show: an Andy-meter for how good the episode is, and a Barney-meter for how much psychic damage it did to America. They needed both. Mandy watched three episodes on assignment (a boy kills a bird and learns a lesson, a city slicker learns to slow down whether he likes it or not, and one that is just dogs), and she arrived with a few questions. Is Ron Howard a brilliant child actor? Where exactly is Opie’s mother? Is Barney at the YMCA a little too often? And why does a show this warm leave her with a lingering sadness hangover, the same one she got from Bluey?Then Mandy watched The Mayberry Effect, a documentary about the fans who make pilgrimages to Mount Airy, North Carolina, dress as Floyd the Barber, and follow a red-headed six-year-old around his yard because he looks a bit like Opie, and she wrote down a single word: whoa. Marty and Dan apologize (they told her to watch the Ted Koppel segment instead), then get into a fandom that stopped being about the show a long time ago and became about a place that never existed, and what that looks like when you swap Barney Fife for Chewbacca. Also, a verdict on whether Andy Griffith is hot. Press play. Guest SpotlightMarty Schneider & Dan Ludwig are a comedy team, writers, and podcasters from Philadelphia. They host Breaking Mayberry, a classic TV podcast without the nostalgia bait, taking a hard look at vintage favorites and cultural oddities from the 1950s to the early 2000s (mostly The Andy Griffith Show, occasionally Glee, currently the failed sitcoms of ABC's TGIF lineup in a miniseries called TGI Failures).Breaking Mayberry on Apple PodcastsBreaking Mayberry on SpotifyBreaking Mayberry on YouTube (clips)Breaking Mayberry on BlueskyBreaking Mayberry on InstagramSupport Breaking Mayberry on Patreon ($8/month, bonus episodes) The ShowThe Andy Griffith ShowAndy GriffithDon KnottsRon HowardFrances Bavier (Aunt Bee) The FandomThe Mayberry Effect (2021 documentary)Mayberry Days, Mount Airy, NC (September 21–27, 2026)Mount Airy, North CarolinaThe Andy Griffith Show Rerun Watchers Club (iMayberry)Two Chairs No Waiting podcast (Allan Newsome, since 2008)Allan Newsome, Floyd the Barber tribute artistDavid Browning, "The Mayberry Deputy"Mayberry Man (2021 fan-funded film)Andy Griffith Museum BooksLooking for Andy Griffith: A Father's Journey by Evan Dalton Smith (UNC Press, 2024) Music"The Mayberry Rap" by Rick Rumble"Mayberry" by Rascal Flatts"No Rain" by Blind Melon (the Bee Girl video)Theme: "Wonderstruck" by Jane and the Boy Also MentionedI Spy (1965–1968, Bill Cosby)Gorillas in the MistWaiting for GuffmanCocoonLady and the TrampThe Music Man (1962)Silver Spoons (Ricky Stratton)Happy Days (Chuck Cunningham, still upstairs)Firefly and the Browncoats In the TruStory FM UniverseWatch Me Fly… Serenity with Krissy Lenz — the episode that made Mandy a BrowncoatBluey with Kelly Vrooman — the other sadness-hangover episode Fact-Check CornerThe book title. Marty calls Evan Dalton Smith's book Searching for Andy Griffith on "North Carolina University Press," recently released. The book is Looking for Andy Griffith: A Father's Journey, University of North Carolina Press, May 2024.TV penetration in 1960. Marty says 15–25 percent of US households had a TV when the show premiered in 1960, rising to 93 percent by 1968. Commonly cited figures put US TV household penetration near 87–90 percent by 1960 already; the 15–25 percent range is closer to the early 1950s. The 1968 figure is roughly right. The underlying point (TV became ubiquitous across the show's run) is defensible, the specific premiere-year stat is not."Aired alongside I Dream of Jeannie." "Dogs, Dogs, Dogs" aired in 1963 and I Dream of Jeannie premiered in 1965. Connect with the ShowFollow Mandy on Instagram: @mandy_kaplan_klavens (both with K's) TikTok: @mandymiscastMake Me a Nerd runs on curious people. If that's you, the inner circle is at makemeanerd.com/join, where episodes arrive ad-free and early, and the show goes deepe...

    What If There Were Too Many Dogs? The Andy Griffith Show with Breaking Mayberry

  8. Sep 14

    Fackam Hall with Justine Huxley

    The British period drama is a genre built on restraint. Longing glances across drawing rooms. Inheritance law. A great many people declining, for six or seven seasons, to say the one thing they most want to say. Fackham Hall surveys this rich and noble tradition, agrees that it is both rich and sufficiently noble, and then installs a bell in the servants’ hall labeled masturbatorium. The bell rings. It keeps ringing. It rings long enough that it eventually falls off the wall from structural fatigue. This is the establishing sequence.Justine Huxley picked this one. Mandy had previously watched it in the background while doing something else and absorbed roughly a fifth of it, so she came back for a proper viewing with a notebook, which turns out to be the only responsible way to approach a film that fires a joke every fifteen seconds. Together they excavate the good stuff: the family motto carved above the gate (incestus ad infinitum), the poster in the servants’ quarters gently informing staff that unionizing causes cancer, and Jimmy Carr as a vicar who cannot place a comma to save his life or anyone else’s. Roughly halfway through, the film quietly abandons Downton Abbey and becomes an Agatha Christie murder mystery instead, and that is just fine.The conversation wanders where the good ones do. Into Justine’s parallel career playing Dungeons and Dragons on stage for animal charities, which is a real job she has. Into the international editions of Last One Laughing, of which she has personally watched about nine. Into a sincere disagreement over whether After Life is a comedy or a grief spiral with jokes in it. Anyhow… you get the idea. Press play.Guest SpotlightJustine Huxley is an actress, singer, and voiceover artist from Los Angeles, best known as the voice of Wattson in Apex Legends, with credits including Sword Art Online, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, and Spyro Reignited Trilogy. Voice acting is what pulled her into tabletop gaming, and in two years she has played more than fifty live Dungeons and Dragons shows, most of them for charity. She performs regularly alongside Mandy in Miscast LA.Instagram: @justinehuxleyTikTok: @justinehuxleyIMDb: Justine HuxleyReferenced in This EpisodeThe Main EventFackham Hall — 2025, directed by Jim O’Hanlon, written by Steve Dawson, Andrew Dawson, Tim Inman, Jimmy Carr, and Patrick CarrThe Vicar — the official clip, if you want the punctuation bit before you commitDamian Lewis — Humphrey, Lord Davenport, who survives more than any man shouldThomasin McKenzie — Rose DavenportBen Radcliffe — Eric NooneKatherine Waterston — Prudence, Lady DavenportTom Felton — Archibald DavenportEmma Laird — Poppy Davenport, who chooses the manureAnna Maxwell Martin — Mrs Edna McAllisterSue Johnston — Great Aunt BonaparteTom Goodman-Hill — Inspector WattTim McMullan — Cyril, who is always right thereJason Done — J. R. R. TolkienHayley Mills — the narratorThe Comedy LineageAirplane!The Naked GunMonty Python and the Holy GrailA Fish Called Wanda — the source of Mandy’s single grievanceDumb and DumberFamily Guy — cited for the same permission structureThe Bechdel test, without which the sisters are just two women at a partyOther Films That Came UpJojo RabbitThe GraduateThe Notebook, which neither of them has seenThe Wizard of OzFifty Shades of Grey, here reduced to oneTelevision, Places, and Assorted NerderyDownton Abbey and Upstairs, DownstairsDame Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess, the Bonaparte templateCall the MidwifeThe Forsyte Saga and Homeland, the Damian Lewis Mandy knewMotherlandLOL: Last One Laughing UK and 8 Out of 10 Cats, both hosted by Jimmy CarrAlan Carr and The TraitorsRebel Wilson, host of the Australian Last One LaughingThe Paper and

    Fackam Hall with Justine Huxley
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Trailer

4.9
out of 5
78 Ratings

About

Hey folks. Mandy Kaplan here. I’d like to share a bit about my intentions and mission for MMAN if you’ll indulge me. You will? Huzzah! Look, I am a lot of things. I’m a writer, actress, mother, and lover of musicals and cats, but NOT Cats, The Musical. Give me a little bit of credit, would ya? So...throughout my life, I’ve been surrounded (and intrigued) by all things nerd. A sister who plays D&D, a Star Wars-obsessed husband, friends who love anime, comic books, video games, and...well, you get the picture. Somehow, I have always held it all at arm's length. Not to get too deep, but maybe I never thought I was smart enough to follow it. Or maybe I have control issues and have never been able to embrace fantastical things like dragons and time travel. Until now! So, with an open mind and heart, I am ready to join this massive (and beautifully inclusive) club and GEEK THE #%$ OUT! It’s time for all my wonderfully strange friends to baptize me into NERD-DOM. Please join me on this journey. Who knows? Maybe you’ll discover or remember a side of yourself along the way. Or at least make fun of me as I try!

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