Columbia House’s Final Sign-Off & Stuart Fails To Save The Universe

Hi, this is Pat Fraley, purveyor of duck, doog,

and villain voices, and you're watching Altered

Geek. Welcome to Altered Geek. I'm your host,

Steve Megatron, and joining me on this adventure

into geekdom is TFG1 Mike. Oh boy, I don't want

the tip anymore. Mike is sad. that panda yeah

there's just way too much going on in this world

folks and we've got six things plus a few other

things we'll talk about tonight so yeah like

a lot of a lot of stuff going on in the the geekdom

sphere as of late yep I don't know what you've

been doing, but I've been kind of trying to keep

up with some of the news. I've been also watching

some shows. I guess before we get into any of

the kind of news, I started watching Stuart Saves

the Universe. Yep, me too. We'll talk about that

later, but yeah, me too. So, we'll discuss that

later. Had a couple of... notable celebrity deaths

this week too which is oh my god they're coming

out i mean i don't want to i don't mean to say

i don't want to dwell on it but well no it's

something i don't want to dwell on i don't mean

to say this to be funny but it's like oh my god

they're coming out of the woodwork i swear every

every morning i've woken up this week celebrity

death celebrity death celebrity death I'm like,

wow, 2026 is rearing its ugly head and taking

everybody. Like literally everybody, uh, from

Hayden Pantier to, from heroes to, uh, the drummer

from ZZ, uh, Frank beard, the drummer from ZZ.

I think he was the drummer from ZZ top. Uh, just.

everybody like ben jones the actor from uh dukes

of hazard christy knowings from all that yeah

uh i don't know it's just this year sucked as

far as as far as that stuff uh lost like katherine

o 'hare lost james van der beek lost oh man oh

now you're reminding me of a whole year it's

only august it's the the middle of august people

Well, and then, like, Hayden was only 36, which

is. Yeah, which is. I didn't even think she was

that young. I thought she was a little bit older,

but I hadn't even really paid attention to her

since Heroes. But damn, man. Wow. It's crazy.

It really is unfortunate. Yeah. It's like, what

are they putting in the water? Like, I don't

I don't know. But yeah, it's sad either way on

that front. I know she did Heroes because I watched

that show. She did scream four and six and then

was in, uh, forget the, there was Nashville was

the other show. Yep. Nashville. Yeah. Anyways.

Yeah. So that I saw that this week and then,

uh, had fun watching the Hugh Jackman video of,

uh, Ryan Reynolds peer pressuring him to do a

video because of D 23. Yeah, dude, the news out

of D23, oh my God. We could do a whole show just

on that. Yeah, D23 this year was awesome. It

was such a good show. I honestly think D23 was

better than San Diego Comic -Con. I tend to agree

with you. As far as the actual show goes. like

i i just think it was a better show and just

man it was just so fun paying attention to that

news and getting to see those clips it was just

so cool well and then and then we got you know

at d23 we got for marvel studios we we got the

mcu x -men film cast reveal yep A lot of people

I didn't know who they were. Same. We had a few

that have been in other things. They don't ring

a bell for me. It's the younger crowd, so I don't

know who they are. We got our new Professor X.

We got our new Cyclops. Jean Grey. Sadie Sink

was in Spider -Man Brand New Day, which I saw

that. We got our new Rogue, which is from that

Obsession movie. We got Storm. We got Emma Frost.

And then Mr. Sinister, which is Kylo Ren himself,

Adam Driver. Yes. That tracks. Yeah. So that

I was like, OK, they're going a different direction.

I'll be interested to see what they do with it.

Yeah. So there was that. Then we got new trailer

footage featuring Robert Downey Jr. as Dr. Doom.

We got some. Chris Evans. We got some other stuff

in there. We got a little bit more of Doom's

backstory and he's arguing with Reed Richards

and then just thrashes Thor. Yeah. And it brings

the Sentinels back. And I was like, OK. And people

are like, why? Why do they keep doing the Mr.

Worf? thing to thor like they take their strongest

guy and then just to show how powerful x villain

is that you know episode or movie they like knock

him on his butt or knock him out or you know

whatever uh which they did that with thanos and

i would argue thor is 10 times as strong as he

was during that yeah like he's he's kind of evolved

and in this he even has like almost a different

color of lightning later on in some different

clips Yeah, which almost puts him on like God

tier like Zeus. And. So I'm kind of wondering

where this is going to go. Like, I think he's

going to get his butt handed to him early and

then he's going to come back later with like

almost like Infinity Stone power after Doom.

But it's it's definitely like interesting seeing

him getting his butt kicked. And then, of course,

Disney Plus released. their list of essential

projects to watch before doomsday yeah that was

very interesting i thought that was cool that's

the only interesting part about it and i'll list

those movies because i found it interesting the

ones that are you know considered must watch

yeah do you understand doomsday which some people

are like i don't know i can't watch 15 movies

and i'm like i've seen most of these so it doesn't

really impact me So, like, they start off, the

first one is X -Men. X2. Captain America, the

first Avenger. The Avengers. Avengers Infinity

War. Avengers Endgame. Loki. Shang -Chi, which

I don't really care to watch. Spider -Man No

Way Home, which tells me more Spider -Man. And

it's, you know, breaking the multiverse. Black

Panther, Wakanda Forever. Didn't see that one.

Captain America, Brave New World. Didn't see

that. Deadpool and Wolverine. Doctor Strange

and the Multiverse of Madness. Thunderbolts didn't

see that in the Fantastic Four. Didn't see that.

I'll probably see Fantastic Four just so I kind

of get the gist of like the Fantastic Four family

just going into this. But I'm kind of kind of

interested to see what they do in this movie.

I think the reason why they're saying watch Shang

-Chi is so you can understand that character

because he's going to be in it. I think that's

the only reason why they said that. Yeah, I mean.

Yeah, no, I like and other than that, other than

that film order and other than the trailers that

we've gotten and whatever. little bit of lead

up that we've gotten to doomsday any other analysis

or any other anything about doomsday or secret

wars i've watched other people's like instagram

facebook whatever reels doom scrolling whatever

whatever whatever whatever accounts i've come

across of people trying to figure it out or trying

to explain the mythology of and where it could

potentially i'm like i don't i respect those

people and their content that they're doing and

that's fine but i don't care because i just want

to learn about it from the marvel studios point

of view that's all i want to know like that's

fine if i have to watch if i have to re -watch

Those films, which I'm probably going to do anyway,

most likely at least Endgame to do a refresher

and whatever the special version of Endgame is

going to be leading up to it. I mean, I'm just

excited to see Doomsday, even with the, you know,

just with the trailers that they've released

as of now. I mean, hell. All it really took was

some guy in a green costume with a silver mask

showing up to a Comic -Con, taking off that mask,

and holy shit, it's Robert Downey Jr. Like, really,

when we first got that reveal, I was like, okay,

Doomsday, I'm in. And then I don't know how they're

going to do, however their version of Secret

Wars is going to be, whatever that, because Secret

Wars to me is Spider -Man and everybody else

from when Spider -Man the animated series did

it way back in the 90s. But you know what? I'm

here for whatever Marvel's going to do with the

major characters. Oh, and then plus. They also

revealed something cool. We got, uh, I finished

watching X -Men 97 season two, which was great.

We got some footage of season three. Uh, they,

they had, uh, vision quest trailer, which I gotta

be honest. I was quite intrigued and I'm interested.

Yeah. I am looking forward to that. Ultron, I

told you, human avatars only. I love that. I

thought that was great. Because they want as

little to no special effects on that show as

possible, apparently. Maybe, maybe not. I don't

know. I'm just assuming that. So I'm probably

making an ass out of myself. Well, and it's kind

of cool in that sense because they're allowing

the actors, but I think it's totally a save some

money. That being said, I'm excited for it because

you can see Ultron, but then it also has this

other caveat to it. It makes you wonder if Ultron

didn't die in Age of Ultron, but was absorbed

by Vision and locked away. And with the Infinity

Stone gone, it took the filter out. Oh, yeah.

I think that's what happened. Yeah. So you have

all these different AIs like fighting for dominance

in one body. So it's, it's going to be interesting.

Yeah, absolutely. Now I want to say something

really quickly about the whole, um, other thing

is that, that I see going around online about

now that doomsday is coming. it's it's been coming

it's on its way it'll be here december 18th we

probably have something like four hours or 40

40 whatever the hell the four months whatever

the time clock is at now well what the other

thing i've been seeing online is that oh well

this is we now know that it's going to be doomsday,

but here's what it could have been. If Jonathan,

whatever his name didn't do the stupid thing

that, you know, the stupid criminal thing that

he did, or if Bo DeMeo didn't get fired, you

know, whatever Bo DeMeo did or didn't do with

X -Men 90. Like I'm sitting here thinking to

myself, Oh my God, can we stop talking about

what didn't actually happen? Like, Oh, what could

have been, what could have been is never going

to be like that. That's just not a possibility

anymore. So like, what's the point of bringing

up the failed potential? That was the Kang dynasty

of whatever the original plan was instead of

doomsday. Like that. There's no. Like, I understand

people might want to talk about it, but now that

we are at the point of where August, September,

we're four months away from doomsday. To me,

there's really no point in talking about a failed

plan that is not going to come to fruition at

this point. But again, me and my doom scrolling

on these, these social media apps, I run into

these videos where these people are talking about.

oh, this is what we could have had if this person

didn't do something stupid or if this person

wasn't this monster or if this person wasn't

this or that. And I'm like, yeah, but that's

not what we're getting. Why focus on what we

aren't getting? Why not focus on what we are

actually getting? People just confuse the hell

out of me. Oh, yeah, 100%. Yeah, I don't know.

I just, I love the, the new thing on Instagram

where they're like, Oh, what would you like to

either mute or block has always been a thing.

But now it's like, are you interested in this

channel or not? I'm like, not interested. Like

if I watch something and it's like, not interested,

just hide, whatever. Go away. Go away. You bother

me. Uh, the other thing at D 23, they showed,

I absolutely love this. Of course we had to have,

I mean, I, I didn't really catch the Incredibles

three stuff. I need to go back on YouTube and

catch that, but there was some Incredibles three

stuff there. Uh, but the one thing I did catch

because I am a huge fan, we had, uh, Mr. Blue

punch buggy himself. We had stitched show up

and. Of course, Stitch did his thing, and I don't

know what he was pulling. I couldn't tell what

he was trying to pull off his wrist, but he pulled

this thing off his wrist, and we had this giant

pink glow, and Angel is going to show up in Lilo

and Stitch 2 coming in summer of 2028. So we

know the next live action Lilo and stitch movie

is coming in Lilo and stitch to 2028. So very

excited for that, but yeah, no D 23 this year,

I think was an absolute success. Yep. And I,

I think that it was definitely worth the, uh,

the hype that went into it. So definitely, definitely.

Yep. So going into this, I mean, we're going

to be covering quite a few different topics.

Some of them YouTube related, some of them not,

some of them different media services, franchises,

and people. Yes. So YouTube announced their Plan

to count public views across YouTube. Yes. So

I don't remember how I saw this, but maybe it

was a notification in YouTube studio. I'm not

sure. I don't remember, but it says, hi, everyone.

Last year, we updated how we count public views

for shorts to better capture how viewers watch

on YouTube. Now we're aligning all our other

video formats to this same standard for consistency

across the platform. Beginning on August 24th,

2026, a view will be counted the moment a video

begins to play. Why they didn't do this in the

beginning 20 -something years ago in 2005 is

beyond me. From the very first frame, the standard

will now apply globally across all formats. Historically,

we've used multiple view counting systems across

different formats. However, we've heard that

creators want to eliminate this metric confusion

and accurately understand their true exposure,

which is why we're making this update. Impact

on YouTube analytics and performance metrics.

We'll keep the original view metric called engaged

views in YouTube analytics. Advanced mode so

creators can see how many viewers chose to continue

watching their video. Impact on monetization.

The change will not impact creators' earnings

or how they become eligible for the YouTube Partner

Program. Creator earnings will continue to be

based on engaged shorts views and engaged watched

hours, which you can view in YouTube Analytics

advanced mode. There is no change to YPP eligibility.

YPP entry requirements will also now be referred

to as qualified shorts views and qualified watch

hours, previously valid public shorts views and

valid public watch hours. From 8 .24 onwards,

you'll start to see the new view metric applied.

wherever views are shown on YouTube, which means

creators will likely see their total view counts

increase faster moving forward. We hope that

having a metric parity across all formats gives

creators a clearer picture of their overall exposure

and makes it easier to confidently express their

true scale and value. To brand partners and sponsors,

feel free to check our help center, yada, yada,

yada, yada, yada. Like I said in the middle of

this, why they didn't do this years ago is beyond

me, but thankfully they've done this now. So

basically the main takeaway here is that they

are aligning all other video formats to the same

standard for consistency across the platform.

That the. That the view will that the view counter

will start as soon as the video starts playing.

That should have always been the metric. Like,

I don't I've never understood why the view counter.

you had to wait whatever the i don't i don't

even know what the time or timer was 15 seconds

one minute whatever you like you had to stay

on that video for the view to count for the for

the creator however long you had to stay on i've

never understood why it had to be like i'm not

gonna like let's say let's say i have a five

minute video about a funko pop or whatever i'm

not gonna click off the video two minutes in

or like if i'm you know what i mean like whatever

but yeah youtube changes for the better finally

yes we have that and then yeah and then of course

uh You posted this one about the tipping culture,

which I do agree. Okay, so I posted two Instagram

links to two videos, two separate videos. One

is the video about Shake Shack, the big Shake

Shack tipping thing. So there was a couple that

went, and thankfully, thank God, I've never been

to a Shake Shack. There are no Shake Shacks here

in... Anderson, Indiana, where I live. But this

couple went to Shake Shack. They were at a kiosk

and this is going to be key for later. They were

at a kiosk and they went to order a couple of

shakes. I forget what size they were, whatever.

I don't know if it was large, medium, small,

whatever. But they ordered shakes. And it. went

through the whole process and it went to the

point of, oh, would you like to tip? And they

said, no, no tip. They are standing in the Shake

Shack restaurant at a kiosk. They are not interacting

with an employee. They are not asking for anyone

that works at the store's help. They are interacting

with a computer. They said, no tip. And they

said, continue to check out. A pop -up came up.

Oh, your total has been updated to reflect or

whatever it says about the fact that you gave

no tip. It adjusted the cost of their items 50

cents higher than what it was originally when

they added them to the cart. Who is that 50 cents

going to? Where would a tip go if you're using

a kiosk? That makes no sense to me. The second

video that I posted that hopefully all this will

be in the show notes in the post is about a guy

who went to whatever restaurant it was and they

ordered food again from a kiosk. And. Again,

said no tip or something, but where, where, where

would the tip be going? If you're not interacting

with, and I've never understood this. Like, I

don't think in my lifetime I've ever given a

McDonald's worker a tip. Like I've never done

that ever. In my life, McDonald's, Burger King,

like any of the restaurants that are either drive

through or or, you know, dine in like fast food

restaurant dining. Like, I'm not talking about

like Chili's or Applebee's or something like

that. I'm talking about Dairy Queen, Wendy's,

you know, those types of restaurants, fast, fast

food. I've never, as much as I appreciate all

of those people who work at those restaurants,

I've never given tips to those places and these

kiosks that asks, ask for tips. Where are those

tips going? Who are those tips going to? I don't

understand that. Like that makes no sense to

me. Now me as someone who doesn't drive and who

needs to use deliver like DoorDash and stuff.

Absolutely. If I'm ordering, let's say it's the

beginning of the month and I'm ordering groceries.

And let's say I order, for example, let's say

my budget's $150 for groceries. If I order $150

for groceries, you're damn right I'm probably

going to give that DoorDash person something

like a $20 or $30 tip because I'm probably ordering

at least two 24 -packs of Diet Coke. Those things

are heavy as hell. I'm probably ordering at least

two or three half gallons of milk. You know,

I'm ordering heavy stuff kind of thing. Like,

yeah, I'm going to take care of the people that

deliver to me. I'm going to take care. But this

is something that is not that. This is not that

kind of thing. This is a thing going in and ordering

from a computer yourself. This is essentially

self -service. This is not. oh, hey, pull up

to the gas station and have the attendant pump

your gas and then tip the attendant. That's not

what this is. Thoughts? So I used to work at

Little Caesars, obviously, and we used to put

out a tip jar, but it was separate. It was like

an optional thing. It was like, do you feel like

tipping us? I mean, there was a jar. It wasn't

like... I do get sick of after every transaction,

something wants a tip or something wants a donation

or something wants. Or there's something that's

kind of unique that's coming up now is there's

called these there's multiple additional hidden

taxes in certain places like where I live. There's

you have your, you know, your federal tax, your

state tax, your. city sometimes there's county

tax you're talking for taxes there then there's

a developer tax because the developer owns the

land that the buildings are on yep and then there's

also a capital improvement tax so by the end

of it you're paying like 15 20 percent on taxes

just to buy crap at the store yeah and How we

operate, like how we operate when we go to for

like business oriented stuff and we have to buy

food. The rule of thumb is. Do you order your

own like go up and order your own food? And do

they bring it to you? Because if the answer is

you go up to a register and you physically order

your food, no tip. if you go and it's a table

where they come and they bring uh menus to you

and this doesn't count for buffets because buffets

are a whole different animal yep uh you pay first

and you sit down then you tip according to if

they do their job there's there's the the aspect

of you know did they come and bring menus to

you and serve you food if they do then that is

a typical purchase yep but if it's if it's one

where i physically like i go up to a register

at mcdonald's or you know domino's or something

and they're like would you like to round up would

you like to tip no i bought i came in i i bought

my food all you did was hand it to me over a

counter like that's there's yeah if they're if

all of these businesses are asking to tip this

much they're not paying their employees enough

yeah because they're essentially saying in order

to keep our prices low we're going to offset

the cost to you in a way that's not raising the

prices but we're making you feel bad on guilt

and peer pressure to pay for our employees wages

because we're too cheap to do it yeah so like

where i work we don't actually take tips like

we want google reviews instead we want like feedback

we want you know things like that now do some

customers sometimes bring like food or something

or like buy them a drink or you know like a coke

or you know a mountain dew or something yeah

that does happen but there's like we try to you

know give the employees like an actual benefit

of working for us like not right uh not like

this so yeah i i agree with this individual on

instagram that was like you know why, you know,

when did every transaction start asking for a

tip? So I, in this regard, I do agree with him.

I think that it's ridiculous. It's absolutely

ridiculous. And again, it would be different.

Like you said, it would be different if it was

going into Chili's or Applebee's or TGI Fridays

or whatever. And you got to sit down and someone

served you. That's, that's different from. going

into mcdonald's or whatever like you already

said but just oh it's just crazy it's just crazy

uh and then uh in this age of streaming folks

71 years later after 1955 to 2026 we must say

goodbye to columbia house anybody still owe them

a penny So we have from CBS Evening News, Tony,

I'm going to butcher his last name, Ducoupil,

basically said this. If you recognize this phrase,

eight CDs for a penny, I have generational news

for you tonight. After 71 years and a transition

from vinyl to tapes to CD, Columbia House is

no more. They once had 16 million members, but

streaming killed the mail order star. The last

date for orders is September 15th, 2026. So yeah,

Columbia house, the mail order vinyl cassette

and CD thing that you would, you know, you used

to see this on late night TV, like, Oh, call

this phone number. You can get. eight cds or

12 cds or whatever for for one cent and they

would have such hits as like you know daryl hall

and john oats and acdc and aerosmith and this

that and the other thing you can pick whatever

you want and it's only a penny but what they

don't tell you is you then have to buy like two

cds for you know regular price which are like

you know 7 .99 and 8 .99 each Kind of thing to

fulfill the contract. But, uh, but yeah, Columbia

house is, uh, shutting down the, uh, the CD program

after 71 years, a 71 years in business. That's,

that's not bad. Not bad at all. Thoughts. Yeah.

I, I remember the, the commercials on all the

time or the ads or, uh, just all of that. I'm

actually, genuinely surprised that they're still

around or were still around yeah me too even

though they were still here i thought that they

were long gone yeah me too absolutely but yeah

it's i don't know it's it kind of died off that

like i'm sure there was a basically a thing about

it that you know you owed money or you had it's

something like i can't see how this was like

profitable other than like gouging people well

so like i said the thing was the the advertisement

was like i said eight cds or 10 cds or 12 cds

for a penny you would get those that that first

thing you would pay your penny but then part

of the contract part of the deal is you then

have to buy two or three more at regular price.

And that regular price was anywhere from $5 .99

to $13 .99 per disc. You would have to buy a

minimum of something like two or three or four

CDs to fulfill the contract. So that's where

they would get you. Yeah, you still get the eight

CDs for a penny, but they would get you on, you

have to... buy additional ones at regular price

in order to and then they would get you on oh

because you're now a columbia house member you

can be actually it was like it was like netflix

dvds through the mail except you didn't have

to return them you actually bought the damn things

so you know it was kind of like cd subscription

through the mail but it was you owned it kind

of thing And on the flip side of the Columbia

House being no more, Spotify expands its AI push

with a chat GPT -like music assistant. Okay,

so first of all, what I find absolutely hilarious

about this is they expanded their AI capabilities

with their services and whatever. But also there

was a story a couple months ago where Spotify

basically nixed and deleted like thousands of

AI artists and music and everything else. So

they got rid of all the AI music, but they're

expanding their AI software and capabilities.

So when I opened my computer this morning and

I checked Spotify, it opened up and it. Welcome

me to Studio by Spotify Labs. Generate new, deeply

personalized content built around your life,

taste, and ambitions. And it says install or

next. And if you go to next, it says meet Kit,

K -I -T, your production assistant. Kit can turn

your calendar, inbox, bookmarks, anything you

choose into audio. Kit works in the background.

So your morning brief is ready before your coffee.

Topic explainer. Content on your schedule. A

fresh daily brief every morning. A podcast for

your commute. A study guide before every lecture.

Just describe what you'd like to hear and how

often. No, don't, and stop. Okay, so here's my

thing. I don't need a morning brief of an email.

Like, all these... newsletter things that are

like, Oh, would you like your news in a, would

you like all your news in a newsletter thing?

Or would you like all this in a, in an email?

Would you like all this in this? This is another

thing to me. That's like, Oh, would you like

us to all combine this into a listenable thing

that you can look? No, I don't. I want to be

able to go. I want to be able to get up out of

bed. get in the shower, have some breakfast,

come out here to the computer, go on my computer

and actually do the research myself and look

for things myself and actually use my mother

flipping brain myself. I don't want to have the

artificial intelligence. Just no, no. Like, I

don't want to have to have a podcast made by

Spotify that has combined all of my information

from my computer that I have to now listen to

it. I want to actually find the things on my

own so I can find exactly what I want because

I know the AI is not going to find exactly what

I need. Hell, half the time, the Google search

stuff with whatever specific search terms that

I use can't find, sometimes can't find what I'm

looking for. So I know the artificial intelligence

isn't going to be able to do the right job. So

why would I want this? And again, it says install,

which means Spotify studio by Spotify labs is

a separate thing. I have to install on my computer.

No. Why can't you make it a part of Spotify itself

that I already have installed? No, no, don't.

And stop. I'm done. Yeah. So I, so a lot of websites

actually utilize this type of technology as,

as it is like they have articles that are self

-created into audio clips above them. A lot of

media sites do it. A lot of review sites, a lot

of stuff like that that are mainstream. I've

seen it. I've looked at the idea. Could I do

it? Probably. But I like to work the reverse.

Yeah. I would almost rather use AI to analyze

the transcript, write a short article. based

off of the episode and link back to the episode

yeah because i want them to listen to the episode

yeah uh i don't know like i get they want it

like all over the place i do yeah but a i think

that we're we're getting to this point where

I don't know. I feel like it's just getting ridiculous

at this point. With the amount of AI that's incorporated

into everything, the amount of work that they.

The amount of work that they kind of put into

everything, like literally everything has AI

built into it at this point. Literally everything.

Yep. I. like our web host and our podcast host

or podcast host has it for reasonable reasons,

like transcribing. Yeah. Something a human doesn't

want to do. Yep. So that, that I don't mind,

but it's automated in that front. Like it's a,

it's a literally a tool. It's not like, and they're

very much about like human creators. Yep. And.

Then I look at our web host and I can't go to

and this is the same with any CRM or product

anymore is like they have a dashboard, but it's

an AI dashboard or an AI bot that wants to help

you with crap or it's like, dude, I know my way

around my web hosting. I don't need this AI bot

to help me. The only time I've literally used

the search and then it, of course, uses the AI

kind of like Amazon. Like it uses their stupid

Rufus AI. Yeah. Instead of just doing the search.

Like I literally hit the search bar on the app

or product and then it brings up Rufus and I'm

like, I don't want your AI. I literally know

what I'm looking for. So I guess that's kind

of where I get irritated with some of this stuff.

Plus Spotify was in hot water recently anyway,

and they're kind of backpedaling on it is. They

mentioned something to the degree of, and they've

since shot it down, but I think it's more or

less they got caught with their pants around

their ankles, to put it lightly. They tested

out a feature, feature quotations, that they

were going to allow you to skip ads on their

platform. However. It's like they were going

to let you skip like the dynamic ads or even

host red ads in ads. And YouTube's playing around

with this, too. So it's not an exclusive thing

because they want you to upload your feed to

their platform like Spotify host podcast. Now,

YouTube host podcast, like not just as a distribution

panel like Apple iTunes. Yeah. Or Apple podcast.

They they physically actually host. the files

too so they want you to serve ads from their

ad platform yeah and so what spotify somebody

found this bug where it essentially allowed you

to skip like came up with a button that was like

skip ad or host red ads and for baked in or dynamic

ads but allowed it to put a spotify ad and you

can't skip that damn so I was like, oh, so that's

fun. And so the entire podcast industry was up

in arms. Literally livid. And I was like, okay,

I 100 % with you guys here. Yeah. But it was

still was infuriating. It was like, okay, like,

how are these people supposed to make a living

on it? Like, I don't, but it's still the premise

of, you know. being able to do so yeah um but

yeah i i don't know the the space that podcasting

is going in right now is very difficult and i

i truly wonder what like todd cochran or people

like that would say if they you know like him

if he was still around what he would say with

the the state of podcasting right now i i don't

mind the ai stuff again as a tool I don't necessarily

want it as like a replacement for somebody telling

the news it's like I have my dedicated places

I check it and I'm not lazy enough where I need

my emails right to me yeah it could be convenient

at certain times depending but I don't to me

it would just be more of a hassle because I'd

have to switch between emails consistently yeah

so I don't know I'm I'm not a fan of it but I

guess to each their own there, there is data

that people just don't care to some degree, but

there is a lot of AI backlash, you know, from

everything to artwork, to creativity, to things

that, you know, normal people used to create.

Yeah. So I'm, I'm of the mind of, I would rather

the creative stay creative and the administrative

be the AI that, you know, facilitates things

because people would rather be the creator yeah

yep absolutely all right the power rangers live

action series is not moving forward at disney

plus yeah this was interesting yeah the project

written and executive produced by percy jackson

and the olympians executive producers showrunners

Jonathan Steinberg and Dan Schatz was set up

for development at Disney Streamer about a year

and a half ago. With sibling 20th Century Fox

as the studio, it will not be going past the

development stage. According to sources, the

reasons for the pass are not so much creative

than they are business, a .k .a. budget related.

Mounting a high -end live -action superhero series

of the caliber of Power Rangers is a major investment

to the economics of set, which are not as favorable

when the streamer and or the producing studio

did not own the IP, which is the case here. The

Power Rangers brand is owned by Hasbro, which

has been looking to get a live -action series

adaptation off the ground, with Netflix taking

a crack at it several years ago. Okay, here's

the thing. Yeah, Hasbro owns Power Rangers, but

Hasbro teaming up with Disney? Why wouldn't Hasbro

give them that money to do this? I think Hasbro

basically wiped their hands of it after they

ended the franchise. I think that this literally

is... Them saying, we'll license it to you, but

we're not going to do any of the work. We're

just going to own it. Like they do for Transformers.

I mean, they even outsourced it to Playmates.

Fun enough, I've been added to their press list

finally. I'm excited about that. I do like some

of the stuff that's come out. Like their Morpher.

This is the thing I love about licensing. If

the original originator of it or the owner of

the rights. Won't make something, especially

when they're a toy company. Herbie doesn't like

to make toys. But they licensed it to playmates

and playmates made them more affordable. They

have options and like they have the Zords. They

have, you know, the Rangers with the flip heads.

They have the, you know, the. blaster that turns

into the little dagger they have the morpher

the morpher is actually affordable for you know

kids and adults alike like i i got a morpher

my son bought it for me for christmas and i literally

i repainted it as a master morpher but that's

because i was never able to get one but i have

all five of the power coins and they kind of

were that dull plastic and i spray painted them

and i touched it all up but for 15 bucks it was

well worth it and playmates is even doing you

know a master like basically a legacy line or

like a marvel legends type of you know more of

a premium line of the power rangers coming up

and they're starting with the entire cast of

zeo and they're dumping them all at once which

was a gripe with the lightning collection where

hasbro would just dump random figures and they

were not even correlated to the right series

and Playmates is like, no, we're dropping everything

all in one. You know, here you go. Enjoy. And

I'm looking forward to the White Ranger stuff

because as a kid, like that was my favorite.

And so like I can own Saba or I can own the Tiger

Zord, you know, so. When when it comes to the

series, though, like the whole thing of it getting

canceled because of I mean, they're blaming it

on like a Matt Damon series of similar origin.

I honestly think it came down to a cost. Plus,

Disney, you got to remember, used to own the

rights at one point. And so they're like, yeah,

we know what's involved with this. Yeah. I don't

know. I don't know either. I just don't see it.

I don't see it coming to fruition anytime soon.

Now, there was that, what was it, Ninja Kids

or something? Oh, I don't know. I don't know.

There was like this this knockoff Power Rangers

thing and they did the MMPR and they had. Them

morphing into the characters and they had Lord

Zedd and Goldar and they actually it actually

looked pretty good for American made thing and

then. It wasn't actually allowed to be released

at some point and now it's like I guess there's

rights for it and so now they can release it.

I'm looking forward to checking it out. I don't

know how well it's going to go, but. It's it's

still the idea of them trying to do this is going

to be great. I just I wonder if we're getting

an actual reboot or if they're going to live

off nostalgia or I really don't know. Interesting.

Yeah, that's going to be interesting to find

out what that's all about. But yeah, the Power

Rangers series by the Percy Jackson people is

not going forward at Disney. So that's that for

that. And I just... Robin Williams' Instagram

account has been reactivated after 12 years.

So this is what... The announcement from Zach,

Zelda, and Cody Williams says on the Instagram

post, As we recognize what would be our dad's

75th year, we're grateful to see new generations

discovering his work, while longtime fans continue

to celebrate the joy he brought to their lives.

As technology evolves, we want... this to be

a safe, trusted place where the stories, photos,

videos, and memories shared reflect his legacy

with authenticity, warmth, and care. This is

our way of sharing his unique talent and humor

with the world, including the moments that made

us and so many of you laugh as we remember our

dad's extraordinary life and work. He continues

to inspire us and delight people all over the

world. Now, what's funny about this is this came

from Toon Hive over on X. What Toon Hive says

in their post about this, because that's who

shared the photo, Robin Williams' Instagram account

has been reactivated after 12 years, which is

what I put in the thing for our script. After

that, this is what they say in the same post.

His children revived the account to protect his

legacy from being misused by AI. Nothing in their

post that I just read said anything about AI

misusing his account. If his account was deactivated,

how is the... Artificial intelligence is going

to reactivate it and misuse it. So because it's

an Instagram account, uh, that, uh, if you don't

opt out, we'll use it for training data. Uh,

gotcha. Okay. All right. So they're, they, they

keep, and a lot of these platforms are doing

it. They're hiding the features in and they're

like, uh, it was, I follow a lot of this stuff.

I, that's why I asked you the question. So, It's

funny because the Twitch CPO responded to users

asking why the new feature that allows Twitch

to use live stream to train AI isn't opt in.

And he says, if it was opt in, nobody would opt

in. And. Because, you know, people are like,

why is it set to opt in to train AI automatically

without permission? You know. yeah and his response

was if it was opt -in nobody would opt in uh

yeah true and somebody was like i firmly you

know one of the comments was like i firmly believe

this is the worst era of the internet not even

a contest and it's like i mean he's not wrong

i i think we're getting to that point where everything's

kind of screwed and it's like do i care to continue

this road uh it's like because we're all training

ai and replacements and everything else at this

point it's like come on guys like can we not

yeah yep yep yep yeah but that's really all I

had for news I had one more thing that was outside

the news really but The NCIS New York teaser

was finally dropped, and I'm so ready. October

6th, can't get here fast enough. To hell with

September. So that's all I got for news. Yeah,

I mean, I've been paying attention to some other

stuff that's between, you know, technology stuff

with Windows, the castings of X. X -Men and the

D23 stuff. I've been paying attention to some

of the Marvel animated stuff with X -Men 97.

I've been going back and re -watching stuff.

I think I finished the new Batman I think it's

Caped Crusader. Yeah. I finished watching season

two on Amazon recently. Not too bad. Although.

I feel like there was a lot more filler and throwaway

in this season than there was in season one.

Gotcha. Gotcha. I literally watched the first

three or four episodes. I skipped multiple and

I watched the last two because a lot of it did

not seem like it mattered. And I was. I was betting

my assumption on it before going in. I was like,

I almost bet I don't need to watch any of this

just based on the description, the episode title,

who was in it, you know, where it was in the

overarching storyline. And I skipped them and

I continued watching and I was right. Right.

But it ended really well, but I'll be interested

to see where they go with it. How do you feel?

Cause I haven't watched. any of cave crusader

really i've only seen the trailers how do you

feel about hamish link later as the voice of

bruce wayne batman i he definitely fits like

a year one young batman like he doesn't fit like

a a kevin conroy like he's been in it for years

okay so do you think he has the potential to

get there no I don't think this I don't think

this show the direction is ever going to go there

because like they changed Penguin to Oswalda

Cobblepot. They've changed Harley Quinn's entire

design origin and they've changed multiple other

characters pretty heavily in this one compared

to the original. Batman, the animated series

stuff. Most of them look nothing like their original

characters. They've either been race swapped

or gender swapped or totally different design

or different origin. Like there's actual murder

in this one. It's it's a totally different beast,

but it shares the. Aesthetics of like later DCAU,

like almost. Almost akin to a mixture of the

animated series with the new adventures style

or Batman Beyond style, you get. More of the.

Late Justice League Unlimited kind of vibe with

it and like the Batman and Harley Quinn movie.

Kind of kind of that vein type of stuff that

Doctor Strange short that they had when I believe

it was when. dwayne mcduffie was alive when they

did the 75th anniversary of batman yep and they

had the batman beyond clip and then they had

the strange days clip this the strange days clip

is very on point for what cape crusader looks

like and feels like okay so i didn't i haven't

disliked it i've I've gone into it with an open

mind despite all the changes. There's a lot of

characters I don't care for, their personas or

whatever. But I think that this edition ultimately

will be one of those ones that people watch and

they'll forget. I don't think it's going to stand

the test of time that the 90s shows did or like

X -Men 97. But I don't I don't think that's true

for any show nowadays. I think they all kind

of just they show up, they fade away, they die.

Like you never really care to watch them again

or remember to watch them again. And I think

that's kind of the way that modern television

is going. And modern streaming. And so I don't

think that this will. It would be one of those

ones I would revisit maybe in like five to seven

years, but I. I don't think it's one that I'll

just rush back to or like find an episode that

I enjoy because again, it's all serialized. And

so there's nothing that's like a one off anymore.

And so in order to watch it, you have to watch

everything that preceded it. And that I think

is kind of the beauty of the 90s is in the 80s

was you had the message in a bottle episodes

of everything and you would have the overarching

story. But again, like. the message in the bottle

thing is kind of lost because everything is serialized.

So I don't think this is going to stand the test

of time, but I'm still watching cautiously optimistic,

but it hasn't been renewed for a season three

either. So. yeah and there was two years well

there was a year between each season because

the first season was 2024 second season was this

year was 2026 so and that's what kills these

shows too is the fact that we don't have like

it end in may or june and then it comes back

in october yeah What I find interesting, and

I might just watch this one episode just to see

how this is, but you got Wednesday Addams as

Catwoman Christina Ricci. That's funny. But yeah.

Now there is one show that I've been watching

recently that I feel like I'm eating a little

bit of crow. oh you thought it was gonna suck

didn't you oh i thought it was gonna suck hard

and okay wait before we get it before before

we get into that first of all we have to we have

to preface this just a little bit we are one

year away from it being the 20th oh god yeah

20 years since the Big Bang Theory first debuted.

And since the Big Bang Theory ended, we've had

Young Sheldon and we have Georgie and Mandy's

first marriage. Now, Stuart fails to save the

universe. And you thought it was going to suck.

Oh, I 100 % thought it was going to suck. I was

like, I don't see how this is going to be any

fun whatsoever. And then I've been watching and

I'm like, OK, this is intriguing enough that

I'm like, OK, where is this going? And I'm pleasantly

surprised every time a cameo shows up. Yep. And

how they show up. Yep. In some regards, some

of the characters, you know, die. Ultimately,

what the goal is of the entire show is to find

Sheldon Cooper, Leonard Hofstadter, and Howard

Wolowitz. That's the entire premise of this show.

And so in that regard, I'm like, OK, like you

got me because like we've seen a number of high

profile cameos of other characters show up and

even ones that you forgot were in the original

show. And then you're like, oh, yeah, I remember

they used to, you know, be here in this show

at this point. But. It's been. Very. Different.

And fun. at the same time, which I'm now I'm

like, where's the next episode, which doesn't

happen often for me. Yeah, exactly. The next

episode will happen August 20th, 27th, September

3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th. So this has 10 episodes

for the first season. We're four episodes in.

I. I'm okay with Stuart, Bert, and Denise. I

still don't like Kripke. I've never liked Kripke.

Like, I don't hate the character, but oh my God,

sometimes he is the most annoying character,

especially now that he's not. up against the

regular big like he's not up against sheldon

he's he's with these cast of this cast of characters

i'm just like oh my god like please stop um but

no i i had seen the trailers for the show and

i'm like oh cool i think my favorite thing about

this besides all the the funny stuff that happens

in the show every title is spoiler and then something

Whatever the, like, episode one, spoiler, Gary

dies. Episode two, spoiler, Zach's in this one.

Like, I just think that's so cool. And I got

to say, first one, first show in a long time

that I have not hit. They literally tell us not

to hit the skip titles button. The main titles

in this are so cool. I absolutely like, I haven't

wanted to actually watch a main title sequence

on a show in probably 25 years. Like actively

pay attention to the main titles on a comedy,

on a live action comedy show, because you know,

if you want, like, especially after you watch

the first episode, like you take the big bang

theory, the big bang theory. It's the song. It's

them. They very rarely changed it, changed it

up in the 12 seasons. So, you know, it's the

song. All you really have to do is just hear

the song. You don't need to see what's going

on on the screen for that intro, because it's

the same thing for 12 seasons. Pretty much. They

didn't really change it up all that much, but

this, oh man, I was like, literally I'm, I'm

sitting here like staring at my screen, reading

what they're, It was so cool. So fun. The first

four episodes. Absolutely loved them. I love

the cast chemistry. I, I think the show has something

for everybody. Like you got technology episodes.

You got Matt, like episode three, Bert is magic.

Like that's the whole. Harry Potter and. all

that stuff and everything else it's a whole wizard

world and whatever and you know episode four

stewart makes a wallet like um like seeing amy

farrah fowler and then i was like oh wow that's

a completely different version of amy yikes or

raj yeah seeing seeing raj was crazy but it's

just no stewart fails to save the universe might

be one of the coolest comedies of this year i

i do have to agree i'm i'm i'm quite surprised

and like i said that doesn't happen like it literally

doesn't happen like i'm i'm one of those people

that i don't really pick up new shows anymore

and i'm kind of like okay like x -men 97 is done

until next year i'm watching strange new worlds

and that's almost done and then there's this

and i'm like okay like you got me i'll continue

watching so yeah i i'm i'm pleasantly surprised

with it i i think so far i would give it probably

like a four out of ten just because there's a

couple of annoying stuff and crypt key is kind

of annoying but yeah um but i i do genuinely

enjoy it and i was like okay like i'm i'm gonna

watch it yeah i mean outside of it so yeah i

binged it too like literally i said like i sat

here and watched all four at once i was like

okay i just need to keep This is going to be

so stupid, but I'm going to reference Clerks

2. Why are you staring at that? It's a donkey

show. I can't look away. Like, literally, it

was like the donkey show scene out of Clerks

2. Like, I just couldn't. And again, it was fun.

It was funny. It was cool. It was interesting.

It was like, oh, Stuart from another universe.

And then Denise. kept either following him or

it was a different Denise or it was blah, blah,

blah, blah. And all these mysterious things kept

happening. And yeah, crib key was a little bit

annoying. So blah, blah, blah. I would probably

give it like a three out of five on our GCR universal

rating system scale. Cause it has room to grow.

But overall, I'm very much enjoying it. I almost

wish we saved this till next week so we could

do a five and five review. But since this is

only four episodes in, but so we could do half

and half. But no, Stuart fails to save the universe.

Like I said, it's one of the most fun and funny

shows, at least that I've seen so far this year

out of the stuff that I've watched that. Has

happened in 2026. Yep, yep, yep. So I think that

about rounds this episode out. I don't know about

you. I think so. I'm trying to think there's

anything else. I don't think there is anything

else. No, I think that's it. Yeah, I think it's

it. All righty. So thank you as always for listening

to. Altered Geek. What happens when you drink

right before you speak. And you can comment on

this episode on the GCRN dot com. You can find

the episode post there. You can also comment

on our discord channel. And find it on any of

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