Nerd Lunch: The First 100

Rob Graham settles into the fourth chair this week and we do another round of Give That Guy Some Work. This time around we put together one TV show and one movie using actors and actresses that aren’t getting the exposure they deserve. Our Nerd To-Dos include a Star Trek novel, the Sherlock TV series, Pixar’s Brave, a vampire hunter, and Planet of the Apes.

We gather around the lunch table this week with Steve from foodjunk.wordpress.com. On the menu is a discussion of our favorite salty snack foods from chips to pretzels to crackers. We can't seem to agree on many snack food picks, but perhaps we'll concur on favorite high blood pressure medicines in a later episode. In our Nerd To-Dos, we hear about Steve's run through the Godzilla movies, CT's third viewing of The Avengers, Pax's review of Solomon Kane, and Jeeg's glacial progress through Angel and Farscape.

It's a three way dance as Pax, CT, and Jeeg plan out 48 hours of a nerd weekend. Where would we go? What would we do? What would we eat? Listen to find out if our perfect weekend looks more like The Hangover or Weekend at Bernie's. This week's Nerd To-Dos are a who's who of sci-fi franchises with nods to Prometheus, Planet of the Apes, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Because the people demanded it, one more round of Would You Rather questions with Jeeg, CT, Pax, and Andrew Bloom. Actually nobody demanded it, but the conversation does include more Mark Dury talk and that alone is worth a listen.

The Atomic Geeks very own Andrew Bloom takes over the fourth chair this week and runs Pax, Jeeg, and CT though a little game of Would You Rather. The questions cover topics that are fun for all ages: the Nerd Lunch crew dying in various ways, the Nerd Lunch crew killing various pop culture heroes, the Nerd Lunch crew in ambiguously gay situations, and CT’s beard. The only question remaining is would you rather keep reading this description or listen to the episode already?

This week CT and Jeeg have to soldier on without the Nerd Lunch ironman, Pax, who has been kidnapped by our arch-rival Valley High. But it’s all right, ‘cause we’re saved by the bell and two returning guests: Aaron Nix of Movie Hodge Podge and Jay from The Sexy Armpit. We spend the episode reminiscing about our favorite moments, the most attractive female cast member, and Casey Kasem’s epic Cosby sweaters. Be warned, it’s such a lovefest that we're not even fazed by the fact that the show also sounded the death knell of Saturday morning cartoons. In our Nerd To-Do’s, we get some love for TV’s Dallas, Sherman Hemsley, Taco Johns restaurants, and the Back to the Future iPad game.

Doug Frye from the Schlock Treatment podcast signs on as the fourth member of an elite commando unit with Jeeg, Pax, and CT. Our mission is to determine if the 1980s GI Joe cartoon still holds up. Listen to find out if the Joes can defeat the most lethal foe of all, Father Time. In our Nerd To-Dos we hear about Keifer Sutherland's debut in the D&D universe, the Solomon Kane movie (again), novel writing, and the arrival of some nerd progeny.

Perhaps the Internet's leading expert on TV crossovers and the founder of Poobala.com, Thom Holbrook, joins us for a great episode this week. We discuss what makes a crossover great, run down some of our favorites, and then propose some crossovers we wish would happen. Our conversation is a roll call of great TV from Bob Newhart to The Bionic Woman to The Drew Carey Show to Mork and Mindy. OK, maybe great isn't the best description. In this week's Nerd To-Dos, we get our first genealogy related to-do, a re-commitment to comic book reading, and more Avengers items (it might take us awhile to get over that one, folks).

Shawn Robare rides his stunt motorcycle over from Branded in the 80s to join us for a discussion of the original trilogy of Muppet films: The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, and The Muppets Take Manhattan. We start with our personal histories with the Muppets and where they fit into our nerdom. Then we step through each movie taking a look at the playhouse style setup, plots, music, puppetry/effects, and favorite scenes. In addition to some pre-Avengers talk brought to you through the magic of Internet time travel (check out episode 36, people); this week’s Nerd To-Dos feature a box of magic surprises for CT, more soda can collecting, and one nerd’s quest for movie novelizations.

Join us for a very special episode of Nerd Lunch all about the blockbuster that is Marvel’s The Avengers. In a double barreled conversation, CT and Pax chat after hitting the theater in Florida while Jeeg and original Nerd Luncher PLee offer their post-screening assessment from Illinois. Is it the best of the Marvel movies? Is it the best superhero/comic book movie ever? Is it the greatest achievement in the history of mankind? Remove your Asgardian helmet with the giant horns, pop in those earbuds, and find out.

Pax and Jeeg welcome CT back from his sojourn in the wilderness and guest Robert Zerbe from To The Escape Hatch for a discussion of real life issues that can dampen one's enjoyment of nerdy things. Celebrity meltdowns, marketing oversaturation, obnoxious product placement, annoying theater patrons, and more make our lists. This week's Nerd To-Dos features a lot of Avengers talk, e-readers, Doritos, and the last (?) of CT's Young Justice updates.

Jeeg and Pax welcome a tag team of guests, Atomic Geek Mike Downs and Jay from The Sexy Armpit, for a no holds barred conversation about WrestleMania. We cover our favorite matches, celebrity appearances, commentating team, and more. In the words of Gorilla Monsoon, "It's a donnybrook!". Our Nerd To-Dos this week include Mötley Crüe as well as a motley crew of KISS, Mr. Rogers, Teen Wolf, and Zantac 75.

While CT is away on a vision quest, Pax and Jeeg bring in Jeremy from Geek Chunks to discuss kung fu movies (and one samurai movie) from the last 20 years or so. After touching on our introductions to the martial arts genre and the grandaddy of them all, Enter the Dragon, we talk about the 90s kung fu resurgence led by Jackie Chan, the crossover appeal of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and some of our recent favorites from Donnie Yen, Tony Jaa, and Michelle Yeoh. Finally, we channel our qi power into some Nerd To-Dos covering Avengers opening weekend, Sliders, and Wrath of the Titans.

Our old buddy Fitz returns to the show for our companion piece to Episode 148 of The Atomic Geeks, "Geek Dads!". We spend the first part of the show talking about our upbringing and the formative experiences that made us nerds, geeks, dorks, and poindexters. After that we briefly touch on how we hope to raise the next generation of nerds. In our To-Dos this week, we learn about Fitz's initiative to crowdsource toy shopping, hear CT's latest update on his quest for Young Justice action figures, and get a mini-review of "Return to Oz" from Pax.

Our fourth chair is empty this week, so it's a three way dance with Jeeg, Pax, and CT. This time around we're coming up with bucket lists of must-do nerdy, lunchy, and podcast related items. When we’re not making callbacks to almost all of our previous episodes, we uncover Jeeg's fascination with Lance Bass, praise the Kool-Aid Museum, and play a Superman related round of the "Dead or Alive?" game. To wrap up, we fantasize about what we'd eventually like to do with this here podcast. Get to listening and cross this episode off your bucket list now!

Rondal from the Strange Kids Club returns to help the Nerd Lunch crew drug CT's milk and put Jeeg in the hosting chair. Up this week is a very special episode about one of our favorite franchises, The A-Team. We spend the first part of the episode discussing the original and what made it one of the iconic shows of the 1980s. Then we turn our attention to the 2010 reboot movie and lament the fact that we won't be getting sequels to that flick. In our Nerd To-Dos, we learn about Trash Can Trolls and somehow get a reference to the 90s kung-fu cop show Martial Law.

Chris (@drquest on Twitter) from the What To Watch and Stuff We Like podcasts climbs aboard our Lambda class shuttle for the 29th episode of Nerd Lunch. After playing a little dream interpretation theater with Pax, we continue a discussion that started on the Cavalcade of Awesome about those Star Wars characters that are immensely popular yet had very little to do in the movies. You know who were talking about: Admiral Ackbar, R5-D4, the bounty hunters from Empire, and even Darth Maul. What is it about the Star Wars universe or fandom that has led to these characters being fan favorites and will Jeeg have his nerd card revoked for even asking this question? In this week's Nerd To-Do's, we learn about an epic quest to watch all 700 episodes of a TV show and hear what lengths Pax will go to watch the unreleased Solomon Kane movie.

This week CT, Pax, and Jeeg are joined by blogger and Atomic Geeks superfan Chris Lockhart for a discussion of how Star Trek could have changed if some key events worked out differently. What if Scotty was Irish instead? What if Riker hadn't grown a beard? What if Janeway's animal guide had been a lemur? Actually we don't talk about any of those scenarios, but the possibilities of a Star Trek without Shatner, the 1970s Phase II series, and Captain Riker are all on the agenda. In our Nerd To-Dos, we find out which nerd is already making plans for season 2 of Sherlock and talk more about the Ghost Rider sequel than anyone could have expected.

It's our first cavity inducing episode. Well, maybe our second cavity inducing episode after Episode 19 about sodas. Anyway, Jason Liebig from CollectingCandy.com occupies the fourth chair for a discussion of all things candy. We learn about Jason's collection/obsession, talk over some of our favorite candies, and eventually find our nougaty center. This week's Nerd To-dos include a nerd's quest to visit Popeye's Chicken and a special story about hanging out with one of the Jimmy Olsens from Lois & Clark.

On this week's episode we turn our attention to some of the technology that was cutting edge during our youths. We're joined by the best retro expert we could ask for, The Retroist himself. During our conversation we stroll past all manner of tech gravestones including the Kodak Disc camera, Atari 2600, audio cassettes, the VCR, and the Super Bowl Shuffle (huh?). In our Nerd To-Do's, we learn a little about table-top wargaming and find out which nerd is attempting to assemble the Young Justice version of the Hall of Justice.