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Episode 32 - Munsters Reveal and BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

Special When Lit·podcast_episode·25m 10s·analyzed·Jan 9, 2019
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Munsters reveal reaction + exclusive panel announcement with Stern's design team.

Summary

Special When Lit Podcast episode 32 covers the Munsters pinball reveal at CES, where Stern unveiled the Limited Edition model alongside Pro and Premium variants. The hosts announce an exclusive panel discussion with the game's creation team—designer John Borg, programmer Dwight Sullivan, artist Christopher Franchi, and sound engineer Jerry Thompson—recorded the same day as the reveal and uploading Thursday. Initial reactions focus on the artwork, black-and-white playfield design, dual-flipper lower playfield mechanics, and high production quality.

Key Claims

  • Stern revealed Munsters LE model first at CES, not the Pro model as typically expected

    high confidence · Ken Cromwell describing the reveal: 'they launched with the LE model, which is something that I wasn't expecting'

  • Munsters has three playfield models: Pro (color, no lower playfield), Premium (black-and-white with lower playfield), and LE (full color with lower playfield and additional features)

    high confidence · Ken Cromwell: 'the pro which is color without a color play field the premium which is black and white for the most part with the lower play field. And then the LE, which is full color with the lower play field'

  • The Premium model features a monochromatic playfield with tastefully implemented color in inserts and text

    high confidence · Ken: 'black and white trans light, but it's a black and white playfield gray scale with very classy color elements introduced on the inserts, on text and on the toys'

  • Munsters features a 180-degree ramp that goes up and comes back down

    high confidence · Ken: 'the right ramp on this pin has a 180-degree turn that goes up in the air and comes back at you on the way down'

  • The lower playfield has four independent flipper buttons (two for upper, two for lower) allowing simultaneous play on both playfields

    high confidence · Ken: 'you have four buttons on the machine two buttons control the left and right flippers on the upper play field and the other two buttons control the left and right buttons on the lower play field'

  • Special When Lit organized an exclusive same-day panel discussion with the full Munsters creation team

    high confidence · Ken: 'we are doing a making of the Munsters panel discussion, which will have a major part of the creation team... the designer, John Borg, the programmer, Dwight Sullivan... the artist, Christopher Franchi... the sound engineer, Jerry Thompson. all on the same show at the same time'

  • The Addams Family sold approximately 20,000 units historically

    medium confidence · Bill Webb: 'How many Adam's Families did they sell? 20,000.'

Notable Quotes

  • “I don't know that that's ever been done in podcasting... we have kind of pioneered this a little bit”

    Ken Cromwell @ ~3:45 — Expressing pride in organizing what they believe may be the first same-day panel discussion with a full game creation team on a podcast

  • “It looks like it's shaping up to be like the next Addams Family... I really do think that it looks that awesome”

    Bill Webb @ ~37:30 — Comparing Munsters' potential impact to one of pinball's most successful licensed games

  • “you're not double flipping, meaning you don't have two right flippers assigned to one button and vice versa. You can individually control the upper and lower flippers individually... you can be playing two pinball play fields at the same time with four individual flippers that just blows my mind”

    Ken Cromwell @ ~20:30 — Highlighting the unique dual-playfield control scheme as a major mechanical innovation

  • “The sound did sound awesome. I like the call outs between that and the animations... The sound was freaking killer on it, man. I loved I love Jerry Thompson sound packages”

    Bill Webb / Ken Cromwell @ ~28:00 — Praising the audio design and acknowledging Jerry Thompson's contribution

  • “after seeing it I can totally see where all of those elements come together and just make it something it's beautiful it's like nothing you've seen on any release of any pinball machine um ever”

    Ken Cromwell @ ~14:30 — Changing opinion on the black-and-white Premium playfield after the reveal exceeded expectations

  • “There was very little leaked footage on this particular reveal, which was kind of refreshing, because I'm not one that likes to see a lot of this stuff before it comes out”

    Ken Cromwell @ ~40:45 — Noting the successful information control around the reveal and personal preference for experiencing reveals unspoiled

  • “It's like those teaser videos that Stern will put out occasionally... of the making of this game, a five-minute video, which are always awesome to watch... I look at it as an extenuation of that”

Entities

Ken CromwellpersonBill WebbpersonStern PinballcompanyJohn BorgpersonDwight SullivanpersonChristopher FranchipersonJerry ThompsonpersonZach Sharpperson

Signals

  • ?

    announcement: Stern officially revealed Munsters at CES with three playfield variants (Pro, Premium, LE)

    high · Ken and Bill describe watching the 1 p.m. Central Time reveal stream with makeup-wearing Stern reps, playfield showcases, and full gameplay footage

  • ?

    content_signal: Special When Lit announces exclusive same-day panel discussion with Munsters creation team (designer, programmer, artist, sound engineer), claiming potential first in podcasting format

    high · Ken: 'we are doing a making of the Munsters panel discussion... These aren't separate interviews... this is exciting because you're going to have an inside look... I don't know that that's ever been done in podcasting'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Munsters features dual independent playfields with four individual flipper buttons (two per playfield) allowing simultaneous play on both fields without double-flipping

    high · Ken details: 'you have four buttons... two buttons control the left and right flippers on the upper play field and the other two buttons control the left and right buttons on the lower play field... You can be playing two pinball play fields at the same time'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Premium model features black-and-white grayscale playfield with tasteful color accents in inserts and text—novel approach for Stern

    high · Ken: 'black and white trans light... black and white playfield gray scale with very classy color elements introduced on the inserts, on text and on the toys... it's beautiful it's like nothing you've seen on any release of any pinball machine um ever'

  • ~

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.075

0:00
Coming at you out of St. Charles, Illinois, the special when lit pinball podcast starts now. Hey, what's going on pinball land? This is the special when lit pinball podcast episode number 32. I'm Ken Cromwell. And I'm Bill Webb. So Bill, we had the Munsters reveal finally today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It launched at about 1 p.m. Central Time, where surprisingly, they launched with the LE model, which is something that I wasn't expecting. But no, before we get into this, I want to we kind of tease this on Facebook a little bit. And that was a special announcement that we had for the show. So instead of making you listen to the whole episode, which will be short and we'll sure we're sure you would do that anyway. Yeah, we're going to let the cat out of the bag here. And essentially what we have done and a big thank you to Stern Pinball, a big thank you to Zach Sharp, because without their blessing on this, without their approval, it wouldn't have gone down. But we are doing a making of the Munsters panel discussion, which will have a major part of the creation team. And that is the designer, John Borg, the programmer, Dwight Sullivan. We have the artist, Christopher Franchi, and we have the sound engineer, Jerry Thompson. all on the same show at the same time in a roundtable discussion about Munsters. These aren't separate interviews. These aren't career interviews. This is exciting because you're going to have an inside look at some of these industry, you know, people sitting down talking about the creation of their game all at the same time.
1:40
I don't know that that's ever been done in podcasting. So I'm proud and you're proud. Very proud. To have kind of pioneered this a little bit. And if it has been done, I haven't heard it, and that's great. But it's exciting. We're stoked about it, and it's been in the making for months. Without us having a confirmation on what the theme actually was, we knew that we wanted to line up a panel discussion with the creation team of a pinball machine on the next release. And after some back and forth, we were able to kind of figure it out. And thank you, Zach. Thank you, Stern Pinball. And thank you to John Borg for doing this. I'm not too sure if he's ever done a podcast. I mean, I know you did some research and wasn't able to find much, but... Yeah, he may have been on a show. I don't know that he's had anything recently. I couldn't find anything. But yeah, I mean, thanks to John and Dwight and Jerry and Chris. Yep. All these guys at the same time talking about a game that was released a few hours ago. Now, the interesting thing is this. We're going to keep the episode short because as we record this, episode number 32, we're just going to give you some initial thoughts on the reveal today. We're seeing it for the first time, just like you all have seen it for the first time today. When we get done recording this episode, we don't have time to edit. So we're going to throw this out there to kind of get our opinions out on the machine and let everybody know what we were doing for the surprise, so to speak. And then immediately following this episode, we go into this panel discussion. and that will be recorded and I'm imagining we'll have that edited down in 24 to 48 hours so give or take a day I would expect that to be uploaded on Thursday right before we get into the weekend so I mean super exciting and I can't wait to do it it's like a roller coaster day because we you know you watch the the twitch stream then we're going into the podcast then you know we got to upload this real fast then we have to do the the panel discussion and that's going to be you know six people on one podcast so that's no small feat um ken's worked real hard to get this set up um this should be a great episode and we really look forward to you guys hearing it well the interesting thing is this too so we have four in studio which is myself yourself we'll have dwight sullivan and john borg and then you know from his home we've got christopher franchi and then from his home we've got jerry thompson so we've got two people remote four people in studio six on the same podcast i don't think it'll be confusing i there's none of us sound alike. So there should be no confusion on who is who. But again, it's going to be it's exciting. It's exciting. So if you don't mind, Bill, let's just talk about the day here with the Munsters reveal. And then we will wrap this up and we'll get into the panel discussion, which will upload Thursday. But one o'clock stream goes live. It's Jack Danger. Now, the first thing that I noticed and I know you were at work, so I'm not sure if you caught it from the beginning or not i caught a little i started watching it like uh five minutes in yeah so you had you had zach sharp who's dressed up like like the werewolf you know yep which was cool you had gary stern as grandpa munster which was hilarious uh actually danger jack danger you know as uh as as mr munster yeah um herman munster yep um so the makeup they were all in character It looked really, really cool. It was really, really fun. And then we had, there was like this view of the press looking at the camera on the review. So when you're waiting for the reveal, you're seeing everybody looking at yourself as if you are the pinball machine under the cover. They pull the cover off. They switch everything around. Jack Danger goes live. And then you see what I was expecting to be a Munsters Pro machine, because typically that's what we see on the Stern reveals via stream. It's the pro. but no no no right out of the box bam limited edition monsters and uh i was excited i i mean i didn't expect to see it i was excited anyways you're excited to see a machine revealed you know you wait and you wait and you wait well yeah we've been talking about you know monsters for months now so i mean just the hype and everything else to finally see it was like oh yeah it was so nice i mean there is like kind of that that payoff and it didn't disappoint because um i mean the first thing I noticed was the artwork and the colors on the play field. I was like super impressed with crazy art, crazy artwork, Christopher Franchi. Oh, my gosh. Like, I don't know how he how he does it every single time It seems like he one ups his last his life I don know if this I be curious to ask him during the panel discussion if this is his favorite art package that he done yet or how it compares in his latest art packages because he just doesn seem to miss to me No no And the time and effort that goes into doing that. I mean, all three of those art packages look awesome. Yeah. Uh, well, I see. And I'm glad that you said that. So not only did they have the Ellie there, they had at the Consumer Electronics Show, they had the premium, which is now confirmed is not only a black and white cabinet with a black and white trans light, but it's a black and white playfield gray scale with very classy color elements introduced on the inserts, on text and on the toys. Yes. So you're not looking at and this is what I was discussing before. And I took a little heat for my which I thought was a pretty you know diplomatic approach to the black and white play field um I took a little bit of heat for that but after seeing it I can totally see where all of those elements come together and just make it something it's beautiful it's like nothing you've seen on any release of any pinball machine um ever no and you know what honestly I was I was really on the fence on that too but after seeing it it just it didn't disappoint for being you know for being what it was in my mind i'm thinking like the black and white twilight zone sorry we keep hinging on that right well that's what i was kind of thinking in monochrome color you know uh one color lights you know very subtle um and this was not that and you know honestly watching the play with the different colors just looked awesome and you know the the fact that the inserts aren't clear really helped make it what it you know set it set the bar high you really you really appreciate the color that's in the play field because it's tastefully implemented so it really draws your attention it makes you appreciate what you're looking at also at ces is the pro model of this machine which is a color model that does not have a lower play field so the three models we're looking at the pro which is color without a color play field the premium which is black and white for the most part with the lower play field. And then the LE, which is full color with the lower play field with added features on the LE. We're not going to get into the feature matrix on this right now on the show. This is kind of our initial thoughts.

  • Zach Sharp was personally surprised by the Munsters announcement and did not know about it before the reveal

    high confidence · Ken: 'you had Zach Sharp still not able to confirm or deny. In fact, he had never even heard of Munsters. That's amazing that he works there'

    • Bill Webb / Ken Cromwell @ ~47:00 — Framing the panel discussion as an extended version of Stern's making-of videos

    Jack Danger
    person
    Munstersgame
    Consumer Electronics Show (CES)event
    Special When Lit Pinball Podcastorganization
    Pinball Paparazziorganization
    Bruce Millerperson
    Two Brothers Artisan Brewingcompany
    Addams Familygame
    Brian Eddyperson

    sentiment_shift: Hosts shifted from skepticism about black-and-white Premium playfield to genuine enthusiasm after seeing reveal

    high · Ken: 'I took a little bit of heat for that but after seeing it I can totally see where all of those elements come together... I was really on the fence on that too but after seeing it it just it didn't disappoint'

  • ?

    leak_detection: Ken notes very limited pre-reveal leaks—distributor phone photos and Pinball Paparazzi photo with shopping cart—unusually tight information control

    high · Ken: 'There was very little leaked footage on this particular reveal, which was kind of refreshing... We saw the leaked stuff that had come out from the distributor that had snapped some pictures on his phone'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Munsters creation team identified: John Borg (designer), Dwight Sullivan (programmer), Christopher Franchi (artist), Jerry Thompson (sound engineer)

    high · Panel discussion announcement lists all four team members with their specific roles

  • $

    market_signal: Bill Webb compares Munsters potential to Addams Family blockbuster success (~20,000 units); suggests 10,000 units would be 'killer' by modern standards and represent a year's worth of sales

    medium · Bill: 'It looks like it's shaping up to be like the next Addams Family... Can you imagine if Stern sold 10,000 of these? I mean, that would be killer. By today's standards, that would be a smash blockbuster hit... potentially like a year's worth of sales'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern adopted three-tier playfield strategy for Munsters: Pro (color, no lower field), Premium (black-and-white, lower field), LE (full color, lower field, additional features)

    high · Ken describes all three models and notes they offer choice based on preference for color vs. lower playfield vs. budget

  • ?

    community_signal: Stream chat reaction noted as 'overwhelmingly positive' by hosts; Dwight Sullivan and Jerry Thompson actively engaged on stream answering questions

    high · Ken: 'I think even... Dwight popped in on the stream and he was answering questions... even though these guys are, you know, remote, they're still very much involved in this reveal'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Stern/Zach Sharp explicitly approved Special When Lit's panel discussion format, suggesting openness to new media approaches for game reveals

    high · Ken: 'a big thank you to Stern Pinball, a big thank you to Zach Sharp, because without their blessing on this, without their approval, it wouldn't have gone down'

  • ?

    product_concern: Hosts express genuine uncertainty about which playfield variant to purchase (Pro vs. Premium vs. LE), indicating purchase decision complexity

    medium · Ken: 'I'm on the fence potentially at this point... my initial question is this... do i want to play on the lower play field... I'm on the fence if i were to purchase one whether it would be the black and white or the pro'

    • 8:40
    But yeah, so they show up to see us with three models. On Thursday, Jack Danger is going to go into Stern Pinball and he's going to stream with Dwight Sullivan, which is going to be nice because you're going to have a one-on-one with Jack and with the coder in a more, you know, private atmosphere setting. Yeah. More private setting. There was a little bit of glare that was of nobody's fault that, you know, was noticeable on the stream. And that was just where their booth was set up. And there's really I mean, there are steps that could be made in the future probably to eliminate that. But for what it was, you know, it was awesome. I mean, everything I'm just super impressed with what I saw. And that's not even getting into the elements of what we saw on the play fields. no the light show the light show is awesome man yeah it really is it really is nice it looked wicked you know how it stepped from one to the other and yeah you know just awesome um you know one thing i want to touch on is that pro just looks absolutely phenomenal you're a big fan of that pro i am you know what i really like i like the lower play field but i almost like the pro a little better because the artwork is right there in the center i like the the art package on it a lot and i love the green so that one calls to me a little more yeah but you know this said i haven't played a premium or a pro i'm just going off of you know well i think at some point yeah we have to get in uh hopefully to stern and be able to get hands-on on these models because i know for a fact that i'm in on purchasing a new inbox and you're on the fence potentially at this point and um i would really like to see see so i guess my initial question is this before i was wondering well i don't know if the black and white is going to be something that's going to keep my attention for longer than a couple hundred plays maybe i get bored with it i don't i don't know that that would be the the case anymore after seeing and witnessing the reveal of the black and white play field now my next question goes to do i want to play on the lower play field because if i don't want to play on a lower play field for whatever reason uh which has four buttons on the machine two buttons control the left and right flippers on the upper play field and the other two buttons control the left and right buttons on the lower play field. The interesting thing about this is you're not double flipping, meaning you don't have two right flippers assigned to one button and vice versa. You can individually control the upper and lower flippers individually, which comes into play because not only can you have a lower play field going that includes a multi ball in a lower play field, but you can also have a ball or multi balls on top. You can be playing two pinball play fields at the same time with four individual flippers that just blows my mind like i i don't even that's crazy i don't know how you would function on that you'd have to kind of trap up somewhere and and you know try to control some elements on one of the play fields or the other or you're just you're i mean that's a lot to take in for me anyways oh yeah you know what the premium is a crazy game um i like them all i honestly i'm on the fence if i were to purchase one whether it would be the black and white or the pro. So you're digging the black and white that much? I really do like it. And I was really, I thought it was a great idea. You know, sometimes great ideas don't come to fruition. Right. But, you know, the way that it was executed and the light showing everything else really just makes that thing stand out.
    11:59
    I would really be on the fence or hard pressed to make a decision between the pro or the premium. From what I've seen, and it's hard for me to make a decision, obviously, because now even though that we see the reveals and we see these high definition pictures and we're seeing video and as much as I can really appreciate the black and white play field at this point, which surpassed my expectations, I still am drawn to the color of the L.E. It's just I don't know. It's like, you know, you eat a good food. It's like a flavor explosion in your mouth. Like this is like a freaking. No but you want you want it to be visually appealing Yeah I just want to want it to hit you Right You want to be stunned by the color that the best way of putting that i so color drawn to color you know it it like i a moth to the flame um when i see color like that and it just it so that it also so tastefully done i i don't know man there's a lot to think about on this machine and it's exciting because to your point if you went with the pro and you don't get that lower play field you still have a beautiful art package and you still have a fully functioning machine minus that lower play field.
    13:03
    And if you do like black and white, boom, you've got like a middle tier option that has the lower play field. And if you want to go with all the bells and whistles and color draws your attention, you've got the LE package available to you. So it's decisions, decisions. I guess, do you pay the extra money for the lower play field? And then if you do, do you want color or black and white yeah you know what um i like the other i'm not asking you to commit no no no as of right now i you know what i really really like the artwork on the pro yeah so that's sucking me in a little more than the other ones the black and white is you know a strong second um i'd really have to see the lower play field but honestly for it being a pro you can't argue that game it just looks absolutely incredible and it looks like it shoots you know like butter so yeah i i'm gonna i don't have a great understanding of the rule set yet and i hope when dwight comes in today you know we can kind of talk to him about that i'm curious to see uh i when i'm taking all this in it's hard because i'm watching twitch and part of me wants to focus i don't know why this happens but when i'm watching twitch streams i'm always watching the uh the play the flippers i'm always watching to see how somebody is timing their shots where they're lining the shots up but then as i focus on the drain area which is you know what you have to do when you're playing at times i forget that there's a whole freaking play field on the top so then i'm looking at the top of the play field then i'm getting distracted and i'm looking and then i want to see the animations so now i'm looking at the animations but then i feel like i'm missing something that might have been in the twitch chat so then i'm trying to take in some of the chat to try to get a general feel of what people are talking about and which was overwhelmingly positive by the way um and i think even uh i say Zachary because it was Dwight popped in on the stream and he was answering questions. And I think I saw Jerry Thompson pop in there and he was answering questions. So even though these guys are, you know, remote, they're still very much involved in this reveal. The sound was freaking killer on it, man. I loved I love Jerry Thompson sound packages. I love them. And nobody's here yet. So I'm not kissing ass. No, no, no. I agree with you. The sound did sound awesome. I like the call outs between that and the animations. It does look absolutely awesome. Animations were a big step up, too, I thought. And, you know, and I apologize because right now, off the top of my head, I don't know who was in charge of the animations. I imagine there's somebody that led animations and then there was a team involved in getting those. But I really liked like extra ball animations, the multi ball animations.
    15:37
    You saw movie clips and voice and audio from the TV series. which I thought was killer. The design, did you see the right ramp on this pin has a 180-degree turn that goes up in the air and comes back at you on the way down. I couldn't figure it out in the video. I had a hard time figuring it out until I was like, that's a 180-degree turn ramp. I mean, that's awesome, man. I don't know. I'm psyched about this pin.
    16:08
    And it's great timing to have these guys come in because I don't know that I'll be more excited than I am right now until a box arrives that has whichever I choose in it. But it's a good day for pinball, in my opinion, and what a way for Stern to kind of jump out of the gate and throw up what looks to be a potential blockbuster title for them. Again, too soon to tell in finality, but a great first impression for me personally. Well, it looks like it's shaping up to be like the next Addams Family. I mean, I really do think that it looks that awesome. Yeah, okay.
    16:45
    When you say that, you just mean like general feel or design elements? The popularity of it. Okay, I gotcha, yeah.
    16:53
    Adam's Family was a smash hit for the time. How many Adam's Families did they sell? 20,000. Can you imagine if Stern sold 10,000 of these? I mean, that would be killer. By today's standards, that would be a smash blockbuster hit. Yeah, potentially like a year's worth of sales on a title.
    17:10
    I don't know that that happens, but... Hey, we hope for the best. Yeah. And what a way to launch after all the other monster themes that have come out, you know, to come out with this one. They did kind of nail the reveal, in my opinion. There was very little leaked footage on this particular reveal, which was kind of refreshing, because I'm not one that likes to see a lot of this stuff before it comes out, because part of the fun for me is experiencing the reveal with everybody else and not being shown things where it's like, oh, that's awesome, but I can never talk to anybody about this. Yeah. So, I mean, what's the point, right? And, you know, we saw the leaked stuff that had come out from the distributor that had snapped some pictures on his phone, and that was a cool kind of teaser leak, but it wasn't really anything that was too particular on what you were seeing.
    17:59
    And then I noticed, like, earlier today, prior to the stream, I think Pinball Paparazzi had uploaded a photo that showed a pinball machine, You know, Munsters looked like in a room somewhere next to a shopping cart. So I was like, OK, well, that's interesting. But other than those two things and just general rumors that had come out about this pin, it went very, very smooth. And up until the last couple hours, you know, you had Zach Sharp still not able to confirm or deny. In fact, he had never even heard of Munsters. That's amazing that he works there and he didn't even know. Yeah. So surprise to him also. So it's a, but Hey man, it's, it's a, it's a Munsters Tuesday and all of us here at special one lit. All two of us are, are on a high right now, just seeing the game revealed and looking forward to further discussing this here And I guess in about an hour when we start the panel discussion it be interesting to hear what these guys have to say about the creative process how they all work together what ideas that they had and how they were able to work amongst each other to make everything make sense Because, well, here it's a powerhouse team that was assembled. You walk into work and you say, OK, you know, all right, I'm finished up with my last project. What's my next one? Monsters.
    19:11
    Yeah. I mean, that's pretty cool. I want it. Yeah. I want to know how that was even introduced to them. I want to know if any of them were fans of the Munsters, if any of them had other options that they would have preferred. And at the end of the day, as we this is not going to be an interview. OK, this is not going to be John Borg. Walk us through your inspiration on all of your pinball machines. And let's start with this one. It's this is not that. No, this is this is focused just on Munsters machine. That's it. And it's a conversation about the making of Munsters. Yeah. This isn't 2020. We don't claim to be these award-winning investigative journalists here, but I have a really good feeling that it'll just give everybody a really nice, unique, exclusive inside look on the making of this pin. So if you're excited about Munsters, if you're excited about pinball in general, we hope to nail this and really potentially have other opportunities to do this down the road, which would be something to look at. It's like those teaser videos that Stern will put out occasionally. of the making of this game, a five-minute video, which are always awesome to watch. I do love those, actually. Yeah, you can watch those a few times and still see something you missed in the first one, or the first couple times. Yeah. So, yeah, I look at it as an extenuation of that, of how this game came to be, why this is the way that it, you know, just digging in and getting the inside perspective.
    20:41
    We've had a wild ride. I mean, over the last, I don't know, six weeks or so, I mean, we had Brian Eddy on the show, which was a first. And then, you know, we had that holiday show, which we both were really pleased with. And we appreciate everybody that participated with that. We had the 40 guests on with the nearest predictions and the resolutions. Now, you know, as we start 2019, we're jumping right into like another kind of first, I think, in podcasting, which is which is this panel discussion on a game that was released the same day. Yeah. So it's exciting. we couldn't do anything without support of people that listen to the show and refer people to the show and uh you know where we may not have 10 000 downloads on every single episode here we do have a but we're getting close we have a pretty nice following of people and um it's nice because every single episode you know we get a little bit more as far as a uh a follower followership you know if that's a word followership and uh it's it's been awesome so 2019 we're super excited about And I did want to say one thing because I didn't mention this last episode. And that is I wanted to personally thank Bruce Miller and Two Brothers Artisan Brewing for the sponsorship that they had provided with us through the end of 2018. They helped to add some credibility to our show when we first launched. They work with a product that, you know, I supported 100 percent with the Pinball Pale Ale. I know you did, too. And we had some fun cross promotions. and at the end of 2018, you know, we both kind of, all three of us thought it made sense that at this point to just kind of not go in separate directions because I think we will still promote with them. But as far as a main sponsor of the show, we've just kind of parted ways and with no animosity whatsoever, it just made sense that, you know, if we do end up with another show sponsor, I think it makes sense for us to have something or a business that's more focused and stapled within the pinball industry. Yeah.
    22:44
    You know, and the hardest thing was this for me was like, you know how many times I would have loved to have mailed out a six pack of beer to somebody that, you know, want to show or had a question that we used? And you just can't legally ship beer in the United States of America. So for that sponsorship, which was so dependent on beer, it was real hard for us to kind of share the wealth with the exception of going to pinball expo or having somebody in the at the time which was the pinball pale ale studio which is now just the special when lit studio which sounds weird i'm just so used to saying pinball pale ale studio yep so anyways i want to thank those guys um and and it was fun and we'll cross promote again in the future with some things but as far as the main sponsorship um we're single we're bachelors yeah so you know i don't know what to do with ourselves yeah i don't know i think i'm gonna go hit up jiffy lube down the street and see if they want to you could get like an oil change discount exactly something that'll benefit you right yeah i don't blame you but uh yeah so no it was a good it was a great it was a great uh time with bruce and uh two brothers yeah um you know just it has come to the to the end and you know bruce will still be around and i'm sure he'll still be walking the expo expo floor with us actually we did an interview with bruce maybe at one point we'll air that just for fun because bruce is such a cool guy and he is a personal friend of ours as well and to hear him excited about pinball and excited about launching a product that was pinball based was was fun and there's a whole story behind that that we can get into uh one day too but you know again bruce two brothers artisan brewing thank you so much for the partnership in 2018 it was awesome and uh cheer up i don't have anything to hold up because we don't have beer in the studio so not not not right now but i'll have to go get something yep um but i don't know bill i think we wrap up a quick 25 minute episode here yep get ready for this panel discussion yeah everybody hope uh you're having a good day and uh hope you're looking forward to this uh new and new endeavor of ours and hopefully it goes well and everyone enjoys it yeah and again thanks uh stern pinball and zach chart for the approval to allowing us to have these gentlemen on the show at the same time and we'll see how it goes hopefully nobody has to clean up our mess for Ken Cromwell. I'm Bill Webb.
    24:58
    Don't forget to take some time out of your day and play some pinball. And have a good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, wherever you're at. Yeah, so long, everybody.