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Welcome to Kicking the Seat!

Ian Simmons launched Kicking the Seat in 2009, one week after seeing Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia. His wife proposed blogging as a healthier outlet for his anger than red-faced, twenty-minute tirades (Ian is no longer allowed to drive home from the movies).

The Kicking the Seat Podcast followed three years later and, despite its “undiscovered gem” status, Ian thoroughly enjoys hosting film critic discussions, creating themed shows, and interviewing such luminaries as Gaspar Noé, Rachel Brosnahan, Amy Seimetz, and Richard Dreyfuss.

Ian is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association. He also has a family, a day job, and conflicted feelings about referring to himself in the third person.

Ep948: There's No Stalgia Like Nostalgia: MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944)

Ep948: There's No Stalgia Like Nostalgia: MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944)

Ian Simmons

It's the most Judy-ful time of the year! Last December, Ian and Pat explored 1963's bizarre TV special, The Judy Garland Christmas Show. Now they travel further back in time for a look at the classic 1944 "holiday" musical, Meet Me in St. Louis!

Garland stars as Esther, a teen girl living with her sisters and brother in 1903 Missouri. All the kids are boy-crazy, girl-crazy, or unsettling-neighborhood-mischief-crazy--and their world is upended when Dad's law firm promotes him right into a high-paid position New York job.

Join the guys for a spoilerific look at a film that Pat has grown up on--and which Ian saw for the first time in preparation for this episode. Is Meet Me in St. Louis a piece of nostalgia worth treasuring, or simply, as Ian puts it, "a 2-hour version of the first 20 minutes of Gone with the Wind"?

Plus: If you're in Chicago this weekend, learn how you can catch Pat in A Judy Christmas, a satirical stage play about the making of that fateful TV special!

Subscribe, like, and comment to the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!

Show Links

  • Watch the Meet Me in St. Louis trailer.

  • Chicagoans! Get your tickets to see Pat in A Judy Chrismas--which takes over Chicago's Den Theatre this weekend!

    • Order online…Or call (773) 697-3830.

  • Keep up with Pat at HollywoodChicago.com.

  • Listen to Pat's movie reviews on the radio at STAR 96.7.

Ep949: BAD BOYS of THE BAD CLASS - An Interview with Author Ben Beard

Ep949: BAD BOYS of THE BAD CLASS - An Interview with Author Ben Beard
Ep947: Beyond Hammerland: FRIGHTMARE (1974)

Ep947: Beyond Hammerland: FRIGHTMARE (1974)