Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Johnny Carson, concussions, football

Culture Gabfest: Dark Shadows, Johnny Carson, and concussions in football.

Culture Gabfest: Dark Shadows, Johnny Carson, and concussions in football.

Slate's weekly roundtable.
May 16 2012 11:53 AM

The Culture Gabfest, “Heeeeere's Johnny (Depp)” Edition

Listen to Slate's show about the new Dark Shadows adaptation, the documentary Johnny Carson: King of Late Night, and the furor over concussions in football.

The Culture Gabfest has moved! Find new episodes here.

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Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 191 with Daniel Engber, Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:

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The Slate Culture Gabfest is coming to the Greene Space on May 31 to team up with Movies on the Radio’s David Garland. We’ll be talking about music and the movies. Get tickets here.

In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics discuss the new Tim Burton movie Dark Shadows and how his latest collaboration with Johnny Depp stacks up. They also discuss the new PBS American Masters documentary Johnny Carson: King of Late Night and Carson’s place in late-night and comedy history. Finally, the Gabfesters are joined by Slate columnist Dan Engber for a look at the “moral panic” about concussions in football.

Here are some links to the things we discussed this week:

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The original television series Dark Shadows
The Tim Burton movies Ed Wood and Beetlejuice
Kenneth Tynan’s 1978 New Yorker profile of Johnny Carson, Fifteen Years of the Salto Mortale
Bill Zehme’s biographical essay about Johnny Carson
Splitsider’s article “Drew Carey on Johnny Carson’s Impact on Stand-Up Comedy”
Dan Engber’s “The Concussion Panic” from Slate
Former NFL safety Dave Duerson, who committed suicide in 2011
How football can be changed in response to the concussion panic

Endorsements:

Dana’s picks: The Klaus Nomi biopic The Nomi Song, the Peter Sellers biography Mr. Strangelove, and the original television series Dark Shadows, available streaming on Netflix and Hulu
Julia’s pick: Elevator Repair Service’s production Gatz
Stephen’s pick: Martin Scorsese’s 1983 movie The King of Comedy, Kenneth Tynan’s 1978 New Yorker profile of Johnny Carson, “Fifteen Years of the Salto Mortale,” and Michael Agresta’s Slate article, “What Will Become of the Paper Book?”

Outro: “Johnny's Theme" by the Tonight Show Band with Doc Severinsen

You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.

This podcast was produced by Mark Phillips. Our intern is Sally Tamarkin.

Follow us on the new Culturefest Twitter feed. And please Like the Culture Gabfest on Facebook.

Daniel Engber is a columnist for Slate.

Stephen Metcalf is Slate’s critic at large. He is working on a book about the 1980s.

Dana Stevens is Slate’s movie critic.

Julia Turner, the former editor in chief of Slate, is a regular on Slate’s Culture Gabfest podcast.