What happened to Happy Meal toys… and why did they used to be so much better?

In this episode of Hoot’n and Holler’n, we’re heading back to the golden age of McDonald’s — when PlayPlaces ruled, Boo Buckets were a necessity, and the toy inside the box was engineered like a NASA space shuttle.

We dive into the surprising history behind the 90s Happy Meal “arms race,” when competing designers were trying to outdo each other with wind-up cars, transforming food robots, licensed movie tie-ins, and toys that somehow lasted longer than most household appliances. Along the way we talk McNugget Buddies, Power Rangers, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario Bros, Disney classics, Beanie Baby chaos, and the weird corporate decisions that changed kids’ meals forever.

Plus: childhood memories, thrift store toy bins, fast food nostalgia, and the realization that today’s toys just don’t hit the same.

If you grew up begging for a Happy Meal — or just miss when fast food felt a little more magical — this one’s for you.

Grab some fries and come holler with us.

© Ostrich Media, LLC 2026

This week on Hoot’n & Holler’n, we dig into the wonderfully awkward world of childhood Valentine’s Day to discuss the era of Big B valentine's, pocket chocolates, and stuffing handwritten love notes in your underwear. From elementary school crushes to the bizarre unspoken rules of classroom Valentine exchanges, we revisit the stories that somehow still live rent-free in our heads.

It’s a nostalgic, slightly unhinged trip back to a time when romance meant candy hearts, folded paper notes, and the courage to put your feelings in writing and then have your friend throw that letter away. We swap embarrassing memories, laugh at how strange those rituals really were, and try to figure out what made kid Valentine’s Day so memorable in the first place.

If you’ve ever carried melting chocolate in your pocket or overthought a Valentine card like it was a life decision, this episode’s for you.

© 2026 Ostrich Media LLC. All rights reserved.

In Part 2 of our Sleepover series, we go full couch-co-op nostalgia and relive the golden age of growing up with a controller in your hand and a CRT TV buzzing in the corner. From split-screen GoldenEye chaos and screen-watching accusations to all-night seasons of NCAA Football, Tecmo Bowl, and Super Smash Bros, this episode is a love letter to when video games were something you did together.

We swap stories about sleepovers that lasted until daylight, tournaments decided by broken controllers, and the unspoken rules that kept friendships intact (no Oddjob, no Kansas State, and absolutely no mercy). The conversation runs through iconic titles like Mortal Kombat, Blitz, Mario Party, Halo, GTA, Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and the magical chaos of the Nintendo Wii era when everyone suddenly became an athlete in their living room.

We also talk about how gaming slowly shifted from four people on one couch to everyone on their own screen, and why those old-school sleepover vibes can never quite be replicated. Add in stories about LAN parties in college dorms, cheat codes, memory cards, burned-in plasma TVs, and the weird social rules of multiplayer trash talk, and you’ve got an episode that hits right in the childhood.

If you ever stayed up way too late chasing one more win, this one’s for you.

Sleepovers (or "Spend the Night" Parties) were a childhood rite of passage, and in this episode of Hoot’n and Holler’n, the guys look back on why they were either the best nights of your life or absolute disasters you still think about years later.

Hosts Matt Mitchell (SEC Roll Call, Bless Your Rank, It’s a Southern Thing), Eric Nix, Joey Prestley, and Drake Pittman share stories from the golden age of sleepovers. From planning them weeks ahead of time and learning the hard rule of never falling asleep first, to getting stuck at the wrong house with no TV, strict grandparents, cigarette smoke in the living room, and parents who shut everything down way too early. Things escalate quickly with failed boy band ideas, video game fights, trampoline wrestling, dads who played football like it was full contact, and one legendary taco-night emergency that marked the end of childhood for everyone involved.

It’s a funny, nostalgic conversation about growing up Southern, figuring out friendships, and knowing exactly when it’s time to call your mom and ask her to come get you.

© 2026 Ostrich Media LLC

This week on Hootn and Hollern, the guys kick things off with a serious journalistic investigation into Taco Bell’s ever-rotating menu and whether a quesadilla can, in fact, ruin a man’s afternoon. From there, things spiral—naturally—into a deep dive on early MTV, including a genuinely surprising revelation about which artist absolutely monopolized the network in its infancy (spoiler: it’s way more Rod Stewart than anyone asked for).

Along the way, the crew debates music video overexposure, remembers the lawless early days of MTV programming, and takes a hard left turn into TRL lore, questionable acronyms, and the physical toll hunger takes on a grown man who just wants a hot dog. There’s nostalgia, mild outrage, and the kind of arguments that only happen when everyone is technically right and still wrong.

As always, the episode is held together by friendship, bad transitions, and the shared understanding that none of this needed to be researched—but all of it needed to be said.

In this episode of Hootin’ & Hollerin’, the guys take trip back to the era when MTV stopped playing music videos and started changing television forever. They break down how The Real World laid the foundation for modern reality TV, from its awkward early production missteps to the shockingly low pay for cast members who unknowingly became cultural guinea pigs .

From there, the conversation spirals into MTV’s dating show golden age. The crew revisits Singled Out, Next, and especially Room Raiders, uncovering behind-the-scenes stories involving fake abductions, blacklights, confiscated weapons, angry parents, and one extremely missed opportunity involving a pet bobcat. Along the way, they connect the dots between reality TV, early internet culture, celebrity side quests, and how a single Super Bowl halftime show quietly killed the most horrifying prop in MTV history.

It’s a funny, chaotic, and surprisingly informative look at how reality TV grew up in public—and why none of us were ready for it.

In this episode of Hootin’ & Hollerin’, the guys take a nostalgic (and mildly traumatic) stroll through the early days of the internet—back when dial-up screamed like a wounded robot, pop-ups promised free cruises, and nobody trusted putting a credit card online.

From first memories of logging on, AOL screen names, and getting kicked offline by an aunt who just had to make a phone call, to the Wild West era of search engines (Ask Jeeves, AltaVista, Lycos… gone but not forgotten), the conversation hits all the hits—and the misses. They swap stories about early online scams, wrestling spoilers, sketchy sweepstakes, GeoCities pages, Angelfire websites, and the absolute fear of “breaking the computer.”

The episode also drifts into how the internet evolved from a mysterious encyclopedia into something we now can’t live without—touching on early online shopping, PayPal, eBay, the death of landlines, and how today’s kids casually “search it up” like that’s always been a thing. It all wraps with some modern perspective on AI, ChatGPT, and whether today’s tech feels a lot like the internet did back then… just faster and with higher stakes.

Equal parts funny, relatable, and “oh no, I remember that,” this one’s for anyone who ever waited five minutes to connect just to check one email—then got booted offline immediately.

Scattered & Covered (From the Vault)

We took the week between Christmas and New Year’s off… but we didn’t leave you hanging.

Before Hootin’ & Hollerin’ was Hootin’ & Hollerin’, Matt and Eric had a very ambitious idea: set up podcast equipment in random places across the South and interview whoever was brave (or bored) enough to sit down. That concept was called Scattered & Covered.

This episode is the first and last time we ever tried it.

Recorded three years ago inside Sherry’s One Stop — a true Southern multitasker of a gas station featuring tanning beds, pizza, former VHS rentals, and possibly active warrants for unreturned movies — this lost episode captures two guys slowly realizing that no one wants to be interviewed for a Honey Bun.

What you’ll hear instead:

• Peak gas-station philosophy

• Deep dives into Hunt Brothers pizza etiquette

• Stories about stolen cheese, stolen clothes, and stolen VHS tapes

• A surprise appearance from the man who actually runs the place

• The sound of a podcast discovering, in real time, why it shouldn’t exist

Enjoy this unearthed relic from the H&H archives — proof that every good idea deserves one honest attempt… and a quiet burial.