Carpe Morte

I will say it's a shame that Apollonia is not more widely recognized. She got crazy religious. She's a true talent. I don't know if you know that. No, I don't.

So she went crazy religious. Did she now? Mm-hmm. All right. She seems nice enough.

I still see interviews with her semi-recently. You know, not that many people. So she's like Willie Ames religious? Like that kind of? I don't know, but she certainly found God.

I'm not sure if she's like preaching it as much as Willie Ames. She's not like Bible lady, but you know. They could be a hell of a superhero duo. I'd watch that. I would definitely watch that.

Billy Ames as Bible man and Apollonia as Exodus. Apollonia. God doth named her Apollonia. I'm putting together the proposal. Please do.

Get financing for that. It's right up here. You know what? The shame is I would probably get it like that. That would come through.

You'd be like, but I've got all these other projects. No, no, no. I want Bible Man and Apollonia. Hi, I'm Richard Keel, Jaws from the James Bond movies, and you're listening to Movie Meltdown. Movie Meltdown It's showtime.

The following feature has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. It is intended for mature audiences and parental discretion is advised. Our nuclear reactor pumping out one million kilowatts of power. Hollywood. Hollywood Montrose.

Woo! Doesn't it just sing? What's up and welcome to Movie Meltdown. I'm Brian. I'm Lucy.

I'm Beau. I'm Mike. And we're coming to you live via digital recording from the offices of 180 Degrees. It was still in transition mode last. Time we were here.

Do you want to give people an update on it? Well, it still looks like a dorm room. Yeah, but I assume that's what you're going for. Not really, no. Thankfully, we've been so busy, we haven't been able to decorate.

So that's a good thing. No, we're just doing some exciting stuff. We're making movies and have scripts in our possession. And we're raising more funds and researching a couple of documentaries. And we just produced... video for the newly formed Louisville Film Commission.

Which we just watched moments ago. Just premiered. How'd you like it? It was amazing. Thank you.

Thank you. So yeah, we had a lot of fun making that. A lot of people came on board and they're going to show it at their party at Sundance tomorrow. Very cool. Yeah.

We're very excited. We had about seven days to put it together. And it came together beautifully. As soon as they see it. It is indicative of how well the film community works together here in Louisville.

And can get stuff together quickly. As soon as they see it, millions of dollars will come rolling. That's right. We'll take it. As long as it just cuts in on the action.

And we will produce, with that millions of dollars, Bible Man and Apollonia. That pitch, you've got to get on that pitch. I hear a lot of reverb in that trailer. It's Bible, Bible Man. Again, I watched the thing.

Alright, so this week we have a lot of ground to cover. I figure we better get right into it because as we. Was that a graveyard reference? Hmm. I mean, that's the thing.

I was surprised because the last... We've done this, like, ongoing the last two years. We did, like, a whole, like, memorial episode about everybody that died the year before and everybody really seemed to kind of like it. But when we used to do it, like, weekly, we did the Hollywood Boneyard and nobody cared. Like, Either nobody cared or eventually people went, yeah, it's just depressing, man.

And I was like, all right, I guess we'll retire that weekly segment. But everybody seems to like the lump it into one thing and talk about people. So we can, you know, Hollywood Boneyard's back. As long as they don't get buried in too much information. How many puns did we come up with?

Is that a ghost? A ghost in the Boneyard? No, that wasn't actually intended, but yeah. It's a pretty dead room. I'm going to stop coughing up puns and leave this to Brian.

See if we can dig ourselves out of. It. He was a friend of mine. I thought you were going to be like, all right, that's it. Trying again.

Restart. That's it. This episode's over. Much like many of the people we're going to talk about, this episode is dead. Do we want to go, like, huge, huge names?

Because, again, if you bring it up, it's funny that IMDB has a list of them, and it does it by the star meter, which we all know is the most important thing in the world, is the IMDB star meter. I'm assuming star meter, is that just generated by numbers of searches for the individual? I didn't know if it was searches, like, internet-based plus, like, box office stuff, because it is IMDB, so I'm like, maybe they're, like, general money making, what makes you the biggest star. Or just numbers of times that people click on titles that have your name in it. Possibly.

Maybe it's like a lot of different factors. If anybody out there works at the website, let us know. Who's number one on the star meter then in the way of. I mean, it's not really a surprise. Robin Williams.

So, I don't know. I feel like some of the bigger ones, I don't know what else there is to say. That was kind of like mine. I was trying to go through and find people that probably would get missed in the That's kind of why we started this was the Oscars show does their memorial and they skip a whole lot of people. So that's sort of what inspired it two years back when we started doing the other ones.

So we can, I don't know, at least acknowledge them. I am 884,349 on the IMDb star meter. Well done. And here's the really depressing part. I am down 499,612 just this week.

How about that? I guess that producing things in seven days wasn't enough. I think what it is is you need to get on the list. Or it's important that you've looked at this now and after the video premieres tomorrow, give it a week. See what bumps you get.

Give it a week. See how you shoot up. That's right, from my little four-second clip in there. I had my half-second clip. It's pretty exciting.

I know. You did. You made it in. Wandering the streets of this town. You'll be bigger than Robin Williams yet.

All right. So, I don't know. Do we want to start with those or do we all want to pick? Who are the top ten? Let's just go.

I'm just curious. Who are the top ten? I mean, again, the top two are no surprise. The top ten deceased. I'm assuming number two is Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Yes. Yes. So, I mean, really, those two are no surprise. Joan Rivers. Not so far.

Not three? Whoa. This one, again, this is always fun with actors' names. Louise Rayner? Louise Rainier.

There you go. Crazy foreign people. So that's actually three. Surprisingly. That's very interesting.

I'm trying to remember. One of her nominations was for The Good Earth. What was her second nomination for? She had two back to back. The Louisville Film Commission video.

Nice track. Pleased to meet me. Now it's going to drive me crazy. You could click on it, but I would rather just like irritate myself trying to remember. You have fun with that.

Surprisingly, number four, Edward Herman. I'm not sure I know who that is. Do you not watch Gilmore Girls? That's the dumb brother of Pee Wee. You've seen Lost Boys.

I have seen Lost Boys. He plays the record store owner that turns out to be the head vampire. If you saw... Peter Brogdonovich. Really?

He's dead? Yeah. One of Peter Brogdonovich's last films, The Cat's Meow, he played William Randolph Hearst in it. Okay. You'd recognize probably his voice almost as much as you would.

Oh, you would recognize him in a second. Yeah. He did some commercial work for, I can't remember what vehicle it was. I think it was a Ford. Yeah.

Have you not seen Overboom? I have, but not since it was- I think he's the husband that she disappears and he doesn't go looking for her. Yeah. Yeah. I think Lucy's more taken aback that Brian is like, how have you not seen Gilmore Girls?

And she's like, why have you seen Gilmore Girls? Every season. Every season. Until the final episode. Anyway.

Those little eyes are hot. What do you want? Of course, it might be that with Edward Herman, it was just recent. What's really weird is I saw him. last year like he was at one of the shows signing you know probably mostly lost boys because you know all the geeks are always horror fans so he was there and i mean he was he coughing a lot no but he i mean it was funny because i hadn't seen him in several years it's even been you know 10 years since he's been on tv so it's been a few years and like he definitely like it kicked in those last few years it was like he was looking kind of rough so i was like I felt bad already. I was like, man, I haven't seen him.

And now he's... It was probably five months or so later. Like, it was not long after that that I saw the. I think, too, after Fred Gwynn passed away, didn't he take over doing, like, all the different Munster spinoffs? That's a bad idea, by the way.

Yeah. Just Hollywood in general. As Herman Munster, I think he did. Just because he and Fred Gwynn had similar voices. Yeah.

And, you know, he was both big men, too. Yeah, very big men. Oh, brain cancer. Brain cancer. You said that almost excited.

Oh, brain cancer. Wow. I'm pulling up his picture now. Now you recognize him. Yes, and apparently it was Dodge.

So what's weird is, yeah, that may have already been taking its toll. I mean, only a few months earlier, I'm sure he was already going through probably. A lot of treatment. So those are the top five for last year? He was four, Lauren Bacall is five.

So again, that's no surprise. Sid Caesar, is he on there? Not in the ten, no. Bob Hoskins or Richard Attenborough? No.

No. I am confounded by this list. Bob Hoskins, I actually talked to his agent a while back about a role for a film we were putting together. What was the role going to be? Before he died.

You weren't going to see GM in? This was about three and a half years ago. His agent says, Mr. Hoskins... has stopped acting. Oh.

What was the role? It was in a, it was the role of a detective. Mm-hmm. In a, it's a genre, genre action flick that we were working to put together. No, never came to fruition.

Oh. Who did you go to after Bob Hoskins? We were producers for hire on that one. Ah. So.

Yeah, what is the next rung down after? The plug was quickly pulled on that. Trying to think what the next move is for that. Who do you go to after Bob Hoskins? After Bob Hoskins, Michael Madsen.

Who said yes? That's an odd transition. And the movie did not get greenlit. I'm like, Free Willy? I didn't even know he said Free Willy.

That's your go-to is Free Willy. Yeah, Free Willy. Reservoir Dogs, of course. Michael Madsen. No.

No. Michael, it's Michael Madsen. Well, I mean, if you're going to go with Michaels from Free Willy, why not go Michael Ironside? Because I don't think he does as much now as Michael Madsen does. And I think I would rather work with Michael Ironside.

I think you would actually, I would like to see him more in a detective film anyway. Yeah, he has that. Well, he's like, you know, I could see him doing Chinatown. He's actually one, he was so big in the 90s, and I think the last thing I saw him in was. Something with iron in it.

The Machinist. Yeah. Something with iron in the title. That's close. An eagle.

Another eagle was in the title, maybe. It's in his contract. I have to have. Yeah, he was the red herring in The Machinist, and I was like, of course he's the red herring. It wasn't like every film up until then.

He was born to be the red herring. That's right. It's like episodes of Law & Order. You always know. There's a star.

They did it. All right. Do we have anyone we want to go with next? Shirley Temple. Black.

Or white. Which Shirley Temple? You racist. I support the black one. That white one.

Yeah, so Shirley Temple. Alright. What do we have to do? Just on Shirley Temple, I was still surprised. I was like, son of a bitch, she was still alive.

That's what I thought. Didn't she die in the 80s? There was no disrespect meant on that. There were a couple of different... Actors and actresses, I was that way.

Like, when I saw Renee Asherson passed away, I was like, my God. When I saw her in The Others, I was like, I didn't realize she was still around when I saw her there. And she was really old in that film. And that was still several years ago. Sometimes I go the other way.

Earlier today, I was trying to decide if Sondra Locke was still alive. Because I kind of thought she died. Turns out she's okay. Is she all right? Yeah.

I suppose. It didn't have a died date, so I'm. Assuming that she still lives. She's still living off the residuals from Any Which Way But Loose. Probably so.

No, but Bob Hoskins, out of all the ones this past year, he was definitely the one I was just saddest to see go. You know, I mean, he was always pretty versatile. I like a lot of his early stuff that he did when they were doing sort of neo-noir stuff in the 70s in England. If anyone's seen Long Good Friday or not, he's terrifying in that role as... a crime Lord. There's an entire scene to where he's just interrogated.

He's trying to figure out, you know, it's almost like a British godfather to a certain extent, but, um, there's this great scene where he's got all of his, you know, regular enemies just strung up on meat hooks in this like cold meat locker. And he's just like interrogating the hell out of them. Just trying to figure out who exactly it is. It's just screwing him over. And it's very frightening, but very fun.

You know, I. Always liked, uh, yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. I don't know if anyone saw Adam McGowan's Felicia's Journey.

That's so weird. Just watching him in that, how dark that is. It's a wild transition for him, and that was one where I really felt like he should have been nominated for something. I can't remember who all the main nominees were that year, but I felt like that was a film that was really, really overlooked in the way of his performance, just because it's very eerie. I think the last film that he got any kind of nomination for was Best Supporting in Mrs.

Henderson Presents, I think. I won't swear to it. I'm just operating under the assumption that he got nominated for Best Supporting because Bob Hoskins naked. That's what you're looking for. That seems to be like the one that, you know, cinches it like Kathy Bates getting it for, you know, about Schmidt.

It's like, all right, she took her clothes off. We've got to give her something. We've got to acknowledge it somehow. We don't necessarily want to see naked. If they're willing to do it, all right, we'll give you a nomination.

Well, I mean, you've got to note the range. Put your clothes on. But, yeah, I mean, you've got to give them credit for just range. Like, to be able to pull that kind of heavy stuff and then... Super Mario Brothers.

Which is kind of my go-to role. Which was actually, I was watching that Friday night, and it was so funny because I was watching it with some friends. A couple people came over, and they're like, we've never seen this. How bad is it? And I said, oh, you have no idea.

You have no idea how horrible it is. Does it fall in the so bad it's good category? I love that movie. It's ridiculous, but it's like they almost know it, so they're okay with what they're doing. I give it credit.

I don't know. I mean, it's... I don't think if you were watching it by yourself, like now, you would find it entertaining. But if you had a couple of beers and you were with some friends, yes. But it has nothing to do with the video game other than, like, the names.

And that's about it. They work weird little characters in, but they're, like, totally weird and different and don't follow any of the story. Of the game, if there was a story involved. Yeah, I'd heard the story... I don't know if it's true or not.

I guess it's apocryphal at best. But allegedly Dennis Hopper took his grandkids to see Super Mario Brothers. And after the film was over at the premiere, his kids who were big Super Mario Brothers fans and big fans of just their grandpa in general, apparently one of them allegedly turned to him and said, Why did you make that movie, Grandpa? And he said, when you get older, you have to do some things for money. Wow.

Like that was apparently just an exchange that happened between the two of them. That's one of those roles that I call it. It's a health insurance role that you got to keep your, got to keep up your SAG health insurance. And so, you know, you need so many hours per year to keep up your SAG insurance. I don't know.

Go watch it. Like again, for Dennis Hopper, if nothing else, like his performance is amazing. Like it's, he will do those that are just like completely chewing the scenery. And like he, seems to enjoy it, you know? He is kind of Frank Booth-y in his way, but toned down.

That's amazing. I've been quiet for a minute because I had this idea that popped into my head, and I was about to say it, and then I was like, well, no, I need to confirm this with the internet before I say it out loud because I will discredit myself for all future conversations because it can't be a real thing that happened. In the world. But apparently that movie was produced by Roland Joffe, which maybe makes some of that make sense. I thought you mentioned that before.

You looking stuff up over there? Well, no, I'm confirming something. All right, I'm trying to remember. Because I was like, that can't be a real thing. Louise Rainier, I think it is The Good Earth and The Great Ziegfeld.

I think those are her two. See, not everybody has the strange encyclopedic knowledge. Well, if I was encyclopedic, then I would know for 100% for certain. It's just that's why I'm like, I think these are. Google machine.

I know I have nothing left in my head anymore. That's why you have smartphones and laptops. You have to be able to take the stuff with you because your brain goes with you, but it doesn't know anything. That's why I like just having the old flip phone because everyone has the fancy phones. Like, no, I don't want an argument in there.

You have a flip phone? Yeah. Can I see it? It's like a slide-up, but yeah. Do we have the same phone?

We might have the same phone. Two people with slide-up phones? It's actually the new hip thing. Or they share a phone. This is scary.

This is a big moment. Because that's the thing. If you have that stuff, it's an argument ender. It's like, no, no, no, no. You just like to argue.

I do. I want to get pissed at myself because I'm like, I should remember this. And people are like, I could look it up. No. No.

So actually, no, don't look it up. I've changed my mind completely. Wow. Two flip phones. I will just stake my claim on Great Ziegfeld and The Good Earth and leave it at that.

Thank God I'm okay. Rick Mayhall. Oh. I had, yeah, I had pointed into that one. I forgot about that.

And when I was looking at lists, he wasn't on any of the lists, so I wasn't reminded. He was on my personal list. Oh, yeah. The one that I was probably saddest to hear this year was Rick Mayhall. That's true.

Just loved Rick Mayhall. I used to Saturday nights on MTV would, you know, at 1130. 1130 would, you know. And it speaks highly of that show because I am not one to buy into British comedy. I know some people love it and I just, it's very hit and miss with me and like, it took a little while.

Like, that's one of those I saw that first week and went, what is this? Like, it just doesn't make sense. The structuring of it and the ridiculousness of some of the things that go on. And then once you're immersed in it, it's like, This may be the best show I've ever seen. It is so much fun.

When did The Young Ones premiere on MTV? 82. 82. Okay. I remember that vividly because that's when I stopped being cool because we didn't have MTV and everybody would be talking about this show that I couldn't see.

It was a rough year for the six-year-old Lucy. I still use Young Ones references. I do too. Did you make your bed? No, I bought it.

I love that one. So, yeah, he was, and most people probably know him from Drop Dead Fred. That became his, like, mainstream. Entries into American culture. However, I mean, he went on to do stuff like the comic strip, which did that.

They did a, it was a Spinal Tap knockoff called Bad News on Tour, if you've ever seen it. And it's just brilliant, absolutely brilliant, where he plays the long-haired, bass player who you know he's always sticking his tongue out and wiggling his tongue at people and gyrating his hips and he's a complete doofus and oh it's just it's some of the best comedy i've ever seen and it was it came right around the time well it's here spinal tap was 83 283 somewhere around there. Somewhere Maybe, yeah. It might be as late as 84, but yeah, it's somewhere in that range. And then the comic strip, I think, released that around 87.

But it was so good. And it was most of the guys from The Young Ones. Because that was the one that they followed up. For a while, they were running it after The Young Ones on MTV. Because I remember watching that every week.

And again, it was just a weird dynamic because it's not at all like The Young Ones. The comedy even switches a little bit. But that was the one they did The Sound of Muzak. Yes. That I will never, like, say it right now.

Like, The Sound of Muzak. And, like, nobody knows what I'm talking about. But, like, that entire, like, thing of him trying to watch this movie. And, like, it's so much fun. So that's the standout episode for me.

The Sound of Muzak. The Sound of Muzak. I like that. Yeah. So, yeah, he was definitely one that I was most sad to hear about.

Well, and then you go back. I forgot. I mean, I remember last time I watched it, but he's in the Slaughtered Lamb in American Werewolf in London. Right. Playing chess.

Yep. Very, very cool tie-ins. Which actually, you mentioned that. I was just sitting here lost in thought in the way of like, out of all the people that died this past year, like which ones had impacts on others? And, you know, Rick Baker won the Oscar for American World from London, but I think if it weren't for Dick Smith, he wouldn't have really gotten into makeup.

Because, yeah, Dick Smith was just a legend within the makeup industry. You know, whether it's, you know, Rick Baker or Doug Drexler, I mean, all of them were just highly influenced by his work or, you know, just close friends with him. And, you know, the huge expansions. of practical effects that happened in the early eighties, I would say that you could pretty much almost entirely credit to him for his work that he was doing in the seventies. And so you had all these young upstarts that not only were seeing like, you know, stuff he was doing with the exorcist and that and wanting to do it themselves, but he was also like very open, very humble with, you know, share information. He put out like that Dick Smith, um, uh, makeup book that was in the back of magazines and stuff that sort of became like, you know, anytime somebody wants to get into makeup, that's the number one thing I recommend to them.

I'm like, track down this book. If you can do the stuff in this book, that is the perfect starting point. And even, like, the Dick Smith makeup certificate is still, like, the golden ticket within Hollywood if you can get practical makeup jobs. I mean, everybody's just cheaping out and going digital, which is sad, but. Well, that's an interesting time because you really can pinpoint exactly, like, what a shift it was in the early 80s because go back and look at, like, 60s and 70s, it's just, like, theatrical.

It's just buckets of paint is your blood and, like, some bad, like, spirit gum stuff stuck to your face. But you hit that early 80s run there, and it's, like, it's revolutionary how it changed. Which, I mean, yeah, the stuff, you know, not even for Exorcist, but, you know, everything from, like, Altered States to Amadeus. It's just, there's old age makeups and transformation stuff. It was all amazing.

And that's when they added that to the Oscars, isn't it? They added it in 81. American Werewolf in London was the first one to get it. Probably if they'd had it for 80, then Smith might have got it for Altered States the year before. But no, 81 with American Werewolf in London was.

The first year. That's what I thought. It was that push when they all started doing that. They were like, this is so amazing. We need to create a character.

And they'd done some special awards in makeup prior, like John Chambers got one for Planet of the Apes. I'm trying to remember. There were a couple others. I want to say, I think Jack Pierce got... like an honorary Oscar, I think. I won't swear to it.

But, I mean, yeah, that push is what caused that to pop up in 81. Of course, now it's kind of gotten to where it's... It usually ends up either going towards, like, costume dramas or stuff to where, you know, you look at it and it's like the makeup's almost too outlandish, but, you know. Before we totally leave Rick Mayall, I found the story that I think summed him up kind of perfectly, though. He said, before, because he, according to this, in 98, he had a serious quad bike accident, which, I don't know what to think about that anyway.

But he was in a coma for several days. And it says, his first words under gaining consciousness were, to the doctor, so you're the bastard that keeps sticking needles into me. I'm like, yeah, that sort of sums up Rick. Well, he was, you know, his, uh, his comedy was really that, that I would say the springboard for a lot of British comics, French and Saunders and, um, Ed Edmondson and, and folks like that really, not that, you know, they couldn't have made it without him, but I think that he was a, it. Was a weird little family too.

It was a lot of them crossed over. They did cross over. Yeah. And so they, um, they're kind of like the, the irreverent Saturday night live, you know, irreverent plus Saturday night live, um, from, from British comedy scene. I mean, they just, they all supported one another.

They're like a British second city, you know? So, so funny and, and, uh, really, really smart comedy stuff that makes you, um, I even think back to like some stuff that I saw Rick Mayhall do live. Um, I saw it on online, of course, over there, but, um, stuff that harkened back to, um, Abbott and Costello, who's on first. I mean, some of the, just, it was brilliant writing and, And you could watch him go. There was one really popular thing that was on YouTube where he went off for like about 13 minutes, went off the tracks, going back and forth with the audience and couldn't help but crack himself up.

And the audience just kept feeding into it, feeding it. And as soon as he felt like getting back on the tracks, he just jumped right back on and drove the train into the station it was really amazing watching him him work i mean he was i think one of the quickest wits in comedy and in the late 20th. Century that's what's so amazing when you see like interviews and stuff with him and seeing how like intelligent and well-spoken he really is because he gets into those characters and he's just ridiculous and like shamelessly will be stupid but like there's so much like planning behind that in his head like yeah it's. Well, the Young Ones episode where they have the college party, and I think it was Jennifer Saunders.

He digs into her purse, and he pulls out a tampon, and he doesn't know what it is. He thinks it's a present, so he unwraps it. And then he thinks it's a mouse because of the little string. And so he's, you know, jumping around. It's a mousey.

And then he dips it into somebody's tea and it expands. And he's like, the mouse is growing. Go watch it. Go watch it. Your life will be better as a result.

He was pretty good. As soon as you mentioned SCTV, I was like, Harold Ramis. Yeah, that's what I was just trying to get on that one, too. Because that, to me, is another one of the great sketch comedy shows that not enough people have seen. Because you mentioned sketch comedy, and people think Saturday Night Live or Mr.

Show or all this other stuff. You go back to some of those earlier ones, and it's like, once you watch the breadth of those shows, then when you start watching modern stuff, it's like you're watching Mad TV, and it's like, you know, They're just stealing all. The old sketches from all these old shows. But, you know, Ramis getting his start on SCTV and then just branching into both acting and screenwriting. I still think Groundhog.

Day is just a masterpiece. I think that is like the crown jewel of his career. Everybody goes to the later stuff. But to me, like so much of my youth was centered around stripes. I've seen that.

So many times, I guess, because they ran it to death on cable. But, like, again, to look at him that early in, like, that was right after SCTV. And, like, not only is he, like, holding his own with Bill Murray, but, like, he just creates this really great character in that that is, like, so lovable. And, like, I don't know. Again, at that point, trying to go up against Bill Murray is pretty impressive.

But, yeah, and then just extending into Ghostbusters in and of itself, that very much was just my childhood for me. Oh, yeah. And that was something else, too. When I got older and I started getting into SCTV, I was like, now I get why Rick Moranis has this character in there. It was something that they'd done over and over in a couple SCTV sketches.

Essentially, he's just playing the same character. And so that's what I love is, like, when you see those guys, it's the same as, like, when you see Little Shop of Horrors. Right. All of a sudden, now you've got, you know, John Candy making a cameo appearance. I think Andrea Martin and Joe Flaherty both make really quick, like, walk-on cameo appearances in that.

And just the fact that they're always just interacting with one another in all their film projects, I just love it. Again, it's that little family that they create of performers, and it's kind of always cool. Eventually, they sort of latched on to Christopher Guest and, you know, ended up in, like, his mockumentaries. But, no, I mean, you know, analyze this as kind of fun, and, you know, Bedazzled has its moments, but I think definitely in the way of, like, Ramis' films, Groundhog Day is the strongest of its directorial efforts. Forget the Caddyshack.

Caddyshack, oh, I was just going to say. I forgot that he was, yeah, the director. There was a great bio of the making of Caddyshack, and just the slapdash, haphazard way that that film came together is amazing. I mean, who doesn't? They say, hey, we want to do this film about golf, and they sit in a room for two weeks and write something.

And come up with a puppet. And they come up with a puppet, and the exec says, okay, I guess. It should be that way again. It's funny. It was on yesterday.

I was somewhere, and there it was. And I was like, man, I haven't sat down and watched this in forever. And just those little scenes, I'm like, this is just so... Again, it was just so many talented people because it was mostly Ted Knight scenes and I'm like, who would have seen that? He's so good in that as being his jerky self.

He cornered the market on playing that guy. But then even National Lampoon's Vacation, I stand by that as being one of the best written pieces and him just finding interesting ways to set all those scenes. Again, he kind of gets forgotten for some of those older. Ones, but Even though I'm not a fan of Chevy Chase's off-screen personality, at least from what I've read and heard. But Chevy Chase as a comedic actor in that whole series of films.

I like him, but for me, I don't know. It was always Christmas Vacation was the one that synced to me just because it was different in the sense that that was when the madness came to them versus them going to it. And, you know, I was like, God, that's my family in the holidays. We would take road trips, but that, like, I was like, this is a bit silly, even though, you know, we would be stuck on these car rides for forever. But as soon as they, like, captured bringing everyone in for the holidays, like, yeah, that one's dead on out of the series.

But everyone has, that's always kind of a debate. It's like back and forth between vacation versus Christmas vacation. It's not much arguments on your part. No, or Vegas. Vegas, I've heard, again, I think that's a later thing.

I feel like people who didn't experience those early ones and have them ingrained in them yet. I do like Papa Giorgio. Nick Papa Giorgio is one of the greatest creations of comedy. I heard a lot of people of the next generation that were just like, no, I love that. And they would be quoting things from, I was like, really?

You're quoting Vegas Vacation? Ethan Embry is a genius in that movie. He really is. And I don't understand why. Have you seen him now?

No, I have not. No, the one I have not seen is Christmas Vacation 2. He's up for the next detective. Role in the movie. He should.

Because I know that they made that direct-to-video some years ago, and I'm like, I have no desire at all. You know they're bringing it back. Because what? They're doing another vacation. Oh, yeah, Rusty grows up.

Are they? What? Rusty is the dad now taking them on vacation. Which Rusty? Who is it?

I can't remember. I think they've just recast, like always. I think it's another. Please tell me they're going on the road to visit Grandma and Grandpa. I think so.

I think they're supposed to work both of them in. Not that that wasn't so easy. Yeah. A five-year-old. Well, they did.

Did you ever see the, like, half a movie? I guess you counted it, and I guess it counts as canon. But they did, like, a hotel commercial that's, like, it went, I guess it was made straight for the Internet, because it's, like, 10 or 12 minutes long, but it's got an, it's the... the mom and dad go in to visit grown-up Rusty, and they're staying in all these, like, terrible hotels along the way, and by the end, you're like, this is a commercial for a hotel, like, a specific hotel, but, like, it really is an extended... short film about those two characters again. I like those sort of things. Kind of like recently you've had those infomercials start popping up on Adult Swim that just take off on the internet.

I'm sure everybody in here has seen too many cooks at this point. That thing's amazing. But it's like, to me, once they came out with unedited footage of a bear, I was like, they are on fire. Whoever is coming up with this stuff, you look it up and apparently it's just all the usual staff riders at Adult Swim. They're just being given the freedom to just do whatever they want.

So it's become almost like this strange, perverse, you know, pissing match, I guess, to where it's like, oh, you think that's weird? Let me show you what I can do. Watch this. And, you know, they've been doing it for so many years. It's either going to, like, get really outlandish, even though it already has, or it's just going to collapse.

I hope it does both, actually. Well, back to the subject of death. Yeah. Have you ever seen the New Zealand Pizza Company? who did one of the first companies that I ever saw do an extended ad campaign like that, where it was an online choose-your-own-adventure ad campaign, and you have to get the pizza delivery boy to his. Of course, actually, I know the author of the choose-your-own-adventure books also died this past year.

Did he really? Yes. Yeah, he did, actually. I remember posting that. You didn't even realize that you were doing a callback, but sure enough.

I didn't. How sad. But, yeah, so you had to get the pizza delivery boy, and you just click which way you want him to go. And it's not an animated piece. I mean, this is a program to choose your own adventure.

Oh, wow. To answer your question, Rusty is Ed Helms. So they have once again recast the kids, which, I mean, at this point you kind of have to. Like, it's only funny if you continually. And Audrey is Leslie Mann.

So they're going big budget on this one. They've got Chris Hemsworth on board. Christina Applegate, they're bringing in Charlie Day. Who is funny, funny, funny. Christina Applegate.

I've always really liked her, but it's amazing now that she's grown up and still, you know, it wasn't a fluke that she started off in a really entertaining show, but she is just genuinely funny. She is funny. Wait, can I have another question? Is that okay? Time for the commercial break.

Please. Go ahead. We'll talk about you when you're done. Don't do that. I won't come back.

I'll die in the bathroom. Next up for Lucy. Remember when she used to be on this show? I do. Let's play a montage of her hits.

Play a montage. Now you have to have a montage of everything that Lucy said in this episode. We'll have a flashback episode of a flashback episode. It will collapse upon itself. All the times have come Here.

Seasons don't fear the reaper, nor do they win the sun or the rain. The barrier between life and death is no greater than the thickness of a door. Now, the door is open. What do you want? An ancient house, a phantom car, a terrifying confrontation with evil.

Trish Vandivere, Joseph Cotton, The Hearse, a classic experience in fright. From Crown International Pictures, rated PG, parental guidance suggested. Tweaked Audio, your source for high-performance, noise-reducing earbuds. Available in three styles and seven colors, durable and designed to sound great for both music and those chatty podcasts, like the one you're listening to now. Tweaked Audio earbuds come with a one-year warranty, and now there's a special deal for Movie Meltdown listeners.

Just go to tweakedaudio.com, and when you check out, enter the discount code MELTDOWN. Then you'll get 33% off and free shipping. Tweaked Audio. Sounds better. Hi, this is Scott Wilson.

I played Herschel Green on The Walking Dead, and this is Movie Meltdown. Stay tuned. It's part of your problem, you know. You haven't seen enough movies. All of life's riddles are answered in the movies.

And now, on with the show. Valentine is done. Here. Mike Nichols. Yes.

All right. And I felt like that passing was completely unheralded. I felt like nobody talked about it. I don't know. There's a little that day, but.

That is our culture now. There's so much you don't get. I kind of felt the same about Dick Smith. I feel like it's just anytime it's not an actor or actress, it just sort of fades really quickly. And even then, you don't get very long.

Unless you are those top two names. Those were the only ones that carried on for more than about a day. Even Lauren Bacall. Pretty quickly, nobody talked about it anymore. But I feel like Mike Nichols wasn't even just another writer-director.

He was an egot. He was iconic. When you think about how, where he started and where he finished and the fact that he stayed relevant for so many decades. Um, and the fact that him even being involved in film was sort of an accident in the first place, you know, he, he was the Broadway director and Liz Taylor was like, I'm not being in this, in this Albie movie unless you have Mike Nichols direct me. And that's how it all began.

And I, uh, his body of work kills me. I feel like there's sort of a thematic thread that runs like between all the films that really appeals to me personally, which is about sort of The Impossibility of Love, but I'll keep on trying. And it's kind of in everything. Like, it's in The Graduate, it's in Heartburn, it's in... Yeah, anyway.

But I think he was a master. What's your favorite Nichols film? I mean, The Graduate, because it's one of my favorite films ever. I mean, it doesn't get better than The Graduate. So, what's yours?

I always liked Silkwood. Ah, you know, I haven't seen Silkwood. Oh, you haven't? I have not. I think you'll love it.

And I do like Primary Colors, too. I thought that was a just a fun you know because i was a clinton fan so i just really liked yeah i loved seeing that film that was a lot of fun uh not something that i would want to watch over and over again but occasionally when it comes on cable i'll stop and you know. And play it through i was gonna say that's one i've kind of forgotten all about but i mean i remember john travolta and kathy bates both being a lot of fun oh yes i saw it way back when it first came. Out and I remember, again, just all the way up until the end, like, I remember being pretty impressed with Closer. Closer was amazing.

To be that far into his career and still being relevant, you know? I would say, yeah, Closer is probably my favorite of all of his. I mean, you know, I like The Graduate, you know, objectively, but in the way of, like, something I can just put in and. Like, enjoy, enjoy. I don't know.

To me, there's, like, that difference between can I watch a film and say it's a good film? Yes. But is it something to where I would want to own it? know and it just might not have that emotional appeal to me that it does to you but yeah just something about closer it just i don't expect her just looking at the list there just seemed to be more viscerality when it came to the emotional investment of the characters that appealed to me just looking at the list here carnal knowledge to oh that's a great one and. Then like Silkwood the wolf? Yeah.

Oh, wolf. I'm not even sure. I knew that. That's one that I would try to erase. We're just going to forget about that one.

God, I'd forgotten he did the birdcage. Yeah. The birdcage did Day of the Dolphin. It's such a weird spectrum. Oh, I forgot about the Day of the Dolphin.

I was like, look at that, going, God, that was him too, wasn't it? But see, those are the directors that I always liked. That's a failure as. A movie, actually. Where they strive to be diverse instead of just... pigeonholing themselves into always doing exactly like, you know, it's like, oh, John Carpenter's doing another horror film.

How about that? It confuses people when they stray into a baseball movie. I like David Lynch, but still at the same time, it's like, David Lynch is doing another hot offbeat movie. You can't really do much else. He's a crazy man.

Straight Story is a fantastic movie. It's still his level. Of weird, but it's dialed back a lot. But see, that totally. Threw me off, where I was like, I like this.

I almost, and I got really intrigued for a bit. I was like, is he going to start going off into, you know, trying something else? Even though I love, like, all Lynch prior to that. Really, all Lynch after, I'm like, ugh. But, yeah.

Meshack Taylor. There you go. How are these people not showing up on any of these lists? I forgot about that one, too. You can't have Hollywood without Hollywood.

I don't know if that was the most responsible portrayal, but it's pretty memorable. You got to give him credit. That's most of my film for him. I didn't care for designing women. But again, he seemed like he did a good job at that.

It was a nice paycheck for years. We also lost the king of the B-movie villains, Richard Kiel, passed away this past year. That one, I don't feel like I have to go into a lot of weird backstories because I can just reference you to the episode. Yeah. That's the only one on the list that's actually been on the show.

So go back to episode 200. he's pretty awesome. Like, I was amazed. Exactly episode 200? Yeah. A giant of an episode.

Episode 200. And he, I mean, again, I kind of started, like, I was way more fascinated in, like, his growing up stories, like, because he got really big and, like, it was trying to deal with that at a time when there wasn't a culture. Like, he had to have things special made for him because there weren't big and tall stores, you know? It's like, everything had to be, well, not like that, but, like, Everything. He had to have a bed custom made for him.

Eventually he had to get a separate car. It's like everything had to be custom made because he just didn't fit in the regular world. So that goes back to did you make your bed? Yes. Somebody did.

I gave him some money and somebody did. Speaking of Bond villains that died this year, Jeffrey Holder, who I only knew as the 7-Up spokesman. So when he passed, I was like, no, that guy. But had no idea until I looked into it, the career that he'd had previously, that he was a dancer and choreographer. And that he'd gotten the wins over all that.

Yeah. That's my favorite of the Roger Moores. Well, it's very obvious it came in the blaxploitation era. I'm totally fine. That makes it such a different bond that it is the blaxploitation bond.

You know, because all the rest of them, then it starts, you're like, For your eyes only, you only live twice. It's like they're all blending. I don't know. But it's like live and let die. That one sticks out like a sore thumb, but in a good way.

I'm sorry. No, that wasn't. So what else did he do? Choreography? Yeah, well, he began as a dancer, I guess, when he's from Trinidad.

And I think somebody discovered him dancing there and he came to America. And then there's this beautiful love story with his wife, who was actually also a renowned dancer. And they were married for like, you know, 60 some years or something. There's actually a documentary about their love story. He's just a lot more.

Like what style? Uh what do you ballet yeah jazz all of the dance honestly and i guess he did the costume design for the whiz on broadway and maybe the production design he was he was very had a big hand in. In that. Very multi-talented yeah i'm trying to remember also a painter. Sydney lamette was that this year or last year.

That was not this year i'm not sure it was last year either. I thought it was the year before. Maybe I'm... Okay. It's been a while, I think.

Right? I don't know. You just said The Wiz and that reminded me. But I guess maybe it has been longer than I thought. It feels like it was at least last year.

But yeah, Richard Kiel, I mean, he was... really 50s through 70s you'd see him in a lot of stuff and he just sort of disappeared after that but i think he was having a lot of health issues when it came to walking and all the rest just because you know i mean that height is gonna be hard on your heart it's gonna be hard on what. I was just talking about the last episode about peter mayhew i'm like the fact that he's supposedly working on these new films i'm like when you're that big a lot of health issues like he's had trouble walking periods i'm like the fact that richard keel seemed like he hung in there because like even the happy Gilmore days like he was still kind of you know pulling in you know pretty good work and being imposing which was his job and everything just about so yeah I think I think he still seemed to be relatively happy he just yeah he had a lot more health issues as he got old yeah 2011 actually oh.

Hell all the years are blending together yeah That's a long, well, I guess definition of a long time ago is subjective. Longer than I thought it was. Do we want to hit Sid Caesar before we forget? Don't hit him, he's dead. It's funny, as long as it's for comedy purposes, he's okay.

Hit like a foam bat. He would be on board. Between him and Jonathan Winters, those were the two that in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World that I just find the funniest. Because the entire frustration of just trying to get out of the basement of the hardware store. To me, the first time I watched It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, I don't think I even laughed that much.

And it's one where the more I watch it, the funnier it gets because you just start really growing attached to these characters and the journey they take you on. And, you know, out of all of them, he very much feels like just the everyman. And, of course, we lost Mickey Rooney this year, too, who also was in that as well. And the whole Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hackett stuff, I mean, that's fun. But, yeah, just as Sid sees it, he's just so damn frustrated from beginning to end.

And you just feel so sorry for him. You can feel that frustration. That's why I can't watch that movie. I'll never be able to watch that movie again. It makes me nervous.

Really? Yeah. I think it was, that's another one of those weird ones. Why does it make you nervous? It's just too frenetic.

There's just too much happening and it's too, like, I don't know. Same reason my dad can't watch The Amazing Race, I guess. It's like when, um, when Mickey Maroney passed away, I saw an interesting article go up and I'd never even thought about this, but, um, it's an old Warner Brothers cartoon to where, um, I can't think of the name of it. It's on the second volume of the Looney Tunes cartoon story. It's set in like a Hollywood nightclub, I think the Brown Derby or somewhere else.

And you have just all the different caricatures of all the Hollywood stars of the 30s. And you've got Clark Gable, William Powell, and all these people interacting. And they're just doing like goopy little quick throwaway gags. And somebody brought up about how Mickey Rooney is in it. And he's actually, when he died, he was the last caricature.

Of that era, huh? That was in that cartoon, like every other character that they're spoofing, all those actors and actresses are long gone. And he was the last one. I was like, I would have even never put that one, one together. That was an interesting like thought.

Cause he spans so many different generations starting off as like a kid star, but then succeeding not only as an adult, but even like, you know, when he got older, He was totally open to just playing the crotchety old man for fun. In some of the worst movies. He would turn up, but I could never tell if it was like he needed money or he just didn't care. He just wanted to work. And people offered him stuff, and they could be like, oh, look, we have Mickey Rooney in our movie.

He's one actually, he's got to be up there in the way of record holders for the length of acting career. Because he started so young, and he went for so long until the very end. Yeah. Speaking of people who continue to have careers, although was a lot more sort of conscientious about making good choices, Eli Wallach was one that saddened me endlessly. Have you seen him as Mr.

Freeze in Batman? No. Talk about the death of a career. But anyway, continue. It wasn't Schwarzenegger.

It's okay. I guess I was just thinking of, like, the Polanski film and stuff like that, where he showed up in later years, and you're like, oh, my God, he's still, like, not only working, but traveling to work. And he was also still showing up in The Associates, starring Whoopi Goldberg. Okay, well, maybe I'm getting cherry-picking right now, but. Shut the theory to hell.

I got to say, I had not realized until fairly recently that his first actual movie role was Babydoll, which blows my mind. Yes, exactly. I didn't realize that. I didn't either. I mean, he was completely a theater actor up until that time, and that was his first role.

Now I have to go back and rewatch it. What character does he play in that? It is unbelievable. He plays the Italian fellow who seduces babies. Oh, my God.

I don't think I ever put one and one together. No, I mean, it is the sexiest. That scene is, I just rewatched it on YouTube last night, and I was feeling a little nervous. I've got it at home. I need to go back and rewatch.

It's been a long time. Yeah, it's incredible. He's incredible in it. And so, so sexy. So weirdly sexy.

Eli Wallach was so weirdly sexy. Yeah, so sexy and Eli Wallach are just in my recent memory of the man. Everybody else, you say, you like Wallach and Sexy, and they're just having, like, images of Tuco from Good, Bad, and Ugly just pop up in their head, just him all sweaty and grizzled and out in the desert. I am telling you, go back and watch Babydoll. It's amazing.

It's amazing. It's an amazing scene. How about Casey Kasem? Yeah, I was thinking, it's like, we can't sit here in front of microphones and do an audio show and not mention Casey Kasem. I mean, he.

Again, he... He started to not fit in the times. You know, it's like I don't know that he would work now on the radio because there is no radio like he used to do. It's all changed so much. But I'm like thinking back to what he did and like how influential he was in his era just as far as like radio personality.

But then crossing over into voiceover work and like... I mean, he was playing Shaggy up until 2009. He was still playing Shaggy. Like. He had done so many incarnations where everybody else just kept changing, but he had nailed that voice so perfectly that I'm surprised he didn't turn up in that live action.

Huh. Take that, Matthew. Old Scoob. That's pretty good. Zoinks.

Yeah, my sister would. I clearly remember my older sister, when we lived in California, she would lie on her bed on weekend mornings and keep meticulous notes on the top 40 list. Aww. And I would go in and, you know, fuck with her and mess up her list. Yeah, that's really, as far as Casey Kasem as a radio personality, I, you know, some would say he was, you know, revolutionary or whatever.

I just didn't, I never saw it. I never saw it. But as a voice actor, I thought he was, you know, he really is imprinted into the, you know, the social consciousness of, or the popular consciousness. I mean, when you're Cliffjumper, come on. Then everybody gets to you.

But most people know him as that radio personality. Yeah. The whole top 40 and the, you know, the, the, the dead dog dedication rant, which is one of my personal favorites. It became so silly that it was like he was, everyone else made fun of it to the point that then you would hear him still doing it towards the end there, and you're like, I don't know that I can take this seriously anymore. That time period had almost passed when he was still doing it towards the end.

You're just like, it seems like it's mimicking itself now, but he's not. He was very earnest about it, but it was just strange to listen to at that point. I did see that I don't think I knew that much about him beforehand. It said before he got into radio, he was drafted into the Army in 1952, sent to Korea, and was a disc jockey there and announcer for the Armed Forces Radio, a Korean network. That was kind of interesting.

I had no idea he was in the military. That's a Robin Williams tie-in. That's what I thought. Armed Forces Radio voiceovers. My buddy Rich Green, he was the morning D.J., Good detaining.

Rich Green, yeah. Rich Green. And so what was so strange is that we grew up quite literally down the street from one another and never knew it. Oh, wow. And we met in Panama.

What? Which was so strange. That is so strange. Yeah, I mean, he was seven houses down from me. Wow.

And we never knew that we grew up in the same neighborhood. And so we met in Panama, and he was the morning radio guy, and so he would have me do coming to do character voices in the morning with them, back when the radio was still live. So it was a lot of fun. That's great. Are you going to do something now?

No. That's how you're so good at your zoinks. Well, we did. He set it up so much. I know.

I was like, here they come. I've already given you an example of my voice. The most famous one was when Milli Vanilli, remember when the whole Milli Vanilli thing broke? That's not still current? It was a slow news week, trust me.

It was very much like a wave. It broke and it quickly receded. Well, we went on the air and I did Mickey Mouse. Goofy had dirty pictures of me and I was afraid to, you know. Is that true?

I think this might just be out of your actual life. pretty sure. Yeah, it was sad. I gotta say, when that Milli Vanilli record came out, I actually, I was like 12, I guess, and I actually really loved it, and I felt like my musical taste had already sort of evolved past that, and I didn't understand why I liked it, and I felt really guilty about it, like it was a super guilty pleasure that. Made me put it on the horizon. But then when I found out that they were actually just old session dudes, I was like, nope, I'm still cool.

They weren't a pop band at all, it was just a bunch of dudes from Detroit. In their 70s. That's right, that's right. Because you know it's true. Yep, girl.

Well, in the Mickey Mouse spinoff, Mickey's voice was not the real one on the fan club theme song. Wait, that's a lie, too. Is that tough on yourself as a kid? Like, no, you should not be liking this. You should not be liking this.

It's like, no, I'm sorry. When I was a kid... I gave in. I'm like, I like M.C. Hammer because I was nine.

Well, if I were nine, it would be different. I was 12. You should know better when you're 12. You're a 12-year-old Lucy sitting in a room playing her 45. A girl you know what's doing, flogging herself.

Well, I suppose the. Age is the age to where suddenly you do show up to the school roller skink party. Roller skink? Roller skating party. Roller skank party.

I kept looking for those. I think you just wrote a new movie. I spent a year there one night. Yikes. I just, speaking of music, I'm speaking of albums, it's hard for me to think of Casey Kasem and not think of the Negative Land sampling of Casey Kasem.

You know what I mean. He did have some fun outtakes over the years. So look that up, kids. Yeah. All right.

Well, before I forget, like one of the most monumental moments in my life, Gilligan's Island. Oh, Russell Johnson. Again, so much of my childhood was built around Gilligan's Island. I'm pretty sure I lived on the island for several years. Yeah, it's probably a shame how much time I devoted to Gilligan's Island.

But again, another one of those that spent a good portion of his career working in actual film, and then now people know as The Professor, but you go back and all these old He was. In like This Island Earth. It came from Outer Space. But he was in a ton of westerns too. You can kind of see that.

He looks like he'd fit in just fine in a cowboy hat. But yeah, like what else? Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki. What is that? Are you not familiar with the kettle?

Well, even though in the way of like childhood movie roles, even though this is not what, you know, the actor should be best remembered for, but Richard Attenborough probably from most are like, Oh, Jurassic Park. Yeah. That's the way everybody now remembers. Yeah. The one thing I've always, always wanted to see, cause it's supposed to be one of his best films, Brighton Rock.

Um, essentially it's like supposed to be the British Scarface. Um, it's, been out of print for years upon years. I don't think it's ever been released on DVD in the United States. And I keep hoping that every now and then Criterion talks about releasing it because I would love to see it because it's like heralded as, you know, this great British classic. And it's when he's fairly young.

I want to say it's like right post-World War II. Late 40s. I want to say. So, um, I don't know. It's one to where I've just heard nothing but positive, but it's impossible to find in a way of like Richard Attenborough's early stuff.

Um, and the way of like slightly later stuff, the great escape, he's fantastic. And then of course we lost James Garner this year as well. So you lost two of the major players from that film. Got to tie in for that one. If you want to, if we're ready for James Garner.

Sure. I'm always ready. well this was like because I remember when it happened like that day that it hit the internet I just my first thought was Maverick no my first thought was my first thought was oh Ken because our friend Ken who has been on the show quite a bit this past year he's been on at least three times that I could think of I knew like what a huge James Garner fan he was and I was just like that oh man I was like this is gonna hit him hard And I told him that. I was like, I may take some from that post that he did here because I don't think I can rattle off some stuff that he's in, but I don't think it's going to do it justice. So the day that he died, he posted, After losing my last job three years ago, I made a decision to go freelance.

As I developed a routine working from home, I began to take my lunch hour with Jim, watching old episodes of the Rockford Files on MeTV. Soon I found similarities between Rockford and I. No, I've never been to jail, never been shot at, never in a fist fight. But here was a guy living his life by the seat of his pants. Sometimes he'd be flush, most times he was broke.

He worked odd hours and had odder friends. He liked tacos, his dad was a truck driver, so was mine. He'd get the girl and lose the girl, usually in the same episode. He'd stick his neck out for people that oftentimes didn't deserve it. But he believed in the nobility of the common man.

All things I could relate to or aspire to. And one more thing, he never gave up. No matter how bad the circumstances, battered, bruised, and broke, he got up. Sometimes he got lucky. Sometimes, okay, most times, his friends were there to bail him out.

But it was Jim's courage and willingness to fight against the odds in the darkest times really spoke to me. If I could just hold on, be clever, and smirk at the bad guy, maybe I could live long enough to see my fortunes change before the credits roll. That's why Mr. Garner's passing has affected me so deeply. Not only does it mark the end of the life of a great actor and entertainer, But his turn, and in turn Rockford's passing, means saying goodbye to a friend and companion, though some through some dark days, and also, in a way, it symbolizes an end in an important chapter in my life.

Yeah, whatever. Wow. Like, it was so, like, attached to this. That's enduring, though. That was a lovely tribute.

That's what I'm saying. It is a lovely tribute. That was for you, Ken. Thanks for letting us share that with everyone. You say that, and it got me thinking, you know, throw out another episode idea.

Um, and you might say, no, we did this on this episode, but has there ever been an episode to where we had people like share, not necessarily like, I know we've done ones where it's like, you know, movies that impacted you, your youth, um, other ones to where it's like quintessential favorites, but in the way of like, just either television or films, I associate more with television than films of just discovering a show that felt like a gift. It was just the right time. It was almost like somebody out there. got you that seems to be like what he's kind of describing with the rockford files you just attach. Yourself to it in a way that you don't even fully. Understand yeah like you know because dave conover comes on every now and then he and i've you know kind of had that talk with like two or three different you know shows and we've even had evenings to where we come over and it's like this is a show that i had this connection with you know because it was just this is where i was at in my life at this time this is why it hit a right note and then he likewise so i don't know has that ever been.

Yeah Work that in somewhere. Okay. I don't think we've done anything that specific of that type. That sounds like a very special episode. I don't know.

Not one of those fixing the bike at the bike shop special. Episodes, right? I don't think we want one of those special episodes. Speaking of, Marianne Mobley. All right.

There we go. There's that transition. Different strokes. But for me... Elvis movies.

Also for me, being married to Gary Collins because that has to be an undertaking in and of itself. That is his name, right? Coleman? No, Collins. Gary Coleman?

She was not married to Gary Coleman. That would have sucked. She went different strokes and I'm like, Gary Coleman, what? Am I following? That would have been awesome.

No, no, no, no, no. Sorry, my train of thought went totally on the wrong railing. What are you talking about? Anyway, Mary Ann Mobley, I remember they used to, she and Gary Collins, if that is in fact his name, which I'm pretty sure it is. He was sort of a career alcoholic broadcaster.

I majored in it. D. Martin level? Or a whimsical sort of Jim Bacchus level. No, he was like constantly getting D.

It's actually a really sad story because they were married for decades. Lucy's like, stop laughing. Stop laughing. Jerry Coleman and alcoholics. It has to become part of your career.

Foster Brooks style. You've seen the commercial. The photograph of him in his shorts and his loafers, it got super viral, getting the DUI. I can't get Gary Coleman out of my head. Now I'm just hoping at some point.

He yelled at me. Anyway, Marianne Mobley, lovely person. Miss America from Mississippi. General Hospital. And General Hospital, apparently.

Did you watch her on General Hospital? Did you? I did. What year was she on that? I think she was on like 80, 82, 83.

I was an NBC gal myself, so I never went there. Was she good? I don't recall, but I do know she was on it. Very beautiful. And I guess suffered all kinds of self-esteem issues.

Like I've read interviews where she talks about the Elvis movies she was in and how she didn't feel like she was pretty enough to be in a bikini. I mean, she was a Miss America. But I guess they had a really interesting relationship. I had always been told that... the one and only co-star. Well, living in Gary Coleman's shadow has got to be very difficult.

Well, see, and you mentioned that, and now all that. Happened is, like, this episode has self-imploded in my head, and I'm thinking of the Zontar episode of SCTV to where they got Bonar Bain, Conrad Bain's twin brother, on, and there's the entire, like, they're trying to do a ripoff of different strokes, like Guy Cavallaro wants to make his own different strokes for SCTV. Oh, my gosh. I'm sorry, I can't get you. You've got me slap happy now.

At any rate. At a throwback, Gary Coleman has also deceased, so we can, I guess, get back on track with that. As is almost the entire cast. Todd's still hanging in there. Todd is still there.

He's the last one, isn't he? Charlotte Rae, I think, is still alive. I think so. I can't imagine a world without Charlotte Rae. Really?

That's the final straw? Neither can Tootie or Natalie or Blair. Sadly, I already. Did this game. Don't get Brian started.

On this one. Where was I? Oh, back to Elvis. Also dead. Also dead.

Maybe. Not sure. Unconfirmed. Last I heard, running a bait shop in Maine. But, you know, whatever.

I had always been told that Mary Tyler Moore, I think Mary Tyler Moore said this, was the only co-star that he hadn't slept with. But apparently also did not sleep with Marianne Mobley. In an interview she said that they had this really lovely relationship where She said, and I've always kind of struggled with Elvis in terms of like just his ethical, like where he existed in the. World of morality. In his real world versus the entertainer, great.

Real world, what was he thinking sometimes? But he seemed like such a gentleman, but was terrible to women. But I guess he would just sort of camp women into one of two camps. You were either like one of the gals or you were a lady. And he found Marianne Mobley to be a lady.

And so he would say, He would say, ma'am, one of these days I'm going to throw a party that I can invite you to. And so anyway, so we had a real friendship, those two. Also both being from Mississippi. Anyway, I just find her lovely and charming. Like a strange introduction.

And she was in two Elvis films, Girl Happy and Harem Scare. That's all. I just remember the Tura stories about Elvis. The what stories? The Tura Satanic.

Telling us her stories about Elvis. Oh, really? Because she was hooked up with Elvis. And very public about it. Oh, my.

Can you reference that episode number? I would like to. I think it's still in the vault. Okay. We're still waiting to do a whole Tura special because, yeah, she was amazing.

But hearing her stories. I mean, she's now passed. Yeah. I would love to just do like, you know, watch Faster Pussycat Kill Kill and just break that one apart. Best movies ever.

But, yeah, basically she didn't have as many problems with Elvis as the colonel. She was battling with the colonel because the colonel. did not like her because she was a very strong-headed woman. Sanders? Yeah, she had issues with him. He did not want their affair going public, basically, was his main concern.

Interesting. Which I think a lot of Elvis' career was that, is like, you need to seem like you're available all the time so you can have all these other girls that want to be with you, which, I don't know, he was just very, manipulativeness, as we've all heard. Sure. No, well, the war did so many opportunities for Elvis to sort of go beyond what he was. I mean, like, legitimate film roles that he would have. tanked that pretty quickly.

And what was the deal about him not allowing Elvis to tour internationally? It was for some reason the colonel knew that if the colonel left the country the colonel wouldn't be allowed back in the country and I can't remember what the reason was but so he kept telling Elvis like it didn't make sense for him to tour internationally. A lot of shady business and then the colonel gets involved. Anyway. James Reborn?

I was going to say Reborn, yeah. He's like one of the fun character actors that I always dug and you know I guess most will remember him for Independence Day or his stuff they did in the 90s. Out of all my roles that I like him from, it's a stupid role. But you can tell he's having a ridiculous amount of fun in it. And that is an episode of The Adventures of Pete and Pete.

One of the best shows ever to grace. To where he plays, it's either like James or Jim McFlimp is the name of the character. And they always would take these characters and give them superpowers. He was an aluminum siding specialist who would just go door to door selling aluminum siding, but his superpower was he could talk people into buying anything. So he decided to go against Arnie, the strongest man in the world.

So essentially, James Rebhorn was the Lex Luthor of the Pete and Pete world against Arnie, the strongest man in the world. And so he's going around trying to convince everyone using his salesmanship why they should, like, you know, get rid of this character in town. I mean, it was just, it was very, very goofy, you know, that whole show was, but you can just tell that he's just having a blast chewing the scenery in this little goofy bit part before most anyone even knew his name. Yeah, fantastic character actor. Pete and Pete, though, the adventure's Pete and Pete.

I mean, That's one of those that took a long time. At the time, nobody but kids cared about it, but now I hear so many people reference it as. How influential that was. And that's one of those shows where I went back. And watched as an adult, and I wondered, okay, will this fall apart, or will it stand up?

For me, it stands up. I'm like, this is really damned clever television. There have been some shows to where I went back and I watched them, and I was like, no, I'm not 10 anymore. It doesn't work. Yeah, I was in the 80s when I watched. but I'm still waiting for them.

Smart writing, smart directing, you know, and just the, the, I think the injection of underground pop culture with, you know, the, uh, with luscious Jackson and, you know, um, uh, Iggy pop, you know. Yeah, I still keep waiting in the way of like all that early Nick cannon for salute your shorts to come out. That's just been, you know, chronically absent from any release VHS or DVD. I'm not sure what the, the storyline is. It's, Maybe there's music rights or something.

I don't know. I know I've recently looked up Malcolm in the Middle because, you know, I wonder, I'm like, why is it that only volume one or season one is out on DVD and none of the others are? And apparently it's because they did so much, used so much pop music, the licensing rights. Apparently somebody said, we don't feel like the licensing rights we would have to pay to release these music episodes are would ever amount to what we'd make by selling dvds so. Now everybody knows going in but that like 80s to 90s run of shows like nobody thought about it until the wonder years yeah yeah wonder years that killed it forever like.

Uh but still going back to sctv that's why it took so long for sctv to be released because they always had on different guests and they were trying to get all the music licensed out of all the people that they could not get the licensing for, sadly, was from John Williams, who had not let them, because they did the whole Schmenge Brothers covering John Williams music. And if you watch the YouTube rips versus what was released on DVD, it's like, no, they didn't get the rights for it, apparently, from Williams, which is sad. But that kills some television being released on DVD, sadly. Well, that's why they stopped producing Freaks and Geeks. It just became cost prohibitive.

When I watch it now, I'm just like, I don't know how they afford it. There's so much and super huge names that I'm just like, I don't even know how they paid for it then. They were still an upstart kind of a TV show, even for network television. They worked a lot of stuff in in that one season. One season, and I would have loved to have seen that go on for at least three or four.

It's one of the best shows ever. It really is. Just re-watching it this past year again, I'm just like, it is so welcome. There are those programs where when you see the final episode, you are melancholy. You're just sad.

You don't want to see the characters go. That was one of them. Well, and I think some of his best writing. I don't think his near as funny now as when he started. I think that stuff was so well put together.

Now it seems like he's trying so hard. So then is that another potential episode series to where it was either not enough, just right, or went on way too long? Have we ever had one where it's just like, I feel like there could be some arguments there on who felt like things went on too long or not enough. It's the Cousin Oliver Syndrome. It's when they bring on Cousin Oliver.

And most long-running, especially sitcoms, get to that point. At some point we have to bring on another cuter kid because these got too old. I can't do the modern-day sitcom. I just can't stomach them. How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory.

These are so wildly. Popular and I can't. I can't make it through an episode because I can time the jokes. I know exactly when the jokes are coming. Yeah, I've had friends, they'll come up to me and say, have you ever seen Big Bang Theory?

I'm like, no. You totally should. You'd find it funny because you're just like Sheldon. He's neurotic and you're neurotic. You're not selling me on the idea of ever watching this show at all.

Don't be like Sheldon. I don't know. That's another one I just have issues with structurally more than anything. I'm just like, who? wrote these scenarios. Like, it just seems so disingenuous.

Everything about it, but whatever. But the whole idea of a of a sitcom i think is probably well it's to make money from advertisers but beyond that is to take you out of your day-to-day and but they're they're are varying ways of doing that. I guess I just want more intelligent comedy. I want, not that I'm an elitist or anything or that I'm overly intelligent as all of you have probably already guessed, but it's that they just, they've dumbed things down so much. That's one of my main issues, but I think that's probably, which is funny because you go back to like the early stuff.

I mean, you still go back to like, I love Lucy. That show is funny as shit. Even now. That was hilarious. Even now.

And it set the rules by which everybody kind of operated from and or copied off of. Now, I picked up for Christmas for my dad, I bought him the first five seasons of All in the Family on DVD. And we sat down and we watched the first season and just howled at the jokes. There's one as the alternate tie-in. Norman Lear is still alive, for God's sake.

They had him on doing press this year, and I was just like, he looks good. He's really sharp. I'm just like, maybe. He just released a book. Yeah.

I was watching those interviews. I was like, he is on it. He's really sharp. I'm like, he's getting up there. Someday I'll do my Edith Bunker for you, but it won't be today.

Not today, when? You'll have to have me back for the uncanny Edith Bunker. Oh, man. But yeah, that hits the list I've scrawled on my end that I wanted to make sure I didn't forget. I was trying to hit some of the ones that nobody else will care about.

Marilyn Burns. Again, for not having a huge film career, like you look back at Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which now people still hold up as like one of the best horror movies ever made. It is one of the best horror movies. Yeah, it's one of those I've gone back and forth on my thoughts of it, but again, we just went to the drive-in and saw it this year on the show, and like, watching her performance and, like, how much she has to do almost wordlessly. Like, it's just, how can you convey terror through almost hysterics at points and yet still stay on track and keep doing what you're doing?

But, like, she has to be, like, that last 45 minutes of the movie, like, is just a train ride of her going through hell and, like. And I remember the first time watching that film and watching that performance... being so sucked into it. And I'm thinking, she'll never get beyond this. Unfortunately, she never. Helter Skelter's about the only other sizable role.

And everything else was just horror callbacks later in her career. But she never really got recognition for such a good performance. This is a weird side note. Have you heard about the Texas Chainsaw Massacre gas station incident? concept that's happening. There's some Ohio businessman who is buying it and turning it into like a sort of mecca for, it's going to be like a horror destination.

There's going to be a motel based around it. It's going to be. So it's nothing... The original location? It's not in the original?

I think it's in the original location. I don't think he's moving it. That seems like it would be excessive. I just didn't know if he was just starting it up out of the middle of nowhere, or this is actually one of the original. No, the actual gas station that's used.

And then I think he's bringing in other sort of horror elements to it, so it'll be an immersive. Build a little Bates Motel over here. Yeah, exactly. And again, there's enough of a horror fan base out there that might just work. As long as when he builds the hotel...

You have to drive on like a dirt path for 10 miles until eventually. You're like, is he serious? Is he really back here? Oh, that must be it. Like it has to have that factor when you pull up to it.

Oh, they're also going to, I just pulled it up to get some more information. They are also planning on constructing a Friday the 13th themed cabin on the grounds. And they're bringing in, you're going to have to help me with pronunciation, Ari Lehman, the first Jason Voorhees. Yeah, I think that's, I don't know. I've seen that guy a lot.

Oh, it's also going to be a live music venue. First Jason. I know that fans will travel a long way to see the fully restored TCM gas station with a fine Texas chili kitchen and stage. Live music. This venue will be crowded year round.

I love a lunatic with a dream. See, I think it would be funnier if In doing all these horror links and you had a kitchen, that you did a kitchen that was a Motel Hell themed kitchen. Because the whole gag is, what do you eat? You might want to give them a call. I feel like you could be part of this.

And running the kitchen would be Andy Diggs. Yeah. Aww. Bringing us back on track. Yes, good job.

Which again, does anybody know her from anything? Like, that was my exposure. Like, I was just wondering, other than coming back in the movie, like, I really didn't. Remember her from anything else. Yeah.

I just rewatched the Brady Bunch Christmas special and she kind of was heartbreaking in it. Was that like one way later? That was in the 80s. Yeah, I remember that. Where Sam had left her.

For a younger woman. Was this a court sentence or something? No, I remember that because I remember our family getting together to watch that. Christmas special episode. Yeah, it's rough.

Out of all the Brady Bunch stuff, that's the most ingrained in my brain. Really? Well, so you remember that Sam had left her for a younger woman, and she spends the whole episode just crying, just breaking into these crying jags over the absence of Sam. And then Sam shows up at the end, spoiler alert, in a Santa outfit, and she's like, Sam! And everything's forgiven.

Just forgiven. And it just breaks my heart for that character. She deserved better. Everything is forgiven. I know you've been screwing some 20-something, but....

Eh, as long as she gets her name, whatever. So. Elizabeth Pena. Oh, yeah. That completely threw me way too soon.

Way too soon. And that was one that threw me, too, because it was that day. That was, out of all the celebrity deaths, that was the weirdest one, because that morning I was watching Jacob's Ladder, and I got to think, I was like, What the hell has Elizabeth Pena been doing? And then I searched her name and it was like two hours ago, Elizabeth Pena, 56. I was like, what?

What? Elizabeth Pena. That's why we had to stop doing the week-to-week segment. We were pretty sure we were killing celebrities. So we had to retire it.

So now it's like way after the fact. It's not our fault. It's not our fault. Wow. No, I think what slowly killed her from the inside was batteries not included.

Like that just festered. I love that movie. It's endearing. You know, it's, it's, I'll say this. Like when I was a kid, when I was a kid, like, you know, when the spaceships get hurt, you know, I was just like bawling.

And then as an adult, I'm like, this is hokey, but it still has a soft spot. In my heart. I still have it on VHS and I'm content with having it on VHS, you know, with all the commercials right in front of it for Energizer. For Energizer. Well, way too soon.

Did not see Jan Hooks coming. No. That was crazy. I didn't even know that happened until I was reading. Yeah.

Who died this year. And it's, that's another one of those I, again, in my head, I think I, it's how you remember stuff. So it's like, to me, I assumed that she was in Pee Wee's Big Adventure because she knew people from SNL. The, she got in SNL after Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Like, in my mind, they were just kind of reversed, I guess because I'd watched Pee-wee's Big Adventure so much over the years, it just seemed like, you know, oh, SNL's been around forever, so, you know, but somehow it had gotten mixed up that, yeah, that was before.

She wasn't anybody, you know, I always assumed it was a tie-in because she was already somebody, but no, she just got that role because she was awesome and, like, to me, one of the most memorable characters, certainly of that movie, if not any movie. Man, her and the Alamo. Can't get enough of Now, you did mention Joan Rivers, but we didn't really address. That was, I don't know. To me, that's one of those I have to give, you know, not like a ton of movie tie-ins if you don't count Rabbit Test, but, you know, Spaceballs.

But just for being. The Swimmer. Yeah, that's true. That's way back, yeah. Of course, in a way of, I don't know why I always associate like her and Elaine Stritch, both of them as sort of like these odd sort of, you know, biting comedians.

And Stritch passed away this year and, you know, I've missed her a little bit more. I felt like she was one that nobody mentioned at all. And maybe it's just cause she did more Broadway stuff than movies, but any of her movie roles, she was funny as hell. You know, I have a soft spot just for, um, out to sea, even though I shouldn't, but that was, that was like anyone should really, that was the first movie I ever saw, like at the Baxter. And so I have that attachment to it.

And she's funny as hell on that. You know, she holds her own against, you know, Jack Lemon and Walter Matthau. And, That whole thing is like a who's who of bit parts because you've got Donald O'Connor's in that. Too. A lot of different character actors pop up in it out of fun.

I think Joan was just more amazing as not what she was doing but when she was doing it. To be as innovative and groundbreaking as she was. I appreciate that she'd also gotten to be a self-parody of herself and was fine with that. At the end she just wanted to work She was still touring. She was still doing comedy up until the week she died.

She was still out there recording shows and doing stand-up. She was just a workhorse. Had always been. I think I always gave her more credit because I don't remember watching a ton of it in the middle. I remember when she used to be on TV all the time and then it's like she was still working all those years, but for just being as innovative as she was and hanging in there when there were no female comedians and, like, still trying to do that circuit when, like, how much of a dick must have been stacked against her and, like, didn't care, kept doing it.

Like, that's, I don't know, I always give her more credit for, like, just being that groundbreaking early on. I guess we have to do Max Million Shell, right? Isn't that kind of huge? for the people out there. Well, did he spend more time acting or more time trying to disassociate himself from the Nazi party? I mean, we let plenty of Nazis still make movies.

Ross Kinsey had a full career. That becomes a fun game as you come out of that era. Like, when do we just forgive and let things go? Bygones be bygones. Yeah, that's a That's a tough one to do.

Yeah. I mean, Black Hole, come on. That's a tough movie. Not those other ones people bring up. No, I'm going with Black Hole.

Yeah, Black Hole. That's the one where, even as an 11-year-old, where I went, Dad, can we go? Maximilian is awesome. I think I have homework to do. That's the coolest robot possible.

That was one where I, the same way I remember seeing that when I was young and thinking, this is boring. And so when it got re-released, you know, years ago on VHS prior to being re-released on DVD, I went out and I bought the VHS. I was like, okay, I was probably just, you know, because I remembered having to watch 2001 in sixth grade and like, this is boring as shit, which to a sixth grader it's going to be. But then as an adult, I appreciated it. So I thought, okay, it's probably the same with Black Hole.

And I watched it. I was like, no, this is just boring as hell as an adult. Yeah, I haven't seen Disney run away from a film so fast. Since they dropped Tim Burton. We don't know this weird guy.

Since they dropped John Carter. And then they brought him back. Since they dropped John Carter. Since John Carter. That was, but, you know, it's a pretty good track record.

There's, what, 30 years in between? I was just sold on the robots. The plot, whatever. Which, in a way, is awesome. Disney and just time and all that stuff, somebody was pointing out that, or someone mentioned to me the other day, that here in about three months, we will officially be further away from Phantom Menace being released than Phantom Menace is from Return of the Jedi.

Isn't that a weird thing to think about. As Disney rolls into its next Star Wars movie? Kind of disturbing. Doesn't that hurt when you think about it? And yet the wound is still fresh, isn't it?

Yeah, because 16 years between Return of the Jedi and Phantom Menace. Me don't do math in my head. 16 years, 16 years since Phantom Menace, and we're about to encroach upon that breaching point. I made a Blair Witch reference at school the other day, and the students all stared at me. And I was like, have you seen Blair Witch?

And they were like, we don't know what it is. The dumb movies that go on now, they're already now. I was like, well, no, it was really big in the summer of 99. And they're like, well, that's before we were born. I was like, oh, god damn.

Love of god. How old are these kids? High school. It's frightening, isn't it? What, what, what, what do you, what do.

You, what, huh? You really are having those math issues, aren't you? But it's been 16 years since Blair Witch. Now almost. Oh, my God.

So, teaching freshmen and sophomores in high school, they're all 2000 babies. Beyond. Think about that. Looks like I'm going to join the death list. As soon as they made that comment, I was like, oh, I'm officially an old dude.

They don't remember. They weren't alive when Blair Witch came out. That's true. There's a lot of references you go to make now, and you're like, oh, this is really not going to hit. Best thing about high school girls.

I keep getting older. They stay the exact same age. That's true, by the way. Anyway. Speaking of old weird dudes.

Brian, why did you say that? That was completely creepy. Yeah. Speaking of creepy old dudes. This is possibly the only one I think I brought up this past year, the week of, but just because it was such a huge thing in my life, Giger.

H.R. Giger. H.R. Giger, yeah. And I said it then.

I was like, even if you're not into art, to me, the impact he had on the film world, they weren't really bringing in artists like that to do just design work and actual physical production design. He would be another one up there with, like, You know, you throw him in with Dick Smith in the way of like the impact that he had on all those practical films of the 80s. I mean, here you bring in somebody like Giger to do the set design for Alien and that shaped the look of horror. Like, really, the two of them shaped, you know, what that entire genre would be for, like, the next ten years. And forever, really.

Like, I still see so many things in sci-fi movies now that are just sort of referencing his style, like, artistically. Like, not even from Alien or Species or any of those things he did. But, like, just knowing his body of work, I'm like, yeah, this is kind of ripped off. And they're taking this little piece of what he did here. And, yeah, I don't know.

Just, again, very strange man. Kind of a genius, kind of a pervert. You know, you take your pick, but just amazing regardless. Like, I was, yeah, so interested in his work, and yet it's so weird. That's, I don't know, kind of what made him great.

He had no problem being weird. But I feel like it was all genuine. He wasn't trying to get a rise out of people. It was just the way he was. I don't know.

Any other ones we need to hit before. We wrap this thing up? Do we have to talk about the obligatories? Robin Williams. I think Robin Williams, Philip Seymour Hoffman.

They've had enough talk. Yeah, everybody's covered now. Yeah. This was a weird one that I figured, you know, again, nobody's going to care about because it was so long ago. But a weird little genre tie-in.

Jane Addams was in The Brute Man, House of Dracula, Lost City of the Jungle, and was Vicki Vale in the Batman and Robin serials. Who? She just passed away this year. turned down a full scholarship to study violin at Juilliard, and opted to go to Pasadena Playhouse and study violin. That's a shame. Another one of these people that, like, nobody really.

You know, you get up there and people forget about your stuff. And it's like, I don't know. It's always kind of sad when you look back at these people that, like, had these massive careers. And by the end, you really don't even get mentioned at the end of the year. But even for each.

One of those people, though, like you say, there's someone like your friend where you were reading there, comment box, there's always that one person within the country where that actor was that person for them. And that's kind of why I threw that one in there. It's like each person it. Kind of hits. It's just cooler to have at least been within the film medium as part of your career because so many people, they have an entire career and 10, 20 years go by.

What proof really remains of your existence? At least you have all that documentation. within all those films that essentially say hey i was here i lived i was there i'm actually almost sort of like paraphrasing robin williams's speech that he gives in one hour photos to why people take photographs but you could kind of apply it to to like you know at least you know those people interacting within those films is like they were here this is their work whereas so many other people in different professions none of that will ever exist. When you started that you were making the Robin Williams reference, I thought you were going Dead Poets Society. Because it also is exactly what he's saying. Yeah.

Gather ye rosebuds, all ye worm food boys. That's what it's called. Joan Rivers. We have to talk about Joan. We already did.

And Marianne Mobley. Yep. You really are close to the end. I am close to the end. Did we talk about Joan Rivers?

Did I totally blank out? Yeah. Where were you at? It was brief. I think I was answering email.

It did. On that note on that. Note well there was one more do we talk about Rick Mayhall that's it no. The the one that again the only thing that is now remaining for us to mention is the horse that is dead that we're currently beating. So knock him going how familiar are you with him I brought him up a couple of times in this show because when I went back and saw his like.

Wasn't he the president of Israel. For a while? Prime minister or something? He is from Israel. and made a ton of movies in his country. Yes.

And then when he came here, became a huge producer of gung-ho American movies, producing things like Delta Force. To me, that's such a weird dynamic that the man who brought us all these 80s movies is born in Israel and, like, was pretty popular there in his own right, and then came here and just embraced this weird American thing. And apparently he is a huge Michael Ironsides fan. So are you. I am, a little bit, I gotta admit.

But was also just crazy, because I brought him up before, because he's also the man that directed The Apple. Produced all these weird action movies, and yet directed The Apple, because that's the one Catherine Mary Stewart was telling me about, and I'm like, wait, who is this crazy director you're talking about? And then I looked up more on him, and I'm like, he's just a crazy man. But, like, made so many movies. The Apple would probably be my top ten messes you have to see to believe.

Oh, yeah. I had actually, at New Year's, I had some people over, and we were talking about Robin Williams stuff, and I mentioned Toys, and it's a movie geek friend. He's like, I've never seen Toys. I said, it's a movie you have to see to believe that it exists. To believe you believe.

But no, this Golan guy, like, he looked, I was trying to find the whole, like, rundown here because it's, like, so many movies as a producer and, like, that 80s run is, like, nothing but weird sci-fi action kind of stuff that, like, only people in America would appreciate. So the fact that he, you know. He's... How many of those titles have the word iron in them? Not over the top.

No? No. fire walker avenging force half of them were chuck norris it seems like because produce superman for the quest for peace you're welcome for that by the way uh masters of the universe death wish for the crackdown braddock missing in action three bloodsport i'm like this is this is the things he brought us like He's such a fascinating character. Mostly today I was watching a clip of, because he did Delta Force with him, they were talking to Lee Marvin. And this is that era. This is old weathered Lee Marvin.

And he just kind of like, they bring up his name and he just sort of shakes his head. And he's just like, that guy. You know, and he's just like, okay, when Lee Marvin, who's probably seen God knows what in his lifetime, is just like, that guy's a crazy man. You know, I'm just like that. That says a lot about you, I feel like.

So, yeah, go look up more about this guy because he's insane. And director of the act. Will always be top in my list. Did we really talk about Joan Rivers? Yeah.

For a while. So, in closing, I will say. That now that Robin Williams has passed, now that Bob Hoskins has passed, this is my personal open... plea to Steven Spielberg please release the outtakes from Hook because it's my understanding that apparently during the filming of Hook Dustin Hoffman and Bob Hoskins made a game out of being as homoerotic as possible as Captain Hook and Smee for the sole purpose of pissing Spielberg off every single day like they would do it over the top and he'd be like guys you need to tone that down okay That's not what the movie's about. And then as soon as they realized they were onto it, they'd do it even worse until apparently Spielberg, not joking. Would just get royally pissed.

Like, stop it. Stop it. And then they would go and they would film, but the next day they'd do it again. Just apparently the two of them were just making some weird homoerotic relationship between Smee and Hook. And you can see it when you watch the movie, but the outtakes are nowhere to be seen.

And I want to see what they did. And I want to hear Steven Spielberg yelling. To them in the background. I want that. As a fan, I find that completely fascinating.

I would love to see it. As a producer, it just pisses me off. Because you're rolling film, 35 millimeter back and forth, at a dollar a foot. And it's running at about a foot a second. And so that these two can have their little gay off.

No way. No, no. Fired, as far as I'm concerned. Have some respect, guys. Yeah, come on.

Talking cash. I'm sorry, but if you're sticking Dustin Hoffman as Hook in that movie in general, it's like, you should just be happy that he's having fun with it. In the age of digital, it doesn't count. You do it all day long. You're just paying crew salaries at a flat rate.

Burning film. We're talking about burning film. I mean, we're talking about not only the film itself, the exposed film, but we're talking about the processing fees and all the. and like paying a thousand to stand around the lot while they do that. I'm getting a stomach ache. I'm not.

I want to see it. Well, see, all you've done by mentioning it now is now it's going to be on the top of the list for a reboot. So they're going to bring Hook back now. Robin's gone. We can replace with some new actor now.

I'm in Steven Spielberg's camp on this one. Keep that shit hidden. Don't release it, Steven. Don't do it. Stop me, Smee.

Don't stop me, Smee. Stop me, Smee. Don't stop me, Smee. Smee. Stop me, Smee.

Oh, Smee. I just picture it. It's just a lot of that. Which, as a fan, is really, really funny. On that note, we're going to wrap up.

You regret not killing this show now about 20 minutes before we got into all this. It's dead now. I want to talk about Joan Rivers. Leave her out of this. She's still alive.

No, it was Gary Coleman who passed this year. Gary Coleman's still dead? Yeah. Good to know. When Bonar Bain finally passes away, we're having a special episode. just to talk about the Zontar episode of SCTV.

A very special episode. We'll pad it. Oh, Lord. All right. Well, to round this out, instead of going out with the usual song idea, I thought for this episode, I came across an animated short film entitled Don't Fear Death.

Now, when you listen, and I'll post the actual video, the animation's pretty cool, too, but the audio says it all anyway. But keep in mind, it is narrated by Rick Mayo. And it was narrated one year before he died. Don't fear death. As he says some very horrid.

Things about death. And embraces them all, actually. As only Rick can do. As only Rick would do. One of the biggest losses of the decade.

Alright, well, we wanted to say thank you, Michael, for letting us loiter around in the office. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thanks for coming. Enjoy your 180 mugs and t-shirts.

Yeah, we got swag. Please email us at info100 or film... I forgot my own email address. Film180. Com.

That's right. Please email us at info at film180. com if you would like your t-shirt or personalized coffee mug. They're not really personalized. You will have drank out of them. I will have done been drunk.

I will have cleaned it with my own hands and sent it to you. All right. Well, otherwise, that about does it. We will return next time. Same geek feed.

Thanks for listening. Don't fear death. I mean, why should you? For a start, everyone's doing it these days. Old people, young people, animals.

Hell, even travel agents are doing it. And they're normally the last. To catch on. Death is so in right now. So why be afraid?

Look, I was like you once. Wary of the bright light, scared of the unknown. But then it suddenly hit me. Being dead is absolutely brilliant. Just look at grand old Mr Death himself.

He's more dead than anyone and he's always smiling. Seriously, just think of the benefits. For a start, loonies and weirdos won't sit next to you. On the bus. Or on the park bench.

Or on that tortuous long-haul flight. Not anywhere. You'll never have to waste one more single. Soul-crushing hour in your mindless dead-end job where you have to listen to your psychopathic boss or your mouth-breathing colleagues. You're literally dead to them.

Blokes! You'll be able to sit through. Those tedious face-numbing conversations about your mother's terminal irritable bowel syndrome or which tie you'll. Look best in at the funeral, eh? Results.

And ladies, remember personal hygiene, fashion, extreme diets, makeup. They'll be a thing of the past. Now's the time to show off that bone structure. And that's not all, my soon-to-be cadavers. If you want, you could just chill out on the beach, kick back in the pool, or spend more quality time with the kids.

You could really live it up when you're dead. So you see, death is not the curse that it used to be. It is your passport to complete and utter freedom. No pulse, no responsibilities. Just you, your body, and an endless.

Stretch of glorious, unfettered time to do whatever you like in whenever you like. Death really isn't anything to be scared of. So, carpe morte! Seize death! Today is the first day of the end of your life!

So, who's with me? Well, sod the lot of you, then. I'm off. Have a nice life! It was really spaced out in Joan Rivers.

I had no idea. It was like a 25-minute thing. It was actually kind of long, yeah. It wasn't that long. Well, longer than some of the others.

It was about five minutes. It was a good five minutes. I think you're almost dead. Did I really? I think you might be dead.

I swear all the paint fumes and the mastic from laying the tile is getting to me. You might have actually passed away during this episode. This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and edited by The Oddity Studios, with the opening music performed by The Empires. For more on how to sponsor or support the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com. Talk hard!