SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: What's the deal with Bond, James Bond?

Hey, everybody, it's me Josh, and I'd like to welcome you to the Stuff You Should Know Summer Movie Playlist. It's summertime, and we thought what better way to kick off one of the four greatest seasons of the year with a focus on movies, Because what scream summer more than a nice, darkened, cool, air conditioned theater and a great movie playing right in front of you. So we're gonna start the whole thing off with our July twenty ten episode on What's the Deal with Bond? James Bond.

Bryant, Charles Bryant.

How is it going, Chuck? It's an odd way to introduce yourself, don't you.

Think not if you're a super spy?

Are you a superspy? Actually?

I wouldn't say James Bond was even a spy.

Secret Service? Is that a spy? Really? No, he was an assassin and yeah, just general plot disruptor. I would say he was.

A blunt instrument of the Crown Yeah, if you wanted the job done, and you couldn't if you didn't have time to worry about you know, the politics or you know the diplomacy, that kind of thing.

You just sent James Bond.

Yeah, get jb on the phone double seven. Yeah, he'll he'll take care of business. Like Elvis.

You could call him on his car phone long before any car had a phone.

Yeah all right, yeah, he was always pre dating technology.

Yeah. As a matter of fact, there's a James Bond theory of entrepreneurial innovation.

I believe that.

And from Russia with Love nineteen sixty three, he talked. I can't remember who he talked to, but he was in his car using the phone. Yeah, that was in his car, and audiences went nuts for it.

Oh yeah, they were like, oh my god, he's on the telephone.

Right in a car. But that's what they sounded like in England though. Oh yeah, well sure that this actually Ghana right.

So Josh, where do we start here? We can't, we can't not start with Ian Fleming.

Ian Fleming, so we gotta start. Let's do it. No, that was there was a colon after that.

Oh, Ian Fleming colon was as everyone knows, and if you didn't, you need to get out from under your rock that you reside in right now. The creator of James Bond, right in novel form.

He was also originally a journalist and a stockbroker, and World War Two starts to come around and he joins the naval Naval volunteer Royal Navy, Royal Navy, and he was actually Chuck did you know assigned as a spy himself in Washington, DC.

Yeah, sort of a spy, you could call it. He was in intelligence and he would occasionally he was an administrative guy, but sometimes they would send him out to do field work where he would take secret pictures of documents, just like in the movies.

Do you know who was assigned to his spy unit James Bond? Yeah, no, there we was the guy who was the inspiration for James Bond. His name was William Stevenson, aka Intrepid.

Right, yeah, one of many inspirations.

Right. But in an interview in The Times in nineteen sixty two, Fleming said, you know, James Bond is this romanticized version of a spy. Bill Stevenson is the real thing.

Right, Well, in romanticized version of himself.

To an extent. Sure. Another member of that spy ring was a guy named Roald Dahl who wrote James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Yeah, and a bunch of body books.

Right.

He also had the non children's books that were a little racier. Yes, not many people know that.

So Chuck, let's talk a little bit more about Ian Fleming. Well give it to us, buddy.

Yeah, I mean, like I said, he was, he sort of James based James bond on kind of I think who he wanted to be. He was a playboy. He was an island hopper, an adventurer, an adventurer.

A skier.

He dove with Jacques Cousteau and you know, snow skied from the tops of mountains in Switzerland. And had a place in Jamaica where he actually wrote all these books.

Right. He named the place GoldenEye. And every year he would go to Jamaica and write a book. And I just want to dig him up and throttle him for that, because I mean, what a what a life? Yeah, you know, yeah, it's time for me to go to my estate in Jamaica and write a book that's going to just make me millions more.

Yeah, which he did. And he reportedly picked the name James Bond because he wanted the most boring name he could find for his super secret agent. I think he didn't want the name to compete with the actual character, Like why bother giving him some fancy name, just shame him James Bond and having kick butt.

Right, you know what the opposite of that is, hack saw Jim Duggan.

Yeah, he should have named him that.

Yeah, well, then it would have competed with the character.

Duggan hacksaw Jim Dugan. I could hear that? So, yeah, he wrote. See the article says thirteen novels.

Well, he wrote thirteen books.

I got fourteen.

What's the fourteenth?

Well, I've got twelve novels plus two short story collections right for your eyes only, and Octopusy in the Living Daylights was another collection. Right, So it seems like it'd be easier to find this out. But I literally saw two different sets of information.

Huh, So are we gonna go with fourteen? Because you are quite the sniffer, Let's.

Go with fourteen total? Okay, twelve novels.

All right? But he wrote I think he wrote the novels first maybe or did he write the short story books like in between?

Yeah, they were in between. They were toward the end.

Okay, but so he was getting fat and lazy in Jamaica.

Yeah, interestingly though, or maybe it's not that interesting. They made the movies way out of order.

Yeah they did.

The Doctor Now was the first film, but that was the sixth novel.

Right, But did you know that they originally the people who made the official Bond movies originally wanted to make Thunderball. Thunderball was a story that Ian Fleming came up with with another guy who who wanted the rights to make a movie out of it. Oh really, that fell through, but Ian Fleming went ahead and wrote the story anyway

There was a lot of litigation over the years in the Bond franchise.

Yes, there was.

I guess when you have a franchise that long and that vast, there's going to be people suing people over something.

Well, plus it's legendary. He's a legendary character, and you know, he's made a lot of money for a lot of people. Absolutely.

The other interesting thing I thought just before we move on was that Moonraker was written in nineteen fifty five. That was the third novel that is insightful, And of course there wasn't a space shuttle like they changed the setting and all that stuff, but it did involve like a nuclear weapon, so you know, kind of odd. And a man with a golden gun, which was the Roger Moore's second film was the final novel and it was released after his death. Huh, so it was way out of order.

And in that one he predicted herve Vasche, which nobody saw come in except Ian Fleming. Yeah, you know right, Yeah, let's talk about James Bond a little bit, the character James Bond. So it turns out James Bond had a Scottish father, which it didn't originally.

Now that came about because of Sean Connedy.

Yeah. Ian Fleming was not a big fan of Sean Connery at first, and then Sean Connery is like, check this out, and he made one peck go up while the other went down. A bunch of times, and Ian Fleming just like clapped and squealed and that was that. Right. He was a big fan, and he said, you know

Andrew, and a Swiss mother Monique Delacroix and nice.

Yeah, and they both died mountain climbing, right.

Yes, When little James was eleven years old, he went to the orphanage. And he went to an orphanage. He was supposedly born on November eleventh, nineteen twenty, but there are different accounts of his birthday and when he was born. Clearly, when you have a franchise with Daniel Craig playing him in two thousand and eight, he can't be born in nineteen twenty.

Yeah, because Body the exhibition wasn't showing in Miami in like nineteen fifty eight or anything.

So yeah, there's a sliding scale there obviously to make it viable. But James, much like his author namesake, Ian Fleming not namesake that would make and change fun much like the author Ian Fleming was went to the Royal Navy in World War Two, rose to the rank of commander.

Yes.

After the war, that's when he entered the sis known as mi I six.

Right, which is the sixth branch of the Military Intelligence Directorate. You got that, buddy, right, and his first two assignments chuck, Yeah, we're two taps.

Weren't they assassinations right off the bat?

So he that's apparently you have to kill two people to get a double O status, which is the license to kill, and he got them, like you say, right off the bat.

Yeah, and he was the seventh dude to get him. So that's where double O seven comes from, right, the seventh agent. I shouldn't say dude because they were were there female agents? Yeah? There were female agents.

Okay, I'm pretty sure, and we should probably take the time here to explain. I like James Bond. I know that you like James Bond movies too.

Is this the disclaimer We're gonna get killed here?

We are not members of James Bond fandom? I would say, all right.

I mean I've seen all the movies, but no, I haven't studied the books.

I've never read any of the books. I don't think i've seen all the movies. Yeah, but I do like them in a very recreational manner. So that being said, we are not going to get every single thing right here, if we're going to walk right past information sure that we just don't know exists. So in a very friendly manner, if there is anything that you have to say that can round this podcast out even further, the more we love knowing new things. That's so please let us know,

Oh, they'll let us know. They will, except for the three dudes that just turned it off into it Well, they have no business even attempting this thing.

Right, and then they go give us a one star rating on iTunes.

So back to Bond. He as we all know as a sharp dresser, and he loves fast cars. He loves his martini shaking nuts stirred. He loves women.

Yeah, and do you know if you shake a Martine instead of stirring it, you pretty much ruin it.

I disagree, I shake all my martinis.

Dude, How does it ruin it? It feathers it? I think what does that mean it means it's screwed up?

What does that mean? I like a good dirty martini myself.

Oh you like them dirty?

Oh yeah, gross, Jared said. Word.

I like my martini's so light. It's basically this a vodka rocks.

So you just like the vermouth bottle just waved near the glass pretty much. I like just a little vermouth, little olive juice, but no olive.

No olive juice. I'll put in all I'll put three olives in usually really all right, But then I eat him so fast that they have no time to taint the martini.

Well, that's why you're not a super spy. So Josh James Bond a couple of the other traits we should just mention. He is a martial artist. He's a gifted man with his fist and feet or if you're Roger Moore, a karate chop. Yeah the karate Oh yeah, yeah, that was a big deal in the seventies. And he carried a famously carried a Walter PPK handgun thirty two caliber. Yeah, and that's the little guy. Have you ever seen him? Oh yeah, they're small.

And I've played Golden nine, played best game. Just played Golden Nine. It is a great game.

Yeah, and you know they're bringing that back for wee. I've heard Matt Frederick of Coolest Stuff on the Planet told us that they are bringing that back because it's still sort of the standard for first person shooters, like fifteen years on. Yeah, it's still a great game. So they're bringing it back as is, like completely as it was, but with better graphics.

That's gonna be fantastic for the Wii.

Yeah, pretty exciting. Back to the real life of the Fake Life of James Bond.

That's why we should have titled this podcast the.

Real Life of the Fake Life.

Yeah.

How about uh, let's talk about some of the enemies.

Doctor No. He was the first one to appear in.

The films, Doctor Julius, now right, he's.

An atomic scientist.

Yeah, he was clearly. Joseph Wiseman played him, and he was a great, great villain Goldfinger. You can't talk about Bond without talking about Goldfinger.

Yeah he was. Eh, you don't like him, no, not really, that was a big Goldfinger guy.

He tried to laser the crotch of James Bond.

Oh yeah, that's right, pretty hardcore. Yeah, it's like Max Scorpio. Yeah, in that Simpsons where oh yeah, ends up going to work for the super villain. Right. Yeah, he's like, no, mister Bond, I expect you to die and be a very cheap funeral.

Odd Job was one of my favorite, and he was one of Goldman's henchmen in the big Asian guy with the bowler hat that he could cut like the head off a statue. His hat huge, Yeah, very big dude. Yeah, Jaws. We grew up with Roger Moore, so he can't not talk about Jaws.

No, he was great too. He was in two of them, right, he was in Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me.

I thought he might have been more than that, but he definitely.

I looked it up.

He was only in two two really, goy, I made quite an impression.

Yeah he did.

He found the girlfriend in Moonaker I think.

Yeah, falls in love or something.

Yeah, the little like nerdy girl.

And then he pops up again in Happy Gilmore.

Was he in that? Yeah? I didn't see that.

Yeah, he was Happy Gilmour's boss, like on the construction site and he ends up becoming a.

Fan and wow, did he have the teeth?

No, he didn't have the teeth just for the movie. But he was a big guy.

Yes, lately, we've had more recent villains that I don't think the new villains compare personally.

They kind of come and go. You know, there's like in Casino Royale.

Yeah, I mean they're okay, but they're all the villain was Yeah. That that like, they're all decent, but they're not like iconic characters like they used to be, right, Like, yeah, well, Blofeld was the sort of legendary I don't know how many movies he was in, but he was played.

By like Tellis Pleasance.

Yeah, Donald Pleasance was my favorite version. And Max van sea Doll played him, I think, and uh, never say never again.

Maybe Max fan he's a class act.

Yeah, I was, what did I watch the other day? Oh, Shutter Island. He's in that. And I told lean over to Emily. I was like, you know, I want to see Max van Seadal play like a kindly grandfather in a movie. I don't think anytime that dude pops up in the movie, you're like, oh, well, he's the evil doer, right, He's the villain, or so.

You think until Shutter Island falls apart at the end. Don't ruin it so u.

Yes, that was Blofeld. He was the bald guy and he was the head of Specter, which was the Special executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. Right, it's great villainoust title there.

That's not only like a great name that it's your mission statement.

Yeah, you know, all wrapped up into one.

One of my favorites, mac Zorin, played by the great Christopher Walkin. He was he was the dude.

I know you loved that movie.

One of the best bomb movies ever, but.

That had the worst Bond woman ever, Grace Jones. No, Tanya Roberts, I don't remember her. She was the Bond girl.

I don't remember.

She was the lady from the seventies show that was like one of the late Charlie's Angels replacements.

Tanya Roberts. Yeah, yeah, who cares. It was the eighties, nobody was paying that much attention.

But it was a good song.

It was, and Christopher Walkin was in it. Grace Jones was in it. She was pretty scary in that. Yes, she was excellent. Talk about a martial artist. But mac Zorin is did you know he was the product of genetic experiments by Nazis. Walking was well not walking man, Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I don't I don't remember that.

Yeah. And one of the unintended side effects was he was a complete psychopath.

I thought you were gonna say. One of the side effects was his use of punctuation.

You are good man.

Everybody does walking.

I can't do it walking.

Let's hear it.

My No, it's really just an altered h John Travolta, why are you so weird?

Dude?

That's great, of course, Chuck, there's double six Alec Trevlyn.

Yeah, what was he? And that was one of the Pierce Brosen ones, wasn't it.

Yeah? I think yeah, which I don't remember those. I love Pierce Brosen, Like, oh he was good. The fact that, like he wasn't James Bond earlier He's like, oh, yeah, you're gonna cast Timothy Dalton, are you well, I'll go be Remington Steel well jerks. Yeah, And then they tried to get him again, right, I think so.

And he was committed to Remington Steele. Yeah, was sort of like James Bond for TV.

Oh so did he do Remington Steel first? Oh?

Yeah, he did. Remington Steele. Well, it goes back and forth. There was like Timothy Dalton was offered the role before Roger Moore. Did you know that?

No, I didn't.

When he was twenty one years old. Really he was going to replace Sean Connery. Well, and Dalton said, I'm too young to play James Bond. And then he comes around years later just like to just like uh Brosnen did.

Okay, but I am glad that Pierce Brosnen went in. I just happened to think that those his period of movies were unfortunate.

I thought they were pretty good.

I didn't like him. Now I'm really happy with Daniel Craig's stuff so far.

Well, you know my statement on that is that was the only direction they could take that franchise after the Jason Bourne movies. You couldn't have a guy like winking at the camera like Roger Moore and like slapstick sounds and sound effects. You had to take him into like a real bad, bad direction.

Yes, you mean like sim Ohaia bad. Yeah, so Double six Alec Trevlyn he is. I think he informs the character Alex Krychek from X Files. You think, so, huh, very nice Josh.

All right, So those are some of the villains, clearly not all, but we should also talk about some of the people that James Bond had working on his side at m I six.

All right, which we will call from here on out the superfluous characters.

No, dude, they're great. M Q M was the head of m I six and there were several ms. It was just a title, and M was the one that's always frustrated with Bond. Yet he knows that he's the blunt instrument of choice, you know, pretty much in every movie, right que, you.

Should say he or she for M true Dame Judy Dench took over.

Yeah, man, she's doing a great job too. Is the head of the Q branch, Judy Dench.

Did you hear that? Chuck just said you were doing a great job. So keep it up, Keep.

It up, Dan Jersey, Dame Dane, Dame Dame.

Yeah, she's a Dame.

Q is the head of the Q branch. I six is research and development branch, and Q, as you might know, is the guy who in all the films gives James his gadgets. There's always that great scene where James goes into the laboratory and starts messing around with the gadgets and exasperates Q because he's burning something or he's firing a missile inside and he shouldn't be.

That's Q, right, And he's now been replaced by his former assistant R.

Right now is R John Clees?

Yeah, yeah, he's doing a good job, but he's the new Q.

He just used to be R well because Q died, right Lee Ellen, Yes, Chuck, that was the actor that played the original Q.

Is that right?

Or the Roger More Q that I loved? Right? Who else?

We got Felix Leiter who I like, Jack Lord Jeffrey Wright both played him agent huh. And then there's another guy named Hayward Wade. Was he Cia? Yeah?

I thought they said they didn't know if he was Dea or Cia.

He was around before the Dea was was he? Yeah? And then you've got I think Jack Wade is his name. And he was actually played by a couple of people, including Joe Don Baker, Oh yeah, Pierce Brosnan ones, yeah, yeah, he had a couple of American counterparts.

It's a good point.

And little known fact. Joe Don Baker was in Oh I can't remember the name of the movie, but it was one of the greatest Mister Science Theater three thousands.

Really yeah, bad movie. And then, of course we have to mention Moneypenny. He was M's personal assistant and Moneypenny. You always knew Moneypenny because James would come in and flirt very much with her. And I always got the sense that if James were to ever settle down with anyone, which he clearly won't, it would have been Moneypenny sure, or at least he made her think that. Right, every

Right, spoons, she had an extensive spoon collection, refrigerator, magnets, Chuck, Josh, let's talk about the movie show. Yeah, sure, well, let's talk about James Bond on screen, because it wasn't necessarily just relegated to the movies.

Oh yeah, good point.

So James Bond first appears on screen on the small screen on a CBS TV series called Climax with an exclamation point really yeah wow, And he was first played by a guy named Barry Nelson. Barry Nelson, you may recognize as mister Olman, the manager of the Overlook in Kubrick's The Shining who tells Jack Torris the ropes. That's the first guy to ever play James Bond.

Wow? Was he English?

No?

American?

Yes, CBS TV series.

So we've had a Scotsman's quite a few Englishmen, an American and an Australian And what what do you mean Australian? I mean someone from Australia. That was George Lazenby was Australian?

Was it? You know what happened to him? Well, he wasn't much of an actor. Well, it wasn't just that he after the success of his Bond movie. I mean, he played James Bond and it was you know, filmed and produced and released on Her Majesty's Secret Service, Right, he was like, holy Colm, James Bond and I'm going to buy a boat and sail around the world for a while. And he came back and his star had already faded because he did one thing and that was that.

He was a bad dude though, like he he got the role apparently because he impressed Ian Fleming because he had a faux fight scene with a wrestler for his audition and he actually punched the guy, like got mad and punched him, and Flemings like this is hard, dude.

Wow. Yeah, because Fleming wrote the Bond character much darker.

Yeah, the novel character for sure.

Like Roger Moore took it in a very awful director specific direction. You know that was not the least bit like how Ian Fleming had written them.

You're the ultimate Roger Moore apologist. He's good in the Saint and that's why I got the role, I think. Okay, the TV show The Saint, all right, So Chuck, let's get back to the beginning again. So we talked about Barry Nelson and on the big screen, the first Bond ever was Sean Connery. Right, well they did. They did a pilot though on TV as well.

That's the Barry Nelson one. Oh it was called Casino Royale though no, right, it was based on Casino Royal Climax, Okay, which I think you know how they used to do like they would they would have the name of the series, but then there there'd be like different like like Wonderful World of Disney. Yeah, it was like the name of the series, but then there were different like documentaries or

They had no idea.

So, yeah, you're right.

Doctor NOA was the first film in nineteen sixty two, and there's been twenty two in total. No, yes, and we're waiting. And that's official Bond films because they parodied him in other things what he Allen played him for Heaven's Sake.

Yeah, yeah, in the parody he did of Casino Royale. Yeah, there's also an unofficial Bond film with an official Bond right, let's hear it, Never Say Never Again.

Yeah, that was Conrie's That was also fraught with the lawsuits.

You know, that was based on the Thunderball lawsuit.

Yeah, they remade Thunderball, right, and.

They named it Never Say Never Again because Conrie had said after nineteen seventy one that he'd never play Bond again. Because he played Bond what for the first like six movies something like that.

One, two, three, four, five, and then George Lazenby then he came back and did Diamonds or Forever.

And then after after that Kime Roger Moore. Yes, and then Roger Moore had a pretty good run. So Sean Connery stops playing Bond. George Lazenby comes along, does it. Once leaves, Sean Connery has to come back another time. After Sean Connery, they get Roger Moore. In the midst of Roger Moore's run, Sean Connery makes another Bond film. That's what we were kids, twelve years after the last one he'd made.

Yeah, right, and yeah, Kim Beasinger was the Bond checking that one.

She was and they called it never Say Never Again because he'd said that he would never play Bond again.

Never Trebek That's what he said, right, Timothy Dalton, I guess we might as well venture into his years.

Yeah. I saw those when they first came out, like in the theaters, and I didn't think anything of them. I don't know if they were over my head or whatever, but I didn't like them.

They were pretty good living daylights and licensed to kill.

Is that inevitable you think?

Well, I meant the inevitable way of making him a tough dude. But yeah, his blondness was not inevitable.

You know. You make fun of Roger Moore, but he had a seven picture stint as James Bond.

Yeah, I mean, and that was our childhood, trust me, dude. At the time, I loved it. But then when I got older, I revisited all of the Sean Connerys, and then I saw the butt kickingness of Timothy Dalton and now Daniel Craig, And now I'm kind of like Roger Moore was kind of a joke to me. Now you still stand by it?

I do, all right. I like Roger Moore.

Sam Neil was considered at one point.

I could see him as James Bond. He was great and dead calm.

Yeah, that was a good movie.

You know, I don't know that this even qualifies as a podcast.

People canna be like you guys are just kind of chit chatting, Chuck.

There's also theories, tons of the best one actually, the only one I could find really is the code name theory. Have you heard this?

I have not cracked.

I got a lot of publicity for it. By It's a fan theory that basically says, James Bond is a it's a name that goes along with double O seven. And there's each actor was playing an actual different person who had assumed this undercover name James Bond. Really, which explains the changes in personality. Yeah, it explains why Sean Connery was so suave and Roger Moore was so goofy. Sure, explains why Daniel Craig and Timothy Dalton were so violent, right,

Yeah, he had a wife most people don't.

Know, and she was killed by Blofeld. Right, so he leaves after that. That explains that, right, absolutely. There's actually holes in that theory.

Do you know them?

I know a couple like, for example, George Lazenbee recognized gadgets that were debuted during Sean Connery's tenure. He was a new person, he would it would be new to him. He'd be like, what's his start gun? Right? Exactly right? And I think the spy who loved me, Roger Moore is recognized from his college days at Cambridge as James Bond, which would mean that he was using the name before then.

I'm going to retrack my Roger more bashing a little bit. Okay, I actually liked like four out of seven of his films.

Okay, see, so you're right.

I forget sometimes I forget about the awesomeness of Live and Let Die and Man with a Golden Gun for your Eyes Only. Those are all pretty good. It was like Octopussy, Moonraker was really silly, does not age well at all, and uh, you do a kill? I just can't get behind him.

You do a kill is awesome. What about the Spy who Loved Me? That's the one with the greater water lotus?

Yeah? Yeah, great, great movie.

And I have one last fact. Are you ready? Oh yeah, the legendary Bond producer co producer Albert Cubby Broccli. Yeah, his family invented broccoli. They crossed cauliflower with rabe and invented broccley. And he actually left the family farm to go to Hollywood to pursue his fortune when he was like eighteen.

Are you making this up?

I am not.

He invented broccoli.

His family did is like parents, grandparents. That's a pretty good fact, Rockley, very cool.

Good for him. They're in trouble now though, because MGM is in trouble.

Yeah, but they're saying like it's just a blip on the radar. If you listen to any anybuddy who's attached to the Bond twenty three.

Oh, it'll happen at some point, but it's like fine, Yeah, it's being delayed big time though, because MGM's and over their heads financially.

If you know anything about MGM, if you're an insider, MGM, we want to hear from you. Let us know what's going on with Bond.

That's funny, we should. We got to talk about Bond girls. That's one of the hallmarks of Bond films. And usually there's two Bond girls. At least there's like a hot villain and like a hot an aid that helps him out in some way. Sometimes she turns out to be a villain. But there's usually two Bond girls and he's equally attracted to both. Like Grace Jones, Yeah, he's attracted

I just recently realized that Carrie Lowell was a Bond girl. And I used to have the biggest crush on her when I would watch Wild Orcid no Law and Order reruns on A and E. Yeah, they used to show like Law and Order for like eight hour blocks on A and E and I'd be like, I'm not going to class to day, I'm just gonna watch Law and Order. And she was on a lot of them. Yeah, she would be my favorite Bond girl.

I'm going with Ursula Andres. Yeah, she was hot dude back in the day. She played Honey Rider. And that's another hallmark of the Bond women is they usually had really awful names that hinted it sexual innu Window.

Yeah, you know, plenty o tool An.

Ryder, pussy Galore, uh, actually Solitaire, Jane Seymour, she was pretty good and Living let Die like that.

She was actually a really good actor. Okay.

Moonraker of course had a holly goodhead and a view to a kill. I had Tanya Rarts as Stacy Sutton. They didn't even give her a cool.

Name, So, Chuck, what's the best Bond theme song? Well, let me take a wild guess.

I'm gonna say Live and Let Die is probably my favorite.

Because I would have put a thousand dollars on that or.

What's her name? Carly Simon, spy who loved me? Nobody does it better?

Love that song best Bond theme song. If it's not You Do a Kill? Okay, if it's not that, it is Nancy Sinatra singing You Only Live Twice?

Yeah, that was awesome. Yes it was Shirley Bassie. Just another little factoid.

She did.

No, she did more than that. She did gold Finger, she did Diamonds or Forever, she did Moonraker, Moon Raker's that's three total. I was also a big fan of She and Easton's For Your Eyes Only. Yes, she did go and readA Coolidge all time high from Octopussy.

Didn't Tom Jones do Thunderball or something?

He did?

Yeah?

He did Thunderball. And since we're talking about the songs that have really gotten lame in recent years, like the Chris Cornellen and Garbage, you probably didn't even remember they did songs.

Garbage did the one for World Is Not Enough?

Oh okay, Pierce Brosnan, Yeah, and Sheryl Crowe did one, did she really?

Yeah?

And Madonna did one and and now it's gotten to the point where they're just like, like the last one they put Jack White with Alicia Keys.

Up next is Miley Cyrus. Oh God, say it ain't so fond twenty three?

What else do we have here?

This is the podcast that won't die, No I do. It's like James Bond, It just goes on.

I do have a couple of more facts.

Okay, Well, first of all, before.

You move on, if we're going to talk about the songs, we need to talk about the opening sequences, the title sequences. When you're a young Baptist boy and there are naked, silhouetted women jumping on trampolines.

Yeah, it's very titillating and arousing and arousing for a young boy named Chuck. I'm titillated and aroused.

And then the opening sequence of the films typically is some awesome action scene and then the title sequence comes up. There'll be like a seven minute action scene.

Right. They call it a cold opening, Buddy, a cold opening. Uh huh. That's very nice.

And I just got a couple of more facts for you, Josh, And then I'll let you put this to bed, all right with it? What would you say is the highest grossing Bond film of all time adjusted.

Gross adjusted gross? I would say Casino Royale, No.

Top two all time Thunderball and gold Finger. You're a liar adjusted gross.

You know, Casino Royale worldwide knitted like almost six hundred million dollars so far.

A bunch of money. Thunderball and Goldfinger did more, did they really? Yeah? Thunderball and nineteen sixty five dude, gross to one hundred and forty one million dollars?

What and is that worldwide or us?

That's worldwide? And that is close to what licensed to Kill gross in nineteen eighty nine that grows like one hundred and fifty something and Thunderball, you know, thirty years more gross one hundred and forty one million.

Right, But what I'm saying is Casino Royale gross six hundred million?

Well, I mean, yeah, that's not an adjusted gross though you can't compare.

You're figuring inflation in Yeah, that's what it's called an adjusted gross.

And that's about it. I mean, we could say the cars he used real quickly, the Aston Martin obviously.

My favorite is the Lotus, the Lotus.

The Alpha Romeo and then that new Audi that's pretty cool.

Do you like the Audi?

Yeah it looks awesome, Okay, but missed the Lotus in the fact that it could also be a submarine.

And lastly, Chuck, I would like to say to all the kids of our generation, if you ever noticed a similarity between Inspector Gadget and James Bond, you were dead on.

Yeah you think so?

Yeah? All right, So that's about it. If you want to know more about James Bond, Like I said, there are three, at least three really good websites for all things Bond fandom. You can check out our website by typing James Bond brings up a bunch of stuff in the handy search bar. And now, if you can believe it, it is time for listener mail.

Yes, Josh, I'm gonna call this samurai stuff from Thomas Guys. I'm a total samurai geek. I practiced Japanese sword based martial arts, kendo and ayado. I've read all this material about samurai and your podcast was a very good introduction, and I thank you for it. However, I am kind of surprised you did not mention the greatest samurai of all time, Miyamoto Musashi. This guy was the epitome of

Owyh uh coving smacked to death.

Well, he says instead of cutting someone's heads off, he would brain them, which I guess means like the skull until their brains come out. Also, he was a big fan of using two swords at one time, sometimes two katana, sometimes the short and the long, whatever it took to do the job. You guys, Rocket love your show. I'm grateful for the Samurai show from Thomas.

Well, thank you Thomas for the extra information. As I said, we are always interested in knowing everything we possibly can about a subject. So if you have anything to tell us about James Bond that we missed, that we got wrong, that we need to know, we want to hear it, wrap it up and send it in an email. Don't forget to spank it on a bottom and maybe serve it a dry martini shaken not stirred. Address it too. Stuff podcast at HowStuffWorks dot com.

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