Deep Dive into American Gothic - The Lost "Potato Boy" Episode

A lost episode of a cult 90s horror drama sent us down a rabbit hole we didn’t expect. We’re doing a deep dive into American Gothic, the dark series Shaun Cassidy created for network TV, and specifically the unaired episode called “Potato Boy.” The setup alone is chilling: a child’s hymn drifting from a forbidden house, a town that treats suffering like gossip, and a 10-year-old orphan, Caleb Temple, trying to figure out why every adult suddenly wants to “help” him.

We walk through the episode’s biggest storylines and the questions they raise. Why does Sheriff Lucas Buck, played by the impossibly charming Gary Cole, seem jealous of anyone who gets close to Caleb? What does the “Potato Boy” legend actually symbolize in a show obsessed with conscience, choice, and the price of protection? And how do the subplots, like the deputy’s buried secret, Selena’s uneasy tutoring scene, and a communion moment that turns disturbing, all point back to the same theme: power works best when it makes you feel alone.

 If you love supernatural television, gothic thrillers, or overlooked 1990s TV series with real bite, this conversation will give you a fresh lens on why American Gothic still sticks with people.

Subscribe for more deep dives, share this with a friend who loves dark TV, and leave us a message with your favorite American Gothic episode and your theory about what “Potato Boy” really means.

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Transcript

American Gothic Preview

SPEAKER_00 0:14

In my town, the American dream is still a reality. Of course, you have to know who's a boss. That's Sheriff Lucas Burke. That's uh Buck with a B. For those who follow my lead, life can be a paradise.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

It's impressive to see you doing your job, Less.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

But for those who don't, it can be a mighty rough road. See, we all have choices to make. Conscience is just a fairly problem. And if people are torn, it's only because they've been listening to the wrong voice. A voice that would lead them astray.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Are you a ghost? I'm your family.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Seduce them with hope.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Working with a share, I'm here to help you.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

In turn son against the father. Make the difference. I'll make a deal with you.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

You are my soul.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

There can only be one victor.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

I'll come for you.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

Today's show is definitely something we're gonna go into that we haven't done before.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

No, I think we've touched on it, but we haven't really dove into it.

SPEAKER_03 1:37

No, we haven't. We're gonna do a little bit of a deep dive into one of the episodes of Sean's show, American Gothic.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

Welcome to the Sean Squad Society Podcast with your hosts, myself, Cindy, Doris, and Madonna, where we invite you to share in our enthusiasm and reminisce about all things Sean gets.

SPEAKER_03 2:17

From his teen idle days to his recent adventures back on the road again.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Please join us for the stories and memories that connected us to those happy days that helped create the Sean Squad Society podcast.

SPEAKER_03 2:31

Everyone out there might know that I loved American gothic. It's one of the darkest shows that was on TV in the mid-90s. Yeah. It kind of predated cable, like the sci-fi channel and all that, with all those dark shows. Right. I think had it come out five years later, it might have lasted longer.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:57

As a cable TV series and not a regular network series. But I'm telling you, that show was so good.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

And I don't remember it. I know the name, but I've never came across it on TV.

The Show’s Premise And Characters

SPEAKER_03 3:11

Well, I'm gonna give a little background because there might be a lot of people out there that just don't know that there was a show on TV. And it was only one season, too. It only lasted one season. So there's the show produced and written by Sean Cassidy, and it was called American Gothic, and it took place in this fictional town in Trinity, South Carolina. It revolved around this guy, Caleb Temple. Caleb was a little 10-year-old boy, and he had to go to live in town because he became orphaned. There was this corrupt sheriff, Sheriff Lucas Buck. He was played by Gary Cole. We love Gary Cole. We love Gary Cole. And Caleb was played by Lucas Black. Well, they kind of made this whole show a little bit dark because Sheriff Buck was kind of the devil, but you didn't know it. Right. And he killed Caleb's sister. Caleb's sister watched him rape their mother. Wow. But Caleb wasn't born yet. He impregnated Caleb's mother. Caleb's mother then jumps out of a window and commits suicide. Oh gosh. And Caleb is left an orphan because Lucas killed his father. Oh, wow. What a plot. What a plot. Lucas has these supernatural powers and he runs around town. He kind of, you sell your soul to him. If you need something, you know Lucas can do it for you, but it's gonna cost you. Oh yeah. His main goal is to get Caleb, who he knows is his son.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

Because he wants somebody to carry on his bad traits.

SPEAKER_03 5:12

But Caleb's sister, Merlin, her main goal now is his guardian angel and to protect Caleb from Lucas. So that's kind of the background of American Gothic.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

Right. And it like I said, it was only one season, but I think it only aired 18 episodes.

SPEAKER_03 5:32

18 episodes aired. But we found some unaired episodes.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

Yeah, there's four of them.

SPEAKER_03 5:40

Four unaired episodes.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

One's called Potato Boy, one's called Ring of Fire, one's called Echo of Your Last Goodbye, and the other one's called Strangler.

SPEAKER_03 5:51

And we're gonna talk about Potato Boy. Potato Boy. We found it on YouTube, and it was interesting enough. I kind of fell upon it. I'll be honest. I was looking for the regular aired episodes, which I own on DVD, but I just wanted to watch it on my YouTube embed and not worry about it. And I found that one. So I said, okay, that's the one we'll watch.

Setting Up Potato Boy’s Plot

SPEAKER_02 6:19

Let's watch that one. Yeah. Do you want me to give you a little bit of background on what it's about? Yeah, set it up. All right. So it's about Selena, who reaches out to Caleb and tries to help him with his schoolwork. She's the teacher.

SPEAKER_03 6:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Yeah. And she begins to spend extra time with him, which bothers Lucas.

SPEAKER_03 6:40

Because she and Lucas are kind of involved.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Yes. I don't understand why he'd be jealous of a boy, but whatever. So then Selena tries to reconcile. Oh no, she also tries to reconcile with her father, who is the town's priest. Priest.

SPEAKER_03 7:02

And that's another story. And that's another story, because priests shouldn't have children, but I that's a whole different story.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

Right. But that's in with this episode, so she's trying to reconcile with him. And then Lucas also teaches Loris Holt.

SPEAKER_03 7:18

Yes. Who is now she runs, operates, let's say this boarding house or whatever, where Caleb lives, and this doctor who's new to town, he lives there with Caleb. And he kind of took Caleb under his wing too to help him and protect them.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Okay. So then Lucas is trying to teach Loris a lesson when she tries to forbid Caleb from going out with him.

SPEAKER_03 7:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

I think Lucas is trying to lure him away all the time.

SPEAKER_03 7:51

Yes. So Lucas wanted Caleb to go out that driving or something. Driving. Yeah. And she said, No, Caleb, you have home uh homework. And next thing you know, she's kind of choking her breath. She's choking all of a sudden. But and Lucas says something about that teaches you to watch what you say or something. So we know Lucas kind of had a little hand.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

Yeah, and then Caleb just leaves with him.

SPEAKER_03 8:16

Yeah. He gets mad at the doctor too, because the doctor tries to persuade him and he yells out something like, You're not my father. Right. And then he storms out. And he starts out with Lucas.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

Yeah. And they end up at a cemetery. They went driving and they were sitting in a cemetery.

The Potato Boy Myth And Meaning

SPEAKER_03 8:34

Yes. Which is where I believe some people he know are buried or I don't know. Well, yeah, if he caused it, he knows where they're buried. So yeah, that's kind of the background of this episode, Potato Boy. So a lot of people may be wondering why is it called Potato Boy? Right. Well, kind of the center focus, but not so much of a focus on the episode. It's there's this house that looks like a haunted house. And there's this singing, some young boy singing spiritual hymns. These kids can hear him singing. And Caleb's laying in bed one night and he hears this. And he's like, What the heck? And and then he asks two kids from town, his friends, and they're like, Oh, that's potato boy. Yeah, he's like, What? What? Who and what? So they go to the house and they tell him the story of potato boy, this deformed boy who was born without a face, a huge no eyes. No eyes. Then let's say a 30-pound head or something.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Yeah, his head was misshaped, so maybe that's where they got the name Potato Boy.

SPEAKER_03 9:54

Yeah, his head was misshaped. Cats will exaggerate, but he had a deformity, and he sat in a rocking chair at a window on the high floor, the attic, it looked like of that house. Right. And he sang. Well in a good voice, too. In a very good voice. Yeah. So he was known to the kids in town. I don't know if the adults heard him. Yeah, I don't know either. They never mentioned that. They never mentioned it. But all the kids in town heard them and they called them Potato Boy.

SPEAKER_04 10:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:31

Well, one night, Caleb's dead sister, Marlea, who's his guardian angel, who appears once in a while in the episodes, yes. Yeah. She came to him to let him know that this kid is like a great soul. Yeah. And he she's explaining a little a little bit more about it. But I now I'm thinking deeper. If this boy was born deformed and he lives in this huge house up in the attic, who cares from somebody's feed? No.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

Yeah, they don't. That's the part I they don't show pieces to connect it.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

Maybe that's why they didn't release it. Right. I'm like, okay. Somebody at the very least is feeding him. Right. And who is that? And nobody never saw a caregiver. Never saw a caregiver. Just saw this big old house that nobody was going into.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

Right.

SPEAKER_03 11:30

Well, one day Caleb goes there. And he goes in and he decides he's gonna go up the stairs. And he sees the boy laying on the floor with his sister kind of over him.

SPEAKER_02 11:44

Yeah, and I couldn't tell if he was alive or she was coming to take him to heaven. He was dying. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:52

And I think she told Caleb he's dying or something. Yeah. She came to help him on his journey, I think.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

Yeah, but then she said something too about there's more things to life than dying or something like that. Yeah. What did she mean by that?

SPEAKER_03 12:08

Because she's dead. So she's let there are worse things that can happen to you than dying. So she's letting Caleb know that, yeah, he's dying, but that's not the very worst thing. Most people think that's the worst thing that can happen. Yeah. And she's saying there are worse things that can happen to you than dying. So what I'm taking from this, because it was an unaired episode without a backstory, I'm taking that Buck had something to do with this boy's existence.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Oh, because I didn't see them interact at all in the episode.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

They didn't. No. But you could you gotta use your imagination. Who is he? Where did he come from? And who's caring for him?

SPEAKER_02 12:53

Why was he there? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:55

Yes. So I'm thinking Buck is connected. And Merlin is like, yeah, there are worse things being here alive under Buck. Yeah. Then dying, coming with me to the other side.

SPEAKER_02 13:10

Because yes, she's on the better side.

SPEAKER_03 13:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 13:13

The worst thing could be the other side.

SPEAKER_03 13:15

Yes. So that's what I took away from that scene. So that's kind of the last we see of Potato Boy. But but the show, oh boy, did it get dark.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

Yeah, there's a lot of different stories within the story. Yes. So I'm trying to follow all that.

Deputy’s Secret And Buck’s Leverage

SPEAKER_03 13:32

So let's talk about one. Let's do a f do them kind of one at a time. Yeah. So you got Sheriff Buck's deputy. Yeah. He's kind of oh, he's a mess. He wants to kill himself. He doesn't want to kill himself. He's got this just horrible weight on his shoulder. So he's seeing a psychiatrist. Well, every day he goes to work, Buck is kind of taunting him. And we know because if you watched episodes one and two, you know that he watched Cheryl Buck kill Caleb's sister. He saw it. Yeah. But he can't tell anyone. When they covered it up. Yeah. Yeah. So Buck keeps him quiet because he's got something on the guy, I don't know what. But he's going around town leaving parking tickets with this one person who's above the law for parking tickets. And Buck is like, you can't leave him a ticket. And one day in his psychiatrist therapy session, he just releases it. He can't hold it anymore. He's like, he can't keep me locked up this way. I can't carry this. He knows I know. He knows I know. And he finally says, he knows I saw him kill that girl. Yeah. And suddenly he was released.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

He was released to that secret. He went out the next day, and what did he do? He gave a ticket to that person he wasn't supposed to. He put the ticket right there on his. And Buck was in some kind of pool hall watching him do it out on the street. And he skipped away whistling, kind of like. Yeah. Oh yeah. He was much happier.

SPEAKER_03 15:20

He was so happy. Yeah. And then Buck goes to his doctor, because now Buck put it together. Oh, he released his wait, he can be a free man. So Buck had something on his doctor, and he's like, So if I got this information on you and you have this information on me, what are we gonna do about this?

SPEAKER_02 15:44

Yeah, because Buck says something like, Are you gonna use your information or what are you gonna do with your information? So they're gonna blackmail each other. Yeah, neither one's gonna tell. Right.

SPEAKER_03 15:55

Yeah. Something about him with child. Yes, in another town, in another time. I wasn't paying real close attention to what he did. Yeah. But he did some kind of heinous act. Yes. Yes, he did. So there it is. He comes to town and Buck is like, okay, now we have a truce here. Let's just coexist. That's right. But Buck always has something on everybody. Yes. I noticed that. Everybody. Everybody. And um, I don't know who else. And this this episode that we watched, he most of the episode was focused on him trying to get Caleb, it seemed like. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

He wants that relationship with him. Yeah. And Caleb is such a nice boy, and he's he doesn't know the connection yet. He just says, Oh, everybody wants to help me. Yes. Everybody wants to help me. And you know, because Buck said, you know, you can always come to me for things. And he's like, Yeah, I know. Everybody wants or offers it.

SPEAKER_03 17:01

Everybody, the priest told him, you know, Caleb, you can always come to me for help. And and because Caleb was at the cemetery and he saw the priest sitting there just having a hard time. And he sat down with them. And Caleb's like, why does everybody want to help me? He goes, sometimes you get so much help, you just start feeling helpless. Yeah. And he couldn't understand this whole thing with everybody wanting to help him. And it's because they all know that Buck's evil. He's not the man you want him to be. So Caleb has got this whole choice to make. And he he decides, I guess, he's gonna for now go and listen to Buck, hear what he has to say, and that's when he ran out with them.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

Right, and they went driving.

Selena And Caleb’s Uncomfortable Scene

SPEAKER_03 17:55

And they went driving. But the um the other person in the scene, in the episode, I meant to say, who's trying to help him is his teacher, Selena Coons. Now Selena has this relationship with Buck. And she's kind of the town. Promiscuous.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 18:19

Yeah, she's not so well liked. In fact, they she walked by some gossipy leaders and they called her and they And they were whispering something, and she turned around and said, What did you say? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

I thought I thought she was gonna attack them. She like turned instantly, like really mean. Right.

SPEAKER_03 18:40

So there's this scene where Caleb comes to her house for help with his homework. Cause he's doing bad in school, and she's like, We can help you. And he goes to her house. Now But why does she offer him coffee? Well, she gets at part. To make you like some just uh like an adult? I don't know. Just because you know, I'm having some and you're I'm gonna treat you like an equal.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

You can have some too. Yeah, she's like, Do you want some coffee? He's like, Well, I never had coffee before. So she gives him coffee. So she gives him coffee and he drinks it. I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_03 19:18

All righty. So the scene though, the scene, Cindy, is a little disturbing.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

Yeah. That could be another reason why they didn't release it.

SPEAKER_03 19:28

Yes. Because she starts to help him understand some US history. Yeah. But it gets a little bit deeper, and next thing you know.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

Yeah, they're they're cutting a watermelon or something. Yeah. He wants something to eat, and then he cut his hand.

SPEAKER_03 19:48

He cut his hand trying to cut the watermelon. So she brushes them over, wraps it in a paper towel, and he's crying, and she's cradling, cradling him. Yeah. Very close. Yeah. And she mentions there's a song that her father would sing, and she starts singing it. It's kind of another hymn, a church hymn, and she's rocking them, and and Caleb suddenly she starts crying. And instead of Caleb being the one getting comforted, he becomes the company. Yeah, but why does she cry? Like she was crying in the classroom, too. Because she knows that she's under Buck spell. Her father wants nothing to do with her, and her father is the priest. And the whole town hates her. Which is the yeah, the other story in it. So there's more about Selena's backstory on other episodes. You get to see her backstory. But the disturbing part is this 10-year-old boy who was getting comforted by this adult woman suddenly has her in his arm and he's comforting her.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

Oh, yeah, like she was laying her head in his lap or something. Yes. So she became like an infantile, like she became a young person, like, and he's comforting her.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

Now I'm thinking that's a little bit on the weird side. But then it gets even weirder.

SPEAKER_02 21:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:26

Because who stroll in the house but old Buck himself? Yep. And he looks and he goes, What exactly is going on here? Well, I don't blame him on that because I would have been a little bit disturbed by a grown woman with her head in the lap of a little boy and he's rubbing her hair and making it all better.

unknown 21:49

Yes. I would have been like, what the crap?

SPEAKER_02 21:52

I know, because I'm like, I saw that scene too. I'm like, well, I guess I would have thought of something else too, but that's not what was going on.

SPEAKER_03 21:59

And I'm like, oh. Okay, I know this show has a dark side, but I don't think they're going that crazy. No, no. So Buck insinuates that Selena took advantage of this little boy. And why would he do it? Yeah. Every little boy lost his first time, Selena. Yeah. Hope you have fun. What the? I'm like, okay now. Maybe this is why they didn't air this episode.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

Possibly. That just went a little bit too far.

SPEAKER_03 22:31

It crossed a short line with me.

SPEAKER_02 22:34

I'm like, okay, I'm dark. Even though they didn't, yeah, they didn't do anything. It was just insinuated.

SPEAKER_03 22:39

Yeah. That Buck wouldn't even think that they could. Right. And they set it up that in my crazy head, if Buck hadn't come in, how far was Selena going to go? Yeah. She was looking for some comfort. She's going to get that from her father. And she's only getting sex from Buck. Right. She's looking for something more pure, natural health. And I'm like, girlfriend, girl, that boy is 10 years old.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

Ten years old.

SPEAKER_03 23:07

Stay away from him. So I was like, okay, I'm glad that seemed so glad.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

Me too.

Church Communion Turns To Blood

SPEAKER_03 23:16

It was uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable. And then there was um, okay, so we went through Selena and we went through the deputy sheriff. Mm-hmm. Was it so there's the priest? Yeah, that's another story. Okay. So he goes to church. Caleb goes to church, and the lady who runs the house where he's standing, it's kind of like a boarding house. She told him he had to take communion. I guess it was his first and whatever, but she said, you gotta take communion. And he goes up to the front, and the priest says what he says, and he puts the wafer, and Caleb was able to take it as the, you know, the body of Christ. It's time to drink from the cup, and what happens here?

SPEAKER_02 24:11

The cup doesn't reach his mouth, like the priest couldn't get it to his mouth. It's shaking. Shaking, and like, what's going on with this cup? Like I can't, I can't drink it.

SPEAKER_03 24:20

Caleb is over there saying, I mean, thinking, you could tell he's looking at it like, what kind of weird? Yeah, like why are you just wiggling this cup and couldn't even get a sip of it? And next thing you know, the cup just drops out of the priest's hand onto the floor.

SPEAKER_02 24:37

Spills on hit onto him and the floor. I thought it was grape juice, but it was like blood. Right. They made it totally look really like God.

SPEAKER_03 24:49

Everybody was freaked out by that. They panned the camera and who's standing at the church door entrance, but Buck. Sheriff Buck. Sheriff Buck. There he is. Yep. He didn't want Caleb to have anything to do with getting communion. Yeah. But I don't know why they let him eat the wafer then. See, I'm not sure why they carry more weight than the water. Why are you getting half of it? Yeah, maybe the blood of Christ carried more weight. Maybe.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

Don't know. Yeah, I'm like, well, he started it, but he didn't end it. Right. Unless Buck wasn't at the door yet. I don't know. Maybe he stopped it in the middle.

SPEAKER_03 25:28

And then there is that theatric dramatics of it all for TV, you know. Yeah. Oh, this is gonna go so well. No, it's not. You're not getting the cop. Yeah. But then this is when we start realizing there's something going on with the priest. I don't know what, but they show a couple of times he's in his his office with a hypodermic mirror.

SPEAKER_02 25:53

What the crap is that? And I think he he held up a mirror, right, with powder on it? Oh, did he know? I saw that. Okay. So I don't know. Oh, it'll tell you. Is he heroin that? Did he heroin? Don't you do you melt that stuff? But there was something that he held up. Oh my goodness. But where did that come from?

SPEAKER_03 26:16

Yeah. Well, there is a backstory. I think you watch other episodes. It'll tell you. But the priest seems like he's a good guy, kind of. Yeah. And and Caleb wants to be, you know, accepted by him. The priest tells him, if ever you need me, you run and run fast, straight to my house, and I will be here for you. Come to the church. Well, one time Caleb was needing him, and he ran and he banged on the church, opened the door. I opened the door, and the man was in there shooting up and never opened the door. Yeah. So I'm like, what is this all about? Everybody's crazy in their town. I'm like, okay, well, now we got the priest. Then we got Selena who has issues. Well, now Selena comes to see the priest. She walks in. You don't know it yet, but you're kind of thinking there's a connection. And she's trying to talk to him, Father, I have something to say. And he's yelling, get out of here. This is the house of God. Well, she didn't even start talking. She's a hooker or at least promiscuous. Yeah. And I'm thinking, here's me. The church is supposed to be open to all souls. Even if she was as bad as the town says, no man of cloth would turn her away in the house of God. So I'm like, why can't she talk? And she's like, but Father, I just need to talk. And he's like, no, you get out of here. Get out. Get out. And she leaves crying. And she runs away crying. Well, he opens up a little book and there's her picture. There's her picture. Father, that's her father.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

That's her father. Her real father.

SPEAKER_03 28:18

Her biological father. That's why he didn't want to hear anything she had to say. And not because it made no sense to me. I'm like, a church is a place for everybody. Right. Why would they turn you away? And yeah, he turned her away and she went running out crying. Yeah. And that's when we realized, okay, Selena's got daddy issues. And the daddy has issues too. Daddy's got issues.

SPEAKER_02 28:51

Everybody's got issues. Everybody, yeah. And Caleb is surrounded by all this.

SPEAKER_03 28:56

And these are the people who want to help him. That's the saddest part about it. Right? All trying to help Caleb, and he's the only one without issues that's trying to keep it together. It seems like he's trying to help them. Yeah. He remember he walked up to the priest, and are you okay? And he's sitting there trying to comfort the priests. He's trying to comfort the guard. Selena Clues, the teacher. The teacher. I'm like, everybody in town has issues. And this poor kid is like, why me? How did I get left here? So only person he can talk to is the ghost of his sister. Yeah. He has that at least. She makes sense. She makes sense, eh? She keeps him grounded and she kind of helps him when he when he's trying to make decisions. Right. I think she tries to lead him to the right choice. Right. Yeah. For sure. Cause the rest of the town is off the rails.

SPEAKER_02 30:01

It was, I was having a hard time keeping track of everybody. I had to watch it a few times.

SPEAKER_03 30:05

Yeah, if the only reason the only reason I could keep up is because I followed it as when it was on originally. Yeah. So I kind of remember that, yeah, these people were all nuts.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

But I mean, some of them not their fault. I mean, Buck is making them.

SPEAKER_03 30:22

Yes, Buck has something on all of them.

SPEAKER_02 30:26

He said something in the episode about, well, I can give them their free will, but let's see what they do with it or how they mess it up or something like that.

SPEAKER_03 30:36

He said it all comes with a price. Yeah. He did say that. So they basically sell their souls to the devil.

SPEAKER_02 30:43

But do they know he's the devil? I think they gotta know. They know. I mean, there was a s uh was another episode where the girl was in the car with him and he drove her off the bridge because she was realizing something in her head as they were talking that he was, you know. Doing things. Yeah, he did something, and she's like, oh wow, he did it. And then he decided to go off the bridge and kill her. And kill her. Yeah, that's what he does when you get too close to his truth. Some people get to figure it out.

SPEAKER_03 31:14

Yeah. Maybe they don't really know. They just know he has means to get them when they are so like there's no other choice. What can I do? And it's like, oh, I got the answer right here. You just gotta be my little whatever.

SPEAKER_02 31:33

So he controls everybody in the town, but Caleb is his son, so he wants him to follow him.

SPEAKER_03 31:41

And Caleb is under Merlin's guidance, so he's just not hurrying up to follow Buck.

SPEAKER_02 31:49

He's like Right, he still has his sister there helping him.

SPEAKER_03 31:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:53

Which is good.

SPEAKER_03 31:54

Well, very good. Yeah. Because I'm telling you, Buck is, I mean, but he's so good looking to me. I'm like, man, oh man. And the way they dress him in that black and stand there, and he's got that charming. Very charming devil. I'm like, oh my God, get away from me, Lucifer.

SPEAKER_02 32:17

Yeah, I mean, that's how he lures people, I guess. Yeah. He's got the charm and the looks, and you know, they make may make him seem like he's not such a bad guy. They do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:29

They do. And and he's just out for Caleb, though.

Shaun Cassidy Connections And Recommendations

SPEAKER_02 32:33

But then in each situation, he's got this thing between the two of them, you know, like an unsaid you know, you're gonna do stuff for me.

SPEAKER_03 32:43

So the coincidence of this show, Cindy. So American Gothic starred Lucas Black and Gary Cole. Mm-hmm. Lucas Black's name is Caleb. Sean, of course, names his son Caleb. Caleb, yeah, because he liked the name after doing this series. Yes. Lucas Black grows up, goes on to work in the NCIS franchise on NCIS New Orleans as one of the agents. Gary Cole later goes to the original NCIS and takes over Mark Herman's role as the lead agent. Yeah. Ryan Cassidy is the set director on the original NCIS.

SPEAKER_02 33:34

What an interesting circle to, you know, come back around. Yes. So he seems to be in the Cassidy family. Yes. Somewhat. With all other uh projects. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:46

It's just all kind of a full circle. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

How they all tie it back together. So maybe that means that Gary Cole's gonna come around again and do something.

SPEAKER_03 33:57

Maybe. Maybe. I watched NCIS and I I still like watching him.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

He enjoyed him in a lot of different things. But uh yeah, this was interesting that he played this part. Yes. I don't think he's played that part before.

SPEAKER_03 34:13

Of Lucas uh Buck? Yeah. And what's the saying with Buck? Okay. In one of the episodes, he was telling this guy his name is uh I'm Sheriff Lucas Buck. That's Buck with a B.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

Seemed to be the theme of the show.

SPEAKER_03 34:30

Yeah. It's Buck with a B.

SPEAKER_02 34:32

I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_03 34:34

Well, if you change the letter, it could get worse. Could get worse. That's that's what he knows, too. So make sure it's with a B. Yeah. But it's a good, good show. I recommend everyone who's not um squeamish for a little bit of a dark side of Sean to watch American Gothic. If you don't have it on DVD or whatever, you can find it on YouTube. These lost episodes are definitely on YouTube.

SPEAKER_02 35:05

I've never seen them before, so interesting that we came across that to talk about it.

SPEAKER_03 35:09

Yeah, I enjoy talking about it. I I want to do another episode, and I think we could do one that Sean wrote.

SPEAKER_02 35:18

Yeah, there's plenty that he wrote on here, and I think there are there were 19, no, 18 released, but there's 22 altogether. And uh maybe we could talk about some of the other ones that were released.

Listener Messages And Where To Follow

SPEAKER_03 35:30

Oh yeah. They're there. I found them by mistake. So we could talk about those and and uh maybe if you guys out there enjoy American Gothic, let us know what your favorite episode is. Cindy, don't we have a new feature that people can leave us a message? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

That's on the the site you go to with Buzzsprout to hear the episodes.

SPEAKER_03 35:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 35:55

Yes, there's a send a text and we can reply to them now.

SPEAKER_03 35:59

Yeah, we can reply to you.

SPEAKER_02 36:01

We weren't able to do that before, but now we are able to reply to those texting. So let us know your opinion on on which one was your favorite.

SPEAKER_03 36:09

So we usually put the link to uh Sean Squad Society dot buzzsprout.com in our post. Follow that link, leave us a message. I think it says um uh leave a message or talk back or something. Hit that, leave us a message, yeah, and we can now reply to you.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

Yeah, that would be great. Be great to see what everybody thought about this series.

SPEAKER_03 36:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:37

Because it did get critical acclaim, so I'm not quite sure why it ended after a year or a season.

SPEAKER_03 36:44

I don't know. It was on CBS and Network TV was getting away. I don't know if you remember, that was when network TV was getting away from scripted television. And there was a lot of just starting with reality. And and um this could have, and then TV series were just starting to be shown on cable network channel. Right. They weren't showing them before. This I think could have in another year or so a cable channel could have picked it up. Oh, for sure. It would have just soared.

SPEAKER_02 37:23

Because they declared it one of the best new series in 1995. So, I mean, come on. I maybe try to release it.

SPEAKER_03 37:30

I think if the if the sci-fi channel would have picked it up, it would have soared. Of course, there wasn't streaming channels back then, but yeah, it would have just m gone maybe four or five seasons.

SPEAKER_04 37:45

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 37:46

Yeah. I think it was some of Sean's finest work.

SPEAKER_02 37:50

Oh, yeah. I mean, I never expected this from him, but it was interesting to watch. A lot of different storylines.

SPEAKER_03 37:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:58

Yeah. So I enjoyed it. Didn't expect it out of him, but okay. He has a dark side.

SPEAKER_03 38:05

One time I asked Sean what was his favorite quote from a movie. Favorite quote from a movie. Yes. And that you wrote or someone else wrote, and he said, Someone's at the door.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

Someone's at the door.

SPEAKER_03 38:19

And he wrote that for the pilot episode of American Gothic.

SPEAKER_02 38:23

Which I think we talked about before. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:25

Someone's at the door. One of my favorite lines ever.

SPEAKER_02 38:29

Yeah. And we're like, that's American Gothic. And I went crazy. I went, oh my God, that's America.

unknown 38:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 38:35

My little teen self came out for a minute.

SPEAKER_02 38:37

Yeah. But it's interesting to know what his favorite uh line was. Yeah. So it's not Buck with a B.

SPEAKER_03 38:42

It's Someone's At the Door. Someone's at the door. So this was fun. Yeah. Enjoy American Gothic. I hope other people do too.

SPEAKER_02 38:51

I'm learning to enjoy it too because back then, I like I said, I didn't watch it. But nowadays that we're reviewing all this, it's very interesting to see what he came up with.

SPEAKER_03 39:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 39:01

All right. All right.

SPEAKER_03 39:02

Everybody send us your comments and we'll be happy to know what you want us to talk about next. Thanks a lot.

SPEAKER_02 39:11

Thank you from the bottom of our Teen Dream Hearts. Keep on crushing. Always believe in magic.

SPEAKER_01 39:17

And have a peaceful, fantastic week. And don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, thread, and subscribe to our new YouTube page.

SPEAKER_03 39:27

Make sure to keep in touch with us on our email. Sean Squad Society at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_02 39:35

The Sean Squad Society podcast, including past, present, and future versions, and its contents are owned and controlled by the Sean Squad Society. The podcast is written, produced, and recorded at the Oregon Studios, and the views and opinions are solely those of the Sean Squad Society Podcast. We may think we are always right, but we may get things wrong from time to time. So we assume no responsibility for errors of submission of content.