The Universal Joint Podcast
1) Permits, Surveys, and Big Moves as Universal’s Next Era Points to Saudi Arabia (Ep. 83)
This holiday week episode of the Epic Universal Podcast was recorded on Christmas Eve, which means Jim and Eric are juggling last minute shopping, customer service horror stories, and a surprisingly f...Show More
2) The Day Boris Karloff Walked Into the Commissary and Changed Hollywood (Ep. 82)
Jim and Eric kick off this week’s show with a very on-brand travel mishap from Jim’s latest Hallmark-fueled road trip, then pivot back to the stuff you came for - Universal news, theme park weirdness,...Show More
3) The Dracula Gamble That Built Universal’s Monster Empire (Ep. 81)
From queue changes to construction walls to nighttime lagoon testing, the parks offer plenty to parse this week. The guys then pivot from the Epic Universe lagoon to Universal’s classic monsters, usin...Show More
4) The 27-Year Idea: Uncovering the Surprising Origins of CityWalk (Ep. 80)
Jim kicks off this week’s show with a wild winter travel saga involving airport shutdowns, missing donuts, and a 3 a.m. pickup run that somehow beats the incoming snowstorm. From there, he and Eric di...Show More
5) How Jim Carrey Survived Becoming the Grinch (Ep. 79)
Jim and Eric unwrap a very different kind of holiday story this week: the wild, demanding, and downright unbelievable making of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000). Fresh from Jim’s trip to IAAPA an...Show More
6) The Man Who Made Universal Explode: Jay Stein and the Birth of the JayBang (Ep. 78)
On this episode, Jim Hill and Eric Hersey dig into the latest Universal Orlando updates before turning to a deep-dive tribute to Jay Stein — the visionary who transformed Universal’s backlot tour into...Show More
7) The Van Helsing That Never Was: Inside Universal’s Abandoned Dark Universe (Ep. 77)
Jim Hill and Eric Hersey trace the ambitious — and ultimately ill-fated — vision for Universal’s Dark Universe, from the scrapped sequel to The Mummy to Tom Cruise’s push to reinvent himself as the st...Show More
8) Survey Says: Epic Universe May Join Universal’s AP Lineup (Ep. 76)
Jim Hill and Eric Hersey dig into a newly surfaced Universal guest survey that hints at Epic Universe joining the resort’s Annual Pass lineup — and what that could mean for crowds, pricing, and park s...Show More
9) The Annual Pass Puzzle and How The Mummy Buried a Monster Movie Franchise (Ep. 75)
In this Halloween episode, Jim Hill and Eric Hersey dig up the spooky story of Universal’s Dark Universe - the ambitious attempt to build a monster-filled cinematic universe that never rose from the g...Show More
10) How a Budget Cut Created Back to the Future’s Lightning Strike Moment (Ep. 74)
Jim Hill and Eric Hersey celebrate Back to the Future Day by revealing how one of cinema’s most iconic moments, the lightning strike finale, was born from a Universal Studios budget cut. Plus, the duo...Show More