GCRN Retro – 2002: TV, Movies, Games, Music, and More

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sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight. Thank

you. This is GCRN Retro. Hello, everybody. It's

good to see that you found your way back to us

once again as we travel through time and find

ourselves today in the year 2002. We've traveled

back 10 years. to discover what great things

2002 had to offer. We call this GCN Retro, and

with me on our second voyage is... Your ass or

hole in the ground. Also known as Steve Megatron

Phillips. Yes. Empty of you and Mike. Good day

to you. So let's start with Mike, because that's

a fun place to start. Where were you, sir, in

2002? I was living in Massachusetts again for

the first time in nearly 10 years. Long story

short, I moved here to Kentucky in 93 and by

2001, March of 2001, I was living back in Massachusetts.

So I was up in Massachusetts, back in my hometown

with all the awesome Boston sports that we had.

Of course, the awesomeness doesn't actually start

until... 2004, when we broke that 86 year streak,

but anyway. No, I was up in Massachusetts, I

had been renting from multiple different people

from 2001 into 2002, because the rental market

up there is just out of this world. Even back

then, I'm sure now it's really horrible up there,

but that's because the cost of living up there

is so much higher. At the time, in 2002, I think

I was paying... $300 a month to rent a room in

a house and I had you know kitchen access and

laundry access and all that stuff, but now room

rentals are like 200 bucks a week maybe It's

it's real the cost of it It's because the pay

rate and all that stuff up there is so much higher

than anywhere else well unless Cal, you know,

unless you count like California stuff like that,

but I was up there, I tried living with my mom

for a while. That didn't work out. Found my own

little, like I said, room to rent and worked

at Walmart for the first time ever. I think I

spent three days at that job. That's a pretty

long time. For Walmart, yeah. Usually their employees

only last about a day and a half. If they're

like you. Salesman that hates my day. I hate

my job. I don't want to go outside and push cars

around. Yeah At least I have a job Bada -bing

Steve on that note. Where were you in 2002? I

was in 10th grade in high school Yes, so and

you can't laugh blanchard my most memorable time

that year Was hmm seeing spider -man that year

so nice I Was you were a sophomore in high school?

I was a sophomore in college nice. I was finishing

up my Let's see spring semester of my sophomore

year and then in the fall I would have started

my junior year college so I was down in Champaign,

Illinois going to the University of Illinois

and enjoying it and having fun and learning so

that's where I was and then and When I wasn't

at school during the summer of that year, I would

have been working at Target. Let's see, that

would have been my fourth year there. Awesome.

So, that's where I was in 2002. Alright, let's

get right into our first topic. Let the game

begin. Once it gets under your skin, no matter

what you call hero, it's gonna get sold. You

will be hooked. Focus it down! Tap into the series

on Entertainment Weekly's Top 10 list. And the

critics agreed. The Wire is one of the year's

best. These guys are good. They're deep. They're

organized. Terrifically written and acted. Amazing.

A whole new world to TV. You can't show no witness.

No show packing more gut punches. I'm a warhound,

bro. One brutality case at a time. A drama the

likes of which we had never seen. It's not tape.

That's live, brother. It's live? The Wire. Catch

the encore presentation of the entire first season.

What is it? This is from Dr. Cordain. Mark died

this morning. So keeping the same order that

we had in our last retro episode, we will start

with TV shows of 2002. We're going to give you

a few just quick facts. We'll talk about some

debuts, some endings, and get into a little bit

of what our favorite shows are, what we were

watching in 2002. A few interesting points here.

This will be one I just put in here so Mike would

be upset. The yes network was launched in New

York City and the rest of the tri -state New

York area for those of you that don't know That's

like the channel that shows all the Yankees games

and all that other stuff That was just a dig

at the Boston Red Sox. I don't know why I put

that Don't even care. I mean, like, like, you

know, there's a there's a, you know, we'll get

to this when we get to the sports stuff. There's

a difference in me caring about the sports franchises

versus a fucking TV network that covers them.

It was because when I first looked at the script

and you sent it to us, I'm like, yes, network

with because I didn't even like I didn't read

fully. The rest of the description I just saw

yesterday I'm like what the fuck it was kind

of a big deal at the time because Besides like

some of the teams that are carried on regular

stations like the Cubs on WGN and the Braves

on TBS or whatever It was kind of one of the

very first sports networks to focus basically

on a single team But there's a lot of channel

stuff and network stuff going on in 2002. The

N, the digital cable and satellite channel aimed

at teenagers, which shared the space of Noggin

and then later split from Noggin a few years

later. So that was the debut of the channel,

the N. We had a first HD cable channel, Discovery

HD. I did not know HD channels were around back.

10 years ago. One more network thing, Fox Kids,

which was owned by ABC Family, leaves Fox and

is replaced by the Fox Box and one Saturday morning

was relaunched, known as ABC Kids. So there's

a lot of network affiliation channel stuff going

on there. Sorry to interrupt you sir, but Foxbox,

Fox Kids and Foxbox and then Fox Family and ABC

Family and all that stuff. It was Fox. No, I

know it was Fox, but now it's ABC Family, but

the Fox Box and Fox Kids eventually became 4KidsTV

is what is now on the CW, actually. So there's

been a lot of transfers and switches and re -name

things and stuff there. As far as regular show

aired its 10 ,000th episode. It's ridiculous.

We're gonna get into some premieres and debuts

in a little bit, but there was an interesting

USA Network. It was the highest rated cable series

debut in television history. Did not know that.

I watched that show too. I remember watching

that. Yeah. I watched it a little bit at first,

but I must have stopped watching it for some

reason. There was a big shift. Stargate SG -1

went from Showtime to what most of us could then

watch on the SyFy channel, because not everybody

gets Showtime. Right and I do remember this making

huge headlines and I watched this show in its

first few years And then I kind of stopped watching

it by this time, but er was just a staple on

the television channels and This was the year

where dr. Green played by Anthony Edwards died

and I remember this being a huge deal in TV circles

and you know in pop culture as far as Someone

who had been on that show for a long time. I

mean It just there was headlines about it and

they played it and drew it out like big time

like you knew it was kind of coming and That

was what that show was all about that year Yeah,

it's kind of sad that Anthony Edwards died in

1986 and he died in 2002 as well or goose So

he likes to die on TV You know Mike looking at

some of the shows that began that year any of

them Stick out to you as far as 2002 debuts.

Oh hell yeah I really I really don't want to

talk about a particular one because it's part

of my notes, okay? It's part of my like top picks

for 2002 So I really don't want to talk about

that until we get through the beginnings and

endings and deaths and all that but The shield

was one of my favorites eight simple rules, which

has a severely tragic history, right? Because

sadly John Ritter passed away Like during that

it was interesting that they kept going with

that show, right? Yeah. Well This is the year

that it premiered. It continued on and I forget

what year it was that he passed away. I don't

think it was the first year. We'll get to it

eventually. No, it wasn't the first year. Just

seeing that is what, without a trace, absolutely

dug into that show. I thought that was really

cool. As far as other ones that debuted, at least

out of the ones you have listed here, not really

because I was so much into stuff that had already

been on the air for five plus years at that point.

Yeah, I think the big one for me, besides Without

a Trace, which you already mentioned, and not

necessarily because I ended up loving this show

or watching this show because I didn't really

watch it that long, but to me it was a big deal

for the USA Network when Monk debuted. Like it

was like a new it was like the beginning of a

new chapter. It seemed like for USA I I agree.

It wasn't a chapter for USA And while Tony Shalhoub

was awesome on wings, I can't stand the character

of monk. I like us. He's he's just so A lot of

people say that the wire is one of the best shows

in the last decade and that started in 2002 also,

but I've never seen it I wanted to see it, but

I just I've never had the the inclination to

seek it out if it eventually gets up on Netflix

I may try it at some point but Any debuts for

you Steve that kind of stuck out in 2002 the

only one that I probably cared about out of this

group Would be the eight simple rules just because

I I thought it was funny, but the other shows

I didn't really watch a whole hell of a lot of

TV at the time because I was working Yeah, and

I think I was still watching whose line so that

was more so up my alley This wasn't as you'll

see when we get to my picks this wasn't like

a huge year of TV for me I don't think it was

a great year for TV in general, but especially

for me in college a lot of these shows just didn't

Resonate with me too much there. There is one

show in there though. That is the bane of my

existence and It is the Bachelor because they

will not let those stupid shows die and my wife

likes that show so Yes, that is one show that

I cannot stand and that's pretty much I think

what really started kicking off. Yeah our Reality

TV block and I don't I don't have it listed here

because I think I was torn as to what section

to put it in, but we'll save it for a little

bit later. But there was also another pretty

big debut this year, but we'll save it for a

future section. As far as shows ending. shows

that came to an end. There really wasn't any

show that I was like dead set on watching that

was like one of my regular shows that ended this

year. There was no like sad farewells for me.

I think the biggest show to end in 2002, just

looking at the list would be the X -Files because

I think there was a ton of X -Files fans out

there, myself excluded. But I think that was

the biggest show that came to an end in 2002.

I couldn't agree with that. Yeah, I'd have to

agree to that as well. As far as these other

ones, I have no problem with seeing them go away.

I didn't care for any of them. There's only one

on here that I absolutely love and I watch reruns

of it now every night on the TV Guide Network.

And for those of you who follow me on Get Glue,

you know that I check into this show every night

at 7 p .m. Eastern. Dharma and Greg. It was a

show with one of your well. I don't know if he's

one of your favorite actors, but he stars now

in your favorite show, Thomas Gibson. When I

first saw him was in Dharma and Greg and it's

just this unique comedy show about this couple

that basically come from two extreme different

worlds and they love each other and everything

else and they have high antics and everything

else. It was just a really, really awesome comedy

and I absolutely loved it. Uh, as far as the

others, um, I don't really care. I mean, some

of the other ones just listed just so those people

listening can hear you. The other shows that

ended in 2002, stuff like Spin City, uh, Ally

McBeal, Felicity, Politically Incorrect for a

While, R -List, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, for

the, for the sci -fi nerds out there, Earth,

Final Conflict. Um, but that was alright because

Stargate Infinity started, so, I guess you could

trade one show for another. You know, I will

say for, for Spin City, I absolutely loved it

when Michael J. Fox was on it. And at this time

in my life, I was more so understood a new Charlie

Sheen as a movie star, not a television star.

So when he joined the cast, I was like, I'm done

with this. When Michael J. Fox left... He's always

hated Charlie Sheen. No, no, no, no. At least

he wasn't winning. As far as some of the other

ones, we have to mention Felicity because if

it wasn't for Felicity, we wouldn't have stuff

like Alias, we wouldn't have stuff like Star

Trek 2009, we wouldn't have stuff like Mission

Impossible 3, because J .J. Abrams started on,

I don't know if it was his first thing, but it

was his first major thing that I noticed, was

Felicity. You know, Star Trek owes all its popularity

to a romantic comedy on the WB. No, it doesn't

own all of its... Not the Star Trek franchise!

There's nothing that might say that that stuff

wasn't... That stuff might have been made anyway.

Right. If they would have still made a Star Trek

film, it just happened to be... It would have

been like... It would have been the shittiest

film ever. Hello, Nemesis. Nemesis Part 2! That's

because Rick Berman hit his paws on it. That

was not the shittiest movie ever. Is this an

insurrection or the shittiest Star Trek movie?

No. Well, you'll have to wait and see. We'll

make a more determinate judgment on that when

we get to it in a different show. Yeah. Going

into, Steve, some of your top picks as far as

shows or what were you watching or what was the

best thing that someone could be watching in

2002? Well, if you had to watch TV Stuff that

wasn't recurring. Anyway, well, I mean that was

recurring that had nothing to do with really

2002 but I would say whose line is it? Anyway,

I Think Star Trek Voyager was still going on

at the time Not a hundred percent on that one

but I Didn't really watch a whole lot of TV,

but those those were probably the two that I'd

have to equate to watching besides the eight

simple rules. There was really for me only about

two shows that were new in 2002 that I watched.

But, you know, these other shows were airing

new episodes in 2002. And probably the one show

that I actually kind of liked back in this time

period would have been Boston Public. I don't

know what it was about that show, but it just

somehow. I enjoyed it. It got kind of weird after

a while with Hook Lady and whatnot. But I just

liked the show in general. It was kind of had

that. It felt to me like a show from times gone

by, but somehow modernized. So I enjoyed that.

I assume that I would have watched a little bit

of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire back in that

time period, because that's when it was like.

Huge. It's pretty huge. You know, Friends was

still going on. I wasn't a huge Friends fan at

that point, but I probably still caught it a

few times. And there was two shows that I didn't

watch at the time, but I learned to appreciate

years later. King of Queens being one of them.

I only watched in reruns, but that was going

on live at this point. And a guilty pleasure,

I'm not afraid to admit it. I do have a soft

spot for Dawson's Creek, even though I never

watched it when it was new, just because Katie

Holmes was hot. But Without a Trace was probably

my favorite show of 2002. Yeah, for me Without

a Trace was one of my favorites. As Steve said,

whose line was really big. As you just said,

Boston Public. Boston Public for me was so great

because obviously it was set in my hometown and

all that stuff. It was the first time I had seen

Chy McBride outside of playing Donny Astricki

in Gone in 60 Seconds two years earlier. You

got Jerry Ryan, you got Seven of Nine in this

series that comes in later. You got freaking

Joey McIntyre, a new kid on the block that comes

in later. You got Michael Rapaport that comes

in later. You've got so many awesome actors and

actresses that were on this show. One thing that

absolutely pisses me off about Boston Public

is And I forget which it's whatever the last

season was I forget if it was four or five or

six seasons I forget how long the show ran Fox

shelved it and they never ever did anything with

it. It just stopped airing They never gave it

a final episode. They never really gave it a

finale and that pisses me off to no end Because

it just stopped airing. I was like, what the

hell as I said a second ago Dharma and Greg I

absolutely love that show The guy that plays

the father on, Dharma's father, Alan Rations

is actually a couple of voices in Justice League

Unlimited. But for me, my number one show of

2002 actually premiered. It's what kicked off

FX's original TV series, The Shield. Was absolutely

amazing. It was the grittiest cop show I've ever

seen. It is, to my knowledge, the only, up to

that point, the very first basic cable television

show to actually say the word shit on air and

not get bleeped or delayed. Amazing, amazing

story about Vic Mackie, his family, and just

that he, as a cop, he had to make just some bad

choices here and there. He's not a dirty cop,

but he's kind of like a rule breaker. Think of

Vic Mackey as kind of like what Jack Bauer was

to 24. He's not afraid to break the rules to

get the case solved. And it was just an absolutely

groundbreaking show. Another ending, I don't

know if it ended, I think it did end in 2002,

The Pretender with Michael T. Weiss. I love that

show as well. That show was awesome as well.

Oh, I mean we each mentioned a few shows that

we like I mean if you're looking at the year

overall like when we were visiting 1987 for the

last episode I Had I had to narrow it down to

get down to ten like my ten favorite ones I had

like 15 or 16 I wanted to talk about this one

I looked over everything that aired in 2002 and

I came up with like six Yeah, it's the same thing

with me if I was to grade 2002 like as a television

grade for the year I mean it would not be very

good Well, see, that's the thing, as I said earlier,

it was more so I didn't have like new shows that

premiered. It's more so, you know, I'm sure once

we get to this, I'll talk about this, but like,

you know, Angel was still going on in the WB

because that had launched in 1999. You know what

else a diagnosis murder was still airing, you

know stuff like that. I mean, you know the What

was it? I even looked at all those I mean I even

looked at all the returning shows and I still

couldn't come up with hardly anything for 2002

It just wasn't a good year to be watching TV.

I don't think I mean there was a few things here

and there but for me Yeah, it wasn't that you

know, like a stellar year for TV. Yeah, I think

at this point in time with 2002 we were still

you know, missing full house. We were still wanting

to see more Fresh Prince of Bel - you know, we

were still wanting those 90s shows. I mean, it's

only two years into the new millennium, two years

into a new decade, and we're still hooked on

the previous years. Yeah. For TV. Well, and the

thing that sucks about it is that's really because

when all those old, wholesome shows were going

out, that's when Hollywood started getting cheaper

and either trying to resurrect dead shows or...

I mean, you can kind of look at, like... Or doing

reality TV. Yeah. And that's what I was going

to say. You can kind of look at the last couple

years of the 90s and the first couple years of

the millennium as like a transition period. Like,

we were shifting from the... 80s and the first

half of the 90s more the you know all -around

wholesome like Television like Steve was talking

about and then we kind of are using this little

two or three -year period as a transition into

what we still have today Yeah, I mean I'm I'm

gonna say this right now. I mean I didn't have

many TV shows I have more movies listed than

I do TV shows. Yeah, it wasn't a bad I have more

movies listed and more music listed than anything

else that we're going to talk about today. Because,

you know, at this time, I wasn't really, you

know, besides the shows we just mentioned, I

wasn't really watching cartoons that much. I

was, but I wasn't, you know. So, I mean, overall,

what did premiere, I thought, you know, did pretty

good out of the shows that I watched, though.

But overall, yeah, I would agree. 2002 was not

the best year for television. Well, since you

mentioned movies, I think we should, uh, move

on to topic number two. We're lost. I don't think

Gandalf meant for us to come this way. He didn't

mean for a lot of things to happen, Sam. It cannot

be. I come back to you now, at the turn of the

tide. Saruman's forces have begun their attack.

He is using Saruman to destroy your people. They

were unarmed. They had no warning. This is but

a taste of the terror that Saruman will unleash.

You must fight. I will not risk open war. Open

war is upon you. Whether you would risk it or

not. A new power is rising. Its victory is at

hand. It is an army bred for a single purpose.

To destroy the world of men. The hell's that?

Whatever it is, somebody has to stop it. Who

are you? Friendly neighborhood Spider -Man. I

chose my path, you chose the way of the hero.

One thing they love more than a hero is to see

a hero fail, fall, die trying. For over 70 years,

the Walt Disney Studios has won the hearts of

audiences with the most enchanting, delightful,

and lovable characters the world has ever known.

On June 21st, the tradition... Hey, that's not

Simba. His name is Stitch. No, you don't qualify.

My son is dying, I'm broke. If I don't qualify,

who the hell does? I've done everything I can

do, I'm sorry. Please. They are releasing him.

Now you need to do something. So I'll take care

of him. Do something! The hospital's under new

management now. Everybody does exactly what I

say, nobody will get hurt. More hurt. kid's name

on the donors list. This is gonna end up bad

for you, John. The police will do whatever is

necessary to preserve the lives of these hostages.

They're telling me I gotta take my son home and

watch him die. If you could speak to John Q right

now, what would you say to him? Bear with it

and take care of him. It's 5 .15, Mike. Something

happens for me. Are you pretty, little baby?

Yes, I'm praying, sweetheart. He's a good kid.

You'd like him. John is gonna bury me! Take the

shot. How's it gonna end, John? I don't know.

That's the building of our country right there,

Mr. Cutting. Americans are burning. I don't see

no Americans. I see trespassers. His name's Amsterdam.

The appearance of the law must be upheld. Especially

while it's being broke. A man who will fight

for freedom. There's more of us coming off these

ships every day. 15 ,000 Irish a week. A man

who will kill for power. Mulberry Street and

Worth. Cross and orange and little water. Each

of the five points is a finger. When I close

my hand... it becomes a fist. I've heard of these

crackpots. Subarctic temperatures will force

us underground for a million billion years. So

you got three melons? Hey, does this look like

a petting zoo to you, huh? From now on, refer

to me as Lord of the Flame. Hey, Lord of the

Flame. Your tail's on fire. You're a little low

on the food chain to be mouthing off. You say

that, but you don't mean it. and scratch. You're

lost, aren't you? That's it, you're out of the

herd. They'll answer the call of the wild. Fish!

And they'll boldly go where no mammal has gone

before. Hogwarts is no longer safe. The Chamber

of Secrets has been opened. So it really is a

Chamber of Secrets? Yes. McGonagall's worried

all that each saw. The Chamber is said to be

the home of a monster. You three had best be

looking after yourselves. Do you know anything

about the Chamber of Secrets? What do you want

to buy? Revenge. Ladies and gentlemen, it is

a great honor that I present the Count of Monte

Cristo. You know him. Have this plan. Take what

you have won. I can't. In return for your help,

I offer something priceless. You're no more a

count than I am a commoner! Emma! Why did you

not come to me? Why did you not wait? I can't

remember anything that happened before two weeks

ago. Jason Bourne was the government's top agent.

You stop right there! But he's about to become...

Out of control. I want Bourne by sundown. Their

number one target based on the international

bestseller. What are you gonna do? Buckle up.

Find it! Pull the trigger! That demon. I have

everything they put inside me. Everything I ever

wanted. All of it. I'm gonna make it stop. The

Bourne Identity. It was just before dawn. They

came out of nowhere. You have any idea who's

behind this attack? We will find out who's trying

to kill you, Padme. I promise you. Escort the

Senator back to Naboo. She'll be safer there.

I do not like this idea of hiding. Sometimes

we must do what is requested of us. Dangerous

and disturbing this puzzle is. You're using her

as bait. I'm a Jedi. A Jedi? What do you know?

Follow that speed up! He went that way. This

is a shortcut, I think. Anakin, how many times

have I told you? Stay away from the park, coupling.

We decided to come and rescue you. Good job.

So getting into the movies of 2002 since Mike

brought it up First we're just gonna talk real

quick about the the ones that made the most money

few awards and then we'll get right into What

we wanted to bring up each of us as far as movies

we loved from 2002 this now before I give these

numbers and people freak out and like Yell at

their computer screens that my numbers are wrong.

This is not worldwide gross These numbers are

strictly domestic which means the US and Canada

And the top grossing films as far as the United

States and Canada goes in 2002 was spider -man

with four hundred and three and One in three

million. Well, yeah, I assume that dollars If

you were going to do the worldwide one, it would

have been The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers,

which came in second domestically with 341 million,

then we had Star Wars Episode II Attack of the

Clones at 310 million, Harry Potter and the Chamber

of Secrets 261 million, and then my big Greek

wedding at 241 million. I do remember the hysteria

over that movie, but this is like a geek's wet

dream here in 2002. We got Spider -Man, Lord

of the Rings, Star Wars, and then, you know,

for the younger geeks, I guess Harry Potter.

I didn't... Go ahead. No, go ahead. I can see

why Lord of the Rings, maybe worldwide, would

have beaten out Spider -Man. Spider -Man, I guess,

probably has more of a U .S. drawing. And Lord

of the Rings is a little bit more universal,

maybe. This was also the first time ever. I'm

like 99 percent sure this is the first Star Wars

film ever that was not the number one grossing

film of the year it was released. Yeah. Here's

the thing with Star Wars, and we're not gonna

get into how crappy the prequels are or anything

like that. Because they're not. Yes, they are.

They are bad. Subjective. They have a lot of

bad moments in them, but they have some good

moments, but they're not, they're no Revenge

of the Fallen, I'll give you that. The third,

the third prequel is awesome, but anyway. Yes,

okay. I will agree there, but anyway. Here's

the thing about clone, uh, I almost said clone.

Attack of the Clones. Attack of the Clones. I

went to the theater, I actually have the ticket

stub, I don't know. Ever since I was a kid, I

always saved the ticket stubs. I have no idea

why. I have a huge collection of ticket stubs

somewhere in my apartment here. I went through

it about a month ago, and I actually found the

ticket stub of me going to see that crappy Phantom

movie. And I'm not talking about The Phantom,

I'm talking about Star Wars The Phantom Menace.

After that movie I said Fuck it. Even when the

attack of the clones came out even when I saw

the trailer I'm like, oh so we go to Anakin being

a little boy and All this and then we go to him

to being super emo in in attack of the oh my

god So I did not see attack of the clones in

theaters I saw it opening weekend probably. I

actually enjoyed it. But anyways, the point was

there's a lot of sci -fi, geeky, nerdy, fantasy

type stuff going on in 2002, which is excellent.

And I do remember Spider -Man breaking all kinds

of records that I think most of them have been

broken since. I saw that at the debut. That was

badass. I have a story about that later, actually.

So those are the top money makers as far as like

the critical acclaim, as far as awards go. Remember

this is before we had 10 nominees for best picture

in the Oscars. There was just five usually back

then and it was films like Chicago, Gangs of

New York, The Hours, Lord of the Rings and then

The Pianist. And then as far as animated films,

I didn't, we didn't talk about this at all really

too much in our last episode. I thought I'd bring

this up even though I don't necessarily love

any of these, but the animated films we had like

spirited away. The very first Ice Age, the first

Lilo and Stitch, Spirits Down into the Cimarron

and Treasure Planet were some of the animated

films. Not a huge fan of any of those, but I

just thought I'd bring those up. The only piece

that went under the animated is Treasure Planet.

Yeah. I've never seen most of these. Well, I've

seen Ice Age and Lilo and Stitch. The other two

I have not seen. I like the Lilo and Stitch series

of films and the actual cartoon series. I thought

that was kind of cool. I kind of liked Ice Age.

I mean, I get tired when they're on like number

365 or whatever. Well, I mean, Dennis Leary as

a freaking, you know, saber -toothed tiger. You

can't get any better than that than Dennis Leary

as a saber -toothed tiger. And as far as like,

and this is interesting because we're talking

about this 10 years ago. You know Ice Age 4 is

coming out, I think it's number 4 is coming out

this year. 10 years later we're on the fourth

one. And I know another movie that's coming out

this year has nothing to do with 2002, but there's

another sequel for Madagascar coming out in 2002.

And if you just took the initial original Madagascar

and put it against Ice Age, I think Ice Age blows

it away. To me Ice Age was a fun entertaining

movie. Was it the best animated film I've ever

seen? No, but... You know, it was a good start

to that franchise, so I'll give it credit for

that. But like I said, none of these were ones

I was like dying to see. For me with Madagascar,

the only really good thing that came out of that

was The Penguins. Yeah, The Penguins are good,

and The Penguins of Madagascar is a good series.

The Penguins themselves are good. And maybe the

sequels were better. I've never seen the sequel

because the first one to me was so bad. Yeah.

But, you know, that's just my opinion. I'm sure

some people love Madagascar, so. Anything else

you guys want to talk about before we get into

as far as awards go or money or anything before

we get into our favorite movies of the year?

I would like to bring up an anniversary. Go for

it. Let's see, let me just make sure my math

is right actually. Sorry about this, you know,

the process of radio or whatever. Which movie

are you talking about? Yeah, no, well radio podcasting

and interrupting a show and trying to figure

out math. No, which movie are you talking about?

2002 is the 40th anniversary of James Bond. Ah.

So I'll talk about that a little bit later with

my picks but Steve, why don't you go first with

your movie picks? Well, I have a lot of them

We all have a lot of them. Yes. I'm gonna wait

and see if there's any left by the time you guys

Well, one of my favorite movies of the year was

spider -man of course because I went saw that

in the theater Lord of the Rings the two towers.

I actually did not see this in theater. I actually

saw it in my skill center class, I believe. The

teacher ripped it and we watched it in class.

So that was quite interesting. That was my first

exposure was the second film. And of course,

I had to go see the first one after that. So

yeah, good trilogy. I had seen some of the other

ones that they were pretty good were like Signs,

John Q, Resident Evil, The Rookie. the only Modern

National Lampoon movie that doesn't feature Chevy

Chase is Van Wilder that came out this year Which

I that is the only one I like and it's because

of Ryan Reynolds portrayal on that National Lampoon

really quickly I will say the other one outside

of the Chevy Chase movies that I liked was senior

trip which came out previously But yeah, go ahead

Of course, you can't be a geek and not say Star

Wars. I did not see it in the theater, but I

did see it in the drive -in, so that still counts

as seeing it in the theater. This was a big one

as far as the Star Wars franchise, because this

is when we got to all the hubbub about Yoda.

We actually got to see him because they kind

of shifted how they did him, and we really got

to see him Go bat shit crazy and kick some ass.

Oh, yeah that lightsaber fight was badass Get

to see the Wookiees. That's true It's all about

the Wookiee And of course everybody knows I have

I like Adam Sandler films So, of course, there's

mr. Deeds and a crazy nights. I forgot about

mr. Deeds I have a crazy nights now, but I forgot

about mr. Deeds. Yes The the epic born identity

Yeah, the the first of the trilogy which now

they're starting a new trilogy without Matt Damon

in it. So it's gonna kind of suck. But anyway,

they're gonna bring him back later. Yeah as the

boss but Maybe the Santa Claus too and then rounding

out my my movies of the year were Star Trek nemesis

You're actually like that film not Star Trek

film. It was not I like all the Star Trek films

bad or good I still like them The ones I cannot

stand are the the first and the fifth the original

yeah Frontier I I like nemesis now I it took

me some years to kind of get used to it I remember,

and this is the reason why I said Insurrection

and Nemesis were the worst two earlier, I remember

in 2002 the backlash of all the friends that

I had that were Star Trek fans that just absolutely

hated Nemesis. I think it's because the way that

the story went, I mean we'll explain that later

on an MWIRE episode, but because it did so bad.

They did not make another movie until 2009 when

they allowed Abrams to reboot the franchise Right.

Yeah, and for a while there we were getting a

new Trek movie every two to three years. Yeah

since all the way back to the 70s, so It this

one killed it officially What about you Kev?

What are your favorites for 2002? This is the

easiest section for me to do when it comes up

in these episodes because I've already Ranked

my top 10 and every year going back for like

decades So I just have to pull out my binder

and my list master. Yes My 10th favorite film

of the year was one hour photo just because that

was a new creepy portrayal from Robin Williams

and I love Robin Williams, and I had never really

seen this side of him, and I thought it was kind

of cool, even though it was creepy. My ninth

best one was about Schmidt with Jack Nicholson,

and then I had Insomnia. Those three, I don't

know, there's something about those three that

I kind of liked, and then it kind of goes into

some that have been mentioned. Born Identity,

that's just, we're experiencing two of maybe...

The top ten or top five trilogies of all time

I think with born identity and then the second

Lord of the Rings Because so many trilogies cannot

stay solid for three movies There's always one

movie that like fails and to me all of the borns

have hit and all the Lord of the Rings hit so

Got to give credit to the first of the born identity

or the born series John Q Denzel was great in

this I watched that one. I don't know why but

I I think I watched it at least twice in the

theater. Spider -Man, like you guys mentioned.

I do have four that have not been mentioned that

I'd like to bring up, but Road to Perdition with

Tom Hanks was a pretty good mobster gangster

type kind of old school one. Catch Me If You

Can, even though I don't like Leonardo DiCaprio.

I thought it was a really interesting story how

they told that. Yeah, I thought it was interesting.

I'm not a huge fan of him, but he usually ends

up in somewhat decent movies. Yeah. That's not

a coincidence. My top two films of the year for

me were Gangs of New York, and that's the history

person in me. Daniel Day -Lewis kicked ass in

that movie. Isn't Leo also in that too? Liam

Neeson, and yeah. And then Count of Monte Cristo

is my favorite movie of the year. I know a lot

of these are kind of under the radar type movies,

but Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorite

movies of all time, and I've never watched that

with someone or showed that to someone who didn't

immediately turn around and go, yeah, that movie

was pretty freaking epic. And that's, of course,

with Jesus, Jim Caviezel. Jim Caviezel. Those

are my favorite movies of the year. For me...

I don't know if a lot of people know this I think

I think I've told you guys and you guys probably

know this by now But I'm not sure if a lot of

our listeners know for me when I'm in seeing

movies if a song during a trailer or if a you

know a single comes out of a soundtrack for a

film is what really besides seeing the actual

movie trailer for the movie itself is what actually

gets me stoked and a lot of the ones that I have

on my list. I have two things that I've only

done ever once on this list. You guys already

mentioned The Rookie, I absolutely love that.

You know, I just really like Dennis Quaid as

an actor and I thought he did really well in

that movie. Born Identity, what more can be said

about it? I think the new Trilogy or whatever

they're doing now might be kind of cool because

they're using Jeremy Renner And he's like a big

star at this point now or not huge, but he's

he's getting to stardom You know going back to

SNL and and the 90s and everything else you have

Dana Carvey in the master of disguise This is

what you're doing. This is what I want you to

do any questions Triple X, I like that just because

it's a no -nonsense action blockbuster. Just

turn your brain off and just watch it and enjoy

it. I didn't really get an appreciation for this

next one until a few years later, but The Transporter

came out this year with Jason Statham. Steve

mentioned 8 Crazy Nights and I mean, you know,

Adam Sandler playing like 20 different animated

characters. How can you go wrong? The Time Machine

was one of those just completely out there movies

to me. I thought it was good, I liked it, but

it was just so wacky. Impostor with Gary Sinise.

I really liked that movie even though it was

kind of an alien based type deal. you know people

might say oh you're being girly when i say this

but i really enjoyed walked a walk to remember

simply because of the soundtrack that it had

and the story that it told uh and then the other

big one As I said earlier, the 40th anniversary

of James Bond would Die Another Day with Madonna

singing the theme song. You had Pierce Brosnan

in his last role as James. People can say Die

Another Day sucks, and it might suck. But again,

for me, it was ever since 1995 when Brosnan came

in as Bond and they launched GoldenEye. The whole

Brosnan era is what really reinvigorated my love

for the James Bond movies. And while Die Another

Day is not the best one ever, it's not the absolute

worst one ever either. The two firsts for me

in 2002, first time I ever walked out of a theater

was when I went to go see Birthday Girl with

Nicole Kidman. That was a weird ass movie. Never

even saw that. Yeah, it's weird as hell. Uh,

and the other first for me was Spider -Man, because

at the time, I get into a fight with my girlfriend

and I got so pissed that I just went up to the

movie theater. It was May 3rd. It was the, you

know, the release day. I bought one ticket. I

ended up staying to the theater till late night.

I saw it six times on opening day. Once paid

and five times for free. Holy crap. Yup, I loved

that movie so much back then, I saw it six times

on the day it released. That's ridiculous. And

the thing about Spider -Man, if Spider -Man and

the Spider -Man soundtrack never happened, Theory

of a Dead Man would not be where they are today,

because their very first single, Invisible Man,

was on the soundtrack. No, no, no, yes, yes,

you are correct, I'll get to that in a second,

but... Theory of a Dead Man outside of their

association with Chad Kroger and Jodie Scott

on Hero, their very first single, Invisible Man,

the Spider -Man soundtrack was the only place

you could hear it until later in the year when

their album released. And yes, Hero was the track

that Tyler Conley, the lead singer, played backup

guitar. on it with Chad Kroger singing and Josie

Scott singing Hero, and Hero was a huge song

that year. Michael doesn't know anything about

Theory of the Dead Man, if you can't tell. Yes,

I do. I was just kidding. You're talking like

a kind of sewer there. Damn right. I basically

have a degree in them. I've followed them their

entire career. Yeah, sewer. Shut up. That was

the right word. It's been a kind of an interesting

ride so far in 2002. We've had some bumpiness

with the TVs, a lot of good stuff with movies,

and it's about to get bumpy again because we're

about to head into a new section. Not just cartoons!

We're Nectones! Arnold, Helga, Phoebe, Gerald,

Sid, Grandpa, Stinky, Harold, Spongebob, Patrick,

Sandy, Keep the Krabby Patties handy, Squidward,

Tito, Twister, Reggie, Rocket, Otto's sister,

Ginger, Hoodsy, Carl, Macy, Junior, High School,

Life is crazy! Not just cartoons! We're Nectones!

Not just cartoons! We're Nectones! Not just cartoons!

We're Nectones! Grandma sings, Pelswick rolls,

Cat and Dog have separate bowls, Invaders him

and Mrs. Bitter's giving Div a case of jitters,

Jun and Henry, Baby Dill, Angelica and Phil and

Lil, Susie, Kimmy, Chucky, Tommy, all the - their

daddies and their mommies. Overlord of Eden!

A hero shall emerge to protect Eternia. You shall

be transformed into a great warrior! By the power

of Grayskull! Masters of the universe all. Alright

next up on our tour of 2002 we're visiting the

world of animation with the best and worst cartoons

that 2002 had to offer. Just a few notes before

we get into our picks and whatnot. Cartoon Network

celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2002. And

it does so by airing a 16 -hour marathon of the

Looney Tunes. Awesome. This was back before Cartoon

Network. Correct. Was lame. Back before it went

adult only network. Yeah. This was a milestone

for the Simpsons in 2002 because the animation

changed from cell animation to digital ink and

paint. So the animation aficionados out there

should appreciate that. No pun intended. And

Nicktoons Network debuted in 2002, which later

would drop the network and just be Nicktoons.

So more channel and stuff like that. But just

before we get into our picks, I'm going to preface

this with saying that 2002 is not a very good

year to watch cartoons for me. I could hardly

come up with anything. I'll go first just to

get them out of the way good as far as recurring

shows or returning shows the only two shows worth

watching to me that were not debuting was Disney's

House of Mouse and Mike's gonna hate this but

the Family Guy those are the only two cartoons

that were not brand new that were worth watching

to me in 2002 and as far as the new ones ago

I could see somebody watching and liking what's

new Scooby -Doo even though it's not necessarily

my favorite version of Scooby -Doo But to me

there was a really 2002 in cartoons is about

one show in one show only and that's Masters

of the Universe reboot That is the only show

that catches my eye that as far as cartoons that

aired in 2002 Yeah see I was an ignorant 22 year

old back then and I saw like an episode and a

half of that and I said What I didn't have the

total dejection that I had with the crappy new

adventures as a 10 year old, but I was like,

wait, new He -Man? Okay, this could be kind of

awesome. And then I saw him and I'm like, wait,

what is this? And then I had seen like an episode

here and there, but I had never seen an episode

again until I got the DVD set a couple of years

ago. Now I absolutely, I agree with you. I absolutely

love that series. Now I do. Back then, I did

not even care for it, partially because 2002

is when Cartoon Network really started dicking

around with their action shows. And He -Man and

the Masters of the Universe, the 2002 reboot,

would move around days, it would move around

time, so you never knew when the fucking thing

was on. What else did you like for cartoons in

2002? Batman Beyond was still going, I think.

No, it was done in 2001. Oh, was it? Okay, well...

You're thinking Justice League. No, I knew Justice

League, but I thought Beyond at least went into

one more year, but Justice League got renewed.

You know, that was pretty awesome. Sadly, I've...

I was watching a lot of kiddie cartoons at this

point, stuff like Fillmore, Kim Possible, Braceface.

The only reason why I watch Braceface is because

Melissa Joan Hart was the voice of Braceface.

I also watched South Park and Celebrity Deathmatch.

As you said, I love House of Mouse. House of

Mouse was the most unique way to re -air old

Disney cartoon classics. and to have a story

being told about a cartoon nightclub, I thought

that was great. The very first Yu -Gi -Oh series,

I don't get into a lot of shows like this, I

don't really get into Pokemon, that kind of stuff,

but I was getting into the Yu -Gi -Oh series

at the time and I thought that was pretty good.

I haven't watched it since then though, because

I know they've had multiple other incarnations

that I don't care for. That's pretty much it.

I really wasn't watching cartoons back then.

I was more so watching TV and movies. This was

kind of one of the peaks as far as the time of

the whole adult swim cartoon network, the more

mature. You had Dr. Katz, you had Space Ghost,

you had Futurama, we had Family Guy at this time

as well as obviously South Park, King of the

Hill. This was kind of... when this was in full

swing as far as all those shows, Aqua Teen, Hunger

Force, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. I mean,

I didn't get into a lot of those shows, but 2002

was kind of the heyday of those shows. Sealab

2021. And that's maybe one reason why I don't

like cartoons from this year that much. I remember

catching, because I'm just scrolling down the

list as we're talking here, I remember catching

an episode of Happy Tree Friends and just being

so totally grossed out by it, but I absolutely

love the voices and the effects that they did

in that show for the voices. That show is stupid.

Okay, it is stupid, I'm not saying it's, I don't

disagree with you, but it was just so, like,

over the top. cartoon bloody violence that it

just grossed me out. I did forget to mention

or forget to mention that, you know, we're taking

a tour 2002 here and I was in college at this

point and this is when I mentioned Family Guy

but this is like the height of my Family Guy

love because in college we'd come home from,

you know, being out that night or whatever and

you could turn on and watch Family Guy and it

was like a great way to like unwind and after

we'd been out of the bars or out wherever and

it was really cool. This was though the year

that it stopped. for a while. This is when it

kind of went off the air for its little hiatus

before it would return. But I definitely remember

having lots of fun times with my roommates watching

Family Guy. And at the time, it wasn't old yet.

It wasn't stale by any means. So that was cool.

Steve, what about you for cartoons of 2002? Pretty

much, I watched What's New, Scooby -Doo, The

Codename Kittens Next Door. I watched Transformers

Armada up through like 10 episodes and then I

said hell with this And then most of it was just

watching a lot of like I watched Justice League

Futurama Aquatine Hunger Force Celebrity Deathmatch,

which is kind of animation Johnny Bravo South

Park Simpsons that was pretty much all I watched

that year as far as Cartoons anyway Now did either

did either of you guys watch Justice League back

in this time or was it not until later that you

watch those? I I'm trying to remember. Oh Okay,

no, thank you cat I Might have caught it wasn't

I didn't really know about the show It wasn't

like I was actively knowing about it at the time

But I might have caught an episode here and there

kind of like with the he -man thing as it's earlier

where I caught an episode here and there but

really when I When Justice League for me really

picked up was you know for? Because I was like

wait. What is this that there's there's DCA you

Batman and DCA DCA you Superman and then there's

all these other characters. I'm like This is

the best fucking superhero ever Yeah, because

up to then we only had as far as a superhero

team up cartoon with the DC characters. We only

had super friends and all that stuff. So I remember

the first episodes I ever saw like, you know,

really that I paid attention to was the two part

of the once and future thing. But in 2002, I

don't think I really actively knew about it.

I knew it was there, but I don't think I was

actively watching it. But it was pretty awesome

though. As far as like shows that made their

debut in 2002 not just individual shows but more

like kicking off like Franchises or or long running

and TV shows. I'd probably say the biggest debuts

of the year cartoon wise were in my opinion Even

though I don't necessarily watch these shows

but Kim Possible That had a long run adventures

Jimmy Neutron boy genius and probably Codename

kid kids next door or probably the three longest

running shows that debuted in 2002 out of the

ones that I can see I don't know Oh yeah, I agree.

And again, because of what FoxBox was doing at

the time, you had to... I mean, Saturday mornings

at this point still was Saturday morning cartoons,

at least for the ones that were watching FoxBox

and FoxKids and all that. But it was like you

had to watch the entire morning block to see

the one cartoon that you wanted to see. So I

ended up watching... Kirby right back at you.

I ended up watching Moochaloochah. I didn't really

care for either series, but I did watch them

back then. Yeah, but I didn't watch a whole lot

then, except for, like I said, Family Guy. A

lot of the stuff that I did see from 2002 would

have been in later years, catching it as I was

learning about them later on. But I think it's

time to pay the meter on our little visit here

in 2002, but we will be back after these commercial

messages. We'll return after these messages.

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Rated E for everyone. All right, we're back and

we're ready for our second half trip through

2002 and we are starting that journey off with

the world of video games. So the best video games

and things that 2002 had to offer in the video

game world. A couple notes that I found, this

is when G4 began broadcasting, which was obviously

big for the video game world. and a pretty interesting

I'm not a huge gamer but I do I always say that

I am not a huge modern -day gamer but I remember

this making headlines when on March 22nd 2002

the Sims overtook Myst as the all -time best

-selling computer game with 6 .3 million units

I never quite understood I mean I know why Myst

was popular I never could understand how it became

the best selling computer game ever. Even though

I think it's cool, I wouldn't have thought it

would have had as universal appeal as it did,

whereas The Sims, it makes sense to me because

I just can see more people liking The Sims, but

I do remember this being in all kinds of headlines.

Oh, yeah. As far as like giving you a snapshot

of. What 2002 was, for those that can't remember

where we were in the gaming world history, this

is when GameCube, the original Xbox, PlayStation

2, and Game Boy Advance were the systems available

and popular. So that should give you a reference

as to what we're talking about, GameCube, Xbox,

and PlayStation 2. A note real quick before we

get into our games on the top 10 grossing games

of 2002, starting with number 10, which was Super

Mario Sunshine. The ninth highest grossing was

Halo Combat Evolved. Eighth was Kingdom Hearts.

Seventh was Spider -Man the movie. Sixth was

Medal of Honor Frontline. Five, Gran Turismo.

Three, four, Super Mario Advance 2 for the Game

Boy Advance. Those darn Game Boy games always

do good. Then we had Madden and a pair of Grand

Theft Auto games. Yeah, GTA 3 was number two

and GTA Vice City was number one. I did not get

into Grand Theft Auto until a few years after

this. And I like and look forward to all the

games that the GTA series from Rockstar puts

out now. I don't, the only sports like football

game I've ever really enjoyed playing actually

was NFL Blitz 2000 for the PS1. That was awesome.

You could pretty much do anything and get away

with it. Working at Target, and I always worked

in the video game department and electronics

and whatnot, there was only certain titles that

we would ever have to deal with complete chaos

as far as people wanting them. Not many video

game titles, even on their release day, brought

in huge crowds, but Grand Theft Auto would...

there'd be lines at the doors. Madden NFL, there

would be lines at the doors. And the only other

game that I ever did that were some of the games

from the Zelda franchise. You know, literally

I worked there for 10 years and those were just

about the only and I think the one Halo did.

But like there it takes a lot for games to like

at a big retail chain like that to have like

the need for extra help to deal with their release.

And those are a few of them that all came out

in the same year that we had to deal with. Yeah

Anybody want to start with games they love from

2002? I'm trying to think wasn't didn't Metal

Gear Solid 2 come out this year? Well, did you

not do your research sir? I think it did. I don't

remember off the top of my head. I should know

this I don't think that game so much. I think

it did actually. I don't think it did anyways

For me this year it was PS2 games for me, it

was all about baseball games and it was all about

actually, you know, PS1 because PS2 allowed you

to port over your PS1 games and you could play

them on the PS2. It was really all about still

playing the PS1 games, Crash Bandicoot, all that

stuff. I absolutely fell in love with Kingdom

Hearts because it's... I've never cared for Final

Fantasy. I just have no interest in it because

it's an RPG. I don't play RPGs, but you know...

Kingdom Hearts is the only RPG I've ever played

and it's Final Fantasy characters meet Disney

characters and I thought that was so freaking

cool. As far as other ones that came out... I'm

not really seeing a lot that I really played

back then. No, I don't have that many. At this

time, all I had was a GameCube, because I don't

do Xbox or PlayStation, and I don't do handheld

anything. So the only games I even remember playing

from 2002 would have been Super Monkey Ball 2.

I, for some reason, love that game, and it's

a fun one to play with my nephew and niece. I

do remember playing Super Mario Sunshine a little

bit. even though I hate all the modern Zelda's

Zelda Wind Waker I played a little bit I do remember

Splinter Cell and a couple of those starting

to become like popular this is really you know

the first Splinter Cell one of the first SOCOMs

came out so those were those more like wartime

games were really starting to take off at this

point but yeah I didn't really play a lot of

games in 2002 I don't know Steve? 2002 I have

to agree as well. I didn't really do a whole

lot of gaming I had a Gamecube Which I had bought

new at the time And the only game I owned for

it like well that I cared to own for it was Super

Smash Brothers Melee Yeah, so that's pretty much

what I spent my time playing if I played the

machine I don't know how many games I actually

played that year. I mean, I played a friend's

Spider -Man the movie game But for the most part

all the other games I did not play anything that

specifically came out in 2002 Yeah, I just didn't

care for most and like I said, I don't like the

modern versions of the Zelda games I know they

win lots of awards and people love them. But

to me nothing has ever come close to a link to

the past agreed So they can do all their Ocarina

of Time and Wind Waker and whatever else has

come out. To me, they're not even the same game.

Skyward Sword. They like it up in the air and

hard and strong. At least when you play the newer

Mario games, it feels like you're still playing

a Mario game. For me, when they started making

these... I'm calling them the modern Zelda games.

I don't know what you want to call them, but

as soon as they started making the... It just

doesn't even seem like the same game to me as

the old Zeldas. I think by this time, outside

of PS2 stuff, I was more so going to PC games

because I was living with a buddy of mine. 2002,

I lived in four different places throughout the

year. I was living with a buddy of mine here

in Louisville and he had a PC and he had a laptop

and he had games downloaded on both. This was

my first exposure to the game called America's

Army. Which is actually what the army was would

back then I don't know if they still use it today

But back then they they they would use it to

you know kind of you know train the soul not

really you know in combat training but you know

working on teamwork, you know through video games

and I remember playing that I remember playing

battlefield 1942. I remember playing You know,

I've always loved There were quite a few PC games

that I hadn't mentioned, but it was a big year

for PC games. You also had The Elder Scrolls,

Neverwinter Nights, Warcraft III. There was a

lot of, like you said, Battlefield 1942. Yeah,

I've always loved, ever since the 90s, I've always

loved different incarnations of the Need for

Speed franchise. And in 2002 I believe it was,

no that's 2005, 2002 or 2001 was Hot Pursuit

2. And I absolutely love that game. And not 2002.

Huh? Not 2002. Well, it was one of those years

and going back to Metal Gear Solid 2 again games

for me It wasn't so much about what happened

in this year It was about what I was already

playing and Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty

came out November 13th 2001 But I was I loved

that game so much that I was still playing it

in 2002. Yeah In sports games. I love playing

like MLB the show. I love playing Triple play

and all that stuff. I love playing the baseball

sports games as well. That surprised me. I didn't

know you were a fan of those games. Oh yeah.

I'm a baseball fan dammit. I'm from Boston. What

do you expect? He's from Boston. Shut up. That's

why I'm surprised you're a baseball fan because

you're from Boston. Shut up. Alright so I think

that does it for the video games of 2002 and

it's on to our next topic. One hundred million

votes put you two here on this stage tonight.

I will tell you, it was a 58 -42 split. The winner

will be releasing the American Idol single and

walk away with an all -important recording contract.

America has made their decision. Kelly? Justin?

The winner of American Idol 2002 is... Kelly

Clarkson. from when I was And I got to know Next

up on the tour is the music of 2002. And I actually

have some more notes than I usually do for music

stuff. We're going to talk about a couple notes.

We'll talk about groups formed, groups that disbanded,

some top -selling albums, and then we'll get

into our favorite songs or artists or albums

of 2002, depending on how each of you have broken

it down. But first interesting note, and I remember

when this happened, Lisa Left Eye Lopez from

TLC dying in a car accident. I loved TLC back

in the day. I don't know why, I just did. Everybody

did. And she was my favorite member of that group.

Oh yes, most definitely. And when she died I

was like, oh my goodness, that's terrible. So

that happened on April 25th of 2002. June 5th.

We had the whole R. Kelly fiasco. I don't think

I need to say anything more than that really.

No, and really the only thing that I really ever

knew him for was Gotham City from Batman and

Robin. I mean, that's really the only song I've

ever listened to by that guy, so no. You've never

listened to I Believe I Can Fly? Well, I listened

to it when I was in the Space Jam. Well, if you're

going to mention Gotham City, you better mention

Space Jam. So that whole fiasco. And this is

the other thing that I didn't bring up in TV

because I wanted to save it until now. This is

probably actually, though, the biggest thing

that happened in TV in 2002, and that was the

debut of American Idol. Yeah. And on September

4th of 2002, Kelly Clarkson was the first winner

of American Idol. So this was a huge milestone

moment as far as 2002 goes. And obviously we're

still dealing with American Idol 10 years later.

Right. As far as American Idol, this was the

first and the last year that I actively paid

attention to it. Now. Over the 10 years that

American Idol are 11 years or however the hell

long it's been on now, whatever. Yeah. Because

I think this season they're saying, hey, it's

season 11 or something. I don't pay attention

to it anymore. But I've liked different artists

that have come out of American Idol over the

years, but I just can't watch that show. Well,

I mean, this was a big one because if the first

American Idol winner wasn't a success. who knows

what would happen with the show, but she's easily

the second most successful American Idol winner

of all time. The numbers might prove differently.

I would think Carrie Underwood would probably

be number one just based on album sales, but

I don't know, maybe Kelly Clarkson's still ahead

of her, but those are by far the two most successful.

So it was big that she won here. And then we

also had the moment, I remember this, Michael

Jackson dangling. Prince Michael the second Lord

off in the balcony from a hotel room. I Remember

though I can still see that picture in my head

and being like what the heck is wrong with this

crazy psychopath Yeah, I remember seeing that

on the news. I was like what a dumbass Yeah,

so I guess there's a bunch of negative music

headlines Lisa Lopez and R Kelly and Michael

Jackson. Oh As far as some groups formed in 2002,

the Arctic Monkeys, the Frey, OneRepublic, Saving

Jane, Velvet Revolver, I mean, those are just

a few that I kind of caught my eye out of a lot

that formed in 2002. I do want to bring up OneRepublic

and Velvet Revolver. OneRepublic specifically,

I did not know that they formed in 2002. According

to Wikipedia, their origin was 96. Well, I'm

sure all of them have like origins. Right, right,

right. the early career of the band started in

2002. They did not get famous until 2008 -2009

when Apologize was shown as a gossip girl and

all that stuff. So that's really when they got

famous. As far as Velvet Revolver, Velvet Revolver

is pretty much a super group of former Guns N'

Roses members slash Duff McKagan and Matt So

I'm alongside Dave Kushner, formerly of punk

band Wasted Youth, and of course, Stone Temple

Pilots vocalist Scott Whalen. So, you know, Velvet

Revolver, I liked a couple of their songs that

they did. But I mean, really, there isn't anything

here at this point that I have as far as the

the five or six that we have listed here that

are that form that I really care about, because

I did one Republic. I didn't even know about

them until 2008. So the fray oh my goodness I

can't get into that but there's one of their

songs. They're the ones that sing I never knew

right? I don't know I never knew and you can

literally take that song and just Put I never

knew and just say that repeatedly to the to the

sound to the music and it works It's only one

line in the chorus, but you can just continuously

say, I never knew, I never knew, and it works.

But as far as some pretty iconic bands or at

least known bands that disbanded, I grew up listening

to the Statler Brothers. That was just what my

mom and dad listened to. And so I have a kind

of a special place for them. And this was their

final run here, came to an end in 2002. Obviously,

they were pretty old by that point. Run DMC,

disbanded, Alice in Chains. At the country band

Alabama and then the death of the boy bands 98

degrees and in sync both came to an end in 2002

for a while at least for in sync. I mean, I guess

they may have had a few reunion type things,

but That's basically when they disbanded Yeah,

I mean 90 degrees I like them as you know After

this episode people will hear me say in in GCR

episode 32 whenever that gets released that I

really don't consider 98 Degrees a boy band because

they were, yes, they were advertised like that,

but they actually, you know, said stuff with

their music. They had a message in each song

versus... I definitely prefer them over X3 Boys

and NSYNC. Right, right. Oh, most definitely.

Like when I first heard Invisible Man off of

their original, their very first album, I was...

I was obsessed with that song. Yeah, that song

was amazing. I don't care who makes fun of me

for it. You know, I like you know, and again

it goes to soundtrack because this year was the

year I think it was this year again I could be

wrong because I'm not looking at it Mulan came

out for Disney and they had a song in that called

sure to your heart No, it did not come out in

2002, but that's okay. Well, whatever neither

did so settings are so far off but research but

no 98 degrees that you know that was kind of

sad that they're no longer together but I mean

you know bands and artists you know they will

disband and everything else and that's all well

and good and whatever else I mean they they had

their run so yeah as far as which ones made the

most money and top selling albums of the year,

we're just talking albums here. And that's why

that's there then. Number 10 was Pink, misunderstood.

Misunderstood. I'm not a Pink fan. Number nine,

Dixie Chicks Home. Number eight was Usher 8701.

Seven was Celine Dion. A new day has come. That's

unfortunate that a new day had to come for her.

Nickelback, Silver Side Up, Shakira, Laundry

Service, Britney Spears, Britney. Avril Lavigne

let go Nelly Nellyville and number one top selling

album of 2002 was the Eminem show I just had

to get this out of the way real quick. I hated

with a passion Eminem for the first part of his

career I hated him because of who I knew that

liked him The people that I knew that liked him

in high school and that my last couple years

of high school and in the college I just couldn't

stand that group of people. So I just associated

him with them and I was like, I don't want to

have anything to do with it. Yeah. Hearing him

over the years, though, I have grown an appreciation

for some of the stuff that he was doing and and

some of the songs. And if you ever just want

to, like, vent your frustrations or you're pissed

off at the world or at somebody, it's not a bad

thing to throw some M &M and like let yourself

vent, I guess. I don't know. The specific thing

with the M &M show was without me. Yeah. I want

to sit next to Christina Aguilera arguing over

who Carson Daly and Fred Durst fucked her first

or whatever the hell the line is. Eminem to me

is what Vanilla Ice was in the 90s. Specifically

in 2002, when he first started, when he was doing

those songs like Without Me and The Real Slim

Shady before he Went later in his career and

actually got made serious music. Those songs

to me in the early part of his career was kind

of like Ice Ice Baby was for Vanilla Ice and

rap and all that stuff. But I've never really,

his music is not something I listen to. I do

have several of his songs. His song, Stan. that

has Dido singing in it. I thought that was really

cool, I thought that was a really nice thing,

and I thought that was a pretty awesome song,

but he's just not someone I can listen to. I

can with some of his stuff, and like I said,

it's something that grew on me, and that's something

I couldn't stand at all when he first was on

the scene. Steve, what about some of your favorite

songs or artists or albums or however you want

to break it down for 2002? Honestly, I didn't

have anything. Didn't listen to a lot of music

back then. No, I listened to a lot of old stuff,

particularly Weird Al and, you know, Disturbed

and you know stuff like that Yeah, what about

you Mike? No, hold on actually they weren't even

on my list because they weren't I mean, yes.

Yes. Shut up. They weren't real. Shut up. Yes,

Silver Side Up was you know, top -selling album,

but it actually wasn't released in this year,

so I didn't really focus on them. I focused on

what was released in this year as far as some

albums and stuff. Me, going back to the 80s with

Hall & Oates, VH1, behind the music collection,

because they released a few unreleased tracks

and a few new tracks. Goo Goo Dolls with Gutter

Flower, you know, there's a couple good songs

off of there. As Steve said, Disturb, they released

Believe. There's a lot of good songs off that

album. life house with stanley climb fall there's

a lot of good songs off that album three doors

down with away from the sun i was so happy that

there was finally a new three doors down album

because i swear to god if i fucking heard loser

or kryptonite one more fucking time i was gonna

blow a fucking gasket and you gotta remember

folks this was back before you know iTunes really

took off. We were still in the radio days at

this point. I mean, yes, the internet was around.

Yes, you could go to LimeWire and crap like that.

Oh my God. What? Going through, this was the

time, sorry, I'm gonna go off on a tangent here,

but this was the time 2002, 2001, my first couple

years in college from 2000 to 2002 or 2003 when

the phenomenon was Napster and oh yes flipping

to Lime wire and scour and like oh, yeah, it

was literally amazing because in the dorm You

would be You know downloading your illegal music

because that's what everybody did This is when

people were getting thousands of songs, you know

downloaded on their computer and all this other

stuff this is before you know all of the stuff

that we have today and Literally, you'd be doing

that at your computer and then you'd go to do

it and you'd find out that whatever Napster was

shut down or you know Linewire was shut down

or something and it was literally a matter of

minutes Before throughout the entire dorm word

got passed on which one was next As far as what

service do I use now like it was like limewire

would go down and within two minutes the whole

dorm would be like Scour or something like that

and we'd be like, okay Yeah, exactly. Well limewire

limewire is kind of interesting because they

lasted up until last year Yeah, they finally

got shut down for good last year You had pretty

hard not to get a virus when you went on there

I think at some point. Oh yeah. And another one

for me, Saliva came out with their next album

called Back Into Your System. They had Superstar

2 off that album, Always, a bunch of other really

great ones. The title track off that Back into

Your System was a really good one. And of course,

as Steve probably mumbled it and made fun of

me earlier, Three of a Dead Man, as soon as I

heard that song on the Spider -Man soundtrack,

I could not wait for their album. And I'll save

this actual story. What happened for another

year that we talk about but i actually got to

see them twelve stones and there and three doors

down live in 2003 here in Louisville but when

their self -titled album came out later in 2002.

I absolutely loved the, I love all the songs

on that album. That is an album that for me is

front to back. Now I know people have said, oh

Theory of a Dead Man, they're just another Nickelback,

they're just this, this, that, and the other

thing. Yes, it is true that Tyler Connolly slipped

Chad Kroger their tape. And yes, it is true that

in the beginning, Theory of a Dead Man was on

a secondary label. for roadrunner called six

oh four records which chad kroger ran but they

are now a mainstay band of roadrunner records

along with nickelback and they are not they they

may have similar sounds it may just be the same

three chords as with all kind of you know cheesy

rock bands like this but I just really loved

their songs, and I have loved them since their

inception. Every single album for Theory of a

Dead Man, there is maybe only two songs out of

their entire catalog that I don't really listen

to. It's not that I hate them, I just don't listen

to them that much, but 2002 was the year for

Theory. Yeah. I kind of have a couple different

things as far as music goes. I have some that

are just like individual songs that I kind of

appreciated. For some reason, I kind of at the

time liked System of the downs chop suey. Yeah

I just I mean they overplay the crap out of it

on radio and whatnot But or in like workout rooms

or stuff like that. Oh, yeah, but I love that

song for some reason You can make fun of me for

this one, but Enrique Iglesias hero Something

about that song. I thought was kind of cool I

liked puddle of mud. She hates me My probably

favorite individual song of the year, because

I just hear the song that takes me back to college

was OAR's crazy game of poker, even though it's

like eight minutes long or whatever. It's, it's

just a cool chill song. Um, the best video of

the year. And this is totally just the, the male

part of me speaking was, uh, was Shakira's whenever

wherever video was awesome. She can shake those

hips. Um, As far as like albums or like groups

that I was kind of into at the time, like I said,

Eminem had, you know, cleaning out my closet

lose yourself and without me on his album. Those

were all pretty solid. I'm not a huge Nickelback

fan these days, but back in that time period,

you know, you had Never Again, How You Remind

Me, and Hero were all good ones from Nickelback.

I had kind of a guilty pleasure. I'd never really

like obsessed over this person and I never bought

any of her albums, but I didn't mind Avril Lavigne

in 2002. I didn't either. I liked three or four

songs off of that album. Yeah. I mean, the radio

almost killed it for me, but Complicated and

Skater Boy are fine. For some reason, I don't

know why, because I've never listened to any

album she's put out since then, but Kelly Clarkson's

original album is not that bad. You know how

they do the song every time when they win? Mm

-hmm. They have been trying for ten seasons after

this to try to match what they had that first

season Oh, yes with a moment like this It was

just somehow like the stars aligned and that

was a perfect song for her to sing when she won

and and it was And the free, you know ten seasons.

They've been trying to come up with something

just as good and they failed I like beautiful

disaster offer her the acoustic version offer

her album too. But as far as like my three favorites

for country, I really loved Alan Jackson's Drive

album and It's good from the beginning to the

end. And then I have a special spot for Good

Charlotte. They had the anthem and lifestyles

of The Rich and Famous and Dashboard Confessionals

with the best deceptions and screaming infidelities.

And I cannot not mention Jennifer Love Hewitt's

Bare Naked album. Or her Bare Naked music video

or her Bare Naked album cover. The fact that

I wish you would be bare naked My music thoughts

for 2002 and with that Well, I just wanted to

bring one more thing about Jennifer I don't care

what anybody says. I like her music. No, I'm

not I'm not disagreeing with you As far as her

music goes it was Actually a song off of the

I know what you still did last summer soundtrack

that I absolutely love called. How do I deal?

Yeah, I love that one, too I love that one. Um,

I love her second album, but nobody would ever

have heard of that one Yeah, that's that's true.

But Bear Naked was all right. There's a few songs

on that that were kind of cool So yeah, so I

just have thoughts of Shakira and Jennifer loved

you in your head as we move on to our final topic

Pepsi Blue, a fusion of berries with splash of

cola. Pepsi Blue, it's a blue thing. At Super

Bowl 36, there was a sense of patriotism and

celebration in the Superdome. When New England

faced the heavily favored Ram, the Patriots certainly

didn't look like underdogs. New England carried

a 14 -point lead into the fourth quarter. But

St. Louis came back with two big scores to make

this game one of the most exciting in Super Bowl

history. Before the game, Patriots quarterback

Tom Brady fell asleep in the locker room. But

on the final drive, the young quarterback was

living the dream. Can be the hero for the patient

The Lakers would make their final push. And in

the end, fittingly, it was their leader who would

deliver the knockout blow. When you talk about

great teams, you talk about the Pistons, you

talk about the Bulls, you talk about the old

Lakers. You talk about the Celtics, of course.

I think if you talk about these Lakers that I'm

playing with, they want to be mentioned also.

Every day I feel Like I'm lucky and blessed and

right now it seems like it's supposed to happen.

This is where I'm supposed to be every year.

I never take it for granted. I had never stepped

in a ring. They took a look at me and they just

saw a big kid who just turned 19 and had possible

potential. He's got a little bit of everything.

He's very fast, he's very strong, he's very knowledgeable,

and he's very willing to learn. Ah, he's got

the best drop kick I've seen in years. That wheelbarrow

suplex he does once in a while is a phenomenal

looking move. He's strong as a bull, but he can

move like a cat. And he knows how to wrestle.

He's got all the tools. In 10 years, I see Randy

Orton as one of the best wrestlers ever to step

into a wrestling ring. I'm Randy Orton, and I

need to set the standard for this generation.

Randy Orton, a legend in the making. Kurt doesn't

look impressed. Who in the hell are you? John

Cena, huh? Will you tell me what is the one quality

that you possess that makes you think that you

can walk out here and come into the ring and

face the very best in the business? Ruthless

aggression. Look at this monster! My God, the

size of this human being! Wait a minute! Look

at who's it ranks up with, Brock! Oh my God,

Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman, what does this mean?

I'm better than any single one of you can spot

the next - Double peeping! This monster! This

Brock Lesnar is scary! I think he is the next

big thing! And the Hardee's got a couple of weapons!

I've got two steel chairs! Lesnar's showing no

fear! Oh my God! Lesnar did not go down! Another

shot to the cranium! And Lesnar landed on his

feet! God almighty! Heyman, the Asian, has a

monster in his hand! Congratulations, my friend.

Your youthful curiosity has served you well.

And you will be rewarded with a nice vanilla

coke. I believe you'll find the delicate hint

of vanilla flavor alluring to taste smooth. It's

a beautiful thing. Thanks for stopping by. Jimmy.

Reward your curiosity with new vanilla coke.

Alright, our last stop here in 2002 takes us

to the land of all of our general and miscellaneous

products of 2002, some general notes, some sports,

and wherever else we decide to go as we finish

our trip here in 2002. Some interesting products

introduced. If people remember these or not,

does anybody remember Pepsi Blue? Nope. I did

not know Pepsi Blue existed. I knew Crystal Clear

Pepsi. I remember that fondly and a lot of other

things. I do remember Vanilla Coke. Everybody

remembers vanilla coke. That's still around.

I can do without it. Yeah. Let me just go on

a tangent here. Even today, I do not understand

why people want to flavor their soda. No, it's

like, you know, vanilla, chocolate, caramel,

all this stuff. Like, why would you want to do

that to soda? I remember back in the day, specifically

1997, 95, 97, people would, to get different

flavor combinations, they would mix Coke, Diet

Coke, Mellow Yellow, Pepsi, they would mix it

all together, and I'm like, how can you drink

that? Yeah, I can't do that, but I know a ton

of people that do that, you know, religiously.

Is it weird that our first episode we talked

about 1987 with the debut of, or the introduction

of Red Bull? No. And now in 2002, we're talking

about the introduction of Monster Energy drinks?

No. So interesting. So 10 years ago, yeah, Monster

Energy Drinks came on the scene as did the game

seen it 10 years ago. And since then, we've seen

what multiple versions, three thousand versions.

Yeah, I rock at that game. Now, I'm not saying

that my sources are a thousand percent accurate

here. I know a thousand percent makes no sense,

but. According to my sources 2002 was the first

time that Claritin became an over -the -counter

allergy medicine and also saw the introduction

of the robot vacuum breast strips and the birth

control patch now Maybe my sources are wrong,

but that's what they say the robot vacuum ten

years ago And I still don't think they do a good

job It's like have you ever seen any accuracy?

No, okay Well, there's this robot drone that

is supposed to vacuum the floor and it's so stupid

it vacuums the same section It says your floor

is clean And then the rest of the floor is filthy

nice. Yeah, it just seems like it's I don't know.

It's just a bad idea It's basically for lazy

people that can't I mean how hard is vacuuming?

I Mean it's seriously not that hard like out

of all the household chores. I would rather vacuum

than just about anything else It's not that hard

agreed To have like this robot vacuum just like

running around I don't know maybe in one day

when we live in the world of the Jetsons I'll

appreciate it better That's right. So those are

some of the products that we saw introduced in

2002 I'm just gonna go over a couple of these

general ones This is the beginning of Homeland

Security obviously 2002 being on the You know

aftermath of 9 -eleven still kind of Saw that

Kmart went bankrupt. There's a lot of stuff United

Airlines went bankrupt There was discovery of

water ice deposits on the planet Mars. Yeah.

And Rosie O'Donnell announced that she was gay.

Yeah. I remember that making some headlines.

Anything you guys want to bring up with that

or in sports? Yeah, I want to go to sports. Unless

do you have anything else you want to bring up

for General Steve? No. They have Enron too, I

forgot about that. Yeah, Enron. And they also

have, we can't talk about 2002 without mentioning

Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped from her family's

Salt Lake City home. That's true. She was found

alive in 03. And gas only cost $1 .61. I remember

those days. 2002? I miss it. In the last one

it was like 87 cents or something in the last

episode we were talking about. Yeah, yeah. As

far as sports goes, I have two major things here.

I know what one of them is. Yes, you know what

one of them is. You now know what the other one

is if you look in the Skype chat. But anyway,

for the WWE and the WW - Well, this was the first

year that WWF became WWE. Correct. The thing

with the WWF and WWE for me has always been,

since 2002, it has been about what rock group

is doing a theme song or an entrance theme song

for certain superstars. I'll have to have Kevin

put this in the show notes, but back in 2002,

WWF Forcible Entry, a soundtrack CD came out

where Creed had new songs, Disturbed had done

a song for Stone Cold, Limp Bizkit did the Undertaker

theme, Our Lady Peace did the Chris Benoit theme,

Rob Zombie did an Edge theme. Just a lot of really

cool cool stuff. Seven Dust did the Chris Jericho

theme. Again, I really love that soundtrack,

and that is what really got me back, because

at that point before 2002, I was not watching

wrestling. No, I had stopped after the NWO had

appeared in WCW years back, and this is the year

that kind of WWE rebranded itself. Raw, SmackDown,

the first draft as far as the... Wrestlers going

to each one of those shows. So this is really

the beginning of a whole new thing They got rid

of the European and hardcore championships Also

the newer version of what were what people know

as TNA Started and look at the debuts of wrestlers

some huge names started in 2002. Oh, yeah I mean

Brock Lesnar Batista Randy Orton and John Cena.

Yep If it wasn't for those guys, where would

WWE be right now? I don't know. Oh, exactly.

Well, John Cena specifically, even though he

is from my home state of Massachusetts, at that

time, he was not somebody I liked. Because he

was new and he was all about... I liked Batista.

Oh, I love Batista. I hated Lesnar. Batista was

awesome. I hated Lesnar, Orton, and Cena, and

I loved Batista. Yeah, I've come to like Cena

since then. But see, here's the thing with me

back in 2002. I liked wrestling from 2002 to

2004. I dropped out after the end of 03, beginning

of 04. I did not come back until WrestleMania

of 2007, and the only reason why I came back

to watching it again, and I've been watching

it since then, was because of Ladies and Gentlemen

by Saliva was the 2007 WrestleMania theme song.

So, wrestling for me in this era, in the 2000s,

it ties into theme music for me. Yeah. I just

remember being pissed off at the damn World Wildlife

Foundation. Fuck you guys. Nobody knows who you

are. Anyway. And my other big one before I let

Kevin and Steve go is, of course, Super Bowl

36. The New England Patriots win 20 -17 over

the St. Louis Rams. Something they couldn't do

this year. Shut up. This was, shut up. We're

not talking about this year, damn it. This was

the start of the New England dynasty. True that.

Of Super Bowls. They won it three years in a

row. I think it was three years in a row if I

have my New England history correct. Yeah, 36,

37, and 38. No, 36 38 and 39. Yeah, they want

a bunch back then Yeah, but this was the start

of the turnaround. They weren't playing the Giants,

right? 2002 is the start of the turnaround for

New England sports and of course later when we

get to another certain year, yeah It's going

to be even I'm going to even have more to say

so let's go to Steve Steve. Do you care about

sports at all? Steve are you awake? Yes, I'm

here. Okay. I said no, okay Houston Texans became

the 32nd NFL franchise In baseball the Anaheim

Angels won four to three over the Giants in the

World Series In the NBA the Lakers swept the

Nets to win their third straight title and that

was Shaq and Phil Jackson and all that The Charlotte

Hornets became the New Orleans Hornets in the

NBA That was so stupid. Maryland won the NCAA

basketball championship over the Hoosiers. Lennox

Lewis. Retains Boxing's WBC World Heavyweight

Crown with an 8 -round knockout over Mike Tyson.

I didn't know they were still boxing in 2002.

Lewis is lucky Mike bit something off. Interesting

2002 is when he began working as a commentator

for UFC. The champions at the time of 2002, or

at least the ones that held it the most, were

Tito Ortiz in different weight classes, obviously.

Matt Hughes and Jens Pulver. And here's an interesting

sports note for everybody. Ted Williams had his

head separated from his body and frozen. He and

his children agreed to each have it done so they

could once again be together at some point in

the future. Don't even get me started. So your

Red Sox grade is a crazy lift. Shut up. Alright,

2002 is also a big year obviously because it's

an Olympic year. So the Winter Olympics were

held in Salt Lake City and then the Associated

Press male athlete of the year was Lance Armstrong

and the female was Serena Williams. So that's

our sports notes. Do any of you guys have anything

to say about comics? No. Okay. If anyone out

there, we're looking at you JT from Saskaspoon,

if anyone out there wants to, you know, send

in a comics, you know, capsule or clip or whatever,

please do so for the next episode. Apparently

there are a couple big issues of Batman and Superman.

Well, and then, um... Dreamwave produced the

Generation 1 Transformers comics in 2002. Excellent.

Anybody want to talk about the top 10 selling

toys of 2002? Not really. Well, too bad. I mean,

we would talk about it, but I don't. I find some

of the toys in 2002. I found some of the prices

interesting for Yu -Gi -Oh fans. The Yu -Gi -Oh

collector tin for 20 bucks or so was the top

selling toy of 2002. A Rapunzel Barbie. I do

remember this being a hot seller. It was one

of the bigger ones. $17 Barbie was the ninth

best thing. 2002 is all about LeapPad. My first

LeapPad is number eight. That's 33 bucks. The

Star Wars Episode II basic figure assortment

was number seven. I have a lot of those figures

though. They were very cool. Spider -Man dual

web blaster. The Trivia Pursuit 20th Edition

version. Basic Hot Wheels cars were number four.

They almost always are in the top 10 every year.

83 cents. 83 cents. Bratz Assortment dolls. And

then the top two were both the Leap Pad and the

Leap Pad Books. So it was the year of the Leap

Pad in 2002 as far as toys go. My favorite toy...

It was the year of the occupational toy. Yeah.

My favorite toy of 2002 by far though is an exclusive

type figure that I got my hands on. And it was

a Star Wars figure. And the name on the card

is George Sakol. S -A -C -U -L, which is backwards

as George Lucas. He had basically his own action

figure. He's like an X -Wing pilot. And I remember

getting that one and thinking that was pretty

cool. Yeah, for me in 2002 in toys, it just wasn't

meshing very well. I was on the internet all

the time. I wasn't collecting at the, I mean,

I didn't start collecting until 2008 and, you

know. It's kind of the roots of what would later

be, you know, the Transformers universe slash

classic slash generation slash whatever. It's

kind of started in 2002, but none of the figures

that I wanted. They'd come later on, but it was

kind of a weird time. There wasn't a lot of good

Transformers out there. Some RID figure type

things. It was the biggest one for me as far

as action figures was the Star Wars line at this

point. Sadly, the 2002 He -Man toys sold like

shit. You want to talk about stuff that was just

left on the... We talk about nowadays in 2012

where... Revenge of the Fallen Bumblebee. There's

50 of them on the shelf still, you know, stuff

like that. The 2002 He -Man stuff was the death

of He -Man toys in retail outlets because they

then took it online in 2008. They started the

classics line for Masters. But yeah, I just wasn't

into toys at this time anymore. I was still into

Star Wars toys. I was still into my, I mean...

I obviously collected a lot of toys when I was

young, but Star Wars was my biggest collection

ever. And that was still in full swing in 2002,

especially working at Target where I had access

to all of them as they came out. And basically

got all of the first edition versions right out

of the box in the stockroom. But anyway... One

last thing I want to bring up really quickly,

sorry to interrupt you. I meant to bring this

up in games, but I didn't really realize it at

the time until I thought about it. Pogo .com

is really... what kind of launched this year

for an online gaming thing for like card games

and games of that nature. Pogo .com launched,

the next year in 2003 they would launch Club

Pogo which is their paid service where you could

get badges and all this and all that and everything

else. So that was a really cool thing that I

got turned on to in 2002. I didn't realize that

was 10 years ago. So does anybody have any closing

thoughts on the year 2002 and what you enjoyed

or what you didn't enjoy from the year in our

trip back memory down memory lane? For me, I'm

just going to say one thing. There is one day

of the year since 2002 that I always kind of

observe and kind of memorandum, and that's March

6th. That day holds very special to me at the

time because I was going out with a girl at that

time in 2002. That was kind of our anniversary,

and sadly we're not together anymore and everything

else. It was kind of like, you know, we went

out for maybe two, three months and it wasn't

like, oh my God, I'm in love with you yet type

of thing. But it was like, you know, we were

kind of getting serious and everything else.

But yeah, so that's a date that I'll always remember.

I was with my first ever serious, serious girlfriend

in 2000, 2001, 2002. And we also broke up in

2002. And thank God because she was a psychopath.

Yeah, I do remember that from 2002. Yeah, I have

like first girlfriend stories from 2000 and 2001.

So Steve, any thoughts on the year 2002 highlights

for you? A lot of good movies. Yeah, to me too.

It was the best thing we talked about was movies

for 2002. It was kind of weak on some of the

other stuff. Oh, yeah. A lot of geek movies.

Spider -Man, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, good

stuff. Yep. All right, well. I think that does

it for our trip 10 years into the past, our 10

year anniversary show, kind of, if you want to

call it that. And next time, next month, you

will see us venture into another time from the

past, which you'll have to wait and see where

exactly we go next. Where in the world are you?

I'm in San Diego. So anyways, this has been Optimus

Solo and you guys have been Steve Megatron Phillips,

DFT1 Mike, and we will see you back. in the future.

Geek Cast Radio. Four, become a fan on Facebook.

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