I Wanna Hold Your Hand with Patrick Willems

[00:00:01] Blank Check with Griffin and David, Blank Check with Griffin and David Don't know what to say or to express All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check Oh yeah, I tell you something I think you'll understand When I say that something

[00:00:31] I wanna pod your cast I wanna pod your cast I wanna pod your cast I wanna pod your cast I wanna pod your cast Hello everybody Very nice, thank you America, the world We wanna pod your cast

[00:01:00] That's not the name of this miniseries, but by God I could not let that opportunity slide Can you do a good Ed Sullivan though? And so I want you to be prepared for excessive screaming I feel like that's not great

[00:01:13] I feel like I'm going to Lauren Michaels very quickly Mmm, Chevy A famous New Yorker, you know, Ed Sullivan But such a weird voice What a weirdo Shoo, that's the word, yeah, that's the turnkey word for Sullivan, right? We got a great shoo today, it sounds like

[00:01:30] I feel like I'm getting very Canadian, I don't know what's going on Ladies and gentlemen, Chevy For whatever reason Chevy is the name that feels best to say in Lauren Michaels voice Oh, Chevy Well, you have to sound disappointed Oh, Chevy

[00:01:50] Chevy, don't throw out slurs to our cast members, Chevy Jesus Blank Chevy Blank Chevy? Is that what you just said? Blank Chevy, hello everybody This is a podcast called Blank Chevy, my name is Griffin Newman My name is David Sims, it's not called Blank Chevy

[00:02:11] Mmm, we're gonna have to check the rule book on this One question Yeah This is just a question that just popped into my head And this is really a question for Ben Is the question, do you want to hold my hand?

[00:02:25] No, not right now, that's not a thing we do right now No, we can't do that now When, if this Fletch reboot with John Hamm that's being discussed If that actually comes to fruition, gets made Are we gonna cover that?

[00:02:43] That's in the cal, right? We gotta do that, right? Because I'm gonna be in it too, so we really gotta talk about it Have you guys heard of a campaign on the show to just get Ben in it? No, well I just started now Yeah, yeah, yeah

[00:02:57] I mean I feel like we informally started the campaign four years ago or whatever To have Ben play Fletch And now that feels like it hasn't gained steam I think the campaign should be for Ben to play the steak sandwich Oh god

[00:03:11] Because there are two of those, you could play either one Either one, I'm not range I mean I could do both two You could play the steak sandwich or the steak sandwich Yeah, exactly And this of course is primarily a podcast about Fletch

[00:03:26] Even though we tend to do non-Fletch movies Directors filmographies Right, right, right Okay, sometimes we cover the careers of directors who have massive success early on Given a series of blank checks and make whatever crazy passion products they want Sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they bounce baby

[00:03:45] And one time we covered Fletch which means this is primarily a Fletch podcast Right, that one time And then we can just go back and do Is it Matola? Is that how you say his name? Greg Matola? David what's that sound?

[00:04:01] Yeah I hear that too, what is that? There's a sound off at the distance It's like artificial piped in crowd noises And I'm looking off and those bleachers are filled with cardboard standees Okay good Computer generated faces Alright good, yes

[00:04:18] And yet Kyr is a very very nervous baseball player Stepping up to the mound they seem uneasy like they're being held at gunpoint To be forced to do their dangerous job And with that Crack of the bat No fans in the stands to catch it

[00:04:35] It's the start of a no-mini-series Why do we do a baseball thing? Where did you come from? What does it have to do with anything? Because Griffin loves sports right? Yeah it's because I love sports, it's because I'm the number one sporto

[00:04:51] Right I guess that's the reason it's just you're such a big fan of America's pastime Look my blood is... I don't know I could help with a good look for that Please, please just get out of that one

[00:05:09] This is just one of those bits where it ain't broke so we don't need to fix it Absolutely But you know what is broke? The record for home runs Okay Look out You mean like Mark McGuire? Blank check has caught up Oh is it Barry Bonds now?

[00:05:26] Barry Bonds beat Mark McGuire although of course everyone in that era was chemically enhanced But hey that's just part of life When did that happen recently? When did Barry Bonds break the home run record? Yeah 2007 is when he did it I guess I was busy that day

[00:05:44] So this is the new miniseries on the films of Robert Zemeckis Winner of our blank check, March Madness, Competition and the miniseries Of course called Podcast Away When it's that short a walk you gotta take it

[00:06:00] You gotta take it and I'm sorry to anyone who wanted it to be insert in elaborate awful sounding thing here Which they're always like Fuse cast Podcast But when there's a movie with cast you just kind of have to do that And I wanted to make something clear

[00:06:18] Barry Bonds broke the single season record in 2001 I thought 2007 sounded too late 2007 he broke the cumulative He has the most home runs of any player And that's why I don't remember because there are a bunch of asterisks and I don't really recognize it as a true record broken

[00:06:35] Of course To you it's still the babe right? The Babe Ruth My top guy The Bambino, the Sultan of Swat they called him Oh yeah Yeah Yeah And much like Babe Ruth calling his shot I'm pointing to the bleachers and going

[00:06:52] This is gonna be our longest miniseries ever Wait is it really? I think so I think Burton might be long, I can't remember It's up there Right? It's right up there We always think Burton was longer than he was because it felt so long

[00:07:09] I think Bobby is breaking last year's winner, Jonathan Demi's record I feel like now the blankies all congregate around making sure a long miniseries wins in March Madness Bobby is gonna be 19 episodes for us Okay And I think that's more than Demi I believe

[00:07:29] Is that including the witches? It's not including the witches which you know will come out when it comes out Which we don't really know more than that right? It'll get here when it gets here Yes But our guest today joining us a long requested guest on this show

[00:07:48] And especially once Zemeckis started taking the bracket People went well you gotta have him on You just did a 40 minute video? How long was the Zemeckis video? I think it was 35 minutes A tight 35 A gentleman's 35 on the career of Robert Zemeckis

[00:08:08] Ladies and gentlemen from the Patrick H. Willems YouTube channel Infantycast, Kankana Fakiano Many more things Patrick H. Willems Thank you so much for having me Big fan, excited to be here Of course This year I watched them all

[00:08:28] I took like two weeks and just burned through the whole filmography And I was happy to talk about all of them Because like I was really gunning for Bobby Z in March Madness I was hoping it would be a him versus Bay showdown Yeah

[00:08:46] And every year I try to get people to vote Bay And it still hasn't quite worked out I don't think he'll ever win He's too polarizing Every year he's got his fans I mean people always say that

[00:09:01] Because a lot of people watch the movies along with you guys And they're always like, I don't want to watch five transformers movies But remember the prequels episodes I want to listen to Griffin and David talk about five transformers movies Patrick this has always been my exact argument

[00:09:17] Because Zemeckis Not Zemeckis, I'm sorry Bay, we've talked about this before This is the only miniseries we had booked Guests for, scheduled And then welched on it because people started getting really negative about it And we like pulled back People recognized that we were hinting at it

[00:09:34] And we're so negative we were like Let's reconvene, let's question this choice And my whole thing was It would be good to do Bay Because those five transformers movies are going to be the closest We can come to replicating the manic Eever energy of the prequels

[00:09:51] And my argument is we don't need to do that I would love to do Michael Bay My argument is more It's not the train, I like the I think the first three transformers movies there's tons to talk about And Pain and Gain obviously is an extremely interesting movie

[00:10:07] Everything post Pain and Gain is where I think we might start to suffer The last night has a lot of banana stuff that we've talked about on this podcast But like this sort of 13 hours, 6 undergrads You know that's where I'm starting to be like

[00:10:20] Man is he kind of just like whatever Like he seems to have lost his juice slightly Hey his next movie, like my theory is His next movie it's like, it has number 5 in the title The Robo-Pocalypse Oh I think it's like Black Five or something like that

[00:10:35] Yeah he just announced a new thing Very recent right But he's counting down to something Wow And I don't know what it is but that's my theory And there's also my pitch for why people should vote Michael Bay next year

[00:10:48] Anyway but that said I'm really happy that Zemeckis won And I was happy to talk about anything because I think he's got a wild career Bobby Z? Oh yeah He does and he also has such distinct phases in an interesting way

[00:11:05] You know, like he's a guy who very much goes through like This is this period, this is this period And it's like what a decade Yeah it's so clean Yes, yes And now he's in his fourth decade which is How to describe

[00:11:24] It's his strangest decade yet I would say right His fourth decade Yeah like Marwan was the end of one period You had like the flight through Marwan I suppose it depends on I suppose right What is the witch is going to look like you're right

[00:11:36] We're about to answer the fifth decade It does feel like a swerve away from Marwan Marwan probably I had no idea what this fifth decade is going to be And also now he's supposed to do fucking Pinocchio right He is although you know who knows but yes

[00:11:51] Who knows if anything is happening Aren't there always like four Pinocchio movies and developments like at any given time This is the one, the Disney one The sort of clear live action remake of Disney classic Written by our friend Chris Whites Yes and Paul King

[00:12:09] That Bobby Z is now supposed to do Whites and King are believe are the credited people on this Paul King was supposed to direct it originally But also as you said Patrick 87 people were supposed to direct it originally Right

[00:12:22] It's bounced around and then you got like Del Toro working on his version right I don't know there's always been a few so you're right Wait I forgot Zemeckis is also lined up to make The King Starring Dwayne Johnson and written by Randall Wallace Right

[00:12:37] Which is about King of Hawaii I believe is how you say it A Hawaiian historical war epic I mean I don't know that I want Randall Wallace to be the guy Writing that movie but like that sounds kind of cool I don't know

[00:12:57] This feels like it would have been like a post cast away movie If he didn't go to the mocap phase I also feel like I would be so happy to see The Rock do anything that feels that personal and passionate

[00:13:14] It would be nice to see him use his cache as arguably the biggest movie star in the world To make something he deeply cares about Well he's not going to do that probably Also I don't think he's the biggest movie star in the world anymore

[00:13:29] I think he blew that That's why I said arguably but also who the fuck knows now What is a movie star anymore? What are movies? These are the questions we're asking Who framed Roger Rabbit? We'll get to that question later But this week we're asking the main question

[00:13:44] Do you want to hold my hand? And the answer is an emphatic yes I want to hold your hand Yes I want to hold your hand What a good movie this is I've never seen this movie before Oh it's a delight

[00:13:56] Can I throw it a really hot take? It's charming I don't think that's a particularly hot take I think that's pretty obvious But yes it's a very charming debut from a man in his 20s Making a movie about Beatlemania in the late 70s correct?

[00:14:17] We'll get into the context because this is obviously us laying out the track for our entire mini series to follow And this is one of those movies This was sort of a big angle of your career spanning video on Bobby Z Patrick

[00:14:31] Is like this is one of those movies where you see the seeds of so many things that are sowed in the rest of the career But it's also a very assured first film It's a first film where you're like everything's there Not even in like a foggy way

[00:14:44] No it's a very confidently made movie I mean he was 26 I think Like it's crazy considering that We all watched this really thorough special feature on the criteria And a release that we'll talk about that explains the whole evolution

[00:14:59] But I just want to throw out a thing that really fascinates me about Zimakis And it's shared with our previous March Madness winner Jonathan Demi They're these two guys who are like massive American directors of the 20th century right? Mm-hmm And they had like ultimate Oscar movies

[00:15:19] Like these movies that were massive runaway successes Totally minted movie stars One across the board They won the Oscar for directing at the pinnacle of both of their careers Like maybe not quality wise but in terms of success right? And then never receive a follow-up nomination

[00:15:36] It is this fascinating thing to me where I feel like Zimakis and Demi Were continually thought of as like oscar-type directors Even when they made weird things Even when they flopped It was still like anytime there's a Zimakis or a Demi movie coming out

[00:15:50] Maybe it's in the Oscar conversation And they literally like the only movie that Zimakis has made Post-Forrest Gump That had really any actual Oscar traction was cast away And even that was viewed as sort of like I feel like despite being a huge box office success

[00:16:08] Something of an Oscar disappointment that it really only got like The Hanks as a major nom Because I feel like that year people were like Oh this might be a best picture play This might be a best director play Not to nom, to win

[00:16:20] And then it was a huge hit And then it just kind of got the Hanks nomination His career is screenplay nomination for Back to the Future And director win for Forrest Gump And then Flight also gets an actor nomination But Zimakis himself never gets a nomination

[00:16:38] And he doesn't get screenplay nominations for his movies Director nominations, picture nominations Did Polar Express get an animated feature? No, no, no Huge, huge backlash against any MoCat movies Especially back then The only image movers MoCat movie that got nominated Was Monster House The best one

[00:16:57] We will talk about this on the cast away episode But the reason that movie didn't get a best picture was because Dreamworks was throwing everything at Gladiator But we will talk about it Can we have a volleyball as a guest? Absolutely, it's booked It's already on the spreadsheet

[00:17:14] Absolutely 100% Just in the separate zoom call We're gonna have to figure that out We're gonna have to create an email account for the volleyball To set up a zoom account It'll set it up itself, no problem Yeah of course, I'm so sorry You're absolutely right

[00:17:31] It's probably rude of you to think that a volleyball can't set up at its own record Robert Zemeckis Much like one of my favorite directors A good Chicago boy Sort of the son of South Side Catholic immigrants Put some casing on that meat

[00:17:51] I think man is Jewish immigrant But you know what I'm talking about Who is just watching TV And is like, I love these Like I want to make the movies He's Spielberg How do you describe Robert Zemeckis? Like apart from the thing you just said about

[00:18:08] Weird Oscar, Peek and then Valley He's got this weird G-Wiz energy to him That I feel like rarely comes through when you see interviews with him But also in his films There's something bizarrely kind of like Ernest and innocent about him

[00:18:24] In that sort of like, as you said Every one of his movies feels like He's like, I love him behind the camera going God, I love movies Like he's just like, man this is so much fun to make Can you believe they let me do this?

[00:18:36] At least there's an exuberance for like The first half of his career I do feel like he's now a little more kind of Jaded and leery-eyed of the modern industry I mean my take on Zemeckis Is that like he has always loved toys

[00:18:51] And before like the filmmaking toys showed up I feel like he viewed like making the movies And simply like constructing a story As if like putting together an elaborate toy They all have like, even before their visual effects There's like this clockwork precision to everything

[00:19:07] There is the sort of like even Like this movie has the sort of like Proto-Forest-Gump magic trick Of like inserting fictional characters In and around an actual like historical event Just like the idea of playing with toys in some way

[00:19:22] Are like creating some kind of magic trick on screen Has always been like what has driven this guy Yes, he's absolutely a guy who loves construction Not just in sort of like filmmaking technique But especially in story construction So many of his movies have if not some gimmick

[00:19:40] Some sort of gambit of this is how the story's being Told and then trying to do that as tightly and concisely As with as much energy and emotion as possible He is not technically a movie brat Because he's sort of coming up right below

[00:19:56] The sort of 70s movie brat guys He's like five years behind He's like half a generation behind those guys He's like Spielberg's first protege Right, the first guy that Spielberg sort of like You know, helps get work in the industry But much like Spielberg, right

[00:20:13] Like basically constructed the blockbuster As we think of it, right Like you know, he is one of the architects Of the modern blockbuster that we all grew up with That basically kind of still echoes into now Even as franchises are sort of rewriting how that all works

[00:20:30] I don't want to jump too far ahead But the amount of failures at the beginning Of Zemeckis' career is so wild Considering the insane run of like massive successes He had because like he's involved in The one early Spielberg movie that people don't like

[00:20:45] And then his first two movies flop Right I mean, 1941 is a bomb is actually slightly over It actually made money But it was not liked as you say This movie went nowhere I want to hold your hand Was again well liked but you know, didn't really go anywhere

[00:21:01] Used cars maybe did a little better Kind of didn't go anywhere But the thing is then he does romancing the stone And it's like okay, you know, whatever you want You just, you just Your movie made ten times what it costs And that becomes the norm

[00:21:15] We'll get to this but Back to the future was supposed to come right after Used cars they struggled for many years To get that movie made By all accounts romancing the stone was a thing Where Spielberg was like Take this movie you need to do a hit

[00:21:31] Like it was like just do one thing for hire Show them you can do it The script is on rails you have two big movie stars Attached just do it And that was the Hail Mary pass that saved his career Because he was in this Gale zone

[00:21:43] They were Bobby Z and Bobby G They were sort of like the Wonder Kid team And you know they were going to be in it together forever And romancing the stone was like the one Sort of early for hire thing he did

[00:21:55] And he very much was in a sort of like Two strikes situation at that point Really kind of three strikes If you also chalk up 1941 to them Which I feel like a lot of people did Because it was like here's Spielberg He's killing it, he can't miss

[00:22:13] He's announcing that these two kids Are his mentees and the movie is His first kind of face plant in his career ever I think people were like why is he going in on these two bobs The two bobs but this movie That we are discussing today is good

[00:22:31] Not only is it good it's very good Really good And I do think that anyone who saw this movie was like Well this is just like an obviously talented person Behind the camera like just you know Forget the Beatles stuff forget like

[00:22:44] This person just knows where to put the camera That is an unusual skill like you cannot just have that skill Did you guys watch, you watched the short films on the criterion right? Yeah I did not but I watched one of them

[00:22:57] I watched the one with the what's it called The elevator one I forgot the names yeah yeah exactly Yeah The lift which is his first The earlier one I don't know if it's his first film But they're both USC films And that's like another perfect example

[00:23:12] You watched this like black and white Nonsync sound student film And you're just like this guy immediately Knows where to put the camera And when to cut Every single time It is so perfectly constructed It is incredibly simple It's essentially just a guy feels terrorized

[00:23:30] By his elevator in his building right It's the Bradbury building right Right and it's like is the elevator actually sentient And like sort of like fucking with him Or is the guy just kind of going crazy It's this dude who sort of overworked In the rat race

[00:23:44] And he like feels like he's sort of being A demonized by this elevator That he keeps on chasing That he can never fully catch until he has a heart attack And his body is sent down in the elevator It's really simple It's seven minutes

[00:23:57] It's just like you watch this And you're like yeah this guy knows how to make a movie On a fundamental level This guy knows how to make a movie It's similar to what the myth of Spielberg was When he was like this like 22 year old

[00:24:09] Who could walk on set and be like the cameras should go here Or whatever And everyone was just like this kid's a little genius Like who cares if he's young Like you know he was going onto Colombo or whatever And like doing shots that people would not

[00:24:22] Usually attempt on TV all that kind of shit It's a similar vibe The second short is the one he does with Gale Right That's what I thought was weird Gale on each movie has a credit But like on the lift The first one is the lift right? Yeah

[00:24:40] The elevator one Gale is one of like eight production assistants And then the second one Gale is only credited for like The credits design Weird So he's there and their friends But he's not even like he didn't co-write them

[00:24:56] He doesn't seem like one of like the primary crew members on it And I didn't recognize any other names Field of Honors, the second one Anti-War One What Spielberg calls their anarchist cinema one But Spielberg takes Sugar Land Express to USC

[00:25:14] It's his first theatrical film as a director He's doing the rounds showing it at film schools And Zemeckis and Gale run up to him afterwards And hand him this short film And he watches it and goes Oh, game recognized game

[00:25:29] I can see this guy is sort of like me You know five years ago And so he like latches on to these guys And brings them around the movie Bratz It just starts really trying to show them the ropes It's his thing again He talks about USC

[00:25:46] It's the early 70s Everyone there is like I love the modern reinvention of cinema That is happening now Like I love the French New Wave Like I love like how movies are changing Like you know people have a more arty revolutionary

[00:26:02] Like a lot of students feel that way And he and Bob Gale are more the types who are like We love television, Hollywood movies We love James Bond We like Disney We like Clint Eastwood Like we want to make blockbusters We want to make like fun movies

[00:26:17] And that's kind of the Spielberg thing too Spielberg doesn't go to film school But it's that similar kind of just like Pop culture brain That I assume is what he sees in them Right? Like I think Spielberg said He loved that their short film had this score

[00:26:31] The Great Escape The Elmer Bernstein score on it Yeah And like he's you know I just That's just that kind of like You know revival house dork You know mindset that Spielberg had Right But it also speaks to just sort of like How lucky they were

[00:26:49] That this encounter happened After Sugar Land Express Sure right because at a certain point Spielberg is going to be too right 100% Right Right there in the fold at the last moment That you can have a somewhat level relationship With Steven Spielberg

[00:27:05] That's much wild like he was their mentor And he was like what three years older than them He must have been like the most five years Older or something like that I looked it up it's a five year difference Yeah Okay that's what was really interesting

[00:27:17] In that conversation Because they're talking about the idea Of like mentorship and stuff like that And they're saying yeah Really the way we did like mentorship Was just be like just hung out a lot And talked about movies and went to restaurants And my favorite part

[00:27:31] Went skeet shooting with John Milius Yes lots of skeet shooting I think John Milius who's like Was the sort of one the rest of the movie Brats were like God he's so macho Like this guy's crazy We all just like to sit around And not talk to women

[00:27:46] Like this guy is like the opposite of that John Milius like the Ryan Atwood Who would like beat up the bullies For them while they're just like Cowarding in the corner He's like the Mickey Rourke to their diner Like the rest of them are Paul Reiser Arguing nuance

[00:28:03] But yes It's weird Spielberg keeps mentioning How much Milius kind of Equally mentored them Obviously the Spielberg mentorship Helped their career more But like that they were very much a unit And that he was also bringing him around The other Brats

[00:28:21] And did I miss here did he say That 1941 they were originally writing For Milius Milius has a story credit on 1941 I don't know if he was initially going to direct Or if he was just also Working like helping them work break the story

[00:28:35] I don't I'm sure I could look I can't tell if they were just The three of them were working on it together With no clear intention or if they were Working on it for him to direct But it very much wasn't being created For Spielberg originally

[00:28:49] Spielberg was mentoring these guys Then he has Jaws And he reads their script and he goes Oh this is great I would love to do this So he sort of takes over it And it's a big move that you're like Spielberg post-Jaws is putting his chips in on

[00:29:03] This This movie is similar as Spielberg I believe points out This is all this conversation we're referencing This is on the criterion released this movie Which is very good 1941 is about Americans losing their minds Out of World War II paranoia Right like this movie is about Americans

[00:29:19] Losing their minds through Beetleman There are both about these kind of like hysterical Events Very focused hysterical events In American like modern American History. Yeah with this sort of like Windup toy energy Just this like constant kinetic comedic Sort of chaos

[00:29:37] And they talk a lot about how they view this as Kind of like a spiritual cousin to American graffiti. Yes It's very, very sort of Of a piece with American graffiti It is and it's not as Intending dark as American graffiti but

[00:29:51] No it does kind of pepper in Like the cops you know setting A barricade like you know you do Have the sense of like oh this is An innocent time getting ready to curdle Much like American graffiti Yes right and that it's sort of the one

[00:30:05] Night the ensemble cast The main group all Splitting up and meeting other people going on their Own adventures that it's very much About the sense of what's going to happen To these characters afterwards what's going to Be America afterwards that sort of Omnisfeeling but The big difference

[00:30:23] It's a bunch of Jersey kids It's a bunch of Jersey Girls making Heaven Smith proud Yeah but primarily I think that's a big Thing like you don't see Very many movies especially Of this era right You have so many films in the Sort of like post-america graffiti wake

[00:30:43] Things like diner where it's like I'm making a movie about what me and my Friends were like in high school right Like directors early get the foot In the door movie is largely autobiographical And this is a work of Imagination for Gale And Zemeckis they are not

[00:30:59] Incredibly personal filmmakers And they are making a film about Four women that they have created Reacting to this situation and it is Immediately startling to just like Watch this type of film and go you never see These types of movies with the women centered Without exception

[00:31:15] Yes it's just Bobby DeGico's character I mean Ben is mentioning Jersey Types Just gotta shout them out There are boys in the group But they're secondary And most of those Driving around looking to have fun On a Saturday night movies of this era

[00:31:35] Especially the ones that are period pieces The women are largely Goals And they are I gotta get to this party to see her And it is unusual to see that But yes They're working on 1941 Spielberg's in the post-ja zone They're talking with Spielberg

[00:31:55] They sort of talk through this idea They're talking about this memory Of that moment in time And I guess They later add the idea of this Fictional band to it But the idea of just Sort of like Right this moment in American pop culture

[00:32:13] And Spielberg goes like that sounds like It could probably be a movie And they immediately just go to work Trying to write this thing They pitch it to Warner Brothers I assume probably just because They have the heat of people knowing That Spielberg has sort of anointed them

[00:32:29] And that 1941 is going to be A film at some point And Warner Brothers acquires it But knows that The movie only is going to work If you're able to license All of this music Because in the criteria They say license all the music But obviously all the songs

[00:32:49] The Beatles songs were written for this movie This is a weird bit I'm not doing a bit It's a fictional band The songs don't exist What is this bit? This is a terrible bit I hate this bit I know I'm confused I don't know

[00:33:07] The Beatles are not a fictional band Obviously they're real band What is this bit? This is the worst bit of all time This is Hands down the worst bit of all time No they made a movie about this bit And it was great

[00:33:21] You know what that's what I should have been saying The entire time I was watching yesterday This is the worst bit What is this bit? That's what all the characters should say What are you fucking talking about Man I wish I I wish I could smoke something

[00:33:37] Fallic or drink a carbonated beverage To calm down from this But god I can't think of anything that exists Would help take the edge off right now What if during yesterday He had gone to see I Wanna Hold Your Hand In a revival house

[00:33:51] And that's the only way People know The Beatles They're like yeah the fictional band from I Wanna Hold Your Hand Sure it's pretty niche Yeah they're like Dijour Okay so wait Question What about something like Purple Rain Where Prince plays a guy who's not named Prince

[00:34:09] Right that would count And then people would go it's weird That this actor just came out of nowhere And was so good at playing a musician God this bit annoys me in every version Anyway Yes Warner Brothers Licenses successfully In 1978 Licenses The Beatles music They did that

[00:34:31] Wait can we talk about this Because I've always been so fascinated By like the How difficult it apparently is to license Beatles songs Like I was looking This up last night Do you remember in like 2012 When an episode of Mad Men uses Tomorrow Never Knows

[00:34:49] They spent a quarter of a million dollars For one song And they said they'd been trying for years And kept getting turned down It is an incredible moment in Mad Men Because it's Don listening to that song And turning it off and being like

[00:35:03] Whatever like it is the It is the future passing him by Like it is him realizing like I don't know what's happening anymore in culture But like the number of times That a Beatles song appears In a movie or TV show I feel like in the past 20 years

[00:35:19] You could count on like one hand Social network at the very end And before that Ferris Bueller's Day Off I mean that's the thing Well Tristan Schaudt isn't really Isn't really a Beatles song though It is the cover that's used Yeah it's their recording right

[00:35:37] But yeah no instead I think Of like across the universe Or I am Sam things that do covers Like they're like we'll do the songs But we'll have our own interpretation Yesterday I am Sam across the universe All three were movies where they were like

[00:35:53] Negotiating a bigger deal Like this is a movie where the Beatles are part of The marketing campaign front and center Like even I am Sam where it isn't Part of the actual plot of the movie It is part of the plot of the movie

[00:36:05] He's obsessed with the Beatles You know what I'm saying Like the hook, the one line on Yesterday and Fucking across the universe's Beatles songs I am Sam has a first one line And then the second line is also he's obsessed With the Beatles But the poster was like

[00:36:25] Featuring 17 songs from the Beatles Like the soundtrack was such a forced And foremost element on that movie It feels like those are the cases where it's like The entire movie is pitched To the remaining Beatles trust And they have to like come out with some deal

[00:36:39] And the movie only gets greenlit based On that and even then It's almost always using alternate versions And covers So my question is in 1978 They were able to license like The entire soundtrack is just Bill songs and so when did things change Well John Lennon dies

[00:36:57] And I think Yoko Ono is much more Protective of his legacy And so she is incredibly reticent Just to be clear, Griffin for I am Sam That's covers because they couldn't Get the Beatles to license it You can do covers like that you don't need

[00:37:11] Anything from the Beatles if you do a cover And I am Sam was specifically they were like We're gonna negotiate with the Beatles And they said no or whoever Oh wow I didn't realize that That's why it's covers I don't know about across the universe

[00:37:25] No I remember Yoko was Involved with that The widows were involved with that Yesterday That's more of a direct tribute But both of those are cover movies too And even things like Hey Jude In rural Tannenbombs Is pointedly a cover Because they wanted to use the original songs

[00:37:47] And they couldn't And they just dismiss Most requests at a hand I think What's wild to me is not that They were able to get 17 Beatles songs in 1978 Which you know is kind of Stunning but you're like Might have slipped through the cracks Might have been right before

[00:38:07] The sort of hammer came down What's more surprising to me is that their rights Were this lockdown And they didn't have any issues Getting released on home video That having said not streaming anywhere That's the thing I think it is tough

[00:38:21] Because I assume that's one of the reasons it's not streaming I think the rights to it are sort of complicated And it wasn't on DVD for a long time And when it did come out on DVD The cover is like Silhouettes of the four Beatles

[00:38:33] And it says featuring 17 original songs From the Beatles in almost bigger Font than the title of the movie itself And this movie was going to be called Beetle Mania right? And eventually they were like Let's not even put Beatles in the title Because we'll get in trouble

[00:38:49] Then they switched it to Beatles Four number four hyphen ever A terrible title Which is a bad name So they set this film with Warner Brothers Warner Brothers negotiates for all the song rights Because they know there's no movie without that

[00:39:03] But at that point the movie is expensive And also in a post-America graffiti landscape After George Lucas had such A nightmare getting that movie off the ground And they wanted to punt it to TV Now this type of movie is seen as

[00:39:15] Valuable, like this could be a big hit So Warner Brothers starts to feel like We might have something hot here So they go well we can't let Zemeckis Direct this and they want Jonathan Demmey to direct it Yes they do A few steps up on the ladder

[00:39:31] At that point, right? He's young in his career But I guess he's made a few movies So like you know Around when he's making like Handle, you know, see the citizens band And he's about to do Last Embrace A thing I was thinking about is

[00:39:45] I didn't have time to listen to the entire commentary track But I watched like 20 minutes of it And a thing that Zemeckis and Gale mentioned in it Is that they were like our Big comedic influences are like Frank Capra And Like three Stooges and Mark's brothers

[00:40:03] And our approaches have everyone talk 30% faster than they would in real life Which I Is very clear in this movie That's how everyone talks and I feel like Demmey would have a Even for a movie that's structured this tightly Would not have quite the manic pace of it

[00:40:19] No, definitely not And I also I feel like They were writing movies That in a way only Zemeckis New had direct as evidence By the fact that like Spielberg read 1941 and was like oh fuck It was so much fun to do

[00:40:35] And then he did not have the right touch To pull it off It's a very fine line of what he pulls off And it is that kinetic energy It's everyone constantly being In motion, you know I mean I feel like that's such a defining Zemeckis thing

[00:40:51] Yeah and Spielberg is not really A great comedy director Like his good funny movies Like Catch Me If You Can or whatever There's a like light dramas With a terminal Well he has very funny stuff Like Jaws has all kinds of big laughs

[00:41:07] In it, Jaws is a god damn pleasure to watch Like the shark-eared people Yeah You know like Robert Shaw's Nails on the chalkboard We're gonna need a bigger boat bubble But he's not, he never made Like an incredible comedy comedy No it's certainly I mean He might be

[00:41:29] Even marginally better at sex scenes than He has a comedy, that's not true Sex scenes is the thing he's worst at Yeah Are the Indiana Jones movies like his funniest movies Yes absolutely I was about to say the exact same Thing Last Crusade is his most successful comedy

[00:41:45] And that's where he can do comedy Where it's like old 30s You know genre Right, yeah, yeah Lear Dawns is something else I will say about like Zemeckis 1941 It's been like maybe like 1941 once and it was like five or six years ago

[00:42:03] So it's not super fresh in my mind But I feel like part And I like enjoyed it Even though it's not, it doesn't entirely work But I feel like What that's missing 1941 doesn't really have Characters the way that Or like it doesn't have human beings

[00:42:21] The way that I want to hold your hand Has human beings, like a key thing Like the best Zemeckis movies And I know I'm just rehashing Points I made in that video But they have characters with Very clearly defined Goals that they really really believe

[00:42:37] In and it's about their Really intense process of Trying to reach that goal And 1941 also has This very intricate construction With a million moving pieces But I feel like there's no really humanity In it, the way that I want to hold your hand Has humans who have like

[00:42:57] Human desires and goals Absolutely, and I also feel like It's fascinating that The two scripts happen almost simultaneously Right? I mean it's like 1941 Into this and then this comes out Before 1941 But they talk about In that long The special feature conversation How densely

[00:43:19] They sort of plotted and constructed The movie with their note cards And the color coding system To be able to visualize How the threads were interweaving And how much balance and screen time Each character got and the fun fact that The four girls have their names

[00:43:35] Have the same initials as John Paul George Ringo, pretty clever Which Spielberg never realized But they are very much Like once they said that was like right They're kind of the ultimate Note card Tellers, like they do have that None of this is coincidental

[00:43:53] These guys don't feel like they're running on a sort of Loose improvisational bent You can tell that everything is very very tightly Constructed in this sort of clock work way Which that's the modern blockbuster That's what we're talking about right Like that's the Spielberg thing too right

[00:44:09] Where like the hit on it is This feels too clean but I mean It's pure serotonin Not to talk greasy But I've been watching The Urusa Brothers film school Which is very bizarre, their YouTube series Where they keep on sort of talking about how they've like

[00:44:27] Figured out the perfect storytelling algorithm And they believe that every screenplay That they do and especially the stuff That they're now producing through their Agbo Film company or whatever it's called Has to like work through this like It has to happen on this page

[00:44:47] You have to track this, this character has to have this and this and that Like and it I feel like The Rousos have done some stuff I've liked a lot They've done some stuff I've liked less But in both cases I do

[00:44:57] Feel that sort of studiedness with them Where they're very like sort of Unwavering and like This is the page 15 moment You need to have the page 15 moment And on page 15 these three things happen And that's a specific example that they talk about That I'm throwing out

[00:45:13] And MacCus and Gale is, as you're saying Patrick They make it still feel organic and human And character-driven As much as it is clearly a Very tightly sort of constructed automaton It is so behavioral And every character has such, personally Specific sort of charming

[00:45:34] Interesting internal struggles going on That it doesn't feel that forced I don't know about this Russo Brothers film school. They have a YouTube channel? Yeah, there's a pizza involved, right Griffin? It's they have a guest on and they talk about a movie and they break down.

[00:45:58] Where is the pizza? Yes, they call it Pizza Film School. It has the same rap song talking about the Russo Brothers being the two greatest filmmakers of all time. Truly that's the level of paper they throw out. No, not at all.

[00:46:12] And like this adult swim style animation of them like partying and vomiting themselves out of their mouth and whatever. And they it's called Pizza Film School and only because at the very beginning they go. So we like to eat pizza while we talk about movies.

[00:46:26] What pizza are you all eating today? And then like Joe will show what pizza he's eating. Their guest will show the pizza, which is often just Marcus and McFeely. Most episodes it's Marcus and McFeely. And then every episode Anthony very sheepishly says,

[00:46:40] I actually ate my pizza before we started recording, but I'll tell you what I did eat. Every episode he fucks it up and he doesn't eat pizza on screen. I agree that he seems like the nice one. I like him, but the show is called Pizza Film School.

[00:46:53] Eat a fucking slice on camera Anthony or retitle it. So this is all over Zoom? This is all over Zoom. Right. And it's mostly them with Marcus and McFeely and then a couple times they've had actors for movies on and the actors talk about

[00:47:09] their experiences working on the films. And then Joe and Anthony goes, but the filmmakers must have been doing this for this reason because this is how stories work. And then like Josh Braul will go like, no the Cone Brothers don't really think that way. It's very fascinating.

[00:47:22] I recommend that people watch it. They are contemporary. They're the contemporary blockbuster, which I have a lot of problems with, which is what you're talking about. The only thing I'll say about the Ruse brothers is because I've been binging community partly on your advice Griffin. Yeah.

[00:47:38] I sort of rediscovered, I was like, Jesus right, these guys were kind of doing something perfectly. Like, you know, like that, I forgot that that how much of a hand they had, especially in the early season. I like a lot of what they've done a lot.

[00:47:52] I'm just saying they very openly talk about every movie we produce is gonna have this exact structure and I think like, I remember them in an interview saying their goal explicitly with Civil War was to make a movie that cinema sins couldn't criticize.

[00:48:10] They were like, we ran through and made sure that everything was airtight and that every thread was like this and that and it's like, why put the energy into that? Whereas Back to the Future is a perfect example of a movie where you can pluck out 87 things

[00:48:23] that don't make sense, but no one gives you. Back to the Future makes no sense at all. Yeah, you answer the right questions. You ignore the wrong questions and I feel like, what should we call it? This movie is just them testing this out

[00:48:37] in a very low stakes way. You don't have a sci-fi premise, you don't have mortal dangers for the character. The objectives are very clear. You have four girls who start out the movie together who will end it vaguely together

[00:48:49] and along the way they all have the same driving force which is to get to the Beatles. And I mean, even though there is the main four girls, there are other characters. There's the two boys who tag along and then we'll get to Eddie D's and obviously.

[00:49:06] But the two boys also have their own goals and everyone has that clear journey over the course of it. So I'm not trying to derail this because I know we haven't really started talking about the plot of this movie, but can we talk about Bob Gale?

[00:49:21] Because I'm so fascinated by Bob Gale and my favorite era of Zemeckis' career is the Bob Gale era. Yes, he is the best collaborator. He's so much the collaborator. When people talk about this time, it's like they were the Bob's. They were a team.

[00:49:36] They were clearly a unit. And then it is very bizarre. They seem to get along very well. They do stuff together all the time, but he seems to be one of these guys who just post back to the future was like,

[00:49:46] my job is being the keeper of the back to the future flame. And he has done some stuff after that, but it's primarily been managing the back to the future legacy and all the additional outputs. Do you know the last thing I remember that Bob Gale did?

[00:50:02] He did a Spider-Man run, right? That was it. Well, in 2008 when they did the Amazing Spider-Man relaunch where they had like the brand new day era where they had like the writer's room of like Dan Slaut and other people. When it was basically weekly, yes, yeah.

[00:50:16] Yeah, and Gale, who I hadn't heard about in years, suddenly has like one of the writer's room guys on the Spider-Man comic. And then he was there for like a year and a half and then left and I have no idea what he's been up to.

[00:50:28] But it's not like he and Zemeckis had a falling out. Absolutely not. They seem to be on incredible terms. They do shit together all the fucking time, just not projects. Yeah, well, that's the thing. They seem to be on great terms,

[00:50:41] but like when you're watching that conversation on the DVD, which is Spielberg, Gale and Zemeckis. And I've interviewed Zemeckis. He seems fairly ornery now, I will say, like about the state of the film industry. It does like they're all in the past, like they're having these wonderful

[00:50:59] nostalgic conversations about like the beginning of their career, you know, like, but maybe there's just some point at which Gale is like, I'm not that interested in whatever, you know, whatever project you're eyeing next. And then it just kind of like naturally drifts apart. It's weird.

[00:51:15] Like I feel like he did some like theme park movies. He directed a film that my father actually produced. Is that right? In Interstate 60? Oh, that's it. Yeah. Yeah, which I think is an... Peter Newman. It's an okay movie. It's very bizarre.

[00:51:31] It was kind of like, oh, this is Bob Gale's great unmade screenplay. And I feel like there were a couple of those post back to the future where it was like, oh, do you know Gale has these scripts that he wrote on his own that never got made?

[00:51:43] He's maybe not a natural director. And the film is very bizarre tonally because it's half got this sort of manic early Gale Zemeckis comedic energy and is half weirdly dark and sexual in a way that kind of bumps with that cartoonishness.

[00:52:01] The only thing I want to say about Gale is that he seems like the nicest man in the world in all these conversations, these interviews, these panel, like he seems like a real kind of aw shucks guy. He's from, I believe he's like a Jewish guy

[00:52:16] from Missouri, from like a college town of Missouri. Like he just seems like the friendliest fella and maybe there's just got to be some point where he's like, you know what? I'm doing all right. And like I don't need to keep mixing it up

[00:52:29] with all this Hollywood bullshit. You know, like maybe there's, he just kind of like soft retired because like you said, he does sort of manage the back to the future, whatever. Yeah, look, I'll say two things. One, back to the future residuals are certainly enough to live off

[00:52:43] of for the rest of your life. Oh, is that with, are those movies popular? Do they do okay? Very. They did okay. The second thing is there's always back to the future shit going on. Like from the moment pretty much the first movie came out,

[00:52:55] you've had a near constant stream of different forms of merchandise and animated series and theme park rides. There's the Broadway musical that's been in the works for a long time that was supposed to I think open in London or just did open in London right before coronavirus.

[00:53:08] There are comic books, like all these fucking things and not to mention conventions and the constant retrospectives and every five years there's another round of anniversary shit and he very much seems to be the guy who either approves of everything or leads everything.

[00:53:23] Like when I worked on Draft Day, there's a guy who's part of rightman's company, Joe Medjic, who's a great producer in his own right. But he's also like, I'm the guy who deals with all the Ghostbusters shit. Like if it's not a movie, if it's something with Ghostbusters,

[00:53:35] I'm the guy who has the red stamp and does that. And I think Gail does a lot of that and he also wills a lot of that stuff into existence on his own. But it is also interesting that like Trespass and like Interstate 60,

[00:53:48] there's sort of this bounty of like unmade Gail Zameka scripts and also unmade Gail scripts that never really get talked about. I know he wrote a Doctor Strange script. I mean, he's a nerd. He likes comic books. Look, I love the man.

[00:54:01] Like I know obviously they wrote the Tales from the Crypt script that eventually got turned into Bordello blood, right? Like that was like something they wrote back in their, you know, partnership days. I just want to say the final thing

[00:54:16] and then we can get into the movie itself now that we sort of set up how the movie came into existence. They're in this sort of weird zone at Warner Brothers because they want Demi to do it. They don't trust Zamekas to do it.

[00:54:27] The movie seems a little bit stuck at a stand still. Spielberg slips the script to Universal, says take a look at this. They go, this is great. Spielberg says, I really think this guy's a director. I think this is a major filmmaker.

[00:54:43] This is the start of a career. You want to get in early on this guy. I think he can direct it. And what's his name? Sid Steinberg says really, and he goes, I trust him so thoroughly that if a weekend of filming,

[00:54:56] it doesn't work out, I'll take over as director. So to Universal they were like, look, either it works or we get a free Spielberg movie who gives a shit. Now Spielberg was very aware of the fact that DGA rules.

[00:55:08] There's no way you could actually pull that off, right. A producer is not able to take over a film as a director. But he promised them that which got him through the door. And Warner Brothers still felt they had ownership of the movie.

[00:55:20] And Spielberg's agent just called up the head of Warner Brothers and said, come on man, you're not gonna let this guy direct the movie. This could be the start of his career. Can you give the guy a break? And he went, yeah, sure. Another classic example of people

[00:55:35] in the entertainment industry doing things out of the goodness of their heart. It happens all the time. Just very weird that that actually happened. I'm being sarcastic here. But it's weird. It's the height of Spielberg's power. I mean, it's not the height because he reaches greater heights.

[00:55:51] But it's an example of how powerful he was even then. Everyone wants to owe Spielberg a favor. So they're willing to agree to things that make no sense in the idea that someday they will be repaid with a Spielberg film.

[00:56:04] So the film is on to the races now. Universal takes this movie on and it doesn't do very well. But nonetheless, it was like you say. Everyone was like, yeah. And right, and everyone's on good terms with everyone. You know what I mean?

[00:56:19] That's the sort of like you say. Everyone knows each other a favor. And once again, this was the thing that studios used to think about, which is like, I don't know if this movie is gonna be successful, but it's worth the investment

[00:56:30] of maybe trying to make this filmmaker a member of our roster. This might be a good long-term investment. I feel like you rarely see that happening outside maybe like the horror scene in Blumhouse and things like that. But anyway, yeah. Well, you know what guys?

[00:56:47] Ben's changed his Zoom background to the boycott the Beatles song. Yeah. Ben, do you not like the Beatles? Ben, fuck you. You don't like the Beatles? Oh, God damn it. I'm quitting this podcast if you don't like the Beatles because they're the best because they're the fucking best.

[00:57:04] And not only do I like the Beatles, but all right, shut up. Is that watching this movie, I literally bought the Beatles anthology on DVD while I was watching this movie because immediately I was like, man, I gotta watch the Beatles anthology again,

[00:57:17] which I've seen like twice in my life. The big anthology thing that's like eight this, everyone knows what I'm talking about, right? I do not. No, it's a great- No, no, no. It's a documentary. It was like a TV mini series.

[00:57:30] Oh, okay, wait, yes, I know what you're talking about. The vinyl, they released albums that went with it. It's like a big, but like, it is the definitive Beatles documentary. It is so good. I recommend it to anyone. It's one of the greatest like just documentaries

[00:57:42] about the sixties in general and it's unavailable. Like you can't stream it again, unsurprisingly because the Beatles music is so complicated. So I bought it on like some used DVD. That's how much I love the Beatles and how good this movie is that it had me immediately

[00:57:57] like in my Beatles nostalgia feelings, whatever. Can I also say I love Beatles movies. Like I feel like, you know, I'm more of a movie guy than I am a music guy. But for me as a kid, the Beatles movies were the things I really latched onto.

[00:58:13] And it's like they made these three theatrical films that are very distinct and very different and use the Beatles in different ways in different sort of styles and they fucking slap. The thing about the Beatles though is it's your parents' music. Shut the fuck up.

[00:58:29] I'm gonna kill you, Ben. I'm gonna come over. Where are you? Are you in your apartment? Yes. You're close. I'm gonna walk over there. No. I resisted when I was a kid for that very reason because I was like, I don't care about the music

[00:58:43] that my parents like. And then I think I was in high school and I was like, it's undeniable. I gave it. That's the thing. I fought it for so long and eventually it's just you hear Revolver, the white album, like I mean,

[00:58:54] road you just can't deny these songs are amazing. Talking about how many good Beatles songs there are and it's one of those things where like we're of a generation where you take Beatles as a given, right? Like we just grew up with like

[00:59:07] the understanding where it's just like, oh yeah, everyone just tells you the Beatles are the best band of all time. And in the same way that like it's not until you maybe as an adult or at least an upper age adolescent

[00:59:19] after hearing these songs play in the background of your entire life, sit down and like really listen to an album from beginning to end that you really register like, wow, this is like pretty insane that they made full albums like this and multiple full albums like this

[00:59:33] and had this many songs that are this iconic to the same degree, it is very hard to like sit down and process the extent of Beatlemania. Just the idea that it was like, here's this band that has taken over the rest of the world and they're coming.

[00:59:48] Like here's a date, they're gonna be on TV and America is like bracing itself for the fact that society is gonna catch on fire. Well, but it's a specific part of society which I think is part of the thing, right? Where these adults are like,

[01:00:04] what is going on with all of you? Like what are you guys like? What are you also excited about? My mother was the perfect age. Which is one reason I love the Beatles for sure because my mom was a Beatlemaniac. Same with my parents.

[01:00:16] My dad went to the Shea Stadium concert that was their first American concert. My mom, I believe was at the Candlestick Park but the same tour, their final tour where they were like, fuck this, we can't even hear ourselves. But my mom was 12 years old.

[01:00:29] She specifically recalls being shown the first LP, maybe the first single at the record store and being like, look at their hair. Had never seen that haircut. Had never seen boys with long hair in her entire life. It's so hard for us to think about that.

[01:00:48] Like looking at the Beatles. That was long hair. Right. Exactly. All those look like nice boys and at the time it was like, have these boys never cut their hair? Like what is this? What's going on with them? This is outrageous. How could they look this way?

[01:01:03] And it's just this crazy sexual awakening for an entire generation that is not quite given that description because it's still the early 60s but it's so crazy. I mean, I know obviously people go see, you know, it's true for every generation

[01:01:24] that you go see music relax and you scream, right, freak out. But like this, there's nothing like that. Like this is sort of the original. I mean, I know that Elvis had happened before but like this is just so unique and strange.

[01:01:37] This is sort of the first generation that really has a youth culture where there's not just you're a kid and then you're pushed into the adult world of serious concerns and the workforce where there's actually like culture directed at youths who are driving like industries

[01:01:53] and that's also driven a lot by a sense of counterculture and a sense of sexuality, all things that scare the old guard. Elvis was very openly, he was like a sexual creature. So I think that was obviously part of what was so shocking about him, right?

[01:02:06] He was so unexpectedly physical. The hips, the hips. They didn't lie. The hips, the hips. And like, you know, and right, but like he's the beginning of like teen counterculture as yours like jailhouse rock, like movies like that that are being marketed to these kids in a way

[01:02:24] that no one had ever thought about before. That's what's also funny about this. Like Elvis was like sexual and also he's like start like in jailhouse rock, he kills a guy at the beginning and then it is in prison. He seems like a bad influence

[01:02:37] and the Beatles are just nice boys who stand in one place and play guitars. They're goofballs. And they're goofy. They do, they tell jokes. Like John really loved especially like, you know, John had grown up with that sort of 40s, 50s like sort of Dour British comedy

[01:02:53] that he really like that sort of channels like they're not, and also, but also they're kind of collectible. You pick a favorite, like you know all there, like, you know, likes and dislikes and all that. Like it's the beginning of that whole template.

[01:03:06] There was this perfect storm thing for them too. I mean, like Elvis was obviously like a very kind of constructed cultivated image. You know, I'm not saying that he was a phony but like Carl Tom Parker very much it was like they built a thing around him

[01:03:18] and even like the idea that he plays like a murderer in his movies. They were trying to build up this sort of like mythos of the bad boy thing. Where did this guy come from? What side of the tracks is he on?

[01:03:28] And the Beatles like, especially at this point in time are they're so seemingly guileless. Like there's something to the fact that there are people like fainting around them and they're asked questions and they give these like glib sort of half joke answers

[01:03:43] and then like do like full body laughs and shake their hair and stuff. Like the juxtaposition between the chaos around them and how much they aren't playing into it. And you also talk about like Elvis set the stage for this kind of thing.

[01:03:56] But I think A, because at this point you have like parents and adults who have seen the impact that Elvis had on culture they're even more freaked out about the Beatles hitting and B, they're four Beatles and C, they're not even American.

[01:04:12] Like it's a thing that comes up in this movie that you have that little strain of xenophobia especially with the teenage boys where they're just like these fucking Brits wanna come here and make our girls wanna sleep with him. Yeah.

[01:04:26] And all the boy, well especially the Bobby DeChico character like he's like a, he's an Elvis-y kind of guy. He's sort of a greaser. He's got the hair up. He's got, you know, like he's like, wait I've cultivated this whole image.

[01:04:38] You telling me this isn't the thing anymore? It's also great that there's the two layer thing of like the parents saying like we've barely gotten over Elvis. We can't have this happen again. And then that character is like, hey I thought we all liked Elvis.

[01:04:52] Can we stay in Elvis? What also is funny about that guy is he keeps talking about like he likes like Frankie Valley in the four seasons. Yes. And like this kind of divide, it's like an early version of like the like rock versus disco thing

[01:05:07] or like the boy bands versus new metal thing. And it's funny cause like the Beatles are playing rock music that would seem like more aggressive like then the four seasons. Which is like doo-wop. Right, but that's what he knows. And doo-wop was based in these weird like,

[01:05:24] you know these greaser like sort of like street kids like energy even if they weren't trying to seem dangerous. Whereas with the Beatles, especially at this point you're just like, do these guys take anything seriously? You know? Irreverent. So yes.

[01:05:40] So the four characters we start off with in this film much like American graffiti. We start with them all together spread out and their web extends to other characters. But you have officer Anne Lewis herself. Nancy Allen. Nancy Allen. She's Pam.

[01:05:57] I want to establish a new sort of trope here. It's like Chekhov's wedding. It's the opposite of Chekhov's gun. If a character at the beginning of a movie is very, very adamant that they have to make it back in time for their wedding,

[01:06:13] they will not end up married to that person at the end of the film. They're not even going to be with that person at the end of the film. The world's biggest red flag. If you're not even seeing the husband or like the other person,

[01:06:26] like then yeah, that person's obviously a stiff. But the idea that just her introduction is like, okay, but you have to promise me the most important thing. My entire life depends on this night. It's like spoiler, it's not going to. It's not going to.

[01:06:41] You're not going to marry this guy. So they're in high school, but she is also like eloping with him. Because when Rosie is talking about her wedding, she's like, keep it down. I don't want people to hear. Yes. Yes, she is eloping. And he seems older? Possibly older.

[01:06:59] Right, yeah. And he's just ready to make a career and make babies and have her be his partner and cook him meals or whatever. He works in the exciting new industry of plastic furniture covers. He's really going to take off. Huge plastic.

[01:07:16] It feels like there may be secretly eloping to bypass the parents and be like, too late we already did it. Now we have sex. That's why you do it. Yes, you're going to move in together or whatever, right? So you're going to have to elope. Yep.

[01:07:28] So we have Wendy Jo Spurber, who of course plays one of the disappearing siblings and back to the future. Her name is, what's the character's name? Rosie, yes. She rules, I love her. She's kind of like the most fanatical, right? Like the most sort of hysterical.

[01:07:49] She loves Paul. She loves Paul correctly. And she's, yeah, she's right. She's just high energy too. Like she's a little more, I guess, shamelessly high energy than the other ones, like which I love. She's in 1941. She's in used cars and back to the future.

[01:08:06] Like you said, she's in a lot of those. And she was on Buzzing Buddies with T. Hanks. Yeah. Well, that's the thing about this movie. Like this and then 1941 kind of established like this collection of Zemeckis players that appear in a lot of these movies.

[01:08:21] Like the same, I can't remember the actor's name, the guy who plays Jimmy Olsen in the Superman movies. Yes. He is the E. Clare. Mark McClare. Mark McClare. Yeah. He is Marty McFly's brother in that movie. Older brother, yeah. Yeah. Right. Like Eddie Deeson shows up in 1941.

[01:08:35] I believe he's also in used cars. And yeah, Eddie Deeson, I mean Eddie Deeson will talk about him, but we'll get to that in a little bit. Then you got Teresa Saldana. Yeah. I was just going to say of the four girls,

[01:08:47] it's like Wendy-Jose Berber is the one who is really sort of like pushing the plot into existence because she's the one who's like, I gotta do this. I'll just die if I don't see the Beatles. And the other girls all have their sort of

[01:09:00] alternative viewpoints where it's like Nancy Allen is just sort of along for the ride, trying to be a good friend. She thinks she doesn't really need to do this, but she's the one who ends up getting the most affected by it. Then you have Teresa Saldana who's Grace,

[01:09:14] who is the aspiring photojournalist who really sees that she was able to get some good pictures of the Beatles that could make her entire career. She's the craftiest one. She's the one figuring out like you need to rent a limo,

[01:09:25] you need to go on the floor below, right? Like she's not gonna just charge her head first into Paul. Like she's trying to figure out a back way. Yeah. And then you have Susan Kendall Newman who is Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward's daughter.

[01:09:41] And does this movie and Robert Altman's a wedding in the same year, has an uncredited role as a pharmacist and slap shot and never acts again? Commits most of her life to philanthropy and protest. She's pretty good in this movie. I think she's very good.

[01:09:56] And she's the one who is anti-Biedels and is using Beatlemania as, trying to use Beatlemania as an opportunity to message larger issues. Well, she likes folk music. She likes authentic. Yes. Dylan, she likes Joe Bias. She likes the sort of like the real stuff, not this pop.

[01:10:14] But she likes that they're also speaking to the ills of society and that she feels she needs to refocus up the youth of America. You gotta pay attention to the lyrics. Yes. And so yes, within the web of who these characters connect to, you have Nancy Allen's fiancee

[01:10:32] who you almost never see until the very end. Then you have, Saldana has roped McCleur into this, who is sort of the nice boy she is. Will they or won't they energy with but always seems too nervous to actually ask her out, make a move.

[01:10:49] And importantly, he plays the accordion. Apportedly plays the accordion also. He can kind of drive a car. Sure. Right. Little nervous about it. Well, especially because he's driving this fucking purse. He's driving this goddamn boat. And then you have Bobby D'Amico is like the greaser guy

[01:11:08] who literally jumps into their car. Like, yeah, like the end of Fast Ampersand Furious from window to window in motion. Oh yes. Like none of them like him. No, none of them like him. He's a pain in the ass. Oh, I like him. He's a great guy.

[01:11:25] I'm sorry. Ben likes him. None of the characters in the movie like him. He's thirsty on main. He sprays beer into the face of the driver. Yeah, he's got no respect. I get it. He hits on those two ladies and when they just mentioned the Beatles, he's like,

[01:11:43] you're going to make me puke over here. What's going on? Like, you know, he's I mean, I admire his. I mean, he tries to take the whole fucking movie down with an axe. Like he is impressively committed to hating the Beatles. Yes. He also won't stop hitting that.

[01:11:59] I want to hold your clams joke, which I have no respect for anyone who doubles down on it that hard. No. OK, can I actually raise a question about that? Because so again, there are five quotes from this movie on IMDB. So I always heard it as clams.

[01:12:18] But in the Criterion essay by Scott Tobias, he writes that it's I want to hold your glands. Yeah, I heard glands. Is this like a like a like what is it? Blue dress, black dress or gold dress or whatever thing. I don't really get glands, though.

[01:12:35] That's not funny. I thought it was a weird sexual thing, basically. Clams could be sexual too. It's definitely sexual. Whatever he's doing is sexual. But it's a joke that no one finds funny except for him and he keeps repeating it. I don't understand how someone could do that.

[01:12:51] It's like so wild to just like hold your friends hostage and do a bit over and over again, over like years for your own amusement. It just feels so perverse to me. I don't understand why anyone would put up with it. Anyway, they come across a little boy.

[01:13:11] This is the Newman characters, the one who interacts with him most and Demigo. But he's a little boy who's a beetle maniac who's got the haircut. His dad wants him to get a military crew cut. But he's holding mana in the form of three tickets

[01:13:25] to the Ed Sullivan show. Yes. And wait, what's what's the name of the greaser character again? Tony. Tony. Tony. Marco. Tony aggressively tries to just cut this kid's hair off. Yes, in public. He's being a big old boy. Yeah. Yeah. While they're all waiting outside the plaza

[01:13:50] or wherever it is they're supposed to be. Is it the four seasons? The four seasons? I can't remember. No, it's the plaza hotel. New York's finest hotel experience. But it's shot in LA, so it's not really the plaza.

[01:14:01] Almost all of this movie is shot on the universal back lot. And Spielberg talks about that and that little featurette. Which, by the way, Zemeckis to me is the universal back lot. Because like back to the future. Totally. He's such a universal back lot guy,

[01:14:15] like that kind of nice movie version of America. But also it is that wild thing of like Spielberg talks about, oh, the way you just you filled up the streets and the way you dressed it and putting smoke coming out of the manhole covers.

[01:14:31] Like it was the first movie shot on the universal like a street stages that actually looked like somewhat real to me and not like a back lot. And then back to the future. You're like we I feel like we talked about this in another episode.

[01:14:45] Maybe we'll certainly talk about it in the future. Hint hint. Future. But the fact that that Hill Valley set is in like 87 million things, but you think of it as Hill Valley. Like when you watch Hill Valley,

[01:15:01] you don't think of the movies that came before or the movies that came after it. He somehow makes that feel like a tactile place. And this is another example of just like I didn't like I live in New York City. I know what New York City looks like.

[01:15:14] It wasn't like I felt like this is New York. They clearly shot on the real streets, but it also did not feel like I was looking at it back. No, it's very well done, especially considering that I'm sure this movie was not. It was 2.8 million dollars.

[01:15:27] You know, like it was not an expensive movie and you're right. It feels the very, very similitude is there. Like it feels like to me. Like when they pull up to the Ed Sullivan Theater, which again is also on the back lot watching this again,

[01:15:40] I was like, that must be the one that they at least did in New York. Like that that must be a real location. I don't know, though, because how many alleys have you guys ever been in New York City?

[01:15:50] And it's always in movies with like that are set in New York. There's not a lot of alleys, honestly. No, I just meant the like the front of the building. Like like the alley definitely not.

[01:16:01] But you know that about the one alley in New York, that's an every movie, right? The one like in Chinatown. Yeah, yeah, Quarland Alley. Yeah, OK. I think Quarland Alley has been used any time you see a New York alley in a movie. It's just Quarland Alley.

[01:16:15] The one it's the one I have shot so many videos there just because it's the only place that looks like a New York alley. So yeah, production value immediately. But that's just it. It's and there's like all these like fire escapes there. It's great.

[01:16:29] I think I've maybe filmed four different web series in Quarland Alley. I'm looking at photos now and I'm having a lot of really negative muscle memories come back to me. There's always a photo shoot there every time I walk by. Always.

[01:16:41] The final main main character, major character here is Eddie Deeson, who I don't know if you guys checked out Eddie Deeson's Wikipedia page, but it is a journey. I guess I mean, I know Eddie Deeson. Let's see what's what's going on in his Wikipedia page, though.

[01:16:58] OK, so my question for you guys is when did you first become aware of Eddie Deeson? Grease, I think definitely because I saw grease knows a little kid, right? Like and like, you know, that that's where it like because he is to be clear.

[01:17:13] Eddie Deeson is like the nerd for the 70s and 80s, right? Or I guess is that the best like he is Hollywood's version of a nerd? Yeah, anyone who's doing a nerd is kind of doing an Eddie Deeson kind of thing, right? Because my thing was like,

[01:17:30] I think I saw grease when I was like a little kid, but I have not seen it since then. So I knew him from well, I loved Dexter's lab. Yeah, he's man. But I was like 12 years old. He's he's man. That's like the most iconic voice.

[01:17:44] I like genuinely when I was 12 years old, my family got a cat and I insisted that the cat be named a man dark. We had it for like 15 years. I loved man dark rules. God, Dexter's lab is so good. I hope that holds up. I haven't watched it.

[01:18:01] Gendi Tartakovsky, it holds up until they rebooted it without Gendi. I was about to say it's the early seasons that he was involved with. Right? And then they add they change it up and it gets kind of bad, right? He did three seasons.

[01:18:13] It's on it's on HBO Max now. It fucking rules. It holds up beyond belief that show is so much more experimental than people give a credit for. It's perfect. I loved it to be like I was obsessed with it

[01:18:25] when it was whatever just constant repeat on Cartoon Network. But so I knew just man dark. I didn't know who did the voice. I just loved man dark. And then like six years ago, I watched 1941 for the first time and lost my fucking mind

[01:18:39] because suddenly a guy with man dark's voice was a real person. And I just assumed that that was like a voice that like Tom Kenny did or something. I didn't know there was just a person who is man dark. See, this is my thing.

[01:18:51] My mind jumped to, oh, this must be how like all of Hank Azaria's characters on the Simpsons are his bad impressions of different movie stars. Like the way that he talks about like Wiggum is Edward G. Robinson and like Mo is his Pacino and stuff.

[01:19:09] I'm like, oh, I didn't realize that man dark is someone like Tom Kenny dining out on this character actor's real voice. And then you realize, no, this is this guy's real fucking voice. This is what he does. And as you said, he mostly is transitioned into voiceover

[01:19:25] in the later half of his career. He sort of talks about his Wikipedia page feels very much maintained by him. But talking about how his live action film work sort of dried up in the 80s due to a number of things, one is which he's apparently been plagued

[01:19:40] with an inability to remember lines his entire life. He tried to be a standup comedian at first and gave up because you couldn't remember his own routines. He was gonged on the gong show, I believe for very similar reasons. By Paul Williams, by Paul Williams of all people.

[01:19:56] Correct. But but but then he switched to acting. He started auditioning. Grease was the breakout and then Zemeckis really kind of takes him under his wing and goes like, oh, this is one of my stock company guys.

[01:20:10] But there's the thing where it's like he is this as I'm looking at his Wikipedia pages and notes he wanted to voice Roger Rabbit and he loses that role to Charles Fleischer. Wanted to play judge Doom lost that role for Lloyd.

[01:20:24] It feels like from and again, this is just from the Wikipedia page, but it's also it's hard not to think about it. Like he kind of suffered from not being in revenge of the nerds because it was like finally they made a big blockbuster movie about nerds

[01:20:39] and he didn't get to be in it. Like even though they are doing an Eddie D's and kind of thing, right? Like they're dressed like a protector guy. Yes. He makes it sound like they pointedly didn't hire him.

[01:20:54] I mean, the quote they have here is he was deemed too geeky that they would rather dress up, quote unquote, normal people as nerds than book the real thing. He says it's still the thing he gets recognized for the most, despite him not being in the movie.

[01:21:09] But that's like his arc from like, you know, the 70s into the early 80s is like revenge of the nerds kind of ends his career because suddenly other people just start being able to make money doing Eddie D's impressions rather than having to hire Eddie D's and himself.

[01:21:26] I just also want to call out he apparently had a starring role in a 1984 film that has what is now officially my favorite title of all time. He played the villain, mad scientist Menlo Schwartzer in the film, Surf to colon the end of the trilogy. There you go.

[01:21:50] Which is like it's like a role in numerals. Yes, yes. The end of the parody of surfer movies, right? Like it's some weird look at this. He's in it. He's got a big hat. I'm seeing we Eric Stoltz is in it.

[01:22:04] Eric Stoltz is in it. Eddie D's in his top build. There, of course, was no surf one. It doesn't exist. There's only surf to the end of the trilogy. I want to see this thing so fucking badly.

[01:22:17] The tagline for the movie is the movie that gives insanity a bad name. I believe it is on YouTube, Griffin, if you wish to if you wish to enjoy it. I think it's easily viewable these days. It used to be a cult object.

[01:22:30] It looks like I will say I'm glad that like I I'm not a huge fan of the polar express, but I do love the Eddie D's and comes back in it. I can't wait. That's interesting. Huh, OK, yes. Well, anyway, I love Ray.

[01:22:42] I love those amicus players for meeting them all here. It's much like Demi. Yeah, but they said D's in was very much a thing. Yeah, I mean, Greece, he's mostly used as like a site gag, right?

[01:22:51] Like they use him as sort of like a fucking rim shot at the end of sequences to get a pie in the face or whatever. This Gale said he wrote this character based on a real guy.

[01:23:01] He knew who was insufferable and D's and walks in and they're just like, well done, right? We got it. Here we go. Like fucking jobs done for us. D's in is like a self-professed. He claims that he's the biggest in the world.

[01:23:14] So it the fact that he seems to be so plagued by not remembering dialogue and that hurting his career, you have to wonder if like half of his monologues in this movie are just him stream of consciousness spewing out shit. Yes.

[01:23:27] I mean, that is definitely he's so good, though. He it's one of the you just can't fake what he's doing. Like the his weird sort of disconnection from conversation. Like the way he kind of just talks through people and like isn't really

[01:23:41] hearing what they're saying and just kind of has his weird monologues. Like he's he's great. He's very, very funny. Well, it's also just that weird thing of like he's one of these guys who would seem like a cartoon character, except you can tell this is really

[01:23:56] who he is, that he's not putting on a voice, that he's not dressing himself up, right? That this actor is pretty close to what he's playing. And then also that he's one of these bizarre performers who is in no way

[01:24:09] naturalistic, but it's so clear that this is his actual course of behavior, that the weird stiltedness of it becomes very honest because it's like, oh, the naturalism is the actor being comfortable being this uncomfortable and odd and stilted on camera. If that makes sense. Yes.

[01:24:32] He just never makes eye contact with anyone the entire film. Right. I think of him as, you know, Toby Radloff, the Harvey P car sidekick. Yes. Who he's the other one like both of those guys, similar kind of generation where it's just like, yeah, you can't fake this.

[01:24:47] This is just a type of a person. The internet doesn't exist. I'm my brain is the internet. Yes, right. He doesn't feel like an actor. He feels like like as if Zemeckis or Gale had some weirdo friend

[01:25:00] that they just dragged into the movie and said, do that thing that you do all the time. Which I guess I mean, he wasn't their friend, but it's almost kind of what's happening. Right. Well, and the character, the guy they based it off of Gale says,

[01:25:11] like a guy who drove me absolutely insane and D's in somehow makes this character kind of appealing because he is so earnest and good natured, even if he's like so bizarre, you know? Yeah, he's not a malicious person. He's just right.

[01:25:26] He's sort of a buffoon and like it's also kind of funny when he interacts with the Wendy Jospere, the character Rosie, right? And like after a while there, there, there, there, there it's such similar energy levels that she's like, I guess you're my boyfriend.

[01:25:41] He's like, what? No, I only care about the Beatles. Like, you know, like he's like that's just that's not his agenda. It's like two furbies like put next to each other, talking to each other. And it's like, I guess that's a conversation.

[01:25:53] And and and he's like, I thought you love Paul. And I love that thing where she's like, well, yeah, Paul. I mean, but he's Paul like which you're like he's he Paul is like just this godly figure to her.

[01:26:06] He's not like she doesn't really expect that she's going to have a conversation with him. She just wants to like touch him. Like she just has this weird urge or she's like, I just have to be near him. Something's going to happen if I do that.

[01:26:19] It's religious for her. Yes. Can I also just throw out last real life Eddie Dees in fact from his Wikipedia for over a year on his official website. Deeson featured a difficult Beatles trivia quiz. I know I've been looking for this in himself with a hundred dollar prize

[01:26:35] for anyone who could answer all of the questions correctly. Deeson later in an interview revealed that nobody had ever claimed the prize. It is absolutely impossible. I don't have the answer to any of these questions. I found it. It's it's it's crazy.

[01:26:49] I love the plot point of the trivia question of who's the radio show. Right. Yes. Yeah. Right. And they interpreted differently where Wendy Joe Sperber thinks of it as who is the youngest and Deeson thinks of it as who is the youngest in terms of being a

[01:27:04] beetle because they joined the group last like he's so wildly overthinking it and overthinking the fact that everyone else must be overthinking things to the same degree. And then that pays off. It pays off which is hilarious.

[01:27:17] I love that all four of them get to the concert in different ways. I mean, I know we're jumping all over the place, but it is one of these movies that's so split up and episodic. It's hijinks. They're trying to get to the show.

[01:27:31] Right. They all have their little adventures. They're all we know. We kind of know they're all going to end up probably at the show, right? You know, like or whatever, like by hooker by crook, you know, but yeah, where it's a bunch of different adventures.

[01:27:43] God, the physical comedy is wild. The part where Rosie falls out of the moving car. Love that. It's incredible. Right. She's trying to get to the phone booth to answer the question. Yeah. Right. And kind of the notion that they're all somewhat superhuman

[01:27:56] when they have Beatles and Beatlemania surging through them, that it like sort of activates some new power for them. Right. Well, that's why the adults are all scared because their children are turning into these like superhuman monsters. Well, right. And you have these cops being like stop

[01:28:11] and like the kids are like barreling through cops and like attacking them. Dick Miller is so funny. They're destroying the cops. It's the kids gaining superpowers and going to war with the police and kicking them in the shins. Yeah, God, Dick is Dick Miller and others in Mechismo.

[01:28:27] He is right. Does he count as a Mechis player? I don't think so. He's a Corman guy and he's a big Joe Dante guy. He's in every single Joe Dante movie. I'm trying to see if he is in even one more Zemeckis movie. He's in used cars.

[01:28:41] OK. And not. And 1941, but that's obviously not right. Right. Love Dick Miller, though, obviously. Yeah. But then, no, after this, it's he moves to the the Dante zone primarily. Yes, it is like the dynamic between the cops and the kids

[01:29:01] where the cops kind of hate that this is the fucking beat they're on and also that somehow this has become the most difficult beat they've ever worked like the resentment of we have to fucking protect these limies combined with how is this so hard?

[01:29:17] How is this the thing that's like physically knocking the shit out of me? And that's the thing that like wins Janice over because she hates the Beatles because they're just this frivolous pop stuff and they're not about like

[01:29:27] they're not singing about real issues like the protest music she likes. But then when like the Beatles fans like protect her and the kid from the cops, suddenly like that's like her wake up moment where it's like, oh, wait, maybe this is like an anti establishment thing.

[01:29:41] Maybe I do like this. Yeah. And that it is like it's its own counterculture. Like that it's not in competition and that there are there are also things that can come out of this, this nascent sort of movement that's building around this band.

[01:29:54] And I love that whenever you see the Beatles, who obviously only see the backs of their heads or whatever you hear their voices. But like, you know, when they come into the hotel room, when Nancy Allen is hiding under the bed, they're seeing the Beach Boys

[01:30:04] because obviously they were obsessed with the Beach Boys and always like felt inferior to them. And like and they seem kind of blase about the show and they're like, God, we sound bad. Like is this even like going to work?

[01:30:17] Like, you know, like they're kind of just like, oh, whatever. Like it reinforces the Beatles were not really into their own godhood, you know, especially right now. Yeah. I just kept thinking about because we so recently did our Beyond the Lights episode.

[01:30:32] So I watched that movie so recently. And that's a movie that's like someone desperately trying to attain this level of fame in a very manufactured, like what are all the chess piece moves I need to make with the giant corporation behind me

[01:30:46] and my mother as a manager and all this sort of stuff. And she's like totally collapsing inside. And this is a movie where it's just like part of the magic of the Beatles and how they hit in a way that is hard to replicate

[01:30:57] is that they just seemingly were like, oh, no, we like playing. And like even when they were at the eye of like the hurricane, they were just like, this is weird. It only somehow stirred up the chaos around them even more that they seem

[01:31:11] so sort of like confused and unaffected by the chaos. Right. And you have like reporters being like, oh, like what about that? And they just say, oh, I don't know. Do you know, like they would give like to put them in my shoes, don't I?

[01:31:24] Like they were always giving these fucking nonsense answers that early interview scene where the girl is like, I have to marry like John or whatever. And he's like, isn't he already married? And she's like, yeah, but what if she dies? Yes. There could be another divorce or death.

[01:31:41] So that's right. Her little trio is her and Smirko and the kid all three of them want to get to the concert. They have such a weird relationship with the kid because it's like they're protective of him, but they're also openly just using him for the tickets.

[01:31:57] He's the only one who really wants to go. Then, you know, the Smirko wants to go to literally like fucking like clown the Beatles, like to take them down in their biggest moment, sabotage their entire American career.

[01:32:13] And Newman, you know, ostensibly like wants to use it as like a protest moment. So you have these three people unified who all have very different objectives in terms of what they want. Sperber just wants to win tickets like she knows everything

[01:32:29] and she knows that between all these radio stations somewhere somehow eventually she's going to be able to call in and prove her knowledge and win something, which is how she ends up with Deezon, who is similarly fanatical and even less socially competent.

[01:32:44] Who has basically just been living in the Plaza Hotel on the seventh floor for like an unknown period of time. Just he's stole a key and took over a room. It's like he's selling. Frank Weiler, she watches. Yes. Yes.

[01:33:00] Yeah. I mean, the fact that his Holy Grail is just a piece of like a piece of like the grass, the ground, like it's like a square foot and he's like, I don't know which blade

[01:33:12] Paul stepped on, but it was one of them and it's wrapped in tin foil. It's the unveiling of that is beautiful. When you meet the character, he's ripping up carpet. Yeah. It's a great moment. That's the best plot line, right? Like that's the best plot line.

[01:33:29] I mean, I love Nancy Allen's performance so much in your ear. That's just RoboCop span zone. You're just you're too in the bag for RoboCop. Anything Nancy Allen does, you're like, well, that's the best. The payoff with her having this like

[01:33:46] like after she ditch it, she just blows up her life and like like calls off her wedding, ditches her fiancee and then just like breaks down sobbing, watching this concert and grabbing her dress like the shot of her like like clenching her dress.

[01:34:03] That to me, that's like unexpectedly moving in a movie that has been just so manic up till now. And so the payoff of that makes it like maybe my favorite just because I like I feel something after I've just been like laughing through the whole thing.

[01:34:19] This is my argument. I don't think she's the best plot line, but I think she's the best individual performance and the most satisfying character journey. And the other moment is like when she sneaks into the hotel

[01:34:32] and has the moment where she's just gawking at the guitar and everything, that sequence is pretty incredible, especially because she's the one who feels sort of most like apathetic about all of this compared to the rest of the group. You know, she has no real clear game.

[01:34:48] She's like, yeah, the Beatles, of course they're good, but my marriage is the real thing. And then she has this moment when she's like up close with their guitar that feels like she's seeing the eye of God. It's also very sexual. Yes. Yes.

[01:35:02] Like when she puts her ring in her shoe and then just strokes the neck of Paul's base. I think they represent some sense of freedom for her and the idea that she doesn't need to like perhaps live the exact same life that like the previous generations have,

[01:35:18] that she doesn't need to be married by 18, you know, and like with kids by 20 and everything. Yeah. No, of course not. She should have a youth life. She should have a youthful experience as a person, which I guess, you know, right?

[01:35:34] Teens barely, you know, teens are brand new, basically. The idea that anyone cares about that section of your life is a section of like, you know, is a sort of independent section of adolescence. But yeah, I just like the right.

[01:35:47] I like that it acknowledges the sort of sexual awakening aspect of Beatlemania, which is obviously part of it. And she's great. I love Nancy Allen, very underrated actress Nancy Allen, because I think she seems a bad actress in the 80s. Right? Like, you know, the department.

[01:36:03] Yeah, I also feel like right. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. The DePaul movies are so stylized and her performances in them are so stylized that I think people wrote it off as like, she's a bad actress because she was a naturalistic actress.

[01:36:14] But she was doing what was asked of her in those films. She's matching those films perfectly in her performance. And this is really nuanced and naturalistic and really sweet. I also think there is that sexist thing very often where when a director has

[01:36:29] when when a actress's career is primarily in their husband's films, people tend to discount them as an actor in their own right. And more is just like, oh, they're like an extension of the director.

[01:36:42] They're like a piece, like they're using their wife as like a prop, you know? And I think yeah, because like a lot of her biggest works were the DePaul movies and they're so specific. And she worked with him so much.

[01:36:54] I don't know. I think she's a really underrated actor in general. Me too. And Officer Lewis rules. Their friendship is the last true good thing left in this world. So. Right. That is that plot line.

[01:37:05] I like not I'm not putting a bow on it, but we're talking about all this stuff out of order. I do like that Nancy Allen has this like total like spiritual awakening moment and sexual awakening moment. And Sperber just faints immediately misses the entire concert.

[01:37:19] And when she comes to and they tell her that she's happy about it. Like she's like, of course. I just had to know I was in the room like a day. It's seeing the concerts almost irrelevant. Right. Because my mom's description of

[01:37:33] I think she was a candlestick park, but it was it's much like she stayed. It was that tour is I said like it's just she was just totally frustrated. She couldn't hear a thing. Everyone was screaming and it was just like you either have to because the

[01:37:46] whole you know the sound systems just could could not stand up to fifty five thousand screaming people like you need that to just give yourself over to and be like, yeah, no, I'm not actually going here to see and hear the Beatles.

[01:37:58] I'm going here to have a collective maniacal experience like and I think my mom was more like, but don't you? Right. You know, like, I guess I'm just going to look at the Beatles, you know, standing on home plate or what?

[01:38:12] And like standing on the pitchers mound like I'd be like, OK, well, there they are. It's also like Sperber is going to spend the next seventy years of her life telling people about the time she literally fainted at the Ed Sullivan show.

[01:38:23] Like she's going to die out on this. It's a better story than if she had watched it and had the same experience as everyone else. It's a fair point. Real quick, can we just touch upon the Mustard Boy? Because I found that part. Third Act Twist. Disconcerting.

[01:38:40] I didn't love that whole moment in the movie. I understand that the commitment to her wanting to get the photograph shall go this far, but rough. It's a type of comedy that I think peaks late 80s, early 90s, which is

[01:38:56] like what's the weirdest fucking sexual fetish you can give someone? You know, he wants to be a sandwich. Comedic set pieces of like what's this guy's fucking kink and having a scene where the person kind of gets like embarrassed and someone gets the upper hand on them.

[01:39:10] I think the joke of him being like it's going to be a picnic and then we cut and then it turns out he just wants mustard on his head. Like is somewhat funny just because I assume he has a much more pedestrian role play he wants to do.

[01:39:25] I agree. Cutting back mid role play where he's like, yeah, I am a sandwich. That's what's going on here. OK, and you keep hearing his voice before it cuts back because he's just like saying like faster, faster, faster.

[01:39:36] Right. And so it's they build up to the reveal of and that's the whole thing. Like when I first saw this, I was very silly. I was dreading what it was going to be for a while.

[01:39:46] And so it was kind of like a relief that like, oh, it's it's it's just silly. Well, the initial fear also is that you're thinking like you're like, oh my God, is she going to like, you know, take the place of a call girl?

[01:39:59] Is she going to just try like, you know, like what one earth is going on here? And you realize like because she needs 50 bucks to get in the back door. But no, she's got a whole black male scheme worked out, essentially. She's she's the mover and the shaker.

[01:40:12] She's already always looking at the big picture, looking for an angle. Yeah. And he wants to be a sandwich. Look, the man wants to be a sandwich. And it also like in this sort of Zemeckis way where it's like,

[01:40:23] you got to just move all the pieces to the right position on the board. That misunderstanding is what pushes Jimmy Olsen to finally have the courage to be like, I need to actually tell her how I feel and ask her to the dance and go after her.

[01:40:36] Also straight up do a line that they would just repeat for Back to the Future. Roads were going, we don't need roads. No, exactly. You know, he busts in and shouts that. My name is Marty McFly. Is that the line?

[01:40:52] I might not get it when your kids are going to love it. You know, he busts in and says, get your goddamn hands off her. Oh, right. Sure. Right. Right. Yes. Yes. Yes. Very true.

[01:41:01] You have to wonder if Eddie D's and was ever in the mix for George McFly or if they were just like, we need him to be five percent more normal. Right. You can't. Yeah. It can't be. Although Crispin Glover is arguably weirder in a way,

[01:41:20] but in a in a quieter way. Also weirder in a way where you're like, well, this is an actor making weird choices. I feel comfortable. Right. Whereas with D's in, you'd be like, does this guy know that he's being filmed?

[01:41:33] The thing is also like Glover gives a weird performance, but there's also like dynamics that he can modulate. It can go big and it can go quieter. And D's in is just like at a 10. He's all guitar solo. He has one thing that you hire him to do.

[01:41:48] And that's what he does. And it's not going to change at all. It's like, I feel like you can't direct Eddie D's. No, absolutely not. But I think like for how much he talks about on his own Wikipedia and interviews,

[01:42:00] like his career sort of drying up and everything, it feels like that's a lot of it. And animation is a pretty good lane for him to be in, which he has done successfully. He's like either snap, crackle or pop. He's like a bunch of different cartoon spokesman.

[01:42:15] Yeah, he almost was the Affleck duck. But pre Chihuahua when Taco Bell had Katna Dog, who were mascots, he was one of them. He has a lock on the annoying character roles. And he's fucking man dark. That's, you know, a whole of fame performance right there.

[01:42:33] I do love though talking about like how cartoonish this movie is. And as Mike has a gale talked about how influenced they were by like Looney Tunes and Tashlin and Chuck Jones and all that sort of stuff. The reveal of D's in dressed up as the elevator operator

[01:42:47] is such bugs bunny shit that she's like, finally I'm safe. And then he turns around and it's him in a disguise. He's breaking levers. But he pulls the lever out. Yeah, don't worry. I got it. I can fix it. I can fix it.

[01:43:02] That's the one time that he actually like I get annoyed at him because I'm like you were, dude, I love you. But if you fuck up her chance to like other fuck get to the theater, that's that's like crossing a line.

[01:43:13] Yeah, I just knew they'd figure it out. But I also love that he doesn't. He's sort of out of it until he realizes she has the tickets and then he's like, oh my God, we have no air like that's funny. It's a funny little door. Thanks, sir.

[01:43:30] I also like that when she's operating the elevator, she can never line it up and she's always just like jumping in and out of the elevator anyway, which is also, I mean, not a clear line there.

[01:43:41] But when I watched the lift short film afterwards, I'm just like, OK, OK, we've got the same kind of like old school elevator. I'm just I'm always looking for those little like connective tissue between like multiple things he did. Actually, I'd not to derail this,

[01:43:56] but can I rewind to the very first shot of the movie? Yes, I just want to quickly say, man, Robert Zemeckis, you could call him the special features deleted scenes on the DVD for Star Wars Episode three, Revenge of the Sith because this guy likes his elevator antics.

[01:44:13] Wow. I mean, I saw where it was going. Yes, opening shot, Patrick, take us back. So in terms of like one of the things I love about this movie, one of the reasons I wanted to talk about it on this episode is

[01:44:30] I always find it fascinating when a debut film is like what if someone shows up fully formed to their debut film when all of the pieces that they become known for are just already there and you end this movie is that in so many ways,

[01:44:44] whether it's just like, OK, his, you know, his fascination with like with just like historical moments of the past that he lived through like major points in the like inserting fictional characters into big moments in 20th century American history, whether it's that like,

[01:45:00] you know, sort of screwball, mechanical, like clockwork precision of plotting. And you even the first shot because Zemeckis likes to do a thing with his opening shots that where especially if you look at like back to the future or forest gump or used cars,

[01:45:17] they tend to be these elaborate tracking shots that are like extended and like reveal multiple things or like follow an object through something. And the opening shot of this movie, it's like a simplified version of what he would go on to do.

[01:45:31] It's like it's still a shot that like goes through like a few positions and reveals like three things at once. And so it's not like a really noteworthy notable shot. I don't like opening shot, but it is like right there.

[01:45:44] You can see the beginning of a thing he would do in like every movie going forward. And I just wanted to point that out. Yeah. You're you're talking about what comes after the open credit sequence, right?

[01:45:57] No, it's it's the first shot where it's the it's like opens up with a close up of like the words like do not cross. Oh, yes. Yes. Back into this train shot. And it's like he'll do a more elaborate one.

[01:46:09] You'll talk about it next week on Used Cars. But I but like right from the beginning, he was always like, OK, I want my opening shot to like have like multiple stages to it and reveal multiple things.

[01:46:19] It's like I want to start and bring you into the world. Yeah. With a sort of fluidity kind of show offy like right at the start. That I was going to just say that opening credit sequence using so much stock footage is I think really important and wise

[01:46:33] for a movie that has the right approach, which is no one's going to accept anyone else playing the Beatles, make the Beatles feel mythical, cleverly use as much original footage as we can. But like starting it out with like all this sort of like hard days,

[01:46:47] night black, black and white sort of like here's the true mania of the thing is such good mood setting and especially for like I feel like younger generations or future generations watching that down the line. People like us to be like, right, it was this insane.

[01:47:02] Like you do need to remind yourself that it was actually this insane before the movie you're about to watch starts playing out at such a manic mad cat speed. And then, yes, it's like one of those things that's just such a clever

[01:47:16] fucking move and feels like a tip towards like the things that Symeccus would become obsessed with and possibly become overwhelmed by. But the we're going to deal with the concert by shooting around the actual concert as much as possible.

[01:47:32] This fucking gambit he comes up with of having body doubles perfectly mimicking out of focus in the background and then in the foreground, monitor showing what's happening on the camera. So you sort of get the best of both worlds. It doesn't just feel like you're using stock footage.

[01:47:50] It's integrated into the environment until the movie we're watching. But you're also like you're not going to get better than the actual Beatles. You're not going to make it any better than the actual thing. It's just it's so simple. It's so lo-fi. It's so effective.

[01:48:03] And as like a comparison point, the guy he has the impressionist who does Ed Sullivan is like good and he shoots him from a distance. But you are never not aware of the fact that you are watching a man with weird

[01:48:19] like wax museum makeup doing an Ed Sullivan impression. But it works for the movie. And it works for a kid. I'm impersonating Ed Sullivan. Because he was a weird wax figure character in a weird. Absolutely.

[01:48:31] But but it underlines how correct the choice is to deal with the Beatles themselves the way he did, that you're only ever seeing the back of their heads and isolated line and then for their performances, it's the footage.

[01:48:41] And then it's some out of focus limbs in the background. I mean, it's basically just a simplified version of what he did in all of Forest Gump. Yes. Yes. It's right. Another way in which he's just sort of like calling out his future.

[01:48:55] Right. But like in that movie, we don't see Elvis' face, right? When he's like staying at the house. No. Right. And then they reveal the footage on the TV. Right. Right. And of course, right. There's all that other footage where he puts Forest Gump into the historical settings.

[01:49:11] Yeah. Can I just say because I want to hold myself accountable to this, I'm going to say this on Mike right now. David, you're about to get married to to Forky. You're going. You're looking at me with dread.

[01:49:25] I'm not saying anything that you think I'm about to say. OK. You're going on like a two week works a badical as your honeymoon. So we're not recording, so we're banking up episodes before that. Right? OK.

[01:49:39] I have I have purchased and my goal is in those two weeks since we won't be recording and I won't have movies to watch for the show. I have purchased both before Scump novel and the sequel Gump and Co. And I want to read a close up.

[01:49:52] Oh, wow. They're very they're very much darker, I think. That's why I want to read them. That's not sure. I want to read. Gump and Co is written after the release of the movie and features Forrest Gump, the man who Forrest Gump, the movie was based on.

[01:50:10] Yes, exactly. Right. It's like a weird kind of jokey satire of the movie success in a war or something. You should read them. I mean, I approve. In the first book, he goes into space and meets aliens, I believe.

[01:50:25] Once I read that, I decided I needed to track these down. Yes, he definitely goes to space. I'm pretty sure that's a huge means aliens. Are there any other things we want to talk about with this movie? Is there much to say about the oh, oh, oh,

[01:50:42] another thing that Zemeckis brings back? The climax takes place during a lightning storm. Yes, yes, that's true. Yes, the lightning storm that is essentially God intervening and telling Bobby DeChico, like you will not be stopping the Beatles.

[01:50:59] You know, he's taking an axe to the satellite dish and the lightning. He's like, fine, I give up. You know, it's OK. I also I love the ending for the Saldana character in Maclaur. Where right, she has the fifty dollars. She's she's she's a blackmailed the sandwich man.

[01:51:19] She has the back door entrance. She sees the cops coming for him. She chooses to use the money to bail him out with a corrupt cop rather than get into the concert, like she she makes the sort of human to human choice rather than the

[01:51:33] career choice and which gives him the courage to finally ask her to the dance. They have the sweet moment. You're like that's kind of nice, but it's still a bummer that she's the only one who doesn't get to go to the concert.

[01:51:42] And then the Beatles get in the backseat of their fucking car because they're parked in the right place and the limo couldn't get to them. And that like just the reveal of she's there in the front seat. She's got her camera there all there in the backseat.

[01:51:55] And the Beatles manager is just saying drive, drive, drive. I don't care if you're the right car. We have to get out of here. And the fact that the movie like ends, you have the other friends go those Jersey license plates. It couldn't be.

[01:52:05] You don't even see her taking the photos or anything. They don't do anything more with it. But it's just the idea of like she's made out like a fucking bandit. She's going to get the best photos of all time.

[01:52:15] Her entire career is going to be made on this. Well, also like that her limo gambit worked. Eventually, right? Like it actually finally pays off. Yes, she got the guy, she got the car, she got the picks. Right.

[01:52:28] Well, that final moment is kind of for me the biggest difference between this and American graffiti because like American graffiti feels like the end of something. It's like a last hurrah before it all kind of comes to an end.

[01:52:40] And this kind of ends with like the promise of like what this like this new wave of excitement that it like, you know, arrived in the country and everyone like leaves this full of optimism for like,

[01:52:53] you know, like suddenly Pam has like is now free and could do her life. Her life has opened up. Yeah. Exactly. Like Grace gets her photograph. She gets like the Beatles connection. Maybe she is going to have that great career as a photojournalist. Right. Yes.

[01:53:09] Because this guy Rosie's going to have a really, really functional marriage to Eddie D's and everyone. I do love that his name is Ringo Claus because his real name is Richard. And he feels like if Ringo could change his name for Richard to Ringo,

[01:53:23] then everyone should change their name from Richard to Ringo. Yeah. Right. I mean, they should have done like a more American graffiti just called like I want to hold more of your hands where we just returned like a decade later. Now that the Beatles have broken up.

[01:53:35] I would love that. Especially if it wasn't directed by Zemakis and was directed by someone else and half of the cast members sort of showed up and not really. I also I wish that Fred Claus, there was a third brother

[01:53:49] and it was Eddie D's in reprising his role of Ringo Claus. I wish it was Ringo, Fred and Santa Claus. I agree. They should they should do that, at least on Disney Claus.

[01:54:00] David, we've done 1978 as like the year in box office or have we not done that before? We have. That's that's like I just don't think there's anything to be done. Like there's just so little Star Wars was still the number one movie when this

[01:54:13] came out. That's the only thing I could tell you or I don't know. It's still playing Superman is the number one movie is 78 for sure. I think so this movie here in April. Yeah, yes. And Superman came out that Christmas,

[01:54:29] but the other big movies of the year, Greece, Animal House, Heaven Can Wait. And this is why I remember that we had done this before every which way but loose which you're you're looking at D's in the McClure two of the biggest box office stars of 1970.

[01:54:45] Deezins had a great year. Yeah, you also got of course Hooper Bert Reynolds's big hit of the year. You got Jaws to which stinks right, but so Spielberg likes Spielberg's already being sequel fine. Yep. You got up and smoke is one of the big hits of the year.

[01:55:04] Cheech and Chong, the dear hunter, the dear I was wins best picture. Yeah, you and up and smoke fan bed. Oh fuck yes. Wait a second. Cheech and Chong is a franchise. Yes, they are a franchise. Here we go. Here we go. Whoo, baby.

[01:55:20] No, we're not. We're not doing six months of campaigning. Exactly. Because because they made like eight or nine. They did too many movies. You know, it's like to do a Corsican Brothers commentary. Oh, wait. No, I only thought it was the three.

[01:55:36] No, because you got up and smoke and Cheech and Chong's next movie. Yeah. Then you got nice dreams, which is sort of them doing an action movie. Right? Then you got things are tough all over. I don't really know that one.

[01:55:50] Then you got then they went back to basic still smoking still smoke. And then you've got a you've got the Corsican Brothers. That's weird one, I remember being like, OK, now they've really lost it. Yeah, that's kind of the last live action movie, I guess.

[01:56:09] After that, they've done in the animated movie. But yeah. Yeah, that one looks really weird. Jesus. And their animation of French novella. Yes, go ahead. Yes. No, I was just going to say their animated movie is called. Let me check the title here. Cheech and Chong's animated movie.

[01:56:26] I wonder, yeah, I wonder how how that they arrived at that title. That's really intense. Yes, I wonder who the lead characters are and also what medium they chose to realize their story. I mean, the weird thing is that Cheech and Chong, right, they like they should feel

[01:56:40] like one hit Wondery. But of course, like Cheech married such an amazing character actor, like he's good any time he pops and he does so much TV. And then like Tommy Chong, right? He's like on that 70s show for forever.

[01:56:51] You know, right? He would he would eat stuff. Keeps on selling water pipes. He's killing that. Yeah. Patrick, as someone as someone who watched all of the Zemeckis filmography, do you have any guidance for us?

[01:57:07] Are there any things we want to sort of leave us with as we we embark on this journey? That's that's a very good question. I will say I'm so excited to hear your take on the most recent decade.

[01:57:20] The weird return to prestige dramas that don't click with audiences. The the Allied flight, the walk, you know, that that moron obviously. The decade of the mall. Yeah, exactly. It is so wild how cleanly it almost tracks where you're just like 2000s.

[01:57:40] Mo cap, you know, like you have the two live action films at the beginning, but then he's like in Mo cap world 2010s. He's trying to save the adult drama. Right. He's like, listen up, Hollywood, you don't make movies like this anymore.

[01:57:55] So I guess I got to do it. Right. But they're also insane. I mean, the big thing that it's funny that it like did not come up in this episode, but it's going to be such a major part.

[01:58:05] You'll just be talking about this for the next like five months is just technology. Yes. Because it's really a thing where it's like that's why like I think Back to the Future 2 was going to be a really interesting discussion. Because like that, like, you know, that right after

[01:58:22] Roger Rabbit and then like just the way that technology is going to come to dominate more and more of your conversations. He's always been a cutting edge guy and it sort of gets ahead of him in a weird way.

[01:58:34] Like where he was ahead of it and then it flips. That was your whole take in your video on him that he's like this ultimate toy guy. Like that's the defining thing is how much he loves his toys.

[01:58:44] And it's a thing that comes up a lot on this podcast because a lot of these guys fall prey to it where they make the one movie where they get all the toys and then they kind of can't go back to thinking any other way.

[01:58:55] They have to keep getting bigger or pushing new things. And it's like Ang Lee with the high frame rate, Peter Jackson with everything. You know, a lot of these guys just get stuck. The thing is this is actually this is kind of the mini series that you guys

[01:59:09] have been building to for years because you started with George Lucas, who was the ultimate example of it. Yes. And now and Zemeckis is was kind of like he was like the next guy to get sucked into the digital toy world. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:59:23] And and you look at like. I feel like Ang Lee keeps on saying or when he was promoting Gemini Man, he kept saying like, look, maybe I'm going to flop. People don't like these movies. That's fine.

[01:59:36] But like I have the clout to be able to try to push this technology. And I think it's important for future generations to have. And Zemeckis was saying such similar things during like the Polar Express Bay Wolf run and everyone was like, shut up.

[01:59:50] Stop it. Go back to using normal cameras. But now you're like he did kind of work out the kinks for everyone else. Like everyone's fucking working on like the shoulders of what he did. Avatar certainly would not have existed had Zemeckis not done those three movies.

[02:00:08] Oh, yeah. Right. Did he need to spend a full decade doing that? Maybe not. But he did he committed. But that's the thing you also kind of can't argue with it. Big picture like you can argue with the individual films and we will.

[02:00:22] Patrick, thank you so much for being on the show. Long overdue. I feel like me. Hell yeah. People should follow everything you do on YouTube. By the time this comes out, the beard will be gone. The beard will be gone.

[02:00:34] Yeah, it'll be gone not long after we record this episode. So I'll be able to see my face again, which will be right now. Your beard is bigger than your head. Yeah, like I'm doing the exercise if like if we flopped you.

[02:00:47] If we just turned your skull upside down. Right. The beard half is is taller and broader than the rest of your skull. It's a weird time in everyone's lives. And a choice I made was to just not shave for five months. But your quarantine videos have been great.

[02:01:04] And I have to say in particular, I really admire the fact that you have been taking a strong stand in terms of like we got to get out of the echo chamber of just discussing the same four franchises and filmmakers over and over again.

[02:01:19] That you openly are like, I don't care if I lose subscribers. I'll do an hour on every adaptation of Little Women because if you have a platform, you want to try to start new conversations. Thank you. It's it's tough.

[02:01:31] YouTube is a is a weird place where people are not really open to anything outside of the stuff they're already very familiar with. But I'm trying to do what I can. Yeah. I think you're doing a great job.

[02:01:44] And also, I should say that Patrick and I both co-plugged the Playmobil movie, the most defended film of 2019, which we saw in theaters in a much simpler time. We handed over each of us a five dollar bill.

[02:01:58] A crisp five dollar bill, no change back sat, watched a first run screening of the Playmobil movie. We had no idea how good we had it. Movie theaters would never be that safe again. Tickets would never be that cheap again. Oh my god.

[02:02:12] If I could if I could just go back to that theater feeling as safe as I did in December, I would do it in a heartbeat. I would watch the Playmobil movie every day. I know I have a tendency towards hyperbole, but I truly have never felt

[02:02:23] safer in my entire life than I did during that screening of the Playmobil movie. Not since the womb. Not since the... That's the thing, like we weren't thinking about all the things wrong with the world.

[02:02:34] We were just trying to figure out what was up with Jim Gaffigan's magical hay that he was trying to sell, which they never really explain. That was the beauty of the Playmobil movie was we were so consumed by trying to figure out what was wrong with that movie

[02:02:48] that all the other ills of humanity were suddenly out of mind out of sight. Well, thank you again for being here. Of course, thank you so much for having me. Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate, review, subscribe.

[02:03:01] I'm excited for these five months we have ahead of us some weird things and also some of the biggest and most beloved movies ever made. Yep, it's going to be great. Knocking down some big guys. So keep tuning in for podcasts away.

[02:03:16] I got to say we booked this season out pretty far in advance in terms of guests. I don't want to announce anything because we haven't recorded them yet, but I think we got a really good line up of people coming for this one.

[02:03:24] And it's a silver lining of of December records. We're going to have some people who previously were unavailable. Yeah, a lot of new faces couple Angelinos, let's let's say. And let's say some old friends. Some Angelinos. We've got some Holly Weardians coming on the show soon.

[02:03:46] And we have a very, very subscribe. Go to blankies dot red dot com for some real nerdy shit. You can go check out our merchandise that we now have. It'll be in the description. But our limited edition run of fifth anniversary designs for the live shows

[02:04:05] that could never happen. So get those while they're hot. And thanks to Andrew for co-producing our show and Ben Hosley. Rachel Jacobs for editing assistance. Thanks to Joe Bonaparte rounds for artwork. Lea Montgomery for our theme song. And as always. Above all else.

[02:04:27] I want to hold your hand is a movie about Mandar Officer Lewis and Jimmy Olsen hanging out together. And that's Kehannan.