Today’s Flop Story!

We teased Flop TV last time, and this time it’s a full-on plug! Flop TV Season Four is HERE (well, at least here in “you can now buy tickets” form — it won’t be here here until September). The theme is “The Worst of the Best,” meaning that every film we’ll be discussing won the Academy Award for Best Picture, deservedness be damned!

And, in case you’re joining us late and are wondering “What, exactly, IS a ‘Flop TV’?” allow me to quote from our own copy: FlopTV is a season of SIX MONTHLY VIDEO LIVE STREAMS, featuring your favorite bad movie podcasters in home-brew TV show form! Tune in on the first Saturday of each month at 9pm Eastern / 6pm Pacific,from September 2026 to February 2027, to see us broadcasting live with all-new bad movie shenanigans!

Flop TV - You Guys Put Thought Into This Stuff?

Every year that we’ve done this little adjunct wing we’ve built onto Flop House Manor called Flop TV, we’ve gotten together and asked ourselves, what makes a season of our rinky-dink li’l “TV” show special? We don’t want to just do “Flop House but video.” We want it to be something listeners can get excited about. And that starts by giving each season a cohesive theme.

The first season was simple — what were some oft-referenced, but never fully discussed movies that we could tackle? Stuff we’d turned into punchlines because of funny titles (Hot Dog: The Movie, Hamburger: The Motion Picture), or had been the source of a classic bit (Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time), or just loomed large in our minds because of a hot toon lady (Cool World), etc.

For season two, we thought “We’re doing a sequel — let’s explore some of the worst sequels!” limiting ourselves specifically to the #2s in franchises (or would-be franchises that were killed by… say… the existence of Caddyshack 2).

For season three, we wanted to up the ante by allowing ourselves the freedom to go back in time further than we’d ever gone before. We dubbed it “Flopsterpiece Theater,” and traveled back through six decades, from the 2000’s to the 1950’s, where we took on the grandaddy of “bad movie culture,” Plan 9 from Outer Space.

Season four’s initial inspiration was our bemusement over Best Picture winner Out of Africa. It came out in 1985, so the Peaches are all, sadly, old enough to recall it being a big deal, but what IS it? Beyond Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, and Africa, what is it ABOUT? It’s left no cultural footprint. Does it actually exist?

Idle jokes about how we’d have to watch it sometime, just to confirm it’s real, turned into Stuart pitching that Flop TV season four should be all Best Picture winners, which seemed like a terrific idea, so we all quickly agreed. Did we feel a certain amount of buyers’ remorse when we realized that — because these are all “prestige” films — only one of this season’s movies is less than two hours long, and most are in the 2.5hr to 2:50 range? Yes. Definitely. Did we consider giving Stuart a wedgie? Perhaps, but have you seen how jacked that guy is?

This year’s slate of films to be discussed:

9/5 - GREEN BOOK

10/3 - THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH

11/7 - GLADIATOR

12/5 - CRASH

1/2 - AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS

2/6 - OUT OF AFRICA

Are these literally “The Worst of the Best?” No, of course not. Just as sometimes The “Flop” House will cover movies that aren’t true critical or commercial flops, occasionally we prioritize a clever sales pitch over total accuracy. Forgive us. “Some More Controversial and/or Undeserving of Being Literally Named ‘Best’ Movies as Awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences” just didn’t feel quite as snappy.

Thus, you’ll see something like “Gladiator” on the list, even though Gladiator is a perfectly fine entertainment. Is it basically just an old-fashioned action revenge film that’s not worth ALL of the accolades? Maybe. The most important thing is, it’ll be fun to discuss!

These are the choices we have to make when planning a season. For instance, there was no way we weren’t gonna do Green Book, perhaps the most controversial winner of recent years. We also were definitely gonna do Crash, one of the most controversial EVER. Suddenly we’re doing two “big statements about racism,” which is arguably two more than three white dudes feel totally comfortable covering anyway. So, even though you could make a case for Driving Miss Daisy (aka: “Reverse Green Book”) we weren’t gonna do that one as well.

We wanted to spread out and not just do newer movies, so we included a couple of classics.The Greatest Show on Earth was a must, as it has emerged as a consensus pick for possibly the most undeserving Best Picture ever. We’ve never seen it, so we’re eager to see if we agree! Back on the exclusion side, we could have made an argument for American Beauty to go in the season, since the combo of Kevin Spacey + sympathetic sex pest protagonist makes it one of the winners that has aged most like milk. But were we really gonna have a fun, funny time pulling on those unpleasant threads? We decided… nah.

So that’s a frank (too frank?) peek behind the curtain at the kinds of choices we make when preparing a Flop TV season. The important thing is that we’re trying to make it fun for us to do and for you to watch, and we’re really excited about the stuff we’ve already been working on. We hope you’ll join us, whether just for a show or the whole season!

Next on the Podcast

8/8 - The three original peaches take on LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY, the movie that answers the question, “What if there was a mummy movie, but directed by Lee Cronin?”

8/15 - Stuart takes us on a trip to The Peach Pit, everyone’s favorite podcast about the podcast The Flop House, hosted by the hosts of The Flop House. Also HALLIE joins us, for reasons that make a lot more sense once you realize that she stuck around after taping a main episode that releases after these ones.

Plugging Away

NEW PLUGS

On Saturday, August 15th, Stuart will be moderating a panel at FLAMECON, the world’s largest queer comic con! The panel is a retrospective on the Adventure Zone graphic novel series with guests Carey Pietsch, Ben Wilgus and Calista Brill. Tickets and more info here!

If you can’t get enough of Stu’s Twitch streams, good news! In addition to his usual model painting stream, he’s started playing through Silent Hill 2 for your amusement! Check out his channel on Monday, 6-8pm ET!

“The Novelizers” is a podcast where comedy writers novelize hit movies (but, y’know, in a funny way) and then their “chapters” are read by comedians and actors. They’re doing their first live show in Los Angeles on August 27, and one of the featured bits was written by Dan and will be performed by the brilliantly hilarious Andy Daly. If you’re in town, go check it out!

CLASSIC PLUGS

Come see us LIVE at Whirling Tiger in Louisville, KY on Friday, September 18, when we’ll be discussing the Mariah Carey bomb GLITTER, with a special opening treat from Howell Dawdy. Doors open at 7pm, and you can get tickets now!

Elliott’s book, Joke Farming, is now available in audiobook form, read by the author! Hey, that’s him! The author is him! Also check out his current run on DC Comics’ Harley Quinn, and his original comic series, Barbarian Behind Bars!

You Made it to the End!

Here’s a peek at some shenanigans on the FH text chain.