Hollywood's penchant for revisiting failed franchises this summer has awakened a number of 80s oddities in the oubliette! This time, Amanda Jane Stern joins us to revisit the Salkinds' 1984 attempt at a Superman spin-off: Supergirl, featuring Helen Slater as Kara Zor-El/Linda Lee, Faye Dunaway as the witchy Selena, and Peter O’Toole, Mia Farrow, Marc McClure, and others filling out a very British, very prestige-flavoured comic-book fever dream. Much like Masters of the Universe (1987), it's a film about a missing macguffin, a displaced hero from an alien world navigating 80s America, and the familiar fantasy of inherited power being folded into an Americana quest narrative – all while trying to look serious enough to justify its budget and strange enough to justify its existence. Should Supergirl be set free to soar into heroism, or should it be locked away in the Phantom Zone? Find out!

Check out Amanda Jane Stern's projects at www.amandajanestern.com

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For our 200th episode, we're revisiting the film that inspired our podcast name!

David Goelz of The Muppets joins us as our very special guest to celebrating the 40th anniversary of Labyrinth. The film paired Jim Henson’s creature-shop with a Terry Jones screenplay, George Lucas producing, Brian Froud's world-building, and David Bowie doing what only Bowie could plausibly do: play a goblin king as if he were headlining a particularly sinister school dance. Jennifer Connelly’s Sarah, annoyed beyond reason at being asked to babysit, spends the film crossing a maze filled with sarcastic puppets, impossible architecture, and a villain who seems to believe charisma and a Limahl fright wig is a substitute for governance.

It recouped less than half its budget at the box office, but is the lighter companion to The Dark Crystal (1982) a delightful adventure that rightfully found a devoted audience on VHS, or should it be locked in its own oubliette? Find out!

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To mark the release of the new Masters of the Universe film, Matt Swaford of Reklaimer's Vintage Toys joins us to revisit Cannon Films' notorious attempt to launch the cinematic branch of Mattel's toy franchise in 1987. Featuring an all-star cast of Dolph Lundgren, Frank Langella, James 'Mr Strickland' Tolkan, a pre-Voyager Robert Duncan MacNeill, and pre-almost everything Courteney Cox, the film is most remembered for disappointing fans of the sword and sorcery sci-fi mash-up by setting most of the action in a school gymnasium on present day Earth, and replacing Orko and Battle Cat with the more budget-friendly Billy Barty in an orange troll make-up.

But is it an unfairly maligned hidden gem or a best-forgotten example of 80s genre excess on the cheap? Find out!

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