Free Nights and Weekends Podcast

12/11/2025

FNAW Podcast returns to the 80s wonderland of Toys “R” Us, complete with plastic fumes, runaway RC cars, and a backward “R” that probably baffled Russian speakers everywhere. Childhood wasn’t perfect, but that store came close. And it’s back!

See ya tomorrow!

12/05/2025

This week on *Free Nights and Weekends*, Scott is joined by longtime friend and veteran musician Rick Toops — and the two dive headfirst into one of the wildest pop-culture stories of the late ’80s: the rise, fall, and unexpected comeback of Milli Vanilli. Yep. You read that right. Fab Morvan — one half of the most infamous duo in pop history — is nominated for a Grammy. Again. And it just so happens Rick was there, in Oklahoma City, watching Milli Vanilli perform at the Myriad right before the scandal broke. The crowd. The energy. The lip-syncing. The clues. The chaos. Rick walks Scott — and you — through the entire surreal experience. In this episode: The night Milli Vanilli came to Oklahoma City. Rick’s behind-the-scenes musician perspective. How the duo shot to global superstardom * The fallout after the tapes stopped matching the lips * And how, somehow, decades later… redemption comes knocking at the Grammys It’s nostalgic, it’s ridiculous, it’s musical, and it’s right here!

This week on *Free Nights and Weekends*, Scott is joined by longtime friend and veteran musician Rick Toops — and the two dive headfirst into one of the wildest pop-culture stories of the late ’80s: the rise, fall, and unexpected comeback of Milli...

12/03/2025

Does anyone recognize this dude? That’s one of the voices of Milli Vanilli. The surviving Milli or Vanilli is up for a Grammy in 2026 because the Grammys just love irony. And we cover it with guest Rick Toops on Friday’s episode!

11/28/2025

New episode Friday! This week on the Free Nights and Weekends Podcast, we drve straight into the retail mayhem of a true Gen-X Black Friday — back when parents fought strangers for Cabbage Patch Kids, Atari games were stacked like sandbags, and leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches were the fuel that powered America’s bravest shoppers.

From 1983’s infamous Cabbage Patch riots to bargain-bin Atari cartridges and the sacred post-Thanksgiving sandwich that kept families alive in mall parking lots, Scott breaks down the holiday madness.

Strap in, layer up, and meet us by the Orange Julius. It’s Black Friday in the 80s… and it was glorious.

This week on the Free Nights and Weekends Podcast, Scott dives straight into the retail mayhem of a true Gen-X Black Friday — back when parents fought strangers for Cabbage Patch Kids, Atari games were stacked like sandbags, and leftover Thanksgiv...

11/28/2025

We’re doing this on tomorrow’s big “Black Friday” show. Sidenote, this is probably my favorite episode we’ve ever done. And every 80s kid remembers this craziness. Relive it tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving! 

11/21/2025

New episode Friday (kind of)! This week we go solo with an abbreviated version of the podcast because we can. Save that bandwidth for the big Thanksgiving show next week! Still, we take some time to answer some important questions and look back on a forgotten icon of our past. The Fotomat booth.

Scott takes a solo dive into 1980s photography: Fotomat drive-up kiosks, disposable cameras, one-hour photo labs, and the unforgettable feeling of opening a yellow envelope filled with freshly developed prints. From mystery film rolls to the famil...

11/21/2025

Short solo podcast episode tomorrow. We talk about this glorious bastard. Short show this week so we can pace ourselves for the coming turkey comas. 

11/14/2025

New Episode Friday!

Michael Knight is back on the highway—whether we asked for it or not.

In this week’s episode of Free Nights and Weekends, Scott and Adam dust off the Trans Am, fire up the red scanner light, and dive head-first into all things Knight Rider. We break down the original 1980s phenomenon, the cultural impact of KITT (television’s snarkiest
AI long before Alexa got snippy), and the bizarre-but-real announcement of a Knight Rider movie reboot.

 Michael Knight is back on the highway—whether we asked for it or not. In this week’s episode of Free Nights and Weekends, Scott and Adam dust off the Trans Am, fire up the red scanner light, and dive head-first into all things Knight Ri...

11/07/2025

It’s Friday! Today we revisit one of our most downloaded episodes from the early days of the podcast! This one is wild. If you’re a veteran of Moore, OK public schools and are of a certain age, you might remember this. If not, enjoy this wild ride (literally).

Did you have a ridiculous drivers ed experience in high school? I can't imagine it tops this.  Hang on as some voices from the past come together to retell how we all survived the craziest drivers ed story I've ever heard of. And I was right ...

10/31/2025

Free episode Friday! Oklahoma fall nights, free candy from parents chain-smoking by the porch light… It’s Halloween in the 80s — when the news said L*D was in your Smarties and we believed it.

This week we welcome the guys from Fried Okla to unwrap Halloween.  — when every parent swore there were razor blades in apples, L*D in Smarties.  Scott revisits trick-or-treating in suburban Oklahoma — the haunted houses, the good candy...

10/28/2025

Cut lips and plastic shirts. What were we doing? Oh, and everybody wanted to kill Gen X kids with razor blades and drugs in our candy So they told us. New episode on Friday where we get to the bottom of this nonsense.