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PODCAST

Gimmicks

Glitterjaw Queer Podcast Collective

A podcast about the high-concept, experimental, structure-breaking gimmick episodes of TV! From musicals, to noirs, to bottle episodes and more -- we look at any television episode that breaks from its own formula in some way. Derek B. Gayle and David Arnold (and occasionally guests!) dig into a different episode of a different show across the entire TV landscape every other Monday!

tv & film

All Episodes

00:35:43

BONUS: Mythic Quest's Re-edited Series Finale

Gimmicks ·

2025/05/21

Mythic Quest concluded its fourth season last month, and then was swiftly cancelled... but in a weird and unprecedented twist, its ending was re-edited and altered to, allegedly, function better as a series finale AFTER most people watched its original version, itself now erased from AppleTV completely. It's odd, and we talk about what makes this whole situation both unique and kind of troubling, and whether or not the new "ending" is better or worse.A proud part of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The

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01:56:14

DAYS OF OUR LIVES gets possessed by the Devil (with...

Gimmicks ·

2025/05/14

Days of Our Lives: The Marlena Possession ArcWe're levitating as we cover the 90s storyline that introduced the supernatural into soap operas and changed daytime TV forever! Chels from ⁠The Q Division⁠ and ⁠And a Rewatch Podcast⁠ helps us prep our exorcisms as we get into the history of this extremely long-running soap, and how the O.J. Simpson trial led to the literal Devil possessing Deidre Hall's popular character Marlena Evans. We talk huge nuts, wedding crashers and plane crashes, deep

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00:48:55

BONUS: The Abbott Elementary/Always Sunny Crossover

Gimmicks ·

2025/05/07

On the heels of our episode on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, we're having a bonus chat about its surprising crossover earlier this year with Abbott Elementary! We get into what made this crossover so unique and highly anticipated, how they were able to mix these wildly different characters and tones, and how Quinta Brunson and Rob McElhenney got it off the ground in the first place.A proud part of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Glitterjaw Queer Podcast

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01:30:35

IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA does a noir (with...

Gimmicks ·

2025/04/30

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: "The Janitor Always Mops Twice"Don't be a goon! Chris Osborne of the Play Comics podcast joins us for this beautifully artful and smart take on film noir from the long-running raunchy comedy... which still somehow centers on "diarrhea poisoning" and includes eating cat food. We dig into the great lengths taken to authentically film this episode in black and white with striking splashes of red, along with the snappy dialogue, spot-on

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01:46:50

THE SECRET WORLD OF ALEX MACK keeps a secret from...

Gimmicks ·

2025/04/16

The Secret World of Alex Mack: "24 Hours" In one of the coolest stories we've heard on this podcast, Dr. Lara Ameen shares her unique connection to the 90s Nickelodeon series about the girl with T-1000 powers -- from meeting and befriending the cast and creators, to helping film scenes in the series finale, to casting star Larisa Oleynik in her dissertation. Then, we talk about Alex Mack's take on a paranoia thriller, along with the show's strong queer vibes and more!Find

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02:16:51

ADVENTURE TIME glitches out (with Tommy Proffitt)

Gimmicks ·

2025/04/02

Adventure Time: "A Glitch is a Glitch" Tommy Proffitt goes into the source code of the universe with us for Cartoon Network's massively innovative and influential series -- and an unsettling 3D-animated episode from experimental filmmaker David OReilly! We explore the history of glitch art (and where the word "glitch" even comes from) and how this unique, subversive artform works -- along with how it fits into Adventure Time's legacy and the "that's so

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01:48:29

STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE plays baseball (with Tyler...

Gimmicks ·

2025/03/19

Star Trek: Deep Space 9: "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" Death to the opposition! Tyler from Hate Speech Podcast and Animorphing Time joins us for this famous Star Trek episode, where the crew takes a breather from their high stakes war drama for a baseball game on the holodeck. We talk about the role this American pasttime plays in both the 24th century and television in general, this episode's origins in the 80s series Fame, Tyler's own personal baseball connection to this episode, who's the

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01:51:13

MANIAC MANSION’s first episode is a 10th anniversary...

Gimmicks ·

2025/03/05

Maniac Mansion: "The 10th Anniversary Special" In quite possibly the only time we’ll ever cover a pilot episode on this podcast, Chris Cummins of Sci-Fi Explosion joins us for this forgotten, but subversive and smart Eugene Levy-helmed Canadian sitcom and its bizarre first episode – a fake clip show celebrating its 10th anniversary. Seriously! We talk about this show’s deep connections with Schitt’s Creek, Freaks and Geeks, and the hugely influential improvisation powerhouse Second City

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02:05:53

SMALLVILLE has a magical Christmas death dream

Gimmicks ·

2024/12/04

Smallville: "Lexmas" The first Christmas episode of this Superman adaptation pulls out all the holiday stops, as a dying Lex Luthor is offered a Christmas Carol/It's a Wonderful Life-infused dream of a love-filled future from the ghost of his mom...complete with the most tinsel and soft glow you've ever seen. Oh, and did we mention Santa Claus is real and young Superman talks him off a ledge? AND that this is the episode where Michael Rosenbaum's Lex goes bad for good? We dig into it all, including

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01:54:59

BROAD CITY posts Instagram Stories (with Hamish Steele)

Gimmicks ·

2024/11/20

Broad City: "Stories" The great Hamish Steele returns for an episode told (almost) entirely through not-quite Instagram stories! As Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer take a 30th birthday walk along the entire length of New York City, we talk about this show's insights into social media and millennial culture, the weird political space it occupied by straddling pre- and post-Trump America, and how this gifable Tumblr darling of the late 2010s went under the radar in its final season. Plus, butt videos

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01:24:42

DEXTER'S LABORATORY is written by a six-year-old fan...

Gimmicks ·

2024/11/13

Dexter's Laboratory: "Dexter and Computress Get Mandark!" When Tyler Lee was six and a half, he and his mother recorded him narrating his own story for his favorite cartoon... and then it was animated into a famous episode! Tyler himself joins us to talk about his brush with Cartoon Network fame, and how it led to his brief stint in child acting and now a professional career as an opera singer and D&D podcaster. Plus, we dispel misinformation (he didn't die!), and dig into why only a Genndy

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01:23:20

MY SO-CALLED LIFE tells a ghost story (with Matt Baume)

Gimmicks ·

2024/10/30

My So-Called Life: "Halloween" We're joined by Matt Baume (YouTuber, award-winning author, and host of Matt’s So-Cast Pod) for this seminal Gen X teen drama and the poster child of 90s cancelled-too-soon TV--and the much-maligned time it ditched the grounded realism it was so famous for in a Halloween ghost story involving time travel and dying young. We talk about the breakout performance from Claire Danes, Jared Leto jumpscares, the show's groundbreaking queerness, and more! Find all of Matt

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02:01:04

BREAKING BAD is obsessed with one fly (with Daniel...

Gimmicks ·

2024/10/16

Breaking Bad: "Fly" It's a tentpole of the golden age of television, so we had to get to Vince Gilligan's crime thriller eventually...and that meant doing its most divisive episode, a Rian Johnson-directed low-budget chamber piece all about catching a fly! We dig into Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul's performances, the inventive camerawork, an even lower-budget Spanish remake, and why this episode is not at all filler. Plus, we have an interview with Daniel Roemer, creator of the Amazon Prime TV

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01:39:46

SEINFELD goes backwards

Gimmicks ·

2024/10/02

Seinfeld: "The Betrayal"In one of the most famous sitcom episodes of all time, Seinfeld tells the story of a wedding in India, spraypainted Timberlands, peach schnapps, an evil birthday wish, and of course, many many betrayals... all in reverse order! We talk about this episode's roots in Harold Pinter's play of the same name, along with the complexity--and money--only a popular show in its final season could pull off. Plus, we dig into the bad (the unsurprisingly rough humor around India) and the

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02:06:35

TRU CALLING flips the hero and villain

Gimmicks ·

2024/09/18

Tru Calling: "The Last Good Day" Few people remember Eliza Dushku's first post-Buffy series about a time-travelling morgue employee co-starring Zach Galifianakis, but it's one of the most interesting shows of the era -- both for its bizarre behind-the-scenes story, and for its philosophical, cosmic, and stellar second season that barely anyone saw. We talk about this masterful perspective flip that puts the "villain" Jack (90210's Jason Priestley) in hero Tru's

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01:38:37

STARGATE SG-1 gets stuck in a time loop (with Zack...

Gimmicks ·

2024/09/04

Stargate SG-1: "Window of Opportunity"TV writer and director Zack Morrison, creator of the award-winning comedy pilot Canusa Street, joins us for a beloved and hilarious episode of one TV's tentpole sci-fi shows! Zack talks about his experience in creating a TV pilot and how the Stargate series influenced his work. Plus, we dig into this show's connections to the real-life Air Force and the Military-Entertainment Complex, the history of time loop stories, and how this episode

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01:31:43

THE OUTER LIMITS invents the first bottle episode

Gimmicks ·

2024/08/21

The Outer Limits: "Controlled Experiment"There is nothing wrong with your podcast app. We are controlling transmission. It's another Gimmicks historical deep dive as we explore TV's very first bottle episode--a term coined by Outer Limits creator Leslie Stevens! We dig into what "bottle episode" actually means and how this installment of the sci-fi anthology series used cleverness and camera tricks to produce a quick and cheap but still compelling and funny episode about

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01:42:55

RUGRATS have a surreal fantasy about adulthood (with...

Gimmicks ·

2024/08/07

Rugrats: "What the Big People Do"TV writer Danielle Weisberg (The Simpsons, Krapopolis) joins us for one of the tentpole 90s Nicktoons from animation behemoth Klasky-Csupo, and its strange and scary imaginary tale about an adulthood with baby heads on adult bodies. We talk about Danielle's trajectory from being a Batman stand-in on Conan to writing award-nominated animated sitcom episodes, along with the artistry of Rugrats, Nickelodeon's grunge and edge, how this episode reflects

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01:39:36

THE O.C. has a holiday coma dream (with Louie Rendon)

Gimmicks ·

2024/07/24

The O.C.: “The Chrismukk-Huh?” It's Chrismukkah in July! Louie Rendon of The Mixed Reviews (who's appropriately recording from his beach vacation) heads to sunny California for this teen drama's It's a Wonderful Life homage, featuring an alt-world coma dream during the holidays where Ryan (Ben McKenzie) never came to Newport Beach! We talk about the legacy of this hugely popular but weirdly forgotten series, along with the difference between Mischa Barton and Rachel Bilson, the

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01:45:06

Reairing: STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS traps bounty...

Gimmicks ·

2024/07/17

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: "The Box"We're revisiting this early episode of Gimmicks from 2022 with new commentary! First, David talks about his own thoughts on the movie Cube and his experiences with Star Wars and The Clone Wars. Then, we present the original episode with fellow Glitterjaw friends Cass and Tommy of Distant Echoes to talk about this unexpected horror homage, where an undercover Obi-Wan and a ragtag group of bounty hunters try to survive and escape the deadly traps of a

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107 results

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