It’s Time For The After Show

videoarchives
July 26, 2022

Last week was the debut episode of the Video Archives Podcast; this week, it’s the very first Video Archives After Show!

These Gala-hosted treats between main courses of the show will be a little different every time out, but for episode 1, we’re going through the highlights of an unaired discussion from the original pilot recording, all about 1971’s Women In Cages. Here at Counter Talk we’ve got the scoop on the After Show, more movie facts and an unforgettable VHS cover…

The Video Archives Podcast was not planned as a weekly show. From the very start of development, we thought of this as a biweekly series (or ‘fortnightly,’ if you’re fancy). Video Archives episodes are long and expansive, covering 2-3 movies at a time; it’s the kind of podcast you might savor over a few days, instead of consuming in one big gulp (not that we’d tell you how to listen!). A biweekly schedule gives listeners plenty of time with every clutch of films, instead of making them rush to get through them before returning them to the store.

As we kept working on the show, though, we realized we wanted to have something to put out every week. For one thing, we had all this great material we were cutting from the main episodes for pacing, without an outlet for those listeners who would treasure it. And we knew that most podcast listeners expect a weekly drop of some kind. So Gala & I (mostly Gala, honestly) put our heads together and created the After Show, to air on the weeks between main episodes, as a final digestif for the previous week’s episode, and an aperitif to get ready for next week. Here’s Gala recording voiceover for the After Show, at Stitcher’s Sunset studios.

Every After Show will be unique! Some of them will collect stories, tangents, and sidebars from the main sessions, like a collection of ‘deleted scenes’ from the show. Some of them will follow up on older episodes with a different perspective, or feature bonus conversations with Roger, Quentin, and special guests. And some of them will open the Video Vault, unlocking an all new movie discussion saved just for the After Show. That’s what we’re doing this week with Gerry de Leon’s Women In Cages.

Women In Cages is the perfect title for an exemplar of the film subgenre known as “women in prison” films. This genre contains everything from fairly prestigious fare like 1950’s Oscar-nominated Caged to pure low-budget exploitation, but Women In Cages straddles that line, delivering crackerjack entertainment up until a devastating ending. I know at least a few of you will also recognize it as the film Quentin watches at the military base in Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror:

The VHS cover of this Roger Corman Classics release from New Horizons Home Video pulls no punches, showcasing Pam Grier’s villainous Alabama with a gun and a whip in front of a rickety cage full of scantily clad women, and promising “boiling passions confined behind concrete walls”:

The back of the box doubles down on highlighting Pam Grier’s role - and while she’s chilling in this pre-fame part, you’ll need to listen to the After Show to hear how the rest of this cast, especially Roberta Collins, steals the show:

That’s it for this week’s Counter Talk! Next week, we’ll be back with a full episode on three Archives classics, including one Quentin and Roger have been teasing in other interviews and podcasts for months. It’s a highly polarizing entry in one of the biggest film franchises ever, and Quentin had never seen it until this watch, so you won’t want to miss it.

In the meantime, check out the Women In Cages Archives page, rate and review the show on Apple and Spotify, and follow us on Twitter – while you’re at it, tell us other features you’d like to see on the After Show! And remember, if you want to send in a question for Quentin and Roger, just write a letter to The Video Archives Podcast, c/o Earwolf Media, PO Box 66, 5551 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, 90028. If we get enough good questions, we’ll be answering them in a mailbag segment on a future After Show, so pull out your stamp book and get ready to lick some envelopes.

–Josh