The ForceCast

"The Force-Cast is for fans of all types - from the casual film watcher to the die-hard conventioneer."

- The official iTunes listing for the Force-Cast

The Weekly Force-Cast is the official podcast of TheForce.net and Rebelscum.com. Season One began on April 6, 2005, and the current season began on September 1, 2006. Regular episodes, which run anywhere from fifty minutes to two hours long, are released every Friday. The Force-Cast features the latest news, interviews, events and opinions from the Star Wars fan community. The show is hosted by Jason Swank and Peter Nadel, with occasional guest spots from collecting guru Dan Curto, Jimmy Mac a.k.a. "The Man", Rebelscum's Jovial Jay Shepard, and Former Fan Club President Dustin Roberts.



History
Originally, the Force-Cast was done by Erik Blythe, but he had to stop production of the episodes due to external conflicts. After a contest done by TheForce.Net's Dustin Roberts, Jason and Pete were selected to continue the show. As revealed in the audition tape, the two co-hosts originally called each other by nicknames, with Jason as "Jedi Swank" and Pete as "Master Nadel."

Show rundown
The main sections of the show consist of:


 * Intro: Jason and Pete open the show, and sometimes correct themselves as pointed out by listeners.
 * Birthdays: Jason and Pete wish Star Wars celebrities and Force-Cast fans a happy birthday.
 * Billy Dee Clip of the Week: Jason and Pete play a clip of Lando Calrissian actor Billy Dee Williams playing the part of Toussaint Dubois on General Hospital: Night Shift.
 * Fantasy Football Update: Jason and Pete review the current standings and notable moments from the Force-Cast's own Fantasy Football League, created by Mick Celli. (Currently out of season)
 * Headlines: the two hosts will run through the events of the past week that related to Star Wars.
 * Collecting: the Force-Cast gang, which sometimes includes collector Dan Curto, goes over collecting and merchandise announcements.
 * The Outrageously Unthinkable Story of the Week: Inspired by Sio Bibble's quote, "It's outrageous! It's unthinkable!" and accompanied by a musical introduction of its own, this section features a story that is deemed too hilarious or unfathomable to put in the general news section.
 * Listener calls/mail: Jason and Pete play voicemails and read emails from listeners, and respond to them.
 * Live call-ins: occurring throughout each episode, and only when the Force-Cast is recording via Ustream.

Running gags
Throughout the course of their show, Jason and Pete have created and ran with several gags, many of them perpetuated by fans of the show in the chat room.


 * Shirtless Palpatine: Jason maintains that this is not a "desire," but simply an casual, offhanded comment.
 * Blackhole Stormtrooper: Sparked by the hosts' great dislike for the action figure cop-out that was the Blackhole Stormtrooper, this gag has been further explored in a video Force-Cast for the September 28 episode.
 * "It's outrageous! It's unthinkable!": Although the joke now has its own show segment, it started out with Jason and Pete congratulating Sio Bibble actor Oliver Ford Davies on his birthday, and soon transformed into a exclamation thrown out whenever something shocked a Force-Cast fan.
 * Grizzled: When Cliegg Lars actor Jack Thompson celebrated his birthday, the Force-Cast mentioned it on the air. As they usually do when announcing a celebrity birthday, they also play a clip from that actor's involvement in the movies.  Thompson's clip happened to feature Cliegg in a very "Grizzled" state, according to Jason and Pete.  A joke on the show is that "Just when you thought you couldn't get more grizzled than Owen, you've got Cliegg!"
 * Bromance: On their first episode back after a week-long hiatus, Jason and Pete discussed their email correspondence and how one of them had written to the other, "I haven't seen you in two weeks!" This was in reference to the fact that they usually do not meet up except to do the Force-Cast.  The in-joke was generated when Pete mentioned the Bromance episode of Scrubs and Jason laughed.
 * The George Lucas/Peter Mayhew/Sean Connery impressions: Though many a chat participant has been fooled during the live recording into thinking that Lucas himself is on the show, it is in fact Jason doing an impression.
 * "I want my nickel!": Spawned from the unmatchable Jimmy Mac's interview with Admiral Conan Antonio Motti actor Richard LeParmentier; the actor complained about not getting paid for his famous line regarding the Death Star being the "ultimate power in the universe," and eventually the complaint evolved into a famous Force-Cast gripe.
 * "What's a Mod?!": When Jimmy Mac heard about The Force-Cast Unleashed, he emailed the Force-Cast crew as well as the mod team to ask what a mod was. His question was answered, but Jason didn't let it end there.  He imitated Jimmy's voice asking the question on the next live show.  On one of the shows following that, they played a recording of Jimmy imitating Jason imitating Jimmy asking the question.  The imitation received overwhelming positive feedback.

Opening music
The Force-Cast's opening music is considered by fans to be as distinctive as the Star Wars theme music itself. The music has evolved over time, eventually adding more clips from the film and utilizing the voice of Jimmy Mac.



Force-Cast TV
Though not produced by Jason and Pete, the weekly video episodes available on the Youtube Channel are officially "licensed" parodies of, and supplements to, each regular audio show. Produced by Force-Cast video icons Kay and Mark, each video segment includes special video content on top of audio from the latest episode of the show, with the Force-Cast crew making appearances as still images whose features are manipulated in sync with their dialog. Each video also ends with the Force-Cast's disclaimer being read by Jason, but with different video content accompanying it each time.

RebelScum forums
The official forums of Rebelscum.com have a section for the Force-Cast, where listeners post threads about topics from the show, general Star Wars news, and all things related to the podcast. Fans of the show also post in-jokes from previous episodes, questions for the hosts, messages for fellow listeners, and any input they have for the show. In the past, there have been several trivia contests, some of them with prizes and some of them just for fun. A list of ongoing topics follows:
 * Fresh threads for each newly released FCTV
 * A thread with information about the Fantasy Baseball League
 * A thread for DarthFagan and JediShua's Lazy Book Club. The club listens to Star Wars audiobooks and discusses them in dedicated threads.  The club is currently "reading" Karen Traviss's Bloodlines.
 * How much do you remember by heart? - forum-goers must post movie lines sequentially from memory. The game is currently on Return of the Jedi, with a new thread entitled Return of the Memory.
 * A thread entitled New Clone Wars Trailer that has evolved into a general TCW thread.
 * Shazbazzar's Bazaar of Trivia, a Jeopardy-like game.
 * You know you're a true Force-Cast fan when...
 * The Where Have You Seen Star Wars Today? thread, where fans post about Star Wars references in their daily lives.
 * Jorbex's Indy Photo Trivia, which fills multiple new pages on some days due to the sheer number of answer posts made by "contestants".
 * In preparation for the as-yet-unannounced Celebration V, an Unofficial Force-Cast Listeners' CV Thread was started.

CafePress store
Around the time of Celebration IV, the Force-Cast introduced an online store where fans could buy t-shirts, mugs, aprons, mousepads, clocks, hats, stickers, magnets, and calendars printed with the Force-Cast logo. Fans sporting the logo at Celebration IV were rewarded with exclusive Force-Cast swag.

Four-Word Story
A big hit on the Force-Cast forums has been a thread called the Four-Word Story. Started on October 22, 2007, by Chris Pence, the idea is for each post to add on to the story using only four words. Several plot twists and scene transitions have occurred seemingly out of nowhere, but the story always maintains a sense of cohesion.

Gaming Mod
In late November 2007, Force-Cast fan Daniel Mutchler decided to undertake a mountainous endeavor. He wanted to create a Battlefront II mod for the Force-Cast. He began working with mod tools he found online, and soon he had a strong foundation upon which to build the mod. He enlisted the help of fellow Force-Cast fans Calvin and Eric and also help from Gametoast users. Daniel worked tirelessly to develop the map, design and produce the characters, and publish it for all Force-Casters to enjoy.

To help him create accurate representations of important Force-Cast personalities, Daniel also received assistance from Kay and Mark, of FCTV fame. But before he even thought about releasing the mod, Daniel knew he should get his target audience hyped up. For that, he needed a trailer. In this matter, Daniel turned to Calvin and Eric. They began working on the mod’s trailer in late December, receiving clips from Daniel as he tested the mod in various stages of completion.

On December 27, 2007, Calvin posted a thread on the Rebelscum forums announcing the existence of the game, which is being produced by Outrageous Entertainment. The thread ended with the line, "May the 21st be with you in 2008," a possible hint at the mod's release date. May 21, 2008, is a significant date because it marks the twenty-eight anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back.

On December 28, 2007, Daniel released the first demo of his mod, then called Yellow Harvest. The release was for game developers and Force-Cast crew only, but Force-Cast fans were promised an upcoming sneak peek at the mod via the Rebelscum forums. In addition, Daniel, Eric, and Calvin set up a website for the gaming mod, where the trio currently posts progress updates, screenshots, sneak peeks, various other announcements, and a developer-only Production Diary which they intend to make public after the mod's release.

On January 2, 2008, the team released the trailer for the first demo of the mod. The trio also announced that the name Yellow Harvest was a working codename for the mod, which is now being called The Force-Cast Unleashed. Shortly before the trailer went live, TheForce.Net posted an item on its homepage discussing the mod and linking to its official homepage. Traffic since then has gone up considerably.

On February 21, 2008, Daniel uploaded the first public demo of the mod to a Filefront server. After being plugged on TheForce.Net, traffic to the site--and downloads of the public demo--shot up.

Gaming League
When forum-goer Falleen_Fan_No_1 posted a thread about getting a gaming party together, several Force-Casters responded with enthusiasm. After determining an initial platform (PC) and a handful of games, Falleen_Fan and fellow Force-Caster Eric created the Force-Cast Gaming League. The pair set up a website for the league, where they would post screenshots, league member profiles, updates on upcoming matches, and other relevant information.

Micro-casts
The Force-Cast frequently releases Micro-Casts spanning a plethora of topics.


 * Jovial Jay Sheppard's What's New In the EU?, dedicated to bringing listeners up to speed with the merchandising and events of the Expanded Universe
 * Jimmy Mac's A Galaxy of Music, featuring music made by Star Wars fans
 * Interviews with members of the Star Wars community
 * Convention coverage direct from Star Wars Celebrations, San Diego Comic-Cons, etc.
 * Unnamed collecting show with Dan Curto (announced on the October 4 podcast)
 * Ed Dolista's Indy-Cast , detailing the news surrounding the Indiana Jones franchise as the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull draws closer

Host costuming
On the October 12 episode, Jason and Pete announced that they would try to put together a costume for the as-yet-unannounced Celebration 5. Jason had said that, being short in stature, he had always wanted to be Yoda for Halloween. In addition, because Pete was tall enough to be Luke, the pair decided to attempt a "Luke in training on Dagobah" setup, with Jason on Pete's back. The idea was met with much interest and enthusiasm from the fans, and one fan named Joel Cramer put together an artistic rendition of the costume. The sketch was in reference to Jason's statement on the episode saying, "I have conceptual sketches."

Live tapings
Jason and Pete record their regular shows live through a website called Ustream.tv. Fans can listen by going to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/force-cast during the taping of the show on Wednesday nights at 8:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time. The hosts also take live calls, either through Skype or from their phone number.

Listener interaction
At the end of every regular Friday episode, The Force-Cast crew plays voicemails and reads emails from Star Wars fans. Their voicemail number is (330) 754-0532, their Skype username is forcecast, and their email address is podcast@theforce.net. Fans who want to call into the show live can use Skype.

ThotMarket property
The Force-Cast is now represented by a stock property on a website called ThotMarket. On this website, users can buy and sell fake stock in properties that are created to represent blogs, websites, services, movie franchises, and commercial entities. As of August 29, 2007, at 9:32 PM EST, the stock value for the Force-Cast was at a shocking high of $136.53. This was the result of Jason and Pete mentioning the website on their August 24 episode. Unfortunately, the share price dropped abruptly, leaving it at $0.40 as of September 4, 2007, at 7:53 PM EST.

List of all celebrity guests

 * September 1, 2006 - Composer Steve Parsons
 * September 8 and 15, 2006 - SW Fan Club President Dustin Roberts
 * September 22, 29, and October 6, 2006 - Artist Joe Corroney
 * October 13, 20, 27, and November 3, 2006 - Fanboys Director Kyle Newman
 * November 10 and 17, 2006 - Author Drew Karpyshyn
 * November 22, 2006 - Boba Fett Actor Jeremy Bulloch
 * January 17, 2007 - 501st Legion members Albin Johnson, Mark Fordham, Darren Blum, and Dean Plantamura
 * January 26, 2007 and February 2, 2007- You Can Draw Star Wars! Artists Bonnie Burton, Tom Hodges, and Matt Busch
 * February 14, 2007 - Mara Jade model Shannon McRandle
 * February 21, 2007 - Author Timothy Zahn
 * February 23, 2007 - One Man Star Wars performer Charlie Ross
 * March 5, 2007 - Comic book artists John Ostrander and Jan Duursema
 * March 12, 2007 - Red 5 Comics artists Paul Ens and Scott Chitwood
 * March 14, 2007 - Musician Suckadelic
 * March 21, 2007 - Evasive Action webstrip artists Paul Ens and Scott Chitwood
 * April 23, 2007 - Atom Films representative Chris Albrecht
 * April 27, 2007 - Lucasfilm Director of Fan Relations Steve Sansweet
 * May 16, 2007 - Celebration IV Artists Allison Sohn, Cat Staggs, William O'Neill, Tom Hodges, Russell Walks, Dave Dorman, Mark Brooks, Joe Corroney, Adam Hughes, and Grant Gould
 * May 21, 2007 - Celebration IV-related personalities Stan Stice, John Scoleri, Shane Turgeon, Gus Lopez, Cris and Courtney Macht, Kyle Newman, Kevin Burns, and Beth Segarra
 * May 28, 2007 - Celebration IV-related personalities Cris and Courtney Macht, Dan Madsen, and Don Bies
 * June 1, 2007 - Lando Calrissian actor Billy Dee Williams
 * June 27, 2007 - Artist Randy Martinez
 * June 29, 2007 - Artist Tom Hodges
 * September 27, 2007 - Artist Tom Hodges
 * October 2, 2007 - Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron Producer Jeff Penna and Assistance Producer K.C. Coleman
 * October 4, 2007 - C-3PO Actor Anthony Daniels
 * October 8, 2007 - Lando Calrissian Actor Billy Dee Williams
 * October 10, 2007 - Lucasfilm/ILM veteran C. Andrew Nelson
 * October 15 and 17, 2007 - Former Fan Club President and Insider magazine co-founder Dan Madsen
 * October 22, 2007 - Reference guide author Daniel Wallace
 * November 16, 2007 - The Star Wars Vault authors Steve Sansweet and Pete Vilmur
 * May 2, 2008 - Author Kevin J. Anderson
 * June 29, 2008 - Steve Sansweet (Microcast hosted by Jimmy Mac)
 * July 4, 2008 - Sculptor Lawrence Noble

Contests
The Force-Cast frequently receives Star Wars goodies from groups and individuals affiliated with Star Wars merchandise or media. Some of these items are made into prizes for Force-Cast contests. Some notable contests follow:


 * Pledge of Allegiance: Upon receiving two signed copies of Timothy Zahn's book Allegiance, Jason and Pete created the Pledge of Allegiance contest. Listeners were invited to pledge their allegiance to the Force-Cast in a voicemail; the two best pledges would receive first place and those people would get the signed copies of Allegiance. After extending the deadline for submissions by an extra week, Jason and Pete finally picked two winners from Maryland, Mike and Eric.
 * Legacy Revealed Contest (forums): When Jason and Pete got several promotional items from the History Channel for their upcoming documentary, The Legacy Revealed, they put together a contest to win the promo goods. T-Shirts, posters, and trading card packs were included, with listeners vying for the first response post to several trivia questions from the show hosts.
 * Number One Longing, Number Two Regret: This contest was run by RebelScum forum-goer and TheForce.Net staffer Mike Barrick. He had acquired four copies of Jeremy Bulloch's movie Number One Longing, Number Two Regret.  Barrick held a miniature trivia contest, wherein four forum users won the DVDs.  The first copy, which was unsigned, went to Eric, a Marylander who was also Mike Barrick's co-winner from the Force-Cast's Pledge of Allegiance contest.  The three signed copies went to Pedro Jorba, a listener from Mexico City; John Fagan, from Connecticut; and Nick, a student at Purdue University.
 * Battlefront: Renegade Squadron Giveaway: The first giveaway conducted in a live Talkshoe chat. After doing a Micro-Cast interview with two LucasArts developers, Jason and Pete got four copies of their new game, Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron.  Shortly thereafter, in the next live episode of the show, the duo announced that they would be giving away the four copies they had received.  Each of the next four episodes featured a quick section at the end, where Jason and Pete took the first live caller with the answer to the trivia question.
 * October 5: Joshua. The question was, "What were the names of the two LucasArts developers interviewed on a recent micro-cast?"
 * October 12: Eric. The question was, "In which movie did Billy Dee play football player Gale Sayers?"
 * October 19: Nate. The question was, "Name the Star Wars film in which Dan Madsen had a cameo role, and name his role."
 * October 26: Robbie. The question was, "What was Daniel Wallace's first officially licensed reference guide?"