Sam Pancake Presents the Monday Afternoon Movie

Welcome to 2026! The Monday Afternoon Movie's latest season continues. Our featured film today stars a couple of legendary icons of the screen, big and small. It's also completely wacky and an all over the place bargain bin James Bond clone. 

The 1972 film, starring Bette Davis and Robert Wagner, centers on Madame Sin, a wealthy, brilliant, and deeply manipulative woman who runs a private organization that trains people to be elite criminals. She recruits individuals with specialized skills—pilots, scientists, strategists—and molds them into a secret force she can control. Her operation is polished and almost glamorous, but underneath it's all about power and domination.
 A former British intelligence officer (Wagner) who's been burned by the system, is lured into Madame Sin's world. At first, the offer looks tempting: money, prestige, and a chance to use his talents again. But he soon realizes that Madame Sin's ambitions go far beyond crime for profit. She wants leverage over governments and plans a massive, high-stakes scheme that could destabilize international politics.

Joining Sam Pancake today is actor, writer, and 90-second historian Brandon Johnston. Follow him on Tik Tok and Instagram (linked below) to check out his Hollywood History series. 
Love what you hear? Want to show your support for Sam Pancake & The Monday Afternoon Movie? Make sure to follow on the official Patreon page and pledge a few bucks if you are able, and get access to a new bonus episode every month, 4 behind-the-scenes exclusive videos, as well as all past episodes and content for hours upon hours of Pancake action.


Sam's Patreon Page


Show Links:

Watch today's film: Madame Sin

Sam Pancake's Instagram

Sam Pancake's Linktree

Brandon Johnston's Hollywood History Tik Tok

Brandon Johnston's Instagram

This episode was engineered & produced by Meika Grimm.

Do you hear the bells and festive music? Feel that cold weather nipping at your toes? Smell the gingerbread and peppermint? I guess that means only one thing: Meika, cue up the Ed Asner clips because the yearly Sam Pancake Holiday Special is upon us once more and we're all out of Paul Lynde specials to cover.

Today's episode takes us on a sentimental and heartwarming journey through ABC's 1977 Hanna-Barbera produced made-for-tv film The Gathering, starring legendary actors Ed Asner and Maureen Stapleton. Also of note, the movie was written by Academy Award winner James Poe, who gave us the screenplays for Around the World in 80 Days and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Ed Asner plays a grumpy and blunt middle-aged executive who finds himself facing a terminal illness diagnosis. He is forced to confront the prospect of leaving behind the life that he has built and the family he loves but has often taken for granted. In the end, The Gathering becomes more than just a family reunion. It's a cathartic and emotional journey, one that teaches the importance of love, forgiveness, and the fleeting nature of time. With his characteristic stubbornness and unflinching honesty, he shows his family the value of coming together when it matters most, even as he faces his own mortality.

From everyone at Sam Pancake Presents: The Monday Afternoon Movie, we'd like to wish you all a very merry holiday season. May it be filled with all of the things you love and cherish. 

Love what you hear? Want to show your support for Sam Pancake & The Monday Afternoon Movie? Make sure to follow on the official Patreon page and pledge a few bucks if you are able, and get access to a new bonus episode every month, 4 behind-the-scenes exclusive videos, as well as all past episodes and content for hours upon hours of Pancake action.


Sam's Patreon Page


Show Links:

Watch today's film: The Gathering

Sam Pancake's Instagram

Sam Pancake's Linktree

Alonso Duralde's Instagram

Alonso's Patreon page: Linoleum Knife

Check out Alonso's book, Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas
Alonso's previous episode on Monday Afternoon Movie: Horror at 37,000 Feet

This episode was engineered & produced by Meika Grimm.

The time has come for our yearly Thanksgiving harvest, only this year, Sam Pancake has deciede to share with you all the dark secret of the corn. It's going to be a shuckin' good time. To help unfold that secret is actor, comedian, and content creator Daniel Vincent Gordh (Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Matt and Dan)

THE DARK SECRET OF HARVEST HOME is a 1978 tv mini series produced by Universal Television. It stars (in what may be her most ideal role ever) Bette Davis, David Ackroyd, and a young screechy Rosanna Arquette. 

When advertisement peddler Nicholas moves his family to a quiet peaceful New England town, they slowly come to the conclusion that there's more to this town that it seems and they are slowly pulled into their strange and corn loving ritualistic ways. What's the deal with all of the corn worship? Haven't they ever heard of soy? Or wheat? They really should diversify their crops a bit. 

Love what you hear? Want to show your support for Sam Pancake & The Monday Afternoon Movie? Make sure to follow on the official Patreon page and pledge a few bucks if you are able, and get access to a new bonus episode every month, 4 behind-the-scenes exclusive videos, as well as all past episodes and content for hours upon hours of Pancake action.


Sam's Patreon Page


Show Links:

Sam Pancake's Instagram

Sam Pancake's Linktree

Daniel Vincent Gordh's Instagram

Watch Sam on Daniel's show!

This episode was engineered & produced by Meika Grimm.

The Halloween episode has arrived and we come bearing Debbie Reynolds and a little bit of Disney Channel magic. In a Monday Afternoon Movie first, Sam and his guest will cover all 4 movies of the series in one action packed epsiode!

HALLOWEENTOWN, starring Kimberly J. Brown and Debbie Reynolds, follows Marnie and her siblings as they learn from their Grandma Aggie all about the wonders, dangers, and rules of being and witch, as well as how to navigate a strange new world they've learned about called Halloweentown.

Sam has enlisted a popular name in the horror podcast circles, DeVaughn Taylor to come sit down and digest all 4 movies back to back to back to back. Will they make it to the end? Will all of the actors? Or will they all be recast and replaced before our anti-climactic finale?
Love what you hear? Want to show your support for Sam Pancake & The Monday Afternoon Movie? Make sure to follow on the official Patreon page and pledge a few bucks if you are able, and get access to a new bonus episode every month, 4 behind-the-scenes exclusive videos, as well as all past episodes and content for hours upon hours of Pancake action.


Sam's Patreon Page


Show Links:

Sam Pancake's Instagram

Sam Pancake's Linktree

DeVaughn Taylor's Instagram

This episode was engineered & produced by Meika Grimm.

Today's Monday Afternoon movie involves overalls, Stacy Keach, backwoods Tennessee children, willow switches, and rattlers! 

ALL THE KIND STRANGERS is a 1974 ABC Move of the Week starring Stacy Keach and Samantha Eggar. When photojournalist Jimmy sees a young boy carrying a heavy load back to his house, Jimmy offers to take him home. What he finds when gets there is a family of children with no clear adults present but always the promise of one to arrive. What strange direction will this Lord of the Flies vibe take us?

Sam's has asked friend, colleague, and SNL alum Melanie Hutsell back to the show for another round of wacky made for TV goodness. Follow her Instagram to keep up with her latest shenanigans, or also check out the link below to check out her previous episode with Sam.


Love what you hear? Want to show your support for Sam Pancake & The Monday Afternoon Movie? Make sure to follow on the official Patreon page and pledge a few bucks if you are able, and get access to a new bonus episode every month, 4 behind-the-scenes exclusive videos, as well as all past episodes and content for hours upon hours of Pancake action.


Sam's Patreon Page

Show Links:

Sam Pancake's Instagram

Sam Pancake's Linktree

Melanie Hutsell's Instagram

Melanie's previous episode: Daughter of the Mind

Link to Mother's Little Helpers

This episode was engineered & produced by Meika Grimm.