Full Cast And Crew

I went and saw Francis Ford Coppola's 'Megalopolis' so you don't have to.  You're welcome.

Actor Kathy Baker joins the podcast this week for a very special episode about her 1988 film 'Clean and Sober'.

Director Glenn Gordon Caron probably needed a stiff drink or 20 after coming off the tumultuous four-season run of 'Moonlighting' with its famously fractious co-stars.  Instead he chose to direct one of the most underappreciated film gems of the 80's in 'Clean and Sober', co-produced by Ron Howard and starring Michael Keaton, Kathy Baker, Morgan Freeman, and M Emmet Walsh in the story of a commercial real estate broker spiralling into...and reluctantly out of...cocaine and alcohol addiction.

Incisively ritten by Tod Carroll, a National Lampoon writer with only two other film credits to date, 'Clean and Sober' was Keaton's first foray into a non-comedic film role, a fact that caused the studio some consternation at the time.  Freeman and Baker were coming off of award-winning roles in 'Street Smart', a Golan-Globus production about a NYC journalist intertwined with a pimp and prostitute, and everyone in the cast of 'Clean and Sober' turned in absolutely phenomenal performances...even Oscar-worthy performances...yet the studio didn't really know how to market or release a film they considered hard-to-define and after only 3 weeks of a summetime release, the film was largely abandoned in the marketplace.

In this special episode of the Full Cast and Crew podcast, I talk with Kathy Baker about her indelible role as Charlie, her experiences making the film, and her approaches to acting and the collaborative nature of filmmaking.

Join us as we spend some well-deserved time giving 'Clean and Sober' its due as still the best film ever made about the tricky early days of sobriety and digging into Kathy's experiences making the film.

After two episodes about 'The Shining' and a couple weeks wondering what to do for Episode 200 of the podcast....events at the Presidential Debate pointed me in the direction of 'Peanuts' and the relatively terror-free childhood presented specifically in the 1972 Election special 'You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown'.

In this Special, Charlie Brown neither runs for office nor is or isn't elected. But the satirical pleasures abound otherwise in this still-incisive takedown of political and campaign mores and realities.

As ever, the incredible music of Vince Guaraldi and his Trio provide accompaniment.  Musings range far and wide in this episode. 

Thank you for listening for 200 episodes! 

In Episode 197, I covered much of the backstory and making-of history behind 'The Shining'.

In this episode, I cover many of the scenes in the film that I didn't get to in Part 1, along with other commentary and observations about the film, Kubrick, 'Doctor Sleep', and 'Room 237'.  Come and play with us, for ever...and ever...and ever.

I went from not really ever wanting to watch 'The Shining' again...to now doing my first-ever two-part episode! 

Funny how often the answer to 'why did that film affect me so much as a child?' turns out to be 'DUH!'.

Part 1 covers the origin story of the film, some of the King/Kubrick interplay over the years, the casting, the sound design, the music, and some cinema speculation on what it's all about. 

Will post all episode materials and links when I post Part 2, which will cover the design and build of the sets, specific scenes, and MORE.

Paul Brickman's 'Risky Business' is one of the greatest films of the 80's and is so much more than the "teen sex comedy" many people thought they were getting at the time.  Frame by frame, it's really a masterpiece with so many aspects and elements of brilliance.  The score by Tangerine Dream, Tom Cruise at NINETEEN, Rebecca De Mornay, the genius editing of Richard Chew...on and on...what an incredible film. And Paul Brickman would direct only ONE more feature film in his career to date. Astounding.  Worthy of a rare Saturday pod!

Little-seen but worthy, the 1985 John Candy comedy 'Summer Rental' is due for a little revisit and respect!

On the news of a forthcoming and hopefully definitive John Candy documentary directed by Colin Hanks and produced by Ryan Reynolds, I stumbled across this film (which I'd never even heard of) and found myself gleefully experiencing an expertly-cast superior comedy of its era with a typically warm, truthful, harder-than-it-looks John Candy performance at its center.  It's a pleasant surprise of a great family movie and I hope you'll see it out!

I gave up drinking. I gave up drugs. I don't smoke. BUT I CAN'T QUIT DEAD & COMPANY! And I hope I never do!

With the wife and daughter overseas on a girl's trip, I went back to Vegas for Week Seven of the Dead and Company shows over the 4th of July Weekend at the Sphere Las Vegas.

This short (18 minutes) episode is not an inside-Dead show rundown, but a paen to the joys of live music played at this incredible level of proficiency and a call-to-arms to all musicians especially to make the trek before it's too late!

Well, it's not really a summer movie but nonetheless I ended up appreciatiating the weird-in-a-good-way 'Vision Quest'. Join me, won't you?

Peter Yates' 'Breaking Away' is the greatest Townie Movie of all time.

A heart-warming, feel-good film with an extraordinary sense of place.

Say hello to my little podcast about Brian DePalma and Oliver Stone's 1983 Cocainesterpiece, 'Scarface'.

Before I get to Oliver Stone and Brian DePalma's 1983 Miami-set remake of 'Scarface'...here's a background episode about the 1932 'Scarface', written by Ben Hecht and directed by Howard Hawks, the Steven Spielberg of the 1930's and 40's.

From that still-vital, seminal gangster film, I also found my way to some others:

Watch Scarface on Amazon Prime.

Watch Underworld for free here.

Watch The Public Enemy on YouTube.

Watch Little Caesar on YouTube.

Read about the fascinating life of Ben Hecht.

Read the BFI 10 Classic 1930's Gangster Films Article.

One of the stranger and most poorly-marketed films of the 70's is Nicholas Gessner's adaptation of Laird Koenig's 1974 novel 'The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane'.  Far from the horror film the poster and trailer tried to sell audiences on, it's instead an unsettling but realistic portrait of a young girl in an uncertain situation, and a film that I find particularly resonates with people who themselves were 10 or 12 years old in the late 70's.

It's almost Memorial Day Weekend in the States and that means it's time for Yacht Rock!

The term didn't exist before the 2005 web series of the same name was written, directed, and produced by J. D. Ryznar, David Lyons, Hunter D. Stair, and Lane Farnham. 

You can revisit their highly specific genius here.

Before that, music of the type we now refer to as 'Yacht Rock' was known as "The West Coast Sound" and that meant it had characteristics such as being recording in Los Angeles between, roughly, 1972 and 1982, or that heavy session musicians played on the tracks, tracks that often featured electric piano, lyrical tales of romantic failure and ennui, layered backing vocals, and light jazz and R&B elements. 

In this episode I recount my journey from a Yacht Rock generalist, to someone who now believes there is a pure YR essence, discernible in the tracks I reference in this episode...and there are other songs considered Yacht Rock that don't really belong in the canon.  For example, by my analysis, Steely Dan and Hall & Oates: Not Yacht Rock due to a combination of not being recorded in Los Angeles and being outside the scope lyrically and compositionally. But as my friend and YR Guiding Light Rick Brown says: half the fun is debating what belongs and what doesn't.

In preparing the episode I came to believe strongly in the qualitative superiority of the tracks recorded in Los Angeles. I think it's demonstrable upon hearing them.  For the sake of your ears, I prepared two Spotify Playlists:

Yacht Rock: Recorded In LA

And

Yacht Rock: Nyacht From LA

I also explore a few examples of really fun outlier tunes from unexpected sources and encourage you to suggest additional songs that do or don't fit the criteria.

Some thoughts on gratitude and appreciation, and a few anecdotes about how quickly humans go from wide-eyed wonder and astonishment to entitled self-centered expectations, drawn from my three-concert experiences during Dead & Company's recent inaugural stint at MSG's groundbreaking new concert and film venue, Sphere Las Vegas.

OK so today in Las Vegas I learned it's "Sphere" and not "The Sphere".  And we're back recording for posterity impressions of the 2nd night of the inaugural 3-show residency kick-off for Dead & Company at Sphere Las Vegas.

Some thoughts on an extraordinary in-person collective entertainment experience...remember those??

The female actors of 'Blade Runner 2049' are a huge part of the brilliance of Denis Villenueve's 2017 sequel to Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner'. They bring to life such wonderfully complicated, original, genre-bending, emotionally resonant, funny, and strong characters.

In this special episode of the podcast, I take a look at all of the scenes featuring the incredible actors who brought the characters of Luv, Joi, Madam, and Dr. Stelline to life: Sylvia Hoeks, Ana de Armas, Carla Juri, and Robin Wright.

Denis Villenueve's masterpiece 2nd part of his 'Dune' trilogy.  

Barry Sonnenfeld and Scott Frank's adaptation of Elmore Leonard's 1990 crime novel 'Get Shorty' was the 2nd film that John Travolta made after returning to top stardom with a bang in Tarantino's 'Pulp Fiction'.  This vibe-y, enjoyable, smartly-written and brilliantly-acted mid-90's example of the $20-30 million-dollar studio movie that now seems like a vestige of another time and place.

I'm joined again by multi-hyphenate Brad Caleb Kane for a discussion about Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett's iconic 1950 satirical noir Hollywood cautionary tale 'Sunset Boulevard' and various other digressions! 

The second in my growing collection of episodes devoted to 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'...this time it's an episode celebrating all the brilliant Cliff Booth scenes...scenes representing some of Brad Pitt's finest acting to date and the heart and soul of Tarantino's greatest homage to the Hollywood of his youth.

It's my annual Oscar Recap. And Killers of the Flower Moon wuz robbed!

All of Leonardo DiCaprio's scenes as Rick Dalton in Quentin Tarantino's movie-making love-letter 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'

If you're new to the podcast, there's an episode just for you.

Previous All Their Scenes episodes:

Phillip Seymour Hoffman in 'Charlie Wilson's War'

Michael Keaton in 'Jackie Brown' and 'Out of Sight' as Special Agent Ray Nicolette.

Paul Newman in 'The Verdict'

Sean Penn as Jeff Spicoli in 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High'

Warren Zevon on David Letterman

Alan J. Pakula deserves more attention and respect as one of the grestest American film directors of any era.  His run of films in the 70's, from 'Klute' to 'The Parallax View' to 'All The President's Men'...all brilliantly shot by Cinematographer Gordon Willis (The Godfather films)...are as impressive and of their moment as any films made in this thrilling period of American filmmaking.

In this episode, I dive into Pakula's understated persona and genius for working with actors, the period details and psychological explorations that result in a layered, non-showy film that rewards repeat viewings.

Carol Reed and Graham Greene's iconic post-war neo noir classic 'The Third Man'. A perfect movie. Steven Soderbergh calls it the only movie you need to watch in order to learn how to make a movie. In this episode I cover the making of, the battles between David O. Selznick, Alexander Korda, Reed and Orson Welles, the happenstance score to end all film scores and MORE.

Director Toby Amies and I discuss his excellent and unexpected documentary 'In the Court of the Crimson King: King Crimson at 50'.

Ridley Scott's brilliant 1979 sci-fi/horror classic 'Alien' burnished his deserved reputation as bold re-interpreter of techno-dystopian futurism and exploder of genres.

But it made a lot of money and dollar signs in the eyes of 'Alien' producers Brandywine Productions led them to turn for a sequel to James Cameron, who had already done a similar turn on the Rambo franchise, penning a "rewritten" script for the sequel 'Rambo: First Blood Part II' that paved the way for the ridiculously over-the-top guns 'n poses Rambo films that followed.

Discarding with the quality actors and brilliantly lived-in future of the Nostromo and the original 'Alien', 'Aliens' is a box-office-pleasing symbiotic mutual masturbation effort where both audience and filmmaker are complicit in a liason that leaves both dirty and discredited.  It should be noted that I am fairly alone in this opinion, and  many 80's blockbuster-loving film fans revere 'Aliens' as even a superior 'Alien' film to the original!

One such fan is my frequent guest Bruce Edwards. Previously we've digested our love for 'Bladerunner' and 'Alien' on episodes of the podcast.  Here we get into 'Aliens' from our differing perspectives and find more common ground in a discussion about David Fincher's very first feature film, 'Alien 3', which he directed at the ripe old age of 27 and which was and is a legandary troubled production resulting in several competing alien babies; various cuts of the film exist and Fincher himself disavows the film. 

Billy Friedkin's iconic 1971 game-changing NYC police procedural/car chase classic 'The French Connection' has a fascinating backstory and making-of history, and, hey: that's what I'm here for! To bring you all the best stories behind the scenes on the streets of New York and all the context and color that helps place this movie in the pantheon of the films that came before and after it.

The NY Times article about this summer's censorship of the film is linked here.

Mark Kermode's very well made BBC documentary about the making of The French Connection can be seen on YouTube.

Owen Roizman, the film's brilliant and prolific cinematographer's IMDB page is here.

Do yourself a favor and watch the films of the brilliant French director Jean-Pierre Melville.

Listen to David Shire's iconic score for The Taking of Pelham 123 on YouTube.

Don Ellis' haunting end credits music from The French Connection.

Peter Yates was quietly one of the most interesting film directors of his time. His seminal 1967 British train-robbery film 'Robbery' got him noticed for the job directing Steve McQueen in 1968's 'Bullitt'.  In that film, Yates turned in a car chase frequently mentioned as second only to the iconic one filmed by Billy Friedkin in 'The French Connection'.

By 1973,  Yates was in Hollywood, working under a three-picture deal with Peter Bart and Robert Evans at Paramount.  Two of those didn't work out. The third turned out to be 'The Friends of Eddie Coyle', which is one of the very best 70's crime films, one of the very best Boston-set films ever made, and features Robert Mitchum's very best performance amid a wonderfully constructed neo-noir shot entirely on location in a series of blue-collar and working class Boston spots.

In this episode, I talk about 'Robbery', 'Bullitt' and 'The French Connection' and how they compare and contrast to 'The Friends of Eddie Coyle', an underappreciated little masterpiece of the sort Peter Yates specialized in throughout his career.

Martin Scorcese's new film 'Killers of the Flower Moon' is in many ways his magnum opus; it's a film carefully wrought with all of his and his production team's highest possible creative efforts, and it also marshals all those resources in the furtherance of a greater collective understanding and reckoning with yet another dark chapter in America's history.

Links

Marty's interview with Edgar Wright.

'The FBI Story' 1959 Film version of the Osage Murders.

The many Osage artisans behind the scenes of the film.

Vogue magazine article about the Osage constumers.

The legal issues surrounding the return of Osage head rights and lands.

Article about Robbie Robertson's score for the film.

Music from the film:

 THE PIPE: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3Oz4to8y_Y

OIL: 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR-lyorY25Y

They Don't Live Long: 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAImXzdgZ2g

Tulsa Massacre:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px1mvSgKh-0

Heartbeat Theme:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X83uF0IPobs&list=PLLv3qeuV3YDpYbdqu3rKy-KbpA3HxcPtN&index=4

Production Designer Jack Fisk.

Article about the Production Design of the film from De Zeen.

A particular interest of mine is phone calls in movies. I'm interested in them as plot devices, as examples of good or indifferent screenwriting, as opportunities for actors to show different sides of themselves in scenes where they're not opposite other actors, and on and on.

In this episode we'll take a look at a few different genres of Movie Phone Call scenes: scenes where actors are onscreen portraying both sides of the calls, scenes where we only hear the audio of the other side of the call, and then, finally...the Holy Grail of Movie Phone Calls: The One-Sided Phone Call.

Clips

The YouTube channel BurgerTime's excellent Supercut of Movie Phone calls.

Bob Newhart is the master of the One-Sided Phone Call.

The entire Bob Newhart one-sided call between Abe Lincoln and his Press Agent.

Some truly one-sided phone call scenes:

An appreciation of Phillip Seymour Hoffman and his brilliant portrayal of real-life CIA Most Interesting Man Gust Avrokotos in Mike Nichols' final film 'Charlie Wilson's War'. 

'Lost In America' was Albert Brooks' 3rd film as a writer/director/star and remains probably the most broadly-appealing of his films.  It's one of two of his films to have been given the Criterion stamp of cineaste approval, the other being the often-underrated 'Defending Your Life', and now,  and perhaps even more important, it's the first of his films to be given the Full Cast and Crew treatment.

Links:

Albert Brooks:  Famous School For Comedians 

Hilarious clips from Lost In America

Criterion essay by Scott Tobias on Lost In America

'Across 110th Street' is a 1972 Harlem crime film that contains many of the tropes of the exploitation films of the era...but it also contains incredible performances from black actors whose skills rise far above the material at hand, people like Paul Benjamin, Yaphet Kotto, Richard Ward, and Marlene Warfield.  And Bobby Womack's title song was used to great effect in 'Jackie Brown', as discussed in my last two episodes.

In this week's episode I use the verses and choruses to explore Bobby Womack's amazing, tragic, and incredible life story, his relationship with Sam Cooke, his struggles and his surprisingly central role in the American popular musical landscape for almost 60 years.

Elmore Leonard's cocky, energetic ATF Agent Ray Nicolet is a key protagonist in his book 'Rum Punch'.  For Quentin Tarantino's film adaptation of 'Rum Punch', 'Jackie Brown', the character, now named "Ray Nicolette" was embodied by the brilliant Michael Keaton with a perfectly cocky, energetic physicality.

While cinematic universes are commonplace nowadays, in 1997 it was a surprise to see the character appear, uncredited, in Steven Soderbergh's adaptation of Leonard's novel of the same name, and even more rewarding to get a couple of additional character dynamics revealed by Keaton's similarly smart and self-aware performance.

In this episode, much as I did in Episode 157 with Paul Newman's scenes from 'The Verdict' and in Episode 152 with Sean Penn's Jeff Spicoli scenes from 'Fast Times'...I go through all of Keaton's scenes from 'Jackie Brown' and 'Out of Sight' and offer up full appreciation.

Also: a quick look back at Keaton's first real starring performance in 'Night Shift' with Henry Winkler and Shelly Long.

Quentin Tarantino surprised fans with the release of his third film, 'Jackie Brown' coming as it did on the heels of the global phenomenon that was 'Pulp Fiction' in all its unprecedented Tarantino-ness. 

Devoid of gory violence, 'Jackie Brown' is a thoughtful, hilarious, insightful and moving crime story that manages to be incredibly faithful to the ethos of the Elmore Leonard novel 'Rum Punch' (on which the film is based) while also mining Tarantino's own deeply personal connection to the blaxploitation films that made Pam Grier a genre star in the 70's and to the more working-class parts of Los Angeles, towns featured in the film like Carson and Hawthorne, CA and iconic now-gone locations like the Cockatoo Inn.

"I treat movie stars like actors and actors like movie stars" said Tarantino, and that approach is well-represented here, with Michael Keaton and Robert DeNiro turning in perfectly-pitch supporting turns and industry vets like Forster and Grier getting plenty of runway to inhabit roles they weren't usually given during their heyday.

This episode covers those locations,  the incredible soul and r&b tracks that populate the soundtrack, and the brilliant acting from everyone in the cast, as well as the sure-handed filmmaking from Tarantino's growing collection of go-to crew and production staffers.

One of my very favorite films, it's a pleasure to share my 'Jackie Brown' episode with you all!

Billy Friedkin, maybe the weirdest (in a good way) major American director of his generation, almost doesn't make sense on paper; wait...the same guy directed 'The French Connection' and 'The Excorcist'?  But the ups and downs of Friedkin's storied and somewhat haphazard career are what makes him one of the most interesting directors to consider.

And 'To Live and Die in LA' is some kind of crazy masterpiece, punching WELL above its weight as a non-studio, non-union middling-budget (6 million dollars) independent LA neo-noir.

Filled with superlative near-first-timers like John Turturro, William Petersen, John Pankow, Willem Dafoe and stellar supporting work from the likes of Steve James, Robert Downey, Sr,  Darlanne Fluegel, Dean Stockwell, Jack Hoar, and Debra Feuer, TLADILA is easily consumed as genre fare...or more diligently dissected as the incredible example of top-tier filmmaking and production design and location and stunt work that it also is. Needless to say that's where I'm taking my cues!

Available now on a newly restored 4K UHD and blu-ray disc, TLADILA has frustratingly not been available to stream but my plea here is that you avail yourself of the physical media and set aside an evening to appreciate this great work of FUN and ART.

Buy the new release here.

Listen to Wang Chung's excellent TLADILA soundtrack here.

A deep-dive into the semiotics of 'Barbie' and its post-feminist critique of corporate capitalism and American mores.

Just kidding, I went and saw 'Barbie' with five 12-year-olds. Six, if you count me.

But seriously, this episode unpacks some of the things I found interesting about the film, its very existence, its brilliant marketing and repositioning.  Also: supporting cast wins and losses, why the filmmakers missed a perfect opportunity to put the idiotic 'Barbie Girl' song to great use, and a plea for an Allan spinoff.

I'm joined by legendary ad-man-turned brand-identity guru, author, screenwriter, and producer Ernest Lupinacci to talk all things 'The Godfather' and 'The Godfather, Part II' (with a sideways glance at 'The Godfather, Part III'), including our preferences, what II gained and lost in terms of casting and production, returning Mario Puzo to center stage credit for creating this universe of indelible characters.

Follow my guest Ernest Lupinacci on Instagram.

Check out Ernest and illustrator Alex Ogle's excellent graphic novel about the making of 'The Godfather', 'The Godfather Gang' here.

Watch the Paramount+ scripted series that about the making of 'The Godfather' here.

An episode about 40 years of fandom and learning to actively listen to music while being of an age that can appreciate the collective experience of Dead & Company's Final Tour for the singular happening it represents.

I went and saw the new Indiana Jones movie at the Drive-In.  

An email from a listener got me thinking about film scores that I actually listen to and love, so this episode shares a handful of classic and contemporary scores I think are worthy of special consideration.

Scores referenced in this episode:

Get Carter

The Taking of Pelham 123

Dirty Harry

Out Of Sight

Ocean's 11

Ocean's 12

Ocean's 13

Taxi Driver

Koyaanisqatsi

American Beauty

The Social Network

Blade Runner

Blade Runner 2049

Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World

Chinatown

Heat

Moneyball

Gomorrah

This week's companion episode to my previous episode about Sidney Lumet's 'The Verdict' is for the craft purists, the Newman obsessives, and the acting completists out there.

Much like I did with the amazing Sean Penn Spicoli scenes in my follow-up to the  'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' episode, here I'm going deep on Paul Newman's brilliant, career-best performance as Frank Galvin and discussing ALL of his key scenes in the film.

One of my very favorite films and featuring one of Paul Newman's favorite performances, Sidney Lumet's 'The Verdict' has grown in stature and appreciation since its premiere in 1982.  

With a brilliantly adapted screenplay by multi-hyphenate David Mamet, a tortured development process encompassing stars like Redford and other directors named Sidney (Pollack), and a first-rate cast, 'The Verdict' is one of the greatest courtroom dramas of all time.

I'm thrilled to be joined once again by author and editor Keir Graff, who once again turns in an excellent appearance as a well-prepared guest on the pod. 

We dive deep into the making of this film, play some iconic scenes, and discuss the nuances and joys of the performances, the writing, the directing and the production elements that make this wonderful film such a standard of the form.

Keir Graff's author website.

Keir's previous appearance on the Full Cast and Crew Podcast discussing "The Color of Money".

Watch "The Verdict"

Playlist of Official "The Verdict" clips.

Watch the Paul Newman/Joanne Woodward documentary 'The Last Movie Stars', directed by Ethan Hawke.

Buy Sidney Lumet's indispensable guide to making movies, called, magically enough 'Making Movies'.

Listen to Sidney Lumet's indispensable Director's Commentary to 'The Verdict' in podcast form.

Bennett Miller was the 3rd director attached to the adaptation of Michael Lewis' classic baseball non-fiction book 'Moneyball', after Steven Soderbergh was replaced by Sony, who got nervous over his plan for interspersing interviews with real-life characters from the book like Lenny Dykstra and Darryl Strawberry throughout the film. His rewrite of Steve Zaillian's script made the studio nervous when paired with the $50 million dollar budget.

Some of that technique remains in Miller's use of real baseball scouts and former players in the film, but it's blended seamlessly with the fantastic performances by Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill (who replaced Dmitri Martin in the role of Paul Brand/Paul DePodesta), Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Chris Pratt.

Pitt and Sony exec Amy Pascal and producer Mike DeLuca stuck with the project, reduced the budget, and luckily, the film got made.  On the face of it, it's an audacious undertaking: no less than an art-house take on baseball. Or is it a crowd-pleasing writer's film with a decidedly 70's bent?  Or is it a treatise on the limitations of collective conventional wisdom?  It's all these things and more. 

Some Articles About 'Moneyball':

Roundtable with Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Bennett Miller:  https://youtu.be/r9g2Bk2GQYY?t=199

84th Academy Awards Nominees and Winners.

I'm joined by frequent FCAC Guest Star Richard Brown as we explore the many possible reactions to Robert Altman and Joan Tewksbury's 'Nashville'...a film that polarized pretty much everyone when it came out but that has settled into a comfortable middle-age of generally accepted masterpiece status.  But...is it?  

In this episode Rick and I explore the fruits of Altman's decision to have entirely new country music songs written for the movie, in many cases BY his stars, many of whom were not musicians. We discuss Lily Tomlin's exerted influence on her character's key scenes, and how her warmth and humanity contributes much-needed heart to the proceedings.

There was much backstage drama during the shoot, and of course we're not above handling the better of those stories with class and dignity...

Watch 'Nashville' on YouTube.

Read about 'Nashville' on Wikipedia.

Some 'Nashville' clips.

A few of Rick Brown's other recent FCAC appearances:

Bobby Darin Beyond the Song

Broadcast News

Our 'Weird Christmas' Special

Watch the 'Payday' trailer here.

The 2003 episode that David Letterman devoted entirely to a single guest, Warren Zevon, stands out as one of Dave's signature episodes and the frank and revealing conversation they had about Zevon's terminal lung cancer diagnosis is but one of many fascinating layers to that appearance that this episode of the podcast explores.

Issues of ambition, ego, addiction, self-medication and recovery were shared by both of these talented and tortured entertainers.  Zevon's life and career were shadowed by his alcoholism, his brief period of 12-Step sobriety, and the abstinence from alcohol and drugs he would give up upon receiving his terminal cancer diagnoses.  Letterman has spoken openly about his own father's alcoholism and sobriety in AA, and his own decision to stop drinking in 1984 and how his life and work has been altered by that decision. In their many meetings on Letterman's shows, these issues and many others would be crackling in the fore and background.

This episode was inspired by Crystal Zevon's incredible, heart-wrenching oral biography of her ex-husband Warren Zevon, a contemplation of Zevon's many appearances on the David Letterman shows over the years, and a lifelong fascination with reading between the lines of rock biographies.

Sources:

Zevon songs

'Werewolves Of London' Video

'Keep Me In Your Heart' Lyric Video

'Desperados Under The Eaves' Video

'Searching For A Heart' Video

Dr. Demento

'They're Coming to Take Me Away'

'Fish Heads'

'Dead Puppies'

Paul Nelson's 1981 Profile of Zevon

Zevon's Appearances on Letterman

Jesse Thorn's revealing 2020 podcast interview with David Letterman

Buy Crystal Zevon's excellent biography of Zevon on Amazon.

Watch Letterman's Netflix INTV series.

Sean Penn's committed, beyond-his-years performance as Jeff Spicoli is one of the great and most-storied American film acting performances, full stop. 

After last week's episode about 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' opened my eyes anew to how astoundingly complete Sean Penn made Spicoli, I simply had to do something I've never done on the pod before: devote an entire episode to appreciating and deconstructing the 22 times Jeff Spicoli appears onscreen in the film.

Craig Brown's excellent book which gave this episode its title.

And Craig Brown's excellent book about The Beatles which is also an inspiration.

Here's a bizzaro Fast Times Coloring Book I really need to own.

Amy Heckerling and Cameron Crowe's 1982 adaptation of Crowe's book 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' is a classic that rises above the low-brow teen-sex comedy that Universal executives probably expected when they green lit the Valley-set film with a bunch of no-name actors (outside of Mr. Hand, of course), a soundtrack of artists who just so happened to mostly be represented by the film's executive producer, and a first-time director who couldn't sound or be more "New York" in Heckerling.

Frequent FCAC guest Ted Jessup joins me to run through all the things that make this film exceptional and iconic.  We pay respects to Mr. Hand, Spicoli, Stacy, Linda, Brad, The Rat, Damone, Mr. Vargas, Jefferson and many more.

So, please, say "Aloha" to the pod and join us, won't you? There's nothing wrong with a little information feast on OUR time, is there??

Following his 1995 crime epic 'Heat', Michael Mann was in a position to do most any film he desired to do. So when Disney Studios ponied up north of 90 million dollars to help him bring a thorny, wordy, action-free journalism picture to life, they probably reasonably expected a 'All The President's Men' for a new generation.  And while their efforts garnered 7 Oscar nominations, the film disappointed at the box office in part due to the difficulty in communicating to prospective viewers exactly what the film was about.

And pointedly, Mann cast Pacino and Crowe exactly BECAUSE he planned to use them as they'd never been seen before. Audiences expecting Crowe to break apart a desk as he'd done in 'LA Confidential' or for Pacino to embody Satan a la 'The Devil's Advocate' were instead confronted with something quite different. Pacino as facile, intelligent man of the media. Australian-born Crowe playing a man 23 years older than him, a man with a complex speaking voice equal parts The Bronx, Japan, and Kentucky..but no part Australian.

A fictionalized account of a true story, 'The Insider' is based on the battle surrounding a 60 Minutes segment about Jeffrey Wigand, a whistleblower in the tobacco industry, in particular covering his and CBS producer Lowell Bergman's struggles as they defend his testimony against efforts to discredit and suppress it by both inside business interests within CBS and by Wigand's former employer, the powerful Brown & Williamson tobacco company.

In this episode, I talk about the making of this film, its extraordinary technical accomplishments, and the fantastic leading performances from Crowe, Pacino, and Christopher Plummer as 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace. We hear from Mann and Crowe about the film, and play some surprising sound drops highlighting some of the twists and turns that the film presents.  

Also covered: 'Miami Vice', WKRP In Cincinnati's Andy Travis and his unlikely cameo in 'The Insider', Animal House's D-Day in maybe the best scene in the whole of 'The Insider', supporting work from Colm Feore, Gina Gershon, Phillip Baker Hall, and MORE!

After a two-week hiatus...and a hilariously unexpected detour in our attempt to do "The Manchurian Candidate" on this episode, my guest Keir Graff and I pivoted to 'The Color of Money' and I'm so glad we did.

This episode features a lot of great stories about the making of the film, and also includes plenty of necessary discussion about 'The Hustler', specifically Piper Laurie, Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, and George C. Scott's performances in that original film, the shared origin of the novels by the prolific, alcoholic, (and ultimately recovered) novelist Walter Tevis, who ALSO wrote the books turned into the film 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' and the Netflix series 'The Queen's Gambit'. 

We talk about the gentle arc of Newman's life and career, viewed a bit through the lens of recent materials (materials it seems he never intended to make public) that shed light on what he was thinking and feeling during various important moments throughout his life. 

And we talk about the curious reception that 'The Color of Money' continues to have among cineastes...and we play the famous Siskel & Ebert two thumbs down review of the film upon its release in 1986.  Hey, nobody's perfect! But it's funny in retrospect how so many of us at the time missed the undercurrents of connection to the Fast Eddie character in 'The Hustler'...connections Newman made sure that Scorsese and screenwriter Richard Price (who also has a great and brief cameo in the film) laced throughout the script and that he also included in his performance. Newman won his first Academy Award for 'The Color of Money'.

LINKS

Keir Graff's author website.

Fast Eddie Felson is back.

A funny Marty Scorcese interview from 1986.

A great clip of a very Method Newman baiting Jackie Gleason's Minnesota Fats in 'The Hustler'

Some clips from 'The Color of Money':

In the late 90s three 28-year-olds with zero documentary filmmaking experience re-ignited a college dorm room pipe dream about making a documentary about the life and career of singer/songwriter/actor/activist Bobby Darin. 

What followed was equal parts kismet and catastrophe and might serve as a useful blueprint and cautionary tale for anyone contemplating stepping into the unknown of a dream and ambition.

With a combination of naive conviction and a blessed unawareness of the stop signs in their path, these two (one dropped out along the way, his story is in the pod) kids ended up making their documentary for PBS, interviewing heavy hitters like Dick Clark and Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun while having some gonzo adventures along the way with colorful characters like Monkees co-creator and New Hollywood film studio BBS principle Steve Blauner. 

In this Very Special Episode of the Full Cast and Crew Podcast, we'll unfold this funny and heart-felt tale with plenty of anecdotes and lessons learned by our two filmmakers.

LINKS:

Buy the 'Bobby Darin: Beyond The Song' DVD from Amazon.

Or, watch it on YouTube

Buy Al DiOrio's great book about Bobby Darin, referenced in the podcast, here.

Get Dodd Darin's excellent book about his parents 'Dream Lovers' here.

Support podcast guest and 'Beyond The Song' co-director Henry Astor's UK farm shop Bruern Farms.

Thanks for listening! Please hit FCAC with a 5-star review on Apple, it helps more people discover your favorite little film podcast.

James Cameron has made 3 of the top 4 highest-grossing films of all time, with a collective box office of more than EIGHT BILLION DOLLARS.

Recently I had the occasion to watch both 'Avatar: The Way of Water' (currently the #3 highest-grossing film) and the 4K 3D re-release of 1997's 'Titanic' (#4). Collectively, that's about 7 or 8 hours in the Cameronverse.   In this ruminative episode, I share the existential crisis thus unleashed upon my cinema-going Avatar, a crisis of conscience and consciousness in equal measures.

Also in this episode, I recommend the Bob Lefsetz Podcast and Lefsetz Letter...so...join me, won't you??

LINKS:

'Titanic' alternative ending.

The Bob Lefsetz Podcast.

Joined again by Full Cast and Crew spirit-animal Richard Brown for a deep discussion about James L. Brooks' 1987 picture 'Broadcast News', a stealthily subversive rejection of Hollywood Rom-Com tropes and one of the greatest films about television ever made.  

Topics include:

The great, troubled life and career of Polly Platt.

Jim Brooks and 'Terms of Endearment'

The research/interview based origination and approach to writing 'Broadcast News'

Wrestling with the legacy of William Hurt, his transgressions and sobriety in the era of cancel culture.

Holly Hunter and Albert Brooks

LINKS:

Great and useful articles about 'Broadcast News':

Hey, where you been? I guess it's me, not you...where have I been? Sitting through Avatar! THREE HOURS AND TWELVE MINUTES! Feel my pain.  In this catch-up episode we'll talk Oscar noms and snubs, Best Picture thoughts on 'Tar', 'The Fablemans', 'Top Gun: Maverick', 'Everything Everywhere All At Once', 'All Quiet on the Western Front', and 'Triangle of Sadness'.

Plus a speculation on why 'She Said', a film made by women and containing several Oscar-worthy turns, was snubbed by an Academy voter contingent that went out of its way to nominate the safer, less potentially awkward winning moment represented by 'To Leslie'.

Also: post-rehab celebrity apologies, some great film books I've read recently, some series recommendations and MORE!

A favorite on the podcast is 'movies about making movies' and Tim Burton's funny, moving, spot-on 1950's Hollywood cautionary tale/celebration of the business 'Ed Wood' is one of the best.  Guesting on this episode is Brad Kane, Co-Show-Runner of HBO Max's forthcoming Stephen King 'It' prequel series 'Welcome To Derry'.  Brad's been an actor, director, producer, and writer, and brings such interesting depth, perspective, experience and insight to our wide-ranging conversation about the making of this extraordinary film.

-RABBIT HOLE LINKS-

IF your curiosity is piqued (peaked?)...some great links to explore:

'Ed Wood' Wiki

Brad Kane Wiki

'Plan 9 From Outer Space' can be watched for free on YouTube

A great documentary about the life and work of Ed Wood, referenced in the podcast, is 'The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood, Jr'.

Ed Wood's groundbreaking and bonkers cross-dressing film 'Glen or Glenda' is a must-see.

Wikipedia page for the great Bela Lugosi

A must-have handbook for all Hollywood wannabe's is Ed Wood's still-vital 'Hollywood Rat Race', a distillation of all his hard-earned wisdom.

Watch Tim Burton's 'Ed Wood' on Amazon.

Or Watch on YouTube.

Full Cast and Crew episodes mentioned in this episode:

-'Carrie' with Lee Wilkof

-Brian De Palma's 'Blow Out'

-David Fincher's 'Zodiac'

-Peter Bogdanovich's first film, the Roger Corman-produced 'Targets' co-starring Lugosi nemesis Boris Karloff (and a very young Jack Nicholson, in a brief cameo).

'Chinatown' has it all: premium 1960's and 70's counter-cultural bona fides in Jack Nicholson and Robert Towne.  The ultimate Robert Evans production, as Producer AND head of the studio; a situation that allowed the barren earth from which 'Chinatown' sprung to be watered and tended to carefully despite strong headwinds against it ever coming to fruition.

In this episode, I get into the backstory of 'Chinatown' and its origins in Towne's interest in the rapidly-expanding development swallowing up the Southern California of his 1940's childhood. And Polanski, having fled LA following the horrific 1969 murder of his wife, Sharon Tate and their unborn child, was in no hurry to return.  

But the combined efforts of Evans and Nicholson changed Polanski's mind, and he and Towne embarked upon a reworking of the script.  And the result is a timeless classic, a jaundiced look at American (and male) power and politics. An upending of the tropes of the femme fatale noir character perfectly embodied by a never-better Faye Dunaway was the icing on this particular cake.

And Polanski's simple but incredibly thought-out direction is a wonder to contemplate, which this episode does with soundbites from David Fincher, Robert Towne, Steven Soderbergh, and Kimberly Pierce.

Finally, Jerry Goldsmith's incredible, indelible score is all the more remarkable given that it was a replacement score, written and recorded in just 9 days with the film's release date looming.

As we wrap up the Full Cast and Crew year, I'm sharing some off-beat Christmas cheer with you all in this, our first-ever Weird Christmas Spectacular.  Frequent listeners to the pod have heard me say "weird is good" many times, and the picks in today's episode reflect not films or tv shows or songs that are weird for weird's sake; they reflect things with a decidedly bent holiday spirit in all the right places. 

Rick Brown joins me as we share our picks for a weird-is-good Christmas film, TV episode, and song that represents something essential to us respectively.

Films discussed: Henry Winkler's 'An American Christmas Carol' from the peak of his Fonzie/Happy Days tv superstardom is a refreshingly dark and candid look at the Dickens classic. 

Also in the film category: 'Black Christmas', a film that predates "Halloween" and "Blow Out" owe a hell of a lot to. Starring Margot Kidder, Keir Dullea, Andrea Martin, and John Saxon, this is a really funny and impressively malevolent film.

On the TV side, Rick tries his best to convince me that the "Alice" episode 'Mel The Magi' is, of all the worthy 1970's sitcom Christmas episodes, something to celebrate.  

MY pick, the Bob Newhart Show episode 'His Busiest Season' proves easier to defend.

Finally, we explore some off-the-beaten-path Christmas songs, with Rick selecting the 1940's classic big-band composition 'Snowfall' as sung by Doris Day and me choosing something right out of the FCAC wheelhouse; 1981's 'Christmas Wrapping' by The Waitresses, with lead vocals by the irrepressable, irreplaceable Patty Donahue.

Happy Holidays to all the listeners and thank you for making 2022 our best year ever on the Full Cast and Crew podcast!

A heartfelt appreciation about how good and truthful Steven Spielberg's deeply personal, funny, and moving film 'The Fabelmans' is.  

Go and see this film in a theater.  It's hard for the film's trailer to capture the unique and intelligent tone of the film, so I position this episode towards those of you who judge a book by its cover and a movie by its trailer (which is all of us, let's face it).

Praise for: Paul Dano, Michelle Williams,  Gabriel LaBelle, Judd Hirsch, Julia Butters, Seth Rogen.

Sound from Spielberg, Judd Hirsch, Seth Rogen, and Paul Dano about the film.

Clips, making-of information, and MORE! 

Thrilled to finally deep-dive into the making-of David Fincher's brilliant newspaper movie/police procedural/serial killer obsession film 'Zodiac'.

Topics:

The insane detail that went into preproduction.

Praise for producer Brad Fischer and screenwriter Jamie Vanderbilt.

Soundbites from Fincher's obsessive attention to period detail.

Sound from the real Dave Toschi, memorably played by Mark Ruffalo in a brilliant performance.

The astounding character arc played by Robert Downey, Jr in one of his final films before joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Jake Gyllenhaal's fantastic portrayal of San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist Robert Graysmith, whose book was adapted for the film.

Period sound from Zodiac suspect Arthur Leigh Allen.

Some speculation on the state of the as-yet-unsolved Zodiac case today.

David Shire's amazing score.

Analysis of Academy Award nominations this film SHOULD have gotten...and won.

AND MORE! A true labor of love episode akin to my episode on Michael Mann's 'Heat'....and I fear these episodes do so well that I may have to do more of them and all the work it entails! Let's hope so!

Sources Consulted For This Episode

-David Fincher's 'Zodiac' film on Apple

-Robert Graysmith's  'Zodiac Unmasked'

-Robert Graysmith's 'Shooting Zodiac'

-David Fincher: Mind Games Essays

-David Fincher's commentary track on the 'Zodiac' DVD

-"This is the Zodiac Speaking"  documentary.

-"Making 'Zodiac' " documentary

-"His Name Was Arthur Leigh Allen" documentary

-'Zodiac We Called Him Mr. Allen' YouTube page

I originally recorded this episode as a dry-run for a forthcoming and entirely separate-from-FCAC limited-run podcast seriesI'm going to be doing in 2023 about Dead & Company's final tour (SPINOFF!), but my conversation with my friend and guest Geoff Weed was so illuminating about so many things: the nature of enduring fandom, the power of music and the skills of its most talented practitioners, funny tales from the road, thoughts on how concert-going has changed, and our humorous on-the-scene reports from our individual movie theater experiences in NYC and Chicago as we queued up to see the Dead's 'Meetup at the Movies' special event...that I had to release it this week.

If you're not a Deadhead, no worries: this episode is really about having a love for music and the personalities that make bands tick and occasionally go boom.  For those not familiar, some of the names you might hear are hyperlinked below. Part of the fun of the Grateful Dead is learning the language and the curves in the road. But this brief roadmap will suffice and give you all you need to follow along:

Europe '72

Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux

Merry Prankster Mountain Girl

Legendary Rock Manager Sam Cutler

Former Grateful Dead keyboardist Pigpen

Former Grateful Dead keyboardist Keith Godchaux

US Army refusenik Jerry Garcia

Geoff and I talk about the cycles of fame the Dead have endured...and spend some time chatting about John Mayer and Dead & Company and it's soon-to-conclude 7 year touring history as one of the music business's highest-grossing tours year in and year out.

Joined by frequent guest Frazer Rice (links to previous eps below), this week I dive into the fascinating backstory of the making-of John Carpenter's 1978 horror flick 'Halloween', a genre-busting/genre-defining/genre-expanding piece of forever in the movie business and in the popular imagination.  

From its roots in Carpenter's 'Dark Star' to 'Assault on Precinct 13' to the happenstance on-set decisions that resulted in the bizarre mashup of 'Star Trek' into the 'Halloween' cinematic universe and beyond, this unassuming little inexpensive (300K) film has become an iconic bit of film history.

In this episode we talk about 'Assault on Precinct 13', Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasance, Deborah Hill, Joe Wolf, Carpenter's soundtracks, P.J. Soles, the role the Hamburger Hamlet played in the history of 'Halloween', the differences between 'artistic horror' films like 'The Shining' and 'Carrie' versus more genre-normal films like 'Halloween', recount the role of the William Shatner Star Trek mask in the film, and MORE.

Frazer's appearance on the pod to talk about 'No Time To Die' and Bond futures is here.

Frazer and I talked 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' here.

Watch 'Halloween' here.

Watch Donald Pleasance chew scenery on 'Columbo', as referenced in the episode, here.

These are our listeners!

And this week, after a couple recommendations for the listeners, I'm reading feedback helpful and otherwise.

Out of the mouths of babes. Epistolary output from the peanut gallery. Unsolicited offers. Random opinions. Two-star ratings! One-star ratings! More!

Recommendations in this episode:

Canyon Crows 'Hauntology' on Spotify.

Chuck Leavell: The Tree Man on YouTube.

Jean Stein's West of Eden at Amazon.

The Big Goodbye, Sam Wasson's book about 'Chinatown'.

Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli by Mark Seal

After my last episode with the wonderful, artfully creepy 'The Dead Zone'...I wanted more. More Walken.  More Sci-Fi.  More 1983.  And then Louise Fletcher died.  And it was all right there: BRAINSTORM.  Douglas Trumbull's 1983 science-fiction passion project-turned-albatross.  On the surface it has it all: a killer cast, a great premise (what if you could experience the thoughts and feelings of other people through a breakthrough of computer technology), and a proven special effects commodity in its director.

But as always seems to be the case with the not-quite-great films that start so promisingly...there were in retrospect warning signs.  Trumbull intended to film the movie in his groundbreaking film format 'Showscan' but the studio balked at the expense and need for theater owners to install expensive new equipment.  Then, various screenwriters took stabs at the script.  And infamously, Natalie Wood, filming her return to the big screen after taking a break to be a Mom, died during filming while on a mysterious overnight yacht trip onboard husband Robert Wagner's boat, with only Christopher Walken along.  The case was never solved and was last reopened in 2018.

So, for all that sturm und drang...how is 'Brainstorm' as a film?  Listen to the episode to find out.

Jason is joined by frequent FCAC contributor Richard Brown as they discuss David Cronenberg's atypical (for Cronenberg) film of Stephen King's novel "The Dead Zone".  A deep celebration of this extraordinary film and the Oscar-worthy (and criminally ignored) performance of Christopher Walken, this episode also celebrates Cronenberg, Producer Debra Hill, Composer Michael Kamen, Walken Co-Star Brooke Adams, and MORE.

The making of George Lucas' first 'Star Wars' film is an incredible saga unto itself.

The global success of 'Star Wars' and how it changed the film business forever is an incredible saga unto itself.

The industry advancements in technology pioneered by Lucas' special effects shop Industrial Light and Magic is an incredible saga unto itself.

The above, and several other sentences I could similarly write, are why it's somewhat difficult to even contemplate 'Star Wars' as 'a movie', as freed of the importance and baggage the entire franchise trails in its considerable wake as its possible to be.

But hey, that's what we do here at Full Cast and Crew.  So in this week's episode, I recount the experience I had in screening 'Star Wars' for the first time in a long time, and contrast that experience with the one I had watching the film AFTER I read the making-of books and watched the making-of documentaries.

In order to gain some clarity, I then invited repeat FCAC guests Dan Hartley and Bruce Edwards (their previous episodes linked below) to join me. Dan is a hard-core Star Wars guy and Bruce is extremely knowledgeable about the franchise and what it represents.

So this episode is not a fan-boy, nerd-herding deep dive into whether Han shot first (of course he did), nor is it a "Star Wars is overrated" trolling excercise. Instead, we talk at length about the making-of, about where the first film succeeds and falls short, and why, and about the legacy of sequels and limited series. Join us, won't you??

Bruce Edwards' appearance on the pod to talk about 'Blade Runner' (the 2nd-most downloaded episode of FCAC all time) can be found here.

Bruce Edwards' appearance on the pod to discuss 'Alien' can be found here.

Dan Hartley joining Chris and I (on what would turn out to be Chris' last episode!) to talk about the brilliantly insane 'Star Wars Holiday Special' can be found here.

Some clips of David Prowse in the Vader costume performing the physical portion of the role and speaking Vader dialogue later to be replaced by James Earl Jones is here.

George Lucas' first film, THX 1138 can be rented here.

Current events lead me to revisit 'The Queen' (2006), which, in addition to being an actor's movie of the highest caliber, offers a more nuanced appraisal of its subjects than I think it gets credit for. 

In the popular imagination, this film is probably considered a film that is sympathetic to the Queen and to the Royals, but a rewatch reveals a film that contains as many caustic anti-Monarchy sentiments as it does understanding and human moments.  A clear-eyed portrait of the Royals and of Tony Blair, the film holds up today as the best-filmed entertainment about the Royal Family, and yes, that includes Peter Morgan's essential but more luridly soapy 'The Crown'.

Centered around the events surrounding Princess Diana's death in a Paris tunnel and the aftermath, 'The Queen' is one of my favorite types of films; a tick-tock amalgam of real-life footage and events blended with fictionalized "what must they have been thinking" moments and plenty of moments where the two different approaches meet, such as the two famous public speech moments: one: Tony Blair's 'People's Princess' statement outside the Church in his constituency, and two: the Queen's statement in tribute to Diana, delivered a week after her death and the capping moment of an extraordinary week of push-pull public sentiment and private grief and backstage wrangling.

Background materials discussed in the episode:  

99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret

'The Queen' on Apple, including special feature commentary by Stephen Frears and Peter Morgan.

Clips referenced in the episode:

Tony Blair's actual "People's Princess" speech

Michael Sheen as Tony Blair delivering the speech

Helen Mirren's Queen's Tribute speech.

The Queen's actual Tribute to Diana

Summer's over and it's time to transition to winter and that means SKI FILMS.

Avoiding pap like "Ski School" and "Hot Dog: The Movie" we are instead taking up a listener suggestion to pod about 'Aspen Extreme'...a film I quote comedically (and to generally blank stares) all the time.  Turns out this movie's actually really good and a cut way above the usual dumbass soft-core porn ski comedies all too frequently littered across our slopes in the 80's and 90's.

Aspen Extreme was written and directed by Patrick Hasburgh, who went on to create TV's 'Hardcastle & McCormick' and '21 Jump Street', and was originally conceived by Hasburgh as a darker and grittier look at ski-town life; the highs and especially the lows: the drugs, the empty pursuit of thrills at the expense of relationships, the death and injuries.  But Hollywood Pictures insisted on cuts and on a marketing campaign geared around the phrase "Top Gun on the slopes" which bore little resemblance to the actually well-written character study/fish-out-of-water buddy dramedy he turned out.

Over time, 'Aspen Extreme' has settled into a comfortable middle-age. Screenings in Aspen now have the glow of fondly reminisced times past, and the cast seems to have all thrived in the decades since release.

So while I intended this episode to be tongue-firmly-in-cheek...I was actually surprised even as a fan of this movie to discover it's a totally competent, even moving film set in and around a ski resort, not just another ski comedy with lowbrow jokes and ethnic stereotypes ('Chinese Downhill'...I'm looking at you, 'Hot Dog')....

Michael Mann's 'Heat' is many things; intensely beloved Los Angeles crime saga, De Niro-and-Pacino-onscreen-together curiosity, technically brilliant filmmaking accomplishment, both genre-defining and genre-busting, a tour-de-force of casting, atour-de-force of acting, a tour-de-force of directing, writing, editing, production design, and score....it has enduring presence and continued influence.  It's one of my top 3 favorite films and as such I've resisted doing it on the podcast because it contains the multitudes above.

But a recent rewatch allowed me to appreciate some aspects of the film anew, and inspired this episode. I was particularly struck by the women of 'Heat', which is perhaps a surprise to those who subscribe to the "Michael Mann makes guy films women aren't interested in" take.  But the work of Diane Venora, Amy Brenneman, Ashley Judd, and Kim Staunton is worthy of the praise it gets in this episode.  The work each actor put into making their characters fully-formed people with their own often conflicted and conflicting reasons for partnering with a criminal or a driven robbery-homicide detective rises these performances from background to foreground. Their scenes are as alive and filled with energy and emotion as the meticulously filmed and edited heist scenes.

And also, the supporting casting is singled out in this episode; from Jon Voight, to Tom Noonan, Bud Cort, Mykleti Williamson, Dennis Haysbert, Tone Loc, Ted Levine, Hank Azaria, William Fichtner, Ricky Harris, Natalie Portman and beyond, Bonnie Timmerman and Michael Mann outdid themselves in searching for, in waiting for, just the right actors capable of going all the way in with characterizations deeper than usual for supporting players in films.

'Heat' is a film that is so praised, so accepted as a masterpiece of its kind that it actually takes some work to watch it free of all that positive baggage and appreciate it all over again as an actor's movie, as one person quoted in the podcast says...it's a film of deep emotional power and human connection.  In this episode, I surprised myself by plugging into these aspects of 'Heat' and hopefully you will enjoy having your filmic receptors tantalized enough to inspire your own re-watch. Please let me know what you think when you do!

In this episode, we revisit Brian DePalma's 1981 thriller 'Blow Out', which reunited the director with his 'Carrie' supporting actor John Travolta, who, fives years later, was post-'Saturday Night Fever', 'Grease' and 'Urban Cowboy' and was now one of Hollywood's biggest stars.

'Blow Out' was one of DePalma's most personal films, stemming from his obsessions with the Kennedy Assassination, voyeurism, filmmaking, Hitchcock, and Garrett Brown's new filmmaking invention, the Steadicam.  Shot in his hometown of Philadelphia among locations he was intimately familiar with.

Topics in the episode:  DePalma's flirtations with directing 'Prince of the City' and 'Flashdance'.  His Hitchcock revelations.  How his small conspiracy film took on larger proportions with the arrival of an unexpected star.  The layers and layers of meta meaning in 'Blow Out'. A revisionist take on 'The Conversation'.  Appreciating 'Blow Up'.  Siskel & Ebert, Pauline Kael, and MORE!

Thrilled to revisit 1979's seminal teen-angst/school destruction fantasy 'Over The Edge'...a teen film to rule them all, a movie that more accurately captures the bonds of youthful friendship and the bounds of self-discovery than all the John Hughes films combined.  Using a mix of first-time, inexperienced, and non-professional locals as actors, the Colorado-shot film has an authenticity and veracity to it that's rarely been equalled. Plus it has an absolute kick-ass soundtrack loaded with Cheap Trick, Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, The Cars, and Ramones. It launched the career of Matt Dillon, who was discovered loitering in a Long Island High School hallway during class time.  "What's your Mother do?" the casting director asked. "She don't do shit" was Dillon's attitudinal reply and he has the job because of and not in spite of his rawness and rough edges.  Joined by frequent FCAC guest star Richard Brown, we talk all about the origin story, making of, and critical and fan reception to this excellent and enduring film.

A random IG post sends Jason down the Joe Spinell wormhole and he emerges in 1973 to experience for the first time 'Cops and Robbers', Aram Avakian's film of a Donald E. Westlake comedy screenplay about two NYC cops who decide to try their hand on the other side of the law. 

Featuring pitch-perfect period performances (say that 10 times fast)...'Cops and Robbers' is a really good gem of a 70's film, and has two great lead performances by NYC acting stalwarts Cliff Gorman and Joseph Bologna.  Jason shares a cherished memory of being clueless in a CBS employees bar in the early 90's and meeting Cliff Gorman.

Topics covered: Joe Spinell's particular tortured genius for bit character parts. The Godfather bit where Spinell's Willie Cicci is called "Mr. Quested" by a Senator and brings the house down with "Oh yeah, the family had a lotta buffers".

Also: Roscoe Lee Browne for the ages.  ENJOY! Thanks for listening!

Ethan Hawke's meta-documentary about the lives, love, losses, and careers of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward is a worthwhile, often confounding effort with rewards and challenges alike. 

In this episode Jason talks about the origin of the documentary in the discovery of some transcripts of interviews conducted by a Newman associate in pursuit of a memoir and biography that Newman wanted to work on.  For unknown reasons, Newman later abandoned the project and burned the audio tapes.  But the transcripts survived and form the basis for actor-interpreted versions used in Hawke's documentary to varying degrees of success.  

The documentary tackles weighty issues like the loss of Newman's son Scott, the struggle within a marriage to survive the orbital tilt of Newman's level of super-stardom, and Newman's battle with alcoholism...a battle it seems he never quite won.

By turns infuriating and moving, the film is a worthy but effortful watch.  

Also discussed: Alan Cummings lip-sync performance in the documentary 'My Old School', the AI Bourdain quotes used in his posthumous doc, and Peter Jackson's use of machine learning processes to reveal (or create) conversations in 'The Beatles: Get Back'.

When James Caan died last week at 82 it was cause for a pause of appreciation for the work he left behind. I went searching for a 70's Caan film I hadn't yet seen, having done most of his ouvre at one time or another.  I settled on Czech filmmaker Karel Reisz' brilliant 1974 film 'The Gambler', based on a James Toback script and I'm so glad I did. Before jumping into that film, this episode offers a brief re-appraisal of Caan's work in 'The Godfather' and in Michael Mann's 'Thief' (Caan's favorite film role), and a consideration of the relationship audiences end up having with actors with long careers onscreen and in the public eye, human flaws and imperfections all.

Tony Bill's directorial debut 'My Bodyguard' holds a special and heartwarming place for the 99% of us not fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to have been the most popular kids in school.  'My Bodyguard' is filled with respect for the difficulties of everyday teenage life in a realistic manner, and features wonderful performances from 1980's teen actors like Matt Dillon, Chris Makepeace, Adam Baldwin and Paul Quandt. The film, I posit in this episode, offers a more honest portrayal of teen life than any of the more-successful and better-known John Hughes films of the era, and goes to surprising depths in exploring male friendships, latchkey kids figuring out their place in the world, forgiveness and the setting of boundaries even when it seems most difficult. 

Most Recent Previous Episode is "If You're New To The Pod Start Here"

Links to episodes about High School movies we've done on the pod:

'Heathers' 

'Carrie'

'The Warriors'

'Mean Girls'

125 episodes? Who knew? If you're new to the podcast and wondering what's out there in those previous episodes, this short introductory episode will provide a bit of a roadmap to orient you to some episodes you might be interested in. Thanks for checking out the podcast!

Thrilled to be joined by 3-time FCAC guest star, actor/writer/director Lee Wilkof and to delve into the making of Brian De Palma's most enduring and affecting film, 'Carrie', starring Sissy Spacek in a role she fought for, John Travolta in his first substantial film role just after being cast in 'Welcome Back, Kotter', and the future first ex-Mrs. Brian De Palma, Nancy Allen, who was about to give up on film acting when a casting director spotter her in the unlikeliest of places. Details in the episode. Lee and I talk about how empathetic and heart-rending Sissy Spacek's performance is, about Piper Laurie's casting after a 16-year absence from acting, the three key set pieces: the shower scene, the prom scene, and the Piper Laurie/Carrie death scene and coda. 

Lee's first appearance on the pod discussing his long career is here.

Lee's 2nd appearance, where he and I discuss the brilliant Coen Brothers film Fargo is here.

If you're an actor or film/tv/entertainment person you will definitely see yourself somewhere in Lee's feature directorial debut, No Pay, Nudity. It stars Gabriel Byrne, Frances Conroy, and Nathan Lane.

John Boorman's 1972 adaptation of James Dickey's novel "Deliverance" is a unique New Hollywood film in that its origins lie more in the older studio system yet the film upon release would become of of the most notorious films of its time and an iconic classic that's still discussed and debated today. On this episode of the podcast my friend and returning FCAC guest Ted Jessup joins to talk about a film he's loved and been traumatized by since he was 13 (see Ep 86 'The Odessa File' and Ep 75 'Rosemary's Baby' for more Ted on the pod).  A sort-of Western, a dissection of toxic male behavior, a hillbilly noir, a slam of Southern culture...the film has been used and abused by decades of opinionated takes but in this episode we take a fresh look at this remarkable film and appreciate its powers anew.

Ted's Wikipedia page.

Listen to Ted's FCAC episode on Rosemary's Baby

Listen to Ted's FCAC episode on The Odessa File

Tom Cruise and Joseph Kosinki's smash hit 'Top Gun: Maverick' has been out for a couple weeks now and if you're a rational, sentient human being, you've already seen this film in the theater and enjoyed it immensely like 99% of audience members and 97% of critics on Rotten Tomatoes.  For the 1% - 3% of you who were unable to set aside your limited worldviews and/or aversion to fan-servicing mass-market entertainment that's NOT Marvel-made...well, there's hope for you yet as my episode this week talks about all the myriad reasons there are to like and support this film, in the theater. 

In this episode, Richard Brown and Jason Cilo tackle the making-of 'The Muppet Show', Jim Henson's seminal variety-show program of the late 70's.  Topics covered: the surprising British history of 'The Muppet Show', musings about Kermit's unique spirit and personality, Miss Piggy's actual rags-to-riches life story, Frank Oz's singular talents, an appreciation of Gonzo, the curious misnomer of 'Guys' and 'Men' appearing in formative Muppet docs and period books, the 5 best 'Muppet Show' episodes of all time, AND MORE!

The original 'Battlestar Galactica', while a flawed and imperfect science-fiction TV series of the 1978 season, remains one of the most important and influential science-fiction TV series of all time.

I'm joined again by Richard Brown (see our 'WKRP in Cincinnati', 'Taxi', and 'Network' episodes for more RF Brown) as we delve into the creation story of Battlestar and its creator, Glen A. Larson, known as "Glen Larceny" for his transparent adopting of movie concepts for his tv series. We run down some of Glen's Greatest Hits.

Jumping into the making of the series, we drop down to discuss the insanely complicated way that the Cylon robot voices were produced back in the day.  Audio geeks and vintage recording equipment nerds will particularly enjoy that section, with full credit to YouTuber Supajc for his excellent video series.

As Rick and I run through the cast and crew of Battlestar, we talk pros and cons and what-might-have-beens. I of course profess a decided appreciation for the much-maligned "Battlestar Galactica 1980", an admittedly misguided too-late network attempt to get the show right once and for all.

Alternative Casting, the Columbo Cinematic Universe, and MORE!

Pls like and follow the pod on Twitter and Instagram.

The original 'Battlestar Galactica', while a flawed and imperfect science-fiction TV series of the 1978 season, remains one of the most important and influential science-fiction TV series of all time.

I'm joined again by Richard Brown (see our 'WKRP in Cincinnati', 'Taxi', and 'Network' episodes for more RF Brown) as we delve into the creation story of Battlestar and its creator, Glen A. Larson, known as "Glen Larceny" for his transparent adopting of movie concepts for his tv series. We run down some of Glen's Greatest Hits.

Jumping into the making of the series, we drop down to discuss the insanely complicated way that the Cylon robot voices were produced back in the day.  Audio geeks and vintage recording equipment nerds will particularly enjoy that section, with full credit to YouTuber Supajc for his excellent video series.

As Rick and I run through the cast and crew of Battlestar, we talk pros and cons and what-might-have-beens. I of course profess a decided appreciation for the much-maligned "Battlestar Galactica 1980", an admittedly misguided too-late network attempt to get the show right once and for all.

Alternative Casting, the Columbo Cinematic Universe, and MORE!

Pls like and follow the pod on Twitter and Instagram.

Dan Erickson's Apple+ thriller series "Severance" is, to my mind, the best sci-fi TV series we've gotten since "Black Mirror".  So why isn't it getting quite as much attention as that series deservedly did?  In this episode, I briefly discuss some of the aspects that I think make "Severance" so uniquely good, particularly the very strong casting, idiosyncratic production design, thoughtful world-building, wicked sense of humor, and praise-worthy pacing and creative decision-making.  Then a brief discussion of some reasons why this series hasn't struck quite the same social media nerve endings as more buzzed-about (but perhaps also more disposable) series like "Euphoria" or "Yellowjackets").  This ties in nicely with the recent collective gasp over Netflix dropping a significant tranche of subscribers and our entry to What Comes Next for the Golden Age of Streamers. Waffle parties for everyone!

Last week's episode about the new Michael Cimino book spurred me to rewatch all three of these classic films and, in doing so, I surprised myself with a firm and resounding reset of what I THOUGHT I thought about these movies.  So here are some great clips and making-of anecdotes as I walk through what makes each of these films unique as well as give credit to foundational Viet Nam docs and other features along the way.

In his new book, Charles Elton tackles the impossible; a biography of late director Michael Cimino, an elusive, mysterious, obfuscating, and contrary Hollywood figure in real life...and, if possible, a man even more complicated and gossiped about online, in the press and in the power lunch spots of Hollywood than any other Oscar-winning director of his or any time.

From Long Island roots to Mad Men-era success in advertising to the 9 Academy Award Nominations for 'The Deer Hunter' to the debacle of 'Heaven's Gate' and to Cimino's final and often-misunderstood final decades of personal transformation, Charles Elton's book reads like an unfurling mystery, following clues and attempting to pin down elusive or outright combative Cimino friends and loyalists in pursuit of several important accomplishments that I think the book deserves credit for.

The first is a resetting of the narrative that Cimino's 'Heaven's Gate" was responsible for bankrupting a major Hollywood studio in United Artists.  Elton's book reveals how, excess notwithstanding, Cimino himself was less guilty than the studio executives who were unable to reign in the rising costs and delays that they themselves set in motion.

The second is a sensitive handling of Cimino's dramatic altering of his physical self in his final decades.  Was he, as was rumored, transitioning to live as a woman?  Was he someone who simply enjoyed wearing women's clothes from time to time but otherwise lived a heterosexual lifestyle? Is it telling that as Cimino altered his appearance so drastically as to be unrecognizeable from his 20's and 30's and 40's he also became more voluble and open and "himself" when he did speak to the press, however infrequently that was. Here, too, Elton parses the record with sensitivity and curiosity not of a prurient nature; how did this man who directed a masterpiece in "The Deer Hunter" never do it again and what fueled his drive and need for total, dominating control...even as he had a 50-year partnership with his producer, protector, and friend Joann Carelli which blurred the lines between their two lives to a degree never before so closely reported as in this new book.

Thrilled to be joined again by pop culture historian and author Richard F. Brown to do the definitive 'Taxi' total rewatch and episode.

We get into the mysterious beauty and melancholy of Bob James' 'Taxi' theme song 'Angela', and the temporary filmed open that became so identified with the ennui and thwarted ambitions of the beloved cabbies of the Sunshine Cab Co.

We discuss all the characters and the actors who played them: Latka and Andy Kaufman, Danny DeVito and Louie, Marilu Henner and Elaine, Judd Hirsch and Alex, Christopher Lloyd and Reverend Jim Ignatowski, Tony Danza and Tony Banta, Jeff Conaway (RIP) and Bobby, Carol Kane as Simka, and more.

'Taxi' is one of the most interesting sitcoms in television history because of the originality of its approach to filming with four cameras instead of the sitcom-traditional 3 cameras. This allowed director Jim Burrows to capture what he calls the essential surprise of comedy being performed live in front of a studio audience.

Any discussion of 'Taxi' offers the best opportunity we have to discuss Andy Kauffman and his unique and often challenging approach to comedy and performance art in everyday life. We cover his outstanding and long-shelved 1977 TV special, which features one of the most amazing and little-discussed Andy Kauffman bits: a heartfelt and very real and emotional conversation he has with Howdy Doody, his childhood TV hero.  And we cover Andy's famous prank on the Taxi cast and brass through the casting of his alter ego Tony Clifton, and Tony Clifton's firing and subsequent massive scene on the soundstage involving security guards and several extremely pissed off producers and actors.

This is an episode that will hopefully share with you some things you might not have known about 'Taxi' and afford us all the opportunity anew to appreciate the fact that this series uniquely brought us out of this world talents like Andy Kauffman, Christopher Llloyd, Danny DeVito, and Carol Kane in ONE SHOW. Any series would and could be built on having one of those dynamic talents in the cast; Taxi had all four. Unreal!

Dissecting the latest attempt at reinventing the Oscars and assessing where, if anywhere, the telecast goes from here. 

Thrilled to be joined this week by Kyle Buchanan, a NY Times writer whose new book 'Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild & True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road' is out now from William Morrow.

Kyle and I talk about the incredible 30-year-journey of Fury Road; two times called off just prior to shooting, casting issues with Mel Gibson flaming out (and aging out) of the role, a non-traditional storyboard screenplay, a prolonged shoot in the remote Namibian desert, War Boy training of surprising emotional depth, Eve Ensler of 'The Vagina Monologues' contributing essential feminist backstory to the Vulvalini and Brides characters, tension between Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, life-threatening stunts every day, all day, and, at the center, the maverick, iconoclastic, grandfatherly genius George Miller.  A former doctor whose directing credits veer wildly from all the Mad Max films to 'Happy Feet' and 'Babe: Pig In The City', his mercurial presence, unconventional process, and essential Australian-ness are what makes Mad Max movies so unique.

Kyle's book is a must-have for any film buff.  His more than 130 interviews above and below the line insure the story is told by the people who were really there.  I'm very thankful for Kyle giving Full Cast and Crew podcast a bit of his time during his busy Oscar season.

Jason and FCAC returning guest Bruce Edwards, a television and film line producer and production manager as well as a filmmaker, collector, and cinema and comic geek par excellence to dive into the making of Ridley Scott's 1982 cinematic masterpiece 'Blade Runner'.

Topics covered include Alternative Casting, the 7 versions of the film, the actor's strike that resulted in 9 additional months of planning for the film's VFX departments, whether Deckard is or is not a replicant, Vangelis' forever score, the fact that Blade Runner was shot on the Warner Bros backlot "NYC Street" set, Ridley's unique directorial aesthetic and style, and more.

Watch Ridley's Scott's 'The Final Cut' and the incredible making-of documentary featurettes here.

Joined again by good friend of the pod and pop cultural maven and scholar Richard Brown, this week we dive into all the 70's goodness of iconic sitcom 'WKRP in Cincinnati'.  We talk the theme song, Tim Reid's impressive career and contributions to the series and to 'Frank's Place', the KRP cast, some iconic KRP episodes, KRP-adjacent content like the feature 'FM' and MORE..so, baby, if you've ever wondered...wondered what ever became of me.....listen to this episode, it'll put a smile on your face!

Jason is thrilled to be joined by crime writer Joseph Schneider, author of two (and soon to be three) LAPD Detective Tully Jarsdel novels (links below), to discuss the criminally-underrated Peter Bogdanovich thriller 'Targets', Joseph's novels, 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood', and much more.

'Targets' was made in 1967 when  Bogdanovich, then working for Roger Corman's B-Picture factory of filmmaking alongside other future legendary directors like Francis Ford Coppola, was given the chance to direct his first feature film provided he used aging horror icon Boris Karloff for two owed days of shooting, used some footage from another Corman/Karloff picture 'The Terror' (starring a young Jack Nicholson in one of his first roles), and kept the budget under $120,000...other than that Corman said, he could make whatever picture he wanted.

What Bogdanovich did was make a still-prescient, taut, spare look at a mass shooter in the making.  Interwoven with a b-story involving the Karloff character's quitting of a film industry due to changing times and mores, the two stories collide brilliantly at a drive-in-movie theater. 'Targets' is a stunning indictment of American middle-class detachment, and the debut of one of Hollywood's enduring iconoclast directors. 

Bogdanovich (who died this year) lamented in the 50 years subsequent to the film's release that American society's attachment to guns had not progressed at all from the time he made the film. 

Threads from this movie connect to other classics like Michael Mann's 'Heat' and Quentin Tarantino's 'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood', another movie about a film star fearing he is past his prime as society changes around him. And in the pod Schneider connects 'Targets' and Karloff and OUATIH's Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth to different types and times of American horror, fear, and violence. 

'Targets' is brilliantly directed with impressive directorial control and restraint and features incredible contributions from Hollywood legends like director Sam Fuller, Oscar winner Verna Fields, and Cinematographer Lazlo Kovacs.

Watch 'Targets' at any of these streamers.

Buy Joseph Schneider's debut novel 'One Day You'll Burn' and its sequel from Amazon

Pre-order Joseph Schneider's forthcoming 3rd Tully Jarsdel novel here

Late to the party, as ever! 

Topics:

My weird aversion to watching what's popular.

My weird aversion to Adam McKay (con't).

A certain HBO series' production staff puts LabelMaker labels on EVERYTHING in our shared office space.

The Jeremy Strong New Yorker hit piece and how it enraged me to action-viewing Succession.

If you know the pod, you know I am of the opinion that Gomorrah and The Bureau are probably the best TV series ever made.  And Gomorrah just concluded a Season 5 run, available in the States on HBO Ma. The final (in question marks?) season of this landmark series attempted to build upon and bring to a close a storyline begun in S1, EP1: that of Gennaro and Ciro and their twisty, entangled frenemyship.

I recorded this episode minutes after finishing the final episode of the final season.  In it, I put forth what has always been special to me about 'Gomorrah' and celebrate the fitting conclusion of the series' 5-season run of excellence.

(NOTE: A previous version of this episode erroneously posted and was cut off at the end. This is the revised posting with the full episode)

Joined once again by FCAC special guest Richard Brown, Jason gets into Walter Hill's seminal, cult hit 'The Warriors', which despite (or perhaps because of) deficiencies in funding, production time, cast difficulties (resulting in the firing of the lead actor seven weeks into the shoot), and a violence-in-the-theaters scandal, has endured far beyond its means to become an iconic film of the 1970's.

As the boys discuss the making of 'The Warriors', they also delve into another NYC gang film made during the summer of 1978; Phillip Kaufman's ('The Right Stuff') adaptation of Richard Price's autobiographical novel 'The Wanderers', also set in the Bronx. Jason finds the film surprisingly critical of its own main characters and displaying a depth of nuance often missed when the film gets portrayed (or marketed as) being a doo-wop celebration of white Italian-American male culture, or, as Richard says in the episode, an example of "OK Boomerism".  

But the two films seen together offer an intriguing sense of the summer of 1978 and of two totally different approaches to filmmaking. And when viewed alongside the documentary 'Flying Cut Sleeves', which features amazing footage of actual gang members from the Bronx in 1978, one begins to put together a more complete picture.

Mike White's 'The White Lotus' is a product of the pandemic; a quick-turnaround series that went from inception to air in 9 months as HBO scrambled in 2020 to line up produceable content from trusted creators. Shot in one location, the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea, under strict quarantine protocols, the series is a testament to the power of what can happen when limited options meet fairly unlimited resources (HBO's edict to White was that it had to be shot in one location and cost less than 3 million dollars an episode).

Being me, I resisted watching it when every one else got on board last summer when it was released. Approaching it on my own terms and timeline is just how I gotta roll.  But I'm so glad to inform you all, nine months after you all figured out how great it was, that I LOVED 'The White Lotus' in so many ways I was inspired to share this episode with you all.  So if you've seen the series, you'll enjoy some of the background information on the production, casting, and that fantastic and unforgettable music.

If you haven't seen it yet, this episode contains no spoilers.

I admit to having a few deep-seated biases when it comes to writer-directors whose work doesn't speak to me.  Two of them have names that rhyme with Karen Zhorkin and Badham McWay.  This is neither here nor there with regard to anything but it makes for an interesting viewing experience when I need to TRY and put those biases on the shelf in order to watch something like 'Don't Look Up', which has become enough of a streaming success on Netflix (if we trust their metrics) to merit inclusion on any list of the most successful films of 2021 and 2022. In this episode I unpack my bias against the "serious" films of Adam McKay ('Vice' and 'The Big Short') and see if 'Don't Look Up', a star-laden vehicle, can elevate beyond my petty concerns, reach into my cranial and cardiac areas and MOVE ME or if my biases are like a comet hurtling towards the objectivity required to absorb it all.

Back from holiday break and bursting into 2022 with a special quick listen all about the best Film & TV books I read in 2021 AND a quick review of the Harry Potter reunion special on HBO Max, in which I totally forgot to mention how great Helena Bonham Carter was in cackling her way through the entire thing and being her naughty, bawdy self.  

Links to the Books mentioned in this episode:

Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic

The Fifty-Year-Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of the Making of Start Trek, the First 25 Years

Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli: The Epic Story of the Making of The Godfather

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: A Novel

We're Ready For You, Mr. Grodin

Robert Altman: The Oral Biography

The Fade Out

This Was Hollywood: Forgotten Stars and Stories

Rockers: The Making of Reggae's Most Iconic Film

The Mudd Club

The Score

The Laidlaw Trilogy

One Day You'll Burn

Penny: A Graphic Memoir

The Godfather Gang: In Hollywood, Everything is Personal

The Pine Barrens Strategem: From The Case Files of Steve Rockfish

Links to Instagram accounts mentioned in this episode, all great follows:

Joseph Schneider

Ernest Lupinacci

Karl Stevens

Ken Harris

Richard Boch

Carla Valderrama

Elizabeth Breitweiser

Longtime journalist and author Mark Seal has a fantastic new book out that's positively overstuffed with brilliant and hilarious and mind-blowing anecdotes about the story of 'The Godfather', from Mario Puzo's unlikely beginnings to the movie's famously tortuous path to and through production.

Mark and I chat about some of the great revelations in his book and about all the wonderful and colorful period characters, from mobsters to studio executives to Marlon Brando, Pacino, Luca Brasi, and more.  

From Amazon's description of Mark's book:

The behind-the-scenes story of the making of The Godfather, fifty years after the classic film’s original release. The story of how The Godfather was made is as dramatic, operatic, and entertaining as the film itself. Over the years, many versions of various aspects of the movie’s fiery creation have been told—sometimes conflicting, but always compelling. Mark Seal sifts through the evidence, has extensive new conversations with director Francis Ford Coppola and several heretofore silent sources, and complements them with colorful interviews with key players including actors Al Pacino, James Caan, Talia Shire, and others for irresistible insights into how the movie whose success some initially doubted roared to glory. On top of the usual complications of filmmaking, the creators of The Godfather had to contend with the real-life members of its subject matter: the Mob. During production of the movie, location permits were inexplicably revoked, author Mario Puzo got into a public brawl with an irate Frank Sinatra, producer Al Ruddy’s car was found riddled with bullets, men with “connections” vied to be in the cast, and some were given film roles. As Seal notes, this is the tale of “a classic movie that revolutionized filmmaking, saved Paramount Pictures, minted a new generation of movie stars, made its struggling author Mario Puzo rich and famous, and sparked a war between two of the mightiest powers in America: the sharks of Hollywood and the highest echelons of the Mob.” ​ Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli is the lively and complete story of how a masterpiece was made, perfect for anyone who loves the movies.

Mark Seal's Website

Buy the Book

I'm joined this week by Frazer Rice, a James Bond freak whose familiarity with the films, the books, the comic strips, and the business of Bond makes him the idea guest to chat and speculate with on The Future Of Bond.

With 'No Time To Die' closing out the Daniel Craig era, Bond now enters what likely is a 2-4 year window between films and a search for the Next Bond.  The search this time is perhaps culturally poised to branch Bond out, or, at least, the times we live in would seem ripe for a reimagining of the Bond character, perhaps away from the white male origins of the character.  But post-taping, Bond gatekeeper and producer Barbara Broccoli gave an interview in which she said it was her belief that Bond should be British and male, so...perhaps we'll get a different Bond, but not, alas, a female Bond (my personal #1 choice to replace Craig is a British woman, you'll hear who that is in the episode).

Frazer and I cover the recent sale of Bond studio MGM to Amazon and what that means for the future of the franchise, we traipse through the historical record of Bond changes from the Connery-to-Lazenby era to the Connery-to-Roger Moore era, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig.

We talk some surprising actors who were offered the role over the years, but who turned it down.

We rank All Time Bonds, with a surprising list for both of us, and we offer up our top choices for the Next Bond, all while enjoying some great Bond clips and music.

Frazer on Twitter

Frazer's Graphic Novel

A Reasonably OK Book About Bond History

My Favorite Bond & Bond Film

Still in a music kind of mind after last week's episode all about the fantastic Beatles Get Back doc series. I'm still in a Legends kind of mood so I'm recounting Bob Dylan's fantastic run of recent concerts at the Beacon Theater in New York City, which I was fortunate enough to catch a couple of.

Some of the funny incidents in line and inside the show with fans basically having a hard time adjusting back to a world where we all have to, you know...do stuff together and sort of collectively cooperate for our greater good instead of Zoom-focussed Me Time lead me to recount a particularly notable concert-going moment of mine from the 1988 Pink Floyd 'Momentary Lapse of Reason' tour....come to think of it that's a good way to describe most of my time from 1983 - 2004 but that's another show, another time.

Bob Dylan's new album, 'Rough and Rowdy Ways'

Dylan goes electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival

Pink Floyd 'Pigs (three different ones)'

Bob Dylan "I've Made Up My Mind (To Give Myself To You)"

Some thoughts and musings after watching the Peter Jackson-directed 6-hour recut of the Beatles legendary/infamous 'Let It Be' sessions and Apple rooftop concert performance.   

Topics covered:

Behind-the-scenes of the documentary series.

Why The Beatles continue to fascinate and resonate.

Yoko: A Revisionist History

The Clothes.

The Instruments.

John Lennon's 'Don't Let Me Down': A Howl.

Billy Preston's good vibes and dark times.

An odd parallel between 'Moneyball' and the Beatles.

AND MORE!

Books referenced in this episode:

The Beatles: The Biography, by Bob Spitz

You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After The Breakup, by Peter Doggett

Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America

For your Thanksgiving commuting or family-avoidance pleasure, friend of the pod and frequent guest Richard Brown and I dive deep into the making of Star Trek; the who, the what, the why.  We also make stops at iconic 1970's Star Wars toys and books and assorted tie-ins.  We wander through the movies and come up with some surprisingly counter-intuitive faves. We talk great episodes and not-so-great episodes. Contractual oddity between Shatner and Nimoy. We get into the little seen but vital 1974 animated Star Trek series, which mystified and befuddled a generation of little kids tuning in on Saturday mornings only to get fully formed, albeit animated, Star Trek episodes...minus Kirk's womanizing.  And Rick shares his 12-year-old self's carefully itemized ratings system by which he judged The Original Series on a scale of 1 to 4. 4 being the best. We'll see how Adult(ish) Rick feels about some of his rankings in this special early-release Thanksgiving edition of the Full Cast and Crew podcast.

Vital Research Read for this Episode

Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years

The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams: The Complete, Uncensored, and Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek

Inside Star Trek: The Real Story

Star Trek Technical Manual (1975)

Ballantine Books Star Trek Fotonovels (1975)

Star Trek Enterprise Blueprints (1975)

News broke yesterday that Jonah Hill would play Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia in some form of scripted series on Apple, to be directed and/or produced by Martin Scorcese.

While Marty's rock credentials speak for themselves...his rock credentials also speak for themselves, namely: his bizarre choice to add people like Sharon Stone to the refurbished footage from Dylan's legendary Thunder Road Review tour pretending as if they were there...bad choice that ruined an otherwise worthwhile venture.

Nothing against judicious use of Jonah Hill in anything....just not this role!

So I briefly provide some essential background to Garcia and the band, and then run through some OTHER choices to play Jerry that would work; some insane and weird (Keanu??) and some pretty compelling, if still weird (Adam Driver?) before settling on my own personal and informed choice as the best possible actor to portray Jerry Garcia...and you'll have to listen to find out who that surprising choice is!

Follow Jason as he walks-and-talks (he can do both! Mostly at the same time!) en route to his first trip to an actual movie theater in almost 18 months to see Denis Villenueve's epic adaptation of Frank Herbert's epic science-fiction classic 'Dune'.  And then we pause recording and pick it up again right after Jason is back from the screening.

This movie is one I (i switched tenses!) have been looking forward to ever since it was announced as Villenueve's follow-up to 'Blade Runner 2049', which is one of my very favorite films.  And 'Dune' as a movie is fraught for fans of the novel because although the David Lynch adaptation of the 1980's has some fans and got some things right...it bit off the whole novel and that proved just far too much content to try and stuff into a feature film.  Denis' film tackles the first half of the novel, and we'll discuss in this episode whether that was a good or bad idea, get into the casting, the music of both Blade Runner 2049 and Dune, the epic sound design of Villenueve films and much more.

Were you in High School in the 80's like FCAC host Jason Cilo was?  Probably you're not that old, but trust him; it was a time!  1989's 'Teen Witch' is many things: a fairly low-budget sort-of rip-off teen-comedy witch movie treading water in the wake of John Hughes movies and 'Heathers' and other 80's teenage films, most notably, but it has a charm and staying power all its own that has to be respected...or at least dissected in a full-on FCAC episodic treatment.

For this episode, Jason is joined once again by frequent guests, the comedians Marianne Sierk (FCAC episodes 'Dirty Dancing' and 'Practical Magic') and Heather Thomson, America's Favorite Shut-In, Vista Bitch, and Airbnb Diamond Club Member.  

In this episode we also cover the safe harbor of middle-school theater programs, Jack Plotnick's brilliant send-up of that Robin Williams movie test that went around the interwebs a couple weeks back, and an obscure Tim Curry Halloween movie that Marianne loved to watch from her perch in her childhood Rochester, NY kitchen.

Jason's pre-HS pastimes are also covered, including starting and stopping the 12" single LP version of Whodini's 'Freaks Come Out At Night' (which as I type this I can't believe I didn't cut into the episode) in order to transcribe the words as kids did in the barren wasteland that was American popular culture prior to the internet.

Marianne demonstrates the distinctive patois of Rochester natives.

Heather discusses her life-long typecasting as matronly adults.

More on Teen Witch:

Teen Witch is a 1989 American teen fantasy comedy film directed by Dorian Walker, written by Robin Menken and Vernon Zimmerman, and starring Robyn Lively and Zelda Rubinstein.

Originally pitched as a female version of Teen Wolf (1985) and later reworked into a film of its own, the film features numerous impromptu rap musical numbers and has since become a cult classic aided by midnight theater showings and regular cable television airings (including through annual showings as part of ABC Family/Freeform's 13 Nights of Halloween). The film is also popular for its music and 1980s fashion nostalgia.

The recent death of actor George Segal sent me to finally watch Altman's 1974 gambling opus, 'California Split', starring Segal and Elliot Gould.  It's a fantastic film and a great representation of the prime Altman ouvre. But behind the scenes and extending into the present day...there are cast-member murders, deaths, prison stints, and tragedies that offer a hypothetical parallell to the varied paths taken or not taken by many American children of the 60's navigating the decades beyond.  In this episode, I talk about Altman's history in Hollywood, his three main periods of filmmaking, including his late-career renaissance in the 90's, and explore the tragic  deaths of 4 female cast members as well as the bizarre cult that provided all the extras used in the film.  A masterwork of American ennui and a timeless time capsule of 1970's American neuroses, 'California Split' is a lot of fun with some surprisingly moving conclusions when all is said and done.

Charles Grodin died at 86 on May 18th, 2021.  His career spanned from 1954 to 2017, but what's notable about Grodin is how he always prioritized happiness over success and power within the entertainment industry. This is something he wrote about over his several books, and is contained within the evidence his career leaves behind. Offered club gigs, he turned them down because the thought of doing two sets of the same material each night felt like fakery that would cheat the audience.  When reminded that the audiences wouldn't overlap and that they'd never know, Grodin replied, "Yeah,  but the waiters would know".  I think that anecdote contains everything you need to know about how Grodin viewed comedy and his role in performing.  Aside from his movies and theatrical and television work, Grodin was also a groundbreaking and vital guest on Johnny Carson and the David Letterman shows.  He viewed promotional talk show appearances as awkward and phony, so he always viewed every appearance as a performance he committed to regardless of the percentage of the audience that might not be in on the joke. His humor, warmth, and decency is what burbles underneath the prickliness with which most of his film appearances lead. 

In this episode, I'll talk about Grodin's career beginning with 'Rosemary's Baby' (also an FCAC episode with special guest Ted Jessup), his many legendary TV appearances, with particular emphasis on Johnny Carson and Letterman, with a clip from the time he brought his attorney onto the Letterman show to complain about his previous treatment at Letterman's hands.

Then, diving into a recent re-watch of 'Midnight Run', we celebrate the genius of this movie, it's perfect script and construction, it's (for some) difficult production, and the many many wonderful moments between Grodin and DeNiro and their castmates captured within.

I've also been a particular fan of the touching family reunion scene within 'Midnight Run', which, even tho Grodin doesn't DO much within the scene itself, has an emotional resonance because the Duke character motivates Jack Walsh to go home and visit his family for the first time in 9 years, and so much of the truth of this brilliantly handled scene stems from that place of warmth and emotional certainty that Grodin brought to the role of Johnathan Mardukas.

Gone in 60 Seconds is a 1974 American action film written, directed, produced by, and starring H.B. "Toby" Halicki.[2] The film centers on a group of car thieves and the 48 cars they must steal in a matter of days. It is known for having wrecked and destroyed 93 cars in a 40-minute car chase scene, one of the longest in film history. A total of 127 cars were either destroyed or damaged throughout the entirety of the film.[2]

Gone in 60 Seconds proved to be extremely successful at the box office, grossing $40,000,000 on a budget of $150,000. A loose remake with new characters and a different plot was released in 2000, starring Nicolas Cage and Angelina Jolie.

Fear Is the Key is a 1972 British action thriller film directed by Michael Tuchner and based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Alistair MacLean. It stars Barry Newman and Suzy Kendall, with supporting roles by John Vernon, Dolph Sweet, and Ben Kingsley in his feature film debut. The film features a soundtrack by Roy Budd.

POD NOTES & LINKS OF NOTE

Fear Is The Key Wiki

Fear Is The Key on Amazon

Gone In 60 Wiki

Gone In 60 Seconds on Amazon

Roy Budd 'Get Carter' Theme

Roy Budd 'Fear Is The Key' Theme

'Gone In 60 Seconds' original songs replaced in current streaming version due to rights issues can be heard here.

Dolph Sweet on 'Gimme A Break'.

The Grateful Dead Movie, released in 1977 and directed by Jerry Garcia, is a film that captures live performances from rock band the Grateful Dead during an October 1974 five-night run at Winterland in San Francisco. These concerts marked the beginning of a hiatus, with the October 20, 1974, show billed as "The Last One". The band would return to touring in 1976. The film features the "Wall of Sound" concert sound system that the Dead used for all of 1974. The movie also portrays the burgeoning Deadhead scene. Two albums have been released in conjunction with the film and the concert run: Steal Your Face and The Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack.

In this episode, Jason is joined by...well...another Jason, his long time friend Jason Blumklotz, for a discussion about the Dead and the various eras of their music and performances.  We detour into offshoots like Dead & Company, the Veneta, Oregon Dead documentary 'Sunshine Daydream', the Wall of Sound, Phil's giant 50-lb bass, and much more.  Not just a clubby discussion of the band, this episode presents the Grateful Dead Movie as an amazing time capsule of 1970's fandom.

A quick recap and assessment of last night's Oscar telecast, which, to me, was a much-needed reboot and refresh of a format that had become stale, out of touch with itself and increasingly at odds with the stated mission of awarding creative efforts.

In this episode I talk a bit about some of the conventional wisdom (or lack thereof) that's hampered the evolution of the Oscar telecast over the years, and highlight some of the innovations that the production team, which included Steven Soderbergh, Stacey Sher, Jesse Collins, Richard LaGravenese, Jennae Rouzan Clay, Dionne Harmon succeeded in implementing.

The Rockford Files is one of the most beloved tv titles and James Garner's Jim Rockford would become the character this veteran actor was and will forever be best known for.  There's a reason Garner, whose career began in the 1950's, titled his excellent, charming, and self-deprecating autobiography 'The Garner Files'.  In this episode, I take a look back at my own introduction to the series during a specific and off-kilter part of my life, and talk about what makes the series so special to so many. Then, in a bit of TV Nerd indulgence, I delve into how the show came to be and we hear from some of the key people involved: co-creator Roy Huggins, Executive Producer Meta Rosenberg, Rockford Files theme composer Mike Post, and Rockford Files Producer Chas. Floyd Johnson.  Plus: plenty of great Rockford clips and answering machine messages and a special guest appearance by the Ben Folds Five.

Is there a moment, a single day, a couple of hours even, in your teenage years that you could point to and say "that was one of the most important and formative times in my life"?

In this episode, Jason is joined by two of his oldest friends, Chris and Roy, and they revisit a specific afternoon in 1985 when, as 15-year-olds, they began a friendship that opened up so much into all their lives. The movie they watched was Pink Floyd's 1972 concert documentary "Live At Pompeii" and it's mind-blowing contents represented the ways in which lives can be opened up and expanded through friednship, music, and a shared POV of the world around us

Heather Thomson and Marianne Sierk are two of my favorite people and social media follows guaranteed to brighten your day with laughs.  They're talented and funny comedians and Marianne is also a Sorceress who somehow put a spell on my cinephile dude self and made me watch Practical Magic and talk about it for an hour and a half with two die-hard "Prac Mag" obsessives! Much fun was had and our conversation veered into all sorts of unrelated areas, like Heather's quarantine singledom, Marianne's thrifting, Dolly Parton, why the myth of the broken comic persona is just that...mostly..and more!

Practical Magic is a 1998 American romantic comedy fantasy film based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Alice Hoffman. The film was directed by Griffin Dunne and stars Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Stockard Channing, Dianne Wiest, Aidan Quinn, and Goran Višnjić.

Bullock and Kidman play sisters Sally and Gillian Owens, who have always known they were different from other people - they are witches. Raised by their aunts after their parents' death, the sisters grew up in a household that was anything but normal — their aunts fed them brownies for breakfast and taught them the uses of practical magic. But being a member of the Owens family carries a curse: The men they fall in love with are doomed to an untimely death. Now adult women with very different personalities, the quiet Sally and the fiery Gillian must use all of their powers to fight the family curse and a swarm of supernatural forces that could take away all the Owenses' lives.

The film is considered a cult classic

Starman is a 1984 American science fiction romance film directed by John Carpenter that tells the story of an alien who has come to Earth and cloned a humanoid body (portrayed by Jeff Bridges) in response to the invitation found on the gold phonograph record installed on the Voyager 2 space probe. The original screenplay was written by Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon, with Dean Riesner making uncredited re-writes. Bridges was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role. The film inspired a short-lived television series of the same name in 1986.

A listener question prompted this episode about Peter Weir's excellent 2003 period naval-warfare epic 'Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World', and why it's one of my favorite films and a comforting re-watch at any time I encounter or am in the mood for it.

The movie is an interesting demarcation line between a Hollywood that would make a movie like this for 150 million dollars...and a Hollywood that, post TLOTR-trilogy, would increasingly focus its efforts on movies costing two and three times that much designed and engineered to recoup in the billions-with-a-b and not millions.

In almost any other era, 'Master and Commander', coming as it does out of a deep well of pre-existing IP (the 20 novels in the Aubrey/Maturin series by famed novelist Patrick O'Brian), would have easily been a repeatable franchise.  The film itself is top-notch, so it's not a question of a bad film failing to light the spark.  So: what happened?

In this episode we take a look at what makes the film so special, praise the cast and crew for their efforts, talk a lot about the incredible music used throughout the film, and speculate a bit on exactly why this film, so beloved by those who love it, and returning a fully respectable return on the studio's investment...did not turn into the franchise everyone involved hoped it might.

On thing I forgot to mention in the pod: after this experience, Peter Weir made exactly one more film.  He's certainly been at it quite a while, starting his feature career in 1973...and as Tarantino says, directing films is really a young person's game...but one wonders if after putting in ALL the effort, including a necessarily-grueling water shoot, and turning in an excellent film nominated for 10 Oscars....and having that all met with the popular audience version of a damp squib...he just decided that it wasn't worth it anymore, that if Hollywood wasn't going to allow a filmmaker like him to tell the stories he wanted to tell, at his price point...then it might have been time to step off the apple box. A shame, if that's what happened, because Peter Weir is one of the greatest film directors, with a lot to say and offer the medium.

In our first post-Trump episode, Jason is joined by Friend Of The Pod Richard Brown to discuss the 1979 Nick Nolte film North Dallas Forty.

Before that, Rick and Jason catch up on withdrawing from political mainlining, growing up as children of single Mom's in the 1970's, and then get to the good stuff; a robust, detailed discussion of the genius of Ted Kotcheff and the singular pleasures of North Dallas Forty.

North Dallas Forty is billed as a "sports comedy-drama" which just shows how hard to categorize this brilliant and subversive counter-culture take on battling corrupt institutions actually is.  And yes, it IS about professional football, and the NFL, and the Dallas Cowboys and what at the time was a rare behind-the-scenes look inside an NFL locker room.  But it's also, like many of director Ted Kotcheff's other films (First Blood, Wake in Fright, Fun With Dick and Jane) about the individual fighting against or being co-opted by unfeeling authority.  

When Nick Nolte developed the movie, he hand-picked Kotcheff as a director precisely because Kotcheff admittedly knew next to nothing about football.  All the more impressive then that what few football scenes there are tend to be so impressively and bone-crunchingly filmed in North Dallas Forty.

Featuring a fantastic supporting cast of character actors like Charles Durning, G.D. Spradlin and Dabney Coleman, all of whom plumb familiar territory with sometimes surprising depths.  And it was the film debut of country superstar Mac Davis, who turns in a remarkably nuanced and complicated performance as the QB who has made his peace, sort of, with the professional and moral compromises he has embraced thus far.

North Dallas Forty is a great football movie, it's a great 70's movie, it's a great New Hollywood movie, and on and on.  

Two-time FCAC Very Special Guest Ted Jessup and I revisit 1974's Panavision international espionage and Nazi-hunting thriller 'The Odessa File' and make plenty of stops along the way to discuss 'The Rainmaker', 'Deliverance' 'The Seven-Ups', 'Anaconda', 'Coming Home', 'Heat', 'The Assassin', and much more!

Gomorrah (Italian: Gomorra - La serie) is an Italian crime drama television series created by Roberto Saviano for Sky Atlantic. Based on Saviano's book of the same name,[1] the show premiered on Sky Atlantic in Italy on 6 May 2014, and has run for four seasons. The title of the show is a play on the name of the Neapolitan crime syndicate, Camorra. The 2008 film of the same name is loosely based on the same book, but unrelated to the TV series.[2]. The fifth season will be the last.[3]

The show, largely filmed in the Scampia neighbourhood of Naples,[4] tells the story of Ciro Di Marzio (Marco D'Amore), a member of the Savastano clan, headed by Pietro Savastano (Fortunato Cerlino), a high-ranking member. Ciro aims to navigate the dangers of the criminal world, while also fighting a brutal civil war.[5] The Savastano family also consists of his wife Immacolata (Maria Pia Calzone) and son, Gennaro (Salvatore Esposito). The show also features rival crime boss Salvatore Conte (Marco Palvetti), while introducing the characters Annalisa Magliocca (Cristina Donadio), Patrizia Santore (Cristiana Dell'Anna), Giuseppe Avitabile (Gianfranco Gallo) and Enzo "Sangueblù" Villa (Arturo Muselli) in the show's later seasons.

The series has gained critical acclaim for its characterization, pacing, atmosphere, acting, directing, and writing.[6][7] It has also become a ratings hit for Sky, regularly featuring as one of the network's most-watched cable shows.[8][9]

The series has been sold in 190 countries worldwide.[10][11] It premiered in the United Kingdom on Sky Atlantic on 4 August 2014, and in the United States on SundanceTV on 24 August 2016.[6] The spin-off film The Immortal, which is both a prequel and a sequel to the events after the series' third season, was released on December 5, 2019.[12][13]

The Bureau (original title: Le Bureau des Légendes) is a French political thriller television series created by Éric Rochant and produced by TOP - The Oligarchs Productions and Canal+, which revolves around the lives of agents of the DGSE (General Directorate of External Security), France's principal external security service. Originally aired in France from 27 April 2015, it was launched in the United States and Canada on iTunes on 1 June 2016 as part of a new international "Episodic Cinema" label, quickly reaching the Top Five.[1][2] In the United Kingdom, the series was released exclusively by Amazon Prime on 17 June 2016.[3][4]

The first season received positive reviews in both France and other countries, and won several awards. The second season has been universally acclaimed, and has even been seen by some as the best television ever produced in France.[5] The third and fourth seasons, respectively aired in France beginning 22 May 2017[6] and 22 October 2018,[7] have met with further acclaim, with praise for the show's acting, pacing, plot and realism.[8]

It's been a long time coming, and finally, its time to devote an entire episode to singing the praises of 'Columbo'!  In this Very Special Episode of the pod, Jason is once again joined by TV historian and pop-cultural eminence grise Richard Brown as they discuss the classic Columbo episode 'Try and Catch Me', starring Ruth Gordon and work their way through 20 Questions About Columbo as submitted by Full Cast and Crew SuperListeners Cindy and Mike.

Jason is joined by stand-up comedian, actor, and podcaster Sean Donnelly for a deep-dive into M. Night Shayamalan's 'Signs', which Sean and Jason agree is a film that now feels like an old-fashioned Hollywood movie of the sort we just don't get anymore.

Jason and Sean also talk about Sean's new UFO podcast, his appearances on Letterman, Conan, and Colbert, the state of stand-up comedy in the midst of a 4 month stage blackout mid-pandemic, the roles Sean gets typecast with when he auditions, and so much more!

Sean's website is here.

M. Night's Wiki page is here.

Signs wiki is here.

Get Carter is a 1971 British crime film directed by Mike Hodges and starring Michael Caine, Ian Hendry,[3] Britt Ekland, John Osborne and Bryan Mosley. The screenplay was adapted by Hodges from Ted Lewis's 1970 novel Jack's Return Home. Producer Michael Klinger optioned the book and made a deal for the ailing Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studio to finance and release the film, bringing in Hodges and Caine. Caine became a co-producer of the film. Get Carter was Hodges's first feature film as director, as well as being the screen debut of Alun Armstrong. MGM was reducing its European operations and the film became the last project approved before it closed its Borehamwood studios. The film is set in north-east England and was filmed in and around Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead and County Durham.

The story follows a London gangster, the eponymous Jack Carter (Caine), who travels back to his home town to discover more about his brother Frank's supposedly accidental death. Suspecting foul play, and with vengeance on his mind, he investigates and interrogates, regaining a feel for the city and its hardened-criminal element. [4]

Caine and Hodges had ambitions to produce a more gritty and realistic portrayal of violence and criminal behaviour than had previously been seen in a British film. Caine incorporated his knowledge of real criminal acquaintances into his characterisation of Carter. Hodges and cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky drew heavily on their backgrounds in documentary film. Combined with Hodges' research into the contemporary criminal underworld of Newcastle (in particular the one-armed bandit murder) and the use of hundreds of local bystanders as extras, produced a naturalistic feel in many scenes. The shoot was incident-free and progressed speedily, despite a one-day strike by the Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians. The production went from novel to finished film in eight months, with location shooting lasting 40 days.

Get Carter suffered in its promotion, firstly from MGM's problems and secondly owing to the declining British film industry of the period, which relied increasingly on US investment. Initial UK critical reaction to the film was mixed, with British reviewers grudgingly appreciative of the film's technical excellence but dismayed by the complex plot, violence and amorality, in particular Carter's apparent lack of remorse at his actions.[1] Despite this the film did good business in the UK and produced a respectable profit. US critics were generally more enthusiastic and praised the film but it was poorly promoted in the US by United Artists and languished on the drive in circuit while MGM focused its resources on producing a blaxploitation version of the same novel, Hit Man.

On its release Get Carter received no awards and did not seem likely to be well remembered. It was not available on home media until 1993 but always maintained a cult following. Endorsements from a new generation of directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie led to a critical reappraisal which saw it recognized as one of the best British movies.[5] In 1999, Get Carter was ranked 16th on the BFI Top 100 British films of the 20th century; five years later, a survey of British film critics in Total Film magazine chose it as the greatest British film.[6] Get Carter was remade in 2000 by Warner Bros. under the same title, with Sylvester Stallone starring as Jack Carter, with Caine in a supporting role. This remake was not well received by critics in the US and was not given a UK theatrical release.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a 1969 spy film and the sixth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions. It is based on the 1963 novel by Ian Fleming. Following Sean Connery's decision to retire from the role after You Only Live Twice, Eon Productions selected an unknown actor and model, George Lazenby, to play the part of James Bond. During the making of the film, Lazenby announced that he would play the role of Bond only once.

In the film, Bond faces Blofeld (Telly Savalas), who is planning to hold the world ransom by the threat of sterilising the world's food supply through a group of brainwashed "angels of death". Along the way Bond meets, falls in love with, and eventually marries Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg).

It is the only Bond film to have been directed by Peter R. Hunt, who had served as a film editor and second unit director on previous films in the series. Hunt, along with producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, decided to produce a more realistic film that would follow the novel closely. It was shot in Switzerland, England, and Portugal from October 1968 to May 1969. Although its cinema release was not as lucrative as its predecessor You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service was still one of the top performing films of the year.[2] Critical reviews upon release were mixed, but the film's reputation has improved greatly over time and is now regarded as one of the strongest entries in the series.

PODCAST NOTES

Link to Frazer's graphic novel 'Stay Alive'.

Link to Frazer's personal website.

Watch 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'

Buy the James Bond comics here.

Watch the Hulu George Lazenby documentary here.

Watch a classic 1982 episode of 'This Week In Baseball' here.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Nicholas Meyer and based on the television series Star Trek. It is the second film in the Star Trek film series, and is a sequel to Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). The plot features Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the starship USS Enterprise facing off against the genetically engineered tyrant Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán), a character who first appeared in the 1967 Star Trek episode "Space Seed". When Khan escapes from a 15-year exile to exact revenge on Kirk, the crew of the Enterprise must stop him from acquiring a powerful terraforming device named Genesis. The film is the beginning of a story arc that continues with the film Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and concludes with the film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).

After the lackluster critical response to the first film, series creator Gene Roddenberry was forced out of the sequel's production. Executive producer Harve Bennett wrote the film's original outline, which Jack B. Sowards developed into a full script. Meyer completed its final script in twelve days, without accepting a writing credit. Meyer's approach evoked the swashbuckling atmosphere of the original series, a theme reinforced by James Horner's musical score. Leonard Nimoy had not intended to have a role in the sequel, but was enticed back on the promise that his character would be given a dramatic death scene. Negative test audience reaction to Spock's death led to significant revisions of the ending over Meyer's objections. The production team used various cost-cutting techniques to keep within budget, including utilizing miniature models from past projects and reusing sets, effects footage, and costumes from the first film. Among the film's technical achievements is being the first feature film to contain a sequence created entirely with computer graphics.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was released in North America on June 4, 1982, by Paramount Pictures. It was a box office success, earning US$97 million (equivalent to about $257M in 2019) worldwide and setting a world record for its first-day box office gross. Critical reaction to the film was positive; reviewers highlighted Khan's character, the film's pacing, and the character interactions as strong elements. Negative reactions focused on weak special effects and some of the acting. The Wrath of Khan is considered by many to be the best film in the Star Trek series, and is often credited with renewing substantial interest in the franchise.

Fargo is a 1996 black comedy thriller film written, produced and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Frances McDormand stars as Marge Gunderson, a pregnant Minnesota police chief investigating roadside homicides that ensue after a desperate car salesman (William H. Macy) hires two criminals (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife in order to extort a hefty ransom from his wealthy father-in-law (Harve Presnell). The film was an international co-production between the United States and United Kingdom.

Fargo premiered at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, where Joel Coen won the festival's Prix de la mise en scène (Best Director Award) and the film was nominated for the Palme d'Or. A critical and commercial success, Fargo received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. McDormand received the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Coens won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

The film was selected in 2006 for preservation in the National Film Registry of the United States by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"—one of only six films so designated in its first year of eligibility.[4] In 1998, the American Film Institute named it one of the 100 greatest American films in history. A Coen-produced FX television series of the same name, inspired by Fargo and taking place in the same fictional universe, premiered in 2014 and received critical acclaim.[5]

ABOUT THE MOVIE:  The Big Lebowski (/ləˈbaʊski/) is a 1998 crime comedy film written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. It stars Jeff Bridges as Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski, a Los Angeles slacker and avid bowler. He is assaulted as a result of mistaken identity, after which The Dude learns that a millionaire (also named Jeffrey Lebowski) was the intended victim. The millionaire Lebowski's trophy wife is kidnapped, and he commissions The Dude to deliver the ransom to secure her release; the plan goes awry when the Dude's friend Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) schemes to keep the ransom money. Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, David Huddleston, John Turturro and Philip Seymour Hoffman also appear, in supporting roles.

The film is loosely inspired by the work of Raymond Chandler. Joel Coen stated, "We wanted to do a Chandler kind of story – how it moves episodically, and deals with the characters trying to unravel a mystery, as well as having a hopelessly complex plot that's ultimately unimportant."[4] The original score was composed by Carter Burwell, a longtime collaborator of the Coen brothers.

The Big Lebowski was a disappointment at the U.S. box office and received mixed reviews at the time of its release. Over time, reviews have become largely positive, and the film has become a cult favorite,[5] noted for its eccentric characters, comedic dream sequences, idiosyncratic dialogue, and eclectic soundtrack.[6] In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[7][8] A spin-off based on John Turturro's character, titled The Jesus Rolls, was released in 2019 with Turturro also acting as writer and director.

• Jeff Bridges as Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski. Bridges had heard or was told by the Coen brothers that they had written a screenplay for him.
• John Goodman as Walter Sobchak; a Vietnam veteran and bowling partner and friend of "The Dude." Walter was based, in part, on screenwriter and director John Milius.
• Julianne Moore as Maude Lebowski; Jeffrey "The Big" Lebowski's daughter, a feminist and an avant-garde artist.
• Steve Buscemi as Theodore Donald "Donny" Kerabatsos; a bowling partner and friend of "The Dude." Walter's repeated response, "Shut the fuck up, Donny!" is a reference to Fargo, in which Buscemi's character was constantly talking and interrupting conversations when he is not paying attention to the story.
• David Huddleston as Jeffrey "The Big" Lebowski; a millionaire philanthropist for whom "The Dude" is mistaken.
• Philip Seymour Hoffman as Brandt; Jeffrey "The Big" Lebowski's executive assistant
• Tara Reid as Bunny Lebowski; Jeffrey "The Big" Lebowski's blonde 20s-something trophy wife and former porn video performer (“Log Jammin’”) for Jackie Treehorn Productions. According to Reid, Charlize Theron also tried out for the role.
• Philip Moon as Woo; a Jackie Treehorn thug
• Mark Pellegrino as the Blond Treehorn thug
• Peter Stormare, Torsten Voges, and Flea as Uli Kunkel/Karl Hungus, Franz, and Kieffer, the German nihilists; Uli originated on the set of Fargo between Ethan Coen and Stormare, who often spoke in a mock German accent.
• Jimmie Dale Gilmore as Smokey; a hippie bowler in the league whom Walter threatens at gunpoint over an attempt to mark his frame an eight despite letting his foot move over the alley line
• Jack Kehler as Marty; The Dude's landlord, who is also a performance artist
• John Turturro as Jesus Quintana. The Coen brothers let Turturro come up with a lot of his own ideas for the character, like towel-shining the bowling ball and the scene where he dances backward from his bowling alley line, which he says was inspired by Muhammad Ali.
• David Thewlis as Knox Harrington, an avant-garde videographer-friend of Maude Lebowski
• Sam Elliott as The Stranger, a smooth-talking urban cowboy who also serves as the narrator of the film
• Ben Gazzara as big-time porn video producer Jackie Treehorn, to whom Bunny Lebowski owes money
• Jon Polito as Da Fino, a private dick who mistakes the Dude for a "brother shamus", hired by Bunny's family to return her to them
• Leon Russom as the Malibu police chief
• Aimee Mann as Nihilist Woman/Franz's Girlfriend who donates her amputated green nail-polished little toe (proof of Bunny Lebowski's kidnapping)
• Lu Elrod coffee shop waitress

SOUNDTRACK

The original score was composed by Carter Burwell, a veteran of all the Coen Brothers' films. While the Coens were writing the screenplay they had Kenny Rogers' "Just Dropped In (to See What Condition My Condition Was in)", the Gipsy Kings' cover of "Hotel California", and several Creedence Clearwater Revival songs in mind.[25] They asked T-Bone Burnett (who would later work with the Coens on O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Inside Llewyn Davis) to pick songs for the soundtrack of the film. They knew that they wanted different genres of music from different times but, as Joel remembers, "T-Bone even came up with some far-out Henry Mancini and Yma Sumac."[26] Burnett was able to secure songs by Kenny Rogers and the Gipsy Kings and also added tracks by Captain Beefheart, Moondog and Bob Dylan's "The Man in Me".[25] However, he had a tough time securing the rights to Townes Van Zandt's cover of the Rolling Stones' "Dead Flowers", which plays over the film's closing credits. Former Stones manager Allen Klein owned the rights to the song and wanted $150,000 for it. Burnett convinced Klein to watch an early cut of the film and remembers, "It got to the part where the Dude says, 'I hate the fuckin' Eagles, man!' Klein stands up and says, 'That's it, you can have the song!' That was beautiful."[25][27] Burnett was going to be credited on the film as "Music Supervisor", but asked his credit to be "Music Archivist" because he "hated the notion of being a supervisor; I wouldn't want anyone to think of me as management".[26]

For Joel, "the original music, as with other elements of the movie, had to echo the retro sounds of the Sixties and early Seventies".[16]:156 Music defines each character. For example, "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" by Bob Nolan was chosen for the Stranger at the time the Coens wrote the screenplay, as was "Lujon" by Henry Mancini for Jackie Treehorn. "The German nihilists are accompanied by techno-pop and Jeff Bridges by Creedence. So there's a musical signature for each of them", remarked Ethan in an interview.[16]:156 The character Uli Kunkel was in the German electronic band Autobahn, an homage to the band Kraftwerk. The album cover of their record Nagelbett (bed of nails) is a parody of the Kraftwerk album cover for The Man-Machine and the group name Autobahn shares the name of a Kraftwerk song and album. In the lyrics the phrase "We believe in nothing" is repeated with electronic distortion. This is a reference to Autobahn's nihilism in the film.[28]

The Princess Bride is a 1987 American fantasy adventure comedy film directed and co-produced by Rob Reiner, starring Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Wallace Shawn, André the Giant, and Christopher Guest. Adapted by William Goldman from his 1973 novel The Princess Bride, it tells the story of a farmhand named Westley, accompanied by companions befriended along the way, who must rescue his true love Princess Buttercup from the odious Prince Humperdinck. The film essentially preserves the novel's narrative style by presenting the story as a book being read by a grandfather (Peter Falk) to his sick grandson (Fred Savage).

Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American horror film written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on the novel Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin. The cast features Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy, Angela Dorian, Clay Tanner, and, in his feature film debut, Charles Grodin. The film chronicles the story of a pregnant woman who suspects that an evil cult wants to take her baby for use in their rituals.

Rosemary's Baby deals with themes related to paranoia, women's liberation, Christianity (Catholicism), and the occult.[3] The film earned almost universal acclaim from film critics and won numerous nominations and awards. In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

In Rosemary's Baby: A Retrospective, a featurette on the DVD release of the film, screenwriter/director Roman Polanski, Paramount Pictures executive Robert Evans, and production designer Richard Sylbert reminisce at length about the production. Evans recalled William Castle brought him the galley proofs of the book and asked him to purchase the film rights even before Random House published the book. The studio head recognized the commercial potential of the project and agreed with the stipulation that Castle, who had a reputation for low-budget horror films, could produce but not direct the film adaptation. He makes a cameo appearance as the man at the phone booth waiting for Mia Farrow to finish her call.

Evans admired Polanski's European films and hoped he could convince him to make his American debut with Rosemary's Baby. He knew the director was a ski buff who was anxious to make a film with the sport as its basis, so he sent him the script for Downhill Racer along with the galleys for Rosemary. Polanski read the latter book non-stop through the night and called Evans the following morning to tell him he thought Rosemary was the more interesting project, and would like the opportunity to write as well as direct it.

The script was modeled very closely on the original novel and incorporated large sections of the novel's dialogue and details. Nearly every line of dialogue was taken from the novel's text. Author Ira Levin claimed that during a scene in which Guy mentions wanting to buy a particular shirt advertised in The New Yorker, Polanski was unable to find the specific issue with the shirt advertised and phoned Levin for help. Levin, who had assumed while writing that any given issue of The New Yorker would contain an ad for men's shirts, admitted that he had made it up.

• Mia Farrow as Rosemary Woodhouse
• John Cassavetes as Guy Woodhouse
• Ruth Gordon as Minnie Castevet
• Sidney Blackmer as Roman Castevet/Steven Marcato
• Maurice Evans as Hutch
• Ralph Bellamy as Dr. Abraham Sapirstein
• Charles Grodin as Dr. Hill
• Patsy Kelly as Laura-Louise
• Angela Dorian as Terry Gionoffrio
• Elisha Cook as Mr. Nicklas
• Emmaline Henry as Elise Dunstan
• Hanna Landy as Grace Cardiff
• Philip Leeds as Dr. Shand
• Hope Summers as Mrs. Gilmore
• D'Urville Martin as Diego
• Marianne Gordon as Rosemary's Girlfriend
• Wendy Wagner as Rosemary's Girlfriend
• Fritzi Jane Courtney as woman at party

• Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (Ruth Gordon, winner)
• Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (nominee)

• Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture (Gordon, winner)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama (Farrow, nominee)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay (nominee)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score (nominee)

• BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Mia Farrow, nominee)
• Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (nominee)
• Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Drama (nominee)
• David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actress (Mia Farrow, winner)
• David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Director (winner)
• Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay (nominee)
• French Syndicate of Cinema Critics Award for Best Foreign Film (winner)
• Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor (Sidney Blackmer, winner)
• Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress (Gordon, winner)

Network is a 1976 American satirical drama film written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet, about a fictional television network, UBS, and its struggle with poor ratings. The film stars Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch and Robert Duvall and features Wesley Addy, Ned Beatty and Beatrice Straight.

The film won four Academy Awards, in the categories of Best Actor (Finch), Best Actress (Dunaway), Best Supporting Actress (Straight) and Best Original Screenplay (Chayefsky).

In 2000, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2002, it was inducted into the Producers Guild of America Hall of Fame as a film that has "set an enduring standard for American entertainment".[3] In 2005, the two Writers Guilds of America voted Chayefsky's script one of the 10 greatest screenplays in the history of cinema.[4][a] In 2007, the film was 64th among the 100 greatest American films as chosen by the American Film Institute, a ranking slightly higher than the one AFI had given it ten years earlier.

• Faye Dunaway as Diana Christensen
• William Holden as Max Schumacher
• Peter Finch as Howard Beale
• Robert Duvall as Frank Hackett
• Wesley Addy as Nelson Chaney
• Ned Beatty as Arthur Jensen
• Beatrice Straight as Louise Schumacher
• Jordan Charney as Harry Hunter
• William Prince as Edward Ruddy
• Lane Smith as Robert McDonough
• Marlene Warfield as Laureen Hobbs
• Conchata Ferrell as Barbara Schlesinger
• Carolyn Krigbaum as Max's secretary
• Arthur Burghardt as the Great Ahmet Khan
• Cindy Grover as Caroline Schumacher
• Darryl Hickman as Bill Herron
• Lee Richardson as the Narrator (voice)
• Lance Henriksen as Network lawyer (uncredited)

• Network came only two years after the first on-screen suicide in television history, of television news reporter Christine Chubbuck in Sarasota, Florida.[6][dead link] The anchorwoman was suffering from depression and loneliness, was often emotionally distant from her co-workers, and shot herself on camera as stunned viewers watched on July 15, 1974.

  Chayefsky used the idea of a live death as his film's focal point, saying later in an interview, "Television will do anything for a rating ... anything!" However, Dave Itzkoff's book Mad as Hell: The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies disputes that Chayefsky was inspired by the Chubbock case, asserting that Chayefsky actually began writing Network months before Chubbuck's death and already planned for Howard Beale to vow to kill himself on air, and that Chubbuck's suicide was simply an eerie parallel.[7] Sidney Lumet also confirmed that the character of Howard Beale was never based on any real life person.[8] Still, the Chubbuck case is mentioned in Chayefsky's screenplay.[citation needed]

  Before beginning his screenplay, Chayefsky visited network TV offices. Sitting in on meetings at CBS and NBC, he noted "the politics, the power struggles, the obsession with ratings."[9] He was also surprised to learn that television executives did not watch much television. "The programs they put on 'had to' be bad," he said, "had to be something they wouldn't watch. Imagine having to work like that all your life."[10]

  According to Dave Itzkoff, what Cheyefsky saw while writing the screenplay during the midst of Watergate and the Vietnam war was all the anger of America being broadcast in everything from sitcoms to news reports. He concluded that Americans "don't want jolly, happy family type shows like Eye Witness News" ... "the American people are angry and want angry shows."[11] When he began writing his script he had intended on a comedy, but instead poured his frustration at the broadcasts being shown on television, which he described as "an indestructible and terrifying giant that is stronger than the government" — into the screenplay. It became a "dark satire about an unstable news anchor and a broadcasting company and a viewing public all too happy to follow him over the brink of sanity."[11]

  The character of network executive Diana Christiansen was based on NBC daytime television programming executive Lin Bolen,[12] which Bolen disputed.[13]

  Chayefsky and producer Howard Gottfried had just come off a lawsuit against United Artists, challenging the studio's right to lease their previous film, The Hospital, to ABC in a package with a less successful film. Despite this recent lawsuit, Chayefsky and Gottfried signed a deal with UA to finance Network, until UA found the subject matter too controversial and backed out.

  Undeterred, Chayefsky and Gottfried shopped the script around to other studios, and eventually found an interested party in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Soon afterward, United Artists reversed itself and looked to co-finance the film with MGM, since the latter had an ongoing distribution arrangement with UA in North America. Since MGM agreed to let UA back on board, the former (through United Artists as per the arrangement) controlled North American/Caribbean rights, with UA opting for overseas distribution.

The Bad News Bears is a 1976 American sports comedy film directed by Michael Ritchie and written by Bill Lancaster. It stars Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal. The film was followed by two sequels, The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training in 1977 and The Bad News Bears Go to Japan in 1978, a short-lived 1979–80 CBS television series, and a 2005 remake.

Notable was the score by Jerry Fielding, which is an adaptation of the principal themes of Bizet's opera Carmen.

PODCAST NOTES:

Bernie Kaminski is my guest (00:02), Bernie's amazing paper mache pop-cultural artwork (follow @berniekaminski for more) (2:00), Jason and Bernie's contrasting Little League experiences (7:00), Happy Days vs Media All Stars celebrity softball game excerpt (9:00), Matthau's incredible and heartbreaking dugout argument scene with Tatum O'Neal (10:30), Alternative casting: Warren Beatty and Steve McQueen (11:00), Walter Matthau 'quitting' scene (13:00), Matthau in 'The Taking of Pelham 123' (13:30), Bill Lancaster, screenwriter of 'Bad News Bears' and 'The Thing' (14:00), introduction of Kelly Leak scene 'Thanks, Mister' (17:00), Matthau's scene in the dugout where he's taking it too seriously (19:00), kids temperment as reflected in their jerky sideline parents at sporting events (22:00), Bernie's surprisingly impressive and underrated Little League career, including his score book from 1976 (24:00), Olgivie's baseball patch jacket in The Bad News Bears (27:30), 'Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore' scene with Alfred Lutter as Tommy (28:00), 'Breaking Away' with Jackie Earle Haley (34:30), Jackie Earle Haley in 'Little Children' (37:30), William Devane in 'The Bad News Bears: Breaking Training' and the        uselessness of the sequels (39:00), great scene between Buttermaker and Ahmad Abdul Rahim in the tree after the loss to the Yankees (42:30), Beer can collecting in 1970s childhood (46:30), Bernie's Latch-Key TV selections.

Dirty Dancing is a 1987 American romantic drama dance film written by Eleanor Bergstein, produced by Linda Gottlieb, and directed by Emile Ardolino. It stars Jennifer Grey as Frances "Baby" Houseman, a young woman who falls in love with dance instructor Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze) at a holiday resort.

The film was based on screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein's own childhood. She originally wrote a screenplay for the Michael Douglas film It's My Turn, but ultimately ended up conceiving a story for a film which became Dirty Dancing. She finished the script in 1985, but management changes at MGM put the film in development hell. The production company was changed to Vestron Pictures with Emile Ardolino as director and Linda Gottlieb as producer. Filming took place in Lake Lure, North Carolina, and Mountain Lake, Virginia, with the film's score composed by John Morris and dance choreography by Kenny Ortega.

Dirty Dancing premiered at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival on May 12, 1987, and was released on August 21, 1987, in the United States, earning over $214 million worldwide.[2] It was the first film to sell more than a million copies for home video,[2] and its soundtrack created by Jimmy Ienner generating two multi-platinum albums and multiple singles, including "(I've Had) The Time of My Life", which won both the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Song, and a Grammy Award for best duet.[3] The film's popularity led to a 2004 prequel, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, and a stage version which has had sellout performances in Australia, Europe, and North America. A made-for-TV remake was also released in 2017.[4]

Phantasm is a 1979 American science fantasy horror film directed, written, photographed, and edited by Don Coscarelli. The first film in the Phantasm franchise, it introduces the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), a supernatural and malevolent undertaker who turns the dead of Earth into dwarf zombies to be sent to his planet and used as slaves. He is opposed by a young boy, Mike (Michael Baldwin), who tries to convince his older brother Jody (Bill Thornbury) and family friend Reggie (Reggie Bannister) of the threat.

Phantasm was a locally financed independent film; the cast and crew were mostly amateurs and aspiring professionals. Though initial reviews were mixed in regards to the dreamlike, surreal narrative and imagery, later reception was more positive and the film became a cult classic. It has appeared on several critics' lists of best horror films, and it has been cited as an influence on later horror series. It was followed by four sequels: Phantasm II (1988), Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994), Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998) and Phantasm: Ravager (2016).

The Outsiders is a 1983 American coming-of-age drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, an adaptation of the 1967 novel of the same name by S. E. Hinton. The film was released on March 25, 1983. Jo Ellen Misakian, a librarian at Lone Star Elementary School in Fresno, California, and her students were responsible for inspiring Coppola to make the film.[2]

The film is noted for its cast of up-and-coming stars, including C. Thomas Howell (who garnered a Young Artist Award), Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio, and Diane Lane. The film helped spark the Brat Pack genre of the 1980s. Both Lane and Dillon went on to appear in Coppola's related film Rumble Fish; Dillon and Estevez also starred in Tex (1982). Emilio Estevez went on to write and star in That Was Then... This Is Now (1985), the only S. E. Hinton film adaptation not to star Matt Dillon.

The film received mostly positive reviews from critics, most notably the performances, particularly Macchio being singled out for praise, and performed well at the box office, grossing $33.7 million on a $10.0 million budget.

PODCAST NOTES

Peter O'Connor joins Jason to talk about his favorite movie, 'The Outsiders' (0:01), 'The Outsiders' emotional pitch and tone and Coppola's intentions setting out in capturing a certain tenor of emotional height in the movie (3:00), Matt Dillon as Dally intro scene (3:00), C. Thomas Howell as Ponyboy intro scene (4:23), Tom Cruise and whether or not he nailed the accent in the movie (5:00), the infamous audition process for the film (6:00), Drive-In scene with C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon, Diane Lane and Michelle Meyrink (6:30), Michelle Meyrink as Jordan in hilarious bathroom clip from 'Real Genius' with Gabriel Jarrett (8:00), Cast members age during filming (9:00), Tom Cruise in 'Risky Business', 'All The Right Moves' and 'The Outsiders' all in 1983 (9:30), Peter O'Connor's acting and career discussion of on-set behavioral norms changing over time, including the infamous Christian Bale caught-on-audio outburst on the 'Terminator' set (10:00), Auditioning for 'The Outsiders' including audio from some other actors' auditions (10:30), Rob Lowe on the audition process (12:00), Coppola's Zoetrope Studios 'One From The Heart' trailer with Teri Garr, Frederick Forrest, Tom Waits, Nastassia Kinski and Raul Julia (15:00), Peter emotionally defends 'Godfather 3' (16:30), the amazing story of how an elementary-school teacher caused S.E. Hinton's 'The Outsiders' to get made as a movie (18:30), Coppola's filming of the entire 'Outsiders' movie on one of the first VHS cameras (19:00), Greaser cast members vs soc cast members anecdotes (20:00), Peter's blue-collar acting chip on his shoulder (24:00), clip of the Gold poem scene with Johnny and Ponyboy from 'The Outsiders' (27:00), Panavision filming techniques used in 'The Outsiders' (28:00), Church fire scene and male teacher hilarious denial (30:00), S.E. Hinton's backstory writing 'The Outsiders' (31:00), Alternative Casting for 'The Outsiders' featuring Anthony Michael Hall, Kate Capshaw, Helen Slater, Val Kilmer, Mickey Rourke, Glenn Scarpelli, Vincent Spano, Adam Baldwin (35:00), 'My Bodyguard' scene with the incredible Adam Baldwin, Scott Baio, Dennis Quaid (36:30), Darren Dalton with C. Thomas Howell pre-rumble car talk scene from 'The Outsiders' (38:00), Leif Garrett scene from 'The Outsiders' (42:00) Peter's journey to acting (45:00), Peter's side hustle driving Al Pacino for 10 years in NYC (46:30), Matt Dillon in the brilliant 'Over The Edge' from 1979 (53:00), Matt Dillon's career including 'Crash', 'To Die For', 'Singles, and 'Drugstore Cowboy' (57:30), Peter telling Al Pacino he's the reason Peter became an actor (1:11:00), Phillip Seymour Hoffman as  an influence on Peter; as probably the greatest actor of his generation and his great appearances in 'The Great Lebowski', 'Moneyball', 'Along Came Polly' and 'Charlie Wilson's War' (1:12:00), Peter meeting Meryl Streep in his underwear (1:15:00), 'Stay Gold, Ponyboy' 1:16:00), the 'Complete Novel' version of 'The Outsiders (1:18:00), Peter's 'Latch Key TV' choices, with 'The Incredible Hulk', 'The Dukes Of Hazzard', and 'The Muppet Show' (1:20:00).

12 Angry Men is a 1957 American courtroom drama film directed by Sidney Lumet, adapted from a teleplay of the same name by Reginald Rose. This courtroom drama tells the story of a jury of 12 men as they deliberate the conviction or acquittal of an 18-year old defendant on the basis of reasonable doubt, forcing the jurors to question their morals and values.

12 Angry Men explores many techniques of consensus-building and the difficulties encountered in the process among this group of men whose range of personalities adds to the intensity and conflict. It also explores the power one person has to elicit change. The jury members are identified only by number; no names are revealed until an exchange of dialogue at the very end. The film forces the characters and audience to evaluate their own self-image through observing the personality, experiences, and actions of the jurors. The film is also notable for its almost exclusive use of one set, where all but three minutes of the film take place.

In 2007, the film was selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film was selected as the second-best courtroom drama ever by the American Film Institute during their AFI's 10 Top 10 list.

PODCAST NOTES

Episode intro and guest Brian Thompson mini-bio (00:01),  Jason and Brian talk about their Yankee & Red Sox near-murder meet-cute story (2:30), Sidney Lumet and Brian's first experiences of '12 Angry Men' (7:00), Henry Fonda and critical thinking role models (9:00), The 'Kids These Days' scene from '12 Angry Men' (10:30), Disinterested Judge scene from '12 Angry Men' (16:30), Brian's doorbell rings and it's the FBI and NYPD (18:30), how to smuggle drugs and money into jail and prison (19:00), Skin care tips of the incarcerated (20:30), extreme experiences and how not to allow them to distance you from others (22:00), Lewisburg Penitentiary and re-entering real life as a human being and not a gladiator on the yard (22:30), Brian's brain injury and its impact on his addictions (24:00), Sidney Lumet's book 'Making Movies' and his thoughts about films like 'Dog Day Afternoon', 'Serpico, and 'Prince Of The City' (24:30), the cast of '12 Angry Men' (28:30), clip from '12 Angry Men' where Henry Fonda bets on humanity (30:00), Sidney Lumet on Henry Fonda as an actor (32:00), Brian's emotional response and personal connections to various scenes in '12 Angry Men', including the Jack Klugman "slum" scene (34:30), Brian's permanent exemption from jury duty (36:30), Brian's life of crime and his 'felony a day' lifestyle and some background on The Westies gang in NYC(38:00), Brian's time running among Chinatown gangsters in 1980's NYC (41:30), gang style in the 1970's (45:00), clip from '12 Angry Men' of the democracy speech from actor George Voscovec (46:30), legal realities and the obfuscation of same in '12 Angry Men' (45:30), Brian's arrests at age 12 and early incarcerations and prison GED  leading to post-prison college and Master's degrees (52:00), Brian's career cooking at Bouley, Nobu, and a handful of other of NYC's finest dining establishments (57:00), Suicide or advanced degrees (58:30), the "these people" clip featuring Ed Begley from '12 Angry Men', with Sidney Lumet's incredible shot of actors turning their backs on Begley one by one (1:05:30), Sidney Lumet's incredible movement of the camera in '12 Angry Men' (1:08:30), 'The Andy Griffith Show' take on '12 Angry Men' (1:11:00), 'Inside Amy Schumer' does '12 Angry Men' parody with Jeff Goldblum, Nick Dipaulo, Paul Giammatti, John Hawkes, Dennis Quaid, and Henry Zebrowski (1:13:00), Henry Fonda pissed off at Sidney Lumet's NYC backdrops day one of filming due to budget constraints (1:17:00), Lee J. Cobb's amazing concluding scene from '12 Angry Men', and childhood traumas mingling with a lack of make role models for sons (1:18:00), Brian's prison time and its impact on his son's choice of becoming an attorney (1:24:00), Brian's take on prison movies and their verisimilitude, including 'Bad Boys' with Sean Penn and 'Shawshank Redemption' (1:26:00), the difference between jail and prison (1:27:00), Being in prison in Otisville with Eddie 'Crazy Eddie' Antar (1:28:30), Brian's story of being arrested for the double murder of a Chinatown gambler and bar owner and being assisted in his defense by famed Irish mobster Mickey Featherstone and a federal agent (1:34:00), Prison phone use and why it inevitably leads to violence and conflict (1:44:30), Latch Key TV with 'My Three Sons', 'Family Affair', 'Father Knows Best', 'Bonanza', and 'The Courtship of Eddie's Father' and Brian's realization that all the formative shows of his youth featured single father's doing a great job raising kids (1:47:00).  

Young Frankenstein is a 1974 American comedy horror film directed by Mel Brooks and starring Gene Wilder as the title character, a descendant of the infamous Dr. Victor Frankenstein, and Peter Boyle as the monster. The supporting cast includes Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, Richard Haydn, and Gene Hackman. The screenplay was written by Wilder and Brooks.

The film is a parody of the classic horror film genre, in particular the various film adaptations of Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein produced by Universal Pictures in the 1930s. Much of the lab equipment used as props was created by Kenneth Strickfaden for the 1931 film Frankenstein. To help evoke the atmosphere of the earlier films, Brooks shot the picture entirely in black and white, a rarity in the 1970s, and employed 1930s' style opening credits and scene transitions such as iris outs, wipes, and fades to black. The film also features a period score by Brooks' longtime composer John Morris.

A critical favorite and box office smash, Young Frankenstein ranks No. 28 on Total Film magazine's readers' "List of the 50 Greatest Comedy Films of All Time",  No. 56 on Bravo TV's list of the "100 Funniest Movies", and No. 13 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 funniest American movies. In 2003, it was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the United States National Film Preservation Board, and selected for preservation in the Library of Congress National Film Registry. It was later adapted by Brooks and Thomas Meehan as a stage musical.

On its 40th anniversary, Brooks considered it by far his finest (although not his funniest) film as a writer-director.

PODCAST NOTES:

Jason is joined by two (or is it three?) time FCAC Very Special Guest Star Jenny Pinzari to delve DEEP into 'Young Frankenstein', her college a capella career, her teenage tv habits, and more!  (00:05), the Ovaltine scene between Cloris Leachman and Gene Wilder (3:00), 'Young Frankenstein' original 1974 trailer narrated by Mel Brooks (5:00), James Whale and the original Frankenstein movies (8:00), 'Airplane' and 'Zero Hour' clip comparisons (11:00), Gene Wilder and Madeline Kahn train depot scene from 'Young Frankenstein' (16:00), Marty Feldman: Genius (18:00), 'Walk This Way' by Aerosmith was named because of 'Young Frankenstein', clip from Gene Wilder's cameo in 'Bonnie and Clyde' (22:30), Gene Wilder and Marty Feldman "help with the bags" clip and Gene's continual breaking on-set (25:00), incredible Gene Wilder interview clip about his fame and success (26:30), Madeline Kahn and 'Flames' (29:00), 'Frau Blucher' apocryphal origin stories (31:30), Cloris Leachman is 93 and STILL working (32:00), Jenny's a capella life at Boston University (36:30), 'Sedagive' clip from 'Young Frankenstein (43:30), Madeline Kahn's incredible love scene with Frakenstein's monster (45:30), Blind Priest scene between Gene Hackman and Peter Boyle (50:00), Jenny and husband Adam's 90's song parody 'Interesting Girl' (53:00), Latch-Key TV: Shari Lewis & Lambchop and 'The Song That Never Ends' (60:00), 'Saved By The Bell' (61:00), Jenny went to  mall dressed as Kelly Kapowski to see Mark-Paul Gosselear was appearing and signing autographs (63:00), Jenny's first boycrush was Jonathan Taylor-Thomas who got out of acting and went to like three Ivy League colleges (64:00), 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' and David Boreanz and Sarah Michelle Gellar (67:30), ABC's 'TGIF' block of programming with 'Full House', 'Perfect Strangers', 'Family Matters', 'Step By Step', 'Hangin' With Mister Cooper', and 'Sabrina The Teenage Witch' and 'Dinosaurs' (70:00).

Alien is a 1979 science-fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon. Based on a story by O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, it follows the crew of the commercial space tug Nostromo, who encounter the eponymous Alien, a deadly and aggressive extraterrestrial set loose on the ship. The film stars Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto. It was produced by Gordon Carroll, David Giler, and Walter Hill through their company Brandywine Productions, and was distributed by 20th Century Fox. Giler and Hill revised and made additions to the script; Shusett was executive producer. The Alien and its accompanying artifacts were designed by the Swiss artist H. R. Giger, while concept artists Ron Cobb and Chris Foss designed the more human settings.

PODCAST NOTES

Jason is joined by Bruce Edwards, a veteran of the TV and film business whose shared background with Jason includes time spent at the MTV Networks offices working for VH1 in the later 90's.

Bruce's time working at the Garden State Plaza Mall in the 90’s (02:00)

Working at the Starlog Magazine/ Starlog Store (04:00)

Meeting Lazlo from 'Real Genius' at the mall (5:00)

WPIX Chiller Thriller opening from 80's and 90's TV. (07:00)

Seeing Alien for the first time (09:00)

Renting movies from video stores (10:00)

Dan O’Bannon and Ronnie Schusett original screenplay origins (15:00)

Walter Hill/ David Giler renaming characters and editing the original version (18:00)

John Carpenter’s The Thing as influences by Alien (20:00)

3 perfect movies: Jaws, Alien, and The Thing (24:00)

Script controversy by Hill and O Bannon (30:00)

Scene where crew of Nostromo haggles over investigation of signal. (34:00)

Alternative Casting with Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, and the original Kane, John Finch (36:00)

Latch Key TV with 'Three's Company', 'Live! With Regis & Kathie Lee', and '227' and 'Night Court'. (45:00)

A highly skilled jewel thief, Frank (James Caan) longs to leave his dangerous trade and settle down with his girlfriend, Jessie (Tuesday Weld). Eager to make one last big score in order to begin living a legitimate life, Frank reluctantly associates with Leo (Robert Prosky), a powerful gangster. Unfortunately for Frank, Leo wants to keep him in his employ, resulting in a tense showdown when he finally tries to give up his criminal activities once and for all.  On this episode of Full Cast and Crew, Jason is joined by his good friend and fellow Michael Mann and 'Thief' fanboy, James Kittle.  Leavening the testosterone inherent in any Michael Mann film, Jason and James also get into James' long-time love for the music of Natalie Merchant and The Indigo Girls.  Also: the path not taken with James not becoming a New Your City Police Department cop in the early 90's, his collection of Polo towels, and mail as a foreign concept to millennials.  Skating at Yale's Beinecke Plaza and being townies in and around Yale in New Haven (47:30), New Haven childhoods and high school scenes (49:00), Tuesday Weld's incredible performance in 'Thief' and particularly her car and diner scenes with James Caan (50:00), Latch Key TV with 'Miami Vice', and 'Hill Street Blues' (61:30), the iconic Phill Collins "In The Air Tonight" scene from Miami Vice (63:30), the opening scene of the very first episode of 'Hill Street Blues' (64:00) and how well it holds up today, the 'Hill Street Blues' theme (68:30). 

Harold and Maude is a 1971 American coming-of-age black comedy-drama film directed by Hal Ashby and released by Paramount Pictures. It incorporates elements of dark humor and existentialist drama. The plot revolves around the exploits of a young man named Harold Chasen (Bud Cort) who is intrigued with death. Harold drifts away from the life that his detached mother (Vivian Pickles) prescribes for him, and slowly develops a strong friendship, and eventually a romantic relationship, with a 79-year-old woman named Maude (Ruth Gordon) who teaches Harold about living life to its fullest and that life is the most precious gift of all.

The film was based on a screenplay written by Colin Higgins and published as a novel in 1971. Filming locations in the San Francisco Bay Area included both Holy Cross Cemetery and Golden Gate National Cemetery, and the ruins of the Sutro Baths.

Critically and commercially unsuccessful when originally released, the film developed a cult following and in 1983 began making a profit.[1][2] The film is ranked number 45 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Funniest Movies of all Time and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1997, for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".[3] The Criterion Collection special-edition Blu-ray and DVD were released June 12, 2012.[4]

EPISODE NOTES:

(1:00) My guest Becca Faulkner covers her British childhood in the 80's, and her work at an independent cinema in Leeds in the early 90's, where she first encountered 'Harold and Maude', (8:00) British youth fashions then and now, (9:00) seeing movies by yourself, (9:30) Cat Stevens 'Don't Be Shy' and intro credits to 'Harold and Maude', (10:30) Colin Higgins and the origins of the screenplay for 'Harold and Maude', (12:00) black comedy and 'Harold and Maude' and 'The Graduate' from 1967, (14:00) the scene where Harold meets Maude, (18:00) browsing in video stores in the 80's and 90's, (19:00) Jack Black in 'High Fidelity', 'Harold and Maude' and timelessness, (20:00) Roger Ebert's negative review of 'Harold and Maude', (21:00) 'Rushmore' as descendant of 'Harold and Maude',  but would it pass the "Teenager Litmus Test'?, (25:00) why did 'Harold and Maude' flop upon release and why has it become an iconic film since release?, (27:00) other 1971 film releases, including 'Klute', 'The French Connection', (31:00) revisiting the beloved films of our youth through the eyes of our children and note: don't do that or suffer what Becca has with showing her teens 'Ghostbusters' and 'Footloose', (33:00) insane and overwrought clip from 'Footloose' with incredible guitar riff, (34:00) clip of Liza Minelli singing 'Life Is A Cabaret' from 'Cabaret' with her usual subtlety and aplomb, (35:00) the love story between Harold and Maude compared to 'Amour', (36:00) Bud Cort in 'Harold and Maude', (37:00) Alternative Casting with Richard Dreyfuss, Bob Balaban,  John Savage, and Elton John, (40:00) Bud Cort's excellent, uncredited cameo in Michael Mann's 'Heat', (42:00) Bud Cort's suicide origins speech from 'Harold and Maude', (49:00)Vivian Pickles' questionnaire scene, (52:00) Becs drinks water, (55:00) Cat Stevens on the use of his music in 'Harold and Maude' and the 'Miles From Nowhere' scene, 

The Star Wars Holiday Special[a] is a 1978 American television special set in the universe of the Star Wars science-fiction media franchise. Directed by Steve Binder, it was the first Star Wars spin-off film, set between the events of the original film and The Empire Strikes Back (1980). It stars the main cast of the original Star Wars and introduces the character of Boba Fett, who appeared in later films.

In the storyline that ties the special together, following the events of the original film, Chewbacca and Han Solo attempt to visit the Wookiee home world to celebrate "Life Day". They are pursued by agents of the Galactic Empire, who are searching for members of the Rebel Alliance on the planet. The special introduces three members of Chewbacca's family: his father Itchy, his wife Malla, and his son Lumpy. The program also features the rest of the main Star Wars characters, including Luke Skywalker, C-3PO, R2-D2, Darth Vader and Princess Leia, all portrayed by the original cast (except R2-D2, who is simply billed as "himself"). The program includes footage from the 1977 film and a cartoon produced by Toronto-based Nelvana featuring the bounty hunter Boba Fett. Scenes take place in space and in spacecraft including the Millennium Falcon and a Star Destroyer; segments also take place in a few other locales, such as the Mos Eisley cantina from the original film.

The special is notorious for its extremely negative reception and has never been rebroadcast or officially released on home video.[2][3] It has become something of a cultural legend due to the underground quality of its existence. It has been viewed and distributed in off-air recordings made from its original telecast by fans as bootleg copies, and it has also been uploaded to content-sharing websites.

Seven (stylized as SE7EN) is a 1995 American crime thriller film was directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. It stars Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey and John C. McGinley. The film tells the story of David Mills, a detective who partners with the retiring William Somerset to track down a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as a motif in his murders.

The screenplay was influenced by the time Walker spent in New York City trying to make it as a writer. Principal photography took place in Los Angeles, with the last scene filmed near Lancaster, California. The film's budget was $33 million.

Released on September 22, 1995 by New Line Cinema, Seven was the seventh-highest-grossing film of the year, grossing over $327 million worldwide.[2] It was well received by critics, who praised the film's dark style, brutality and themes. The film was nominated for Best Film Editing at the 68th Academy Awards, losing to Apollo 13.

Rocky is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen, written by and starring Sylvester Stallone.[3] It tells the rags to riches American Dream story of Rocky Balboa, an uneducated, but kind-hearted working class Italian-American boxer, working as a debt collector for a loan shark in the slums of Philadelphia. Rocky, a small-time club fighter, gets a shot at the world heavyweight championship. The film also stars Talia Shire as Adrian, Burt Young as Adrian's brother Paulie, Burgess Meredith as Rocky's trainer Mickey Goldmill, and Carl Weathers as the reigning champion, Apollo Creed.

The film, made on a budget of just over $1 million, was a sleeper hit; it earned $225 million in global box office receipts, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1976. The film was critically acclaimed and solidified Stallone's career as well as commenced his rise to prominence as a major movie star.[4] Among other accolades, it went on to receive ten Academy Award nominations, winning three, including Best Picture. In 2006, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". Rocky is considered to be one of the greatest sports films ever made and was ranked as the second-best in the genre, after Raging Bull, by the American Film Institute in 2008.

The film has spawned seven sequels: Rocky II (1979), Rocky III (1982), Rocky IV (1985), Rocky V (1990), Rocky Balboa (2006), Creed (2015), and Creed II (2018). Stallone portrays Rocky in all eight films, wrote six of the seven films, and directed four of the six titular installments. In July 2019, Stallone said in an interview that there have been ongoing discussions about a prequel to the original film based on the life of a young Rocky Balboa.[5]

SHOW NOTES:

Rocky intro (0:01), we're joined by special guest and Rocky completist Paul Tinelli who discusses his special connection to Rocky the movie and the character (1:30), Sly Stallone's home life growing up and entry to movie business (3:00), Rocky origin story versus reality (3:45), Our guest Paul Tinelli gave his wife a 'Diner' test with Rocky on VHS on their first date (4:30), Rocky original ending and poster (7:00), How they shot the arena/fight scene with only 500 extras (08:00), 70's hangover decade and driving around in your Mom's Pinto (12:00), Rock with Cuff & Link the turtles and Moby Dick clip (14:00), Rocky is approached for the Apollo Creed fight clip (16:00), Rocky press conference shout-out to Adrian clip(17:30), Rocky has all the feels clip (18:00), Talia Shire clip with her and Burt Young from 'Rocky' (22:00), The 'Rocky' production design with LA interiors on sets and the run-and-gun Philly shoot (24:00), Rocky and Mick's fight at the gym (25:00),   Rocky and Mick's incredible scene in Rocky's apartment (29:00), Burgess Meredith's great Twilight Zone appearance (30:00), Mike Medavoy and Arthur Krim story about Krim confusing Perry King with Stallone in 'Lords of Flatbush' (32:00), Joe Spinnell as Willie Cicci and the gangster in 'Rocky' (33:30), Michael Dorn from Star Trek is in Rocky, as is Troma Pictures Lloyd Kauffman (34:00), Stallone's online store is filled with amazing clothes, knives, and weird Stallonia (36:00), John Cazale was in five movies nominated for Best Picture (38:00), John Avildsen's career as a director (39:00), Paul's rundown on the best Rocky films (39:30), Bill Conti's iconic theme from 'Rocky' (43:00), Carl Weathers role as Apollo Creed (46:00), Philly Eagles fans eat horsepoop (47:00), Stallone and the ownership issues on 'Rocky' (48:30), Alternative Casting w/ (for Rocky) Ryan O'Neal, Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, James Caan, John Travolta, Robert DeNiro, Warren Beatty, Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Harvey Keitel; Lee Strasberg for Mick; Carrie Snodgress, Susan Sarandon, and Cher for Adrian; Stallone, Chevy Chase, and Travolta all auditioned for Han Solo in 'Star Wars'; for Apollo Creed, Ken Norton was considered, and Roger Mosely who was TC on 'The A Team' (51:00), Columbo Cinematic Universe (1:02:00), Latch Key TV w/ the opens and themes to 'Charlie's Angels', 'Laverne & Shirley', 'Alice',  'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' theme was written by Sonny Curtis, a great songwriter who also wrote 'I Fought The Law And The Law One' and 'More Than I Can Say' (1:04:00), Voicemail to the pod from Super-Listener Frazer Rice recommends 'The Hidden' directed 'Wishmaster 2' director Jack Shoulder, and we play the trailer (1:12:45), Super-listener Jeffrey D Stevens is a set medic for major motion pictures and TV shows and wrote to the pod and we're gonna do a movie he suggested on next week's pod (1:17:00), 'Se7en' trailer (1:19:00). Et Finis.

In a Manhattan cafe, word processor Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne) meets and talks literature with Marcy (Rosanna Arquette). Later that night, Paul takes a cab to Marcy's downtown apartment. His $20 bill flying out the window during the ride portends the unexpected night he has. He cannot pay for the ride and finds himself in a series of awkward, surreal and life-threatening situations with a colorful cast of characters. He spends the rest of the night trying to return uptown.  'After Hours' was directed by Martin Scorcese from a screenplay by Joe Minion with an assist from Joe Frank.

PODCAST NOTES: Chris' tribute to radio pioneer/legend Joe Frank/cold open (00:00:01), Joe Frank's "Lies" excerpt, legal settlement, and Joe Minion's script for 'After Hours' (00:03:00), Chris' play with Larry Block (00:05:00), Phil Hendrie radio program (00:08:00), Lisa Robinson and Griffin Dunne's anecdote about Tim Burton and Scorcese (00:11:00), Cinematographer Michael Ballhaus and his 16 films with Fassbinder (00:15:00 ), Scene with Griffin Dunne and Bronson Pinchot as word processors (00:18:00), Rosanna Arquette and Griffin Dunne diner / Wizard of Oz scene (00:22:00), Rosanna Arquette is or isnt the inspiration behind Toto's 'Rosanna' and Peter Gabriel's 'In Your Eyes' (00:30:00), Griffin Dunne in 'I Love Dick' (00:31:00), the brilliant Teri Garr with Griffin Dunne in the apartment scene from 'After Hours' (00:33:30), Griffin Dunne and Linda Fiorentino's scene with the great Will Patton as 'Horst' (00:39:30), Neil & Pepe played by Cheech & Chong (00:40:00), Terminal Bar's appearance in 'Taxi Driver' and Emerald Pub in Soho (00:45:00), Clarence Felder as a hilariously philosophical bouncer in the nightclub scene from 'After Hours' (00:46:00), Catherine O'Hara's great scene as a Mr. Softee driver screwing up Griffin Dunne's phone call from 'After Hours' (00:49:00), Griffin Dunne's brilliant recap monologue in his pick-up's (Robert Plunket) apartment (00:52:00),  Alternative endings suggested for 'After Hours' by everyone from Spielberg to Terry Gilliam, to Michael Powell, husband of Spielberg editor Thelma Schoonmaker (00:55:00), Scene from Lars Von Trier's 'The Kingdom', because: Chris (00:56:00), Cheech & Chong's quotes on art (00:59:00), Ebert on Scorcese (01:00:00), Rants 'n Raves with Michael Apted's '63 Up' series, Bong Joon-ho's 'Parasite',  (01:02:00), Martin Scorcese's quote's on Marvel movies and why Bong Joon-ho says he won't be able to direct a Marvel movie, Headlines (01:09:15), Bomb Squad with 'Cats' Trailer #2 and box office correction to 'Ford v Ferarri' (01:10:30), Latch-Key TV with 'Beverly Hills Teens' (01:15:00), Final Lines (01:16:00)

After Hours IMDB page.

Joe Frank website.

Phil Hendrie website.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles is a 1987 American buddy film written, produced, and directed by John Hughes. The film stars Steve Martin as Neal Page, a high-strung marketing executive, and John Candy as Del Griffith, a goodhearted but annoying shower curtain ring salesman. They share a three-day odyssey of misadventures trying to get Neal home to Chicago in time for Thanksgiving with his family.

FCAC tackles the ur-Thanksgiving movie and celebrates the brilliant genius of John Candy, gone too soon.  And Steve Martin's career is a thing to celebrate, too.

Podcast Notes: 

Other Thanksgiving movies (03:00), We play an intriguing voicemail left for the podcast by DeForest DeForest  about Burt Rangles et al (03:30), Chris' closing lines listener shout-outs (06:30), Discussion about John Hughes (07:30), End credits sequence in 'Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (10:30), Meet cute scene between John Candy and Steve Martin seated next to each other on a plane (11:30), The career of Steve Martin (14:00), Awkward clip from the presser for 'Planes, Trains, and Automobiles' (18:30), Brad Pitt and Adam Sandler not liking to promote movies (19:00), The career of John Hughes (21:00), Dylan Baker's brilliant scene in 'Planes, Trains, and Automobiles' (22:00), Steve Martin sing-a-long scene from 'Planes, Trains, and Automobile' (26:00), Steve Martin's near-casting in Stanley Kubrick's 'Eyes Wide Shut' (26:30), John Candy and Steve Martin diner break-up scene from 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles', including John Candy's brilliantly improvised button (30:00), John Candy's great dramatic scene from John Hughes' 'Uncle Buck' (33:30), Steve Martin and John Candy's parting scene (36:00), Del and Neil scene where Del tells Neil the truth (39:00), Car rental counter scene with Neil and Edie McClurg (42:30), Doobie the cabdriver scene (with Larry Hankan, That Guy, who was almost Kramer in 'Seinfeld') (46:00), Why Paul Young's version of 'Every Time You Go Away' isn't used in 'Planes, Trains, and Automobiles' (48:00), Final Lines pitch (52:00), Rants n Raves (52:00) Headlines (59:00) Latch Key TV: Les Nessman Turkey Drop scene from WKRP in Cincinnati (1:04:30), 'It's Thanksgiving, Charlie Brown' (1:07:30), Bomb Squad: Fantasy Island (1:09:30)

High Noon is a 1952 American Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, depicted in real time, centers on a town marshal who is torn between his sense of duty and his love for his new bride and who must face a gang of killers alone.

Though mired in controversy with political overtones at the time of its release, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four (Actor, Editing, Music-Score, and Music-Song)[3] as well as four Golden Globe Awards (Actor, Supporting Actress, Score, and Cinematography-Black and White).[4] The award-winning score was written by Russian-born composer Dimitri Tiomkin.

High Noon was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in 1989, the NFR's first year of existence. An iconic film whose story has been partly or completely repeated in later film productions, the ending scenes especially inspired a next-to-endless number of later films, including but not just limited to westerns.  (Wikipedia)

PODCAST NOTES:

Senate HUAC parody intro (00:01), Tex Ritter's performance of Dmitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington's 'The Ballad of High Noon' (2:00), Westerns as often 'weird' arty and surreal films and why that is (4:00), 'High Noon' and its popularity with US Presidents (5:30), Glenn Frankel's book on 'High Noon' (6:00), Stanley Kramer's proto-independant film studio (7:00), Why Hollywood was drawn to the Communist party in the 20's and 30's (8:00), HUAC and its processes and procedures (10:30), Studio collaboration with HUAC and the economics of legal defense (13:00), Carl Foreman, screenwriter of 'High Noon' (14:00), John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Gary Cooper as cooperative witnesses for HUAC (16:00), The moment when you realize when a movie is "great" and the realities of watching a movie so regarded as "a classic" (18:30), 'Joker' as a politically fraught movie and similar takedown of the entertainment establishment (20:30), Drinking in Westerns; why shot glasses?? (22:00), Clip from 'High Noon' with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly (23:00), Please tell us what movie Chris' Final Line comes from (29:00), Fred Zinnemann's career and 'Day Of The Jackal' and 'A Man For All Seasons' and 'Julia' (36:30), Katy Jurado's great performance in 'High Noon' (42:00), Clip of Katy Jurado and Lloyd Bridges in 'High Noon' and the feminist messaging of same (43:00), Katy Jurado and Gary Cooper scene from 'High Noon' (48:00) in which she says "One year without seeing you" in Spanish, to which Gary Cooper replies, "Yes, I know." Columbo Cinematic Universe (56:30), John Wayne's complicated legacy and interesting relationships with many of the makers of 'High Noon; (58:00), John Wayne's Oscar acceptance speech on behalf of Gary Cooper (59:00), 'Rio Bravo' / 'High Noon' and Chris' brilliantly unexpected  'Sweet Home Alabama' / 'Southern Man' analogy (1:01:20), Alternative Casting (1:03:00), Flying Purple People Eater (1:06:30), The Wilhelm Scream and presence  (1:07:10), Headlines (1:09:30), Bomb Squad segment and 'Motherless Brooklyn' recap and 'Last Christmas' starring Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding and Jason stunned by the actual plot twist (1:11:00), Final Lines (01:19:00)

Read Glenn Frankel's fantastic book about the making of 'High Noon' here.

'High Noon' wiki page.

Call Full Cast And Crew and leave us a voicemail message:  855-755-5322

9 to 5 (listed in the opening credits as Nine to Five) is a 1980 American comedy film produced by Bruce Gilbert, story by Patricia Resnick, screenplay by Resnick and Colin Higgins, and directed by Higgins. It stars Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton as three working women who live out their fantasies of getting even with, and their overthrow of, the company's autocratic, "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot" boss, played by Dabney Coleman.

The film grossed over $103.9 million and is the 20th highest-grossing comedy film. As a star vehicle for Parton—already established as a successful singer, musician and songwriter—it launched her permanently into mainstream popular culture. A television series of the same name based on the film ran for five seasons, and a musical version of the film (also titled 9 to 5), with new songs written by Parton, opened on Broadway on April 30, 2009.

9 to 5 is number 74 on the American Film Institute's "100 Funniest Movies" and has an 82% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.

PODCAST NOTES:  Chris' signature intro (00:01), Jane Fonda's IPC company, Karen Nussbaum and the origin story of '9 To 5' (5:00), Colin Higgins and 'Harold & Maude' (6:00), Dabney Coleman (7:00), 9 To 5 fantasy sequence clips (13:00), Dabney & Lily scene (16:00), Judy's scene with her returning ex-husband (21:30), Doralee & Dabney scene (23:00), Mrs. Columbo (28:00), Dolly Parton's America podcast (30:00), Lily Tomlin and John Travolta in Moment By Moment (35:00), David O. Russell's onset meltdown (36:00),The Electric Company theme (37:00), Chris cut out the paganini movie trailer and Jason is heartbroken (38:30), Elena Of Avalor (44:00), Sheena Easton's Morning Train (52:00), Top downloaded episodes of FCAC (53:00), Sterling Hayden's performance in 9 to 5 (55:00), Wedge Antilles rears his X-Wing again (55:30), Headlines with bats and Rudy Giuliani (58:30), Bomb Squad movie trailer review of Roland Emmerich's 'Midway' (1:04:05), Closing Lines (1:10:10).

Scott Frank's adaptation of Elmore Leonard's classic crime novel, an arbitrary set of circumstances and not-so-arbitrary bad career moves on behalf of Soderbergh led to the creation of one of the great 90's films and one of the best adaptations of Leonard's work ever put on screen.  One of our hosts is a big fan. The other...well...there's hope for him yet.

PODCAST NOTES for Episode 57: 'Out Of Sight'

Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules For Good Writing (00:01), the greatness of Steve Zahn (05:00), Soderbergh's career after 'Sex Lies & Videotape" (10:30), George Clooneys first bank robbery scene in 'Out Of Sight' (15:30), Fosse Time use in 'Out Of Sight' (19:00), Albert Brooks as Ripley with George Clooney as Foley in the Security Guard Job Offer scene (23:00), 'Drive' with Ryan Gosling (26:30), Nancy Allen scene as Midge (27:30), Call the podcast (28:00), the trunk scene with J Lo and Clooney as one-shot scene (29:00), Trunk scene (31:00), the iconic and amazing bar/seduction scene between Gary and Celeste/Karen and Jack/J Lo and Clooney (36:00), use of freeze-frame device and the cross-cutting concept cribbed from Nic Roeg's Don't Look Now (41:00), Don Cheadle's classic turn as Snoopy Miller in the hilarious prison shakedown scene (42:00), Viola Davis great scene with J Lo and Isiah Washington (52:00), Luis Guzman, Catherine Keener and J Lo hilarious scene (55:30), Chris' trenchant analysis of the parallels between Karen and Foley's work experiences (58:00), Wendell B Harris, Jr and Jennifer Lopez hospital scene (1:01:40) Wendell B Harris, Jr door-busting scene (01:03:00), Screenwriter Scott Frank's career and credits (01:04:45), Spielberg's Minority Report humorous touches (01:05:30), Alternative Casting w/ Catherine Keener, Sandra Bullock, Gary Shandling as Ripley, Danny Devito also considered as Ripley and his brilliant restaurant scene in 'Get Shorty' (01:06:00), Samuel L. Jackson's cameo in Out Of Sight (01:08:00), Headlines (01:11:00), Irish Guy pranks his friends with audio from his casket (01:14:00), Our 'Bomb Squad' trailer this week is Edward (Don't Call Me 'Ed') Norton's 'Motherless Brooklyn' (01:15:00), Latch Key TV w/ The Frugal Gourmet, Denmark's Star-Spangled, Police Woman with Angie Dickinson, TranZor Z opening credits, George Jefferson's undying passion for obscure prog-rock (01:19:35), Last Lines (01:25:30)

Elmore Leonard's Wiki page.

Out Of Sight IMDB page.

Subscribe to Full Cast And Crew Podcast on iTunes Podcasts here. 

Skeptical graduate student Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) befriends Anne-Marie McCoy (Vanessa Williams) while researching superstitions in a housing project on Chicago's Near North Side. From Anne-Marie, Helen learns about the Candyman (Tony Todd), a knife-wielding figure of urban legend that some of her neighbors believe to be responsible for a recent murder. After a mysterious man matching the Candyman's description begins stalking her, Helen comes to fear that the legend may be all too real. (wikipedia)

PODCAST NOTES:

Chris' signature opening (00:01), the impressive weirdness of 'Candyman' and its origins in Clive Barker's 'Books Of Blood' (07:00), 'Hellraiser' and its impact on how 'Candyman' got made (09:00), Jordan Peele remake of 'Candyman' directed by Nia Decosta (10:30) Phillip Glass score for 'Candyman' (11:00), horror fans and their reactions to 'Candyman' and whether they accept it (13:00), Clip of Tony Todd's first appearance as Candyman in the film opposite Virginia Madsen as Helen (14:00), Cabrini-Green construction and the stories that inspired 'Candyman' of murderers coming into apartments through medicine cabinets between apartments (17:00), Xander Berkely's IMDB page and his typecasting throughout his career as either cuckold or affair (18:00), Michael Culkin's pompous academic character dinner party scene (19:00), Psychiatrist scene (22:00), 'Black Horror Aesthetic' UCLA Professor Tanarive Due and her husband Steven Barnes discuss the racial politics of 'Candyman' (26:00), Vanessa Williams scene from 'Candyman' (29:00), Bernard Rose as english director using the lens of "white fear" to great effect in the film (35:00), 'Wicker Man' with Nicholas Cage didn't happen (38:00), bee scene (39:00), co-host Jason's love for the Coppola movie 'The Rainmaker' with Roy Scheider, Matt Damon, Mickey Rourke, Danny Devito, Andrew Shue (43:00), Virginia Madsen's IMDB page (43:30), ALTERNATIVE CASTING Sandra Bullock, Eddie Murphy (46:00), Call the pod and leave us a voicemail 855-755-5322, 

RANTS N RAVES; Jason rants at tech bros commercials disrupting stupid stuff including now foot and palm sweat (50:00)

HEADLINES: Robots approach the singularity, Suzanne Somers (57:40)

COLUMBO CINEMATIC UNIVERSE  'Sex & The Married Detective' with Lindsay Crouse, Peter Jurasik from Beverly Hills Buntz (1:01:30)

BOMB SQUAD: Not all movie trailers are created equal and in our new segment we select one a week that has the stink of impending failure on it (01:02:40) 

LATCH-KEY TV: 1988 World Cup Badminton, Fishin' Hole, Magnum P.I. and Tom Selleck's reverse mortgage commercials,  Hollywood Squares, JM J Bullock,  Benson, M.A.S.H., Matlock, Lonewolf McQuaid with David Carridine, LQ Jones, and Chuck Norris, Nightmare At Bitter Creek with Tom Skerrit, Joanna Cassidy (01:06:30)

END LINES (01:17:35)

EPISODE REFERENCES & LINKS:

Check out Tanarive Due and her Black Horror Aesthetic class here.

Email Full Cast & Crew at [email protected]

More on Clive Barker here.

Director Bernard Rose's IMDB page.

Subscribe to the podcast here.

Follow Tony Todd here.

The insane trailer of 'Candyman' director Bernard Rose's violinist epic 'The Devil's Violinist' that Chris criminally cut from the episode is here.

Tom Selleck's Reverse Mortgage Commercial here.

 FCAC episodes referenced:  Lee Wilkof, Silence Of The Lambs, 

Alan J. Pakula's 1976 masterpiece 'All The President's Men' brilliantly tracks The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein on the hunt of the story of the Watergate break-in and it's serpentine connections to Nixon's White House.  Featuring still-vital filmmaking and cinematography, use of split diopter lenses and incredible dolly shots as well as iconic performances from Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Robards, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, and Jane Alexander. 

We wrote super-detailed podcast notes but when we went to save them, they disappeared..COINCIDENCE? WE THINK NOT. 

Read Jon Boorstin's excellent memories of making All The President's Men here. 

Follow the pod on social @fullcastandcrew

Email the pod:  [email protected]

Leave us a VM:  855-755-5322

We started out planning to do Brian De Palma's 'The Fury' starring Kirk Douglas and Amy Irving, but...in the end...it was just not weird and Brian De Palma enough for us so we switched to 'Phantom Of The Paradise' and got everything we asked for and more.

Chris sells his soul for podcasting (00:00), Brian De Palma's The Fury trailer (2:30), Amy Irving and Andrew Stevens in 'The Fury' (4:30), 'Phantom Of The Paradise' trailer (6:00), Phil Spector and James Bond (14:30), Led Zeppelin (15:30), 'Inserts' movie starring Richard Dreyfus and 'Phantom' star Jessica Harper and Bob Hoskins (17:30), AC/DC's 'It's A Long Way To The Top If You Wanna Rock 'n Roll' (21:00), Sing Sing Prison Dental Health Research Program (23:00), De Palma's 'Snake Eyes' and Nic Cage and Gary Sinise (29:30), 'The Bonfire Of The Vanities' and the great book that resulted: 'The Devil's Candy' with Tom Hanks, Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis, and Tom Wolfe and an anatomy of a filmic disaster (30:30), 'The Mission To Mars' with Gary Sinise & 'Mars' with Val Kilmer (33:00), 'Love Boat' theme by Paul Williams, it floats back to you! (39:00), Paul Williams and his unique fame and talent and how great his 'Still Alive' documentary is (39:30), Paul Williams as Swan in 'Phantom Of The Paradise' (42:30), 'Rainbow Connection' as representative Paul Williams song, filled with hope, sadness, and a little loneliness (44:30), 'Hello Larry' tv series theme song (47:00), George Memmolli and his roles in Martin Scorcese's 'Mean Streets' and 'Hello Larry' and 'Phantom Of The Paradise' (48:00), Gerrit Graham from the great Kurt Russel and Jack Warden vehicle 'Used Cars' and his counter-culture credits including writing songs with Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead and his role as "Beef" in 'Phantom Of The Paradise" (49:00), CALL US TOLL FREE 855-755-5322 and leave us a message (51:30), Lee Wilkof, National Lampoon's 'Disco Beaver From Outer Space' and this movie's Lee Ebling (52:00), 'Old Souls' musical number written by Paul Williams performed by Jessica Harper (53:30), Paul Schrader's 'Blue Collar' stars Richard Pryor and this movie's George Memmoli (55:00), The Record Plant recording studio's cameo in 'Phantom' (56:00), Sha Na Na was reportedly 'too difficult to work with' to be in this movie (57:00), Alternative Casting: Sissy Spacek (1:00:00) Headlines and/or Rants N Raves, Francis Ford Coppola recuts The Cotton Club. starring Richard Gere, Diane Lane, Gregory Hines, Nic Cage, James Remar (1:03:00), 'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood' listener reactions and retractions regarding Manson Family, Squeaky Fromme, and violence pertaining to cult member individuality (1:05:00), Chris' Last Line (1:07:45)

"Hyper-specific, pointedly particular, rarified to the point of being incomprehensible"...these words from co-host Chris define our dear friend and two-time guest Paul Kaup's love of a very narrow band of films. For years, co-host Jason has tried to get Paul to explain exactly what they are and aren't. They're not movies you would go to the movies to see, they're not movies you'd even rent back in the Blockbuster days.  They're movies that don't require much mental effort at the end of a long day.  But they're also not unintentionally funny or so bad they're good.  They're so very nearly "good" yet still a little short of the goal.  Our guest Paul Kaup has chosen 'Time Trap' as representative of this genre, and we have a lot of fun with this science-fiction thriller time-travel flick.

podcast notes:  Chris' intro (00:00), Paul's movies (2:00), Paul explains his genre definition (3:30), Andrew Wilson and the type of actors that do and don't appear in these movies (13:00), Taylor Lautner (14:00), Time Trap trailer (15:30), time travel, lasers, and space travel (19:00), 'Annihilation', Natalie Portman and Alex Garland (21:00), tankinis, jean shorts, and no helmets: in other words: CAVING RESCUE MISSION! (21:30), Furby & Veeves (22:00), the plot of Time Trap explained (26:00), Paul goes down a time-travel rabbit hole and might still be there.  (44:00), Robo-Obama makes an appearance (46:30), the incredible Terrance Howard red carpet interview which ironically is about time travel, platonic solids, wave conjugations, and the things that hold us all together (58:00), Latch-Key TV (1:04:00), Audio Unboxing of SuperListener Sarah's gift to the hosts during which Jason sheds real blood as proof of his dedication to podcasting (01:04:30), Funco Pop Hannibal Lecter doll (1:09:00), SuperListener Daryl forgets to credit the pod (1:09:30), One False Move with Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, Carl Franklin, Cynda Williams (01:10:30), Last Lines (01:14:30)

A prettily-wrapped early Christmas present for movie fans, Quentin Tarantino's epic yet human-scale 'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood' both rewards and upends your expectations from "a Quentin Tarantino movie".

Chris' signature intro (00:00), NO SPOILERS in this episode & Chris' favorite Tarantino movies (2:00), Jason loves 'Jackie Brown' (4:00), broad plot strokes of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood & Jay Sebring, Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate, and Charles Manson (5:00), Paul Thomas Anderson on Leo DiCaprio (7:00), Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth inspired by famous stunt-man/actor pairings (7:30), Once Upon A Time In Hollywood trailer (8:45), Neil Diamond's Hot August Night (10:15), Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Margaret Qualley, Luke Perry, Bruce Dern, Mike Moh as Bruce Lee, Damian Lewis as Steve McQueen (12:00), Bruce Lee and other controversies after the film's release (13:30), Pitt's Cliff Booth character (15:00), Tarantino's interests in telling this Hollywood story (16:30), Spahn Ranch scene with Manson family (18:00), Lena Dunham's performance in the movie (22:00), the only clip released from the movie (23:30), DiCaprio's incredible scene with his 8-year-old co-star (27:00), Leonardo DiCaprio soundbite about playing Rick Dalton (29:00), Al Pacino as Schwarz (30:00), Tarantino's childhood memories of growing up in LA (32:00), Burt Reynolds was supposed to play George Spahn but died during filming (36:00), Brad Pitt soundbite about playing Cliff Booth (39:30), Luke Perry's final movie (43:00), Danny Bonaduce and David Cassidy anecdote (44:00), Nicholas Hammond (the first live-action Spider-Man) is brilliant as the Sam Wannamaker Director character in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood & clip (44:30), Leo's Oscar-worthy scene acting opposite him self in a mirror (46:00), Two Different Guys On A Bench promo and Chuckler.com (47:00), Brad Pitt's history in Academy Award noms and his plan to abstain from campaigning for an Oscar (47:30), Brad Pitt is a MOVIE STAR (50:00), Tarantino surprising Box Office Grosses (56:30), filming the Spahn ranch scene, destined to be a filmic classic (58:00), Rants N Raves, Jason takes Chris on for doing a lame FB "seven books in seven days" chain letter and the lamer cul de sac of social media (59:30), Pulp Fiction heart needle scene (01:04:00), Mickey Rourke disses Robert Deniro over 'The Irishman' snub (01:05:00), the infamous Mickey Rourke in Iron Man 2 as "Whiplash" anecdote (01:07:00), When Was The Last Time Deniro Was Really Good (01:09:05), clip from "About Endlessness", directed by Roy Andersson, Chris' personal favorite (01:13:00) Latch-Key TV (01:14:00): Beau Brummell, Brian De Palma movies, Ted Wass, Phantom Of The Paradise, Body Double, Craig Wasson, Blow Out, Sally Field, Places In The Heart, Warrior Of The Lost World, Donald Pleasance, Chris' Mystery Final Line Scene (01:18:50)...(email us if you know where this is from at [email protected].

Play the fantastic Once Upon A Time In Hollywood trailer

Watch a spoiler-free clip from Once Upon A Time In Hollywood here

Chris' signature thematic intro (00:00), the intricate plot of Hal Needham's Smokey and the Bandit (04:30), Coors Beer in the New York Times (06:00), Sally Field's memoir is fantastic (10:00), Bandit & The Bride meet cute scene (12:30), Sally & Burt's relationship (14:00), Burt & Dom DeLuise on The Match Game (17:30), CB Culture in pop culture (18:00), Jonathan Demme, Paul LeMat and Bruce McGill in 'Citizen's Band' (18:00), 'Convoy' by CW McCall & Mike Douglas Show music video commentary (18:45), Chip Davis is behind both 'Convoy' and Mannheim Steamroller (19:00), critical reception of Smokey and the Bandit (23:00), Sally Field's career (26:30), Out Of Jack's Mind from Jack Plotnick, Space Station 76, Grace And Frankie, Z Nation (27:00), Jackie Gleason's pullover scene in the movie (29:00), Smokey and the Bandit sequels, Jerry Reed, and Jackie Gleason playing multiple roles (32:00), Jackie Gleason's horrible 'Gaylord' character and Mountie characters in II (33:00), Mike Henry was 'Tarzan' (35:00), 'Eastbound & Down' song by Jerry Reed (36:30), Chris' D&D friends call him out (38:00), good Burt & Sally scenes (39:00), When The Bride Met Junior scene (43:00), let's dissect the plot mechanism literally (44:30), 1977 cultural happening (52:30), Smokey II plot involving transporting an elephant to the DNC (for real) (55:00), Cannonball Run (1:03:00), Burt Reynold's iconic laugh and Eddie Murphy's laugh (01:04:00), Alternative Casting (01:06:00), Headlines w/ Princess Bride, Hogan's Heroes remakes, Ivan Watson's 'The Spook Who Sat By The Door' (01:07:00), Last Lines Outro (1:10:00)

Smokey and the Bandit wiki

Other FCAC episodes referenced in this episode:

Close Encounters: available here

Saturday Night Fever: available here

Lee Wilkof, An Actor's Life: available here

Subscribe to the podcast here

Email the pod @ [email protected]

Steven Spielberg's 1977 masterpiece "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" stands out as a deeply weird major-studio picture and, for many movie fans and directors like J.J. Abrams and Denis Villenueve, their favorite Spielberg movie of them all.

Podcast Notes: Chris intro (00:01), putting Close Encounters Of The Third Kind in movie context (2:15), Being a Star Wars kid vs. a Star Wars kid (3:00), Aliens (4:00), Spielberg appreciation (4:15), the cute red dot of light UFO is so Spielberg (5:00), the great and naturalistic Air Traffic Control scene (7:20), Teri Garr and Dreyfuss 'Don't you think I'm taking this really well?' scene (12:45), Spielberg origin story of Close Encounters (15:00), the amazing Indian village singing scene w/ Bob Balaban and Francois Truffaut (21:00), J. Alan Hinnick, UFOlogist and his influence on Spielberg's approach to the movie and contribution of the title (24:00), Dreyfuss as Neary and Spielberg stand-in (26:00), Truffaut, Balaban and Dreyfuss in the interrogation scene (27:00),  Teri Garr is a colossally brilliant comic genius actor (23:30), Teri Garr's MJB Coffee commercial that got her the part in Close Encounters (34:00), Cary Guffey (Barry Guiler) turned in one of the greatest child performances in film history in his role as the kid in Close Encounters (36:00) Casting Cary Guffey stories by Melinda Dillon and Steven Spielberg (38:00), kids weird sleeping positions (42:00), Duck Dogers cartoon (42:30), casting Francois Truffaut stories from Steven Spielberg and Richard Dreyfus (45:00), Finding the landing zone set in Alabama on a disused military base and shooting on the largest set in film history (48:00), Melinda Dillon motel room set & Truffaut's reaction story (48:30), John Williams and his iconic score for the film (49:45), Matt The Engineer (51:00), John Williams and Steven Spielberg talk about finding the five tones for the Close Encounters Of The Third Kind theme music (52:00), Jason gets model-maker Dennis Muren's name wrong, sorry, Dennis! (55:00), remembering the glass-shattering scene from the Mother Ship landing sequence (57:00), the hidden R2D2 on the mothership (1:00:00), the Close Encounters Theme Disco Version (1:03:00), Alternative Casting stories (1:04:00), Steve McQueen crying casting story from Steven Spielberg (1:05:00), the insane and incredible living room grief scene from Michael Hanecke's 'Funny Games' (1:08:00), Latch Key TV (01:09:40), The Littlest Hobo theme song (1:11:45), Columbo Cinematic Universe appearance of Dukes of Hazard star Sorrel Booke in the Johnny Cash episode (1:15:30), George C Scott as Mussolini (1:18:00), Kate & Allie was a good show (1:19:30), Final Line Outro (1:21:20)

In this rollicking and laugh-filled episode, Jason and Chris have an unreasonable amount of fun talking about 'Highlander', one of the strangest movies of the 1980's and one of the least likely franchise-spawning movies ever, still going strong 30 years later with innumerable sequels, prequels and spinoffs.  

Middle-aged, simple-minded Chance lives in the townhouse of a wealthy old man in Washington, D.C.. He has spent his whole life tending the garden and has never left the property. Other than gardening, his knowledge is derived entirely from what he sees on television. When his benefactor dies, Chance naively tells the lawyers that he has no claim against the estate and is ordered to move out.

Chance wanders aimlessly, discovering the outside world for the first time. Passing by a TV shop, he sees himself captured by a camera in the shop window. Entranced, he steps backward off the sidewalk and is struck by a chauffeured car owned by elderly business mogul Ben Rand. In the car is Rand's much younger wife Eve, who mishears "Chance, the gardener" in reply to the question who he is, as "Chauncey Gardiner."

Eve brings Chance to their home to recover. He is wearing expensive tailored clothes from the 1920s and 1930s, which his benefactor had allowed him to take from the attic, and his manners are old-fashioned and courtly. When Ben Rand meets him, he takes "Chauncey" for an upper-class, highly-educated businessman who has fallen on hard times. Rand admires him, finding him direct, wise and insightful.

Rand is also a confidant and advisor to the President of the United States, whom he introduces to "Chauncey." In a discussion about the economy, Chance takes his cue from the words "stimulate growth" and talks about the changing seasons of the garden. The President misinterprets this as optimistic political advice and quotes “Chauncey Gardiner” in a speech. Chance now rises to national prominence, attends important dinners, develops a close connection with the Soviet ambassador, and appears on a television talk show during which his detailed advice about what a serious gardener should do is misunderstood as his opinion on what would be his presidential policy.

Though he has now risen to the top of Washington society, the Secret Service and some 16 other agencies are unable to find any background information on him. During this time Rand's physician, Dr. Allenby, becomes increasingly suspicious that Chance is not a wise political expert and that the mystery of his identity may have a more mundane explanation. Dr. Allenby considers telling Rand this, but realizing how happy Chance is making him in his final days keeps him silent.

The dying Rand encourages Eve to become close to "Chauncey." She is already attracted to him and makes a sexual advance. Chance has no interest in or knowledge of sex, but mimics a kissing scene from the 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair, which happens to be showing on the TV. When the scene ends, Chauncey stops suddenly and Eve is confused. She asks what he likes, meaning sexually; he replies "I like to watch," meaning television. She is momentarily taken aback, but decides she is willing to masturbate for his voyeuristic pleasure, thereby not noticing that he has turned back to the TV and is now imitating a yoga exercise on a different channel.

Chance is present at Rand's death and shows genuine sadness at his passing. Questioned by Dr Allenby, he admits that he "loves Eve very much" and also that he is just a gardener. When he leaves to inform Eve of Ben's death, Allenby says to himself, "I understand," but interpretation of that is left to the viewer.

While the President delivers a speech at Rand's funeral, the pallbearers hold a whispered discussion over potential replacements for the President in the next term of office and unanimously agree on Chauncey Gardiner as successor. Oblivious to all this, Chance wanders off through Rand's wintry estate. He straightens out a pine sapling flattened by a fallen branch, then walks across the surface of a lake. He pauses, dips his umbrella deep into the water under his feet (confirming for the viewer that it is not just a skim of water on the ground), then continues on, while the President is heard quoting Rand: "Life is a state of mind."

Chris and Jason are joined by inflatable co-pilot Young Nick Blake, who shares his love for 1980's iconic, seminal Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker movie 'Airplane'.  The intrepid trio covers:

Chris' inventive comedic introduction to the episode (00:01)

The number of jokes in the entirety of "Airplane" (9:00)

Airplane origin story (10:00)

Bizarro scenes from 'Zero Hour', the film the ZAZ guys based Airplane on/ripped off.  (15:00)

Clip of the ZAZ guys on Letterman (21:00)

Ethel Merman clip from 'Airplane' (22:30)

Nick Blake/Jason fight over cigarette smoking scene in Airplane (24:30)

Julie Hagerty comedic genius scene in Albert Brooks' "Lost In America" with Garry Marshall and Brooks (26:30)

Donna Pescow/Peter Johansen shout-out (30:00)

Robert Hayes being Just Good Enough in the role (31:00)

Jeff/Beau Bridges: Which Is The More Talented Bridgeses?  (33:00)

How awesome is the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE TV THEME! (35:40)

Great films with exclamation points in their titles (43:30)

The joy of paperback photo sections in 1970's books (47:00)

Johnny (Stephen Stucker) Comp Reel (51:00)

Jim Nabors anecdote (55:00)

ALTERNATIVE CASTING (56:00)

David Letterman's Screen Test for 'Airplane' clip (57:45)

Barry Manilow, Dom DeLuise, Christopher Lee, Fred Willard (59:00)

Yuban Coffee Commercial (01:03:00)

LATCH KEY TV (01:04:00)

He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe, Skeletor, Transformers, Ghostbusters Cartoon, Lorenzo Music, Garfield, The Real Ghostbusters.

Comic-Con, Flaming Carrot, PBS, NOVA

Airport '77 (01:15:00) 

'Airplane!' Wiki Page

'Airplane!' IMDB Page

Watch 'Airplane!' on iTunes

Subscribe to the podcast

Learn about Chris' beloved comic book Flaming Carrot

Norman Jewison's film of John Patrick Shanley's FIRST EVER screenplay was a little movie that nobody, even the studio and the actors and filmmakers, ever thought would enter the culture like a couple of well-delivered slaps to that face, that FACE! 

In this episode, Chris and Jason jump into 'Moonstruck' like a big apizza pie:

Read Nic Cage's amazing NY Times INTV cited in the pod (2:00).

Cher is amazing (15:00)

Nic Cage's 'Beauty And The Beast' accent attempt. (19:00)

Moonstruck screenplay origin story (20:00)

The Bride & The Wolf kitchen scene b/t Nic Cage and Cher (21:00)

"Where's my wedding?" speech (22:00)

Anatomy of a deleted scene w/ Shanley & Jewison (24:00 Shanley speaks first).

Watch 'Moonstruck' on Amazon Prime or on iTunes with all the extras we watched for this episode.

Watch Cher's Academy Award Acceptance Speech for Best Actress presented by Paul Newman and Chevy Chase.

Watch Olympia Dukakis' Academy Award Acceptance Speech for Best Supporting Actress.

Watch John Patrick Shanley's Academy Award Acceptance Speech for Best Original Screenplay.

Read the Moonstruck Wiki Page.

Check out the Moonstruck IMDB Page.

Subscribe to the podcast.

In this special episode of the Full Cast And Crew Podcast, we interview Lee Wilkof, an actor and director whose career on stage and screen has spanned more than 42 years.  He graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1972 and has more than 101 IMDB credits as an (and counting) and has garnered Obie and Drama Desk Awards and a Tony nomination on Broadway. 

Lee is a charming and self-effacing guy who we were thrilled to nerd out with about his journey through Show Business and his great anecdotes about so many of the people he's worked with over the years.  One of our favorite episodes to date on the podcast and a special chance to go behind the scenes of 40 years of stage and screen history, filled with great advice for actors and human beings.

In this episode (as a thunderstorm briefly rages dramatically outside the FCAC studio) Lee shares with Chris and Jason stories about:

The origins of Lee's directorial debut/cautionary tale of the acting life 'No Pay, Nudity' (13:40), the vibe and characters hanging around the old Actor's Equity Lounge (14:40), meeting Nathan Lane as young actors in NYC in 1972 (16:50), a clip from 'No Pay, Nudity' featuring Nathan Lane and Jon Michael Hill ('Eastbound & Down', 'Elementary') (25:00), some George R.R. Martin stories (30:45), 'Silence Of The Lambs' co-star Ted Levine (34:15), Loudon Wainwright III playing a character loosely based on Stephen Sondheim (42:20), Joel Higgins and 'Silver Spoons' (47:25), inadvertently insulting James Lapine and 'Into The Woods' and then making up for it with a self-effacing letter (49:22), Jeff Perry as Mr. Katimski in 'My So-Called Life' and presence in the Columbo Cinematic Universe (55:20), National Lampoon's 'Disco Beaver From Outer Space' (57:25), Influential show 'The Present Tense' and Roger Ailes trying to manage a young Lee Wilkof, who got  as six-paragraph rave review, and Obie and a Drama Desk noms (59:16), Getting cast in the 'Animal House' tv spinoff 'Delta House' and being told to "town it down" (01:02:48), Dressing room 'Hart To Hart' chats with Natalie Wood and RJ Wagner while Stephanie Powers was not warming to Lee on-set (01:04:00), Lee's 'The Gong Show' appearance and getting gonged by JP Morgan while a struggling actor in LA and waiting for his big break and getting two pilot offers in one day (01:08:14), Bob Newhart reportedly not being thrilled with Lee as agent Elliot Gabler on 'Newhart' (01:14:08), working with Madeline Kahn (01:17:05), a 'Hunter' (Fred Dryer, Stepfanie Kramer) clip featuring Lee (01:18:23), Lee on the difference b/t guesting and being a regular on a TV series (01:21:57), working closely with Tim Blake Nelson ('O Brother Where Art Thou', 'The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs') (01:23:44), doing 'Ally McBeal' and a falling-out with David E. Kelley story (01:24:15), being a series regular on the iconic 'Max Headroom' ABC series (01:25:55), Steven Bochco's 'Cop Rock' and Lee convincing the director he didn't blow a take (01:28:45), doing 'Beverly Hills Buntz' (01:35:17), Lee tells us what he'd watch on tv in our 'Latch Key TV' segment (01:38:59), having Thanksgiving dinner with Gary Oldman and Dennis Hopper but not M. Emmett Walsh, sadly, on the set of Mick Jackson's 'Chattahoochee' (01:42:10), meeting Cary Grant in 1985 (01:45:00), Watching "Ghoulardi" as a kid growing up in Cleveland (01:49:20), On not being cast in the movie version of 'Little Shop Of Horrors' (01:51:00).

Connect with Lee online:

@leewilkof on Instagram

Check Out Lee's IMDB Page:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0929502/

Watch Lee's Directorial Debut 'No Pay, Nudity':

https://www.amazon.com/No-Pay-Nudity-Francis-Conroy/dp/B01MQU3H9M

The 'Hart To Hart' Stanley Friesen Comp Reel we play in this episode: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MecYgXiEfaY

Chuckler Comedy on Facebook.

Share this podcast with your Twitter followers using this Click To Tweet link: https://ctt.ac/0dtX3+

 Subscribe to the podcast.

This week on the Full Cast And Crew Podcast we cruise the rain-slicked early 90's NYC streets and track down Paul Schrader's (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, American Gigolo) 1992 film 'Light Sleeper'. Fittingly, we're releasing this one at 2:43am on a Thursday morning, with our ears still ringing from the sound system at Area and our noses numbed with bad decisions.

A Manhattan drug dealer with a wealthy clientele, John LeTour (Willem Dafoe) reevaluates both his trade and his life after discovering that his supplier, Ann (Susan Sarandon), is planning on quitting the business. When John runs into his old flame Marianne (Dana Delany), he sees reconnecting with her as a way to change for the better, but she is reluctant to rekindle the romance. Complicating John's life further is a series of drug-related murders that has the police pegging him as a suspect.

Schrader called 'Light Sleeper' the last of his "Man In A Room' movies, along with Taxi Driver and American Gigolo; movies about isolated, alienated men occupying their single-room apartments and going slowly crazy with the dawning awareness of the dissatisfaction and ennui they are feeling.  Despite that wrist-slitting description, 'Light Sleeper' features some pitch-perfect performances from Willem Dafoe, Sarandon, David Clennon, Victor Garber, Delaney, Mary Beth Hurt, Jane Adams, a young Sam Rockwell, and David Spade as "theological cokehead".  

'Light Sleeper' is like transporting yourself back to NYC in the late 80's and early 90's.  The restaurants, the coke, the bullshit clothes.  But all that is viewed, almost in real time, with an acerbic, probing eye that lets no one off the hook.  Featuring a soundtrack from The Call's Michael Been (1983's MTV-staple 'The Walls Came Down'), 'Light Sleeper' might not be a movie you're familiar with unless you came of age in the movie theaters of the 80's and 90's, but it's a perfect period piece and prescient about the downfalls and lies at the center of a life among "the beautiful people", with a sense of possible redemption at the end in the most unexpected of places.

More about Light Sleeper here. 

Paul Schrader's IMDB page here.

Light Sleeper Full Cast & Crew page here

Cinematographer Ed Lachman's IMDB page here

Full Cast And Crew Podcast page here.

Accompanied by their children (Dana Barron, Anthony Michael Hall), Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) and his wife, Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo), are driving from Illinois to a California amusement park. As Clark increasingly fixates on a beautiful woman driving a sports car, the Griswolds deal with car problems and the death of a family member...and a dog. They reach Los Angeles, but, when Clark worries that the trip is being derailed again, he acts impulsively to get his family to the park.  

Vacation's IMDB Page:  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085995/

Chevy Chase Wiki:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevy_Chase

Harold Ramis Wiki:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Ramis

Subscribe to Full Cast And Crew Podcast here.

The understated, minimalist 'Flash Gordon' showed admirable restraint in scenery, costuming, and acting.  JUST KIDDING, it's a completely over-the-top circus spectacle of indulgence and various aspects of a film crew working on movies with vastly different tones except they're all working on the same movie.  But FLASH means a lot to a lot of people, notably middle-aged white men who were 6 in 1980 and who embrace this movie tighter than they clutch their ticket to Autograph Alley at ComicCon to get a signed pic of  the guy who played '3rd Hawkman In Attack Scene' for $25.  So we try and plumb the depths, such as they are.  

Local Hero is a 1983 Scottish comedy-drama film written and directed by Bill Forsyth and starring Peter Riegert, Denis Lawson, Fulton Mackay and Burt Lancaster. Up-and-coming Houston oil executive "Mac" MacIntyre (Peter Riegert) gets more than he bargained for when a seemingly simple business trip to Scotland changes his outlook on life. Sent by his colorful boss (Burt Lancaster) to the small village of Ferness, Mac is looking to quickly buy out the townspeople so his company can build a new refinery. But after a taste of country life Mac begins to question whether he is on the right side of this transaction.

We turned 40!  OK, 40 episodes but still, from the comfortable vantage point of wisdom and jaded experience, we look back on Bob Fosse's groundbreaking autobiographical takedown of the myths of himself, 1979's 'All That Jazz'.  Featuring the innovative "Fosse Time" editing, more iconic imagery (or "pretty pictures" as Fosse would call snapshots of his choreography) than you can shake a bowler hat at, and and unforgettable, iconic performance from Roy Scheider in yet ANOTHER role he lucked into (See our Jaws episode for the other).  ALSO: Rants n Raves, Headlines, and Latch Key TV for your listening pleasure.

More cigarettes were consumed during the filming of Barbet Schroeder's 'Reversal Of Fortune' than during the filming of George Clooney's 'Goodnight And Good Luck'.  And that's saying something! Also: WOW that Felicity Huffman cameo hasn't aged well, has it?  Oh the irony.  Ron Silver acts the hell out of a pair of  eyeglasses, and Glenn Close is unreasonably good in a movie that's often as odd as its subject matter.  Ginger Prawns for everyone.  We still can't figure out who Bill Camp is in this movie; making Uta Hagen play the Maid role; and Fisher Stevens in the Ur-Fisher Stevens role, Julie Hagerty steps out of the Airplane! Cinematic Universe and MUCH MORE!  

Public Enemy's churning, propulsive 'Fight The Power" was like a Batman logo swirling in the air across America in 1989 as Spike Lee's 3rd feature 'Do The Right Thing' hit theaters to the kind of fearful white fright and tut tutting from "thinkers" and reviewers too hidebound in their own bubble to receive this transmission from a filmmaker perfectly formed to speak in his films in a way no mainstream writer and director had to date.  Hugely popular, controversial, conversation-starting 'Do The Right Thing' is a landmark American movie.  But it's also hilariously funny, remarkably even-handed and without conclusive answers in a way that still feels incredibly brave and realistic.  Pitched in a heightened color-scape and with indelible performances from a fantastic cast, 'Do The Right Thing' more than holds up today; it reminds us just how far we haven't come as a Nation in subsequent years.

1987's 'Robocop' is a brilliantly dark and funny social satire about a far-off time when powerful corporations have undue influence over society and overly-militarized police forces terrorize innocent civilians.  GOOD THING THAT NEVER HAPPENED!  We dive into Paul Verhoeven before Joe Ezsterhas got his hooks in him and 'Showgirls' became synonymous with 'career-ending bomb', and not in a good way. 

2004's 'Mean Girls' was a 'Heathers' for a new generation and was directed by the brother of the guy who wrote 'Heathers' which is so weird, right?  Featuring a star performance by LiLo, SNL alum Tim Meadows' best film work, and Tina Fey's brilliant script, 'Mean Girls' redefined the High School Movie and we give it its due with return Friend Of The Pod Alex Potter, who comes back for her 2nd LiLo film (catch her on our The Parent Trap episode) and also gives us her Latch Key TV takes and much more.  

Jonathan Demme's 1991 'Silence Of The Lambs' is one of only three films to ever win "The Big Five" Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay.  It was an unconventional film in so many interesting and unique ways: female protagonist navigating two violently dangerous serial killers but also the male-populated world that looks down on and is dismissive of her even as it dangles her as bait.  Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter is iconic, maybe the most beloved film villain of all time.  Ted Levin's performance as Buffalo Bill was criminally overlooked for a Best Supporting Actor nod in one of the most egregious snubs in Oscar history. On the pod this week, we're joined by Friend Of The Pod Amanda Charlton, who was present for the filming of some of the jail scenes between Hopkins and Jodi Foster and tells us some fascinating anecdotes about the vibe on the set and some unexpected realities of filming movies that the average person might not know. 

Jack Finney's 1955 science-fiction novel 'The Body Snatchers' is maybe the only underlying intellectual property (aside from, like, the Bible or Shakespeare) to inspire FOUR feature film versions across 6 decades.  So we start at the beginning with the fantastic Don Siegel (Escape From Alcatraz, Dirty Harry, Charlie Varrick) directed 1956 version, morph into uncanny likenesses of ourselves as we go deep 70's with Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy, Brooke Adams, and Jeff Goldblum, with appreciative asides for Abel Ferarra's 1990's version starring Gabrielle Anwar and less appreciative asides for a 2000's debacle starring Nicole Kidman and Jeremy Northam.  ALSO: the least-believable nosebleed in movie history, the great Meg Tilly, and we're joined by Friend Of The Pod Paul Kaup to hear his amazing story of a diffident childhood cat and to dive into Tati v. James Charles, speaking of pod people. And In Defense Of Keanu might have to become a thing, b/c Paul and Jason are suitably moved by Keanu's excellent answer on Colbert while Chris remains stone-hearted.

It's been called "a perfect movie. I can't think of literally one thing that could be changed or improved".  OK, our guest Frank DeRuggiero said that, but he has only one tattoo and its a Jaws tattoo so he knows from whence he speaks.  Not only do we get into all the great moments from THE iconic scare-movie of all time, but we also discuss the waterlogged giant paperback of Jaws every family on vacation in the 70's had, we play the ENTIRETY of Quint's USS Indianapolis  because you simply have to, we take a visit to the Columbo Cinematic Universe, do latch-key TV picks from the 80's AND MORE on the fascinatingly complicated, over-schedule and over-budget Martha's Vineyard location shoot of Jaws.  You're gonna need a bigger set of headphones for this one.

Well now we got bad blood, cause CHRIS, see...he's one of those people who LOVES 'Ishtar' and thinks it's a misunderstood classic of epic comedic proportions, and Jason is one of those rational, thinking humans who understands intuitively (ok after watching only 45 minutes of it) that it's a colossal failure.  Also, Chris quotes Hamlet in defense of the also-maligned 1970's failed musical '1776' on the occasion of its cynical rising-from-the-dead in forthcoming new production, we debut our awesome new Columbo Cinematic Universe sound effect, rave about how Slackers are back, and hear all about how Chris was able to attend a once-in-a-lifetime screening and discussion of 'Apocalypse Now: The I-Can't-Stop-Messing-With-This-Film-Edition' with Steven Soderbergh and Francis Ford Coppola while Jason went to a penguins movie with his daughter.  ALSO: The return of '1776: The Musical', the childhood tv magic of '3-2-1 Contact' and more.

When a movie pitch contains the words "Based on the popular board game" you KNOW you're either in for a debacle of 'Battleship' (sorry, Peter Berg) proportions OR for the brilliantly subversive 1985 film that has become a cult classic and features the brilliant comedy performances of Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Martin Mull, Christopher Lloyd, Eileen Brennan, Michael McKean, and Lesley Ann Warren.  The Brits called it 'Cluedo' just because they gotta be Brits.  ALSO: Rants N Raves, This Week In 1980's TV Guide, Headlines and how Marcus Welby, M.D. is like floating away on a sweet cloud of nitrous oxide in the dentists chair.

'Grease' is the word, it's got groove it's got feeling, and so does this in-depth podcast about the 40-years-and-counting worldwide phenomenon.  Why does this weird movie (and it's deeply weird) stand the test of time?  Easy: TRAVOLTA, SONGS, and KITSCH.  And so many other reasons. So yes; we'll get into Sandy and Danny and the gang and the great performances from Didi Conn, Stockard Channing, and others, but we'll ALSO dive into the fascinating origin story of Grease as a counter-culture artifact springing out of Chicago's experimental theater scene.  And we'll play all the iconic songs and comment upon them in a manner designed to make a fair-use argument for playing them.

James L. Brooks' feature directorial debut 'Terms Of Endearment' has been soiling hankies for 36 years.  ELEVEN Academy Award nominations.  Stellar performances from Jack Nicholson, Shirley MacClain, Debra Winger, and John Lithgow.  We also get into the haunting brilliance of the theme to Brooks' tv masterpiece 'Taxi', his surprising involvement in some of the most distinctive American film comedies of the 20th Century, and the rumored feud between the leading ladies of Terms.  Also, our new segment This Week In TV Guide revisits some head-scratching log lines from 1980's after-school tv lineup. Plus Chris raves from his Ivory Tower about the charming artists enclave of Westport, CT, Headlines, the theme song from "In Search Of", how we're not waiting for Ted Jessup to record our "Mask" episode...and MORE.

We revisit the brilliant, still-vital "Heathers", THE definitive American High School movie, whose biting satire only barely covers the sensitive, beating, romantic heart that lies within.  Featuring star-making performances from Christian Slater and a 16-year-old Winona Ryder, "Heathers" is a dark, pulls-no-punches social satire that aims arrows in every direction, including at the misguided teenage hearts and minds populating the hallways and leafy subdivisions of Sherwood, Ohio's Westerberg High School.  We dive down the FCAC rabbit hole's of Slater, Ryder, we discuss the sad and tragic deaths of a couple of key cast members.  ALSO: Syd Straw, Sly Stone, Rants n Raves, Headlines, and the debut of THIS WEEK IN TV GUIDE, our dynamic not-at-all fusty segment where we read unintentionally hilarious tv guide show descriptions from the 1980's, in which we hit Via Allegre, a horror anthology about cats, Gilligan's Island, and the mystery of the Garfield Phones.

Keanu. Swayze.  Busey. Bodhi. Utah. Two.  There's simplistic poetry in Katharine Bigelow's 'Point Break' that, sure, you could miss if you were some kind of cinephile or something. But that would be to willfully deprive yourself of the many joys, expected and otherwise, of this fantastic, genre-busting actioner.  Swayze is simply iconic. It's a movie about chemistry, and we don't just mean the surf-wax and ocean-pollutant chemistry analysis going on in the LAPD Bank Robbery offices.  We also talk about our own experiences working with Gary Busey and his cheeseburger requirements prior to shoot days, shout out the great James LeGros, Swayze's rumoured appearance in Toto's classic early-MTV music video for "Rosanna", Headlines, Rants N Raves and MORE! 

Terry Gilliam's 1986 masterpiece 'Brazil' has been called an Orwellian retro-futurist fantasy; a Political cartoon writ large; a Science-fiction masterpiece; not at all Science-fiction more like a documentary; a treatise on the unthinking rigidity of middle-management bureaucracy; a selfish landmark and memento of a life gone terribly wrong; a viking musical;  about the impossibility of escaping reality; like lifting the top off Terry Gilliam's skull and looking inside; and like Franz Kafka meets Walter Mitty.  SO with all those excellent takes already taken, Chris and Jason discuss the movie's wardrobe department. (JUST KIDDING!)

It's a #tbt of sorts here at FCAC as we release our episode  on Spike Lee's (now) Oscar-winning feature, BLACKKKLANSMAN, which we recorded a few weeks ago. We discuss Spike, his career, the real Ron Stallworth, yacht rock, a couple movies we seem to have trouble remembering names of, and how this is an antidote for GREEN BOOK. Plus our reactions to the Oscar Noms, as well as Rants and Raves. Why are you reading this when you could be listening and finding out for yourself?

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This week Jason and Chris are joined by guest co-host Gordon Ramsey (not the one you're thinking of ...) to discuss John Boorman's 1974 overstuffed, peerlessly ambitious, and deeply considered passion project, Zardoz! We address the question that has dogged viewers of the film as well as anyone who casually came across a still of Sean Connery's costume: What the hell is this about? Nihilism, generational strife, class warfare, testosterone, as well as Eros and Thanatos. All that plus Rants and Raves and Entertainment News Headlines!!

Oh What A Tangled Web Of 'Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse' Hot Takes We Weave!   Is it the greatest Spider-Man movie ever? Is it the greatest animated superhero movie ever?  Is it the greatest Marvel movie ever?? Look Out/Here Come The Hot Takes! Charles Mingus, Ralph Bakshi, all sorts of unexpected connections spring forth, which, if you know anything about us, is kind of our raisin detra, which is totally how you spell that.

Wendell B. Harris, Jr won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival with his debut independent feature "Chameleon Street", a fictional retelling of the incredible life of professional imposter William Douglas Street, a man who pretended to be lawyers, reporters, students and doctors, even performing 36 successful hysterectomies.   "Chameleon Street" announced the arrival of a fully-formed cinematic auteur who had carved out a highly-specific mix of humor, drama, politics, and race relations and was seemingly presented with all the runway to fulfill the promise repped in his entirely self-funded, truly independent first feature.  Instead, he never directed another film.  

2019's Oscars played like a sequel to the 2017 Oscars ... but without the happy ending. Jason and Chris break down (sorta) the ceremony; the set, the winners, the losers, the songs, the snubs, and the question of why we're even talking about this stuff. Come for the praise of Billy Porter's tux-gown, stay for Olivia Coleman's speech!

LETTTTTT THE RIVER RUNNNNNNN.....Teased hair, eye-shadow that matches your earrings, a 10 o'clock with Slater and lunch with Mr. Trask at 1 downtown.  It's WORKING GIRL and it's got fantastic casting, superlative directing from Mike Nichols and, at the center, a singular performance from Melanie Griffith and another scene-stealing romp from Joan Cusack alongside excellent work from Alec Baldwin, Sigourney Weaver, Phillip Bosco and Amy Aquino.  ALSO: F*ck Jerry!  Pet Semetary rises from the dirt of remembrance and the graveyard of Stephen King adaptations, Chris dares to speak ill of "My Bodyguard", Rants n Raves, Headlines and more!

Sometimes a film captures the public imagination because it expresses a universal truth in an of-the-moment way. Sometimes it’s because its great artistry reframes a thing we thought we knew. And sometimes it’s because it's pre-chewed, spiceless mush that spackles over the heart-spaced hole where consciousness used to sit before a militantly vapid consumerist culture eradicated humanity’s desire – even ability – to truly feel. Which one is 2004’s The Notebook? Listen to this very special, Valentine’s Day episode of FULL CAST AND CREW to find out!

This week the FULL CAST AND CREW crew saddles up for THE LAST UNICORN, a 1982 animated feature which, depending on your age, either scared the crap out of you or you have yet to experience.  'The Last Unicorn' is a grandly bizarre spectacle mashing up incredible Japanese hand-drawn animation, voices from Mia Farrow, Alan Arkin, Brother Theodore, and Jeff Bridges, and surprisingly sophisticated takes on belonging and otherness.  We talk about writing for children, animating for everyone, LOTS of music, a voice cast of unparalleled talent, including Jason’s personal favorite, Brother Theodore … who Chris had never heard of (SHOCKER). PLUS:  We are refuseniks with no celebrity friends, the movies of Jean-Pierre Melville, the Fyre Fest docs, and Matt the Engineer makes a restaurant recommendation. From the 1980's. I can't believe I ate the whole thing!

Across an arctic tundra, a lone sled dog runs, pursued by 2 men in a helicopter. One of them brandishes a rifle and begins shooting.  Workers at a remote arctic research station watch as the helicopter crashes and explodes.  They befriend the dog, welcoming him..and something else... into their kennel.  Thus begins John Carpenter's classic icy masterpiece 'The Thing'.  Featuring spot-on casting, spooky, wind-rattled interiors, dark humor, KURT RUSSELL, and a unique shape-shifting "Thing"...it seems insane now that this film almost ruined Carpenter's career upon release and damaged his relationship with the horror audience and the film community for years...all because of a movie he didn't really want to do in the first place.

'Green Book' tells white people that it's all good! Racism, man!  Good thing that's over, amirite?  From a shaky, ill-conceived premise comes a shaky, ill-conceived White Savior movie directed, of course, by "Dumb & Dumber" director Peter Farrelly.  That said, Vigo and Mahershala do very good jobs with limited material.  The movie itself is a by-the-numbers Odd Couple/Road Trip/Buddy Comedy with few surprises. But the clamor AROUND the movie is far more interesting and touches upon timely and topical themes like "who gets to tell what stories?" and "should you be faithful to a person's life and truth when making a movie at least in part about that person" and "Should we call this 'Green Book' even when it's about a white guy?".  We also delve into the REAL Donald Shirley, play some of his music and listen to him talk about racism in America. ALSO HEADLINES (with our snappy theme-song):  'Green Book' Director Peter Farrelly and something else he pulled out of his lower region.  Nick Vallelonga regrets his regrettable tweets. Jason suffers a real-time podcasting injury while making a joke about another man's physical challenges.  Robot-on-robot crime and RANTS N RAVE, or at least Chris on the Go-Go's musical and a whole revealing section about Matt The Engineer.

We start with Chris' uber-millennial French Press Coffee injury, which you have to hear to believe.  Moving on to viewer comments, Jason is taken to the Woodshed for his previous-episode attempt to tamp down Chris' soliloquy on some obscure comic-book run of issues where blah blah blah....anyway, lesson learned.  Moving onto Bird Box, we remove our critical blindfolds and dive into the where's and why's of the evil force which whatever you do you must not gaze upon but you CAN be safe from in a supermarket.  Matt The Engineer also dives into the world of psycho-acoustics and celery as broken bones.  LiLo's beach club stands in stark contrast to her genius in Parent Trap.  Lin-Manuel buys the Drama Book Shop, but that doesn't excuse his turn in the otherwise fantastic Mary Poppins Returns.  

Christian Bale gained 50 pounds to play Dick Cheney in Adam McKay's 'Vice' so he MUST be good in it, right? AND he won a Golden Globe, and they don't just hand those out like House Select Committee Assignments, after all.  So we get ourselves elected to figure out what's going on in this movie.  Also: Withnail & I rears it's brilliant head again as Chris admits he didn't see 'American Psycho' and thus doesn't really understand when Jason makes any Huey Lewis & The News 'Sports' references.  Plus: Headlines!  And: RIP 'That Guy' Donald Moffat, whose passing garners two classic clips from 'The Right Stuff' and 'The Thing'.

Who cares about the Golden Globes? Someone, I am sure. In this BONUS episode Jason and Chris react to this Oscar Night Dress Rehearsal, from the hosts, to the winners, to award shows in general.

Did we like it? Did we hate it? Did we even WATCH?! Listen to this BONUS episode and find out! (Spoiler: the answer to all three is, "a little ...")

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Chris got new glasses.  If Harold Ross could be seen wearing eyeglasses in the offices of the New Yorker in the 1920's...he'd knock them off his face in incredulous wonder at the chance to contemplate the films of Bruce Robinson that star Richard E. Grant, like "Withnail & I" and "How To Get Ahead In Advertising".  Oh, and we discuss 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?", starring Melissa McCarthy and REG...to which Jason decidedly says NO and Chris says, yes, he can.  In this way we are both true to form.  Of all things, IRON MAIDEN comes into focus thanks to Matt The Engineer's trenchant observations and clarifications of Chris and Jason's confusion over Bruce's Davidson, Robinson and Dickinson. Also a NEW SEGMENT: Jason Reads Chris the Entertainment Headlines to hilarity and a little dead air.  J Woww, Travis Scott, Green Acres, and a few choice words from Morgan Freeman, too.

Alfonso Cuaron's 'Roma': if you've seen it, you know why the film has received unanimous critical acclaim, with reviewers calling it "achingly beautiful" and "engrossing".  'Roma' was chosen by Time magazine and the New York Film Critics Circle as the best film of 2018, and by the National Board Of Review as one of the top ten best films of 2018.  It's earned Golden Globe nominations for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. It was also selected as the Mexican entry for the Best Foreign Language Film for the 91st Academy Awards, making the December shortlist.  No awards love as yet for Professor Zovek but there's always hope!

Does it live up to the hype? Check out our latest episode and find out!  Also; Rants 'n Raves, Engineer Matt, terrible Mexican pronunciations, and fried-chicken-scented fireplaces! 

Yorgos Lanthimos' aptly-named new film 'The Favourite' is gorging on every awards nomination like The Queen attacking a cake. Our intellectual discussion covers the towering brilliance of Olivia Culman, Lanthimos' genius other film 'The Lobster', and the career implications of being cast as "Wanking Man" in a movie. Chris shares his own actorly experience playing a man whose acne medication renders him impotent in an episode of 'The Good Wife'.  Jason rants about another commercial, Chris raves about his parents (we think/hope?) and we shout-out great Rachel Weiss performances, Le Carre adaptations and MUCH MORE!

'Widows' failed to make much of a mark at the box office. Critical acclaim hasn't YET translated into Awards Season loot, with so far only an ensemble acting nod from the Critics' Choice Awards.  In other news The Critics' Choice Awards are apparently a thing.  But there ARE things to celebrate and recommend in this flawed but often-compelling would-be action/heist/social commentary flick.  We celebrate. We recommend. And we contemplate whether boating is a thing for Chicagoans and Chris' dysfunctional relationship with MoviePass. Also:  we receive bonus pottery with Lance Henrikson, discuss The Art Of Not Interviewing Drew 'Barrimore', read Viewer Mail But From Listeners, do our Rants 'n Raves segment, AND MORE!

An athlete is rendered a paraplegic through a devastating jogging accident.  A trained helper monkey arrives as his live-in assistant.  A well-meaning but drugged out lab rat performs monkey-altering experiments.  Some sort of Manimal transference takes place and the bodies and histrionics pile up from there.  It's 1988's George A. Romero horror classic "Monkey Shines" starring Chicago P.D.'s pre-contractually-required-anger-management Jason Beghe, Janine Turner, John Pankow and the indispensable Stephen Root, as well as the greatest and most hilarious pair of little monkey arms-on-sticks ever designed by FX man Tom Savini. PLUS: Can you ever trust anyone whose favorite food is Linguine & Clam Sauce? New Segment "Rants 'n Raves".  AND ALSO: Listener Mail, Jason has a big admission of guilt, and Chris introduces a new thing where he edits himself BACK into the podcast after his initial jokes fall flat. Finally, the boys torpedo any impending State Farm Insurance podcast sponsorship.

Is the new Coen Brothers movie the best Western of all time? Or is it more like FOR the Best Western Hotel chain?  We root around in the prairie dust, the hoofprints, the majestic vistas and, in the simple finality of man's ruthless violence towards his fellow man, find some of life's imponderables answered.  Also:  James Franco, Tom Waits, and an excellent animal cast of equines, owls, trained fish, and Clancy Brown.  

"White-lady aspirational materialism and a special kind of empty that feels warm", is the beating heart at the center of Nancy Meyers movies, says our guest Alex in this episode, and boy did she hit the nail on the head.  It's an alternative universe where nothing is really wrong, except perhaps some of the basics of filmmaking.  But let's not go into it with our eyes hooded in suspicion of California vineyard owners and London-based wedding-dress designers.  We also cover the 1961 version of The Parent Trap, and the material's origin's in Nazi Germany (for real).  

Is 'Bohemian Rhapsody' the Biopic that Freddy Mercury and Queen deserve? More urgently, is "I Love My Car" to this movie what "Why Did You Do That" is to "A Star Is Born"? Episode also features Jason's voice going up a Freddy-like 2 octaves when it's revealed that Chris never saw "Amadeus"...and Chris buries the lead on The Time He Co-Starred With Rami Malek.  Also: the perils of 70'S wigs.  And: what ARE the good or great music biopics?  Plus: Viewer Mail But From Listeners.  

BONUS EPISODE! It's hard to capture in words the scope of the effect that Stan Lee had on the world of pop culture, or on the emotional development of co-host Chris. So we don't even try. Instead we stroll through the world of comics that Stan helped cultivate, flipping through a tattered old issue we had on hand, from the front cover and the opening splash to the ad for army men on the back. Thank you, Stan, for infusing the mythic with humanity. And vice versa. Excelsior!

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1978's SUPERMAN is one of the most beloved superhero movies ever made and Christopher Reeve is THE iconic Superman. How, then, did SUPERMAN II turn into such a cynical, inferior sequel, with the filmmakers snatching defeat from the jaws of certain victory? Hear how Brando suggested to the director that he appear as either a donut or a talking suitcase, and how the original creative team vanished from SUPERMAN II.  

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Show Biz, Man...it's a bitch, and the drugs only work until they don't.  SPOILER ALERT if you haven't seen ASIB, or fed the dog a steak lately.  Loosen your belts and dig in, as we have two very different takes on this movie.  Who is who and which is which? In this hotly-anticipated ripped-from-the-headlines episode, the boys break down Bradley Cooper's directorial debut, and dive deep into the performances of Gaga, Cooper, Sam Elliot, Andrew Dice Clay, Dave Chappell, Rafi Gavron, Barry Shabaka Henley, and Alec Baldwin's four-word cameo as Himself. Also: listener suggestions! Chris has seen shockingly few movies! Jason pronounces 'Objet d'art' and other words! And we premiere our new books podcast "Frontispiece"...or do we? 

BONUS EPISODE! Not the movie THE FRENCH CONNECTION (which is great) but France-related material that came up when we tried to record about A STAR IS BORN with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga (in the movie, not with us in the studio). This says nothing about the film but was too good to throw away. So sit back, open a Perrier, spread some brie on a poodle, and enjoy! E-mail: [email protected] Twitter: @fullcastandcrew Facebok: https://www.facebook.com/Fullcastandcrew/ Instagram: @fullcastandcrew

Balls! Strikes! Jon Lovitz! In this grand slam episode, Chris and Jason find themselves on opposite teams when it comes to A League Of Their Own.  Highlights: Chris's sunglasses and stolen bike are diversions as Chris wonders how you score a touchdown in baseball. Jason speculates as to the motives of screenwriters Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz. And we both celebrate Laverne & Shirley, Lenny, Squiggy, Gary Marshall's cameo in 'Lost In America', 80's Madonna ballads, Tom Hanks as a grizzled baseball lifer who can't spit tobacco, Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell's great chemistry, Del Close, and whether you'd want your immediate family present at your induction into a Hall Of Fame. ALSO: Matt The Engineer saves us from litigious peril! Again!

Subscribe for new episodes every Thursday and let us know what you like, don't like, want to hear about, how you're doing, wanna do this weekend, etc. 

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WELCOME FRIENDS (because who else would roll the dice on a new podcast?)! In the inaugural episode of FULL CAST & CREW your hosts, Jason and Chris, examine SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, the sociologically rich 1977 examination of tribalism and masculinity that's been reduced in the popular imagination to kitschy music and a funny suit. We go past its star turn by John Travolta to talk about the music, other actors, the video game that came from it, a show called ANGIE, and much, much more! 

Subscribe for new episodes every Wednesday and let us know what you like, don't like, want to hear about, how you're doing, wanna do this weekend, etc. 

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