The Moon's About to Fall (Ep 376 - Majora's Mask/Enrique)

The Moon's About to Fall (Ep 376 - Majora's Mask/Enrique)
Matt Baume & Enrique Monagas

This week sees the re-release of one of the greatest videogames ever made, Majora’s Mask, which is about a young boy trying to stop the end of the world. In commemoration, we’re diving into the Sewers of Paris archives yet again for a chat about the game with a man who’s given a lot of thought to impending apocalypses, both as an adult and as a child. That may be a dark obsession for a little kid, but playing through the end of the world in videogames got Enrique through some tough times as a kid -- and even tougher times as an adult.

Also, listeners — I know, we’ve been dipping into the Sewers of Paris archives more than usual lately. That’s because I’ve been working on two new top-secret projects that made it a little difficult to record interviews over the last few weeks. But here’s the good news — after this week, you can look forward to a bunch of brand new Sewers of Paris conversations. AND I’ll be announcing those two exciting new projects very soon. One’s directly connected to Sewers, and the other is a sort of companion to both Sewers and my YouTube channel. Thanks for your patience, and I cannot WAIT for you to see what I’ve been working on these last few weeks. Now, on with the episode and my 2016 conversation with Enrique!


Funny and Salacious and Dangerous (Ep 375: Andrew/Soap)

Funny and Salacious and Dangerous (Ep 375: Andrew/Soap)
Matt Baume & Andrew Blau

It's a little unfair that so many gay men adore The Golden Girls, but fewer have heard of the show Soap, without which Blanche, Rose, Sophia and Dorothy wouldn't exist. It is also one of the most controversial sitcom in television history, and I have a new YouTube video coming this weekend all about Soap’s rocky road, and why for one summer in 1977 gay groups and conservatives agreed that the show could not be allowed to air. For this week’s episode of The Sewers of Paris, we’re jumping back to a 2015 interview about Soap, which was something of an obsession for my guest Andrew. That’s thanks in large part to the motherly power of the character of Jessica. Though her family was fractured and weird, her love never wavered. That family loyalty made such an impression on him that he still thinks about -- and aspires to it -- to this day.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. Also don’t forget to head over to mattbaume.com to subscribe to my newsletter. 

Also take a look at my YouTube channel for videos about film and TV history. My new video about the making of Soap debuts this Sunday, February 20, kicking off with a livestream at 11am pacific. And head over to my Patreon to support The Sewers of Paris and watch hours of bonus videos about queer pop culture. 

I was Quite Happy to be the Villain (Ep 374: Tork Shaw/Kenneth Williams)

I was Quite Happy to be the Villain (Ep 374: Tork Shaw/Kenneth Williams)
Matt Baume & Tork Shaw

Next week would have been the 96th birthday of Kenneth Williams, an incredible British performer who hid queer culture in plain sight on the BBC back in the 1960s. For this week’s episode we’re diving all the way back into the Sewers of Paris archives to one of my very first episodes, a conversation with game designer Tork Shaw. Tork would listen to tapes of Kenneth Williams in the car with this family growing up, and he'd hear something of himself in the bookish, aristocratic, quick-witted gays like Kenneth Williams. Tork didn't quite fit in at school -- everyone around him was sporty and posh -- so he cultivated a caustic wit, modeled on the characters he heard, and despite being a small, unathletic kid, his classmates grew scared of him and he was voted "worst bully" in his class. But by the time he was teenager, he was feeling ready to set that aside. "I didn't want to be mean anymore," he said. "What happens if I let go of everything I've done in the past?"

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. And hey don’t forget to head over to mattbaume.com to subscribe to my cute little newsletter. 

Also take a look at my YouTube channel where I post stories about film and TV history. I just posted a new video about The Golden Girls. And head over to my Patreon to support The Sewers of Paris and watch hours of bonus videos about queer pop culture.

Behind the Scenes with Betty White (Ep 373 - The Golden Girls/Jim Colucci)

Behind the Scenes with Betty White (Ep 373 - The Golden Girls/Jim Colucci)
Matt Baume & Jim Colucci

My guest this week is Jim Colucci, author of numerous books about the behind-the-scenes stories of the making of classic TV shows. In his work he’s had opportunities to interview greats like Norman Lear, Betty White, and Bea Arthur — but the REALLY good stories are about what happened after the interviews were over.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. And hey don’t forget to head over to mattbaume.com to subscribe to my cute little newsletter. 

Also take a look at my YouTube channel where I post stories about film and TV history. I just posted a new video about The Golden Girls. And head over to my Patreon to support The Sewers of Paris and watch hours of bonus videos about queer pop culture.