Guys Of A Certain Age

This week the Guys discuss the October surprise that just occurred. No, we're not getting political.

It's just Jay and Robbie in the studio today - Art either went to lunch without them, or is lost somewhere in the galaxy.  But there's hope he'll be found!  45 years after it was published, Jay has finally read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - or rather, he listened to a nice English man read the book to him. 

He couldn't believe what he'd missed all these years, and didn't even need a fish in his ear to understand the British accent.  With all that new knowledge of interstellar travel, Art is bound to be back for the next episode. 

Meanwhile, Jay discovered (thanks, Instagram) that Ryan Reynolds likes to work with a lot of the same people, and Robbie brings news of all the shows Disney+ announced for the coming year.  Jay also brought a report of what happened when he wore his extremely limited edition Guys of a Certain Age t-shirt to the North Carolina State Fair.  No free corn dogs, but a good time was had by all.  Just like this podcast.  

Jay may be on the road this week, but Art decides to have Robbie act as his guide/advisor for an upcoming trip to Vegas to see Eagles at Sphere. Fortunately, "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" doesn't apply to Robbie's suggestions. Though we've talked about Sin City before, this one gives the lowdown on the amazing tech marvel that is Sphere.

Is it Wolfs or Wolves?  Mrs. Reed and the grammar police would use the “v” but AppleTv+ begs to differ in the title to its Clooney-PItt buddy movie, Wolfs.  Robbie and Art give it two howls while Jay makes it reluctantly unanimous.  Perhaps Jay should have just watched the movie without reading all the plot descriptions first.  

But as a whole, The Guys agree that it’s fun, it shows the classic talents of George and Brad, and also shows promise to a newish actor known primarily as “the kid”.  

And this week, for the first time, the Geek of the Week segment has an international correspondent reporting in, which means…they have a listener!  Jay might just take a hypersonic flight to Australia so he can also report from afar.  Social media critics pan Superman’s dog in Gunn’s DCU, and a Star Wars museum of galactic proportions is in the works.  Jay’s Regrettable Segment tells of another Fab Four that are neither fantastic nor musical.  

Be sure to listen to the Fab Three on this episode of the best buddy podcast of all!

Welcome to Guys of a Certain Age’s audio children’s book: Jay and Robbie go to the Emmy Awards.  And like everything else the Guys talk about on this podcast, this trip was only in their imagination.

 In fact, the bar began pretty low: they didn’t expect to have watched many of the shows that won awards, thus the extreme lack of hurry in getting this episode onto the interwebs.  But as it turned out, they were a little bit wrong (also like many things discussed on this podcast…), because The Bear won just about every category it was nominated in, including some of the categories that only Robbie understands.  And they watched that one.  

Meanwhile, as Art was out of range this week, Jay picked up the slack and followed up on his pretzel-fume reporting from a few episodes back, and wish-listed a trip to Australia for a Venom collab with Pizza Hut.  Robbie shone his green lantern on some casting announcements for the DCU, or whatever we’re calling it this week.  And an old character rises from the grave, more or less, to appear in Jay’s Regrettable segment - looks like a bat, acts like a bat, but it’s not who you think.  

On this week's Guys of a Certain Age, Robbie and Art look at 10 sci-fi movies that just have to be viewed on the big screen. 

Once in a while, The Guys will talk about Emmy and Oscar winners, but it’s not often they get to interview one.  

This episode is no exception: Donna Cutting hasn’t won either of those awards, but she at least has attended the ceremonies, which is a lot closer than any of The Guys have been.  Donna has also been an extra in a major motion picture, and in a scene that wasn’t cut, to boot!  She’s an author, a speaker, a seat-filler, and may just be the one person that can convince Robbie of the value of musical theater.  

It’s time to pull your McLego race car to the curb for a moment, pour a cuppa Earl Grey as if you were captain Picard, and light up one of many green lanterns, to set the mood for this soon-to-be Tony award nominated podcast episode.  Roll out the red carpet and experience one of The Guys’ favorite new guests.  

They say that boys never grow up, they just get bigger toys.  They also say that guys of a certain age never grow up and may or may not still have lots of the old toys they played with before they grew older. At the very least, they remember them fondly.  

And that’s the subject of today’s episode: the Toy Hall of Fame inductees at the Strong Museum in Rochester, NY.  The nominees and past inductees run the gamut, from sticks and cardboard boxes to Dungeons & Dragons, and everything in between.  The only surprises may be the toys that haven’t yet made the cut.  In the Geeks of the Week segment, DC features strongly in this one, with the debut of the Christopher Reeves documentary and Batman’s newest accolade on the eve of yet another National Batman Day.  

This episode was not recorded on an iPhone, but Robbie tells of a movie coming to theaters that was filmed with one.  Or maybe more than one.  Pretend to pop a bowl of popcorn with the 2023 hall of fame inductee, the Fisher Price rolling corn popper - or have your kid roll it around while you listen under a 2011 winner, the blanket.    

Imagine this line in the deepest voice possible: This…is Guys of a Certain Age. (GNN sounds better but Guys, Nerds and Nitwits doesn’t quite hold up.)  If only the Guys could have had James Earl Jones voice the intro, surely the ad revenue would have moved into double digits.

 Alas, the voice of Darth Vader and one of the most memorable actors of our day has passed, and the first half of the episode is dedicated to remembering the life and career of Mississippi native James Earl Jones.  

No geeks.  No regrettables.  Just one of the coolest voices on the planet being discussed by three less cool, but highly respectful, voices.  And one of the highest GOCA Geek Index scores yet.  

After the break, the mood changes a bit to a celebration of 85 years of Marvel.  Art, Jay and Robbie give their top moments of those 85 years, from the comics pages to the big screen, with a few plot twists thrown in to make it interesting.  Listen to this one as if JEJ was speaking it…and marvel.  

Just because this episode is about “last things” doesn’t mean it’s the last episode.  In fact, it could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship - or of 100 more episodes.  And just like Casablanca, Guys of a Certain Age is destined to be a classic.  

In this episode, Jay quizzes Art and Robbie to test their knowledge on famous last lines of movies, stretching back to near 100 years of movie making.  Then they turned the discussion to what was important about movie closings compared to book openings, whether or not end-credit scenes upset the balance, and why Art knew all the answers.  

In this week’s Geeks, Jay found the perfect cologne for the food court crowd, Art says “see you later, T.Wai-tator,” and Robbie orders a new set of Blu-Rays to watch on his way to Universal Studios Hollywood.  Listen to this one and remember: it’s the stuff dreams are made of.