MuggleCast
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MuggleCast is a weekly podcast featuring several staff members from the popular Harry Potter fansite MuggleNet that discusses everything to do with the Harry Potter world (Potterverse). The first show was launched on August 9, 2005 and was made available through the Apple iTunes service. Less than a week later, on August 14, it reached the number one position on the list of highest rated podcasts on iTunes. Transcripts of the podcast are available on the MuggleCast website, and are usually posted five days after the episode has been released.
The hosts are: Andrew Sims, Ben Schoen, Kevin Steck, Eric Scull, Jamie Lawrence, Laura Thompson, and Micah Tannenbaum.
Contents |
[edit] Show Format
The show begins with a small commercial for their sponsor, Go Daddy.com, then moves onto the theme music, a rock version of Hedwig's Theme from the film. A new theme was recently recorded that opens with plain rock music and then later goes into Hedwig's Theme. The hosts state their names, and the show begins with a news roundup done by Micah Tannenbaum and then features discussions about the books and films. It then is handed over to one of the MuggleCasters who goes on to read the listener rebuttals along with a voice mail section where listeners can send recorded questions to the panel about previous episode discussions and questions about the Harry Potter series in general. Usually lasting at least an hour to an hour and a half, MuggleNet staffers Andrew Sims and Ben Schoen are the lead hosts, typically joined by several other staff members, including Laura Thompson, Eric Scull, Kevin Steck, Micah Tannenbaum and Jamie Lawrence. The podcast covers some breaking news events, including the press conference hosted by Warner Brothers in advance of the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and featuring many of the film's stars. There are also a number of contests featured that are sponsored by advertisers whose gifts usually include various Harry Potter merchandise, including film giveaways and walk on roles in the next Harry Potter film. Members of other Harry Potter fansites have also appeared on the podcast as guests, such as John Noe from The Leaky Cauldron/PotterCast, Jeff Guillaume from the Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator, HPANA for short, and Matthew Vines from Veritaserum.
[edit] Segments
- Chapter-by-chapter discussion. The MuggleCasters will go through a few chapters each episode, analyzing details.
- Character Discussion/Topic Discussion. On MuggleCasts with even numbers (i.e. MuggleCast #38, #40, #42) the MuggleCasters discuss a character, their name origins and what they have done in Harry Potter. On MuggleCasts with odd numbers (i.e. MuggleCast #37, #39, #41) the MuggleCasters discuss a certain topic related to Harry Potter.
- Editorial section. An editorial from MuggleNet is chosen, and the author is invited to discuss.
- "What-if..." What would have happened if just one detail in the series had happened differently?
- Theory of the Week. The hosts take a popular theory from MuggleNet's Chamber of Secrets forum and discuss.
- Listener rebuttals. A review of listeners' emails and voice mails about the previous show.
- Favorites. The hosts name their favorite... related to the Harry Potter world.
- Chicken Soup for the MuggleCast soul. An email that shows how MuggleCast brightened someone's day or life is read aloud.
- Ben's Give me a Butterbeer. Modeled on John Stossel's segment on 20/20,"Give me a Break," Ben picks a Potter-pertinent topic
- Spy on Spartz Spy on Spartz was a segment in earlier episodes in where the MuggleCasters would call Emerson Spartz and "spy" on him, ie. ask him what he was doing. The segment got booted because fans were getting bored with it, or as the MuggleCasters put it: "Emerson loves college too much". The segment was brought back later briefly, with the threat to reveal one digit of Emerson's phone number every time he did not answer his phone. It got booted once again, and listeners were not given Emerson's phone number anyway
- Andrew's Huh!? Email of the Week. Features weird emails sent in by listeners of the show.
- Jamie's British Joke Of the Day. Features a joke told by Jamie, who is British.
- Crackpot Theory of the Week. Eric Scull is sent a strange/obscure theory from a fan and has 1-2 minutes to defend it to the best of his ability.
- Dumbledore Norris Facts Jamie reads "facts" about Dumbledore inspired by the popular "Chuck Norris Facts."
- The Dueling Club Two MuggleCasters say two different Harry Potter characters at the same time. They then defend their character to decide which of them would win in a duel.
- Debate Teams of one or two hosts debate over topics Harry Potter related or occasionally not (see episode 61, in which the topic is trick-or-treating) One host is the judge, who's vote counts for 25% of the winning vote. Listeners then decide the final winner on the poll on the website. The winner is announced on the next show.
- What's Buggin' Micah?, where Micah rants about something bothering him. In the past, he has complained about the length of time in between updates to Rowling's web site. Not too long after, Rowling did indeed update her web site, prompting MuggleCasters to speculate whether she listened to the podcast.
- "Andrew's Listener Challenge" Where Andrew comes up with crazy challenges for the listeners to do, was taken off the air, but has made a comeback in recent episode.
[edit] Catch phrase
Although it is not a part of the format of the show, host Andrew Sims often says "Pickle! " at any random moment, after being dared by fellow Leaky Mugger Melissa Anelli to create a catch phrase. Similar to her PotterCast's, use of the word Dawlish, Andrew declared "Pickle" the MuggleCast catchphrase in Episode 54.
[edit] The Leaky Mug
MuggleCast has a very friendly rivalry with The Leaky Cauldron and its PotterCast. Hosts of PotterCast have appeared on MuggleCast on occasion and they have teamed up to record joint podcasts, which are titled "The Leaky Mug".
One joint podcast was recorded live in New York City on November 13, 2005 at the Union Square Barnes & Noble coinciding with the United States premiere of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. During this show, PotterCast host Melissa Anelli's mother, who was at the premiere party, called in with Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Katie Leung (Cho Chang), Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory) and Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom) on the phone.
Two joint live podcasts were held in the summer of 2006. The first was in July at the Lumos 2006 Symposium, a Harry Potter convention that was held at the JW Marriott Hotel in Las Vegas. A few days later, the Leaky Mug team held another live podcast in New York City at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square where the first live podcast was held. The show was focused around JK Rowling's August 2006 visit to New York.
A Leaky Mug was also held in late September 2006 at the Borders in Westwood, California. It was a very small, but intimate podcast.
The date and venue of the next live podcast is unknown.
[edit] Awards
MuggleCast was voted Podcast of the Year by the 2005 Weblog Awards, which are decided by popular vote. In late September 2006, it was also awarded the 2006 People's Choice Award at the 2nd annual Podcast Awards.
