Starkville’s House of El Podcast

Reports of its death were highly exaggerated. “Starkville’s House of El: The Movie” (aka Episode 175) is a 2 hour documentary chronicling the story of Smallville, SHoE, and the friendships and stories that were born out of both. It’s our thank you to our listeners for five years of being there with us every week, and our final farewell to a show that kept us watching for ten years about a boy who became a Superman. The End.

A link to download your own copy of SHoE 175 will be available shortly and it will be also be available on our iTunes feeds tomorrow.

We’ve been called every name in the book over this episode. Liars is the one that keeps coming back. I can assure you we are in no way lying when it comes to our final episode of Starkville’s House of El. It is a very personal thing for me and I have been its #1 supporter since the cameras stopped rolling in May.

We always knew it was going to be ambitious but we really wanted to try and do everything for this episode. Get the band back together. Do a huge round-table retrospective of the past 10 years of the show, season by season, as well as the last 5 years of SHoE. There was even a time we were talking about getting all the hosts together in one room, and I mean ALL the hosts (Tucker, Will, Graham, Houston, Steve, Joe, Damian, Robin) and just having this huge SHoE nostalgic fest on camera. SHoECon, if you will. But that all kind of fell through and we salvaged what we could by Steve and myself making a promise that we would be there together for the end and that the cameras would be rolling through the weekend. With that in mind, we commissioned Damian, Joe, and Robin to be in on this as well and make this a big blowout. It was ambitious, and not to oversell it (because I don’t want it to come out and people say “that’s what we waited for?!”) but I think we did the end of SHoE justice with the 10+ hours of footage that was shot that weekend, not to mention other footage from the past 5 years.

We essentially wanted a two-hour movie of a journey from Smallville and SHoE. This was all mapped out on a cocktail napkin before it was announced that the Smallville DVD series set would have a 90 minute documentary about the show from season to season with almost every cast member. As great as that documentary is (and trust me, I’m on my fourth viewing; it is amazing) we really wanted the everyman’s point of view and since that’s what we’ve done from week to week for the last five years, we were going to compile everything into one and, to borrow a phrase from Steve, pull the curtain back completely.

With all that in mind, you might be able to somehow empathize the undertaking that Graham was facing when I gave him everything back in June. It’s basically a film. And with that in mind, it became a tax on us to get it done in an appropriate amount of time for Smallville and SHoE’s ending. We wanted to take our time, because we wanted it to be perfect so we could use every bit of host interviews, as well as listener submitted videos. There just wasn’t time in the day. Graham has done about 40% of the footwork on it but is just buried under real life, as we all are. I can’t blame him for that when he was doing this for free in what should a several thousand dollar paid project. I don’t have the equipment or time to devote to this myself. It’s been little by little. Enter Jason Spencer. Jason has been a long time listener of SHoE and one of the first people I can remember talking to early in the show’s birth. He’s always been a good friend and is devoting his free time to getting the project done once and for all within the next 3-4 weeks. Jason is an amazing freelance videographer and editor and the project is in good hands with him.

So, that’s basically it in a nutshell. We aren’t holding out. We aren’t trying to coincide with the season 10 or series set DVD/Blu-Ray releases. It’s just been an uphill battle trying to get this just right with a project that was shot one everything from expensive high-end cameras, to iPhones, to Flip Recorders. It’s a journey, much like the film itself. In fact, every day we get closer, I call it more and more of a film. A very personal film because it took 5 years to get here and it’s taken a few more months to get it just right. So, it’s coming. And I hope you all love it.

Remember in Episode 174 when we asked you to be patient? Keep it up! SHoE 175 is in the process of being completed and will hopefully be out by this weekend, though don’t hold me to that. With over 100 listener submitted videos, plus our own footage, this has been a huge undertaking to complete with the help of Revision3’s Graham Hancock. So we hope you’ll continue to be patient as he puts the finishing touches on the final episode.

I’ve seen the completed first seven minutes and it is killer. I truly believe it’s a fitting end for Starkville’s House of El and can’t wait to share it with you!

We ate like men and we cried like women.

At 11:30 PM EST – Derek, Steve, Damian, Robin and Joe will go live for the final episode of Smallville, which you can join in on at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/starkville-house-of-el.

Be sure not to miss the last episode of SHoE with all the hosts before our final 175th video episode.

There will be a lot of laughs and, undoubtedly, tears as we discuss the final episode of Smallville, which has been ten years in the making. We start at 11:30PM EST, but we plan on going late so west coasters, be sure to join us when Smallville goes dark for you. There will be plenty to discuss long into the night.

There will be 90 minutes in-between the finale and the live show on the east coast – plenty of time for you to film and email your Smallville/SHoE stories and memories to mail@smallvillepodcast.com – guys, we need a LOT of footage for what we are trying to pull off. Whether you’ve listened for one season, or been with us since the beginning, please take a couple of minutes with your iPhone, laptop, or digital camera and send us some footage to have a big close out with. We’d really appreciate it.

BE THERE AS SMALLVILLE WRAPS UP CLARK KENT’S TEN-YEAR JOURNEY IN AN EPIC TWO-HOUR SERIES FINALE — The story of Clark Kent culminates in this epic two-hour series finale as Clark takes the last step to becoming the Man of Steel. With surprise guest appearances, nods to the first few seasons of the series and Michael Rosenbaum’s return as Lex Luthor, this final episode wraps up a decade-long story following one’s man’s journey to becoming the world’s greatest superhero. Erica Durance, Allison Mack, Justin Hartley, Cassidy Freeman, John Glover, Annette O’Toole and John Schneider also star.

This is it. 10 years in the making. Tonight, the series finale of Smallville airs – in what promises to be a myriad of emotions of excitement, sadness, and overall, hope. Superman will take flight and we will all be watching. After ten years of watching, and five years of doing Starkville’s House of El, we are ready to see how it all turns out. After the episode airs – Steve, Derek, Robin, Damian and Joe will go live for Episode 174 at 11:30PM EST. We will have more details on the site about that later today, and on our Twitter – so check back.

It’s going to be a great night!

JOR-EL GIVES LOIS SUPER POWERS; KARA returns — Clark takes Lois to the Fortress to get Jor-El’s (voiced by Terrance Stamp) blessing for their marriage. Jor-El bestows a unique wedding gift on the couple – he gives Lois Clark’s super powers so she can see what it’s like to be him for a day. Unfortunately, the Toyman (guest star Chris Gautheir) has returned to Metropolis, so Lois must go up against the notorious villain instead of Clark. Meanwhile, Oliver searches for the Bow of Orion, which he believes will remove the Omega symbol from his skull, and runs into Kara (guest star Laura Vandervoort), who is also on a mission to stop Darkseid.

It’s the penultimate episode before the last ever episode of Smallville. Don’t miss the final moments that lead up to the series finale! Come back here to discuss it afterwards, and keep an eye out for SHoE 173. And don’t forget to send in your video submissions for the SHoE finale! See below for details!