You may have noticed from the podcast that neither my father or me are seasoned professional critics, able to clearly articulate film theory and history. So if the show works at all, it’s on the strength of our interaction and relationship. Here’s a quick breakdown of who we are, that will hopefully aid in making our show palatable.
My name is John Matthew Bernhard (I often work professionally as John, but am known to my friends and family as Matt. It’s a dichotomy I honestly never got straightened out), and I live in New York City. I work at one of those irritating trendy hotels and have a sideline career doing voice over for commercials and occasionally cartoons. I’m engaged to this awesome girl who overlooks a lot named Amanda, and am just now beginning to understand how the world must have looked to my father when I was born (well, he was a bit younger. Sue me, our generation has been infantilized).
My dad’s name is Scott Martin Bernhard, and he’s a freshly retired Language professor living in Seattle. He’s had a pretty interesting life, working as a Mormon missionary to Brazil in the 60s, a decade spent supporting a family as a lounge performer, and a long term second career as a tour guide to the offbeat paths through Europe. He’s married to a fantastic, patient woman named Vero, and has three kids, of which I am the eldest. You’ll likely meet them all if you keep listening to the show.
About five years ago I realized that there was no one else on the planet that I more resembled in character, mental process, and indeed, appearance than my Dad. After the obligatory existential freakout, I realized that’s my good fortune. Living on opposite coasts as we do, there’s not as much opportunity to speak with each other as I like, and conscious of Dad’s new status as a retiree, I decided we needed a project to work on. And a lifetime of watching Westerns felt like the place to start (we could just as easily have done 80s action movies, by the way. It feels a bit like a missing gap that we won’t have a chance to talk about Robocop or Predator on this show. Maybe a bonus episode someday). We’ve always had a fantastic energy talking about them too, so hopefully, we’ll be able to capture that and share it.
You can reach us directly at westernswithdad@gmail.com.