Bonus Episode: TV Party!
In this week’s Wrap Party, Zeth is talking about the Dating Game Killer in the US, the Bullseye Killer in the UK, and just how in the hell serial killers find themselves contestants on TV game shows in the first place. Plus, dirty recs with Jake Brennan for movies and songs about TV, and your voicemails, texts, and emails. Become an All Access member today by visiting disgracelandpod.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Speaker 1: Dear listeners of Hollywoodland, does it feel like you're stuck
Speaker 1: in limbo, standing under a flickering streetlight at the corner
Speaker 1: of Hollywood and true crime, waiting for the next episode
Speaker 1: of Hollywoodland to drop? I got you. Welcome to Hollywoodland,
Speaker 1: the rap party. What's happening, my fellow movie geeks, you
Speaker 1: true crime freaks, just like me, you guys, like your
Speaker 1: movie history, served up with a side of grit and grime.
Speaker 1: And this, of course, is the place where we rescue
Speaker 1: the stories from the cutting room floor, the stories that
Speaker 1: were left behind, the very same stories that have now
Speaker 1: made you the most dangerous person at the party. I'm
Speaker 1: your host, Seth Lundy, writer, showrunner, and good doctor here
Speaker 1: at Double Elvis. And today, In the Hollywoodland Rap Party,
Speaker 1: we are talking about the dating game killer in America
Speaker 1: and the bullseye killer over in the UK. We're talking
Speaker 1: about bad, bad men appearing on TV game shows. Later
Speaker 1: in the episode, I'll be joined by Jake Brennan of
Speaker 1: Disgraceland for this week's dirty wrecks of movies and music
Speaker 1: about what else? The television set. Plus, I've got your calls, texts.
Speaker 2: And emails.
Speaker 1: So come on, everybody. Let's party. As true crime intersecting
Speaker 1: with television goes, it doesn't get more batshit crazy than
Speaker 1: a serial killer appearing as a contestant on a TV
Speaker 1: game show while in the midst of a killing spree.
Speaker 1: But that's exactly what happened in 1978 when Rodney Alcala
Speaker 1: was featured as Bachelor No. 1 on the popular TV
Speaker 1: show The Dating Game. And not only was he a contestant,
Speaker 1: but he won. You've got to wonder. What was the
Speaker 1: screening process like for this show? Because at this point,
Speaker 1: Rodney Alcala had already done time for child molestation. It
Speaker 1: was a lesser charge than what he should have been
Speaker 1: charged with, which was rape and attempted murder. But the
Speaker 1: victim was unwilling to testify. He'd already been on the
Speaker 1: FBI's most wanted list. And then just months after he
Speaker 1: got out of the joint, he was arrested and convicted again,
Speaker 1: this time for assaulting a 13-year-old girl. So I ask you,
Speaker 1: dear listeners of Hollywoodland, what the hell was going on
Speaker 1: in the dating game? I mean, this was 1978, so
Speaker 1: it's not like they could Google Rodney Alcala or do
Speaker 1: a quick scan of his Facebook page or whatever. But
Speaker 1: you think that there would be some sort of process
Speaker 1: to weed out convicted sexual predators. But then again, there
Speaker 1: was something so predatory about the culture at this time.
Speaker 1: This was the age of Richard Dawson, the host of
Speaker 1: Family Feud, who kissed all the female contestants straight on
Speaker 1: the lips. This is also the era of Bob Barker
Speaker 1: of The Price is Right, who women felt compelled or
Speaker 1: expected to kiss on the cheek when they were called
Speaker 1: up to the stage. But as I was listening again
Speaker 1: to this week's archive episode on Rodney Alcala, aka the
Speaker 1: dating game killer, it's the episode that's right behind this
Speaker 1: one in your feed, it got me thinking about this
Speaker 1: collision of true crime and TV. And I was curious
Speaker 1: if this sort of thing had ever happened before or since,
Speaker 1: if a criminal, if a murderer had ever been featured
Speaker 1: on TV while they were in the midst of committing
Speaker 1: their crimes. And I was maybe not shocked, but definitely
Speaker 1: surprised to find out that it has happened since. Not once,
Speaker 1: but at least twice. The first time was in 1988
Speaker 1: on the TV show Super Password, which was a spinoff
Speaker 1: or a revival of the original Password show. You know
Speaker 1: the one. It's similar to the pyramid shows. There are
Speaker 1: two teams of two people, one contestant and one celebrity,
Speaker 1: someone like Phyllis Diller, who have to guess words using
Speaker 1: one-word clues, right? So in 1988, a guy named Patrick
Speaker 1: Quinn appeared on Super Password. He wound up winning $ 58, 000,
Speaker 1: which I believe was the most anyone had won on
Speaker 1: that show at this time. But here's the thing. Patrick
Speaker 1: Quinn did not exist. This guy... gave the show's producers
Speaker 1: a fake name, fake social security number, a fake driver's license.
Speaker 1: And when the episode aired, someone watching at home recognized
Speaker 1: this Patrick Quinn character as a guy named Kerry Ketchum,
Speaker 1: who was a fugitive on the run. Kerry Ketchum was
Speaker 1: a 36-year-old man who had collected $ 100, 000 from an insurance
Speaker 1: policy when he lied and said his wife died in
Speaker 1: a car accident. Again, I ask you, What the hell
Speaker 1: was going on in 1988? How are people collecting 100
Speaker 1: grand from an insurance policy on a dead wife who's
Speaker 1: either not dead or doesn't exist in the first place? Anyway,
Speaker 1: in the end, Kerry Ketchum shows up to the production
Speaker 1: offices of Super Password to collect his winnings and is
Speaker 1: greeted not by a big fat check, but by the
Speaker 1: feds who haul him off to court and to jail.
Speaker 1: And he was also ordered to repay that 100 grand.
Speaker 1: All right, that's a wild story. However, this next one
Speaker 1: is even wilder. Just one year later, in 1989, on
Speaker 1: a British TV game show called Bullseye, Bullseye, from what
Speaker 1: I can tell, is basically just televised darts, which is great.
Speaker 1: I love darts. I like playing them more than I
Speaker 1: enjoy watching them. So on an episode of Bullseye, in 1989,
Speaker 1: appears a contestant named John Cooper. Unbeknownst to anyone, John
Speaker 1: Cooper had already murdered Richard and Helen Thomas's brother and
Speaker 1: his sister, by shooting them with a shotgun in their
Speaker 1: home four years earlier in 1985. And then just one
Speaker 1: month after his appearance on Bullseye, Cooper murdered again, this
Speaker 1: time killing Peter and Gwenda Dixon, a husband and wife
Speaker 1: who were out hiking. It wasn't until many, many years later, 2008,
Speaker 1: that detectives were able to use DNA evidence to connect
Speaker 1: John Cooper to these crimes. They also connected him to
Speaker 1: the sexual assault of two teenage girls at gunpoint in
Speaker 1: the mid-1990s. And when John Cooper was brought to trial,
Speaker 1: what did prosecutors use to corroborate eyewitness reports from way
Speaker 1: back in the day?
Speaker 3: Why?
Speaker 1: I'm glad you asked. It was footage of his appearance
Speaker 1: on Bullseye. Cooper got a life sentence in 2011, which
Speaker 1: I believe he is still serving now in his 80s.
Speaker 1: But the bullseye killer story doesn't end there. Like a
Speaker 1: lot of these prolific serial killer cases, there are other
Speaker 1: murders or deaths that are thought to be the work
Speaker 1: of John Cooper, but were never proven. There's the strange
Speaker 1: death of Florence Evans, aka Flo, a 73-year-old woman who
Speaker 1: was found dead in her bathtub, half filled with cold water.
Speaker 1: Flo lived near where Peter and Gwenda Dixon were murdered
Speaker 1: in Wales, and she died shortly after that double homicide.
Speaker 1: And while there was no clear sign of foul play,
Speaker 1: her family still thought her death odd because money was
Speaker 1: missing from her house, she hadn't put her false teeth in,
Speaker 1: her TV was on, and her front door was wide open.
Speaker 1: And then there was Henry and Megan Tooze, a couple
Speaker 1: who were shot and killed at close range at their
Speaker 1: Welsh farmhouse in 1993. Their bodies were dumped in a
Speaker 1: cow shed and covered with a carpet and And authorities
Speaker 1: believe that the manner in which they were killed and
Speaker 1: their bodies replaced was very similar to the murders that
Speaker 1: John Cooper committed. But they were never able to completely
Speaker 1: tie this case to John Cooper, just like the case
Speaker 1: of Flo Evans and the murder of Henry and Megan
Speaker 1: Tooze remains technically unsolved to this day. I wonder if
Speaker 1: any of our listeners over in the UK know more
Speaker 1: about this John Cooper case, because it seems to have
Speaker 1: a lot of layers to it. which is crazy because
Speaker 1: I've never, never heard about it until this week. I
Speaker 1: wonder if it's as well-known across the pond as The
Speaker 1: Dating Game Killer is known here in the States. Speaking
Speaker 1: again of The Dating Game Killer, this Friday, I've got
Speaker 1: a brand new episode of The Screening Room for you guys,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to talk about a 2024 film called
Speaker 1: Woman of the Hour. This is the directorial debut of
Speaker 1: actress Anna Kendrick, and it's about Rodney Alcala and his
Speaker 1: appearance on The Dating Game, and also about Cheryl Bradshaw,
Speaker 1: the female contestant who was paired with Alcala on that
Speaker 1: particular episode back in 1978. You can watch this on
Speaker 1: Netflix if you haven't seen it. And if you have
Speaker 1: seen it, or if you want to watch it and
Speaker 1: then do this, you can get involved in the conversation.
Speaker 1: You can hit me up and let me know your
Speaker 1: thoughts about it. You can call me. You can text me, 617-906- 6638.
Speaker 1: You can leave me a voicemail or shoot me a text.
Speaker 1: You can also email me at disgracelandpod at gmail.com. Perhaps
Speaker 1: you have some ideas for a hypothetical, theoretical, metaphorical, potentially
Speaker 1: possible mixtape that we could make inspired by Woman of
Speaker 1: the Hour. And maybe you have some ideas for that
Speaker 1: you want to get into me before we talk about
Speaker 1: it on Friday. So let me know. Also on the
Speaker 1: subject of movies set in California, which Woman of the
Speaker 1: Hour is, Today, today is Wednesday. Today is the last
Speaker 1: Wednesday of the month, which means starting today, maybe already
Speaker 1: by the time you hear this, who knows, man? Or
Speaker 1: maybe it's coming soon. I don't know. Maybe you got
Speaker 1: up super early to listen to these episodes. And if
Speaker 1: that's the case, then hang on. It's not out yet.
Speaker 1: But it will be today. You can watch a brand
Speaker 1: new episode of our video podcast, This Film Should Be
Speaker 1: Played Loud, all about Paul Thomas Anderson's great film, Licorice Pizza,
Speaker 1: starring Alana Heim and Cooper Hoffman. This film, Should We
Speaker 1: Play Loud, of course, is the video podcast co-hosted by
Speaker 1: yours truly and Jake Brennan, all about the badass music
Speaker 1: from some of our favorite movies. So naturally, in this episode,
Speaker 1: we're talking a lot about the James Gane, David Bowie, Wings,
Speaker 1: Seals and Croft, Clarence Carter, The Doors, and so much more.
Speaker 1: To watch this film, Should We Play Loud, you've got
Speaker 1: to be a member of Disgraceland All Access on Patreon.
Speaker 1: And to do that, just go to disgracelandpod.com And there
Speaker 1: on the homepage is a link to sign up. And
Speaker 1: of course, in addition to this monthly video podcast that
Speaker 1: we put together, you can get ad-free listening over there
Speaker 1: to all episodes of Hollywoodland and Disgraceland. There's a 24-7
Speaker 1: always-on chat with your fellow discos. And for our Sound &
Speaker 1: Fury tier members, that's the video tier where you can
Speaker 1: watch this film, Should We Play Loud? Jake just posted
Speaker 1: in there, I think yesterday or a couple days ago
Speaker 1: for you guys, that we want to organize a get-together
Speaker 1: online with the Sound and Fury tier members, because one
Speaker 1: of the perks of that tier is that you help
Speaker 1: us sort of shape what the future episodes of Disgraceland
Speaker 1: are going to look like. So we need your help
Speaker 1: figuring out what subjects we're going to cover in the future.
Speaker 1: We want to plan some sort of online meetup some
Speaker 1: evening in the not-too-distant future. So if you haven't seen
Speaker 1: that yet, jump into Patreon and let us know when
Speaker 1: works for you, all right? Speaking of you, All you
Speaker 1: beautiful people, all y'all, as my Southern friends would say,
Speaker 1: I've got your voicemails, texts, DMs, and more. We're going
Speaker 1: to get into those right after this quick break. All right,
Speaker 1: what's up, guys? Dr. Lundy hanging with you here in
Speaker 1: the rap party, 617-906-6638. That's how you get in touch,
Speaker 1: just like my guy Ben here from the 803.
Speaker 4: Hey, guys, Ben from the 803 again. I guess this
Speaker 4: would be more for Seth once again in Hollywood land,
Speaker 4: since that's where we were talking about the flow state.
Speaker 4: I listened to the rap party a couple of days ago,
Speaker 4: and it's just been on my mind as a musician.
Speaker 4: I can relate to this, but there was a quote
Speaker 4: from the great Charlie Parker. It applies to when you're
Speaker 4: playing music or doing stand-up comedy or just working at
Speaker 4: your desk, whatever. It's when you get, like you guys
Speaker 4: were discussing, you get in that flow state where mind
Speaker 4: and body just work together. You really don't have to
Speaker 4: think about it. It just happens. Charlie Parker said way
Speaker 4: back in the day, specifically in reference to playing your instrument,
Speaker 4: learn it all. Learn everything. Learn it inside and out.
Speaker 4: and then just forget it all and play. In other words,
Speaker 4: just get to the flow state. You guys keep doing
Speaker 4: what you do, rock and roll.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, flow states. We were talking about flow states, guys,
Speaker 1: last week in the wrap party. Jake and I were
Speaker 1: recommending music and movies that were flow state adjacent, I suppose. Ben,
Speaker 1: my innate tendency, the way I'm programmed, is to self-edit
Speaker 1: as I go. And this is a hindrance that I have,
Speaker 1: across my entire life, I've had to battle with. I've
Speaker 1: had to fight to get to the flow state. And
Speaker 1: it's exactly what Bird says it is. It's, you know,
Speaker 1: you forget it all. You learn it, you soak it
Speaker 1: all in, and then you let it all go. And
Speaker 1: it's probably my type A personality. I just have such
Speaker 1: a hard time letting it go. But when I can
Speaker 1: let it go and I can get there, it's a
Speaker 1: beautiful place to be. So I'm glad that that resonated
Speaker 1: with you, Ben, and I appreciate you calling in and
Speaker 1: letting us know. 617-906-6638. Or you can email me at
Speaker 1: disgracelandpod at gmail.com, which Disco Delbert here did. I'm speaking
Speaker 1: about the flow state. This email Delbert sent, subject line
Speaker 1: is Hollywoodland and the flow state. And it reads... Crazy
Speaker 1: that you cats use music for writing? Me too. Going
Speaker 1: to check out that Coltrane album. My go-tos are Mendesky, Martin,
Speaker 1: and Woods' It's a Jungle in Here, Nine Inch Nails, Ghosts,
Speaker 1: Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz, and the Beastie Boys' Root Down
Speaker 1: EP for those awesome B-sides. A History of Violence, such
Speaker 1: a great movie. My only gripe is that they didn't
Speaker 1: do the much more wild and gruesome ending presented in
Speaker 1: the graphic novel. I can see why, but it's still
Speaker 1: a shame that And I know Cronenberg wouldn't have let
Speaker 1: us down in the Gore department, except he did, because
Speaker 1: he completely changed the ending. Flow State Movies, Darren Aronofsky's
Speaker 1: The Fountain, another comic adaptation. Richard Linklater's Scanner Darkly and
Speaker 1: Waking Life, both using interpolated rotoscoping, just really pushing the
Speaker 1: envelope for what you can present on the screen. Rockarola, Delbert's,
Speaker 1: a lot to respond to here. Incredible flow state pics,
Speaker 1: those Linklater films. I'm kicking myself for not thinking of those,
Speaker 1: but they totally... I mean, just the style of that
Speaker 1: rotoscoping animation on top of the film is just its
Speaker 1: own flow state, right? Great pics. And I have not
Speaker 1: read the graphic novel that A History of Violence is
Speaker 1: based on. I mentioned this movie last week in the
Speaker 1: wrap party. I have not read the graphic novel, but
Speaker 1: now I'm intrigued. I'm intrigued to know what the ending
Speaker 1: is like. So I'm going to go seek that out.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. Yeah, I also, the Nine Inch Nails
Speaker 1: Ghost album you mentioned, there's those two instrumental albums that
Speaker 1: Nine Inch Nails released. One's called Ghosts and the other,
Speaker 1: I forget what it's called, but I use those and
Speaker 1: I also use the soundtracks that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross...
Speaker 1: composed primarily for Fincher movies like Gone Girl and The
Speaker 1: Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Those are two heavy, heavy
Speaker 1: rotation albums I listen to when I write. Anyways, Delbert,
Speaker 1: thank you. Good to hear from you. Hope you're doing well.
Speaker 1: Back to the text machine here, 617-906-6638. Last week, the
Speaker 1: other week in the wrap party, oh no, in the
Speaker 1: screening room, sorry, I covered the film Star 80. about
Speaker 1: Dorothy Stratton. And I got this text from the 317.
Speaker 1: Good doctor, congrats on surviving Star 80. A tidbit about
Speaker 1: the film. Dorothy's mother was played by Carol Baker, who
Speaker 1: had her own share of career exploitation. One of her
Speaker 1: early big films was Ilya Kazan's Baby Doll, with a
Speaker 1: screenplay by Tennessee Williams. She plays a 19-year-old married to
Speaker 1: not 19-year-old Carl Malden. The ad campaign was the character
Speaker 1: Baby Doll Megan sleeping in a large crib. The billboard
Speaker 1: for this film in Times Square caused quite the stir.
Speaker 1: In 1964, Baker posed for Playboy magazine. Three years later,
Speaker 1: she moved to Europe and appeared in numerous Italian exploitation films.
Speaker 1: She returned to the States in the mid-70s and worked
Speaker 1: with Andy Warhol. She continued to bounce back and forth
Speaker 1: between the U.S. and Europe for work, still alive at 95.
Speaker 1: Take care, Matt, from the 317. Matt, thank you for
Speaker 1: that tidbit. I had no idea about Miss Carol Baker.
Speaker 1: Fascinating stuff. Fascinating, too, about this whole life imitating art
Speaker 1: and art imitating life and all that stuff. You know
Speaker 1: what I mean? You know, playing the mother of a
Speaker 1: Playboy model and then after having posed in Playboy herself.
Speaker 1: Appreciate that, Matt, as always. Also on the subject of
Speaker 1: Star 80. Got a text here from the 706. Says,
Speaker 1: hey guys, this is Lori from the 706, formerly of
Speaker 1: the 617. But yeah, I saw Star 80 at some
Speaker 1: point in the 80s on cable TV, most likely HBO
Speaker 1: or Spotlight or whatever the heck it was. I knew
Speaker 1: who Dorothy Stratton was because I grew up with an
Speaker 1: older brother who of course had Playboy magazines. I was
Speaker 1: 13 when she died. And I just remember having seen
Speaker 1: photos of her and how truly stunningly gorgeous and ethereal
Speaker 1: she was. She had star quality in spades. I remember
Speaker 1: being delighted, no pun intended, by the movie because of course,
Speaker 1: like you said, it was a dirty movie. To this day,
Speaker 1: Eric Roberts is so creepy to me because his performance
Speaker 1: was that amazing. I mean, he was frightening from the get-go.
Speaker 1: Looking back on this movie now, it's just so tragic
Speaker 1: on so many levels that this young girl, because really, 18-year-olds,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, kid, you're still a child. You may be
Speaker 1: legally an adult. You do not know enough about the
Speaker 1: world and what kind of people are in this world
Speaker 1: to understand. So as you know, a teenage girl in
Speaker 1: the 80s who grew up to be the mother of
Speaker 1: a daughter who was 22. I just think how disgusting
Speaker 1: and truly tragic it is that that was her life
Speaker 1: and that she's remembered for being beautiful, for having star quality,
Speaker 1: for having so much potential, and for ultimately being a
Speaker 1: murder victim. But really, Bob Fosse, massive icon, and I
Speaker 1: have to say that All That Jazz is one of
Speaker 1: my all-time favorite movies. Hey, Lori, thank you for texting
Speaker 1: in with that. Bob Fosse, All That Jazz has been,
Speaker 1: I don't, that's like, that's in the ether right now.
Speaker 1: I keep on hearing more and more people are talking
Speaker 1: about All That Jazz as one of their favorite films,
Speaker 1: which is just, it's cool that that's out there. I
Speaker 1: need to watch that again. I've not seen that in
Speaker 1: a very, very long time. And you're absolutely right about
Speaker 1: Eric Roberts. I mean, I think if this movie was different,
Speaker 1: I think if it was an easier movie to watch,
Speaker 1: I think Eric Roberts would be talked, his performance would
Speaker 1: be talked about a lot more when we talk about,
Speaker 1: you know, these great, like, despicable, skeezy, mustache-having dudes, right?
Speaker 1: I think Aaron Roberts would be more in the conversation,
Speaker 1: but where the movie is just so difficult, I feel
Speaker 1: like that has kind of kept this analysis at arm's length,
Speaker 1: I guess, so to speak. Anyways, Laurie, thank you. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening. Thanks for reaching out.
Speaker 2: 617-906-6638.
Speaker 1: Text here from the 516. Hey, Scott from the 516,
Speaker 1: if you did see the latest Spider-Man, I wish you
Speaker 1: would rank and order from most liked to least liked.
Speaker 1: I'm an original Toby guy. So the original is my favorite.
Speaker 1: How about you? All right, here's the thing, Scott. I
Speaker 1: actually really want to see the new Spider-Man movie, and
Speaker 1: I wanted to see it at the movie theater, but
Speaker 1: my wife's not interested. My oldest daughter is not interested.
Speaker 1: My youngest daughter is not interested. My son already saw
Speaker 1: it with his friends and has better things to do.
Speaker 1: So either I got to go see it on my own,
Speaker 1: or I'm just going to wait for it to hit
Speaker 1: streaming at some point. But I'm totally looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: Just off the top of my dome, I do like
Speaker 1: the Tom Holland Spider-Mans a lot. And I like him
Speaker 1: as Spider-Man. But just like you, I'm partial to the
Speaker 1: Tobey trilogy there that Sam Raimi did. Just as a
Speaker 1: Sam Raimi fan, I remember how stoked we all were
Speaker 1: when it was announced that Sam Raimi was going to
Speaker 1: make a Spider-Man movie because he's such a unique one-of-one filmmaker.
Speaker 1: And he kind of brought that rough-hewn DIY punk rock
Speaker 1: filmmaking style into to the franchise, which is great. And
Speaker 1: I mean, it can't be overstated the impact that Sam
Speaker 1: Raimi had on the movie industry, on superhero movies and
Speaker 1: all that shit when Spider-Man came out. So I think
Speaker 1: I'm with you there. But you know what I really,
Speaker 1: really like is I really like the Spider-Verse movies, the
Speaker 1: Into the Spider-Verse. It's like so creative. Talk about flow state, man.
Speaker 1: Like that's some creative flow state shit. That's just, it's
Speaker 1: such a pleasure to watch and just sort of like
Speaker 1: let it like wash over you. So those are my picks. Thanks, Scott.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Thanks for texting in. Got a text
Speaker 1: here from the 308. It says, what is your craziest
Speaker 1: Hollywoodland story? Well, 308, I thought about this a little bit.
Speaker 1: If you're looking for sheer insanity, some of the craziest
Speaker 1: collection of, like, how can one person have this many
Speaker 1: crazy fucking things happen to them? Dennis Hopper is my
Speaker 1: choice there. If you're looking for deep true crime vibes,
Speaker 1: I'd go with the two-part Sharon Tate. Those are crossover
Speaker 1: episodes with our two-part Mama Cass, the Mamas and the
Speaker 1: Papas episodes over in Disgraceland. And if you're looking for
Speaker 1: like a, holy shit, I did not know that, you
Speaker 1: can do no better than our episode on Woody Harrelson
Speaker 1: and his father, who was a contract killer and potentially
Speaker 1: had something, well, allegedly, as someone alleged, was in the
Speaker 1: vicinity on the day that JFK was assassinated. So those
Speaker 1: would be my picks. Dennis Hopper, Sharon Tate, Woody Harrelson.
Speaker 1: You can find all of those. Just search in the
Speaker 1: Hollywoodland feed and you will find those 308. And let
Speaker 1: me know what you think of them. If you do,
Speaker 1: listen to them.
Speaker 2: 617-906-6638.
Speaker 1: Got a text here from the 410. Hi, Zeth. Bex
Speaker 1: here from the 410. Currently listening to the bonus episode,
Speaker 1: Maryland's Disclosure Day. Heard someone suggest Highlanders soundtrack. Hard agree.
Speaker 1: The soundtrack is perfect for the movie. Grew up on
Speaker 1: the movie, the soundtrack, and of course, Queen. Still an
Speaker 1: album I'll listen to all the way through to this day. Hey, thanks, Bex.
Speaker 1: And that reminds me, you mentioned this Highlander soundtrack and Queen.
Speaker 1: I think it's the kind of magic album. There are
Speaker 1: a bunch of songs that ended up on that Queen album,
Speaker 1: kind of magic, that went on the Highlander soundtrack, right?
Speaker 1: And I just researched and wrote an episode on Queen
Speaker 1: for Disgraceland. So I remember finding out about this in
Speaker 1: the research that they were, I don't know if it
Speaker 1: was like they were going to deliver a full, they
Speaker 1: were going to like fully score this film the way
Speaker 1: they did Flash Gordon, and then only a couple songs
Speaker 1: ended up, and then the rest became the new record,
Speaker 1: something like that. 410, you probably know this story better
Speaker 1: than I do.
Speaker 2: 617-906-6638.
Speaker 1: You can also email me, disgracelandpod at gmail.com. Just like
Speaker 1: our guy Craig, with an email that has the subject line,
Speaker 1: Hunters and Collectors. Hey, Zeth, not sure if anyone has
Speaker 1: corrected you on the Aussie band that sang the Holy Grail.
Speaker 1: The band's name is Hunters and Collectors, not Hunters and Gatherers.
Speaker 1: Love the podcast, lads. Craig, thank you for keeping me honest.
Speaker 1: I apologize if I, not if, I apologize that I
Speaker 1: did say Hunters and Gatherers. I don't know I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess that's just where my brain... Do you ever
Speaker 1: do that? Do you ever read something and your brain goes, nope,
Speaker 1: this is what that is? Nope, it's not. You're reading
Speaker 1: the word collector? No, the word is gatherer. It happens sometimes.
Speaker 1: And all apologies to fans of great, underrated, undersung Australian
Speaker 1: music by bands like Hunters and Collectors. And thanks, Craig,
Speaker 1: for pointing that out. Everybody else, get at me. disgracelandpod
Speaker 1: at gmail.com. You can text or call 617-906-6638. I need
Speaker 1: to take a quick break here, but when I return,
Speaker 1: I will be joined by Jake Brennan of Disgraceland. We're
Speaker 1: going to give you guys some dirty recs for movies
Speaker 1: and songs about the old boob tube, the television set.
Speaker 1: We're going to have a good old-fashioned TV party up next.
Speaker 1: All right, everybody, welcome back to the wrap party. We
Speaker 1: are in the section of the show now, the Dirty
Speaker 1: Rex sex. Dirty Rex sex? All right. I was like
Speaker 1: trying to make that rhyme.
Speaker 3: Dirty Rex Sex. It sounds like a bad hip hop
Speaker 3: group from the 90s.
Speaker 1: It does. Are you down with Dirty Rex Sex? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know me. That's not the, no. Rex in effect.
Speaker 3: Not Naughty by Nature.
Speaker 1: Naughty by Nature. Yeah, I know. I'm getting my 90s
Speaker 1: hip hop all confused.
Speaker 2: Yes, you are.
Speaker 1: What's happening, man? We're talking about TVs today. TV time.
Speaker 3: Oh, we're not talking about Marquee Moon by television?
Speaker 1: Well, I'm happy to talk about that too.
Speaker 3: I can talk about that all day long.
Speaker 4: Uh, yes.
Speaker 3: Wait, we're talking about television sets or we're talking about TV.
Speaker 3: We're talking about TV.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, yeah. Television sets or TV. We're talking
Speaker 1: about movies and music, uh, inspired by TV. Yeah.
Speaker 3: There we go.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: All right. So these are the recommendations coming out of
Speaker 3: our songs about television. That's how I framed it in
Speaker 3: my mind.
Speaker 1: Anyways, am I on the right track? Yes.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 3: Look, I couldn't find a way to do this without cynicism.
Speaker 3: I tried. And you and I have this ongoing conversation
Speaker 3: right now about the state of television and how the
Speaker 3: state of television right now is a decidedly steep step
Speaker 3: down from what it was during the peak TV era.
Speaker 3: But what's happened here is I fucked myself. And I
Speaker 3: think I want something here in television that I'm never
Speaker 3: going to get. I want that peak era back, but
Speaker 3: it's never going to happen. It's like wanting the jazz
Speaker 3: age to return. Like it's just never going to happen.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: And I realized something. Great art on film is not
Speaker 3: meant to be consumed the way that we consume television.
Speaker 3: So the TV makers have it right. Like I'm not,
Speaker 3: I watched, I want television that's going to give me
Speaker 3: the last hour of relaxation in my day. That's it.
Speaker 3: I don't want, I don't want to watch a movie
Speaker 3: at nine o'clock at night.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: Of course.
Speaker 3: Every night.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean? I want to watch an
Speaker 3: hour long fucking fluffy, even if it's supposed to be heavy,
Speaker 3: it's still artistically fluffy. I don't have to invest too
Speaker 3: much of my brain into it. And my wife's going
Speaker 3: to fall asleep and then I'm going to stop watching
Speaker 3: the thing and start reading my book. And then I'm
Speaker 3: going to fall asleep. That's what I want. That's the
Speaker 3: experiential piece of it that, you know, so I'm going
Speaker 3: to watch movies on the weekend. That's, that's what I do.
Speaker 3: I keep trying to get TV to live up to
Speaker 3: filmmaking right now. It's just not going to fucking do it.
Speaker 3: It's not supposed to do it is my point.
Speaker 1: I think you'll enjoy TV more if you just recognize that.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
Speaker 3: I'm enjoying the shit out of some TV right now.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 3: I'm enjoying how you watch the shards, the shards. The
Speaker 3: shards is fun, but it's, you know, it's a laugh.
Speaker 3: It's a gas as the kids say back in the 1950s.
Speaker 3: It's I'm watching furious. Are you watching furious? Yes.
Speaker 1: Um, I, I watched the first episode cause I was like,
Speaker 1: everyone was talking about it and it was way more
Speaker 1: formulaic than I thought it was going to be like
Speaker 1: very like law and order-y. And then like, I was
Speaker 1: just sort of like, oh, I, I was expecting a
Speaker 1: more elevated experience, I guess, that you were just talking
Speaker 1: about and it did not deliver that. And so I
Speaker 1: was sort of thrown off guard.
Speaker 3: It is not at all that. Dig in, dig in, man.
Speaker 3: It gets crazy.
Speaker 1: Great i love rob delaney i hope he's still alive
Speaker 1: in episode two.
Speaker 3: But keep watching okay it's so good it's so fucking
Speaker 3: good all right and uh what else am i watching
Speaker 3: yeah the shirts we talked about that and i'm watching
Speaker 3: i'm watching tires which is just amazing it's i've not
Speaker 3: watched tires yet Oh, my God, dude. It's like first
Speaker 3: season of The American Office.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 3: Low budget, early, always sunny. It is fucking hysterical.
Speaker 1: Great.
Speaker 3: It's so good. Literally, I'm laughing loudly numerous times. My
Speaker 3: kids are like, what is going on? That's how funny
Speaker 3: this show is.
Speaker 1: Speaking of sunny, have you watched any of the new
Speaker 1: sunny episodes yet?
Speaker 3: I haven't. I can't deal with all the- the work.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1: That's what Angie keeps saying too. She's not wrong.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: She's right.
Speaker 1: Charlie's the only one who's like, who's hasn't had anything done.
Speaker 4: So yeah.
Speaker 3: Cause he went to college in Massachusetts. He knows we
Speaker 3: don't put up with that shit. Fucking North shore. All right.
Speaker 3: What are you watching right now, by the way?
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm just trying shit. Like I've tried furious.
Speaker 1: I wasn't, I wasn't, I'll give it another shot. I'm
Speaker 1: watching the shards, the shards. I watched the first couple
Speaker 1: of sunny episodes, but like, I just, I haven't, there's
Speaker 1: not like TV that I'm really digging right now.
Speaker 3: Furious is way better than Shards. It's, it's, it's very,
Speaker 3: very good.
Speaker 1: Okay. I'll, I'll give it another shot.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Give it another shot. My wife, the other day, she goes,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking we should give Slow Horses another shot. And
Speaker 1: I was like, that train left the station. Cause you
Speaker 1: were like, you weren't into it. So I've been watching
Speaker 1: that on my own. Like, You can give it another shot.
Speaker 1: You won't go back and re-watch? No, I'll go back.
Speaker 1: Of course, yeah. I love the re-watch. Yeah, totally.
Speaker 4: I will.
Speaker 1: It was just funny because I'm like, that wasn't a
Speaker 1: mutual decision that we made. Right, right. Anyways.
Speaker 3: I apologize if you hear anything in the background here.
Speaker 3: I have a swarm of bees apparently outside the studio
Speaker 3: windows here. And yeah, we're at the desk.
Speaker 2: I'm not in the booth.
Speaker 3: So, okay. Let's see here. My recommendations, like I said,
Speaker 3: are all cynical. They harken back to a time when
Speaker 3: television was looked down upon by the cultural elite. And
Speaker 3: by the cultural elite, I'm talking about Greg Ginn and
Speaker 3: Henry Rollins from Black Flag circa 1981. And this is
Speaker 3: an obvious one. TV party. which is a fantastic takedown
Speaker 3: of people who are obsessed with television, which is going
Speaker 3: to be a theme here. And this is from Damage,
Speaker 3: their great Rollins-era album from 1981. There was also an
Speaker 3: EP a year later called TV Party. And you've seen
Speaker 3: this video, right? Have you seen this video?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's incredible.
Speaker 3: The video is the reason I'm recommending this, because I
Speaker 3: want to share the video with our followers on Instagram
Speaker 3: and Patreon as well, if we can get away with
Speaker 3: posting it there. And it's... It's Henry Rollins first of all,
Speaker 3: he's pretending to be drinking beer, which is hysterical. And
Speaker 3: I just, this would never happen now because television has
Speaker 3: sort of like tricked the cultural elite into thinking that
Speaker 3: it is high art. And in some cases it is,
Speaker 3: but it's all just a different version of, you know,
Speaker 3: saying elsewhere and Dallas and all the shit they were
Speaker 3: bitching about in this song a hundred years ago or
Speaker 3: whenever this was made, 1981. How long ago was that?
Speaker 3: That was what? 40 something. I can't do math. It
Speaker 3: doesn't matter. It was 1981. It was a different era.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah. 45. Okay. Next song.
Speaker 2: Hold on. Hold on.
Speaker 1: Before you jump to the next song, can I say
Speaker 1: two things about TV Party?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: One, it's included on the incredible Repo Man soundtrack. It's
Speaker 1: in Repo Man. And then number two, do you think
Speaker 1: the Beastie Boys were inspired by this song and this
Speaker 1: video for Fight for Your Right?
Speaker 3: Absolutely and i never thought of that i just thought
Speaker 3: about that now it looks exactly the same it does
Speaker 3: yeah doesn't it you're absolutely right and that's great timing
Speaker 3: because i'm going to def jam for that era actually
Speaker 3: for the next song which is another kind of i
Speaker 3: feel like these are obvious when there's a little obvious
Speaker 3: for me this week she watched channel zero by public
Speaker 3: enemy which where they're just taking the complete piss shit
Speaker 3: i should say tear it's a teardown of the soap
Speaker 3: opera addicted, mind-numbed television watcher. And it trades on a
Speaker 3: Slayer riff from Def Jam, right? And the verses with
Speaker 3: Chuck D, they sound like, it doesn't sound like hip hop.
Speaker 3: It just sounds like he's in a rock band, you know,
Speaker 3: for however many seconds the verses are. And then it
Speaker 3: goes into the chorus. She watched, she watched, she watched,
Speaker 3: she watched, you know what I mean? And then we're
Speaker 3: back in hip hop. And it has one of the
Speaker 3: great Flavor Flav shout outs of all time. I don't
Speaker 3: know how it has anything to do with television, but
Speaker 3: he goes, we got a black quarterback, so step back.
Speaker 3: And it's right around the time, I forget the dude's name,
Speaker 3: who went to the Super Bowl with the Redskins in
Speaker 3: the late 80s, 87. This song came out in 1988.
Speaker 3: This is fantastic. She watched Channel Zero from their masterpiece,
Speaker 3: It Takes a Nation of Rats to Hold Us Back.
Speaker 1: Chuck D was on Questlove's podcast recently, which I highly,
Speaker 1: I think I mentioned it in the wrap party at
Speaker 1: some point, highly recommend anybody who's into like music, creativity,
Speaker 1: how people do things, because it really gets inside Chuck
Speaker 1: D's brain and how he does what he does. It's awesome.
Speaker 1: But he revealed to Questlove that at one point that
Speaker 1: record was going to be sequenced differently. Like side A
Speaker 1: was flipped for side B or whatever. And it was
Speaker 1: going to open with, She Watched Channel Zero. Like that
Speaker 1: album is going to open with that.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Wow. I love the opening of side two.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The live thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah. You know, it's just cooking. You can hear the audience.
Speaker 1: I know, man.
Speaker 3: Feel that energy, man. Then it goes into She Watched
Speaker 3: Channel Zero. It's so good.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: It's just like a seg. Okay.
Speaker 4: Seg.
Speaker 1: A dirty seg.
Speaker 3: It's a dirty seg. My last one. I, you know,
Speaker 3: it's just, it's so obvious, but you got to do it.
Speaker 3: Cause it just speaks to the time and it's 57
Speaker 3: channels and nothing on by Bruce Springsteen. Yes. From your
Speaker 3: favorite album, lucky town, right? This is the one you love,
Speaker 3: or is this the one Matt loves? Human touch, human touch.
Speaker 1: I love the song human touch. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I like that song too.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's a great song.
Speaker 2: Fuck.
Speaker 1: It's great.
Speaker 3: My buddy Cam, who I'm going to see this week,
Speaker 3: his uncle plays drums on 57 channels and nothing on.
Speaker 3: And it's, uh, okay. So this is the, the, The
Speaker 3: kind of like wink of this song when it came
Speaker 3: out in 1992, the kind of the wink here was like, oh,
Speaker 3: can you believe we have 57 channels? You know what
Speaker 3: I mean?
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: And there's nothing on. You know what I mean? Because
Speaker 3: this is like, this is right when cable is kind
Speaker 3: of becoming ubiquitous. Everybody's got cable by 92 pretty much
Speaker 3: in the burbs. They've already had it in the city.
Speaker 3: And it's kind of that thing of like, oh, you know,
Speaker 3: we don't have three channels anymore. You know, we had,
Speaker 3: now we have, now we have 57 and, and still
Speaker 3: there's nothing on, you know what I mean? Because you know,
Speaker 3: television sucks. That's the subtext of the whole fucking thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It was such a dad joke coded song at
Speaker 1: the time too. This is the joke that all dads
Speaker 1: were making at this time. Like, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Sitting in the fucking recliner being like, can you fucking
Speaker 1: believe this? Like all these fucking channels and there's nothing on.
Speaker 1: And then Bruce Springsteen goes out with a song. They're like, Oh,
Speaker 1: like mine's blown.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 3: And now we're, now we're in the era where it's
Speaker 3: still the same fucking thing, but for different reasons. Like
Speaker 3: there's still nothing on.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Like you, everyone's done this. You're sitting there and you
Speaker 3: just scroll, you just scroll, scroll, scroll. You and your,
Speaker 3: you and your partner, your wife, your girlfriend, your boyfriend,
Speaker 3: or whatever the fuck your, your husband, you're just like,
Speaker 3: and you spend 45 minutes and you can't decide on anything.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Which is insane. Given the options that we have, it's
Speaker 3: paralysis by analysis, but still there's a lack of quality.
Speaker 3: Someone said to me the other day, they were like,
Speaker 3: there's a difference. There's art, which is filmmaking. And then
Speaker 3: there's just content. And this is all just content. And
Speaker 3: it made so much sense. And I hate it because
Speaker 3: I don't like what it says about what we do
Speaker 3: as writers. But it just hit me as like, yeah,
Speaker 3: that's the fucking world we're in. But where is it
Speaker 3: all going? That's what I want to know. Where's it going?
Speaker 1: What was the incentive back in the day when there
Speaker 1: were only three channels plus PBS to make something that
Speaker 1: was really, really good?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: Because if I'm paying money to Netflix or to Hulu
Speaker 1: or to whatever, they're getting my money directly for that.
Speaker 1: But back in 1985, NBC wasn't getting my money. I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess they were through advertisers, through whatever. But still,
Speaker 1: don't you think that we received more quality then?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, no.
Speaker 3: I think TV was way worse then.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I guess it depends on how you
Speaker 1: look at it, but.
Speaker 3: Well, let's talk about that.
Speaker 1: How, how was it?
Speaker 3: How was it better?
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, I look, I look back fondly on
Speaker 1: things like the golden girls and, you know, family ties
Speaker 1: and like all these like cheers. You know what I mean?
Speaker 4: Sure.
Speaker 3: But that's nostalgia really. That's just a different version of
Speaker 3: the same thing now.
Speaker 1: But some of those shows are really good though. Even now.
Speaker 3: Good comparatively to other shows like that. Not good comparatively
Speaker 3: to the, the, place of judgment bruce springsteen is coming
Speaker 3: from yes 57 channels and nothing on.
Speaker 1: Yeah well i think bruce was speaking more to like
Speaker 1: you know home shopping network and fucking shit like that
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 3: Henry rollins is name dropping everything in tv party man
Speaker 3: fucking that's incredible dallas monday night football's not even say
Speaker 3: saturday night live saturday night live saturday night live i
Speaker 3: guess was 82.
Speaker 1: The 81 the bad saturday night live year.
Speaker 3: I think it was.
Speaker 1: Oh, maybe. Was that, yeah.
Speaker 3: I think that's when Lorne was gone.
Speaker 1: Lorne left.
Speaker 3: Right around then.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Might have been later.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Might have been later. So those are my three. TV
Speaker 3: Party by Black Flag. She watched Channel Zero by Public
Speaker 3: Enemy and 57 Channels and Nothing On by Bruce Springsteen
Speaker 3: with Jeff Porcaro on drums. What do you got?
Speaker 1: Great picks, by the way.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1: Mine may be a little obvious too, but I wanted
Speaker 1: an easy week here for us since I've been giving
Speaker 1: us some hard categories.
Speaker 2: Yeah, man.
Speaker 1: Yes. All right. My first choice is this movie called
Speaker 1: Real Life by Albert Brooks from 1979. I think it's
Speaker 1: Albert Brooks' first movie. This is one of those like
Speaker 1: super far ahead of its time comedies. It's about– Albert
Speaker 1: Brooks plays Albert Brooks– And he's, it's a satire on,
Speaker 1: it's very early satire on reality TV. There was a
Speaker 1: reality TV show, I think on PBS, maybe in the
Speaker 1: mid seventies called An American Life that profiled a family.
Speaker 1: And this- Hold on.
Speaker 3: You gotta just say it. Everyone needs to go watch
Speaker 3: that fucking thing. It is incredible. An American Life.
Speaker 1: An American Life.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 1: It's incredible.
Speaker 3: Keep going.
Speaker 1: So this was kind of riffing on that. And it's
Speaker 1: sort of like, I mean, this sort of thing is
Speaker 1: done now. It's like the spinal tap for reality TV,
Speaker 1: I guess, in a way. But there's a family that's chosen,
Speaker 1: and the father in this family is the great Charles Grodin.
Speaker 1: So you've got a film that has both Albert Brooks
Speaker 1: and Charles Grodin in it. The filmmakers are supposed to
Speaker 1: follow this family around, and it just gets more and
Speaker 1: more absurd, and it's just... It's so great. It's not
Speaker 1: like a... I don't find it to be like a
Speaker 1: laugh-out-loud funny... comedy. It's not like there's like jokes flying
Speaker 1: all the time, but it's very, very funny, very perceptive,
Speaker 1: very forward looking.
Speaker 3: I don't want to burn what I think is going
Speaker 3: to be one of your next two, but I will say,
Speaker 3: I thought when you said the title of that film,
Speaker 3: I thought I'd seen it, but now I know I
Speaker 3: have not, and I cannot wait to see it. And
Speaker 3: it reminds me of something which I think you're going
Speaker 3: to talk about now or next. So go ahead with
Speaker 3: your other two picks.
Speaker 1: All right. So my next pick is my obvious one,
Speaker 1: which is Network. Is this what you were thinking of? No, no, no.
Speaker 3: I love that you're working in films here. I mean,
Speaker 3: that is the point, but keep going.
Speaker 4: Sorry.
Speaker 1: Imagine that. I'm recommending films in the film recommendation part.
Speaker 3: Well, you could have gone meta and done TV, which
Speaker 3: is what I thought you were going to do.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, okay.
Speaker 3: No. So maybe you're not going to mention what I
Speaker 3: think you're going to mention.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to. So Network is classic 1976 Sidney
Speaker 1: Lumet film written with one of the greatest screenplays ever
Speaker 1: by Paddy Chayefsky. This has Ned Beatty delivering one of
Speaker 1: the greatest monologues in movie history, all about how the
Speaker 1: nations of the world are actually corporations. You know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Like the world is a business. And again,
Speaker 1: just like real life, this movie, I feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: this movie is about a TV station with the ratings
Speaker 1: kind of flailing. It's about a news anchor who's like
Speaker 1: losing his mind on live TV, who says he's going
Speaker 1: to kill himself on live TV. It's all these like
Speaker 1: existential crises and stuff about the media. And I think
Speaker 1: at the time it was something of a satire. But
Speaker 1: as the years have gone on, it's really been more
Speaker 1: of like a, it's like a premonition really about like
Speaker 1: where we are now.
Speaker 3: Yeah. It's, I would say that nations of the world
Speaker 3: are not corporations. They're crime families.
Speaker 1: Well, there's that too.
Speaker 3: They're just very evolved.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Network's incredible.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: Keep rolling here. I can't wait to see what you're
Speaker 3: going to do for number three.
Speaker 1: This is like one of my favorite comedies of all time.
Speaker 1: And I fell in love with it when it first
Speaker 1: came out and I know it gets shit on. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's been reappraised now. The Cable Guy from 1996, directed
Speaker 1: by Ben Stiller, I think written by Ben Stiller as well,
Speaker 1: starring Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick. At the time when
Speaker 1: it came out, oh, and a young Jack Black as well.
Speaker 1: When this came out, it was kind of panned because
Speaker 1: it was too dark. Jim Carrey had done Ace Ventura
Speaker 1: and The Mask, and he was the funniest fucking guy
Speaker 1: in the world. And then he does this movie, which
Speaker 1: is all about, he's a cable guy, who tries a
Speaker 1: little too hard to be like best friends with one
Speaker 1: of his clients, played by Matthew Broderick. And basically, his
Speaker 1: whole life is a lie. He tells all these stories
Speaker 1: about his childhood and his family and whatever, but he's
Speaker 1: just using plot lines from different TV shows from history
Speaker 1: and the names of characters from TV shows. It is
Speaker 1: the funniest fucking Jim Carrey movie. I think because it's
Speaker 1: so dark as well. And then you get Ben Stiller
Speaker 1: playing the The twin Menendez brothers who are on trial,
Speaker 1: like they're seen on TV. It's so great. It's so great.
Speaker 1: He beats up Owen Wilson in the bathroom in a
Speaker 1: fucking incredible scene set to Salt Peanuts by Dizzy Gillespie.
Speaker 1: And Jim Carrey's singing Salt Peanuts, Salt Peanuts as he's
Speaker 1: like beating the shit out of Owen Wilson. It's fucking
Speaker 1: so great. I need to rewatch it.
Speaker 3: I haven't seen it since it came out. I saw
Speaker 3: that in the theater. Didn't he get like some astronomical
Speaker 3: bag of money for that? Yes. And then it tanked?
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 3: That was the one. Those were the three. He was
Speaker 3: on that ride.
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally.
Speaker 3: And they like backed up the Briggs truck.
Speaker 2: They did.
Speaker 1: And the movie sucked.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I love that you reminded me of watching that. I
Speaker 3: think that's something I can get away with watching with
Speaker 3: my 12-year-old.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you definitely can.
Speaker 3: You mentioned, when you were talking about that first Albert
Speaker 3: Brooks movie, it reminded me of the king of all
Speaker 3: sort of meta reality TV shows, which is the Larry
Speaker 3: Sanders show.
Speaker 4: Ah, yes.
Speaker 3: I don't think you can watch that on HBO Max.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's available.
Speaker 1: I feel like you and I talked about this at
Speaker 1: some point. I think that's crazy if you can't. It
Speaker 1: must be some sort of like Older HBO licensing thing
Speaker 1: or something?
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a couple like that. One of the greatest
Speaker 3: mob movies ever, Gotti, is an HBO movie. You can't
Speaker 3: watch it on Max.
Speaker 1: Is that the one with John Travolta? Don't, Eve, stop.
Speaker 1: I'm just, I'm asking.
Speaker 3: You're fucking with me?
Speaker 1: No, I'm genuinely asking you.
Speaker 3: No, there is a Gotti with John Travolta.
Speaker 1: That's what I thought.
Speaker 3: Made by fucking Eve from Entourage. And that, I've tried.
Speaker 3: And I can watch some bullshit Mafia stuff. I can't
Speaker 3: get past the first two minutes of that film.
Speaker 1: So who plays Gotti in this one? My man.
Speaker 3: Armando Asante.
Speaker 1: Oh, Armando Asante.
Speaker 2: All right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: He's so good. I never in a million years, if
Speaker 1: you had said to be my man, I never would
Speaker 1: have picked Armando Asante.
Speaker 4: Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1: He and I go back, dude.
Speaker 3: He's got so much swagger in this film as Gotti.
Speaker 1: Like, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Sweet.
Speaker 3: I mean, John Travolta should have watched this and been like,
Speaker 3: I can't do this. Like, there's no way I can
Speaker 3: do this.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: Like, with his fake hair and his fucking, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean? Yeah. By the way, speaking of Armando Asante. Okay.
Speaker 3: Season three of Gravesend is coming up. You watching Gravesend?
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: It's a trip, man.
Speaker 1: It's a vibe.
Speaker 3: Get into it on Amazon. I think it hits in
Speaker 3: a couple of days.
Speaker 1: All right. I can check it out.
Speaker 3: And you're going to have a lot of thoughts. And
Speaker 3: your opinion will change of me, actually, when you watch this.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: Sounds good. Looking forward to it. Yeah, man.
Speaker 2: Good stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 3: This is fucking cool, man.
Speaker 2: Cable guy.
Speaker 1: Cable guy. All right, dude. Good shit.
Speaker 3: I'm out of here. Thank you.
Speaker 2: All right, man.
Speaker 1: Talk to you later.
Speaker 2: All right, gang.
Speaker 1: There you go. Some dirty wrecks for your very own
Speaker 1: TV party. I think it's high time I rewatched Repo
Speaker 1: Man again. What a movie, man. Any movie that mashes
Speaker 1: together 80s era LA punk rock, aliens, and Harry Dean Stanton. Like,
Speaker 1: sign me up. Kind of its own flow state in
Speaker 1: a way, you know? Anyway, if you guys got any
Speaker 1: of your own dirty wrecks for us related to TV
Speaker 1: or anything else, whatever you want to talk about, hit
Speaker 1: me up and let me know. Maybe you're watching The Shrouds.
Speaker 1: I'm watching The Shrouds and I'm loving it. Maybe you're
Speaker 1: reading something really good. You know what I just read?
Speaker 1: I just read the latest book by Patrick Radden Keefe
Speaker 1: called London Falling. The subtitle is A Mysterious Death in
Speaker 1: a Gilded City in a Family's Search for Truth. This
Speaker 1: is a fan-fucking-tastic book. I kid you not. I read
Speaker 1: like the majority of the 300-something pages of Just this
Speaker 1: past weekend on Sunday, I just blew through this book
Speaker 1: in a manner of hours. It is so readable, and
Speaker 1: Patrick Radden Keefe is such a gifted storyteller. This is
Speaker 1: a nonfiction narrative book about a 19-year-old boy who fell
Speaker 1: from a tall building into the Thames River and died
Speaker 1: in 2019. And it was discovered immediately after his death
Speaker 1: that he may have been impersonating, pretending to be the
Speaker 1: son of a powerful, wealthy Russian oligarch. So suddenly his
Speaker 1: family is trying to figure out what happened, why he
Speaker 1: jumped from this tall building or fell from this tall
Speaker 1: building into the Thames and died. And as they're trying
Speaker 1: to figure this out, suddenly they discover he has this
Speaker 1: whole other secret life that he was living. And it's just,
Speaker 1: I have to tell you guys about it because it's
Speaker 1: so good. Patrick Radden Keefe wrote this book called Say Nothing,
Speaker 1: which is equally incredible. That was all about the troubles
Speaker 1: in Ireland and many of the people who disappeared there,
Speaker 1: people who were taken and killed. This is just an
Speaker 1: incredible story. And the greatest thing about this story is
Speaker 1: it's not just about this kid. It's like an onion
Speaker 1: layer of a story that involves multiple other characters and
Speaker 1: their own crazy stories as well. So anyways, I know
Speaker 1: you guys are into this kind of stuff, true crime
Speaker 1: kind of stuff, great storytelling, nonfiction narratives. If you haven't
Speaker 1: heard about this or haven't read this, London Falling by
Speaker 1: Patrick Radden Keefe. I highly recommend it. Okay, that was
Speaker 1: just an off-the-cuff improv. I wasn't even planning on talking
Speaker 1: about that, but I just thought of it and just
Speaker 1: wanted to mention it to you guys. So anyways, 617-906-6638.
Speaker 1: Call me, text me, email me at disgracelandpod at gmail.com.
Speaker 1: Or if you're a member of Disgraceland, all access over
Speaker 1: on Patreon. Jump into the chat like Harry Nilsson jumping
Speaker 1: in the fire, all right? I've got to get out
Speaker 1: of here. I've got to go finish an outline for
Speaker 1: this As LA Dying episode. I'm about to write for
Speaker 1: Disgraceland that will come out this fall, I believe. But
Speaker 1: before I split for real, let me remind you guys
Speaker 1: of a few important things. Number one, first of all,
Speaker 1: right now in your Hollywoodland feed, our episode on the
Speaker 1: dating game killer. Number two, coming at you this Friday,
Speaker 1: we've got a new episode of The Screening Room. And
Speaker 1: this week I'm talking all about the 2024 Anna Kendrick film,
Speaker 1: Woman of the Hour. Number three, next week on Monday,
Speaker 1: we're bringing you our fully scripted and sound design episode
Speaker 1: on Sharon Tate, parts one and two, which incidentally, I
Speaker 1: just mentioned earlier in this show. Number four, over in
Speaker 1: our sister show, Disgraceland, we've got a brand new episode
Speaker 1: on Alice Bag of the Bags, an underground feminist icon
Speaker 1: and a leader in the early L.A. punk scene, a
Speaker 1: scene rooted in the shadow of a crazed murderer known
Speaker 1: as the Hillside Strangler. Check that out on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, or wherever you get your podcasts. Number five,
Speaker 1: this film should be played loud. Our video podcast, available
Speaker 1: exclusively to members of Disgraceland All Access on Patreon. A
Speaker 1: brand new episode on licorice pizza drops today. This is
Speaker 1: not a drill. Disgracelandpod.com for more info and to sign up.
Speaker 1: And now, with all that said, in honor of this
Speaker 1: week's episode, here's what America was watching at the movies
Speaker 1: in 1978. the year that Rodney Alcala appeared on The
Speaker 1: Dating Game while in the midst of a killing spree.
Speaker 1: Number one, Grease, directed by Randall Kleiser. Number two, Superman,
Speaker 1: directed by Richard Donner. Number three, National Lampoon's Animal House,
Speaker 1: directed by John Landis. Number four... Every Which Way But Loose,
Speaker 1: directed by James Fargo. Number five, Heaven Can Wait, directed
Speaker 1: by Warren Beatty and Buck Hemmings. Number six, Hooper, directed
Speaker 1: by Hal Needham. Number seven, Jaws 2, directed by Janone Shore.
Speaker 2: Number eight.
Speaker 1: Quit talking and start mixing. Cable Guy.