Chris Tognotti Podcasts

Spooky season continues as Kevin and Chris gaze back, with longingly erotic, vampiric intensity, at Canadian TV series Forever Knight, which ran from 1992 to 1996. Centered on 800-year-old vampire Nick Knight, who joins the Toronto police force to atone for his past sins and depravities, this show has it all: Vamps! Unethical 12-step sponsors! Bise…

In a special spooky season bonus episode, Kevin and Chris look back at an oft-forgotten relic of early 90's Halloween animated specials — Tales From The Far Side, featuring macabre meanderings straight from the brain of Gary Larson. Come for the cow Bride of Frankenstein, stay for the saddest wolf in recorded history.…

Hot on the heels of Now We Know's look back at its spinoff series Count Duckula, the boys turn their gaze to Danger Mouse, the 1981 British cartoon hit that made David Jason (or at least his voice) a beloved companion of millions of children the world over. Featuring villainous toads, militarized washing machines, controversially Italian crows, and…

In the heart of Transylvania, in the vampire Hall of Fang-ya, there's supposedly not a single vampire zanier than Count Duckula. Kevin and Chris look back at the Thames Television children's cartoon—a spin-off of another Cosgrove Hall animated hit, Danger Mouse—which was a ubiquitous fixture on Nickelodeon in the late 80's and early 90's.…

Chris and Kevin are joined by four-time conquering guest Miranda for a look back at gothic horror classic Candyman—infamous on 90's elementary school playgrounds everywhere—on the occasion of the release of a brand new remake. All the stars are here—Tony Todd! Virginia Madsen! Kasi Lemmons! Xander Berkeley! So why not pop some popcorn, say Candyman…

With Chris disabused of some foundational misunderstandings in our earlier G.I. Joe cartoon series episode, Kevin returns to the well for the 1987 animated movie—sadly, not a theatrical release, but a familiar pick on the home video market. What follows is a rollicking, at times macabre tale of soldiers, secrets, spores, and the utter denigration o…

This time, Kevin and Chris are joine by first-time guest Rachel Beach to discuss Gallavants, a 1984 children's movie (technically, somehow, a Marvel movie?) combining cartoon ants, the voice of Optimus Prime, and a vernacular so pointlessly complicated you'll feel like a Scientologist by the end. Content advisory: this episode is intended only for …

Crash, boom, bang! It's the third installment of Now We Know's ballyhooed Commercials of the 80's and 90's series! This time Kevin brings forth a bevy of exciting, confusing, controversial, and memorable TV ads from his youth, some of which Chris remembers, and some of which are brand new. Time to fire up your cathode ray tubes gang, we're goin' ba…

Kevin and Chris enter the video zone in this inaugural installment of Video Games of the 80's and 90's. Fate calls upon Kevin to run a gauntlet of 11 video games across the NES and SNES — all of them "Chris classics," though some, perhaps, not actual classics. Also, a devout Indiana Jones fan calls the Now We Know hotline, and he's got a bone to pi…

With a Tony Scott-less sequel right around the corner, Kevin and Chris revisit 1986 high-octane thrill ride (and military recruitment propaganda vehicle) Top Gun, starring Tom Cruise and Tom Skerritt — the Toms. Also featuring Anthony Edwards, Val Kilmer, Kelly McGillis, and three gallons of artificial sweat. Prepare to enter the danger zone!…

Kevin and Chris return to a mystical jungle of their youths, complete with familial wolves, scolding panthers, smooth layabout bears, swingin' monkeys, and aristocratic, homicidal tigers. That's right, it's 1967 Disney animated film The Jungle Book, based on the 1894 Rudyard Kipling tome of the same name. Oh, there are also some vultures who kinda …

What time is it? Muppet time once more! This episode Kevin revisits the 1981 follow-up to the classic subject of a prior episode, The Muppet Movie ― it's The Great Muppet Caper, featuring the whole gang plus Charles Grodin, Diana Rigg, and a host of familiar faces in cameo roles. But does it live up to the first film's lofty standards?…

This time, Chris takes the wheel for a look back at a renowned classic of children's television, Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock. Join the guys for this trip down memory lane, alongside Gobo, Red, Mokey, Boober, Wembley, Doc, Sprocket, Convincing John, the adorable Doozers, and the ignoble Gorgs.

With a brand new motion picture reboot upon us, Kevin looks back at the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie, the blood-soaked fighting game's first adaptation for the silver screen. All your favorites are here! Kano, Liu Kang, Raiden, Johnny Cage, Scorpion, Sonya, MORTALLLL KOMBAAAAT!

Once upon a time, as little eight-year-old Chris languished in a bed at Marin General Hospital with an inflamed appendix, he by happenstance caught an episode of the 1990's Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon series on a small TV in the upper left corner of the room. Will this video game adaptation bring him as much comfort now as it did back then? There'…

Avast ye sea dogs, Captain Kev is here with a tale of piracy, alien worlds, treasure hunting, and foul creatures known as "monkeybirds." This time it's early 90's Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Pirates of Dark Water, which ran for three seasons, and boasts a robust voice acting cast featuring, well, the same 20 people who basically do every cartoon.…

This time Kevin and Chris revisit one of the all-time feel-good shows in radio history—and public radio, to boot. It's Car Talk, hosted by the irrepressably upbeat Tom and Ray Maggliozi for a staggering 35 years. Whether you give a damn about cars or not, the men known to NPR listeners as Click and Clack are sure to bring a smile to your face.…

Don't worry, listener, Kevin and Chris aren't the ones who need help—but Rock n' Roll Hall of Famer Ringo Starr is another story! This time the guys revisit the 1965 Beatles film Help!, starring Starr, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, amid a globetrotting series of failed, mischievous attempts on the former's life. Also stars the d…

For the final episode of Season Three, Kevin and Chris tackle a hyper-challenging video game from the latter's youth — Zombies Ate My Neighbors for the Super Nintendo, 48 grueling levels of B-movie horror schlock. Strap on your water gun, your weed-whacker, a few cans of soda, some popsicles, a martian ray gun, and maybe some footballs, and join in…

Kevin revisits Connections, a 1978 ten-episode miniseries created and hosted by British science historian James Burke, which examines the sinew between history, technology, and human understanding. He and Chris watched and discussed three episodes this time around — “The Trigger Effect,” “Eat, Drink, And Be Merry,” and “Yesterday, Tomorrow, And You…

Returning guest Brian joins Kevin and Chris to ring in the new year with 1994's video game film adaptation Double Dragon. Join your favorite hosts as they dish on Jimmy and Billy Lee, Alyssa Milano as leader of the Power Corps vigilantes, Robert Patrick as industrialist ghoul Koga Shuko, and the inimitable Bo Abobo. Also: Viennetta is coming back! …

Now We Know tickles your ears with some new bonus content! This time, the guys played through Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure, the 1989 LucasArts point-and-click PC game with which little Chris spent many an hour. If you decide to play along, be careful — it is surprisingly easy to "choose poorly" in this one.…

Cozy up with Kevin and Chris with a look back and one of their shared childhood loves, 1979's The Muppet Movie. From the music to the journey to the yuks along the way, Kermit and company have you covered.

Kevin and Chris execute their first remote podcast of a long summer season, and are joined by a returning guest, Kevin's sister Colleen! This time it's The Mask of Zorro, a movie that was pretty significant for Colleen, not least of all thanks to Anthony Hopkins snuffing out candles with some cracks of his whip.…

This time we're looking back at something both of them loved as adventure-hungry kids — The Adventures of Tintin, the classic comic series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé which was adapted into an animated series in the early 90's. This episode covers the animated versions of three Tintin adventures: The Crab With the Golden Claws, The Shooting Star, a…

Woooooould youuuuuuuu... like to swing on a star? This question and more are daringly posed by Out of This World, a late 80's sitcom featuring a half-alien teenage girl, her mysterious alien powers, her scenery-chewing uncle Beano, celebrity mayor Doug McClure, and regular drop-ins from the disembodied voice of Burt Reynolds.…

The year is 1993. The reign of Family Double Dare, the inheritor of classic Double Dare's legacy for the previous three years, is coming to an end. And so, Nickelodeon brings forth a new competitive game show, equal part genius and horrifying in design: Legends of the Hidden Temple. This show was a well-oiled disappointment machine, with about 3/4t…

Kevin takes the reins for a look back at the 80's cartoon classic G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, a show which to some people's surprise (Chris) does not feature an individual character named Joe! There's a bunch of them apparently, and they're ready to face off against the nefarious warlord and subliminal messaging expert Cobra Commander.…

Kevin and Chris return for part two of their deluxe Final Fantasy 7 retrospective, with the shiny new PS4 remake right around the corner. Will Cloud unify the fractured corners of his mind? Will Sephiroth be stopped? And will we ever truly comprehend the infinite mystery of Pandora's Box?

With perhaps the most hotly anticipated video game remake ever about to drop, Chris decided it was time for Kevin to finally take a journey he never had before: Final Fantasy 7, the iconic 1997 RPG that enchanted, thrilled, and devastated millions of gamers. Cloud, Tifa, Aeris, Sephiroth, all of them! The whole gang's here. And this one's a deluxe …

Three-time returning guest Miranda joins Kevin and Chris for a look back at a film all three of them saw as wee ones ― Darby O'Gill and the Little People, a tale of leprechauns, drunken revelry, warmly lit Irish whimsy, generous pension programs, and a young Sean Connery brawling with a guy named Pony. Just watch out for the death coach.…

On your marks, get set, go! It's time for Double Dare, the classic Nickelodeon game show that made Marc Summers a household name. Join Chris and Kevin as they revisit a trio of episodes: Swatches vs. Headrooms (1986), Out of the Blue vs. The Vulcans (1988), and an episode of Family Double Dare, The Whitehouse Crew vs. Gross Gladiators (1990).…

Kevin and Chris are joined by Hollywood Crime Scene's Rachel Fisher for a deep dive into 1985's surprisingly macabre Return to Oz, starring the strikingly haunted-looking Fairuza Balk as Dorothy Gale. From electroshock therapy, to a clockwork soldier, to a jack-o-lantern with mommy issues, to a head-thieving witch, you're not in Judy Garland's Oz a…

Kevin and Chris are joined by returning guest Sean Hurlburt, mere days before the release of the brand new Sonic The Hedgehog movie, to revisit the 1993 Saturday morning animated series starring the lil' blue speedster himself. Fair warning: you probably can't run as fast as Sonic, even after he's absolutely gorged himself sick on chili dogs.…

Do you ever feel like your clock is running out? You intrepid hosts have surely never felt this way. But this time, Kevin is revisiting a childhood favorite that is decidedly preoccupied with mortality ― Logan's Run, starring Michael York, the doctor from Darkman who explains the Rangeveritz Technique, and a guy who looks like a young Christopher H…

Don't look now, but this stately little podcast has now spanned two decades! To celebrate, Kevin and Chris ring in the new year by looking back at the SNES version of Super Baseball 2020, a video game which serves up an uncompromising, tech-infused vision of America's national pastime. And yes, there are baseball-playing robots!…

Our final episode of the year is filled with Smurfy holiday cheer, as Kevin foists the Smurfs Christmas Special on Chris. The godless little Smurfs don't celebrate Christmas themselves, but they do battle Satan so they're maybe not quite as pagan as they seem.

With the holiday season well and truly upon us, Chris brings forth Jack Frost, the Christmas/horror movie with the murdering snowman! Oops, wait, what's that? Sorry, we're having some technical difficulties... it appears we somehow ended up with the Michael Keaton one?

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! We've decided to celebrate by treating you to a high-quality, fresh out of the oven bonus episode. And as is traditional since last year, you're getting another Garfield holiday special, this one with many more mean-spirited Orson Welles jokes than you might expect. Enjoy the chow!…

In the second installment of Now We Know's award-winning series, Kevin looks back at a collection of TV commercials from his heyday back in the 1980s and 1990s. Curated for your enjoyment, complete with earworm jingles, bizarre visuals, and every now and then, a truly vexing quandary.

It's more than a little shocking that it's taken this long. But finally, Chris has foisted 1989's Super Mario Bros. Super Show, which managed to air its entire run of episodes in just three months, onto Kevin. Of course, Kevin saw this show as a kid himself, like any true devotee of Nintendo's iconic plumber brothers. Will you get hooked on said br…

Well, would you look at that, the Now We Know boys just hit the half-century mark. And they’re celebrating, in Halloween fashion, by watching one of Kevin’s beloved childhood films, Ghostbusters 2. Come for the emotionally charged goo and Carpathian warlords, stay for the two bewilderingly pointless Slimer cameos.…

One year after returning guest Jessica divulged her traumatic childhood horror movie experience to the Now We Know audience, Chris has invited her back to discuss a film he had a nearly identical experience with: Pet Sematary Two. With Jessica and Kevin's help, will Chris be able to endure this terrible fright from decades past?…

Oh, Mel! This time, Chris and Kevin are joined by returning guest Miranda to discuss Mel's Hole, one of the most memorable tales of macabre mystery to ever cross the airwaves of the late conspiracy theory/paranormal radio host Art Bell. Come for the meandering, madness-inducing conversations about bottomless pits, the science of radar, and reanimat…

This time Chris unleashes super-charged combat anime Dragon Ball Z onto Kevin, reliving the iconic first clash between series hero Goku (or Kakarot, as you may prefer) and series villain/anti-hero/eventual full-hero Vegeta. And to top it off, Chris made sure to track down the original Canadian dub that aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami block when …

As a long, beautiful summer draws to a close, Kevin unleashes Eerie, Indiana on Chris, an ostensibly spooky kids show that aired on NBC in the early 1990s. Will child hero Marshall "Mars" Teller manage to survive the many twists, turns, and macabre happenings of the peculiar town of Eerie? Will he somehow manage to defeat a mid-level marketing scam…

With a brand new movie release right around the corner, Kevin and Chris are joined by returning guest Natasha Vinik (@NatashaVinik) to discuss It, the 1990 TV miniseries adaptation of the Stephen King classic. Natasha had a particularly intense relationship with It in her youth, and she dishes all the deets for your listening pleasure.…

Returning guest Evan Tognotti joins Chris and Kevin to relive One Small Hero, a rightfully forgotten 1999 children's film about perseverance, boring forests, and an extremely stress-free kidnapping. Once upon a time, a four-year-old Evan watched this movie about seven or eight times while trapped aboard a Carnival cruise ship, and now he's sharing …

Kevin and Chris are joined by Brian Houghton to discuss Trancers, a 1984 time travel/sci-fi flick starring Tim Thomerson as Trooper Jack Deth. A cop who embarks from the year 2247 to 1985 Los Angeles, all to foil a somewhat convoluted attempt at future government overthrow, Deth is aided in his mission by none other than a young, fresh-faced Helen …

This time around, Kevin and Chris are joined by India Hamilton to revisit Warriors of Virtue, a central plank of her childhood entertainment experience. Prepare to be sucked down the sewer to the land of Tao, to be thrust into a brutal war between anthropomorphic Roos, thickly-built bald generals with goatees, and Angus Macfadyen.…