The Eyes of the Ranger (w/ Jesse Brenneman)
Added 2023-01-18 23:51:04 +0000 UTCThis episode is a little different. Rather than dissecting an influential conservative book written by long-dead intellectual, Matt and Sam are joined by Know Your Enemy's brilliant producer (and host of the very funny podcast, Tech Talk) to unpack a different kind of "text"—the hit CBS television show from the 1990s, Walker, Texas Ranger, starring the very much still-living Chuck Norris. Set in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Norris stars as Sergeant Cordell Walker, a member of the storied Texas Rangers who takes on drug dealers, Satanists, corrupt cops, and other bad guys, a task aided by his incredible martial-arts skills. The episodes of Walker discussed in this conversation were carefully curated by Jesse, and they provide a great deal of fodder for understanding conservatism (and America) in the 1990s, law and order politics, the American penchant for moral panics, how the Right has changed in the decades since the show aired, and more.
Sources:
Walker, Texas Ranger on IMDB
"Chuck Norris's code of honor," drawn from the Chuck Norris System of martial arts (Chun Kuk Do)
Chuck Norris, Black Belt Patriotism: How to Reawaken America (2008)
Aaron Cantú, The Chaparral Insurgents of South Texas,The New Inquiry, April 2016.
Comments
Glad to see that I'm not alone in having had the experience of seeing the Power Team in real life as a kid (multiple times). The water bottle thing always seemed odd, not sure why it was their big finale. Can confirm that they said it could kill you if you did it wrong haha.
Quinn Brunk
2023-02-10 22:25:16 +0000 UTCThis episode was so good and so fun. I remember loving Walker as a little boy in the early/mid aughts. Interestingly, we had multiple real life strongmen squads come to my conservative evangelical school and church growing up to do quite literally what the Power Team was about - hot water bottles, altar call, and all. I remember watching kids and teachers lying down on a nail bed they brought to the school for one of their bits. Such a weird and hilarious memory to pull out of my brain tonight. Would love more stuff like this for sure (Bibleman anyone?)
John Willis
2023-02-06 04:39:23 +0000 UTCThe grease trap episodes lol
Michael Kenny
2023-02-05 23:56:45 +0000 UTCI was looking for this. I think this would make a good regular segment. The trio (Jesse was great) could review 24, cops, and even the Dukes of Hazzard. I can’t think of any other shows I would loathe to see off the top of my head, but would be interested in seeing the impact on our society, and how it resonated with the other side; and how it interpreted purported conservative values.
Michael Kenny
2023-02-05 23:53:53 +0000 UTCI thought this episode was outstanding because it's the grease trap where we can learn more about the denizens of the Right. I'm not sure anyone who voted for Republicans in Pennsylvania or Arizona last Nov can tell you a whole lot about how/why East Coast Straussianism influenced them more than West Coast, but bah Gawd they can probably quote you some Walker. What are the chances that we get an episode exploring the Freudian implications of the Walker, Texas Ranger viewership? Sounds killer, make it happen Matt and Sam.
Bw T
2023-01-28 22:36:16 +0000 UTCEnjoyed this episode much more than I expected to. Wouldn't be mad if you did another one immediately
Tim Combes
2023-01-25 19:37:17 +0000 UTCHere it is on YouTube, skip to 42:30 for drug planning and 1:07 for robot transformation: https://youtu.be/lupV92XLiXI
Mark K
2023-01-25 02:37:08 +0000 UTCDescribing all drug dealers as evil reminded me of a little straight-to-video release called Moonwalker. Michael Jackson peeps in on the bad guys planning to distribute drugs (head bad dude says “New York - marijuana, Ohio - speed” etc), then there is a chase where they perform Smooth Criminal, the MJ transforms into a battle robot and guns everyone down. Must be seen to be believed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonwalker
Mark K
2023-01-25 02:31:36 +0000 UTCThe Power Team or something similar came to my jr. high school in, I think it would have 1993 or 1994. It was in the Deep South, so the Church/State separation was pretty leaky, though only slightly more than a regular school day. It was definitely one of the more entertaining assemblies we had. I do remember the blowing up of the hot water bottles, which they told us not to try, since it might actually kill us, the pressure potentially rupturing our lungs or something.
Ben
2023-01-22 16:28:14 +0000 UTCTo create new enemies, like Nietzsche's priest creating sins.
Adam Lewis
2023-01-22 14:03:06 +0000 UTCThey make a reappearance in farce in The Righteous Gemstones
G
2023-01-21 22:37:03 +0000 UTCGood point, Rick!
Know Your Enemy
2023-01-21 16:18:41 +0000 UTCSo happy that Sam mentioned the Walker lever on Conan. I remember being in my early teens and laughing so hard when I saw that bit.
Taylor
2023-01-21 04:41:24 +0000 UTCGuys! The commies have been defeated! They need to find new ENEMIES! That's how the 90s anti-pc thing happened....
Rick Perlstein
2023-01-21 01:30:38 +0000 UTCYes, you guys should do as many of these as you'd like!
Dan Anderson
2023-01-20 23:04:25 +0000 UTC:(
Adam Lewis
2023-01-20 12:00:11 +0000 UTCGod, I remember being a small kid in the 2000s and watching reruns of this show with my extremely Republican father. Wild to think back on. Right now I'm just really stuck on that training montage song from the Principal episode? Shazam doesn't recognize it at all and I cannot find it anywhere on line - was this extremely homoerotic hair metal song written solely for that one minute of Chuck Norris shirtless tv time?
Markus
2023-01-20 01:46:42 +0000 UTCGreat episode. The notion that Walker avoided the post-9/11 era is very interesting. Makes me think that Kiefer Sutherland and 24 may have picked up where Chuck Norris left off. And when they were describing the Power Team and its Christian angle outside of the show I immediately thought of the God Squad from season 2 of the Righteous Gemstones. Sure enough, the show creators have said it’s a very conscious parody of the PT.
Gabe Hopkins
2023-01-20 01:04:04 +0000 UTCWe can all agree that that Cordell Walker is a straussian, right?
Benjamin Vanston
2023-01-20 00:20:49 +0000 UTCI remembered catching reruns on cable when I was a little kid, legit recall thinking "these plotlines are really immature"
Aaron Banschick
2023-01-19 22:32:05 +0000 UTCI can't believe I never heard of this show before. My parents would have loved it, and they would have also loved to torture me by making me watch it. I loved the episode! So, hopefully we'll see Jesse again soon!
History Chick
2023-01-19 20:10:15 +0000 UTC+1 for a TV/movie review episode a couple times/year. The only improvement would have been including shouts out to Bronson and/or Stephan at the couple of appropriate points. You know where they were.
John Maline
2023-01-19 18:19:25 +0000 UTCI think the first time I cried as a kid may have been when ( 🚨 spoiler alert 🚨 ) the wolf died in Lone Wolf McQuade. Top notch work, boys!
Rimbo Jackson
2023-01-19 16:50:00 +0000 UTCI never watched the show when it was on-but I was always aware of it. I recently came connected to it because a caregiver to a patient I see-I am a home health physical therapist-always has it on. It's funny how, based on this commentary, the show is almost exactly what I thought it would be.
Jennifer Reft
2023-01-19 15:02:38 +0000 UTCWhoah I almost forgot about the Power Team. I used to see them at Victory Christian Center in Tulsa in the early 90s
Luke Mayville
2023-01-19 08:24:12 +0000 UTCI loved this episode so much! When's the spin off ("Know Your Enemy's Favorite Episode of Walker, Texas Ranger") coming? Also, this podcast unlocked a memory I didn't know I had of attending a strong man show as a kid 20+ years ago, where I personally witnessed a hot water bottle being blown up and popped. I was successfully repressing that memory until now, so thanks for that.
Ben Harloe
2023-01-19 07:40:33 +0000 UTCWelp, you've reminded me of the Power Team after it's too late to buy beer. I was exposed to both them and Strike Force as a teen--it was the exact same "bodybuilders perform feats of strength and yell at you about how drugs will keep you from being as cool as I am" shtick except that one version was explicitly Southern Baptist and one was crypto-Southern Baptist
Quin Adams
2023-01-19 06:42:19 +0000 UTCThis whole episode was fun but I especially appreciated the Mountain Goats reference, hail satan
Hannah C
2023-01-19 03:25:51 +0000 UTCWould be interested to see what the boys think of Yellowstone
Carter Mize
2023-01-19 02:17:04 +0000 UTCI enjoyed this episode. Even though I was in my 40s when Walker, Texas Ranger was on TV, and I never watched it. Somehow it reminded me of the Chip Hilton series of sports books by Clair Bee, all 24 volumes owned by me and read multiple times in my boyhood. Not sure where I am going with this. But guess these days I prefer to encounter fictional characters who might inspire a young person to plead "Say it ain't so, Joe, say it ain't so."
Bob Scott Placier
2023-01-19 01:56:49 +0000 UTCBut Yellowstone is on right now?
Dan
2023-01-19 01:45:32 +0000 UTCThis episode had better talk about "Lone Wolf McQuade."
Adam Lewis
2023-01-19 00:52:29 +0000 UTCI have several distinct memories of the infinite WTR reruns shown in the early 2000s. Isn’t there an episode where a bullet bounces off Walker’s belt buckle and hits a guy? I’m confident that’s where Ben Carson got his “knife story.”
Owen Urech
2023-01-19 00:49:07 +0000 UTCYes! Yes! Yes! Boo-yah ca-cha!
Brian Bowes
2023-01-19 00:30:08 +0000 UTCThis episode made me so happy
Jordan Prather
2023-01-18 23:56:25 +0000 UTC
