What is The Rewind Project?

by Eric Peterson

It’s 2019, y’all. Stacey and I are excited for 2019, for a few reasons – but chief among them is a brand new podcast we’ve dreamt up called The Rewind Project.

We will now take your questions.

Wait, are you guys going to do two podcasts at once?

Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no, no. POPeration!is going away, and The Rewind Project is taking its place. Wait until you hear about all the exciting – 

Wait, wait, hold up. You’re cancelling POPeration!?

Not exactly. Well, maybe. Probably. We’re not saying anything definite, but POPeration!is going to go away for at least a year, and maybe for good. Now about this new show – 

But we liked POPeration!

We did, too! And actually, this new show won’t be all that different.

(pause)

May I continue?

(deep, heavy sigh) Go on.

Thank you.

Actually, if you liked POPeration!, you’ll love this new show. Honest! All the things that made POPeration!fun are here. Before each episode, Stacey and I will watch and old movie, and then we’ll record ourselves talking about it. But the season is going to have a little more structure.

Explain, please.

Well, we’re going to split the year up into four mini-seasons. Each season will focus on one year, and will feature six and a half episodes.

What’s a half-episode?

Well, each mini-season will start with a look at that year, both in movies and in history, insofar as the current events at the time might have impacted what was going on at the movies. We’ll introduce the movies we’re going to talk about, and maybe a few that we left out. Probably fifteen or twenty minutes, max. Then, each full episode will focus on a movie from that year.

What years are you talking about?

Well, we’re going to look at films that are celebrating an anniversary of some kind: movies that are 10, 25, 50, or 75 years old. Which means that the years we’ll be looking at are 2009, 1994, 1969, and 1944.

Huh. Were there any good movies made in those years?

Um, hello? There are good movies made every year. But yes, we’ll be talking about some great films, including Midnight Cowboy, Up in the Air, The Shawshank Redemption, Meet Me in St. Louis, The Lion King, and more. And, we’ll also be talking about some stinkers.

Ooh, like what?

We want to surprise you, but the point is that the films we choose will be very indicative of the times in which they were made. And part of the conversation will naturally be how well they held up, whether they could be remade today, or at the very least – whether they can still be enjoyed today.

What else will be different?

We’ve cooked up some fun games to play, like imagining what a sequel might look like or casting a hypothetical remake. We’re also going to be adding a guest host to every episode. Some of the folks you’ve heard on POPeration!before, like Frank and Sidney, will be back, and we’ll add some new voices as well.

So … when will this new show appear?

Look for The Rewind Project to make its debut in April, 2019. When it does, we’ll be making a real push to get our listeners, especially those who listen via Apple Podcasts, to subscribe and download the episodes. Downloading is really important for those initial numbers; if we make a good showing in those first two weeks, we might show up on the iTunes “New & Noteworthy” list, which would be huge. So thanks in advance, and we look forward to rewinding with you!

What was that, some kind of pun?

Oh, forget it.