The Point Radio: Pop Princess Smackdown

{ARGHH – more snow and another delay for us!} Pop music fans – it’s the team-up you’ve been waiting for! Tiffany versus Debbie Gibson, at least on video. The former pop divas mix up up for a new SyFy Channel movie (airing tonight) and tell us what their friendship is really like. Plus we talk to Aisha Tyler and Adam Reed from ARCHER, where the second season is rolling now on FX! And be sure to stay on The Point via , RSS, MyPodcast.Comor Podbean! Follow us now on and ! Don’t forget that you can now enjoy THE POINT 24 hours a Day – 7 Days a week!. Updates on all parts of pop culture, special programming by some of your favorite personalities and the biggest variety of contemporary music on the net – plus there is a great round of new programs on the air including classic radio each night at 12mid (Eastern) on RETRO RADIO COMICMIX’s Mark Wheatley hitting the FREQUENCY every Saturday at 9pm and even the Editor-In-Chief of COMICMIX, Mike Gold, with his daily WEIRD SCENES and two full hours of insanity every Sunday (7pm ET) with WEIRD SOUNDS! CLICK HERE TO LISTEN LIVE FOR FREE or go to GetThePointRadio for more including a connection for mobile phones including iPhone & Blackberrys.

Transcript

Hello, it's Mike Raub. Welcome to The Point where all parts of pop culture come together. Well, it's the Battle of the Century, Mega Python versus Gatoroid, Debbie Gibson versus Tiffany, and we got a ringside seat. Plus, Archer's on the way back and we got a visit to this set.

And look out, being human, the real one is coming up. It's Saturday the 29th of January 2011. Let's get to The Point right now. This is The Point, The Point radio, get The Point radio. If you're a fan of 80s pop music, well then you probably heard those legends about the

fact that Debbie Gibson really hated Tiffany. And back when they were both at the top of the charts, there was this huge rivalry. Well, it gets brought up the present day and played out in a movie called Mega Python versus Gatoroid on the Sci-Fi network. But there won't be any real life smack down.

I think it'll be more therapeutic for people to watch who have fantasized about that happening. I mean, I really never said, you know, I know that this is not what you want to hear, but I really never did have the desire to slap Tiffany in the face. Oh, come on. I've never had that either.

I mean, again, going back to, you know, all this animosity and rivalry and stuff. That was pretty much created. What time for that? Yeah, I think you get tired maybe of like talking about somebody so much, you know, that you especially don't know.

I mean, that was the whole thing. I never really spent time with Deborah before. So I was like, well, now I'm not going to answer questions for me and her, which is a lot. You know, in 17, you're trying to work your career and take it all in.

So, you know, to be on set and then to have this whole take fighting scene and stuff like that, it was just fun. As Debbie and Tiffany explained back in the day, they barely knew each other. Yeah. I mean, back in the day, we were both kind of running so fast that running just as fast

as we can, to coin a phrase. We would cross paths, you know, doing a TV show here or there or whatever, but it was really like ships in the night. And like Tiffany said, this was a chance for us to really work together. And, you know, I know I speak for myself where I definitely developed a lot of admiration

for Tiffany and her abilities and her work ethic. And besides the fact that we just had crazy good fun, like at one point we were ducked under a table, flattered in like whipped cream and banana cream pie. We looked at each other and went, what? What is going on here?

So what's the deal on this movie? I think it's great. I think it's something that our fans have waited for for a long time. I mean, the funny thing to me is who would have thought that pythons and gators would unite us, you know, bring out to get you to see something musical, you know, but instead

it's this great movie that I truly enjoyed making. And it was awesome for me to be able to get to know Debbie more because we've really never had a chance just to sit and talk. So I think that that was one of also the perks of being able to work with each other on this movie.

I thought each girl was a huge star back in the eighties, but the paparazzi, well, that was a different story than it is today. For me, there wasn't paparazzi on every corner. I still had safety zones. You know, my home was off limits and I could do things that were, you know, there wasn't

somebody always there. And now somebody snapped a picture of you with their iPhone and it's everywhere. Yeah, I mean, I think it's what, what's it be saying too? Like I agree there. It's, and it's both things.

It's A, we were more responsible. We were not seeking out fame for fame sake. We did retreat to our respective hometowns and the paparazzi were not looking, even the paparazzi were as bad as they are now. They were not going to look to find me at a bowling alley or a roller rink on Long Island,

which is pretty much where I was in my downtime. Not very exciting for tabloid fodder. So yeah, I mean, the extent of it for me was like my street was closed off on prom night because paparazzi and graduation, they wanted to get a picture of me graduating and they wanted to get, you know, pictures of me going to the prom.

That was about the extent of it, which for them was a big deal for now. That's, you know, I mean, I don't envy, I don't envy the teen stars growing up right now and having their every move being scrutinized because, you know, Tiffany and I, like she said, I think we did make good choices. We were not partiers and all that.

With that said, nine out of 10 teenagers are. So if somebody is just going to want to grow up and develop at their own rate and in their own time, it is a shame that their every move is documented. I mean, God, if every teenager's every move was documented, you know, I mean, we'd be seeing a lot of scary stuff.

Yeah, but Gibson and Tiffany and Mega Python versus Gatoroid get sneak previews and a lot more at sci fi dot com. It's Saturday, January 29, 2011. Here's what's going on in pop culture. If you haven't quite warmed up to the American version of Being Human, well, here's some

good news for you. The original is back for season three and an eight week run coming to BBC America, starting on the 19th of February. Original cast returns, plus a bunch of new supporting characters as well. And again, it'll run for eight episodes starting on February 19th, nine o'clock on BBC America

and something just as scary. MTV just approved a fourth season of Jersey Shore. They're taking the cast to Italy for the production of this season, filming will begin over the spring. The new season premieres sometime later this year.

It's the end of an era as Wizard magazine and Toy Fair both cease publication sometime over the next few weeks. Wizards final issue number 235. If you're keeping track is the one in stores now. Sister publication Toy Fairy, like we said, is also done as far as the current issue goes.

And for a garb shame is to repurpose the entire company as an online service with online publications that'll begin very, very soon. Much in the same model as what Wizard was before. No word on where the Toy Fair material will go. Announcements for that will come over the next a month or so with more information available

and a subscription model more than likely up sometime in the next couple of weeks. As news about the upcoming Toy Fair begins to leak out, it looks like the Green Lantern toys are going to be the big thing to talk about. It's a big part of the marketing plan that Warner Brothers has over the first and second quarter of the year.

The movie that opens on June 17th has tie-ins to tons of different company, including Ruby's costumes, Pressman toys, Funko, kids toys, Mezco toys, and a lot more. There's a set of figures that are out from Mattel that you'll be able to see more likely online if you don't make it to Toy Fair. That includes a Hal Jordan figure and several different add-ons and accessories for Green

Lantern, including a kind of cool projection ring that sends the Green Lantern symbol on a wall in case you just want to do that. There's also a board game as well available and of course all in the image of Ryan Reynolds from the movie, which as we said, hits theaters in June. Looks like it wasn't quite the publicity blitz that Marvel had hoped for with the release

of Fantastic Four number 587 and the death of a major character in that issue this week. The book, available in stores on Tuesday, also made the Associated Press and a number of papers around the country, but it was also a time where the other two big stories just happened to be the Oscar nominations and of course the President's State of the Union address.

Still, those early sales were reported to be very good as well and of course we're not going to tell you who died in case you don't know yet. Head to your comic store, plunk down your money, and find out like everybody else. More news on the Wonder Woman pilot. Looks like Mick G is pretty much the favorite right now to direct that for the newly green

lid project that began actually as something that was dead on the shelf less than two weeks ago and then of course got revived and is now being developed again by David E. Kelly who's been attached to it since the beginning. Mick G, not a bad choice if it is true of course. He's done some pretty great action with the first two Charlie's Angels movies.

He also was involved with the TV pilots for Chuck and Fastlane as well through his production company Wonderland Sound and Vision. Xenoscope is adding some more layers to their plan for digital comics. They've been releasing stuff for the past couple years through Comixology, Graphically and others.

Now they're going to be making things available to the PlayStation Portable. The PSP platform will get both the comics and graphic novel library from Xenoscope starting on February 1st. Issues will become available such as Grimm's Fairy Tales, Neverland and The Waking and most will be priced at $1.99 per issue with select titles being available for free download.

So did you hear about the secret Fantastic Four number 587 variant? Well here's the deal. It has a black logo instead of a blue one and Jonathan Hickman has signed it in silver ink on the cover. Now if you keep it in the bag, well there's no way to know exactly whether you have one

or not. They were distributed to comic stores at the rate of about one per case so that's one in a couple hundred on the average. And again if you don't open the bag and look at it you'll never know for sure whether you have one.

Since a lot of people are going to buy these keep them bagged and sock them away for some unknown reason. Some of these secret variants may not be discovered for decades. On a press tour for the film Henry's Crime Keanu Reeves is let it be known that there could be a return to the Matrix universe.

He says that there are two scripts out there right now done by the original creators and also planned to be filmed in 3D. Keanu says he is attached to them. He feels that he has an obligation to the fans to deliver a movie worthy of the title. I guess that would be considered an off handed remark about the second and third Matrix

movies. He swears that this time the treatment will revolutionize the action genre just like the first movie did. No word on whether any of this is really in production or whether the scripts actually do exist.

This is my Gold. If you like playing Dungeons and Dragons you probably shouldn't kill anybody in Wisconsin. This story is a year old but I just stumbled across it on the Sci-Fi channel's website. A Wisconsin prisoner had his D&D goodies confiscated by prison guards.

He sued for violation of his First Amendment rights and the US appellate court upheld the ban. Why? Because Dungeons and Dragons promotes gang related activity. The prison's gang specialist testified that Dungeon Master gives directions to other

players and this mimics the organization of a gang. The court also heard testimony about how a couple decades back a couple players out of the millions and millions who have played the game murdered somebody and committed suicide. Of course in the case of the complainant that's irrelevant. He had already killed his sister's boyfriend.

The court stated the game can create an inmate's obsession with escaping from the correctional environment and compromise not only the inmate's rehabilitation but also endanger the public and jeopardize the safety and security of the institution. Of course no such examples of anything like that were put into evidence. All the same if you're going to the big house leave behind the multi-sided dice and smuggle

in something useful like a shiv. This is Mike Gold on America's True Pop Culture Channel. Get the point. Radio.com. Number 47 said number 3, you the cutie jam bird I ever did see.

I sure would be delighted with your bumping knees. Come on and do the jam line and rock a little bit. Let it rock. Everybody let it rock. Everybody knows everybody.

Put it in the room. The second season of the animated comedy spy series Archer is the first time you've ever seen a man in a movie. The second season of the animated comedy spy series Archer is rolling on the FX network. If you missed the first season, well I'll tell you from a personal standpoint you missed

a lot. In a world created by The Simpsons and rebooted by Family Guy, Archer well pushes the envelope a long way and we ask creator Adam Reed and series star Aisha Tyler just how'd they get by with that? One nice thing is that we're liberated I think by the fact that the show is animated that

we just are able to do, the characters are just able to do and say things that might sound really unacceptable coming out of a walking person. I think so and I think partially because it's animated and people are more forgiving of a cartoon character saying or doing the things that these people say or do. And also I think a lot of it has to do with the voice cast who are also pitch perfect

that their deliveries and I think it helps the viewer overlook or forgive the bad things that they do because when they describe what they're doing or they say these horrible things to each other or about each other there's just I think an excellent note of fun buried in all of these lines not from the writing but from the reads from the actors. As you can tell Aisha loves the job.

I love it. I love that it's just incredibly funny that it's really unabashedly and unapologetically for grownups that it takes a lot of risks and also that it looks very elegant. It's a beautifully drawn show and there's nothing like it on television and those are all the reasons why I decided to do it.

Another creator and the guy who pretty much handles most of the writing on the episodes Adam Reed has a pretty full plate. So where does it all come from? Not to sound like an idiot but you know basically I just try to come up with a storyline and then put the characters in a room and then they just start talking and then I just start

typing and it's basically just eavesdropping on people being mean to each other. Alright so it's outrageous, it's animated and it's set in a time that either could be 1966 or 2011. All that being said there's a big dose of reality at Archer as well. Everybody recognizes these people.

You know this is obviously an extreme workplace with extreme conditions and these people are extreme expressions of personalities but everybody recognizes every one of these people. They recognize the kind of you know Slack, Jod, self-involved boss and the douchebag who always seems to win and the secretary who whenever you turn away is like painting her nails or talking to her girlfriend on the phone or you know updating her status

update and you know the kind of oversexed inappropriate you know co-worker who always seems to kind of walk in at the wrong time and say the wrong time. I mean everybody knows these people and everybody also knows their thoughts. I mean none of us would ever say to each other any of the things that the characters on Archer say but we all, we're all thinking them and so you know there's just this great liberation

on the show. The reason people laugh is that A because you know the expressions are extreme. I mean that's the thing about comedy. It's really kind of taking reality and pulling it you know as far as you get close to the breaking point as you can without actually breaking it.

But also people recognize these people. They recognize their thoughts. They recognize their feelings. Everybody is walking around with this kind of big ball of you know disdain and desire you know in the pit of their stomach that they can't express and all of our characters

get to say all those things. We'll talk more, Daisha Adam and Jessica Walder, also a star of the series as well. Calm it up. Good point. That's a wrap for this week but barring another ton of snow we're right back here on Monday

with a lot more including more from the set of Archer and a visit later on with Carla from Scrubs who has a new movie at Sundance everybody's talking about. Catch all that and more right here or 24 hours a day on The Point Radio. You can listen with a couple of clicks for free at GetThePointRadio.com. This podcast still produced twice every week for great websites like ComicMakes.com and

MichaelDavidsworld.com. Get in touch with us of course and listen at GetThePointRadio.com. And when you're in the iTunes store stop by the podcast area. You'll find us there under The Point Radio. We will see you right back here on Monday.