Grunt Work Podcast

Future Shock

November 19, 2020 by Grunt Work Leave a Comment

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This Week on Home Improvement…

Jill finds herself frantic at trying to juggle school and her home life when one petty dispute after another delays her from her school work. The boys can’t seem to mediate their own arguments, and Tim’s rigid routines force her to be flexible—but no more. After speaking with Delores and Marge, Jill has a nightmare of her hellish dystopian future where Tim has derailed all of her hopes and dreams, and this forces Jill to say something. However, Tim doth protesteth too much, and has dreams of his own about how his routines will shape him into a superhuman in his twilight years.

**This week on Grunt Work: Nights…**

Hear ye, hear ye!

Step right up and play the game the likes the world has never seen!

In a game custom made for the intersections of Truman and Landen’s interests, we’re playing IMDb Parents Guide! Landen has chosen five films for Truman to try to guess simply by the description of the user-inputted warnings to parents.

We invite you to play along! Can you guess the film based on these categories: Sex & Nudity; Violence & Gore; Profanity; Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking; and Frightening & Intense Scenes.

See how Truman does on this episode of IMDb Parents Guide!

Gain access to our Grunt Work: Nights episodes for as little as $1/mo. over on our Patreon!

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At Sea

November 5, 2020 by Grunt Work Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:06:56 — 174.3MB) | Embed

This Week on Home Improvement…

Tim Taylor (Tim Allen) and Al Borland (Richard Karn) kick off a new season of Tool Time with a visit to the USS Constellation aircraft carrier to pay tribute to its powerful engines. But back at the Taylor house, there’s a force at work that’s even more poweful than an aircraft carrier’s engine: Teenaged hormones. When Jill (Patricia Richardson) catches Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan) and his girlfriend Angela doing some steamy studying in his bedroom, she grows concerned that her son needs to get “the talk” about sex – and he needs to hear it from his father. While Tim struggles at first to find the right metaphors, he’s eventually able to teach Brad a heartfelt lesson about why it’s important to cool his jets.

**This week on Grunt Work: Nights…**

Hear ye, hear ye! Official Gruntheads: we have announcements and distractions.

First, we have some big Patreon news. We are shifting to a pay-what-you-want system where everyone will receive the same benefits. But this now comes with an added bonus—access to our private Discord recording channel!

Gain access to our Grunt Work: Nights episodes for as little as $1/mo. over on our Patreon!

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Season 5 Super Spectacular!

August 6, 2020 by Grunt Work Leave a Comment

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This Week on Grunt Work…

It’s that time of year again! It’s time for the Season 5 Super Spectacular! That’s right, as we bring this long, long season to a close, we look back on what feels like the last 27 years that we’ve been living in Season 5 of Home Improvement.

This episode is filled with all of the things you’ve grown to love about our Super Spectaculars: our favorite episodes, moments, guest stars… we’ve even added a new category! We debate over this seasons MVP and reveal the results of the People’s Choice MVP (that’s you!) And of course we live up to our namesake by unveiling some VERY surprising Grunt Count results.

Yes, it’s been a season of trials and tribulations. We’ve had a lot of starts and stops. And we finally provide you with some explanations. To completely butcher a T.S. Elliot quote, “This is the way the season ends / Not with a bang but a whimper.” But we will return for Season 6 in due time. Thank you all for sticking with us and we hope to continue to bring you our special brand of entertainment for a long time to come.

**This week on Grunt Work: Nights…**

You’ve got your popcorn. You’ve got your seats. The theater darkens, the screen shines bright. And on that screen? Another theater. Another movie goer. And the theater darkens. And the screen within a screen shines bright. No, we’re not talking about Inception – we’re talking movies within movies!

What are your favorite fake films that reside inside the realm of real films? Unless our reality is also just a film in which the films we watch are the films within a film good god this is already messy.

This week we discuss our favorite examples of movies within movies from Boogie Nights to Matinee. I believe this is a relatively spoiler free episode, but fear not! We mention the film before we discuss it so if you’re worried about that sort of thing… just skip ahead – or go watch the dang darn film and come back! We’ll wait! (Update: Avengers: Endgame spoiler RIGHT AT THE END.)

What are your favorite examples of films within films?

Gain access to our Grunt Work: Nights episodes for as little as $1/mo. over on our Patreon!

Follow Us on Social Media:

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Bigfoot: The Unforgettable Encounter (Re-Broadcast)

July 30, 2020 by Grunt Work Leave a Comment

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Plot Synopsis

When Bigfoot – or A bigfoot, depending on who you ask – is sighted outside a small mountain town, an evil billionaire offers a one million dollar reward for Bigfoot’s capture, dead or alive. A media circus ensues as swarms of hunters arrive to search the woods for the creature, as well as a team of researchers who want to study it. But after Bigfoot rescues a young boy named Cody from a bear attack in the woods, Cody makes it his mission to convince the world that Bigfoot deserves to be free.

**This week on Grunt Work: Nights…**

Have you ever seen something so delectable, so scrumptious, so heavenly tasty that you ruined the delicate nature of your silk shirt that you happened to be wearing in the 1990s because you drooled all over it and it was privately a tragedy, but publicly you were probably better off because silk shirts on men were an awful fashion trend?

Well have we got the episode for you! This week we are talking about food on film. Those scenes that just make your mouth water with the most delicious gourmets you’ve ever seen. Movie food looks great for a reason!

Gain access to our Grunt Work: Nights episodes for as little as $1/mo. over on our Patreon!

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Patreon Sampler: The Hudsucker Proxy

July 23, 2020 by Grunt Work Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:12:18 — 181.7MB) | Embed

We are off this week while we prepare and record our Season 5 Super Spectacular! So, in the meantime, enjoy this Patreon Bonus Episode celebrating Grunt Work’s 3-year anniversary!

As we swoop through the snowy skies of 1950’s Manhattan, we focus in on a beacon of light glistening over the rest of the city. Is it a clock? Nay! It’s a fireplace which we are huddled around as we have an informal chat about the movie The Hudsucker Proxy.

Yes! The oft-referenced Coen Brothers movie long time listeners will recognize. As a part of our 3-year anniversary, we’re covering one of Truman’s favorite films. Enjoy this extra-long episode of our (first?) fireside chat.

Tom and Huck (1995)

July 16, 2020 by Grunt Work Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:33:15 — 210.5MB) | Embed

When Tom Sawyer (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), a rambunctious scofflaw, met Huckleberry Finn (Brad Renfro), an uncivilized drifter, they became immediate friends. Always scheming and planning, Tom wishes nothing more than to run away and become a captain of a steamboat. Huck already on the run is… good at throwing knives… and finding dead cats… However, when these two new friends cross paths with a psychopathic outlaw out to exhume a treasure map from a grave, they find their lives in constant danger.

This half-assed synopsis is eerily similar to a book report I gave in elementary school.