Whenever you log into one of your online accounts and see a red banner going across the screen, you know something bad is about to happen.
The Red Room Podcast started in July 2010. We have hosted our podcast, which has broadcast 215 episodes, on Hipcast for the majority of that time. When I logged in to upload the latest episode, the banner read: Hipcast.com ceasing operations on December 31, 2022.
Proving that I truly was destined to have a podcast about television, the first thing I thought of was the final episode of Moonlighting. The show, which we have covered more than a few times on this podcast and I wrote a book about, ended with the statement: Blue Moon Investigations ceased operations on May 14, 1989. The Red Room Podcast will do the same on December 31, 2022.
Josh Minton came up with this silly idea twelve years ago. He tried to sweet talk me into co-hosting with him by calling it the Red Room. He didn’t know a thing about Twin Peaks at the time, he has since written a book a few times on the subject, but he knew I loved it and thought that would make me do it. Joke was on him, I had no idea what a podcast was. I would have been happy to talk TV with anyone back then.
In 2010, podcasts were still kinda new. It wasn’t like it is now: all full of ads (which we have never done), celebrity hosts (which we will never be), and all kinds of safe areas for safe speech (which I have never been capable of). I only made one demand of Josh and that was that we take it very seriously. In fact, if you listen to the first four years of the podcast, you will hear a very un-funny Scott. I remember when I met a few Twin Peaks friends (I’m looking at you Tony) at the first festival, they couldn’t believe that I was funny. (My wife still thinks I’m not funny.) I wanted to be serious on the podcast and not waste anyone’s time. I am not sure that we achieved that goal, but we sure tried. Once I started guesting on Twin Peaks Unwrapped all the time, I let a little more humor slip into the Red Room, but I still always tried to host an episode like it was on NPR.
I won’t waste anyone’s time here discussing highlights or low bars of the past 215 episodes. (We only had to take one episode down due to legal action so 214 still exist.) I enjoyed hosting with Josh and without. Josh and I learned a ton and tried to share that knowledge with our listeners. I Met David Bushman, Courtenay Stallings, John Thorne, Ben Durant, Bryon Kozaczka, Brad Dukes, and Mark Altman through the podcast—all who became friends in real life. That means the most to me.
So why tell you and why not save it?
I am telling you because you have one month to download any episode that you feel the need to keep. We are told that on December 31 they will delete all the files. This will include my side podcasts: Scott Luck Stories where I told comic short stories from my youth which spawned my first book, and the thirtysomething Podcast, where I interviewed the cast of thirtysomething which spawned my second book. So if there is something you want, download it. But also, it is OK to just let it slip away into the fog of the internet.
You can find me on YouTube through The Blue Rose Magazine’s YouTube channel, where I will still interview people when it comes my way. Ben & Bryon graciously have said I can post on their Twin Peaks Unwrapped Podcast if I get an interview with someone who is getting a rug delivered. Until then, follow me on Twitter @Scottluckstory or @FMPbooks (while Twitter still exists.)
When the Red Room started I was answering phones at the expense of my spirit at a soulless call center. Now I run a publishing company, I have written several books, and Sheryl Lee knows my name. Not sure I could ask for anything more. Thank you so much to everyone who ever listened and shared an episode of the Red Room.
We are not saving the podcast because honestly these episodes are so old they don’t carry a ton of value beyond nostalgia, and we all learned from The Return that nostalgia is for chumps. Also, if we moved the podcast all the Google and website links would be broken, and we would have to basically start over. A podcast with two non-famous white guys just isn’t where the world is at right now. It’s time for a new generation to take over and suggest what to watch. People wanna binge reality TV on their phones. That, in itself, is a good reason for this old guy to step aside.
I still have my VHS Twin Peaks box set of Episodes 1-7. The quality of those VHS episodes aren’t anywhere near the High Res versions on iTunes or Paramount Plus, but they are mine. I can touch them. I can hold them. I can own them. I still have my R2-D2 action figure from Star Wars from 1977. It is mine. A company can’t go out of business and take it from me. I own Billy Joel’s The Bridge vinyl record that I bought in 1986. If Spotify dies tomorrow, I can still hear “Big Man On Mulberry Street” which played in my favorite episode of Moonlighting. I own those episodes, too. I like owning my art. I never owned the Red Room. They were out there for listeners and now they are not. That is the way of new media. So if this article returns to Moonlighting, let’s end the same way.
The Red Room Podcast ceased operations on December 31, 2022.
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