Viva Pod Vegas s2e1 – Elvis: The Comeback Special (1968)
Viva Pod Vegas officially kicks off Season 2 with a long-overdue omission: Elvis: The Comeback Special from 1968! After discussing the different versions that we watched, we talk about the director’s OTHER notable work. Mike welcomes Col. Tom Parker back to the podcast to hear his original pitch to NBC.
We talk about the disparate elements they shot and edited together, what it must have been like to see this on TV in 1968, and how broadly influential this special was (and the additional context needed to fully take it in). Joey tries to sift through, frankly, too much research, then makes a splurge of a purchase while recording. We discuss Elvis’s storytelling mannerisms that trickle down through culture.
Viva Pod Vegas: The Season Two Watchlist
- Elvis: The ’68 Comeback Special (1968) dir. Steve Binder
- Elvis (1979) dir. John Carpenter
- The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) dir. David Zucker
- Mystery Train (1989) dir. Jim Jarmusch
- Bubba Ho-tep (2002) dir. Don Coscarelli
- Orion: The Man Who Would Be King (2015) dir. Jeanie Finlay
- Elvis & Nixon (2016) dir. Liza Johnson
- EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (2026) dir. Baz Luhrmann
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