Culture Gabfest - Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Revives Tim Burton
Slate Daily Feed
Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 11 September 2024
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week’s show, the hosts revisit Beetlejuice (1988), the seminal film that marked Tim Burton’s arrival onto the scene as a sort of grim fairy tale teller. 36 years later, the director and much of the original cast return for its sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, a surprisingly sincere tale about the nature of death and grieving. Or, is it a total mess? The hosts discuss. Then, the three dive into English Teacher, a hilarious new FX series in which Brian Jordan Alvarez (previously known for online comedies like The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo) plays Evan Marquez, a high school English teacher in Austin, Texas. Finally, chat podcasts (like the one you’re listening to right now) are like dating and improv – to work, they necessitate a certain level of chemistry, intimacy, and vulnerability. The hosts are joined by New York Times culture critic Reggie Ugwu to discuss his recent piece, “What Makes Good Chemistry? For Chat Podcasts, It’s Fundamental,” as well as the Gabfest’s early days, the hosts first impressions of one another, and how they went about building their own unique rapport.
In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Julia joins last week’s productivity discourse and widens its scope, and the hosts discuss the nature of “hacking life” and how our relationship to productivity reflects current American ideals.
Email us at culturefest@slate.com.
Endorsements:
Dana: A spice shop that’s been in the news: Penzeys Spices, in Pittsburgh. Check out Helen Rosner’s 2018 piece on the shop for The New Yorker, as well as Penzey’s sweet and spicy Cake Spice.
Steve: Howard’s End, a novel by E.M. Forster.
Julia: A two-parter: (1) The single best piece of criticism about Avatar: The Way of Water, performed by English Teacher cast member Jordan Firstman (it’s the second slide in the Instagram reel).
(2) Season 8, episode 5 of Frasier entitled “Taking Liberties.” Victor Garber is a hilarious guest star – this is Frasier at his best.
Podcast production by Jared Downing. Production assistance by Kat Hong.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi I'm Dana Stevens and this is the Slate Culture Gabfest |
| 0:13.2 | Beetle Juice Revives Tim Burton Edition. |
| 0:16.2 | It's Wednesday September 11th, 2024 and on this week's show we're going to be talking |
| 0:20.6 | about Beetle Juice Beetle Juice, the 36 years later sequel to the 1988 |
| 0:25.3 | Horror Comedy Classic that helped launch the career of Tim Burton. |
| 0:29.2 | This new film is also directed by Burton with a lot of the original cast returning. We'll talk about that. We'll also |
| 0:34.5 | take on the new FX sitcom The English Teacher, which was created by its star, Brian Jordan |
| 0:39.5 | Alvarez, who plays a gay public high school teacher in Texas. |
| 0:43.0 | And finally, we'll speak to Reggie Uguu of the New York Times about his recent piece on the |
| 0:47.6 | State of the Chat Podcast and what it takes to make a good one. |
| 0:51.0 | Because Lord knows we could get a lot from that knowledge. I'm joined |
| 0:54.1 | today remotely sadly this time by Stephen Metcalfe hey Steve. Hey Steve, |
| 0:58.0 | hey Dana, greetings from beautiful sunny upstate New York. Ah nice that you're up in the country. |
| 1:04.0 | And joining us remotely from Los Angeles where she's a fellow at the Annenberg School of Journalism |
| 1:08.8 | is our beloved colleague Julia Turner. |
| 1:10.6 | Hey Julia, hello, hello. |
| 1:12.1 | All right y'all, let's make a show. |
| 1:14.3 | The original Beetlejuice released in 1988 was not Tim Burton's debut as a director. |
| 1:18.8 | He had already made one feature, The Deservedly Beloved Pee Wee's Big Adventure in 1985 and he'd made several short |
| 1:25.2 | films before that some of them with Disney so they were fairly high profile shorts |
| 1:28.7 | but Beetlejuice did mark the moment when Tim Burton arrived on the scene as a creative presence, as an aesthetic |
| 1:35.0 | sensibility, as the sort of goth, playful, I don't know, I don't even know what we call |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.