April 11, 2025 • 8 mins
Dr. Bob Thompson has the latest entertainment news including bringing back dead actors in A.I.! Is this a good idea?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's check out with doctor Bob. See what his phone is,
Doctor Bob Thompson, Professor of Pop Culture, Sarah Hughes University,
on the Legacy Retirement Group dot Com phone line. Your students, Bob,
probably have low phone battery anxiety.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Yeah, I don't know, but I know that I personally
physically am operating right now at about thirty eight percent.
I'm okay with that.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Are you still talking about your phone or just your.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
No, I'm talking about your body, my physical presence.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
That's right, thirty eight percent. I'd welcome thirty eight percent
on most days.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Spent a long time since I've seen thirty nine.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
You me both, brother? Hey, wow, did you see the
success of the Minecraft movie coming? It is really the
first blockbuster of the twenty twenty five movie season.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
It is, it's set to be the biggest. It's already
the biggest debut of the year. It's set to be
the biggest of the year if it hasn't passed it
already and tie ins again like so many other things
now all over the place. But also it's become this
interactive thing. A theater owners are warning that people will
(01:02):
be kicked out if with no refund if they don't
behave themselves. So it's really become a thing that you know,
another reason that going to the theater is different than
simply watching this thing on your laptop.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Interesting. Yeah, some of the young kids getting rowdy in
the theaters and the behaviors. I did not Both my
sons have seen it, and I did not hear them
talking about anybody getting rowdy. But what it has done
is they have now fired up their Minecraft video games.
They've not played that in a number of years. They've
played the Minecraft video game when they were younger, and
now they're kind of back into it. Have you ever
(01:38):
played it or have you ever watched anyone play Minecraft
the video game.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I have played it, and I have watched people play
it as well, And you're right, it's become a and
I guess that's happened with all these you know, when
Mario movie came out the same deal, people were going
back to it. And in many ways, video games and
movies are kind of a match made in heaven. I'm
(02:02):
surprised we didn't start seeing those tie ins earlier and
more frequently than we did.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah, Minecraft is it's an interesting game. It's very low stress,
there's no, it's not a shoot them up game. There's
no violence, there's not a there's no high energy music.
It's very very relaxing.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Actually yeah, well it seems like more relaxing and going
to the Minecraft movies. And I think I think theater
operators have got to kind of examine this the idea.
I mean, yes, you can't have people and you know,
they whenever they hear this phrase, chicken jockey is the
big one, but there's a few other catchphrases. They go nuts.
But and you can see these all on people who
(02:42):
post them on video. But you know it's yeah, you
can't have people wrecking the theater and throwing stuff and
all the rest of it. But there theater owners are
desperately trying to come up with ways for people to
keep people going out and going through the trouble of
physically going to a movie. And this is one of
the ways. When you go to Minecraft this weekend, it
(03:06):
is a very different experience and if you were to
watch it on a television.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Interesting, Well, I think going to the movies is fun,
it's special, and I'm glad that people are going. And
then you know, this is the first blockbuster of the year.
And we'll see what happens this week. It was number
one of the box office last week, and we'll see
how it does this weekend. And sad news, I think
over the last weekend we lost Jane North, who of
(03:31):
course was Dennis the Menace.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yeah, and that show only went four seasons, but it
was back when forth when seasons were thirty nine episodes long,
so it was close to one hundred and fifty episodes
and they were on reruns all the time when I
was growing up. An interesting story, CBS had Leave It
to Beaver its first season, which has turned out, of
(03:54):
course to be the real classic of that type of show,
and they canceled it and ABC picked it up, and
CBS needed something to replace Leave It to Beaver, and
that's how Dennis the Menace came along, which, of course
I think was never quite quite as greatest show as
Leave It to Beaver was. But Jane North had an
interesting I mean, that show was a big hit. He
(04:14):
did some voiceover stuff in other stuff, but when his
acting career wasn't going quite I think his late twenties,
he joined the Navy for a couple of years nineteen
seventy seven, I think it was yeah, go ahead. Yeah,
right up to the end. He was also working with
counseling child actors. He had had some issues of abuse
(04:39):
his aunt and some other kinds of things. So he
was still active, though not doing much acting.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yeah, he had a difficult life. It's my understanding, but
from all accounts he was a very very nice guy.
Jane North Dennis The Menace a little bit before my time.
I did see it in syndication later. Was more of
a fan to leave it to Beaver as I was
a youngster. But Jane North, we lost him and the
other story I wanted to get to you on we
mentioned a little bit last hour. Is this whole AI
(05:08):
Suzanne Summers story. There's some companies in California, and this
is in conjunction with her husband, Alan Hamill, who apparently
agreed with Suzanne Summers before her death that they would
if they could, using technology, bring her back. Then it
was in robotics and computer generation. I don't think they
really thought about AI, but they have her voice, they
(05:30):
have plenty of video of hers. So now they're talking
about maybe bringing Suzanne Summers back to either the small
screen or the big screen via AI.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, I mean who would have if we would have
overheard us having this conversation twenty years ago, it would
have made no sense. Really, I've seen the pictures of
this AI robot, and of course now and you know
you've heard the AI you know, generations of the Beatles
and anybody else for that matter. And when you take
(06:00):
someone like Suzanne Summers, where you've got a lot hours
and hours and hours of her on tape, her voice,
her mannerisms, how she moves and everything, we are to
a point technologically where you really can sort of start
recreating bringing back I guess, as you said, might be
(06:20):
the verb. It sounds creepy. It takes getting used to,
but I suppose you know, when you have widows or
widowers going home and flipping through flaps scrap books or
looking at home movies, it's kind of the same thing.
You're looking at images, and that was the best we
had in the age of photography. Now this idea of
(06:43):
being able to recreate is so much greater, and it
still kind of gives me the creeps, but I can
certainly understand it.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Well and it could change the way that you know,
some of these deceased celebrities, their legacies are not only managed,
but monetized too. I mean there's a whole new pot
disability here. I mean, if you know, we lost John
Ritter a number of years ago. I do believe Joyce
de Witt is still with us. But I mean you
could bring back Three's company but all AI No.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
You could, and it's it would look pretty funky now,
but it's getting better and better by by the uh
by the week, and you know you could do forget
just uh John Ritter and Suzanne Summers. There is no
reason you couldn't bring back John Wayne and Lucille Ball
as well. You've got all of this data and we've
(07:31):
we've done that to some extent with already in they've
gotten uh deceased celebrities to interact with live celebrities and commercials.
You've seen some of those a long time ago. But
that stuff was done when there was infinitely less technology.
Uh at this point, I mean, technically, there's there's no
reason why very soon we shouldn't be able to take
(07:54):
any actor that we've got committed to film and take
that data and cast them in other films.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yeah, it is sort of the wild wild West, and
I don't know, I mean as Three's Company a TV
show we could bring back today. I mean that was
controversial then, and I don't know if that subject matter
would fly today.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Well, I mean, part of it wouldn't work, because the
whole point of Three's Company was you weren't allowed to
say certain things, so you implied them with double entendres,
and that was so hilarious. Now they just say them right.
I mean, it was always those things that you know,
Janet would walk into the apartment and Chrissy and Jack
(08:36):
would be in the bathroom together, and she'd hear them saying, no,
it's easy.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
You just stick it in there and swift, and.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
She'd get more and more outraged. And then it turned
out they were replacing the Foss
Let's check out with doctor Bob. See what his phone is,
Doctor Bob Thompson, Professor of Pop Culture, Sarah Hughes University,
on the Legacy Retirement Group dot Com phone line. Your students, Bob,
probably have low phone battery anxiety.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Yeah, I don't know, but I know that I personally
physically am operating right now at about thirty eight percent.
I'm okay with that.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Are you still talking about your phone or just your.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
No, I'm talking about your body, my physical presence.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
That's right, thirty eight percent. I'd welcome thirty eight percent
on most days.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Spent a long time since I've seen thirty nine.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
You me both, brother? Hey, wow, did you see the
success of the Minecraft movie coming? It is really the
first blockbuster of the twenty twenty five movie season.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
It is, it's set to be the biggest. It's already
the biggest debut of the year. It's set to be
the biggest of the year if it hasn't passed it
already and tie ins again like so many other things
now all over the place. But also it's become this
interactive thing. A theater owners are warning that people will
(01:02):
be kicked out if with no refund if they don't
behave themselves. So it's really become a thing that you know,
another reason that going to the theater is different than
simply watching this thing on your laptop.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Interesting. Yeah, some of the young kids getting rowdy in
the theaters and the behaviors. I did not Both my
sons have seen it, and I did not hear them
talking about anybody getting rowdy. But what it has done
is they have now fired up their Minecraft video games.
They've not played that in a number of years. They've
played the Minecraft video game when they were younger, and
now they're kind of back into it. Have you ever
(01:38):
played it or have you ever watched anyone play Minecraft
the video game.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I have played it, and I have watched people play
it as well, And you're right, it's become a and
I guess that's happened with all these you know, when
Mario movie came out the same deal, people were going
back to it. And in many ways, video games and
movies are kind of a match made in heaven. I'm
(02:02):
surprised we didn't start seeing those tie ins earlier and
more frequently than we did.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah, Minecraft is it's an interesting game. It's very low stress,
there's no, it's not a shoot them up game. There's
no violence, there's not a there's no high energy music.
It's very very relaxing.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Actually yeah, well it seems like more relaxing and going
to the Minecraft movies. And I think I think theater
operators have got to kind of examine this the idea.
I mean, yes, you can't have people and you know,
they whenever they hear this phrase, chicken jockey is the
big one, but there's a few other catchphrases. They go nuts.
But and you can see these all on people who
(02:42):
post them on video. But you know it's yeah, you
can't have people wrecking the theater and throwing stuff and
all the rest of it. But there theater owners are
desperately trying to come up with ways for people to
keep people going out and going through the trouble of
physically going to a movie. And this is one of
the ways. When you go to Minecraft this weekend, it
(03:06):
is a very different experience and if you were to
watch it on a television.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Interesting, Well, I think going to the movies is fun,
it's special, and I'm glad that people are going. And
then you know, this is the first blockbuster of the year.
And we'll see what happens this week. It was number
one of the box office last week, and we'll see
how it does this weekend. And sad news, I think
over the last weekend we lost Jane North, who of
(03:31):
course was Dennis the Menace.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yeah, and that show only went four seasons, but it
was back when forth when seasons were thirty nine episodes long,
so it was close to one hundred and fifty episodes
and they were on reruns all the time when I
was growing up. An interesting story, CBS had Leave It
to Beaver its first season, which has turned out, of
(03:54):
course to be the real classic of that type of show,
and they canceled it and ABC picked it up, and
CBS needed something to replace Leave It to Beaver, and
that's how Dennis the Menace came along, which, of course
I think was never quite quite as greatest show as
Leave It to Beaver was. But Jane North had an
interesting I mean, that show was a big hit. He
(04:14):
did some voiceover stuff in other stuff, but when his
acting career wasn't going quite I think his late twenties,
he joined the Navy for a couple of years nineteen
seventy seven, I think it was yeah, go ahead. Yeah,
right up to the end. He was also working with
counseling child actors. He had had some issues of abuse
(04:39):
his aunt and some other kinds of things. So he
was still active, though not doing much acting.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yeah, he had a difficult life. It's my understanding, but
from all accounts he was a very very nice guy.
Jane North Dennis The Menace a little bit before my time.
I did see it in syndication later. Was more of
a fan to leave it to Beaver as I was
a youngster. But Jane North, we lost him and the
other story I wanted to get to you on we
mentioned a little bit last hour. Is this whole AI
(05:08):
Suzanne Summers story. There's some companies in California, and this
is in conjunction with her husband, Alan Hamill, who apparently
agreed with Suzanne Summers before her death that they would
if they could, using technology, bring her back. Then it
was in robotics and computer generation. I don't think they
really thought about AI, but they have her voice, they
(05:30):
have plenty of video of hers. So now they're talking
about maybe bringing Suzanne Summers back to either the small
screen or the big screen via AI.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, I mean who would have if we would have
overheard us having this conversation twenty years ago, it would
have made no sense. Really, I've seen the pictures of
this AI robot, and of course now and you know
you've heard the AI you know, generations of the Beatles
and anybody else for that matter. And when you take
(06:00):
someone like Suzanne Summers, where you've got a lot hours
and hours and hours of her on tape, her voice,
her mannerisms, how she moves and everything, we are to
a point technologically where you really can sort of start
recreating bringing back I guess, as you said, might be
(06:20):
the verb. It sounds creepy. It takes getting used to,
but I suppose you know, when you have widows or
widowers going home and flipping through flaps scrap books or
looking at home movies, it's kind of the same thing.
You're looking at images, and that was the best we
had in the age of photography. Now this idea of
(06:43):
being able to recreate is so much greater, and it
still kind of gives me the creeps, but I can
certainly understand it.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Well and it could change the way that you know,
some of these deceased celebrities, their legacies are not only managed,
but monetized too. I mean there's a whole new pot
disability here. I mean, if you know, we lost John
Ritter a number of years ago. I do believe Joyce
de Witt is still with us. But I mean you
could bring back Three's company but all AI No.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
You could, and it's it would look pretty funky now,
but it's getting better and better by by the uh
by the week, and you know you could do forget
just uh John Ritter and Suzanne Summers. There is no
reason you couldn't bring back John Wayne and Lucille Ball
as well. You've got all of this data and we've
(07:31):
we've done that to some extent with already in they've
gotten uh deceased celebrities to interact with live celebrities and commercials.
You've seen some of those a long time ago. But
that stuff was done when there was infinitely less technology.
Uh at this point, I mean, technically, there's there's no
reason why very soon we shouldn't be able to take
(07:54):
any actor that we've got committed to film and take
that data and cast them in other films.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yeah, it is sort of the wild wild West, and
I don't know, I mean as Three's Company a TV
show we could bring back today. I mean that was
controversial then, and I don't know if that subject matter
would fly today.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Well, I mean, part of it wouldn't work, because the
whole point of Three's Company was you weren't allowed to
say certain things, so you implied them with double entendres,
and that was so hilarious. Now they just say them right.
I mean, it was always those things that you know,
Janet would walk into the apartment and Chrissy and Jack
(08:36):
would be in the bathroom together, and she'd hear them saying, no,
it's easy.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
You just stick it in there and swift, and.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
She'd get more and more outraged. And then it turned
out they were replacing the Foss
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